Disco and Dragons 1

I vanished in 1970. When I came back, it was 1972, and I'd spent two years in the Fairylands. Adventures, scary adventures. Then I ended up betrothed to a prince, at 16. Then I found out that the betrothal involved a human sacrifice. Mine.

Fun times, and when I came back… Half the people were talking to me like I was possessed by the devil. The other half were… different. My old boyfriend Tom was talking about college and marriage and I… I'd killed a dragon.

And then the Morality Party came to town and I headed for a safer place. And well, here I am. Morganville, little town of mists and secrets. We're not as fancy as the LA people, a little slower paced than Tokyo, but you knew that already.

You're fifty and want to learn. I'm 24, and willing to teach. Just remember, how quickly you move forward is up to you, but God himself can't put you back where you started.


Judith Wilson.

People have vanished throughout human history. From men who walked behind the horses—and never appeared, to ships that drifted out of the fog, crew and passengers alike, gone. Against the vast numbers of people who live—and die—every day, they were hardly a blip. The number of vanishing increased through most of the 1960s, with blame assigned to cults, drugs, or Communist infiltration. The FBI and other organizations were more concerned, as a large number of the vanished, seemed to have done just that, vanished without a single ransom note or sign that they went anywhere else.

But in 1968, a surge of “vanishings” occurred, mostly among older pre-teens, teens and young adults. Initial panic over a cult or organized group soon gave way to a much greater panic when it turned out that the vanishings were occurring across the globe.

At first starting out with lone victims or small groups, the numbers quickly grew— in March, two school busses, bearing the Wilke’s County High School football team and cheerleading squad were found on the side of the road, empty, with no tracks around them, even though an earlier rain had left the ground soft enough to show any possible footprints.

In Europe, an entire lycee (high school) student body vanished, teachers reporting of the students just “fading into nothing” as a strange fog rose in the classrooms. Similar events occurred across the world, with no seeming unifying characteristics beyond age.

The panic that struck the world was impossible to overestimate. Curfews were enacted in many parts of the world, while in some places, parents were advised to sleep in the same room as their children, as one theory was that who or whatever was taking the children could not do so if they were in the presence of older individuals—or at least would be more reluctant to do so. Vigilante patrols were formed in many parts of the world, while both traditional religions and new cults sprang up, attempting to explain the vanishings, ranging from alien abductions to angelic ascensions. Although not universal, some earlier examples of vanishings occurred among individuals who were in unpleasant situations, whether physical or mental.

Even worse, rumors spread across the world of strange, paranormal events, ranging from monsters in the woods, to haunted houses and ghostly hitchhikers. The reports are blamed on mass hysteria.

However, classified reports from the FBI and Pentagon, are not so confident, reporting of a number of recorded events that defy understanding, most notably a “dragon” that was killed by elements of the 82nd Airborne in Vietnam, the corpse being returned to the US where it was autopsied, the involved scientists agreeing that it had no relation to any lifeform known on earth. Although some blamed the communists for this, the fact that their citizens had also been part of the Vanishing, as well as reports of a “strange hut on chicken legs” lurking around Moscow convinced most that the Soviet Union and its allies had no more idea about what was going on than the US.

By the end of 1968, when the majority of the vanishings occurred, just over 90,000 individuals had vanished from the US, and well over a million from the rest of the world, although in some areas, it was impossible to come up with an accurate count. Even the decline didn’t help the fear that existed across the globe—because it never went away entirely and there was no reason to believe that mass vanishings might not start up again…

Sidebar: Lynchings.

Sadly, during this period many vigilante groups appeared and blamed various minorities, ranging from racial to political groups. In the US along, there were over 1,000 murders classified as “lynchings” in 1969, overwhelmingly targeted on minorities and unpopular political movements. In Mississippi, the “Teacher Murders” comprised the deaths of over 20 teachers, accused of being ‘in league’ with with the kidnappers. The same thing happened in nearly every other nation, to a greater or lesser degree. 

Sidebar: Vietnam:

The Vietnam War continued but by 1968, the new President Elect, Nixon faced growing anger at home regarding the fact that the American military was in a far away place when it should be home protecting America’s children. (How this would be achieved was never stated). With similar events concerning the other major powers in the region, his policy of Vietnamization was joined with slowing support on the part of both the PRC and USSR for the North Vietnamese government.

The Return:

On January 28th, 1969, Shelly Nichols, who vanished in early 1966, reappears at her high school in Northern California, emerging from a portal in the cafeteria, with her friends, a group of non-humans from the Fairylands. Police are summoned and due to miscommunication on both sides, try to take the group into custody. Ultimately, a fight breaks out after Ms. Nichols was shot and injured, provoking her companions who demolished several police cars before retreating into the portal. The FBI arrives and cordons off the portal before Ms. Nichols' companions, this time waving a white flag, return. Communication is re-established and over the course of several days, the existence and nature of "Fairyland" is made known to the Federal officers. Most importantly, Sage Alirius, a Dragonkin, warns the representatives that "the dam has opened" and there will be more portals. In addition, it is discovered that most of the vanished humans are either in the Fairylands, or Terath, another world linked to the Fairylands (but not directly  linked to Earth.)  Shelly, calling herself a mage, demonstrates a number of unusual powers, and she and her group are flowing to Washington DC, where they are heavily debriefed, after arranging a meeting with Ms. Nichol’s family. In addition, upon hearing that more “will be coming” President Nixon communicates all of America’s allies, as well as the PRC and USSR, in order to ensure that they do not assume that the US is behind the appearance of former Vanished and possibly hostile entities.

Sidebar:

Why?

Why did the people vanish? And why did they return?

The first thing to understand is that the Fairylands is not a world, not like Terath or the Earth. It is its own universe, evidently one that “connects” to worlds where intelligence exists. But the fairylands are more than that—they’re more mutable, filled with the energy that allows, well, magic. And at times,  that link can become stronger, allowing for magic to flow into the material universe and for the material universe to impact fairyland. The same influence that creates ‘magical spots’ on Earth, create parts of the Fairylands that seem more stable, less likely to shift, but even their, things are more mutable than our world.  But as the Fairylands got “closer” to Earth, the imbalance between a mundane part of the universe and the mutable and magical reality of the Fairylands led to more of the essence of Fairylands “reaching out” to those who were most attuned to it, which turned out to mostly be the young—especially the young who didn’t want to be here.

And with every vanishing the veil became thinner, until in 1968 it hit a tipping point, and well, you know what happened. Now, of course, we’ve hit another equilibrium, with the ability to move between worlds easier—but less of a chance of just vanishing.  What will happen next? Anyone who tells you they know that is a liar.

Magic and the Modern World Lecture Series, UCLA Press, 1981.