Mark Roark

A figure named in The Smoking Lounge Play found in Abigail Wright's apartment (Session 5). In the script he enters the fourth-floor smoking lounge where Thomas, Michelle, and the Dog are gathered.

Encountered in Person (Session 6)

Returning to the smoking lounge, the crew found that the wooden-jointed mannequin behind the bar was now a man — Mark Roark, animated and talking. (Portrait renders in sepia-yellow — the room's palette going the color of the King.)

He said:

Abigail was "a sweet kid" — he calls her "Gail."
She left with a "creepy salesman" (the encyclopedia salesman).
The sixth floor is upstairs; the night manager could get them upstairs.
Made anti-semitic remarks about the night manager.

A new door appeared by the bookshelf while he spoke — he says it goes downstairs. The stairs up (to the sixth floor) must be found in the hallway — and he briefly slips and calls "up" "deeper."

"Up" Is "Deeper"

Roark's slip inverts the geometry: reaching the **sixth floor** isn't ascending, it's going **deeper in.** "Moving upstairs" — what the tenants did, what happened to Abigail — is descent *into* the night floors dressed as climbing. The bookshelf door (**downstairs**) may be nearer the way out than the stairs he's pointing them toward.

The Play's Character Is Now in the Room

Roark — a **speaking part in The Smoking Lounge Play** — has **stepped off the page** and is occupying the **mannequin** (constructed body) behind the bar, the way the Man with the Briefcase stepped off Abigail's map. He plays his scripted role (fond of "the kid," pointing upstairs, disliked) and points the crew toward the **night manager** as the route to the sixth floor. His **anti-semitic** patter both dates him (period bigotry) and characterizes Mr. Kasine as its target.

From the Script

Announces "Abigail is gone, she moved upstairs today."
"I miss the kid" — appears to have cared for Abigail (whom he calls "the kid").
Universally disliked: Michelle tells him "no one likes you."
Confirms Abigail "ran off with that salesman" (the encyclopedia salesman).
Reacts to the racket on the stairs — leans out, "Hello? Hello?" — just before the federal agents (the PCs) enter.

Open Questions

Who is Mark Roark to Abigail — landlord, lover, neighbor, keeper?
Why is he hated by the building's tenants?
Is he a real person, a night-floors figure, or only a character in the play? (Name echoes Howard Roark, The Fountainhead — noted, like other production easter eggs.) Session 6: appears to be a night-floors figure inhabiting the bar mannequin, running his scripted lines.
Where does the new door by the bookshelf lead — and is Roark's directing the crew toward the night manager help or a lure?
"Gail" joins the pile of names for Abigail (Laura, Anna, now Gail). The building still can't fix her name.