<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion> So, the Wherehouse has its choice of things to do. You've still two weeks before you have to start worrying about the return of the Huntsman, and Samuel Unbecoming doesn't seem to be holding you to a clock or anything on the business at the Yard. One presumes the strike is ongoing; if one wishes to check, one will indeed find tiny cousins of the Dockworkers -- grouchy half-pint turtlemen, by
<Crion> the look of it -- running a picket line. They seem a bit confused about how this works -- they're stopping the trucks from driving in, yes, but seem to have no problem with the trucks stopping outside the Yard's walls, then being offloaded into storage containers out there.
<Crion> The Dockworkers don't seem to see any inherent issue with this, either; they unload the trucks cheerfully, and then...fullthroatedly join the Yardworkers on the picket line?
<Crion> Hobs.
<Crion> Either way, Unbecoming wants you to smash the union so he can take credit for it and wheedle the Board for a bonus; Samuel wants you to rob the place so he can tell the Board they need to stop being skinflints about security funding. What they both have confirmed to you is that they either have possession of Maggie's Icon, or have stashed it somewhere safe. You can either play either one of
<Crion> their games, or do something else entirely.
<VoxPVoxD> Argh time is moving so slowly. The Icon thing is more immediate, but, he's not having nightmares about the Icon. Still, helping Maggie takes his mind off it a little. "What're you thinking?" he asks her one late November morning while he helps people clean up after breakfast.
<dammitwho> "A good place to start would be to find out what the lil' turtle's grievances are."
<dammitwho> *turtles'
<dammitwho> She makes a popping noise with her lips. "Do you think there are this many huggable hobs about in other places or is the Baltimore hedge unique? Cute little fellas."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I think we scared off the mean ones locally."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Good. This is much better."
<VoxPVoxD> "Not so many pigs lately."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart wonders if there's some terrible knock-on effect to the Hedge ecosystem coming from their insistence on making it play nice, like how hunting predators leads to mass starvation in the prey species. He guesses they'll find out eventually.
<CBN> Tony's finishing off the last of the bacon. "Oh no there's some real shitty ones out there, Steve's told me as much. Seems like a later problem though."
<VoxPVoxD> "It shouldn't be hard to find whoever's in charge at the picket line. We maybe want to bring some kind of offering, I don't know, coffee or blankets or something."
<banana> Melanie doesn't look up from her reading. "You have to bear in mind that 'huggable' is an adaptation. They see us as predators and opportunities."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "You could say that for regular animals, though."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "That's better than seeing us as prey, surely?"
<banana> "Well, predation is one of the opportunities. But it's not like they care whether we follow the internal logic of their drama.. it's just a signal about our intentions."
<trenchfoot> "Also, coffee, blankets... something to eat, soap, tents? I don't know how many of these things they'll need."
<dammitwho> Maggie nods. "That's also worth asking about."
<banana> They don't need any of them! "Soap might give them the right impression."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Do you guys wanna head out today?"
<banana> Melanie: "You want something to do, right?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Always."
<dammitwho> Maggie's heading for the coat hooks. "Yeah, no time like the present. Who all's coming with?"
<CBN> Tony: "Me! Gonna be a good day I think."
<banana> "I'll help." Melanie gestures the book off to the side; it floats into the air to close itself and then joins a stack of discards.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart blinks.
<dammitwho> "Whoa! How'd you do that?"
<banana> "Eh?" Melanie's done this stuff before, hasn't she? Maybe not as often, she's been a bit.. not wanting to stand out. Not as comfortable with the powers thrust on her, but she's getting better at that.
<banana> "Oh I mean like. I just have power over elements basically."
<banana> "We've fought things.." No need to talk about this! She'll disappear into her room to get some armour on and get ready.
<CBN> Tony: "Oh! I guess you can do with...what, wood? What I do with dirt. And paper's wood...dirt's dirt..." Kinda trails off there.
<banana> Melanie's back after a minute. She doesn't say anything to Tony, but offers a high five.
<CBN> Tony high fives, of course.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart's got his coat and his gun, not commenting on any of this.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Stewart, why doesn't Autumn teach you how to float tomes?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Our stuff's mostly digitized."
<trenchfoot> Nels returns with her pistol, her armor, and her guitar, slung across her back.
<banana> Melanie: "eGrimoires."
<CBN> Tony disappears into his bachelor hovel for a moment and returns with a shotgun he fished out from behind the futon. "So where're we headed today?"
<CBN> Tony: "Because I can try to get us there, same as usual."
<banana> Melanie: "Where'd you pick up this navigation stuff, anyway? Do you have some kind of earth sense?"
<CBN> Tony: "Um. I dunno? It's just, I guess you spend a couple decades navigating miles of rows of vast and unknowable death-corn and everything else, even if it's weird and Hedge-y, isn't that tough to get through."
<trenchfoot> Ah. Well.
<banana> "Right, I picked up the manipulation stuff for similar reasons. There's a contract he had me learn because it was, um, special effects. Cheaper than ILM."
<Crion> The trip is legible enough -- that's not the issue -- and you never get lost. But you do come across something very strange, before the Hedge transitions from city streets to the dock and yard:
<Crion> A busy intersection?
<dammitwho> Busy with what?
<VoxPVoxD> Hah.
<CBN> Tony: "Look both ways here, folks. Including up, and down."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Might as well check forward and back, too."
<Crion> "Cars" screech around the corner, whiz past at high speed -- occasionally a bus, going the wrong way -- and then careen around the corner opposite. Presumably they just, vanish? You've seen no other vehicles on the street on the way here.
<Crion> Somehow, none of them crash into each other.
<VoxPVoxD> Is there a crosswalk?
<banana> Melanie will drop back to behind Nels, then, so there's someone watching the back.
<CBN> Tony: "Have any of you seen The French Connection? This is like the best part of that movie but fighting itself. No clue what to do about it though."
<banana> Melanie: "Maybe we could jam it up, throw something in there..."
<banana> "They're pretty fast."
<Crion> There is a crosswalk, but no one seems to be respecting it. They have the light, after all...and seem to be keeping it no matter how long you wait.
<VoxPVoxD> This is probably still safer than riding a bicycle on actual city streets, Stewart reassures himself.
<CBN> Tony: "Okay then...just look around and run really fast. Like this." Tony goes ahead and tries just that.
<Crion> The cars, thankfully, perversely, don't slow down or change first or pile up, meaning they're scary and dangerous...but predictable.
<Crion> Seems pretty clear they're not hobs at least!
<trenchfoot> Nels looks to the racing cars, and to Melanie and Maggie. She tries waving down a cab, before trying to cross.
<banana> Melanie's looking for a loose brick to throw. It's that or shoot out some tyres... not until the others are across, of course!
<trenchfoot> One zips to a stop in front of her with a cartoonishly sudden stop that kicks the rear of the car into the air, then the door opens. She gets inside and is about to wave for Melanie and Maggie to join her when it suddenly shoots off. A quick point to the opposite side and some grumbled Italian-ish (probably) curse words later, and she's practically spinning where she stands, safe on the other side.
<trenchfoot> The cab is long gone.
<dammitwho> Maggie stretches her legs and jogs in place. Little puffs of steam spray from seams and joints, and when she appears to have built up some sort of critical mass, she races directly into the street! Veering neither left nor right, her straight-line charge miraculously avoids every single car, letting her skid to a stop on the other side.
<Crion> Melanie tries hucking stuff in the road and so on to see what happens, but the cars don't seem to care. They sort of bump over the bricks here and there, but they're not knocked off course.
<banana> Ehh. There's a good one, a whole chunk of bitumen that can be ripped off this crumbling facade of the already poorly-maintained streets. Can they ignore this..?
<Crion> ...Ah. No. That one's got that big wide-finned throwback car swerving...
<Crion> Right at Melanie.
<Crion> She can easily move aside though as it sort of tumbles across the curb, twists, and rolls right back into the street--causing a pile up.
<Crion> Now's her chance!
<banana> Crap! She makes a break for it, straight ahead - she isn't fast enough but a couple of light bumps will just knock some bark off her.
<banana> "We need better traffic light patterns. They only care about catching people on speedcam."
<Crion> The air is filled with honking horns and unintelligible, angry shouts -- but no one gets out of those cars. And you're free to carry on. The shipping containers are ahead and, Tony knows, it's just a hop skip and a turn here here here here and here, and then you'll be at the Yard.
<Crion> When you arrive, things are mostly as you left them last time you checked up on things, except for a couple new faces -- Pigs.
<Crion> Wait, not Pigs.
<Crion> Well. Kind of?
<Crion> They're in...rent-a-cop outfits.
<Crion> They seem bored, and don't react to you at all unless you do something stupid like open fire on them.
<VoxPVoxD> Do they look like Kevin James?
<Crion> No, but two of them are large porkers on segways.
<Crion> So...yes? In the ways that count?
<Crion> Anyway, the labor "action" looks civil and orderly, and these guys only have batons.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Do you ever feel like the Hedge is one overactive label-maker away from being a political cartoon?"
<banana> "Haha. At least their twisted reflection has the qualia of reality-as-it-is, not reality-as-rendered, so it's like.. a more honest parody than you get from the news."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Wyld-as-Satirist."
<VoxPVoxD> "Satyrist?"
<VoxPVoxD> *Wyrd
<Crion> The Yardworkers -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4OzdyxbOuU They let you dream just to watch 'em shatter; you're just a step on the boss-man's ladder.
<VoxPVoxD> While talking, Stewart's head is cocked slightly. Niiiiiice.
<banana> Melanie: "No, they've all got pants."
<banana> "Maggie, remind us, what's the plan?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart's sort of dancing in place a little.
<trenchfoot> Nels glances to Stewart, but says nothing.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Get these little guys to do some real agitation, force their bosses to the negotiating table. If they're pinching pennies on security, that can't be good for the workers, right?"
<CBN> Tony: "Hell yeah."
<Crion> Time to figure out who's in charge of this action, then./
<banana> How to achieve a militant union Melanie does not know. Handing out newspapers isn't likely to do it.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart gives Maggie a significant look at 'real agitation', but doesn't say anything.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "You mind if I play 'em a little song? See if we can get them to fetch someone who'd want to greet the newcomers."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "That sounds nice."
<banana> It does! Melanie looks for somewhere to stand unobtrusively and listen (having forgotten for a moment that they're here to obtrude).
<trenchfoot> She finds a place to sit nearby, plucks at a few strings. Then: "Come all you, good workers! Good news to you I'll tell, of how the good ol' union has come in here to dwell..." It's a little after her time, but it just feels right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hGRcScbmqg
<VoxPVoxD> Damn.
<Crion> The song is good and rings true, and the Yardworkers will trundle over to sit down and listen to it...almost breaking their lines. It takes the intercession of two bigger -- but still not, you know, big -- Yardworkers to push them back to their lines, while even they listen in appreciation. Both have spines on their shells, unlike the other, though they're muted. One is yellow with a green
<Crion> shell and red hair, and a temper; the other is brown with a black shell, and grinning with bushy eyebrows.
<VoxPVoxD> Haha holy shit.
<Crion> Red hair: "HEY! Who're YOU guys."
<Crion> Black shell: "Aw, they don't look so bad, Huey."
<Crion> Huey: "Shaddap, Long. They could be THE FUZZ."
<CBN> Tony: "We're no pigs!"
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Aren't the fuzz a lot shorter? And more piggy?"
<Crion> The guys hanging out at the door are man-sized, though they're definitely more piggy.
<Crion> Huey: "Mayyyyyybe."
<Crion> One of the Dockworkers from the crowd pipes up. "Oh, they's with the Dockworker's Local. The big ones, that is. Seen the other three abouts."
<Crion> Long: "See?"
<trenchfoot> Not wrong to be suspicious, though. Especially with an organization as lax as this one...
<dammitwho> Maggie: "We came to see what your grievances were, try and help you out."
<Crion> Huey, suspicious: "You na-go-t'yating? Or are you just hear to sing songs and mess up our lines??"
<Crion> Long: "Huey...you gotta coool it."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Actually, I just figured that'd be our best way of getting your attention. We want to see what you need, how we can help."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart just hangs quietly at the back, trying not to let on how much he's enjoying himself.
<Crion> Huey glares at the rest of yas, then softens a little bit. "So...you wanna hold some signs...or...?"
<Crion> It's clear the hapless little hob has, at best, a very limited idea of how to conduct a worker's action.
<banana> Melanie: "We've got to bring the bosses to the table. These guys have got away with ignoring your concerns too long."
<banana> "In this place it probably involves some kind of literal table.."
<CBN> Tony: "So we wanna help you get too loud for them to ignore."
<Crion> Long strokes his very cleft chin. "What're ya thinking?"
<banana> Melanie: "Megaphones?"
<VoxPVoxD> What's Maggie thinking?
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Well, I've noticed the Dockworkers are with you in spirit, but they keep on loading things just outside the Yard, maybe because it hasn't occurred to them not to. Why don't we talk them into a sympathy strike?"
<Crion> Huey blinks. "You think that'd work?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "It certainly has in the past. Solidarity."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Why not? You guys have the same interests. They show up for you, you show up for them."
<CBN> Tony: "Also, it'd help if we know what you guys want. What're you striking to get, anyway?"
<Crion> Long turns to that Dockworker from before. "Hey, get Jawn and Chone down here."
<Crion> The Dockworker: "Really its more kinda east and up, truck grades down on the way over--"
<Crion> Huey: "The heck you say? You say we're beneath you, that what you say to me? Is that what you're saying? We're some kinda bugs? Is that--"
<Crion> Long puts a hand on his chest.
<Crion> "Huey. Be coool. It's about solidarity."
<Crion> Huey takes a deep breath. "Yeah. Yeah. Solidarity. Sorry."
<Crion> The Dockworker: "...It's fine! I'll go get 'em."
<trenchfoot> Nels begins strumming the first few bars of Solidarity Forever, but doesn't launch into the full song. Nervous tic, maybe.
<dammitwho> That guy's really irritable. Well, maybe life's just hard out here for a little turtle.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Were you in a union, Maggie?"
<dammitwho> She opens her mouth. Closes it again. Opens it: "Mmmmmaybe?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Respect. Never got a chance myself." To Huey and Long: "D'you mind if I play another? While we wait. They keep the spirits up."
<Crion> Long: "Please do, ma'am." Huey grumps but doesn't object.
<banana> While they wait and listen - the music doesn't have the right effect on Melanie, she just thinks of it as beautiful instead of a call to action - she's going to follow up on Tony's question. "What do you guys need from the Notgnixel bosses? What lead you to go on strike?"
<banana> Half-expecting there's no real answer to this. Is it all simulacrum..?
<trenchfoot> If they don't object, she'll move closer - to avoid interrupting their lines, and attempt to teach them a song. Though she realises, probably the guitar can sit this one out. "When the union's inspiration through the worker's blood shall run, there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun..." She keeps going, encouraging any chorus that mimics her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsPOgCPEeKs&t=25s
<Crion> Huey: "All's we want is a little respect from those guards and that Sammy guy!"
<Crion> Long: "Aaaand, we'd like to get paid. Remember that, Huey."
<Crion> Huey: "Right! They gotta pay us!"
<Crion> "This place takes in all kinda goblin fruits and trinkets and whadda we see? Nothin'!"
<trenchfoot> Nels shoots a glance over, but she's still halfway through Solidarity Forever.
<CBN> Tony: "So do you guys not get paid...ever?"
<CBN> Tony: "Why even work here?"
<Crion> The line falters a little bit more to listen, but not enough that Huey starts pushing them around again.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Okay, you guys definitely do need to get paid. Who's Sammy?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Unbecoming?"
<Crion> Huey shrugs. "We live here, yeah? So they turn it into the Yards, what're we supposed ta do? Leave?"
<VoxPVoxD> "Split in half, kind of a drawl?"
<Crion> Long: "Stitcher man."
<Crion> He nods to Stewart.
<dammitwho> "Huuuuuruum."
<CBN> Tony: "Uhhhhh."
<Crion> Chone and Jawn arrive now, Chone still chomping on his stoagie. "What's all this about then!!" he says, jabbing it at Maggie then Huey then back at Maggie. "I got work to do!! On the clock here!"
<CBN> Tony turns to Maggie. Low: "Okay, so there's a way we can get your Icon and also just completely murder their bosses right?"
<banana> "We've met that guy. He definitely does not understand the meaning of respect."
<Crion> Huey to Chone: "I ain't askin for ya unless I wanted ya to be here!"
<Crion> Chone, roaring back: "Well I wasn't COMIN HERE unless I wanted to see ya!"
<Crion> Huey: "Yeah??"
<trenchfoot> Kiss already.
<Crion> Chone: "Yeah!!"
<CBN> Tony, louder again: "Ayy, Chone! We want to get everybody paid!"
<Crion> Then they kinda chest bump hug it out.
<Crion> Chone, to Tony: "Eyyy! How ya doing, kid. Good to see you at an action."
<VoxPVoxD> Just guys bein dudes.
<Crion> "You too, Mags."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Hey there, Chone."
<Crion> Chone: "So why are we up here?"
<dammitwho> "We were hopin' to get you guys in the Yard and the Docks to work together on this thing."
<Crion> Chone, genuinely confused. "I mean that's what we're doing, right? We don't take the trucks inside no more."
<Crion> Jawn: "See, I was telling you about this."
<Crion> Jawn: "You gotta think bigger."
<trenchfoot> Nels nods, having finished her impromptu session. Hopefully at least some of the hobs took to it - it wasn't her best or close to it. "Solidarity."
<CBN> Tony: "No one does anything, until everyone, gets everything."
<Crion> Jawn, double finger guns on tiny hands. "Bingo."
<banana> Melanie to Stewart in an aside: "So they're really just the indigenous, um, characters. It looks like the market/product metaphor imposed itself on the preexisting metaphor, structuring them because it has an actual interaction with the real world, so they need to get concrete things done.."
<dammitwho> Maggie nods. "S'right. The bosses don't care if the trucks go inside, as long as their cargo does. Gotta hit 'em in the wallet if you want 'em to listen."
<CBN> Tony looks to Maggie, setting the ball nicely on the verbal tee: "But Maggie, are you saying we should make the cargo not go inside either? Where would it go, then?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I wonder how it looked before."
<banana> "Like an old videogame, right? I recognised these guys too but I have no idea from where."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah but then before that... like the market's been here longer than the union has, right?"
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Nowhere! Nothing moves unless the people doing the moving say it should. That's power, baby."
<banana> Melanie: "That's an interesting question. I suggest that the Market would say it has, and the Yards-peoples would say otherwise."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I wonder how far back the freehold's historical record goes on things like that."
<banana> "We could ask the uh."
<banana> "Your guy, the.. lord sage."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah..."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Look, it's like this. We're all in this together, right?" Strum. A hum. "In the gloom of mighty cities, 'midst the roar of whirling wheels..." She keeps playing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVcWEtFXwnc
<banana> Melanie: "Does he do consultation? Sagaciousness doesn't sound like a public resource."
<banana> "Hang on though."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "We've all got to be in this. Otherwise they separate us, and break us."
<Crion> Chone and Jawn and all the Dockworkers are nodding and singing along by the end, alongside the Yardworkers. Huey hugs Chone again in the last chorus and steals a pull from his stoagie. Chone only pretends to be unamused.
<VoxPVoxD> Shall we only hope for Heaven when we're dead?
<banana> Melanie's going to step up and help Nels with a brief rousing speech on the virtue of labour solidarity. It's pulled from impeccable sources with a couple of pithy examples about longshoremen in particular getting their dues from greedy shipping companies.
<banana> She doesn't believe a word of it in this context. The goblins may be people, probably, but they're not human, and they aren't workers. They don't know what work is. It's an ecosystem for them, an expression of instinct which is driven by narratives bled through from Earth. Mostly the cynicism doesn't come through in her voice.
<Crion> When the song's done, Chone and Huey and the Dockworkers and the Yardworkers are on the same side, and Chone turns to his number two and tells Jawn to send the word:
<Crion> "General strike."
<trenchfoot> Oh my gosh.
<CBN> Tony: "Hell yeah!"
<Crion> And as that news goes out, Stewart, Melanie, Maggie and Tony notice: nothing's really changed in the rent-a-pigs' demeanors...but the two on segways suddenly have longarms instead of batons.
<trenchfoot> That is going to be a problem.
<Crion> Stewart will recognize them as pump action shotguns, though, and the new ammo on their belt as beanbag rounds. Yay...?
<VoxPVoxD> Less than lethal!
<trenchfoot> Oh, wait. No, everything is fine, and she can keep teaching songs to the strikers.
<Crion> Huey: "Huh. Maybe now we got the leverage to try asking THEM if THEY want to na-go-t'yate."
<dammitwho> Maggie nods. "Worth a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
<CBN> Tony: "I think now you have the leverage to tell them that they can come find you when they want to negotiate."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "No sense waiting, probably. The economics out here don't really seem to care about attrition."
<Crion> Huey rumbles and bumbles up to the front of the line, flanked by Chone and...is Maggie coming?
<Crion> If not, Jawn and Long are gonna gently sort of push her forward.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart's got Maggie's back, no matter where she is in line.
<Crion> Gently, of course, because they're like less than half her size and weight
<Crion> .
<Crion> Well, either way, Huey will yell: "THE UNIONS WANNA TALK, SAMMY!"
<Crion> A minute later, the door will open and Samuel Unbecoming will stride out, yelling at his aide (another Piggerton on a segway) that "you bring me out here for another working lunch and maybe I have my turtle soup with pork on the side--"
<Crion> And then he sees all of you.
<Crion> His face goes flat, replaced immediately with a bright smile. "Well. This is not how I expected to spend my morning."
<Crion> Unbecoming, because it's definitely Unbecoming: "I see that all of you have organized."
<dammitwho> Yep, Maggie's heading forward.
<trenchfoot> Mmm.
<Crion> To Maggie: "So this is how you're playing it."
<Crion> He ignores the hobs.
<Crion> Huey: "We gotta list of demands, Sammy!"
<trenchfoot> There is power, there is power in a band of working folk...
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Sure. Might be you come out ahead here too."
<Crion> Unbecoming: "Would that be so fine."
<Crion> "In fact."
<Crion> "I gotta make a call."
<Crion> "Because I am not officially authorized to negotiate on the behalf of the Notgnixel Yards."
<trenchfoot> Nels raises an eyebrow.
<Crion> "So I'll -- I'll...Okay fine. You can have this one."
<trenchfoot> Nels lowers her eyebrow.
<VoxPVoxD> Money speaks for money, the devil for his own~ who'll come to speak for the skin and the bone?
<Crion> Unbecoming winces and clasps the bridge of his nose. Samuel straightens. "By mutual agreement, I think it's better if I do this."
<Crion> To the riding segway piggy that accompanied him out. "Phone, please."
<Crion> The pig hands him a nineties corded handset, holding the receiver, connected to nothing. "Thank you," says Samuel.
<Crion> He holds it to his ear. After enough time for three rings someone picks up. "Uh huh. Uh huh. Yes, well, things have changed. And you have not paid for that service. Sir."
<Crion> "Uh huh. Yes. Of course."
<Crion> "We will get you the best deal, and if they renege, we'll run them back up in them Hollows."
<Crion> "Of course."
<Crion> "I understand."
<Crion> "You take care now."
<Crion> Samuel replaces the handset. "I now negotiate on behalf of the interests of the Notgnixel Yard."
<Crion> "So let's have us a summit! Someone find me a table."
<trenchfoot> Nels can draw popular support, but negotiations are... not in her wheelhouse.
<Crion> One is soon located, and all the principal characters are there: Huey, Maggie, and Chone on labor's side, and Samuel and Unbecoming on management's.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart paces away, pulls a little notebook out of his pocket, muttering to himself, "They never knew, and she doesn't remember... if Maggie fails and loses herself, with the right and the good, what hope is there for any of us? I need... we need... here." He sidles up to the table, ripping a page out of the notebook and handing it to Maggie folded. "List of demands," he murmurs
<VoxPVoxD> in her ear.
<Crion> Samuel: "So what's the framework we're looking at here?" His smile is wide and, honestly, fairly genuine.
<trenchfoot> Nels just sort of nervously looks to Stewart and Maggie. She can handle the workers - but directing them is...
<dammitwho> What is the framework we're looking for here?
<Crion> Well, Huey and Chone didn't quite present you with one, outside of telling you Huey's people weren't being paid a thing. Chone's people get a generous cut of the fruit off the productive containers and Coin of the Realm when containers aren't producing.
<Crion> A month's work, roughly, is 4 Coins and a fruit.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Pay for the Yardworkers in parity with what the Dockworkers get, security to keep briarwolves and such from interfering with loads, and..." She looks at Huey and Chone. "You guys get breaks?"
<Crion> Hury snorts. "Only in my legs."
<Crion> Chone: "She means rests, idiot."
<Crion> Huey: "Oh. I mean yeah, when we're done workin."
<Crion> Chone shakes his head. "Everything's backwards up here."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "You don't get lunch?"
<Crion> Meanwhile that second rider makes Samuel's eyes light up. "Security on the docks, huh. I think we can do that. If the Foreman agrees. Obviously his union's prior arrangements are respected. We would just be...additional support. Paid for by the Board."
<Crion> "If that's acceptable."
<Crion> Chone raises a dubious eyebrow and looks to Maggie.
<dammitwho> "Sounds good. So, the pay package plus added security and, say, a half hour daily for lunch plus two ten-minute breaks for the turlet."
<Crion> Samuel grins and stands. "Sounds good to me. We'll draw up the paperwork but, based on the agreed-upon terms previously stated, a handshake oath properly sealed should be sufficient to end this strike. Foreman and First Yarder, if you would." He extends his hand.
<Crion> Chone and Huey will both glance to Maggie first before shaking, but they're less tenative this time and will do it unless she stops them.
<dammitwho> Maggie will shake, then. This would probably be a lot harder if the fella negotiating with the bosses didn't understand honest graft. They got lucky.
<Crion> There's no such thing as half-way cops.
<Crion> When the leaders are returning to their lines to celebrate and the segway pigs are removing the table, Samuel Unbecoming grins and steps forward. "I'd like to say I didn't know that that would work. I'm sad to say I didn't think to even try it. You are a revelation, Margaret." He'll reach forward to shake again, but this time he's not sealing an oath. This time he's pressing something into
<Crion> her palm. "If there are any problems with the resolution of our agreement, and I don't expect there will be, you know where to find me. But I expect it's a straight shot."
<dammitwho> "Jim dandy. You have a good day there, Samuel."
<dammitwho> What's she got?
<Crion> He grins and pulls away. "Ma'am."
<Crion> A key to a shipping container, with a label. X4009.
<dammitwho> She's not even irritated that he called her Margaret.
<CBN> As soon as they're all done, the table's...wherever it came from, and everyone's all circled up: "So! Where are we headed?"
<dammitwho> She opens a hand, showing the container key dangling from one finger. "Think you can get us there, Tone?"
<CBN> He looks at the key, thinks for a minute. "Yeah. Should be a little ways down and over from the last set we looked at, and I think if we go the right way, the signs won't notice we're looking at them, and so the whole place won't change." Hedge logic.
<Crion> Tony's good at that stuff now. Soon he has them before the container in question...
<dammitwho> She'll start to whistle as Tony navigates them through the Hedge, which in time turns to singing: "I remember my old grandpa, and his little old house in the hills... he'd been all alone, since grandma passed on, from too much hard liquor and pills... grandpap set me down on his knee, said 'girl, I've just dropped LSD, it's kickin' in now, and I'm certain somehow, that the hills are screamin'
<dammitwho> at me!'"
<dammitwho> "Banshees're shriekin', neck veins're leakin', from the bite of the freakin' vampars..."
<CBN> Tony: "That reminds me. Vampires are real. What the hell."
<CBN> He's mostly looking at Stewart when he says this. Autumn stuff, man.
<dammitwho> "It's a hell of a thing." She fumbles with the container's lock and inserts the key, twists it with a snap.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Some of them are pretty cool."
<VoxPVoxD> "I play video games with the head vampire of the city sometimes."
<CBN> Tony: "But they...eat people? Or is that werewolves."
<Crion> As she does, Grinning Lash slips away, happy that no one noticed her. Thank you, three people who noticed her, for your kindness.
<Crion> Inside, there are a bunch of generic crates and three bespoke boxes.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "They drink blood. They're pretty careful not to kill people."
<VoxPVoxD> Mostly.
<dammitwho> She hums to herself. "And one ol' neck muncher gets a spike for his luncher... Frankenstein versus the vampars..."
<CBN> Tony: "Pretty...?" He shakes his head. "Man. World got weird."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah..."
<CBN> Tony: "Are Frankensteins real too? And...man what was the other one. Fishmen. Those?"
<CBN> Tony: "I gotta assume the bandage guys, mummies I think? Those are fake, what would those even do? Drink dust?"
<banana> Melanie: "We're using the word 'real' casually here."
<CBN> Tony: "Okay, not-in-the-Hedge real. Can-be-at-a-bar-real."
<banana> It was a shame to see Unbecoming get what (t)he(y) want(s), but it's not like a fight would have been better. Ultimately, those guys were just an opportunitist stumbling on a treasure in the Hedge and offering to sell.. Melanie doesn't like him but she's not sure why she was as mad last week as she was. Something to think about.
<banana> Melanie: "Yeah, it's just- I'm not convinced. That we're real, really."
<CBN> Tony: "I'm real enough to get takeout when I'm hungry and beer when I'm thirsty, that's real enough for me."
<banana> Melanie: "You think of having needs as an anchor? I guess, but that just.. well, whatever."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, actually! Frankensteins - the Created, is the right term - were all manufactured in the hopes of creating new human life. You don't hear about them a lot because they like to move around so there's not really a Baltimore Frankenstein freehold or anything."
<VoxPVoxD> "I've heard of *a* fishman, but I think they hang out down by the Carolinas. And we're too far south to be in the Jersey Devil's territory..."
<dammitwho> "Huuuuup!" She grunts as she pulls the creaking metal doors open.
<CBN> Tony: "So, real, but not realistically at the bar. Good enough for me!"
<VoxPVoxD> "On the dark web there's this video that's supposed to be some college kids looking into a local legend out in Burkittsville... but it didn't end well for them and I'm pretty sure it's some kind of deepfake creepypasta."
<VoxPVoxD> "Really well done, though."
<Crion> Three boxes for Maggie. One looks like an old ammo box; the other two look like they're hardboxes for holding jewelry. No locks, though.
<CBN> Tony: "I don't know what half those words are but I'll stay away from Burkittsville, gotcha."
<dammitwho> Huh. What's in 'em?
<Crion> Ammo box has...four Coins of the Realm, along with a bunch of--Stewart?
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Handmade bullets?"
<VoxPVoxD> "Nine millimeter, looks like."
<Crion> Handmade bullets!
<Crion> In the other two...Maggie opens the first, and finds...
<Crion> A black feather.
<Crion> Lustrous and long. Touching it makes her head buzz lightly -- it's powerful, but not for her.
<Crion> In the last box...
<Crion> It's a union card.
<Crion> Old and wrinkled and blotted. It's for Mary G...
<Crion> Just Mary G. Can't make out the rest. From Local 423.
<Crion> There's no picture on it. The union was wary of picture ID.
<Crion> Who wants that anyway?
<Crion> And when Maggie touches it, it does not buzz.
<dammitwho> This is it. This is hers. And, unfortunately, she knows exactly what she needs to do with it.
<dammitwho> Carefully folding the fragile paper, she puts it in her mouth and, wincing, swallows it whole.
<VoxPVoxD> ?!
<Crion> And so it was that Maggie remembered.
<VoxPVoxD> After a moment: "...Maggie?"
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion> Time goes on. Thanksgiving comes, and you enjoy it together or apart as you wish. Thanksgiving goes. December arrives. On the 21st, Autumn hands the regency over to Winter.
<Crion> Meanwhile, the Wherehouse...prepares?
<Crion> Only two weeks between when we last saw them and when Something Worse returns.
<trenchfoot> Preparing is certainly a word for 'fretting over what's going to happen and what's been happening', yes. Nels has been spending her time throwing herself into her studies, alongside some extremely ineffectual searches online when she's back at her apartment.
<gulbanana> Learning to bing is an important part of modern life. Just make sure your search history doesn't get shown to any movie buffs who are also conspiracy theorists.
<VoxPVoxD> Hey--
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart's got a lot on his mind, but he's getting pretty good at finding new things to distract himself with as old ones fall away and persistent ones distressingly fail to resolve. For instance, as Maggie's Icon has settled, the question now comes what to make of this black feather. Stewart takes it in his hands one day and studies it.
<dammitwho> Maggie's sitting in her customary chair, scowling at the wall, grunting occasionally.
<trenchfoot> What's bing? Stewart only showed Nels something called "duckduckgo." It seems okay?
<Crion> Stewart sees, in this vision of the black pinion, a swimmer and a paper girl too tall and with shoulders too big to really fit in. She excels underwater; she isn't so great above it. Her delivery route is an excellent escape on weekend mornings from...everything going on at home. Eventually she gets a call too late at night on Saturday from her boss, asking her to do a special delivery. His
<Crion> voice sounds weird, but she'll earn more than she would in two months. She's naive enough to bike out to Baltimore County, really not that far, to the last house on the last street...and then outside the streetlights beyond...
<VoxPVoxD> Does he recognize her?
<Crion> The frame is different -- more fluted, more birdlike -- but the eyes and jaw are precisely the same as the Mask of Cormorant, of the Autumn Court.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart, abruptly: "I know whose this is." He's plainly holding the feather.
<gulbanana> Melanie's been hanging around trying to figure out how and whether to try and learn what Maggie found out. Is that the right thing to do, as a friend, or is it just her curiosity? She does a lot of lurking normally so it isn't necessarily suspicious behaviour, but she's generally About, reading or writing, and specifically not asking questions. When Stewart comes over one day, it's a
<gulbanana> great segue!
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Hot damn! Anyone, y'know, close at hand?"
<trenchfoot> Nels looks up from her English homework, expectantly. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is slow going anyway.
<gulbanana> Melanie: "You went into a trance. So Icon visions are a real thing..."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah! This belongs to Cormorant, from Autumn. She's the Messenger, so she's out of town a lot. I can see if she's around."
<VoxPVoxD> "We've got to give it back to her."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Oofah. For sure."
<VoxPVoxD> Somewhat skeptically, to Maggie: "It's good, right? Like we're not going to be fucking her up against her will if we offer her this back."
<dammitwho> "It's hers, and it was stolen from her." Maggie points out. "Once you give it back, she can decide whether she wants to eat it or fix it into her wings or what have you." She sticks her tongue out. "Hope she doesn't have to eat it, that was gross."
<dammitwho> "Either way, it's her decision, doncha think?"
<dammitwho> She adds: "Jury's still out, but I think getting mine was for the best."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Sure, yeah. Alright. I'll step out and make a call."
<VoxPVoxD> That's a lie; he steps out and texts Lauren. <hey do you have a number or smth for cormorant>
<Crion> <yeah. why>
<Crion> A second later: <she'll want to know>
<gulbanana> Who wouldn't want a missing piece of themself? Don't answer that.
<VoxPVoxD> <we an icon that belongs to her>
<VoxPVoxD> <we found***>
<Crion> <fuck. yeah one sec>
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Is the jury.. split?"
<Crion> <you're sure right>
<VoxPVoxD> <yeah. i had to look in it but yeah>
<Crion> <be nice about what you tell her>
<gulbanana> "Like are you okay. With the new stuff. Or old stuff, you know what I mean."
<Crion> <sending her number>
<Crion> Lauren does.
<VoxPVoxD> Be nice...? Is Stewart not-- he guesses not. Huh. Well... now Stewart makes a call.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Well, you know. It's hard to take an inventory of your own insides. Like going into a dark room in your house after you've just rearranged all the furniture."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Yes. It takes time."
<gulbanana> "And maybe you bump into things."
<dammitwho> "I tell you, though - learning I never had kids? It was like a knot in my neck loosened that I didn't know was tight."
<Crion> Answer on the third ring. Stewart knows the voice from that meeting at Lauren's desk in the law office: brusque and distant. "Hey."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "I worried about that, sometimes. I know They would have left behind a fetch, but..."
<gulbanana> Melanie tries not to glance at Nels but of course she fails.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Hey, this is Stewart. Uh, Stewart Reader. My friends and I were working in the Hedge recently and we found a feather. I'm pretty sure it's an Icon of yours."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "It's not the same. I mean." She ignores the look. "You'd want to be there. Not just something that looks like you. If you could."
<Crion> Fully eight seconds of silence. "Is this an op? Who's on this line?'[
<gulbanana> "So," she hurries on; "There's nobody you have to get in touch with? At least not urgently?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "No! It's not an op. I got your number from Lauren. We really-- like I just held it in my hands. It's yours."
<Crion> This time it's immediate: "Then I will come to you." And the line goes dead.
<VoxPVoxD> ...
<VoxPVoxD> Well, if she knows where she's going already...
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart comes back inside. "Cormorant's on her way."
<Crion> About 45 seconds later Stewart's phone buzzes. Gerald.
<VoxPVoxD> "Whoops sorry another call."
<VoxPVoxD> Back outside. "Yeah."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Great, it's nice to get a double-header out of this stuff."
<gulbanana> "-oh"
<Crion> Gerald: "Hey kid. Just got off the phone with Cormorant. Is it for real?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah."
<VoxPVoxD> "We were looking for one of Maggie's and I guess there was another one in the same, uh, box."
<VoxPVoxD> "Maggie's was legit, it looks like."
<Crion> "Alright. She wants me coming in with the whole getup just in case, so I will, because she's earned that. Buzz us in and don't flip."
<VoxPVoxD> "Sure."
<Crion> "Seeya then. Good work."
<Crion> Gerald hangs up.
<VoxPVoxD> Back inside again: "Okay, so, Cormorant's on her way, and she's bringing Tactical Gerald in case this is a setup and we're secret Loyalists."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Nnno, probably not. My time was before the war. I think."
<VoxPVoxD> "So, try not to take it personally if someone comes in armed."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Why would we...? Oh. Paranoia, right."
<dammitwho> She sits up suddenly. "Oh! Uh, tell Cormorant to bring like a paper clip or some old pencils or something."
<Crion> Steve honks, honks again, and waddles out his goose door.
<Crion> Oh yeah Steve was robbing the fridge.
<Crion> As he does.
<gulbanana> Melanie looks around. Sofas which were pretty nice before flowers started growing out of them; a kitchen annex much-used; overflowing bookshelves, the tv, two guitar racks.. and that thing.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We've got that stuff here if she needs it. Does it need to be hers?"
<trenchfoot> To Maggie: "Um. Which war?"
<gulbanana> "We should be pretty reassuring to anyone who isn't a neat-freak."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart, who has been called a neat-freak 30 or 40 times in his life, doesn't acknowledge that.
<trenchfoot> You live through one war that everyone called The Great War and find out it got renamed one time,
<dammitwho> To Nels: "The second one. I think I was out late enough that we're not, you know, contemporary." She chuckles a little. "Wouldn't that be a heck of a thing, though?"
<dammitwho> To Stewart: "Yeah, just something she doesn't mind giving away."
<trenchfoot> Nels snorts. It's very undignified.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart blinks, but then he gets it. "Ah yeah, okay."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Oh, wow."
<Crion> It'll be maybe twenty minutes before Gerald calls Stewart again. Anything else to take care of before then?
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart will spend that time tidying up.
<gulbanana> Do you mean apart from interrogating Maggie but in a friendly, no-pressure way?
<dammitwho> Maggie: "'Mary' was not my real name, but I was part of the steelworkers' union - whazzat, Melanie?" She has to restrain herself from calling her 'Mels', now. Odd.
<gulbanana> "That! That's wow, it's a long time ago. But it's so great that you've got a place." Or had. Argh
<dammitwho> She nods. "It is nice not to be flapping in the breeze of a whole dang century."
<VoxPVoxD> But then he says, "They're here." and goes to let them in.
<gulbanana> "No wonder so much is new. Why is the whole thing so arbitrary?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I kind of like it, actually--"
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Sorry, I meant 'knowing which part of the last hundred years I'm from'."
<dammitwho> She doesn't mention that, as she was saying that, she remembered hearing a Nels Foulke song on the radio. Tactless.
<trenchfoot> Nels still hasn't actually listened to any of 'her' music. Maybe she should, eventually.
<gulbanana> Melanie: "It's fascinating, like someone arranged a case study in how much that stuff actually matters. Pluck people from almost-evenly separated eras. Are universal themes real? It's like something they'd-"
<Crion> Cormorant and Gerald leave the elevator with the enforcer in front, some kind of rifle slung across his body on a sling, wearing a vest. Cormorant hides in his wake, her eyes narrowed. Gerald is grimacing.
<Crion> "Hey there."
<Crion> Cormorant: "What am I expected to surrender?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Do you have like, a pen or something?"
<VoxPVoxD> "Just, whatever's in your pocket."
<Crion> Her eyes narrow. "Why."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Hi Gerald. It's nice to meet you Cormorant, this is Nels.. Maggie.. you know Stewart right?"
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Because the Wyrd sets its own obligations! Oh, but first, hi Cormorant."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You know, it's like... symbolic transaction. Like buying your family's estate back for a dollar or something."
<trenchfoot> Nels waves upon being introduced. "Hello! Welcome to the Wherehouse."
<Crion> Cormorant: "Wyrd would want it to be symbolically important. Not a pen." She pulls a cheap bronze metal out of her pocket, running her fingers over it. "I've met Stewart and Melanie. You must be Maggie. Hi."
<Crion> At this point Gerald steps away and leans against the wall, rifle laying over his chest. "You guys got anything to eat? She's starving."
<Crion> Cormorant: "I'm not--"
<Crion> Gerald looks over at her and crosses his arms.
<Crion> "Fine."
<Crion> Gerald: "I could use something too."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart would've given the feather to Maggie when he went out to make the call, so it's up to her where it is now. "There's plenty of stuff in the fridge. Leftovers, uh, sandwich stuff, some fruit..."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Oh, sorry. I was- I don't remember much from the early days." She should have remembered; Cormorant looks familiar in a pre-literal way, like a former athlete.
<Crion> Gerald looks almost hurt. "Well. I'm not going to go poking around in the group fridge."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's fine! Our home is your home."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Aw, cripes, I'm sure I can make something."
<gulbanana> "It's fine, it's fine. Half of us don't eat. Tony usually cooks, but he's out!"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I mean, if we don't go through it who knows what'll happen to it. Uh, literally."
<dammitwho> "You guys want sandwiches?"
<Crion> Cormorant looks at Gerald; Gerald looks across all of them, ending on Stewart. "Yeah, that'd be nice. Thank you."
<dammitwho> Maggie will whistle over to the fridge and start the oven. She's not making anything fancy, just some baked ham and cheese plus lettuce and tomato... "Hey! Either of y'all have any of those, uh, dietary requirements?"
<Crion> Gerald, smiling: "Nah."
<Crion> Cormorant: "I ran earlier, so I can eat whatever..."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Hey, the pen or coin or whatever- whatever you thing is something important to you and the Wyrd, that's fine, because we're not trying it on here. We're just.. naive and secure and by total chance we came across this thing, and it's the right thing to give it back. That's really it."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "We don't bite. Um, some of our friends do, I guess, but not - you know how it is, right?"
<Crion> Cormorant, clipped: "Yeah. I know how it is."
<Crion> When Gerald sits down on the empty love seat, Cormorant will sit down next to him. Very close.
<trenchfoot> Well. Usually that joke goes over better.
<dammitwho> Maggie's working on the food, which will hopefully make a pleasant atmosphere while Stewart negotiates the Icon return.
<gulbanana> A telepathy contract would be nice here. Melanie wants to tell Stewart, put the thing on the table, hand it over while they eat rather than making the woman wait.. but if she could read minds, it would cause as many problems as it would solve.
<VoxPVoxD> Where did Maggie leave the feather when Stewart gave it to her?
<dammitwho> On a little coffee table or ottoman or something in the common area.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So, uh... here it is," he says, gesturing to it as he sits down across from Cormorant and Gerald.
<Crion> She stares at it and sighs. Then she places the medal beside it.
<Crion> Cormorant: "Do you accept this--"
<Crion> "Jesus fuck."
<Crion> "Let's wait for the food I guess."
<gulbanana> Melanie's going to retreat to a corner for now.
<trenchfoot> Nels sort of wants to fetch her guitar to break up the awkwardness. People love it when someone starts singing, right?
<trenchfoot> Wait, no, she saw a clip when she was looking for music on the YouTube. They specifically don't like that.
<trenchfoot> Her fingers twitch anyway.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart's just about to say 'yes' and complete the transaction when Cormorant demurs, so now he's just sitting there with his hands on his knees, face like :I
<Crion> Gerald: "...So how are things, Stewart?" He gently nudges the rifle aside to slide even closer to Cormorant.
<gulbanana> "Hey, so. Did anyone else see the Bulls against Portland last week?"
<Crion> She sort of fades into him.
<Crion> Gerald: "I mean...I'm not watching the Bulls in 2019."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "They couldn't quite get there, I feel like Anthony isn't getting the support he needs."
<Crion> "Jim Boylen needs to get his ass fired last year."
<VoxPVoxD> oh no, sports
<gulbanana> Melanie's pleasantly surprised. Maybe she shouldn't be. "Yeah I hate to jump to 'fire the coach' but it really does come down to the placement decisions in this case. He's executed, like, the anti-turnaround."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I'm -- I'm really sorry. This is a sports thing, right? There weren't just bulls rampaging throughout the streets of Portland?"
<Crion> Gerald: "He's one of those weird old school assholes whose old school never existed."
<dammitwho> Maggie works a lil' bit of tuna into Cormorant's sandwich. They're fisher birds, right? Just a little bit of fish, as a treat.
<gulbanana> "Hahaha. It's the Chicago men's team Nels - basketball - on paper they have everything going for them but Jesus, the on-court decisions are as bad as the trades Boylen's been pushing for."
<dammitwho> But she's done soon enough! "All right, come get 'em! Cormorant, Gerald, here's yours..." She carries two plates over. "You guys want some beers?"
<Crion> "The East is kind of shit this year anyway, you're looking at Giannis on the Bucks and a Sixers team that isn't even--oh!"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Oh, okay! That's... better? I think I've only watched a few basketball games. Colleges, I think."
<gulbanana> "Yeah, I wouldn't have watched the game but it was on after the Storm and like, it's nice to have close games but you want that to be because both sides are contenders.." Aha. Thanks, Maggie!
<Crion> Cormorant's eyes go wide and she takes the plate from Maggie gladly. She hovers over it a moment.
<Crion> Gerald digs into his sandwich. After swallowing: "Oh yeah, definitely. They're doing a good job promoting the woman's game but they have to do better. The league makes enough, and the WNBA is popular. Beyond the sexism, what they're scared of is the offseason, and competing with the D-League. Which isn't even supposed to be competitive!"
<trenchfoot> Nels nods like she knows what he's talking about.
<gulbanana> Sadly, that's something familiar to Melanie. Training all the time but not wanting to eat.. could be several things but the worst would be ana. She's going to keep an eye on Cormorant, thankfully not an unpleasant task.
<Crion> Cormorant has eaten half her sandwich already.
<Crion> Gerald: "I'll take a beer."
<Crion> Cormorant: "...Same."
<gulbanana> You know what though, it rules that an attempt to cover the silence has turned into something interesting. Gerald knows from things. "Do you think they really care about competition for revenue from the lower leagues? There are so many preseason games that most of them don't even get writeups."
<gulbanana> "Obviously the owners aren't in this for the love of the game but I always thought it was like, a far-sighted maintenance of cultural dominance. Stop the whole thing going the way of baseball."
<trenchfoot> That's still bizarre to Nels - baseball was everywhere. And then they put it on the radio! How did it get less popular? A question for another time.
<dammitwho> Maggie'll bring beers for everyone, then.
<Crion> Gerald shrugs. "The thing about the NBA is that it's really beholden to the players. There's a lot fewer of them, right? That means they have more influence. And though Lebron toes the line on China, he'll still fuck you up if you decide to say women can't coach, or the developmental league should be underfunded. Now, the D-League is organizing -- they might join the NBPA. And if they get
<Crion> into the player's association, the women's teams, which are actually more valuable on revenue terms because they're also playing in NBA cities on NBA courts but just in the offseason, could easily get in on that too."
<Crion> To Maggie: "Thank you."
<Crion> Cormorant, more mutedly: "Thanks."
<Crion> She chugs more than half the beer.
<VoxPVoxD> Hoo boy.
<gulbanana> Melanie appreciates the perspective on this stuff from someone who doesn't have.. insider-nostalgia-tinted glasses. "It's always been great that half the team actually get to play, and you get real.. bonding. I love football but the trade culture is just a fucking tragedy, guys who don't even know each other don't care that they're moving all over the country."
<trenchfoot> She doesn't comment on Cormorant's desire for fish. Seems rude. Her head is still spinning from all of this basketball talk, anyway. "They have unions and they still agree to - get shipped wherever?"
<gulbanana> "Keeping women from getting actual influence on how things run is of course par for the course."
<Crion> Gerald nods to Melanie. To Nels: "The important thing is that no matter where they get shipped, their pay and working conditions are guaranteed."
<Crion> Cormorant slams the bottle down on the table.
<gulbanana> To Nels: "And being traded is generally good for your actual salary. The unions exist to make sure the players get enough of the take, which is pretty enormous."
<Crion> Gerald: "Oh."
<Crion> Cormorant, to Maggie: "So you have my Icon. I've just got to...trust that."
<Crion> "Because if I touch it, I take it. And then I'm in your debt. Whatever you want."
<Crion> "We have to make the deal before."
<trenchfoot> Nels ponders being wealthy enough to go anywhere in the country and not caring where you end up. Good for the players, one assumes, but... this is really, really weird.
<VoxPVoxD> What if you end up somewhere awful, like Wisconsin?
<trenchfoot> Terrible.
<gulbanana> Melanie smiles at Gerald and mimes setting the conversation aside. Just place that invisible thing between your hands to one side of the plate.
<Crion> She pushes the medal forward. "I got this from the Baltimore Running Festival. Placed third in the 5K. I'll ante in on this."
<dammitwho> Maggie nods.
<Crion> Cormorant reaches for the feather...she looks to Maggie. It almost looks likes she's hoping someone will stop her.
<gulbanana> "We can find a place for it." In fact, shouldn't they have a trophy wall?
<Crion> Gerald glares at Melanie.
<gulbanana> What?
<dammitwho> Maggie: "On behalf of the Wherehouse, I accept in good faith this third place medal from the Baltimore Running Festival, in exchange for a black feather believed by us to be the Thorns-stolen Icon of Cormorant."
<VoxPVoxD> :I
<Crion> When Cormorant clasps the feather it ripples, then burns into her palm. She stands, straightens, and heaves; her eyes unfocus and she stumbles away. She heaves again and again...almost like she's drowning. Then, against the far wall she pushes up and leans, opening her hands. No more feather. It's gone inside her. "I was a swimmer," she says.
<Crion> "Fish. Swimmer. Of course."
<Crion> She sags a bit, but looks to Maggie; right in the eye. "Thank you."
<trenchfoot> Closure? Or just one piece of a larger puzzle?
<gulbanana> Good.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart exhales, dizzy from holding his breath so long.
<Crion> Then she slumps down next to Gerald, unless Maggie has something to do.
<dammitwho> Maggie will give her a thumbs up in return. "Cheers."
<Crion> She'll smile slightly more than slightly in return.
<gulbanana> This doesn't seem like the right moment to forcibly start up the conversation again. Let's try drinking beer in a vaguely benevolent manner.
<trenchfoot> If there's enough beers for everyone, Nels will sip hers while not thinking about reclaiming lost parts of onesself. There's still family members - not thinking about it.
<Crion> Cormorant will defer the rest of her beer to Gerald, which is a bit of a problem because he has to drive. He'll finish his and then stop drinking.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart finishes his sandwich quickly but doesn't touch his beer. He'll put it back in the fridge when he gets up to clear plates.
<Crion> Soon after, the both of them will excuse themselves. Gerald will be generous in his thanks; Cormorant will be shy, except towards Maggie, who she'll hug.
<Crion> Then they'll withdraw.
<gulbanana> Melanie relaxes, probably visibly. "Sometimes you get lucky. That was really nice.:
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Whew."
<Crion> honk
<Crion> Steve's back.
<VoxPVoxD> To Maggie: "So how did you know where to start looking?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "That was - hey, Steve - weird. Good, but still..."
<Crion> He's...brought his own six pack? Examine that immediately.
<gulbanana> "Honk all you like, you can't invalidate this." :)
<Crion> honk!
<Crion> He sets it down and wanders off.
<trenchfoot> It's. Actual beer, right? And it's a real brand and not some sort of weird Hedge brew?
<trenchfoot> We haven't even gotten the still really up and running yet!!
<Crion> No, it's definitely not a real brand.
<gulbanana> Melanie: "..that's new. What's the saying about looking a gift goose in the mouth?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "It's 'don't touch it just yet.'"
<gulbanana> "I thought it was something about greeks, but yeah."
<gulbanana> Melanie's up and circling slowly around the goblin beer like it might blow up. Which it might.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Oh my goodness. He - I didn't even know you could brew -- Vines of Bacchus!"
<Crion> honk
<Crion> That's from near the stove, where Steve has nested. It's warm there.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Thanks, Steve."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Honk yourself, you little blessed weirdo. I'll write you something, Christmas is coming."
<Crion> Steve dips his head in acknowledgment to the Wherehouse, then immediately falls asleep.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "That was Tony, really. He knew those little mushroom fellas, who knew the lay of the land..."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Just a few weeks away. Was Christmas basically a religious thing a hundred years ago, or is that more like five hundred?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart folds his arms and hmms. "Hmm."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "So, we have six prophetic beers and also if you drink one and they taste awful we know that you're intent on doing harm to people nearby. I don't know how he got these."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Maybe they just sell them at Hedge corner stores."
<VoxPVoxD> "Eleven-Over-Seven."
<gulbanana> "Or seven-foot-eleven. They're all run by that big stone cop and the death cat."
<trenchfoot> "Christmas was pretty much the same. When I was a kid it was just a religious thing but, well, capitalism knows a way to sell things when it spots one."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Stone Cop and the Death Cat would be a pretty good name for a band."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: 'He's more of a vengeance cat..."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Stone Cop and the Cat's Revenge"
<VoxPVoxD> "The stone cop was pretty handsome... what about Death Cat For Cuties?"
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Wasn't Vengeance Cat one of those Japanese cartoons?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I don't know. I don't know a lot about those."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Maybe we should watch some? I like modern movies a lot more than the old ones..."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You'd... really want someone who knows about them to give you recommendations."
<VoxPVoxD> "Which, again, is not me."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Well, that's what online is for. You see people with anime pictures all the time, mostly conservatives but it's clearly a 'thing'."
<gulbanana> "Let's look some stuff up, it might be relaxing to see a foreign film. I can't keep up with the pace of most of our stuff."
<trenchfoot> Nels almost asks him for advice, but he clearly doesn't want to talk about it. So. "Wait, why would conservatives - aren't they racist? Why would they like Japanese cartoons?"
<trenchfoot> "I agree, let's watch some, but -- this is. Augh."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "I mean, they don't think they're racist."
<Crion> Some of them probably do.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Wait, so Melanie, do you know enough about them to give us recommendations?"
<dammitwho> "You and Stewart are the youngest..."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Nope. But like.. as I understand it Japan had a huge economic and cultural boom a couple of generations ago and they're still, like, important globally. Not on par with America or Europe but there's a big subculture that's into japanese stuff/"
<gulbanana> "When I was at college there were clubs for watching anime, though we.. didn't hang out."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart snorts.
<gulbanana> "Yes, it's a stereotype. But we've all dealt with stereotypes."
<VoxPVoxD> Typical jock.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Wait, what's the stereotype? I haven't - the last cartoon I saw in theaters was Felix the Cat. And that was pretty much for everybody."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Um."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Anime is for friendless losers who don't go outside or play sports."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Oh! Oh."
<trenchfoot> "...is it because it's from Japan, or...?"
<gulbanana> Melanie: "That's what people used to say, but I don't remember why. There might not have been any real reason. Things 'everyone knew' were largely shit."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's a stereotype that you find with a lot of niche hobbies, particularly ones that don't require you to be, you know, athletic or good-looking or sociable."
<VoxPVoxD> He looks around the room and doesn't say, 'choose any two I guess'.
<Crion> Steve honks in his sleep, then rolls over and returns to long breaths.
<trenchfoot> Now that she can recognize. "Oh. So. Um. - bless you - We can still watch some, right?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, sure. That movie we watched a while ago, Alita, was based on an anime."
<VoxPVoxD> "I don't know what to recommend, though..."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Is that why her eyes were sort of weird?"
<trenchfoot> "'Cause she was a cartoon?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, it was a deliberate reference to the style those shows and comics are drawn in."
<VoxPVoxD> "Lauren was talking about the differences between the movie and the cartoon-- actually maybe I should just call her."
<gulbanana> Melanie mumbles: "There's so much social pressure. Supposedly we have liberalism now and everyone celebrates individuality but then there are like, material forces, which are actually real, and you have to be normal if you can. 'Nerd' is just a new kind of normal, it means you go to silicon valley and you're a stereotype on top instead of in a locker or whatever, but it's still.. it's
<gulbanana> even worse if you're in, like, china. I don't know."
<VoxPVoxD> Outside: <cormorant came over and got the thing. now people are talking about watching anime. you wanna come help curate>
<Crion> Lauren: <omw>
<dammitwho> Maggie looks at Nels like 'Silicon Valley'?
<Crion> <is cormorant ok?>
<VoxPVoxD> He loves her so much. <yeah. it was real heavy obviously but she got through it>
<trenchfoot> Nels doesn't even know what Silicon is. She's as lost as Maggie.
<Crion> <yayy>
<Crion> <should I bring an external HDD or>
<VoxPVoxD> <good idea>
<Crion> <see u soon :*>
<VoxPVoxD> < <3 >
<VoxPVoxD> Back inside: "Lauren's coming over, she's gonna bring some stuff to watch."
<VoxPVoxD> He sees Nels and Maggie's confused looks. "What's up?"
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Sorry." She'll start collecting the plates and so on. Can't have the place messy when Lauren's coming over.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Um. Melanie said something about silicon valley? I don't think either of us know what that is."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh. Ohhhh okay."
<trenchfoot> "Or what silicon is, in my case."
<VoxPVoxD> "So like. You guys remember how back in the day there were like, railroad barons, oil tycoons, Andrew Carnegie, stuff like that?"
<trenchfoot> "Regrettably, yes."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Now they're silicon dukes. It's a place, another stereotype, an alchemy. Where you spin nerds into gold."
<trenchfoot> Alarmed: "We have to stop them. This is accepted?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Nowadays those guys all wear hoodies and have phones attached to their ears and figure out new ways to use computers to charge rent for things and underpay people."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "People into gold-- we have to go there!"
<VoxPVoxD> To Nels: "Figurative spinning. Not a Rumplestiltskin thing."
<VoxPVoxD> Did Nels ever read-- whatever.
<trenchfoot> She deflates. "Oh. That's. Better. It's still awful but for different reasons."
<VoxPVoxD> "But yeah 'Silicon Valley' is an area near San Francisco Bay where a lot of the major tech companies are headquartered. Silicon because that's what computer chips are made of."
<trenchfoot> "I always knew that place was cursed."
<VoxPVoxD> "So it's become a metonym not just for the tech industry but for tech-inflected stuff generally."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "Silicon Valley, metonymically, is seven percent of the economy, but it's more like a quarter of the salaried workforce. America's only remaining competitive advantage."
<trenchfoot> Not-quite-joking: "That earthquake was trying to right a wrong."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Guess the average rent in San Francisco."
<VoxPVoxD> "Actually, don't, you'll freak out."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Um, well, with inflation, ummmm.... $500?"
<VoxPVoxD> "Thirty-five hundred."
<VoxPVoxD> "It's just, not fit for human life."
<gulbanana> "They're not all bad people but it's a case of.. the stereotype shifts social status sans shedding stigma." Melanie giggles briefly at her alliteration.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I need to sit down." She is already sitting down.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart's phone buzzes. "Oh, that's Lauren."
<VoxPVoxD> He goes to let her in, kissing her in the doorway.
<gulbanana> "So 'nerd' these days is like.. a semi-positive thing but there's a right way to be a nerd. A rich way. Still a box to put people in."
<Crion> She doesn't just lean to the kiss, she sort of pushes him. When she pulls back she's grinning. "So icon's down and you guys just all want to watch some anime?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart, a little flushed: "That's the plan."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I haven't watched any, and, Maggie made a reference? But I don't know if she's seen any either."
<Crion> She'll accompany him as close as he wants. "What're you looking for, then?"
<Crion> "When it comes to anime."
<gulbanana> Melanie's putting a towel over the rack of dirty dishes. "I've never seen one but I'd like to. Is there stuff that's slow-paced? Reflective?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Music if possible? But I don't know what these things are like."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Yeah, I dunno what the deal is with it."
<Crion> Lauren: "It's just like normal movies and TV. What do you wanna see? Musicals exist."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Um, I'm good with whatever. There weren't - the most popular movie when I disappeared was Birth of a Nation. You literally cannot do worse."
<VoxPVoxD> Quickly: "Not that Nels is throwing down the gauntlet or anything."
<trenchfoot> She blanches. "Apparently you can do worse?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The point is it's not a competition."
<Crion> Lauren: "But I do not actually have anything worse than Birth of the actual fucking Nation on this HDD. Just to be clear."
<gulbanana> Melanie: "We're also not judging anything though. Like there's no need to present the perfect anime, it's just a friendwhim."
<trenchfoot> She relaxes, slightly. "Still, though. Nothing on that level, please?"
<Crion> Lauren: "It's kind of fucked up that 'no Nazi shit' is an actual genuine concern here instead of something you just laugh off...but yeah, Nels."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I'm kind of glad I missed them but it makes reading their chapters in the books worse."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "What do you have that's like, weird, but not nightmarish?"
<Crion> Lauren: "...The Evangelion...movies."
<Crion> "1.11 You Are (Not) Alone and 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't know Evangelion, but he knows of Evangelion. His eyes widen slightly.
<VoxPVoxD> "Sounds good to me."
<Crion> She glances over at Stewart. "They're more refined than the show."
<Crion> Lauren nods gratefully.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. He doesn't fully understand what that means, but he trusts Lauren.
<trenchfoot> Nels begins plucking away at the guitar she's kept by her side. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS_yNsDsbaQ
<trenchfoot> Something about it is just familiar.
<VoxPVoxD> This tune is catchy. He wonders if Nels wrote it.
<VoxPVoxD> "Is there anything people are going to need to know in advance to make sense of this?"
<Crion> Lauren: "The world ended badly, angels are evil, and you should hate your father?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So just obvious stuff then, cool."
<Crion> She grins.
<Crion> "Then I'll get it set up for when you're ready."
<Crion> The notes in Stewart's room: I A M is a structure. Many things have been built upon it. This makes it dangerous; it has redundancies -- multiple Titles. Maybe they're Iam, I Am, and I'm. Maybe they're something else. But whatever they are, they serve and adore a greater structural purpose. Where is I A M located? Many places; everywhere. Not the biggest in Arcadia, thought not the smallest
<Crion> -- but it extends like bedbugs and malware into the real world. It's vicious mojo. It's poor practice. It's binary violence.
<Crion> If there's good news, it's this: you can stop seeing it coming by turning off your monitor.