<VoxPVoxD>
<VoxPVoxD>
<VoxPVoxD>
<VoxPVoxD>
<VoxPVoxD>
<VoxPVoxD> "...so because of the bug in the console's hardware, it's possible to program a continuous stream of inputs that the game just can't handle, and you can end up directly at the end of the game less than a second after you turn it on."
<VoxPVoxD> They're at the Wherehouse, it's probably a bit after lunchtime. Stewart's hanging around because he doesn't want to go home and record. What's Melanie up to, besides listening to Stewart natter about making computers play video games superhumanly fast?
<banana> Melanie's lying on one of the hollow's moderately shitty sofas - something she doesn't usually do, but she's laid down a bunch of sheets first to catch all the scraps and scrapes.
<banana> She's got some paper floating above her head and in theory she's working - thesis deadlines don't include a christmas break - but in practice she's staring at the scribbled pages and enjoying a personalised stream session while she muses about where to take these ideas next.
<banana> "You could probably get a vampire to do that with a real console. They could press the buttons at hyperspeed."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Two vampires, since it uses both controllers. Or I guess one really, really fast vampire. Or a four-armed vampire... anyway, it led to this really involved debate over what constitutes 'gameplay', with different schools of thought ranging from, like, any input counts to it doesn't count if you can't see your character on screen... there was a question of whether it 'obsoleted',
<VoxPVoxD> and consigned to archive, a similar project that also corrupts memory and executed arbitrary code, but requires you to actually play the game for a couple of minutes first."
<VoxPVoxD> He's about to keep going but the subconscious realization of how much he's monopolizing the conversation pushes him to ask, "What are you working on?"
<banana> Melanie: "You know, you're pretty good at verbal footnoting. Explained, conveyed the meaning of."
<banana> "I'm not really.. doing anything? Just assembling endnotes. Like footnotes but nobody reads them unless they're a dickhead."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Normative dickheads or dickheads within the cohort of people who read theses?"
<banana> She waves and most of the papers fall in a heap on the covered couch. One flies over to Stewart instead - it's covered in carefully formatted references with a lot of placeholders.
<banana> Collison, D.C. (2016). Exploring the power differential within and between intramarginality dynamics: The birth of the subsubaltern (ArXiv). University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California.
<VoxPVoxD> "Within and between intramarginality.... subsubaltern... sounds like philosophy you need an electron microscope for."
<banana> "I need like.. exact page citations for the references I end up using, god knows which ones those will be. I don't want to keep everything on the computer but it's getting hard to keep track."
<banana> Melanie lifts her head at the mention of actual philosophy, though. "Intramarginality, it's a dialectic between groups who are alternately, meaning in different senses, othered by the same in-group."
<banana> "Augh. I don't give a shit about any of this."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Well if you ever need a break, you can always come vampire hunter hunting with me and Gaunt Rose."
<banana> "Actually... I could probably help with that." Melanie's thinking about contracts taught by Summer, pacts with the sun itself. But, wait- "Did you say vampire hunter hunter? Like the opposite of subsubaltern?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Hunting a vampire hunter on behalf of-slash-in coordination with the vampires. There's a task force set up, it's called the Gang of Four, which may or may not be a deliberate reference."
<banana> She tries to sit up, ends up mostly standing. "I hope there's um.. more to it than that. The vampires can be friendly.. they're sad in a really hot way.. but if ordinary people want to.. how do I put this."
<banana> "The Freehold wouldn't usually stop people from fighting back."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The vampires who got murdered absolutely deserved it, insofar as anyone deserves to get bisected by a giant sword on a public dancefloor."
<VoxPVoxD> "It's like a... it's politics, you know. We've got these alliances, and mutual defense arrangements... Gaunt Rose I think sees it basically like you do, like, there's clearly one faction here responsible for a disproportionate amount of disruptive violence. The vampire rep didn't like that much. At the same time, the vampire rep almost killed someone feeding off them in the stockroom across
<VoxPVoxD> the hall from the meeting."
<banana> Melanie's having trouble calibrating that one. Just what does and does not justify, she mumbles something about 'disco-centric vertical elision'.
<VoxPVoxD> "Someone had to give her epinephrine to make sure she'd make it to the ambulance."
<banana> "Well. If the public executions are a problem, and it sounds like a problem, then maybe we could hunt down the hunter and tell them to do it quietly."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Right now I think the plan is to ask them to leave and go do it somewhere else."
<VoxPVoxD> "Vampires obviously want to kill him, but no one else really wants to."
<banana> Melanie: "Right. There's a lot you could debate here but.. we've got other problems and maybe it's best to just follow instructions. What kind of, um, leads have you guys got? Do you need someone to do research, or-" airquotes here- "engage in a confrontation?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Right now Rose and I are thinking about forcing a meeting. We can use magic to make that happen - you remember the Contract I invoked to get us to Camden - and then learning more from the hunter - the Book just calls him 'The Boy' - and maybe convincing him to leave ourselves."
<VoxPVoxD> "I'll ask her if she thinks having backup would help - I don't wanna just show up with extra people without consulting her, it might not fit what she's got in mind and she's low-grade mad at me all the time as it is."
<banana> Melanie: "I'll join you if it's okay and make sure he doesn't just run away. Also, I don't know if I've forgotten someone again and I hate to ask but. Who is Gaunt Rose?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart... can't remember if Melanie was around or visibly paying attention the last time he talked about this. "We're partners, basically. She was apprentice to the Lord Sage before Santander took me on. She feels like I'm muscling her out, like there can only be one Lord Sage and I'm gonna cost her the job."
<banana> Melanie: "Ohhh. Oh, I know that type. It doesn't really matter, but is she right?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I don't know. Santander doesn't seem to think so, but Santander could be adopting a rhetorical position to get the best results out of his candidates or just, like, fooling himself. I think the Wyrd has an opinion, but the Wyrd's opinion is full of catches and loopholes. I need to research it more."
<VoxPVoxD> "I just... like I don't see it as a competition. There's more than enough work for two people even if there's only a title for one. But I feel like everything I say to her about it is wrong somehow."
<banana> Melanie: "Okay.. here's what you do. Don't say 'I have a friend-', although you do, btw. Please tell her, the Summer Court's Melanie Lucas can provide extra muscle to back us up. Extra vegetable fibre. Feel free to be like 'I know her, we're in the same cohort' if she asks but just present me as a.. facet of the situation. A problem/opportunity."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart thinks about this for a bit before saying, "I don't know, like... I don't want her to think I'm trying to trick her, that's just going to poison the working relationship even more."
<banana> Melanie: "I'm not talking about a trick. I wouldn't be able to pull that off. What I mean- I've met a lot of girls like that, in candidate mode, often having to compete with someone unexpected- I don't know this woman but I don't think she's accept something that comes across as you bringing extra resources, trying to take credit for a better approach..."
<banana> *she'd
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart frowns. "Maybe you're right."
<banana> "The main thing is to make things, ideas, people available, something to be selected as an option. So that it's part of the rules.."
<banana> Melanie: "Maybe I'm overfitting to this situation, it just really.. reminds me of some team dynamics."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "How so?"
<banana> Melanie: "There was a girl on the 2015 squad when I got into college basketball, Riley.. she wasn't the point guard but maybe she should have been. I was gonna be point guard or center because, Riley would tell you, I was tall and on a scholarship and one of two white girls on the team. I also mostly played lacrosse at the time. Like, before college I'd been on a court less than a dozen
<banana> times."
<banana> She starts packing up the sofa-covering sheet, bundling together bark and notepaper indiscriminately. "I get that same feeling I guess."
<banana> "What you think of as a 'working relationship' might not be the context she's even operating in?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Man, that sucks."
<banana> Quietly: "We never became friends. But I remember her, I don't remember most of their names..."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart gets up and stretches - a habit engrained from streaming time - before sitting back down. "It just seems like, if there's a pre-existing disposition or commitment to view your presence as intrusive, then anything you do can reinforce that. It's like, you ever get the thing where you're mad at someone for some unrelated reason and then suddenly all of their personal tics and
<VoxPVoxD> mannerisms are the worst way to be?"
<VoxPVoxD> "And then like... what if my presence *is* intrusive?"
<VoxPVoxD> "In the strictest sense it is. Like I got replaced when I got taken, and now that I'm back the world needs to make room for this whole entire additional thing."
<banana> Melanie: "Nervensage."
<VoxPVoxD> "I don't know what word."
<banana> "Nervenßage? No, um.. nervensäge. It means nervesaw."
<banana> "You haven't done anything wrong, though! A sawblade doesn't."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The person moving a sawblade can do something wrong, though. Is the implication then that I'm being forced to do this?"
<banana> Melanie: "No, it was just a bad analogy. That's a phrase I came across in like, disciples of Nietzche.. ich bin eine nervensäge. They were reclaiming the slur of being an incredibly annoying person, you see."
<banana> She smiles. "I have no useful advice! You probably are inconvenient to her, a genuine obstacle to what she wants. But, like, you're doing useful things that are good for everyone? Including Gaunt Rose pretty soon I bet? So that just.. won't last."
<banana> "Wait, I do have advice!"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks over.
<banana> Melanie: "It's quite possible that one of you will 'lose' here, like.. not get the cool title. If it's Rose, she'll have to get over it or not. You probably wouldn't care? But don't try being, like, actually you should have this. I am condescending to grant you the prize for which I do not care. Ho, my steed, away!"
<banana> "Um, I'm not saying you would do that!"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I actually did consider that, but I worked out on my own that it'd just make everything worse."
<VoxPVoxD> "So. Not bad advice."
<VoxPVoxD> "It sounds so petty but it just... I guess it just bugs me that she doesn't like me."
<banana> Melanie sets her filthy sheet-bundle by a door to take out later, then drifts back over to stewart and rests her elbows on a countertop. "Well.. what percentage are you going for?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart blinks. "I don't know, I don't really think of it that way. I guess, in practice, a hundred."
<VoxPVoxD> "Which sounds silly, but also like... why would you deliberately aim for a lower percentage?"
<banana> Melanie: "Of people liking you? Because it's really really hard?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Well sure, I can understand not wanting to worry about it at all. But caring halfway doesn't make sense to me."
<VoxPVoxD> "What's your percentage?"
<banana> Melanie frowns, fully engaged now. "It should. Care is.. should be reciprocal to some extent. If everyone likes you on some level, they're all the same to you, right? People don't work that way, there are actual meaningful relationships, l- love- why would you want to put time into getting on at neutral with every single person out there even if.. due to circumstances that neither of
<banana> you control, it's a burden?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Well, like I said, I don't really think about trying to befriend groups of people. In practice it's like, oh I've met this person, I'm going to try to be nice to them. Oh, it's this new person, I should pay attention and figure out how they want to be treated. You know? And here it's... speaking of German words, do you know zugzwang?"
<banana> Melanie: "I know just enough German to ask where the bathroom is in Renaissance Austria. Zugzwang is.. chess?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. "It means the obligation to act. In chess, the turn order is locked and taking your turns is mandatory. So often, especially in endgame positions, you see situations where the correct thing to do would be nothing, you know, pass your turn. But that's against the rules! So you are compelled to move, to take a position, knowing it will weaken you. That's being 'in zugzwang'
<VoxPVoxD> - it's when no matter what you do, it makes things worse."
<banana> Melanie: "Oh so in English - that sucks ass?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart snorts. "More or less."
<banana> "So I guess the play there is just, get weakened. Which sucks. Then keep going."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...yeah. I don't think there's a trick to it, or anything. I'm not doing anything *wrong*, which means there isn't anything *right* I could be doing instead."
<VoxPVoxD> "It sucks, though! It sucks so bad."
<banana> "Making people comfortable is important to you."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart kind of shrugs and says, "...yeah."
<VoxPVoxD> "What would you do?"
<banana> Melanie: "I don't know if it will help but feel to.. pay less attention around me and the others. We know you and we're gonna interpret stuff charitably." Like when Stewart was going nuts over not being able to do anything about the Terminator.
<banana> "I'd..." She thinks. Tries to remember.
<banana> "The old Melanie would.. assume I was in the right, so no offering up the title out of misplaced charity. Get smug about being the team star like it was some natural outgrowth of being popular at parties. Have a year and a half of one-sided rivalry that cooled into sort of.. weird flirting. Start running into each other at weird times even though you're now taking different paths and not
<banana> competing anymore. Have some of that weird nervensage hanging about but with a new focus, make some tentative.. ehh."
<banana> "I mean if you had me work with someone who doesn't want to be there now I'd hide or fight them. Depends on how important the job is."
<banana> *doesn't want me to be there
<banana> She looks around nervously like Maggie or Tony might jump out of a cupboard and quibble with the advice.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I like the idea that meanness is conserved somehow, like you can budget it."
<banana> Melanie: "If it really doesn't take you energy to befriend and coddle all human beings, that's great. I'm merely saying."
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion>
<Crion> So, it's January 30th, and everything is on fire in the Freehold of Baltimore. Metaphorically, if no longer literally.
<Crion> Let's try that again.
<Crion> So, it's December 30th, and everything is on fire in the Freehold of Baltimore. Metaphorically, if no longer literally.
<Crion> The Sidereal has thankfully been soaked before the firefighters even arrived by a localized downpour, mystifying the soggy civil servants. The Spring Court and its Gardener are securing the North Avenue Community Center, while Summer and Autumn have rushed to the Law Offices of Kingsley, Santander & Ravens. The wizard Union is on his way.
<Crion> Everything still is just a little bit chaotic, as an understatement, and the Court of Winter is nowhere to be found. But hey, at least you have each other?
<Crion> Where is the Wherehouse motley, right now? Are they sticking around the nightclub, or heading elsewhere, or...?
<VoxPVoxD> Once the smoke is blowing away, Stewart rejoins the others and tells them what he saw, the ignition trails leading from a camera dead zone to every entrance simultaneously, including climbing the metal fire escape.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Do you know of any Contract, or combination of Contracts, that could do that?"
<trenchfoot> Nels' eyebrows shoot up. "That's- how does that...?"
<dammitwho> He's the party wizard, might as well ask him first.
<dammitwho> Before the *other* definition of 'party wizard' gets here.
<trenchfoot> Nels wouldn't even be sure where to go from here, other than 'home' or 'her apartment,' neither of which seem like appropriate suggestions. The community center is a close third, but apparently it's being handled...
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Any Elemental could've done it. Far as we can tell the fire's just fire."
<VoxPVoxD> "...did the doors at the Sidereal always hang so far above the floor?"
<CBN> Once the bulk of the weirdness has died down, Tony takes a minute to breathe, and think.
<trenchfoot> Nels just shrugs.
<Crion> The only person around right now who might be able to answer that is The Kitchen, who is currently hovering around his assistants as they get treated for smoke inhalation at one of the ambulances. Some EMTs will come up to you too, asking if you need help. Cops might start showing up soon...
<CBN> Tony scratches his head: "Have we been around here with the doors shut before, ever? I don't think we have..."
<VoxPVoxD> "Yeah, I don't know... if we stick around we're going to start getting asked questions."
<Crion> It's then that Union arrives.
<Crion> And stepping out of the car with him...is Fireman.
<VoxPVoxD> NICE.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't wave, but he does point out their arrival to the others.
<CBN> Tony, quietly: "So who's that now?"
<Crion> The BFD lieutenant in charge of the situation walks over in his galoshes to tell the two they need to clear out and then stops when he sees who the big man is; Fireman gives him a nod as he produces a badge, like it's a formality. "Evening, Dawson. Patrolmen will be arriving shortly; tell them to cordon the area and send them to me if they're too big to take orders from a firefighter. This
<Crion> is the Arson Unit's scene."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That's Union, and with him is Fireman. Fireman helped me when the wizard cops were trying to hassle me."
<Crion> Union looks like he's trying mightily to surpress his shiteating grin. He's even taken off his jacket and is wearing a badge on a chain around his neck, too.
<trenchfoot> Nels, quietly: "Seems like a good friend to have."
<Crion> As the BFD lieutenant scurries off, the two wizards walk over. "Never trust a cop," Fireman remarks.
<Crion> He looks around. "You all good? Didn't lose anyone in there?"
<CBN> Tony files it away for later to ask about wizard cops, which sound like the worst thing twice.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart shakes his head. "Everybody's accounted for."
<Crion> Fireman nods. "Alright. Let's start our canvass now. Get this done before too many real cops arrive."
<Crion> "What do you know so far?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Fire started in a camera dead zone around back, and it hit every entrance simultaneously, including the second floor fire escape. Seemed to have slid under the doors without any trouble. It's possible the gap's been widened somehow, but I can't tell offhand."
<Crion> Union winks. "I'm a sergeant for at least the next fifteen minutes. Gotta respect our troops."
<Crion> Strange thing about their badges -- they seem subtly...different, somehow, every time you look at them. Like they're changing to more completely fill the cover story as Union and Fireman get into character. Union's badge, for instance, now has him in Arson out of the Southeastern, with sergeant's bars.
<VoxPVoxD> Hah. Nice.
<trenchfoot> Neat trick! That probably comes in handy a lot.
<Crion> Fireman nods. "Show me the flashpoint. Ah, where the fire started."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart leads Fireman and whoever else around back.
<dammitwho> Maggie grins at Union. This is a neat trick.
<Crion> When they arrive, Fireman circles the scorch spot a couple times, kneels down, and stares at it intensely. "Huh. The fire qua the fire seems normal to me. Scorching like you'd expect; no supernal trace or paradox...seems like it moved quick, though. That could be the accelerant, or it could be particularly skillful Ruling Forces, or...your magic doesn't leave traces we can see easily. A very
<Crion> natural collaboration. Elemental is the term?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah."
<Crion> He nods. "Let's follow the trail inside. The path seems very...clean."
<Crion> Fireman heads for the backdoor. "Got any idea on suspects?" This is to everyone, not just Stewart. "That you can tell me about."
<Crion> "I'm guessing you called in the Consilium for a reason."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Somebody was faking security camera footage with magic to draw the Freehold away from here, and they were walking through doors without being on the other side first. Could've been one of us, but it could've been someone else, too, and the vampires and werewolfs don't really seem like the type."
<dammitwho> "We're just trying to rule things out. Or in, or what have you."
<CBN> Tony: "And if it means anything, they were faking footage of me and Maggie here-" he thumbs to Maggie "- and then this whole thing happened."
<banana> Melanie trudges into the room, boots covered with sodden ash from the alley outside. "I've called all this in." To Summer, naturally. She looks at the wizards. "Um."
<Crion> Union: "Werewolves don't fake video footage. Vampires do, though. But if it was earlier today...yeah, I can see why you ruled them out."
<Crion> "Still...there are edge cases with those guys."
<Crion> "Some wake up early."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Do they fake security footage *and* start fires, though?"
<Crion> Union: "That's...a fair point. But sure! If they're dangerously insane."
<Crion> "They don't make it a point of avoiding the security camera, though."
<Crion> "So yeah, let's rule them out."
<CBN> Tony: "Can they do one and then hire someone to do the other? They've probably got like, what, the bug eating guy. From the movie."
<CBN> Tony: "For day stuff."
<Crion> Union: "Yeah, they've got people for that."
<Crion> Fireman ignores the door for now, staring at the accelerant track. He waves a few uniforms off with his badge raised, and Union will saunter over with his own badge to get them to leave the motley and Fireman alone.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I don't see why they would, though..."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Hey, Melanie. I called these guys in, don't worry."
<banana> Melanie: "Oh yeah, hi. I wasn't worried."
<dammitwho> But Melanie's always worried!
<Crion> He looks over the room once or twice, frowning at the walls. It's hard to tell by the bare eye alone what's going on in all those scorch marks, but Fireman clearly isn't just eyeballing it. To Stewart: "You said it came in through the fire escape, too?"
<Crion> "The fire."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. "Straight up the metal."
<banana> Following up on what Nels said: "Um.. the motive thing applies to everyone. Even They don't have an obvious reason to do this."
<Crion> "And no one inside saw anything?"
<banana> "So there's an inobvious reason, obviously."
<VoxPVoxD> "Only people inside were in the kitchen."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "We should talk to him -- I was going to earlier, about the doors thing, but he had other people around."
<Crion> Fireman's hands are in his pockets as he stares at the ceiling now. "So we don't have any eyewitnesses giving us any explanation of how this petrol-gasoline mixture ran up the walls and across the ceiling. Same with the fire escape outside."
<Crion> "You're looking for magic, you've found it there."
<Crion> Fireman turns away. "Now, for us, that's Ruling Matter. Basic stuff, but not entry-level. That still Elementalist for you?"
<CBN> Tony: "If they're anything like me, they can only control the element that's them, or close enough."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah I don't know of any gasoline Elementals in the freehold."
<CBN> Tony: "So, if it's a fire guy, he could move fire, water moves water and ice and snow, but...I don't even know what'd be near enough to gas or oil or whatever."
<banana> Melanie: "The range is too long. Without a.. special deal, you can't naturally move something along a ceiling to the far side of a room while standing outside."
<banana> "We can manipulate things on a larger scale, of course, but only with a consistent narrative. Like."
<banana> She thinks better of what she was going to say: 'If I was going to set the bar on fire, it wouldn't involve gasoline.'
<banana> "I mean, the details are beyond our kind of work and also unnecessary."
<Crion> Fireman nods. "Alright, let's look at the seals on the doorjamb."
<Crion> He kneels down and examines it for a few moments. "...So are any of you aware of a changeling who has made a dread arcane pact with the concept of doors?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "In... what sense?"
<Crion> "The jambs have been raised, evenly but artificially. You can tell by the wealing of the metal as it contracted and increased its density. Well. I can. Are you aware of any changeling who might have the arcane ability to do that?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "That's not really how they work..."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Not here. We could all do that in our Hollows."
<Crion> Fireman: "Then you're looking at Weaving Matter. And you were right to give us a call."
<Crion> "You've got a willworker problem."
<banana> Melanie: "Was this done to spread the fire, or just to get through the doors? Again, we wouldn't need that to pass them."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "One of Society's people?"
<Crion> "Fire needed air to complete the passthrough and rush up the accelerant path, into the beams. Honestly I'm shocked this place is still standing. The placement was professional."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It rained pretty hard."
<Crion> Fireman nods again. "Well done."
<Crion> "There are a couple...freelancers in the area. But none with this particular skillset. Well. There's one, but she...wouldn't be interested."
<Crion> "I can check in on her. But my assumption would be Society's people."
<banana> That's the only wizard's name Melanie knows. She'd blanch if she could.
<Crion> Union bounds back up. "One Jenna Kilpatrick is here. From Arson. She's very interested to speak with the Arson Unit detective already on site."
<Crion> Fireman straightens up. "Time for us to go."
<VoxPVoxD> Ah jeez.
<trenchfoot> Don't have to tell us twice.
<Crion> He's...a bit flushed, for the first time. Odd for a guy so completely in control about fire.
<VoxPVoxD> ...ah, jeez.
<Crion> He is already out the back door, Union grinning and pulling off his badge as he follows.
<trenchfoot> Interesting. Nels follows close behind.
<banana> Melanie: "Okay but- let's go but, what do they actually want? The cancer wizards. How could we.. as a group.. have drawn their ire? We don't have group-enemies, that's the trick. It's mutual defense not.. active operation."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...we should go too, unless we want to talk to the actual cops."
<trenchfoot> She pauses at the chatter before nodding back to Stewart. "Yeah, we should... escalate, somewhere else."
<CBN> Tony heads on out, nodding.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart'll take everyone back to the Wherehouse.
<dammitwho> Time to skedaddle.
<banana> Do we trust these guys enough to take them there? Actually, Maggie's mentioned having Union over before, it should be fine.
<VoxPVoxD> If there's some other place they want to meet, then have at.
<Crion> The wizards aren't heading back to their car immediately when they get out; they seem to be waiting for their moment. If you want to invite them, there's your moment.
<trenchfoot> The Wherehouse is probably safest...
<Crion> The reason, of course, is bound up in the fact that Serrato, your driver, is chatting with some uniforms and trying to placate an irate blonde with impeccable hair and a badge on her waist. He'd tried to remain inconspicuous mostly, but he IS actually a cop, and Arson Unit Detective Jenna Kilpatrick knows him professionally.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "You fellas got a safe place to chat? We can regroup at our place if there's'nt."
<Crion> Eventually, Serrato gets her to walk off, gets into the Escalade, and backs it into the Sidereal parking lot. There's room for everyone, especially since if this narration recalls correctly, Stewart drove himself.
<VoxPVoxD> Yep.
<VoxPVoxD> Should be plenty of seats for a ride to Lexington Market.
<Crion> If the motley makes the invitation, Union will agree for both of them, with an annoyed look from Fireman but a nod.
<Crion> Their car is on the far side of the cordon anyway.
<Crion> Illegally parked, but what is that to a wizard?
<dammitwho> Such power...!
<banana> Melanie: "We really need to ask you some questions please. Sorry if it's a burden but this is beyond what we usually.. I mean 'we' here should read the Freehold, but, we're here."
<VoxPVoxD> In that case the two wizards join the motley back in the Wherehouse. How far along is it, now? Is Maggie still working on the second floor?
<dammitwho> Yeah. At the moment the second floor is more of a loft, but that means its a good place to store crap you don't want underfoot.
<dammitwho> On an unrelated note, Steve has a lil' nest up there.
<VoxPVoxD> Where are Lauren and Chup?
<Crion> honk
<Crion> Given the scramble order, they're back at the Wherehouse.
<Crion> Safest place to be right now.
<VoxPVoxD> Okay, good.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Which of Society's people do you think could do this kind of magic?"
<CBN> As soon as they're in the door, assuming the place hasn't burnt down or been raided, Tony's going to head to the fridge and grab some beers. Assuming that, also, has not been raided (by Steve).
<Crion> Fireman grimaces. "Society himself could have done it, but this isn't his style."
<Crion> Union: "Yeah, he likes to walk out of the burning building laughing and shit."
<trenchfoot> Nels visibly relaxes once they're back inside. She does do a quick look around to see if anything's out of place, but that's just habit at this point.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah."
<trenchfoot> "Charming," she says.
<CBN> From the kitchen, head in the fridge: "Hey! Wizards drink beer right?"
<Crion> Fireman: "Permit and Singular are bruisers; you met them--"
<Crion> He blinks. "Yeah."
<Crion> Union: "Hell yeah."
<banana> To Tony: "Skip the ones with a grape wrapper, those are Vines of Bacchus."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "I hope you don't mind if we assume that this is now a both of us problem. I can't speak for the others, but from what I've heard I feel like if the evil wizards are pissing on our back stoop it's because they expect you to come step in it somewhere down the line."
<dammitwho> She thinks a second. "Oh! Not that I'm complaining or tossing blame. These guys seem like real b-holes and threats to good wizardry are *also* everyone's problem. Sorry. Might shoulda led with that."
<CBN> Tony returns with three of his colder MGDs, tossing one a piece to Union and Fireman, and starting in on the first one for himself. "Welcome welcome."
<Crion> As you talk, there's loud, approaching, sequential HONKS. Eventually Chup trundles into the room, Steve strutting behind him in an Army drill sergeant's cap, honking in time. Somehow, some way, Steve has found a way to make the cat exercise. Chup looks annoyed but resigned.
<Crion> Their rounds take them past you, and out of the room.
<VoxPVoxD> God damn.
<Crion> Lauren is in the kitchen already, and has greeted Tony and popped her head out to say hi to both the motley and the wizards. Everyone seems to know each other, at least enough that introductions aren't in order.
<dammitwho> Incredible. Simply incredible.
<CBN> Tony: "Hey Steve! Give 'em hell!" He offers as they pass.
<banana> Melanie completely ignores les parade des goblins. "Could we please start by all getting on the same page. Oh.. Mr. Fireman, I'm Melanie Lucas. This is Maggie, Tony, Nels, and if it's not a wizard secret... who are Society's people? What do they want, what can they do, why are they a force?"
<Crion> Lauren slaps Tony lightly on the arm. "Do NOT shame Chup. I just don't want him getting cat diabetes."
<Crion> Union, to Maggie, about wizards: "Yeah. But like...it's still weird?"
<CBN> Tony, quietly to Lauren: "And this keeps Steve out of my beer, see."
<Crion> "I'd never accuse Society of being direct, but, this is REALLY indirect."
<trenchfoot> Nels gawks a little at Steve and Chup, but, well. All right.
<Crion> "Usually there's just the one level of trolling remove, like at the pizza place."
<Crion> "Or the parking ticket thing."
<dammitwho> Maggie shrugs. "I mean, nothing says it was him personally. He's just the guy we've heard of."
<Crion> "Stewart's bascially gotten the Society Experience, is what I'm saying."
<banana> Melanie: "Everyone knows little pieces of information and has a vague idea of individuals but there's more to it than that, isn't there? Who are they and what would lead them to change their behaviour patterns?"
<Crion> Fireman, with a beer now. "So yeah. Permit and Singular are brusiers. Singular probably has the know-how but this would be a step up in what we'd expect from him. Counselor isn't this hands-on."
<banana> Melanie: "Excuse me!"
<banana> She's standing behind a sofa with both hands clutching the top of it in a kind of death grip. Maybe these guys will refuse to tell us the things they know but she's going to make them say it.
<Crion> He of course introduces himself first.
<Crion> As does Union.
<Crion> Fireman turns to Melanie and stares at her, and takes another sip of beer. "If I recall correctly it was you who called us for help."
<Crion> "Singular. Permit. Counselor. Society. Anathema. Gary. The Pylon of Baltimore."
<Crion> "They serve the Throne. They See it."
<Crion> Union: "Fuckin assholes too."
<Crion> honk honk HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK honk honk
<Crion> Another lap completed.
<banana> Melanie: "I'm very grateful that you're helping out. Is.. the Throne.. an entity with goals and enemies? Someone or something that wouldn't previously be concerned with us here?"
<Crion> Union and Fireman look at each other. A beat passes. Smiles quiver on their faces. Another beat passes.
<Crion> They crack up laughing.
<Crion> Fireman: "Goals--"
<Crion> Union: "--yeah, yeah, they have goals--"
<CBN> Tony: "This feels like bad-laughing, like, 'hey we just asked you if Keepers are nice' laughing."
<trenchfoot> Nels purses her lips.
<Crion> Union: "hahaha...Yeah, that's about right. That's a good compromise."
<CBN> Tony: "So, how bad are the goals, and how bad is it that, if they're the ones messing with all of us, that any messing has to do with those goals?"
<Crion> Fireman: "So. You guys know the old saw about how it's better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven? That shit?"
<Crion> "These guys are ruling in Hell because one day they dream of serving in Heaven."
<Crion> Union: "Ten Exarchs on their ten thrones, each like, fuckin' president of their Arcanum. Ruling the Supernal. Making life shit for the rest of us down here."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "That sounds awful."
<trenchfoot> "And they just, do this? On purpose?"
<CBN> Tony: "OH so like Keepers except they can be in the rest of the world, okay, so that is very bad. Now do we need to invade someone's dreams in order to kill the people serving them? If it comes to that."
<CBN> Tony: "Or do they die regular-like."
<banana> Melanie: "It's hard to tie such a grandiose malignity to any specific life-shitmaking. I guess that's a problem normally, that you don't have a specific idea of what they'll be after?"
<CBN> Tony: "If they burned down a bar we like that's pretty specifically shitty, and also, framing me and Maggie for a murder! OH maybe that's it. Yeah why would they want the changeling courts going to war? If this is them. Just for fun?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It wouldn't make us go to war with each other. Everyone got hit simultaneously."
<Crion> Union: "Doing bad shit for fun does sound like Society. But if they're taking such measures to--"
<Crion> "What?"
<Crion> Fireman: "What?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "There was a break-in at KS&R too."
<Crion> Lauren has joined the group, with a beer for Stewart if he wants one.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart waves it off.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "And the Community Center."
<Crion> She'll hand it to Steve next time he passes by.
<banana> Melanie: "A Summer Court member was also killed- just outside our stronghold."
<banana> "It did initially look like an attempt to pit us against each other. But then it started to look like a distraction for something greater."
<Crion> Union: "So this was an operation."
<banana> "..the attack on the bar? Or is that a distraction too.."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Collaborating with someone, maybe?"
<VoxPVoxD> "We fought something like a scrambled ochema in the Hedge the other day, too/
<VoxPVoxD> ."
<Crion> Union: "That...or they know all your secrets and the ways to manipulate you just, on their own."
<Crion> Fireman: "That didn't seem like the case with the pizza place though, right? He didn't hit you where you--"
<Crion> Union grimaces at that word; Fireman almost snarls. Clearly, Sommelier didn't fill them in.
<CBN> Tony looks at Stewart: "Is THAT what the orb was? A scrambled oaky ma?"Under his breath: "what's a...nevermind."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh, jeez. Yeah, an ochema is like an avatar of one of their evil wizard gods. The 'Exarchs', I guess they're called."
<Crion> Union, weakly: "Yeah. Yep."
<banana> Does the Oath to Winter bar us from telling them why and how we fought the shadow orb?
<VoxPVoxD> "I was looking into it and Sommelier helped me dig some information up about it."
<banana> Melanie: "What!"
<banana> "Why would something like that be attacking us? And how could we- no, it was pretty weak after all. Not unstoppable."
<VoxPVoxD> "Its name, specifically. 'The Sun in Shadow', but run through a ROT13 cipher. Gur Vha Ha Fun-Q-BJ."
<Crion> The oath bars you from saying the reason that you were acting on the orders of the King of Winter to achieve a specific outcome, but not describing the steps you took to achieve the outcome.
<CBN> Tony: "Okay so wait, Melanie, maybe it's like....think about it. That whole thing was kind of us walking into the middle of something else, and we didn't lose. So maybe all of this, or at least, some parts of it, are trying to double down on making us lose now?"
<VoxPVoxD> "ROT13 is just rotating the alphabet a half-cycle forward, basically. It's not really used to encrypt things but to bypass filters and make images non-obvious."
<Crion> It also does not bar you from saying the reason you can't answer a question is that you swore an oath to the King of Winter.
<dammitwho> Maggie frowns. "I can't say I have a lotta respect for these evil wizard gods if I was able to wallop one of their avatars."
<Crion> Union: "Well, that's kinda pedestrian shit."
<VoxPVoxD> "Sommelier was very clear that we should not have been able to do that."
<Crion> "I mean, for wizards. We used it when moving weed all the time."
<VoxPVoxD> "Make of that what you will."
<CBN> Tony: "And that would also explain why they EXTRA wanted to fuck with me and Maggie, because we extra fucked with the yolky egg."
<CBN> Tony: "Just as a super-petty side to something they were already planning to do."
<banana> To Tony: "So this whole thing could be retaliation against Baltimore becoming accidentally involved in something that actually matters."
<CBN> Tony ponders: "Hey, wizards can look places where they aren't, right? That's a magic spell you can do?" Sort-of-addressed to Union and Fireman.
<trenchfoot> Well, being in the wrong place at the wrong time is sort of a habit for...
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The question is, what? Where did that false ochema come from? Did Counselor summon a real one first? Or what?"
<Crion> Union nods. "There's ways to do that."
<Crion> That's to Tony.
<Crion> Fireman: "Ochema shit is above our paygrade. We'll need to loop Jesuit and Everafter in."
<Crion> Union sort of grimaces at Everafter's name.
<CBN> To the rest of the group: "So what if, the thing we were looking into in the first place when we fought the angry egg. What if there wasn't the thing we were looking for in the first place, what if it was a wizard getting the information people assumed was getting out there another way?"
<banana> The accidental interference theory makes more sense to Melanie than the Freehold being targeted. Stewart said Society was engaged in 'a war to keep Heaven sealed'. How can that even relate to anything changelings do? But what does a "pylon" do, and why would they divert from doing it to perform a coordinated attack?
<CBN> He shrugs: "But maybe I'm putting too many wizards into this."
<Crion> Union hums something.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "There's no way this is all escalation over the Book, right?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks at Union: "Uhhhhhh."
<CBN> Tony taps his foot along
<CBN> Tony: "Are all these uhh...Pylon? That was the word? Are all those guys local? Is Baltimore a big center for wizard shit?"
<Crion> Fireman chuckles.
<CBN> Tony: "Wait is uh. Is everywhere a big center for wizard shit because of, you know. Sorry first time dealing with any of you much."
<Crion> Union winks at Stewart.
<Crion> Fireman, to Stewart: "I don't think so."
<VoxPVoxD> Okay, so, no interdimensional serial killer subtext there, then...?
<banana> Melanie: "Maybe it's another 'revitalisation project'."
<VoxPVoxD> He doesn't relax much. "Okay."
<Crion> I mean. Who knows at this point? But Union's a weird stoner and was probably just making a joke about a meme video.
<Crion> Probably!
<Crion> Union, to Tony: "It's weird. Baltimore is like...a Seer backwater, despite DC being huge for them."
<Crion> Fireman: "We've done a lot of work."
<Crion> Union: "And like...Society's the kind of psycho you don't actually trust anywhere but enemy territory."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Would they be trying to get it back -- oh."
<Crion> Fireman laughs. "Can you imagine him pulling this shit in Denver."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's the same in the Court, the vampire government here fought a bloody war to separate from DC and now they're basically independent."
<Crion> honk honk HONK HONK HONK
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Steve? What's up?"
<Crion> The final lap complete, Steve flourishes and then salutes Chup, who stares back with lidded, annoyed eyes, and then the goose wanders over to a little cushion he's put in and flops down with his beer.
<Crion> Chup walks over and flops down on top of his lower body. But Steve, who still has access to his beer, doesn't care.
<Crion> Fireman: "I'm sorry, but what the fuck?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh, he's just-- okay."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "That's Steve."
<VoxPVoxD> "I thought he had an announcement but he was just finishing the parade."
<Crion> Lauren: "It's fine."
<Crion> Union: "We're in their house, bro."
<Crion> Fireman shakes his head. "Right. I'm sorry. Did I miss any questions?"
<CBN> Tony: "It's ok Steve, these guys are cool. Nice hustle out there."
<banana> Changelings.. don't engage in a nationwide struggle for territorial control. We're just trying to reclaim bits of lives. The Baltimore Freehold feels quite small at times. "We shouldn't keep you if you need to report stuff. But can I ask one question. If your- if these guys go after some group like ours, a collateral thing to the main battle, what do they usually expect to happen? A
<banana> mundane organisation would just.. no chance. People like us.. is there anything we can realistically do?"
<banana> Apart from trying to make nice with the other kind of wizard.
<Crion> Chup extends a paw towards the beer, and Steve looks questioningly up at Lauren. She says, with no room for argument: "Absolutely not."
<CBN> Tony considers what they've just said, and rubs the bridge of his nose: "I don't wanna know but I do...how many wizards and vampires are there? Baltimore or in general, if you have a number or a guess."
<Crion> Chup: "Mrow."
<Crion> Fireman, to Melanie: "So...yes. A lot, actually. There's a huge difference between our magic and yours. You're actually much more powerful than you realize."
<Crion> Union: "Ah, the fuckin, paradox talk."
<banana> Melanie: "Your powers are really flexible, subtle. But they can't just attack us directly?"
<banana> "Or rather, we can fight back if they do?"
<Crion> Union, to Tony: "Can't give you an exact count, but it's probably somewhere around fifty combined? Something like that."
<Crion> Fireman: "Oh, we can attack you directly. It's just that your magic works with the fallen wor--"
<CBN> Tony mutters a Nixonian "Jesus Christ."
<Crion> "Shouldn't use that phrase. Your magic works with this world."
<Crion> "Our magic is denied by it."
<VoxPVoxD> "Because of the Exarchs."
<Crion> "We might have a higher ceiling, and more flexibility, but we have to be far more careful."
<Crion> Fireman nods to Stewart.
<banana> Melanie: "We tell stories and make unwise promises. Earth is lulled into complacency."
<Crion> "And more specifically, the Abyss."
<Crion> Union, on his third beer. "Ahhh, the Abyss. The space between here and the hereafter."
<Crion> When Fireman frowns at him: "What? Jesuit likes to say that."
<banana> 'The Abyss' is a bad thing. Evidence: it's called the Abyss.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Iiiiiii don't like the sound of that."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So what are our options?"
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Well, they don't call good places 'the Abyss'."
<banana> Melanie: "If we can fight them, but they can attack asymmetrically.. it's not systematically different. We bunker down and stick together. We hide and wait."
<Crion> Union: "Easiest way to say it is that we need to make our magic look as much like the rules of this world as possible. You all can step through mirrors, conjure fire from nothing, turn invisible, change your appearance -- we're a lot more flexible, but we need to make all our shit look like science, or else something big and bad and dedicated to extraplanar violence takes notice."
<Crion> Fireman: "Seems to me you need to talk to your people about that first, Stewart. But. It's either proactive or reactive, right? You either ride forth to hit them, or wait to counterpunch."
<Crion> "At the very least we need to know who it is that's liaising with your burn squad. Seems to me it might be Gary."
<Crion> "Or, it could be a ringer."
<Crion> "Or, it could be Society himself."
<Crion> Union: "That's on our side of the equation, though. See, even if it was a willworker what did all of that stuff, ran the accelerant and avoided the cameras and set the fire -- they needed on-site intel."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah... I gotta see what's up with the office." To Lauren: "No calls from Santander or Gerald or anything, right?"
<Crion> Lauren: "Not yet."
<CBN> Tony: "They burnt down our bar and framed me for a murder, and pretty lazily. Is there somewhere we can burn down, or something, to lure them out?" He's on his second beer but who's counting.
<banana> Melanie: "The intelligence part is why Tony's theory was-" She pauses. "Ah. Can't talk about that. Oath."
<dammitwho> If Santander is like he was at the trial all the time, Maggie badly wants to see him interacting with regular wizards.
<Crion> Fireman looks over at Union. Then to Tony: "Sorry, man."
<Crion> "We can't point you at the Pylon and say weapons-free without a sign-off from the boss."
<Crion> "There are repurcussions for that."
<banana> "That in and of itself is reassuring."
<Crion> Fireman nods. "But it's under consideration. There are agreements here that bind the Consilium and the Freehold. And it's fucked up they set all your shit on fire."
<Crion> Union: "Yep."
<banana> Melanie: "This is all reassuring actually, so thank you. We can be small enough to hide, or.. big enough to be part of repurcussions."
<Crion> Both willworkers glance at Melanie when she says 'oath,' but neither press.
<Crion> Then Lauren and Stewart's cellphones light up at the same time.
<Crion> RAVENS on the call ID
<Crion> .
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart answers immediately.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I feel a little bit less in the d-"
<Crion> A text-to-speech voice that still somehow sounds like a bird: "INCOMING. CALL. FROM. THE STEWARD KING."
<Crion> "PLEASE ACCEPT CHARGES AND/OR FINES."
<VoxPVoxD> "I accept the charges."
<Crion> Lauren says the same thing almost in unison.
<VoxPVoxD> That makes Stewart smile a little, despite himself.
<Crion> "Kids, this is Kingsbury. The fireworks are over. We're secure here. Without the King-in-Court we're flying blind so I want you both over here now. Bring the motley; bring the mages, if you can. Smitten's already been by The Sidereal."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Got it."
<VoxPVoxD> "Anything else?"
<Crion> "Be careful. It's a whole new world out there. Ending call; accepting charges."
<Crion> Lauren kills the line on her phone, then starts calling someone else. After two beats: "Angelfire?"
<Crion> "You're...yeah. Yeah. Stay there."
<Crion> "Right. Bye."
<Crion> To Stewart: "He wasn't picking up before."
<banana> The reception here can be spotty. Sometimes it's striped, or tie-dye.
<Crion> Nels, Melanie, and Maggie are hit on their phones moments later.
<trenchfoot> Nels flips open her phone immediately.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You got ahold of a Winter courtier? Have you told anyone?"
<Crion> For the two Spring courtiers, it's Amelia; for Melanie, it's Langford List. Same message: gather at the Law Offices of Kingsley, Santander & Ravens.
<banana> Melanie was just in the process of agreeing with Nels. "It really helps to put names to deeds, to know that there are conceivably specific.. foes and methods-" Then she's cut off just as Nels was.
<Crion> Lauren: "...No."
<Crion> "I'm telling you."
<dammitwho> Maggie answers hers.
<dammitwho> Wait, Amelia's calling two people at the same time?! What kind of Contract is this?
<trenchfoot> Must be pretty powerful...
<banana> "Hey, wizards. We're supposed to try and take you to another meeting. Do you need to slip out quickly, or would it be for the best?"
<Crion> Lauren is loyal to her Freehold, loyal to her Court, and loyal to Stewart...but she hates the idea of running Angelfire into the same kind of Inquest that Melanie just sat through.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...the whole Court's gone missing, babe. We can't keep it a secret."
<Crion> Amelia has you both on speaker from the NACC office.
<Crion> Lauren: "Yeah." She doesn't like it, though.
<VoxPVoxD> Not much to like.
<Crion> Fireman: "Meeting where?"|
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Law firm, Inner Harbor. The garage is at" he tells them.
<Crion> Fireman grimaces. "The Lords of the Fall. When we get outside I have to make a call, but yeah, I think that'll be okay."
<trenchfoot> Well, at least everyone seems to be on the same page with messaging. Consistency's nice.
<banana> Melanie: "It's the other kind of fall I think. Haha."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "At least it's still freakishly warm."
<Crion> Union: "You can thank the Seers for that."
<Crion> "Global warming is one of their things."
<CBN> Tony: "They've been busy then, back in my day you got a good winter, good summer, nice and even."
<Crion> Steve has finished his beer; he and Chup are now both asleep.
<Crion> Lauren doesn't look as concerned about leaving the two of them here together as she previously did.
<Crion> Is it time to roll out?
<VoxPVoxD> While people are getting ready to go back out, Stewart asks Lauren if she wants to handle telling them about Angelfire.
<banana> That kind of sounds conspiracist. The wizards think the evil wizards are responsible for everything, war in heaven, etc.. heck it might be entirely factually true. But Melanie prefers to focus on the idea that you can fight them and win.
<Crion> Lauren: "It should be me."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods.
<Crion> Said reluctantly, and defeated.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's good to know he's safe, at least."
<Crion> Once outside, Fireman will step away to make a phonecall. It lasts all of forty seconds. When he returns he's not shaken, precisely, but... "Jesuit's already at the offices."
<Crion> "Let's go."
<VoxPVoxD> Oh boy.
<CBN> When Fireman returns, or when they set out, to one or both of them: "Hey what do wizard fights look like?"
<Crion> Union laughs. "Like LARPing."
<Crion> "You know what that is?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Nope."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart draws in a breath, preparing to have to explain.
<CBN> Tony stares blankly.
<Crion> Union: "Okay so like. Imagine a bunch of nerds, dressed up as a bunch of nerds. And then we're making all these hand signs at each other, REALLY seriously. Deadly seriously."
<Crion> "Now, if we fail at the magic, nothing happens. So we look like nerds."
<Crion> "But if we succeed really well at the magic, something only happens incidentally. Like, Wizard Who Casts Fireball, that guy doesn't live very long in our world!"
<Crion> "The Abyss takes notice, right?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "That seems... bad? Something to be avoided, at least."
<Crion> "Oh it's real bad."
<CBN> Tony: "That seems way safer than how we fight, even with Abyss stuff. We mostly just have guns."
<Crion> "But so you see this nerd do a hand motion, and then maybe a water main bursts or something."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "LARPing doesn't usually end that way. It usually ends because someone's costume broke or people got too hot."
<Crion> Union: "Oh god, guns are so good."
<Crion> "See, people will usually accept whatever they see from guns, because of action movies. So you get a lot of leeway in enchanting them--"
<Crion> To Stewart: "In a way, isn't getting too hot what this is all about?"
<Crion> Fireman, pocketing his phone: "No."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I hope so. I'd hate to think this was coldly logical."
<CBN> To Union: "Oh you guys enchant stuff too? Cool. What hole do you drop yours in?"
<Crion> Union: "Anyway I used to know a guy who did the Kamehameha as his mudra for fireball."
<Crion> Fireman: "Used to."
<Crion> "Can we get going?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Stewart, what's that?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart's leading everyone out. "What's what?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "The k-thing. Nevermind, I'll look later."
<trenchfoot> He didn't say it, but he seems like he'd know.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart, whose mind was elsewhere, missed the Kamehameha thing entirely.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart says "Good evening." to the elevator on the ride up from the parking garage.
<Crion> Serrato has already departed for wherever the Young Street wants him, so you'll have to drive over to the offices on your own. Any other thoughts/complaints before--
<Crion> Well, they don't get that far before the damage is apparent.
<VoxPVoxD> Oh dear.
<trenchfoot> Uh oh.
<Crion> Someone has blown open the roller door to the basement garage. Serrato is actually here now, with his badge out, standing chatting with two cops who have cordoned off the scene. He waves their convoy through.
<dammitwho> Blown open from the inside?
<Crion> Peeled open like a can lid.
<VoxPVoxD> Ah.
<Crion> There are some cars inside; you'll recognize them mainly from the Sidereal and the Oberon and the street parking outside the Belvedere.
<Crion> And there's Gerald, in a maintenance jumpsuit, hosing down the elevator. "Look," he says to it, "the sooner you're washed, the sooner you're dry."
<Crion> Blood is running out from it, into a drain in the garage floor.
<VoxPVoxD> ...ah.
<Crion> He'll turn to nod as you pile out, then go back to pressure-washing the lift.
<trenchfoot> ...oh.
<VoxPVoxD> So do we- are we taking the stairs then...?
<Crion> Gerald: "Okay. There we go. There we are. Are you good?"
<Crion> "For now, at least."
<Crion> The elevator dings sulkily.
<CBN> Tony's slow-blinking at a lot of this, just taking it in.
<Crion> Gerald turns again, and sees the mages. "Fireman. Union. Welcome to the party."
<dammitwho> Maggie, at least, takes it in stride. Things are also people!
<Crion> To the motley: "How's the Sidereal?"
<VoxPVoxD> "It survived."
<VoxPVoxD> "No one got hurt."
<Crion> Gerald: "Good. Good. Can't say the same here."
<Crion> He grimaces. "They tried to take the elevator first."
<Crion> "The rest were convinced to take the stairs."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart winces.
<Crion> Now the elevator dings happily.
<VoxPVoxD> "Elevator's okay, right?"
<Crion> Gerald pats the controls. "Yeah, all it needs is a scrub down." To the floor readout: "Take them up to the 27th but come right back down. If I don't use the steam dryer, there will be mold. You don't want mold."
<Crion> More begrudging dings.
<banana> Melanie: "...who is they, this time?"
<Crion> Gerald's FAL leans against the concrete wall of the garage, just within reach.
<Crion> Gerald: "Hard to tell. Tactical, but mortal. Almost well-briefed."
<Crion> "Bob will have more for you upstairs."
<banana> But not well-enough briefed that we're unsure of their mortality.
<trenchfoot> Well! That's. New.
<Crion> Elevator will fit you all, and merrily ascend.
<Crion> Most of the blood is gone, too! What remains sort of runs down from the ceiling, onto the walls.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart is breathing very deliberately.
<trenchfoot> Nels does not look at the blood, if that is possible without closing her eyes.
<CBN> Tony's not really bothered by this, other than the thought that the elevator's a Thing and he's riding inside of something that can think, and that's weird.
<VoxPVoxD> It's like being in the belly of a whale.
<Crion> Ding! You've reached the Law Offices of Kingsley, Santander, and--oh my, that's a large pile of...something...with a tarp over it.
<VoxPVoxD> "Jesus."
<banana> Sometimes Melanie wonders, on a purely intellectual level: what is she doing? Fighting monsters with magic. Allying with carnivorous architecture. From studying humans, she can tell: this isn't normal and it would upset normal people.
<banana> Presumably her former self would have been appalled, but it's just a presumption. Nothing's been normal since she stepped back into the world and had legs again to step. The blood? Weird, unpleasant, but no weirder or more unpleasant than social etiquette. Or advertising.
<Crion> "Yep," says Nissa of Fives, hanging out near the reception desk where Cormorant or Lauren usually sit.
<banana> "No, that's Nissa."
<VoxPVoxD> "Where's Kingsley?"
<Crion> There's blood everywhere. A couple of the Fae-touched heavies from the Oberon are scrubbing it out.
<Crion> Nissa: "Conference room. You know the way?"
<VoxPVoxD> "Yeah. Come on, guys."
<Crion> Lauren: "Fuck."
<Crion> Union whistles.
<Crion> Smote is in the main room, and so is...
<Crion> ...Loser?
<Crion> She gives you a wave.
<Crion> In the conference room, there's shouting.
<banana> Melanie's looking around quickly for K.I.L.L....
<trenchfoot> There's a small wave back before Nels can think better of it.
<VoxPVoxD> "Hey." Stewart's still beelining for the conference room.
<banana> No? Good!
<VoxPVoxD> That was to Loser, though, as he passed.
<banana> "Nice work David."
<dammitwho> Maggie'll wave hi.
<Crion> "--you're DAMN RIGHT I kept an asset in place where I needed an asset and you're DAMN GLAD that I did!" Kingsley is rather forcefully saying while pressing a finger into the Young Street's chest as they enter.
<Crion> Smote: "You too, Mel."
<CBN> Tony's head and eyes forward as they walk, and quiet and hanging back the closer they get to shouting.
<VoxPVoxD> Ah, yes.
<Crion> The Young Street: "Tell me again what the fuck I'm glad about and I'll show you, king."
<VoxPVoxD> Well, no one can say he wasn't warned.
<banana> Melanie didn't do anything but insist some wizards give out some names. But she likes to think she's insurance.
<Crion> Amelia: "Both of you shut the fuck up."
<Crion> "We have company."
<Crion> Jesuit lounges, fingers steepled, at the end of the table.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Hiya...?"
<Crion> Fireman and Union nod to Jesuit, and he acknowledges them back.
<Crion> Kingsley separates from the Young Street. Langford List is oddly absent, despite having made the call to Melanie.
<banana> "We're back. Stewart and a Thing put out the fire. Wiz- willworkers were involved in setting it."
<Crion> Jesuit: "Yup."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The Sidereal's intact, all our people are okay."
<Crion> Amelia sighs. "Smitten's there now. 'Intact' is...well, it's correct. And the Kitchen called earlier. Thank you, Stewart."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. "What happened here?"
<Crion> The Young Street: "Did you look under the tarp?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "No."
<trenchfoot> "It seemed... impolite?"
<Crion> Kingsley: "Tactical operators. Not government, since no agency is trying to storm the place in retaliation. They arrived by bus, if you can believe it. They had a device for the roller door."
<Crion> "The elevator got six of them."
<Crion> "Santander got the rest."
<trenchfoot> Nels grimaces. "We saw the elevator."
<Crion> Jesuit, mildly: "With help."
<Crion> Kingsley: "Yes, with help."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "What about the community center?"
<Crion> Amelia: "It's fine. Whoever tried to attack it half-assed it; gasoline and rags in the dumpster, pushed halfway through the loading dock in the back. Made a lot of smoke but not a lot of fire."
<trenchfoot> Nels exhales a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "That's good. No one hurt?"
<banana> You mean, no one who's not under the tarp.
<trenchfoot> At the Community Center.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "That's weird, considering how good they were at burning down the Sidereal."
<trenchfoot> And I guess that should really be phrased 'Was anyone hurt?'
<Crion> Amelia: "...It is weird."
<CBN> Tony: "Or would've been, if not for Stewart." Shoots him a lil' thumbs-up.
<Crion> To Nels: "No one hurt."
<banana> "The whole thing has the air of a distraction or a warning. If the people behind it are among us, or Throne willworkers.. they could have done things more easily that go to what we care about. Capra is the exception, the direct victim."
<Crion> Jesuit: "Perhaps."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Three attacks - four if you count the frame-job - all with completely different methodologies and levels of investment and effort. This feels like different people working together."
<Crion> Kingsley: "I think Stewart is right."
<Crion> The Young Street: "Well, you got a dead SWAT team here and some wizard shit on my cameras, so that seems pretty obvious."
<Crion> Kingsley: "They're not just some SWAT team--"
<banana> "Multiple groups? I don't get it."Melanie is distressed. "When did we qua we get so many enemies? We don't act as a unified front. We aren't a threat."
<Crion> Jesuit: "Yes we do."
<Crion> "The 'we' is important, my dear."
<Crion> "An alliance of willworkers, changelings, vampires, and werewolves..."
<banana> ...leaves us as the odd ones out, the weakest link. Maybe Winter has the right idea.
<Crion> "Where would you press first?"
<dammitwho> Maggie raises her eyebrows. "Not just some SWAT team? It sounds like you've heard of this kinda guy."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So are we bait for the rest of them now? Are they out attacking the Belvedere right now? Has anyone been in touch with the Court?"
<Crion> Kingsley: "The Mainer is on his way over. The Night Court of Baltimore is just getting up, but so far they've reported nothing."
<Crion> Jesuit: "The Belvedere is fine. That's why Fireman was free to see to the Sidereal."
<Crion> "I don't want to call this a probing attack because you have people dead over this." The priest shrugs. "But that is what it was."
<CBN> Tony: "Who has the resources to just...throw mercenaries or whatever those are, at people like this? On top of all the magic and stuff."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "But by who? Are we looking at some kind of parallel alliance between the Seers and Loyalists and the Hook Hand Lodge and, I don't know who vampires' enemies are, like, regular people?"
<banana> "Ha."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "What are the natural enemies of bats? Owls?"
<Crion> Jesuit: "People."
<Crion> "The natural enemy of every animal on the planet is people."
<banana> "Well, by that logic the top of the food chain is yersinia pestis."
<Crion> "But if you mean vampires, their natural enemies are God, themselves, and time. In that order."
<Crion> Fireman: "Also, fire."
<Crion> Jesuit nods. "Also fire."
<Crion> Kingsley looks like he wants to say something...
<Crion> ...and he will, next week.