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<Crion> It's late in the afternoon on January 1st, 2020, and an auto-asphyxiating (or, well, close to it; he's clearly done this without helpers before) speaker for the dead has just clarified for you where the murder of Mulualem "Capra" Nigh took place -- a warehouse at Pitt Ohio's Baltimore truck terminal in Glen Burnie, MD, just south of the city limits -- along with perhaps introducing an
<Crion> uncomfortable insinuation or two about what happens to changelings after they die BUT NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT THAT! There's a mystery in the offing!
<Crion> For his part, Benjamin Best is packing his trunk back up. He seems in chipper spirits for a man who quite literally just died. But then, it seems like he does that fairly often?
<banana> Somewhere the ghost horse man can't hear, Melanie mutters: "At least he didn't get off on it."
<dammitwho> Maybe you get used to it?
<trenchfoot> Gross.
<CBN> Tony's not ecstatic about having to half-kill-somebody, but hey! At least it was the half he came back from. And Ben seems like a decent dude so far, for a ghost wizard.
<VoxPVoxD> Is he still around? If not, did he tell us under what circumstances we should contact him again? He mentioned continuing to help us out.
<Crion> He's still around. He's acting like he kind of expects to mount up and head on over right now, but like he said, this is all billable.
<Crion> In fact, here he comes back in from his truck right now -- "We're gonna need the body. So we should figure out how to move it."
<Crion> "Respectful-like and such."
<banana> Melanie: "No."
<banana> "Well, wait- need for what?"
<Crion> Ben Best: "Excuse me?"
<Crion> "We need the portion of his ghost that remains anchored, to hopefully reunite it with his other half -- that's the best case scenario -- or to help us make sense of the residue left over at the scene of his death -- that's the expected case scenario."
<banana> "We can't just take his body away... probably. Please explain further."
<banana> "Yeah, that's going to have to go past the boss."
<Crion> Ben Best: "Fine by me."
<Crion> He looks around. "You want me to stick around, or...?"
<banana> Melanie resists the urge to apologise for the delay and walks back into the Oberon, looking for List or Street. There isn't a 'respectful' way to do what Best wants, she thinks?
<Crion> List and Street are both off doing the more aggressive Freehold business, but you can probably reach List by phone pretty easily at least.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart just stands there, rubbing the back of his neck, trying not to think about the bisected ghost.
<banana> Ah fuck, phone calls. It's been a relief to Melanie to learn that everyone else hates them too, these days... "Mr. List? Um, hello."
<Crion> List: "Melanie. What's going on. How's the expert."
<Crion> Ben looks at Stewart for a moment, then: "You know. Something I've learned over the course of doing...this...for far too long."
<Crion> Ben: "And it's just, good science. Good life practice, really, if weird."
<banana> Melanie: "Yeah, the veterinary medium's here, he's helped us learn where Capra was murdered. There's a warehouse just outside of town. But."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks up at Ben. "Yeah?"
<Crion> Ben: "Don't start imagining a general rule out of just one case. There's any number of weird reasons that k--...that Capra's ghost isn't whole right now. The vast majority of them are incidental. And I've never examined one of you guys's ghosts before, so I can't make any judgment whatsoever."
<banana> "Now he expects us to- the body, his body, apparently taking it to the scene would do something. Maybe even something to help Capra's ghost, but..."
<Crion> "I apologize if the way I asked that question was a...'so, this is normal for you guys, huh?' thing."
<Crion> List: "But?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart shrugs. "It's fine. Not really something I'd ever... thought about."
<VoxPVoxD> "We mostly try not to think about it. I think."
<banana> Melanie: "Are we really going to haul what's left of him out of the freezer into the back of a truck and drive out of the city to do more magic on the body?"
<dammitwho> Maggie: "You'd think, with vampires and whatnot, I'd be a little less frazzled about the existence of ghosts and an afterlife."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I hope you don't mind me saying we'd rather you not get a chance to examine another ghost like ours' anytime soon."
<Crion> Ben nods. "Kind of fucked up in a way, but it's maybe a question I--"
<Crion> "Yeah."
<trenchfoot> "Nothing personal. Just. Yeah."
<banana> Now she's second-guessing herself. Maybe List would say 'obviously yes', there are things to be learned, maybe she's been picking up the wrong lessons.
<Crion> List: "...I don't know, are you? In your judgment, would that be effective and necessary, or is this guy just fucking around and being spooky?"
<Crion> "Are you asking me for advice, or asking me to sign off on a decision you have made, as our rep on-site?"
<banana> Melanie in chaos. "I think... his magic works, but he's too used to it. He doesn't see people the way we do, not that we're necessarily the sanest about it- what irked me, I think it's that he just assumed, that there's no reason not to grab the body and go on an adventure. I think maybe I'm being overprotective and sort of.. displacing guilt from not having known a guy very well and
<banana> now he's dead. I'm sorry, it's advice I want. There is something to be gained."
<Crion> "Okay. Yeah, this is why I don't necessarily like working with these guys all that much. They can be fun at a party, but...they move in different spaces. Physical spaces, metaphysical spaces; headspaces. My normal advice, during peacetime, would be 'fuck no.' Right now, however, I think given the context of our situation -- with leadership missing and the Freehold on a war footing -- my advice
<Crion> is to let him do what he needs, within reason and respect, under a careful, watchful eye. I'll back that play to Street, and if you're covered in Summer, Spring and Autumn will fall in line. It's our fallen soldier."
<banana> Melanie grips the phone, fingers creaking a little bit. "Okay. That's what we'll do."
<Crion> "Sounds good to me. One more thing."
<banana> Unless Langford has more to say, she's going to find Colt and- he does! "Yes?"
<Crion> "Advice, a sign-off -- calling for either's fine. Really is. That wasn't a test. But you might reconsider the approach of calling someone up, presenting a new situation that you're the lead on, then hitting them with the 'Are we really gonna do X' construction. They're already on the back foot, they don't need to also hear 'and this is on you' in the same package."
<Crion> "What's that wizard say? 'Not a sermon, just a thought.'"
<Crion> Ben, to Maggie: "Yeah, mages can get really prickly about that too for some reason? It's weird, but the way they deal with Death is very...dynamic and impermanent. Rooted in the present. And they sure as hell don't make regular trips to the Underworld."
<banana> uuuuuuuugh "Yes, I will definitely not.. present things that way again."
<banana> She bites off 'and I'm sorry I did'. How much of this is entirely inadequate understanding, how much of it is excessive haste, how much of it is piecing together vocabulary from social media which List wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole... there's no time to think about that.
<dammitwho> Maggie's eyebrows shoot up. "The what now?"
<Crion> List: "Alright. And call if you need anything, this isn't a freeze out. I'm serious. Talk to you later."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Guessing that's where Avernian Gates go?"
<Crion> Ben nods. "Right in one, Stewart."
<banana> Melanie: "Later." She finds Colt or Nissa, whoever's back, tells them about the arrangements to be made, and heads to the carpark for the next apology.
<Crion> "I'm getting the idea that your Hedge is sideways, yeah? Like you're stepping into reality's weird alleys and forgotten by-ways?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "More or less, yes."
<Crion> Colt's easily briefed and on his second Cuban sandwich of the day.
<VoxPVoxD> God that sounds so good right now. Stewart's got an almost Pavlovian association of grisly violence and food.
<dammitwho> Maggie: "I mean, the parts we go to. Not smart to get on the broad highways."
<Crion> Ben: "So the Underworld, obviously, is down. I don't really think the two interact. Certainly didn't feel any of it on that door out back, but again, never make generalizations off a single case."
<Crion> Ben: "Lot of baby mages think the place intersects with whatever the Moros have going on, but they soon learn you can't simply walk to the Watchtower of the Leaden Coin."
<banana> Melanie bustles out of the club's entrance at what is for her an extremely hasty pace, but there's no need to interrupt this conversation. The time-consuming stuff will be happening inside.
<VoxPVoxD> A whole new world of proper nouns is unfolding before Stewart.
<CBN> Tony is processing. "So wait, does that mean you can just dig far enough down and you get to the Underworld, or is it a special thing, like how any door can get into the Hedge for us, you just need a special door to get to the Underworld, instead of it just being vaguely, you know?" He points down.
<CBN> Tony: "Also can uhh. Can stuff come back up."
<Crion> Ben: "Special thing. But can stuff come back up? Oh yeah. Ohhhhh yeeeeah."
<Crion> "That's, thankfully, a smaller part of my job than it could be."
<trenchfoot> Nels blinks. "Well that's... good?"
<Crion> Ben: "You know all those ghost hunter shows on the basic cable networks?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "No."
<banana> "If you're going to say that every one is a documentary, that's amazing."
<Crion> "Oh."
<trenchfoot> Apologetically: "I - television is still kind of new."
<banana> Melanie wants to live in that world. Also ideally not the one where everyone's been waiting around because she held things up, et cetera.
<CBN> Tony: "Hey wait, kinda big one, is there a good afterlife? Is it all ghosts or bad ones, what's up with that."
<Crion> Ben, to Melanie: "Not quite! But like, we can sort of tell, watching it, which ones are flim-flam guys and which ones are people who know what they're doing and making a buck on the side while dealing with real shit while trying to keep the public entertained -- and therefore, like, less afraid."
<Crion> "And it's around a 50/50 split now."
<Crion> "Which is frankly wild."
<banana> "That's at least fifty percent of amazing."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You ever thought about being on TV?"
<banana> To Best: "I overreacted, before. In the circumstances, with Capra's ghost harmed and an urgent threat, we're getting his body ready to bring out here."
<Crion> To Tony: "The Underworld isn't an afterlife. It's like...sort of the Catholic conception of Limbo, but there's elements from the Greek, Hindu, and Buddhist conceptions in there; especially the idea of stalled rebirth, you know? It's a liminal space."
<CBN> Tony, more to the group: "Is that anything close to the numbers on what happens to stuff that dies in the Hedge? I know something bad happens there but I don't know if that's just a me-thing or a general-thing."
<Crion> "So I guess there's still room out there, in the gaps, for Christian happily-ever-after-every-day-is-a-church-luncheon Heaven."
<Crion> To Melanie: "Not a problem. There's...a reason I work with horses, right? Not just because they lead to fewer ghosts, because I can deal with ghosts in a hospital. But this job has a way of fucking with your bedside manner."
<CBN> Tony winces a little at the idea of Catholic afterlives being the real ones.
<dammitwho> Maggie, her voice going higher: "Fewer horse ghosts? As in there's a certain amount?"
<Crion> Ben: "You know how the conventional wisdom is that strong emotions lead to more active and powerful manifestations of ghosts? That wisdom is, after a fashion, correct."
<CBN> Tony: "Also, Ben, follow-up, ghost hunting...is that like, put them to rest, like the movie with the Roadhouse guy? Kill the right drug dealer or corrupt cop, let them make pottery, they go away?"
<Crion> "Animals don't often manifest ghosts, and horses even more rarely than, say, dogs or cats, but when they do, its usually because that horse was phenomenally rude or stupid."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Like, impressively rude or stupid for a horse? Because that's... wow."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart snorts.
<banana> "Nice impression."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart snorts again, more ruefully.
<Crion> To Tony: "Yes and no. It's not as much about the mechanism as it is about the ghost's wants or needs; sometimes you're righting a wrong, but sometimes you're just telling a story. On the whole, though, I think pop culture's done more right by us than it has by vampires. Maybe because they do disinfo and I'm fine just talking about this shit at a bar."
<Crion> "Like what are they gonna do, kill me?" A hearty chuckle.
<CBN> Tony: "Ok so like, let's say a bunch of people got killed in the Hedge, a lot, in the same place, by the same thing, usually while young and hopeful with their whole lives ahead of them, dying in terror after being hunted. Probably ghosts from that right? And also, what could or would you even do for that?"
<VoxPVoxD> If a guy sidles up to you at a bar and starts telling you how he fights ghosts when he's not a successful racehorse veterinarian, you're probably not taking what he says at face value anyway.
<Crion> Ben: "Man, like I said, I'm not even willing to speculate how stuff works in the Hedge right now. I just learned it existed an hour or two ago. What I will say is that there's usually not a timer on this. Time is something generally reserved for the living. It's difficult to fail the dead forever.
<Crion> "
<CBN> Tony looks...happy? About that. "Oh."
<CBN> Tony: "Thank you."
<Crion> Anyway Ben's gonna let you handle preparing Capra's body for movement. The bed of his truck is big enough to fit it with a tarp over it, or you can get a freezer truck or something. Up to you.
<Crion> Ben: "No problem, man."
<banana> Melanie: "It's astounding that there exist, to any extent, definitive answers about life after death. With that hurdle vaulted, the limbo-situation you describe appears.. like a copout, from reality? Like, it's like the kind of writing where the characters are going to confront some kind of really big thing, a challenge to the moral bones of their society, and then everything's left
<banana> ambiguous but they overcome personal conflicts, for personal growth."
<CBN> Tony's all over getting the truck bed taken care of, in light of this wonderful news.
<trenchfoot> Could we get, I don't know. A cushion or something? Because just a tarp feels... lacking.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart's helping with the body.
<Crion> Ben, to Melanie: "It's a moving target, really. Every time you think you know something, the paradigm changes. You learn enough, you become convinced that the structures are reality are something you impose through observation alone -- that if five of you guys saw a phenomenon, and five mages saw the same phenomenon, you'd both be seeing different things as a group...and you'd both be right."
<Crion> "Like...there are apparently mummies out there or some shit."
<Crion> "Death remains wild."
<banana> "That's - as you say - one way to put it."
<CBN> Tony looks up from securing a tarp corner with a bungie cord. "After the last couple weeks, it's feeling like it's a shorter list for what's not out there."
<CBN> Tony: "Which so far, is...Godzillas? King Kongs? At least that anyone's told us about."
<Crion> Ben didn't mean just wrap the body in a tarp and toss it in the trunk, by the way. If you want to scrounge up a coffin or whatever, go right ahead.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "They never found anything out in space, did they?"
<Crion> Though he would be fine with just wrapping the body in a tarp and tossing it in the truck bed. To be clear.
<CBN> Tony: "Not gonna lie Nels, I never really bought the whole moon landing thing. I was a kid when it was on, and it just looked so cheap on TV."
<Crion> To Tony: "And thank god for that. Fighting stuff at the city-sized level seems downright difficult to coordinate."
<VoxPVoxD> At this, Stewart actually laughs.
<VoxPVoxD> Not the best look when you're wrapping a body in plastic.
<trenchfoot> She shrugs. "It sounded real enough in the textbooks, but I guess it'd have to."
<CBN> Tony: "Yeah, the biggest thing we've met was, what'd you all clock the Walking Man at, maybe a dozen feet, something?"
<Crion> Ben: "The who now?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Hob law. Keeps the peace in the Hedge."
<Crion> "Maybe it's different in your neck of the woods but anyone named 'The blank Man' is bad, bad news."
<Crion> Ben: "Oh. Nice."
<CBN> Tony briefly flashes the badge he keeps on a string under his shirt: "Got deputized and everything."
<VoxPVoxD> "Not good but you know... not actively evil."
<VoxPVoxD> "Upper echelon of cops probably."
<VoxPVoxD> "Not like the Pigs."
<CBN> Tony: "Who are actual pig men on two legs with guns and riot gear, to be clear."
<CBN> Tony: "And are pieces of shit."
<banana> Melanie: "There was that orb, briefly stadium-sized. Ehhh, it's not really native to the Hedge though."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Bunch of bastards," she agrees.
<Crion> Ben: "...You know, I've run into some fucked up ghosts, but this sounds like a slightly different...oeuvre."
<Crion> Ben: "You guys are hammering out the fairytale niche hard, aren't you?"
<CBN> Tony: "Hey, you've got a handle on dead stuff, we've got weirder-than-wizard-stuff-stuff. Oh, like when we got that Terminator his heart back."
<CBN> Tony thinks for a second. "Man it's been a fucked up couple months."
<Crion> Ben: "What now?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "It hammered us, really."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We dare not go a-hunting, for fear of little men."
<trenchfoot> "Oh. Yeah, that happened. I still need to watch that movie? Those movies? Nice guy when he stopped trying to kill us. And getting the heart back was... surprisingly easy."
<banana> Melanie: "No, we can take them. We helped unionise the little men."
<Crion> Meanwhile, Stewart finds two things that might help with moving the body: a low portable freezer that's usually used for ice cream or temporary storage, which currently has so few frozen hamburger patties in it that they can be moved to the big stand-up freezer without much effort at all -- and a portable generator that could run the thing.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Tony, what do you think about this freezer?"
<Crion> The only problem is the connection between the two; the generator doesn't have outputs that take the power cord from the freezer. With a little rummaging in the supply closets and an almost preturnatural sense of where maintenance guys might keep things, however, Tony promptly finds a converter -- and a weird cushion thing that it turns out is a custom muffler device for the generator, which
<Crion> fits over it quite nicely and almost silences the hum of operations.
<Crion> Apparently if you're on a backup generator in the club, you don't want to hear a BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR during the dance.
<CBN> Tony: "I think it'll be pretty great with this hooked up to the genny! He holds up the prized converter and muffler.
<CBN> Tony: "Nice 'n quiet."
<banana> Melanie: "That's something."
<Crion> Ben: "Damn."
<Crion> "Need to think about getting me a rig like this."
<VoxPVoxD> "Nice."
<CBN> Tony: "I mean....you can have it when we're done? Unless one of us wants it? I think you'll have more use for it than us after tonight."
<banana> Okay, let's get going, we're wasting Mr. Best's time. Or the Freehold's money, once it's overtime.
<VoxPVoxD> "They might want it back for the club, it's probably a couple grand of equipment there."
<VoxPVoxD> "Then again they might want a different freezer for their burgers after this."
<CBN> Tony: "Feeling like a lot of stuff's gonna be a write-off for them right now."
<Crion> Ben: "I'll take trade in lieu of the billing. Or at least some of it. Depending how long this goes. You want me to follow you there in the truck?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart shrugs. None of this is his problem and he loves Melanie so much for that.
<CBN> Tony gets A hooked up to B, the necessary C fit in A, and so forth.
<banana> Melanie: "We've all got the address, but following would be good, thanks. If there's security at the site we'll take care of getting you inside."
<Crion> Ben: "Alright. Whose car am I following?" He looks around the lot.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Mine. The orange one."
<Crion> "Nice. Alright." He heads up to the cab of the truck.
<VoxPVoxD> He's got the warehouse on his phone GPS already. Stewart waits for his car to fill up before pulling out.
<dammitwho> "So, uh. Jeepers." Maggie's vaping pensively.
<dammitwho> "Ghosts, huh?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Ghosts," she agrees.
<banana> Melanie opens a window quietly. Not woodsmoke, but it's still alarming. "And the plural is accurate because of the thing where oh point five isn't one."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I'm not sure if I hope the other half is waiting for us at the scene of the murder or not."
<CBN> Tony: "Ghosts. The Underworld."
<VoxPVoxD> "I keep wondering what kind of scary shit you find in the Underworld. Beetlejuices? Grim Reapers? Cerberus?"
<trenchfoot> Nels: "I just hope whatever kind of things there are, they stay there." She shudders.
<CBN> Tony: "Probably good to keep Ben's number just in case."
<banana> Melanie: "Having an 'expert' like this is really helpful, a factor which I don't think the.. attackers.. can have fully taken into account. If they're going after an alliance of alienees then there's SO many possibilities, unpredictable ways to fight back."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah! The things we can do working together are so much bigger and more diverse than the things we can do alone."
<VoxPVoxD> "Making magisteria overlap."
<banana> "He's not wrong about his bedside manner but I should not have made the autoerotic asphyxiation joke. I'm sure his relationship with the.. oracle spirit woman is.. of a nature that's.. fine to not contemplate."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart smiles a little.
<banana> "Innocuously incontemplable."
<banana> What's the exterior of the Glen Burnie truck terminal look like? As well as whatever routine measures Pitt Ohio takes, we need to watch for less-mundane security - using the place once might mean the attackers use it habitually.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "How close do you guys think it's safe to get?"
<Crion> It's exurban Baltimore, which means a well-paved road up to the gates, easy access to the Beltway, and trees all around the property for privacy and noise cancelling. Usually there'd be cars parked everywhere, but it's both afterhours and a holiday.
<CBN> Tony: "See how close we can get, worst-case scenario you just keep driving."
<VoxPVoxD> "Yeah."
<Crion> The terminal itself has a couple containers in it on long-term storage, but mostly empty; the warehouses in the back seem quiet. There's not much on-site storage here, but there is some for just-in-case reasons.
<banana> "We could get all the way up to the back lot as long as we have a ready excuse in case of some ordinary security guard."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "The map thingy directed us this way, honest."
<Crion> The Home Depot nearby is closed, too, which is probably a good thing for sneaking.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart pulls up as close as possible, then.
<Crion> Sadly, so is Carolina BrewTech. Ah well.
<trenchfoot> G-Pass? Something like that.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart reports back. "Two guards, one rent-a-cop, one dude who looks like he cares about his job. The second one's got a carbine."
<banana> Minutes later, Melanie steps out of a stand of trees at the edge of the lot where the Motley and Best parked. At first it just looks like one of them casting a long shadow. "Nobody patrols as far as the back warehouses. The area is empty, at least of actual people."
<Crion> Ben's vaping too. He's spent the downtime talking with Maggie about flavors.
<trenchfoot> Nels: "If we need to bail in a hurry, if Ben's truck leads we've got our exit. Or an entrance if we need to go through any fences."
<CBN> Tony: "We could go 'round back, there's a chunk of fence out even, if we don't mind hiking through the woods carrying that for a bit. Or we could go in the front, if we've got a cover story anyone can come up with."
<CBN> Tony: "The fridge'll be quiet enough we can just...ignore that part, if we can talk our way in. Up to you."
<banana> Melanie: "Putting it together, let's be safe and just go around the back. We'll deal with locks and whatever's inside and let the security officers nap."
<Crion> Ben: "...I'm gonna suggest that, for this, we transfer the c...Apra to a respectful tarp. Instead of trying to carry a freezer."
<CBN> Tony: "Oh, well then. Anyone object to a quick hike? You all wore good shoes, right?"
<Crion> There is a reason Ben always shows up to a job in boots.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart, who doesn't own any shoes it'd be uncomfortable to walk in, because he's a nerd, simply nods.
<banana> To human eyes, Melanie is indeed wearing shoes. Strapless basically-sneakers.
<dammitwho> Maggie's old enough that she can always wear flats.
<trenchfoot> Nels has on some boots with a slight heel to them, but she can make it work.
<CBN> Tony claps once, softly. "Well, hike it is."
<Crion> Ben: "I mean, a freezer's...really not more respectful than a tarp anyway, right."
<Crion> "Hey. Maybe I'm the crazy one. But still."
<VoxPVoxD> "It's not like we're leaving him out for a day to rot, this shouldn't take more than an hour."
<CBN> Tony: "True. And it shouldn't be too long...I mean I'll carry whatever."
<banana> Melanie reaches into the back of the truck without comment. She lifts with limbs that don't move like human arms could - let Best's eyes explain it to his brain how they like - and has the whole assemblage held, somehow, overhead. Obvious how in the Mien, it's just the same way she looks when sleeping.
<banana> It's clearly effort, though. She's not going to be dodging bullets from the alert cop.
<Crion> Ben: "Nice!"
<Crion> "I mean. Nice."
<Crion> Ben reaches into his trunk and removes a pair of bloodstained fuzzy dashboard dice, and a strange wooden whistle that looks like a dodo bird. He pockets both. "Ready to roll."
<CBN> Tony: "Oh shit, thanks Melanie." Tony files this away for later under 'wait why am I the one people always ask to rearrange the furniture.'
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I kind of appreciate how many magic items that exist in the real world look goofy as hell."
<banana> It's because Tony's a) the guy and b) the football player, and because he doesn't even mind. No need to overthink it.
<Crion> Ben: "Yeah, it's really fucked up, because these both have a preturnatural relationship with death."
<Crion> "And, frankly, a supernatural relationship with death."
<CBN> Tony takes the lead, and gestures for everyone to follow. They stick to the trees, then stick to the shadows clinging heavily to the back of the complex like the dirt on partially-melted snow. When they get to the fence, it's barely there at all, where they are. Sometimes things get shittier for the better. Like now.
<trenchfoot> Nels only stumbles once, and catches herself before she can make a sound. Tony's an excellent guide, anyway.
<Crion> Everyone notices as they approach that the back frieght door facing the woods -- so a truck can pull out and turn off to the right and back onto the main throughfare without having to back up -- is both slightly ajar and slightly...dented. And even in the dark, there's a scorch mark on the beige concrete tarmac of the loading zone, right where the door should be closing.
<CBN> Tony, low: "That's probably bad?"
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Hoorm."
<Crion> There's no one around at least -- the warehouse is completely silent. As opposed to dead, which would be a loaded term.
<trenchfoot> Nels, whispering: "It's definitely not good."
<trenchfoot> She glances to the rest of the group. "You all see that, right?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah."
<CBN> Tony nods.
<Crion> Ben: "...See what?"
<banana> "Now we know for sure. Changelings involved, and possibly scouring."
<CBN> Tony, quietly, to Ben: "Someone used that dented door, as one of our kind of doors, recently."
<Crion> "Ah."
<Crion> "Well, at least we're in the right place."
<Crion> Ben: "...Not feeling that there's anyone inside. Should we go in, or...?"
<CBN> Tony: "They used the door to leave last, from inside there, so it's at least not the other direction. Let's go?" To the rest.
<trenchfoot> A quick nod.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods too.
<Crion> Ben will step inside. There's a brief pause, then a grinding sound -- the broken truck door begins rolling up. The freezer isn't fitting through one of the side doors, after all.
<Crion> He opens it just enough for Melanie to walk Capra in, and holds it.
<banana> If anyone jumps out at us now, well, they'll deserve what happens next.
<Crion> Ben, once they're inside: "Some light would help...but not too much."
<dammitwho> When one of the others is able to light her way enough to see the circuit box, Maggie will take out a small dry-erase marker and write "Ronaldinho" on its side. Then she whispers: "Ronaldinho, could you be a pal and turn on *just* the emergency lighting for us?"
<Crion> thuh-THUNK. The floor lighting and four low wall flourescents come on; none of the outdoor or high-powered ceiling lighting. As long as none of the rent-a-cops wander away from the brights up front and let their eyes readjust to the dark, you should be fine.
<dammitwho> "Thanks, buddy."
<Crion> ...In a manner of speaking.
<Crion> The warehouse is empty except for a folding chair in the middle, knocked over, and below where it once stood, a pool of dried blood.
<trenchfoot> Oh.
<Crion> Possibly more concerning is the fact that a firefight quite obviously happened here. The FRONT cargo door of this warehouse is riddled with bullets, and so are the corrugated metal walls.
<Crion> More rounds clearly came from the back of the warehouse, where you entered, than the front.
<VoxPVoxD> Well. Makes it easy to guess where we start.
<VoxPVoxD> A hit *from* the Hedge?
<Crion> Ben: "Well, fuck."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Aw, jeez."
<Crion> "Melanie, please put down the freezer? I need to consult the ghost."
<banana> Melanie sets the freezer down as gently as she can, which isn't quite perfect because she can't bend that far. But it's packed pretty tightly inside.
<banana> "Your friend didn't describe gunshots or bullet holes, so this may have been after."
<banana> "Colleague? Familiar?"
<CBN> Tony: "Hey Stewart, can you get pictures of all the gunfire and stuff with your phone? Phones can do that right? In case it comes up."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...yeah."
<VoxPVoxD> He'll go around and take, crime scene photos.
<Crion> Ben opens the freezer lid, leans over, and his eyes roll back. "Yyyyes. You're quite -- quite right. Okay." He steps back, eyes rolling forward again, and he walks over to that folding chair.
<CBN> Tony: "Thank you!" He steps back from the action and keeps an eye on the door.
<Crion> He sets it up again, so that the front legs and lip of it are half into the pooled blood.
<Crion> Ben: "Could you please set Capra down in the chair, where he died. Then we can begin."
<banana> This is an unpleasant task. Maybe that's good, maybe it wouldn't have registered as other than object-manipulation when she first came out.
<Crion> With his hands in his pockets, Ben addresses the room. "I am about to invoke the Haunting of the Memoria. 'Dénouement.' The past will come rushing back, in a real, substantial form." He pauses, lips moving, then nods. "We will see the moment of death."
<Crion> "It can't hurt you directly, but it can hurt."
<Crion> "Fair warning. If you want to step outside, you should do so now."
<trenchfoot> Inhale. Exhale. She doesn't leave.
<CBN> Tony steps back and leans against a wall, but does not leave.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't even budge.
<banana> Melanie wants to leave, is unwilling to do so, and does not.
<Crion> Benjamin Best steps up to the body sitting in the chair and places both hands to Capra's head. He mutters something that might be "I'm sorry," and then shudders, back twisting, mouth screaming silently up to the ceiling of the warehouse as ghostly Plasm spews forth and covers the whole of the room. There's a great, blinding ghostly light -- and then suddenly you're back in mid-afternoon, and
<Crion> Capra, bound to that chair with nose broken, is sweating in the middle of the warehouse floor, staring in terror at a cold, unfamiliar woman...
<Crion> ...As Jordan Kit and Jameson stand nearby, looking on, motionless. Expressionless.
<VoxPVoxD> Hh.
<Crion> And so does Peter Montgomery. And so does Gemma Frankl--wait a moment.
<Crion> There are two Gemmas. One is grinning, and holds the other by the hair, with a knee in her back, forcing her to watch.
<banana> !
<trenchfoot> Oh.
<dammitwho> Maggie's not leaving. Pfui.
<Crion> Anathema -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEm5jgupei8 You'll see. You'll see. You'll see. You'll see.
<Crion> The Stand-Ins -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf7NbRFyg3Y zzzzhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
<Crion> Paul, the Apostle -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU4hhNKsPog Reaching for that golden ring we'd never let go; who would ever let us put our filthy hands upon it?
<Crion> Gemma Athena -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWLcKQLz_7g Perfect murder, take your aim; I don't belong to anyone, but everybody knows my name.
<Crion> And you already know poor Gemma Franklin's song.
<VoxPVoxD> We're inheriting the balance of a poor birthright...
<Crion> At the moment, she's screaming, "Stop it! Mommy, stop -- stop --"
<Crion> The other Gemma slams her into the floor. "That's enough, sis."
<Crion> --Ben closes his fist and the scene pauses. "Do you know these people?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "One of them."
<trenchfoot> Nels croaks out: "Yeah."
<CBN> Tony: "It looks like them, no way it's them."
<banana> Melanie's too angry to speak, and has too many questions for a properly pedantic answer.
<Crion> Ben: "Capra -- his ghost -- knows the girl with the knee in her back, and he thinks he knows the two guys in stupor over there on the side. He feels betrayed, but confused."
<VoxPVoxD> "Yeah, those are simulacra of people we know."
<Crion> "...Alright. Resuming."
<banana> "I can't tell which Peter. Parts of this don't make sense. How could Winter and Autumn make the same mistake." Why didn't we check in more often? Two calls and occasional happy greetings?
<VoxPVoxD> "That's not Peter, that's Paul."
<Crion> Mother: "I would tell you to consider this an object lesson, Gemma, but frankly I'm considering just rebooting you."
<banana> "Okay, but then I have the same question- two courts and they know what to do about- what."
<Crion> "...But perhaps even subconsciously it'll take." Still facing the two Gemmas, she drives her hand backwards and Capra explodes with bloody weals, eyes, nose and mouth spurting and screaming.
<trenchfoot> Nels shuts her eyes.
<trenchfoot> It doesn't help.
<Crion> Mother: "There is a necessary--" She thrusts her hand again "--level of pain--" again "--that makes the mind malleable to passive effects, not just active ones." Again; you hear Capra's shoulders break. "Simply put, dear, I'm not breaking him. I'm breaking you."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart can't look away.
<Crion> "This is all transferable."
<Crion> "Call it the conservation of trauma."
<Crion> She raises her hand. "And I--"
<Crion> There's a hideous screeching sound and a dead zone appears in the diarama, like a hole burned into film, but in three directions. It's in the middle-back of the warehouse, nowhere near any of the doors.
<Crion> A great orb of nothing, with edges of static. The mother turns to it with annoyance.
<Crion> "What is it, Gary?"
<VoxPVoxD> Nice.
<Crion> Weird screeching and screaming, distorted.
<Crion> Ben closes his fist again. "What the FUCK is that?"
<CBN> Tony: "I swear we know a Gary."
<dammitwho> Maggie raises her hands, bewildered.
<banana> We know a screeching orb, at least.
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "He's a Seer, in the Baltimore Pylon."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Fuck."
<banana> Melanie: "It's the least surprising thing here but close to the worst."
<Crion> Ben, straightening back up. He's sweating now. "Good to continue?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. He's still looking at Capra.
<Crion> Capra's face is a rictus of fear...but that's new. He looked angry before. He's looking at the empty sphere in the memory.
<CBN> Tony looks at Maggie: "And you know who we're not seeing here yet."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "Mmm-hmm."
<Crion> Time restarts. The mother: "Fine! Fine. If those are our orders." She turns towards 'Jordan Kit' and 'Jameson,' and this time raises a scalpel -- and both lifeless bodies twist and shudder and curl up, their flesh and bones rippling, and when they stand back up fully upright...the blank stares of Maggie and Tony greet you.
<banana> Right, okay. That actually solves a lot of problems.
<Crion> But while she does...while her back is turned...that searing memory-hole orb descends on Capra. The entire memory shudders and flickers, and Capra screams wordlessly--
<Crion> The dead zone recedes as she turns back, but Capra no longer seems to see anything. The memory is collapsing. The dead zone is growing larger. The mother and the void seem to exchange more words as 'Peter' and 'Gemma' look at each other, and then suddenly the two doors flanking the cargo door in the back of the warehouse bang open and dark shapes storm in. Gunfire. The evil Gemma drags the
<Crion> crying Gemma out the front while the evil Peter covers her escape, raising a rifle with a grenade launcher under it and firing it before he follows.
<Crion> The mother screams something incoherent; 'Maggie' and 'Tony' run for Capra's body as he shudders, and the mother rips the last of the life from his corpse as she runs for the void--
<Crion> The last impression before the scene goes dark is a man with no face reaching out for Capra, and then a burst of light as everyone disappears.
<Crion> Ben is thrown to the floor as the vision fades.
<Crion> The warehouse returns to emergency lighting.
<trenchfoot> The only noise from Nels is a shaky exhale.
<banana> Melanie slumps forward. "Are you okay, Mr. Best?"
<banana> Melanie slumps forward. "Are you okay, Mr. Best?"
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart stays still.
<Crion> Ben: "...No. No, I don't think so."
<Crion> "Also I hit my head but I think that's fine."
<banana> "Okay, if you're going to die again let us know, if you need anything let us know, we'll let you process. Sorry about the necessity of all this."
<banana> Melanie stands upright, moves toward the others aimlessly. "It's not clear.. the Mistress might not be involved at all. She could even be behind the gunfire."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It really seems like Gemma and her mom are the fulcrum here."
<VoxPVoxD> "Gemma, her mom, and her fetch."
<Crion> "Yeah." Ben sits up and starts wordlessly speaking to himself.
<banana> Melanie: "We need to tell you something.. I do, that is, Maggie might have picked it up too, I don't know."
<CBN> Tony: "The ending gives us an idea where the rest of Winter went, at least."
<banana> "That might not be a fetch. Fetch is the obvious answer, but something is.. weird.. about Gemma's family. When we met her she, or the Winter Court, or both, lied to us; they had inconsistent stories, about a family right here in Baltimore or one up in.. Philly?"
<banana> "And there was other stuff.. I'm trying to remember, but we were told she's in community college here, or alternately that she moved here, for an associate degree. I thought it was just a coverup."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Boston."
<VoxPVoxD> "Is what the Book says about her."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "Boston," weakly. "And Portland Maine."
<banana> "She told you a third story?"
<banana> This is
<banana> This is to Nels, very sadly.
<VoxPVoxD> "Peter's entry in the Book is totally normal, I wrote him off immediately. But there was a dead link to a Paul Montgomery, who I'm guessing we just saw."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "There might even be multiple stories in her head."
<banana> "Is Paul a fetch? What's going ON."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We don't know. Where is Paul? He's not missing, right?"
<VoxPVoxD> *Where is Peter?
<banana> "Let's start making the calls, speculating at this point wastes time. I won't, I doubt any of us can just stop thinking about it but let's try to act as well."
<Crion> The Spring courtiers among you will know that Peter Montgomery was affirmatively accounted for within the last 48 hours as part of Spring doing a head-check.
<banana> Melanie's first call, with very little hope of success, will be to the number she got from Spring for Gemma's new phone. She was just supposed to be allowed one, independence as of days or weeks ago.
<trenchfoot> Scratch the part about Portland; Nels didn't have access to that information. "He was fine pretty recently. But we gotta - check. I think."
<Crion> Ben, still staring at Capra's body. "Stewart. You were wondering about ghost bifurcation."
<Crion> "I don't think it was natural."
<VoxPVoxD> Stewart, flatly: "Well good."
<dammitwho> Maggie: "We should definitely let the wizards know." Is Stewart gonna call 'em? The only contact info Maggie has is for Union.
<Crion> "And I don't like whatever 'Gary' is. I don't like it one bit."
<trenchfoot> Nels: "That makes all of us."
<banana> Melanie: "He's, um.. one of the bad guys. I mean there's more than one definition, all these things overlap in odd ways or not at all, but on some level-"
<banana> "From what we hear, God is real and evil and these guys are his angels, basically?"
<banana> "THE bad guys."
<VoxPVoxD> "These guys are his priests."
<VoxPVoxD> "His angels are much, much worse."
<banana> "Right, the orb."
<banana> "I take it- Capra's other half, it's not here is it."
<Crion> Ben: "It is not."
<Crion> "It was taken."