21:12 <Crion> It's almost sunset on the last day of September. Even with summer encroaching more and more on autumn's territory -- the season, that is, not necessarily the Season -- the weather has turned, shorts are out, jackets are in, and the world is dying once again for the year. 21:12 <Crion> It's been a week since you were initiated into your Season. More or less. Each of your initiations took a different form, required different talents, different temperaments, different sacrifices; by now you may have even shared those with the other new initiates in your...freshman class? Is that what this is? Or maybe you just sat around at home all day on the computer, or on the guitar, or 21:12 <Crion> staring at the wall. 21:12 <Crion> That changes...wait for it... 21:12 <Crion> ... 21:12 <Crion> ...Wait for it... 21:12 <Crion> Ah, 6:51 PM. Sunset in the city of Baltimore. Where are you when the message from your Court comes in, and how do you prefer to take it? 21:17 <CBN> Tony's up to the mid-1980s in his movie-a-night watch. We're just about to see what these "Goonies" are all about, when the landline rings. 21:17 <trenchfoot> It's a quiet night for Nels. The day was pretty quiet, too - just studying more things she missed, but now she's noodling on her guitar. If she has to read yet another pivotal battle of - look, it was important, and she gets that, but they'd had a Second World War. It wasn't even The Great War anymore. So, she's playing, and thinking about anything but various dates and names of places, when - if they're being polite, it's a phone 21:17 <trenchfoot> call on her landline, but if it's urgent, it's a knock at the door. 21:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's at work, dragging a lump of gray pixels onto a picture of a jacket and pressing a hotkey to simulate left-clicking 40 times a second. Elsewhere on-screen, an identical lump of gray pixels plays host to a rapidly declining number, shedding from 4 figures all the way down until 1 would tick over to zero and the lumps vanish entirely. 21:18 <VoxPVoxD> "2800 fusings and nothing. Fuck my entire life. San_Zenith_Sucks_1990 thanks for the Prime." 21:20 <Crion> "Yo." A familiar voice on the other end of Tony's line: Spring, of Winter. "What's up, man." She doesn't phrase it as a question or wait for an answer. "Boss says you gotta see a show tonight. Be at The Sidereal uptown by 8 PM. Court business." Now a slight pause. "Not the kind of Court business from last time." 21:21 <banana> Melanie is watching TV, but she's not paying much attention to the game. Thoughts compete for headspace - her thesis, the state of the world, the state and whereabouts of Belanie Lucas. Was that guy scared off? Would it matter? 21:21 <banana> She's been expecting email, from Summer or otherwise. Her phone pings for notifications, but she prefers to type responses on a laptop - the touchscreen doesn't really respond to bark. 21:21 <Crion> Nels's phone rings as well. She recognizes the voice even before he finishes, "Nels, it's David Smitten. Is this a good time?" This is a question, but the polite sort that demands 'yes' as an answer. 21:22 <VoxPVoxD> Fully half his attention is split between the game and the chat interface. The rest of his mind wanders up to the other rig, the one entrusted to him by seers and magicians. There a chat window, maximized, scrolls lazily downward with sporadic tech questions, scheduling checks, and whatever's on Lauren's mind today. His phone is... somewhere, under the mail. 21:23 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I'm not busy," she says instead of a simple 'yes'. "What's going on?" 21:24 <dammitwho> Maggie is on that what-do-you-call-it there. The Wikipedia. She's gone down a wikihole, with tabs open about armadillos and ancient Greece and what have you, though most of them are still about the basic functions of computer hardware. She doesn't like to use this thing if she doesn't know how it works. 21:24 <dammitwho> When the landline phone rings, it's in easy reach. "Yyyyyyy'ello?" Maggie has never seen the Simpsons. 21:24 <Crion> Stewart hears a ding on...the 'hex box.' That chat window has popped up, username dolor_sit_amet. Lauren. <heyyyy streams gonna need to go short tonit> 21:24 <Crion> <*tonight> 21:24 <CBN> "Oh hi Spring! Just about to wa---......Ok cool beans, good talking to you." He's just going to have to start the movie over, the remote's somewhere and he's already lost the plot. 21:24 <Crion> <Kings wants to see you at The Sidereal> 21:25 <Crion> Smitten: "The Gardener" -- that's Amelia -- "requests your presence at The Sidereal Lounge tonight, at 8 PM. There will be a table waiting. In the back." 21:26 <Crion> Spring makes a grunt and Tony's line goes dead. 21:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart shifts in his chair, his facecam showing 3600 half-attentive viewers a picture of the Mask in profile as he leans off-screen to adjust something. It's not clear what from the stream. <wow ok. any idea why> 21:27 <trenchfoot> Nels raises an eyebrow. "Anything I ought to bring?" 21:27 <trenchfoot> She can put up with an 8pm meeting for a night. Probably. 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> This is annoying, as Stewart streams evenings, and every hour he doesn't stream when he said he would is not just money out of his pocket but ripples outward into that nebulous and insatiable Audience that grows and shrinks at a vacuous whim but demands more time, more effort, more relentless consistency. The feeling passes quickly; Monday is his slowest stream of the week anyway, so if 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> it had to be some night, it might as well be tonight. 21:29 <CBN> He waits a second after the click, then hangs up. Doesn't even bother talking to himself while he gets some of his better jeans on (read: no grass stains), quick pounds a fresh beer out of the fridge, double- and triple-checks his locks, and he's out to his car and heading over there. 21:30 <Crion> Melanie will receive the following e-mail, then, from LList@lastsummerfound.com. Langston List's e-mail address. If Melanie has checked out that domain, as she's received e-mails from this address before, she'll find a charity called the Last of Summer Foundation, dedicated to underprivileged youth in Baltimore and Philadelphia. 21:30 <Crion> M-- 21:30 <Crion> A summit has been arranged at The Sidereal. Per my request, you have been invited. Please respond your availability at 8 PM tonight for Court business, and provide a reason for any unavailability. 21:30 <Crion> This is a major opportunity for both you and the Court. 21:30 <Crion> --L. 21:30 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Golly, alright." What time is it? She looks at an actual freaking clock on the wall - about an hour, that's enough time to get changed. "I'll be there!" 21:30 <Crion> David Smitten: "A jacket, perhaps." 21:30 <dammitwho> Wait, is Smitten calling the both of us? 21:31 <dammitwho> Whoops! Misunderstood. 21:31 <Crion> Maggie has received the same phonecall, if slightly later, so her response is perfectly fine. 21:32 <Crion> He'll ask both Nels and Maggie: "Should I send a car by?" 21:32 <Crion> Lauren: <court stuff. gerald and kings were meeting about it today i think. sppoky> 21:33 <dammitwho> Maggie: "If you would, please." Saves on bus fare. 21:33 <Crion> Lauren doesn't correct herself this time. 21:33 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Yes, please." Leaving her guitar at home is good. Won't take up too much space in that... enormous bus. 21:34 <Crion> Cars will be sent around, then. Neither is driven by a changeling, but the guys look familiar -- they work at The Sidereal; one assumes they have at least some inkling of what goes on there, even if they think it's a weird criminal syndicate or something. 21:35 <trenchfoot> I mean, kind of. They are hiding. 21:35 <Crion> Lauren: <neway all four royals are gonna be there so uh> 21:35 <banana> From: paperbark@summer.ctl 21:35 <banana> Hello Langford, 21:35 <banana> I will come over, no problem. I have not been to the bar before, so if there are any special rules to follow please let me know. Thank you, 21:35 <banana> Melanie Lucas 21:35 <dammitwho> More of a liminal syndicate. 21:36 <Crion> Lauren: <bill the office for the lost bits or we> 21:36 <VoxPVoxD> "And here's a basically identical Maim chest selling for what I've spent in fusings on mine. Crafting is not for the faint of heart, I'll tell you." Stewart's got the second keyboard maneuvered to where he can type on it with only brief spurts of his right hand off the mouse. <sounds serious. pray for my safety> His foot idly bumps a kill switch underneath his desk, which cuts power 21:36 <VoxPVoxD> to the router and simulates a network outage. He'll tweet angrily about his hardwear issues at the first light on the way to the Sidereal. 21:36 <VoxPVoxD> hardware* 21:37 <Crion> Lauren: <no gods no blasters. ltr> 21:37 <banana> Melanie has her own car, or at least it's in her name. Nobody else seems to want it. She's aware from some dim memory that she's one of those nightmare drivers busy people hate, slow and careful even on the highways.. but maybe that's not new. Certainly there was no conscious process of relearning to drive. 21:38 <CBN> Tony gets the engine turned over on the second try. Night is running smoothly. And barring anything unforeseen, a few minutes of squinting at a few road signs and he should be finding a moderately-shitty parking spot for his moderately-shitty car, near the Sidereal. One hopes. 21:38 <Crion> Moments later, Melanie receives an e-mail with a link to "Google Maps" with the directions already put in, and a cursory note that she will be expected at the door, also signed --L. 21:39 <banana> Whatever she was like in a car before, it's best to be cautious now rather than risk not having the reaction time to deal with merging or left turns across traffic. Everyone else can deal. 21:39 <VoxPVoxD> How's parking at the Sidereal? Stewart took a bus last time he visited, which was the first time he visited. He met Maggie there (what a sweet old lady!) and ended up not drinking. He told Maggie he didn't like to drink. He wasn't lying. 21:40 <Crion> As you arrive, the side lot of The Sidereal will be moderately full -- Monday night in Baltimore is still going to get the students -- but there are a pair of bouncers making sure five adjacent spaces in particular remain cordoned off. Those are for you. 21:41 <CBN> Then Tony's attempt at a first pass through the lot pays off! Night is running super-smoothly now. Cool beans, folks. "Hey guys hi." Out the window as he nods to a spot and pulls through. 21:42 <VoxPVoxD> Five empty spaces, huh? So it's not just Stewart, and it's not one person from each Court... 21:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart scans the lot as he gets out of the car and frowns slightly. He doesn't go in right away. Going into a crowded bar makes him want to take in as much fresh air as he can first. 21:45 <dammitwho> Maggie's eyebrows shoot up as she, in clean clothes suitable for company, watches the car pull into the lot in front of her apartment building. That's the Spring Queen's car! She figured there weren't very many changelings around, but there can't be so few that the Queen sends her own car out to pick up stragglers. What's going on here? 21:47 <Crion> Tony's car will get a Look as it putters in, but maybe one with less surprise and consternation in it than it deserves. 21:47 <banana> Melanie doesn't pick up on the implications of reserved parking immediately. She had to come in from the county, so it's not long before 8 when she finds the place... after the campus refectory, this will be the most people she's been around at once. Kind of looking forward to it? 21:48 <Crion> Maggie's driver isn't David Smitten, but it is someone who looks much more like a professional driver than, say, a bouncer. She's courteous and mortal, not Lost. 21:48 <Crion> That's because David Smitten is picking up Nels. 21:49 <trenchfoot> Okay, so she's still not great at identifying modern cars, but this is... well, first off it's a lot. Second off, some of these are distinctly Fancy, in that weird way where she isn't quite sure how she knows that. Lack of seeing them around, maybe. At least David Smitten let her control the radio again. He's nice. 21:50 <CBN> Between the work he's been doing and the car he's been driving enough already, he hardly feels the looks, save the general discomfort with getting any attention at all, which is still gonna be a little harder to shake. Nevertheless, spot gained, car dropped off, and he's out and heading in. Probably safe to assume they don't check ID if you've got your own reserved spot. 21:51 <Crion> One thing Stewart can immediately tell: security's been jumped up since the last time he was here. There's two Summer changelings on the door, one of them Smitten's twin brother Smote and the other a beautiful Ogre woman in a crisp white suit, grinning reflexively as she gives him a once-over -- but the grin doesn't fade as her gaze moves on. Maybe she's just like that? And then there's a 21:51 <Crion> Winter changeling in a hoodie just down the block, appearing to have a cigarette but in fact pretty clearly watching the other approach. 21:54 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart makes eye contact with each of them in turn before heading in. Breathe deep breathe slow. 21:56 <Crion> The one in the suit takes a slight step towards him, but when Smote even slightly turns his head in her direction, she steps back. Smote looks back at Stewart and waves him in with a, "Evening man. They're upstairs." 21:56 <Crion> He doesn't bother telling Stewart where that is; Smote was here when he and Maggie took it over a week ago. 21:57 <Crion> This repeats with Tony: the woman in the suit tensing up, Smote shifting, then directing Tony upstairs. 21:57 <VoxPVoxD> "Thanks." They they they. Who's they? All the Royals, Lauren said, and Gerald, and four other people. 21:58 <VoxPVoxD> Maybe more? Lotta weird cars in the lot tonight. 21:58 <VoxPVoxD> You're overthinking it, man. Just go upstairs. 21:58 <Crion> At the bottom of the stairs is Gerald. He smiles when he sees Stewart. "Hey kid." 21:58 <banana> When Melanie steps up, she's briefly stuck. How do you.. request entrance into a secret fae bar? This wasn't in the self-help books she's been going over. Cutting a line at the club.. she used to know how to do that. Might not be applicable. 21:58 <Crion> "Glad you could make it. Kingsley's up there with the rest." 21:58 <CBN> "Hey nice thanks." Tony smiles politely at security (always make friends with the bouncer) and follows on. 21:59 <trenchfoot> When she does actually get out of the car, halfway through a less-than-impressive rendition of a song she never liked playing anyhow, she tries to get eyes on anyone unfamiliar. They did say no one would bother her if she didn't want. Hopefully that's still the case. 21:59 <VoxPVoxD> Gerald gets a smile in return. The presence of the person he saw murder three police officers is sincerely comforting. 21:59 <Crion> The changeling in the suit sees her hesitation, but blinks instead of prowling closer. "You?" she says, with a strained voice. She turns to Smote. "Her??" 22:00 <Crion> Smote ignores her and instead says to Melanie: "You're with Langford?" 22:00 <banana> Oh, this is basically what Melanie expected. And she knows how to deal with it too: stand frozen in place. 22:00 <banana> "...yes, I am." 22:00 <Crion> Smitten walks Nels to the door in time to see what's going on with Melanie. 22:01 <Crion> Which is that his twin brother Smote nods and gestures for her to continue inside. "He's waiting for you upstairs. Inside on the left, past the...man in the skullcap." 22:02 <dammitwho> "Hup!" Some small chat with the driver later, Maggie levers herself out of the car in front of the Sidereal. Time to see what-- oh, there's that tree here again. Mags felt somewhat embarassed upon seeing her at the meet-and-greet those weeks ago, because her first instinctual reaction was 'bet that'd burn real good', and that's just a terrible thing to think about someone! She'll have to 22:02 <dammitwho> remember to be friendly and encouraging to her specifically. 22:03 <Crion> She'll almost walk into Smitten and Nels, then, as they leave the parking lot. "Ah, good," says the tall man. "You made it." 22:03 <dammitwho> Ooh! Another new person! "Heya! Any idea what's going on?" 22:03 <banana> Melanie: "Thank you. I'll go and see him." So this is a bit tricky but her theory is basically: if Langford is waiting for you inside, you're implicitly allowed to go in. In fact, people wouldn't be permitted to PREVENT you from entering. She'll just, go around the other side of whichever David this was, better not look at or say anything to the grinning woman, in case it's the wrong 22:03 <banana> thing. 22:05 <Crion> As Melanie goes inside she can hear Smote mutter to the grinning woman, "Nissa you need to cut that shit out" 22:05 <trenchfoot> Mels looks between the two of them and the bouncers and hurries in. Abruptly she wishes she had brought her guitar; it would've been a comfort, holding it. 22:05 <trenchfoot> Nels. Mels is the other one. Except not quite. 22:06 <Crion> Smitten grins. "I do," he says to Maggie, "but it's not my place to explain." He'll lead her to the door and leave her on the threshold, stopping to dap and hug his brother and chat. 'Nissa' is interested enough in Smitten's arrival that she doesn't give either of you a second glance. 22:07 <Crion> Eventually all five of you end up in the upstairs bar, which is closed. And save for you five, there are only four other people in the room: the heads of all four of the Seasonal Courts of Baltimore. 22:08 <Crion> Well, three of them and Langford List. And since it's not summer anymore, that's more than close enough. 22:08 <trenchfoot> That's reassuring and alarming in equal measures. 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> Oh hey! Stewart knows almost all of these people. There's Nels, from next door. And Maggie, with the Stan Rogers. And Melanie, with the Heidegger. And that quiet guy from the mixer. 22:09 <banana> Oh, this must be important. That helps justify the drive out. (Maybe she should look into a place closer to the courts, halfway between the college and the city?) 22:09 <CBN> And that means No Face is there, which is also reassuring and alarming in equal measure. Tony doesn't wave because it seems both inappropriate and also, avoiding smalltalk with a thing without features seems like a great plan tonight. 22:09 <Crion> Amelia Banthem, the Gardener of Spring, is sitting at the bar and chatting idly with Robert Kingsley, the King of Autumn. She has a mojito; him a bourbon. Meanwhile, at the pool table that dominates the room, 'Colin,' the Liaison of Winter, plays one on one against Langford List, advisor to the Vigilant of Summer. 22:11 <banana> Melanie's taken root in a corner immediately, gazing at the eight other changelings with roughly equal intensity. It's odd to see Stewart again in this kind of company, although it must also be odd for people to see her. Apart from the 'kings', the bargain-makers.. there's the woman with the fingers and the one with the fire. These are the veterans and the newbies all in one room. 22:12 <Crion> Stewart will get a firm handshake from Kingsley; 'Colin' will tilt his head sideways and smile slightly at Tony -- very weird in the Mien, since he has no mouth; Banthem will hug both Maggie and Nels in turn; Langford will nod with seriousness at Melanie. 22:12 <banana> She's overlooked Tony, whose name she actually remembers, because that's the way he seems to want it. 22:12 <Crion> They will all be asked to get themselves drinks and make themselves comfortable. It's a big bar, and...the Royals seem interested mainly in just letting them mingle? 22:12 <CBN> For anyone spending more than a second looking at or near Tony, it's a little unsettling how his Mien seems to drop dirt clogs periodically, but the floor doesn't dirty up. He's definitely not noticing. 22:13 <Crion> Banthem and Kingsley will return to their conversation, this time a bit more in private, and 'Colin' and Langford will immediately wrap themselves back up in their game. It's...probably just a friendly one? 22:14 <CBN> He of course orders two"Whatever, beer?"pounds one and prepares to circulate with the other. 22:14 <banana> Umm. There's questions Melanie would like to ask Mr. Kingsley, and she'd be happy to talk to Stewart again, but is either of those options really as attractive as standing quietly in the corner? 22:14 <banana> You can learn a lot that way. Let's do this. 22:15 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart will fix himself a rum and coke, hold the rum, and scan the room... Melanie seems the most anxious. "Hey, Melanie! How's it going?" 22:15 <trenchfoot> Are they making their own drinks? Explaining what a Chattanooga Dew was the first time was... enlightening, the first time, but explaining it to a new bartender is always a trial. 22:16 <Crion> Yep. Open bar, self serve. 22:16 <Crion> Don't get sloppy before the meeting. Whenever that actually starts. 22:17 <banana> Ah. Melanie smiles, sort of. "Hello again Stewart! I guess we're both real rather than half-remembered dreams." 22:18 <CBN> The "Whatever, beer." Is instead upgraded to commenting to himself. Behavior remains the same otherwise. He watches Nels fix her...whatever-thing? "Hey fancy, neat."Spoken as much at the drink itself as anything. 22:22 <trenchfoot> One won't hurt. She bustles behind the bar and makes one herself best she can. Startled by Tony: "Huh? Oh, it's an old favorite," she says. She finishes pouring the lemon juice. "They're good, but dangerous. Very... drinkable." She eyes the beer. Did he grab any specific kind of brand? 22:22 <dammitwho> Hmm. Stewart's already chatting to the tree lady - what a sweet boy. She'll head over to the bar herself, then, pour whatever kind of beer happens to be on tap that she hasn't had before, and introduce herself to Nels and Tony thus: "Hi there! I don't think we've met properly. Name's Maggie, Maggie Bakehead." 22:22 <banana> So many changelings, like the first mixer.. and half of them are really powerful. It's a sensation, to Melanie, like sourceless wind through her leaves, a vibration in the ground that she can't quite feel. The Court kings are.. wyrd. She's paying attention to Stewart - he's compelling - but still eye-socketing the rest of the room. 22:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Unless this is a dream too. I read that article you sent me, the Nickel, about trust in tech. It was really fascinating, but I feel like a lot of it went over my head. I was wondering if you could-- oh! Hi! Maggie, this is Melanie. Melanie, this is Maggie." 22:23 <CBN> He double-checks. It's Miller Lite."Nice, this too. Weird you can get it out here now though." He gestures at, and with, the can. 22:23 <VoxPVoxD> Oh no more people. This is gonna make Melanie's stress worse. Let's see how she does but be prepared to ask a probing question with a really detailed answer to stabilize. 22:24 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Nels Foulke. And you - can't, really. I had to explain it the first time." She sips. "And the second and third times." 22:24 <CBN> Tlances at Maggie, directs his response at some point between her and Nels,"Hey hi, I'm quick slug Gr---Tony, Tony Bowen, yeah. 22:26 <Crion> At the table, 'Colin' goes on a run, then cedes and ball to Langford, then goes on another run to close things out. The faceless Winter regent walks over to the small, mass market whiskey-sponsored bar chalkboard and puts a single chalk mark down across from another, pre-existing chalk mark. They're playing to five, and are now tied 1-1. 22:27 <dammitwho> Maggie will turn and wave at Stewart and ah, her name is Melanie. Mels and Nels. Heh. That's funny. 22:27 <Crion> At the table, Amelia shakes her head in irritation at something and Kingsley shrugs. Then she stands up, hovers over Nels and Maggie to see that they're fine and bids a brief but genuinely hello to Tony, then excuses herself for a moment. 22:28 <Crion> Kingsley, meanwhile, has hopped on his phone. 22:28 <Crion> Match two begins in the center of the room... 22:29 <banana> Okay, everyone's getting involved now. This seems like what the kings want, so that's good. "Hello, yeah, Maggie. I've seen you." 22:30 <dammitwho> Oh, is everyone coming over to chat together? Well, that's probably good, though it does cut out Stewart flirting with Melanie, hee hee. "Sure." She nods agreeably. "I'm with Spring now, how about the rest of you?" 22:30 <Crion> Match three, that is. 22:31 <CBN> Tony nods to Nels and shrugs a shoulder towards Maggie and the rest of the scrum."Guess we're just a keg short of a party now huh?"And as if that's enough invitation, heads over to the rest of the crew."Hey uh, Maggie right, who're your friends?" 22:32 <banana> Melanie: "I've just joined the summer court. I think it's going to be really interesting, but-" she's looking a little worried, to Maggie. Stewart might recognise the expression of someone putting on worried on purpose, the same way he plays up emotion for the stream. 22:32 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Spring here. But - still new." She does recognize the rest from the mixers, but... "Hi, Stewart. The music hasn't been a problem, right?" 22:32 <Crion> But the second one you'll have been around to observe. And you'll try not to observe too much of this one, because it's something of an embarrassing slog. The two men have enough dignity not to openly curse or moan about how the table is tilted or the chalk is bad (in front of their subordinates, at least), but their irritation is palpable, their mantles flaring. Amusingly, this results in 22:32 <Crion> a net change in room temperature of...zero. Langford makes it hotter, but 'Colin' makes it colder. 22:32 <banana> "Your sparks, do they function?" 22:32 <Crion> Eventually, Langford ekes out the win, but both men shake their heads when it's over and he goes to put his mark on the board. 22:33 <Crion> Amelia, meanwhile, returns, pours herself and Kingsley each another drink, and heads back over to their table as he puts his phone away. 22:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh no, not at all! I got some baffling and hung it up, it helps block out the street noises too. How's studying going?" 22:35 <trenchfoot> She smiles. "I should do that. And - mostly well." Slight wrinkle at her nose. "There's a lot to keep track of." 22:35 <dammitwho> Maggie, agreeably: "Not so's I've noticed. I don't set couches on fire and I can take a shower without it putting my hair out, so I figure it's just, you know. Cosmetic." She raps her stomach with a knuckle for emphasis, and it makes a metal booming noise. 22:37 <dammitwho> To Tony: "Well, that there's Stewart. He knows all about computers and such, works with 'em for a living. And I guess you know everyone else about as well as I do." 22:38 <CBN> "Oh nice, they have those at the library, cool beans man."To Stewart."You and Spring would probably get along, she has a personal cellular mobile phone with an 'app' on it." 22:38 <Crion> Match four. Langford seems to hang back a little; he goes on a quick run but makes a bad accidental scratch, and then when 'Colin' puts himself in an ungovernable position and gives Langford run of play back, the Summer lord-regent is unable to capitalize. That's all the opening that Winter's Liaison needs to put the game away, clearly unwilling to lose this without it at least going to five. 22:38 <Crion> There's a certain amount of relief on his Mask as he marks down the equalizer. 22:39 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Hi, Tony. It's nice to meet you. Who's Spring? Do you mean the Gardener?" 22:39 <banana> Melanie: "That's great, I can take Smokey Bear off speed dial." This is deadpan. "There's someone called Spring in Winter, right? I figure it's part of a pattern." 22:40 <banana> "Like it's got to be symbolic of something, part of some contract?" 22:40 <trenchfoot> Nels: "What is an app? I - got the mobile part, but." 22:40 <Crion> Amelia and Kingsley have wrapped up their conversation, but haven't finished their drinks. They drift over to the center of the room to watch the final showdown between Langford and 'Colin.' 22:41 <CBN> "No like, Spring-Spring, kind of scowly but you can tell she's a real peach deep down, weird neck, good with beating a man near to death, Spring."And then to Nels,"The app is a thing on your personal cellular mobile device that tells you where your car is, like looking at a map but with more red dots and Spring yelling at you." 22:42 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Oh. Mine only makes calls or sends messages." 22:42 <banana> Helpfully: "The short name for them is 'phone', like in 'telephone'." 22:42 <CBN> "Do you think people would call me more if I had one?" Pause, then to Melanie, "Isn't that confusing? I have a phone at home." 22:43 <CBN> "Wait do calls go to all your phones? Stewart, do you know?" 22:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Your phone is what we call a 'landline' now. Most people don't even have those anymore and just use our pocket phones, or "cell phones". Which is short for cellular but has nothing to do with biology at all." 22:44 <Crion> And this final match...goes places. Sometimes both men are a flurry of movement; other times they're stock-still for almost a minute at a time, which seems a lot longer than a minute when watching a pool game. There's an entire middle section where they trade non-successful shots entirely to put their opponent's balls out of position. Even the other two Royals become engrossed, as the five 22:44 <Crion> freshman changelings get to know each other better. 22:44 <banana> Melanie: "Language changes. Chomsky would call it a 'rebinding', a context-free morpheme which became context-sensitive. The 'cell' prefix actually is an import from bio though!" 22:45 <banana> "Cellular networks are made up of a bunch of individual 'cells' that have membrane walls analogous to vegetable cells.. porous but with shared responsibility for maintaining function." 22:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh! I didn't know that." 22:45 <banana> "I mean, I don't know how they work, but the etymology was an import." 22:45 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I got a talking to after I went out without my, my cell phone. So I just keep it on me now." She gestures to her clutch. "I still prefer the landline, though." Nels looks lost at Melanie's description. "Who is 'Chumpsky'?" 22:46 <CBN> To Melanie, but also Stewart, because he knows computers, so he must be smart."Hey what was college like?"Guilelessly and sincerely. 22:47 <banana> "Ah." Melanie looks lost for a moment, standing very still. This reduces the rate of crumbling bark. "I don't actually know.. I've read stuff by Chomsky as part of a bunch of other reading. I don't know who he is, just what he said." 22:47 <banana> "I'm missing a lot of context for things, you'll have to forgive me." 22:47 <trenchfoot> Smiling gently: "Me, too." 22:48 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart hesitates. A completely innocent question that chestbursters into the room. "I only had a year. It was a lot of big auditoriums and slides. Staying up too late. Flirting awkwardly." 22:48 <CBN> "Oh cool beans. The library's great, you know, the one near me has these things, Digital Video Discs? Like flat VHS tapes. A lot of them too, wow." 22:48 <VoxPVoxD> "What's your favorite movie?" 22:49 <CBN> "Quick question to the group, can anyone explain a shopping mall to me? I keep seeing them in movies now but I don't know any that are real." 22:49 <Crion> Eventually they get down to the final ball, and Langford sinks it to win. Here, briefly, either man shows the first emotion besides intense concentration or annoyance since the game began, as Langford pumps his fist with a grunt. 'Colin' sets down his stick and sticks out his hand, and they bring the shake in for a brief, manly, shoulder-to-shoulder hug. 22:49 <banana> "The Retrievers are really good." This is probably an answer to Tony's question too. 22:49 <CBN> "Oh I saw Tron a few nights ago, now that was exciting." 22:50 <Crion> Then they look over at the five changelings who have completely ignored them to chat amongst themselves and share a look. And maybe a smile. 22:50 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You... kinda missed shopping malls. It's basically like, imagine all the little shops you might find on a downtown street, but inside one huge air-conditioned building. It was a thing for a while. I guess huge air-conditioned buildings were really cheap in the 80s." 22:50 <Crion> Langford and 'Colin' walk over to the bar while Kingsley announces: "Ladies and gentlemen. I apologize for the delay. We're ready to begin." 22:51 <CBN> "Sick." To Stewart and then he shuts right up. 22:51 <banana> "TBH, malls are pretty five minutes ago." There's an echo of someone else in Melanie's voice. 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart blinks once at Kingsley, and again at Melanie, and then the fourfold throne has his full attention. 22:52 <trenchfoot> Nels is still trying to think of a movie she liked when they get interrupted. The newer ones are usually too loud, and the old ones... aren't great. 22:52 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Whoop! Guess we're up." 22:53 <Crion> There's a large table just down from the pool table -- this is a normal one, with more than enough chairs for all of them. Kingsley will sit at the head, Amelia on his left and 'Colin' on his right, and Langford will remain standing. 22:53 <banana> Melanie's still hanging behind everyone else, as they walk over to find out what's brought people together like this. She'll mumble to Nels: "I'll show you something?" Melanie takes out her phone and gestures at it, as if to indicate that Nels should watch or get out her own. 22:53 <Crion> "Another drink or a bathroom break, now's the time," says the King of Baltimore. 22:55 <trenchfoot> She sticks close to Melanie and pulls out a flip phone with extra large buttons, carefully keeping an eye on the royals. Her drink's finished, and she shouldn't have another right now, so it's time to learn more about modernity. 22:55 <CBN> Tony quickly finishes what he's got, hits the head, and grabs the first seat available at the regular table when he gets back. 22:55 <VoxPVoxD> People are getting along! This is good. It got a little awkward at the end there but we can fold Tony in, like beating the lumps out of cake batter. 22:58 <banana> Melanie looks at the buttoned phone for a moment. Those would be nice actually, but how do you use it? On her own, she scratches rather than taps at the screen, which responds after a moment- first there's a circle named Google, then she fiddles with the keyboard to input c-h-o-m-s-k-y. 22:58 <Crion> "I am, as you might have surmised or been told by young Stewart, Robert Kingsley, head of the Autumn Court in this city and, as of one week ago, the King of the Season in our fair city." He looks around the table. "This might be quite literally your first time seeing me. I suspect you've seen more of each other than me or either of my fellows here or, let's be plain, any other changeling in 22:58 <Crion> the freehold. 22:58 <banana> Nels gets handed this: https://i.imgur.com/ve0oxol.png. "I guess he's multitalented." 22:59 <Crion> "Autumn is the court of secrets and fear, so I'm going to do something quite out of character, really, and tell you the truth, in order to try to reassure you." He gives Banthem a look as he says this, and gets a pleasant smile back in return. 23:00 <banana> "That's 'the app'.. there's, um, actually a lot of them. You can look up almost anything." This is all very quiet, but she is speaking over (under) the King of Autumn. 23:01 <Crion> Kingsley will give Melanie the look next, but not say anything into the pause. 23:01 <trenchfoot> Nels lights up. "Oh! I know this. Talk later?" Also very quietly. Because The Truth is something she needs to know. 23:01 <VoxPVoxD> Oh my god Stewart is dying here. 23:01 <VoxPVoxD> Melanieeeeee 23:02 <banana> Melanie nods fervently in lieu of saying anything else. It still makes a kind of rustling noise. 23:02 <CBN> Tony's pretty sure he needs to have a heavier buzz than he's got to find out the terrible truth of things, given the baseline of 'literally everything about the world at this point.' But he sits quietly. 23:04 <Crion> "The truth is that yes, we have intentionally kept you together socially, on purpose, in hopes of engendering bonds of comradeship, or fellowship, or at least friendship. It is rare that a freehold ever gets five changelings joining its ranks at once, let alone five who are roughly equally disposed towards all four courts" -- here Amelia's pleasant smile turns a bit self-satisfied -- "and it 23:04 <Crion> is traditional to keep such groups together, simply because it's harder to tell you how to navigate your new life than it is to show you." 23:04 <Crion> "You learn best by doing, after all." 23:05 <banana> ...do we? 23:05 <trenchfoot> It's worked for Nels. Kind of. 23:05 <trenchfoot> ...driving notwithstanding. 23:06 <CBN> Flashbacks to learning how to bury a body the most efficient way possible. 23:07 <Crion> Amelia jumps in here: "It's up to you, of course, if you want to continue associating with each other. There won't be any judgment if you don't" -- her voice gets firmer here and she doesn't look around the table at the other Royals, but she doesn't have to -- "if you go your separate ways, or you just feel you're not up for this." 23:07 <Crion> "But we hope you don't," says 'Colin.' "Because we need a team." 23:08 <VoxPVoxD> So he wants us to get along. Is this a setup to him asking us to do something together? Some kind of cross-court political thing? What kind of tensions exist here? Bantham's clearly on a slightly different wavelength to Kingsley here. 23:08 <trenchfoot> They've all been kind to her, and no one has judged her yet. Nels won't be the one to suggest splitting ways. 23:08 <Crion> Kingsley and Amelia both glare at the man with no face. He pretends not to see, which, in the Mien, is quite easy. "Since we're all being so honest." 23:08 <CBN> Tony's a sucker for a team and he already knows the coach, so his listening level here just went from 'sure but ready to wince' to 'emphatic hell yea.' 23:09 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Well now, that's all fine so far. But a team for what?" 23:09 <banana> It's been so long since Melanie had a team. 23:09 <Crion> Langford takes over. "We don't know yet." 23:09 <Crion> "But we know it's coming." 23:09 <VoxPVoxD> Maggie has enough old lady nature to have reached the no-fucks-given threshold first and ask the obvious question. 23:11 <Crion> "And frankly..." He waves a hand in front of him and looks at Melanie for a brief moment before considering the rest of the table. "We got soldiers, yeah? We got the Street and his Tens, Nissa, Canterbury, your boy Gerald, Spring, Jameson -- we're full up on soldiers. We don't need soldiers." 23:11 <banana> "Since we don't know what's going to happen, why are the five least experienced people going to deal with it?" Melanie's tone isn't hostile, here. "Is there a thematic advantage to naivete, or are you looking for untried ideas?" 23:12 <Crion> He nods and points a finger at Melanie. "Exactly." 23:12 <Crion> Kingsley: "But we don't intend you to be naive." 23:12 <trenchfoot> Hesitantly: "I feel like you have your work cut out for you." 23:12 <VoxPVoxD> That's not a question Stewart would have thought to ask. He would've assumed they were just desperate for bodies. There's probably a lesson here, about jumping to conclusions, but Stewart abandons it in favor of deciding Melanie is simply much smarter than he is. 23:12 <trenchfoot> "Or, I guess, we do." 23:12 <banana> Melanie: "We." 23:14 <Crion> 'Colin' spreads his arms. "You're gonna be cherry the first time you see a Keeper whether you're together with your friends and you believe in yourself, or whether you're alone and mad at the world." 23:14 <Crion> Now Amelia does snap at him. "We do not know whether this is going to be a Keeper." 23:14 <Crion> Kingsley, annoyed: "Yes, Liaison, considering I can't harvest from them I'd appreciate you not scaring them needlessly." 23:16 <banana> Melanie: "Okay, there's clearly a concretely predicted threat. I mean, its nature isn't concrete, but you're definitely aware that something, specifically, will happen. Could you please explain that?" 23:16 <Crion> Kingsley, icily: "No." 23:16 <Crion> Then he attempts a smile. "Sorry, my dear. Like I said. Secrets and terror." 23:17 <banana> Melanie: "Okay." 23:17 <Crion> Langford: "Regardless. Your job right now, if we do this, isn't to start worrying about some end of the world shit. Your job is to become the people you need to be to help deal with some end of the world shit." 23:17 <Crion> "We're looking for like...the fuck here plays video games?" 23:17 <CBN> Tony's looking at Stewart way too quickly. 23:18 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Ooh! I've played some!" 23:18 <VoxPVoxD> Is Stewart supposed to raise his hand? What's the protocol here. "Hi. Yeah." 23:18 <banana> Hee hee. 23:20 <trenchfoot> She'll have to ask. Later. How did they put video into games? 23:21 <Crion> Langford will look at Maggie and Stewart, then. "Okay, so. You know that shit where you're in the raid, and the big bad's there, and you been at this for like, forty-five minutes. And each of you has a role. One dude is just big as hell, takes all the hits. That's my crew. The one with the guns, she can't take it, but she can deal all the damage. That's Winter and Autumn. Then you got your 23:21 <Crion> support, your white mage, keeping everyone up. Spring. But this raid's new, see? Devs just added it to the game. So you need the rover. That cat, he might not be good at any one thing. His class is new. Maybe he ain't been buffed. Maybe he ain't been nerfed. But we need him in the party too." 23:22 <trenchfoot> None of that makes a lick of sense. 23:22 <VoxPVoxD> Holy shit. 23:22 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I have never played a video game with those terms!" 23:22 <Crion> "So if you want to think about this as an experiment, this is an experiment. But to continue the metaphor, I don't want you spec'd out for that one fight. I want you to play the whole expansion, yeah?" 23:23 <banana> So this is why List and the Street have problems. 23:23 <Crion> 'Colin,' teasingly: "Fuckin' nerd." 23:23 <banana> Melanie has a lot to learn from each of them, she thinks, but not this bit. 23:23 <Crion> Langford mean mugs him a little bit. "Hey. Chalk on the wall says different." 23:23 <dammitwho> Reassuringly: "But I'm pretty sure we get the idea from context?" 23:24 <CBN> Tony's picking up enough from context to just assume, ok o-line, quarterback, away game, and go from there, nodding along. 23:25 <Crion> Kingsley: "...Well, with that out of the way -- hopefully it was illuminating -- I'd like to open the floor to further questions." 23:26 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Um." 23:26 <trenchfoot> Again, hesitantly: "I don't think I understood any of that." 23:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Maybe I'm missing something but this is sort of... vague. You want us to be ready, not for any particular thing, or to fit any particular role, but just... I don't know, self-actualized?" 23:27 <CBN> Tony claps his hands on his knees and gets ready to stand. "Probably a little rougher than last time, but where do you need us, when, is Spring driving this time, can we take someone else's car? I don't have to be up for anything tomorrow but we're burning sunset here coach." 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart can put up with a lot of shit. He doesn't do vague great. 23:28 <banana> Melanie, to Nels: "He's talking about synergy. In modern business and athletic contexts, teamwork theory is about building a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts. By assembling people with different specialties, you can produce a collective effort that wouldn't be possible if the entire group had the same skills or if they each worked alone. It's kind of a post-Diefenbach 23:28 <banana> antithesis." 23:29 <trenchfoot> Nels: "...why didn't you just say a band?" 23:29 <banana> She might not know Diefenbach, though. "By that I mean that bottom-up synergy is an alternative to hierarchical mangerialism. Cooperative effort produces better results - in terms of labour productivity - when it's interdisciplinary." 23:30 <banana> "Yes, like a band!" 23:30 <Crion> To Stewart: "Yes. You should not worry about not having enough to do. There is plenty to do, and we will provide guidance -- sometimes exactingly so -- on what it is you should be doing. But the four of us talked and it was decided that it would downright counterproductive to spring the reason for us asking you to become a motley later, instead of now. It would engender bad feelings. And 23:30 <Crion> though I tend to secrecy and need to know, in this, I was convinced you needed to know." 23:31 <Crion> Amelia: "A motley is what we call a formalized social group in our freehold. Much like, yes, a band. But I should stress -- we are NOT ordering you to become one." 23:31 <Crion> 'Colin': "Yes, we're merely manipulating you into--" 23:31 <Crion> Amelia half-stands. "Try me again and I will come across this table." 23:32 <Crion> "Whoa!" Langford steps forward quickly. "Whoa." 23:32 <Crion> Kingsley just steeples his fingers. 23:32 <dammitwho> Maggie kind of wants to see that. Hmm. Maybe setting up boxing matches or something similar for Spring parties would be a good idea. 23:32 <banana> Melanie: "You can just order us. We know we need to stick together, and I want to make friends." 23:33 <VoxPVoxD> "What does being a 'motley' entail? Is it a metaphysical tag? Can you ping it with magic?" 23:33 <Crion> Kingsley nods and shrugs. "You are correct. Not everyone recently escaped from the hell of Arcadia is as receptive to orders as you, however, my dear." 23:33 <banana> "Please stop calling me that." 23:33 <Crion> Kingsley: "As you wish." 23:35 <Crion> To Stewart: "It involves sympathetic ties, which can be used in some form of magic. But the same can be said of usual friendships and relationships; unless you're oath-sworn in various ways, nothing binds you to the motley formally, and any magic targeting the motley would then target those oaths." 23:35 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I would - rather not be. Ordered." She looks to the rest. "But I want to try this? If that's okay?" 23:37 <Crion> 'Colin,' to Tony: "We can set you up with a new ride." 23:38 <Crion> "If only because I'm pretty sure someone's going to put a hit out on me if that thing shows up in this parking lot again." 23:38 <dammitwho> Maggie, cheerfully: "You all seem decent enough sorts, and it beats hanging around the apartment all day." 23:38 <dammitwho> "Say, speaking of which... 23:39 <CBN> Tony shrugs, "Whatever you say boss, but we're gonna need a van for all of us." Wait a second. You can airbrush a wizard fight on a van. "Yeah I'll definitely need a van." 23:39 <Crion> 'Colin:' "Oh, we have so many nondescript vans." Should help with the painting. 23:39 <dammitwho> She rubs a finger on the table idly- it makes a creaking sound only audible to those who can see beneath the Mask: "I've heard tell of people stamping out living places in the Hedge. Is that true? If it is, what's the trick to it?" 23:39 <banana> Melanie's clearly for it. She really doesn't mind orders, for now; the question is who's giving them and why. The 'monarchs' of the freehold, if they really do protect everyone with their bargains and their organisation.. it's worth a lot. They can call themselves kings and queens, they can give out orders, it's in a good cause. They can't make her into something she's not, anyway. That's 23:39 <banana> already been tried. 23:40 <dammitwho> She shrugs at the rest of the nascent motley: "I'm sure none of the rest of you wanna be forking over rent every month if you can avoid it." 23:40 <Crion> Amelia smiles. "It is true! And that brings us to your first assignment." 23:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You're talking about going into the Hedge?" 23:40 <VoxPVoxD> "Like, on purpose?" 23:40 <banana> "Living there?" 23:40 <Crion> Kingsley: "No better time than now." 23:41 <trenchfoot> Nels: "It's not all bad," she offers. 23:41 <banana> Would it be a shorter commute? Do cars even work? 23:41 <Crion> The King of Baltimore leans forward. "And this is no mere 'part of the Hedge.' As Maggie puts it, you need a place -- all of you -- to feel totally safe." 23:41 <Crion> "Not just from this world, or the world over there, but from people who walk between it." 23:41 <Crion> Langford: "You need a Hollow." 23:41 <CBN> "Man it would be sick to not pay rent."He mutters to himself. Gotta get a Hedge fridge, Hedge tv-VCR-dvd combo, Hedge beers... 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> We need a place to feel totally safe and we're going into the Hedge? 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> What the fuck? 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> Why don't we just relocate to sunny Pripyat? 23:42 <CBN> "So do we need hedge-trimmers or a lawnmower or, what're they called? Rambo has one. A machete? We need one of those?" 23:43 <Crion> Amelia: "A Hollow is an inviolate space. Or a nearly inviolate space, anyway. Some very dangerous things can still get in. But its virtues lie not in how thick its walls are, but that no one really knows one's there to begin with." 23:44 <Crion> "It's...misleading, to say it's 'in the Hedge.' It is, of course, but it's not an alleyway filled with barbed wire or a thorn maze. It is a safe space, and it's one that you build and grow." 23:44 <banana> Ah. "In the introductory session, we were told about Hunts. Is that the point - they know where we are - in the real world? So it's safer to live beside reality?" 23:45 <Crion> 'Colin:' "There is, of course, someone in the Court who disagrees. But he couldn't take this meeting because he's spending the next eight months in an underground bank vault." 23:45 <Crion> That gets him a half-snarl from Langford, but the man restrains himself. 23:45 <Crion> 'Colin:' "So unless you have one of those lying around...Hollows are a pretty good deal." 23:46 <banana> Melanie mutters: "It works for money." 23:46 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart makes a mental note to price out an underground bank vault later. Might make more sense than a retirement fund. 23:47 <trenchfoot> If it's cheap enough you can even store the retirement fund in there! 23:47 <Crion> Kingsley: "Anyhow. The Hollow is the main objective, but the main goal is to get you used to the Hedge. The next time you're drawn into it, you might not have a choice. And the Hedge will feed on your fear. The Thorns will tear what's left of you away." 23:47 <Crion> "Unappealing, on both our end and presumably your own." 23:48 <Crion> Amelia: "To that end, we'll be assigning you our Magus of the Gilded Thorn, Jackie Ordinary, as a guide and companion." 23:48 <Crion> "Just for this first time." 23:49 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I just figured there's but two directions to run in, and if I'm cornered somewhere I'd rather be running toward the real world than away from it." 23:50 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's heart beats fast and he tenses up... these guys are projecting calm. They don't know as much better than we do as we'd like them to, and they clearly get along worse than we already do. This isn't an order, this is an investment. They need us. "Do- is it like, you find a Hollow or you build a Hollow...?" 23:51 <Crion> Kingsley: "Yes." 23:51 <Crion> "It's easier to find the foundations for one, then expand." 23:51 <Crion> "But you can build them from scratch." 23:51 <VoxPVoxD> Man Stewart is really teeing up those questions-with-wizard-answers for Kingsley. 23:52 <VoxPVoxD> Then again he's the King of Autumn, he can probably do that on command. 23:52 <banana> Melanie: "Can we, specifically, do that? Are we capable of it?" 23:52 <CBN> "You can build anything if you put enough of a shoulder into it." 23:52 <trenchfoot> Rude of him, to be honest. "They're liveable spaces?" 23:52 <Crion> Kingsley: "Yes. It takes the application of will, experience, and Glamour, but as the five of you are right now, you are more than capable." 23:53 <Crion> 'Colin,' to Nels: "Won't be getting wi-fi unless you're really good at this Hedge-wizard stuff. But entirely so. Imagine if you could have a mansion as a panic room." 23:55 <trenchfoot> That's. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. "Um. Canterbury and the others - they could still...?" Guard me, she doesn't quite finish. Because there's four others, now... 23:55 <CBN> Tony's already making a mental inventory: Window bars. Vertical deadbolts with floor and ceiling anchors. The possibilities. 23:57 <dammitwho> Thinking aloud: "Food's cheaper if you buy in bulk." 23:57 <banana> Melanie: "Okay, I appreciate that the team-building exercise is a practical safety measure. As long as we don't end up hating each other too much to live together - parenthetical, unlikely - it'll be really beneficial. May we please have an expected timeframe or deadline." 23:57 <Crion> Kingsley, to Nels: "Could still what? You can have guests over, yes, if you're comfortable disclosing the location." 23:58 <Crion> Langford: "You suit up and go in tomorrow morning around 11 AM. We don't want you in there overnight." 23:58 <Crion> Amelia blinks and turns. Langford shrugs. "They'll do better with clear boundaries and expectations." 23:58 <banana> Due to how safe it is. 23:59 <Crion> 'Colin:' "Let me know what if anything you need in terms of guns, weapons, vests; I'll have it waiting with Jackie." 00:00 <VoxPVoxD> "Do we need to go in armed?" 00:00 <Crion> Kingsley: "You don't need to do anything." 00:01 <Crion> "But I'd advise having a plan for violence." 00:01 <trenchfoot> Not the answer she was looking for. "It's - safer that way. But sneaking was recommended. To me." 00:01 <trenchfoot> Revolvers are still basically the same. So there's that. 00:01 <Crion> Langford: "Even if it is some flavor of running away, which is not only perfectly acceptable, but outright preferable to a stupid fight." 00:01 <Crion> whoops 00:01 <Crion> Kingsley: "Even if it is some flavor of running away, which is not only perfectly acceptable, but outright preferable to a stupid fight." 00:02 <banana> At least as of this week it is. 00:03 <Crion> Amelia looks around the Royals. "I think that's everything?" 00:03 <banana> Month? Melanie needs to look at an almanac. 00:04 <Crion> Kingsley: "Unless there are anymore questions, I think they've spent enough time after hours with the bosses." 00:05 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Uff. Just practical ones, I guess, but I'd bet those'd be better asked on the day." 00:05 <Crion> Amelia: "Jackie will be prepared. That's their job." 00:06 <CBN> "Yeah, where do want us meeting to go in? Or are we coming back here first...?" 00:07 <Crion> Amelia: "Druid Hill Park is where they prefer to go in. Meet them at the main entrance." 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't have any other questions unless they want to be spliced into the loop of what-the-fucks running through his brain. 00:08 <banana> Melanie: "We don't know what other questions to ask yet, so I hope it's ok to ask when we do." 00:08 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Are there - cars? I don't have one..." 00:08 <Crion> Langford: "My people can handle that." To her and Stewart: "Your building have parking?" 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. 00:09 <Crion> To Nels: "We'll have a starter car waiting when you get back tonight." To Stewart: "Can you drive?" 00:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, I drove here." 00:09 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I, might need help with that. I tried winging it once already." 00:10 <Crion> He nods. "Alright." To Nels: "We can set you up with lessons. For now, get a ride with Stewart." 00:10 <trenchfoot> She looks over to Stewart, silently asking if he's okay with that. 00:10 <Crion> "Car should be ready by end of the week, but we can hold back until you're good." 00:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah that's no problem, obviously." 00:11 <Crion> Langford nods. "Good, good." 00:12 <Crion> Kingsley looks around. "Well. 11 AM sharp it is, then. Good luck. If all goes well, we won't be speaking for awhile." Then: "And yes, m-elanie, feel free to ask whatever you wish. You may or may not get an answer." 00:12 <banana> Melanie: "Do we steal them? I'm not sure whether that would be safer than the paper trail you get otherwise." 00:12 <banana> "The cars," she clarifies. 00:15 <CBN> "Anyone who still needs a ride, I can pick up tomorrow before, if you don't mind a stubborn door and a radio that doesn't work." He notes to the demi-motley, preparing again to stand. 00:16 <Crion> Langford, with a bit too much forced pep. "That's a good question. That I'll answer later." 00:16 <trenchfoot> Nels: "The - I have a fake. It should hold up." To Tony: "How does it... what's wrong with the radio?" 00:16 <banana> "Okay, I'd like to try that! I'll email you, Mr. List." 00:17 <Crion> He breathes in and out very heavily, like he's suppressing a sigh, and smiles and nods. 00:17 <CBN> He shrugs at Nels."Came that way." 00:17 <Crion> None of you stay for the show afterward; you have a semi-early morning and a long day ahead of you. 00:17 <Crion> 00:17 <Crion> Not much parking outside Druid Hill Park. 00:17 <Crion> Best you can do is a block away. 00:18 <VoxPVoxD> The next day, it turns out that Stewart's biggest problem isn't walking willingly back into the Hedge but waking up in time to be there for 11. He's three Red Bulls deep and still damp from the shower when he and Nels get out of his car. 00:19 <VoxPVoxD> Despite his tiredness his streamer reflexes kicked in as he drove, and he narrated what he was doing and what the different parts of the car did to Nels as he was driving, noting common traffic laws as he went. 00:19 <Crion> Jackie Ordinary is waiting for you at the gates. They're a stocky, grinning Spring changeling with an odd mantle; no other Spring mantles you've seen have had thorny vines grow out of the ground around them. They don't seem like Hedge Thorns -- indeed, if you try to touch them, they don't do much of anything at all -- but they glint an odd brown-gold. 00:20 <VoxPVoxD> They look - right, that's nice. Magus of the - cool. "Good morning," Stewart says to Jackie. 00:20 <Crion> "Hey there," they say. "Yo! Mags! How's it do." They greet each of you in turn. 00:21 <Crion> They walk you in past the gate; Ordinary waves to the two cops watching the big main promenade area and one of them waves back. They seem to be something of a fixture here. They lead the five of you down a path, then down another path, and then soon the traffic from the Jones Fall Expressway has completely faded. Which is odd, considering it's still right there. 00:21 <CBN> A block away is practically parking on someone's lawn in Tony's experience doing yard work for gated communities. He shows up with as much of a spring in your step as one can have marching into probably-death. "Killer morning to not die!" 00:21 <trenchfoot> Nels is quiet, studious. She asks questions about simple things like where the gas tank is and seems surprised at the speeds you're allowed to reach in town, but more than anything she wishes she'd grabbed a notepad. Next time, she decides. 00:21 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Heya!" 00:21 <trenchfoot> Has Nels met Jackie Ordinary before? The name doesn't feel familiar... 00:22 <Crion> Then down another path, then another, then another, then -- they swerve off into the underbrush. "You know you find bodies out here sometimes," they say conversationally. "Not from the Hedge. Just from the murders." 00:22 <Crion> Maggie is the only one who has met them before, probably. 00:22 <Crion> She might have told Stewart about them though. 00:22 <banana> Melanie skulks toward the meeting once the others are assembling. Last night's blunt questioning and occasional mean jokes have vanished, replaced again by something between shyness and sessility. She looks at people. 00:23 <banana> She looks for bodies, too. It wouldn't be convenient to have those turning up on our doorstep.. can you enter the Hedge at different places? 00:23 <Crion> Eventually you all reach a clearly, limned in dead leaves and deadwood, with...what appears to be the back end of a van that's driven half into three conjoined trees. Just sort of half-buried there. Ordinary does not seemed surprised. "Alright! Let's open 'er up and see what we got." 00:24 <Crion> She pulls the doors open. It's a dead drop. Any weapons or armor that you requested -- mundane and within reason, such as kevlar instead of full plate -- is waiting in the back, along with more expected hiking packs and supplies. 00:26 <dammitwho> Maggie, which may surprise people, requested a kevlar vest. Can't be too careful. 00:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, perhaps even more surprisingly, brought one from home. 00:27 <banana> Back into the Hedge. Although Melanie experienced it as 'over', last time... but still. We're doing this on purpose, deliberately. 00:27 <banana> This is why she approaches the van - "Thank you, Jackie." - and extracts a full set of mostly-fitting Baltimore PD SWAT armour. 00:27 <CBN> Tony puts on a flak jacket he asked for, in equal parts because it sounded cool and because the army surplus store wouldn't let him have a remaindered one the last time he asked. No weapons, but he's certain to limber up and throw a few warmup punches. Never a bad idea to stretch. 00:28 <banana> Strapping this stuff on is somewhat time-consuming. Healing from having your limbs sawn off by a fairy-tale monster would be more so! 00:29 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart takes no weapon, but he's wearing a track suit underneath the Kevlar, with broken-in sneakers and a magic wand visibly emerging from his jacket pocket. 00:29 <trenchfoot> Kevlar vest for Nels. Apparently it's modern weave that stops bullets, which has to be good. She's already got her revolver on her. 00:29 <VoxPVoxD> Well. What you'd get if you searched 'magic wand - metal' on Etsy, as Stewart literally did. Eighty bucks. He wanted something heavy. 00:29 <VoxPVoxD> Fucking Etsy. 00:30 <banana> As Melanie suits up, the riot gear replaces the sundress in her Mask - she looks like a young woman covered mostly head to toe in black slatted armour, or alternatively like a person-limbed tree a little less covered, with flaking bits of wood poking through here and there. 00:30 <Crion> While you're all kitting up, they pull a duffel out from under the van, remove a flak jacket, a duster, and two guns: a double-barrelled breach-loading shotgun, and what looks like a bolt-action hunting rifle with the stock and barrel sawn off, so it's the world's meanest, least convenient handgun. They holster the latter under their arm and sling the former over their shoulder, then walk 00:30 <Crion> over to a big, oddly-artificial arch of intertwined branches. 00:30 <Crion> "When y'all are ready." 00:30 <dammitwho> Maggie nods approvingly at Melanie. "Now that's a sensible young woman." 00:31 <Crion> She rummages around and pulls out what looks like...a sheet? 00:31 <Crion> A tarp. 00:31 <Crion> *They 00:32 <CBN> Tony grabs a moderately-hefty clod of dirt from nearby and shoves it into one of the weird...this is velcro, isn't it? Pockets on the vest, as well as a few small pebbles he scoops up into another pocket. And then he's ready to roll. 00:32 <CBN> He nods to the tarp. "Hey, Spring said this wouldn't be like last time. But okay." 00:32 <banana> Melanie: "Thank you, Maggie." It's the second time she's spoken today. Not that she doesn't like these people.. she does, actually, all of them. But considering the hedge takes... focus. There's a lot to think about. 00:32 <banana> "Does anyone remember? What sort of things are in there?" 00:32 <Crion> Then they hang it from the arch very carefully like a tent flap. 00:33 <Crion> Jackie Ordinary: "Of course I fuckin' do." 00:33 <CBN> Muttered, "ohthankgod" 00:33 <banana> Melanie: "Of course. You're the expert." 00:34 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I saw a few pigs, last time I was in. We snuck past." 00:34 <banana> "I wasn't issuing a warning, I was asking for information. Most of us here have just come out of that place, Jackie, and I want to know what they know." 00:34 <banana> ..pigs? 00:34 <Crion> "I'm a Magus of the Gilded Thorn. The Hedge is my shit. The Hedge is what I do. You will stick with me, and you will be fine. I am not going to find you a Hollow, or whatever the hell it is you're doing over there. I am going to give you the tools and the protection you need to find your Hollow. Listen, look, and think twice before you do anything, and you'll be fine." 00:35 <Crion> This is to the whole group, not a rebuke to Melanie. 00:35 <CBN> He nods along. 00:35 <banana> She'll still take it as one, but that's fine. Maybe Jackie is a dick, maybe Melanie's the dick here. She can't really tell. 00:35 <trenchfoot> Nels: "The animal and the police." She doesn't elaborate. As Jackie speaks, Nels listens, and nods. This is - kind of what Harlan covered. 00:36 <Crion> Jackie Ordinary: "Three ground rules before we go in. Don't eat anything. Don't insult anything. And if you see something that looks like a cop, run." 00:36 <Crion> "Because they fuckin' can't." 00:36 <Crion> Then they touch the tarp and pull open the 'door,' and the Hedge lies before them. 00:36 <VoxPVoxD> See that's way simpler than Jordan Peterson's shit. Where's Jackie's book deal? 00:37 <Crion> Once inside, it's all on them. Jackie's just there to help. 00:37 <VoxPVoxD> Aaahhh fuck. 00:38 <banana> Melanie: "I can't run, either, but that still sounds like the right idea. Good luck everybody :)" 00:38 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I don't know if I can help much in terms of information. When I came out the first time, I was going real fast." 00:40 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I went back. It was - fine. Harlan took me and other than having to duck behind stuff a few times it was safe." 00:42 <banana> Melanie: "That sounds like an okay time. I don't really have anything at all, I.. fell over the hedge basically. It was more than that. There was a subjective experience. This is different, and so far better!" 00:44 <CBN> Tony's...confidence-adjacent?"Don't worry about it, the turf watches out for anyone on it, and me most of all. We should be fine." He reassuringly pats the ground. 00:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks around and sucks in a quaking breath. "I actually, I actually have something for this." 00:44 <Crion> Jackie, who had disappeared for just a second, back before anyone registered she was gone: "Your show, kid." 00:45 <Crion> *they 00:45 <VoxPVoxD> He reaches into the space between his suit and his vest and comes out with a large-ish and old-looking leatherbound book, like the kind you might find sitting behind a lawyer's desk in a commercial. 00:45 <VoxPVoxD> "I apologize. I've never done this in front of people before." 00:45 <dammitwho> A tome and a magic wand? Maggie claps her hands with delight. 00:45 <VoxPVoxD> "Tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips. Tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips..." He opens the book to the last blank filler page and rips it clean from the binding. 00:47 <Crion> The Hedge in Druid Hill Park looks like the park itself...mostly. But the walls here are enforced by more junkers with sharp metal edges, litter that's all twisted cans and needles, and things that look distressingly like bodies. If you move out into where the city should be, you'll find it turning into featureless buildings with no real doors and broken glass lining the walls; if you head 00:47 <Crion> to where the Expressway should be, you'll find a distressingly open space. A Highway, of sorts. 00:48 <Crion> Things grow everywhere; you were told not to eat or insult, and the plants will both entice with fruit and, sometimes, scream wordlessly at you. 00:48 <Crion> One appears to be either endlessly farting, or trying to beatbox. 00:54 <Crion> The sky is hazier than it was on the other side. The real side. There seems to be a storm on the horizon -- not out to sea, no; towards the Inner Harbor. 01:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's writing on his own palm with the paper in the way. "And so we walk a path picked clean by gilded thorns, treading ever-further into danger to find there but the road back home again. Our eyes are alert to danger, but our ears must be sharper still, for we- we listen not for the cry of beast or call of man, neither pig nor pistol, but for the heartstrings of the land itself! Find 01:02 <VoxPVoxD> a path to where our fear mirrors not the land. Listen for the space between breaths. Build a home in silence." 01:03 <Crion> Jackie Ordinary nods. 01:07 <banana> A home is going to be a tough ask. Melanie doesn't know whether Stewart's attempting poetry, but when he hands over the aged page it's a cogent procedure alright. Armed with exactly what they're looking for, she focuses all her senses - observing the places hobs don't go, the paths you can't see, the things that remain still to not be seen. 01:09 <banana> "Through here. Here. It's here, and here. You can't see any of this, right? That's what we want." Melanie takes over for a moment, leading the group out of the thorned byways and soil - she's had enough soil - until now they're moving through a twisted reflection of city streets, back alleys. Hidden places in or under Baltimore. 01:11 <VoxPVoxD> Yes! Melanie, who once again demonstrates that she is smarter than Stewart, took the outline of his plan and ran with it. Yes! Yes!! 01:11 <VoxPVoxD> Well, you know. Not ran but. 01:12 <Crion> Jackie grins and clears a path. Mostly just pointing their finger here or there. You all move. 01:13 <trenchfoot> Deep breath. "I hate to - a guide'd help. Defender. Someone who knows the ways. And they aren't all awful." She curls in a bit. "I helped one. They plant their fruits for us, when they fall, but sometimes - reborn. And that was my initiation to the Spring Court." 01:13 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I could get them here." At this, she looks to Jackie. Because from what she has seen, that's a good idea, but from what they have seen... 01:15 <trenchfoot> She'll wait to be stopped, but: "Sir Eglamore was a valiant knight, fa-la-lanky-down-dilly..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kxLgSXh-iQ 01:16 <VoxPVoxD> Wow, she's good. 01:16 <Crion> Jackie whistles low. 01:16 <CBN> While Nels is working that out, Tony takes a deep breath and a minute, and listens around for where the sound goes wrong. In the Hedge you'd think that's pretty common, but there's "wrong" and there's "you should be hearing something you aren't" and he follows that. The city's no country road so it's not as navigable as he'd hope, but glancing at Stewart's map and comparing that to where they should be hearing more than they're hearing, 01:16 <CBN> and seeing more than they're seeing, should get them closer to something so hidden that it wraps around to sticking out like a sore thumb to a keen eye. 01:17 <banana> Being totally lost feels a lot better with that kind of accompaniment. 01:18 <trenchfoot> She misses her guitar. But even just singing makes her feel better in this place. And when Ser Eglamore comes to greet them, she beams. 01:21 <VoxPVoxD> The song Stewart hears is a lot rawer than the one Nels is actually playing. It's still her, though, through and through. Moreso. His heart aches. 01:26 <dammitwho> In a place like the Hedge, it's important to maintain three-dimensional thinking. Maggie takes a small tube that looks like a film canister from her pocket and pops its contents into her mouth. She knew better than to try and eat a spider that she found in the Hedge! With her deal with the forces of predation-through-unusual-movement affirmed, she scales small buildings and clambers across 01:26 <dammitwho> the ceilings of what look like abandoned subway stations, seeking entrances to safe places that follow dream-logic more than the rational layout of a city. 01:27 <VoxPVoxD> All these guys are so cool... 01:31 <Crion> The new motley is impressive. They work together better than they protest about, whether the protest is over the danger of the Hedge or the danger of the job or the danger of getting closer to one another. They find the warehouse with no doors faster than Jackie might have expected, had they even known it existed before now; they'd been down this alley row before -- they think -- but never 01:31 <Crion> seen this flatly featureless building with no doors. It takes little time, somehow, to find the way in; it's a 'manhole' cover that Jackie doesn't see, which leads to a short tunnel with five barred gates (all undone?!) which leads to a vault door (open?!?) which leads up into the interior. 01:31 <VoxPVoxD> So honest and kind and fair and unstoppably earnest... it's no wonder the Royals are immediately fond of them. Maggie, Melanie, Nels and Tony are exceptional people, and their ability to bond and work together seems like it could also be exceptional in a Court tight-knit and intense enough to keep people on each other's third-to-last nerve. 01:31 <Crion> It seems almost...cozy, as you lock it up behind you. And the message is clear, from the open doors to the way the cold room warms to greet you: it's yours now. 01:31 <CBN> Tony, not at all complaining, "Well that was...not as bad as I'd expected, not that I'm complaining." 01:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Really good work." 01:32 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Golly. This seems unusual? Not that I mind." 01:33 <Crion> NEXT TIME: The Proctor & The Pack. 01:33 <banana> Melanie: "This is a really useful space. Hope it wasn't prepared for us as a trap." She giggles. 01:33 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I guess we're here for a reason."