08:57 <Crion> Technically, you're moving backwards. Or at least extremely east. About as far east as you can go without hitting the water, back to where you started. The two specialists appreciate the ride. 08:58 <banana> We could just leave. 08:58 <Crion> In any event, even though it's only been a few hours, Lauren is extremely happy to see Stewart and the rest of you. 08:59 <dammitwho> How impressed is everyone at Maggie's solution to the transportation and chasm problem? 09:00 <Crion> Specialists Lopez and Santana report in to Team Leader Taggart: the other three specialists and all of the privates are gone. Unrecoverable. They'll have asked Maggie how she wants them to report her whole...deal, when they write on it. They seem impressed, at the very least. 09:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart moves to sweep Lauren into his arms but has to stop short because "Oop sorry. That's the sword." 09:03 <dammitwho> Maggie, pleased with herself: "Oh, you can write whatever you please, doesn't matter to me." 09:03 <CBN> Tony was definitely impressed but the direction of the conversation everyone was taking about it was going to make travel personally awkward, so he's very glad that they rode in their friend the car, but would also like to never mention it again. He says none of this, because his still waters run deep, and now he's moving on to hoping his note never made its way to its destination after all. 09:03 <Crion> Then they will call it as they see it, which is as reasonably close to the truth as they can parse. 09:04 <Crion> They'll leave debriefing with Orr cackling and Taggart giving Maggie an odd look, if they're still around for it. 09:05 <Crion> Lauren: "The sword?" 09:05 <Crion> "Oh, and you're happy to see me." 09:05 <Crion> That's after the sweeping. 09:05 <dammitwho> Maggie's car transformation will run out before too long - if anyone is for some reason still inside, they'll be pleased to find that they are not squished, rather that she sort of unfolds around them. 09:09 <Crion> Before the happy couple could leave for some extracurriculars belowdecks, Orr seems to spot the exact same thing from well across the open marina public area. "You found a sword out there." 09:09 <Crion> Not really a question. 09:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Technically I made it." 09:11 <Crion> Orr: "Well, what are things we make except things we've found out about ourselves." He doesn't sound like he really believes that. "You do that thing where you just...yanked it out of the Hedge?" 09:12 <VoxPVoxD> The basket hilt is lawnmower-shell green, and it sits snugly against a long, gently curved scabbard the black of wrapped motor bands. "More or less. The goblin that was picking off your specialists blew apart into shrapnel after Tony and Santana got to him. This is some of that." 09:13 <banana> Melanie will thank Maggie without being too explicit what the thanks are for, and see whether anyone’s found another vehicle in the soldiercarpool. She’d like to hang out and chat (with her friends, not the wizards) but we need to get back out there. There’s momentum. 09:13 <Crion> Orr: "Goblin? The specialists described it as something weirder and frankly, more annoying. Or am I getting hung up on a term of art?" 09:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Goblin or hobgoblin. It's a big tent." 09:15 <Crion> There is another van available of basically the same make with the same equipment, if they'd like; one thing Project NIGHT SKY is not currently lacking is materiel, especially since they're not pushing on the Magic Kingdom at the moment. The offer to just steal any normal car in the lot also still stands. 09:15 <VoxPVoxD> "We met a hob once that looked like a really unhappy child had to draw the Baltimore Oriole from scratch. Really sweet guy." 09:15 <Crion> Orr: "We're talking more 'of little minds' than we are 'Marvel guy who flies around throwing bombs, right? Well, I guess here it could be either." 09:15 <banana> Kind of tempting actually. She could tell List about it as a sort of credential. 09:16 <Crion> "Huh. How's he doing, with the season shortened and all?" 09:16 <trenchfoot> Nels is profoundly unsure how to feel about the whole... car thing... but will at least thank Maggie. She was already out, for the record. 09:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Big on foolishness, real low on consistency. We haven't been down to Camden in the last few months. Maybe Tony has." 09:18 <VoxPVoxD> "Honestly? I fucking hate the Hedge." 09:19 <banana> Melanie, to the others not caught up in debriefing: “Do you feel like we’ve been losing touch with the freehold on this journey, losing our connection to the Courts a bit? I haven’t really been checking in... relying on Stewart and Lauren too much I guess.” 09:20 <Crion> Orr: "You and me both, kid. Well, hey. Given the Orioles' whole deal maybe no season is making him happier." 09:20 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I don't want to check in until I have some good news to share. Um. News better than 'hey, still alive, still working on it.'" 09:22 <CBN> Tony, to Melanie: "I'm sure they're fine. Besides, we've got more going on anyway, and we're on vacation. Or were." 09:22 <banana> Melanie: ”Being alive should be good news but I understand. I am in a place of understanding. A purpose-built mind palace.” 09:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I hope so. How are things going out here? Any news? You or Manowar need anything else back inside?" 09:29 <Crion> Orr: "No, our extremities are mostly covered, at least until someone upstairs gets bored and prods us to take up to the manatee habitats or something. I've been doing some scouting. Drone surveillance, and, you know. The other stuff I do." 09:30 <Crion> "You're probably gonna want to watch out for the mouseketeers, once you make the outskirts of Orlando." 09:31 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Are we talking D'Artagnan or Christina Aguilera?" 09:32 <Crion> Orr: "Neither. Well, closer to Christina I guess. SWAT guys with mouse-ears on their riot helmets. Let by a SWAT guy with your standard Mickey mascot head instead. Looks reinforced." 09:32 <Crion> *Led 09:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Ugh." 09:34 <Crion> Orr: "They're not people, luckily! Or unluckily." 09:34 <Crion> "Depending on your perspective." 09:34 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I like it when they're people. You can talk to people." 09:35 <Crion> "Think of the grunts as extensions of the Mickey-headed freak, and don't feel bad about killing them. 'Killing' them. Well. Who am I to tell you what to feel bad about." 09:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's brow furrows. "Do they bleed sparks?" 09:35 <banana> Melanie: ”Do you hear those guys over there? Telling us not to feel bad about things? We really are the experts to their clueless here.” 09:36 <Crion> Orr: "I have not had the privilege of seeing what they bleed." 09:36 <VoxPVoxD> "Right." 09:36 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I gotta admit we're champs at feeling bad about things." 09:36 <banana> High five? 09:37 <trenchfoot> Shouldn't it be a low five, considering? 09:37 <VoxPVoxD> "Well, we gotta regroup and then we're going back in. If you get any new objectives down the pipe make sure to run em through, uh, our comms expert." 09:37 <banana> Whatever kind of five Nels has available is fine. Melanie still feels kind of weird being back here. She wants to ask whether everyone is alright, but that should include Stewart and he’s doing.. diligent useful things, actually. 09:38 <Crion> Orr: "Will do. I've set her up with a radio to us, too, since she's not exactly comfortable with us sitting in on mission control. 09:38 <Crion> " 09:38 <Crion> Lauren: "I'm right here." 09:39 <Crion> Orr: "I know, I'm just, you know. Being...rude." He seems to sort of give up on that one after no easy excuse coming close to hand. "Honestly, I don't blame you. Everything's very military here." 09:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, speaking of which... what's gonna happen to Santana and Lopez? Are they going back in? Are they getting medical leave?" 09:42 <Crion> Orr: "Well that's a question for Taggart. They seem fit for duty, so..." He shrugs. "I mean it's just manning pickets right now." 09:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...alright. Well like I said, we need to regroup. Be in touch." 09:45 <Crion> Orr: "You got it. Let Mmmmister Taggart or I know when you want to head out and we'll get you cleared through the lines." 09:46 <VoxPVoxD> Alright, diligence and usefulness done, Stewart and preusmably Lauren rejoin the motley. "Whew. It's really hard to get out of a conversation here. I feel like I'm constantly waiting to be dismissed." 09:46 <banana> Melanie: ”They feel powerless, like they can only act through these weirdos they don’t know.” 09:47 <banana> “How are you guys doing?” 09:47 <Crion> Lauren: "That's...whoever these guys are, for you. Tried to do some snooping and you won't be surprised to learn we've got nothing on them. We did have some old information on a Project TWILIGHT, which sounds related, but they mothballed over decade ago." 09:48 <Crion> Lauren: "They've respected my boundaries. Mostly out of disinterest? But it's better than not." 09:48 <Crion> "Gotta say, we all kinda feel like that Orr guy's weird pet project." 09:48 <Crion> "To the rest of the task force, that is." 09:49 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Eh. Doesn't matter to me either way." 09:49 <banana> Melanie: ”Maybe the force should carry out some tasks, then.” 09:49 <CBN> Tony: "This is how it always goes with wizard bullshit. This is even our bullshit and it's about them." Tony's less huffy about this than it sounds but he's still reflexively huffy whenever the robes and wands crew get involved in any capacity. 09:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Orr warned us about Fallen Orlando's pig equivalents. SWAT goblins. The Mouseketeers. Apparently a bunch of appendages of one central intelligence." 09:50 <CBN> Tony: "I don't like the sound of any of that." 09:50 <trenchfoot> Nels: "In fact, I kind of hate it." 09:50 <VoxPVoxD> "He was quick to reassure us that they weren't people, so we should feel free to kill them with impunity." 09:52 <VoxPVoxD> "He's a hard guy to get a bead on, though. Like he's operating on some quantum multiplanar irony level." 09:52 <CBN> Tony: "Of course he'd say that! They're hobs so I'd rather not but, self-defense same as the neighbor creeper applies." 09:52 <banana> Melanie would rather not rely on having some authority figure define ‘people’ for this purpose. 09:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, himself, is kind of hard to get a bead on in this way. Was he being sarcastic there? He must have been, right? 09:53 <Crion> Lauren: "I don't like him. Sorry if he's like, listening in on this secretly and hears that. He probably knows how he comes off." 09:53 <VoxPVoxD> "Takes all kinds to make a magic kingdom." 09:54 <Crion> Lauren: "So...with the specialists rescued, you're heading in for real now?" 09:54 <CBN> Tony: "I wrote him a note about how bad they all suck earlier." Tony smiles and taps the side of his helmet. "The office affords extra power in service of delivering a message I don't want to reach its destination." 09:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, I think we've gotta go looking for the local Freehold next." 09:55 <Crion> Tony presumably collected that sealed note from a confused Santana shortly after Maggie's landing. 09:55 <CBN> Tony definitely left it to be delivered, because he obeys the spirit of the law too. 09:55 <Crion> Fair enough. 09:56 <CBN> Tony: "Does anyone know anybody local? Or have heard of?" He's mostly looking at Stewart on this one. 09:56 <Crion> Orr found it funny, then. Orr read it, laughed, and said: "Buddy, you should see the guys they used to send us." 09:56 <Crion> Then: "Well, some of them probably look pretty confusing by now." 09:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I know names for the court leaders." 09:57 <VoxPVoxD> "Or for who the court leaders were as of when I looked em up. A lot can happen in a couple of weeks." 09:57 <banana> Melanie: “Aha! Who are we looking for? To complain to about Mutt?” 09:57 <banana> Melanie: “Aha! Who are we looking for? To complain to about Mutt?” 09:57 <Crion> You also have a general location: a bar, The Neverending Queen, which shares a name with the regent of the freehold's winter court. 09:58 <Crion> Or a title, at least. 09:58 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We've got a hypothetical location for their Winter regent, so we should probably start there." 10:00 <CBN> Tony: "Sounds like a better plan to me than mine, which was 'hey why don't we just walk towards the big castle and see what happens.' " It was the best he had. 10:00 <Crion> Lauren: "Still kinda sounds like the general plan." 10:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We're probably gonna have to pinball around some stops along the way. But that castle's gonna be there until we knock it down." 10:01 <VoxPVoxD> "Any of you guys played Breath of the Wild?" 10:01 <Crion> Lauren snorts. "Obviously." 10:01 <Crion> "Wait you played my copy!" 10:01 <banana> Melanie: ”If our pinball gets enough momentum from one of the bumpers, the castle should be..” easy to knock a hole in? She’s lost control of the joke. 10:01 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I know you played it. I was asking--" 10:02 <CBN> Tony, helpfully following off of Melanie: "Like Breakout!" 10:03 <VoxPVoxD> There's some part of Stewart's mind rebelling against the realization that she's perched right here on the lip of this hellmouth. "But yeah, are we going right back in? We got a new van? We got radio?" 10:06 <CBN> Tony: "Should we take a break, maybe nap quick on the boat or something? We did just get done driving around a nightmare maze and blowing up a really gross hob. And jumping a gorge." 10:06 <Crion> Lauren pauses a moment, then: "Yeah. My set up's still gonna work with the new van if you want to get on the road now." 10:07 <banana> Melanie: ”If anyone needs to rest we should. If it was just me, I feel like... now that we’ve started, it’s like being out at the end of a stretched rubber band.” 10:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We've got momentum." 10:07 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I wouldn't say I'm good to go... but I can go." 10:08 <CBN> Tony: "Yeah that's fair. I'd probably need to kill a case to chill out enough to get back into a boat trip way. So, where are we going then, to find this Winter regent?" 10:08 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Breath of the whom?" 10:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The Neverending Queen is the name of the place and the person." 10:10 <CBN> Tony: "That's confusing! But I guess easy to remember." 10:10 <VoxPVoxD> "Confusing and memorable seems to be the order of the day." 10:13 <banana> Melanie will say goodbye to Santana and Lopez. They got out; now it’s our turn. Further revenge is indicated. 10:13 <Crion> It sounds like you all will have some time before you depart again to nap or...otherwise recharge. 10:13 <banana> She doesn’t do anything to discourage the team’s anger; in fact, she stokes it, lets the heat of the Sun rise back up. 10:15 <Crion> Stewart has two options: he can do whatever it is he likes, or...Lauren whispers in his ear after they break: "Meet me in our room in ten minutes. I'll be wearing the sundress. And nothing else." 10:15 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart does not have two options. 10:17 <dammitwho> See, what's frustrating here is that it would be very weird to harvest Glamour from what they're about to go do. 10:20 <Crion> It's the best it's been since the first couple weeks they dated...and she's in that dress. When they're done, cleaned up, and finally able to remove themselves from each other...Stewart walks by the cases stacked in the Belowdecks bar. That's right. If they don't want to harvest off the soldiers, they do have some goblin fruit to hand. 10:22 <VoxPVoxD> Ohhhh man. He wants to leave so badly. Just get on the boat, point it away from Florida. Stay in bed or up on deck all day. 10:22 <VoxPVoxD> This sucks so bad. 10:24 <VoxPVoxD> Instead of lurking around the soldiers to soak up their fear and make himself more miserable, Stewart lines up some drinks and doesn't let Lauren out of arm's reach. "Do you think you can still love me if I become a sword guy?" 10:25 <Crion> Lauren: "Absolutely. You've already shown me that obstacle course you're going to be running if Summer signs off." 10:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Heh." 10:25 <VoxPVoxD> He buries his face in her neck. "I want to go home." 10:26 <Crion> Lauren: "I know baby. I know. I do too. This sucks." 10:26 <Crion> "...But I also know you can do it." 10:26 <Crion> "And Maggie and Melanie and Tony and Nels. But you." 10:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You too. Don't forget you." 10:29 <Crion> Lauren: "I won't, and even if I wanted to, Chup wouldn't let me. He can't get to the treats by himself." 10:29 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "If that happens, even I can't save us." 10:30 <Crion> "Go get 'em, tiger." 10:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart sputters. 10:30 <Crion> "Redheads get to use that line." 10:31 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart can't really formulate a verbal response. One last, lingering kiss, and then it's time to ride back into hell. 10:33 <Crion> It's late afternoon trending towards evening when you're ready to head out again...but it doesn't seem to matter. The constant fireworks in the sky are keeping the Magic Kingdom lit up quite well, and you remember that once you cross the line into the 'Hedge,' it has that sort of eerie lighting-from-nowhere effect going on. 10:36 <Crion> The journey back onto the mainland is just as surreal as before, but this time you don't lose yourselves in a maze of suburbs tended by a murderously grillpilled Slenderman; the big chasm remains, but doesn't interfere with the progression of the state road inland, instead just cutting off most of Coco Commons off to your left as you pass. 10:37 <CBN> And good riddance to it. 10:38 <Crion> This is state road 528, soon to join the Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway, a slow speed buffer for manatees and other Florida wildlife...and there they are. 10:39 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Wonder if that big pit is still gonna be there once all this gets sorted out." 10:39 <Crion> The big gentle horking babies are playing in oversized marshy pools that are at points swamping the road, unbothered and unscarred by propeller boats or hunters or gawking shitheads in F250s. 10:39 <banana> Melanie has her face pressed to the window the whole time. 10:39 <CBN> Tony waves at them from the window. They are so pure. 10:40 <VoxPVoxD> Oh, the huge manatee! 10:41 <Crion> They are joined in their revels by what appear to be otters wearing people clothes, with swashbuckling swords and eye patches and great whiskers, also frolicking in the water. They give you a stern eye to begin with, but when it becomes clear you have no ill intent towards either them or the manatees, they wave back, either with a surprisingly dextrous, tool-using paw or a flip of their tail 10:41 <Crion> in the water. 10:41 <Crion> The manatees are manatees but Tony will recognize the otters in clothes as hobs. 10:41 <Crion> They seem to be getting along better than splendid. 10:42 <CBN> Tony tears up a little but probably no one sees it. This is how things are supposed to go. Harmony! 10:43 <VoxPVoxD> When other creatures bound to land will not feel half so free or grand~ 10:44 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Isn't that just the sweetest thing you ever saw?" 10:46 <CBN> Tony, voice cracking: "Nothing has ever been better than this." 10:47 <Crion> Tony can tell that, obviously, the otterfolk will be friendly so long as the motley doesn't start anything -- but that such folk with refined customs and a strong enough narrative sense of themselves to present as both piratical and friends to all creatures probably were a stable hob society well before whatever happened here happened. That means they probably don't have much information 10:47 <Crion> about what's going on per se -- outside the bounds of their storybook, as it were -- but if you wanted to trade for goblin fruit or just bunker down for the night, such as it is, their numbers probably represent safety and commerce. 10:48 <CBN> Tony: "We need to talk to these guys sometime. They're probably cool." 10:48 <CBN> Tony: "But we don't need to bother them yet, let's just let them do their thing for now." He is waving again. 10:49 <Crion> Other than a couple manatee crossings, then, it's a straight shot to the junction where 528 and 407 merge into the Beachline Expressway... 10:53 <Crion> One thing becomes clear about the Beachline Expressway as you approach: this used to be a toll road. 'Used to be' because the booths have been reaved away by some great force, scoured to their flimsy, concrete-poured foundations. Where did all the debris go? Why, into that great pillar, probably, the one made of prefab, rebar, cement and glass, rising above the juncture where all the roads 10:53 <Crion> merge past the tolls. And atop it lounges...well, Stewart and Melanie at least recognize it, probably, if their parents were normal American parents of children who grew up in the 90s and 2000s. That's Gaston, from Beauty and the Beast. 10:53 <Crion> Except it's not, of course. It's a park mascot of Gaston, with the massive exaggerated head and the hunter's suit and so on. 10:54 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh fuck you." 10:55 <CBN> Tony: "Do you know that guy?" 10:55 <Crion> But the proportions are all wrong. The mascot costume has molded and stretched to fit not an adult male, but a creature the size of an adult lion, with four digitigrade legs, like big cats have. Except, of course, they're costumed like the arms and legs of the Gaston character. 10:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I know the guy he's a parody of." 10:56 <Crion> As you approach in the van, the great big unblinking Gaston head with its fake eyes cocks sideways in a distinctly feline manner. 10:56 <VoxPVoxD> A Gaston sphinx? 10:59 <Crion> No one's wise like Gaston; no one spies like Gaston; no one eats you after three wrong riddle tries like Gaston. 10:59 <VoxPVoxD> Fuck. 10:59 <dammitwho> Maggie: "If it's anything like regular cats, if we run it'll chase us, even if it wasn't planning to before." 10:59 <Crion> Right now it appears to be lounging. 11:01 <CBN> Tony: "Cats are fine, this is probably fine. Look, he's sleepy!" 11:01 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks at Melanie, then Tony, then Maggie, then Nels. 11:01 <Crion> It doesn't move as you approach, except to groom itself. What's the play here? 11:01 <trenchfoot> Nels just looks baffled, honestly. 11:01 <Crion> Pantomime grooming, that is. No tongue, no tail. 11:01 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Let's just try going past it... slowly." 11:01 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We gotta hail it." 11:01 <VoxPVoxD> "We gotta answer its riddle." 11:02 <VoxPVoxD> "Anyone want dibs?" 11:02 <dammitwho> "Christ, I hate riddles." This isn't really true. Maggie's game for friendly riddles, in an atmosphere of quaffing and poorly-ventilated wood fire barbecue. 11:03 <dammitwho> "Stewart, do you have any magic that helps you know the answer to riddles? Maybe with a little Honkus Ponkus?" 11:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Depends on the riddle. And the rules." 11:03 <VoxPVoxD> "But probably." 11:04 <CBN> Tony: "I don't know from riddles, I know the mushroom one but that's about it. Someone told me the two guys at doors who lie one and I'm still not sure how it's supposed to go." 11:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks at Melanie, who is the only possible member of the motley who could help him here. 11:06 <Crion> It will stand languidly if you slow the van. It doesn't seem inclined to physically bar you...whatever that means. 11:08 <Crion> ...There is a moderately-sized tarp in the middle of the off-white concrete that used to form the parking surface for the cops who lingered outside the administration building (also gone) and the idling trucks they pulled over. It's perfectly flat to the ground, no creepy lumps. 11:12 <banana> Melanie contemplates the concrete cat-man. ”I’m sure we could answer its questions, but do we have to engage? This is wyrd-logic. You sign up for the stories.” 11:12 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "If we run by it, we're going to need another way back." 11:12 <CBN> Tony: "It's probably ruder to ignore it, and I don't wanna be rude to something with the high ground." 11:12 <banana> Melanie: “Sorry, I’m being vague. What I mean is - if we talk to it, we’re putting ourselves in its power. Riddle-enforcement might become a thing.” 11:13 <CBN> Tony: "We're packed in here like sardines and it's a big cat, too, though." 11:13 <CBN> Tony: "I've seen that cartoon." 11:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah. It's a tradeoff between submitting to its whims or trying to beat it in a battle of wills, which will only solve half the problem." 11:15 <banana> “Nels, did you get up to Beauty and the Beast on your watchlist?” 11:16 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Um, not yet. I think it's next on the list for me?" 11:17 <trenchfoot> Which would mean she just finished the Little Mermaid. 11:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The songs are a lot better than the story." 11:18 <banana> Melanie: ”I remember liking it, but that was a long time ago.” She’s decided: this thing isn’t cute at all. 11:24 <dammitwho> Maggie grunts. "I don't think we've got much of a choice. I gotta bad feeling we're gonna run into this guy at the actual worst possible moment if we don't do his riddle game now." 11:24 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart pops the door on the van. "I'm tarping." 11:24 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Sounds like it's for the best." 11:25 <banana> Melanie hops out. She doesn’t really agree, but it’s not like there’s a good outcome to go for. 11:25 <banana> How tall is this pillar? Like, if we need to scramble up it in a hurry? 11:25 <CBN> Tony hops out too. 11:25 <VoxPVoxD> "Hail!" 11:25 <Crion> When the van comes to a complete stop, then the Gaston mascot hops lightly down from its pillar, keeping a healthy, respectful distance as its empty cartoon face continues to point at the van while it slinks over towards the tarp. 11:26 <Crion> It makes no affirmative reply to Stewart. It's no longer cocking its head, though. 11:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We seek passage." 11:27 <Crion> When its paw-hand comes down on the tarp, all of you feel the ambient seal of glamour -- not of you, however. This is between the mascot-sphinx and whatever lies beneath. Or within? Or is it communing with the tarp itself? 11:28 <Crion> Dramatically, it pulls the tarp away, and you see: 11:28 <Crion> A six by six grid. https://i.imgur.com/PDcxDHd.jpg 11:31 <banana> Melanie: ”A diamond? no, the right column doesn’t have any either. ...why are some of the clubs like that..” 11:31 <Crion> Sitting on the square second from the left in the bottom row are four thin felt symbols: card suits. All the others are etched into the concrete. 11:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Every upward-facing heart has a downward-facing club to its left." 11:32 <Crion> The park mascot lays out all four in front of you, leaving the square empty -- the only empty square. While laying them out, it inverts them, then puts them right side up again, as if demonstrating a rule or a possibility. 11:32 <Crion> It doesn't react to Stewart's words. 11:32 <Crion> It just removes itself from the board and sits, waiting. 11:32 <banana> Melanie: ”Oh my god. What if some of the diamonds are upside-down.” 11:33 <VoxPVoxD> "Diamonds are always to the left of upward-facing clubs." 11:33 <banana> She’s going to walk around the edges of the board and frown at it... without going too close to the costumed sudokusphinx. 11:34 <banana> “I mean, if you’re right about the hearts that’s all we need. Er, does everyone agree that we should be treating this like a magazine puzzle?” 11:34 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Do we have a better idea?" 11:36 <CBN> Tony scratches his head and stares: "The upside-down...that's a club not a shovel, spade, whatever? Right? The upside-down clubs are also always to the right of a square when they can be. I think." 11:36 <banana> Melanie mumbles a bit. “The way I’d put it is that each up-club has a diamond to its left, but it’s not true the other way around. Even if the board wraps.” 11:37 <banana> “Hey, and all spades are to the right of a heart of equal upness.” 11:38 <Crion> It occurs to Stewart that the actual Sphinx's riddle, in mythology, is the most dog-tired simpleton nothing in the braintwister canon: "What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?" 11:39 <dammitwho> Probably that one was harder when nobody had heard it before. 11:41 <Crion> Melanie is absolutely certain the "squares" are how this puzzle handles diamond inversions, yes. 11:41 <Crion> The more you look at it, the more Stewart's initial solution seems to check out. 11:43 <banana> “If we’re wrong, we’re wrong.” Melanie’s going to pick up the felt club. ”Overthinking it will just waste more time.” 11:44 <banana> She’ll position it upside down, like the one second from the bottom in the leftmost column. ”Do you think there are a series of these?” 11:44 <VoxPVoxD> "We're about to find out." He super does. 11:44 <dammitwho> Maggie's eyes widen, and behind Melanie's back she'll look at the others all did she just say that? 11:44 <VoxPVoxD> People go on vacation to learn about themselves. 11:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart has learned that Florida sucks ass. 11:46 <Crion> The park mascot stares at the solution, cocks its head, paces back and forth, then nods, and nods again, satisfied. Then it bows deeply, and this time casually walks over the solved puzzle. The tarp vibrates and, with almost palpable annoyance, snaps over the grid again, sweeping the remaining symbols beneath it as it resets itself. 11:49 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh my god." 11:50 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Let's, uh... I think we're good here." 11:50 <banana> “Nobody folds like Gaston.” 11:50 <Crion> Almost primly, the sphinx heads back up to the top of its pillar...where it resumes lounging. 11:50 <CBN> Tony: "Great." Tony helped! Maybe. 11:51 <VoxPVoxD> Once they're back in the van: "Did any of you guys get the impression the sphinx was waiting for us to solve the riddle for them, and wasn't really going to bother us?" 11:52 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Kinda reminds me of Chup." 11:53 <CBN> Tony: "I'm just glad we didn't have to answer any word problems." 11:53 <VoxPVoxD> Chup doesn't look like a giant foam rapist. "Yeah let's just... move on." 11:54 <banana> “..fools the freehold like Gaston,” 11:55 <VoxPVoxD> "An experience ever so en-er-va-ting~" 12:00 <Crion> This road just keeps going straight, due west, with no deviation and no development in the swampland around it, for some time. Difficult to judge how much distance you're covering. There's strange lights off in the boughs of the swamp, odd songs that sound...half-familiar, like they're from Disney musicals that were never released, or the songs themselves were cut. Here's something from Little 12:00 <Crion> Mermaid that was about how much Ariel hated her sisters, or how Prince Eric prepared for a war of choice. There's a song from Hercules where Phil describes how Meg eventually killed Herc unknowingly with the venom of a poisoned cloak. Sounds like Danny Devito. 12:02 <banana> Melanie wonders who’s singing. ”Has it drafted survivors into the choir?” 12:03 <Crion> But then -- there, lights on the road. You see them before they see you, but that's going to change real quick if you keep driving. There's a vehicle parked up ahead with human-sized shapes milling around it. It looks like...a parade float crossed with an APC? 12:05 <CBN> Tony points: "That the mouseketeers? Looks like Pig stuff but worse." 12:06 <CBN> Tony: "Maybe keep on going, hands at ten and two, just act...normal?" 12:06 <banana> Melanie: ”Around or through. They won’t be able to catch us without running into some narrative nonsense.” 12:06 <banana> We can ensure it, if necessary. The Hedge cares more about our dreams than those of most hobgoblins. 12:08 <dammitwho> Looks like the sense of the group is that we should keep going, so Maggie'll keep going. 12:09 <Crion> Tony's sense appears to have been correct. Two...men?...in full dystopian riot gear with Mickey Mouse ears on the helmets step out and raise some kind of police carbine at the van. Does Maggie attempt to hit one or just sail through? 12:11 <dammitwho> You know that bit at the end of Robocop where the mutated guy splatters all over a windshield? Let's not be doing that. Maggie won't swerve to avoid them, but neither will she try to hit one. 12:15 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Taking some Mouseketeer fire, over." 12:15 <Crion> Lauren: "Excuse me, what?" 12:16 <Crion> "I thought you just said you're 'taking some Mouseketeer fire.'" 12:16 <Crion> Bullets ping off the reinforced frame and bulletproof windshield. 12:16 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Roger that." 12:20 <Crion> You speed between the two faceless enforcers as a third steps out into the road in your wake, and more fire tracks the van this time -- both from the roadway and from atop the...is that seriously a World of Disney parade float converted into a troop carrier? It might be. Again, glancing damage at best on an armored vehicle...but something was different. Stewart knows what it is immediately 12:20 <Crion> of course; he's already narrating to Lauren while watching out the back, and he saw the guy who stepped out into the road. 12:20 <Crion> The guy with the Mickey Mouse head. 12:21 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, sing-song: "M-I-C..." 12:21 <Crion> He coordinated their fire and tightened up their groups. If not for the distance Maggie had put between the van and the guns, their aim would have been good enough to actually do some damage that time. 12:22 <Crion> Probably not too much...probably. His eyes are still on the leader and he's still singing as he sees the Mickey-headed commando raise a fist, and two more Mouseketeers step out from behind him, like they'd be hiding there the whole time. 12:22 <Crion> Then they're gone down the road. 12:22 <banana> Melanie was just about to tell Lauren not to worry on the radio, but you know what? She should worry. “God, I hope that’s another mascot.” 12:24 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That's their Athos." 12:24 <banana> Melanie: ”The titan?” 12:25 <dammitwho> "Their what now?" 12:25 <banana> “Hit Poseidon in the knee with a rock, now he can’t be an adventurer anymore.” Melanie sounds unsure. 12:26 <VoxPVoxD> "Athos, the Count of Fairies, Patriarch of the Three Musketeers." 12:26 <VoxPVoxD> "Did you guys see him spawn more?" 12:26 <VoxPVoxD> "He spawned two more of the putties." 12:27 <CBN> Tony: "Okay I'm not counting those as hobs then, if it's just making new ones right there. That's gross." 12:29 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You're the Baron." 12:29 <banana> Ahhh. Is that really the character’s name? That’s.. Europeans for you. Italians? Where are muskeeters from? 12:29 <VoxPVoxD> France. 12:30 <banana> Melanie says ”Whatever,” out loud but she’s clearly speaking to herself, pursuant to a monologue. 12:30 <dammitwho> Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'onald Duck! 12:33 <Crion> The van will continue on in lonely, dark silence for some time down this road, headed due west into Orlando. There's time to talk and worry and maybe catch a short nap, but you will be arriving soon...