08:58 <Crion> The easiest way to get to The Neverending Queen is to follow the 15 up to the 408, take that west to the interchange with US 4, then take that highway north until you hit the exit for state road 50 -- East Colonial Drive. Or you could just sort of wander up there through the neighborhood and local streets. The City of Orlando, the Happiest Place on Earth, is built on a shored-up swamp, but 08:58 <Crion> it manages to look a lot like a real city most of the time. And maybe the buildings and the water table are getting along better now that the City itself seems to be in control of things. Never hurts to have a bit of optimism. 09:00 <VoxPVoxD> Man, Stewart's glad he's not driving. GPS not working is one of the key reasons he hates the Hedge, too. 09:01 <Crion> Stewart's at least relatively certain that the nature of the deal Orlando worked out with, presumably, the Mouse means freelancers like the Bad Neighbor are kept on the periphery. 09:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You know if this weren't real, it'd make for an incredible Fallout game." 09:04 <CBN> Tony: "What are those, is it like..." stabbing in the dark here, "Breakout, but top-down instead of bottom-up?" 09:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's like, you're stuck in a post-apocalypse, but all the survivors have organized into different factions like mutants or Mad Max raiders or people who really want to marry a tank. The new ones are all also really deliberate parodies of 20th century Americana." 09:09 <dammitwho> Maggie frowns contemplatively. "I don't think I would like that very much." 09:09 <CBN> Tony: "Man, people really do a lot with wishing the world would end nowadays huh?" 09:10 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I understood most of that, I think. But yes, that sounds horrifying." 09:10 <Crion> As you continue towards the city center by whatever path you choose, the same benign idyll from what appears to have been city limits persists. People going about their business -- but never their work, even when they're on the job. The socializing and the human contact is there, but no one seems to be on the clock, and it's hard to even tell what time of day it's supposed to be (though it 09:10 <Crion> gets a bit more obvious as the sky darkens to twilight -- and people start going inside to have dinner with their families, or hit up the bars for an evening on the town). 09:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Someone said it was easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism." 09:11 <VoxPVoxD> "And, well..." he gestures around. 09:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's avoiding so much as eye contact with the people out here. They're not masked, are they? Like, in a corona way. 09:13 <CBN> Tony squints out the window---these are people-people, right? Not hob approximations? 09:14 <Crion> Some are, some aren't. No one seems to be giving anyone shit about it either way...but they're not locked down, that's for sure. 09:15 <Crion> Yep, they're all people-people. If Tony's really paying attention, he'll see a hob or two out and about -- but small ones, animal and plant looking, prototypical 'little guys.' 09:15 <VoxPVoxD> Do we pass any important services on our way to the Queen? Like hospitals? 09:15 <VoxPVoxD> If so, do they seem to be the same sort of open-not-open? 09:16 <VoxPVoxD> ...are there cops? 09:19 <Crion> If you want to cut west off 15 along Michigan Street before heading north to 408 up 527, you'll pass Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital. If you do so, yes, they'll be in the same state of affairs. There are cops -- not Pigs, or Mouseketeers -- wandering around, exhibiting the same cheery white picket fence attitudes as every other human, which is particularly weird. 09:20 <dammitwho> "Happy cops... I don't like it." says Maggie. 09:21 <trenchfoot> Nels: "It's creepy, is what it is." 09:22 <CBN> Tony: "Depends what they're happy about, but if other people are happy too, it's probably not too bad, right? And hey look, hob over there!" Tony points but not like, too obviously, at a little shrubbery at the end of a longer row that gets up and scuttles around a corner and out of sight. 09:22 <CBN> Tony: "Honestly other than the suburb monster and the roadblocks, this is pretty okay, right?" 09:22 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart starts whistling unconsciously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMZ6osLqEZQ 09:23 <Crion> Stewart knows how the Hedge affects mortal disease and mortal science -- it mostly ignores it, and creates props out of its narrative. So, you can come across "plaguelands" in the Hedge, but it's hob actors playing out some version of an epidemic that happened in the real world and left a sort of psychic bruise in the Dreaming; there won't be hard and fast rules for how the 'plague' will 09:23 <Crion> spread, it will just do so at the right time, because it's not real. But the novel coronavirus is not a Hedge creation, and this is only partially the Hedge. If he had to guess, and without an advanced medical degree, an adequate sample size, and a few weeks all he can do is make an educated guess, he'd say: the novel coronavirus has no power to overrule the City of Orlando's deal for health. 09:24 <Crion> ...But that doesn't mean it's not spreading, just that it's not hurting or killing people. If the deal was to be called off, would you have a city full of healthy humans...or a city that immediately all needs to go on respirators? Hard to say. 09:24 <VoxPVoxD> Ohhhh man. 09:25 <VoxPVoxD> He keeps whistling, but slower and lower now, like if someone did a spooky Andy Griffith reboot on the CW. 09:25 <CBN> Tony picks up on it and starts snapping in time with Stewart's whistling. The classics never die. It gets harder when he slows down though. 09:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So what's our plan if they're hostile?" 09:38 <VoxPVoxD> "Not even draw-down hostile, just like. Fuck-off hostile." 09:40 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I guess we eff off, then." 09:40 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Um. I suppose we 'fuck off' for a bit at least, because yeah. Not really any other choice, is there?" 09:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I feel like we should be at least a little insistent." 09:41 <trenchfoot> "We'd rather not, but..." 09:41 <CBN> Tony: "Well, we can try asking nice, and then ask nicer, and then we can mention the military presence with wizards and cold iron ammo basically waiting to not hear from us as their excuse to rain down unlimited hell." 09:42 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, I thought you meant after insisting a little bit." She's midwestern! 09:42 <CBN> Tony: "Which is like telling, but nicer." 09:43 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I feel like they've gotta be insanely stressed. Unless they've turned. But that's not the impression the vandalism gave." 09:43 <CBN> Tony: "They might just be happy to see someone who isn't asking, demanding, or threatening anything right away. We're so nice!" 09:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "If someone's in a bad mood being nice can just piss them off more." 09:46 <Crion> Radio static seems to be clearing up more as you get closer to city center -- it seems like it's the Mouse who's interested in jamming communications, not the City of Orlando. 09:48 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart pings Lauren then. "Hey, we're clear into Orlando proper, which seems to have some kind of Vichy thing going on with the Mouse here. Details are sketchy, but this is more Camazotz than Mega-City One." 09:48 <VoxPVoxD> "Did Rose get back with anything from the Book?" 09:48 <Crion> Lauren: "More what than Mega-City One? Oh, yeah. One sec." 09:50 <Crion> Ruffling of papers. "She actually asked if we had a fax machine. Apparently output on that Book is weird. I had her scan her notes and e-mail me a pdf like a normal person." 09:50 <VoxPVoxD> "Camazotz was the world in A Wrinkle in Time where Meg and Charles Wallace's dad was being kept, and it was like a hypnotic Stepford utopia all under the control of this huge, throbbing brain?" 09:50 <VoxPVoxD> Did other people not read those? Stewart loved those books. 09:51 <trenchfoot> No. 09:51 <Crion> Lauren: "Ew, gross. Well. I guess it's better than some alternatives?" 09:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Kind of upsettingly so! Like, it's not at all clear to me what is going on virus-wise. When this rolls up is it just going to melt everyone's lungs in unison? Jury's out." 09:54 <Crion> "That's upsetting to think about. Anyway let's see. This is from Kingsley and Banthem. Freehold of Orlando; we last had contact when Miami went to hell, which was a couple years back -- mages, I think? Or something worse. They wanted to know if we could take a long-term stray; we kicked it up the road to Philly since we were in a delicate place mage-wise at the time...Lysander of Columbia, 09:54 <Crion> Regent of Spring; Karon "The City," Regent of Summer; Clevinger, Regent of Autumn; and The Neverending Queen of Winter. I guess she just goes into repose the other three months or something. 09:56 <Crion> "Our main point of contact down there was a guy named Rory ??, that's two question marks, not 'QQ,' out of their Spring Court, but a pretty serious and capable dude? They have a freehold of like, twenty changelings. Not Baltimore sized, but not nothing." 09:57 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm surprised it's that many. I really cannot think of any place I would rather be less." 09:57 <VoxPVoxD> "As a changeling. I mean besides Faerie." 09:58 <Crion> "The Orlando Consilieum is pretty sizeable and powerful, at least according to what Jesuit last heard. He was a bit surprised you haven't at least come into contact with any of them?" 09:58 <Crion> "The vampires weren't helpful at all. They've got no clue what's going on in Orlando. Seemed to think it was weird Rose thought they would." 09:59 <Crion> "And she's still trying to track down one of the werewolves to ask. You know how they are." 09:59 <VoxPVoxD> "Alright, that's very helpful. Thank you, and thank Rose." 10:00 <Crion> Lauren: "Wait a sec, it gets weird. Then she asked the Book about the Freehold of Orlando. Nothing came back at all...so she went to the city index. The Book doesn't HAVE a Freehold listed in Orlando." 10:00 <Crion> "It does list a Hold of Orlando, though." 10:00 <VoxPVoxD> "Ah." 10:02 <dammitwho> "Don't like that." 10:03 <trenchfoot> "Not at all." 10:03 <Crion> "And that appears to have the heads-of-court mentioned, along with a couple others for each. There's an Autumn Courtier named Sarkosa; two Spring Courtiers Cinquer Sailor and Solder Psy; Water Weal and one 'Horton the Gun' in Summer; Kirbs and Jessie J in Winter. There was also a Spring entry whose name was like. Rubbed out." 10:03 <Crion> "Like it was a smudge on the screen, but in the Book itself. She's looking into that one." 10:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Did you say Cinquer Sailor and Solder Psy?" 10:03 <Crion> Lauren: "Yep." 10:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Man, I really hope they're cool." 10:04 <Crion> "Alright, that's all I got for now. I'm gonna stretch my legs, babe. I'll pass along the thanks." 10:05 <VoxPVoxD> "Love you." Stewart reports what Lauren reported Rose reported to the motley. 10:06 <CBN> Tony: "Man, that's a lot of people. It's gonna suck if they're all dead." 10:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "There are worse positions for them to be in here." 10:17 <Crion> As you drive around Eola Lake in the center of the city, aiming to get to the neighborhood north of it where The Neverending Queen bar is -- in true Orlando fashion, it has its own lakes -- Stewart and Maggie glimpse it. A figure crouched -- crouched too much, maybe -- atop the mast of a lone sailboat in the middle of the lake. Somehow it knows its been seen...and straightens into a woman...with 10:17 <Crion> legs that are just a bit too long and a grin that gleams from almost 500 feet away. 10:17 <dammitwho> Neat...? 10:18 <Crion> Somehow you can tell that, but it's harder to tell what she's wearing -- looks like an old, ratty business suit and fedora, the sort you'd see on a normal man in the 40s or a woman making a statement in the years after that, but hideously taken care of. Or not, as the case may be. There's no Mask or Mien. This is not a changeling. 10:20 <VoxPVoxD> She knows she's got eyes on her from inside that military van. 10:22 <VoxPVoxD> "Wizard." 10:22 <CBN> Tony: "Man. It had been a whole like five minutes since we had one of those around. Good run everybody." 10:22 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Weirdly makes me miss the survivor of a folk song and the spook scrying pervert." 10:23 <VoxPVoxD> "No offense," he adds to the air. 10:23 <Crion> She steps off the top of the mast and it's like her body is seized in midair and yanked along a wire line -- mortals won't be able to perceive it even if they wanted to or cared (none enjoying an evening at the lake do) but the changelings see the truth: the great monstrous thing that rips out of her back and bears her along as it scuttles, spiderlike, across fractures in the water and the 10:23 <Crion> clouds. 10:24 <trenchfoot> Don't like that. 10:24 <Crion> She shoots in front of the van, crazed, wheeling eyes and too-large grin sweeping across everyone in the front seats -- and then she's gone down the street, heading south faster than the van can probably chase. 10:24 <Crion> Her -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaUZ2Y3GNR4 So you wanna rule the heavens, but you're human tonight. Yeah, I'll send you to heaven when I eat - you - alive 10:24 <VoxPVoxD> "Aaah." 10:25 <VoxPVoxD> "I like wizards and I really do not like that." 10:25 <CBN> Tony: "Nope. No. No." 10:25 <CBN> Tony: "Are there spider wizards now? Wizards can be worse?" 10:25 <VoxPVoxD> "She had help." 10:25 <VoxPVoxD> "Or the opposite of help." 10:26 <Crion> She kept her hands in her pocket the entire time. Stylish. 10:26 <VoxPVoxD> "Cool song though." 10:27 <VoxPVoxD> Nels would do a really good cover of this. 10:28 <Crion> Stewart knows that the unreality trailing off of her is what mages call Paradox -- the consequence of using their magic. Mortals seem to be clearing the area where it still crackles, and Stewart is pretty sure that's not normal behavior (mortals can very easily hurt themselves or go insane by wandering around in or near Paradox), but the City taking quiet charge. 10:28 <VoxPVoxD> "Looks like the Wyrd is babysitting the wizards." 10:29 <trenchfoot> Nels: "A lot of horrible things still produce decent music. Wish she hadn't done that, also." 10:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Neither did Orlando, it looks like." 10:29 <Crion> As you get moving again, the radio crackles. Lauren: "Hi, uh, Stewart, Orr's here and he wants to--well okay you can just have it." 10:29 <Crion> Orr: "Heyyyy. So." 10:29 <Crion> "Little birdie tells me you might have just run into someone." 10:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Name of 'Her', as far as the Wyrd knows." 10:33 <Crion> "Yeah. She, Her, doesn't really have a name. You know how we are about names on this side of the biz." Orr sounds mostly the same, but moreso, more intense, more obviously applying the sleazy hey-buddy schtick on Stewart, more directly trying to conceal that whatever just shot past your windshield is what he's really interested in out of all of this. "Should probably stay away from Her; 10:33 <Crion> She's pretty dangerous, but I don't think She's dangerous to you." 10:34 <Crion> Put more bluntly, Maggie can tell: She's Orr's mission. 10:34 <VoxPVoxD> Sing-song: "I just wonder what we've gotten ourselves into..." 10:35 <Crion> Orr: "Hey, relax. Just keep an eye out for Her, would you? Won't ask you to do anything more." 10:35 <dammitwho> Maggie: "But if we were to accidentally smear her down the highway, you'd just be pleased as punch, hmm?" 10:35 <trenchfoot> Kind of more concerned about Her keeping an eye on us, actually. 10:35 <Crion> A hesitant laugh. "Well, it might not be so simple as that." 10:36 <Crion> "But I wouldn't be buying flowers for the funeral, no." 10:37 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We'll take that on board. What kind of wizard or wizard-adjacent entity is she?" 10:37 <Crion> Orr coughs. "Ah. Well. That's a bit, ah, classified. And maybe kind of embarrassing, do you know what 'the Abyss' is?" 10:37 <VoxPVoxD> "I got kind of a cannibal vibe?" 10:37 <trenchfoot> Nels: "It doesn't sound great." 10:38 <VoxPVoxD> "The Abyss is like Anti-Life, right?" 10:39 <Crion> Orr: "Yeah, let's go with that. She's in real deep with the Abyss. To the point where her just running around is doing damage to reality." 10:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh jeez." 10:40 <VoxPVoxD> "That's even worse than the time we saw Tamerlane make a fake ochema and get eaten by an owl dragon." 10:40 <trenchfoot> Nels: "And She's... doing this on purpose?" 10:40 <Crion> Orr: "What?" 10:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I'll tell you later. Anything in particular we should watch out for? What kind of magic does she do?" 10:43 <Crion> Orr: "Well that depends if She's merely Baalim or if She's full-on Qliphoth. From what I got when She passed the van, if She's not there yet She's close." 10:43 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Okay, so, worst case." 10:45 <Crion> "Worst case is someone real high up the chain of command has to rewind the last two weeks of existence. There are some other slightly less-worse cases but I won't bore you, because the good news is, you're not mages, and She hunts mages. Though if She's just hanging out in public like this, then She's probably killed all the mages in Orlando. On either side of the fence." 10:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We did think it was kind of weird none of you had popped up yet." 10:47 <Crion> Orr: "I guess we have that reputation." 10:47 <VoxPVoxD> "We'll keep an eye out. It seems like whatever deal Orlando's made with the Mouse is backed by enough power that the Wyrd is policing Paradox." 10:49 <Crion> Orr: "Well, that's fucked up. As long as She's more interested in hunting than She is in destroying the fabric of reality itself, that's good news. In the end, though, our shit always beats shit from around here. Hey, I don't like it anymore than you do." 10:50 <VoxPVoxD> "You sound real broken up. Hey are you the hockey Orr or the Catch-22 Orr?" 10:51 <Crion> Orr: "Huh? The hockey Orr, but the shitty one, not Bobby. Well, also kind of Bobby. Long story. Might tell it someday." 10:51 <Crion> "Here, I'll give you your girl back." 10:51 <Crion> Orr's off the mic, and an annoyed Lauren. "'Your girl.' Mages." 10:54 <CBN> Tony, less to the radio and more to the air: "Wizards make everything worse always." 10:55 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Belay that, now. Union's a sweetie." 10:56 <CBN> Tony: "That's one in the history of all of them though." 10:56 <dammitwho> "A group of wizards is just a Union you haven't met yet." 10:56 <CBN> Tony: "We aren't even doing wizard stuff here and somehow the one that literally just walked past us is a bigger threat to reality than the whole thing we're here for!" 10:56 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Hey. Orr's having a melty cause his mage-eating Abyssal target is hopping around." 10:57 <dammitwho> That doesn't 100% make sense, but things are getting scary and she's a little rattled. 10:57 <Crion> Lauren: "That sounds dangerous." 10:57 <CBN> Tony: "That sounds like a wizard problem that needs a wizard solution to me. We've got our own stuff." 10:57 <VoxPVoxD> "Hopefully only to wizards. Which there may not be any more of left." 10:57 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I mean it is still an us problem while we're here." 10:58 <VoxPVoxD> "It's not quite as simple as Tony says, but it's close enough for now. We'll keep an eye out but it's not our priority." 10:59 <Crion> Now, finally, you're free to make your way to The Neverending Queen. 11:04 <Crion> One thing's obvious the first time you see it: The bar clearly used to be a Pizza Hut. 11:04 <VoxPVoxD> It's a cool roof. 11:06 <Crion> The, uh, distinct roof has been repurposed as a rather garish crown -- you can intuit that not everyone approves, as there's a public announcement for a local community meeting of this or that zoning board that the management of the bar has attached a 'Save Our Queen!' banner to; the date passed a couple days ago with the issue presumably being resolved in the bar's favor by default, given 11:06 <Crion> the new status quo. 11:08 <CBN> Tony, pointing at the roof: "D'you think that's being Hedge-adjacent, or just Florida?" 11:09 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Definitely Florida." 11:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "100% Florida." 11:10 <Crion> Unlike the other bars, this one isn't serving geas'd-up humans, and the mortals who do pass by ignore it. The parking in front of it is empty...except for a man with a big beard, a cowboy hat, and a duster with cutoff sleeves to show off his massive guns (biceps). His massive gun (some kind of huge-bored hunting rifle) sits across his chest. This is a changeling; an Ogre in the Summer Court. 11:10 <Crion> He's sitting on a cheap hang-out patio chair, but straightens when your van comes close. 11:11 <Crion> He doesn't stand or take the gun out of his lap, but he does whistle loudly, back towards the bar. 11:11 <CBN> Tony waves out the window, which given the whole mask-mien situation he's got going, should be good for something. 11:12 <Crion> Horton the Gun -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4c4yQXk6Ug Kentucky she's a-waiting on the other side; give you the fever, put the daylight in your eyes. 11:12 <Crion> The moustache part of his beard twitches when he feels the Glamour. 11:13 <VoxPVoxD> Nice. 11:17 <Crion> Two other changelings step out of the bar: one's a sleazy Fairest, also Summer, with pomade hair and rings and chains that probably have some gold in them, but seem like fakes or knockoffs to even a casual glance. He's wearing sunglasses in what's quickly becoming night, but his eyes burn gold behind them. He doesn't seem overtly armed. The other's either a Darkling or an Elemental of shadow, 11:17 <Crion> Autumn Court, and appears to have a brace of six single-shot flintlock pistols strapped to himself. One's already to hand. 11:18 <Crion> Walter Weal -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMTrHfiOsmg Here’s to your good looks baby, now; here’s to my health. Here’s to the bloody places that we take ourselves. 11:18 <Crion> Sarkosa -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fDG3hz84Ug Somewhere distant, peacefully our vulgar leaders sleep. Dead kids don't get photographed: God bless our dead marines. 11:20 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's the first ouf of the van, delicate limbs and visible sword and a haze of tiny fluttering emerald stars. He raises his hands in an 'I come in peace' gesture. 11:21 <Crion> Sarkosa blinks when the tip hits, hisses...and reciprocates. 11:21 <VoxPVoxD> Big, friendly smile. 11:21 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart Reader, Lord Sage of the Unknown Reaches -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_HtcAuTWEE It's the terror of knowing what this world is about: watching some good friends scream, "Let me out!" 11:23 <Crion> Sarkosa's eyes narrow, but he mutters something to Walter Weal and motions him inside, which the man does, shrugging. Then Sarkosa holsters the sixth flintlock. 11:23 <VoxPVoxD> Getting Tipped back means they're not being Glamour-starved. 11:23 <VoxPVoxD> Good sign. 11:23 <Crion> Is it just Stewart getting out? 11:24 <CBN> Tony's soon after, lumbering soil and stalks and all. He's leaving the Slayer behind, tucked under the seat. Hopefully won't regret that one. 11:24 <VoxPVoxD> "We're all good," Stewart says to the others. "Come on out." 11:24 <trenchfoot> Nels is out just after Tony. Took her a bit. 11:24 <Crion> "Well, I don't know about all that," Horton the Gun drawls. "You might want to park off the street." 11:25 <Crion> "They do street cleaning every night now." 11:26 <dammitwho> Maggie'll let the others get out and then park the van in the actual parking lot. 11:26 <Crion> The Neverending Queen has an abbreviated side lot that is mostly empty, and Horton moves himself and his chair sufficiently to let you in. 11:27 <Crion> Sarkosa: "You won't be shocked to hear we knew you were coming, Stewart Reader of Baltimore." 11:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I'll be relieved, in fact." 11:27 <VoxPVoxD> "Sarkosa of Orlando." 11:28 <Crion> Sarkosa: "I officially greet you in the name of the Hold of Orlando. Such as it is. Lysaner of Columbia is King in his season." 11:28 <Crion> *Lysander 11:29 <Crion> He looks to the others; he'll start busking if names aren't forthcoming. 11:30 <CBN> Tony raises a hand for a quick wave into an offer for a handshake. "Tony Bowen, Baron of the Lesser Ones." Tips his hat with his other hand. 11:30 <trenchfoot> Nels waves. "Nels Foulke of Baltimore." 11:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart will pause to allow them to take his Glamour, then: "We're the Wherehouse." 11:30 <Crion> The title gets both eyebrows raised in surprise -- pleasant surprise, which sits strangely on Sarkosa's pensive, drawn face. 11:31 <Crion> "It's been some time since this Hedge has had a Baron's attention, Baron Bowen. This current state of things must be a playground of sorts for you." 11:33 <dammitwho> Maggie trots up to the rest after she finishes parking. "Heya. Maggie Bakehead." 11:33 <Crion> His response to Nels, however, is unsurprised and unpleasant. "So this is the infamous Nels Foulke." 11:33 <Crion> "Well. You did what you felt you must. I might have done the same." 11:34 <Crion> He seems to have no real preconceptions of Maggie, except perhaps slight startlement that her Mantle is in Spring. "Well met, Maggie Bakehead." 11:34 <VoxPVoxD> Ah, jeez. Poor kid. 11:35 <dammitwho> It's fun to have fun! 11:35 <trenchfoot> Nels just sorta nods and says nothing. She's been getting that a lot lately and has more to look forward to when she gets back to Baltimore. 11:35 <trenchfoot> Can't say it isn't earned. 11:36 <VoxPVoxD> She's not gonna get it when we get back to Baltimore, because we're going to come back to Baltimore heroes. 11:36 <CBN> Tony: "It is definitely a new thing." 11:37 <Crion> Horton: "Y'all either disarm before you go inside or swear an oath not to draw first." 11:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks back at the others. "I say we swear and you go back for the Slayer." 11:38 <VoxPVoxD> Really he kind of just wants Horton to see how cool it is. 11:40 <CBN> Tony nods to Horton. "One sec then." He pops back to the van, grabs Slayer-of-Empties, and returns, dangling it at his side. "I swear not to draw first at you or yours, under pain of it biting me in the ass." 11:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So sworn." 11:40 <Crion> Horton's eyebrows go up much like Sarkosa's did. "Hrrrh." 11:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart grins. 11:41 <trenchfoot> Nels says pretty much the same thing but more polite, after a bit of a pause after Tony's. 11:41 <CBN> Tony: "You guys know you got, what're they called, " He looks to Stewart, "Abyss spider wizards all fuckin' around out there, right?" 11:42 <Crion> Sarkosa: "That thing isn't our problem, and keeps to itself." 11:42 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah. We're not here about Her. We're here about the other thing." 11:42 <VoxPVoxD> "May we come in?" 11:42 <CBN> Tony visibly relaxes: "Oh thank fuckin' Christ man, I hate wizard shit." 11:43 <dammitwho> Maggie: "So sworn." 11:43 <Crion> Horton nods. "May the curse of lackluster fumbling be on ya if you break it. Come on in." 11:46 <Crion> The motley feels the air change around them as they step through: someone is taking advantage of the Hedge's newfound status in the City of Orlando and is formally turning the bar into a Hollow. It's not strong...yet. But it certainly could be soon. 11:46 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's excited to meet some actual people and not horrible Disney shit, or Hedge shit (which is adjacent to horrible Disney shit already). 11:47 <VoxPVoxD> This is why Stewart's job is to talk to wizards, and Tony's is to talk to hobs. 11:52 <CBN> Tony, as he looks around: "Well, this is nice." 11:52 <Crion> There are no patrons therein, at least not of the mortal variety. An androgyneous Fairest Spring Courtier lounges on their much more masculine Wizened boyfriend(?) in a corner booth, as a bottle of whiskey held by a string pours a row of shots for them by itself -- Maggie probably recognizes that contract. The bartender is a pretty Ogre in the Winter Court, and at the end of the bar sits a 11:52 <Crion> serious-looking Wizened in a bowtie, crisp shirt, and glasses. He's from the Spring Court. 11:53 <Crion> The bar looks great, though; not too well lit, very well lived in, and the bartender is already pulling down some glasses. 11:53 <Crion> "Wait," says the man at the end of the bar to that last, peering over his glasses at the motley. 11:55 <Crion> "We don't know that they drink," he says. "We don't know anything about the motley from Baltimore, besides that Peter Montgomery feels strongly about them. To presume would be rude." 11:55 <CBN> Tony: "I'm Tony and I'll have a beer, hi." Little wave. 11:56 <Crion> The Winter Court Ogre grins and resumes pulling down glasses. 11:56 <Crion> Mask and Mien, she is covered in tattoos. 11:59 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's eyes dart around the room, and the starfield twinkles. 11:59 <trenchfoot> "Nels, and --" She hesitates. "Chattanooga Dew if you know it, whiskey sour if you don't. Hello." 12:00 <Crion> The Fairest dancer straightens up as they get the tip; their boyfriend just after, grinning. They'll return the favor down the line (no need to repost if you don't want to change the lyrical highlight). 12:00 <Crion> Cinquer Sailor -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-vBsqA5-Go&t=12s You said she's scared of me? I mean, I don't see what she sees...but maybe it's 'cause I'm wearing your cologne. 12:00 <Crion> Solder Psy -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLXTBbMRxK8 I ain't your average sicko; I'm dead, just like disco; My bank account is zero zero zero, oh no-- 12:01 <VoxPVoxD> The couple gets Cause love's such an old-fashioned word... 12:02 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I'll have whatever your most interesting beer that isn't an IPA is." 12:03 <dammitwho> She's been burned by that before. 12:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You got fassionola? I'd love a Hurricane." 12:04 <VoxPVoxD> Try and bring a tiny bit of Boat Life in here. 12:05 <Crion> The bartender has the orders -- she does know a Chattanooga Dew, and has a Standard Beer for Tony. For Maggie she pours something from the house tap -- a 'Cracklin' Colsch,' which is delicious and super-crisp, tuned almost to overcarbonated. And it takes some scrounging in the specialty section under the bar, but yeah, she can mix a Hurricane. 12:06 <Crion> Jessie J -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGLHd8jnkL0 You think you hold the high hand; I've got my doubts. I come from Chino, where the asphalt sprouts. 12:07 <Crion> The man at the end of the bars sigh. "And I will have a slightly-chilled tap water." 12:07 <Crion> *sighs 12:07 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Lordy, I like that. Gonna have to remember it." 12:07 <Crion> Rory ?? -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37eqoYbj1QM So the Ph.Ds and the G.E.D.s cry with Ayn Rand down at the temp agency, saying, "We believed in meritocracy!" 12:08 <CBN> Tony offers a customary nod-and-sorta-cheers and then begins to Beer. S'beer, folks. S'good. 12:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks at Rory with his brow slightly furrowed, as if he were paying attention to a lecture. 12:10 <Crion> In return, Rory looks very slightly but very definitely pleased with himself. 12:12 <VoxPVoxD> At some point it must end because Stewart takes his drink. "This is really good, thank you." 12:13 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm Stewart Reader. We're the Wherehouse." 12:13 <VoxPVoxD> "I just realized outside I'd never gotten to say that before." 12:13 <Crion> Rory: "Indeed." 12:14 <trenchfoot> Nels quietly thanks the bartender for the drink and begins sipping away. "You said it just outside, didn't you?" 12:14 <VoxPVoxD> "Right, because of the realization." 12:14 <VoxPVoxD> "I was like, 'oh shit!'." 12:14 <Crion> "And what does the Wherehouse come to the Hold of Orlando desiring? I think I know but it's polite both ways to allow you to say it." 12:15 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Some people we're responsible for have something that belongs to us. Queen Amelia Bantham has asked-not-ordered us to settle that up." 12:16 <VoxPVoxD> "You might know Peter Montgomery or Gemma Franklin. They might've spoken of a Mistress of the High House." 12:16 <VoxPVoxD> "If we're really lucky, they had a skull." 12:16 <Crion> Rory: "You're responsible for Peter Montgomery? Shall I hold you to that?" 12:17 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I won't swear to it in court." 12:17 <VoxPVoxD> "But we didn't come here to-- is Space Mountain still there?" 12:17 <Crion> "The Hold has not had dealings with anyone named Gemma Franklin. I--" 12:17 <Crion> "What?" 12:18 <VoxPVoxD> "Nevermind." 12:18 <VoxPVoxD> This is really good. Stewart hasn't eaten in like 24 hours. 12:19 <Crion> Rory's mouth forms a thin line, angling down. "The Hold has not had dealings with anyone named Gemma Franklin. I suspect that is your doing, and why Mr. Montgomery is so...displeased." 12:20 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Could you elaborate on the dealings you have had with Mr. Montgomery?" 12:20 <Crion> Sarkosa: "He came in here with a pet Title at his back demanding an audience. He got one. Hopefully he'll never get a second." 12:20 <Crion> Rory: "Sarkosa!" 12:21 <Crion> Sarkosa: "The Autumn Court is clear on this, and you're not King." 12:21 <Crion> Rory: "I speak for Lysander." 12:21 <Crion> Sarkosa: "I speak for Clevinger. Are we going to keep doing this in front of them?" 12:21 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart is happy to let them work this out. This drink is very good. 12:22 <CBN> The important thing is that people are arguing at each other and not telling the motley to do anything. And that Tony has a beer. Day's looking up. 12:24 <Crion> Rory: "No." He turns back to Stewart: "Mr. Montgomery is looking for a Keeper, actively and willingly, and is...accompanied...by a Title of that same Keeper. We, of course, strictly speaking want nothing to do with this as a hold...but we don't make the decisions anymore. So we sent him for an audience with creature that does." 12:25 <dammitwho> Maggie, quietly: "Maybe go slow, there, Stewart. We haven't eaten in a while." 12:25 <Crion> Rory: "And that is all I have to say about that." 12:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Is it safe to say the name?" 12:27 <Crion> Rory: "Names are always dangerous." 12:28 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Okay. So... they went to the castle, you're saying." 12:28 <Crion> Rory: "I am very intentionally not saying." 12:29 <Crion> Sarkosa is getting visibly agitated, but isn't going to break ranks again. 12:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Is anyone else very intentionally not there? Are there prisoners? Attaches?" 12:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Where is Lysander?" 12:29 <Crion> Rory: "...Indisposed." 12:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Since the audience?" 12:31 <Crion> "No, since earlier this afternoon, when he-- this is Hold business. I have formally greeted your arrival, we have provided the various rites of hospitality, and we're not about to lay out our business for you just-so without even a consultation with the regents." 12:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That's your right, and I'll respect it. But they pay me to ask." 12:33 <VoxPVoxD> They don't, actually, but he likes that expression. 12:33 <Crion> Sarkosa: "When the regents return, they can confer and--" 12:34 <Crion> Rory: "--and what they decide is not ours to promise in advance, Sarkosa." 12:34 <Crion> Rory: "Besides, who knows when--" 12:35 <Crion> The bell above the doors tinkles as it opens, and two men walk in. 12:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart turns around. 12:35 <VoxPVoxD> Well, he rotates on the stool. 12:38 <trenchfoot> Nels just glances without turning her stool the full way. 12:38 <Crion> "Jessie, beer and a shot. My feet are killing me," says the hulking Ogre -- lot of those so far -- with the massive Autumn Court mantle swirling about him, dressed like...something halfway between a fur trapper from the pioneer days and a slasher villain. He takes off a mask and slams it on the bar top. "I just polished that," the bartender says with some annoyance as she pours him his drinks. 12:38 <Crion> Behind him is a slim young Beast, tiger it looks like, with a similarly radiant Summer mantle. He puts some kind of tricked out assault rifle down after compulsively clearing its chamber. Without looking at the Wherehouse: "So these our friends from up north, Rory?" 12:39 <Crion> Rory: "At the very least, Karon, they are from up north." 12:40 <Crion> Hanging off the wrapped buttstock of the rifle are two golden coins on a chain. 12:40 <VoxPVoxD> Leslie Mt. Vernon, is how Stewart would describe that look. "We'd like to be friends. Stewart Reader. Tony, Maggie, Melanie, Nels." 12:40 <Crion> Clevinger -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D64fzY-Vz-I I am your mirror image, I'm all you left behind. You made me what I am and who the hell am I? 12:40 <trenchfoot> Nels waves when her name is called. 12:41 <Crion> Karon, “The City” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofaRvNOV4SI Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America? 12:41 <CBN> Tony nods over his beer, though he can't say he likes the look of this fella. 12:43 <Crion> Karon, to Stewart: "I bet you would, kid. Rory, is his royal highness still...?" 12:43 <Crion> Rory nods. 12:43 <Crion> Clevinger finishes his shot and beer all in one go. "Then you all should hang out here. Have another round on the house. Don't do anything stupid." 12:45 <Crion> He grabs his mask; Karon grabs his gun. Clevinger, to Jessie: "We're heading down to her room. No one enters, no one leaves until we come back." He pauses, then blows on his fingers, which seem to slick out with blood into his mantle -- and you feel the Hollow strengthen around you.