21:03 <Crion> The month of November wanes; Thanksgiving slouches ever closer. That holiday is not officially celebrated in the Freehold; it's out of character for Autumn and the Spring courtiers have little patience or use for it either. Some freeholds do a big extended-family style meal for all the city's changelings on the day, but Baltimore's a bit too big for that, and already has Halloween and Christmas 21:03 <Crion> to wind down from and prepare for respectively, and honestly, lots of Baltimore's changelings just have really shitty Thanksgiving memories. 21:04 <Crion> That's still a bit off, yet. The Wherehouse remains cozy and warm, but the weather outside has turned shitty, rainy, and cold; gone is the late summer-y Autumn, here is the leadup to Winter. 21:05 <Crion> For Tony and Maggie, work at the docks has paid off -- as wages, they can each remove a point of Goblin Debt from their sheet, if they have it. If they do not, they get a Coin of the Realm, which can be spent at Notgnixel Market. 21:06 <Crion> They're also getting closer to Maggie's actual goal, which is to find one of her Icons...or at least, getting chummier with the Dockworkers, who know much of the Baltimore Hedge very well. 21:07 <Crion> What's everyone up to, early in the fourth week of November, still somehow almost two weeks off from Thanksgiving and Black Friday? 21:11 <banana> In the absence of urgent events or Lost socials, Melanie Lucas is working. She's got a lot to learn and write, and thinking in the abstractions of academia is a great way to not contemplate various other things. She stands at her usual desk in an annex of the Hollow, stacks of paper lifting themselves into the air for her inspection while she types. Other papers set themselves apart in 21:11 <banana> neat piles or insert themselves as bookmarks in hovering textbooks. 21:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart is also working. He's not as antsy as he was when he was waiting for access to John of the Falls, but it's because deepening worry has forced him to find constant outlets for his nervous energy. So he's been doing longer streams (partly to get back in shape for the long days he'll be pulling around the league start in a few weeks) and making videos. He can lose hours and hours of 21:13 <VoxPVoxD> time to editing footage, and that feels strangely good. He's stopped drinking almost entirely now that Lauren's around pretty much all the time. 21:15 <CBN> Tony's gone through two separate pairs of jeans and four different shirts, along with more quarters than he'd care to remember, getting the dock smell out at the laundromat down the street from his old place. So he's been extra frugal lately, which as one would imagine, means less beer, and unfortunately less Steve. And yet somehow, more Tony in the kitchen. 21:16 <CBN> None of the motley know he's been trying to make the perfect pumpkin pie as a surprise for the crew on Thanksgiving---his attempts to date have ended up secreted out and left in the Hedge for anyone else who cares to eat them. Someday it will be perfect. But right now he's sitting on a folder chair watching another cook through the dingy window of the stove. 21:17 <Crion> Steve has found time to wander by a bit more recently, though the lack of beer means he usually doesn't stay as long. He's currently in the Wherehouse now, actually, to get out of the...rain?... It's weird, you can HEAR the rain beating against the side of the Wherehouse when you're in it, and if you've worked windows into it, see the rain splashing and dripping down the walls (the windows 21:17 <Crion> are almost always fogged up no matter the weather in the Hedge or in Baltimore). 21:17 <Crion> But if you go outside, it's like you've just missed the storm breaking. 21:17 <Crion> Still hideously wet and cold, though. 21:19 <CBN> To Steve: "Are you suuuuure you don't want a raincoat? I could probably pop over and get one in a child's---excuse me, in your size, which is not a child's---pretty easily. 21:19 <Crion> honk 21:19 <Crion> Steve is intrigued. 21:22 <banana> The hobgoblins' honks don't bother Melanie anymore. She never minded the noise per se - she can pretend basically anything isn't happening - but used to worry that the goose-creature was, basically, a dangerous monster? That they'd let into their home? 21:22 <banana> However, this place was the hobs' home first and they aren't inherently malign. Familiarity has bred acceptance for once. 21:23 <banana> *hobgoblin's 21:24 <Crion> Then presumably she won't mind in a bit when Steve is parading by in a bright yellow raincoat, matching hat, and tiny goose galoshes. Unless Tony has other ideas, 21:26 <banana> "...okay, that's cute. I hope this doesn't mean the roof is leaking." 21:26 <Crion> honk honk 21:27 <Crion> It is not; he is, however, about to heroically head outside. 21:27 <Crion> He made sure "heroically" was in there. 21:28 <CBN> Tony does not, because that's a great idea. 21:29 <CBN> Tony: "Does that just usually happen?" Tony gestures generally to the outdoors, roof, etc. "With the rain but not really that much?" Posed to the room. 21:30 <banana> Melanie leans enough toward her door to look out at the windows and frowns. "Not on planet Earth. Do you think it's a metaphor?" 21:30 <banana> "Like.. winter is coming, but not yet." 21:31 <CBN> Tony: "Does it do that here? I guess I haven't spent enough seasons on this side where I was paying attention to it." 21:32 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Maybe things just got disjoint. Different places arguing over whether its raining now or not." 21:33 <Crion> A big issue with rain, specifically, is it means clouds, and a functional ecosystem based on rules, and it's unclear the degree to which the Hedge agrees to have all of that stuff rather than sort of emulate it at the margins. 21:33 <Crion> There's a lot of deals that have to be signed to come up with a water table! 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's on his way to the Wherehouse for their weekly catchup dinner; it was Melanie's idea, and Stewart's gotten used to scheduled socializing since integrating into the freehold in a way he never was before. He stopped at the store and picked up a case of beer for Maggie and Tony, a case of those new hard seltzers for Melanie. 21:34 <VoxPVoxD> ...does Lauren have any interest in coming? 21:34 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart makes sure to emphasize there's no pressure, and it's fine if she'd rather stay at home or just, be somewhere else. 21:35 <banana> Melanie closes her laptop. The papers hovering about her begin to sort themselves away, though there's one messy to-shred pile as usual. "I remember.. season after season in Arcadia, but they were stylised. Abstract impressions of a spring." 21:35 <Crion> Lauren is interested. And interest aside, it's probably the safest place for her to be. 21:35 <Crion> That or Swordhome. 21:35 <dammitwho> Is Tony cooking? Does he want help cooking? 21:36 <CBN> Tony's got a pie in the oven that should be ready to go in a few minutes, but what's on the range is up to everyone---he's got a pot of potatoes boiling that should be ready to get mashed soon, but that leaves three burners up for grabs. 21:40 <banana> "You'd have birds fly down and sing ostentatiously, thrusting out their chests, flowers burst from the earth... I guess that really happens, but not as fast." She's very happy to leave the cooking to less-flammable friends. 21:40 <VoxPVoxD> Well then! Stewart and Lauren show up about an hour before dinner's supposed to be done to hang out. They get some weird looks lugging a bunch of drinks into the elevator at Lexington Market. 21:40 <Crion> Eh. Weirder stuff goes through this market all the time. 21:41 <VoxPVoxD> "Hey guys! What's for dinner?" 21:41 <Crion> The door to Notgnixel is just down the stairs on the other end of the building, after all. 21:41 <Crion> Lauren: "Hi, Maggie! Melanie!" 21:43 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart forgets if they've been formally introduced, so he does it either again or for the first time. "Tony, this is Lauren Ipsum. Lauren Ipsum, this is Tony." 21:43 <Crion> When Tony pops his head out of the kitchen, she'll say hi to him too. 21:44 <banana> :) "Heyyy. We've got stuff that smells good and the sound of rain.. actual rain not provided." 21:44 <banana> "Who wants to get liminal?" 21:45 <CBN> Tony, having stepped out to circulate and wave and such briefly. "Hey!" And as if seized by a powerful force, stops suddenly and dashes back into the kitchen, just seconds before an old egg timer goes off and he's there to get out the pie. "Everything's fine, no one come in, everything's normal here!" 21:45 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Howdy, Lauren!" She's got some just finished pan-fried chicken sitting on a little warmer near the stove, and is currently sitting in her habitual common room armchair, drawing in a little sketchbook. 21:46 <banana> Work time is definitely over. Although the thinking part of it never really stops. What's Maggie drawing there? 21:47 <Crion> Lauren goes from amused to grinning at Tony's antics, and will settle in on a love seat or couch or wherever Stewart's settling down. 21:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's on the couch after he's handed the drinks off and hung up his coat and gun. 21:49 <dammitwho> Maggie looks at Stewart thoughtfully, then begins drawing again. 21:50 <banana> Okay, Melanie's actually going to sidle behind her if that's what it takes to get a look. 21:52 <banana> She's six and a half feet without nuts so it's more like looming but the action is, technically, a sidle. 21:53 <Crion> Lauren watches this while trying to keep a straight face and sipping one of whatever Stewart's having. 21:53 <dammitwho> It's... the motley! In a cartoonish style. Mostly just practice drawings, it appears - a few of Melanie standing studiously amidst stack upon stack of books, Nels playing the guitar on a stool, Steve wearing an admiral's hat, and so on. 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's got one of the seltzers. He likes the grapefruit ones the best. 21:53 <banana> "Omg." 21:54 <dammitwho> Of note is a drawing of Stewart with little tufted cat ears poking up through his hair, with a note beside it reading 'cat people? cute!'. Likewise, there are a few attempts at Maggie's own face, one of which has a cartoon witch's hat on. That one has been underlined for some reason. 21:56 <dammitwho> "Hurm?" 21:57 <banana> Melanie: "Is Stewart a cat because of the going in and out thing? Or because he's always on the keyboard?" 21:57 <VoxPVoxD> From across the room: "What?" 21:57 <Crion> Lauren blinks at that. 21:58 <CBN> Tony's got the pie. The pie is good. It's also immediately going under a cloth to stay warm while also gently cooling on a small table off to the side, which also has a little folded paper standee with NOT FOR STEVE written on it in Sharpee in big block caps. 21:59 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, no. That's good, though! It was one of them... I saw it t'other week, dunno if it was what he calls an 'animé' or a computer game or what it was, but there were these cat people. Little ears and such." 21:59 <banana> Melanie, confidently: "There's no real difference between anime and videogames." 22:00 <banana> To the others: "Look at this!" 22:00 <Crion> A catboy shouldn't be that new to much of the freehold; Jordan Kit of Winter is one. 22:00 <dammitwho> Maggie blushes. 22:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart gets up and, with some hesitance, walks over to see. 22:01 <Crion> Lauren leans forward. "Is that Jordan? Oooooh. Stewart as a cat Beast." 22:01 <Crion> She smiles. "I don't think Chup would approve." 22:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart presses his lips together as he peers over Maggie's shoulder. 22:02 <VoxPVoxD> "...I like the witch hat!" 22:03 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Good, isn't it?" 22:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. Never too early to start thinking about Christmas presents... 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Is this for something or are you just drawing for fun?" 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Is this for something or are you just drawing for fun?" 22:05 <Crion> Meanwhile, Steve has returned. He marches in, still in full get-up, spies the sign, honks offendedly, then turns and marches back to the door...to properly take off his coat and galoshes. 22:06 <Crion> Then he marches back up to the pie, opens his mouth, and dives forward, eating... 22:06 <Crion> ...the sign? 22:06 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, you know. Just doodling about." 22:07 <CBN> Tony responds to the honk by---after first taking the potatoes off the heat---getting out a sixer and putting a smaller sign that says FOR STEVE on it, atop the sixer. He does this while Steve is eating the sign, offering only a faint "Steve please not again" in response. 22:07 <banana> Melanie: "Do you want to talk about the thing?" 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> Who is she talking to? 22:08 <Crion> He will then begin flapping his wings -- though not flying -- and running about the first floor honking about justice in an unjust world (? have any of you been watching westerns or samurai films while he's been about?), until he sees the second sign and abruptly freezes in place, cartoon-like. 22:08 <banana> Melanie's addressing Maggie there. 22:09 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Which thing?" 22:09 <Crion> Then he will magnanimously stride over to the potatoes, honk a thank you/not quite apology, and drag a beer into the main room to plop down and drink. 22:09 <Crion> *the beers 22:10 <Crion> Lauren processes all this with wide eyes. This is far from the first time she's seen Steve, but this is the most she's seen of his Antics. 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart pays Steve no mind if he's not being addressed directly. 22:11 <CBN> Tony nods appreciately at Steve calming right the fuck down, and sets about the other steps of the process on the potatoes. "Anyone know if we've got a collander around here?" He hollers into the other room. 22:11 <banana> Melanie: "The icon thing.. you said you found a clue at the old port. We want to help out." 22:12 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Icon?" 22:13 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Ohhhh... well, not a clue exactly. Tony and I are getting in good with some little mushroom men who seem to know where things are around here." 22:13 <dammitwho> To Stewart: "You know, when you go running through the Thorns on your way out... Icons are the bits that got torn off." 22:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...really?" 22:14 <VoxPVoxD> "I'd never heard of that before." 22:14 <VoxPVoxD> That's... huh. 22:15 <banana> Collander, collander.. "Tony I have a collater but that's for, like, binding pages. Not taters." 22:16 <CBN> Tony, to Melanie: "A strainer. You know, tip water and stuff into it, end up with only the stuff in it and the water goes through?" 22:16 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Check the stack of mixing bowls under the sink!" 22:16 <banana> "It's a joke!" 22:17 <Crion> Here is what Tony and Maggie have learned so far in their week's worth of shifts with the Dockworkers: First, even though there's new ships in port every day, they're never seen coming or going. It's probably as much of an aesthetic mockup of the real thing as the 'rain' hitting their windows is right now. The Hedge is the Hedge, and there is very little in it that is not of it. 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So you find an Icon and it does what, exactly?" 22:19 <Crion> Second, they're playing a shell game, more or less. They're moving shipping crates on and off the ships, and moving them around in the stacks and onto flatbeds for trucks or traincars, but the shipping containers never leave the docks. Usually what happens is they get unloaded from a 'ship,' sit on the docks for a shift or two, get put on a truck, sit there for a shift or two, then get pulled 22:19 <Crion> off the truck like they're brand new containers, loaded onto the 'ships...' The cycle continues. 22:20 <Crion> But Tony can see that's not what's really going on here -- this isn't actually all makework. 22:21 <Crion> The trucks are real -- well, they're not trucks, but they're something -- and sometimes at the end of a shift the bosses will log the containers out and the trucks will leave, usually under guard from some hobs or others. But not often, and it's hard to tell where they're going. Probably the market? 22:21 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Well, you do... something. I dunno, maybe you eat it. Anyway, you can stick the missing bit back on again." 22:22 <CBN> Tony checks under the sink. Moderate enough success. He takes the collander (cheap piece of crap, gonna Secret Santa himself a new one, these people) and the potatoes, and ends up with some soggy, mushy potatoes, in a mixing bowl. And that's how he comes to sit in the main area with a big wooden spoon and a bowl full of potatoes, that he is mashing by hand now, slow-like. "Almost ready with the potatoes here, so if anyone's got other 22:22 <CBN> stuff to make, now's the time to make it, and also please don't look under the sheet on the corner table." 22:22 <dammitwho> "Memories and skills and emotions and such." 22:22 <Crion> Anyway, Tony's figured out what's happening: those shipping containers are actually seedbeds/gardens of sorts, and they're literally "growing" the consumer products inside of them like goblin fruit. The work they're putting in is what's fueling that growth, rather than sunlight or rain or soil. It takes a long time for even one container to ripen, but when it does, it's very valuable. 22:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...huh." 22:23 <banana> Melanie: "We should help track down your icon. It's not... fair to not remember. Things." 22:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Do you need help?" 22:24 <VoxPVoxD> "Nelanie's right. We can help." 22:24 <Crion> Finally: the dockworkers know how to find or 'lose' basically anything in the near Hedge, and have a keen nose for things that have, so to speak, fallen off the back of a traincar or truck. 22:29 <dammitwho> Maggie: "If you all wanna lend a hand, I won't say no. We're mostly just heaving crates back and forth right now, though." 22:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Heaving crates?" 22:31 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Yeah, that's what the mushroom people do." 22:31 <banana> Melanie wants to look under the sheet on the corner table, but she will not. 22:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "And the mushroom people have your Icon?" 22:32 <CBN> Tony "Yeah it's not bad. Just a couple hours of heavy labor every day, you know. The good stuff. Tony says this while mashing potatoes with a spoon like a complete psychopath, which probably tinges it a little. 22:34 <banana> Melanie: "Sounds a lot more appealing than it would've. Have you managed to get out of them where to go next?" 22:35 <CBN> Tony: "Maaaybe back to the market? That seems like where most things end up." 22:36 <Crion> Foreman Chone actually asked Tony and Maggie to stop by after working their next shift. Intimated he might have something for them. 22:36 <Crion> Seemed very...well, Tony probably doesn't have the mafia movie/TV references yet. 22:37 <VoxPVoxD> Tony could've seen Godfather 1 in theaters... 22:37 <banana> Melanie: "I'm going to lay the table- is there anything I should put out for.. foods that might not be obvious? Concealed-culinary cutlery?" 22:37 <Crion> It's a BIT less melodramatic than the old Italian masters. 22:42 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart will also help bring food out. 22:43 <Crion> Lauren will help as she's asked, and generally try to stay busy when Stewart's busy. 22:45 <VoxPVoxD> Once they're all seated and the chicken and potatoes etc are going around, Stewart presses on the Icon again. "So like, you have no idea what the Icon will actually give you back, or what it looks like?" 22:48 <dammitwho> Maggie raises her hands in a more emphatic shrug. 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...kind of a big risk, isn't it?" 22:50 <banana> Melanie: "They don't sound that dangerous. Little mushroom guys, even if the meeting's a trap what can they do?" 22:50 <dammitwho> "How so? I mean, more than just existing Hedgewise?" 22:51 <banana> "We can definitely come along though. Mitigate whatever risk does eventuate." 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "What if it's something you'd rather not know? What if it changes you in a way you'd rather it didn't?" 22:55 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Seems like there's a risk of that just by going about alive in the world." 22:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah!" 22:56 <VoxPVoxD> After pause: "Oh. Oh I see what you're saying." 22:56 <banana> Melanie laughs. 22:56 <banana> "Also, you can be changed by not knowing crucial things." 22:59 <VoxPVoxD> "That's also true..." 22:59 <VoxPVoxD> What does Lauren make of all this? 22:59 <banana> "It's like.. a universal theme. Look at how much literature and cinema revolves around a misunderstanding, a missing piece of information." 23:00 <Crion> She's listening attentively while eating, which means not much talking, but when she makes noises in support of something she seems to be really interested in icons and what Maggie's learning about them. 23:01 <banana> Melanie: "Learning isn't the only thing that matters but to not know enough is really.. She stabs a potato. "Really crippling. Information separates triumph from despair." 23:01 <banana> "I think the guy who lost a kingdom must have had a hammer." 23:02 <Crion> Lauren, after finishing some potatoes: "I think I'd want to know." 23:02 <Crion> "...But I haven't, like. Gone looking for my own icon or anything." 23:02 <Crion> "If there is one out there, even." 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> Now it's Stewart's turn to eat quietly, lost in thought. 23:04 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Anyhoo, there's no guarantee the little fungal fellas are even pointing me at my Icon. Could be somebody else's, in which case I'll just give it back to 'em." 23:05 <banana> Melanie: "That would be a pretty amazing Christmas present. Does everyone have these knocked-off bits floating around undigested? Where did you hear about it?" 23:06 <CBN> Tony, around a mouthful of chicken. "Guh, just realized, what if it's someone's Icon who sucks?" 23:08 <Crion> Lauren: "Then you've got power over them, right?" 23:09 <CBN> Tony: "Myeah but what if we just don't want to talk to them ever, at all?" 23:09 <banana> "And the ability to help them suck less. Unless you mean like.. someone who used to be awful, and they've lost some of the awful bits.." 23:10 <Crion> She grins. "Well then you talk to 'em just that once, and make them swear an oath to never do it again." 23:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "How bad a person do you have to be before you don't deserve the chance to heal?" 23:10 <Crion> "Cambridge Kid bad, maybe." 23:11 <banana> Melanie sounds unsure about this: "I don't think that's a question of history. I think it's a question of what you're doing now, whether you're trying." 23:11 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Yeah, the only changelings I know of where I wouldn't want to give 'em anything are all dead." 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Can't wait to meet the Parson." 23:12 <banana> Melanie: "Oh, pass me some? I didn't see we had salad." 23:12 <Crion> Lauren will oblige. 23:12 <Crion> Steve stands up and honks. Tony will know he's asking if anyone wants anything from the kitchen while he's up. 23:14 <Crion> Well, she'll try, anyway. I guess she'll end up with the potatoes before realizing it's a joke. 23:14 <banana> It's much funnier than asking 'who is that', right? 23:15 <Crion> Ehhhh. 23:16 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks at Melanie. "So Proctor was the head of one of three privateer crews all working for the same keeper. The Proctor, the Parson, and the Haruspex. We can probably expect the other two to filter into our area hunting... us? Peter? The Mistress of the High House?" 23:16 <VoxPVoxD> "I've been doing some preliminary research." 23:16 <banana> Well, that's not funny at all. "Wow. What kind of faery employs multiple mercenary teams?" 23:17 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The Sign of the Pig and Ram. Goes all the way back to ancient Egypt or earlier. Do you remember that spooky stall you visited in the Market, with the cat hob selling esoteric weapons?" 23:18 <dammitwho> Maggie: "They had English pubs in ancient Egypt?" 23:19 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Maybe the title evolved. I don't know." 23:19 <banana> Melanie: "That thing was evil. It didn't sell weapons, it sold.. promises. Of violence." 23:19 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Contracts, yeah." 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> "They're like... bespoke curses, sort of. Hunter-killer oaths." 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> "Sold me one for the Parson. Son of Bastet is his name. He's got history with the Sign." 23:21 <banana> "What- um, what did it make you pay?" 23:22 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Just regular hob debt." 23:22 <banana> Bargaining with dark forces for mystic power may be Stewart's thing, but Melanie doesn't like it. She was much happier to see the gun. 23:23 <banana> "That's odd.. maybe it really hates the SPR. I got the impression that it wouldn't take coin of the realm alone, it wanted to.. compromise people." 23:24 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I think he expects you to come up to him with someone to hurt already in mind, and you sort of... didn't. You had people to protect in mind. A vengeance-merchant doesn't really... work... in that space." 23:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't think Melanie would take 'he said we must make a great team' in the spirit it was intended, so he doesn't bring it up. 23:26 <banana> Melanie: "It sounds kind of like you've decided to protect people by taking preemptive vengeance." 23:26 <Crion> The entry in Stewart's Book on the Parson was rather sparse, mainly repeating much of what was learned from the Proctor's page except for noting that he mostly roams the trods of Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and northern Italy (when he's not itinerant on business for his paymaster), that he is the oldest of the three servants of the Sign, and that he works with the smallest 23:26 <Crion> band of followers. 23:27 <Crion> ...There was also this picture, captioned: "At the Prague Freehold (artist's rendition)" https://i.imgur.com/U7cD4ZX.jpg 23:27 <banana> "I can imagine it would be.. effective, but there are real costs. Imagine the scene:" 23:27 <VoxPVoxD> Aw jeez. 23:28 <banana> "A wizard high in their tower, walls hung with trophies and curses. Everyone who *might* hurt them or their loved ones, they've got a spell. A bullet with the potential-enemy's name on it." 23:28 <banana> Melanie: "You'd be sitting there surrounded by pick-and-choose death. Waiting to see who you want to kill..." 23:29 <CBN> Tony: "That's just a dude sitting in a tower with a rifle and waiting to pull the trigger with less aim needed, isn't it. That sucks." 23:29 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah but every way of doing the same thing is just a variation on that. Power is a moral hazard, especially the power to hurt people." 23:29 <VoxPVoxD> To Tony: "Right." 23:32 <banana> Melanie: "I think the qualia vary. Once you make-discriminate that intent, you've set up a relationship - enemy, victim, villain. There's preparation, and there's the psychic burden of nemesis." 23:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You're saying it's better to kill impersonally?" 23:34 <banana> Melanie: "Sounds shitty, right? But I do think so. There's a reason we dehumanise our enemies, it's to avoid overlapping the category of human with the category target." 23:35 <banana> "Hey, I'm sorry if this is really awful dinner conversation." 23:35 <Crion> Lauren: "Well, that's progress!" 23:36 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Ah, shit, yeah. Sorry." 23:36 <VoxPVoxD> "Melanie and I get kind of carried away sometimes." 23:36 <banana> If it was just Stewart she'd be happy to talk about this stuff. For Melanie it's somewhere between an academic hypothetical and a practical question of future importance. But Lauren's reaction.. while kind of irritating.. she saw it coming, and she's happy about that. 23:37 <dammitwho> Maggie cracks her knuckles. "I'll show you bad dinner conversation!" She clears her throat. "What's a qualia?" 23:37 <VoxPVoxD> "A thing." 23:38 <banana> "An experiential thing!" 23:38 <CBN> Tony: "I just thought you guys were talking about birds and pronouncing it funny." 23:39 <banana> Melanie: "The taste of this potato is a quale. The sight of Steve.. many separate qualia, several unique." 23:39 <CBN> Tony: "Never had quail, they seem good but not worth the pain in the ass of cooking a lil bird like that, you don't get a lot out of it." 23:39 <Crion> A semi-aggrieved honk. 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Quail are easier to keep than chickens for eggs." 23:40 <banana> To Steve: "Uncomfortable? Don't worry, you're no turkey." 23:40 <Crion> Now, a self-satisfied honk. 23:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, his mouth full: "Not even actually a goose." 23:40 <Crion> That gets pointedly ignored. 23:40 <Crion> By more beer. 23:42 <banana> Melanie: "Qualia are a really useful concept because it lets you talk about stuff like whether experience-instances are universal, communicable, that sort of thing. Lots of food for thought. There's a much longer german word that's slightly more precise but only to, like, functional criterialists in cog-sci, so nobody can remember it..." 23:42 <CBN> Tony: "You ever had a duck egg, Stewart? Better than chicken, and if you can get around being orange, they scramby up super nice." 23:43 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I have not. I've only ever had duck in Thai food." 23:43 <VoxPVoxD> "It's really good though." 23:43 <CBN> Tony: "Oh man. We'll go to the farmer's market once it warms up out there. So worth it." 23:44 <banana> Scrambled eggs look kind of orange anyway.. another quale. 23:45 <Crion> Lauren: "The Farmers' Market on 32nd Street is really good. So is the one downtown, but. You know. Pricey." 23:46 <banana> Melanie: "Shopping is starting to be a fun thing again. Once you can like.. trust that people don't see through the mask." 23:46 <Crion> "Jackie Ordinary swears by the Druid Hill Farmers' Market but they're over there more than I am." 23:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I wonder what Jackie thinks of the goblin farmers' market that must exist in Notgnixel." He pronounces it with a silent G, obviously. 23:48 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I caught part of it. Little German sounding hob that sold sausages." 23:48 <banana> Melanie: "Made of meat?" 23:49 <Crion> Lauren: "They're something of a connoisseur of Hedge fruit and stuff. They like to grow or pick their own. Not so much over here though, weirdly." 23:50 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Definitely made of some kind of meat. I wouldn't wanna guess what." 23:50 <dammitwho> "Elephant?" 23:50 <dammitwho> "Oh, that's guessing. Shoot." 23:51 <banana> Melanie met Jackie with the others some time back but she was still pretty.. disoriented. She asks Lauren: "Just to check.. nonbinary?" 23:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I could be they just grow naturally like that somewhere in the Hedge. A sausagetree, links growing from the branches and hanging like garlands... like something out of Baum." 23:52 <Crion> Lauren: "Jackie? Yeah." 23:52 <banana> "Okay." 23:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, in his reverie, misses this part of the conversation entirely. 23:54 <dammitwho> Maggie is likewise stunned by the prospect of sausagetrees. Incredible! Just imagine... 23:56 <CBN> Tony: "Feels like rule of thumb around here should be, if it doesn't grow on a tree, don't eat stuff that looks like it that grows on trees." 23:57 <banana> It's less amazing when meat doesn't really make sense to your digestive system. It goes in there, but tends to leave Melanie as hungry as if she hadn't eaten. 23:57 <CBN> Tony: "Just like I wouldn't eat Watermelon Boy meat, no offense Steve." 23:58 <banana> "The essence of sausage is in the processing anyway. Hedge-made sausage has to be some kind of artificial, even if it's just representative." 23:59 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's like they always say, no one ever wants to see how the sausages are grown." 00:00 <Crion> Steve honks. It's only slightly defensive, and what it's defending is the taste, not the morality. 00:02 <banana> Melanie: "Have you noticed that our ability to interpret Steve is.. wyrd? It's narrative, not communicative. There isn't enough noise-variation in those honks, you're just aware of the information he's trying to convey. 00:02 <banana> "There's definitely a skill to it, since only Tony can really get the complex ones, but it's not like learning a language." 00:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's like 75% context, I think." 00:04 <banana> Melanie: "Right, he riffs off the circumstances as characterised by human minds. Maybe to another goblin it would work differently." 00:04 <dammitwho> Maggie: "It's like the little robit fellas in that Star War Stewart showed me. One of 'em just did little bleeps and bloops but everybody knew what he was saying." 00:05 <Crion> Lauren: "It's weird you say that, because I'm getting him a lot more than I did when I first met him, and I haven't been trying to like learn it or anything." 00:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "He could just be growing steadily more powerful..." 00:05 <Crion> A smug honk. Steve's taking responsibility for being such a good communicator. 00:08 <banana> Melanie: "Sure, by framing us in a story or something.. the essential-harmlessness thing is like, self-characterisation." 00:09 <CBN> Tony: "If Steve's gaining power, I can only hope he remembers us fondly when he is lord of the Baltimore Hedge. Isn't that right lil' buddy?" 00:09 <Crion> honk 00:09 <Crion> Steve refuses all thrones. 00:09 <Crion> Then he toddles back into the kitchen for beer four. 00:10 <banana> While he's gone: "It's fine 'cause it works.. that kind of promise about yourself is basically unbreakable here. But they really do live by being, rather than by deciding." 00:11 <VoxPVoxD> Aside from that one drink when he first got in, Stewart's been drinking water all night. "Wow. He wouldn't even take up the mantle if called to serve. No Hob Cincinnatus, he." 00:12 <banana> Melanie: "Who'd be a king?" 00:12 <CBN> Tony: "He's good people, that's why we put in the catdoor." 00:13 <banana> Good maybe, people no. 00:14 <banana> "The Chone meet. You want us there? Nels would come, I bet." 00:15 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Assuming she gets over her cold..." 00:24 <Crion> The dinner will wrap up shortly thereafter. Steve will get through all six of his beers and sleep slumpily on the couch, making cartoonish ZZZzzzz noises. He was good enough to at least collect his cans in a corner near the trash before doing so. 00:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart and Lauren stick around to help clean up. On the way home: "You know, you're basically in the motley now." 00:28 <Crion> She laughs. "I guess. Though I still haven't sworn any oaths yet. Are you guys an oath motley?" 00:29 <CBN> Tony manages to not make it seem like a big deal that he made a pie, and the pie was out, and people ate the pie, and seemed to like the pie. Inside he is delirious. It is done. 00:29 <Crion> Sneaky to wait until Steve was snoozing. 00:29 <CBN> The thought of working on the turkey, however, turns his blood to icewater. 00:31 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "No, nothing like that. Not yet, at least." 00:33 <VoxPVoxD> "...cat ears." 00:33 <Crion> Lauren: "Usually it's the other way around, you know. The oaths come when you don't know each other so well, and then when you're close, then they're not necessary. You guys have something special." 00:33 <Crion> She grins. "Like I said." 00:37 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, smiling: "You can't 'you guys' us, you're there too! You even got through to Melanie when she was going at full speed. ...sorry again, by the way. Usually when we have conversations like that we aren't forcing quite so many people to put up with it." 00:37 <Crion> Lauren waves a hand. "Oh, Melanie's fine. We're fine. We've already had our little tiff." 00:38 <Crion> Has that actually come up yet? 00:38 <VoxPVoxD> No. "You know, I noticed after Halloween she started apologizing for offending people more." 00:41 <Crion> "Yeeeeeah. So while you were otherwise occupied and Nels was, uh, in the kitchen, Melanie and I got to have a little girl-to-girl time...she wanted to make sure I was serious about the relatioship and I wasn't going to hurt you. And she said that in a very Melanie way, after I'd had a couple drinks and was ridiculously stressed, so I might have called her a bitch and stormed off." 00:42 <Crion> "But it's cool, we're cool, she went after me, we cleared everything up." 00:42 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Ah jeez. I mean I'm touched, but, ah jeez." 00:44 <Crion> Lauren: "That was kind of an 'ah jeez' night all around." 00:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Melanie really got to Lister too, that night. When you and I were up on stage it was just her and him in the booth and you could see the dark clouds forming over his head from across the room." 00:46 <Crion> Lauren: "You ever think they put her in Summer Court to contain her?" 00:46 <Crion> "That she'd be too powerful in Autumn and Winter?" 00:50 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart grins. "She cannot be contained. I can't really picture Winter Melanie... imagine her and Spring working together? Seriously, though, I'm really happy to see her sort of... adapting. That kind of stuff bothers her a lot. Plus it's nice to have a best friend and a girlfriend who get along for- you know, for how much time we spend together." 00:50 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's hands tighten on the wheel just a bit. 00:51 <Crion> Lauren notices that, but lets it go. "Well, I do still feel stupid whenever I talk to her. But then if I ever cornered her into a netcode discussion I guess that would change." 00:52 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh man, I know. Like when I talk to you, I can tell you're a genius because I know enough about the stuff you do to understand how much you know. But Melanie gives me stuff to read sometimes and it's just... like completely beyond me sometimes." 00:53 <Crion> Lauren: "She had a long headstart on us. Not really in a great way..." 00:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...yeah." 01:00 <Crion> Lauren cracks the window on the drive back, and the November night seeps in as they head...to next week.