21:02 <Crion> So, the Wherehouse has its choice of things to do. You've still two weeks before you have to start worrying about the return of the Huntsman, and Samuel Unbecoming doesn't seem to be holding you to a clock or anything on the business at the Yard. One presumes the strike is ongoing; if one wishes to check, one will indeed find tiny cousins of the Dockworkers -- grouchy half-pint turtlemen, by 21:02 <Crion> the look of it -- running a picket line. They seem a bit confused about how this works -- they're stopping the trucks from driving in, yes, but seem to have no problem with the trucks stopping outside the Yard's walls, then being offloaded into storage containers out there. 21:03 <Crion> The Dockworkers don't seem to see any inherent issue with this, either; they unload the trucks cheerfully, and then...fullthroatedly join the Yardworkers on the picket line? 21:03 <Crion> Hobs. 21:05 <Crion> Either way, Unbecoming wants you to smash the union so he can take credit for it and wheedle the Board for a bonus; Samuel wants you to rob the place so he can tell the Board they need to stop being skinflints about security funding. What they both have confirmed to you is that they either have possession of Maggie's Icon, or have stashed it somewhere safe. You can either play either one of 21:05 <Crion> their games, or do something else entirely. 21:06 <VoxPVoxD> Argh time is moving so slowly. The Icon thing is more immediate, but, he's not having nightmares about the Icon. Still, helping Maggie takes his mind off it a little. "What're you thinking?" he asks her one late November morning while he helps people clean up after breakfast. 21:07 <dammitwho> "A good place to start would be to find out what the lil' turtle's grievances are." 21:08 <dammitwho> *turtles' 21:12 <dammitwho> She makes a popping noise with her lips. "Do you think there are this many huggable hobs about in other places or is the Baltimore hedge unique? Cute little fellas." 21:12 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I think we scared off the mean ones locally." 21:12 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Good. This is much better." 21:12 <VoxPVoxD> "Not so many pigs lately." 21:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart wonders if there's some terrible knock-on effect to the Hedge ecosystem coming from their insistence on making it play nice, like how hunting predators leads to mass starvation in the prey species. He guesses they'll find out eventually. 21:16 <CBN> Tony's finishing off the last of the bacon. "Oh no there's some real shitty ones out there, Steve's told me as much. Seems like a later problem though." 21:16 <VoxPVoxD> "It shouldn't be hard to find whoever's in charge at the picket line. We maybe want to bring some kind of offering, I don't know, coffee or blankets or something." 21:16 <banana> Melanie doesn't look up from her reading. "You have to bear in mind that 'huggable' is an adaptation. They see us as predators and opportunities." 21:18 <dammitwho> Maggie: "You could say that for regular animals, though." 21:18 <trenchfoot> Nels: "That's better than seeing us as prey, surely?" 21:19 <banana> "Well, predation is one of the opportunities. But it's not like they care whether we follow the internal logic of their drama.. it's just a signal about our intentions." 21:20 <trenchfoot> "Also, coffee, blankets... something to eat, soap, tents? I don't know how many of these things they'll need." 21:22 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "That's also worth asking about." 21:22 <banana> They don't need any of them! "Soap might give them the right impression." 21:24 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Do you guys wanna head out today?" 21:24 <banana> Melanie: "You want something to do, right?" 21:24 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Always." 21:24 <dammitwho> Maggie's heading for the coat hooks. "Yeah, no time like the present. Who all's coming with?" 21:25 <CBN> Tony: "Me! Gonna be a good day I think." 21:25 <banana> "I'll help." Melanie gestures the book off to the side; it floats into the air to close itself and then joins a stack of discards. 21:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart blinks. 21:26 <dammitwho> "Whoa! How'd you do that?" 21:27 <banana> "Eh?" Melanie's done this stuff before, hasn't she? Maybe not as often, she's been a bit.. not wanting to stand out. Not as comfortable with the powers thrust on her, but she's getting better at that. 21:27 <banana> "Oh I mean like. I just have power over elements basically." 21:28 <banana> "We've fought things.." No need to talk about this! She'll disappear into her room to get some armour on and get ready. 21:29 <CBN> Tony: "Oh! I guess you can do with...what, wood? What I do with dirt. And paper's wood...dirt's dirt..." Kinda trails off there. 21:30 <banana> Melanie's back after a minute. She doesn't say anything to Tony, but offers a high five. 21:30 <CBN> Tony high fives, of course. 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's got his coat and his gun, not commenting on any of this. 21:31 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Stewart, why doesn't Autumn teach you how to float tomes?" 21:31 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Our stuff's mostly digitized." 21:32 <trenchfoot> Nels returns with her pistol, her armor, and her guitar, slung across her back. 21:32 <banana> Melanie: "eGrimoires." 21:34 <CBN> Tony disappears into his bachelor hovel for a moment and returns with a shotgun he fished out from behind the futon. "So where're we headed today?" 21:36 <CBN> Tony: "Because I can try to get us there, same as usual." 21:38 <banana> Melanie: "Where'd you pick up this navigation stuff, anyway? Do you have some kind of earth sense?" 21:39 <CBN> Tony: "Um. I dunno? It's just, I guess you spend a couple decades navigating miles of rows of vast and unknowable death-corn and everything else, even if it's weird and Hedge-y, isn't that tough to get through." 21:40 <trenchfoot> Ah. Well. 21:41 <banana> "Right, I picked up the manipulation stuff for similar reasons. There's a contract he had me learn because it was, um, special effects. Cheaper than ILM." 21:42 <Crion> The trip is legible enough -- that's not the issue -- and you never get lost. But you do come across something very strange, before the Hedge transitions from city streets to the dock and yard: 21:42 <Crion> A busy intersection? 21:42 <dammitwho> Busy with what? 21:42 <VoxPVoxD> Hah. 21:42 <CBN> Tony: "Look both ways here, folks. Including up, and down." 21:43 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Might as well check forward and back, too." 21:43 <Crion> "Cars" screech around the corner, whiz past at high speed -- occasionally a bus, going the wrong way -- and then careen around the corner opposite. Presumably they just, vanish? You've seen no other vehicles on the street on the way here. 21:43 <Crion> Somehow, none of them crash into each other. 21:43 <VoxPVoxD> Is there a crosswalk? 21:43 <banana> Melanie will drop back to behind Nels, then, so there's someone watching the back. 21:44 <CBN> Tony: "Have any of you seen The French Connection? This is like the best part of that movie but fighting itself. No clue what to do about it though." 21:47 <banana> Melanie: "Maybe we could jam it up, throw something in there..." 21:48 <banana> "They're pretty fast." 21:49 <Crion> There is a crosswalk, but no one seems to be respecting it. They have the light, after all...and seem to be keeping it no matter how long you wait. 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> This is probably still safer than riding a bicycle on actual city streets, Stewart reassures himself. 21:50 <CBN> Tony: "Okay then...just look around and run really fast. Like this." Tony goes ahead and tries just that. 21:51 <Crion> The cars, thankfully, perversely, don't slow down or change first or pile up, meaning they're scary and dangerous...but predictable. 21:51 <Crion> Seems pretty clear they're not hobs at least! 21:52 <trenchfoot> Nels looks to the racing cars, and to Melanie and Maggie. She tries waving down a cab, before trying to cross. 21:55 <banana> Melanie's looking for a loose brick to throw. It's that or shoot out some tyres... not until the others are across, of course! 21:57 <trenchfoot> One zips to a stop in front of her with a cartoonishly sudden stop that kicks the rear of the car into the air, then the door opens. She gets inside and is about to wave for Melanie and Maggie to join her when it suddenly shoots off. A quick point to the opposite side and some grumbled Italian-ish (probably) curse words later, and she's practically spinning where she stands, safe on the other side. 21:57 <trenchfoot> The cab is long gone. 22:00 <dammitwho> Maggie stretches her legs and jogs in place. Little puffs of steam spray from seams and joints, and when she appears to have built up some sort of critical mass, she races directly into the street! Veering neither left nor right, her straight-line charge miraculously avoids every single car, letting her skid to a stop on the other side. 22:01 <Crion> Melanie tries hucking stuff in the road and so on to see what happens, but the cars don't seem to care. They sort of bump over the bricks here and there, but they're not knocked off course. 22:01 <banana> Ehh. There's a good one, a whole chunk of bitumen that can be ripped off this crumbling facade of the already poorly-maintained streets. Can they ignore this..? 22:02 <Crion> ...Ah. No. That one's got that big wide-finned throwback car swerving... 22:02 <Crion> Right at Melanie. 22:03 <Crion> She can easily move aside though as it sort of tumbles across the curb, twists, and rolls right back into the street--causing a pile up. 22:03 <Crion> Now's her chance! 22:03 <banana> Crap! She makes a break for it, straight ahead - she isn't fast enough but a couple of light bumps will just knock some bark off her. 22:05 <banana> "We need better traffic light patterns. They only care about catching people on speedcam." 22:06 <Crion> The air is filled with honking horns and unintelligible, angry shouts -- but no one gets out of those cars. And you're free to carry on. The shipping containers are ahead and, Tony knows, it's just a hop skip and a turn here here here here and here, and then you'll be at the Yard. 22:06 <Crion> When you arrive, things are mostly as you left them last time you checked up on things, except for a couple new faces -- Pigs. 22:06 <Crion> Wait, not Pigs. 22:06 <Crion> Well. Kind of? 22:06 <Crion> They're in...rent-a-cop outfits. 22:07 <Crion> They seem bored, and don't react to you at all unless you do something stupid like open fire on them. 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> Do they look like Kevin James? 22:07 <Crion> No, but two of them are large porkers on segways. 22:07 <Crion> So...yes? In the ways that count? 22:08 <Crion> Anyway, the labor "action" looks civil and orderly, and these guys only have batons. 22:08 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Do you ever feel like the Hedge is one overactive label-maker away from being a political cartoon?" 22:09 <banana> "Haha. At least their twisted reflection has the qualia of reality-as-it-is, not reality-as-rendered, so it's like.. a more honest parody than you get from the news." 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Wyld-as-Satirist." 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> "Satyrist?" 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> *Wyrd 22:10 <Crion> The Yardworkers -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4OzdyxbOuU They let you dream just to watch 'em shatter; you're just a step on the boss-man's ladder. 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> While talking, Stewart's head is cocked slightly. Niiiiiice. 22:11 <banana> Melanie: "No, they've all got pants." 22:11 <banana> "Maggie, remind us, what's the plan?" 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's sort of dancing in place a little. 22:14 <trenchfoot> Nels glances to Stewart, but says nothing. 22:14 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Get these little guys to do some real agitation, force their bosses to the negotiating table. If they're pinching pennies on security, that can't be good for the workers, right?" 22:15 <CBN> Tony: "Hell yeah." 22:15 <Crion> Time to figure out who's in charge of this action, then./ 22:16 <banana> How to achieve a militant union Melanie does not know. Handing out newspapers isn't likely to do it. 22:17 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart gives Maggie a significant look at 'real agitation', but doesn't say anything. 22:21 <trenchfoot> Nels: "You mind if I play 'em a little song? See if we can get them to fetch someone who'd want to greet the newcomers." 22:23 <dammitwho> Maggie: "That sounds nice." 22:24 <banana> It does! Melanie looks for somewhere to stand unobtrusively and listen (having forgotten for a moment that they're here to obtrude). 22:33 <trenchfoot> She finds a place to sit nearby, plucks at a few strings. Then: "Come all you, good workers! Good news to you I'll tell, of how the good ol' union has come in here to dwell..." It's a little after her time, but it just feels right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hGRcScbmqg 22:36 <VoxPVoxD> Damn. 22:36 <Crion> The song is good and rings true, and the Yardworkers will trundle over to sit down and listen to it...almost breaking their lines. It takes the intercession of two bigger -- but still not, you know, big -- Yardworkers to push them back to their lines, while even they listen in appreciation. Both have spines on their shells, unlike the other, though they're muted. One is yellow with a green 22:36 <Crion> shell and red hair, and a temper; the other is brown with a black shell, and grinning with bushy eyebrows. 22:37 <VoxPVoxD> Haha holy shit. 22:37 <Crion> Red hair: "HEY! Who're YOU guys." 22:38 <Crion> Black shell: "Aw, they don't look so bad, Huey." 22:38 <Crion> Huey: "Shaddap, Long. They could be THE FUZZ." 22:39 <CBN> Tony: "We're no pigs!" 22:39 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Aren't the fuzz a lot shorter? And more piggy?" 22:40 <Crion> The guys hanging out at the door are man-sized, though they're definitely more piggy. 22:40 <Crion> Huey: "Mayyyyyybe." 22:41 <Crion> One of the Dockworkers from the crowd pipes up. "Oh, they's with the Dockworker's Local. The big ones, that is. Seen the other three abouts." 22:41 <Crion> Long: "See?" 22:41 <trenchfoot> Not wrong to be suspicious, though. Especially with an organization as lax as this one... 22:43 <dammitwho> Maggie: "We came to see what your grievances were, try and help you out." 22:44 <Crion> Huey, suspicious: "You na-go-t'yating? Or are you just hear to sing songs and mess up our lines??" 22:44 <Crion> Long: "Huey...you gotta coool it." 22:44 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Actually, I just figured that'd be our best way of getting your attention. We want to see what you need, how we can help." 22:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart just hangs quietly at the back, trying not to let on how much he's enjoying himself. 22:46 <Crion> Huey glares at the rest of yas, then softens a little bit. "So...you wanna hold some signs...or...?" 22:46 <Crion> It's clear the hapless little hob has, at best, a very limited idea of how to conduct a worker's action. 22:47 <banana> Melanie: "We've got to bring the bosses to the table. These guys have got away with ignoring your concerns too long." 22:47 <banana> "In this place it probably involves some kind of literal table.." 22:48 <CBN> Tony: "So we wanna help you get too loud for them to ignore." 22:49 <Crion> Long strokes his very cleft chin. "What're ya thinking?" 22:49 <banana> Melanie: "Megaphones?" 22:50 <VoxPVoxD> What's Maggie thinking? 22:51 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Well, I've noticed the Dockworkers are with you in spirit, but they keep on loading things just outside the Yard, maybe because it hasn't occurred to them not to. Why don't we talk them into a sympathy strike?" 22:52 <Crion> Huey blinks. "You think that'd work?" 22:52 <trenchfoot> Nels: "It certainly has in the past. Solidarity." 22:53 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Why not? You guys have the same interests. They show up for you, you show up for them." 22:53 <CBN> Tony: "Also, it'd help if we know what you guys want. What're you striking to get, anyway?" 22:54 <Crion> Long turns to that Dockworker from before. "Hey, get Jawn and Chone down here." 22:55 <Crion> The Dockworker: "Really its more kinda east and up, truck grades down on the way over--" 22:56 <Crion> Huey: "The heck you say? You say we're beneath you, that what you say to me? Is that what you're saying? We're some kinda bugs? Is that--" 22:56 <Crion> Long puts a hand on his chest. 22:56 <Crion> "Huey. Be coool. It's about solidarity." 22:56 <Crion> Huey takes a deep breath. "Yeah. Yeah. Solidarity. Sorry." 22:56 <Crion> The Dockworker: "...It's fine! I'll go get 'em." 22:57 <trenchfoot> Nels begins strumming the first few bars of Solidarity Forever, but doesn't launch into the full song. Nervous tic, maybe. 22:58 <dammitwho> That guy's really irritable. Well, maybe life's just hard out here for a little turtle. 22:58 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Were you in a union, Maggie?" 22:59 <dammitwho> She opens her mouth. Closes it again. Opens it: "Mmmmmaybe?" 23:01 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Respect. Never got a chance myself." To Huey and Long: "D'you mind if I play another? While we wait. They keep the spirits up." 23:06 <Crion> Long: "Please do, ma'am." Huey grumps but doesn't object. 23:08 <banana> While they wait and listen - the music doesn't have the right effect on Melanie, she just thinks of it as beautiful instead of a call to action - she's going to follow up on Tony's question. "What do you guys need from the Notgnixel bosses? What lead you to go on strike?" 23:08 <banana> Half-expecting there's no real answer to this. Is it all simulacrum..? 23:08 <trenchfoot> If they don't object, she'll move closer - to avoid interrupting their lines, and attempt to teach them a song. Though she realises, probably the guitar can sit this one out. "When the union's inspiration through the worker's blood shall run, there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun..." She keeps going, encouraging any chorus that mimics her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsPOgCPEeKs&t=25s 23:09 <Crion> Huey: "All's we want is a little respect from those guards and that Sammy guy!" 23:09 <Crion> Long: "Aaaand, we'd like to get paid. Remember that, Huey." 23:09 <Crion> Huey: "Right! They gotta pay us!" 23:09 <Crion> "This place takes in all kinda goblin fruits and trinkets and whadda we see? Nothin'!" 23:10 <trenchfoot> Nels shoots a glance over, but she's still halfway through Solidarity Forever. 23:10 <CBN> Tony: "So do you guys not get paid...ever?" 23:10 <CBN> Tony: "Why even work here?" 23:10 <Crion> The line falters a little bit more to listen, but not enough that Huey starts pushing them around again. 23:10 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Okay, you guys definitely do need to get paid. Who's Sammy?" 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Unbecoming?" 23:11 <Crion> Huey shrugs. "We live here, yeah? So they turn it into the Yards, what're we supposed ta do? Leave?" 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> "Split in half, kind of a drawl?" 23:11 <Crion> Long: "Stitcher man." 23:11 <Crion> He nods to Stewart. 23:12 <dammitwho> "Huuuuuruum." 23:12 <CBN> Tony: "Uhhhhh." 23:12 <Crion> Chone and Jawn arrive now, Chone still chomping on his stoagie. "What's all this about then!!" he says, jabbing it at Maggie then Huey then back at Maggie. "I got work to do!! On the clock here!" 23:12 <CBN> Tony turns to Maggie. Low: "Okay, so there's a way we can get your Icon and also just completely murder their bosses right?" 23:12 <banana> "We've met that guy. He definitely does not understand the meaning of respect." 23:12 <Crion> Huey to Chone: "I ain't askin for ya unless I wanted ya to be here!" 23:13 <Crion> Chone, roaring back: "Well I wasn't COMIN HERE unless I wanted to see ya!" 23:13 <Crion> Huey: "Yeah??" 23:13 <trenchfoot> Kiss already. 23:13 <Crion> Chone: "Yeah!!" 23:13 <CBN> Tony, louder again: "Ayy, Chone! We want to get everybody paid!" 23:13 <Crion> Then they kinda chest bump hug it out. 23:13 <Crion> Chone, to Tony: "Eyyy! How ya doing, kid. Good to see you at an action." 23:13 <VoxPVoxD> Just guys bein dudes. 23:13 <Crion> "You too, Mags." 23:13 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Hey there, Chone." 23:14 <Crion> Chone: "So why are we up here?" 23:14 <dammitwho> "We were hopin' to get you guys in the Yard and the Docks to work together on this thing." 23:14 <Crion> Chone, genuinely confused. "I mean that's what we're doing, right? We don't take the trucks inside no more." 23:14 <Crion> Jawn: "See, I was telling you about this." 23:15 <Crion> Jawn: "You gotta think bigger." 23:15 <trenchfoot> Nels nods, having finished her impromptu session. Hopefully at least some of the hobs took to it - it wasn't her best or close to it. "Solidarity." 23:16 <CBN> Tony: "No one does anything, until everyone, gets everything." 23:16 <Crion> Jawn, double finger guns on tiny hands. "Bingo." 23:18 <banana> Melanie to Stewart in an aside: "So they're really just the indigenous, um, characters. It looks like the market/product metaphor imposed itself on the preexisting metaphor, structuring them because it has an actual interaction with the real world, so they need to get concrete things done.." 23:18 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "S'right. The bosses don't care if the trucks go inside, as long as their cargo does. Gotta hit 'em in the wallet if you want 'em to listen." 23:19 <CBN> Tony looks to Maggie, setting the ball nicely on the verbal tee: "But Maggie, are you saying we should make the cargo not go inside either? Where would it go, then?" 23:19 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I wonder how it looked before." 23:20 <banana> "Like an old videogame, right? I recognised these guys too but I have no idea from where." 23:22 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah but then before that... like the market's been here longer than the union has, right?" 23:22 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Nowhere! Nothing moves unless the people doing the moving say it should. That's power, baby." 23:23 <banana> Melanie: "That's an interesting question. I suggest that the Market would say it has, and the Yards-peoples would say otherwise." 23:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I wonder how far back the freehold's historical record goes on things like that." 23:27 <banana> "We could ask the uh." 23:27 <banana> "Your guy, the.. lord sage." 23:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah..." 23:33 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Look, it's like this. We're all in this together, right?" Strum. A hum. "In the gloom of mighty cities, 'midst the roar of whirling wheels..." She keeps playing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVcWEtFXwnc 23:33 <banana> Melanie: "Does he do consultation? Sagaciousness doesn't sound like a public resource." 23:34 <banana> "Hang on though." 23:34 <trenchfoot> Nels: "We've all got to be in this. Otherwise they separate us, and break us." 23:34 <Crion> Chone and Jawn and all the Dockworkers are nodding and singing along by the end, alongside the Yardworkers. Huey hugs Chone again in the last chorus and steals a pull from his stoagie. Chone only pretends to be unamused. 23:35 <VoxPVoxD> Shall we only hope for Heaven when we're dead? 23:36 <banana> Melanie's going to step up and help Nels with a brief rousing speech on the virtue of labour solidarity. It's pulled from impeccable sources with a couple of pithy examples about longshoremen in particular getting their dues from greedy shipping companies. 23:36 <banana> She doesn't believe a word of it in this context. The goblins may be people, probably, but they're not human, and they aren't workers. They don't know what work is. It's an ecosystem for them, an expression of instinct which is driven by narratives bled through from Earth. Mostly the cynicism doesn't come through in her voice. 23:41 <Crion> When the song's done, Chone and Huey and the Dockworkers and the Yardworkers are on the same side, and Chone turns to his number two and tells Jawn to send the word: 23:41 <Crion> "General strike." 23:42 <trenchfoot> Oh my gosh. 23:42 <CBN> Tony: "Hell yeah!" 23:44 <Crion> And as that news goes out, Stewart, Melanie, Maggie and Tony notice: nothing's really changed in the rent-a-pigs' demeanors...but the two on segways suddenly have longarms instead of batons. 23:45 <trenchfoot> That is going to be a problem. 23:45 <Crion> Stewart will recognize them as pump action shotguns, though, and the new ammo on their belt as beanbag rounds. Yay...? 23:45 <VoxPVoxD> Less than lethal! 23:45 <trenchfoot> Oh, wait. No, everything is fine, and she can keep teaching songs to the strikers. 23:47 <Crion> Huey: "Huh. Maybe now we got the leverage to try asking THEM if THEY want to na-go-t'yate." 23:48 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "Worth a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained." 23:48 <CBN> Tony: "I think now you have the leverage to tell them that they can come find you when they want to negotiate." 23:48 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "No sense waiting, probably. The economics out here don't really seem to care about attrition." 23:49 <Crion> Huey rumbles and bumbles up to the front of the line, flanked by Chone and...is Maggie coming? 23:49 <Crion> If not, Jawn and Long are gonna gently sort of push her forward. 23:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's got Maggie's back, no matter where she is in line. 23:49 <Crion> Gently, of course, because they're like less than half her size and weight 23:49 <Crion> . 23:51 <Crion> Well, either way, Huey will yell: "THE UNIONS WANNA TALK, SAMMY!" 23:53 <Crion> A minute later, the door will open and Samuel Unbecoming will stride out, yelling at his aide (another Piggerton on a segway) that "you bring me out here for another working lunch and maybe I have my turtle soup with pork on the side--" 23:53 <Crion> And then he sees all of you. 23:54 <Crion> His face goes flat, replaced immediately with a bright smile. "Well. This is not how I expected to spend my morning." 23:54 <Crion> Unbecoming, because it's definitely Unbecoming: "I see that all of you have organized." 23:54 <dammitwho> Yep, Maggie's heading forward. 23:54 <trenchfoot> Mmm. 23:59 <Crion> To Maggie: "So this is how you're playing it." 23:59 <Crion> He ignores the hobs. 23:59 <Crion> Huey: "We gotta list of demands, Sammy!" 00:00 <trenchfoot> There is power, there is power in a band of working folk... 00:01 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Sure. Might be you come out ahead here too." 00:01 <Crion> Unbecoming: "Would that be so fine." 00:01 <Crion> "In fact." 00:01 <Crion> "I gotta make a call." 00:01 <Crion> "Because I am not officially authorized to negotiate on the behalf of the Notgnixel Yards." 00:02 <trenchfoot> Nels raises an eyebrow. 00:02 <Crion> "So I'll -- I'll...Okay fine. You can have this one." 00:02 <trenchfoot> Nels lowers her eyebrow. 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> Money speaks for money, the devil for his own~ who'll come to speak for the skin and the bone? 00:03 <Crion> Unbecoming winces and clasps the bridge of his nose. Samuel straightens. "By mutual agreement, I think it's better if I do this." 00:03 <Crion> To the riding segway piggy that accompanied him out. "Phone, please." 00:03 <Crion> The pig hands him a nineties corded handset, holding the receiver, connected to nothing. "Thank you," says Samuel. 00:04 <Crion> He holds it to his ear. After enough time for three rings someone picks up. "Uh huh. Uh huh. Yes, well, things have changed. And you have not paid for that service. Sir." 00:04 <Crion> "Uh huh. Yes. Of course." 00:05 <Crion> "We will get you the best deal, and if they renege, we'll run them back up in them Hollows." 00:05 <Crion> "Of course." 00:05 <Crion> "I understand." 00:05 <Crion> "You take care now." 00:05 <Crion> Samuel replaces the handset. "I now negotiate on behalf of the interests of the Notgnixel Yard." 00:06 <Crion> "So let's have us a summit! Someone find me a table." 00:06 <trenchfoot> Nels can draw popular support, but negotiations are... not in her wheelhouse. 00:06 <Crion> One is soon located, and all the principal characters are there: Huey, Maggie, and Chone on labor's side, and Samuel and Unbecoming on management's. 00:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart paces away, pulls a little notebook out of his pocket, muttering to himself, "They never knew, and she doesn't remember... if Maggie fails and loses herself, with the right and the good, what hope is there for any of us? I need... we need... here." He sidles up to the table, ripping a page out of the notebook and handing it to Maggie folded. "List of demands," he murmurs 00:11 <VoxPVoxD> in her ear. 00:16 <Crion> Samuel: "So what's the framework we're looking at here?" His smile is wide and, honestly, fairly genuine. 00:17 <trenchfoot> Nels just sort of nervously looks to Stewart and Maggie. She can handle the workers - but directing them is... 00:18 <dammitwho> What is the framework we're looking for here? 00:19 <Crion> Well, Huey and Chone didn't quite present you with one, outside of telling you Huey's people weren't being paid a thing. Chone's people get a generous cut of the fruit off the productive containers and Coin of the Realm when containers aren't producing. 00:19 <Crion> A month's work, roughly, is 4 Coins and a fruit. 00:22 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Pay for the Yardworkers in parity with what the Dockworkers get, security to keep briarwolves and such from interfering with loads, and..." She looks at Huey and Chone. "You guys get breaks?" 00:23 <Crion> Hury snorts. "Only in my legs." 00:23 <Crion> Chone: "She means rests, idiot." 00:23 <Crion> Huey: "Oh. I mean yeah, when we're done workin." 00:23 <Crion> Chone shakes his head. "Everything's backwards up here." 00:23 <trenchfoot> Nels: "You don't get lunch?" 00:25 <Crion> Meanwhile that second rider makes Samuel's eyes light up. "Security on the docks, huh. I think we can do that. If the Foreman agrees. Obviously his union's prior arrangements are respected. We would just be...additional support. Paid for by the Board." 00:25 <Crion> "If that's acceptable." 00:25 <Crion> Chone raises a dubious eyebrow and looks to Maggie. 00:27 <dammitwho> "Sounds good. So, the pay package plus added security and, say, a half hour daily for lunch plus two ten-minute breaks for the turlet." 00:29 <Crion> Samuel grins and stands. "Sounds good to me. We'll draw up the paperwork but, based on the agreed-upon terms previously stated, a handshake oath properly sealed should be sufficient to end this strike. Foreman and First Yarder, if you would." He extends his hand. 00:29 <Crion> Chone and Huey will both glance to Maggie first before shaking, but they're less tenative this time and will do it unless she stops them. 00:31 <dammitwho> Maggie will shake, then. This would probably be a lot harder if the fella negotiating with the bosses didn't understand honest graft. They got lucky. 00:32 <Crion> There's no such thing as half-way cops. 00:34 <Crion> When the leaders are returning to their lines to celebrate and the segway pigs are removing the table, Samuel Unbecoming grins and steps forward. "I'd like to say I didn't know that that would work. I'm sad to say I didn't think to even try it. You are a revelation, Margaret." He'll reach forward to shake again, but this time he's not sealing an oath. This time he's pressing something into 00:34 <Crion> her palm. "If there are any problems with the resolution of our agreement, and I don't expect there will be, you know where to find me. But I expect it's a straight shot." 00:35 <dammitwho> "Jim dandy. You have a good day there, Samuel." 00:35 <dammitwho> What's she got? 00:35 <Crion> He grins and pulls away. "Ma'am." 00:36 <Crion> A key to a shipping container, with a label. X4009. 00:37 <dammitwho> She's not even irritated that he called her Margaret. 00:39 <CBN> As soon as they're all done, the table's...wherever it came from, and everyone's all circled up: "So! Where are we headed?" 00:40 <dammitwho> She opens a hand, showing the container key dangling from one finger. "Think you can get us there, Tone?" 00:42 <CBN> He looks at the key, thinks for a minute. "Yeah. Should be a little ways down and over from the last set we looked at, and I think if we go the right way, the signs won't notice we're looking at them, and so the whole place won't change." Hedge logic. 00:43 <Crion> Tony's good at that stuff now. Soon he has them before the container in question... 00:43 <dammitwho> She'll start to whistle as Tony navigates them through the Hedge, which in time turns to singing: "I remember my old grandpa, and his little old house in the hills... he'd been all alone, since grandma passed on, from too much hard liquor and pills... grandpap set me down on his knee, said 'girl, I've just dropped LSD, it's kickin' in now, and I'm certain somehow, that the hills are screamin' 00:43 <dammitwho> at me!'" 00:45 <dammitwho> "Banshees're shriekin', neck veins're leakin', from the bite of the freakin' vampars..." 00:46 <CBN> Tony: "That reminds me. Vampires are real. What the hell." 00:46 <CBN> He's mostly looking at Stewart when he says this. Autumn stuff, man. 00:46 <dammitwho> "It's a hell of a thing." She fumbles with the container's lock and inserts the key, twists it with a snap. 00:46 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Some of them are pretty cool." 00:47 <VoxPVoxD> "I play video games with the head vampire of the city sometimes." 00:47 <CBN> Tony: "But they...eat people? Or is that werewolves." 00:47 <Crion> As she does, Grinning Lash slips away, happy that no one noticed her. Thank you, three people who noticed her, for your kindness. 00:47 <Crion> Inside, there are a bunch of generic crates and three bespoke boxes. 00:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "They drink blood. They're pretty careful not to kill people." 00:47 <VoxPVoxD> Mostly. 00:48 <dammitwho> She hums to herself. "And one ol' neck muncher gets a spike for his luncher... Frankenstein versus the vampars..." 00:48 <CBN> Tony: "Pretty...?" He shakes his head. "Man. World got weird." 00:48 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah..." 00:49 <CBN> Tony: "Are Frankensteins real too? And...man what was the other one. Fishmen. Those?" 00:50 <CBN> Tony: "I gotta assume the bandage guys, mummies I think? Those are fake, what would those even do? Drink dust?" 00:50 <banana> Melanie: "We're using the word 'real' casually here." 00:51 <CBN> Tony: "Okay, not-in-the-Hedge real. Can-be-at-a-bar-real." 00:53 <banana> It was a shame to see Unbecoming get what (t)he(y) want(s), but it's not like a fight would have been better. Ultimately, those guys were just an opportunitist stumbling on a treasure in the Hedge and offering to sell.. Melanie doesn't like him but she's not sure why she was as mad last week as she was. Something to think about. 00:54 <banana> Melanie: "Yeah, it's just- I'm not convinced. That we're real, really." 00:55 <CBN> Tony: "I'm real enough to get takeout when I'm hungry and beer when I'm thirsty, that's real enough for me." 00:55 <banana> Melanie: "You think of having needs as an anchor? I guess, but that just.. well, whatever." 00:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, actually! Frankensteins - the Created, is the right term - were all manufactured in the hopes of creating new human life. You don't hear about them a lot because they like to move around so there's not really a Baltimore Frankenstein freehold or anything." 00:58 <VoxPVoxD> "I've heard of *a* fishman, but I think they hang out down by the Carolinas. And we're too far south to be in the Jersey Devil's territory..." 00:58 <dammitwho> "Huuuuup!" She grunts as she pulls the creaking metal doors open. 00:59 <CBN> Tony: "So, real, but not realistically at the bar. Good enough for me!" 00:59 <VoxPVoxD> "On the dark web there's this video that's supposed to be some college kids looking into a local legend out in Burkittsville... but it didn't end well for them and I'm pretty sure it's some kind of deepfake creepypasta." 00:59 <VoxPVoxD> "Really well done, though." 01:00 <Crion> Three boxes for Maggie. One looks like an old ammo box; the other two look like they're hardboxes for holding jewelry. No locks, though. 01:00 <CBN> Tony: "I don't know what half those words are but I'll stay away from Burkittsville, gotcha." 01:00 <dammitwho> Huh. What's in 'em? 01:01 <Crion> Ammo box has...four Coins of the Realm, along with a bunch of--Stewart? 01:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Handmade bullets?" 01:03 <VoxPVoxD> "Nine millimeter, looks like." 01:03 <Crion> Handmade bullets! 01:03 <Crion> In the other two...Maggie opens the first, and finds... 01:03 <Crion> A black feather. 01:03 <Crion> Lustrous and long. Touching it makes her head buzz lightly -- it's powerful, but not for her. 01:04 <Crion> In the last box... 01:04 <Crion> It's a union card. 01:04 <Crion> Old and wrinkled and blotted. It's for Mary G... 01:04 <Crion> Just Mary G. Can't make out the rest. From Local 423. 01:05 <Crion> There's no picture on it. The union was wary of picture ID. 01:05 <Crion> Who wants that anyway? 01:05 <Crion> And when Maggie touches it, it does not buzz. 01:08 <dammitwho> This is it. This is hers. And, unfortunately, she knows exactly what she needs to do with it. 01:08 <dammitwho> Carefully folding the fragile paper, she puts it in her mouth and, wincing, swallows it whole. 01:08 <VoxPVoxD> ?! 01:08 <Crion> And so it was that Maggie remembered. 01:10 <VoxPVoxD> After a moment: "...Maggie?"