21:22 <Crion> Time rolls on in Charm City...the Southeastern District is under repair; the mayor's in trouble for corruption; the governor has cancelled a planned transit line to give the money to his suburban voters for highways, but is still making the city pay for it. Business as usual in the city of Baltimore as the end of January rolls around. It's an unusually mild winter -- they all seem to be, 21:22 <Crion> recently -- but it is still cold outside from time to time, especially at night. How's everyone staying warm, typically? How are you splitting your time between home and the Wherehouse? 21:26 <CBN> After his run-in with the Sock Jerks, Tony's been trying to chase down information on whatever this 'new Baron' or 'old Baron' is supposed to be. In between bouts of rearrangement and redecoration of the bachelor hovel---it's simultaneously too big to make cozy and too small to really make a proper fit out of. Even with browsing numerous mostly-not-relevant DIY home reno books at the public library on the other side. 21:28 <trenchfoot> Nels spends her evenings in the Wherehouse more often than not - something about having your friends around warms you up. Her days are spent teaching, studying for her driver's license, and finishing up GED prep. She's also waiting on an update with her fetch's daughter, but there's nothing exactly to be done there. 21:30 <banana> The Hollow is home, for Melanie; the tendency she has to fight against is to stay there forever, where it's safe and life moves at a comfortably glacial pace. She tries to get out just enough to maintain links with UMBC - this thesis is actually coming along now, but it won't do any good if she's out of touch with the faculty and community - and with the Courts of the Freehold. 21:30 <banana> Making friends beyond a tight circle who've closed ranks around each others' weaknesses still isn't easy, but she can at least keep up the level of 'Melanie still exists' that's already out there. 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart sticks to his regular routine with ever more fastidiousness, parceling off every unit of his time to work or chores or other obligations. He's never been more productive - viewers are up and he's getting more and more value from secondary revenue streams. He's at the Wherehouse regularly to drop off shopping or do some work shaping the Hollow, but he rarely lingers. 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> He sleeps deeply and swiftly, most nights, and on those rare occasions when there is nothing to be with but his thoughts he has become a very efficient drinker, 21:32 <banana> Melanie's looking for a new project, really. Writing is going surprisingly well but without external input she tends to get into loops of logic that lead nowhere. Occasionally bugging Lauren for anime recommendations has not proven helpful to philosophy. 21:38 <dammitwho> Maggie's splitting her time between working on the still and working on Dead Snow. Her productivity is up too, once she discovered how to make her computer keyboard make typewriter sounds. How fun! 21:39 <dammitwho> She tries to keep in contact by phone with 'outside friends' - Union, Samaritan, and so on. 21:41 <Crion> It'll pass, then, that one day in the third week of January, Lauren will drop by the Wherehouse asking for Nels. Steve won't let her in -- he doesn't have the authority to do that even if he wanted -- but he will honk to alert the house that she's outside. 21:41 <Crion> And then return to oddly pacing back and forth on a table in the main room, staring at his feet. 21:43 <dammitwho> Hmm. Thoughtful Steve. Probably some big deals coming down the pipe. Maggie'll let Lauren in, then. "Hey, Laur! What's up?" 21:43 <trenchfoot> Nels will let her in, then -- and if it's for her and not Stewart, she has a guess as to what this is about. "Hello!" 21:43 <trenchfoot> Well, they'll both let her in then. That's fine. 21:44 <banana> Melanie is trying futilely to get Steve off the table, which is not hygenic. Nothing in this place is gooseproofed, frankly. 21:44 <Crion> "Hey Maggie! Not much, I'm here to -- Hey, Nels. Got a minute?" 21:44 <Crion> Steve will stride off briskly, then, to some room where he can pace in peace. 21:45 <dammitwho> Heavy lies the head that wears the goose crown. 21:46 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Yes, actually -- I think my eyes are starting to cross." She gestures to where she's got the DMV handbook or whatever it's called open on the table. 21:48 <Crion> "Yikes." Lauren will grab a soda from the fridge, give it a once over to make sure the label isn't strange or fey, and then crack it open and sit down. "So I talked to Santander about your fetch's daughter." 21:50 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Okay." Exhaling, she does the same across from Lauren. "And what'd you find out?" 21:52 <banana> With Steve shooed, Melanie isn't sure whether to hang around for this. She's just kind of filling a doorway awkwardly, not sure whether to retreat - how private is this for Nels? 21:53 <trenchfoot> She hasn't asked to take this to a private room or anything, and seems nervous but not about other people hearing about this. 21:53 <banana> Might as well keep looming then. 22:03 <Crion> Tony's had some luck in the Baron department -- checking in with the Winter Court and asking the King about where he might find information on such a title leads him back into the dream-estate of John of the Falls, still as creepy as ever but without the whole haunted house rigamarole this time. John of the Falls is Winter's lorekeeper (obviously Autumn keeps the books for the Freehold but 22:03 <Crion> the Court must have its own records, as well) and has an extensive, nearly-encyclopedic knowledge of...the things he's been told, or learned from dreamings. Everything gets a bit hazy in the nineties for some reason. But! In his mind-library, John of the Falls recalls that yes, there was a 'Baron' active for many years in the Freehold and the near-Hedge. 22:03 <Crion> Abbot Plain, the Baron of the Lesser Ones. John of the Falls remembers his name because it was like he had two titles. 22:04 <Crion> Can't quite remember what happened to the man, though... 22:05 <Crion> Lauren: "So, Sarah's at UMBC, and Santander thinks it's safe for you to try to go meet her. ...But, you know that favor you owe Autumn?" 22:05 <trenchfoot> Warily: "...yes?" 22:07 <Crion> As for Stewart, the investigation with Rose is in a holding pattern. The joint taskforce continues to bicker over what is to be done about them, and they're complicating matters by refusing to press the issue -- the past week, they've just been living their lives like a couple of college students. It's not clear where their money comes from, since neither leaves the Girl's place to go to any 22:07 <Crion> job, but they also don't spend extravagantly. 22:10 <Crion> Lauren: "Three students have disappeared in a month at UMBC, and Santander's curious as to why. Technically it's out of the Freehold's jurisdiction, but there hasn't been an active Freehold out in the county for awhile now, and Santander just wants to make sure that whatever it is, it isn't Keeper related. Since you're heading up that way anyhow..." 22:12 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Of course! Um, are there any similarities between them, any ideas...?" 22:15 <banana> ...There was a student disappearance like three years ago that was definitely the Keepers. Santander must know that. 22:16 <banana> From the doorway, Melanie says: "Did any of them have unusual appearances? 'Themed' in some way?" 22:17 <Crion> Lauren: "I haven't looked into it myself; I've had some other work to do for the Court." She glances at Melanie. "He mentioned that it might be something your motley would be interested in anyway?" 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> If the kids aren't in a rush then neither is Stewart. There's always other stuff for him to be doing. Lauren being out gives Stewart a perfect opportunity to seal Chup in the bedroom and deep clean the bathroom and kitchen. Bleach: it's not just an anime! 22:18 <Crion> Muow. 22:19 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Noted. And... not a bad favor, all things considered?" Fingers crossed that doesn't earn her another one to be named later. 22:21 <Crion> John of the Falls doesn't have much else to help Tony -- he honestly can't remember what happened to old Abbot (he WAS old, right?) and he finds that slightly concerning, but then. He's lived a long life and stolen into many, many dreams, John of the Falls has. It's not unexpected that sometimes things will slip through the cracks; even in the most ordered library, books can get lost. 22:21 <banana> Whether to trust Lauren isn't really a question that goes through Melanie's mind - she's on their side. She's certainly keeping Stewart busy, though - he hasn't been free much at all... anyway: "If this was 34 months ago I'd be one of the evanescent undergraduates. Could I please join? Just in case?" 22:22 <Crion> Lauren looks relieved. "Whew, I'm glad. Santander wanted me to be clear: he doesn't want you to like, solve the case and find the students. Or, well, he doesn't EXPECT you to. He just wants to know what's going on there. If you can rule out the Fair Folk, that's good enough for him." 22:23 <CBN> It's honestly a 50/50 with weird Hob shit if anyone knows what you're talking about in the first place, so Tony's naturally grateful for any guidance John of the Falls provides, even if it's a name and a big question mark about the status of that name-holder. Names are, after all, a lot easier to ask around about than vague half-heard titles? Ranks? 22:25 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I'll work on it. Um." She looks to the rest of the gathered motley, which seems to be Maggie and Melanie: "We'll work on it?" She's genuinely asking. 22:26 <banana> Melanie: "Thank you." The expression on her face is not that of a person who's ruling out the Fair Folk yet. 22:26 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "Sure thing." 22:28 <Crion> Lauren stands up. "Sounds good! I'm gonna get back home; I'll say hi to Stewart for you. ...Has he been around recently?" 22:28 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I don't think I've seen him today, but I was out teaching earlier, so..." 22:29 <trenchfoot> Melanie's response doesn't quite match up with what Nels was asking, but it wasn't a no, so she's counting that as a win with a misunderstanding somewhere. 22:30 <banana> Melanie actually enters the room at last to say goodbye to Lauren properly. "Sounds like he's been really busy. He keeps dropping off bread and milk and stuff, like we don't live in a market?" 22:31 <banana> "It's very convenient though!" 22:32 <Crion> Lauren: "...Hmm." 22:36 <Crion> She looks like there's something she wants to say, but thinks better of it. "Well, nice to see you all! I'll get out of your hair now." 22:37 <banana> Once Lauren's gone, Melanie looks at the others kind of intently. Her head's waving slowly back and forth, enough to rattle a bit. "If the T- if that dumbass with the dumbass name is still hunting on campus it's a problem." 22:37 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Thank you, Lauren." She also looks like there's something she wants to say, but ends up just smiling. 22:38 <trenchfoot> Once Lauren's gone, Nels' smile drops too. "That was my second thought. The first thought is - I mean. Fetches and - her descendent's on a campus with disappearing people." 22:39 <banana> Melanie: "Ohh.. well we'd better rule that out. Don't- don't worry, she's not going to be the monster here." 22:39 <Crion> Armed with a name, Tony can go a-rambling again if he pleases. Steve, for his part, will honk that the name sounds familiar, but he can't place it, and then return to Stevestepping. 22:40 <banana> "IF there even is one." She sounds absolutely convinced that there is, though. 22:41 <trenchfoot> Nels: "There probably is. I don't - do people disappear from college campuses three times a month? I don't think they do and I don't know how to find out." 22:43 <banana> Melanie: "When I was in a res hall there were posters everywhere with stats about, like, sexual assault.. but straight up disappearances? I don't know." 22:44 <banana> She remembers something belatedly. "...of course if these kids are known to have vanished it probably wasn't the faeries." 22:46 <trenchfoot> Nels: "We can't rule it out, but... probably..." 22:47 <banana> "Yeah of course. I was.. being a little irrational there, haha." 22:52 <trenchfoot> Nels: "No, I mean, you're probably right. Just. Maybe they switched it up? Or maybe it's an evil wizard again." 22:52 <dammitwho> Maggie: "How do you tell a college student that's disappeared from one that's just gone home for a while?" 22:53 <banana> Melanie: "FAFSA." 22:53 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Bless you." 22:53 <banana> "If you stop paying.. they notice." 22:53 <trenchfoot> "Oh! Ohhh." 22:56 <dammitwho> Maggie: "The what now?" 22:57 <banana> Melanie: "One thing we could do is, head to the Commons and I could like, introduce you around as my friends slash bitches slash whatever we say these days. Except I don't really know any undergrads anymore and then the question would be, why are you pretending to be a private eye instead of studying and partying? Hmmm." 22:58 <banana> To Maggie: "What which?" 22:58 <CBN> Tony, armed with the name The Plains Abbott, goes out amongst the hobs of the near-Wherehouse. Given that that's not actually what the guy's name was, he gets a lot of hissing-adjacent reponses in the negative, and creatures endeavoring to find new ways to scratch their heads and shrug, whether or not they have formal heads, or shoulders. 23:00 <CBN> After far longer than it should've taken, he realizes his mistake, and, a few heavy sighs and a couple beers at the house later, he's back out at it. The buzz takes a little of the sting out of the number of times he hears variations on "Oh you meant..." but, not all of it. 23:02 <Crion> Rose will take the lead on keeping tabs on the Boy and Girl, though she'll want Stewart's help from time to time so she can have her own life. This usually just involves dipping by their apartment during the day and making sure the van's still there; the vampires, who are a much more interested party, can handle surveillance at night. On one such day, Rose hangs a round after Stewart shows 23:02 <Crion> up to relieve her. "I tried looking them up in the book and didn't have much luck. It always act like a spastic Wikipedia page when it doesn't know an answer?" 23:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "More or less." 23:03 <dammitwho> Maggie clarifies: "What's a fafsa?" 23:03 <Crion> She pulls out a beaten pack of cigarettes and puts one in her mouth. Looks handrolled. "You smoke?" she asks. "Not tobacco." 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart shakes his head. "No thanks. What'd it tell you?" 23:05 <trenchfoot> Nels is curious too. Something to do with payment, and tracking thereof, but she didn't get much more than that." 23:06 <banana> Melanie: "Oh, it stands for... ....I don't remember!" At least she doesn't get the cringe reflex anymore. Maggie is safe. "But it's about money, student loans. You have to have FAFSA, or at least some people had to have it, because the price of college is like.. completely unbounded now. Tuition fees and the different ways people pay them.. would probably be a good place to start 23:06 <banana> tracking down disappearances." 23:06 <banana> Melanie: "Oh, it stands for... ....I don't remember!" At least she doesn't get the cringe reflex anymore. Maggie is safe. 23:06 <banana> "But it's about money, student loans. You have to have FAFSA, or at least some people had to have it, because the price of college is like.. completely unbounded now. Tuition fees and the different ways people pay them.. would probably be a good place to start tracking down disappearances." 23:06 <banana> "We could also do with a pretext, a reason to be asking questions.." 23:07 <trenchfoot> Nels: "...I'm getting my GED and taking a campus tour?" 23:08 <Crion> "He's Damian and she's Nicky. Didn't give last names. Or, well, it tried and failed. Or I tried and failed? Still not quite sure the degree to which you get out what you put in. Either way, he grew up in the Bay Area to hippie-dippie Unitarian pacifists who were big into the anti-war movement; she grew up in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska. Normal childhoods, normal teen years...and then both 23:08 <Crion> disappear, missing but presumed dead. Entry ends there, nothing about magic powers or pulling swords out of thin air." 23:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Ages line up with the birth dates? No sign of lost years or accelerated development?" 23:10 <Crion> "Weird thing though -- both their entries specify that they were accepted to private high schools. Magnet schools. Run by the same company, Donovan-Mitchell Charters." 23:10 <Crion> "Yep." 23:10 <Crion> "The ages line up, that is." 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> "Charters?" 23:11 <banana> You could leave out the GED part, Melanie thinks but does not say; Nels looks like a normal smart young woman. She keeps the 'wait no hang on what is ''normal''' and the reminder that Nels is rightly proud of her diploma internal, which feels perversely like an accomplishment. To Maggie: "Then you could be a friend or a mature-age student. Or her teen mom." 23:11 <Crion> "So a fancy magnet charter school in the Bay Area, that's not surprising. But in rural Nebraska?" 23:11 <Crion> "Charter schools. Private schools that take government money, usually in exchange for fucking up a bunch of kids' schooling." 23:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks a bit offput, but recovers quickly. "...cool. Alright, uh, so I can do some more research, look up company records, find out where else they have campuses, maybe see if there's any record of other graduates..." 23:13 <Crion> She nods. "Sounds good. I mean, we could always just ask them. But the vampires want to continue to play out the string here." 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> "If we're gonna make contact I'd like to have something in hand when we do. Some support or information or even just..." he gestures. "Empathy, I don't know." 23:17 <Crion> It's worth noting that Tony DOES get one answer in response to asking about The Plains Abbott from a creature that looks like a broom with cartoon arms and a mop for a head, crusing along by sweeping the street as it goes, but it's hardly intelligible: "Oh, his wickedness was swept from here long time afore, and the Monastery of Grain with him." 23:18 <Crion> It's unclear whether "his wickedness" here is a title or an attribute. 23:19 <Crion> Anyway, the hobs are much more cogent on Abbot Plain. 23:26 <Crion> They agree upon the hat; the man always wore a brown flat cap, and was only known to take it off in order to stomp on it while angry and animated in the middle of settling a dispute. They agree on that, too -- Abbot Plain was known and recognized as a judge of merit and character, and his circuit court was adversarial in that he would harrumph constantly at both parties for wasting his time 23:26 <Crion> with damnable tomfoolery. 23:27 <Crion> But on the question of his race, age, height, facial hair -- none agree. A couple hobs even insist Abbot Plain was a woman, or at least that at some point a woman wore the flat cap. 23:28 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I feel like pretending to be Nels' mom is the sort of thing that's funny for about fifteen minutes and then we all feel weird about it." 23:30 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Well... what's another reason people have to be on campus nearby a student and a prospective one?" 23:33 <banana> Melanie: "That.. was a joke. We don't really need a reason to all be hanging around as long as we look the part I think. Has everyone got jeans and a shirt with chinese some characters on it that mean something other than what you think they mean?" 23:33 <banana> *with chinese characters 23:33 <Crion> Here's what's publicly available about the disappearances: three days after New Years, the family of Michael Row, age 21, reported him missing. He lived with his family off campus, outside of Arbutus. A week later, Rhonda Barkeley, 19, was reported missing from her dormitory (Chesapeake Hall) by her roommate after she was gone for two days. The school contacted her parents, and eventually 23:33 <Crion> had campus police report her missing when it became clear she hadn't flown home to see them without telling. Curiously, there doesn't seem to be any mention of a third disappearance in any papers...and with only two incidents, seemingly unconnected, no great alarm is being sounded at the school. 23:35 <banana> One step to be taken here, probably pro forma, is that Melanie will email the Last of Summer Foundation to see whether these particular disappearances are within their purview. Likely not, in the county, but List's stories stick with you. 23:35 <trenchfoot> Those first two are concerning, and that third one is extra concerning. To the group: "I've got jeans, and a shirt I was assured looks normal even if it seems... not." 23:36 <Crion> List will respond rather quickly that while he's interested to hear what the outcome of the motley's poking around is, no, Summer is not a stakeholder in the campus or any of the business on it, mundane or otherwise. 23:42 <Crion> Likewise, it's unclear how long Abbot Plain has been away -- some hobs talk like it's been years, others like it was just last season, though none of them speak of having seen him recently. Time can be a bit strange for the hobs and the Hedge; things grow and wither at different speeds. 23:47 <Crion> Rose gives Stewart an odd look at 'empathy,' but nods in agreement. 23:55 <Crion> Night's falling in Canton. A homeless guy moves off from the end of the block; a woman leaving the dog park is almost bowled over by a guy preoccupied with his phone. 23:55 <Crion> Rose: "One of the vampires is gonna be here soon, so you can probably bail in like, an hour or two. I'm gonna head out." 23:56 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Alright, thanks. Take care." 23:56 <Crion> Rose: "Yeah...you too." 23:58 <trenchfoot> When you say publicly available, I am assuming that doesn't include whatever the Autumn Court may already know that isn't public? Unless this is them sharing with us, and that's all they know, too. 23:58 <banana> In which case, how do they even know a third person is missing? 23:59 <Crion> Yeah, this is just a quick survey of newspapers/online postings. 23:59 <Crion> Stuff you'd find with a single Google search or without really trying. 23:59 <Crion> It's unclear how Santander knows about a third missing person, but. He's Santander. 00:00 <trenchfoot> Hey, that's the extent of Nels' computer abilities, don't knock it until you've tried and failed at it and had to go to Lauren for help. 00:03 <banana> Once they reconvene after some brief research, Melanie says: "So there's no obvious connection. A sophomore and a senior.. we'll have to talk to people who know them. And we have to, somehow, find out who else is missing. That might not be in any records yet, so again, the main thing seems to be talking to a lot of students..." 00:05 <banana> "Or not a *lot* of students, since most of them have gone home for winter?" 00:06 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I mean, Lauren said she hadn't looked into it, but she knew about a third missing student nobody else does. So clearly Santander's got more." 00:06 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart continues his stakeout, though he finds himself watching for hitches, tremors, or loops in the movements of passersby as much as he does suspicious actors. 00:08 <banana> "How do you contact that guy.. do we burn a candle at the full moon?" 00:09 <banana> "Create a tulpa and name it dasein?"