20:41 <Crion> Time rolls onward, but slowly. Stewart and Gaunt Rose continue their surveillance of the Boy who has been tearing up the Baltimore nightlife and his Girl -- so far, so good (and so boring) there, as he hasn't seen fit to carve up a coterie since his last outburst at Power Plant Live Baltimore. In fact, they seem to be in something approaching domestic bliss. Occasionally and unashamedly with 20:41 <Crion> the window open. Nels, Maggie, and Melanie are gearing up for a thorough examination of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County -- sorry, its official name is UMBC now, no, it doesn't stand for anything -- and the three disappeared students there since the New Year, though they can find public mention only of two. 20:41 <Crion> And Tony's a-ramblin', looking out for God's little guys...and a certain flattop hat. 20:43 <Crion> What's Stewart's streaming schedule like? What night of the week is he likely to be overlapping with Rose while watching their quarry instead of making subscriber number go up? 20:44 <Crion> Melanie, meanwhile, is off doing...things...(sometimes she's vague, though she would argue that actually, she's nonspecific), so it's up to Nels and Maggie to get this mystery machine rolling. After checking the papers, the results of which were detailed last week, what's their next move? 20:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart streams about 8 hours an afternoon/night, usually 6pm-2am or so, and typically takes Thursdays off. That got a bit erratic in late December and early January, as you might imagine, but it's been almost robotically consistent since. 20:46 <Crion> Then it's Thursday night, then...and the power couple is going out. Not a dog-walk this time; they seem to be itching for a night on the town. 20:47 <VoxPVoxD> That's nice. More interesting and less voyeuristic to tail people than stake out their apartment. 20:48 <trenchfoot> So we know there's three people missing, and have information about two of them. Lauren didn't tell us how Santander knew there was a third person missing, did she? Just that there were three missing? 20:49 <dammitwho> The... electrical power couple. Oh, that's clever. 20:49 <trenchfoot> Actually, heck, she didn't even know the details. 20:52 <dammitwho> "Well!" Maggie says pleasantly. "Do you want to join up with a prospective student group and see if there's anything obviously spooky on campus?" 20:53 <Crion> Gaunt Rose gives Stewart a look. They're not heading to the van; they're walking, probably south to the plush party district of Canton, which is where Stewart and Rose looked for them before. What's their tail method? Any contractual spice? 20:55 <dammitwho> That's Stewart and Lauren. The electrical power couple. In case it wasn't clear. Not whoever he's dealing with right now. 20:55 <Crion> Good and bad news for Maggie and Nels -- the Winter Session is just ending and the bulk of the students are returning to campus. It's good news because that means that campus groups will be looking for people for the spring semester that's starting up. 20:55 <Crion> It's bad news because, well, three people disappeared with only winter students on campus. 20:55 <Crion> Who knows what will happen when everyone returns? 20:56 <trenchfoot> Nothing good. Or, I guess, probably a lot of good things, on the balance, but also some -- this got away from me. Nels: "That's a good start. I should do that anyway, and maybe we can narrow something down...? Even if it's just rumors." 20:57 <Crion> So...at risk of sounding like one of Stewart's high-school animes...which school club do you want to join? They even have fencing and archery. For the turbo-nerds. 20:58 <Crion> Oh, Maggie meant a campus visit group, for prospective students. 20:58 <trenchfoot> Yes. She's probably too busy for real clubs. 20:58 <VoxPVoxD> In crowds it's easy to blend in; on lonelier streets Stewart relies on the Light-Shy contract. Hard to communicate that way, of course, but one of the nice things about Light-Shy is that you can still see yourself... and your stuff. So Stewart and Rose can still text each other while they're both invisible. 20:58 <Crion> That's...going to be a bit harder, given tours for next fall don't really get started for freshman until late spring. But they can probably swing something through admissions. 20:59 <trenchfoot> Hmm. 21:01 <Crion> Not many crowds on Thursday nights as the calendar rolls over into February, but it's a very mild winter and it hasn't even snowed yet. 21:01 <VoxPVoxD> Come April there'll be tons of people in the streets. 21:02 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Maybe something through the community center?" 21:02 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Maybe we could arrange something through the community center?"* 21:03 <dammitwho> "Worth a try!" She'll take a clipboard and a couple sheets of paper. Theoretically for taking notes about the mystery with a cover of taking notes about campus (as a Weird Mom Type), but probably actually for getting this 'Electrical Power Couple' idea down as a fun drawing that she can leave for Stewart or Lauren to find later. 21:06 <Crion> You'll probably want to call the Admissions Office, actually. You can set up a tour from there. 21:07 <trenchfoot> Shoot, was hoping to foist that explanation off on someone else. 21:09 <trenchfoot> Nels will call when she gets back to her apartment, which is immediately unless there was more to plan out here. 21:11 <Crion> The Boy and Girl wander a health distance south into the district, five blocks south and then one east, until they're just about across from the Enoch Pratt Free Library -- they're not here for the books, though the Boy does a very faux-serious teasing bit about no, we came down here to better ourselves, stopping before the Girl gets seriously annoyed...but only just. They're actually headed 21:11 <Crion> for Southern Provisions Bar and Packaged Goods, open until 2 A.M. 21:12 <Crion> So how does Nels want to play this? She's the prospective student, probably, but who is Maggie? Is she a relation, or also looking to get a degree from one of UMBC's many award-winning programs? 21:13 <VoxPVoxD> Definitely looks like the kind of place where the menu's all in integers... have we ever seen either of these two working? 21:14 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Maggie, what are you thinking? Friend trying to get a degree too? Or something else?" The 'mom' suggestion from Melanie was indeed only funny for about 15 minutes and would be a nightmare to keep up. 21:17 <dammitwho> Maggie: "That sounds easiest to remember. We're no super-spies, so it's a bad idea to have a backstory to keep straight." 21:17 <Crion> You have not. They seem to be...maybe not independently wealthy, but independently above water. 21:18 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Sounds good, then. I can call, see what they can do for us." 21:19 <VoxPVoxD> That's interesting. Suggests crime, patronage, or maybe a high-follower Instagram account. They've certainly got the bodies for it. 21:21 <Crion> So what's the plan? Go inside with them, or find a vantage outside? 21:23 <VoxPVoxD> It looks reasonably big in there, right? <I'm thinking inside?> 21:24 <Crion> It's also reasonably full, but you can probably swing it if you're good about moving around a bit not to block servers. Gaunt Rose looks a bit uncertain. <Sure. The contract like...works that close to other people, right?> 21:24 <Crion> <I've never tested it.> 21:25 <VoxPVoxD> <As long as we're not aggressive to them and don't use any magic on them, it will hold> 21:34 <Crion> The lady on the other end of the phone at the Admissions Office is nice, polite, and very interested in signing them up for an off-peak tour of the campus, as they need SOMETHING to keep all these campus volunteers busy. She prattles a bit, because Nels sounds like such a nice girl, and oh, yes, they'd love to have her friend along, working professionals getting a degree later in life are 21:34 <Crion> so admirable. You basically get your pick of afternoons. 21:36 <trenchfoot> Heck yes. "Maggie, any preference?" Because other than "not during class" she's got no preferences herself. 21:36 <Crion> Gaunt Rose nods, and inside it is, then. The Boy and Girl got a table for two near the back. 21:37 <dammitwho> Maggie shrugs. "I'm easy like Sunday morning." 21:40 <trenchfoot> Nels is pretty sure that was not one of the options, so she just picks one a few days from now. 21:45 <Crion> It's probably twenty minutes of Gaunt and Stewart watching them sit and whisper (occasionally he yells to be a nard and gets scolded) and wait for their orders to come, before he walks in. 21:47 <Crion> He is a tall glass of water, hair slicked back, smiling gently. Gun on one hip, badge on the other. He makes eye contact with the Boy immediately and heads right for him. The Boy freezes and sets his burger down; the Girl sees his face and turns. She stops smiling. 21:47 <VoxPVoxD> What kind of badge? Doesn't sound like he's wearing a uniform... 21:47 <Crion> The man nods genteely to a waitress, who backs up, reacting to his badge, and pulls a chair up to the Boy and Girl's table. 21:48 <Crion> Baltimore Police Department. 21:50 <Crion> Are you close enough to hear their conversation? 21:50 <VoxPVoxD> Probably, unless the place is *really loud*. 21:51 <Crion> The man: "So. You're obviously still in town." 21:54 <Crion> The two are silent. He continues: "You know, I've always thought of myself as a reasonable man. I've tried to be reasonable. I've tried to see the weights, and weigh them cleanly. Was I reasonable in Kansas City?" 21:54 <Crion> The Boy just stares at him. 21:54 <Crion> The man: "I think that I was." 21:54 <Crion> The Girl: "We were wondering when you were gonna show back up." 21:55 <Crion> There's...an odd tone on that. There's a whole odd feel to this conversation. 21:58 <Crion> The Boy and the Girl are on edge, but not because of the presence of this guy specifically. In fact, they're happy to see him. There's clearly some kind of history here, and despite how genuinely threatening this guy is sounding -- he's succeeding at that, by the way, hitting that perfect vague-threat-but-serious level of genteel copspeak -- it's clear that they don't actually think he'll 21:58 <Crion> hurt them, or have any interest in hurting him. 21:58 <Crion> Whatever they're afraid of is not, to their knowledge, in this room. 22:00 <VoxPVoxD> A harbinger then? 22:00 <Crion> The man takes that in stride. "Well, you were right to. I have made my arguments to my superiors. I have been overruled. But there is a letter to this law of mine." 22:00 <Crion> "You have twenty-four hours to leave the city of Baltimore." 22:01 <Crion> The Boy, neutrally but with undertones of both annoyance and resignation: "Or else what?" 22:01 <Crion> The man, flatly: "Conviction." 22:02 <Crion> The Girl: "We've heard that one before, babe." 22:02 <Crion> The man: "That time, you left town." 22:03 <Crion> The Boy: "We like it here." 22:03 <Crion> "I think you like it here too." 22:03 <Crion> The man smiles. "It has never mattered what I like." 22:03 <Crion> "Twenty-four hours. Clock starts now." He stands; louder, for everyone else's benefit: "You both have a good evening now, you hear?" 22:04 <Crion> The Boy nods. The Girl: "We surely will." 22:04 <VoxPVoxD> Well. Arguably this whole vampire murder problem's about to solve itself. 22:04 <Crion> The man walks out. Gaunt: <one of us should follow him> 22:04 <VoxPVoxD> <I'll do it> 22:04 <Crion> <k be careful> 22:05 <Crion> She looks visibly relieved. 22:05 <Crion> Well, not-- you know. 22:06 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart smiles a little at that 'be careful'. 22:06 <VoxPVoxD> Then he squirms his way out after the man with a badge. 22:07 <Crion> He's remarkably easy to follow, given the thinness of the crowd and the fact that Stewart is invisible. 22:08 <VoxPVoxD> Where's he heading? To a car? Down the street? 22:08 <Crion> Meanwhile, at a slightly different time, Maggie and Nels arrive at UMBC. There's a big parking garage on the north end of campus, overlooking a frankly fortress-like library which is of starkly different design than the rest of campus, which looks kind of like an industrial plant had kids with an office park. Admissions is on the second floor. 22:09 <dammitwho> Maggie feels like libraries should be more... welcoming. 22:11 <trenchfoot> That's... alarming? Why does it look like that. Who thought that was okay. 22:14 <Crion> https://i.imgur.com/oMQCf18.png The squat building in the front, near the man-made lake, is the campus's original library. That towering structure behind it is the Albin O. Kuhn Library, built years after the campus first open. You may notice that one of the towers is not like the others -- the one closest to our photographer. Unlike the other towers, which are stairwell caps with high 22:14 <Crion> ceilings, this is an open-air platform where people can stand, though it's not open to the public at all. It also looks out over the original campus. The perfect vantage point for, say, a National Guard sniper during student protests. 22:14 <Crion> Much of the campus is designed like this. 22:16 <trenchfoot> They shouldn't have done so. 22:17 <Crion> The man is walking. He seems...well he doesn't seem outwardly annoyed, his gait is easy and his posture relaxed, but it's like he can't see people right in front of him, like he's distracted despite not appearing outwardly distract. He almost walks over two people in the first four blocks, and while his apology is sincere, it comes oddly late both times. 22:17 <dammitwho> Albino Kuhn? What's a Kuhn? No, no, nothing about this makes sense at all. Maybe it'll be less awful on the inside. Maggie ambles towards the entrance. 22:18 <Crion> Also notable as you make your way to this fortress: none of the steps are graded with any continuity. You'll get three long steps in a row, then a staircase of eight or ten normal steps, then more long ones. 22:19 <trenchfoot> Nels is right there with her. Good to know they're both repulsed by whatever this is supposed to be, because it sure as heck isn't a library. 22:20 <VoxPVoxD> ... 22:21 <dammitwho> Maybe they built the steps to baffle a particularly pattern-minded Fae? 22:21 <Crion> This is something Nels read about, and Maggie probably did too though as an organizer she might intuitively understand it: if you want to stop large throngs of people being able to move quickly through an area without imposing a physical chokepoint, the thinking was you make the stairs inconsistent and make fast-moving, large groups either trip or slowdown. 22:21 <Crion> It never really got put into practice here. There has never been a student riot at UMBC. 22:21 <trenchfoot> ...they really had some problems when they designed this place, huh. 22:21 <dammitwho> Bleh. 22:22 <Crion> UMBC opened its doors in 1966 as commuter school aimed at lower to middle class students just outside a majority-black city. To give you an idea of the mood of the country, at the time. 22:23 <Crion> *as a 22:23 <trenchfoot> Better make building a fortress and also riot-proof the outdoors I guess. 22:24 <Crion> Anyway! Admissions is just past the microfilm stacks, and next to the Honors College -- some undergraduate program for do-gooders and nerds, one suspects. 22:24 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart follows, becoming increasingly preoccupied with the specifics of the man's movement. How little variance in the length of stride? How regular are the arm movements? Does he ever seem at times weirdly twitchy or eerily still? Does he ever seem to make the same motion multiple times in rapid succession when only one would suffice? 22:24 <trenchfoot> Hey, that's us! 22:31 <Crion> It's tough -- the guy's good, or at least he's got a long loop -- but yeah. Some animations are repeating; specifically, the way his gait hitches when he hits a curb, either going down or up. And in fact, each time he almost runs over someone, he slips out of the way in the exact same fashion, with the exact same two-step recovery. 22:32 <Crion> Inside Admissions, there's a receptionist and a couple college kids hanging around. 22:32 <Crion> Well, the receptionist is a college kid too. 22:32 <Crion> Cheap labor! 22:34 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's heart races. He's been waiting for for weeks for some sign of the edge of the simulation and he's got one right here. Yes! Yes!! 22:35 <trenchfoot> Nels will take the lead. "Hi, I'm Lena Colter, I called a few days ago about a campus tour?" 22:35 <Crion> She's a young African American woman, maybe about Nels's age. There's a preppy blonde leaning against the desk, talking about a party in the Walker Avenue apartments (sounds exclusive), while an Asian guy and a white guy bicker about something they're watching on their phones. 22:37 <Crion> The man just keeps on walking though. Down to Canton Waterfront Park, but not going inside, instead tacking east and out of the built-up party district...south along the water a few blocks more... 22:37 <Crion> Until he reaches Apex Oil. 22:38 <Crion> By now, it's well and truly night. There's no one about. 22:38 <Crion> The young woman at the desk looks up: "Oh! Hi, yes. I think..." 22:38 <Crion> She fiddles with the computer. 22:38 <Crion> What name did Maggie give? 22:42 <dammitwho> Frances Perkins. 22:43 <VoxPVoxD> Maggie can definitely pass for a Frances. 22:44 <Crion> "Okay, I've got Lena Colter and Frances Perkins for a 1:30." The receptionist looks expectantly at both of you. 22:45 <dammitwho> "That's us!" She says cheerfully. 22:45 <Crion> The man opens the rolling gate at Apex Oil easily with one hand, which is something considering it's a big, heavy thing that goes across a lane and a half of would-be traffic. Big trucks going in and out, here. 22:45 <Crion> How close is Stewart? 22:46 <VoxPVoxD> He got unconsciously closer when he realized what he was seeing - from most of a carlength back to just inside six feet. 22:48 <Crion> The receptionist smiles broadly... 22:49 <Crion> Well, then it should be easy for Stewart to step inside when he realizes the man is going to close the gate behind him. Especially since, for some reason, he opened it the full length, then stepped through, then started closing it again... 22:50 <Crion> It's a nice smile. 22:50 <VoxPVoxD> Swoosh. He texts Rose an update. <At Apex Oil on S Clinton. He's going inside.> 22:51 <Crion> Something... "Alright, so you'll be with our admissions coordinator Mrs. Davis, she's last door on the left down the hall." 22:52 <Crion> The man starts trudging down the darkened truck dock and refinery-storage rows...then he spins! 22:52 <Crion> And he raises his hands, but there's no gun in them. Instead, his face and fingers open up to reveal a panoply of sizzling electric eyes. 22:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart pumps his fist. 22:53 <VoxPVoxD> ...then he wonders, wait, can he see me-- 22:59 <Crion> The eyes look away...then one finds him, then they all find him, and the man surges forward and says: "Out. To the street. Now." The eyes fold back into his face and hands and he just looks determined as instead of reaching for his gun, he reaches for Stewart's arm to march him off the property. 23:00 <VoxPVoxD> The second thing Stewart does is put his hands up and say, "Okay, okay, I don't mean any trouble..." 23:02 <Crion> He says nothing as he hustles Stewart to the gate, opens it again with one easy motion, and steps them both outside. He looks back at the building, and his face goes slack for a minute; then the determination comes back up and he marches Stewart about half a block before letting him go. "So which are you. Vampire, wizard, another government project. You seem alive and you're handling this 23:02 <Crion> pretty well." 23:03 <Crion> He pauses. "Never seen camo like that before." 23:04 <Crion> The Saint of Limitations -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-aJLEaMCNw Now hear ye hear ye want to see Thee more clearly; I know He hear me when my feet get weary 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I'm not a vampire or a wizard. And I don't know what passes for a government where I'm from. Or a project." 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Mr...?" 23:05 <Crion> When Stewart uses the Tip, the man steps back as if struck, eyes wide. 23:06 <Crion> When he opens his mouth next, incomprehensible grinding and shrieking comes out for a moment -- then he shuts it. When it opens again: "You can call me the Saint." 23:07 <Crion> "What are you, that can hand out the stuff of Creation?" 23:09 <Crion> The meeting with Mrs. Davis is thirty minutes of incredibly boring pitchmanship and sales work, as she tells "Lena" and "Frances" all about the UMBC Undergraduate College's bonafides. 23:11 <Crion> The Saint: "How is it you offer succor to an angel of the God Machine?" 23:12 <trenchfoot> Lena's actually super interested in this stuff! I mean, it's not why they're here, really, but it IS useful. 23:13 <Crion> Well, UMBC has world-class undergraduate engineering and computer science programs, Homecoming is soccer instead of football because school president Freeman Hrabowski III loathes the sport and swears it will never come to his school, and of course, there's the world-championship grade chess team. 23:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's mouth works for a second, but no sound comes out. He's practically choking on his own heart. He spent so long thinking about this moment, silently, but here and now all that mental preparation is gone. What does he do? What does he say? Finally, painfully, he manages to croak, "...you know the Machine?" 23:14 <Crion> The Saint's eyes tighten. "Know? No." 23:15 <trenchfoot> ...Freeman Hrabowski III? The original cursed two more generations with that name? 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> "What does it want? What is it doing? Why does it need us?" 23:16 <Crion> "The [unintelligible] ... the God Machine is unknowable. But It is vast, and Its patience and boons thin." 23:17 <trenchfoot> How are their music and teaching programs? 23:18 <Crion> Well, there...is a music program. And a teaching program! If Nels has Googled around she knows the lady isn't lying when she says they're "competitive" but offers no further platitudes. 23:18 <Crion> Or superlatives. 23:18 <dammitwho> What about history? 23:19 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So how do we satisfy it? What pleases it?" 23:19 <VoxPVoxD> "What are we supposed to do?!" 23:19 <trenchfoot> Honestly - and she'll keep this to herself - having one at all is a dream, so. 23:20 <Crion> The history program is a bit more respected -- they just got a new social sciences building awhile back, and UMBC is considered the best regional school for a history major after Johns Hopkins and U Maryland College Park, which are much more prestiguous and more highly-funded departments. 23:21 <Crion> Staring at the Saint, invoking his contract, Stewart is struck by a feeling of confusion, separation and loss -- his deepest desire is to stop hurting people. 23:22 <Crion> And he has hurt...a lot of people. 23:22 <Crion> The Saint: "I don't know. I don't know what pleases It." 23:22 <Crion> "I don't know if It can be pleased." 23:23 <Crion> "You've been watching the Boy and the Girl." 23:23 <VoxPVoxD> A long silence where Stewart looks away, breathing heavily, before finally saying, "...yeah." 23:23 <Crion> "You heard what I told them." 23:24 <VoxPVoxD> "I did." 23:24 <VoxPVoxD> "You think they'll listen?" 23:24 <Crion> The Saint: "I do not." 23:24 <VoxPVoxD> "Yeah." 23:24 <Crion> "It is your choice where you want to be tomorrow night." 23:24 <Crion> "I would not be near them." 23:25 <VoxPVoxD> "Why are you doing this?" 23:25 <Crion> There's a loud, hideous cacophony from somewhere deeper in Apex Oil -- two discordant, shrieking bell noises. The Saint turns, opens his mouth too-wide, and a single definitive note tolls through them. 23:25 <Crion> Turning back: "It was how I was made, I suppose." 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't follow him. Hedge Busker's Tip isn't a scouter but Stewart does not like his chances if the Saint concludes protocol demands violence. 23:29 <VoxPVoxD> This is such good news though. It's not some kind of totalizing hallucination, it's not the Matrix, there's bodies and minds and infrastructure. Places you can go. People you can talk to. Things he can show them. 23:29 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Did the Machine make you? Or just take you?" 23:30 <VoxPVoxD> "Sometimes I feel like the Machine can only rearrange things." 23:30 <Crion> The Saint gives him a piercing look. "I was made by It. In earlier ages. But these days and nights you might not be wrong." 23:32 <VoxPVoxD> "Are you banishing the Boy and Girl because the Machine demands it?" 23:35 <Crion> The Saint: "I am abiding by the letter of Its law." He pauses, expressionless, then his face springs to life again. It's becoming obvious this is what happens when he has to think about something hard in his agitated state, rather than smoothly operating. "You already know too much. And analysis shows strong signs that you act, in some fashion, as Its servant. So: a Directive has been issued. 23:35 <Crion> Between issuance and enforcement, there is a grace period. The grace period has begun." 23:35 <Crion> "This is the only thing I can do for them, within my purview." 23:37 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart blanches at being called its servant. "What is your purview?" 23:40 <Crion> There's no additional emotion in his voice. "Truest and Finest Service, Catalog [unintelligible]." Pause. "To straighten the crooken paths and smooth out the rough roads. Contemporary: Straightening the curves; flattening the hills." 23:40 <Crion> *crooked 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "What sort of aberration do the Boy and Girl represent?" 23:42 <Crion> The Saint: "That information is sanctified and classified." 23:43 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Okay. Does anything bad happen to you if the order isn't carried out? Are you penalized or punished in any way?" 23:43 <Crion> The Saint: "Oh. Indubitably." 23:44 <Crion> "But that's service." 23:45 <Crion> This time the cacophony is louder and more hideous, and when the Saint tries to silence it, it does not go away near so easily. 23:45 <Crion> The Saint: "We don't have much time. They're coming out to see why I'm taking so long." 23:46 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Alright. I won't keep you. I ask that you disclose as little of this conversation as you can get away with." 23:48 <Crion> The Saint: "You are sorted as a God Machine asset under definitional morphology. Compartmentalizing your operational cover is within my guidelines." 23:48 <VoxPVoxD> "Thank you. Good night." 23:48 <Crion> He straightens. "Use your camouflage now." 23:48 <Crion> The Saint turns away. 23:48 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart vanishes from the mind's eye. 23:49 <VoxPVoxD> Any word from Rose? 23:52 <Crion> As he does, the gate effortlessly slides open without even being touched, and a man in a white suit with perfect hair and mustache steps out, flanked by a woman dressed for a funeral, with a thin black blindfold over her eyes. 23:53 <Crion> The Questioner on the Cross -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS8p_F0Stog Don't fear the reaper. 23:54 <Crion> The Left Hand of God -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in-AT_m5-94 You're shying away / I'll be coming for you anyway. 23:54 <Crion> The Saint moves to them immediately. It's eerie, now they're just staring at each other, jaws working, eyes open, but making no noise. 23:55 <Crion> Eventually they move back inside Apex Oil, and the gate shuts again. 23:56 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart takes this in, before starting back towards the bar, double-time. He checks his phone again. 23:56 <Crion> Yeah she texted a couple times. Seems the couple headed home, and instead of the usual extracurriculars, got a bunch of stuff out of the van and have been holed up in the bedroom, watching the street in turns while talking too quietly to overhear without going inside. 23:57 <VoxPVoxD> Okay. <We need to meet. Where are you now?> 23:57 <Crion> <outside their place, end of watch, handing it over to sobriquet. leave him out of the meet?> 23:58 <VoxPVoxD> <100%> 23:58 <Crion> <k. meet at my bolthole> 23:58 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart remembers the way. 23:59 <Crion> Rose will be waiting outside the entrance, in Light-shy, when he gets there. 00:00 <Crion> After letting them both in: "Tell me you got something more interesting than two college kids suddenly prepping for war." 00:01 <Crion> "Because that's gonna make our job really tough." 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "OK, so that guy is the thaumomechanical "Angel" of an indifferent, psychotic God Machine that judging from his purview covers at least the Continental US. The Saint of Limitations. Bound to do violence even though he wants more than anything to stop." 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "OK, so that guy is the thaumomechanical "Angel" of an indifferent, psychotic God Machine that judging from his purview covers at least the Continental US. The Saint of Limitations. Bound to do violence even though he wants more than anything to stop." 00:04 <Crion> Rose's jaw slightly drops. 00:04 <Crion> "That's...not good." 00:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Embedded in the infrastructure somehow. Two other angels - I'm guessing they're angels - beckoned him back into the stacks at Apex Oil." 00:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Energy is *very* precious to them. Hedge Busker's Tip moved the needle enough to freak him out." 00:04 <Crion> "So when you say 'Angel...' what kind of power level do you think we're looking at here?" 00:05 <Crion> "Oh." 00:05 <VoxPVoxD> "Well, we've seen what the Boy can do, and we're seeing how the Boy and Girl are acting..." 00:05 <Crion> Rose: "Santander has a principle about that. The more difficult that stuff is to come by -- the stuff Hedge Busker's Tip and contracts like it interact with -- the more potent it is in use." 00:05 <Crion> "And given that, yeah...sounds bad." 00:06 <Crion> Rose: "Do we tell the task force?" 00:06 <VoxPVoxD> "He pierced Light-Shy too. It was Tipping him that convinced him I was... like him. An asset of his Machine." 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I mean if the Boy is a threat big enough for a Task Force then this sure is. Maybe run it by Santander first, see if he's got some reason to hold it back." 00:08 <Crion> Rose nods. "I'll do that." 00:08 <Crion> "...Twenty-four hours, huh." 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah. I'm gonna hit the Book." 00:08 <Crion> "That puts the showdown at 9:56 PM tomorrow night." 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> Guess Stewart's gotta cancel a stream after all. 00:08 <Crion> It's for a good cause. 00:09 <Crion> Rose will wrap up quickly; she needs to get downtown. 00:09 <Crion> And both of you probably have to get some sleep. 00:09 <Crion> Busy day, tomorrow night.