21:10 <Crion> A few days after the fight with the Loyalists, Stewart is on an off-day -- Tuesdays, right? -- when he gets a message on the hex box from...username "QUOTH|THE|STEWARD|KING": 21:11 <Crion> <'STEWART READER,' KNOWN OTHERWISE AS 'CRITICALMASS:'> 21:12 <Crion> <ROBERT KINGSLEY OF AUTUMN REQUESTS YOUR PRESENCE AT> 21:12 <Crion> <BRUNCH> 21:12 <Crion> <ON THE MORROW> 21:12 <Crion> <MAKE YOUR REPLY> 21:12 <Crion> <THUS ENDS THE INTERDICTUM> 21:12 <Crion> <NEVERMORE> 21:14 <VoxPVoxD> These guys go hard. Stewart finds himself using his shift key and everything in his reply. <I accept the invitation. Where and when?> 21:16 <Crion> The little dot dot dots appear to indicate typing, then disappear, then reappear again. <HOW DOES STEWART READER DESIRE CHESAPEAKE DEVILED EGGS, SERVED WITH MIMOSAS> 21:17 <VoxPVoxD> Oh hell yes. <Ardently.> 21:18 <Crion> <THEN STEWART READER THE KING TOMORROW SHALL SEE, AT THE ELEVENTH MORNING HOUR, AT MISS SHIRLEY'S> 21:18 <Crion> <THUS ENDS THE INTERROGATION> 21:19 <Crion> <NEVERMORE> 21:20 <Crion> The user logs off. 21:21 <Crion> How does Stewart prepare for -- and get to -- the brunch? 21:22 <VoxPVoxD> Meeting the King for brunch at the kind of restaurant whose menu prices are all in integer form... looks like Stewart is busting out one of his two (up from one) button-down shirts. Mimosas... 21:22 <VoxPVoxD> He'll drive. 21:23 <Crion> The good news is this place is in the Inner Harbor, which means it's just a quick walk from the parking garage of the law firm. 21:23 <Crion> So hey, free parking. 21:24 <VoxPVoxD> That's always nice. He arrives at about 10:50; anxiety over lateness always has Stewart showing up to places slightly early. 21:27 <Crion> It's an, uh, downright balmy day for autumn -- early October, now. But not uncomfortable. Quite the opposite, in fact; put it at something like 71 degrees, no humidity. The Inner Harbor is what it always is. Doesn't look much like the rest of the city. Technically this place has a dress code, but, dress codes have a very specific intent in downtown Baltimore. Flumpy white teens in cargo shorts 21:27 <Crion> and skater shirts stand far less of a chance of getting kicked out than black teens in jeans and plain white tees. This is intentional. 21:28 <Crion> Sounds like Stewart is dressed well either way, though, so he'll see Kingsley waving to him from an outdoor table with a lot of empty seats around it. Gerald's sitting next to him. Both appear to be in good spirits, though Gerald is obviously working security. 21:29 <Crion> For his, ah, brother, not for the restaurant. 21:32 <Crion> There's an umbrella angled to cover them from the high late morning sun. 21:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart smiles at them both as he sits down. Both of them? What's all this about. Is something wrong...? 21:33 <Crion> Kingsley smiles back. "This place says they don't take reservations, but, well. Every promise is flexible." 21:33 <Crion> Gerald sips his water. "Don't be an asshole, Bob." 21:33 <Crion> Kingsley: "What?" 21:33 <Crion> Gerald: "You're doing that thing where you say a thing--" 21:33 <Crion> Kingsley: "Yes." 21:33 <Crion> Gerald: "And it's got an obvious double meaning." 21:34 <Crion> "A specific point, then an ominous broader point." 21:34 <Crion> Kingsley sighs. "I suppose it does become force of habit." 21:34 <Crion> Gerald: "Right." 21:37 <Crion> Robert Kingsley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpQArtCeXTk You understand, I've got a plan for us; I bet you didn't know that I was dangerous. 21:38 <Crion> Gerald Kingsley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjTTB6yII4o This ain't no place for no hero; this ain't no place for no better man. 21:42 <Crion> Kingsley: "But the boy isn't scared of a little bit of...theatrical embellishment. Am I right, Stewart? Feel free to order off the menu. This is a business lunch. It shall be expensed." 21:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart came here for Chesapeake deviled eggs, and by hell and all its angels he's going to have some Chesapeake deviled eggs. "Business lunch, yeah? So, what's up?" 21:46 <Crion> Kingsley orders eggs for the table, then the chicken and waffles. Gerald gets the Chesapeake chicken sandwich. A pitcher of mimosas is ordered for the table. 21:46 <Crion> Stewart is of course entitled to an entree as well, if he'd like. 21:48 <VoxPVoxD> There's no reason you can't combine two different egg+crab foods at the same meal, right? So he'll get the crab cake eggs benedict. 21:48 <Crion> Kingsley nods in approval, and the waitress takes it down. When she's gone: "This is about the loyalists." 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart resists the urge to pluck at his own sleeve rather than look at the men across the table. "Alright. Are the - are Gemma and Peter okay?" 21:53 <Crion> Gerald: "To the extent that they can be, and that we trust them. Spring's handling the triage. We're looking into..." 21:53 <Crion> He pauses. "We're checking up on things." 21:53 <Crion> "Same as we did for you lot." 21:53 <Crion> "Trust, but verify." 21:53 <Crion> Kingsley nods. 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart eats fitfully, not for lack of hunger or because the food is bad (it's amazing), but because he's afraid of being in a spot where he has to talk with his mouth full or where he has to chew while these two are staring at him expectantly. "Sure, yeah, that makes sense." 21:55 <Crion> Kingsley: "With your motley, the concern was that you all appeared in the same cluster. That's suspicious. These two were chased by a bunch of loyalist running dogs but not hurt until you could save them. That's a tactic that's been used to insert spies or Trojan horses before." He frowns. "One time, literally a horseman. Neither here nor there." 21:57 <Crion> He waves a fork as he spears another egg. "We don't expect to come back with concerns on them, but Santander and Ravens are handling the inquiry. And Santander's team. You'll meet them in time. What I want, here and now, are your impressions of the loyalists themselves." 21:58 <Crion> Gerald pops an egg with crab lump on it full in his mouth and chews politely while watching the street. Has Stewart filed a formal report already? He hasn't been asked to, but, perhaps he's that sort of go-getter. 21:59 <Crion> Beyond his correspondence with Lauren, of course. 21:59 <VoxPVoxD> Nothing beyond what he and Gerald talked about the day Gerald came to pick the refugees up. "Impressions?" 22:03 <Crion> Kingsley: "Impressions. It has been decided -- mainly by fate, but also, to be brutally honest, to minimize Freehold exposure in the case this is a tremendous honey pot -- that your motley will be handling the...response...to these fools. That decision was made in conference of all four seasonal monarchs, but I will be plain: I am King, and the decision redounded to me. Given both your motley's 22:03 <Crion> disposition and the beneficient outcome of your first interaction with them, I think this is well within your safe capability." 22:04 <Crion> "I mean, of course, not just 'you,'" Kingsley points both hands with palms opened upward at Stewart, "but 'you.'" He widens his arms to encompass a theoretical group. 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So by 'response', you mean... what, exactly?" 22:06 <Crion> Kingsley smiles. "My question gets answered first. Impressions?" 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart drums his fingers on the table. Mimosas here yet? 22:07 <Crion> Oh, yes. 22:07 <Crion> Have been. Came with the eggs. 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart takes a slow drink while he gathers his thoughts. God, that's good. "They're, uh... I've never really seen people like that in real life. Just... hunting people. There was an older guy, or he looked older, and he seemed to be in charge. He didn't jump in, and he gave the order to retreat." 22:10 <Crion> Kingsley nods. "That'll be Proctor. How did he strike you as a leader?" 22:10 <Crion> Gerald: "I think he already gave the answer, there." 22:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "He didn't seem to rule by love. Tony laid this one guy out with, like, a football tackle, almost... the old guy - Proctor? - grabbed him by the hair, called him stupid. Melanie took out this big Zarya-looking lady who had a chainsaw, and then a fourth guy, kind of looked like a young Mr. Peanut, sounded like the baby from Family Guy, he said he was called 'the Cambridge Son'." 22:15 <VoxPVoxD> "Then in the back there was someone who looked like she didn't want to be there. Like she was a captive too, almost." 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> "Proctor had a pistol, like an army- like an M1911, I think? Cambridge Son had like a military dress saber. Chainsaw's name was like, Kale? Or Kayael? I don't know, it was hard to hear. The guy Tony took out, Proctor called him Kid Kid Kid. "Not like, 'Kid, kid, kid' like you're clucking your tongue but all at once like spray of bullets. Kid-kid-kid." 22:22 <Crion> Kingsley nods. "What's a Zarya?" 22:22 <Crion> Gerald looks like he's about to say something, but doesn't. 22:22 <Crion> Stewart's show, after all. 22:22 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh, it's a- it's a character from a game. She was big, buff, broad-shouldered, short pink hair." 22:23 <Crion> Kingsley nods. "Okay. The last one. The one in the back. She's the one I think we're concerned with. Any further thoughts on her?" 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "She was- I was off in an alley, trying to get the- to get Gemma and Peter to run over there. My plan was to Hidden Reality a tunnel with a straight shot to the Hollow. It was kind of a dumb plan, in retrospect, to try and be visible and hidden at the same time. But the girl in the back saw me and she didn't rat me out. I don't know if the others ever even knew I was there." 22:27 <Crion> Kingsley's eyes narrow, and he glances over at Gerald, who shrugs. 22:27 <Crion> Kingsley: "So we have...something of a--" 22:28 <Crion> Food's here! 22:28 <VoxPVoxD> Oh hell yes. 22:28 <Crion> How are the eggs? 22:28 <VoxPVoxD> Cracking the poached egg so the yolk runs with the Hollandaise all over the crab cake... fuuuuuuuuuuck. 22:31 <Crion> Once they've all eaten a little bit, and the waitress has refilled the mimosas and absconded, Kingsley: "We have something of a conflict of interest." 22:31 <Crion> "It's the position of this court that we do not take in loyalists. We do not jail loyalists, obviously. And Proctor cannot -- for the fourth time since Reagan's inauguration, apparently -- be permitted to maraud in our near Hedge." 22:32 <Crion> "However, it is also the position of this court that Loser -- that woman who didn't turn your run-in with the loyalists into a bloodbath pre-emptively -- is a valuable asset." 22:32 <Crion> "We've...run across her before. When she was a younger teenager." 22:33 <Crion> Gerald: "It was my impression she was dead." 22:33 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm sorry. An asset to..." 22:33 <Crion> Kingsley: "This freehold." 22:33 <Crion> "And this court." 22:34 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. "Okay." 22:35 <Crion> Gerald: "It also wasn't the intention for the maiden voyage here to be a kill list." He takes another big bite of his sandwich. 22:35 <Crion> Kingsley: "That's also true." 22:37 <Crion> The king of the Freehold of Baltimore: "Other courts will give other instructions. That's the...variable, that comes into play, with these multi-court motleys. We all knew this going in. The court will understand however you wish to take this." 22:37 <Crion> "The motley, I mean." 22:37 <Crion> "However the motley wishes to take this." 22:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You're saying you want us to..." 22:38 <Crion> He finishes a waffle, with chicken speared on with it. "However, I want you to know what resources you have access to. As I currently run this freehold, I am in possession of the power to direct the full punishment that our laws allow against those who serve the enemy." 22:39 <Crion> "If you can find where Proctor and his pack lay their heads, I can...have it dealt with. It is, indeed, my job to have it dealt with. What I would ask in return is you conspire for Loser not to be there, for that." 22:40 <Crion> "Or," he says, "you can handle it yourselves." 22:40 <Crion> "But they cannot go home, and under no circumstances can they stay here." 22:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's voice is very faint. "...right." 22:41 <Crion> Spearing the next bit of waffle. "It would, perhaps, feel better if we could just...throw them in a cell. Throw away the key." 22:41 <Crion> "But then, we know how that can feel." 22:42 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart flexes his wrists unconsciously. 22:43 <Crion> Kingsley puts down his fork and sips his mimosa. "And that is one place we align with the Court of Summer. This freehold does not take prisoners. We will not become our keepers. Sometimes that means we cannot defer a hideous act. Sometimes that is how it has to be." 22:44 <Crion> "...Should it come to it, Gerald will run the freehold fire team. You should put together a method of contact with Lauren for passing on word." 22:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart opens his mouth, finds no words, and takes solace in another bite of egg and another long sip of mimosa. Then he speaks. "I guess... I guess we'll need to work out our response as a group. I don't- I have no idea how the others will react to this kind of-- order." 22:44 <VoxPVoxD> "It's not secret, right? That Loser isn't... a target?" 22:45 <VoxPVoxD> "I can tell them." 22:47 <Crion> Kingsley nods. "You should be aware, however, that when I say Loser is not a target, I speak for Autumn. Not for the freehold. Other Courts have already expressed other opinions." 22:47 <Crion> He smiles faintly again. "But then, what use is being in season if you can't get your way?" 22:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...oh." 22:48 <Crion> "If you bring Loser in, you will have explicit cover and protection from the King of Baltimore." 22:50 <Crion> He sips his mimosa again. "But it's up to you to sell that. And make it happen." 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I'll report the will of the group. And then whether it's us or not us we'll. We'll make it happen." 22:56 <Crion> Gerald nods, this time. "And when I say that I'd appreciate not getting that call, the one to put together a team, I want you to understand that what I mean is you find some way to trick or oathbind them to changing their ways or going to California or something." 22:56 <Crion> Kingsley gives Gerald a look. 22:56 <Crion> The fetch sighs. "But I'd prefer to take that call than have you lot do it yourself." 22:59 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I don't know what the others will think. But we'll figure it out." 22:59 <VoxPVoxD> A beat later: "So I guess this is the thing? That we were preparing for?" 23:00 <Crion> Kingsley almost cackles. 23:00 <Crion> "Ah, Stewart. Stewart, Stewart, Stewart." 23:00 <Crion> "Finish your eggs." 23:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...why are you laughing at me?" 23:07 <Crion> Kingsley looks up from his food and for a second his eyes are dead flat, his mouth a thin line. Then he leans back and grimaces. "That's not the right question. First, I'm not laughing at you. Second, if I was, the answer would clearly be that I'm an asshole who is hiding something. Which is something that you already knew. So. The question you should ask -- and that I won't answer -- is:" 23:07 <Crion> "'What are you so afraid of?'" 23:07 <Crion> He smiles a nasty smile. "And I guarantee you this: it's not the Proctor." 23:08 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh." 23:08 <VoxPVoxD> "Well, great." 23:08 <Crion> Gerald ever-so-slightly shakes his head. 23:09 <Crion> Kingsley: "Isn't it just so." 23:09 <Crion> He takes another drink. "Well, this got more tense than I'd hoped. Less so than I'd, mmm, feared." 23:10 <Crion> "But then. This is what making partner looks like. Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's ambush lunches with the boss." 23:11 <Crion> Gerald: "You wouldn't be here if we didn't have every faith in you. Which you should keep in mind, should you run into some of the other Autumn courtiers and they're unaccountably assholes to you." 23:12 <Crion> Kingsley's turn to shrug. "Some people rise to their level of competency early." 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> This isn't normal. The synchronicity, five Lost emerging at the same time, coalescing so easily. This is pregnant with significance, one they clearly don't understand themselves. Fear rises from impotence, and from fear the desperate urge for control. Violence, too, rises from fear, like smoke from a fire. He's not to blame. There's no need to take it personally. A bolt loosens, one notch 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> at a time. 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> "Are you thinking of anyone in particular when you say that?" 23:17 <Crion> Kingsley: "Oh, absolutely. But not Lauren, if that's what you're assuming." 23:18 <Crion> Gerald: "There are a number of courtiers who...don't come by the office much. You'll be introduced. When they return their e-mails and stop claiming they have the flu." 23:18 <Crion> Kingsley: "Christ, it's flu season again, isn't it." 23:18 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh, no, Lauren's always been super nice. I just, you know, I don't know everybody yet." 23:21 <Crion> Kingsley: "How to put this diplomatically. Autumn is a court of specialists, with special remits. You're one of the closest things to a generalist that we have. Which might have put an undue amount of pressure on you. But no matter how poorly you think you're doing, or how badly you think you're comporting yourself, we aggressively scouted you for very good reasons. One of which is that you'll 23:21 <Crion> ask the Autumn King why he's laughing at you at brunch, yes, but another being that you'll show up for brunch to begin with." 23:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You must not always lead with the deviled eggs." 23:23 <Crion> "Usually we just get coffee." Gerald says, then finishes his sandwich. 23:23 <Crion> Kingsley: "Don't let it go to your head." 23:24 <Crion> Has Stewart ate and drank his fill? 23:24 <Crion> He can also ask some more questions, but, the boundaries of the answering have been fairly well laid out. 23:26 <VoxPVoxD> He hasn't drank his fill, but Stewart's what you call an anti-social drinker. "Okay. One more question. What's the, ah, clearance level here? Who's it okay to talk to this about. The others, obviously, but..." It's obvious to at least two people at the table he's asking if he can loop Lauren in. 23:28 <Crion> "Lauren and Santander are cleared, if not fully briefed on Lauren's part. Santander is going to know the goings-on whether we tell him or not -- and we do -- but our position...after some discussion..." Kingsley glances at Gerald. "...is that motley business isn't ours to divulge. So you control that particular spigot. Ravens, of course, knows everything." 23:29 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Alright. Cool. Thanks." 23:30 <Crion> Kingsley raises his glass. "Keep us in the loop." 23:30 <Crion> Gerald: "And good hun--" 23:30 <Crion> "...Good luck." 23:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart gets two bottles of champagne and a jug of Sunny D on the way home. He thinks about telling Lauren about his day. He thinks about it a lot. But between work that evening and the eternal brunch that carries him to quiet oblivion he just never finds an opening. Funny how that works out. 23:34 <Crion> --Fin.