21:00 <Crion> The Sunday immediately following Prom is usually time for sober reflection on mistakes made on Friday night. Perhaps in church, if that's what your thing is. This Prom was something of a special one, but at least there wasn't too much relationship-ruining casual sex afterwards. For one, there's all those pesky lockdown protocols. 21:00 <Crion> For another, well. The night did end a bit strangely. 21:03 <Crion> There's also the tiny issue of the Eastern European...gun runners? Religious fanatics? Both? Roaming the near Hedge, allegedly looking for the motley but being curiously standoffish, content to do vile things to admittedly vile hobs in the pursuit of currently-inscrutible goals. 21:06 <VoxPVoxD> Is Nels more of a breakfast pastry person or a breakfast sandwich person? 21:07 <Crion> Currently, the Wherehouse's time is its own. The regents are still bickering about what happened on Friday night, and as of yet haven't seen fit to summon any of you to depose as witnesses. 21:08 <trenchfoot> Sandwiches preferred, but pastries are still welcomed. They were easier to get on the road. 21:10 <VoxPVoxD> For probably the fifth time in the last 32 hours, Stewart's knock-knock-knocking at Nels's door. There's a Dunkin Donuts like 3 blocks away so he just got croissants and donuts. "Hey I got breakfast if you're hungry." 21:13 <trenchfoot> There's the sound of movement from behind the door, some shuffling, and Nels finally answers. She looks like hell, to put it mildly. "Thanks." 21:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You want some company?" 21:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart would've floated bringing her next door by Lauren. But he can also bring her to the Wherehouse if Lauren doesn't wanna deal right now. 21:15 <Crion> Lauren is not entirely comfortable with social calls from Nels right now. She won't put down her foot, but it's very clear she'd rather not. 21:15 <VoxPVoxD> Definitely for the best to respect that. Last thing anyone wants is even more awkwardness right now. 21:17 <trenchfoot> Understandable. "It'd be nice. See a friendly face, if you're willing. Come on in." She steps aside to let him in. 21:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart enters and, once the door is shut and he's handed the food off to Nels, immediately and reflexively tidies the first untidy thing he sees. What is that in here? 21:21 <trenchfoot> She's got some papers spread out on an end table. Looks like sheet music, actually. Pretty basic stuff, but good for kids to learn from. If she's still allowed to teach them, that is. Haven't really had that conversation. 21:22 <Crion> For her part, Maggie's got a meeting with Serrato Colt somewhere on her itinerary and Union making noises about selling moonshine to the werewolves, and Steve is sensibly honking around about the neighborhood news to Tony. 21:23 <VoxPVoxD> When Stewart used to shut himself off for days he feels like his living space got a lot worse than this. Maybe Nels is doing okay. Maybe it's a girl thing. Hard to say. "You feeling up to coming down to the Wherehouse later? Everyone misses you, and Tony's worried about the hobs. Sounds like he might need some help." 21:25 <trenchfoot> Side effect of not having a whole lot of stuff to begin with. And the stuff she does have is split between here and the Wherehouse. "...is everyone else okay with that? After, you know." 21:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Listen, whatever anyone else thinks... we've got your back. Just so you know." 21:28 <VoxPVoxD> "And it sounds like Spring does too." 21:28 <VoxPVoxD> "Spring-Spring, not Winter-Spring." 21:29 <trenchfoot> Nels: "...I'm trying to remember that. But everyone's kind of - I don't think they're done yelling at me yet. Maybe never will be." 21:30 <Crion> Melanie remains, of course, her own prime mover philosophically speaking. She might be interested in Maggie's play, though. 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Well, you know us. We're not really yellers." 21:30 <banana> The problem with self-direction is overcoming the will-to-inaction. 21:31 <VoxPVoxD> Inertia is a property of matter, which people are partly made of. 21:32 <banana> Melanie doesn't think- ok, she's actually pretty sure people *will* blame her for a few days of hiding after an encounter like that, but nobody made her stop, so. She does eventually emerge from her rooms later in the week, as the conversational tenor outside starts getting more worried about hobgoblins. Which she supposes we have to care about, for Tony's sake. 21:33 <banana> What's this about a play, though? 21:33 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Yeah. That helps. You said Tony needed help with a hob thing?" 21:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, we're still working out what we're gonna do. Might be wait and see. Might not." 21:36 <trenchfoot> "I should... go see everyone, I guess. Let them know I'm available." And probably give Lauren some peace of mind, being out of the building. 21:37 <VoxPVoxD> It's Melanie that Stewart texts. <I'm bringing nels to the wherehouse. do we need anything> 21:38 <banana> Oh shit. Do we? Without actually having had time to find out, Melanie will respond <We need Nels!>, but then she's going to go looking for who's around and start asking questions. 21:39 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's feeling pretty clever right now. Looping the Wherehouse in by gently prodding Melanie loose from her own seclusion... he's so good at being a friend. 21:39 <VoxPVoxD> That's what this is, right? 21:39 <dammitwho> Horm, hoorm. Did Union have this idea because of a pun? 'Moon'shine? 21:40 <VoxPVoxD> Anyway, after they've had time to eat and Nels has had time to get ready, Stewart takes her down. 21:41 <trenchfoot> She still looks like she's been wallowing, but better than when Stewart showed up. 21:41 <Crion> He did make puns about it, but it also turns out the werewolves actually run an off-the-books alcohol distro in the city and county. Which is a weird business model to be into in 2020. If Maggie asked about it, Union said it was kind of like this TV show, 'Sons of Anarchy,' and laughed to himself. Difficult to say what he meant unless she's been checking out cable TV recently. 21:42 <VoxPVoxD> She answered the door. That's worth the world. 21:42 <CBN> Tony, for his part, has leaned a large piece of plywood against a wall in the main area of the Wherehouse. He's got some thumbtacks pushed into it, and a spool of red yarn nearby. All he needs now is an actual conspiracy to map. Or pictures, or stuff. But you can't make an omelet without at first acquiring the eggs. 21:43 <CBN> Spent a fraught couple hours trying to decide whether or not to write 'Parson' or 'Proctor' anywhere on it. Currently deciding against, so he's fiddling with the marker tip whenever anyone comes in. 21:43 <Crion> Steve is FASCINATED by this. 21:44 <dammitwho> Hmm. Maggie'd prefer to stay gift economy for the actual hedge liquor unless Union has a really good reason not to, but setting up a mundane still for cash wouldn't be a bad idea. 21:49 <Crion> Union's down with that. He wants to be cautious, though. The werewolves love to get into shootouts over really complicated, really marginally profitable dumb shit. Which is fine for werewolves, but not the rest of the ecosystem. 21:50 <VoxPVoxD> On entering the Wherehouse: "Hey guys! Oh shit, are we conspiracy theorizing?" 21:50 <CBN> Tony, exasperated but not at Stewart: "Maybe man! I don't even know where to start with this." 21:51 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Is that a phrase? I don't think it is. Also, hi again, Tony." 21:51 <CBN> Pointing at the yarn, and the thumbtacks. "We should've done one for practice with Gary, details were just throwing themselves in our faces when we got stuff rolling. But this is like, man. Dude." A heavy sigh. 21:51 <Crion> Steve looks up from a notecard on which he's crudely drawn the Watermelon Boys, pinned to the board, and is currently using one of Tony's markers to draw a comical X over. 21:52 <Crion> He's getting the hang of this. 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Traditionally you have a picture of the guy you tack in the middle and start drawing lines around it like it's the sun in a kid's drawing." 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> "We have one of those, at least!" The Book isn't on a printer, but it does have a USB slot for a thumb drive so Stewart was able to get that artist's rendering of the Parson on his home printer. 21:53 <CBN> Tony: "Hi Nels! You're crafty, right? Any ideas on this?" He nods at Stewart. "Okay yeah that's a good idea, but I---we do?" 21:53 <CBN> He just lets Steve do his thing. He will not tell Steve because it would just give him an ego but this is precious, and adorable. 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart sticks it up: https://i.imgur.com/U7cD4ZX.jpg 21:54 <banana> Melanie: "What the fuck." 21:54 <CBN> Tony: "Man." 21:54 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That's an artist's rendering. Eyes may or may not glow IRL." 21:55 <CBN> He pinches the bridge of his nose and clenches the marker tight in his other hand. "Why do I get strong wizard bullshit vibes off of this?" 21:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Cause he's a psycho but he's really pretentious about it?" 21:55 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I've already had enough of that guy, I'll tell you that for free." 21:56 <Crion> Not EVERY Catholic is an evil mass murderer. There are men like Jesuit, who-- 21:56 <banana> "Are those torsos on the stakes? Is the Parson's Mask that he's become anime?" 21:56 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yes, and, maybe." 21:56 <dammitwho> Jesuit is a good mass murderer. Wizards try harder. 21:56 <VoxPVoxD> "This was taken from the freehold at Prague, which he and his people wiped out." 21:57 <CBN> Tony: "Europeans."That wasn't a swear but it sure felt like one. 21:58 <VoxPVoxD> "What kind of accent do you think he's rolling with? Like, Kraftwerk German? Borgia Italian?" 21:59 <Crion> Steve has moved on. He's turned a notecard into portrait orientation, so he can very simply sketch out an extremely tall man with a badge and a gun. Stewart probably knows enough about anime to describe this art style as a close cousin of "chibi." After drawing some...sparkles? stars? in the remaining white space, Steve will triumphantly pin The Walking Man wherever he pleases on the plywood 21:59 <Crion> with no regard to Tony's organization. 21:59 <banana> Melanie: "This seems.. really serious, though. Being from Europe doesn't make you easier to, um, butcher-" we will set aside the Canterbury Whoever. 22:00 <CBN> Tony: "Bond villain. Like probably Scaramanga mixed with one of the older ones, the Goldfinger guy too. But Bond villain." 22:00 <banana> "I wasn't paying enough attention recently, I'm sorry. These guys could be really really dangerous. Are the Courts aware they're around, like properly understanding the threat?" 22:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart immediately looks to see if Christopher Lee is still alive, and frowns before putting his phone away. "Yeah, they're aware. We're not actually expected to clear them out, just look out for ourselves." 22:01 <VoxPVoxD> "But 'ourselves' includes Baron Tony, and they're crucifying hobs." 22:02 <trenchfoot> Nels winces. 22:03 <CBN> Tony: "Pigs, to be clear. So it's not as bad as...almost any other ones at all." 22:03 <CBN> Tony: "But even then it sets a bad example! And I don't want to see Pigs around at all! Not even, and especially not, crucified ones! It's also very unfair to Jesus." 22:04 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The Prague Freehold was running guns for far-right paramilitaries in the Balkans in the 90s. Parson and crew ran guns to them, before wiping them out." 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> "We haven't found any record of them getting Biblical on anyone but the already-nominally-evil." 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> "Far from conclusive! But suggestive." 22:05 <CBN> Tony: "But. Doesn't that.He thinks for a minute. "Did they take the guns back then, and...hm." 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Very few details. So I don't wanna speculate too much just yet." 22:07 <Crion> No real need to worry about Steve's drawings, incidentally; Tony's not sure if it's intentional or not (impossible to tell with hobs) but the simplicity and abstraction inherent in doing really clean cartoony low-detail linework is itself a safeguard against the Wyrd getting ideas and twisting the art to fill in the blanks. It starts with small details, easy to miss, and there aren't any of 22:07 <Crion> them here. 22:08 <CBN> Tony: "Listen I'm not gonna slippery slope my way into sympathy for Pigs here, but it's like...I don't wanna live on a street where sometimes people get hit by a car and dragged for like half a mile before they die, even if they were bad people." 22:08 <Crion> Well, no need to worry about them anymore than like, the microwave in the kitchen. But one assumes the Wherehouse has a strict regimen of Hedge detoxing for appliances and furniture that happens offscreen. 22:08 <CBN> Tony: "And this wasn't even a nice neighborhood to begin with! No offense Steve!" 22:08 <VoxPVoxD> A strict and fussy cleaning regimen? Boy, do we! 22:09 <Crion> HONK! How rude, and fair! 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh, yeah, I don't mean to say that they're noble at all. Just, you know, serial killers have types, right? Their type might be fascists." 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> "Just a theory." 22:11 <banana> Melanie: "If they're Loyalists, it doesn't matter what kind of ideology their masters pretend to have." 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> "Right. Except insofar as it might let us predict their behavior." 22:12 <CBN> Tony: "All them being Loyalists really means here is we can't count on them doing the ol' Gary Fuckup and saving us from having to die stopping them this time. Probably." 22:12 <CBN> Tony: "Hopefully." 22:12 <banana> The Proctor Fuckup would be a nice fallback... 22:12 <VoxPVoxD> A shame the Mistress is Florida bound. 22:13 <VoxPVoxD> But frankly, Stewart's hope is that 'a Keeper shows up and ruins someone's day' is on some kind of cooldown. 22:14 <trenchfoot> Agreed. 22:15 <CBN> Tony claps his hands together. "Anyway! So. What else've we got, to refresh ourselves now that we've got a board to write on? Prague, Loyalists, gun-running, Pigs, fascists..." 22:15 <banana> "Coronavirus." 22:15 <banana> "Does it affect hobgoblins?" 22:16 <CBN> Tony looks at Steve."Unless we're carrying it, I think they've been pretty okay so far? Like probably being in reality-quarantine should help some." 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Covid doesn't exist in the Hedge. It may be necessary for them to invent it." 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> "If this goes on too much longer." 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> How long can it possibly last? 22:19 <CBN> Tony: "You've been around more recently than some of us, are these kinda things common now? My parents had the whole polio thing but it was pretty smooth sailing for me in high school." 22:20 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "There are disease scares every few years that are on the news, sure. Like I remember there was SARS, when I was a kid. But never like this. This is like, 1918 shit." 22:20 <VoxPVoxD> Glances at Nels without meaning to. 22:20 <trenchfoot> Nels: "It wasn't great the first time around, either." 22:21 <trenchfoot> "Though they've got a better handle on things, these days. They held parades in the middle of the last one, now people are actually taking this kind of seriously. Well. Most people are." 22:22 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I wonder what irony level reality is putting us on when we say this stuff." 22:22 <banana> Melanie: "We're not even in reality..." 22:22 <CBN> Tony: "Ah, fuck, jeez. Well hey, you know what we can do something about." He pivots back to the board, scribbles "Fascists?" on a piece of paper, draws Steve's red X through them, and pins it under the Parson drawing. 22:22 <VoxPVoxD> "I think we can all get behind that." 22:23 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Darn right." 22:24 <banana> It's nice to, like, see people again, but it might be better to focus a bit. "Um.. so to be super clear, Tony, you do need us to proactively stop these guys right? Like we're discussing the prevention of their present depredations as proximate necessity." 22:24 <banana> "Cessation, even. 22:25 <CBN> Tony: "I caught about three quarters of those words, not gonna lie, but plan is to first figure out the Why of the Pig ultra murdering, then the Why of the Where that they're doing it here, and figure out what, if anything, we need to do." 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> "I don't think anybody's really in a rush to get into a fight with these guys." 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> "If we can avoid it." 22:26 <trenchfoot> Nels would prefer not to, but sometimes these things just happen. 22:26 <CBN> Tony: "Not gonna lie. I'd rather not press my luck on whatever the anime hell this guy is---Exactly---but at the very least, I can't not try to help the hobs keep this from getting worse." 22:27 <CBN> Tony: "Back pocket idea, old Prague fascist ghost summoning to deal with these guys for us. But that's a very deep bad pocket idea, just spitballing." 22:28 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Feels like a real 'we'll get tigers to eat the snakes' situation." 22:29 <banana> "There's no reason a freehold can't have a political stance." 22:29 <trenchfoot> Look, sometimes you happen to know a tiger and you've got snakes to kill. 22:29 <CBN> Tony: "Yeah I want to be clear here. I don't like snakes or fascists, right? Or Pigs." 22:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I guess our next step is to go look for some pigs?" 22:31 <CBN> Tony: "But if I have to worry about hobs---Steve, earmuffs---who I actually enjoy being around, having bad things happen to them---Steve, earmuffs off---it's going to fuck up getting day drunk on a boat and fishing up dinner! Long game!" 22:31 <Crion> Steve brings his wings up and down dutifully. 22:31 <CBN> Tony: "Yeah, that's probably a good idea, actually. God I hate talking to them though." 22:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "They suck so bad, dude. What do you think, Melanie?" 22:33 <banana> "Uh, I've got no problem with it in theory, but can you talk to the pigs? They don't answer questions, they just tell you to comply." 22:33 <banana> Melanie: "I was doing some kata out by the market parking and this big fat one came up and kept yelling that I should 'Get out of the vehicle'" 22:34 <CBN> Tony: "I haven't tried since I got the hat, but I have to imagine that's worth something." 22:34 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It might not be super productive, but I think it's our best lead right now." 22:35 <VoxPVoxD> "And they might tell us stuff without telling us stuff." 22:35 <Crion> The Walking Man implied he had a conversation with the Pig Sergeant, but that was after exploding its entire upper body. 22:36 <CBN> Tony: "I wrote up what I was going to say, lemme find it here." He digs around in his jeans and pulls out an index card after a minute. Clearing his throat, doing his most official-sounding voice. "We are attempting to ascertain the escalation of a carpentry-based terminal scenario involving downed officers within this jurisdiction, and are offering cross-jurisdictional investigative support to collaborate on tracking fugitives from 22:36 <CBN> our purview." Big breath, woof. 22:36 <CBN> Tony: "Do you have any idea how many episodes of Law and Order that took." 22:36 <VoxPVoxD> Nodding gravely: "Real piece of work." 22:40 <CBN> Tony: "So yeah. Steve, you have any lead on where the Pigs are around this time of lately? Is there like...a donut shop they hang out at where I can catch them in their least on-duty shit-headed moments, if they have those?" 22:42 <Crion> Steve is finally satisfied with what appears to be his last work for now: the Dockworkers and Yardworkers in what might be a picket line or could just be a mob, but either way, showing solidarity. He pins that up and: Honk! honk honk. Early spring they like to start pretending they're Fish and Wildlife cops and asking people for hunting and fishing licenses. Maybe why they were in the Hedge 22:42 <Crion> near a park when they got crucified? 22:44 <dammitwho> Maggie's watching Steve's drawings. Is he communicating something in particular here or does he just like to make art of the people he knows? 22:44 <CBN> Tony: "Hmm...ok, so team, which one sounds like a better idea: We go to a Hedge park or Hedge lake, or we go around announcing that we are going to fish without a license?" 22:45 <Crion> The corollary seems to be hobs that he knows and are tied to adventures with Tony. 22:45 <Crion> And the rest of you, of course. 22:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Well... we do actually intend to fish at some point, right? Or have the option? Kills two birds to find out what happens if we do it now." 22:47 <Crion> Has Tony made any progress on his boat dreams at all? 22:47 <CBN> Tony claps his hands together. "That's genius, I'd forgotten we actually are going to need to do that! I just assumed all waters are cool to fish in, but, huh." 22:47 <Crion> Boat licensure might be in the ballpark. 22:49 <CBN> He has not of late, between early quar-wariness and it still being far enough out from Boat Weather that he hasn't given it much of a chance to breathe, idea-wise, lately. 22:49 <banana> "It could be that the Pig/Ram Signers were doing something like that and got hassled by the pigs, to which they took poorly." 22:49 <CBN> Tony: "Okay then! He sets down the marker and pins the spare tacks in his hand to the board. "Let's get me a fishing license. Or something." 22:50 <banana> "Camping in a park, something of that sort." 23:01 <Crion> There's a couple different places you can go to fish in Baltimore in the real world, and Tony knows they'll have some sort of sidestepped corollary in the Hedge. The most prominent is Lake Montebello, which is in the northeastern part of the city. The, ah, Arcadia-Beverly Hills Historical District. Some decent stories of small to medium freshwater fish and then some tall tales of big blue 23:01 <Crion> catfish from here -- the Hedge respects the tall tales more than the accurate reports. And it's a very rich neighborhood...that might attract Pigs. 23:02 <Crion> There's also Druid Hill, but, that's in Druid Hill Park, in whose Hedge Jackie found a bunch of Pigs crucified. 23:02 <Crion> *Druid Lake 23:03 <CBN> About how long of a walk would it be to A-BH from the Wherehouse? 23:04 <Crion> Something around an hour, headed up Harford Avenue. 23:05 <CBN> Tony: "Who's up for a nice, long walk?" 23:05 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I could go for one. Haven't really been out and about, lately." 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I've been sitting around a lot myself." 23:05 <banana> Melanie: "As long as you don't actually mean a jog, yeah." She glances at Nels. We've done a good job of moving past the elephant in the room... 23:07 <Crion> Steve goes to leave the room, but first waddles up to Nels. HONK! HONK HONK! HOONK! Great job with your Keeper, kid! But don't bring that shit around me! 23:07 <Crion> Then it's time for an afternoon cold one. 23:07 <CBN> Tony: "Great! So, we're going to the, please bear with me on the name on this, the Arcadia-Beverly Hills area, because the lake there might have big fish, but it's definitely in the kind of richy-rich area that Pigs would probably want to hang out in 'on duty' or whatever. This should be fun! Steve, lock up after us if you could." 23:08 <Crion> Honk! Will do. 23:08 <trenchfoot> She was only owed the one favor. It won't happen again, Steve. 23:10 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Is it really called that." 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "There's a lot of places around here with names like that. Stu lives in Thistle." 23:14 <CBN> Tony: "It is, and we can only hope that when we get there, there are signs that say 'No, The Other One' posted everywhere." And with that, Tony leads the charge out of the Wherehouse and begins the long walk, that he definitely did not tell people how long it was going to be beyond 'long.' 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> There was a time Stewart would've been upset about that, but that time is around 12 years and 200 pounds in the rear view. 23:17 <Crion> Are you going through the Hedge or are you just walking up Harford Avenue with whatever armor and guns you think reasonable? 23:19 <CBN> Hedge-wise for sure, no people to worry about breathing on, or being breathed on, immunities or resistances aside. Besides, as a Baron, Tony's gotta put in that face time over here, baby. 23:22 <banana> Melanie ambles. She can sustain an amble basically forever. "You know it's funny." 23:22 <dammitwho> Maggie, at least, is *extremely* good at going in one direction for long uninterrupted periods of time. 23:22 <dammitwho> "What is?" 23:23 <banana> "Just thinking, like.. I don't like the hedge in theory. Or the wyrd or arcadia because all of this is fake, it's a ripoff of reality, which wants to hurt us for fun. And it's dumb on the face of it." 23:23 <banana> Melanie: "But." 23:24 <Crion> You're about halfway there when the big fumigators come stomping down the parody version of Harford Avenue you're walking alongside of. Who here's seen Empire Strikes Back? 23:24 <banana> "Wandering through the hedge with you guys, looking for some specific dumb thing that's also suuuuper dangerous, talking nonsense and getting ready to do something stupid that helps people... I like that." 23:24 <CBN> Tony got through it during his big movie catch-up! It was early on the list, since he just missed the original run. 23:25 <trenchfoot> Nels hasn't. She mostly sticks to older movies, when she watches anything. 23:26 <dammitwho> It's on the big list of movies she needs to watch that Stewart helped her compile. 23:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's seen Empire, obviously. He's a New Hope partisan but Empire is an unquestionable classic. 23:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That's good, Mellie, cause... I doubt this is the last time we're gonna do it." 23:28 <Crion> So those big things from the snow world at the beginning, two of those, kinda-sorta, are lumbering down the street, lowering their heads and snorting phelgm-fumes out on everything. There are big red crosses on their sides and, rather oddly, they're wearing masks (that don't cover their outtake valves). Are they supposed to be...cleaning...the Hedgerow streets? Difficult to say. But you need 23:28 <Crion> a plan to avoid them, now. 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> "Holy shit." 23:28 <Crion> No side streets are immediately available, but that's what Hedgespinning is for. Unless you've got better ideas. 23:29 <CBN> Tony: "Ah fuck. Anyone want to find us an alley to duck down, or make one?" 23:32 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, that's gross. Yes, please get us a way out of here!" 23:34 <Crion> On either side of you, down the "street," are the fake storefronts you've become accustomed to, jammed up against one another. Every third there's a barred gate which would lead to an alley, but it's kind of Looney Tunes-painted on. 23:36 <banana> Sometimes the fake shops have more depth to them, or they're doors to elsewhere.. any we can actually open in a hurry? Or break the glass? 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks up and down the street and darts off towards something shaped loosely like a Family Dollar but called something like "Rimple's Foods and Non-Foods" and pries up the rubber welcome mat like it's a manhole cover. There's a shimmer of Glamour in the air and he comes up with a chunky bronze key that somehow manages to fit perfectly in the lock that seals this sliding glass door. 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> "Come on!" 23:43 <CBN> Tony: "Nice!" 23:44 <Crion> The inside is just as fake and offputting as the outside, with the same dead air, and the 'door,' while still there technically, is a wilting non-entity in your hands -- literally almost gooping on them, fucking gross -- instead of something you can use to protect yourself from the deadly ??? these things are spewing. You'll be less affected in here, but still affected...unless someone can 23:44 <Crion> feed that door some spinach. 23:44 <Crion> Or solve the issue some other way, the narrator isn't your dad. 23:52 <banana> Once they've dash inside and taken stock of the gross door, Melanie steps past its corpse. "Okay, no need to stand back this time, but.. stand back, okay?" 23:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart stands back. 23:54 <CBN> Tony obliges. 23:54 <trenchfoot> Nels backs away. 23:54 <Crion> The door scooches aside obligingly. 23:55 <banana> It's notably harder to unleash Elemental Fury if you aren't angry. Her Mask slips a little, skin darkening and becoming whorled, as Melanie plants herself in the doorway - and then the wind rises. 23:55 <banana> Melanie mumbles. "..invoking the trials of weather and whether.. the right of chaos to occur.." In a large hemisphere immediately outside Rimple's, the air spins and howls. 23:56 <banana> Battering visibly against nothing, the windstorm drives at the gases or whatever the fuck. Let's hope they're relatively physical. 23:59 <VoxPVoxD> Ahahahaha! 00:00 <Crion> The phlegm-exhaust billows away, a bit more resistant than normal gas would be but nothing that can challenge hurricane season. One of the lumbering creatures grumbles and snorts an extra portion at the motley as it passes, but it's just...more gas. And it's blown away as easily. The door, for its part, comically holds on for dear life by the hinges, rippling and twisting in the sirroco. 00:01 <Crion> Soon, the 'cleaners' are past, and the door sags in its frame. 00:01 <CBN> Tony offers helpfully to the door, "Hang in there buddy." 00:02 <Crion> The door straightens a little bit. Thanks baron! 00:02 <Crion> It won't be an impediment to you leaving. 00:04 <CBN> Tony pokes his head out. All clear? 00:04 <Crion> Looks like. Everything's got kind of a gooey film on it, from the fake asphalt to the fake cars, but it seems harmless and is dissipating quickly. 00:05 <banana> Melanie frowns at the disinfectant residue. "How does anyone get around this city day-to-day?" 00:05 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Covered in snot." 00:05 <VoxPVoxD> "Maybe the hobs are on lockdown too." 00:07 <CBN> Tony gestures for everyone to follow out."All clear out here. Thanks again, Door. You keep on keepin' on, boss." 00:08 <Crion> Once everyone's out, the door closes with confidence. 00:09 <banana> "Is it named Door? Are there doors called Window?" 00:09 <VoxPVoxD> "There are doors that *are* windows, so why not?" 00:09 <CBN> Tony: "I'm gonna say that one is named Door, at least." 00:10 <trenchfoot> Nels: "It seemed nice. Y'know. For a door." 00:10 <banana> Melanie: "Maybe nice is all you've got when you can't do your actual job." 00:11 <Crion> The rest of the trip to the Hedgeside shores of Lake Montebello is as interesting as you'd like them to be, but probably don't give the locals anymore ideas. 00:12 <CBN> Tony: "Well hey, maybe next time he'll do better. At least it didn't bite the key or trap us inside a monster mouth building or something." 00:13 <Crion> Point of order in Door's defense: opening to a key is an important part of the job. 00:14 <Crion> Not Door's fault you all used weird magic! Out-of-towners! Except the Baron, he's good. 00:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Door is doing their best." 00:19 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So is the plan to look for some kind of permit office or to just start doing the thing and see if anyone comes to yell at us?" 00:19 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Just start breakin' the law, I thought." 00:20 <CBN> Tony: "First the first one, then loudly announcing that I want to speak to a manager of fishing, and seeing where that takes us." 00:20 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods sagely. Technically all of his nodding is sagely now. 00:20 <dammitwho> "Ope. Fair enough." 00:21 <CBN> Tony: "Now to be fair Maggie---the odds are very good we will break a couple laws anyway, on the way in or out. Pigs and all." 00:24 <Crion> Lake Montebello in the real Baltimore is this big, non-artificial-but-clearly-now-curated blip of blue dropped in the middle of one of the richer neighborhoods in the city. It's not big enough to do anything like stretch to the horizon, but it is big enough that when you tromp out of the 'streets' onto the 'shores,' the water stretches a respectable distance into the, well, distance, and it's 00:24 <Crion> hard to make out whether it's buildings or Hedgerows on the far shore. In fact, you're pretty sure it changes when you look away and look back. Not in a sinister way; more like a placeholder refreshing. 00:25 <Crion> This...isn't a trod, not yet, but it is a wide-open space in the Hedge and there's a corresponding amount of safety and danger in that. On the one hand, you're easier to find by anyone who's looking. On the other hand, the Thorns back off. 00:27 <Crion> Being here with the local Baron means that for the most part, if any hob recognizes you -- and there are little hobs sunbathing and splashing around and playing volleyball using another hob as a ball, who seems to be enjoying it way too much -- they greet you with a nod of respect, or a statement in a garbled hodge-podge language whose tone is one of respect. 00:28 <Crion> No one, however, is fishing. 00:28 <Crion> ...Well that's not true. 00:29 <dammitwho> It was nice of Hodge and Podge to codify the Hedge patois for everyone. 00:29 <Crion> The figure is way down the shore from you, probably a man, and the hobs are giving him wide berth, but there is a dude out there thigh-deep in the surf with a big fishing rod -- talking the kind you use for river-fishing, where there's current. 00:30 <Crion> He might be wearing rubberized overalls. 00:30 <CBN> Tony moseys on over to the shore and gives the fisherdude a wave from shore. He'd yell, but he doesn't want to scare the fish off. So here he is, waving. 00:31 <banana> Melanie tries to avoid actual beach sand, if the hedge has invented any. "There's a chance that's one of our targets. Or, I mean, the people targetting us." 00:31 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart just hangs back and watches. But the fisherman feels the spotlight on him. 00:32 <Crion> Some Riverside King -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUh1DSIsUOY Yeah, I got a first class ticket, but I'm as blue as a boy can be. 00:32 <Crion> When the Glamour hits, the fisherman straights and turns, comically putting his hand over his eyes to shield them from a fake sun and peer over at where it came from. 00:33 <VoxPVoxD> Several paces behind the approaching Tony, Stewart gives the Riverside King a respectful nod. 00:37 <Crion> He takes off the big floppy hat he's wearing -- of course he is -- and waves it at you all, then starts reeling in his line. 00:39 <Crion> When he reaches the shore, he looks at each of you, grins, and: "WELL! How y'all doing! Thursday's for working, Friday's for dancing, Saturday's for the damn Vols, but Sunday! Sunday's for the LORD!" 00:40 <Crion> Looking back over the lake: "And Jesus, He was a damn good angler." 00:40 <Crion> NEXT WEEK: Faith and the Hook