21:32 <Crion> Here she is, in all her glory, finally docked in the Wherehouse...Le Boat. 21:32 <Crion> If that's what you're actually going to call it. 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't know what to call it instead, but he figures as long as he doesn't explain that it makes him think of mid-2000s reddit he figures he's done right by the motley. 21:33 <Crion> You've all got a lot to decide about this craft, especially as you begin to expose it to the Hedge that you want to use it in -- it will grow, plantlike, and you will have to shape it. Eventually it might not even be able to return to the outside world...but who knows, maybe you can pull something off there. Some of you have, after all, been doing work into things of that nature. 21:34 <Crion> Manipulating the nature of the fetch. 21:36 <trenchfoot> Titania, Queen of the Ferries. 21:36 <trenchfoot> C'mon. 21:36 <dammitwho> Extremely funny, but might be tempting fate a little. 21:37 <trenchfoot> Aaaand Nels certainly isn't going to be the one to suggest that, given recent events. 21:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's somehow even busier than he used to be now that in addition to a full-time job and a technically part-time magic job he's got, like an asset portfolio, a retirement account, etc. It turns out business can achieve a high degree of complexity. 21:41 <Crion> Steve struts out in a sailor's cap shortly after Le Boat enters harbor and flaps aboard to give it the once over. He mainly seems concerned about how small it is, where the beers will be kept, where the couches are for him to sleep on, and so forth. 21:43 <CBN> The two wolves inside Tony of 'fussing over every single detail of the boat's interior and exterior' and 'just being utterly, radiantly ecstatic at the fact of Boat Having' have been warring powerfully. The end result, so far, is that nothing in the boat has been moved or modified since they brought it back to the Wherehouse, but by god does it shine. 21:54 <VoxPVoxD> But in the free time Stewart does have he's all about the boat, making sure the paperwork's in order, making sure Tony's got what he needs, making sure Lauren sees it and has input on any changes the motley makes, etc. Does Stewart's Steward have any specific orders or requests as relates to the impending voyage? Or is it broadly sufficient to keep Kingsley informed? 21:54 <trenchfoot> Nels will help in whatever way she can, but honestly she's still making sure the dock is fine for Le Boat, because she isn't an expert on docks or boats at all and it really wouldn't do to ruin things. 22:01 <VoxPVoxD> Oh, and reaching out to Everafter about Maura's pregnancy. He's pretty sure his name's still good among the mages even after Prom. 22:02 <Crion> Keeping Lauren safe is actually a higher priority for the Court than anything else as far as Kingsley's concerned -- it's not sentimental (or at least, not entirely sentimental) either, given she's the information technology backbone who keeps Ravens happy (Ravens is already grumpy about Angelfire being the only one around for a bit; even in Winter, dealing with Ravens was Lauren's job) and 22:02 <Crion> everyone else's phones working. Beyond that, check-ins and careful notes. 22:03 <VoxPVoxD> The only thing Stewart can't protect Lauren from is his own anxiety. So this should be fine. Nothing scary's gonna happen. 22:07 <Crion> Everafter is brusque about the matter -- that's hardly new from her -- but Stewart can tell he has her interest when he mentions the father's...provenance. The wizard keeps a quiet office near the Belevedere to do nebulous consulting and see patients out of (the one time Stewart visited it was admirably unclear whether she was pretending to be a doctor, shrink, or accountant), and that's 22:07 <Crion> where she'll set up appointments with Maura and Stu. 22:08 <VoxPVoxD> Sounds good. Stewart relays all this to Stu — it's still easier to reach out to him than to Maura. He hopes that'll change, but it hasn't yet. 22:09 <Crion> Much easier to reach him (eventually) by e-mail or text than phone, given his erratic work schedule (especially now as first responders are being pressed into jack-of-all-trade duties), but then, this narrator hardly has to pretend that Stewart called him to talk on the phone. 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> The very idea. 22:18 <Crion> Despite his protestations about cabin size (Steve will be a vocal participant in motley discussions about remodeling, if not necessarily an invited one), Steve disappears and soon returns with a nautical telescope he got from ??? that he keeps on a leather thong/sling around his neck. 22:19 <trenchfoot> ...thank you, Steve. 22:19 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's not gonna object unless (until) Steve shows up with a tiny pirate on his shoulder. 22:20 <trenchfoot> Please don't invite that as a possibility. 22:22 <VoxPVoxD> Are ya ready kids?! 22:23 <Crion> Intuitively it seems like Big Red might be the one to go to here for all your token needs, but Big Red is land-based, being a tree and all, and he has a very specific process. His bullshit won't work on a damn boat. But Tony's got friends in the union down at the docks, and while the mushroom local might not have the experise of actual boatbuilding to share, they definitely know where all 22:23 <Crion> the weird boats moored on Hedge-docks are, and probably know who -- or what -- calls them home. 22:25 <CBN> And in Tony's mind, working on the docks is like, 95% of the way to being fellow Boat People now anyway. 22:27 <Crion> There's a lot of chest bumping and backslapping -- well, maybe ass-slapping, these guys are short -- when Tony swings by; things have been going well with the yard union and with Notgnixel since they organized, which maybe isn't surprising because all of this is built on vibes instead of materialism, so the idea of retaliation via capital strike was kind of incoherent unless the paymasters 22:27 <Crion> wanted to send in goons. And you handled all that stuff! 22:30 <CBN> It is completely lost on Tony that he is simultaneously effectively local nobility and a friend to the union common hob. He's just happy to be here, folks. He's just about figured out the equivalent of 'ruffling someone's hair' that you can do to their weird little dockworker heads. That's where his social priorities are. 22:32 <Crion> The dockworkers point him down the docks to a thriving community of houseboaters -- some of the hobs own the boat; some of the hobs ARE the boat -- down the way. Lotta variety here, from sailboats with interiors the size of a small field to an honest-to-god casino riverboat with big old googly-eyes that speaks out the tooting smokestacks (probably don't wanna gamble there). Occasionally one 22:32 <Crion> boat will sail off and another will sail in like clockwork; if you look closely, you can tell that the new boat is the old boat, it just got tired of what it looked like. 22:33 <Crion> Takeaway: It appears the principles of Hedgespinning work just fine out on the "water" of the Hedge, and that you should be able to lock certain changes in, in the same way and under the same rules as the Wherehouse was built. 22:35 <VoxPVoxD> What's Maggie working on? 22:38 <trenchfoot> So. What do we need spun? Because Nels is approximately the best if she can come up with the right song. 22:38 <dammitwho> Keeping an eye out of any even slight leak into the inner compartments. Salt water isn't corrosive enough to harm her if she were to take a swim, but it's still a little nervous-making all the same. 22:45 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Can we move our computers and such onto this thing? Is it safe, with the water and all? Do we have to..." She waves her hands vaguely. "...fuses?" 22:46 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Phones and internet might be... tricky? I don't know how that stuff works, exactly..." 22:47 <CBN> Based on Steve's feedback, Tony can provide Nels with a laundry list of features to spin up on the boat. Some are obvious---anti-Hedgepiranha cladding on the underside of the boat, Batshark repellant (not really sure what that one is, except Steve pointed out it was specifically not 'Bat Shark-Repellant'). The list also has things Steve asked for that Tony scored with a ? to ????????? spectrum, including 'Thing to keep Sun out of our 22:47 <CBN> eyes' (?)' and 'That thing that makes the fish stop singing when you slap on the deck rhythmically because they will always start.' (??????) 22:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart kind of follows her around trying to be as helpful as he can to counterbalance his awkwardness. With Melanie distracted, Maggie's the member of the motley Stewart's most naturally comfortable around. "We definitely can. Any situation where stuff gets wet is a situation where, like, the boat is sinking or flipping over, probably. And if we're really worried there's precautions we 22:47 <VoxPVoxD> can take." 22:49 <dammitwho> Maggie frowns. "Hmm. Is there a way I can make my computer copy itself to another computer on land regularly?" 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah! That's good practice in general, really, along with having passwords that are too complicated to remember. I can show you how to set it up." 22:52 <VoxPVoxD> Backups are one of the things Stewart is perennially bad about, or was, depending on whether Lauren gave him any shit for it. 22:55 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Great! I love this boat, but I don't wanna lose Dead Snow accidentally..." 22:57 <Crion> Lauren would indeed have installed a RAID assembly on a backup battery with strict backup schedule protocols for everything on their network shortly after moving in. 22:59 <VoxPVoxD> Ah yes, the RAID Redemption. Stewart remembers it well. 22:59 <VoxPVoxD> "How far along is it?" 23:00 <trenchfoot> There's a bit of shuffling, but Nels can work with these... instructions, from Steve. Vague as they are. And mostly focused on defenses, honestly -- they should have some luxuries, too. More rooms, a larger communal space, a kitchen if it doesn't have one already. 23:00 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I'm not sure. I've got all these vampires doodling about in the arctic circle and I need to narrow down a smaller group to really, you know, follow to the end." 23:01 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Who are your favorites to write?" 23:09 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, gosh. There's this grumpy old boogeyman vampire and the girl he has showing him what television is and such that are a real hoot. There's a big fella with an axe that just wants to 'vibe' as the children say. Is that right? 'Vibe'?" 23:10 <trenchfoot> Maybe a bar. They could have a bar. 23:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's not exactly wrong but generally to 'vibe' you have to be or seem young. If you have 'boomer energy' then you 'just want to grill'." 23:12 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, I like that. I won't use it word-for-word because I know it's tacky to just say that stuff directly now." 23:16 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah! Although it's funny in a kind of poignant way. A vampire can't grill, because of their fear of fire." 23:16 <VoxPVoxD> "So if I literally does just want to grill, even if he never says 'I just want to grill', there's something there, right?" 23:16 <VoxPVoxD> *if he literally 23:17 <dammitwho> "Well, he can't grill anyway because the story takes place in the Arctic circle. Too cold to have a cookout. Everybody just wants to grill, but they can't. Human condition, right?" 23:18 <Crion> The Hedgespinning can be done over time, working from the outside in; getting it to stick is a problem at first, but it eventually starts to take permanent hold when Tony begins doing the other thing he's figured out is necessary -- taking Le Boat down to the docks to hang out with the other Hedge-boats, like some weird version of a hob dog park. 23:19 <trenchfoot> Adorable. 23:19 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, gosh. If this disease lasts through summer, people won't be able to have cookouts here, either! I think we're really on to something here." 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah... although if he's got enough money he can definitely have a heated patio or something even up in Finnmark. One of my sponsors is like, wi-fi home security and one of things in the marketing materials is really fancy houses that use the equipment. Rich people get real weird with it." 23:20 <Crion> This encourages Le Boat's transformation and awakening into a...creature? Let's go with denizen of the Hedge -- it takes surprisingly little time, too, just a couple weeks if Tony's adamant about maintaining a daily schedule and the rest of the motley is dedicated to spending time aboard her, getting to know her, doing their own Hedgespinning, and so on. Steve takes to the sea like a...well, 23:20 <Crion> a bird that likes water. 23:22 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "Oh yeah. I've got a bit where one of the rich vampires goes to visit another one, and in his lair he's got all this, well... I guess I'll call it 'sex equipment', right? Out on display. But she notices that it all has a layer of dust on it. It's just for show." 23:23 <VoxPVoxD> "When is this set? Could he have diegetically based his entire personality on 50 Shades of Gray?" 23:25 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Vaguely the present, I have them mentioning the President as someone who was never President in real life so I don't have to nail it down too hard. What's 50 Shades of Gray?" 23:26 <CBN> Tony loves a routine, and 2020 is a year for attempting to establish those to cling to some sort of sanity and normalcy. Even if it means boat park time and a chore wheel with entries like 'Tell Le Boat you appreciate it' and 'Make uninterrupted eye contact with yourself in the reflection on the front window for 12 seconds and no longer.' 23:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's a book and movie series about a rich guy with a lot of sex equipment, basically. I don't think it's literally about vampires but spiritually: same dude." 23:27 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Well, I figure most of them are kind of sexless, and they sublimate that into all sorts of other stuff." 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. "As far as I can tell, the way being a vampire works is you work out a bit you're willing to do forever, and then you just do that bit forever." 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> "Probably hard to sustain relationships when you've got that kind of focus. It's almost monastic." 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> "Unless that *is* your bit, anyway." 23:29 <dammitwho> "Oh yeah, that makes sense. Doing a personality as, like, a vaudeville routine." 23:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Being a person becoming a job that requires constant focus and discipline." 23:30 <dammitwho> Maggie: "The important thing is that I never ask any vampires what being a vampire is like. I wanna be able to assure them that this is entirely, almost insultingly ignorant of the realities of their uh, unlived experience." 23:31 <trenchfoot> One supposes Stewart would know, even if Nels don't quite understand it. 23:31 <VoxPVoxD> Sometimes Stewart can relate. "I wish you luck. A lot of vampires will just tell you that stuff, because it is such a huge proportion of what they think about." 23:32 <VoxPVoxD> "The policy I try to live by is, everyone deserves a chance to tell you their backstory, if that's what they want to do. It gets me a lot of the way towards being Lord Sage." 23:33 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh sure, I don't mean never never. Just, after I'm done writing about it. I'm no snitch." 23:33 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh sure, I don't mean never never. Just, after I'm done writing about it. I'm no snitch." 23:34 <Crion> It takes a lot of love, and a lot of daydrinking, and a lot of other stuff you were honestly gonna do anyway, but when the change happens, Tony feels it first. The rest of the motley does soon after, but Tony first. The turning of a lock, the sliding of a bolt...and the certainy that a simple application of the stuff of the Hedge and Arcadia, a bit of the Glamour, will make that hatch belowdecks 23:34 <Crion> go somewhere else. 23:37 <CBN> And Tony's the first to go through that hatch. He's honest enough with himself to know he'd volunteer if everyone else was around at the time anyway. 23:37 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, uh, apropos of nothing, do you know where to buy rocket engines? Not real rockets, haha, I mean the little ones that people shoot off in the desert. Estes, I think they're called." 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You can buy model rockets online. There might be specific state laws we have to care about when it comes to buying or shipping them but I doubt it's too complicated." 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> "Way less of a headache than buying drones is, I bet. I have looked into that." 23:41 <VoxPVoxD> "Why do you ask?" 23:42 <Crion> Inside...it's like an empty floorplan for part of a cruise ship. Like, maybe, who knows, the ritzy deck of the Titanic before it sunk. Tony might have seen pictures of that. There's a couple wide open floors that immediately begin growing walls in reaction to being observed, forming bunkrooms and a mess hall, and a great big common area to the aft. It's all fluid and in motion, though, this 23:42 <Crion> new home of their's -- Le Boat wants the motley to come in and collaborate on what home on the sea looks like. 23:44 <dammitwho> "Well, take a look at this'yur." She unrolls a copy of the drawings she's made for her weapon. "Big ol' wrench made of cold iron, right? Except it's got this rack at the top with those cylinders there, and the squeeze handle." 23:44 <dammitwho> "Those cylinders? Rockets. You swing it--" She mimes like a baseball bat. "--squeeze the handle, the rockets go off and suddenly you're knocking just about anything right. out of. the park." 23:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Holy shit." 23:45 <dammitwho> "Right?!" 23:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You know if our lives were a video game you would be by far the most popular character." 23:50 <CBN> Tony offers up a loud-enough-to-echo 'Thank you!' to Le Boat while taking a stroll around the deck, just to get a feel for the place. He debates hanging a banner that says 'definitely not haunted' at one end, but knowing the Hedge, that's tempting a couple of your worse flavors of fate. Great acoustics down(?) here though. 23:51 <dammitwho> "Aw, that's sweet." 23:51 <trenchfoot> Ooh. Get a stage up, maybe? 23:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's very confident of this. It'd go Maggie, Tony, Melanie, Nels, Stewart. 23:51 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Speakin' of which, you're still gonna 'stream' from the boat, right?" 23:51 <VoxPVoxD> "Absolutely! I can't afford to take any time off. Even a short break can do long-term revenue damage." 23:52 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Aw. That doesn't sound too good." 23:57 <VoxPVoxD> Brushing past the sad-sounding part: "I'm really looking forward to having you guys on, though. It'll be fun to change it up and they'll finally get to meet the people I tell stories about." 23:58 <dammitwho> Maggie's eyebrows shoot up. "Stories? Oooh, what've you said?" 00:06 <trenchfoot> Nels has essentially an exact replica of her own room on Le Boat, as well as a stage in the common room across from the bar - she crafted both of them. Those were what she thought were important. Anything else is up to the rest of them. 00:06 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I told them about Tony's chronological movie quest and the way his heart rose and sank over the course of the Terminator franchise. One time I told them about when you asked me for video game recommendations and I ended up spending that whole week trying random games chat recommended. I told them about making Nels watch Evangelion as her first ever anime." 00:07 <trenchfoot> That was... very weird. 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> "Most of the stories that aren't supernatural or illegal are home entertainment based. I wanted to talk about you and Nels getting into distilling but then I looked it up and it's actually illegal to do that in Maryland, so I probably shouldn't say you are on camera." 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> "If you wanna come on and talk about distilling we should establish that you did it in some different state." 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> "Or as a professional or something." 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> "I wanna get Nels to play music. I wanna get Tony to talk about movies. I kinda wanna just play games with Melanie, but she's so good at talking whatever happens will be good." 00:14 <trenchfoot> She's willing to play for internet people! Though she might need to take precautions? Or something? Something to ask about when they return? 00:15 <Crion> Stewart probably wants to review the TOS on that. Or make it clear that the steam won't be archived. 00:15 <Crion> *stream 00:17 <VoxPVoxD> Yeah. Stewart can just set Nels up with her own Youtube or Soundcloud or whatever account if she wants to publish stuff. 00:22 <Crion> If the motley doesn't hurry on in, Steve might beat them there... 00:23 <trenchfoot> Nels has been pretty focused on the boat! 00:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's following Maggie in once she's made her most recent circuit. 00:24 <dammitwho> Maggie: "That sounds really nice." 00:25 <Crion> Too late!! Steve slipped in right with Tony. Thankfully he's only carved out a very small like...Steve station. You know how there will be laundry or trash stations at certain places down the halls of cruise ships or the like in the bunkroom areas, for the staff? Instead of that, near the door there is a Steve station, where he can sit as a goose loaf up on a cushion, watch a TV, and get 00:25 <Crion> beers and salutations as everyone passes by. And also! Keep watch. 00:25 <Crion> It's sort of stylized like an indoor crow's nest. 00:26 <VoxPVoxD> A bro's nest. 00:26 <dammitwho> A Steve's nest, surely. 00:28 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart wants to shape something soundproofed and studio-like, that you can stream in but that would also be a serviceable home theater. As well, he wants a big classy wooden bar. 00:29 <VoxPVoxD> He's got shakers and glasses and stuff on order... 00:29 <Crion> There is space for both of these things, plus like a server-ish room for the second fetch server that Lauren's putting together. 00:32 <VoxPVoxD> Hard work, making friends, and a phenomenal amount of luck made this possible. Stewart feels kind of lightheaded as it finally starts to sink in what they've accomplished. What he's accomplished. 00:33 <Crion> HONK! from down the hall. Steve has officially cracked the first cold one. Much more environmentally friendly than breaking a bottle on the side of a ship. 00:33 <trenchfoot> Certainly less wasteful. The fish might like it less, though. 00:35 <dammitwho> The fish around here are uncouth anyway. They mock us like the humans they have come to resemble. 00:44 <CBN> Tony of course joins Steve for the celebratory first drink (on the boat (today (with Steve)). It's 5 o'clock everywhere, on the boat. 00:45 <trenchfoot> Is that -- can we do that? 00:45 <trenchfoot> Like, for realsies? Because it's no longer implausible. 00:46 <dammitwho> What, drink on a boat? Surely things were even more lax about that when Nels was younger. 00:47 <trenchfoot> She, ah, never got on a boat. 00:48 <trenchfoot> Although legally speaking she has driven drunk by the present day standards, if that counts. 00:50 <Crion> The lighting inside the hollow -- coming through smoky panes that sort of give the impression of the environment that's actually outside, but none of the details -- does seem permanently set to it being 5 o'clock in the afternoon. 00:53 <VoxPVoxD> Eternal happy hour was probably at least one person's Durance. 00:53 <Crion> One person's heaven, another's hell, and so on. 00:59 <Crion> The bonny ship Wild Goose will be fully defined and ready to sail...next week.