21:14 <Crion> It's still early October; some time has passed since your encounter in the Hedge with the Proctor and his pack. The two rescued changelings are in the care of the Spring Court at the moment -- it's seeming likely that Spring and Winter are getting new courtiers out of this moment, bringing the number of new changelings in the Freehold of Baltimore to an odd seven in the past six months. This 21:14 <Crion> is quite unusual, and there are intimations that perhaps it's straining the resources of the freehold to deal with it all at once -- at least, if the amount of complaining Banthem is doing to Kingsley upstairs at The Sidereal over the past few days is any indication. 21:15 <Crion> Of course, who knows if anyone in your motley is aware of any of that! You could have spent the intervening time bunkered down in your Hollow, or rooting around the Hedge, or gaming. Or all of the above. What have you been up to? 21:17 <banana> One thing Melanie's been up to - insofar as she's "up to" tasks involving positive action at all - is a direct followon from the rescue situation. At some point when most of the incipient team are around she's going to try and get everyone's attention: "Um, could I tell you all something? Not me exactly. I need to pass something on. If nobody's busy." 21:18 <dammitwho> Maggie is sitting in the warehouse's common area - carpet has laid down to make the bare concrete less unpleasant upon the feet, and comfortable (if old) chairs placed around the large tv connected to the media server. From it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRo7tMnM60I 21:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's been throwing himself into his work. He started a new Youtube series which is doing decent numbers, he's been puttering around the Hollow making sure everyone's TVs and computers are in working order, and he's been doing tech support for the freehold. For fun he digs around online for resources on vampires, using the occult lore he does know to separate the wheat from the chaff 21:18 <VoxPVoxD> in far-flung discords, unlisted wikis, and dark web redditlikes. 21:18 <dammitwho> "Hey, MELANIE! Come out here, there's a show I think you should s-- oh, there you are!" 21:19 <CBN> Tony's spent the time falling behind on his movie-watching. Most of his free time has been going towards some combination of keeping the Hollow and the immediate surroundings relatively tidy, hauling a futon into his hovel, and getting some old lawn furniture to set up a makeshift overflow-seating space for the ground floor. When pressed, he'll admit it's because he doesn't want to make anyone have to stand if they find any more 21:19 <CBN> stragglers out there, but so far it's mostly given Steve the opportunity to sit in like half a dozen different chairs. 21:19 <banana> Melanie: "What's this." 21:19 <VoxPVoxD> His only real social contact, except for when Maggie pins him down long enough to make him eat something, is with Lauren, and only because Lauren's always online. He hasn't hung out with her in person since they got the Superfetch set up. He keeps floating and discarding ideas for asking her to do stuff. 21:20 <dammitwho> Maggie: "It's a mystery program! This little bald fella solves crimes, but he uses ze psychology and ze little gray cells, I bet you'd get a kick out of it! Hold up though, what was it you wanted to pass on?" 21:21 <banana> "Oh, it's a period drama? That's an amazing hat- yes! Sorry. Okay." 21:22 <banana> The Elemental straightens, rustling gently over the 'bip' noise of a remote hitting pause. "I have information from the summer court." 21:24 <banana> Once she's presenting, Melanie's diffidence vanishes, replaced by smooth articulation. It's very much like an actor taking on a stage persona; a transformation that takes place when there's no back and forth of actual reactions to deal with or when she gets overly excited. 21:24 <CBN> Tony's also been converting a corner of the first floor into a kitchenette. So far there's enough of an oven there that he's been baking. Currently, he's cleaning a spot of dirt off of the doorhandle while he waits for tonight's experiment to finish: Chocolate chip banana bread. 21:24 <banana> "The Keeper loyalists we drove off last week are known to the freehold, in concept. Their principal is the shitty old man, who has form." 21:25 <banana> "He calls himself the Proctor, in keeping with their apparent tradition of using the dumbest possible monikers - it's a defense against hostile magic as well as resocialisation." 21:26 <banana> "Proctor has friends on the Other Side. He's repeatedly formed teams to capture, harass and convert the Lost here and in other places, perhaps other countries. They don't last, but he's a notorious coward with a habit of making it out alive." 21:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's taking a break from hooking the fridge up. Looks like Melanie got pulled aside too. 21:27 <banana> "Consequently: K.I.L.L., Kid Kid.. Kid Kid, some number of kids, the sword guy, they're younger. Inexperienced. The woman they called 'Loser' is a different story, another repeat offender." 21:29 <banana> "Summer is, we will note, in occlusion. The modus operandi of Proctor's asshole squads is that they stick to a region, and in this case it's our region of the Hedge. We have the power and opportunity to confront them, and I'm told it's our responsibility to do so." 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I'm hearing the same thing from the King." 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Except I'm being told that we have to make sure Loser's okay." 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Everyone else needs to go, though." 21:30 <dammitwho> Maggie raises her eyebrows. "They're asking us to... you know, do away with them?" 21:30 <CBN> Tony hollers over from the kitchen. "Yeah but what's their fuckin'...deal?" 21:30 <banana> Melanie clasps her limbs behind her back. It doesn't really work as a rhetorical stance, since her trun- her torso is barely thicker than her arms. "We're to kill them. They've come back too many times." 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> "Not necessarily," Stewart says hastily. 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> "We can... we have the option of calling in a team." 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> "If we don't want to do it ourselves." 21:30 <banana> Melanie: "Ehh." 21:31 <banana> "I mean ultimately you're right. We'd have support if we really need it. But I think it's.. needed that we don't need it.." 21:31 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I was told that if we can locate them we can just call in a... a hit squad." 21:32 <banana> To Tony: "Like Stockholm Syndrome for faeries. They're cowards and recidivists who want everyone else to suffer worse pain so they can forget theirs." 21:32 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Uff. Her Gardenership's said we're to handle them in whatever way we're comfortable with, so long as they're, y'know, handled. Though we can't exactly resettle the little shits. 'scuse me." 21:33 <banana> Melanie slumps slightly. "Have we all been given slightly conflicting instructions." 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Seems so. I got the impression that the decision to protect Loser was not... unanimous." 21:35 <dammitwho> She shrugs. "Maybe difference of emphasis. We all know we can't let them hurt anybody else, and s'long as that's done I can't imagine Their Nibs getting too upset about the how. Though," She adds sadly, "I don't see much way of doing it other than-- gkkkk!" She draws a finger across her throat. 21:35 <CBN> Tony shrugs. "Doesn't sound that conflicting to me, though? For what it's worth, my play is that the old guy and the real stuffy one have to go, everybody else, whatever. Not sure the chainsaw one or the ner---the Kid one---are gonna want to talk after we bury their friends though." 21:37 <dammitwho> "That little girl at the back? We should try and get her out... I mean maybe that's a trap, like a dove pretending to have a broke wing so it can trick and eat a wolf-" Possible Arcadia-based misunderstanding of how doves work here. "But if it is, it's a trap that works on us not wanting to hurt people we don't have to, so I guess we gotta run into it anyway." 21:37 <Crion> Steve's by every now and again, always when Tony's around, and occasionally amuses himself by helping or harming the clean-up effort, or sometimes both at once, but never in any catastrophic way. He won't have reported any sign of the loyalists in the near Hedge recently, but then, it's unclear the degree to which he remembers or cares to look. 21:37 <VoxPVoxD> "Kid Kid Kid shot Nels in the chest." 21:37 <banana> Melanie: "We don't have to become people who do this regularly. There was a.. promise about that." 21:38 <banana> "What do you know about Loser?" It's not a name you choose for yourself. 21:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I know it's not her first time. I know the Autumn Court considers her an asset, or a potential asset. And I know that she had a chance to blow my cover out there and she didn't do it." 21:39 <VoxPVoxD> "I don't know why she was out there in the first place, I don't know what she's after, and I don't know why the King cares." 21:39 <CBN> Tony gestures to Stewart with an oven mitt. "Also there's shooting Nels yeah. Fuckin' A." 21:40 <banana> Melanie: "It seems okay to err on the side of care." 21:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "No matter what we do, we have to find them. That means, probably, a lot of time in the Hedge." 21:43 <banana> "Let's practice learning this place when we have pieces of time and at least a pair of people. You're right, but none of us should be going out there alone!" 21:44 <dammitwho> She nods. "That's just good wilderness sense." 21:47 <banana> Smokeless heat shimmers around Melanie, an echo of record-breaking weather earlier in the year. The fridge Tony's wrangling shudders for a moment before gurgling back to life. "There's another reason I wouldn't want to encounter any of the loyalists alone, even if that wasn't super dangerous." 21:48 <banana> "They, um, repel me. Something about what they do, who they've chosen to be.. it's an unfair reaction. Choice might not be the right term. But I want to.. I made a promise to something about fights to the death. It feels like it's not worth living as long as monsters like Proctor go on. I know that's wrong, so." 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Like a supra-ethical compulsion? A geas?" 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> That's kind of cool... 21:50 <CBN> Tony: "That sounds bad? But good to know." 21:51 <trenchfoot> Nels was studying, and practicing some of the songs she heard, and distinctly not going on adventures into the hedge (though she has been checking out the area around the Wherehouse). So when she wanders into the place from the elevator it's almost a surprise. "Um, hi? Did I miss an alarm...?" 21:51 <CBN> The timer goes off. Tony retrieves the banana bread, and sets it to cool on the range. Now the waiting game begins. 21:51 <banana> Melanie: "All I mean is, if we get the chance to really permanently end them, that's what I want to do. So if it's not the right thing to do at the time, please.. speak up. Haha." 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> Oh. She just wants to- oh. 21:52 <banana> Oh it's Nels. Rippling heat fades. Melanie subsides into embarassment and physically takes a couple of steps back. 21:53 <trenchfoot> Nels: "You're talking about the creeps? Yeah, we should get 'em." 21:53 <dammitwho> "Nels! Heya! Naw, we just got started talking about some stuff. Like, a minute ago, so you've got good timing." 22:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So... the plan is to do it ourselves?" 22:01 <dammitwho> Maggie: "No better way." 22:01 <banana> Melanie: "If we don't do it, someone else has to." 22:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "...alright." 22:03 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Can't see that Proctor fella letting this go, and I sure wouldn't want him creeping up on my back in the Thorns." 22:03 <VoxPVoxD> "What's the actual-- we call go out together, like a, a posse?" 22:06 <dammitwho> "Figure we should at least see the lay of the land and whatnot. We shoulda done that anyway, I guess..." 22:06 <banana> Is Stewart really okay with this... "Maybe it's a long term thing. We don't have to dedicate ourselves to prowling the hedge like it's hunting season. We should explore over time and look for signs, trails." 22:07 <CBN> Tony: "Steve hasn't mentioned anything from them lately, do we have anything else to go on?" 22:10 <trenchfoot> Nels: "They shot me. Fair is fair. So." 22:12 <banana> Melanie: "Steve and his horrible friends might come up with something. Until then, shall we just explore the local Hedge from time to time and, tell each other what we find?" 22:13 <trenchfoot> Also, delighted: "And how is Steve? I haven't seen him in a while." 22:13 <trenchfoot> Frowning: "Their friends are probably fine. Steve is just - incorrigible. They're a goose." 22:14 <CBN> Tony: "Oh he's been around." Tony brushes a stray feather from the common area furniture. "Probably good, hard to tell with them." 22:15 <Crion> Steve's actually been around more often the last couple days, and somewhat nicer -- perhaps suspiciously so...but he seems to want to spend more time in here with Tony than he does out there. 22:16 <trenchfoot> Good goose. 22:17 <banana> To be fair it's a lot nicer in here than out. "Do hobgoblins actually like being hobgoblins?" 22:17 <trenchfoot> Nels: "They would rather be alive than not, I can tell you that." 22:18 <banana> Melanie: "Well I guess that's easier inside." 22:18 <CBN> Tony: "They like beer and messing around with our stuff, from there it's just philosophy." 22:18 <dammitwho> "That's a peculiar question. What's the alternative?" 22:18 <trenchfoot> Nels gestures to herself. 22:19 <banana> An example of a human? She does pass muster better than most of us. 22:19 <dammitwho> That was to Melanie, about whether hobgoblins like being hobgoblins. 22:20 <trenchfoot> That's true. Still valid. 22:21 <CBN> Tony swaps the side of his own head with an oven mitt. "Oh stupid, how'd I not mention this? Do any of you know what pigs are? Or not pigs, like..."He clears his throat, "Steve said, The Pigs." You can feel the emphasis caps. 22:22 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Seen a few." She doesn't elaborate, but does pat her purse to ensure the revolver is there. (It is.) 22:22 <dammitwho> She sits up. "The police are sniffin' around here? The hobgoblin police? Oh, I don't like that at all." 22:23 <CBN> Tony shrugs and touches the banana bread with a finger. Cool enough for a knife, so he starts slicing. Over his shoulder: "They didn't sound like regular or, regular for hobgoblins maybe? Police. Steve didn't elaborate and you try getting more out of that one than he wants." 22:23 <banana> Melanie: "Oh." 22:23 <dammitwho> "Gonna have to shoo them off, then." 22:24 <banana> "Mr. List told me about those guys. They're kind of created from the Jungian collective unconscious Baltimore view of cops. Like.. directly and exactly from." 22:24 <banana> "So imagine if BPD was, just as bad?" 22:25 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I was just told to dodge 'em and pretend they weren't there." 22:26 <banana> Melanie: "Maybe we could leave the hollow for a while and go do something in the world until they stop sniffing around." 22:26 <CBN> Tony: "No wonder Steve's been hanging out so much. Anyway, banana bread. Hands for plates kids!" Tony starts carving off slices for anyone who wants to swing by the kitchen. 22:27 <banana> Omg nevermind "..wait no I'm staying here. Yum." 22:27 <VoxPVoxD> Oh hell yes. 22:28 <trenchfoot> Augh. Augh yes. "Slice for me, please." 22:29 <CBN> Tony distributes the banana bread. It has chocolate chips all nicely melted throughout, so there's a pretty high floor for how bad it can possibly be. C+ in Home Ec, easy. 22:29 <banana> Melanie: "I never had any trouble with the cops when I moved to the city but I had a lot of teammates who did. They tell stories which are like wow, is the hate really that bad, and then you just.. see that exact stuff being real on TV and in the paper." 22:29 <trenchfoot> Nels: "They used to be even worse." 22:32 <banana> Melanie: "I think it goes back to, like, what the police are really for. Have you ever read Settlers by J Sakai?" 22:32 <CBN> Tony gives Melanie the look of you-should-know-that's-no, as he usually does when she asks questions about books. 22:34 <banana> Melanie considers the look, and the audience generally. 22:34 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "What's it called?" 22:34 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Who?" 22:34 <banana> "It's basically about the early history of America and other countries that were colonised and.. the short version is, that can lead to problems." 22:35 <CBN> "Amyagway, mgno." Tony finishes chewing and swallows the piece of banana bread he was on. "They get worse and they get better, The Pigs, I think? But right now they're especially bad, which is why Steve's been around so much, but they're never going to really go away, and I'm going to run out of flour sometime here, so we should probably go do...something?" 22:35 <banana> To Stewart: "I'll send you a PDF." 22:35 <banana> "We could go shopping.. or we could watch that show about the hatted monsieur." 22:36 <CBN> Tony puts another pan over this one to help keep it warm, and neatly sets aside the oven mitts. "Besides, I don't want Steve being scared, or eating and drinking all my stuff." 22:36 <banana> "Shopping for flour I meant." 22:36 <CBN> Tony: "So, better to go out there to get the hours in, even if we don't get too much out of it." 22:37 <CBN> He sighs a little. "Hiding from other people's problems just makes them ours." 22:37 <trenchfoot> Nels: "We get them out of the hedge." 22:37 <trenchfoot> "That's something." 22:37 <CBN> Tony: "Or at least out of our corner of it for awhile." 22:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So like, flush out the Pigs like they're prairie dogs?" 22:38 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Aw, I don't mind. Going to work feels good, so long as it's work that you can see the use of it." 22:38 <CBN> Getting into the idea more, but more to himself than anyone else. "Hell yeah, let's go pick a fight with some cops." 22:39 <trenchfoot> Nels: "No, no. Let's go pick off some cops so's that they don't know there was a fight at all." 22:39 <CBN> Tony simmers slightly. "Yeah that's probably smarter. But let's go before I sober up too much." 22:40 <CBN> You thought Tony was baking sober? Folly. 22:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart still faintly can't believe this is happening, but he goes along. 22:41 <trenchfoot> If he hasn't learned that all cops are bastards by now, Nels can tell stories. 22:42 <banana> Tony's nongourmet snacks are delicious. Like a sort of diner food version of desserts. Digestion's.. difficult, though, and Melanie is exhausted by this much socialisation. She likes her new friends(? does she have the right to that word) so much and wants to keep up with being normal. She kind of doesn't want to go out right now. But she never really wants to go out, and it wouldn't 22:42 <banana> be ok to give into that. 22:43 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Cheer up, Mel!" She slaps Melanie on the back heartily. "We can watch Monsieur Poirot when we get back." 22:45 <banana> "Yes, okay." Melanie sways a little, though it feels about as unyielding as slapping a wall. 22:47 <CBN> Tony's thinking out loud, pacing in the kitchen, sipping from a previously hidden surprise beer. "So we need to get rid of the Loyalists, and chase off the Pigs. Or get rid of some of the Loyalists, and The Pigs are out there. Hm. Hm." 22:48 <banana> "Let's not try and find the loyalists today. The hedgepolice would, like, take their side." 22:49 <trenchfoot> Nels: "And we really just want them to go away. Like, all of them. So." 22:49 <trenchfoot> She pauses. "That is what we want, right?" 22:52 <CBN> Tony swigs. "You can't really make The Pigs go away forever, Steve was saying. It's the weather." Slug. "Not that that means we can't go punch the rain in the stupid head while we're doing other stuff." 22:53 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Does fighting them make them go away or just sniff around more?" 22:53 <trenchfoot> "That wasn't explained to me, when I learned about the pigs." 22:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah we're not going to end up calling down the Hob National Guard, or something, are we?" 22:56 <CBN> Tony shrugs. "Not really sure, but you gotta figure it makes THOSE Pigs not able to sniff for awhile. Anyway that's just a thing Steve was explaining earlier, so things to think about. Slowly, inevitably, he is sobering up just enough to rethink the worst of this. "Besides, we've got the Loyalists to definitely take care of right now, don't we?" 22:57 <trenchfoot> Nels: "They shot me." 22:58 <trenchfoot> She nods, self-assured. 22:58 <banana> Melanie: "No, not right now! I mean that would be totally okay if we somehow accomplished it? But nobody was expecting us to immediately go and hunt them down, without planning or training or information." 22:59 <trenchfoot> She deflates. That's a good point. "...maybe we can do that later." 22:59 <CBN> Tony: "I dunno about you Melanie but when Coach C and Spring tell me to do something it's usually pretty immediate. We can be smart about it though yeah." 22:59 <CBN> Tony: "And they said, Proctor's out, bogue snob guy's out, everyone else they don't care, we can rock-paper-scissors on that if we gotta." 23:00 <trenchfoot> Suddenly: "The one who - she looked miserable. We should help." 23:00 <VoxPVoxD> "That was Loser." 23:01 <banana> 'Coach', lol. "I mean I totally agree with the goal. Get rid of Proctor and.. maybe see if Loser isn't ike the others. But maybe we could-" she makes a knob-turning motion in the air. "Start with looking for their trail. We shouldn't go out there aiming to actually find and fight them on the spot, not knowing what they're up to or whether they're in a position of power." 23:01 <banana> 'Coach', lol. "I mean I totally agree with the goal. Get rid of Proctor and.. maybe see if Loser isn't ike the others. But maybe we could-" she makes a knob-turning motion in the air. "Start with looking for their trail. We shouldn't go out there aiming to actually find and fight them on the spot, not knowing what they're up to or whether they're in a position of power." 23:05 <dammitwho> Maggie, slowly: "Hitting the loyalists immediately sounds like a good way to get a chainsaw in the snoot." 23:05 <CBN> Tony: "We should figure out how to avoid the Pigs while we're getting at the Loyalists, can we all agree on that?" 23:05 <dammitwho> "Sure." 23:05 <CBN> T: "Just to keep this a one-front war today, anyway." 23:06 <trenchfoot> Grumbling: "They shot me." 23:07 <banana> Melanie: "But we don't want them to shoot you again." 23:07 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I know! I know." 23:08 <trenchfoot> She's both younger and older than Melanie. That's weird. Best not to think about it. 23:28 <trenchfoot> It's surprisingly easy to slide into the position of a distressed person lost in the hedge and direct the pigs away from the Wherehouse. (It doesn't have an official name. She's calling it that anyway.) There's just so many of them, though - hopefully the rest have figured out how to stop the onslaught. 23:33 <CBN> Tony, meanwhile, does one of the things Tony does best: Finding stuff to follow and silently, eerily watching it as it does its business. In this case, Pigs doing Pig Business. 23:39 <banana> Melanie follows the others outside - the wrong outside, into the Hedge. She's not sure how to help; it doesn't respond well to science or to force. She tries to clear and change paths, to help the others make their way around while impeding the weird cop-imitating monsters.. physically positioning garbage bins and 'street closed' signs and so on isn't having much effect. Time to reconsider. 23:41 <trenchfoot> She's so distressed. It takes multiple pigs to comfort her, as her cohort handles the rest - they are handling them, right? Please. Please this is humiliating 23:41 <dammitwho> Well, that was a bust. Maggie has absolutely no idea what would consitute a sign of changeling habitation. "Pfoo. I don't know what I'm doing, here." She resolves to talk to Stewart as soon as he's free. 23:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, bravely, stays inside. The wiki has plenty of relevant information, which Stewart can relay without going into the Hedge. Every part of a team matters! 23:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's free whenever Maggie catches him next. 23:48 <dammitwho> Maggie leans on the wall near to where Stewart is no doubt doing something incredibly important on the computer. "Stewart, I'm gonna level with you. I need your help. Well, really, I need the Autumn Court's help but that's more or less you right now." 23:49 <CBN> Tony's not known to ALL the hobs, that would be impossible. But Steve's got a loose enough beak that some of them definitely know that the dirt man is a generous baker and leaves a full sixer out round side of the wherehouse unattended for just long enough, pretty often. So when he starts asking things like 'Hey, have you seen <the descriptions of the Loyalists> around here lately, and where? I'd hate to spend all night looking for them 23:49 <CBN> and not have any time to bake or buy beer or not swing around to check and see if any of y'all haven't gotten got by shit bigger than you yet,' hobs listen. 23:51 <dammitwho> "I was out there trying to help give the Wherehouse-" Nels was right, that's a good name! "-the once over, see if I could make it harder for varmints and such to spot that we're living here, when it struck me that I didn't have the faintest idea what would count as 'signs of habitation' out here." She sighs. "I'm Spring, and I know it. A song in my heart and all that. But it would be 23:51 <dammitwho> nice to have witchy tomes and such to look at." She taps her temple. "A gal's gotta have more than old leaves in her noggin." 23:52 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart tabs away from the passive-aggressive argument about trading mechanics he was reading. "Oh, sure! Of course. How can I help?" 23:54 <CBN> And that's how Tony made a giant clam with an extremely catty pink pearl with a human face, almost cry. It didn't point the way, but a flock of hiveminded, fish-like crustaceans going by Bill did. Bill said they saw the Loyalists thataway, and to please bake more apple pies soon, thank you. 23:57 <banana> Melanie's not helping, and she hates it, but she doesn't know what to do about it. She trails the pigs back and forth, managing at least to stay out of sight - easy when they aren't really looking. She'll keep the others updated on where they're going, though it isn't particularly useful to know. 00:00 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Golly, hmm. Well, to start, is there any 'A Beginner's Guide To Hiding In The Hedge' or something of that nature?" 00:03 <Crion> To be fair to Melanie, their patrol routes don't seem to be fixed or even sensible; at one point she spent an arbitrary amount of time watching a pair of pigs walk up and down the same hedgerow 'block,' knocking on obviously fake painted-on doors, shouting something incoherent but with the cadence of 'POLICE!' before moving on. But there do appear to be some places they won't patrol -- it's 00:03 <Crion> hard to tell if that's intent or just, weird randomness on the part of the Pigs. Maybe compare notes...? Assuming the Hedge doesn't shift. 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Nothing in the fak..." (that's what he says, the 'fak') "Let me see who's online..." 00:04 <Crion> QUOTH is online -- Stewart knows this is the landing like, chat bot for Ravens, which then logs on with a personalized account for whoever...they?...are speaking for. 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart floats a query to the bot. <Do we have a primer available on camouflaging Hollows from, say, Hobgoblin detection? Helps us and helps us look for signs of another occluded Hollow in the area.> 00:08 <Crion> QUOTH: <'STEWART READER,' KNOWN OTHERWISE AS 'CRITICALMASS:'> 00:08 <Crion> <SUCH A VOLUME IS N> 00:08 <Crion> The typing dot dot dots appear again. 00:08 <Crion> <!!!> 00:08 <Crion> <TRANSFERING> 00:09 <Crion> QUOTH|THE|BITTER|WIND has logged on. 00:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh shit! The Lord Sage of the Unknown Reaches just logged on." 00:09 <Crion> QUOTH|THE|BITTER|WIND: <'STEWART READER,' KNOWN OTHERWISE AS 'CRITICALMASS:'> 00:09 <Crion> <Assuming direct control.> 00:09 <Crion> <AH! Stewart. Yes.> 00:10 <Crion> <You've caught me at an opportune time. Let's see here...> 00:10 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "Now that's a good wizardly name. Solid." 00:13 <Crion> In a few moments, Santander pastes three pdf links into the chat, each of which is a scan of a monogram that Santander himself has written, discoursing on the subject of Hollows. Much of the text is irrelevant -- though very interesting -- theoretical musings on the magickal (yes, with a k) and contractual roots, so to speak, that undergird the Hollow system. But he has also provided bookmarks 00:13 <Crion> to relevant parts of the text. Most importantly, every real door or portal in the Hedge has a tell. A real manhole cover will have a hole with which to insert a prybar to remove it, rather than being solid metal, even if it does not budge. A real doorknob will turn but hold fast to its lock, rather than just be a lump of metal sticking from the wall. And so on. 00:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "He's so cool." 00:19 <trenchfoot> She's still pressing the pigs - aren't you going to find the person who put her here? Can't you lead her out? NO she will not leave, not until justice is done -- but they're doing a better job of organizing. Fuck. 00:19 <CBN> Tony's good at finding his way through the Hedge, now he has a semi-detailed and very-current napkin map of where the Pigs patrol, and a direction to go in to find the Loyalists. So, like an idiot, he goes to do that. 00:22 <VoxPVoxD> This time Stewart's tagging along, hanging close, checking for signs and wonders, and just trying to... put good energy out there. 00:22 <Crion> There are some locations where the Pigs avoid that overlap with where the hobs said they'd seen Loser wandering. Seems like a good place to start. 00:23 <CBN> It's very good energy. Tony values the 13th man, even if it's literally just one man. 00:26 <Crion> The Pigs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4LYZC97hmM Beat all the white trash; beat whoever you see. Don't need a reason: L A P D 00:26 <Crion> (Warning: slurs) 00:27 <Crion> Stewart can't actually make out most of the lyrics, though. It's weird. 00:35 <banana> The fake cops might not actually do anything dangerous if you don't go near them, but they're so impervious to distraction. It's frustrating. Melanie tags Nels out and prepares to call upon a fae contract - *forcing* the Hedge to shape itself against them and keep them away. She rips pot plants from porches and replants them in a string across the road ahead of a cop 'car', trading promises 00:35 <banana> with her own memories of the parts of the Hedge she fell threw. 00:35 <banana> through 00:35 <banana> A hedge within the Hedge begins to grow... too slowly. Melanie retreats. 00:35 <banana> Maybe enough the damn plants will survive the thing's tyres to put up a wall next go-ground of their patrol route. 00:44 <Crion> Eventually, they find it. It looks like just about any other one of these fake, incoherent buildings on the outside, but you can see -- just barely see, if you get the good vantage point Tony took with the help of Melanie's Hedgespinning, while Nels kept the local Pigs who weren't waylaid by the new walls in the Hedge they weren't expecting distracted with her concerned-citizen act. The 00:44 <Crion> building looks normal...but there's a big old covered wagon sitting atop its roof, massive, with a great, sealed door. Should have been impossible for it to ever get up there. Would have been impossible to see just looking up from the street. 00:44 <Crion> It's Stewart and Maggie who eventually confirm this is where they need to be: each building on the block has a stoop, and each has a cage storm door and a front door with a knob beyond it. All the others are clear fakes. The storm cage doesn't budge. The knob doesn't rattle. Not so on this building. This is real. 00:47 <Crion> They've found someone's Hollow. And all signs says it's the Proctor's and his pack. 00:47 <trenchfoot> Fuck. 00:48 <Crion> ...Sirens in the distance... 00:48 <Crion> They don't sound close. 00:50 <trenchfoot> Well. 00:50 <dammitwho> Hmm. 00:53 <Crion> When you get back to your own Hollow, there are Pigs patrolling outside. They're trivial to avoid, since you know what they do and what they are. 00:53 <Crion> But they weren't here before. 00:53 <Crion> And Steve is bunkering down tonight, with a beer. 00:54 <CBN> Tony: "Hey Steve, what's up." Trying not to be as brusque as it definitely will be, after trudging all over the Hedge for the night. 00:55 <dammitwho> "Ufffff da."