20:57 <Crion> Early April becomes mid-April. The country -- the world -- is losing its mind. 21:01 <Crion> For those of you who pay attention to international news, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a strange hob-like oaf, has been moved into intensive care in his battle with COVID-19 -- proving either that he is human, or that some deeper conspiracy is at work (opinion is, as always on world affairs, split amongst the local supernaturals). It's common knowledge that the rich have their 21:01 <Crion> own designer drugs that will fight the virus off; expensive blood serums from survivors and boutique drugs with names like "Remdesivir" are the public face, but the mages and vampires are confident that Life rotes and ghouling are both in abundance in the highest halls of power. 21:02 <Crion> Lockdowns stretch on; economies go into freefall. Armed military units storm the Port of New York to seize medical masks ordered by the state, for no clear purpose -- rumor, of course, labels them for resale on the gray market in such things, as the whole country rediscovers best practices about hand sanitizer and wearing face coverings when you're sick. 21:04 <VoxPVoxD> Well hey, that's something. 21:04 <Crion> For those of you immune to the plague, however, life is pretty good, so long as none of your mortal loved ones have it. For the Wherehouse, that mostly means Dr. Maura Barclay, who is insisting on going into work still despite her ongoing pregnancy. She works at a place that can afford the best masks and practices, however; no nurses forced to resort to wearing trashbags in Baltimore County, 21:04 <Crion> not like in the city. 21:06 <Crion> Concerns for our heroes -- or at least, our protagonists -- find greater focus on their upcoming trip south, to Orlando, Florida. Disney World Orlando has been closed for a little over three weeks. 21:06 <dammitwho> Fortunately, Maggie switched into crisis response mode months earlier, and had made and distributed masks and sanitizer to the local freehold and the shelter she volunteers at. 21:07 <banana> From Melanie's point of view, that's going to make the trip a lot easier. Rogue Loyalists and brawling Titles is one thing - but those crowds? No. 21:08 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's ambivalent on whether Orlando will be creepier under lockdown than it would be when it's full of people, but ultimately this is out of the motley's hands and in fate's. 21:09 <VoxPVoxD> It's not like we can afford to wait until corona (hopefully 'the roni' doesn't stick, jesus) blows over. That could be months away. 21:09 <CBN> Tony didn't want to go to Disney World anyway. That's something you do when you've got kids and you want to have to force yourself to remember that you love them despite their flaws. Honestly, the only thing really sending him to Florida is, you can't keep going south on the coast and get to another state. 21:10 <trenchfoot> Let's see if people actually use the hand sanitizer and masks before we celebrate rediscovery of best practices. And Nels is still not super clear on Disney, other than that he seems to have been awful. 21:10 <VoxPVoxD> Is Cuba taking refugees? Cuba is kind of America's changeling if you think about it. 21:10 <banana> Trip preparations: she's tested her tolerance for saltwater at night (it's fine if there's mud), downloaded a lot of podcasts to her phone, packed exactly one bag, become depressed about not having a lot of nice clothes to pack, etc. 21:10 <Crion> Cuba, like any island with half a brain, has banned all incoming boats and flights. 21:11 <VoxPVoxD> RIP Manhattan. Hopefully those 'mass graves in Central Park' conversations are jokes. 21:14 <Crion> At this point, the worst thing that's happening in Central Park is that some Jesus freaks have set up an ersatz field hospital. Whether or not you trust Franklin Graham with your body anymore than you trust him with your immortal soul is left up to you, the possible-penitent perhaps about to meet the Lord. Caveat emptor. 21:17 <Crion> Have the crew of the good ship Wild Goose done anymore hedgespinning in their somewhat-novel hollow-within-a-token? One assumes there's rooms for everyone and more furniture in the lounge, at least. 21:19 <trenchfoot> Nels made certain enough of the room and lounge situation. There's also quite a well-stocked bar. 21:20 <banana> Melanie, at some indeterminate point in the past: "Do we need to do any more hedgespinning? I think it's attracting these.. shark things, but I don't think they have any teeth..." 21:20 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's kind of glued to the news when he isn't working, which is luckily only a very small slice of his waking hours. But yeah, the Goose is ship-shape, comfortable enough for the motley plus one (plus two if we count Steve). He sort of slid the stuff about the intrusions on his stream into a report without sounding any alarms, so hopefully no one goes ballistic there either and we 21:20 <VoxPVoxD> can just, go. 21:21 <CBN> The only thing stopping Tony from spinning up a tiki bar was that there was some question about the viability, and appropriateness, of the torches. So it's just a bar. With palm fronds crossed over the top of it. And the only containers are coconut half shells with little parasols already in them, waiting to float nicely. 21:21 <dammitwho> What about a pirate-themed bar? Yarr-ha-harr, mateys. 21:22 <Crion> There is some blowback -- Santander in particular has more time to be concerned about this stuff, now that he's in retirement and Gaunt Rose is running the day-to-day as Lady Sage -- but he's mollified by Lauren's on-site presence and the fact that, really, at some point, his protege is going to have assumed the risk. 21:22 <CBN> As far as his room itself, it's definitely not got the 'squatter's hovel' vibe of the Wherehouse, but he gets by. He was convinced that a waterbed, as 'super cool, you have no idea' as it sounds, would be a really bad idea. So no waterbed. For now. 21:22 <banana> We haven't received a letter of marque from Congress. 21:24 <CBN> Letter now, pardon later, six of one, half dozen of the other. 21:25 <VoxPVoxD> We were told we'd cruise the seas for American gold, fire no guns, shed no tears... 21:26 <Crion> With the Goose provisioned and accommodations set, there's only a couple of things left to tend to before heaving ho. Maggie needs to see one John Taylor Barbaddos about a wrench, for one. 21:31 <Crion> Word will come in that it's ready via Detective Colt around the 16th. 21:34 <banana> Does Maggie want company to make the Deal, or can she handle it? That iron is no joke. 21:34 <Crion> Once again he wants to be there to liaise, but there's no restriction on who can come with her, help fit the fireworks onto the wrench, so on and so forth -- Colt was able to get her in touch with a wholesaler on those through the werewolves. 21:35 <dammitwho> Maggie can handle it, but it's always good to roll several deep for this kind of thing. 21:37 <dammitwho> Who wants to come along? 21:37 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart'll go, it'll cut down on his 'doomscrolling', which is the word they've just made up to make you feel bad about going online a lot because you feel bad. 21:38 <banana> Mantle (Summer) *** Gain general and ballistic armor equal to your character’s Mantle dots, which stacks with worn armor, when acting as a protector, bodyguard, or champion for someone else. 21:39 <CBN> Tony should probably get off the boat before he gets all squirrelly from hanging out there, even when docked. 21:40 <trenchfoot> Group outing? Sure! 21:41 <Crion> Then everyone's welcome to pile in to the plainclothes van that Colt has commandeered from the Western district motor pool today as they head out to the county. It's spring, and the trees are really coming in -- even though its only been a few weeks since they were out here last, it's a much prettier drive. The gun range Gerald took Stewart to has probably benefitted from the same basic 21:41 <Crion> natural glow up, too. 21:42 <VoxPVoxD> It's nice. Being in an unmarked van like you're being taken to be shot in the woods undercuts it a little, but only a little. 21:42 <banana> Let's remember to thank the detective again. "I hope we're not taking you away from some kind of patient-zero investigation." 21:43 <CBN> Being in a vehicle that doesn't bristle and agitate if a scary-looking fish gets too close to it is nice too though. 21:43 <Crion> Colt laughs with a bit of a strain. "Are you kidding me? These fucking no-account stiffs -- can't even get them to wear masks. The precinct's treating lockdown like vacation." 21:44 <Crion> "Which I'm fine with. Like I told the boss man, they start making me wear uniform blues again, I don't care about no eyes and ears inside the department, I'm out." 21:44 <VoxPVoxD> Haha, imagine treating lockdown as a vacation. Anyway have our big pina colada mugs that look like hollowed-out pineapples come in yet or 21:44 <Crion> He frowns a bit after saying this, like he forgot he wasn't alone with just another Summer courtier. 21:45 <trenchfoot> They came with the Wild Goose, actually! Steve insisted. 21:46 <Crion> "So like I said before, there's some rules with big Johnny B. All the usual shit about keeping the supernatural strictly off the menu -- you don't need to make any excuses for being careful handling cold iron, he already kind of knows something is up there -- but the big one is, no one say anything about the Pittsburgh Steelers. I know the NFL draft is coming up next week. This is a formal 21:46 <Crion> request from the Summer Court: don't fuckin' talk about it." 21:47 <banana> Melanie: "Ahh. Yeah I guess that's kind of the counterpart to the, like, conspiracy theories... you get people on the street saying that it's all an excuse by the government to keep them off the street." There's limited conversational potential here, so she'll let Colt talk about Johnny. 21:48 <Crion> "Otherwise, he's a cool dude. Well. Not cool. They should probably put him on a TV show somewhere. But he's decent people." 21:48 <Crion> "...Y'all did pay him, right?" 21:49 <Crion> Colt glances back at Maggie, here. 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks at Maggie. Did we? 21:50 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. 21:50 <Crion> Colt: "Because I can pull over if we need to get a money order or something." 21:50 <Crion> "Alright, cool." 21:55 <Crion> You can spot Barbaddos's place from down the street, once you pull onto the country road leading to his low estate; you're out past the exurbs and rich suburbs to places that stereotypically, in other parts of the country, have trailer parks; here it's a lot of aging post-war housing and ill-kept lawns. 21:55 <Crion> The reason you can spot his place, of course, is the smoke rising from the garage-forge. 22:00 <dammitwho> Ah, that's the stuff. 22:01 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart gives Maggie a look like 'should we have one of these?' 22:02 <Crion> The man himself is hard at work inside on something new, but you can see a big ol' shiny wrench lying on what appears to be...like a checkered picnic table cover? Being used as a tarp? On a table sitting out in the driveway. 22:02 <dammitwho> It's a good question. The problem is, the best metal for a home forge is iron, and, well... 22:02 <dammitwho> It might be useful for Hedge metal, if they ever come across a lode of the stuff. 22:03 <Crion> His ingenious method for lighting the forge, a jump-up hairdryer, sits still-plugged in via extension cord to the wall; other tools are strewn about. It's unclear whether this guy even feels the need to clean up for the night; given the hammock tied between two trees nearby, when the weather's good he might just sleep out here. 22:04 <dammitwho> "Heya!" Maggie'll call out when they arrive. 22:05 <Crion> Barbaddos curses again and storms out into the driveway, then roars. It's pretty clearly not aimed at you. Just a general roar. He's holding a piece of metal that needs to be -- yep, there, he's quenching it in what looks like a repurposed oil drum. 22:05 <Crion> After setting it down: "Oh, hey." 22:06 <Crion> Looking at the group. "This your family?" 22:06 <VoxPVoxD> Ahahaha hell yes. 22:07 <CBN> Tony: "Friends! Man your whole everything is just cool as shit, huh?" Tony, with immediate and genuine wonder as he looks past him to the forge and product. 22:07 <Crion> John Taylor Barbaddos -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERTQucdIp-s He is the fire; the keeper of the iron forge. A master of his art -- guardian of the flame (Flame!!) 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> You know in retrospect there is surprisingly little heavy metal about working with heavy metals. 22:10 <trenchfoot> This is because they are cowards. 22:10 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Friends, roommates. It done? Dang, looks good." 22:10 <Crion> Barbaddos grins: "Hell yeah, man." 22:10 <Crion> That's to Tony. 22:11 <Crion> To Maggie, as he withdraws a blunt and lights it off the forge. "Yep. There's some rags there if you're worried about uh, fingerprints or whatever." 22:15 <dammitwho> "Oh, much obliged." Maggie bustles over and begins setting up to carry the cold iron safely. "The transfer went through okay? The Western Union lady said it did, but you know." 22:16 <Crion> Barbaddos, taking a MASSIVE hit: "Wouldn't be in such a good mood with the work laid out like that if it didn't." 22:17 <banana> Melanie wanders around a bit, gawking at the unfamiliar world of Extremely Artisanal Manufacturing and refraining from mentioning the Steelers. 22:17 <Crion> He offers Colt a hit, who passes, and then to be polite, Tony. 22:20 <Crion> Barbaddos: "Wrench itself was easy work; getting those fixtures in there was a bitch, though. All worked out. What'd you say was going in those?" 22:22 <CBN> Tony politely declines but does stand slack-jawed looking at the forge and the fire and the metal and such just the same. It's neat! 22:23 <Crion> Barbaddos shrugs, takes another massive hit. 22:24 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Fireworks." 22:24 <Crion> "Damn." 22:25 <Crion> He thinks for a minute. "You know, I got a kill course around back if you have any of those on you and you wanna test it out. I'd even bring out the ballistic dummy." 22:25 <Crion> "Got the materials a bit cheap, so think of it like, a throw-in." 22:30 <dammitwho> She grins. "Heck, why not?" 22:32 <Crion> The "kill course" is less gruesome and much more fun than it sounds, especially as Barbaddos gets it set up: an adult obstacle course, with swinging metal plates adapted from shooting range targets to literal armor breastplates -- well-made but unadorned, made by the house maestro for this purpose -- propped up on crossbars atop wooden barrels. At the end, Barbaddos sets a ballistic gel dummy 22:32 <Crion> he got from a shed in the back; this one's been repaired a couple times from obvious disembowlment wounds. 22:33 <CBN> Tony's eyes are wide. This is the real Magic Kingdom. 22:33 <Crion> Barbaddos: "Run a Youtube show outta the back here. Can't do it now with the plague and all. So much more raw than that shit on the History Channel you know?" 22:36 <Crion> "Obviously no cameras on this and you don't gotta run the course like it's laid out." There is one of those portable timer/scoreboards they use for like, junior high basketball games in the gym though, with the big red timekeeper's clock and HOME and AWAY. 22:37 <Crion> Clearly the show is one of those "beat the host" type deals. 22:37 <VoxPVoxD> Oh hey! Stewart's always happy to talk shop. "Oh man, that's such a great concept. What kind of recording setup do you use?" 22:38 <VoxPVoxD> Imagine what you could do with a DSLR pointed at something like this. The slow-mo on this impacts? Thumbnail gif gold. 22:40 <Crion> Barbaddos, now a bit off-guard and embarrassed since this isn't his element. "Oh, uh. My girl comes over and sets it up. Right now we run it off a couple go-pros and then she does whatever it is on the computer we drag out here and it goes on the Youtube." 22:41 <banana> Melanie's impressed. This wouldn't be so great for martial artists, what with all the jagged metal edges, but it is indeed Cool. Makes total sense that your bespoke weaponry, should you be into such a thing, needs a testing ground. 22:45 <trenchfoot> Not really Nels's thing, but golly if it doesn't look impressive. And, yes, perfectly suited for its purpose. 22:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That's really cool. I gotta check your channel out. Have you ever thought about streaming? I don't know how viable that is in this line of work. Live lessons with questions from the audience, maybe a big project broken up over multiple sessions... you do custom orders, right? You got an Instagram?" 22:48 <Crion> Barbaddos: "Oh yeah we do it live on Youtube. She has to moderate the chat." He's much more animated about Insta, which is much more legible to him both in operation and direct feedback/reward. "Oh hell yeah!" He'll share (swap?) info. 22:49 <Crion> Stewart can tell Colt is watching their interaction closely, and not entirely with approval, though the detective is casual about it. 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's happy to swap info, but stops short of offering to plug Barbaddos's outfit on his own social, as much as he thinks that buster sword would play among his followers. He doesn't want even a double-agent cop on his case. 22:52 <Crion> Barbaddos, who is clearly not the social media brains of the operation, doesn't ask for a promo or even seem to recognize how big a deal Stewart is. 22:52 <dammitwho> Maggie saunters up to one of the breastplates, hefting her wrench - should she name it, or does cold iron disdain such things? - and taking a few practice swings. 22:52 <VoxPVoxD> Well, that's a win-win then. If his girlfriend comes back and hears about it, then she can contact him then, and there won't even be a cop there to see it. 22:54 <dammitwho> She strikes it! But not very hard. She's being a little delicate, unsure of her weapon, as if it weren't a big proverbially-hard-to-break chunk of iron. 22:56 <banana> Melanie: "Hey, put your engine into it. Imagine that thing has Peter's smug face." 22:56 <dammitwho> The second time, she hits much harder, knocking the breastplate and barrel over! 22:56 <Crion> Barbaddos: "There ya go!" 22:57 <Crion> This time after a hit, he offers the huge blunt to Stewart. 22:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, who is not driving, will partake. 22:57 <Crion> Finally! An approving nod from the forgemaster. 22:57 <Crion> This is some incredibly high-quality weed. 22:58 <Crion> To the point that it's kind of insane that Barbaddos is still fully functional after constantly smoking this stuff. 22:58 <VoxPVoxD> Then Stewart coughs, like you'd expect a guy who looks like him to do. "God damn. You forge this too?" 22:58 <Crion> He grins. "Made the light rigs and hydroponic setup gratis for a guy I know." 23:00 <dammitwho> She swings it a few more times, leaving solid dents in the metal sheets. One time she's startled by the weight on her backswing and staggers a bit, but all in all it looks pretty good. She grunts. "Gonna need practice with this thing." 23:01 <Crion> Barbaddos goes back to giving Maggie some attagirls. "Gonna have to hammer some of those out. Nice." 23:04 <dammitwho> "Pretty dang good. Thanks again, Barbaddos!" 23:05 <Crion> Barbaddos salutes her with his recovered blunt. "No problem. Wish all my work was that, uh, functional. Time for me to get back to work on that damn Master Sword." 23:08 <Crion> He'll head back to get his forge fired all the way back up -- it's time to make the crossguard -- and Colt will drive the rest of you back to the city, once you're ready to go. 23:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That guy rules." 23:10 <banana> Melanie: "He didn't seem to mind a bunch of.. disparate individuals.. turning up to hang out without masks." 23:10 <Crion> Colt: "That he does. Thank you for not bringing up football, or we'd have been there all afternoon." 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Maybe he saw the thing about how smokers might not get it as bad." 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> Though intuitively that data is belied by the damage it did to elderly Italians. 23:11 <Crion> Colt glances over. "That man uses aviator sunglasses as eye protection." 23:11 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Good ol' safety squints." 23:11 <dammitwho> "But seriously, don't do that." 23:12 <banana> "It's all fun and games. For now." 23:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Someone just needs to ask him how to make a welding mask with a slot to hold your vape in place. You know, to plant the seed of the idea." 23:14 <Crion> Once they get back to Lexington Market, Colt will ask Melanie to linger for a moment. 23:15 <banana> She does this, smiling. "You've really helped out Maggie with this. I appreciate it, a lot." 23:15 <Crion> Detective Colt: "Yeah, no problem, no problem. We like to be helpful. The Court likes to be helpful." 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> Once they're back in the Wherehouse, Stewart asks: "So does the wrench have a name?" 23:16 <banana> Melanie: "I mean it's better than us just being the guys who are... harmful." 23:16 <Crion> "So, listen, no offense to the Lord Sage. But make sure your boy knows that Barbaddos does business with the Freehold through the Summer Court." 23:16 <dammitwho> Maggie frowns. "I dunno. Not sure if names stick to cold iron, or if it's smart to try." 23:16 <banana> "Aha." 23:16 <Crion> "I don't want him like, appearing on livestreams or whatever, and then I have to tell the boss man that oops, it turns out our friend with the cold iron training and the forge is actually now the Autumn Court's friend with the cold iron training and the forge." 23:17 <Crion> "Again, not trying to cause trouble here." 23:17 <Crion> "But you know how it can be." 23:17 <banana> Melanie: "I will achieve this. Stewart's got plenty of other business going, he won't mind." 23:17 <Crion> Colt nods. "Good, good. Hear you guys are going out of town. Some kinda quest for the holy grail shit?" 23:17 <banana> And if he did mind... well, he won't. 23:19 <banana> "Yeah, combined with 'wreak vengeance on the treacherous'. It's.. someone's got to do it, we can do things, they do need vengeance wreaked." 23:19 <banana> Melanie doesn't like to think about who exactly the Loyalists they're going after are, who introduced them to the Freehold, &c. 23:19 <Crion> "Good luck with it. I mean that. And if you need any guns...well, I'm guessing you just finished tooling up, huh." 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Not naming it seems worse somehow, like a kind of Voldemort thing." 23:21 <trenchfoot> Nels: "A what thing?" 23:21 <dammitwho> Maggie: "A whom?" 23:21 <Crion> Colt will let her go here regardless, territory marking complete. 23:22 <banana> "Thanks Serrato. We should be ok - most of us do weird transformations or element stuff, and the others have got some firearms through Gerald Kingsley." 23:22 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "He was the bad guy in some children's books. A wizard that all the other wizards were scared of so everyone refused to use his name, and did the He Who Must Not Be Named thing instead. It was really embarrassing for them, honestly, and really contributed to the sense you got that the good wizards were lame fuckups." 23:22 <banana> "Good luck accounting for the stiffs." 23:22 <Crion> He gives her an uneasy laugh and gets back in the van. 23:22 <VoxPVoxD> Note that the way Stewart says it, the t in Voldemort is silent. Voldemore. 23:24 <trenchfoot> Nels: "So they responded to being afraid of him by... giving him an official title?" 23:24 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Right, exactly. The absence of a name ends up looming larger than the name does." 23:25 <banana> Melanie remains outside for a couple of minutes, watching the van and then the empty streets. The whole market's shut up and there aren't even animal noises to to compensate for the lack of crowds. It's a good time for a vacation somewhere sunny. 23:27 <CBN> Tony's pretty quiet on the van ride, mostly thinking about how risky it would be to try to spin up a ballistics dummy for practice on the boat. Probably best not to make anything that, symbolically, is born to die, in the Hedge. But man that was cool. 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> You don't need ballistics dummies in the Hedge. That's what pigs are for. 23:29 <Crion> They fit a technical definition. 23:30 <VoxPVoxD> One thing Stewart is now wondering, given that he's remarkably high, is like... okay so the watermelon boys broke down into actual watermelon, judging by Steve's rampage. So... are pigs made of some reasonable facsimile of pork? 23:31 <VoxPVoxD> In fact he's kind of drifted off in the middle of explaining Harry Potter, thinking about this. "Do you think pigs are made of pork?" 23:31 <banana> Eventually Melanie steps out of the elevator. "It's the other way around, isn't it?" 23:31 <VoxPVoxD> "It is for real pigs. With hedge-pigs the cause-and-effect is more ambiguous." 23:32 <Crion> So Tony, as captain, and the rest of you, as boatswains and quartermasters and quarterdeck officers and what have you, have a few choices to make about setting out. The most consequential is probably gonna be: do you go by trod, which means piloting the Wild Goose down to Florida through the Hedge with all the dangers that entails, and be there in a day or so, or do the full trip which -- 23:32 <Crion> unlike jumping on the interstate, which you can do the trip in a day or so -- will probably take you five to six days if you're hurrying, a bit over a week if you're not. 23:32 <banana> "Well, by volume they must be largely donut." Time to move some suitcases. 23:32 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I wouldn't want to find out, I don't think." 23:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Something to keep in the back of our minds if we ever end up in Hawaii's Hedge." 23:34 <Crion> Either way, the regents have asked that you leave a float plan with them so they know if and when to get worried if and when you fall out of contact. 23:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart did up a nice one in PDF for them. 23:36 <CBN> Tony, while the group is milling around boat-wise thinking about this: "So how...timely do we want to go on our big first boat trip?" 23:36 <VoxPVoxD> Also an in-progress decal of a goose in a sailor hat in the spot where the Coast Guard seal goes on regular ones. 23:36 <VoxPVoxD> Hedge added that. 23:37 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "How risky is the fast way? And how big is the time difference?" 23:37 <banana> Melanie has opinions. "It would be stupid to spend a long time in the wild Hedge when we don't have to. We're not on a tight deadline." 23:39 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I'd prefer there and back again as fast as possible... but that is quite a risk." 23:39 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Seems like heading down the trods is just an easy way to be seen. No sense in that if we don't have to be." 23:43 <CBN> Tony: "For what it's worth, I feel like it runs against the spirit of an inaugural boat trip to be rushing ourselves. It's not very boat-y." 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It seems like the broad consensus is to play it safe, then." 23:44 <CBN> Tony: "I'm using that word right, right? 'Inaugural.' It was on a word-a-day calendar." 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That's right. Did you break a bottle on the hull?" 23:44 <banana> Melanie: "Insofar as the Atlantic Ocean is 'safe'!" 23:45 <VoxPVoxD> "Champagne is traditional but we've got a very full bar." 23:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The ratio of happy sea shanties to sad sea shanties is in our favor, I think." 23:48 <banana> "♫ Who's going to be the drunken sailor... ♬" 23:48 <banana> "I don't know any other shanties. Let me go and grab another couple of podcasts." 23:49 <Crion> You better believe in sea shanties...you're sailing in one. 23:49 <Crion> Well, a boat named after one. 23:49 <VoxPVoxD> Expecting us to believe in ourselves is a tall order. 23:51 <Crion> Instead, believe in the Steve who believes in you. 23:53 <CBN> Tony: "Champagne sounds good. As the person who got us the boat, I think the honor's yours, Stewart?" 23:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Technically the honor falls to a dignitary like the head of state. Where's Steve?" 23:53 <Crion> HONK! 23:54 <trenchfoot> It was named after him. 23:54 <Crion> He is about, and wearing one of his fancy hats -- this time a tophat. There is a problem, of course: can a hob go outside the Hedge? 23:54 <Crion> Doesn't seem safe. 23:54 <banana> Oh no. I can't believe we might have to leave Steve behind. What will all the Florida geese do 23:54 <VoxPVoxD> The boat's still docked in the Hedge for its launch ceremony, surely. He can crack a bottle of champers on the hull. 23:54 <Crion> Oh that's true. 23:55 <Crion> Then he would be more than glad! 23:56 <VoxPVoxD> It feels like someone should say a few words, but then that would probably also fall to Stewart, and he doesn't want to. So he just gets a bottle of champagne down for Steve and lets him do the honors. 23:58 <Crion> Steve just beats the shit out of that bottle against the hull. On the third or fourth whack, it finally breaks! 23:58 <Crion> Doesn't shatter, though. Which is good for clean up. He dances around with the slowly-emptying bottle. 23:58 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart hums the Final Fantasy victory theme. 23:58 <banana> Melanie's taken a seat to lean against. "Watching his little neck swing back and forth like that, it almost seems self-wringing." 23:59 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Not sure how many people in this world can say they've seen that." 23:59 <CBN> Tony: "To Steve, and Stewart, and the Wild Goose!" 00:00 <Crion> And with that, you're seaworthy, whenever you want to be -- Lauren's just arrived with Chup and the last of the things from their apartment. 00:01 <VoxPVoxD> The first thing Stewart does is eagerly tell Lauren about Barbaddos. 00:01 <Crion> Lauren: "Holy SHIT." 00:02 <banana> Ah 00:02 <VoxPVoxD> "Right??? He had to shoo us out because he was forging a Master Sword." 00:02 <Crion> Lauren: "Oh just as you fuckin do???" 00:02 <banana> "Yeah, he's basically a modern day blacksmith, it's super cool. There's one thing I have to pass on though." 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "What's up?" 00:03 <banana> "Colt asks, please refrain from contacting Johnny independently. It's one of those Court line-drawing exercises... and they want to make absolutely sure nobody mentions the Steelers." 00:04 <Crion> Lauren doesn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. "Summer Court." 00:04 <Crion> "Uh, no offense." 00:04 <banana> Melanie, unoffended(?): "I feel like the Autumn Court has a lot of secrets and so on." 00:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "What, like a turf thing?" 00:06 <banana> "This is a millieu in which knowing a guy is hard currency." 00:06 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's also the opposite of hard currency, because the ultimate effect is keeping money out of that guy's pocket." 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> He's making a face — it's probably obvious that he shares some or all of Lauren's sentiment — but is like: "But yeah, alright. Boundary respected." 00:09 <Crion> Lauren also restrains herself from pursuing the matter further. (She will do so later, with Stewart, in private. To wit: treating him like a Court resource without giving him Court security and a Court retainer is pretty fucked up!) 00:09 <banana> Melanie's face-knots wrinkle up. "The Summer Court, I expect I am expected to inform you, will be pleased to provide the rest of the Freehold access to smithery and similar services. I'm not going to claim the lines aren't dumb, just that they're like.. burnt into the sand which is basically molten glass at this point, or that radioactive stuff from the Trinity test." 00:09 <Crion> (But Baltimore County seems pretty safe?) 00:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, I get it. I think they could probably stand to treat him better if they're going to be territorial, but that's not my call. And it's obviously not worth getting you in trouble over, which is why he told you to tell me instead of telling me himself." 00:10 <VoxPVoxD> "To let me know how that would go." 00:12 <banana> Melanie doesn't think Johnny has any complaints about his treatment, or that he'd benefit from being drawn forcibly closer to the supernatural world instead of grazing its periphery as another cool part of his cool if somewhat uncivilised life. She also really doesn't want to get into an argument about it, so she just makes sad faces, at both Stewart and Lauren, until they talk about 00:12 <banana> something else. 00:13 <VoxPVoxD> Melanie's sad faces are really one of the Summer Court's best weapons, since they're the only leverage it has over the motley. 00:21 <Crion> Once everyone's squared away -- Chup will get a room to hang out on the ship's real-world deck, so he's not consigned to spend all his time belowdecks, and he will lounge therein like a bratty fatuous lordling -- it's time to get going. 00:22 <Crion> The Wild Goose will slip out of the Wherehouse, into the Chesapeake Bay, and into the rhythm of the tides, heading south at its own leisurely pace...next week.