21:12 <Crion> It's actually kind of a letdown, really. Maybe. Well, perhaps not. But the Wherehouse and the Wild Goose follow the advice of Fangs as Fisherman, traveling mainly at night and dozing in the lazy afternoons, and soon the new moon is gone and they're out of the territorial waters with only a couple weird half-glimpsed reflections in the chop to show for it. Fangs -- Seth -- at least does come 21:12 <Crion> by to bro down a bit more, and meet Stewart and Lauren if they're up and about. 21:13 <Crion> If there's any pressing questions Stewart has for the guy, he'll get his chance to ask them over a few brews -- but soon it's time for the Goose to be moving on, and him to be staying in his pack's waters. 21:16 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart absolutely wants to meet the beer-stealing werewolf. He's curious about a lot of stuff, like the guy's experiences with different enforcement arms of the US Government (is the Coast Guard anywhere near as serious as the Park Service?) and which specs he plays in WoW, but he's also curious about the general state of affairs in the bordermarches. Does Seth (does he prefer 'Seth' or 21:16 <VoxPVoxD> 'Fangs'?) notice things changing out here recently? 21:16 <VoxPVoxD> And has he heard anything about what it's like down Florida way? 21:18 <Crion> He demurs the question about his name in a way that makes it clear that while you can say what you want, he's more comfortable with Seth from people outside the pack and Fangs from those within it. It's not being overly-familiar if you use Fangs as Fisherman; if anything, it's the opposite. Like mom using your full first and middle name. Normal to hear from her (especially if you're once 21:18 <Crion> again in trouble), weird to hear from other people. 21:18 <VoxPVoxD> If they're sharing drinks at night rather than during the day, Stewart's probably in his pajamas rather than a Gilligan hat, Hawaiian shirt, and bright white sunscreen. 21:22 <Crion> He's noticed the ecosystem getting more fucked up, but in the usual way, like the climate change people have been saying. Fewer fish. More trash. Oldheads say the whales seem to be coming back though; that's nice. The Gauntlet (Stewart knows this is what Seth's talking about without him having to use the term, but if Stewart wants to check to make sure, Seth will confirm while being a bit 21:22 <Crion> startled he knows what to call it) is getting more difficult to manage but sometimes these things just happen. He does get the feeling that Weird Shit is on the rise, but that might just be the oldheads grumping. He doesn't have a great definition of Weird Shit. 21:22 <Crion> Fangs As Fishermen -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhfnTs0RZLs Take it with a grain of salt and a pound of gold / The game will still be sold and not told, let's go. 21:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's briefly stunned when he invokes the contract, but he rolls with it. 21:25 <Crion> Seth hasn't heard anything in particular about Florida, but shit's always crazy down there. 21:26 <Crion> Though the way Seth says that sounds more affectionate than ominous. 21:26 <Crion> Hell, you might be too if you were impervious to the vast majority of Florida Men. 21:27 <VoxPVoxD> That makes sense. If you're a werewolf and some tweaker dipshit rams a stolen airboat into you, it's a funny story. For you. 21:28 <Crion> If you want to keep in touch with Seth long distance, he doesn't have a phone...kind of a pain in the ass. He is on Facebook, though. 21:28 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart shares a glance with Lauren at that. 21:28 <Crion> She keeps her face carefully neutral. 21:30 <Crion> For her part she seems faintly amused by Seth, but keeps her distance. She's seen what guys like him can get up to -- dumb bros, werewolves, both. Not really her type. 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart noncomittally says he'll have to look Seth up sometime. Otherwise he's perfectly content to share beers and shoot the shit until the Goose is outside of Seth's radius. 21:31 <Crion> Soon he's gotta go (he almost pays for another sixer, then sees your fridge is almost empty and says he'll hit up some civilians), and after some goodbyes and perhaps a manly bro-shake with Tony, it's over the side and into the afternoon blue. 21:32 <dammitwho> Maggie: "What a nice fella." 21:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Very chill." 21:33 <Crion> The Goose makes the North Carolina line shortly -- after refueling in Kitty Hawk, both the boat and the fridge, Tony plans to sort of amble until you reach Emerald Isle, NC, about halfway to South Carolina and just after the Outer Banks cut in from the sea, into Onslow Bay. 21:33 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Did we get his number?" 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "No phone. He's on Facebook." 21:34 <VoxPVoxD> "So we can get ahold of him if we need to but we shouldn't be, like, on Facebook." 21:34 <Crion> Lauren: "Werewolves. No sense of self-preservation. Especially online." 21:34 <VoxPVoxD> "Being able to facetank a machine gun probably doesn't instill an appropriate respect for danger." 21:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Maybe there should be a social media site just for werewolves, vampire sheriffs, Summer courtiers and stuff called Facetank..." 21:36 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Harmers only dot com." 21:36 <Crion> Lauren: "We used to be real worried about Kolsch like firing off statuses from Task Force meetings with sensitive stuff in it, but then he got his account banned for just posting dick pics directly on his feed. Thankfully he never reregistered." 21:36 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart dissolves into giggles. 21:37 <dammitwho> Maggie wheezes. 21:40 <VoxPVoxD> Eventually: "Do you think he didn't realize, or that he knew and didn't care?" 21:41 <Crion> Lauren: "I think that is the great question of Kolsch Cameron's life." 21:43 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I'm not exactly a technological whiz but I've never sent something meant for one person to a different person. So I gotta side with the latter." 21:43 <Crion> The way the Outer Banks works is that the water between the thin strip of land and the shore is called a sound, and all the piers of note are sound-side -- putting them sea-side both exposes boats to worse weather unshielded by the Banks themselves, and more importantly, cuts into valuable, beautiful waterfront property with brilliant sandy beaches. 21:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I've definitely mis-sent stuff before. It can be a surprisingly easy mistake to make. If there was ever a time to double and triple-check, though, wow." 21:44 <Crion> There's an absolute shitload of parkland out here, mostly swampy stuff that's too wet to build on, though the developers are desperate to try. Most of this will be underwater in fifty years, though. 21:45 <VoxPVoxD> It's real pretty. 21:45 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart tries not to think about how pretty it is, because of the thing the narrator said. 21:46 <trenchfoot> It's very pretty! And Nels might not actually know about global warming. (Not on the GED.) 21:47 <VoxPVoxD> That would explain her childlike wonder and innocence. 21:48 <trenchfoot> Like you wouldn't be amazed at future tech. Stewart. 21:48 <Crion> Emerald Isle is a made-up resort town located right next to Indian Beach, NC and Atlantic Beach, NC (one of these is correct). Due to most of the rental properties, and therefore most of the tourism dollars, being located in Emerald Isle, that's sort of what the whole strip of waterfront is known as, to the consternation of some busybodies. The whole strip is serviced by Morehead City, built 21:48 <Crion> back on the actual shore. 21:49 <Crion> There's actually an aquarium down here, and one of dozens of parks named after Teddy Roosevelt. 21:50 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I wonder if there's a sympathetic link between Emerald Isle, North Carolina and regular Ireland." 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> How are we doing on consumables? Do we need to disembark to go shopping? We do seem to be pretty much out of beer... 21:53 <Crion> Tony docks the Goose; you'll have the afternoon at least to yourself to putter around, because of a long and very boring tale the guy at the dock regales him with about the tanker truck being stuck up in Newport, at the damn roadwork on 70, when everyone knows that when they do the roadwork, you come in on 24 through Cape Carteret, and you're here every summer right, so you know-- 21:53 <trenchfoot> Nels: "They're... not at war anymore, are they? In Ireland?" 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, now they're just regular-mad all the time." 21:54 <trenchfoot> She doesn't know what that means, but it's acceptable. 21:55 <dammitwho> "When I was a lass in the emerald isle, I heard many stories both lovely and wild~" Maggie hums to herself. "Nope! They're the Republic of Ireland now, separate from the limeys. Except Northern Ireland." 21:55 <Crion> Tony takes to this boring man with typically Tony-like equanimity. This place is real walkable -- maybe 900 feet wide at thickest -- but there's not a lot around but a bunch of inns, bed and breakfasts, souvenir and antique stores...oh, and the giant schooner marooned(?) where the mini-golf course and amusement park used to be. 21:58 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's looking forward to poking around and shopping and stuff. The boat's real nice but it is still awfully confined. 21:59 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh shit, check out this boat!" Stewart waves at the others as if they can't all obviously see it. *Now* he's full Gilligan, with the added sunglasses that make him look like the first goofball tourist to die in some direct-to-video movie about a shark-based weather phenomenon. 22:01 <trenchfoot> "Northern-- not relevant now, I'll look it up." She steps over to Stewart. "Is that just, there?" 22:01 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Sure looks like it is." 22:01 <Crion> The boat, it seems, has been converted into something of a store. It also seems like whoever runs it is being quite lackadaisical about opening it up; a few women that Lauren will call 'Karens' if Stewart is too polite are regarding the locked front door and the cheap, flippy CLOSED sign with severe displeasure. 22:02 <VoxPVoxD> What does it look like it sells? 22:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart is instinctively polite to the women, who remind him of his mother. 22:05 <Crion> They don't seem to appreciate that this door is built literally into the side of what used to be a 120-foot boat. That's like, some significant portion of the width of this island! On closer examination the thing's actually missing a chunk off the back (sorry, the aft, dear boaters) which would otherwise be jutting out into the parking lot, which has been patched up into some kind of secondary 22:05 <Crion> building as best as possible. The remaining boat parts have been painted up semi-cheerily, and the one remaining mast, crooked as it is, is rigged with a sail -- it's rolled up now, though. 22:05 <Crion> The name-plate of the schooner, the original one, has been removed or covered up...and replaced with a sign, the sort that can light up jauntily at night. 22:06 <Crion> It proclaims this "establishment" the Irish Rover. 22:09 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Maybe it only opens at night?" 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Hey there! What kinda place is this?" 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> This is to the cranky women. 22:15 <Crion> Her: "Hmm? Oh. Well. It's supposed to be some kind of incredible hole-in-the-wall souvenir place. It sells--what did he say, Margie?" Her friend: "'Curios.'" Her: "Right, curios. Though now that I see it, I can't imagine why it's not talked about more. I mean look at it! What crazy man decided to put a boat here? ANYway. It was supposed to open at 10 AM, and now it's 11:30. So." Her friend, 22:15 <Crion> in agreement: "So." Her: "You can wait if you like--" Here she gives your group an appraising, if confused look, and seems to settle on a judgment she's unwilling to share. "--but I think we'll be getting brunch." 22:16 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That sounds like a great time! I think I will stick around a bit. You ladies enjoy your brunch!" 22:17 <Crion> Lips pressed together: "Mmmhmmm. You too." 22:17 <VoxPVoxD> Bottomless mimosas sound pretty good right now, not gonna lie. 22:17 <VoxPVoxD> When they're gone: "They seemed nice." 22:18 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Hmm. So, do you reckon the stuff they sell here is cursed?" 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "God I hope so." 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> "Did you ever read Needful Things?" 22:19 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I don't know what that is." 22:19 <Crion> Maybe a half-beat after they're definitively gone -- like, just after they turn a corner -- a sulky teen (maybe slightly older) rolls up the shade on the door and flips the sign to Open. 22:19 <VoxPVoxD> Hopefully they haven't, so Stewart doesn't need to say 'I'm hoping for that minus the weird sex stuff'. 22:19 <Crion> He sort of looks through you (not in any creepy way, just the way teens working retail do) as he unlocks the door and disappears back inside. 22:20 <VoxPVoxD> After he's gone inside: "Eh? Eh??" 22:22 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I don't know what that is either." 22:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's happy to give the kid a few minutes to settle in before he follows. "It's a story about an antique store in Maine that the devil opens up. It grants you your heart's desire... but at a terrible price!!" 22:24 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Thanks, I hate it." 22:24 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart often wonders where Nels learned to talk like a zoomer. Is she in a group text with Samaritan or something?? 22:25 <VoxPVoxD> Anyway, at this point he goes in. 22:25 <trenchfoot> She picked up bits and bobs from reading a lot of the internet. 22:26 <trenchfoot> Also have you seen this TikTok thing...? 22:27 <Crion> The inside of the ship is a bit awkward, considering the hull is on an incline. But the place has been rearranged to make do, with the whole of the ship cored out and replaced with tiered flooring and shelving, dodging the great structural beams and ribbing that keep the thing together, of course, and warm, moody lighting that strikes the proper balance between casting a lot of shadows and 22:27 <Crion> giving customers the light they need to exmaine what's on sale. It's not your average souvenir shop. Though there are t-shirts on the rack up front (sacriligious not to have them, really). 22:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks around eagerly. What do we got? 22:33 <Crion> A big, handpainted sign welcomes them, and sort of explains: "WELCOME LADS AND LASSES! To the Hold of the Irish Rover! Originally H.M.S. (His Majesty's Ship) Green Gospel, she set sail laden with gifts for the lords of the Far Eastern Lands in the year of Our Lord 1598...and was never heard from again! Now, see what treasures the current of the Tides and Fate have brought to our 22:33 <Crion> humble shores!" 22:34 <Crion> And indeed, there are all sorts of things to buy here -- horns and eyeglasses, expensive-looking boxes, strange maps and books, even what appear to be some period-appropriate weapons in the back. 22:37 <Crion> The teen, meanwhile, has retreated behind a very modern-looking counter with a modern-looking computer, and is talking on a very-modern looking landline phone to someone. "No, I'm not going up there and lowering sail. You pay me $14 an hour, man." Pause. "Yeah well the Dairy Queen isn't asking me to climb the mizzenmast or some shit!" 22:39 <Crion> Stewart, Maggie and Nels might be find this store baffling, mysterious, spooky, or full of wonderment...but they can also tell that it is quite firmly mundane. There is absolutely nothing magical in here right now except for the three of them and whatever they might be carrying. 22:39 <Crion> Which isn't to say these are cheap fabrications; they're exceptionally well-made. 22:40 <Crion> They're just not magic. 22:40 <dammitwho> Aww. Still, what've they got in the way of maps/books? 22:40 <Crion> (The swords in the back don't have ground edges, though. That's just sensible.) 22:40 <trenchfoot> But if they were good enough to throw us, they'd be good enough to -- no. We're past that. 22:41 <Crion> The book and map selection seems to be functional maps of North Carolina, extremely well-made and bound, the waters up and down the East Coast, Ireland, Great Britain, surrounding environs, maps charting the trip around Cape Horn...and a number of what appears to be feudal Japan. 22:42 <Crion> The teen: "The winch is broken, Mr. Carth! I ran track in school, I didn't climb stuff! It's your boat!" 22:43 <VoxPVoxD> Uncursed kitsch is still cool. Maggie's got paper stuff covered; what do we have in the way of brass sextants, rigging knives, bells, etc? 22:43 <dammitwho> Hmm. Do we have... charts? On the Wild Goose? 22:43 <Crion> "Okay. Yeah. No, we're open, there's a family or something in here right now." The conversation seems to end, and the teen hangs up. 22:44 <VoxPVoxD> We probably don't have charts, since we've got GPS. Charts look much classier, though. 22:46 <dammitwho> Yeah let's just, freaking, trust our lives to satellites in actual outer space. In that case, Maggie'll pick up some East Coast maps before thumbing through the ones of ancient Japan. 22:48 <Crion> Maggie can tell these are the real deal, not just the work of someone very good at pretending to make the real deal; Stewart, with a little bit of googling and newsgrouping, is able to find a site on his phone that's basically the shitty rip-off version of this -- if anything the prices here are slightly cheaper than what the forgers think they can take marks for, and when he spot checks a 22:48 <Crion> tool here or there against prices for artisanal, functional reproductions, these are in line. 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> This is good stuff! Very cool. 22:49 <Crion> The teen, dreading that you take him up on the offer: "Let me know if you need help finding...whatever." 22:52 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's grabbing at least this cool brass astrolabe and a bosun's call, which is what google tells him this whistle is called. 22:53 <Crion> David Jones -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtKhFaW2Z1E He can tell me what to do / But he can't tell me what to feel. 22:54 <VoxPVoxD> Oh no. 22:54 <VoxPVoxD> Is Lauren here? Or did she go do something more practical? 22:55 <Crion> Lauren is on a call back on the boat. Still technically at work, sadly. 22:55 <Crion> Should have the afternoon free though. 22:55 <Crion> The teen's already furtively looking below the counter, the universal sign of texting at work. 22:56 <VoxPVoxD> This song is making him wish she was here. They'll have to find a beach or something. He's not going to interrupt the kid, so instead he'll hover around with the others to see if they find anything cool. 22:57 <Crion> Oh, the beaches here are almost entirely public. There are a couple exceptions with the big resort hotels, but you can indeed just grab beach umbrella and have yourself a day, if you wish. 22:57 <VoxPVoxD> That's good. Maybe when the sun's going down so she doesn't have to wear a Chernobyl liquidator suit. 22:59 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Do you think we should get Tony a Captain's Log?" 23:00 <VoxPVoxD> Oh!! Do they have any hats that would fit on a goose's head? 23:02 <trenchfoot> Please not one of those with two cupholders on the sides, we'd never pry it off Steve. 23:02 <Crion> They have some hats for children that would do in a pinch. They're a bit more authentic and less cartoonish than what Steve usually comes up with, too. Not sure you've ever seen him in a proper bicorn (despite the sign, the period-appropriateness of the items in the Rover is mainly just what the untrained souvenir hound eye would think is Old). 23:02 <VoxPVoxD> Yes! The bicorn is exactly what we need. 23:03 <VoxPVoxD> It's funny that the kid thinks they're a family. You gotta wonder how insanely hot the dude is that managed to have Nels and Stewart with Maggie. 23:09 <Crion> Some hats, some old-time sailing tools, some maps and charts...soon you've got quite a haul, and while it's not inexpensive, it's not going to set someone with means like Stewart's back too much. Not buying groceries, food, or liquor at gentrified Baltimore City prices over the past week has already saved him enough to wash this. 23:09 <VoxPVoxD> Nice. 23:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's ready to ring this stuff up if the others are. 23:12 <trenchfoot> Nels has what she needs unless there's some kind of exotic jerky or novelty guitar picks. 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> Then it's time to ruin this kid's day by making him do five minutes of work. 23:17 <Crion> You finish your shopping just in time, then, to have it complicated ten steps out the door. 23:17 <VoxPVoxD> ?! 23:17 <Crion> "Ah, lassie, ye wound me. I cain't promise ye they're the true works true, but I cain promise ye excellent craftsmanship." The Karens have returned, with an accompaniment, and they're entranced by the lilting, overproduced Irish brogue of the tall, handsome, spectacularly-muscled white-haired man in an open shirt, green slacks and high boots. "Just like what William Carth himself sailed with 23:17 <Crion> under King's letters when he--" Then he sees you three. 23:17 <Crion> And you both see each other as you truly are. The look of cold fury that runs across his Mien doesn't make it to his Mask. "Ah, but why don't ye ladies ask young David inside to see to ye? The teas are in the back section if'n he needs a help rememb'ring." 23:18 <Crion> The Karens heedlessly descend upon the shopping destination. 23:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart offers the brunchers a placid smile of recognition and lets them pass. 23:18 <VoxPVoxD> "Good afternoon." 23:19 <trenchfoot> Are there other exits? Nels will find them, if there are. 23:19 <Crion> When he speaks now the accent is still Irish, but it's tight and angry. "You bring fucking magic in my store?" 23:20 <Crion> "Who the fuck are you? The lot of you? You from Raleigh?" 23:20 <Crion> This man appears to be one of the Lost. He simply...doesn't seem to have a Seeming. 23:21 <VoxPVoxD> "We're just passing through, sir. Stewart Reader." He offers the man the hand without a shopping bag. 23:23 <Crion> Colin Carth; A Man, A Shore -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOlEGx53lKY He withstood several blasts, he had twenty-seven pasts, and they called him the Irish Rover. 23:24 <Crion> With disgust: "How long you been back, son, to just offer a hand that way?" 23:25 <Crion> His Mien is just an after image of him, and sometimes the expression on its face matches his, and sometimes it doesn't. Or maybe his Mask is a fore image of him, and sometimes the expression of its face matches his, and sometimes it doesn't. 23:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart lets it drop. "Not quite a year. This is a really nice place." 23:27 <Crion> As the Tip hits the jar: "Don't think I didn't feel that. Don't think I'm going to give it back to you." He looks to Nels and Maggie, eyes lingering on Maggie. "Three's not a hunt. And only one of you's got killer's eyes." 23:28 <dammitwho> Quietly: "We're not looking for any trouble." 23:32 <Crion> Glaring: "What did you take into my store. Trinkets. Bobs. Bits of magic from the wisp of the willows." 23:32 <Crion> "What did you leave behind." 23:32 <Crion> "A marker? A geas? A boy with a coin? A coin with a boy?" 23:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Just, like, $300." 23:32 <Crion> His eyes run over the bags. "Hh." 23:33 <VoxPVoxD> "It's a really cool shop! Maggie's right, we don't mean any trouble. We're just passing through. From Baltimore down to Orlando." 23:33 <VoxPVoxD> "There wasn't any kind of interdiction up. We had no idea." 23:34 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Had we known, we might have found a different tourist trap." 23:34 <Crion> "Then you'd best be moving on." Begrudgingly. "Thank you for your custom." 23:36 <trenchfoot> That was our plan, she doesn't say. 23:36 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Have a nice day, sir." 23:37 <Crion> The white-haired man uncrosses his arms, eyes still narrowed, and steps by them into his place of business. Soon, from within, the sonorous salesman's lilt and boistrousness returns as he tries to upsell the Karens on a variety of kettles, badgering the teen David as he does. 23:37 <VoxPVoxD> Poor kid. 23:38 <VoxPVoxD> Aside to Nels as they return to the boat: "You get his song?" 23:39 <Crion> Stewart gets half a block away from the Irish Rover and towards the Sound Side docks, the ruins of the amusement park still around them, when suddenly he walks into something waist level with absolutely no give, like a steel railing. Which is odd, since the three of you are walking down the middle of an empty street. 23:40 <VoxPVoxD> "whuff-" He bangs his hip bone pretty hard! Ouch. 23:43 <Crion> As he does, the three of you hear an odd, dull tone. It doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere, not even your heads; just ambient. When Stewart steps back, he can see what he ran into: a sign, floating in midair about where the bottom of Stewart's vision would be if he were looking straight ahead, completely motionless and immovable. 23:43 <Crion> It reads in full: "Invaded by dark spirit The Pursuers!" 23:43 <VoxPVoxD> ... 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> "Do you guys see that?" 23:44 <Crion> The sign has a button in the lower right corner, set into the surface. 23:44 <Crion> They can see it, yes. 23:44 <Crion> The button is green, and has an A on it. 23:45 <VoxPVoxD> What happens if Stewart tries to go around the sign? 23:45 <Crion> The sign is now following Stewart, or rather, leading him and maintaining perfect distance so as to always remain in the bottom of his field of view. 23:46 <Crion> The wind has died. 23:46 <trenchfoot> She was about to answer, but is now rather arrested by the... other thing. 23:46 <trenchfoot> The sign. 23:48 <dammitwho> Maggie: "God DANG it." 23:56 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart takes a deep breath, ombre-colored sparks swirling around him, and hits A 23:59 <Crion> There is a respect for playing the game, and not leaving the herald hanging there. And in return, he gets to hear unbidden and without giving a Tip the sound oncoming, from a distance, growing closer. Two of them. Both from inland, one from ahead, one from their left, forcing them back towards the ruins of Jungleland. 23:59 <Crion> The Pursuers -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMTPHiDcIyU ♫♪♪♪♫♪ 00:04 <Crion> When the less-than-mortal harriers arrive they are hard, sharp things that fly without wings, their heavy armor empty and more cage than plate. Each has across its back a sling filled with weapons, and each holds a mighty shield in one hand. They move silently, unnaturally, over the twisted scrub-trees that grow on the Outer Banks. One's eyes are piercing blue. One's are glowing, angry red. 00:07 <Crion> They land in a heaving crouch but float up to their full height, hovering a foot off the ground perhaps. And then, in a deserted amusement park in the tourist offseason with a ridiculous boat at your backs, the fight is joined. 00:22 <trenchfoot> Nels turns, and is furious. You dare? Do you, really? "Leave us." She looks abruptly terrifying despite wearing a tie-dye tourist's t-shirt and some rather short jean-shorts. 00:25 <Crion> The red-eyed Pursuer isn't routed, but it does scream -- it sounds like metal twisting on metal -- as its upper body turns this way and that, disfigured, sparking and seizing up. 00:34 <dammitwho> Maggie cocks a fist with an audible click-click-click, and gives the blue-eyed Pursuer a solid hit right upside the head! The piston-driven momentum of a Furnace-crowned changeling means a punch from Maggie is like getting hit by a sledgehammer. 00:35 <Crion> Instead of flying up and off, the helmet, which is attached to the armor like part of a body, violently careens over the thing's shoulder like a speed bag that's come unmoored, the metal twisted. 00:43 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's shoulders are shaking, and the vibration spreads to his hands and fingertips. The blue-eyed Pursuer is beaten-down, but still dangerous, and he can't look directly at it. But the other one, crumpled and screaming... he gets closer, finding it hard to breathe around his heart thudding in his throat. The air fills with static as he gets close, as his shaking hand makes contact he 00:43 <VoxPVoxD> feels a shock. 00:45 <VoxPVoxD> The loremasters say the secret to Leaping Toward Nightfall is to speak an impossible riddle into the subject's mind. But what kind of mind do these things have? What kind of mind are they allowed to have. Stewart grabs the helmet with both hands, black eyes meeting red, and his mouth works silently before something from his prelapsarian school days clicks into place in his brain and he 00:45 <VoxPVoxD> starts babbling in some Seussian doggerel that makes no sense to Maggie or Nels. 00:46 <VoxPVoxD> But it must mean something, because the last thing he says -- "What's the looping behavior of Q run on Q?" -- seems to set the Pursuer alight from within, causing it to dissolve into embers and ash that blow away on a temporal wind that doesn't touch anyone's skin. 00:47 <Crion> Then reality fippzles and zurts, and right where the red-eyed Pursuer screamed now floats his mate in blue. 00:48 <VoxPVoxD> Do it. 00:48 <Crion> Snicker-snack. 00:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart tries to scream but only blood comes out. 00:52 <Crion> As the Pursuer strikes, the great sail on the mast of the Irish Rover billows down, to reveal...another advertisement sign for the Irish Rover. But more importantly, there's now a perfectly calm Irish man with a samurai sword standing in the road. He's looking at the Pursuer. "A neat trick." He's talking to the Pursuer. 01:02 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Stop." 01:03 <trenchfoot> She's now looking at the other Pursuer - the previous one is gone, at this point. 01:04 <trenchfoot> And she does still look at least mildly terrifying to everyone else. 01:04 <Crion> At Nels's display, the Irishman's Mask blinks and hand pauses going to his sword; his Mien does not. 01:10 <VoxPVoxD> Man this lethal wound is going to make it really hard to avoid telling anyone about this. 01:31 <dammitwho> "Stewart!" Maggie takes another swipe at the blue-eyed Pursuer - there's a solid thump, but nothing like her first hit. This is bad news. 01:32 <Crion> After Maggie's blow lands, the Irishman stands before the blue-eyed Pursuer without moving, his Mien a ghost behind him, an impression left where he once was. He's using the same telelocation technique the Pursuer did -- the exact same technique. His mouth is moving and softly, softly, the impression of breath -- then one slash across the gut, a brutal and unflashy killing blow. The blue-eyed 01:32 <Crion> Pursuer stops in time. It is cut. A shadow passes over it, and it is gone. 01:32 <Crion> Looking stonily down on Stewart: "You've littered on my future, boy." 01:34 <dammitwho> Maggie kneels next to Stewart, examining his wounds. "Well, he's damned well paid for it, hasn't he?" 01:34 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, bleeding profusely from his chest and mouth, mumbles "sorry" 01:34 <VoxPVoxD> "good job though" 01:36 <Crion> The Irishman: "...I have bandages in the workshop." 01:37 <Crion> He'll begin walking back towards the ship, which from the rear, facing the ruined amusement park, does have a building attached. 01:38 <trenchfoot> Nels, now no longer holding forces beyond mortal ken into submission: "Do you have any of the good plasters? Ones with cartoons?" 01:39 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart goes to press his hands into his open wound. 01:39 <dammitwho> If it looks like Stewart is going to trade bedlam for butchery, Maggie will gently grab his hands. "Stewart, please don't. We'll get you patched up." 01:40 <Crion> His Mien looks over his shoulder at Nels as if to ask, 'Really?' His Mask continues to look straight forward. 01:41 <trenchfoot> She's trying to distract from what she just did and from what happened to Stewart that he doesn't want to talk about. Clearly, it's working. 01:47 <Crion> Inside the workshop he simply swipes a long table clear with his sheathed sword, quickly lays down towels, and gets to work. He is either a brilliant surgeon, or has some means of becoming one that is not obvious. It becomes more and more unclear what sort of creature Colin Carth, A Man, A Shore, the Irish Rover, is. 01:49 <Crion> Down here are simple tools for repairing farm or, perhaps, ship equipment. Lots of extra mainsail for patching, or for laying down under a bleeding boy. Lots of needle and thread for sewing, or stitching. He's done in minutes. 01:50 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, weakly: "Most places just throw in a keychain or something." 01:51 <Crion> Tossing a clean rag to Stewart, ignoring what he says: "I didn't hear you fire guns." 01:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Wasn't expecting Huntsmen." 01:53 <Crion> "The police only respond to gunfire. Not kids who are too old for it playing in Jungleland. Not for strange birds seen by housewives with heat stroke, or too many mimosas at brunch." 01:53 <VoxPVoxD> "Yeah." 01:53 <Crion> Carth: "So I suppose this isn't a complete fucking catastrophe." 01:54 <Crion> After wiping his hands, he turns back to three members of the Wherehouse. "Well? Get the fuck out." 01:55 <trenchfoot> Uh, rude? But she doesn't want to be here anymore either, so. 01:57 <Crion> Once he's herded them to the door, he pauses. "You have proper weapons back at your boat?" 01:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart has a devil of a time moving with the stitches in his chest, but leaning on Maggie he manages. "More or less." 01:58 <VoxPVoxD> "You have something better than bicorn hats for sale?" 01:58 <Crion> "Since you seem handy, and you don't seem stupid, and you didn't have them on you, then I have to think you got the herald and the huntsman in the same cup of coffee." 01:58 <VoxPVoxD> "Yeah. Maybe ten seconds lapse." 01:59 <VoxPVoxD> "So a month on the one, four days on the other." 02:00 <VoxPVoxD> "I hope their hearts are buried together at least." 02:01 <VoxPVoxD> "Anyway, thank you again. Sorry about the mess." 02:01 <Crion> "Downright churlish behavior. I've a weapon for you, lad, yes. But it's not some trinket. Don't rely on them." The Irishman's Mien meets Stewart's gaze with empty eyes; his Mask remains staring out at Jungleland. "I can tell you their business. How they work." 02:01 <VoxPVoxD> "Yeah?" 02:06 <Crion> The Mien nods. "You saw the stutter technique. They can become the space between two points -- but they have to be able to see where they're going. They prefer to use this technique not as they did today, but for ambush -- to appear from nowhere. This lot does not prefer to lie in wait, however; they hunt. To this end, their senses are heightened for you and yours; this is a common trait, 02:06 <Crion> you like as not expected it. And finally...the red-eyed one does not suffer the bane of cold iron. But only the red-eyed one." 02:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That's useful, thank you. I'm in your debt." 02:08 <Crion> Both Mask and Mien nod this time. "And as bad as that blue-eyed bastard's sword was...the red-eyed one's meaner." 02:08 <Crion> Then, quietly: "Don't you ever fucking say something like that to me again. Me or anything like me." 02:09 <Crion> "You'll be told when there's a debt." 02:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Not always. Not even among the Lost." 02:10 <VoxPVoxD> "Anyway, you were kicking us out. We should respect that." 02:10 <Crion> Now it's the Mien that looks away. "Yes." 02:10 <VoxPVoxD> "Goodbye, Mr. Carth." 02:12 <Crion> "As they go: "Oh, and I reject your debt. You hear me? Took me a second, but you're not sending that thing back here, oh no. Don't be thinking I'll kill it for you neither." 02:12 <Crion> -" 02:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't turn around and slow their departure, but he does raise a hand in acknowledgment. His mouth still tastes like blood. 02:14 <Crion> The fetch of the first Huntsman slams the door, and that's that. 02:15 <Crion> NEXT WEEK: Surf Nazis Must Die