21:00 <Crion> There's an urgent care with an attached doctor's office about a mile down the road towards Cape Carteret, if members of the Wherehouse wanted to avail themselves of that for any reason. Good god, imagine the scheme of being a doctor on the Outer Banks. Half the year no one's around and the other half the year it's beach season. 21:00 <VoxPVoxD> The stitches are holding, right? Stewart's feeling woozy. 21:00 <Crion> Must be the life. Anyhow, Stewart's chest wound has been treated, but you might want to get some bandages or something to change the dressing every now and then. And also explain it to the other half of the crew. 21:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's chest feels like a pulsing crack in reality, which is not helping with the dizziness. The comparison is almost certainly figurative, at least. Given both the nature of Huntsmen and the idiom it's hard to imagine that four and twenty blackbirds are going to come out of his pleural cavity. 21:04 <VoxPVoxD> He can only dimly remember how the day began. Weren't they going to go to the beach? By this point he's at least half-held-up by Maggie. 21:04 <VoxPVoxD> Or Nels, but, come on. It's Maggie. 21:05 <dammitwho> Maggie, speaking low: "The rest of you all go to the urgent care and get some first aid supplies. I'm going to get him back to the ship." 21:06 <Crion> Lauren probably speaks for Tony and Melanie to some degree when she sees Maggie hauling Stewart, drops the towels and beach chairs she was getting ready for their afternoon at the water, and screams "What the fuck?!" 21:06 <Crion> Before running over. 21:07 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm okay, I'm okay," protests Stewart weakly. 21:07 <VoxPVoxD> Sure his shirt's bloody ribbons and there's twine holding him shut, but it's not like he could really get any paler. 21:07 <Crion> "You are not fucking okay!!" 21:07 <Crion> "What happened??" 21:08 <CBN> Tony's close behind her but also stops up short as soon as it becomes clear this is a scoldable moment, and you do not step into those. He's still mouthing 'Dude? You okay?' at Stewart from behind her, though. Supportively. 21:09 <banana> Oh my god. But also, as Lauren points out, what the fuck. There are times when Melanie hates not being able to move quickly - usually she's able to argue herself into being ok with being able to move 'at all'. She's on her way over at something like a scramble. 21:11 <dammitwho> Maggie grunts. "Couple of Huntsmen turned up. We ran 'em off, but... Christ. The two of you, pad up a bed for him." 21:11 <Crion> Lauren: "Huntsmen? Fuck." Lauren's probably the first and quickest to move on the bedding situation. 21:12 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart goes quiet for a moment, not even breathing as the periodic spikes in pain make it hard to concentrate. Then he manages the word, "Huntsmen," before sucking in a big breath. He can't fully make out what people are saying, maybe Maggie or Nels already got to this, but. 21:12 <VoxPVoxD> The ground pitches beneath him. Is he on the boat? He can't really tell. 21:12 <banana> Melanie: "Oh no no no.. you didn't kill them? Are they- run how far off?" 21:13 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Dumped into the future." 21:13 <banana> "I should have been there, I'm so sorry, it sounded like - a walk on the beach..." 21:14 <banana> "...Flesh. Did any of them get on you?" 21:14 <CBN> Tony follows up on that too, but more in the fretty, helping-by-trying-to-not-be-in-the-way-and-failing way of somebody overcompensating for not being useful when they were needed, by not being all that useful when they really aren't. "I'm sure he's gonna be fine, he walked back here, didn't he?" He offers to Lauren. 21:15 <banana> Melanie's assuming that if anyone was punching Huntsmen, it was Maggie. 21:16 <Crion> Lauren, halfway into a panic attack, looks up at Tony wide-eyed: "I don't fucking know!" 21:16 <CBN> Tony: "He's alive though..."Trailing off, holding probably two pillows too many and not knowing where to put them. 21:16 <dammitwho> Maggie: "He's gonna be fine, we got him medical attention right on scene, he's sewed up. He just needs rest." 21:19 <VoxPVoxD> Significantly louder than the hushed, anxious conversation happening around him: "We got presents." 21:19 <banana> Melanie stares at Stewart, who doesn't even know who he's talking to, and the blood. This is 'fine'? She wasn't there - thank God for Maggie - but she can heal people, it costs without the flesh of the attacker but she could still do something.. 21:20 <dammitwho> She sighs. "Yeah, there was a nice gift store. Melanie, could you get some ice packs from the fridge?" 21:21 <Crion> It's easy enough to set up a comfy triage bed with some cheap extra linen in the belowdecks area (not the Belowdecks, belowdecks -- still in the real world). Chup's simply annoyed he's getting pushed out of his magisterial lounging room temporarily. He doesn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation and Lauren has little patience for his bullshit, depositing him unceremoniously atop 21:21 <Crion> the minifridge. 21:22 <banana> To Maggie: "In a sec." 21:22 <banana> To Stewart: "Th- thank you. Speaking of presents, can you- do you consent to a shared burden? Wyrd healing?" 21:23 <Crion> Lauren gets the icepacks instead, since she and Chup are already over there. 21:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's floating on squashy pillows now, the pain spreading over him from above like gasoline in a driveway puddle. He squints into the light. Someone is speaking? "Yeah, okay. You're the doctor, Maur." 21:26 <banana> Jesus Christ. Can Lauren hear that? She presumably knows who Maura is too, probably rather better than Melanie does - anyway. She kneels down with only minor creaking and presses her forehead to Stewart's back, where it might hurt less. Shudders, small tears opening in places that don't matter. 21:29 <Crion> Lauren is, thankfully perhaps, still getting the icepacks due to an angrily pouting Chup, who she's just shouted at and will spend the next eight hours feeling guilty about. 21:29 <Crion> Besides, there's so many M women in Stewart's life, clearly just an honest mistake. 21:32 <VoxPVoxD> The gash in Stewart's chest fades, and the rough stitches wriggle out of the closing skin in sticky little loops. It's still there, but in the form of a ghost-white scar that'll fade to nothing in a couple of days. The pain lets up, and the light floods back into the world. It feels like his eardrums pop but really it's just that he can hear past his own heartbeat. Melanie's just setting him 21:32 <VoxPVoxD> back down. 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> "Hey," he says to his best friend has he settles back down. He looks at her in silent confusion for a moment, before adding, "Maggie? We paid, right? For the stuff?" 21:34 <banana> These must have been some incredibly memorable presents. 21:35 <CBN> Tony offers, helpfully (?) "Hey if not, we can just hang out in international waters, where laws aren't real." Pretty sure that's how this works. 21:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I don't want to stiff the teleporting guy with a katana." 21:36 <banana> There's so much Melanie wants to know. Actually she wants to do things but you need to know what to do. She's going to.. help carry more things and hope someone else can ask about teleporting katana huntsmen with more presence of mind. 21:36 <CBN> Tony: "You met a what? Man I spend one afternoon by the boat..." 21:37 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Yeah. He wouldna let us go otherwise, believe you me." 21:37 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, well, if the Herald had given us more than ten seconds' warning we woulda had more guys." 21:37 <VoxPVoxD> "Are there supposed to be two Huntsmen?" 21:38 <dammitwho> She pats him gently on the forehead. "I'm gonna go help Lauren with that ice. Back in a sec." 21:39 <Crion> Lauren knows this one. "It's just one 'Huntsman,' probably, but it can split how many bodies it has. Think the rule is they gotta travel together, though, and the bodies are weaker than if the Huntsman was in a single vessel?" 21:39 <dammitwho> Oh, she's already here. Never mind! 21:39 <VoxPVoxD> "Do we have anything to eat? Like cookies or something?" Stewart's pretty sure you're supposed to eat a cookie when you donate blood, or have your blood taxed by the out-of-touch elites in Arcadia and their revenuers. 21:40 <CBN> Tony: "Can we just...leave? Again?" 21:40 <VoxPVoxD> "Lauren!! Hey." 21:40 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Yeah, I'll rustle you up some treats." 21:40 <VoxPVoxD> To Tony: "One of the... halves? was discorporated. The other got sent forward 4 days in time. If they're really the same entity I dunno how the rules work." 21:41 <VoxPVoxD> "Do we have a month? Do we have four days?" 21:41 <Crion> It'll be another hour before that fuel gets here (due to that idiot driver what didn't go around the long way through Carteret City) but you're at the front of the line. 21:43 <CBN> Tony: "Maybe we'll be lucky and that'll screw up the...double-Hunstman? I don't like saying this even. Maybe it'll screw that up some, I dunno. I miss when they were just a guy. One guy." 21:43 <Crion> There's a Dairy Queen nearby if someone wants to run for treats. 21:44 <dammitwho> Oh shit. "I'm gonna make a DQ run. Stewart, is there anything in particular you'd like?" 21:44 <banana> Melanie's less shaken up now. It would be crazy to think this is due to feeling some of the same pain, so let's not; it's because everyone is being pretty calm, and Stewart's clearly recovering, and the Huntsmen are clearly weak enough to beat, even if it's only four days... although: "The rules are bullshit though. Ten seconds? That's such a typical faery... trick. They claim to always 21:44 <banana> give you warning, to be so fair and honorable.. aagh." 21:45 <CBN> Tony pipes up: "Get him one of those star-shaped red things if they have 'em, that'll always do a body good." 21:46 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh wow, uh. Like a cheesecake Blizzard? Do they still have those?" 21:46 <VoxPVoxD> "Or mint or something. Whatever they have." 21:47 <VoxPVoxD> The last time Stewart had Dairy Queen was when he got bit by a dog as a kid. There wasn't one nearby but Mom made Dad drive all the way out to some strip mall to get him a milkshake after he got his shoulder stitched up. 21:48 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart grabs Melanie's hand and holds it for a second. "We'll get 'em next time. We'll all be together." 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> "God, fuck though. Is the dreamer back in Baltimore? Are they here? Are they somewhere random that we'll have to fuck around through the Hedge through?" 21:50 <banana> Melanie: "Nnnnh. Yeah we will. You're going to have stalkers for a while, all five of us." 21:50 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Anybody else want anything?" 21:50 <CBN> Tony: "Stewart, easy. Pace yourself." He pauses for a moment, then adds, "You know it's gonna be 'fuck around through the Hedge' though." 21:50 <CBN> Tony: "Yeah one of them red star things for me too please!" To Maggie. 21:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Damn. Do you know any really good Hedge navigators?" 21:52 <CBN> Tony: "I'm something of a Hedge navigator myself." He barely goes two seconds before breaking. "Like the comic book movie goblin guy! Right? That was a good one." 21:52 <Crion> Well, hopefully not too much like him. 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's so wild that they made him wear a goblin mask when his face already looked like that." 21:54 <CBN> Tony: "Yeah he was way less scary with the motorcycle helmet on." 21:55 <banana> "I haven't even seen the movie and I can tell when you're describing something that only happened in the Hedge version." 21:55 <CBN> Tony looks to Stewart for support here. 21:56 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Google 'Willem Dafoe'. Willem like the Dutch way." 21:56 <VoxPVoxD> "He really looks like that." 21:58 <banana> Is Lauren here but too-quiet, or is she staying away? 21:58 <Crion> She's helping with the icepacks and not contributing to the discussion about Sam Raimi's Spider-man movie. 21:59 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart can't really remember anything about those movies besides the bad guys. He feels like Kirsten Dunst cried a lot? 22:00 <CBN> Tony: "So catch me up on the stuff around this newest Huntsman thing. Is this Baltimore stuff following us?" 22:01 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I didn't know it was coming. I was getting some weird messages in the chat of my streams, and I reported those, and that was basically the end of it." 22:02 <banana> Melanie sits back up. 22:02 <Crion> The thing most straight men his age probably took away from that movie the first time they saw it is that Dunst isn't wearing a bra in the famous kiss scene in the rain. 22:02 <Crion> You can get away with that and still get a PG-13. 22:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't remember that, but it probably made an impression at the time. 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart notices Melanie's sudden alertness. "Yeah?" 22:06 <banana> "These weird chat messages... are something you now, in retrospect, consider to have been a harbinger of this- of these fuckers' attack?" 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah they must be. They were weird enough that I reported them, anyway." 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> "As opposed to just regular spammers or perverts or Nazis." 22:08 <banana> "But not to any of us." 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> Now Stewart's alert, the way you might be if you look up halfway through taking a shortcut and see a sign saying DANGER! MINEFIELD. "...yeah. It wasn't, like, actionable. It was just weird." 22:09 <VoxPVoxD> "When no one told me to worry about it I didn't think it was worth passing on." 22:10 <CBN> Tony: "Hey going back to what you said before, one of them...discombobulated? Or something? How'd you manage that?" 22:12 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't take his eyes off Melanie, but answers, "Yeah, that's uh... Royal Steed contract. Sends people forward in time, either where you got them or, if you're sharp enough, in front of someone you owe a debt to." 22:13 <VoxPVoxD> "You have to come up with a riddle that you can make them contemplate hard enough that time runs past them. I got the Huntsman with the Halting Problem." 22:13 <CBN> Tony: "Oh, and that made the other one do whatever?" 22:14 <VoxPVoxD> "Yeah they didn't seem fully linked like that." 22:14 <VoxPVoxD> "One of them stuck around to get punched and then bisected." 22:14 <CBN> Tony: "Oh! Okay good, I was asking because, you know. Big gun." 22:16 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Honestly probably for the best that you didn't have that earlier, cause if a shotgun had gone off we'd probably have cops too." 22:16 <VoxPVoxD> "Mr. Carth pointed that out." 22:17 <banana> Melanie totally ignores Tony's tactics digression, speaking in a voice that becomes quieter as she goes on. ""Hearing that you knew, had some indication you were in danger and didn't tell us makes me feel.. very angry. It's like a sudden flash of heat thing, where I want to either yell and scream or start giving you the cold shoulder." 22:17 <banana> "I don't want to do that shit. That's the last thing you need. This kind of *rage* is something I never used to feel until about fifty years in, when- that doesn't matter. I just. Am having an inappropriate reaction, but the thing I'm reacting to is real: if you don't let us know you're in danger we can't do anything about it. We can't *stop* them and you.. got hurt." 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I didn't think I was in danger!" 22:18 <banana> "Is that really true? Is it because you didn't want to think about it at all?" Melanie's actually shaking a bit, but she SOUNDS ok. 22:20 <VoxPVoxD> "Well, fucking, how should I know??" Stewart seems to be taking her distress a lot worse than she is. 22:21 <CBN> Tony, in friendly defusal mode but also sincerely and guilelessly: "Well he got back safe, mostly? And we're all together now and we can handle this together." 22:22 <banana> "Dude. If you want to know how to understand your own feelings, you're really talking to the wrong person. Hahaha." 22:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Then give me an algorithm. What set of instructions can I follow to make you feel better? Do you want me to cc you on my reports to the Freehold? Do you want, I don't know, do you want me to tell you every time I see something that might scare people?" 22:23 <banana> Tony gets a smile. 22:24 <VoxPVoxD> "But that's still down to my judgment, right? So what do you need?" 22:25 <banana> Melanie: "I don't want you to carefully follow a set of rules to keep me happy. I want you to not get cut up by robot monsters." 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> "I also want that!" But now Melanie's doubt is in his head. Does he want that? Did he purposely conceal it? 22:30 <banana> "I mean, I believe you, but your priorities are- it feels like you don't value yourself." 22:32 <banana> "That could be wrong, it could be gratuitously insulting, a shibboleth. Some projection of- thinking I'm responsible for things which aren't possible to control, but that's the question?" What is she even trying to say. 22:33 <dammitwho> Maggie walking in carefully with paper bags: "Treats uuuuupppppp!" 22:33 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's heart is pounding at least as hard as it was when he was dying. He still hasn't fully gotten the taste of blood from his mouth but it's turned more metallic by the adrenaline. "I'm doing the best I can. But there's a lot to think about!" 22:34 <VoxPVoxD> Registering Maggie belatedly: "Hey!" 22:34 <banana> "God. Then instead of thinking let's have treats." 22:34 <VoxPVoxD> What'd we get? 22:35 <CBN> Tony raises his arms over his head in quiet celebration. Let's see them stars. 22:36 <dammitwho> Stewart got a thin mint Blizzard, 'cause they don't have cheesecake anymore. There's a couple of those Starkiss things, a few oreo Blizzards as general treats for the ship, and Maggie got some burgers for herself. She's more of a savory gal. 22:36 <Crion> Lauren has sort of curled up next to Stewart and is anxiety-hugging Chup, who seems generally aggreived and specifically affronted by all of these intruders into what was previously his domain, but is handling it mostly by staring at them in turn in a manner that all humans agree is adorable. 22:37 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart is anxiety-hugging Lauren. Or, well. This is kind of just his regular hug. 22:38 <CBN> Tony's not mad that the Starkisses only come in red-white-and-blue these days, but he'd be forced to lie if you asked if he was disappointed. Still though, the red part tastes red, and that's the dream. 22:39 <banana> "Thank you Maggie. Let us honor the sacrifice of the cookies that gave us this feast." 22:40 <dammitwho> "Nels," Maggie calls. "They didn't have 'turkish delight' and they didn't seem to know what it was. I didn't either, so I couldn't describe it to them, sorry. The Oreo things are pretty good." 22:41 <VoxPVoxD> "Oreos kind of outcompeted Hydrox in the marketplace," Stewart adds helpfully. 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks from Lauren to Melanie to Maggie to Tony to Nels. Then he looks past them and sees the time on the clock on the microwave in the real-world boat kitchenette. Ah fuck. Ah, shit. But the greater part of Stewart's valor tells him that if he announces to all and sundry that he's gotta go do his evening stream, they're going to knock him out. 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> So he just sits there. 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> He ate his ice cream *really* fast. 22:50 <banana> "So who's this Carth guy?" 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Colin Carth, A Man, A Shore, captain of the Green Gospel, which set sail laden with gifts for the lords of the Orient in 1598... and was never heard from again!" 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> "I think he's some kind of Huntsman? I don't know. I'm gonna ask Rose to look him up." 22:52 <banana> Melanie: "Another one??" 22:52 <VoxPVoxD> "Like a freed one." 22:52 <VoxPVoxD> "I think? Like Lauren's. But way older." 22:53 <VoxPVoxD> "He seemed like he mostly wanted to be left alone. Kind of a dick to his employee, but, you know. He is a small business owner." 22:53 <dammitwho> Ice cream headache distracts from being injured. Stewart's always one step ahead. 22:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart suddenly remembers that legally he is also one of those now. 22:53 <banana> "Retiree stereotypes." 22:53 <banana> "Funny that it even works for once-men from the misty realms Beyond." 22:54 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I guess your world gets very small if you let it." 22:54 <CBN> Tony: "Small business owner, huh? So a boat guy too?" 22:54 <CBN> Tony: "But only sort of Chuck-style?" 22:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "He beached his vessel somehow and runs a really cool little antique/knick-knack shop out of it. Maggie got navigational charts, I got you a Captain's Log. We got Steve a bicorn hat." 22:56 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Stewart, do you want your phone? I know you kids 'always be on your phones'." 22:58 <Crion> Lauren sits up with a start. "You have to tweet that you're not streaming tonight." 22:58 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't answer immediately, as if the question was so probing that-- "Huh? Oh." 22:58 <VoxPVoxD> "Fuck." 22:58 <VoxPVoxD> "I guess I do." 23:00 <banana> Melanie: "You're definitely entitled to a night off if..." But she trails off. "Is that how they're finding you?" 23:00 <banana> "No angry this time. I'm just suggesting tthat it needs to be looked into." 23:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I don't know. It might be. Or it might have been initially. But now they know where I am either way." 23:01 <VoxPVoxD> "Do you think I'm a liability going into Florida?" 23:02 <banana> There's already a Title in Florida, so no. We've got a good track record of these things getting territorial on each other. 23:03 <banana> (This is not a suggestion to Nels,) 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Like I'm already kind of dead weight if you have to fight a Keeper. But if I'm bringing one with me..." 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> "They make special hooks to scrape stuff like me off the side of boats." 23:06 <Crion> Lauren, tightly: "Well, we're not leaving you on a beach somewhere, so." 23:06 <CBN> Tony: "You're our friend and you're coming on the boat trip and there's no getting out of that." 23:06 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Okay, well, given that, I don't think streaming is an over-the-line security hazard." 23:07 <banana> "Also, being able to trick people into involuntary time travel is a useful combat skill." 23:08 <Crion> Lauren snorts. "We're not taking away your streaming rights. Just not until you have time to grow some more blood." 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart tweets about pushing the evening stream to another day, which he should've really already done if he was planning to goof off on Night Beach. "You know the worst part of this is I was really hoping to hit the beach before we had to leave." 23:12 <Crion> Lauren sighs. "Well, if that contract worked as well as it looks like...I suppose it would be nice to be out there in the evening when it's not all sun anyway." 23:12 <CBN> Tony, trying to be helpful: "The good news is that everywhere we go will probably have beaches." 23:12 <CBN> Tony: "And maybe not everywhere will have Huntsmen." 23:13 <Crion> Lauren: "It's not coming back here tonight anyway. One good thing about them is you always get some time between hunts, even if they're being little punks about the rules like these guys are." 23:13 <Crion> She pauses. "I did a lot of reading last winter." 23:13 <Crion> "On this subject." 23:14 <VoxPVoxD> "Upsettingly good thinking." 23:15 <Crion> Realistically you're not getting out of here until around 6 or 7 PM anyway. 23:16 <VoxPVoxD> Hydrocarbons...! 23:17 <VoxPVoxD> With that all done, Stewart leans back and finds himself drifting off to sleep. 23:18 <Crion> Lauren: "I'll stay with him. If he's not back up by the time we're fueled, let's just go." 23:20 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Yeah. Geez." 23:22 <CBN> Tony gives Lauren a thumbs-up and rises to pace around the deck for a bit, thinking boat thoughts. 23:29 <Crion> The refueling guy arrives a bit later than even expected, and then he and the dock guy have to do their little yelling-at-each-other routine about which road to take, and when THAT'S done the fuel needs to be transferred to a pod on a gurney and then fueled into the boat. 23:29 <Crion> Dock guy will attempt to engage you all (mostly Tony) in all manner of boring, procrastinating conversation. 23:30 <CBN> Tony of course indulges, in his affably transplanted Boomer way. 23:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart sleeps for a few hours, without moving much. He has the first crystal-clear dream of Arcadia he's had since he got out. Stewart had a different job every day he woke up, only dimly remembering the day before. He did enough tours in the kitchens that he came to dread them even more than working a barstool. It was the meat. 23:34 <VoxPVoxD> You had to have meat, right? But there were no livestock. No sheep, no cows, no chickens, nothing like that. So I A M, inventive reuser of assets that he (it?) is, turned to his seemingly endless supply of fleshy, sexless human bodies. They felt real. They smelled real. Eventually, when the refusal to eat proved so debilitating to work that fleshy, sexless creatures held him down and fed 23:34 <VoxPVoxD> him, he was forced to concede it tasted like meat, too. 23:34 <VoxPVoxD> They weren't real, of course. They can't have been. You can't do math in dreams but Stewart has a very vivid dream-memory of working out how many bodies the kitchens went through in a day. There's no way. 23:36 <VoxPVoxD> He finally wakes up either in time with or because of the Wild Goose's departure, after the fuel man has come and gone. 23:37 <VoxPVoxD> Where is everyone? 23:38 <Crion> Lauren is beside him; Chup is across the room, staring. 23:38 <Crion> She's dozed off. 23:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't move, then, he just blinks slowly at Chup. 23:40 <Crion> The stare is intense enough that it wouldn't be completely out of line with the past 24 hours, maybe, if tentacles shot out of the cat's back and started waving around like the dog in The Thing, but instead Chup just yawns imperiously and begins grooming himself. 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> A moral victory for Stewart and a strategic victory for the cat. Tale as old as time. Luckily he's still got his phone. So he texts Rose. <Hey! Can you look up some stuff in the Book for me? Looking for "Colin Carth, A Man A Shore" and "The Pursuers", which are the Huntsmen currently hunt-delete delete purs-delete delete chasing me> 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> <The latter is I mean. The former runs a gift shop.> 23:43 <Crion> Rose: <damn> 23:43 <Crion> <yeah can it wait until like tomorrow afternoon or do i need to go down there tonight> 23:44 <dammitwho> Maggie's asleep in a chair. 23:44 <Crion> <up there. whatever> 23:45 <VoxPVoxD> <not a tonight problem. one of them will remember to rejoin the timestream in about 90 hours and the other will either reappear then or in a month> 23:51 <Crion> <alright then. that librarian dude gives me the creeps so hopefully emma frost lady is on duty> 23:51 <banana> Melanie's grumbled herself to sleep somewhere.. not very far away. Still on the deck out of necessity, but probably right next to a door or hatch. 23:51 <Crion> She appears to be referring to Sommolier and Everafter respectively. 23:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: <everafters cool. I think sommelier is mainly VERY depressed> 23:53 <VoxPVoxD> After sending the text he googles 'Emma Frost'. Damn. 23:54 <Crion> The archetype is the same, but Everafter wears rather more clothes. 23:56 <VoxPVoxD> I should think! 23:56 <VoxPVoxD> Well, that's enough of that. 23:59 <VoxPVoxD> At this point he has to stand up; or at least, he has to untangle from Lauren enough to sit up and drape his legs off the edge of the bed until they wake up fully. Then he has to stand up. 00:00 <VoxPVoxD> That's not so bad. When he was a kid if he so much as took a nap his legs'd start to give out from under him for a little bit the same way that an adult who's bedridden for a week might need to reacclimate to walking. 00:02 <VoxPVoxD> Since it seems like everyone's dozing or puttering, Stewart just creeps into the studio so he can fire off a full report to Ravens about the Huntsman. 00:02 <VoxPVoxD> Then he has a drink. He has two drinks. On a mostly empty stomach, at like 70% blood capacity, that's as good as five. Now he feels normal. 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> He feels normal as fuck. 00:06 <Crion> Properly refueled, it's up to Tony whether he wants to push for progress by boating through the night, or just take 'er out a bit, drop anchor, and doing some sunset and night fishing. 00:08 <CBN> Tony'll gladly take 'er out a bit and drop anchor---if we completely change the mellow vibes of boat-pace because of Huntsmen, then the Huntsmen have already won. 00:09 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's going to go up and enjoy the night air and the water either way. 00:09 <VoxPVoxD> "Long day," he says to Tony. 00:09 <Crion> You're not quite in marlin fishing territory, but you're getting pretty close -- and the way the world is heating up, tropical waters are only going to be stretching further north. 00:10 <VoxPVoxD> Yeah but will they be stretching north faster than the biosphere dies, is the question. 00:10 <Crion> Lot of rich people quoting Ian Malcolm on this one. 00:11 <VoxPVoxD> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnun8y7r8_U 00:12 <CBN> Tony: "And I wasn't even there for most of it. I can only imagine." 00:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Not even gonna get a badass scar out of it." 00:14 <VoxPVoxD> "Kinda makes me wish he'd gone for the face, you know?" 00:14 <VoxPVoxD> "Just a little bit." 00:15 <CBN> Tony: "Well hey, there's always next time. C'mere though, lemme show you something." Tony's prepping to toss off a cast. 00:15 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart stands beside him. 00:16 <CBN> Tony readies. "So the secret," he notes, giving his wrist a lazy little half-twist before snapping off a cast, "is the fish want you to throw out the food. So you just give it to 'em." 00:17 <CBN> Tony: "You gotta remember you're always on their schedule, not yours." He puts a leg up on a crossbar and takes a deep breath of the evening air. "Boating time, my man. Fish time." 00:17 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks into the water. "Whose time are they on?" 00:19 <banana> Borrowed. 00:21 <CBN> Tony: "Ocean's deep, man. I don't wanna know." 00:23 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, meanwhile, has his elbows on the railing, and peers at the moon as reflected in the rippling water. "I kind of do." 00:24 <CBN> Tony: "We can ask our drinkin' buddy next time we see him, then. But I'm betting you a sixer it comes down to wizard bullshit." 00:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Maybe. But the ocean keeps the moon's time, right? If anyone'd know..." 00:27 <CBN> Tony: " ' The ocean keeps the moon's'---did you get some of the good painkillers while I've been out here?" 00:31 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yes, actually. I made two painkillers." 00:32 <VoxPVoxD> "4:2:1:1, pineapple to rum to orange to coco lopez. It's like a pina colada but not as much like a milkshake." 00:33 <CBN> Tony: "Man. Getting real fancy out here, but if makes you happy then I'm happy for you." Tony's got a bite, and reeling it in. 00:34 <CBN> And a final tug. "See? Fish time." 00:34 <VoxPVoxD> "Time's up for that one." 00:35 <CBN> Tony nods. "You wanna give it a go?" He unhooks the fish and offers the rod to Stewart. 00:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, gamely: "Sure." 00:36 <CBN> Tony hands it over and takes a few steps back. "Now remember, you just gotta feel it. Don't pop a stitch if you got 'em, take 'er easy." 00:37 <VoxPVoxD> When he takes the rod it really hits him that Tony's from the exact same age cohort as his dad. 00:39 <VoxPVoxD> But then he stops thinking about it, and effortlessly mimics the flick of Tony's wrists and the line sails in a perfect arc to dunk in the water. 00:40 <CBN> Tony offers an approving mmhm. 00:41 <VoxPVoxD> 'Good hands', he can hear his dad grudgingly say. Is that what his dad sounds like? Suddenly he can't remember. He kind of thinks maybe he's imagining the dad from Gilmore Girls? Or maybe that was his dad's friend who sounded like that. Was that who went and got DQ that day? This was much clearer in his head a couple of hours ago. 00:42 <VoxPVoxD> But none of this reaches his face, and all he says is, "This is very peaceful." 00:42 <CBN> Tony: "Hell yeah. Now you're feeling the boat trip my man." 00:45 <VoxPVoxD> He stands there in silence, letting the ship rock beneath his feet, letting the wind whoosh over his hair, trying to remember random things from his childhood. It's not coming. It's like trying to force himself to remember a dream he had. 00:46 <VoxPVoxD> The reverie is broken when something bites-- "Oh shit." 00:47 <CBN> Tony's miles from cornfields and loose soil and the night is dark but empty of horrors. He's among friends, one of them's catching a fish. It's going to take a lot to top the general vibes he's rocking tonight. "Well clinch up on it, not too much now. Just lock it, reel it, slow 'n easy. You got all day." 00:50 <VoxPVoxD> It's strong, whatever it is. But Stewart doesn't try to fight it head on. He lets it wrestle with the hook, his wrists giving just enough to let the hook twist around in the water until he feels more frantic movement on the string. The fish basically caught itself. Then he just has to bring it in: https://i.imgur.com/Rfpwcmn.jpg 00:51 <CBN> Tony: "Well hot damn, look at 'im." Tony nods slowly and just leaves it to Stewart to take it from here. "Look at you, casting with the best of 'em." 00:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, well. You made it look so easy I couldn't let you down." 00:57 <CBN> Tony smiles broadly. "Shit, man. Just trying's good enough, but you know what, that." He points at the whopper Stewart reeled in. "That's even better than trying. Toss it in the cooler and that'll be breakfast." 00:57 <VoxPVoxD> "Nice." 00:58 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't agree that just trying's good enough, but that's not something you argue about.