14:28 <banana> You've got a meeting place set up below Harry's Hill. The raised lakes of Kersal are where Aster and Bob met Winter's hunter; you now know that the wetlands lie in the shadow of the Tatterdam. 14:30 <banana> The vast and presently skeletal yew is visible up there, its upper twig-canopy casting crazed thin shadows onto the landscape of pools and marsh. Liam Penberthy's in there somewhere, having promised training in the ways of the Hedge... who's on their way to meet him, and how are they disposed? 14:32 <hrolf> Rolf is wearing military fatigues, camo pants, face paint, striped hat and all. It's a bit ill fitting. 14:33 <banana> There's barely any sunlight for the hat to ward off, but it does keep his head warm. 14:34 <VoxPVoxD> Was Willie told to show up prepared for danger? 14:34 <banana> That's up to Bob. Liam didn't give him a lot of details, and sounded sullen, like a man trying not to think about the things most occupying his mind. 14:35 <tom> Bob steps out onto the swampy earth in a fresh new coat, the last one having been shredded by its proximity to the muzzle of Liam's pistol when it discharged, and the small hole where the slug zipped into his back. He does his best to suppress the groan at the weight hitting his spine as he climbs down from his truck. 14:37 <tom> The bullet's still in there. It'll probably be there for the rest of his life. 14:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie shows up looking kind of fat beneath her big wool coat. That's mostly down to the flak jacket and shotgun she's wearing underneath it, though she is starting to worry about the amount of exercise she isn't getting. She's got a big black mastiff with her, who *ruff*s appreciatively in Bob's direction as they come into auditory range. 14:38 <VoxPVoxD> The dogs lizard-yellow eyes are on Liam. 14:39 <banana> Willie's acute nose doesn't pick anything strange about this place. The power of the fae is not a curse, and does not derive from death or hell. 14:39 <tom> "I'll make sure next time we've got hammered iron in all calibers," he adds helpfully. 14:39 <hrolf> Rolf nods in Bob's direction as he walks towards em. "Lookin like you recovered well Goreman. Did the lads take you to the 'ospital?" 14:39 <tom> "Nah, I got home treatment from a specialist," he chuckles, hollow. 14:39 <VoxPVoxD> "Mr. Goreman! Mr. Hughes! Mr. Penberthy! How very good to see you all." 14:40 <tom> "Willie," He nods at the fluffy demon. 14:41 <hrolf> Rolf throws a mock military salute. "Alright? 'o's ready to kick some else arse!!" 14:41 <tom> "We shouldn't have to kick any asses today. This is a safety training thing." 14:41 <hrolf> *elf 14:41 <tom> "Everyone's strapped, right?" Bob assembles the halves of his shotgun in his hands. 14:41 <banana> Liam's standing in the middle of nowhere, muck halfway up his boots, tapping through something on an e-reader. He's got a coat on with a high collar that goes well with the shock of gelled hair that runs around the back of his head like a circlet. 14:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yep! Perhaps redundantly so... do you think my shotgun would be better deployed with someone who can... you know... shoot?" 14:42 <VoxPVoxD> "I've got Kaga, and fire in a pinch." 14:42 <banana> As the hunters trudge up, he'll slide the kindle into a pocket. "Ah. Ye've taken precautions." 14:42 <hrolf> Rolf has a pistol in a holster around his waist. He pats it. "Yeah I got mine." 14:43 <banana> Liam: "Goreman... Hughes. And you must be the partners in crime." 14:43 <VoxPVoxD> Kagemenauch: "I was promised violence." 14:43 <VoxPVoxD> "Not today, necessarily, but in general. It has not eventuated." 14:43 <VoxPVoxD> "I have been forced to make my own fun." 14:44 <hrolf> Rolf starts at the sound, and his eyes go wide. "What the- did that dog just fahckin speak?" 14:44 <tom> Bob nods to Liam. "Demons," 14:44 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Rolf, this is Kaga. Kaga, Rolf. Do be nice." It's not clear who she's addressing. 14:44 <hrolf> Rolf: "Wot, like the bankers in the City?" 14:44 <tom> "Don't let him get like, lost. God, can you imagine what happens if we leave him in there to cook?" 14:45 <banana> Liam squats down to examine the dog. "Funny looking demon." 14:45 <banana> "What do you consider fun then, mate?" 14:46 <VoxPVoxD> "Free verse. Fresh meat." 14:46 <Crion> Funny-looking? Not particularly. "Yes, Bob," he says to the questions of armament. The FAL FNC Heat is slung over his shoulder. 14:47 <tom> Bob nods. "I've got some hammered slugs for myself. I'll try and get some five-five-six next." 14:47 <Crion> To Liam: "Oh, it's all perfectly legal. So long as you don't get caught." 14:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I wouldn't say we're partners in crime. It's just a bit of healthy vigilantism, Mr. Penberthy. I urge you to pay Kaga no mind." 14:47 <banana> Liam: "There are kinds and kinds of meat..." He straightens up to talk to the two-legged people. 14:48 <banana> "Alright. Everyone's ready for a bit of background?" 14:48 <tom> Bob trudges forward through the muck to stand next to Liam. "Liam Penberthy is an expert in navigating weird places." 14:49 <tom> "The point of this exercise is to provide basic safety and an understanding of hazardous environments we may be called upon to enter. Willie's been halfway to where we're going... Rolf and I went there yesterday with Liam." 14:49 <tom> He lets Liam take the lead from here. 14:50 <banana> Liam: "Thanks. Tell you the truth, I'm not too confident this teaching's going to help, but you've got numbers and skills." 14:50 <Crion> Aster: "Every little bit helps. For intellectual curiosity's sake, at least." 14:51 <banana> "I was a diver, see. Human Office scout, years back when the department was closer to intact. We were exploring the Hedge - the physical gateway to Faerie and trying to build a basecamp. Permanent British colony in those elysian fields." 14:51 <hrolf> Rolf: "Aye. Did you learn anyfing from the 'uman 'office expedition, or is this all from your erm- stay in there." 14:51 <tom> Bob's already uploaded the ODIN footage of yesterday's brief trod into the backrooms. It cuts off as the hunters breach with flashbangs. 14:52 <banana> Liam: "Well, that's the fing- the thing. As a mortal hedge diver.. I failed, didn't I? Got cocky, went in too deep and never came back. I'm good at it now." 14:52 <banana> "The Hedge is a faerie place and it response to we seelie things. Might not like it, but it has to listen. So we get to cheat." 14:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks from Bob to Liam and back and sidles up to Bob. She's unbuttoning her coat so she can assemble her beautiful shotgun. "I think she needs a steadier hand," she mumbles to him so as not to talk over Liam. 14:53 <Crion> Aster, regarding the Human Office plan: "That's incredibly stupid and arrogant. I'm sure we've tried it multiple times on our side of the ocean." 14:53 <banana> "I'll be using those cheats to arrange things and show you the way around, but I'll try as to teach you ways you can actually use." 14:53 <banana> Liam nods to Aster. "It was not a good idea. I've come to agree with this very strongly." 14:53 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Does the protection of the Tatterdam extend into this otherworld? Are we live targets for the unseelie lords?" 14:54 <tom> Bob raises his eyebrows. "You'll be okay?" He takes the chrome double-barrel in his hands and cracks it open, snatching a pair of shells from his pockets and slapping them into the open barrels. 14:54 <hrolf> Rolf: "Someone in the Office said the chinese 'ad gotten a toehold in there though. Fahckin chicoms." 14:54 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Kaga really is eager to maul something besides my feelings. Or yours." 14:55 <tom> "He can chew up a red-cap if it gives us guff." 14:55 <banana> Liam: "Yes.. yes, it does. King Winter's authority runs halfway to Faerieland. We won't be worrying about Keepers today, only the Hedge itself - which is still a hostile thing. It's a dream world, see, a changing place which forces its shape upon you, not one built by your hands." 14:55 <tom> "Fuck Red Caps." 14:55 <banana> Liam: "I'll move on to the topic of entrances and exits?" 14:55 <hrolf> Rolf: "Can't be worse than Slough." 14:55 <Crion> Aster: "Please do." 14:56 <Crion> Aster is taking occasional notes. 14:56 <VoxPVoxD> One supposes then that Liam either got caught in an unfortunate lapse like Mari did... or was made to venture past the Tatterdam's protection, on this side or that. 14:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie gives Liam an encouraging look. 14:56 <banana> The changeling is unbothered by interjections and banter. Maybe he's given versions of this presentation to government troopers a few times, squads now lost to cuts budget or physical... 14:56 <Crion> He would be recording, but if the Hedge starts to mess with his handwriting, that's easier to fix back in the Greybox than if it corrupts his tape device. 14:57 <tom> "Exits are probably the most important thing for us." 14:58 <banana> Liam: "They're also the most accessible." He gestures at a shallow pond. "Just about anything can be a door. If you were in the Hedge, and jumped in here, in possession of an appropriate key - you'd like as not come out. Where? Unpredictable. At what price? Unknown. But it can be better than what's chasing you." 14:58 <tom> Bob shoulders the shotgun with its sling in one hand against his chest. 14:59 <banana> "There's no special magic needed to leave the place. You may need knowledge, or tools. A key can be a physical thing or an idea. They're always.. available, somehow, whether close to hand or as the result of a quest. The place has rules, see, but they're the rules of story." 14:59 <banana> "You can find a way out. But you might not." 14:59 <hrolf> Rolf: "Can you choose precisely where to come out? Anywhere in the world, like? Like 'ow we made it into that nutter's 'ouse." 14:59 <Crion> Aster: "He might be able to. We can't." 15:00 <banana> Liam: "You can measure and record, which will be valid until the Hedge decides to change it up on you. There's a correlation between the physical world and the land of dreams, but it doesn't remain constant." 15:00 <banana> "It's thematic. A huge set of spinning glass doors? Naturally you'd expect to come out in an office." 15:01 <banana> "Take a trapdoor and you might find yourself in a cellar... or in a submarine. Watch for trapdoors on islands." 15:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie glances at Bob at this. 15:01 <tom> "Ending up in the brig on a Russian sub isn't the worst thing that can happen." 15:01 <VoxPVoxD> "Unless it's the Kursk." 15:02 <hrolf> Rolf: "Or you end up outside the submarine." 15:02 <banana> Liam: "This is true. And if you don't have the right Key, that trapdoor might send you to an attic elsewhere in the Hedge. It's something you can leverage if you have a way to control it, for rapid travel. So the question is, how do you control it?" 15:02 <Crion> Is this rhetorical? 15:02 <hrolf> "Very carefully?" 15:03 <VoxPVoxD> Liam seems capable and confident. This is clearly a Socratic thing. 15:03 <banana> "As human folk, neither seelie nor un-, your only way to do it is stories. Tell them, play a part in them, recognise them. Classics that everyone knows have the most power. Recent things, no matter how popular, take a while to bed down." 15:03 <tom> Bob, gravely: "Improv." 15:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's eyes light up at 'classics'. 15:03 <hrolf> "Disgustin'." 15:03 <banana> Liam: "Heh, yes." Not clear whether he's agreeing with Bob or Rolf there. 15:04 <banana> "We should get in there to make some of this concrete. Who's got questions before I move on to entrances?" 15:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Can people enter the Hedge accidentally?" 15:04 <Crion> Aster: "Oh God, yes." 15:04 <banana> Liam: "But not here. Not in the North of England." 15:05 <VoxPVoxD> "Because of the Tatterdam and the King-Under-Hill." 15:05 <hrolf> Rolf: "What if there's multiple people? Do you 'ave to do like...coordinated improv? Or each lad can do his own fing?" 15:05 <banana> To Rolf: "You do need to coordinate, or it falls apart and you become prey for the Hedge. An offence to it." 15:05 <banana> "Players marching to their own beat aren't a troupe at all." 15:06 <tom> Bob works out the knots in his shoulder. "Yeah we've never had any problems with working together." 15:06 <VoxPVoxD> Oooh! Sounds like a Director might come in handy. Willie's always thought she'd be good at that. 15:06 <VoxPVoxD> It is her job title. Her Bumble bio says so and everything. 15:06 <hrolf> Rolf: "Alright but fair warnin - if its a fairytale, I'm not going to be the princess." 15:06 <VoxPVoxD> "Don't worry, Rolf. We've got Kaga." 15:06 <tom> "I don't think anyone is gonna require that of you, Hughes." He very pointedly does not look at Willie here. 15:06 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga puts a paw on his nose and whines. 15:07 <Crion> Aster: "Just focus on not being the dwarf whose thing is bumbling." 15:07 <banana> Liam: "So, how are we going to get in? The Office used a machine run by contractors, thaumotech powered by sleeping minds. You might also be able to blow a hole in the world with real magic, but the simple way in is for the fae. It wants us there. We're only half-real... or so it's said." He mutters this last bit after a pause. 15:07 <tom> "...Yeah that's my bit." 15:09 <banana> Penberthy: "Accordingly... shazam." He steps up to the pond, which begins to ripple. Concentric circles without end, spreading out from a single point - it no longer reflects the sky. 15:09 <tom> Bob starts the recorder on his ODIN. 15:09 <banana> "This is pretty advanced, y'know. Most of us have to use something that's constructed as a door, representin' human intent for a change of scene." 15:10 <tom> "Like the Hound." 15:10 <tom> Bob recalls the door of twigs. 15:10 <banana> Liam: "From what I've heard, that individual is not... advanced." 15:10 <tom> "That's why we like him." 15:12 <banana> Liam: "I should've brought a speaker.. the Doors or something. Wasn't in a good frame of mind." He shrugs and steps into the pond. 15:12 <banana> Nobody plays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r679Hhs9Zs 15:13 <banana> Liam sinks into the water a little and something insane happens. There's a twist, an inside becoming out - you see the bottom of his soles beneath the water, a man upside down beneath the wetland, then he steps away and out. Gone, and the pond still ripples, waiting. 15:14 <Crion> Aster rolls his eyes. Hopefully not all music cues in the Hedge are...you know, the first thing he did with this carbine wasn't supposed to be submerging it. Let's see here. 15:14 <tom> Bob whistles and falls backwards into the pond with a mock salute. 15:14 <hrolf> Rolf looks around, waiting for some else to go. He shrugs, takes a running jump and *sploosh* 15:15 <banana> Bob lands on grass; Rolf finds himself leaping from a lake; Aster, Willie and Kaga all follow, flipping vertically into another reality like they've been rendered in MS Paint. 15:15 <VoxPVoxD> Willie feels like she should be holding a sword, or a burning torch, or something. Whooooa 15:16 <Crion> Aster carries the carbine over his head like a grunt in Nam until he's under and through. 15:16 <hrolf> Rolf: "Looks like we took the green pill lads." 15:16 <tom> Is he getting the same interference on his ODIN as he did in the back-alleys in London? 15:16 <banana> There's a playground, a standard urban construction but sprawling beyond its normal size and filling up a landscape very similar to the wetlands you were in, back in Manchester. Grass, pooling water, monkey bars and slides. 15:17 <hrolf> Any rabbits hopping around, that on closer inspection turn out to be teeth? 15:17 <banana> The sky here is free of clouds, except that the sun is regularly occluded just as if they were passing over it. You see something the Kersal forests in one direction, cityscapes in the others... there's no sign of the river Irwell, but on an impossibly high mound, a blooming yew towers over the landscape. 15:17 <VoxPVoxD> Mad Hattersley. 15:17 <banana> Liam's sitting on a childrens' merry-go-round, spinning gently. "Welcome, ladies and gents." 15:18 <banana> "And hounds." 15:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Holy hell." 15:18 <VoxPVoxD> Kagemenauch: "Far from it." 15:18 <tom> Bob taps his reticle at sets a waypoint on the towering yew. It'll probably become useless in seconds, but it helps to set a common frame of reference. 15:18 <hrolf> Rolf: "Is there any...fing, manifestation, wotever. Of the tatterdam and its protection?" 15:18 <VoxPVoxD> "You mean, is it clear where its protection ends?" 15:19 <tom> Bob unholsters his shotgun. No point in being subtle; we're in bat country. 15:19 <VoxPVoxD> "That's a good question!" 15:19 <Crion> Aster: "Hh." 15:19 <Crion> Is his carbine wet? 15:19 <hrolf> Rolf: "Yeah. Let's stay in the kiddy pool this round, hey?" 15:19 <banana> Liam: "Good question, Hughes. What you want is either a cutting from the tree or a photograph of it, taken inside, not digital. The berries will brighten and dim as you come closer or leave." 15:20 <banana> "If the tree-token's all grey, you're beyond what the Freehold can do." 15:20 <tom> Bob: "I'll take your entire stock." 15:20 <banana> Aster's only wet to the extent he came in contact with the pond - his shoes, for example. 15:21 <Crion> Excellent. Then he's got it readied. 15:21 <hrolf> Does the dog look any different in the hedge? 15:21 <banana> Liam: "We will indeed stay in the kiddy pool. This is our place of power... a sandbox environment, like. I can control things here in a way it wouldn't tolerate.. in fact this pisses the place off, but all that means is I've to stay out for a while afterward. It has a short memory." 15:21 <Crion> To Liam: "Perhaps this is a training note for later but it might be best to clarify now: how poorly, in terms of outcomes for us, does the Hedge react to panic?" 15:22 <banana> Liam: "Panic may be indulged. It's likely to try and gently heighten your fears, not resolve 'em in a sudden blow." 15:22 <Crion> Aster: "Interesting, and...narratively logical." 15:22 <tom> Bob's eyes peek over the rims of his visor as he regards the terrain. Is there a natural path leading into the woods? 15:22 <tom> "Yeah as far as I know you just gotta roll with it?" 15:22 <banana> Some of the playground equipment is creaking gently in the wind. It's scattered enough that it doesn't block you from making your way around - the woods, though they only make up one quadrant of the horizon, are readily accessible. 15:23 <VoxPVoxD> Willie kneels down to check Kaga, who consents, merely glaring murderously at her. She stands and gives Liam a nod. Everything seems to be normal, give or take. 15:24 <banana> Penberthy: "Right. Let's talk about obstacles, then later denizens." 15:24 <banana> "I'm going to set you a course, in fact." 15:25 <banana> "What this means- I'll shape the stuff of the Hedge into a little challenge area then let it do as it pleases. My advice to you is to follow the *story* it lays out... but look for opportunities to twist it, to get where you need to go." 15:26 <banana> "Maybe a few different stories. You're different people, and the unseelie love to typecast." 15:26 <banana> "Bob, could you give me a phrase or two to stereotype each of your friends?" 15:27 <tom> Bob lets out a long, long sigh. 15:27 <Crion> Aster: "Always remarkable how every interaction with the Lost, on a long enough timeline, ends up as group therapy." 15:28 <banana> "Perhaps the common link is you there, friend." 15:28 <tom> "Aster's our detective and scientist. Rolfie's our muscle, Willie's the best foot forward." 15:29 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks proud. 15:29 <Crion> Mmmmm. No, if Aster was the common link, he'd have said, 'always remarkable how every interaction with the Lost, on a long enough timeline, ends up as first-degree murder.' 15:29 <Crion> But, we're not here to fight Liam. 15:31 <banana> Liam nods. "Storied roles. Each of you take a look at the kiddy toys, if you will. They'll begin to change, reacting to me then to you. This isn't dissimilar to what some inhabitants of this place might actually pose as a trial." 15:31 <hrolf> Rolf walks up to a tiny slide and pokes and prods at it. 15:32 <tom> Bob follows, careful not to let the others out of his sight. This might be the shallow end, but the pool is deep. 15:32 <Crion> Aster chambers a round and sets himself to examining a toy. 15:32 <banana> Different pieces of playground equipment twist, metal shivering, into new shapes. Near Aster, some vertical bars are morphing into a sculpture, clods of earth rising up to smooth themselves into the gaps and produce a composite of human faces. 15:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie approaches a slide. 15:33 <banana> Liam nudges Bob, who sees the earth by him forming into a mound and then acquiring edges, becoming a thatched-roolf longhouse. 15:33 <Crion> Aster: "Well then." 15:34 <banana> The slide Willie and Kaga are near is sinking into the earth, its top widening, growing a gate - it's still a slide, but longer and thicker and leading down into a tunnel. 15:34 <tom> He nods at the Summer courtier and heads over to knock politely on the door. 15:34 <banana> Rolf's being presented with the merry-go-round from earlier reshaping itself - so far, it looks like an office desk. 15:34 <VoxPVoxD> Ah. 15:35 <banana> Liam trails after Bob and stands near the entrance he's going for, looking around occasionally at the other three. 15:35 <tom> "Just keep cool, alright? We shouldn't be in any danger.... right?" 15:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's a bit offended. Is that the only thing anyone thinks about when they look at her? 15:35 <tom> The question goes to Liam. 15:35 <banana> Liam: "Ye won't be permanently hurt." 15:36 <hrolf> Rolf critically examine the half-morphed merry go round. He takes a seat behind the desk jutting out of the platform - nevermind that the 'seat' happens to be an extremely pink pony. 15:36 <banana> "There's a trick to all this, but it won't be apparent at first." 15:36 <tom> "Great." Bob waits for the longhouse to finish filling out before taking up any freakishly-shaped door-knocker or what-have-you. 15:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie squats down to tug at the gate. 15:37 <hrolf> Rolf taps the desk and assumes what he imagines to be the parody of an officious office type. "Mmm yes, Hughes hee-yer. Send in the applicant, missus Wilkins." 15:37 <banana> Aster's sculpture has split into multiple human forms, with half-height room walls growing up around them - it's now something like a badminton court. Wire people step back and forth inside, volleying shuttlecocks off the walls at each other - as each hums through the air it sounds out words, accusations an allegations. "Why did you do it?" "Where you at the time it happened?" "Did you know 15:37 <banana> him?" "Have you seen her?" 15:38 <banana> The door Bob opens leads into a Viking feast-hall. 15:38 <banana> There are skeletons inside, chugging mead (which spills through their ribcages and pools on the floor). Skeletons dance to the music of drums, skeletons roar and laugh. 15:38 <banana> Liam, quietly: "Eugh." 15:39 <Crion> Interesting. Are they actually asking him, or is it more aesthetic and disorganized? 15:39 <banana> The door to the slide opens easily for Willie. The tunnel isn't entirely dark.. she can see people on either side of it. Waiting to grab anyone who goes down? 15:39 <tom> Just another weary traveller, the man at the door draws himself up in his coat like bundling a cloak, stowing his weapon. "Don't worry, I've got like eight hundred hours in Skyrim." 15:40 <banana> Even as Aster wonders, the questions start to become more realistic and personal. One of the pipe-made badminton players swings their racquet: "Who sent you here?" The other whacks the shuttlecock in response: "Who do you work for?" They're talking to him now. 15:40 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Alright. Get in my lap Kaga." 15:40 <Crion> Aster: "Aha. I invoke the right to an attorney." Let's see if that works over here. 15:41 <Crion> Meaning both in the Hedge, and in the United Kingdom. 15:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie sits at the top of the slide and waits for the huge heavy dog-seeming thing to get into position. 15:41 <tom> Bob approaches the head of the table to announce himself. 15:41 <VoxPVoxD> And then sliiiiiiides~ 15:41 <banana> Rolf sits in the boss's seat (or on the boss's pony) and the bell on his desk rings. Time for a meeting. Out of a swirl of mist, a creature made of water walks in - coalescing out of the nearby ponds in a burst of steam. He or she sits down on the other side of Rolf's desk, sleeking back his or her spiky hair nervously. 15:41 <banana> It opens its mouth to speak, but bubbles come out. 15:42 <tom> He keeps an eye on Liam. 15:42 <hrolf> Rolf nods officiously. "Mmm yes, very good very good. I 'ave your references on file. We're all very himpressed, like. Where do you see yourself in five years, then?" 15:43 <banana> A badminton player pulls off a powerful backhand, which makes a noise like: "Oh, you'll get a lawyer alright. Don't worry about your rights. What do you need to get off your chest?" 15:44 <banana> Liam follows Bob into the feasthall and tries to stay out of the mead-muck. The Chief Skeleton is larger than the rest, and has a comically disproportionate skull; it's also wearing a horned helmet. A voice booms from where its chords would be: "Ho, ho, ho. Yarr, a new hearty be here." 15:45 <Crion> Aster: "I invoke my right against self-incrimination." Take a stand on the vagarities of your legal system. 15:46 <banana> Willie descends, or is condescended-to. It's frictionless - completely undignified dog slipping beside her, sometimes after and sometimes before - but there are these people to each side, who want things. They reach out and try to snatch her, repeatedly, or Kaga. The slide goes Forever, so it's only a matter of time before one of them gets a grip. 15:46 <banana> Badminton player (returning serve): "Then why are you even here? We can return you to your comfortable little life, just say the word." 15:47 <tom> Bob petitions the reveling dead with a bow: "Just a pair of old soldiers looking for a warm hearth, m- My Lord?" He glances over to Liam. 15:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie tests the friction, not fearing it but not deliberately burning herself either. It's a hard line to walk, she's learning. 15:47 <Crion> Aster, raising the gun: "Charge me or release me." 15:48 <tom> Quietly: "Did you make this on purpose? This valhalla?" 15:48 <banana> Chief Skeleton: "All are welcome, yarr. Pull up a plank and gorge yourself, for we sail in the morning." 15:48 <banana> Liam: "The fecking thing doesn't even know what a pirate is." 15:48 <banana> "It was like that when I got there." 15:49 <banana> "Bones, everywhere. Skeletons and 'ghosts', who were just bedsheets on skeletons. Piracy without any victims." 15:49 <tom> "Hm." Bob turns back to the horned chieftain: "You are most kind." 15:50 <tom> He turns back to Liam as he makes his way to a table and clears a space to sit. 15:50 <tom> "So what now?" 15:50 <banana> The skeleton beats its chest in appreciation, rattling loudly. The longhouse's fire - also a pile of bones - spits and crackles, and a lump of meat flies from it to land on the table before Bob - pork with drippings, crudely roasted. 15:50 <banana> Liam: "Don't touch that! This is training, not a test.. so in case you don't know, don't eat what they give you." 15:50 <Crion> He's also spinning up the Talon module. This is the real thing to learn here: 1) Does the module work in the Hedge? 2) If yes, is this one intelligence, or many? 15:51 <Crion> If the entire Hedge is one grand 'mind,' this could actually be incredibly dangerous. 15:51 <banana> Liam: "I knew that much but it was too late, like. When I came aboard ship I was already in their power." 15:51 <banana> Rolf's interviewee burbles, instead of just bubbling. "W-well... I was thinking more five weeks.. perhaps five days, but that's up to you, sir? I'd like us to start as soon as possible." 15:52 <tom> "Yeah, don't take food. That's like rule number one, yeah?" 15:52 <banana> Interview naiad: "I need to, uh, make things clear to someone... I have a purpose to fulfil. A job to do." 15:52 <banana> Liam: "Technically it's fine if you don't promise anything in exchange. There has to be a rule - reciprocated hospitality endows obligation, that sort of thing." 15:53 <banana> "However, they're under no obligation to inform you what the rules are." 15:53 <hrolf> "Very good. Hverry good. Eager to start. But before we do-" Rolf leans forward, eyes narrowing. His voice drops to a threatening whisper: "And h-what would you say is your biggest weakness?" 15:53 <banana> Liam: "I don't know if you want to bother seeing the rest of this. It was months of this shit, feasting and 'sailing' with the bony crew." 15:54 <tom> "So what's the rule, here? Just don't do anything you aren't sure about... and don't stay until the morning, when they sail?" 15:54 <tom> Bob folds his hands at the table. "Anyway, you know what I wanna ask." 15:54 <banana> Liam: "Fuuuck. I guess I do, but you have to say it." 15:54 <tom> He groans and checks the bandage around his waist. 15:55 <tom> "Did you get what you wanted." 15:55 <banana> Willie's staying away from the walls. It takes effort to catch her, and she's putting in more effort than they are. She could keep this up for a long time yet. 15:56 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "What is the virtue of a smooth ride down?" 15:56 <banana> The badminton-playing figures are made of uprooted swings and vertical bars; their limbs are metal pipes and their faces are congealed earth in a twisted frame. They're each taller than Aster is. They turn to face him, raise their racquets... and charge. 15:57 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Is letting the things here catch you what you're not supposed to do??" 15:57 <banana> Interview naiad: "I dream. Even a river dreams." 15:58 <banana> "We have intimations, you know, like our Children. Of what's coming, and who." 15:58 <banana> Liam: "I got what I said I wanted." 15:59 <hrolf> Rolf: "That's good. You'll be pleased to 'ear we 'ave VERY generous maternal leave policies at ''ughes Industries." 15:59 <banana> "That has to be enough, right? He was ruining my life.. I was tasked to do something about it.. you and the gammon helped, it- worked out like apparently..." he trails off. 16:01 <tom> Bob lights a cigarette; what's one more open flame in the viking longhouse? He puffs thoughtfully, letting the smoke rise and join the bonfire's floating embers up out the chimney. "It doesn't feel very good, does it." 16:01 <tom> "That means you're learning." 16:01 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "When has that ever stopped you?" 16:02 <Crion> Rifle levelled, but instead of firing: "I said lawyer." 16:02 <banana> Liam: "And what the hell is the lesson here? Sometimes someone wants you to hurt them, and it doesn't feel grand? Or is it the thing he said, where it's just doing what I would've done, except more subtle?" 16:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie glares in the demon's direction... but after a deep, steeling breath, she gets some air on the next bump of the slide and doesn't try to evade the snatching things in the walls. The hands take her, and her little dog, too. 16:04 <banana> Aster finds purchase in something the shape of a mind, although it's as artificial as the player's physical form - just as much of a wire sculpture. His module drives it into a frozen state, visibly insensate, though there's no emotion behind it and no trauma. 16:04 <tom> "I think he was just confused and scared. If he hadn't- guh, one second." Bob reaches into his coat and produces a little packet of tablets, popping one into his mouth and swallowing. "Fuck, my back." 16:04 <tom> "If he hadn't done that I think we coulda talked him down." 16:04 <banana> The other faked interrogation-entity lunges forward, holding not a racquet but a bundle of papers - there's the word SUBPOENA on there amid some gibberish. Easy enough to dodge service. 16:05 <tom> "Maybe it was the only way. I dunno." 16:05 <banana> Liam: "That's why he did it." 16:05 <banana> "Rather that than fucking thing for a moment, right? Might have to think about whether you're doing the wrong thing. I've been there." 16:05 <banana> *think for a moment 16:05 <banana> "I live there." 16:05 <Crion> Now Aster does raise the carbine. 16:07 <tom> Bob props himself up on the long bench along the table to ease the weight on his back. "Yeah. That used to be me." 16:08 <banana> The forgotten shuttlecock hits the ground and sticks in the mud. Its vanes produce sound in the air as it does: "We have a signal 13. The suspect is noncompliant, emergency. Signal 13 in progress. Suspect is cutting through red tape." 16:08 <tom> "You either gotta just turn your brain off or go insane." 16:08 <tom> Bob nods his head. "I picked insane." 16:08 <tom> "Don't make yourself make that call." 16:09 <banana> The naiad sitting across from Rolf nods vigorously, splashing everywhere. Its eyes glow golden yellow. "Parenting is so important. I believe in a work-life balance, and that's what impresses me about your company. Work is your life and you put your life into your work." 16:10 <banana> "Do you really think you can save her?" 16:11 <hrolf> Rolf blinks. "Save 'oo mate?" 16:12 <banana> Willie's plucked into darkness. 16:12 <banana> Off the slide, at first she feels like she's still falling... the hands carrying her are moving, and passing her to other pairs of hands, and on. 16:12 <VoxPVoxD> A mosh pit! 16:13 <banana> There is music. The song she put in Huntr defiantly. 16:13 <VoxPVoxD> All night, I'll riot with you~ 16:13 <Crion> "Bang." He reaches out and freezes the second assailant, feeling the familiar nosebleed start. Then he lowers the carbine. 16:13 <Crion> In go a pair of tissue noseplugs. 16:14 <banana> Darkness thins out... predictably, the tunnel leads back down to the playground she started in, where Rolf's somehow acquired a suit, where cartoon !@#$ letters are coming off the log-house Bob went into, where Aster's pointing guns at incoherent metal men until they fall down one by one. Willie's above it still, being passed around in the air invisibly. 16:14 <tom> Bob's stub of a cigarette goes into the grimy floor of the longhouse. 16:14 <banana> The murmurs that were audible from the grasping walls are gentle and soothing now. Do what we want and you can fly. Why not? There's plenty to go around. 16:14 <Crion> Aster: "Well. Evidently, not enough to hold me." 16:14 <VoxPVoxD> Willie exalted sat, by merit raised to that bad eminence. 16:15 <banana> Liam: "I can't think what else I was supposed to do. The season says... at least we can fight, you know?" 16:15 <tom> "Fight, sure. But he didn't do it, did he?" 16:15 <banana> "We burn and they burn in turn, the unseelie fae. They can't get us again because if they lay a hand on us they fucking catch fire." 16:16 <banana> "I feel like I was baited into a truly horrible thing." 16:16 <tom> "He was in pain." Bob's eyes loom, sleepless and sunken over the fire reflected in his visor. "He isn't anymore. Take solace in that." 16:17 <tom> "But from where I'm sitting? It's just more collateral damage." 16:17 <banana> Rolf's interviewee is splashing more and more now, coming apart in puddles and spouts. "If I'm dreaming of you, Cosmos dreams of a voice raised in song. Bent to a purpose, to the salvation of the world, not to selfish battlecries." 16:17 <VoxPVoxD> The thought is compelling, addicting... and vertiginous. Is she meant to think that her descent brought her higher than she started? Is that the delusion backing the deal? 16:17 <VoxPVoxD> Is the hole she went down still down there? 16:18 <banana> The overgrown playground facing Aster is starting to fall over. It doesn't make any accusing noises as it goes... there's clearly no meaning to this. It was a shadow-play; a reflection of real things, not a source of them. 16:18 <Crion> The module, of course, does not give rebates for just fooling around. 16:19 <banana> The hole that was made for Willie no longer has a protective gate or a frictionless slide, but the dark tunnel is there. 16:19 <tom> "We're soldiers," Bob sighs. "We do what it takes. But... was that what it took?" 16:19 <hrolf> Rolf nods along a the gibberish. "All well and fine but tell me - why should I 'ire you?" 16:19 <VoxPVoxD> Then that's where she belongs. To venture deeper, darker... to burn bright enough to light the way. 16:19 <VoxPVoxD> Willie would fall farther; what stops her? 16:20 <tom> "We brought in an entire squad, flashbangs, long guns- for what? To kill your suicidal twin? Is that the mission, now?" 16:20 <banana> Eridanus: "I can give you unimaginable power. Join me at the dam and you won't have to care what anyone else calls you just for being the man you are." 16:20 <banana> It lays a watery hand on Rolf's desk, which looks like a pretty solid executive thing at this point but is still, ultimately, a rusty toy. "Think about it, dreamer." 16:20 <hrolf> Rolf gets up from his chair and takes several steps back. He yells out to the rest: "Oi! Think we got an interloper 'ere!" 16:21 <Crion> Aster is heading over, carbine raised. It's unclear how much he's seeing, but if this isn't a bespoke Hedge vision-- 16:21 <banana> Liam and Bob can't hear the call. They're sealed in together with the dancing skeletons, echoes of a Durance past. 16:22 <tom> "We're free of that life now. We're not about that, yeah? We can choose for ourselves now." 16:23 <banana> Liam: "Maybe if someone presents an actual choice. The Freehold's... good people, doing what they have to, but there are so many constraints. ...It's better than government work." 16:24 <hrolf> Rolf, firmly: "Thank your for your time. Haitch -R will be in touch with you soon." 16:24 <banana> Aster gets over to the desk in time to see the naiad-thing with its golden eyes partially intact. It gazes at him with half of its head - the upper limb actually splits apart, turning in two directions at once, one still paying attention to Rolf. 16:24 <hrolf> His hand hovers over his pistol, but doesn't grasp it yet. 16:25 <tom> Bob works his jaw. "I'm new to this." 16:25 <banana> Liam: "Am I supposed to take every briefing like the people I trust might be leading me astray?" 16:26 <tom> "I think they want to give you the freedom to make your own path." 16:26 <banana> One obvious thing preventing Willie from a further fall: the invisible hands that bear her through the air aren't actually under her direction. She's floating here of someone else's volition, as is an upside-down and mildly distressed Kaga. 16:27 <tom> "Maybe they woulda washed you out if you let him live. I don't know Wasp." 16:27 <VoxPVoxD> Are they carrying her anywhere or is she in a holding pattern? 16:27 <banana> Just kind of floating about over this dissolving water-monster. 16:27 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Alright, let go. You've made your point." 16:27 <banana> It doesn't say anything to Aster, or anything further to Rolf - just collapses into a puddle shaped like three interlocking narrow lakes. Presumably it will accept H.R.'s verdict. 16:28 <tom> Bob leans back on the table, groaning: "But I don't think so. I don't think anyone's really tried to play it that way." 16:28 <Crion> One assumes Aster recognizes the shape. 16:28 <banana> Liam: "Then... I'm going to the temptation of the Wasp and I'm telling her, hey, you let me make my own choice. I've chosen the wrong fucking thing; please advise." 16:29 <tom> "I think that's pretty fuckin' brave, dude, which is probably what they want." 16:29 <banana> All of Willie's support is abruptly withdrawn. 16:29 <tom> Bob glances around the longhouse: "So whatta we do to get outta here?" 16:29 <hrolf> Rolf stands stock still for a moment. Then, to Aster: "What the fahck just 'appened? Our target...the fahkin star mom. 'ow the 'ell did she get into the 'edge? That was 'er!" 16:29 <VoxPVoxD> aieee 16:29 <banana> Looks like she's going to fall in the water, although Aster does have time to recognise it first. 16:30 <hrolf> Rolf: "She said she knew we were coming!" 16:30 <Crion> Aster: "Incoming." 16:31 <Crion> Aster will step back to clear a landing rather than drop his gun and try to catch her. She's got a demon. 16:32 <banana> Liam: "Huh? ah..." He glances around at the bones of men and parrots, which have become increasingly raucous. It's hard to hear yourself think. "Last time I spiked the mead, or I sold em out to the Royal Danes, or I walked the plank... I don't remember which one actually worked." 16:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie got her wish, at least. 16:32 <banana> "Doesn't matter, this is meant to be training. Find us a door." The one you came in through is gone, but it's a complex dark space, with many walls. 16:33 <Crion> To Rolf: "What was that she called you? Just before she fell apart." 16:34 <hrolf> Rolf: "She called me a dreamer. She said she dreams too, or somefing like that." 16:35 <banana> Willie's wet, but okay. Rolf's probably not getting a new hire. Aster never did get a lawyer, which is another lesson: the Hedge can be fundamentally unfair. 16:35 <tom> Bob gets up from the table. "God damn dude, did you *have* to pack armor-piercing? Shit, that's gonna sting for a while." 16:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie stands up. Kaga shakes himself disconsolately. "Whoo! That was fun!" 16:35 <tom> He goes for one of the torches on the walls and unsockets it, brandishing it toward the darkness at the corners of the feast-hall. 16:35 <banana> Liam: "A bad habit. There's much in here that's made of rock or metal." 16:35 <VoxPVoxD> "It seemed meaningful for a moment but then it sort of fizzled out." 16:35 <Crion> Aster was released on his own recognizance. Hedge cops protect cops. 16:36 <Crion> Aster: "That's the point of intersection, then. Dreaming." 16:36 <Crion> To Willie: "You alright?" 16:36 <hrolf> Rolf: "Fought this was supposed to be the kiddy pool. Somefing's off - I fink we should debrief out of here." He mimes picking up a phone and speaking into it. "Yes, missus wilkins. We're done 'ere. I h-shall be h-leaving for the h-day." 16:36 <banana> He follows Bob. "I'm sorry about that bit. Comes from pointing a gun without thinking about where it might go." 16:36 <Crion> If and when Liam reappears with Bob: "We had a visitor while you were occupied." 16:36 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "So long as I don't catch cold. Kaga?" 16:37 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "Bah! Trifles and triviality!" 16:37 <tom> There's the dark outline of a door in the sod wall of the longhouse. 16:37 <Crion> "At the very least, I don't believe Rolf has managed to catch up on our findings in the Epsilon Eridani case. Meaning it couldn't have been the Hedge plucking it out of his head." 16:37 <tom> He tries the handle. 16:38 <banana> No Key needed for this one. You're in the shadow of the Tatterdam. Perversely, the door opens out of a little hillock in the playground rather than, say, the longhouse, but Bob and the now-silent Liam still come out roughly where they expected. 16:38 <tom> "A visitor?" 16:38 <Crion> To Bob: "The Agent." 16:38 <tom> "Oh shit it can come here?" 16:38 <Crion> "Reveille's star prosecutor." 16:39 <hrolf> Rolf explodes at Liam. "Fought you said this would be safe! What 'appened wif the tatterdam protection then?" 16:39 <banana> The changeling puts his hands on his hips as he looks over the hunters. "Ye've clearly learned something." 16:39 <hrolf> "Or is that bitch under it somehow?" 16:39 <Crion> To Rolf: "It's not a fucking Keeper." 16:39 <Crion> "The Tatterdam protection does nothing against it." 16:40 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "The fault, dear Rolfus, is in our stars." 16:40 <hrolf> Rolf: "It knows we're coming for it. And where we're coming for it." 16:40 <tom> "Can it do that? Just astral out into the Hedge?" 16:40 <Crion> Aster: "Yes. It also knows we know where it lives." 16:40 <tom> He's looking at Aster. 16:40 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Does this affect our timetable?" 16:40 <banana> Liam: "I'm not sure that's entirely true, but I don't want to hold myself up as the expert on this... ..I have only a partial idea of what you've been through out here. Visions and games... if a dreaming thing told you something, don't take it as gospel truth." 16:40 <Crion> Gesturing to Liam: "I think it very well could...if it accesses the power of dreams." 16:40 <Crion> "I'm told that's a significant second component to this place." 16:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Perhaps a case of psionic/magic transparency." 16:41 <tom> Bob takes command: "Alright, alright. We've had an outside intrusion of the exercise. That means we immediately terminate and debrief... normalside.." 16:41 <tom> He glances over to Liam and nods. 16:41 <VoxPVoxD> "DatAster worked through dreams as well." 16:41 <tom> "Let's get outta here before it comes back." 16:41 <banana> Liam: "This is the world between worlds - reality on one side, Faerieland another, and dreams all along the edges." 16:41 <banana> "If we've gotta go, we've gotta go. Over here, then." 16:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Can people be taken from their dreams?" 16:42 <banana> "Yes." 16:42 <Crion> Aster: "I suspect if it truly had power here, it would not have wanted to talk." 16:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's face sets. :[ 16:42 <tom> "Let's not find out." 16:42 <banana> Liam walks... back to the longhouse, and just opens the front door again. But on the other side is, you think, a view out of the toilet block atop Harry's Hill. 16:42 <banana> Not quite where you left the truck, but close enough. 16:43 <tom> Bob getsures for the others to follow; he makes sure the rest of the hunters are through the portal before following, giving Liam a nod. 16:44 <banana> The Hedge-navigator follows, still much quieter than he was on the way in. He looks like a man who's not looking forward to something. 16:45 <tom> That's how you can tell he's learning. 16:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Thank you, Liam! I learned a great deal and felt very safe despite the strangeness of this place." 16:45 <VoxPVoxD> "I credit both to you." 16:45 <banana> There's no mask-animating glamour up on the hill today, and the winter clouds make it almost as dark as it was in the evening, but... it does feel safe. Mundane things can touch you; not the magical. 16:46 <VoxPVoxD> Mundane things are the ones that hurt anyway. 16:46 <banana> Liam: "You're welcome one and all. If you do find yourselves in that place voluntary-like, go along to get along. If it's pulled you in against your wills... you might as well fight it." 16:47 <Crion> Aster: "Yes, thank you for the afternoon. I've learned a few things in seminar, and in lab." 16:48 <tom> Bob: "The real trick is figuring out a key on the fly, I think." 16:48 <tom> "Especially if something bad's on your ass." 16:48 <tom> "Might have to start making some big-brain plays." 16:50 <tom> He grins. "...So whattaya think? Wild shit, huh?" 16:51 <tom> "...Some of 'em have stables homes on the far side. It's like a whole fuckin'... Green Hill Zone looking ass place." 16:51 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "This is so cool." 16:53 <tom> "There's people in there, too. Like, things like people." 16:53 <tom> "They like to make deals. I've been told to avoid it." 16:54 <tom> It's now that Bob gingerly pats his back. "Fuck, man.." 16:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Oh, yes, making deals with the sidhe is wildly dangerous. One of those memes that's like YOU GET: Spun gold but I GET: Your firstborn." 16:55 <VoxPVoxD> Concerned: "Did you get hurt?" 16:55 <tom> "Not today. The lesson came with a price." 16:55 <tom> "Had to help clean up some shit in London." 16:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "How'd it go?" 16:57 <VoxPVoxD> Aaron may be relieved to notice, or studiously not notice, that Willie and Bob seem normal around each other again. 16:57 <VoxPVoxD> As normal as they ever get. 16:57 <tom> "I was about to talk 'em down when Liam's twin shot me in the back and Rolf blew his head off with his twelve-gauge." 16:58 <tom> Bob puffs up his cheeks as he exhales. 16:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie instinctively reaches out to Bob to put a hand on his shoulder, and then self-consciously looks back at Aaron. 16:59 <tom> Bob nods in appreciation: "Ow, thanks, but ow." 16:59 <Crion> He is, in fact, being professional...but there is both relief and, yes, perhaps even some happiness in the way this has resolved itself. It's more in the shoulders and the way he turns away than the face, though. He still has the face locked down. 16:59 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's own shoulders relax. "Did you get Mari to take care of the shot?" 17:00 <tom> "Just the sepsis. It honestly doesn't matter if the bullet comes out- it's just a small fragment after punching through the kevlar." 17:00 <VoxPVoxD> It clearly matters symbolically. But Willie doesn't get to decide which way the matter turns. 17:01 <tom> Bob glances wearily at Aster. "What, you're happy about it?" 17:01 <Crion> Aster: "Hm?" 17:02 <tom> Bob narrows his eyes, just a moment. "Oh, nothing. I was thinking about something else." 17:02 <tom> He shakes his head: "Sorry." 17:02 <Crion> Aster: "Apology non-specifically accepted. Let me know if you need anything for the pain." 17:02 <tom> "I'm fine. I'm fully astral now with these painkillers." 17:03 <Crion> Aster: "Well. We don't need to be going full-on Sackler mode." 17:03 <VoxPVoxD> Now Willie looks a bit uncomfortable. But just a bit. 17:03 <tom> Bob sighs. "So if you're ever lost on the other side, we at least know how to go about getting out." 17:03 <tom> "It's more than they gave Mari, that's for damn sure." 17:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "We don't need to use Jim Morrison, though, right?" 17:04 <Crion> Aster: "We certainly do not." 17:04 <tom> "I'm sure a hobgoblin would accept an album for directions." 17:05 <tom> "...Did you shoot a goblin?" This is at Aster. 17:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'll make sure I've got a spare mp3 player the next time I come in." 17:05 <VoxPVoxD> She sounds certain there will be a next time. 17:05 <tom> "I think I'd like to get one of those yew branches." 17:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yew wood." 17:05 <tom> "Might be able to come up with some sort of compass... or is that cheating? I bet it doesn't like trying to be cute with its rules." 17:06 <VoxPVoxD> Kagemenauch, witheringly: "Puns are the death of wit, Wellesley." 17:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "You better dry off before you get back in my car." 17:07 <tom> Bob starts just a bit at the demon's words; pain shoots up his back. "Ggah." 17:07 <tom> "Forgot you were there, man." 17:07 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "My worry with a compass is they're magnetic. Do ferric objects work there?" 17:07 <Crion> Without looking at the demon: "You know, I suspect the Hedge does understand puns. My little deal was interrogation room patter. You know, ask for your attorney, they say you don't need one, that sort of nonsense." 17:07 <Crion> "I told them to charge me or release me. So they charged me." 17:07 <Crion> "Tactically unwise." 17:08 <tom> "Motherfuckers better know." 17:08 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "How very American." 17:08 <VoxPVoxD> Not said disapprovingly. 17:08 <tom> Bob: "I want to learn the ins and outs. See if we can't build off Liam's knowledge to make it safer to get out. Maybe that way we can stage *limited* interventions... if we have to." 17:09 <Crion> "Another, more important thing I learned: the Talon module acheives its goals mainly through the access of trauma, and its weaponization. Well, that's not a new learning, that's a baseline. That's what it does. It does WORK here in the Hedge...however, the Hedge and its denizens don't have trauma to access." 17:09 <Crion> "So it just sort of, sidelines them. Rather than hurting them." 17:09 <Crion> "Which I find quite elegant." 17:09 <Crion> "And I believe the Hedge does as well." 17:09 <tom> "Maybe we can research that difference... find something useful about it." 17:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Like when you knock over a paper target in a shooting gallery." 17:10 <Crion> Aster: "Yes. Of course, if I'd used it on Bob's playmate, the horny dog, it might have been more...standard. Difficult to say." 17:10 <tom> "You make it sound so unwholesome man." 17:11 <tom> "The rules seem basically made up and bullshit, but you gotta abide them anyway." 17:11 <tom> "On the plus, so do they." 17:11 <Crion> Aster: "That might make this place more fair than our world, where the rules are made up and bullshit, you have to abide by them, but they don't." 17:12 <tom> Bob nods just so. "Either way, if I gotta chase some Narnia-looking motherfucker into the Hedge for any reason... well, now it's not just a straight-up suicide mission." 17:12 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Unless we can shoot them with guns in a demonic virtual reality simulation." 17:13 <Crion> Aster, musingly: "It is interesting how so many of these cadres have direct interpretive alternate-reality schemas for enhancing and, sometimes, narrowing their understandings of the world." 17:13 <Crion> "It's really only the vampires who don't." 17:13 <Crion> "Not sure what that means. If it means anything." 17:14 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "They don't need one. The world already behaves as if it were interpreted by vampires." 17:14 <Crion> Aster: "Mages would insist they're the actual protagonists of reality, but then, their eyes are watching Heaven, as it were." 17:15 <tom> Bob: "They are not doing a very good job." 17:15 <Crion> Aster: "That depends which mages you're talking about." 17:15 <tom> "Ha." 17:15 <Crion> He's actually met the Seer of the Throne with the shadow name 'Scoreboard.' 17:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I wonder what the vampires think of people like Justifiability. Are they allies? Do they see themselves as playing the same game at different levels of abstraction?" 17:16 <VoxPVoxD> "As competitors?" 17:17 <tom> "Assets, maybe." 17:17 <Crion> Aster: "I think they do that Mad Men bit where they say, 'I don't think of you at all,' and like Jon Hamm's character, they are lying." 17:17 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I bet there are vampires who don't think of how God disposes of himself in relation to them... but I also know there are vampire priests. Sergio goes to services sometimes." 17:18 <VoxPVoxD> "I should get him to bring me." 17:18 <Crion> Aster: "Good God. Well. Perhaps not the correct conversational epithet." 17:19 <VoxPVoxD> Kagemenauch: "That does sound fun." 17:19 <Crion> "Frankly when I was in Philadelphia I thought the, what are they traditionally called, the Lance and the Shield? I thought they were all lone serial killers driven insane by various reformations and revivals. But no, they're an institution, with mailing lists. And the one here is some kind of pimp." 17:20 <VoxPVoxD> "Some kind of-- sorry?" 17:20 <VoxPVoxD> Once again Kagemenauch has found a way to stretch a mastiff's face into a smile. 17:22 <Crion> "When I went to see Vados by way of Henry I, I met Craig Dunlop, a tennis ball of a man. Sic hell on him and say fetch. He gave me his card, for the Cave and Spear. His business card. He specialises in absolution and blood-for-sex trades. He had a catchphrase. What was it." 17:22 <Crion> As the spelling might indicate, specialises is said in a particularly hissing mockery of Dunlop's accent. 17:23 <VoxPVoxD> "..." 17:23 <Crion> "'No shame? Then you've got game.' That's it. The man thankfully removed himself from my presence." 17:24 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Okay." 17:24 <VoxPVoxD> "Okay. Yeah." 17:24 <VoxPVoxD> "I think I'd like to meet this man." 17:24 <Crion> Aster: "So perhaps a word of warning for Sergio if he wishes to continue his faith on this side of the river." 17:24 <Crion> Aster: "Well, I still have his card. But I don't think it's wise for any of us besides the demon to come with you." 17:24 <VoxPVoxD> "May I see it?" 17:25 <Crion> Let's assume that over the last hour of interstitial dialogue, we've arrived back at the Greybox. "It's somewhere on my desk. A moment." 17:25 <Crion> He'll return with it. 17:26 <Crion> "I don't need it back." 17:28 <VoxPVoxD> Willie takes it, eyes the pornographic stencil, and the number. It's gripped very tightly between her thumb and forefinger. "I don't need it either." The card ignites, going up in a beam-thin stream of red fire that rises from her fingertips, running out of fuel before it can stain the ceiling. There's a smear of ash where the card used to be. 17:28 <VoxPVoxD> "I'll remember." 17:29 <Crion> Aster: "I would say don't kill him. Instead I'll say don't get caught. At whatever it is you plan to do." 17:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's thin smile mirrors Kaga's.