22:03 <banana> Since the day the Tripod came, the bodyguarding part of this job hasn't been too bad. 22:04 <banana> Cosmos appears to have escalated to the maximum level of violence its agent is willing to countenance before Christmas, so you've been able to reduce guard duty to single shifts - and sometimes nobody at all, if the principal is in some safe and quiet place. 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> It's a real relief. Willie's got a huge backlog of work-work to dig through before the holiday, if she's to take one. Still, she's not about to let the side down. She takes as many shifts as needed. Tonight, for example. 22:06 <banana> Reveille is often not in a safe or quiet place. UMG, under its EMI sub-umbrella, has begun promo work for the much anticipated album release. You've all found yourselves shuttling around the place, usually with Mary - the face of the band - and sometimes a couple of others, waiting by signing events and ticket sales and radio interviews. 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's got big blocky sunglasses that are perfect for that kind of thing. 22:07 <banana> Tonight, Willie's job is simply to pick up their client from one of these interviews and accompany her home... although Reveille's warned in advance that she might like to grab a drink first if the interview goes well/poorly. 22:08 <banana> Does she like to drive herself on these gigs, or ride along with the client while one of her other staff does the chauffering? 22:08 <banana> *chauffeuring 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> If Reveille's being taken to a quiet and safe place, Willie prefers to drive. If they're going to be bouncing around or in front of press, Willie'd rather take a company car. She hasn't been recognised at one of these things yet and sometimes it's worth it to take the mildest possible precautions to spare yourself the mildest possible stress. 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> If Mary's going for drinks, Willie's probably riding along. 22:24 <banana> Gord can pick her up on the way to collect Mary. The big blond man is amiably silent for the first half of the ride; eventually he says, "I've been let know that you're actually Lady Wellesley." 22:24 <banana> "Is there anything that should... be different and/or change?" 22:25 <VoxPVoxD> Gord may or may not be able to perceive the nuances of Willie's expression of surprise and faint alarm. "Oh, no, certainly not. Do call me Willie." 22:26 <banana> Gord: "Very wellie." 22:26 <banana> "Now, where was the turning for Spinningfields..." 22:27 <banana> Willie gets a message from an unknown - no, make that an unreadable number. 22:27 <VoxPVoxD> Huh. 22:27 <VoxPVoxD> What does it say? 22:30 <banana> This contact caller ID is, rather than a string of digits, a startlingly three-dimensional image of what she believes to be an exploding galaxy. 22:30 <banana> <I've got your number from Quill. You seemed a better contact than the PTSD types or the anal-retentives.> 22:32 <VoxPVoxD> Ouch. <I will gratefully accept the forehand of your compliment. how may we be of Service?> 22:32 <banana> The car stops outside the XSM Communicorp studio. Light are going inside, but you've got a brief wait; Gord opens his front side door to let a nice freezing breeze in. 22:33 <VoxPVoxD> While her sidereal interlocutor composes their thoughts, Willie asks, "May I ask you a question that might sound rude?" 22:33 <banana> Gord: "Yeah, go for it." 22:33 <VoxPVoxD> This, being aloud, is to Gord. 22:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "What... element are you?" 22:36 <banana> Gord grins, turning on the driver's seat so that he can look into the back and talk. "Aha. In that spirit, do call me Gord. But I dream..." 22:36 <banana> "I dream of high winds, higher than the atmosphere. Beyond where the north wind goes, colder than the poles or space. Gusts and eddies on a scale that's.. what's the word for it, something about essential complexity." 22:37 <banana> "I'll rejoin 'em someday. Not soon. What gave it away?" 22:37 <banana> *Lights are going out inside, I meant to say earlier 22:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I wouldn't say anything gave it away, precisely. There were bits and pieces. A bit of prop divination was involved. Intuition, perhaps, and adequate research." 22:40 <VoxPVoxD> "Are you enjoying your time on our little spheroid?" 22:41 <banana> Gord: "So says an expert who doesn't want to give away her secrets. Yeah, it's a good time.. good place. Very.. complex, again. You can fit so many minds in such a little place." 22:41 <banana> "Honest truth, I've still got a lot to learn. Been taking some crash courses on all this weird stuff that's-" he gestures at the open door- "out there, once we go on tour." 22:43 <banana> XSM won't shut down for the night, but it's past-time for guests - in the lighted lobby, you can both see a lone short figure strutting toward the doors. 22:43 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "There's a lot. But no one's expected to hold it all in their minds at once. Not even here in our cramped little groups." Her expression turns thoughtful. "I imagine the stellar winds have rather more room to breathe." 22:44 <banana> Gord: "Breathing is one of the first concepts I picked up. Human bodies do a good job of letting you know about that." 22:44 <banana> Reveille steps outside just as Willie's phone pings again. Probably Hyperclasm: <Well, I've got some loosely associated sub-awakened types on my cassocked arse. Mercenaries from Mr. Trajan's crew, bereft of their merry nature.> 22:45 <banana> Mary: "Hey, loves, thanks for waiting. It's spooky in there, late night DJs contending with the cleaning lady for dominance." 22:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Often, yeah. Sometimes you can take too many drugs and they have to come jam a needle in your chest and hide it from the papers." 22:46 <VoxPVoxD> As Mary comes in: "Good evening. How'd it go?" 22:46 <banana> Gord nods to Willie. "Good tip." He offers Mary a complicated secret handshake. 22:47 <VoxPVoxD> To Hyperclasm: <😬 has he not come home yet? is there anything we can do to expedite his return?> 22:47 <banana> Mary Morgan: "Not bad at all..." She moves to get in the front seat, then changes her mind and joins Willie in the back. "Gord, could you take us to the Basil for a bit? Maybe circle around and come back in an hour when at least one of us is shitfaced?" 22:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie grins. 22:51 <banana> Gord: "Sure. I'll fuck off for a while and let you do girl talk, assassination talk, whatever." He knows he'll get his rewards later. 22:52 <banana> Ping, ping. "You're popular," Reveille points out. 22:52 <banana> Hyperclasm: <Yes, that was the sort of question they were asking. 'Why aren't these Mancs doing anything to expedite his return'? It was just badinage on the way to commissioning me.> 22:52 <banana> Hyperclasm: <But if you like, I could tell them: actually, I've dealt with these Nameless House types - they recognise the value of a good see-er and have already put me on your case. So you won't owe me a thing.> 22:55 <VoxPVoxD> "Just a last bit of business here." tap tap tap <did you have something in mind?> 22:56 <banana> Hyperclasm: <Yes, that you'd owe me instead. Much more useful than MMORPG-IRL morons.> 22:56 <banana> <Basic reputation-laundering trade on offer.> 22:57 <VoxPVoxD> <yes, I meant: did you have a specific favour in mind to barter for, or are you looking for an IOU? I'll need to run this by the team either way but I don't anticipate hostility> 22:57 <banana> Reveille: "How many lines of business have your lot got going, anyway? Commercially it seems like a great setup, once you accept the incredibly serious risks." 22:58 <banana> Gord, currently taking you to the Tomato & Basil: "If there are any more incredibly serious risks, I want to be along next time. Gave me the damn shivers, your robot story did." 22:59 <banana> Reveille: "Sweet, but that would just mean we're both in danger instead of one." 22:59 <VoxPVoxD> While she dickers with the rude magician: "Well, developing contacts and maintaining relationships is a lot of the job, night-to-night. We try to keep our actual caseload small, so we can give our clients our full attention. This is fallout from the robot story. One of the magicians hasn't quite found his way back from being shot into a black hole." 22:59 <VoxPVoxD> "But we're optimistic! He does that sort of thing, I understand." 23:01 <banana> Hyperclasm: <I do have something in mind... there's one thing I enjoy above all else: facts. There's some you might be in a position to retrieve for me, given your neutral position in the Underground.> 23:01 <banana> <Please get me an answer before teatime tomorrow - that's when they're coming around.> 23:01 <VoxPVoxD> <will do!> 23:02 <banana> Hyperclasm: <Thanks, have a nice night.> 23:03 <banana> Reveille: "Christ, I remember those guys. Wizard allies, alien foes.. if the PR people could see me now, they'd have a fit." 23:04 <banana> "Let's talk about it inside. Actually, Gordy, do you want a drink too?" 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Good people to know." After a goodbye emoji, Willie pockets her phone. "There, that's sorted for the evening. Now, what's this about getting properly cucumbered?" 23:04 <banana> Gord: "Grab me some beer for later, but I'd rather remain able to drive." 23:05 <banana> Reveille: "Willie.. you shall be my partner in grime." 23:07 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That sounds delightful." 23:08 <banana> Reveille: "Great! Let's grab a table and inform these guys the power of my tab." 23:08 <banana> Gord salutes as he drives off. The Tomato & Basil is a bar-restaurant, but the only food Mary's going to order (unless Willie wants something) is an enormous share bowl of hot chips. 23:09 <VoxPVoxD> That is exactly what Willie would have ordered. 23:09 <banana> Mary sighs as she sits down, wiggling a bit. "I am bouncing off the walls." 23:10 <banana> "We're so close. If this thing comes off.. nobody's heard our new tracks yet. They're seriously- Willie, they're so fucking good." 23:19 <VoxPVoxD> Willie takes a chip as soon as they're takeable. "It will do. We've seen you through this much. You and the rest of the band are more than up to the hard bit of actually being rockstars." 23:20 <banana> Mary drinks while Willie's eating, and takse a handful of chips after. "The girls have done so well. Lindsey rocks harder than you'd believe for a kid, Charlie and PA are playing the best they have in their lives. I can barely keep up." 23:20 <banana> "K.E.R. - that's a single, it's getting radio play on the 24th. It's not a Christmas song at all but like, after people hear it, it will be. I just want.. some proof this thing is real." 23:23 <VoxPVoxD> Willie tags off in the hot chip relay just as her negroni comes in. "If the work is good, and your protection is solid, what are the obstacles? Like, what's the worst case scenario short of lizard wizards?" 23:24 <banana> There are many drinks available. Not quite the aficionado's menu of the CGI brewery, but all the mids you could want on tap, cider of several fruits and a cocktail bar. Mary's going with Several. 23:24 <banana> "Well, marketing doesn't always... work. Sometimes things just don't catch on. Wrong strategy, wrong time and place... there are plenty of brilliant artists we've never heard of." 23:25 <banana> Mary: "But we've got EMI behind us now.. they're invested. We'll at least have a push. It shouuuuld be enough." 23:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's go-to order anywhere with a cocktail bar is a negroni. Dead simple to make, everyone's got the ingredients, strong enough to be fun but bracing enough that you're always mindful of how many you've had. "What about media management issues? Are album releases particularly vulnerable to scandal?" 23:30 <banana> Reveille raises both eyebrows as she lowers her glass - they're dyed blue, so it's noticeable. "Scandal? It's current year, innit?" 23:30 <banana> "People who've heard of Waistcoat Colony expect stunts. On our tour of the shires we had a thing where protesters from each party came out in turn to picket the concerts, then halfway through we pointed it out and introduced Both Sides (Truth In Extremes)." 23:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Right. I'm thinking more in the vein of, hypothetical astral lovebirds trying to humiliate you in public." 23:34 <banana> Reveille: "I've been linked with old rich guys, bandmates, mafia - this one is fair enough - and gigolos. Hard to say what the point would be..." 23:34 <banana> "Now, if we'd held underground raves during lockdown, that would be another thing." 23:38 <VoxPVoxD> There's something about having just most of one strong drink that makes it really easy to barrel through the activation threshold of explaining something ridiculous. "We intercepted some chatter. Agostina did, specifically. But the jist is that all of Eridani's agents have cocked it up, and are devastated, furious, weeping big lizardy tears, et cetera." 23:38 <banana> Reveille: "Hell yes!" 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> "Some visitors called the Tra-Se-Uu are basically planning to picket your board game night, in hopes of compromising the album launch enough to get you to the table with Eridani." 23:39 <banana> Mary scrunches up her face in a way that doesn't really correspond to any one emotion but successfully conveys: What? 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> "A sort of lovebombing harrassment, is how they pitched it. Command seemed dubious but also, like I said, we've blown apart all their other plans." 23:40 <VoxPVoxD> "The intent is to pressure you such that negotiating with Cosmos is the path of least resistance." 23:40 <VoxPVoxD> "And they were quite vague and peculiar about their methods, but they were quite specific about the where and the when." 23:41 <banana> Mary: "The path of least resistance would be to leave me alone. Fuckin... space nonces." 23:42 <banana> She's a little more voluble than coherent now. "Okay, well, I don't quite see... it doesn't sound like a major threat, but I'm glad you and yours have called in time. I guess you can intercept any aliens that try to do something 'compromising', in case they don't just get dragged away by the cops?" 23:43 <banana> *called it 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Ah, but wouldn't the path of least resistance be to do whatever the person harrassing you says? So saith an entire galaxy of arseholes. But no, I bring this up because I wanted to make sure you were briefed and that we could discuss options and strategy." 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> "What does board game night entail, exactly? Who's playing?" 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> "If the police showed up, would anyone be in trouble but the rude aliens?" 23:45 <banana> Mary: "It's not a night.. erm." She looks at Willie. 23:45 <banana> "Fuck it, I trust you obviously, just.. don't pass this on if you don't need to. It's embarassing stuff." 23:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie nods. 23:46 <banana> Mary Morgan sets down her glass and takes a deep breath. "Okay. This is something that's personally important to me." 23:47 <banana> "Charlie Miracle is my oldest friend... who isn't a violent criminal. And it's not like she wasn't tempted but she's, you know, good." 23:48 <banana> "We go all the way back. We were poor as shit together, slept at each others' houses when there was one functioning parent between three families. In school we had each others backs and we used to spend time just roaming the city, nothing else to do, going back home meant getting involved in B- in what the others were up to." 23:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie listens. 23:49 <banana> Mary: "We didn't have any money or much education but there are still things you can do for fun. I mean, no innuendo here, we tried that but it's not my thing. What we did both enjoy was chess." 23:50 <banana> "There was this old book in Grandpa Miracle's house, all about opening strategy and classic theory of the game... bound in weird cardboard stuff, falling apart. It felt like a wizard's spellbook or something." 23:51 <banana> "So- we learned the game young, played each other on and off for.. years. Now." She pauses to take a drink, see if Willie's got any comments. 23:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Honestly, that is not at all what I was picturing. I honestly struggle to see how that gets meaningfully disrupted." 23:52 <VoxPVoxD> "In a way that's threatening rather than annoying." 23:52 <VoxPVoxD> "Perhaps the intent is simply to annoy?" 23:53 <banana> Reveille shakes her head. "The Tra-Se-Uu may be on to something." She pronounces the alien name exactly the way Badawi repeated it. 23:53 <VoxPVoxD> "How do you mean?" 23:54 <banana> Mary: "When we were young, there was this thing we were always jealous of... there's a public board behind the town hall, Council rents out access. It's just a sort of back alley, not part of the square, but it is public." 23:54 <banana> "We used to watch old guys playing there, or sometimes rich tourists.. a public attraction, you know. Once they had a tournament, which was pretty amazing." 23:55 <banana> "So Charlie and I had a promise... one day, we'd play a match, or at least a game, on the Town Hall chessboard. We meant it, because as dreams go this was pretty.. achievable." 23:56 <banana> Mary: "But we were poor.. and then we were imprisoned by Atletico, one way or another.. and then we were busy, and we forgot about things, put them off. Then there was lockdown, two years without bookings!" 23:57 <banana> She waves a chip expansively. "After Christmas we're going on tour and... maybe we don't come back to fucking Manchester. Maybe ever. I think that's a feeling you get, maybe?" 23:57 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yeah. Yeah, it is." 23:58 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm going to Italy after this contract ends. And part of me - not a small part of me - is like... I can stretch the money until my trust vests. And then we can go anywhere, and stay there." 23:58 <banana> Mary: "See how you feel about it when you get there. Maybe it'll be lovely, maybe the traffic will be unbearable." 23:59 <VoxPVoxD> "The problem I have is this: if they simply meant you harm, I would say, bring it on. But I'm not sure we can protect you from attention in the same way." 23:59 <banana> She shrugs. "Maybe it's a rustic paradise. Maybe you've got unfinished business. I don't know." 23:59 <banana> "Hmm." 23:59 <banana> Mary: "It's not a public event.. it's not some PR thing that people will know about. But I want to play Charlie one last time, and it would suck arse to have that turned into.. I'm not sure what." 00:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "At great risk and with great expertise, Agostina informs us that a profusion of genders will be deployed." 00:01 <banana> Cautiously: "What... does that mean?" 00:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I was hoping you knew." 00:02 <banana> Mary: "Well, I know it's a topic that stirs people up, gender. Not the least controversial of today's words. But I don't think you can deploy one." 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> "If it were purely up to me, I would say, come back after Christmas. Make a plane wait if you have to. And even if you never came back to Manchester to eat these chips or walk these streets, at the absolute worst, you could return as conquering queens to fulfil an old promise." 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> "But it isn't up to me. And it isn't... entirely up to you." 00:04 <VoxPVoxD> "You should talk to Charlie, and come to a decision together." 00:04 <banana> Reveille: "I'm deeply unenthused by the idea of allowing Cosmos to dictate my sentimental leisure activities." 00:05 <banana> "I'll see what Charlie thinks. But Willie, Nameless Willie... we may have to call on your services one second-last time. It's possible we will require... an array of gender defenses." 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> "I would be, too. But doing the opposite of what someone wants at every turn lets them circumscribe you just as neatly. You have the security to do what you want, and we're committed to helping you achieve that despite stellar interference." 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> "Just... I know if my best friend was in trouble or suffering, and they were weighing decisions that could risk everything they've worked for, I'd want them to let me in." 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> "So yeah, talk to Charlie. We remain at your service." 00:07 <banana> Mary smiles. "You aren't wrong, thanks." 00:08 <banana> "Of course," she points out, "our booking is for the 22nd. If your team can do something about my stalker star before Wednesday week, presumably this all goes away." 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> "That," concedes Willie, "is a very good point indeed." 00:09 <banana> "Let's drink to it." 00:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's so glad she didn't drive.