=========-< << Mountain Homestead - Rustic Cabin >> >-==========
There is a lot packed into this one-room cabin, but it's been so well organized and everything has its place that it doesn't feel overly cluttered or chaotic. The walls, from floor to ceiling, are lined with narrow shelves stacked in turn with bottles canning jars, each a different color and marked with dates on the lids. Sturdy tables of rough hewn wood are pushed up to each of three walls with crates of storage beneath them, each table set with a long split log bench and devoted to a different task; taxidermy, charm making, and cooking. A pot belly stove is set up beside the cooking table.
At the opposite side of the cabin from the cooking table is a riverstone fireplace with a single heavy rocker set up alongside a sturdy table. Above the fireplace is a loft with only a few feet of clearance at the edges, and perhaps four at the peak of the roof, where a low double bed has been set up. A few trunks tucked to either side serve as more storage. Thick furs are draped all over the cabin; they serve as rugs on the floor, blankets on the bed, and padding on the benches and chair. Trinkets and charms made of wood and bone and feathers hang from the loft and over the front and back doors, and an arrangement of deer antlers worked into a wreathe hangs on the stone of the chimney.
Cardinal, true to her word, is up at the cabin today. Nevermind that it's a fine Friday afternoon and almost certainly a wonderful day for ice cream; she's surely got staff seeing to whatever rush the nice weather brings. The front door to the cabin's open, letting the lazy breeze in and the music filtering through the battery-powered blue-tooth speakers inside spill out. At the moment, it's some Cowboy Junkies, something acoustic and bright. The redhead's settled at the table with its bench seating, facing a windowsill hosting an assortment of mismatched origami birds, with Boss sleeping at her feet while she sketches. Along with her sketchbook and pencils, there's also a plate of yellow cornmeal cookies, cool, leftovers from the night prior.
Jack comes riding in, as it's the fastest way to get here, and he's a bit later than one hour; but he DID bring donuts. He settles Troll in outside, Goblin and Fairy both doing circles around the area and the former barking to get the attention of Boss, the latter settling down on the roof of the cabin for now, chirping her own greeting. Jack, dressed casually in jeans and T-shirt, brings the longed for treats to the porch, peeking inside. "Red?" Seeing that she's there, he steps inside with a warm grin. "Hey. And hey there Boss."
Cardinal, too, is about as casual as Cardinals get: jean shorts, bare feet, no bangles or lip gloss, hair left down. It's just that green shirt that stands out as colorful, the stylized words 'Be the Light' in black across her chest. She looks up from her work when the barking comes, Boss rather suddenly alert and starting toward the door. As soon as Jack has it open, he's bounding outside to go play with Goblin, happily chasing after the other pup and clearly glad for the action. Cardinal's a little more reserved at first, fighting her muse as it demands just one more line, attention back on the page after a flash of a smile toward her cousin to welcome him in. Scritch scritch. Frown. No, that... ugh. Art is hard. With a barely audible huff of breath, she sets her pencil down and finally looks to Jack all right and proper, motioning him over. It doesn't smell like there's any coffee actively on. <<Want something to drink?>>
One thing he hasn't been forgoing over all work - he's practiced sign language. "Yeah. Coffee." He holds the donuts up tantalisingly. "Lots of it. It's what keeps me going, so bring it on." He looks her over, with a trained eye - trying to see how she's doing by visual cues alone. "But if you don't mind me messing about in your kitchen, I can do it." He looks around, appreciatively. "This is some place you have."
Cardinal makes a face at Jack when he offers to make the coffee himself, already rising from the bench seating to pick up a kettle and, well, head out to go get some water. There's no plumbing in here, nice as the space might be. It only takes a moment, plenty of time for Jack to get situated. Then she's got the stove going and coffee on and all her attention settled on her cousin. <<What happened?>> Right to business, it seems.
Jack finds himself a suitable seat somewhere, setting the donuts down and grabbing one. He brought enough for a small army. All the tools, and workbenches are eyed curiously and a bit like he'd love to poke at the items - but he doesn't touch anything; he knows better than that. He wouldn't want someone to mess with his tools, either. "You know Cerise Hodgson?" he asks. Not waiting for a reply, he adds; "She went somewhere doing something - somewhere I can't go, they tell me - and she was taken. You know, by the same ones that took you, I'm sure of it. They left a copy in her place."
<<Nope!>> Cardinal signs all too cheerfully at the offered name. Like that ignorance might be some point of pride. That good humor drains some--into sourness more than concern--as he goes on. Making her way to the table, she takes up one of the donuts with pink icing and settles back in right where she'd been. She manages only a bite before the treat is set down, before she's signing off an answer. <<The more you get involved, the more you're at risk. There are people who handle this sort of thing, and I can report it to them. But if she's gone, she's probably gone. Maybe for a while. Maybe for good. And she certainly won't be the same if she makes it back.>>
"Everyone keeps telling me this, like I should just forget it. You think I would've forget it if I'd known this happened to you?" Jack says. His expression is grim and he's angry - that cold rage is seen his gaze again, the same one he showed when she told him what had happened to her. He eats his donut with ravenous intensity, just because he needs to stifle that rage somehow. "They already know, anyway. I'm guessing they do what they can, but everyone says nothing /can/ be done."
<< I think someone should have helped Susan if they knew what had happened to me, >> Cardinal answers back without missing a beat, her eyes wide. << If there's anything to do, that's it. Taking care of her people. Not letting them fall apart or disappear or get locked up cuz people think they're crazy.>> Her hands fall still for a minute as she considers him, lips twisting with sourness again before she picks up again. << First, I don't know which they your everyone is referring to, but if you think it's covered, I'm glad to do nothing. I'm not sure what it is you want from me, then.>>
"I would've," Jack says firmly. He would've too - but even so, she's giving him something to think about. "I don't know her family, at all - I don't think she has any in the area. But she has plenty of friends, so yes, I should see about helping them," he admits. He gives Cardinal an appreciative smile, because he /needs/ to do /something. And this IS something. "I just wanted to talk to someone who would give me honest answers - someone I trust. If you say there is nothing we can do, then... I have to accept it. But if there's even one little chance, anything - sending a message through dreams, smoke messages, leaving a trail of crumbs for her to follow - anything... If there is, I don't want it to be discarded immediately. You know how stubborn I am. I turn over every rock before I give up."
<<We can always kill her fetch,>> Cardinal poses on the topic of things-to-be-done. <<Though I wouldn't recommend just going up and murdering her cuz what if you're just delusional. But there are people for that, like I was trying to say who specialize in telling if someone's a real person or not and they can take care of that situation.>> She pauses there to shove some more donut in her mouth, cheeks puffed out a little when she gets back to signing. <<As to dreams? Problem is that they aren't secure. If something's got her, it'll probably be able to see me through her dreams. And that's just inviting a whole world of trouble onto those of us on this side of things. Is it worth risking me, Gabe, you, Sylvana, everyone else to save this one person?>>
With the dogs off doing whatever it was they were doing, the only real alert that Gabe has returned is a distant squeaking of hinges one might discount entirely unless they were familiar with the source. One of the first things spotted on stepping out of the outhouse was Troll. Gabe glanced down overhimself with a thoughtful grunt. He was pretty much soaked from the mop to toe down and stunk of swamp water, and hadn't really bothered with much more than cargo pants going into the Hollow in the first place. Clothes got in the way, but he still liked pockets. It's some minute or so after Gabe reminded himself Jack already knew the basics that he resigned himself to heading towards the house, his bare muddy feet padding up the back step to pull the screen door. He didn't step in right away though, just leaned in and grunted, "Hey Jack - don't mean t'interupt but ah...Birdie?" He points up towards the loft before adding, "Mind grabbin' me some dry pants 'n a shirt?" Glancing back between the two, he belatedly gathers the tension of whatever is currently under discussion and furrows his brow, the longer version of his ears swiveling back. "Somethin' wrong?"
"No, of course it isn't," Jack says, sighing tiredly. "I just wanted to know." He eats another donut, a bit depressed - and that doesn't happen often. But it does when he just has to accept a certain defeat. He does perk up when hearing Gabriel though, sitting up straight and setting his coffee away for now. "Gabe, hey. A friend of mine was taken - by one of the... wahtever you call them. The fucked up assholes that take people to another place and leave a copy behind."
Goblin comes running now - he's greeted Boss with all due affection, now goes to do the same with Red and Gabriel both. Fairy, the whiskey jack bird, chirps a greeting but choses to stay up on the roof - she doesn't quite trust Boss yet.
Hinges? What hinges? Cardinal doesn't hear any hinges. She remains oblivious to Gabriel's approach right up until the door opens, whatever answer she was about to sign to Jack precluded by that sound. It's not really right, given the tone of the current conversation, how she smiles for that swampy shirtless mess peeking in from the back porch, but how can she not? Her donut-glazed fingertips are brushed against her hips as she gets to her feet, though she doesn't dash right on up the ladder, taking a moment to turn to Jack and sign, <<Fairies,>> at him with a grim, vaguely apologetic expression. <<We call them Fairies.>> Someone was gonna have to tell him one of these days.
Then she's climbing up to the loft to fetch some dry clothes for Gabe, a plain tee and fresh cargos tucked under one arm as she makes her way back down. She'll take the chance, if he lets her, to claim a quick kiss during the hand off, but she doesn't linger, quick to head to the stove where the coffee's starting to signal that it's ready. Were it not for the awful topic of conversation, it'd be a lovely afternoon tea! Coffee. Whatever.
Gabe might have looked up to the roof, or given Goblin more than a passing touch of his distracted hand to the dog's head, but he was slightly taken aback by the news, or that's what the momentary freeze might be attributed to. In the time that he was processing and separating it from himself behing the neutral mask of his face, Boss snuffed and sneezed his way through squeezing past Goblin and Gabe through the open door, giving the swamp-water a wide berth on his way inside to bee line for the donuts. He almost makes a go for one before Gabe snapped out of his thoughts to grunt, "Don't think 'bout it-" Boss falls back a step to flop in the floor and whine instead, and Gabe turns his attention back toward the more bipedal company. "I ah...that's real shit t'hear," he tries offering Jack, then adds to Card's help of 'fairies', "If we're bein' nice."
He is all too happy to take the quick kiss, though mindful not to drip water on Card in the process, "I'll be right back in," came out more distracted, the man having retreated into his mind somewhat as he ducked out to rinse off and dress.
"I'll call them Assholes," Jack decides - no way he's going to use the name for them he named his own bird. The ranger nods and sits back down to wait, for coffee and for Gabe to get dressed, squinting at Cardinal. "So..." He considers it. "That dream stuff. There's no safe way? We'd be at proper risk?" So alright, he's not leaving it entirely. "I got no idea how it works. I don't know if you can or want to tell me, either." He looks longingly at that coffee, eager to have some. He looks indeed like he's lived on coffee the last few days.
Cardinal pours a couple mugs of coffee, bringing over some sugar, cream and spoons before settling back down at the table. Given the sheer volume of donuts on offer, she plucks up one that looks especially sticky with glaze and offers it over to the moping Boss, smiling damned near flirtatiously at the dog so that he remembers who loves and spoils him. There's a look toward Goblin, brows arched for Jack, but she doesn't just hand off sugary treats to, well, the actual dog in the room without his friend's consent. <<Fairies are creatures of dreams. They have power over dreams that we can only barely touch. But we share some of their power. Part of what happens to us when they take us, that we soak up some of their power. Hard to know what could happen if we go looking that way. I've never gone looking for anyone like that. If you were willing to risk your head, I could probably start in your dreams. That way, you could come with me.>>
It wasn't long, just a few minutes, that the quiet rush of water from the rain catcher on the roof gravity fed to the outdoor shower would be heard. It was long enough for Boss to jump all over that donut offer from Cardinal and a greedy lapping at the glaze left on her fingers. A minute or so after the sound of the water disappears, Gabe returns, still damp but at least with less mud and stink. He grabs a linen dishtowel from the table near the pot belly stove when he passes by to run along his jaw and neck as he settles into a seat near at hand to listen and catch up. His brow furrows a little at the tail end he catches from Card's fingers before he's unthinkingly signing and speaking at the same time. "You're thinkin' to find this missin' friend through dreams? Can ya do that 'cross th'Hedge?"
Normally, Jack doesn't have either cream or sugar in his coffe, but today he treats himself - or maybe he needs the extra sugar. He stirs, then sips and sighs contently.
Goblin looks with a question to Jack, tail wagging - the ranger grins and nods, and the dog goes to get that treat from Cardinal, making happy excited noises.
"I'd do that," Jack responds without any hesitation. Stubborn to a fault. "If that's what it takes - go ahead." He has to wrap his head around the whole concept, frowning thoughtfully. "Do you need anything of Cerise's items? We have her handbag, from before she was taken - she carried it around a lot. Avalon has it." He slurps more coffee, giving Gabriel a slight grin. "The Hedge?"
Giving whole donuts to dogs is surely healthy, right? Right! Cardinal offers up one of those sweet, decadent treats to Goblin, even if he doesn't get quite the same sort of smile that Boss did. She doesn't live with him and doesn't need to reinforce her role as the Nice One with him. With Gabriel settling in close, she edges a little closer to steal a quick bit of contact, wordless appreciation for his proximity. But the smile she turns to him falters at his questions, at the follow-up from Jack. She's still for a moment, considering. <<Have to start in the Hedge. Has a deeper connection to dreams than this world does.>> Which merits a look between Jack and Gabe. She offers, <<The Hedge is an in-between place,>> but seems to expect the Magi to offer up something more. << I don't need anything of hers if I'm going in through the head of someone who knows her. Memory will do. Emotional ones. You two ever..?>> Her eyes go wide as she refrains from any suggestive gestures. After a moment she follows it up with, << Share any traumatic experiences?>>
When Card settles in nearby, Gabe curls an arm around her shoulder, drawing her in for a quick kiss to the crown of her head before easing up to just a loose wrap around her hips giving her all the freedom to sign she might need. He follows her words along before adding only, "It's what stands between us 'n There, all th'Theres. Kind of think of it as...one part reflection, one part lil kid's imagination, and fill it with hungry, greedy shit that don't make much rhyme or reason." He scratches absently at his jaw before glancing sidelong towards Card. "Startin' in th'Hedge means takin' him into th'Hedge...t'sleep..." he lays out of what he was gathering, half pointing out the big hitch (in his mind) and half asking if he had it right. A stray glance towards the back door has his nose wrinkling up across the bridge before he asks distractedly, "Reckon th'bayou might be safe 'nough for dozin' in?"
"Sounds a bit like New York," Jack jokes dryly, finishing his first mug of coffee and going for a second one immediately. But he's fascinated. Red is given an amused snort, before he thinks it over. "We both ran into a burning building to save some people," he says. "That's how we met, the first time. And after that, we've worked together on another disappearance. It's almost ironic that she, who worked so hard on helping someone who is kidnapped, now ended up being taken herself." HE adds, to clarify; "Not an Asshole kidnapping. More of a normal one. Either or, I think we'd have enough to work on, right?" At the talk of the 'bayou' he raises an inquisitive eyebrow; this is a proper lesson in Changeling 1.0 this.
Cardinal gives her head a prompt shake to Gabriel's words about taking Jack into the Hedge. <<Only me. He can be safe in his bed. He just has to let me in. Bayou will do, if you're with me. Prefer my cove if I'm alone.>> There's a question in that, the way she watches Gabe, all wide-eyed and searching and serious. When she turns her attention back to her cousin, it's to tell him, << You realize it won't be ironic at all if you go missing next, right? That it will be entirely predictable and expected and everyone will be like, yes, we saw that coming, why did he go and put himself in danger like that. And I will kill your fetch if one is left. No hesitation. No waiting for the Duchy. No time for him to go getting girlfriends and making everything weird.>> There's that sour expression again, jaw tight as she snatches up another donut like it might make her feel better.
"Ne'er been," was all Gabe could say regarding New York, one shoulder giving a lazy shrug before he's distracted into watching Card's hands again. The question is met with an almost incredulous look back, a soft snort to boot. "Even if I was of a mind t'letcha go dream hoppin' through th'other side without lookin' after ya - which I'm not, t'be clear - pledged otherwise didn't I?" he points out. "Not sayin' I reckon it's a good idea though," added as he settles back heavier in his seat and leaning to the table behind him. More to Jack he goes on, "And findin' ya if you get took...not a sure thing. Most of us get out on dumb luck, and what Time's doin' while you're there, what your memory is doin', what They're doin'...may not be nothin' to bring back if ya even could be foundt, least nothin' that still looks like you. Shit, might even wind up so brainwashed you fuck us over tryin' t'fetch you back, or they send ya back t'hunt th'likes of us." As usual, skeptical Gabe is skeptical of the whole idea. "Course, same goes for this girl. Might put it all on th'line and find there's not much of who ya knew left."
"I'm not going to get taken. If that'd happen, I'd /expect/ you to kill my 'fetch," Jack says - he learned another word but had to struggle with translating it - he looked confused for several seconds as if sure he got that wrong, cause Fetch is a bit far... fetched. But once his brain has gone through it, he remembers some occult things and realises that he knows what that is. A Fetch - he recognises the word, in the end. "As for who she is when she comes out - we can't forsee that, but I have to believe she'll be... saveable. And if she isn't, well." He looks grim, sipping coffee. "I'll take care of it myself. I take that responsibility."
Cardinal leans into Gabriel with open affection for that assurance, head dipping to his shoulder to press a kiss right there. She keeps that close as he goes on, leaning right into him as he leans back, her attention settled on Jack to see how he takes all of that. She doesn't once express even a hint of disagreement; to the contrary, there seems more curious concern on her features. <<The responsibility you need to be prepared to take is to walk away when it's time. To cut and run to protect yourself and everyone else over on this side. Your responsibility is always to the living and the safe. And that includes yourself. Okay?>> The rest can wait until after they've got that Very Important Point sorted out.
Gabe's eye slipped between Card's hands and Jack in turn, adding only, "T'be there for your kid." Otherwise, he seemed to have said all he had to say on the subject.
What Cardinal is asking of Jack... it's a lot. It goes against his very nature to cut and run to protect himself. He might do it to protect others however, so he tilts his head and considers it carefully. "You're asking a lot of me," he tells her squarely. "I'd find it hard to run, leaving /you/ behind, for example. But... my main goal IS to keep others safe. So, alright." He concedes this, reluctantly. "You two are on point on this, you're on lead. Tell me what I need to do, when I need to do it." He grabs one more donut, looking down at it, before biting off a big bite. He chews and looks at the two seriously. "It was easier when it was just me," he says with a slight wry smile.
Cardinal nods for Gabe's addition, but keeps her eyes on Jack while he works through that big ask. <<Part of trust, isn't it?>> she answers when he talks about leaving her behind. << Trust me to be capable. As I'm trusting you.>> The last remark gets a breath that might be laughter, but it's hardly enough to register as any genuine mirth. << Right now, I want time to prepare. You keep her fresh in your head. And you keep listening for any news. If you hear about your everyone doing anything, tell me. If they've got it handled, no need for us to go taking risks.>> It looks, for a moment, like she might say something more, but her arms wrap about Gabriel instead, the mute girl falling truly silent.
Now that was a sentiment Gabe could agree with, Jack's lament on it being easier when he was alone, and did with a grunt and a head tip and a glance down towards the red not-bird that had so persistantly made it no longer 'just him'. Just the same, he doesn't seem to hold that against her in the slighets, absently settlign a hand to her back when she wraps around him, listening to the silence for a moment before interjecting a little awkwardly, "Reckon one of Long Night's mares is knocked up. Foundt her diggin' out a hidey hole." Glancing up towards Jack, he goes on, "Don't reckon ya know much about foalin' kelpies? New one for me."
Jack finishes his coffee and sets the mug aside - if he drinks any more, his eyes will start to seep out the brew. "I trust you," he says with a firm nod and that's it - he'll do what is needed and asked. "I'll do some calls tonight, ask around - see what's going on," he promises. "Or go visit some people even. I got all day off." He divides a donut and gives Goblin a half but looks for permission from Gabe to give Boss a half first, before doing so, if it's fine.
"Wait... a /kelpie/. Isn't that a woman that lives in water?" Jack looks completely baffled and not a little fascinated. "Are these like... horse kelpies or something?"
Cardinal keeps still and quiet for the moment with the talk of kelpies. Hard to know if she's listening or lost in her own head, the way her gaze has set off at nothing in particular as she keeps that cuddled up position against the former hermit she's claimed as her own. She's almost certainly going through a list of things she'll need to prepare on her end.
Confusion passes Gabe's features a moment before he laughs, "Think you're thinkin' of selkies. Kelpies look mostly like horses all th'time, gnarley when ya can see 'em proper. Th'ones I got...swamp cousins of th'ones most folk know 'bout. Still all tooth 'n muck though." He scratches absently at his chin and through his beard before grunting, "Can't be all that diff'rent from foalin' a horse," more to himself. Another beat and he snaps back to the here and now to add, "That's what Mud is," before peering down toward Card's quiet.
"Oh right." Jack grins, and leans back. "I've helped foal a lot of little horses, so between the two of us, we'll sort it out. I'm no fan of swamps though," he notes dryly. "I'll get some of those high fisher boots or something." He does look very interested - and yes, even a bit excited, knowing he got invited to go somewhere most never get to see. Things are happening fast, but he's taking it in stride - mostly. "So, Mud is from the Hedge. And Boss too? Guessing I can't talk to any hedge animals, then."
"Th'both of 'em, yea," Gabe nods, affirming the further deduction from what he'd told him that the animals weren't exactly normal. "I mean...you can talk to 'em, and they getcha - " Belatedly thinking to nod about the donut half he'd been distracted from, which Boss scarfs down nearly whole. "Some of the critters in th'Hedge will too but I don't imagine your...ability will make it through to 'em them, like Mud th'other day." Beyond that, he settles into just small talk with the others, and whatever planning might be required, whether it was about dreaming or swamp kelpie 101 and it's cool, it's a bayou. Totally different.
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