Difference between revisions of "Log:Congratulations On Your Shiny Hat"

4 December, 2017

Dielle is called to get a girl in a glass box.

H08 - Space Communist Hollow

Vorpal came by earlier, and now Teagan is sitting in the same spot again, moodily staring -- on the second floor of the Hollow, someone else will have to let Dielle in -- at a glass coffin. Inside the coffin is a Fairest who's more Striking than Beauty, a girl whose breath slowly and repeatedly fogs up the glass. Teagan appears to be staring at the breath-fog patterns in the low light. Grumpy Squire. Squires aren't supposed to guard shit!

Alonso is not keen on having houseguests. It's not that he isn't a mi casa su casa kind of guy. He very much is. But hollows are a different sort of home entirely, and carry much greater risks where random guests are concerned. It's he that fetches Dielle and escorts her back towards the tree house situated just behind the hob village west of Stonehearth. The ground floor contains his horse, among other things. Then it's up the stairs to the living quarters, where the casket is being stored along with another brooding latinx darkling harbinger. Alonso is packing his pipe as he crests the stairs, striking a match and pausing to light it before stepping into the living area more fully. "I have brought el Capitan."

Dielle tips an imaginary hat, because for once, she's not wearing her cowboy hat. She follows Alonso and blinks at the Fairest. True to form, the first words out of her mouth aren't even a greeting, but a question. "Who's the stiff?" The she looks regretful. "Damn. I coulda been witty and asked who bought me the dead elf for my birthday. 'Cept it ain't my birthday. Either way, y'all get me the NICEST presents, I can make an archery target outta her!" Very. Very. Very. Very. Deadpan.

GAME: Teagan spends 2 Glamour with reason: Omen 2

The look on Teagan's face is quite far away for a moment. People who've seen Teagan when they're watching omens will recognize it: their attention slowly returns to the scene as though they're swimming up from under water. "Oh. Uh. Hey, Dielle." They blink slowly. "I dunno who she is. Uh. We found her last night. At least one person died defending her, I know that much for sure. Probably more. But, uh... " They spread their hands slowly. "You know. Here's a problem for you. Congrats on your shiny hat." Fingerguns. "Johnny went up to lookout from the treetop, because he can't resist climbing on shit. JOHNNY!"

Oh, hey! There's a second dark sort, one notably less invited, one that came about in search of things not caskety nor hollowy and just happened to find both coincidentally in the vicinity of the intended quarry. The holler upwards brings... well, not quite footsteps, because Vorpal's lazy and doesn't drag his weight up trees, but light pitter pats that come back down the side of the tree via branches, punctuated at the end by a sharp rap at one of the emergency exit "leap out of me" doors, and a muffled, "You called?"

There's a flitter of wings before someone... something else comes into the treehouse as well, in particular a black and silver bat that does a sweep around the room before flapping outside. Presumably towards Vorpal... who would find, indeed, it's towards Vorpal. In short order, the Shadowsoul acquires a bat-hat, nestling in among the shadows and appearing as a pair of peering, dark eyes above his, whenever someone does open the door.

Alonso's expression remains stoic, if vaguely disappointed at his present circumstances. He sidles over to the escape hatch and bumps his fist against the wall, swinging the door outwards to allow Vorpal back inside. Once the other fellow is back in, Alonso bumps the wall again, and the door swings shut once more. "If you would be so kind, Captain, as to accept custody of this woman, we would be grateful to you. We also recovered the corpse of a bear beast that died defending her. Killed, according to the proverbial tea leaves, for what he knew. It would seem another was dragged off by those who attacked them. A total of four assailants, at least, it was surmised. The dead man visited a bar in Fort Brunsett. I thought we might pay it a visit ourselves. Perhaps there were cameras, or the like. He may have met someone there."

"He knew her," Teagan offers thoughtfully, looking up from where they're sitting at the foot of the bed up here, on the second floor. The first floor was all books in Hebrew and Yiddish, bare earth floor. This is a wooden floor, where earth and air meet. And grumpy Squires grump. "The patterns of her breath on the glass," they mutter, their fractured-mirror eyes glittering sharply. "The glass coffin isn't keeping her alive. It's probably keeping her asleep, I don't know why. But it's not like, an ICU or anything. He was definitely protecting her, and he definitely knew her, like, personally. Like. I dunno. Maybe a motleymate or something. Maybe he hated her, I don't know. But he knew her personally, he's not like, some impersonal guard protecting an idea." A vague, weary smile. "I am so tapped out." Thirty-six hours and change in the Hedge, and they do look, you know. Pretty tapped out. How empty can a mirror look? "Hey, Johnny. Zee. We gotta get this girl outta Alonso's living room."

Dielle opens her mouth and closes it again. She clearly wants to complain mightily and ask why this is her problem. Except that this is what she signed on for. "Gee. Thanks," she says, even more dryly. "So...we need to find someplace to stash her that won't have her enemies coming after us. Well, you. We'll take her to the Aspire, shove her in the basement or attic or something. She's having visions, huh?" She looks at the girl thoughtfully and says, "We can leave some people guarding her at the Aspire, I can sleep in the Dawn hollow and dive into her dreams."

"Much obliged, ser," Vorpal offers as he slips back into the building with his bat-hat. He pays close attention as what details are known about the girl, her theoretical protector, and the coffin, nodding a greeting to Dielle as well. "Fort Brunsett bars are bad news for changelings around here... yeesh."

"Aspire's certainly an option. I favor the third floor for reduced ease of outside access, but that's just me." Teagan's exhausted nod gets a grin from the godling, but he's letting Dielle keep control. As best he can, anyway, he's not always the best at staying out of his own way.

"Do we know how long she'd been in the cave?" that's the shrill voice of the bat, from atop of Vorpal's head - certainly the Beast's regular form would be more effective for fighting, but this one -is- more effective for watching and doing guard duty. Especially since it's small, and not something most would regularly notice... except that it's getting along towards winter, at present. "The way the bear was positioned, it -looked- like he fought... whoever was in the cave. Maybe they put her in there, and then ran away? And there's the hob that kind of... wandered off of the trail, too. And the missing person."

The bat stops for a moment, reaching up a wing-wrist to scratch behind an ear with a tilt of its head. Then it turns to look around more properly, and offers up, "I'm kind of... um... limited in the Winter, ironically, but I can probably see what I have to chase down a few leads, from there."

"I can open a door to Aspire long enough for us to get the casket through. No messing about with real world transportation. That said, we ought to get a tokenmaster-- or one of the Autumns --to examine the casket. Sort out who it works, what it does, how to control it. I'd like to get the woman roused up so we can ask her about her circumstances. Assuming she knows anything about them." Alonso takes another few puffs from his pipe, then settles back against the wall. Trying, however pointlessly, to relax in the presence of so many guests. "Ziv raises some excellent questions, too. We know we don't know more than we know that we know, which is an excellent start and an awful place to be. Filling in the blanks seems important, yes?"

"I don't know how long she was in there. I mean, if you looked at the walls of that Hollow? I don't think long. It wasn't made long ago, and it was made real fast. Like, just, quick, shitty Hedge shaping," explains Teagan, rubbing a hand over their face. "I think they made it when they were running, so they could hide her." The androgyne shoves themselves up to their feet. "I'm gonna go after the one who got dragged off, see if we can't find him. I'm pretty good at dreams, but not like, amazing." They're no Family member, after all. "Going to the bar's a good idea, too. Go check out the cameras and shit. Like Alonso said."

Game: Teagan has a "Glamour" Pool of 2.7/14.

Dielle goes to sit down. "If any of you do go to the bar, and I'm not there, I'd like to hear about it. Or I could go with you. Someone mind telling me the story of what happened in a mostly linear fashion?" She does NOT sit on the coffin. She was thinking about it VERY HARD though.

"I believe Ziv has the majority of the salient facts," Alonso offers, looking over to the bat in question with a nod. He passes the buck, then takes a puff from his pipe and continues relaxing against the wall.

"The Hollow... I thought it was a Winter one, but it was really um... desperate," agrees bat-Ziv, from atop of Vorpal's head, with what the others have to say. She even nods - or presumably that bobbing motion of her small head is a nod. Then, when Dielle asks for an explanation, the shrill little squeaky voice continues, "We all happened on the... Meeting Tree, and found a trail of blood, and the messages torn down. Alonso lead the way up the mountain, to the cave, where we found the bear-guy and the lady in the glass coffin. Bear-guy was already dead, but there was another trail where someone was dragged off - by a Lost, I think, that had a hob with them until the hob went a separate way. Couldn't keep tracking, they did like Teagan does and covered their trail."

Vorpal moves to drape down the wall and sit at its base, letting Ziv explain what she knows while he does his best to absorb it all.

"And then I turned into a blanket and we used me and Alonso's fae mount to make a sledge and drag the coffin back here, and up to the second floor. I basically bounced my face and my ass off the entirety of the Hedge under this heavy fuckin' thing. It works, though, like, I can do it again, I'm just... tapped as fuck." Teagan rubs a hand over their face. "It's been a challenging fuckin' jawn, this one."

"So what we got here is a big damn mystery. Is she freehold? Does anyone know who she is and why we're protecting her?" Somehow, Dielle does not mind sounding entirely heartless, just now. She saves her further thoughts on it for herself, for the moment.

Vorpal blinks and peers at Teagan, snapping his fingers. "-That- is what that is. Well. That's easily enough resolved. Tell you what. I'll give you some glamour, right here and now, so long as you promise not to eat any Durian before this time tomorrow. If you do, I'm taking it all back. Deal?" Vorpal offers his hand Teagan's way. "It won't be much, I don't think you can handle an influx more than- eh, a few fruit's worth, but you won't have to cram it down your throat." He's out of the loop for the rest of this, so Vorpal is fixing what he can.

"She is likely a member of some freehold or another, if not this one. I do not recognize her," Alonso offers between puffs of his pipe. "As to why we are protecting her? I can only speak for myself, but because she is a person, and helpless, and in my living room. If it is decided the Freehold will not concern itself with her care, she will remain here and I will assume the responsibility myself."

"Uuuuh, I might be a really weird Winter, but I just... kind of want to help people," offers up the squeaky Ziv-bat from within Vorpal's shadows and hair, somewhat blending in considering there's a lot of black going on. It tilts its head to the side, looking over at Dielle with ears ever twitching. "...And there's someone out there -still- in trouble; I imagine they... probably know what's going on... but I'm not sure how we can really find them. Probably going to have to start just talking to people."

"We found her on your turf. So I'm bringing the problem to you," Teagan says straightforward to Dielle with a shrug of their shoulders. "At least, kinda. The looptrod, isn't it, ya know? Anyway, whatever the solution is, whatever." And then they turn their face toward Vorpal, nodding somewhat uncertainly. "Yeah, I won't eat any Durian before this time tomorrow, that's fine." Their face is blank as usual, sort of tired. "Yeah, pretty much what Z said. And I dunno who belongs where, I'm just Squire Teagan, gettin' sick of finding bodies I didn't make."

GAME: Vorpal spends 5 Glamour

GAME: Teagan regain 5 Glamour with reason: omnomnom

Dielle says, with a weary voice, "Technically, not my fucking problem if she's not freehold. Except fucking Dawn Court, so I'll take her home with me and do what I can to find out what kind of visions she's having. Someone's gonna have to guard her, though, I've got too much to do. There's an empty apartment on the top floor of the Aspire, we can stash her there, so I can go sleep in a Hollow and find out what she's dreaming about. And what the fuck is with this freehold? Every time we turn around, there's dead bodies or comatose bodies, it's like we don't even have a goddamned militia." She sighs, and says, "C'mon, let's move Lady Stiff."