The Cereal Box:Log: Difference between revisions

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In the middle of the night, there was a knock on the door. When Ernie answered the door, he found his sister Regina there, weeping and faded, her visage like a black and white photograph.

==Session 36==

Regina came inside and complained about everything. She said she would prefer to sleep on the sand in Belize. Ernie returned to sleep.

===Sunday, May 2nd===

April, Alana and Nikolai go for a wet post-rain run in the cool after-rain. Regina comes out with Ernie for breakfast and met the motley.

After some discussion, Regina explained that she wanted to bring Ernie back to Arcadia, which he refused, telling her that if that's what makes her truly happy, she should return on her own. She explained that she promised she wouldn't go back without Ernie. She tried to bring up every bad thing that happens in the mortal world such as "What if our father shows up?" and "Won't we get old and die someday?" All we rebutted.

The motley took a trip to the Arboretum. On their way, Regina metnioned that sometimes people don't know what they want and you have to force them to learn what they really need and Ernie responded to this by nearly banishing her from his presence. Regina was reticent, and apologized. She admitted she doesn't understand the world beyond Arcadia anymore and needs help. They arrived at the Arboretum to discover that Regina is allergic to flowers. She takes one of every postcard from the rack at the gas station.

Jack came by and after a discussion of the nature of overtime work and picked up his lunch.

Regina apologized to Hestia for being so critical of her cooking and asked to be taught to make food so she can have no one to blame if she doesn't like it but herself. Hestia seemed underwhelmed by this apology.

April agreed not to see the demon without Alana after briefly discussing what information she might want from him. Ernie listened to music with Regina and she was disappointed by the lo-fi nature of reproduced sound. Hestia went downtown to get away from everyone. Alana spoke with Nikolai about his experience with the demon.

While at the mall, Hestia came upon Trevor, who had stole a club from the goblin market. Hestia was able to divert the suspciously mundane security away from it. Trevor admitted that he wanted to impress Billy enough to give him a new place to stay, and that he believed the club, an ornately carved club, was Billy's.

Bill and Ernie texted back and forth:

Need 2 talk. C u 2morrow?

Ok, what time?

When u fr3?

Anytime after 10 aM, where?

Anywhere. Anytime.

10 if I'm awake. Ur place f cool?

Sure. ye y yes

Nikolai dreamed of his time as a tree, and remembered that he began wailing when woodcutters came to take the tree down, but eventually resigned himself to the fact that death was preferable to such an ongoing miserable existence. He then held his tongue when the next woodcutter came and, when the tree was cut down, the power of the release of Koischeii's spirit killed the woodsman. The Collector then came and scavenged both of their remains.

===Monday, May 3rd===

Billy, Helen and Lydia stopped by, primarily because Billy wanted to meet Regina (possibly for carnal reasons). Upon speaking to her briefly, he recognized that she had unorthodox loyalties and took Ernie aside to suggest that they put that thing back where it came from (or so help me). Meanwhile, Regina discussed how she thinks she would like to be part of the Freehold (which means she IS now part of the Freehold per Billy's rules). Jack Strong came over during this and upon having a brief conversation with Regina, appeared lost in throught, during which Billy informed him that he could not harm Regina.

==Session 37==

Sephie stayed home to type up resgination letters, while the rest of the motley went to work on the restaurant. Regina was sad and in pain the whole time. Sephie wrote resignation letters, appreciating Clippy's assistance writing (the only person who was ever excited to see Clippy).

The motley went to sleep.

Nikolai dreamed of being a bookshelf, with no ears and eyes, he could only feel the stories through his flesh. The books (other changelings), constantly murmured, giving him a million tiny stories. "Now to take this bookshelf and carve away everything that isn't a Nikolai." She reshaped him with saws, screws and a plane until he was a real boy. The last thing that happens is she scooped out his worn out eyes and replaced them with newt's eyes. Nikolai is ALMOST HOME.

Alana dreamed of April being betrayed by her girlfriend at a football game. April ran into the woods where she saw a beautiful woman clad in flowers, who asked "Child, are you lost? My name is Ivey - I can take you home." Alana realized that YOU CAN PROTECT THEM.

Hestia dreamed of her wedding... Something old - her husband's wedding ring; something new - Hestia was gifted a fae necklack of timeless ice by Lyrissa; something borrowed - a pair of shoes from Eevie (because Hestia doesn't wear heels) "you can borrow these - they're definitely borrowed"; something blue - a blue garter. The wedding was outdoors at the Spring meeting church. "I want to look in the mirror a minute more. This won't happen again." The Collecter, however, came to ask her to come home and she walked a darkened path, knowing that she could LIGHT THE PATH.

Sephie dreams of picking up a shift at the coma ward. She entered the next patient's room. The patient was awake. "Oh, you're not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be at the University finding your daughter." The man is very weak on his feet and asks to move around. He told her he gave her the key so she could set her daughter free. He explained that everyone in Battle Creek shared dreams and that here "it's a shorter walk" to get to someone else's dreams. Sephie was given the gift of PERFECT MENDING. "I need you to lock the doors," the patient told her, "Something is trying to get in again."

Ernie dreams of his sister eating his special candy. She commented that the candy was the first thing she ate that tasted really good. After the earthquake, something came up and pressed against the window - the Collector, who looked in and asked, in surprise, if this was Battle Creek and how it could even be real. Ernie realized that one way or another, he needed to LET IT GO.

There was a brief 3.1 magnitude earthquake during the night.

===Tuesday, May 4th===

The motley wakes up.

Reginae explained that she dreamed her teeth fell out and Ernie was trying to sew them back in with his special powers while Sephie was giving 'nerve gas' to numb her while Ernie worked.

Hestia looked at fixtures for the restaurant and spoke to Wendell about their business arrangement. (2 successes) She also discussed menu options with Wendell - the menu was mostly American comfort food with Franco-Italian influences and old world rustic food. Their food tastes are very different.

Alana received a text from an unknown number. Alex Smith "Jack is having me pick up his lunch today." Smith ended up speaking with Regina privately with a Pledge on his Title to not to harm her and to return her when he was done (Wendell was quick to point out that they could kill Regina to overthrow the Summer King, but insisted that he was just thinking out loud and neither wanted to hurt Regina NOR overthrow the Summer King, whom he generally liked), after which she announced that she wanted to join the Summer Court at the World's Longest Breakfast Table.

Nikolai learned that nibbling goblin fruit alleviated his pain, and Sephie was able to make a chemotherapy-esque soltion to give him.

Ernie determined that a woman named Candice Robin was attending classes at KCC - astronomy, weight lifting, English and math for liberal arts students - and had a SSN that matched that of Sephie's daughter.

===Wednesday, May 5th===

Sephie spoke with her daughter at the college; eventually they came to the amicable agreement that they should have coffee that Sunday at Sweetwater's.

Nikolai visited the Autumn archives, at a nondescript house off of Emmett street near the bridge that was, apparently, Holly LeClerc's home. The archives were themselves a puzzling arrangment of apparently sentient objects that responded to and answered questions.

They asked questions:

What is the Pumkin King's Ambition? Drew three tarot cards - the Lovers (as represented by the Pumpkin King and a living ragdoll) - the Sun (as represented by a giant shadowy figure with six arms holding forth a bright glowing bundle of blakets) - and the Knave of Wands (as represented by the Pumpkin King himself) Whisper in their head said - "I will have what I seek..."

What are the pumpkin King's frailties? Again, three tarot cards - Ten of Cups (each cup is a rocks glass with the Pumpkin King pushing them away) - Five of cups (knocking over cups and being stared at while looking nervous) - three of swords (crochet needles in his heart)

Who is Wolfgang?

They search for information on Wolfgang, but cannot find anything but info on a Mirrorskin names Jonah Crates. Ernie remembered that they were led to Wolfgang by a mirrorskin changeling they had never before seen.

What happened to Ivey?

They searched for information on Ivy McCree (aka Ivy Justayve) and found a book they were instructed to place behind the crystal ball and view through a hand mirror. The result gave a poem:

Ivy McCree

The beautiful queen

She's gone on to

The forever dream

And highlighted several entries from the glossary: Silver Cord - the line that connects the soul to the mortal realm, if broken, it leaves the soul trapped in the astral realm. Paragon - one who - a small pentagon who grows to a larger pentagon, like a map. Apotheosis - ascension beyond mortality to achieve transcendence or godhood

==Session 38==

The motley convened to discuss what they were going to do with the information they had gained. Would they tell Billy? Would they tell anyone? What would happen? Why was Autumn so keen on keeping important information from Billy? The motley agreed that telling Billy would probably result in him doing something suicidal or dangerous.

They also contemplated what would happen if a changeling ascended as Gentry within the Cereal Box (which SHOULD be impossible) that would create a closed system where they held the power.

The motley worked on the construction project at the restaurant. The motley briefly discussed travelling to the moon after Orlando told them that the lunar module with the door on it was currently on a sound stage in California. Ernie made spacesuits before they realized it was impractical.

The motley sleeps and have a mundane night's sleep.

===Thursday, May 6th===

Sephie and Nikolai go to the Enchanted Attic for information on Mages. (Nikolai incidentally relied on only 1 luck for his roll, whatever that means) Together they were able to find some work on magicks. The Way Things Are - The Story of the Five Towers (authored and hand signed by by H. Phlox). She explained that she had several dozens copies of it and hadn't been able to sell it.

The book contained a portion on Arcadia - being both incredibly beautiful and dangerous - and that Time works "correctly" there (as opposed to "hurtling headlong to the end of time like a man who is plummeting toward the earth who thinks that, 'yes, this is how space works - always falling!'.").

Ernie spent some time managing his changeling network to make sure everyone is getting the support they need (increasing the dots in Allies: Support Network to 4).

Hestia meets with her contractor and requests an audience with Smith.

April knows people who have secrets.

Hestia and Alana met with Smith, who explained that he had plans to include the Firekeeper's Casino Hotel in the Cereal Box, which will, unfortuantely, require bringing the Cereal Box down for a while. He also stated that this plan would explicity result in the FKCH becoming the new Summer meeting ground.

Alana requests work with the Summer Court and got a comission to look into the matter of the Huntsmen and solve the issue.

April revealed her SECRET, explaining that she thought she had found the other half of the horn and bone (badge of horn, the knife of bone). She pointed out that Lyrissa had an accessory that she always wore in her hair - a bone knife. She told Nikolai, she believed that this was directly connected. They discussed the possibility of breaking the badge. They spent the rest of the afternoon experimenting and performing an augury on the badge to determine what its properties are. Additional information was gained on the workings of the Huntsmen as a result.

Nikolai was determined to make a token that would make them invisible to the Fae, and realized that they would be able to make a token to protect from the True Fae, but realized this would be a process.

The motley finished working on the restaurant.

Alana is going to try to delve into her lost memories to see if she's encountered the huntsmen or otherwise had experience with Arcadia as her fetch.

==Session 39==

===Friday, May 6th===

Hestia went to her restaurant with Wendell to sign off on the work. The Foreman bragged about finishing ahead of schedule. The design was a 50's throwback family style restaurant with a large permanent fixture table. Large orders of furniture and equipment were being brought in. Presence + Expression to make the last design decisions (1). Jack Strong stops by in the afternoon and makes a giant show of fawning over the design and the alacrity of the workers. He wondered if they could have lunch cooked by the chef to be the first customer in the restaurant, to which Hestia agreed.

Ernie went on a bike ride and Regina came with, riding on the pegs. They rode down the linear trail near where it follows the river. Regina complains of the smell of the river and swampiness, and Ernie explained it was rotting vegetation. They crossed the bridge to get away from the river.

Alana and April and Nikolai went to the Y to go swimming. The membership cost them a fair chunk of change. Nikolai harvested Glamour off the man giving them the tour by annoying the hell out of him. April explained her suspicion to Alana and told her that Nikolai was planning to confront Lyrissa about it. They both expressed distress that this was a thing at all. "Why don't you try the butterfly stroke?" - April "I'm already having a stroke!" - Nikolai

Sephie went to the coffee date with her daughter, having finished reading the book. There is a repeatedly repainted "red" Baretta. Cadence was inside and said she was glad that she actually showed up. Cadence explained she was studying earth science and astronomy. "I don't think I can remember a time when you weren't working two jobs." "That wasn't me." Sephie explained that she had worked for the clinic in Battle Creek, but that had to end. "Is this a pod person situation?" "Yeah, pretty much." Cadence and Sephie discussed their encounters with Arcadia and how they differed, and Cadence explained that she would like to know how their powers were similar, different and related. Cadence said she would tell her cat Mera that Sephie is ok.

The motley returned home, all having largely accomplished the things they planned to, and Nikolai decided to also read the book Sephie grabbed from the occult store, and realized that a strong, serious reading of it would probably take a week. Alana decided to have some alone time to delve into her memories to remember anything that might be important regarding her fetch. After some work (and distraction with her fetch living such a different lifestyle), she was able to remember that when the fetch looked in the mirror she would frequently see herself reflected in the Hedge as if every mirror was a gate. She recalled on one particular occasion, feeling an apprehensive fear and seeing a glade containing one side with a fireplace and large heavily scarred table, and the other side having a hanging punching bag and couch with TV and a gun and badge hanging up. The Red-Eyed Woodsman entered the glade and she looked away.

Ernie realized that the knife Lyrissa wears in her hair is a combination of an ivory voodoo knife and a combat knife. They also meditated over and investigated the earring from the feels box, and Ernie decided that the sensation of grief seemed to have a moral component and that the sensation of mercy brought to mind someone who realized that their revenge was going too far. Nikolai was able to coax a more vivid separation of emotions from it (like a thin-layer chromatography of the emotions) and felt it as satisfaction, brief fear, resolve, bitter mercy, remorse, numb regret and warm renewal.

===Saturday, May 7th===

Do called them up and suggested that they go to the moon, pathfinding their way there. The whole motley decided that they absolutely wanted to go to the moon. Orlando showed up and suggested that they all go on a journey. April gets 9 successes (!) on her pathfinder roll to take them to the moon and they march 5 hours there. Orlando takes a selfie with the space suit and they enter the door they found in the hedge badlands to get to the lunar module. When they opened it, there was a suck of back-pressure air and they walked out onto the lunar surface...

...which turned out to be in Arcadia. And they were largely convinced that it was the collector's domain.

==Session 40==

Ernie, Nikolai and Orlando explain the situation and the motley decides they want nothing more to do with this. It's disappointing, especially since it neither proves nor disproves the question of whether the moon landing was real. The motley searches for a hedge gate to return home. April pathfinded them to the nearest doorway, and, en route, they were accosted by 3 goblin dune buggies, styled somewhere between mad max-esque raiders and moon rovers. Nikolai waylaid one, but the other two went in for an attack.

One of the carts was swarming with goblins. Orlando was able to blind the driver so the cart missed him and drove off into the distance. Goblins armed with a surgical tubing flail, goblin with a canister of compressed gas, a goblin with a broken beaker, and a goblin with nailbat accosted him.

The other remaining cart had a goblin with dynamite fruit on spears and a rotund goblin driver that looked together like Waluigi and Wario. They missed Nikolai and Ernie hit their explosive spear with a stone, knocking over the skinny one. Nikolai and Sephie took on the goblins struggling with 'Do. Together, the defeated the goblins, destroying the remaining buggy and defeating the ones attacking 'Do (including sending one skyrocketing into the sky and exploding with a well placed stone).

The motley found an archway and left the Hedge into the real world in the wee hours of the morning. Sephie distributed goblin fruit to all the unwell, but it was not a solid healing. Hestia left food for Jack with a note and everyone slept in until late afternoon.

The motley spent their time waiting to heal (until Wednesday, my dudes) and harvested Glamour.

===Wednesday, May 12th===

Ernie increased his Academics in hopes of creating a new "safe haven" that will be an improvement over the "changeling ghetto." His goal was to eventually sets up small businesses that will employ newcomer changelings. His major motivation is to reduce overcrowding.

Sephie is contacting a realtor to sell her fetch's old property. Sephie makes contact with a realtor named Kyle Kirstens. The house is now on the market as a rental property and increases her Resources.

The planned soft opening of the Restaurant on Friday will be a small royal opening for the monarchs and their two perferred guests. The servers, wait staff, dishwashers and cooks are all members of the changeling community for this event.

===Friday, May 14th===

The motley prepared the finishing touches of the Hestaurant, officially dubbed "Granny's Plaace." The formal guest list has been returned: the Pumpkin King is bringing Roper Redding and Holly LeClerc, Billy is bringing Lydia Kidder and Helen Moore, Alexander Smith brought Janice Tasker and Granny Lovett, and Lyrissa is bringing Johnny Starlight and Shaun Schumaker.

The settings were placed with Expression 3 and the food produced Crafts 3. Janglejaw Crookfingers showed up, and Lyrissa she congratulated Janglejaw on the ascendancy of his court. He put on a paper crown he made from a napkin. They seated the motley members in the groups with their respective monarchs. Jack and Gina were also present.

Chalkos threw down the gauntlet on Smith and after unpleasant negotiations, and demanded that traditions of Summer be upheld. A duel was demanded with each of them (and only THEM, not a champion who will fight in their stead) is permitted to bring thier own weapon, no seconds, 10 witnesses. Smith named Billy as the judge and Chalkos accepted without hesitation. After some argumentation, they agreed that the fight would be immediately before the coronation to take place in the Hedge. Smith excused himself to the restoom and returned (especially) pale.

As Janglejaw left, he opened a hedge gate that refused to close initially and then sputtered several times. April suggested that the Cereal box was, in fact, getting very soggy indeed.

@@ Line 818: / Line 818: @@
 In the middle of the night, there was a knock on the door. When Ernie answered the door, he found his sister Regina there, weeping and faded, her visage like a black and white photograph.
+==Session 36==
+Regina came inside and complained about everything. She said she would prefer to sleep on the sand in Belize. Ernie returned to sleep.
+===Sunday, May 2nd===
+April, Alana and Nikolai go for a wet post-rain run in the cool after-rain. Regina comes out with Ernie for breakfast and met the motley.
+After some discussion, Regina explained that she wanted to bring Ernie back to Arcadia, which he refused, telling her that if that's what makes her truly happy, she should return on her own. She explained that she promised she wouldn't go back without Ernie. She tried to bring up every bad thing that happens in the mortal world such as "What if our father shows up?" and "Won't we get old and die someday?" All we rebutted.
+The motley took a trip to the Arboretum. On their way, Regina metnioned that sometimes people don't know what they want and you have to force them to learn what they really need and Ernie responded to this by nearly banishing her from his presence. Regina was reticent, and apologized. She admitted she doesn't understand the world beyond Arcadia anymore and needs help. They arrived at the Arboretum to discover that Regina is allergic to flowers. She takes one of every postcard from the rack at the gas station.
+Jack came by and after a discussion of the nature of overtime work and picked up his lunch.
+Regina apologized to Hestia for being so critical of her cooking and asked to be taught to make food so she can have no one to blame if she doesn't like it but herself. Hestia seemed underwhelmed by this apology.
+April agreed not to see the demon without Alana after briefly discussing what information she might want from him. Ernie listened to music with Regina and she was disappointed by the lo-fi nature of reproduced sound. Hestia went downtown to get away from everyone. Alana spoke with Nikolai about his experience with the demon.
+While at the mall, Hestia came upon Trevor, who had stole a club from the goblin market. Hestia was able to divert the suspciously mundane security away from it. Trevor admitted that he wanted to impress Billy enough to give him a new place to stay, and that he believed the club, an ornately carved club, was Billy's.
+Bill and Ernie texted back and forth:
+Need 2 talk. C u 2morrow?
+Ok, what time?
+When u fr3?
+Anytime after 10 aM, where?
+Anywhere. Anytime.
+if I'm awake. Ur place f cool?
+Sure. ye y yes
+Nikolai dreamed of his time as a tree, and remembered that he began wailing when woodcutters came to take the tree down, but eventually resigned himself to the fact that death was preferable to such an ongoing miserable existence. He then held his tongue when the next woodcutter came and, when the tree was cut down, the power of the release of Koischeii's spirit killed the woodsman. The Collector then came and scavenged both of their remains.
+===Monday, May 3rd===
+Billy, Helen and Lydia stopped by, primarily because Billy wanted to meet Regina (possibly for carnal reasons). Upon speaking to her briefly, he recognized that she had unorthodox loyalties and took Ernie aside to suggest that they put that thing back where it came from (or so help me). Meanwhile, Regina discussed how she thinks she would like to be part of the Freehold (which means she IS now part of the Freehold per Billy's rules). Jack Strong came over during this and upon having a brief conversation with Regina, appeared lost in throught, during which Billy informed him that he could not harm Regina.
+==Session 37==
+Sephie stayed home to type up resgination letters, while the rest of the motley went to work on the restaurant. Regina was sad and in pain the whole time. Sephie wrote resignation letters, appreciating Clippy's assistance writing (the only person who was ever excited to see Clippy).
+The motley went to sleep.
+Nikolai dreamed of being a bookshelf, with no ears and eyes, he could only feel the stories through his flesh. The books (other changelings), constantly murmured, giving him a million tiny stories. "Now to take this bookshelf and carve away everything that isn't a Nikolai." She reshaped him with saws, screws and a plane until he was a real boy. The last thing that happens is she scooped out his worn out eyes and replaced them with newt's eyes. Nikolai is ALMOST HOME.
+Alana dreamed of April being betrayed by her girlfriend at a football game. April ran into the woods where she saw a beautiful woman clad in flowers, who asked "Child, are you lost? My name is Ivey - I can take you home." Alana realized that YOU CAN PROTECT THEM.
+Hestia dreamed of her wedding... Something old - her husband's wedding ring; something new - Hestia was gifted a fae necklack of timeless ice by Lyrissa; something borrowed - a pair of shoes from Eevie (because Hestia doesn't wear heels) "you can borrow these - they're definitely borrowed"; something blue - a blue garter. The wedding was outdoors at the Spring meeting church. "I want to look in the mirror a minute more. This won't happen again." The Collecter, however, came to ask her to come home and she walked a darkened path, knowing that she could LIGHT THE PATH.
+Sephie dreams of picking up a shift at the coma ward. She entered the next patient's room. The patient was awake. "Oh, you're not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be at the University finding your daughter." The man is very weak on his feet and asks to move around. He told her he gave her the key so she could set her daughter free. He explained that everyone in Battle Creek shared dreams and that here "it's a shorter walk" to get to someone else's dreams. Sephie was given the gift of PERFECT MENDING. "I need you to lock the doors," the patient told her, "Something is trying to get in again."
+Ernie dreams of his sister eating his special candy. She commented that the candy was the first thing she ate that tasted really good. After the earthquake, something came up and pressed against the window - the Collector, who looked in and asked, in surprise, if this was Battle Creek and how it could even be real. Ernie realized that one way or another, he needed to LET IT GO.
+There was a brief 3.1 magnitude earthquake during the night.
+===Tuesday, May 4th===
+The motley wakes up.
+Reginae explained that she dreamed her teeth fell out and Ernie was trying to sew them back in with his special powers while Sephie was giving 'nerve gas' to numb her while Ernie worked.
+Hestia looked at fixtures for the restaurant and spoke to Wendell about their business arrangement. (2 successes) She also discussed menu options with Wendell - the menu was mostly American comfort food with Franco-Italian influences and old world rustic food. Their food tastes are very different.
+Alana received a text from an unknown number. Alex Smith "Jack is having me pick up his lunch today." Smith ended up speaking with Regina privately with a Pledge on his Title to not to harm her and to return her when he was done (Wendell was quick to point out that they could kill Regina to overthrow the Summer King, but insisted that he was just thinking out loud and neither wanted to hurt Regina NOR overthrow the Summer King, whom he generally liked), after which she announced that she wanted to join the Summer Court at the World's Longest Breakfast Table.
+Nikolai learned that nibbling goblin fruit alleviated his pain, and Sephie was able to make a chemotherapy-esque soltion to give him.
+Ernie determined that a woman named Candice Robin was attending classes at KCC - astronomy, weight lifting, English and math for liberal arts students - and had a SSN that matched that of Sephie's daughter.
+===Wednesday, May 5th===
+Sephie spoke with her daughter at the college; eventually they came to the amicable agreement that they should have coffee that Sunday at Sweetwater's.
+Nikolai visited the Autumn archives, at a nondescript house off of Emmett street near the bridge that was, apparently, Holly LeClerc's home. The archives were themselves a puzzling arrangment of apparently sentient objects that responded to and answered questions.
+They asked questions:
+What is the Pumkin King's Ambition? Drew three tarot cards - the Lovers (as represented by the Pumpkin King and a living ragdoll) - the Sun (as represented by a giant shadowy figure with six arms holding forth a bright glowing bundle of blakets) - and the Knave of Wands (as represented by the Pumpkin King himself) Whisper in their head said - "I will have what I seek..."
+What are the pumpkin King's frailties? Again, three tarot cards - Ten of Cups (each cup is a rocks glass with the Pumpkin King pushing them away) - Five of cups (knocking over cups and being stared at while looking nervous) - three of swords (crochet needles in his heart)
+Who is Wolfgang?
+They search for information on Wolfgang, but cannot find anything but info on a Mirrorskin names Jonah Crates. Ernie remembered that they were led to Wolfgang by a mirrorskin changeling they had never before seen.
+What happened to Ivey?
+They searched for information on Ivy McCree (aka Ivy Justayve) and found a book they were instructed to place behind the crystal ball and view through a hand mirror. The result gave a poem:
+Ivy McCree
+The beautiful queen
+She's gone on to
+The forever dream
+And highlighted several entries from the glossary: Silver Cord - the line that connects the soul to the mortal realm, if broken, it leaves the soul trapped in the astral realm. Paragon - one who - a small pentagon who grows to a larger pentagon, like a map. Apotheosis - ascension beyond mortality to achieve transcendence or godhood
+==Session 38==
+The motley convened to discuss what they were going to do with the information they had gained. Would they tell Billy? Would they tell anyone? What would happen? Why was Autumn so keen on keeping important information from Billy? The motley agreed that telling Billy would probably result in him doing something suicidal or dangerous.
+They also contemplated what would happen if a changeling ascended as Gentry within the Cereal Box (which SHOULD be impossible) that would create a closed system where they held the power.
+The motley worked on the construction project at the restaurant. The motley briefly discussed travelling to the moon after Orlando told them that the lunar module with the door on it was currently on a sound stage in California. Ernie made spacesuits before they realized it was impractical.
+The motley sleeps and have a mundane night's sleep.
+===Thursday, May 6th===
+Sephie and Nikolai go to the Enchanted Attic for information on Mages. (Nikolai incidentally relied on only 1 luck for his roll, whatever that means) Together they were able to find some work on magicks. The Way Things Are - The Story of the Five Towers (authored and hand signed by by H. Phlox). She explained that she had several dozens copies of it and hadn't been able to sell it.
+The book contained a portion on Arcadia - being both incredibly beautiful and dangerous - and that Time works "correctly" there (as opposed to "hurtling headlong to the end of time like a man who is plummeting toward the earth who thinks that, 'yes, this is how space works - always falling!'.").
+Ernie spent some time managing his changeling network to make sure everyone is getting the support they need (increasing the dots in Allies: Support Network to 4).
+Hestia meets with her contractor and requests an audience with Smith.
+April knows people who have secrets.
+Hestia and Alana met with Smith, who explained that he had plans to include the Firekeeper's Casino Hotel in the Cereal Box, which will, unfortuantely, require bringing the Cereal Box down for a while. He also stated that this plan would explicity result in the FKCH becoming the new Summer meeting ground.
+Alana requests work with the Summer Court and got a comission to look into the matter of the Huntsmen and solve the issue.
+April revealed her SECRET, explaining that she thought she had found the other half of the horn and bone (badge of horn, the knife of bone). She pointed out that Lyrissa had an accessory that she always wore in her hair - a bone knife. She told Nikolai, she believed that this was directly connected. They discussed the possibility of breaking the badge. They spent the rest of the afternoon experimenting and performing an augury on the badge to determine what its properties are. Additional information was gained on the workings of the Huntsmen as a result.
+Nikolai was determined to make a token that would make them invisible to the Fae, and realized that they would be able to make a token to protect from the True Fae, but realized this would be a process.
+The motley finished working on the restaurant.
+Alana is going to try to delve into her lost memories to see if she's encountered the huntsmen or otherwise had experience with Arcadia as her fetch.
+==Session 39==
+===Friday, May 6th===
+Hestia went to her restaurant with Wendell to sign off on the work. The Foreman bragged about finishing ahead of schedule. The design was a 50's throwback family style restaurant with a large permanent fixture table. Large orders of furniture and equipment were being brought in. Presence + Expression to make the last design decisions (1). Jack Strong stops by in the afternoon and makes a giant show of fawning over the design and the alacrity of the workers. He wondered if they could have lunch cooked by the chef to be the first customer in the restaurant, to which Hestia agreed.
+Ernie went on a bike ride and Regina came with, riding on the pegs. They rode down the linear trail near where it follows the river. Regina complains of the smell of the river and swampiness, and Ernie explained it was rotting vegetation. They crossed the bridge to get away from the river.
+Alana and April and Nikolai went to the Y to go swimming. The membership cost them a fair chunk of change. Nikolai harvested Glamour off the man giving them the tour by annoying the hell out of him. April explained her suspicion to Alana and told her that Nikolai was planning to confront Lyrissa about it. They both expressed distress that this was a thing at all. "Why don't you try the butterfly stroke?" - April "I'm already having a stroke!" - Nikolai
+Sephie went to the coffee date with her daughter, having finished reading the book. There is a repeatedly repainted "red" Baretta. Cadence was inside and said she was glad that she actually showed up. Cadence explained she was studying earth science and astronomy. "I don't think I can remember a time when you weren't working two jobs." "That wasn't me." Sephie explained that she had worked for the clinic in Battle Creek, but that had to end. "Is this a pod person situation?" "Yeah, pretty much." Cadence and Sephie discussed their encounters with Arcadia and how they differed, and Cadence explained that she would like to know how their powers were similar, different and related. Cadence said she would tell her cat Mera that Sephie is ok.
+The motley returned home, all having largely accomplished the things they planned to, and Nikolai decided to also read the book Sephie grabbed from the occult store, and realized that a strong, serious reading of it would probably take a week. Alana decided to have some alone time to delve into her memories to remember anything that might be important regarding her fetch. After some work (and distraction with her fetch living such a different lifestyle), she was able to remember that when the fetch looked in the mirror she would frequently see herself reflected in the Hedge as if every mirror was a gate. She recalled on one particular occasion, feeling an apprehensive fear and seeing a glade containing one side with a fireplace and large heavily scarred table, and the other side having a hanging punching bag and couch with TV and a gun and badge hanging up. The Red-Eyed Woodsman entered the glade and she looked away.
+Ernie realized that the knife Lyrissa wears in her hair is a combination of an ivory voodoo knife and a combat knife. They also meditated over and investigated the earring from the feels box, and Ernie decided that the sensation of grief seemed to have a moral component and that the sensation of mercy brought to mind someone who realized that their revenge was going too far. Nikolai was able to coax a more vivid separation of emotions from it (like a thin-layer chromatography of the emotions) and felt it as satisfaction, brief fear, resolve, bitter mercy, remorse, numb regret and warm renewal.
+===Saturday, May 7th===
+Do called them up and suggested that they go to the moon, pathfinding their way there. The whole motley decided that they absolutely wanted to go to the moon. Orlando showed up and suggested that they all go on a journey. April gets 9 successes (!) on her pathfinder roll to take them to the moon and they march 5 hours there. Orlando takes a selfie with the space suit and they enter the door they found in the hedge badlands to get to the lunar module. When they opened it, there was a suck of back-pressure air and they walked out onto the lunar surface...
+...which turned out to be in Arcadia. And they were largely convinced that it was the collector's domain.
+==Session 40==
+Ernie, Nikolai and Orlando explain the situation and the motley decides they want nothing more to do with this. It's disappointing, especially since it neither proves nor disproves the question of whether the moon landing was real. The motley searches for a hedge gate to return home. April pathfinded them to the nearest doorway, and, en route, they were accosted by 3 goblin dune buggies, styled somewhere between mad max-esque raiders and moon rovers. Nikolai waylaid one, but the other two went in for an attack.
+One of the carts was swarming with goblins. Orlando was able to blind the driver so the cart missed him and drove off into the distance. Goblins armed with a surgical tubing flail, goblin with a canister of compressed gas, a goblin with a broken beaker, and a goblin with nailbat accosted him.
+The other remaining cart had a goblin with dynamite fruit on spears and a rotund goblin driver that looked together like Waluigi and Wario. They missed Nikolai and Ernie hit their explosive spear with a stone, knocking over the skinny one. Nikolai and Sephie took on the goblins struggling with 'Do. Together, the defeated the goblins, destroying the remaining buggy and defeating the ones attacking 'Do (including sending one skyrocketing into the sky and exploding with a well placed stone).
+The motley found an archway and left the Hedge into the real world in the wee hours of the morning. Sephie distributed goblin fruit to all the unwell, but it was not a solid healing. Hestia left food for Jack with a note and everyone slept in until late afternoon.
+The motley spent their time waiting to heal (until Wednesday, my dudes) and harvested Glamour.
+===Wednesday, May 12th===
+Ernie increased his Academics in hopes of creating a new "safe haven" that will be an improvement over the "changeling ghetto." His goal was to eventually sets up small businesses that will employ newcomer changelings. His major motivation is to reduce overcrowding.
+Sephie is contacting a realtor to sell her fetch's old property. Sephie makes contact with a realtor named Kyle Kirstens. The house is now on the market as a rental property and increases her Resources.
+The planned soft opening of the Restaurant on Friday will be a small royal opening for the monarchs and their two perferred guests. The servers, wait staff, dishwashers and cooks are all members of the changeling community for this event.
+===Friday, May 14th===
+The motley prepared the finishing touches of the Hestaurant, officially dubbed "Granny's Plaace." The formal guest list has been returned: the Pumpkin King is bringing Roper Redding and Holly LeClerc, Billy is bringing Lydia Kidder and Helen Moore, Alexander Smith brought Janice Tasker and Granny Lovett, and Lyrissa is bringing Johnny Starlight and Shaun Schumaker.
+The settings were placed with Expression 3 and the food produced Crafts 3. Janglejaw Crookfingers showed up, and Lyrissa she congratulated Janglejaw on the ascendancy of his court. He put on a paper crown he made from a napkin. They seated the motley members in the groups with their respective monarchs. Jack and Gina were also present.
+Chalkos threw down the gauntlet on Smith and after unpleasant negotiations, and demanded that traditions of Summer be upheld. A duel was demanded with each of them (and only THEM, not a champion who will fight in their stead) is permitted to bring thier own weapon, no seconds, 10 witnesses. Smith named Billy as the judge and Chalkos accepted without hesitation. After some argumentation, they agreed that the fight would be immediately before the coronation to take place in the Hedge. Smith excused himself to the restoom and returned (especially) pale.
+As Janglejaw left, he opened a hedge gate that refused to close initially and then sputtered several times. April suggested that the Cereal box was, in fact, getting very soggy indeed.