The Cereal Box:Log/Session 66

Session 66

Nikolai looks up at the motley and smiles weakly. He explained that he was sent back in time by the Chronophage. He asked where the other Nikolai came from and, upon being informed, insisted it was strange that the motley thought HE was weird. He explained that Isaac Oldman was being taken by a Scarecrow, a Dirt Cloud and a Frog woman, and he knew they were going to exchange him to the Collector for something, but he couldn't face them all, so he killed Crowley to prevent him from being Taken.

Nikolai explained that his mission was to stop a dangerous fae rival to the Chronophage, and that he had failed many times, and each time he failed, the Chronophage had thrashed and killed him repeatedly. He said that he kept believing he would succeed, but always failed, and knew that preventing the re-creation of the Cereal Box would prevent it from taking, but literally had no idea why or what actually happens. He knew that he had an adversarial relationship with basically everyone in the freehold at some point, but believed that the source of the problem would be apotheosis, and had a few candidates in mind, most notably Billy.

Billy had said the exact phrase that Ivey had said before leaving for Arcadia. Granny was very powerful, and perhaps secretly ambitious. Jeremiah might be pushed over the edge, but he did not know what conditions might elicit this. Holly might be on the verge of a breakthrough, and that concerned him. Roper once outgrew his skin. He expresses distrust for April but doesn't explain why. He says Alana... has a strong punch (to whiich she responds that he will be fine if he doesn't *deserve* to be punched). Sephie might be a danger if he daughter is threatened. Nikolai, of course, did not believe he had ever had to deal with Nikolai. He further said that Phlox once "drowned in sadness." He furhter stated that he was somewhat wary of all the monarchs (including and especially Lyrissa and Billy) and their defenders. He expected Chalkos to be a threat, but was surprised that Smith had killed him.

He admitted that there were several people he was not concerned about: Arianna Lasarra and Martin Solomon, for example. He had barely remembered Maag Brunt, Wendell Baker or Aaron and Freddie, and therefore thought of them as no risk. When he was told that July 18th is Hestia's wedding, he immediately insisted that was too late, but he wasn't sure by how much. He further stated that he knew that the motley would not consent to the destruction of the Cereal Box, so they really needed to prepare to take on whoever is about to achieve apotheosis.

They discussed the frailties of the more powerful changelings, and listed the ones they knew, with Nikolai (now dubbed "blue Nikolai" because of the blue sharpee pen mark April put on the back of his hand):

• Lyrissa cannot offer hospitality unless asked.
• Smith has to try new things
• Billy cannot cross water without a bridge without experiencing disaster (and is thus, terrified of flying)
• Granny must ALWAYS offer hospitality

Everyone speculated regarding what Roper could or could not eat, but felt it was related.

They discussed how to get Sephie's daughter in front of the monarchs to evaluate their power levels. They decided they could accomplish multiple things at the same time if they moved up Hestia's wedding and tricked Songbird into picking one of her boyfriends as a guest, or a first dance, or to catch the garter belt, but Hestia was largely unwilling to go through with moving the wedding up, for fear of her dream.

Jack returned home and came comically close to discovering the second Nikolai several times. Due to a dramatic failure, thought, Jack was alerted to the presence of the other Nikolai, and they explained that they encountered a True Fae, but and Jack wanted to know where and why. Everyone refused to say, but he admitted that the largest reason he developed the frailty he did was that he has trust issues and, on top of that, that he's the Summer enforcer and needs to know about True Fae threats. The pacified him by asking if he trusted Hestia and promising she would tell Jack before he got married.