The Cereal Box:Log/Session 22

Session 22

At Hestia's business, they explored the interior of the Hedge, soon uncovering that it was, in fact, once a Hollow, but now abandoned. There was evidence that it had not been occupied, likely, for several months. They found, however, some Goblin Fruit (more like Goblin Froot, amiright?) growing in there.

Alana's fetch found herself having difficulty with her morning warm ups, with her heart beating steadily no matter how hard she worked. Her head was swimming and she was dealing with hypoxia, but she fought through it and persevered, left with a strange sense that she was... matter. Just molecules and atoms connected to each other.

Evie called home, hoping that she was missed. Sarah told her that the infestation at her apartment was cleared up and lied to Evie about her parents checking in on her (presumably to make her feel better about how little they seemed to miss her).

Ernie drew a picture from memory of his mother, his father and Gina and a pool party with his grandfather Cy, intending to give this to his father. Then, the group threw the computer - saving the hard drives - away at a remote location.

Alana's fight with Jane Jesparo began, and Jane went down in three rounds, but not without putting up a hell of a fight. In the first round, Alana couldn't focus on the fight well, but still managed to do fairly well. between rounds, Alana saw through the ring girl's mask, realizing that she was a changeling, but not the significance of this. The second round, she fought with renewed vigor, and, between rounds, recognized Ernie, Nikolai and Evie as her friends and understood that she had promised to protect them. Finally, Jespero went down in the third round and Alana won the fight.

After the fight, while the crowd was still celebrating, Ernie gave the picture to his father and, activating the contracts of winter, filled him with a profound sadness, stating, "You drove us to something terrible, and I'm still not sure it was worse." He tried to duck into the crowd, but Joad was able to catch him. It appeared Joad was going to attack Ernie when Alana tackled him and kicked the ever-loving piss out of him while Nikolai created a scene. Evie and Ernie made it outside, where they saw Ernie's grandpa, who was compassionate toward the crying child. Cy offered Ernie a piece of hard candy, which he treasured.

In Battle Creek, the motley concluded that there was nothing further they could determine without finding out who owned the Hollow. Roper left and recommended that they lock up tightly. "Nothing from the Hdege should be able to wander out, but open Hedge gates swallow mortals all the time. Keep this place secure." The motley, however, needed to travel back via the Hedge to keep Alana's salvaged Froot tree alive.

Their trip back through the Hedge took them through a construction site, where Janglejaw - the clothing merchant from the Goblin Market - confronted them about not having proper PPE, and insisted that he would take them to the foreman to be given a job. They were introduced to Janice Tasker, who explained that this was part of a project to close off the local Hedge to outside intrusion, and that the project was just now coming underway as a major endeavor after being largely theoretical. The test case, she explained, was closing the Trod that was taken to remove Kingman from the Freehold, making it impossible for Kingman to use that as a route back or, moreover, for anyone to follow it directly. During the course of the conversation, she solicited Glamour and Goblin Fruit several times with no contributions offered.

Back at their home, Alana received a call from Nikolai, who tried to explain the unique situation with her fetch.