The Cereal Box:Log/Session 63

Session 63

The motley turned in for the night, exhausted from dealing with hostile monarchs all day, and slept a largely dreamless night.

Friday, June 25th

Hestia shopped for groceries on behalf of both the motley and the Pumpkin King. Alana asked if Hestia would take Alana shopping for clothes for a date while she's out, since Alana doesn't know what to wear. Sephie came along. Hestia also went wedding dress shopping. They shopped at all the ususal places, and fell upon a summer dress in a bold colorful marbled effect. Meanwhile, Hestia chose a pink floral print dress for her wedding. They dropped off the groceries, and Tasha said it was strange having a child that knew you much better than you know them. Hestia held her goddaughter and there was some brief but meaningful bonding.

Nikolai wanted to determine if there are other requirements for the Dreamer, and how hard it would be to procure a backup Dreamer in case the worst happened. Ernie assisted, by leveraging his political savvy to interpret the contract. With a few hours of research, the confirmed that it must be:

• a mortal
• who dreams
• is ensorcelled
• suffers from a severe mental issue that prevents them from rejecting the nightmarish dreamscape

They felt there were still parts of the equation that they did not have. Arthur Sullivan asked them about the Cereal Box and its reforging and what they were researching. They explained that they would be hoping to using the current Dreamer, but that they needed a potential backup. Arthur's expressed concern for "Jimmy", and explained that this was ultimately what was best for him. They said that his power of attorney was Smith (who used Billy's money to keep him safe and healthy). They assured him that they hoped to keep Jimmy. He added that Straid, the previous dreamer, had become obsessed with several changeling in the freehold and had been giving them prescient dreams. The changelings concealed that Jimmy had visited them in their dreams, and discussed how it is that Jimmy is kept unconscious and dreaming.

The motley all arrived home at more or less the same time and puttered around until April and Alana's date. April was very geeked out about the film in the way that only a young adult Disney fan could be, and talked about how scared she was when the toys (in Toy Story 3) were starting to fall into the incinerator and how The Claw was one of the best callbacks she had ever seen. As part of the moviegoing experience, they snuck snacks into the theater (April taking special pleasure in the forbidden hiss of contraband pop being opened). April attempted briefly to hold Alana's hand, which alarmed her a bit, so April gave her space without withdrawing affection. In the end, they ended the night by talking about how it was a little weird that they'd still be sleeping together and that they cared very deeply for each other.

Saturday, June 26th

Smith texted Hestia first thing in the morning - "Need to talk to you. Can you come by this morning?" At his office, a large number of Chalkos' former men were present, but aloof, and Asmondi was shooed out just as they arrived. Smith, who was in the midst of some sort of less accounting looking paperwork, explained that he wanted Hestia to run things because he can't work well as the iron fisted tyrant and will need Hestia to be the next Queen of Summer. He went on to explain that he wanted summer to be a time of warmth and nurturing rather than bellicose hate, and that, given how things went with Chalkos, he would be facing an endless string of challengers if he went on like this (as everyone recognized that he mostly won because of things that were largely not repeatable). He wanted to still run the majority of the Freehold's day-to-day from the background, but wanted Hestia to be a figurehead (and assured her that she would also make decisions). He also suggested that if, God forbid, anything happened to Jack, Alana would be a fantastic enforcer (but that he would love nothing more than to never hit a punching bag ever again). Finally, he asked April to stop drawing him kissing people because it made him uncomfortable.

Regina was upset that Hestia was so dismissive of Smith because she has very little experience running things, while Smith has been at it for a while, but eventually the motley came to the understanding that Hestia wanted to be in charge in a real capacity and was afraid of just being a puppet ruler.

When Sephie went out to care for her cats, Snap brought her to the edge of the Hollow, where she was shocked to find that the cat had dragged in the partially dessicated head of Isaac Oldman with a chess pawn in his mouth.