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snowdice · 4 years

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Road Trips and Missing Persons (Part 15)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Patton & Virgil, Virgil & Deceit, Logan & Patton, Emile & Remy, Roman & Remus & Janus

Characters: Patton, Virgil, Deceit, Remus, Roman, Logan, Emile, Remy

Summary: Patton was just getting groceries. The next thing he knew, there was a knife at his throat and he was an unwilling uber driver. Virgil’s on the run after the murder of his dad, and it’s not just his paranoia that’s telling him he’s being chased down. He has to get somewhere safe, somewhere he can trust, and all he has is a couple of stories from his dad and a name: “Green Bellow Foods and Dispensary.”

Notes: Secret Agents AU, knives, carjacking, kidnapping, murder mentioned, guns mentioned, pepper spray, blood mentioned, drugs mentioned, explosions, car crashes (more to be added)

This is a fic I’ve been writing on study breaks that you have probably all already seen at this point. I’ve affectionately named it the Goblin Brain Fic because it’s helping my brain actually get motivated for studying. I’ve slightly edited it for wording and grammar, but not for content from my previous posts. Feel free to send in asks to direct it because I’m not 100% sure where this is going and you can help decide if you feel so inclined! You can see the process I went through to build this at this link.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 My Master Post

The next two hours were the most frustrating ones of Logan’s life. It seemed like the entire universe, or perhaps more accurately his entire family, was doing its best to make his life and job as stressful as possible.

He’d stepped away from his desk for less than one minute to make sure Darlene and Fredrick’s coms were set up to his specifications. He had them outfitted with what he would usually give to undercover agents. It was a constant feed of audio from their side and Logan could talk to them with a click of a button. It was on an entirely different frequency than anyone else used and, barring damage to the actual equipment itself, it should never go offline.

When he got back to his desk and checked his phone, he had a missed call and a text message from Patton. Of course. Of course, in the 30 seconds he is away from his desk, someone finally calls him back. He opened the text message. His first thought was, ‘Patton, you are lactose intolerant. Why are you buying so much cheese?!’ His second thought was that the string of emojis was unintelligible. What about a baby and a knife?! If he’d just bought cheese, why did he need to go get a burger, fries, and ice cream, and on that count, why more dairy?

He tried to call Patton back, but as he was beginning to expect at this point, there was no answer. Frustrated, he slammed his finger down on the end call button. ‘I have no idea what that means’ he texted him back. He set his phone back down on his desk after making absolutely sure his ringer was at full volume.

“Be sure to track all traffic updates in their path,” Logan said. The other people in the base snapped to attention, their fingers going to work at their keyboards. Then, he pushed the button on his desk. “Fredrick?” he asked.

“We just got on I-26,” Fredrick replied instantly.

“Good,” Logan replied. He sat down in his chair to rub at his eyes and grabbed his phone once more. He shot off texts to different people in a pattern he was getting very used to at this point. Then, he went back to look at Patton’s message once again. “Why must you always use these infernal things?” he asked the text from his brother. He looked over his shoulder and saw Clara looking up. “Clara,” he said. She flinched at his tone.

“Yes?” she asked hesitantly.

“Are you literate in the emoji text message language?” he asked.

“Um…yes?” she said.

He stood and placed his phone in front of her. “Can you make sense of this message from Patton?” he asked.

“Er,” she said, looking at it with a perplexed expression on her face. “I’m getting… he bought a lot of cheese. Then he kidnapped… or got kidnapped by a baby? He got fast food and then did other things… then got gas and coffee. Um, he says everything’s cool and he loves you.”

“He got kidnapped by a baby?” Logan asked skeptically.

She gave him a helpless shrug. “That’s what he said. He got in his car at the grocery store, but there was a baby with a knife and the baby made him drive.”

“Well, thank you for trying,” Logan said. He took his phone back from her and wandered back over to his desk.

“Okay,” Darlene was saying over the coms. “But why do you even need chair covers for your apartment?”

“To prevent damage and stains,” Fredrick said back.

“You bought them for $20 at a yard sale. They’re already stained.”

“Even more of a reason to make a seat cover for them! It’ll make them cuter, and since I’m sewing them, I can personalize! See look, here’s the pattern I’m using.”

“Fred, I’m driving.”

They continued to chat idly about Fredrick’s latest sewing project. Logan was just content to have an open line of communication with his agents.

They eventually moved on from arguing the merit of chair covers and went on to discussing the pattern and color options. Well, Fredrick at least was discussing it. Darlene had descended into noncommittal hums, ‘yep’s and ‘I can’t look at that because I’m driving’s.

“Do you like this flower design or this flower design better?” Fredrick was asking.

“The first one,” was the answer.

“You didn’t even look!”

“Boss, there’s been an accident on I-26,” Emerson informed him from his desk.

“Where?” Logan asked.

“Around exit 52. The actual accident was only on the east side, but it was a truckload of cows, so it’ll likely affect Fred and Lena’s path.”

“Alright,” Logan said. “Find me the quickest alternative route.” Emerson nodded and turned back to his computer. Logan pushed the talk button. “There is an accident ahead of you,” he informed Fredrick and Darlene. “We will be giving you an alternate route. Stand by.”

“Yes, boss,” Darlene replied.

“Have them take exit 65 and get on Highway 236,” Emerson instructed.

Logan nodded and pressed down the button again. “You’ll want to get off on exit 65,” he told them. “You’ll take 236 until you’re past the accident.”

“Got it,” Darlene replied.

“We just passed mile marker 61 a few seconds ago, so we’ll be there soon,” Fredrick offered.

Darlene and Fredrick exited the interstate without any problems. It was a few minutes later that, with the obnoxious sound of a saxophone, the song titled ‘We Are the Number One Bad Guys’ (which was reportedly a mash-up of a song from a children’s show and a pop song) started blaring from his phone. Usually he’d be annoyed by hearing that sound as Patton and Remus had set it behind his back and he couldn’t figure out how to change it. Today, however, the sound was a relief. He grabbed his phone to look at the text message from Remus.

‘I’m not his keeper’ is what the text said in response to Logan’s many messages asking him if he knew where his brother was.

Logan stared at his phone for a least a whole minute.

“What’s wrong boss?” Clara finally hesitantly asked.

“I,” Logan said calmly. “Love. My. Children.”

“…Uh huh?”

Logan typed back a message he was certain at this point would not get a response, and then he hit the talk button on his desk. “So, Fredrick,” he said. “Tell me more about these chair covers. You mentioned flowers?”

“Uh…” Fredrick’s voice said. “Yes?”

Logan glanced up at the other agents in the room who were all staring intently at the designs in their desks. “Have you considered paisley?”

Logan focused on listening to Fredrick and Darlene’s conversation while the rest of the office focused on not looking at him unless it was to update him on the traffic for Fredrick and Darlene for the next 15 minutes.

“Whoa!” Darlene suddenly said, and Logan could hear the sound of braking through the sensitive listening devices

“What?” Logan pushed the button to ask.

“There were a couple of cars in our lane…” Fredric said.

“Was that a gun shot?” Logan asked when there was a loud pop on the other end.

“Uh… give us a minute boss,” Darlene requested.

He could hear the engines turn after a moment, likely as they accelerated again.

“What’s going on?” Logan asked.

“We’re, in a car chase now, apparently,” Fredrick replied, voice strained.

“Why?” Logan asked.

“I recognized the first car!” Darlene said.

“What do you mean you recognize the car?” Logan asked.

“I… shit!” Darlene said. Logan could hear the sound of tires squealing. A few seconds later there was a huge crash followed by a couple of incredibly loud splashes.

“What’s going on?” Logan asked.

There was cursing on the other end of the line in response and the sound of two doors slamming shut and then running.

“Darlene! Fredrick! What is going on?!”

There were a few more seconds where he could hear the sound of breathing and then the sound cut out halfway through the sound of a splash.

“Fredrick?” Logan said. “Darlene?” He took his finger off the button. “Please tell me we didn’t just lose the signal,” he said to the room at large.

There was silence.

“Please, someone tell me we didn’t just lose the signal to the high-tech spy gear I put on both of my agents.”

After a pause, Emerson finally spoke. “It’s… it’s not waterproof sir.”

“I see,” Logan said, his tone serene. “It isn’t waterproof.” He looked down at his hands settled on the top of his desk next to his useless talk button and the phone that no one seemed to be willing to call or text with anything useful. He turned his hands over, grabbed the bottom of the desk, and flipped the whole thing over. His computer smashed on the ground and the normally well-organized pens and papers scattered across the floor. “Well, why the hell isn’t it waterproof?!”

No one dared to answer his question, and Logan pinched the bridge of his nose, surveying his broken computer and overturned desk for a few minutes.

Eventually, he straightened. “I need to borrow someone’s desk,” he said. Three people scrambled to their feet, but he held up a hand. “I’ll use Darlene’s,” They all scrambled back to their desks, “and send someone after those two!” He strode over to Darlene’s desk and sat at her computer. He pulled up every local news outlet he could find. They needed to find a new starting place, because he honestly didn’t know where to go from here.

He spent an hour trying to piece together what exactly was happening out there with news articles, police scanners, and other information channels. There was an explosion an hour and a half earlier in the city where this all started, and he worried that had something to do with the lack of communication as it was on the road from Nelsen’s base to the city. However, that still left almost 2 hours before that of silence from Roman and Janus unaccounted for. There were also two separate break-ins to the security office of the grocery store down the street from Remington Gates home which Logan imagined somehow was connected, but he couldn’t figure out how. And what did the cows have to do with it? Anything? Everything? What was going on? There was no news about whatever had happened with Fredrick and Darlene and the other team of agents he sent after them were still 20 minutes out from their last known location.

“Uh, boss?” a tentative voice said. Logan looked up at Clara who was standing at the edge of the desk. She flinched at the expression on his face when he looked up.

“Unless a member of my family or Virgil Gates has arrived at this base, I don’t want to hear about it,” he snapped.

“Well…” she replied, “actually…”

Want to read more? Click below!

Part 16

#sanders sides #logan sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #roman sanders #janus sanders #emile piccani #remy sanders #virgil sanders #road trips and missing persons #adriana writes #murder mentioned #guns #car crash

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throughtheglassdarkly · 5 years

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Roadblocks: An interlude

I’ve debated whether to write this down or not. It’s… private. A moment that I wanted to hold onto. But what happened here is important. So consider this an interlude.

The day after we went to the Goblin Market, I spent a few hours just studying the Token I’d gotten. It was clearly well-made, but it wasn’t clear what it actually was. It was too big to be a necklace and too small to be a scarf. I had no idea how it worked. You don’t exactly take Token 101 when you get back through the Hedge. I decided to text Evain and ask him if these things have an ON switch. He texted back, “Try throwing Glamour at it?”

I held the Token in my hands and felt the Glamour moving through my body. I concentrated on it, pushing it out through my hands and into the Token. It felt pleasant, warm, tingly. But then it was gone. I could see the beads brightened up, so I knew I was on the right track. I pushed some more Glamour into the Token and tried to focus really hard on it. My hands almost felt like they fell asleep.

But then the beads started glowing even brighter than before and my eyes started to feel super heavy. I realized a little late that I should have tried doing this lying in bed, but I was at least able to get over to my couch – not moving very fast, but I got there. I couldn’t break my gaze from the beads. I lay on the couch and rested my head against the pillow. As my eyes closed, I tried to focus on Adrian as hard as I could. I drew up every detail I could remember about him. How soft that mop of curls on his head was. How weightless he felt when I’d held him. The sound of his voice.

And before I knew it, I wasn’t in my apartment anymore. I was in a void. It was almost like the void I saw when the Shepherd of Lonely Roads visited us in Pam’s dreams. I was standing in black with tiny lights out in the distance. Before me was what could almost have been described as a hallway. I saw doors, but no walls connecting them. Some were closed, some were opened, some had wooden frames, others had stone archways. I could hear muffled voices coming from each door.

I didn’t know what else to do other than walk forward. It was hard to tell how much time passed; I didn’t get tired at all, I just kept moving forward. Eventually, I came to a circle of doors at the end of the hallway. Sitting in the center of that void, looking somehow relaxed and focused at the same time, was Adrian. I felt my breath catch in my throat. It had only felt like a couple of months passed since I’d seen him, but I’d spent every single night longing for him, wanting to see him again. I didn’t know what to do and he didn’t seem to notice I was there. I cleared my throat and managed to get out a quiet, “Hey.”

At that, he turned and stood up. His face was pointing roughly in my direction, but I could tell he still couldn’t see. “Derek? Derek, is that you?” he asked. “Yeah, it’s me,” I said. I could tell my voice was giving away that my throat was tight so I cleared it again and continued, “I bought a Token at the Goblin Market. It lets you kind of step into someone’s dreams. It’s me.” He started stumbling forward, trying to feel for something to grab onto. I moved forward quickly and took his hand to help him.

Doing that was such a small thing, but I can hardly describe how it felt. It just felt so… real. Like I was there, actually holding him. I’ve told you a little bit about how we’re lucid dreamers by nature. Everything feels real in our dreams and we can impact them how want, but something about this felt even more real than usual. I couldn’t figure out why, but there was something solid in his dreamscape, very different than how ethereal most of the dreamscapes I’ve been in are. He was the realist thing I’d felt in a long time.

When I took his hand, he squeezed it tightly and pulled me toward him. I put my arms around him, closed my eyes, tucked him in and held him as close as I could. I let out a small shudder of a breath. I’d wanted to have him next to me from the minute I stepped foot back into the Hedge to leave Arcadia and even there in that dreamscape, knowing at the back of my head that it wasn’t real, it still felt like everything was going to be okay. I started stroking the back of his head and I felt him relax into my embrace.

“This is a pleasant surprise,” he said after we’d been quiet for a moment, just holding each other. I chuckled and said, “Yeah, I didn’t want to say anything in case it didn’t work. Didn’t want to get your hopes up.” He nuzzled against me and said, “It’s fine. It’s really fine. I’ve been trying to scry for you, you know. It’s not working.”

I pulled my head back a little, looking down at him. He still had his cheek pressed against my chest. “Have you seen the stuff I’ve been trying to send you?” He nodded and said that it was blurry from Paisley being so far away and that he wasn’t sure he got everything, but he was pretty sure he got most of everything I’d been telling him.

“I wasn’t sure if it would work. I was just hoping,” I told him. “But I’m glad. I really miss you.” “I miss you, too. Things are not good, but I don’t think that’s news,” he said. I shook my head. “No. Cassi managed to pop into Pam’s dreams. She told us about it.” He sighed, “She doesn’t know the half of it. Amberleigh was a strict taskmaster before, but with her new title, that’s come with even more edicts and orders and there’s – even the ones who supported her before are starting to feel the fatigue. I would say luckily I’m not one of them but…”

“But you’re still feeling it,” I finished. He hesitated for a moment and nodded. “She has other uses for me that don’t involve marching. And I can soldier on, if you’ll pardon the turn of phrase.” I squeezed him again and said, “I don’t want you to have to for too long. I told you I was going to find a way to get you out. I’ve been working on it. Ever since I got back, I’ve been working on it.” He returned my squeeze and said, “I wish I could help.” I smiled in spite of myself and said, “Seeing you is – feeling you is making me remember. Making me want to work all that much harder.” I could tell he was pleased by that, but he said, “Just don’t work too hard. I don’t want you wearing yourself out.”

“It’s fine,” I told him. “Actually, it’s not bad being back. I thought it would be weird, but I think I’m actually doing better now than before I was taken. It’s just a new way of life. You gotta get used to it, like everything else. But I promised you I’m going to get you out and I’m going to keep that promise.” He stayed quiet for a second, then said, “I know. Or I hope. It’s hard for me to know right now. I think once something’s fate gets bound up in mine, it gets put in the blind spot.” He squeezed me tighter and I leaned down and kissed the crown of his head.

We stayed quiet, just taking each other in for another moment before he asked, “So… what’s it like? I mean, I read things, the things you send, when I can see them, but what are free changelings like? What’s it like out there?” I took a breath and tried to get him caught up on the courts of the freehold, the shifts in power, and how mostly everybody we’d met had been good to us and helped us out a lot.

“That doesn’t sound very fae. Doesn’t sound very human either,” he said. “No, it’s not. Of course, they all want us to join their courts, but there’s nothing wrong with that, really,” I said. “And I got a new job and I’m baking now for a living, which is good. A lot more fulfilling than what I was doing before. And Paisley’s doing really well.” He smiled up at me and said, “You know, I think the thing I’m looking most forward to is actually trying something you can bake properly.” I smiled back and said, “Orange cake, right?” “That’d be nice, or maybe a red velvet,” he said. “I do make a good red velvet. And it’s a proper red velvet, not that crappy chocolate cake they just dump a ton of red food dye in.” He laughed.

“So, I have to ask. The one thing I’m most curious about, but – Cassi’s dad?” he asked. I chuckled and told him about Evain. “Believe it or not, he and Day knew each other back before –” “Back in the day?” he interrupted, grinning. I gave him a hard look and said, “I am gonna punch you, I don’t care if you’re blind.” He pouted, “But I can’t defend myself. How am I supposed to protect myself with these noodles for appendages? You wound me.” “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I said.

I finished telling him about Evain and told him that I’d introduce them when he got back. “And I can take you around, show you all the new stuff. I’m joining the Autumn Court, they’ve got this big amazing research lodge library and it’s like everything you ever wanted to know is in there. You’d probably love it. And I can show you where we live, where we work, just kind of get you back into the world.” He was quiet for a moment and sighed. “It’s a little scary. I haven’t been there in so long and it’s been a lot longer than it feels for me,” he said. I rubbed the back of his head and said, “I know. But I’ll be there.” He nuzzled closer to me and said, “Yeah, you will.”

After a moment, he asked if there was anything he could do to help. I asked if he was still able to get messages out to Cassi. “Yeah, there are some very friendly Fae birds who like to perch at the bars of my window,” he said. I felt my stomach tighten at that and asked, “Can you just let her know we’re working on it and we’re going to try to help as soon as we can? We don’t know exactly when, but let her know that things are in the works and just be careful out there.” “I think she knows that. Honestly, I’m surprised she hasn’t just left yet,” he said. “I don’t think she wants to leave you guys behind. None of us did,” I told him. “I know, but sometimes the smart thing isn’t the thing you feel is right. But what do I know? I’m just a blind seer,” he said. “There are worse things you could be. And I think you’re pretty special,” I told him. He smiled and said, “Aww, thanks. And you’re special, too.”

I turned the question back on him and asked if there was anything I could do to make things easier on him. He shrugged, saying again that it wasn’t that bad and he was usually kept caged except when Amberleigh needed him to divine something. “She knows I’m too valuable to her to harm,” he said. “I still don’t like the idea of you being locked away,” I told him. “I’m used to it. That sounds terrible, but I’m used to it,” he said.

He paused for a moment and said, “Actually, when you do come, there’s one thing you should be careful of. As kind as she is and as much as she seems to like you in her own right-” “Belle?” I asked. “Yes. If your plan is to harm Amberleigh in any way, she’s not going to let you do it,” he said. “I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if there’s anything we can even do that would harm her at this point,” I sighed. His face got serious and he said, “You’re going to have to. It’s the only way you can free us for keeps. I mean, Cassi could leave now if she wanted. None of us are truly bound to the Lady Commander of the Red Hill.” “But the second she switches back…” I said. “Correct. And in order to break the hold on the Unbound Slave, you need to stop the Lady Commander,” he said.

When he mentioned that, something weird clicked in my head and I said, “You know, I don’t think I ever actually asked. Where did that first title come from, Amberleigh of Arcadia, the Unbound Slave? Did she just give that to herself one day?” He thought for a moment before saying, “I’ve been in Arcadia longer than most of our group, or in Amberleigh’s crew anyway. And I’ve heard a lot of stories and seen a lot of changelings leave. I’ve even seen some come back. Not many, but some. And near as I can figure, a title is a pact you make with Arcadia itself. It’s the contract by which you exist. And if Amberleigh wanted to exist within Arcadia as an entity with agency and power, she needed to forge that contract. She needed to define her existence the way that our link to our keepers in Arcadia defines us. Everything has a price and nothing exists without a bargain. That’s the way of this realm.”

I took that in before I asked the question I’d been leading up to: “Is there a way maybe to break that, where she doesn’t have access to that title anymore?” He shrugged, “It depends on the terms of the pact. I don’t know what the pact for the Unbound Slave is. For the Lady Commander, it’s the throne and the spear, but…” he trailed off as something seemed to occur to him.

“You know, thinking on it, Cassi said she wasn’t always quite so unhinged. And I’ve been in Arcadia the longest, but she was with Amberleigh longer than anyone else. And I think it has something to do with Belle. I think it has something to do with the way Amberleigh uses her. I’m not sure how, but there are times even I saw when she smiled, when she seemed happy, or even kind, and protective of us.” I felt my stomach sink and asked, “And then after that, somebody had to sew up Belle’s stitches?” He nodded. “I saw that, too, in the camp,” I said.

That’s when he said the thing that made my blood run cold: “It’s like she’s actively discarding anything that made her human.” “Into Belle?” I asked once words would form. “Looks like,” he said. “That’s pretty fucked up,” I said. “I suppose that’s one way to phrase it,” he said. I pulled him in as close as I could get him and closed my eyes, my mind racing with possibilities. Finally, I said, “I guess that’s something to think about. But yeah, if we can’t figure that out, it’s going to have to be the last drop of your oppressor’s blood. And I don’t like to think about that, but I’m willing to do just about anything to get you out.”

He smiled and said, “I have faith.” “I’m glad,” I said. He reached up and put his hand on my cheek. Before I knew it, he was leaning up and kissing me. It was our first kiss. Even if it wasn’t “real,” even if it wasn’t our physical bodies there, it still felt more real than any kiss I’d ever had before. What I felt for Adrian was more powerful than any other boyfriend or lover I’d ever had. He’d saved me, literally pulled me out of a cage, and kept me sane while I was turning into something unrecognizable. I knew at that moment that there was no way I could leave him in Arcadia again. If I had to tear down every stone of Amberleigh’s keep with my bare hands, I’d do it. Because I realized in that moment that I was in love with him.

After we broke our kiss, I pressed my forehead against his and let out a long breath. He kept his hand on my cheek. “Now you said you got that Token at a Goblin Market, right?” he asked. “I did, yeah,” I said. He sighed and said, “I wouldn’t stay too long. You never know what side effects those things are gonna have.” “I know,” I said, not making any move to go. “But if you wake up and it hasn’t hurt you too much, we could have one of these visits again. You can talk to me, I can coordinate with Cassi as best I can. It’ll be a lot easier than reading note cards through Paisley.” I chuckled and said, “Hey, I got the whiteboard. It’s not as bad as it used to be. Would it help if I wrote in a lot bigger letters or something?”

He smiled and said, “I think it’s partially the distance and partially gecko eyes and she does have a mind of her own. Sometimes that mind wanders and if she’s not focusing, then…” “I told her that she needs to focus,” I told him. “I got a recipe for – okay, I call them crickers.” “Crickers,” he said flatly. “Homemade crackers with crickets ground up in them. She eats them like they’re going out of style,” I said. “You called them crickers and I can’t make a pun about Day’s name. I am shocked and disappointed,” he said. “Well, get used to it. That’s what a relationship with me is full of,” I said.

He chuckled and said, “But yes, I hope this can happen again.” I felt my face soften and I put my hand on his face. “Me, too. I really needed to see you,” I said. “I needed to see you, too,” he said. I leaned down and kissed him again, holding it for longer than the first time. When I broke it, I said, “I will try to keep letting you know what’s going on. Now if I wake up and I’ve got a giant gusher of a nosebleed and all my Glamour’s gone, then obviously this is not a good idea to do again. But if it’s not that bad, I will try to find a good time to come back and see you. Because I really miss seeing you and holding you and I want to do it again for real before too long.”

“You will,” he said. “Now get going. I think I need to be up in a moment, too.” “Okay,” I said. I squeezed him again and slowly let him go. He gave my hand a squeeze and went back to sit down in the circle of doors. I stood there watching him for a moment, trying to preserve that image in my mind. Eventually, I started backing away, and when I could barely make his figure out anymore, I turned and started walking back down the hallway. As I turned, I spotted something in one of the open doors that gave me serious pause. It was just for a split second, but I saw movement behind it, and the one thing I know I saw was some wisps of silver hair disappearing behind the doorframe.

There wasn’t anything I could do about that at the time, so I kept walking away from where Adrian was. Eventually, I felt my eyes opening and I was back on my couch in my apartment. I looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was only 4:00 p.m., a couple of hours after I’d tried to use the Token. A rain must have picked up while I was asleep; it was batting gently at the windows and the sky was darker than before. I had a little bit of a headache, but otherwise felt okay. When I looked at the Token, I saw that one of the beads had changed from being clear quartz to an opaquer green quartz.

I put the Token on my coffee table and lay back on the couch, trying to replay everything in my mind, reliving it at as best I could. Paisley fluttered over to lie on my chest when she saw I was awake and I smiled at her and petted her, but my mind and heart were elsewhere. With him. Where they always were.

#Changeling: The Lost #changeling #ctl #ic #recap #pc: Derek #npc: adrian #boyfriends in peril is our group's kryptonite

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karhs · 7 years

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what time is it? crow cillers posting time. spoilers under the cut as always

okay so: the interactivity thing this ep had going on was really neat! i suppose from a like. literary standpoint it’s a way of describing the attitude Paisley, Heaven, EJX and Paris have regarding their situation: it’s nothing to take seriously, it’s just a game. from a non-literary-analysis standpoint, it was just really cool aesthetically.

I can’t help but wonder how many Crow Cillers there’s going to be by the end. Like, so far we have the Crow Cillers 341, the Crow Ciller Cociety, the Crow Cillers PSY Squad, and now the “Crow Cillers.” I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until Sour Gummy takes on the moniker somehow, as well as any future characters that may end up getting introduced.

I find it really interesting that Vein named his daughter Heaven. That seems more like a Marcusy kinda move, yknow? Thus far Vein has always seemed almost aggressively detached from anything spiritual, with his only investment in the Crow or Ynce Iche being monetary. So either he’s got some kinda hidden depths, he wanted to be ironic, or his wife is like. The opposite of him.

Hell Child/Poptart Goblin is interesting in that 1. she seems to be more of a plot vehicle than a character and 2. all the other characters also seem to acknowledge this. I have to assume this thread with Beloved Website Puppet Alpha is going to lead to some really interesting shit seeing as it’s another thing connecting the Crow Cillers universe to the other established universes, but unlike Lisa it isn’t really. hidden from anyone.

that’s all i got for right now, but i feel like there’s more to say rolling around in my brain somewhere

#crow cillers #PAISLEY: proving grounds of the small edgelord

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throughtheglassdarkly · 5 years

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Roadblocks, part 2

Welcome back. When last you were here, Bella broke all the glass and I used Day as a makeshift hurdle. Onward.

The day after our last adventure, Bella spent pretty much all day meeting and having dinner with her entire extended family. Pam, being such a mom, decided to stay on call in case anything went south. So that meant only three of us were free for the next nonsense that came up. I was at home, whipping up a perfectly nice lemon cake, when trouble called. Or texted, to be more accurate. I got a message from Evain that simply was an address about half an hour away. I washed my hands and texted back, “Need me to bring lube?” He replied, “You wish. Meet you there in 45 minutes. With the others.”

I sent off a message to Yova and Day: “Evain wants us to meet him at the Goblin Market. You in?” Yova texted me back, “Do I have time to change into something appropriate?” “Do you ever?” I asked her. She showed up ten minutes later, dressed to the nines, and we drove over to pick up Day and get to the address. It was a Sunday evening around 7:00, definitely getting dark early at that time of the year. We drove on the thoroughfare for about 20 minutes before pulling off on another highway. When we got there, we had to double check the address about eight times before we realized we were in the right place. It was the saddest looking mall any of us had ever seen. The biggest sign was for the Cash 4 Gold store and the parking lot was almost deserted. The only thing that told us we were in the right place was Evain, who was sitting on the hood of his SUV next to a large unlit Super Kmart sign.

Evain greeted us and gestured for us to walk up to the abandoned-looking Super Kmart. We were skeptical, but the double doors did slide open as we approached. The first thing any of us smelled was an overpowering reeking mixture of cheap incense and burnt rubber. It got worse from there. We didn’t see any electric lights at first, but about ten feet in, things started to brighten up a bit. Inside was what could only be described as the Spirit Halloween of Faerie markets. It had none of the class, ambiance, or deafening power of the goblin market we witnessed in Arcadia and none of the charm of a usual street fair. There were tacky streamers hanging from the metal supports in the ceiling, Christmas lights strewn over the walls, multi-colored lanterns lighting individual pathways between the vendors, and fairy lights on a few of the stalls. It was laid out in the aisles like a department store and awful, just-barely-out-of-sync folk music was playing. The three of us just stood there, staring in disbelief for a few moments.

“I’m pretty sure we can get goblin dysentery just sitting here,” Day said. “I want to find whoever’s playing that music and beat them over the head with a metronome,” Yova said. “I think Bella would be right at home here,” I said.

Evain apologized that it wasn’t the classiest place in the world, but said it was the best they could do. “They don’t announce this place until the last minute, so it’s not like they’ve got a lot of time to set it up and make it look nice,” he said. “But there’s a lot more you can buy here than it looks like. And they take a lot of different stuff in exchange. Cash, memories, toenails.” All three of us turned to look at the same moment. “Wait, toenails?” Yova asked. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “Couple of months ago, there was stand selling this amazing hedgebeast jerky. Best stuff I’ve ever eaten. And all they wanted was a month’s worth of my toenails. Don’t know what they used them for.”

“Please tell me you didn’t have that ready to go to exchange,” I said, feeling my gorge start rising. “Oh, no, it was installments. I just had to keep a jar of them and hand them in at the next market,” he said. “Where’d you say this stall was?” Day asked. “DAY,” I said. “What?” he asked. “Day, you don’t save your toenails, do you?” Yova asked. “No. I mean, not really. I haven’t changed my vacuum bag in a while, so-” “Gyaaaaaah,” I said, going through a full body shudder.

Evain warned us that our phones weren’t going to work inside the market due to magical wards, so we planned to meet back at the entrance in an hour and a half. He headed off to find some things of his own and the three of us tried to figure out a good plan of attack and what we were looking for. “So, uh, maybe we could pick up some things for the others? Maybe some treats for Paisley?” Day asked. Yova and I both turned our heads so slowly to look at him I heard creaking. “Day, are you suggesting we get presents for Pam and Bella?” I asked. “…maybe. I dunno,” he said. “I guess since you guys pulled me out of that office I should probably do something nice.” “Awwww, I think his heart grew three sizes today,” Yova said.

Yova, our resident strategist, suggested that we do a lap around the main floor to see if we could figure out where everything was before we started buying anything. “It’s just like an anime convention. You don’t give your money to the first person who catches your eye, you might see the same shirt being sold three different places,” she said. Nerd. We ended up doing what she said and I realized while we were scouting things out that the market was laid out just like a big box store: if you found one thing you were looking for, everything else like it would be in the same area.

Our first stop was in the pet section, which was FUCKING LOUD. All the creatures were damn vocal about not wanting to be in crates and cages. Most of what was on sale was small to medium hedgebeasts, which meant Yova was a lady on a mission. She stopped off near a cluster of tables and shelves and I saw her blinking her eyes behind her Jackie O sunglasses, the big softie. The proprietor, a short, squat goblin, took clear note of her and asked if there was anything in particular she was looking for. She tried to play it cool, but then she saw a terrarium in the back with a bunch of tiny geckos. She moved closer and they all started swarming, trying to look up at her and get her attention.

The proprietor took a puff off his pipe and waddled over, asking her, “God a soft spot for the wee dragons, do ye?” “I’ve always preferred things of a herpetological nature over things with fur and feathers, yes,” she said. “HEY,” I said. “Shush, you,” she snapped. He asked her if he could interest her in one of the little dudes and she gave him a look, asking what the price was. He eyed her up and down, asking what she wanted it for. “Cockroaching, companionship, food?” When she told him she was interested in a pet, he considered this and said, “Well, since you’re looking for something to fill that void, how about a memory, a time when you felt that void?” She extended a hand, saying, “I get to pick the gecko.” He reached up, took her hand and shook it. She told me later that as soon as he did, she felt something ripple in her memory. She could tell there was something gone, but she couldn’t even remember what. Everything around it was just missing.

(Side note: Yova lost the painful memory of the time she came out to her parents and they rejected her. Per her player, “Not the worst memory to lose.”)

That, however, was a concern for another day. She put her hand in the bowl and started feeling around. The geckos were stepping all over each other, pushing each other away. As they were doing so, she noticed one of the less excitable geckos crawl onto her and she pulled him out. He was a scrawny little guy who was much paler than Paisley and he hadn’t fully grown into his wings yet, but as soon as she pulled him out, he wrapped himself entirely around her knuckle like a ring. “Awww, look at the little guy. Whatcha gonna name him?” I asked her. “Gershwin,” she responded without missing a beat. “What?!” Day scoffed. “You had that name completely ready to go, didn’t you?” I asked her. “Yeah,” she said. As we were walking away, I overheard the shopkeep chuckle darkly to the other geckos, “And to think you guys were just going to be feed!” before he tossed one of them to another hedgebeast, which caught it and crunched down hard. I decided it would be best not to mention that to Yova.

We realized that we would probably need to look for weapons and other supplies we could use on our mission to Arcadia, but in asking around it became clear PDQ that there was a total moratorium on weapons and other deadly things. Nevertheless, Yova spotted a stand that got all our attention quickly. It was a stand with a bunch of weird odds and ends: a golden comb, a pair of mudboots, an old IOU paper, a pair of chopsticks, a spool of silver thread. The thing that really got her attention was an old Montreal Expos pennant. I tried to ignore the pennant as best I could because when I was a much smaller, even more awkward Derek, I had to play shortstop on my local Little League team for one brief and tragic summer and as a “reward” for doing that, my dad took me and my brother up to Montreal for an Expos game. I just wanted some goddamn crepes, but no, I had to sit and watch one of the worst professional teams in history get completely trounced by the Orioles. The Orioles, for crying out loud.

Sorry. I have some baggage.

Point being, every time Yova looked at the pennant, she was filled with a swelling of pride. In fact, all the items at the booth did that. The chopsticks filled you with overpowering dread, the thread with a feeling of belonging. The proprietor, a taller Mrs. Pepperpot-type goblin named Nanny Primrose, asked us if she could interest us in anything. Yova casually reached out to touch the thread and Nanny Primrose rapped her knuckles with her cane. “That is not easy to come by, I don’t want it stolen!” she crabbed. “What is it?” Yova asked. “That, my dearie, is the length of a leash that one of the fae used to keep one of their pets on,” Nanny Primrose said. “Ohhh, like Bella,” I said low-key to Yova. “And what does it do?” Yova asked. “Well, if two people love each other very much and don’t mind the thing, you just pull them back to you like a fishing rod,” Nanny Primrose said. I leaned in and murmured, “You know, nine months out of the year, the Autumn Lodge is closed to outsiders…” She didn’t dignify that with a response, but I did see her eyeballing it more closely.

Yova did ultimately end up pointing to the pennant, asking, “And that?” “That, dearie, has seen a great number of battles within the Hedge. You could call it a call to arms, as it were. When things are looking down, sometimes you need just that little bit of oomph to get the guy who’s trying to beat you down. Of course, I have it look like that right now because,” she chuckled unpleasantly, “people don’t like to buy things that are covered in blood.”

Yova asked what the cost was and Nanny Primrose asked for something that had a story. “What do any of you have that has a story?” she asked. Yova and Day looked to me and I reached up, pulling a feather out of my neck and daubing it in some of the ink that was running free. “With this, anyone can write their own story,” I said, handing it over to Nanny Primrose. She looked at it appraisingly and then looked up. “Give me another one and we’ve got a deal,” she said. I pulled another feather out of the opposite side of my neck and handed it over. She tucked the feathers away and passed the pennant to Yova. “Bit of advice: you need heart’s blood to activate it,” she said. “Pardon my ignorance, but heart’s blood?” Yova asked. “Stab yourself with a stick, dearie,” Nanny Primrose said.

With a gecko and a banner secured, we decided to start looking for some things for the others. At least Yova and I did. Day wandered into the stands that were selling food and wild horses couldn’t have helped us drag him away. So Yova and I wandered into the décor section. There were a ton of different stands selling everything from carpets woven out of vines to cups carved out of pieces of rock to still-dripping paintings to glass that bent in ways glass shouldn’t have been able to bend. We ended up near a stall that was selling a collection of geodes that were SO SHINY and while I was drooling, Yova picked up one that looked like bismuth, though circular instead of the usual geometric shapes.

Unlike a lot of the items in the market, the geodes all had clear price tags on them. When Yova flipped the tag over, she saw that there was an image of two mice on it. I was distracted by all the shiny things and didn’t notice when a tortoiseshell cat jumped onto my shoulder and meowed loudly in my ear. Over my wailing, Yova asked it, “Pardon me, are you the purveyor of this establishment?” It meowed again and popped off, rubbing its tail under the “2 mice” price tag. “I’m afraid I don’t have any mice, but what about this?” She pulled out some glittery thread and twisted it back and forth so it would catch the light. The cat stuck its tongue out at her.

“You know, I think I have an idea,” I said. I reached in my messenger bag and pulled out the laser pointer I used to give Paisley some exercise and flicked it on, running it in front of the cat. It started batting at the laser and I flicked the pointer off. It looked up at me. “How about this: I give you a good chase with the red dot in exchange for the geode?” It thought for a moment, then nodded. I flicked the pointer back on and started running the cat through its stall. “You might want to go look for something for Pam. I’m gonna be here a minute,” I told her.

Yova ended up making her way through the rest of the décor section, noting a jewelry stand and a stall with journals that made noise upon opening. Eventually, she found the housewares section and a stall that sold a variety of different kinds of brooms. There was one with a polished oak handle and bristles made of something silky, which she knew Pam was going to love. Surprisingly, there was another changeling running the stall, a woman with blue iridescent scales and dark skin. Yova asked her what the cost was and the changeling gave her a knowing smile, saying, “I’m not complicated. I take cash. $75, I carved the handle myself.” Yova gave her four twenties and told her to keep the change.

Around this time, both Yova and I heard the music come to a blissful stop and an announcement came on over the loudspeakers: “Attention patrons: there is a blue light special on aisle 16!” Yova made her way back over to where I was still letting the cat chase that goddamn laser pointer. “Do you think we should check that out?” she asked. “Uh, yeah. Gimme one second,” I said. I threw the laser light about as far away as I could get and when the cat chased it away, I turned to go. Or at least, I tried to. It was a lot harder to do than I thought; it felt like there was something forcibly keeping me in place. I had to wrench myself away and when I did, I felt guilty. Some part of me knew I was leaving before I was formally dismissed and that part knew I should still be there.

“You should’ve just left the laser,” Yova told me as we made our way over to aisle 16. “Dude, this is Paisley’s favorite. You have no idea how picky she is,” I told her.

When we got to aisle 16, we saw a soapbox that had a blue light radiating out of it. The man standing on top of it was very pale with wavy silver hair pulled back in some updo that was somewhere between a ponytail and man bun. He was wearing a navy blue suit and had milky white eyes. Even before he could speak, I had the distinct feeling of oiliness.

When he spoke, that feeling was confirmed ten times over. He said, “Distinguished guests of the Spindle City Goblin Market, welcome! I have for you today a very interesting item, a very useful item, I’m sure you’ll all be quite interested in placing bids on.” He reached inside his coat pocket and pulled out a long crocheted rope with little precious gem beads embedded in it. “Behold!” he bellowed as he waved it in front of him. “A skinwalker’s trinket! Yarn woven from the wool of several different powerful hedgebeasts with beads carved from the dream gates of some of the most powerful changelings on the Earth! This is a very effective back alley doorway into the dreams of anyone you want to get into the dreams of! Bidding starts at a minor boon!”

Yova and I got into a huddle quickly and we agreed we were going to at least try to get it. “I think the best thing I can offer is to ensure a promise he has someone make is locked, but I’d have to be there for it to happen,” I told her. “True. But we just need to give him some way to get in touch with us. And worst case scenario, we get outbid,” she said.

We split up and Yova stepped forward to make the bid, holding up her hand and smiling her biggest bullshit smile. “My good sir, I have an offer!” she said. “Oh, do you, do you, do share, my good madam!” he said, matching her bullshit for bullshit. “I have the guarantee of a promise, locked down and guaranteed to happen,” she said. “What sort of promise are you talking about, a sworn pledge, a guarantee to kill someone?” he asked. “A Notarized promise. My friend here has the ability to do so – he is a Notary, a very rare breed, who can make such a thing happen,” she said, swinging her arm in my direction. I felt about eighty pairs of eyes on me and tried to give my friendliest smile, which has on occasion caused people to offer me antacids and made small children start crying.

The vendor looked over us (and me in particular) and grinned. He looked back to the rest of the crowd and said, “Well, we’ve got one going all in right at the start. Can anyone beat a promise from one who knows many of the secrets of the True Fae?” I was relieved that our gambit seemed to work. There were a few tepid bids coming in, but they were pretty puny and clearly not landing. The vendor rocked back on his heels and said, “I hate to say this, but you’re all boring as fuck. This is supposed to be a Goblin Market! Notary boy, come forward!” I stepped forward, clutching my messenger bag. He looked at the rest of the crowd and yelled, “SCRAM!” They all left, grumbling and looking unhappy.

He came forward, putting an arm around both of us (I was surprised to see he was almost as tall as Yova) and he said, “To be quite honest, your bid wasn’t so exciting either, but you have a reputation, so I’ll bite.” “We have a reputation?” Yova asked. “In certain circles,” he said. “What kind of reputation?” I asked. “You have people who are fond of you. They tell stories.” He turned to me and said, “So, how does it work? Are the words actually on your skin or what?” I pulled back some of my feathers to show the skin beneath and where some words had been printed on my flesh. “Ooooh!” he said, leaning close to see what was written. “Hey, watch your business,” I said, pushing the feathers back into place. “This is my business! This is my very business! Yuri, by the way,” he said, extending a hand. We introduced ourselves and hammered out the details of our deal, with him proposing that he come for his favor within the next lunar cycle. I agreed, pulled a feather on my lower arm out and wrote a note for him to take. I felt the Glamour leave my body and enter in the words that flowed onto my wrist under the ink that was bleeding out. At the same time, I felt some pushback from the Glamour he was pushing into the deal as well. It’s definitely a weird feeling. I’ve never gotten a tattoo, but from what I understand it’s kind of similar – it doesn’t exactly hurt, but there’s definitely a pressure there, pushing it down into my skin.

Yuri handed me the Token and I tucked it into my messenger bag right away. “One more thing before you go, and you don’t have to answer this, but it’s something I’m curious about,” I said. “You didn’t happen to have sold something similar to a young lady with tan skin and the legs of a white deer, did you?” He grinned wider and said that he had. “Sweet girl. Owes me a ton of favors now. And she’s very fond of all of you. I told you I’d heard about you.” With that, he waved and disappeared back into the throngs at the market.

“Okay, what next?” Yova asked. “Maybe we should go check on Day and make sure he hasn’t sold his toes for beef jerky?” I asked. “Day is a grown man, if he wants to sell his toes, he can do that,” she said. “Yeah, but we need him to be able to walk and stand in front of us,” I told him. “Besides that, why beef jerky? It’s disgusting,” I said. “I hear it’s very high in protein,” she said. “So is semen! Doesn’t mean you need to choke it down!” I said. She gave me a look of complete disgust and said, “This is exactly why I’m a lesbian.”

We passed by the food vendors and saw Day eagerly talking to the vendor at a stand marked “Organic” “Fruit” (yes, exactly like that, both words in separate quotation marks) and decided we’d swing back and get him later. Yova told me about the journals she saw earlier and they sounded intriguing, so we went back to the book binders. And that was when I realized that every single one of them made the sound of the animal whose hide was used to bind it. “NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE” I said. Yova quickly pulled me over to the other side of the stand. “What about these?” she asked, pointing to another set of journals. I picked one up and the face on it opened up and stared at me. “NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE” I said and she pulled me away.

“Look, Derek, you haven’t gotten anything for yourself, don’t you want anything?” she asked. I shrugged. “I dunno. I’m fine,” I said. And here’s something for those armchair psychologists of you out there: I was a middle child and I got used to getting passed over on stuff, so half of the time I don’t even really think about getting anything for myself. Yova, however, was not going to hear about that and she dragged me over to the cookware section to find something. And it was there that we found the most awesome stone rolling pin with kaleidoscopic handles. It was shiny and practical. I was about to ask how much it was but Yova had already spent the Glamour on it and she practically shoved it at me to put away. Having friends is awesome.

We found Day not long after that, about as big a smile as I’ve ever seen on his face. “You look pleased,” Yova told him. “I found the best freaking burgers I’ve ever had!” he said, pulling one out of its wrapper and shoving it in his face. He swallowed it whole and said, “And all they asked for was a bottle of my tears!” Yova and I looked at each other and she asked, “How many times did you have to punch yourself in the face to fill up a bottle of tears?” “None! They’re really spicy!” he said, chowing down on another one. And then, because I am a bad person, I started trilling, “Mind you, I can’t hardly blame them… these are probably the worst pies in London…” Yova bit down hard on her knuckle to keep from laughing and Day paused mid-chomp and looked at me. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asked. “Oh, nothing. Nothing at all,” I said.

We were running close to the time where we said we’d meet Evain, so we took our purchases and went back up toward the entrance, where he was standing. He asked what we got and we showed him all of our goodies. He looked around and pulled a small doll out of his canvas bag. It looked eerily like Cassi and he asked hesitantly if we thought she was going to like it. “I think she’ll be very touched,” Yova said. “Yeah, you can say it’s for the first Christmas you missed. Oh! Oh, you know what I just saw this week that’s coming to Blu-Ray? Cinderella! You should get her that!” I said. “Oh, yeah, she’d love that,” he said.

“Did you watch that a lot with her when she was a kid?” Yova asked. Evain gave her a deadpan look and said, “Okay, listen. This is going to sound awful, but when you’re a single parent, sometimes you have to put them in front of the TV for a while to get stuff done. But then they want to watch the same movie six times in a row.” “Yeah, with my little sister it was Mulan,” I said. “Hey, Mulan is a perfectly good movie!” Yova protested. “She just liked the Reflection song,” I said. “She’d watch it, rewind to the start of the Reflection song, play the Reflection song. Rewind to the start of the Reflection song, play the Reflection song.” “Not I’ll Make a Man Out Of You or A Girl Worth Fighting For?” Yova asked. “Nope. Because ‘Mulan was pretty,’” I said. Evain looked around and said, “Uh, fun as this conversation is, maybe we should get going before they realize I stiffed them on the doll.” We quickly made our way for the exit and told him we’d be in touch about our mission in. And then we stopped off at PetSmart on the way home to get crickets for Gershwin.

So that’ll about do for our shopping excursion into the Goblin Market. Until next time, be safe and may you never be around well-meaning idiots who take you to go see journals bound in flesh.

#Changeling: The Lost #changeling #ctl #ic #recap #day got a punchcard where every fifth toe he gives up he gets a free burger

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throughtheglassdarkly · 5 years

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Missing Pieces, part 4

Welcome back. When last you were here, Evain crashed Pam’s birthday and Yova tried to kiss a ghost. Onward.

A few days after we dealt with the Shepherd of Lonely Roads and felt secure in Pam’s daughter not being at any risk, we all managed to stumble into our next bit of trouble. Yova wasn’t there, but I’m going to blame her for it anyway. You see, it all started on the day she was going to take Marigold out to lunch for their first date. Day had been trying to get a private investigator business up and running and was off doing something for that, but Pam, Bella, and I were all extremely interested in what Yova was getting up to. So we decided to spy on her date. Clearly, it was all her fault for going out when nothing was on TV.

Also, around the time I knew she was getting ready to leave for her date, I sent Paisley flying up to Yova’s balcony with a dental dam. She sent Paisley back with an elegantly written scorcher of a note thanking me for my concern about her health and promising to return the favor and I laughed and laughed and laughed and felt my insides burn with the kind of glee that can come only from Satan.

I knew Yova was planning to take Marigold to a classy bistro maybe fifteen minutes’ walk from our apartment building. So beforehand, Pam, Bella, and I showed up and grabbed a table in the corner nearest the door. We were all very subtly wearing giant sunglasses and scarves and hiding behind menus. Amazingly, Yova and Marigold didn’t seem to notice us and were taken to a table more in the back, where Yova immediately started turning on the charm and Marigold was looking delighted at how Yova was sweeping her off her feet.

Unfortunately, that’s about when the trouble started. Bella was the one who first noticed the guy – a man standing across the street, staring very intently at our table. She wasn’t able to place her finger on where she’d seen his face before, but when she pointed him out to us, I had a moment of horrible recollection: the skin tone was slightly different and he didn’t have a mohawk, but otherwise he looked exactly like Buck, one of the loyalists who’d captured us and taken us to Arcadia in the first place.

I was confused for a second, because we should easily have been able to see through his mask to what his mien was. Pam reminded me that it was possible to spend Glamour to hid your mien, which we figured he was doing so he could remain incognito. Our attention was completely distracted from Marigold and Yova and we started trying to figure out what he was doing and why he would be staring at us. We saw him taking down a lot of notes, then shutting his notebook in a huff, stretching, and starting to walk down toward a bus stop.

We sprang into action. I paid the waitress for our drinks and Pam and Bella headed out to intercept him. Pam managed to distract him by talking to him and asking for directions (leaning very heavily on the Minnesota accent), while Bella slipped into invisibility to try and lift his notes. Since Buck was responsible for me getting captured, I decided to hang out on the patio of the bistro and run after him, if need be. Pam was able to keep him awkwardly engaged where he wasn’t able to end the conversation and leave while Bella slipped up behind him to grab his notepad. And continued being the least stealthy Darkling that has ever walked the face of the planet, as she missed and he felt the pull on his bag. He turned and started looking at Bella, who was materializing out of nowhere. Thankfully, as he adjusted his bag, she was able to grab the notebook and run. He took off running in the opposite direction, which is when I sprang into action.

Bella had a lot of people staring at her because she suddenly appeared out of nowhere. As she ran in the opposite direction of Buck, she started screaming, “Student film! Don’t worry! Everything’s fine!” Pam managed to save the day by starting to clap and getting others clapping, even though they were confused. Once Bella found a place to hide, she read through the notes and saw it was mostly a list of places and times. It didn’t take her long to realize they were places she’d specifically been, as well as notes on her preferred forms of transportation. Tucked in the back was an envelope with a red wax seal that had a skull with no eye sockets and a dagger slicing through the side of the skull. (Yeah, real subtle.) After struggling with the seal mightily for a few minutes, she managed to use all her rock-extracting force to get it open. The letter was complete gibberish that she couldn’t make heads or tails of.

In the other direction, I kept hot pursuit of Buck, who was looking really weirded out at me chasing him. He rounded a corner into an alley and I followed him, cornering him. “Hey, buddy, how’s it going?” I asked him. He looked like he wanted to retort something but was at a complete loss for words. I asked if he was Buck and he scoffed, “Well, if you already know it, there’s no point in denying it.” I asked if he recognized me and he squinted at me, saying maybe, but that he couldn’t place me. As he was doing this, I spotted him eyeing a window that had a dim reflection in it. He bit the inside of his cheek, winced, and spat blood in his hand. I realized at the last second what he was about to do and as he jumped forward, reaching out with his hand, I leapt and kicked out the window, shattering it. I have literally never felt more badass in my whole entire life.

“Fuck!” he yelled. “Nah, not right now,” I said. He facepalmed and I told him that he should remember me because of a bark and dried leaf canape. He squinted again and said, “Oh, yeaaaah! You know, that was Aurora’s idea. I thought it was kind of stupid, but it worked!” He swore that he wasn’t working for Scathach anymore, or for any of the Fae. “I’m in new work now, doing surveillance.” But when I asked him who he was working for, he wouldn’t tell me. I decided to take the honey-over-vinegar approach, offering to put in a good word for him with the freehold if he was willing to talk about what he knows. He seemed to consider this for a second, then rejected it, saying that he’d done too much for them to ever take him in.

Pam showed up around this time and I caught her up on what was going on. Faced with the two of us, Buck finally admitted he was working for a group called the Knights of the Widow’s Walk, who aren’t affiliated with the freehold. I asked why they wanted to know about us, and he couldn’t say because the missions weren’t always wordy. He started digging around in his messenger bag and his eyes got wide. After a second, he yelled, “Shit, my envelope! That little goth freak got it!” He looked up at us and told us he’d find us to get it back and stormed off. Pam and I looked at each other with a shrug. As much as we didn’t want to let him go, he at least didn’t seem to be an immediate threat, so we met back up with Bella.

As we were walking down to where Bella ran to, I heard a voice say, “Hey. Hey, you, tall guy. With the pretty lady. I got the good shit,” and a set of pastel-painted fingernails emerged from the shadows, waving the notebook. “Who, me? My mother always told me not to buy anything from disembodied voices,” I said. Bella slipped out of the shadows and showed us the letter. Pam and I looked at it and we quickly realized it was a cypher of some sort, a message where the letters all stand in for another letter. It would take some time to crack, but we would have to do it eventually, so we went back to my apartment to sit down and try to solve it.

As we got home, I saw that Yova’s crappy pickup was in the parking lot, though given how close the bistro was, that wasn’t any guarantee that she and Marigold were there. I woke Paisley up from her nap and asked if she’d be willing to flit up to Yova’s balcony and see if they were there. She gave me the most indignant expression I’ve ever gotten from a gecko and flew over to her box, settling in and closing her eyes. “Paisley. I’ll make you an extra batch of crickers,” I promised. She raised her head slightly, eyeing me. “With extra ground crickets on top, mixed with sea salt?” I asked. She turned her head and settled in, not having anything to do with it. “Paisley. Paisley!” I said. “This is the unkindest cut of all. What have I ever done to you but love you and feed you and clean out your little box?” She flicked her tail dismissively and that was the end of that.

We settled around my table with a bowl of popcorn and some apple cider. I put The Great British Bake Off on in the background and we set to work on trying to crack the cypher. It took us a solid two hours to do so, but we eventually did, getting the following message:

“I am assuming, my knight, that you have successfully captured your quarry. For that I must commend you. Helldivers are a slippery lot, though I trust the manacles I sent along with the first part of this mission made it significantly easier. They should keep our friend from activating her blessing. I do hope you remembered to wear gloves while touching them. It is imperative that you do not speak with the Helldiver on your own. Do not speak with her at all. Your mission is only to capture and keep her until the Larger Threat has been neutralized. Once this has been done, a more seasoned Knight will come to retrieve her. You will know his coming by the phrase, ‘I say three times, your mission is complete.’ You will receive further instructions after the completion of this task. The Courier will meet you at the usual location.”

Bella, understandably enough, was starting to freak out at this and Pam gave her a reassuring hug. After we cracked the code, we looked back through Buck’s notebook to see what we could understand from his notes. We realized that there were specific notes when she was “with the Big Guy” and “not with the Big Guy.” I wondered if it was the creepshow who was trying to distill their essences back in the Goblin Market – it was the two of them who were captured and he did know Bella was a Helldiver from seeing her silver string. I sent Day a text, warning him about it and telling him to get in touch with us when he could.

Bella was definitely shaken, functional but not feeling great. We agreed that she and Pam could stay at my place for the meantime, and she got in touch with Duke Lamington, Mistress Lilly’s second in command, who told her that if she needed to, she could safely stay at a B&B the Spring Court owned. We all agreed that the Courts would want to know about a former loyalist spying on members of the freehold, so I called Stella, who was the most prominent Autumn courtier I’d been in regular contact with. Her voicemail was typically brusque: “You’ve reached Stella. Leave a message, and if it’s important, I’ll return your call.” So I, being the petty bastard I am, decided to leave her a masterclass in passive-aggressive voicemails.

“Hi, Stella, it’s Derek. I don’t know if this is important enough, but we just ran into a former loyalist who’s been watching Bella like a hawk, saying that he works for some group called the Knights of the Widow’s Walk, and I thought the Court would probably want to know about it. Like I said, don’t know if it matters, but if it does, here’s my number so you can call me back. Bye!” About thirty minutes later, I got a call back. When I picked up, before I could even say hello, I just heard her yelling, “COURT HALL NOW,” and disconnecting. I hung up, looked at Pam and Bella, and said, “She thinks it’s important.”

I activated my Mirror Walk contract (after the bathroom mirror incident when I brought the others to the Autumn lodge, I bought a full-length mirror from IKEA for my bedroom) and took Pam and Bella through. This was the first time Bella had been in the Autumn lodge, and she sadly didn’t look too impressed. “I’m glad I didn’t choose Autumn. This doesn’t go with my aesthetic,” she said. Stella was sitting by the giant fireplace in the foyer with ramrod straight posture, and I couldn’t help but notice the other courtiers were giving her a wide berth. She invited us to sit and apologized for her tone on the phone, explaining she was shocked. As we sat, she was staring straight at Bella, causing Bella to squirm. She said, “There’s no nice way of asking this, so I’ll apologize in advance. But if there is anything you have ever said, thought, or communicated that might indicate you are in league with the Gentry, I need to know that now.” Bella told her that she’d never even considered it and when Stella asked me for my opinion, I backed that up.

Stella seemed to relax slightly at that and said, “Then I’ll chalk this up to misinformed prejudice.” She looked at me and said, “As I’m sure you are aware, my – our – court isn’t exactly looking well right now with the incident at the Harvest Fair, so I would appreciate if you handle this matter with some discretion. If the Knights are operating within the freehold, then there is a loyalist somewhere. They believe it’s Bella. You seem to believe it is not and I am willing to risk trusting your judgment this once.” She explained that Helldivers aren’t common outside Arcadia because they’re often spies for the Gentry, easily pulled back by their silver thread. Because we could see that Bella’s thread was broken, we knew she was free from her Keeper, but external eyes might not be able to see that so clearly.

Stella told us that the Knights of the Widow’s Walk are an independent changeling organization dedicated to rooting out and identifying loyalists, so if they were here, then there had to be a loyalist in the freehold. She told us that we really had only three options: either find the loyalist, try to speak with the Knights ourselves, or keep running. She said she was going to conduct her own investigation and asked that we do anything we were interested in subtly. I offered to pass information we found along to her subtly and she excused herself to make the council aware of what was going on.

Pam and Bella decided to sit down by the fire for a minute and figure out what our next move was. I excused myself, telling them I had an important collaborative research matter to attend to. Which I did. It was collaborative and it did involve research. There were a few Autumn courtiers who had requested certain information from me, and I knew that I could pass that information along and it would get to the right ears. I only found one of them, a man whose skin was made of porcelain and who tended to help fix mechanical issues. Nobody I spoke to ever knew his name, he just showed up when things needed fixing.

So I sidled up next to him discreetly and he looked at me. I leaned in and whispered, “Champagne, strawberries, and oysters were all ordered.” He raised his eyebrows and said, “Niiiiice.” Marigold, as it turns out, was the current baby of the Autumn Court (a title I took soon after), and a few of the courtiers wanted to make sure she had a good time. I told him about delivering the dental dam to Yova via Paisley and he offered me a fist to bump. Yay for making friends!

Back at the fireplace, Bella was actually getting serious for probably the first time since we were all captured and taken to Arcadia. She told Pam that she didn’t want to run any more because that was all we did back there. Pam asked her if she wanted to try and find the real loyalist or talk to the Knights and Bella wasn’t sure. Pam suggested that we try to get in contact with the Knights somehow, though she didn’t want to put Bella at risk. I rejoined them and suggested we go back to the bistro and get something to eat while we planned our next move. They both agreed that sounded good, so I activated my contract again and we went back to my apartment before heading out to get a bite to eat.

Yova and Marigold were long gone by the time we arrived, so we had some time to settle in and enjoy our meal. Bella seemed to feel a trifle better afterward, and we returned back to my apartment. As we were walking up to my front door, I couldn’t help but notice some muddy footprints outside my door. I held up a hand for Pam and Bella to stop and pointed to the footprints. I slipped in to see what was going on. The footprints continued through my kitchen and into the carpeted living room, where Buck was lying on the couch (muddy boots on the pillows, of course), in a serious glaring contest with Paisley. She was perched on the coffee table glaring at him and he was glaring straight back at her.

“I see you met my guard gecko,” I said. “Yeah, I did,” he said dryly, turning to look at me. I saw he had a nasty scorch mark on his cheek and I smiled, telling Paisley, “Good girl.” She fluttered over to me and nestled in my feathers. Pam and Bella came in when they didn’t immediately hear a struggle and Buck asked for his letter back. I told him that if he told us what he was keeping an eye on Day and Bella for, he could have the letter.

“Look, all I have is my mission. I was keeping an eye on the big guy because he seems to like you and I didn’t want him between you and me when I went to get you,” he told Bella. Bella told him that she wanted to scratch his face off. He shrugged and made possibly his biggest mistake, calling her a little girl. She immediately grew her claws out and he flinched back. “Look, we all do what we gotta do to survive,” he said. “So what, they’re gonna kidnap me and Day, interrogate us, only to find out there’s nothing going on?!” Bella snapped.

Tempers were starting to flare, so I cleared my throat and offered a suggestion: that Buck pass a note along to his spymaster from us, asking to meet and discuss what was going on. He shrugged and said he couldn’t promise anything, but that he’d pass it along to a courier. I sat down at my dining table with my journal and started writing a note. As I did, I noticed Buck was still leaning with his boots up on my couch. “You know, there was a mat you could’ve wiped your fucking boots on,” I said. “Whatever. It’s not my house,” he said. The note I wrote and gave to him read as follows:

“Dear Sir and/or Madam Spymaster: We’ve recently become aware of your intention to acquire a member of our motley, whom you appear to suspect of some wrongdoing. We are terribly distressed by this and wish to parlay, if possible, with you or a representative at a time and place that is convenient. We would be more than willing to assist in your investigation if you are willing to cease attempting to capture our associate. Please let us know if this is agreeable. All the best, Derek, pledged courtier of the Autumn Court Greater Freehold of Upstate New York”

Buck took the letter and his envelope and reiterated that he couldn’t promise we’d get the response we wanted, but that he would send it along. He took his leave and I got out the carpet cleaner, starting to scrub the mud off the carpet and grumbling about it all the while. Pam helped me get things cleaned up, but as we were doing so, she spotted another envelope none of us had seen before, leaning up against the closet door.

The envelope had another one of the seals of the skull with no eyes and the dagger in it. It wasn’t sealed as sternly as the one Bella had managed to get open earlier, and inside was a single photo. It looked like it had been taken on the shittiest old cell phone camera available and then printed on a printer that was desperately in need of an ink change. Nevertheless, it was unmistakably a picture of Day, slumped against a wall. A neatly written note underneath it read, “Trade?” with a set of coordinates. I managed to sum up what we all were thinking when I said, “Well, shit.”

That’s probably good for now, so I’ll cut it here. Next time, you’ll get to learn exactly how screwy rescue attempts can go. Until then, may your apartments always have linoleum floors.

#Changeling: The Lost #changeling #CTL #recap #ic #WIPE YOUR DAMN FEET #indignant geckos

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throughtheglassdarkly · 5 years

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Missing Pieces, part 1

“Maybe this isn’t home, nor ever was – maybe home is where I have to go tonight. Home is the place where when you go there, you have to finally face the thing in the dark.” – Stephen King, It

Welcome back to our misadventures. The last time you were here, we’d finally escaped Arcadia and found ourselves disoriented and confused. Evain, another changeling, was welcoming us to the Greater Freehold of Upstate New York. And so that’s where we’ll begin.

Evain figured we were pretty out of it, which we were – getting through the Hedge was disorienting as hell. But, he told us, we were at least safe-ish and he recommended that we come back to his place. We didn’t have any real other option, so we took him up on it. We ended up sneaking out of the orchard and through a back road, avoiding the families and young kids who were crawling everywhere. As I was looking around, I suddenly realized where we were: Altamont Orchards in Altamont, New York, about thirty minutes from Albany. I’d gone there a few times to pick apples and try to figure out the spice mix they tossed their cinnamon donuts in.

Given that we looked like refugees from a crappy Ren Faire (to say nothing of how inhuman we looked), we crept our way through as quietly as we could, eventually getting to Evain’s SUV. Bella tried her best sad puppy dog eyes, but Day wasn’t going to let her sit on his lap. Pam, Bella and I shared the middle seat, with Yova riding shotgun and Day in back by himself. Pam was pretty wrecked and nodded off almost as soon as we got on the road. The rest of us introduced ourselves. Evain seemed to be handling us with kid’s gloves, not really pushing conversation on us as we drove into Albany. One thing I did want to know was what year it was; I was thinking back on how Adrian and Cassi had been in the Hedge for years and years. I knew we couldn’t have been gone as long as them, but I was still a little stunned when Adrian told us it was October 2017: two and a half years after we’d been taken.

We got to Evain’s duplex and he let us inside, explaining that he lived on the second floor and had a friend renting the first floor. His apartment was pretty bare aside from the essentials and he got us some snacks. Pam decided to lie down for a bit, but the rest of us were pretty hungry and started noshing. When we sat down, I thanked Evain for letting us crash at his place. “Hey, I’m just glad you guys let me get close,” he said. “We’d seen you at a few places, but every time someone would get close to you, one of you would scream and run away. This is the first time in a week someone’s been able to talk to you.” We all stopped eating and talking and just looked at each other. None of us remembered any part of that, and it definitely didn’t seem like we’d been escaping through the Hedge for a week.

Yova and Day polished off the better part of a bottle of rotgut vodka while Evain tried to get some formalities out of the way. He told us about the freehold and how most of the upstate New York region was contained in it. “But even though it’s big, it’s still easy to get around because of the Hedge and portals.” We also learned about the seasonal courts: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, each headed by a changeling or changelings who would lead the court three months out of the year. Since it was October, Autumn was currently in charge. He hinted that it was in our interest to join one of the courts, if for nothing other than protection and being a part of the freehold community.

He asked us about who we were before we were taken and we each gave him our elevator pitch. He was taking notes and said he’d pass that along to the courts so they’d have an idea of where we might fit in and how we might make use of some of our skills. He also told us that if we wanted to reclaim our lives and take out our Fetches – assuming we all had one – there were people who could help us out with that. Bella was looking really unsure about this and asked how we could take our lives back when we looked the way we did. It was something that, weirdly enough, hadn’t even occurred to me until that moment: with the possible exception of Pam, we all looked inhuman – nothing like we did before. Evain told us not to worry, that there was some supernatural magic that kept normal humans from seeing what changelings look like. “I guarantee, you’ve walked right past a changeling before you were taken and you never knew,” he said.

Around this time, we’d polished off most of the chips and crackers he’d set out and he offered to go get us some Chinese takeout and some clothes that looked better than the makeshift stuff we had on. I asked if it was possible for him to pick up some stuff that I could use to make cookies. It had been way too long since I was in a full working kitchen with ingredients that weren’t goblin fruit and I was champing at the bit to bake something again. Yova asked for some more vodka. “Well, that goes without saying,” Evain said. I couldn’t help but notice that he seemed really tense around Day before he made his way out the door. “Friend of yours?” Yova asked. “Or someone you arrested?” Bella asked. “Nah, I’d remember his face,” Day said. “Well…” I started and Day sat up straight, eyes wide. “Oh, wait… maybe I wouldn’t remember his face,” he said.

As fascinating as thinking about Day’s long record of manhandling criminals was, it was around this time that Yova started looking uncomfortable. She reached up and detached her collar, saying something was moving in there. She looked inside and her eyes went wide. And that’s when I saw a telltale blue head pop up and smile. “Paisley? Darling, I’ve never been more glad to see anyone, but – what are you doing here?” Yova asked. Paisley climbed out of her hiding spot and I saw a piece of paper tied to her tail. My heart sank and I said, “Oh, no. No, he didn’t. He didn’t.” Paisley climbed over onto my shoulder and I untied the paper from her tail. My hands were shaking, but I opened it up and read it. The paper read “D: So I’m not really apart from you. -A.”

I can’t even explain what I felt, reading those words. A swell of emotion, bubbling up through me. Anger at Adrian for sending Paisley away when I knew how important she was to him being able to see and experience the world. A hot flushed mixture of desire and pleasure that he’d thought to do it. Worry for what it meant for him. And regret – regret again that I couldn’t save him and Cassi from their contract and that he was stuck in Arcadia, serving an Amberleigh who was completely unpredictable. “Why… why would he do this?” was all I could get out. Paisley flitted up and booped her nose against my own. That got a smile out of me and I scratched her under the chin. I can’t explain it, but looking into her eyes, thinking there was a chance he might be seeing me… it made me feel a little better. I’m not the sort of guy who ever had a lot of luck in relationships and Adrian making a gesture like this – as stupid and over-the-top as it was – it let me know he cared about me as much as I cared about him.

And then Yova had to say, “You know, Derek. Those are his eyes. That could lead to some opportunities…” “FLASHING HIM!” Bella piped up. And I began to think about what the statute of limitations would be for murdering two people who technically don’t exist any more. But doing that so soon after we got back wouldn’t be polite, so instead I looked over at Yova and said, “You know what this means. I get to pet Paisley whenever I want.” I might as well have stuck a knife in her and twisted it.

About an hour passed, during which point we learned that the two years we were gone were not an entirely bad time to be away from what was happening in America, and Evain came back in carrying some huge bags of clothes and a plastic bag of greasy takeout. Yova met him at the door wild-eyed and shrieked, “HOWISTRUMPPRESIDENTHOWHOWHOWHOW” and, to his credit, Evain didn’t even blink, just responding, “Because the world fucking sucks.” Truer words were rarely spoken.

Evain put the bags of clothes down on the floor and the takeout on the tiny dining table and told us that he’d heard back from the seasonal rulers, who’d asked us to meet them for dinner at 7:30. It was only about 2:00 by the time he got back, so we had plenty of time to eat, get changed, and even go out for a bit if we wanted. Bella and I started looking through some of the clothes – he’d grabbed about everything at the Goodwill that looked like it might be in our sizes – while Yova said she wanted to check the library and do some searching about what happened to her. Day said that he thought he might look into some things as well and that was when Evain started laughing – and not a pleasant laugh either.

Day looked over and very darkly asked Evain what was so funny. “Oh, my friend,” Evain said. “You’re not going to have to look hard at all. You made headlines.” Day looked like he wanted to choke Evain out and asked what the hell he was talking about. With no small amount of glee, Evain told Day that after he disappeared, the police started looking into things to see if maybe somebody took out a hit on him as retribution for an arrest. That’s when they realized everything Day had been up to and all the times he’d planted evidence or blurred some lines to get a bad guy. That’s when Day’s Fetch showed up, immediately realized how much trouble he was in, and went underground. Nobody’d seen hide nor hair of his Fetch since then.

Day started breathing heavily, looking like he was going to reach over and rip Evain’s face off, and Yova quickly popped up, escorting him outside. Evain was still snickering to himself and I was about to speak up when, much to my surprise, Bella let him have it with both barrels, telling him that he was out of line and didn’t have to tell Day the way he did. “Yeah, he can be an asshole, but you don’t have to be mean about his life going down the tubes!” she said, displaying her usual sense of restraint and decorum. “Sweetheart, you don’t understand the context here,” Evain said, without going into any more detail. He did seem to at least feel a little bit of remorse, because he toned down the snickering and told her he’d try to keep it to himself.

Outside, Yova was trying to comfort Day and tell him things were going to be okay. “No, he’s right. I’m not a nice guy,” Day said, head in hands. Yova wasn’t sure how to respond to that and asked as gently as she could if there were a lot of things the investigators might have found. Day admitted it would have been Internal Investigations’ wet dream. Yova took a deep breath and told him that even though things might be bleak, this was actually going to give him a clean slate: they’d be looking for his Fetch, not for who Day was now. “You have a chance to start over and I know people who would kill for a chance like that. I’d think on that,” she said. She also reminded him he had the potential to be better and that he shouldn’t squander it. Day sat there for a minute, not saying anything, before he pushed himself up and said he needed to take a walk.

Yova came back inside, glaring daggers at Evain, and said she was going to take the bus to the library. Evain offered to drive her and Yova turned full ice princess mode on him. She at least accepted a few bucks from him for bus fare and left, slamming the door behind her and leaving me, Bella, and Evain sitting in very awkward silence. “Well,” I said, getting up. “I think I’m gonna make some cookies.”

I found later Day took a long walk and found a park to sit and think for a while. He was about as shaken as he’d ever been, thinking back on how many of the convictions he’d worked so hard to get were probably getting overturned on what the internal investigators had found. He was thinking about how things weren’t ever going to be the same and how he put in all that work for nothing.

Back at the apartment, I made a triple batch of my signature molasses cookies (which are awesome as hell, thank you kindly), Evain grabbed a pipe and went out on the porch for a smoke, and Bella rage-sketched.

Yova got a bus to the library and got a pass to use one of the computers. She Googled herself and found almost nothing after her abduction. She of course found everything about herself before that, but after her abduction, it was like she dropped off the face of the earth. She tried checking her personal website, but it was out of commission. Her Gmail account still worked, so she sent out a few messages to some contacts. On her way out, however, she spotted an ancient Missing Persons poster that looked vaguely familiar. When she got closer, she realized it was Cassi at about age 12. She took the poster and folded it up, breathing very slowly.

We were mostly left to our own devices, with Evain leaving us alone until it was time to go meet the monarchs. He opened one of his closet doors and we saw a giant mirror inside. We got Pam up and she seemed more herself after getting some rest. We all joined hands and Evain grabbed a razor blade, cutting his arm and smearing some of the blood on the mirror. We all could feel something in the air shift. He stepped through the mirror and we all got pulled through with him. It felt weirdly normal as we passed through, emerging in a large coat closet. A very severe-looking woman with gray skin and blonde hair was staring at us. Evain seemed to be playing up a bow to her, but she just rolled her eyes and told us the monarchs were waiting.

We got led through a kitchen and into a dining room. It seemed like we were in a B&B somewhere, a weirdly calm, comforting environment. There were a group of changelings sitting and standing in the room and it was set with dinner. We were introduced to Cahir, King of the Summer Court; Mistress Lilly, Queen of the Spring Court; The Dagda, Speaker of the Autumn Council; and Kassandra Winterdale, ruler of the Winter Court. They had a big spread of food that looked almost like Thanksgiving dinner: a big turkey (which made me kind of ill to think about) and a lot of side dishes. I tried to put my plate of cookies on the table as unobtrusively as possible. The Dagda, however, made a beeline for them, asking, “Are those cookies?!” I stammered out a yes, and he picked them up and smelled them deeply, then said, “Oh, man, he’s my favorite. Kassandra, you have to smell this!” Kassandra was about as icy as her name, telling him there would be time for dessert later. I think she might be allergic to joy, but that’s just me.

Mistress Lilly was interested in making sure we were feeling welcome, telling us that they all wanted to make sure we were comfortable and got to eat. I couldn’t really handle the roast turkey, but everything else was delicious. Yova started chatting up the rulers, schmoozing with all of them and trying to network. Kassandra may have given a slight smile, and both The Dagda and Cahir were very taken with Yova. We learned the basics about the Courts and the benefits of joining a Court. We were strongly encouraged to think about where we would be the happiest. I couldn’t shake the feeling that, as friendly as the rulers were all being, they were extremely interested in as many of us joining their specific courts as possible and were willing to undercut each other to make that happen.

As dinner wound down, Yova started looking around anxiously. I was sitting next to her and low-key asked what was going on. She admitted that now that she was back, she was jonesing something fierce to play a piano. “Dude, we’re in a B&B. There’s going to be a piano in the parlor,” I said. Her eyes widened and she got up and bolted from the room. Before anybody knew what was going on, we started hearing the entirety of “Rhapsody in Blue,” much to Mistress Lilly’s delight.

Some of us took the opportunity to speak with the rulers more one-on-one about what their courts might offer. Day asked if anyone was looking for muscle or investigation and Cahir told him Summer was always looking for additional brawn. Bella mentioned that she used to be a geologist and that started something of a bidding war between The Dagda and Kassandra. The Dagda said, “She’s an academic! She’s ours!” “You don’t have a monopoly on intelligence,” Kassandra said frostily, turning to Bella. She was about as warm as I saw her (which even then is to say, not very), telling Bella that there were very few Helldivers in the freehold and that Winter had significant need of someone with her specializations.

As for me, I had been listening closely and thinking about what pitches each of the rulers made for their courts. Mistress Lilly seemed lovely, but a bit on the flighty side and I wasn’t sure Spring would be a good choice given how awkward I can be. Cahir was definitely all about macho supremacy (one of the women hanging off of him was giving Yova a dirty look when Yova was talking to him – I desperately wanted to “Oh, honey” her but thought it would be a lot more fun to see how that played out) and he seemed most interested in strength and front-line bruisers like Day. Kassandra, as I’ve noted, was just flat-out frosty and was more interested in what any of us could do for Winter than what Winter could do for us.

So that left Autumn. I had a chance to speak one-on-one with The Dagda, who was a pretty jolly guy, and asked him what the Autumn Court was all about. He told me in between eating cookies that Autumn was mostly made up of researchers and academics, always looking into fae magic. That piqued my interest right away, given how I was still trying to figure out how to help Adrian, Cassi, and the others break their pledge to Amberleigh. The Dagda also told me about how Autumn’s primary emotion that it drew on was fear. He assured me that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded, how they were more interested in the power of fear and considering how it worked than in causing fear itself. He also said that the woman who we met when we first made it through the mirror into the B&B shouldn’t be considered a typical Autumn courtier; “We’re not all uptight,” he said, chuckling a bit.

While the evening went on, I thought about what I learned from him, and the possibility of pledging myself to a group like the Autumn Court. I’m not much of a researcher or a scholar (hell, I barely managed to get above a 3.0 GPA in undergrad) but the more I thought back on what he was saying, the more I realized that was the place where I could see myself. Ever since I’d changed, I’d been picking up more on the meanings in what people said and how their words committed them to promises or actions. Even if I wasn’t going to be, say, the stereotypical bookworm Autumn courtier, something about it felt natural, like it was the right place for me to be even if I didn’t fully understand why yet.

And besides that, my birthday’s in November. Autumn totally is the best time of year.

After a few hours of dinner, conversation, and Yova oh-so-nonchalantly serenading us with the entire Gershwin library, the evening came to an end. The Dagda offered to let us stay in the B&B – turns out, it was owned by the Autumn Court and he offered each of us a room until we got our feet under us. (Also, given how badly Evain pissed each of us off with the way he treated Day, it was a little bit of an unspoken relief for all of us – and him – that we didn’t have to stay at his place) Before she left, Kassandra took an extra minute to talk with Bella about how her talents would benefit the Winter Court. After she left, Yova and I took a little time to tease Bella about how Kassandra was interested in her. “Wait, really?” Bella asked. “Oh, yeah. She totally wants to bump clams with you,” I said.

Sleep came easily for most of us that night, but not for everybody. Pam told me later how she had a dream looking through the eyes of the woman who replaced her. She saw her eldest daughter getting ready for bed and hugging Pam’s Fetch, but that there was something very, very off about the way her daughter hugged her: she almost looked nervous. Day, too, had a hard time settling in. Just before he nodded off, he had a recollection that he might actually remember somebody with Evain’s face after all.

But what kind of storyteller would I be if I didn’t leave you with a bit of a cliffhanger? Next time, you’ll learn a little more about how we found our places in the courts and dealt with the whole… coming back thing. Until then, be chill and try not to make your houseguests all want to murder you.

#Changeling: The Lost #CTL #changeling #recap #ic #no more poultry please

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throughtheglassdarkly · 5 years

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Scorched Earth, part 4

Welcome back. When you last tuned in, we brought a giant crystal spear back from Scáthach’s keep and Pam made all the bars.

So let’s get one thing out of the way first: I love my motley. I really do. That does not preclude me wanting to strangle some or all of them on occasion. And reading through what happened in this particular misadventure, you’re probably going to have a similar impulse. Onward.

I’ll pick up here a couple of weeks after we brought the spear back to camp. By this point, we’d ingratiated ourselves pretty well into the army. I won’t say we were part of the gang, but we were definitely no longer the outsiders we were when first we arrived. The couple of weeks’ downtime we had between missions was mostly quiet, a lull, even a little boring for most of us. Most of us. Yours truly was the exception to that. I had to follow Amberleigh everywhere around camp, constantly taking notes and writing down logistics. She was trying to formulate some sort of plan for an attack on Scáthach’s keep and I had to write things down, scratch them out, write over them, and then watch as she tore them up out of frustration. I’m telling you now, being a secretary sucks.

On the day in question, I’d been following Amberleigh across most of the camp, writing down anything and everything that came out of her mouth. That’s why I was caught off-guard when she turned to me and told me to gather my friends because she had a mission for all of us. I didn’t question it, I just turned and started walking. Yova had taught me a finger exercise for stretching that most pianists use, and without it I probably would have had my entire hand fall off. Amberleigh is very exact and I had to write down every single word that came out of her mouth.

I found the rest of the group (minus Pam, who was out gathering some supplies with Nash) at the training grounds. Day was trying and failing miserably at knife throwing while Yova and Bella were watching and giving him some lip. Around this time, it was getting more evident that just about all of us were changing our appearances in some way. I mentioned earlier how Yova was looking more beautiful and suave than ever, always in really good lighting. It was like there was a glow around her. Day had managed to get both taller and wider. He went from about my height (5’8 on a good day) to nearly six feet and had definitely gained some girth. Bella’s appearance was mostly the same, but it was getting harder to notice her when she approached you. It was easy to lose sight of her. She also looked even slighter, somehow. As for me, I didn’t really notice much, other than my fingers being nearly pitch black. The sap I was using for ink stained nearly everything and I knew I probably wasn’t going to get the ink off my fingers until I could scrub them with turpentine.

I told Day, Bella, and Yova that Boss Lady wanted to talk to us and led them back over. When we arrived, Amberleigh gave us a slight nod (it must have been my birthday) and then got right to the point: there was word that Scáthach was trying to start some new alliances. Intelligence had it that she was going to be meeting some of these new allies in a goblin market near her keep. Amberleigh told us that she wanted us to infiltrate, find out what the nature of those alliances were, and disrupt them if possible. Day, who’d been in a particularly bad mood recently, started bitching at Amberleigh about things he’d rather be doing and how he wasn’t a knife fighter. Amberleigh, with a surprising amount of patience (that is to say, almost none) explained about technology in Arcadia: basically, the farther we were from Earth, the likelier it was that human technology would go haywire. She asked Day if he wanted to use a gun that had a big chance of backfiring every time he pulled the trigger and he begrudgingly admitted he didn’t. Amberleigh charged me with capturing every word the enemy said, especially if there were any pledges. I could already feel my hand cramping up, but given our oath, there wasn’t much any of us could do: if Boss Lady said go, we had to get gone. We weren’t going to get to have anyone come with us, either – Amberleigh picked us because we were the least likely to be recognized and we’d only have a map to get there and back.

None of us were especially thrilled about our new mission and we all decided to go off and do our own thing until we had to leave at dusk. Day went to look for slings and arrows, to find something other than knives to work with. He ended up finding a hand crossbow (he named it Julie after someone from his past, the big softy). Bella asked me for some paper, which I gave her, and she also grabbed some charcoal for sketching and general supplies. Yova went to find Cassi and ask her about the goblin markets. Cassi told her it probably wasn’t as bad a mission as Yova made it out (to be fair, she did describe it as a “suicide mission”). The market we were going to was called The Emerald Caravan and it was mobile, moving from place to place. Cassi said that changelings usually tried to avoid it and warned Yova that the markets would take everything we had if we weren’t careful. She said it was a good idea to buy something small to blend in, but to otherwise avoid the wares.

I went off to look for Adrian and see if he had any advice. I found myself looking for him more frequently as the days went on. Along with Cassi and Nash, he was one of the people I trusted most in camp and I liked spending time with him. I found him playing with Paisley out near the tent he shared with his motley. He had a string attached to a stick that he would flick around for Paisley to chase and she would dart and fly after it. She spotted me and zipped over, nuzzling against my face and my hair and zipping around my face. I gave her a scritch behind the ears (just how she likes it) and Adrian said it was good to see me. He was only able to see through Paisley’s sight, but I still always looked at him when I spoke to him. I asked him if I could talk to him about the mission we’d been assigned and told him the particulars. He seemed… upset isn’t the right word, but very, very concerned. He started pacing around a bit and asked me if I was okay with it. I said that it wasn’t so much that I was okay as much as I had to do what Amberleigh asked due to the oath and wanted to know if he had any advice.

He stopped pacing and looked at me with a deep breath. He told me that every goblin market dealt with “hard to acquire” merchandise and that this particular market dealt in people. When he said that, my stomach knotted up and I realized I’d been asking him about the place where he was taken to and sold to his Keeper when he was brought to Arcadia. I felt horrible and apologized, but he said that it was okay, and that he probably had a bit more insight than some of the others because he’d gone back there with his Keeper a few times. He warned me that free humans weren’t common and that we’d stick out, so we should try to be discreet. There were also large gorilla brutes as security. He told me that he wanted to make sure that my motley and I came back safe. I smiled and told him, “Of course I’ll come back safe. Who else would be there to obnoxiously flirt with you?” He blushed at that and turned his head a bit, stammering out, “Um, yeah… there is that…” and even Paisley turned her head away so he wouldn’t have to see me. Sweet girl. I promised him I would be safe and thanked him again before I left to join the rest of my motley.

We set out at dusk, with the promise that this trip wouldn’t be anywhere near as long as the one to the caves under Scáthach’s keep. In the Hedge close to the camp there was what’s known as a trod. If you’re a nerd, it’s fast travel. If you’re a different type of nerd, it’s a teleporter. If you’re not a nerd (and why you’re reading this if you aren’t, I have no idea, but maybe you’re bored), a trod is a gateway in the Hedge to a specific location. It isn’t open all the time, but does open when it needs to. I got the map from Amberleigh and a few coins and gems that we could use as currency in the market. As she turned away from me, she muttered something about it being nice to not have a little bird fluttering over her shoulder all the time. This in spite of the fact that she commandeered me as her assistant and demanded I be by her side from sunup to sundown every single day. I smiled tightly at her until she turned and then stuck out my tongue. I heard some quiet giggling when I did that and shared a knowing smile with Belle. If there was any one person in camp who understood what being around Amberleigh all the time was like, it was her.

After about fifteen minutes’ walk into the Hedge, we found the trod. It was an archway of vines that none of us had seen there normally. It was surprising how you get to learn parts of the Hedge that you’re close enough to; I’d occasionally gone out for walks with some of the others in the camp and learned before too long that the Hedge actually looked quite different depending on where you were in it. At first it had looked just like an endless maze of thorns and overhanging brush, but you learned quick enough what was what and where was where. Yova and I warned the others what Cassi and Adrian told us about the market. Yova made Bella promise not to talk to strangers. Bella took Day’s hand and Yova led us through the arch.

I was expecting the goblin market to be dark, dreary, and scary, but it wasn’t that way at all. It was very bright and looked like a village courtyard, with colorful tents, cheery music, laughter, and people laughing and haggling with enthusiasm. Day seemed distracted by all the pretty colors and Bella kept him from bumping into too much. Yova was scanning to get an idea for the layout of the place. For me, my attention was taken up by all the different creatures there. I saw a lot of different types of goblins and fae, too varied and numerous to write down here, but all of them radiating a strange pressure. It was something I’d experienced before – all of them were giving off a strange pressure. Most of the patrons appeared to be fae, but not all of them looked like they were hostile. A few humans were accompanying them; I figured they’d been taken but hadn’t completed their transformations yet, as they were sticking pretty close to the fae who they were accompanying.

Mercifully, we seemed to go unnoticed for the most part as we entered the market. Yova got the idea to ask around for any meeting places to offer her services as a minstrel. She got the advice to ask around for Jenny, who was responsible for organizing all mistrelry. We got directed toward the center of the goblin market. Walking through was an experience kind of unlike any other I had in Arcadia. There was a cacophony of really unpleasant sounds that somehow managed to sound pleasant altogether. We also saw a few changelings the deeper we got, but all of them had some sort of marked accessory on them. It reminded me how dangerous of a situation we were in and I tried to walk a little closer to the others.

We eventually found a corkboard with a very thin, very tall (relatively speaking) goblin woman tacking up notices and taking them down. Yova asked if she was Jenny and she got a distinct once-over. The goblin asked who Yova’s employer was and Yova managed to redirect the conversation to her own skills. She gave an impromptu performance and the goblin was very impressed (thank God she loves to showboat). She introduced herself as Jenny and invited Yova to perform at an afterparty for some of the more generous patrons in the goblin market. Yova accepted and we started to plan how we were going to go about approaching this meeting.

This, unfortunately, is where things started to go south. This whole time, Day was trying to see if anyone was noticing us. He managed to spot a very large figure at the edge of the stalls. It wasn’t as large as the Gristlegrinder we saw in the caves below the keep, but it was still enormous, with broad shoulders and meatfist hands. It was hunched over like a gorilla with large tusks poking up from its bottom lip and it was staring at us with suspicion. We decided discretion was the better part of valor and made like collective trees.

But then. Then. Bella decided she wanted a piggyback ride. She gave Day the puppy-dog eyes and Day, though he would sooner die than admit it, is a sucker for the puppy-dog eyes. He let her climb up on his shoulders and ride through the market. Now, you may be wondering, why didn’t Yova or I tell them this was a bad idea? “Derek!” I can hear you say, “why didn’t you tell them that you were trying to avoid attention, you absolute walnut?” And the answer is because Yova and I were getting sassy with each other. She tried to tease me about Adrian, and I gave it right back to her by telling her that I did see him and I also got to see Paisley, who is possibly Yova’s favorite thing in the world entire. “You see, Derek,” she said, “I want to love you, but then you say such hurtful things.” “I got to give her scritches and see her face scrunch up,” I told her in response. So it was important, you understand. And my mind was elsewhere. And Pam wasn’t there. We really shouldn’t have been left unsupervised.

Yova decided she should have some sort of costume disguise for her performance so she wouldn’t be recognizable. We found a boutique that was selling all sorts of clothing, from the mundane to the exotic, arranged by color. Yova found a snazzy burgundy outfit and matching veil that would keep her face from being seen. I was prepared to pony up some of the coins and gems to pay for it, but the goblin asked instead for a story as trade. Yova got really into it, imbuing it with tons of emotion. I’d love to tell you what the story was about, but she told it in Russian. The goblin fully accepted it, saying, “I have no idea what you just said, but the way you told it was awesome!”

We tried to leave the stall next. But as we did, I spotted a large shadow and turned just in time to shout, “Gorilla!” at Bella and Day. The gorilla was right behind them and trying to grab Bella off Day’s shoulders. We all started running. Yova and I managed to get away pretty easily, but Bella and Day weren’t so quick. They managed to dodge the gorilla once, but the second time, he grabbed both of them. As we watched from a hiding place, he lifted them both up and inspected them carefully, then started walking in the opposite direction with them. We had no idea what to do.

While all this was happening, you probably want to know what Pam was up to and why she wasn’t with us, don’t you? Well, Pam got up early as usual (even earlier than me, and I had to be up with Amberleigh at daybreak) and went out with Nash into the Hedge to pick some roots and vegetables to stock the larder. They had a pretty easy go of it at first, collecting things they recognized. Pam even found a nest full of some type of eggs that they were able to get without whatever laid them coming back. Things got weird when Pam was looking around a clearing. Her vision started to blur and she got a vision of her garden back home and her kids. She got dizzy and Nash made her sit down for a while and brought her some minty leaves to chew for her headache. While she was sitting there, she got another vision of her daughters playing jump rope in the back yard while she got lunch ready. Rather than resist it, Pam tried to lean into this vision and hold onto it as much as she could. She almost felt like she was there, hugging one of her girls, but then she felt a strange presence in her mind, a pressure there. It didn’t hurt, she said, but it was like someone was resisting her. Then she heard a voice almost like her own say, “Get out, this isn’t yours anymore.”

That was enough to break Pam’s concentration and she sat there for a minute, trying to figure out what it meant. Pam is nothing if not sensible, however, and she decided that it would be best if she processed it later. She and Nash continued collecting some nuts, roots, and veggies, and made their way back to camp. When she got there, she learned that the rest of us had been sent off on the mission by Amberleigh and got to work cooking. She was really good at making something out of nothing and before long had whipped up some sort of vegetable casserole with amaranthine, a bright-red eggplant-like veggie. She had a lot of grunts coming by trying to see what was cooking.

One of the things that both Pam and I were frustrated by in our baking efforts in camp was the lack of flour, so she started trying to make potato flour (it’s a maddeningly time-consuming process, but Pam has the patience of a saint). While this was going on, she noticed that Belle was standing on the edge of the tent, watching her. Pam asked if she wanted to help and Belle agreed to help peel the potatoes. They had a nice moment where Belle complimented Pam’s cooking and Pam asked her if she remembered anything in particular that she liked eating so Pam could try and re-create it. Belle said it was hard to remember exactly, given that she wasn’t real, but that she thought she remembered liking alfredo sauce, especially the garlic. Pam made a mental note about looking for milkable beasts of some kind.

While they were chatting, Belle tried to talk to Pam about what it was like to be her and yet not her. A quirk of Belle’s is that she referred to both Amberleigh and herself as “me,” and she told Pam that when they were apart, the other part of her didn’t know what she did. She also implied that at some point, she’d be whole again. Pam told her about the vision she had of seeing her kids and Belle suggested that there might be another Pam somewhere, a Fetch.

Before they finished peeling the potatoes, Belle leaned in and told Pam quietly that she had a bad feeling about the rest of us and our mission. She said that she didn’t think Amberleigh intended or wanted us to come back from the goblin market and suggested Pam go look for us. She told her that there were some delicious berries in the Hedge not far from camp, but warned her not to fall through the archway that led to the goblin market. Pam understood and told Nash that she was going to head out and look for those berries. He offered to come with her, but when she declined, warned her about the predators in the Hedge. Pam ended up taking one of the hand crossbows with her for protection.

Before she left, Pam decided to talk to Adrian and see if he had any bad vibes about the situation. She found him outside his tent with Paisley, watching the clouds overhead. She asked him about whether he could determine what was happening and he said he couldn’t divine the present, but could look at the future. He asked her to go grab something from my stash (mm-hmm) that I wouldn’t miss and Pam set out to our tent. She told me later that when she got to my cot, she noticed some small gray down feathers on my blankets. This was strange because we had certainly didn’t have anything plush enough to have down in it. Nobody else seemed to have any feathers on their cots. She managed to get a few feathers and a small shred of the clothing from the clothes I wore to Arcadia. (We’re not going to mention the small scrap of paper she found which may or may not have had “D+A” written on it. Shut up.)

When she got back to Adrian, he took the scrap of my shirt and brought it up to his shoulder, where Paisley lit it ablaze. He inhaled it and processed the vision, and whatever he saw made him falter, almost losing his balance. Pam helped him down into a sitting position and he sat there for close to a minute, staring in the distance before he said anything. He finally told her that he saw bars and strobelights and felt terror, a horrible feeling. He was really worried about what was happening to us. Pam told him that she was going to check on us and he told her it would be ungentlemanly of him not to accompany her. The two of them set out into the Hedge to try and track the rest of us dumbasses down.

And that is probably a good place to leave it for now. When we come back, you’ll get to know just how badly things went for us in the goblin market. Until then, stay safe, and may your friends never ride piggyback around goblin gorillas.

#Changeling: The Lost #changeling #CTL #recap #ic #milkable beasts

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