[Changeling] A Gathering of Mists IC

[SiuiS]

Charlotte waits for a few minutes while Stephanie is off on her errand. Then a few more.

And a few more.



The end of the hour sees Charlotte busily tying a rope of bed sheets about the unconscious torso of Peter-whose-name-she-knows-not, whistling Drunken Sailor. The sheets twine about the remaining solid portions of the creature's bed posts, and Rube Goldberg their way around and out, where they terminate in an actual, salvaged rope tied to several suits of armor used to reduce the end weight of the massive manbeast.

After 'successfully' hauling him into the bed proper (though face down), she unties the sheets, the armor, the rope, and does her best to make the bed up around him.

Some digging finds clothing she assumes he belongs to, and she lays out a full suit at the foot of the bed. Further digging reveals a sparse larder, and Charlotte proceeds to lay out a small recovery meal of the closest analogues to bread, whine and cheese she can find.

Charlotte is weaving all the while, and ends her efforts with a single, flaxen hair stripped from her head most painfully. It is spun into the net of webwork, along with any traces of moonlight she can find and some cloudsilk drawn down if she's lucky enough to find it.


A small pop, and a wince. Pouring, an then stopping. Behind a half-full glass of wine she leaves a bottle, and within that bottle she puts the cel, and upon that cork she drapes her web, silver and crystalline, and beneath that bottle she places a napkin, and upon that napkin, a note, and that note reads thusly:

Sir,

We have seen this witch and heard this curse. We believe we can help you, if you are willing.

When you are ready to begin, place the web of your dreams over your face or upon your pillow as you sleep. We will see you then.

–C________

It is from there, a simple matter, though a confusing one, to find her way back to the castle door, to the club, and from there the circuitous route out the back, out the door, down to Namine's, for a small peak through the window, and then back to Swifthoof's, reversing the trail that led to the night.

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While Marchande went out bright and early, the others dragged themselves back to Swifthoof's house late in the evening. Considering his generally fastidious nature, he was actually very accommodating about having a whole crew of bedraggled changelings arriving at his home around 2:00 A.M. In fact, he only started hyperventilating once!

He heads out in the morning, a little bit later than Marchande and returns about an hour after lunch, which he thoughtfully left for everyone in his refrigerator in some Tupperware. There's even some pizza slices from the previous evening, ham and pineapple.

When he does return, he comes carrying another one of the unmarked typed notes, similar to the one that provided the job at the fireworks.

This one says

Autumn is available for a meeting either at 3:00 this afternoon or anytime tomorrow. Her Laboratory is located at 6th Avenue UCSF campus, in the third floor of the radiobiology building.

I hope you enjoy her company.

Sincerely,
Qian Long

Charlotte manages to catch Swifthoof leaving, and thank him for getting the door. She sets up shop outside Stephanie's closet again, to be woken by the swift bump of wood to her back when the darkling stirs.

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"Who's 'Autumn'?" asked Stephanie, reaching for the pizza and then checking herself and putting her hand down disappointedly. "Oh, by the way, I beat up this minotaur who was running this weird nightclub like, three times last night. Turns out he was cursed. Is there anything I should know about that?"

She'd spent most of the day asleep, and now she was bright-eyed and well rested.

"Autumn is the person at some school we were to see, about magic. And that Minotaur didn't deserve all three of those and needs our help, miss. It's not fair to provoke a fight an then brag."

Charlotte is weary, and somewhat drooping at the seams.

[PhoeKun]

Rose wanders outside for a while, pacing aimlessly through the streets waiting for her wing and shoulder to fully clot before chancing a return to Swifhoof's apartment. If she can make it through the day without questions being asked, she'd take it as a win. No bandages. Then again, no money for bandages. The more things change...

Questions, questions. Who to talk to, where to go? No idea. Back, then. Return so that nobody gets worried. She stays quiet, just like always. Lunch is had. Regular meals are kind of nice, she decides. Something to be desired. She glances at the note, then at Stephanie.

"You should probably ask 'Autumn' about curses. Evidently she's the magical super-expert."

Kalina rolls the thought around in her head. If nothing else, it'd also be a good chance to ask for advice in finding her quarry. Also

"...Why were you picking fights? Three times? With the same person?"

[Thanqol]

"Autumn is the person at some school we were to see, about magic. And that Minotaur didn't deserve all three of those and needs our help, miss. It's not fair to provoke a fight an then brag."

Charlotte is weary, and somewhat drooping at the seams.

"I only hit him once!" Stephanie protested.

"You should probably ask 'Autumn' about curses. Evidently she's the magical super-expert."

Kalina rolls the thought around in her head. If nothing else, it'd also be a good chance to ask for advice in finding her quarry. Also

"...Why were you picking fights? Three times? With the same person?"

Stephanie nodded to the first point. Talking to people who knew what they were talking about was a good idea.

"Oh, uh. The first time I think I insulted his taste in music and he tried to throw, like, the entire bar at me," Stephanie said, trying to remember. She may have been more than a little drunk last night. "He missed and hit himself."

"The second time he was threatening to break Charlotte's arms, so I set him on fire. Then he told us he'd been cursed by an evil witch, but he couldn't remember the words to the curse, so we went into his dreams so we could hear the exact wording and figure out how to release him. Then, after all that trouble, he didn't show any inclination to actually try to break the curse, so I called him on it. He tried to punch me, and he missed and hit himself again."

Stephanie spread her hands. "Like, at this point I'm starting to think I'm doing him some good. If he keeps taking swings at girls who insult him he's going to get into some real trouble someday. What's the phrase? Negative Reconnaissance?"

[SiuiS]

Charlotte just stares at Stephanie, slack jawed and bleary-eyed.

It isn't fair! She has a point, but she doesn't deserve to have that much of a point. She was directly responsible for an entire countertop breaking, a man being set on fire, a broken bed, some broken ribs and several days of traction. Where does she get off sounding so... So...!

...In the right!

Charlotte tries to squint menacingly at Stephanie, but it just comes across as sleepy and cute.

[Raz_Fox]

Clack click clack. The sound of bones creaking in a giant's lair, or tidy black shoes clip-clopping over a bridge. Marchande is back, and she looks as immaculate as ever. There's nothing about her of madmen or desperate men or tears over Fairyland.

"Afternoon, Timothy!" Marchande says, sing-song, tempted for a moment to remove her suit jacket, loosen the tie, relax. She doesn't, but it's there. She instead walks into the kitchen, catching the tail end of Stephanie's explanation. "Don't tell me you got into a fight with someone," she says, slumping into a chair. "Honestly... Rose, what happened to your shoulder?" The slump vanishes as she leans forwards, concerned.

[SiuiS]

Shoulder?

Charlotte flushes, embarrassed. How did she not notice that?

[Anarion]

Swifthoof looks at Rose's shoulder with concern, but makes no particular comment. Upon Marchande's return, he says "good afternoon, spirits improving, very auspicious, do take care. Note message, already arrived. Recommend avoiding unnecessary irradiation."

[PhoeKun]

Rose arches an eyebrow at Stephanie, trying and failing to imagine how anyone could be that bad at fighting. At least she could be sure he probably deserved his curse.

"So, you met a--"

Now Marchande returns, in high spirits. Rose acknowledges her with a nod. Now everything is wrong. All eyes on her. Damn it. Knew that one of them would be observant enough to see it.

An accident. Fell onto something. Don't know what you're talking about. Self inflicted. Bitten by a d-- no.

Kalina sighs.

"...It's a gunshot wound. Minor. Not an issue."

[SiuiS]

Charlotte breathes a sigh of relief and visibly relaxes. If its nothing, then she's not worried. Rose is on the Trustworthy List.

"Would you like us to try and help with it? And where have you been, Marchande?"

[Thanqol]

When Marchy pointed out the wound, Stephanie blinked in momentary confusion.

Not because she hadn't noticed it, she had. Instead, in her mind, minor battle damage was just a fact of life. She'd assumed Rose had stopped a mugging or a bank robbery or something. From Rose's explanation it sounded like she was right.

She kind of wished she knew enough first aid to help out, because that looked like it needed proper bandages at least. Instead she held her silence because she'd finished her story and wanted to hear what the others had been doing.

[Raz_Fox]

Multitasking! Marchande's weakness. She turns her head, trying to juggle courtesy and expediency, and says to Timothy: "Note? If you could give me it - thank you!" Back to Rose. "Gunshot wound? If anyone could take it, it's you - but it looks like your armor's shattered there?" Charlotte, one eyebrow raised. "Job. Turns out one of my coworkers got ensorcelled by a moron and I had to fix the gaps in his knowledge during luck." Back to Rose. "Are you sure? I... could probably attempt a bandaging." Back to Charlotte. "Stressful as hell. He was practically addicted to the good fortune the ensorcellment had given him. I ended up summarizing what I know about magic, seemed to give him a dash of reality." Sideways glance at Stephanie, then back to Rose. "How'd you get hurt like that anyway?"

[PhoeKun]

For a moment, it almost seems like Rose would get away without an explanation. No such luck.

She shrugs.

"The shot was point blank. Went straight through the shoulder into the wing right... there. The bullet's not lodged anywhere, I already checked. All it needs is a cleaning and dressing. I've never treated my own wing before, so help would be... yes."

She pauses for a moment, glancing at each member of the group in turn.

"I... caught a man trying to drag a little girl into an alley last night. So I put a stop to it."

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande stands up. "Timothy! Do you have a first aid kit, or do I need to run down to the store? We'll need an antiseptic for the injury, make sure it's not infected - if you can get infected - and then some heavy-duty bandages." She isn't hesitant, isn't panicking, and is simply focused on her task: get Rose's injury taken care of.

[Anarion]

"Basic first aid supplies in bathroom, upstairs, cabinet over sink. Bandage, cotton, disinfectant, rubbing alcohol. Have opportunity to visit hospital today anyway, more thorough treatment available there if desired. Autumn very likely to help, also likely to be curious."

[Thanqol]

"I... caught a man trying to drag a little girl into an alley last night. So I put a stop to it."

That got Stephanie's attention, and turned her thoughts cold.

For a moment, just a moment there, she'd thought that coming back to this world meant the end of adventure. Meant the end of evil. Meant the end of problems she was qualified to fight or deal with and her only option had been to settle for finding something that felt vaguely correct and settling into the role. Starting to live a normal life again - scary, but necessary.

But now she was beginning to realise that the adventures and the evil hadn't stopped - they'd just become disorganised. James McClaw didn't rule this world's criminals, and they weren't bound by his standards. They were loose. Wild. Aimless.

What's the word?

Uncivilised.

She almost missed him.

[Raz_Fox]

"Basic first aid supplies in bathroom, upstairs, cabinet over sink. Bandage, cotton, disinfectant, rubbing alcohol. Have opportunity to visit hospital today anyway, more thorough treatment available there if desired. Autumn very likely to help, also likely to be curious."

"Also an excellent suggestion! Rose, are you terrified at the prospect of going to the hospital, or is this a thing we can do?" Marchande stops, halfway through the door, waiting for Rose's answer.

[PhoeKun]

"It's just a gunshot wound." Rose repeats, shaking her head.

"Hospitals are expensive, and I lack identification. We can go if it gets worse, but I would rather wait and see."

If ever Kalina had internalized a lesson from her parents, this would be it.

[Anarion]

[I want to clarify that the meeting with Autumn is the hospital. It's at the UCSF campus, which is the medical school.]

[SiuiS]

Charlotte rises in the background to fetch the medical supplies Swifthoof mentioned. On her return, "Is the girl okay? You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande accepts the medical supplies from Charlotte, and starts looking at the injury; disinfectant spills into the cotton ball, and she wields it like a paintbrush. "Autumn, Autumn... the contact at the university? Let me guess, she's a medical student?"

[PhoeKun]

Rose nods at Charlotte as she returns carrying the medical supplies.

"The girl is... fine. I found her before anything truly bad could happen. Escorted her home."

Her eyes take on a faraway look, and she drifts off as Marchande tends to the wound.

"...Oh. The medical school. Right. That's... yes. All right."

[Anarion]

Marchande accepts the medical supplies from Charlotte, and starts looking at the injury; disinfectant spills into the cotton ball, and she wields it like a paintbrush. "Autumn, Autumn... the contact at the university? Let me guess, she's a medical student?"

"Medical researcher" Swifthoof corrects. "Finished Schooling aspect of education several years prior. Now focuses on experimentation."

[Raz_Fox]

"That's wonderful to hear, Rose," Marchande says as she swabs out the injury. "The world could use more heroes like that." Unspoken is the fact, unquestioned, that she is not one of those heroes.

Then, to Timothy: "Experimentation? How interesting. I assume she dabbles in more than medicine."

[Thanqol]

Stephanie knew they were going to have to go out during the day. Nothing for that. But there was good reason so she was just going to have to deal with it.

She pulled the hood up from her cloak, put on a set of sunglasses and wrapped a scarf around her mouth. Less than five percent of her skin was visible. It would have to do.

She was ready to go; she waited for the others to be ready too.

[Anarion]

Getting to the UCSF campus is a moderate length bus ride from Swifthoof's home. The streets in the area are crowded, a mix of students on break frequenting coffee shops, tourists drifting out of the park looking for trinkets and curios, and locals (primarily Asian) hanging around some of the smaller shops.

The campus itself is an impressive edifice. Located at the top of one of the areas higher hills, it commands an impressive view of the city skyline, showing the low houses spread out all the way to the tall downtown office buildings and the Pacific ocean. The afternoon sunlight shines overhead, reflecting off the ocean and creating the illusion that the city is ringed with molten gold.

The main hospital building is nearly 20 floors, a towering blue/grey behemoth on the hilltop. There's a cafeteria across the street and several lower research buildings scattered around an area about two long city blocks in length. Cars and buses are stopped and pulling in and out picking people up, as well as several specially marked shuttles for the disabled. Outside the main hospital is a set of wheelchairs, and each building has several access routes including both stairs and ramps with hand-rails, as well as emergency ambulance entrances for the hospital and a couple of the specialized buildings.

Several people are bustling around outside. Some wearing bluish-green hospital gowns, others in a doctor's or nurse's outfit, and many more in street clothes. As you might expect near a hospital, the dark, salty tang of sadness and grief hangs over the area, a delicious but melancholy meal for any Changeling.

Autumn's building is set to the right and slightly behind the hospital, accessible from a small alley off the main street. It's a 5-floor dark-brown thing with tiny windows and no particular markings past a blue sign that says "radiobiology building" and another sign on the door warning of fire hazards, chemical hazards, and high radiation in some rooms.

Autumn's lab is listed in the building entrance under Autumn Washnowski (Qian Long had mentioned that her real name is also Autumn) and finding it on the third floor doesn't prove particularly difficult. When you knock, a woman's voice, muffled through the door says "come in, come in!"

Entrance to the lab shows you a chaotic scene. The room is marked only by a brown door with a nameplate and a yellow radiation sign, but opening it up reveals a large 25x40 white room. The entire right wall is taken with a magnetic resonance imaging machine of some kind. Both the back and front walls to the right of the door are lined with large sterile tables jutting out about 10 feet from each wall,k covered with open blueprints and drawings held down by beakers and surgical utensils of various sorts. More drawings of some kind of large circular machine partially cover the windows, allowing in only a sliver of sunlight. Directly left of the door is a sink and a series of filing cabinets, many with drawers half open, which loop around to the left wall. The cabinets actually on the left wall are obscured by several piles of folders and paper, taller than most people (a tad shorter than Rose). The back wall on the left has a clothing rack with several different surgical suits and some jackets and sweaters hanging. Just sort of sitting like an island in the middle of the left part of the room is a patient's bed, and sitting on top of that is Autumn, leafing through yet another folder of some sort.

When she sees the group enter, she flings the folder down behind her, revealing a wizened changeling about 5' in height. Her skin is dry and cracked, like parchment, and her hands are long and unnaturally supple with thin delicate fingers that look like they could snap off if she moved them wrong. Her eyes are almond-shaped, as though she has some Asian ancestry, and are the same shade of light brown as her skin. She has black hair down to shoulders, with one section in the middle dyed with a large hot-pink stripe. She's wearing a classic white labcoat, complete with pocket protector and several pens, and a pair of sturdy Jeans and a black blouse underneath.

"Hello, hello!" She says, without getting up from the patient's bed. "You must be the visitors Qian Long told me to expect, right? Come in, come in. Make yourselves at home!" Her voice is bright and loud, and just a hint too enthusiastic for the setting.

[Thanqol]

Being outside during the day wasn't any less awful. The sunglasses were absolutely useless, and Stephanie wound up dropping them in a begging tray. She was unbelievably glad to be inside again. The fact that they were meeting with someone friendly - and more than that, someone who was a reasonable height for a change - was gravy.

Stephanie had been quietly concerned for a while there that she was going to be the smallest person she knew.

"Heyas, I'm Khoyshekh, and this is Marchy, Rose, and Charlotte. Nice to meet you!" Stephanie said, meeting bright and loud on it's own terms.

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande couldn't help but to stop for a moment, and to breathe in the, the aroma, the air, the everything. It was thick and heavy and she recognized some of it, and it was like being back there, but different, tinged with just enough hope to take the edge off the despair, and

...not sure he'll wake up
can't pay this
why why why him God why
what if something goes
never going to see her
sterile thick starkness
no one came
we're sorry...

not quite Faerie Wine but close enough. She drifts along, trying to remember that they're suffering, that she doesn't want to feel that crushing awfulness again, but she can't tell, can't tell. Caught between hiding and standing up tall.

By the time they've gotten to Autumn's office, she's regained most of her faculties, the edge gone from the buzz. "Doctor Washnowski? Marchande," she says, offering her hand. "We're recently returned, and more recently joined the freehold. We were recommended to see you, curious on several topics, chief among them our current natures and magical properties."

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Okay, so. I'm on-the-fence about being Winter right now, so should I drop the Winter bonus for harvesting Despair?

[Anarion]

"Heyas, I'm Khoyshekh, and this is Marchy, Rose, and Charlotte. Nice to meet you!" Stephanie said, meeting bright and loud on it's own terms.

"Yeah, yeah, nice to meet you all too!" She fishes into her jacket pocket and pulls out a glowing card, just like the court tokens that you were given, except that hers has the center of the hologram shaped into a little Frankenstein. As she shakes it, you can see the lightning bolt striking the slab and it getting up, then lying back down like one of those shifting holograms they make for book covers and posters sometimes.

"Court tokens please girls, otherwise I'll have to get Rover to chase you out." She gestures vaguely towards the machinery near the MRI unit, though what, exactly, Rover might be is a mystery.

"Doctor Washnowski? Marchande," she says, offering her hand. "We're recently returned, and more recently joined the freehold. We were recommended to see you, curious on several topics, chief among them our current natures and magical properties."

"Really! You want to discuss magic and changeling nature! Okay, court token, hurry up. I thought Qian Long was just pulling my leg!"

[Thanqol]

"Oh, that thing," Stephanie said, producing it from her hat and waving it vaguely. She didn't feel big on ID badges conceptually but no sense making waves here. "Who's a Rover?"

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande's flourish is slightly showy, token dancing between her nails as she draws it from her suit pocket. "No fear. We're members of the new family, Doctor Washnowski. And if anyone ended up losing theirs, I'll vouch for them."