Saturday, January 21, 2023

Research and the chaos of Declan

• We spend a few days after meeting with Nadira resting and going about normal business
• Moira and I show off the effects of the "collar" we built for Bran
  • I reveal that I have been throwing the dogs' poop through the "vortex" door and the rest of the gang seems to not be happy about that
• On Saturday we get together and go over the stuff that Agnes has found in her research on the black lion and something she found about a changeling named Emily of House Liam from the time of the Civil War from a book she took from the Willow's Heart library a while back (The Bellicose Journals)
  • The latter talks about various locations around the city
    • We conjecture about what the various locations could correspond to in the current city
    • We should maybe ask Griff and Magnolia if they know of any of the people or places mentioned, as there is a mention of a griffon in one of the other accounts and she's old enough to possibly remember
• I definitely have missed my court date (1.11) for the drunk and disorderly and property damage from when I won big on the World Cup
  • Agnes checked and I absolutely have a bench warrant out for me because of it
  • I email Will, who is absolutely, definitely my lawyer now that Aoife has her new gig
    • I tell him my mail has been stolen (because Agnes has been going and picking up my mail and bringing it to the freehold, which I definitely wasn’t aware of)
• Jimmy invites Blaze and I to a Chinese New Year celebration down on Buford Highway tomorrow
  • The gang agrees to go
• I accidentally throw away the stack of Agnes' research notes when I go to throw away my mail, but realize and pull it out of the bin
  • I do dig deep and via Remembrance pull out a super distant memory about a man from across the sea with a lion skin, the Nemean, and trying to convince an army we had to fight this fellow
• As an aside, I realize Agnes doesn't have a key so I give her the one to Germany so she can "go see her fat boy"
• I take a nappy nap so Agnes can go into my dreams to see what more I might remember about the Nemean
  • She makes me a nice comfy bed as a bunk and Moira gives me some chamomile tea dosed with some booze (and maybe some Nyquil)
  • She's rather successful and is able to pick through the dream haze and gets an image of me on a vast field of other clurichaun Picts arranged for battle discussing that we need to fight this Nemean, who is called that because Hercules fought it before
  • This is during the War of Trees and we're fighting for Ireland, to save it from destruction, as the Nemean is the destroyer of civilization
  • She sees a stream of predator animals come pouring out of the tree line, some that are definitely not native to Ireland, and battle is joined and eventually sees no more because I died there.  The Nemean didn't appear on the field, at least before I died.
  • On her way out she definitely messes with my head a little, as I wake up into a dream of me going to retrieve her papers from the trash and being attacked by snakes there
    • I still end up well rested (regain a willpower and have a 2 die bonus when encountering the trigger" are you awake)

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Lunar New Year

• We get up early to head out of the freehold the next day
  • Aoife goes to work for a bit, Agnes goes to spend time with her ward, Moira goes to the studio to work and Blaze and I tag along
• We meet up for the festival between 3:00 and 4:00
  • It's an unusually cold day
• We all notice a couple changelings in the crowd, but that's not surprising
  • Agnes spots a couple of Chinese people speaking in Mandarin who definitely have snake eyes and scales on their faces
    • It doesn't look like that's fae mein
  • A raccoon dog looking guy comes up to them and hands them some steamed buns
  • She is pretty certain that they're some sort of Asian fae (which aren't actually fae, but something similar-ish), which is strange in that they're here and they haven't been announced at all
    • She texts Aoife about this, but not the rest of us, who doesn't think it's a big issue that they haven't checked in with the local court, though technically they probably should have
• Jimmy finds us and introduces us to "Jackie" a new stuntie who is a monkey girl
  • She says she's here with some friends for the New Year, just visiting for a bit
  • Blaze and her go off parkouring around the place for a bit, both clearly having a good time
• Our group and the Hsien cross paths and start talking
  • I take Christopher and the stunties to go get mochi doughnuts as a distraction so the others can talk
  • Blaze and Jackie and come with when they realize a "meeting" is going to happen
• The snake people say they are here to "drink in some of the celebration" as is their way and that they understand we drink of slightly different energy
  • They drink off cultural celebration/reverence versus the artistic like us
• They are here in part to understand the city; they've been traveling and have encountered strange occurrences in the cities they've been through
  • They started in Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, then Rome, then London, then Ireland, and now here
  • The man, Wu, mentions they are interested in what has been happening with the snakes
  • He also mentions that he'd heard similar events were happening in Mexico City but that they have stopped fairly recently
  • They have not heard of fomorians, but have heard of fomori, which the werewolves fight
  • They have heard of the Herald as "a man of winter" from someone in Saudi Arabia
  • We ask if they have heard of "The Sleeper" in association with snakes, which they have not, but the two snake people of the Hsien say they have felt the presence of something's attention on them since they've been in Atlanta