The Other Half

**Nathan Griffin** · May 8th, 2016 12:08 PM

So she's got some spunk left. Good. He doubted he'd have been able to stand her otherwise. He took another cigarette for himself and put it in his mouth, all the while staring down at the other changeling.

"You're acting very suspicious, y'know?" he took out a lighter and offered to light her cigarette before doing the same with his own. "It's taking every rational part of my brain not to do something we'll both regret. That's not a threat, by the way. We all got our hangups; mine just happen to be more dangerous to be around."

The little speech sounded disturbing even to him, but his voice remained calm and detached throughout. He took a long smoke and gazed for a while at the shapes the smoke made when coming out of his mouth. "I told you. I've got a nose for weird stuff. Now, I think we can make a deal. Something along the lines of, oh, I don't know, you tell me everything you're up to and I'll make sure you get it over with and skip town ASAP. Help you out, even. But no lies, please. That'd piss me off."

**InvertedMonkey** · May 8th, 2016 05:33 PM

Wits + Comp: 1 success. Int + Occult: 3 successes.

May 9th, 2016 03:38 AM

Ramona & Green

Crossing the threshold, it was plain to see that this was a work space. Bundles of dried debris, much like what Zoe had dropped on the floor, were stacked semi-neatly against the plywood wall: reeds here, leafy vines there, green wood branches beside rigid, thorny stems. Mundane, and then some that looked to be from the Hedge, cuttings of plants that grew under and between the Thorns; stranger than their neighbors and more sinister.

Filling one end of the space in a frenetic jumble whose repetition suggested obsession were woven forms, some like crude sketches of an idea while others had clearly been labored over. Pieces like baskets, like broad flat bowls, some that didn't seem to follow much logic at all; no single shape was fully repeated. It wasn't hard to spot the occasional bit of Goblin Fruit scattered around the room, woven in or tacked on: familiar seeds, skin, flesh, all used in peculiar ways.

A chair was set up against the concrete wall, a large piece that seemed to be in progress resting on the ground before it: two quarter-spheres that sat snugly inside a woven dome, taller than it was wide. A twisted hoop of some thorny vine lay draped across the seat, unfinished.

Green's eyes noted that, beneath part of the manic heap of woven things, the concrete of the basement floor had been chipped, hammered, and artlessly carved in a rough ring big enough to accommodate a seated person. Several spots on the floor nearby proved to be blooded fingerprints like the ones upstairs, creating a shape like a compass rose around the ring.

While Ramona skimmed some of the content of the room, a particular bit of Hedge bounty caught her attention: nestled into part of the in-progress structure was a Brumebulb, but something had been done to it. Sliced and threaded with wire, it looked absurdly like a potato that was meant to power a lightbulb. Coupled with notes and diagrams scribbled on the wall, it looked very much like Zoe might be trying to move, or send, something a great distance.

Whether or not she was succeeding was less clear.

Nathan

"I'm suspicious? You're the ones..." The cigarette clamped between her teeth seemed to have done wonders for Zoe's confidence, but the mutter was still low, ending in something about 'her fucking house.' Sucking in a deep breath of air and smoke, she let it out in a whistling gust. "Look, I'm... Franny is..." Zoe's mouth contorted, as if for a moment she wasn't going to spit the words out. But she did, in a low, fast torrent, leaning in toward Nathan. "I'm trying to get my sister back. I think she's Back There and I have a way to get her, I just need to finish it, okay? Frances isn't my grandmother, she has to be my sister's Fetch, and I need her for this to work. I need her. I am this close, I know how I can make this work, but I need Franny, and I need my stuff in the basement. That's it. Then I'm gone."

Still close enough for him to smell her breath, which was a little past ripe, Zoe's eyes bored into Nathan's. "I can't leave her there. You get that, right? Even you have to get that." Lacking a certain finesse, her approach to getting his assistance seemed to hinge on really meaning it.

Gimme an Int+Occult roll, please; difficulty 2

**Malcolm Green** · May 11th, 2016 05:34 AM

"OK. Yeah. This is more... What the hell?" Green rumbled in his usual cadence, voice expressionless.

Then he is on his knee's equipment cast aside as he clears away the debris from the floor, revealing the full extent of the circle carved into the floor. The mountain's big hands are groping and fondling the Goblin Fruit; lifting them and sniffing at them; gazing in complete bafflement at the Brumebulb before laying it carefully aside.

There is method to Green's madness as he slowly organises the jumble into its constituent parts. The half completed structures and wicker constructions, he leaves in place.

Rising slowly, he grunts.

"Well. I don't know if this is related to whats going on above. But yeah, there is some shit going on down here. I hope Nathan can scare something out of her. 'Cause, yeah, we need something more substantial than she is giving out. If she was one of our own, I'd be willing to trust - at least at the start - but that girl ain't known to me. And that means she ain't one of ours."

Gemstone eyes came to rest on the Ogre of Summer.

**InvertedMonkey** · May 11th, 2016 07:48 PM

Ramona's eyes narrow as she takes in the... work station, and watches Green set about organizing things. Despite what her mantle would have you believe, it's easier to watch from over his shoulder than to kneel down beside him, given the disparity between their physical heights. It also makes it easier for her to keep an eye on the stairs, and the rest of the room. Wouldn't due to get jumped while the two of them are distracted going over the new... evidence.

She frowns, pointing out the Brumebulb. "It has something to do with moving through the green. But... that'd be random, blown on the wind. Is she trying to guide it somehow?" She glances at Green. "No, I'm with you," She agrees, and glances up above their heads, "He better not be screwing this up, that was a dangerous card for him to play." She glances back to Green, "Want me to go up and see how it's going?"

3 successes

**Nathan Griffin** · May 13th, 2016 07:14 PM

The Hunterheart remained unfazed.

"I'm not sure I get it, no," he dropped the cigarette to the floor and squashed it under his boot, "but it doesn't matter. Thing is, you're one of us, which makes you far from innocent. I ain't got that many qualms about whatever ends up happening to you. If you want to get Frances into this, though, I'm gonna need some serious convincing."

Did what she was suggesting even make sense? He had to keep himself from frowning. Truth was, he wasn't sure. But he'd rather play it safe. She didn't know he knew about Snoopy. He wasn't sure how good an advantage that was, but it was a chance to catch her on a lie.

"For example," he continued more brusquely, "so far, I'm seriously lacking even a half-decent explanation as to how that crazy plan of yours is supposed to work."

fail

**Malcolm Green** · May 14th, 2016 04:16 AM

"Won't hurt," Green responded. He took one last look at the collection of curiosities they had uncovered. "Besides, we can't keep hanging around down here, can we? I mean - we found nothing on whats going on upstairs, right? The crying behind the walls? I bet this has something to do with it, but two guys checking for bad piping wouldn't think of that stuff..."

And if things really were as bad as they appeared, Nathan may have walked into danger.

**InvertedMonkey** · May 15th, 2016 04:46 PM

The ogress nods, confident in Green's ability to be safe and make good decisions by himself, in a way that she is not confident in Nathan. Thus agreed, she turns from him and starts heading back up the stairs. Quietly. Ramona's not trying to be a ninja, but if something has gone wrong with Nathan and Zoe that she and Green aren't aware of yet, Ramona doesn't want to walk into any traps herself. Besides, it might be valuable to be able to observe the two of them, whatever they might be doing or talking about, before announcing her presence.

May 17th, 2016 01:57 AM

Sorry folks, I should've been more clear: the Occult roll was for Nathan.
But, since it was still a reasonable thing for Green and Ramona to roll, essentially what they can tell at the current moment is that this is either well rendered nonsense, or something they've never seen or heard of before; either way, a key element is missing.

Nathan

"You don't have a half-decent explanation," Zoe said in carefully clipped words, "Because I haven't told you anything yet. Everything's in the basement; I left the door open because I hoped your goons would take it as a sign of good faith and not break anything important. If you want a walk through, we should go downstairs. More private, and I can actually show you what I'm taking about. And, before you get on me about doing anything suspicious: in what world is it a better option for me to walk back into a room with one exit, where I'm outnumbered, instead of trying my luck with you, right now, if I was going to try my luck at all? Hm? So..." Her hand gestured back toward the door, irritation at his continued abrasiveness evident in both her body language and her tone.

Ramona

Upstairs, Nathan and Zoe weren't readily visible within the house; their voices, however, were coming from near the back door.

Green

Relative silence reigned once the Mountain was alone in the basement, the uncovered circle sitting empty near the compilation of goblin fruit bits and pieces. Then, a familiar reedy voice spoke up, muffled by the wall. "She's a tricky one. I bet she hoped you'd set it off and get whisked away in to the Hedge, well on and out of her way. She would do that, in a heartbeat." His tone veered oddly close to gloating, and after a moment of shuffling the hob's beady eyes peered at Green from behind the washing machine. "But what would come back, hm?"

**Malcolm Green** · May 17th, 2016 05:14 AM

The mountain turned slowly and eyed the diminutive ~~Brownie~~ hob.

"Set what off? I saw the magic circle thing... And, uh, the big doll thing thats incomplete? Why don't you tell me what really going on here?"

His words slowed into a thoughtful pause.

"I bet it was you moaning into the pipes, yeah? You seem to have the run of the place? You covering for her while she works down here?"

His voice, a flat rumble, held no recrimination just curiosity. With his companions upstairs, he could share insights with the hob, perhaps trade secrets even. Such was the Winter Way. Green still didn't know how the hob fitted into the scheme of things - that left the big Elemental wary but not overly threatened.

He may have the dull wits of stone, but Green could still detect gloating when he heard it.

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2016-05-08 16:32:15	Ramona Bohannon rolls 3 to Int + Occult (ToH) (10 Again)	9, 8, 8	3 successes
2016-05-08 16:31:58	Ramona Bohannon rolls 5 to Wits + Comp (ToH) (10 Again)	3, 10, 2, 5, 4, 6	1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-05-11 04:23:20		Green to know things rolls 6 to Intelligence + Occult + Boon (10 Again)		7, 9, 8, 10, 8, 5, 2		4 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-05-11 18:47:04		Ramona Bohannon rolls 3 to Int + Occult (ToH) (10 Again)		10, 1, 3, 10, 10, 5		3 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-05-13 18:10:52		Nathan rolls 3 to to INT + Occult (10 Again)		7, 1, 5		failure

The Other Half

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