Broken Freehold Common Ground

**Malcolm Green** · Dec 10th, 2015 05:38 AM

"We do need a neutral ground. Everyone needs their space, yeah?"

Green mused.

"I... uh... Don't think that rebuilding the old place from the ruins here would help. Some might find comfort in it, but its not like a lot remember the place. Its gone..." Breath pulsed from his lips in a sigh. "I was thinking we build a new place, somewhere else, myself. I think the old Dragon was attracted to the place because it was nice. And all that."

He eyeballed the group, specifically L'aire .

"How about a motel? Yeah its not up to a hotel's standards, but it gives us cover. Always new faces at motels, right? Not like anyone is going to question us if we run a function there - heck we could set up a function room in the place and, like, have it booked out. That would deal with prying eyes. It would take long to establish a new commons in the green, uh, next to it. Yeah."

A shrugged - for once it was a small, practiced, natural gesture.

"I can stump up the funds and I got friends who can make it happen."

He let the offer hang in the air. It did not need to be said that motels had a habit of being dingy and cheap; that was the mountain's point: it would be under the radar.

**Daniel Leto** · Dec 10th, 2015 07:16 PM

“Sorry. I didn’t mean we should rebuild the Four Seasons. Just the Hollow.” If they were fine with no club speak, he’d go with it. “There could still be valuable items or information we could recover. Then we start making doors to other places. A motel,” he nodded to L’aire. It would certainly make things easier if they didn't have to worry about providing living quarters in the Hedge. “Capitol Park, a central bus station, maybe the Quicksilver Gate, even just a random allyway." He didn't say it but a connection close to the Cottage network would be a good idea too.

"Wide spread, strategic locations; though probably not any related to the courts so we keep things compartmentalized in case of another attack. I’m not an expert on the Hedge but hopefully a dispersal of Doors would disassociate the Hollow from its mortal anchors and prevent the Hedge catching on fire like it did before. Just hope.” He was a little opposed to having a mortal side parallel to a Freehold commons. That was what had caused some of the problems in the first case. Though L'aire had a point that the Four Seasons hadn't exactly been low key.

He looked over above Evelynn's shoulder and smile encouragingly. "Any ideas?"

Sure Daniel had been here only a little while (not as much as Green or L'aire) but he was 'established'. A new (non-Winter) prospective would be good to have. Plus she was Wizened. While he'd never heard of any working as large scale as landscape and architecture, they were some of the best crafters around.

**Evelynn East** · Dec 10th, 2015 08:09 PM

Evelynn's work was the opposite of large. It was small, it was fine, it was dainty. Thus, when Daniel asked her for her opinion, big eyes went even wider, and she considered it ideas carefully. "I, um, like the idea of the motel. Quite a lot, actually. I know we have the boarding house to help out anyone new to town, but not everyone has the easiest time finding it," herself included, "so maybe having a second sort of... welcoming place with safety and warm beds might be a good idea." Then, a quick shrug. "I was, um, also thinking I might be able to take a look at a map of the city to find some good placed to put some of the other Doors. Places well hidden. Places from which we could scatter easily, if we need to. Transit stations, maybe. Though I'd be concerned about putting other people in danger, if we started pouring into busy public places with nasties right behind us. Oh, and maybe talk to Morgan about escape routes? She seems to know a few things about those sorts of things."

Dec 11th, 2015 11:37 AM

L’aire was glad that she and Green were on the same page about the old space. But, she didn’t agree about why Fairweather chose it. “I don’t think he picked it because it was nice. But, I don’t know the guys motives.”

The Dancer held out her phone and offered it to anyone who wanted to take it up. “This place, it’s small and 10 rooms. It has a few levels, and easy escape routes. It’s also by the river with a quaint restaurant. Nothing seems super fancy, but very adequate it seems.”

“I think the Four Seasons was in Katrin’s name. Pretty sure there was some healthy insurance money to be had, so I’m presuming we could rebuild something modest.” And the Fairest had another thought along with it. “To the East of us, there are a few fields on the outskirts of town. There’s also some land for sale for commercial use. The problem is, not all of us have transportation to travel through town and may be harder to find. Good for the Dragon problem, not so good for finding it, like Evelynn said.”

It was good to have a new perspective on the situation. Someone that didn’t have ties to the old ways even if she wanted to cling to a few parts. “You’re right though, Morgan is pretty good with figuring out the escape routes. She can assist in finding those, and we can establish small Hollow routes to aid in that.”

Was it over protecting people, yes. But L’aire wasn’t taking chances.

“So far we will need the following; a few rooms to rent, a convention room or something, a restaurant so we can also sustain some business, several escape routes, good location but not close to people.”

“Yeah, this is easy…” L’aire chuckled with a large grin. She hadn’t ever really planned things like this before. Not even close to her forte.

**Malcolm Green** · Dec 11th, 2015 05:17 PM

Green grunted in agreement.

"I can check out there area if you want," he offered. "Also, my offer still stands - for the motel. I don't mind pitchin' in for the whole 'Hold."

**Daniel Leto** · Dec 13th, 2015 08:05 PM

“It doesn’t really matter where we scatter. At least not in a major city like this. The public is going to be at risk regardless.” It was a balance of secrecy and safety. Both fell mostly under the Winter court’s purview. For Daniel, the risk of a few deaths was worth security of a more effective escape. Populated spaces offered their own limited protection. It wouldn’t necessarily work against Fair Folk like the Dragon who had shown a disregard for such things, but it could work on more common threats. However, if either of the higher ranking officials said otherwise, he’d concede.

“And it wouldn’t be all of us pouring out into one location. The more doors we have for escape routes, the better. But being connected to a major doesn’t hurt in an emergency. Not to mention the day to day use it could.”

The gravewight gave a slow shrug with a half-hearted smile. L’aire outranked him in court and in the Freehold at large. Plus she seemed to have a fairly solid plan of her own. He may not entirely agree with her on strategy but it was also just good to know he had her support for the endeavor. He kept having to remind himself this wasn’t Minnesota.

“In any case, I’d like to try working on the backyard,” recent experiences still made it hard not to use club speak in such a public space. His experience with the Hedge was a little limited but this would be a good time to try to expand on that. Figuring out how Doors and Wards work would certainly help in the long run.

**Evelynn East** · Dec 14th, 2015 07:15 PM

Evelynn considered the issue L'aire put forth, about a smaller, more out of the way place being more difficult to find. And Daniel, it seemed, wasn't against the idea of shielding the Lost in a crowd, if need be. She supposed it wasn't surprising - maybe it wasn't worth the effort to risk the wrath of the local police.

Her nose wrinkled slightly with thought, and she drew a breath to speak, but paused, uncertain of how to voice her idea. "Um... What if the common ground wasn't all in the same place?" she asked softly. "I mean, as in, the other stuff, not the back yard. I mean, the Four Seasons had places to sleep, and a restaurant, and a convention hall or something, right? And we don't want to risk gathering all of the community in one place again, so... let's not. We could use the motels that L'aire and Malcolm have suggested, and maybe a restaurant in a completely other location, and a hall or other gathering place somewhere else, and all of them with Doors to link them together. It'd be more secure that way, wouldn't it?"

She looked from face to face, flushing slightly, and shrugged. "Is that a good idea? I don't really know that much about these sorts of, erm, security type things," she said softly, her confidence wavering, wondering if there was something bad about her idea that would have seemed obvious to a more experienced changeling.

Dec 14th, 2015 07:53 PM

The suggestions were good so far. But, also could be confusing. At least she and the Elemental were on the same page, a common place to stay was needed.

“I think I see what you’re saying. The common places don’t necessarily have to be gathering places.” But this was sort of defeating the purpose in her mind. L’aire was trying to picture what things would look like after all was said and done.

The brows above her eyes knitted slightly, L’aire thought she should just state what was already happening as a gentle reminder. “But here’s the thing; we all gather in the same place for coronations, save the four higher ups. That was an intentional thing since two were lost during the destruction. The only difference now is that we rotate per season to different locations, all together.” She shrugged in confusion.

**Malcolm Green** · Dec 15th, 2015 03:04 AM

"I uh think what Daniel means is that we have one Hollow, but many ways to reach it. I think we could spread it out a bit, too - just a few extra Doors as you say."

Green's head swivelled to look over the fencing and into the abandoned crater beyond. Why the site had not been taken yet was a mystery to the big Elemental; he could only assume there was probably some legal wrangling over ownership and insurance still going on.

"But he's right, we should get moving. If any of this is going to work we need to know what shape the old Hollow is in. It might not even be worth salvaging. But we gotta know, yeah. There could be important stuff we need in the rubble, so to speak."

**Daniel Leto** · Dec 15th, 2015 11:24 PM

The gravewight nodded at Green's explaination.

"Exactly. The Hollow would make the various gathering entrances into one common place. If he hold a party, then some people could be eating at the restaurant, some dancing in convention hall, some chatting in the Commons proper. Then if any one of those is attacked, it wouldn't mean the loss of the others. We could even pretend to still rotate if we wanted, holding the event at a different entrance while actually always being at the Commons." It was a strange concept to wrap your head around but after having seen how mortal geography failed to match up to the cottage network, Daniel was pretty sure it could be done.

Follow the Mountain's gaze, Daniel cracked a smile. The Elemental could probably lob them over the fence if need be. Or chop it down for that matter.

"Okay let's see if we can find anything."

Broken Freehold Common Ground

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