It's scribbled on the wings, in cheap Biro. It's his handwriting, but you've never seen it so sloppy.
It's an address in Las Vegas, which when you check it up online turns out to be a motel on the edge of town. And there's a warning.
"Double cross. Trinket sellers sold me out. They know what I am. Watch out. Look for the Market. Deposit box with Mr Clean. Pay in fruit for key.
Help."
You know Hamid is often dealing with the shady underside of the world. But if you're reading this note right, some trinket-sellers have double crossed him. Sold him out to people who were looking for something like him. That can't be good. At best, they're some of the sorcerers or warlocks who've worked out way to draw power from the body of a fetch. They'll cut him to pieces, and use him piece by piece as a source of power.
At worst… well, your mind can come up with horrible suggestions about who might want to get their hands on Hamid. And what she might want to do with him.
And now, my friends, we return in truth to The Rose Garden. Directed, as always, by the esteemed
@EarthScorpion.
Following a letter form help from Hamid, the Fetch of
@Havocfett's character Hammy, a convergence of powers settles on Las Vegas. With a trunk full of Goblin Fruit and stomachs full of coffee and junk food, Penny (played by
@mothematics), Bart (played by
@TenfoldShields), and Ryan (played by yours truly) make their way to the motel indicated in Hamid's letter. Someone is waiting for them there, a face none of them have seen in quite some time. Kayla, played by
@Aleph, had received a similar letter and saw in a vision that she would meet with the group here. A vision she knew would be true.
After so much time in Arcadia none of these people are as they once were. Ryan is as much ice as flesh, a walking embodiment of arctic power. Penny is a patchwork of scars and stitches, all covered by tattoos. Bart is man and beast, both intermixed so seamlessly it cannot be seen where one ends and the other begins. Kayla's eyes have been replaced with moonstones, and her beauty is great enough to make poets weep.
Ryan is the first to recognize Kayla, memories returning to him. Kayla does not respond to his words, however, and instead there is a tearfully awkward and painful reunion in the parking lot as Penny breaks down and Kayla tries to keep from joining her. Bart attempts to comfort Penny, and Ryan suggests they really should get away from this public space. Bart does not appreciate Ryan's bluntness, and Ryan mostly ignores Bart's obvious animosity.
Which sums up much of their relationship, when you get right down to it.
Eventually the group convenes at a McDonalds, where matters proceed to go exactly nowhere until Ryan forces the issue and gets everyone talking. Brief summaries of what each has been doing since they escaped Arcadia are exchanged, and while the tension between Penny and Kayla does not *vanish* it is at least placed in the background as the group get to work on finding out exactly what happened to their friend.
Their first issue is getting past a locked door. Ryan manages to get the key by impersonating a manager, while Bart goes out to speak with some crows. He learns Hamid hasn't been at the motel for quite a few days, which gives them a rough idea of when he was taken. Inside of the room the group begins to uncover just what happened. Between Kayla's oracular magic and Bart's keen investigative skills, they find Hamid's personal computer and cellphone. Unfortunately they have no means of accessing the computer, but they clean up the room and make their way to the Goblin Market to follow up with Mr. Clean.
On the way to the market Ryan and Kayla have a conversation in her car. After smalltalk and deflections, Ryan gets to the point of why he wanted to ride in Kayla's car and have this conversation. He is worried about Penny, and doesn't believe either he or Bart can help her. After a disastrous breakup Bart found her half dead just a week ago, and Ryan isn't sure she will survive holding to this pattern. Kayla doesn't want to get involved, but after laying on the guilt Ryan managed to get a Pledge from her. She will stay with the group for the span of a moon and do her best to help Penny, and in return Ryan will grant her a major boon.
The local Market is a madhouse, as befits a crossroads where so many come to gamble. Anything can be found for sale here, and the buyers are as eclectic and strange as the sellers. Most are Hobs, but even some of the Gentry have some to peruse the wares. Penny is, unfortunately, mistaken for one of these and gains more attention than anyone would care for. Even still, they eventually find their way to a rundown bar. They ask for Mr. Clean, who is told he will need to pay in Goblin Fruit for doing business there. He, in turn, demands Goblin Fruit from the part for his time.
Penny, at this point very much out of patience, uses her Gentrified Bearing to her advantage and intimidates Mr. Clean and the proprietress so completely that they agree to do business free of charge. From Mr. Clean they are given a strange box which will only open if given Goblin Fruit. The group feeds it, and inside is a note detailing Hamid's itinerary in case anything went wrong with the deal he was arranging. He met at a coffee shop in the mortal world to set up a meeting with a cabal of sorcerers from San Francisco in order to get very specific information.
The trail set, our merry band ventures to said coffee shop where Bart proceeds to flirt with the cashier, Juan, while Penny and Kayla attempt to converse. Bart's ventures go favorably, and he learns that there is a group snatching up Changelings and Sorcerers for parts and figures they interfered with Hamid's meeting. Bart also manages to get the man's phone number, both for strategic purposes and also to hopefully arrange romantic liaisons in the future. The conversation between the two women is... mixed, and Ryan wisely stays out of it.
Then comes a hit squad, most likely the snatchers, and Penny decides to let loose with a localized storm that tears through the coffee shop and sends their pursuers flying. The group runs as a hulking monster in body armor chases after them, fleeing into the hedge. Before the hulk can burst through the door to follow them, Hammy appears driving in a *very* altered version of the Queen's limo and gets them all to safety.
Now reunited in truth, the group settles down to work over what they've learned after much shouting, cursing, and consuming of drugs by certain members to alleviate the first two activities. They go over what they've learned, which is that Hamid was arranging a meeting that went poorly thanks to outside interference. Bart gets a call from Juan who gives him a little more information about the Snatchers. Apparently they cut up Changelings, Hobs and Sorcerers for parts both for profit and personal enhancement. The reactions from the group are mostly a mixture of disgust and anger.
Kayla takes it upon herself to do some deep divination in order to figure out where Hamid has been taken while the boys reminisce. Penny stands outside with her, impressed by the power still remaining in Kayla's oracular abilities despite leaving Arcadia. She learns where Hamid is located, as well as some of the people involved and what resistance they might face. She also sees the entire venture ending in fire, which is more than a little concerning.
The group gathers near the warehouses Kayla saw in her vision, and Penny takes the time to look over Hammy. The man has seen better days, his torso a mess of wires, metal and a small nuclear reactor. Penny is a doctor, and she says she can give him better range of motion and alleviate the pain. After she looks him over Bart attempts to speak with her about Kayla, which immediately turns into an argument as he tries to convince her being around the other woman might not be the best idea. This doesn't go particularly well, with Penny responding she cannot get over her.
Meanwhile, Kayla and Ryan are on the roof holding a conversation. It begins with hostility and ends with quiet appreciation of the other. Ryan speaks of his goals for a Changeling society, free of fear and persecution. In pursuit of that, he vows to destroy these Snatchers. Kayla wonders just where his desires truly end, and if he will not doom himself and any involved with him. Ryan states he will not wage war on the Gentry and merely wishes for a place to belong, and Kayla wishes him well but does not wish to be a part of such grand designs. She leaves him on the roof, where he broods alone, and returns to the room just as Penny is finishing a rant and pretends she heard none of it.
Evening approaches, and the group makes their way to the warehouses. They decide to go in quietly for as long as possible, with Bart and Ryan going on ahead. Penny performs great feats of magic to aid the party in stealth, and calls a storm to cover their tracks after they break Hamid out. There is a close call with a guard, but they manage to sneak past him and find a side door. Such barriers are little use against Ryan, who effortlessly rips it off its hinges.
Inside, the group prepares for confrontation as Bart scouts alone. There he is discovered by a guard and a dog, who wishes to know who he is and what he's doing there. A quick conversation convinces the dog to switch sides, and Bart dispatches the man quickly and adopts the hound as a pet.
Deep within the warehouses are Hobs and other Hedge beasts shackled with iron and kept behind plexiglass cells. This includes a baby dragon, which Kayla takes it upon herself to try and free while the others look for Hamid. They find him drugged and strapped to a gurney, missing pieces of his body. The group responds, poorly to this.
Meanwhile, Kayla is doing her best to free the captured wyrm. She manages to convince it she's there to help and gets its muzzle off, but has trouble with the rest. As the group comes back, they take in her progress and move to help. After some effort, Ryan manages to snap the iron chains and the dragon is free to take out its
very justified anger on its captors. The group decides at that point it is time to leave and makes for the vans in the motor pool.
Hammy takes the wheel and swiftly loses any pursuit in the rain while Penny does some quick surgery to remove the tracking chip in Hamid's neck. Kayla states she wishes to remain with the group for a time, and Penny lets out a squeak of joy that sends her blushing as the newly formed motley makes for Chicago.
Days later, they come to Penny and Bart's Hollow where they set Hamid down to rest and in general try to decompress after such harrowing activities. Morgan, Hamid's wife, is called and they wait for her to arrive. Half an hour later she does, and Hamid wakes up in quite a bit of pain and not much soothed by the fact that the place he was being held captive was set on fire.
Hamid explains just what he's been working on so intently all these years. He's been trying to figure out the deal that brought the Queen from Europe to America, and he believes he's close. 2015 is approaching, and he wants to prevent more children from being taken as this cycle of thirty years comes again. But he is injured, missing an eye, kidney, and leg. He can't follow up on leads any more to locate this deal and break it somehow. He asks the group to help him so that no one else will have to suffer.
Penny's first reaction is to yell emphatic denials even as Ryan and Bart agree to help. After a moment Hammy voices his desire to join in the endeavor, while Kayla remains silent as she waits to see what everyone will decide. Penny is
terrified, and brings up just how badly they all were defeated and broken the last time they attempted to work against the Winter Queen. Harsh words are said, but before the argument can grow too out of hand Hamid mentions if his plan works they will never directly confront the Queen at all. Penny is not mollified, and tries to convince the others not to go along with this.
They do not back down, and Penny finally relents. She cannot lose her friends, not again, and even if she wants nothing to do with Cheam or the Queen agrees to help. Hamid says he will inform them of any further leads to follow up on, and everyone settles in to rest and recover from the week's exertions.
But when Kayla awakens the next morning she finds herself unable to meet her gaze in the mirror. She quickly realizes this is a ban, a mystic taboo she cannot overcome without great effort, and that it means her own powers have begun to grow once more after so much interaction with the supernatural. Tears fall from moonstone eyes as she realizes what this means, and knows that her quiet life has truly come to an end.
A new chapter has begun for these five. Children no longer, they have each grown strong from their trials and escape from Arcadia. But so too have they taken on new burdens, and their weight threatens to crush them all as it slowly gathers atop their shoulders. Will they be able to overcome, and gain some measure of justice for what was done to them? Or will they shatter beneath the unyielding pressure of their shared history?
Only time will tell as we follow their adventures In the Rose Garden.
