Ok, I think I might have the hang of it now, it's Thursday today, right?

@AncientSwordRage so it is

o/

\oo//

\o

\o//

A minute late, sorry

how dare

Thankfully I don't have to be on the phone today, so ready to go when you are

We left off with everyone entering Sherri's apartment, I believe.

Yeah we did!

Fin trots behind the other two as she keeps up

@Mithical, what do we see?

(writing a description one sec)

(pausing)

PAUSE BUTTON DEPRESSED

pauses

Inside the apartment you can see a living room, with a desk set up - a laptop is cycling through a screen saver on top, with a cold cup of coffee sitting next to it. Lining the walls are several bookcases, books stacked haphazardly across the shelves, with little regard for the proper way to shelve books. Fabrics are strewn about on every flat surface, and there are teddy bears any direction you look. Boxes are stacked in the corners and serve as additional surfaces for... stuff.

Sherri may present neatly in person, but her apartment is the complete opposite.

PAUSE BUTTON UNPRESSED

Teri drops her bag on a box and turns, looking at the others expectantly

The next-door neighbors, who you're pretty sure have a regular pastime of moving furniture while stamping around with concrete shoes, are being unusually quiet today. You can hear some distant strains of Friends playing through the wall.

Sherri gestures vaguely at the coach, barely visible underneath a stack of jeans. "I'll just clear that off then, dearies, one minute..."

She proceeds to schlepp the jeans and everything else from the couch off to her bedroom, although makes sure to close the door to that room every time she walks through it. You do get a glimpse of red sheets on a bed, though.

Fin proceeds to the couch and flops down, her chubby legs dangling some distance from the ground

"Já, such a nice... home" she says slightly woodenly as though she's new at this. And waits for Teri to join her, or Sherri to return

"Like yours?"

"The Wi-Fi network is Markaggedon, by the way, darlings," Sherri calls out as she stashes her stuff. "Password is D-A-V-I-D SPACE L-A-N-D-L-LO-R-D."

The Friends episode playing distantly next door launches into the theme song. ...🎵 You're still in bed at ten and work began at eight, you've burned your breakfast, so far, things are going great 🎵...

Teri jumps a bit at the sound.

@bobble "oh, no... Hmm not so much..." and Fin stares off like she's trying to remember the layout of the home she left

Fin jumps at Teri jumping, then asks "Wife-Eye?"

"W-i-F-i. Lets you connect to the Internet."

The puzzled look on Fin's face says everything

"The internet.... On phones?"

At this point, Sherri emerges from her bedroom, having cleared enough space to the point where the couch is clear enough for sleeping and if she can dig up the air mattress from wherever it's hiding it can be set up on the floor.

"Phones, computers, tablets, so forth. Not a thing for you?"

The television next door fades into a jaunty-sounding commercial, with a soothing voice speaking over cheerful violin music. "Ever wanted to follow your dreams? Do you see everyone else getting theirs, and wish you could get yours? What if all of your wildest dreams could come true, and all it took was a simple phone call? You might just be who we're looking for..."

@bobble "Nei, we had letters we could post, and the traders that came by would talk very little about anything like that"

"Sherri, do you have potable water here?"

Fin spots Sherri trying to dig out an air mattress and watches in fascination, not quite piecing together what it's for straight away

Sherri nods to the kitchen. "The water in the tap works, or there are a couple bottles of water in the fridge. I'd check the milk before using it, I think it expired yesterday."

"There should be a bottle of apple juice in there as well if you want."

"Sherri, I would be happy on the floor, Já? Less effort and ... I don't know if the balloon-bed will ...uhmm. I'm don't want to break it"

"Dreams..." the soothing voice on the next-door television continues. "What if you could follow yours? What if anything you wanted could come true? I'm talking to you three in there..."

"If it doesn't smell it's good. Lui lets me take the one-day-too-old stuff some times, never gotten sick..." Teri's already moving to grab a water bottle.

(The kitchen has a single stove burner, one small fridge with a freezer above, a toaster oven, and a sink. There's no table, it's too small a space.)

Sherri tilts her head a bit at the sound from next door, but doesn't say anything. She points at the laptop sitting on the desk. "If you want to use my computer to look anything up, feel free." She reaches into her bag, "I want to look at this, though." And with that, she produces the small black marble that Oakwinkle had handed her.

She returns and plops down near Fin, promptly glugging half the bottle

The next-door television cycles back to a regular Olive Garden commercial, as if nothing ever happened.

Fin smiles when Teri sits down, not used to non-family friends around for this long

"What's it do?"

"Sherri, I don't know if tall people have this, but have you heard of mead? Do you have any?"

In response to Teri, Sherri goes "That's an excellent question, dearie. I have no idea - Oakwinkle gave it to me in the car and I haven't had a chance to look at it yet." She goes to hand it to Teri. "Want to see if you can understand what it's for?"

"oh, sorry to interrupt, the marble...já"

nat 1 for an Arcana roll to figure something out

"Fin, I don't think I have mead per se, but there should be a bottle of wine somewhere."

Before Sherri responds, Fin puts on her most studious face and looks at the marble, probably not fooling anybody

Teri brings the marble very close to her face, squinting at it.

@Mithical "vín? Nei, but thank you. I have a sightly sweeter tooth maybe"

6+0 for Arcana on this end

She intends to grab her bottle with her free hand to drink some more water, but instead casts mage hand, having it bring the bottle to float near her face.

(can I mage hand?)

@Mithical It is a very lovely marble, but you can't discern any arcane properties beyond that.

Much more quietly, not at anyone in particular"was I ok to say tall people?"

@Sciborg (I rolled 3+3 here)

@AncientSwordRage What a beautiful marble. Probably all it is, though.

(waiting for bobble's question to be answered)

@bobble (I don't see any reason why not)

She lowers the marble and jumps at seeing the bottle. "Wha-?!"

Sherri fumbles backwards. "What is that did you-"

"Oh, exciting! Is that a ... Ghost hand you have? Brain-hand?"

"It's not me - I don't think - WHAT??!"

(I may have to head off early)

Tentatively she gets it to bring the bottle to her physical hands. "Guess it is mine. Huh."

Sherri blinks. "Impressive."

"Huh." Teri repeats. "Next idea: get magic hand to poke the magic marble"

She mentally force herself to be calm.

"Are you sure that's safe, darling? I don't want my apartment to explode anything..."

poke

The marble rolls slightly at the poke. Oddly, the fiery red line shot through the marble stays perfectly horizontal as it rolls, which seems counterintuitive.

(yup I've got to head off now, sorry guys)

\o

(stop then?)

Fin has fallen asleep on the couch snoring loudly

o/

(happy if you want to carry on without me)

Giving an apprehensive look at the spectral hand, Sherri says "Now, dears, I don't think we're getting anywhere with the marble for now." Noticing that Fin has fallen asleep, she lowers her voice and continues, "I want to try calling Mark again, since he didn't pick up earlier. Teri, sweetie, feel free to use the kitchen or the laptop or whatever."

"Does it have a password?"

Carefully moving the coffee out of the way, Teri slides in front of the laptop

"Same as the Wi-Fi. I know, I know, bad security practice..."

Opening up a web browser, she types "SECO" into the search box

Some random, apparently unrelated results pop up. "Seco International Trucking," "Seco Surveying Equipment," "Seco Industrial Services."

(It's a thin white laptop, RGB backlit keyboard, and has - naturally - a teddy bear sticker on the back. The wallpaper shows Sherri standing with a bearded, long-haired guy smiling on a picnic table bench.)

Next attempt is "SECO secret magic"

This time, a website pops up as the fourth result: "SecoTruthFreedomFight.co." The description blurb underneath reads: "The government doesn't want to tell you but it's TRUE. Magic is REAL. They are beaming magical waves into your mind and..."

click

A black-background, lime-green 16pt text website appears with aliens and UFOs as the background. The full site declares itself to be called "The Magic Conspiracy: Free Your Mind." It appears to host several hundred witness testimonies about magical events they've witnessed, alien and nonhuman abductions, magic-related conspiracies and cover-ups, and "men in black" style testimonies about a mysterious organization calling itself SECO that tries to stifle the "truth."

The owner of the website is listed only under an alias: "TRUTHS33K3R."

Teri can go looking through the site while Sherri calls Mark

Sherri ducks into the bedroom to make the phone call.

Beep. She presses the button to call and waits, a bit nervously, since it's unusual for him to not answer or call back after missing a call for this long.

This time, the phone crackles after only two rings, as if Mark scrambled to answer it. His cheery, slightly out-of-breath voice comes through: "Sherri! Hey! Hello! I'm really sorry I didn't get back to you, that was so negative-energy of me. I kept meaning to call you back but I got busy fixing the birdhouses and it totally slipped my mind. How are you?"

Sherri audibly lets out a sigh of relief, loud enough that the phone can pick it up. "Oh god, you had me worried. Nobody was answering the phone, and somebody had just tried to kill me, so I was a bit concerned."

"Somebody tried to kill you?" he echoes, sounding horrified at the prospect. "What? Are you okay? What happened?"

You hear some clunking sounds that sound like he's hastily putting away woodcarving tools.

"It's been a long day. Look, angel, you remember the roof incident? With the donkey, and the fire?"

You know him well enough to know he's wincing over the phone. "I think we all remember."

"That's what I figured. Anyway, I might have finally found out what caused it, but I'll have to show you in person. And yes, this is related to somebody trying to kill me. It had to do with this old book, which... look, angel, it's a bit complicated, but I'm all right and they're in police custody right now. Just a little shaken up."

"Good, I'm glad you're all right. I worry about you, you know." You can hear him clattering around in his kitchen, probably making some of his vegan cuisine. "Glad you're all mellow. I'll pick up next time, I promise. The birds are doing well, by the way."

"Oh, that's good to hear. Did you finally figure out why Jerry was molting? And did you settle Katy and Paula's little territory debate?"

"Yes, I think Jerry was just stressed out - they pluck out their feathers when they get upset, the poor thing was almost going bald. So I'm having him in his own little place to chill out for a while. And Katy and Paula have settled their differences." He sounds like he's smiling over the phone. "If you ever want to drop by, you're always welcome, you know. I think they miss you."

"Of course," Sherri replies, a little wistfully. "I'll come as soon as I can. Tell Jane happy birthday for me, will you?, and tell the birds I'll be there soon."

"Will do." He clears his throat, seemingly knowing that your presence might be awkward because of the... incident. "I'll see you soon, Sherri."

"Of course. I'll call tomorrow if I can, I have some guests in my apartment right now. Miss you, angel."

"Miss you too," he says, affectionately. "Bye."

"Bye..." she trails off, and then click hangs up.

After processing for a minute, she heads back out to see if Teri has made any progress on her research.

"Found this." gestures towards a page titled 'Talking Animals? You Bet!'

Sherri peers at the title. "You found that Lewis guy?"

"Found some people claiming that an agency covering up magic exists, which, well, we saw..."

At the bottom of the page, where the owner's TRUTHS33K3R alias is listed, you also note they have provided an email address (truthseeker_alpha@truthmail.com) and a P.O. box to "send in your own stories and tips."

"Are you considering emailing them, dear? I mean, we pretty much confirmed they exist, but it'd be nice to have some more information."

"I've never been good with email. Do you have an idea?"

"I could give it a shot, sure."

"I," Teri gets up and stretches, "want to play with this magic hand thing. See how it works."

Sherri points to where a large teddy bear is sitting in the corner, looking simultaneously slightly charred and damp. "I'm afraid that Mr. Roosevelt over there has been the victim of magic testing already, if you'd like to inflict more damage on him, dear."

Teri concentrates, then manifests the hand and attempts to pick Mr. Roosevelt up

(I never thought I'd be looking up "how much does a teddy bear weigh" but here we are)

Mr. Roosevelt wavers, then slowly floats up into the air.

spins Mr. Roosevelt in a circle

Teri glances over at Sherri, letting the bear spin around

Sherri is frowning and typing an email, repeatedly typing and erasing, apparently unhappy with what she's writing.

When Teri looks back at the bear, it's still floating but now the hand is invisible

Her eyes widen slightly. She forces visibility, then the spell's end.

There are distant sounds of the next-door neighbor placing a phone call. "...yes, that's my name... saw on TV... said you were giving free medical debt relief... mm-hm... yes, I can verify..."

Dear TRUTHS33KER,

I've just come across your website detailing the existence of an organization called SECO, dedicated to hiding the existence of magic. It was a very useful find.

I would be very interested in knowing if you had any more information about the workings of this secretive group. I have recently encountered several agents of this organization - and, in fact, they pulled a weapon on myself and several others. If you know anything else about this agency - such as who oversees them, why they try to hide the existence of magic, or anything else - and are willing to divulge this i…

Deciding that's good enough, Sherri hits the send button, and looks over just in time to see Mr. Roosevelt plop to the floor.

"Impressive," she repeats.

"I need to get back to the library, there's some volumes that... oh, no, I can't, can I?" Teri draws into herself, tucking her head into her knees

"Oh, honey." Sherri sits down next to her. "We'll figure out what to do with the library. I'm sure Oakwinkle and Robert and Coulter can help sort it out, or know people who do. It's not gone forever."

She uncurls slowly. "What time is it?"

Sherri glances at her watch.

"Ten o'clock? No wonder Fin fell asleep, poor dear must be pooped."

"Got any spare blankets? I can nest myself on the floor."

"I'm going to pull out some food and then we should probably catch forty winks, dear." Standing up, Sherri heads to the kitchen to pull out any leftovers sitting in the fridge.

"I just need to finish setting up the air mattress for you!" she calls over her shoulder.

After a few minutes, there is some hastily warmed spaghetti, some toaster-oven-cooked potatoes, and some burritos set out on the table (which only has two chairs; someone's going to have to use the desk chair). There are also a few cucumbers sliced into a bowl.

"I'm sorry, dears, I wasn't planning on having guests, otherwise I'd have gotten food that's a bit fancier than this..."

"Hot's better than cold, thank you" Teri selects a burrito and a handful of cucumbers.

[I'm assuming Fin wakes up and eats at some point]

After eating quickly, Teri drags her bag into the washroom, then comes out and sets up to sleep

@Mithical (I'm home, but going to focus on wife-time/husband duties for a bit)

After supper, Sherri is going to stand in the mirror and cast Alter Self, just as an experiment. She's trying to grow small, curved horns.

@AncientSwordRage (thumbsup)

Fin stirs momentarily, sees the food and wakes up fully. Making sure everyone has eaten something she picks up three burritos and demolishes them one after another, clearly very hungry. "Takk.... Thank you."

(I'm off again 👋)

\o

Teri falls instantly, if lightly, asleep

With the horns still visible, Sherri goes to check that Fin and Teri are situated with the air mattress and the couch, and then heads off to sleep for the night herself.

Long rest, so hitpoints and spells are restored.

Only for those scrubs who got hit in the first place :)

nyeh :p

[this seems like a reasonable stopping point?]

(probs)

title ideas?

"The Wi-Fi network is Markaggedon" made me lol

That or Mr. Roosevelt

sorry for ignoring all the plot hooks you kept mentioning, @Sciborg :p

I'll live :p

it was a long day as it is ;)

Class in seven minutes, got to scram

good luck

@Sciborg you did pique my interest with the "you three", but I don't think Sherri would be paying close enough attention to sounds from the neighbor for it to really register

also, I think Mark is an aasimar, although he may not know that

(yes, this was something that occurred to me after using "angel" as a nickname)

anyway, thanks for session y'all, this was fun

Apologies for dashing off, I enjoyed the part I stuck around for, and it looks like you all had a good rest of the session

@Sciborg yay!

@Mithical No worries, just gotta sprinkle in some Plot(tm) in the background :p

I think it would be adorable if Mark was an aasimar, he strikes me overall as just a really wholesome person