Mental Mucking About

Hello Cell peoples!  It's about time I got this belated Voice report down for ya.  I have gotten my anime and sugar fix tonight, so let's get started on the recap of this month's meeting!  As always, I'm Sasha, your resident Riddleseeker changeling.  I'm also a college student who's been juggling all my duties.  I should be in Cirque du Solei with all the (figurative) acrobatics I've been doing.

The meeting started with Rylin (who was finally back from trod-hopping to Italy) getting a hold of me, asking me to grab Ellie and get to his place.  When we got there, we had a new Believer, one of our Freeholders.  She had been trying to get help to fight an abomination in the Hedge in the freehold, but thankfully Rylin was there to mitigate the damage.  Eliza is her name, and she was one of three new recruits into the cell.  One guy was a wolfie named Simon, who reminded me a LOT of Kamina from Gurren Lagann, very cheerleader, that one.  The other guy was a very paranoid hunter who didn't know really anything about our world, just the misinformation out there that's common knowledge to everyone.  While we Lost of the cell tried to inform, he just kept sipping the Koolaid that he knew.  I can't remember his name at the moment, I think it was Tyler or something like that, but he did have a wheelchair.  I guess we need to make the next citadel a wheelchair-accessible place.

EDITORIAL NOTE: I have no fucking clue where the otaku bullshit starts, and where the changeling bullshit ends in the last couple of paragraphs. Seriously. Also, someone get me in touch with the mere mortal wheelchair guy so I can tell that poor bastard what to expect from you fucking maniacs. -NG

We had 3 missions, with all returning safely.  Wolf's emotional lobotomy seems to have made him healbot 3000, as he went on virtually every mission for this meeting.  The first mission was a scouting, then slaying of the abomination and tear that was found in the hedge (and was the one [at least I think] that Eliza was trying to get help about).  I wanted to help, but was held back as a spare gate opener, even though I know the Hedge around that area decently enough.  The second one was closing a tear, and I believe the third one was taking out some servants.

Artemis was acting weird all night.  I thought she was suffering from a memory loss mutation while we were chatting, but it turned out that an abomination had taken her place for a few days and was gathering info on us.  This was a surprise to me, as Father Frank came around with a gun to its head (I still thought it was a mutation at the time), and Tyler had a headache (yep, he's got the Truthy detector gift) around her.  It wasn't until one guy unleashed some fire that I started to get deer in the headlights syndrome.  I'm not good around big flame sources right now.  *does a chibi cower*  Well, when it was defeated (and the couch fire put out), the real Artemis popped back into our world, needing a good amount of basic care.  She said she'd been fighting the abomination in her head for 3 days.

Ash was interim cell leader for the night, but we went ahead and voted her into the permanent position.  This is a good thing, as she's a fairly stable person.  The thing with the Artemis abomination means that we've gotta move our citadel.  Also, we had some guys from Lafayette and Lake Charles show up to help, and pizza kept on magically appearing on the kitchen counter.  I don't know if someone ordered or if one of our mages was really hungry, but it was pretty good.

ANOTHER EDITORIAL NOTE: I told you guys she'd be a good Cell Leader. (Sorry Ash). -NG

On a more personal note, I found out my fetch is still living.  I'm currently tapping into her old articles when I have time to see if she is a Believer or not.  I've already let some of the Cell know this, so they're the first ones I'll be tapping if she happens to be one.  If she's not, then it's just regular Changeling business that I won't concern the cell about.  But I'll be damned if something that's close to the Abomination that impersonated Artemis (but fey in origin) will be out there unchecked for much longer.

See you next month, you interesting people you (unless you try to find me at work or school, please don't do that unless it's an emergency.  Even then, text me first!).

Sasha

Christmas and Calculations

Hey there are you horrible monsters, New Guy here. Hope you had a Merry Christmas or Solstice or Vampire Day or whatever else you do. As I mentioned before, I'm out doing SECRET MISSION SHIT, which prevents me from doing Voice-y or Cell Leader-y stuff. But, lucky for you, Sasha's stepped up to do the Voice thing- and instead of making all of you change your bookmarks, she'll be posting through here. And because I'm a smartass, I'll add in my 'editorial commentary' through the BOLD TEXT like this. Rad, huh?   

Hello to all of our Houston cell members (and those from other cells that read this), it is time for the new Voice to make my debut!  I had snapped up the position, because as you all know, New Guy is on long-term assignment and I happen to have a journalism background.  I'm known to you as Sasha, the local Autumn Riddleseeker Sphinx that wears unusual dress to meetings.  I'll be your Voice for the foreseeable future, so let's get to it!

Now it might be that I've been binge watching anime and am really hyped up on caffeine, but this month's meeting was not as populated as I've seen in my time with Accord.  Figures, I guess even vampires and other supernaturals take time to glut themselves for the holidays or have other affairs elsewhere.  It's no biggie.  No sooner did I get there, having gotten off work early and had a treat of sushi (yes, this sphinx loves her fish), then was pizza ordered and a new guy, Ben (Hayes, Hughes?  Sorry I don't remember the last name well.  Let's hope he doesn't end up skewered by a servant into a light-up phone booth in the Upper Kirby district) arrived at the behest of New Guy since he apparently got too much of the CuT's attention with his hard-hitting investigation, or something along those lines.  He's kinda attractive for a mortal, but I've got a little too much on the plate to go pursuing romantic relationships at this point.  Namely, Rylin and his trod-trotting ideas.  *sighs*  We also had a woman visiting from New York (I didn't catch her name), and a Bald eagle changer from Miami (I think his name was Eric) with a major "'murca" complex, and New Guy and a few others Skyped in on Cora's tablet.  Apparently Eric screwed a swan changer without protection, turned blue and swelled up and then burst and became what he is currently.  You can thank Cora for the details.

The lady from New York was Marianne (who kind of scares me, but in a good way?) and the bird-guy was Ben, from Miami, who's shown up from before. Also, Ben has now officially surpassed Cora for the "worst love life ever" award. 

We had two away teams go out this time around, which is apparently the norm even though we were holding a Christmas party.  Ah well, gotta fight the good fight regardless of eggnog and Cora's Chocolate Fizz (which is apparently pretty good, but I don't drink alcohol).

I was on the first away team, as my first assumption was that we had some True Fae or Loyalist activity going on.  That turned out to not be the case, as "Santa" killed the four missing children that had been Amber Alerted within the past few weeks.  We had an abomination and an independent cult on our hands, and with Eric, Wolf, Apophis (I hate his name), someone else (sorry, my memory escapes me at the moment), and myself, we were able to turn the "Santa" into dirty slush in a bus barn in Pearland.  It also made me think that I should do some more practice at the range again with my Beretta, because my aim has been fucking horrible these past couple of months.  I guess I better get some practice with my khopesh while I'm at it.

The second away team didn't seem to fare as well as we did.  They had a tear and a living math equation abomination attacking them!  I do not envy those guys, I've never cared for math much, even when it's of the inert variety.  Seriously, algebra stares into your soul with those variables.  *shudder*  I believe Ben, Artemis, and a few others were on that team.  If I forgot your name, I'm sorry.  I'm kinda bad at names since being back in the mortal world again.

After that happened, Apophis had an announcement to make.  He admonished us for being mortals/human beings/not perfect (aka like him), and said he was going to take the Heroes' Walk.  He also gave Wolf a emotional lobotomy before leaving and got punched for being the ass that he is/was.  Now this is my opinion, but even though he thought himself above everyone else and emotions entirely, he was quite selfish for pulling such a stunt.  I can kinda get the not seeing anything but the threat in front of you thing, but he didn't have to be such a cockmunch about it.  After that, I got to talk with Ben and Firewall (on Skype for her) for a bit and fill newly dubbed "Mini New Guy" in a bit on what's been happening.

But yeah, seeing Apophis get punched like that was an oddly satisfying way to end the night.  I do hope we make sure Ben is trained in handguns by next meeting, as I heard he shot the ceiling of the firing range, or else there's gonna be a lot of trouble if he gets out on an away team again.  Also, New Guy, if you edit my posts to include your brand of humor, could you at least put yours in a different color or something?  I'm not as slapstick as you, and prefer to write my humor on the dry and sarcastic side.

Anyways, see ya'll next month.

Sasha McKeller

So yeah. Post script: Apophis apparently had infiltrated the City Council and none of us noticed (what, with his alias/puppet/whatever not showing up on our general truthy investigations), which apparently he got pissed off enough about to go take a Hero's Walk? Fucking creepy, but that's what we should expect from him. So that'll be something we have to deal with AFTER we beat the Truth, because, well, we can beat it. We've got to. I'm going to be doing my part (from behind the scenes, at least), but with a new year, I really hope you guys can get your shit together. 

With Apophis gone, I kiiiiind of nominated Ash to be the Interim Cell Leader. (Sorry! So, so sorry). Ash has been around even longer than I have, and she's damn good at what she does. Listen to her, and keep up the good fight. I'll be in touch. 

-New Guy