Game was 11/6/20.
Josh feels Abby slump against his back; he spins around and yells for Doctor Ranjip as she collapses. He instinctively grabs her, but shudders in horror when his right hand goes into the hole in her torso! Behind him, Mick stares in shock at his injured arm, which has a neat row of beads of blood running down it. Anita sees Josh grab Abby and Mick stumble back, while Leta risks a quick glance down at Veltis. Thankfully, Veltis remains unconscious but unhurt. She hears the Hessians cry out, and she drops down to protect Veltis.
William remains detached but sees all of this, plus the primordial monsters looming over the Hessians, ichor dripping from bloody claws and muzzles! Luckily, these five monsters are their friends as he immediately picks out Cain by the pink stripe in her hair. However, he drops the bowl and shifts to grab Josh and Abby. Anita also powers over to Josh but notes with some concern that she does not see Abby's geist. As Josh holds Abby and screams, they all hear Polly bellow, "Friendlies!"
William holds on to his grandson but tries to pull him away from Abby's corpse. Leta hisses in outrage as one of the Hessians backs into her accidentally; she pushes through his legs to see what's going on outside the circle and nearly gets shot in her head doing so! Unfortunately, that is not the worst of it, as she has a full view when one of the werewolves shifts form into the near-human form, complete with bones snapping and flesh rearranging! She idly notes the monster in question is Hope, and her clothes pop back into place somehow. Anita mutters, "Oh, for fuck's sake!" as she realizes Abby is dead; she reaches Josh and helps William try to pry him away from Abby. Unaware of who's even touching him, Josh resists until he sees Doctor Ranjip rushing his way; he then allows them to pull him away from Abby to give the doctor room.
In that heartbeat of total silence as the hunters and their allies realized the cost they just paid, Anita's cell phone rings with Peter's ringtone: the song Macho Man! Everyone turns to stare at her blankly as she quickly grabs her phone and silences it, but it does serve to break the tension mounting in that moment. Josh is staring down as the doctor works, but it doesn't hit him what happened until he smells molasses and the heat of a summer day as the Summer Queen places her hand on his shoulder in sympathy.1) He then realizes that Abby is dead and there is a perfectly circular hole through her torso from where the Purveyor punched right through her! Josh shudders once and then goes numb as he slips into shock.
While Doctor Ranjip and the nine surviving Hessians remain outside to collect the dead, the others head inside the Troy household. Josh is placed on the couch and William sits down next to him as he does not know what to do right now. He also goes into shock as the memories of the Korean War continue to overwhelm him, while Leta puts Veltis's basket down by the couch and hoarsely croaks, "Ray! Blankets!" She points to the two Troys and young Ray scrambles to get more blankets. Leta then looks in the liquor cabinet, but finds it empty as the dead Swiss Guardsman drank the wine and she drank the only beer earlier.
She steps back into the living room and rasps, "Tim!" Two people call back, "Which one?" Leta curses under her breath but replies, "The one who makes the crazy booze! Someone should call for a pizza." Tim L'Ereux-Jäger comes over and snaps, "Demon-girl, stop talking. You're bleeding out of your neck!" Leta winces as she grabs her throat but still rasps, "Make drinks?" Tim shrugs and eyes the empty liquor cabinet before asking, "Where are the cleaning products?" Leta stares in shock and snaps, "Normal humans can't drink bleach!" Tim snorts as he starts gathering various liquids and Leta turns back to the other changelings. Collectively, the Molasses Court of Boston just shrugs, and King Sean allows, "We haven't died yet."
Tim comes back with a tray of several drinks and immediately hands one to Josh. He hands another one to William, one to Anita, one to Leta, and then walks around offering others the remaining glasses. Josh numbly drinks whatever is in front of him, and immediately passes out. Anita takes a careful sip and then feels the kick of the booze almost immediately! She cries out, "This kicks like a horse!" Tim retorts, "Yeah, that's why it's called a Horse's Ass! Well, that and because I just made it up."
Leta slugs down her drink and then gasps as her body starts to change! Her demonic heritage asserts itself as her fingernails turn into claws and she can feel the horns growing out of her head! However, this time the transformation goes even further, and her skin turns a ruddy red and then her mouth seals shut and vanishes! Leta panics for a split-second until teeth erupt from the wound in her throat and then grind up the goblin fruit! A long tongue lashes out to lick the dregs of alcohol still in the cup and she cries out in a voice that sounds like six voices, "Timothy!" Tim replies, "Leta!" she demands to know what was in the drink that turned her into this, but Tim shrugs and replies, "No idea. I eyeballed it." She threatens, "I will eat you up!" Tim snickers and replies, "Bad idea, do you have any idea what's flowing in my system? You'll drop into a coma for three hundred years!" Ray stares at Leta in horror while Tim suddenly brightens, pivots, and yells, "Mickey! I got something for you!"
William drinks carefully, but whatever Tim made tastes to him like boot wine from the Korean War. However, the effects kick in immediately and William finds himself totally calm! He watches as Leta's tongue lashes out sampling the air, and Anita yells, "Keep your neck-tongue to yourself!" as the tongue tries to slurp up Anita's drink! Leta giggles but then realizes for horns are twice their normal length and she has six fingers on each hand!
Tim offers drinks to the werewolf pack and Polly, but they all eye Leta and politely refuse. Anita yells, "Was anyone going to call for pizza?" Ray holds up his phone, but William says, "Give that to me and I'll do it." Anita stares at William in surprise, but then grabs Ray's phone and hands it to him out of morbid curiosity. William uses the phone to look the number for Domino's Pizza, and then calls and orders several large pizzas and cinnamon buns without a single issue! He ends the call after paying and hands the phone back to Anita. Now really surprised, Anita hands Ray's phone back to him and then frog-marches him into the kitchen.
Mick slugs down Tim's drink, and then starts giggling. He hugs the wall until he finds a relatively quiet spot, and then he slides down to the floor and falls asleep! Meanwhile, Leta rears back in surprise when her vision shifts entirely into the infrared spectrum! She mumbles, "This is really, really weird," as she notes that the five werewolves and Anita run much hotter than everyone else in the room! She then spots what appears to be a total absence of heat, almost a void, hovering near Anita and realizes that must be The Witch.
Anita sits down at the kitchen table and asks Ray honestly, "How are you doing with all of this? This is a lot!" Ray exclaims, "Great! I didn't pee myself! Well, I peed a little." Anita snorts but can't fault him for that; she tells him firmly, "When the pizza gets here, I will bring you some. You are to eat and then head upstairs to Josh's room to sleep. You need time to rest."
Doctor Ranjip comes into the kitchen from the outdoors and Anita sees immediately the air of resigned defeat. She intercepts him and he says flatly, "There's nothing I can do for Abby." One of the Hessian soldiers follows him in and wordlessly hands him a body bag. The doctor nods in gratitude and starts heading outside to collect Abby's corpse. Anita eyes the soldier and jokes, "Boy Scout?" The man retorts flatly, "Vet." Anita observes, "Not much difference. Were you able to get everyone?" The last part she says gently, but the Hessian still shudders and replies, "Yeah, except for Toby. We can't get to his…" and then he trails off.
Anita nods in sympathy and says quietly, "We'll do what we can to get it." The Hessian nods and heads back outside. Anita watches as they load up their dead and then she heads out to help Doctor Ranjip. To her horror, she sees the hole from when The Purveyor spiked poor Toby's head, and it is the exact shape of his profile like a cartoon! Anita gags but helps the doctor place Abby in the body bag. She then runs into the garage and grabs a scrap of pegboard to cover the hole. She helps Doctor Ranjip carry Abby into the Troy's basement. Lacking anything else to do, they leave the body bag open but turn out the lights and head upstairs.
The Domino's driver arrives, and William gets up to answer the door. Leta dives for the hallway to stay out of sight as William opens the door and signs the credit card slip for the food. He thanks the driver as he grabs everything and then he closes the door and brings the pizza into the kitchen. The allies descend on the food, although Doctor Ranjip only grabs a slice before sitting down next to Josh on the couch.
Cuthbert walks up to Leta and declares, "This is a problem. This new form is only aggravating your existing wound, and someone is going to need to have to sit with you for when this change wears off, so they can put another goblin fruit into your throat! Otherwise, you're going to bleed to death!" Leta shudders but realizes the ancient changeling is right.
While Ray finishes his pizza and heads to bed, Cuthbert examines Veltis. He tells Leta, "I'm very sorry, but I don't think I can help him. I'm not familiar with his physiology, but as far as I can tell his body is fine. This is an issue of severe mental trauma, and his mind has essentially shut down to protect him. I have a few things that might help, as for obvious reasons I do deal with mental trauma semi-regularly. But again, because of his different physiology, I am not confident that anything I have will work." Leta nods gratefully, and mentally adds Cuthbert's offer to the list.
Over the course of the next hour or so, the pizza vanishes into hungry mouths and then the changelings of the Molasses Court and the Hessians filter out, followed shortly thereafter by the werewolves. Polly makes a nest and moves Mick, so he'll be comfortable, and then she departs as well.
Doctor Ranjip remains by Leta's side until 1:00 o'clock in the morning, when Tim's drink wears off and her human physiology reasserts itself. Almost immediately she gags on the blood that starts spraying out of her torn throat, but Doctor Ranjip expertly shoves a fresh goblin fruit into the wound. He applies pressure to her throat, a sensation Leta does not enjoy but she realizes this is essential for her to survive. After a few moments she can feel the skin on her throat harden, and Doctor Ranjip removes his hand. He examines the wound and nods before telling her, "The goblin fruit has sealed your throat. I cannot stress this enough, but you cannot talk. You've exacerbated the wound, and I'm afraid any sort of vibration, such as your vocal cords, can rip it open again. Also, you need to drink water. A lot of water." Leta nods in understanding and thanks, and then Doctor Ranjip heads into the kitchen to get water for everyone.
Anita realizes that the risk of driving is too great right now, so she heads upstairs to claim Serena's old room to sleep. Doctor Ranjip returns with several tall glasses of water and immediately hands Leta one of them. He then hands William one of the glasses and tells him sternly, "As your PCP, drink this!" William replies, "OK," and complies without complaint or hesitation.
Before going to bed, Anita heads back outside to check on the wards, hoping something is salvageable. However, the wards are totally depleted. She checks her voicemail and finds one message from Peter. She listens to the message, which consist solely of Peter saying, "Damn!" before he hangs up. Anita snorts, glad someone is having a good evening, and then texts Peter, "Did you sleep at all?" A few moments later, she gets a text message from Gothi's phone that reads, "Still fucking!" Anita replies with a thumbs-up emoji and then heads up back inside.
As the hunters fall asleep, some of them dream. Leia once again dreams of Hell and sees the citadel. However, this time a giant, scaly hand erupts from the citadel and gives her a thumbs-up! Leta is not thrilled about that! Meanwhile, William has a strangely detailed dream of being in 1920s Chicago! He's hunting for some artifact, held by a local gangster. He ends up tracking the gangster down and gets punched in the face for his trouble! As he rears back with a black eye, William then whips up a Tommy gun and opens fire! Bullets riddle the now very dead gangster, and William grabs the suitcase containing the artifact. His dream ends moments after that.
Anita's alarm on her phone goes off at 8:00 AM, sounding like the howls of hellhounds! She button-mashes the alarm off and sits up in bed looking bedraggled. She eyes The Witch but is stunned when she suddenly can hear The Witch as her geist vocalizes her annoyance, and they both grumble at the same time. Anita changes quickly and then quietly slips outside.
As she gets into her car however, she can see every detail stand out with surprising clarity. She drives away but sees each snowflake as it falls to the ground! The Witch slithers into the front seat for the first time, and then she jabs the radio! Through their mutual surprise, the radio turns on! Although both Sin-Eater and geist are wondering what exactly the hell Anita drank last night, The Witch continues poking at the radio until she finds a thrash-metal station. Anita shrugs and continues driving.
She pulls up to the Montoya home at 8:45 in the morning, and heads inside. Before she even closes the front door, she can smell every ingredient of breakfast that Abuela is cooking and knows exactly how long it's been on the stove! She stumbles into the kitchen and Abuela's face hardens. She growls, "Granddaughter…" and Anita replies simply, "Gringos." Abuela snaps, "We need to talk about boundaries, granddaughter. I know you are bound to her now, but I never want to see her! Also, you have no white in your eyes! What the hell did you take?"
Anita stares in shock and then demands, "Wait, you can see her?" Abuela sternly points to The Witch and Anita mumbles, "What the hell did I drink?" The Witch responds with a rude gesture, and Anita snaps, "Stop flipping me off!" she heads upstairs and runs into Del in the hallway. Her sister looks at her strangely and demands, "What did you take last night?" Anita waves Del's question away but asks to borrow her sunglasses. Del shrugs as she heads into the bathroom, which Anita takes as tacit permission.
Anita heads into Del's room and grabs a pair of sunglasses from the top of a very messy desk. She then hears her little sister scream and then bolt out of the bathroom! Anita runs out in the hallway to see The Witch glide out of the bathroom and she yells, "Behave!" The Witch turns to her and retorts, "I haven't in four hundred years. I'm not going to start now!" She then turns back and yells down the hallway, "You didn't wash your hands!"
Anita descends the stairs grumpily as The Witch glides behind her. They enter the kitchen and Abuela glares with naked hostility at the geist. The Witch observes scathingly, "Your tits have sagged since I saw you last!" Anita roars in outrage and drags The Witch into the closet and shuts the door. She yells, "You can come out when you learn to behave!" but The Witch simply glides through the wall. Muttering profanity in both English and Spanish, Anita returns to the kitchen to grab some breakfast. The three Montoya women sit down and deliberately ignore The Witch as she starts a light switch rave in the kitchen. The Witch then glides behind Anita and starts flicking her head; Del stares at The Witch but announces to Anita, "I like seeing her torment you." Anita responds with a rude gesture but ignores The Witch for a few minutes until the geist glides away.
Once The Witch is out of sight, Abuela says emotionally, "I've hated her for fifty years. I never want to see her again." Realizing her grandmother's tone brooks no argument, Anita agrees. They finish breakfast but Anita frowns as she realizes The Witch has been very quiet, wherever she is. She checks the first floor of the house before heading upstairs; she checks her room but finds nothing. She pokes her head into Del's room and spots The Witch flipping through some of Dell's porn. She marches over and grabs the magazine as The Witch comment seriously, "Times and morals have definitely changed. Can men actually do that?" Anita looks down at the porn and grumbles, "Yes, if properly trained."
She then raises her voice and yells for her sister, but Del yells back from the first floor, "I don't have to listen to you! You should go open the botanica!" Anita roars, "Get up here now, because we don't want to have this conversation where our grandmother can hear!" Del grumbles she heads upstairs and enters the room; she immediately snatches the magazine away from Anita. Anita demands, "Why can't you go online like everyone else?" Del retorts, "I'm old-fashioned. And more importantly, the Wi-Fi here sucks." Anita groans as she's inwardly forced to concede that point but insists that they will talk about this when she gets home. Del retorts, "No, we will not," and the two siblings argue. Del says nastily, "What's the problem, do you want to borrow it? Want tips?"2) Anita stomps off and seethes all the way out to the car and the entire drive to the botanica!
William wakes up around 10:00 o'clock in the morning and laments the decadency of sleeping in so late. He heads to the bathroom but rears back in surprise when he realizes he has a black eye! He checks himself carefully but finds no other injuries. He heads downstairs to the kitchen but stops dead halfway down the stairs when he finds the suitcase from his dream just lying there! He eyes the empty suitcase that he definitely does not own, and then decides, "I am not dealing with this right now." He bypasses the suitcase and heads into the kitchen to start breakfast. He realizes that Ray is asleep in Josh's room, while Josh, Leta, and Mick are asleep in the living room. Josh is on the couch, while Mick and Leta are on the floor.
The Troy household is then rocked by a bloodcurdling scream from the basement! Josh bolts up from a dead sleep and lurches to his feet, stepping right on Leta's sternum in the process! Josh doesn't even notice as he races for the basement door, bypassing his grandfather completely. William shrugs and follows as they descend the stairs to see Abby sitting up in the body bag and hoarsely screaming as she rips the caul from her face!
Josh hesitates for a second to try to determine what she needs but leaves a clear path to the stairs for her. William descends the stairs and sees what's happening, so he turns around and heads back up to the kitchen to get water ready for tea or coffee. Josh grabs Abby tenderly as she starts screaming herself hoarse with wracking sobs. Unfortunately, Josh isn't sure if he's grabbing Abby, or Petite. Either way, Abby keeps repeating something in French, even as Josh gets her to her feet. He leads her into the living room and sits next to her on the couch as Leta heads over to intercept Ray, who just made it downstairs. Ray stares at the resurrected Abby in horror as Leta does her best to soothe him nonverbally. Mick sits up suddenly, but swiftly realizes what's happening.
Abby continues sobbing, but at this point Josh is fairly confident that this is 80% Abby, with 20% Petite. Ray creeps forward carefully, but says slowly, "'It crushed him.' That's what she's saying, over and over again." William comes in with a cup of coffee prepared how Abby likes it and reaches out to give it to Abby. She replies, "Merci," as she grabs the cup and slumps against Josh. Ray heads into the kitchen, before returning and announcing, "So, you're out of Pledge."
Josh asks his grandfather to get a couple of Abby's favorite books from his room. William heads upstairs, studiously ignoring the suitcase, and grabs one of Abby's books that Josh keeps a copy of. He returns downstairs to the living room and hands it to Abby, who snatches it and stares at it for a few moments before she cracks it open and starts to read. As William prepares breakfast, Abby calms down as she continues to read. William comes out with breakfast on plates, and as they eat Josh asks Leta if she could get stuff for Abby from their apartment. Leta grabs pen and paper again and writes down, "How? Abby drives the car!"
That brings Josh up short as he admits, "Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot you don't drive. Grandpa, can you bring Leta home so she can make Abby a bag?" William shrugs as Leta writes, "Ray? Should go home?" Ray shakes his head and announces, "I will stay here with Abby, while the rest of you go get Abby's stuff." Josh shakes his head and replies, "Thanks, but I'm not leaving her. I'm staying here with her." Leta writes and holds up to Ray, "Twue love," Ray mimics gagging but Josh ignores the reaction as he thinks aloud, "Actually, someone should check on his parents."
Ray frowns and admits he hasn't gotten any response from the texts he sent his parents, and Leta nods in agreement. Ray gives them his address - 23 Dryad's Green - his family lives in the nice section of Northampton right by Smith College. William is fine with driving by Ray's house, as it's not that far out of the way. He and Leta grab their jackets, but as William is reaching for the front door, the house phone rings. Wondering who's calling him on a Sunday morning, William turns around and answers the phone.
A male voice asks, "William Troy?" After William assents, the voice says, "Hi, this is Brian from the Northampton Firestone. I just wanted to let you know that your car is here now. There was… an accident." William is startled and probes for a few more details. Brian admits after a few moments, "From what I can gather, your car was up on the hydraulic lift to do the undercarriage work when Cliff Junior walked under it. Somehow, the hydraulic lift failed and… and Cliff Junior is dead."
William rocks back in surprise and murmurs his disbelief; Brian replies, "I know, Cliff Senior is meticulous with his equipment. I have no idea how that lift could have failed." He lowers his voice and adds, "We'll honor the original estimate, but it's going to take longer to work on your car due to… the additional damage. Of course, if you want to bring your car somewhere else, we will tow it there free of charge." William considers it for a moment but then says, "Thanks, but I'm fine with you guys having it." They end the call and William turns around and announces, "OK, let's go."
Although burning with curiosity, Leta realizes it's not worth it and grabs Veltis and his basket. They climb into Josh's Ford Explorer, and William enjoys a very quiet ride down Route 66 to New South Street. He agrees to watch Veltis as Leta runs inside the apartment. Leta quickly packs Abby an overnight bag, but it's a bit haphazard as she grabs some of Abby's books, her laptop, and her phone charger. She also packs herself a bag and then returns to the car.
William then turns around and turns left but this time he takes the fork for Route 9. He drives past Smith College and then turns left on Harrison Avenue. He slows down as they approach Ray's house; the large yellow house sits at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Dryad Way. A light snow continues to fall, and nothing looks disturbed, but they both note how things seem very quiet, especially since other people are out and about in their homes and yards. Leia eyes the open ground and reluctantly concludes that she can't sneak up to the house easily without being seen in broad daylight. William agrees and says, "There's nothing else we can feasibly do right now. Let's go back."
Anita gets to the botanica at 10:00 AM, intending to open for 11 o'clock. The Witch glides after her as she unlocks the front door and heads inside. They both stop short, as Anita can tell The Witch is immediately unsettled. She hisses, "No wards. No wards at all in here." Anita frowns and then shudders as she realizes The Witch is correct; the botanica had layers and layers of protective wards but all are gone now! Anita checks everything, and catches a whiff of old books, lozenges, and the musky scent of The Purveyor. She figures out that whatever Cuthbert did to enhance her wards at the Troy's tapped into the words that still remained here. When The Purveyor shredded the wards, the sympathetic backlash blew out everything down in Springfield! Anita trembles as she realizes exactly how powerful a True Fae is, as for the first time in ninety years the botanica is completely exposed.
Anita calls her grandmother, and Abuela answers, "What did you forget?" Anita replies flatly, "Be petty later. The wards at the botanica are completely gone." There is dead silence for a moment before Abuela replies, "We're on our way." Anita hangs up and waits nervously for about ten minutes until Abuela pulls up with Del in her car. They hustle into the botanica and Abuela closes her eyes and offers a short prayer when she realizes the wards are truly gone. Even Del looks shaken as she whispers, "What happened?" Anita quickly explains as best she can, and then Abuela takes charge. They start rebuilding the wards, piece by piece, and both Del and The Witch help out without a word of complaint.