After briefly conferring with both teams, Mab leaves the opposing team’s table with a pat to Matthew’s back. Oddly, she looks strangely scowly when she leaves them, however, and seems to have been offering a lot more affection towards Kai than her own cousin. Hmm, favouritism at play?

But eventually, she rejoins her desk at the centre, checking on her stopwatch. “The votes are in!” she calls out, “And your time is up. Proposing Speaker, step up!” She turns and beams expectantly Constance’s way.

Sophie glances down at her phone and blushes.

Kai gives a couple claps of support to Constance, nodding to both his teammates, then at Constance again firmly.

Malin fixes her blue-grey gaze upon Constance, daring her to try.

Constance steps up to the podium and slams her huge ham-like palms upon it, beginning with intensity. “We here on the Proposal team posit that Fatecrafted identities are as real and authentic as any other, because of three main important points,” she declares. “Fate-crafting is an act performed by those of great power to alter what we know of as reality. Our first point is that there is absolutely no way to prove that ALL of reality is not fate-crafted. Reality is what we are written into by these giants of occult power. You cannot prove that you, yourself, are not fate-crafted already. Just because it was not observed as an ‘alteration’ by others does not make your own perception inherently true. Therefore, since reality is inherently mutable, what is real and what is mutable is the same thing and everyone is as authentic as any other person.”

Constance raises her hand and puts up two fingers. “Secondly!”

Constance continues her argument. “Consider the existance of the Elseborn and the Dreamchildren. They are from other ‘worlds’ and nevertheless leak into our own. Are they not real? Can they not affect our reality? They are DEFINED by their ability to do so. If you posit that Fatecrafted individuals, born from the intense production of a God or a Fae, are not real or authentic, then they, born from the collective unconsciousness of mankind – who together can do what a God can do by Itself – are also not real, but you die just as hard if you get shot in the head by a wizard elf from Middle-Earth just as much as you do by a Templar.”

Matthew continues speaking with his team, for once not animated, deadly still and occasionally shooting looks in Mab’s direction.

Kai gives another firm nod of agreement after point two, his hazel eyes bright with excitement, a little grin on his lips.

Constance concludes, crossing her arms smugly, “Thirdly,” she pauses, brow furrowing as she tries to remember what she was going to say. “Thirdly, uh-”

Kai murmurs something softly to Constance.

Constance glances at Kai and then nods. “Right. Since nothing we aren’t directly perceiving can really be proven, historians are fate-crafters by themselves, like how we only believe some historical figures are gay because their enemies spread rumors about them and those are the rumors that survived. But because now everyone thinks that historical figure is gay, any Dreamchild based on them will end up coming into reality gay. So perception is reality, and even if it’s fake, it makes them authentic.”

Malin sits there, staring at Constance quietly.

Constance steps down from the podium.

Mab claps politely for Constance, grinning, and looks to the audience as she does so, encouraging them to do the same. “Thank you …” she calls out, “… Miss Speaker.” She totally doesn’t know her name. But she turns to the opposing team and gives Sophie the thumbs up. “Speaker Sophie, you’re up!”

Marlow applauds politely at the end of Constance’s speech.

Despite Sophie being on the other team, Kai gives her an encouraging few claps, about the same he gave to Constance, but then he points at her and drags his thumb across his neck, grinning at her broadly.

Mercedes’s eyes flit up and back down as she writes a note on the back of her hand.

Briefly, Mab appears to be consulting her phone for the votes, drawing up a tally on a sheet in front of her. Maybe also typing a sentence or two.

“Now I get to add a tie to the list of things you own to wear that I covet,” Aeryn tells Marlow with a tiny, purposely exhaled sigh. “The stilettos were the first.”

Sophie makes her way to the podium and gulps softly, giving Kai a slight squint, “The first claim asks us to accept that because we cannot prove reality isn’t fatecrafted, all identities must be equally authentic. But absence of proof is not proof itself – it’s a hollow excuse to ignore what truly makes us who we are. Authenticity is born in the fierce fire of choice and self-determination. It’s the spark that lights our unique path, something fatecrafting always tries to snuff out. Without it, identity is nothing more than an empty shell.”

Sophie adds with a soft tap on the podium, “The second point points to the Elseborn and Dreamchildren. Nobody denies them their space to exist, but on must argue that reality and impact alone do not create a soul. Authentic identity grows from the messy, beautiful journey of lived experience, from the scars and triumphs that shape us. No matter the power behind it, a fatecrafted identity is a story written for someone else, never truly owned.”

Kai speaks softly to his team, a confident little smirk directed Sophie’s way.

Sophie finishes with a glance around the room, “Much of this is new to me. But I do know that history is riddled with bias, with stories twisted and retold until fact and fiction blur. So, I ask you, do you want identity to be based on a borrowed story, shaped by unseen hands and collective whispers?” She steps down and heads back to her spot.

Kai gives a polite few claps for Sophie when she steps down, still encouraging despite the confident smirk he wears.

Mercedes nods to Kai, “Go ahead! The question lingering in my head, who decides authenticity?”

“Jesus can create a fish too wriggly for him to catch in that very moment,” Marlow argues for the sake of it. “He can then do a second miracle to allow himself to catch it. It isn’t a paradox to do sequential magic.”

Mercedes snorts a little laugh and then lowers her voice.

“Terrific,” Mab cheers, with another polite little clap for Sophie, before she gazes out to the audience. “We now move to the questioning round! Arguably with the least to say, but can be the most critical to turn the tide. Matthew will open with three questions for the proposing team, which any among them can then defend: but you must do so promptly, short and snippy, no more than two minutes per round to answer! Please keep your questions direct, or I may disqualify them.” She holds up the stopwatch app on her phone again, then turns to Matthew expectantly.

Malin stares at Mab in sheer horror, likely because she knows she is incapable of being succinct, even if she’s not involved in this part.

Aeryn glances at her cousin, awaiting the questions with a look of interest arching her brows upward.

Briefly, Mab squints back to the spectator seats behind her, specifically when she hears something about fish. The context must have eluded her.

Matthew makes his way over to the podium, addressing first the Constance, Kai, and Mercedes and then turning to the crowd, speaking there first. “You made three points. In the first it sounds like you are saying Reality is mutable, and everything is equally authentic. If I’m clear on what you said, this means that because reality might be fate-crafted any fate-crafted identity must be just as real as my own.” His thoughts on the matter are obvious, the subtle pull on his features, a clear and firm denial to the point before he continues speaking. “Now, if that’s the standard, that something might not be real and so we must treat everything as equally authentic, I’m left wondering what is actually defined as real. What separates a person from a play, or a dream from a memory. If authenticity can’t be measured by experience, continuity, or origin, then what it would rely on, belief?” Matthew shakes his head, no longer speaking to the observers when he turns to address Constance “If I can convince you I’m a seven hundred year old knight in disguise, does that make me one, and if I don’t believe my own story, does that strip me of authenticity under this framework?”

“Matthew, my darling,” Mab interrupts Matthew with a strained smile, “Your role is to question; it’s not your turn to rebutt.” Turning to the proposing team, she shakes her head. “You are not required to defend any of these points.”

Looking back to her cousin, Mab tells him, “I will allow the third question. Reword your first to into a more direct question format.”

Constance raises her hand towards Mab. “Which question do we answer there? ‘If that’s the standard?’ ‘What seperates a person from a play?’ ‘What does authenticity rely on?'”

“First two,” Mab probably said.

Constance lowers her hand.

“Of course he can, he’s a very powerful wizard,” Marlow tells Miles. “And that fish will remain too wriggly for him to ever catch, until he does another magical working to overwrite the first one,” Marlow says with seemingly no cognitive dissonance whatsoever. “All powerful means all powerful.”

Matthew offers up a thin smile, holding Mab’s gaze for more than a few heartbeats and then he leans forward to speak. “Elseborn and Dreamchildren were mentioned as proof for the authenticity of fatecrafted people under the argument that they affected the world, if authenticity is defined by how much impact something can have, would you argue a bomb is more real than a worm?”

Marlow lifts her brows, begrudgingly impressed by that latest question.

Matthew slinks back afterwards, taking his seat.

Mab can’t help but repeatedly look back at the spectators with an increasingly confused expression, every time she catches some fragment of discourse about fish. But she returns her gaze to Matthew when he rephrases his question. “I’ll allow that question,” she confirms, holding a thumb up, “alongside the third qualifying question from your first batch, you have one more you may ask.”

Kai lifts his brows a bit and nods to Mab, he seems ready to wait to address any question until the third is asked. He tilts his head a bit.

Constance asks Mab, “Do we answer one question at a time or do we wait for 3 questions?”

Matthew seems caught off by Mab’s allowance so he rises back up, returns to the stand and speaks. “It was said we perceive someone a certain way long enough and that makes them real in a form, but if a person knows deep down that their story was written onto them and isn’t theirs, are they required to believe it by this argument?”

“There are your three questions,” Mab turns with a wave of her hand towards Constance, “Any one of you may answer. I will time two minutes per answer.” She holds up her phone on the stopwatch app again.

Mab will not be using real time, but base this on how succinct the wording is.

Constance steps up. “I’ll answer that last one first. I have a friend who was tortured by the Last Vigil for a year – during a timeframe when, to observable occult measurements, the Last Vigil didn’t even exist. Does that make their trauma fake and their future actions inauthentic? I don’t think so. Because it was written to be something they’d do, nothing changes about the current reality we find ourselves in, and so it only makes sense to treat it as real.”

Kai steps up and clears his throat, “Hello!” he announces chipperly and replies to Matthew, point by point, his finger extended, “No, my dear man. It doesn’t make you one. It makes you a liar who has conned someone and is thus irrelevent to this debate,” second finger extends, “No, I would argue both are real. The bomb will kill you dead and the worm will ear your corpse all the same,” third finger, “Your question is based on an individual, for instance if we were to insert memories into a particular person and they later uncovered their ‘real’ memories. Both would impact how they behave and both would shape their being, their consciousness, their personality, et cetera.” he steps back down and shoots a grin and a wink to the crowd.

Kai murmurs with his team and looks to Mab, “Can my answer to the last question be stricken? I thought we each could respond to each question. My bad!”

Constance responds with a cute little “Aww, he thinks my answer is better.”

Sophie gives Kai a little grin and shake of her head.

Kai nods in agreement.

Turning to the spectators behind her, Mab beseeches them, “Please disregard Kai’s last answer. The final score will be adjusted for …” She pans her gaze to Matthew with a squint, and then to Kai. “… Errors.”

“Now!” Mab is all cheerful sunshine and rainbows again, lifting up her manicured hands. “Proposing team, present your Questioner! Remember, this is not a rebuttal round. Three direct, succinct questions.”

Nemi asks with a grin.

Kai steps back up and clears his throat once more, “Greetings! I Dreamchild and butcher them, then beat you to do death with their femur. Are you as dead as you would be if I beat you to death with the femur of a bum?” he asks, extending one finger, “You wake up one day and take your child to the school they’ve gone to for the last two years, as you approach the school, you’re stopped by the front desk who says the child doesn’t go there and that you are a childless janitor that works there. Is the child, flesh, blood, clothes, toys, snot-nosed and all, not real?” and extends a second finger, the third then goes, out as he asks his final question, “If fatecrafted things are not real,” he draws a knife and throws it directly toward a wall, where it bounces off and clatters loudly, “How did this building that didn’t exist two months ago just stop that knife?” he steps back.

Kai clears his throat, “I FIND a dreamchild and butcher them, pardon me!”

“Flawless questions,” Mab praises Kai, holding up all ten taloned fingers of her manicured hands, before turning to the opposing team with a smile. “Two minutes per answer: Opps, the floor is yours!”

Mercedes squints a little at her teammate’s question but then raises a curious brow and nods with a smile.

Getting off his motorbike, Jasper heads towards where the spectators are and finds an empty seat to sit down.

Matthew deliberates with his team before rising up and addressing the question. “I’ll go for the third. This look slike a demonstration that structure was brought into existence through magic, fatecrafting. A wall, matter. Not a person. You can’t equate architecture with consciousness. One can stop a knife, the other is supposed to live a life. And the problem isn’t whether fatecrafted can create things, it’s wehether it can create authentic people.” Matthew nods then and steps back to rejoin his team.

Malin seems content to let her teammates answer, amused as she watches them struggle.

Kai tilts his head just a bit at Matthew’s reaction, an unimpressed expression on the rebuttal he gives, a little triumphant grin on his lips.

Matthew stands back up after some deliberation again with his team. “To the first point. YOu can kill someone with a femur, sure. YOu can kill someone with a rock too. THat doesn’t mean the femur or the rock are people. Physical consequences doesn’t equal existential authenticity. A gun is real. It doesn’t mean it has a soul.”

Kai snorts when the word ‘soul’ comes out of Matthew’s mouth, his brows lift just a bit in a kind of ‘is that it?’ expression to the other man.

Sophie raises an eyebrow. Belief doesnt equal existence. Just because you remember a child doesnt mean they were ever real. If the records, the staff, and the world say otherwise, then its your perception being twisted, not reality. Fatecrafters dont make flesh-and-blood beings. They manipulate what you think is real. Thats the trick.

Matthew, in contrast to Kai, acknowledges the look with a small smile, tipping his head towards the other man.

Kai glances to his team and murmurs something to them.

Sophie raises an eyebrow, glancing at the other team, “Belief doesn’t equal existence. Just because you remember a child doesn’t mean they were ever real. If the records, the staff, and the world say otherwise, then it’s your perception being twisted, not reality. Fatecrafters don’t make flesh-and-blood beings. They manipulate what you think is real. Thats the trick.”

Kai straightens his head and lets his eyebrows fall back into place. The third question answered, he turns his gaze to Mab to see what’s next.

Sophie subtly sticks her tongue out at Kai.

Matthew confers with his team briefly before reclining back into his chair, relaxed and comfortable.

Malin sits there ever so quietly.

Another polite clap from Mab is given after Sophie closes her team’s answers. “We move now to our final round, the closing remarks,” she calls out, “throughout the course of this debate, we have heard interesting perspectives from both teams. Well done. Now, Prop Team, present your Closer. Once both teams have delivered their closing remarks, I will be taking votes again. The winning team will not necessarily be the one with the one with the most votes, but the one which has swayed the most to change their vote. Ready?” She flourishes an arm outwards, beaming for the team at the green-ribboned desk.

Kai glances to Mercedes and starts to press his lips together and push them out, then spreads them open like a guppy. He pulls them back in, then back out they go and he nods to Mab firmly.

Mercedes nods to Mab and then clears her throat before taking the stand. She beams at the spectators with a red-lipped smile, “I think therefore I am. Rene Decartes. I do not know what is real, but I know because I can think and feel that I am indeed real even if I cannot prove the world around me is. The truth of self is self-evident,” she puts a hand up to her clavicle, “Am I a nun? I tell you Im a nun, I dress like a nun and I do confession like a nun. You accept my credentials without hesitating. If you found out that I was in fact just a simple projection of some demons corruption, it would change everything you believe about me, but it would not change how any of you felt while around me prior. The foundation of our interactions has left an undeniable impression upon you,” she adjusts her mic and her eyes dart over to the opposing team, “But many people already question their own reality. This isnt to say there isnt an objective truth, simply that reality is often what we decided it to be. What is in fact authentic if we cannot prove it to one another?” She looks across the audience as she prepares to close, “Are you prepared at all times to prove that you are real? That your family is real? That your love is real? Are you prepared to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt? Do you have some kind of profound cosmic awarness? Congratulations! You can prove authenticity.”

Cadalie, part-time mother superior, sniffles parentally to Mercedes’s statement.

Kai waits until it seems Mercedes is finished with her closing statements and he gives a nod, stops fucking around with his mouth and grins instead and gives her a bit of applause, much like he gave to Constance and Sophie earlier.

Kai waits until it seems Mercedes is finished with her closing statements and he gives a nod, stops fucking around with his mouth and grins instead and gives her a bit of applause, much like he gave to Constance and Sophie earlier. [re]

Mab applauds Mercedes, and though she ought to be unbiased, she looks visibly moved and impressed by her choice of words. She then turns to the opposing team. “Malin, you’re up.” She casts a knowing smile her way, too, no doubt playing both sides here.

Mercedes blinks suddenly as her raises her head back up from a slight feint, “Apologies,” she clears her throat, “The air is thin up here apparently,” she then saunters off the podium and beams a smile at Mab and then Malin.

Constance squints. “Malin? I thought her name was Dobie.”

Accepting the correction without quibble, Mab confirms, “Dobie, you’re up.”

Constance stares at Kai and comments, in response to some whispered word, “Bisexual??”

So begins a dissertation, but Malin does a flash a smile at Constance after Mab calls her by two of her many names. “What a fab little Ted Talk thingy on perception and history,” Malin begins her closing argument to the room, flashing that smile produced by lightly filler enhanced lips as she rises to stand. “Yes, history is messy and stories get warped, and the only thing that is sometimes left standing is a rumor. However, when historians pass down a story, it tends to evolve over time, like a game of Telephone through culture and interpretation, so it isn’t usually a deliberate edit, but instead a tangle of human perception doing what it absolutely does best. Which is, of course, being messy and subjective.” A nod is given to Sophie.

Briefly, Malin pauses, but then her lightly Scandinavian affected voice continues with, “Fate crafting is not evolution. Historical claims are a social accident of sorts, just gossip that people believe. Fate crafting is a magical hijacking, where you go and make that famous person gay, even though he is totally only into vajayjays.” This woman clearly is not done. She likes to hear the sound of her own voice, it seems.

And so, Malin explains to all present, “Basically, Fate Crafting is a real life, control plus zee move for cowards, like that ‘undo’ thingy you do on the computer keyboard. The reality is, you cannot use a shortcut to create authenticity.” Narrowing her gaze, it surveys the spectators as if they are her jury. “Imagine, if you will, trying to make a souffle by putting it in the microwave. It’s just going to collapse, and it isn’t the real deal.” Slender hands begin to gesticulate wildly. “If you rewrite the past, don’t be surprised when you cannot recognise the present, and I’m not exactly saying that fate crafting is lazy, really… but it can have some really big, like, ‘can I copy your homework’ energy, you know?” There’s a visual check to see if anyone is following.

“I once had this sweater,” Malin sounds like she’s getting off track, but… “If you keep pulling at the threads, eventually your entire sweater is going to unravel, and I know this because I lost a very nice sweater that way once. The temptation to keep pulling was there, and so I pulled…” The woman briefly mourns her loss, but she’s still going…

“Anyway. Fatecrafting is like that. You’ve got that sweater, and maybe it is a bit itchy and in a colour you didn’t pick, but it is yours, as is every snag, loose thread, oh!” Malin exhales out that vowel sound. “And that wine stain from that regrettable party you attended, and so you start fate crafting it. Pull at those threads you don’t like with just a little tug, maybe a snip here and there. ‘Oh, let’s get rid of this memory, and this thing,’ blah blah blah. But sweaters don’t work like that, nor do people, nor does fate crafting. You pull out stitches and unravel the whole thing. Now the sleeves don’t fit right, the neck is stretched, and you’re eventually left with a pile of tangled up yarn…” A beat, and then her blue-grey eyes light up. “Oh, also it’s basically like Top Ramen, which is technically… technically food, but not really satisfying. It might keep you alive for a while, and it’s fast, and it’s easy–”

Now Malin looks like she’s going to throw in a joke, but she stops herself. “–but it certainly isn’t a meal to remember. We all know it isn’t the same thing as going to a Ramen place and getting the real deal, with the egg and everything. That’s the kind of meal that makes you whole.” Then she’s saying, “So, sure, fate crafting can feed you, but darlings, don’t you want to be full? Shortcuts are fine for your computer, where you click a link that provides quick access to a file, and you can certainly edit a story, but please don’t plagiarize authenticity.” It ends with a polite and respectful, “Thank you.”

Malin takes her seat again.

Matthew gives a whoop, equally impressed as he is appreciative for the closing remarks.

Cadalie’s patter of claps hang for a pause, as if there might be more words to come- even in spite of Malin taking a seat, then resume their irregular schedule.

Sophie applauds, letting out a loud whistle.

Constance petulantly remarks, “I fucking love Top Ramen.”

Mercedes smiles at Malin and gives her a clap of support as she holds her steady pleasant expression.

Though Mab had accepted Constance’s correction on Malin’s name, she then turns to cast her a slightly more perplexed squint when she hears the errant word, ‘bisexual’. She elects not to correct for that. Just as well, too, because the closing remarks for the opposing team — and the debate at large — are now being delivered, at length, and her focus turns solely that way … for probably a little more than two minutes. Hey, a time wasn’t given for this section.

When Malin thanks the crowd, Mab turns back around and smiles at the spectators too, encouraging them with a simple raise of her phone and the request, “When you are ready, recast your votes! Even if it’s stayed the same, recast to confirm. My number is 7100055.”

From where the spectators sit, Aeryn has a very proud look on her face as she gazes at Malin.

Malin has a very proud look on her own face, but when those blue eyes fall upon Aeryn, the expression softens and that shit eating grin evolves into something sweet and tender.

Peering down at her phone, Mab turns to look at Kai and publicly tells him, “You don’t get to vote on your own prize money.”

Constance snorts.

“Yes ma’am,” Kai grins a bit when he’s caught and glances off to the audience, waggling his brows at them.

Mercedes looks back at Mab with a smirk, “Apologies Miss Montrose. We were…” she darts a look at Constance, “Pranked it seems.”

A frown starts to crease Mab’s face as she marks the new tally on the sheets in front of her, which is quite the feat, because she looks like she’s had an awful lot of botox. “I’m going to pull up your numbers to confirm no one else is cheating, also,” she clarifies, “but I can already tell you this is a close race. Some of you have yet to recast, however!”

Constance frowns.

Mercedes pats Constance’s shoulder and smiles, “All in good sportsmanship! I believe in our arguments.”

“Miss President, I apologize, I instructed my team to cast their votes at the beginning and just now, I didn’t know we, as debaters, didn’t have a vote. It was an honest mistake,” Kai calls to Mab and bows his head, “Please forgive me ignorance!”

Matthew feel amused

Malin covers a good portion of her face with a palm.

Matthew hisses out a sharp breath that is most certainly a suppressed laugh. A moment after and he’s muffling a cough in his hand.

“We have had votes change from all sides of the debate,” Mab announces, straightening up to smile proudly at the debating teams, “even if some of those swayed votes were from the participants themselves.” She turns and gives Kai a pointed look. “I am still impressed. It’s no small matter to be forced to defend an argument you disagree with! Although those votes will, I’m afraid, be disqualified.” She studies her tallies, some of which have lines she’s had to scribble out to correct for disqualified votes. “The winning team …” she announces, with a dramatic pause for effect, “Is the House! Who had the most votes at the start as well, surprising even me …” She turns and curves her lips, tilting her head at the opposing team. “But, I fear, the opposing team could not sway enough. Well done, all the same!”

Constance helpfully comments, “I do actually believe in the opposite side, as a fatecrafted individual myself, that I’m fake, so I got put on the side I don’t believe?”, she snorts.

Constance responds, confusedly, “The House? Which side is the house??”

“It’s you, you’re now richer,” Mab turns to inform Constance.

Kai nods and looks to Constance and Mercedes, “So listen, seven hundred doesn’t really divide three ways so I’ll go ahead and just take the extra dollar. You guys don’t want change rattling around in your pockets, right?” he asks with a little grin.

Constance fistpumps.

Mercedes beams and jumps up with a little clap before side-eying Kai and smirking, “For the knife trick… I’ll allow it!”

Mercedes fistbumps Constance

Matthew leans to mutter something to Malin, motioning about the room with a finger.

Kai stands up and bows to the audience, then climbs down and walks over to the opposing team, “And give a hand for our competition! What worthy opponents they were!” he calls to the crowd and moves up to try to shake each Malin, Matthew and Sophie’s hand in turn.

Matthew offers up a distracted handshake to Kai

Sophie applauds for the other team, “Now, let’s wrangle the crowd and find out who dared vote what.”

Cadalie’s hands don’t stop movin, don’t stop groovin. They smack dully, clattering, as gauntlet hits glove and produces an obnoxious jangle like her fingers were a tiny metal army marching up the hill.

Malin shakes Kai’s hand in a very gentle manner.

Kai declares, as he collects handshakes, “And of course, a hand for our illustrious host!” he indicates Mab with his free hand, “Vice President Montrose!”

“It’s The People’s Boyfriend!” Malin calls out as Derek enters into the area.

Mab pulls out her cheque-book, yes, an honest to god cheque-book, because she’s a lot older than she looks, and writes out three cheques. When Kai draws praise her way, and demonstrates good sportsmanship to the opposing team, she beams at him, and his opponents, before raising her gaze towards Derek. “I fear you’ve just missed the conclusion of our debate! But everyone is welcome to mix and mingle for as long as they like.”

“Even though I was late, it was indeed an interesting topic,” Jasper comments from the spectators’ side, clapping his hands before he gives Derek an upnod. “Ayy, Derek. They just announced the results.”

Mercedes smiles and shakes hands with, Sophie, Matthew and then finally offers to Malin, “Your closing argument made me quite hungry,” she giggles, “Impressive.”

Kai comes to a stop by Sophie and sends off a text, he glances to Sophie and leans in to murmur to her.

Matthew continuse with the handshakes, Mercedes followed by Constance, whom he speaks to. “I never caught your name, what is it?”

Derek meanders casually into the spectator section before Malin announces his arrival, and he blinks once or twice with mild confusion. “…Yep.” he states softly, before his gaze drifts to Mab and he nods once or twice. “Unfortunately I was sort of tied up until now,” he states with a dip of his chin. “Midterms stuff,” he provides vaguely, his attention drifting to Kai with an upnod in response.

Mercedes returns to Matthew and smiles, “Sister Mercedes. Please call me Merci!”

Kai upnods Derek right back and lifts his hands to shoot a pair of finger guns at her.

Kai at him*

“You’re welcome,” Malin says to Mercedes, pairing a playful wink with her words as she gets up and heads over to Aeryn.

“Good to meet you,” Matthew says to Mercedes, providing his own, “Matthew.” Then he look sto Constance, “And her name?”

Sophie wanders over to Kai and gives him a congratulatory kiss, “Smart ass.”

Mercedes gestures to Constance for Matthew, “This is Sister Constance Lucida. But we call her Connie!”

Aeryn reaches a hand out to Malin when she joins nearby, and smiles. “I did sway to your team of course,” she says apologetically.

Nemi looks over to someone whom has passed out and curses softly. “Shit.”

Constance nods amenably as she’s introduced.

Nemi looks over to the passed out man and curses.

Sophie rubs her neck and nods, slipping her hand into Kai’s.

Malin puts her various IDs away and accepts the offered hand by Aeryn. She holds it gently, rubbing the pad of thumb across the back of the other woman’s hand.

Kai takes Sophie’s hand in his and gives a wave to the crowd, turning to head out of the museum.

Matthew trades names with someone and Constance and then starts to make his way towards the spectating group, but not before pausing at the podium where Mab stands. There he ducks his head low, and speaks.

Matthew trades names with the other team and then starts to make his way towards the spectating group, but not before pausing at the podium where Mab stands. There he ducks his head low, and speaks.

Malin winks playfully at Cadalie. “Either way, as long as you’re a fan — I’m totally good with it.”

A sweetened smile, hands cupped heartfelt, and Cadalie decides it’s time to take a stand for her own beliefs: leaving.

“H-well.. Dubby? Malin? Dubbya-Malin of the many provinces, I’ve got to attend to some folks. I’ve seen you around, so I do hope to keep doin’ so. Keep.. the trunk light?” She suggests with a froggish expression.

“Even though I’ve never really heard of fatecrafting before,” Jasper says, leaning back against his seat as the other people mingle. “It is unknown until experience happens.”

“Dobie Fairchild, or Malin Fairchild-Montrose-Havstrom, or Sir Spellbabe,” Malin offers to Cadalie in a very sweet tone. “I answer to them all. It was lovely to meet you. And I’d love to show you my trunk sometime. It’s very luxurious. Be well.”

Mercedes smiles over to Cadalie, “I hope I did the church proud today Sister!” she wipes the sweat from her brow, “I read everything I know about fate craft this very morning.”

What starts as a rigid and dark cloud of confrontation between Matthew and Mab – all that gloom from the former, not the latter – is stopped short, and in the span of a few words, visibly dispelled. The words exchange draws the taller, older looking Montrose’s eyes back over the spectators and Matthew leans in to speak a few more words.

Cadalie’Spellbabe’ breaks the face of the religious authority into a fit of a laughter, the inflection stuck in her voice as she tries to address Mercedes, “De-ahah… Sister Merci, you were-mhmhm.. You made me quite proud. Everythin’ is real and nothin’ is, depending on who sees it, even our own past. I… *ahem*, I wonder myself if you are an illusionist, for it felt as if I myself taught you.”

Malin simply beams as she holds Aeryn’s hand.

Matthew nods at Mab, reaching to rest a hand casually at her back. “I’ll walk with you,” he says in reply to her words.

Derek’s gaze drifts to the sleeping Harrington, and his brow raises. “…What happened with him?” he wonders idly to no one in particular.

“Oh, no,” Aeryn says in a very quiet voice as she glances at her phone.

Chara chuckles at the mention of spellbabe, staying in the spectator seats for the moment. Looking down at her phone.

Mercedes nods to Cadalie enthusiastically, “I like to think you did teach me in a way,” she giggles, “The truth is alway’s deeper than the surface suggests,” she says rather vaguely, “Malin’s trunk for example. Is it actually velvet lined? One has to pry deeper I think.”

Matthew makes his way over to Derek, wondering of the man, “How did you vote “Derek, what are your thoughts on this?”

After conferring a few words with her cousin in private, Mab ends up joining the spectator seats. For a moment, her expression looked almost human during that conversation, but as soon as she turns to the crowd, her face lights right back up to its usual, bright, impossible toxic positivity. “Hello everyone!” she greets them, eternal sunshine. “Mercy — I was really moved by your closing remarks, I have to say.”

“There may have been a small fish emergency,” Aeryn murmurs to Malin. “Tiny, really. You know, normal things fish do…”

Nemi happily sits next to the sleeping person as she heavily debates drawing a permanent marker face on them.

Cadalie stows her revolver, or perhaps it was never in her hands. It was indeed never depicted as such- but was there all along. Schroedinger’s gun safety, perhaps.

Matthew makes his way over to Derek, wondering of the man, “How did you vote, Derek, what are your thoughts on this?” [fix}

“Someone please explain to me what the fish talk was about,” Mab promptly asks the spectators.

“I got here after the votes,” Derek fills Matthew in casually with a wave of his hand, before adding, “I really missed most of the event, to be honest.”

Malin looks to Aeryn, and she widens those blue eyes some. “Do you want to go tell me about it before you have to go take care of your flowers?”

Matthew shakes his head at Derek. For shame! He then makes his way over to Chara. “Hey, neighbor, we still neighbors right?”

Mab says “The House won!“

Malin says “No, I lost…“

“Indeed.” Cadalie suppose of what riches or junks may dwell beyond the cavern of Malin’s trunk. “I will talk to you later, sweetie. I am quite sorry that I don’t often give you the attention I aught, but do be well.”

Matthew says “…. It was not. “

Mab says “It was not. I surprised even myself by not conferring nepotistic treatment. I was sorely tempted to.“

Malin says “But I made everyone hungry with the Ramen speech.“

Mercedes beams over to Mab with another enthusiastic nod, “Why thank you Miss Montrose! It’s so hard to tell sometimes when you’re up there being peered at by everyone.”

Nemi says “Well I may be able to make it to the meeting…“

Aeryn nods at Malin. “Yes,” she sighs. “I may need to repair a floor, or take Elise a drink.”

“Oh good. How did you enjoy the debate,” Matthew continues on, but he’s racing through to a more important question, “How’d you vote?”

Derek rolls his eyes at Matthew shaking his head at him, and he crosses his arms. “Not my fault I had midterms to study for,” he complains, sighing.

Nemi says “But I’m not going to go to the raid I’d land back in the hospital“

“I’m really surprised more people didn’t want to debate,” Mab notes, looking around at the spectators after exchanging bright smiles with Mercedes. “The format would’ve been the same, but everyone who didn’t roll a one or a six would’ve been a questioner, with one question each.”

Malin squints after Cadalie, arching her left eyebrow. “The attention I deserve? Does she want to purify me or something?” Her head shakes a little and then looks back at Aeryn, softly once again. “All right, let’s go then.”

Malin says “Thank you, Pax!“

“Someone’s purifying you?” Aeryn quirks a brow with interest. “That’s….hrm. Do you want to be pure?” Fingers still laced with Malin’s, she rises from her seat, giving a wave to the remaining crowd.

Chara stands up giving a wave to the remaining group as she departs

Looking down at her phone, Mab wonders aloud, “So who just texted me? I don’t recognise this number.” She peers around at the gathered, briefly settling her gaze on Jasper. “It’s nice to meet you, mister? …”

Mercedes nods to Mab, “Hmmm. I admit the subject matter was perhaps intimidating? I had to break it down for Kai just before we started actually but he picked it up quick,” she then smiles back at someone, “Always wonderful to see you Sister, pull me aside anytime! I am long due for confession myself.”

“I’m already the purest, most innocent little thing,” Malin stresses to Aeryn, nodding her head repeatedly as if that will cause those words to ring even truer. She also gives a wave, but is only look at Aeryn. “You didn’t hear Cadalie? I have no idea what kind of attention she wants to give me, but I guess I’ll find out.”

Mercedes nods to Mab, “Hmmm. I admit the subject matter was perhaps intimidating? I had to break it down for Kai just before we started actually, but he picked it up quick,” she snorts.

Nemi calls out. “Should I draw a funny marker face on Elliot!?”

“Yes.” Derek advises Nemi with a Cheshire-esque smirk.

Mercedes nods at Nemi, “Yes!”

Nemi says “Wait… No I can’t.“

“Well, you know, I thought it’s … topical,” Mab tells Mercedes with a smile, “but you did really well. I did consider having a debate where everyone was randomly assigned to defend the Temple, Hand or Order, regardless of their affiliations, but I was worried my bosses at the Hand wouldn’t find that as entertaining as I would.”

Nemi curses as she was so close to drawing on his face with it but stops herself. “He’d get mad.”

Matthew hums and then makes his way out towards the street, offering up a wave to the final people remaining.

Nemi says “Due to my current circumstances I can’t take the risk.“

Nemi says and sighs softly.

Derek lets out a puff of air from his nose. “Are you worried he’d do something?” he asks with dry amusement. “It’s just a marker to the face.” he muses.

“Derek, have you heard you’re dating me?” Mab informs someone with a perk of her brows.

“Derek, have you heard you’re dating me?” Mab informs Derek with a perk of her brows.

Nemi shudders softly in a clear sign of fear.

Nemi says “He would TOTALLY retaliate.“

Mercedes nods to Mab with a slight smirk, “Topical? Hmmm… Well it’s certainly on everyone’s mind now. I was actually wondering about the argument from the different factions. It would’ve been trickery to debate the morality of fate craft,” she smiles, “But thank you for the debate! That was certainly a fun mental exercise. It makes me consider my own background.”

“I am dating everyone, evidently. I am the People’s Boyfriend.” Derek informs Mab with a solemn nod, his gaze drifting to Nemi, his head tilting. “…Well, yeah, I guess. The ocean’s not so bad, though.” he decides with a casual shrug.

Mab cheers after Malin’s proclamation.

Nemi shakes her head. “You don’t know that! A fishing trip that happened recently turned into fighting giant jellyfish!”

Nemi says “The oceans filled with the most unknown possible horrors…“

“How can a giant jellyfish fight…? The regular ones don’t even have brains.” Derek speculates with a scratch of his cheek, squinting at Nemi. “I’m not scared of fish.” he decides with a scrunch of his nose.

Turning back to Derek, Mab clarifies with a grin, “I think it started when Buck Ransom was trying to get under both me and Malin’s skin. So he accused both of us, separately, of sleeping with you. It might’ve just been to see how we’d react, but well. We decided to react by very publicly confirming it, sorry champ.” Turning back to Mercedes, she admits to her, “It’s been topical on my mind, at least. A lot of the new arrivals have been talking as if this city hasn’t always been there, isn’t that strange?”

Mercedes snorts a laugh over at Derek as she gives him a look over, “What trickery have you pulled to have so many people fawning over you?”

Mercedes looks back up at Derek’s eyes and nods slowly, “I do indeed find it strange… Though I admit I haven’t had much time to form an opinion on it. It’s certainly more exciting than the monastery I came from, and I wished that place was real.”

Mercedes looks back up at Mab eyes and nods slowly, “I do indeed find it strange… Though I admit I haven’t had much time to form an opinion on it. It’s certainly more exciting than the monastery I came from, and I wished that place was real.” (fix!)

Nemi shrugs softly.

“No trickery, just being my handsome self.” Derek provides to Mercedes with a cheeky grin, stretching out lackadaisically. “And who could blame them?” he teases. His attention drifts back to Mab with curiosity on his expression, and he nods once. “So I heard; Mister Ransom mentioned it to a particular number of folks.” He hums, evidently contemplating Mab’s latter words and looking over to Mercedes for a beat, before looking down as if thinking on that.

Mercedes clears her throat, “I wish that monastery was *not* real,” she lets out a breath, “Debating has truly used up my brain power.”

“I guess he didn’t know you’re …” Mab starts to say to Derek with a grin, but then her phone buzzes. Looking down at it, she arches her brows. “Well, I suppose I better make sure I eat someone before this next meeting,” she states. It’s pretty late, but most of her colleagues evidently keep night shifts. “It was nice getting to talk to you a bit more. I’ll see you around, I’m sure!”

“I’m Jasper Meadows,” Jasper belatedly replies to Mab. “The real one, that is. Nice to meet you.”

“There’s a fake Jasper Meadows going around?” Mab asks Jasper, briefly against, before her face melts into another, fanged grin. She definitely looks hungry. “I hope I get to meet you and not him another time!”

A slight smile is provided by Derek to Mab, tilting his head at her initial statement before she takes a look at her phone, then nodding once or twice thereafter. “Always nice to be in touch, Ms. Montrose. A pleasure, as always.” He looks over to Jasper, a slight smirk curling at his lips. “I recall Miss Kane always mislabeling one with your name,” he muses.

Mercedes bows her head to Mab, “Always a pleasure in your presence Miss Montrose,” she adds, “Take care out there. Lot’s of necks in this neck of the woods.”

Nemi yawns as she sits in her chair.

Jasper nods his head with a low laugh. “I know some people thought I was Diego,” he replies before waving his hand. “One of them even thought I was caught by monsters.”

Mab smirks at Malin and Aeryn as she heads for her car, waggling her eyebrows unapologetically.