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The Freehold maintains a Stable Trod which runs from Bethlehem in the Lehigh Valley down through Philadelphia to Cape May on the Jersey Shore. Each Court maintains a Hollow as well as a single old Hollow right off Independence Mall. There's a door that looks like it leads to the electric for a parking garage, and does, but if the correct knock is given - changed weekly by Winter - it opens to a homey little village in the Hedge. Small cottages, a small garden of extremely generic and tasteless Goblin Fruit which only restore glamour in their native state.
Spicy makes her way inside from Ironside and peeks around the various cottages, visiting and making herself a little more familiar with the surroundings. She's wearing a simple black t-shirt and jeans, carrying a large sports bag in one arm, a hoodie folded on the other arm. Dark veins of black ice, blue lips and tongue, teeth and nails made out of ice, her hair almost frozen solid and yet a soft, invigorating breeze follo in her steps, bringing the scent of fruit and flowers in her wake. The frosty Gargoyle takes a seat, watching the whole area, enjoying the small moment of quiet.
Adela has been relaxing in the Hollow for a a bit, snacking on one of the native goblin fruits, mostly to have something to do. It's nice, being able to relax, away from the Ironside concerns of rent and bills, but still feel at least somewhat safe from, well, the rest of the Hedge. The flashes of her inner light reflect her relaxation, flickering only slowly and dimly, even as her hair moves slightly in a nonexistent (to anyone else) breeze. She looks up as Spicy enters and smiles, recognizing the other woman. "Hey there," she says,
Spicy raises her hand in greeting, making her way closer to the familiar Lost. "Hi, how're you?" the ogress' voice is low, raspy. She looks at the goblin fruit being eaten, trying to make sense of its possible taste in one look.
"Not too bad," Adela admits with a graceful shrug. "Nothing worth complaining about at least." She sees the other woman eyeing the fruit she's eating and shakes her head slightly. "No real flavor these. Good for the Glamour, and a bit of moisture. Probably nothing you'd be interested in"
"The ones I grow at home are starting to feel like..." Spicy tries to find a way to explain it. "You know when you go past an old place you lived in and it feels weird, because it looks so bad now ?" she shrugs "That's what they remind me of." she kicks her bag "I wanted to share one with you, but huh, I panicked and gave the jam I made to the Winter Regent."
"Probably a better use for it." Her inner light starts to flicker a bit more rapidly as she ducks her head in embarrassment. "Not that don't love your jam, I promise!" She shakes her head slightly. "Can't really emphasis on the house thing. I've mostly lived in apartments, in areas where the landlords try to maintain the same level of exterior repair. Property values, after all."
"Yeah the home I got is ... not in a good shape and I'm pretty sure I'm getting some letters about it soon." She grumps momentarily and follows it with a chuckles. "Careful, I might bring a jar next time I see you and watch you eat it to make sure you like it."
"Hopefully with something to put it on!" Adela says, with an expression of mock horror, which is quickly melts into a short laugh. "So are you thinking you're in a cooking slump and just need to change up what you're doing with what you've got, or are you hunting something new"
"Nah, I work in a soup kitchen with a buddy and keep a few jobs left and right filling in for other chefs. I'm good, I think." She shrugs "But I wouldn't say not to exploring new flavors. I remember there was a pepper I tasted once with Liane that was pretty mean tasting."
"A Hedge pepper?" That could be literally mean tasting. Which, she had to admit would be an interesting experience. "The area I usually get mine doesn't have anything really new at the moment, but if you ever wanted to go exploring for some new stuff, I wouldn't say no."
"Good, I can even keep us safe." Spicy's foot bumps, not-so-coincidentally, with her sports bag, making a slight metallic sound there. "Is there anyone else you'd suggest come along?"
"I am not that bad at keeping myself safe" Adela says, her tone mild. She might not look like a fighter, but... well, she hardly looks weak either. "I don't know anyone off hand, but if we want to make an expedition of it, we could put word around"
Spicy nods "I'm curious how I'd go about to do that." A heavy shrug. "I don't know all the details of how to contact people in general or who to talk to."
"I'd assume we could leave a note here," she gestures around to the Hollow at large. "Or I do know a few folk who're better connected than me." She pauses, thinking for a brief moment. "Among our sort of folk. I'm plenty connected Ironside."
"Ironside means the normal world, right?" Spicy asks. "I suppose we could drop a little note, but is there some kind of board for it? I don' think a post-it note's going to be found in this whole village."
"I'm not sure I like calling it normal. That implies that we... aren't." She frowns slightly. "And I don't like thinking I'm not normal. Maybe not normal like some people, but I'm normal for... what I've been through, y'know?" She shakes her head slightly as she gets to her feet. "But no, there's a message board over here. We'd just need to figure details"
"I'll watch my language for that, sorry." Spicy apologize quick and nod. Heading to the message boards. "Maybe we'd get people if I promise to cook a meal afterward with it? New culinary experiences and stuff?"
Adela shrugs and shakes her head slightly - both accepting Spicy's apology and implying it's not that big a deal. "Free food almost always entices people. Adventure and free food will probably be irresistible to at least a few folk. The question would be when. And do you have anything to make a note with?"
"Hmmm, one second." Spicy turns around and goes to grab something from within her sports bag, coming back with a note pad full of various grocery notes. "That's something could decide would fit for the two of us and then get people based on our availability?"
"Well, I teach classes most afternoons into the evenings. But after about 8 or so I'm usually free right now. Or Sundays. What's your schedule like?"
"I could probably scrapes a Sunday off easily." Spicy tilt her head to the side. "Erratic and I never know when things are going to come up, except if I make time for a specific day, so if we set it up for next Sunday, I should be good."
Adela nods with understanding. "That makes sense. So, say Sunday afternoon?"
Spicy smiles and gives a thumbs up to Adela "So, who writes the message?" She sways the pen and paper between Adela and herself, letting the Winter courtier pick her choice there.
"I can do it," Adela says, accepting pen and paper. "Since it was my idea. And I can give my business phone number if people have questions" There might be a lot of downsides to owning her own studio, but the fact that it gave her a good non-personal phone number she could give out at times like this was not one of them.
"Right, you do dance and stuff, right?" Spicy asks, a warm touch to her low raspy tone. She grins. "Might need to learn a thing or two there, I got two left feet."
That draws a laugh from Adela. "I'm thinking I might have to start a class just for us folk. Seems to be a lot of interest, and it'd probably be safer to make it a special class. But I do already have an evening class once a week for people who just want to dance for fitness and such." She smiles slightly. "It is a good workout if nothing else"
"That might be possible, Maybe 'll show up sometimes soon." Spicy watches the message board, trying to see what else is written on there.
Adela digs in her pocket for a moment before producing her business card case and handing Spicy a card. "The website has the class schedule, but if you've got questions feel free to email or call." She slides the case back into her pocket and then tacks their announcement up onto the board in a mostly empty spot. "So what sort of new flavors are you going to be looking for when we go hunting?"
"I'm hoping for maybe some healing versions of goblinfruit, but something a little meaner would be fun, just to try doing something way different for it. Those peppers I ate once or maybe something new entirely." she considers carefully.
Adela nods, also thinking. She's not as experienced a Hedge explorer as some, but intent is important if you're going to be digging around in there. "Healing's always good." she says after a moment. Then she gives a half smile. "Then again, something new might help you find uses for your normal stuff too."
"What kind of flavor do you like the most, for Goblin fruit?" She asks curiously as she keeps considering the possibilities.
"I'll admit I get a little weirded out when Goblin fruit doesn't taste like... y'know, fruit" she says, looking thoughtful. "I suppose veggies are okay, but the moment they start tasting like meat or bread or something I'm out."
"I think I heard of an apple that makes you lie." Spicy looks over the board once more before leaning against any nearby vertical surface. "Flavor and glamour is always a weird thing."
Adela doesn't quite roll her eyes, but the expression is similar. "Yea glamour makes everything weird. The apples are delicious though, if you can manage the side effects"
"I suppose if you don't plan on going out or signing important contract or getting a glamoured promised..." She shrug her shoulders. "That might be an entertaining experience."
"Honestly, managing downsides is pretty much order of the day for anything with 'goblin' in the name. Eat one and then go Ironside and out to like a club or something."
"Yeah I picked up a Goblin contract, which is a pretty entertaining concept to entertain, until you realize you don't know when the debt it going to be claimed." Spicy grins "Which I suppose makes it part of the charm."
“I suppose so. That’s exactly why I’ve stayed away from those though. I’ve got enough mundane debt. I don’t need to be accruing it here too”
"Yeah kinda wish I could do that, I came out way too far from my normal life and the other weird thing in my place is doing a killer job with my life so." She shrugs. "Had to do a bit of a start over here."
Adela grimaces in sympathy. “Fair. I got... lucky seems like a bad word for it. I didn’t land on my feet by any stretch of the imagination. But I didn’t want anything to do with all this at first so...” her words trail off.
"Yeah I was going to go that route, but Liane kind of got me to stay around for a bit after she found me." Spicy explains. "Helped me find my way around the Hedge mostly, which is useful, since i'm not as scared of it as I used to."
"I got dropped back in New York, and I... didn't get along with a lot of the community there. And I thought I could just ignore what had happened. But that wasn't a possibility, and they weren't," she pauses, chewing her lip as she tries to find the right words. "They had ideas about what I should do that I didn't agree with, so I left and came here. I'm still getting used to things. But I'm not out of time or anything."
"Yeah if there's any weird time stuff with mine, I didn't notice any after returning." Spicy shivers and wraps her arms around herself, as if sort of freezing. "I'm pretty new too, by the way, it hasn't been long since I returned."
"There was some for me, but it was like, a couple years difference, not decades." She shrugs. "It doesn't feel like long for me, but it's been a little over a year."
"I think like, maybe a month and a half? maybe two?" Spicy tilt her head to the side, trying to remember the dates. "I don't really know exactly, I spent a lot of the first few days in the hedge or huddled somewhere warm."
"Oh gods, I know that feeling!" Adela says, with a sort of rush. "And I landed back in New York in winter so..." she shudders. It's not entirely feigned. "I had a few days where I wasn't entirely sure I'd actually escaped."
Spicy grows quiet for a moment, as her gaze roam down to her ice-wrought nails and the veins of black ice over the snow-sparkling skin. The implication of Adela's words hits a little hard. "Can we change topic this is... getting uncomfortable." she almost mumble the request, dipping her head a little, embarassed for a moment.
Adela shivers, her gaze distant. "Yea that's... probably a good idea. So... um..." she seems to flounder for words for a moment. "So what exactly do you do? You said you work at a soup kitchen, but do you work elsewhere as well?
Spicy is really eager to switch the topic there and she seems flustered about it. "Yeah I cook at other restaurants, when they cook don't come in or if they get sick, basically just on calls for the moment. I really like cooking, it's warm and nice and makes people happy."
Adela's smile is slightly strained, but it's there. "That's really nice. I do some cooking, because it's easier to control exactly what's in what I eat, which, well," she gestures at herself. "Dancer. I won't say I'm super great though."
"The other chef at the soup kitchen is super nice." She smiles. "Helped me get settled with other jobs. Says I'm pretty good in a kitchen" she seems to relax a little bit, speaking about the guy.
"That's always go. It's good to make connections. On both sides of the Hedge." She smiles encouragingly. "Helps you keep steady"
"If you want some help with meal prep, I could do that, or show you." Spicy offers, hastily. She stuff her hands into her pockets "I was told it'd be important yeah"
"I think I'd like that some time!" she smiles without any edge. "Just because I can cook doesn't mean I always want to. I'm terrible at planning stuff like that. I've always been one of those 'eat to live, not live to eat' types. I have to set alarms on my phone some days to remind me" She ducks her head a bit in embarrassment.
"There is pleasure to be found in eating, I know I find a lot of it in there." Spicy explains. "Maybe I can help you find something fun in there? Who knows!"
"I know food can be good, it's just not really a priority in my life," she says almost apologetically. "I was very focused... before. And even now it's easy to focus on other things." She flashes a smile. "But I am willing to experiment"
"We can definitely do that, just let me know when's good for you to start." Spicy grins. "We'll need a little bit of time to do groceries beforehand to, it's part of the whole idea."
"Well, we're busy this weekend" she says with a smirk. "But maybe sometime this week? I usually just pick up groceries when I need them."
"You have a phone you said? Hit me up next time you're up for groceries and we'll run through the details then." Spicy pulls her phone out of her pockets, neon pink phonecase and all.
Adela pulls her phone out as well, though hers is in a exceedingly practical otterbox case, though there is a sparkly blue popsocket on the back. "Okay, let's trade numbers"
Spicy of course, offer hers. "Call me if you need help or anything, I'm always happy to help with something."
"Sure. And seriously, stop by for a class some time. I can't guarantee I'll turn you into a dancer but I can probably fix the two left feet thing"
"With some luck, I won't knock myself out either." A gentle smile, entering the Winter courtier's number as well
"I think we can avoid that too."
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