Tuesday, March 29th, 1066 SE
As a golem Mon does not need to sleep, but he still lays in his bed, pretending to sleep. Around five in the morning, he hears loud footsteps climbing the stairs, then making their way down to his room. The door barges open, and Mon pretends to be awakened by Herald who loudly enters the room in. The man looks very disheveled, and his cheeks and shirt collar are covered with lipstick prints. He crashes on top of his bed and instantly falls asleep. Mon waits a few minutes, then begins to whisper in Herald's ears. Soon, the actor begins talking in his sleep, dropping the name Lady Astral. Mon lays down again, and at six he gets up and heads down to the cafeteria.
Marigold wakes up to find Lena already readying herself for her job at the marketing department. Cheerful, she waves Marigold goodbye and heads out. The halfling gets up and starts her morning routine. In her room, Branna finds that Ola has already left, since she works in the kitchen. The elf gets dressed, then heads downstairs. Mon, Marigold and Branna meet on the third floor, and they make their way a few flights of stairs to the ground floor. Mon is the first to notice that the cafeteria sounds eerily quiet, as three residents quickly climb the stairs. Marigold then spots three of the Cardinal's men in the lobby, talking in whispers with the clerk at the front desk. Marigold and Branna make their way to the food line and get food. Mon takes a slower approach and swerves closer to the guards, so that he can overheard the conversation taking place between the guards and the clerk. Evidently, the Cardinal's men are looking for a dandy with blond hair and lipstick all over his face. That popinjay is wanted for shaming Lady Natalia Astral, the wife of Nikita Astral, a wealthy merchant and personal friend of Cardinal Feodore. The clerk does not know if such a person is in the building, but Mon sure does, as he's upstairs in his bedroom. Mon grabs a little food and joins his friends at the table in the corner. Branna greets Joseph, who is still working on clothes design in his notebook. He exchanges quiet pleasantries, but soon departs.
The hushed discussions taking place throughout the cafeteria are soon interrupted when Pavel enters the room. Cheers erupt as the master carpenter makes his way to the food line, dropping a kind word or shaking the hand of every person he meets. He soon finds himself sitting at the table in the corner. Pavel shovels food in his mouth as he talks, making conversation with the three friends. The Cardinal's men loudly threaten the clerk that they will return with reinforcements and they will search the building from top to bottom. Pavel soon mentions that Herald obviously might have had too much to drink, and he jokingly questions Mon on whether anyone should warn the actor that the morality policy is coming for him. With his food finished, Pavel departs for the theater, but not before "accidentally" knocking into one of the guards left at the door. Branna takes this occasion to visit the kitchen and greets Ola, her roommate.
As members of the Second Crew, Marigold, Branna and Mon assemble with the rest of the workers on the second stage. Yurchik, the theater manager, begins reviewing the arc of Masha and the Bear, the play scheduled to start in five weeks. In Act 1, the fair maiden Masha, played by Luba, finds herself in the forest with her friends collecting mushrooms when she was ambushed by a bear, played by Vadim, and brought back to its lair. In Act 2, Masha learns how to live with the bear and plots her escape. In Act 3, Masha convinces the bear to take pies she just baked to her parents, and hides herself in the basket instead. Once at the village, dogs scare the bear, and Masha is reunited with her parents and her friends, the final song closes the show. Yurchik then asks each department head to meet with their staff and come up with all necessary items and directions to make this production a success.
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| Luba, female star of the Second Crew |
As an extra, Mon is handed a script. He is assigned the part of Extra #7, and he is instructed to begin reading the script and return tomorrow for the first rough blocking session. Luba asks him if he would be interested in reading the script with her at her favorite coffee shop, the Warm Whistle, where the food is delicious and the drinks are refreshing. Mon soon realizes that Luba is a serious actress, as she spends the whole morning reading through her script and learning her lines. They eventually begin sharing lines with each other, and Mon's prodigious memory allows him to memorize the entire script after two readings.
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| Masha's Forest Outfit |
Oskana and her team of seamstresses discuss the clothing choices for all of the characters. Oskana offers Branna the opportunity to design Masha's outfits for Act 1 and Act 2. Branna soon produces two beautiful drawings of outfits, and begins to work on turning her vision into a reality.
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| Masha's Act 2 Outfit |
As prop master, Dusana solicits his team's ideas for the props that Masha will be using throughout the play. Marigold suggests a set of collapsible mushrooms that look like umbrella. She also proposes a collapsible pie with a smoke generator inside of it to generate the appearence of a warm pie just pulled out of the oven. Dusana is suitably impressed.
Working on the construction crew assembling the set for Masha and the Bear, Pavel takes frequent breaks, encourages everyone, and lends a hand where needed.
During dinner, Mon questions Marigold and Branna about Captain Lafoy. Marigold remembers hearing that Captain Lafoy once conducted a daring raid on a cathedral on the mainland, and stole a gold cross. She recalls that Cardinal Feodore was the man of faith in charge of that church at the time. Mon tells them what he overheard Herald say in his sleep, and that Lady Astral and Lafoy may have been an item once. Marigold speculates that this is why the Cardinal is now in Lady Astral's business.
During dinner that night, they are approached by Pavel, who sits at their table to chat before getting his own food and returning to his room. After some banter, Pavel asks them to meet an old friend of his, Captain Popov, down at the Anchor's Luck, on the waterfront, and deliver an envelope. First they are to play three hands of cards with him, and bet three coppers each time. They must lose all three hands on purpose, then give him the envelope. This is how Popov will know Pavel sent them, but it keeps this connection secret, in case anyone is watching.
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| Captain Popov |
Arriving at the Anchor's Luck, they are greeted by Ivan, the owner. Inquiries reveal that Captain Illich Popov sits at the table in the corner, closest to the fireplace. They find the old man there, playing cards with three other individuals who look just as old. They sit at the table, and join in the card game. Mon misunderstood Pavel's directions, and he manages not to communicate the secret message. Marigold reminds him of Pavel's specific instructions, and Mon plays another three rounds of cards, this time following the instructions to the letter.
Captain Popov is pleased to meet the young folks sent by his friend Pavel, and he shares several stories of his sea voyages and his fishing adventures, all more unbelievable than the last one. When Ivan announces that it is time to close up. Captain Popov hands each of his new friends a neatly pressed and dried oak leaf from a small booklet retrieved from his pocket. All three of them are aware that there are no oak trees on the island of Katarina. He thanks them, and they walk him back to his hovel apartment on the second floor of a building a block away from the tavern. The three of them then return to the Palace after a night well spent...
