"Thank you Gremian." Praise from any Fae folk was always appreciated. "Perhaps you set the right example of trying to adjust. It will take time. The flip from breaking to making could not have been easy for you."

He laughed, shook his head at Amara's description of men enjoying looking at her. "Amara, I think you'll find that men and women both keep their eyes on you when they can. But you can't just rip up pictures like you could have if you posed for a painting. They fly from person to person through their phones. There's nothing to stop it."

Some older people arrive and one of them does multiple things to offend all in one brief sentence. Race before name, trying to fit him onto a card to be cataloged. He gave the man a sly look. "I have been a a harper and a harp, the bow, the arrow, the string upon the bow. Sometimes I take the lead and others I am merely the accompanyment. I am and have been many things. You can call me Johnny."

"And as I just told these fine folk, said briefly, I am in need of modern living aid. And I am willing to work in trade for such help. Perhaps the Library has a music section?"

"We don't really have much music here," Dennis says.  "Though.. there are plenty of opportunities for Fey in the music world here and we do have connections.  The first question is, to want to be in the hidden in plain sight, or in the shadows?"

There are, as he explains, two ways of doing things.  Humans are notoriously insistent on things like Documentation and Records and other things Fey find terribly constraining, almost imprisoning. What's worse, Documents all seem to rely on Older Documents, and Fey don't come into the world with Birth Certificates, nor do they arrive with Immigration Papers.

So when Dennis refers to being In Plain Sight... he means, with forged documents.

"They make such a deal over Birth Certificates, but the truth is, in any bureacracy as big as this city's, there are always people willing to break a rule for the right reward.  I wouldn't know of such, of course.. but I know of a few who do, and they can make proper arrangements, and soon you'll be an officially documented Human, with all the papers to prove it.  Of course they will be wanting something in return."

The other option is to stay "in the shadows", work for cash, have no official record.  Or don't worry about cash at all- "borrow" what you need to survive.

"There are Fey who prefer each solution options," Dennis explains.  "The Goblins who work in Sanitation, of course, they have their papers.  So does Breeze, the Sylph.  On the other end of the scale... well, it's mostly the Small Folk who get by on what they scrounge.  There was a Nature Fairy here the other day who can fit into doll clothes.  Very convenient, and I'm sure there are a few little girls in the city who are missing doll clothes and wonder why no one believes them when they say Fairies Took It."

"You need papers?" Karl asks, stunned.

All three Nisse look at each other.  Rolf slaps his head.  "THAT would explain why we were never allowed to open our Confectionery and Bakery!  Humans want Papers!"

"I've been living off the books for quite a long time on my own." He shrugged. "That has become too challenging. I believe my best chance is to come close to going legit. Even the underground music movement still expects people to have names that can be looked up, cell phones that can be contacted, and a whole world of other things."

"So I'll need enough to get by but don't worry, favors for favors? Feels like I've been doing that my whole life."

Amara looks at Johny "I am sure we can help you figure something out. If you want to be official, I am sure I can charm a person for all the papers you would need and then find a job. And yes, I know men and woman find me attractive and I know how to use it" she smiles

"Well if that's how you'll do it, you're in the right city," Dennis says.  "The city's current government takes great pride in being immigrant friendly, and immigrants don't always have full documentation.  Perhaps a little smile.. and a bit of magic... will get a clerk at the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue you a license, and after that, you're pretty much set.  If you want to go all in, of course, best to talk to the Goblins and their contacts, they can manage the whole deal, birth certificate and all.  Amhara's help, on the other hand, might be cheaper."

"I talked to a Goblin once," Rolf says.  "They're all about getting paid.  Definitely will cost you, if you asks a favor from them.  But... while we're talking papers... Amhara... do you think you could help us get the bakery approved?"

"We'd like to be legit, too," Arna says.

"Sounds like we have about as many choices here as you do at a crossroads. Any one of them could lead someplace interesting."

He gave the tall women a considering look. "Might just be easier if we traded favors instead of involving yet another party. But those crossroads deals always have unintended prices."

A bakery run by fair folk? Nothing could go wrong with that. "Seems like you might be quite busy soon Amara. Were you getting bored?"

"Well Johnny, we need to trade favors as they can make the papers that will pass scrutiny. I probably could make a copy but if they checked it, it would just raise more questions. So we need to do that if you want to live more out in the open. But if you want to stay in the shadows, you avoid that but you really do need to stay out of sight. I like being able to move around and be in the public, I would recommend that"

Rolf begins jumping up and down.  It is impressive:  on a good jump, the top of his pointy red hat gets to about shoulder height, for Johnny and Amara.

"Don't you see, this is it!" he says.  "We don't have to be CHRISTMAS Elves!  Not if we have OFFICIAL PAPERS saying we are BAKERS!"

Arna nods.  "It's all very confusing, but yes, I think it works like that.  Nothing is stronger than the power of belief, and a stamped certificate from the city, that's something everyone believes in."

Dennis nods.  "It's true, in the Human world, millions of people are what they are, and they know what they are, and everyone else knows it, because they have a piece of paper that says so."

"And they say Faerie Magic is hard to understand," Arna says.  "We need these papers.  Please take us with you and Johnny?"

"Wait what?!? You were willing to endanger the city for something you didn't want to be? Anyway, I don't think I can help much with this Paper Quest, I only got a", Gremian fished for his card in one of his jacket inner pockets, "an identification card. At least, it was enough for an officer to not bring me to the brig one time." He put his id away, in a different pocket. "Maybe I could help with something else?

Julian finally arrived at the Library himself, having braved traffic to get home to rest and return with his customary cup of coffee in hand. He came bursting into the room with his usual nervous energy, glancing about those gathered while offering a sheepish grin.

"My apologies for being late...traffic was murder today. I brought a peace offering though..."

The researcher unshouldered his pack to withdraw a box which he then set on the table. Opening it with a flourish, he moved aside to allow anyone who wished to partake, "Donut, anyone?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:36, Fri 12 Aug 2016.

Amara looks at the Nissi "You have to look human to get papers. You can't exactly pass for a human person, can you" she takes one of Julian's donut "Glad you could make it"

"You don't understand," Rolf tells Gremian.  "It's not us.  There's magic out there that makes us.. us.  The way it makes you you.  Small folk like us, magic shapes us.  That's why... none of your kind, back in the old books.  You're new.  Us, we've been around a long time.  Maybe we could have become like you, but when we got here, the power of the belief here, and it's a real power, very strong.. it decided we are Christmas Elves."

"Open any Christmas book and look at the Christmas Elves and it's us," Arna says.  "Pointy hats and all.  We don't want it, we don't want jingle bells on the ends of our hats.  But the magic... it's so strong.  We wanted to make cookies and candy."

Arna picks up one of the donuts.  She needs both hands, the donut, in scale to Arna, is more like a very large Bundt Cake.  "People like this," she says.  "We could do this.  But nothing is stronger than the magic of Christmas in New York.  And so we had to go with it, because when it calls you can't fight it, unless you really can."

"Except maybe Official Papers," Karl says.  "Could be our only hope, or we'll be Christmas Elves forever."

Dennis tries to follow along.  He's worked with a lot of Fey- things like "you can't fight it unless you really can" usually make sense once you delve into the Fey logic, which often runs sideways compared to Human thinking.

"Now, your appearance," he says, seizing Amara's train of thought.  "The Veil can hide you, will hide you, but.. you have to let it.   Do it once or twice, and after that, it's instinctive."

Then he realizes something.  He turns to Amara.  "You.. you see through it as if it wasn't there, don't you?  You've never seen the illusions the Veil hides you with?  You don't know what your friends look like, to mortal eyes?"

In reply to Amara Tahan (msg # 30):

"The problem with dwelling in the shadows is that those shadows grow shorter every day it seems." Johnny said it with some sadness. "It would be easier to stay in out of the light in out of the way countries but I have come to like it these lands. I've tramped all over them and I'm not so willing to yield them up."

A man came in bearing sweet treats like he belonged here exactly. No one reacted badly to the normal mortal and truth be told, there were plenty of them in the library. "Names first then maybe food. I'm Johnny." He offered the slim man a handshake. "Amara and company have been helping me through some of the issues of modern living, although it sounds like that was already on the playlist for these now-Christmas Elves. Makes me wonder what you and yours looked like before the Santa myth grabbed a hold of you so hard."

"Back to you Amara, I have no problem in playing the favor trading game. It is time honored is it not?"

"For you currently Christmas elves though, you could play a long game to get out of this shape and into something else. It would not fix your current state. But new songs and new tales, perhaps couched as bringing back an even older story, done properly, done popularly.." He trailed off for a moment. He was enjoying the notion. "It would take some time and some good fortune, if making hit songs and stories was easy everyone would do it. But new songs can reach literally millions quite quickly due to mortal technology. You could go from Christmas Elves to Tolkien Elves - eventually - by manipulating belief."

"We've always looked like this," Arna says.

Dennis interjects:  "Bearing in mind the Fey concept of 'always', of course," he says.

"I think the Santa stole our look, not the other way around," Karl says.  "What's a Token Elf?  Do they bake?"

Dennis shakes his head.  "Well, we have some work to do, then.  The lot of you should do the rounds of the city offices, get the paper work in order, one way or another. "

"But the Fiddler's right," Rolf says, referring to Johnny.  "A song.  Songs have power.  Maybe you can sing us into bakers!"

"Now if we had the Troll with the Staff," Arna muses.  The other Nisse look at her.

"That's right," Rolf says, suddenly mindful of an oversight.   "There is a lot of pent up power in that.  I hope he knows what he has.  A shame for us to do all that work, if he's only going to take it back to Norway."

"Lot's to do, then," Dennis says.  "There's your problems, and we have a few more new faces showing up today, according to the receptionist.  Somehow I suspect Johnny's mere lack of official paperwork is going to be the easy problem."

Amar looks at the Nissi "Well, you just have to adjust your plan, I have had to do that a lot in my life, is it just a thing that happens. So if the viel protects you, we can see about opening up a magical shop of sweets for you maybe."

She looks at Dennis "Well, if I concentrate, I can see what the fay look like but normally I don't bother. I have been doing this for over 2 thousand years. Thought I was not free for most of that though."

She looks at Johnny "I am still willing to help you figure out what you want but it is up to you if you want to stay in the shadows or not. and your right, it is becoming so much harder.

"Oh donuts!, thank" said Gremian as he pick one. He put all of it in his large month and could only nod and frown at the Nisse's response. He wanted to respond that he probably chose to became a Gremlian, but he didn't want to talk with his month full, and before he finished, the subject had changed to Paper, Troll's staff and Veil. He looked around. "Should we go after the Prince to make sure that he handle the extra power correctly?"

"What about our papers?"  Karl asks.

"You go with Gremian to check the Troll," Rolk says.  "Arna and I will..."

"Rolf, you're sending Karl.  Unsupervised."  Arna, the one female Nisse, points out as a matter of duty.

"You're right.  You go with him.  I'll go to wherever we go to get our papers."

"As I asked Johnny, legitimate or not?" Dennis asks.

"Does it matter?" the head Nisse replies.  He turns to Amara.  "Let's go get some papers!  Whatever works!"

** ** ** ** **

And meanwhile, the library's receptionist was speaking to the new arrivals.  The reception desk is in the public part of the Morgan Library, but the receptionist has been doing this a while.

"You'll want to speak to the others in Private Research Section," she says, giving directions to a door in the very back of the oldest part of the library.

Amara looks at the Nisse "OK, we can do that but I need to make some calls first."

Julian quirked a brow at the mention of papers, mouthing the word silently before taking a donut for himself. He took a few bites while thinking over the idea before finally breaking his silence, "Papers aren't entirely out of the question. I could certainly help with that. It's a lot of paperwork you'll need...especially if you want to be business owners."

Gremian, too, was relieved that it wasn't Karl that would go with him for the Troll. For a short moment, he wondered if the Nisse could be a child unlike the other two. "Well, Arna, right?, It seem that every one else is going to get Paper. I'm ready to go see the Troll Prince when you are he said as he put his empty mug on the table.

"Plus if you want to open a business, you have to find a good spot and run it. You might need a partner who knows more of the human world."

Grabble grumbles up to the receptionist and is promptly told to go to the 'Private Research Section'. He grumbles his way to the door at the back of the library and peaks inside. Noting the array of other fae in the room, he opens the door and enters the back room. "Gah! Who decorated this place? It looks like Christmas threw up all over the room." Along with that charming greeting, he somewhat dramatically shields his eyes from the blaze of cheer.

Looking from one person to the next, the diminutive man scrunches up his face and frowns in a way that is not at all endearing. "So who's the head honcho around here? All they told me at the front was to head back to Private Research." Grabble's accent is distinctly chicagoan, almost to the point of cliche, and marks him as a non-local.

It is confusing and awkward time for Grabble to show up, but he quickly realizes something.

They are talking about a Troll, and two of the group- a Fey he's never seen before, and a Nisse that he has, are going off to find him, though the Nisse isn't exactly sure where... just, "in the rocks, by the Giant's Stairway".

And Grabble knows in an instant... THAT troll.  He's seen it.  Goblins get around, and they have a habit of seeing things.


And this is how Grabble ends up going off with Gremian and Arna on a quick jaunt to another thread, Dovregubbenson
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:26, Mon 22 Aug 2016.

"We have our spot, it is a wonderful place," Rolf says.  "We... it is legitimate.  It is owned by a Goblin. We have magic for three years, called a lease, that allows us to use it.  But the Goblin did not tell us that we need this other paper to have our bakery."

Amara looks at Grabble "Hello, nice you could join us. We are working on a Christmas issue now involving a troll. I hope you are up to it. Or do oyu also need help, we are going to be helping different fay here with settling into the city. I gather you are not all into being a Santa clause?" she says with a smile.