119. Press the Button

The motley parties at the gala and are confronted with mysterious attendees.

### Play of the Game:

Kate as Patches, for improving the gala: letting Hirgo in, setting Reggie on fire, and letting Zistor unleash the rail gun. #UnSeelieForDays

***"We all have buttons… if you lean on someone for too long, they may go on tilt. Or explode."***

As Braum is whisked away by Sophia and Patches, he ponders what he had just seen: Claire, at the Grand Bes Din? Now? And what's this about her having been an "old friend" of High King David? he is naturally suspicious, especially when he realizes that Claire seems to be much more graceful than usual… Patches alerts the redcap security, only to learn of a new arrival: Hirgo is here to pay homage to the architect. And eat, of course!

Fuse Terwilliger appears to ask Braum to accompany him upstairs, excited to show him the troll maker space. In the same moment, an old friend of Sophia's appears: Peeps, her old chimerical companion! He, too, wants to meet the High Queen Lenore, and Sophia notes with concern that Peeps admits not knowing a few things about the monarchy, something Peeps would never do. Patches, too, receives an unexpected visitor: her father, Malcolm! Patches is shocked to see her father, knowing that he just recently got on a flight back to England. But it's when he seems to have no recognition of mages or the APEA that the nocker knows something is off: she pulls a knife on him and tells him to "stop impersonating my father, you piece of shit!"

Upstairs, Fuse is happy to hear that Braum is inspired by the maker's space, and asks him to sign his commemorative lunchbox featuring Braum and Sir Xaeron. Braum is surprised to learn of its existence, but is happy to oblige. When Fuse leaves, Claire appears at the door once more: when Braum asks how she of all people knew the High King, she admits that they were "intimate"… and his Gwydion sense detects no untruth. Braum attempts to bind the woman's hands, but she worms her way out of them, shifting her face between Claire and Kay in an instant.

Sophia alerts Seven to the potential threat to the High Queen, and he asks her to bring the imposter upstairs to the "learning room" when possible. As she moves back towards Peeps, Patches uses the power of Quicksilver to catch up to her father's imposter and confront him. All three doppelgangers begin to speak simultaneously, begging the motley to not force them to show their "true shape" here. "I didn't mean for this to get out of hand," they intone with one voice. Taking the figures upstairs, they merge into a single form, that of a small, lithe wyrm or drake. She explains that she wanted to see Lenore since she was once her nanny! Lenore was an adopted daughter of the High King, and it was her who originally watched over the girl. She was known then as Fifi, but her preferred name is Malokai; she visited Lenore in several guises many years ago, one of whom became intimate with the High King.

While Braum stays with Malokai during her "interview" with Seven, Patches and Sophia return to the gala, discovering that Hirgo has been telling of Patches' legendary adventures in their absence. Shunning the spotlight, she asks Sophia to "put on a show" before the two of them are confronted by Reggie. Patches is quick to toss drinks on the boggan to make her disdain clear, until the hyperfocused light from the skylight ignites him! Sophia moves to put out the fire, and the boggan scrapes the ground, "forfeiting his duel" with her. Lanta rushes over to the commotion and Sophia, seeing how much she cares for him, sends Lanta on her way with Reggie in tow. Patches leaves to hide out in the kitchen. There, she discovers Zistor Flexx is doing the same thing! The two of them make up for their previous fight, and talk about apprenticeships… and about Cog, who is currently being "seen" by Lenore in the "presidential suite".

Out in the atrium, Sophia takes the stage to announce a song she wrote just for this gala, but instead of drawing attention to herself, she projects it out, to the building. ("Isn't it N.O.V.E.L.? Isn't it Grand?") Patches and Zistor smile, and somewhere above on the Skybridge, Malokai tells Braum that she can see that he's gone from being a hero to being someone who *creates* heroes.