Songs and Gears

## Summary

Salem's Children returned to Calliope Hollow's tent. Calliope gives everyone tea and cookies which heals everyone back to full health. Matthew, Cyrus Ferdinand and Chester talk about legs as Calliope agrees to answer any questions the group has. Emily Binks throws a teacup just past Calliope's head and she's unfazed as this isn't the first time this has happened to her. Alexander Jefferson asks why didn't Calliope tell them about the other children guarding the ingredients. She mentions that Farce and Folly were twin children themselves. She also mentions that her sisters Melomene Hollow and Thalia Hollow often use kindness as a weapon and that she deplored it. Emily yells at her for that and Calliope is understanding.

Calliope talks about how Iska was one of her greatest failures. She talks about how when the subject of her sister's spell is close to death, their memories and personality returns. She mentions that she doesn't like watching the souls her sisters have trapped die. Douglas talks about how he doesn't want to forget and Calliope agrees. She tells the group that she is the party's best chance of escaping with their souls and lives. She gets back to work on the spell as Gulliver leads the party out. Douglas tells Emily not to forget him as Chester weaves a web with everyone's names on it.

As they head to the siren's tent, Gulliver talks about the siren in the tent, Alubelle. She was originally a russian girl named Veruka. Gulliver is worried for the guys in the group as Matthew talks with Cyrus about making out with minors illegally. They enter the beautiful tent to find themselves in some marshland. Emily is grossed out so Alexander offers to carry her. Emily refuses having some dignity.

They enter the tent and the beautiful siren, Alubelle, gets up from her silk pillows after brushing her long hair. She's happy to see some new faces and reaches out to Douglas in particular. Emily and Cyrus get between them right away saying he's only a boy. Douglas doesn't want to hurt Alubelle and also wants to be her friend. Hazel nervously asks about Alubelle's voice and she mentions that she won't give it up easily. She mentions that if Douglas stays and plays a while, she'll let them have it. Douglas promises to stay with his real friends afterwards.

Douglas leaves Chester behind and Alubelle challenges him to a game of tag. Douglas quickly catches her and she asks him a riddle: "I belong in the month of December but not in any other month. I am not a holiday. What am I?" Douglas guesses D and he's correct. Alubelle swims away as Douglas waves to everyone surrounding the pool. He catches Alubelle again and she gives him another riddle: "This belongs to you but everyone else uses it. What is it?" Douglas replies correctly with your name (Aramau also accepted kindness).

Alubelle figures out that Douglas wants to use Calliope's potion to leave and asks him why he wants to leave. Douglas says that his friends want to leave and he wants to stay with his friends. Alubelle wants to stay so she tags him and swims off. Douglas trips over the scrap wood in the water but he manages to catch Alubelle again. The third riddle is: "I run forever yet I don't move at all. I have no lungs or throat but a roaring call. What am I?" After some thinking, Douglas answers a waterfall. Alubelle gets frustrated that Douglas is correct. She tries to convince him to stay with her and Douglas begins to feel lonely in his chest. Matthew, Hazel and Emily realize that Alubelle is trying to charm him.

Emily quickly grabs onto the nearby statue and reaches out to Douglas but Alubelle swims towards Hazel. Hazel steps into the shallow water, grabs Alubelle and bites into her neck. Alubelle lets go of Douglas and lets out a mighty shriek. The shriek then trickles down Alubelle's neck as a blue liquid. Hazel backs off embarrassed as Douglas snaps back to reality. He tells Alubelle that she may lose her voice but she doesn't need it to make friends. Alubelle sneers at Douglas and swims towards the back. Emily pulls Douglas back as Hazel bottles up the siren's voice. Douglas makes a small gift for Alubelle in the form of a pillow before leaving. Hazel begins panicking that she bit someone's neck and worries that she'll bite someone else. Alexander and Cyrus offer to stand beside her since they likely don't have blood anymore.

Gulliver is happy they came out and says a bad word about Alubelle. Douglas tries to copy him but Chester stops him. They arrive at the next tent to find that it is really normal looking aside from the patches and stitches. They enter the tent and find a gremlin piloting a contraption on the floor similar to a bike. Up in the air in front of him a feminine looking doll named Penelope is flying and dancing in the air. When her performance is complete, the audience claps rather robotically. It turns out the entire audience is made of marionettes. Penelope goes down to greet them and introduces herself and her gremlin, Took Took. Emily freaks out and hides behind Douglas as Cyrus introduces himself as a ladies man. Penelope confuses him for being a lady and a man and Cyrus dips out. The others introduce themselves while Penelope talks about how she likes to perform for her marionettes before collapsing in a heap. Took took hurries over to Penelope with a toolbox and takes out a key. He winds her back up and she comes back to life while Took took goes back to his bike. Penelope introduces herself again which confuses the group. Penelope apologizes saying that she can't stay away from Took took for too long or she'll fall apart. Douglas is sad that Penelope forgot already. Matthew then scares Emily with a string image of a doll. Penelope finds Matthew's silk drawing pretty while Chester calls Matthew a show-off.

Cyrus mentions that they're on a quest for a doll's gear. Penelope is willing to give up her gear if she dances with one of them. Cyrus wonders if legs are involved and it turns out that he can't work with Penelope. Emily panics a bit eventually volunteers Matthew by accident. Alexander wonders if he can take a gear from the crowd but his hopes are dashed when he finds that the dolls in the crowd are controlled by wires. Matthew suggests that he distracts them by dancing while the group gets the tool box. Matthew charms Penelope into dancing with him.

## Notable Events

* The party goes to the siren and doll tents
* Douglas plays tag with Alubelle the siren
* Matthew goes to dance with Penelope so the group can get the gear box
* The party gets the siren voice