Study Buddies

[Crystal]

Crystal arrived at the Sacramento State Library fashionably late. Wearing a beige knitted pullover (bought at a cute little local shop together with a scarf) and some rather cheap and worn out jeans he did his best to get into the student mindset. He even got up extra late today - what a method actor he was!
Over his shoulder was a leather messenger bag containing a notepad and some pens. Frankly, he just felt it went with the whole outfit. He wasn't sure on how much studying was going to happen anyway.

The day was one of those crisp, sunny late Autumn days that made you want to bury yourself and some company beneath some blankets and see what happened - but he had a 40 page paper to write, double check and get ready to have it reviewed by his peers and no doubt scholars from near and far.

Ugh.


He had shot Aurora a text again before leaving the house and was now looking for her. Hey, maybe she was fed up with waiting and ditched the whole operation, right? Yeah right.

[Aurora]

The Shaman hadn’t exactly been on time herself. So when she got the text, it seemed like they both couldn’t tell time. Worked for her, Time was not on her side anymore.

She had also gone with the mindset of fitting in with the students. Loosing fitting jeans and a black t-shirt was her go to. Throw on top of that a leather jacket and she was good to go. Just rolled out of bed hair just added to it. Plus, she wore it well, so bonus. Would it stop her from getting recognized? Probably not, but she’d had good luck at libraries lately.

Her own bag was slung over her shoulder as she finished off her coffee. The whole no drink thing always irked her. Tossing the cup, she spots Crystal and waves, “Hey you.” Greeted the Shaman, “Wasn’t sure if you had a preference on where we sat, so thought I’d just wait out here.”

[Crystal]

Crystal actually applauded the approaching Shaman. "Hey. You know I knew I'd like you when we first met and now I'm sure of it. Great minds do think alike, huh?" They could be straight out of some pretentious fashion line advertisement targeting rich frat kids. He rather liked that.

"Eh, I'll let you take the lead on that one. Frankly, we'd also have to decide on what we're doing here - I was thinking we do some chatting, get into the vibe and then see what catches our eye?" That was a shitty plan and he knew it, but he couldn't quite motivate himself yet. Nodding towards the entrance, he readjusted his bag and his scarf. "Shall we?"

[Aurora]

“You know, usually I’m swallowing a sword to get applause.” She says with a raise of her eyebrow. “Is that so? How can you know if you’re going to like someone without getting to know them?” she teases, “I could be a world class bitch with a dangerous side.” Bitch? Probably not. Dangerous? Most definitely.

Shrugging, “Sure.” And heads towards the doors, “I thought you had this all figured out, you were the one who reached out to me after all.” Seemed she had a sense of humor today. “Personally, I’ve been studying philosophy lately, but not sure if that’s going to win me any points. Let alone a paper.” Cause how does anyone get six pages about that subject.

Waving to the woman behind the desk, she walks towards the back of the room. “It’s a bit quieter in the back, and it gives you a good view of the place.” Security and all. Most of the tables were open, and she picked one without anyone nearby, setting her bag down, she sits.

[Crystal]

Crystal responds to Aurora's teasing with a bright smile and a slightly cocked head. "Who knows, maybe that makes me like people even more? Swallowing swords and being a bad bitch? I mean, come on that's pretty cool." Smirking as he followed her. "The lack of a gag reflex seems to be another thing we have in common, so there's that."

The mention of the dreaded paper brought out a groan from the Mastigos. "Yeah about that - you seemed to be at least as flustered as I was when Corny began his lecture on- Jesus, I don't even know anymore. So I figured: misery loves company." Mirroring Auroras wave he acted as if he belonged here and totally knew what he was doing. "So maybe we could pool our efforts in philosophy, or we could decide on something else entirely. Maybe we could just spitball something and then the paper will write itself."

Placing his bag on the table, Crystal sat down and tried to get as comfortable as possible with the provided chairs. "Personally I'm stuck cross referencing my stuff because turns out I don't know how to read Hebrew." Then, almost as if he realized how nerdy that sounded he added quickly "But on the other hand: our lovely Book Club values experiences for the experience's sake, so even without a paper this will be a valuable use of our time."

[Aurora]

A shake of her head and chuckle, “Hey, if that’s what works for you. But I’m far from a bad bitch, so make sure you take that into consideration.” At least she didn’t think she was. Though she was a bit more jaded than she used to be. A smirk, “Swallow swords in your free time?” now that would be something different.

A sigh, “That would be an understatement. When I joined, it wasn’t really a thing, and now? It seems to be a thing I am not prepared for. Not even a little.” Out of her league.

“Not sure if philosophy really fits with what they’re looking for. But then again,” a shrug, “I’m not really sure what I’m doing. So what ideas do you have?”

[Crystal]

He replied with a chuckle of his own. "Eh, bad-bitchery is a matter of definition. Let's just say I get vibes from you I can agree with." Crystal put on an innocent face. He could either be very blunt about his 'sword swallowing' or he could preserve Aurora's unspoiled naivety. "Oh you could say that. Although, most of the time it's daggers - but no one is ever honest about the size of their weapons, right?"

He looked at the Shaman sympathetically. The Mysterium in his old city was less lenient, but he got where she was coming from. "Yeah, I mean this could well be brought up in our next Club-meeting. Bartram seems to be on the fence about that anyway. As for ideas," he sat up straight and raised a finger "I've actually got one or two. The philosophy angle could work - we could research how different cultures and smart people saw the world - you know, myths, truths.. Lies. It has probably been discussed to death, but we're not here to reinvent the wheel." This would actually touch upon some things he had been reading about, so they already had something to go off of. Of course he didn't tell her that yet - last thing he wanted was to do all the work himself.

"The other option would be to think of something that interests us and just do a show and tell of sorts. I don't think we're going to have experts and visitors from far away reviewing this, but a well done report could at least be something to show." He mimed pushing up a pair of glasses higher up his nose. "And hey, maybe we discover our love for writing papers in the process." The Mastigos winked at Aurora and leaned back again. "Or you know, we could just chat a bit and call it a day."

[Aurora]

A slow nod, “Ah, ok, well, whatever works for you.” She was never one for the whole vibe thing. Smirking, “Oh, so you prefer the smaller ones, no shame in that.” This Shaman was not naïve. But she was always down to act it, “And you are so right about that! One of those things that’s talked about, but one only knows the truth when the time comes.” A wink. She wasn’t born yesterday, and had heard plenty of jokes about swallowing swords.

“I know it was never really talked about when I approached him about joining. Though since then, I’ve heard of it from my own studies of our Club, I just figured we didn’t do them.” Shrugging. “The whole bullet dodged thing.” A good thing, because writing was not her thing. “Well, it might have been done before, but not from our point of view. We could, in a way, breathe new life into it.” Which had its pros and cons.

“I’ve had topics that have interested me, ones that pushed me into wanting to join the Club. But I don’t see it as being something we can easily research, certainly not with the Clubs library. We’d need access to something bigger, and I don’t think anyone’s going to volunteer theirs.” Plus, it meant digging up the past and sharing it. And she wasn’t too keen on it with Crystal yet. “But what interests you? What is something you would love to find out more about.” She asks, directing the question to him. “I don’t foresee me discovering a love for writing papers, I’ve never had to write one before.”

[Crystal]

"Oh I wouldn't say I prefer them, but whatever." He winked back at her but left it at that. The joke had run its course, at least for him.

He looked at Aurora, interested in what she told him. "May I ask why you wanted to join then?" With all the hassle that came with it, finding out new ways to use that chance he was given was pretty cool. He also felt that the other Orders were relying on the Mysterium big time, or at least they should be.

"Breathing fresh life into it, that sounds like a plan." The excitement Crystal showed was maybe a bit more than warranted, but he had to give himself that pep to actually go through with this. "As for the bigger things - maybe this here really is the first step on your 1000 mile journey to what you want to learn about. Hey, for what it's worth: if you need help finding or, when it comes to it accessing, your 'something bigger' I'll gladly help you."

"As for my interests: I'm looking into Goeticism at the moment." He considered for a moment - he could probably talk about this, being sleeper literature after all. He lowered his voice anyway. "Like, summoning demons and rituals as described in some old old books. Crowley and Mathers, the editors of the modern translations thought that this summoning was just getting into the right mindset to just will change into existence. So more psychology than real magic." Hopefully that wasn't too out there.
"Other than that, I'm into LGBT rights, the problems with the community and all that." He sounded more careless than he actually was on that. He'd seen some shit. "I don't know if that would be of any interest to our club, but we could combine this with some sociology or something." He looked at the Shaman, sighing inwardly. "As for actually writing it:" he put up his hands and looked at the cruel sky, "I can do that for our collaboration." What a martyr he was!

[Aurora]

The Shaman seemed content to let the joke die. Knowing they were only good for so belong before it seemed like one was trying to hard. And trying too hard was not her style.

A sigh, “There were a few reasons. I became jaded with the whole political side of our company; my heart just wasn’t in it anymore. And the only one that really spoke to me, was ours. I met with Bart and what he said just hit home. The main reason is not one I can really share right now, and it’s very personal. But I wanted to get out there and explore, make a difference and get into the knowledge part of things. Probably makes no sense.” A quite chuckle.

A soft smile, “Hey, thanks for the offer, that’s really nice of you.” To offer and not know what she really wanted to learn about? That was nice. Foolish, but nice. “Not sure if philosophy will help on that journey, but so far, its made things interesting. I’ve been trying to look into how philosophy can help, or hinder, the human mind. Specifically, one riddled with guilt.” Not her big thing, but still a thing.

When he spoke, there was clear interest on her face as she listened, “Now that sounds like it could be fun,” a pause, “but dangerous at the same time. Which makes it more fun.” Because of course it did. “Think it’s something we could research and get a pretty kick ass paper about?” because she could see it going a few different ways. Some good…and some, well, not.

“All good things to be into.” A pause, “Not sure either, but if we looked into how it could possibly effect ones relations with the community and exploring what’s out there, it defiantly would. I think it’s just looking at how it relates to someone’s, identity and being.” Awakened.

Smirking, “We could both work on writing it. I mean, I’m going to have to learn how to do this at some point. So we divide it, not fair for one to do more than another.” Not in her book.