Squaring (Up) The Circle

[Joshua Morris]

Joshua steered the wheelbarrow into the Circle, the thick tires crunching over debris. It had been almost two weeks since they'd retaken the Circle but the cleanup never seemed to end. With a heavy sigh he stations the barrow and takes up the pushbroom; but before getting down to the back-aching work of sweeping the church, he takes a minute for castings. It's harder than expected--one of the spells fails outright, and neither of them are as strong as he'd hoped--but it's better for nothing.

With the spells settled, he sets to work, not really seeing the Circle around him. Instead, he looks for the gleam of the Supernal; perhaps they had left behind some faint Resonance or mocking Script that could still be examined and exploited. When not looking for the glow of magic, his vision is cast into Twilight. Many of the things they had kept at the Circle had been destroyed, but for a Moros that did not necessarily mean that they were useless, and he searches for any ephemera that might still be preserved.

And he thinks. About the Circle, and what its past might mean for its future, and how to prevent its future from looking like its present.

  

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2012-02-04 19:16:46		Joshua rolls 6 to Supernal Sight (Gno+Prime+2HS) (10 Again)		6, 4, 9, 5, 5, 1		1 success
2012-02-04 19:16:21		Joshua rolls 7 to Speak With The Dead (Gno+Death+2HS) (10 Again)		5, 8, 1, 5, 8, 7, 2		2 successes
2012-02-04 19:14:05		Joshua rolls 6 to Supernal Sight (Gno+Prime+2HS) (10 Again)		6, 3, 2, 5, 2, 4		failure

[Animus]

Memories. The place was thick with them, and only growing thicker. But at this moment, the one that most drives the Thyrsus is that of his Cabalmate, attacked and injured, while he himself was nowhere to be seen. And so the thought of Josh, back here alone, when the place could hardly be considered secure?

No, that would never do.

Footsteps crunch softly behind the wheelbarrow, signalling the Thyrsus' approach. For a long moment, he says nothing, glancing around, listening to the small sounds that made their presence known amidst the silence.

Finally, he breaks it. "It's so ... empty, dormant. It needs life."

[Joshua Morris]

Joshua pushes a pile of dust and crushed glass together with a sigh. "Yeah," he says, after a moment. "It needs..." He trails off, then shakes his head, the thought eluding his grasp. "It needs something." He props the broom up on the wall and dusts off his hands before turning to the Thyrsus. "I haven't found anything we can use yet. Just that." He hooks a thumb at the two fish of the Harbor Boys' paint tag. "Although I guess that would be useful enough..."

Joshua shakes his head again and jumps tracks. "We need more of a presence here, somehow. Need to see if the Guardians still want to be part of this. Wards. Got to get wards back in place, get some sort of guard system. We can't bring in any equipment until we're sure the place is secure again."

[Animus]

A slow nod. The place still reminded him of death. A hand reaches out, making contact with the wall. "I'd gladly take watches, to make the place ..." A brief silence, as if groping for words. "more than this. To give it back the dignity it deserves."

Dignity.. Eyes drift back to the courtyard. A flare of memories, of a promise shattered. "Those wolves ... I hated what he did, because my word was shattered. But that has little to do with why I wanted to help them in the first place." The Thyrsus' gaze drifts around the Circle, seemingly everywhere except where his Cabalmate stands. "Beasts, tossed about by forces beyond their understanding." A grimace, that might have been intended to be a smile. "It felt so much like looking into a mirror, I just ... couldn't bear to see them trampled."

Finally, he falls silent, still avoiding his friend's gaze.

[Joshua Morris]

Joshua peers at his friend, thinking. The silence stretches out. "There's a difference," he finally says. "You have the ability to understand what those forces are. You have the ability to rise above and best those forces. To some of us, you are the force that does the tossing," he finishes, quietly. "So, I guess... I guess the question is, are you going to let yourself be thrown about? Are you a wolf, or are you a dog?"

[Animus]

"Dogs ... that's all they were, isn't it? To you, to everyone." He shakes his head sadly.

"You know I'll fight whatever comes at me. I just ... sometimes it's painful, being so different."

[Joshua Morris]

"No, you... you miss my point. I'm not even talking about the goddamn wolves now. I'm talking about you." The Moros spreads his hands, shakes his head. "Look, I'm not a mind reader, but I can see when things are wrong. And half the time nowadays you're slumped down, like you are now, like you're waiting for me to hit you on the nose with a newspaper. What... what happened? No," he quickly says, waving one hand, "Forget what happened. What can we do? How do we fix this, so you find some sort of relief? It makes me sick to see you like this--not like an animal, but... defeated. That's not the man I knew in the Living Stones."

[Animus]

Pain flickers through the Thyrsus' eyes. He looks away, before finally meeting his friend's gaze. "I --" A shaky breath, and several seconds of silence.

"It's the Consilium. When I took the hierarch's position, it was because I knew no one else could. But ... it wasn't supposed to be like this, it wasn't supposed to be permanent." He shakes his head. "It seems no matter how I try to push people to take initiative, so few actually step up. And erratically even then. And ..." His voice falters, at the wall of a sharp truth which his body screams out against vocalizing.

"And I don't know how long I can just keep dragging things forward. I'm tearing myself up just trying."

[Joshua Morris]

Joshua nods, taking a few steps closer so he can lower his voice in the echoing sanctuary. "All right. I... I may have an idea. But we should discuss it later, somewhere more secure. Home, perhaps. It might require you to hang on a while longer, but could give us the results you've been looking for."

He looks around the church again. "We need to shore up defense. We've got to get the wards back up, for one. And I was thinking, we have enough Moroi now to maybe have some ghosts around the place. Maybe we could get some spirits in as well?" he asks the Thyrsus. "And we'll need arms. I should be able to provide those, given some time."

[Animus]

A slow, pensive nod. He almost couldn't believe that after so long, there was a solution. But if Josh said it, it was cause for hope.

"I think I can scare up a few spirits. Long as West doesn't decide to take potshots at them."

He tries, belatedly, to smile, to pass it off as a joke. But the truth is, it scared him how readily the jab had slipped out. And for the briefest instant, a glimmer of that nervousness flickers through the Thyrsus' eyes. "I -- that was out of line. I'm sorry."