(1407) Geist, Mace, Pepper

[RebornSeas]

Geist Mace

"Huh, Seems like head of an Order got even Adrian Isaacs to try and look respectable for a bit." Pepper was clearly eyeing her Deacon as he entered, then gave an approving nod. He'd kept things milder than usual, but still clearly himself. "Can't seem too irreverent when you're one of a citie's big wigs.... though honestly I wish I understood the stakes better."

Pepper let out a long sigh and waved Mace closer, really hoping this guy would give her a response. He just seemed... interesting, reminded her of what she'd been like before putting on the veneer of adulthood, and way before she'd grown comfortable in it. How, exactly, she developed a taste for suits was sometimes beyond her.

OOC

Sorry Malk, sadly, my impatience won out. Besides, had to comment on Geist being more Punk than Ix :P

[TheMalkCat]

Geist looks over at the aforementioned Obrimostest and he steels himself against buzzing over to him for another round fangasming. Ixidor's busy doing his Ixidor things and Geist resolves to keep it cool until the feelings subside. It helps that Ixidor just isn't rocking it dress-wise tonight as he usually is, opting for a relatively chill wardrobe. So the Moros turns back to Pepper with a quip. "Ixidor works in mysterious ways." He inserts a dramatic pause as per protocol.

Then he continues on without skipping a beat. "Geist, Freak of the Council and Stygian-Punk." He brushes a hand along his leather jacket with a touch of Pride straightening his back at the complement. "Suit's not that bad, Pepper. Just cause my wardrobe's monochrome doesn't mean I can't appreciate MAXIMUM YELLOW. Props for pulling that off." His snaggle-tooth grin fades while he considers the stakes at hand. He glances over at the entering Hierarch and Challenger with wary eyes.

"I get what you're saying. First two months in Sac-town and then boom, Duel Arcane. I came from San-Fran to get away from this sorta might-makes-right BS. And when the local Hierarch gets outed as a Guardian and a plant from my old Consilium, it sorta makes me wonder if I should just pack up and leave. I didn't get the hell out of Dodge just to end up back under the messed up Golden LadderVeil cabal.

Right now, I don't know whose right or whose wrong. And the way Duel Arcane goes, you never find out. You just know whose stronger. Might-makes-right, taken right outta the Fascist Manifesto." He crosses his arms, giving Pepper a sidelong glance while keeping an eye on the Duelists.

"A Free Councilor knows its not a revolution if you don't know what you're fighting for."

[RebornSeas]

"That he does." was filled in obligingly with a sage nod. before she cracked and a giggle escaped. A full-blown grin followed with Geist's compliment about the yellow suit. It's always great when other people appreciate how awesome you look in your faves. Also, yes, this was totally the best outfit ever for first impressions.

But damn, he's from San Fran? "You're actually more in the know than us, we're from out East..." She wasn't sure what to say about the Duel Arcane, there were loose thoughts drifting like dust through her, nothing quiet forming a sentence. "What's this LadderVeil cabal you mentioned? I mean, you make it sound like the whole city was up shit creek, but you left to get away from a cabal?" Which wasn't the best wording, but man, she wanted to know what was up.

And even as she was trying to figure that out... She had to appreciate his wording, the way he'd casually laid the situation out so clearly. His last words though, they elicited something between a sigh and a laugh from Pepper's mouth. Self-depreciation mixed with admiration for the Moros when she spoke again, "That's something I should have learned before a Lictor agreed to mentor me."

And of course it was the thought of Eadaoin, and all those hours going through the Lex with her, that had her thoughts click into place about the Duel. "It's a Great Right, but it shouldn't be the first or only way to settle conflict. I doubt it would be, if this Consillium had more than a Charter and a bunch of empty Seats... but laws, you have to be careful with them, right? Set up the System wrong and it does nothing but put obstacle after obstacle in the way of the people who already start off with a disadvantage. And What's that besides the Lie?" Okay, So Pepper still had issues with so many Ladders failing to see that there were some seriously awful hierarchies that only disadvantaged people. She had her own reasons for noticing and caring about that.

[TheMalkCat]

Geist takes the fellow Stygian's hand in a limp noodly shake, the unmistakable sensation of a raised stitched pentacle pressing into her hand. "Always glad to meet another Lead-Sis around town. Not many of us around last I checked." Mace's question clues in the Necromancer to her status as a recent arrival in the Consilium. He rocks back on his heels while trying to adequately summarize the events of the challenge at the Arrow field day a handful of weeks ago.

"So a few weeks back there was this get-together for Awakened hosted by Sentinel Lockheart (whose also First Talon) with food, talk, and athletic competitions, things like a long jump, a sprint, chess and stuff." Geist gladly takes the opportunity to toot his own horn with an aside. "Personally didn't do too bad in the jump and got to semi-finals in Chess while completely BSing my matches."

"But anyways, in the middle of the party this Silver Ladder calling himself Aquinas calls out the Hierarch, Avalon, as a Guardian and a spy from San Francisco. He talks about how San-Fran's gonna annex Sacramento's consilium and how we're pretty much sitting on our asses here, doing nothing. He's promised to change that, starting by taking the position of Hierarch in this Duel. I don't know how much of what Aquinas said was true but I wouldn't put it past Guardians." Geist says the word 'Guardians' with a thick and strangled distaste. When Pepper inquires about the 'SilverVeil' cabal, Geist is all too ready answer.

"They're not a Cabal-cabal, actually. Just sort of a cabal. With a lower-case 'c'. Or a conspiracy. Also lower-case 'c'. Man, why do we have to Capitalize Important Stuff? Kinda Gets Old if you Ask Me." Another tangent stalls Geist's train of thought. "So SilverVeil cabal. In San Francisco, the Guardians and the Silver Ladder are practically the same Order. They order the same drinks at the bar, hang around the same fancy-pants clubs with the really bouncers and caviar, and crap like that." Geist raises a finger as he continues laying out his take on the San Francisco Mage-clique.

"One thing they REALLY don't like is when people kick a fuss about two things. One, bringing the thing drawing Sleepers to the Golden Gate Bridge and making them off themselves by taking the jump. Which is, incidentally, how I got Awakened."

Then, he raises another finger. "Two, bringing up the Arrow purge. One night, all the Arrows in San Fran were murdered by Ladders and Guardians. Some of them got away, most didn't. All 'cause they wanted to do something about the Sleeper jumpers on the Golden Gate Bridge." The Moros jerks a thumb at himself, his expression uncharacteristically deadpan. "Three guesses on who skipped town after his apartment got fire-bombed 'cause he started spooking around for the hows and whys of the Purge and the Bridge?"

A beat.

"First two guesses don't count. The SilverVeils in San Francisco? They're just Seers by a different name." He ends his malediction with pyrelight burning at his eyes.

His satisfying infodump concluded, Geist shuts his trap to hear out Pepper's evaluation of the Duel Arcane. He quietly nods in agreement as she admits the limitations of the Duel exacerbated by the current flaws of the Consilium. "The whole thing about dueling to win the highest position in the Consilium just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If there was a System in the first place that was gridlocking the Consilium, then maybe the Duel Arcane for Hierarch would shake the Consilium outta the mud for progress. But like you said, the Consilium's barely there. Dusty Charter and empty seats means this new guy's able to shape the Consilium like silly-putty. We don't even know what he's really planning to do and that's what's bothering me the most about the Duel."

[RebornSeas]

Pepper made note of how Aquinas came to be the challenger, but really listened as he talked about the Ladderveil. She could imagine the two orders working together easily enough... but when he started talking about the bridge and the arrow purge, she froze. There was something wrong there, deeply wrong. Pepper frowned, concern creasing her brows as she imagined Briar or Eclipse in San Francisco - Mace dying there...

She shuddered. That was an awful thing to think about. Thank god they were from Boston. "Fuck, holy fuck. How much did you - You got everything you need right?" Because damn, Firebombed? He could have lost everything and then some, it's hard to recover from something like that. And Seers? She'd believe that - had to on some level, because to think the Ladder got so corrupt, or the Guardians stopped thinking about their marching orders...

Well, the Ladders where more believable than she'd like to acknowledge. A lot of them started off higher up in the cultural hierarchy than she did... and, well, those who start out with more tend to blame those with less for having less.

"So we need to step up. Fill those seats, dust off that charter and amend it. Watch what the new guy is doing, and make the changes ourselves. Which, okay, new person here, that's a bunch of really hopeful talk, and I'm no less of an unknown then Aquinas. But people need to take this as a sign to step up anyway. Get involved, be the changes you wish to be."

[RebornSeas]

"Looks like it's starting, want to watch?" Pepper glance to Mace, then back to Geist thoughtfully. The fate of the consilium waschanging and the Acanthus wanted to see it happen.

[TheMalkCat]

"Got enough to get by, Pepper." It feels good

Her words on assuming the mantle of leadership in the new Consilium rings true with the Moros You...you're something different, y'know?" The Punk leans back on his heels and gives her a plain and honest smile. "If the Ladder back in San Fran were more like you maybe I wouldn't need to skip town. And we wouldn't 've had the Purge."

He between Mace and Pepper. The two Awakened could be sisters for all he knew. The thought of these two Mages murdering one another because of politics when greater shadows loomed among the Lie and the Abyss just didn't make sense.

"The Pentacle's got the Throne and Banishers and the Fucking Lie to worry about. We'll all crash and burn if we start fwooshing each other."

When the duel begins, Geist is ready to watch. "Really, really wish I brought popcorn."

[RebornSeas]

Instinct told the Asian Acanthus that Geist had just given her some High praise.... but a little bit of guilt gnawed at her. "I'd hope I'm not that different from the rest of the Ladder here and now... but the ones where you're from sound like a twisted funhouse mirror of everything I was taught. You came out of it alright though. That is, not just physically still standing, but you seem like you got your head on right with a solid moral compass." Yeah, Pepper definitely liked Geist, easy-going, intelligent, and wanting the pentacle to stick together? She dug that.



Then, he made the crack about popcorn right after talking about mages not fwooshing each other and a laugh escaped quickly before she stiffled it: not the time or place. "Weren't you just saying Fwooshing is bad? But yeah, it's impressive watching them go at it." She rocked back onto her heels for a moment, then put her feet back down. "Sooo... you always live in San Fran, or was it like a there-for-college-now-I'm-Awake thing?"