Horticulture and Growing Ties

[Pepper]

Pepper was very glad that the greenhouse was and enclosed space, because with weather not being an issue, they got some rather comfortable chairs in there. On the other hand, it was a bit odd waiting for people to show up too it. With the glass walls it was just too tempting to watch the street.

She did, however, bring some light refreshments and drinks. And... one other thing. A dusty box an envelope with her name on it. Hopefully, Gyges would arrive punctually, and Pepper could avoid the temptation to delve too deep into that bit of nostalgia.

[Gyges]

Even with the slight distortion caused by the glass of the Greenhouse, Gyges' wasn't sneaking up on Pepper. That didn't stop him, wearing a nondescript suit matching the ones that everyone within the consilium had seen him wear from announcing himself by tapping on the glass door with a small packet of seeds.

tac tak tak tak

He then presses the packet up against the glass to show Pepper what type of seed it contained.

  precasts

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-01-17 00:34:16		Gyges rolls 6 to Untouchable Gnosis3 + Space3 (10 Again)		6, 6, 6, 8, 9, 2		2 successes
2015-01-17 00:33:51		Gyges rolls 6 to Spatial Awareness Gnosis3 + Space3 (10 Again)		3, 1, 3, 7, 8, 1		1 success

[Pepper]

Pepper tucked the dusty box under her chair, then smoothly walked up to the greenhouse door for Gyges. "Radishes. Huh." She took a step back and indicated a podium with an open guest book and a basket at the top. "Sign in how you're comfortable, growing things together means giving credit to contributions." She gave a little half-smile, a recognition that she was maybe playing up that theme a bit much. But the Book already had signatures in it - the councilors.

"So. Has anyone mentioned to you that you're a lot like me? Probably not, depends if Mace has said anything or not. But trust me, especially before I joined the Ladder... the similarities are definitely there." Pepper was probably flattering herself, thinking that it would mean she could talk him into joining the Ladder. She still wasn't completely sure how Briar had managed to get herself to sign on with them. She waited until he was done signing then indicated the table waiting for them.

"That... is probably why I think you could do well in or working with, the Ladder. You want any refreshments? Water, lemonade, Vanilla Coke?"

[Gyges]

Gyges was about to toss the packet into the basket, but Pepper's exuberance sets him back a step with the packet of seeds still held in his hand. "We've met twice, Provost. What exactly are you talking about?" His confused expression was making it plain that he felt he had missed at least half of the conversation Pepper seemed to be having.

[Pepper]

Pepper raised an eyebrow and sat at the table, and shrugged smugly. "Yeah, but I'm betting that when you discussed lube around Zodiac it was about the stick up her ass." She pulled her phone out of her pocket and wiggled it. "She texted me to recommend Truce, actually, then mentioned that she found you as Annoying as me back in Boston. Which is pretty difficult, by the way, so congrats on that."

She shrugged, then without the devilish hint of her previous words and a more serious expression, "You didn't let Emrys walk over you and the other apostates, you've studied the law. You're willing to argue and debate on subjects you want respect in. You'd make and excellent Factotum, whether you decide to remain apostate or not... But I'd like to see what you could become as a Ladder too." Pepper folded her hands and waited for Gyges to join her at the table.

[Gyges]

How disappointing that the Herald would try to turn the Ladder against him, the coward probably thought he cared what the Orders thought of him. As he signs in with a simple G, he responds. "Provost, if the Herald wants to formally accuse me of being an Agent and Thrall of the Exarchs and motion for my imprisonment, banishment or execution, please let her know that she has my permission to do so. We can argue it in front of the Hierarch and his Councilors with all of the Consilium watching." If Zodiac wanted to step up and give him shit, she could go right ahead and do it publicly. Otherwise Zodiac could step the fuck off.

Regardless, Gyges takes a seat, politely refusing the offered refreshments. "Meanwhile Emrys is a prick who has no head for logistics and tried to bully his way into control over a new Cabal." If that was the extent of his social finesse, then Gyges was sure that's it's how he became a Syndic as well, but it was really none of his business if nobody in his Order was going to stand up against him. "He also named himself after Merlin. I refuse to take anyone seriously that names themselves after Merlin like some sort of arcane hipster."

"I agree with you, Provost. I would make an excellent Factotum," Gyges says matter-of-factly, "But I'm not going to become one if the only way to do so is becoming someone's pawn or sacrificing my beliefs for expediency. Considering that I've already mortally offended several Order heads as well as a Councilor and Herald, I'd like to know why you think I'd do well in the Ladder."

And just like that, Gyges has switched positions with Pepper. She called him in for an interview and now he's interviewing her.

[Pepper]

Pepper raised another eyebrow at that. Zoey hadn't indicated anything like that. "Actually, she just described you as 'less cute and more obnoxious'." Mental note, she'd need to find out more than what Zoey had told her. "And if she'd honestly been trying to dissuade me from recruiting you she wouldn't have focused on what she considers misbehavior. Unless she completely forgot who she was talking too." And she was also more condescending to people's faces then when they were absent. Curious, though, that she'd accuse him of that.

"Oh, so that's why the name's familiar." Pepper frowned slightly, annoyed that she'd missed the reference to Arthurian legends. "I'm assuming you mean his brief attempt to talk everyone into Joining the Archangels." Which, well. Nine person cabal? Wouldn't work.

She laughed though, at his assumption that she'd require him to be in any order to be a factotum. "Do you think I'm trying to subvert your beliefs, call you to heel, or cut you off from a concilium position you'd easily earn on your own merit? I wouldn't dare. What are your beliefs, though, what is magic to you? For me, Magic is something I see the potential for in everyone, and that everyone should be able to pursue if it wasn't for the Lie. I believe it's possible to guide individuals towards Awakening, and I believe that humanity as a whole can do more than coexist and tolerate each other - they can become more than disparate communities... sometimes they just need a hand to guide them."

[Gyges]

"I'm speaking from experience, Provost." He says it without rancor or bitterness. "There's always something that prevents nomadic and intractable Apostates from getting their robes." He shrugs, it's never something that you can outright prove, but there comes a time when it's hard to believe that there's a Lictor to proctor the exams at all. "It's the nature of the beast and if I have to put up with it, it is small consolation that it has to put up with me in return."

"Magic is suffering." Gyges steeples his fingers in front of himself, getting to the meat of Pepper's questions. "It comes from pain and torment. I make magic by taking what the world could be and what the world is and drawing down demons from Pandemonium to bridge the gap between the two. Magic is alive and it is a beast and it is vicious and mean and hungry. It will drain me and leave me a withered husk before it finally consumes me and shits out my bones as a warning to others, the same way it consumed my Sleeper life before I Woke Up."

He pauses and the moment stretches out between them. "And I will do everything in my power to help it along. Is that the gift that you want to hand out to Sleepers? Do you think they would want it if they knew what it could cost them?"

[Pepper]

Pepper's jaw tightened at that truth. "I will do everything in my power to insure that the position you earn is granted to you, and that you have the opportunity to Earn it as well. I will not let such an injustice happen, even if I much become Deacon and administer your exam myself." She knew that there'd be places and times were merit wasn't given credit where it was due, but not here, not in her city is she had any say at all. Her eyes were flinty with hard promise: Gyges would take the exams and pass in Sacramento.

He words on magic, though, made her pause in serious consideration and weigh them out. Muttering to herself, she couldn't keep one thought in her head: "There are times when I'm glad I Awakened on the Path of Thistle." She wasn't sure if she was bitter or not, but the fact that Gyges was willing to weather his suffering said something else - He gained from it. "You really are forged in the fires of your own hell aren't you. You're stronger for it though - how? Morally, Power, or both?"

She tapped her fingers on the table, remembering what Avis spoke of, how she was convinced her own suffering allowed her to awake... "If they find through suffering that they have strength enough to punch holes in the sky, to become Stars of power and virtue - yes. If they can withstand their suffering and grow better from it, then yes. The World needs more people who can hold power and their own suffering in their hands and do good with it. Do you think you could find such people?"

[Gyges]

He lets her promise go unchallenged. Words were air, it was actions that mattered to Gyges.

"Does it matter?" Power was Power. Most of the Wise thought that the Mysteries were the one true measure of power. They don't get that real power is interchangeable and all of it is worthless if you don't do anything with it. His arcana were nice, he wouldn't deny that, but they were in many ways superfluous to what made him the person he was. He was not powerful because he was a mage, he was a mage because he was powerful.

He tilts his head to one side. Pepper was asking the wrong questions. "Ignore the magic. Do you believe one fifth of humanity can withstand their suffering without being poisoned by it and using it to harm others? Humanity doesn't have a sterling record of acting with wisdom as it stands now. The kind of person that you are looking for? You don't find them, you can't make them. They have to make themselves."

He leans forward, intense and conspiratorially. "Would you like to know the ultimate Secret behind Orders, Provost?"