(Ivory Tower) Blind Date

Adam is having second thoughts. Maybe he shouldn't have agreed to a date with Lisa. Maybe he should have asked Megan out on a date instead. Waking up the next day after the party made Adam wonder what the hell he was doing. Did he want to sabotage his college life in the foot to get in the pants of a girl he barely knows? Not sure if he likes Lisa, he asked around and no one he knows, knows her. Still, it's college and being confused is part and parcel of the program.

A couple of days after the party, Marsters was rip-shit. The President's anger has been and is still righteous. Not all of the brothers know why, but everyone knows to stay out of his way. As a result, a pall has come over the House; everyone on edge.

It's late in the afternoon and the temperatures inch towards the fifties. The sun is falling below the trees and fair-weather clouds veil the blue sky overhead. The fitness center is a bright, gleaming edifice with sparkling windows, creamy exterior walls, and perfectly arranged landscaping. It speaks to the money and, some would say, prestige the College has gotten over the years.

A bag sits idle at Adam's feet and he fiddles with the zipper of his fleece jacket, waiting for Lisa to show up.

Andrea, a girl who walks by waves at Adam as she passes – white ear-buds in her ears.

The evening classes have just let out for the evening.


Mentions: Cross Djinn Cayce West

Asp had a bit of a bounce in her step as she made her way up to Adam at the fitness center. Why wouldn't she? She was a girl on a date, that was all - Lisa Carter, sociology (a.k.a. totally going for Varsity) major and rock climbing afficionado. The girl who was new around campus. January semester, baby. She'd been going to classes for all of a month.

You know what? She was almost as proud of being academically knowledgeable enough to be here as she was about mastering all that Sharp could teach her of Life's Breath. Sometimes, working on what you were absolutely worst at meant that every accomplishment along the way meant so much more. College. It was never something she had imagined for herself, even as a Sleeping high school student. And yet, here she was. Operations required it - and so it was adapt or fail. The Adamant Way told her which it had to be.

Lisa Carter wore clothes she could climb in, clothes she was comfortable in. She was just too honest not to. If it were a date at a party or whatever, she'd wear something a bit more... well, datelike, but for this? A snug blue t-shirt and yoga pants with athletic shoes was it, with a navy blue windbreaker on top to keep the brisk air off. She had a little duffel slung over her shoulder too, which contained her towel, a bar of soap and change of clothes that were a bit less athletic in it.

The only ID she carried was her fake. She had cash on hand and her student card. There would be nothing on her to suggest who she really was.

Think like a Guardian.

There is no Alana Fox. There is only Lisa Carter.

Yeah. Right.

There he was. She smiled at him, giving him a wave. "Hey!"

Let the nerves begin.

There's only so much time a guy can stand outside in temperatures that can't decide if it's cold or warm. Adam was starting to feel the underlying chill of the oncoming evening when Lisa, finally, came. The Sleepwalker wondered if Lisa needed that much time to get ready considering he thought they'd get sweaty in the gym.

Now, that thought made him blush a little bit.

He kicks the dirt as Lisa came along.

“Hey,” he states tentatively while bending to pick up his bag. “How you doing?”

A glance here and there and he starts to head into the building, “Ever try out the rock wall here?”

"Oh, I'm okay. There's this guy taking me rock climbing, so that's pretty cool," she said playfully as she fell into step beside him. "How about you? Sorry, I hope I didn't keep you waiting long?"

Some habits died hard. She got the door for him, all reversal-like. You didn't go on a date with a chick built like Ronda Rousey if you expected dainty or lady-like. No, Asp was just... Asp. She didn't have preconceived notions of gender roles or chivalry bullshit. She just do what she do.

"I haven't! I'm super psyched to give it a go. Is it pretty good?"

“Nope,” Adam replies too immediately for that to be the truth. There is one thing to be said about those who haven't seen the way the world really works: they haven't honed their ability to lie. It's endearing in a way, really. It isn't completely pitiful.

Inside is a mixture of old and new. Nods to the University's Gymnasium's past life are apparent, spruced up, and mixed with gleaming new exercise machines: ellipticals, row machines, back-press machines and more. These are, already for the most part, taken up. Most of the people are lost in their own world: headphone children listening to music Asp has probably never heard.

“Oh, it's nice. Um, there's a couple of different tracks to get on, so we'll see?” Passed the exercise machines and through another hallway, and out into a open space with a gray-false rock wall staring the pair in the face. A bored student-worker stands near it, ready to put people in safety-harnesses.

Nearby is a group of students learning self-defense.

Wits + Investigation – 2 please

A little half-smile crossed Lisa's face as he lied to her. How sweet! He'd waited.

As they walked through the gym, the young Obrimos took in the sights. Machines, machines, machines, being worked and worked. She knew that grind, the sweaty, muscle-tearing workout of striving to make her body the reflection of the Supernal she wanted it to be. And the wall! So taken with the wall was Asp that she didn't notice anything off with the martial arts students. It wasn't like she could just sit and stare at them, right? That'd be awkward.

Asp would hate to be awkward.

"Cooool," she said with glee as she gazed up at the wall. Awesome! She grinned at him and angled her way toward the kid doing the harnessing, figuring they ought to get started.

"So what's new? How was the rest of the party?"

  fail

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-02-12 10:50:55		Asp rolls 2 to Wits3+Inv1-2 (10 Again)		1, 1		failure

“Oh,” Adam says faintly, “you know. Some people wandered off and there was a big mess we had to clean the next day, the ushe.”

The wall stands from floor to ceiling, lots of tiny little nobs in different colors protruding from it. The bored student-worker comes up to them and offers a couple of harnesses, “Have you gotten in these before?” The girl asks between chewing on gum.

“Just,” Adam continues, “school and stuff. A couple of big papers to write that's been eating up all my time.”

He lets the student worker help him into a harness, wires like thin snakes falling from the ceiling meant to keep them from falling and breaking something.

“You?”

So, that was super mundane. Sleepwalker Kid at Banisher University Has Very Boring Life. News at 11. Asp nodded to the girl, harnessing up appropriately and taking the opportunity to glance around for any signs of magic in the area. Spellcloaking her rituals? Best metamagic talent ever. It let her keep her Sight up, which went miles in terms of prevention.

"I started classes!" she said, a bit of excitement in her voice. Asp still honestly enjoyed learning academic stuff. It was something she wasn't very good at, but her recent breakthroughs made her feel very proud of herself. "Sociology. I mean, it's all one-hundred level stuff, but I guess... like, it's neat. Plus, it's not too hard, so I have time to look into women's varsity stuff. I'm really interested in trying out for a team. I'm really into basketball." She smiled at him as she finished harnessing up. "You know of anybody I ought to talk to about doing that? It'd save me so much time."

  3 sux to see if thurrs any magic signatures around

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-02-13 13:57:52		Asp rolls 7 to PER fo dat magic (10 Again)		8, 7, 8, 1, 4, 10, 7, 3		3 successes

Magic reaches for the four corners of the building, hoping against hope to gain a foothold. Asp can feel, can taste it like cotton candy melting on the tongue. Magic resides beneath the mundane: beneath the sounds of weights falling too hard on one another, beneath the sound of exertion and explanation in the nearby class, beneath the scent of sweat and chalk being offered to Asp.

Asp is in a nest of Vipers that would devour her whole if they uncover her.

Obviously, given her current location.

“Oh, really?” Adam says as though a question he hasn't asked, has already been answered. “How do you like Professor Davies?” It's small-talk, right? “As for Basketball, you wanna talk to Coach Kay. Dunno if they'll take a walk-on so late in the year but there's always inter-murals?”

Indeed, it was there, all around her. The danger, the threat. There was no way she was getting out of here alive if she got caught.

For Queen and Country, right?

"Davies is decent. A bit boring, you know, but not so bad I get to Facebooking in class," she joked. Coach Kay? A name. It was somewhere to start, something to forward on to the Arrow squad. Maybe it was significant, maybe it wasn't, but Adam was part of the Banisher Frat, right? "It's worth a shot, right?"

She finished harnessing up, checking to make sure it was all snug and whatnot. She had a mission to accomplish, and that meant a) climbing a wall with a boy and b) figuring shit out about Operation Banisher.

"Sorry, I don't mean to get all single-minded on sports," she said with a quiet laugh at herself. "Why don't you tell me about yourself? What's Adam into? How'd you end up in oh-so-lovely Sacramento, chilling with the boys at Sigma Alpha Epsilon and whatnot?"

Smooth? No. Asp found herself wondering how it was she was always the infiltrator. Next time, Star was going on the date with the boy and she and Avis would chill in the van!