(Ivory Tower) SuperMegaTactical Van!

[Avis]

Two wizards. Sitting in a van. With a Wizard on it. Parked about fifty feet from the front of Banisher U's murder fitness training center rec center. Ridiculous, right? Who'd expect something so goddamn crazy? Well, hopefully not the mentally castrated followers of a hate cult. Irony was usually lost on sycophants and the brain washed. Or, that was what Avis was banking on. Cause she had live spells on. As many as she could carry, actually, and half of them were splitting her consciousness into focusing on a completely different set of surroundings. She wasn't completely blind, but she was very, very glad that Star was with her, to say the least. Speaking of which, it was her job to explain what he couldn't see. Best she get on with it.

"They're just being awkward right now," Avis relayed to him, metaphysical Eye fixed on the Sentinel even as her fleshy ones stared listlessly off through the windshield. "Like, worse than us, awkward."

   One Mind Two Thoughts (pot 1) + Scrying (pot 1), no dox

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-02-10 19:53:39		Avis rolls 3 to forgot paradox, grrrr (10 Again)		5, 2, 6		failure
2015-02-10 19:48:56		Avis rolls 6 to One Mind Two Thoughts+Scrying (gnos3+space3+hs2-2combined) (10 Again)		7, 1, 6, 6, 8, 10, 1		2 successes

   Misperception (pot 1) + Mental Sheild (pot 2)

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-02-10 19:44:27		Avis rolls 7 to Misperception+Mental SHIELD (gnos3+mind4+hs2-2combined) (10 Again)		2, 10, 2, 6, 8, 3, 2, 10, 2		3 successes

Avis is utilizing One Mind Two Thoughts to talk to Star and watch the prolonged Scrying window. -3 Mana, 1 for scrying, 2 for armors. Scrying/Two minds cast with Asp in Sight, in front of the rec center. Avis has on her bulletproof vest.

[Star]

"What? We weren't awkward. You were awkward. I wasn't awkward."

There was definitely laughter below the surface. Which, given everything... was nice. They'd been awkward. Him. Her. We weren't terribly awkward, though, because there was Truth to it. Like the van. Ridiculous, and maybe not something Zoey everyone would want to ride in, but it was exactly what it was. You just had to get past the Lies and see.

"Were we that bad? I don't remember us being super bad. After, you know, the Asking Out part. That was... uh. Probably historical. That's one degree past 'epic'."

His own eyes shifted randomly. No patterns. Patterns make you miss things. A small notebook sat in his lap, and a pen periodically made marks on it. Who loitered. How many of the same color shirts. Don't let your eyes fall into patterns, but notice the patterns they find. Stakeouts done right Save Lives.

"Sooooo.... How about them Acanthus?"

That's a joke. A sports joke. Except, it wasn't funny. Mostly Not Funny. Some of it was pretty funny. But this wasn't about Consilium. This was about... the future. Which, now? Even. More. Curious.

Because Valentine.

[Avis]

"Yeah, cause sticking your dick in half the cabal isn't awkward," Avis immediately shot back, her voice surprisingly neutral.

"Pass me the chips," she requested a second later, slumping down further in her seat, eyes still fixed at some distant point. Well, not some distant point. It was a pretty specific point.

[Star]

"It could have been worse?"

True story. Could have been the whole cabal and she was the last to know. Know, as in, biblical. That's funny, yo. Please god don't snicker. Some things get a whole lot less funny when they're shared. Speaking of sharing? Chips. Passed. Someone was going to have to vacuum the van after this. And, by someone, him.

"I mean, I don't know what to say. To that. Like, the appropriate. Response." See? Things are suddenly Less Funny out loud. And that wasn't even loud. More like a mumble. "I'm sorry. That wasn't funny. Like, it's not funny to joke about." File Under Never Gonna Hear The End Of That. Was that off the cuff, or had she been saving that for the Right Moment? "Unless, you know, it's okay. That it's one of those things where it's been long enough."

Maybe long enough for her to crack funnies. Probably not him.

"But. Hey. As long as, uh. As long as that's the topic? I want to ask you something. About Zoey leaving."

[Avis]

"Joke about it, I don't care," Avis replied, popping a chip into her mouth, then crunching loudly on it. The noise was pretty fitting, actually, for how she'd felt ever since Zodiac had left the theater. Even sleep just seemed to intensify it, though there were times when it dimmed. Only some times. More often she thought about how unsatisfying her last words to the other Warlock had been. No words likely existed that would ever be satisfying, but acknowledging that didn't really help. To have someone just reject you like that? Like, reject you so much that they left behind an entire city, and all their other relationships in it? And someone you'd even been trying to invest yourself in? To trust and care about them? There was nothing so insulting. Nothing so...she didn't even know what. Zodiac's death would have almost been better to cope with. An amazingly selfish thought, yeah, but she couldn't deny that it had surfaced.

"Ya know," Avis continued around another half-munched chip, "since we're talking about Zodiac, I gotta say, I think it would have been better if it hadn't been her. Like, if it had to have been someone in the cabal before me, it would have been better if it was Asp. At least she has the integrity to actually fucking work something out. She's not some bitch who's so wrapped up in herself that she'll just walk out on you because you didn't cater to her every fucking whim."

More chips were grabbed. Was she...stress eating? Anger eating? Just...crushing something while she was stuck inside the van? None of those seemed like good realities.

A few chips plopped back into the bag.

"What do you wanna know, anyway? She left. She's a bitch. End of story."

[Star]

When someone says they don't care, then assaults potato chips?

Well. Maybe someone else. But no one needs to test that hypothesis. And, hey, look. Answers. To his question, unasked, about what she would have to say about Zoey's leaving. And there you have it. Funny, though. In the beginning, it had been the Arrows. Banner Warden this, some Arrow meeting that. Then...

Asp?

Probably not the time to point out that brunette Warlocks were A Thing. Obviously.

"The way she left, it, uh. It hurt my feelings. I thought we were, you know. All of us. Family." Sure, the opening comment was A Thing. But it hadn't been insurmountable. Did it contribute? Maybe. But maybe not. Avis was Avis, and Zoey was Zoey and it wasn't hard to see how they could have butted heads.

He leaned over, rummaging through his backpack. Gatorade. A folded envelope. The Gatorade, he kept; the envelope, he offered. No secrets. "I think, hmmmm. I think that, when we care, when people are family, we... We have to try harder to see them in the best possible light? To think the best of them, instead of the worst. And I'm not talking about whatever you're talking about. I'm talking about this, this letter, because I had to think about it. And re-read it."

Fingers rifled through the bag of chips.

"Did you crush these? Or are these just the leftovers?"

Conflict.

"But, yeah. Look at the first thing she wrote. She wrote about you. And, it sounds like an accusation? But I don't think it is. I think that, whatever you fought about, you were important to her, and knew that you were super important to me. So I've been wondering if, you know. If maybe part of why she left was for us? So that we could... I dunno. So that whatever you two fought about, maybe, to Zoey, it wasn't as important as you and me. That it wouldn't bleed over. I wish things had worked out. I don't even know what it was about? But."

Rambling. Thoughts in motion. Maybe he was wrong. But not everyone thrived on conflict.

"I think what I'm trying to say? That maybe staying and being in the cabal, well, that maybe she thought more people, herself included, would be happier if she didn't."

Because Guardian.

"And, I want to hear about it. About what you said, if you want to talk about it. I just wanted to put that out there."

[Avis]

"They're inside now. In the gym. Walking to the rock wall. People are learning to fight nearby. Weird ass place for that kind of training," Avis said suddenly, even though her fleshy, optical organs read over the letter Her voice was tinged with bewilderment and boredom as she spoke, definitely at odds with the tense, bitter emotional landscape from seconds before.

Then, suddenly, her hands tensed, as though she were going to crumple the letter up, but instead she just threw it back to Star.

"That's fucking rich!" she blurted out, turning for the first time to face him. "You think she left because she thought it was better for us? Are you kidding me? The reason why she left in the first place is because I named Gyges as my Provost. Which, apparently, was a complete betrayal of her even though there aren't any other fucking options! But, no, because he was mean to her how dare I name him my provost; my assistant to help in my duties to represent my path against the political moves against us. But, apparently, Gyges being an ally against those exact same political moves doesn't matter. No, apparently all that matters is that Zoey thinks he's wrong, and that I'm wrong, and so the only thing to do is leave. To say, 'fuck all y'all, I'm done with your shit.'

"But, like, the ironic thing is that it's the same exact shit," Avis ranted, "Zodiac put me through when I became Councilor. Same exact tune. I thought Zoey had just been upset because she thought I wasn't ready, but, no, her point was that she didn't want me to do it and so it was bad that I did it anyway. Because I didn't do what she wanted! So, no, Zoey left because she's a selfish bitch. And you know what really fucking kills me about this entire thing?" she asked, eyes going wide as though some force from within her skull was pushing them open even further.

"What kills me is that, in the end, Zoey still gets a fucking family. She's just like, 'later motherfuckers, I never needed you, now I'm fucking married with kids!' And that's so fucking annoying I just want to break something! It's like we don't even fucking matter anymore. Like we never did. She always had a real family back in Boston, and we were just pets she was sitting. Why the fuck she was even staying here in the first place I'll never fucking know."

With a grunt, her rant ended, Avis flopped back into her seat, looking away from Star. A hand jerked up and clawed an errant tear away. She was boiling so hot the had no place to go but out.

[Star]

Gyges?

"I... I don't know if Zoey knows how to trust someone."

Which is what it really boils down to. That thing? The one where you can't ever believe anyone else is right? Sometimes, it's pride. But a lot of times, it's trust. Only trusting yourself. To See. To Understand. Silence reigned, broken only by the sound of the pen on the notebook.

Funny how things turn around. Not so long ago, he'd been playing catch-up on thoughts she'd had already. Now, the reverse.

"I was mad, too." Words, whispered. "That we... what we... "

Was it fair? Who knows. Would he begrudge his friend her happiness? For a day or two. After that, no. Silence crept back in again as her words were turned over and over. In some ways? His fault. There was a time when everything was Okay. Before the park. Before the Council. They were thoughts that had come before, but they weren't any more palatable later.

"She was passing through. And she stayed for us, until she couldn't. That's why. I think you're right about the Provost thing..." The mop slowly swiveled. It still surprised him. How much seeing someone else hurt could hurt. It hurts worse when you're not going to reach out and comfort them. True story. "...but you're wrong. You're wrong for, for not being happy for your friend. Don't do that. In a couple of years? Heck, a year? It won't matter who your Provost was. But it'll matter who you friends are. Who they were." It wasn't just Zoey. Or the argument. He knew, because he felt it. Zoey just made a really, really great target. And that wasn't fair.

Right, Valentine?

[Avis]

"I'm not capable of being happy for her," the Warlock replied hollowly, eyes staring aimlessly out the side window, away from Star.

Despite her words, she knew he was right. Right about being able to let go of the anger and be happy for someone who she'd once been ready to call family, but sometimes what you know doesn't matter. As long as there was no road between the a concept in the mind and an understanding in the soul it didn't matter. Someday a road would exist between the two, and she'd be able to think of Zodiac without bitterness, but she couldn't imagine when it would be. She'd probably die before then, actually. Probably end up choking on her own blood on this very campus. Maybe that thought of death looming near should have been the catalyst she need to transform the anger into something positive, but really all it did was make her cling to the embers of rage tighter. Sometimes that felt like the only source of warmth available to her.

[Star]

Maybe not now.

Maybe not ever. Was this what it was going to be like? If We turned back into Him and Her? No arguments. Everyone needs something. For some people, it's conflict. But maybe it's something else.

"Not even if, uh, we hijack her wedding band and stand in and play really super badly?"

That's not entirely a joke. It might be an Idea.

Take it from someone who had to wear a silly hat to get a date. Bargains. Concessions. Sacrifice? Hard to say. What isn't, though? It's hard to let people inside. Harder for some. He knew. And when that door that was opened gets closed? Hard to imagine it wasn't a foot kicking it closed. No matter how softly, it can feel like a slam.

"You ever see 'Tombstone'? Doc Holliday is riding out to the Big Showdown, but he's got consumption, so he's really sick. And this one guy says, 'Why are you doing this?'. Doc says, 'Wyatt Earp is my friend'. The man laughs and says, 'Heck, Doc, a man has lots of friends'."

He paused. "And Doc Holliday gave the best answer. 'I don't', he said."

Fingers rubbed at his eyes. Staring is hard work, yo.

"I think you've been a great Councilor. Not great, like, just saying that. Better than Ariadne would have been. I'm sorry Zoey didn't see that."