Downtime

Oct 4th, 2015 09:48 PM

Keeping his eyes on the road, he remarked with happiness, "Family was tight knit. We had to be." A pause passed between thoughts, "We weren't well off for the longest time. Both Mom and Dad had to work full time jobs. Neither paid well but, it kept us from starving."

Another red light. "Urgh." The temptation to call upon the Aether for convenience was nagging at him. Glancing to Avis, "School was well, boring...I just never fit in with any crowd. Like, I tried but it just never stuck. I wasn't picked last for anything intentionally." He shrugged, "People just didn't bother to notice me unless they wanted something."

**Avis** · Oct 6th, 2015 03:18 AM

"Let me guess: that hasn't changed. No one noticing unless they wanted something, I mean," Avis clarified, turning briefly to study Ermac before transferring her gaze back to the traffic around them, in both the mirrors and the windows.

"I'm sorry you've had to put up with that. It's shitty. I should have...I don't know," she sighed, shaking her head, eyes dropping from their surroundings. Another corridor of memory opened up, revealing a window back to the moment when Ermac and...that Thyrsus got kicked from the Council because of the new charter. More specifically, to Ermac, and the way his back and shoulders looked as he gracefully left his seat, all because no one had offered, or agreed, to bond with him in a cabal.

"I'm not surprised you haven't shared much. The community here hasn't ever encouraged it," the Warlock concluded, eyes going back to the sights beyond automotive glass.

Oct 6th, 2015 12:22 PM

When the light turned green, the car rolled forward. He didn't need to confirm Avis' observation, she already recognized it. He opined on his own mistake. "No need to apologize. I have my share of the blame. I didn't read the fine print well enough."

Another brief glance to the Mastigos, "And you're correct, the community isn't very supportive. That point was proven with our last gathering."

Finally, Hollywood Hardware was in sight. "I'm not sure if you had heard by now, I left that crew. There's only so much bullshit I can tolerate. That bitch being the primary catalyst."

**Avis** · Oct 6th, 2015 10:21 PM

"Really?" Avis blurted, head whipping round to focus on the spectacled mage beside her. "You left the Free Council?"

The inane question escaped before she even though about it.

"God damn, Ermac, I...I don't even know what to say. I mean..."

So much of her life was built around the teachings of the Adamantine Arrow. For so many years she'd been buried beneath pharmaceutical sludge, grasping and clawing her way through a perpetual haze of constant chemical molestation to her dopaminergic pathways and the oppressive manipulations of men and women that wielded words and questions like scalpels, cutting away anything they considered to be chaff. Even after she'd left all that behind, even after her soul and found it's way to Pandamonium's Watchtower, she'd been raw. Scoured and cut like a fugitive who'd crawled their way through barbed wire, and it had only been the guidance of her Order that had helped her bandage the wounds and begin to heal.

To begin to find herself.

To imagine anyone just quitting their order? To abandon it because of the other people inside it? It was difficult to imagine. If she hadn't fought as viciously as she had with Asp she wouldn't have been able to.

"So...what are you going to do now?" she finally asked, unbuckling her seat belt, one hand perched on the door handle.

Oct 7th, 2015 01:32 PM

Ermac nodded, "It wasn't a decision I made lightly." A moment's pause, "If you're wondering why, I can explain if you'd wish to hear it."

Rounding into the parking lot, "As for what I'm doing, I'm finding my own way now." He sounded relieved to say so. "I walk free of biases. I seek to learn. I will find a place where I fit in."

**Avis** · Oct 8th, 2015 01:36 AM

"Alright, well, I'm gonna ask you more about it once we're in the car," Avis replied as they neared the doors of the hardware store, "but for now, let's find our way to the spray paint."

She held the door for him and then made her way inside, hands slipping into her pockets just in case an old habit reared its head. She wasn't a kleptomaniac, or anything, but it was a comfort thing. If her hands were in her pockets she didn't have to worry about them. Though, honestly, that was probably the old habit rearing its head. After walking the Adamant Path as long as she had, the thought of 'accidentally' doing something she didn't intend to do seemed entirely absurd, transforming the anxiety into something alien, and distant, like a foreign mind she was peeking into.

Shuddering lightly, and verbally blaming it on the store's fans, Avis brushed past that train of thought and picked out several cans of spray paint. Black, red, green, blue, yellow. Well, better throw in a white. And another can of black. Yup. That should keep her well stocked.

Cash was flashed and then she was waiting for Ermac by the car. She waited until all her cans were settled and done clinking before she finally questioned him again.

"So how are you going to go about finding where you fit in? Just wait for an invitation to join, or wait for an explanation of the Order's philosophy?"

Oct 8th, 2015 03:19 PM

"Understood," he confirmed in response. The Obrimos exited the car, walking with the Mastigos. Eyes wandered up and down the selection of paints. He chose a shade of neon blue, purple, red, white and black. Handing over the cash, Ermac returned to the car.

"I ask questions about the Order's philosophy," he answered as he turned the key in the ignition. "I learn what the Order is willing to share. In turn, the Order learns if I align with its requirements and deems whether or not I am worthy for membership."

Setting the car in reverse, "Where to from here?"

**Avis** · Oct 9th, 2015 03:49 AM

"You're gonna head to Water Street. That's south of here. So, uh, take a right, just as if we'd never pulled in here," Avis replied, leaning over to point his window before retreating back into the seatbelted confines of her seat.

"Along the way I think I gotta ask, though, how come I haven't heard any questions about the Arrow yet? You didn't ask Striker, did you? Please, please tell me you ask Striker about the Arrow first," Avis asked, mock horror scrawling itself across her face.

Oct 9th, 2015 08:32 AM

As instructed, the car turned right, heading to Water Street. The Theurge raised a brow followed by shaking his head. "The thought never crossed my mind." Ermac shrugged, "Given his history, I must have subconsciously crossed his name off the list."

Glancing to Avis, "You're much more enjoyable - and it's not just about the Arrow either. You actually care about what's going on."

**Avis** · Oct 10th, 2015 03:05 AM

"Well, I think we both have that in common, caring about what's going on. Well, and being enjoyable too," Avis added with the ghost of a snerk. "But I'm serious, I'm surprised you haven't come asked about the Ungula Draconis yet. I mean, there's a lot of misconceptions out there about what the Talons are really about. Even inside the Order, in some cases. Asp was a good example of that, I think."

Avis trailed off, a hand ghosting up to brush at her mouth, a tick summoned by the memory of the blonde powerhouse of a Talon. Memories of blood on her tongue, the visage of Asp slowly fuzzing toward black as her heart began to fail. Memories of walking across sunlit grass, golf clubs in their hands. Memories of shouting, and a memory which had crystallized above the rest: Asp's hands on her belly, her magic killing something that had begun to bloom inside...

"Well, maybe I shouldn't say that," she hastened to add out of the silence, a sense of debt more than loyalty haunting her. "More so that some of the Order tend to become hyper-focused. Just like we all can, I guess. But, um, anyways, how about this? What do you know about the Arrow?"

Downtime

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