On the Corner of Paranoia and Prudence

[Avis]

It was difficult to choose a meeting location. Either you went very public, where anyone could be a tail, but the foot traffic made things more hectic, or you went somewhere very open, where you could keep better track of your surroundings, but also opened yourself up to surveillance. Either way was a risk, but Avis tended to prefer public. At least there, no one could act very openly without opening themselves up to a lot of attention.

Hence why she'd decided on the Bus Station. It was a good place to loiter, had a lot of foot traffic, and had a lot of places of egress. Now all she had to do was wait.

  4 successes, 2 for mage sight, 2 for shield.

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-10-06 20:05:46		Avis rolls 5 to 3rd eye+space shield (gnos3+mind4-2 combined) (10 Again)		1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 8		4 successes

[Varyx]

Varyx is not the sort of woman who can move through a public space unnoticed. She approached the bus station quickly, aware of the eyes on her as she moved through the building. Her gaze snapped around from behind a pair of large sunglasses, her face a practiced mask of indifference to hide her frustration. The bus station, Avis had said. Lovely. No mention of where in the bus station. No mention of how she was supposed to determine just which one of the people sitting about.

For a society of supposedly secretive people, these mages certainly made it tempting to walk around shouting for them.

She attempted to erect a mind shield but, distracted and annoyed, the spell fizzled before she could finish the imago. She cursed under the breath and stepped out of the path of people, taking shelter by one of the benches and pulled out her phone.

If Avis was going to be so difficult to find, she could damn well come find Varyx herself.

  failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-10-06 21:18:10		Varyx rolls 5 to Mind Shield (10 Again)		4, 1, 7, 2, 6		failure

[Avis]

For anyone with their Mage Sight on, their "eyes", as she described it, Avis wouldn't have been hard to find. In fact, just sitting around with the Supernal wrapped around her wasn't entirely a safe thing to do, considering who else dwelled within the city, but it seemed like it wasn't obvious enough for the new comer.

So, shit. Looked like she had a project on her hands. Either that, or something had happened to the newcomer before she'd arrived.

With a small frown, Avis pulled out her phone and called Varyx's number again.

No need to make a comm's thread. We'll just keep things going here

[Varyx]

Varyx took a seat on the bench and then pulled out her buzzing phone, smiling when she saw it was Avis.

"Hello, dear," she greeted, crossing her legs. "I'm here. Are you?"

[Avis]

Once more, Varyx was hung up on. As soon as Avis saw the glowing blonde answer her phone and heard her voice coming through the speakers she had no more need of her phone. So, slipping the device back into her pocket she got up and walked over to Sacramento's newest Warlock, likewise giving the woman a look at her new Councilor.

Unlike Varyx, Avis wasn't a terribly impressive person. Standing at middling height, with fen water eyes regarding the blonde around a spill of black hair, she looked like she someone that had more in common with the vagrant down the way than with standing among the Awakened of the Consilium.

"Let's go," Avis said, subltly inclining her head towards the east exit. "We'll talk more at our last destination."

[Varyx]

It took Varyx a moment after the girl in the ratty clothes spoke to her to realize that she was Avis. But then, she realized, she supposed she shouldn't have been - why should a mage look particularly well-off? Why should they want to draw attention to themselves? There was an advantage to drawing attention, but there was an advantage to remaining unnoticed, too.

She stood, pushing her own phone back into her designer purse, smirking at the almost comical number of differences between the two of them as they walked towards the exit. "Are you going to tell me where we're going?" It wasn't an accusation; she spoke lightly, almost teasing. The mages in Sacramento were careful, it seemed. Or maybe it was just Avis. Either way, she could respect caution. She smirked, pulling down her glasses to look Avis in the eye. "Or is it a surprise?"

[Avis]

Huh. Well, for whatever else Varyx might be, she wasn't easily ruffled. Avis liked that. Maybe this Varyx wasn't as much of a project as she'd thought. Maybe the Blonde just wasn't used to having to careful.

It would make sense. She looked like someone who came from privilege.

"It's a surprise," Avis finally replied, glancing back at Varyx after they'd gone about a block from the bus station. "Don't worry, though. It's safe. And well known to the other people in town."

From there on they made their way across several streets, down two alleys, and then got into a cab. A short ride later they got out again, wended through another few alleys, and then emerged in front of the Circle of Creation.

By the time they'd passed through the large double doors of the entrance and found themselves standing in the pew lined sanctuary, Avis seemed to relax.

"Alright Varyx, now we can talk freely. Oh, and welcome to Sacramento, by the way."

[Varyx]

Varyx took a moment in the cab to watch Avis from out of the corner of her eye. She suspected the Councillor knew she was watching, but she didn't seem to care. At first, Varyx had to admit she'd been surprised when she'd realized Avis was the Mastigos leader in the city. It was... unusual for a woman like her to take that kind of open leadership position. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized it just meant Avis was impressive. She didn't look the part, but that just meant she'd earned her respect in other ways. Whether by active leadership, intimidation, powerful allegiances or pure physical or magical prowess, this woman obviously had something about her that made people want to follow her, and it sure as hell wasn't charisma. Of course, her lack of presence simply meant that, whatever she had, she had to have a lot of it to get that kind of respect when she was otherwise so easy to overlook.

That sounded useful, wielding power without being noticed. How interesting.

They stepped out a few blocks later, in front of a large, old, gothic church. Again, Avis surprised her by walking straight up to the door and striding inside, leaving Varyx to catch up. A church? Really? Only, then they got inside and Varyx started to realize it wasn't a church at all. And she didn't miss the way the tension left Avis' body once they were through the doors and inside the sanctuary.

Varyx took off her glasses, a pleasured little smile curling her lips as she took in her surroundings. Then she chuckled at Avis' welcome. "Why thank you, sweetheart. Quite a lovely... um, what is this place, exactly?"

[Avis]

Sweatheart? Well...that was definitely...new. A sable brow twitched upward, but Avis decided not to comment on it. There was no point drawing attention to how someone patronized you.

"This," Avis said instead, "is the Circle of Creation. The House of the Adamantine Arrow in Sacramento. It's also one of five meeting grounds for Sacramento's Consilium. I thought it would be a good place to get know each other. Also, safe in case your little slip up on the phone tipped anyone off. Hence the scenic route on the way here. Not that I suspect anyone determined would get shaken that easily, but we have to be cautious here. Sacramento isn't a safe place to be. You can't trust that no isn't using Forces or a wire tap on your calls. You all can't trust no one isn't going to try and follow you to a meeting."

[Varyx]

It took Varyx a moment to understand what Avis meant when she said "slip up." It hadn't occurred to her that even using the word "Mastigos" was a bad idea. Apparently, paranoia ran deep in this city, though from the way Avis was talking, it seemed like there might have been a good reason why.

"I don't know that I believe anyone would be listening in on me already, given that you're the only person in the city who knows I'm here," Varyx answered, pursing her lips. Then she nodded her head slightly in recognition of Avis' advice. "But thank you for the tip. I'll keep that in mind." She took a seat in one of the pews, drawing lipstick out of her purse to touch up the bright red colour of her lips. "Who, exactly, must I worry about tapping my calls or following me around? Advice to be careful is all well and good, but I should know who I'm supposed to be careful about, don't you think?"