Leaf on the Wind

[Star]

"It's cool. It's weird. I know it's weird."

It's True. Who ever woke up and said, you know, I think I want to be a Guardian. Because Guardians are awesome.

"But, maybe this helps? I think you're coming at things backwards. Like, everything. You ask me what I believe, what my Order believes. Sure, that's fair. But at the end of the day, a lot of it's dogma. Just. Dogma." A hand came up, long fingers splayed with the palm outward and a quicksilver sparkle on The Finger. "Guardians believe that personal relationships should be avoided."

"So let's play that game. That the question is backward. And, relax. This won't count as your pitch. What are your beliefs about the Awakened? About magic? Sleepers? The Lie? It's okay, don't answer those. That's not the question, because we'll just, like, assume you do the, you know, polished and politically correct answers. Ready? How do you want to contribute? How will your beliefs manifest? Don't answer that, either. That's a You question, not a Me question. You'll change your mind a dozen times a day, and that's okay. You picked Inara. Maybe you picked the flip side of the coin. Like Simon and Jayne? And I never said 'someone who is capable of doing the things that must be done'. You totally got that Guardian propaganda from someone else." It's a small city, yo. "I said, because someone has to. I'm not trying to be a jerk, or play with semantics? It just means something different."

A soft smile crept out, like they were sharing a joke.

"But I'm not pitching you, either. I'm not going to sell you on the Visus, or tell you what to believe, just help you See. So. My turn. Think of it as, uh, conversational sorbet. To cleanse the palate. Why'd you join Ess Pee and why'd you leave them?"

Because this Epopts also a Hearthmaster.

[Varyx]

She hadn't said that he said it was someone who had to do what must be done. That was a different sentence. A different thought - her own. But that was her own fault, because she hadn't been clear. And that was the problem with playing with words. She got used to doing things like that - quoting someone else, slipping another, similar idea in next to it. Making it sound like their own. She hadn't even meant to do it, but it happened. Habit, maybe. She sure as hell wasn't used to anyone calling her out on it.

Lots of questions, spinning her mind, but it was funny, because the only one he apparently wanted an answer to was the one she actually knew the answer to. It was just a question of how much she wanted to say. But you know? The whole issue had been one of trust to begin with. So, trust him?

"I joined because I had to." That part was easy. "This is a dangerous place. Running around on your own is a bad idea. You need a cabal to be recognized in the Consilium. They offered. And when I arrived here, I was even less aware of what I came looking for than I am now. I was doing what I knew. Pick the politically correct choice. The new cabal. The one without baggage and the one I could shape because it didn't have a shape of its own yet." Her smile turned rueful. "It was not... the ideal attitude. And I think I knew that, even then. I never moved in with them. There was a space for me, at the Forge. I never took it."

She pulled one leg up, her heel hooking against the edge of the chair, and rested her cheek against her knee. "Why I left? They dropped an oath on me by surprise." She winced. "That makes it sound worse than it was. It wasn't intentional. They wanted to do a cabal Oath, and that's fine, but walking into a room, giving the Oath without any preamble or permission, and expecting reciprocation? That's not. And I was the only person in the room who saw a problem with what happened." A shrug. "There's more to it than that, obviously. But that was what made me see that I didn't belong there."

[Star]

"Blah blah trust issues blah blah control freak bla-blah bla-blah?"

Bye the end, he was cracking up. Throw in some jazz hands with the fauxnalysis.

"Just messing. That's cool. You know, maybe you do, maybe Avis told you, maybe not, but that's kinda how Vee Tee started. Just staking out a Hallow. The funny part is, it took Avis a while to join. I think she had to think about it, maybe wanted to crew up with some Arrows. I dunno. That was, like, way before." Eyebrows raised. You know, before. Before We. "Sometimes, it's kind of weird, you know? Thinking how different things could have been."

The words have a relaxed, gentle cadence to them like the rhythm of a trade wind through coastal palms.

"Things used to be super different. There were, uh. Yeah. I think Vee Tee was maybe the only cabal back then? Everyone was just, like, running around. Then, like, Aquinas showed up out of nowhere and took the big chair by Duel." A shrug masked an inspection for any reaction to the last. "But then a couple of people died. Like, uh. Animus, this elder Arrow slash Life Master. Then everyone got, you know, a lot more nervous. I think Miach got him killed, but, I dunno."

Long fingers slowly rotated the fragile-looking silver lattice that surrounded one.

"I'm glad Avis has a new friend. I think, I think it's been, I dunno. Maybe a little tough since Lisa and Zoey left. I know that probably, like, sounds a little condescending? But I don't mean it like that. I'm just saying, I'm glad. For real."

[Varyx]

Heh. Trust issues. Well, he wasn't wrong. She laughed alongside him, once he started cracking up.

She'd never heard about how VT started. Or how things were before. It wasn't that surprising to hear that VT was the only cabal around, at the time. It seemed to be the longest running by quite a lot. Maybe that was part of why she wanted to be a part of it. There was something here that made them stick together. Although, given the names Star was throwing around? Maybe the only reason "they" stuck together was because "they" were really just Avis and Star, at this point. After all, she was pretty sure July hadn't been around that much longer than she, and she remembered him saying something about Arthur and Emrys joining VT around the same time he had.

There was a greater expression of surprise at the casual accusation of Miach getting Animus killed than there was about Aquinas taking the Hierarch position by a Duel. She had no idea what the Hierarch was capable of, beyond the fact that there were rumors hanging about that he was a Master. But he bore a certain kind of quiet power. The kind that says he knows he deserves his position. Whether others agree with that assessment or not remains up in the air, she supposed, but the whole idea of him taking the position because he had the power to do so? Yeah. She'd buy that.

But Miach? Getting someone else killed? He'd always seemed so cautious. Maybe she'd misjudged.

"A new friend," she repeated, unable to quite keep the mirth out of her voice. "Maybe it sounds a little condescending. But it's alright, I know what you mean." A smile. This one genuine, because she was glad for it too.

Also, damn was it adorable for Star to be worrying over his wife like this.

"So, I take it Lisa and Zoey were ex-cabal-mates?"

[Star]

"Ex-caballeros. Friends. Family."

The last word gets one of the few direct looks he's ever offered the Mastigos. Sure, he'd been mad. More. But that didn't change anything. Know who family is? The ones who can pick up the phone no matter how long it's been and ask for anything. Maybe he hadn't been as close to Asp, but she'd Been There.

"It was kind of funny. That's, like, the joke in our cabal name? Asp, that's Lisa, and Avis were Arrows and Zoey and I were Guardians. So, like. Veiled, for the Guardians, and Threats for the Arrows." A grin slipped out. "Plus, like, Zoey could be all, you know, super-serious, so. It bugged her. The silly name. But, yeah, it was the four of us for a long time."

They'd done so much, too. More in his first six months in Sacramento than the past year.

"Good peeps. They just... moved on. Zoey got married, moved back, ummmmm. Up in the New England area I think? And Asp, I dunno. She was chasing something. Or, who knows. Maybe she went to find Ixidor." A long finger pointed at the two cards. "Toss those back. Sideways, sidearm. It's all in the wrist, get a good spin."

"I'm guessing you never, like, did the cabal thing before? Tell me about Varyx."

[Varyx]

A snicker escaped at the explanation of the Veiled Threats name. She gave up trying to hold it in and chuckled. "That is... so much less serious than Steel Phoenix."

Scooping the cards up off the floor as asked, her tongue poked out between her lips. It was awkward, getting into the position while seated. Sideways, sidearm. Just like skipping stones, right?

  beginner's luck!

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-05-09 21:27:04		Varyx rolls 2 to throw another card (Dex + Ath - 2) (10 Again)		6, 2		failure
2016-05-09 21:26:33		Varyx rolls 2 to throw a card (Dex + Ath - 2 because what am I even doing?) (10 Again)		10, 10, 4, 1		2 successes

The first card sliced through the air, aimed more-or-less in his actual direction. A quick inhale of breath and a rapid few blinks were the best indication that she was surprised by how well that had actually worked.

And then? The second one flopped and spun to the ground like an oak seed. At least it managed to slide across the floor to his feet, anyway. "Beginner's luck, I guess." She grinned.

"You're right about never having done the cabal thing before. I've never really even done the mage thing before. I was born and raised in San Francisco. Awakened there, but I wasn't the most involved in the Consilium. More interested in pretending to be a Sleeper with new magic toys, for the time. But, you know, the Truth is still there, even if you wanna pretend it isn't. Like an itch that won't go away. The final straw was my arrest." A little grin. "The second one. First one was a drug possession thing when I was in high school. You know how it is. They wanna catch you while you're young and scare you straight. Pretend like you're in big, life-altering trouble for having a couple ounces of pot or whatever." She shrugged and a hand came up to wave away the tangent.

"This one... was bigger. I got out, of course, with no charges." Warlocks are good at that kind of thing. Pretty warlocks who can bat their eyelashes at their male arresting officer and make some empty promises about 'services' in exchange for a favour are even better. "But I figured I'd be better off somewhere else." Laughter began to colour her tone once again. "Safe to say, I had no idea what I was stepping in by coming here."

[Star]

"There you go...."

The last word died off like the second card; fluttering, and spent.

"I'll tell you a secret. Practice with credit cards." Credit cards? Almost as handy as a towel, yo. Look it up. Starhiker's Guide. And if the assumption was being made that she cared at all about wanting to learn to throw cards? Who. Doesn't. "Yeah, that's a Totally Serious name. But then you're all, like, what's it mean? Like, what kind of steel? Is it stainless steel? I mean, there's lot of steels. It's just an alloy. And the phoenix part. Is that, like, some steel got melted and re-cast as a phoenix? Or some kind of, I dunno, commentary about slag and tramp metals?"

Slag? Tramp? It's accidental, yo. Real words, correct context.

"I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm not ragging on it. It sounds sweet. It's just, like, confusing. I guess. If you, you know, get all, whats-it-mean about it. Are you watching? Watch." The Angel held up the entire deck sideways and slid the top and bottom card halfway off. Then made a throwing gesture. Then threw it at her. The deck, framed and forced into aerodynamic unity, sailed as a single whole rather than individual cards. "So. That makes sense. Like, your borderline Order paranoia? I can see that coming from Golden territory."

Probably makes it even harder to swallow the Guardian bit.

"And. Yeah. I figured the other bit. That's just you." And maybe him, with a little less 'maybe'. "Me, too."

There's a shrug. Who hasn't been arrested? But it's more than that.

"Can I ask you one more thing? It's cool if it's too personal. You can tell me if it's too personal. I'm just curious. Are you, like, what are you, what kind of Mastigos? Mensamancy? Or Locumancy?"

Because Knowing Is Half The Battle.

[Varyx]

Was Star making up new words?

Mensamancy? Locumancy? It was hard to decide whether or not the question was too personal when she didn't know what it was he was actually asking.

"Mensa...?" But the moment the word was out of her mouth, it clicked, and she rolled her eyes, fighting a smile. "Oh, I get it. Mind or Space? It's not too personal." It wasn't like she needed to be detailed, exactly. Besides, the way she lived, the way she operated, the way she thought about magic? He was going to figure out which she preferred eventually, anyway. "Mind, I guess. As much as I have a preference. I tend to run a bit more in the direction of just picking the right tool for the right job, so it's hard to say I have a specific preference one way or the other. But you know." A one shouldered shrug. "Assuming that's what you're asking, anyway."

"What about you?"

[Star]

"Uh. Prime."

Had he scooted back, just a tiny bit, at the admission she was into Brain Scans? Of course not. All in the head, yo.

"And, ummm. Yeah. That's what I meant. I just, I dunno." Strange words from strangers. Because Smiley's People. "That's cool, though. That'll be nice. Like, especially if you can make people, I dunno. Either lie better or believe a bad lie. Or something. There was this, uh, deal. A couple months back, I think. Anyway. Woulda been nice." Maybe two people would still be alive. "So, like, are you like Arthur? Mostly into, I dunno, behind the scenes stuff? Instead of field work?"

"No biggie, I'm just asking. For, like, when we do our whole Avengers Assemble thing. The cabal. When we Do Stuff. Stuff like, lions and tigers and bears stuff, not, like, stuff like karaoke."

Veiled Threats totally needed to do some karaoke.

[Varyx]

"I wouldn't mind doing some karaoke." That didn't actually answer the question, but still. Sounded like fun.

"But as for what I Do? Behind the scenes stuff is probably my biggest strength. Which isn't to say I wouldn't go out and get my hands dirty. I'd like that too. But it depends on how we're getting our hands dirty. If things were getting bloody? I'd try to back you up, if you wanted me to. I just mean you probably wouldn't want me to." A self-deprecating grin. "I'd probably be more likely to hurt myself than anyone else."

Her gaze darted back to the mirrors. "So. How long have you been doing this sleight-of-hand thing?" Could be that he's always been into it. Or it could be that he couldn't pass up the irony of it once he Awakened. Either of those would fit with what she knew of him, after all.