(1612) Formal 2

[Star]

"Once a newly Awakened arrived at Consilium. 'I have just Awoken,' she said. 'Please give me instructions, Master.'" He's got the serious face on. The Guardians Tell Stories Face. "The Master said, 'Have you had breafast?' 'Yes', replied the Initiate. 'Then,' the Master says, 'Wash your dishes.'"

He shot Truce. Then Strix. Then Campanella. Squirt, squirt, squirt.

"Guardianfucius say, why so worried about Golem rituals when you cannot even make Sight rituals?"

Seriously. That's a serious question. If you can't toast bread, quit running around like headless chickens hollering about Chicken Cordon Bleu.

Come on, kids. That's just dangerous, yo.

[Strix]

Strix made a vaguely annoyed sound when Star shoot him with water, though it wasn't really much more than that. A minor annoyance. The water would dry soon enough on his suit.

Strix didn't really see what the plans the Moros made about the servitude construct had anything to do about their lack of having armor or sight spells up and running at all time.

It wasn't worth making a fuss about though. Star might just be worrying about them all not being shielded in his own way. Strange as it often was with him. Strix was still only ever so often sure what was going on with him.

"I'm not particularly worried about the project." And he wasn't. It might happen, it might not. Maybe he was just pessimistic, but he wouldn't be surprised if it ended up a failure. Either way, he would pitch in as much as he could, anyway. "And it's not so much as 'cannot' as 'did not'. Yet, anyway."

This was still the weirdest Consilium he had ever participated. As informal as it kept getting, which with their small number might not be all too strange, he supposed it might be not as important what you wore if some came dressed up as…whatever Veiled Threats were.

Not the worst thing, really. He actually found it far easier to get with the mage community without all the strict rule sticking — which he did attribute to the small number of friendly mages in the Consilium. Looking around again, it was a pretty small number.

Hopefully not getting any smaller, though.

[Avis]

"You know, the Arrow also has a saying: if it didn't hurt, you probably didn't learn anything. So...who wants me to hit them as hard as I can? To, ya know, help with the learning," Avis suggested, raising her hands, palms up.

"Anyone that says yes also gets a free shot at me," she added, her hands sweeping down her body. "Another Arrow saying: for every action, there is a reaction. For every good action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

[Truce]

"One should stick to good habits?" Truce answers, assuming the meaning of Star's story. "Especially when based in common sense. Very well."

Truce straightens up and begins moving his hands in mudras to apply the Sight to his vision. And, adding a moment later to his pattern an Imago of protection as well as a suppression of his aura to mask his nature.

Avis's answer he assumes to be either an appropriately veiled threat or an excuse to continue to go without the protections. Either way, he wasn't going to invite physical violence. And he knew better than to criticize her for vocalizing it.

"There was one suggestion that I overlooked at our last meeting. That is the idea of removing a foundation stone from the Circle for each Cabal to carry with us, establishing a link between us while away. I, for one, enjoy the symbolic gesture of this, though there have been questions about its practicality. Do any of you have thoughts on this?"

He forgoes mentioning where the idea came from, though Strix would likely remember.

  Sight/Shield/Sup (forgot -1 contagion for suppression)

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-12-20 13:04:17		Truce rolls 8 to cast improvised Suppress Aura [Gno+Death] (10 Again)		8, 6, 8, 2, 9, 1, 5, 8		4 successes
2016-12-20 12:59:58		Truce rolls 8 to cast improvised Entropic Guard [Gno+Death] (10 Again)		10, 3, 3, 4, 6, 9, 1, 1, 9		3 successes
2016-12-20 12:59:41		Truce rolls 10 to cast Grim Sight rote [WIT+Occ+Death] (10 Again)		1, 10, 8, 6, 8, 2, 3, 6, 8, 6, 6		4 successes

[Campanella]

Campanella nodded along after a moment of thought.

"The symbolism is perfect and quite fitting. It sounds like a fine thing to do. As for how... Well, there are a number of Awakened versed in Matter present. I am sure we can work something out. A higher working, perhaps, to draw the intervening layers aside? Or, perhaps, a discussion with those well versed in applications of Space?"

He was wandering about in the dark, he knew. His Arcane knowledge, just like his understanding of the mysteries, was still poor. So he let his gaze linger on those he suspected of greater knowledge.

[Tuesday]

Tuesday giggles. Because of course she does. Star chided everyone, and pewed all over the trio of Mori's faces.

Okay so it wasn't much of a giggle, more like an aborted one, paired with a snort and finished with a bitten lip. Details man. They're Important.

...is anyone gonna talk a free shot at Avis?

Tuesday's sure there are peeps that Want To. But. Avis-Retaliation. That be a great deterrent.

Truce takes the chiding, finds a lesson and magics up his sight and shield. Dude seems very...Proper. Pragmatic. Zen. Sure. Those work.

Circles within circles. "Like a pebble in a pocket? Or a part of something. Like jewelry, rings, necklaces, cufflinks, watches, etcetera?" glittery water pistol is under her armpit as fingers flick upward to count off examples.

Let the Matter dudes Matter and Avis Space, Tuesday can offer her own brand of awesome. "Again as with the Robo-nanny. I can Luck y'all up."

[Star]

We're Doomed.

That's funny because Doom, and there's those Moros, and Path of Doom, so...

He's still working on 'Can Not' versus 'Did Not'. Like, dialed down enough that he doesn't give in to take a swing at Avis. Because Shielded. And Truce brings up his Idea and he's still staring blankly at Strix when Campanella starts up.

"Higher working. To draw the intervening layers aside."

What did that even mean? He knew what all the words meant. And knew magicky stuff. But when he tried to match them up, it's just word salad. It was meaningless. Like noises someone would make about synergy and asking the right question and leveraging vertical markets in a flat economy. He knew, because when he snuck into meetings for The Job, he made those noises.

"Okay. Can I say something? I've got to, like, say something."

Not even gonna shoot anyone.

"This thing you guys are doing? Where you make word-things to cover up your ignorance-things? You gotta stop. Strix, man. You're trying to say you blew off a Shield when Crowley got dead like two months ago as a choice? Instead of just admitting you forgot, like Truce did? Camp. Whatever on the rits. You're new. But clearly? You don't know anything about rits. This whole 'higher working', what does that even mean? 'Layers'? We're not baking a cake." A finger moves between each. "Because here's the thing, and here's my point. Talking about golems when you're super noobs is silly. And trying to cover that you're super noobs is how people get hurt. It's not a crime to say you don't get something. If you peeps need help with how Rits work, that's why you have a Councilor. Or ask someone. Don't just make up some bee ess because you're too Proud to admit it."

Because Ignorance isn't a crime. But Hubris is.

[Aurora]

And wow! Shit just got real REAL quick.

Talk of why they didn't have shields up was a good topic. She had just always figured luck and Fate would be on her side and she could just cast a do over.

"I'll admit it, I've just been lazy with my own shields. I've always been able to rely on Time and Fate to get me out of dangerous situations. But I get what's being said, and no," she says with a shake of her head towards Avis, "I'm good! Cause you'd...you'd freakin hurt!!" Avis would give her quite a beating she was sure. "So, I've learned my lesson!" nope...no spells cast at her today thank you.

"And while I can see how this whole rock or pebble thing can be good, I can also see how it could be bad. What if it falls into the wrong hands, what if one of us turns against the Consilium? Too many variables need to be figured out before I'm sticking a pebble in my pocket."

But she saw the important of it, especially when Star starts calling people out.

[Strix]

Strix actually looked for a few moments as if he might be taking Avis up on her offer. He was nodding his head thoughtfully from side to side as if it was something that truly deserving consideration.

His look was equally very close to 'in just how much trouble would I get for punching a councilor — informal Consilium or not' turning into 'how upset would the Hierarch be if violence happened?' when he glanced over at Truce when the man in question was casting spells, probably charging his pattern with protection.

In the end, he had nothing to prove and just took it as reminder why he sent the Arrow recruiter packing back in Indianapolis.

Before he can go and make like Truce, however, Star spoke up. His eyes actually narrowed this time.

"I didn't 'forget' to come with Shielding, so I can't go and admit to it without lying about it. Like I said, I came without because I didn't think it necessary when coming here." Honestly, he didn't care enough to lie about something like this.

Still, he mulled over Star's words some more before giving a nod in acknowledgement. "Admittingly, it wasn't the brightest thing to do, however," especially with Crowley's memorial still fresh in his memory, "I will work on fixing."

And since he couldn't go about any rituals now, the improvised version would have to do.

Forging his imago made a crude golden glyph form and spin with his intend before him before Stygia's protection came to settle in his pattern first, followed by his vision being overlain by its Sight. Mana burned from his pattern when he ensured the Shielding, at the very least, would last him for the rest of the day.

  Loading up his pattern with Shielding & Sight

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-12-21 18:53:58		Strix rolls 5 to Improvised Dark Matter (Gnosis 2 + Matter 3) (10 Again)		10, 9, 10, 3, 9, 1, 3		4 successes
2016-12-21 18:53:12		Strix rolls 5 to Improvised Unseen Aegis (Gnosis 2 + Matter 3) (10 Again)		3, 1, 3, 9, 9		2 successes

Nobody should say he couldn't accept criticism when it actually had a point — or admitting when he had been wrong.

Maybe he had been a little to careless about these things, something they really couldn't be considering their trips through time to foil the Seers as well.

As for the cornerstone project, Strix did remember who suggested it. "I thought the initial suggestion was to have part of it within the Sanctum?" He looked at Truce and then over at Star, possibly having remembered it wrong.

[Truce]

The mention of Crowley darkens Truce's expression, his eyes lowering to the floor unfocused. The lesson struck close to home. All it takes is one negligent morning routine, and bam, you're spider food.

"We mustn't think like that. In this time we have to rely on each other more than ever. We shouldn't go suspecting our neighbors as turncoats," Truce says in response to Faye's concerns. He looks to Strix, "And yes, this isn't meant to be something carried on our person but to access at each Sanctum. Surely we regard our Sanctums as a safe place to store such a thing?"

Was it their suspicion of each other that made them each hide within their own dwellings rather than live together within the large cathedral?