Crystal invites Kaze over

[Crystal]

"That's great." This enthusiasm was something Crystal had to remember. If Kaze ever doubted his decision he would have to be reminded of this moment. Fuck, after all the Obrimos had been looking for something to be passionate about for quite some time. "Are there capable people to teach you? For some reason I imagine you teaching them." Or at least helping out anyone struggling with anything. Kaze really needed to watch out not to be strip mined by the industry.

The longer the Obrimos talked about his view on relationships, the more obvious it became how different the two Awakened were. "Huh, makes sense. I mean, as long as you disclosed to each other what could go wrong.. like, of course you don't need to know her weaknesses.." But what if things went south? He couldn't finish that thought out loud, that'd be a bit too cold. Still, the cautious part (and his inner Mystagogue) couldn't help but wonder: how do you go on about finding stuff out about Vampires? "I.. think it's great that you're looking beyond that. She does seem pretty chill." Maybe he shouldn't be so cynical, maybe things didn't have to be predestined to fail.

Speaking of: there goes the Supernal talk again. "Ugh, all right. I'm a Disciple of Mind and that's as far as it gets. Like it said, that just came naturally." And way too easy. Was Kaze planning on guinea pigging there to provoke a Paradox? That seemed like the worst kind of exposure therapy.

[Kaze]

Kaze laughs when Crystal suggests that Kaze would teach professional stuntmen. "No way. I am the newbie! I totally want to learn all the cool stuff." He smiles. "Guns, driving, stunts...I basically know how to do things in a way that doesn't get noticed, mostly, and I want to learn the flashy, cool stuff that maybe isn't the most efficient for a change!"

Kaze looks at Crystal evaluating as he talks about what he can do. "Mind?" He asks. "Yeah. Okay, that makes sense."

"So...like, my idea is, you try hard stuff that's not uncool, and get used to the suck when it blows up in your face." Kaze confesses. "it's not really a 'touchy feely' process."

He looks again at Crystal. "So...is there anything you want to get good enough at, with magic, that it could blow up in your face?" He asks, grinning. "I mean, I'm Obrimos. You want to learn how to literally blow things up?"

[Crystal]

Kaze's enthusiasm really was contagious. He seemed like a kid in a candy store. "Fine, I guess that's pretty wise and humble of you. I guess I won't have to worry about all of that getting to your head for now - and trust me: I know the signs and I will let you know if you ever become one of those diva-assholes." Would the industry be able to wear the Obrimos down? Crystal doubted it, but Kaze wouldn't be the first young actor to have his starry-eyed naivety taken advantage of by Hollywood.


Kaze's plan was met with a sceptical look. "So you want me to poke the Abyss until it comes for me? Sorry, but this seems like a pretty lousy plan." The harshness of that statement was only on the surface level. If Kaze were to read between the lines he probably could make out the real issue: Crystal was scared. "Taking the hit to prevent it from coming through is nice in theory, but how do I know that I'll do enough? How the fuck do can I be sure that I'm not fucking something - or someone - up in the process?" Besides, messing with someone else's head definitely was 'touchy feely' in Crystal's book.

The Warlock sighed and leaned his head back, as if the answer was written on the ceiling. He took a deep breath and slumped back into a normal posture. "Sorry." Sorry, what? 'Sorry, if you accidentally broke someone's mind it would not be immediately apparent and I really don't think you grasp the gravity of that problem.'? 'Sorry, what I want is to have none of those fucking problems I didn't ask for anymore.'?

Yeah no, snark wasn't going to help either of them right now. Crystal took another deep breath and let the air escape with an annoyed groan. "Sorry, it's complicated." Not very helpful, but at least he wasn't lashing out either. "Give me some time to think about this, all right?"

[Kaze]

Kaze nods when Crystal says he sounds down to earth enough about his upcoming tv show job, and that he'll let Kaze know if Kaze starts acting like a diva. He smiles wistfully, as Crystal's promise reminds him of Briar Rose's more direct threat to kick Kaze's ass if he gets too full of himself.

"Thanks." Kaze says, sincerely.

He listens to Crystal's concerns about doing magic to provoke the abyss, and just about doing magic at all.

Kaze raises his hands in surrender. "Hey, honestly; I'm not going to try to get you to do anything you really, really don't want to do." He says with a grin. "I will try to remind you when it's something you really do want to do, just not now."

Kaze shrugs. "So...the whole Arcana can't be about screwing with people." He speculates. "Am I right?" He asks.

"So...is there anything that's like, flashy, or just hard to do, that isn't about messing with someone?" He asks.

"And, sorry about going straight to the painful path. There's also practicing mitigation. You know, burning extra mana to make the odds lower for Paradox?"

[Crystal]

Of course Kaze wouldn't force Crystal to do anything - that was the reason why the Apostate was probably the only person fit for getting the Mastigos back on his Supernal track. Which he wanted.
Kind of.

Frustration welled back up in him. This is why he never addressed those issues!
"Appreciated. Look, I know where you're coming from and I'll be the first one to admit that I need a kick in the butt when it comes to this." He vented some of the irritation by jerkily pointing all around him with his hands. "It's just a lot and I need to think about this before we start our training montage."

Like he had to think about something related to Mind that wasn't altering something about someone else. Boosting their proficiencies, make their senses go apeshit or deceive them, straight up read their minds - it all seemed too intrusive, too easy to mess something up. There would be many many baby steps to go until he felt comfortable with that again.

"Really, I can't think of anything that's not altering your perception or anything. This whole Arcanum doesn't do flashy I guess." He would have to do some research, maybe ask Enigma. Well, he would have to force himself to do so. "But I promise to have something to work with when we get to it, okay?"

Truthfully, he totally forgot about the mitigation part. He played it fast and lose back then - not to mention his chemically altered state of consciousness whenever he used Magic to hook up. Ways to reduce danger wasn't really on his list of priorities. "Yeah, I think I heard that one. Thanks." He rubbed his eyes and addressed Kaze again. "I mean it. Thanks for putting up with my baggage. I owe you."

[Kaze]

Kaze nods and smiles. "Okay, see I will let you get away with that 'I need to think about it first' thing, because, like I said, I am in full football practice mode, 'no pain no gain', and you have a totally different background. Like, you actually open books and read them, instead of just carrying them around!" He laughs. "But honestly? I really think you're, like, maybe overthinking? Like, the more you think of it, the more inside your head you can get, and just...telling yourself to expect the worst, and not even try, you know?"

Kaze shrugs. "Happens to everyone. The answer is to just...do stuff. And deal." He offers.

He listens to Crystals concerns. Then he nods and taps his head. "Hey, this thing is like, rock hard, you know?" He grins. "Practice on me. It's cool. I trust you." He offers.

Kaze smiles when Crystal thanks him for putting up with Crystal's baggage. "Sure. You really aren't so bad, you know? I mean, I think you're cool, and I like you!" He laughs then. "Besides, right back atcha! I'm the 'insufferable' one, right?"

Then he remembers. "Oh, hey. Here's Anima's number, for when you're ready to talk to him, get to know him." Kaze takes a piece of paper out and offers it to Crystal.

[Crystal]

Crystal snorted and raised an eyebrow at Kaze's agreement to cut the Warlock some slack. "Yeah, you're just some big, old jock. I'm lucky you're not taking my lunch money." Of course this banter was just a reflexive defense mechanism - the Obrimos hit a sore spot. Of course he was overthinking it, but how the fuck was he supposed to deal with what he had done?

"Funny how us nerds work, right? Appreciate the trust, I'll try not to make you regret it. Now get off my back already with the mindfuck-stuff!" It sounded like he was just continuing the banter, but there was an iron core to the demand. Crystal seemed to be done talking about Magic for now.

He took Anima's number and memorized it quickly - chances were he would lose the piece of paper sometime during the next few hours. "Yeah, with us being insufferable and messed up and this one being a lowly criminal in the eyes of our Consilium it seems like our Scooby Gang could be a bit more edgy than I initially thought." There was no need to tell Kaze again that he liked him - the Mastigos didn't want to get too mushy, lest he lost his edge himself. "Now, I really enjoy having you around but you've given me quite a lot to mull over.." He suggestively trailed off - he wasn't throwing Kaze out per se, but even jocks could get the idea.

I am good to close to get this into continuity - how about you?

[Kaze]

Kaze smiles, "Hey, learning some Kung Fu would probably be a good idea too!" He says with a grin. "Learning how to take a punch would be a good prep for learning how to eat some Paradox and keep on going. Like the great sage, Mike Tyson said, 'Everyone has a plan, 'till they get punched in the mouth!'" Kaze laughs. "The trick is to train for that, where you don't freeze when it happens, and can keep focus!"

Kaze shrugs when Crystal tells him to back off the magic, in a semi-nice way. Wow, he's really been burned, apparently.

"Sure. I'll bring it up later; that's my job. But no more today." Kaze concedes with an understanding smile and empathy for his friend's apparent pain, or shame or whatever.

He nods when Crystal mentions Anima's status and their own issues. "Yeah. I was charged and sentenced before the Consilium." He says soberly. "It was for talking about secret stuff in a Starbucks. But really, it was for stuff I did before, like when I first got here, that I never got the punishment I deserved for doing stuff in public, whipping out a katana and hacking away at some Seers. Anyway, I was sentenced to a month long incarceration, and there were some people that were definitely trying to hold it over me, to try to keep me ashamed whenever they got the chance. Thank God they moved on." Kaze says with real gratitude, almost like a sincere prayer instead of a mere convention.

"So...I know what it's like. I am not going to do or say anything to make it worse for Anima, like, to act like he needs to be ashamed. Especially since it was my condition that he apologize, and even though I knew it probably wouldn't be taken as a sincere apology by Puck, I still feel for Anima. I am definitely going to keep my end of the deal, to form a Cabal with him as soon as, you know, it's doable."

Kaze pauses and then adds, "I am not going to do anything to disrespect Puck either though. I feel like that's all he wants, is respect. I feel like, how he goes overboard, in my opinion at least, to punish any disrespect to him...just shows how important it is to him. I'm going to do what I can so show him the respect he wants, as long as it's not hurting anyone else." He says in a determined, decisive tone.

"I feel like, I wouldn't really be doing anything for Anima, if it looked like I was only being nice to him to like, spite Puck, you know? Like then it wouldn't even be about Anima, just Puck."

Okay! Thank you for the amazing, fascinating deep digging scene! Good to close whenever you are!

[Crystal]

"Okay now, slow down!" Crystal held up one finger and then made a circling motion around his face with his other hand. "This face is not taking any punches if I can't help it, so that's a hard pass on that." Dramatic? Maybe, but Kaze also made it seem like there the city was brimming with daily deadly confrontations - Crystal was merely matching the level in the room. "You're already dragging me out of one comfort zone, give this pretty boy some time to catch up."

The Warlock nodded and visibly relaxed into the couch again. Good thing Kaze knew when to stop, but they would need a safe-word or something when they started the training.

Then Kaze dropped his bomb. Incarceration? Killing Seers?! Jesus, he knew there had been a 'war', but that put the Obrimos' raging vigilance into perspective. "Fuck, that sounds intense. You're really full of surprises."
Like for instance how he still manages to find the good in people. That sounded exhausting - but there was so much conviction in Kaze's voice that there was no point in arguing about Puck. If the Acanthus wanted respect he should act the part, not go full mental because of a few mean words. "Mmh-hm. Well, I guess that's one way of seeing it. Glad you've still got Anima's back though." And that's all Crystal could say on the matter right now - he knew that they would have to agree to disagree when it came to Puck, but this afternoon already had so many ups and downs that the Mastigos really had no more fucks to give.

"I appreciate your attempt to lure me with your criminal past, but I'm really beat." He got up and walked towards the door - and somehow managed not to seem rude doing it. "Thanks for dropping by and all." Oh no, this sounded like the stock-answer he gave most of the men that came to visit. Crystal stopped, started again and really put some heart into it. "I mean it. Thanks for thinking of me for your Cabal and for looking out. Next time I definitely want to hear more about bizarro Kaze and his life of crime." Smiles and hugs were offered to get the Apostate on the way. The rest of the day would be spent napping and vaguely thinking about all things Supernal.

Indeed! Thanks for the amazing scene!!!