Crystal invites Kaze over

[Crystal]

Kaze never really specified what this 'big thing' he was texting about was. A breakthrough in his acting career? Getting to whatever base you got to when dating a Vampire? He knew the Obrimos was easy to excite, but this time it seemed really special. Plus, he didn't mind hanging out with Kaze again - last time they did he kind of ditched him at the museum.

Even though it's already late-afternoon Crystal was still wearing only sweatpants and a white t-shirt. Some days were just meant to be lazy and after sleeping comfortably in he didn't really feel like dressing up too much. He did remember to cool the champagne though.

The spacious apartment was pretty tidy - only a few books lying here and there - and he already took out a couple of glasses and a bottle of water, so all the Warlock had to do was relax on the couch and wait for Kaze to arrive.
Kaze Ruach

[Kaze]

"Hey!" Kaze says, knocking on Crystal's door. "It's Chris."

When he is let in or invited in if the door is unlocked, he enters, glances around and says with a smile, "Hey. Thanks for letting me come over on short notice. Sorry to interrupt your morning."

[Crystal]

There is some easy music floating from the blue-tooth speakers on the kitchen table as Kaze entered the apartment. Crystal just buzzed the Obrimos in, opened the door and then flung himsel onto the couch again. Fuck, if anybody wanted to do the Warlock harm they'd have an easy time.

"Ah, you're not interrupting anything. What's up?" He didn't get up do hug it out or anything - while not interrupting anything, Crystal was far from awake, let alone active.

[Kaze]

Kaze grins whether at Crystal's extremely chill manners or at his news, either way, he says, "I got invited into a Cabal, and I am pretty jazzed about it!"

He shrugs, "It wasn't someone I was thinking of being in a Cabal with, but...I am excited about it now." He says. "I was in one once, but it was basically just all the Arrows in town, and kind of automatic, you know? And it dissolved right before I left the Arrows anyway."

"I tried forming one a while ago, before you got here, I think. Anyway, they said, 'I'll think about it, and then I never heard anything from them again. They're still around, but I'm not going to bring it up." Kaze explains. "I don't want to make it, you know, awkward."

"Anyway, it's a good feeling to be, you know, wanted. I asked some stuff, about the person and about like, what the purpose would be. They said, 'solving mysteries'. Funny thing, they aren't in your Order, but they seemed really into artifacts and investigating mysteries around town. They said it would be like, 'The Scooby Gang' which, honestly was a good pitch for me. I kind of got hooked on Scooby-Doo from Skye!" Kaze laughed. "I said I'd hold them to that when it came time to vote on a name."

"So...do you trust me? I'm here to recruit you!" Kaze says with utter sincerity and enthusiasm at levels entirely inappropriate for this early in the day!

[Crystal]

Crystal lifted his head off of the armrest and raised his eyebrows. Not too long ago Corn had asked him about his opinion on Cabals, seems like it was the topic on everybody's lips. As Kaze went on, Crystal actually sat up straight - if not exited, he definitely seemed interested.

"Okay, hold up. First things first: who were the people you wanted to Cabal up with earlier? Just so I know who has the potential to act all vengeful and scornful." Yeah, that was part of the reason, but mostly he was interested in whom Kaze trusted enough to consider it - but not enough to actually seal the deal. Aurora would be his bet, maybe Phoenyx before things got awkward.

"So what do you want out of this? You just talked about this third party." He didn't comment on the 'solving mysteries' yet. If it was anything like riding around in Corn's car on the lookout for space insect Resonance, he might have to negotiate other ways he could profit off of it. What would Crystal want out of this, for that matter? Fuck, it was too early to think about all of this. The Mastigos got up and stretched. "You want a coffee?"

Walking over to the coffee machine, he chuckled at the suggested name. "If you're going for that name, you can bet your ass I'm gonna be the Daphne of the gang." He pondered on the suggestion while waiting for the machine to heat up. The top-dog Cabals in San Francisco were mostly conceited assholes, so that's not something Crystal saw himself doing. Then again, as far as he knew Sacramento didn't have any established Cabals. Teaming up for one could signal more stability to the coming and goings of other Awakened. They could lead by example or just make life for the city's Awakened better and safer.

Huh, where'd that thought come from?

He looked at his excited guest and fixed himself a cup of coffee. A smile broke out on the Warlocks face. "All right, color me interested - but first I need to know who this mysterious ally is."

[Kaze]

Kaze nods, looking around and taking a seat wherever seems most convenient and available.

"Okay. First," He actually ticks off the questions Crystal answered one by one on his fingers, "I asked Naga, the Silver ladder, lawyer. I felt like as an Apostate, and not really someone people think of as Councillor material, the best way to have a say in things and try to, you know, help things be stable and have some consistency would be to form a Cabal. I had her over and pitched it, and she said she'd think about it, and then...nothing." He says, shrugging.

"Second, fine, I can be Fred. No problem. And third, Anima can by Shaggy. Or Velma, I guess."

Kaze grins. "Right, Anima. He had me over to his place, which is a nice little, like bungalow thing with a garden, and showed me an artifact and a Hallow and offered his place for the Cabal, and also talked about sharing resources, rotes mostly."

Kaze pauses long enough to let Crystal digest but not enough to interrupt and says, "And I laid down a condition that he had to apologize to Puck, in the Circle in front of everyone. Not because I think Puck will care or anything, but because I told him I get a kind of 'mad scientist' vibe, like his well, pride could control him and get him to mess with something he shouldn't, and I needed to see if he could control his pride first."

Kaze shrugs. "He said he would, and I said I'd try to recruit a third." Kaze says, "You're my first choice. Seriously. Also, full disclosure, I want to work up to Mastering Life, and I need a mentor for that, and Aurora said 'no'. And maybe someday, Space too." Kaze says with a grin. "So, yeah, look at me, thinking long term goals and 'what's in it for me'."

Kaze looks at Crystal. "I trust him to be a magic geek without bringing in the Guardians or Mysterium whenever we find something interesting, I guess." He says. "I trust you too, even though you are in the Mysterium. That you wouldn't just use us to get ahead in your Order, not that it's bad to help you get ahead, just the using."

[Crystal]

Naga? Crystal had heard the name, but he couldn't remember actually seeing her. Was she just busy doing Silver Ladder things or has she already moved on? Either way, for the moment he couldn't care less about potentially hurt feelings of someone he didn't know. He just nodded in acknowledgement.

Anima? Rung a bell. Fuck, he really needed to attend more Circle gatherings. And if Anima was Velma, would that make them the secret gay couple of the gang? The Mastigos actually shook his head to leave that train of thought behind. "An Artifact and a Hallow?" The coffee was done. Crystal leaned against the counter and blew on it to bring it to a drinkable temperature. "What kind of Artifact are we talking?" Maybe there was a Mystagogue buried in him after all. "But yeah, I can get behind the sharing of resources thing. Maybe it's time to spend my allowance on stuff besides clothes."

Then his tired mind remembered where he heard the name before: middle-school fights between Anima and Puck. To be fair, Crystal's first impression of the Acanthus wasn't all that peachy either - so at least they had something to talk about if the Cabal negotiations went on between them. "Uh, yeah good condition. Well done." It sounded like he really meant it. Of course the second part of the praise got muffled a bit when Michael took a sip of coffee. He'd have to check for those dangerous vibes himself, but one thing after another.
"Also, I'm honored that I'm your first choice, and if there's anyone in this city I would like to team up with it's you. But humour me here: what if Anima and I don't get along. Like, at all?"

Once again Crystal was kind of impressed by Kaze's candid way of talking about things. He openly laid out his plans and goals, even voiced some of his doubts. It's as if the Obrimos just sucked all the deceitful potential out of the room, forcing people to let hope reign and get along. The life-weary part of Crystal hated that. Michael found it quite endearing. "Okay so while we're fully disclosing I'll be real with you too: I honestly can't say if I'm any help at all when it comes to Space. Never cared much for it." Or rather: he didn't immediately have a knack for it and lost any further ambition in mastering it. "But hey, I heard I'm good at managing study groups, so there's that. And yeah, you don't have to worry about me throwing you under the bus for any Order." If he was after influence and power, the Order offered way less opportunity than a well oiled Cabal after all.
Not that Crystal was, but still.

[Kaze]

Kaze smiles and nods, encouraged that the first think Crystal asks is about the artifact. That seems like a good sign. "Oh yeah, it's a mirror. I didn't see exactly what was going on when I checked it out with Supernal Vision, just that it is magic, but not in a straight, like, 'Oh yeah I know what spell is on it' kind of way. The Hallow is interesting to, at least to me; Anima said it was weak, but, like, enfusing the fruit tree that is growing in it, in the garden. So, you eat the fruit, and get manna. Cool, huh?"


He nods again when Crystal agrees in principal to sharing resources. "Yeah, I get the feeling none of us are really hurting for money; it's the magic stuff though, people like us, well maybe not like us, 'mages who are people', you know? Them. Not a lot of sharing there."


"I mean," Kaze says, "honestly, I don't even know what Arcana you are interested in, or even if you're not, if you aren't into Prime, and I am, I can teach you enough to do a Transform Aura, so you know, no one can see you're a mage. Cloak your spells too."


He pauses and then says, "And it doesn't seem to really matter how into it you are. I mean, the magic seems to know. Like, I am Adept level with Life, but a Thyrsus, even if they are only an Apprentice, can just know things, feel things about Life, that...if they mentor me, I can go farther with it."


"I can do the same for someone with Forces or Prime." He says.


When Crystal says that he might not even like Anima, Kaze nods. "Yeah, that's totally possible." He says. "I mean, I do like him...but he's weird. He keeps talking about souls and death and 'the other side', and he talks about it in a way that had me on my guard at first, like what a great power source a soul would be." Kaze shivers.


"I'm not a fan of horror movies. I definitely don't want to do them in real life; you know, me and a friend move into a creepy house with a creepy mad scientist who uses a magic mirror to suck out our souls to use...for something?" He says.


Then he grins, "Honestly, I think we can handle him, if it comes to that, and I think he just...expresses himself in a creepy way. I don't feel like he's a bad guy, for real." He says thoughtfully. "And I totally am still keeping my place. I don't really plan on like, sleeping over, you know?"


"Anyway, I don't expect you to join something where you don't even know all the people, no matter how good we get along!" Kaze laughs. "If you want, I can text him after this, and say you're interested and want to come over. I can tell him that I told you about the mirror, and you want to check it out, and get to know him better too."


He shrugs, "Then I can go with you, or you can go yourself, like, so there's no pressure." Kaze offers.


He laughs again, "Okay, well I guess I am pressuring you a little right now. How about this, you can ask me to set up going over there to check it out, or just think about it, and I promise, I won't bring it up again unless you do first." Kaze says with a grin.

[Crystal]

"Yeah, pretty cool." Having access to that Hallow certainly made things easier for anyone wanting to live their Supernal life to the fullest. Coupled with the sharing of magical knowledge, it seemed like Anima had a lot more to offer to Kaze than Crystal did - maybe the Obrimos wanted to take one safe ally into the Cabal, bringing the numbers into any possible inter-crew discussions. Then again, maybe he was being too cynical and Kaze just liked him.

"Okay, real talk for a second." He sighed and moved a bit closer to Kaze. He would have preferred not to have this conversation at all - or be shitfaced out of his mind while having it - but the way the ex-Arrow went off on how easy it would be for them to form a supernal book club made the Mastigos realize that he had to come clean. Well, a bit cleaner. "You might have noticed that I'm not all that comfortable with Magic and all that jazz. Thing is, I always had a knack for the purview of Mind and my Mentor cultivated a decent understanding of Prime in me, but that was before-" He stopped a beat. He trusted Kaze, but he didn't trust him quite enough to dig up all the bodies buried. "-I realized how dangerous all of this was. Haven't really indulged all that shit since then. Yeah, maybe breaking the natural laws when it comes to Space comes naturally to me, but as of now I'm not really into finding that out."

He spread out his hands (carefully avoiding spilling his coffee in the process) and showed his guest an exaggerated shrug. "Just putting it out there, in case that'd be a deal-breaker." And that was that. His tone suggested he was not really open to deepen that conversation. Everything that needed to be said at that moment had been said.

The run down on Anima kind of proved Crystal's point. Soul-powered shit? He understood why the Obrimos got a mad scientist vibe. "Okay, so you say he's not a bad guy. I guess I'll trust you on that. But there's a difference between 'good' and 'wise' - how reckless do you think he is? Honestly, I don't want to drive our Mystery Machine straight into Paradox-city." The comment about the sleepover was net with a smirk and a wiggle of the eyebrows. Just to give the movie star in training some shit.

"The offer is appreciated, but I'd rather talk to him myself. I can hit him up at the Circle or you could give me his number - I just think it's a better first impression to not have daddy do the talking for me, don't you?" He grinned back at the Apostate. His enthusiasm really was contagious. "But yeah, if we vibe with each other I guess the next step would be to get the three of us together to hammer out all the details."

[Kaze]

Kaze smiles, for him a more serious expression than his grin. He nods, understandingly when Crystal 'comes clean' about his aversion to magic. He does not ask why, despite the hints that Something (TM) happened.

"Oh. Yeah. No deal breaker there for me." Kaze says. "You're my best friend. That's why I want you in. To watch my back, and so I can watch yours too, and, you know, basically 'cause I like being around you."

He shrugs. "So...I feel like I should ask, like, what' you're okay with?" He asks, gently. "I mean, like, are you uncomfortable with me talking about magic? Asking questions, like, on something I'm stuck on? Or just on me, like, doing it around you? Or just, only if I were asking you to do it?"

"Jury's still out, I guess on who's 'Wise' or not!" Kaze says, laughing! "I mean, I don't think I'm exactly a poster child for that, yet!"

"But yeah, I think it's better for all of us if Anima has some people he feels like he can trust, that he talks to and maybe keep him kind of more in balance, perspective-wise, than if he felt like he had to 'lone-wolf' it, you know?"

"Yeah." Kaze nods when Crystal says he'll arrange his own 'get to know you' date with Anima. "Makes sense."

"Hey." Kaze says, looking Crystal directly in the eye, "Thank you. Really, just for even taking this seriously. I really hope it works out. I think it could be a really good thing. For all of us." He says sincerely.