(2206) Sanctuary

[Corn]

Corn gives a nod to Nevermore . To Aurora he said with a smirk, "I am pretty sure the spirits see it as a big thing. Can't you assume a significant rank among the spirits, making them see you as a powerful spirit? Or boost-up a spirit similar to how you can boost up people with Life? In those non-confrontational ways, perhaps we could convince, instead of coerce, a minor spirit of knowledge to give us information. " He makes a small pause.
"I will also say that I was recently into twilight with Zeromancer . I would love a chance to see the Shadow Realm. As a Moros, spirit is not my thing. And I know enough to know that it is not a tourist destination. But with a master of spirit? It is probably as safe as one of us can actually be. Knowledge requires a bit of danger here and there. So... may I entice you to take some of us in an educating trip to the Shadow Realm? You probably know the dangerous and not-so-dangerous places."

[Puck]

"What is your childhood trauma?"

His attention is once again on Corn. Because the guy can never just take the hint.

"Aurora's made clear already she doesn't want to make a big deal of her mastery and you insist on forcing it into one."

Seriously? This is what Puck hates about Corn. His need to impose his will and desire on others. That concilium meeting? Red flag one. The next sanctuary? Red flag two. Today? The coincidence is a pattern and it's time to say so.

"We aren't friends, but when it's not the laws of the awakened nation on the line even I know when stop means stop."

Granted, he came over to offer his library to her, but that's not the same as asking someone for a tour guide of the shadow realm after they said let it go.

"If you really are her friend, why is it so difficult for you to listen to her when she's telling you to not make a big deal about it? Putting aside that the shadow realm isn't a camp ground and every one of the spirits I've met have had the ability to overpower or out maneuver multiple mages by themselves, she's being clear though politely subtle she isn't looking to do the things you are suggesting. So why do you feel the ened to persist against her wishes?"

[Corn]

Corn listens to Puck's chastisement, taken by surprise over the Acanthus' interpretation of a simple compliment and a suggestion.
He turns to Aurora, a bit perplexed. "Am I bothering you? In the Mysterium, Masteries are important, that's why I brought it up. Apologies if the attention makes you uncomfortable."

And then he turned to Puck, with a frown. "Aurora can talk for herself if she is bothered. As for the Shadow Realm, I am aware it is a dangerous place, as I said already.
You seem quite intent to twist and misinterpret what I say and what I mean when I say it, Councilor. I ask whether I it is ethical to boost my fertility with magic or to improve my genetic material to reduce the change of passing genetic defects to my child, and you accuse me of practicing eugenics. I simply congratulate a friend and you jump down my throat saying I disrespect her wishes. Why so aggressive?
Regretfully Puck, I have a condition that makes me unable to properly catch non-verbal social cues as good as other people do. I won't go to specifics and I don't mean to shame you. But I would ask you to moderate your tone."

Corn took a breath and looked around, looking quite embarrassed.
"It is a mild thing, nothing major and I don't like to talk about it. It just takes me longer to catch on social cues and makes my conversations more one-sided. I don't have violent outbursts since adolescence. I am not a threat to anyone."

[Belle]

Belle grips Corn's hand as he takes the high road, a firm yet kind smile on her face. "I'm better. Thanks for asking." She leaves it at that. If she's learned anything from her recent conversation with Crystal, it's to respect that people have their own coping mechanisms that work. "Good. Because I'm looking forward to having running-on-all-cylinders Corn back in action once we tag that rogue Mage." ​Corn mentions the possibility of Herald and Belle is...honestly taken aback for a few seconds. "Seriously? Wow! That..."

Then Phoenyx arrives, and Belle has a whole new target for her emotional high. The sight of the Circle's resident defender brightens Belle's expression considerably, and she stands to greet her friend. "Hey, Phoenyx! I've got a place lined up for the scrying, and you two..." She looks between Corn and Phoenyx. "...will be the first to know my results." She looks back to Phoenyx. "Hey, are you still up for training? I want to keep in practice just in case this dork can't one-shot the next guy who messes with us." She gives Corn a playful punch in the shoulder.


"Glad to be back." She beams to Aurora. The feeling was mutual: Belle has enjoyed hanging out with Aurora.

And then Puck enters. As if last month never happened. And Belle can feel the phantom taste of blood on her tongue. She looks over to Corn. "Yeah, let's talk sometime. I'd like to suss out the details." A new face enters and Belle offers a friendly smile, but she's distracted.

Fucking Christmas Hell!

There was a time to stay quiet, and she'd stayed quiet. But now, Belle isn't the latecomer; she has time to think. She looks to Corn as he offers his apologies to Aurora, and then takes a step towards Puck. Smile reduced to a slim line and eyes burning. "Puck..." She realizes this is probably the first time she's actually said the man's name out loud. It feels weird; personalizing. "...enough." Her voice isn't raised, but there's the faintest quiver in the air around her as her emotions boil the air. "Your disrespectful and callous attitude doesn't solve anything. Corn has proven he's capable of apologizing for his mistakes; Aurora is more than capable of speaking for herself; Phoenyx is still here protecting your ass even though you accused her of incompetence." That last sentence carries her forward another step. The most perceptive around her might notice the faintest hints of whispers focused around her clenched right fist and the onyx ring on her finger. "Everyone here fucks up and moves on and you can't let go of your ego for two minutes to have a civil conversation with someone who's supposed to be at the bare minimum an ally. Quit wasting your breath and our time, and stop starting shit when it's not needed. Maybe then you might actually be respected as a leader in this Consilium." She takes a step back and holds her gaze. She's said her piece.

[Aurora]

Looked like one of the new faces has stuck around for another month. A nod and wave offered, though she knew next to nothing about him.

And then Corn. Sighing, “If you want to get into the specifics of Spirit, we can do that. Maybe sometime this weekend or something. But what I can do and what I’m willing to do are two different things.” The Shaman had lines she would not cross. “I’m sure there are more important things going on then me Mastering Spirit.”

Then something…odd…happened. Puck was…siding with her? Count that as something she never saw happening in this life time. But she appreciated it.

An unsure smile offered to the Acanthus, “Thanks.” Looking back to Corn, “Like I said, if you want to have a geek out day asking about Sprit things, we can set something up.” Trying to not completely shut the guy down, he just seemed easily excitable.

Holding a hand up, “I would just rather not have all the attention on me. Yes, I Mastered a second Arcana, and I am willing to talk about it, just not here, not now. This should be a time for everyone to share things and for us to get to know each other. So if you could just tone it down, until we can meet up, I’d appreciate it.” A soft smile offered to him. She knew he meant well. But she was also not in the damn mood to argue.

Yet it seemed things were destined to keep spiraling.

“Belle, we need to go out sometime soon! Catch up and just have fun.” You know, the usual.

“Everyone seems on edge and I think we can all do with taking a step back and just moving on. Or maybe we all need to get together, outside the Circle, and just try and put shit aside. Maybe a bbq or some shit, something neutral.” There were days she would

[Corn]

Corn offers a smile at Belle although he hopes her talking back to Puck won't backfire for her. "Thank you for the support, Neokore Belle. But things are getting a bit tense here and we should avoid that. "
When Aurora offers to 'talk spirit' at a different time, Corn agrees with a nod. That's a sensible starting point. Also sensible was her attempt to de-escalate the situation and ... Barbeque? That's more than sensible. That's actually a very nice idea.

"The Barbeque is an excellent idea in my opinion, Aurora." His eyes went to Belle. It was for things like that, nice things like that, that the consilium needed a herald to make sure nobody was left out because of a miscommunication. He turned to Phoenyx and Puck, trying to put the unpleasantness of the past few minutes behind them. "Councilor Phoenyx, Councilor Puck, what do you think? Barbeque?"

[Phoenyx]

The Arrow watched carefully. She didn't know much about Spirits, but it seemed Corn was not willing to let a celebration go.

Which naturally, Puck told him.

It was already feeling like having the 2 of them in the same area was asking for tempers to flare as they start to snipe words.

She gave Belle a smile and a nod. "I am always training, even if no-one takes me up on it. Just let me know when." Something had to give, and Phoenyx was somewhat surprised it was Belle.

Moving around in case this got worse than it already was, Phoenyx tried to make sure she could jump between them all if it came to that. "Aurora is right. A step back is needed." She didn't want Belle getting caught in the crossfire of Puck and Corn firing emotions at each other.

"I.... suppose?" she replied to Corn. She wasn't confident of how well that might go when some memebers could barely say hello without decending into chaos.

[Aeolus]

Consider the last post of Corn deleted and not having happened.

Please be mindful of the rules on posting rate, i.e. not getting too far ahead from the slowest poster. If you want to have a higher-frequency chat consider opening a side thread with interested parties.

[Nevermore]

Nevermore just... blinked, looking between the folks standing in the Sanctuary and the various back-and-forths.

"Uh... right," he said into the more or less awkward silence, his voice crisp and accented, "Can I note that this ain't exactly the picture of bloody health for the city? Like.. da we need ta go and tie a few on, get everyone nice and loose, so we can let shit go? Because... I keep hearing something about a banisher running around, and gods help us the first true Seer cabal rolls through. We'd be too busy takin' a piss at each other to be more'n a speedbump."

He ran a hand through his tousled hair, sighing. "Now come on lads, let's go get a drink or twelve. First rounds on me."

[Puck]

"Yeah, I'm not doing any of that with Corn."

Seriously, the guy straight up grilled Puck at the trial and now he wants a softened tone? Bullshit.

"I don't really care what condition you make up about an inability to perceive nonverbal cues when Apollo explicitly asked you to stop last month and you chose to keep going. Just like I told you whether the sleepers were aware of the spell was ultimately irrelevant and you continued aggressively grilling me at the last concilium. You've demonstrated that your problem isn't the inability to perceive nonverbal cues, it's your desire to impose your will regardless of circumstance or boundaries."

His attention turns now to Phoenyx, because something else was said that deserved proper attention.

"Either way I want to ask some things. Had Corn just named Asian Americans as a genetic defect to be purified from his bloodline, instead of down syndrome as he did previously, would you rush to agree we need to take a step back?" Puck's attention then turns to Aurora and Nevermore. "Had he suggested using magic to correct sexual orientation would you want to share your food and drink with him?"

Puck turns his attention to the only three mages he was still talking to collectively.

"Putting aside my personal distaste for Corn and being asked for a softened tone by someone who had no objection to grilling me in our only substantive conversation last concilium? The genetic defect he just mentioned avoiding in his bloodline are people with down syndrome. He said last year he didn't want it passed along and wanted to use Life to stop it. He says I'm off base about saying he wants to use Life to practice eugenics, but he just explicitly stated he views a group of people as undesirable and wants to reduce their chances of appearing in his lineage and none of you said anything. Why are okay with Corn talking about people like this? What groups of people do you think can be labeled as a genetic error to be avoided and still go out for drinks like that's a fun eccentricity?"

This right here? This is why Puck hated people like Guru. In their rush to bury any sign of conflict, they ignore any ignorance that might be spoken or committed. Anything can be permissible, so long as it doesn't breed dissent because it's more important to be harmonious then it is to be just. Puck's anger is the problem? No, that anger is animus. It's the moral outrage that motivates the fight against injustice and should start with the Socialists and not with Me. A few lines Millennial Adolf over here clearly doesn't want people to remember.

"I'm sorry? I get you guys are trying to keep the peace but why should it be kept? Even if I were able to look past Corn forcing his will onto people you're talking about someone who thinks his arcana are a vehicle to explore common practices with the Nazis of the Third Reich. Neurodivergence isn't a genetic defect to be corrected from your bloodline. If keeping the peace means letting certain conditions and groups of people be labeled a defect to be corrected or avoided, why should I care about peace? Where is the line where people deserve to be treated as people? Why is Corn a person I should want to make amends with?"

Hierarchy fosters the Lie, and Puck would accept no human being as inherently defective. Disrespect can be corrected in time, but the sincerely held belief that certain people are born defective and your bloodline needs to be purified of them? Time to destroy a follower of the lie.