(Private)Catching Up

[Aurora]

The apartment is more of an open floor loft, walls bare red brick and floor a darker wood. It was clearly a loft that was done by hand. The living room area had oversized couches covered by a beige fabric with brightly colored pillows and a coffee table made from a door and other pieces were clearly done by hand. Soft white LED lights were strung around the room in various places. A book shelf was in the process of being refinished, a sheet under it and various cans of stain around it. Boxes of books were stacked near it, books spilling out onto the floor. There were numerous books in various languages.

Some of the bookshelves still had cloths over them, the Shaman hadn’t gotten to them yet.

There is a piece of art framed and displayed. It's a beautiful mess of Absinthe green, the fabled green fairy is flitting about furniture that is currently within Aurora's loft. Things she'd so lovingly restored.

Near the kitchen area was brewing equipment. A traditional carboy, with some beer fermenting in it, as well as a more advanced fermenter.

Silk screens had been setup to divide her bedroom from the rest of the loft, something new for her. Near a window was a ballet bar with colored mats beneath it. There was also a hula-hoop with five prongs that stuck out on it, as well as a sword, and odd looking wired fan thing.

The Shaman herself had the patio door open, and the smell of a grill had filled the room.

Currently, she was preparing food to place on the grill, casual in old jeans and a t shirt. Truth be told, she was looking forward to catching up with Winter.
Winter

[Winter]

The theater and the actors are the same, perhaps the script is going to be different.
The Obrimos arrives announced, bringing a supply of seasoned Angus beef that he's careful ordered a few days before from the local trusted butcher shop.
He's dressed casually, a shirt and a pair of washed out jeans.
It's not the his first time visiting Aurora's Sanctum, he'd muses once she'd let him in about how homely it looks. He had to admit, aside from her moving back in, and from the renovations taking place, the place looked hospitable. He knew about her furniture business and if he didn't know any better, he'd mistake her for a Moros rather than for someone who could turn you into a fish with a slight nod.
"Hey, thanks for having me", he says.

[Aurora]

The Shaman beams as Winter walks in, “Winter! Thank you for coming!” she greets, “And what is that you have?” last time they talked, he brought wine. “Can I get you something to drink? I have pretty much all the usuals.” Water, soda, juice, maybe tea, beer.

“It’s so good to see you, how have you been?” he was one of a handful of faces she had hoped to see when she returned. A quiet and stoic man, but one she trusted and one whose council she valued.

[Winter]

"A beer will do, thanks", he says looking around after having handed her the package. "It's been fine, I've had to travel out of town for a bit, so my presence has been spotty, but can't say Sacramento has been up to much. We've been investigating some sort of gamer cult, solved that case quite recently"
"What about you, travelled far?"

[Aurora]

Accepting the package, “Oh! What nice cuts! Looking forward to getting these on the grill.” Placing them down for a moment to grab a beer for him and handing it over.

“I hope your travels were well.” Traveling could be a nightmare. “Well, quiet is good, especially with low numbers.” And unknown Awakened she’d rather get to know before being throw into a dangerous situation. “Gamer cult?” a pause, “That’s a new one, how’s it going?” she supposed there could be cults of well, anything.

“Paris actually, for work.” Grabbing herself a beer, “Cirque du Soleil reached out and wanted me on their recent show. Too good of an opportunity to pass up.” And a dream of hers, one she couldn’t ignore.

[Winter]

"Paris uh", it's one of the Guardians' largest strongholds, the stuff of legendary tales. And you could understand the hype, Paris had been the city of conspiracies for centuries.
"Yeah, turns out some thing that is best left unnamed managed to get a hold of a computer game and started poisoning the players. It worked like a disease, and it spread via computer networks. Luckily it fizzled out, can't really say whether the merit was our own, it just started regressing once we pinpointed the infection site here in the city."

[Aurora]

Nodding, “A truly beautiful and powerful city. The sheer magnitude of it's history still astonishes me.” It had always been a dream to visit there. “Ever been?”

As Winter talks about the gamer cult, there was interest and amazement on her face, “Well damn, they just keep getting more creative.” Infecting a video game? Was one hell of a move. “When you pinpointed the infection site, were you able to extract any information that lead you to believe they would return? Or what their goal was?” sure, cult meant you wanted numbers, you need support. But for what exactly? “Something you think we should keep an eye on?” she would always defer to his advice on these things.

[Winter]

"It's unlikely it will return", he says while comfortably slouching on a chair, "seems it had run its course, then like a computer program, it was shut down. But honestly, as technology becomes more and more abundant, we'll have to anticipate more of these things to pop up. As the world becomes more digital, viruses move from the flesh to Internet and the mind", he shrugs.
"I'm sure there's plenty of these things lurking in the astral. You know, the human mind is the worst offender"

[Aurora]

A thoughtful nod as she listened and sipped, “Technology has become a doubled edged sword for humanity. The information we have available at our fingertips has become valuable, but the threats have become greater and greater.” But maybe that was just life. “Any good ways to keep an eye out for copycats or new threats?” she didn’t spend much time online, and certainly spent zero in any gaming groups. "I won’t lie, I don’t spend a whole lot of time surfing the internet.” A chuckle. It had its uses, it just wasn’t a huge part of her life.

“Well, the human mind is the worst offender for a lot of things. We are our own worst enemies after all, add the astral into the mix and who knows what you’ll get.” Trouble, usually trouble.

“You had mentioned you’d been monitoring the gauntlet, what are you looking for?”

[Winter]

"I'm afraid you can't really anticipate an outbreak, just contain it. Just like any sort of infectious diseases", he shrugs, "I'm afraid my knowledge of the Gauntlet is limited, what I've been trying to do is keep an eye on the local places of power and their resonance. Spirits aren't really my cup of tea. Speaking of other worlds, now that I'm able to grant access to the Astral, I think I'll try to explore that direction"