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[Philip Crosen]

He nodded, pleased, when Salem agreed to help with the Ley lines project.
"Well as I said, it`s all still in the air, but glad to see you`re on board."
He gave a surprised shrug when he said he wasn`t good enough yet to directly read thoughts with any degree of accuracy. Ohwell. I mean I expected more, but, all the better for me and my secrets, I guess. While they`re still mine, I guess he thought, flightily.
"Ohwell. But spying comes in handy too. Getting a tactical advantage. I`m down for that."
he said with a sly smile, before becoming pensive at Salem`s mentioning of his Awakening, anwering his question but with the predictable counter-question in turn. The similarities between their awakenings also struck him.
"Fascinating."
he said, his mouth slightly agape, as Salem explained his Awakening. After a beat, he answered.
"In some ways, my own Awakening was similar. But then also not. Also didn`t need to do much cutting out, either. For me it also started with studying for college. But, it led to me thinking about all the failures of my life up to that point. And then I had a weird dream about a tsunami hitting the beach at Santa Monica when I went there as a kid and an out-of-body experience, several, in fact. Arcadia is... hard to describe actually. I`d best describe it as, it is and it was and it never was. All at the same time. And it`s strange and wonderous, some call it otherwordly. I suppose that`s how I experience it at least. And as for how I got in the Free Council and the Trust? Short answer, got noticed at work after I dropped out and got a job. I`ll admit I was a bit naughty and used my Arcana for workplace benefit until I joined the Free Council. Nothing happened though. And now I still work in a similar job to back then, only for the Trust."
And that was all Salem was going to get on that. He found it so boring to talk about his own stuff, or at least, when he found it boring to talk about. He even briefly considered not responding, just because he could. But he decided to be civil and answer his fellow Libertine in kind.

[ReubanBrightwood]

Lionell Salem bump

[Salem]

Salem smiles and nods. "Good. I definitely wouldn't mind access to a Hallow," he says with a chuckle.

At the talk of spying, he nods softly. "Spying can be useful sometimes, yeah. A necessary evil as it were," he says with a soft chuckle. Should I tell him? I don't really know him that well, yet.. Maybe later... "We all have our secrets, after all."

He listens to Philip's explanation of his Awakening and the subsequent joining of the Free Council. "That sounds fascinating. Time is something I definitely plan on branching my studies into," he muses. He chuckles with a shrug of his shoulders, "Eh. We're all a little naughty sometimes. Especially when we're first starting out.. trying things out, testing the waters as it were."

[Philip Crosen]

"Wouldn`t we all. But you can`t always get what you want. Just mapping them doesn`t make you the boss of `em ya know."
he said, chuckling back. Especially with what he knew of Chambers` hallow. [color]He would not be pleased to share, I think.[/color] he thought, unsure. He was his friend after all, and friends help each other but he didn`t know Chambers would go that far, if Philip didn`t join his Legacy or live up to his promises to at least help him with his Legacies` work. On the subject of Salem`s secrets he was intensely curious.
"Secrets? Now you mention the word I`m curious. But you`re right of course. Wouldn`t wanna pry and all that. We each have ours."
Except, that was exactly what he wanted to do and also what he was indirectly unfortunately insinuating that he was doing.
"But just what sort of thing would make you view spying as a necessary evil? You mean just as a standard trick of our trade, or what`re you referring to?"
he asked somewhat more seriously, before immediately joking with him again.
"Time, eh? Not content with Space, it has to be Spacetime, and whatnot?"
he asked, smirking but also kinda pretending to balk at his suggestion.
"Oh amen to that. The temptation is ridiculous as it always is. And when you start to be able to quantify fate, what harm is there in nudging it in the right direction, getting the right guy to say the right thing to make you a ton of cash? You know? I mean, I could play the lottery right now, or play chance games for money and come out on top by a landslide. But what`s the point? Then I just get investigated for fraud or match-fixing or SEC violations or any of a million other things and whatnot. Once Fate throws the gavel down again, that is, and that`s no fun."
he said, pretending to sulk at the thought his awakened will could give him access to untold wealth and power at the flick of a finger if he so wished. But he knew he`d have to earn his riches with good deeds done to strengthen the cause of the Trust. Defeating Seer-controlled organisations and ideas and increasing the potency of the Pentacle.

[Salem]

Salem laughs and nods, his laugh a genuine and jovial sound. "True, but never said anything about being a boss of them.. Just getting regular access would be fine by me. We've got.." his voice trails off for a moment and his eyes roll up slightly as he does a bit of mental math, going over the names in his head, "six Awakened in the area? Seven, if Witch shows up again? I'm sure we could arrange a good schedule to share them.. Heck, if it's seven, it's a nice even weekly schedule. Just saying. It's an idea.."

He gives the Enchanter a look for a moment, considering if he wants to tell him some of his secrets. "Well, for one... I've uh.. worked a few times with some Agents before.. Not sure if it was in hopes of recruitment.." he gives a small shrug of his shoulders.

He smirks and shrugs, "Who knows? It could help me figure things out faster. A master of Space-Time.." he says with a grin.

He nods and chuckles. "It's a fine line that we walk. Phenomenal cosmic powers and the wisdom of how best to use them.."

He looks around the area for a moment before turning back to Philip, "What do you like to do? For fun, I mean."

[Philip Crosen]

"Don`t count on a schedule like you just described. And don`t expect anyone to share what isn`t earned just because you ask. Mana, and especially regular access to it, is a pretty massive favor after all. So that seems unlikely, though I guess you could try to ask anyway?"
he offered, giving Salem a sceptical look. As for `Agents`, that potentially had the potential for concern for Philip.
"Agents? Recruitment? What do you mean? Of the law enforcement or Seer variety?"
he asked, concerned. As for what Philip did for fun, technically it was one word- weapons. But he didn`t know how much Salem`d be into that, so he instead told him the breadth of his hobbies. Well, hoping there was something,anything they could do together, at some point in the future schedule-permitting.
"I go around the park occasionally, sometimes I go for a swim or shoot baskets. Or I go to the gun club to shoot guns, but that`s rare, I guess? Mostly I just like to hoard my gun collection instead of firing it off, though it`s fun. But I take way too little time to do that, these days, they don`t really even know me there. And I love to research random stuff on my computer. I dunno what else to tell you about me, hobby, wise. That pretty much covers it."
he answered honestly, before getting an idea.
"But I guess we could try paintball or laser tag against each other sometime, if you`d be interested? So anyway, but what about you? Any favorites I should know about?"
As for mastery of Space-Time, which to him implied the dual mastery of Space and Time, Philip had no idea how Salem would achieve that as a Mastigos. Granted, Space was a given, but Time? Philip was certainly not about to teach him, besides the fact he himself also still had a long way to go before he got into any sort of mastery, either in Fate or Time. But he still didn`t want to discourage an admirable impulse, so he kept that part to himself.

[Salem]

He nods at the warning, giving a small shrug of his shoulders. He is the new kid on the block. It makes sense not to be shown any sort of favoritism.

He blinks slightly at the Acanthus's response to his mention of Agents. "Surely you've heard of Citizen Agents?" he asks, stepping a bit closer, lowering his voice slightly. "They're like Minutemen, but more... uh... behind the scenes, as it were."

He listens to the man's listing of hobbies. "I like hiking around parks, swimming. Not terribly into sports but not against them either. Never done paintball or laser tag but certainly wouldn't be against giving it a try sometime."

[Philip Crosen]

"Oh, those agents."
he said relieved, a slight sight escaping his lips as Salem clarified.
"I guess I was just being dense for a second. No, that sounds cool. So, what did you do that made `em seemingly wanna recruit you?"
he asked, less concerned and more genuinely curious. After a beat, he clarified his ideas on laser tag and paintball, giving Salem an appreciative nod at his seeming acceptance, although Philip wasn`t completely sure yet.
"There really is nothing better than going against fellow Awakened, regardless of the activity. Wouldn`t you say? We could even agree in such a setting to use our capabilities against each other in a limited capacity to prepare ourselves for future challenges against less-than-reputable adversaries. Ya know, to train for the worst-case. Well, if you`d be up for that kind of sparring?"
giving him a questioning look before agreeing with Salem`s take on sports as well.
"In that sense I`m like you, too. Not really massively into sports anymore either because of my work. I dabble occasionally and that`s mostly it, and call that my hobbies. But I used to be. Back in highschool. But hey, you asked for my hobbies, so I`m glad we found a few things in common. Hiking and swimming. Sounds like as good a place as any to start. Or the type of thing I suggested before?"
he asked, smiling, encouraged by the somewhat-common ground.

[Salem]

Salem is also a bit relieved that the Libertine recognized the title. "An acquaintance of my last trainer is one and thought my particular set of skills and arcana mastery would be quite useful if I were interested."

He listens to the explanation and nods. "Yeah, that makes sense. Training using our full capabilities to put us up against different scenarios and what not. Seers are more likely to send their mages against us anyway, so having some sparring experience with different capabilities would be good. With us not having any overlap so far, that could be quite useful indeed."

He nods in agreement, "Yeah, pretty much the same. Did some sports here and there growing up but kinda grew out of them."

[Philip Crosen]

"So you have a particular set of skills, ones you`ve honed over a long career, skills that make you a nightmare to people like the Seers, eh? Do tell?"
he asked, jokingly in his best Liam Neeson impression.
"That wouldn`t have anything to do with your spying capabilities, would it? I mean I could see that coming in handy for a Citizen Agent."
he asked, continuing the joke, although he`d already pretty much understood what Salem was getting at. But there was a part of him that wanted to know everything about any additional skills of Salem he wanted to share, so he gave him an also partially genuinely questioning look as well, once he was done with his half-joke-half-question.
After a beat to let him answer, he nodded. Salem seemed to have gotten the general idea with sports and that he was the same as him as far as his interest in them was concerned. So he became slightly more pensive. He had after all, at least seemingly, agreed to all of his ideas about paintball, laser tag, swimming or hiking. So now it fell on him to actually organise them. But he knew the next week would be rough for him at work so he felt it best to come clean about it and hope ithat didn`t discourage him.
"That sounds great, I`m sure we`ll have a blast at paintball. Pun intended. But for the next week at least, my schedule is full at work. Can`t be helped. So how about in a couple of weeks in the weekend, once my schedule clears up?"
he offered, hopeful the warlock would accept as readily as he had his previous ideas, and hopeful Chambers and Corn would accept and join the idea that had been born at the previous Consilium conference, that he had now impressed upon Salem as well.