What a piece of work is man

[Crystal]

Crystal was actually surprised that Kaze texted him after their night out. He seemed eager enough to have fun, but it was entirely possible that Guru's and his antics spoiled any prospects of getting to know each other better.

Kaze seemed to be as straight as they get (in every way of the word), but Crystal didn't make the mistake of thinking the Obrimos was naive. He probably was the kind of moral compass Crystal's mentor thought of when sending him here. "I swear to God, if you were actually able to foresee all of this shit I'm going to lose it." Of course Crystal was only yelling at the ceiling of his living room. Probably.

He went around and cleaned up a bit. The last few days he hadn't had the inspiration to do so - between sleeping in, making new friends and of course enjoying life and everything it had to offer he just didn't have the time.
His apartment was on the 4th floor in a building in the nicer part of Sacramento. Big windows on the southern and eastern side made sure that the one big main living room-plus-kitchen was bright and comfortable enough. The only three doors in there led outside, to a spacious bathroom and to his bedroom.

The open kitchen was modern and clean looking, black and chrome surfaces contrasting with pops of colour from his appliances (among them a bordeaux toaster, a light-blue water heater and an orange espresso-machine). Cups and some plates stood around the sink, the dishwasher half opened and begging for someone to take out the clean stuff.

Beyond a counter was a big glass table with six black leather chairs aorund it, apparently the place where the Mastigos did his reading: a few books about Hebrew, Latin, and rituals strewn around, marked with post-its and folded pages. Next to them were some printed pages - a few selected scenes he had prepared in case his guest wanted to work an his acting.

The other side of the room was dominated by the huge TV on the wall and a couch big enough to comfortably place six or seven guests. A few cabinets stood around - mostly empty since he hadn't brought a lot of stuff with him, but they made the open room a bit less overwhelmingly empty.

He put a bottle of water and two glasses on the table - mostly to show he could do without alcohol - and waited for his guest to arrive.

@%1; Ruach

[Kaze]

Kaze approaches the address Crystal texted to him, having parked his truck a few blocks away. He checked out the area and neighborhood. Not bad for someone new to town. Probably not going to get mugged around here. Not going to get girlscouts knocking on your door to sell cookies either.

Kaze smirks, nope. Just boyscouts. He knocks on the door with one hand, his housewarming gift in the other. "Hello? It's Chase."

[Crystal]

Crystal was just throwing the last pieces of clothing inside his bedroom when he heard a knock. The beauty of having more than one room was not having to clean everything perfectly when you're expecting visitors.

He opened the door with a beaming smile. "Hey, come in! Make yourself at home. How are you?" He left the door open and went to the table already and pointed towards a wardrobe next to the entrance. Only after turning to Kaze he seemed to have noticed the gift. "Oh, what do we have here?"

[Kaze]

"Hey, thanks!" Kaze says with a smile, coming in and setting the gift bag with a tall, thin box poking out the top on the table and taking a seat.

"Oh, house warming gift." He says.

[Crystal]

He couldn't help it: the moment the gift hit the table Crystal was already peeking. "Whoa!" Taking out the bottle of the box, the gift really seemed to have hit a spot. "Thanks man, this is really nice! I'm afraid it's a bit early to try it, but I will honor this gift by not binging it." It had the glimmer of humour in it, but the Mastigos seemed to be resolute in this promise. For now.

He poured two glasses of water and sat across from Kaze, using a hand to stroke back a lock of hair. "So, whats' up how are you? I didn't expect to hear from you again - you know, me and Guru partied really hard that night." There was just the right amount of embarrassment in his voice to maybe believe that those kind of evenings were really the exception.

[Kaze]

"Oh, thanks." Kaze says, accepting and sipping the glass of water from Crystals hand.

He laughs, "Honestly, I didn't know if that was 'partying hard' or 'just a night out' for any of you, Skye too. I haven't got out much for a long time, like ten years." Kaze says. "I mean, I know, former Arrow, religious, maybe a little squeamish about legalities. I don't feel all judgey though, honest. I mean, I am just trying to figure stuff out, what works for me. I'm not the guy to tell other people what should work for them."

Kaze looks at Crystal, sincerity in his expression. "I thought you handled yourself and things great. Kept things safe and kinda looked out for people. Classy." He says. "Especially with Skye."

He smiles. "Not the type of person to try to use someone like a drug, for entertainment and thrills. At least, that's my take, and that meant you seemed to me to be a nice person, and a mage and that means someone I'd like to be friends with."

[Crystal]

And Crystal thought he was disarming. "Hah, don't worry. Were you enjoying yourself? I swear to God, I might need a written story of your colorful life one day!" He looked at Kaze, on eyebrow raised. No, definitely not naive, that one and probably more experienced than you'd expect. "Or you know, tell me. Bits by bits, this isn't an interrogation." Holding up his hands in friendly surrender. "I always thought I had a full life, but you seem to have done a lot more so far. Impressive!"

"And thanks for seeing it that way. I know a lot of people who would disagree with you, but I guess I'll just have to try to be as nice as you think I am. And watching out for people you're dragging into something they're not comfy with is a given, don't you think?" Two minutes in and it was already getting mushy here. "Which is why I promise to be extra careful when we get to the scenes I've prepared for your acting-training later. You're still into that, right?"

[Kaze]

Kaze laughs, "'Colorful' huh?" He says, smiling. "That makes it sound like I'm the 'Dread Pirate Roberts'!"

"Okay, short version? I'm a hot mess, like most people, just trying to figure out what's really me and what's other peoples' garbage I picked up and am trying to dump."

He pauses a second and grins, "Long version? Just say 'Kumquat' if you've had enough. I grew up in L.A., my dad was a travelling salesman, a rep for 'big pharma', my mom was super into religion. I got some abandonment issues started early. Her dad was a US Marine Corps Colonel who was around some of the time, and I totally worshipped him. I tried to be what I thought they wanted, so they'd stick around. I went with my dad sometimes on his sales trips, I learned what songs he liked and made 'mix tapes' for our 'road trips'. I totally got into my mom's religion. I was literally a choir boy. And I got into sports, all manly and competitive, and had enough talent that if I worked real hard at it, I could impress my grandfather."

Kaze pauses dramatically, obstensively to give Crystal time to use his safe word. "Yeah, so now the 'color' turns a little dark. My mom got cancer, and praying it away didn't work. She was kinda okay with it though, I mean she was really for real about her faith. She even forgave my dad when he bailed while she was doing the whole chemo thing. So yeah, she died and my dad was gone, and I was twelve and my Grandfather was retired by then, or maybe he retired because of what was going on; he was big about family and duty. He ended up raising me until I went to UCLA on a football scholarship. Then I got hurt, and couldn't play, and then the coach who wanted me jumped to coach in the pro's, and the new coach wasn't into me, and gave my scholarship to someone he liked better, and then my grandfather died of cancer."

Kaze winces and says, "Sorry. It sounds pretty bleak in the condensed version. It was a while ago, so you don't have to say anything. It's fiiine." He laughs, like it's an in joke. "And anyway, he made it to a hundred years old before he died, so...you know."

"So anyway. Grandpa's Trust had a condition, that I had to go to Okinawa to get my inheritance. He was originally from there. I went, and I Awakened, and there just happened to be someone there to mentor me." Kaze winks at Crystal. "Yeah, I am suspicious that Grandpa knew something, but I don't know what or how much."

"They were Arrows, so I was an Arrow, and I figured that was what Grandpa wanted, because the Arrow philosophy was pretty much what Grandpa had raised me to believe anyway."

"After a long time training with them, my Master sent me here a couple years ago. I was feeling pretty lost, and met the hottest woman I had ever seen here, another new Arrow, and we were in the barracks together and training and patrolling together all the time. So, yeah...we hooked up. I want to say it meant more to me than her, but that's not far. It just meant different things to us, and we never really talked about what we wanted. She really kinda wanted to take it day by day, and I didn't realize how much I needed to know it was a solid relationship with a future and commitments, like at least being able to plan and talk about marriage and kids. Then I found religion, basically my mom's but a slightly different flavor, and that kind of ended our relationship."

"Oh, about the same time, all the other Arrows left town including the leader; that actually happens a lot here, mages just show up and say they have a mission or whatever and tell you all about how important it is to them, and then just leave, sometimes they say why and sometimes they just drop out of sight." Kaze says with the first slight hint of bitterness in his voice.

"So I dropped out of the Arrows, and my ex is the leader of the Arrows, and I am trying different stuff out to figure out what I actually want to do if I take pleasing other people out of the equation."

Kaze grins. "And don't think I haven't noticed you keep hinting that learning acting with you is going to be super intense. Am I gonna need, like a, 'safe word' or something?" He says, laughing.

[Crystal]

Crystal listened to Kaze's story, his smile faltering as it went on. The Obrimos' brief pause was not met with the safe-word, but an affirmative gesture to keep going. When all was said and done he let the following silence ring for a moment.

"Wow." And they say Mastigos aren't trustworthy - he walks in and just lays it all bare. "That's quite the story. I-" Cleary he was at a loss for words, his hands mimed an explosion around his head instead. "To think that you'd get out of this with your attitude? That's something else." He laughed and leaned forward, more to process everything than because it was so funny. "So let's recap:" Counting with his fingers so they both were on the same page. "You have some background in the army, the church, music, and sports and that was all before you even Awakened?" Yeah, that sure did put his life of privilege into perspective. "I hope you remembered your safe-word, because boy do I have of questions for you."

"Did you actually have time for yourself between all of this? What kind of religion did you mother subscribe to?" There were different kinds, some nasty and some less so. Even if Kaze seems to have renounced that, Crystal wanted the full picture just in case. "Just out of interest - whom did your dad work for? It doesn't happen to be Biogen, right?" It was a shot in the dark, but stranger things have happened. "Now I know what you meant when you said you wanted to try something you want for yourself. Sounds like a lot of what's been going on wasn't exactly your own choice, right?"

He leaned back in his chair again and considered for a moment. "Do you think your gramps was Awakened himself?" That'd be interesting - if things like that actually somehow ran in the family. Nobody he knew had reached out for him, but that didn't really mean jack shit.

As soon as Kaze had mentioned his ex Crystal went through the Arrows he knew here. Well, the list wasn't really long in any case - there's Skye and another woman who talked Order business with her at the Circle. "Phoenix? And are you on good terms now or what?" He really didn't mean to pry but come on: this came up organically and willingly so he might as well ask follow-ups. "I mean I don't think I've ever seen a Mage taking it lightly when you leave his little club." He looked at Kaze again, then shook his head and chuckled.

"Man, they really mean it when they say one shouldn't judge a book by its cover. So I've got some good news for you: with your experience you have some solid basics for acting and" neither denying nor affirming the Obrimos' worries "we've already established a safe word." He thought about the scene he had put at the top of his list to try out - Death of a Salesman, Biff lashing out against his father that desperately wanted him to succeed in the career he had chosen for his son. That'd either be super easy or the longest couple of minutes in both the Mages life.

[Kaze]

Kaze laughs, "Hey, I'm not the unusual one, you are!" He says. "Sorry, in joke, but really, seriously, I get the impression most Awakened lives are train wrecks. If yours isn't, I should be the one listening to your story and taking notes!"

He nods and says, "Questions aren't a problem. If for some reason I don't want to answer, I'll just say so."

"United States Marine Corps, not Army. Big difference." Kaze says with a smile but a serious tone. "And my mom's dad was the one who served. I never was in the military at all. Other than that, yeah that's about it. Seriously, broken families are kind of the norm. I don't feel like I got a worse deal that most people. I mean, my grandfather set me up so I can actually just try different things instead of having to take a job just to pay rent and by food. That's better off than most people."

"At the time, I was a kid. What I wanted more than anything was a family that loved and accepted me and was there for me, so anything I did that I thought helped that to happen was my choice."

"I really don't know. He never took me when he was actually going to do a presentation. I waited in the car and listened to music or read comic books, usually both."

"Straight, vanilla Roman Catholic. Charismatic. A little unusual, but nothing really weird. I didn't run into any flagellants until I got into the Arrows." Kaze says, shaking his head in wonder.

"I have no idea, and there's no one left to ask. The Arrows in Okinawa never confirmed knowing anything about him."

"Phoenix and me..." Kaze sighs. "We both agree that we're still friends, but we both seem to get angry a lot when we're around each other, so...yeah. i think we'll be okay, after a while." He says with a tone of deliberate vagueness about what 'okay' actually would mean.

"Oh yeah?" Kaze smiles. "I didn't know you could share a safe word. 'Kumquat' it is then."

"Um, one thing." Kaze says, "I was kind of kidding about the whole 'safeword' thing, only because ever since I saw 'The Fifth Element' at seven years old, I've been really into Kung Fu...so, yeah I have some reflexes that would...probably happen too fast for you to say a safe word."

Kaze smiles and says, "It's totally different doing it for show, but I have been learning how to use it for stage fighting."

He moves through an intricate series of movements that actually look smooth and graceful and practiced, but more like some kind of performance art and not threatening or intimidating in the slightest.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-12-26 18:56:59	Kaze rolls 6 to intimidate with Combat Art 1 (Kung Fu 5 + Presence 2 + Intimidation 0 -1) (10 Again)	3, 1, 1, 4, 4, 3	failure

"Well...you know, it's like...a work in progress." Kaze says, shaking his head ruefully and laughing.