Transcribed from Chat


Asp strolled out after Zoey, making her way to Zoey's car. That had been super awkward. Like, oh my lord. Acquire a bunch of chick mages and shit gets catty. She was reminded why it was she liked the Arrow. At least when people were being bitchy, you could smack some sense into them in a very literal sense. She opened the front door and took shotgun, smiling at Zoey. "Hey."



"Hey," the response was quiet and a bit distant as the brunette leaned back in her seat, staring ahead. She was tired. She wasn't feeling particularly sociable anymore. What she'd wanted to do seemed suddenly much less interesting to her now than it had been. "You could've caught a ride with the others, you know," Zoey suggested absently, though a stupid, small part of her was grateful that the



Asp shrugged, like it was nothing. "I came here to hang with you and Star. Drinking with others is secondary to that." Veiled Threats. They stuck together, full stop. That was what Cabals did. "You okay?"



"Okay?" she asked, shaking her head a little and glancing off out the driver's side window. "Got suddenly accosted by a crowd of people that I think missed the memo about us being enlightened individuals. Possible, even, that they missed the memo that we're out of high school, as well, but I'll at least give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they've graduated."



Social circles never changed. High school wasn't all that far back for Asp. She remembered it well. This wasn't that, but yeah... "The goth chick went a little over the top rope there on that other girl, for sure. You know any of them?"



He did the quick walk that wasn't an OMG-RUNNING but not an omg-miss-the-ride walk. Because, seriously, that'd suck if he missed all the vehicles in the convoy and ended up rolling solo. Oh. Good. The Totally Not Awesome cabal-mobile was sitll there. He knocked politely on the windows, then hopped in the back. Seatbelts, yo. They're a thing. "Hey."



"Pepper," Zoey responded easily. "Pepper and Mace, whom you met earlier at the Circle." She paused to look at Star, raising a brow for a moment and looking a little surprised to see him there before she looked back out the window. "Hey," she offered in return. "Met them in Boston as Apostates. Their penchant for mischief - particularly Pepper's - caused me no end of headaches, especially since we had the fantastic task of supervising them. It seems the two of them have at least settled into Orders now."



"Sup, Star?" Asp said with a grin. She was glad the other Angel decided to join them. It was a nice show of solidarity. "Oh, good. What kind of stuff were they up to?" she asked, honestly curious.



"Hey! Pepper... and... Mace? Like, the sprays? Or like the Spice Rack cabal. Sorry. Sorry. Ummmm. That's cool, if you know them, but, I didn't know that. Whichever that one was didn't say, like, 'Hi' or anything. To me." OK. Sure, he could have missed something. There were distractions. "My bad. Seriously. If I missed an intro. I was, uh, talking to Nous." Yep. Nous. He leaned forward between the seats. "Anyway."



Starting the car, Zoey shook her head a bit. "Doesn't much matter. They're twins, and their stories are their own to share," she added, glancing briefly to Asp, "I hardly need to give you any ideas. I'll keep a running report on their well-being and behaviour for their uncle." A light shrug graced her motions as she focused on the road again.



Asp laughed at Star's comment. "Twins named Pepper and Mace? That's actually pretty funny, now that I think about it." She grinned over her shoulder at him before slowly returning her gaze to the road, too. "Fair enough. Well, Mace is an Arrow, so she'll have lots of eyes on her. We're not a small Order, that's for sure." And they were definitely one of the orders more prone to going batshit from all the violence in their lives. "I'll let you know if I see anything awry."



"What's Pepper?" It didn't sound like she was a Guardian. Nous hadn't known her, either. "Dang. I'm still trying to figure out what those other chicks are. Too loud in there." Yep. Loud. "If they come to Marilyn's, we should do that team thing and figure it out." He paused. "So was all that weirdness about, ummmm, I dunno, being worried about Pepper? Like, raving and stuff?" Bad enough they had a A Cat. Now they had A Delinquent?



Her expression settled after a moment on something neutral, though there was a little edge to it as she shook her head. "Vox," was Zoey's answer to Star's question. "Mace I'm less concerned about, but Pepper's had some historical... moments." How else could she put it? It didn't matter. "Anyway, it sounds like she got settled with someone who likely did a good job straightening her oout. I've never known that particular woman to do anything otherwise. Really, I'd decided that since apparently we were deciding to crowd the table, at least it would be nice to have more people around that I actually knew."



Asp listened, a contemplative look on her face. It sounded like there was more to be said, yet. "Yeah, sounds like something to look into in the near future," she agreed with Cut. Usually, if you talked to someone at Consilium and asked them their Order, they'd tell you. "Glad to hear she's doing better. I guess we'll see, soon enough, huh?"



"Uh. Hmmmm." He sorted through Zoey's words, and tried to remember what had been going on. Too. Much. "I dunno. About table crowding? I was kind of on the clock. I was trying to vet the two new faces, and be ready to stop, drop, and roll if Striker ambushed me." He didn't just want to come out and say it. OK, he'd say it. "I, uh, didn't text you to have shots with me. I texted for backup."



"I see," Zoey responded, frowning a little to herself. "The warning might've been nice. I'd joined you to celebrate." But then, how much worse would the situation have been if she'd walked in expecting a fight? No wonder he'd asked after Avis. It really was the Arrow he'd been looking to gather.



Asp's head snapped around. "Whoa. What's this? What happened?"



"But, uh. I texted you." He pulled out his phone, and scrolled through his messages. OK, wow. Toned warrior body in writing jumping all out at him. He pulled back into the rear of the car a bit, where his field of view as just the back of seats. "Hmmmm. My bad. I guess, uh, I dunno. Should have been more clear?" Guardian, tho. Texting Guardian.



"You'd suggested someone cast something vulgar, and then went to make a call, and that you'd left," Zoey recited clearly. "Was I wrong in assuming that you had been able to take care of things on your own?"



Asp still looked back and forth between the two, curious as to what the heck Striker had done.



"Oh. Striker. Ran up on that Faye chick at the park? Then started dropping Vs," he directed at Asp. "Sure, I handled it? But that doesn't mean he wasn't calling a friend to come after me. And I still had the two new mage chicks to vet." He settled back into the rear of the car. Nice. So this was about him? Not being able to handle something? An angry Arrow and two potential Banishers. Whatever, yo. Anyway. "Celebrate what? Did you get your job?"



Given that the woman had no idea who, precisely this Striker person was, she simply sighed and shook her head. Yes. Vetting them was what he was doing. Mmmhmm. Sure thing. "Generally a club and dancing isn't what I would tend to be doing if I was concerned about being attacked," she pointed out to the other as she sighed. "And yes, actually, I did."



Asp looked super serious on that instant. Striker was dropping vulgar magic in a park? Yeah... Leo wasn't going to like that. "I'll mention it to Leo. That kind of thing can't be happening. And Zoey? Way to go!"



He lapsed into silence for a few moments. It didn't matter. He wasn't going to quibble over methods. Truth? It was probably his fault for thinking Zoey had done the same kind of field work. She'd said up front she was a treasure hunter. "Totally, congrats. I mean, seriously, no one had any doubts. No wonder you two were celebrating!" He shuffled through his phone messages and stuck his arm out between the seats. "So. Ummm. Can we skip the, uh, booty call texts? Tonight?"



Asp blushed. Again. "The bets moved on. Don't worry. You won't be called cutie."



Zoey simply raised a brow, glancing towards the pair before shaking her head a little, saying nothing though a smirk settled on her features as she looked back at the road. So he had gotten them. That was reassuring at least.



She reached back playfully to poke his cheek. "Unless you wanna. Cutie." She laughed.



Total. Surprise. His eyes bounced up to the mirror to see if Zoey was looking. Had she told Asp? He didn't particularly care, but it was just be... surprising. And, maybe, a little weird. "Uhhh. Annnnyway. Pretty sure the Arrowlypics boxing champ can call anyone anything she wants," he answered, sticking his tongue out. "But, whoah, rewind? So, this bet? Who, ummmm, was Zoey texting?" He paused, then started laughing. Full. On. Laughter. "No. No. Stop. Tell me Zoey wasn't texting Ari or Santa!"



Zodiac pulled the car into the parking lot, and stopped it, casting a glance at Star. "... what, pray tell, makes you think it had anything to do with me?" she inquired, before settling her gaze on Asp.



Asp whistled quietly to herself. Very. Sneaky. Snakey. Do do do do do... She was so not telling what Zoeys side of this was... Even if she really, really wanted to.



"Uh, that look you just gave us? Or that you didn't ask about the bet?" Whoops. Sloppy of him. Try to clean it up, yo. Of course, that look could have been because of what Zoey had said about finding him a new friend to play with, but. Well. Pair of twos, turn 'em over. That's all there was to show.



"... yeah, don't bullshit a bullshitter, either of you." Zoey shook her head rather pointedly before looking to Asp. "To be clear, she started it. Where's your honour, little Arrow?" she asked, her tone a little bit teasing even as she nudged at the girl. "Anyway, everyone off the bus, we've reached our destination."



"...in some unknown dojo." He jumped out of the car, laughing. Jumped. Fast.



Asp kept on blushing...