No Rest for the Wicked

[Zodiac]

"Do I play crib?" she asked, musing over the thought absently, "am I at that age? Have you gotten out of your crib, yet, Asp?" she inquired in turn with a little smirk as she sipped at her drink some more. Let her laugh. Let her laugh all she liked. Zoey wasn't one of the old fogies... but she also wasn't fresh-faced baby Asp, either, who apparently rolled around like some kind of pedo-bait.

"Because really, I don't play with that kind of crib. And cribbage isn't really my game," her hand raised as she wiggled her fingers before Asp's face a little. "Fate and Mind make such games... lack challenge."

[Zodiac]

"I call shenanigans on you drinking me under the table, lady life-mage," she rolled her eyes a bit at the girl, sipping at her drink as she considered Asp's question. Giving a gentle shrug, she sighed.

"Space... to see that which is hidden from view... to view things behind objects. Mind... to understand and adapt quickly, to understand things that have been forgotten, to break the barriers between person and mind. Fate... to feel like there is some purpose to all of this, to understand that things lead places and that some things are meant to happen as they happen." She recited quietly, looking at her drink.

"When I spent as much time looking at the physical reminders of what was... I could see all the paths that led to each downfall. The downfall of great eras, the tricks and follies of the human mind that caused each and every little scrap of battle..." Zoey trailed off after a moment. "It was all a riddle. It's all a puzzle. All of it. Past. Present. Future. All the pieces of the puzzle are there, so now it's a matter of gathering all the tools required to resolve the puzzle. Figure out how it works. Figure out what it means. What more is there to the birds flying south than 'instinct' or 'migration'...? What threads exist everywhere, pushing and pulling people towards or away from purposes? Is Mind itself an illusion? The notion of free will...?"

It was clear by this point that Zodiac was rather lost in her musings, she spoke almost without thinking as she ran her middle finger along the rim of her glass. "But Fate and Destiny are not the same. Not precisely. Tied together, perhaps, but still different. Destiny indicates a place where something ends - a goal that is to be reached. Fate, however, is the paths availble to the Mind to take... Destiny can be changed with great, great focus and concentration... it requires the Mind to find the hidden trenches of Fate - the path less followed."

She sighed after a moment, and looked to Asp. "... what got me onto it?" a wry smile was granted to the Arrow, "I don't think most people choose Fate. Fate chooses them to see the hidden paths they can take, those who train in Fate were likely already Destined to do so... Fate chose."

[Zodiac]

"In many ways, yes," she responded with a little smile, nodding a bit. "There are a lot of things that I hope it can apply to... a lot of things I hope it can assist with. Flighty though the Acanthus may be, the arcanum they have inherent power over are strong and frightening in many ways, if applied appropriately. To see into the future - or into the past...? Imagine all the things we could learn... the history we could uncover..." she sighed, looking a little bit blissful at it.

"I'm no Enchanter," Zoey shrugged lightly, "I suppose it's not the path I was destined to Awaken to... Pandemonium chose me. Maybe in another life Arcadia will speak to me more, but for now I do what I can...

"As for you," she shook her head, diverting the subject, "Life is a fairly traditional arcanum for the Arrow, is that why you chose to pursue it?"

[Zodiac]

"Fair enough, and true as it stands in any way," she nodded with a little shrug before giving the girl a wry smile. "I don't suppose there's a Life application that can support your eating habits, hm?" Zoey asked a bit playfully, chuckling to herself and finishing off her drink.

"Life and Death strike me as such strange Arcana," she smiled absently, "not in the sense that they puzzle me, exactly - don't even get me started on Matter," she muttered, "- but in that... they're somehow not the same thing. The absence of Life, one would think, ought to be Death, and the absence of Death, therefore, Life. But the Supernal suggests that... there is something even when there is an absence of Life and Death." Magic. It was fascinating as hell, and one of the harder things for her to grasp conceptually to begin with. Until someone decided to display the applications of Matter.

... the fuck was that about, anyway? Matter... the existence of Matter... how exactly did something like that exist, given that Space could allow for the traversing of great distances with a single step - bypassing 'Matter'... bypassing the Lie that indicated physical objects. A door was inevitably just a symbol. A symbol of a gateway. A symbol of a place. Nine times out of ten prisoners who attempted to escape things would use a door rather than a wall - the symbol of what should be an exit. It was all a trick of the mind, the things that Matter encompassed... It was annoying, really.

[Zodiac]

"That's precisely it, isn't it?" she smiled a little, looking at her own glass absently. "In lieu of Life and Death... There is still Magic itself." Sighing a little bit, Zoey looked up to offer the Obrimos a light smile as well, it was a curious one but she didn't ask any questions. A legacy, hm? It was good to know that there was another in their midst on a more specialized path...

"I suppose we ought to hit the hay, hm? Behave ourselves and get rest or something of that ilk," she was still contemplating whether or not the photoshop a picture to embarrass her absentee cabalmates with... ah it would be such fun. "But I imagine that it should help you save a bit more money if you're not having to gorge yourself quite so much," a playful grin was granted to the younger girl as Zoey rose from her seat, stretching a little bit.