(ODCH) Touch Starved

**Pixie Styx** · May 6th, 2016 01:37 PM

A pleasant shiver runs up her spine as Rhodes calls her the Grand Wyrm's apprentice, but the pleasure she takes out of his opening comment is cut short by the expression upon his face, and they careful way he speaks. Cold, and combative. The smirk that appears abruptly drops off. Nell uncrosses her arms, letting the limbs hang at her side. She adjusts her stance as if she were readying herself for physical combat, instead of a verbal spar.

"Everyone can have thoughts that threaten the Masquerade. I'm sure every has." Nell begins carefully. "Thoughts exist in a realm of their own, acting upon those thoughts are another matter entirely." The Magician says. "But in turn thought can become action, if thought upon long enough." And Nell should know. It's within her own nature.

"No. I've not chanced the Dragon's Tail." Nell admits, "The Grand Wyrm wasn't kidding when he said that our Academy was tiny. Do you even know how many Dragon there are in the Domain?" Nell asks, before answering. "Yourself, myself, the Grand Wyrm and Initiate Martha Villiers. We don't have the resources, the man power to contemplate Chasing the Dragon's Tail without such actions causing a potential Breach." Nell tilts her head, "Unless, you'd want to expos out secrets to other kindred, disregarding the Rites that make up our own, so that we might take up this practice once more?"

May 6th, 2016 08:23 PM

David remains stoic, with no obvious reactions of approval or disapproval one way or the other. Only dull-brown eyes move between them, pondering how they react to things. In the future, it might come in handy. In the future, it'll give him insight into how to approach the pair of them. The Magician he knows already, so close to his own Card. The other, with his contrarian posture still needs some observation.

Letting Nell answer for herself allows David a view into how she stands for herself.

In the Order, every encounter and statement is graded against a hidden rubric.

Thoughts are an interesting subject for the Shadow. Beyond the fact that such things can be laid bare for his family. But, David is a student of Haemomemetics and Memory. Thoughts that have been crystallized and passed down the generations. Thoughts are tangible things to David.

Instead of answering either question directly, David gives both a quick history lesson. “Our Order used to be larger. When I arrived here in twenty-thirteen, we numbered around fifteen. Former Grand Wyrm Villiers was also Herald at the time.” The apex of their power in Sacramento, sadly. With what David knows of Martha, he doubts that she saw the point of the rite. Even if David potentially shares serious personal misgivings about it.

Though the fact that she is still here might suggest more to the story. Or, maybe it doesn't.

“Even then, our resources were slim and Breaches are handled here swiftly and aggressively. Especially as we have groups, hidden within this city, that mean to do us -- and the Order -- harm.”

**Benji** · May 6th, 2016 11:48 PM

"A thought is nothing. It is less than air. Thoughts can no more compel someone into breaching the masquerade than the existence of our Beasts means we are no longer creatures of reason." Louis raises a finger and tilts it to his left, "Without action, a thought can not be a crime." He tilts his finger over to his right, like a metronome before placing it back down. "With action, it is the action witch is the crime. Never mind the impossibility of policing thoughts when not every member of the Academy can read them. Never mind the impossibility of reliably prosecuting someone based on illegal thoughts when our kind can manipulate them through magic. Never mind that punishing someone because they merely think wrongly is the job of the Lancea et Sanctum or the Circle of the Crone, not the Ordo Dracul."

"Surely," Louis says with some surprise, "the Grand Wyrm's Apprentice can think of a dozen ways to kill a mortal without making it a breach of the masquerade, even if only as a thought experiment." Louis looks at her quizzically. "Mortals do it all the time, and they generally lack the support of city-spanning networks of influence, not to mention magical powers. If you know how you could," Louis leans forward, "oh, order a pack of wild dogs to attack someone. Or you could give an addict an overdose. Or knock a poor octogenarian down the stairs. Or you could just make someone's body disappear. There's a host of ways to perform a murder that don't involve breaking someone in half with raw strength in front of witnesses, dashing around with inhuman speed on camera or exsanguinating the victim and leaving their corpse in an alley. If you pick the right subjects and provide an explanation more likely than 'immortal blood drinking monsters were here' then the law enforcement won't waste their already thin resources on open and shut cases."

"That is the purpose of the exercise, after all." Louis leans back and, deciding that his thoughts were too disorganized at the moment to go through with his planned self examination tonight, moves the collection of objects off to one side to more easily put them away when the time comes. "It makes you sit down and force yourself examine a goal that is entirely repugnant and think through how you should best approach it and what the consequences of performing it are. Then once you have completed it and murdered your victim, you have to study how your actions impact the world and what that says about you, your victim and the people involved with the victim. If after you do so, you have not learned the lessons it teaches, then the necessary self knowledge that you must have to progress with the Coils will be a very hard thing to come by." Louis shakes his head and looks to David after speaking. "I will of course respect the Sworn's decision in this matter while I am a member of this Academy, as is only proper. Despite this, I think the decision to flat out ban one of the Ordo's traditional tools is unnecessarily moralistic. Following the Dragon's Tail is not an experiment that should be initiated lightly, but it is a uniquely effective one." In his opinion, if someone was going to run around murdering people and breaching the masquerade in doing so, they'd do it with or without the pretext of Following the Dragon's Tail. Banning the practice was akin to throwing out the baby with the bathwater. "I can only assume that with so many Dragons in a city there were problems with overlapping experiments, suggesting the need to restrict it's practice?"

"During my acknowledgement, the Seneschal intimated that there were threats out in Citrus Heights and a park called Yolo. Are these the threats you are talking about?"

**Benji** · May 9th, 2016 07:15 PM

First Rule of Dragon club - A Dragon has no loyalty above his studies.

So when Louis' pants make a noise, he doesn't hesitate to check it. After a moment of reading, he starts packing his gear up with quick, efficient motions. "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to put a pin in this conversation and save it for later. I hope you'll excuse me." Ultimately it did not matter if they did or didn't, because the Third Rule of Dragon Club was clear - A Dragon is responsible for all they are and all they do. If they were offended, he'd just have to deal with it in the future.

Been a month and two days, better wrap this up

May 9th, 2016 08:32 PM

“You raise interesting points,” David states faintly, complimentary even as Louis gets up to leave. Quite a lot of points in fact, bordering on defensive, but David doesn't say that. “As someone studying the Pranayama, you must be aware of Tuplas and Thoughtforms. These disciplines are close to what I study, Haemomemetics, but not quite.”

Canting his head to the side, thinking of condensing it, he merely tells Louis, “I think this might be something you should look into. In us, our abilities are the result of a thought, a wish given form. We want to move faster, our bodies respond, and so we do.” David instructs, like a impromptu class, “This is what we we mean in our Rite. Actions beneficial to you and your study, is the result of thoughts beneficial to yourself. We don't separate action from thought as you might.”

Straightening, gearing up to leave himself, David suggests, “You might want to speak to Initiate Villiers sometime about the rites practiced before I became Grand Wyrm. Though I understand the purpose of the exercise, our Academy has been too small while I have been.” At times numbering only himself and one or two others, “With the Inconcensus, it becomes too much of a risk to the practitioner's Requiem and their Experience.” Two things David values far more than a single Rite. Not to mention the risk to the Order, already on thin-ice in the Domain.

Dragons have been hard to come by in the last two years.

“As for your last question, to be succinct: yes. Though that's a story I don't think we have time for. Be aware though, those threats have targeted Dragons in particular and a former Kogaion warned us that we are Sterling and Omnipotent.” A beat, “Take care. I should get going myself.”

**Pixie Styx** · May 11th, 2016 03:52 PM

She'd been ready to explode to-to do anything! But her mind forgets once more, that nothing will pause while she thinks. Her mind traveling a myriad of paths that this argument could travel, rehearsing the lines within her mind, but just like that her moment has past, Rhodes gets up to leave, and the Grand Wyrm her-Master-says his piece, in his ever calm and measured manner, and Nell loses her readied posture, and crosses her arms once more. His message read loud and clear. But the story was one she'd wish to hear, she wanted to know why there was such danger in Citrus Heights, and Yolo park, but as David said, there wasn't much time this night.

With a sigh, Nell watched them both leave, before heading back to the dusty corners once more armed with her lemon pledge.

I'm still really sorry about all the delays. Hopefully we can try this again sometime.

(ODCH) Touch Starved

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