[Administrator] Ashley McGowen, welcome to Chantry (Now)
[Ashley McGowen] [Did I actually sleep last night?]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 1, 5 (Failure at target 5)
[Administrator] Wharil Choc, welcome to Chantry (Now)
[Wharil Choc] [I AM AWARE!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1
[Ashley McGowen] It's been a hell of a week so far.
Wharil's been buried in the library for a while, but he must be feeling exceptionally in touch with his surroundings today. Or maybe just more alert and jumpy than usual. Either way, he can tell when Ashley walks in the front door of the chantry. And the first thing he'll notice, other than hunger, other than unrelenting determination, is that the sense of taint that's been etched on her soul for the past several months is gone.
The second thing he'll notice, when she walks up the stairs and enters the library, is that she hasn't slept much in days. The taint might be gone - and has in fact been gone for a few weeks now - but there's some fresh grief that's managed to find its way back in. She hasn't been resting and her reserves of Will are low, but she's shoring up and soldiering on. Wharil's a perceptive man. He can't help but notice these things.
The third thing he'll notice is Ashley herself, that she's walking in and coming up behind him to take a cursory glance at what he's reading, leaning a palm on the desk. She's dressed in a pair of jeans and a striped blue and gray shirt. It's hot outside, and it's rainy, and dark spots dot the shoulders and chest of her shirt. "Hey," she greets him. "How's it going?"
[Wharil Choc] How long had he been sitting there, facing the door. When she walked in it almost seemed as though he was expecting her. Almost as if he'd staged himself here, all day, with three different books in three different languages sitting in front of him, and even more books off their shelves and on the table in stacks.
And then there's the feather. A single black feather that he's apparently been using as a book mark. He's been at this for quite some time now. So far though? No feathers. No clue as to where their cabalmate has gone.
But he's been here, looking. As if he can be found in books. And he'd likely been completely absorbed in it until Ashley walked into the house, and into the room. At which point Wharil was waiting for her to come through the door. Waiting with an odd smile on his face.
"How's it going?" Ashley asks.
"Fiiiineee..." Wharil responds. Suspiciously so.
[Ashley McGowen] He's waiting for her with an odd smile on his face, and as weighed down as Ashley is by whatever happened, she doesn't miss that. The Hermetic raises her eyebrows at him, glancing at the feather he's using to mark the book's pages, then back to his face.
On another day she might be teasing him for the decidedly inglorious manner in which he'd been attacked and held down by children. She's too tired for that today.
But that look gets a slightly bemused smile. "What are you looking at me like that for? Did you find something?"
[Wharil Choc] "No, I didn't. That's just it. You're...uh...You look like shit. But you feel...different. Back to normal, really."
He leans back in the straight back chair, tipping it a little and touching the fingers of each hand together.
"Like before the Nameless Crow, I mean. Congratulations. How do you feel?"
[Ashley McGowen] "A lot better," she says, and it wouldn't be remiss to say that she looks pleased that he noticed. A smile surfaces. Ashley takes a seat on the edge of the desk; she's short enough that she has to raise herself onto the edge rather than the other way around. "Less...hollow, I guess." It seems to have done more for her than that, really; she's confident again, that persistent sense of melancholy, of futility, is gone.
"It was actually..." She pauses, looks over at him for a few seconds. "Have you had much of a chance to talk to Catherine yet? You should, if you haven't. She let me hear music."
[Wharil Choc] "Catherine as in...the node, Catherine?" That has his attention. "You spoke to her? Directly to her? I wasn't even aware that you knew how to perceive the spirit world, let alone interact with it."
[Ashley McGowen] "I used the Ars Mentis," she says. "I mean, she's...conscious, in her way, and has a Mind I could join with. She made it sound like she could communicate to others without it, though. You should go and try speaking with her. Israel and Solomon both have."
There's a pause, and her expression is a little solemn again when she looks back at him. "I don't know how much you've heard about the demon, but she invited me to talk to her at length after a couple of High Umbrood got in here a couple of weeks ago. She asked for my protection. Well, not just mine, but I couldn't speak for everyone else."
[Administrator] Wharil Choc has left Chantry
[Administrator] Wharil Choc, welcome to Chantry (Now)
[Wharil Choc] "Huh." He says, quite surprised. And then, disturbed. He brushes at his hairless chin (when did he have time to shave?) and his eyes did that wandering thing that made him look a little bit crazy when he brought his brows down low like that.
"High Umbrood. Here. We should have gone with Rene's advice."
And then, he turns to the books on his table. Fingers picking up the feather and brushing at the fibers. Their only real clue.
"I should have been more aware."
[Ashley McGowen] "It was quick," she says, with a look toward him that is probably meant to be reassuring. Given that it's Ashley, well. "I barely even had any warning before they were trying to possess me." Trying, she says, because of course they didn't succeed: Ashley prides herself on her Will, it would have been a sad thing if they had.
"I was suspicious too, at first," she adds, "but Catherine's...a good thing. I can't really even describe it." There's another glance to him, quick. "I haven't heard music since I woke up."
[Wharil Choc] Wharil gives a half incredulous, half impressed "Really?" And then proceeds to measure Ashley with his eyes for a while.
"The node convinced you that she was worth protecting. Alright. This...has me curious."
And finally the books each close in their heavy, thumping, dust lifting way.
"This is something I have to try." He says with a smile, hands now moving to support the back of his head. The smile fades. The feather peaks out from between the pages.
"Gregor's not here for it though. And...well...without him...I don't know that I could take his place."
[Ashley McGowen] "Really," she says, and then, "Paradox. It was a backlash that never really went away. Just sounds like really unpleasant noise." It doesn't appear to be a happy topic. Or one on which she's prepared to say a lot.
She folds her hands in her lap, looking down at her feet, which are dangling down off the side of the desk. They don't come anywhere near the floor. "You can talk with her without Gregor. The guardian spirit...he's more of a pain in the ass, I think, but Catherine herself should be willing to talk to you."
She draws one of her legs up, wraps an arm around it, the ball of her foot pressed into the edge of the desk. "The demon that caused the bridge collapse last week, he invited me and some others to come talk to him over the weekend."
[Wharil Choc] "Uh..." A gaping mouth was the only real response to that sort of statement. No matter who you were.
"So uh...tell me more about that."
[Ashley McGowen] "Well, first," Ashley says, with a wry twist of the mouth, "Solomon Ward called a meeting the night of the collapse and right after we got the invitations. He happened to tell me in front of everyone there that I was the default Deacon of the chantry and had certain obligations. Which is one of the things I -also- wanted to talk to you about."
There's a wry twist of the mouth, another look to him. What she intends isn't that hard to guess at.
"But as for the meeting itself," and what humor and good nature was in her expression fades rapidly, "it was me and a few others. Solomon, Emily, Nathan, Owen and Atlas. I don't know why he picked us. So first he sat us down and told us this Paradise Lost type story. Tried to convince me that I wanted to shack up with the infernal. All of us told him he was wasting his time."
She pauses, hesitates. Looks over toward him, letting him respond before she continues. It's clear that she's trying to ready herself to talk about something anyway.
[Wharil Choc] "Default deacon, eh? Hm. Well congratulations."
He listens to the rest, smiling less when Ashley does. Frowning more as she goes on.
"Wait, wait. Solomon tried to convince you of this? That doesn't sound like him."
[Ashley McGowen] "No, I meant the demon did," she says, furrowing her eyebrows. "At the meeting with him. Sorry. I wasn't as specific as I should have been. I'm surprised Solomon managed to stick around through the story at all. He was pissed."
[Wharil Choc] "Oh. That sounds more like it. Go on, tell me more."
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley sighs, and she isn't looking at him at this point. The Hermetic has chosen to direct her focus elsewhere, because watching facial expressions while you tell this kind of story, being aware that there's someone else in the room at all, makes the telling harder. It's the first time she's spoken of it to anyone since it happened: she's telling Wharil because he's her cabal mate, because he should know.
"After he got done with his story he asked us to follow him, and his assistant took us to a separate room and left us there." Ashley lifts a hand to her temple, rubs at it, rests her elbow on her knee. Still doesn't look at him. "This is going to sound over the top, like a...I don't even know. But there was...okay. There was a group of Sleepers we didn't know that he had behind a glass wall. In there with this swarm of devouring insects. And he'd picked up my mother and someone Solomon knew...former girlfriend, I think. The assistant told us to pick who got to live, and told me that if we swore to a geas to not impede his efforts in the city, everyone got to go home."
Ashley bites at the inside of her cheek a few times. She still isn't looking over at Wharil, has chosen instead to focus on the edge of the feather, now. "...Like I said. Over the top." One might suppose she needs to say it, for the distance.
"So we refused. All of them started killing guards. I got shot - " she presses fingertips to her ribs - "so did Solomon. Emily killed someone. I kept the swarm away from the Sleepers, and we got all of them out. My mother and Solomon's...well, whatever she was. They didn't. We didn't see him after that."
[Wharil Choc] Wharil is quiet for a long time. He doesn't look at Ashley. He doesn't mind that she doesn't look at him. He's not smiling, but his leg does shake slightly up and down. It had been making that rhythmic thumping sound when she got to 'swarm of devouring insects.'
Nearly a full minute goes by and he doesn't say anything. Simply steeples his fingers and lets out a heavy sigh.
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley doesn't rush to fill the silence either. It was a hard story to tell in the first place: her mother is dead, and they hadn't spoken very much since she was little. Phone calls every few weeks, but nothing extensive. Nothing personal. She's still not looking at Wharil.
Her voice didn't thicken during the story, and she didn't tear up. It's less from a lack of emotion and more from simple exhaustion, at this point. Wharil's a Euthanatos: he knows how to read the tells of grief, knows the different forms it takes as intimately as he knows the Chodana. He also knows that it passes with time and acceptance.
Ashley gives him time to absorb it. She isn't in a rush to speak.
[Wharil Choc] "How did he find them? How did he find you? Any of you?"
Finally he leans forward, elbows on knees but knees still shaking. His eyes seem to scrutinize something in the far corner of the library room.
"A step ahead. And active. Which is what we need to be."
And then the leg stops shaking.
"Starting with defense. Israel and I were discussing the structure of the Chantry's governance. We need to accellarate that. We need Sentinels."
[Ashley McGowen] "I don't know how he found us. That's part of what bothers me," and here she is finally looking back at him again, having been shaken away from thoughts (memories) of her mother. "Unless he has my True Name, I should be difficult for just about...anyone to track. So either he's strong enough that it doesn't even -matter,- or he has my True Name." And, clearly, neither of those thoughts is a thought she likes.
"And...I agree, on the matter of chantry positions. We need to be organized right now." Ashley pauses, taps her thumbs together where her hands are still folded in her lap, one on top of the other. "I also resent being in charge only when it suits other people. So I intend to move toward making it official. But it isn't something I wanted to do without letting you know what I was doing."
The Hermetic lets out a short sigh, adjusts how she's sitting on the desk so that she's facing him a bit more easily. Turned toward him (and close enough that if his damn leg starts shaking again she can put her foot on top of it. It's making her nervous.) "Did you and Israel talk about how Sentinels were going to be selected? Or how -any- of the positions were going to be selected?"
[Wharil Choc] "By vote." He says with a nod. "Selected mainly from among the Cabals. With assistance from...well, whoever wants to lend assistance. How the Cabals choose to select their candidates is up to them. But everyone needs to have a hand in our protection at some point or another.
"We also agreed on a council made up of a single representative from each cabal. Emissaries. That way instead of the entire Mage society sitting in a room shouting at each other, its just four people in a room shouting at each other.
"Oh. And a single, trusted, capable Node tender and Head Librarian. With authority to name assistance, as usual."
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley nods, slowly, as he tells her about the positions they've selected. "Emissaries sound like a really good idea, after that last meeting," she says with a sigh. "I really hate meetings." Her mouth quirks into a grin then, turned in Wharil's direction, almost companionable in spite of recent events, recent topics of conversation. "With emissaries, I can just make you go instead."
There's a thoughtful pause, and she raises a hand, tugging at her lower lip. "I think the sooner we get this done, the better. I also think if we call another meeting in the middle of this, we're going to get lynched."
[Wharil Choc] "Well then...I'll approach the cabals personally. We'll start with the Emissaries. Have them name them there, and then we'll meet."
He nods, and stands as if he were about to go do that right now.
"In the meantime, if you could double check on the wards....just to be on the safe side, y'know? And perhaps, maybe even talk to Catherine about powering them. Just to be on the safe side."
[Ashley McGowen] "I'll see what I can do," she says. "I need to speak to Solomon about laying down wards for Umbrood, too. Mine only guard from the physical."
Ashley is quiet for a moment. Wharil has risen from his seat but she hasn't pushed herself off the desk yet, is still quiet. Still a little subdued: it'll take her a bit to get herself together enough to start doing what she has to do. "There's someone I'd like you to meet, by the way. Li Daiyu. She's an Akashic...she says she wants to protect and fight for the chantry. My dad fought with her in the Ascension War a while back and he said she's worthwhile."
[Wharil Choc] "Li Daiyu. Hm. The...little asian girl? When we were...um...the one that helped with the kids?"
His head tilts to one side, eyes leveling on Ashley.
"You're considering inviting her? Into the society, I mean."
[Ashley McGowen] "I'm thinking about it," she says. "I mean, I'd like to know her a little better, obviously, and it's as much your decision as mine...but there's just the two of us right now. Besides...we really need people who know how to fight."
Ashley doesn't. A lot of people here don't. Saturday night made that painfully obvious, and the fresh scar tissue through her torso is an aching reminder.
What she adds, after a beat, is, "Wharil. I'd like to see more of you than just when I need you for something. We're cabal mates, we should be friends."
[Wharil Choc] That last statement--if any of the things tonight had taken him by surprise it might have been that last statement. Obviously, there's some confusion as to how he should respond to it. For a while he just stands there, looking more than a little stupid.
"Uh...I...Uh...Right. I mean...you're right. Of course you're right."
And again, the awkward silence. Another glance at the desk covered with books. The one book, with the black feather peaking out from among the quills.
"I'll make an effort. I really will."
[Ashley McGowen] Wharil seems...surprised? Confused? Maybe. Ashley can't quite parse out the complexities of his response. Reading people, knowing them, isn't her specialty, after all - it's his.
(For a second or two she almost expects him to bust out 'friends? what are friends?' Something similar. Do Euthanatoi not get the concept? Crazy bastards.) For a second or two she seems almost amused before she says, "Don't do it if you don't want to. Just, you know. We're cabaled together for a reason, and the other two cabals know each other really well."
There's a pragmatic angle, with Ashley. There always is. It might say something that she brought the human angle to him first, though. It says she either means it or she's gotten better at manipulating people.
[Wharil Choc] Wharil's hand reaches out to her, to touch her. To rest on her shoulder. its not a heavy hand or a very strong one, not by a long shot. But something about the sudden connection and the look in his eyes.
"No. I mean I'll make an effort. We are caballed for a reason. I haven't forgotten that. I never will."
[Ashley McGowen] She's a little startled by that look, by his words, but she does smile at them. Those expressions come more easily to her now, more often, than they have for the past half a year. (And for a while before: she had not been happy, when she arrived in Chicago. It's why the taint was so easy to sink into.) Ashley curves her arm up and places her hand firmly over his for a second or two, gives it a squeeze before she lets it fall away. Amusingly, her grip is a bit stronger than his.
"Good. I won't either." She glances up, meets his eyes for a few seconds. "I didn't thank you for all the advice with the Jhor, by the way. It did help me a lot."
[Wharil Choc] "No problem." He says with a smile, letting his hand fall away.
"If one person can benefit from my past mistakes, that makes it all worth it. So...tallyho?"
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley slides off the desk and to the floor, with a glance back at his closed books and the raven feather marking the pages. She hasn't forgotten Gregor, missing, any more than he has. But she knows he's alive, at least: managed to rend space and find his Mind, wherever it is.
"How much time -have- you been spending up here?"
[Wharil Choc] "Uh. A lot. I've been...I shower. That counts, right? And someone keeps putting food in the kitchen. it's a little scary, to be frank. I can't help but imagine Marla's ghost coming in and baking. But...I get really hungry. So..."
[Ashley McGowen] "I -was- putting food in the kitchen, when Gregor still lived here," she says, "and then I started making Morgan leave her bread here. I was worried I'd gain twenty pounds if she kept leaving it at my place. I didn't realize she was enabling your workaholism."
There's a sidelong look toward him, around the rather dusty library where he's been spending most of his time. "Gregor's alive, by the way. I found his Mind, with Kage's help. Just for a few seconds, but he's somewhere in the Umbra and he didn't want me to come after him."
The eldritch being of nightmare, something painted of pointed flesh and teeth, she doesn't mention. No need.
[Wharil Choc] "Well. That's some kind of comfort, at least."
He shrugs. Shuffles a bit in place. His gaze has found the floor again, but when he raises it and turns to her, he's smiling again.
"I guess I can give myself a break. Focus on other things."
[Ashley McGowen] "You really should," she says, turning a wry glance in his direction when his eyes find the floor, when his smile finds her a few seconds later. He'd been the one lecturing -her- about taking a vacation, about spending time doing things she does for fun, a while ago. Though the situation had been a little different (or perhaps not so different.)
"Do whatever you do for fun and try to keep your mind off of it. The apprentices have been leaving booze here. I'm surprised you didn't find it."
[Wharil Choc] "Psh! You mean those glorified wine coolers? Yeah. When they start hiding scotch in the knife and fork drawer, I'll make a big woop. Till then..."
He returns the smile, and even dips slightly to nudge Ashley with a shoulder as he heads for the door.
"C'mon. I've been practicing my sandwich making skills. Supper's on me."
[Ashley McGowen] [Did I actually sleep last night?]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 1, 5 (Failure at target 5)
[Administrator] Wharil Choc, welcome to Chantry (Now)
[Wharil Choc] [I AM AWARE!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1
[Ashley McGowen] It's been a hell of a week so far.
Wharil's been buried in the library for a while, but he must be feeling exceptionally in touch with his surroundings today. Or maybe just more alert and jumpy than usual. Either way, he can tell when Ashley walks in the front door of the chantry. And the first thing he'll notice, other than hunger, other than unrelenting determination, is that the sense of taint that's been etched on her soul for the past several months is gone.
The second thing he'll notice, when she walks up the stairs and enters the library, is that she hasn't slept much in days. The taint might be gone - and has in fact been gone for a few weeks now - but there's some fresh grief that's managed to find its way back in. She hasn't been resting and her reserves of Will are low, but she's shoring up and soldiering on. Wharil's a perceptive man. He can't help but notice these things.
The third thing he'll notice is Ashley herself, that she's walking in and coming up behind him to take a cursory glance at what he's reading, leaning a palm on the desk. She's dressed in a pair of jeans and a striped blue and gray shirt. It's hot outside, and it's rainy, and dark spots dot the shoulders and chest of her shirt. "Hey," she greets him. "How's it going?"
[Wharil Choc] How long had he been sitting there, facing the door. When she walked in it almost seemed as though he was expecting her. Almost as if he'd staged himself here, all day, with three different books in three different languages sitting in front of him, and even more books off their shelves and on the table in stacks.
And then there's the feather. A single black feather that he's apparently been using as a book mark. He's been at this for quite some time now. So far though? No feathers. No clue as to where their cabalmate has gone.
But he's been here, looking. As if he can be found in books. And he'd likely been completely absorbed in it until Ashley walked into the house, and into the room. At which point Wharil was waiting for her to come through the door. Waiting with an odd smile on his face.
"How's it going?" Ashley asks.
"Fiiiineee..." Wharil responds. Suspiciously so.
[Ashley McGowen] He's waiting for her with an odd smile on his face, and as weighed down as Ashley is by whatever happened, she doesn't miss that. The Hermetic raises her eyebrows at him, glancing at the feather he's using to mark the book's pages, then back to his face.
On another day she might be teasing him for the decidedly inglorious manner in which he'd been attacked and held down by children. She's too tired for that today.
But that look gets a slightly bemused smile. "What are you looking at me like that for? Did you find something?"
[Wharil Choc] "No, I didn't. That's just it. You're...uh...You look like shit. But you feel...different. Back to normal, really."
He leans back in the straight back chair, tipping it a little and touching the fingers of each hand together.
"Like before the Nameless Crow, I mean. Congratulations. How do you feel?"
[Ashley McGowen] "A lot better," she says, and it wouldn't be remiss to say that she looks pleased that he noticed. A smile surfaces. Ashley takes a seat on the edge of the desk; she's short enough that she has to raise herself onto the edge rather than the other way around. "Less...hollow, I guess." It seems to have done more for her than that, really; she's confident again, that persistent sense of melancholy, of futility, is gone.
"It was actually..." She pauses, looks over at him for a few seconds. "Have you had much of a chance to talk to Catherine yet? You should, if you haven't. She let me hear music."
[Wharil Choc] "Catherine as in...the node, Catherine?" That has his attention. "You spoke to her? Directly to her? I wasn't even aware that you knew how to perceive the spirit world, let alone interact with it."
[Ashley McGowen] "I used the Ars Mentis," she says. "I mean, she's...conscious, in her way, and has a Mind I could join with. She made it sound like she could communicate to others without it, though. You should go and try speaking with her. Israel and Solomon both have."
There's a pause, and her expression is a little solemn again when she looks back at him. "I don't know how much you've heard about the demon, but she invited me to talk to her at length after a couple of High Umbrood got in here a couple of weeks ago. She asked for my protection. Well, not just mine, but I couldn't speak for everyone else."
[Administrator] Wharil Choc has left Chantry
[Administrator] Wharil Choc, welcome to Chantry (Now)
[Wharil Choc] "Huh." He says, quite surprised. And then, disturbed. He brushes at his hairless chin (when did he have time to shave?) and his eyes did that wandering thing that made him look a little bit crazy when he brought his brows down low like that.
"High Umbrood. Here. We should have gone with Rene's advice."
And then, he turns to the books on his table. Fingers picking up the feather and brushing at the fibers. Their only real clue.
"I should have been more aware."
[Ashley McGowen] "It was quick," she says, with a look toward him that is probably meant to be reassuring. Given that it's Ashley, well. "I barely even had any warning before they were trying to possess me." Trying, she says, because of course they didn't succeed: Ashley prides herself on her Will, it would have been a sad thing if they had.
"I was suspicious too, at first," she adds, "but Catherine's...a good thing. I can't really even describe it." There's another glance to him, quick. "I haven't heard music since I woke up."
[Wharil Choc] Wharil gives a half incredulous, half impressed "Really?" And then proceeds to measure Ashley with his eyes for a while.
"The node convinced you that she was worth protecting. Alright. This...has me curious."
And finally the books each close in their heavy, thumping, dust lifting way.
"This is something I have to try." He says with a smile, hands now moving to support the back of his head. The smile fades. The feather peaks out from between the pages.
"Gregor's not here for it though. And...well...without him...I don't know that I could take his place."
[Ashley McGowen] "Really," she says, and then, "Paradox. It was a backlash that never really went away. Just sounds like really unpleasant noise." It doesn't appear to be a happy topic. Or one on which she's prepared to say a lot.
She folds her hands in her lap, looking down at her feet, which are dangling down off the side of the desk. They don't come anywhere near the floor. "You can talk with her without Gregor. The guardian spirit...he's more of a pain in the ass, I think, but Catherine herself should be willing to talk to you."
She draws one of her legs up, wraps an arm around it, the ball of her foot pressed into the edge of the desk. "The demon that caused the bridge collapse last week, he invited me and some others to come talk to him over the weekend."
[Wharil Choc] "Uh..." A gaping mouth was the only real response to that sort of statement. No matter who you were.
"So uh...tell me more about that."
[Ashley McGowen] "Well, first," Ashley says, with a wry twist of the mouth, "Solomon Ward called a meeting the night of the collapse and right after we got the invitations. He happened to tell me in front of everyone there that I was the default Deacon of the chantry and had certain obligations. Which is one of the things I -also- wanted to talk to you about."
There's a wry twist of the mouth, another look to him. What she intends isn't that hard to guess at.
"But as for the meeting itself," and what humor and good nature was in her expression fades rapidly, "it was me and a few others. Solomon, Emily, Nathan, Owen and Atlas. I don't know why he picked us. So first he sat us down and told us this Paradise Lost type story. Tried to convince me that I wanted to shack up with the infernal. All of us told him he was wasting his time."
She pauses, hesitates. Looks over toward him, letting him respond before she continues. It's clear that she's trying to ready herself to talk about something anyway.
[Wharil Choc] "Default deacon, eh? Hm. Well congratulations."
He listens to the rest, smiling less when Ashley does. Frowning more as she goes on.
"Wait, wait. Solomon tried to convince you of this? That doesn't sound like him."
[Ashley McGowen] "No, I meant the demon did," she says, furrowing her eyebrows. "At the meeting with him. Sorry. I wasn't as specific as I should have been. I'm surprised Solomon managed to stick around through the story at all. He was pissed."
[Wharil Choc] "Oh. That sounds more like it. Go on, tell me more."
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley sighs, and she isn't looking at him at this point. The Hermetic has chosen to direct her focus elsewhere, because watching facial expressions while you tell this kind of story, being aware that there's someone else in the room at all, makes the telling harder. It's the first time she's spoken of it to anyone since it happened: she's telling Wharil because he's her cabal mate, because he should know.
"After he got done with his story he asked us to follow him, and his assistant took us to a separate room and left us there." Ashley lifts a hand to her temple, rubs at it, rests her elbow on her knee. Still doesn't look at him. "This is going to sound over the top, like a...I don't even know. But there was...okay. There was a group of Sleepers we didn't know that he had behind a glass wall. In there with this swarm of devouring insects. And he'd picked up my mother and someone Solomon knew...former girlfriend, I think. The assistant told us to pick who got to live, and told me that if we swore to a geas to not impede his efforts in the city, everyone got to go home."
Ashley bites at the inside of her cheek a few times. She still isn't looking over at Wharil, has chosen instead to focus on the edge of the feather, now. "...Like I said. Over the top." One might suppose she needs to say it, for the distance.
"So we refused. All of them started killing guards. I got shot - " she presses fingertips to her ribs - "so did Solomon. Emily killed someone. I kept the swarm away from the Sleepers, and we got all of them out. My mother and Solomon's...well, whatever she was. They didn't. We didn't see him after that."
[Wharil Choc] Wharil is quiet for a long time. He doesn't look at Ashley. He doesn't mind that she doesn't look at him. He's not smiling, but his leg does shake slightly up and down. It had been making that rhythmic thumping sound when she got to 'swarm of devouring insects.'
Nearly a full minute goes by and he doesn't say anything. Simply steeples his fingers and lets out a heavy sigh.
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley doesn't rush to fill the silence either. It was a hard story to tell in the first place: her mother is dead, and they hadn't spoken very much since she was little. Phone calls every few weeks, but nothing extensive. Nothing personal. She's still not looking at Wharil.
Her voice didn't thicken during the story, and she didn't tear up. It's less from a lack of emotion and more from simple exhaustion, at this point. Wharil's a Euthanatos: he knows how to read the tells of grief, knows the different forms it takes as intimately as he knows the Chodana. He also knows that it passes with time and acceptance.
Ashley gives him time to absorb it. She isn't in a rush to speak.
[Wharil Choc] "How did he find them? How did he find you? Any of you?"
Finally he leans forward, elbows on knees but knees still shaking. His eyes seem to scrutinize something in the far corner of the library room.
"A step ahead. And active. Which is what we need to be."
And then the leg stops shaking.
"Starting with defense. Israel and I were discussing the structure of the Chantry's governance. We need to accellarate that. We need Sentinels."
[Ashley McGowen] "I don't know how he found us. That's part of what bothers me," and here she is finally looking back at him again, having been shaken away from thoughts (memories) of her mother. "Unless he has my True Name, I should be difficult for just about...anyone to track. So either he's strong enough that it doesn't even -matter,- or he has my True Name." And, clearly, neither of those thoughts is a thought she likes.
"And...I agree, on the matter of chantry positions. We need to be organized right now." Ashley pauses, taps her thumbs together where her hands are still folded in her lap, one on top of the other. "I also resent being in charge only when it suits other people. So I intend to move toward making it official. But it isn't something I wanted to do without letting you know what I was doing."
The Hermetic lets out a short sigh, adjusts how she's sitting on the desk so that she's facing him a bit more easily. Turned toward him (and close enough that if his damn leg starts shaking again she can put her foot on top of it. It's making her nervous.) "Did you and Israel talk about how Sentinels were going to be selected? Or how -any- of the positions were going to be selected?"
[Wharil Choc] "By vote." He says with a nod. "Selected mainly from among the Cabals. With assistance from...well, whoever wants to lend assistance. How the Cabals choose to select their candidates is up to them. But everyone needs to have a hand in our protection at some point or another.
"We also agreed on a council made up of a single representative from each cabal. Emissaries. That way instead of the entire Mage society sitting in a room shouting at each other, its just four people in a room shouting at each other.
"Oh. And a single, trusted, capable Node tender and Head Librarian. With authority to name assistance, as usual."
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley nods, slowly, as he tells her about the positions they've selected. "Emissaries sound like a really good idea, after that last meeting," she says with a sigh. "I really hate meetings." Her mouth quirks into a grin then, turned in Wharil's direction, almost companionable in spite of recent events, recent topics of conversation. "With emissaries, I can just make you go instead."
There's a thoughtful pause, and she raises a hand, tugging at her lower lip. "I think the sooner we get this done, the better. I also think if we call another meeting in the middle of this, we're going to get lynched."
[Wharil Choc] "Well then...I'll approach the cabals personally. We'll start with the Emissaries. Have them name them there, and then we'll meet."
He nods, and stands as if he were about to go do that right now.
"In the meantime, if you could double check on the wards....just to be on the safe side, y'know? And perhaps, maybe even talk to Catherine about powering them. Just to be on the safe side."
[Ashley McGowen] "I'll see what I can do," she says. "I need to speak to Solomon about laying down wards for Umbrood, too. Mine only guard from the physical."
Ashley is quiet for a moment. Wharil has risen from his seat but she hasn't pushed herself off the desk yet, is still quiet. Still a little subdued: it'll take her a bit to get herself together enough to start doing what she has to do. "There's someone I'd like you to meet, by the way. Li Daiyu. She's an Akashic...she says she wants to protect and fight for the chantry. My dad fought with her in the Ascension War a while back and he said she's worthwhile."
[Wharil Choc] "Li Daiyu. Hm. The...little asian girl? When we were...um...the one that helped with the kids?"
His head tilts to one side, eyes leveling on Ashley.
"You're considering inviting her? Into the society, I mean."
[Ashley McGowen] "I'm thinking about it," she says. "I mean, I'd like to know her a little better, obviously, and it's as much your decision as mine...but there's just the two of us right now. Besides...we really need people who know how to fight."
Ashley doesn't. A lot of people here don't. Saturday night made that painfully obvious, and the fresh scar tissue through her torso is an aching reminder.
What she adds, after a beat, is, "Wharil. I'd like to see more of you than just when I need you for something. We're cabal mates, we should be friends."
[Wharil Choc] That last statement--if any of the things tonight had taken him by surprise it might have been that last statement. Obviously, there's some confusion as to how he should respond to it. For a while he just stands there, looking more than a little stupid.
"Uh...I...Uh...Right. I mean...you're right. Of course you're right."
And again, the awkward silence. Another glance at the desk covered with books. The one book, with the black feather peaking out from among the quills.
"I'll make an effort. I really will."
[Ashley McGowen] Wharil seems...surprised? Confused? Maybe. Ashley can't quite parse out the complexities of his response. Reading people, knowing them, isn't her specialty, after all - it's his.
(For a second or two she almost expects him to bust out 'friends? what are friends?' Something similar. Do Euthanatoi not get the concept? Crazy bastards.) For a second or two she seems almost amused before she says, "Don't do it if you don't want to. Just, you know. We're cabaled together for a reason, and the other two cabals know each other really well."
There's a pragmatic angle, with Ashley. There always is. It might say something that she brought the human angle to him first, though. It says she either means it or she's gotten better at manipulating people.
[Wharil Choc] Wharil's hand reaches out to her, to touch her. To rest on her shoulder. its not a heavy hand or a very strong one, not by a long shot. But something about the sudden connection and the look in his eyes.
"No. I mean I'll make an effort. We are caballed for a reason. I haven't forgotten that. I never will."
[Ashley McGowen] She's a little startled by that look, by his words, but she does smile at them. Those expressions come more easily to her now, more often, than they have for the past half a year. (And for a while before: she had not been happy, when she arrived in Chicago. It's why the taint was so easy to sink into.) Ashley curves her arm up and places her hand firmly over his for a second or two, gives it a squeeze before she lets it fall away. Amusingly, her grip is a bit stronger than his.
"Good. I won't either." She glances up, meets his eyes for a few seconds. "I didn't thank you for all the advice with the Jhor, by the way. It did help me a lot."
[Wharil Choc] "No problem." He says with a smile, letting his hand fall away.
"If one person can benefit from my past mistakes, that makes it all worth it. So...tallyho?"
[Ashley McGowen] Ashley slides off the desk and to the floor, with a glance back at his closed books and the raven feather marking the pages. She hasn't forgotten Gregor, missing, any more than he has. But she knows he's alive, at least: managed to rend space and find his Mind, wherever it is.
"How much time -have- you been spending up here?"
[Wharil Choc] "Uh. A lot. I've been...I shower. That counts, right? And someone keeps putting food in the kitchen. it's a little scary, to be frank. I can't help but imagine Marla's ghost coming in and baking. But...I get really hungry. So..."
[Ashley McGowen] "I -was- putting food in the kitchen, when Gregor still lived here," she says, "and then I started making Morgan leave her bread here. I was worried I'd gain twenty pounds if she kept leaving it at my place. I didn't realize she was enabling your workaholism."
There's a sidelong look toward him, around the rather dusty library where he's been spending most of his time. "Gregor's alive, by the way. I found his Mind, with Kage's help. Just for a few seconds, but he's somewhere in the Umbra and he didn't want me to come after him."
The eldritch being of nightmare, something painted of pointed flesh and teeth, she doesn't mention. No need.
[Wharil Choc] "Well. That's some kind of comfort, at least."
He shrugs. Shuffles a bit in place. His gaze has found the floor again, but when he raises it and turns to her, he's smiling again.
"I guess I can give myself a break. Focus on other things."
[Ashley McGowen] "You really should," she says, turning a wry glance in his direction when his eyes find the floor, when his smile finds her a few seconds later. He'd been the one lecturing -her- about taking a vacation, about spending time doing things she does for fun, a while ago. Though the situation had been a little different (or perhaps not so different.)
"Do whatever you do for fun and try to keep your mind off of it. The apprentices have been leaving booze here. I'm surprised you didn't find it."
[Wharil Choc] "Psh! You mean those glorified wine coolers? Yeah. When they start hiding scotch in the knife and fork drawer, I'll make a big woop. Till then..."
He returns the smile, and even dips slightly to nudge Ashley with a shoulder as he heads for the door.
"C'mon. I've been practicing my sandwich making skills. Supper's on me."
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