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Mei actually cooks! She isn't the best cook, but she does a passing job at it. Tonight she just made some chicken fried rice, and is putting a couple of bowls of it on the table as she and Fox sit down to eat food together and talk about magic. Or whatever they end up talking about. "So you used to be Mysterium, and left, you said?" she says as she sits down.
"Yeah. No offense to the Mysterium, really. As a whole. I mean." Fox, barefoot and wearing ratty cut-off shorts and a tank top, settles down at the table. "They've kind of got this colonialist 'it belongs in a museum' mentality toward a lot of the things that they deal with, and they weren't the right fit for me as a result, and they value old rocks over people, so it really... just wasn't for me." She takes in a deep breath. "Oh wow, this smells amazing."
"There's a lot of that going around, isn't there? In the diamond, at least?" Mei says as she picks up chopsticks. "Paternalism, or colonialism, or any of a variety of other -isms? It doesn't really surprise me, but it's disappointing to see that there's a lot more of the same on this side of Awakening, in some regards."
A vague shrug. "Yeah, there is. I mean, the Diamond is essentially Eurocentric invention. They try to pretend it isn't, and pat marginalized groups on the head and say 'you belong here,' but a lot of the time what it means is like, 'you belong here if you behave in a way that we like,' which isn't... you know. Great." Fox forks up a mouthful of fried rice and shoves it into her face, chewing with gusto and rolling her eyes in delight.
Mei laughs. "It's not that good. But good enough that when I'm busy I basically live off of this stuff." She shovels some into her mouth, chews enough to swallow it down, and then says, "growing up a minority here, I'm familiar with the perspective. Plus my family is from Hong Kong, so, you know, British occupation for 150 years or so, with a brief side venture in Japanese occupation?"
"It is a new experience of deliciousness for me," Fox rebuts. "It is that good to me." And then she wrinkles up her nose a little bit. "Yeah, exactly. I mean, for me, I was part of the Mysterium because it was the 'good enough' choice, you know? Like 'oh, yeah, out of these available choices, I guess, if that's all I can be,' which is ... I mean, you're ace, right? Somewhere on the ace spectrum? So for me, it's a little like -- the Children of the Tree was like finding out that being ace was an option? Because for me it is a similar feeling to when I realized being genderfluid was an option. Like, oh, that's a choice? Well, that's what I am."
And then Fox's phone makes a sound like metal striking metal, and she frowns slightly. Plucking her phone from her pocket, she flips open the leather case. "Oh, that's fortunate. Do you mind if I invite Liezel over? She'll be good for the Adamantine Arrow perspective."
Mei kind of freezes like a deer in the headlights when the ace thing is brought up, but shortly begins eating again. "I'm not actually sure," she admits. "Sex, before, was..." she stops and looks up at Fox from beneath her lashes, over the bowl of fried rice she's holding in her hand. Obviously a little embarrassed to be having this conversation. But she continues, anyway. "It was always really awkward and dysphoric. Now, I'm not sure I just didn't care for it because of that? I'm going to have to sort a lot of things out that I really just don't have time for right now."
She glances around her (almost obsessively) neat apartment. "I guess that's fine? I haven't really had time to clean up."
And there Fox winces. "I'm sorry. I stepped in it. I hope you can forgive me for presuming things would be the same for you." She sits back in her chair. "Well, the metaphor holds true," she sallies forth conversationally. "In the sense that I didn't know for a bit that there were options even for trans people beyond 'man' and 'woman.' And so my Awakening 'corrected' me to female, I guess? But I'm not a woman, either. For that matter, I'm barely human. So once I found out genderfluid was an option, I said, 'ahha! That's me! That's what I am!'"
She taps at her phone. "Your apartment is clean enough, Mei. It's cleaner than almost every place I've ever lived."
"No, it's fine," Mei reassures with a shake of her head. "It was just an unexpected topic, and I haven't really had time to think about it in much detail. It was like shining a light in a cave full of bats, and suddenly they flew out. Startling, but I actually like bats, so not necessarily bad."
Her eyes do go to the 'slightly cracked Guardian of the Veil' array of case research over by her meditation area, but she shrugs and says, "invite her over."
Another couple of pings, and Fox answers the text messages. "I like bats, too! We should be bats some evening. I could make you a bat and we could go and fly." She blinks a couple of times, shakes her head, coughs. "So yeah, I mean, the Mysterium isn't ... bad, for the most part, it's just not... right... for me."
Tap tap. "She's on her way."
"I don't think it would be right for me, from what I've heard?" Mei shakes her head. "I might still want to talk to someone who still is Mysterium, someone from whom it's not 'this is the best fit', but who thinks it's the perfect fit, you know? But it doesn't seem like my thing. Being a bat? That might be fun, though."
An appropriate amount of time later, there's a knock on the door and one more text for Fox.
"It's your choice," agrees Fox, and some people might say that and not sound like they actually mean it, but Fox says it like 'obviously it's your choice.' Her phone chimes again, and she smiles a little at the screen, hopping up to go answer the door like it's her house or something. "We should be bats!" And there's Liezel, who Fox rolls up to her toes to kiss hello like it's no big deal.
Mei doesn't seem to mind Fox getting up to answer the door, and she just stays in her seat eating her fried rice and sipping on a bottle of cider until Liezel comes in, when she puts things down and stands up. "Hi again," she says with some enthusiasm, as she approaches the door too. "Come on in. Please take your shoes off. Can I get you something to drink?"
Liezel is faintly surprised when Fox answers the door, the tall, mocha-skinned woman leaning down into the kiss to return it, straightening with a blush her skin partially-but-definitely-not-completely hides across her cheeks. "Hello, Fox. And hello, Mei. Of course- and if you feel inclined, I would enjoy a drink, yes. Whatever is convenient for you." Clearly not a picky gal, Liezel. She looks at the threshold of the apartment, and steps out of her shoes while they're still in the hall, moving to claim them afterwards, setting them with whatever others are present. Only once inside does she take a look around, nodding appreciatively. "You have a well organized home, Mei. It's very pleasant."
There's a knock on the door followed by the accented voice of Vasily stating, "It is Vasha."
"Hooray!" Fox hasn't sat back down yet after letting Liezel in and greeting her, and so she pap pap pap in her bare feet back to the front door of Mei's apartment, letting Vasha in and jumping up to loop her arms around his neck and smooch him mightily. "Hello, Vasha! Come in. We are having fried rice and talking about Important Things."
"There's little enough tranquility in my life, so it's nice to be able to find some when I come home," Mei says as she heads toward the kitchen. "Alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink for you, Liezel? Hi Vasha, I'll get out the vodka. There's also fried rice on the stove, if anyone is hungry." It's the kind of person Mei is. Hospitality is important.(edited)
In walks Vasha, carrying a bottle of wine in his hands. He shuts the door behind himself and, you know, locks it. Silly people leaving the door unlocked. He carries the bottle into the kitchen and sets it down on the counter near the stove. "Shabbat shalom. I didn't know you were Jewish. Forgive me not saying something sooner. Thank you for having me." His english is improving, clearly. Though his accent remains heavy. He heads back into the living room to find a place to sit himself down, looking rather weary.
Liezel lifts a hand to greet Vasha, the same- precise same- gesture the others have seen her perform to greet... well... everybody. "Hello, Vasha. Good to see you. And I will take vodka, since it is what you are already getting. If it is okay to have rice, I will have some. Thank you. Can I get it myself?" She pauses a moment and glances to Vasha, tilting her head. "How did you know she was Jewish? I did not see or hear anything saying so. What did I miss?"
"I fuck her mentor," Vasha states bluntly.
She beams delightedly at Vasha's greeting and gift, and then pads back to sit down at her seat. "I told him," Fox explains, scooping up more of her fried rice into her mouth. "On account of I am also Jewish. I'm not really observant because... " A little wiggle of her fingers. Vasha's bluntless makes her choke on her rice and then laugh, her cheeks and throat coloring as she tries to clear her throat. "Right, anyway."
Mei's apartment is a studio, even if it's on the larger size for a studio, so "living room" and "kitchen" and everything else are all more conceptually separated spaces than actually separated ones. The couch is a futon that's also her bed, and there are a couple of chairs at the small table in the kitchenette. It means the place is getting a little on the crowded side, but it's also easy to have conversations no matter where people are.
"Shabbat shalom," she answers Vasha with a smile. "Thank you for the wine." She gets out a bottle of vodka and some glasses, and points at a cabinet for Liezel. "There are bowls in there, silverware in the drawer next to the dishwasher. Help yourself, if you'd like! Often enough the Magen David gives it away." She glances down, finds it's inside her shirt, and pulls it out. "Or maybe Fox told him?" She finally returns to her own fried rice to keep eating.
Liezel remains completely baffled even after Vasha's interjection- it's only Fox's blatant admission that she shared the information that removes the look of befuddlement from the Obrimos' face. "Ah! Yes. That makes-" Glance at Vasha. "-more sense. Okay. I thought I missed something. Thank you both." To Mei, she nods and offers a minute smile, sincere despite its petite quality. "I will, thank you." And the star DOES give it away, once it's pulled out, and Liezel looks further mollified that she wasn't overlooking blatant declarations of religion. She busies herself fetching a bowl of rice. "Vasha, do you want some fried rice? Fox, do you want more? Mei, will you want more when you finish?"
"I'm not hungry, but thank you. Mostly I want coffee. Been a long day or two. I have Ray situated at a safe house for now. She's been very cooperative. I feel for the woman, she's been through hell. And that was before the rat hosts got to her." Vasha slouches down into the couch with a heavy sigh, rubbing at his face with a hand. "Is now not a good time to bring up work? I have work things to discuss, but it can probably wait. I don't wish to offend anyone."
Fox continues shoveling food into her face, and offers to Liezel, "I'll take more fried rice, thank you! Especially on account of Vasha doesn't want any. I was doing a lot of running earlier today and I'm hungry." She pulls one of her feet up underneath herself, and offers aside to Mei, "Guardians of the Veil don't really get days off. So that's your first lesson." A beat. "It won't bother me if we have to talk work, my heart."
There are some other signs to her being Jewish, for someone who knew what to look for. A mezuzah on the front door, for instance. A Tanakh on the table next to the futon. Various other books on her shelves. Things like that.
"I can put some coffee on," Mei says as she gets up again, despite the fact that she managed like one bite since she sat down. She doesn't seem to mind. "I'm fine, Liezel, but thank you. I actually had a shabbat dinner earlier, too." As for the rest she asks, "is it work that might cost lives if it waits until later? Or even lead to people being hurt?"
"Yes," Vasily states in keeping with his prior bluntness. "Or I wouldn't be bringing it up. So I'll take that as a go ahead. In brief, then. The rats are under Centralia and have tunnels from there to the city. Here. That rumble last night was probably them. Ray says they're planning something big, and have live humans there even now. We can save lives if we act quickly. If we had rounds that stole essence, that hit the corpus as hard as the body, we could fight these things. Their warrens are hot, filled with smoke and toxic gasses. We'll need a way to deal with that, too. If we can view in, it's possible we could teleport the victims out, also. Honestly, the only reason I'm not in Centralia now is that I know I am not up to this job. All I have is intelligence. My usual methods are no longer enough, and people are going to die soon."
Liezel nods to Fox and fetches her bowl to dish up another serving, listening intently in the meantime. "Oh. That's easy. Convert or make some tin bullets, Perfect them. Kassiterum bleeds essence from ephemeral creatures- and possibly ephemeral creatures forcibly fused with flesh- every couple of seconds." She speaks matter-of-fact while she fetches Fox's food and brings it out to her. "And any Apprentice of Matter who knew which gasses are down there could resolve the poison gas problem. Smoke is a larger issue, but not much of one. It could just be repelled using Lodestone." She sits down with her food. "What other obstacles are between us and moving sooner rather than later?"
"I can make it so that people can breathe toxic gases, or convert the gases to non-harmful ones," Fox comments in between bites of rice. "Lodestone is also an option." She listens, shoves food into her mouth. "Centralia is ... " a shake of her head. "I'm as worried about the instability of the tunnels as anything. Granted, we can make that work, but we have to be aware of that."
Mei gestures in a 'go ahead' gesture when told that lives might be at stake. "Apparently poison, disease, and the fact that even one of them getting away are some of the other problems to deal with. I was asked if I could be on tap to help with the first of those three problems, at least if nobody else with more skill is available when things go down, and I agreed. I have no experience at all with any of this, but I'll do what I can to help."
"Yes. It's wildly dangerous. Do you think, Juno, I that with a large amount of money you could produce kassiterum weapons for us? Those people must be terrified. I thought the victims were all dead, but learning they are not-- I can't sleep." Vasha runs against the grain of his order's reputation in this regard, it seems. "But, yes. The poison, the disease, the fact that if even one of them escapes it starts all over again. It is going to take a concentrated effort from a great many of us. Given the givens, I imagine the vampires will want to sit this one out. I simply lack the connections here to get the word out and organize things. I put a notice out there, but..." Vasily's shoulders shrug. "I am done watching the deaths of innocent people pass over my desk while I do nothing."
"Large amount of-" Liezel blinks, then smiles slightly. "Tin is cheap. The constraint is time." She takes a bite, musing to herself, heedless of the others being left to wait while she does. Things take time. They'll wait for her, she's sure. "Mm. This is good, Mei." She looks back to Vasily. "If you want weapons of any significant size, it will take two or three days to prepare them, but I can do it in a large batch. Since we are more interested in jamming as much Kassiterum into the things as possible, it would honestly be simpler to turn all the lead in a pile of bullets to tin and then Perfect the lot with a spell. I usually don't like that spell, but it doesn't need to stay Kassiterum beyond the engagement, after all, and I can hold quite a few spells. I could even combine the spells and hold them as one. But- short answer, yes."
"I am glad you are at hand, Mei, Fox. Life magic is something I've no facility with. Your expertise- or even just your raw talent, Mei- will be appreciated deeply."
"Oh, I did complete the Brontium tokens. We can hand them out to help aid against any debilitating factors we do not foresee or forestall."
"If the constraint is time, is that something you could help with, Vasha?" Fox asks, turning to look at the Guardian with consideration. "If we prepare everyone beforehand, keeping them ... immune to toxins and smoke would be not too hard. Just need to plan for it." She finishes shoveling food into her mouth and sits back, picking up her glass of water and drinking some of it to wash the rice down. One hand reaches to close over Vasily's. "We won't sit by," she agrees, and smiles a little at Liezel. "I'm glad the tokens are finished."
"I feel in way over my head, if I'm being honest. But I'm also not just going to sit by while people are getting hurt, if I might be able to help, so I'll help." Mei finishes her bowl and gets up to put it in the dishwasher. "What is Brontium, exactly?"
"Unfortunately, such things require the mastery of Making and Unmaking practices which I have not yet brought under my control. I have put my study and work into shaping my soul for my Legacy. Mastery was never a goal of mine per se." Vasha drops his chin onto his palms and huffs out a longsuffering sigh. "Still. Very shortly I will gain another attainment, and that is something. It's just not particularly helpful in this particular instance. Rat hosts are not my usual theater of operations."
"Really, do not fret," intones Liezel. "There's no reason to go through the effort to permanently create Kassiterum bullets. The truth of it is, they will all be used in short succession. This is the sort of thing that Hone the Perfected Form was designed to accommodate. I can manage. What we'd need are a large number of bullets for whatever weapons will be brought, that I can put in a big pile and enchant all at once. At least for that. As far as the stability of the caves..." Liezel considers. "I know spells that could create quakes. So I should be able to invert them to undo instability instead, I think. I am not sure I would have much leeway for magical combat with so many spells in play- some, but not much- but it would surely facilitate others being able to engage."
"That's very important, Vasha," Fox agrees, scratching at her cheek thoughtfully. "So, ah. This is definitely urgent, and also, sometime in the near future, we need to actually have a discussion about Orders with my apprentice," she gently steered, since Mei's alt is in this plot and she can't participate. "If not now, then -- very soon."
Mei had mostly slipped into her 'take all of the information and file it away in the memory vaults' mode, while she started cleaning up after the fried rice she'd been cooking. "I would like to talk to Liezel about that some time. And Vasha, perhaps, in a more guided way than the conversation we had before, related to that topic. But nobody is likely to die if I don't join an Order sooner rather than later."
"We can speak when you like, but you're not Guardian material. Not in a bad way, either. You are not a Guardian in a very good way. Tomorrow, the Children of the Tree are holding a feast in Mei and Aaron Cohen's honor, you could take her there. I don't really know any Silver Ladder, however. But there are likely to be Free Councilors at the feast tomorrow. Silver ladder, too. Might be an ideal time for you to do some mingling, Mei." Vasha's offer is a simple one, really. "And if you need someone to chaperone you, I'd be happy to take you if Fox cannot."
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