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A meeting with Fox is actually fairly easy to arrange -- much easier, it would seem, than RP with her player. So it is that when Blue tries to set up a meeting with the wife of her erstwhile Master, she receives an invitation to someplace ostentatiously called the Oligarch's Aerie. Goodness gracious.
Rittenhouse Square is one of the fanciest bits of Philly in Philly itself (as opposed to out on the Main Line, which is fancy, but in a different way), and the address Blue is given is a tony apartment building which towers over the cleanest, neatest bit of Philadelphia. It's still a city, but here the trees are manicured and the trash on the streets is kept to a minimum. Shocking.
Blue would have been warned not to try to enter any way except through the lobby -- and when she checks in at the lobby, security puts her on the elevator and pushes the button for the penthouse.
The doors ding open on an apartment which spreads out across the entire top floor. For all it's massive, it's been decorated with an eye towards comfort -- the doors open into a giant living room filled with overstuffed couches, direct sightlines into a massive kitchen, and a view of a veranda with a pool, a hot tub, several comfy deck chairs... and... a pigeon loft on it. Said veranda is surrounded by anti-jump privacy glass which goes ten feet up.
When the doors open, it is the pigeon loft which is of most interest, because there's a short little creature standing out there next to the loft itself. She's wearing a pair of cut-off jean shorts and a ratty brown tank top absolutely nothing else, because fuck the cold, amirite? In her hands is a perfectly docile fancy pigeon, all white and pretty, who Fox is inspecting while gently cooing at the bird.
Blue felt like she was under dressed even though she had worn a fancy long dress with a nice coat, not her usual coat an actually nice black fur trimmed coat. Then she gets to the top and is just like. Oh im very overdressed.
As she steps in her stiletto boots click and she just sort of stands there awkwardly her purse over one shoulder as she waves to Fox a quiet "Hello?"
Vasya is standing outside as well, watching Fox work. Though it's not really quite him, is it, to look at him. He looks sort of washed out, almost shot through with intermittent static. He beeps on occasion, and on occasion loses fidelity like a station going out of phase with an old TV. And because Spirits feel no cold either, he's in shirt sleeves and boxers and a pair of floppy unlaced snow boots.
"You missed some." He's pointing at pidgeon poop. "No. No, sorry. That's new shit." When Blue arrives, he looks to Fox and asks, "Should I let you go?" Which is a funny thing to say if you're here. Which he is. Or maybe not. Who knows with mages.
"Hi, come on out," Fox gestures, adding, "or don't, it's okay, I'll be done in a minute. I was just checking the coop's health. I try to keep a special eye on them during the winter, since I let them fly free, and they aren't the smartest of birds sometimes. They can freeze their little wings on occasion." She looks over her shoulder at the static-y Acanthus and wrinkles up her forehead. "She's your apprentice," the Thyrsus points out, setting down the fluffy white pigeon, which, having been totally still when picked up and held in her gentle grip, starts bobbing its head and cooing before fluffing up its chest and skittering into the coop.
There is a hint of a blush as Fox says that, though she was right Blue hadnt officially confirmed it yet.
Wandering out to the coop she smiles watching the Pigeons. Not exactly good with animals.
"Hiya and hey Vasya." She waves not sure if he can see her or not.
Vasya walks through the mesh fence of the coop to stand inside of it with the others. Officially in the cool kids coop. He ticks off a lazy salute with two fingers to Blue, hands sliding into the idea of pockets as a bit of newsprint craws up his forearm.
"I'm in from Myrne at the moment. In the house. There's a jaggling passing through so I'm holding the court together while it happens. The sea breeze are a bunch of complainers this time of year, what with the snows roiling through." Some of that might make sense at some point. "What brings you by?"
It's calm and warm on the porch, not much cooler than it is in the house, but there's no wash against her peripheral Mage Sight, because someone's been good and masking her work, even though the wards should protect them. Zoya's good like that. Fox props her hands on her hips, a little superhero pose even if she's not thinking about that being what it looks like.
The pigeons don't seem much fussed by Blue's presence -- Fox is closer to them than she is, and they fuss a little bit when Vasya walks into the coop, until they realize they can just keep walking through him. "Don't fuss them up too much, my love. They've just been handled, they're easier to stress." There's instruction in it, not castigation. But Vasya has asked a question, and Fox grins at Blue, turning her attention back.
Shes happy watching Fox work, seeing the passion in her hands.
Looking a lottle confused as Vasya speaks she just nods and then adds "Oh, just, wanting to meet Fox. Felt like. Sorry."
"I'm not in twilight there, am I." Vasya looks about himself, at the pidgeons and then over at blue fox, and then back to Blue. "This is all so confusing sometimes." He says a quick apology to Fox in Ukrainian and then just sort of appears outside of the cage again without walking there. He does wave to make it clear he's rematerialized again.
"I'll go inside, then. Wait for you two." He steps through the wall to the apartment and manifests some fruit onto the table in order to stand in for refreshments. He plucks up a pear for himself and takes a crunch of it, then just sort of kicks up into the air to hang there like he's in a hammock, arm behind his head.
"No, light of my life and love of my heart, you aren't," laughs Fox, turning her head to watch Vasya depart. "He's working on a lot of things right now, please excuse him." Because it's totally normal when your husband is partway here and partway in Ukraine and sometimes just like, hangs out? As a spirit?
"Come on back inside. Can I take your coat? You can take your shoes off and relax or whatever. Can I get you some food?" And she pap pap pap across the floor back into the giant living room. "There's basically anything you could want, I guess. And I can make stuff."
Blue walks back inside offering them the large coat before sitting down to unlace her boots, knee high lace up boots are a vibe that takes effort.
"I would love some Sushki." Slipping into her Russian accent. "I havent had any in years. Mama doesnt have the patience for them anymore."
"I can bring some around for you easy enough. The bakery in town sells them fresh daily. Just not right now. Because I am protecting the heavens' biggest cry-babies while in my boxer shorts." And, to look at how he's posed, a hammock.
He gets distracted by something unseen, shouts up at the sky in Ukrainian, and looks like he's throwing somethig at the sky. He retakes his position, "Storm should be over soon, I hope, and then I can visit again in person."
He takes the big coat and scampers off towards the front door, pushing up onto their toes to hang the big coat on a hook next to a bunch of other big coats, including a slate-grey ZSU coat of the sort that goes over a dress uniform, big and heavy and wool. "You can take your coat back when you do!" Fox calls over her shoulder.
"Mmm. I can make some," she agrees. "But it's not as good as the ones you bring from town. I think I have some of the commercial ones... hold on!" And away she scampers again, off into the kitchen to climb up on the counters like a five-year-old getting into the top counters when she isn't supposed to, because Fox is, have we mentioned, short. "Zoya bought a bunch and I hid some because last time Leta got into my good weed while she was on acid she ate all of them! Even the plain ones!" Here follow sounds of rummaging. "So tell me about yourself, Miss Blue!"
She smiles watching their interactions and again watching Fox with the coat then climbing on the counter.
"Um. Im a Professor of Geometry with a personal interest in Leylines and Sacred Geometry. I recently awakened as on Obrimos." Then she just sort of holds her hands up like. What else do you want to know?
"I left it there? Dammit. I leave things all over this silly planet, I swear." Vasya's grumbling seems to fit his overall mood, but at least whatever he'd been shouting at in the sky has moved on. He has started keeping tabs on Blue out of the corner of his eye, though. He's absolutely paying attention. Might not want to let on, though.
She climbs back down off of the counter with a big cardboard box in hand covered in Cyrillic writing. Ukranian, for those following along on the distinctions at home. "Okay, that's your resume. But like, why did you want to come talk to me? Just wanna meet your Master's wife? Or the local big weirdo? I'm not even the weirdest, but, you know." Pap pap pap go her bare feet against the floor as she scampers out into the living room, pausing at the fridge to get drinks at the fridge. Sodas of various flavors, waters. "What do you like? What do you want? What's your favorite thing to do on a sunny Sunday afternoon? Sacred Geometry is rad, you should talk to Zoya, she would like that. Mei would, too, if you've met her. If you haven't, you should, she's dreamy. Especially when she's a big buff angel and I can sit on her shoulder." Fox sets down all the sodas on the table in the living room, then the box of crunchy snacks, from which she takes a sealed cellophane bag. It's nice when big boxes of snacks are subdivided into a couple of internal bags so everything stays crunchy.
And then, having selected a lemon-lime soda and a bag of what would happen if a pretzel and a bagel had a baby, she flops down onto one of the couches and flops her feet onto the arm, crossing her legs on the couch arm. "Yep! You did. I cleaned it for you," using Matter, naturally, "and I mended the hole in the elbow. I used thread!" And maybe Matter. Or just being an Orphan.
"I like meeting people and. You go by Fox. Ill be honest didnt have much of a reason beyond meeting people and. Animals are better than people." She hums.
"I like to read, I like to learn. I like to teach. Work on my cars and do parkour." She tilts her head at the comment about a buff angel not sure how to deal with that. "I want to learn to control what ive got. How to. Deal with the new world."
There is a hint of a pause before she goes on a speel. " I want to map the Leylines of the world now that I can see them and they are different to what I used to think and what most societies think and Bones said they can change, well. Be changed by us on a temporary basis or sometimes on a permanent basis and how does that work and how does that affect the idea of sacred geometry."
A big breath as she finishes not sure if she should reach from a drink but grabs one of the caffeinated sodas.
Vasya makes like he's paddling through the air with his free arm, floating along over the table to hover in the air near the couch and Fox and his apprentice. He's just really changing where his projection is landing, obviously. But the paddling arm is a nice touch.
"Why do you believe animals are better than people?" Vasya swings his legs over the side of the hammock so that he can now 'sit' down on the couch next to Fox and look like he's actually sitting there. Someone's banking information crawls across and up his face and forehead. He can be a bit distracting to look at like this.
"Well, I am very interesting." Crack-hiss goes the opening soda, and Fox sets that down on the floor for a minute before pulling apart the top of the cellophane bag. And just like that, there's a rat coming into being and crawling out from under her shirt in a way that would be impossible if it were an actual rat. It looks kinda weird. The rat sits on Fox's stomach, hands pressed together in what can only be a begging gesture.
"I don't know why, it's not like you get much out of it, it's not -- " and there's a scratchy, scribbling sort of sound which Vasya clearly understands as only if you don't give it a little bit of taste for a very nice and Proper Ratthew. The Thyrsus rolls her eyes. "You're a brat."
The rat gives her the winningest little ratty head-tilt.
"This is Ratthew. He's one of my familiars." No clue why they get along.
And then she focuses back in on what Blue said. "Mapping the Leylines of the world is good! I mean, that's like, the work of centuries, so you have a lot to do! Especially since a lot of people won't want you to know exactly where their Hallows is, so you'll have to do lots of diplomatic -- Ratthew, knock it off -- work. It is true we can change them. If they're not changed carefully, it causes a lot of problems."
She doesn't repeat the question. Vasya asked it already, after all!
And apparently the sodas were also for her to take from because Fox doesn't blink.
"Honestly? Because if I ignore my cat for a week he doesnt get grumpy, assuming I give him food and water. If I dont check a text from Moma two days later im getting spam called because she thinks i've dropped off the face of the earth. They are just, I dunno, easier. Lower maintenance?"
She cracks open the soda sipping at it.
"Nice to meet you Ratthew." Then she nods to the Leylines comment. "Is this a Hollow? Sorry probably not a polite question. So if we arent smart it can cause issues. Hmm. Now I want to know what issues have been previously caused. Sorry. Brain going on a tangent."
Someone totally doesnt have some ADHD they self medicate for.
"Altering the course of ley lines can drain hallows dry. It can close irises. It can destabilize the spirit courts of a region. The outcomes of these facts range from mildly irritating to catastrophic in the extreme, and wars have been fought amongst the Awakened over it. And between ourselves and the Werewolves. And the Werewolves and the Werewolves. And the Werewolves-- mostly, the Werewolves and other things that like Loci. Honestly."
"I'm going to encourage you to expand your thinking past annoying parents and housecats--" His thought never gets completed, because he's standing up with immediate chagrin from the couch. "Kevin. How did you get in here? Kevin, no. Kevin, you can't eat that. Kevin, put that down." And now Vasya is chasing a small goat no one else can see around the living room, passing through furniture in the process. "Kevin, if you-- Kevin!"
She looks very puzzled at that, as if it had never occurred to her to not pay attention to a cat or to a person for a whole week at a go. There's nothing more there than that -- Fox just looks... confused. And it's then that Ratthew swoops in to grab the sushki and throw it at Fox's face. She frowns at the rat, shakes a finger at him.
"Generally, no, don't ask if someone's home has a Hallow in it. It's like -- " She pauses. "It's a little more intimate even than asking to peek inside someone's underwear. At least for me, but sometimes I'm a fig tree and sometimes I'm naked." A vague gesture, and there's a shimmer of something on Blue's peripheral vision before she hands the sushki back to the rat, who looks adorably grateful.
"Kevin is the goat," explains Fox rather amusedly. "He keeps getting out of his pen. Destructive little shit." She loops back around. "Yeah, but that's why. It's like... hm. Redirecting rivers and streams. That's actually a really good metaphor, now that I think about it. So many wars have been fought over water."
There is definitly some confusion as Vasya talks, there has been a lot to take in lately. "So what im hearing is dont piss off werewolves? I have a tendency to end up in a research hole and not really exist for a while."
Followed by a blush at Fox's comment then a nod. "Dont ask to look into peoples Fig trees. Nope, dont ask if its a Hollow. Okay."
A little chuckle watching Ratthew's antics and then at the Goat. "Ah yes, goats do tend to do that."
He does catch the goat in fairly short order, and is carrying something along as he walks in the air now without really moving anywhere, his form hovering back into position near the couch again. He sets the invisible goat down and mimes closing something and saying to the goat, "There are countries where you are food." Shaking his head, he walks without moving relative to Blue and Fox, back into his house, and back into his hammock while the storm rages outside.
"It's the wind, the animals are frightened. If it keeps up, I'll go out and calm the animals."
And then he looks back to Blue, "Where'd I lose you? Don't sit there with a slack jaw when you don't know something. Say you don't know something and make me explain it. It's my job."
"NO EATING KEVIN!" Fox calls towards her husband like she needs to yell to be heard. One might get the feeling this is something that she has probably yelled from the house in Ukraine many times.
She doesn't interject further when Vasya prompts Blue.
Looking down at her soda she sips at it before speaking. "Sorry, um. The beginning. I understand Ley lines. Well I understand what is known publicly. I dont understand draining Hallows, Irises, Spirit courts, Werewolves. Like I know what a werewolf is but only in the sense of human look at full moon and then turns into a furry."
A little chuckle at the Kevin comment. "Im still adjusting to not being an expert, sorry. It'll take some getting used to."
"That's my job. Getting you used to it. I've been accused of being a hard teacher, but it's only because I know there's something more in you than you're letting on. There tends to be a reactionary period after awakenings where people reach for the comfort of their old lives. Because everything is new and unfamiliar. So let's just make it familiar."
He returns to his hammock and sits back down onto it, which works out to more or less on the couch beside Fox. "I'm going to encourage you to ask every question that comes to your head about this stuff. You'll ask less of them over time. That's how this is supposed to work, anyway." He asides to Fox, "Am I forgetting anything?"
Ratthew, now with his Essence-infused crunchy snack, curls up on Fox's tummy and happily nibbles away, taking his time with the treat that Fox supplied. "Spirit courts are just the organization charts of spirits. If you've been around universities, you get it kind of intuitively, I think. There are departments, and department heads, and everything kind of flows upwards." She scratches her cheek thoughtfully. "No, I think that's it. Oh, and it's okay to be confused, or not to know, but like, don't be dishonest about what you do or don't know, because that's how people hurt themselves and others. I think you've got that one under control, though."
"I advise that me asking every question in my brain is going to lead to a lot of question but." And she shrugs with a chuckle. "You said every question, ill send you a list tomorrow."
"About four pages in you'll realize you have access to the combined library archives of the Free Council and the Unnamed Nation available to you as study guides, and it'll probably be easier to search there and get your answers that way. There will still be concepts you need explained, ideas that will seem in contradiction that you'll want explained. But, sure. If that's how you want to do this, I'm a time master." He shrugs his shoulders, not seeming much to care which route is taken if a decent maga is the end result of it. (edited)
"See, learning." She chuckles taking a note of that. "Uh, though, I do have a question. I havent yet chosen an order....." She just kind of trails off.
The Thyrsus clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth when it comes to the matter of Orders, but she doesn't speak up first -- she is clearly deferring to Vasya on this, but she clearly has opinions.
"Has anyone asked you to?" Vasya asks with a funny expression on his face. "Because I would like to speak to that person very loudly if so."
"No, I just, sort, of assumed it was a thing to do. A few people have mentioned them and we have had some discussions about them. But no one has like, peer pressured me or anything."
His head nods faintly, and he seems mollified. "Once you've finished your studies as an Apprentice you should know where you want to end up. You'll be encouraged to go meet with members of the various orders that I trust and respect to learn about what each one has to offer. And once you're released by me you'll be free to petition one of them for membership, but not before." Vasya ticks his head to the side and adds.
"Fox will now tell you why the Children of the Tree is what you should pick."
She gives Vasya a sideways look, fingers trailing down the back of the rat. "You shouldn't, though," Fox answers thoughtfully. "Not unless you're willing to really devote yourself to and work on the idea of healing the world above almost all other things, and not unless you're willing to actually embrace the idea of mental decolonization, and work at it, as hard as you can for as long as you can, or to embrace the idea of an Order as a chosen family. The Silver Ladder will give you a ladder to climb and an ability to do nice things for people while not making big sacrifices of yourself; the Mysterium will give you structure and academics; the Guardians ...." and here she just makes a little sweeping gesture with her free hand and moves on. "The Arrow will allow you to protect people via knowledge and martial mastery; the Free Council will give you plenty of resources and freedom. So really, you shouldn't join the Children unless you want to do all of those things, plus also have shifts in the kitchen and be expected to look after kids now and again." Fox turns her head slightly towards the other two. "I was a Mystagogue, I've worked with all the other Orders for a decade and a half. The Children give a lot to their members, but they ask an awful lot. So don't, unless you're bringing your whole best self, because we won't ask for less."
She nods as they both speak. A few mental notes being taken at certain points.
"I think based on what I have learnt so far that there are only a few that are within the perview of my interests. The idea of doing all of them isnt something that I was aware was an option."
Looking down at her hands she seems to be counting out things mentally. "I think, at least for the moment, that I am far to self involved and interested in my own studies to be able to do all of that. Shifts in the kitchen sounds relaxing though. I can see why you would do it even if I dont think it is for me."
"I am afraid I have the zealotry of a convert. I view the world as being ruled over, ultimately, by unnatural and enforced hierarchies of power. By the will of others. By the boot on the neck, as a thought, for eternity. That part of my Guardian teaching I took with me to the Free Council with full commitment. All hierarchies are false. All of them. Every one. So why join one. Why rise in one. Why call yourself words derived from one. Why speak lies, when this is a war of truth? You have choices, decisions to make. Yes. But having come this far, I cannot imagine why you'd stop now."
These are not the words of Vasya of two years ago. "Pursue liberty of thought. Always ask yourself why someone is telling you to box yourself in. Why this box? Why now? Even this, from me."
"Joining all of the Orders isn't actually an option, I'm sorry if I confused you." Fox reaches for her soda and takes a sip. "I do it because it's the work that needs to be done, and that's kind of my point." A sharp-toothed little smile, and then she turns her attention to Vasya, that smile growing softer.
She takes a sip of her soda thinking then a nod. "Not joining all of them, sorry if my words were unclear. The idea of doing all of the work. I. I dont think I can do that. We did just discuss that I dont like people even if the reasoning for that is limited. The idea of doing things for others is. Hmm. Odd."
A tilt of her head. "Not sure that is the right word. It doesnt feel like what it is wise to spend all of my time doing."
"Not feeling called to help others and not finding helping others wise are two very different things. So since you're a little unclear by your own admission, I'll let you sort out your thoughts a little more clearly. You don't feel like, having reached across the abyss, that you were called to do so purely for altruistic reasons? Is that what you're suggesting?"
This does not compute at all in the world of the collectivist spirit gestalt ex-guardian.
In silence, Fox gets up from the couch, cradling Proper Ratthew against her chest until he scampers up onto her shoulders. She pads off into the kitchen and starts tidying up.
Another sip of her soda watching Fox go with an unsure look on her face. Taking another few moments to think.
"I, I felt called to knowledge, everything that I saw was knowledge and everything that I now have gives me access to knowledge. Im a hopeless recluse."
She gives Vasya a small bow of her head. "Im sorry if that isnt what you thought I was. I seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge."
"Do you?" Vasya openly questions. "Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine yourself standing in the middle of the Ur-Library. The repository of all knowledge of all that ever was and ever will be, with wings to the left and right for what never could and what never should. Idexed with all the why of it. What have you gained for it? What is bettered for it? And when you are gone, what happens to all that jealously guarded knowledge for knowledge's sake?"
Vasya's arms fold, he in his spiritual boxers and real ushanka.
There's a dishwasher to empty and a fridge to clean out old leftovers from, and while Vasya questions Blue, Fox gets about to tidying up as only someone adept in Matter can. There are repeated shimmers of magic on people's peripheral Mage Sight. Why recycle when you can disintegrate?
At every shimmer her head turns intrigued. It seems an ingenious idea.
She holds that thought for a long time before answering. Looking around the space. Looking at her own hands.
"I dont know. My immediate response is selfish. Do I know it all. But then I suppose I teach, so. So that others can too have that knowledge?" (edited)
"So you're not a hopeless recluse," and now the Master's philosophical blows come from another angle. "Why do you do that? Lie about yourself. To yourself. 'Hopeless recluse'. A hopeless recluse gathering knowledge to teach is not a hopeless recluse."
"I know why I used to. And if it's like why I used to, you should stop. Save yourself forty years."
The earthenware dishes clatter neatly into place in the cabinet. Some chores you just have to do.
There is a tilted head at the task being done by hand. Another sip of soda finishing off the bottle.
"Hmm. I." She pauses at that. "Because I see what others do and compare myself to them. Others sociolize when they have the choice yet I study. Others teach in actual schools but I teach remotely. Im known as Blue so that its not the same Dr Federov that is good at Parkour."
She leans back on the couch. "I dont know. I cant answer that. I can give you theories and ideas but not an answer."
"You can bend reality to your will now, Blue. And you're valuing yourself on comparisons of people's sociability. Here is another shortcut through a lot of pain, Blue. The correct thing to be, all the time, is yourself. If only to yourself. If only in your head. But if you start lying to yourself about yourself then you are letting someone else dictate the whole of you. You are being controlled."
Vasya would crouch to put himself on eye level. But. Boxers. So he keeps his arms folded and looks uncomfortably surly. "Sounds to me like you have some thinking to do. Eh?"
A large, perfectly beautiful Husky materializes where Fox was sitting, stretching out on the cushions while Fox continues to clean.
There is a confused look at the Husky. Then looking at Vasya she nods.
"Yeah. Too much on the mind to think clearly apparently."
"Pet the dog," is Vasya's suggestion, "while I kiss the wife." And so he totters off into the kitchen, singing strains of Klezmer music and chasing Fox's rump with his hands.
Blue moves over petting the dog, grounding herself.
The Husky's eyes are unbelievably blue -- even for a Husky -- and his expression one of serene patience as he is petted. There's something sort of crackly about the way his fur feels under the fingers, almost static electricity.
Fox gets chased after by Vasya, and she can be heard to yelp laughter and then there's a swatting sound, and the aforementioned smooch.
The swatting and yelping and smooching resolves to continued singing and what is probably dancing, too. Vasya's got a great voice, actually. A rich baritone. After a verse, he leans in for another kiss and to nibble at Fox's neck and ear a little. Another backside swat is given, and Vasya heads to the fridge to see if he wants to bother being human to eat something. A whole new level of what are you standing there with the fridge door open.
She continues watching them with a smile as she pets the static electricity fur. Not quite sure what is going through her mind or what she is missing. What mental link she is missing.
"I think I want to teach. To share everything that I have learnt. Whether that be mundane or magical knowledge."
When people have been in one another's lives for a long time, let alone able to actually read each other's minds and things like that, others in a conversation may get the feeling that they're missing chunks of what's passing between the pair. This is just kinda how it is. A verse's worth of being swept around the kitchen floor and kissed and sung to, and Fox's lazy smile returns. She finishes up reloading the dishwasher and pads over to the doorway to the kitchen, leaning her shoulder against it. "That is something," Fox agrees. "Something of benefit beyond yourself."
Now it's Vasya's turn to help out around the kitchen. And if you thought the maga was willing to cheat, the guy in command of the spirit court is absolutely not scrubbing the corners of the floor. But he does grab a bowl of cereal, hop up onto the counter, and start ordering the motes about the floor.
"You missed a spot," he tells one around a bite of cap'n crunch. "Let me know how it goes, baby." Crunch crunch crunch.
She nods at Fox. "Isnt that just more knowledge for knowledge sake. It would then be their responsibility to do something with that knowledge."
Then a slight chuckle as she watches Vasya work.
The look that comes across Fox's face is confusion. "What, then, would you think a teacher should do? March students out at gunpoint and force them to then fulfill their destinies?"
Vasya spends some time contentedly chewing his cereal like a boy on saturday morning. He runs out of cereal and has too much milk, and the box is all the way over there. He looks down into his milk for a moment with a clear question on his face. The question every rank five spirit asks itself at one point or another:
Can my influences create cap'n crunch?
There's a little tremble on the surface of the milk as Vasya keeps staring and staring until numerous little floaties of sweetened corn bubble up out of the milk.
This meaty question from Fox is then punctuated by, "Honey, I can make Cap'n Crunch!"
"I dont know. I guess it feels like a half thing. To me. It is something outside of myself in the sense that yes i am helping others but."
She sighs a shake of her head. "Is it enough."
Then just straight cackles at Vasya.
"Okay, so, because you can't do enough, you're better off doing nothing that would perpetuate that knowledge in the world, or do anything meaningful towards healing it?" Fox asks, ticking her head to the side. "Is that what you're saying?" She leans back, then, and grins at Vasya broadly. "So you can. Do you have enough?"
"Cap'n Crunch, essence, or milk?" Comes the answer from the kitchen, "No! No. I can make milk, too. I am the God of saturday mornings." There is some delighted chortling going on in there. Oontz-Oontz would be so proud.
"No. I. Thats fair. I can teach. Maybe that will turn into something else."
Another little chuckle. "I can do only what I can do and hope that its enough. Better to do what i can than nothing."
"All three," Fox replies with amusement, her attention stolen once more by her husband and his delight over making cereal. She turns her attention back to Blue. "Well. I'm sure that either the Mysterium or the Free Council would be very happy to have you. It's really up to you which fits you better."
"The Free Council is a place for motivated free thinkers willing to be challenged on their every idea and expected to carry the weight of membership as a citizen and participate in voting. The Mysterium will feel familiar to you. Books and people with glasses and study. Mysteries. Lots of those. Something about a bull, if I remember." He doesn't, clearly. Not very well. "Anyway, it's my hunch you'd find the Mysterium more your speed. More like your old life, if that's the sort of thing you're after."
She nods again. "Im not sure what i want really. There is time to decide on that. Guess thats why its a finish studies thing not a start of studies thing." she chuckles.
A grunt from Fox, and she stands in the doorway, thoughtfully gnawing on her own wrist for a second, before she wanders back into the kitchen to get herself a bowl of cereal, too. "Indeed."
"The Lie hides in familiar patterns. It lulls you back in with the promise of its comforts and safety. Don't let yourself listen to it for too long. Talk with it if you have to. But remember you already had this argument, and you won it." Vasya rinses his bowl and spoon and passes them over to Fox. He does go get the actual cereal and actual milk, because there are some things you don't force on people without conversation first.
There is a nod. "I, think I understand. Or at least have enough to think on."
"Thank you very much for having me in your space Fox and for joining us Vasya." A slight bow of her head to both.
"I'm glad that we spoke," Fox agrees. "Thank you for visiting." And then it's time to show her guest out properly, as Hospitality demands, before eating cereal (from a bag, not made from Essence).
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