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Liezel's been hanging about, theorycrafting through some ideas when people aren't about to try to connect with. She spent some time with Mei, earlier, after she flopped off the couch and woke herself up. She seems to be switching between a few different project ideas as time goes on, setting all her basic ideas down to paper in one of the bound dalmation notebooks from her satchel. She's doing so now, having separated the page into equal parts marked with initials. V, F, L, Z, M, and I. Each has a circle drawn in the center, and most are full of pencil marks and eraser stains.
Sometimes Fox just needs to be alone with her thoughts. The past 24h has been like... a lot. Consider the fact that - among other thoughts - she thought the Seers of the Throne, who saw her Actual Human Face during the defense of the Tree, had found her sister through her. And that's just one moment of that past day.
Thus it comes to pass that one of the sleek glass doors leading to the balcony briefly transmutes into a gas, and a night mockingbird comes fluttering in though the cloud of glass. It wings its way around the living room, chirping happily, and there's a second ping on Liezel's peripheral Mage Sight as the gas around the door turns into a solid, a sort of brace for the gas glass, then drops the spells in order: first the glass door, then the braces of solid air to hold the gas in place as she reformed it, as they swoop past.
Then? The bird lands on Liezel's shoulder and starts grooming her curly hair.
Liezel smiles as the little beak pokes and plucks at her hair, still working on- well, from the vantage point, she seems to be trying to put together meaningful designs inside the circles. What, precisely, each relates to, isn't clear besides from the letters marking each. The curled up fox with one eye open in the F section might be a hint, though. She reaches to move her phone into plain view of them both. "Wouldn't it have been simpler to move the door than flux it like that?" It's genuinely inquisitive, one of those moments Liezel suspects she knows the answer but recognizes she might not have all the pieces.
Hop hop hop! Fox-the-bird hops down her arm - hop hop! - and bounces across the table happily, twittering contentedly.
The one thing about being a mockingbird is that they can imitate human voices. So Fox just squawks, "More fun!" As if is the obvious answer!
And then she pecks at the letters, each in turn, and there's an inquisitive chirrup.
Tanya nonchalantly walks out into the living room wearing a long comfy t-shirt. Block letters on its dark fabric read "WEED", and in much smaller letters below that, "California". She doesn't seem to notice their guest as she heads towards the fridge to grab a soda, stopping in her tracks with a bit of a startle. "Ah! Well, shit." She glances over to the tiny birb with Liezel. "Hi. I could've avoided walking out here like this if I'd thought to cast a spell first. What's up?"(edited)
Liezel nods sagely. She, too, understands the delight in harmlessly bending physical reality to your whims through needlessly complex solutions to extremely simple problems. "Quite so. Just making sure I understood."
Tanya's arrival actually doesn't earn her stares from Liezel or comments on her state of dress. What it does trigger is a faint grimace and a quick addition to the letters the bird is pecking at- a line across the I turning it into a T. Her curse and comments draw more confusion from Liezel than anything else as she turns, frowning in befuddlement. "Is there something wrong with how you are right now? Or was it the.. walking, maybe? That you're apologizing for?" She glances at Fox, clearly not connecting with the idea that Tanya could be considered inappropriately dressed.
Though, considering that she's wearing considerably more than a swimsuit, it's possible she just doesn't consider what amounts to a short dress to be inappropriate in the first place.
The night mockingbird on the table sings a happy, complex little melody and hop hops in a little circular dance on the table. It hop hop over to tap at the drawn fox and sing happily again.
Then it takes flight, singing as it flies over to Tanya, sitting on her shoulder and leaning in to groom her hair.
Tanya smiles and waves a hand. "Uh. No, there's not. I think it's just habit." She glances down at herself. "Preemptively apologizing and showing subservience. Learned, kneejerk. But a lie. Now that I think about it I don't actually care. And I could have come here without walking, but messing with the space of the living room while people are in it is...probably rude. Or unwise." There's a smile then, and a laugh as the tiny bird lands on her. Her shoulders hunch up a bit involuntarily before relaxing, knowing the little passenger can be trusted. "Ah, I'm a princess!"
Liezel nods. "That's my view. You could have come out naked and my thoughts would have been "I wonder if that was on purpose," not "what's wrong with her." I'm in your cadre's home, not the other way around." She shrugged, too, at the mention of space. "It's no business of mine what you do with the space between your room and this one. Zoya's, maybe, but not mine." She smiles quietly as the bird seems to approve of the drawing. "Good. That's one down."
A flutter of wings and the mockingbird circles around Tanya once more, thereafter unfolding into a small dark haired human wearing a tank top and oversized sweat pants. Probably she stole them from Vasha. Her arms wrap around Tanya's waist from behind, and she gives her apprentice a big squeeze. "You were always a princess," she affirms, before padding over to tug the back of Liezel's hair and make her tip her head back so Fox can kiss her properly.
"Tell me about your day, both of you!"
Tanya seems slightly surprised by the embrace, but not opposed at all, relaxing back into it after a brief rear up onto her toes. Her blush is innocent enough, until Fox walks over and nonchalantly pulls Liezel's hair like that. The apprentice's eyes simply go wide and her lashes flutter. "Day? Uh. I was practicing my spells," she says, looking down at her t-shirt. "I got this from a gift shop in a town with a funny name." Not that her eyes aren't rather reddish in addition. "I'm trying to figure out my actual limits. They...seem to be beyond what's safe to try, so far."
Liezel lets out a startled gasp not without its own strains of excitement as her hair's used to leash her and drag her head back to be kissed, her wrists arcing up to keep her pencil off the paper meanwhile in what is clearly a practiced and welcome reaction. She returns the kiss as best she can while deprived of the leeway to press back, leaving the pressure and closeness to Fox to decide, as feels proper. She puffs out a sigh after, smiling and offering a demure, "Hello, Sir."
"Ah- practice. Have you learned much of the Prime Arcanum? There is a spell I use often to examine my Imago, but it requires a decent amount of learning first. I could cast it for you, if you and your Master would like."
There's no shame in Fox, not a drop, and she seems to think there's nothing wrong with administering this sort of kiss to Liezel in just about any situation. (Maybe not if Simone was here?) After that heady and brazen kiss, she smooches Liezel on the tip of her nose and smiles fondly. "Hello, My Elizabeth."
She releases Liezel's hair and takes a step back, gently petting the hair she just pulled. "I have no objections. Everyone should know the theory of Magic, at least the basics."
Tanya doesn't seem embarassed either, though she has to raise a hand to her face to hide the impish smile she gets. It would be enough, if the "Sir" didn't make her eyebrows shoot up like a cartoon. "Oh, um. I'm only an Initiate of Prime, and I really haven't been studying it at all, so that would be wonderful. Do you need me to start casting a spell first?"
Liezel waits for Fox's okay, then sets aside her pencil and pulls a... brilliantly golden mirror from her satchel. It's Orichalcum, if Tanya's familiar- otherwise, it's just the brightest, shiniest, most perfect gold she's ever seen in her life. Liezel sets it in the middle of the table as she speaks. "No, not at all. The spell affects an area and causes it to render whatever Imago is pulled together within it to be visible to every brand of Awakened sight. You can start practicing forming the Imago safely once that's done- you'll see if the spellforms are holding or not, and can practice them until they form right."
She speaks again, briefly, in High Speech, and the mirror flashes, rendering the space above the table... sparkly? That's a word for it, like motes of dust in the air are diamond powder instead of, most likely, dead skin. "Go ahead!"
Liezel's cheeks do not even come close to abandoning their flush.
Tanya watches with honestly innocent fascination at this. She hasn't seen orichalcum before, except perhaps woven into a tragic and traumatic artifact she once encountered right after Awakening, so witnessing it is a miracle. When the spell is ready, she looks a bit sheepish. "I left...I left my mirror in my room. No pockets." She dashes off before returning with a smooth brass hand-mirror, crisscrossed with faint marks and brushed lines amidst its polished face. "Not quite as shiny as yours. This'll take me a moment..."
"Turn on your active Sight," says Fox, as she does the same. Life Sight is fun!
"Mine is made of Perfected glass and Orichalcum- I'd be surprised if yours was as shiny as mine if I didn't make it myself. I think Fox is the only other person who's made permanent Perfected items lately," Liezel explains. "What magic are you thinking of testing? I probably won't recognize any of the Imago for the Arcana you're used to, but I like to learn things." Liezel goes straight for Prime Sight, because they're working with Imago at the moment. It feels appropriate.
Fox wiggles her left hand when Liezel mentions her work: the four-metal ring around her left finger is somehow more real than most of the other things in the room. Mostly she stays out of the way, but she smiles aside at Liezel and her lovely blush.
Tanya doesn't look ashamed. She gives off a little smile. "It's a mystery. It doesn't look like much, but..it came from my Awakening. I just had it after." She nods to Fox, focusing for a moment to let the Supernal lens of Space overlay what sits in front of her. "Oh, I was going to cast a Space spell. Something fun. If Fox thinks it would be safe for me to co-locate the living room somewhere." She holds up something else she brought from her room, what appears to be a small glass vial full of sand, stoppered with a cork.
Liezel nods to Fox, smiling at the workmanship of the Perfected jewelry. It was quite cleverly put together. She looked to Tanya next, nodding and offering, "Oh! I know a version of that spell. It doesn't ever go someplace Fun, though. Only to a dead place. Useful, for sure, but- not exactly a vacation destination."
"I think that sounds like a great idea in general, but we don't know the full circumstances of Simone's Awakening, and the Seers of the Throne are fully active in this area. Let's do something that stays inside, please. We don't want to put a target on our home - though that does remind me that later we should talk as a family about putting up Wards on the house." Fox rests a gentle hand on the back of Liezel's shoulders, her fingers splayed against the base of her neck.
Tanya points finger-guns at Fox and nods. "And that's why I asked, because I hadn't thought of all that and don't know what can expose us. I was actually thinking you might not like sand and water in here...but I'm guessing you can clean up easily after seeing the tricks you can pull," she remarks to the window-phasing Fox. "But I can cast Wards too...that sounds useful to practice." She begins to focus, first scrutinizing the area of Liezel's spell with her active Mage Sight, then weaving the foundation of her own Imago. Her hands move slowly, carefully, with rough correspondances to the shapes and sigils coming into view...
"While some of us would delight in a chance to face the Seers again," Liezel offers, patting her satchel for... well, whatever reason that is probably an absolutely ridiculous gun, "-better not to compromise your home to do it. I think practicing the Wards is a lovely idea. And if you can cast those, you could well cast the spell I just did without much more learning, Tanya. That's quite nice!"
Liezel pauses a moment. "... could Wards and Signs be inverted? To resist attempts at casting beneficial magic on a target?"
"Getting rid of sand and water is very very easy. Nigro and Albedo will obliterate any amount of a given material if you do it properly." Her fingers gently pet the back of Liezel's neck, and she smiles at Tanya. "I've been working on using Shaping on sand to make sculptures from."
Tanya beams at Fox's teachings, and Liezel's encouragement. "I don't think that's an inversion. The Ward prevents any changes to the Space of what it's cast on. Magical changes, at least, obviously the space isn't obstructed in any way." She focuses on weaving the spell then, drawing together the symbols and patterns of the ward's Imago. It slowly forms and propagates until it's complete, a symbol of Truth, and Tanya's warding extends to the entire living room. She keeps beaming after that. "Unless I dismiss it, that will last for a week. And I didn't even need any Potentia!"
Liezel leans into the slow, possessive petting, reassuring herself with the contact to help herself stay social. "Well, that's not strictly accu- oh, you're not discussing the Prime wards magic, are you? You're speaking of the Space version," Liezel realizes, wincing at her faint misunderstanding, studying the spellform, curious just how Potent Tanya had woven it together!
"I don't know anything about Space, so it's delightful to hear your knowledge, Tanya," says Fox proudly. "Speaking of which. We need to decide a Shadow Name for you so I can introduce you to the Elders." Her fingers pet, her eyes glitter. She's happy.
Tanya beams. "Oh, yes. The space in here is now inviolate. If anyone wanted to try and warp it or teleport in here, they'd have to overcome the ward first. Not impossible, but... every lock opens." She's quite proud, then looks to Fox with uncertainty. "I've been wondering about that. I have an idea of the kinds of names people take, but the Shadow Name seems to be a bit more than that. How do I decide?"
"Me, either, honestly," Liezel admits, smiling quietly. The matter of Shadow Names is certainly more a Master/Apprentice topic, and she falls comfortably silent, relieved of the excuse to cease socializing for a few moments, leaning into Fox's touches and allowing Master Revontulet to manage this conversation.
"Mmm. I ... " Fox stops. "You pick something meaningful to you. Something that represents you, as you are magically. I am Revontulet because that is the Finnish name for the Northern Lights. I Awakened in Russia. I spent time in Finland. And Revontulet means 'foxfire.' The folk belief is that a fox brushes its tail across the snow and lights the sky. And that is what I try to do: beautifully light the world for my fellow humans."
"So: what do you aspire to? Who do you want to be?"
She leans to kiss the top of Liezel's head and takes a deep breath in of her scent. Foxes need to know what things smell like!
"I am Juno because she traveled to the underworld to engage the Furies to avenge her. That is much how I view myself. While my Legacy deals with Death, it is a place I touch, not one where I reside, and my aims are to protect this world and those within it," Liezel offers, to add to Fox's description.
Tanya has to think about that. "I put that...very poorly, last time someone asked me that," she states with a somewhat sheepish smile at her Mentor. "I was trying to be honest about things I'd repressed a long time, but Vasha putting their foot down made me actually think it over. I...I don't think I want to do the sorts of things he does, in order to get the Seers. He made it sound miserable and unenjoyable."
She pauses, chin tilting down, considering. Listening to Liezel's addition. "Dealing with the evils of the world is what I want. To be able to do something about all that horrible things I know occur other than just cataloguing them and feeling bad. So that means I'm probably going to focus on the Seers for what it's worth, but...I don't just want them to suffer, or whatever I was on about before. I want...justice. Judgement. Confrontation. I want to stare them in the eyes and make them answer for the things they've done." She offers a small smile after that. "I talked a big game before, but I'm already worried you're going to tell me I want the impossible."
"How do you feel about Biblical references?" asks Fox, clearly thinking. She probably means 'Torah or Tanakh references', knowing Fox.(edited)
Tanya looks to Fox at that. "I was hoping I wouldn't offend, actually. I've...always been fascinated by that. Not just my faith, but the apocrypha. The deuterocanon. Alternative gospels, gnostic texts... my parents were at least the intellectual kind of Catholic. But I also know how so much of that was just...stolen. Taken from Jewish teachings and then used against its very source as a cudgel for a few millenia." She huffs, tossing her wavy hair to one side. "The last thing I want is to be the douchebag misinterpreting Kabbalah for the Anglo Temple Ordleonis."
"But I do keep thinking about the goat," she adds, seemingly from thin air.
Liezel blinks. "The goat?"
"Well," Fox offers thoughtfully, "There's always Devorah or Judith or Esther."
"Devorah is the only woman Judge of Israel mentioned in Judges. Judges in this sense didn't hand out legal pronouncement really - it's more like... when shit got bad for the Israelites, they cried out to the Judges to say 'please tell me how we can fix this.' And then she would be like 'you are stepping into heresy,' so they could fix it."
"So they'd been oppressed by... oh, I think it was the Caanites this time... for like 20 years and she, being a prophet, went to this guy Barak - yes, like the president, that's probably who he's named after - and said 'hey bro we gotta fight this guy Sineas.' And then he consents but only if Devorah goes with him. So she does, they win, Sineas is routed, and then he tries to sneak into the Israelite camp and pretend he's not, you know, the general of the army they were just fighting."
"Devorah has clear sight - prophet, remember - and recognizes him. He asks for a drink and she knows the commandment of hospitality, so she gives him milk. And then he falls asleep."
A pause, there. "And then she hammers a tent peg through his head."
"So important points: she enacted her part in this story and saved the Israelites because she was clever and clear-sighted and knew who to work with. And when time came for her to do violence, she still followed certain rules, and killed Sineas while he was sleeping, to avoid unnecessary suffering."
"Judith did similar, but she got the man drunk before cutting his head off."
"And then there's Esther, who saved her cousin - who might have been a trans man, but that's another story - and then all of the Jewish people with her cleverness, allowing her opponent to trap himself within the laws he wrote to try to legally exterminate the Jews. She's such a big deal we still have a holiday just for her." She pads into the kitchen and comes back with a container of hamentaschen, passing one raspberry one to each of them. "It was last week."
"Yes, what goat?" And then she stuffs a whole hamentaschen into her mouth.
Tanya listens to the names and tales, looking like she approves. "I like those," she says quietly, as Fox devours the delicious baked good. "The scapegoat. Caprum emissarium. The goat from the ritual at Yom Kippur." Her gaze travels to Fox to ensure she's not getting anything wrong. "When we say scapegoat we mean someone who's blamed for the mistakes of others. The ritual was more complicated than that, though. There were two goats, and the scapegoat wasn't the one that was sacrificed." She looks somewhere off past Fox now, brows shifting, chasing the memory of signs and portents from her Awakening, of words that have been echoing in her mind and winding through her dreams. "They drew lots. By mere chance, one goat was given to the Lord as an offering. The other goat...they tied a scarlet thread to its horn. And this, I don't know, I keep coming back to this part. It suffers for the sins, but it's not just blamed, it...it bears them. The sins of the whole community are put onto it, and it's set free. Released, into the wilds, to take the sin far from the people. They're not its sins. But it bears them. It knows them."
Liezel can't help but laugh quietly. "Hearing how thoroughly others have thought through their Shadow Names, what deep meanings they hold, sometimes makes me wonder if I did not look deep enough when choosing my own. Even then, I don't feel I have the wrong one- but it does make me feel a little childish," she admits, taking a pastry and eating it quietly while the real work gets done all around her!
"Mmm," agrees Fox. This is a thing Foxes know. "Well. It's a good symbol. But... "
Here, her voice trails off for a moment. "That seems like a reflection of who you were, accepting all the blame for things which were not faults in yourself and where your family and this world failed you, rather than an aspiration."
"Am I wrong? A Shadow Name should look forward, not mire itself - and you! - in who you were while you were ensnared by the Lie. This name helps define your magical persona. Is this who you need to be? It just seems a little at odds with the young woman I've come to know."
She pads over to Liezel, doublechecks to make sure she hasn't got stray crumbs on her face, then kisses the top of Juno's head. "You explained your reasoning. Not everyone crams 9000 meanings into their name."
Tanya considers. "Well, yes. I read a bit further into it, because from there... the words for the second goat lead to the phrase for Azazel, and the name Azazel takes on a life of its own. Seen as a fallen angel, and a promethean figure that brought knowledge of technology and war to man from Heaven." She sits back. "I like the occult goat. I keep coming back to it. I thought about Baphomet, but when I dug into the meaning of that, it was all lies. Just misinterpretation after misinterpretation to get something that looked imposing."
A flicker of realization at something runs across her face, but she turns her head, almost as if embarassed. Something goes unsaid. Perhaps a new name. She distracts herself by looking to Liezel. "I think Juno is a great name. I'm doing what I always do, overthinking this or just ignoring a simpler answer. But. If you really wanted to, you could change it, right? Don't cadres take names that match each other?"
"No, I suppose not. Master Balm, for instance, do you think? I think it likely she just wanted her Shadow Name to indicate a capacity to mend, maybe. Though I would not speak -for- her on such matters."
"You like it?" Liezel seemed relieved, and frowned faintly. "I do not like changing things about myself. My last cadre did not change their names in the slightest, though... it was perhaps not the best example." She looks to Fox, curious if she has wisdom on this matter.
Fox listens just as intently as she spoke previously, frowning thoughtfully and nodding her head, making little sounds of affirmation. She nods to Azazel as a name, and makes a face at mention of Baphomet.
"Sometimes," Fox contributes. "We shall never convince Pavlichenko or Pheme to change their names, I don't think. And Pheme I think I could be sort of squinted at as fame could be viewed as a shining light, but I'm not sure about Pavlichenko. I think not. She did burn bright for her country, but." A shrug. "Besides, then I would have to cut off my tattoo AGAIN and heal it AGAIN and get a new tattoo!"
One hand pulls down the neckline of her tank top to show off the circle about 5" across on the left side of her chest, resting above her heart. The circle has been filled by the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, and there's a feminine figure of a sniper taking a shot across her chest, toward her breastbone.
"Anyway. What was the thought you did not share, Tanya? I saw it on your face, just then."
Tanya smiles just a bit. "I really don't know how to say this. I could talk about the Exarchs, or the concept of rebelling against an oppressive power, of challenging authority. Or just the potent nature of the symbols. But really I'm just worried you're going to scold me for considering Lucifer."
Liezel studies the tattoo and smiles, nodding. "I thought that was where the name came from, but did not want to assume."
She looks to Tanya and shrugs. "Just because it is obvious does not mean it is inappropriate."
She scratches her cheek. "It is only in Christianity that God is oppressive. "Lucifer" as a name came into being with the King James Bible; it does not exist in Torah. I do not know this name in my tradition or its frame of reference."
"We call that figure הילל," it sounds like hey-leyl, "and Isaiah talking about the King of Babylon, Belshazzar, who was full of pride... hubris, if you will." She digs her phone out of her pocket, taps at it.
"Isaiah 12:14-17," she reads. "This is the only time הילל is used in the entirety of the Tanakh:"
"How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?"
"He's not bringing light to mankind. He thinks he's as bright as Venus in the morning sky, as great as Adonai Eloheinu, but he falls, not from rebellion, but from hubris."
"I won't yell at you. I will read you the text you want to tell your magical self and our community is the best reflection of you." She tucks her phone into her pocket, and kinda shrugs.
Tanya listens with rapt attention, paying heed to the passage of Isaiah. "Hubris. That's not what I want, no. I think I'm gonna need to think on this more a while longer." She takes out her phone as well, tapping at it in curiosity, genuinely thinking this through. Something gives her pause, her mouth dropping open before she recites the line.
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool."
She looks to Fox. "I've read that before the Second Temple, the scarlet thread tied to the goat of Azazel would turn white at the conclusion of the ceremony. When the goat died. The Shadow Name describes our fate, and I thought that you know, being driven off a cliff might not be the best fate to align myself with. But." Now her gaze turns to Liezel, to Juno, in consideration. "Death doesn't always mean death, does it? Not just ruin or disaster."
"Many things can die, not just the living. Death is an end, a transition. The Orphaean Alchemists connect with Death as Transition and distill purity from the filter of travelling between Life's currents and Death's still waters, for instance. From stories of travelling to the underworld, they found hints and pieces of the puzzle to take a thing and filter out all the things that are not The Thing, and make it True. Perfect. Like my mirror. Like Fox's ring," Liezel explains."
"And if it makes you feel better, I was seeing the "rebellion against God as war against the Exarchs, myself- I didn't know the particulars," she offers, trying to reassure Tanya that she's not foolish.
The Thyrsus sits down in Liezel's lap, leans her head against the Obrimos', and ... she frowns. Her brow knits up. Fox wears her heart on her sleeve, thankfully not literally though she probably could.
"It's your name," she says after a thoughtful pause. "I... have already explained my concerns."
"It does make me feel better," Tanya says to Liezel with a smile. "Thank you. I don't want to sound like a stereotype. I'm sure you've probably had this same conversation with like three other apprentices, right?" she says, turning her attention to Fox for the self-deprecating quip. "The same old gnostic nonsense?" She tries to give her mentor a reassuring smile. "You did explain your concerns, and they're good concerns. I'm just going to have to learn more before I take up an important mystic identity, I think."(edited)
Liezel shifts to welcome Fox onto her lap, one arm curled in close around her, and offers, "Being off target is not failing. Refusing to learn is failing. You are not failing."
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