Logs:Avenues of Study

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Cast
Setting

Ordo Dracul Chapterhouse

Log

Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Since the Ordo has a Chapterhouse with a Crucible once more, Eyrgjafa has arranged for Alex to meet her there so they can discuss her options for studying the Coils. And which one she wants to focus on, at least at first. She's waiting by the ramp to the Moshulu, wearing a pair of black jeans and plain red teeshirt.


Alex Shaw: Alex is wearing a yellow sun dress when she arrives, and as is almost always the case she has her laptop bag slung over her shoulder. She comes up the ramp onto the Moshulu. "You know," she says as she finds Eyrgjafa, to whom she offers a hug. "I ate here once years ago. Anyway, how are you?"


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "Good, thanks. You?" Eyrgjafa accepts the hug, before leading Alex further into the ship, heading towards the less public areas. "What was the food like? I can't remember the last time I ate the kind of thing that requires a kitchen."


Alex Shaw: "Honestly? I don't really remember much about the food. I guess it was okay, since I don't remember it being bad," Alex admits as she follows Eyrgjafa. "I was more interested in the ship. It's the largest windjammer still on the water. Sadly, her masts and rigging aren't actually functional any more. She got towed here, which is sad."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa nods, then. "I imagine if they were she'd probably be seeing use as a museum more than a restaurant, honestly." She glances at Alex. "Have you given any more thought to what you'd like to learn, at least to start off with?"


Alex Shaw: "Maybe. She ended up here in the USA in the first place because someone bought her and towed her over here to make a restaurant," Alex explains, because for some reason she knows way too much about this. "Honestly..." she shakes her head. "I don't know what my options really are, and what they can do for me. It's hard to make good decisions in the absence of information."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "Well, I can at least explain what they are properly now," Eyrgjafa admits, chuckling quietly before sobering. "I should probably warn you that knowing one of the ones I think will most appeal to you could mean your final death, if somebody manages to seize power from Saagochque, or if you travel to other Academies."


Alex Shaw: "Yeah, that would help," Alex answers with a laugh. "Maybe we should start there, then? As far as things that might mean my death... why is that? I would worry that it did horrible things that people would view as anathema, but you said it's likely to appeal to me, so probably not."


Xavier Rotterdam: Xavier has finally made his way out to see the much talked about boat/chapter house. He's clad in his usual monochromatic get up, dark grey v-neck T with some black slacks today, He makes his way up the ramp, looking and listening to see if any others might be around this evening. Between the wanderingand the listening, he evetually makes his way to the pair, standing near them quietly, not interrupting.


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa glances at Xavier as she senses his beast approaching, considering him before she responds to Alex. "A lot of Dragons consider it heretical, a betrayal of the quest for apotheosis." She makes a dismissive gesture. "I, however, am of the view that transcending means to become better, not simply more powerful."


Alex Shaw: Alex also looks over at the sense of another Beast, and then she smiles at Xavier. "Hi," she says. "I guess there are some of us I haven't met yet. I'm Alex, the newest member of our Academy. At least as far as I know." She asks Eyr, "have you recruited anyone else since last weekend?" And then she rolls her eyes slightly. "That sounds like something that a lot of vampires would say, doesn't it?"


Xavier Rotterdam: "Hello Alex. I am Xavier Rotterdam. I've been in town for only a few weeks but a member of the order for much longer, so you certainly have me beat on that count." His lips twitch in an amused grin. "I've the honor of having been accepted into the Cheverette family and am most recently out of Chicago. With those formalities covered." He glances at Eyr. "Would you mind if I listened in on your lesson? I've never been much involved in the induction of a new member except for when I was one myself."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "Depends on what they mean by 'better'," Eyrgjafa answers Alex with a slight shrug. Xavier gets another considering glance. "If Alex doesn't object, I see no reason not to include you."


Alex Shaw: "Oh! We share a family then. I guess this reminds me that I should make sure I keep in touch with Esme better, since she'd probably have told me if I called her," Alex says with a soft laugh. "Sorry I haven't had a chance to welcome you properly as a result, but welcome to Philly. I have quite a few friends from Chicago. What brought you here?" And then to answer the questions about lessons she tells Eyr, "I don't mind at all. So what does this forbidden knowledge let someone do?"


Xavier Rotterdam: "I've come to investigate the death of the former grandmaster of this chapter." He replies. "Though I don't want that conversation to detract from the one you were already having, so we can circle back to it if anyone wishes to." He lapses into silence then, making plenty of room for Eyr to answer Alex's question.


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "A worthy quest," Eyrgjafa nods to Xavier, before turning her attention back to Alex. "A number of things, but the focus is on maintaining your connection to humanity, on not letting the passage of time wear away at it." She grins. "For you, the starting tier will make it significantly easier to relate to humans at all, and not drive them away by your mere presence."


Alex Shaw: "Something happened to the former grandmaster?" Alex asks, since this is the first she's hearing of it. Before her time. "Nevermind, you said to talk about that later." She blinks curiously at Eyrgjafa and says, "really?"


Xavier Rotterdam: "My knowledge of the coils is only rudimentary, I must admit I'm also curious about the coil of which you speak." He says to Eyr, expression attentive.


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "Really," Eyrgjafa nods. "Supposedly the final tier allows us to walk under the sun as we did before our Embrace, but I'm not aware of anyone who has progressed that far." She glances at Xavier then. "The Coil of Ziva, if you have heard of it."


Alex Shaw: "My experience so far is that the biggest challenge with trying to walk under the sun is staying awake," Alex says with a faint smile. "Considering it's supposed to burn us, and I fall asleep as soon as it rises, I'm not inclined to try being outside when it comes up. I assume you mean there's some way to deal with that problem, too?"


Xavier Rotterdam: "That is a much easier problem to deal with." He assures Alex, before looking back at Eyr. "I have not." He admits.


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa nods again, this time at Xavier's words. "The first tier of the Coil of the Ascendant allows one to stay awake during the day so long as you're Blushed, and the second means your Blush can last for twenty-four hours at a time." A grin. "As you might imagine, it's a popular choice in many Academies."


Alex Shaw: "It feels like that should possibly go the other way around," Alex says after considering the mention of the Coils of the Ascendant. "The ability to make the Blush last for 24 hours seems more useful than staying awake while Blushing, if your Blush only lasts an hour or two. I can see why the two things together would be wonderful, though! I'd love to have 24 hours a day."


Xavier Rotterdam: "That is the path I took." He says with a nod to Alex. "I don't end up staying up all day terribly often, but when I am going to be among mortals it's nice to have the blush last the night."


Floretta Williams: Floretta appears at the entrance, wearing a hastily buttoned up shirt, a skirt that's been wrinkled a little bit, she's carrying her shoes in one hand and her purse in another. Her hair looks windswept. "Hi!" she blows up the out of place stand of hair. "Welcome to the Academy." (blush active)


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa shrugs slightly. "I don't know for certain why it is that way, but many have tried to master those abilities in the other order without success."


Alex Shaw: "I have a feeling I would use that all the time," Alex admits to Xavier with a laugh. "Mostly because I feel like one of the biggest challenges in my unlife is the lack of time in the day, and it's even worse right now as we go into summer. At least the solstice pasts in less than two weeks." She smiles at Floretta and says, "thank you. You look like..." she stops herself and adjusts course. "You just woke up from a nap or something."


Xavier Rotterdam: He nods to Alex. "I guess I just don't have as much going on as you, but I'm sure that will change as I get acclimated to the city." He glances at Floretta and nods a bit. "Or perhaps you were running from something?"


Floretta Williams: "I have a lot of information to process about the Rat situation and I wanted to come over here as fast as I could to check on something so..." she points toward the door. "I was Hedwig for the time of the flight to here." she grins at Alex. "It's a pleasure seeing you here, Alex." then her attention goes to Xavier. "And I had to put my clothes back on while you of sight and quickly, so I look like I had a quickie in the back of my van."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa snickers softly. "Oh, right, I forgot you were looking into that. Anything important we should know about it?"


Alex Shaw: "The quickie was honestly my assumption," Alex admits with a sheepish smile. Not very sheepish, though. "Who is Hedwig?" The rat situation is something she knows basically nothing about, so she has no thoughts to offer about it. Instead she tells Xavier, "I always take on more projects than I actually have hours in the day for, unfortunately. Well, the night."


Xavier Rotterdam: "The rat problem, I've heard whispers of that but not much more." He adds, glancing at Floretta to see what she might provide.


Floretta Williams: "So basically they're hidden underground, they kidnap mortals and mortals with powers. they're over a hundred of them too" She enumerate rapidly. "They got someone pretty dear to the wizards right now so they're really intent on solving that. I also fell asleep today and had a dream." she takes a breath "And I'll have a comprehensive list up once I work on writing it all up. Rena and Guy also are involved as far as I understand it." then she grins toward Alex. "I'm not Luci's level of confident with that yet." a chuckles. "So, what is the order of the day that I so rudely interupted?"


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa shrugs slightly. "Bringing Alex up to speed on what the various Coils offer. Figuring out who'd be best to teach her what she wants to know." Beat. "Xavier mentioned wanting to look into the death of our old grandmaster, but that's a discussion for later."


Alex Shaw: Totally outside of her comfort zone, so Alex just looks a little uncertain for most of this, but when asked what they had been talking about she says, "Like Eyrgjafa said, apparently I'm finally allowed to know what secret knowledge the Ordo Dracul has to offer, and how it might be able to change things for me."


Xavier Rotterdam: "I'm getting a bit of a lesson as well" Xavier admits. "I don't exactly have extensive knowledge of all the coils. We were just discussing the coil of Ziva?" He looks at Eyr, as if to make sure he's saying it right.


Floretta Williams: "Oh nice, which one did you get the sales pitch for yet ?" Floretta asks with a sharp nod. "And Hedwig is the white owl in Harry Potter." She grins for a moment and spend a moment adjusting the pencil skirt a little bit. SHe looks to Xavier and nods to him. "Okay good." (sure come in QSf!)


Daniel Hawthorne: As the quartet talked Daniel emerged from further within the ship, dressed a little more casually than usual in dark jeans and a grey t-shirt and the blush in full effect. Seeing that others were present he gave a polite nod, smiling warmly as he spotted Alex among them. "Evening."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "Ziva first. The topic drifted to the Ascendant afterwards, though." Eyrgjafa glances at Floretta. "I don't know who that is, or why he'd have an owl, but okay." Daniel gets a return nod. "How've you been?"


Alex Shaw: "Apparently it's possible to stay awake 24/7," Alex says to Floretta like this is some kind of miracle she just had revealed to her, which in some ways it is. "Without dangerous quantities of drugs! But also, yes, Ziva." When Daniel arrives she returns his smile and offers him a hug. "Hi Daniel. Which Coils are you studying? Is that rude to ask?"


Floretta Williams: "Yep, that's why you always see me blushed too." Floretta smiles "Mystery of the Ascendant." She does a little flourish "While among ourselves, Not really rude, depends on relationship between people. We do have a fancy, secret society set of titles for it, even if they differ just a little bit from other cities." She then looks around. "And well, Ziva yes, curious about that one, I got caught up in a lot of stuff so I haven't gotten the chance to like, epxlore that one in full.... did they mention Scales too?"


Daniel Hawthorne: "Doing well. Came by to see if there was anything I could help get arranged." Daniel replied to Eyr, approaching the group to take the offer of said hug from Alex. "I'm at the third coil of the Ascendant myself, and use the lack-of-daysleep trick a good bit myself. Makes getting things done during the day so much easier."


Xavier Rotterdam: "it seems the coil of the ascendant is ascendant here in Philadelphia." He remarks, deadpan.


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa nods, rolling her eyes at Xavier's pun. "I'm only at the second coil of the Ascendant, but then I've also reached the second coil of the Blood, and of Ziva." She glances at Alex. "The coil of the Blood focuses on, well, what the name implies."


Alex Shaw: "Exactly what I thought!" Alex says to Daniel with a laugh. "I could write so much code if I never got tired and never had to sleep." She shakes her head as she's turning back to Floretta. "We haven't talked about that yet, no. It figures that we'd have something that focused on blood, but in what way?" she asks Eyrgjafa.


Floretta Williams: "Coil of Blood lets you use blood in a more efficient way, in terms of spending and using it, you wouldn't have to lose one every night." She explains "It also limit the damage of your blood growing more powerful and limiting what you can feed from, makes it easier to resist the hunger frenzy." Floretta explains "Also, scales are small, related rituals that can play on various effects. One of the scales of ascendency makes you switch from a nocturnal pattern to a diurnal. Sun still hurts, but it's there."


Daniel Hawthorne: "Planning on studying the Coil of Blood once I finish the Ascendant. Haven't looked into any of the Scales yet, though." He nodded, then looked towards Eyr. "Not familiar with Ziva off-hand, though."


Xavier Rotterdam: Xavier flicks his gaze from speaker to speaker, taking it all in, but avoiding interrupting for the time being.


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa nods at Floretta. "The scales require you to have achieved a certain level of understanding in their base coil, but what that level is varies by scale." She glances at Daniel, then. "Ziva focuses on protecting and strengthening your connection to humanity."


Alex Shaw: "Some of that sounds pretty useful too," Alex says about the coil of blood, and its options. "What else is there?"


Floretta Williams: "Ziva helps you deal with banes and the effect they have, from what I can tell, that's like, my one weak spot." Floretta explains there and she tap at her phone for a few moments. "Coils of the Wyrm, which helps you deal with Frenzy and controlling the beast inside. Typically more combat oriented." Floretta comments. "And then the coil of the Voivode, which deals with the charming ability of the blood. Like, making it more addictive and easier to create ghoul and embraces and making sure they stay loyal. Not the most popular coil around this place, let me assure you." She points vaguely off in the distance. "One of the scales lets you try to beat the blood bond for someone, however."


Daniel Hawthorne: Daniel's eyebrow arched a touch at the description of the oft-forbidden Coil's focus, nodding quietly as the gears turned. "Interesting." He made a bit of a face when Voivode was mentioned, sparing Alex a glance to see how took that particular idea. "Is there even anyone in town studying that one currently?"


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "Only Rena, that I am aware of," Eyrgjafa answers Daniel. "Mostly for the scale Floretta mentioned, though, I believe." She too watches how Alex reacts to the mention of Voivode.


Alex Shaw: "I can imagine why that last one isn't as popular here," Alex says darkly, and she looks around. "I'm glad that's frowned on here. The blood bond, I mean. It's not horrible. And I can see why we're all so free about talking about something that's considered worth killing someone for studying, too? Elsewhere, anyway? That also makes sense from what I know of Philadelphia."


Floretta Williams: She look to Alex "Honestly I'm glad too." Floretta looks over the others, Eyr, Daniel and Xavier in turn, just to catch if they have anything to say or a particular reaction to the topic at hand.


Daniel Hawthorne: There was a bit of an 'ah hah' moment from the young Haunt at the mention of Rena looking into the Coil for that particular reason, but otherwise he looked unperturbed by the topic at hand. "Considering how this court works, keeping connections to the living around us makes sense. Can see that being frowned upon in other places, though."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa nods to Daniel. "Indeed. Many of us settled or remained here because the culture is so different to many other domains, honestly."


Alex Shaw: "I'm glad things here are the way they are," Alex admits. "In another city I might very well still be in a much worse situation than I am now." She shivers. "I don't really like thinking about that, but it does make me feel like I owe a lot to the people who work to keep things this way."


Floretta Williams: Floretta goes to take a seat down into a nearby chair. "By the way, with the other chapterhouse, do you think we could store out libraries and notes over there?" She asks with a little nod "Because quite frankly, keeping the paperwork in a boat is just asking for a tragedy." She looks to Alex with a very wide and happy grin "Maybe we'll have to modernize too."


Daniel Hawthorne: "Agreed." Daniel nodded to Alex, moving to take a seat himself. "It wouldn't have even crossed my mind to look into the Academy in Boston, and I've gotten into a much better place mentally here than I would have if I'd stayed there."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa nods again. "I honestly don't remember if there even was an Academy in Reykjavík, so much of my focus while I was still there after my Embrace was on getting away from the prick who sired me."


Alex Shaw: "Actually, I meant to bring that up," Alex says to Floretta with a soft laugh. "I was wondering how people would feel about digitizing the libraries, so that we can have access to them anywhere. Including here, without having to haul them all back and forth, or store them on a boat." She looks around at everyone. "I'd make sure it's secure, of course."


Xavier Rotterdam: "I've nothing against it, but it's a library I've invested much in, so I would certainly defer to the more established members here." He says, glancing at said more established members present


Floretta Williams: "I think digitizing would be a good idea, but I feel like the first step would be to make sure everyone is comfortable with computer stuff first, just so there's no issues." Floretta nods, then look to Daniel. "Pleased to know things are better for you here."


Daniel Hawthorne: "I'm all for it." Daniel nodded at the talk of digitizing the archives, smiling a touch at Floretta's comment. "Thanks. It's still rough in some ways, but what I've learned from the Ordo had helped lift a lot of that weight off my shoulders."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: Eyrgjafa shrugs slightly. "I've no objections, though making sure everyone can handle computers first is probably a good idea, yes." Beat. "Has anyone made sure Guy knows what a computer is?"


Alex Shaw: "Well, digitizing the libraries wouldn't destroy them," Alex points out to Floretta with a slight shrug and a faint shake of her head, which makes her curls bounce a little. "They'd still be able to do all the things they can do now, with the same books. I'd just slowly be making them also available digitally. But training people on how to use the digital versions is important."


Floretta Williams: "Hmm, I think Guy might indeed prefer books when he wants to further his own understanding." Floretta looks at Daniel and smiles his way. "Good" then to Alex gets a smiles. "How much time do you think you need before deciding which Coil you want to start with."


Xavier Rotterdam: "I haven't met Guy yet, though Rena mentioned him to me. Can he be found here often?"


Daniel Hawthorne: "Often enough, and far as I know he does." He nodded to Eyr with a small smirk then looked to Alex. "Willing to help on getting things scanned and uploaded as needed."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "That seems like a good project for you, then, Alex. Let me know if you need any help with financing it?"


Alex Shaw: "I assume that the old C.H. has information in the libraries about the coils, at least the ones that don't get you made dead in other cities?" Alex asks with another glance around the group. "I'll do some reading in the next couple of nights and then make some decisions, I suppose. Usually I'm pretty decisive, my decision to join the Ordo Dracul being an obvious exception, due to extenuating circumstances." She smiles at Eyr and says, with a nod, "that would help. I don't really have anything like a steady income yet."


Floretta Williams: "I might be able to help with that too." Floretta grins to Eyrgjafa then back to Alex. "In any case, we're happy to have you here to do that." then, she looks to Xavier and Daniel. "Fantastic, at least one person who can provide technical help. And yeah, Guy is often around, but he tends to be around Rena alot these days I feel like."


Daniel Hawthorne: "They do, yes. And I believe Guy's working with Rena as far as the Axe is concerned."


Xavier Rotterdam: "She did mention as much when the three of us were at the hotel the other night." He says, nodding to Daniel to confirm.


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "No problem. Let me know when you're ready to pick one?" Eyrgjafa says to Alex, before glancing at Daniel. "Yeah. They're both fighty types, so it makes sense."


Alex Shaw: "Thank you all for the detail, and for not thinking my idea of digitizing the libraries is a terrible one," Alex says with a grin. "I should probably get going, but I'll start researching how best to go about that."


Xavier Rotterdam: Xavier steps forward just a bit and nods his head to Alex. "It was a pleasure meeting you. If you need any help with the digitization project. I'm no expert hacker or anything but I do have a passing skill with computers."


Floretta Williams: Floretta waves at Alex. "I think I need to go check on something and write up the little advert from earlier, so I'll be leaving for a while myself, but I should be available if anyone wishes to meet me again a bit later." (RL things to do for a little while)


Daniel Hawthorne: "I should head out myself; need to get something for my sister before heading home." Daniel smiled to the gathered Kindred, moving to stand from his seat. "Hope you all have a good night."


Eyrgjafa Freyjasdottir: "I'll see you around, then," Eyrgjafa nods to the others. "I need to get more research done, personally, but it was nice talking to you all."