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What they see in that moment, they will never be able to fully explain even to themself. The curtain of the world and its Lies is pulled aside and fully off. The true expanse of reality is visible. The reason for everything is revealed to a fully enlightened mind. They see the Supernal, and touch it, in defiance of every oppressive ruler who sought to keep them from it.
And then it's over. They stand there gaping, turning huge and confused eyes onto Leta, looking rather like someone coming down from a very, very intense trip. "...I'm Tanya," they say, perhaps to Leta, perhaps to themself, perhaps to the world.
Leta finishes sending a text message, and looks up at Tanya. She flashes a lopsided little grin, and tugs her sunglasses down to the bridge of her nose for a wink. "Goodmorning, Sunshine." There's a pause as she realizes she's still wielding her iron baton, and it's tucked back under the hem of her shirt. "You have a nice nap? Wait, don't answer that yet. Let's get you out of here so we can have a private conversation..." A beat. "Do you like breakfast?"
Tanya's mouth hangs open trying to process all that. Eventually it's simplified to a far easier mental test, and they nod dumbly for a second before clarifying. "Uh. Yes. I like breakfast. Who are...oh." They stare awkwardly at Leta again, leaning in a bit too close. "Oh, you've got the...I can see...yeah, let's uh, let's get breakfast."
Leta tugs a cellphone free from her pocket, along with a ridiculously fancy lighter, and a silver cigarette case. "Tell me what your breakfast order is, Tanya. We're going to go meet my partner, because they're a lot better with babies than I am. Also older folks, too. Actually, just people in general." There's a little fwip and she holds the lighter to her cigarette. "I realize that probably sounds super shady, but I've got answers about the shit you just went through. If you want them."
She wiggles an eyebrow as she starts texting.(edited)
"I mean...yes. I don't. I have the answers, but I don't understand the words. Or the letters. Trying to...my words are wrong." The downer effect sets in, but breakfast is a good distraction. "Uh, eggs. Sunny side up, with buttered toast and hash browns. And coffee." There's a beat. "Okay. At least I can say what I want for breakfast."
"Ahh, good." She flashes a grin as the text is sent, and the phone is slipped back into her coat pocket. Which, yes, she is wearing despite the summer heat. All alt chicks must suffer in the heat. "That's a good sign," Leta taps the side of her head, and sticks out her tongue - which has a little metal piercing in the center. "That means your egg isn't scrambled. Just a little bit cracked." A beat. "Come on, I'm parked in the staff lot. I've got a somewhere to show you that will blow your fuckin' mind."
The elevator ride up to the penthouse always seems to take forever - and in Leta's experience it always seems to take longer than when you're hungry.
"Leta Abbott, by the way. My friends call me Leta, but I prefer Abbott when it comes to the uninitiated. " She sticks out her slender hand for Tanya to shake. "I figured I should probably introduce myself properly before I take you to my home."
Then the elevator opens...(edited)
Timing is everything. The elevator door opens to a GIANT penthouse apartment exactly as a HUGE bald eagle swoops in from the balcony, carrying a take out bag in its talons.
This is not even the weirdest thing to happen to Tanya by far today. The eagle swoops down the hall to make a turn, and flies back out into the living room, where it stretches and transforms into a dirty, short woman in a tank top and cutoff shorts. With breakfast.
Like you do.
Tanya takes all that in with a blank stare. It's still a bit much. But they're Awake now, and they see the signs and auras around the Eagle. They know what they're seeing is the Truth. So it's all taken in stride, walking forward into the penthouse, head swiveling around to take it all in. "I think I need to sit down."
If Leta is at all offended by Tanya's spaced out response, it doesn't show on her face. She flashes the Not-Bird a giant grin as she follows behind the little babby, and reaches into her pocket for something. A something that is immediately popped into her mouth. So you be the judge.
"See?" Leta offers in her bad, broken Russian accent before giving Fox a little smooch on the cheek. "Is not always bodies. Sometimes is baby! I find you a baby."
"You should sit down, have some food, drink some water, and we can talk about what happened today." The grubby little creature flashes a grin at Tanya, and her teeth are not human teeth, but sharp little Fox teeth. "You can call me Fox, or Naika." Her eyes are green-gold, leaning toward gold, much more vulpine than human. "Let's get you some water, and I put some coffee on before I went to Maddy's. Do you like coffee, kiddo?"
They wrap their arms around Leta and kiss her hello, properly. None of this cheek kiss nonsense. "This time it's a baby." She's teasing, clearly, and goes back to unpacking the containers.
Tanya finds a seat to plop down into, and stares for a bit. Slowly, they look over at Fox. "I'm baby?" they say, then blink. "I mean. I'm Tanya. What, uh, yeah, what's happening? I probably shouldn't follow random people into eagle mansions but you two both had the..." They gesture randomly and wildly. "The signs around you. The words."
Leta smirks as her kiss breaks. "You really shouldn't follow strangers up to penthouses. Smutty literature -- and experience -- tells me that's how you get invited to a party for swingers." There's a chittering laugh as she dives into the bag of food for her Styrofoam container of waffles, eggs, and hashbrowns.
"... but yes. You're correct. We do." The MastigOG offers on her way into the kitchen. "Do either of you want something from the fridge -- or my stash -- while I'm up?"
"Could you bring the carafe from the coffee maker and the sugar and cream from the fridge, babe?" Fox asks of Leta, and sets Tanya's box on the coffee table in front of them. Then she sits down next to Tanya, opening her box and making a sandwich out of two waffles, two eggs over easy with provolone cheese on top, six strips of very crispy bacon. "I'll take a bowl, too, please," she adds over her shoulder.
"So do you want to tell us what you went through today, or do you want to ask questions?" This is turned toward Tanya.
"I want coffee," Tanya declares, belatedly ensuring they aren't left out of the caffeination. "And a hit. I thought I had a vape." They open up the box in front of them and start eating immediately. Set next to them is the small pile of books they had with them right before their Awakening. The spines read "The Nag Hammadi Library in English", "The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King", and "KULT: Death is Only the Beginning"
After a few healthy mouthfuls of egg and toast, Tanya looks to Fox. "I think I want you two to tell me the words for what just happened, and I'll decide if it sounds right. Because it looks like both of you have ideas of your own. And I can't find the words because right now it's all just singing and colors in my head and if I look too hard at any of it it gets even wilder. Is that stuff indica? I need indica."(edited)
Leta comes back a few moments later carrying a trio of mugs, a sugar shaker, the coffee carafe, and the container of cream. She's going to have to make multiple trips, clearly. Which means delivering the important Breakfast Things is just the first of several.
She quirks an eyebrow at Tanya, and... then she disappears down the hall towards her room for the second round.(edited)
Fox pours the coffee for their guest, because certain things must be done in certain ways. It's very clear that her attention is drawn by the books, and there's a moment where she wants to start the conversation about the books, instead, because maybe that'll be more calming for the newly-Awakened. But she pulls her attention back to Tanya, and, after she takes a big bite out of her ersatz sandwich, chewing it all up, she blinks slowly.
"We call ourselves Awakened. Some part of your soul that was sleeping is now, well. Awake, thus the word. A word you would likely be more familiar with than that would be 'wizard.' You've seen past the Lie of this world in more ways than one, and you took your prepared soul -- you've clearly been working hard to be a better version of yourself -- " and there she nods toward the books "and when given the chance between remaining as you were and being a better version of yourself, you chose the hard way, which is being the more true version of who you are."
"To rephrase a bit what you said, you've seen the words that spoke the universe. We all experience that moment differently, but everyone like us has experienced it."
Tanya's shoulders relax as Fox speaks. "Yes. That's...yes. Thank you, it's like the words were sliding off my brain. Awake. I wasn't...I mean, I didn't think I was trying to be better. Being better meant doing what I was supposed to, obeying." Tanya sips the coffee and lays a hand on the stack of books. "I was looking for what was real. What to believe. Everything I believed in turned out to be..." They shake their head. "I wasn't thinking about being better. I just started seeing how wrong everything else was."
"Better is relative," Leta calls out from down the hallway. There's a bit of rustling, some shifting and shuffling of drawers, then the sound of a plastic container being opened and closed. When the Mastigos returns, she's changed into pajamas, and is carrying both a box of smoking paraphernalia, along with a ridiculously large water pipe. "Better is whatever the fuck you want it to be. Better is more authentic, more knowledgeable, more inclined to share your drugs with strangers."
The green glass pipe is placed on the table between Fox and Tanya. There's already a bowl packed, and there's a homemade filter in the Tupperware container. Not that they need it with two Matter users in the room, but. Just in case. "Sometimes one it's also more willing to see the intrinsic flaws in something, and to choose the alternative." A beat. "You were making that choice, you just didn't know it."(edited)
"Like Leta said. Better in this case means being the more true version of who you are," Fox agrees. She takes another bite of their sandwich, then sets it down in the box. After licking his fingers clean, Fox reaches for the pipe. "I'll clear the air when we're done in here," she offers to Leta with a waved hand toward the filter. "Z can always tell."
"Tell me a little bit about what happened with you today, and maybe we can kinda -- figure things out together. Who you are, who can best help you. You'll need an official teacher. There's a whole world you need to become educated on, while also still doing what you want to do with your ordinary life, if you still want to do that. Sorry to tell you, but you're basically a kid again. Good news is, this kid-ness doesn't last that long."
Tanya nods to both of them as they explain. "Yeah, sorry. I'm...my legal name, I guess, is Anthony. I was supposed to be finishing my senior year in university, in my bachelor's for religious studies. It's been pretty nice so far. Being on my own. Meeting some new people. But I couldn't finish my thesis. I wanted to write about something big, I wanted to show that faith and reason were compatible, that...that what I believed in was real and true, and worth believing in. That the church spread so far, so fast, because it really was what it claimed to be. That's...not what I found."
"You don't have to tell anyone your deadname. If you need help with getting documents set up in your proper name, your chosen name, I know someone who can help you with that process. I'll introduce you to Mearcstapa and he'll get you sorted." Fox takes a hit from the pipe and holds it, letting it out slowly through her nose, passing off the pipe to Tanya when she's done. "Literally no one knows mine. Not even Vasha. It's irrelevant." Not that Tanya knows who Vasha is, but the tone of Fox's voice implies someone important, and she is wearing a ring on her left ring finger. Then again, Tanya has had a heck of a day, maybe she doesn't put that all together.
Her tongue clicks against the roof of her mouth. "What did you find?"
Tanya follows well enough, nodding. They take the pipe, spark up with clear familiarity, and exhale a cloud of smoke gratefully. "I found out smoking a bit of pot wasn't the end of the world and it felt good and made my mind slow down enough for me to fucking relax," they say. "I found that living away from my parents let me breathe. I found out about queer people and trans people, ways of living I didn't even know were...possibilities. Options." They shake their head, passing the pipe to Leta in turn. "In my thesis, I found nothing but...exploitation. Fraud. Depravity. I found centuries of slaughter and conquest. I'm sure nothing you haven't heard of yourself. But what bothered me most was realizing that every virtue I'd been told to cultivate was just...either turned into, or always was, a way to control people. Humility. Modesty. Chastity, Temperance. Telling people not to care about this world at all because there's another coming."
A sip of coffee, and a glance at the books. "That's when I started trying to see if any...alternative perspectives made any sense. Hermeticism was intriguing, and some of the older stuff. But most of it has been just as disappointing. Just a mishmash of things pilfered from older traditions, arranged in a different shape of nonsense."
"I'm good," Leta waves a hand at the offered bong. "I really shouldn't mix substances on a night where I might want to be a functional Awakened being at any point before tomorrow. Especially not these two substances," she gestures between herself and the bong before reaching for her to-go box of food, pouring a cup of coffee and then sliding herself over the arm of a chair.
Once seated like a proper disaster bisexual -- which is to say with her back touching the bottom cushion, one leg over the chair's arm, and with her food on her stomach -- she reaches for the coffee and rejoins the conversation.
Though, she's very quiet, and... doing a fair bit of squinting. It's possible she might be starting to feel the effects of whatever drug she was referring to, but you'll never know for sure without a proper check...
The softest of laughs from Fox, a low, animal sound. There's a specific verb for it: gekkering. Even when Fox's laughter sounds sad, it's still a fox's laughter. "I'm Jewish, and I grew up Jewish," they answer Tanya when they say 'I'm sure nothing you haven't heard of yourself.' Yeah, of course they've heard of the shit the Church has done. When Leta gestures to herself, Fox squints at her for a moment, and then rolls their green-gold eyes. "You are a fucking disaster, Leta," the Orphan sighs, but the way she says it is fully affectionate. Fox doesn't take another hit, himself, just reaches to pick up their sandwich and take another bite.
"Part of the reason it doesn't make sense is that we had to make sure it didn't quite make sense. There are people," and here she gestures toward Leta, as if the bisexual disaster is the epitome of Guardian competence, "whose entire job it is to hide who we are from the eyes of ... the unAwakened. Sleepers, we call them. So it's not your fault it didn't make sense, it's -- well, it's ours. Only a very small percentage of humanity Awakens, and some of those who do go crazy, and some of those who do are the magical equivalent of the 1%, who want humanity to all stay in chains for their benefit."
"You ... are part of a struggle now that you didn't know existed a couple hours ago. The good news is, you can start finding real answers. The bad news is, there are always more questions."
Tanya nods. It's that last bit that truly gets their attention, eyes widening...they sit up straight at the mention of the magical one-percent. Their hand goes to the stack of gnostic texts they brought with them. "So someone really is keeping everyone down from the very top. That much is True. I'm fine with more questions if I get a chance to...DO something about that. Serve an actual cause for justice and change instead of just paying lip service to a broken status quo. You know?"
Leta Abbott, Extremely Competent Guardian is still wearing her tea shades indoors despite having changed into her pajamas - and she tips them down towards the tip of her nose in that gremlin-y way she often does. "If you're interested in the nigh-unfathomable depth of that deception, you and I can have a later conversation about it at length," Leta quirks an eyebrow. "... but I get the strong feeling you probably won't be a good fit for the Guardians."
She opens her mouth as if to follow that up, but instead forks a huge bite of waffles into her gob.
"Well, there's -- so there's kind of ... " Fox pushes their mouth to one side, and frowns a little bit. "So there's the Seers of the Throne, who are like, the magical 1% who are actually trying to, like, actually actually keep humanity down, you know? And then there are the Guardians of the Veil, who are on our side. And the difference there is that the Guardians keep those of us who would like to not be murdered by Seers of the Throne alive. The minds of unAwakened humans literally reject a lot of the things that we get up to, and, also, it could hurt us if they find out, or get us murdered, or like, the Guardians think it could ruin the possibilty of anyone ever Awakening ever again."
Absently scratching the side of her head, Fox shrugs. "There are, like, a lot of different opinions about, uh, basically everything in Awakened society, but Seers of the Throne are not our society. Like, at all. There's a difference between 'we have to keep our secrets so we all stay safe' and 'mwahahaha I grind you under my bootheel because you are not Awakened and therefore lesser and I shall profit off of this and also I'll kill anyone who doesn't immediately fall in line with my magical pyramid scheme.'"
Tanya remembers to keep eating their breakfast while they absorb information about Awakened society. There's a pause while they chew. "So the Guardians are the Men in Black. The fun movie Men in Black that protect people from mass panic and alien monsters. And the Seers sound like the actual real life Men in Black that just kill you and your whole family so someone's stock portfolio is okay." There's a pause. "Wait, you said your name is Fox, right? Were you the fox?!"
Leta quirks an eyebrow at the comparison. She tilts her head to the side, and offers a muffled: "Yeah, sure. Let's go with that." Around her mouthful of waffles. There's a moment for swallowing, and she washes down breakfast with a swig of coffee.
"The Seers are real fucks," Leta blinks a few times at a patch of seemingly nothing. "That isn't exactly an unpopular opinion, but you're very unlikely to find a person in this apartment that'll disagree with that statement." A beat, and she chuckles. "... and considering some of the shit we've been dealing with lately, the idea of a Seer assassinating someone over stocks isn't so farfetched."
They were about to say something else, maybe about the Men in Black, when Tanya asks the question that she asks. Fox, in the middle of taking a bite, shifts her shoulders a little bit. "... look, there are a lot of foxes in the greater Philadelphia area," she huffs. "... but yes, that was me. And my name isn't Fox. That's just what everyone calls me. Used to be they called me Little Fox, but I think only Master Yoshitsune and Master Weaver call me that anymore."
"I call you Little Fox," Leta interjects, sticking out her tongue. Which. Her mouth is full of food, so. Yuck.
Tanya looks elated. "I knew you were special. I thought about you for days after seeing you." They smile warmly. "But...okay," They say, leaning forward. "I believe both of you. But should I? If some of us are evil, or just manipulators, wouldn't they tell a new face that it's the other side that's wicked? Present themselves as benevolent?" There's a frown. "And if you both were, that'd be pretty dumb of me to say right now. This...really is a lot. Even beyond the whole spiritual identity event thing." They look to Leta, peering, lips pursed. "But...seriously. How do I know if I can trust anyone?"
"I suppose, technically, you don't know if you can trust us." Lets quirks an eyebrow as she drags her gaze away from that little spot of nothing. It's probably beginning to wiggle and wobble. "I will point out that I found you in the midst of your Awakening, prevented any interruptions, and then brought you back to my home so that I could answer your questions and feed you breakfast." There's a beat. "If you'd like legitimate proof beyond that the Seers are as bad as we say they are, I'm more than happy to share my memories of my last encounter with them, but I'd rather not club you upside the head with my traumatic experiences on your first night."(edited)
"That's a super good question, actually," Fox replies, and then offers thoughtfully, "I mean, rather than that, it might be easier, and more helpful, for you to scan my surface thoughts and see if you think I'm telling the truth. Leta says you're a Mastigos, so you have to be able to do that right off the bat, and, well, I'm rather famously shitty at lying anyway! Which makes it funny that most of my cadre are Guardians. I expressly consent to you scanning my surface thoughts and only my surface thoughts, and then stopping."
Tanya nods. "I mean, this is getting into how-can-we-know-anything philosophy, and I hate semantic fiddling like that. But." There's a stare at Fox's suggestion. "I'm supposed to...act like I don't know what the hell you're talking about. But I DO know what you're talking about, and that I can do it, and that...that's WEIRD." They shake their head, and then focus, staring intently at the sharp-toothed one...
"Well, that's complicated. You may be able to tell whether or not Fox is deceiving you, but if you're trying to discover who is morally correct in this conflict, you won't glean that from Fox with Mind. You'll simply learn what they believe about the matter." Leta shifts her position in the chair and her eyes go wide at the sudden change in perspective. God, she is the wrong type of high for this situation. "I'm not saying it won't help, but if you think the whole thing is just a disagreement down a party line, I'm afraid you aren't going to find what you're looking for." She sips her coffee with a shrug.
"Not that you shouldn't try it, just... be warned." A beat. "... and Fox is definitely the proper target here, because I'm still holding the shield I put up during your Awakening, so you'd probably just bounce off my windshield."(edited)
Tanya nods to Leta. "More like, just making sure I'm not being a ditz and getting conned. I know better than to believe both of you just because you're hot and confident and nice to me. I SHOULD know better, at least." They turn back to Fox, staring. There's no dramatic stance or posture assumed, but something drifts up from Tanya, just behind their ear. A bright red cord or rope, some soft fabric filament, winds out impossibly into the air in lazy spirals. It drifts towards Fox, sliding against the sharp-toothed one's forehead. "...can both of you see that?"
Fox's thoughts are not chaotic, per se, but they are deeply, deeply primal, while not being unintelligent. There's something that is truly inhuman about Fox's thoughts, and the scent-sight-sound of their thoughts rides very high and bright in their thought patterns. Hungry, tired, concerned-about-kid. Fox feels as much as they think, but they do think a lot, and very very fast. Zoya's asleep, Mei too. Leave note. Wake up Vasha to tell him. Mmm, kisses. Flashes of affection for every name that flickers past, a brief, Apprenticeship! as if Fox's brain is constantly circling over a checklist. What do next?
Thankfully for Tanya, that's where that all ends. Fox's brain just doesn't stop. "Yes, that's your Nimbus," Fox agrees, smiling contentedly. "Awakened can see it when we do magic. It's okay, that's nothing wrong."
"Good luck," comes Leta's terrible Russian accent impression again. After all, she's been in Fox's head before and surely it's a lot for the uninitiated. Otherwise she just kicks back and sips her coffee while waiting for the result of this very magical lie detector test.(edited)
The baby Mage's eyes go comically wide a moment and their mouth hangs open. "Fuck," they hiss out, touching their own cheek. They stare at the fleeting red cord before it drifts away into nothing. "That's cool, just...solved the whole Problem of Mind, got to experience someone else's thoughts and feelings directly. Uh." There's a very tired looking blink. "It really does look like I can trust you. I haven't slept in like 30 hours, not really, and...I'd probably go crazy trying to go back to the dorm and sleep by myself. Would it...be okay if I crashed here?" They look to Leta too, sharing the still-reeling expression from scanning those wholesome frenetic thoughts.(edited)
Whereas Fox, who lives in this brain, just kinda figures that expression means 'wow I'm a brand new baby Mage and experiencing someone else's brain for the first time.' There's nothing unusual about Fox's brain, it's fine! "... I was actually going to ask if you wanted to sleep here," the Orphan answers, picking up the rest of their sandwich and shoving it into their face with a few big bites. "I'll make sure the rest of our cadre -- our magical found family, essentially, we're called The Firebirds in English though our original name is Russian -- knows that you're staying here. Don't force any locked doors or go poking around, or you may see things that mankind was not meant to see. Also things other than Vasha in his lime green Speedo." She looks almost inordinately proud of herself there, but then, a half-second later, a bit of sadness flickers across her face. "Actually that wasn't nice. I like how Vasha looks, he's very handsome."
"I don't like that game, Leta. I tried it, it isn't fun for Foxes." And then with a little breath pulled in, she continues, "I'll notify the shiny hats in our community that you're Awake, and under the care of our cadre until you settle on a teacher. Legally, in Awakened Society, you're considered the equivalent of being underage until you've been taught the ropes, and ... I guess technically that makes it me for the moment, since Leta is too high to make any legal decisions."
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