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The loft is active these days: there are four nesting families there, and Fox is checking in on each of them, tutting underneath her breath. The pigeons coo happily as she brings a healthy meal of grains, small greens, seeds, berries and chopped-up fruit. There are people who don't eat as well as Fox's pigeons do, and that's a damn shame. Each of the meals is set in the divisions of the loft for the nesting families, and she coos gently at them, absently brushing her fingers down the belly of her printed t-shirt. Okay, it's Vasha's shirt.
"The number of parasites you lot have picked up," she sighs, shaking her head.
Mei steps out wearing pajama shorts and a tank top, her hair pulled back into a ponytail and pinned with bobby pins where it's too short, flips flops on her feet. She looks like she just woke up from a nap or something, a possibility that's strongly suggested by the wide yawn she covers with one hand. "Picking up parasites is what most living things do, if left to their own devices," she points out. "Parasites are honestly a surprisingly fascinating topic."
"They are. It just makes me so grumpy because these poor babies shouldn't have this many parasites. They're domestic animals, and if they're on their proper diets, they won't pick up so many because their bodies won't be lacking so much resistance, you know?" Fox takes a step sideways away from the loft, reaching her arms to hug Mei 'round her waist. "I had to purge worms from their bellies last night, it was a lot." Big hugs, smooch on cheek. "How was your nap?"
Mei wanders over as she applies a brief effort of will and makes herself able to speak with animals, a useful skill when you hang out with a Fox, let alone a bunch of pigeons. "How long will it take for their bodies to start fighting off the parasites as well as they should? Given the new diet you're offering them." She hugs back, kisses Fox's cheek, and then looks at the pigeons. "My nap was just fine. I'm glad the AC in this place works better than my apartment."
"Tough to say," Fox admits, leaving her arms casually wrapped around Mei's waist for a follow-up hug, and smiling a little at the kiss to her cheek. "Probably a couple of weeks to a month? Long enough for their bodies to start really healing on their own and recuperating, you know?" She lets out one of her big, thoughtful sighs through her nose. "A/C is amazing. I love it. How are you dealing with what's going on?"
Mei pauses to glance aside at Fox, her expression briefly curious and then she shrugs whatever thought off without the actual physical shrugging and leans lightly against them. "Do you have a plan for making a dent in more of the pigeon population than we can manage here, or is this one of those things where you feel like you have to do what's in your reach, even if that's not fixing everything?" She glances at the pigeons again. "I haven't really been involved in what's going on, so mostly I'm glad that things have been in capable hands."
"I'm going to try to make as much of a dent in the population as I can. That may involve getting other people in on it, because I can't exactly easily interface with most of Sleeper society." She pulls back her lips, baring her vulpine teeth. "Educating people, getting more people involved with the project so more lofts can be built. Maybe Lux can help me get something set up through the Collective. The more nesting couples we can get where we are swapping out the eggs for fakes, the more of a dent we can make in the population over time. But if I can't do more than that, then I can at least ... make things better for these families, you know? Tikkun olam is all about doing what you can. You need not finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it." A small frown. "Yeah, it's ... a lot to deal with. I went to the Astral, I was in a battle, and ... then Mark."
"The thing I worry about is that the pigeon population will do its best to fill the available ecological niches," Mei says with a thoughtful frown. "That no matter how much semi-captive population you build up, and how hard it is for independent populations to thrive, as long as there's enough food to be found for them to stay alive on their own, the population will always expand to fill that space again. That ultimately you'll end up with the same amount of wild pigeons, plus a growing number being cared for by humanity."
She steps back to look at Fox and asks, "how are you doing with all of that? You were more directly involved."
"Which is why we'll need to go out into the population every spring and replace eggs in the various nests with dummies, so they don't reproduce. It's a little like TNR for feral cats, you know? And ironically, it ... makes the Fox part of me happy. I get to go in and steal eggs for the greater good." Fox makes sort of a face at that. "Most of them won't be edible, which won't please the part of me that's becoming a fox, but I don't want to eat them. I just... need them to not continue to reproduce. I won't get all the nests, but if I make a dent... "
When Mei steps back, Fox frowns, looking up toward the sky. "I don't know," she admits. "We fought some Goetia which were probably hauled over and put into place by the Seers. And they outsmarted us, which makes me mad. The Tree was destroyed, and then Leta made it un-destroyed. That shithead showed up in my home and ... fucking taunted us. And then when we found out what they'd been doing to people."
Nobody notices the door when it open and closes, but they will definitely notice when Vasha enters their conscious perceptions, shifting things around in the liquor cabinet and pouring himself a cocktail. He disappears down the hallway to his humidor, returning with another of his dwindling case of cigars.
He then heads out to the loft, lighting his cigar once he's out in the fresh air, standing downwind from the others. And the birds, naturally. "Mei. Fox."
Mei laughs and says, "I don't know the first thing about Goetia, I'll admit. Or the Astral Realms, for that matter." She pauses and then corrects, "I know the first thing, since you told me what they are, but I don't have any practical knowledge. It's like how I know that tazmanian devils are a thing, but I don't really know anything about them."
She shakes her head before giving Vasha a wan smile. "Hey. We were just starting to talk about all the events of the last week or so."
Distracted from her Feelings by the arrival of Vasha, Fox flashes him a brilliant smile and pap pap pap over to fling her arms around his neck and hop up for a kiss. "Hi." The taste of cigar and alcohol seems to bother her not one bit. "Goetia are sort of like... mind ghosts? I'm not really an expert on it, Vasha could probably tell you more than I could. They're the ephemerals of ... concepts? Thoughts? These were asteroids and comets." Another smooch, and then she lets go of his neck. "And uh... I dunno. I flew to Mercury like Superman, but in my brain?"
"Goetia? Ephemeral thoughts, yes. Ideas. Concepts. Embodied dreams, fears, hangups, you name it. They're the mind made flesh, after a fashion. They inhabit the Astral Realms and our own minds. We mind-mages enjoy bending them to our will. Mastigos is particular." Vasha returns Fox's hug and kiss with a grin, planting a smooch on her cheek before she can slip away. "I'm hoping to pay a visit to the Fallen Tree. I'd like the Aeon of Fate's assistance in destroying a few Pylons." Vasha flashes his teeth and waggles his brows before taking a puff on his cigar.
"Mind ghosts," Mei repeats with a shake of her head. "So much ridiculous bullshit in the world. I kind of love it. Is this like a dream thing? I've certainly done things as strange as flying to mercury in my dreams."
She wanders back over to the loft to check on the pigeons as they eagerly peck their way through the dinner she's brought. There are humans who don't eat as well as the pigeons in this loft. "Sixteen of these stupid motherfuckers," Fox mutters in response to Vasha's comment about the Pylons. "I found sixteen different signature nimbuses when I looked up at their work while he was BLAH BLAH BLAH I AM THE IMPORTANT AND SO cLeVerrrr at us. I honestly have no idea what his stupid face said." She props her hands on her hips, frowning. "Well, I'll go to the Fallen Tree with you. I've been there once, it's very pretty. Just leave the Old Man alone, he's actually the Abyss. I didn't know that. Also don't touch the water near him, you'll stop existing, but you can apparently put bad memories in it."
"Yes. The Oroboros Ocean is said to have originated with the blood of the dragon from the fall of Atlantis. Who knows if it's true or not, but it's the shore of the abyss, there. Very bad time, indeed. Mei might benefit from a visit as well, come to that." Vasha takes another puff and ticks his focus over to Mei again, squinting a bit. "Would you like to meet a Goetia? I can summon one for you to speak with. Pick a facet of me that you'd like to question. I'll pull it out of my head, and you can gain some new understanding of the whole system and theory behind it all. The Astral is like dreams, and our dreams-- our Oneiroi --are attached to it. But above our Oneiroi are the collective dreams of humanity, called the Temenos. Trends, fads, political theories, celebrities... they're to be found there. Beyond that is the Omphalos Stone, the border between the Temenos and the Dreaming Earth. The Dreaming Earth is the dreams of ... earth. The beasts, the stones, the sky, the water. Above that is the Whorl. The Sidereal wastes where the dreams of planets and stars and asteroids exist. Beyond which you will find the shores of Oroboros. The Citadels of the Aeons of the Arcana. And so on."
"The Fallen Tree?" Mei asks, since she's not really sure what they're talking about there. "Huh All this stuff makes me wonder about some of the abilities I had before I Awakened, and how much of that might be tapping into certain parts of the Astral Realms. Being able to connect myself with the thoughts of someone I've never met, to get into their head and think like them, for instance." She frowns just a little at the thought, but shrugs since it's not like she can run tests now to find out. "Anyway," she goes on. "Meeting a Goetia could be interesting. It seems like being able to actually have a conversation with some part of yourself could be useful."
"I want to go to the Dreaming Earth," Fox confesses, not that this should surprise literally anyone. She blinks at the offer of summoning one of Vasha's goetia, and then a slow smile spreads across her face as she gently pap pap over to a chair and sits down in it, pulling her legs up underneath herself. Occasionally she glances over at the pigeons, checking on their dinnertime.
"Yes, well. We'll use one of mine first, before we go pulling apart your psyche. I'm used to having my brain rewritten and rearranged. I'd rather not toy with yours just yet. So. Pick a facet of my personality, and I'll pull it out. My courage, or my doubt. My fear. My lust. That sort of thing. Just realize that while it's summoned out of my mind, it will not exist in me. So pulling out my reason might not be a good idea. But pulling out my lust is probably fine. Or my curiosity, say. Something I can safely live without for a bit." Vasha takes another puff of his cigar, letting Mei set the parameters rather than springing a Goetia on her at random.
"No offense, but I'm not really interested in having a conversation with your lust," Mei says with a laugh. "That just doesn't appeal. Your curiosity could be more interesting, though." She glances over at Fox, who doesn't seem to think this is a bad idea or anything, so she's game.
"And I already have," Fox comments wryly, leaning back in the chair she's chosen. "Many, many times." Her vulpine teeth flash in a grin, and no, she doesn't think it's a bad idea. She seems genuinely pleased and charmed. Delighted, even.
"I only mentioned it because I don't need it to function during your interaction with the Goetia. Curiosity it is." Vasha reaches behind his back and pulls his silver plated pistol, checking the safety and the chamber before gesturing with it as the magical tool that it is. He chants quietly in High Speech while drawing the pistol over his head and etching the sigil for Mind in the air above himself. His Nimbus flares quite powerfully, indeed, if briefly. His form stuttering through dozens of actions he isn't taking in a disorienting and confusing moment of harnessed potentiality. When his image resolves, there's a second Vasha standing beside the first, albeit transparent and ... well. Curious. Looking about at just about everything.
VashaPrime by contrast loses his interest in most everything, including the conversation. He just goes back to smoking and drinking and gestures with disinterest at the Goetia. "Enjoy."
Mei asides to Fox while the casting is going on, "him whipping out a gun and waving it around to cast magic is never going to stop being absurd to me." When the Goetia is summoned she turns her full attention back to Vasha and the piece of his mind. "Thanks," she tells him. She pauses to chant briefly in High Speech before there's a brief flare of her own nimbus, and she starts to study the new creation while she asks it, "so, what's going on?" Great start. But mostly she wants to see how it reacts to things.
She's seen this bit before, so here's where Fox hangs back; she glances at Vasha's disinterest with a mild frown. She knows how this works, but she'll never like seeing Vasha like that.
VashaPrime goes to find his deck chair and sits down in it. His interest in the conversation and the others having gone, for the most part. He relaxes back in the deck chair and watches the skyline, instead, sipping his drink.
Curiosity on the other hand looks up at Mei sharply and blinks at her owlishly. "I was about to ask you the same thing, Mei. I appear to have manifested, which is very interesting, don't you think? I've got some questions, maybe you can help me with them. How much do you know about Scelesti?"
"You can certainly ask them," Mei says with a shrug. "If I can answer them, I might as well! But with that one, I'm afraid I can't offer you too much help. I haven't been Awakened very long, after all, and I've never had any interaction with them. Or reason to study them."
"... a little bit," offers Fox from across the way, but mostly? She's staying out of the way of Mei's interaction with the Goetia. Every so often, she glances over at VashaPrime.
"He won't admit it, but he's being haunted by the murder of Herald Pegasus and the three sleepers at the moto lodge. When they stole that imbued item of Gaveston's. I spent a long time studying their corpses, and I've never seen anything like it! Not with all the war and assassination he's gotten us into over the years. They were completely emptied out. All their mana, all their life force. Husk! What could do that? And why would a Scelestus do that to possess that particular imbued item?"
VashaPrime is starting to scowl a little, glancing carefully back at his Goetia with a frown. His gaze flits to Fox, then back out at the skyline.
"He didn't have to kill those people, you know. He was in twilight. He could have stolen it and left them alive. Was it the thrill, do you think? Was he low on potentia? We know just about all there is to know about Seers, but he's got this blind spot and--"
"Enough," VashaPrime finally says flatly. And that shuts the Goetia up.
"It's interesting to me that you say 'he' like you and Vasha are separate entities. Which, technically, you are right now, but it's still interesting." Mei hmms about that, but it's not really so important, and she goes on. "If I had to make a guess," she says, "once someone gets to the point where they do that kind of thing, they stop coming up with a good reason not to keep doing it." She glances back at Vasha. "I'd also suggest we should change the topic."
"Sometimes it's 'why not' rather than 'why,' which I guess... " And then Fox's voice trails off, and she gets up from where she's sitting to go sit on the lap of VashaPrime. He may not have much curiosity right now, but he has many other things, including a warm lap.
"We are separate entities. Technically. And that's a good guess. Can you imagine what would have to be done to a person to make them behave that way?" Curiosity offers a guileless smile at this. Because he lacks guile. He's just curiosity. "What would you like to talk about, Mei? I'm curious."
VashaPrime loses his interest in the Goetia conversation once it is no longer agitating one of the qualities he does have left in his head. He doesn't ask why Fox has come over, or really seem interested in meeting her gaze, looking back out across the skyline again. But he does wrap his arms around her waist and draw her a little closer for comfort and familiarity.
"Are there things you don't like, as Vasha's curiosity? Things that you don't want to know more about?" Mei asks, tilting her head slightly. "I'm wondering if disinterests carry over as well as interests."
She buries her face in the side of Vasha's neck and listens. Her arms wrap around his neck, and Fox seems content, for the moment, to just be in his lap and listening to the sounds of night descending on Philadelphia from 40 stories up.
Honestly, it's been a really long week for Fox, and listening to Mei talk with Vasha's Curiosity? It's a kind of a balm for the soul.
"I'm curious about everything. Usually I'm tempered by other things. Caution, reason. Ambition, rarely. Duty's the big one. Duty's always getting in my way. Now that I'm out, though, I'd really like to learn all of those things he never had time for. Do you want to listen to K-Pop? He never saw the appeal, but it's got to be in there somewhere, right? Can we order a stromboli? Is it just a big ravioli? Or a folded over pizza? I want to figure that one out--"
"Enough," VashaPrime once more intones, "Answer her questions, stop extemporizing." Vasha's head shakes a little as he lets out an annoyed sigh. Self-loathing is so much easier when you can pull yourself apart and hate different parts of yourself discretely.
"I do listen to K-Pop sometimes," Mei admits with a laugh. "Not a lot of it, but some, once in a while. I'll have to find a way to trick Vasha into listening to some. I have no idea what a stromboli is, I thought that was those things that smooth out the ice at a hockey match," she adds with another soft laugh. "But now I want pizza, so thanks for that. The idea that there's literally nothing that Vasha isn't the least bit curious about is a surprise, though. No topic that he just has a complete apathy toward?"
"Strombolis are like if a pizza and a ravioli had a bastard child. It's ... like a giant pierogi of pizza." Fox answers this from The Lap Of Vasha, which is like the lap of luxury, only not quite. She picks her head up from Vasha's shoulder and murmurs into his ear, "If this turns into an exercise in being able to yell at yourself from the outside rather than from the inside like you normally do, I will stop finding it good." She kisses the corner of his jaw, gently reassuring. "I was pleased to see you permit this, as a sort of sharing. Don't hurt yourself with it."
"Oh. I'm his curiosity, not his interests. They're different. Curiosity is just a trait that helps us learn and explore. We're curious about everything we don't understand on some level. That's how we learn and grow. But curiosity isn't enough to impel a person to to learn without interest. And interests are informed, too, by other things. Curiosity and interest work well together, but were not the same." Curiosity walks over to the edge of the balcony and peers over the side, "I wonder what it would feel like to fall this far."
VashaPrime eventually looks up at Fox when he realizes she's speaking. He's clearly missed some of that for lack of curiosity about what was being said, but his shame kicks in and he sorts it out with a brief flicker of regret. "Goetia often lack filters. This was intended as a learning experience for Mei, not..." Vasha gestures back at his curiosity, "Show and Tell."
"Pizza pelmeni, perfect." Mei grins Fox's way. "I'm surprised we haven't had that, it sounds amazing." She listens to the explanation the Goetia gives her and nods, like that makes sense to her now. "Got it," she answers. "I suspect most people who looked down from a height like that have wondered the same thing," she admits. "Enough that there's a name for it: the call of the void. I suspect you could find out the answer more safely by going skydiving."
"I know what it was intended as, but that it contains some elements of Show and Tell, as you said, I found very healthy and was very happy to see you volunteering," Fox offers quietly, kissing VashaPrime's cheek. "I'm just saying, don't -- let it become unhealthy." Because Vasha's relationship with himself is ... you know, often quite bad, actually!
"L'appel du vide! Yes! High place phenomenon! He uses it in interrogation sometimes. The self-preserva--"
The Goetia disappears in a wink as Vasha dismisses the spell, and his curiosity rockets back into his Oneiros where it properly belongs. Vasha inspects his cigar and takes a few puffs from it to try to play all of what just happened off as normal, and his use of torture a totally acceptable thing to do to another living person.
"The downside to Goetia you don't actively control is that they know what you know. And unless you've pulled out your sense of discretion? They have none. Playing with the toys in your own attic is useful. When done alone. In company it can be ... embarrassing. Disturbing, even. You will learn things about yourself speaking with your Goetia that you hide from yourself. That you don't think on, or that you deceive yourself about. It's why Mastigos enjoy it. It helps them boil away their pretenses. Like a crucible of truth. I sometimes do it to pull out clues and leads I repressed. It's much easier to process the horror you've experienced when you remove your horror first and interrogate it as a separate entity entirely. It's how we function, sometimes." He doesn't specify who the 'we' are.
"Thank you for letting me have that experience," Mei says as the Goetia snaps back out of existence, and Mei's left addressing the whole and complete Vasha instead. "I can absolutely see why there would be times it could be useful to have that ability. I'm curious about some of the possible side effects and dangers, though. For instance, can your Goetia be destroyed? What happens to a person if a fragment of themselves is killed?"
Her head lifts from Vasha's shoulder at the word 'interrogation,' though does Fox look surprised? No. Not at all. There are some things you Know even if you don't know, and that you look away from and don't talk about and just deny. Fox blinks twice, and then just sort of... lets it go again.
Some things, you just let go and don't talk about. She chews her lower lip a little with her sharp teeth.
"Goetia from your Oneiros can't really be destroyed in the sense you mean. They are all facets of the Daimon, your higher Astral Self. The sum total of what makes you you in a mystical sense. The Ur-Mei. More a projection, than a distinct facet. Destroy the projection, the lens remains. If you follow my analogy. Sometimes it's useful to part with deleterious parts of yourself. Being tortured? Remove your sense of pain and fake it. Just one example."
He has picked a bad time to have his curiosity back. Because he's eyeing Fox now that she's worrying at her lip. "Or your shame," he tacks on before glancing back to Mei. "Shame is helpful to lose from time to time."(edited)
"Yeah, as much as I try not to have shame in general, it's easier said than done. Such an obnoxious emotion." Mei rolls her eyes a little, but she seems to be in sincere agreement about how useful a lack of shame can be. "Anyway. I need a drink, and I have some studying to do. Thanks again, Vasha."
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