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Armenius and Aaron have this whole season down pretty good. The Christmas Eve clast was settled by agreeing the night service would be the Christian candle service and the morning service would be the morning shabbat service. Aaron had initially offered to settle the dispute by arm wrestling.
The service was intimate, as they always are. Aaron's guitar and baritone voice stand in for a proper Cantor. But what he lacks is polish he makes up for in verve and richness, and he can carry a room through the fuzzy parts of the Amidah on his lonesome if he must. He sees to it everyone gets to carry the Torah after the Shema if they wish, or at least bless it with a kissed touch or the corner of a tallis.
The Torah service is on parsha Miketz which Rabbi Yis'rael analogizes to the process of awakening. That the rags to riches storry in Miketz and the wisdom Joseph provides through divine authority and divinitory insight can be, yes, directly compared to Awakening. That his process of becoming and growing being and returning is no less the experience of our own Awakenings, and now that we are back among our brothers with our riches and wisdom, will we do as Joseph did? Or are we going to try to do better?
Aliyah is done for those wishing to read Torah. Special days are called out, if there are any. Yahrzeits are read out, including the names of the historically slain victims of Police violence in the city and three victims of the holocaust. The Mourner's Kaddish is sung over any new names spoken, and he ends it all with the priestly benediction.
As the crowd begins filling out, he does make a note of meeting Mei's eyes. Though in some way she could probably tell he needed to see her. Somehow.
Tommy, in masc, dressed in his suit, and a yamaka that they've picked up among their years of research, travel, and study.
He followed all the procedures that one of a guest should uphold. As things began to wrap up, he gave a stretch of a walk before returning to his seat, in order to see if any of the new faces wished to converse with him.
Mei isn't exactly quiet during the service, but only not so to the degree that the service calls for. She doesn't have any special dates to bring up this time, or anything like that, that's all. She's there, and clearly glad to be, there's just nothing additional to the service that she currently needs to express, and it seems like there might be something on her mind that she's working to keep /off/ her mind for the duration. This is not at all unusual for her, as Aaron would know, since she usually has some case or another that's occupying her thoughts. At least she doesn't drink as much as she used to.
She does clearly pick up on the signals that Aaron is sending, of course. One of the reasons that she used to drink too much, and why she was such a good PI, is that she's a bit too good at picking up on what other people are feeling, and a bit too good at putting herself in their shoes. She doesn't tend to miss what people are feeling, unless they're really trying to hide it. It means that she's definitely sticking around, as things come to an end.
So it is that she's still seated, waiting for others to filter out or to finish speaking to Aaron. When Tommy returns to his own seat she offers a smile, then leans toward him and extends a hand. "I don't think we've met," she says. "I'm Mei"
Aaron removes the capo from his guitar and slides it from his shoulders, returning it to its travel case. He's got to stay to see the burning down of the shabbat candles, so he's not going anywhere fast. Not recognizing Bones, he steps down off the dais and enters the gallery seating area to get closer to the others.
"Yes, welcome. Disciple Yis'Rael, Scion of Aether, Talon of Master Yoshitsune." It splits the difference between informal and formal, a properly rabbinical introduction. You decide where this is going, new person. He gives a smile aside to Mei, "Good to see you, Shabbat shalom."
"Hello! I am called Bones," said with the preciseness of a Mystagogue not wishing to lie to the Awakened and he returned the handshake, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mei."
Then to Aaron, "Master Bones, Scion of Aether, Savant of the Mysterium," he matched the introduction in formality.
"Shabbat shalom," Mei answers Aaron with a warm smile. "It's always good to see you, too." She gives him a brief, concerned look, and then lets her attention return to Bones, where she continues to smile just as warmly. There's a definite sense of calm about her, despite the concerned look she had just given to Aaron, like she's not lacking in confidence that whatever the problem might be, they can resolve it.
"If we're slipping a touch of formality in here, I suppose I could also add that I'm Master Parhelion of the Ninth Sefira, Child of the Tree. But Mei is just fine, really. I don't get the sense this is a situation that necessitates the mystical name, and all that." There's definitely an abundance of casualness to go with the confidence. It's not a disregard for formality so much as just not feeling the current situation needs it.
Aaron says something into the look Mei is giving him. It's in Yiddish, which is a little Hebrew, and a little German, and a little beet soup. But it ends with him looking surprised. "Master Parhe-- We awakened at the same time!" There's a very insincere notion of hey not fair underpinning his behavior that has the air of a big brother to it. "Yeah. Well. I beter nobody randomly throws grizzly bears at you and then says no magic when you start conjuring fire hammers." The 'no magic' is spoken in an uncanny impression of Master Yoshitsune.
"He keeps saying body first, mind after." To look at Aaron, it won't be long until the mind starts.
"What brings you by, Bones?"
"There is a cleaving in Philadelphia."
He replied in Yiddish, but it was clear that it was the precise mystical version of the language, "I am an Archaeologist, Symbologist, and overall studier of the human condition and human religions. I visit any services or rituals or rites in which outsiders are invited, when I can attend."
To Mei, "Oh. I know Fox and Vasyl! Vasyl a little better than Fox, but I helped fox with Sunday Brunch a few weeks back."
Mei gives Aaron a hapless shrug and says, "you're not as selfish as I am, I suppose, and that plays a role in things. You spend a lot of your time worrying about the spiritual wellbeing of others. I don't have those same responsibilities, so I end up spending a lot more time on my own studies, I suspect. Well, aside from when I'm working on a case. I'm also surrounded by a cadre of ridiculous people who have probably had an impact on the speed of my progress."
She flashes a grin. "And no grizzly bears. Now I feel bad for the bears. Where do you even find grizzlies around here? Should I be more worries walking down the street?"
But the smile fades away as her thoughts return back to the Yiddish message, and she nods. "That's unfortunate," she says in the same language, and since Bones has made it clear that he's able to understand it, it doesn't feel like it's rude. "Do you know what happened?"
"He drops them out of space portals, Mei! Onto your head!" Aaron removes his kippah and shows off a fresh pink scar across his scalp. He smacks it back into place and resumes shaking his head in bemusment. "But I have to say, I'm. Like. Seven thousand times more confident in myself than I was two years ago. Even if I now look up for bears out of habit." He checks the rafters on that note, because that would be exactly like Yoshitsune to set up.
Safe.
"I have a ring and a name, but I've not yet ascertained if it belonged to the dybbuk or was liberated from one of its victims. It's a woman, in a man. Which is the very opposite of how these things tend to be. It's filled with nakam. (Vengeance) Its host claims he's going to make it his job to murder Nazis around the area and wanted me to know. I think he wanted my help."
His fist crackles a bit, by way of explanation. "He saw my greatest hits compilation on YouTube." (edited)
A flicker of magic flitters through the air as he looked like he was adjusting a radio dial.
He was happy to listen to the other Obrimos discuss the Dybbuk, and the power of the mind magic to help identify what Dybbuk meant, and so on.
"Oh. I believe, based on what you said, and discussion I've had with Sleepwalker Jinx, and a Chef, that they are called the Bound? They seem to have powerful Geists bound to them once they die, with a deal."
"I thought that drop bears were supposed to be like koalas, not grizzlies," Mei says with mild amusement. I guess I was super wrong about that. But at least now you'll be prepared if you ever go to Australia. "I'm glad that you're more confident. You should be. I guess the same is true for me, too, even if I didn't really tend to think of myself as lacking confidence before. It's just... different, you know? The kind of confidence that I've developed now."
She grins at Aaron and adds, "your greatest hits. Now you have me thinking of you as a hitman, which seems very... I don't know. Definitely not you. But yes, I know that's not what you meant by hits."
The seriousness returns and she frowns slightly, before glancing at Tommy. "Hmm. I don't think I've met any of them before. And death isn't exactly my strong suit, and thus neither are ghosts. Geists?" When you're speaking Yiddish and the word for ghost is gayst, the whole distinction gets a little weird. "Do you know more than that about them?" Her gaze comes around to Aaron again. "And what did you say to the implied request for help?"
"I told him nakam is forbidden. I told him we will outlive them. I told him we only do that by remaining true to Torah. And Torah forbids nakam. I tried appealing to him rather than the dybbuk," and he is persisting in that designation for the time being,"but he seems as intent on the murder as the dybbuk is. He told me I'd have to kill him to make him stay."
"And when I called the rider a dybbuk," and here he looks back to Bones in explanation, "I found its ban. I could have slain it on the spot, I think. Had I wished to. But it would have ended a life."
His eyebrows tick and his arms fold over his stomach with a slow shrug. Then in english, "Not all gayst are dybbuk, and not all dybbuk are gayst. But this gayst is a dybbuk."
"Lesser or greater Manes would be the equivalent from those I've seen. I am only an Apprentice of Death, myself, without a teacher. But the soul moves on, and the Mane becomes a Geist which is a soul-like ghost? Something to that effect. I've only had a few short conversations," he replied seriously... and then he started clapping and laughing, "Yeah, punch him, Rabbi... oops, sorry. SO yes, greatest hit... now I am understanding that aspect as well.."
"Oh, so I see. They do look different from regular ghosts that I've seen, certainly, but they are symbols of death, or in this case, vengeance. I'm not saying that it isn't a dybbuk as well, but that's what I see when I use the Sight of Death, or Speak with the Dead or the like."
"That sounds like an uncomfortable situation to be in," Mei says with a wince. "I wouldn't have wanted to end a life then and there either. I don't know if it would have been an easy decision to make even if the targets that the dybbuk wanted to go after were innocents, and it would only be made harder knowing the kinds of targets that it has in mind. I understand why you're conflicted. Ultimately you're responsible for your actions, not for his, and you probably made the right decision, even if it isn't going to feel like it." When bodies start showing up, is what she doesn't add. They both know.
She sounds sympathetic, like she understands, and she definitely doesn't envy him the situation in the least. But the wan smile that she offers him suggest she would probably have made the same decision in that situation. Mei takes in a deep breath, lets it out, and then shakes her head. "I'm sorry you got put in that situation. I'm not sure if this kind of thing is normal for... the Bound?" she looks at Tommy, checking if she got the terminology correct, "or if they have some kind of organizational structure and people that we could talk to about the situation, to try to head things off at the pass diplomatically."
Aaron gives Bones a look at the laughter about the cop he laid out. He doesn't respond to it one way or another, he just chooses to move on.
"Oh, I know. I'm just saying If you want to convince the dybbuk it's not a dybbuk before we deal with it, you can be my guest. But it thinks it is, and when I say it is I can stop it. And I have to tell you, I am not speaking to that thing to explain the distinction. Or anything else for that matter." It's clear he didn't even try out of a sense of orthodoxy. He looks aside to Mei again, "Do you think if I were to gather up the information I have for you, you could help me get some more information on this man? On whose ring I have? On who is intended victims actually are?"
In this day and age, Nazi covers a lot of ideological ground. Because people on the internet are bad at semantics. (edited)
"Sorry... sorry..." he winced a bit, "That was just a good hit..."
A look between the pair, he just listened quietly now, thinking about what one might need to do to convince a Bound that it wasn't a Dybbuk.
"Yes," Mei answers with a small nod of her head. Straight forward as that. That kind of thing is what she does, after all, isn't it? "Did you happen to get names that you think are real, by any chance? I can certainly do some digging, regardless. A good description would help, too. Or video footage, if there happen to be security cameras at or around the are where you had this conversation. If you don't know for sure, I can go look around and see what I can turn up."
Rather than leaving Bones to guess about things Mei explains, "I'm a private detective by day, so to speak. Since before I Awakened. Well, there was a brief hiatus after I Awakened, for that matter, for complicated reasons that mostly involved felony charges, since you can't be both a felon and a PI, but that's all sorted out now."
"I... hrm... try not calling it a dybbuk, would be the first step."
"I can do you one better," Aaron assures Mei, reaching in his pocket for a sealed baggie. It contains a rather humble wedding band. "This belonged to Esther Shamir, may her memory be a blessing. She has no surviving descendants. He said 'the bastard who took this was going to give it to his great-grandson' which..." The math works. Unnervingly.
"With it, you should be able to track it back to the murder. The victim. Get the story. You know, Guardian stuff." Stuff both over his head and out of both his experiential, mystical, moral, and professional wheelhouse.
"I trust you with this the way I trust myself with this, Parhelion. But I sure as hell don't know what to do about this."
Bones is given a doubletake. "Wait. Why? It cuts its powers off, stopped it short. Couldn't do anything to me. I was thinking of getting it stitched onto a sweatband for my forehead, actually, and wearing it around town." Only half joking.
"...I am agnostic, by and large, but as a student of history, depending on the reason the person died... maybe they see themselves as a dybbuk, even if they, themselves, are a Geist or a Mane. So, yes, it might need something more, but they are still, in a way, an echo of who they once were."
"I don't know either," Mei admits as she reaches out to take the baggy with the ring. "But I can certainly try to get us some more information." She looks the ring over and then glances up at Aaron again. "I'm surprised that he let you hold onto this. I wonder why."
She holds the bag up. "Can I hang onto this for now? I'll be sure to keep it safe."
"He wanted me to know he'd already killed. He's not a well man. My hunch is that ring will lead to a pretty tidy murder, planned to have a lot tried to be learned about it. My hunch is this guy was a killer before they teamed up. Or at least unwell. I can't imagine anything just convincing me to start murdering people. Not without desperately seeking alternatives first, or accepting an offered way out."
"It's okay, some of my best friends are agnostics," Aaron says with a straight face and a sidelong look to Mei. Obrimos joke.
"Would you like, perhaps, a long term shielding against ghosts, just in case the next time you speak, it causes trouble for you?"
"I think that's possible, even likely, but I'm going to try not to go into this investigation with preconceived ideas, aside from the fact that it's potentially dangerous, and I should be prepared for a potentially dangerous person not being happy I'm poking around. So, you know... Tuesday," Mei responds as she tucks away the baggy with the ring.
"Bones, do you happen to know how I might be able to get in touch with one of these Bound to see if I can learn a little bit more about them? It sounds like you've talked to them before. I don't mean I'm going to interrogate them or anything, I just have very little information on them as a whole phenomenon, and I don't like being under-informed about this kind of thing when I'm poking around. If nothing else, it would be good to know how to avoid stepping on their toes in the process." She smiles. "I could just hang around Maddy's for a while and ask everyone who comes in who I don't know if that's what they are, but that seems rude."
The second the Disciple Talon passes along the ring to a Master tied to his soul with PI credentials, he lets out a breath he hadn't been aware he'd been holding. He considers Bones and suddenly wonders, "Will-- will my usual ephemeral shielding not work? I'm a disciple of Prime." He's not questioning. But he also didn't specify. "I'm grateful for the help if I need it, and the education if I do because I didn't think I did."
He then hangs back, watching Mei start her work with interest. Looking at her hands with the ring, back to her face. When he becomes he's aware he's doing it, he stops, looking back to Bones. Just tracking things as they happen.
"One of the Bound is Chef Erik Samuelson at Fork. We traded numbers... " he pulled out his phone and provided it to Mei, "...and I'll let him know that one of us may reach out to him."
"As for the shielding? It should, but this would help against their powers, like the attainment against Supernal Magics, and then also if they manifest against their physical presence... however it's entirely up to you. You may also wish to ask a Moros or other Master of Death, since they'll be able to fight against the will of the being better. .. but it's something."
"Thank you for offering, if that offer was extended to me as well, but I'll pass on the shield. I try to avoid wandering around with magical effects on myself that I don't control, for a variety of reasons ranging from not wanting to provide potential sympathies to someone else if I walk into dangerous situations, to knowing that I can readily put an effect out without having to resort to dispelling it, should the situation call for it." There seems to be no doubt in her that she could simply dispel the effect if she wanted to, but that kind of self-assurance... not unusual for Awakened, let alone Obrimos, and if she's a master of Prime or something, chances are it's not a huge challenge to get rid of most spells, when she puts her mind to it.
She pulls out her own phone and lets her fingers fly over the face of it as she inputs the offered phone number. "I appreciate the hookup here. I promise I'll try to avoid doing anything that will make you regret sharing it."
"Oh, right. Their numen or whatever. Rightright. Right. Yeah, I suppose this wouldn't stop that, then. Wo-- Well. You know, I know the thing's ban. So even if it tries to use its power on me, I know how to stop it. I think you'd be misapplying your resources on my account, Master, but I defer to you on that. I'm aware there are angles I probably don't see."
"Seers don't mess with me," Aaron says by way of agreement with Mei, "I'm way, way, way, way too unimporant to bother with." He lets out a sudden bark of 'you had to be there' Arrow laughter, then adjusts the strap of his guitar on his shoulder. "So what are you two doing for the day? Plans? Hannukah?"
"He expects a Mei to reach out, for a chef's table, so there's that."
"Oh. I have Christmas with mi Papi tonight, but I'm fairly open otherwise. Might go out after the dinner with him."
"It's shabbat, so my intention was to spend my day on studies and relaxation. I have some candles to light tonight, and all of that sort of thing," Mei offers an understanding smile, "but the rest of this business will probably wait until tomorrow. These kinds of things take long enough as it is that I don't think the day will make a big difference, and if I start breaking shabbat because there are potentially lives at sake for one of my investigations I'll end up back around to never observing it. Unfortunately."
"That was my gentle rabbinical way of pushing the topic away from work, you've got me, Mei." Aaron holds up his hands in a 'don't shoot' manner. "I don't know if you ever met Lux, Mei. My joyfriend. We've started spending more time together again. So I thought I might spend some time with them this afternoon." Aaron looks aside to Bones and squints a bit, "South Philly, right?"
"Transplanted, left for school, returned with Papi getting sick," he nodded to the question, "But yeah, I live in Old City now.
Mei nods her understanding and appreciation, and then she cracks a smile. "I do know Lux, though I haven't seen them in a good while. I hope they're doing well. I think very highly of them, since they turned out to be exactly the kind of person who makes sure a stranger who had more than a little bit too much to drink at karaoke night ends up getting home safely." That stranger being her, in this case.
There's a pause and she shakes her head. "That feels like a different lifetime, in so many ways. Even though a lot of things are the same. It's just that I'm not." She looks between the two other mages. "It's hard to stay away from this place, isn't it? I was born and raised here, but I lived in Hong Kong for a few years when my grandparents were getting old and ailing. I probably would have come back even if my parents hadn't."
"Hey. Do you mind me telling them you told me that story? It would make them feel good to hear it carried back to them by me." Aaron gives a grin at that, hopeful and certain of the question. People are wired different, and Aaron has no frame of reference for a life of travel experience and cultural diversity beyond what there is at the Italian Market. (Which is considerable.)
"My parents are still in town, here. You should meet 'em sometime, Mei. I think you'd get a kick. They're. You know." Aaron chuckles, his grin turning rueful and growing wide. "Parents." Another look to Bones, "I'm sorry about your father. Would it be okay if I said a prayer of healing and rest for your papi?"
"Yeah, it's been years, other than quick visits, or working with Cambyses or Epiphanius, since I lived here long term," a smile and a bob of the head.
"Please do," he said sincerely to the Rabbi, "Studies show that prayers and positive intent help. I think the Council of Free Assemblies would say that's a sign of the magic of sleepers at large. But yes, I would love for any prayers for him. It's been long enough that I think it'd be a huge risk of Paradox, Dissonance and Hubris to ask any Life Masters to do work on him, but I come as a faithful child, to tend to him. "
"No, I don't mind at all. It's not like they weren't there for it when it happened, and it was something that happened, so I'm not going to try to pretend it didn't," Mei answers without hesitating. "If it lets them know that they had a positive impact on someone else, I'll be glad to have it passed on that way."
She gives Bones and understanding smile. "This is one of those moments that makes my Legacy feel like a burden as much as a boon. I have the ability to heal so many injuries, illnesses, and various other maladies, and so often can't. It can be pretty frustrating to know that there are so many issues that I can simply solve, so much I can do to repair the world, but that doing the wrong things might actually make things worse. If you'd like me to take a look, though..."
"May I have the name of your father, and that of your father's father?" Aaron asks it of Bones again, suggesting it's needed for sake of completing the request. He nods aside to Mei, giving her a grateful smile at signing off on getting word back to Lux. "I appreciate it."
"Multiple Sclerosis and other nerver conditions," he said in reply to Mei, "SO if you can help that, I would certainly appreciate anything you can do to help him!"
And then spoke the names quietly to the Rabbi.
"That's a tricky one," Mei answers with a mild wince and a sympathetic tone. "I could probably cure it, but MS isn't something that people really recover from, as I understand. Remission enough to not have problems with symptoms is one thing, but getting rid of it entirely would almost certainly stand out and draw attention. The kind of attention that could mean doctors wanting to pointlessly poke and prod to figure out why it went away on its own all of a sudden, when the answer isn't something they'd be able to find."
She shrugs her shoulders slightly. "I imagine that an angel showing up, a bit of a light show, and a story of a miracle that most people aren't going to believe is true is probably not an alternative approach you'd be interested in, either."
The Rabbi doesn't look at all flustered or scandalized by the idea of Mei's angels visiting healing on sleepers. He just nods his head and shrugs his shoulders a little. It's then that he worries at his lips and looks down at his feet. He has to shut his eyes tight against a thought before he admits, "There are other options, too."
"He's a devout Spanish Catholic, so the angel thing isn't out of the realm of possibility," he mused, "I just was worried more about keeping things up and running, and avoiding Doctor scrutiny... but if it's a legacy's attainment, soul-crafted magic... then it isn't a risk mystically. I sure ain't a guardian. Many probably would dislike how open I am in general..." he mused, "few people give me stares when I shift from masc to femme to enby and back each different time they see me."
His eyes shift back over to Aaron, a brow piquing to ask what the thought was.
The thing about sacred fools is that they're allowed to do and say the things that other people can't do and say, and they do those things in order to accomplish the things that the systems in place won't allow for, but which are very necessary. The other thing is that they do these things not from scorn for the thing that they are fools for and about, but out of love for them. This, once you understand it, is one of the core truths of Fox.
It is also why Fox currently has her little grubby hand closed firmly around Vorpal's wrist when she pushes her way in through the doors to the Consilium Hall, where verified guests (like diplomats from other societies, yeah, that's the ticket, we'll hang our hats on that) are also welcome. It's why she, in her bare feet and shorts and tank top in the middle of this goddamned blistering cold, drags Vorpal across the room, making a beeline towards Mei, Bones, and Aaron. Her hand on Vorpal's wrist is tight, tugging the Elemental along after, and her expression is determined. The hand on the Changeling's wrist says a lot of things, but primarily it says yeah you could get away from this, you slippery little shadowy such-and-such, but you know you don't actually want to. When you spend most of your time as a fox, you learn to convey things non-verbally.
SHE is turning over the existence of a weird person who's killing people for ghosts as a conversation topic possibly potent enough to derail things if they don't go pleasantly))
"I'm no Guardian either," Mei observes. "But yes, since it would be a legacy attainment it wouldn't be likely to unravel from Sleepers looking closely. I was mostly joking about the angel thing, but that's also one of the attainments of my Legacy. Just one that's likely to draw even more attention, in some ways." She looks over when Fox comes in with friend in tow, and offers to the Thyrsus a bright smile and a little wiggle of her fingers to serve as a wave.
It's true. V could slip away. V could slip away in so many ways. Changelings are notoriously hard to pin down in the first place, Autumns doubly so, and Helldivers are essentially impossible to keep anyplace they don't want to be. So her very presence here on such a leash as "the grubby little Mage's hand" speaks worlds to the truth that here is a place she has decided to be. Or at least accepted she will be at.
For now.
Truth told, she can't shake the possibility that this might go south. Between the blood on her hands, her altered state of existence, and any number of mystic considerations she might not be aware of, "sorry, we're not gonna let you back into the club" still feels like a possibility even though that's not how Rabbis work even, you dolt. So she's already got conversational contingency plans in place.
Just in case.
Anyone that looks their way because of the admitted oddness of Fox leading this skinny, scarred person around by the wrist? The other hand lifts. "Good afternoon, Shabbat Shalom. Hi, Shabbat Shalom."
Her composure holds, but only externally. (edited)
"Oh! Here comes Fox, he'll know. Hey! Fox!" Aaron lifts a big beefy hand to wave a giant smiley greeting at the approaching Thyrsus. "That's my old mentor," Aaron explains to Bones who is not also in a cadre with Fox and in not in need of that clue in. He goes from being happy to see his old mentor to bemused by the fact they're hauling a stranger his way. He looks first to Mei, then to Bones, then back to Fox and Vorpal. Trying to figure out if anyone has any further context for what is happening in front of him.
"Oh, I'm. I'm sorry, Master. We just sang Kaddish. Have you lit candles? I can get a set out for you." Trying to make up for missing the Amidah with the Torah from Kol Tzedek. Recognizing a nervous Jew when he spots one, Aaron sizes up Vorpal for a moment. Searching for tells of her level of orthodox observance. He can't really offer his hand, but he can look to hers to make it clear he's willing. "Shabbat shalom. I'm Yis'rael. This is Parhelion and Bones." And he's not sure what's happening.
As he sat between Aaron and Mei, his gaze flickered over to see who and entered the hall. A grin was given to Fox with a wave. After a moment, Tommy's face split with a broad toothy smile, as he waved excitedly towards the Lost.
He grinned broadly, "Oh a surprise visit from Vorpal? Woohoo!"
He danced in his seat a little bit.
Oh. Religious stuff. Something to note for the future.
"Gut Shabbos, Rabbi," Fox greets, and while she's smiling, there's a certain steely determination underneath her holiday cheer (tm). "Gut Shabbos, Parhelion. Bones, Gut Shabbos." In some ways, Fox is terribly old-fashioned. She pulls up next to everyone's seats and literally pushes Vorpal in front of her. "Rabbi, this is Jackie Drexel. Jackie grew up Rosh-Hashanah-Yom-Kippur Jewish but then she had an encounter with some terrible extra-reality entities which did a little shenanigans with her life and now she is Lost but also Found and she has some Big Anxieties about being rejected by her community so she's been more scaredy about this conversation than she is about running face-first into the mouth of a Jabberwocky so please for the love of fuck say hello."
Oh, Fox.
If there is one thing that Mei is quite used to at this point, it's Fox's Foxy ways, so the spray of words that summarizes the situation doesn't even really strike her as unusual at this point, just something to be expected. Her reaction to it all is to give Jackie a friendly smile and say, in English instead of the Yiddish that had been dominating the conversation most of the time up to this point, "welcome. I think you'll find your anxieties to be unfounded here, but that's the trick about anxieties a lot of the time, isn't it? Just because the things we're anxious about aren't likely, it doesn't stop us from being anxious about them." A pause. "I'm Parhelion, but you can also just call me Mei."
There's no signs of orthodoxy! This was a very impromptu "goodness you dork come on I know where he is" escapade, so it's normal "out and about" Vorpal. Leather coat, Sigrun-brand blouse, heavy boots as good for kicking in doors as stomping through snow. Seeing Bones adds another layer to the entire mess. 'Not only do you have to go talk to Father O'Malley, but your crush Ashley's painting a mural in the hall outside his office' vibes all over, here.
There were words planned. Many of them, carefully planned, arranged into lovely knife-edged houses of cards with redundancies and backups in case of structural collapse and then AN FOX walked through the entire collection and dropped a slobbery, shivering fox kit on top of the mess. Sure, it's great and wonderful and it's important to take care of fox kits but golly, that's a mess and she flounders for a response, for all her composed exterior tries to cover for her.
"I think I'd- probably go in some other bit first, I'm. Not really much of a biter that's not the point. Ahhhhhh." MEI, you wonderful, lovely person, and looking from Aaron to Mei clicks a button in the back of her head and that button ALSO DIVERTS FROM THE DISCOMFORT.
"Wait a moment, I know you two, you were- significantly more beat up last time I saw you guys, though. Gut Shabbos, Mei; Gut Shabbos, Rabbi Yis'rael. Gut Shabbos, Bones." There. She did it. She said hello!
"Welcome to... uh." Aaron looks about himself, realizing he is not in his shul. "The Minyan!" He finally comes up with, a little desperate-joyously. Fox really needs to learn how to pick up a phone for the sake of this man's heart.
The Torah sits inside of its travel ark, all dressed in silver and blue. Its Magen and Crown all polished and bright in the flickering of the shabbos candles. Aaron ticks his head towards it, "If you'd like to make aliyah, I can make that happen for you. We closed the service, but I don't mind saying Amidah again."
He had the biggest anime heart eyes for Vorpal as he replied, "Gut Shabbos, Vorpal. Gut Shabbos, Little Fox."
The Mystagogue studied the conversation now, backing out as it was obviously a matter of faith and he didn't wish to interfere.
If Fox ever starts to announce her Escapades, the world will become a sadder place, let's be honest, so Aaron should be thankful that he's got Life and is unlikely, as a Perfected Adept, to die of a heart attack. She puts her hand at the small of Vorpal's back and holds it there. The truth of it all is that Vorpal could escape any time she wants to, could poof out of being or slip away the way that Lost get away from all bonds save cold iron, but there's something very Real about the Thyrsus' stubby-fingered little hand at the small of the Elemental's back. There's a glitter of her golden eyes as she peeks past Ms. Drexel, watching the trio. Once she's certain that Vorpal and the rabbi are Talking, however, she briefly attaches her teeth around Vorpal's shoulder, lightly gnaws on her leather-coat-clad shoulder, and then slips away, first leaning over to smooch the burlier of her former apprentices right on top of his kippah, patting his cheek like Bubbe. Then she capers away to drape herself against Mei, arms flung around her cadremate's shoulders, and lightly gnaws on the top of Mei's skull.
"Ah, yeah, I think you're right about that," Mei responds after a moment, when she puts pieces together. "It's been a while since I got in a fight with an entire squad of police officers at the same time, while hallucinating wildly. And I hadn't even been taking drugs." It's a sort of nonchalant acceptance of the things that have already happened that is very Mei.
gnaw gnaw gnaw gnaw and Mei just acts like that's normal.
Fox melting away to little gnawings and pattings and flumpings takes some of the strain out of everything.
Some.
It feels much like the natural progression of things, and a touch of the strange slips away from the arrangement. "You two did great, honestly, I enjoy a spar myself now and then and especially for the numbers. Well done." Sincere approval and appreciation for talent and effort, there. "I can see you two've moved on to far more exciting and wide-reaching fields, to be in the company of Masters Revontulet and Bones." She glances sideways to Fox. "I did say that right, didn't I? I never call you anything but Fox."
Then back. The invitation. She holds up a finger whose crook betrays her nerves far better than her smooth expression. "Ah- actually, the events Fox described, those were when I was... twelve.
Aaaaaabout seventy years ago.
AND I was a boy at the time, so I was still like a year and a half short of my bar mitzvah, so we'd be skipping some steps, I think, and I am a much more careful person these days and I'd really rather make completely sure those anxieties Mei so kindly assured me probably aren't important... aren't actually important."
"That's one of my babies," Fox interjects. "Former babies. I have lots. Lots of former apprentices. Y'israel has moved on to being amazing on his own." She leans against Mei happily. "It's okay, you can call me Fox. Master Revontulet is a very formal name for formal times."
He moved to stand beside/behind Vorpal and take her hand. Tommy kissed the knuckles and then just held them at his side, in order to support Vee.
"Do you read Hebrew?" Aaron asks, the first practical question. He's not arguing, he's just switching from trying to facilitate an Aliyah to trying to gather information about a bat mitzvah. "If not, we can start there while you learn your parsha. But I'm one of those obnoxious Reform Rabbis that will do a Bar Mitzvah out of the back of a Honda Civic in a CostCo Parking Lot if I hear of a Jew in need of it.
Aaron is learning so many things about people's interpersonal relationship from this act of service, he's starting to blush a little. "Maybe you'd like to light your own shabbos candles?" It won't hurt to have another pair in the hall, after all. Technically. (edited)
"For what it's worth, the bar or bat mizvah ceremony in and of itself isn't strictly required," Mei makes a note of. "It's more of a tradition than a requirement, but there's nothing wrong with the idea of going through with it after the fact if that's desired." She puts her arm around Fox and turns to plan a kiss on the side of the other woman's head. "I could think of times to call you Master Revontulet without it being formal," she says with a hint of innuendo, because sometimes Mei is incorrigible.
There's sort of a despairing look on Fox's face rather briefly when she purposefully moves away to make Vorpal stand on her own and then someone else takes up the spot, but she pushes the top of her face into the top of Mei's head, hiding her expression in her cadremate's hair. Her arms stay loosely flung around Mei's shoulders, and she quietly snickers into the sometimes-angel's hair, her face flushing briefly pink as she snickers quietly.
"Oh, goodness, surprise and astonishment, a Fox with lots of babies." It's all affection and vague familiarity with vulpine birth patterns. She smiles gently as her knuckles are lifted and kissed, and squeezes back. "Thank you, Bones. Um." A deep breath. "I am about to unload a lot of heavy stuff and I am not entirely certain I could handle you stepping away in the middle of it. Could I get a little space until I'm done? I'll want support after, and be very happy you're here for me, but - it will be easier if I'm on my own until I'm done?"
"Nnno, it isn't, but," she responds to Mei. But the truth is those fuckers stole that from her and she isn't yielding one fucking step more than she has to. "-yeah, exactly. It's very desired."
V's lips crinkle into a delighted little knife-edge at Mei's comment and Fox's dive into her hair.
"... um. Before I accept any of these incredibly kind offers, Rabbi, I- really. Need to make sure there isn't some. Issue. With what I've done or what I am and I know that has to sound really silly, what do I think you are, Catholic, but I am a lot more familiar with the way some things work and breaking some rules don't have any excuses built in for not knowing. Some it's on you to ask first to make sure you don't ruin everything on accident." (edited)
He nodded and between the look he caught on Fox's face, and Vorpal's request, decided to return to his chair, mentally chastising himself.
Aaron gestures to what Mei has to say of the b'nei mitvah ceremonies. He nods his agreement with that adding, "My next question was going to be if you understood the responsibility being asked of you in the mitzvot. And have you agreed to take on the responsibility of upholding them?"
When Vorpal offers up the story of what she's done, Aaron spends several moments scratching at his bushy cheek and rumbling with rabbinic ponderance. "So," he begins, "it's not for me to say." His zayde would be so proud. "But to me it seems that so long as you perform teshuvah, come to Yom Kippur, and commit to doing better and serving as an example of how live a Jewish life? That even if it were for me to say," he points a finger at Fox, "which it is not," back to Vorpal, "All I could say is ameyn." He shrugs his shoulders then wraps his arms about himself, gripping his elbows and letting out a ponderous sigh. It is a pickle.
Mei looks pretty content to have a Fox hiding her face against Mei's hair, but she listens to the conversation going on around her still, too. "It's no more for me to say," Mei points out after Aaron answers. "But I'll always be happy to listen to others talk about the things they've done, if they feel like they need to get things off their chests."
Aaron nods his head, then looks back to Vorpal. See, that'd be different. "That we coule do, Mei. That we could do."
"It is not," agrees Fox, quietly. "Everything is contextual. There are very few commandments which we are forbidden from disregarding when it comes to -- for example -- the saving of a life." She rests her head on top of Mei's, looking past Mei's hair (it's big because she keeps secrets in it) to Aaron and Vorpal. She smiles into Mei's hair when Aaron gestures at her.
"Incest, murder, forsaking HaShem," rattles off a few on the heels of Fox, like completing a thought and abandoning to someone else in the room to carry on.
"No, it's really just the first and the last," Fox answers Aaron wryly. "We can kill to save a life."
Aaron squints at Fox at that and see-saws a hand, and they could lose a day to that. But it's not the point.
V just. Blinks a few times. That was... very easy. Bones understood and gave her a little space. Everything is going beautifully well. Mei offers to listen, even, which is lovely, Aaron agreed, Fox speaks, and then Aaron tees up after
and
her
face
just
falls.
It's brief, but that gently placed mask cracks for a heartbeat as everything she was scared of slams down at once and Fox just sweeps it off the table with an afterthought.
So it's back to the blinking, and looking to Aaron for confirmation on that.
"It's not for me to say," Aaron says. Then pauses. Then sighs. Then says, "If you were to ask me, I would say that context matters. Yes. You can kill a man with a gun before he fires on a crowd. But I can't tear the organs out of an unwilling donor to save ten lives." Aaron sort of leeeeeans to the side to peer over at Fox at that, clearly not realizing the put he's stepped around, and then looks back to Vorpal with a shrug and a nod of the head. "And I don't call self-defense murder. I call self-defense a hobby of mine. I call murder murder."
"I think I should leave you four to discuss the intricacies. I shall see you all soon, I hope," a smile and a nod as he stood. The Obrimos left a few cards and headed out.
"I'm with Aaron with the idea that self defense, or defense of others, aren't murder. Heck, for all of its flaws the American legal system generally agrees with that too. With some variance based on things like the social class, race, and so on of the person performing the act of self defense, etc," Mei says, before trailing off and shrugging. "Not to get off onto a tangent. Sorry."
"Right, exactly, that's where I was going with that. Context does matter," Fox agrees lazily. She slides into Mei's lap, relaxing a little bit, and wiggles her fingers as Bones leaves. "Bye, friend!" Her head flops on Mei's shoulder comfortably.
Aaron lifts a hand to give a wave to Bones, "Thanks for dropping in. You're welcome any time." His focus returns to Vorpal, keep the majority of his focus on the one who needs it at the moment.
V turns and lifts a hand to smile back at Bones as he takes off, turning back as Mei "diverts."
"Um. No, no, that's- actually very topical, that was one of the very specific things I was worried about," Jackie states quietly. "A lot of what I do is getting into a lot of danger so that other people don't have to, and sometimes, those dangers involve people in the middle of trying to do mind-crushingly atrocious things to other people for their own benefit. I'm- I'm very good at doing that without killing people, actually, but sometimes that's just not an option, but I don't... think... I've ever had to do that to someone who wasn't actively trying to destroy my life or someone else's."
"Funny story, I was actually doing some of that last night- saw some ghosts hanging around a warehouse and found some drug runners inside, so I beat them up and tied'em up for the cops. But a guy showed up and I had to talk HIM out of killing one of them. Do you guys know any reverse ghostbusters? Like- people that kill people for ghosts so they can be avenged?"
Mei pauses to look at Aaron and raises a pointed eyebrow. "Do we know anybody like that?" she asks, in a significant way.
V adds, "Introduced himself in all seriousness as The Spirit Of Vengeance? I, uh. I've done the whole Noun of Concept thing before, I talked him down to Samson? Dunno if that helps?"
Fox goes quiet now, and her eyebrows rise up. She clambers up Mei's shoulder and halfway there is a little red... cardinal! Because sometimes you want to be a winter bird and sit on your girlfriend's head. There's no shimmer of magic, no ping to the Supernal senses. This is just Fox's soul, doing what her soul does.
"You met the dybbuk," Aaron says with obvious, obvious chagrin and no small amount of personal responsibility. "He's really going to keep on with this, isn't he." Aaron looks to Mei, since she has the ring, and frankly the skillset to speak on the situation better than he does. But he's there to fill in the blanks. To kick it off, though, he starts, "He came to visit me at Kol Tzedek on Thursday."
"It's something that I'm planning to look into," Mei says. "It seems likely that this is the same person, but at this point we don't know that for sure, and I try to avoid the trap of assuming things before there's certainty. But it's likely." She reaches into her inside jacket pocket and takes out a little baggy with sunflower seeds, then pours a couple into her palm and holds them up for the cardinal. Like this is just a normal thing. Although a lot of the time, those seeds probably go to pigeons.
"Ohhhhh. OH. Yeah! Yeah, I suppose I did. I asked if he had contact with any... what was the term I used, overarching societies? I didn't know if he's like. A Sleepwalker, or if he'd be closer to the vampires cuz they're... well, dead. Which apparently, he used to be too, he said? He was talking to one of the ghosts that tipped me off. Is he a Jew too?
That does explain the name Samson..."
She smiles to herself as Fox flits and is just.
A cardinal.
"Okay. Well, I can find him whenever you want and am happy to. He's doing what he thinks is good work, but if his verdict of "they might kill again" is reason enough.... uh, there's an obvious issue with that clause."
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