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Vincent was out and about, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt with a chibi raven on it. Currently was sitting in the park and feeding pigeons, throwing seeds and had a lil box of insects he's been saving for such an occasion.
"Hope you folxs like it, been collecting them all week." he chuckled to the birds
It would be simple if a fox appeared. Fox, however, is not simple.
A massive horned owl swoops silently over the park once, twice, three times. The shadow darkens the park three times and is gone.
The air itself stirs more vividly, and a little dust devil spins into being, then dissipates, just up the path, and then somehow seems to resolve into a little grey bird about the size of a teacup, which flutters to a branch across from Vincent, there alighting.
Vincent looks up at the owl, eyes actually show fear after recalling his encounter with the Strix all those months ago, a sigh of relief escapes him when it's gone but then the air shifts and finally the bird, Vincent for his part nods at it, unsure if animal or supernatural, or a supernatural animal. He simply gestures to the seeds and insects.
"My I offer you a snack in these trying times?" he shrugs
In response, he gets a series of scribbly-sounding chirps, sort of the songbird equivalent of jazz, wandering all over the place. Then it wanders into a reeeeeoooooreeeeoooo that gradually becomes less of a birdsong and more of the siren it's imitating.
The grey puffball fluffs itself out and then caws like a crow before cooing as pigeons do, hissing and popping in a way that sounds like a car door closing, and then a low rattling sound in its throat like a helicopter swooping low.
It flutters down to the ground from its perch and sings next the classic Nokia ringtone twice. Just random little city sounds. Mockingbirds are incredible mimics.
"Oki, so you're a special friend, hi." he smiled at the amazing mimic bird, "I swear, I can't go a block without running into something. . .out of the orid-no, it is ordinary at this point." he talks to himself as he throws more seeds and insects on the ground, "Please, join the feast if this is what you eat, if not I have some of this," he motions to a Pretzle Factory bag next to him, "Have like, four in here, two are for my partners so if you eat this stuff, you can have one. . .hell I don't need it, have two."
It hop hop hop gently and then pauses for a second, its little beady eyes half-lidding before the form unfolds upwards and outwards until it's Fox, grubby as always, wearing a threadbare tank top which hangs loosely around her tattooed torso and a pair of cut-off jean shorts. Apparently Vinny said the magic word, and it's food. Specifically, pretzel.
"What kind of pretzels?" she asks, flashing him a smile made of those tiny fox teeth.
He blinked at the transformation but giggled at the fact its a familiar face, turning to reach into the bag.
"Soft pretzels got them about ten or so minutes ago, so they should still be pretty fresh, I also got some cheese whiz dip." He took out a pretzel and held out his arm to hand it to her, also taking out a tiny container of cheese whiz, "Good to see you again, how goes?"
She wrinkles up her nose thoughtfully as if considering. "Well, it's not Auntie Anne's cinnamon and sugar with butter," Fox allows, but her hands come out fast as a snake striking, and the pretzel and cheese whiz dip are gone from Vinny's hands.
It takes a moment for her to answer, because she's stuffing her mouth with a bite of pretzel, torn off by those little sharp teeth. "Today I am thinking about lacunae," she answers, "and the unknowableness of truth."
"What does the City tell you today?"
"I love Auntie Anne's, personal fav," he remarked before looking to the sky, "Just small things, she's crying from the Phillies losing, but I'm endeavoring on finding something in Her name." he smiled, a bit proud of himself, "What's a lacunae?"
She pauses in thought. "Why do you think she cares about the Phillies losing?" This is followed by another bite of the pretzel. Fox does everything she does with great gusto, and eating the pretzel is no different.
"Do you know what a lagoon is?" Fox asks.
he thinks on it, "Pride, like, if the Phillies are the city team, then they represent Her, they bring the people together in some form a unity, hell, riots are done over sports, our sports teams are a major part of our identity here." he mused, "Yeah, a lagoon is like, a lake, right?" (edited)
Another sharp-toothed tear of pretzel and cheese post-dipping. "Hmm. Maybe. Do you think she really cares about the sports themselves, or just how they affect the people within the city?"
Fox folds her legs criss-cross style and props her elbows on her knees. "Kind of. It's like... " She pauses thoughtfully, and then sets down the pretzel on her lap, the cup on the concrete by her knee. Her fingers curl in front of herself as she folds and unfolds the energies around herself with yantras dedicated to Forces and the more subtle Arcana of Mind -- not that Vinny can tell the difference, mind, but it's obvious that she's doing something magical. "There. Now we can talk." Picking up her pretzel, she bites off another chunk of it after carefully dipping it in the cheese. "Mmm, not bad."
"A lagoon is like... usually it's right by the edge of the ocean, but it's separated from the ocean entirely, right, sometimes by a very thin sandbar. Almost, but not quite, part of the ocean."
"I think it's the people that are more important, people make a city, not sports," he nodded before listening to her, "So, it's something in between, like a middle ground?" then blinks, "Wait. is...is there a spirit world?" he blinked then wide eyed in some wonder, "Like, with elementals and all that kind of stuff?" (edited)
"I think that's probably the case, too. I don't think that cities themselves probably understand half of the things we get up to." She scratches her cheek, adding, "Mind you, I'm married to a city. Well. I don't know. What counts as a city for you? Probably I'm married to an urban settlement, or a town, in your estimation." There are only like three more bites.
Fox gives Vinny a puzzled sort of glance. "Well, there is now. There wasn't always."
"I like to think they view us like. . .how a loving Mother views her children," he smiled looking around and then a blink, "You're married to a city, that sounds like a story," he chuckled, "So, by my count, I would have to say, at least 10,000 to be a proper city." he nodded, "What happened that changed it?" (edited)
"Then I am married to a town," laughs Fox brightly. She finishes the pretzel, taking the last bite of it and very carefully wiping out every last bit of cheese sauce, a task which a Matter Master can do with amazing efficiency -- there isn't one molecule of cheese sauce left in that little tub -- and then she chews that bite down before licking the inside of the disposable mini-ramekin's lid, once again not leaving one bit of cheese sauce behind. Spotless.
"It is a story. Do you know Lesja?" She stretches her arms up above her head. "Oh, we're not sure. But something did, somewhere around seven thousand years ago. One of many lacunas I am thinking about."
"I don't recall meeting someone by that name, so the lacunas's, what are the exactly?" he asked, taking out another pretzle, in case she wanted another, "Like. . ..spots between this world and the other, oh, like hauntings?"
"You might know her by Vasya, if you know her at all. She's had many names. Myrne, Vasya, Vasha, My Heart... " her voice trails off, and Fox sighs happily, looking off into near space before the appearance of a second pretzel brings her gold eyes snapping back to focus. "Is there more cheese?"
he pulls out another lil thing of cheese, a small smile, "She sounds like an amazing woman, great to have someone like that, I sometimes trail off about my own partners." he handed her the cheese cup, "So. . .spirits, what are they like?"
In twilight, something akin to the amazing-for-the-time cgi owl from the start of Labyrinth comes a-circling. The data streaming over its corpus is a useful tell, as is the screaming face of war that resides where an owl's face should be. It materializes out of twilight, causing the branch to bend slightly with the added weight. Now, it just looks like an owl. Mostly. The eyes stare out of the dark like green-yellow-blue flashlights.
Sorry, Vinny, you're not getting an answer for a hot minute, because Fox's attention is pulled by something that -- at first -- he can't see. Her attention snaps to an empty spot, the way that cats and dogs sometimes do, and she stares, her sharp toothed grin getting bigger and bigger as the owl-thing materializes on a branch. Then she's up off the ground, her body folding up into a nightingale which flutters up towards Lesja. The pewter-colored bird flaps up to land on the branch next to the owl, happily twittering and snuggling up to the owl. From the bird's throat comes something that sounds like a cartoon wolf, "Rrrowowow," because nightingales are amazing mimics.
All of this before the pretzel hits the ground and stops moving.
Don't worry. She'll still eat it.
he blinked at the sudden appearance of the owl, maybe he could hold off a Strix with Fox but then...either Fox is really one of those evil mages and is in league with the Strix, or that's not a Strix, huh, Vinny needs to get over this fear of owls, Snowy is nice at least.
But after thinking of it logically, he just chuckled and sat up, walking over the tree and looking up at the birds, "And who do we have here, another new friend?" he said with a raised brow, "Hi, I'm Vincent, friends call me Vinny." he gave a salute (edited)
Vinnie receives a text. From a weather monitoring station in Odessa Oblast, Ukraine?
"привіт вінсент. я тато."
Hello, Vincent. I'm dad.
The next text arrives a short bit later.
"I am here because of a high probability of this being a moment in time where my presence would help prevent future calamity. What were you just talking about?" Well. That's a very forward and presumptuous weather station. Owl. Person. City. Thing.
She can't read the text, and so just snuggles up to the owl like this is a totally normal thing. The pigeons on the ground start inspecting the soft pretzel that Fox dropped, which she doesn't even seem to notice. Nothing really matters to her more than Lesja's presence, and the little mockingbird chirrups, "Hello, hello, pretty bird," and starts preening the owl.
Vincent looked at the owl, then back to the text, and decided to experiment and texted back
"Hi Dad, we talking terminators or Cthulu, there's a lot of calamities in the world, I was asking Fox here about the spirit world and spirits, ya know, normal things to be curious about."
Then Vincent eyes the soft pretzel and picks it up, "Fox, pretzels for Pigeon's, ya or nay?" he said, not wanting to feed them something they shouldn't have just in case (edited)
Lesja the owl turns its swivel head about and beak-bonks the magpie with its beak. Clack. There's a little beak nip, too, which probably reads as terribly aggressive to onlookers. But nah. The owl likes the other bird so much, it has to bite it. It's like that.
There's a distinct ripple of magic as Lesja confirms some preliminaries, then she's seated on the branch in human form. There's a rifle on her lap, but she's dressed in farm clothes. She throws a rack of braids over her shoulder and states, "Well. Why I think I'm here is okay. You can answer his questions and it won't cause any issues. If anything, I'm here to talk you into it."
She shrugs her shoulders. "Let my apostasy be made complete, I guess." Then she's advising the magpie, "Tell this one about the spirit world. It will help."
The mockingbird ruffles itself happily when it's nibbled, and then she unfolds from the inside, balancing on the branch next to Lesja as casually as if she belongs there. "Oh, we were talking about the world, sort of, a little bit. But I was thinking about how time comes apart, which is how we got there," Fox says lazily. "This is Vincent, and he's a vampire," she explains to Lesja. "He worships the City, it's part of his... thing. Of who he is."
"The pigeons can have the pretzel," she agrees. "If they get real food all the time, and you brought them some insects, they can have an little pretzel as a treat." She leans her head on Lesja's shoulder for a minute and ducks the rack of flung braids before biting at the Ukrainian's shoulder casually. Chomp chomp. "He feeds insects and seeds to pigeons," Fox repeats-slash-clarifies to Lesja, "because I explained, and pigeons belong to the city." This seems to be something that should mean something to Lesja, the way she says it.
he nodded and put down the Pretzel, letting the Pigeon have at it.
"Yeah, I'm new to all this and it's been a. . .very rocky and sudden shift, I've made some fuck ups but done some things right, now, I'm just trying to better myself with knowledge, and. ..well, I have an idea that I need to research spirit's for." he shrugged, "But yes, Vincent Drake, proud and noble Scion of the First City," he gave a little bow, "and while it was not on my list of things to think about when I was turned, I've come to more and more see myself as a. . .steward of Philadelphia." he smiled to himself at that line.
"So, what I'm thinking. . .I need to know how spirit's work if what I'm thinking might be possible, so research is in order." (edited)
"Okay. So. I make you deal. I no bullshit you, you no bullshit me. I'm a Slav. Bow east of the Dneipro and they kick you in face." She swings a booted foot from her branch.
"Have you ever gotten a microphone too close to the speaker it's wired into? What happens? Feedback. The speaker is human psyche. The microphone is the spirit. Keep distance right, keep levels right? Is music. Sweet music. Music everywhere! Levels go off, too much treble, too much reverb, suddenly everyone is gripping their skulls and wondering why the rolling stones are trying to kill them. Is no fun, right? So. You must become ... a spiritual... eh. Roadie. Know the instruments, the songs, the theory, the artists, all their little oddities to keep the sound tight and harmonious. Do it well, nobody knows you're even doing it." She ticks a head towards Fox, "You should ask this one about rats." As though it were apropos of the topic.
She mouths the words thoughtfully, while listening to Lesja talk. Every so often she leans to nibble on Lesja's shoulder thoughtfully. "First City?" Fox asks, her eyes narrowing. It's the verbal equivalent of her dashing out of the underbrush and biting at Vinny's ankles while he's distracted.
Vincent nods at Lesja's explanation
"That. . .yeah, that makes a lot of sense, but I need to find good material ya know, there are tons of faux occult books out there, need to find true material. . .one of my partners does have knowledge of this stuff, so I'm hoping to consult her." he smiled, then Fox gave the verbal bites and he turned to her with a shrug, "Yeah, that's my Bloodline, like your Legacies, The Scions of the First City, from what I understand we trace our blood back to the first city erected by man, not sure where or what it was called, but we have a connection to our home's that one would call intimate. . .you know what the First City was?" he asked, then sighed, "If it's something that offends you, I'm sorry, but I had no control on what Blood I was brought into."
"Apocryphal. Some say Atlantis. Some Rome. Usually serves as the vessel for someone's ideology. Put it in the first city. Call it tradition. Call those who disagree heretics. Kill the ones that fight back where the ones that won't cam see them die. I say this as a former servant of one such ideal. So don't think I judge you too harshly."
"I've come to feel large cities were a mistake. Generally. Nothing they achieve could not have been achieved through other means. It's just city builders don't let people do that, as a rule." Lesja settles a hand onto Fox's knee, slouching in place as though squatting in mid air. "You need a way to speak to spirits and to see them. A way to bargain with them and pay them. And a way to punish the ones who break their deals. That's all you need to meddle with the spirit world. Beyond that, it's... art. Spinning plates."
"Where do you put 8 billion people, if not in cities?" asks Fox lazily, putting both of her palms on Lesja's shoulder and propping her chin on the Acanthus' shoulder. The adoration is open and endless; she doesn't seem to mind that Vinny's witnessing her golden-eyed staring at the lanky Ukranian.
"Scions of the First City." She tries the words out as if tasting them, her sharp little teeth biting into the syllables. "I don't think it matters what the First City was, or that there's any particular way that there's a single first city unless you think that humans only developed in one place, or if you know that time has been subject to fuckery by absolutely everyone. Plus there are spirits who act like gods and who's to say they don't act as them, and so on."
A little flicker of her gaze down to Vinny. "Why would it offend me?"
he nodded at Lesja's words, clearly disagreeing with 'large cities where a mistake', but hey, he's not here to debate that and nodded at their words.
"I don't know, I'm not a archaeologist, maybe it's the literal first settlement, maybe it was just an early city that was a little too proud of itself, all I know is somewhere, sometime way back, some Vampire got a little too connected with it's home city and eventually, it led down to me." he then blinked at Foxes question, "I don't know, I don't know ya that well so I'm not sure what would offend ya?" he mused, then turned back to Lesja, "So, is magic the only way or is their a way a vampire like me can make contact?"
"I don't know the answer to that question," Lesja admits, "though my hunch is that the knowledge would be fairly precious. Your Ordo Dracul studies things. As I remember it, in any case. You might learn something there. It's where I would start if I had no better leads."
"I like that you're thinking past asking us to facilitate for you. Do you know about spirit loci?"
"Stop making so many humans and they'll stop being billions and billions eventually. Never going to happen, of course."
"No," Fox answers Lesja lazily. "At this point, the only way that there will stop being billions and billions of people is either eugenics enforced through fascism or tragedy on a level which will cause a civilization collapse. Population contractions tend to be really hard on the populations in question and can cause civilization collapses. Look at what's happening in Japan. You have a rapidly-aging population and not enough young people to provide care. Ditto China. We're about to have the same problem in the United States, too." She swings her feet absently under the branch. "Like, theoretically, sure, but in reality, unfortunately, it doesn't work that way."
"We've been through a population collapse before, thousands and thousands of years ago, but I don't know if we'd survive another one." She leans up and kisses Lesja's cheek.
"Here's a better question. Why do you want to talk to spirits? Just so you can know your city better?" A sleek brown rat climbs up Fox's shoulder and sits on her head. Is... is it wearing a backpack? And a little red vest?
Vincent didn't have anything to add to the population talk, but Fox's question did get him to blink
"Well, it's kinda a lot of little things, I was always kind of into ghosts and spirits as a kid, always thought it was a nice little fiction, now I learn it's real, but now that I learn more and more of this side, the more I'm realizing there's alot of factors I don't know about and I want to know, I want to be aware. . .and then there's a personal thing, my partner. . .has a problem regarding something and she'd handling it, she has a plan and the resources, but I still want to at least be useful to her and then there's the big one, if spirit's are reflection of here. . .then there should be a City Spirit, right, a Spirit that's a manifestation of Philadelphia," and at those words, he smiles widely, "and that, my friends, is what I'm truly interested in, I have a little project I'm working on, and a City Spirit, that would be the icing on the cake."
"I submit that theoretically is possible in our line of work and 'in reality' is part of the problem. But you're right. In practice, that's what it always turns into. Who is worthy of birth, and by extension, life." Lesja and Fox make for excellent dinner conversation, it seems.
"I've never seen a spirit of Philadelphia. But it's probably monstrously powerful, should it exist. View us as bugs, most likely. Well. You, anyway. Might give me a sidelong glance." She looks to Fox, "You?"
"I mean, yes, exactly. All of those things. It becomes sort of a -- mmm. Thing where we end up acting like the people we're not supposed to be like if we try." And then Vinny starts talking.
Her eyebrows go up very very slowly, and by the end of it, Fox is chewing on her lower lip with her sharp little teeth. "Yeah, so. There's a lot to unpack there. You're asking me how to essentially contact something just shy of a God and you're not giving me very much information on... why, or how. Your partner has a problem regarding something? And you have a little project, which is probably not a little project, and like, you're a baby vampire by your own admission, so, like, exactly how over your head are you, and... "
"As they say on Wikipedia, more information needed, citation needed."
He chuckled, "That's been a problem of mine," he mused to himself, "To be concise, my partner has a demon problem and I am doing nothing of it, now, had a little. . .spaz attack about it, but it's her problem, her plan and resources, if she tells me I have a part to play, she'll tell me and I'll do it for her, so until she says so, I'm not directing any planning to it, not anymore." he nodded
"As for the project, I'm looking for the location of the first settlement within the city limits, when I mean first I mean the first native village, I plan to build a shrine and if large enough, maybe a temple even, the purpose the worship the City and I want to know it can hear my prayers," he smiled, "Like ya said, shy of a God and I wish to be it's High Priest." he gave a bright smile, "Like you said Fox, my kind worship the City, that's the plan." (edited)
"Oh. Well. I don't know anything about demons," offers Fox airily, though her tone of voice might make a lie out of that. "Spaz isn't a nice word though."
She wrinkles up her forehead thoughtfully. "Hm." A pause, and then she whistles. "Your Majesty," which is funny if you know Agoston means majestic, "c'mere."
Hopping off of the branch, she folds herself into a fluttery bat shape and then unfolds herself into a human again on the ground. As she does so, a Husky which hadn't been there before is now there, next to her. "Agoston was looking after my sister." A beat. "He's been around since ... " a little wave of one hand. "So you can ask him."
Lesja chooses to swing out of the tree like a relatively normal person. Relatively, because she's in exquisite shape and phenomenally gifted acrobatically. So she sticks a landing of about fifteen feet without much ado, rolling to her feet next to Fox. She nods her agreement on the 'spaz' word. "Jamie Tartt would say that word is poopeh." Her Ukrainian accent trying to fake an English accent should get her barred from the EU.
"Oh, yes. Good idea. Ask this dog." She nods her apparent total agreement. "You know, there was a time I would have thrown hand grenades at this very situation? Plus ca change."
"Sorry," Vincent said about the word, then he saw the dog appear and looked to the two in a 'ok?' look, kneeling down in front of the dog so he can talk face to face with the creature. the words that came out of his mouth where dog noises, as if he where a dog
"Hi, I'm Vinny, I'm looking for the first settlement ever erected where the City now stands, like, the first place the natives made a permenant dwelling, I'm told you can point me in the right direction?"
"Yes, which is why I didn't tell you about a lot of the deals I did, and you forgot about a lot of them when you heard about them," Fox answers Lesja over her shoulder, but her smile is no less adoring for that. "Because I am a truly shitty liar."
She rests her hand on top of Agoston's head, and the Husky -- a truly magnificent specimen of the breed if ever there were one -- tips his head to one side, and then to the other, his ears swiveling like giant satellite dishes. "It has been a long time," he says, smashing his head into Fox's hand. Give pets. "The city has changed a lot. I can only say it was near the river, further south."
"Yes, which is why I didn't tell you about a lot of the deals I did, and you forgot about a lot of them when you heard about them," Fox answers Lesja over her shoulder, but her smile is no less adoring for that. "Because I am a truly shitty liar." She rests her hand on top of Agoston's head, and the Husky -- a truly magnificent specimen of the breed if ever there were one -- tips his head to one side, and then to the other, his ears swiveling like giant satellite dishes. "It has been a long time," he says, smashing his head into Fox's hand. Give pets. "The city has changed a lot. I can only say it was near the river, further south."
"Further South, ok, that narrows it down, really helps," he smiled then looked to the two mages "So...I have a question that may be above by paygrade, but you know what, this is my City, it's my home and now I'm trying to dedicate myself to it's service, meaning that people who hurt it are on my shit list....what can you tell me about Seers?" he asked, "I can't do anything, I'm a nobody and their a conspiracy of evil wizards I gather, no way I can fight them with my meagre powerbase...but it's still something I want to at least try and help with."
She clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, then, and Agoston nudges her hand again for pets. "That's a super broad question," Fox replies, "and maybe better than performing an infodump that might make the part of my wife that remembers her former occupation implode, it might be better for you to like... just... get more involved directly in working against them. I could give you a bunch of useless information, but."
"What I can say is that ... " she pauses. "I think the most important thing to remember about them is that they don't think they're evil."
"Does anyone actually think their evil." he mused, "What can I do though, at like my level, how can I help, no matter how small it may seem."
"Yes," Fox answers simply, scratching behind Agoston's ear. "Well, there are times when people get called to go and do stuff. Showing up there is good. Keeping an eye on the Mark Twos, not letting them go unchecked. And... if you see something that you think looks like ... well. Like a wizard did it, bring it to us, and we won't cut you out of what's going on."
"Robo cops are dangerous for my line of work, so yes, I would run into them eventually, hence why I'm curious what I can do to help, if i see anything that reeks of evil wizards, I'll tell you...if I tell a pigeon, will they be able ot get it back to you?"
She smiles a little bit, her forehead wrinkling up softly. "Possibly. There are a lot of them," Fox laughs. "But you can text me."
"Huh, I should have expected that but, I don't know, shapeshifting fox woman, kinda wanted something like 'whisper to the wind and I shall know' or 'pigeons shall inform me'," he chuckled, "Speaking of which...I'm thinking of hiring some pigeons, I'll pay them quality bread and such in exchange for information, just reporting things they see that I can make use of or would find interesting, you think they would be interested in such a deal?"
"Look, I probably will find out if you tell the pigeons, but if you want a quicker response, texting me is probably best, because I receive my text messages regardless of shape." Fox taps the side of her head with one grubby forefinger. "Usually, anyway. Sometimes I'm in a hurry and forget my daily spells." A lazy yawn, and then her brow furrows deeply. "No, no bread. Bread is terrible for pigeons. We talked about this."
"Sorry, sorry, forgot for a second, not bread, quality grain, bugs, and berries, that sound like acceptable payment for a pigeon info network?" he said, "I mean no harm against pigeons, hell I've been building some of those stations you mentioned...if you don't mind me asking, why do you care so much for them?"
Her head tilts a little to the side the other way, and her brow furrows again.
"Somebody has to, kid."
Her body folds into itself like some sort of molecular origami done by unseen hands, and a nightjar flutters off into the sky, and is gone.
he blinks and gives a salute to where Fox once was, "It's always nice to see someone stand up for the little guy." he says as he looks at the Pigeons and goes back to feeding them assorted grains and bugs, "So, let's talk employee contracts." he says to the birds
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