Treading Water

[Administrator] Ashley McGowen, welcome to Chinatown (Southside) (Now)

[Administrator] Callista Alexander, welcome to Chinatown (Southside) (Now)

[Ashley McGowen] When people list off places to find a Hermetic, they think of libraries and bookstores and college campuses and perhaps, if they're being generous, art galleries or opera halls. Ashley visits plenty of those places. She also has a fondness for being outdoors, and the weather is warm enough (and windy enough) to really count as spring, now.

The Ping Tom park is quiet, and most people who come here do so to meditate or to sit quietly. Ashley had a conversation with Daiyu once about how she got bored just sitting, trying to clear her thoughts out. It was one of the things that so exasperated her father when he was attempting to train her into the Brotherhood. She finds herself incapable of sitting there, doing nothing.

What she is not incapable of doing is sitting there and writing. She's found a stone bench and is, at present, lying on her back with a leatherbound journal open on her chest. She lifts it up now and again to scribble into it, then lowers it again as she tries to search her thoughts, as her eyes wander about. The wind runs its fingers through her hair and leaves it in disarray, in tangled tufts that obscure the upper left side of her face. Nearby there's a cluster of crocuses fighting their way to the sun.

Ashley is Hunger. It's harder to tell these days, because the air about her that used to make Sleepers look askance is muted, now, but there's still something about her - her blue eyes are a little too large and intent, her canvas jacket hangs just a little too loose about her narrow frame. People reach into their pockets for gum when they walk past, their eyes travel to people nearby and linger. Even muted, sometimes, it's hard to mistake her for anything other than what she is. She, unapologetically, can't be anything other than what she is.

She's so used to it she doesn't notice. The book lifts, the pen scratches for a few seconds, the book lowers. It's like watching a pail slowly be filled with water until it tips, clicks, only to right itself and be filled again.

[Callista Alexander] ((Per+Awareness. What could go wrong..?))4
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 5, 6, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Ashley McGowen] [Oh, oh, me too!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Callista Alexander] Quiet meditation. Certainly something Callista practices, when she can. The chance to sit and just be, to not on anything in particular and just feel the world going on around her, brings calm and peace. With more and more practice, she's able to calm her mind so that it fades into background noise. No longer distracting her awareness away from other minds nearby. Practicing the basics she managed to pick up before returning from... well, from elsewhere.

But not now. Now she's certainly not in a state of tranquility. Instead, her curiosity is driving her, her need for find things out, to uncover movements beneath the surface of the city. To track down this damned Sending. That's what brings her to - and, if there's no interruption, through - the park today. A vague feeling of Searching annouces Callista's entry into the park. It's vague, weak, but definitely there. Maybe someone quickly checks their pockets to make sure that their keys are still there, or remembers a long-lost friend they could get in contact with. Subtle effects.

But there is an interruption. A feeling brushing against her mind, another resonance nearby. It's not one she's felt before. There's a recollection of Consumption, but this feels different. Consumption under control, mere Hunger. Hunger for what, she's not sure yet.

She slows, looking around the park for where this feeling's coming from. Her gaze is drawn to a small woman lying on a bench.

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley and Tom have never really remarked to each other on their similarities, but each knows it's there. They feed off of each other - only what they offer only makes the other want more. Chances are that if Tom were a little older and more experienced, more on Ashley's level, or if she were still the sort of youth she was once, they'd be powerful and terrifying. This kind of hunger isn't a thing that generally puts other people at ease.

Ashley knows that though, and she's hardly the sort to sit and bemoan it.

Callista's resonance isn't one she's familiar with either. There was a time when Ashley knew everyone that came in and out of this city, when she made it her business to know. She's pulled away from that, somewhat - a lack of time, and her desires have shifted elsewhere. Appetites can be fickle things. She lifts her head, partially raising herself on her elbows, and...well, she searches.

Ashley isn't always the most sensitive toward other people when it comes to gauging their emotions, but she does notice shifts in her environment. It doesn't take long at all before her eyes find Callista. (She thinks she's seen her before, somewhere. Where was...?) And rather than calling across the park to her, she simply closes her notebook and lifts her hand in greeting. If she's wary, her face at least doesn't seem to register it.

[Callista Alexander] As the universe continues along its cycle - birth, life, death, rebirth - it gently steers events towards a final goal. The goal of perfection. Probability is one of the tools it uses to nudge people together, to bring about minor waves that eventually all crash together in major happenings. So it is, again, complete luck (fate?) that brings the two women together in the same place. Plans to meet up already being put together, but it seems that sooner is preferable to the universe than later.

Callista's eyes meet across the park, a spark of recognition of what the other is. Life goes on around them - others in the park going about their quiet business, outside the park the frantic energy of millions of people crowded together buzzes and feeds off itself. Ashley raises a hand, offers a wary greeting. Callista nods a greeting back, altering her path towards Ashley. Diverted from her search for the moment, the pace of her footsteps slows to a calmer tempo. More in fitting with their surrounding. As she gets close enough for a quiet conversation to be held - partly for their privacy, partly to avoid disturbing others in the park - she greets the Ashley again.

"Hi. We haven't met, but I have this feeling that we have a few things in common." The obvious, of course. The awareness that there's more to life that most people thing. But will there be more in common than that? Time will tell. She stands for the moment, waiting to see if the woman is open to company or wants to stay alone.

[Ashley McGowen] There've been a few new faces in town lately. Of course, they've either wanted her dead or they've tried to send her off on some quest, so maybe Ashley isn't expecting the park to stay quiet for all that long. Callista has yet to make smug remarks about a waitress spilling beer on an associate of hers, though, which at least doesn't score her any negative points.

When Callista gets close enough to speak, Ashley studies her in silence for less than a second, a beat. Trying to remember where she's seen her before, maybe (it's possible that Callista is used to this.) Ashley's own features don't seem to stick in memory, as though she's pulling in whatever impressions she gives off and locking them away from the world. Some magi have this ability, though perhaps it's magic or simply coincidence.

"Probably," she agrees. Then, after another beat of the heart, pulse of the blood, has passed, she extends a small hand toward Callista, warm in spite of the persistent spring chill. "I'm Ashley. Order of Hermes bani Tytalus." Offering a Tradition forth is probably ill advised; she doesn't seem to care.

[Callista Alexander] In the scant few weeks since she moved to the city, she's already had her share of strange events. Wet trousers, however isn't one of them - her's or someone else's. She's met a few of the local Awakened now - Frantic Molly, lustful Jarod, playful Lara, tranquil Israel. There may be the occasional fragment of memory around a guy with a cigarette and strange way of talking, but those are fleeting memories at best. So the slate, with Ashley, should be relatively clean. She may be aware of Callista's precence through Jarod - who had exchanged their phone numbers - or through various news segments on one of the smaller channels in the city.

But, for Callista, there's only the name and the voice. With only a few words in a voicemail to go on, it's not a familiar voice to her. The name, however, is more memorable.

Callista takes Ashley's hand, returning the shake. The grip is firm but certainly no knuckle-crusher, her hands slightly cool from the wind. "Callista. Do you know someone called Jarod, by any chance? He was trying to introduce me to someone in the city called Ashley. Would you be her?"

[Ashley McGowen] Callista, she says, and there's recognition in the glance Ashley gives her. It's a little pleased; occasionally she's run into someone who she planned to speak with anyway. Israel has always called them convergences, and most of Chicago's Awakened population has learned to be wary of them - large gatherings of them generally mean trouble - but sometimes, they're beneficial.

"Jarod and I are friends," Ashley says. "He mentioned your name. I'd been meaning to call you, actually." Her tone carries no apology for not having done so yet; not so long ago it would have been, in fact, her job to meet Callista. It isn't anymore. She does what she wants when she wants to do it, and she's still basking in that found-again freedom.

Ashley doesn't expressly tell Callista that she can feel free to sit, but she's left enough space open for her on the bench, should she desire to. Maybe it's intended, to see whether Callista would do it on her own, but maybe not. Ashley generally strikes most people as straightforward. Maybe it's the blue of her eyes and the round innocence of her facial features. She sits with the book folded in her lap, one hand over the cover as though she fears having it taken, though poetry thieves would be impractical creatures indeed, in a world like this.

"Molly mentioned your name too. She said you had a recording, but she already passed along the translation to me. I figured it was good to meet anyway."

[Callista Alexander] So, again, the universe provides. She had been planning on calling Ashley back to arrange a meeting, but then things got in the way. Molly and her request for help, mainly. Help trying to track down the Sending, while Molly worked on finding a Sleeper on the verge of waking. All she could do at the moment, really, given her own not-too-distant Awakening. Callista does give an apology though. "I've been intending to call you back to arrange something. But, well, you know how these things go. There's always something getting in the way. It is good to meet you, though."

Callista does, indeed, sit. The offer's there, even if it's not spoken out loud, but the movement to free up a little of the bench works just as well. She sits sideways on the bench, one leg tucked underneath her, so that she can face Ashley. Callista notices the book, but doesn't mention it. As always, there are more important things to discuss first.

"I do, indeed, have a recording. Israel had a chance to listen to it, and came up with a translation. If you want to listen to the original, I can get a copy to you. Or ask Molly to send it over, as she has a copy of it already. Were you told about what else was going on at the time? I'm assuming Jarod's mentioned something about it."

[Ashley McGowen] Israel came up with a translation. The space between Ashley's brows pinches together a little, furrows. In thought, though whatever has occurred to her or whatever she's wondering, she doesn't say it aloud. Ashley has drawn one leg up against her chest, her arm wrapped around it, while the other dangles. Her toes are the only part of her foot that can touch the ground, with as far back as she's sitting on the bench.

"Yeah, he told me about that," she says. "About the tornado. And about the recording. He thought it was Enochian, which is probably why he suggested that you come to me." Though really, she suspects that Jarod might have wanted to be helpful, no matter what he says. Sometimes he is - with her, at least.

"Enochian would've made sense, actually. Jarod and I and a friend of a friend of mine met up with a Euthanatos who I guess has been hanging around the city. He mentioned the woman you guys saw - I saw her too - is a self-aware construct. He tried to send us off to go and get this item I guess he wants, probably to destroy her, but I wasn't too keen on the idea. I don't know yet what Jarod plans to do."

[Callista Alexander] ((Per + Awareness-as-empathy - anything up, Ashley?))
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 5, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Ashley McGowen] Mention of Israel's name pulls a complicated emotional reaction. Ashley isn't exactly an open book, but she doesn't go to any great lengths to hide her feelings either - about anything. What skill she has in obscuring her motivations and thoughts lies more in misdirection than in presenting a blank front, and perhaps Callista is aware of this. She's aware of a lot right now.

It's hard to tell some things without specifics though. She knows there's some tension - anger, perhaps, or hurt feelings, or maybe both. Regardless, there's certainly something there.

That seems to have less to do with whatever Ashley is mulling over right now, though. There's a sort of intellectual detachment in how she's examining whatever she's thinking about. Maybe Callista has said something of interest, given her something to chew on, when she mentioned that Israel did the translation; since Ashley doesn't know what language was used in the recording yet, perhaps she's wondering if Israel knows Enochian. Or where she learned it.
to Callista Alexander

[Callista Alexander] Israel's name provokes a reaction in Ashley. Something must have happened between the two fairly recently, given the reaction, or something so big that time hasn't yet had a chance to smooth the torn edges between the two. Indeed, the lack of history between the two means that Callista can't even begin to guess what happened between the two women. Curiosity gnaws away at the details, or the lack of details, though. Her own hunger for knowledge, for teasing apart the threads that run between people, curls around in Callista's mind.

Maybe she's able to keep the questions from showing on her face, maybe she isn't. Maybe Ashley notices, maybe she doesn't.

But back to open ground, to the details flowing between the two. Callista nods, a moment of staring into blankness and a deep breath at the mention of the tornado. While staring into the abyss might be commonplace for the more experienced Awakened, her life on the other side of the curtain is only just beginning. And seeing a tornado form from that particular angle? That's gonna stick with her for a while.

"Ye.." Callista clears her throat. "Yeah, the tornado. And that woman. Construct. Israel said she was something called a Sending, a messenger from before the Umbra crashed and burned and the Avatar Storm blew up. Molly mentioned that someone had been telling her what to do, what to look for. I wonder if it's the same Euthanatos that you met up with. Molly seems to trust him, but I'm somewhat sceptical about putting too much faith into someone I've never met before. What did you think of him?"

((And possibly a little Man+Sub to keep the Curiosity from showing. Yep, there's another one in town.))
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 6, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Ashley McGowen] If Callista'd known Ashley longer, she'd know that Ashley's lack of attention to detail when it comes to other people is almost notorious. There are legends and stories from time immemorial about magi of Mind, how they know your innermost secrets and emotions and how they're overcome with empathy for their fellow man because they can experience it, because they can tap the very well from which it all springs. Ashley...is not of that sort.

So, needless to say, she doesn't really see the questions that appear on Callista's face, or at least, they don't register as such. She recognizes an echo of her own Hunger, and it's this she understands.

Speaking of these kinds of events doesn't even seem to faze Ashley, anymore. She's certainly been around long enough to have accepted disasters and threats to her person as commonplace. It's not quite a monthly occurrence, but it's damned close.

"I didn't like him," she says bluntly. "Smug self-righteous fuck. And I don't know what he wants. I don't plan on doing what he wants just because some Traditionalist shows up here and says jump. I'd rather not destroy her as a matter-of-course, just because it's the most convenient option." It would likely stop the deaths of a lot of Sleepers too. Perhaps that doesn't matter, or perhaps it's simply a lesser value.

[Callista Alexander] Callista certainly isn't overcome with empathy for others either. Her ability in that area, hell in any area, of the mystic is sadly lacking. Given time, who knows, but for the moment she does at least have enough of her own empathy to know when to skirt around certain subjects. So, for now, she leaves the subject to one side. There will (hopefully!) be plenty of time later to learn more.

"Molly's certainly ready to jump when he says so, and doesn't want to wait to find any other ways of dealing with her. It. Apparently this thing was bound up into a doohicky in New Jersey somewhere, but that's as much information as Israel had. No idea what, or any more specifics about where. Binding her would certainly get her out of the way and buy some time, but she's burning herself out searching for a kid who's going to wake into Quiet because of this thing."

She takes a breath, taking a moment, looking up into the endless sky. "I honestly don't know what's the best way to handle this thing. It feels like I've just jumped into what looked like a calm pond, only it turns out there's a massive whirlpool dragging me in. I don't want Sleepers to die. Hell, I don't want Israel and some of the others to fade into nothingness and become food for this thing. So does that mean I have to go along with this guy's plans because we don't have time to come up with anything better?"

Callista looks back to Ashley. "So I do what I can, to find this thing's cult. What else can I do?"

Is there an answer? Callista doesn't know. She isn't really expecting Ashley to give any, life isn't so straightforward that nice easy answer drop out of the mouths of strangers.

[Ashley McGowen] Callista says she feels like she's just jumped into a whirlpool, and this prompts a dry laugh from the smaller woman beside her. "It doesn't stop feeling that way," Ashley says. "The ponds just get bigger and bigger."

Ashley doesn't look up at the sky. She looks down at her hand, one folded on top of the book still, as she listens to Callista speak. As the other woman voices the inner conflict she's having, and in that moment Ashley knows that Callista can't have been at this for very long at all. An apprentice perhaps, or an inexperienced initiate.

"Do what you want to do," she says simply, and perhaps for her that's really all things break down to. Her Will. There's another little pause that passes. "I don't really want Sleepers to die either, but people die every day. Horrifically. I don't see anybody leading crusades against cancer or earthquakes. But I've never heard before of anything like what she is, and there's something to be learned there. Going along with plans you don't agree with just because it seems like it's the best answer at the time is never going to be satisfying."

She lifts her head then after a moment, though it's only to lean her chin against the top of her knee. "I still don't know what I'm going to do. Find some other method of dealing with her, maybe."

[Callista Alexander] "I guess the trick is to get better at swimming quickly, then." Callista snorts, in dry amusement of her own, and looks back up into the sky. Taking a breath, she continues. "Sorry, I didn't mean to dump all that on you. It just seems like people assume that you're used to all... " Her hands gesture, trying to describe the shape of something formless "...this. Assume that you'll just deal with the crap and carry on as if none of it had ever happened, as if none of it affects you. All too focussed on their little orbits to notice that you're starting to flounder."

She gives another snort, looking back down again. "Sorry. Again. I guess I didn't realise how much this has been getting to me. I'm used to observing. Being on the outside of events looking in, then passing news onto others without them having to get too close for their own comfort. I'm not supposed to be involved!"

That comes out a little louder, a little angrier than expected. Maybe she gets an annoyed glance or two from those nearby, as she disturbs the small patch of tranquility in the mania that is Chinatown. Maybe 'news' is enough to jog Ashley's vague recollection of Callista.

This time her gaze heads downwards, to the ground, before she closes her eyes for a few moments. "This thing isn't natural, and she can't be left to carry on tearing people apart for their patterns. Does she need to be destroyed? I don't know. Hell, I don't even know if we can. So I guess I'll do what I do, do what I can."

"I'll stick my nose into things and let people know about it. More than that," she shrugs, "we'll have to see, I guess."

[Ashley McGowen] "You'll get used to it, if you stick around here long enough," Ashley says. "Or, hell, any city. I don't think Boston was as bad with spirits and meteors raining out of the sky, but there was a lot of backstabbing and Awakened politics." This much she remembers well. Still, perhaps she wouldn't have been as privy to it if it hadn't been for Bran Summers.

Ashley doesn't bat an eye when Callista apologizes, nor when she continues to talk a bit about how it's been affecting her. Perhaps Ashley is used to this - to people unloading their worries on her, because she seems so put together. People with her sort of experience often become that way, after a while. "Don't feel like you have to act as if it doesn't affect you," is all she says. "Unless you want to. You grow stronger by confronting what life throws at you, though, not by pretending it doesn't exist."

Jarod would disagree with her there, Ashley has no doubt. Maybe it occurs to her once, for a second, why she should even be thinking of what Jarod would have to say. "Do what you Will," she says again, simply. Ashley's advice is often like this: straightforward and not too laced with sympathy or pathos. She just isn't the type.

A pause. She thumbs the pages of the journal idly. "You haven't been doing this for very long." It's not a question.

[Callista Alexander] Maybe it's because she seems put together? Maybe it's because she isn't bouncing off the ceiling on stimulants, or because misunderstandings haven't gotten her back up. Or maybe it's because there's someone who might understand and it's been at least 5 minutes without something trying to kill them.

The advice is good, though. A few years of putting a mask over her own feelings, a display of neutral impartiality, and maybe the habit's leaking a little too far. Does it matter if the others in their little community know that she's struggling? Angry? Upset? Hell, would it hurt her career to let the mask slip a little now and again? Show her humanity, her own reactions? That, though, would be a question for other days. Calmer days.

There's another snort and a second or two before Callista looks back up at Ashley again, responding to the last statement. It's not a question, no. "It's that obvious, huh? A few months ago, I was blissfully dozing. Then a man opened the curtains, got me looking into the light, and here I am." She shrugs with her right shoulder, her head turning to the right while her vision focuses on a random piece of detritus.

"Wondering now if I'd be better of still Sleeping."

[Ashley McGowen] For Ashley, this is drunk talk. These are things she never would confide if she were like Callista is right now, speaking to someone who might as well be a stranger and stone sober. Then again, Ashley is Hermetic, and up until recently she was the dean (deacon? some said so) of the city of Chicago. For all that, though, she doesn't seem disdainful of the fact that Callista is opening herself up.

Not particularly sympathetic, either, but what can you do.

She turns a sidelong smirk in the other woman's direction and says, "Of course you would have been. In a sense." Because Ashley has seen what she would have been if she'd been still Sleeping, if the accident that led to her Awakening had never happened, and it's a nice thought. But wishing, after all, does nothing. Not without Will.

"Most people Awaken because they're forced to. And once your eyes are open, you can't shut them again. It's just important to have the Will to make it into something and to let all of it hone you." Toward what, she isn't sure. Maybe even Adepts still have things to figure out. "But either way, this is what you are now."

[Callista Alexander] Maybe it's because Ashley is a stranger that Callista's opening up. Maybe this is the type of conversation best had with a big bottle of whiskey knocking around. Maybe she would have been better off Sleepwalking through life, instead of being drawn in the direction of her Awakening. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Callista smiles, looking back up at Ashley again. "Ahh, but hadn't you heard? Wishing can change the world these days." The smile fades. "All for a price, though. Always a price, for us as well as the Sleepers this thing's been 'blessing' with moments of wakening. You're right, though, no point in brooding about what might have been." The funk is fading a little. Maybe it's just feeling like she's not completely alone in how she's feeling, that others have gone through it before and made it out the other side.

There's hope that she can bend without life breaking her. What're the alternatives? Give in, lie down, and live a meaningless life. Or fight against it, unchanging, hoping to hell that she doesn't break.

And, as the lady sang, I am what I am. May as well get used to it, girl.

Callista tries to move the conversation back onto steadier subjects, ones away from the pit of 'what ifs'.

"You're not native to Chicago, then? Boston, originally?"

[Ashley McGowen] "We lose to gain," Ashley says, and that bit of Verbena wisdom alone might clue a more experienced Traditionalist in to the fact that she doesn't only keep company with Hermetics, or that she's dabbled in other beliefs, or that she's quite a distance away from the hard Hermetic party line. Regardless, even though it's offered as lightly as one can in this sort of conversation, that belief of her exists: sacrifice means something.

They're both threatening to tumble headlong, down a slope that leads to them questioning everything. Ashley doesn't intend to fall in. She avoids it every time she's confronted with what she used to be, and she's gotten good at it by now.

"I grew up in Connecticut, then lived in Boston for a while before coming here," Ashley confirms. She's used to people asking this question; there's a soft northeastern way she pronounces her Rs, and though her accent isn't as strong as the one often depicted in popular entertainment, it's certainly present. "I'll have been here for two years in July." July's still a ways away, but Ashley still marks the time: the years she's spent in Chicago have been harrowing ones.

She glances back over at Callista for a moment, thoughtfully, and then there's a lift of her eyebrows. A subtle arch. "Oh, shit. You're a news anchor, aren't you? Or...I know I've..."

[Callista Alexander] A more experienced Traditionalist might have picked up on the reference. Callista, however, doesn't. It does sound vaguely similar to some of the, albeit truncated, lessons she did pick up. "Akashic proverb?" she asks.

Ashley's closet certainly has much more space for the skeletons of 'what if' to swallow her, but Callista's is relatively small. All told, hers is a fairly simple story. One in which she may have been guided in certain directions, presumably guided by her Avatar, but she's always known the path she wanted to follow. The path which brought her to Chicago. The path which, eventually, brought her here, now, to Ashley.

The closet isn't completely empty, though, and Callista feels like she's been doing enough spring cleaning for the moment.

"What was it that brought you here? The weather?" She smiles, geniunely this time, teasing Ashley just a little.

Ashley finally places Callista. To be fair, Callista hasn't really been in the limelight all that long. She gets some double-takes in the supermarket, the occasional longer stare as people try to place her. A few people do recognise her, but they're still relatively uncommon.

Callista nods. "Reporting for Channel 9. Yeah, that's me. My first TV gig, straight out of college. Well, kinda straight anyway. Took me a year to get here. They were happy to take me on while I work on my Masters. They get a cheap reporter, I get money to pay the bills. It all works out."

Curiosity nibbling, again, she adds, "How am I on screen?" Everyone's a critic, but hopefully Ashley won't be too harsh.

[Ashley McGowen] "Verbena," she says, of proverbs. She'd heard it initially from Carter, though he's long gone by now. Off to who knows where. She didn't know him for very long at all.

Ashley quirks a smile when Callista mentions the weather. Which, for all intents and purposes, is quite nice today. "It changes more here than it did in Boston," she offers. Then again, the coasts are known for being more temperate in general.

There's another intent glance over Callista when she explains where she's from. Ashley probably would have placed her as being a bit older - closer to her own age - but that's hard to tell with other people, sometimes. She herself is often mistaken for being in college (and, sometimes to her shame, even younger than that.) "I'm more of a newspaper person," she says, and while it manages to avoid the pretentiousness that accompanies the words of most people who claim such, it's the nature of the beast. "But you don't seem to have done too badly. Do they give you a script to read, or something?"

[Callista Alexander] Since getting to the city, the weather was one of the more awkward aspects of daily living for Callista. It certainly wasn't shy about changing dramatically across relatively short timescales, meaning that it was easy to end up very under- or over-dressed for the conditions. "I'm a California girl. Two weeks of hammering storms every year, then various levels of 'hot and dry', while I was growing up. The variety's nice, though. Although maybe a little less variety in a single day, might be nice. I haven't seen the snow here, yet, though. I hear that, when it snows, it really snows."

Makeup, hair styles, lighting. It can all make an amazing difference to how old someone looks. Being stuck on the road, though, does limit the amount of preparation that Callista can do before a shoot. So, as off-screen, she tends to stick to subtle makeup and a short, easily-managed hairstyle. The rain and wind in the city arn't particularly forgiving to mascara and big hairstyles.

"To each their own. It's all more-or-less the same stuff, just with a different slant based on the views of the people holding the money. One of the advantages of working for a small outfit, though - you get a little more independence. And, not really, no. Things like statements or complicated facts get written down, but a lot of what you see is improvised. There's usually a some research behind the improvisation - we have to know what we're talking about to keep any kind of credibility - but we usually don't get a lot of time to prep a script. It's not unheard of for us to completely wing it on really short-notice stories, at least until we can dig up more details."

[Ashley McGowen] She hasn't really been to California. Often as she's been up and down the east coast and through the midwest, and to other countries, the western half of the United States is decidedly outside her experience. Such things don't often remain the case for experienced magi for long, though. They tend to get dragged to wherever their Traditions need them. So to Callista's talk of California, she just raises her eyebrows. "I'm sure you'll see some snow, before too long," she says.

Maybe even within the next month. That's the rust belt - it's not over until it's over. Ashley could draw the metaphor to aspects of Awakened life if she were so inclined.

"People suggested that I should become a journalist for a while," she says, almost musing. She's a talented writer, that's for certain, and there are aspects of her personality that probably would have lent themselves well to the career. "Doesn't matter at this point, though. I have to sort of keep my head down now that the Technocracy is actively hunting me." Callista might not know too much about that. Chances are that the name of Vanessa Novotny was mentioned in passing, but petty crimes happen, day to day. Who really keeps track of them?

"I was in sociology, for a while." Some of what Callista has said has earned approval, and she can tell that much - if only because Ashley isn't arguing with her. Yet.

[Callista Alexander] "Molly mentioned that the Technocracy had raided her place. So she's floating about on the river on some Etherite contraption at the moment. I hadn't heard that they'd gone after anyone else, though. Are they still after you now? How are you staying out of their way?"

And there's the knife-edge that Callista's recently started walking, only vaguely aware of the risks. Oh, it's one thing to be told about them in abstract terms, quite another to meet someone who's been smacked round the head with the consequences.

Be subtle in your Arts, lest Sleepers know you for what you are. That had seemed so easy before, a nice easy division between public and private lives. Only now, being dragged into Awakened events, that nice simple boundary becomes fuzzier. Leave evidence that she's not a Sleeper, and she's not going to be able to hide.

Crap.

Would she change anything? Right now? Probably not.

"Was? Have your interests changed? Or was the change not of your choosing?"

[Ashley McGowen] "They came to mine, but someone warned me before they got there. I guess it was Lucien," Ashley says. Because though the man himself has never said as much, she heard it from Israel - and whatever has transpired between herself and the other woman, she trusts her as a source of information. "I'm an Adept, though. You don't get there without being watched."

Some say the Ascension War is over. Ashley has always doubted that, and it shows through in her voice, her tone. She almost can't help it. Subtlety, after all, is not a strong suit of hers. Not in the traditional sense of the word.

"I lost my Sleeper identity after, so I've mainly been keeping to myself since. And I'm focusing on ways to do what I want to do in the Awakened world," she says. She knows that there are other people who manage to keep things separate, who manage to have a career in the Sleeper world as well as the Awakened one: Kage and Jarod, mostly. She herself is too prominent. Too reckless and uncompromising.

Ashley looks down at the book in her hands again, contemplatively, and then back up at Callista. "Have you chosen a Tradition yet?"

This kind of talk with a new Traditionalist, a stranger, is not something she would have attempted a year ago. Everyone changes, even if those things are small and gradual; perhaps she's finally gotten used to the culture of politics. A little, at least.

[Callista Alexander] "Lucien? I've not heard of him before. Is he a local too?" As much as the man seems to be pulling the strings behind the scenes, and they've even been talking about him earlier on, nobody's actually mentioned the guy's name.

Callista's eyebrows rise at the next part of the conversation. "An Adept, so young? How old were you when you Awakened?"

There's listening, nodding, as Ashley explains her recent history. "How is the new life going, so far? It can't have been that long ago - Molly talked about having to leave her home as if it was very recent." So recent that she was still shacked up with Atlas, although who knows if there's anything more there than just cabalmates.

Then it's onto Traditions. She nods before speaking. "You could say that. Although I'm not sure how much choice there was in the matter. The universe and my Avatar seemed to be ganging up on me." She grins. "I'm of the Akashic, if a rather ill-educated Brother. Let's just say my stubbornness fought back against the universe, and I skipped class a little sooner than I probably should have."

[Administrator] Ashley McGowen, welcome to Chinatown (Southside) (Now)

[Ashley McGowen] "Lucien...the Euthanatos," Ashley clarifies. "He's definitely not local." At least, not that she's seen - though with as well as the man has hidden himself, it wouldn't be altogether unexpected.

Callista mentions her age. She's not precisely the first to have done so, though she's the first in a while to ask so directly. Ashley raises her eyebrows thoughtfully. She is, after all, an Adept at a rather young age. "I was eighteen," she says, and ten years is a short time for the kind of advancement she's made. Eighteen is a rather typical age for an Awakening. "It just kind of happened. I reached my current rank last summer."

Which means: no words of wisdom to offer her, though perhaps an Akashic Brother is used enough to that.

"I'm adjusting to the new life. It was recent, just a couple of weeks ago." And there's a pause as she considers. The city has had more Brothers as of late, and maybe Ashley's pleased with that. She knows more about them than most Traditions, after all. "My father is Akashic."

[Callista Alexander] The mysterious man in the shadows now has a name: Lucien. Callista's trying to reserve judgement on the man until she can actually meet him, although the wildly differening opinions she's had of him are helping. On the one side, Molly's all to ready to go where the man points. On the other side, Ashley digging her heels in and refusing to be directed. She doesn't really have anything to add, though, so merely nods as Ashley labels him.

The age, though. Not much between the two women in years, but amazing distances between their respective abilities. The fresh, new, poorly-educated apprentice, and the knowledgable, experienced Adept. "Congratulations." Callista's statement curls up towards the end, almost forming a question. Not really sure if that's something you give congratulations for. A bit like getting a degree, then learning that there are people in the background with a vendetta against the educated.

No words of wisdom, no defined paths to follow, no instruction manual through life on the road to perfection. Yeah, that much Callista's picked up on in her short period of education. Enough to know avoid, and hopefully avoid, the biggest dangers to herself. The Rule of Shade. The Technocracy, Nephandi, Marauders. Other than that? Well, close your eyes, start walking, hope you don't fall off a cliff.

Which, given her father's background, Ashley may well understand. "Was your mother Hermetic? It seems quite a leap from being raised under one Tradition to end up in one so different."

[Ashley McGowen] Congratulations, says Callista, and Ashley offers a half-smile at that. The Order of Hermes certainly says that it's something to be proud of, and most of the time she is. Her rank has been hard won. But she wasn't joking either, when she told Callista that she probably would've been happier if she'd stayed Asleep. Still: it is what it is.

"My mother was a Sleeper," Ashley says. "As far as I know, other than my father I don't have any magical heritage. He tried to teach me, but the way wasn't mine." There's a quirk of her mouth then. "I've had a couple of Akashic friends who say they can tell there's been an influence, though."

She can allude to Daiyu now without any hesitation, without a flicker in her expression. She adds, "Dad brought me to the chantry in north Boston when he found out that I wasn't really intent on joining the Brotherhood. I interested some Hermetics there, and that was that."

Her eyes flick over Callista's face for a moment before she adds, "There are two other Akashics here in Chicago that I know of. Alex and a woman named Elizabeth. If you want, I can put you in contact with them." You'd think she would stop doing this job - but no.

[Callista Alexander] Callista turns a little on the bench, leaning back against it. She watches a couple walking through the park, arm in arm, talking quietly to each other. Obviously happy, obviously in love. "We all have our owns paths through life. Sometimes they match with the paths of others for a while. Sometimes, we travel in completely different directions." Callista's path has brought her to this city, at this time, with these people. How long they will travel together? Who knows.

"So were the Hermetics were interested in you, more than you in them?" Accusation? No. Prying? Maybe, depending on how Ashley feels about these things now. Curiosity, wanting to understand this other woman? Most definitely. "Don't to answer that if you don't want to."

Ashely mentions others in the city. "I'd heard of one called Alex, and that there may be another one recently arrived here. I haven't managed to catch up with any of them yet, though. I was planning on trying to, once things quieten down a little. If you don't mind passing my number onto them, though, I'd be grateful."

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley hasn't gone to lean back yet. Her eyes follow Callista's for a few moments, and this is the kind of place one would find a couple like that. Happy and in love, for however long they are. Ashley just nods thoughtfully, after a moment. "I doubt I would have been happy in the Brotherhood."

She suspects she would have been like her father, but while Jim Novotny is controlled, temperate, Ashley isn't sure if anyone would call him a happy man. She's not sure he ever was, though; he had his Awakening long before he met her mother. Her gaze turns its way toward Callista again. She doesn't seem offended by the question; on the contrary. Possibly a little amused by it, but nonetheless inclined to answer.

"Initially, yes," she says. "But they had a pretty firm hold on that chantry in Boston, and personally I've always thought Dad only introduced me to specific Traditions on purpose. Left out the Verbena, for example, even though there were plenty of them there too. Dad didn't mix much with the other Traditions so he didn't have a lot to tell me about them. Strength of Will didn't sound more appealing than any other thing early on, but I learned a lot."

She nods when Callista requests that she pass her number on. "Alex is an old friend of a good friend of mine," she says. "You'll probably like him." Trust him? That's something else.

[Callista Alexander] Callista thanks Ashley for the offer, first. Passing a phone number around is so much more reliable than relying on Convergence.

"I'm sure that there are some Akashics who say that happiness, or unhappiness, are irrelevant. It's the journey that's important, and focussing on attaining happiness is a dangerous distraction." Callista turns her head to look at Ashley and smiles. "I don't know if I agree with them yet. Ask me again in twenty years."

The smiles fades a little. "Would you have chosen any different, if you had known more about the others?"

[Ashley McGowen] "Even within the Tradition there are differences of opinion," Ashley says. "I knew an Akashic who'd been Awakened for fifteen years. It still mattered to her, I think." Though really, it's hard to know. They weren't given much time to get to know each other, truly.

Ashley doesn't dwell on it. She smirks, giving a dismissive wave of her hand. "She'd probably have said you're happy when you're in balance with the world, or something." And for her perhaps it was true.

The question makes her raise her eyebrows thoughtfully. She's been asked this question before, and by another Akashic. "It's hard to say," she says. "I was different when I was younger." There's a pause, less a hesitation than a consideration of Callista, of the words she's about to say. "I'm beginning to study with the Verbena now, but I don't know if I would have then. I'm not sorry I joined the Order, if that's what you're asking."

[Callista Alexander] "Maybe it all comes down to how you find it. Living a good life, making a positive difference, maybe that's enough. Helping some small part of the universe along its way. Perhaps its thoughtless pursuit of happiness where the danger lies. People get hurt. An it harm none, do what ye will." Callista turns her head back to watch the park again. "Shame that isn't up there next to the Constitution, really."

There's a weak smile as the woman watches a bare-branched tree, on the brink of budding, bending in the wind. "But it hasn't been as satisfying as it could have been?" How easily life falls into repeating patterns. "I think I understand what you meant earlier, now."

"Does anyone else know that you're changing Traditions, yet? I can't imagine your Trad-mates will be thrilled by you leaving."

[Ashley McGowen] "People get hurt when other people try to make a positive difference," Ashley points out. "I think too many Willworkers get caught up in the idea that they should try to do 'good' with their abilities or whatever. They're not trying to help people. They're just trying to make themselves feel better. Which is what it is, but they could at least be straightforward about it."

It's delivered casually, those words, and without as much bitterness as might be expected. Oh, there's a little there - she's had her differences of opinion with others on it, certainly, and recently to boot - but there's no spite to it.

"I'm not changing Traditions. I'm just studying in two," she says. "And no. Plenty of Hermetics aren't happy about it. But they can go fuck themselves." She suspects it would have been different, if she'd been a questioning apprentice or initiate; it would have been passed off as simple foolishness then. "I think I get things from each that I don't get from the other."

[Callista Alexander] "Isn't there a danger of the opposite, though? Having the ability to steer things for the better, but being afraid to in case anyone gets harmed? I'm not saying either side is right or wrong, or better or worse, or stronger or weaker. In the end, all any of us can do is be guided by our consciences and - as your friend may well have said - find a balance between the two."

Shades of gray, made up of black and white. Is anything truely ever one or the other?

"How are you able to bring the two sides together? My knowledge of the Traditions is pretty much from the Idiot's Guide To... books, but they seem like two or the harder ones to reconcile. Verbena and Dreamspeakers. Hermetic and Etherite. Molly seems to be doing a decent job bridging Cultists and Adepts. Or is the the differences that give you what you're looking for?"

[Ashley McGowen] "Of course there's a danger, if that's how you're looking at it," Ashley says. "I do what I want to do and I do what will benefit me. That's all anything that lives does. Some people just tell themselves differently." Ashley's heard arguments for black and white and for shades of gray. It's actually debatable whether she herself believes in any of those things, listening to her speak about it.

She finally does lean a little against the back of the bench then, though the line of her shoulders isn't particularly relaxed. Not precisely tense, though, either; she's simply a person who has gotten used to the idea that things happen anywhere. That's how the majority of Chicago's Awakened have learned to live their lives.

A corner of her mouth quirks when Callista asks whether it's the differences that matter. "In some ways, yeah," she says. "I think reconciling the differences helps give me a stronger outcome. But mostly it's just that for me, it works and it feels right. I'm not sure it would for someone else."

[Callista Alexander] The faint smile returns to Callista's face. "I think I see what you meant earlier, now. About there being a little something of the Akashic in you. If that isn't trying to find your own way, the right way for you, then I don't know what is." A quick turn of her head, to look at Ashley, as she carries on with, "Are you sure it's not a third Tradition you're picking up?"

Callista shifts position again, pulling up her other leg to sit cross-legged on the bench. "Are you saying that we only ever do what we get something out of, though? That life is that... selfish?"

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley seems amused, at that. "I'm not letting someone else dictate the right path for me," she says. "It's the Hermetic in me. I disagree with the Akashics on some pretty fundamental levels." She recognizes that it was a joke; nevertheless, she seems to be pointing this out. "Besides, I haven't actually known a lot of Willworkers who can be successfully pigeonholed into one Tradition or another, if you talk with them at length. I think most of us are too strong-willed to let a list of rules dictate what we believe."

It's a bit like religion that way, but Ashley has little taste for making that comparison. "Of course life is selfish. You survive by making sure your own life and ideals are furthered, and that's how memory of you continues. I don't think it's even a bad thing. It just is."

A beat while she's watching Callista. "Do you not have a mentor here?"

[Callista Alexander] "You don't believe that we're all connected, then. That what affects one, affects all." As when Ashley picked up on Callista's inexperience, this is a statement rather than a question. "That is a pretty fundamental difference. But pushing your way through life like that, it can't make it easy to get close to anyone. Doesn't it get lonely?"
There's no attack, no judgement. Just a search for understanding.

"No." Callista looks down to the ground, shaking her head gently. "No mentor. Nothing much of anything tying me to the Brotherhood, beyond what I carry with me. I..." She hesitates for a moment, searching for the right way to explain it. "My path led me away from the man who was there when I Awakened. I only had a short time with him, and with others, before I came here." She gives a one-sided shrug. "I don't think I regret doing it, but a part of me does wonder what I'd become if I'd stayed. Instead of walking away."

[Ashley McGowen] "No," Ashley says, though Callista had already extrapolated her answer for herself. There's something in what Callista says following that - perhaps the way she says it - that draws a reaction. It's not the question itself; it seems to have drawn forth some memory, perhaps, because Ashley's jaw just works for a second. And she tells Callista, after a moment, the same thing she said then: "I think people like us naturally come into conflict with the world around us. It's the price of having a strong Will. But I have still gotten close to people, regardless."

As much as many people who believe differently? Perhaps. Ashley isn't sure. But she's more observant of others than many might take her for - at least, when it comes to certain things. "It's probably important that you have one, so that you can be properly taught," Ashley says. The city isn't rife with unattached apprentices anymore; still. "Though I think you'll have differences with most of your mentors. It's helpful."

[Callista Alexander] "That's good. Being able to find someone to share..." Again, there's the physical grasping for something formless. "...this with. Life's hard enough alone, without all the added crap that comes along with having your eyes open. I'm... glad."

Glad for Ashley having gotten close to people, or glad that she isn't going to flounder in an ever-growing pond with nobody else around, isn't said aloud. There is a little relief in Callista's voice at the 'glad', though.

A mentor. Could she learn from someone else here? Molly's probably not all that likely - just too manic. The other Akashics? Their backgrounds, styles, paradigms are probably more compatible, but would they want to teach another? Others that she's met? Too early to tell. The formless man of smoke, floating away from her consciousness whenever she tries to remember anything about him? Well, that would mean remembering him long enough .

So she sits there for a moment, contemplating. Easiest, simplest, would be to leave. Go back to where she's first Awakened, ask if they'd take her back. Easiest, but not going to happen. She has a life here, and it's not one that she's at all ready to turn her back on.

So, she takes a deep breath. "You're probably right, I do need someone. Right now, I don't know who that would be, though. I just don't know enough people here well enough to ask. That's even assuming they'd be interested in a little tutoring on the side of whatever lives they already have." A shrug. "We'll see."

[Ashley McGowen] There's relief there in Callista's voice that Ashley can understand well enough, if only because she too was an apprentice once, and can remember how vast the Awakened world seemed. How the other magi above her seemed to have some kind of untouchable power and knowledge. But it didn't end up being all that unattainable after all.

"You adjust," she offers. "At least, if you're capable and flexible enough, you will. Most people who can't do that don't Awaken in the first place." She's stretching a bit, and perhaps Callista can tell; it doesn't come naturally to her, kind words. Reassurances. At least, phrasing them in such a way that it doesn't sound forceful doesn't.

"You have time," Ashley says. "I think." Because it's hard to be absolutely sure, in a world like this. "You could go to the chantry, too, though I don't know who you'd ask to get in, these days. Probably Israel."

[Callista Alexander] Callista does notice that this isn't completely natural for Ashley. The other woman certainly comes across as someone who blazes her way through life, hitting anything in the way head-on. Not really the kind of personality who can casually, easily, offer words of enouragement and reassurance. That she's even trying, maybe it shows that Ashley is indeed different from the woman she used to be. There is a grateful smile from Callista at the words. Although they may be a little awkward, they are still appreciated.

"I didn't know there was a chantry here. I kinda assumed there would be something somewhere, but nobody's mentioned it before. As for getting there? If it is Israel I need to speak to, then it's definitely going to have to wait. Unless you know enough about Spirit to get in contact with her, but I imagine there would be bigger things to talk about that where I could get a key cut."

Being the new girl in town, Callista's assuming that everyone already knows everything that's going on at the moment. Will Israel's predicament be news to Ashley?

[Ashley McGowen] Israel's predicament is...indeed news to Ashley, to judge by the way her eyebrows suddenly lift. There's a touch of concern there; regardless of what may have passed between them more recently, they were friends once, and Ashley isn't the sort of person whose affections die away easily once they're given.

She might have learned from Lucien, if she'd been more disposed to listen to the man instead of arguing with him. Jarod was right about that, and maybe realizing that fact now rankles a little. Whatever irritation briefly passes across her features isn't for Callista, at least.

"Or Solomon," she says instead. "The chantry's been quiet lately, I think. A lot of philosophical differences flying around between the members." Then, after a brief, labored hesitation, "What happened to Israel? I didn't hear."

[Callista Alexander] "Ah. You hadn't heard." Hello foot, meet mouth. Callista turns back towards Ashley, so she can look at her as she's talking.

"Have you heard about what keeps this Sending going on this side of the Gauntlet?" Maybe she has, maybe she hasn't. "She must have been watching what spiders get up to. Basically, she kidnaps people - usually Sleepers, but she's snagged a couple of us - and drops them in a little Umbral pocket. Leaves them there, until..." Her voice tapers off, not wanting to finish the sentence. "She comes back later and feeds on whatever's left. There is still time for Israel, a guy called Atlas, and a couple of others. That's why Molly's hell-bent on finding her waking Sleeper, and why she's going for Plan A in dealing with the Sending."

Plan A - kick the crap out of something as quickly as possible. If that fails? Plan B - kick it some more. Some things really are universal.

Quietly, softly, she finishes. "I'm sorry. I thought you knew."

[Ashley McGowen] "Ah."

That's all she says. Ashley is an emotional creature, and there are plenty of emotions she displays openly; grief and shock, if that's what this is, aren't among them. Callista can tell that she's surprised to hear Atlas' name come up too; she really didn't know that this had happened.

"...I suppose that makes my decision a little easier then, doesn't it." Perhaps she'd have dealt with Lucien differently - though given the man's demeanor and how he approached them, that's always difficult to say. "I suppose I'll have to get with Molly soon, in that case. Do you know if she knows more?"

[Callista Alexander] "Lucien seems to have a plan to deal with her - it - that much you already know. Apparently he can't get too involved in what's going on, as he's linked to it somehow. It's snagged a piece of someone he's bonded to in some way. I did ask if that mean it could be controlling Lucien somehow, but Molly pretty much exploded. Beyond that? I don't know. There's this waking Sleeper, who seems to be important somehow. There's this doohickey that she was bound to before someone let her loose, but Molly's saying that it'll take too much time to find it and figure out how to use it - Lucien's plan is somehow much quicker. Other than that..." Callista shrugs.

"Apparently there's a bit of a cult building around the Sending. Not all that surprising, really, given all the End Of The World doomsayers flocking to the city at the moment. Apparently some religious nutjob called Jonah Mosh had his little cult stolen from under his feet, leaving him behind when he refused to cut his hair off. Watch out for bald people, by the way, that seems to be a little trademark of theirs. I've got another lead or two to follow up, but I'm trying to track down where this cult is and what it's up to."

And that is, pretty much, as much as she's picked up. Not shy about sharing information, Callista. While she can be discrete and hold things back when needed, getting information to people who need it? That's kinda what she does.

But she ends, slightly distractedly, with "I just with I knew what this damned price was." Something that's been bugging her for a while, now. "It mentioned a price first time I saw her, and it keeps cropping up all over the place."

[Ashley McGowen] "I find that most of the time, knowing the price doesn't do you any good," Ashley says. "You do what you have to do, and you're going to pay in one way or another. But I can't say that hearing you say that doesn't bother me, too."

The rest of the information was soaked in quietly, though she's chewing away at it if her eyes are any indication. They're restless, moving from one thing to another as though she might find answers in the park around the two of them. There aren't any, of course. If Callista's likely learned one thing by now it's that choosing what to do in situations like these is never easy.

"I'm a little suspicious of Lucien, to be honest, and you might be right about what she's doing to him. Molly can be kind of..." Ashley trails off. "Well, she doesn't always choose the most pragmatic approach. Finding the Sleeper sounds like it's probably a good idea, though. And we'd already talked some about finding the item that Lucien wants. Whether we'll give it to him once we have it is another story."

[Callista Alexander] "You're probably right about knowing what the price is, but it's just... " An edge of frustration, as she finishes the sentence. "Irritating. It's not something as simple as someone's life - a suicide note saying that I couldn't pay the price kinda argues that. But if you are still looking for another way to deal with it... Figure out what her price is, find out what she wants, then see if there's some other way of stopping her?"

Callista has her own suspicions about Lucien, even if she is trying to reserve judgement until she meets the odious little man.

"I just find it strange that she's able to sense him, see what he's up to, but he can't do the same with her. It. Dammit. I dunno, maybe it's all down to the weird laws that the thing runs under, or that it's only a small part of her whole, or that the whole Avatar-blocking trick she has stops him." Callista shrugs, again. So much she doesn't know!

"I was curious whether that little trick was the Sending, or someone else. It does seem very strange that she stops us from sending her right back where she wants to be. Maybe one of the fragments she's picked up along the way is fighting back against her. I dunno."

[Ashley McGowen] "That's mostly what I intend to do," Ashley says. "Maybe Alex and Jarod will help. Maybe Kage will. I'm not sure yet." Or Emily - though Ashley doesn't count on the Singer's involvement these days. She'd been bright-eyed and curious about the world, the wonder around her, once too, but Awakened life will change people.

"I also find it strange, but she's unique. It's part of why I want to find some other way of dealing with her. It seems like...such a waste to just destroy everything she might know, and everything that she is. Unless it absolutely means our own survival." She might be an idealist, of a sort, but she's not suicidal. "There's a lot that none of us know. Lucien would maybe know more, but I have the feeling he's telling us only as much as he wants us to know."

[Callista Alexander] "Kage? I don't think I've met him(?) yet." Him? Her? As a name, a gender isn't leaping out at Callista. "If you need more help, though, give me a yell. I don't know how much help I'd actually be, but..." The sentence drops away, but the offer's there. If Ashley wants to take her up on it, only time will tell.

"I guess it does need to be done soon, though. Who knows how much time the guy's it's caught have left. Any idea how long someone can survive in the Umbra unprotected?"

[Ashley McGowen] "Her," Ashley says. "She's an Orphan. The friend I mentioned I know Alex through." It would seem Ashley keeps odd company for a Hermetic, but then again, given that she's mentioned that she's studying in another Tradition maybe it isn't all that surprising. There don't seem to be very many Hermetics in Chicago besides. "I'll keep the offer in mind. I generally don't turn down help."

The glance cast over Callista is a bit appraising. Ashley has seen plenty of Akashics in action, at this point. They were more experienced, but still - she knows the kind of training members are given.

When Callista asks how long the others can be expected to survive, a muscle in her cheek twitches. A wince, almost. "I'm not sure," she says. "My cabalmate, Gregor, is an initiate and he survived almost six months. He's a Dreamspeaker, though. I don't know what Israel or Atlas might be able to do there or how they might be able to affect the environment, so I suppose it depends. Either way, better to get on it quickly."

[Callista Alexander] As far as brute force goes, Callista's not really up there. She has height, but no width. [i]...not a lot on the rack an a lil' boney.... But she's graceful, balanced. Poised, even. And anyway, it's not really a question of force, more what you do with it.

Whether she's ever been in a proper fight, though, that's another question completely.

"If you want, I'll let you know when I manage to track this cult down." No 'if', it's 'when'. "Maybe you'll be able to get a little more out of them than little ol' me."

[Ashley McGowen] "Maybe," Ashley says, though she sounds a touch doubtful. She doesn't really have a way with persuading people, and she at least knows that. "Be careful, when you go to track them down. Ask someone to go with you. Tom or maybe somebody else would help." Ashley thinks Jarod might, but she knows better than to speak for him in anything.

"But yes. Let me know." She glances back down at the notebook that is still in her lap, then up again toward Callista. "I'm glad I ran into you here. You've been very helpful."

[Callista Alexander] Tom..? Do I know a Tom here?

"I'm only finding where they hang out, so don't worry. I'm not about to leave here and go stomping on in with a pair of size 12 boots on. I was going to let Molly know when I'd made a little more progress, I'll let you know at the same time."

Later on, however? We'll see whether Curiosity kills the Callista. Or at least finds her a nice, warm sinkhole in the bottom of the pond.

Callista smiles openly, as Ashley thanks her. "Me too, it's been nice talking with you. Sorry again about dumping stuff on you, but, well, you know..." She gives another one-sided shrug. "Thanks. It's been a big help."

[Ashley McGowen] "I'm used to it," Ashley says, managing to affect a terribly put-upon expression that mostly seems to be for show. She doesn't tell Callista she's welcome to do so again, but then, she hasn't really protested either. "I'm sure I'll see you again soon."

Hopefully. Ashley had given her a wry smile when she'd mentioned she wouldn't go stomping in; perhaps she's learned to expect otherwise. She can be just as guilty of it herself, sometimes. "Take care."

[Callista Alexander] Callista stands, unfolding herself from the stone bench, and smiles again at Ashley. "You too. Be seeing you!" And, with that, Callista heads back on her journey through Chinatown. Happier, now, that she didn't feel quite so alone in the new city.

Just as she gets to the edge of the park, she turns. "Remember, beware of bald people," she yells back just before disappearing into the crowds beyond the gate.