It was the weekend of liberty, and a hefty chunk of Washington Park had been turned from a space of grass and trees and walking paths to a small city of booths and games and food carts. A festival was underway to celebrate the nation's birth, and it was a golden opportunity for funnel cakes and charred turkey legs.
Phone numbers had been exchanged a few days earlier. Texts exchanged as well.
Let's meet. Let's talk. Let's plan.
There's the 4th of July festival? Carnie food and games?
Absolutely.
An invitation had been extended to Will, but the the mutual friend hadn't responded as of yet. The girls would be flying solo for the time being(unless Coincidence played her games and they encountered others like themselves here today as well-- more impossible things have happened, after all). A meeting point was arranged-- a particular corner of the park, near the official entrance.
Margot was dressed for the heat of the summer day in a pair of high waisted black denim shorts with a cropped (but not above the pant waistline) white tank top that was loose enough for the breeze to cut through and help keep her cool. A pair of boots were crossed at the ankle as Margot leaned against a lamp post. Brown hair was left down to hang above her shoulders and she had a pair of sunglasses on her face. She was keeping watch for somebody who seemed to stand out
[Perception 3 + Awareness 2]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 6, 8, 8) ( success x 3 )
Neith
[lol perc + aware]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 5) ( fail )
Neith
What little Margot knows about Neith, she would have heard from Will. Will, with his thirst for adventure and the unknown, has known Neith longer and better than anyone in this city. This city is not the end of the line. A whole other world outside this area code. At the end of the summer, Neith is due back in Boston. House Bonisagus takes their studies seriously and she has been studying very hard since committing to the Order.
That is neither here nor there.
Here: five-foot-one, wavy black hair, aviator shades and a yellow floral romper. Wedge shoes would go great with the outfit but they're a bitch to run in so she's wearing black combat boots.
She feels like chaos. The disorder of the universe. When she dances as she's dancing now, to the song playing on someone else's ghetto blaster, other people are aware of her, but she doesn't seem to care what's going on beyond arm's length.
Margot
There. A little piece of the universe fallen to crumble and cycle upon itself, dancing her way along the path to the music set up at someone's booth. Margot picked her out from the crowd with ease-- William had described her as 'you-sized, with long dark hair and feels like mayhem.
"Neith?"
Margot called the name uncertainly, like she was still certain that there was a 20% chance she could be pronouncing it incorrectly (a common fear with names you've never heard or spoken before). She'd pushed her sunglasses up off her face and into her hair, pushing it back away from her face. She raised a hand, almost hesitantly, and straightened up to step away from the rustic-styled black lamp post she'd been leaning on, off the patch of grass and onto the sidewalk to approach a meet point with the girl in the yellow romper.
She tried an uncertain smile (polite, but not the strongest swimmer in social waters) and glanced down at their nearly matching boots. Nice. Back up to the face, smile still in place.
"I'm Margot, Will's friend. Nice to meet you."
Neith
[perc + empathy this time]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 9) ( success x 1 )
Neith
Having chosen to name herself after the Egyptian goddess of weaving, hunting, and war, Nit, it makes sense that the girl Margot is looking for is clearly of mixed heritage. Hard to tell what her genetic makeup is from first meeting her, but when she hears her name the young Hermetic stops her twirling, arms out for balance and to keep others out of her space, then holds her right ring-adorned hand to her brow like to zero in on her.
Her lipgloss is red but it does not keep her from showing her teeth. When she smiles, she beams.
"Hey!" she says as shimmies closer, wanting to keep moving but not wanting to overstep her bounds with the younger girl. They meet somewhere in the middle. She smells like coconut, the scent stronger when she tosses her hair off her shoulder like she does. "I've heard so much about you. Thanks for keeping Will from rushing off to steal shit, that's like, a two-woman job."
Margot
The first impression that Neith cast was an impressive one. Since being introduced to her Avatar, Margot was viewing things through a more spiritual lens these days. The young Hermetic woman struck Margot as being quite spirited indeed, like the very tumbling, chaotic essence of her being was threatening the very structure of the Gauntlet around her. She considered how it would appear to truly enchant her eyes to see if that were the case, but her craft wasn't well suited to crowded spaces.
The smile was infectious enough that it left a relatively positive cast to Margot's otherwise typically worried face. She was a light-skinned thing, probably descended from some moor that the English either descended from or invaded throughout history. She smelled of sunscreen more strongly than anything else, and looked mildly impressed and humored both by the public dance and shimmy. See? Spirited.
"I'm not really sure how to feel about people talking about me," Margot said in a tone that said she wasn't actually bothered but was both modest (read, bashful) and hesitant. It was hard to say if it was ever good things that people were talking about. Was it her person or her history that people were talking about? Her potential or her tragedy?
She cleared her throat. "Yeah I'm still having a hard time believing that he wasn't considering just, y'know, talking to the guy first." Observing the want for motion in the other woman, and taking guess at the fact that she probably wanted to scope things out (herself, she just wanted to be moving while they spoke-- if their conversation was in motion the chances that people would catch anything they were saying was drastically reduced), Margot gestured inward along the primary path cutting diagonal through the section of park that the festival was set up in. "Wanna walk 'n talk?"
Neith
If they had met when Neith was still a babymage, she would have been on the same page as far as paranoia goes. She's sure Will did not tell the entirety of her story when he told Margot who to look for in the park. Maybe one day she will get it out of the other girl herself. For now, Margot asks about walk-and-talking, and the Hermetic gives an insouciant one-shouldered shrug accompanied by a hazy sort of smile.
"Sure," she says, it truly making no difference to her.
Once they drift away from the stoner quadrant and closer to the action, the bouncy castle and the water slides and the booths with company after company hawking their wares, Neith drags her fingers through her hair. Her manicure is patriotic as hell, her thumbs painted navy blue with white dots and the rest of her fingers red with a single white stripe down the center. Doesn't quite go with her romper, but it works somehow.
"Will was one of the first people I met when I came to Denver," she says. "Believe it."
'It': that he hasn't considered talking to the old guy instead of just breaking into his library.
Margot
There was a small and genuine note of disappointment in Margot's voice when she answered the 'it' with a small shake of her head. "I'd really hoped."
They turned and began to roam their way back further into the short and tiny town of wares and food and low-grade rides and entertainment. Margot's hands found their way into her pants pockets. It was easy to overlook at first, but the motion could draw attention to the fact that she wore a petite black leather fanny pack (yep) slung skewed on her waist and hips. The fact that the colors between the two blended had made it easy to overlook.
"...So, were you coming along to meet this guy with the books and knife?"
Neith
The less said about the fact that Margot is wearing a fanny pack, the better.
For her part, everything Neith could possibly need, she has strapped to her left thigh or tucked into her boots. A baby-blue garter keeps a cellphone and a flask within easy reach, while the switchblade is in one boot and her ID cards are in the hip pocket of her romper. Easy to miss these things if a body isn't looking for them.
Her wrists are congested with bracelets same as her hands are heavy with rings. The ring on her right thumb hums with the resonance of a Mage more powerful than both of them put together. Like an inevitable boiling-over. Something that has happened before. It's a thick ring, meant for the finger of someone bigger than she. The humming is consecration. Margot just learned about this.
"Was," she says. "Am. Once Will's got his mind set on something, it's hard to talk him out of it. Me, I'm more patient."
Margot
The woman spoke of patience, and Margot paused for a moment of quiet. This was due in part to her being distracted by another resonance nearby. It had taken her a moment of glancing around curiously before she noticed the ring. Neith probably noticed, unless her eyes were elsewhere. Whether noticed or not, Margot didn't say anything. She recognized that it belonged to another Mage and the girl wore it around anyway. Probably a subject that wasn't well approached when you first meet a person no matter what the story behind that was.
"Patient," she repeated curiously, and then looked up to the level face (strange, she was so accustomed to canting her head up a particular angle) walking at her left.
"Like with Time?"
You can just hear that capital T there. Mages learned to recognize it pretty universally
Neith
To call Neith a 'woman' is to imbue her with more maturity than her due. When she came to Denver in 2014, she was nineteen years old. This year she is old enough to buy alcohol, but her brain is still developing. She is still solidifying her sense of self, her autonomy. She is learning how to survive without her mother. Her father won't be born for another thirty-four years.
Time, indeed.
"Sure," she says. "When I was younger I liked to break into places just to see if I could, but there's a time and a place for that kind of stuff, you know? And I don't agree with Will that just because this old Sleeper has all this knowledge that we can just stroll in and grab it, but he's going to do it whether I agree with him or not, so I'm more just going along to keep him out of trouble. You know?"
Margot
"I suppose," Margot agreed with a small note of reluctance in her voice. She apparently still felt escorting was still some form of enabling, but was happy enough with the idea of there being some kind of protection and help there as well. She wasn't sure how much Magick Neith knew-- she felt that it was probably a little more than herself, but probably not a vast amount. Still, she knew all too well the benefit of the buddy system.
Up ahead a waft of smell and one of the goals on her checklist of 'to-dos' while at the festival caught her attention. She looked quietly pleased and gestured ahead. "Mind if we make a pit stop?"
Specifically, she'd found herself a tiny funnel cake cart. As the walked toward it, Margot dug around in that fanny pack (sorry) and fished out a couple of bills.
"...What makes you sure he's a Sleeper?"
Neith
"I'm not."
If nothing else, the other girl is honest. As they come to stand in the funnel cake line, she twirls a lock of hair around her finger and pops a hip. The breeze is grabbing at the ends of her hair, setting sections to dancing.
"That's just what Will made it sound like."
Margot
"See, I never heard him clarify one way or the other," Margot began, and something about the way she said the word 'see' gave a peek into her know-it-all brainiac status. She didn't wear glasses, but she'd probably be pushing them up the bridge of her nose right now if she did. Instead she settled for resting her hands together in front of her stomach with the bills held primly between both sets of fingers.
"And I can't imagine any reason why someone who was a Sleeper at his age would still have all of these rare and magickally-relevant books in his Library still, not to mention a knife that someone is willing to pay such money for."
A furrow of worry came to Margot's brow. Neith didn't know it yet but she'd soon learn that the expression was the most familiar one in the world on the poor girl's face.
"If these things are of such worth, how is it nobody else has managed to take advantage of him before now? I don't know what Will's capable of, really.... Maybe he's got some ideas and skillsets up his sleeve that I haven't seen yet, but... Well, I wouldn't be surprised if that study is rigged up with all kinds of unimaginable spring-traps."
Neith
In time the girls step up to the cart and exchange paper currency for a paper plate full of fried dough and powdered sugar. It's a bright beautiful day outside and everyone else in the area is enjoying themselves. Off in the distance, children are hollering and laughing. Here, now, Margot is full of worry.
In this timeline, Neith didn't have to suffer through high school because her father yanked her out after freshman year. She's never dealt with a Hermione before.
Margot wouldn't be surprised if this dude's study was rigged.
"Neither would I," Neith says.
Margot
"But you're both still going to go in there."
There was a sigh at the end of the statement, tiny and barely puffed on her exhale. The puncation at the end was solid too. She wasn't making an effort to coerce her not to go, but stating the fact with resignation.
The plate of dough and sugar was accepted and Margot immediately plucked at a corner of it even though it was piping hot from the fryer still. Blew on it a couple of times before popping it into her mouth. Some was offered up to Neith as well, in the form of moving the plate nearer between them to make it clear the welcome was there.
"How do you guys plan to protect yourselves against that potential? Do you know any counter magick?"
This said curiously as they turned and began to walk away from the cart, on their way once more but now at a slower pace (what with the funnel cake to draw attention now).
Neith
No way in Hell is Neith going to turn down funnel cake. She breaks off a modest yet sizable amount and isn't squeamish about the powdered sugar getting all over her hands either.
"I know every Sphere there is," she says. "Except for the Tenth Sphere, if the Tenth Sphere even exists."
So yeah, she knows countermagick.
William
[Searching! Per+aware)
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 4 )
William
There was a plan to be had!
And maybe William was late. Maybe he had intended on being on time or actually showing up drunk or parasailing in on something to make some grand entrance, but really the issue was much more complicated.
William was late because he had to sign his lease for another year and had to bat his pretty eyelashes at the landlord to make sure the rent didn't go up because he had put enough work into the apartment to actually make it worth being in. William's apartment is, by all accounts, actually pretty nice. The housing costs in Denver are crawling higher and higher every year and it literally does take an act of magickal intervention to make sure that your rent stays at the least bit affordable.
He would have had this conversation in the apartment with his landlord, but the leasing office was a safer bet. He didn't want his landlord asking how the Hell he'd gotten a baby grand up the stairs. He was actually being an adult today.
But enough set up! On to ... you know... actually finding people.
William, finally having the presence of mind to wear shorts and not a gigantic amount of clothing (shorts, v-neck, hoodie. Socks and shoes weren't important but they were there.) He felt like he had a good lead on where Margot and Neith would be, given his knowledge of Neith, the relative deliciousness of funnel cakes, and the fact that his brain picks up massive amounts of sensory details and sometimes that include people's general aura and being.
"... Marco?"
Polo?
"No, not you," he responds to probably himself.
Margot
William was somewhere not far off, putting out feelers into the air for other resonances of Magick and power. He was on point today, the beacons were strong and clear and recognizable and easy to pinpoint. From Margot, distinctly her from the Magick they've woven together (the splash of blood and viscera across the dirt, and the steady hand that held the blade responsible), and from Neith with similar familiarity as well.
Margot was busy looking impressed by what Neith had just told her. "Damn," was all she had to say to that. What else could you? It was a thing to be pretty proud of-- an accomplishment, achievement unlocked.
More funnel cake was plucked away from the mass and popped into her mouth, and as she chewed Margot's pronounced dark eyebrows hopped up on her forehead. Recognition of another ripple in the tide pool of resonances had reached her, like the barometric shift and sudden wind of a storm rolling in, and somebody walking against the heavy gusts that it carried.
"Hey, Will's here," she announced. The fact that she was still looking around to find him and that she hadn't received any noticable messages on her phone gave clue to how she'd known of the arrival.
Neith
[perc + alert: where!
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 3 )
Neith
It isn't her extrasensory awareness that has Neith locking in on the other Hermetic but rather her eyes, her memory, her ability to pick a tall young man out of a crowd of average-sized folk. Margot announces his presence, Neith turns to find him.
Again with the beaming smile. It's a gorgeous day outside and her skin will tan deeper as the summer goes on. Sunlight suits her.
Once she has a lock on him, Neith goes tearing across the lawn to jump and throw her arms around Will's shoulders like they didn't just see each other at home last night.
William
[Str+athletics, diff 6. Nobody puts baby in a corner.]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]
William
He's actively looking. Says
"Marc-"
Hahahahaha-
It's never a good sound when a disembodied voice of a dead person is laughing at your potential misfortune. Which, of course, keys him in to the run up and the sprint. He's pretty in tune with that sound and, given that he's pretty aware that she isn't going to punch him, he has one other option:
Neith runs. She jumps
William holds. He lifts
"Iiiii haaaaad the time of my liiiiiife-" and said lift is only maintained for a couple seconds before actually coming down because jesus he's not Patrick Swayze for crying out loud you can't just do iconic pseudo dance moves in the middle of the park.
Margot
When Neith took off running, Margot was left standing in place looking surprised with powdered sugar at the corners of her mouth. After a couple seconds of still searching about her wide eyes found the person she was running toward. Watched with some hard-to-read (nobody was reading it anyways) expression on her face as Neith made a leap up at him with her arms wide. It turned to a muted (sad?) humor when she was lifted high up into the air. When Will belted out the iconic song to match the visual, Margot popped a little more funnel cake into her mouth and began walking to join them.
She arrived at a much more casual pace than the Hermetic girl had. Smiled and offered her plate to Will once he had Neith back down on the ground.
"Hey, good to see you made it."
Neith
Up she goes, and the sudden altitude has Neith yelping in good-natured surprise. Trusting Will not to drop her, she goes along with the joke, stretching her arms out wide and laughing.
Once her feet are back on the ground, she rakes her hand through her hair to right her unruly hair and ambles back over to where she had left Margot. So far as anyone can tell, the two are just friends, nothing more going on than that.
Done with the funnel cake herself, Neith dusts her hands across the belly of her romper and then claps them against each other. No more powder.
William
It's fortunate that the joke didn't go on for long, because they were already at the part where he kinda had to hum through the stuff that he didn't know. And bless him, blond and oblivious, he's too busy thinking don't drop Neith to notice the tinge of perhaps sad humor in Margot. Perhaps sad, probably just muted. He can be oblivious and we shall blame it on his blond, blond heart.
Neith gets put down- "Sweet, funnel cake, fuck yeah," he takes the plate and beams. Bright and pleased because the sunflower that he is would be immediately pleased by something laden with sugar.
"Did I keep you ladies waiting long?"
Margot
"Not especially. We've been here for a little bit. Long enough to get this anyways." She lifted the funnel cake up a little higher in indication, then brought the plate back in front of herself, balanced in the palm of her left hand so the right was free.
"We were walking and talking. Mostly about this maybe-heist so far."
Whatever possible hint of sadness that had been there was chased away. There was sun in Margot's hair and on her shoulders and legs. The day was pleasant and there was a general air of cheer in the festival commons, crowded though it was. It was easy to forget to be gloomy here.
"Will, do you know whether this guy's a Sleeper or not?"
William
He slips his hands into his hoodie pockets, stands firm and grounded, which seems strange for him. He doesn't feel like he should be a grounded anything. He feels like perpetual upheaval, like something that wants change so badly that it aches.
"No idea. That was part of what I was hoping to evaluate when we go and visit?" he said, "I know that Awakened people know who he is, or at least know of whoever this guy says he is. Whether he can use magick or not, I don't believe that this guy is mundane or clueless by any means."
Margot
The girl nodded her head seriously, accepting what observations on the matter Will had. For a moment there was quiet, where she ate a little more funnel cake (and offered a second bite to both of the other Mages there).
"Uh," she said, sounding awkward once more. "Wanna go check out some games?"
That was about all she had.
Neith
"I like games."
Without pausing to consider that maybe the younger girl has the same issues with personal space that half the Awakened populace does, Neith slips her arm beneath Margot's to link their elbows together and begins to saunter off in the direction of the midway.
"You're new at this, aren't you?"
William
William is content to keep his mouth shut, except when he's trying to fill it with funnel cake.
Or being distracted by whatever shiny thing it is that distracts him. He's very easily distracted.
Margot
There's a fair bit of surprise painted on Margot's face when she found Neith linking an arm with her to start them moving along toward the games once more. Her steps stuttered when they got started, but she found pace alongside this new Mage, this friend-of-a-friend-potential-friend-herself.
With the question posed, she grinned faintly and glanced ahead. Didn't pull her arm loose or move so stiffly that she seemed uncomfortable at least.
"I've been Awake for a year now. I'm... relatively new still. Didn't learn about Traditions or what All Of This is until six months back." More funnel cake plucked and eaten. "What about you? Will--" a glance brief and fleeting to the owner of that name before returning her attention to Neith, "said you joined the Hermetics by choice, as opposed to it being a family thing. Like he did." A pause, then: "There's a lot of people in that Tradition. It must have some serious perks."
Neith
"Well, they're the oldest tradition, and they have a lot of rules, but I feel like there's something in the Order for everyone. One of the first Hermetics I met in Denver was part of House Flambeau, and another guy, he was in House Ex Miscellanea, and he had the biggest arcane library I'd seen, at that point in my life. Whatever you want to do, there's a House to support you. I can't say that about the other traditions."
She glances over at Will, her eyes still occluded by her shades.
"My father's in the Society of Ether. I think he would've wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but at this point, between the Technocracy and him being from the future and all that shit, I'm kind of lucky to be alive right now."
William
"It's a weirdly flexible worldview for something that has a lot of rules," he confirms, "you wouldn't think it the way people talk? But seriously. I've met straight up followers-of-Eris and umbral adventurers and statistics professors and whatever the fuck Kalen is and they're all Hermetics and, to a degree, able to work together. Stereotype of everyone who isn't us sucks aside, it actually really teaches you to work with other people."
"For some people in the Order, it is a family thing, which kinda follows across a lot of awakened life I'm starting to figure? I don't know if you're met Arianna, but apparently she grew up around the whole Hermetic Order stuff."
A beat. Like it hits him what Neith said and that she's lucky to be alive and he keeeps his hands in his pockets and looks forward.
Neith
... and whatever the fuck Kalen is...
Neith tries not to laugh, but the laugh is a startled noise, so she ends up making a coughing sound before she regains her composure. Bites her lower lip and thanks MAC that she picked a matte color instead of lipgloss this morning.
Margot
The statements about the Hermetic Order-- how apparently it was more open and had a lot of different houses to make up for the many different styles of Magick and scopes of Paradigms-- these were all soaked up like the information sponge that Margot was. The statement that Neith added at the end about her dad being from the future and her being lucky to be alive was met with the same kind of concerned and impressed stare that you would expect.
"I'm already set on what I'm doing with myself," she advised, as though she thought the tone of their explanation of how the Order offered wide views and options was one of those on the converting path.
The funnel cake was three fourth of the way finished. Another glance toward Will, and Margot nudged him with an elbow then offered him up the plate-- not just for a bite this time, apparently, but how she held it out this time suggested he was to take the plate off her hands entirely. The rest is all you, buddy. He looked like he could use it all of a sudden.
Her fingers were dusted on the white tank top she was wearing, not wanting to leave powder residue on her black shorts. After a moment she inquired of Neith, quietly:
"....what happened with the Technocracy?"
William
Oh, sweet! Funnel cake! And not talking about the Technocracy!
He eats merrily and lets himself be thoroughly engrossed in the subject.
Neith
I'm already set on what I'm doing with myself.
"Okay," Neith says, still trying not to laugh, though she does sound a bit bemused. Like she wasn't going to try and convert her and Margot is the one being weird.
Then the funnel cake is making its way over to Will and Neith has her hands in the pockets of her romper, her gaze wandering at the crowds around them, and then a quiet question. It's not exactly a secret, but sometimes Neith forgets that Ginger is no more. Her entire life story isn't a file on an automated bulletin board system anymore.
"My dad," she says with a sigh. "He sort of fractured time, and the Technocracy had him on their Most Wanted list for a while. When I Awakened, it was because of a temporal paradox, or something, and I accidentally killed a couple of their agents. They captured him a couple years ago, but Paradox kicked him back to his original timeline? Don't worry, the last I heard, they weren't looking for me."
Margot
As Neith told her story, Margot was silent as a grave ought to be. There was talk of alternate timelines and traveling between them, of being on the Technocracy's most wanted list and killing agents and Paradoxes and... By the time she was finished Margot's mouth was in a grim line and sympathy stained her brow as well.
"That's.... a lot." She lifted a hand to scratch at her scalp, then pushed her sunglasses back down over her eyes-- she'd forgotten that they'd gone up into her hair earlier and just remembered that she had the option for occular protection.
She swallowed and went quiet. It was abundently clear that she still had questions, many of them, as was the nature of those still recently immersed in the world of Magick and Mages. A part of her that knew manners and consideration kept her tongue held, though. None of this sounded like an easy subject to bring up, let alone be interrogated abobut it.
After a minute, probably less, she offered up quietly:
"How can--...," Nope, Margot, that was still a question. Try once more.
"I mean, um.... look--" she pointed abruptly, ahead. "A rope climb contest." Indeed, up ahead, a
William
He looks at Neith, gives her half a nudge.
Half sings
"Iiiii'm my own grandpaaaaaa."
Because that's what happens when you fuck with the time stream.
Neith
There was a time when this would not have been remotely funny to her. She, like Margot, was traumatized by what happened to her. Her father was missing, his fate unknown, and the only person in the world who thought rescuing him was a good idea is the young man standing next to her.
Half a nudge, half a song lyric, and she breaks into an answering grin.
"I'M MY OWN GRANDPA!" she sing-yells, before tagging Margot and starting to haul ass towards the rope contest. Just because she's an initiate of the Order doesn't mean she has to behave in public.
Margot
Neith recognized a particular something in Margot because she knew it from herself. A certain melancholy that tended to ebb and flow about her, often in the wake of worry, the result of contemplation and a wandering thought.
The distraction had worked, and Margot grinned after Neith when she took off running after tagging the arm that she'd previously been holding on to. Didn't chase, though. Glanced at William and grinned at him too. Said nothing. Perhaps he gave chase after Neith to play along with the game of declaring Margot to be 'it', perhaps he did not. Margot walked along and caught up with them soon enough after all the same. The most they got out of her was a light jog (though it was a comfortable-strided one, the run of somebody who ran often and well).
When they came upon the contest, she reached into that camoflauged fanny pack (sorry again) to retrieve a couple of bills for the vendor.
"I'm going to whoop your guys's butts at this," she declared.
William
[This is truth. +2 diff because not really]
Dice: 7 d10 TN8 (2, 5, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 4 )
William
He sure as Hell wasn't going to stand there looking like a total dumbass, and he certainly wasn't going to be left all on his lonesome where someone else could actually be having fun. These people are his friends. His actual friends. His friends that he can share large chunks of his life with and, while they may be transient creatures, they were currently there.
He does not, however, seem to have a good turning radius. He's tall, yes, but a little like a Great Dane puppy in the sense that he isn't exactly an agile creature. This, of course, was coming after he had poured every ounce of willpower that he had into not dropping his friend when he decided to lift her.
He skid to a halt.
"Oh ho, you say these things, but... uh... crap, no, you've both seen me do a pull up, this doesn't end well," he's patting himself down for his wallet. Retrieves a few dollars.
Looks at Neith.
"Margot is secretly a power lifter."
Said like this is the absolute truth.
Neith
Neith lifts her aviators up high enough that her dark brown eyes become visible for the first time. A light hand with the mascara, and when she looks at Margot naked like that, it's easy to see why someone would develop a crush on her. Her nose wrinkles when she laughs.
"No shit?"
True or not, she drops her shades, flicks her eyebrows, and stretches her arms high over her head.
"Power lift this, bitches."
[dex + athletics: climb!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (6, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 4 )
Margot
[Dexterity 4 + Athletics 2: climb! (WP, impressing friends!)]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 9) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
William
[I am physically inept. >_>]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )
Margot
Margot wanted to make a good impression on these two. They were true peers, as she deemed them. Well... for the most part, anyways. They didn't feel like elders in the world of studies and castings, but were similarly aged and maybe a little cocky and felt about as strongly connected to their Avatars as she was. Not like the Doc or Penelope or Nick (perhaps no more powerful in the scheme of things, but knowledged and mature all the same).
She watched Neith take off up the rope with ease and grace and watched for a few seconds, then turned her head to Will and inquired: "Does she moonlight as a super hero or something?"
With some mental pumping up, but just a little, Margot climbed onto the next rope over and climbed as well. She tried her hardest, and the effort was clear in the concentration written into her face, but it wasn't nearly close to whooping asses like she'd promised. Neith blew her out of the water. But she (and William both) made it to the top all the same, and was able to claim one of several meager prizes. She eyeballed the prizes, landed on a small stuffed sea turtle, and held it under one elbow.
"Well, I'm glad I didn't put money on that."
William
He is not good at this. He could probably climb for the better part of an hour, but William was not exactly strong or impressive in that particular regard. He tried, sure, but he seemed much more interested in other things. Like magick. And languages. And harp. And Harp (the beverage). And a host of other things that were delightful and probably not terribly useful to him in the long run but damned if they weren't cool.
William tried, though, and this was a legitimate effort for him. He got to the place that he needed to be, and then dropped as fast as he could because he was pretty certain that his arms were going to hate him for the rest of his life (or at least when he wakes up tomorrow.) Whatever the case, it was back down with him and... uh...
Rubber duck 4 pack?
"She wanted to show off her butt. It's like pulling your hair to flirt with you? Except it's public contest-based humiliation."
"My fragile masculinity is utterly damaged now."
Neith
And she doesn't even have the good graces to act as if she's out of breath.
Will, at least, knows that she took gymnastics when she was a little girl, that she would have gone on to study dancing in a serious capacity but for the fact that her father yanked her out of school when she was thirteen years old. She does yoga and kick-boxes to stay in shape. Has muscles where one would expect a young woman of her activity level to have them.
Showing off her butt doesn't take much effort in a romper but she manages to maintain her balance and reach the very top of the rope climb to some applause and an isolated whoop. Once at the top she drops and slides back down to claim her prize.
Will's fragile masculinity is damaged.
Neith stands on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek, demure, then figures what the hell and plants one on Margot's cheek, too. Thanks, MAC. It doesn't stain their faces. Once she's picked out a stuffed animal or whatever the hell they have for prizes, she slings it onto her shoulders like she's giving it a piggyback ride and asks the most important question.
"What's next?"
William
D'awwww-
He gets a kiss on the cheek and something praises his adorableness and he knows he has an audience but maybe that audience will go away at some point. Until then, William puts up a big show in grudgingly being okay with this soothing behavior.
"We come up with a worst-case-scenario continengcy plan in the event that things go to Hell when we're poking around?"
"We learn how to climb walls and dodge poison wall darts?"
A beat.
"I don't know, I'm new at being the George Clooney of things. I'm never George Clooney. I'm not even Matt Damon."
Margot
Will observed the showing off of backsides to Margot. "Huh?" She'd asked, apparently distracted, and turned her head to look at him. This was the time that the girl born out of time (sort of? time parallels are weird) strolled up and kissed them both upon the cheek. Will found it cute and made that known, and Margot had closed the eye that she'd come near and rolled a shoulder up too. She looked taken aback, blinked a few times, then reached up and swiped her wrist at her cheek to clear what lipstick she was certain had to have been left behind. So much for not blushing while hanging out with the cool kids.
"It's not wall darts that I'm worried about," she said ominously. Way to be a bummer, Marg.
Neith
"What are you worried about? Cooties?"
Never in her life would Neith have thought she would be one of the cool kids. She's just being a kid right now.
"I saw a booth where people were throwing darts at balloons, let's go check that out."
William
"Well... that's why we're training and this?" he gestures around him with the four pack of plastic ducks that he has acquired, "is as decent a training ground as any.
"There is plenty of time to be worried, but right now? We have a fuckton of one dollar bills and I have a desire to build a tiny rubber duck army, c'mon," offers Margot an arm with a smile that is almost reassuring were it coming from anyone else who seemed to have a sense of danger and good decision making. He told her that he made questionable decisions, was upfront about that. Was upfront about when he was wanting to do something dangerous and was getting very good at disclosing the risks.
Didn't stop him from doing it. Couldn't stop it, either. It was just in his nature. Beyond that, he really did have a hoard of ducks to build.
Neith
[cha + emp: come on margot literally all the cool kids are doing it]
Dice: 4 d10 TN5 (2, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
Margot
[Peer pressure!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )
Margot
Margot hesitated, because of course she did. She was skeptical as to how Will could call this training, but then she supposed that he had it in his head that they would be climbing walls and doing summersaults across yards to get to a library, where Neith would pick the lock and let them in to meet-- to meet what?
She supposed that she would have to
At this moment, though, William and Neith were there smiling and encouraging her on to keep dumping creased dollar bills into games and food vendors and spend the rest of her day half flirting with the summer and the Mages that reflected it so well.
It took a moment, but finally her face cracked into a small smile.
"Alright," she said, and placed one hand on William's forearm (like a little old lady, god damnit Margot you're so bad at this). "Where are we off to next?"
