Meet the Parents

[James Blake] They haven't heard much from each other since the day James cooked breakfast for Morgan. Maybe she's heard the rumors flying around that he sent two apprentices into danger. If she has, that would explain some of the silence. James' entire world is silent, though, and at some point it dawns on him that he hasn't initiated contact with Morgan since he received her phone number. He looks to change that one morning, sending off a text message at a respectable enough hour.

Brilliant idea: let's get something bad for us for brkfst and eat it down by the lake.

[Morgan Lake] Home made or store bought? I have blueberry coffee cake or strawberry pound cake, each of which was made with roughly a pound of butter and a pound of sugar. That comes first, and then, See you there.

Everyone needs a break sometimes, after all, and after a more precise location than 'by the lake' is determined, Morgan collects what she needs for this breakfast (including a blanket for sitting on the ground and a large thermos of iced coffee) and heads out, the better to meet James. Sure, she's heard rumors? But she's also heard rumors about herself and a great many other things. She doesn't bother to pay much attention to that sort of thing, at least not now.

[James Blake] Yum. Bring both?

He'd given her a location, eventually, and gotten into a cab. Back home taking a cab was always something of an adventure, but cab drivers here in Chicago are not as startled by a fare handing them a piece of paper with an address on it. When Morgan arrives at the lake, she'll see James isn't smoking. The smell of it isn't even on him. He's not wearing a suit, either, but sneakers and jeans and a white polo shirt. He's standing with his hands in his pockets and his attention out over the lake. He ought to be watching behind him what with not being able to hear the apprentice's approach, but with the threat of a storm the lake's waves are choppy. It's interesting to look at. So he looks at it.

[Ashley McGowen] A lot of mornings, Ashley's apprentice is at her apartment, there to peruse her library or write a paper for her - sometimes about bits of Awakened history or magical theory, but Ashley doesn't stop there. A lot of times Morgan is reading mundane philosophy or religious texts, which might make a lot of Hermetic apprentices impatient, but Ashley finds it beneficial to have a good background in these things.

Her mentor happens to be at the lake today. It's close to her apartment, and she has a dog, who, rather than straining at his leash and attempting to wander off, is sitting quietly while she crouches by the lakeside. Watching the water, for now, the wind rustling through her short dark hair. She doesn't see James. He probably doesn't see her.

[James Blake] (( Perc + Aware ))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 6, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Morgan Lake] Alright.

And so there she is, after tidying away her study materials but for the one or two she feels comfortable enough with to bring along - reading by the lake, in company, is still a break, after all, even if her reading is not so much the relaxing kind as the studious kind. It's possible that they're both the same, to her. She doesn't drive to Ashley's, being so close to where she's going, but makes the trip back to the castle for the cakes, coffee, and other stuff, takes a quick shower to rinse of the sweat produced by an already warm and humid (and threatening rain or storms) morning before driving back to the little park on the lake side of the Mile. She parks, and it's Ashley she sees first, as she's pulling things out of her car.

"Hey. Did you eat breakfast, yet?" It's not a rare thing at all, for the apprentice to feed her mentor.

[Morgan Lake] (And sure, Per + Aware!)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Ashley McGowen] It seems appropriate for Morgan to be offering this woman food. The feel she gives off is one overwhelmingly of Hunger: something deeply primal, driving and fighting and alive and altogether probably not what one expects from her Tradition. When she hears Morgan's voice, she looks up and around at the two behind her. Morgan, and a young man she's not familiar with, and there's a brief light of curiosity in Ashley's blue eyes.

"Would I be interrupting?" she asks, with a sidelong look toward James. She's heard his name. She'll recognize it, when it's offered up. For now, the young man is just another face, albeit an interesting one. She hasn't yet gotten up to move over to them.

[Awareness]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 9, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[James Blake] He doesn't see her at first, but as he stands there his awareness circles outward and he becomes aware of a resonance stranger and more complicated than any he's ever felt before. The tall young man, his sloppy hair made more so by the wind, blinks and looks around for the source. What he finds is a diminutive woman with dark hair and a determined look about her. James scratches at his chin. He hasn't heard much about Ashley McGowen, hasn't been told her rank or anything at all, really. All he knows is her Tradition.

It's chance, and the strength of Ashley's resonance, that has James looking over as Morgan appears. He takes a step back from the lake and walks over to the two women...not as quickly as he normally walks, Morgan will note. It's almost as if he's expecting an outburst from the Deacon.

[Morgan Lake] "No, we're just eating. I brought two of the less old and rare books with me and thought I'd read outside for a bit, before it rains. This is James," she says, indicating the Chorister with a smile, as he comes near. "James, this is Ashley." She's careful, of course, to stand so he can read her lips; the things she's brought are packed into a basket except for the blanket, which is over the arm not holding the food.

"You've heard of each other, anyway. I take it you haven't met yet."

[Ashley McGowen] This is James: and Ashley has been told from several sources that the Chorister is deaf. It might make communication between them slightly difficult, given Ashley's own physical difficulties, but the Hermetic is used to navigating around things like this.

She extends a slim hand toward James, and it isn't there to threaten, to gauge his strength or weigh his confidence. It's just there, a handshake, because he's new and he's Awakened and it's the polite thing to do. "Hi, James," she says, and she too is careful enough to look him in the eyes and speak so he can read her lips. And most people who come to Chicago have heard Ashley's name before in one capacity or another, but she gives him the benefit of an introduction anyway. Deacons don't really get to be casual, with the new sorts. "I'm Ashley McGowen, Order of Hermes bani Tytalus."

There's a pause as she looks at him, takes in the fact that in order for them to both see James and for him to see them, it's going to require a lot of maneuvering. Ashley thinks for a moment, then looks back at James and hooks a thumb beneath a necklace that usually lies beneath the collar of her shirt, tugging it free. It's a chain: links of different metals, bound at either end by a strip of leather. Her thumb has skewed through the iron one. "Do you mind if I make this a little easier? I won't hurt you."

[James Blake] Ashley knows a few things about James either from observation or hearsay...he's ridiculously tall, he's just barely older than Morgan, and he's deaf. As he eliminates the distance and comes to stand before the two women his demeanor switches from hesitation to confidence. Not cockiness, really, but more like he's assured that he can handle whatever happens with this woman he hasn't heard all that much about. She's been built up in his mind, see, and if she wasn't what he was expecting he doesn't show it. He gives her a broad smile and shakes her hand willingly, making eye contact without boring into her. When she speaks, he watches her whole face and not just her lips. When he speaks, he signs and dictates what it is he's signing. Maybe he's hoping the whole of Chicago's mage populace will slowly pick up on his language through immersion. Maybe it's just easier for him.

"Nice to meet you," he says. He signs slowly to match the cadence of his speech...which, even with her own impairment, Ashley can tell is that of a man who has never heard human speech in his life. He can't control either the tone or the volume of his voice. "Finally."

He looks at Morgan as if seeing her for the first time, and raises a hand to wave. Then he looks at Ashley's chain...and isn't alarmed. He can't count how many times he's done Mind rotes to make communication easier. James just smiles again and says/signs, "Go ahead."

[Morgan Lake] She waves back a bit shyly; the last time they'd seen each other she hadn't been all that together, and goodness only knows what sort of impression that must have made. Still, he texted her and she'd come instead of giving an excuse or ignoring it, so there's that.

With the slow signing and speech, the younger (taller) Hermetic puts down the things she'd been holding and tries to mimic - it's close, but the movements are a bit on the clumsy side. Obviously, she's not used to using her fingers this way, but to curl around a writing implement [or wand] of some sort, or to knead dough, or similar less delicate actions. "I'm going to learn," she says, and when Morgan says something like that, in that tone, she means it. "And let's go sit down. I only brought two cups, Ashley, but it's coffee anyway."

And she knows her mentor prefers tea - still, if it comes to it, she can share her cup with one or the other of them, and so on. This rote? It doesn't throw her, and makes sense.

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley doesn't look particularly impressive. Most middle-schoolers are taller than she is, and people don't imagine a chantry deacon, or most Adepts, to be the sort to wander around in a T-shirt and a pair of shorts with a leashed dog trailing off of one arm. She's used to it.

He gives her his permission to join their Minds, and a few seconds later he might wonder if he made the wrong decision. Her resonance flares as she extends her Will outward to encompass them both, to bring the three of them together. It's like a pair of jaws close around both of them, press in against their Selves, the things they would usually keep hidden, dredges secrets out of the deep. Morgan's used to it. For James, it's probably a little disconcerting, initially, but then again, he is also used to Mind.

It's only after the Willworking is done that she has a seat there, shaking her head when Morgan tells her it's coffee. "That's okay, I don't need anything to drink," she says. She's staying here because she hasn't met James before, and doesn't intend to linger for -too- long.

[Mind 3, diff 6. -1 for focus, -1 for practiced rote. Spending WP, botches suck!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 6, 6, 8 (Success x 4 at target 4) [WP]

[Ashley McGowen] Once it's done, the three of them have a bridge, of sorts, between them. Ashley's "voice" forms in their minds, the words spun out of the essence of thought, something two-toned, high pitched and almost musical and lower, wound around that one, working deep.

I figured this would be easier. Take a minute.

[James Blake] Morgan's clumsy attempts at signing make the Chorister smile again. He watches her face as much as her hands, and when she suggests they sit down, he nods. But first he waits for Ashley to cast.

He's an Initiate, but there are still things in this world that James hasn't encountered before. Telepathy, for example. Having his mind directly linked with another person's. It actually makes him stagger. He has to put one foot back to catch himself when Ashley bridges their thoughts together. His mind is no less active than a hearing person's. It might even be more active as he's trying to process the world around him without input from his ears. James recovers after a moment to breathe, then smiles and tries to think back at her without throwing pictures and abstract ideas at her. He knows that Ashley (and Morgan, too) are aware of his every thought now. So he tries not to look at Morgan too long.

Wow, is the first thing he manages to come up with. His mental voice is far different from his speaking voice. It's what he might sound like if he hadn't lost his hearing until he was an adult, or even a school-age child. He actually starts to sign before he realizes he doesn't have to. He laughs, flustered, then looks back to Ashley. So you're the deacon everyone says I need to talk to.

[Morgan Lake] Morgan is used to it but that doesn't mean she much likes it - being used to Ashley's resonance doesn't mean she's ever going to be used to people poking around in her head, which is what every mind effect directed at her feels like. (Yes, she has an issue or two. Doesn't everyone?)

It is easier, yes. In its way, anyway, and now Morgan moves to lay out blanket and food just so, then pets Zane when her hands are free. Her own internal voice is shyer than her external one, and there's a careful attempt at distance kept though a direct link makes it much more difficult. And Ashley's amazing. Blueberry or strawberry? These things are not that important, really, but it's more a stab at covering discomfort than anything else.

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley manages to maintain some distance in the connection: she's skilled with this, specializes in it, and attempts to keep it from being too overwhelming for either off the younger mages. Thoughts that she wants to communicate and the occasional emotional tell are what they get from her, so they both at least get the sense that this can be done.

She sits down on the blanket once Morgan lays it out, encouraging Zane to lie down outside it - which the dog happily does, sprawling out on his side. There's something wryly amused, but flattered, coloring her thoughts when Morgan calls her amazing. But all she says is Blueberry, and then her eyes rove back toward James.

Yeah. New people get sent my way because I approve all the chantry visitors. I've heard your name come up a couple of times too. This, but no indication of what she might have heard. Or whether it's good or bad.

[Morgan Lake] ((Shiiiiiit. I lost track of time and have to go. Carry on! Either or both can grab me later. Sorry, don't even have time for out-post.))