[K. R. Jakes] Evening. Ring, ring goes Ashton's phone. The ID: K. R. Jakes. The phone number: plainly visible.
[S. Ashton Winters] She picks it up; there is the sound of something in the background. It sounds like gurglin. It's high pitched and pleased. It turns to malicious, wicked, adorable childlike giggles.
"This is Ashton," she answers. Droll and terse as ever.
[K. R. Jakes] What in the ...
A brief pause. Dead air.
Then, a familiar voice. "Hello, Ashes; it's Kage. How are you?"
[S. Ashton Winters] "Finishing up dinner," she told her, "and will more than likely be cleaning my walls after all things are said and done."
A pause, and the water starts running. There's a smile on her face; it's hard to hear.
"Kage, it has been entirely too long."
[K. R. Jakes] "It has been a long time," she says. There is no background noise wherever Kage is. Not enough, anyway, that it filters through the very present noise that envelops Ashton in (mommyhood) reality. "We should get together." A brief pause; she's considering saying they should get together now, maybe. "But I was actually calling to ask you whether or not you knew a man named Wharil?"
[S. Ashton Winters] There is silence there, and the sound of more giggling and nonsense talking. Some of it sounds like real words, though it is hard to tell.
"We really should," a beat, "and the name sounds familiar. I've probably met a Wharil once before..."
[K. R. Jakes] "The kid sounds like a handful," Kage observes, deadpan. Then: "Well. He seemed familiar with you; I told him he should look you up regarding something difficult. He said he would, and I hope he does, but I just wanted you to be prepared."
[S. Ashton Winters] "Anything you can tell me about him before we meet? Anything I need to know, like he hates the color purple?" She pauses, then there is an abrupt, but automatically pleased, "and she is. Marcelle takes after her improbable name's sake."
[K. R. Jakes] "There isn't actually a lot. He's -- got fugue in spades and aces." Kage's way of seeing the world. Fugue is arcane; maybe Ashton remembers that. "He's looking a lot like the current PR guy," she'd used that analogy with Wharil, and it stuck, "for your guys. He smiles. Oh, and when I say 'your guys,' I mean that specifically. The kind of doctor you are. Not just the hospital."
[S. Ashton Winters] "If he good PR? When I met him, he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, and it might be worthwhile to have someone around that I can forget about... which is an odd statement to make, however, it's worth being made none the less."
She stops.
"Hang on, I'm putting you on speaker, i need two hands," she tells Kage, "okay, do we have anyone else? I've been incredibly out of the loop."
[K. R. Jakes] Speaker phone has its issues. There are strange noises; there are odd blips and echoes. The person you're talking to invariably sounds like a ghost (like someone from the other side of the mirror). "You're being ruthless again, Ashes. I can hear it in your voice," Kage says, and she sounds amused. A pause, and then: "And you know I'm not a 'we.' Not in that sense. I'd love to say that I've been out of the loop as well, but alack. If he doesn't find you, however, I think you should try and find him. This difficulty is difficult." A pause. And then: "Hi Marcelle!"
[S. Ashton Winters] "If there's some sort of genetic material available, I have little doubt that we'd be able to find him," she says. You're being ruthless again, Ashes.
It's strange to think that Ashton has had a child. It's odd to think that she would do that, if it would factor into that fanaticism she has... it's another facet of creation, though, and she has spawned an agent of destruction.
Hi, Marcelle.
She laughs and kicks her legs on the cabinet.
"hi!"
"Marcelle, tell Miss Kage how you say hi in Farsi."
"Salam! Saaaaalaaaaaaaam!"
[K. R. Jakes] Okay, that's pretty damned cute. Kage laughs (smoke).
Then, back to serious business: "Oh. Wharil? I don't think the genetic material kind of finding will be necessary; you two just really need to have a chat. The difficulty, though. That's all part of the difficulty."
[S. Ashton Winters] "every time I need to have a chat with someone, or chat with someone and find out I like them? They either die horribly, leave, or leave and die horribly. It's just the cycle of things. For his sake, I sincerely hope that- Marcelle, give me the phone... thank you- that he's a jerk because it means he might live for awhile."
She pauses.
"Did you know the chantry's had an incident? From what I've gathered, something bad happened."
"Coooooold!"
"Sorry," she says to no one in particular. There's a small conversation to be had, and then an adjustment of running water.
"better?"
"Yep."
"What do we say?"
"Thankyoooooo-"
"De nada, bella."
[K. R. Jakes] "Well, don't judge yourself a curse just yet," Kage says, wryly. "I rather like being around." A beat, and: "I'd heard," she says. Then there is some drama with the child. Kage waits it out, patiently. Her older sister has two children; she's well used to these kinds of conversations. "Were you involved in that?"
[S. Ashton Winters] "I was involved with that... some crazy shot me in the stomach with a shotgun. A few mages showed up... the node seems to think it's in trouble, it called out for assistance. I think... I think I might go to see what's up, but I don't know. Someone needs to check into this and tell what's going on... Some decent folks in this city. Kincaid needs to talk to me about security, though, so it makes me wonder who I'm going to have to shake for giving out my information because I have no clue who he is, but he seems to know my name."
[K. R. Jakes] "What were you doing?" when the crazy decided to shoot Ashton in the stomach with a shotgun, one would suppose. "Are you okay?" A brief pause -- the briefest of pauses. And then: "Ashes, may I level with you?"
[S. Ashton Winters] "Node freaked out, it was the second worst pain I've been in in some time... second only to the first time it decided to have a fit," she said, "and I;'m assuming they were... possibly hunters. they weren't mages, but they were covered in blood and had weaponry that wasn't like normal."
A beat.
"It's January, of course I'm okay."
Another pause.
"What's up?"
[K. R. Jakes] ...had weaponry that wasn't like normal.
"Hm. Oh really."
This is how phone conversations are.
Broken up. Bit by bit.
It's January. "Ha."
Pauses. Caesu-
-ras.
"Okay," Kage says, seriously. Then: "I don't think there's any other 'someone.' You're the 'someone.' So is Wharil. You all are. Nobody's going to tell. And I don't know this Kincaid guy, but if he said your name and told you that you and he needed to talk security, he probably wants something. Maybe a friend."
[S. Ashton Winters] "This would probably make sense... I... oh god, I make a terrible friend, Kage... if the poor guy is seeking me out that really says a lot."
She takes a second and sighs. There's the sound of rustling fabric and being taken off speaker phone. Marcelle seems tired, as that she's not talking half as much.
"We all seem really alone out here... Dylan tried to bring everyone together once, but... that didn't work out too well."
[K. R. Jakes] They get disconnected.
[S. Ashton Winters] It takes a few seconds, but Kage gets a call back.
Ring ring.
[K. R. Jakes] The phone rings twice. Then Kage answers it with: "I'm sorry." Beat. The beat stretches; it becomes a sigh (storm). "Look. That probably didn't work out too well because you guys need to actually talk. I'm not talking, hey, let's form a cabal, why don't we have meetings every Monday, let's build a brighter, better world together, let's dance under the moon and weave sonorous chaunts under on the brassy shores or anything, but just -- of course you're alone. You're relying on someone else to not only get you together, but to do the work. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm going on, but I -- I'm worried for you. All of you. And I'm worried for him."
[S. Ashton Winters] "It's human nature," she starts, "we want the moon and the stars but no one wants to build a rocket. This is just how things end up working. People will organize and rise and do things when their complacency no longer outweighs the gravity of their own situations... and, either people act or they become numb."
She's a bit quiet after that.
"There's too few of us to be so separate... and there's too few of us to play the games we do."
She stops again. this is the way it is with Ashton. All stop-start conversation.
"I'm worried, too."
[K. R. Jakes] "So act. And not alone; talk to Wharil. Talk to your mysterious security guy, find out if he's friend or foe."
Another pause. This time, Ashton can hear movement. The movement is followed by: "That Dylan you were talking about. His vision is -- he's gone. So he's not going to step up and try to help you again." Pause, for reaction.
[S. Ashton Winters] There is silence. Long, painful, aching silence.
"How far gone is he?"
[K. R. Jakes] "He's not coming back." [dread] "Do what I suggested. Please."
"And I have to go, Ashes. Phone's almost out of battery."
[S. Ashton Winters] "Call me when you can recharge, I should be awake for awhile... miss you, Kage, you have to meet the plum. She's cute, and life affirming."
A pause.
"Night."
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