Names

[K. R. Jakes] K. R. Jakes is half-a-block from Ashley and Emily, perhaps less, when she spies them: diminutive Ashley, short of hair; dark-tressed Emily, who wears Home around her throat, tucked safe under her shirt. Her hands are jammed into the pockets of her coat for warmth, which is unbuttoned, letting winter sneak fingers inside, lay His knuckles against her shirt, reach through, bruise her skin; occasionally, she flaps her coat, pulls it tighter. Her steps slow for a second; she pauses, and perhaps she is considering that she has never actually seen them together, although each has mentioned the other to her -- even before she knew that that's what they were doing. Perhaps she is considering something else; at any rate, her gaze wanders to the side, rests on the mouth of an alleyway, and then narrows. Kage's shoulders lift-and-fall, and then forward motion happens again, although her swagger is somewhat diminished, it is still present [lyric: I'll tell you one] while she approaches. When she's close enough, close enough to catch Emily's last sentence, she says, "Evening."

[Ashley McGowen] "That's the next step," Ashley says, with a nod. She's watching Emily, seeing that light of inspiration in her eyes. It stirs something in her, somewhere, some of the joy and passion for Willworking that she's been lacking of late. Some of the wonder she used to feel when she'd push boundaries, during those dark evenings in Europe running with her old cabal mates.

"You're going to fail sometimes. Let it teach you something and keep persisting until you get it - and then improve upon it once you've got it."

And then, this said, she turns her head to look at the Orphan who has come up to the two of them. "Evening, Kage," she says, and her tone is pleasantly surprised even if her expression is not.

[Emily Littleton] They have been standing there, talking, for some time. And Emily, who is enjoying the conversation, has places she needs to be and things she needs to attend to. A subtle reminder of this buzzes in her jacket pocket, jarring her side slightly (in the soft place below her ribs) and widening her eyes a bit. She didn't pull the phone out of her pocket, but did look down a little (distracted).

"Sadly, I must away," she finds herself saying, at the conclusion of her chat with Ashley. Which is also the moment when Kage arrives, with a diminished swagger (minor key?), as Emily is gathering her carrier bag off the floor of the sidewalk.

"Kage..." she says, and there's an inward struggle for a moment: to stay, to go. Emily comes down on the side of going, but only because she has too much to say to her Other, and a growing need for sleep. (Burning the candle at both ends.)

"I hope to catch up with you both again soon." There is regret in the words, as if she'd really like to stay. Apology, for Kage, who she has not spoken to in... too long. After helloes and goodbyes and such things, Emily makes her way back to the corner to cross, back towards her car and home (wherever that is for now).

[K. R. Jakes] Her smile of farewell is brief (scant [a slant of light]). "And good night, Em." Her attention turns to the Hermetic. There's a question in her expression, more obvious than it might otherwise be; closer to the surface (visible just beneath the skin). "Do you need a ride home, 'ley?"

[Ashley McGowen] "Take care, Em, and good luck," are Ashley's parting words as the girl makes her way off down the street toward her car. The Hermetic is still leaned against a wooden pole, studded with staples and splinters and apparently unbothered by either. The man about thirty feet away is painting an ink silhouette of the skyline on a piece of paper: Asian ink and paintbrush, and from time to time Ash watches as the ink is spread in a wet swath across the page. Wistful, almost.

She's been standing out here for some time, as evidenced by the redness that has crept into her flesh across her cheekbones and nose and ears. She straightens, a little wearily (how long has it been since she slept?) and nods toward Kage. "Yeah. Thanks," she says, meeting the Orphan's eyes and noting the question there - but unsure of what it is. "How are you?"

[K. R. Jakes] [m?]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 3, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[K. R. Jakes] "Well." And succinct, apparently.

Kage almost sounds as if it were true; almost. It does not look true. The Orphan's skin is too pale (lacklustre). Her lips are too chapped; she is thinner, a candle what has been burning too long, and now the fire's out, and the wax has thinned, has dripped, has poured away. There are shadows around her eyes so dark that they look like bruises, almost. In short, Kage looks like shit. Not well at all.

"Enough," absent, tacked on the end -- as if to make it more true. "I think I'm parked down this way. You look tired," she adds, because even though she is tired, even though she is somewhat unsteadied tonight, she is sharp enough to note this; sharp enough to mark certain expressions on the Hermetic's face. "How've you been? You know," a brief, wry smile. "I think that's the first time I've ever seen you and Emily standing in the same place. When Enid gets back from China and I see you two standing in the same place, all my worlds will have collided."

[Ashley McGowen] "...Enid's back from China," Ash says as she begins walking toward Kage's car, hunching up her shoulders and shrugging the jacket upward to settle the collar around her neck. It is instantly clear to Kage, as soon as she mentions Enid's name, that this is what has Ashley worn thin: there's something tired, something even heartsick, in her expression as she glances up and down the street and then steps off the curb. "Last week."

She doesn't begin to explain immediately, though, instead watching Kage's face, noting that she too looks worn. "Are you sure you're okay? You look...sick, or upset, or something." Hesitant, because she's expecting to be rebuffed, but the question is still out there, accompanied by a gaze that rakes over Kage's face, over the shadows beneath her eyes.

[K. R. Jakes] " - oh? Already?" Ashley looks heartsick over Enid's return and Kage raises her eyebrows. "Are you fighting?"

"I will be fine," she says, and her voice (haunted [clotted (rake out the leaves)]) is low, but steady. "I just," a pause. Natural; it comes when people ask her a question that will be in some way revelatory. "I just haven't slept well for a couple of days," and, somehow, there is a note of self-directed wryness in this.

[Ashley McGowen] A glance sidelong toward Kage. An arched brow, a skeptical pursing of her lips. "Right," she says. "Well, if you decide you want to talk about it..."

And she trails off, considering Kage's question, about whether she and Enid are fighting. Then there's a sigh. "Enid...all right. Her mother's a Technocrat. Got a hold of her and Austin while she was in China and attempted a conversion. She got out and she's staying with me now, and..." A pause, and her mouth thins. "I just have no idea how to make it better, you know?"

[K. R. Jakes] [now now, you may be tired, but you're not THAT blunt!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[K. R. Jakes] Her reply doesn't come right away. They're walking down a narrow alley, and a dark one; the perfect place for two women such as themselves to be attacked (the perfect place for an ambush [for a murder]). The cement is slippery; the light is chancy, and uneven, and a lightbulb is flickering as if it were a fire a moth kept trying to singe with its wings, and there is a parking lot on the other side, Kage's black truck on the far side.

"I get the impression that Enid's mother wasn't a very good mother; she doesn't sound like a very good Technocrat either, if she didn't even notice when her own daughter went awake. It isn't as if Enid was subtle. I -- how did she get out? Is she," a brief pause. "A trick or a trap?" Callous, maybe.

[Ashley McGowen] "I guess she's away a lot. Comes home once or twice a year. So no, not a very good mother," Ashley says, and she hunches her shoulders again when they reach the alley. Squinting in the dim light. "But she noticed that Enid went Awake, and I guess tried to persuade her over by talking to her, and when she wouldn't go..."

She keeps pace with Kage, keeping the Orphan on her left side. She can't see her while she talks, can't always hear her very well either, but it at least allows her to keep an eye on the rest of the world. "She had other people in her mother's cabal that she was close to. Called them aunts and uncles. I guess one of her uncles let her and Austin go." Here her mouth thins, her hands find their way deep into her pockets. "I checked her and Austin out when they got back. They're clear." A beat. "She begged me not to."

[K. R. Jakes] She begged me not to. "I'm sorry," Kage says, after another long pause. They have enough time to walk across the parking lot. They're not the only people out; this is late evening, and even in winter, Chinatown is full of crowds (some less savory [some less than sweet] to be certain). She takes one hand out of a pocket and presses her palm into her forehead, bending her head [profile: delicate] into the pressure. The cold makes her wrist tingle where it is bared for a flash of a second.

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley is silent as they walk toward the truck, as Kage presses her palm to her forehead as though to cool it, as though to soothe away pressure or tension. She lets out a slow breath. "She's staying with me. But she wants her parents, and there's not really a lot I can do for that." Which, perhaps, is a complex emotional situation in and of itself: Ashley thinks of Enid as something between her younger sister and her child, has since she took the girl on as an apprentice. That she can't serve as an apt replacement right at this moment is hard to accept.

But this is as close to expressing those emotions as she's likely to get; even talking this much about it is something, is an oddity, and perhaps a sign of how worn down she's gotten. She turns her thoughts away from it, back to the Orphan. "Something bothering you that's keeping you from sleeping?" (It's just a thing that's smart to do.)

[K. R. Jakes] [mrr?]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 3, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 1 at target 7)

[K. R. Jakes] and there's not really a lot I can do for that. "No," she agrees.

Kage is fortunate in that she has managed thus far to stay in contact with her family. They're still close (too close, sometimes) and she can and does go to them when she needs a place to be quiet and hide. They don't know about what happened four years ago when she suddenly began to see Him. They don't know anything except Kage almost had a mental break. They're family, and blood is thick. "You miss those ties if you had them. Is she going to stay, or are you going to send her away, somewhere safer, where she can take on a new identity?"

something bothering you that's keeping you from sleeping, Ashley presses, and the Orphan exhales sharply. They're at the truck now, and she pulls her carkeys out of her pocket, puts the key in the lock, opens it by hand, then unlocks Ashley's door as well. "I have bad dreams," she clarifies. Her tone of voice, however, is inscrutable [opaque (don't look)].

[K. R. Jakes] ooc: change to! "You miss those ties when they're gone. If you had them."

[Ashley McGowen] "I'm not really close to my parents," Ashley says. Perhaps it's meant to be an explanation, of sorts, of what she expected (hoped) to find when she was inducted into the Order of Hermes. For what she'd hoped she could do for Enid, because she did not find what she expected. "She's going to stay here. She'll be moving in with Solomon. Between the two of us and Hermetic ritual, she should be safe."

Upon reaching the truck, Ashley grips the handle above the door to lift herself into it, turning her head to look at Kage, to watch her, as she makes her way around to her side of the car. And when the door opens, "...I see. From your Avatar?" Then, hesitant, "If you want to sleep, I can help."

[K. R. Jakes] Understand this: it isn't just that K. R. Jakes can't sleep. That she lies down on her (ivory) bed and rests her cheek on her (cool, wintry) pillow and breathes in the (clear, unresonant) air and watches darkness gather in the center of her ceiling and cannot sleep. It is also that the thought of sleep, of what dreams may come, drains her; the very thought of whatever she'll see once she falls into it makes her stomach clench and her muscles tauten and a wave of sick fire flush up her throat and throb in her temples, a drum, nightmare, nightmare, come.

"Oh," she says, casually enough - "He gets involved, sometimes. I can usually smell Him if I wake up from one and He isn't there, leaning over me. Thank you, but no." Firm (imperious [proud] little Orphan). Brief smile, no light. "I'll be fine. It's just a bad day."

And back to the Ashley McGowen show, Kage raises a skeptical eyebrow, but refrains from criticizing Hermetic ritual. Instead, she says, "Should she? What exactly are you going to do? Keep her in Solomon's house?" A briefer pause; follow it with: "What about her father? Do you think she'll be able to stay away?"

[Ashley McGowen] Kage refuses, and Ashley just nods: it's something she can understand, refusing help, letting your Will carry you alone. Relying on yourself. And so while she doesn't think it's just a bad day, that there's something more to it than that, she lets the matter rest for the time being. Kage is indeed Willful, and Ashley respects that.

"I can ward her when she leaves Solomon's, but she hasn't really wanted to leave that much," Ashley says after a beat. "As for her father...I think she can stay away. She'll have to." Unless she could find a way to remove Kaye and Dan and Pete from the equation. And she is still thinking about it. Very, very thoroughly, and very, very carefully.

[K. R. Jakes] "I don't know about Solomon's house. But -- you. There are mundane ways to find you, 'ley. Enid's mother met you, didn't she? Did she get your name?" A brief pause; tense. "I'm sorry if I'm being negative." That isn't an apology she'd normally give, not really; not for a question like this. Still, this is now, and she gives it, eyes on the road, knuckles white, and the truck on the road, too, not at all silent. There was music for a moment: it leapt to life as soon as the truck turned on; Kage turned it off. She glances at Ashley in the rearview mirror once they hit the street.

[Ashley McGowen] "They know me, yeah. But all of my bills and my lease and everything are registered under my Sleeper name." A moment of silence. "Even if they -can- find me, I'm not going to hide from them. If she wants to come find me, she can do it. I'm not afraid of a woman who was so out of touch with her daughter that she let us talk to her for months before she did anything."

A twitch as the music blares to life within the truck, and then she relaxes. "If she comes after me, it's going to happen, and I already have some pretty extensive wards. No point in getting worked up about the possibility at this point."

[K. R. Jakes] The truth is this: Kage is of the same mind. However, Kage is also (paranoid [cautious]) thoughtful. Or at least, she's readier to see a trick when there is one to be seen. "I'm inclined to agree," she says, with a faint smile. Sardonism touches it. "Unless," she's looking at the road, again, "The woman isn't so much blind and slow as ruthless and heartless, and she just wanted to draw the riffraff out with a bright new penny like Enid. New opportunity, waste not, want not, etcetera. Either way, I'd like to see Enid, if I can. If you'll tell her I said hello, at least."

[Ashley McGowen] "You guys met with some of them last month. They already know who some of us are, if they communicate internally at all," Ashley says, turning her head to look at Kage. "But I doubt they want to risk trying to get rid of -all- of us, so we're at a stalemate. If they come after me they'll be contending with others, and so forth. She'd be stupid to try it."

When Kage asks to see Enid, Ashley nods, redirecting her eyes back toward the road. "She's at my place for the next couple of days. You're welcome to stop in and say hi."


K. R. Jakes] The redhead turns the heater on and pulls her hat off. Her hair is a mess, and far greasier than it should be; tarnished, besmirched, a darker red. She does not appear to notice and does not groom herself in the rearview window when they idle briefly at a red light. Her mouth curves, faintly -- memory. She still has that card. "I wonder what they think," she says, and means what they think about the standing back from the situation which did not happen. To Ashley's offer, a nod. She's really too damned tired to drive, and it takes willpower to stay steady, to stay honed and sharp.

"Well, 'ley. How are you beyond all that? Speaking of having people to contend with, have you, Wharil and Gregor finished your charter and gone all official yet? Or is that plan in need of glue?" After all: Kage witnessed one of Ashley and Gregor's misunderstandings. She knows some of Ashley's issues with Wharil.

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley, who did not meet the two Technocrats that all of them met that night, simply looks over at Kage and shrugs. She struggles to think of them as people the majority of the time - one can't afford to humanize one's enemies during a war. And to most Hermetics, the War is still most definitely ongoing and present.

Then Kage asks about the cabal, and a bright spark re-enters Ashley's features. "Yeah, we've talked. We're official. It's...been really beneficial so far, actually. Wharil's been more forthcoming and...Gregor was right about us assuming more responsibility for the city." A happy tale, really, how well the three of them have talked things out, how it's resulted in growth for her and Gregor at least. Ashley doesn't leave it at that for long, though. "Have you given it any more thought?"

[K. R. Jakes] "Good," Kage says, because she -- for whatsoever reason -- wants Gregor, Ashley and Wharil to cabal up. Kage wants -- for whatsoever reason -- the Traditionalists in Chicago to have structure [leadership (responsibility)]. "I kind've thought that maybe you guys would need glue now that threats aren't -- you know. Now that you've got to remember they're there. So. The Society of the Nameless Crow. What are you guys going to name the white fence house?" The Hermetic probably wouldn't put it past Kage to avoid answering a direct question simply by pretending to be more exhausted than she is. But she isn't pretending: the question, for a moment, simply doesn't register; she was listening to the other part of what Ashley said, glancing at the animation that touched Ashley's features, and that was more important. So it takes a second, and then, belated, with a little startle: "Have I -- " she checks herself. "A little," neutral, of course. "Haven't talked to Gregor or Wharil."

[Ashley McGowen] What are they going to name the house. This draws a look, something that could be mistaken for wary. Except it's not: Ashley trusts Kage, perhaps because once a person's competence is proven her trust is easily won (and so easily lost again). It's a look that suggests that she is taking note of the fact that Kage even thought to ask that question, wondering if recognition of ownership is being extended to the Society without them having to claim it or lift a finger.

"We haven't discussed that yet," Ashley says. And here her expression twists a little; there's information she's learned that she wants to share, but isn't sure if she should.

Kage's response saves her, though. "You should talk to them, then," she says, raising a hand to rough through the hair at the back of her neck, leaving it curled against the collar of her coat. "If you intend to." Another look.

[K. R. Jakes] [aw, what're all those looks for?! -1 not on mah game t'day]

[K. R. Jakes] [mystery roll, doo-de-doo]

[K. R. Jakes] [final roll! don't laugh!]

[K. R. Jakes] K. R. Jakes is not on her game tonight (at all) and she is watching the road and listening to Ashley and Him vye for her attention. The first look isn't even noticed -- or, rather, it is noticed, and earns a raised eyebrow in response. "I think," she says, not believe, "That you," another check. "Plural you, that is." Back to thought: " - should name it as soon as possible. And," a hesitation. "Don't name it Willis, or anything of the kind. Name it something clean and new."

"And, oh. I've spent a lot of time at the white fence house since we were there together. I assume I'll run into one or the other of them there, eventually."

[Ashley McGowen] "I agree," she says, after a moment, when Kage says that they shouldn't name it Willis. Her expression twists again, and momentarily she fidgets, right leg bouncing up and down (too much time around Wharil?) as she contemplates her answer. Then, a sigh. "The node is sentient, and the Guardian has already given us its name."

But whether they should call it by that themselves is a different story: to have the Name of a thing is to have possession of it, and so far they do. Whether or not the -others- would, or whether the Society even wants them to, well...

"But yes. We should settle on something other than that, that's still suitable."

[K. R. Jakes] For a second, her shoulders tense (no). Then tension ebbs [wary (before the storm)] and is replaced by something that approaches ease. Even amused (contained [don't!]). This isn't about Ashley, though; not about the sentient Node or the Guardian who has already given out the Node's name.

What she says, eventually: "I didn't realize Ashley McGowen is your craft name?" Ashley'd said that all of her mundane paperwork was under her other name. Hopscotch topics.

[Ashley McGowen] It is an odd jump in topics, something that makes Ashley's head turn in Kage's direction, something that provokes a puzzled stare. "Of course it is. I wouldn't introduce myself by my Sleeper name to other magi." Mild disdain, there, for the Sleeper name; it marks a time before, it marks another person, another identity. One that she shed a long time ago.

A twitch of the corner of her mouth before she adds, "Sorry, I guess I should've chosen something more pompous to eliminate the chance of confusion."

[K. R. Jakes] "Hannibal Caspian Temple. Solomon Blackstone Quicksilver." This is Kage's way of agreeing with Ashley. "Why did you choose that name?"

[Ashley McGowen] A Hermetic's Name is a quite personal thing. Kage should know this, with all the time she spent around Hannibal: the Craft Name is the embodiment of the person they choose to become and embrace as they proceed along the path to Enlightenment. A pause stretches, silence coils up on itself in the small space. Then: "Why do you ask?"

[K. R. Jakes] "Because it isn't full of portent; I can't guess at the why," she says, glancing at Ashley for a second. "I'd like to know it."

[Ashley McGowen] "It is, just not outwardly," Ashley tells Kage, reaching up around the back of her head again, fingers rustling through hair, before letting them drop back into her lap. "Yggdrasil was an ash tree, as I'm sure you're aware...the name translates to a field of ash...McGowen is a name given to iron-workers. Though part of the reason I took it is because a close Akashic friend of my father's carried that surname and was nearly killed saving his life. It's...sort of a way to keep in mind my Akashic background, I guess, and pay attention to the symbolism inherent in the name too."

She turns her head to look at Kage, thoughtful, and seems as though she'd return a question of her own. Then she adds, "A lot of Hermetics choose very classic names. I chose something modern because I think it's important that the Order move forward. Adapt with the times."

[K. R. Jakes] K. R. Jakes doesn't choose to say anything at first. She asked the question (rude [obvious]), she listened to the answer, she smiled (brief) at one sentence (sure you're aware), and her eyes stayed glued to the road. The black truck is on Ashley's street now, slowing to let a pair of idiotic undergrads go by.

They're having a snowball fight, and the snow is practically mush, is wet, scatters, sloppy ice; it isn't satisfying for snowballs, but this isn't stopping them. Illuminated by the truck's lowbeams, they look, briefly, like coyotes-straining-to-be-human, too lean, too long, but that's a trick of the shadows. Sometimes what is mundane and looks momentarily strange really just is mundane. Sometimes.

"It's a good name for hiding," she says, after a second. "And it's a good name for fame."

[Ashley McGowen] There's quiet interrupted by a scoff, an irritated flash of teeth, toward the two undergrads running in front of the truck. They do this: walk out in front of cars, confident that several tons of metal will stop just for them, that through sheer presence they can make the road stop around them. (She was one of them once.) They move off into the shadows.

Then her eyes trace the Orphan's profile and her mouth thins, just briefly. In Boston, with its many Hermetics, she was often a peripheral figure: dwarfed by smiling Bran and wise Justine, a reedy little tree struggling into sunlight between its larger fellows. Here that doesn't matter, and her name is becoming more important than it ever was there. "We'll see," she says, in quiet tones that could easily be mistaken for neutral ones.

"Is Kage short for something, or did you choose it after...?"

[K. R. Jakes] "No." Her name is unusual enough that the spectre of why Kage has haunted her all through school. "It's just a name my parents made up when I was born. My sisters have much less creative names; I suppose Mom and Dad learned their lesson. There was no reason for me to rename myself after."

The undergrads make it back to the sidewalk without incident and the truck glides down the street, two, three more buildings, and then she brings it to a halt. "And here we are."

[Ashley McGowen] There's a flicker in Ashley's expression as she eyes Kage then: because Kage is a unique name, because it would have meant something different had she actually chosen it for herself (trapped after Awakening is different from being trapped from inception, after all.) Because all Names have symbolism, all people embrace their Names in some way, and Hermetics simply choose to shed that which another has chosen for them.

It's something she'll doubtlessly mull over once in a while during those occasions when they see each other, and she'll wonder. "Thanks for the ride home, Kage," she says, as she reaches for the door's handle. "You sure you're going to be all right to drive home?"

[K. R. Jakes] "I'll be fine; I'm glad that the guardian's given up the goods," she says, with a (brief [rueful]) smile. "No harm, no foul. Have a good night, 'ley. Don't forget to tell Enid I say hey." A brief pause, and, "I'll come by sometime later in the week. I'll call first."

[Ashley McGowen] "All right," Ashley says. The door cracks open, and she grimaces at the first blast of cold air before gripping the handle above the door so she can lower herself out. "Just call whenever. Good night, Kage."

And, with that, she slides out of the seat, and there's a passing wave before the door clicks shut in her wake.