Doom Phone Call #10

[K. R. Jakes] 12:04.

It's four minutes into Tuesday when Ashley's phone rings. Maybe she has a ringtone for this number. Maybe it just rings. Either way, it isn't unlisted: K. R. Jakes.

[Ashley] Ashley doesn't use ringtones: she keeps her phone on vibrate. They're annoying enough for people that can hear tone, without throwing Ashley's particular deficiencies into the mix. So she doesn't know who it is until she picks it up, looks at the glow in the darkness of her room, but she'd already suspected it to be one of her Awakened colleagues.

Kage is one of the few she'd pick up for right now. The voice at the other end of the phone sounds exhausted, raw, a little thick. "Hi."

[K. R. Jakes] Kage's voice is clear, except for a note, a thread, of something that could be smoke; something soft. To the point: "You okay?"

[Ashley] "Yes. Did you feel...?" Trail away. Ashley doesn't know whether this struck everyone, whether it struck those attuned to the Minds of others. Whether it was just her. She doesn't even know whether Kage knows the Ars Mentis at all.

[K. R. Jakes] The conversation is spare, is bones; survivor's sort've conversation. Hi. You okay? Yes. Did you feel...? "Yeah." A beat. "Boy, did I. Slashed myself on accident." Another beat. And, like her heart doesn't squeeze, painfully, on the other side of the connection [connexions]: Cycle back, though: " - felt it on two fronts. In my head. And - " a hesitation; Ashley might be able to guess. She knows Kage can see across the gauntlet, knows Kage can see spirits, ghosts, otherthings.

[Ashley] Pause. Then, "Are -you- okay?" It's not without that wry touch, pointed, as she shores up what she can. It's like the efforts of an emergency crew at a levee: just enough to support. And temporary.

[K. R. Jakes] "Just needed one bandaid." Beat. Then: "No, I don't think so: I'm pretty sure the wailing of the -- I'm pretty sure I'll be dreaming about the sound." Another beat, and: "And I don't know what the fuck happened. Do you have any ideas, 'ley? Is the white fence house still a safe house?"

[Ashley] "...I don't think it was Catherine. That felt..." Pause, distressed silence. She's felt Catherine in pain before, six months ago. "Nothing's tripped my wards." Another pause. Breathe in. "I talked to a High Umbrood...an angel...a few weeks ago. He said there was something out there and that I'd feel it. I ran into something infernal coming back from the library last week. There's something..."

She lapses into silence again, without finishing the sentence. "Do you want to come over?" It's an offer. Not a plea for company.

[K. R. Jakes] A lick of silence. A ribbon of it. At the mention of: High Umbrood; Angel. Of what order, she could ask; what hand does it sit on. Ashley trails away, and Kage is still silent: thinking, maybe. Do you want to come over, the Hermetic says, and there's an explosive sigh: "Wow." And a gleam, could be amusement: grave-amusement, almost-grim: don't let the craptastic world get you down. "You're keeping fancy company, 'ley." And: "Sure. If you'll be awake in about an hour." Doesn't take an hour to get to Ashley's apartment from Kage's, not unless there's significant traffic, and well: maybe there is. With the bridge collapsing.

[Ashley] "Yeah...they aren't what they're cracked up to be. It turns out they don't even take you to dinner before they try to possess you." Dry, no gleam of amusement there. It doesn't surprise her that Kage needs an hour to pull herself together, might want that time, so there's a simple "Yeah. I'll be awake."

[K. R. Jakes] "Dirty bastards," she says, of High Umbrood-etiquette. Then: "Then I'll see you."

And click.

[Ashley] Click, and Ashley is left to try and pull herself together enough to have the Orphan in her apartment, so maybe it's lucky she has that hour after all. She wipes at her face, rubs raw eyes against the back of her sleeve, and when that fails, pushes up out of bed and goes to wash it instead. That turns into a shower.

By the time Kage arrives outside her apartment she's more collected, or at least will appear to be. Standing in the kitchen, boiling water. Black tea with samovar.

She did this same thing after a shotgun ripped Dylan's guts open, splattered her with gore, after she called Jarod to tend to the suffering woman on her couch. Ritualistic creatures, mages.