Still waters

[Charlie McGee] Charlie was alone...the rec center closed for the night. The Akashic had the place to himself. He closed his eyes, taking a strange stance almost akin to ballet bow...then as if to internal music, he began to sway...rotate...spin. His feet whirled, his body moving like a top...deft and cutting through the air like the wind. Flips were followed by brief hand stand vaults before moving into the motion similar to caporeia as he used the movement and momentum of swinging legs to swirl around and kick out. It was like gyro of legs, shifting the weight of his hands under him to continue the spin and momentum before rolling to a stand.

Then the real music kicked in and the almost combative stance shifted to just quick body spins and aerial corkscrews, shifting from what could possibly harm to instead acrobatic and impressive beat boy maneuvers meant to awe and dazzle then strike and daze. The sound of the boombox could be heard by anyone standing outside the rec center, especially the gym section.

[Emily Littleton] She shouldn't have been alone in Bronzeville after dark, but Emily wasn't making very good decisions of late. She hadn't slept enough, hadn't taken care of herself. She was running on empty, because that was the only way she could keep the disquiet far enough from her mind. And because she had done this so often, for so long, she was fairly adept at obscuring just how deeply things had gotten to her.

Except that it showed in the way she popped up where she oughtn't be, or was a little rougher around the edges.

Unsure of what had brought her back to this particular rec center, in this particular corner of the city, on this particular half-mooned night, Emily wandered nearer to the sound of loud music and obvious activity.

Someone was here, else there wouldn't be music. Someone was confident enough to disrupt the neighborhood, but not with violence. Someone... someone... and Emily was curious enough to find out who.

She pushed open the gym door, peeking inside as it creaked open.

[Charlie McGee] The door wasn't locked. Generally Charlie was good about that but coincidences like that were often part of being one of the Awakened. Charlie was into his groove, he didn't quite sense the other presence...he felt something but he was locked into the motion...another corkscrew spin before he collapsed to the floor with a thud...his arms smacking down to break his fall. Then flipping back to his feet from a zero lateral hand stand, legs kicking around before spinning him to full standing once more.

[Emily Littleton] It was Charlie. Emily slipped further in through the door, easing it quietly shut behind her. She stood next to that aperture, out of his way and off to the side, waiting. And watching. There was something impressive about the way he moved, fluid and controlled at the same time. Emily had no such grace...

... and every bit as much of the Awkaened touch with Fate. She'd been meaning to come by and see him again. At a more reasonable hour, of course. So the dark-haired Orphan stood by, hands in the pockets of her coat, messenger bag hanging to one side, and watching him with those (weary) dark grey-blue eyes.

She almost faded into the background (almost), if could ignore the feeling of another Mage's resonance (Reverence [growing]) in the room for long.

[Charlie McGee] Charlie was indeed like his namesake...his resonance. He moved like water...fluid, graceful, his movements almost tranquil and yet rushing like a rapid river before he finally came to a stop as his legs shifted in motion, bringing him once more from standing to spinning across the ground...curled almost into a ball, before legs twisted above his body, hovering in mid air like scissors before hips shifted to spin his body further...then his rotated stopped, legs crossed and his body seemed to settle into a lay as his elbow leaned on the floor, his chin propped up. He looked like he was just resting, as if he had been chilling that way the entire time.

It was almost smug.

[Emily Littleton] So much could be said without saying a single word. It came down to the cant of the body, the tilt of a head, the curl of a smile: wordlessness, but not berfet of meaning. So, too, is Emily communicating something when she steps wordlessly from the shadows near the door, with her head bent a little and her shoulders rounded. There is the sound of footsteps on the floor, drawing closer but moving without precision or purpose.

She's been gone for quite some time. He'd asked her a question, and Emily had failed to return with an answer. From the submissive body language she wore now, it was unlikely she'd brought any insight in with her.

Three or four steps forward. Just to the edge of the light where he is. Then she stops, and lifts her head (her eyes) a bit. If he looks over, she'll pull one of her hands out of her pocket and wave a little. If not, she'll wait.

Emily is getting better at waiting.

And if she's left to wait long enough, well, then she might slip out the way she came.

[Charlie McGee] Charlie then laid back fully on the polished floor meant for basketball, eyes closed. The rag on his head protected it from what little dust was on the floor...he breathed for a moment, letting his body cool before he spoke.

"So...have you figured out how to make a lake move?"

[Emily Littleton] "No," she said, and the admission bothered her for some reason. Emily drew both hands out of her pockets and wrapped them around the strap of her messenger bag. She moved in more closely, now, finding a place near him on the gym floor to sit. The bag made a dull, heavy sound as it settled beside her. He could likely feel the vibration in the floor from something solid striking ground with but a few thick layers of canvas to cushion it.

"Because I cannot figure out what might make the lake move, as a whole, without that movement being reactionary, bourne of some external stimulus." Her voice was low, thoughtful and slow. "Aside from moving the world around the lake, and letting it resettle, there's no answer that doesn't rely on some sort of physics -- thermals, fluid dynamics, etc, and that's not what you asked me."

Emily shrugged a little, sadly. "But I can imagine how it might move, were it so moved..."

[Charlie McGee] Charlie smiled.

"...the last part of that answer was correct."

He then laughed some, gesturing for her to sit as his legs went into a lotus position without even a flinch of uncomfortableness...the guy had to be double jointed...it would indicate why he was so limber.

"You imagined it...you thought of the lake rippling...moving. That was the answer all along. You think, therefore it is. You were using too much of the logic and not enough of just the imagination."

[Emily Littleton] Emily lifted the strap of her messenger bag over her head, and let the bag lay flat on the floor beside her. She also unbuttoned her coat a bit, since it felt constrictive to sit with it all tightly fastened.

The stark lighting in the gym did nothing to help her hide the weariness in her expression, in her form, but she carried it thoughtlessly (or appeared to [or she was simply that out of touch with her own body]).

"Haven't I told you?" she queried, letting the corner of her mouth rise wryly with the inflection of her voice. "I'm an engineer. We're not so good with the imagination bits, and all about the logical ones."

It's a mild jest, self-effacing, but she'd still managed to arrive at the correct answer eventually. Perhaps all hope was not lost for her yet.

[Charlie McGee] "To understand the art I'm treating to teach you, part of you has to let go of some of that."

He waits for her to sit before he demonstrates with his hand.

"We are made of more then just minds and science. The art of science can't quantify all the things that the mind can imagine...all the relative factors outside of its formulas."

He grinned a little.

"Its about feeling outside of the boundaries of what is told we can do. Imagine that this room...this place...this thing...is not here. Like you're still in a dream that you haven't fully woken from...you know you're dreaming but not quite sure how soon the alarm clock is about to go off...that's what this sometimes feels like for me. That I can sense how...not there all of this really is. Once I realize the constrictions placed on me...that I place on me...I can slip by them one by one."

[Emily Littleton] There's an argument in the scientifically-minded Orphan across from him, but Emily hasn't the energy tonight to expound upon it. Perhaps that's why she's found him now, at the edge of her attention and energy, when she has less drive to question, less need to push.

Still, some part of her mind adds a silent Yet to what Charlie tells her.

"... one could argue we're more than even minds and bodies; more even than minds and bodies, spirits and souls," she says, her brows knitting together in obvious consternation. "But that's all going to come down to where you believe the distinct, defining element of self resides..."

Emily's eyes close for a moment, and she reaches up to rub at the center of her forehead a little. Then her hand drops away again.

"... if..." Here she trails off, leaving that much unsaid. If, she would have continued, he even posits there's a separation of individuals. If, there was any point to trying to draw this back to metaphysics (which was a philosophy, not a science [though science is a philosophy]).

Charlie seemed far more poetic; Emily was terribly prosaic. Pragmatic. She could explain things in metaphors and vagueries, but it was not where her natural inclinations lay.

[Charlie McGee] "In layman's term..."

He leans over and his fingers reach up as if he were about to impart some divine touch of wisdom to her...only to thump her forehead.

"...you're thinking too much."

[Charlie McGee] Perception 4 (Insightful) + Empathy 2
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[Emily Littleton] She'd been lost in thought whe he reached to tap her forehead, and so Emily had missed the beginning of that motion. She'd caught it only once his hand was near to her face, already in her personal space, and it startled her. There was a flash of open concern in her eyes, a tightness to her expression that only began to abate once his hand withdrew. The thump itself didn't seem to be the problem, because she only shut her eyes and skewed her expression up wryly.

"It's kinda what I do..." she said, straightening up a bit in a way that simultaneously put more space between them. Emily wrapped her arms around her middle, pulling her coat tight around her again. She seemed smaller, even though she was quite a tall girl.

"But point taken."

[Charlie McGee] Charlie watched, noticing the concern and the sudden deer in headlights once he was in her personal space. She had freaked out almost similarly when he had touched her to see how good shape her body was in.

"Well...you sorta passed the question...so we'll start on the next step. For the next week...or however long it takes...I want you to build a lake. One up here."

He smiles, tapping his head again.

"...imagine how big it is, how the water looks...what things you think swim in it...is it cold, warm, lukewarm, just right? Just build a landscape. Decide if there is anyone else there or its just a private retreat...is the lake like a mirror or does it never stay still for long? Focus on all these and remember that lake...and then...every day...I want you to take fifteen minutes...thirty...and just think of the lake...relax and admire your mental piece of water. Think of things that put you at ease...that you like...think of what sort of trees...birds...fish are around that you like."

"For a beginner, a good place to think on your lake is in the bathroom...when you soak in the tub or the like. Bathrooms I find are amazingly the place our minds most tend to wander as we have nothing else to focus on while either washing up or well...you get the idea."

[Emily Littleton] She was probably worse at all of this than any mage had been in the history of ever, but Emily was determined to try. It sounded peaceful, imagining a lake and the scenery around it -- she was never going to get her mind to sit still, quietly, long enough for her to work on these exercises.

She tried, though. Emily closed her eyes and thought actively on the details of the lake. She made decisions about the water temp, the weather, the resulting smoothness or choppiness of the water. The angle of the sun glinting off the water. The life swarming around inside of it. Decisions, made willy-nilly, built up the scenery quickly, determined the ebb and flow of the convection cells...

But this was active, it was all a matter of busy brain cells and that was contrary to Charlie's purpose. At some point, there would be no more decisions to make. The lake would simply be, and all she would have left to do is watch it. Experience it.

As her mind quieted, and the constant stream of noise and agitation began to fade, even in the barest sense, Emily felt her hands start to tremble. She pulled them against herself, to hide this from Charlie, but it was only the beginning. She could feel something in her start to give way, to take advantage of the quiet.

So her eyes opened, and they were forcibly calm when they found his. "It's... going to take me some practice," she admitted, with a somewhat rueful little smile. All the quiet, the calm, she wasn't ready for it just now.

[Charlie McGee] "Oh...I know it will. More, you have to make it your own thing...the lake is a basic exercise. Try the bath thing...you need something that makes you sit still and relax to begin with. But branch out from the lake...even I fucked up on the lake."

Charlie grins, amused at his own failure in that.

"You take what does work for you and go with it...you take what doesn't and set it aside. And sometimes...you just have to make it. The main goal is to be able to focus your mind...to focus it and hold it there. Meditation is part of it but its the ability to have no mind...and yet fill it at the same time. If I try to explain it, it will just make you go 'bwuahhh?'"

[Emily Littleton] She laughed a little, at that. It seemed genuine.

"No... I think I know what you mean. Sometimes I'll be staring at a schematic, or something else, at work for so long and so intently that I'll look up and realize I just got lost in it and stopped... thinking. And I have no idea how much time has passed, or if I fell asleep... but I've usually have something sorted by the end of it. The answer to a problem in my homework, or a better way to go about something else... Maybe even some insight into whatever I'd been working on when I drifted off."

Then Emily's teeth caught the corner of her lower lip, pulled it shyly into her mouth. "Um... well, if that's the same at all. It occurs to me that it may not be... after all."

[Charlie McGee] "It is...and it isn't. That sort of mental zoning is more you're seeking the answers in your mind...in this exercise...this is meant more to clear your mind. Once you can do that...we'll get to the next parts. And yes, I realize that this is a far cry from kung fu flips and breaking bricks. Thems the breaks."

[Emily Littleton] She nodded, and this time Emily didn't have any argument. Not even a quiet, unvoiced inner argument. Just a nod, and a pensive expression.

"I don't mind," she said, softly (honestly) when he pointed out the absence of kung fu flips and breaking bricks. To Emily, this sort of work was far more palatable and productive anyway. Learning to not actively engage her mind was trickier than learning to put it toward new and curious pursuits.

[Charlie McGee] Charlie rose, stretching.

"Besides...the only meditative stance I know I can't even sit still for...cat stance's give you a charlie horse like no one's business."

[Emily Littleton] This got a quizzical look from Emily, who was starting to shift out of that self-protective (guarded) posture. But that transition became her buttoning her coat again, collecting her messenger bag. These small movements strung together into a sort of controlled restlessness that carried her all the way through reclaiming her feet.

She looped the bag's strap over her head again, and now she was standing much as she had been when she arrived: hands wrapped loosely around the strap, coat buttoned up primly, dark hair falling down about her shoulders.

[Charlie McGee] Charlie stretched again before he started to walk for the door.

"Any case...mental work...focus..meditation. Once you get that...then...we'll move on to the next step."

Charlie grinned wide at that

[Emily Littleton] "Okay," Emily agreed readily. Charlie sounded like he had a plan, and she was grateful for that much. It helped her to think (not think, believe) that she was on track towards accomplishing something. Plans were integral to progress. This time, she did not ask him what came next. She tried not to think about it too much either.

Not thinking about something was quite difficult.

"Though this may take me quite a while," she admitted, somewhat cautiously. "Hopefully not as long as last time..."

[Charlie McGee] "What will be done, will be done. I'm not going anywhere yet...."

Charlie gave a smile as he saw her out.