Returning to the house

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley hasn't spent as much time in the chantry, of late. There's a pragmatic reason for that; after the meeting it came under suspicion that her apartment, her sanctum, was one of the places the Technocracy had discerned the location of. So is the chantry itself. Regardless of how obscured in shadow her True Name might be, if Ashley makes a habit of hanging out in either of those places for very long, it won't take the Technocracy very long at all to figure out that there's a Hermetic Adept wandering the streets of Chicago.

Adepts are sometimes devoted even greater scrutiny than the general Awakened populace. Their power aside, a lot of them eventually become Masters.

If mastership of magic is anywhere in the cards for Ashley McGowen, though, it's not for a long, long time at least. Today she's trying to devote herself to more basic arts, a grasp of Life that any initiate of the arts would have. She's not learning how to shred open a portal to other places, which one might argue would be a better use of her time. This particular Art is rapidly becoming a passion.

So Ashley is in the library today. When she hears someone come into the chantry she lifts her head, and the dog lying on the rug nearby does too (maybe he was what tipped her off). People come and go in the chantry but there's always a faint chime at the back of her mind, a readiness.

The voice is one that she recognizes, but that takes her a while to place all the same because it's so...unexpected. "I'm here," she calls down the stairs as she shuts her book. And then Zane is tearing down the stairs to greet the newcomer and Ashley is following, her pace more sedate. She eyes Lara a moment once she comes within view.

[Lara Wrathburn] Lara had finished hanging up her jacket and removing her shoes when Ashley had arrived downstairs. She looked downright pedestrian today in comparison to how she usually looked. A pair of jeans which were in good order and a old but well cared for T-shirt which bore on it the logo for one of the misfit's older tours.

Their eye's meet as Lara turns to look at the woman, a moment of curious scrutiny before she is going down on bended knee to meet and placate Zane with scratches behind the ear and friendly dog talk. "Well hello there big boy...your a friendly fella arn't ya? Yes you are." She chuckles before she looks up at Ashley once more a ghost of the smile she had for Zane remaining on her lips.

"Hello Ashley." She said smoothly as she tilted her head slightly, her hands still stroking Zane's back. "How have you been?" She seems uncertain in a way, wary perhaps of how things might go tonight, they might have each put a foot on the path to reconciliation...but that was still a long path to walk.

[Ashley McGowen] There seems to be no uncertainty in how Ashley carries herself. There's often a sort of smug confidence about the Hermetic, particularly if one happens to come across her in a domain she considers to be hers - namely her apartment or the house, though there are other places. It's there now, a sort of ownership in how she moves about.

Zane is indeed a friendly dog, and he lingers near Lara even after she's looked up from scratching him, as though he hopes there's more attention waiting in the wings. He seems content when she continues to stroke his back. Maybe it seems odd that Ashley would appreciate the company of a creature that needy, but there it is.

Ashley starts down the stairs, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jeans while she answers Lara's question. "Busy. We butted heads with the Technocracy over the weekend," she says. Which might lead a person to believe that they didn't instigate, that the whole encounter wasn't planned, even though it was. "And I've been studying the Ars Animae. How are you? What are you doing here?" It somehow manages to come across more as an interested inquiry than a demand, but only just.

[Lara Wrathburn] Lara chuckles at the inquiry cum demand and slowly stands back up, one hand lingering on Zane's head to scratch absently, such a friendly dog indeed, perhaps Ashley really was just a big softy. "I've been expanding my mind you could say." She holds up a hand and pinches two fingers together. "I'm certain I'm about this close to really blowing open a whole new world of insight." She said as at last she steps away from Zane and closer to Ashley.

She stops at a comfortable distance, not violating the woman's personal space in the slightest and the grin holds as she speaks. "I suppose....I'm here to try and bury the hatchet, so to speak." She said as she looked around at the house that they stood within for a long moment before looking back to Ashley.

"So here I am, back under your roof so to speak, I'd like to think I'm leaving some of my petulance behind...but take it however you will."
She looked the other woman over for a moment then...thinking on something perhaps, but beyond that she waits to see just how Ashley would take that bit of a news.

[Ashley McGowen] Lara says that she's been expanding her mind, mentions insight, and Ashley's eyebrows lower just a touch. There's something to be read into there, and the Hermetic doesn't miss it. This is the lot of her Tradition: finding hidden meanings in Words, grasping nuance in language, and it's something that Ashley herself specializes in, in particular. And she isn't sure what she thinks about that, clearly, to judge by her expression.

Actually, she isn't sure how to take any of it. Her expression seems to shift through several reactions at once, and there are a lot of times when Ashley is difficult to read, not because there is nothing there but because there is so much. It's hard to settle on one interpretation of what she puts forth. She's a complex person.

"I see," she says finally, and her hand comes to hover on the banister at the bottom of the stairs. She stays a step above Lara; they're eye level that way. "Why the sudden interest? You seemed pretty irrevocably convinced that you were under no terms coming back here, as I remember."

[Lara Wrathburn] She shrugs at that and looks off to the side for a few moments as she seems to consider how to properly answer that. It would be easy to simply come up with something simple, but then Lara wasn't the sort to take the easy route.

Her eyes swivel back to Ashley and meets that gaze once more. "You can't gain insight without coming to terms with the mistakes you've made. As much as I might have felt I was right back then, it wasn't the right move, i've seen that." She pauses briefly before continuing. "So it was time to set that difference aside, and apologize...I was a stuck up bitch." She shrugs. "There's not much more to it then that I suppose."

She rolls her shoulders then gently before shivering ever so slightly. "Brr, I'm far to used to warmer climate's. Want to move this to the kitchen so I can get something warm in me?" She looks briefly in the direction of the kitchen without moving yet. If Ashley wanted to stay here...she would just have to deal.

[Nathan Spriggs] Since acquiring a license, there's been many so-called 'borders' that Nathan's managed to get past, for one an ability to go where he wanted, when he wanted. No more waiting for an hour just to catch a bus and walk a limited distance to where he wanted. It was a freedom of sorts, as much as a sentence. Licenses were traceable after all, and one could memorize license plates and models.

He'd also come to learn that the driving truth behind the wandering always came down to the same thing: You always invariably found yourself wondering back to the places you were rooted at. The bar at the corner, the cinema you're used to, your friends'... the House.

Precisely where he finds himself tonight, as he parks his car on the street opposite of the House and, thick grey denim jacket slipped on, opens the door as he pivots and steps out. Shutting it behind him without even making an attempt at the usual no-sound approach, his hands slip into the pockets as he trudges closer and closer to the porch. Up one creaky step, and another... A halt as he's about to push the front door open, a beat, listening in for sounds of life.

Then on he goes, into the cursed House. "Who's around tonight?" He calls out with a glance around the room, hands slipping out of the cold as he lets out a misty exhale and throws himself onto the couch.

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley's face is still while she takes a moment to process. She's not a woman who wears her heart on her sleeve, precisely, but her eyes still give her away; they're an expressive feature, and right now they look a touch suspicious. As though she's trying to think over the latest city happenings to figure out what might have provoked this.

"I'm guessing you want the chantry's protection," Ashley says, as she starts toward the kitchen after Lara. She doesn't seem to object to them moving; most of the time when she meets other people here they end up back in the kitchen, after all.

"I have some loose leaf tea I keep back there," she offers. She treats the stuff the way Cultists treat marijuana, and there'll be a tidy stash Lara will find in the cupboards - a lot of different varieties, though mainly flavors of green and white. Asian teas. It's what she grew up with.

Then Nathan's voice, and Ashley is much more used to hearing it and thinking of it in conjunction with the House. She's met him here a few times. Zane dashes off to go and see who is here now to be his friend, and Ashley calls a second later, "Hi, Nathan. We're in the kitchen."

[Lara Wrathburn] Lara is no slouch when it comes to reading people, its a major part of her stock and trade, and the suspicion was understandable, in fact it was something she had expected long before she had set foot in the house. "Thanks I'll get some going." She didn't speak on the assertion that Ashley made about her reasons and instead moved to find the tea. Some green tea pulled from the cabinet before a kettle of water as put on to boil...no microwave for the good stuff. Only then did she turn back to speak to Ashley.

"I guess that's part of it sure, I've heard about the technocracy coming to town and you'd be stupid not to be worried about that. But when I said I was expanding my mind, I really meant that." An idle finger reached up to tap against her head as if to emphasize the point. "Exploring your own mental state with time is an interesting way to reflect...and like I said, I was a stuck up bitch, protection or not...I need to make amends for that."

She doesn't call out to Nathan however during this, she simply waits for him to come into the room, why yell when you can speak face to face.

[Nathan Spriggs] The moment Ashley's voice comes through from the kitchen, he's already well on his way to kicking off the couch and moving to their location. So, stepping inside about half-way through their conversation, Nathan raises his hand in a short wave to both. "I see we're doing 'confessions everyone already knew about', so I'd like to put it out there that I used to be a drunken asshole," he says in a tone that's so caught in between amused and serious that it's hard to tell which side it truly leans towards.

"Long time, no see, Lara." With a smile to Ashley and a nod to Lara, he leans against a wall and remains quiet for a moment after those words. Watching the women and listening to their discussion, left hand's index finger quietly tapping against the wall surface as he wanders off to his own thoughts.

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley drops a hand onto Zane's head when he returns to her side, and she takes up a spot near the kitchen island, leaning her hip into it and resting her elbow on top. She's almost too short to manage standing like this, but Ashley is generally determined not to remind other people that she is the size of most sixth graders.

She continues to eye Lara for a moment while the Cultist sets the kettle down on the stove, then pauses so she can lean over and reach into the cabinet for a jar of honey, should it be wanted. Greens are mellow but there are many people that prefer some sweetness with them anyway. At first she doesn't seem to know what to say, until Nathan cuts in with his comment, and the once-Cultist gets a grin from her in response. Like most expressions of amusement from her, there's something retreating about it, and it's little more than a flash of teeth before it fades.

She adds no confession of her own, and turns her gaze back toward Lara. "I know plenty of stuck-up bitches," Ashley says, "and that's less a worry than a Jhor-riddled master out hunting for you and whether that's going to bring trouble for me and mine, honestly. But I'm not willing to bar you from the chantry."

[Lara Wrathburn] "Hello Nathan." She greets the man in turn, only the slightest of smile on her lips as she did, apparently she was making no moves tonight, or maybe she was just trying to stop making such moves all together.

Lara nod's to that, it was after all a valid point. No one wanted to have to deal with such a monster, Lara certainly didn't and she absently crossed her arms and rubbed them as she looked at the kettle on the stove that she leaned next to. "Well...thanks." She focuses on Ashley once more and continues. "I really do want to just make her go away, but that isn't going to happen. So that needs to be laid to rest and dealt with when it comes, because it won't help anyone to dwell on it right now." Shes not angry or resentful as she speaks about Hero, it was something that just couldn't be helped, they all had enemies in one way or another, some were just more personal then others.

[Nathan Spriggs] Once more taking his cue to waltz in to the conversation, the man does a tiny bow in reply to the grin before turning back to Lara. Then a beat, restraint in many ways, telling himself to maintain the civility. With a serious look at her, he answers, "Good to hear you finally looked at reality."

Then a glance over the room as he lets out a sigh, more disappointed than angry or annoyed. The tapping also seems to speed up and become louder for a moment. "Though the fact you can actually believe that last part is... well, I honestly can't fathom how someone could truly believe something so completely out there." Closing his eyes, he lets the words pass over him, taking a moment to center himself, consider what Israel might say... "I'll say it now, so there's little doubt later on, if she ever shows up, you better have a goddamn plan and way to deal with it. I haven't taken such a turn for the better that I'd willingly stand up to die for someone else's willing mistakes, mistakes they don't even own up to." Too bad Nathan knows he'll never be capable of forgiveness or Hope like her.

[Emily Littleton] There is little fanfare that precedes the Singer's entry. Just the scrape of boot soles on the front porch and then a pair of crisp, efficient knocks. She drags the bottom of her feet against the welcome mat as she tests the knob and then opens the door herself.

Emily Littleton is no longer a sitting member of the Chantry Council. She is no longer a political force. She is no longer allowed in the Library or Node room without supervision, like a child disallowed from playing by the pool without a guardian present. This place is lighter on responsibilities for her, but heavier on restrictions and rules.

Frankly? She doesn't seem to mind.

She closes the door behind her and listens for voices. The strap from her messenger bag bisects her torso at an angle that swings from hip to shoulder across her winter coat. She wears dress slacks instead of jeans, a soft lavendar sweater. Her coat is open (she has not gone far in the cold) and her scarf and gloves are absent. Emily extends her senses, reaching for cues for who might be present, familiar resonances and those that are new.

[Awareness]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 5, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley is not surprised that Nathan knows what he knows. He's in a cabal with Israel, who told her about it in the first place, and Solomon, who would say something very like the words the man just uttered. Harsher, probably - there's something about Nathan that's a bit more outwardly sensitive than Solomon, though she would never be able to put her finger on it if asked - but similar words all the same.

"Exactly," Ashley says. "It will help to dwell on it, if only because she surprised you last time. It does matter to me. I want to know whether you're going to throw something of mine up toward her and run when the time comes." A hesitation, a moment where she eyes Lara. "But your actions are probably going to be more telling in that regard, I suppose."

Emily hears voices toward the kitchen, when she steps through the door. Moments later there is a canine shape barreling toward her. Very, very happy to see her, apparently.

[Emily Littleton] Say what you will about the once-Orphan, once-Apprentice. but the past year has changed many things about her. Perhaps the most surprising of those is that Emily stops in the entryway and crouches to greet Zane more warmly than she would most of the Awakened community. He might just be her favorite person in Chicago right about now. He was always happy to see her, didn't ask for more than scritches and some attention, and Zane had never asked her to take part in something that got her shot at, imprisoned by a Demon, sliced by the very veil between this world and the next, or deconstructed from the inside out by some sort of visceral holy fire.

"Hey," she said quietly to the canine and his effusive greeting. "It's good to see you too, lovely."

She gave him one last scritch on the head, and then rose, taking care not to wipe the dog fur off on her clothes.

"Hey, Ashley," she called out, letting her voice precede her on her way to the kitchen to wash off her hands. Emily didn't have to announce herself, her accent and resonance did that well enough for everyone present.

"Oh, hi Nathan, Lara," she says, greeting the others in turn when she sees them. Emily's holding her hands as if they are somehow dirty, mussed, and she doesn't stop for niceties before making her way to the sink. They can exchange pleasantries while she washes off the eau d' Zane.

[Lara Wrathburn] Lara looks between the two and after a moment sighed, she had words for this topic, ones that they might not like, or might not accept what she had to say. But as she opened her mouth the kettle began to sound, and the cultist turned to pull it off the element and turn of the stove. She then turned back to the grouped mages, Emily now added to the mix and spoke.

"The truth is....I have no idea how to stop her short of putting a gun to her head and pulling the trigger. I could find out....but that puts me places I'd really rather not go...but if I have too." She lets that drop then and goes to make the tea itself, getting out several cups, incase others would want some.

She would smile gently when Emily came through into the kitchen and nod to the woman. "Hello Emily...its been a long time."

[Nathan Spriggs] At the sounds of the young Chorister's arrival, Nathan's head turns just-so to catch a glance at her and form a smile in greeting as he says, "Hey, how are you?" Then his head snaps back to attention on Lara and Ashley, and there's a bit of mood whiplash there. Though not as much as before.

"Well, when you find a situation in this city that actually comes with a foolproof plan in an obvious place, please call me. The chance of pace might be nice for once," he says with a tired sigh that makes him feel like his lungs are frozen stiff from the outside cold that has yet to completely fade and a bit of humor in his tone. What he doesn't add, prefers not to given certain members of present company, is that not calling was even more of welcome act in... any case, really.

They should've asked for two weeks of vacation time every few months to be included in the contract for Chantry duties.

"So, yeah... Just because the answer isn't obvious doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It takes time, and digging for information, and actual planning. Everything does. Not even Masters are infallible and indestructible, you're living proof. The Conflagration was too."

[Nathan Spriggs] (change of pace*)

[Ashley McGowen] "Hey, Em," Ashley says, and there's a bit of a smile directed toward the Singer. Emily's responsibilities to the chantry aren't quite what they were, but clearly she's not unwelcome in the place. And Ashley probably hasn't really stopped thinking of her as one of the chantry's more responsible members either, knowing Ashley. (What was it Emily had said the other night? Ashley keeps finding ways to drag her back in?)

"Who else do you expect to go?" Ashley asks her, and the grin she gives Lara then is very different from the one she'd given Nathan earlier. There's no humor and no warmth in it. "You're a disciple. It's not like you aren't incapable of defending yourself or getting information on your own. That's what I meant earlier. You're expecting us to stick out for you and save you. I haven't been given a single reason why we should. And if you're coming back here just so you can hover under the chantry out of the hope that Hero won't discriminate against us and you when she comes looking..."

Ashley trails off, then, and she doesn't really have to finish the thought. She's still watching Lara attentively.

[Emily Littleton] It's been a long time, Lara says.

There's the sound of water hush-rushing from the tap for a moment, cut off abruptly when Emily's hands are clean and she finds a dish towel to dry them on. She still remembers where everything is; it's only been a month since she severed herself from the administration.

Her expression is pleasant, but only just. It's warm enough without crossing into the realm of gregariousness. There's a separatism there that wasn't part of the tail end of her 2010 -- only Ashley will know that. The others haven't see her recently enough to feel the shift quite as palpably. She leans against a counter, feeling the roll of its edge against the small of her back and watches the conversation as much as she listens to it. If there is anything Emily learned from her first mentor within the Chorus, it's the effectiveness of calm, steady dark blue eyes leveled at a particular person for a given length of time.

Nathan's dark levity curls one corner of her mouth higher than the other for a moment. Her head bows slightly as she re-folds the towel and places it by the sink. She seems above or beyond the heavy weariness that settles around Nathan, but it isn't so. Emily has simply regained purchase on the side of her personality (the Diplomat's Daughter) that gives away even less than she implies.

She does cast a glance Ashley's way when the Dean and Adept challenges the Cultist so openly. Emily's eyebrows do not raise, but her attention is a little more honed, a little sharper as it shifts between magi, taking stock of the conversation, placing the topic with ease -- despite the fact that Lara had not disclosed her situation personally to Emily.

"Do we have a new clear and present danger already?" Emily asks of the assembled. "I'm not on the phone tree anymore. It's difficult to keep up," she says, without any clear note of regret twining around the gentle wryness and her obvious accent.

[Lara Wrathburn] Lara listens to Ashley and Nathan in turn, Nathan was forward, but kinder then expected, Ashley was out and out challenging. While Emily, simply listened for the most part, only inquiring as to what precisely they were discussing. Lara turns to her first, her question being the easiest to address, as disturbing as that might be.

"Not so new....and not yet..at least I don't think." She says as she watched the woman with something unknowable in her eyes. "The woman...who made me who I am has been trying to kill me for a long time...she's a master, and I don't know when she might come here, they.." She gestures to Nathan and Ashley. "Want to know what I plan to do when she eventually tracks me here."

She then turns back to Ashley and shakes her head. "I have no intent of making anyone else go in my place, or to save me. If when the time came, others would stand with me, than I hope that would happen, but I never meant to simply hide. I've told you and others before, and I'll say it again. I'm not running anymore."

She then looked briefly at Nathan and there was something akin to a warming of her smile. "Your right of course."

[Ashley McGowen] The Dean and Adept seems less on guard right now and more trying to gauge. Emily is familiar enough with Ashley to judge these things, by now; she knows when Ashley is angry (she's seen it) and she knows when Ashley is curious (hungry) and she knows when Ashley is feeling protective of a thing she has claimed (because she's seen that too - she's one of the things.)

At Lara's words there's a frown, another challenge rising perhaps. "You say that now," she says.

And she might have said more, but something buzzes in the pocket of her jeans. Ashley frowns, sighs, and reaches into her pocket to draw out her phone. She's a teaching assistant now, and finds it and her Awakened responsibilities butting heads every once in a while. "I have to take this, sorry," she says. "Probably about some dumbass undergrad..."

There's a look toward Emily that promises to talk again soon as she raises the phone to her ear. One at Nathan, brief, perhaps promising the same thing, and a glance over her shoulder toward Lara before she heads back out into the main room. Still mistrustful, but apparently for the moment disinclined to take any immediate action.

[Emily Littleton] Lara says the others want to know her plan when/if Hero comes. Emily nods a little, clearly interested with the same thing, since the topic was already on the table. There's little judgment or compassion to the Choristor's expression just now. Interest? Yes. Attention? Yes. Reaction? No, not really, and perhaps that's telling.

"You say you wouldn't send anyone in your stead, but even if you wanted that I doubt it would suffice. She's hunted you for how long? No token sacrifice will stand in your stead, whomever that is," Emily tells her. Her voice is even, level and calm. There's little challenge in it; there's little acceptance.

"If you aren't running, and she isn't relenting, then I think I understand Nathan and Ashley's concern." She glances to Ashley when the Adept excuses herself. There's a brief flicker of sympathy, it ripples across her features, warms them, casts them in a slightly more human light. It fades quickly. Her attention tracks next to Nathan, lingers there for a moment, and flicks back to Lara.

[Nathan Spriggs] For a brief moment, the Orphan's brow arches upward in a humor-oriented look that seems to say 'was that ever at doubt?' then as quickly as it comes, it's gone again. With a small wave, he sees Ashley off before turning back to Emily.

"Nah, not yet. Give it a week," he replies with a smile, an attempt to stop the atmosphere continuing down to the bottom of the abyss. At those words, however, he finally pushes forward from the kitchen wall and heads for the fridge, searching for something to drink. "The first steps are usually the hardest, Lara. You can say it, now you have to act it."

Taking hold of some bread, in between bites, he adds, "In any case, how did your winter go, both of you?"

[Lara Wrathburn] Lara had let the tea steep long enough and had picked it up to take a drink, listening to each in turn. She had bid Ashley good day with a gentle wave of her hand, no further comment on the woman's somewhat inflammitory words.

She turned to Emily and nodded then. "She would not want anyone else regardless, the only one she is interested is me...she wants the part of her that is in me...back, and that requires my soul, from what I can tell." Annnd there was the dark place that Nathan tried to keep them out of. It was why Lara had run so often, most would rather just give her up to Hero then help her.

She then gave them both a tired smile and chuckled as she answered Nathan's question. "Things have been...interesting to say the least."

[Emily Littleton] Emily's mouth purses. It's a small and thoughtful thing, not quite troubled but obviously contemplating the situation. For a Tradition that ranges from Temperance to Intolerance, the Chorus has a rather malleable morality when it comes to some things. There is rarely One Truth, One Path.

"Hmm, well, the one thing I've never really understood about this is why. Did you take something that was hers? Did this all just happen to you, as an innocent bystander? At its inception, what was this relationship between you two? I understand that now she hunts, and you are hunted, and this thing she wants is integral and inseparable from your soul but why, Lara? Why did it happen and how did it get to this point of extremes?"

She talks to Lara, but Emily remains imminently aware of Nathan's presence, where he places himself, how he directs the conversation. She takes a moment to answer him in an aside: "I've been traveling a lot lately, filling up my passport."

That was, apparently, all she wanted to say about the past several months. There's been little joy for Emily in the dark half of this year.

[Nathan Spriggs] With a wry smile, he nods to Lara's final words as he once more takes a leaning position, this time against a counter. His arms crossed as he slowly turns to watch Emily when she speaks, he remains quiet. Observant. Where, indeed, would the conversation go.

In the end, rather than respond to her accounts of a sucky winter, all too sympathetic to that, his head snaps back to Lara. "I know parts of it, myself. But not the entire story, and I think it helps a lot if that changes. Might figure out some details you didn't see important too, every little thing helps you in figuring out what to do," he says calmly, analyzing the situation and choosing, while not quite a hands-on approach, the lesser of two evils.

[Lara Wrathburn] Lara raised a brow at Emily's question but its not because she finds her questions stupid, infact it was the exact obvious her eyes lit up and she was rather impressed. "Actually...its both." She says with a moments surprise. She nods to Nathan then and takes a moment to dredge up the memory, others had seen it...but this was her first chance to tell it her own way.

"Hero is a master...a master who was trapped on the other side of horizon when everything went crazy in 99. A few years ago, she figured out a way to get out...but in doing so, she shattered her avatar, the splinters went everywhere. One of the pieces of 'shrapnel' hit me, when that happened, It remade me in her image, I think it tried to do more then that....but eitherway, to regain all of her power, she needs the shard thats in me." She sips her tea then, letting them mull that over.

[Emily Littleton] She is quiet for awhile. Lara managed to answer Emily's question by giving Emily only answers that she already knew. There wasn't additional information. This meant that either Lara was being shifty and keeping things from all of them, or that there was nothing new to add.

"Huh."

She glances side-long at Nathan, but there's little communicated in that look beside a sort of neutral curiosity.

Emily places her hands on the counter's edge, then pushes off of it a little, brings herself back to standing rather than leaning.

"Do you get any forewarning when she's found you and is coming? Even something as vague as dreams? Or is she simply upon you, all of a sudden, without preamble?" There is an underlying question here, a subtle and leading thing. Emily makes it sound like simple and wary curiosity, though, as she brings her hands up to clasp at the strap of her messenger bag where it crosses just below her ribcage.

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan replies to Emily's look with a look of his own, and a shrug. That and some words spoken to the air, Latin to anyone who's encountered it before. Whatever it's meant to say, he doesn't explain. Then a look over to Lara.

"Yeah, that's about what I heard..." No use beating around the bush, though he doesn't mention anything else there might be. It's up in the air whether it's his way of respecting privacy or something else... "Emily, if you don't mind it too much and aren't horribly busy, I'd like to talk to you about some Choir stuff, some questions mostly, one of these days."

[Emily Littleton] [This is my 'I totally understood what you said' face.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[Lara Wrathburn] [I'm no dullard, I can read the subtext]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 4, 6, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[Nathan Spriggs] [Just 'cause I felt left out, do I notice?]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 7, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Lara Wrathburn] Lara shook her head at Emily's question. "I only ever sense her if I look for her with time. Sometimes that doesn't even work. At those points I've only barely escaped, usually the mages that she recruits tips her hand long before she ever would."

She runs a finger over the top of the cup her eyes flickering between Nathan and Emily, curious at both the shared glances, the Latin, as well as what the man could wish to know about the Choristers, that thought seems to draw a far more quizzical look from her features as she regards the man, perhaps he wanted to join their ranks.

"I know this isn't particularly helpful, I intend to look into it more soon....since her shard left other...gifts."

[Emily Littleton] These days, Emily doesn't stay at the Chantry long enough to take off her coat. She doesn't unsling the messenger's strap from across her body. She hasn't even taken up a cup of tea. That the Singer is an impermanent presence, a body on loan from other activities, has never been clearer. She fishes her car keys out of her coat pocket; they jingle with a certain sense of finality before she cups them in her fingers and silences them.

"If you do look into it, make sure you let folks here know. I'm not promising you support, but as long as you're sheltering here it's important for the rest of us to know when a Master might descend, full of sound and fury." There's a touch of sympathy in the macabre humor she lends to the topic. Emily doesn't want to identify herself too strongly with Lara's plight, but she is not without empathy.

"Likewise if you See her coming. As for the rest of it," the Singer says, shaking her head a little and looking momentarily at a loss for words. " ... It sounds like you're in a very difficult position." This is as much of a benediction as Emily can offer; there is grace and empathy to it, perhaps some inward sense of prayer. Whatever it is does not telegraph well, beyond the weak flare of her smile.

Then Nathan captures her attention, and the mood behind her purposefully neutral expression changes.

"I don't mind at all," she tells him with a calm surety that welcomes his questions. She did not have that grace a year ago when they first met. "I have to head back to campus, much with the same rallying cry as Ashley--" A smirk (dumbass undergrads!), but that falls away as she continues "--Give me a ring and I'll make time. Metaphorically, of course. That's a sphere I've not studied yet."

((And with that, Emily has to say her goodbyes, for her player is late to get out the door for a gathering with real life people, whom she never sees, for her job sucks mightily these days.))

[Emily Littleton] [ Thanks for letting me crash, guys! Have a good evening! ]