We Call It Different Things

[Molly Quincannon] The ship is large - it's been retrofitted to fit fewer people more comfortably than it would have in the days when it was an actual battleship, but it's large and comfortable, with all manner of lab space. Molly led a tour when she was well enough to do so, taking pains to point out the off-limits spaces (mostly Atlas' lab and, for safety, the engine room and command cabin) and some of the places where it was nicer to hang out - the biodome sort of thing that houses the garden and a variety of patio furniture, the library, the kitchen, the lounge and so forth. The whole place really does look like the makings of a Abney Park video - steampunk chic.

Molly's room fits the same general profile, and she opened it up to the adults (Kim in particular, seeing as Elizabeth was insanely protective of the little girl and didn't want to be too far from where the girl was) as a sanctuary to get away from the ... more problematic aspects of the girl's Quiet. The bedroom/sitting room is walnut and brass trim and deep red velvet, with a ferret cage with a truly impressive HabiTrail set-up tacked to the walls and ceiling in maze patterns, some tubes running into the next room. The sign she's magnetised to her door reads "The Doctor Is In" and bears a picture of the TARDIS.

[Kim Jenkins] Kim found the ship to be rather fascinating. There was something about it she liked, even if she wasn't sure what it was yet. She'd spent a good deal of time exploring, nominally under the guise of 'making sure it was secure' but also out of curiosity. The whole idea of sailing through space in a ship her grandfather could've fought on was kind of unsettling though. Not that she would admit it, deep inside the possibility of actually sailing the ether in it was very exciting. Anyway.

She was 'off-duty' for the time, having taken about all the healing she could stand for the day, Kim made her way down the corridors eventually to Molly's room, where she would knock twice. Ever since the night at the park she seemed a little different, but it was hard to pin down.

[Molly Quincannon] Kim therefore gets to see Molly in all-out "Building Weird Shit"-mode. When Molly pokes her head out the door, her hair's tacked up in a dishevelled bun with loose strands all over the place, goggles over her eyes and an oil smudge on one cheek. When she sees Kim, she smiles and says, "Hey. Come in. I have drinks and nibbles and probably need a break anyway. How's the Lafette? Perimeter still secure?" She's mostly teasing.

This may be the first really good look Kim's got at Molly's room. There are posters - mostly counter-culture and geeky sorts of stuff, including a floor plan and schematic of the USS Enterprise (D). There are Post-It notes on it, full of tiny, slanted handwriting and equations. (Be afraid.) There's the HabiTrail, with one dark ferret running around through the tubes like someone's fed it coffee, while the other peers up at Kim and then clambers halfway up the mesh of its cage, chittering in a somehow charming sort of way. There are books. There are plushie viruses and cartoon-dialogue-bubble pillows reading "LOL" and "ORLY?" and so forth. There are laptops. There is clutter. But it fits Molly, somehow. It's geeky eclecticism at its finest.

[Kim Jenkins] "It still floats," she said with a grin. Carefully she stepping inside, eyes taking in the scene before her. The ferrets elicit a small 'squee' and a happy smile. Her dress and equipment hadn't changed very much over the last few days, the black black armor never came off, neither did the very large handgun (brushed nickle, more glossy than satin nickle, but less glossy than brushed chrome) holstered on the belt on her right side or the sword (harder to figure that one out, it'd never been unsheathed) on the left side. A couple of extra magazines were tucked into the straps on the vest, a pleasantly utilitarian way of going around it. Under all that was a form-fitting Under Armor long-sleeve shirt, tucked into a pair of dark jeans. It was vaguely inappropriate for mixed company (of which there wasn't any) but it was comfortable. Top it all off with a stylized 'omega' symbol covered in small crystals (kind of tacky) around her neck and a small beaded bracelet with a WWJD? printed on it (like the sort of thing a 5 year-old might make in Sunday School).

And to think, this chick might just kill people for a living.

"... the ferrets are really cute."

[Molly Quincannon] A Euthanatos just went 'squee'. My cup runneth over. Molly's a big believer in breaking the stereotypes. She has to be; look at her. Cultist of Ecstasy, the Tradition everyone thinks of as the hippie-dipshit tribe (They have clearly never met any of the Hagalaz), and there stands Molly in her "Princess Stabbity" T-shirt under a pair of Kaylee-from-Firefly style coveralls (currently unzipped to nearly the waist), some esoteric tool in her hand and looking like nothing more than an Etherite. People like Kim and Lucien just thrill her to bits.

"You can pet them if you want. Well, Neal, anyway." She indicates the ferret clinging to the bars of his cage, chitteringly imploring Kim to pet-him-fuss-him-love-him. "Hardison gets his kicks crawling into shirt sleeves and running around in your shirt like the spaz he is." She looks up, where the darker shape is currently rocketing overhead. "I love my spaz. I'd kind of have to, though. So take a seat." She gestures to one of the comfy-looking armchairs in a corner of the room, then takes off her goggles - her eyes are currently bright screaming purple - more freaky contact lenses. "And then name your poison. I keep well-stocked, and managed to rescue most of my good stuff when I left Fort Q. Not the fridge, but I built a new one."

Yes, she said built.

"So how are things out there? And how're you finding the Lafette? I note you haven't said 'holy shit' once yet."

[Kim Jenkins] She wags a tantalizing figure at Neal, before scooting over and having a seat in the designated arm-chair. There's a bit of adjustment required, gear wasn't necessarily made to be sat in, but Kim had it down by now.

"Just a diet pepsi if you have, I can't drink until we get that kid out of here, you haven't heard from Lucien about her have you?"

It was a question that didn't really require a response. She enjoyed her work, even if it required more cutting than usual.

"Things are good, the ship is pretty cool. Yeah, I'd read a couple of things about etherships once, but I never thought I'd actually get to see one, much less hang around in it for days on end."

[Molly Quincannon] Neal chitters in a plaintive sort of way until Molly relents and takes the little beast out of his cage, setting him on her shoulder as she moves to the other chair, nudging open the door leading to the next room on her way. (There are LEDs in there, and things that go beepbeepbeep and whirring fans and something that might be giving off sparks.) Then she gives a whistle and says, "Zoing? Fridge, top shelf far right, top shelf third right. Thanks!"
A squeaky sort of mechanised voice says, "Nomekkatea?"
"No, bringacola."
"okeydoke."

Then there's an apologetic grin. "Sometimes AI is a little pernickety. And yeah, the Lafette's cool. You'd need Atlas here for the full effect. As to Lucien ... I've sent a couple of messages but haven't heard back yet. I figure he's probably riding herd on the others. One or two of whom might make the whole fucking thing moot by just deciding that the whole of Chicago can suck it. Yay for the community. Does this taking longer than expected add to the expense sheet?"

[Kim Jenkins] Molly's interaction with the... refridgerator (?) raises an eyebrow. The world was a strange place to the young Euthanatos, and these sorts of things only made it more so. No word from Lucien elicits a frown and a shake of her head.

"Does it really go into space, I mean, the ship. And yeeeah, kinda. I'm not paid by the hour, and not actually racking up any expenses. Unless Atlas is gonna charge rent, I guess. But whatevs, Lucien owes me big-time now."

She doesn't go into detail there, or into detail of how she expects to collect on it. She really isn't sure of that herself and she definently wasn't sure what was going to happen when her boss found out. Lucien was gonna have to make that call.

[Molly Quincannon] Molly addresses the first bit first, obviously. "No, the Lafette isn't ether-capable anymore. Not yet, anyway. Atlas has a lot more work to do on it - or on him, I dunno - before it's fully operational again. I help where I can, but there's a whole bunch of skill sets that need to get worked on first." She clearly wants a distraction. Not hearing from Lucien makes her as unhappy as it makes Kim - more, maybe, because of the fact that Atlas is one of the ones stuck in that bubble until the Sending is taken down.

And lo, out comes not a refrigerator but a ... well, for lack of a better word, a robot. It's a simple robot - looks like a small, old-fashioned vacuum cleaner without the hose attachments, wrapped in what looks like an orange coat and hat with a pair of blue antennae and a single webcam eye peeking out from the high collar of the 'coat'. It has blue claw-hands, one of which bears a can of Jolt. The other bears a can of diet Jolt, which it hands off to Kim first while Molly gives an apologetic smile. "No Pepsi specifically, sorry. I like caffeine in my caffeine. But it's cola and it's diet and it's double the caffeine so it's immediately awesome, so I hope that's okay." Then the little robot-thing offers Molly her own full-sugar goodness and she says, "Thanks, Zoing. Standby mode."
"Okeydokey," squeak-buzzes the robot and it rolls back into the workroom.

Then, after popping the top on her can of caffeine, she asks, "So ... is this a thing with the Euthies? Expenses and all that? And also, no, Atlas doesn't charge rent. I have a hard enough time getting him to let me help him with funds for the Lafette refurb. It's a pain."

[Kim Jenkins] "Thanks...." She just thanked a robot, and shakes her head. Opening the soda, she takes a hesitant sip, and then another. A laugh at the caffeine comment. She nods.

"Sorta. My Order was founded primarily to escort other Euthanatos around and keep the Church out of their hair. Sometime after the first Council, we expanded out to any mage that wanted it. Before the Storm hit we had a set rate, one dram of Tass per Knight per week, but that was usually reserved for serious Tradition business. No one pays in Tass anymore, and money is pretty superfluous to us..."

Which makes sense. Why worry about getting paid when you can just go down the street to 7-11 and pick the write scratch-off everytime.

"... The expenses are of traditional thing, sort of contractual so everyone knows what the deal is."

[Molly Quincannon] "......So now you deal in hard-to-get information about ... well, in your case, a Euthanatos who allegedly died a long time ago but could tell which Sleepers had ... what's a Siddhi? Well, anyway, the potential to be one and then Awaken them into it? And I guess just a last name that he used to carry around doesn't cut it?"

Proof the First that Molly can be dangerous: she forgets nothing.

"So what's your Order? I admit I probably know as much about your Trad as most people do about mine; maybe a little more, since I don't think you're all soulless doom-merchants with world-class death fetishes."

[Kim Jenkins] "That's just me, whenever I can get an opportunity to add something to my collection, I do it. Especially if I can associate a name with an action, that's usually pretty difficulty. Siddhi is just a general term for magik, this guy allegedly had a way of identifying pre-Awakened Sleepers and then pushing them to wake up. I don't know if I believe it, to be honest."

She laughs.

"The Knights of Radamanthys, formed in 1144 as a chivalric order in Templar fashion..." Kim says with a hint of pride. "I hardly know anything about the Trads at all, I've been somewhat sheltered in my new life, just whatever someone decided to write down. Though, stereotypes exist for a reason."

[Molly Quincannon] Now Molly just looks confused. "But ... that's easy, isn't it? That's how I woke up."

Then, apparently dismissing the fact that Molly had her own Awakening in a way that Kim doesn't even believe is possible as something more or less unimportant (for now, anyway - it's hard to tell what she's going to bring up later), she goes on. "Knights of Radamanthys, hmm? Well, that's something to ask about. I admit I haven't met all that many Euthies in my time. Mostly Cultists and VAs, few Etherites ... studied Forces with a Hermetic who still self-identified as Thig despite the whole thing getting sucked into other Houses ... but never Euthies. Just ... well, what called you to the Trad? I mean, you seem happy with it - I've met a few who haven't been happy with the Trad they Awakened into - but ... I dunno, just ... how does it speak to you?" It's not a judgemental question - it's just honestly curious.

[Kim Jenkins] Blue eyes widen and she looks a little embarassed and more than a little apologetic.

"I mean the way he was doing it. It wasn't him, it was... Well, largely irrelevant I guess. I'm sorry, that didn't come out how I meant it."

Her eyes dart around as she takes a nervous sip of her soda. She wasn't exactly a people person, which Molly was probably surmising, though she hid it awfully well. Setting the soda down on something convenient, her fingers anxiously toy with the beaded bracelet on her wrist. It's an uncomfortable pause before she starts talking again.

"When I was four, a man tried to kidnap me. I had been out at a friend's house and I wasn't supposed to take that way back home but I did anyway..."

Leaning back in the chair, she goes for the soda again, taking a nervous sip before putting it back down. She's not looking at Molly, but instead her eyes are fixed on an imaginary point somewhere else entirely.

"... This man, he... He didn't make it very far. This woman appeared in an instant, and she killed him. Just like that, in front of me. The only thing I can remember her about her was that she had one of these..."

Fingers move to the (tacky) crystalized omega symbol on a chain around her neck.

[Molly Quincannon] Molly looks at Kim for a moment, those now-bright-purple eyes assessing. Then she leans back towards the door to her workshop and calls, "Zoing? Non-workspace delta, sector five, plate!"
"ooooooooooh."

Then, she sets her analytical mind on the problem. "So ... you think someone knew even then that you were a potential, like they do with Slayers on Buffy, and tried to yoink you? Dude. Harsh. Though for all I know, it's not so different. Cultists are just a lot more hands-off with that kind of thing. 'Disturb not those who would not Waken otherwise', all that. I guess Euthies don't have that?"

Zoing the robot comes out with a plate in its claw-hands. On the plate sits a small cornucopia of tartlets - chocolate, butterscotch, apple, peach, and what might be maple sugar. Molly gives a sheepish grin and adds, "I kind of figure it's hard to talk about, that kind of things. Baked goods make all things better. Well, I think so, anyway. Help yourself."

[Kim Jenkins] Blue eyes follow the robot again as it appears and disappears. A smile as she takes an apple tart, and then takes a bit. It's a little while longer before she begins again.

"No, the woman was just doing her job. But at that moment, I knew that I wanted, I wanted to be her. I didn't know anything about her except for this peice of jewerly. I never told my parents what happened. A couple of years later when I was old enough to realize the true gravity of the situation, I began my research. It took me twenty years of searching to find the Euthanatos."

Taking another bite, she lets the enormity of the task sink in as she plays back those years in her mind. Twently long years of searching... She discovered an entire, secretive, Tradition based on a single symbol. A symbol she saw once, briefly, when she was four.

"They were very surprised when I showed up at their Marabout."

[Molly Quincannon] Thing the Second that makes Molly dangerous - a particularly analytical mind (particularly in combination with the memory). She remembers Kim's reaction to the Avatar wall-off, puts it together and then blinks. "So you went out Seeking your Awakening deliberately? Great Google, that's something. Especially if it's true what I hear about how Euthies go through that kind of thing. It ... is true, isn't it? About the Little Good Death? Kill you and see if you can find your way back, with some answers?"

The apple tart's quite nice - clearly home baked, just a touch of extra cinnamon and a few other sweet spices. Molly takes a maple sugar one and says, "Sit tight, Zoing. And thanks."
"heek."

[Kim Jenkins] "Yeah. Once I told them my story they looked at me and said I was fit to join them, as a retainer of sorts."

She draws a breath and leans forward, Intense blue eyes meeting Molly's.

"That wasn't enough for me. I knew their rites, I knew their rituals and I was to undertake them regardless of the outcome. They were very insistant that I showed no potential for the Diksha, the Awakening. I had no Destiny, no greater Fate. But finally after months, they relented."

Her eyes close for a moment, then open again. She can feel the rush of blood through her body just thinking about the experience, the rush. The knowing that the very Gods were gazing upon her. Her eyes open and meet Molly's again. And she continues.

"I made them do it. I underwent the full Agama Te. It's very rare these days, because of the Avatar Storm. I walked through the valley of Death. It felt..."

A pause here

"... like forever."

And then an inappropriate laugh

"Then, I Awakened."

[Molly Quincannon] Ah, information. It's Molly's bread and butter, the very air she breathes. She needs it to live, and now she has it, and she is impressed ... and thoughtful. "So ... see, I've always had this theory and I hope you'll be able to tell me whether it's completely off the wall or what. See, everybody figures that Euthies are these mass-grave-digging psychopaths because of the whole Wheel thing, but I know from my own Trad specialities and experiences that it's probably a lot more complicated than that. And I always figured that Euthies aren't so much about death as they are about ... well, life; the cycle that the Verbena always talk about, just in a more structured way. So my theory is that Euthies aren't so much death-mages as they are life-mages, when all's said and done; it's just that they treat the universe a bit like a bonsai tree. Am I warm?"

[Kim Jenkins] The reverie broken, she thinks for a moment, and the nods.

"To a degree. Our work, our Gods and our task, it's all... Well. All things die. One day, the bonsai itself will die. It's hard to describe, for instance, my job... My job is usually to keep someone alive so they may die at a particular time and place, and I have to be vigilant to recognize that time and place and not to interfere when it happens. Like that girl we have, if I get the call..."

She contemplates this, wondering about an entirely new possibility which ultimately she decides is unwarranted before continuing.

"... I'll leave her, to her Fate, whatever it is. It's my job, my sacrifice... Not to get attached."

[Molly Quincannon] Molly snorts. "You sound like a Hollow One. Sure, this particular bonsai might die someday, but the energy that was the life of this bonsai will fuel the growth of the seed of the next. All circle in a spiral, wheel within a wheel, y'know? There are some things that can't be destroyed. Life's one of them. I don't mean individual life - people, blue whales, Mexican jumping beans, even whole universes ... but just ... life."

Then she raises an eyebrow about the girl, and about the potential that lives in the pause Kim makes. There are possibilities, and the only thing Molly can think at first is If it has to be death, make it not aboard the Lafette so that when Elizabeth tries to administer the beat-down, it doesn't end up with delicate equipment in the crossfire. Then she shrugs and says, "That's your path to walk. Mine ... well, I don't so much have a job as I have a Code, and what was done to her was a violation of that Code. And not trying to help as much as I can, until she is helped or ... beyond help, I guess ... well, that's violating yet another tenet of it. I have few organised beliefs, but the ones I have ... I take seriously." She sighs. "I wonder if there's any chance of doing unspeakable things to that Sending with a Prime-charged cactus at any point before it goes the way of the dodo bird."

[Kim Jenkins] "It's true, though we call it different things."

She nods authoritatively, and then she chuckles.

"It's a hard path, but it's what I know. What I am. It's not my place to judge yet, while the Sending is clearly not part of the Cycle, I don't know that was happened to the girl is a boon or a curse."

Kim laughts at the thought of a Prime'd cactus.

"That's up to you all. I'm just here to give you the space you need to do it. What are you gonna do about that thing anyway?"

[Molly Quincannon] "Me personally? Not a damn thing, from the looks," is Molly's slightly grudging reply. "I said I don't have a job, and long-term it's true; not given by my Trad, anyway. But my mission, for lack of a better word, was to save the girl, or at least get hold of her. I did that. Well. Okay, I helped make sure that happened. By acting like a mouthy lunatic, charging an angry mob and then doing my best punching bag impression, but you've got to admit, as distractions go, I'm not bad." Apparently, Molly does not get particularly fazed by such trivialities as getting pinned to the ground and kicked. She seems to find it funny, like being tickled by an older brother.

...Though there's something in her face that suggests that, compared to what she's been through at some point or other in her life, that's exactly what the kicking she took felt like.

Then she goes on. "The stuff involving the Sending directly seems to have been handed off to other parties. Some of whom might not actually be willing to handle it, because the sticks up their arses resemble giant sequoias."

[Kim Jenkins] "It did work..."

Kim isn't so sure about it's efficacy, as did subsequently involve killing several people, but they would've probably died anyway. It might just be the level of beating you're willing to sustain to make it work. She seems to be handling it well, and nothing bad happened to Kim, so no harm no foul, right?

"I hope never to see it again. I've heard not great things about some of the other Traditions here. Have there been problems?"

[Molly Quincannon] Cue facepalm. "Oh, Kibo's hairy ass, where do I start? It's not the Trads, exactly. It's just that ... well, it's hard to explain. In fact, I'm not sure I can. Let's just say I've been told in terms that used varying degrees of kindness that I should at least make the right noises about Chantry unity because it keeps morale up. Though I suppose there's no harm in telling you that in the last year, there's been one Nephandi hit - repelled - one Nephandi infiltration - repelled but it took ages to clean all the tainted crap out of the library and that's when security went a bit Defcon 1 - and one guy going Marauder under the Chantry's nose. In reverse order. That's not counting the guy who got into the Chantry House without anyone knowing that he's high on the Technocrat 'recruit with extreme prejudice' watch list and the woman who got in without anyone knowing that she's got a Jhor-tainted Master with a serious case of the crazies and heavy-duty Mind at minimum out to kill her and anyone who offers her help. So ... make your own judgements. But some individuals are really good and are trying to make it work. Others ... have more or less said 'fuck this and the horse it rode in on' and either got all tyrannical, fucked off to pastures 'don't-give-a-shit', or ... both."

[Kim Jenkins] "Oh wow."

She isn't sure how to respond to all that and a look of anxiety passes over her. So instead she finishes off the apple tart.

"yeah, I'm supposed to meet a woman about getting access to it, but honestly, I've forgotten all about it. It sounds like, very complicated. And these are the same people that supposed to be helping us...?"

[Molly Quincannon] Molly facepalms. "Ashley. I wouldn't bother. She's not affiliated with the Chantry anymore. She ditched the deaconship. I'd point you at Solomon, but he's probably out killing things right now." Then she frowns and says, "but then again, you might enjoy that better than baby-sitting, so ... hey."

Then something starts making some truly distressing noises in her workroom and Molly's eyes widen. "Oh, crap. Zoing! Return plate to non-workspace delta sector five, switch off workspace beta, sector three. Unplug!"
"mekkaboom?"
"Crap, I hope not." Then she turns to Kim, apologetic, and says, "I ... gotta go. There's a thing and it might go boom. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

With no fuss or fanfare, Neal is plucked off her shoulder and deposited back in his cage. Molly pushes her goggles back into position over her eyes and dashes into her workroom, shutting the door behind her. More noises happen, and there is a fizzling sound. "...I'm okay!"

That ... might be Kim's cue to exit before the geekery eats her alive.