Conversation Over "Tea" ((Zodiac))

[Jonah]

Though Jonah did not read the CrowNet often, he had seen her posting earlier in the day about the success of her business. "I'm glad things are going well and I hope it stays that way for another year." Her comment about it apparently being better for her to stay at home had him a bit confused though. "What makes you say that?"

As she stood, he slid his chair back from the table, allowing her to take the mug, and joined her in standing. It was easier to watch her motions with the additional lighting in the room and he hoped to mimic them and introduce others to the warm drink if he ever hosted anyone. If nothing else, it would be something to show Aysel and the rest of the Vedarians.

While he watched, her comment bounced around in his head. What was it that she felt needed additional understanding? Was it something he could help with? Surely no one was targeting her specifically and making her feel unsafe. Stranger things had happened in the city though.

[Zodiac]

"Why thank you." she was smiling as she handed him back the refreshed tankard. She leaned back against the small counter and considered how to answer his inquiry.

"Well, why do I say that? Those collective heads of knuckle who worked so hard to take Crow-thing out of the scheme of things never bothered to consider that in doing this, they may be making things worse in other ways as well." the mystic shook her head. "Before you was able to do something about slips and mistakes, but not now. Now it is truly the 'frontier justice' they were complaining about before. Hang em' High!"

She laughed softly now. "Now, I keep my efforts and actions to a degree that they will not show up on the public eye so much now. I do not need to breath wrong at one wrong moment and suddenly be hunted for it. Am I a coward? Certainly not, but I have no desires to visit the Realm. I have too much around me that depends on me being here, not there."

She took her seat again and looked up at the giant. "Am I vain enough to think I would be target prime if I was caught at something? No, but I am not arrogant enough to think no one would dare consider some payback. I am simply doing what I can in the new and improved way of doing things we have the others to thank for now." She raised her teacup into the air. "And may the Lords of damnation **** on the heads of those who made this all possible forever and ever."

[Jonah]

Apparently, fixing the drink really was that easy. Perhaps he would be able to manage it on his own. Maybe he could surprise AJ with it, he knew that she kept a number of blood packs in her apartment.

He took his cup and his seat again with a smile and listened to her explain. That the one's who opposed Crow had caused the many changes could not be argued, but he still had some hope that the new system could become more effective than the old one. "I guess you're right. I'm just...waiting for things to settle. Things can't go on like this forever and we'll decide amongst ourselves what deserves punishment and what doesn't." He took a drink before adding, "At least, I hope we will."

It was unfortunate that she was keeping to herself these nights. Though his interaction with her had been limited until recently, that time had shown her to be knowledgeable and an asset to the community and it bothered him that she felt stifled, though he could not blame her for not wanting to be sent to the Shadow Realm, his own experiences there having not been what could be considered pleasant.

Laughing at her toast, he bumped his tankard against her cup before taking another drink. "Like I said, I'm sure that things will settle eventually." He sat the mug down and leaned back, brushing imagined debris off of his pants. "Last time, you said you wanted to ask about..." he struggled with how to phrase it himself. "I guess my history. Did you still want to know?" The killer was comfortable answering questions but was not good at producing information without prompting, unsure of what all it was she wanted to know.

[Zodiac]

Zodiac nodded her agreement. "We are basically like a pendulum at the moment. Still seeking our balance in things. Once this swing reaches its apex, we will begin to drift back again. Do not let my self seclusion fool you, Jonah. As it says on the front door 'The all seeing eyes'. I keep my ears and eyes alert and try to keep track of the changes. By any civilization's standards, we do not even qualify as an newborn. European and Asian cultures been at it for thousands of years and still fall on their own faces like teen agers, America is just over 200 years old and is barely considered a child, so just three years of the 'vampire nation' and we have a grip on just what exactly?" she grinned.

When he mentioned his own past, her eyes widened a bit in soft surprise. The first time she had met him he was not as he was now. The bald head was part of it, but a smoother face with a moustache that reminded her of someone from a barbershop quartet for some silly reason. It actually suited him in her view. The extra mass and girth along with the notable extras came after he turned to the necurat path of things, but he was something to be respected and feared even before that. She remembered sitting in the crowd in The Realm watching the man in action. Her eyes full open and amazed as a blow from a right cross sent Jonah's opponent to the floor hard as the big man waited for him to get back onto his feet. It was brutal and barbaric, but yet it held a primal type of beauty to it as well.

"I think," she finally answered. "That if you wish to share your past, I would be most curious and willing to listen." she smiled again.

[Jonah]

He smiled at her comparison to other cultures. It was easy to lose sight of the fact that they were still a very new society since so much happened and they were all very aware of eternity. With her description, the growing pains that they were facing seemed almost natural and normal. He raised his mug in assent to the truth of what she said. "True enough."

Drinking some of the blood, he nodded at her willingness to listen to his story and tried to decide where to start. Jonah was smart enough, especially after Zodiac's description of how the reading worked, to know that one's future was nothing but possible, branching paths. In his opinion, one's past was like a train track, each event intrinsically connected to the one before and after. While there were many possible ways to get to the current moment, everything that he had done so far had caused him to be where he now was.

While this point of view gave him great amount of comfort because it put him in control of what he was, it did make starting his story difficult because he could always look further back and find something important in an earlier event. Setting the tankard down, he turned it in his hands but kept his eyes on her.

"I'd lived here a couple years before I was turned. Was wandering one night and...something attacked me, left me in the gutter for dead. I can't remember if I told you that or not. Found my way to the Vedarian CrowNet and just...figured things out on my own for awhile."

He stopped spinning the cup and leaned back in his chair. "Ended up on the bounty list a couple times, never on purpose, and paid the price. I told you about the second time already." His memory of some of the exact order of events was hazy due more than anything to the sheer number of things that had happened in his life. "Was around that time that I met Cassandra. She told me of Nox. Pulling the hammer from his side with the inlaid symbols of his religion, he placed it on the table for Zodiac to inspect if she was interested and waited before continuing his story.

[Zodiac]

She listened as he began to tell his tale. It was brief, but in ways not so different than her own. Zodiac (then just Angela Ferenczy. 'Mistress Zodiac' was her working name) never did learn why Scorpia chose her that night. To her it had been a game of a snake deciding a mouse was worthy of life, but with a twist. The 'mouse' eventually learned how to roar, but it was a traumatic experience regardless. He woke up in a gutter, she woke up on the floor of her shop all alone and clueless. In time she made a promise to herself, and no childe she ever created found themselves in a similar situation. She was there for them to explain the ground rules and guide them.

An eyebrow raised as Jonah laid the hammer on the table. She had not even been aware he was carrying such a thing, but since she had gotten no vibe from the man suggesting he meant her harm, she had never looked him over that closely. She knew of Cassandra, of course. She was part of the 'originals' (as she called them) and had been one of the ones who preached about Nox. She had skimmed the subject herself and felt more comfortable sticking with her own patron night goddess, but had nothing bad to say about what they did as a whole.

She stood up slowly and leaned closer to study the weapon. The carvings and inlays suggested this was created for a purpose. It was either a weapon of a true believer or the tool of a fanatic. It had been the gypsy's experiences so far such a thing was in the hands of those two types alone. Her fingers hovered over the metal, but did not touch it, as if touching it would defile it in some way. Jonah did not strike her as a fanatic at all, so she remained relaxed as she sat back down.

"Cassandra must have felt you held great promise or was part of a greater purpose to bestow such a weapon into your hands." she nodded softly before taking another sip from her cup. "Tell me about this, please."

[Jonah]

It was interesting to see the reactions his hammer garnered when he let others see it. The weapon hung on his pants nearly every day but it was similar enough to a normal tool that it drew few to no stares. When it was pointed out to people, they did seem to treat it with a sort of reverence. Many, like Zodiac, seemed hesitant to even touch it. He remembered Doc's reaction and his statement that he should be careful in using it to not break it. Perhaps Jonah was the odd one that saw it as a tool to be used despite, or perhaps for, the careful attention that had been given to it.

He left the hammer on the table when she sat back down and picked up his story. "I helped Cassandra break in to a warehouse to retrieve a...book. She disappeared for a bit and I found her in the mansion. She was...possessed. She...it asked me to be a hammer." Saying it out loud to they mystic, he felt the need to elaborate so repeated what he had been told, words that he had committed to memory.

"A hammer...is something unique amongst its kind. It alone amongst the tools of men fascinates Nox. It is so incredibly simple, one of the first created by their kind. Yet, looking deeper, it is of surprising complexity. This 'hammer' is capable of massive destruction, but it can also be wielded by those of wisdom to build up and strengthen, fortify. In the right hands, it can be used to build empires - or destroy them. This was when we made you aware of how similar you were. An instrument of destruction and decimation, or of creation and strengthening. Your kind faced many dangers - not only the Scourge, but danger from without and within. They were unprepared. Now was when we asked you if you would change things - if you would prepare and strengthen them, teach them to be ready for the dangers they faced. We gave you the choice...and it was yours to make."

[Zodiac]

She wish she knew more about Cassandra's personality. Making a judgment call on a subject like this was always iffy at best with limited knowledge. Jonah actually seemed to puff up a bit as he related his tale of how he come to hold such an item. Not in pride, but as if he was describing a serious responsibility he took pains to keep at a level of pride and honor. This was nothing new in her experiences. Many times she had heard tales of the 'Hammer of the Gods' and how mortals came to wield them in the name of one deity or another (and among the confusion of t-shirts she owned she still had a Led Zeppelin T of the tour that never was of the same name. 'We are your overlords." she sang softly to her own thoughts.)

Was this a case of some woman channeling the spirits beyond and focusing their intentions into a weapon or just a bad delusional night she could not say for a fact, but the real fact was Jonah believed it to be so. She would not insult him by suggesting otherwise, again, simply because she could not say with certainty. It was totally possible, of course. Stranger things had crossed the mystic's path over time before. Was it the hand that wielded the weapon its real power or was it something more? Her own charms she had made and ones given to her by her own Nana was a type of comparison in a way. Magicks or mind over matter? Either way, they were a source of comfort and power as well as responsibility.

"Defender," she replied. The old Manowar song coming to her mind as she spoke. "The gods are notorious for things like that. They always seem to leave the fine print out of the deal when they offer one of us something. Such a responsibility can be both blessing and curse, depending on where you may stand at any moment in time. Have you ever regretted accepting this responsibility since it has become yours? Or has their been a time you wonder if you are using this in the way it was truly meant to be used? Such gifts, as I said, do not come with warning labels or instructions to follow."

She settled back into her purple throne again and considered. Once more she held her hand over the weapon/tool and tried to get a sense of it's aura, but only felt traces of Jonah upon it. Not proof at all it was bogus. Not being one of Nox's faithful might blind her senses to what truly hid within the device, hiding itself till the proper moment. She pulled her hand back and looked at the man mountain. "And how did you begin to use this once Cassandra gave it to you?"

[Jonah]

His answer was simple. "I...have." He worried that his doubt in himself was a sign of weakness but he trusted Zodiac enough to reveal it. In his opinion, she had proven herself a trusted friend and he would treat her as such.

When she was settled, he elaborated on the previous answer and moved on to answer the one she had just asked him. "After that night...I did the best I could. I trained, grew stronger." He gestured to the hammer. "I had that made as a...symbol of what I was."

He reached for the hammer, lifting it off the table so as not to scratch, and sat it in his lap, his claws tracing the designs. "The blood thieves came then... I fought them when the community called for it. I thought that they were one of the threats she had told me about. Once we defeated them...I saw that we would need...more strength. That's when I became a necurat."

Looking up at her again, he squeezed the handle of the hammer. "I went to Cassandra after I had prepared myself. I told her I thought it was part of what I needed to be...she let me feed from her. I think...that was one of the last times I heard from her."

[Zodiac]

Sadly, she nodded as he continued to tell his tale. The blood thieves (or 'blood goons' as she called them at times) were part of her own history. She had fought them as well and had been part of one of the few moments their kind acted as one and took down the Broussard family when they began to establish a beach head within the town. All of their powers had been put to the test during that strange chapter of their new lives. She had gladly played a supporting role in the efforts of others as the stronghold was slowly taken over. She was no warrior but did her best to keep the others supplied and refreshed to continue the battle.

"I remember my first encounter with a blood thief. It was someone I knew. Respected in ways, even. The shock of them sinking their fangs into my throat. It wasn't pain, but disbelief that froze me that night. Were you part of the final raid on the Broussard tower? I had worn myself to a frazzle making sure others had the arcane energy they needed to continue. I remember sitting on the grass watching as the lights began to blink out in the place as the final assault began."

Then he mentioned the necurats. To be honest, she had considered it herself. A fast track for one as small as she was to grow stronger and more useful quickly. There was more to being strong than physical might and she studied hard for every new ability she discovered to learn and perfect their usage when needed. But the idea of preying on her own was abhorrent to her. Attacking mortals was bad enough. Her personal philosophy on the subject was complex in ways. She needed to survive but she still respected her 'point of origin' too much to simply consider the living mindless cattle to live off of. She was sure she could have found some willing donors among her own kind if she had pressed the point, but still it grated on her sensibilities too deeply. Perhaps if she had learned the ways of the necromancers and could heal herself, the story may have been different.

She remembered that Cassandra had been rumored to have vanished. It had never really registered on her private radar of things than more of a curious blip and nothing more, but now she was thinking. Was this why she had vanished? Her work now done? A romantic thought, to be sure, and the girl had seen stranger things than this during her time.

"That had to be...odd, to deal with. I get the feeling the pair of you were close friends. To suddenly loose track of someone like that is never an easy thing."

She took a sip. "Please, continue. I am finding your story most interesting."She smiled softly at her guest.