2020-09-20 The Darkness and The Matchmaker
The Darkness and The Matchmaker
Location: Winters Retreat
Date and Time: September 20, 2020 Evening
Summary: A power outage and someone's plan
Mood Music: Leonard Cohen "Suzanne"
It's been a day or two since the explosions rocked Skid Row. Luu and Jinny had spent their spare time, what little they had, providing relief for those trapped downtown with their homes and livelihoods taken from them by some insane twist of fate. With the amount of police presence, their coming and going wasn't allowed to wander too far past the cordon, but that was fine for them. There was more than enough need to take care of outside of that cordon so, they did. What food and water they could load into Jinny's PANDA! were hauled down to be deposited at distribution stations, and for a time, she manned one of the cafeteria lines, dishing out beans and rice to a line that stretched around the corner. It hurt, seeing her city like this. These people, whether they knew it or not, were the blood, nerves, and bones of the city, and Jinny, in her enthusiasm, saw herself as a sort of repair mechanism, providing things the body needed to bring itself back. Sure, doing this was like throwing beached fish back into the ocean after low tide. There was no way she could help them all but, for those few she was able to help? It mattered.
The day is done, finally, and Jinny makes the journey up the roads to the Hollywood Hills, arriving at the Foreboding Jacobean in it's out-of-the-way cul-de-sac. (A record of hyphens used in a sentence for her, she'll have you know) Parking the truck once the gates are closed, she gets out and trudges up the steps to the front door, pushing it open and calling out. "Looosey! I'm Home!"
Having spent most of the morning helping out with Jinny in Downtown relief efforts, Luu headed home in the early afternoon to take care of some business. There had been a bit of Luu being in the weeds thanks to the urban camo fiasco, so it was a very welcome surprise when Alison surprised Luu with a rare fine. From who knows what contacts, she had managed to get a good deal on some high-tech micro gems that had only recently started to become available due to advances in computers and manufacturing technology. Essentially your noral gems, but cut into ultra-fine multi-faceted shapes. Just looking at them, one might mistake them for colored sand. However, when a number of them get properly set in jewelry, they create very complex and subtle effects when the light hits and bounces around them.
Sitting on the floor, Luu is barefooted with her legs wrapped around a container of these micro-gems, which she is busy examining. Today her hair is dyed chartreuse, her outfit a pair of overalls over a peach cami, and a pair of Celine frames.
"Hey," Luu says with a smile as she looks up from the box of micro-gems. "You know," Luu begins to say, a small grin appearing on her face, "one of my UFO Cult friends had a theory that 'I Love Lucy' had quite the subtext, and should have been more properly called 'I Love Lucifer' He didn't mean it in the sort of of later conflation of Lucifer-Adversary-Devil-Satan kinda thing. More that she was a redhead and every time she tried out a project it seemed to inevitably result in a chaotic situation, no matter what her intention was. They were a fan of the show, said the subtext made it better, and didn't want to hear arguments against."
The front door is closed behind Jinny with a soft thump, the latch clattering as it seats itself in the door frame, sealing the outside outside, leaving the inside inside. A place Jinny has started to become more comfortable in. Here, most of the time, it's just the two of them surrounded by their magick and Luu's collection of oddities which, to be fair, has started to become not so odd as the time passes.
"Hey yourself." Jinny says, moving deeper into the house, glancing over towards the table where the quickly printed sewing instruction manual had been left closed, now open to the page on linings. On further observation, the needles and thread left there were missing, too, probably in the hands of whatever it is that needed the remedial instruction. Something to mention later. "It's going pretty well downtown." she says, crouching to peer at Luu's bucket of sand that, on further observation, glitters like someone dropped a dozen stars and swept up the pieces. Dressed in a pair of hip-hugger pants that shows her belly and a sleeveless Iron Maiden T-shirt, her sneakers squeak as she crouches down.
"So your friend saw Lucy as an agent of chaos? An agent that brought the swirling tempest of chaos to wreck the order that the stifling 1950's imposed on culture, sexuality, and everything else that was considered un-american?" She tilts her head, her red hair done up in a cute shoulder-length bob, looking up at herself without moving her head, her eyes rolling around to take in everything that she can see. "Or is it the red hair that's a harbinger of chaos? Were that the case..." She taps the bucket. "Knocking this over would certainly sow quite a bit of it, but I wouldn't do such a thing because you're my friend and I'd sit and help you pick them all up until they were done. I did it with my mom's 2 millimeter beads that fell in the carpet when I was eight, and I'd do it with these, too." Jinny dips her hand in, a fingertip brushing over the stuff to take a few on her fingernail, lifting them to study. "They are beautiful." Her gaze flicks to Luu for a second. "What are you thinking with these? Accents?"
"Probably a bit of that," Luu says of the chaos of Lucy, before noting, "but I think his idea more came from things like trying to work the conveyor belt and what happened there. It's sort of an allegory for the way that Lucifer tried to help out humans and just ended up making a big mess. At least, according to the propaganda. It more seems like they were both misunderstood and berated a patriarchy that wasn't that great themselves." Tilting her hea slightly, Luu glares at Jinny for a moment, as she says, "Don't you date. It'd be like the ubiquity of glitter, the pain of stepping on a lego, and quite expensive." Having clarified that, but already sure JInny was kidding, Luu explains, "I'm thinking they'll work well for jewelery and maybe buttons. Think something like micro-mosaics inlaid with some very fine metal designs. They'll be super subtle, but that's the point. Should look from a distance like maybe just something painted or colored that way, but then occasionally catching the light on an almost subliminal level. They should photograph really well too. I kinda have an idea for a special project I want to work on with them. Something I'd been thinking about for awhile, but has been languishing in the notebook until Alison somehow managed to score these."
"I wouldn't." Jinny clarifies as she taps the side of the bin, sending the gems that managed to adhere to her finger back to where they were before booping Luu on the nose, right between her Celene frames. "you may have to come up with a method to get these set properly. With the size of these the way you are, I'm thinking anything larger than a post-it note would take a week to get settled and stitched down properly." She seems to have a fairly good handle on this - glue and velcro won't work because as soon as it gets bumped, some inevitably get knocked off, cracked, or broken, but layered and stitched down, it'd take a heck of a blow to get it off, assuming the weave was tight enough. "I'm imagining these outlining a person's outfit. The seams and the like, maybe even the folds, making it look like it's highlighted in reality when the light hits it just so. Oh, and if you get some that are reactive in light? You'd have the hottest thing in club wear - clothes that dance with you."
As her nose is booped, Luu momentarily crosses her eyes, before looking up towards Jinny. "Not planning on anything that large," Luu notes to Jinny, "probably the size of a nickle at most, and even that is on the large size. Part of the process will be figuring out all the technical details, but I'm sure it will work out. I got my team also, and for high quality stuff, it's expected it will take some time. My initial thoughts were for some earrings, for myself, as a test case. I have this theory I want to test out. I think that using artful and subconscious elements of asymmetry in a pair of earrings, could be quite useful. Something that will exaggerate someone else's 'tells' while distracting from my own. I'll have to see how easy they are to work with before I start coming up with any ideas for others, but right now I'm not looking to have the next big thing, looking to have an exclusive thing for a select clientele. I'm still making my reputation, and I don't want to sell my name or privacy to get these things out in the mass market. Maybe as I build my empire I'll figure out something, someone to be a front."
The lights above flicker slightly for a moment. Looking up, Luu scrunches her face slightly as she thinks about it. "This place is pretty old," she notes to Jinny, "haven't had any issues with the power before, so hopefully that's just a lightbulb that's starting to go."
In a power station near the valley, a small breaker is tripped on a transmission line. That breaker tripping sends the load on that line to the next one, which trips, which sends it to the next one. All in all, four transmission lines heading into the Hollywood Hills go down. The residents of the Hollywood hills are completely unaware.
Looking up at the light bulb, the flickering, whatever caused it, seems to have passed, and Jinny sits down across from Luu, her ankles near the other woman's hips, the bucket of gems between them. "That really sounds like a good idea. Something that isn't noticed right off the bat on a conscious level, but worms its way in. A wearable earworm, almost. The song that gets stuck in your head." Jinny grins, leaning back and resting on her elbows. "I'm hoping you're going with a triangle? Or a little green alien? Either one would fit your personality just wonderful."
The local distribution station goes dark and, almost instantaneously, so does the entirety of the Hollywood Hills, plunging the pair into the dark. No street lights. No porch lights. No light at all. The beeping of the battery backup on the computer does start, though, which means...power failure.
"Definitely going with a Triangle," Luu confirms for Jinny, "two very close, but not exactly identical triangles. I'm not sure which triangle yet, so going to have to put a lot of work into figuring that out. A green alien would be cute, but I'm not sure I could make it work in the right size, and then too big and it will overpower the rest. Which is alright for an occasion, but with that these are going to take to make, I want to get some mileage out of them. Minimal and subtle are keywords."
As the house room goes dark, Luu looks up and waits for the light to go back on. It does not. "Shit." There's a light sound of a bump as Luu hits -- though does not spill -- the micro-gem container as she gets up from her seat. "I'm not sure I have a flashlight," Luu admits as she begins to wander slowly in the darkened Chantry. "Candles I definitely have," she confirms, adding, "my cell phone might be able to provide light, but who knows where that is." A beat as she assesses the situation and adds another, "Shit."
Jinny's thighs are locked around the bucket, so when Luu gets up, it may rattle but it doesn't go down. And being the sort that skulks around darkened alleyways sometimes, she's not entirely uncomfortable in the dark and, thankfully, she's pretty familiar with the layout of the place. She doesn't get up, of course, but she does take the bucket, twists on her butt about 90 degrees and scooches herself until she hits the wall. *thud* Then, and only then, is the bucket taken and slid right up and against the wall, next to what feels like a chair, where it won't get accidentally booted over.
"I don't have my bag. It's still in the car." Jinny says from her spot, scooting to the left, away from the bucket, and then standing. Thankfully the moon is out tonight - still mostly full, but waxing, providing glimmers of light from the few uncovered windows on that side of the house. "So I don't have my phone or a flashlight." Her nose wrinkles as she frowns in the dark, trailing her fingers along the wall as she walks, so she's sure she's in the middle of the corridor, finally coming on a room with an outside window and a small glint of moonlight that her pupils can pick up.
The room is full of shapes - furniture and desks, more than likely, as well as the beeping of the computer's battery which is quickly found and silenced with the push of a button. "Candles, candles, candles..." Because in this house, Candles are everywhere, right? On the desk a little magnifying glass with a light is found, the tiny LED casting a small circle of light as she shines it. Definitely enough to get by without toppling over. "We'll get by." Jinny says cheerfully. "Fire in the fireplace, candles, s'mores. It'll be like camping, but indoors."
Standing in the dark, Luu whispers some quiet words in a strange and otherworldly language. This shortcut seems to do nothing, so instead she waits a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness and moonlight. Having done that, she begins to make her way over to where she had left candles during a recent ritual. There's certainly no lack of candles in the Chantry, one of the advantages of being a Wizard during a blackout. There's a light thump, as Luu taps into the furniture before coming to a stop. There's a bit of a creaking noise as the drawer is open, followed by the sound of ceramics being placed on wood, one, twice, and then thrice. There's a brief fumbling moment as Luu tries to get the matches to work, but eventually she succeeds. Three large ceremonial candles are lit one at a time, and while they provide some small amount of illumination, they're no real match for the size of the space. Looking to Jinny, Luu rests her hands on her hips and notes, "That's a start. I can probably find a bunch more candles, or maybe we have other options. Now that we're at least totally in the dark, perhaps we should figure out how to proceed next, rather than just proceeding?"
Jinny grew up in a rather interesting household, with Shinto and Catholicism and a little bit of Protestant in there for flavor, so seeing large candles isn't that big of a deal. Not being emblazoned with saints or symbols calling for luck in the new year is a little unexpected but, as the pale orange light starts to spread, Jinny finds herself standing close to Luu in the small corona of light put off by the few candles she found. And that is Luu, isn't it? Not running off all willy-nilly, but coming up with a plan for what to do instead of just doing and hoping it comes out right. "Well..." she says, looking towards one of the windows, the city below still glimmering - not a full power outage, it seems. "We have a couple of choices, broadly speaking. Stay here, or go elsewhere. Personally, I vote stay here because I'm tired, it's dark, and the sun inevitably will come up and we can deal with the lack of power in the morning if it's still off. A bath and then bed seem to be the best option at this point. Hot water goes no matter what and doesn't require power, and I know I probably have a bit of an odeur to me that's not so pleasant."
A quick glance is given to the window, before Luu looks back to Jinny and agrees with a nod. "It's been crazy enough outside as of late," Luu notes of the city, "and this situation isn't so bad, so we might as well make the most of the blackout and embrace it for what it is, rather than trying to escape it." Glancing back to the three candles, Luu looks again to Jinny and says, "Alright, now that we're agreed we're staying in, we should figure out where. This place is too big to have candles everywhere, but it can be quite comfortably lit as long as we're selective about the spaces we occupy." Looking around, Luu thinks about this for a moment, before saying, "Tell you what, I'm going to go get us some snacks and beverages from the kitchen. That way we have the option for a picnic wherever we end up. Thinking about where that might be, and I'll be right back."
Turning towards the furniture, Luu carefully lifts a solitary candle. She forms a slow processional towards the kitchen, the light flickering slightly as she moves. As she does this, something watches quietly from the top of the stairs.
"Call it an adventure." Jinny says, taking up her own candle, tilting it so her wick is in Luu's, the flame passing between and sputtering to life. "Camping without the bugs, rocks, and weather. That sounds like a fairly decent thing to me. I'd guess..." She lifts the candle towards the staircase, gesturing. "Upstairs. I think. It has smaller rooms, and everything we need within reach. Not to mention a master bathroom that's easily found in the dark." 2am bathroom runs are a thing she's learned to deal with here, it seems. "It'll be fun! I'll...um...wait here." she calls as Luu makes her way towards the kitchen, the light leading the way, glimmering with slow, even steps until it's around the corner, leaving Jinny alone, in the dark, with naught but a candle lighting her way.
"Upstairs," Luu readily agrees, as she calls back to Jinny from the kitchen. While the intention was just to get some basics, Luu has the sudden realization she's probably about to lose everything in the fridge or freezer. There's a few minutes of rustling about, before Luu begins to carefully make her way back from the kitchen, carrying a loaded up tray of food that looks like a bizarre birthday cake due to the ceremonial candle wedged in the middle. "Camping was fun," she says, remembering the Joshua Tree trip, "but yeah, trade those annoyances for other annoyances, and this'll be fun too." Pausing for a moment at the foot of the stairs, Luu looks to Jinny, as if to say 'wish me luck in my ascent.' With that, she puts her foot on the first step, but then turns to look at Jinny as she hears some skitter across the top step. "Did you hear that?" she wonders, before giving the tiny shrug she's capable of, and heading up the stairs to go get setup.
As long as the refrigerator and freezer stay shut, the stuff inside should be okay for at least a few hours without power, but any more than that means a shopping trip is definitely in order. "One step at a time." Jinny says, slipping past with her candle, holding it so Luu can see the stairs and, specifically, the little edges on the steps that might catch a toe if you don't lift your foot so high. She turns to look upstairs, following the skittering sound in the direction it's going. Rats? Nah, not those so...she calls out instead. "Be careful with those needles! They're sharp!" Just on the off chance it's the tailor's apprentice that's been in hiding.
Carefully carrying the tray of foodstuffs encircled around a solitary candle, Luu makes her way up the Chantry's stairs. Her attention flits between the stairs immediately ahead of her and Jinny a few steps further up. "We're going to have to put some time into tracking that down," Luu notes of the mysteriously skittering noises, "though I think it'll have to wait until after the blackout has passed. If we just start searching now, we'll like totally miss a lot due to the darkness." Slowing a second as she almost stumbles on the stairs, Luu looks from the tray to Jinny, in acknowledgment of the almost stumble. "I think, though, that we need to come up with a way to lure it," she notes to her Chantrymate, "whatever it might be. Which means we'll need to come up with a plan that accounts for the unknown and endless possibilities. It's probably more difficult than it sounds, but still possible, but something we should be careful about blindly stumbling into." Making their way up the steps, the first floor of the Chantry retreats into darkness for now, as they float upwards in a bubble of light.
"That goes against every rule I've ever learned from reading about horror movies. We're already in a spooky mansion in the middle of a power failure, after all." Jinny slowly and carefully walks ahead of Luu, lighting the way, pausing while she regains her footing, then taking the last few steps to the top. Holding her candle aloft so Luu can see each step, as well as the destination, Jinny thinks of herself as a kind of model for a painting, for a second. "Running off to search for a mysterious skittering noise is just inviting the masked killer to come and put their blade in our delicate insides. No thank you!" she continues once Luu is upstairs.
"In all seriousness, though." Jinny sticks close to Luu once she's made it to the top, the pair migrating down the hall, stepping around various obstacles that suddenly appear in the darkness - hall tables and the like - on their way to their final destination. "I think we're doing the best that we can without digging more into the spiritual part of it. While luring it might work, it'll work once. If we catch, whatever it is, it'll be annoyed at us at the very least, and if we don't, it's going to be ticked that we tried. The whole catching flies with honey saying probably fits in pretty good here." The door to Luu's bedroom looms in the darkness, Jinny heading over to open it, stepping aside to allow the woman with her burden passage. "Whatever the case. We need to plan."
"Hopefully it's not a masked killer," Luu responds, though she doesn't seem particularly worried about that possibility. Making it to the top of the steps, their way up begins to vanish behind them, as their bubble of light travels along the second floor. "I think you're right," Luu agrees on the matter, "there are so many different things we could catch and ways we could them, that we need to consider those possibilities. Otherwise, we might turn something harmless into a large problem." Glancing to her sides, there's not much to be seen at present. The space is navigated by having one foot in the light of the present, and another in the memory of the past, and from there steps taken into the future.
Stepping into her bedroom, Luu pauses for a moment, thinking she hears the skittering. At this point, she's no longer sure if she's taking in details that are facts, or ones that spring from her imagination. That's the sort of confusion tha can be dangerous, pulling one down a rabbit hole of their own invention. "Definitely a plan," Luu concurs, taking a few more steps in before placing the tray down on a bedside table. Lifting the candle, she begins to walk around the room, retrieving additional candles and lighting them one by one. The room slowly gained a flickering illumination of ceremonial candles placed on various pieces of furniture. The Moon through the window offers a slightly more consistent light that mixes in with the others.
If it weren't for the city lights in the distance and the sound of traffic on the highways that echo through the now quiet air, one might be forgiven to think that they were in the distant past when the house was built and the city was new. The glow of the candles slowly bathes the whole room in a warm glow, little bubbles of light spreading from the flickering flames, the things close brought into sharp clarity while whatever is behind sinks into shifting shadows. Imaginations run wild in worlds like that, each shadow holding untold horrors and treasures, just waiting to be discovered, but now, it might be a pack of cigarettes or a half-finished bottle of water. Whatever the case, it's quite....well...magickal.
Having lit a number of the candles, Luu makes her way to close the bedroom door. While the space is shut, they are far from hermetically sealed. Drafts breezing through the Chantry cause the candlelights to dance as if they were alive, or perhaps just controlled by some invisible puppeteer. The numerous candles now lightly scent the room, extending their presence to additional senses, even if the exact effect lays beyond description.
Following shortly behind Jinny, Luu also hops up onto the bed, sitting down as she faces the other Angeleno. As what is known of the mystery are catalogued, Luu gives slight nods to confirm that this is how she too has understood things to be. "I don't know that we can say destroyed," Luu notes of the description, "From our point of view, certainly. From it's point of view? Perhaps, but we need to be careful in assigning it these sorts of understandings, lest we confuse our own understanding on the matter. To destroy would seem to be a willful intention, which perhaps it does not have. You saw how the mannequin was dressed, perhaps it's just a matter of skill, or perhaps a way of trying to gain knowledge. What becomes dangerous is not the harm it might intentionally cause, but what it might unintentionally cause. It seems interested in putting things together, but often in the process takes things apart."
It's serene in here. That's the term she was searching for. Serene and peaceful. A little bubble of quiet in the middle of the darkened house that only she and Luu inhabit, sitting on the half-made bed across from one another. She tilts her head to the side in thought, finally nodding. "I remember when I was young, my parents would give me or my brother something to work on, something we could keep ourselves busy with instead of getting into trouble since we were bored. Dad actually gave me a cylinder head with all the nuts and bolts loose and had me put it together and take it apart. I...um..." Jinny giggles. "I ended up taking all the parts off of it and making little ballet dancers out of them. They weren't good...at all, actually. But for six year old me, it was a lot of fun and kept me from breaking anything important. So maybe...." Jinny trails off, looking towards the door. "We could set aside a little spot, somewhere, in one of the out of the way rooms. Like that room where you store your collection. Just...a good selection of cloth, some scissors, needle and thread, a dummy, and then just let it go. See what happens?"
Thinking about that plan for a moment, Luu gives a little nod of agreement. "I think that could work," she says softly, "I did similar when I was younger, though I don't think that was the intention of my parents. Really, I'm not sure that they had one. The point, though, is that I gravitated in the same direction, even without the push. I think there's a natural inclination to trying to build a world for one's own self. Whether that happens through order or chaos is just a matter of the raw material one has to construct such a world. By curating those opportunities, I think at the very least we'll find out more about what we're dealing with here. It will be fairly easy to come up with those raw materials and set them aside, which ends up removing the need for it to come up with raw materials of it's own, as those might be taken from anywhere." Tilting her head to the side, Luu considers for a moment, before adding, "but in case we're wrong, we probably should make sure the scissors aren't too sharp."
"Excellent suggestion, Luu." She hadn't thought of that but, remembering how things were pinned on to the mannequin that they discovered, it's probably best to not have anything that's too terribly dangerous until they know what it is, if anything, they're dealing with. A normal person would assume rats, raccoons, or possums causing mischief, but Luu and Jinny - Jinny due to her spirits and Luu due to her fascination about esoteric knowledge - are steeped in the strange world of Magick. While it might be any of those things, probably it isn't, so they prepare.
"We should make an assortment of things available. Beads, fringe, and the like, and vibrant colors of cloth. Primary colors, and something easily sewn but not too fragile as to rip when you put the slightest pressure on the stitch." Jinny suggests. "That's mostly you, though. I know what I like and I rarely borrow from the back of your closet when I go out. I'd guess something cottony? Soft, like t-shirt material?"
"That sounds like a good plan," Luu concurs with Jinny, adding, "I should be able to track down most of those things fairly easily once the power returns. We'll probably want to start with a somewhat limited assortment, so as not to overwhelm. I think it will also give us a better understanding on which we can build. That is, if it goes for all of this. It's possible we're getting this all wrong, in which case we should be careful not to disappear down a rabbit hole of our own creation. I think also by limiting things, we avoid the possibility of insulting it, or spoiling it. Not knowing what we're dealing with, we need to be cautious in a number of ways." While no thoughts are given to how to make this setup known, there seems to be the unspoken understanding that at least to some degree, their actions are being watched. That to do something, to create an opportunity, is itself enough. That there is no need to leave a trail of breadcrumbs in order for their plans to be stumbled upon and engaged with. That what they are devising is itself a bread crumb, and that it needs to be set down before they know where to set the next one.
Move it along a short, predetermined path instead of giving it a thousand branches to follow. Jinny's felt overwhelmed with some of the choices she's had to make over the years, and she can imagine that whatever it is that's living in the Chantry might have the same issues with choice. Given two or three is easy, but a dozen? A hundred? Self doubt and being unsure of yourself is a recipe for chaos and, judging from the impulse of creation exhibited, too many options will probably be worse than too few. "It might be that we're getting it all wrong and we're tilting at windmills. It could be nothing. It also could be something. I mean, who knows? Now that the Chantry is alive, it might be attracting all sorts of interesting things to it." Jinny blinks. "We really need to work on some wards for this place..." As if that's not been something on the forefront of her mind for a while.
Tilting her head at the mention of windmills, Luu offers, "Perhaps. I think it's a good start, though. It might not work out, but the way it doesn't work out will still teach us something. We just need to be prepared for the different possibilities." The mention of Wards gets further agreement from Luu. "Those will definitely be necessary," she concurs, "but also something we need to plan for. We can't just Ward against everything, so we need to understand what challenges we might face and what hidden plans we might want to have. I don't think what we're facing right now is a huge issue, but at the same time it's a good reminder that we should prepare for potentially larger problems. Right now we can figure out things in a methodical manner, so we want to take that opportunity. I think in terms of security, we'll want more than just Wards, though. They're sort of a first line of defense, but we should have plans for what to do should they not provide enough security."
With a sigh, Jinny flops back on the bed, looking up at the darkened ceiling with the light hanging there, useless. "When did it all get so complicated, Luu?" She asks, turning her head slightly to look at the other woman, not really expecting an answer to the question as stated. She stretches out her legs and lets them fall to the mattress, rubbing her eyes for a second or two, stars appearing in her eyes that she blinks away after a moment. "I think, with our anonymity at the moment, those can wait. Powering the darn things will be a trick but, as we get more people into the chantry, hopefully the whole thing will work itself out." A beat. "I've been having visons, now and then. New people. Different people, all over the city. I think you've been having them, too."
"It's possible things haven't changed," Luu says softly, looking through the window to the light of the Moon. "It might be that it was always this complicated," she notes, before countering with, "or it might be that it's not that complicated, we're just making it so." Another moment is taken to gaze at the Moon, before Luu flops back on the bed beside Jinny. "Simplicity will give way to complexity," she notes, as she watches the shadows dance across the ceiling, "and complexity to simplicity. Whether that is in actuality or just the way we see things? I'm not sure, but it still seems to be the way that things go. When you only have so many pieces of puzzle, it's easy to mistake one for the other. The new pieces? Yeah, I'm sensing them too. What to make of them? I'm not sure, but I am sure that if I focus too much on them, I'll lose sight of what I do know. I think that's the trap to be avoided, because that's the easiest way to become lost. We need to trust in ourselves with all of this, because if not, what is there that we can trust in?" A sigh as given as Luu wonders, "When did it all got simple, Jinny?"
to that, Jinny has no answer. At least, not a good one. "I suppose it always has been. Our perspectives are the things that have changed. Where we stand and what options we have." And then, she goes silent. For the longest time, they lay there, gazing at the ceiling, at the moon, the only sounds their breathing and the occasional shuffle of blanket against skin as one moves closer or further away from the other. Their hands are so close right now that a simple brush of the fingers could lead to holding hands, and that might lead to just a bit more than they should. The puzzle pieces - she's not the only one that's experienced them, thank the City, and in her haste, she'd wondered what, if anything, they were to do with them unless taking a step back was the thing. Let the vision draw those with interest and those who do not recognize or do not understand can go about their lives. This Chantry is a delicate one, and taking everyone is not the best way to get things done.
"What did you get out of the fridge?" she asks after a bit of time. "I thought I saw fruit on there?"
Across the vast gulf of the Chantry, with watchful eyes, a thread is carefully sewn. A needle dropped at this moment might be heard to echo, or disappear under soft breath. What is known and unknown, close by, and slowly coming into view. For now the picture incomplete, but all the pieces near at hand. In any moment, yet seeming to be eternities between them. Subtle changes that will make what was once seen as impossible become a new unforgettable reality forged of hope and imagination.
"Yeah," Luu responds, the sound more mouth than voice. Another moment before she leans to her side and reaches for the tray resting on the bedside table. Turning back towards Jinny, she sits up slightly, her back resting against pillows and wall. Then placing in between them a small bowl of fruit, Luu notes, "I left the pomegranate downstairs, but we still have some options up here."
Perhaps that's for the best. Fertility may not be the best thing for either of them at that moment, and explaining a virgin birth from a couple of lesbians that aren't sleeping together and leaving magick out of it would be tricky at best. Jinny sits up, studies the bowl in the dark, and finally plucks a bit of pineapple from the bowl, popping it into her mouth and chewing thoughtfully, the sweet juices bursting over her tongue. "It's good." she says quietly, taking a grape now, popping it between her lips.
Reaching for the bowl, Luu pulls her hand back so as not to accidentally touch Jinny's hand. Once the other woman has selected her fruit, Luu reaches over to take a few grapes for herself. "From the farmer's market," Luu explains in a quiet tone, in between eating grapes. Pulling her legs up to her chest, she wraps an arm around them, and let's out a small and ambiguous sigh. Looking to the Moon for a moment, she lets her thoughts swim through her mind without holding onto any one of them, as if an alien observer. Another grape slowly eaten as her attention goes from the far away light to the ones near at hand. "Sometimes it seems silly to own so many candles," she says as she considers her life, "and sometimes it seems to make complete sense, or to be exactly what is necessary. Life's funny like that."
"You own exactly as many candles as you need. No more, no less." Now, were Luu to have a Candle Grotto somewhere in the house, Jinny might wonder, but she doesn't, and they sit quietly, watching the candles, listening to the world outside. Raching up, she gently squeezes Luu's shoulder, nodding towards the room across the hall. "What do you say? Bath?"
What in fact does one say to such a question? Luu isn't even quite sure how to interpret that question, though she's well aware of the numerous possible ways it could be interpreted. Which, though, is that correct interpretation and which are the misinterpretations? Realizing she can't linger on this though too long, Luu gives a small nod, as she notes, "I'll help you get setup in there." There's uncertainty if she's actually answered the question she's being asked, but she tries not to think about that too much. Instead, shifting her legs off the bed, she slowly rises up and begins to collect a few candles from the room.
The interpretation could be taken in many ways, certainly, but not in that one. At least, that's not Jinny's intent at this point. Really. It's getting chilly and the bath, certainly, is going to be warm because yay gas water heater. Fully intending to take turns, Jinny heads to her room guided by the light of her candle and emerges a few moments later wrapped in a towel, heading towards the sound of running water. Rapping on the bathroom door with two knuckles, she peeks around the doorway and, seeing the bath outlined with candles - a romantic scene, were they dating, of course - Jinny slips into the room, lets her towel fall, and dips a toe into the bubbly water.
A few candles placed carefully around the bathroom provides a modicum of illumination, but really that's all that's necessary. Starting the water to run, Luu moves her hand through it until she determines it's warm enough and then seals the drain. Splashing in some bubbles, she heads downstairs with one candle to check on some things, leaving the first bath for Jinny.
Oh, this is nice. Jinny, bare as the day she was born, slips into the bath once Luu has headed down the stairs and sinks in almost to the bridge of her nose, barely able to be seen thanks to the shadows cast by the candles and the edge of the tub. She lets out a soft, bubbly sigh and soaks, luxuriously, in the bath, her eyes closing as she slips into a little bit of self-centered meditation.
Outside, something in the hall moves, peering down the staircase after Luu before scrambling to the bathroom where it peers over the edge of the tub at Jinny, reaching to steal the nearest candle before retreating towards Shoe Antechamber 4-b. The door leading into there is ajar but, once it enters, there's a little bit of force presented and, with a notable thud, the door closes, the light in Jinny's room making it appear that she's there.
Having done a sweep through downstairs and ensuring everything is locked up, Luu begins to head back upstairs after hearing the thud of the door. Glancing at the light from under Jinny's door, Luu heads into her own bedroom. Placing the candle on a shelf, Luu removes her clothes in a quick and efficient manner, before wrapping herself in a towel. Exiting, she glances once more at Jinny's room before heading into the bathroom to take her turn at a warm bubble bath. Dropping the towel, she pulls the door closed behind her, not noticing as the towel wedges in the door frame muffling it's sound. By the light of the one remaining candle, Luu begins to slide into the tub. It takes a moment before her foot presses into hidden flesh, startling Luu and causing her to let out a little yelp as she splashes about into the tub with Jinny.
Jinny's not entirely out of it in her meditation, and while a lotus position would certainly be the thing to be in the water has lulled her to a point of relaxation that very little would get her out of. Her legs are extended, the tap just over her left shoulder, her hands holding lightly to the raised tub to keep her from sinking below the water. All through this, her lips moving slightly as she barely whispers her chosen mantra, too quiet to hear until one is right on top of her. "I Love You; I’m Sorry; Please Forgive Me; Thank You" Something she picked up from Hawaii during her brief travels across the ocean. And then something touches her leg.
"Wha..." she pulls herself up slightly, the foam running down her skin and the candlelight promising quite a lovely outline of her curves. Unfortunately, that's just in time for Luu's yelp and the tumbling of the other woman into the tub with her, Jinny going underwater with a plunk, twisting and pushing out of the water, naked skin against naked skin. She gasps, taking in a breath, the lone candle somehow staying lit as she wipes the hair out of her face.
The water barely drops an inch, but for all the frantic splashing it might seem like half had been emptied upon the floor. The frantic action does little good, and will neither put the genie back in the bottle, nor the Luu out of the bath. Giving in, Luu stops her fight and instead lets her head sink under the water, momentarily debating if she should emerge or choose to drown right there. It's another moment, before she thinks that perhaps staying under might make things worse -- if that is possible. Her head emerging from the water, Luu looks completely stunned as she stares wide-eyed across the tub, hair and foam clinging to the side of her face. If there are words to explain the situation, they're not coming to Luu at the moment, her expression frazzled like a toaster thrown into a tub.
The tub, thankfully, is big enough for the pair of them to not be right up in each other's business, but close enough to where their feet and legs are definitely entwined, even if they push as far apart as they possibly can. And, for a second, there's a very active debate going on in the congress in Jinny's head on what she is doing. "Get a towel and run!" says one side. "She's your friend, just stay!" says the other with a quiet vocal minority urging her "Get closer to her and see where it goes!" That voice is put aside for later debate but, for now, Jinny stays right where she is, in the tub, arms still hanging on to the sides, foam dripping from her nose, ears, chin, and slowly making its way down her shoulders and chest. Then, finally something happens. She reaches over and takes the washcloth, dips it into a relatively clear spot of water, and wipes it over her face, getting most of the suds off and, thankfully, out of her eyes and then, taking a breath, offers it across the tub to drowned cat Luu.
"Okay so..." Jinny stammers, the suds both hiding and revealing bits of her at the whim of surface tension. "So we're in the bath. You and I. At the same time." She takes in a deep, deep breath, twice, and settles back, relaxing a hint as she frames this in a less sexy way, even though her Western mind is really, REALLY trying to. Luu's so beautiful like this, after all. "It's like the onsen in Japan." Jinny finally says. "It's fine. I..I didn't know you wanted to have a group soak but I...um...don't mind."
"I -- " Luu begins to say, still looking completely shocked and trying to get her mind together. " -- I thought you were in your room," she finally manages to get out, an explanation that, while the truth, doesn't seem to fully explain or forgive the situation to her mind. She still seems frozen, not so much unsure of what she should do in this situation, but utterly baffled at what she is doing in this situation. Jinny might not mind, but Luu is in a state of no mind. Caught in between embracing and fleeing the situation, she just continues to stare wide-eyed, not even yet getting to the point of realization that maybe she shouldn't stare; at present, it's still a thousand yard stare.
The washcloth is offered across the tub, Jinny leaning up just a little to reach across where Luu can easily grab it, her chest exposed above the bubbles for just a moment before she settles back into the concealing cloud of foam. "I'm not." Obviously. "I left my door open so I could get changed easier after I was done soaking, and left the bathroom door open so you'd have a point of reference when you got to the top of the stairs." Jinny gives a coy little smile, pushing her wet hair back behind her shoulders, giving Luu a glimpse of the fuzz she's got developing under her arms. "It's okay. Really. It's like the Japanese custom of bathing together. It's just a way for families and friends to bond in a way that strips away all of the pretenses that clothes and culture does. In the bathhouse, everyone could be an emperor, so everyone is treated as such." She reaches up to turn the hot water on, sending a stream into the tub to add the inch that ended up on the floor. "Breathe, Luu. Breathe. It's okay. I'm not mad. I'm...happy...that I get to see you like this and that I get to share something so...intimate...with you."
Listening to Jinny's explanation, Luu nods along, still a bit dumbstruck by the whole experience. The situation might be ok, but her brain is just calming down out of a flailing mode. "Well, sorry," she finally manages, her look a bit of a sheepish smile, that seems to register that everything's actually alright. "The draft must have closed your door while I was downstairs," she offers up as a way of possibly explaining the situation, even though she recognizes the need to explain probably does not exist. Puffing up her cheeks, Luu slowly exhales as she relaxes back into the bathtub, accepting the situation as it is. With a glance from one side of the tub to the other, Luu then rests her elbows up against either side of the tub as more hot water pours in from the bath faucet.
Remaining where she is in the bath, arms outstretched, modesty protected by a thin film of suds floating on top of the water, Jinny takes a breath or two to regain the composure that she had before Luu showed up. Normally, she'd be petrified. The bath from Japan, with communal nakedness and outdoor settings, was something that she immediately latched on to as an explanation for why Luu came in here when, really? It's just a couple of girls hanging out in the candlelit bathroom. And that's okay. Relaxing a little, Luu may feel Jinny's left foot slip along her right calf, not teasing or exploring, but simply getting back comfortable in the water. "I admit..." she says over the sound of the water. "I'm kind of glad you're in here. I know how yo get in the dark." She wiggles her toes against Luu's leg. "You're a big chicken, aint'cha?"
"Did all the candles give it away?" Luu wonders with a small giggle, before noting, "because those are like totally for legitimate ritual purposes." Looking around the barely candlelit bathroom, Luu looks to Jinny and admits, "I guess there are sometimes when this space gets a little haunted housey, and not in the new mystery kinda way -- " Thinking about this for a moment, Luu wrinkles her nose slightly and adds, " -- maybe just in the kinda a big space to be alone sorta way." Flicking two fingers against her thumb, Luu launches the tiniest bubble attack imaginable, just a stray bubble or three launched over towards Jinny. "I suppose a Scooby freakout isn't so hard to imagine," she notes, before adding, "not that I was freaked out by the dark. I'm just saying that I'm glad to have you here."
Luu can almost see the playful smirk from the other side of the tub in the dim candlelight. It's not malicious in the least, mind you, just playful. Jinny lifts her hands out of the water to wipe her face, pushing her hair back behind her shoulders and then reaches to turn the bath water off with a squeak, the echo of the thundering water replaced by the silence of a house that's rather large for two single lesbian lifemates to comfortably be ensconced. "You know, we could probably get away with a two bedroom in the valley, were we not doing the whole chantry thing." she confides, eyes following the bubble as it spirals, lazily, to perch on the tip of her nose. Sure, she might have moved a little to catch it, but the effect was playful, to say the least.
Drawing her knees to her chest and resting her chin atop them, Jinny watches Luu in the dark, the candlelight making her hazel eyes look almost black, her head tilted to the side. "We should try to see if one of your hallways starts repeating, and the only way we can tell when something's about to happen is by the way the background color changes, slightly, once we pass the same hall table a dozen times with a bongo drum for effect." Yes, Jinny's watched a bit of Scooby Doo in her lifetime. She reaches across the tub or, rather, slides her hand above the water where Luu can see it coming, towards Luu's hand. "I'm glad that you let me be here, with you. I'm glad we're on this journey together. I'm glad to be your friend." She sighs, then smiles. "You make me happy."
"If that doesn't happen," Luu responds with a slight smirk, "I might have a good lawsuit against my realtor, they gave me a number of assurances that this was more than just a 'Mummy House.'" Slowly lifting up from a foam of bubbles, Luu's hand meets Jinny's just above the waterline. The reflection of the candlelight dances upon the meeting of their eyes, as a thumb gently strokes another. "There wouldn't be a journey without you," Luu admits, "Things would be very different if you weren't here, and I know I would be missing something, even if I wasn't quite sure what that was. And I think others would miss out on a lot as well, without there being the path that you and I are forging together through this crazy world." A smile as given as she adds, "You make me happy too."
Jinny's fingers curl against Luu's lightly, her grip going around Luu's index and middle fingers, holding them gently just above the water's edge. She leans her head over to rest on her shoulder when her arm is extended like that to be a little more comfortable than she otherwise might be, rubbing her thumb over the top of Luu's palm. "Give this place a few more years and the whole 'mummy house' stigma might be a selling point, if you do decide to put this place on the market. I'm sure some flash-in-the-pan influencer would jump at turning this place into their own private compound where they could make sick YouTube videos and the like." She's teasing, obviously, and lapses into silence after a moment or two, letting the silence drape over the pair like a blanket.
"It's funny." she says quietly. "I generally mark my life as having two phases - before I knew Magick and the City, and after. Now....I don't know. My life has been so much better. More meaningful, with you. It would be very different, and I don't know if I would like where it was. I know I'd be missing something and not know what it was."
With an open-mouthed mock-shock look, Luu takes her other hand to give a gentle tap to the top of Jinny's hand. "It /was/ a selling point," she assures her bathmate, "just probably not for anybody besides myself, but that's alright with me. It made things a lot more affordable than they probably would have been otherwise. We do like totally seem to be well on the way to making this into our own private compound, but I think we can pass on the influencer schtick, and do something a bit more meaningful here."
As Jinny resumes talking after a momentary silence, Luu tilts her head to the side as she considers what's said to her. "You should have realized that your life wasn't just going to be two chapters," Luu tells the Baruti in the tub with her, "but rather a whole library of stories, rich with meaning, and yet still personally curated."
If it was good enough for the Roman Catholic Church in the dark ages, why shouldn't it be good enough for Jinny. It fits well, though. Before Magick and after, then before Luu...the Chantry, she means. Before the Chantry, then after. A story she's writing as she lives it. A choose-your-own-adventure that's really happening, with magick and companionship and a place that can really do a lot of good in the world. "Yeah, that is true." She finally says. "I suppose a two chapter life wouldn't nearly be as interesting as one with a dozen or more."
"Just a dozen?" Luu inquires with a raised eyebrow, before suggesting, "Your life has already exceeded being defined by mere chapters. The richness that you bring to your life and the lives you touch? How could any day be any less than it's own book? And maybe even books aren't the way to define it, as you easily transcend such strictures." A little shrug is given as Luu offers a smile and notes, "Perhaps it's even just the sort of thing you can't really define at all. Something larger than those categories, something lighter than air, that's the kind of magickal quality it has."
With that, Jinny curls her hand around Luu's and gives it a squeeze, fingers linking between each other in an intimate connection between the two. And at that moment the power flickers and blinks on, the fans, lights, air conditioning, and everything powering on, the pair sitting in the half-lit bathroom, with a single candle to remind them of the moment. "So...." Jinny says as she stands, stepping out of the bath and rummaging for a towel, seemingly unconcerned about her nakedness. "Same time next week?"
