Totems, Familiars, and Guides OH MY!

Prospect Roasters - Basement

	Newly replaced wooden stairs descend down into a clean, welcoming basement. One of those lift chairs have been built along the railing to make the steep slope handicap accessible. The basement is a little on the cool side and the walls are left to the bare brick. The lighting is pleasantly soft with warm circles of light instead of harsh fluorescents. A large, round table has been set up in the middle of the room with 13 chairs around the perimeter, but room enough for more. There is also a couch and a TV, a small washer and dryer in a closet off on one end, a little kitchen area with a small stove, and of course the smell of coffee wafts down constantly. There is a dumb-waiter built in against one of the kitchen walls to transport food - or whatever - up and down from above. Against one wall is a bright red phone booth. There is one entire room dedicated to a communal library.

	There is a simple, mundane video camera above the doorway at the top of the stairs at the end of the hall. It is outside the room, so privacy can still be assured. If you tamper with this, please inform staff or Eloise immediately.

	If you attempt to bring in an unauthorized guest, please contact Eloise immediately. Do not +meet them into the basement.

Since it has come up a time or two, smoking over by the 'window' brings the smoke straight up. There is no drifting and no bad smell.
Contents:
Steele
Adora
Caressa
Rustin
Aerik
WHO IS ALLOWED
NOTICE: ABSOLUTELY NO VIDEOS OR PHOTOS TO BE TAKEN IN THE BASEMENT EVER
READ ME
Vampires: N00b 101
Obvious Exits:
  Kitchen <Ki>

The arrival of the dreadlocked guy and his bird draws Rusty's attention from the book he was looking through and he can't help but ask something that's been crawling through his head. "Excuse me...but...can I ask you a question?" he asks of Steele. "I've been reading up on familiars and was wondering - is that a spirit given flesh or something more like an awakened, mundane creature. And...if you'll permit me...do you share any kind of connection?" Because ginger students who run gaming shops should probably never be unleashed in a room full of -real- wizards.

Aerik smiles, responding to Caressa, "I'm allright and you?" he says then goes back to being quiet.

	Adora squints at Caressa curiously, looking her over. "Yes, you are. My dear, I'm Dr. Adora Goldhart -- pleased to make your acquaintance. I am one of a few Master Etherites in town, and frequently teach both beginner and refresher courses within the Traditions. And you are?" She's -so- polite and cheerful. Honest, too. Scritches don't stop, no sir. Amazing ravens get all the love, there's no Nash here to lavish adoration onto. She winks to Steele. "I'm -always- here. I mean, maybe I'm not in for cookies all the time, and yes, I have things to do, but I'm still here. Closing in on the final masteries of all the Spheres. It takes time, patience, and not blowing up city blocks." Still totally honest, with that cheerful smile. More than likely, Adora is leading a double life rife with adventure, mayhem, mystery, and intrigue. To Rustin, she adds, "It's a Spirit animating a corporeal casing, be that a body, or a machine, or a bit of Dreaming fluff or what have you. So it can interact with the Material world. You are bonded, it relies on you for protection and sustenance, and it is a deep enough bond that should it perish, you suffer grievously. Possibly die with it, too. There are as many kinds of Familiars out there as there are Avatars."

	Mo comes trundling down the stairs, the Chinese youth's mood cheerful. He's humming a jaunty little tune to himself. Once at the bottom of the stairs, he takes a look around to see what's the rumpus! But then - did someone say Etherite? An eyebrow arches, and he'll give Adora a long regard.

Caressa reaches into her purse for a little organza pouch and dumps something ...a couple of somethings...into her palm. These she offer to Steele. They seem to be matching beads, of a sort, though in different sizes. Both silver items are sculpted with a raven, since Kohn so badly wanted her necklace. Each have a tiny bit of tiger's eye set the bird's eye. Both are hinged. The larger one could easily fit one of Steel's dreads, the smaller one would fit quiet wonderfully on Kohn's leg, if he wanted some bling to wear. "Maybe he'll like this. Made by my own hand. Completely mundane as well." She looks back to Adona, "Not quite new any more..but nice to meet you too. Doctor Caressa Perlman, Psychiatrist."

Steele shakes his head to Adora's explanation. "Not quite. Kohn is a totem. A Dream Raven. He isn't a familiar. I follow him, not the other way around. He's able to materialize, and he loves puzzles, and he's almost always with me, among other things." He turns toward Caressa and takes the items with a grin. "Well, thank you, m'lady." He turns back to Kohn and wiggles the shiny. Kohn just... sticks out a foot. He has accepted this gift and Caressa doesn't get glared at. So that's something. Birds are sensitive creatures, you know, and while not COMPLETELY unforgiving, he's still totes sad inside.

The ginger's eyes sparkle with possibilities and he digs into his satchel for a simple notebook within which to scribble some thoughts and ideas. Muttering to himself the youth ponders the possibility of contacting /other/ types of spirits as he does the dead. "It should be basically the same operation - I'd guess....maybe..." doubt starts to crawl into his thoughts as he's mentally casting a line into unfamiliar waters.

And then Steele just throws a huge friggen rock into those waters and splashes things around in his head. "Totem? Wait...ok, so totemic representations of ancient animal spirits who then are venerated...and uh...made offerings?" he tries to recall some textbook-based explination of the concept but is looking towards Steele to see if he's even remotely in the right direction. He takes a moment and writes the word 'TOTEM' in his book and circles it as apparently another area to research.

Robert makes his way down the steps, listening to... Steele's lesson? as he tries to find himself a good spot to listen.

	Adora wasn't going to explain Kohne if Steele wasn't. Familiars were asked about, and the petite bombshell knows better than to try to explain anything she's no expert on. Totems are not her thing, and she can only guess at the depth of the bond there. Her word choice was deliberately educational but non-person-or-entity specific. "Totems are a whole other kettle of fish, poppet, as Steele says," she says gently to Rustin. "Unless you're on the path of a Dreamspeaker, that may be a mystery you can only hear about, not experience. There is no better to ask than Steele, I've found." The little blonde sips her tea and smiles to Caressa. "Glad to see you've settled in -- you can't be one of mine, I absolutely would have heard of you by now. I'm a Prospect native, so ... forgive me if I find it -very- amusing if someone asks if I'm new in town." British accent. Prospect native? Unusual.

Paul comes downstairs with Robert, a tray of food in his hand as usual, and glances around the room. He moves with the other man to find a seat.

	Mo marches on over towards Adora, and will wait for an opportune moment to lightly nudge her elbow, clearing his throat slightly. "Hi - did you say Aetherite? Like, Society of Aether? I'm Mo - former ward of Captain Levinbolt, of the Society. me and Emrick, we recovered his zeppelin just recently, and a hollow-version of the Captain," a pause as he well, pauses, "But I was just wondering if I could have an autograph?" And it's at that moment that the young Chinese man produces a small notebook, and a pen, before giving Adora hsi most sincere ad hopeful look.
ERROR: You have too many recent votes for Paul

Caressa smiles to Adora, "No, not one of yours. I was born and raised here...so native as well. Just didn't get the urge to join the society till about seven months ago." Though she doesn't confide more than that for now. "So can one have both a totem -and- a familiar?" She looks between the two curiously. "What does one provide that the other doesn't? Or is there anything?"

Aerik's phone makes a noise as he receives a text. He pulls the phone from his pocket to see who and what was sent. He chcukles and stands, nodding to everyone then to Caressa, "Have a good evenin.. Gotta run put an order in for work."

Robert glances at Steele a moment, and offers his take on it. "A totem invests a bit of itself in you, expecting it's goals to be worked toward and values met. You invest in the familiar, expecting it to work toward your goals and promote your values." okay, reaaaaaaly simple and only vaguely accurate.

Caressa waves to Aerik, "See you soon! Safe travels!"

	Adora looks puzzled, but grins at Mo. "Absolutely you may. Do know all of the Society, -especially- fellow Adventurers, are welcome to call on me any time, as I'm a Chair for the Adventurers within Etherite Society. My 'day job', as it were, is at SpaceX so you can always find my phone number--oh I DO so love zeppelins, absolutely a blast." There's no irony in those words, it's honest to goodness excitement! And her train of thought is completely derailed as it skips from thought to thought. "Did he manage to download and save important parts of himself? If so, I can reconstruct his body for him, it wouldn't be the first time." As if uploading yourself into a machine is completely normal! Scribble scribble scribble. FOR ADVENTURE! it reads, with Adora's completely illegible signature over the bottom part of it. Totally a doctor's signature. She offers a cheerful, warm smile to Robert and Paul. "Paul! Robert! It's been an age. Glad to see you both." It really hasn't been that long at all. Maybe a few weeks at most. Perhaps her perception of time is different.

Steele nods to Rustin. "Basically, yes. USUALLY animals, not exclusively. You also find things like Old Man River or Tornado, various Electricity totems, Glass, all kinds of things." Mo talking to Adora makes him pause and he nods to caressa. "Yes, you can have both. They /tend/ to be similar, but it isn't necessary or required. Just we who have both tend toward the same things."

Paul returns the smile to Adora, "Nice seeing you again too, Ma'am. It's been a month of Sundays for sure." He glances around the room, nodding to any that look his way as he unwraps one of the veggie melt sandwichs.

Rustin is happy to scribble some ideas and thoughts about what people are throwing him as far as informaiton concerning spirits and those companions made from them. The ginger only passively is paying attention to the discussions between Adora and the topic of the Etherite Society.

Caressa smiles and nods to Steele, "That makes sense. I'll definitely have to give it a bit of thought then."

	Mo watches, holding his breath, as Adora grants the youth her autograph. There are other autographs in the small notebook, from other Etherites, some dating all the way back to their time as Electrodyne Engineers. He'll finally exhale when she finishes, as if should he have done so any earlier, she and the autograph might have vanished in a puff of smoke! His shoulders and body relax now that he's secured another autograph for his little book of Aetheric memorabilia. "Thank you - I was just the Captain's ward, never really inducted in the Society. My magics more suited to the Speakers with Dreams, he said. I'm like a nexus - a door, y'know? Fate, chi, the Wall between realms - that sorta thing." A cheerful smile as he pockets away one of his most treasured possessions, in the autograph book. "Thank you again. And I'll be sure to call on you as we continue restoring the Captain's zeppelin. We need it tip-top shape to get to Hollow Earth."

Steele gets a phone call and steps to the side

	Adora seems a bit mystified! Her autograph is precious? That's a new one! The little blonde beams at the news. "Absolutely, dear. Doesn't matter if you're formally introduced, or if you have another line of study, many of us run dual Tradition as Awakened, and there are still leagues of Etherites who are not Awakened at all. There's -always- an adventure waiting for us out there. If you need paperwork put in for a formal introduction, happy to help. If you need to know the Dreamspeakers locally, you're also in the right spot, good sir. Whatever I can help fix, or tinker with, just let me know."

Robert gets comfy, listening the the discussion and trying to find places to mosey in and show off a bit. "Adora, y dear, always good to see you. These little get togethers are always so much more active and entertaining when you're about." and listens to the instruction a little more and adds... "Met a fellow once with 'cash' as a totem. The concept of currency. He echewed credit in all it's forms as part of the bargain. I think credit has it's own voice, but I don't tend to delve further into the spirit world than close enough to talkmto some plants and animals."

Rustin hrms, "So vague concepts like money and..." he starts to ask but finishes his own question. "It's like the thought-forms of the Eastern philosophies or Yung's Archetypes." He jots down a few more notes, turn the page in his notebook and takes a sip of his cooling coffee before turning back to the people throwing information at him. "So...what kind of thoughts do spirits have ya think?"

	"That'd be swell!" chirps Mo at Adora. "The Captain and his Irregulars, we were a pretty ecumenical crew back in the day. I was just happy that he took me in, saved me from a life of," a pause as his brow furrows. "Well, a /harder more brutish/ life, anyway." He extends a hand to Adora, "I'm MoGui. That's the nickname he gave me, anyway. Do you know - that is to say - are you, or any of your colleagues looking for a Sidekick or Assistant?" The Chinese youth is clearly happy to have finally found one of the local Etherites, and Adora? She just had ADVENTURE written loudly all across herself in BRIGHT NEON LETTERS. "I don't have a nush - a /totem/ - yet, but I do have a guide. Maybe I'll bring him with next time."

Mikaela walks down the stairs, looking lost in her own thoughts. Her hands are shoved into the pockets of her oversized varsity letterman's jacket. She gets to the bottom and smiles to those that have gathered here. She navigates through the tables on her way back to the library.

Rustin finishes scribbling in his notebook and folds it closed with a flap. The ginger takes a sip of his coffee and looks around the room in a vague expression of contimplation; half of his mind churnning through the possibilities of a familiar or...other things. "Oh...sorry, I'm Russ," he introduces to the others, "I have the gaming shop near campus."

	Adora grins to Robert. "I don't know why. I don't spike the cookies, they're just Nina's," she teases gently. At Rustin's query, she tilts her head curiously. "Honestly, it varies as much as the Spirit does. You should try asking some of them? Most are -fascinated- if you are able to see or speak with them. Eyes can be lent for such a purpose, but don't attempt experiments without a more senior Spirit specialist present." Trial and error! For SCIENCE! But carefully. She giggles at Mo. Such energy! "I am not presently seeking a sidekick or assistant, I've got my dearest darling cowboy to keep me out of trouble, but we can always ask other Etherites locally. Guides are fantastic companions!" Hazel eyes follow Mikaela, and she smiles warmly. "Mikaela, good evening, peach!" the petite bombshell calls to the other woman as she passes by to the library.

	Mo looks a smidge bit crestfallen when Adora details that she's in no need of a sidekick, but he musters up a stiff upper lip when she speaks of the possibility that another of her colleagues might be in the market, so to speak. "Thank you," he murmurs. "Much obliged." Then he'll step back so as to allow others more free access to the senior Etherite without the emotive youth in the way.