Scene #9351: Into the Nest

Owner	Pose
White	White's home isn't anything special. It's easy to get to the address; it's just an out-of-the-way apartment complex in a version of Japan without much going on besides an odd number of ghost stories. Three floors, old worn-smooth stairs, no elevator. Tiny parking lot, too, with a row of vending machines at the bottom that only have odd off-brand products; someone bought up all of the name-brand chips already! White's apartment number is on the third floor around the middle of the row, and nothing seems particularly strange about her front door at least... By early afternoon when Audrey is set to arrive, White has managed to remove most of the extraneous webs for things like shading her window (she already had blinds), but Audrey will still be walking into what looks like a low-to-middle income apartment, one bedroom, one bathroom, with little enough space that reaching her arms to either side will probably bump something. White is at least quick to answer the doorbell since she knows exactly who is waiting there, and meets Audrey with a slightly stiff-spined, hands-folded posture and tries to bow a little. She stops short though; she's close enough she would've risked a headbutt if she committed. "... Hello." she almost inaudibly greets, standing there awkwardly a moment longer before realizing what she's doing wrong and stepping out of the way of the door. "... Please. Come in." The little kitchen is open-front and directly adjacent to the entranceway, and further past that she has three fold-out plastic tables flanking a more permanent wooden desk in what would normally be the living room, which has two computer monitors and a PC tower, while the other tables have a couple of spare laptops, touch-tablets and other internet-enabled devices. There's a stack of books eight entries tall on another of the tables. She does, at least, have two rolly office chairs, but they both look secondhand. White really has to think things through a little better. Audrey had talked about her discomfort with spiders multiple times, and here White was inviting her to her place without thinking about the obvious issue until the day-of... That her apartment was so thoroughly 'customized' to her needs with webs. She managed to realize before it was too late, but interior decoration isn't exactly her strong suit either, even if she can keep things fairly tidy. She spent a few hours aggressively disintegrating most of the webbing sheeted across the walls, though not all of it is removed. In some places it's used subtly as a substitute for sticky tape to hang up pictures, but it's also used to jury-rig a couple of things like an adjustable light (she was too antisocial to go to a store to buy a crane-lamp), or to suspend a medium-sized TV without drilling holes in the wall. She also has some plushies resembling her spider-spies stuck to the wall like the pictures, their silly little exaggerated facial expressions contrasting with the image of spiders climbing the walls. She really cares about her 'brand' doesn't she?
Audrey Basque	Audrey has survived the first day back at school after Maria's little implosion. She got yelled pretty awful things at, and that mostly didn't bother her that much anymore, but then she had to lie to faculty staff about the results of her divination, and that bothered her a lot. It wasn't a bother she can do anything about, though. In every sense of the words she had asked for this. And the alternative was worse. She didn't need an excuse to go off campus anymore. She had plenty, every day, something to do somewhere, and if not, she still had places she'd rather be than the dorms. Her tower, the Library, a number of comfy spots in the Grand Dorado. Today, White's place. She's surprised to see how low-profile it is. White dresses luxuriously, if you could call it that, and has herself fancy titles. Surely she'd live in a place at least half as nice as Ariel's, and yet... When the door opens, Audrey is still all smiles, nodding politely at White's near-inaudible greeting. "Hello. I'm... sorry in advance, for taking up your time. I know you offered to help willingly and all, and... I mean, I was having a pretty bad day, and talking without thinking and--" When takes a deep breath and cuts the wall of apologies off before it crushes White. "Really, I appreciate it. Even if this just ends up being talking and hanging out." The occasional leftover web doesn't go unnoticed, though Audrey's not about to start screaming either. She knows if there's anything spider-shaped here, plushies aside, it'll be White's, and they're safe. It's just, you know! They're still spiders. If anything Audrey's really more focused on how the place looks. Or doesn't look. She's pretty sure her dorm room is bigger than this apartment, and that was before used magic to expand it. "Cozy. I guess you're not one for luxury?" She's very careful not to bump into anything! "That's a lot of tablets and laptops. Are you that much of a multitasker or are they for other people?"
White	White still doesn't have a lot of the context for what's going on in Audrey's life, and at least for now she doesn't need it. It's easy for her to gently shake her head when Audrey starts to apologize, gesturing her inside while White carefully shuts the door behind her with a single spontaneous string of silk. "You aren't... Interrupting anything." she tries to plainly reassure, and it might stand out that... There actually don't seem to be any of her little spy-ders around right now? There aren't enough places to hide around here, especially after the cleaning, so unless a horde of them is crammed into her bedroom like packing peanuts they're just... Not here! White smoothes out her dress as she sits down in front of the wooden desk, turned away toward the other chair and gesturing at it. While Audrey gets comfortable, she reaches out vaguely toward the kitchen and teleports some canned iced tea from the fridge; one's lemon and one's chai, and she sets them aside for Audrey to pick from implicitly. The first question gets another shake of her head, and once Audrey picks her preferred flavor White takes the other one to gently pry open with a fingernail. "... It isn't bad... Sometimes. But... I prefer smaller spaces." She takes a long sip, stalling briefly before adding, "I did live... In the Phtalo mansion for a few years. The... Place I took everyone... To meet the others." Ah, so that was White's old room that they all arrived in, probably. When Audrey asks about the devices, White pans her eyes over (oh, her eyes are actually open! Normally she at least starts interactions with them shut) and reaches over to swipe one of the tablet screens to wake it up. There are a little over twenty browser tabs, a drawing app, a video player and a notepad window all open on just that device. "My agents..." she says, thinking it sounds cooler in the moment, "Use the touch screens. Since they have... A hard time with pens, and mice." It looks like some of the tabs are for things like tourist guides, local news to various parts of the world, and even some Elite-related news articles.
Audrey Basque	She might not be interrupting, but she'll still feel bad about imposing. Some things you simply can't take out of Audrey, at least not right now, and that's one of them. She tries not to think too much about the idea there's a room full of spiders waiting to burst! She sits, when White does, watching with some interest when White so casually swipes things out of the fridge without even needing to see it. She decides on chai, popping the can open while being told of the mansion, and then says: "Oh. That's okay. I guess I'm coming across a bit judgy, I'm just so used to big wide spaces, and even when they're not I can just... make them. I have to remember not everyone likes living with enough space to float around without a care." Drifting has been fun. Something she's taken more of a liking to, since having her own tower. It's liberating to just go full zero-G and drift. She watches the touch screens with interest, when White explains they're for her agents. The spiders? The agents are her spiders, right? Hasn't she called them that before... Audrey actually awws a little bit, at the thought. "That's kind of cute. And clever. I didn't realize they were that smart. Come to think of it, I just never asked. I hope that's not too rude. I have a lot to learn it turns out." Between sips, she decides to just ask. "I have a question, actually. How did you grab this from the fridge without having to even look?" Idly she raises the can, to indicate it.
White	White seems unphased, but of course that's not much evidence of her feelings about being judged for that. "The mansion was better... Than the labyrinth." she concedes easily enough. She's had some pretty diverse sleeping arrangements! She even nods a little when Audrey talks about floating. "Gravity magic... Seems useful. And flexible." She sips again from her lemon-flavored tea, thoughtfully looking into the other palm for a moment as a tiny magic glyph forms. This time, it's a light green, and the best she can seem to do with it is make a gentle breeze like a handheld fan. "Wind magic... Isn't my strength. And the only 'gravity' magic... Within the System is... The 'Heavy' attribute." She disperses the low-grade wind spell with a clenched fist. "So I don't... Know how to use Conjury for flight yet." Audrey's praise of her 'agents' leads White to elaborate on something she's said before, softly explaining, "They are modelled from pieces of... My mind. It took a lot... Of practice, to make them. The larger they get... The more difficult it is, to make the body stable. And the more energy it takes. Exponentially. So... I keep them... Small." It doesn't explain why they have to be spiders, though... But, what she does know best is teleportation, and since Audrey plainly asked, it might or might not surprise her that White actually has an answer on deck. Two answers, if the way she's holding up two fingers is any indication. One of the fingers folds back down. "I memorize the coordinate information... Of the things that I see." The second finger lifts back up again. "I can see them... From here. Because of the Evil Eyes." Both fingers drop, and she takes another sip with the can between both hands delicately, before adding another note. "There are spells... For designating locations, and... Recording their coordinates automatically. In many systems of magic. They are... Useful for learning."
Audrey Basque	"Manipulating gravity has its uses, though... you probably wouldn't be surprised if I told you most of the time, it's for industrial stuff. Moving heavy materials faster, or making counterweights that have a smaller footprint. Besides the obvious transport applications too, but... there's so many different ways to get something like "an airship" up that gravity isn't the default." Though, Audrey leaves unsaid the fact her world is just one of thousands, and she's sure it's different elsewhere. When White mentions 'Heavy', Audrey seems surprised. "Really? You have Heavy but not Float?" She's played enough RPGs to make the connection pretty quick. "I don't know if my knowledge will translate over, considering... mine isn't wind magic at all. I can try to show you though." It seems only fair. Of course, the thought the spiders were literal fragments of White had never occured to her. "So they're... familiars? I understand better now. I was thinking of them more as... pet sounds too simple, actually, but something like that." That makes them substantially less scary. But still spiders. Spinning back to the matter of teleportation, Audrey nods. "I didn't realize you could see through things. So like... you can just look through the fridge and see what's in it, selectively like that?" She pauses, suddenly stuck on that. A thought goes unvoiced but makes her tense up and adjust her posture a bit. Hands on her knees, arms a bit inward. "D-Designating locations... that'd be really handy. I have a lot of trouble visualizing things I can't see. The way I teleport kind of has coordinates too. It's more like I'm using the stars as guides, but also things like ley lines, even boundaries. People don't tend to think about it, but even calling a room a "bedroom" instead of "the kitchen" creates boundaries. They're really useful. But even then, say I wanted to step outside... I'd have a lot of trouble doing it unless I could see where I want to go. I know I can bend space to reach outside your front door, but it's like not being able to see it is exactly the amount of missing information it takes to throw me off."
White	White can easily imagine the connection to industry; just about any type of magic has a practical, mundane application, but something as conceptually simple and practically flexible as 'move big things' can be applied to so many problems that... Well, it's hard not to be a little envious out of habit. The offer to demonstrate for her is appreciated as a result, but she doesn't quite leap at the opportunity. "I'd like that. But I doubt I could learn it yet. I currently... Struggle, with magic outside of... My specialties." She isn't quite sure how to explain what she means briefly, it seems, and her fingers thread together around her tea-can thoughtfully. "... I don't, exactly, 'cast spells'... Like those within the System do. I'm just using... A different power to... Imitate what I used to... Be able to cast?" She has a slight upward inflection at the end, like she's not positive that's the best explanation, but it's close enough to let it stand. "Besides... I wanted to give you... Advice. But thank you." Back to Spatial Magic then, or rather the subject of her vision. And, well, Audrey's reaction might have been missed if they weren't in a one-on-one conversation, but White manages to pick up the cues well enough since they are. And, more importantly... She's had the same thought before, so it isn't new to her. "I respect... The privacy of others. Outside of... Emergencies." She does listen attentively to Audrey's explanation though, contemplating the means; 'using the stars' doesn't hold much meaning for her, but she seems to understand the other concepts well enough, and even nods along when Audrey particularly gets into the implicit boundaries within spaces. "Target designation is... Easier, the less specific you are. Because magic isn't limited... By the language assigned... To its concepts. Unless we limit it ourselves." She teleports her own nearly-empty drink can back and forth a couple of times, from her hand to the desk, and back again. "This is dangerous... If you are using a very... Specific, space-delineating targetting method. A miscalculation could... Take my finger off. But using... Nonverbal concepts in target-selection... The magic can be adapted... To..." She actually has to physically stop talking and catch her breath, her eyes closing like she's silently cheering herself on for a moment's recharge. "... To perform the calculations... Automatically, until they suit the desired... Parameters. That is why... The names of each space matter. They are used... In the... Automation of the spell's targetting. And spatial magic... Is mostly just... Accurate target designation..." ... She almost sounds sleepy. She must've had to have mentally rehearsed for this part to get through it all the way.
Audrey Basque	"Advice... ah..." Right. She can't forget what this is about. They could surely speak for hours about the intricacies of their respective magic systems-- about why White has to 'emulate' magic, apparently-- but at the end of the day she's here because White offered to try to help her stop screwing up so catastrophically. She has to remind herself that's why she's sitting in that chair at all, and it makes her frown a bit. And then startle, when White picks up on her discomfort. "O-Oh. Sorry, I didn't mean... to imply that... I just wasn't sure if it was... active, or passive, or, how much, you... control it and..." Audrey flubs her words a few more seconds before stopping and trying to take a deep breath. "See. This is why I need advice. I feel like I'm getting worse. I'm supposed to be... calm, collected. Calculations, like you said, that's what our kind of magic is all about." She deflates a bit, slumping somewhat into the chair. "Because it's a dozen different parameters to keep in mind at all times. If you mess it up... a finger'd be the least of my concerns. But even if we find shortcuts, you need a cool head to do it. And I'm everything but a cool head lately." Well, White heard. Multiple times, in fact. "Ever since coming here," she says, meaning broadly the Multiverse, "It's been a downward spiral. I'm a mess." The closest thing she has to an anchor is Petra. And she can't even speak about that.
White	White seems to remain still and quiet throughout Audrey's deflated venting, never seeming distracted but still managing to come across as distant, just on emotive presence (or lack thereof). She doesn't leap to tell her the obvious, or zone out, or... Anything, really, except listen patiently. On some unseen level, she's nervous in her own way. She's doing something she's bad at, because it seems like nobody else is willing or able. That's kind of how it always is, isn't it? So, like she would handle any other problem, the best thing she can do is throw her entire attention at it. She nods a little, when Audrey talks about how she's meant to be as a mage. She nods a little, again, when she talks about the consequences for making mistakes. She stops after that, though. Her eyes turn downward slightly in thought, then momentarily cross over Audrey's covered injuries, then return to making eye contact, almost oppressively so. She isn't really sure what, exactly, the best outcome for this conversation even is, or how to reach it. So all she can do is reach for what comes to mind. So she lands on asking, in a somehow even fainter voice than normal, "... Miss Audrey. Who are you trying to become?"
Audrey Basque	Who indeed... Three years ago there's an answer. Then two years another one. Then last year it changes again. Three months ago again. Has it changed again, recently? "I don't know. Someone... better than this. Stronger. Clearer. Someone who doesn't care about the inconsequential stuff, and doesn't let it bother her. Someone who's not a loser. Someone like..." She hesitates, and then doesn't say it. "It's hard to explain. The whole idea that humanity's kind of a rotting tumor and it has its hold on you, and you either let it or you cut it off to become something else. I want to be that something else. But when I say it like that, it sounds childish and stupid. I'm not... explaining it as well as her." But one thing she knows for a fact... "I just want to be better. Because if I'm not, then, I'm just another one of them. And I may as well have never come here and stayed home."
White	White makes a small 'mm' sound, not quite confirmation, but thoughtful. Eventually, she reluctantly admits, "... I don't think that is good enough, Miss Audrey." She leans back in her chair, and finally breaks eye contact again to look up at the ceiling. "I wanted to be able to... Eat something sweet, whenever I wanted." she almost whispers, closing her eyes in recollection. "I thought for a while... I had to be with people to do that. So, I worked hard. To become... As much of a person... As I could." There are implications to this, even in her dull tone, but she slowly picks her way through the train of thought all the same. "But it's other people... Who decide what a 'person' is. You can't... Choose, between person or monster. Other people do that. But..." She clips her sentence short before meandering, mulling something over... Then sitting forward again and turning her palm over to create another spell-glyph. This time, a faint and translucent glassy white. Above her hand is what looks like a holographic screen. A status window, like Audrey's familiar with from plenty of RPGs. The name line is kind of a crowded mess; "White", "Shiraori", "Wakaba Hiiro" and "Kumoko" are all kind of crammed together to fit into limited space. Species: Arachne. Her stats are probably what Audrey would expect, with tremendous MA and SPD but still respectable stats elsewhere. Her skill list is almost unparseably dense, and given even Wind Magic is on the list at a not-insignificant level, it's strongly implicit that this is an older, recreated version of her Status. But, she tilts the window to draw attention to near the bottom, under "Titles". There are... A lot of those too, but some like Kin Eater, Human Calamity and Fearmonger obviously stand out. Right alongside them, though are ones like Saint, and Savior. Fewer, but noticeable in number. "... We make our own choices. All of them might be... Remembered. Or none of them." But, that's sort of a nebulous point for her to make, and it doesn't seem likely to solve Audrey's self-esteem issues, so she lets the illusory window wink out of view again and lets out a small sigh. "... If you can... Be specific. Narrow down... Every detail, of who... What, you want to be. What you want to happen. Everything else will feel... Smaller, in comparison. But it's hard. You have to mess your brain up, a little bit, to really... Be that dedicated." She speaks from experience, there. "I think... It's okay, to... Be frustrated. But it helps to 'aim' the feeling."
Audrey Basque	Not good enough. Like a knife through the heart! She's forced to listen, to get context on why that knife matters. How White goes from 'wanting to eat something sweet' to being something so fundamentally close to a goddess the difference is academic at best. The bar is long past cleared either way. She watches the status window, the mess of names-- her gaze lingers a bit on the species field, and suddenly the familiars make more sense. And the webbing. The countless titles, and some of them even seem contradictory. She wonders what all White must have done to earn titles like 'Human Calamity'. Kin Eater sounds self-explanatory in a horrifying way. "Aiming it..." Can't aim without a target. And that's the whole issue! "That's the hard part, isn't it? I know what I am now is... it makes me unhappy. But if I try to envision what it would take to change that... what I look like, on the other end of that change... it's like static." Well, not entirely like static. But how do you recognize what you've never seen before? 'I want to be a person,' when you've been convinced you're not, and all you have to go on is her belief you might not be too far gone into the tumor to be saved yet. That's not specific! It's not what White's asking for. "I guess it'd be something like... clarity. Precision. Responsiveness. Those were the words. But I don't think, even putting them down like that... that it's any clearer a goal." Audrey pouts a little bit. She's definitely frustrated with herself right now. "I know what each of the word means. I know what each of them entails of me. But when I try to imagine the path to them... it's a different matter. Maybe I'm not 'messing up my brain' enough?" She does wonder what White means by that, exactly.
White	White's nods come easily, slowly, and continuously. She knows. "You're right. It's hard. If you find an answer... It might change before long, too." she admits, mulling over her words while Audrey tries to draw closer to her answer. "The point is... To keep looking for that answer. Even when it's impossible." she proceeds. "Step," she says, bringing a glyph into her hand once more. "After step," she follows, making one in the other hand. "... Again, and again. Forever." In a flurry with each spoken syllable, more glyphs form in the air overhead, though she doesn't risk actually deploying their spells indoors like this. The aerial glyphs fan out, then fold together like a deck of cards, compress, and vanish. "That was... My answer. Ignore the logic. Focus on what I want. Step forward. Break myself... Into little pieces... Until there were enough of 'me' that... It didn't matter, what anyone else thought." She shifts her weight in the chair, making it squeak quietly as she leans on one of the arm rests; normally she's more particular about her posture, but she's quite distracted from that right now. "... Being yourself, apart from... Anyone else... Is hard. You'll have to... Lie to yourself, sometimes. And then do things to... Make the lies true. It's very... Very hard." Finally, a slow, dreary sigh leaks its way out of her throat. "... Do you remember... Everyone talking, on the radio? About... 'shows of force'?"
Audrey Basque	"Forever?" Audrey seems consumed by that word for a moment. Is it really a forever thing? She watches the glyphs spread and fold back together, curious, almost entranced, while wondering what either of them would think of that. The two people who seem the most like they've found themselves, and never need to look for it again. Is it forever for them too? That sounds so tiring. "Enough of you that the rest didn't matter... that must have been hard, but it sounds kind of nice, actually. I wish there was enough of me, enough clarity of me, that I could cut through situations like that." That was one of the words, too. Cut. "Right now, it's just... it almost feels like I can't afford that. I'm already in a terrible spot." But lying to herself, it almost feels natural. It's how she ended up here. Or... no. That's just a shitty justification for something she did. She didn't 'lie to herself' at all. She was just a coward and a loser, and she's retroactively justifying it all as some kind of self-lie because it's a nicer story to tell. That lesson stuck, at least. "A-Ah? Force? Yeah... entirely too well. Because it keeps happening. Maybe I take it too literally. I kind of... understand, the gist of the idea, but... I was trying to finish the school year without rocking the boat. Now that's not really an option anymore. But it's not like anyone's messing with me in a way that... I mean. They're just being mean. Words and rumors. Isn't this the part where I should be able to go "so what?" and keep walking?"
White	White lifts a hand to teleport more drinks out, this time some rather sweet glass-bottle mochas. Audrey's reaction to 'Forever' has White nod once more. She can't hear what Audrey's thinking about it, but their thoughts aren't all that different. The part that follows, though, earns another soft warning from White. "... I argue with myself, too. It doesn't always... Make things clearer. It just means... I can bring my best. I can afford to... Keep track, of everything that matters." She spends a little bit just sipping mocha, and apparently has become acclimated enough to Audrey in her space that she doesn't think much about letting one of her 'familiars' crawl back out of the spatial pocket they're all hiding in. The little designer-model spiderling moves quietly across one of the plastic tables to one of the tablets and pulls it a little away from Audrey to look something up; it even lifts one of its front legs in a little forehead salute before it drags the touchscreen device, getting to work with imperfect but quick leg-typing technique. Eventually though, White opens her mouth again for something besides a milky coffee beverage. "I think... The people talking about it... Meant what they said. But there is... A sort of point, to it, regardless. If you wanted to finish school... Peacefully... You shouldn't have... Gone for Concord work. Part of that... Is just bad luck, though." She waves her left hand at the wrist lightly, like she's brushing something side. "If you want what the school... Can offer you... You can't let anyone... Interfere with your study. There have to be... Consequences, for threatening... Something that you care about. But that's... Only if you actually care. And the best way... Isn't violence. It's the... Possibility of violence, used carefully. It narrows down the number... Of people brave enough to threaten you. Then, as long as you... Are better than those last few, you are safe. But..." There's a bit of emphasis on the 'but'. "All of this depends on what you want. Is it the power, of being a... Graduate mage, with all of... The school's knowledge? Is it... The prestige? I can't tell... If you want to just coast, and be 'good enough'. You have the potential... To be more than that. But it's still your right... To choose comfort."
White	White throws in, almost like a bonus that she wasn't quite certain was relevant, but might be surprisingly so, "I never finished highschool... You know?"
Audrey Basque	"I mean, I argue with myself all the time, but I don't feel like it gives me any more clarity. You know?" Audrey muses, on White's statement that sometimes it's what you need to bring your best. She's arguing with herself right now, in fact! On what to say. How to say it. It's uncertainty, maybe, more than arguing, and that's the difference. Audrey certainly doesn't object to another drink; and when the little agent comes out, she has to contain a bit of a yelp, but then observes curiously as the cute little thing gets to work on its tablet. Do your best, little one. . . Her eyes trail off the display back to White, when she brings up 'what Audrey wants' in a different way. In a way that's been asked of her by Petra, Angela, and Roland and... a couple others, actually. It always comes down to what she gets out of graduating. The answer is graduating, obviously. "I... the Concord wasn't exactly my idea, but... now that I'm here, I also feel like I like it here. I might like it more than the school, and that feels... wrong, to admit." It's a betrayal of her parents, at the very lead, and maybe of her society, broadly. Spitting on 'the best it has to offer'. She glosses over the matters of threats and force, because the discussion on what she has to gain seems so much more important. "I don't mean it as a brag, I really don't... but I'm ahead of the curriculum. I read the books, more than I listen to the lectures, and I get my perfect grades that way. It's... it almost feels like going through the motions for the sake of the motions. Just so I can get a degree, and then people will be fighting over giving me a job." Her eyes sink to the floor. "That should make me happy. It should be everything I want out of life. But after being here just a few months... after seeing dozens of other worlds... the things I can do that are so much more... interesting, and fulfilling, than any job I'd ever get on the Hidden Continent, or in the family business, I..." Her voice cracks. Those aren't words she should be speaking, not to anyone. She hasn't even told Petra this much, though she's certainly expressed thoughts in the vicinity of it. "I don't want to lose all the hard work I put into graduating. That thought scares me. But I also... sometimes, now, because of the Concord, I wonder, if it matters at all. The Direc-- Yuuki, she didn't care one bit for the school. It was all about me. Giving me a chance. And I feel like I'm blowing it, both at school and in the Concord now."
White	White watches Audrey, leaving just enough dead air to make it seem like the look in her eyes is turning more critical, or to wonder if she's upset, but only just enough. "... Mm. You have more of the answer... Than I expected, then." she admits, momentarily looking over at her spider-spy looking up... An interstate train schedule for southern America? "I didn't have... People's expectations to meet. Not until I chose to. But, Miss Audrey... If you fight yourself, you are going... To lose. Nobody else... Knows better how to sabotage you... Than yourself. Instead, I think..." she trails off, pausing to think of some way to emphasize what might be an outrageous statement. Of course, the best role model for such a thing is her very own Demon Lord, and in a bout of surprising flair she turns her chair sideways and reaches out at Audrey. Arm slanted upward so that her wrist can cock back down and turn it into a downward point, one fingertip inches from Audrey's forehead. It's as clear as day that she's imitating someone, but poor Audrey probably won't have much of an idea of who at all. She even folds her legs suddenly to go with the pose in a way that is decidedly dress-unfriendly! "You can... Be greedier. How can you get what you want... And still meet your potential? It's okay... To be a thrill seeker. It's okay to be... Strange. It's okay to focus... On yourself. At least until... There's enough of 'you' to afford... Sharing." But, a bit is a bit, and trying to invoke a radically different person to amplify her oratory abilities isn't something she can do for long. White has to reset back to neutral, brushing her dress back out and retaking her usual upright seated posture. Part of her is internally pleading that Audrey won't laugh, and another part tries to assuage the rest with the idea that maybe that would just mean she did something right, too. "... I don't have... Familial bonds, like yours, but... If I made a mage's tower like yours... I think the Demon Lord would tell me it was cool. If your parents aren't... Like that, if it's unrelated... To that school, then..." She stops there, turning her hand over, cuing Audrey to make her own conclusion.
Audrey Basque	"I... do?" Audrey blinks, at White's assessment, clearly caught offguard. It doesn't feel like she's got any sort of answer, or even pieces of one. She lends her full ear to White, trying to commit to memory that 'if you fight yourself, you'll lose', though that sounds like wisdom she'll only understand later. There's no laugh, though, after White's little bit! A smile, as Audrey regains her composure, or maybe her mood outright. "Greedier... aren't I being really greedy right now, already? Trying to juggle the school, the Library, the Concord, my own little ideas... but it's nice to hear it, I think. Thank you." If she thinks that was unlike White, she doesn't mention it. Though she certainly does think that was unlike White!! But not in a bad way. Audrey takes a sip from the drink she's forgetting, musing the thought. "I mean... yeah. The school is all that really matters to... not just my parents, but pretty much everyone back home. It's like...the biggest, the best, the most prestigious school, right? If I drop out, or if I fail, or if I quit... it'be a huge mark of shame on my life. And I don't know how it is on your world, but my people remember this kind of stuff for a really long time." And yet, she thinks, here it doesn't matter at all. She frowns again, though, at the mention of the tower. Not a sad frown, but a pouty frown, cheeks ballooned up and eyes flat and annoyed like she just remembered something that strikes at her. "Miss Rook said the tower was an eyesore. I can't tell if she just has no taste or if she was trying to get under my skin." It IS cool, and she should have White visit now that it's mostly done. Get some spell practice in there, too.
White	White is at least a little relieved not to be laughed at, but the thing that actually gets a tiny, brief smile from her is being thanked. It's easier not to brush off that kind of gesture, when she's going out of her comfort zone and risking her image, after all. "It is better to be... Busy, as long as your motivation is strong. It's when you're... Doing things you don't care about... That being overburdened can kill you." Maybe it's not strictly the healthiest advice for someone with a normal human constitution... But pobody's nerfect! It's not like she's licensed for this kind of counseling. But, back to talking about the shame aspect! "I understand." she says, and she's confident she does. It's not like she's unacquainted with failure and embarrassment. "Part of what I mean by 'greedy'... Is to focus on what you want to. You want to graduate... Because there are consequences not to. It isn't... A waste, to see that time out, as long... As you don't sacrifice the things you care about. And once you've graduated... All of your problems are yours. And nobody can control you... Unless you let them. Just prepare yourself... That if someone demands something... That you don't want to offer... You don't give them the pleasure. Be ready for a fair fight if you have to... And if they pick an unfair fight... You have other options." She glances meaningfully toward her google-wizard spiderslave, who turns to meet her gaze in turn. "... I don't always know... What Miss Lilian is intending. But if she had no ulterior motive... I doubt she would put much thought into... Just insulting aesthetics. She tried to convince you... To take the easier path, to go home... Didn't she? She might feel a responsibility to push you away. But I don't know." She shakes her head gently. "... If nothing else... If you work on your own goals, and become unbound... People like Miss Petra won't be able to call you 'boring'. They might try 'stupid', but I think... Miss Petra's imagination for insults is... Broader than I am currently able to account for."