The Plaza Hotel [We're A Moving On Up!] 1/29 - ???

        Without you having to so much as raise a finger, the staff of the Plaza Hotel swoops in to serve. A valet takes the DeLorean, bellhops grab up all the luggage (and don't ask about the weight and odd shape of guns and body armor shoved into duffle bags). You are swept through the lobby and straight to the elevators. Full RFID keycards are issued to everyone on the way up. Once in the penthouse, you're also given a quick rundown of the home automation system - fully navigable by iPad, one per floor - and shown the directory of hotel and local services - also fully navigable by iPad, because waiting for the directory to loop on the hotel TV is for lesser guests. Though the automation system includes window shutters, by special request all rooms have been fitted with extra blackout curtains out of consideration for the medical concerns of one of the guests (the 'official' story for the staff is that Crux has porphyria cutanea tarda). Fortunately for you all, as the temporal compression dissipates and normal time reasserts itself, night rapidly falls.




        The staff don't hover for tips (if pressed, they will say they've already been well compensated), quickly leaving you to your own devices. Helena takes to this luxury like a fish to water, barely pausing at all - given how casual she was about buying a thirty thousand dollar car in cash, you think it's safe to say she came from money even before making a few choice investments. A red wine none of you recognize comes down off the shelf; she pops the cork, fishes out an aerator from the cabinet, and pours glasses for everyone before reclining on one of the couches. Directory tablet in one hand, she starts sifting through the room service options - filet mignon and shark fin soup, anyone? "Ahhhh. That is SO much better. Mm. I'm just gonna lie here for a few hours until I stop hurting." She's no longer coughing up blood, though, so... good sign? "Little rest and relaxation, yeah? I've got things to do tomorrow, least of which is heading to the bank... what's the Manhattan Company called now?" She spaces out for a minute, apparently thinking. "Chase Manhattan, merged in 1955, right." A sigh. "This is our home now. Might as well get assets in order."

(ALIVE, Holy shit i'm still alive, wow that was close... and... fun? was that fun. I think so."
Arden is in kind of a fog until Helena pops the cork of a wine bottle. Looking around he's astonished at the luxury, he can only remember seeing it once before on a family vacation back in the day. Looking around he feels a kind of fondness developing for everyone, its hard to fight a thing like that and come out of it alive and not feel something. He can also feel his grasp on the arcana getting firmer, and so close to what he's been working for, just a little while longer, he could feel it... then he would have to wait before going to the next level.
He starts thinking of his book, aaaaand of that chat he wanted to have with his boss. Technically he lived, but he also came very close to death, maybe a small chat of an amiable nature would be the right way to go. Well book first.
"um... Helena, are you well versed in atlantean script? I picked up a book, and no don't ask me what i paid, i'm pretty sure it was worth it. It's written entirely in atlantean and it's about the founding of the watch towers. want to have a look?"
Arden plops down on a couch while questioning whether one should "plop" on furniture that cost as much as his flat did.

Arden sighs and looks sheepish.
"I got it in the hedge at a goblin market. I traded a spell concept i was working on... ... ... but I don't think i was specific enough, i intended to share the knowledge of the Sight spell you saw me use. But i wasn't specific, i've been working on a counter to the only potentially dangerous one i was thinking of and i think i'm almost there, but that only helps if I'm present to counter it."
"Um... if you don't mind me asking, the ascension war, we know it kind of broke magic, but you are a mage, and you don't feel like any kind of mage i've ever encountered and i'm not just talking power. Your nimbus doesn't resemble any of the five watchtowers and your power feels different as well. I mean could it have traveled backwards through time to the fall and altered even the watchtowers?"

Arden's eyes pop.
"BOTH dialects? I thought there was only one. and yes i have a grasp of it, enough to aid in casting, but as a "Language" we don't have enough. As in i could write you an essay in Atlantean script or hold a conversation in it. Thats why i was willing to make a trade for it. This is a whole BOOK in the written form and about the founding of the towers at that. Btw lovely side step to the intimated question, but I won't pry, that shit is personal."
Arden stops to think.
{Int + occult 24 for more information than Phoenix the player can remember or google}
"Um forgive me if i repeat some of the things you already know but i'll try to cover the bases. There are ten Arcana now, each watchtower has dominion over two with one arcana that it is weak in.
The Acanthus like myself travel Arcadia in our awakening to the watchtower of the "lunargent thorn" that has dominion over time and fate but little control over forces
The Mastigos travel through Pandemonium to reach the watchtower of the "Iron Gauntlet" that rules over mind and space with little power over matter. I think... that this would be the tower of your son, my mentor, but i'm not currently willing to put money on that.
The Moros travel the Underworld to reach the watchtower of the "Iron Coin" the have Death and matter as their purvue but little control over spirit.
The Obromos travel the Aether to reach the watchtower of "Golden Key" they control Forces and Prime arcana but have little power over Death.
The Thrysus such as our friend Jude travel through the primal wild to reach the watchtower of the "singing stone" their specialties are Life and Spirit but have trouble with Mind.
That makes the ten arcana:
Fate, Time, Space, Mind, Death, Matter, Forces, Prime, Life, and Spirit.
As for casting itself, well the Abyss is a little more attentive now, it used to be you could cast without the help of a magical tool, it was harded but still possible. Now, even covert spells risk paradox without it and vulgar ones are often just not possible.
Their are now five major cabals that exist, The Silver Ladder came from the order of hermes and might be said to provide structure and government for the mages.
The Adamantine Arrow, they descended from the Daedelist, they are kind of the soldier and police, protecting mages from other supernaturals and enforcing the laws among mages. They are more concerned with current threats than the theory and research of ascension.
The mysterium is where i find my home although sometimes an uncomfortable one, still home. we are organized similar to the silver ladder, but we care less about ruling and more about knowledge, trying to figure out HOW magic has changed and finding the missing links that will bring mages back to power. About the one thing we all agree on is that Knowledge IS power and we accumulate it and protect it against all comers. so much knowledge was lost we are trying to preserve what is left.
The Free Council would be next they were pioneered by the dreamspeaker, They are very democratic, and almost i'd call them Agnostic mages, in so far as the belief that Atlantis may or may not be what exists beyond the abyss, but Something does and we should try to get back there, arguments about what it is can wait till it is found.
Last would be the Guardians of the Veil. While the Adamantine Arrow protects and polices mages, the guardians police Everything that is not a sleeper. This is because Sleepers themselves are more dangerous, beyond the disbelife they can bring to observed mages, they now have a collective power that has been called the Tiger. Yes naming a thing gives it power, but the power was already there and the Tiger is something Everyone who isn't a sleeper must fear. One or two sleepers can be handled, but in groups, especially larger groups disbelife can fail utterly and those sleepers become the tiger with strength as a group to take on and possibly destroy any whoa re supernatural.
As a side not, this above is one of the prime focuses of my study, It should be possible with an apprentice level grasp of all the arcana to "put the tiger to sleep" so to say, and with what is happening in Chicago i feel like this is of paramount importance. We simply can not work if we are fleeing the Tiger and we have a duty to protect the sleepers as much as the supernaturals.
Anyway, and yes the fucking Seers of the Thrown are still around."
Arden exhales deeply, it is possible to tell from his expression that it was a little hard to tell so much about mages in front of non mages and that this was a HUGE expression of trust.

Cass enter the room and is in a state of disbelief. He had never had access to such luxury. Guess live it up while he could... Weird choice of words considering the company. 

He listened carefully as Arden went on his Mage 101 speech. He found it very educational. Cass, as stated before, only had a baseline understanding of Mages and how they worked. Sounded pretty cool though. Maybe in another life, in another place he could try it out. Until then he was in this world of darkness and they had a path that needed a walkin.

"Very education my friend. Thank you for that. It's a pretty intimate thing." Cass patted Arden on the back.

Cass took off his denim jacket and threw it aside. It landed on a near by seat and all the various buttons and flair jingled and jangled before coming to a complete rest. He paused. He heard a distinct crunckle. He went to the jacket and pulled out a bag of Dill Pickle chips. 

"Oh! I thought I lost these." He opened the bag and began munching. He took a seat next to Jude and Helena. 

"So, where dose that put us? Biding our time? Plan our next move? Level up the stats a bit?"

He took a huge crunch of chip. He realized he was being rude and offered some to the rest of the class. 

"Arete, the name given to the ability of mages to simply enforce their will upon the world to cause magic to happen... um yeah we can't do that now. We call it Gnosis, and our ability to progress within it takes study and hard work as well as force of will. Your level in it dictates how far you can progress in you knowledge of an Sphere. They are ranked by potential (Initiate, Apprentice, Disciple, Adapt, Master, and Archemaster potential. You can never progress further in a Sphere than your potential, but having the potential does not convey the Ability within an Arcana, that takes extra specific study. For instance I only just reached Adept potential but i'm no higher than a Disciple in one Sphere, but soon, i'll have Apprentice level in all of them."
Arden had a look of Pride when he stated the last, as far as he knew he was in unexplored territory here.
"Your son, is Mysterium... I think, well to be honest, while he is my mentor, i know very little about him and was able to discover even less."
Arden looks around at everyone else.
"My best use is in scrying, I can do it without the use of mana if i know the place or have a high def picture of the place. So if anyone wants me to check on current events somewhere and can get me a photo, i'll spend my time doing that. I don't have anything I NEED to be doing, other than study. So i place myself at your disposal."

Crux walked in with the doorman, grinning as she shouted, "I got a new pet! I'm thinking I'm naming him Noodles!"


Then, she looked around as she shooed Noodles.

"Faaaancy. Oh, let me text Johannes. Might celebrate with some shower shagging."

*EYYY PLAZA HOTEL. TELL THE DOOR GUY YOU'RE HERE FOR ME. BIG SHOWER, ENOUGH FOR TWO AND SOME ACROBATICS XOXO CRUX*