Let Maya Know
{{ | date=07/05/2018 | time=17:00 EST | summary=Alma tells Maya about the gate. (previously) | cast=
| place_name=Maya's Sanctum | place_desc=Maya and Aaron are the two people Alma knows who are experts in Spirit. She isn't entirely that sympathetic towards Aaron, he's okay but kind of an asshole. On the other hand, he called her from the other side so he clearly knows some shit. As well, Alma saw Alexandra in the hospital, and Aaron was competent and attentive there. caring. (previously) That is a huge deal in Alma's books. So... Aaron knows the score because he was the first person she called to get to a safe location when that angry spirit was in pursuit.
Maya, well, she's a different story. She knows a lot but when Alma approached her for advice about Spirit, Maya fell apart. Alma has been extremely careful around Maya ever since. She doesn't want to hurt Maya by inadvertently triggering some PTSD. On the other hand, what Alma just learned is a huge deal and fuck protecting Maya. Maya needs to know.
If something happens to Alma before she gets a chance to give everyone the 411, she wants at minimum the two people who know the most about Spirit to have her intel. Given Maya's condition, Alma decided it would be best to meet with Maya at her sanctum, where she might feel the safest when faced with what may be terrifying news. That should make it easier to deliver frightening news, right? | log=It was some time late morning when Alma called Maya. "Maya? Alma says. I need some help." There is a weary sigh, "With a... spirit. Is this something you can help with? It might be frightening."
"I'll try, for sure?" Maya says. "I'm about to be working, but I'm free either... between like 5 and 7, or late evening, does either work for you? Or if it's an emergency I can try to get someone to take over a class for me..."
"I'll come by at 5."
Maya directs Alma to the factory-ruins clearing, and when the time comes, she's waiting there doing some cool-down stretches. She's still wearing her work clothes: hot yoga shorts with drawstrings at the sides, and a 'shirt' that appears to consist mostly of interwoven straps and little dabs of fabric. Both are in blue tie-dyed shades, the shorts darker than the top. Her messenger bag sits over near the circle, away from the yoga mat; something pale-blue and knit is piled inside.
Alma rides up at the appointed time. Her eyes show that she has had little sleep. Her clothes are different that what she normally wears. She's wearing a kurta and draw string pants with a colorful bag slung over her chest. She's very tidy for a change, like someone who hasn't been working outside scrambling from post to observation post. Her hair is combed out and tidy, except for a few tendrils that have slipped out on her bike ride. She's dismounted and is rolling her bike down the last bit of the way to Maya's. Note is perched on Alma's bike handle. She's standing there, with a scraped elbow and some new dings and scrapes on her bike. "Hey," she says. quietly.
The Dreamspeaker straightens, concern coming to her expression--seemingly even before she really *sees* Alma. "Hey," she answers, coming to meet the woman. "Come sit, let me bring you some iced tea, yeah?" She looks Alma over carefully, as if searching for any other injuries.
"Watch out before you /look/ at me ok? Not all at once." Alma takes a breath, "Things might look a little alarming, so take it easy ok?" To someone with the eyes to see, it's clear that Alma took a tumble off her bike and is hurt. She's cleaned up from the accident, but still winces from time to time. To someone who sees Prime there is something going on with her hands. "My mentor gave me a letter to use, if I couldn't find any spirits across the shroud."
Maya blinks a few times before managing to focus. "...A... letter? To use for what?"
Empathy? On top of what you normally see when you're with Alma there's a whole
extra dimension of worry the size of a city and then some. And normally she's
got more personal worries for people. These are all extra intense too. Alma is
really... angry in a force of creation kind of way. There's a feeling of
impatience. Someone wants to bulldoze through... but there's some good fear and
wisdom doing its job to keep that in check.
Alma sits down on a cushion and lets out a long sighs. "To help me call through the shroud. If I couldn't do it on my own. I was to burn it. I did... and something came back at me. Not what mentor had expected." She holds up her hands with a questioning look, "can you tell?" She rotates her hands front and back as to show them. Her hands return to a resting position in her lap, as she continues. "None thought this letter was an anchor someone who had been very powerful who would be able to help find a calling." She shifts around restlessly. She pulls her hair down and starts to rebind it and then stops jerkedly and looks at her hand. She shrugs, and puts her hair back up, tendrils tidied.
Maya may, in fact, miss a little of all that context, since she's breathing at first a bit fast, and then--after a shake of her head to throw off the magic--a bit more carefully. After a few blinks, she focuses on Alma again. "What was the last bit? So-- someone maybe, like, attached something to, to the letter?" Her hands tremble a little when she lifts them to run back through her hair; one touches the feather on the way back down, a rote gesture.
"None says that spirits that stay are bound to things that held meaning for them, and this letter was something that held meaning to someone long ago. None thinks that maybe nothing of that person is left except for their anger. The only thing that I saw come out through that gate was a black thing streaming out and so loud... but no words. only anger and anguish. So, that's where things stand." Alma shifts a little, and winces. "None is going to work on unbinding that spirit. My job is to find out why that spirit came through the gate." Alma looks at Maya, "I'm so tired I can't even remember if I told you about the gate." She rubs her head.
Maya gives a tiny shake of her head. "I don't think so," she says quietly. Heading for the stack of crates and trunks, she's silent for a few long moments. There's the sound of pouring liquid, a scooping of ice, the dull clink as it falls into big tall pottery tumblers. She comes over to Alma bearing the two drinks, and hands the woman one of them. "Would you like me to--- try to help you? With energy, and healing?"
"Honestly, I don't know, Maya. Is it safe? I am exhausted and hurt, but I'll get better with time." She rubs her eyes. "I don' tknow what happened when I burned that letter. I got this residue on my hands. If you want you can try, but be careful."
Maya chews on her lower lip, and gives a small nod. "Maybe tomorrow," she suggests. "Or after the gig, tonight. Come back and I'll try to help you feel better. If, if you have time. If you want to."
"Okay," Alma says. "I'll come by later. I think. I could use the help." Alma explains a bit more about what she calls the gate. "It's the monument at the riverfront. Transcendence. If you look at it through spirit you can see that it is on the other side and dust is swirling up around it and going through it. That's what I need to figure out."
Maya is suddenly very interested, enough that she almost chokes on her tea. "Wait, the thing with the faces?" I think-- I saw something there. Let me look again, and we'll meet up when you can, yeah? I'll... I'll call you? It's a gate thing to the other-- to the world of the dead?"
"It's the big ... arch. You know? The one with the quote. 'The arc of history bends towards justice.' Do. Not. Cross. That's what my mentor told me. I got this text." Alma shows Maya a text that is all caps: DO NOT CROSS. "I'm so tired. I gotta go. I just wanted to make sure I told you. I told you and Aaron. You are the two experts here."
Maya moves to help Alma up, and gives her a brief and very careful hug. "Want me to drive you home or anything?"
The weight on Alma lifts a little bit. "You want to give me a ride?" She smiles. "Thanks." She tears up a bit at the thoughtfulness. Sometimes these little things happen that just contrast so much.
They have to take the wheel off the bike to squeeze it in the back of the little car, and close the hatch with a bit of bungee... but clearly Maya has done this before. She touches now and then: a reassuring hand to Alma's shoulder, where bruises are not. She's watchful, even when driving. }}
