Some of them, Kalen calls. Because there are books to be had and connections to be made and because some people just came to the realization that they could have friends. Did have friends. Some of them already have access to the security system and have offices. There are two resident Bengal cats still growing into their paws and two half resident Mages still growing into...whatever the hell kind of bizarrely evolving relationship Kalen and Grace have.
The two rectangular buildings are freshly painted the pale blue edging into gray of a late afternoon in summer that heralds a coming storm. There are keypads and biometric locks on the doors to the buildings, which are solidly reinforced. The office building is furnished with elegant (but not ornate) handcrafted solid wooden furniture. Rich reds and golds in the upholstery. There are small statues and original paintings in gilded frames and antique maps in more gilded frames. There is only one full size statue, of a marble lion, which is in the conference room, which is not so much a conference room as a library. You could arrange a sizable group of people there, but the current arrangement favors several clusters of people and not a single unified mass. There are a few grouping of couches and chairs around low tables, and shelves that have an impressive number of books for the beginning stages of this project, but which are still largely empty because there are shelves on all the walls and splitting off little spaces with single chairs.
Thus far, most of the room's use has been by the cats. But...hey. No day like today to start changing that. And so they are all brought, eventually here. Where there is a table full of Indian takeout and coffee and tea and a bowl of dehydrated ice cream sandwiches because some things will just never fucking get old to Kalen. (They should be glad he didn't decide they needed more piñatas. Like he does.)
[I am so terrible at room description. But look! Floorplans! http://www.active.iotasigmapi.org/node/6]
Grace Evans[Nightmares!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (4, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )
Kalen Holliday[So distracted by setting post I forgot those!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 7) ( success x 1 )
Grace EvansGrace was already here, or at least already at the Office. She's got a weekend ahead of her, and it made sense to get a good start on that.
In her room sits the beginnings of a strange project. There is her dutiful office plant (an ivy named Chloe) which now sports a framework made out of what looks like some kind of metal construction kit. There are a few cylindrical objects scattered around, as well as what look like small robot arms and tracks. Perhaps they're meant for the frame that surrounds the poor Chloe?
Anyway, it's yet another project. One that apparently has nothing to do with books. Or stalkers. Or school.
Kalen has plans for the day as well, and Indian takeout, and it's just about time for that little meeting, isn't it? So she abandons the toys and goes to visit him (and his dehydrated ice cream) in the library.
"Hey," she says, and slides into a chair, curling her feet up into it (because she's already shed her shoes in her office).
Alexander BrandtThere was a phone call from Kalen a little while ago, asking Alexander to stop by somewhere new. The promise of books may not be as enticing to Alexander as it is to others, but the promise of meeting new people appeals. He’s still new to the city and, apart from some of the people he works with, he’s a little short on friends in the area too. So after a quick shower, he heads out on his bike.
And here he is, bike parked nearby. A helmet with the sheen of being fresh out the packaging, containing a pair of leather gloves, is held in one hand. A leather jacket, worn open, shows a tshirt underneath. Black jeans and a pair of bike boots complete his outfit. Alexander knocks on the door and paces around a little, wondering if he’d written the directions down right. Heading out to some unmarked buildings in the middle of nowhere? Good thing the man isn’t overly paranoid. Yet.
Ryne KellyOne would imagine that a high school senior might have more interesting (or at least... teenager-ish) things to do on a Friday evening, but such was evidently not the case where Ryne was concerned, because when he got the call from Kalen about the warehouse that was also an office that was also a library, his response was an enthusiastic yes.
It was a couple of hours after dinner-time that Ryne's blue VW Golf parked itself in front of the building. The kid unlatched his seatbelt and twisted around to rummage around the back seat for a moment, pulling a silver-trimmed navy blue messenger bag out from under the seat. His hair was a mess of soft curls when he stepped out into the chilled spring air, the breeze causing his coat to billow around him before he grabbed the sides and wrapped it more snugly about his torso.
He looked around while he walked to the door, taking in the property and the architecture of the building. Alex was already there when Ryne walked up, and the kid glanced up at the (significantly taller) man with a curious expression. "Hey."
The security at the front door made him pause, and he pulled out his phone to text Kalen.
I'm here. Is there a secret code or something?
Ryne Kelly[Resonance-detection!]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 8, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )
Alexander Brandt[Ooh, dice!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Kalen Holliday[Oh. Dice. Tell me how distracted Kalen is tonight by resonance.]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 3, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
Kalen Holliday"Hey," he says back to Grace. She notices the others before he does, which is hardly shocking given the amount of sleeping he didn't do last night. He glances at his phone when it chirps, smiles faintly, and texts back: Hey. I'm sending Grace to get you. You're going to love Grace.
And then he turns to the only person in Denver he'll ask to go do things for him. Like a minion. Everyone should have at least one. "Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit...do you want to go get our friends and bring them here? Because it will take me like a million years to get them." He lets his eyes get huge and all faux-pleading.
Ryne KellyFor those with enough awareness to notice, Ryne's newly Awakened resonance felt like the flow and fluctuation of moving water. Shifting and mutable, adaptive, seeking.... fluid.
Grace EvansShe rolls her eyes at Kalen's fake pleads. "Yeah, yeah. Make me a coffee? With one of those rock-candy things in?" she says, and detangles herself from the chair.
Off to go invite in 'our friends'.
Which, she does, happily enough. She did get enough sleep last night.
The door cracks, then slides open for Ryne, and there is Grace, giving him a look she hopes says welcoming, but probably looks just plain awkward at the meeting of someone new. "Hi. I'm Grace. Kalen's upstairs."
Alexander BrandtAlexander turns at the sound of the VW approaching, breaking the silence that surrounded building, and watches the younger man emerge from the car. The sensation of fluidity tickles against Alexander, battling against the Frozen aura that surrounds him and putting him just a little on edge.
“Hey,” he replies, taking the other man in as he concentrates on his phone. “Any idea how we get in?” he asks, just as the door opens a crack. “Ah, like that. Hi Grace.” He stands and lets the other head in first.
Ryne KellyRyne and Alexander were an interesting picture, when placed beside each other. One dynamic (fluid), one static (frozen.) And yet... ice and water were merely different states of the same element, were they not?
And despite their age difference (despite the fact that Ryne had the look of vivid and elfin youth about him, while Alex was older, more solid, and had probably experienced a great deal more of the world) they were both new to their abilities.
(People could wake up at any age.)
Ryne didn't seem especially phased by the solid chill he felt coming off of Alexander. If anything, he was interested. (All of this was interesting to him.) And when Grace opened the door, he looked up and met her gaze with alert, dark eyes.
"Hey." He smiled. "I'm Ryne."
And since Alexander seemed content to allow him to go first, Ryne stepped inside and made his way up the stairs to look for Kalen, following the faint prickle of the Hermetic's familiar, stormy resonance like a bloodhound follows a scent.
Kalen HollidayKalen is just finishing coffee for Grace as Ryne finds him. He looks...well about the same as last Ryne saw him, which is abjectly exhausted and for some reason not just curling up to sleep anyway. He waves at the food and the coffee and the tea. "Hey. Make yourself at home. Food. Coffee. There are books. People to meet."
He smiles a little as he finishes Grace's coffee and retreats to a couch with his coffee. "One day, I'll have to take you to a circus." The smile widens a little and his eyes flash with amusement. "Of course, if I take you, it will be haunted or there will be extradimensional horrors or something. Granted, I'm not sure all clowns aren't extradimensional horrors, so maybe that's actually a universal constant. They would be just famished though, and there would undoubtedly be epic and cinematic and very confusing battles to the death in the funhouse."
"How are you?"
He half curls up into the corner of the couch. "It's true. Ask Grace. Every time I take her anywhere it's a disaster."
Grace EvansGrace lets them in, and then makes her way up the stairs. Perhaps she means to lead, but it seems as if Ryne knows the way anyway, following the buzz of ozone that Kalen leaves in his wake.
In any case, she arrives back at the library with her newbies in tow, and slips over to the table to pick up her coffee. It must be hers, right? It's got the rock-candy stirrer. Then, it's back to her seat again, to curl up into it, and wrap cold hands around her mug.
"I don't know. The last one wasn't a total disaster. We did good, I think."
Alexander BrandtAlexander follows the other two through the building, trying to peer through doors as they pass. Trying to figure out what goes on in this place, which must have taken a fair amount of cash to put together. And it must hold something fairly important, given the security to get into it.
But they arrive at Kalen, his own Stormy resonance getting stronger as they work their way through the building. “Hey, Kalen. You look... crap. Have you slept at all since that other night?”
Alexander’s eyebrows rise a little. He’s pretty sure they’re either joking not serious about haunted circuses and evil clowns. Although there never did seem to be anything particularly cheerful about them, so maybe they really are all evil. “The last visit to a circus wasn’t a disaster? Or the last fight in one?”
Alexander sorts himself out a cup of black coffee, and waves the French press at the others in offer. “I’m doing pretty well, thanks. Been playing with the coin a lot, and trying to figure out how the other things work out for me. Getting there, I think.”
Ryne KellyRyne made a face. "I kind of hate the circus, honestly." But his momentary distaste was washed away when he saw the selection of Indian takeout laid out on the table.
"Dude, you are so awesome." He dropped his bag by a chair and walked over to the food, helping himself to small portions of everything that didn't appear to contain any meat (although he ignored the dehydrated ice cream.) When he sat down on the sofa, he set his plate in his lap and ripped off a piece of naan, swirling it through a pool of sauce before he popped it into his mouth.
He'd already eaten dinner. It didn't matter.
"So um... how do you all know each other? I mean, did you just meet randomly or...?"
Alexander Brandt[Bah - "He's pretty sure they're joking about haunted circuses..." I can't proof my own typing. :$]
Kalen Holliday"Well, then we're marginally safer from excursions involving extradimensional horror clowns."
He laughs at Alexander's greeting, then rolls his eyes. "Ugh. Don't remind me. And there have been no fights in a circus. Yet."
He watches Ryne fixing food with a faint smile. "Mmmmmmm...so I met Grace at her college, much like I met you. We played a guessing game about drupes and then I offered to teach her how to shoot. She also may have had some initial concerns I was actually a serial killer." There is a sudden flash a smile, because this next bit is just too perfect to drop on Ryne with no fucking explanation.
"Alexander I met while we were on our way to investigate a scarecrow of mysterious origin who turned out to be a manifested spirit who had come to ask us to come and hear the last words of a Mage who had been trapped in the spirit world but by the time we got to the spirit world he'd been dead for centuries because Time can be like that so we reached back through time, let him know through the vision that we'd come, took the book he left us, and came back. He's...sort of The Messenger, but not precisely because...that might be enough of how we met. But perhaps I should not explain the Avatar Storm right now."
Grace EvansGrace snorts into her coffee, because Kalen is being himself, and this is a gleeful thing. "I did not think you were a serial killer, for the record."
Because that, of course, is the most interesting bit of verbiage that just came out of Kalen's mouth. Indeed.
She sets to drinking her coffee for a bit, and then joins Ryne in the making of a plate of naan and curry.
Alexander Brandt“What’s a drupe?” Alexander asks, as he picks up a bhaji and leans on the back of a chair to nibble at it. “Some kind of animal?” Then, to Grace as well, “You guys shoot? Let me know next time you go to a range, I’ll keep you company if you like.”
Kalen explains how they – Kalen and Grace – met him, watching the other man’s reaction. As it comes to the end, he smiles sympathetically and holds out a plate. “Samosa?”
Alexander Brandt[To clarify - the smile and plate offering are to Ryne]
Ryne KellyRyne grew still while Kalen spoke, momentarily forgetting his food while his mind tried to process the information that he was being given. A handful of different reactions shifted across his expressive face, revealing themselves in hints and fragments of muscle movement, but he was guarding himself enough that none of them stuck out as immediately obvious.
That he was... skeptical of some of the things he was hearing was more than a little likely. But what conclusions he ultimately drew about Kalen and the others from this information, he kept to himself.
He didn't... actually say anything, either. Just raised his eyebrows a little and nodded, then took a bite of his food. When Alexander offered him a samosa, he shook his head and picked one up from his own plate (it'd been hiding behind a mound vegetable vindaloo.)
"I'm good, thanks."
Kalen HollidayKalen laughs, then leans over to ruffle Ryne's hair. "Sorry, Cloud. Couldn't help it."
He settles back and takes a sip of his coffee, briefly studying the three of them. "That's Grace, she's...been at this for long enough to have joined the Virtual Adepts, which are one of our Traditions, which are basically like factions. I'll let her explain more about that. But she's studied with them and with me and posssssssssibly with others....? I didn't exactly ask her for a resume."
"And that is Alexander, who probably Awakened around the time you did, which is relatively recently. I'm pretty sure the only reason he doesn't give me the same looks you do is because he's seen some really crazy things already. I have no idea what his opinion on souls is."
"Kit, Alexander...this is Ryne. He found out he was Awakened last I met him, when I accosted him in a coffee shop and took him home. For reasons I cannot entirely determine, but likely involve having no sense of self preservation, he came out here to see books and meet you and learn all the things."
His attention turns to Alexander briefly. "Oh. We just use the one in the building over there." He waves a hand lazily at where the other building sits, not that it's visible through the walls.
Grace Evans"Drupes are fruits with a pit in them. Like cherries and apricots," Grace explains, and yet doesn't. Why does that have anything to do with anything?
"So you're saying you just let Kalen take you home, and then let him invite you to his scary warehouse? No sense of self-preservation. Riiight," Grace nods at Ryne. "Might want to fix that."
"He's not a serial killer. But still, man."
Grace nibbles on some naan dipped in deliciousness before continuing. "That's awesome though. Really, I mean it. You're Awake. What do you want to know first?"
Alexander BrandtAlexander shrugs and puts the plate back on the table, unsure whether Ryne is taking everything in his stride, hiding it well that he isn’t, or doesn’t realise just how deep the rabbit hole goes – something he’s only starting to get an idea about himself.
“Last month, easy answer – souls don’t exist. This month? I know spirits exist now, but whether that’s the same thing as a soul? I might need to spend some time with that priest friend of yours to figure that one out.” He grabs another snack and his coffee cup and settles into a chair, shuffling a little to get comfortable.
He looks between Grace and Ryne as she talks. “These guys know a whole lot more than I do, but I guess we’re pretty much in the same boat. If you need any help with anything, though...” Swings and roundabouts – people have been so kind, supporting him as he tries to figure out which way is up, that it’s only fair he passes on the favour.
Ryne KellyRyne wrinkled his nose in mild indignation when Kalen ruffled his hair. He ran a hand through the soft mess of auburn waves, as though to even it out, but Ryne had the sort of obnoxiously perfect hair that looked good even when it was messy.
"Also walnuts and pecans," he added by way of an answer to Alexander's question. "A lot of things we think are nuts are technically drupes."
He didn't explain how or why he knew the answer to that question, but perhaps among this crowd, he didn't have to.
"I didn't think he was gonna hurt me," came the answer to Grace's question. "Anyway, I needed to find out what he knew. And see, now I get to meet you guys. So win-win."
He ripped off another piece of naan and looked between Alexander and Kalen. "You really think you saw a spirit?"
Kalen Holliday.Kalen smiles at Ryne's question, rises carefully, and heads over to get more coffee.
He looks away from them before he starts speaking this time. "Avatars and souls are intimately linked," he says, very softly. Haunted. "When we were dragged into the Umbra, what you felt was the fragments of Avatars which were shattered in...a cataclysmic event that proved the war with the Technocracy was...too costly for either side to continue. Whether their souls are part of that...I am uncertain."
There is a slight pause, and then he blinks, picks up a rock candy stirrer for his coffee, and then heads back to the couch. "By priest friend you mean Pan? The one in Denver? Have you met yet? Anyway...you two can tell him about that adventure. He's probably tired of hearing me talk."
Grace EvansSpirit, sure. Or a daemon of Reality's OS. A piece of self-sustaining code, like the rest of us. Kalen speaks of the Avatars shattered. What they passed through, that felt like... like being flung through glass shards. Speaks of the War which is over (it is not over).
"How is the war ended when people are still being disappeared, though?" Grace asks, suddenly not so chipper. People like Gadfly, she means.
"This is why you don't just trust anyone you meet, Ryne. People who will hurt you will look nice enough at first. And when you're Awake, it's like a magnet for all the weird in the world to land at your doorstep. So just... be careful, okay?"
Alexander Brandt“Ah. Ok.” Alexander doesn’t sound overly bothered about this new piece of information. It could be useful for quiz machines or radio call-ins. Otherwise? Not so much. But then Ryne asks about spirits. He turns a little in the chair, tucking one leg under the other, to better face him.
“Before things went weird, I was just as sceptical as you sound. Religion? For the gullible. Spirits? New age rubbish, used by fakers to part the gullible with their money who told them what they wanted to hear. ‘Oh yes, Granny is much happier now’.” He rolls his eyes. “I guess you could call me a practical kind of guy. I need to see something to really believe in it. So when I had something calling to me, trying to persuade me to jump through a rip I made into the spirit world? That opened my eyes. Then, with the scarecrow Kalen mentioned?” He nods towards Kalen. “When you’re pulled into a mirror world to this one, when you’re faced with what was essentially a dying man’s spirit which was slowly fading away after searching for help for who knows how long? When you see creatures that exist there, that don’t exist here?” He smiles again, emotions mixed at the memory – wonder at the potential, sadness that it had taken so long for the Sending to find who it was looking for, but happiness that its creator found his rest and the Sending its identity. “I don’t think I’ve seen a spirit. I know I have.“ There’s no doubt in his voice at all.
He takes a breath before answering Kalen. “I’ve not met him yet, but you did mention your teleporting friend before. And what else do you have tucked away here?” Then, a third thought. “Oh, when did you want me to take a look at his records?”
Ryne Kelly"People are shitty. I knew that before I was Awake. You don't need to tell me to be careful, I get it."
(But did he though? Maybe he thought he did. Or maybe he had better instincts than people gave him credit for. Or maybe he was just a naive kid making empty reassurances.)
Alexander told his story, and Ryne listened, giving the man his full attention. Afterwards, he glanced down at his plate.
"That stuff you're talking about. Spirits and Avatars. They sound like memories." He spoke that last bit quietly (almost tentative,) before looking up and meeting Alexander's eyes. "I believe you. I'm just... wondering about it."
There was a certain thoughtful undertone to his words that seemed to imply not so much blatant disbelief as careful analysis.
"Tell me about the war."
(This last directed to the room at large.)
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