There's always a boom tomorrow

Kiara Woolfe

[Dexterity + Athletics: playing hoops! Can you play, Ms Woolfe?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 10) ( success x 1 )

Kiara Woolfe

[That was terrible, let's try that again.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Grace

[Awareness!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )

Kalen Holliday

[How awake are we?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )

Ian

[Awareness]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )

Kalen Holliday

[And how distracted by Resonance are we?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 3, 4, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )

Alexander

[Awareness too]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Kiara Woolfe

Washington Park at dusk is captivating.

The days are growing a little colder in Denver, winter's claws are neatly beginning to sink in, inch by inch, into the air, into the earth. Hardening it, turning it into a slumbering beast awaiting the warming rays of the thaw to come. The female on the courts is alone, but not, in a broader sense. There's joggers doing the circuit of the park, stepping in unison.

There's a couple entwined on the grass some distance from her, a woman walking her dog, figures moving through the grand expanse on their travels elsewhere. Heading home, most likely. Most pay little attention to Kiara as she moves across the court, bouncing a ball and weaving it this way and that, stopping short of one hoop and neatly tossing it toward the net.

It sinks through, dropping and bouncing away to collide with the fence.

The Verbena walks over to it, rolls it back into her hands and begins anew, flicking the hair out of her eyes as it sticks to her brow. There's no judge, no jury and surely no need for finesse when you train alone. Only the surety of the rhythm of your heart, the air expanding your lungs and the sound of your breathing. She enjoys it, the push and strain of her muscles as she runs, twists, throws the ball.

Muscle memory expanding and encompassing until its forgotten -- where body begins and ends -- where the line is drawn. Until there is no line. She's been at it long enough to be breathing hard and fast, to have discarded her jacket, laying with a pile of belongings on top of a wooden bench beside the court. The sun is banking the horizon now, it'll be dark save for the lighting the park provides, but the brunette has little urgency to her steps as she repositions herself to try for another hoop.

Grace

Parks are cool. Especially parks in the city where one can still get a good wi-fi signal. Nature is fine, so long as you don't completely detach, right? Or at least, that's how Grace sees it.

She's walking along with Kalen in tow, wearing the coat he gave her (red, sharp, and a whole lot more fashionable than Grace would ever do to herself). The coat is covered with little additions -- doodads and plastic strips sewn into the fabric. What purpose they serve? Who knows. If one gets a very close look, one might see that they're all electronic.

She notices Kiara first, not the person, but that sense of her that's so reminiscent of... Ah, yes.

Don't ignore the signs of the snake which shall appear in your daily life, before the messenger appears, they said. There was the boy with the ouroboros tattoo. There were the Auryn keys, there is Kiara.

"Hey, come on. I think I see somebody," Grace says, and starts walking down toward the court.

Ian

It was evening in Washington Park, so of course Ian was running. His feet beat out a steady, rapid pace along the path, keeping time with the lush pulse of music coming from his earbuds. He'd been at it long enough to feel the low, steady burn in his lungs and the flush of heat on his skin. Exertion kept him warm, despite the season - though the temperature in Denver had not been nearly so chilly as it had in days past.

The park was busy tonight. There were other runners. Dog-walkers. Couples. Mostly, Ian ignored them. But as he approached the basketball court and felt a stirring of cyclic (rejuventating, devouring) energy, he slowed his pace to a loping jog and cut across the grass, finally coming to a halt beside the court. He pulled the earbuds out of his ears and draped them loosely over his neck. For a moment he grew still, catching his breath as he watched Kiara toss the ball through the net.

"Need an opponent?"

He had on black drawstring track pants, silver running shoes and a short-sleeved black athletic shirt. His cell phone was strapped around his left bicep.

Kiara Woolfe

[How are our Mage senses tonight?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 3, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )

Alexander

The park is attracting Alexander a lot at the moment. Part of that is the hope that The Message will make another appearance. Part of that is simply because it’s a large open space in the city, a space with a whole load of potential for getting out and doing things.

And so the pleasant weather and the wide open space pulls Alexander out running. His route so far has taken various turns from the Downtown area towards the park – still learning the lay of the land, the shortcuts and backstreets that can make the journey from Point A to Point B that much quicker. Call it useful knowledge for his current career, or old habits from an old job. Either way, it’s fun to explore the parts of the city that the tourist trails avoid.

So he’s pounding the path through the park when he feels the coming-together of their kind. Kalen, Grace and Ian are close – to Alex and to each other – and their resonances begin to merge. But there’s another, an unknown sensation in the air. Not exactly unknown. Certainly reminiscent of someone else not so long ago, that Devouring sensation. He slows, breathing steadily, and slowly makes his way to where he can see what’s going on. His red running tee is wet with sweat, even in the cool air, and black shorts and black-and-red running shoes clothe him for the moment. A cable runs from his headphones and into his pocket, although the headphones are pulled away when he notices the feelings in the air.

Kiara Woolfe

She's got her stance down and shoots, but the ball rebounds off the back of the board and ricochets behind her, rolling gently in the direction of the man who's appeared, blackclad at the edge of the court. She feels the stirring at the edges of her awareness, that prickling over her skin that's more than just the fact she's suddenly stopped after long minutes of exercise.

He's in black, she's in gray and white the female, her track pants tied loosely around a narrow waist, shirt short sleeved, cut close to her shoulders and leaving a fair expanse of her arms bare. For once, Kiara's devoid of her jewellery and it's striking how notable that is. She's stripped back, casual and flushed from exertion.

"Hey," is the quick greeting he gets, though she couples it with a breathless smile and moves closer, one hand on her waist as she lets her breathing even out. "Sure, if you think you can keep up." There are others nearby, Grace and Kalen are approaching and another, one Kiara doesn't yet know is on his way, too. But her senses aren't that keen tonight, distracted by the game. Focused, for the moment, on reclaiming her ball and gently lobbing it at Ian.

Grace

Grace huffs a little laughing breath at Kiara's "if you think you can keep up." To Ian?

Ahh yes, they're playing sportsball. Grace plops herself down by the side of the court in the grass, waves at Ian and Kiara. But it doesn't look like she's going to be playing tonight.

Nope, her cell phone comes out.

Kalen Holliday

Kalen is dressed warmly and carrying a cup of coffee. Like Grace, he is wearing a tailored coat. His is also long, but gray and not covered with any extra bits. Not that he has not implored Grace to male him a technocoat, he so has, he is just not wearing that tonight.

He trails behind Grace until he registers not only Kiara but Alexander. He does not settle into the ground beside Grace, just glances quickly to where Ian is joining Kiara and then toward where he can sense Alexander.

"I'll be back, Kit," he says. But her phone is already out. Ian is right here. He and Alexander will not be far away. Grace is certainly not the inexperienced Orphan he met a bit more than a year before.

And so he doesn't even remind her to be careful before he starts toward Alexander. Ian and Kiara, if they look toward him, get a wave. But apparently Alexander gets his attention first tonight.

Ian

Kiara tossed the ball at his chest, and Ian caught it with a wry smirk. Did he think he could keep up? "Guess we'll have to see."

He tucked the ball under his arm and reached over to unstrap the arm-band from around his bicep, setting it and his earbuds down on a nearby bench. There was a brief glance tossed back at his things, then at the park at large, as he walked onto the court (as though he did not entirely trust that someone might not try to make off with his phone.) Grace walked up with Kalen and sat down in the grass, and Ian shot them a quick greeting.

"Hey." He nodded at Grace, but Kalen was already on his way to talk to Alexander, so Ian let his focus shift back to Kiara. He rolled the basketball out from under his arm and tossed it between his hands once, then gave an experimental shot over her head at the opposing hoop.

[Dex+Athletics, wee!]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )

Alexander

That feeling in the air – the feeling of inescapable consumption – is similar, but still different, to that Ravenous hunger that had been plaguing the city. He’d thought that it had ended, but... Well, he’ll see. That there are several familiar others gathering, and that there doesn’t seem to be any conflict – not yet, at least – is slightly reassuring. As is the feeling of the approaching storm.

“Hey,” he greets Kalen with. “Somebody new in town?” Kalen gets a smile, but Alexander’s attention keeps getting drawn back to the basketball court.

Kiara Woolfe

[Dex + Athletics, he's totally showing you up, Kiara. At least get it in the hoop.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Kiara Woolfe

Kiara's presence does take getting used to. It's not overwhelming, not in the way some resonances are but it's distracting, at first. For some people, it might even be a little upsetting. Certainly the sensation of being devoured and then restored, brought abruptly back into the moment was unsettling in its own way. It was the beginning and end of a cycle. The woman it belonged to however, was not by any immediate impression, a creature to be feared.

Distrusted, perhaps. Wary of, certainly, any Awakened meeting another for the first time carried with them that inherent hesitation but Kiara Woolfe didn't strike you as the type to devour anyone beyond what her pattern's imprint conjured up. At the present moment that being said -- she was also feeling rather competitive. Ian gracefully lobs the ball over her head and it sails into the net with a degree of precision befitting someone with his natural athleticism.

Grace is acknowledged, as is Kalen as she turns on the spot to watch it arc through the air. She glances at him. "Show off." The jib isn't hostile, not with the way the corner of her mouth curls up. If anything it's playful. She jogs over to reclaim her ball, bounces it once and walks toward him, balancing it against her hip.

She nods at the net over his head and taking a moment to recalibrate her footing, aims for the hoop and lets the ball sail, watching it intently as it hits the board, teeters for a moment as if in deliberation about whether to score or not and eventually sinks through.

Grace

She nods to Kalen, and smiles at Ian. "Hey yourself."

Ian can be a bit distracting can't he? And so he distracts her away from her internet to watch him be all perfect.

"He is a show off. Oh very much so," she says with a roll of the eyes. As if she herself didn't show off with regularity. Is it a Mage personality quirk perhaps?

Kalen Holliday

Alexander's attention is drawn toward the court. And, in all honesty, so is Kalen's, but not for Kiara. Ian is something to watch, when he's moving. Kalen's attention returns to Alexander rather quickly, but then, this is hardly a show to Kalen.

"Yeah," he says to Alexander. "I haven't spent much time with her, but she is very willing to do tequila shots and seems very friendly. I find her lack of suspicion suspicious, but then...I'm kind of terrible like that, huh?" He leans into Alexander for a second, casual and not really cuddly, as if Alexander is a nice convenient column. Yeah...he definitely doesn't need more sleep.

"Come meet her?" And there is, in that tone, an invitation. One that if Alexander turns down will likely be followed up with invitations to donuts. Or Thai. Or whatever thing Kalen thinks of that sounds interesting for the moment.

Ian

It was a perfect shot through the net. Better than he'd expected, if we're being honest. But Kiara and Grace didn't need to know that. From the outside, all they saw was how absolutely effortless he made it look.

Show off.

Ian grinned. Kiara grabbed the ball and tossed it into the other net, and maybe it wasn't a perfect shot, but it was still pretty good. She wasn't exactly out of her element.

"I can stop if you want." He shot another look over at Grace and raised an eyebrow teasingly. When Kiara's ball dropped to the ground, he jogged over to grab it.

"Feel like playing for stakes?"

Kiara was feeling competitive. Evidently, so was Ian. The look he shot her was confident and flirtatious. Like a dare. He spun the ball in his hand and bounced it on the pavement as he walked back to the center of the court, turning around to shoot her another look over his shoulder. This one felt more like a temptation. (Like thinly veiled secrets.)

Alexander

“Well, everybody’s up to something. Maybe she just doesn’t care. But sure, I’ll come and say hello.” Alexander fishes around in his pocket for his phone, turning off the music. He knocks into Kalen, nudging him with his elbow, as he starts the walk over to the basketball court. He wraps his headphones around a hand before tucking them back into the same pocket as the phone.

He settles at the side of the court, near Grace. “Hey, Grace. How’re things?” She gets a smile, although maybe not as open and warm as it would have been a few weeks ago. Not for anything she’s done. More for other things.

And speaking of other things, how does he greet Ian? Ian will get a wave if he looks towards Alexander, but he doesn’t call out to him. Mainly because he doesn’t know what to say. And so he stays quiet.

Kiara will get a hand raised in greeting if she happens to look over. Her resonance isn’t the easiest to get used to, and between that and the awkwardness of not quite knowing how to interact with Ian? He’s not looking all that comfortable, and it’s nothing to do with the surface that he’s sitting on.

Kiara Woolfe

Kiara shoots Grace a smile that is accompanied with a dramatic roll of her eyes heavenward when Ian decrees he can stop. She's flushed, but the exertion suits her, somehow. It makes her more focused, for one thing. Her smiles come freer, there's less calculation to the manner she approaches the world when she's like this. Surrounded by nature. Grounded by it, thrilling in the physicality of the moment.

"Ante up, buddy," she calls as she approaches, there's amusement in her voice; a gleam in her dark eyes that matches Ian's. The flirtatious banter comes easily, apparently. So does getting in his space as soon as she's near, crowding up close and trying to steal the ball out of his hands in a dirty maneuver.

As she does, two new figures appear on the sidelines, Kalen she recognizes and he gets an acknowledgement of sorts and Alexander -- a curious look, a brief incline of her head toward him in unspoken hello before she returns her attention to the stakes at hand.

She wants her ball back. Nobody would ever say Kiara Woolfe was above trickery in sports.

Grace

Grace's eyes flit up from her phone to Alex. "Things are ridiculous. We've got White Knight problems again," she says, keeping her voice low. "He, she, it, whatever seems to like contacting apprentices and telling them all about the wonderful fuzzy goodness of the Techs, and how they just want to help. Which, yeah. No."

She bites her lower lip, looking at the court, but not really watching the players. "Something's going to go boom again soon, I can feel it."

Ian

[Dex+Ath keep the ball!]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Kalen Holliday

Kalen settles next to Alexander, opposite Grace. He looks over at Grace, and his eyes are serious. But he doesn't really address the question about their (self-proclaimed) White Knight. He has a different read on that situation, but he does think it's dangerous. Still, for someone who can laser focus on the thought that they are besieged by monsters and evil, he seems oddly willing to let it go. Technocrats and vampires and things that are not the five of them in this park.

All he says, without any real sense of urgency, is, "That's always how this place is. But, at least I hope, not tonight. Let's get to know our new friend shall we? It would be a shame if we lost sight of doing that just because the world threatens to end once or twice a season."

Ian

Back on the sidelines, Grace started talking about technocrats, and Ian... chose not to let it distract him. Not because it wasn't a valid concern (of course it was - there was always some kind of potential threat looming) but because it wasn't a matter that immediately involved him, and sometimes one just needed to play a fucking round of basketball without worrying about the world ending.

Kiara tried to steal the ball, but Ian held it close and rolled it around his torso, keeping it teasingly out of reach. She answered his challenge with one of her own, and he grinned broadly enough to show a flash of teeth. Then he leaned in and whispered something in her ear.

And there was Kalen suggesting that they all get to know each other. Whatever Ian was up to, it probably wasn't appropriate for a larger game. But of course, they didn't need to know that.

"First to five wins?"

Kiara Woolfe

Say what you would about Kiara, the girl certainly knew how to throw herself into the thick of things. Drinking tequila into the early hours one night, keeping pace on the basketball court the next. That sort of general exuberance for life was almost exhausting to watch, but, looking at her now, half arguing, half smiling at Ian as they fought over possession of the ball -- it seemed fitting, somehow, for who she was.

Or at least, the impression she offered (rejuvenation).

"That's my ball you're getting handsy with, Sir." She calls loudly, her voice carrying across the court as she quests relentlessly for it, twisting around Ian, one hand still half tangled around his torso when he leans in and whispers something in her ear. It's hard to imagine (or maybe not at all considering) what it is he says from her expression. It's still taunting, still bright and set with determination but she does lift her chin a little.

Says something in return that doesn't carry and then, lifting her eyebrows, makes another play for the ball.

"Deal."

[Dex + Subterfuge, only diff 7 cuz Kiara can't be stealthy at all.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN7 (3, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )

Alexander

Truth be told, Alex hasn’t been on Ginger for a couple of weeks. Not since those last updates before they went to confront Victoria. So he’s a little out of touch when it comes to people being contacted by the Technocracy. He knew that was why Elijah had moved into the warehouse, but developments after that are still to be discovered.

There isn’t even a sigh when he pushes himself back up from the ground, although it’s not to follow Kalen over to the basketball match. He sounds tired when he tells Grace, “there’s always a boom tomorrow. Law of the universe. But I should really be getting back before it gets too late. Grace. Kalen.”

With a look back and a wordless wave to Ian, Alexander heads back towards the exit to the court and pulls his headphones back out. If he’d been in a better mood, if Kiara wasn’t so reminiscent of that hunger, if he was more sure of how to be around Ian... It’s just better that he be somewhere else right now.