Spring was in full swing, although that didn’t always mean quite the same thing close to the mountains. There were more days of sunshine, as the city’s marketing department liked to say, and fewer days of snow and sleet and hail. The potential of summer creeps over the mountains, allowing plants to sprout and animals to feel the push towards their mating rites and rituals.
A clear, if cold, blue sky hangs over a section of some random section of some random national park to the west of Denver. Somewhere far enough away from any of the parking lots to avoid random tourists and hikers and dog walkers happening across what Alexander has in mind. The area is near a river, the sound of water streaming and splashing over rocks quiet but clear. The ground is mostly stone and hard-packed earth, away from anything attempting to grow. Given time, plants would eventually sprout here, but for now the ground is bare. Bare, except for a small circle of stones. The circle surrounds a, currently unlit, camp fire. It’s a small thing, not built to last. It’s by this stack of sticks and paper than we find Alexander, sitting cross-legged next to it flicking the cover on and off a lighter. His eyes are closed as he sits there, maybe concentrating on something or maybe concentrating on nothing. There’s a backpack set on the ground nearby, with a mostly-full bottle of water sticking out of the top.
[Int+Med]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Nicholas HydeIt is clear, it is cold, and Nick Hyde is left wondering not for the first time since mid-April just when spring officially begins in Denver. See Nick's a son of the desert, of fine dust and red rock, and the home of his heart is far and away and near the ocean: still warmer there than here.
In spite of that we will find him out today in a heavier jacket than he would normally be wearing close to the middle of May, but out nonetheless, walking the river's edge. They say that rivers are another doorway, a road that leads Under or Through or however one is given to conceptualizing the Veil, and they are as intrinsic to Nicholas and his Work as language itself, as words, as ash and bone. He may not have anything specific planned today for this river; walking it is a meditative thing for him as often as not.
He cuts a stark figure, out here where there's no greenery to offset the dark cast of his clothing and the black of his curly hair and the utter silence of his footfalls. He sees someone here on the barren earth in front of a circle and he cannot help but be curious, even as his trajectory widens to keep from alarming the other man before their paths intersect.
Alexander[Awareness seems like a relevant thing right now]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 6, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 4 )
AlexanderAlexander is not a desert animal, having grown up on the west coast. He’s no stranger to the rain or the snow or the cold, so he’s covered with a pair of hiking/cargo shorts, a light, red-coloured jacket and a sturdy pair of boots. Other, heavier, clothing is stashed away in the bottom of the backpack, some easily accessible waterproofs tucked into a side pocket. Alexander is also no stranger to being outdoors.
There’s a subtle shift in his body as he picks up on something - someone - on the edge of perception. It’s something that’s moving closer, and something that demands a certain amount of attention. It’s an unexpected distraction, and there’s a little grunt of frustration as Alexander turns and pushes himself up and onto his feet. Their kind has this unerring ability to find each other, like some sort of magnetic pull. Like calls to like, so it’s a little less of a surprise than it might have been. Still, he crouches by the backpack – back towards the stranger – and seems to be digging around inside for something.
It’s only a few moments work before he stands and turns towards the slowly approaching and circling presence, hands held behind his back.
Nicholas Hyde[Awareness. Relevant. Yes.]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 5, 8, 8, 8) ( success x 3 )
Nicholas Hyde[And some empathy - are you hostile?]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 ) [Doubling Tens]
Alexander[Alexander isn't openly, outwardly, hostile. There's no attempt to close with or stare down this approaching stranger, but there's no sudden push to flight either. He's simply waiting and watching to see if Nick is some kind of threat.]
Nicholas HydeMagi find each other; Nicholas has known this for years. Perhaps it's merely confirmation bias: when they can sense each other, when they have a means of finding each other in a crowd, perhaps it's only a matter of statistical chance that will lead them to one another. Maybe there are hundreds of magi in the city that they don't know about, who are in those areas that they don't frequent. It's a possibility isn't it?
Regardless, whether it's fate or statistical likelihood, here they are. The stranger Alex has sensed is wearing a puffy dark green jacket and dark grey canvas pants and a pair of black boots; his hands have been tucked away into the pockets of his jacket. They seem strange on him, those clothes: they fit his body but not the rest of him, somehow, because he is hallowed he is twice-born he is highland barrows and cairns and burnt auger mounds in the deep woods. He is high lonely places marked long ago by a sole traveler and he is the hush of crumbling churchyards at dawn, the greening of first Spring. He has this spare fey look to him, could be the subject of some Victorian painter's dark whimsy if it weren't for his clothing, see.
Alex is digging around inside his pack and so Nick stops where he is, sweeping his gaze over the man in front of him. Alex's hands are behind his back; Nick slowly draws his from his pockets. He doesn't make a show of holding them up, but the intent is clear enough. "Hi there."
Alexander[Per+Emp right back at'cha - you a threat?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 5 )
Nicholas Hyde[Here's what Alex can tell about this stranger. He's not a threat but - and this is an important distinction, one he can tell because he is sharp today - he could be, he is willing to be (if he must). He is gauging Alex just as much as Alex is gauging him, and he cannot see what Alex has behind his back which is giving him pause. He did not expect to encounter anyone out here today.
He is most certainly aware of Alex, and of whatever magickal undercurrents he can sense from him. It's there in the subtle flare of his nostrils and the way his focus seemed to sharpen suddenly as he drew nearer.
Alex can also sense magick that was worked very recently, that seems to contribute to the otherworldly air about the man in front of him. He feels as though he has one foot in this world and one foot in the next.]
AlexanderThe world is full of possibilities, although not everybody knows where to look for them. For Sleepers, the possibility that the world can be changed with a thought and a pure act of will is something that only appears in works of fiction. So maybe the world is full of Awakened, who push each other out of orbit like some sort of metaphysical electron. Perhaps there are only a few of their kind that pull to each other, for whatever reason. Or perhaps chance was just as malleable as time and forces and matter, and they simply skewed probability by existing.
Nick had walked along a river to get here, and he would have noticed something of the elements surrounding Alexander’s little clearing. Just as the nearby river flowed, there was the feeling of something else flowing by/around/through him. Something that, if you were to be floating in it, would have no boundary to it. No bank, no beginning, no end. Something of an unknown and unnamed eternal river, created when some immense glacier had thawed.
Alex studies Nick as he approaches, searching for some hint as to what to expect. Friend? Foe? Or was this just to be some random intersection of their orbits on their paths elsewhere? Nick gets his empty hands clear of his pockets, and the meaning there seems clear. But, really, did they need to hold a weapon to be dangerous? It wasn’t something Alexander had explored yet – there were reasons he had travelled out to the middle of nowhere today – but he was well aware of the possibilities.
“Hi”. The tone isn’t warm and welcoming, but it isn’t cold and hostile either. It was simply a recognition of the greeting and its return. The start of the dance between them. “I wasn’t expecting to find anyone this far away from the normal trails. What brings you out this way?” Still: assessing, wary, cautious. But not: hostile or even unfriendly. More: something of the wild that has no intention of being caged.
Nicholas HydeDespite working in a hospital, Nick to his knowledge has never encountered a Conventionalist. It's not a thought that occurs to him often, that a random mage he meets in the city somewhere could be and that it could put him in danger. They both Awakened after the war's end, and this is a natural product of peace time.
This is what informs his response to Alex: he isn't cagey about why he's out here, not the way many older magi who can remember the War would be. "I come out here to work sometimes," he says. "But this is my first time down this way. I didn't expect to run into anyone either."
His voice is warm because it cannot help it. He has the clear, resonant tones of someone who speaks for a living, someone whose natural instinct is to protect and soothe before anything else.
AlexanderExperience skews reaction, almost the definition of wisdom. Alexander truly had no experience of the war that raged between the Union and the Traditions, sweeping up those that stood apart whether they liked it or not. There had been some clear messages along the way, though. That the Union was something to be wary of, lest people disappear into unmarked towncars for being too open, too vulgar, with their Work.
All of that turned out to be worthless paranoia, when it came right down to it. Alexander had cut himself off from everybody when he had thought that he had caught Union attention. He had – at least temporarily – pushed away others when times had been hard, while he tried to work things out. He had been slow to trust. And in the end? In the end, it might have simply been the fickle work of chance that pushed him into their hands.
So here, now, he isn’t quite sure how things went next. He was prepared for the worst – he would not be caught again. But, still, there had to be hope for something better. There was the hope that others could bring change for the better with them. After some moments of indecision, Alexander’s body relaxes. His arms don’t move, they’re still crossed behind him, but there’s a little less tension in him now.
“What kind of work? You don’t exactly look like a ranger, so I’m guessing you mean the kind with a capital W.”
Nicholas HydeIt's been said of Nick Hyde that he's a more perfect mirror than some people would wish for. He's skillful in how he navigates the emotions of others, reflecting empathy when they show vulnerability, warmth when they show uncertainty, resolve when they show fear. It isn't always useful to be a mirror though: note before, how the beginning of their encounter could easily have become a standoff. His posture slackens now when Alex's does, the line of his shoulders becoming a little softer, less defined.
"Yeah, that kind," he agrees, and he smiles in a manner that is less in the mouth and more in the left of his eyebrows and cheeks, a general shift in demeanor. "There are different spirits out here than in the city, and there's less risk to others. I'm still trying to get comfortable with the area, I guess."
There is a significant glance toward the circle that Alex has arranged on the cracked and stony earth surrounding the river's shallow floodplain. Young rivers: they haven't quite had time to settle into themselves yet. "Were you out here doing something like that yourself?" He's either more dense than first impressions would allow or it's an invitation, of sorts: tell me about it.
AlexanderAs first encounters go, it might not be a shining example of how smoothly they can go. On the other hand, no blood had been spilled, no voices had been raised. No gates to hell had been opened. Not yet, at least. The day was young, and Alexander hadn’t really started his own attempt at Working.
There’s a shift in Alexander’s face when Nick mentions spirits, the raising of his eyebrows a tell of his slight surprise. “There haven’t been many in these part who deal with spirits. Not who are still here, anyway.” Alyssa had left, Lucy had vanished. Elijah was, he assumed, still around somewhere. But he may well have vanished into the night too. “Does that mean you’re new to the city, then? I’ve been,” a pause. “Out of touch. I’d heard there were some new faces in town.”
Alexander breaks eye contact to look down at the unlit fire when Nick draws attention to it. “Something like that. I thought it was time to,” another pause. “Stretch my wings a little.” Although the detail isn’t there, there is willingness to engage in the conversation. There’s another shift in Alexander’s position, as if something were being tucked into the back of his belt, and his arms – and empty hands – cross across his chest.
Nicholas HydeThere is a murmur of acknowledgement when Alex says that there aren't many: Nick seems to have made note of the same. "I only know Kiara," he says, and there is eye contact here, this manner of someone who is both offering information and testing at the same time. Kiara's a disciple, and by her own admission has been in Denver for a long time: a useful person to name drop, in other words. "There aren't many people anywhere that work with spirits, though, in my experience."
There is a beat. "I am new. I moved here in December."
He follows Alex's gaze back to the ring of stone and waiting fire. Up until now, up until Alex folds his arms across his chest, he hasn't made any attempt to close the distance between them; now he does, though not quite to friendly speaking distance. "Where did you go? I'm Nick Hyde, by the way. Bani Chakravanti."
AlexanderKiara’s name gets another shift in Alexander, some further stepping down of tension that is accompanied by a cocking of his head and a slight nod. “I hadn’t actually realised that she was that way inclined, but I can’t say that I’m surprised that she is. I’ll have to ask her about it, some time.” There’s a touch of curiosity in that, when he speaks. Since Alyssa had left, he had been mostly guideless when it came to the spirit world. It might be a hidden blessing that he hadn’t gone exploring Magick much, given the risks that are tied to dealing with spirits.
Where did you go? “Now there’s a question.” Alexander steps sideways, getting close enough to the circle to crouch and retrieve the lighter that he had dropped on Nick’s approach. Note, though, that the caution hasn’t disappeared completely. No, Alex is careful to keep Nick in, at least, his peripheral vision. He starts flipping the cover on and off again, turning to fully face Nick again. “I’ve been out of town for a few weeks, catching up with family. Before that.” A pause, some break to try to patch together some sort of explanation. The pause is followed by a harsh exhalation, a glance away at something unseen before looking back at Nick’s face. “Before that, I was a guest of the Union for a couple of months.” Take that as you will, Nick. Is Alex now someone to be cautious of? Pitied? He hadn’t picked up on much of the detail surrounding his release, such as Nick’s involvement in finding where he was or that he had changed. There was some slight anticipation in the wait for the reaction.
“Alexander Brandt.” No Tradition is given, as there is none to give.
Nicholas HydeThere is recognition that springs into his eyes before Alex offers his name, and mark that Nick is not often transparent: he selects facets of himself to shine forth and reflect back to others far too efficiently for that, so maybe he chooses to do this now. The noise that springs forth from his throat is pleased, even. "It's good to finally meet you," he says. "There were a lot of us who helped to get you out."
It's information that is offered forth without expectation of a specific response: namely, he is not stating it because he expects gratitude. His tone still carries that pleasant cadence it held before; if there's caution (at least, more than before) or pity, it isn't evident just yet. "I'm glad that you took some time to leave Denver."
When Alex looks back at Nick he'll find the Chakravat's eyes gone a little distant, inward perhaps, gently unfocused and with this air of concentration. The weight of considering his words. Eventually this seems to resolve; at least, he at last begins speaking again. "Kiara and I summoned a crow spirit to see if we could find out where they were holding you. Crow told us that you went Seeking there. I can't...I haven't ever heard of someone being able to do that." It stops short of admiration, doesn't quite reach; a note of appreciation, though, perhaps, can be sussed out.
AlexanderOf the reactions possible, pleasure was perhaps the least expected. There’s surprise on Alex’s face, when Nick proclaims his pleasure at their meeting, and he isn’t quite sure how to take the reaction. “Um, thanks. No, wait. Thank you. For helping. I sometimes wonder how many people will really help out someone that they’ve never met before.”
I’m glad that you took some time to leave Denver. This time, Alexander does turn and takes a few paces away, leaving Nick with a clear view of the pistol tucked into the back of his belt. It’s surely no surprise how Alex might have been prepared to react if things had gone a little differently. “Yeah, well, it was time to get out of that motel room and figure a few things out.” There’s a slight jerk of his shoulders, along with a snort of amusement. “Well, a few more things anyway.”
He turns back to the circle, getting a little closer before crouching next to it. That he isn’t still eyeing Nick from the corner of his eye is perhaps a clue that there was some degree of trust now present there. “I didn’t know there was such a thing. Most of what I’ve seen so far has been ghosts and the like.” Most, but not all. But those other things might be a subject of conversation for another time.
Alex flicks open the lighter once more, but this time strikes the flame instead of flicking it closed again. “I can’t say it was intentional, you know?” He waves a hand over the flame, feeling the heat rising up from the lighter. “I’d started looking before the shit hit the wall, but I couldn’t quite work out where to look for my Avatar. Sneaky little bastard that it is.” There’s another snort. “I just hope it doesn’t take another trip like that to find it again.”
The sensation of that river washing over the clearing builds as Alex pushes against the world, finally starting what he’d come here to do.
[Arete, sensing the heat from the lighter. Diff 4, I think?]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (6, 6) ( success x 2 )
Nick HydeOf course Nicholas can see the pistol: he had somewhat suspected that it was there, or that a weapon was there, whether pistol or knife or whatever instrument this stranger might use to work magick. He is not a soldier (that epithet goes to his wife), but he has been around them long enough, has lived just dangerously enough, to find hidden hands suspect. And does it make him wonder what he would have done had Alex leveled that weapon at him and started shooting?
Perhaps. Just a little. He would have died, that's what he would've done.
There is a gracious nod when Alex thanks him, a sidelong flick of the eyes that suggests that Nick is perhaps not entirely comfortable with thanks or with compliments but if so he is still too socially aware to brush it away, and he absorbs the rest of what Alex says in silence. "That was all I saw for a long time too," Nick says, of ghosts. "It's more common to see only them in the city. More people. The rest goes unnoticed, a bit. At least for a little while."
Nick watches as Alex passes his hand over the lighter, and now he finally does edge nearer. He crouches down outside the circle, close enough to speak comfortably. "I think the process of Seeking is a restructuring of the self," he says. "A kind of death and rebirth. It doesn't always have to be painful. At least, not in the same way."
AlexanderTheir kind could work miracles. They could create, build marvels to last generations. They could destroy, turning entire realms to nothing more than a memory. But, at the end of the day, they are very much mortal. It had taken a sword to take down a rampaging Adept not so long ago. It had taken a tranquiliser dart to make Alexander disappear. His pistol wasn’t a guarantee of safety, but it could at least make anyone trying to make him disappear again regret it. Or, possibly, not regret anything again.
But there had been no imminent threat from Alex. He isn’t so paranoid to push any Awakened that he doesn’t recognise away at gunpoint. Not when a certain Agent hadn’t even appeared to be Awake. There’s caution, definitely, but it’s something controlled.
For the moment, Alex’s attention seems to be on the small flame of the lighter and the swirling currents of warm air above it. It’s what attracts his gaze, rather than Nick, but the conversation continues.
“I know there’s more out there. There was a corrupt spirit turning people into plant zombie type things hanging around outside the city a couple of years ago. It’s gone now, although some of the wreckage is still around somewhere.” Skye, Claire… “I just hadn’t really gone looking, you know? Not on the other side, anyway.” There had been on particular spirit creature that Alexander had kept an eye out for, waiting to see if its angel wings would reappear in the park again.
“I’m still not sure I really get most of what happened in mine. But it got us talking, anyway. Me and my Avatar, I mean. It… She, I think? Showed me some things I didn’t know before.” There’s a ghost of a smile that passes over his lips, as he concentrates on the flame. He isn’t quite sure what to do next, here.
Nick HydeFor a moment Nick is quiet, watching Alex as he passes his palm over the flame, over the waves of heat that emanate from it even though they can't be seen by the common eye. "I think like a lot of things, what we see past the Veil is what we expect to see."
And to the rest, well. He does not show surprise, would not even if Alex happened to be looking up at him. The lives of Awakened people are dangerous, whether they live in Denver or somewhere else. He has settled back on his heels in a way that appears to be comfortable for him, and his eyes are a pale brown hardly darker than his skin and they are curious things: it's a little like being watched by some retreating forest creature.
About sensing the flame, he appears to have little to offer in the way of advice. It's one of the few ways of Seeing the world of which he is not aware, just yet.
"What did she show you? Tell me about it."
AlexanderAlex shifts, settling cross-legged by the unlit fire rather than crouching. This might take a while – the work and the conversation – so he may as well get comfortable. He does glance up from the flame, though, when Nick says that they shape what they see. “I don’t know I’d completely agree with that. Not everybody who goes there has any expectations. But I wouldn’t completely disagree either.”
What did she show you?
That gets a longer look, something more considering. “Why the interest in someone you’ve only just met?”
The look is a short one, though, as Alex returns his attention to the lighter. He looks from the flame to his other palm, finally diving in to try something.
[Arete, Forces 2 to pick the flame up from the lighter. Vulgar, I guess, do diff 6, -1 for going slow]
Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (2, 5) ( success x 1 )
Nick HydeWhat Alex says about the spirit world provokes a thoughtful noise from the other man. When he looks up Alex will find him looking off somewhere else, somewhere past Alex, casting his gaze like a line down the river. Look at him long enough, and his attention will shift to something else, some other nonspecific place.
Eventually, though, he does look back. "I've yet to find someone who didn't have any expectations about anything. I don't think any one of us comes to any sort of magick entirely as blank pages. The blankest are palimpsest." He finishes saying this, and then he shrugs, this slow drawn out motion.
His eyes stay fixed just long enough to hold steady under the weight of Alex's next question, and when it's voiced a corner of his mouth tugs upward. "Are you not interested in people you've only just met?" His voice is neutral, as much as such a question can be; Nick is well aware that other people are not very interesting to some people at all.
He's not one of those, clearly. "You don't have to answer me. Regardless, I'm glad it got you talking."
AlexanderThere’s no break in Alexander’s gaze on the flame as he tries to coax it into his palm. He isn’t sure if it’ll hurt, or if it’ll even work. But he still holds his will against the resistance of reality. “I was pulled across the umbra the day after I woke up. Maybe it was somebody else’s expectation shaping the place we ended up, but I didn’t have any expectations then. Hell, I didn’t even know where we’d ended up. And I’d been very much Asleep before.” There’s a grunt with a half-shrug, a simple acknowledgment of how life had been before.
There’s a brief glance, a flick of the eyes, as Alex holds his concentration on the flame. “I’ve not met that many of our kind, but things like What I Did On My Seeking doesn’t seem like the first round of small talk.” There’s a snort, something amused, as he considers a vaguely similar conversation with another Mage. Only their positions had been reversed, and Alex was being something less of a dick about it.
“Either way, I saw something of my past lives. I asked what I could be. She showed me what I had been.”
[Areteing some more, +1 diff – should get the flame this time unless it all goes horribly wrong]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 8) ( success x 1 )
Nick HydeNicholas is silent when Alex says this: that he was pulled across the Umbra when he Awoke. But Alex says this, and Nick places a palm flat on the ground to use it as a brace as he lowers himself so that he can sit there crosslegged on the ground. "I walked through a shallowing not long after my first Seeking. I doubt we saw the same things in the Umbra, though. From what I've read and heard tell it's different, for a lot of people."
He wasn't invited to sit, but he remains there nonetheless, and his senses are keen enough today (they are often keen) to get a sense of Alex's resonance and how it flows just now, unbound. "You brought it up, so I asked the question," he says simply, and draws a knee up to his chest, whereupon he loops an arm around it.
He does perhaps have the grace to look a little abashed, just now. Nick is aware that he asks a lot of questions, sometimes too many; it doesn't stop him, but there are often times that he is aware. He makes an interested noise when Alex mentions his past lives, a brief bright note. "So now you came all the way out here to learn how to shape fire?"
AlexanderNick sits, Alex doesn’t object. If he had truly wanted to be alone, he would have asked Nick to leave. The man had apparently been on his way somewhere, it would be no great ordeal for him to continue. The flame finally moves away from the top of the lighter and towards Alexander’s free hand.
“Probably not.” Again, there’s a flicker of a smile along with the agreement, although his gaze is fixed on the flame. “We found a cave with a centuries-dead Arch Mage.” The troubles that Apprentices get up to… “It wasn’t an expected thing, though. We were taken there.”
Another shrug, something absent-minded. Nick had brought up the Seeking, Alex had continued that line of conversation. It was a mutual thing, then, its continuation. “I had just assumed that this life was all that there was, before that. But maybe I was just shown the other lives that my Avatar had been attached to. It… didn’t feel like that, though. It felt like I was there.”
If it had been colder, there might have been a little sweat forming on Alex’s brow at the concentration he’s keeping on the flame. “It seemed safest. I didn’t really want to burn down my apartment block if it went wrong.” His hand stays still as he wills the little fire into the unlit wood. “Nothing quite like making things up as you go along. Just be glad I didn’t start out trying to direct lightning.”
[Arete again, as before. We light the fire?]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 9) ( success x 1 )
Nick HydeAlex's gaze is for the flame; Nick's is on the water nearby, whispering as it rushes past the two of them. "Taken there? By the arch mage?"
The other man brings up past lives, and here Nick's hesitation is perhaps a little telling, though it would be difficult to say of what. He remains something of an enigma to many of Denver's magi, even if they might not realize it until they think about it further, if they think about it further: and perhaps that's exactly the point. But finally he does say, "It was you. Maybe a different version of you, the same way the you-before-Seeking and who you are now are different, but you. It's unusual, being able to remember with that much clarity."
A beat. "I started remembering past lives like that when I was a kid. There's...there's a lot you can learn from it, if you try to."
The quip about directing lightening provokes another little smile from him. "Why not water, next? We are at a river."
AlexanderSlowly, finally, the small ball of flame shakily falls towards the waiting wood. It’s a slow thing, the catching, but it does catch. The fire will slowly build and consume the fuel there. Alex exhales deeply as the effort ends, a broad smile forming as his attempts finally succeed. He might try to build the fire faster, some time, but not right now. Baby steps, for the no-longer baby Mage.
“Huh? Oh. No. Well. That’s a complicated question. The Mage sent out a Sending to find help, but the poor thing got stuck in the storm. When it finally made it through, the guy was long dead. The Sending is still out there, though.” Now his head cocks to the side, a thought catching him. “You haven’t come across something called The Message, have you?” He isn’t really expecting Nick to have met the being, but the world can sometimes be a small place. And The Message had been keeping busy on the other side of the Umbra.
Nick is pretty much an unknown to Alex at this point, having only met him some minutes before. The pause may be noticed, but is there really anything to read into it when there’s only this fleeting contact to base anything on? The guy might just be collecting his thoughts. “I wouldn’t call it clear, and I think it was a difficult thing for it to do. But there were flashes. A circle of others I was leader of, talking about a Fallen. Another, where there was something important about the words. Other than that…” He flips the clover back on the lighter with an abrupt click. “It’s like trying to remember a dream in a dream.”
“Did you know about Magick when you remembered the old lives?” Time for the healer of minds to answer some questions.
Why not water, next? “I don’t know how to do water. Wrong kind of river.” That gets a lop-sided smile, at some private joke. “To be honest, this is the furthest I’ve gone with any of it. In the waking world, anyway. It was easier to change things when I was Seeking.”
Nick HydeHis interest appears earnest, here, as Alex offers more detail on the arch mage they discovered. "I haven't," he says, and of course: the world can be a large place too, particularly when one is factoring in other worlds, layer after layer of separate realities. "I've found plenty of spirits out here and in the city both, but nothing out of the ordinary. My wife, Pen - do you know her? - she mentioned that another Hermetic here saw some sort of messenger or presence recently, but I haven't seen it myself."
Which, come to think of it, he hasn't heard about since then either. He draws one of his legs up against his chest, wrapping his arm around it down near his ankle to affix it there. Maybe he is just collecting his thoughts; conversation with him has that sort of natural ebb and flow that way, where he pauses however briefly and becomes quiet. He has absorbed what Alex tells him about his past lives in much that way. "I didn't know anything about magick then," he says. "When I started having those memories I wasn't even sure of what they were, just that they were too vivid to be something I'd imagined."
There is a glance, then, from the river to the fire and back. "I hear from most people that magick is easier to do when you're Seeking, or when you're Awakening. I guess it's when you're communicating the most with your guide, so it makes sense, I suppose."
Alexander“Ah well, it was worth a try.” Alex shakes his head gently, when Nick asks if he’s met Pen. “I don’t think so. I don’t know the name, anyway. But then I’ve not been back in town that long. Chance hasn’t decided to throw me in anyone else’s direction just yet. That other Hermetic, it wasn’t Kalen was it? He was there, too. That was… a couple of years ago now? Or, most recently, I think last year. That’s a whole other story.”
Alex stands, tucking the lighter back into a pocket, before stepping over to the backpack. He pulls the bottle of water out, rocking it back and forth a couple of times before uncapping it and taking a drink. He steps back, offering the bottle to Nick when he does. “That must have been tough. Did you have any idea about any of this before you woke up?” Alex twists his free hand in the air, gesturing at nothing in particular.
“Is yours something of a guide then? Mine mostly hides.”
Nick Hyde"It was Kalen," Nick says, and when Alex extends the water bottle toward him he inclines his head in thanks and takes it, taking a swallow from it before offering it back. "It sounds as though a lot of you here have known each other for a while. I'm surprised it doesn't seem to be more politically enmeshed than it is." He does not sound displeased (hardly that); it's a simple statement.
He hasn't made to rise back up, though he does untangle his arm from around his shin, letting his leg extend half-bent in front of him. There is only a subtle arch to his brows as Alex says: it must've been tough. "I didn't know about any of it, no. I'm not even completely sure when I woke up. I was seeing things for a while before then. Spirits and my Avatar."
For many of them, it is big: terrifying, traumatizing, awe-inspiring, all of those things in one sometimes. For others it's a slow shedding of their sleeping lives.
The corner of his mouth pulls once more, almost involuntarily, when Alex asks him about his Avatar: caught out, almost. "I mostly call it that because it's what my sister called it when she told me what it was. She is kind of a guide...I just don't know what she's telling me half the time." A beat. "It would be difficult knowing how to move forward, if I didn't see mine. It was helpful, back when I was a Disparate."