Kindly stay the fuck down

Lavinia

[Performance at said dive bar.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 5 ) Re-rolls: 2

Lavinia

East Colfax is home to a number of things, like the world's slowest busses, the world's friendliest hookers, and the most crappy bars per capita in all of Colorado.

This bar had a name at one point, a name that was printed on the outside sign like it was a tavern and somewhere a little classier than where it was right now. The paint had since peeled off and the bar was only distinguished by the abundance of off-brand beer signs thrown up in the window. They had a little stage at the front of the bar by some window, so if you wanted to pass the bar while someone was playing you got a good look at the back half of whoever was singing.

In this instance, the back half that someone could stare at belonged to a tall blonde in a mini skirt. Well, it was probably just a regular skirt, but you see she was very tall. Everything was a miniskirt. That and she had a personal vendetta against pants. You couldn't be a woman over six feet tall and have an abundance of pants that fit properly. They were finishing up the set. Started off with some original stuff, a cover here and there was the obligatory Joan Jett and Cyndi Lauper the obligatory Amanda Fucking Palmer (because Lavinia liked Amanda Palmer, so people could shove it and let her play). It was a forty-five minute set, and it was the kind of set that didn't always come to a place like this. And when it did, it was the stuff of barfly legend?

Did you hear the time that Clear Hearts, Gray Flowers played?

"Thank you, good night!" was how it ended. the blonde took a step off the tiny stage, and got on to helping the band pack up.

Alexander

[Awareness?]

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

Alexander

There are times where you want to be someone where everyone knows your name. Where your feet don’t stick to the floor, where there isn’t a selection of hooker’s phone numbers written on the site of the bathroom stall walls, where the health inspectors see more than a hefty bribe to sign off another certificate.

Yeah, this isn’t one of those places. There’s a quietening of conversation when somebody new walks in, until they work out if it’s trouble arriving. Groups of people take care of business between themselves with little crossover between them. Some kind of unspoken truce keeps the peace – you stay on your side of the bar and we’ll stay on ours.

Somewhere along the side, tucked away in a booth, Alexander sits nursing a beer. He’d been here for long enough, been trouble-free for long enough, to fade into the background and be generally ignored. Which suits him fine. He’s not here for the drink or the company. Not even for the music, although that was an unexpected pleasure. He’s just here to watch the people. He doesn’t plan on walking the beat for his entire career, so doing a little… extra-curricular study seems like a good idea. If only to get a better idea about how things work – who works for who – in this part of the city.

The singer on stage seems familiar, and there’s a familiar sense of something more about her. From the park? The one who came across as an Awakened elementary school teacher? Small world. He doesn’t try to get her attention – they tend to attract each other without effort anyway – but he will raise the glass in greeting if she happens to make eye contact.

Otherwise he watches people.

Lavinia

[Do I notice people? Awareness]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )

Lavinia

She makes eye contact while she's getting off-stage. He doesn't have to try to get her attention because something feels cold and wintry and it feels familiar. She tried to place where she'd seen him before. Something about parks and oh, right, I thought you were dead. something pings at the back of her attention.

She's talkative enough. Makes conversation with the bartender easily, cuts through the crowd like she belongs here, even if she doesn't… quite belong here. Isn't afraid to throw an elbow to get where she needed to go. She ordered a Blue Moon, ended up with a PBR because it's a cheap beer people think is sophisticated. She drinks it without irony, mostly because she could get a few easily enough and not break the bank.

Lavinia was getting paid in beer for this gig (provided she didn't go over fifty bucks). She was going to try and get the most out of it. The lady swings by the booth, "hey, do you play pool?"

Alexander

He nurses the beer a little more, taking a couple of sips while Lavinia does her thing at the bar. He watches her, just as he watches the small group in the corner talking in hushed tones and try not to be too obvious when they glance at a couple of people in another booth. There might be trouble ahead, or there might not be. It’s too early to tell. But this looks like a bar where the furnishings are cheap and easily replaced if anything does happen.

Lavinia does walk over and she is watched. There’s a touch of caution in Alex – she’s still very much unknown to him. Who she is, what she is, what she wants. All mysteries. But there’s only really one way to work out those mysteries – get stuck in and start taking them apart.

Not literally. That would be messy.

“It’s been a while, but I have played. You think they have a full set of balls?”

Lavinia

[Number of rounds until a legit fight]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

She took a drink, and when she stood there she spend more time watching Alex's mouth than really listening to him. Perhaps it was the volume of the place, or perhaps it was something else. It didn't seem to be a flirtatious glance, but rather, one born of necessity. she doesn't invade his space, not unless she is invited and she seems pretty pleased to just stay where she was and not invite herself somewhere.

The bar is made up of circles of people. Some that seemed to overlap and some that did not. Things that mixed like oil and water, others that mix like water and magnesium. They didn't get to see those explosions, not yet. Not sure if they were going to see such a raucous interaction.

"Probably not," she tells him, tightens her stomach muscles so she can be heard over the general hum of people. She's got the voice of a herald, "but I figure we could omit the same number of balls so no one's at an advantage."

Alexander

Lavinia doesn’t flirt, but neither does he. Here, at least he isn’t trying to push her away before he can wind down and relax and try to work out what the hell has happened to his friend. Here, ignoring the exchange of a beautiful day in an open park for a complete dive with a slowly ratcheting level of tension between what might pass for its regulars, he’s more at ease. Wary still – still the unknown – but at least open and approachable without any fear of whether or not anyone will be reduced to a smear on the floor. By him, at least.

There’s smile – friendly if not wide – and a shrug. “Sure, why not.” He shuffles across the seat to where he can stand from the booth, leaving the now-warm beer behind. “I’d ask if you wanted a drink first, but I see you have your own.”

Lavinia

"You gotta take care of your needs," she said, "but if you want you can buy me the next one. I'll cover you, we can be egalitarian about our beer exchange."

She smiled, friendly but not flirtatious. The kind of friendly that was just born of finding a person interesting and enjoying the conversation. There wasn't a giant disaster brewing (though there was a raise in the sound of voices in another corner. Not raucous, not yet at least). She started to meander over to the pool table- the kind that was operated by putting in a hand full of quarters and hoping for the best.

"What should I call you?"

Alexander

“Sure, that works.” Alexander heads over to the bar for a minute or two, sorting out a new drink. It’s another beer he comes back with. Something bottled – who knows when the pipes in the pumps were last cleared out, and he didn’t fancy finding out what new and interesting stomach complaints could be picked up from them. He comes to the pool table with a bottle – no, the bottle’s find, don’t need a glass – and a stack of quarters from his change.

“I get called a lot of things, but Alexander is what I usually respond to.” Alex? Maybe later. For now, definitely Alexander. Sorry Grace, there are little things that he does get a bit strung up about. Alex from a stranger is just a little too familiar. “I’m sorry, but I think you told me your name in the park but I cannot remember what it was.” He wipes the rim of the bottle before taking a sip, not really bothered if the bartender is insulted or not. In a place like this, it’s probably expected.

“Come here often?” He smiles, a little more relaxed than before. There hasn’t been any disasters or potential ends of the world yet, but the night is young.

Lavinia

"Alexander," she repeats, as if to be sure that she heard him correctly. She'd turned wrong, lost sight of his mouth for a moment. They aren't familiar with one another, but she logs it away for future reference. this is Alexander. Alexander feels like winter, drinks from a bottle, and seemed pretty intent on keeping an eye on his surroundings. She could respect that. "And it's okay, things were kind of crazy… It's Lavinia."

Like the character from Titus Andronicus, but she hadn't lost her hands and nothing horrible seems to have happened as of yet.

He asks if she comes here often and she laughs- if that doesn't insult the bartender there isn't much that could ruffle the man. She shakes her head, "is it bad that the answer is yes?" she puts a hand up, sets her beer on the side of the pool table, "I'm in a band and we play here a lot. Mack sometimes wants to run on credit so I may or may not have been paid in PBR. What about you? What's your watering hole of choice?"

Alexander

“Yeah, it was…” he thinks for a few moments, searching for a good way to describe how things had been. Crazy certainly fit. “Awkward.” Awkward is multiple ways. Awkward because someone Alexander knew didn’t seem to be that man any more. Not on first impressions, anyway. But those impressions had been far enough from the normal to get him on edge. Awkward, because walking into what had the potential to turn into a fight between complete strangers isn’t the way to make a first impression.

Or maybe it is, depending on the impression you wanted to make. Who knew what Lavinia thought of him, apart from Lavinia. Although, given the invitation to play pool, it didn’t seem to be an impression that couldn’t be redeemed.

“Nice name. Old? Passed down through the family?” Naah, he really doesn’t get the reference to missing hands and classical literature. Not his thing? Possibly not. He feeds a few quarters into the table and pushes the lever, a loud clattering audible over the noise of conversation, jukebox music, clinking of glassware, and whatever other noises are filling the bar since the band finished their set. He puts them on the top of the table, checking if there’s enough.

“You played well. You could easily get work in better places than this.” He laughs behind the neck of his bottle. “I prefer places where you don’t have to queue behind the roaches to use the bathroom. But I’m pretty easy, really.”

Lavinia

"Nah, I hit a point awhile back that I could change my name and I figured I wasn't much of a Chelsea anymore. I was super weird about names for awhile," because that was totally normal, but she continues along before she has to answer too many questions as to whether or not she seemed like a chelsea and if he was allowed to call her Chelsea, names brought up a whole new can of worms that she wasn't quite ready to deal with now.

The tension somewhere is starting to grow, but it's slight, the kind of conflict that came when someone was having a heated discussion about bar trivia. It becomes pretty intense.

He says they're pretty good, says they played well even, "be careful, keep it up and you'll wake up my inner prima donna."

She laughed at the comment about the roaches. She's getting pool cues and once the balls are laid out on the table she passes a stick to Alexander. "Well, y'know, Mack hasn't had the cops called on the place for awhile so I guess it has that going or it."

Alexander

Alexander considers her for a moment, rolling the names around in his mind. Lavinia. He isn’t sure what form a Lavinia would take – she’s the first that he’s met, so there’s no real basis of comparison for whether she fits the mould or not. Chelsea, though? Definitely not a Chelsea. Chelsea would be hanging around with her girlfriends, somewhere with grass and a pool and, maybe, a butler. Who the hell has butlers these days. He shrugs, pulling himself back from his wool gathering.

“If she does wake up, she can pick out her own green M&Ms. I’m not doing it for her.” He can’t even remember which diva had picked up that reputation, but then it’s not really all that important. It’s just a throw-away comment.

Alexander looks over the bar, picking up on the rising tension. It’s nothing to worry about – not yet, at least – but it’s something to keep an eye on. Things can escalate quickly.

“Heads or tails?” He flips a coin to decide who goes first.

Lavinia

"Tails," she tells him. It's all she has to say. Or, rather, all she gets out before the corner erupts into a disaster.

There is a large man with barbed wire-style tattoos around both biceps and he stood up. He stood up and shoved a table out of the way. It's how these sorts of things start. These sorts of things start when someone throws a chair of flips a table and there is something like entropy, like fate, like a chain of events that starts these kinds of fights.

The table gets shoved, you see, and it gets shoved into a man who is standing and tall and thin and he turns around, barks something angry at the other man. He steps in and shoves the man with the large man throws a punch. Because someone always throw a punch, but he misses, throw his punch and it hits someone in a different group.

This is how these things start, like some terrible chain reaction. Where a chair gets thrown out of the way, near the pool table, and while Lavinia can't distinguish what's going on over in the corner she knows enough to duck.

Alexander

The coin spins in mid-air, reaching the peak of its journey as Lavinia makes her choice. Probability balanced on that moment – heads or tails. Only there was more hanging on the cusp of chance. Of fate? Maybe, if you believe in that kind of thing. Who knows what really led to the fight breaking out. A butterfly on the other side of the world seems a little implausible, but problems with money, drugs, family, the cops… Each piece plays a part and the point where all those seemingly insignificant actions and reactions come together? Start with a table getting shoved.

The coin begins its descent, but it’s already been forgotten about. Alex glances at the birth of the brawl and realises what’s coming. Leaving, right now, would be good. Only there wasn’t anywhere to leave through apart from the fight. It would be too much to hope that it doesn’t suck them in. These things are indiscriminate. Almost the embodiment of chance. The likelihood of a single bottle of beer remaining standing in the middle of it all? Probably higher than you’d think.

“This is bad.” He picks up a cue from the table, weighing it in his hand. It’ll have to do. “I think the number of days since the cops were last here’s about to get wiped.” He doesn’t know whether or not Lavinia is used to this kind of thing. If she hangs around this kind of place a lot, she might know how to swing a punch or a bottle. But maybe not. He takes a step to the side, placing himself between her and the oncoming brawl.

Lavinia

General Disarray: +5

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )

Lavinia

Captain Obvious: +5

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (6) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

Swing McCrappy Aim: +6

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( botch x 1 )

Lavinia

Lavinia: +5

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (5) ( fail )

Alexander

Alex init +6

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )

Lavinia

Swing McCrappy Aim: 6 +1= 7
General Disarray: 5 + 4= 9
Lavinia: 5 + 5 = 10
Alex(ander): 6 +4 = 10
Captain Obvious: 5 +6 = 11

Lavinia

There were things to be done here, you see. While other people were content to make things expand and some people with some sense left while others took it as an excuse to try and swipe a couple purses or maybe a drink off the table. People seemed content to run or cause problems or uses excuses.

The tall man, the one that is lean and thin and generally built fast turned out to be built drunker than fast and maybe Alexander looked like someone who who screwed his girlfriend once, or maybe he decided he'd rather have the guy's wallet, or maybe he's just wanting to expand into the fight. Whatever the case, he takes his time and throws a punch at the guy.
(action, punching Alexander- sorry bro)

The other guy, the one with the bicep tattoos, was more interested in his fight with the rather nondescript bald man who had a bit too many tattoos who looked like he had probably been to prison a couple times.
(Engage Captain Obvious)

Lavinia, for her part, groaned and looked up. It was as if she was waiting for the highest of heavens to give her an answer. For her part, though, she took the pool cue in hand and seemed more intent on making sure someone didn't hurt her current companion than anything else
(Action: smack at Swing McCrappy Aim with a pool cue)

Alexander

There’s a resigned sigh as it became obvious that they – or, at least he – was going to get dragged into it all. Alex spots the tall man coming towards him with a mission and swings out with the pool cue. [Action: Sweep at punchy man]

Lavinia

The other man, the one who seemed to be bald and probably fresh out of prison, was distracted when it came to dealing with other people.

Alexander

[Sweep: Dex+Melee +1 diff]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (3, 3, 6, 6, 8) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

[Do I fall over? Dex+athletics, diff 8]

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

Lavinia

(that's supposed to be 8, so 0 successes. Holmes is down)

Alexander

[So yep. Shame. Going with club for damage? Str+1]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

[Oww. Stamina]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Lavinia

Well, she was going to take a swing. The two men who were equally large and burly and generally imposing were content to fight with each other. They were content to try and pummel each other to bits, the barbed wire man holding the other man by the lapels. Perhaps he was going to throw him over a table, perhaps they were exchanging some very intense words, but it didn't matter.

One man lunged, was ready to take a punch at Alexander but, as it turns out, the man was fast. He was fast and he was sharp and the sweep came like a dream, perhaps not the cleanest execution, but it would appear that this didn't matter. Lavinia was almost ready to take a swing at the guy but then he was on the ground and she made a little eee noise and dropped her pool cue. Hands up, not aiming for someone who was flat on their back on the ground.

"C'mon, we should bounce," she tells Alexander. Best thing to do in a fight is to not be there, "is someone calling the cops?"

Alexander

Alexander finishes his spin – messy, but the guy had been half-drunk and not really paying attention. He was down, the punch evaded for now, but he wasn’t out.

“Lady, I am the cops.” And the fight, it seems, wasn’t over. Hopefully the bartender had the thought to call 911. Tempting as it was to let them fight out whatever anger and energy had kicked everything off in the first place, it didn’t guarantee that nobody else would get dragged in. Looks like the fight isn’t over yet.

Lavinia

The man on the floor was starting to stand up, feeling a little woozy, maybe a little drunk, but he wasn't done fighting, at least not yet. It was, of course, not the fastest of movements. More like he was trying to get himself back in the ring.

(action: stand up!)

---

The man with the barbed wire tattoos shoved the other man into the duo of reality breakers, he wasn't so much concerned about where he went. He wasn't so much concerned about anything, really, except that he got shoved in the general direction of someone who just said that he was a cop. With little fanfare, with gritted teeth and even eyes, he took a swing at the man. Muttered something about pigs under his breath

)action: Slug Alex)

-

Lavinia wasn't having much of that. The young woman wasn't a fan of getting Alexander into too much trouble, and being a cop in a crappy bar was occasionally a painted target so… she had to intercept.

[Actions:
1a: interpose between dude and Alexander
1b: knee the dude in the gut]

Alexander

Sometimes the smart thing is to know to keep your mouth shut. And maybe leave a bar fight while you still can.

It’s a shame that ‘smart’ isn’t something that Alex has been called an amazing amount during his life.

The cue is dropped so Alex can get up a little more close and personal with Barb Wire.

[Action: Tackle Barb]

Lavinia

Sometimes, you see an opportunity. Sometimes, you have to act on said opportunity when it presented itself and, for now, there happened to be a rather attractive woman in a mini skirt that was close. She wouldn't notice if he copped a feel right? Of course right.

[Bald Guy's action: be a perv.]

Alexander

[Tackle: Dex+Brawl+1 diff]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Lavinia

[Do I stay up?]

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (1, 5, 6, 9) ( success x 1 )

Alexander

[Alex stays up?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

Alexander

[Bashing damage: Str +1 + 3 from the attack roll]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )

Lavinia

[Oww!]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (5, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

[Action: 1a: No need to interpose

1b: Dex3+Brawl3=6-3=3. Boot to the head?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Lavinia

[And damage: Str3+2+1 (because kicking things is a Thing]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )

Lavinia

[Barby: SERIOUS. OW.]

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

Lavinia

{Barby is KOed!]

Lavinia

Now, things could have gone better. The lanky man is getting up, looking at the people who happened to be handling themselves pretty well in a fight, and trying to figure out whether or not this was something he wanted to deal with. The bald man, ever the opportunist, happened to time it out perfectly, got a hand halfway up the blonde woman's skirt while she was busy kicking the ever-loving-crap out of the man that Alexander had just tackled.

And he had most assuredly made contact. It was poetry in motion compared to what everyone else was doing. It was poetry in motion because he pounced, lunged like he was aware of his body and knew precisely how to move, what he needed to do, and Alexander? It was suddenly clear he was a force to be contended with.

Alexander

It probably wouldn’t have made much difference if the brawler had known exactlywhat they were getting themselves into. Enough alcohol and you become very short-sighted to the consequences of your actions. Hopping over the rail lines seems like a great short cut home, right until you’re sober in the ED with less of you that there was at the start of the night.

Alex’s admission that he was a cop gained the man with the barbed wire tattoo’s attention. It might have been better for him if he’d thought that would be a good reason to leave. But no – it was too good an opportunity to get a boot in to miss. His mistake. Alex tackles him and the pair of them spin, landing heavily on the bar which dazes the man with the tattoo. They stay standing, but not for long. Lavinia gets her boot in and… well, he’ll be waking up in a cell in the morning.

One down, two to go. Assuming they didn’t realise what had just happened to their ‘friend’ and decide that discretion was the better option.

Lavinia

The skinny guy had a moment to think, feeling particularly irate that Alexander had taken him to the ground so easily, and he reached on to grab a bottle. To arm himself in the event that he wanted to kick things up a notch. He reached for a bottle and hurled it at Alexander. He didn't have to get close now

[action: throw a bottle!]

Lavinia wasn't too happy about this. She could have cared less about a number of things but she spun around quickly, eyes narrowed, fists clenched, and she took a swing at the man who had the forethought to decide to put his hands on the woman. She clenched her jaw, didn't say a word, but most assuredly radiated the sort of wrath that one only felt in the old testament.

[action: punch Baldy]

Alexander

“Oh, fine!” So the skinny guy didn’t have the brains his pet dog was born with. Or maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time. Either way, he wasn’t backing down. Well, neither was Alex.

[Split action:
Sweep skinny
Kick skinny]

Lavinia

Bless Baldy, he didn't much care for a lady coming at him with the intention of decking him. And sure, he might have gotten a hand full of something pleasant but he also wasn't above backhanding a woman if she got too uppity.

[Action: Backhanding Lavinia]

Lavinia

[Smack: Dex+brawl]

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

Lavinia

{oww, jesus.]

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

Lavinia

[WTF OWWW: Lavinia soak[

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

Alexander

[Sweeping skinny: Dex+Brawl-2, +1 diff]

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 4, 8) ( success x 1 )

Alexander

[Damage?]

Dice: 2 d10 TN7 (1, 3) ( botch x 1 )

Alexander

[Erk, misclick. ]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

Lavinia

[Do I stay up?]

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (5, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Lavinia

[Soak?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 8) ( success x 1 )

Alexander

[Kick! Dex+Brawl -3, +1 diff]

Dice: 3 d10 TN7 (3, 3, 4) ( fail )

Lavinia

[Lavinia: Dude. That hurt. -1 (OWW)]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 9, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Lavinia

[Damage]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 4, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Lavinia

[Soak?]

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

Lavinia

[Dex+athletics: Throwing (Skinny)]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 7 ) Re-rolls: 3

Lavinia

[What the actual fuck. Damage?]

Dice: 9 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )

Alexander

[Oh god, please soak!!]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 7, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Lavinia

This didn't go particularly well.

The man on the ground was most assuredly knocked out. And the bald man knew what it was that he was doing, he knew that something was coming so he took his time to beat the blonde woman to the punch (no pun intended.) He reared back, hit her hard across the face and enough that it made Lavinia's world spin, left her sporting a bloody lip. She looked to the side and spit, tasting copper and iron on her tongue. Alexander was having none of the skinny man, huffing and only moving in defense, taking his feet out from underneath him, or at least trying. Moving enough that he left the man staggering.

He staggered back to a table, hand resting on an unopened can of beer. Lavinia turned to throw a punch, retaliatory and fueled by venom and she hit him. She leaned in and she made contact with the man's jaw and… all he did was stare at her. He cocked his head to the side, neck popping and jaw clenched. Lavinia heaved a sigh, eyes wide and surprise on her features.

"Oh fuck, really?" she said to no one in particular.

The can of beer went flying, nailed Alexander hard at the place where his neck and head met his shoulders and it could have been bad. It was a shot that was aimed true and it may have left Alexander's ears ringing, but it could have been so much worse.

Alexander

No, there had definitely been better days. He might have gotten a little over-confident after the guy with the barbed wire tattoo was knocked out cold. He might have expected this skinny guy to go down as easily. But no, it’s not easy. Alex tries to knock his legs out from under him again, but it just isn’t happening. The man’s staggering took him away from Alex’s attempt to kick out at him, to keep him down. But it just wasn’t happening.

The can hurt, but it really could have been so much worse. Oh, he felt it now and he’d feel it more later. But it wasn’t anything that wouldn’t get better with a little time.

He looks over to Lavinia, checking how she was faring. She was still upright, but spitting blood and she’d have some impressive bruising of her own in the morning.

It wasn’t over, though. Not yet. Alex and Lavinia weren’t going to be allowed to walk out, so there’s really only one way: through.

Alexander

Recap, I think:

Lavinia: 3B

Skinny: 1B

Alex: 2B

Perve: unhurt]

Lavinia

The scrawny guy seemed to think he had a good thing going on there, and he went to look for another weapon of some kind. Finding no nearby cans, he lunged back into the fray, thinking himself capable of taking out a guy who probably had sixty pounds on him. He headed in, feeling like a king, and he took a swing at Alexander.

(Action: Punching out cop friend)

--

Lavinia was not pleased. Her natural inclination was to have things escalate but she wasn't there yet. She didn't think anything bad on these unfortunate souls, but she's been in this situation before and she knows damn good and well that she's either leaving through the front door or she's leaving on a gurney and she prefers the former. The woman threw a elbow into the man's ribs, throwing whatever lack of bodyweight she had into it

(Action: elbow Baldy!]

Alexander

Lavinia seemed to be handling herself well, even with the sucker punch she’d just taken. Alex contemplated helping, but that would leave the skinny little bastard to do whatever he wanted. And having both of them against either him or Lavinia? Not great. So he keeps it simple this time and just hits the man.

[Splitting:
Punch!
Punch!]

Lavinia

Well, you know, there was something to be said about being able to fight with a woman while continuing to be a reprehensible human being, and she'd yet to actually do any real damage to him, so... why not enjoy one's self. He leans in, plants a kiss on a woman who is probably more likely to actually bite him than reciprocate.

1a: continue being a perv

1b: possibly rip out a chunk of hair

Lavinia

[1b: Pulling hair- calling it a brawl thing, -3]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )

Lavinia

[And damage?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Lavinia

[Lavinia: God. Damn. It. OW]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Alexander

[Punch the first: Dex+Brawl, -2, -1 for wounds. WP, because this is getting personal?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 8) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Alexander

[Damage str +2]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Lavinia

[Oww? Soak]

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

Alexander

[Punch the second: as before, -1, WP again]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Alexander

[Damage str+1]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 5) ( fail )

Lavinia

[Lavinia: Elbow? -2 because OWW]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (9, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 5 ) [WP]

Lavinia

[Ha. Damage]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 3, 6, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 4 )

Lavinia

[Soak?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5) ( botch x 1 )

Lavinia

[Skinny- OMG I'm going to punch a cop]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 5, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Lavinia

[Damage?]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )

Alexander

[Soak]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (6, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 4 )

Lavinia

It was a rallying moment. A moment of a great resounding I will not. The bald man pulled in, shoved his hand into Lavinia's hair, took liberties that he should not have been allowed and when he pulled back, he yanked out a fairly decent chunk of golden halo waves. She didn't make a sound, except for a low and simmering growl. Alexander, for his part, had enough of this. Threw blow after blow and the scrawny little man seemed to feel pretty damn good about himself. Their opponents cocky and pleased-

Which was about when Lavinia, having none of the bald man's advances, threw an elbow to his ribs hard enough that she could feel something crack. She grit her teeth, buckled down, didn't say a word.

The scrawny little man tried to throw a punch at Alexander, and while the bald man was reeling the thin man realized that he was probably not in the best condition since Alexander hadn't gone down yet.

Alexander

Alexander and the skinny guy keep exchanging blows, but they seem to be pretty evenly matched. They connect, but it’s just glancing blow after glancing blow – neither getting much advantage over the other. Something’s got to give eventually, though.

He glances back again, seeing Lavinia’s assailant stagger away clutching his chest. Seems she’s having better luck than he is. But it still isn’t over.

Although it’s looking more and more as if Lavinia will be the one coming to the rescue.

Alexander

[Aaand... Lavinia and Perve are both on 4B, Perve is dazed. Alex 2B, Skinny 1B]

Lavinia

The skinny man reached for a nearby bottle, half empty, and he made a run for Alex. He made a swing for the man with a bottle in hand, the violence escalating quickly and the man wanted to end it promptly.

(action: take a swing at Alexander with a bottle)

---

Lavinia wasn't having much of the staggering man, she turned around and took a quick survey of what was going on and she picked up a chair. Yes, a chair. It wasn't terribly difficult to do, and she took a swing at the retreating man. Well, he might not have been retreating, but she wasn't going to take any chances.

(action: smack a dude with a chair)

----

The bald man was just a tad too out of it to notice that a blonde celestine was about to smack him with a hair. He's seen enough pro wrestling to know how this works.

Alexander

At the end of the day, Alex isn’t proud. He’s worked with enough women to know that they are just as capable of kicking the stuffing out of someone as anyone else. So? He’ll give her that opportunity, if he can.

[Action: Hold skinny]

Alexander

[Str+Brawl, -1 for hurts, +1 diff]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 4, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

Alexander

[No damage, but he's got hold]

Lavinia

[Nyehhhh! Skinny's attempt to get free]

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

Lavinia

[1b: hitting a dude with a chair. Dex3+melee3= 6 -3 (split) - 2 (oww)]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Lavinia

[Str3+1 (succ) +2 (because it's a chair)

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 3 )

Alexander

[Keeping hold? Str+Brawl -1 for hurts]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (5, 6, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Lavinia

Soak?

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

Lavinia

Skinny: already rolled for the contest aaaaand failed because Alexander is a beast

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

Lavinia

The fight could have gone a lot differently. The blonde woman picked up a chair and, in spectacularly dramatic fashion, took a swing at the man who had decided that he had the right to get a little too familiar with the daughter of the Western Wind. She dropped the chair, looking at the plastic bits as if she had expected it to crack. The scrawny man reared back and seemed ready to throw something at Alexander again, but he was soon enough intercepted by Alexander. Who was fast and strong and generally not terribly injured enough to feel like he couldn't do much. He knew what he was doing, and it would seem that people were going to walk away from this without needing sittches.

The blonde woman looked at the bald man, pushing her skirt down into a position she liked a little better.

"Kindly stay the fuck down," she told him.

Lavinia

(fit it!)

Alexander

At least nobody had thought to bring a knife along to the fight, or things really could have turned out worse. Or a gun. Or maybe had their friends think that it would be a good idea to join in too. But with one man out for the count, another just about managing to moan gently on the floor, and the third one held down with a really quite painful arm lock, it would seem to be over for the moment. The other people who had been in the bar earlier had either left at the first signs of trouble, or simply contented themselves with staying out of the way and seeing what happened. The band earlier had been good and all, but this was real entertainment.

Somewhere in the distance, there’s the sound of police sirens. The patrols around here aren’t as numerous as they should be, and those that there are tend to be occupied. But there are only limited resources, and the wealthier citizens in the nicer areas of town tend to complain a lot more loudly when there’s trouble. They have the governor’s number, and don’t you know who I am. Still, at least they’re coming.

So Alexander is content to stay put, with the skinny man’s arm held in a slightly unnatural angle and his knee in the man’s back until more official backup arrives. He does look up at Lavinia, though. “You ok?”

Lavinia

She ran her tongue across her teeth, trying to figure out precisely where the blood was coming from. She rubbed her jaw, aware that she was going to have a bruise the size of Texas along her cheekbone. The woman took a few steps closer to Alexander, not quite walking into flailing or kicking range, but it would seem that the skinny guy that happened to be apprehended wasn't having much of a good time breaking away or tempting fate or whatever it was that people did when they were in right and proper trouble.

"I'm not missing any teeth, am I?" she looked around, "like, nothing got knocked out and I just didn't notice?"

A beat.

"Can I get you a piece of pie or something later?"

Alexander

“Not that I can see. You might need a hat for a while to avoid awkward questions, though.” Even after the fight, he still has a little of the usual sense of humour showing. Maybe it’s just a way of letting some of the tension out, now that it looks like they won’t be waking up or being found in a dumpster somewhere even less pleasant.

“Don’t you know the stereotype that we run on donuts and coffee? There’s a place down the road that does decent pie and rubbish coffee, though. Once we’re done here.” Alexander checks the man he’s kneeling on shifting position just a little when it’s not entirely obvious whether or not he’s breathing. Ahh, there we go!

Lavinia

She does laugh, though. Her face lights up, but she doesn't laugh or long, because it makes her cheek hurt. But she does let out something a little smaller and possibly a tad more demure on account of still being amused but her face hurting like a sonofabitch.

"Is there anywhere that does good donuts here? Because if your cop sense knows where to find good donuts, I'm signing up for the force tomorrow," she said with a shrug. Sirens were coming, maybe a few more minutes. People doing anything too terribly illegal were heading off lest someone find them doing whatever it was they did.

I think there's been a misunderstanding here

Alexander

[Before we start writing, Arete. Sensing stuff so TN4, -1 for taking time, aiming for 2 successes]

Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (5) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Alexander

[And Int+Med?]

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

Alexander

They say that the city boasts 300 days of sun a year. Many of those days may include sun at some point, but the climate has a tendency to the wildly variable. Today? Today is not one of those days. Today has been peaceful and calm. There hasn’t been much more than a breeze to slowly push what cloud there is over the city. Maybe, to those who pay attention to such things, the hovering calm had muted the wailing horns and sirens of traffic forcing its way along crowded roads.

So the sky is mostly blue, with a few high, wispy clouds overhead. And here, in the park, the grass is green and flourishing in the warmth of the sun. The water of the lake laps gently at its shore nearby. There’s the sound of activity carrying on the air from the sports pitched not so far away and an occasional, rhythmic pounding marks a jogger running through their laps.

And Alexander? Alexander is lying on that grass, by that lake, with eyes closed and breathing slow. He almost seems immobile – frozen – until you watch him long enough to see his chest rise and fall. Next to him is a small rucksack, a discarded tshirt, and a bottle of water. Boots and socks are paired up, sitting by the rucksack. He could be asleep? Only he isn’t, quite. It started out with wanting to feel the flow of the breeze around and over him, so that’s what he pushed his will against reality to do. Then the mix of the warmth, the calmness, and the hypnotic beauty of sensing the currents of air... It’s easy to wait for thought to slow and stop and freeze in its tracks and simply be.

Lavinia

It's a beautiful eighty-one degrees fahrenheit today, and she is out running. She has a pretty easy schedule, one that doesn't demand that she actually be doing much any given day. Lavinia was running, because running felt fantastic, because the air felt fantastic, and most importantly she had recently acquired tennis shoes and she needed to actually wear them in. She now had four pairs of shoes. It was starting to get to the point of ridiculous, she had decided. Since coming to Denver she has all but doubled the number of shoes she owned after coming to Denver.

The sky was blue, with some wispy clouds overhead. She had her hair pulled back in a high ponytail, curls bouncing when she moved, choice in clothing made it abundantly clear that Lavinia Cervantes had legs that went on forever and, whilst running, she was content to just be in the zone. That is, of course, until she saw a person. It's telling that the things that come to the tall blonde's mind when she saw a person laying in the grass that she wasn't entirely certain if they were alive or not. She missed a lot of the big cues, like the sound of someone breathing and it was just a little bright for her to possibly catch the rhythmic rise and fall of someone's chest.

Now, there were things that crossed her mind- if she was wrong and this wasn't a dead body, it was for the best that she not disturb said person because saying sorry, I thought you were a recently made corpse doesn't seem to set well with most people. If she woke the person up, they wouldn't be so forgiving.

So, Lavinia started her approach. Slow and steady and cautious. There is a feeling that comes with her, and it is that feeling that signals her arrival more than anything. It is that feeling of something beyond walls, beyond definitions, something that would be and always had been. Something that was larger than the mortal frame carrying it. So, there she was, approaching Alexander to make certain he wasn't a dead body. Because that's a normal concern. Totally.

Kalen

[How distracted by Resonance are we today?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 7, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 6 )

Kalen

Kalen adores Washington Park. It has been some time since he's seen one of the friends he met there, because, at this point he considers a spirit a friend without so much as the batting of an eyelash. He senses, for the first time in a long time, something angelic in the park. He remembers Lavinia, mostly from the art gallery.

He has a green tea smoothie, because he has just discovered the glory of green tea smoothies. Through perhaps slightly distressing circumstances, but it is hardly as though his tongue did not heal.

Healing, after all, is what they do. Sometimes more quickly than others, perhaps. But. As a rule.

He approaches Lavinia and Alexander, though, really, more Alexander. Lavinia may feel like an angel, but she is hardly the first being Kalen met who has had that kind of resonance. Certainly not the first with whom he has associated divinity. Alexander gets the most of his focus for now.

Alexander

[Int+Med still?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 8) ( success x 1 )

Alexander

He can feel it. Oh, he can feel the way the breeze drifts over his body. But he can really feel it. The way that the warmth of the sun heats the ground, creating tiny thermals as the air warms and rises. The way that the air sinks as it passes over the lake. The occasional eddy as some nearby object or other blocks and redirects the flow. The swirling currents as he inhales and exhales.

Something tugs at the edge of his awareness – or maybe his Awareness – but it’s something subtle and far distant for now. Unimportant for the moment, really. Whatever happens, happens. Much like the hopelessness of trying to stop the wind in its tracks, or the flow of water downhill; It can be done, but at the moment it’s far too much effort to try.

There’s a slightly quickening of his breathing, but otherwise Alexander lies still on the grass and lets the flow of air and time and the universe wash over him.

In another world, maybe someone could make an Ecstatic out of him in the end.

Lavinia

She finally got close enough to recognize that the person in the grass wasn't probably in need of medical attention, but rather, said person in said grass was probably having a good moment just communing with nature and, therefore, should probably be left alone, but then there's movement and then there's people and she suddenly becomes aware of the fact that, oh, shit, I'm not alone and this is now awkward. She clears her throat, carefully starts to steer herself along her way. Wiggles her fingers and gives a little half audible "Hi," to whichever of the people- either Kalen (whose name she vaguely remembered) or Alexander (whose name she had no idea of, but she had been making sure he wasn't dead because nobody can be that sort of serene without pushing up daisies).

Abort mission, abort mission!

Serafíne

(Awareness.)

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 4, 4, 5, 5, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 5 ) Re-rolls: 1

Kalen

Kalen gives Lavinia a little nod. "Hey," he says quietly. And then he drops onto the blanket to sprawl beside Alexander, not touching him him but not far from it. It is, in some ways, a thing might more expect from a cat, the intent watching and the silence and the being only inches away.

No. We lie.

It is not quite like a cat. Because Kalen is not impatiently pawing at Alexander and meowing insistently for attention. At least not yet.

Alexander

[Awareness]

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

Alexander

[Dex+Ath]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (5, 6, 6, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 5 )

Serafíne

"This is fucking good enough - " Rick is grumbling, though his grumble has a fond edge to it that excises the immediate meaning from the words and changes them incrementally into something ever-so-slightly else. He and Dan and Dee have the heaviest loads, Sera the lightest. A picnic blanket slung over one arm and a kale-pineapple smoothie in the other hand. The quartet tramp through the park to a small knoll with a view of the water and the soon-to-be setting sun: picnic basket and reuseable grocery bags and a pair of guitars and a giant tub of CheezBallz (TM) and there is other conversation, backwards and forwards and forwards and backwards, which we will not take long to relate as it is offscreen for most of the principals tonight. Low and laughing, familiar, sure.

They are an attractive quartet: Dee is a tall girl with deep dark hair and skin so fine and pale and clarified that strangers call it creamy. Summertime, in a mile-high city, she must be well-committed to sunscreen to keep it that way. Dee is wearing a knee-length, flouncy skirt in a fine dark navy with two rows of white brick-brack trimming the bottom hem. Dark hair piled and perfectly pin-curled atop her head. Rick and Dan have the requisite hipster-garb: skinny eans and band t-shirts, beards in varying lengths (short, dark - Rick; longer, blond - Dan) and Vans or in Dan's case schlubby Birkenstocks he picked up at Buffalo Exchange. Dan (or someone) has painted his toenails a lovely metallic teal.

When they arrive at the picnic site, he offloads his guitar case and leans it against a convenient tree, sets down: cooler and reuseable shopping bag and gives Sera a hand unfurling the picnic blanket.

Alexander

That something at the edge of being noticed, it turns out that there is more than one something. Sleepers had passed by completely unnoticed, lost as he was in... not exactly pulling the world apart and putting it back together, but figuring out how it lies. Where the edges are, the strong points and the weak ones. Maybe – with luck – where he might be able to push a little harder in the future to do more than simply sense. To change.

His breathing speeds a little more, not far from normal, when Lavinia approaches. She had been slow and unthreatening, her distance kept as she closed and watched for signs of life. Had that been the only presence, Alexander’s return to wakefulness and alertness might have been rather more gentle.

The second presence, though. The one that gets closer and closer and drops down and almost touches. Now that is rather more threatening. The resonance is new and unfamiliar and... powerful? A danger. A threat. It takes a little while for conscious thought to fire up, for the image of Kalen to register and be recognised. But even then, this doesn’t feel like Kalen. This isn’t the approaching storm. This is something else.

As the presence gets closer and lowers to the ground, Alexander rolls and kicks up. Instinct pushes his up and away from the newcomers, turning to face the threat. His breathing, calm and peaceful just a few moments before, is now faster and deeper. His bare feet dig into the soft, grassy ground. He’s up and ready to fight, turned a little and arms up ready to fend off what might physically come.

His gaze switches between Kalen and Lavinia. “Who the fuck are you?”

Kalen

Kalen tilts his head, then realizes what the fuck that is about.

"Mmmmmmmm...Grace said she thought I might be a clone. I'm relatively certain that is not true." There is a hint of a smile. "I suppose I should just be glad you didn't throw me onto the ground this time, Alce."

And he waits. Patient. Calm. If anything seems off other than the Resonance it's that calm. The lack of shadows under his eyes. Peace and Kalen were not so much things that got on.

Lavinia

She doesn't jump.

Things change very quickly and she doesn't take a step back, doesn't hesitate, doesn't seem like she is making a reach for anything because where the Hell would she keep it? She's not got a lot in the way of fabric on her personage. If she managed to hide a lethal weapon on her then she has very much created a pocket that exists outside of space and time and the last thing one has to worry about is the fact that she might be carrying a knife and more about the fact that she made a bag of fucking holding. There was no bag of holding, therefore, nothing to fear. We digress.

She takes in the tension, takes in the way that Alex rolls up, practiced and comfortable and ready for something Very Bad to happen and she puts her hands up, just enough to not be a threat. Just enough to indicate that she isn't going to snap and that this? This isn't a dangerous situation.

"Hey," she says, "just passing through, I'm Lavinia-" she then looks between the two males, "-I think there's been a misunderstanding here, let's just breathe and talk it out… okay?"

She wasn't going to walk away now, she was pretty sure that this guy could render the dude she met at the art gallery (Kalen, right? He looked like a Kalen) into a fine powder and she couldn't exactly walk away and let that happen, right? Of course right. Though she does try very hard not to wince when Kalen says something about maybe being a clone but probably not.

Serafíne

The blanket is old and worn, and plaid of course, fringed at the edges with a few strands of dried grass stuck in the nap of the flannel from the last time it was dragged outdoors for this particular purpose. Dan and Sera open it up until it covers an area of grass nearly as large as a queen-sized bed. Dan slips off his sandals to step onto the blanket and trample it down. Dee follows suit while Rick anchors one end of the blanket with the cooler and starts digging around for the bottle of Malbec and stemless red-wine glasses they brought with them for the party.

Sera is still at the edge: alert, aware, a vision in a little white sundress so fine as to be translucent, worn over crisp black lingerie. It is harder for her to slip off her combat boots, so Dee wades over to give her a hand. Takes the smoothie in her right and holds up her left while Sera balances and tries to make the laces come up almost by magic or - you know - fingertips. Some combination of the two.

Alexander

It’s not the first time that one of the Awakened in the city has surprised Alex. It’s not even the first time that Kalen has managed to do it, not so far and not so long ago from the here and now. At least this time hasn’t – yet – ended up with bruising, or worse.

Alexander takes a longer look at Lavinia when she tries to reassure him that she isn’t a threat. His gaze lingers for a moment longer before it returns to Kalen and stays there. She’s still in his peripheral vision – he’s not ignoring her – but she’s not seen at the threat right now.

Kalen – or the man who looks like Kalen, sounds like Kalen, but just feels so damned wrong for Kalen – is the one getting his the focus of his attention. He’s the unknown. Given the strange stuff that he’d seen, and the even stranger things he’d heard about, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that someone could look and sound like another person. He’d felt the change in Grace recently as she had ‘upgraded’, but that was a broadening and deepening of what was already there. This? This is different.

“No way are you Kalen. You might look and sound like him, but there’s no fucking way. So who. The fuck. Are you?”

Kalen

Kalen rolls his eyes. "Exactly who are are so very sure I am not. Which is an interesting enough situation, I admit."

He pulls out his phone and taps on a few keys. Then a few more.

"Check your messages sometime," he says, rising to his feet. "Get back to me. I'll be at home. Call and warn Grace if you must."

Lavinia

(skip me, please!)

Serafíne

(also no reason to wait for me since: my screen froze and I had no idea anyone had posted. and am not really interacting with folks!)

Alexander

Alexander’s eyes narrow a little,watchful and wary as “Kalen” stands and offers his words. There’s no attempt at explanation, but then standing in the middle of a wide-open public space possibly isn’t the best of places to discuss things that a certain group of well-dressed individuals with their towncars and mirrored glasses would just love to know about.

There are times when he wonders if he’s a little too paranoid about thing. And then there are times when he thinks he’s not paranoid enough. Having his friend possibly snagged by some kind of... B-movie baddie and cloned, or whatever? Or maybe this was a spiritual thing – it wouldn’t be the first time, and wouldn’t be the last time, that something from the other side of the Umbra had interfered with things in this world.

He pauses before replying, watching. This is going to be hard, but it’s worth a shot...

[Arete, sensing spirits. Base TN4, +3 for no focus, -1 for practiced. So very much spending the WP.]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Lavinia

[Do I notice this? Per+aware]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Kalen

Kalen sighs. "Really. I commend your vigilance." Even if it doesn't exactly please him right this moment.

But then he turns to leave. He does not run. He does not seem terribly concerned Alexander will shoot him while he isn't looking. He heads away with the same easy pace he approached with. There are conversations that could be had and there are things he might try to say, but here, with an audience...no.

Serafíne

(going to go, actually. night folks!)

Lavinia

She looks confused. She looks unabashedly confused, actually. She hadn't ever really interacted with Kalen, save for the moment that they had exchanged numbers. Truth be told she mostly remembered hearing a circle jerk joke from a guy who was a foot shorter than she was and laughing hard enough that her ribs hurt. She looked back at Alex, hands still up, and she knows she should keep her mouth shut, but she blurts it out anyway.

"If you know how to look a little closer at people, like, the metal they're mode of, you might have a little more luck assuaging your concerns?"

No, this is not a teachable moment, Lavinia. Walk away.

Alexander

Alex watches Kalen turn and leave, forcing – really forcing this time – his will against the universe. It’s only that force of will that gives him the fleeting sense of the spirits. There’s the sense of crying coming from the lake, but that’s ignored. Kalen is the focus – his focus – and... It doesn’t feel like he’s been infested with a spirit. Not unless it’s very different to that man in the broken window, or the other in the forest or...

There’s a sighing growl deep in his throat as he watches and waits until the figure disappears, frustration at – once again – not knowing what the hell is going on. The tension drops a notch or two, the arms come down and he doesn’t seem quite so ready to leap into a fight. But he’s hardly what anyone would call relaxed now. In other, better circumstances he might be more approachable, more amenable to meeting up with another Awakened. These aren’t exactly better circumstances, though.

So he looks at Lavinia, considering her for some moments, considering his words. “You have no idea what just happened, do you. That isn’t the man he appears to be. I don’t know who or what he is, but that is not the Kalen I know.”

He stands, watchful. He doesn’t close, doesn’t offer a hand in greeting. Doesn’t even offer his name, although more from having other concerns .

Kalen

[Thank you for scenes!]

Lavinia

She doesn't come any closer, but she is watching him. The way that she's watching him has shifted. There is a tension in her shoulders, a readiness in her core, a balance in the way that she carries her weight. She's looking at Alex, ready and waiting, like she needs to know whether she needs to defend herself. She looks at him like she's sizing him up, that if push came to shove- could she take him?

Lavinia isn't sure. That seems to account for the tension.

"I don't have a standing relationship with… Kalen?" she asks herself more than anyone else, "Kalen. So I don't have a basis for comparison. He doesn't exhibit any of the things that I would look for when trying to determine whether or not someone is possessed or no longer in control of their faculties, though. But, again, I don't have a basis for comparison."

She doesn't ask his name, but she does continue with caution, "do you need some kind of assistance? Are you doing this on your own?"

A beat.

"I'm being really pushy, I'm sorry. you just seem really spooked and I need to know whether or not this is something I need to be concerned about."

Alexander

“I do. That doesn’t feel like Kalen, his resonance isn’t right and he’s too different. He’s just...” he shrugs, “wrong. Right now, I don’t trust him.” A phrase that won’t mean a lot to someone who doesn’t know him, but might give a clue about how wrong he really did feel.

He still isn’t relaxing, but the tension seems to be more down to the strange situation and that he doesn’t know Lavinia than any kind of hostility or expectation that there will be the need to fight. He takes a deep breath, trying to force his shoulders down to their usual position and to work the nerves from facing something unknown out of his body.

His head cocks to the side, a puzzled expression passing over his face as she asks if he needs help. “Do I look like I need assistance? And if I do, wouldn’t you expect me to ask the people I know for it?” He’s just not giving right now. But then he has just found that his friend might have been the victim of... something.

“I’m fine.” Liar. “But I think you should get back to your run, and be very careful if you meet him again.” Again, he stands and watches and waits. He isn’t threatening, but he’s not backing down and not relaxing any further. Not, at least, while Lavinia is here.

Alexander

[Man+Sub - Totes ok!]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 10) ( success x 1 )

Lavinia

[Are you really okay?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 3 )

Alexander

[Alex is shaken and he's trying not to show it, especially to a stranger. Her being a complete unknown isn't helping. He just doesn't want her here right now.]

Lavinia

"You do look like you need assistance," she tells him, nods like this is a matter of fact, "but you don't look like someone who is stupid, so… yeah, I don't know what I was-" she stumbles with that, shrugs because she doesn't quite know what to say, "anyway, didn't think you'd take it because that would be dumb. Anyway."

She takes a step back, reaches up to retighten her ponytail, which didn't really need it but we digress.

"Just… take care of yourself, okay?" She takes another step back, turns, and the tall blonde turns to get back on the road. And, with little ado, she turned slowly to go back on her run.

Alexander

As with Kalen turning to leave, Alex stays quiet and watches. There isn’t really anything he feels the need to add. She’s turning to leave and, at the moment, that’s really all he wants. Another time, another place, another disaster and he might have been amused at her awkwardness, thanked her for her concern. But this isn’t any of those things and he just stands and watches as she retreats.

Only then does he take a deep, sighing breath and really, physically, relax. He steps into his boots, scooping the bottle and other pieces of clothing into the pack before that gets slung over a shoulder. He makes his way out of the park, in a different direction that the others had taken.

If the elephant could talk

Alexander

[Arete, sensing time. Diff 4, -1 for taking time. Aiming for 2 succs to last the scene.]

Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (4) ( success x 1 )

Kalen Holliday

[How awake are we?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (1, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7) ( success x 1 )

Alexander

[Extending]

Dice: 1 d10 TN4 (7) ( success x 1 )

Kalen Holliday

[And how distracted by Resonance are we?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 6, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Alexander

As winter passes into spring, so day turns into night. The sun has long set below the horizon and the stars above the city are visible in the clear sky. Points of brightness shine against the black, like metaphors for… well, there have been countless times in history that a few points of light stand against the darkness. The sky isn’t as studded as it would be further away from the city, light pollution drowns out the weaker points in the sky. But there’s still plenty to see.

The park is pretty quiet this late. An occasional person walks through on their way home, or out clubbing, or just for the pleasure of walking on a clear night. Somewhere near the shore of the lake, a thick blanket has been laid out and is currently occupied by Alexander. He’s on his back, staring up at the sky. One arm lies across his chest, the other is bent and used to prop up his head. His senses have been extended, reaching out to feel time as it flows by. The constant tick of minutes and seconds make their presence known as he just lies there feeling it flow.

A large rucksack also sits on the blanket, most of its contents already removed. A flask of soup lies nearby, the cup long unscrewed, filled and finished. A half-filled (half-empty?) bottle of water sits next to it, discarded.

Kalen Holliday

Kalen drifts through the park, sipping gingerly at a cup of coffee that is too hot to be a comfortable temperature for drinking. He had a fascinating night last night, but it was a fascinating night that led to dreaming. Still. It was a night he would keep. Dreams or no dreams.

He comes here, to the lake, where he thinks of meeting the Message. He finds Alexander, who he also met here, though he associates the House with Alexander more than this place. Still, he has found Alexander here more than the Message, and has stopped being surprised by things so mundane as chance meetings.

There is no hesitation as he approaches Alexander, he just comes up to him and lays wordlessly on the blanket beside him, on his side and a bit to one edge of the blanket. The color in his eyes is drowned out by shadows, both the kind that came with dusk and the ones that darken the skin beneath his eyes. The dusk-shadows might hide those a bit, but he's still ghost-pale, and in what little light there is that is only more apparent.

He watches Alexander, silent and intent. Patient. It's a greeting perhaps more suited a cat than a person.

Alexander

[Awareness?}

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

Alexander

A storm approaches Alexander and his small spread of stuff. It’s a familiar storm, though. One that he knows and trusts enough to stay where he is as it nears, attention more focussed on the sky and the passing of time than on Kalen lying next to him.

“Hey. There’s soup, if you want some. It should still be warm.” Alexander’s tone is thoughtful, maybe a little distracted, when he greets Kalen without initially turning to look. “Chicken.” He does look, though, after some moments pass and sees him in the glow of the moon and the radiant glow of the city lights.

“You ok?”

Kalen Holliday

"Mmmmmmmmmmm...I have coffee. But thank you."

He is quiet again, until the question. "I'm fine. I had an interesting night. Involving actually getting into the pool at the House. Which, while it went as well as it could, was not exactly an experience that led to the most peaceful of nights. But, never fear. I have coffee. And a fantastic wine cellar. I so have this."

He smiles a little. "How are you?"

Alexander

[Per+Emp - you really ok?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (5, 5, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )

Kalen Holliday

[By Kalen standards: well, he'd probably maintain that everything was fine while he was bleeding to death. Kalen standards aren't terribly useful. By normal human standards: not precisely, but mostly on account of being exhausted and not terribly intent on sleeping. He doesn't seem particularly upset, no evidence he's hurt, nothing to indicate really any issues beyond not sleeping.]

Alexander

Alexander remembers. He remembers meeting Kalen at the House one time, resting his legs in the water of the Node, and how wary he had been. He remembers a black river of souls – how could he forget that when he still woke sweating from an occasional nightmare about it – and the same guard that came up as Alex had approached the water. And so he looks closer at Kalen, seeing if he was fine or ‘fine’. A state he was no stranger to himself. It seems to be the former, to the relief of Alex. Nothing more sinister than exhaustion, so coffee probably is the better option compared to soup.

“I’m good. I’ve just been thinking, I guess. Always a dangerous thing to be doing.” He turns back to staring at the sky. “Wondering where we came from. Where we’re going.”

Contemplating the light stuff.

Kalen Holliday

"I used to think that I wanted to pull apart all of that. Sometimes I still do. I'm not sure that's the important part anymore." He takes a drink of the coffee which only slightly singes his tongue, then sets the coffee on the grass beside the blanket and rolls onto his back so he can look up at the stars.

"I'm starting to suspect seeing knowledge and experience as simply a means to some final resolution is robbing them of their own intrinsic beauty." He sighs. "Maybe where we go matters less than how we feel about it when we get there."

Alexander

“Or how we get there. There’s the whole thing about the journey being more important than actually arriving at the destination. I think that’s important. But that’s only part of it.” He turns to glance at Kalen’s form on the blanket next to him, all washed out colours. “I think I envy you sometimes. You at least have an idea of how everything came to be.”

Alexander sighs, a lengthy thing followed by more moments of silence, as he shifts position to cross his arms behind his head to prop it up a little more. “I don’t buy into the whole word of God creating everything in a week thing. Nothing exploding? Not convinced either. So.” He shrugs, shoulders rubbing against the coarse weave of the blanket.

Grace

[Awareness!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Kalen Holliday

Kalen's eyes drift closed, though he is still listening. "I see what I see. There are as many interpretations of the dawn of Creation as there are people in it, at least. More than that, if you count revised opinions.

"But they are, all of them, interpretations. Whatever the answer is, I'm not sure that we will ever explain it with science or with magic. I don't know that we really need to. There are mysteries, and I want to know their answers. I want search out greater truths and absolute knowledge, I cannot help that.

"But...for some things, I don't think knowledge will serve better than acceptance. And for when some explanation would be welcome...I wish that I could share my faith. Alas, that is not the kind of thing one can borrow." He opens his eyes halfway so he can rest a hand on Alexander's shoulder without worrying about hitting him in the nose. "I hope that you find your answers. Until then, I am here."

"And after. That too."

Grace

There was a night when Grace came to this park and a vampire shoved living shadows down her throat and (temporarily) turned her into a screaming, terrorized thing. Well, that's almost to be expected, right? Temporarily. Said vampire is now deader than she was previously. A remarkable improvement. Also, likely a warning to vampires everywhere that fucking with random people in Washington Park at night is a bad idea because this is Mage territory.

And if they don't have that idea? Well. Grace isn't afraid enough to back down anyway. It's not her thing.

So, it's with a bit of self-assured nonchalance that she returns to this place even now, to join Kalen. Maybe she doesn't have an exact location, but she knows he's here. And she can sense the presence of rain in a desert, the lightning striking hot sand. That's enough. If it weren't, she could always force the issue.

She walks up, likely as yet unseen, even though Kalen will surely feel her. Night makes it even easier to hide, and she is so good at that already.

"Pff. Please. We all know that the universe is a holographic simulation whose data is encoded two-dimensionally. There, I totally explained it."

For the record, the sarcasm just rolls off of those sentences. She's totally serious and not at the same time.

Alexander

“A shame, it would make answering questions like these a whole lot easier. But I guess this is just one of those things where the journey is just as important.” Just then, the train of the conversation gets a little side-tracked with the arrival of Grace.

“Who created the simulation? Or whatever it’s running on. Who created them? The same as the whole work of God thing, whatever side you look at it. How was it created? Where did it all start?”

Alexander takes a breath, a second, a moment. “Unless the whole thing was always here?” He rests his hand on Kalen’s, making the contact a little stronger, before returning his hand to its position behind his head.

“Thinking is hard.” He is joking and the humour in his voice is obvious, as it comes through his smile.

Kalen Holliday

Kalen leaves his hand on Alexander's shoulder and allows his eyes to drift closed again. Both Grace's explanation of the universe and Alexander's observation that thinking is hard get little amused huffs of sound that he doesn't summon enough energy to turn into a real laugh.

"The Buddha generally refused to answer questions about the nature of the moment of Creation," he says, because of course he knows this. Kalen could probably recite at least half a dozen creation stories. "On account of it not serving any great purpose, that knowledge. You might like Buddhism, Alce.

"Some versions more than others. But there are parts of the philosophy that might suit you."

There is another sound that would be a laugh. "You could also try Socrates, but the legacy of Socrates is partly that those who seek the truth and encourage others to cast aside their illusions are condemned and killed. So if you go that route, do try to avoid the tragic death death by people who refuse enlightenment ending.

"Fucking brilliant though, Socrates."

Jo Hamilton

It's that time of year.

That time of year when students pile into places of learning, shove their noses in books, and hope for osmosis. It never happens, and many saddened hearts walk away with letter grades that are meant to indicate how much a failure they really were.

It's the end of that time in that the week has left them and now they are left with their sadness. Most of them will drink it away anyway, so it doesn't matter that much does it? Jo doesn't drink (yet), mostly because she doesn't have any friends who have that much dedication to alcohol to skirt the rules...and everyone knows her gaming skillz will drop and she'll lose a round of LoL and lose her entire reputation. Duh. Instead she seeks out carbs, and sugar, or sugary carbs, or sugar drenched in carbs or.. wait..carbs drenched in sugar? That's more like it.

That means she's on her bike. Somewhere. With her cellphone. At that's really all she needs to make it in the world. Especially when one considers that sugar carbs are best enjoyed with company. So it's a very simple thing to send a message to Grace, who has so far shown herself to be something of a waffle fairy.

Dude.

Comes the first text.

Sugar?

Comes the second text.

4 realsies?

Comes the third. Because Jo never does things half-assed. One must annoy the shit out of someone.

Grace

"Personally, since I've seen people in this universe write their own universes which then go on to be separate things in their own right? It might just be universes all the way down," Grace says, shrugs. "Or maybe universes evolve. Successful universes give rise to intelligent beings which allow them to reproduce."

Grace slips down onto the blanket and leans back on her arms to appraise the sky. Looking up into the stars is appropriate for discussions like this.

And then, her phone's text notification goes off.

Three times.

It gets pulled out, and then, oh -- she is stuck inside it.

Jo, do you have some or do you want some? I imagine yes and yes. Am I right?

Alexander

“I guess… If everything is just a continuous cycle, then how it starts isn’t really as important as the cycle continuing. But then isn’t there the whole thing in Buddhism about trying to escape the cycle and stop coming back? Which… admittedly is about the limit of my knowledge of it. Well, that and not swatting bugs.”

Alexander twists his head to look at Grace once she settles and gives another version of The Way Things Are. “What happens if the… parent? Or whatever you want to call it ends. Do all the children just wink out of existence?” Another thought suddenly catches his attention.

“We create our own universes? Do you think that’s an Awakened thing?”

Kalen Holliday

"Well, if nothing else we create our futures and shape the futures of others. Perhaps to a greater degree than others might because of our nature, but really, all things do that. Sentient beings most demonstrably and dramatically, but really all the parts of the whole of Creation, or existence, or this universe, or this reality, or whatever the fuck we can agree on calling it-" And here he sounds only amused, because their inability to come to a consensus on the nature of reality does not really bother Kalen at all. These discussions he enjoys.

"Have some effect on the greater whole. Some are more marked than others, but it's like that rocks into a pond thing. By contrast to our views of the truth of the world, which seems more like the blind men and elephants thing." He says this as though he has forgotten not all people spent years in formal training that included philosophy and little parables for discussion.

Jo Hamilton

It's as simple as....

Yup. Both. ;)

Because Grace knows her too well. Jo never travels without some form of sugar on her person, should starvation set in and she be required to revive herself. This is a viable possibility, Really. Maybe?

Buuuuuut. Jolly ranchers not cuttin it. XD

Though she might have twizzlers still in her bag. Sometimes...sometimes...she found candy in the secret universe that is her backpack. Sometimes things would magically appear...like one big bag of holding for sugary goods.

Where u at?

Grace

Washpark With some cool people.

Even with her face in her texts, Grace is paying attention. Obviously, because as she types out the latest one, she replies: "You know what I wish? I wish the blind men could have just talked to the elephant and asked her who she was."

Type tap type tap...

Bring your own sugar. I am sadly sugar free.

"I suppose it is a possibility that all the worlds could wink out of existence, but so many things are possible I find it difficult to worry about them all until they show up."

Alexander

“I get that what we do – everyone not just us – can change more than we think. I know it’s a simple view of things, but good things generally create good things and bad create bad. I.. think that’s part of why I do what I do. Although I probably didn’t really think of it that way before you guys landed in my life.” He shrugs again, lying back and tracing out a constellation in his mind.

And then Alexander starts getting a little lost in the conversation. “A talking elephant?” He nods, though, when Grace says it’s hard to worry about the multitude of things that are possible. “I’d drink to that one, if there was anything more than water. Unless you can toast with chicken soup?”

Alexander looks over at Grace again. “Did you want some, by the way? Soup, I mean. It’s more than possible that there’s some here, although it might be on the cool side by now.”

Kalen Holliday

"You could steal some of my coffee, but it is tragically non-alcoholic." He manages something resembling an actual laugh. "I'll tell you the elephant story one day when I'm more awake, Alce. It's the best representation of the madness of trying to fight over whose worldview is the right one when we're all just trying to figure it out based on an incomplete knowledge of truth and circumstance.

"If the elephant could talk...it would be a really different story. Though, admittedly, probably pretty cool too."

Jo Hamilton

OMW.

It's a sad state when someone is sugar free. Mostly people are sugar free when they are trying to diet, a point at which Jo finds complete despair. Diet?! Why? All the glories of the universe resides in the magnificence that is sugar! How else are people meant to survive?

She shall remedy this.

The bike has shifted its course. The USS Enterprise is on route to the Galactic Federation of Grace and Co. Captain Jo is confident they shall encounter no alien life, especially not The Q. Oh god..not the Q. Please not the Q.

Thus does she move, the static hum of the modern world gliding its way towards the trio, though she has no immediate knowledge of their where abouts. Sure she could probably do something like...follow a GPS route, but Jo...Jo isn't that kind of person...sometimes. Instead, her search for said trio begins in the most unconventional way (unless you're in a Disney movie).

"I'm wishing...for the one I love...to find me..."

Grace

"Super condensed version? One blind guy says, 'It's a rope, obviously'. He's holding the elephant's tail. Another guy says 'No no no, it's a tree' because he's feeling up a leg. The third guy says 'Dudes, I'm wigged out, it's a snake!' because he's got the trunk and the elephant is probably thinking, 'How about you guys keep your mitts off my trunk please? That's sensitive...' because nobody can talk to the elephant."

She puts her phone back in her jean pocket and resumes staring up at the sky again. "Is there sugar in the soup?"

Probably not.

"Also, we have company coming. Jo. She's cool."

Alexander

“Buddhism’s the reincarnation one, isn’t it? It would be quite cool if they could remember what it was like to be an elephant. Or, you know, talk to the elephant. Assuming they didn’t have their own version of the Union back then. But I guess a talking elephant is possibly more likely to kick of a religion than a hippy guy talking about peace with everything.”

Is there sugar? “Not a clue, I didn’t read the label on the cans. Probably, though. Does chicken have sugar in it?” And suddenly the reason for needing sugar becomes clearer. “I think it would need to be sugar and water to keep her fuelled.” Alexander shakes his head, remembering her preferred foods.

Jo Hamilton

[All the feeeels perc+aware]

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

Kalen Holliday

"I would just like to observe one of the Order observing you teaching a philosophy seminar," Kalen says in response to Grace's retelling of the story. As though he had not casually proclaimed that Socrates was fucking brilliant like that was all one really needed to know just a few moments before.

"One of the reincarnation ones, yeah. It's a sort of evolution of Hinduism, which is an endless cycle of reincarnation one. Buddhist teachings present a way to achieve enlightenment and thus reach Nirvana, which frees you from the endless cycle of rebirth." There is a slight pause. "Well. Generally. There are bodhisattvas. But I suspect you are not looking for a terribly detailed description of all that at this time."

"There is an all night donut place like...." Kalen waves in a direction. "Like ten blocks that way on Louisiana."

Jo Hamilton

"To find me... today. I'm hoooooping... and I'm dreaming of... the right things...to saaaaay." And ever, ever closer as she feels out the shift and flow of the sensations, like playing hot and cold, only without anyone respond back. Though Kalen... now that's a new one. She's never met Kalen before, and the prospect of meeting another... uh what did they call themselves? Whatever.. another person who -isn't-like-the-others. Mage. Wizard. Sorceror. She can't recall the exact term. Personally, she'd rather be called a lich, just because liches are cool...but that has a completely different meaning entirely.

Anyhow.

The bike comes ever closer, and Jo has no shame about her terrible singing, because she's not trying to win an award or attract her one true love.

"Danger Will Robinson! The Jo-inator is here!" Hot.. hot ... hot.. yup that's them! "Cause like seriously, you're in like some serious need of like ER treatment. No sugar?!"

Grace

"Oh! You know Jo!" Grace exclaims in response to Alex, because yes -- whoever knows Jo knows about her... addiction.

"I'd like to observe one of the Order observing me teaching a philosophy seminar. Do you I think I could make smoke come out somebody's ears?" Grace grins, and it's a little scary.

Speak of liches, and they will appear, apparently. Because Jo takes this moment to show up, singing on her bike.

"I can go without it for like, a while, Jo. Not forever. I think people need small amounts of sugars in their diet anyway to avoid malnutrition. But that's why God invented astronaut ice cream."

Alexander

“We met. There were tacos. She seems nice, if even more caffeinated than Elijah.”

Alexander laughs at Grace’s wanting to make a member of the Order’s head implode. “If you ever give that lesson, please invite me. It sounds so much more entertaining than just telling them to…” there’s a glance to Kalen, although he probably knows exactly where the line of thought was headed. After all, they both knew Alyssa. “Find somewhere else to be.”

“Hey Jo. Donuts actually sound good right now. And more coffee. If you guys want to stay put, I’ll ride over and grab some. It won’t take long.” He rolls over and pushes himself up to standing, happy to leave the blanket and other bits where they are until he returns.

[And, because it’s half 6 in the morning and I kinda need to sleep, this seems like a good time to slip Alex out. Thanks for the scene!]

Because you feel fierce

Ian

Washington Park was alive with the deep, vibrant green of late spring. Today the effect of it was somewhat incongruous with the weather, as winter's icy breath gave one last exhale - a reminder of nature's unpredictability. At 41 degrees, the air was cold enough to warrant a coat. The breeze that gusted over the landscape had a sharp bite to it. Most of the afternoon visitors cleared out when the rain started, but the precipitation never exceeded more than a light drizzle. Now it was more of a mist than anything - the kind that beaded up and left little pin-drops of water on your skin and clothes.

Ian rarely let things like cold or rain deter him from his daily routine. Recently, even less so. He'd been running, but now he was pacing quietly through the grass, hands in the pockets of his dark windbreaker as his breath plumed little clouds in the mist. His hair was wet. So were his shoes. The wetness made the cold more noticeable, but his core temperature was still up from his run. Looking out over the sleepy landscape, Ian pondered the way the deep green of the grass contrasted against the grey and darkening sky. Someone else might have called it dreary, but for him there was something meditative about it.

Elijah

[Per+alert, do I hear people?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 6 ) Re-rolls: 1

Elijah

(you know, it would help if I rolled the right number of dice... My bad! Per+alert (not aware)]

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

Elijah

Elijah Poirot lived a very loud life.

When he woke up, there was a warning. When he woke up and when he Woke Up he had an imperative imparted to him. A command, a reminder- live, live- for tomorrow you die and all begins anew. He heard the wisdom between the walls, of something that was restrained because there was something between Elijah and a truer part of himself. It was telling that, for a long time, he had no desire to see what lived behind that wall. Any wall. There was a memory, a dream, something that left the smell of sulfur in his nose and the feeling of something ancient and terrible in his mind. There was a man like an ocean and a woman who felt like the end of all things (a fact Elijah learned to take as comfort- Elijah missed Eleanor.) There had been a warning he knew in his heart- there were consequences for selling your soul. There were consequences for asking for eternity.

We digress.

Elijah lived a life that was loud, a warning from his avatar (a very different being living behind the walls and barriers and bullshit that Elijah built) to the dead. To talking. To the constant sound and hum of something that was just beyond his reach. Well, maybe not beyond his reach anymore. He's learned that it's hard to push past those walls, to touch the seemingly intangible spaces between the worlds. He tried it anyway, but did not meddle. He learned that there were consequences, and consequences that should not be ignored. But there were the dead. They were always around, sometimes distraught. Sometimes wailing, sometimes battling their inner demons for control and he heard all of it. He heard every blessed moment of it, whether his ears were meant to hear them or not. There was a reason people drank to forget; there are things mortals aren't meant to here.

And still, he stayed alert, awake, focused for now to pay attention to the physical instead of the land between. He was moving to find that silence, that nice moment where the world shuts down and he's nothing but a body because there is no difference between him and the rest of the world. He doesn't run often, but Jenn had harped on him about omniscience and perfection. Perfect mind was nothing without paying attention to your body, and vice versa. We are not parts, but a whole. So there he was, hands in a beat up leather jacket and wearing a pair of hiking boots that were intended to keep the water out. Jeans and a tee shirt, something white and V necked that started to get a little wet in the front, like he was going to be a last place finisher in a wet t-shirt contest if he wasn't careful.

He did not smell sulfur in his nose, did not pick up unmistakable, ageless evil. Just wet grass and cold air and a slow, pounding pulse . His attention went to the distance, to nearby water and the feeling that maybe... maybe it was time to be less afraid. Maybe it was time to push past something, to move, to transcend. To be more because he could be more.

For now, though, the young man was dressed comfortably and seemed to have no problem reveling in cold and searching for silence, only to hear the rhythmic pounding of someone's feet on a run. The water on a bench. [the quiet keening of something long dead by the lake, weeping into hands, breath useless but shuddering 'oh, Richard'. The taunting of something terrible. He doesn't approach the lake for a reason.]

He turned, looking for the sound the running, the source. He waits, grin on his face like he was the only spectator of a one man marathon.

Ian

[Awareness]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )

Ian

A figure moved nearby. Ian surveyed the lake in the near distance, but did not make any motion to approach. Instead his eyes fixed on Elijah's profile. He watched him move for a time, the way that people sometimes watched animals (or animals sometimes watched people,) finding a simple fascination in the rhythm of his gait and the slope of his posture.

He knew who it was. Even at a distance, with details obscured by mist and low light. He felt Elijah in the air. Recognized him by the way he moved. Almost imagined for a moment that he could smell him, but that was probably a sense memory.

Gradually he closed the distance between them, moving at a relaxed gait. His steps were fluid and quiet, muffled against the wet grass. When he neared Elijah, he stopped and tilted his head, a subtle expression of familiarity showing on his features. He didn't speak just yet. Maybe he'd forgotten for a moment that he was supposed to.

Elijah

[oh, who is this? Per+aware]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Ian

Elijah knew Ian. Had felt the presence of his resonance many times now. But tonight there was something new there - deeper, stronger, more visceral. It mingled with his cunning elegance and that ever-present echo of the feline predator that lurked beneath his skin. He didn't so much feel changed as more... himself, as though inhabiting his nature more fully. He felt altogether more Primal now.

Arionna de la Babin

[per+aware -jesus you two]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )

Elijah

[WP: because we have impulse control]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )

Arionna de la Babin

[dex+stealth-I can totally not be seen or something]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 9) ( success x 1 )

Ian

[Per+Alertness oh-ho, is someone sneaking? ( -2 diff from acute senses)]

Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4) ( success x 2 )

Arionna de la Babin

The gods are warring.

This is a simple truth that people like Arionna understand. The gods are warring, and we know this to be true because the cycles are shifting. Where once the gods of the night fought bravely, stealing more of mortal time for themselves, now they are growing tired and those of the light are pushing them back. It's a war that will go on until the end of time, as neither can live without the other.

It is during this time that those of the night feel most vulnerable. The cold has shifted away from them, the nights grow shorter, and their strength...their strength becomes difficult to maintain. It's hard to wander among people during the time one is most vulnerable; you feel...like prey. Thus it is that when these times come, those of the eve shall step forward and take what little night they have available, and use it shamelessly. They will not yield; they will endure.

She ought to be at home, certainly. But this is her time, and she will not give it up. Her time. It is what she has for herself, if only for a moment. While it is not entirely safe for someone such as her to be wandering the dark park, she does it anyway, utilizing what scorn she may have as a shield against the suspicious.

She can feel them at the edges of her own wind; at the edges of winter and sorrow. Elijah. Ian. Though there is a difference amongst them, one she does not know, and she can only wonder if there is someone new. Wonderful. It's all she needs. Another groupie. Or perhaps she is mistaken. Thus enters curiosity.

Arionna follows the sensation, her footsteps light and careful. She is no master of the shadows or silence, but she has learned something of her time of running and hiding. From the path she moves towards these feelings, her boots sinking into the earth softly with each step.

Alexander

[Int+Med?]

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

Elijah

There was movement.

There was a lake in the distance, crying on the other side, a wailing, keening something but he wasn't listening to that. He was listening to footsteps, feeling something altogether familiar but more. So much more than what he was familiar with. It felt right. It opened up questions and there he was, wet with the rain and feeling like... like...

His attention turned, not quite prey but certainly not a predator and awed by the grace of those who were with him. There was a feeling about Ian, something Elijah always expected but what came to life. His eyes are alight, green and amber and he bridges the gap.

Green and amber and focused and there was a second when he was there, steps away, there- but a breath away. His hands come up, cupping cheeks, pulling in, coming closer and pressing his lips to Ian's like it was the only thing he could have ever thought of doing. Not an impulse, but an imperative- exactly what he inteded for it to be. Lips against his, heart beating loud and there is a reckless abandon in the movement. Something fevered and intent and warm- even if his fingertips are cold.

He doesn't say a word.

Alexander

There are others in the city who are regular visitors to the park, although their reasons for being there vary. Some come for exercise. Some come to be sociable. Others come because they just fucking feel like it walking over the grass in heels. Others come to wait.

Alexander, depending on the day, can slip into several of those categories. He runs here, has played soccer and Frisbee here. But today the reason is to wait, in the hope of meeting someone once again. Someone met here twice before, so the hope is that there will be a third time here too. And so he sits and he waits and he watches without really seeing. The city moves along at its own pace around the park, and the park continues in its own patterns around him. Alexander sits on a bench near the lake, lost within himself. The pattern of the drizzle provided a base for meditation and, so far, there hasn’t been much reason for it to come to an end. He sits, frozen apart from the slow rise and fall of his chest. His clothes – jackets, combats, boots – are wet, but that little fact is either unnoticed or not really important.

And so it’s easy for him to miss the not-so-familiar resonances moving around nearby. Just as much as it’s easy for his own to fade into the cold of the park.

Ian

The kiss probably shouldn't have surprised him, but it did - a little. Maybe because neither of them had ever kissed to say hello before. They hadn't really kissed all that often, actually. And then... usually as a prelude or an accompaniment to other kinds of physical intimacy. So Elijah kissed him, and he did not immediately react apart from the instinctive softening of his lips. But still, he gave no objection, and after a couple of heartbeats he let his eyes close and exhaled gently against Elijah's mouth - kissed him back a little more assertively, then pulled away with a little smile.

"Good time for a walk, hmm?"

It wasn't, but they were out here anyway. Ian's eyes shifted toward the nearby trees. The muted light in the sky was disappearing behind Denver's horizon, drawing on toward night. Toward darkness. Soon the park lights would switch on, but right now the trees were mostly in shadow. It would be easy to slip through them unnoticed, but Arionna's passage did not quite manage to escape Ian's attention. He caught her movement in his gaze, hovering there a moment before his focus shifted to the nearby lakeshore. The bench (Alexander.) And back to Elijah again.

Arionna de la Babin

Another like her. The end state of her process. She feels him too now. Three that she knows. Three that she is familiar with. Thankfully, these are not three that she greatly dislikes.

She walks through the trees, curling her dark arms into her chest momentarily when a bit of cold seeps through her sweater. Despite how it feels, she misses it already; misses the deep cold and the dead trees. She sees them, their moment of affection, and she knows all too well that what she feels is not the way a person ought to. It's not Elijah or Ian's fault, and perhaps for once she understands that. Still...

Arionna watches them for a moment, pressing her palm against a tree as if it will provide some sort of support. Then she steps away from it slowly, and moves from the trunk. She tries to be quiet. Tries to go unnoticed, because there is another. One she is likely to approach, and to feel comfortable with.

Elijah

[Do I notice Ari now? Per+alert]

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

Elijah

There's that little smile, and Elijah can't get the grin off his face. Ever so pleased, like that was exactly what he wanted to do, grinning like he had made some great discovery (grinning like he stared down a tiger and lived to tell the tale). There is a moment, a moment where that grin is both pleased and a little cautious- aware that there is an edge he can ride and delighting in the fact that there is something new.

Good time for a walk?
"No kidding, right?" he said, hands go into his pockets (fiddle with the pocket watch on his left) "would you think me too Beyonce if I called you fierce? Because you feel fierce... like base instinct."

It went without saying, indicated in tone and the look in his eyes that he very heartily approved. He liked it, to say the least.

His attentions do move, though, since his senses are awake and alert and the cold keeps him sharp. Sees a man on the bench- Alexander, maybe? And someone by the trees- Elijah smiles, takes a hand out of his pocket and gives a little wave. All good natured, unaware that his actions may be pushing on a bruise (or perhaps he does know, perhaps he is callous, but it's hard to imagine.)

Alexander

[Per+Aware?]

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

Alexander

Frozen, but not quite. Moisture had been building up all over Alexander and, finally, was the cause for him to lose that long moment of focus. A drop of cold water ran from the hairline at the back of his head and down his spine, making him shiver. And that small recognition of his body led to more. He’d been there for a while, as the temperature had dropped. His muscles had stiffened up, joints complaining at moving again. A crick in his neck needed release. So Alexander stands, shrugging his shoulders up and rolling the knots that had formed between his shoulder blades out.

He realises that, once again, the creature that he still hoped to encounter – still hoped would take him up on his request to travel the Umbra – hadn’t appeared. There isn’t so much disappointment as… patience? It will happen when it happens. Realisation also follows that he’s not alone in this part of the park. Two familiar-but-different resonances linger with each other nearby, a third – unchanged from the last time he’d encountered it at the station – in the tree line. Running his hands over his hair to dislodge the remaining moisture, he turns to look at the closest two. They could be Elijah and Ian, they could be someone else. It does seem to be the season for change though, in more than just the weather.

Ian

On a different day, Ian probably would have made a joke of that. Today he just smirked and gave a small roll of his eyes, glancing briefly sideways. "It's... been an eventful month."

And yet he seemed uninclined to elaborate. Maybe it wasn't necessary.

"Should we say hello, or leave them alone?" Ian indicated Arionna and Alexander with a tilt of his head. The cold was beginning to creep into his bones. His hands (and his lips where Elijah had kissed him) felt chilled to the touch, though there was yet color in his skin. He shifted on his feet to keep his blood moving, walking in a lazy circle around Elijah.

Arionna de la Babin

Elijah waved.

Knowing him,she hasn't a clue. He can be dense sometimes, and other timse he's far too empathic. If she could liken him to a creature she knows well, it would certainly be a dog; loyal, friendly (far too much so), and yet sometimes doesn't get it. But...people could say similar things about her (minus the friendly).

But he waved, and despite that feeling that is forming down in the pit of her stomach, she pauses. Sometimes she even wonders if he realizes exactly how willing she is to push against her own nature sometimes when he's around.

You're growing too attached Ari. You're becoming dependent.

And now she is torn. Torn between the two that cling to each other's space, and the other who, like Elijah, pushed a little further and gave her something to go on...some bit of advice.

Does she move or doesn't she? For now she remains...still.

Elijah

"Let's be sociable," he decides, concludes with a bright and chipper smile (one that does not relay that he is cold and that his hands are cold and that he might end up with a cold in the morning, but that is a problem for Tomorrow Elijah. Today Elijah feels just fine and is happy to roll around in the grass and-

He pauses, takes a second and takes a few steps towards Arionna.

"Hey," he starts, friendly enough, "I'm thinking about playing hide and seek. Wanna play? Jenn's been riding my ass about needing to do more physical things with people that don't involve doing things with other people."

And then he turns, with no regard for personal space or the fact that Alexander might have something he wants to do aside from listen to his cabal mate's apprentice.

"Hey Alex-" a hitch, since he realizes something "-ander, wanna play hide and seek?"

HE looks towards Ian, brows raised, glance inviting, words lacking but the question quite clear. HIs word view is nothing but words and symbols, and he knows when one does not need words at all.

Alexander

[Per+Alert - I see you, Ari?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Alexander

The closest two certainly appear to be the people he was expecting them to be, but it’s Elijah’s shout across the grass that makes him smile. Definitely Elijah. He leans back, curving his spine and getting one last crack out, before turning back to a patch of grass near the lake that looks like any other. He says, to the air, “another time, then,” before turning to Ian and Elijah.

Then he turns towards the pair and starts walking, waiting until he’s a little closer before he calls back. “I can’t remember the last time I played, but I’m game.” Then, closer still when he doesn’t need to shout anymore, “But won’t it be too easy if we can just feel where each other is? Although you both don’t feel quite the same as you used to. Interesting times.”

He nods up towards the trees and the figure standing partially obscured by one trunk. “Speaking of interesting times, have you guys met Arionna, yet?”

Ian

"And what things would those be, exactly?" Ian couldn't quite resist the bait, dry amusement evident in his tone. The question didn't necessarily require a response. But he followed along behind Elijah as they approached the others, his gait long and fluid. Elijah's suggestion (that they play hide and seek, of all things) didn't get an immediate response, but when he repeated it to Alexander, Ian's breath gave an exhale of soft laughter.

"You're serious, aren't you?"

It seemed like the kind of suggestion that Ian was likely to reject on principle, but he didn't (yet.) Instead he turned to Alexander with a thoughtful expression. "Probably. You'd have to get creative."

Have you guys met Arionna, yet?

To that, Ian just nodded.

Arionna de la Babin

"Play?" It's a question of uncertainty because hide-and-seek has rarely been about play. She cants her head to the side and regards Elijah, and now the group with a bit more wariness than before. Of course this could hardly be much fun in a park right? There are trees and other good things, but it loses its fun when you lose the possibility of getting lost; or getting people lost.

"They know who I am, Alexander." Though Ian has already answered his portion of it. She steps forward slowly, enough so that they can speak normally. "How do you play this game?"

Yes. Ari hasn't a clue how to play child games. She might have more fun than she'd suspect.

Elijah

"I have a story for you, I'll have you know that Latin tutors aren't half as boring as it sounds," who would have thought the young man to have an interest in language (anyone who knows him would, actually, you don't have a love affair with words without loving each blessed detail of language, trying to piece it together to find where it may trace back to something True. Kalen might be proud. Or he might not. The path was still rocky there, but getting better.)

There's that grin, though, the kind that is ready for anything, even if it was a little childish. Was he serious? He blazes past the question in time to explain to Arionna- "It's basically that someone is it? And they cover their eyes and count to, like, sixty, and everyone runs off and hides and the person who is it has to find them and the people who are hiding have to find home base and get there to be save so the person who is it can't actually tag them but if the person who is it is really slow you end up being it for a long time and people end up tending the safe base because they don't want to actually find people who are hiding which is against the spirit of the game."

Wow. All that in one breath. He inhaled deeply.

"Basically, it is what it sounds like. The people who aren't it hide. The person who is it seeks. The people who aren't it go to home base to be safe from predation."

And, to Alexander, "Yeah, I've met Ari, we're friends." And just like that, he makes the assumption, runs with it, doesn't think it could be to the contrary because... well... he was fairly certain Arionna was his friend.

"Who wants to start?"

Alexander

“You’ve never played before?” There isn’t judgement in the question to Arionna, but there is surprise. It seems like one of those things that all kids should play at some point, just like climbing trees, playing tag, or pointing their bike down a big hill and regretting their decision half way down when the line between getting down safely and breaking something gets ever slimmer. “It’s fun, you’ll like it.”

As to the question of who’s starting? “I’m easy.”

Ian

Elijah assumed that he and Arionna were friends because Elijah was the kind of person who made friends with everyone. Ian... was not that kind of person. Both Arionna and Alexander had expressed dislike towards him in the past. Arionna's had been rather emphatic. That they were now all considering playing a child's game together in the park at night probably said something about the way people with common experiences tended to band together.

"I'll start."

He hadn't played hide and seek since his sister died. If anyone other than Elijah had suggested it, he probably would have declined. But... for whatever reason, he didn't. Perhaps there was a bit of nostalgia, there.

"We can make the boathouse home base." A pause before he grinned. "I'll count to 100. Better hurry." Then he paced over to the bench by the lake and sat down.

Arionna de la Babin

"What is it?" She asks, furrowing her brows just enough to indicate that all her questions have not been answered. This game seems half put together instead of well thought out; clearly a child's game. "Oh. You mean 'it' is the predator and those you seek are the prey. I understand. Though it does seem most intelligent to stay near this 'home base' if you know that the prey will come. "

You've never played before?

"If you wish to ask whether I have been chased, then your answer is yes. If you want to ask whether I did it 'for fun' then the answer is no."

"How far can we wander?" It made sense to her to have a sort of perimeter that they could wander around in, otherwise they'd be searching until dawn.

Her lips tightened a little, and Ari looked to both Alex and Elijah. Well then, it seemed they were about to play hide and seek....for fun.

Elijah

[stop running and don't fall over! +2 diff because slick grass is not your friend]

Dice: 3 d10 TN8 (6, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

Elijah

"OhshitrunIan'sfast," it's the most warning he gives anyone.

There is a simple rule in survival: you don't have to be faster than a bear. You just have to be faster than the slowest person there. Elijah realized, of course, that he was the weakest link. His eyes darted to a nearby tree and he sprinted for it, knowing that he was going to need a run up if he was going to be able to reach a low hanging tree branch, momentum to help pull himself up because he wasn't exactly strong but damned if he wasn't determined.

But Arionna had a question and it made him skid to a halt, successfully managing to not fall flat on his face while doing so.

"Ian is the one doing the chasing. If he makes physical contact with you then you're it and he's not. Then you count and we all hide again. No perimeter, just as far as you can get while he's counting."

Elijah stopped and listened realizing he's talked too much and lost a good thirty seconds of time.

"Shit."

And off to try and get to that tree again!

Alexander

There’s a moment where the fun of the bizarre situation threatens to vanish, as Arionna doesn’t seem to quite get the point and bring their thoughts crashing back to reality. But there’s Elijah, dashing off and, with two quick U-turns, gets things back on track again.

Then Alexander is laughing and rushing off towards the trees too, calling back, “Just get away first, then worry about how you’re going to get back to the boathouse. We can go find jello and ice cream somewhere after!” He takes a path to the right of Elijah’s, aiming for a lighter patch of trees where he’d be able to make better time through the spaces and get further away.

Ian

When Ian sat down, he began counting, his voice raised to a loud enough pitch that the others would be able to hear if they kept within a reasonable radius. He closed his eyes as he did so, leaning back with his face tilted toward the sky and his arms draped over the back of the bench. The wooden slats felt cold, despite Alexander's recent presence there. Cold and wet, apart from the drier patch that Ian now occupied.

He could cheat, if he wanted to. Though they hadn't really laid out any specific rules about magic use. He could cheat, but he didn't. Why make the game easier?

So he counted, and the others ran for their respective hiding spots. For Ian, time seemed to pass slowly, drifting by with the monotonous rhythm of his voice.

"98... 99... 100."

When he reached the end, he opened his eyes and stood up, surveying the darkened landscape. Some time during the count, the lamps came on, filling the space around the bench with a soft glow of yellow light. There were others too, lining the path and the boathouse. But the trees remained in shadow.

Ian moved quietly, his gait different now than it had been earlier. Stealthy, predatory (hunting.)

[Alright let's see. I'll start with another Awareness roll to see how sensitive he is to resonance right now.]

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

Ian

[And Per+Alertness]

Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (1, 1, 4, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 4 )

Ian

[Wits+Survival (tracking)]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Ian

[And Dex+Stealth - being quiet]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 7, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Elijah

(Elijah: did I get into the tree? dex+athletics)

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )

Elijah

[Shhhhh, i'm being quiet! +1 diff because no stealth}

Dice: 2 d10 TN7 (5, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Arionna de la Babin

[stealth]

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

Alexander

[Dex+Ath for some distance]

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

Arionna de la Babin

He's already counting when Elijah tries to explain her questions. She's never felt this sort of uncertainty before. She's never stood there for a moment, considering what's happening before letting her feet carry her off. But that's what she does. The two of them run, clearly enjoying the game at hand, and she stands there for a moment, listening to the counting...

Ari finally forces her feet to push her off and she's running down the middle of where the other two had wandered, sliding to the right as she tries to spot herself some place to hide. Parks are different. Manicured. Perfect. Not as many hiding spots when you're accustom to the wild sort of space.

But she finds a bush, something big enough that she's certain she can crawl half in it, and tuck herself away.

This is not the best place to hide Arionna.

She knows that. She really does. But she's pressed for time.

Alexander

[Dex+Stealth for sneakiness]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 4, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )

Alexander

[And Wit+Survival, because I know some of the tricks you're going to try]

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

Elijah

He's not good at climbing.

He knows what he needs to do, spends a good five seconds just hanging there, not quite having the upper body strength to pull himself up and it's through willpower alone that he gets his skinny butt into the foliage. The tree creaked uncomfortably, and he nestled himself somewhere high in the branches.

He might not be hidden terribly well, but he was going to make it difficult for Ian to actually reach him. Now, all he could do was hope that he doesn't get driven higher.

Alexander

Elijah runs towards the trees, hoping that he just isn’t the slowest one to get away. Alexander just gets the edge and disappears into the tree line before him. But they’re both leaving Arionna behind as they look for their respective hiding places.

Once out of view, Alex slows down a little and gets a little more careful about how he’s moving. He has no idea if Ian knows much about tracking, but leaving dirty great footprints and lots of broken twigs and branches in his wake wouldn’t be hard for anyone to spot. So he tries to make it harder to be followed as he works out a way to curve back to the boathouse.

Arionna de la Babin

[Do I see the big bad wolf? per+alert]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 6, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 4 )

Ian

The odds were stacked in Ian's favor. Most of them likely knew that. But that wasn't really why they were playing (to win.) Alexander made an attempt to hide his tracks, anticipating the ways in which Ian might try to find him. And he was successful to a point, but the ground was soft (easily marked) and Ian was a good tracker. That month he'd spent surviving in a wasted landscape had been good for something, at least.

And there were other clues as well. Soft sounds (the creak of a tree branch,) a flicker of movement, a faint spot of color through shadowed leaves. His eyes followed the trail of tracks, leading his gaze toward three potential hiding places. Even before that, he had a rough idea of the directions they'd gone (closing his eyes did not mean he stopped being able to hear - even while counting.) But he wouldn't know for sure until he followed one of the trails, so he did.

Arionna, being the closest, was the easiest target. Elijah the next easiest. Alexander would likely be safe this round. After a short pause of consideration, Ian made for the bushes where Arionna was crouched, sliding quickly through the shadows. His feet were silent in the damp grass, and his dark athletic clothes blended easily into the landscape. She wouldn't notice him coming until he was close. Likely by then she'd feel his resonance before she actually spotted him.

Closer. Closer.

If she didn't run, he'd duck under the bush and reach out to grasp her ankle (gently.)

Arionna de la Babin

[running! I think]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4) ( fail )

Arionna de la Babin

The rule has always been thus for the prey...

If the predator is far away and you've noticed him, you are safe enough to freeze and give a signal that says 'Hey I spotted you and I can outrun you.' If the predator is smart, he will stop. Why waste energy if you're more likely to lose?

If the predator is close, running is usually a bad idea. He might miss you if you're careful, but he's also likely to get you if you run. It's hard being prey, it really is.

So she waits, and she can feel his approach before she sees him. The trouble that she has is this:

Is he coming for her or one of the others? She could cheat, though she'd hardly consider it so. There were no explicit rules against magic. But that takes time, and right now..being still is better.

That is until he's closing in. Arionna presses her right boot into the ground to propel herself up and out except...

She doesn't quite make it. She pushes, sliding up and out of the bush only to feel her left foot, the one to give her a bit more leverage, slip under her. Her leg curls and Arionna plummets to the softer ground with an obvious crunch of sticks, and a thud.

Curse you Ian.

Elijah

[dex+athletics- go higher!]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

Elijah

There was relief, yes relief, when he...

No, no he didn't see Ari. He didn't see Ian either. After all, he was actually just pretty well content to be in a tree and not getting rained on, but it was enough to remind him precisely how cold he was and what time it was and he took a quick second to check his pocketwatch- still only accurate twice a day, save for the times that he can keep time to the precise second.

He notices, he notices Ari move and faceplant and he winces. The young man inhaled quickly, hoping at least that Arionna didn't know where he was so he didn't have to try getting out of the tree. Instead, he went upward, content to entrench himself further like he had the time that he got stuck in a tree at the park.

Hmmn. This appeared to be a theme with Elijah. He patted himself down for his cell phone, realizing that this time he didn't have the ability to call Dan for moral support to get out of a tree.

"Oh, shit."

Alexander

Alexander slowly, carefully works his way through the trees, unaware of what’s happened with Arionna’s attempt to run. It seems like a decent plan – keep in the trees until he’s close enough to make a break for the boathouse. Hope that Ian is busy with one of the others so that he doesn’t notice. There’s a smile on his face as he takes another step…

And steps awkwardly on a stone, twisting his ankle. There’s a muffled crash as he hits the ground and a not-so-muffled curse as the pain hits. He leans against a tree to get up again but isn’t doing anything strenuous with that sprained ankle for a few days. He starts to hobble towards open ground.

[And Alexander’s driver needs to crawl to bed, so am taking him out of the running.]