Security Concerns

Grace
The Chantry (which Grace really only knows by the name "The House") seemed the obvious choice as a place to leave some information behind. People would run across her note, much safer than texting it out. And here, there would be nobody to see but those who needed to see.

Her note was drawn in black and red (for emphasis), and told the story of how she'd been hacked by a Virtual Adept and thrown a piece of juicy data. That data, that the Technocracy never left, was in hiding in some huge, state-of-the-art secret lab -- yeah, not so fun.

For now, she was in the middle of pasting it up in the foyer, where people would see it immediately upon entering.

As for Grace herself, she dressed in her usual jeans, sneakers, and t-shirt combo. This time, the t was a graphic print of Tesla and Edison having a brawl, Mortal Kombat style. It seemed fitting to her.

Lena Reilly
Lena has been putting off going to the chantry for a while.  If you asked her, she wouldn't be able to tell you why; she wouldn't even think that she was doing so.  It certainly wasn't a conscious thing.  She's warm and friendly and personable (or she likes to think so), but she's also a bit wary of opening herself up.  And thus, less time spent among her fellow Awakened.

She can't put it off any longer though.  She learned the other night that the Technocracy is back in action and that means she's not safe by herself.  And thus she rides her motorcycle (a green Kawasaki Ninja 250R, for those keeping track) out to where she has been told the place is.  She stopped a ways away, finding something to chain it to, and decided to take the rest of the way on foot; she could use the exercise.  And thus she comes up on the property, marvelling at the scenic surroundings and the house itself.

She sweeps a hand through her hair and makes her way up onto the patio.  She's dressed in a simple outfit; pair of stonewashed grey jeans and a matching-color tank top.  She smiles a little when she sees Grace inside, tapping at the door lightly but hard enough to be audible.  She smiles more fully and waves at the woman inside.

Grace
Oh, well, someone's here, and for once, it's Grace who has to let them in. All she really had to do was reach over and swing the door out, though. And after a glance (yep, I know this person) she does so.

"Hey, Lena. I was just doing a little information dump. For, you know, the others. Come in!"

She smiled, her hands were marked in red and black in, though, so maybe that's why she kept her distance?

Lena Reilly
The Ecstatic slips inside when Grace opens the door for her, shutting it behind her.  "Hey, Grace.  An information dump...that could be good or bad."  She says it amicably though, smiling.  "How are you?"
It's a sincere question when it comes from Lena, not just a courtesy greeting to provide variety from the standard 'hello.'  Then again, it must be noted that as Lena says it she's looking around the foyer, taking it all in, so her focus isn't entirely on Grace at first.  But her ears are still perked up and she's listening; it doesn't take long before her eyes follow suit over to the relative newcomer to the world of the Awakened.

Grace
"Oh, bad, in this case. Just that thing we talked about the other night. Trying to reach more people," her face dropped, but they're in the House, far away from anything the note could be discussing, right?

At least, that's what she tries to tell herself.

"I'm, good, I'm good," she said, a little too fast. "It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. But I'm good."

Lena Reilly
She smiles a little bit, empathetic toward the other woman's experience, and nods.  "Still new for you?  It's always overwhelming for all of us.  That gets better, I promise.  It's just...well, you know.  A hell of a lot to take in."

Grace explains that she's spreading the word more about the Technocracy.  "Ah, right.  Well...don't feel bad about telling people.  I know that it's tough to be the messenger, but you're doing a great thing by telling people."  She's walking around the front area as she speaks, looking at things here and there, taking it all in.  "Sometimes information is all that keeps us safe, you know?"

Grace
"Oh, I don't feel bad. Better to know than be blind," she says, and in that sentence are two meanings, really. She follows Lena down the hall, assuming the other has been here before.

And information is so so much more than that, she wants to say. Information is everything. But she keeps that inside for now.

"It's very new for me. I'm hum.." she thinks back a ways, "It's been less than a month."

Lena Reilly
"Oh wow."  She looks away from her examination of the place and smiles at Grace.  "Well, if you've questioned your sanity less than, say, fourty times yet, you're doing better than I did.  Did you have someone tell you about things before you Awakened, or was it all completely knew before you got new eyes, so to speak."

Lena pauses in the main living room, looking around.  "How many of us stay here?  Is there something I should be doing in terms of, like, security procedures or the like?"

Grace
Grace smiles at the 'questioning sanity' part. "I did a bit of questioning of my sanity at first, you bet. I didn't know a thing, and all the sudden I'm having hallucinations that were far more real than that. I guess I was less afraid I was insane, and more afraid everyone else was going to think I was," she grinned at that.

When Lena gets to the living room, talking of security procedures, Grace pauses in her tracks, her eyes working around in a circle, thinking. "Well, uh.. I don't know. I never asked. I know Shoshannah and Justin sometimes stay here?"

Lena Reilly
"Oh god..."  She gives Grace an look that speaks toward being quite impressed.  "I can't even imagine.  I was brought fully into the fold before I was Awakened and I ~still~ thought I was just going insane all the way through.  That takes a lot of strength to hold together like that."

When Grace says she doesn't know, the Ecstatic then gives a look around, perhaps a bit speculatively as if she's expecting machine guns to suddenly appear from the walls or a lighting bolt to strike her or something.  "Well, if I get charged by a spiritual guardian or the like, do me a favor and vouch for me to it."  It's said with good humor.  "I'm all about new experiences but pain's never been a big one for me."

Grace
In some ways, perhaps, Grace had already prepared herself for what had happened. She knew stories, the power of the metaphor, the way to think.

"Well, I guess in my case it was a little different. I never thought of it in terms of 'magic'. That probably helped. There was a rational explanation, weird as it might seem. I did almost drive myself crazy trying to figure out what had happened, though. I wouldn't call that first week 'holding it together' exactly."

Grace's eyes widen at the mention of spiritual guardians. What? "Um... Yeah, okay, me either."

Lena Reilly
Grace explains how she had been able to get through it, and it makes the DJ smile.  They all had their own ways of putting it all together, and Grace's is as effective as anything else.

"Ahh, that would help probably, yeah.  I thought I was dreaming, or just high.  Even though I'd largely cut off myself hallucinogens at that point...there's always flashbacks.  Lucky for me, the guy who helped me Awaken knew what he was doing and got me through it just fine."

She speaks of her Awakener in fond terms, without the tinge of pain that some get when they talk about mentors who might be long gone.  When Grace widens her eyes at the thought of spiritual guardians who deliver pain (and probably worse) to intruders, Lena smiles reassuringly.  "Don't worry.  If nothing's come out to smack down or at least investigate the new guest yet, we're probably fine.  Something could always be watching, I guess."

Grace
She doesn't say that she doesn't believe in 'spiritual guardians', but truth be told, she hasn't yet seen anything quite that bizarre. Instead, she just doesn't go there. Such things are outside her purview.

"I'm sorry, I'm almost as new to this place as you are. I have no clue. Probably best to talk to someone else about security or whatever.

"And, ah, I would show you around the library, but I don't have access yet myself. It's really awesome."
She says that last sentence with a bit of honest reverence. The library must be just incredible to her.

Lena Reilly
She casually waves off the apology with a little smile.  "No need to apologize.  I'm not too worried about it anyway...whoever's in charge of that has it well in-hand I'm sure."  It's been said by people in her past that Lena trusts too easy, but that isn't the case.  At least, not in her perspective.  She just has good instincts about people and she's actually somewhat slow to trust when those instincts don't kick in.  But everyone she's met so far are people she's had good feelings about.  Considering how relaxed she is around Grace, the woman appears to be included in that particular company.

Mention of the library draws some interest from Lena, but not overexcitement.  She's not a woman who has historically found most of her enlightenment in the writings of others, though there are exceptions.  She gives a little smile and looks around the room they're in again with a smile.  "Very cool.  I'll have to check it out when I get the chance."

She turns her attention back to Grace.  "Are you local to Denver?  I mean, you know, a long-time resident.  I've only been here a little while, I was from Staten Island originally."

Grace
"I'm kind of local. I moved here for college a few years ago. Originally, I'm from Phoenix though. Definitely not anything as interesting as New York."

Grace goes and has a seat on the couch next to her laptop bag, which was haphazardly thrown on something soft when she arrived.

"So, why go to Denver?"

Lena Reilly
It's a valid question.  The Adept takes a seat on the couch, and that's Lena's queue to sit as well.  She could join Grace on the furniture but instead she takes a seat on the ground, crossing her legs and settling on the rug near the edge of it.  "I didn't at first.  I travelled all around.  I work as a DJ and after I'd Awakened, I...learned some things about myself, I guess you could say."  The smile is much fainter, but still there.  "And I figured being a newly-Awkaned person was as good of a point to start over as anything.  So I took my act on the road.  Worked Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Miami.  Made all the rounds of the big cities, built up my reputation a little.?

She picks idly at the leg of her jeans as she talks, the other hand tapping rhythmically on her knee.  Her attention and eyes are still directed at Grace; it's almost a subconscious gesture that she's doing.  She always hears the Lakashim.  "And that was all great, but moving around constantly got old.  So I picked out Denver and decided this would be a good spot to settle in.  Which, pretty much, brings us to present."

Grace
It's a thing, being in the presence of one so traveled, with such different experiences -- Grace feels a bit separate from all that. Her wanderings are mostly mental ones. But the thing is, she does kind of put such people on a pedestal. The experiences Lena must have had...

"Wow, a DJ? And that took you everywhere. I'm so much more of a homebody myself. But ah, welcome to Denver!"

Lena Reilly
Grace's pedestalling of Lena is far from the most important part of her reaction in the DJ's perspective; in fact, quite the opposite.  She simply smiles a bit, appreciating the welcome far more.

"Thanks.  There's nothing wrong with being a homebody though...I mean, it's great to have roots, right?  I've been a lot of places, but most of what I've learned is that despite all the superficial differences--language, races, nationality, pride, philosophies--we're all pretty much the same at our core.

"Which isn't to say there aren't differences," she adds with a smile.  "And thank Christ for those differences.  But we've all got the same heartbeat, you know?  Most of us turn off their awarness of how we're all connected, but that doesn't mean the connection isn't there."

Grace
"I hear you there," she says, and again there is something a bit more to the subject at hand yes? Grace can still remember the feeling of being everything and everyone. Connectedness is not just an abstract concept.
"I try to write people as something a little better than stereotype. It works better that way. Feels realer, because that is the truth. Nobody fits into the boxes we try to shove them in. We're more than that." And there, she says what she does, or part of what she does -- write.

"What's your philosophy then? How do you see it? If you don't mind my asking, of course." Big question, that, she knows. Their kind are not the type to just be unaware of what they really believe. It wouldn't work that way. But she is the curious type.

Lena Reilly
Lena shakes her head amicably when Grace asks if she minds explaining her philsophy.  "No, not at all...I'd be happy to."

Her fingers keep drumming in that rhythmic beat on her knee, and Grace is about to learn why as Lena reaches behind her neck and sweeps her har around over her shoulder.  "It all started with my work, actually.  See...I was into music almost as long as I can remember.  My mom waitressed at nightclubs and I'd be at them a lot of the time.  I loved dance beats deeply.  There was something...special in them.  The way they make people move, almost against their wills sometimes, you know what I mean?"  She smiles, leaning back a bit with her one non-tapping hand resting behind her to support her weight.  She talks with more than fondness...she speaks with genuine ardor.  "It's inspiring...passionate."

"What I didn't realize then, and didn't until I was much older...long after I made my first remix, or worked my high school dances...was how universal it really is.  The beat...that's what we Ecstatics call the Lakashim.  It's the heartbeat of the world.  We're all connected through that heartbeat...its beat is the same as our own.  When we become perfectly in sync...that's Ananda.  Bliss, joy, inspiration, enlightenment...call it what you want.  It's just a sort of cosmic expansion or your awareness as you open yourself up to it.

"We usually find it when we break free of the distractions of life.  Easiest way to do that is our passions.  Think about it...when you have a moment of pure joy, or pure anger.  You orgasm, or you get stoned, or your heart's been shattered and you're wracked by grief.  You're not thinking about how your hair looks, or whether your rent's been paid...how much smog is in the air or if you remembered to set your DVR to catch Breaking Bad.  You're completely at one with your passion and you grow stronger.  The way a mother's fear allows her to lift a car off their trapped child, or the way an artist creates something of true greatness through inspiration."

She shrugs a little bit, smiling.  "And those moments of Ananda...those passion-fueled instants in which you rise above yourself and open yourself to the consciousness of the Tellurian.  The universe.  Those are what we all call magick."

Grace
As the Ecstatic speaks, Grace listens and looks for connections. It's just what she does. As the talk continues, her eyes wander around, first to the ceiling and then the floor. It's not meant to be disrespectful. She is paying attention.

As it goes, she realizes how far the two are apart, and yet, that way -- it sounds so... fun. Out there, but fun.
"I have heard that term before, Lakashim. Serafine told me that's what I experienced..." but it was different, really. Far removed, and yet so close. "And really, I have felt like that before sometimes, especially when I'm writing something very.. interesting. Like, you can't think about anything else than your passion. Just, my passion is a bit different, I think."

Lena Reilly
She smiles and nods.  "And there's nothing wrong with that.  We all have our own ways to find Ananda. Computers, music, drugs, blood rituals, meditation, weird invocations or whatever it is the Hermetics do..."  She says that with a somewhat-joking grin.  She doesn't dislike Hermetics as a group any more than anyone else.  They just made a good choice for a bit of humor there.

"I don't know how it works for everyone else.  I just accept that, in their own way, they're touching Ananda.  And as long as they're not hurting other people, however they do it is fine by me.  Everyone walks their own path in life.  Or lives, if you prefer.  And in enlightenment, too."

Grace
And Grace doesn't know how it works for everyone else, she just accepts that in their own way, they're hacking the universe. When it all comes down to it, carefully crafted input is all it takes. She sighed, and figured maybe it's like that for everyone. They all make their own explanations.

"I was a bit afraid at first, you know? There didn't seem to be anyone like me, and the ones that were like me were... not good guys. I do my thing with computers. I figured someone sometime was going to point me out as an enemy. But that didn't happen," she says, a bit of a smile on her face.

"People are nice here. Open-minded. I like that."

Lena Reilly
She smiles a little at that, and nods.  Its a restrained smile...warm and agreeing, but not the full-feeling one she was wearing.  Experience has its upsides and its downs.

"That is great about Denver, yeah.  I haven't seen anyone try and denigrate someone else's tradition, or their methods...or anything, really.  Granted, I'm still mostly on the outside dipping a toe in, but there have been ample opportunities and it hasn't happened."

A pause, before she continues.  "It's a good enviroment to learn about this stuff.  At some point though, someone probably will.  Whether they come here or you go somewhere else...someone's going to call you a wannabe Technocrat that shouldn't be trusted.  Or you'll hear a member of the Celestial Chorus call a Verbena a heathen...or a Hermetic call a Hollow One a spoiled goth child.  Ecstatics are burned out druggie sluts, Choristers are Bible thumpers, Euthanatos are murderers...and so on.

"I don't want to try and spoil your positive experiences or anything," she adds, quickly.  "Far from it.  Everyone here is really good that I've met so far, and there are many more of them all over the place in the world.  I just...the more you know about the bad, the better.  So you're not caught unaware when it happens."

She says it all in an apologetic manner.  Now she's the one who, like Grace did before, feels bad about spreading some bad news.

Grace
"I don't even know half those names, by the way," she says a bit sheepishly. To not know something is difficult for her. But she can put some meaning to them. Celestial Chorus sounds like some kind of angel-cult. Verbena is a plant. Hermetics, she'd heard of in fictional, historical contexts. Euthanatos means, literally, 'good death', which sounds a bit odd -- same root as euthanasia. At words, she does excel.

"Ahh. I guess we are quite the same after all, even the prejudice. But thanks for the warning. At least now I'm a little more sure of myself than I was at the beginning. If someone here had greeted me with a 'Technocrat scum, get out.' I probably would have."

Lena Reilly
"Don't worry about the names," she says with a chuckle.  "I had problems with it too for a while.  It's a lot of information to absorb, and it doesn't help that we all use a lot of words to describe the same things.  Don't stress the Tradition names and the terms and stuff so much; those are just details, in the end.  Like the old Shakespeare line about the rose...you get the point."

She smiles a little.  "And I'm glad no one said that, then.  Because it's good that you're here."

Grace
"Thanks," she says, with a little chuckle-smile, and she does mean it. "I have been an information absorbing sponge lately. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It's like this whole new vista of things to know just opened up in front of me, you know?" Those eyes, they stray along the corners of the room as she continues.
"Some of it's not so nice, but then... Some of it is the most amazing shit ever. I just can't believe all this has been going on under everyone's noses."

Lena Reilly
She gives a little shrug.  "That's the power of belief.  People see what they want to see, and Paradox keeps us from going too crazy with things that might give Sleepers no other option but to see the truth.  Reality has some pretty bad-ass guardians who you never really want to piss off."  The smile that follows is barely a smile, more an upward quirk of the lips that contain just a hint of wryness to them.

"But yeah, there's a lot of beauty out there.  More than enough, if you ask me, to make the bad shit worth it."

Grace
"Yeah, I think I already did kind of run head-on into the virus scanner of reality once. Got to watch those logic errors in my code. I didn't thing I was doing anything crazy, though. Just not quite right. It would be my first time trying something like that, I screw it up," she said, in grand sarcasm.

It had felt like ice in her veins, the feeling of wrongness, and it had been her first try. Such is her luck.

Lena Reilly
Paradigm is the great equalizers among mage.  Through paradigm an Apprentice can sound like a Master and a Master can look as confused as any Sleeper watching a gargoyle come to life and rip itself off a building in search of prey.  And that's exactly what happens here; Lena, the Ecstatic who has been around, looks fairly lose by what the freshly-Awakened Grace is saying.

It's not even the technology; for the most part, Lena understands that.  She's a DJ and she works with computers regularly, after all.  She manipulates perameters, but in pre-set ways allowed by the software.  Terms life "logic errors in my code" make an abstract level of sense to the Ecstatic, but only in the entirely inadequate way that describing an acid trip works with someone who's never fried before.

Still, she gets the gist of what she was discribing.  An effect going wrong, and Parados settling into her.  She nods.  "Yeah, that's happened to me from time to time.  Even the best of us can't accomplish exactly what we're trying every single time."

Grace
"But I can't just.. not try. I don't think that's an option." Besides, it would be terribly unfun.

Grace does catch the lost look in the other's face. It happens a lot, enough to recognize the effect her speech sometimes has on others. And there, again, is that separation. She could try to explain, but that usually ends up with the other becoming even more lost.

But there is something she might be able to do...

"Would you like to see it?"

Lena Reilly
"Oh yeah, no...you always have to try."  That's something she agrees with fully.  "'The juice isn't worth the squeeze,' as they say."

And then Grace offers to show her how she works.  The reaction from the Ecstatic is...well, ecstatic.  One of the great things about the Joybringers is the depth with which they feel their Passions, and consequently their emotions.  When Grace offers to show Lena something new, she's pleased.  And that pleasure becomes (appropriately enough) joy, which unfolds from her practically in beams.

"I would love to."

Grace
And there, a chance to show off a little? Perchance to screw up again? But no, it doesn't seem like Lena would be the type to embarrass her if it didn't work.

Grinning ear to ear, she pulls her laptop out of the bag, and opens it up, boots it up, and then...

"It's all a work in progress, really. But I can at least show you what the code looks like, if nothing else. And we can always cross our fingers and hope it really does work this time."

She hasn't actually shown anyone else this yet, save for Gadfly and Razor, the ones to whom her little experiments are not so impressive. They have been there before.

Lena Reilly
Lena gets up off the floor and moves around the couch to look over the other's shoulder.  Whatever the Adept is doing may not require Lena to actually see the computer screen, but the DJ is curious about the process too.

She doesn't crowd Grace; she rests her hands lightly on the back of the couch as she watches.  She may not even understand what Grace's programming skills are accomplishing in terms of code, but she will at least see it.

"Well, if it doesn't then it doesn't.  You've heard Edison's quote about the lightbuld, right?  "I didn't fail to make a lightbulb, I just found a thousand ways not to make it before I found the one that did."

Grace
[Arete Roll, let's see if it works!]
Dice: 1 d10 TN4 (2) ( fail )

Grace
[Again! +1 diff]
Dice: 1 d10 TN5 (5) ( success x 1 )

Grace
"Edison was a prick," she says, with a bit of distaste. "Kept on fucking with Tesla, who really did come up with all the ideas." She pointed to her shirt, with the Tesla vs. Edison brawl going on. "Edison tried to prove Tesla's ideas were dangerous, by electrocuting elephants. A real piece of work that one."

It's obvious which side of the fight she's on, where that particular fight is concerned. But no matter, the machine is finished booting. She goes through the motions of opening the right files and programs, until her code is present. And it looks like fairly normal code, if one is used to looking at code, which Lena most likely is not.

Mostly unreadable, by most standards, anyway.

The first try, alas, does not succeed. At least this time, there lacks that icy surge through her, there is no pain. She looked a bit cross, and muttered, "really?" under her breath, and futzed with the code a bit. She does so want to show off.

Finally, it does appear to do something. The screen blackens, replaced with an image of what could only be described as a replica living room, complete with the two of them, outlined in glowing orange. And Grace's grin of triumph is a thing of pure joy.

"I just added the glowing orange bit yesterday. Good to see that works."

Lena Reilly
She can't help but grin a little bit as Grace goes off on Edison.  It's not a condescending sort of mirth, but rather just an appreciation of the other's passion.  She gives a little shrug, not arguing the point.

"Yeah, it's an unfortunate fact that even giant cocks find the right hole if they keep jabbing away blindly."  Great imagery, Miss DJ.  That thought finished, she shuts up and lets Grace work.  She doesn't speak up, doesn't mock or encourage when it fails the first time.  When it works the second and they're lit up on the screen like they're outlined in neon, the Ecstatic smiles.

"Nicely done!"  She leans over further, taking a closer look at the image.  "What's the glowing orange bit mean?"

Grace
"That's a lifeform indicator. So you know there's something living in the vicinity, and it pops out at you."

Sure enough, if one were to look closely at the screen, that's not the only orange in the otherwise black-and-white 3D scene. Tiny bits of it seem to float in the air, and out the duplicate window, a sea of orange can be seen. Each blade of grass outlined on its own.

"Next thing I'm going to work on is a filter, so you can kind of ignore all the little stuff, and only focus on people, say."

She waves into the air, and on her screen, the little image of orange Grace waves back.

Lena Reilly
She laughs at the wave, a sound of delight.  "Okay, that's really bad-ass.  It'd make a great idea to tie into the security.  You should talk to the others about it."

She looks at the other woman, cocking her head to the side.  "Not bad for a newbie.  At least newbie in the Awakened aspect."  It's said with gentle teasing in regard to the term, the tone warm and even congratulatory.

Grace
"Oh hey, that is an idea... We could have a display or something, showing all the people in the area? Could even restrict it to just those people the program hasn't been told about. That could work..."

She seems to consider for a bit. "It would take some doing, some equipment, and I'd have to get the code all patched up so it doesn't crash so often. But hey, it would work. I'll talk to Justin about that, see if he'd be okay with it."

The kudos, well, they make her happy. The feeling of being useful, also, makes her happy. And this shows.

Lena Reilly
Grace being happy makes Lena happy.  "See?  You're already way more useful than me."  She says it with a grin and sets a hand lightly on the other's shoulder for just a moment, an act or camaraderie.  It's about as close to a hug as Lena is known to give.  And then the hand is back where it was, before it overstays its welcome.

And then the DJ is moving around to find a seat back on the floor where she was.  "Seriously though, that is pretty cool.  I use a computer more than your average Ecstatic, but that's just for work.  I'm competant with it but even the non-Awakened part of that...way above my technological pay grade."

Grace
At the touch on her shoulder, Grace seems to tighten up a bit, but she doesn't jump or even let the feeling reach her face. And, it's not that she doesn't like Lena, it's just... a quirk.

She's been telling everyone this lately, it seems, but, "Computers aren't everyone's thing, I get that. But it is nice to be able to tell them what to do. You can do so much with so little."

Lena Reilly
She notes the tightening, and she recognizes it.  She does the same, much as you might not expect that from an Ecstatic.  "Sorry," she says, and she means it.  She doesn't push it more than that, but she feels the need to say it.

"No, I totally understand what you mean," she says as she settles into her cross-leged position.  "I'm certainly not a Luddite, and I wouldn't be able to live without my email, my phone, my mixing suite.  I am obviously in like, ten thousand classes below you on the elite scale.  But even at that level I understand what you mean about that."

Grace
And there is a little embarrassment there, in the way she can't handle that seemingly normal, human thing. Really, though, she doesn't understand why other people seem to love getting all touchy-feely. But she ignores that, and moves on.

"Well, there are those who are several thousand classes above me on the leet scale," she says, neglecting the e in front of the leet. "I met one of them a few days ago. Hacked my computer in 5 minutes, took over everything. And I've not exactly got the worst protected rig, you know?"

Lena Reilly
She gives a little nod, listening.  She knows enough to know that the gravity of that situation is not light.
"And this would be Gadfly, or your new little tipster?"

Grace
"Gadfly is..." she thinks, trying to figure out how to put it. "Well, he's a friend. But he's still kind of new, like me. The one who hacked me, they were something else."

"I do worry about him, Gadfly I mean. The only time I've talked to him out in the world, it was before I Awakened. And he can't communicate. Like, he needs a keyboard to get an idea across. I think that's why he doesn't show his face. Sid doesn't get it. A lot of people won't."

She sighed, and looked at Lena, for once in her eyes. "I think he might strain some people's open-mindedness a little too far."

Lena Reilly
She isn't much bigger on touching than Grace is, if she's being honest.  It's a thing with her, and at least one person in the city has an idea why.  But eye contact she is perfectly comfortable with and it serves as emotional contact in a way that she loses without physical contact.  Her expression is understanding, and sympathetic to the plight.

"That's got to be hard.  I do understand.  Many of my colleagues are people who generally hide behind their turntables and don't make contact with the rest of the world.  I like to think I'm fairly social for a DJ and I..."  She pauses, chewing lightly on her lip as she thinks of how to word it.

"...if I don't get a good first impression on people, I don't trust them for a long, long time.  I get it, and I understand social anxiety.  I also get people who are...have peculiar habits and mindsets.  Even very extreme kinds.

"But I also understand Sid's standpoint," she says with a sigh of her own.  "It would be all too easy for someone to use that excuse as a smokescreen.  And all it would take is one Technocrat to figure out where this place is before...well.  Exactly what we're all afraid of."  She shakes her head.

"There's a middle ground.  I'm sure we'll find it."

Grace
"I hope so. And I do get Sid's perspective too. Just, he's a fan of my writing. That's how we met, really. And anyone who's such a big fan of mine that they'd go out to a book signing, memorizing my stuff, and such... They can't be a fan of The Man. At all." She broke that stare into Lena's eyes, and her own started wandering again.

"But he's not going to meet someone face-to-face. I still can't fathom why he was there at the book signing to be honest."

Lena Reilly
She nods...again, she gets what Grace is saying.  Though there is something nagging at the back of her head, and it doesn't take that long to vocalize it.

"I get that...and I get that this is his choice.  And I don't mean choice as in 'he feels he has a choice,' because sometimes we don't, but...still."  She shrugs a little.  "I guess what I don't get was...wasn't this whole thing about possibly giving him some face time with Justin anyway?  A tour, the library, all that?  If he won't do a face-to-face, that's going to make that difficult unless he's going to peek across space-time the whole way."
She smiles a bit.  "You feel somewhat responsible for him, don't you?"

Grace
"I don't know if he'll do face-time with Justin, to be honest. I just wanted to connect him with the rest of the community somehow. He did seem interested in that part. I mean, he's going to be hovering over my shoulder on occasion, and it would do for people to know what's up with that."

She sighed, and looked up at the ceiling. "And yeah, I kind of do feel a bit responsible. I used to be like that. I mean, obviously I can talk to people now, but I still get a little iffy around a crowd, you know?"

Lena Reilly
She smiles at that.  It's a wry, ironic smile more than an amused one.  "That sort of makes you and me opposites.  I'm great with a crowd.  Get me in the middle of the dance floor and I'm never more alive and comfortable.  One-on-one is where I...do less well, in a lot of cases."  She's hiding it better now than she sometimes does, but the little signs have been there.

"There's nothing wrong with that.  I get it.  I had someone I was like that with.  Not the same situation, but still, I felt responsible for them and I did a lot of things to try and help.  You just..."  She takes a breath as she chooses her words, frowning.  "You have to realize that your help can only go so far.  You're doing what you can, you know?  And you should do everything you're comfortable doing.  But...you need to be careful not to overextend.  There comes a point that they start relying on you too much and they..."

She just shrugs.  "Sometimes they do have to take some steps themselves.  I guess that's what I'm saying."

Grace
"Yeah, I get that. I think Gadfly's going to do what he very well wants to anyways, and there's not much I can do about that besides." Hell, he spouts wormholes, what is she going to do to 'help' a guy like that?

"But he's also been a big help to me too. Talked me through the running of this thing," she gestures to the open laptop. "I need his help, really."

Lena Reilly
"Well, he's got you, and that's good."  She leans back a tiny bit, watching the other.  "And if I can help you help him some way, I'll be happy to.  Just let me know."

Grace
"Yeah, thanks, but I'd be happy just to let people know he's out there, and not such a bad guy... Once you get to know him. Which you might not. Or whatever."

She shrugged, a little out of her element in this. How does one help the antisocial? Well, she knows what worked for her, but there is no telling about Gadfly.

Lena Reilly
"He doesn't seem to be a bad guy at all.  His game could use a little work."  She grins a bit.  "Symmetrical isn't the first pickup line I would think of.  But other than that, he doesn't seem bad."

It's a joke, of course.  If he has trouble with face-to-face meetings, then his "game' is the least of his potential dating problems.  She just threw it out there to lighten the mood a bit.

Grace
"Oh, God, he told you that?" her palm met her eye like she was trying to un-see that particular image. "Oh, Gadfly..."

"Well, he meant well, I think," she smiled, awkwardly.

Lena Reilly
By the sound of her chuckle, she isn't offended or upset.  "No, it's fine.  It's near the bottom of the list of creepy compliments I've gotten, to be honest.  I get that he didn't mean it in a bad way.  There are far worse things to be called than equally matching down an axis."

She sighs a little, popping her neck to either side.  "I should actually probably head off.  I've got some things to do tonight before the sanctity of my bed calls.  But it's been good to talk with you.  I meant what I said earlier.  I'm glad you're here."

Grace
"Thanks, I'm glad you're here too," she smiled at Lena, this time without awkwardness. "I'll uh, keep in touch. And thanks again for that security screen idea! I'll get on that one..."

Lena Reilly
"Any time.  I gotta try and pull my weight somehow.  Ideas seem to be my thing."  It's said with light self-deprecation as she stands up.

"I plan on being around here more...which is to say, being here at all.  So I'm sure we'll see each other here, but yeah also my phone is always happy to take a call or text."

Grace
"Oh, I should probably give you my number, shouldn't I... It's 314-1592"

"And, um.. I'll see you!" She leaned back on the couch, and started typing away at the keys on her laptop. Apparently, the other's leaving was a cue for her to work.