Lena Reilly
Lena likes coffee.
Okay, that's an understatement. Lena lives
for coffee. I'm serious. Have you ever seen her without some kind of
caffeinated drink in her hand? Probably not. It doesn't happen, pretty
much ever unless she's set it down and it's within reaching distance.
If you ever wanna see someone go from zero to "ragingly pissy" in
nothing flat, take the girl's caffeine away for a day or so. It's not a
pretty sight.
And thus, we have her sitting outside a Starbucks
downtown, her laptop open while a quad venti latte sits half-finished
next to an empty double macchiato. She's got one headphone in her ear
and the other one faintly thrums with an electronic beat as she works,
looking over her mixing program and trying to figure out just the right
beat.
Of course, she is aware still. The girl has some level of
situational awareness, and a larger sense of situational Awareness. So
the pretty-enough thing in a black Fall Out Boy tank top underneath the
jacket, worn blue jeans and calf-high boots isn't completely oblivious
even as she works.
[[Pre-emptive magedar! Spec: Uncanny Instincts]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 7 ) Re-rolls: 2
Kalen
[Nightmares]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 3 )
Kalen
[And, do we notice Lena?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )
Kalen
Kalen
also likes coffee. He'd prefer not Starbucks coffee, perhaps, but he
has learned to take what he can get. And there have been times when he
didn't have access to ridiculous imported espresso. He knows how to
make do. This is, still, at least a step up from the sludge languishing
in convenience store pots left on burners.
And so, into the
Starbucks he goes. He pauses for a second and scans the place slowly.
Once he spots her, Lena gets a wave, and then he proceeds to order
coffee. He leans into the counter while he waits, fingertips tapping
lightly over the head of his cane.
Garrett Franklin
Garrett
is still new to Denver, though he's been here before on tour, for a day
here, a weekend there. It's not enough, though, that time here and
there with little time to do more than sign books and have dinner with
other academics. So here he is, on a day off (for whatever reason a
college professor might have a Tuesday off), exploring this area that's
fairly close to the apartment he shares with his son.
There are Starbucks everywhere.
And, though Garrett's not particularly fond of their coffee there's
something to be said for being able to get the same drink consistently
no matter where one is in the world. So while Lena is outside with her
drink and her laptop, Garrett is inside ordering a chaider - which is to
say hot chai in apple cider - which he then takes back out to enjoy
whatever weather this new city is currently offering him. So he steps
outside and there's scholarship, and renewal, and subtlety, and stability that rolls out from him in waves. As he's coming out, there's Kalen going in, and he stops the younger Hermetic briefly.
"Hey. Want to sit outside?"
Because
of course he takes it as a matter of course when they run into each
other, when mages begin to converge. It hasn't been a surprise to him
for many years.
[Awareness!]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Lena Reilly
Blame
it on the (alcohol?) (uh, no.) caffeine and the music flowing through
her ears, but for whatever reason Lena's on high alert at the moment.
Which means that she's been watching Garrett through the window since
the moment he stepped within her senses, keeping her attention pinned
more on him than on what she's doing. New people who ping her radar are
always something to be cognizant of, especially since she started
spending most of her time at the Chantry and thus she's not just risking
herself. It's possible Garrett didn't notice the set of eyes on him,
though he of course sensed her presence, that withering pulse that
emenates from her like a chillwave beat with a touch of entropy in it.
Either way, she's been watching him from her table outside while he
orders his drink.
And then she senses Kalen coming close, that
double helping of a storm. That probably doesn't help matters much,
though this one is at least familiar to her. She looks from her
observation of Garrett over at him as he waves, gives a faint smile and
an upward tilt of her chin before she turns to--
See that they
know each other, which neither helps nor hurts her assessment of the
situation. She leans back, withdrawing a cigarette from her jacket and
lighting up as she takes the earbud out and sits to observe for the
moment.
Oh Lena. This is why you don't have many friends.
Kalen
Of
course Kalen agrees to sitting outside, and before long he is back out
to join Garrett. He sets his coffee down, then settles carefully into
one of the patio chairs. They are not nearly as comfortable as
the chairs inside, but outside is where things are happening. People
are walking. And that DJ is out there too, which interests Kalen at
least a little.
"How are you?" He asks Garrett, holding
eye-contact long enough to ask the question before turning to give Lena a
quick smile and a you-should-join-us look. And then he returns his
attention to Garrett.
Garrett Franklin
The table
Garrett chooses is near enough to Lena for easy conversation but far
enough for comfort as well - so Kalen's smile is easy to send and
receive, as is the smile Garrett gives her in response. He's amiable,
this older gentleman, and has little trouble making new friends (most of
the time. Sid is weird, to him), or meeting new people. He's not shy,
in the slightest.
"I'm good, how about you? Doing better?"
Better
than the last time they were together, when Garrett was basically
making sure Kalen remembered to do things other than lounge on the couch
for half a day - and of course Garrett knows he is, but there's still
tones of concerned older relative there. Not quite fatherly, but too
close to be much else. And during this, at some point, Lena gets a
smile and a nod, polite, friendly.
Lena Reilly
She's
quiet for a moment as they interact, pausing to let them do so as she
closes down some programs on the laptop, saves her work. Just the
pleasantries so far, she notes. But obviously they know each other, or
of each other at the very least. And so that interests her, makes her
want to know more. She's a guarded one, this Cultist, but she's also
someone who seeks to know the world around her and that only comes with
perspective.
Finally she shuts the laptop down and closes it,
tapping ash into a tray on the table and setting the cigarette in it.
She picks up the hyper-caffeinated drink for a swallow and then looks at
the two, putting up a little smile. She has too much stuff to move
without seeming like she really, really wants to, and she's not one to
concede ground that easily anyway. So she leans over a bit and raises
an eyebrow, smiling.
"Fancy running into you here, Kalen. Are you going to introduce me, or...?" Her attention turns toward Garrett then.
Kalen
"Yeah, I'm good now." He smiles, warmer and slightly longer than Lena is used to seeing. "Thanks."
And
then Lena is coming over and he looks up and the smile changes into
something more polite, his expression ever-so-slightly more guarded.
But the smile doesn't disappear.
"Of course," he says to Lena.
"Have a seat if you'd like. This is Garrett Franklin, he's recently
arrived to Denver to teach all the college students. He taught me for
awhile, years ago, so I know they're lucky to have him." Is that actual
affection in his tone? It sounds like it. "Garrett, this is Lena.
She's a DJ and I'm sure she is incredibly talented but I haven't quite
managed to catch any of her sets yet." He glances up at Lena. "For
which I do apologize. I've been distracted."
Garrett Franklin
"Ah.
the DJ you mentioned. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lena," Garrett says
as he offers a hand for shaking; it's a smooth, relatively soft hand
with fingertips calloused not from guitar strings but from computer (or
possibly typewriter, at some point early on) keys - if, of course, Lena
takes it. Easy talking distance means slightly awkward shaking
distance, but the forty-something professor (who is dressed in jeans and
a white ringer shirt with a thought bubble over the word 'oxymoron' -
and inside the thought bubble the words 'social science'.
"Maybe
we should go together. If it's an all-ages show, we can invite Jacob.
Though." This next is wry and amused, but not the bitter sort of wry -
Garrett is a goofball, and in general pretty happy-go-lucky. "If I try
to tell him it's a cool, fun thing, he'll know it's the opposite, no matter what it is." There's a pause, and then, "Jacob's my son. He's sixteen."
Lena Reilly
She's
a bit curious at this person who, more than anyone she's seen him with,
Kalen seems comfortable around. She guards herself, but it's the
longing sort of guardedness of someone who wants to know more of people
even if she doesn't venture close enough to the sun for her own wax
wings to melt.
But then Kalen introduces them and it's a little
clearer...it's someone from Kalen's past. A mentor of sorts, and that
allows her to make some assumptions that may or may not be accurate.
She regards Garrett with a friendly-enough smile that turns into a faint
grin when Kalen says he hasn't managed to catch her shows because he's
been distracted.
"Yeah, that's what they all say. You'd think
we're not all just layabouts or something." The comment is tinted with
humor, generally good-natured. She nods to the the older Hermetic and
reaches over to accept the handshake. "Nice to meet you Garrett. And
yes, you should. I do try and get at least one all-ages appearance in a
weekend. I always hated it when I would go out clubbing as a teenager
and all we had was some kind of terrible pre-mixed house crap. I'll
give Kalen my schedule for the next few weeks, I'm all set up through
Halloween."
She leans back so she can take a drag off the
cigarette and then stubs it out before looking back. "You're teaching
at one of the schools, then? Right on. I kind of regret not going to
college sometimes, just for the experience at least. But what I do
isn't something you get better at with classes; it's all about learning
through experience."
Kalen
Kalen laughs, leaning
back into the obnoxious metal patio chair and laughing. "Don't say
things like that around Garrett, it's dangerous. The next thing you
know, you will somehow be enrolled in school and learning a new language
while simultaneously being roped into horizon-broadening trips around
the world." He grins. "Okay, on second thought, do. It's a good
time."
His attention strays back to Garrett. "I'll just tell him
I'm going with you and he wouldn't like it anyway. And then he will do
that, 'fuck off, Kalen, he's my father not yours' thing that he does,
and I'll yell back at him, and we'll be fine, but you'll make that frown
you make when neither of us is matching your definition of civil, and
then we'll all go see Lena." The corners of his mouth keep trying not
to flick up into a smile, but he can't quite manage a proper bored and
disinterested tone with Garrett. Even an affected one just for show.
Garrett Franklin
"That
. . . sounds about right, actually. When did I get so predictable,
hmm? Once upon a time, I was a wild man. Back when I had to walk
twenty miles to school, up hill both ways, barefoot. While hiding from
the dinosaurs." Yes, he's joking. No, he doesn't think he's old, nor
is he neurotic about his age. As far as mages go, Garrett is downright
well-adjusted.
"And, while Kalen exaggerates, I am quite the
advocate for higher education. If you find yourself interested, feel
free to let me know - I'll see what we can do to get you in the classes
you want. And also, new languages and trips around the world are fun, thank you very much."
It's
light banter, so much amusement and pleasure just to be where he is, in
the company he is. He's a relatively simple man, all things concerned.
Lena Reilly
She
chuckles a little at the banter between the two, though she shakes her
head when Garrett offers to help get her in classes. It's amicable
enough and even friendly for the moment, despite the polite refusal
suggested in the motion.
"I appreciate that, but no. The only
thing that I really feel like I missed out on is the college life
experience, and I'm very well past that at this point. If I ever get
the desire to try out a dorm though, I'll let you know."
She sips
her gaze between them a moment, her weight leaning forward on her elbows
which in turn rest on her knees. "So have you made the rounds of
meeting people yet?"
Kalen
"In the snow," Kalen
leans in and mutters to Garrett, just loudly enough for Lena to hear.
"On account of it still being the ice ages or something." He settles
back again after that to let Garrett answer Lena.
He watches them
both a little, and the people passing by them on the street, and the
cars and the...well, Kalen watches everything. Even right now, when
he's as relaxed as Lena has ever seen him and he's playing with Garrett.
Even a passing helicopter gets a quick evaluation glance. Even so,
he's still drinking his coffee, and there is still a slight lingering
smile, so whatever else he may be doing, he does seem to be happy enough
here.
Garrett Franklin
"Right, right, how could I
forget the snow!" It's overblown dramatics, of course, and an
interesting thing about his face is that it's nearly rubber-like in the
expressions it makes. Also, when he's playing like this, it's
impossible to catch him blinking.
So there's Lena asking about who
he's met, or rather if he's met anyone, and Garrett thinks for a moment
before saying, "Not anyone with full introductions or anything. But I
met Sid, briefly, and Trent, but that's it. I haven't been out and
about that much, yet - between getting settled in at the new university
and getting my son settled into his new school and dealing with his
acting out, I haven't been out and about that much. So you're one of
the first few, and already I think this meeting is going better than
that other one." And Garrett was no less congenial then than he is now -
he'd just been presented with something curious, then, a case study of
sorts, and hadn't been able to resist the impulse to learn more. Now,
as far as he can tell, everything is on the table.
Lena Reilly
She
smiles when Garrett mentions Sid; the fondness there is obvious from
the Ecstatic. Trent gets vague recognition but nothing more than that;
she's heard about him in association with the business with the film,
and she knows his Tradition, but hasn't learned much eyong that.
"I
get that," she says with a nod. "When I first got here I largely kept
to myself while I settled in, and that was only partly because I'd not
met anyone yet. Even after I met Sid I kept myself to the sidelines
for..." She purses her lips, and then shrugs and smiles. "Well, far
too long actually. I've only in the last month or so gotten around to
getting involved."
A quick glance goes to Kalen then. He was
there when she spoke with Shoshannah about becoming more invested in the
mages of Denver, after all. It's a brief look at best; she's still not
in any way sure about the younger Hermetic for reasons that are kept
entirely her own. And then she's got her gaze back on Garrett. "So
yeah, it's still a work in progress for me."
Kalen
"Well,
I can introduce you to Grace, but other than than that about everyone
here you've already met or I don't really know or they don't like me."
He huffs a little, smile melting into a smirk. "Imagine that."
A
real smile comes back though, when he looks back at Garrett instead of
at everything in the world in general. "I bet they like you better if I
don't introduce you though. Guilt by association and all." If people
not being into hanging out with him actually bothers him, there is
certainly no indication. "I was always a results person more than
anything. And with what we do, or at least what I do...c'est la
vie...." He shrugs.
Patience Mason
[Per+Aware]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Patience Mason
[Drive]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 7, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )
Garrett Franklin
"They'd
like you better if you weren't so intent on remaining aggressively
closed off, I bet," Garrett returns, and it's in those same nearly
paternal tones with which he'd asked if Kalen was doing better; there's
concern, and care, and more than that. However these two met, it's
pretty obvious that they know each other quite well now.
"But
really, everything's a work in progress. If there was nothing new to
learn and no knowledge or understanding to refine, what would be the
point?"
Lena Reilly
Kalen's comment about people
not liking him draws a quick look, but she leaves it there because he's
good-natured about it. Lena's one of those people who are on the fence
of course, but on the fence is different than 'don't like.' And more to
the point, Kalen gives a little explanation that, if not much into it,
at least gives her a little insight. She understands 'results person.'
Some people just aren't the most open and she gets that.
And then, Garrett accuses those people who don't like Kalen of remaining aggressively closed off
and that draws a raised eyebrow and a stifled chuckle. "I'm sorry,"
she says, and she seems to mean it. "I'm honestly not trying to start
an argument here. But at least to my knowledge, the people who
are...not entirely sure about Kalen or have issues with him do so
because..."
She looks to Kalen now, because she doesn't want to
talk about him like he's not there. "Well, because you're rather
aggressively closed off yourself. Which I'm not judging, really. We
all have our reasons. I'm just pointing it out because--well, I don't
even know, maybe someone's said it. But if not, at some point it's
gotta be said."
Patience Mason
Starbucks was about
as mundane as one could get, with its unified branding image, its
beverages which changed in quality only because of the skill of the
barista making it. One would think that such place would be anathema to
the awakened mind.
Wether this was true or not was a moot issue
as several magi stood just beyond the realm of coffee and treats
enjoying the warm desert air. Patience for her part rarely went to such
coffee houses, be it out of preference or simple convenience it didn't
matter. But passing by such places? Well that was all but impossible to
avoid. The Etherite's presence is first telegraphed by the complex whine
and rumble of an engine. The machine which she rode was much like its
rider, it seemed to have been made for another time, for an era now long
past or not yet upon us.
Long and sleek the motorcycle which came
into view spoke of an art deco ascetic with a paint job of deepest blue
and trimmed with chrome, the seat was wide and comfortable, made of a
well worn leather that spoke of continual, and loving use. The rider
herself wore riding leathers, a pair of knee high leather boots with a
solid heel, and a leather jacket reminiscent of an old barnstormer's
jacket.
She cut through traffic quickly, efficiently, and as she
did so the tingle of the awakened presence drew those ocean blue eyes to
the small group next to the starbucks. She didn't even cut the throttle
as she cut through a perfectly sized space of traffic void, and into
the outer lane, the bike sliding into nearest parking space in the
similarly smooth motion. That done, the engine fell into silence as
Patience cut the power and leaned back in the seat, her eye's falling on
the others as a small, polite smile crossed her lips.
Lena Reilly
[[Delete
everything out of that post after the first paragraph. I hate the font
size of the chat and didn't read the post right.]]
Kalen
[[Well. It's not like I haven't done that already today. :)]]
Kalen
"Garrett,"
Kalen says, and his voice is gentle, but there is just a hint of a
warning in it. "You know what I used to do. It's not just me. I don't
make anything easy, but even if I'd come rolling into this town with
another face I think we'd still be here. Or close enough to here. And
what woul-"
He breaks into a sudden, grin when he sees Patience,
the warning note completely vanishing from his tone and his eyes losing
that slightly narrowed look. "Hey, Firefly. How've you been?"
Garrett Franklin
"Kalen,"
Garrett says, and there's no warning there but there is a raised
eyebrow; he's fatherly and easy-going 98.75% of the time (unless you ask
his actual son, in which case you'd get an entirely different
assessment), though there are a few things that will get that step back
and raised eyebrow.
He is Hermetic, after all. And Quaesitor, at that.
But
it's all let go with the new arrival, who gets a smile as friendly and
open as the one Garrett gave Lena upon their meeting, which is only
different from the smile Kalen gets in that it's not so familiar,
bordering on intimate. "Hello, Miss."
Lena Reilly
Patience
MasonShe's quiet for that moment, as she seems to get a brief inside
into Kalen and it intrigues her. The question of what he used to do,
Garrett's raised brow...it's all pieces of the puzzle that Lena can't
help but start to try to put together, sizing and comparing with the
other jagged pieces she has to see what fits where and what image is
starting to emerge. She's a discerning sort, similar to Garrett albeit
perhaps a bit less direct.
But those pieces are thrown back into
the shadows and she just gets a glimpse before Patience shows up, and
hyper-aware (at the moment) Lena snaps her attention over to that woman
with a sudden, enthusiastic smile. The Ecstatic quite likes the strange
woman, this much is clear, and she rises as Patience walks over with a
warm expression.
"Hey, you. It's nice to see you. You're looking good. How're you doing?"
Patience Mason
The
helmet Patience wore was old and made of a flexible leather with
expanded pockets around the ears. In normal circumstances one might
wonder how the hell someone would be crazy enough to wear such flimsy
protection while riding a motorcycle, but Patience was of the Son's of
Ether, and that could mean her helmet might well take a tank shell
before giving...one never does know.
She'd managed to draw her
helmet from her head as they began their greetings, her dirty blonde
hair falling about her face in a messy mane of helmet hair, no victory
rolls toda. [it just wouldnt fit, no matter how much bigger on the
inside she made that helmet]. She slid one leather bound leg over the
side of the motorcycle and rose to her full height, made slightly higher
by the extra bit of heel on her boots.
"Appropriately
sociological and intro-cultural affirmation's and verbalized
activation's to your individualized personages." She said casually with a
wave of a leather glove before she moved to pull it free with her other
hand. This freed appendage is held out to Garett, the singular new face
in the group whom Patience had yet to meet, and the polite smile became
a little warmer, her eyes open in interest as she took in this new
factor in her existence.
"My parentologically assigned index
assisted by heritological factor's is Patience Mason, this is a direct
acknowledgement of your ratification and indexing as an individualized
personage within the concurrent temporo-reality stream as actualized by
my noospheric field." She said warmly, apparently pleased.
She
then turned her gaze to Kalen with a nod, if perhaps a quizzical look
upon her features as she replied. "The negatively aligned temporal
framework within the active stream has been nominally utilized and
existed within Kalen." She said pleasantly, before the confusion
returned and she inquired. "Please extrapolate and identify the use of
the laymen index for Insecta Coleoptera Lampyridae." She looks over her
shoulder as if to examine her back before looking at Kalen once more.
"The gluteus maximus of this biological structure has not initiated a
chemical reaction with which to produce sufficient lumen's with which to
attract appropriate nutrient items or replicative co-organisms."
She
looks at Lena and returns that warm expression before inquiring. "Lena,
this bio-physical structure continues to operate and facilitate
actuality of the noospheric field within nominal ranges given for known
frotean anomalies, however at this particular temporal juncture would
you assist in deriving the meaning of Kalen's verbalized statement?" She
asks, tilting her head back to Kalen curiously.
Kalen
And
Kalen, who spends most of his time trying so very hard not to look like
he care about things pays real attention to Patience. He has to, after
all. It pulls some of his focus off of evaluating everything around
them for threats, but that seems to make him calmer instead of more
anxious.
His head tilts a little and he can't help but smile
when Patience is so baffled by her new nickname and then she speaks in
all the puzzles and it may be the best thing that has happened to him
all day. "Because you have that glow," Kalen says to Patience. "And
because I find your presence is something I'm fond of. So you get
another Name from me. I'm sorry if it confuses you."
Garrett Franklin
"My
parentologically assigned index assisted by heritological factors is
Garrett Franklin. It's a pleasure to drift into your noospheric field,
Miss Mason." This is given easily as Garrett rises to shake Patience's
hand; he's considerably older than his companions, Garrett is, clearly
in his 40s as he is.
"Kalen Names people - usually only people he
likes. Consider yourself fortunate, Miss Mason." And he says it
genuinely; he clearly holds the younger man in high esteem. As he's
saying this, he's adjusting chairs so Patience can join them if she so
desires - it's polite and gentlemanly, as Garrett tends to be.
Lena Reilly
She
was ready to answer if neither Kalen nor Garrett did, but they both
contribute in a way that should give the agestuck woman a satisfactory
answer. And so she settles back down, taking out another cigarette.
She really, really shouldn't smoke but you have to allow her a few
vices; so many others have been cut out throughout the years, except in
special situations or emergencies.
"Oh, you only get nicknames if
Kalen likes you? Explains why I'm still Lena, I guess." She says it
with a little grin, no serious hurt behind it. Patience's presence is
like that of Sid's or Shoshannah's; it relaxes Lena. Those three are
like her version of Kalen's Garrett, basically. She lights up and leans
back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other.
Patience Mason
Kalen
offers his own answer to her inquiry, and then to her delight she
receives collaborative information from Garrett and Lena, which only
verified the initial statement and the etherite gave out a gentle
chuckle as she nodded. She watched as Garrett made space and she nodded
her thanks, but turned her gaze towards the coffee shop with obvious
interest.
"Such factor's and data were within the established
internalized thesis. However extrapolative interrogation and collative
acumen was necessary to come to a suitable conclusive reading beyond
80.531 percent." She turned bodily towards the shop then and stepped
towards it, a finger raised to the door as she said.
"Allow
several temporal units to pass until the re-materialization of my
bio-physical structure, at this temporal juncture complex carbohydrates
are a suitable nutrient derivative to augment and fuel this
bio-structure." She said, stepping past them all and into the store.
[Sorry
guys, lifes getting in the way and imma put Patience in limbo
[starbucks] until i can come back, which hopefully wont be to horribly
long. :( ]
Kalen
"I also have to know something
about you. So there is that," he says to Lena. "Sometimes I just don't
know." It's hard to tell if that is an offer of general supplemental
information or pointed supplemental information.
He nods to Patience. "Of course."
Garrett Franklin
And there's Garrett's phone giving off the TARDIS vworp
sound - he pulls it out, checks it, sighs. "My son," he says, giving
attention back to his companions just in time to give Patience a little
wave as she goes in to get her drink. "Apparently, we have no food in
the house and I have to go pick up the Chinese he ordered. "it was a
pleasure to meet you, Miss Reilly - I'm sure we'll see each other again
soon. "Come over if you're hungry, Kalen. Jacob always orders too
much."
And with that, Garrett's up and heading out, giving polite nods, waves, and the like.
Lena Reilly
"Ahh," she says to Kalen, nodding a little with a faint smile. "Well, any time you wanna quid pro quo, feel free."
It's
a friendly enough statement, but a pointed one too. If he's not going
to trust them with details about his life, she's not willing to do the
same. Trust engenders trust.
Kalen
"Some other
time," he says to Lena. "And, perhaps more notably, some other place.
It was good to see you." He rises and heads off with a small smile and
a wave.
Lena Reilly
She watches Kalen head off for a moment, then smiles and shakes her head slightly. Some other time, he says. She rather doubts that. She knows people with walls and she knows delaying tactics.
Still, he may surprise her. You never know.
Kalen
gone, she looks back to her laptop and flips it back open, opening up
her email to look over her latest samples for remixes as sent by fellow
DJs while she takes a drag of her cigarette.
Patience Mason
Patience
took a while, it was easily a good fifteen minutes before she returned
from her adventure into the Starbucks, and when she returns she seems
slightly flustered, her lips are drawn slightly downward as she
approached the table and found it to be largely empty. This admittedly
surprises her, and as she approaches the table with a small coffee cup
in hand she inclines her head and asks.
"What relativistic
abberation in the socio-cultural allignment and dissertation actualized
and imparted the departure and movation of the individuals indexed as
Kalen and Garett?" She inquires, seating herself in the chair that
Garett had pulled out for her and looked about curiously.
Lena Reilly
She
looks up from the computer screen, chin resting on her propped-up hand,
and smiles to Patience when she comes over, babbling in that way that
isn't babble at all. Lena, for whatever reason, finds herself
surpremely comfortable around the other and when she asks her question
there's the usual focused look as she translates in her head, gets the
meaning of what Patience is saying.
She's got it figured out (like
she often does) by the time the unaging Etherite finishes speaking.
"Oh, Garrett had something come up involving his kid, and Kalen..."
She sighs, looking over her shoulder as if she could spy Kalen leaving, even though he's been gone for a few minutes now.
"Kalen was being Kalen. There is something seriously not right about that boy."
That boy,
saiid the twenty-four year-old. But Lena's lived enough for more than a
couple lifetimes, and when you're on borrowed time everyone seems
young.
Patience Mason
Lena was aged and wise by
dint of experience, and Patience...well Patience existed within an
entirely different scale of age and time. You very rarely come across
the like of her, even in the community of magi as it was. Regardless of
this Lena calls Kalen a boy, and Patience smiles, a gentle laugh
escaping her lips as she responds in her way.
"Every
individualized personage that I has ever been actualized and indexed by
my noospheric field would by temporal relativistic framework be
classified as a pre-pubescent youth." She held her cup in her hands for a
few moments before setting it on the table and reclining in the metal
chair, crossing her leather bound legs gracefully and taking in the area
about them as she undid her coat, pulling on the big brass buttons to
let some air in.
"Thus far I have encountered little aberrant or
negatively aligned socio-noospheric defects or idiosyncrasies in the
aforementioned personage, would you be willing and capable of divulging
and extrapolating upon your verbal dissemination Lena?" She inquires,
ever curious despite her age.
Grace Evans
[Awareness! I need a reason for Grace to appear in a Starbucks!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (5, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Lena Reilly
Patience's
observation that they're all old compared to her draws a bit of a grin
and a chuckle, before she leans back and presses Send on an email. The Ecstatic finds amusement there, and she nods to concede the point.
"In this life, sure. That all gets fuzzy when we go beyond that....but I'll give you that one."
She
sighs a little bit and puts the smoke back between her lips, drawing
the carcinogenic smoke deep into her lungs and exhaling it through her
nose as she considers Patience's question about Kalen. There's a moment
where she hesitates, like she doesn't know how much she wants to say.
There's risk in revealing things like this because it tells people about
who you are, something the Ecstatic has largely avoided. But she gives
in to the question and shrugs, ashing into the tray at her table.
"I
don't..." A pause as she aborts that line of thought, and then she
starts again. "Kalen is someone who holds onto who he is very tightly.
And I'm not talking about who he was. I don't mean stories of his
past, though there's that too...I don't mind that. But he is very, very
careful about not giving a shit about anything."
She gives a
light shrug, taking another drag of smoke. "I have problems trusting
people like that. And I don't like the way he treats one of my friends,
either."
Grace Evans
Grace is not here for
coffee. It is a Starbucks. This kind of place sucks the soul out of you,
she thinks. As Gadfly would say it, this is how they get you -- the
preservatives.
And the network of coffee shops so thick there's
one on every corner. How convenient. How unnerving. It's a symbol, yes?
And not of the mermaid with a split tail variety, but one of hegemony.
Like how that mermaid became less and less female, less and less
subversive as the brand took shape to conquer the world in caffeinated
capital.
No, Grace is on her bike, on her way home from somewhere else when she feels it. Lena comes through first, that rhythmic wilted something, followed
by another, less familiar presence. And, well, there they were, right?
The two sitting there, one she recognizes as Patience (but the name
"Robot-Voice-Woman" admittedly comes to mind first) and then Lena, and
it would be rude not to stop, right?
Even though this is the Coffeeshop of the Beast. Ugh.
She
walks her bike up to the outdoor tables, and lays it against the wall
of the building. "Hey guys! Girls! Whatever... Ah, what's up?"
Patience Mason
Patience
listens to Lena's words as she pulls the lid off the top of her coffee
cup and gives it a sniff, her nose wrinkles a little with each intake of
air, and then in the end those full lips turn downward a little. But
instead of going into the store to grab some sugar or milk, maybe some
of that artificial sweetener [heaven forfend] she reaches into her
pocket and pulls out what might look like an elaborate wand, made of a
machined metal and furnished with lacquered wood the thing is finely
crafted and about an inch thick and five inches long. She nods as Lena
spoke and once again frowned slightly when Lena spoke of the way he
treated someone.
"Further extrapolation would exemplify and
articulate this intrinsic defect within his socio-noospheric reflection.
As this individual has yet to actualize any negative data utilizing all
available relativistic sensory input. His nominal demeanour has been
that of the standardized status of pleasant, attentive and interested."
She stated in a 'please do go on' sort of tone as she pointed the wand
into the cup, placing the tip as close to the black substance as she
dared.
"Activating meta-scientific apparati, please be actual."
She said as she rotated a tiny silver ring near her finger, and a solid
beam of light could be seen stabbing into the drink, and she made to
stir it as if the wand were a stir stick.
It was at this point she looked up and nodded to Grace as she arrived, a friendly look upon her features as she stated.
"At
this temporal juncture Lena is verbally disseminating fact's and data
points relevent to the personage indexed as Kalen, in addition I am
concurrently utilizing this device to isolate, and neutralize all
undesirable and non nutrient baring deviant molecules."
[Arete]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (1, 9) ( success x 1 )
Patience Mason
[Extend for funs]
Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (1, 8) ( success x 1 )
Lena Reilly
Starbucks
may be the Coffeeshop of the Beast, but it's still a source of
caffeine. In Lena's eyes, that makes the chain a necessary evil in the
world. After all, you can only do so many energy drinks in order to get
her favored drug of choice and it offers a place to sit down and
work...and the Ecstatic doesn't worry too terribly much about her mixes
getting spied on by the Technocracy.
She looks up, noting Grace
before she gets close due to her hyper-awareness at the moment. The
deejay gives a bright smile and waves as Grace walks her bike up. "Hey,
you. Fancy seeing you here. How's it going?"
She smiles a
little bit when Patience explains (in her own inimitable way) what
exactly is up. The use of the Effect pings off of the Ecstatic's
consciousness and she looks at the little beam of light in the cup
curiously. "Wow...interesting." They all have their different ways of
doing what they do, and Lena finds some interest in seeing how Patience
works her magic.
"What Patience said," Lena says to Grace, and
then stubs out her cigarette and gestures to a chair at the table. "How
about you? Everything going well?"
She glances back at the
unaging woman then and gives a light shrug. "He's not a bad guy, I
don't think. He just...has one of those personalities that I react
poorly to. I'll get over it, he'll relax a little bit or we'll get into
a shouting match that blows off a ton of steam. I don't dislike him, I
just..."
She shrugs. "It's my issues as much as it is his, I suppose."
Grace Evans
Grace
kind of does a 'woo' look at Patience's stabby light wand thingy.
"Well, I would't want to be a nondesirable deviant molecule right now, I
am thinking."
"Hmm, and why are we gossiping about Kalen?" she
asks, swinging a chair out like she was already invited to do so.
Listens, as Lena goes and talks about the guy, and then goes a bit
silent. Digs a bit into the table with her fingernail. Looks over
Patience's wand again, you know... not really there.
'Cause Kalen's a friend. And that's a bit uncomfortable. What to say?
"He's a bit standoffish at first, I know..."
Patience Mason
"As
previously disseminated, I as an individualized personage have
encountered no such negative behavioural cue's or attributes, however It
is through thorough understanding of an individual through multiple
test groups and data quotients that one is able to ascertain a more
efficient psychological and sociological profile of the afformentioned
individual." She shrugs, as if she meant nothing by it.
She
finished working her magic on the coffee and tucked the wand/laser away
as she took a moment to sniff the coffee once more. It was then that she
smiled and picked it up, taking a careful sip of the drink as she
considered the others, Grace in particular in this moment.
"What data are you able to contribute to ascertain and actualize a more thorough and effective profile?"
Lena Reilly
She
looks a little apologetic at Grace when she seems uncomfortable with
the topic. The last thing she wants is to put people in a difficult
position and Grace's reaction, her question and comment suggest that
going further down this road of conversation will put her in that very
spot. So she shakes her hand and then smiles.
"We weren't,
really. Kalen was here and left, Patience picked up on my wierdness
about him and asked about why I felt that way. I was just explaining my
own personal thoughts and reactions to him, not anything about him or
anyone else." She smiles, very faintly. "It's fine, like I said, it's a
me thing. I have trust issues that he spikes up. Not much more than
that."
Then Patience asks Grace what she knows about Kalen that
may help her form a more detailed picture, and she shakes her head.
"Probably best to change the topic. I don't want to make anyone feel
uncomfortable." A sigh, and she smiles. "What's new with you guys?"
Grace Evans
Grace
glances over at Lena, and the first thing she wants to say, she
doesn't. Kalen's teaching her how to shoot, and that's new, right?
"I... ah... not much I can say really," she responds in code. They're outside in public, after all. Going on about business wouldn't be right. "But you know, schoolwork. I'm definitely busy."
Patience Mason
The
topic derails, it seems discussing Kalen was no longer a viable topic,
and Patience sits there for a few moments finding the knowledge she had
gleened to be considerably less then she had hoped. She taps a finger
against the side of her coffee cup and quirks a lip contemplatively
before she looks towards Lena and offers a casual shrug, a sure sign
that not a whole lot was up.
"I have been utilizing available
temporal units to process, plan, manufacture and maintain the Aurora."
She says, a small smile creeping up onto her lips. "Projections based
upon the current rate of raw materiel acquisition and the available
temporal units to this individualized personage indiciate an estimated
ten solar rotations before the Aurora is ready for movation beyond the
immediate geographical locality of the landmass I have acquired
propertiorial rights too."
She looks over at Grace then and
inquires. "Have you ascertained any further forward movation within your
chosen and active thesis?"
Serafine
Perception + Awareness
Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 2, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 7 ) Re-rolls: 2
Serafine
So
it is eightish on a Tuesday night and that means Sera has been up for
maaaaybe four or five hours. So, noonish for her. That means it is
legal to start drinking, though she may well have started when she woke
up. A bit of whiskey mixed into her Darjeeling while she eased her way
out of an acid hangover and waited for Dan to descend and cook her some
French toast with that loaf of brioche Dee brought home from the
bakery. They don't get good bakery stuff on the weekends these days
because Dee's always traveling right now for Derby playoffs and Derby
matches and Derby things, and it is a good thing they have only been
sort-of working lately, or they might actually be gigging on the
weekends, instead of just spottily during the week.
--
But,
eightish. Well past twilight now though there is a glimmer of sunlight
against the spread of the western mountains, visible in places where
the downtown core cuts away, at intersections, in parks, giving a
straight shot over the low-rise sprawl to, yeah, those fucking
mountains. Two people outside with their arms flung around each other,
and they both look way cooler than you ever thought you could. Dan's
wearing skinny black denim and a t-shirt from their old band and a
beanie over his blond hair and a black hoodie, unzipped, the cuffs
shoved up his forearms to reveal his tattoos. He is tall, well over six
feet, and he has an arm slung over Sera's shoulders.
Sera is
wearing a short red cocktail dress with spaghetti straps over black
thigh-high tights that have that torn-to-pieces look because it is
awesome. Instead of spike heels, combat boots. They have a bit of a
platform, maybe two extra inches, but nowhere close to her usual
magickal five or six extra inches. They are out walking, see. She has
her arm around his waist and her hand tucked into the back pocket of his
jeans and they're talking about something, sharing the intimate
laughter of old friends along with a silver flask and you may think they
are just passing by but,
you would be wrong. Sera felt them all from a half-fucking-mile away.
He
holds the Starbucks door open and she slips under his arm and in they
come. Headed in a pretty direct line past the counter toward the three
other mages.
Lena Reilly
[[They're outside. =) ]]
Serafine
(delete last line!)
Lena Reilly
The
conversation tapers off without Kalen to talk about, and that just
makes Lena feel a bit more uncomfortable. She listens to the two
women's responses--Grace has school, Patience has been working on that
project which is rather crucially important to her. Lena is an Ecstatic
and as such has an innate sense of time; still, she has to do a little
thinking to connect ten solar rotations to the right period of time.
"Oh, cool. Is that...more or less time that you had initially thought?"
She
goes a little quiet after that, letting the Etherite and Virtual Adept
talk about their schooling. It's a topic that Lena had broached in
regard to herself with others before either of them had arrived; she
never attended school herself, but kind of wishes she'd had the college
life experience. Outside of that, she doesn't regret not going.
And
then her attention shifts as she notes Sera's presence. As hyper-aware
as the red dress-wearing Ecstatic is, the jeans/tank top/jacket-wearing
one is equally so and they sense each other right away. So she's
looking down the street as Sera and the guy she's arm-in-arm with come
up, already raising a hand to wave well before most would note someone
recognizable. She waits quietly for her Traditionmate to arrive,
offering both her and Dan nods.
"Hey, you. And hi." The first to Sera, who she knows (if not closely yet), and the second to Dan who she hasn't yet met.
Grace Evans
"Ahh,
it goes slowly, Patience. There's also classes to go to and homework to
do, and..." Oh who is she kidding? The mental programming makes that
fairly easy. One half of the brain focuses on class, the other half does
homework, and she can read twice as fast now and still understand it.
"Well, actually, it's not that. There is just a lot more going on."
A
lot more sleeping, for one. Though that feels, to her, like sloth
itself. To be honest, she's a bit down on herself for not making much
progress in that particular area, and is making excuses.
"I have
given some thought to what you said, but I still think it wouldn't work,
for the same reason I had before. I'm a graduate student in computer
science. At some point, someone would straight out ask where I managed
to become a biologist of all things, and how I knew what to put in the sim, and therein lies the problem. I can't say. I cheat. That's all there is to it."
Grace
does not feel Sera coming from a mile away, or even a half-mile. But
she does feel the addition of that resonance, yes. That drawing, aching
sensation. And it draws her gaze straight to the lady in red, even if
she has to twist her head to do so.
Patience Mason
Patience
listens to Grace as she explains her situation and Patience
understands, at least in some manner she does. So she offers one little
piece of advice. "Acquiring appropriate source data and expertise to
assist in correlation of the afformentioned data would be considered
standard practice for such thesis actualization would it not?"
She
makes this offer in a round about way before looking up to Sera as she
approaches, a warm smile upon her lips as she nods to the woman the man
with her. "I must depart from this locality at this juncture, however
Sera, it is with mathematical certainty that my noospheric field
actualizes your concurrent and continued nominal status." She rose then,
looking to Lena and Grace.
"Similar statements are at this
juncture transferable and impressionable upon your personages as well."
Smiles offered to each of them as she starts to put on that leather
helmet of her's and offering her seat to either Sera or her fellow.
But then she's on her way, moving towards her art deco motorcycle just a few feet away.
[Sorry guys, gotta crash here thanks for the scene!]
Serafine
Sera's
the one with the flask in hand now. She is halfway through the motion
of capping it. Or uncapping it. One or the other, and it requires two
hands so as the pair of them amble up to the outdoor table where the
other magi have congregated, well, Dan has his arm around Sera's
shoulders, and both her hands are occupied. Sera tips the flask outward
towards the other women, offering it around.
"Hey!" to Lena, and
"Graaaaaacie," to Grace, reaching out to touch her somehow. Ruffle her hair maybe, and
"Chica," to Patience, "you are the fucking limit."
With the bemused and ironic but deep affection of someone for the
world's largest ball of string, or the monorail to nowhere, or or or -
--
She is not sober, Sera. It is more than booze.
--
"This is Dan," Grace and Dan have met, so the introduction is for Lena and Patience. "He's Cool."
Then she looks up at Dan, just beaming. Like she invented starlight, or at least the Irish car bomb.
"That. Is the robot-talking lady."
Lena Reilly
Lena
gives a smile and a little wiggle of the fingers when Sera introduces
Dan, the expression friendly. A friend of Sera's is a good start as far
as she's concerned, doubly so if Grace knows them. "Hey. Nice to meet
you." She amiably waves off the offer of the flask and instead reaches
out to tap the nearly-empty quad latte next to her laptop.
"I've
already gotten semi-close to needing another one, hon. And I try not to
combine my vices," she says with a half-grin. Says the girl who is
always on caffeine and yet smokes. "At least, not too terribly much."
She
leans back, gesturing to the open seat vacated by Patience (and the one
next to it). "Join us. How're things with you? We don't hang out
nearly enough, you know that?" She's just naturally more at ease around
members of her Tradition (not surprisingly, of course).
Grace Evans
Patience
says, 'So, get help from a biologist,' or... well, you know. That's
what it translates to, and Grace just can't imagine how that might work.
Having to work so closely with someone, and having to skirt around
certain issues, and lead and hint and goad them in the right direction?
It could work. It could also be a total disaster.
Unless that biologist were also Awakened... hmm.
Just
then, her thoughts are muddled by a 'Graaaaaaacie' and a hair ruffling,
and suddenly Grace is sporting the oddest looking startle-smile. "Hey,
it's Sera..."
Sera's having Fun, this much is obvious. The flask
is declined, but this is done with that weird smile of discomfort mixed
with impatience at that discomfort. It's like the smile is Grace's
attempt to not be wigged out by that shuffling of hair.
"Yeah, sit with us!"
Serafine
"I always
combine my vices," Sera's laughter is rich and only mildly self mocking
and her statement is clearly one thousand percent true. She is
combining vices as we speak and will pile vice on vice on vice until the
world spins away from her like a pendulum gone mad and all she can do
is hold on tight. "Don't I?" Lifting her straight brows to Dan for
confirmation. He drops a kiss onto her brow. The affection in that
kiss is quite nearly fraternal. "It's what makes life worth living.
"And
I'm always around. 'Cept when I'm not, but," a flashing grin as she
takes another pull from the flash. " - our door's almost always open.
You're welcome pretty much anytime.
"We're on our way to a show,
but we can hang a bit," when Lena offers seats, and Grace adds in an
enthusiastic second. "What the fuck is up with y'all?"
Lena Reilly
Lena
smiles, basking a bit in the warmth of Sera's glow. It's not a feeling
that she exudes on her own and her vice-combining days are well-behind
her, but she always finds some level of warm, almost reminiscent comfort
in seeing it in other Ecstatics. It's a window back into something she
enjoyed, albeit before she actually Awakened. Even before Lena was
able to do magic, she was a born Cultist.
"Same old, same old
really." She runs a hand over her scalp, little finger and thumb
scooping up her hair and straightening, flattening against her head to
get it in order. "I'm the dullest DJ of all time. Mostly hanging out
at the house on the weekdays and helping Shoshannah with stuff during
the week, working on the weekends. But dull isn't the worst thing in
the world, as much as I might have said otherwise once."
"What about you?" She tilts her head a little to the right, curiously. "What show are you off to?"
Grace Evans
Truth
be told, there are many things going on in Grace's life. Her plants,
her sim, her new programming techniques, the business with the movie,
the guns... None of it is light conversation. Some of it would be
dangerous to overhear. Some of it she knows would be completely
incomprehensible to Sera. So, she kind of waves her head back and forth,
and her eyes dart around like she's trying to think of what to say.
"Oh, you know, stuff."
Yesss. Perfect. Stuff.
"Hey, are you going to that Halloween party? Shoshannah seems so excited about it. Well, for Shoshannah it's like, exciteorama."
Serafine
Same old, same old, returns Lena.
Stufffff! says Grace.
Sera
has by now capped the flask and tucked it back into an inner pocket of
her leather jacket. She shoots this glance at Dan, and then looks back
at the two of them. "Jesus Christ, you need to come party with me
sometime. Stuff and Same old - "
She does not quantify her days
and nights, though. Does not really answer the what have you need up to
questions because they can read that in her skin and her eyes, the
blown pupils and the odor of whiskey on her breath and beyond that -
well -
beyond that she just doesn't say.
Dan is the one who
answers Lena's question about the show. "Melissa Wyatt. She's a
singer songwriter. I'm producing her EP." See, some people in that
household actually work. "She's a great guitarist, and does some
interesting things with rhythm and found-sound, without going off the
deep end. So, just trying to support a friend."
"I guess so?" Sera to Grace, about the party. A little dubiously, though. " - I mean, it's at the house, right?"
The chantry she means. "So it's just us?"
Lena Reilly
The
DJ squints a moment in thought after Dan mentions the name.
"That...sounds familiar, I think." Lena's in music, after all. It's a
completely different style of music of course, but we're talking about a
local music community and since she arrived in Denver Lena's done a lot
to get herself insinuated into the scene. "One of the other deejays
had mentioned her, I think. That's awesome though. If you and her
want, I would love to do some a remix for the club. Might help get her
some visibility."
She nods a little bit to Sera when she asks if
it'll be at the 'house.' "Yeah, we're getting it all decorated up
already, both for the party and in general. It looks pretty amazing,
Shoshannah's done some great work with it."
And then a grin. "And
I'm always down to party, to a degree anyway. There are some limits on
how far I can really get my party on anymore, I'm afraid. But yeah,
other than that, anytime."
Grace Evans
The others
have their world, of gigs and music and partying (which is different,
Grace thinks, than attending a party, exactly) and the apprentice thinks
it sure is a shame that Patience had to leave so soon. So, if they're
going to talk parties, Halloween is a better topic than the kind Sera
means.
"That girl really goes all out with the deco. I like it,
though," she says, and that's a rare compliment from her. Decoration is
meaningless to her. Usually. Function before form and all that.
"I'm going to go. Don't know what I'm going to wear yet, but I have some ideas..."
Serafine
"You should let me dress you up," Sera says to Grace. "Or just come raid my fucking closet. Jesus Christ, you should go as me that would be fucking awesome."
"I'll
mention it to her," Dan says, with a quick grin and a faint shrug to
Lena. "I don't know how well suited her stuff is to nightclubs? But
what the hell. It might work, you know?" Then, to Sera, " - hey, we're
gonna be late. We need to get a move on."
Then Sera's standing,
telling Lena that they'll get together soon, though one expects that
Sera... has no limits. In a way that is both brilliant and bloody
frightening, at the self-same time.
Soon enough the duo are off down the street, waving a farewell as they go.
Lena Reilly
She grins a little at Dan's response. "You'd be surprised what genres and sounds I can make sound good in a club."
And then Sera and Dan are taking off and she waves to them, saying she'll see them later before she looks to Grace.
"Whatever
you dress up as, it'll be fine. The point is dressing up. Honoring
the old ways and all that, even if its via the new ways." She
recognizes the irony of mentioning 'the old ways' to Grace, but does so
anyway because...well, because she does.
Grace Evans
"Oh
I like dressing up for Halloween," she says, a little weirded out by
Sera's proclamation that she should 'go as her'. Oh wow. Uh. Priority
interrupt.
"Maybe not, you know, like that..." she says, and coughs a little, like 'I didn't say that, really, I did not'.
"Oh,
I don't mean it like that. Just, it works for Sera. Doesn't work for
me." And there is the extremely uncomfortable Grace again. God, where is
someone with whom to talk science or math or something...
Lena Reilly
She
grins a little bit and shakes her head. "Oh hon, don't even worry
about it. We can't all be Sera." That grin evens out to something a
bit more serious, reflecting. "Hell, I can't even be Sera anymore. But
you just gotta be you, there's no fault in that."
And with that, they make some small talk until going their separate ways, to meet again!
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