I'll Do Me, You Do You

Sid Rhodes
[1-2-3 not it!]

Kalen Holliday
[Nightmares]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (3, 7, 9, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

Alyssa Solomon
[[Not it!]]

Kalen Holliday
[*L*  You want me to start this.  Aw.  This will only take a century.  :)]

Kalen Holliday
Kalen is sitting in the corner of the couch in the living room, reading a book on cosmology.  There are a handful of other books on the table, with index cards in them marking various pages.  There are sheets on onionskin paper spread over the table with his small blocky script.  He's not taking any notes now though, his pen is on the table and he is curled up around the book.
He seems to have made peace with the fact that there are Christmas decorations everywhere, because he is not giving them wary sideways glances anymore.  So...probably he no longer suspects of being haunted, or about to animate, or whatever his strange issues with Christmas ornaments were.

Kalen Holliday
[Oh.  Awareness.]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 4 )

Sid Rhodes
Sid took the day off from work so she could finish up the last of her final exams for the semester.  One would think that, now that it's all behind her for a few weeks, she might take some time to relax her brain.  If she's coming to the Chantry surely it's to flop into a bean bag chair and zone out to television or a video game, something.  She doesn't, though.  Her mind is never at rest these days, she's never able to completely shut down (or at shut down as Sid Rhodes could ever get).
It's the weekend, and that means coming out to the Chantry house and studying other things entirely.  Her truck parked in the drive some time ago, but she didn't go inside, not immediately.  Her first order of business had been to see to the plantlife, the green growing living things around the Node and fill them with a vibrant energy of growth.
When she comes in finally it's through the sliding glass patio door.  Kalen, reading in the living room, may be too engrossed to hear the slide-slide of the door opening and closing, but maybe he catches the stomp-stomp-stomp-scrape scrape as Sid stamps the wet and the snow from her boots before grinding her feet into the mat placed there for just that purpose.  He knows it's her, he can sense the curling twist of her resonance.  Sid, however, does not reach out.  The only people given access to the House have been met and vetted by someone or other at some point in time.
She makes her way down the hall toward the front entrance and the coat closet there, but pauses when she notices the young man curled up on the couch.
"Hey," she greets as she unzips her jacket.  Her hands are bare and pale against the dark grey fabric of her hooded sweatshirt.  Her eyes go to the book.  "What're you reading?"

Alyssa Solomon
[[I always do this after I type up my post, you'd think I'd do it before: Awarness]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Alyssa Solomon
Last time Alyssa was seen, she was helping Sid take a bloody-nosed Pan from a brew pub.  The Hollower had dropped them off back at the chantry so that they could recover...after all, this wasn't the kind of nosebleed that you went to the hospital for.  And then she had headed off her own way, snarking something about how her one good dress shirt had been ruined.  (She really didn't care, but it allowed her to snark.)
One might think that she was going to be gone for a while after that, but such was not the case.  The late '80s model Acura pulls its rickety ass into the driveway and the goth occult investigator slips out, flicking a cigarette out past the property line into the street.  (You see, out there you aren't potentially pissing off a guardian spirit.  And that bear looks like it could get hungry at times.)
She sighs a little bit, twisting her neck left and then right to pop it, and makes her way to the door with her heels clicking on the sidewalk approach.  She's a little bit simpler than she was the other day in a pair of jeans and T-Shirt under the longcoat.  She's stuck with the fedora and purple color scheme to her cosmetics though.  She senses those inside and recognizes Kalen's right off; Sid's, she thinks she remembers.  After all, yesterday was a bit hectic.
And then... Knock knock.  She knocks because she expects people to do so at her place.  It's just polite.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen tucks an index card into the book he's reading and sets it down on the table.  "Just about cosmology.  It's kind of neat."
He glances at the door when Alyssa knocks, and then he sighs, pulls out his phone, and sends her a text that says, 'Come in.  It shouldn't be locked.  We're in the living room.'  Because he is not in a mood to come climbing up the stairs to go get her.  He has the perfect space to curl up in.  Why would he move?
And then he looks back to Sid.  "Anyway.  How are you?"

Sid Rhodes
"Oh," she says, that single sound never the less full of interest and curiosity.  She didn't know there were books about that here.  She'll have to find some to read herself later.
But first, there's a knock at the door, and she tilts her head.  "I'll get it," she says, because she has to hang up her hoody in the hall closet and pull off her boots, anyway.  She makes her way the few steps further and opens the door, brows lifting when she sees who's standing there.  Just yesterday they shared a ride back out here to get Pan to someplace where he could comfortable recover from the Universe's backhand of doom.
"Hi," she says, and steps back away to give the woman room, tucking her hair behind her ears.  "You don't have to knock.  It's usually open."  She slips her sweatshirt off and goes to the door in the hallway.  "Coats and things just go in here," she says, bending to pull her boots off and set them somewhere to dry.  She'd done her best to wipe them off when she came inside, but there are still little traceries of wetness in the hallway, tracing her path back and into the dining room.

Alyssa Solomon
The occultist takes a step back after she knocks and can't help but give a little look around the outside face of the building.  It's her third visit but she still hasn't committed the place to memory...an important step should she ever need to send a message through a little Correspondence magic.  She's taking in the various nooks and crannies of the sight when her phone gives a deep, maniacal laugh in the voice of Vincent Price that signals a text message.  She pulls the device from her pocket and is just reading it when the door opens to reveal Sid.
She looks up when Sid gives greetings and steps back.  There's a little smirk and she holds up the phone.  "So I hear.  It's an etiquette thing, I guess.  Too many chantries I've been to have...particularly formal rules.  Knocking is the least thing you have to do most of the time...duly noted, though."
She steps inside, slipping the longcoat off and putting it in the closet.  Before she goes away from it though, she grabs a couple of things out of it.  The phone, her lighter.  "You guys have a place where people are supposed to leave weapons?"  She says it as she reaches behind her back and produces her .45, held flat in her hand so that her fingers aren't wrapped around the handle or (of course) the trigger.  She holds it out for Sid to take if she so desires.  "I try not to leave home without it, but this is your guys' chantry, so I do wanna follow your rules and such."
The fedora, for the record, stays on her head.  She may be all about etiquette right now, but some good manners have to take a backseat to one's personal image.

Sid Rhodes
Alyssa explains that it's an etiquette thing while Sid hangs up her sweatshirt and as she removes her boots.  It's not that Sid doesn't understand, but that she doesn't often waste energy on politeness.  Some of it is because of that permanent state of wariness, some of it's because she's out of practice with that sort of thing.  When she's standing upright again, Sid's shoulders lift in a slight shrug.  "You know Pan."  And Kalen obviously, but Annie gave the keys to this house to Pan before they were passed on to anyone else, and outside of yesterday's magical debacle, Sid has heard that Pan is known to have good judgement.  And he was going for a beer with Alyssa.
A beer.
Sid saw Pan in a bar only once before, the night she met him and Sera.  Neither of them had anything to drink that night.  Neither Pan nor Sid that is.  Sera performed with a bottle of alcohol in one hand from which she drank quite freely.
So yes.  Knowing Pan will get Sid of all people to tell you that it's alright to waltz right into the Chantry, even if you've only been inside of it a small handful of times.
She's just turning to head into the living room when Alyssa asks about weapons.  Sid turns back, looks down at that offered gun, and she frowns at it.  But her head shakes.  "I don't have any, so I don't know.  Kalen!" she calls, and she takes a few steps backwards until she's in the doorway that opens into the living room.  "Is there a place for weapons?"

Kalen Holliday
"Why wouldn't you just keep them on you?  They match everything!"  Kalen calls back.  "Seriously though, I think we keep them wherever.  There aren't any small children to get into them or anything.  Um.  Why?"

Tremor Dervish
The motorcycle implied by Tremor's mode of dress the other day came chugging up the drive toward the Chantry.  It was a war-era Harley.  Not the sort of vehicle that was designed for middle management types to indulge their midlife crises, but, rather, a weapon forged for the express purpose of killing Nazis.  Parts of the bike had been sandblasted and re-primed without paint, but, the fuel tank still bore the original faded army green emblazoned with a big white star.
It eventually died after one last thunderous chug, and Tremor swung his leg off from atop it, unbuckled his helmet, and dropped his goggles into it like a bowl.
He stood at its side regarding the front door for a long moment before he eventually worked up the nerve to approach.  He couldn't help but feel a little naked without his gun.  Firearm ownership was its own sort of worst case scenario plan for any uncertain situation.

Alyssa Solomon
Alyssa's thing isn't as much politeness for politeness' sake; there will come a time, as she learns that the chantry is more lax about these things, that she'll have no problem just walking in and dropping onto a couch somewhere.  She may even track in a bit of mud (though not intentially) or accidentally bleed on things.  But she's learned over time to start formal and then go toward informal until you find where the okay point.  It's a habit that is far less likely to get a Prime bolt shot up your ass.
So she shrugs and nods, and tilts her head to listen with a bit of a grin when Kalen responds about the weapons.  She shrugs it off then, slips it back into its holster at her back.  "Hey, works for me.  You'd be...well, probably not surprised over how some places look askance at people walking in with handguns loaded with anti-spirit ammo."
And that's when she starts her walk toward the living room...though it stops when she picks up on that rumbling sound of destiny that comes from Tremor's Resonance outside.  "Hail hail, the beer gang's almost all here.  All we need is a priest."

Sid Rhodes
"Anti-spirit ammo?" asks Sid, but before Alyssa can answer there is the rumble of a motorcycle.  It doesn't sound like Lena's, and besides, Sid hasn't seen Lena at the Chantry since...when was that?  Anyway, it doesn't sound like Lena's bike and Sid doesn't know anyone else in the city who drives a vehicle that sounds like that.
She moves past Alyssa to the doorway and peers outside.  Despite all of the precautions of the place (the wards, the bear, the near impossibility of finding it without guidance), it's no safer here than anywhere else.  Sid peers out, and she sees the approach of the tall bald man just as Alyssa announces his presence.  She opens the door before Tremor reaches it.
"Hi," she says.  She didn't smile for Alyssa, and she doesn't smile for Tremor, either.  Probably, neither of them expect her to.  But there is a note of welcome in her voice, regardless, and she steps aside in invitation and to make room.

Kalen Holliday
All they need is a priest.  Which might prompt Kalen to move enough to make tea.  It might not.  He seems very happy in his corner of the couch and at least Alyssa has seen the ridiculous production that is Kalen limping around to bring people things because he refuses to ask anyone to help him.
He can sense Tremor but Alyssa is right there and she has a gun, or some kind of weapon, and she seems very willing to use it.  Not over eager, but he can trust her not to hesitate if should be shooting.  He still stays where he is.
They'll come back.  Most likely.  There are only so many places to sit in the chantry.  The living room, all covered in Christma-they are going to have to get Tremor a stocking now that he's come here.  Kalen scribbles a note on an index card and then tucks it out of sight in a book.

Tremor Dervish
"Hey."  He returned.  He stood there before her dumb for a moment before he began to head up through the door into the building.
There was a little apprehension there.  He wasn't sure what he was getting himself into.  For all he knew there was some big name Master here whose bitch he was about to become.  Even the fact that he knew about the location put him in a precarious position.  He grinned sheepishly at Sid as he stood just past the threshold.  He looked like some dio de los meurtos decoration; a scarecrow with a skull on top grinning cheerfully at his descendants, and at least partially unaware of the morbidity.
"I don't know what to do.  Normally when it's our guys, we wind up getting drunk together and I wake up on someone's sofa.  Sometimes the sofa is on another planet, or whatever.  Or I find myself there after the acid wears off... I guess I'm saying... should I take off my shoes?"
He looked down at the big clunky black boots he was wearing, up to Sid, and then back down again.  He seemed slightly disparate from his resonance.  Maybe even a little docile and dopey.  Like a St. Bernard that knew it wasn't supposed to jump up on the couch, but really wanted to figure out a way to get closer to you.
The Fateful, Thundering man was something they hadn't really seen yet.  It was just an implication.  An insinuation.

Alyssa Solomon
Anti-spirit ammo? is what Sid asks, and while the arriving Ecstatic cuts them off Alyssa doesn't forget the question.  It's something for them to get to later.  Instead she just smiles a little and shrugs, giving Tremor a little upward nod when he walks in.  The Cultist isn't quite sure what to do and Alyssa can understand to some degree, although she parhaps has a bit more experience with multi-Traditional chantries where things are a little bit looser.  At the very least, she doubts there are going to be any psychadelic interludes.
"I'm not, but I keep these babies pretty clean.  And they're a pain to get back on in case of emergency, so..."  She shrugs and those heels carry her into the living room, where she nods to Kalen.
"Oh sure, don't get up.  I see how you are."  It's said as a tease and is pretty clearly denoted as one from the half-grin.  She knows and gets why Kalen isn't getting up to go see who's at the door.  "How's tricks, Lord Flambeau?"

Pan Echeverri­a
Not even twenty-four hours ago this same group of people was clustered around a table at a perfectly nice brew house up in the city and they had been having a perfectly nice time and then as is wont to happen someone started bleeding and they had to disperse.
Throughout the clomping and the arriving and the talk of where to put shoes and weapons the priest has not made himself known. It's hard to tell if he's here or not based on the presence of his resonance because the house may as well be his resonance. This place's defenses pull with light so intense it practically forms a physical barrier between the Awakened and the outside world.
They weren't strong enough to keep out fear-hungry nightmare creatures and they may still not be strong enough but they're better than nothing.
One moment the four young people seem to have the place to themselves. The next the back patio door barks open and brings a rush of cold into an empty kitchen. By the cadence of the bootfalls and the depth of the voice behind the cough those who are more familiar with the priest can recognize that he's here after all.
He doesn't come straight into the living room to see who's here. He takes off his coat and starts clattering around at the stove first. Tea ain't gonna make itself.

Sid Rhodes
Sid has to tip her chin upward to look at that skull-like facade, which she does.  Thumbs hooking into the pockets of her jeans, she stands with her back to the wall.  At one point her brow knits with some clouded emotion as she listens to him, but when he's finished her eyes lower and she shrugs at him.
"Those things could still happen."  Maybe that'll help him relax a little.  She wouldn't know.  Sid has almost no experience with Chantries outside of this one, she avoided them like plague-infested asylums.  Alyssa explains that she's keeping hers on.  Sid looks at her, then she looks up at Tremor, gives him a look to say Do what you want before turning away.  Her own feet are wrapped only in wool socks.
She enters the living room after Alyssa.  From behind the woman she gives Kalen a look that's both baffled and amused.  It's still strange to hear him banter at people like that.
Pan's entrance through one of the other rooms causes Sid's ears to perk.  She doesn't go hunting for him, though.  Maybe she saw him outside a little while ago, or saw his bootprints in the snow and made some assumptions based on the size and the direction they were headed.  He lives here now, though, for now at least.  So it's not hard for her to guess even without reaching out with her senses to find that bright resonance who's just come in from the cool outdoors.
Sid moves around so that she's not still behind Alyssa, moving to where she can take a seat and not give anyone here her back.

Kalen Holliday
"Raised in a barn?"  Kalen asks Alyssa with a laugh.  "Come now, Angel.  You of everyone here should know we are Knights before we are Lords."  There is no real censure, he can play too.  Does, even.  "Tricks are good.  How've you been?"
He smiles when hears Pan come in and start up a rattling in the kitchen.  He keeps listening for minute, because he has still not forgotten finding Pan being baffled by the stove, but Pan has seemed better.  Still....
He's still smiling as he watches Sid find a place to settle.  And Alyssa and Tremor, if they come in and settle.  Or hover.  Or whatever they do.

Tremor Dervish
He seemed to decide it was probably better to err on the side of caution.  The only real way of knowing his boots weren't clean enough would have been someone commenting on dirt he'd already tread in.  He unfastened the big buckled straps on his boots and pried his long, skinny feet out of them.  Like his hands, they were improperly proportioned even to his already improperly proportioned body.
"So... I guess I have questions?"
He asked as he followed Sid into the room.
"Stuff like... are you guys a Cabal?  Who's in charge?  What are you guys about?"
Tremor hovered at first, but eventually sat down after asking his question, with his big skinny hands spread out over his knees.  He reached up to unbuckle the straps holding his jacket secure and opened it to reveal the plain white t-shirt beneath.

Alyssa Solomon
"Ahh, true...well, even better."  She chuckles a bit and moves to take a seat on one of the chairs near Kalen.  The fedora is slipped off her head now, settled on a knee that raises to cross over the other.  "I always trucked with the guys on the field over the guys at the back of the line.  Or at least I did since I Awakened, anyway."
Pan's Resonance is everywhere and it does in fact mean that she fails to notice that he's around.  But right on queue, she says all they need is a priest and he makes his presence known.  Her attention shifts in that direction and while she pauses a moment to sort out who it is, it isn't the wariness like she had when Kalen and Grace rolled up to her place before they'd met.  This is the home of other peoples after all, and she isn't particularly worried in here yet.  It's something ingrained deep within her that chantries are places of refuge and even though she knows she isn't very good luck for such places, she's not ready to pull the firearm out or anything.
Tremor then starts asking questions and Alyssa perks up a bit.  She doesn't know the full deal, but she has a bit of an inkling thus far.  It's not an inkling she's stepping in to explain though because...well, it's simple and self-explanatory.
"These guys can answer that better than me.  I'm newish to the city myself, or at least to these guys.  All sorts of Cabal-free."

Pan Echeverria
He comes out of the kitchen to grace the rest of them with his presence. Considering his nose seemed as if it was in the mood to hemorrhage the entire way back from the city yesterday he doesn't look any worse than he usually does. With his boots left by the back door he loses half an inch of height but he doesn't miss it.
"Good afternoon," he says to the room, and then to Sid: "Did you get them their handbooks yet?"

Sid Rhodes
The new people have questions, and of all the people currently loitering around the living room, Sid is the one best equipped to answer them.  She's been here since the quiet time of Denver when it seemed there were no Awakened for miles and miles.  She knows nearly every Mage who's come into this house since it came into their hands.
But then Pan enters, and before she can begin to formulate an answer to the questions asked by Tremor and shared by Alyssa, he's asking Sid if she got them their handbooks.
The corners of Sid's mouth quirk in a ghost of a smile.  "We ran out while you were on vacation."

Tremor Dervish
The whole business of handbooks sounded a little ominous to him.  He was the kind of guy that preferred a manifesto, or, heretical theses nailed to the door.  He followed Sid and Pan's words back and forth with little understanding and much interest.

Pan Echeverri­a
"We ran out?"
He plants his hands on his hips and looks at the others like he's just realized they can hear everything they're saying.
Poor Tremor doesn't seem to realize he's joking. That makes it funnier.
"I guess we're just gonna have to, ah... las apañaremos, we'll make do, then, huh?"

Kalen Holliday
Kalen laughs when Tremor starts asking questions and settles deeper into being curled into the corner of the couch.  He opens his mouth to answer but then Pan and start bantering and he just laughs again.
"I would tell you," he says, turning faux-serious eyes on Trevor.  "But they were out of handbooks when I got here.  I...have...no...idea."  So serious, those oddly pale of of his, and wide, and apologetic and...no.  No.  That can only last for so long before Kalen gives up on that and resumes looking amused.
"You guys should get on that.  Tremor and I are going to be so confused.  And there's that whole Indiana Jones-esque series of tunnels in the basement you should really print a map to, too...."

Alyssa Solomon
Alyssa takes the comments about handbooks and such with a bit of a chuckle.  In truth, she isn't quite in an inquisitive mindset; she has a decent idea of what's going on and she accepts it.  The less hierarchial stance suits the Hollower well; there's a very good reason she didn't stick with the Order of Hermes after she Awakened.  There was a time...but once she woke up everything changed.  (There are other reasons of course, but that's a big one.)  She's simply not ready to offer explanations for them when there are others here that can do so.
Besides, the last time she offered a bit of opinion on how things are here, it turned into a bit of a heated argument.  And it's not that she doesn't enjoy getting all up in the grills of holy men...but c'mon, the guy is barely twenty-four hours from having his head slammed in reality's door.  He deserves a break, dontcha think?
"Well, if you get any new print runs of the handbooks in, lemme know.  One of my tables in my apartment is just a little bit uneven, I could use something for that."  She keeps the grin off her face, but not out of those violet-painted eyes.  "Seriously though...I think what you guys have set up is pretty solid, from what I've seen.  It's all laissez faire and that's really the best way that we work these days.  No offense to those who organize in Houses within the room, but from what I've seen the chantries who try to cling to the ways from when the Ascension War was still going on tend to weather the storm the worst.  Adaptability is survival and all that shit."

Pan Echeverri­a
The priest weathers her swearing well enough but he's also been known to swear on occasion himself. He does a lot of things the abuelitas of his congregation wouldn't approve of. Some of them don't exactly approve of the things he did before he became a priest but they're willing enough to overlook the things he did.
So he stands beside the couch where Sid sits and bobs his head in an almost imperceptible nod and when she reaches the end he clears his throat.
"Couldn't've said it better myself, Miss Solomon."

Sid Rhodes
Tremor takes the bantering seriously, but eventually it stops and the truth comes out.  Pan clears his throat.  Sid nods.
"I only know of one cabal still in the area.  Everyone just...works together.  For mutual survival and all."  She does not mention Ginger, but that's Grace's thing.  Or Team Striped Horse's.  And neither of them are here and Sid isn't going to suggest the tattooed biker man seek out Grace as she is now.  That won't end well for anyone.
A pocket of her jeans vibrates, and Sid shifts where she sits so she can pull out her phone.  Her mouth tightens very slightly, and she rises.  Quietly she wanders down the hall to go upstairs, no words of farewell, nothing.  She'll probably be back, though.  Maybe.

Tremor Dervish
Tremor began to grin slightly to the extent that he began to get in on the joke.  He'd seen people try stuff like this before.  Mostly Cultists, due to his affiliation.  The problem was that, while most people liked to think about and focus on the Joy, namely, the sex drugs and rock and roll, Envy, Rage, Hate and Lust were all passions too.
Things like this worked until they didn't.
He had to respect them for trying.  Maybe they could keep a handle on it.
He continued to watch the others discuss to see if he could pick up on any more specifics.

Tremor Dervish
He nodded at Sid's explanation, and watched her go before shifting his attention back to the group.

Kalen Holliday
Sid's mouth tightens and she heads off with her phone and for just a second Kalen frowns.  It's a fleeting, understated thing, gone as soon as Sid is out of sight and he returns his attention to the three people left in the room with him.
"I understand not all of the Order has the introduction to being Awakened I did.  I try not to hold it against them.  Also, to refrain from showing up for formal meetings high as a kite.  Ohhhhhhhh...they almost killed me.  Formal House meetings...I don't even know anyone else from my House here."
"This place...."  He says, still all relaxed but slightly more serious, to Tremor.  "It's young yet.  In this life.  I'm not sure it knows what it's going to be exactly."

Alyssa Solomon
[[Awarepathy on Tremor: How are you feeling about all this, hmmmmmmmm?]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Tremor Dervish
Tremor barked out a laugh at the idea of a Hermetic showing up to their meetings high.  All the ones he'd ever met were so dignified and stern.
"I'm sorry."  He said as he realized how briefly loud he'd been.
"I just... the mental image was awesome.   But, yeah...  I get what you mean.  It's cool you guys are making a go of it together."
And he meant it.  He seemed to think it was something worth trying, previous experiments notwithstanding.

Alyssa Solomon
Kalen does some explanation and Tremor is listening...and during that time it's Alyssa's turn to go silent.  While the Cultist may be focused on the explanation from Sid and Kalen, the Hollow One is more interested in Tremor himself.  She leans back in her chair, idly spinning her fedora on her knee while she looks the man over, watches his body language.  It's not that she's skeptical of him, exactly.  It's simply that she knows a few things here and there about the group he came from.  And she's distinctly curious about how he's taking this take on things.
And thus she gets a sense of the skepticism he has over this idea.  There's a slight arching of the brow, though she doesn't address it right away.  Instead her attention goes right back to Kalen and she chuckles at reference of showing up high at formal meetings.  "Yeah, I'm sure that went over really well.  I had someone who was training with me show up drunk.  We were underage at the time, I should say.  The Bonisagus was about ready to have an aneurysm."

Pan Echeverría
After Sid takes her phone call the priest stands in the same spot for a moment not because he forgot what he was doing but because he isn't sure if he ought to stay put while the initiates talk. Looming as he tends to do.
He has the self-awareness of one who knows the effect his presence and his stature have on other people and besides the kettle is on the stove and it wouldn't have boiled any slower if he had stood there watching it. Out here though he cannot keep an eye on it so when the bubbling gives way to shrieking that sound cuts through the stillness of the house.
Oops.
When he exits the living room it is not in the hurry in which he left the brew house yesterday. The kettle shrieks until he reaches it and even before the incident this summer the man didn't move very fast.

Kalen Holliday
There is that tea kettle shriek and for a few seconds Kalen's eyes go distant and vacant like he's somewhere else altogether.
And then he focuses on Tremor again, attention seeming heavier than before for all he's still curled up and calm.
"So, now that we have not answered those questions to the best of our ability, do you have any others?"

Tremor Dervish
"Nah... I think I get it.  For what it's worth, I'll do what I can to keep an eye out for your interests while I'm in town."  He said with a slight smile before he rose from the seat he'd taken.  "I think it's cool.  You seem like good folks."
"If you need to get a hold of me while I'm in town, my RV's at the Dakota Ridge grounds not too far from here."  He confided, as he seemed to think it would put them on a bit more even footing if they knew where he was sleeping.  "Speaking of, I got to run into town and see if I can find a carburetor before places start closing.  I'll be seeing you guys soon, I hope."
He provided them a small smile before he rose and headed back to his boots.

Alyssa Solomon
Pan goes running (relatively speaking, of course) for the screaming kettle and Alyssa is as intrigued by Kalen's reaction as anything else.  She's quiet and curious, but Kalen has other things to address and he asks Tremor about whether he has any questions.
When the Cultist gives his first impression a positive assessment, she smiles a little.  She keeps her attention on him as he leaves, that fedora absently spun on her knee as she watches him go.  It's only after the door is shut that she turns her attention away, back to Kalen.
"He'll be an interesting addition to this potpourri of magi you've got floating around this city.  Curious to see how that plays out."

Kalen Holliday
"Yeah.  It should be something to see."  He smiles a little.  "But at least Denver is never boring."

Alyssa Solomon
She chuckles a little bit.  "Yeah, I'm starting to get that.  It's been a while since I've been somewhere that's been particularly exciting.  St. Louis had its ups and downs, don't get me wrong.  But I steered clear of Tradition stuff and they steered clear of me."
She doesn't sound like she minds overly much about that.  It was a different situation for her then than now.  She hadn't found someone who was newly-Awakened who she'd taken a shine too.  But that's neither here nor there.
"So what about you?  Was wherever you were before now as thrilling as here?"  She knew that he had bad luck with chantries similar to her, but she didn't know the details.  It's not that she's prying, she's just curious.

Kalen Holliday
"It was quieter, mostly.  Loud for a minute.  And then silent."  He doesn't tense, but his expression edges toward non-existent, like it often does.  "Then I moved around for awhile.  Spent some time in South America.  Eventually drifted back here."

Alyssa Solomon
Alyssa listens to Kalen more or less dodge the question, and she raises an eyebrow.  He has his secrets, and she's not going to press.  "Ahh.  Well, okay then.  Fair enough."
She sighs and gets to her feet then.  "I'm gonna go out for a cigarette, if you wanna join me."  It's not an invitation as much as it is a statement.  He can come or not come; she's fine with either.

Kalen Holliday
"It is a long and mostly boring story that ends tragically.  I don't enjoy telling it.  Perhaps later."  He smiles, but his eyes are most of the way to distant now.  "I think I'll skip on the freezing.  But I'll be here, if you come back."

Grace
[nightmares!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )

Alyssa Solomon
She gives him a casual shrug when he explains himself; there's no offense here.  "No, I get it.  I've got a few of those stories myself.  Far too many really, and I don't really enjoy talking about them either.  Just saying, it's less awkward to people if you just say 'I don't feel like talking about it.'  Leaves them less wondering if you want them to delve deeper or not.
"And fair enough," she says with a little nod about the desire not to go outside.  "I'll letcha know."  A little smirk, and she slips out the double doors onto the patio.

Grace
Grace walks in through the front door carrying her laptop bag, and a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. She's wearing wintery gear of heavy boots and a coat, with jeans  underneath, and a somewhat tired but relaxed look about her.
Some time trying to sleep in the brightness of Pan's wards has taught her some control over the sixth sense that she knows would have her feeling uncomfortably watched the entire time, so she doesn't notice the swirl of energy about the place from those who have been here, or are here.
Whoever it is, they have to be friends, she thinks.
She slips those heavy boots off, then the bags, then her coat, and hangs that up in the hallway, before dragging her belongings into the living room.
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 6, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )

Grace
[Also, whoops, I don't know where that roll came from. It was good, but unnecessary... Sigh]

Kalen Holliday
"Noted," he says to Alyssa.
"Hey, Kit!"  Kalen can feel Pan's wards almost as much as he can feel the corner of the couch he's curled up in.  He does not look tired, but he does look very calm.  All that glorious light is searching for the first sign of their enemies.  Searing and holy and vigilant light.  Kalen thinks it's indescribably reassuring.  Enough so that he's started napping in the chantry.

Grace
"Hey, you," she says, smiling back at Kalen. "I brought some stuff in from my place. I don't really have much of a reason to go back into town for a while, now the semester's over. So... you know... Might as well be safe here."
She reaches down to the duffel bag and tugs on a zipper, releasing a certain fluffy stuffed lion. "Also, brought this guy," she says and squints at him. "You never told me it was a 'special' lion when you gave it to me, you know."

Kalen Holliday
He laughs.  "Oh?  You couldn't tell when you picked him up?"
"I've been staying here more too, it's kind of nice.  But, not always, because kittens.  If you have all those things, you might want to actually take over a room until you go back."

Grace
"You were still around, I thought it was you," she explains. "Why?"
She looks around the room after that, pondering for a while. "I... hmm. I suppose I could. I haven't slept in a bed in a while."
"Also, what do you mean 'because kittens'?"

Kalen Holliday
"I have kittens who live in my house.  One is actually Shoshannah's kitten, because she Named it, but they both stay with me.  Sometimes I wish I could bring them here.  Shoshannah really likes them.  Also, I think like half the chantry could do with snuggling kittens more."
"There are beds here for that very purpose."

Alyssa Solomon
It's a quick cigarette...and not because she cut it short.  Someone knows how to make the most of their time and just because Alyssa doesn't mind the cold all that much doesn't mean that she enjoys it.  So in short order it is sucked down and she's opened the door, slipping back inside.
She grins a little bit when she hears them talking about kittens.  "Why do I get the feeling these are not kittens to be fucked with, if they're under your care?  I'm imagining trained attack kittens that need to be muzzled, lest they rip your eyeballs out and play with them instead of balls of yarn."
She looks over at Grace and gives an upward nod.  It's amicable enough.  "Hey hey."

Grace
"But, the upstairs sleeping couch... It is kinda comfy," she says, and sits down on the couch opposite Kalen.
He doesn't answer her question of why the lion. Maybe it's something that he doesn't want to say? In any case, she looks down at it in her lap, trying to puzzle it out anyway. "I guess I just was wondering if there was some kind of... Magey thing I didn't know about consecrated gifts. Cause, it's kinda cool and all, I just don't want to be the dumb noob when somebody comes by and says 'Oh yeah, when you get the consecrated fuzzy animal toy, it's customary to return the favor with anointed fruitcake' or something."
"You also never told me you had kittens! What are their names?"

Grace
And then Alyssa walks in, and Grace is suddenly very happy that she has turned a blind eye to the surroundings. It doesn't smell like blood. "Alyssa, hey. Attacking is pretty much what kittens do, and their claws are like little daggers, so sharp. But you'll let them maul your hand and then coo at them because it's so cute. No kitten is to be fucked with, I don't think."

Kalen Holliday
"There is no customary response," Kalen says with a faint smile.  "Please do not annoint any fruitcake for me."
"Shoshannah's kitten in Pomegranate, and my kitten is Persimmon.  They are sisters.  Also, they are like monster sized kittens.  Ah.  By which I mean Bengals."
He laughs at Alyssa.  "Maybe some day.  Someday they will be attack kittens.  But I do not have that skill yet."  Yet.

Alyssa Solomon
"Oh, trust me," she says toward Grace as she moves to take a seat back in her chair.  "Cute has never been enough to lower my guard.  In fact, cute usually sends my guard up through the roof.  Nothing cute has good intentions.  You can take that to the bank."
The fedora gets settled back on her knee as she assumes the same crossed-legs position.  "And if you want attack kittens Kalen, you'd better get cracking on it.  Harness that evil ferocity into a just cause before it's too late and they unleash it on you."  She's still playing of course, and it's evident in her tone.
She doesn't have attack kittens, of course.  Hell, Kalen and Grace have seen her place; there's a good reason she doesn't even keep plants.  Some people are good at making things live.  Alyssa's skill falls toward the other side.

Grace
"Oh I hoped there wasn't any of that involved, I hate fruitcake," she says, and then turns the (ridiculously cute) stuffed lion to face Alyssa. "Be on your guard, then. Rar," she says, utterly deadpan.
Whatever has happened lately, Grace seems remarkably de-stressed. Joking, smiling, even. She tilts her head back on the couch and looks up at the ceiling for a bit, but there's a slight smile on her face to go along with that too.

Kalen Holliday
He watches Grace threaten Alyssa with the stuffed lion and for a second he goes still.  Not tense.  He just didn't expect that from Grace.  Maybe before the virus, but not now.  And then he laughs.
"So how long did it take you to figure it out?"  He asks, and he's asking Grace, but that's only so clear.

Alyssa Solomon
Grace jokingly menaces Alyssa with the lion, and in response the Hollower raises her eyebrow with a grin.  "Ricin.  Or anthrax.  I'd put at least half of whatever Kalen makes in a month on it."
She settles in from there, letting the two talk as she leans her head back and lets her eyes drift half-shut.  She's not sleeping or even sleepy, just zoning a little bit as she lets the two speak.

Grace
"A few minutes after you left, and you were still around. Sera explained it to me. I may have smelled it," she says at the ceiling.
"I didn't die of anthrax," she adds, though there is a bit of a dampening of her mood at that. Anthrax eats you alive. It's similar to something else.
Strange how the little things bring up bad memories.

Kalen Holliday
"I just thought you might appreciate it.  I'm glad Sera could explain."
He frowns a little at Alyssa, because he can't even understand where that came from.

Alyssa Solomon
There's a moment when Grace's expression dampens and Kalen gives Alyssa the look that she looks a little...disappointed, perhaps?  Though at who or what isn't sure.  Hell, maybe it's at herself.  The comment certainly seemed to be a natural continuation of the joke about cute things being dangerous, and it's possible that she is annoyed with herself for stepping on uncertain ground.
What comes next might belie that idea though.  Alyssa sighs, takes the fedora off of her knee and sets it aside.  That gives her license to lean in a little and look at Grace.
"Listen, Grace.  You've gotta get past this.  I get it...from everything I've been told, you nearly died of something really horrible.  And so did your friends.  And from what I understand, it was mentally traumatizing too.  But you've gotta let it go and look ahead, not behind.  And I'm not telling you to suck it up and get over it, though someone else might.  It's not about not being tough enough.  It's about living your goddamn life in defiance of what fucked-up psychopaths decided to do to you.  You live this way where every innocent joke or smell of blood or whatever small memory sends you into a depressive mood, then the psychopaths got a consolation prize on their way to Hell."
It would be too much to say she's gentle about it.  She doesn't speak in a soft tone, she doesn't lower herself physically to make her less threatening.  But she's not overtly hostile or callous either.  Talking about tools for dealing with pain is matter of fact for her.

Grace
Grace eyes Alyssa with a brow cocked, like she's not sure what even brought on this lecture, I mean... "Wow, the extent to which people will go when their jokes fall a bit flat."
She readjusts a bit, sitting up in her seat. "You know, I have said the exact same thing to others before. I think the words I used at the time were 'fuck the Hydra, they don't get to win'. I do get the point. And I am getting better, I think."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen's eyes move between the two of them, but he does not intervene.  He may not be particularly thrilled right now, but he doesn't seem angry.  Grace isn't like a pet, or a doll, or a child.  She can defend herself.  So, for now at least, he lets her.

Alyssa Solomon
She half-smiles and shakes her head.  "Ehhh, I think the joke hit its mark pretty well.  Listen, maybe you are getting better.  I mean, who the fuck am I to judge, you know?  All I know is that after I said that, you got a look that would be vaguely comparable to how I imagine you might look if I'd said I'd run over a baby lion just like it on the way here."
She shrugs.  She's not paying attention to how Kalen's reacting and to be honest, whatever reaction he gave probably wouldn't change what she did or said here anyway.  "If I'm way off base then fair enough.  I'm not actively trying to piss on your parade.  Just offering some advice based on my own perspective.  I've said my peace."

Grace
"Did I?" she asks, and it's a genuine question. Did she just appear utterly crushed? Is it so transparent?
"Well, anyway, after I said that, Sera took me to task for being overly simplistic, tying labels of 'winning' and 'losing' to our situation like they had any real meaning, or like if we aren't happy shiny perfect human beings afterward, we lose. And she was right. It's always going to be something more complex, somewhere in the middle, and that's okay. Maybe I never go back to a Starbucks, but then, I never really liked their fucking coffee anyway, you know? I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's going to change me. I get that, I accept that. But I'm trying to make that change something I want it to be."
And Grace gives a lecture of her own. But she's not mad, not horribly defensive. Maybe a little of this is her telling these things to herself, so that she might believe them. But she's also said her peace. And at that, she resumes staring at the ceiling, fluffy cute lion in her lap.

Kalen Holliday
"Well, Starbucks does have, at best, mediocre coffee," Kalen says, gathering the books he was working with and rising carefully.  "I should get these back downstairs.  I'll be around."

Alyssa Solomon
"She's right," the Hollower says with a shrug.  The fedora gets plopped back on her head.  "It's incredibly simplistic and it doesn't have any basis in reality at all.  Not that there aren't sides, but...you know.  Anyway, just because it's simplistic and unrealistic doesn't mean that it's not important advice that you can just throw away."
She sighs and rises.  "Anyway.  Doesn't matter.  You do you, I'll do me.  I should probably get back home myself.  Got some work to look into."

Grace
Grace gives a bit of an odd giggle at the ceiling, "As opposed to you doing me, and me doing you? Alyssa... I had no idea."

Alyssa Solomon
That gives her a grin and laugh.  "Cute.  That's the spirit."
She points her thumb and forefinger gun-style and "pulls the trigger," so to speak.  "Seriously though, I gotta go.  Catch you around.  Don't have too much fun around here."