Meeting Ian

Kalen Holliday
[How much sanity do you have today, Kalen?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (2, 4, 4, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Ian Lai
Considering how long Ian had been in Denver, it was a bit surprising that he hadn't been out to the Chantry before now. But that was the thing about living on the periphery - in some ways it was safer, but it also made you an outsider.
In the end, the curiosity was just a little too difficult to pass up. So when Kalen made the offer, Ian took it.
The drive out to Morrison was fairly uneventful. Minutes passed as the urban scenery gradually faded into rolling hills and tall pines and fenced pastures. In the car, they talked a little. Kalen gave periodic directions while Ian drove. And in the downtime, a steady flow of moody electronic music filled the cab, creating an interesting contrast with the naturalistic landscape.
It was growing dark by the time they arrived. Ian parked his audi in the driveway and exited the car, giving the chantry house a long, appreciative gaze.
"Somehow this is exactly what I imagined."

Grace
So, it's been busy for a lazy day. Grace met a couple of new people in Denver, at a place with a warning bell over the door to announce the presence of any Mages who walked through.
And Lena. She was meeting Lena there. Surprisingly, for the first time in a long while, their meeting didn't go terribly. At least, Grace doesn't think it did. She hopes it went as well as it seemed. Lena hides the truth sometimes.
So does Kalen. She can see it sometimes, in the things he tells her and the things he won't show her. Like how horrible he really feels. She knows what it's like to have screaming nightmares and then try to work through the rest of the day without showing off how broken you really are, so hey. Understandable, that. Sometimes you need to pretend. Fake it 'till you make it. Even if you never do.
"Really? 'Cause I always thought it was too big and too ranch-y," Grace says from the wall she's been leaning up against near the entrance to the place. She's been waiting for them. "Of course, the first time I came here, I had no expectations. Hard to have them when you don't know what a Chantry is."
She'd arrived just a few minutes before. Kalen had given her a text, something about needing a ride back to his car later, and wouldn't she like to provide such? So she did, because he's Kalen. And he gets a smile, yes he does. Nothing fake in it either. "Who's this?"

Kalen Holliday
One car ride full of Kalen watching the road through half closed eyes until he has to start actively giving directions later, they arrive at the chantry.  If nothing else, it's probably enough to convince Ian that throwing on some music and driving Kalen around will probably get him to fall asleep, or at least rest, if he isn't worried about giving directions.
He slips out of the car and watches Ian study the chantry for a minute.  There is no rush.  No rush at all.  He smiles a little at that statement.  "Of course, it is.  As with all cats, one would assume you are well acquainted with all the mysteries."  His tone is relaxed, threaded through with a warm, amused purr.  Nothing barbed at all.  No sign of something dark and broken lurking just beneath the surface.
"You want to head straight in, or go in through the back so you can see the Node first?"
He smiles and waves to Grace.  "Hey, Kit.  Kit, this is Ian."  Ian who spoils all his fun by not answering to Kitty-cat.  "That's Grace," he says to Ian.  "She is like, my psuedo-apprentice and we also practically live together, since neither of us knows quite how to stop.  We spend a lot of time at the office."

[And...because I must know...how distracted are you by Resonance?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Ian Lai
I always thought it was too big and too ranch-y.
"It's Colorado," Ian replied with a smirk, as though that somehow explained everything. He didn't respond to Kalen's assertion about cats and mysteries, which may have been as close to a confirmation as Kalen was going to get. (More than likely Ian was quite content to let everyone think that about him, whether or not it was true.)
Grace was a new entity, and Ian regarded her with a level gaze while Kalen introduced them. He didn't offer any sort of formal greeting of his own. Just a light nod of his head.
Grace's first impression of Ian might very well fit with the image Kalen had (rather vaguely) sketched of him during a past conversation. Attractive (beautiful, even.) Lean and agile, and dressed in an outfit that looked like it had cost a lot more than any sane person would actually pay for casual clothes. (Dark blue skinny selvage jeans, black boots and a fitted white t-shirt.)
But none of that really compared to the overall sensory impression that he seemed to radiate. Kalen had been right - Ian felt exactly like a hunting cat.
(Not exactly a house-cat, either.)
"I'll take the Node for a thousand, Alex."

[Awareness]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Grace
[Awareness!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 3, 10) ( success x 1 )

Grace
"Ahh, Ian, yes. Hello! Welcome! All that stuff," Grace says, as if Kalen's told her all about him already. He has. Or at least, what he knew, and what they've been up to. Apparently, he's decided he trusts Ian enough to bring him to the Chantry finally, as well as... huh. Well, she can see why one might want to ignore trust issues to get with that.
Ian looks like he stepped out of the pages of a fashion mag or something. Not that Grace pays attention to fashion. At all. Ian can probably tell, with how she dresses in jeans (of the non-expensive variety), sneakers, and a grey turtleneck jacket, zipped up to the neck. With her face bare of makeup, she looks somewhere in between male and female. No curves. All sharpness.
"Node. Cool. It's a hot spring, kinda neat," she says, and starts leading the way out to the back of the house, her laptop bag swinging from a shoulder.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen rolls his eyes.  "I suppose turnabout is fair play, but we already have an Alex.  That will just confuse everyone."  He is not even joking.  And it isn't that he is particularly annoyed, for all his tone isn't quite as warm.  He is somehow, remarkably, oblivious to that reference.
"Come on then, we'll go on the scenic around-the-house route."  He smiles faintly.  "And yes.  It is a hot spring.  Some people love that."

Ian Lai
The fact that Kalen didn't understand a Jeopardy reference was of fairly minimal importance to Ian, who probably hadn't actually watched a single episode of Jeopardy in his life. (Some pop culture references were like that - you didn't have to experience them to know that they existed.) He didn't bother to fill Kalen in on the joke. Grace could do that, if she wanted. Otherwise it would pass without much notice.
Grace was markedly more welcoming to Ian than he'd been in his own greeting. And she led the way around the house toward their destination. As they walked, Ian eyed her laptop bag and her clothes and took in the sharp (keen) and shifting energy of her resonance.
"We can all go skinny dipping," he offered, and it wasn't entirely clear if he was joking or not.
But then they rounded the house and Ian... well. It was hard not to get hit with that overwhelming flow of rejuvenation and not be at least a little bit awed by it. He approached the node slowly, taking in the sight of the spring and the vibrant, early growth in the nearby gardens. And when he crouched down at the edge of the rocks his body went almost perfectly still.

Grace
Grace snorts, actually, when Ian says they can go skinny dipping. It's lucky for her it's dark out and she's in the lead, or otherwise they might see how red her face can actually turn. It would be like going skinny dipping with your brother while he's (probably) making out with some dude.
She does manage to control herself by the time they're out in the backyard, and she watches Ian meet the node. "I think he likes it," she whispers, loudly, to Kalen.
"I'm not going skinny dipping," she adds, again in a loud whisper.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen shudders a little at the mention of skinny dipping.  Ninety-five percent of cats fucking hate water.  But of course Ian wouldn't.  No skinny dipping, Ian.  No SCUBA diving, Grace.  Never mind it's the fucking Great Barrier Reef you're going to.
He watches Ian crouch down at the edge of the rocks.  He does not rush Ian, any more than he rushes Sera.  He understands wanting to be close to that energy.  Sometimes, with Sera, he will even come within arm's length of the pool.  It is hardly frozen over.  Or deep enough to drown him under any normal circumstances.  Still.  It is a tiny pond, and he wants nothing to do with that.
"Good," he says to Grace.  "I would prefer you stay the Hell out of the water anyway."

Ian Lai
Many cats hate water - but not all. Evidently Ian was one of the latter sort.
Distantly, he registered Grace and Kalen's mutual objections to the prospect of skinny dipping, but Ian wasn't focused on them. Instead, he reached out and let his fingers drift through the surface of the water. It was warm, and smelled faintly salty. And if the others hadn't been there, Ian might very well have shed his clothes and climbed in, but he wasn't alone.
So he stood up and turned around.
"Don't like water?" he asked Kalen.

Grace
There are times she wants to tell Kalen that no matter how much it might seem like it, she isn't his sister. That she can swim. That she's not going to drown any time soon. It bothers him so much.
"I know. If I ever go for a dip in the Node, I promise I won't tell you," she says, her voice soft, but not a joking whisper anymore.
Then Ian asks him why, and Grace just watches Kalen. It's not her story to tell. How much do you trust him, eh?

Kalen Holliday
"I-"  He looks at Ian, running his hands through the water.  In this particular moment, this decision isn't about trust at all.  It's about sanity.  And he is not burdened with an overabundance of that.  "Will tell you that story later perhaps.  For now...no.  I am not."
"You can go."  He nudges Grace.  "Did I not tell you could could go SCUBA diving in Australia?  I'll just get very drunk and pretend it's not happening.  It'll be great times all around."

Ian Lai
[Empathy on Kalen: This... seems like something important]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (6, 7, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )

Kalen Holliday
[So...how together are we....?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

niko
[Does Grace have her phone nearby?  Because it alerts her to a new message from Lucy:
I didn't think you meant it like that, but thank you.  I'll see you around sometime.]

Ian Lai
Normally Ian might have teased him about it - the same way he'd teased Kalen for not knowing how to talk about phone sex. But he didn't. Instead he just watched Kalen silently, his eyes dark and contemplative.
Then he turned and began to walk toward the house.
"So who owns this place?" he asked, casually curious. And if perhaps the subject change had been intentional, well, no one here was likely to mind.

Grace
Something goes 'bloop' in Grace's laptop bag, and she rummages around inside it for her phone. She pulls it out, unlocks the thing, and smiles at it. Taps in a response. And then, shuffles it back into her bag.
Who could live without a telephone, really?
Really, who can? Because it's a good cover for Grace, hiding her red face in her phone because there's Kalen telling her she can go take a dip in the Node. Geez.
"I uh... wouldn't want to upset you. And I don't really want to. Right now. You know."
Ian gets the hints, the way Kalen tries to hide his lack of sanity, and Grace relaxes a little. Thanks for the change of topic, Ian. "It's owed by someone down in Texas, actually. Never met her."

Grace
Good, good. Sometimes I do cram both feet in my mouth by mistake... Just being sure I didn't run you off. See ya.

Kalen Holliday
"Despite your phenomenal aptitude, you really should not rearrange your life around what does and does not make me crazy.  Even I think those are unreasonable parameters."
Kalen heads into the chantry, and elects not to give a super grand tour.  Parading Ian around seems ridiculous.  So instead, he waves in various directions as he heads toward the living room.  "The kitchen is over there.  The stairs over there lead up to bedrooms.  The library is downstairs, I think Pan and Shoshannah can get you access, though I can let you in."
He flops onto one of the couches.  "The bar is right there."  He gives a last wave, with a little flourish, at the bar.

Ian Lai
Those were both names that Ian was only passingly familiar with, though he still had an entry in his contacts that listed Shoshannah's number. Pan's name he only knew because Serafine had mumbled it drunkenly one night after that priest had showed up out of the blue to whisk her away.
Grace said the house was owned by someone in Texas, and Kalen evidently knew little more, since he didn't seem inclined to elaborate. Ian made note of that information as he followed Kalen and Grace around the house, taking in the decor and the architecture. When Kalen flopped down on the couch, Ian neglected to join him, choosing instead to pace slowly around the room. When he reached the bar, he dragged a finger across it and tapped the surface lightly.
"Can I see the library?"

Grace
"Ugh," Grace says, and it's her turn to roll her eyes at Kalen. "I'm not. Okay in this case I am not. Just... Have I ever given you the impression that I might be a secret exhibitionist? If so, I am deeply sorry."
They go and join each other inside, and Kalen (of course) flops down and claims a couch with his entire body, as usual. Even with his leg healed, he loves lounging like that. But Ian wants to see the library, and Grace smiles. "Sure, we can. It's this way," she says, and again leads, showing him the way downstairs. At the bottom, she opens the (heavy, locked) door.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen gets up off of the couch, to come with them toward the library.  It is one of his favorite parts of the chantry and all.  Besides, watching Ian respond to things is entertaining.  And educational.
"Sometimes, Kit," he says, voice heavy with amusement.  "People surprise me."

Ian Lai
"What's the point of being an exhibitionist if you have to keep it a secret?"
Ian smiled at Grace, all bright teeth and wry charm, like he was daring her to prove herself wrong. And maybe if she was the sort to take the bait, he'd follow it up with the same thing he'd said to Alex - I'll show you mine if you show me yours.
But more than likely Grace would stay focused on the task at hand, and Ian was quite content to examine the contents of the spacious library, with or without the flirtatious banter.
After all, when did a cat ever turn down an opportunity to learn a few secrets?

Ian Lai
True to form, Kalen found himself a couch to occupy within moments of entering the library. Ian watched him for a moment as though he found this behavior curious, but he let the Hermetic doze off without interruption. There were, after all, books to be had, and Ian took his time wandering through the library, letting his eyes roam across the various volumes and titles that lay upon the wooden shelves.
Ian didn't precisely give off the impression of being an academic type, but nonetheless his interest in the library seemed genuine - if perhaps of a different sort than Grace's own interest. While he wandered, he grew quiet, and perhaps Grace would begin to feel as though her presence had been forgotten, but then Ian paused and looked back at her, his expression contemplative.
"How long have you and Kalen known each other?"

Grace
When they first walked in, Grace led Ian around to the different sections. The library is ordered, in a certain way. The books aren't nearly as haphazardly placed as they might seem. But then, she let him browse, and Kalen sleep, by plucking a familiar worn manual off the shelves and slinking off to a chair with it.
Kalen sleeps with twitchy restlessness. It's easy to see why he's always tired, if this is what constitutes sleep for him. If Ian pays any attention, he might find her occasionally peeling her eyes off of her book to watch him, but she's not going to wake him up. He needs what little rest he can find.
The question... ahh. It has Grace pondering for a moment. "It was August or September last year. Something like that. School had started. I was only a few weeks Awake. He likes new Mages, I think."

Ian Lai
"That doesn't surprise me."
Ian hovered a moment near a section of books about spirit lore, tracing the tip of a finger over a couple of the bindings. Not all of them had obvious titles, and he had to pull a couple off the shelf in order to inspect their contents.
"You a Hermetic too, then?"
The stereotype didn't seem to fit her quite as well as it did Kalen, but then, one couldn't always go by stereotypes. What little Ian knew of Hermetics included the fact that they did not like to share knowledge with anyone outside of their Tradition.
(Then again, Kalen had already proved that assumption wrong on a couple of occasions.)

Grace
"Nope, I am a certified Virtual Adept. He did try to recruit me, but not much. And I'd already been spotted ages ago by the Adepts, so," she says, and lays her book down on the side table. Seems it's conversation time. Sometimes, Grace follows social rules, like 'don't read when people are trying to talk to you' and such. Sometimes.
"I'd be a pretty poor match for the Hermetics," she says, and she can already hear Adam's complaint. "Not all of them seem to think so, but I do."
"What about you?"

Ian Lai
Ian made a sound in his throat - a little hmm - when Grace said that she was with the Virtual Adepts. Not so much in question as in understanding. But whatever his opinion of that Tradition, he kept it to himself. When Grace tossed the question back at him he smiled, just a little, in amusement.
"I'm not a Hermetic."
That wasn't exactly a complete answer, but Ian didn't seem terribly inclined to offer further information. He moved toward a table and set his books down, pulling out one of the chairs so that he could sit and look through what he'd found.
"Are you the one who set up Ginger?"

Grace
Ohh Ian, you make this mysteriousness into something fun. "Aww come on. You must be an... Ecstatic?" Grace says, making this into a game of Guess the Tradition. She gives him a bright grin at that.
Are you the one who set up Ginger?
"Well, yes and no. I helped set it up, but it was the brainchild of another. Gadfly, he called himself. But I administrate it now, along with Kalen. Either of us can set you up with it, you know," she says, and looks over to the twitching Kalen, mumbling in his sleep. "I can probably answer more questions than he can though. Especially right now."

Ian Lai
Ian glanced at Kalen when Grace made mention of him, watching the way the Hermetic slept (the restlessness of it.) The silent pause before his next response seemed to indicate thought.
"He already offered. I turned him down." Though something about the way Ian was questioning Grace now seemed to indicate that he was still at least considering it.
He shifted in his chair, leaning forward with both elbows on the table, and met Grace's eyes with his own. Ian's gaze was sharp and steady, laced around the edges with notes of his cunning resonance. "What makes you think I'm an Ecstatic, hmm?" He seemed amused by the question, and interested to hear Grace's response. Light flickers of humor touched the not-quite-smile that hovered at the corners of his mouth.

Grace
Ian turned down the prospect of Ginger, hmm. "Well, I'm not going to pressure you into it, or sell you some lie about it being perfectly safe. It's not. It's just safer. I understand if you don't want in."
And Grace meets his eyes with a touch of... well, not humor exactly. Calculation, perhaps. "Well, it's the way you... I don't know. You seemed to be really into the Node. Feeling it, you know, like you had to bodily connect to it or something. And you flirt. Not that that's a purely Ecstatic trait, mind you. But yeah, I can see how you might be someone who enjoys experiencing things to their fullest. Am I wrong?"

Patience Mason
Another night, another visit to the chantry. Some might notice, or they might not that the curious woman from out of time did infact stop by the Chantry on a semi regular occasion. Be it to recharge in the nodes healing waters or to peruse the chantry's ample library the woman, dressed in her uniquely vintage garb was starting to become a regular haunter of these halls.
Some might notice that Patience rarely seemed to enter through the front door, sometimes it was a second story window, other times it was the back door, others the garage...tonight for once shes coming through the front door. Dressed in a pair overalls with a leather panel sewn into the front, pockets at her hips bulging with various and unusual devices the woman stepped into the chantry and moved through to the lower levels, carrying a large package in both arms.
She would descend to the library package in tow and when she spied the two occupant's, sky blue eyes would widen in both surprise, and pleasure.
"Appropriate temporally alligned sociological verbal salutations Grace." She would say with a nod. "It is an appropriately positive temporal reference frame to re-acquire and actualize your individualized paradigmic personage."  She said as she moved towards the large central table.
"Addendum, uncategorized, unactualized bio-paradigmic personage, it is of equal parts positivity that I actualize your relativistic existence and disseminate my heritalogical identifier. I am catagorized as Patience Mason." The package, made of burlap is deposited onto the table with a heavy thunk, indicating something heavy and metal within, and Patience began to unpack it.

Kalen Holliday
[Work cooperates!  --  Kalen, how much do you hate your subconscious right now?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 6 )

Ian Lai
"The Cultists certainly have their appeal. But their point of view has its limits." He seemed about to elaborate on that, but then the door to the library opened, and Patience appeared. Ian regarded her with a nebulous expression... somewhat reserved and touched with a kind of wary skepticism. He didn't return her greeting, perhaps because he couldn't figure out how communication with her might actually work.
When he turned his attention back to Grace, some of his relaxed humor seemed to have evaporated. "You aren't wrong in your observations, but no. Not an Ecstatic."
He opened one of his books and began to flip slowly through the various chapters (as though looking for something in particular.) "Who else is involved in Ginger? Tell me about them."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen's eyes flutter open.  Where the Hell is he?  Ah.  The library.  Ian and Grace and something luminous to chase away the echoing memory of living, all-consuming shadow.  And death.  Always so much death.
He takes a slow breath.  There is that luminous glow and the sense of Ian like some lurking great and Grace all ever-moving and brilliant.  He thinks that she must feel like those sharp-angled outlines that keep changing colors on screen savers.  See.  They are not dead.  They are right here.
He sits up slowly, giving Grace a 'did you seriously let me fall asleep here?' look.  It doesn't manage, what with Kalen still being not entirely awake, to look particularly annoyed.  He glances over at Ian, and though he considers it for a second, he doesn't try to summon him any closer.  He does smile a little as he watches him flipping through the book.
And then he looks at Patience, gives her a warm, half-apologetic smile.  "Hey, Firefly.  I am...not awake enough to remember what noospheric means and put all the words together in a manner more customary to you.  It's good to see you, though."  Give him a minute, though.  He might start managing to catch up to her speech patterns yet.  It is one of his favorite games, after all.

Grace
"Hey Patience. Good to see you," Grace says, and smiles. It's a bit of a show that, meant to reassure the woman. The last time they met, Grace was... not well. And in this library too.
Her package goes thump on the table they're all sitting (or laying, in Kalen's case) at, and Grace puts a finger up to her mouth. "Kalen's sleeping," she says, quietly. So do try to be quiet too, Patience.
Apparently, she's not going to introduce the newcomer to Patience. Maybe she thinks that he doesn't want to tell her his name.
"Ahh, there's a lot of people who have access, but as far as admins, just myself and Kalen so far. You know about him already. Gadfly was... hmm. He was a good guy. Socially inept, but a good guy. Showed up at my book signing, and had memorized every word in the story I read, and I could tell by the way his lips moved along with, even though he was staring off into space. Virtual Adept, if that wasn't obvious. He disappeared," she says, and the story is touched with nostalgia and sadness. She speaks of he whom she believes to be dead.
And then, Kalen wakes up. She smirks back at his look, nonverbally communicating back a 'yes, I did, you were tired'.
"What is that, Patience?"

Patience Mason
The package is unwrapped with care, and what lays within seems to be a series of parts and pieces, of what was likely some device, some assembly required. There were panels of circuits, gears and gyro's along with four curiously fashioned crystalline panels which were each in turn wrapped carefully within heavy felt parcels of their own.
The newcomer offers no response to Patience's greeting, and it amounts to nothing more then a gentle puckering of the woman's full lips as she regarded him. Those sky blue eyes met his and she smiled, before shrugging and turning back to her venture at hand. She would have tried to be more quiet from that point, but Kalen had already risen, risen and greeted Grace and herself and she smiles back at the man and offers.
"Verbally transmitted Salutations Kalen, actualization of your relativistic bio-para-noospheric existence is complete. Were your REM units appropriately allocated this juncture?" She inquires idly as she pulled out a long thin screwdriver and began piece the device together, affixing several parts to a large brass frame.
"It is as she works that Patience explains the device, not looking up from the work as she lowers an image enhancing monocle over one eye. Her voice calm and clear as she went on. "This basal electro-paradigmic device is cataloged as a multi-spectral indexer, a supplementary component of the Aurora's primary, secondary, and tertiary data acquisition array. It's primary methodology for data acquisition and compilation is utilizing spectral luminal wave variances to correlate data and assign appropriate catagories to foreign and frotean elements not registered within its primary data latice." Patience looked up briefly as she slotted the first of several boards into the main housing.
"Further verbal dissemination of the device's intrinsic nature is possible Grace, if such data transmission is requested?"

Ian Lai
A lot of people, Grace said, and perhaps that wasn't precisely the answer that Ian wanted to hear, because the questions stopped after that. He just listened and nodded and went back to his book. And likely he would have remained that way, quietly reading while Grace and Patience conversed beside him, but then Kalen woke up.
And here, see, an interesting thing:
Ian looked up and watched him silently. But he didn't make a move to approach the space where Kalen had laid himself out. And though he could have asked if Kalen had enjoyed his nap, he didn't. Possibly the answer to that question was easy enough to discern. One did not enjoy sleep when one's dreams were full of shadows.
Patience went about assembling the contents of her package, explaining it to Grace as she did, and Ian finally afforded Patience a steady glance. But it was like trying to fathom a completely alien species, and after a moment he seemed to abandon the effort.
"I'll leave you two to your little geek-fest."
And he picked up his books and moved to a chair that was further out of the range of their conversation (presumably so he could focus on what he was reading.

Kalen Holliday
[Ian.  Why are you so hard to figure out like a cat?  Some people are tired but still trying to figure out all your mysterious. Spending WP, because last time they hung out was kind of a disaster....]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 4, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Ian Lai
[Because I just wouldn't be as much fun if I was easy to figure out.]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 6, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 4 )

Kalen Holliday
Kalen is, fortunate enough for the moment, relatively used to speaking with Patience.  "For me, incredibly so.  Thank you."  He smiles as he listens to her explain the thing she's brought with her to work on, follows half of it, and resolves at some point to ask if she can build him a robot lion.  Because he really, really wants a full-sized lion sentry for the library.  And he doesn't think anyone he knows in Denver can animate that marble statue.  Yet.
He rises and moves closer to Ian.  Patience gets a hand on her shoulder for a second as he passes, because it would be a terrible, terrible thing to muss whatever intricate thing she does to her hair.  Grace gets a tiny little wave, but no touching.  And then he settles into a chair near Ian and leans into him to murmur something.

Grace
Ian goes off to have a little privacy, or a little snit. One of the two. Doesn't seem to like nerds. Well, he can just continue to not like them, and she and Patience can continue to be completely awesome. Grace does give him a little fake-pout, if he's even looking. Sad to see him go. Not so sad as to be overly upset though. It's a fake pout, after all.
It's good to hear Kalen had a good rest. So rare these days, she knows. She can tell. And she lets him pretend that she actually can't tell. He gets a smile, but no words. Sometimes they don't even need to speak.
Then, it's back to the thing on the table, which is far more interesting than trying to figure out the reason why Ian wants to be by himself. Kalen seems to be on that job anyway. "So like, a magic sensor? It categorizes the stuff you detect?"

Patience Mason
Geekfest, Ian had called what they were doing a geek-fest. Several looks cross the woman's features from confusion, to realization, and then to utter amusement. She actually lets out a warm, full bodied laugh as Ian moves off to another side and Patience simply looked back to Grace with a warm smile.
Kalen has slept well, or at least he seems to say he has and to that Patience offers a agreeable smile. When the man walks past, heading after Ian he places a hand upon her shoulder, an act which draws a surprised, if not unhappy look to the surface of her features and she blinks at the man, halfway through inserting the next circuit board before looking at Grace in silent question. It seemed she was drawing alot of information from Grace, simply through reading her facial expressions.
But then its back to the ultimate geekery, to which Patience's eyes gleam with excitement and pride as she inserted the last of the primary chip sets and began to work on some of the cogs and armatures. "A appropriate approximation of the standard operating procedure of this device Grace, this unit has been active and cataloging redundantly for the past twenty two solar traversal's having actualized and catagorized significant data in its activity cycle. Though concurrently this particular schematical variant is no longer nominally efficient, its highly erudite index supposes its utilization as an pre-emptive dissident and frotean detection alert system is subjectively prominent. Successful integration with the data acquisition and dissemination algorithm concurrently identified as 'Ginger' may increase paradigmically actualized individuals awareness and prepardness ratios by a factor of fifteen."

Ian Lai
Given Grace's assumptions about Ian (and his opinion of nerds,) she might have been a little surprised if she'd met him as a kid. People changed, though. Not always for the better.
When Kalen sat down next to him, Ian looked up from his book and raised an eyebrow in a manner markedly similar to that of a person who was being told the benefits of some extremely dubious looking new food-stuff. His response came in a half-whisper, soft enough to match Kalen's tone.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen smiles at Ian's response, murmuring back.  It's totally calm for a minute, and then even from across the room you can see Kalen retake some of his more customary distance, pulling back a little and expression smoothing into something emptier.  Safer.

Grace
"You want to give it a Ginger account? You don't even have Ginger yet! Oh! Oh I should..." Grace says, and doesn't finish, as she rummages around in the laptop bag she laid at the foot of her chair. She pulls out her laptop, and starts booting it up. Yes, we need Patience on the network. This must happen.
"You have a phone? Or a computer? Or... whatever you would want me to put Ginger on, for you own use? I could do that right now," Grace says, and hopes that whatever device Patience might want to hand her comes with a USB adapter, or else they're going to have to get Creative.
Not that that is ever a bad thing.
"So, it would post updates on dangerous things automatically? Like... a weather alert system? Only instead of storm warnings, we'd get magic warnings? That would be so helpful... What's it's range? Like, how far is it looking for 'dissident frotean' stuff?"
Meanwhile, as she speaks, she's booting up a monster of a laptop. It's powerful. And fast. Ready in seconds, and nearly silent. It was purchased specifically for such qualities, and that didn't come cheap. Whatever lack of interest she seems to put into her car or her clothes, this does not extend to her hardware.

Patience Mason
"Though this device's standard operating dynamic is for that of atmospheric actualization, even located upon the external elemental reduction and diversion layer of this paradigmic facility a range of approximately one standard mile would not be beyond its concurrent abilities." Patience offers as she looks briefly over at the two men conversing quietly.
Grace is going on about giving Patience a Ginger account, and though Patience smiles, equally eager to have access to the service she frowns ever so slightly, her brows furrowing in contemplation as a finger raised to tap at her chin idly. "The mobile verbal/aural telecommunications transmitter which is concurrently present upon my bio-physical structure is automatically updated via the Aurora's primary computational matrix. Inload of the algorithm would require direct access to the matrice's to efficiently affect software alterations and repurposing." She pulls out a small cell shaped device from one of her many pockets, showing Grace that there really was no port on the device.
"We could movate our locality to the Aurora to affect such application, it is concurrently stationed at a relativistic altitude of twenty point three five meter units above this geographical locality." She offers.

Ian Lai
Given Ian's seeming absorption in both his book and his whispered conversation with Kalen, one might imagine that he'd long stopped listening to whatever it was that Grace and Patience were talking about. And it's true, he wasn't directly focused on them anymore, but his ears picked up a lot more information than most people assumed.
At this moment, that information was being filed away somewhere for later use.
The reality was this: there was a person who was missing, trapped and cold underground. Who the hell knew if he was even still alive. And another person... taken. Possessed. And Ian couldn't do a damn thing about it except to look. And look. And hope that he got lucky. The fact that he could stroll around and make jokes and sit here calmly having conversations about Traditions and secret communication software was not necessarily an indication that he was handling things well.
But that didn't mean he wanted to be reminded of that fact, either. So whatever Kalen said to him then, it got a pointed look.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen sighs, murmurs something else to Ian, and then glances over the books he can reach without getting up.  After a few second's consideration, he picks one out, reaches over and pulls it off the shelf, and flips through it for a minute before settling on a page to start with.
And then he curls up in the chair, still close enough for murmured conversation but no longer really leaning into Ian's space.

Grace
Grace gives Patience a look that is at once awed and massively intrigued. "Your ship is?" she says, and points up. "Well. Hmm. We will have to get creative then."
"I could try to directly connect to the Aurora computational matrix, if you would allow it? I don't really need a wire, it just helps. I can piggyback on the phone's connection. It would be secure. But I would have access to your databanks. I'll let you watch the whole thing. Considering this all seems to be homebrew equipment, I might need your help navigating it all, actually...
"And... oh wow, I would not mind a tour either. But I do have to give Kalen a ride home later."
And, let's just put it bluntly -- Kalen and Ian are being ignored for the time being. Grace is absorbed in Patience's stuff, and her idea for upgrading Ginger with an automated sensor is killer.

Patience Mason
"The Aurora has sufficient volume and internalized capacity to relocate Kalen, your movating internal combustion drive system structure and your own physical bio-structure along with several other parties, if so required." It is offered as an option for getting him home, if perhaps Grace didn't feel like driving.
"If such socio-political dynamism is not concurrently appropriate or noospherically positive we could initate a remote data transmission and dissemination algorithm to upload your directives into the system, upon such actualization if within alternate and divergent temporal frames Ginger users could gain sufficent access to the Aurora's primary data acquisition apparatus for improved logistical analysis and situational awareness." She makes this offer freely, either shes quite certain of her security, or just that willing to help out the others of the city.
She hands her little communication device to Grace regardless however, and turns it on with the depression of a tiny indent on its side, the surface folds open revealing an operating screen on a crystalline surface, it seems to operate through the manipulation of various light streams visible on the screen itself using ones fingers.

Ian Lai
It was probably a good thing that Grace's attention lay elsewhere at the moment, given the spike of awkward energy that had bloomed between Ian and Kalen. It wasn't really clear what had caused it, but anyone giving a close read of their body language might identify Ian as the source of the upset. Kalen was pulling back. Retreating. And Ian didn't seem especially concerned with drawing him back in.
"I'm almost afraid to ask what 'The Aurora' is," Ian finally rejoined the general conversation, looking up from his book with a tentatively curious expression.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen doesn't seem particularly upset now, but he definitely did retreat.  Whatever sparked off that distance...seems to not matter so much anymore.  Ian speaking gets a little flick of his eyes in that direction, but he's asking about Patience's...whatever the Aurora is.  It is in the sky, which is awesome, but Kalen isn't quite in the mood for that.
And he is in the mood for herbalism?  Since when does Kalen care about that?  But he seems perfectly content reading about mandrake roots for the moment.

Grace
[Corr 2: Secure Connection -- Diff 5 -1 for taking time. Connecting to the Aurora.]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (5, 6) ( success x 2 )

Grace
[Int 4 + Computers 4, diff 8 - 1 (Computer Aptitude); Specialization: Int (Creative), Computer (Analysis) = Okay, now figure out this completely new, foreign operating system, Grace!]
Dice: 8 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 3 ) Re-rolls: 2

Grace
"Oh wow, Patience. That is amazing," she says, and gently takes the device. She puts it down on the table next to the sensor array, and begins typing away at her own device.
The screen on Grace's laptop turns black, and then begins to churn with the loading of her programs. Text blocks scroll down the screen in stutter-stops as she works.
And then, the people in the room will feel it -- the way she slices through, all the way up. Like the rug being pulled out from under with a sharp tug, like a surgical [bit]shift. And her screen now mirrors that of the phone on the table, ready for upload.
"Oh well... hmm. It's not standard is it?" she says, after a bit of trial-and-error attempts at working the interface. "I think I can figure out how to at least install the payload though. You want to give me access to the installation routines, Patience? I'm the process 'chimeric01'."

Ian Lai
Grace and Patience were likely too absorbed in their conversation to notice that Ian had asked a question, and well, to be fair, he was the one who'd gotten up and walked off to begin with. So he didn't take the lack of response personally (or at least, didn't seem to.) Instead he just pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger and closed his eyes for a moment.
"I'm going to go read these upstairs."
Perhaps he ought to have asked permission first, given the value of the books in his hands and the fact that he was a relative newcomer (unproven and untrusted.) But it wasn't as though he was going very far, and presumably the three of them could probably stop him if he tried to make off with anything that didn't belong to him.
In any case, he closed the book in his lap and stood up, making his way toward the door. And if he wasn't stopped, he'd keep going up, past the living room and into one of the unclaimed guest rooms on the top floor.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen lets Grace and Patience work, and he lets Ian go with no more than a wave.  He has plants to read about, and he is perfectly content with that for now.

Grace
"Hey, um... er..." Grace looks up at Ian with a remarkable face that reads like she's encountering a marvelous new moral dilemma.
The last thing Grace wants to do is be a rule-maker. She doesn't really do that. She's no authority. But still.
"Maybe you shouldn't? I don't mean to be rude, but there's a reason why the door is thick and has some massive locks on it. I don't know if this place has alarms for the removal of inventory or whatever. I've never tried."
She's not going to tell him no. She's just going to give him reasons, and hope he follows the logical path. Either that, or she'll find out if the place is wired to go into alert mode if books leave the premises.
She looks over to Kalen, who is busy reading a book on... plants? Clearly something has been missed here, and it has Grace confounded. Ugh. People. Why are they so hard to figure out? Computers are infinitely easier.

Ian Lai
[Let's make a WP roll, shall we?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 1 )

Ian Lai
Grace interjected, and Ian? Stopped just before the door. He didn't say anything for a moment, but there was this little click of his jaw as he rolled the muscle and bit down. (Not really angry, but... frustrated, maybe.)
"Fine." His voice sounded deceptively placid. Accepting, if not overly thrilled with the situation. And he walked back to the shelf where he found the books, moving to replace them in their proper locations.
But then... he paused. And gave a little twitch of his head, rolling it on the axis where it met with his vertebrae. Then, without a word, he picked the books back up again and drifted back into the furthest corner he could find. Presumably in an attempt to avoid distractions (of all varieties.)
And that was where he would remain for most of the night.

Ian Lai
[Ok, this is a roll for Ix's SL. Wits+Occult, diff 8, cause someone doesn't have any Cosmology]
Dice: 4 d10 TN8 (3, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 1 )

Grace
Grace and Patience will work on their little project for some time. It's a thing, trying to connect two wildly different systems, and Grace is going to have to recode the Ginger program to Patience's specifications to get it to work. But in the end, they'll have achieved some success. Let's hand it to them, they are no slouches in the technology department, either of them.
Patience, at least, will have Ginger access. And, the program will have been installed into the sensor array. Whether they can get everything communicating with the Ginger server is anyone's guess, but still. Between the two of them, it's likely.
Grace will have to ask Kalen later what had the two so upset. Probably on the ride back, if he doesn't just doesn't want to sleep the whole way. She does worry that it might be her, or Ginger, or... something. Ian is difficult to read. Mysterious as Kalen said he would be. And humans are somewhat mysterious beasts to Grace even at the best of times. But for now, she leaves them be, to work and plan and possibly provide a automated magical sensor readout to the people of her city.

Ian Lai
[Int+Library, spending WP because this is actually important, yo]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]