Grace's Strange Engagement

Elijah
[how did I sleep?]
Dice: 3 d10 TN7 (2, 4, 10) ( success x 1 )

Elijah
Elijah had come to the office with the intent of reading, or finding Grace. Hopefully finding Grace but if he couldn't find Grace he was going to read. He had exhausted some of his better thoughts in the hopes of finding their mutual acquaintance, but thus far the young man hadn't turned up anything. he adjusted his messenger bag over his shoulder, and with little fanfare and even less restful sleep, the young man made his way off to the library. He needed to find something to do that would help spur on his rather adventurous search.
No, strike that. All of his searches had proven to be rather boring ones. Elijah needed to recoup, reevaluate his methods, and then come at things from a different angle.
It would be a whole Hell of a lot easier if he wasn't exhausted.
He wasn't sure how he could get a full night's sleep and still be exhausted but he knew that whatever medication he had bent akin was starting to work its way out of his system and coupled with the bad dreams and the fact that he slept hard, Elijah Poirot wasn't operating at his full capability. "Whose woods these are, I think I know," he muttered to himself.
The young man was tall. Tall and thin and blond and sun-flecked. he drove a motorcycle, it was hard not to have just a touch of sun here and there, and the young man certainly didn't seem to come from pale stock. His attire was comfortable, but could easily be dressed up if need be. Jeans, shoes, button up shirt, and a vest.
Oh, and a pocket watch. Because pocket watch.

Grace
Grace is sharp, slicing through the place, cutting a line in the middle of the storm. Kalen's resonance clings to the walls in this place, as does that of Grace. But his isn't quite so strong right now -- only an echo.
It's worrying.
As much as Grace isn't Kalen's warden, and as much as he has done this sort of disappearing act before, there is something wrong here. She's certain he would have told her first -- hinted at it at least. Not made a bunch of plans, and then dropped off the face of the earth.
She's been on the phone today, trying the mundane fashion out. Scrying can be dangerous -- a truth pounded into her by recent events. But nurses at reception desks are annoying little jerks. They will get back to her. And so...
She doesn't worry too much, really. Kalen is a Knight of the Order, and that comes with it a certain ability to survive. And a penchant for going out in a blaze of glory, or so he always says. If he were dead, she imagines it would be spectacular. People would know.
A tumult meets the shifting blade as she messes on her computer, preparing (for what? Something.) and at first Grace doesn't remember the young one to whom it belongs. It raises the hairs on her neck.
So Elijah might find her staring at him from a window first. Probably not the best thing to do when presented with an unfamiliar resonance, to show oneself. But whatever. She's good at going unnoticed.
And then, she opens the door. "Hey, I remember you. Come in."

Elijah
There is a person in the window.
Elijah is generally good with people, but the person in the window doesn't… quite… get placed. He overlooked her entirely, and soon enough hearing a voice had him tense up unnecessarily and had his stomach turning and he was expecting something very bad and-
Oh! Right! Once the door opened and he got a good look at her, she did look familiar… ish. Elijah prided himself on being good with people, but once he was looking at her he was pretty sure he remembered her (sort of. That would bother him later, not being able to place her immediately). It was in the door with him again, "you're Grace, right? It's Elijah. You set me up with a phone sex operator?"

Grace
"Yeah. And you used my Ginger too. You were looking for Kalen. Thanks for that, it's appreciated," she says, and lets him step in.
"I've been trying to find him myself. He doesn't go by Kalen in the official world. He has about fifty different names for different occasions. It can be hard keeping up."
She takes a different path than he's used to. It's not the library she's headed to, at first. But she stops herself in the middle of wandering, turns to him. "Are you hungry?"

Elijah
"Sexy and user friendly, Ginger's quite the woman," Elijah said. He adjusted his bag over his shoulder. His helmet was left back at the bike, and frankly Elijah expected for it to be not there by the time be came back, but there was too much to carry and not enough time and, frankly, he needed a new helmet anyway so-
Breathe.
His thoughts were racing. He has to slow down, but the young man was primed to be chaotic at best. Racing thoughts were just part and par for the course. He stopped- was he hungry? "Actually, yeah, I could go for food. And is that a Hermetic thing? With the thing with all the names, or is that just a Kalen-keeping-a-really-low-profile thing?"

Grace
Grace grins. Elijah has yet to find out about Hermetics and all of their names. The one they use for other mages, the one they use for normal folks, the one they only use with other Hermetics, the titles they tack on to their names, seemingly just to add more names to the pile...
"It's totally a Hermetic thing. But a lot of us do use separate names for dealing with separate lives. I have yet to meet a Hermetic that didn't take that waaaay overboard though."
She turns around again and keeps walking, taking Elijah along another path. This time, as he'll find out if he chooses to trail behind her, they end up in the kitchen.
"What kind of leftover take-out do you prefer? Yakisoba noodles or curry? I think the curry is meat, if you're not into that."

Elijah
"So… having a bunch of different names is totally normal?" he paused, and then had to ask the obvious, "am I required to figure out a different name? I kind of like being Elijah, even if I have a crappy middle name, it's still pretty awesome all things considered."
Because Renee, not René, was much better than being named Elijah Marie (which had been his mother's first choice, which thankfully she was too drugged up to get through telling the nurses. They screwed up René badly enough. We digress. The young man cocked his head to the side and was content to muse over the prospect of half a dozen other names.
They ended up in the kitchen and Elijah looked… surprised. LIke he wasn't expecting there to be a kitchen.
"Curry if it's past day two. Noodles if it's day one. Curry ages like Sean Connery."

Grace
"Curry it is, then," Grace says, and grabs a couple of styrofoam containers out of the fridge. If Elijah notices anything about this kitchen, or about the food to be had here -- it's more pre-prepared things than ingredients. Apparently none of the people who regularly come here actually cook.
Kalen, dear thing, he set this place up to be more than an office. There's a shooting range and a library and a server room and a kitchen. And the couches are comfortable enough to sleep on. That wasn't an accident. The man rarely uses his own home even to sleep in.
She takes one of the containers and dumps it out into a bowl. Some naan to eat the curry with apparently. And into another bowl, she dumps the paneer tikka masala. And then it's time to do the only cooking Grace is intimately familiar with. She chunks it in the microwave.
Welcome to hospitality, Grace-style.
"No. Not required to change your name. I still go by my real name most of the time. I kind of had to while I was still in school. Though I suppose I could go and shed that identity now if I wanted. Might be safer," she says, as if really considering the idea.
"Kalen, he never really had a normal life. He probably had multiple identities before he Awakened."

Elijah
Curry it is, she says, and he seems content with the fact that there is food. The place was set up as more than an office and, having been to Kalen's house versus Kalen's office, he can tell the differences. hell, he can feel the differences. He knows that the place barely had a reflection but here? Here, it took everything Elijah had not to light a cigarette, breathe deep and exhale smoke and see the world for what it was. He could tell what places were important, he could feel what places were important. Whether it was an office or not, this was a place Kalen Holliday called home.
Or, well, as close to home as he could call it. It wasn't Flagstaff; Flagstaff was long gone.
"This smells freaking heavenly," he said, "thank you."
Because he didn't care where it came from or how prepackaged it was. Elijah Poirot was still at an age where he could eat anything and not expect terrible repercussions. "So, on a scale of one to ten, one being not at all necessary and ten being why haven't you done this yet you nutjob? How dangerous is it to go by your actual name? I'm a little nervous."
A little? One of his friends is missing and he had all sorts of crazy precautions in order. Of course Elijah was a little nervous.
"And I kind of got that impression about him… he sounded like he was functionally on his own for a long, long time. Is it normal to awaken that young?"

Grace
"Do you have any deadly enemies who know who you are? If so, I'd dump your name like it's on fire," Grace says, and shrugs. "I don't know. Like I said, I still go by Grace."
"Is anything normal about Awakening? I did it last July. Got an anniversary coming up I guess," she says, and yet at the mention of July something twitches in her. That month.
Kalen was going to help her deal with it. The poison. The bees. Whatever the fuck that meant.
To Elijah, Grace just goes a bit pensive for a while, before: "I hate not knowing where he is."

Elijah
"I went by the club and tried to get a look at the place's reflection to see if there was anything weird, and it was pretty normal. I though… well… I thought that maybe whatever happened with all those people may have something to do with where he went, but whatever happened doesn't have to do with the place itself," he said.
There was a degree of certainty in his voice, because… well, he'd wanted to see. He'd wanted to be certain, he wanted to check and be sure that whatever happened there had nothing to do with Kalen but… but he wasn't sure. The place didn't look like sixty-something people just dropped into a coma there. It was so normal while nothing about the situation seemed normal.
"Do you know anybody he might have to go see in a hurry? I mean, the only people I've ever heard him mention that are still around are Jack and Kharisma, but I don't think he's been in contact with them for awhile, at least it didn't sound like it, I don't know," he didn't like not knowing, that much was clear.
"How did you guys meet?"

Grace
She nods at his mention of going by the club and looking at it's reflection, but she doesn't really know what he means by that.
"He would have told me if he had to see someone in a hurry," Grace says, and at that, the microwave beeps. So she gets Elijah his bowls and heads off to the table. Apparently she's eaten, or doesn't want to, because she doesn't get herself any, just slides both bowls over to a place at the table before taking her own.
"There's ah, some pomegranate soda in the fridge. Or there's tea or coffee. Soda's good though."
And she's not going to fetch your soda, apparently, Elijah. She just sits there, eyes scanning the borders of the room.
"We met at college. He wasn't going at the time, but he was just there one day, perched on top of a table. It was just random. We talked about... blackberries."

Elijah
"We were supposed to meet up and he was going to explain more magical stuff, I would think he would have cancelled if he had to leave in a hurry. I'm trying really, really hard not to think something bad happened," but something bad probably happened, Elijah says without saying, because there was no need to say it. They were both thinking it. both probably becoming incredibly creative about the various horrible things that could be happening to their friend at that particular juncture.
She brought him a bowl, but mentioned things in the fridge and it was off to go grab pomegranate soda- because dear Jesus that stuff was delicious. Besides, it would go well with curry.
"Blackberries… the phone or the food?" he somehow suspected the latter, that much was clear. Elijah plopped down unceremoniously and started on to eating curry.

Grace
Grace makes a little huff. Blackberries? The dead devices? "The food."
"Something bad happened, Elijah," she says, making some rare eye contact. "Even if he's in a hospital in a coma without any physical scars to show for it? Yeah. That can be pretty bad. And that's the best place I could think to find him right now."
Well, go ahead and rip the band-aid off, why don't you Grace.
If he's in a coma, if he's in a hospital somewhere... Grace knows what his dreams are like. Dreams are sometimes how they get to you. They can do so much worse to you in dreams than in real life, and do it over and over and over again.
"There is something I could do. And I'm going to if the damn nurses I got on the line don't get back to me soon."

Elijah
She makes eye contact, and he doesn't flinch. He doesn't look away, he doesn't react as though there is something to fear from eye contact. What does happen, though, is that Elijah Poirot doesn't hide from the fact that wishful thinking is pushed aside in favor of reality and reality? Reality sucked.
"I think… a coma probably falls into the realm of things worst case scenario," he said. The young man could have lied to himself. He didn't like the prospect of a coma because all Elijah could think was what if he doesn't wake up-
He knew what Kalen dreamed about.
What if he is in a coma? He never wakes up? (What if none of them do?)
"What're you gonna do?" he asked curiously.

Grace
"I'm gonna find some of his DNA off a hairbrush or toothbrush or something and trace it back to the source," Grace says, and her eyes slide off of Elijah again, like she's lost in thought.
"I'm pretty good at finding people like that. Just, sometimes it can be... not the safest thing to do. Connections --" Grace says, getting cut off by the phone in her pocket going off. Her eyebrows raise, and then she holds up a finger for Elijah. Just a second.
Grace takes the call in hurried nervousness, with lots of 'yeah', and 'uh-huh' going on from her end. Finally she thanks the person on the other end, and hangs up.
"He's at University of Colorado Hospital."

Elijah
He waited.
He waited, and he didn't say anything. There was nervousness in Grace's voice, and he was watching her perhaps a tad too closely for comfort. Elijah looked and waited, hoping that something about this was going to be a good sign, and- he's at a hospital. The University of Colorado hospital.
Elijah forgot about food.
"Great!" perhaps too eager, and then something hits him and his nerves came back and he realized that there was something going on. Something that might not end well because he was in the fucking hospital. His eagerness was replaced immediately by the horrible feeling that he had no idea what had happened. Back to concern, to nerves. Suddenly, food didn't seem tempting anymore. "Did they say what happened? He's not in the ICU, is he?"

Grace
"Well, apparently he was at that club. And he's in a coma. That's all they could tell me," Grace says, and drums her fingers on the table. She's looking at Elijah's food.
"You want to come with me? I'm going to go visit."
Because, you know, she can't just stay here. Not now. Grace seems to come to a sudden realization, and pulls out her phone again.
"Gotta let the others know."

Elijah
"Oh fuck yes I want to come," he said. The young man had the presence of mind start putting things away about as quickly as he could lest he end up letting the office get ants. Somehow, that seemed like the kind of thing that would get him in trouble.
"Car pooling or am I following you?"

Grace
Grace's brow furrows while looking at the phone, and she stands at the table, pushing her chair out with her legs while apparently furious at her phone.
"Fuck. Okay, it wasn't just Kalen. It got Ian and Sid too," she says, and lifts her eyes to Elijah. "You know them?"
She doesn't seem to care about the curry or its ant magnetism properties. Elijah's not going to get in trouble. Yet.
"Might be best to take separate cars. I might be there a while. Lena says this shit is definitely magical in nature," she says, and starts heading out the door.

Elijah
She was headed of rate door.
His attention flickered to the curry, and from the curry to Grace and he concluded that there was some thing that were better than getting perpetually banned from being somewhere on account of ants. He turned his attention to her and he hurrie on along to catch up. She might be there awhile.
Does he know them?
"I met Sid once, she's… she seems lonely," he said, "Kalen seemed to be pretty attached to her, though. When I met she seemed pretty cool, despite the whole, y'know, alone-ness."

Elijah
(She was headed for the door... not headed of rate door. WTF autocorrect?)

Grace
"Oh... yeah, I forget. You were there. Sid's... important to me," Grace says, and doesn't elaborate on that point. She just keeps walking, taking Elijah out of the office.
They take separate cars to get there, rather uneventful of a task, driving to Aurora, but somehow Grace gets there before he does. Maybe she's just worried -- driving a bit too fast. In any case, when Elijah catches up to the sprinting Grace again, he'll find her at the front desk of the hospital, arguing with a volunteer.
"What do you mean, I can't see him?" she says, with a touch of petulance.
"He's in the ICU. Family visiting hours are over for the day," says a tired-eyed elderly woman from behind the desk. "Are you family?"
Grace lets her head fall a fraction. Yeah, they are family, in the ways that count.
"No. He's my... business partner. Just..." she sighs. "Look, I'm sorry. Hospital rules aren't your doing. I'll go wait."

Elijah
[Manip+subterfuge. She's his "business partner")
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 3, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Elijah
It was hard to keep up with someone who was driving just a little too fast while you were on a motorcycle. There wasn't much separating Elijah from being a nice, attractive blond spot on the road, and Grace definitely knows where she is going. He was in the ICU, and the sound of the wind rushing past his ears over his helmet was enough to keep him focused on the road and not the various horrible things that could have happened.
But his thoughts do wander, though. By the time Elijah actually parks and tries to catch up with Grace, she's at the front desk and her head falls and Grace says that she's his … business partner. And she looks so dejected and something seems sad and.
"Really? This isn't the time to be modest, G, if you're just his business partner then I'm Abraham freaking Lincoln," he adopts a tone that is soft but familiar, his attention turned to the nurse "look, this? It's… He was having a bachelor party. They're supposed to get married in a week. They're not family yet but… c'mon, what difference does a week make, please?"
He seems so convincing, and so convinced that this is the truth that it was hard to argue with Elijah on that issues.

Grace
[Manip + subterfuge = Don't screw this up, Grace.]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Grace
Grace blinks, and tries to make the second of confusion she experiences look like she's just surprised to hear a friend behind her. And not, you know, surprised at suddenly being Kalen's fiancee.
She looks at him, away from the matron at the front desk, and gives him a look that says 'I'm going to kill you', but follows it up with an "Oh, Eli. So glad you could make it."
Grace doesn't look like she's getting married in a week. She doesn't have a rock. She hasn't done her hair. Maybe they'll just think she's, well, worried.
It's not hard to pretend there. She gives the woman at the desk some puppy-eyes, and it does the trick. There is the look of sympathy she was waiting for.
"He's in room 306," she says. "Can I get a name?"
"Grace. Evans."

Lena Reilly
[[Since she was already on the way when she let people know, this would have already happened, if you guys are okay with that.  Mind 2: "Let me see them."  Practiced Rote and -1 for quint.]]
Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (7, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Elijah
(totally cool!)

Grace
[Oh yeah! That's fine :)]

Elijah
[I totally belong here, same roll manip+sub]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 4 )

Lena Reilly
Lena didn't waste any time getting over to the hospital as soon as she figured out where they were.  The Cultist didn't normally take a lot of risks with her body for obvious reasons and she is never too eager to get to hospitals (for the exact same reason) but this is different.  She's the official hospital guardian for the Mages of Denver, and it's a role she's thoroughly comfortable in.
So she'd raced over on her motorcycle and walked in, using a little Mind working before she unplugged her headphones to make sure that she could get in to see them.  She hadn't wasted time trying to convince them; this is a different Lena and she was on a mission.  A little Ecstatic Mind Trick and she was sitting in Kalen's room, still in her biker jacket with a helmet on the counter.  She's standing over him, watching quietly with a deep frown on her face.  Lena feels her Passions deeply, and right now she's got many of them roiling under the surface.  Few of them what most people would consider positive (but there are no bad Passions.)

Elijah
This isn't a hard sell.
It should be noted that bullshit flows from Elijah Poirot's speech like honey and he is a sharp young man. He knows what to say, he knows how to read people and to play the sympathy card when he needs it. Grace gives him a look and the look in his eyes is one that is tired. It's a familiar tired, and the way he plays it? The way he seems to hold himself up with a posture that was a hair off of an at ease position.
"I'd kind of be a shitty brother otherwise," he replies to Grace. The smile is fond, the smile is tired, but most of all, it's worried.
That's not a hard sell. Neither is this. Playing it off like Elijah and Kalen might be related in some way isn't terribly hard, not with an act like that. Not when they're both blond, both green eyed, and both tall. Just one of them had a darker coloring than the other, but the posture? That wasn't hard.
"Name, right, sorry-Elijah, three oh-six, right? Thanks," he seems grateful. But most importantly, he seemed worried.
That part wasn't hard to sell.

Grace
[Awareness!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Lena Reilly
[[Magedar, Spec: Uncanny Instincts]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 ) Re-rolls: 1

Elijah
[awareness?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 4, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Grace
Grace gives a weary smile to the lady at the desk before heading over to the elevators. When they get there, when they're somewhat alone and away from anyone in a uniform, she says: "You're going to pay for that one. But thanks. His name is Elliot Dane."
The up arrow lights up, and she steps in. On the way up, the lingering sensation of a storm battering a verdant forest where shadowed panthers prowl gets stronger. And so does the dying pulse of Lena.
Third floor, and they're away. Off to see a friend. Maybe seeing will ease the nerves a bit.
When they get there, it's not as though Lena is a surprise. "Hey, Lena. You met Elijah yet?" Grace says, walking into the room, not really looking at Lena. No, she's got an eye out for her pseudo-mentor. "If anyone asks, I'm our good friend Elliot's fiancee," she adds, in a heavy whisper.

Lena Reilly
She senses them, these two, as they come closer.  Grace's resonance is an old, familiar feeling and while they've had their ups and downs it eases her just a little.  She shuts her eyes, losing herself in the shifting keenness, like the tectonic plates sliding together.  The other she seems to have a slight memory of, but she had left that day in frustration at another and it takes her a minute to catch on.
"Hey Grace."  She opens her eyes slowly, looks over.  When she sees Elijah...well, it's not his fault that she's not in a good mood.  And he gets a warm, familiar smile although it's very brief before her attention turns back to Kalen's prostrate form.  She's quiet and calm.  Too calm.  Underneath it there is a Rage boiling out of her, a desire for Wrath to be unleashed.  There are reasons for this and while they don't all have to do directly with Kalen and Sid and Ian, it is a big.  BIG.  Part.
Those Passions...they bleed.  Emotional resonance is as much a thing as magical.  And so in that withering pulse, there is a red heat.  An emotional violence, urging to be unleashed.  "Hello, Elijah.  Nice to see you again.  Looks like you've made some good company."
Be easy on her, she's usually much more friendly.

Elijah
"If anyone asks, your colors are blush and bashful," the young southern man replies as casually as he can. They step into the elevator and Elijah shoots Grace a smile, something briefly impish but genuine, "thanks for letting me tag along. Do you think he'll mind me knowing one of his other names?"
Because that was a concern, you see, because that was something Elijah had time to think about- names. How important they were, how different they were, how he'd tried to call but couldn't even get the right name. (Though, admittedly, he did wonder if Ms. Kaylynn Holloway's emergency appendectomy had gone well.)
His attention turned to Lena, and for a second he almost could place her. He cocked his head to the side, and that vague sense of familiarity stuck with him, even if he couldn't quite place it. He caught a look at Lena, and he felt a pressure, a feeling, something bright and emotional and almost overwhelming and damn if there wasn't amazement in his face that he didn't know he was wearing so openly. He then managed to place her, once it finally sunk in. He rubbed the back of his head, "yeah, I get pretty lucky sometimes."

Grace
While in the elevator, Grace turned a deeper shade of pink and promised Elijah that Kalen wouldn't mind. The name he'd be more worried about everyone knowing is 'Kalen'.
"He looks so different," Grace says, seemingly uninterested in replying to the others, or acknowledging the compliment of 'good company'. Kalen, even in sleep, is wild. Especially in sleep, really. His dreams make him twitch. But now, he's so still.
She looks up at Lena, at the heat of a heartbleed with polite words to say. Behind the words, though...
"Do you have any idea what took them?"

Lena Reilly
The amazement on Elijah's face is caught by Lena, if only briefly.  She remembers that feeling; everyone goes through it at one point during their Awakened life.  Many lose it; some don't.  If Lena could help it, they'd all keep it forever.  But it's not to be, and she lost hers a long time ago.  She still gets amazed and she still sees the wonder in life and the Tellurian.  But she also sees and knows all the ugliness, and for now that's where she's focused.
She shakes her head in response to Grace's question.  It's the lightest of movements, a slight left-right-left-right before she turns her blue eyes--usually the warm brown of an old blanket by the fire, now showing a very different kind of fire--to the Virtual Adept.  "Not exactly.  I know it was someone Awakened, and it was someone deliberate.  And someone with access to techological means of working magic.  They drew everyone over to these panels that flashed bright and then everyone dropped."
If she wasn't in a hospital, she'd spit on the ground.  See the way that her hands, at the ends of arms already folded over her chest, are tightly gripping her upper arms enough to make the skin white around them.  "Sixty-two people.  Including Kalen and Sid and Ian, who I didn't even know was here in Denver.  Put into comas."

Grace
"That... doesn't necessarily mean Technocrats. But, yeah. Shit," Grace says, and it's a quiet thing. A nurse could overhear.
"Have you seen Sid? Ian? How are they?"
Grace is barely passionate. When emotion threatens to take over, she has a tendency to go analytical, sharp and cold. She asks questions, and she is obviously concerned, but not in the same fashion as Lena. Whatever masks she usually wears drops in times like these. As there is no obvious pressing threat to be angry with, in order to juice up the adrenaline -- she only shifts her eyes along the borders of the room, thinking.

Lena Reilly
She nods in that same, slight motion when Grace says it might not be Technocrats.  "I know.  It could be anyone that operates that way.  I know a lot of our kinds that use technology.  Hell, except for the fact that it's fucking abhorrent, I'd say that it's almost my M.O.  Music and lights, right?"
She forces herself into a calm breath.  "I'm going to find them and bring them back.  And whoever did it to them, if don't have some sort of explanation that makes this whole thing purely and completely benevolant somehow..."  She shakes her head, turns and steps away from Kalen and Grace and Elijah.
"But first we need to find them."

Grace
It's a bit of a comfort to see Lena in this state. A comfort mixed with concern. Anger leads to mistakes as much as it drives.
Lena turns her back, and Grace looks to Kalen. "I could try asking around on the 'Net. See if some of my kind have heard of this sort of thing before."
"Unless you have another idea? Have any leads?"

Lena Reilly
"The nightclub," is her immediate response.  She doesn't turn back around.  "The equipment there.  It's what pulled off the whole thing.  If we can get in and see it, then..."
She sighs.  "It wasn't Infinity's owners.  I know them, by reputation at least.  They're not people like this.  In fact one of the owners are among the comatose.  But yes, before we start asking around I think we need to get into the place.  I saw what happened, but I don't know how.  Not exactly.  I think we'll find out there."

Grace
Grace nods, as though Lena can see her. More like she doesn't really care to think about such details as who can see who at the moment.
"When do we go?"
We, because of course Grace will be there. She stands the best chance of any of them at understanding strange electronic equipment. Well, everyone except for maybe...
"How about we bring Patience? She might have some ideas if it's truly some Awakened hardware involved."

Elijah
This isn't normal. This really, really isn't normal.
And all he can do is look at him and his thoughts wander and he doesn't understand. Elijah doesn't understand what could have happened, but he knows something isn't right here. He knows something isn't normal here and this doesn't feel right and it doesn't look right and all he has to go on is instincts and theories and none of them are good. None of them are good and the two women with him explain and it's all… it's all so far out of the scope of his thought processes and he knows it.
It's strange to know magic is real, and then feel so utterly helpless.
"I think I should probably just hold down the fort," he replies, it's the best he can offer, the desire to go and help but the knowledge that there wouldn't be much the apprentice could really do.
He paused.
"If they're… well… gone… wouldn't they have to go somewhere?"

Lena Reilly
"Patience isn't a bad idea," she says finally, composed enough that she can turn around and face them.  She doesn't suppress her emotions these days as much as she lets them run their course.  And those emotions haven't run their course yet, but she stops trying to restrain them and is (perhaps conversely) a bit more relaxed because she's riding the wave a bit.  "She and you can probably figure it out, and since they're club equipment I can tell you where to get started.  Give her a call, we should probably go very soon.  Soon as we can get in there past the cops, its a crime scene right now."
She looks at Elijah now, nods a little.  "They're somewhere yes, presumably.  They...I don't know how much as been explained yet, Elijah.  So if I'm going over your head or covering ground you've already seen then forgive me.  But everything has a pattern.  Your life essence, your mind, your spirit.  This hospital bed, my bike outside, the clouds, a song, an idea...it's all Patterns.  Weaves in an overall Tapestry, you could say."  And many within the Traditions do.  So we can assume that their minds...those patterns...they've been taken from their bodies.  That's the assumption, anyway.  If their minds are still attached to their bodies we could follow the cord if we knew how, but that's tricky."
She looks up at the ceiling.  Or rather, past it.  "Lot of things out there.  Not all good."

Grace
Lot of things out there. Not all good. Mostly not good, in Grace's experience. But she dons a mask and smiles to Elijah, trying to reassure the young Mage, the shine still new on him. It would be nice to allow him to keep that shine for a while, wouldn't it?
"That's a good idea, actually," she says. "You could keep an eye out for anything that might want to take their bodies, if you like. Just... if you do notice something, use Ginger. Get help."
Grace's gaze peels away from Kalen, toward the door. "I want to go see Sid. Think I can sneak past the nurses?"