Recharging.

Grace
Sid's green gift has departed this place, so the grass Grace is lying in crunches uncomfortably underneath. But it's no matter really. The sky still glows with sunset. It's peaceful (for now). There are no vampires, no Technocrats, just earth and sky and the hot spring Node into which her feet skim. Her shoes and socks have been dropped off by the edge, and she's got her jeans rolled up so they don't get wet.

Oh yes, earth and sky and cell phone held up to block the view of all that so that Grace can get on Hacker News and browse the awesome stuff the outside world is up to.

Somebody out there just posited that black holes don't exist. Singularities are impossible, says the math. Another scientist replies, "Yes, Virginia, black holes exist," with even more math.

Truth is in the eye of the beholder, you see.

Serafíne
If Grace's senses are open she will feel Seraf ne long before she sees her.  They bend the world, afterall.  Distant, (gutwrenching) and framed by the sunset world (enthralling), all these between-places (liminal) and hurtling ever-closer at the speed of, you know, a conversion van driven by someone Grace cannot sense at any distance, because he is himself ordinary, except vis-a-vis his capacity for imagination perhaps, or his love of the world.

--

So some time after the first inkling of that sensation and then some time after its arrival and then some time that remains as-yet undetermined, the glass sliders zip open and Sera emerges, boots solid on the flagstone patio.  It's not the ordinary click of her heels; she's wearing her Doc Marten's tonight, and a gray hoodie repaired with patchwork that is longer than the buckle-covered leather skirt she has paired with it, over a plaid bustier.  Hood pulled up to cover her hair, a bottle of beer in her right hand as she exits and exists and circles the patio, wreathed in mist rising from the hotspring, eyeing Grace's perch as she does.

"Just your feet?"  Wry, her eyes dark and shadowed by the edge of the hood, the twist of her mouth at the edge of a smirk.  Sera has lost a bit of weight recently.  She is not yet gaunt as she was when she fasted, but there is a returned sharpness to her, somehow.  "Why not go all-in?"

Grace
Grace lost a bit of weight recently too, although in her case, the thinness is on the mend. It's just hard to eat when you're in a coma after all.

She only snaps out of it when Sera speaks, her head swiveling in order to get an upside-down view of Sera's approach.

"Well, yes. Just the feet. If I went all-in, my clothes would get all wet."

That's really not what Sera was going for, and Grace knows it -- gives her a smirk back.

Serafíne
"Clothes come off," Sera, low-voiced.  Left foot perched on a convenient little outcropping of rock.  Her free hand is in the kangaroo pocket of her rather expensive hoodie, while the other - occupied with her already half-consumed beer - swings a lovely arc alongside her shapely right thigh.

"Or they dry, you give them time.  How are you, Grace?  Been awhile."

Grace
Grace just rolls her eyes at the mention of skinny dipping in the hot spring. Mind you, she was there that time Ian and Sera went and did just that.

It's just not Grace's thing.

Still, her phone falls in an arc down toward the grass again.

"How I am is a rather complicated state. I mean, between Alicia, Elijah, vampires, Technocrats, and Three Mile Island Bugfuck Elly, I don't know -- it's pretty interesting lately. Not all of that's good. But I did drink some wine that had had its atoms exploded and reassembled, so I suppose I can't complain.

"How're you?"

Serafíne
"How everyone is is a complicated state, Grace.  All the pieces of yourself and all the pieces of everyone else like a whirlwind inside you," Sera has, by now, found a perch on a convenient stretch of boulder.  The edge of her lovely ass, feet planted firmly on the slightly damp stones framing the spring.  And her dark eyes are on Grace and they are framed by the outline of her hood and she has her usual raw confidence as well as a kind of reserve tonight, which sometimes comes over her, as if some indivisible part of her were at a safe and strangely contained remove.

There's a fond edge to the curve of her mouth, though.

Affection in its leading edge.

"I have no idea what the hell most of that litany means, or even what it means to you.  Why don't you tell me.

"Pick one and start somewhere."

Grace's own question to Sera goes unanswered, for the moment.

Grace
Grace considers. Most of them are connected (like everything, but we know that). It all comes back to...

"Alicia. Her dad is, well, I don't have any proof, but I think he's some kind of super top-secret project to whatever brand of Technocrat has him. I mean, you know what's been said, right?"

Grace doesn't know how Sera mostly visits Ginger for the sexy-robot-voice, when she visits.

"So I went and poked around a little. Made a couple of pals. Asked a few questions. And now there's a guy from the Society of Ether in town who has a plan to find this family friend of Alicia's dad. He's going to track the Paradox that stuck to her. He's Elly, the guy with the exploded wine. Really. Amazing."

Serafíne
"You've talked to Alicia about all of this, right?"

That quickling look.  Sera with her head canted.  This angle, you understand, that allows her to watch the world unhinge itself.  To see the seams.

Grace
Grace takes a deep breath, and the relative happiness in her voice at remembering Elly and his machines fades.

"That was the first thing I said to Elijah. Eventually, he let me talk to her. Originally, he just wanted me to read her diary and leave her out of the entire picture. I said no.

"Alicia did not want me to mount a rescue mission for her father, she just wanted information. And she wanted me to find Alethea, her family friend, so that's what I'm helping with. I took her with me to meet Elly. She seemed almost happy, you know?"

Serafíne
Sera takes a deep breath, drops her dark gaze to the edge light that cuts across the wake of the glass bottle like a blade.  She is - remembering something, which is inside of her, half-eaten, half-consumed.

Darker than she often knows.

Ragged in her chest, as she takes in another breath.

Then another, glancing back up at Grace, eyes glittering in all that reflective half-light, the sunset or whatever a constantly changing pattern in the choppy surface of the water.

Another deep breath.  "I know Elijah fucked up.  Everybody knows that, you know? And I'm glad that you did the right thing, and made sure that Alicia had a choice in what happened next.

"But you can't hold that against him forever.  Alicia can, maybe, if she fucking wants.  But you've gotta give him space so that he can grow past his mistakes, you know?  And part of that is - " A supple, liquid shrug.  That wry curve to her mouth again.  " - well, you can figure it out, what that means to you.

"The family friend.  She's the one in hiding, right?  What's the point of finding her?"

Serafíne
Grace and Sera are sitting out on the patio by the hotspring.  Grace has her shoes and socks off, feet in the water.  Sera suggested that Grace go skinny dipping.  Sera is perched on a convenient rock, with a beer in hand.  Dan's somewhere in the kitchen.

Here is the last post:

Sera takes a deep breath, drops her dark gaze to the edge light that cuts across the wake of the glass bottle like a blade.  She is - remembering something, which is inside of her, half-eaten, half-consumed.

Darker than she often knows.

Ragged in her chest, as she takes in another breath.

Then another, glancing back up at Grace, eyes glittering in all that reflective half-light, the sunset or whatever a constantly changing pattern in the choppy surface of the water.

Another deep breath.  "I know Elijah fucked up.  Everybody knows that, you know? And I'm glad that you did the right thing, and made sure that Alicia had a choice in what happened next.

"But you can't hold that against him forever.  Alicia can, maybe, if she fucking wants.  But you've gotta give him space so that he can grow past his mistakes, you know?  And part of that is - " A supple, liquid shrug.  That wry curve to her mouth again.  " - well, you can figure it out, what that means to you.

"The family friend.  She's the one in hiding, right?  What's the point of finding her?"

Grace
Grace (for the newly arrived) is currently lying down next to the hot spring Node, with her feet dangling inside, trying to soak up some quintessence and obtain pruny toes at the same time. Shoes, socks, and her phone have been discarded nearby.

"Yeah. I'm not mad at him really. I just wonder if he knows why what he did was wrong? That the root of all this was his willingness to reduce someone else's agency down to 'damsel in distress'? But yeah. He's torn up about it bigtime. It's hard to be mad at someone who is that miserable. Like he's doing enough chiding himself."

She raises a foot out of the water, lets the drops fall back to the water in order to make a pleasant sound. Toes wiggle.

"The point of finding Alethea is that Alicia wants to. Alethea is an Etherite. She's being hunted by Techs. From what I understand, Alicia was pretty close to her. So yeah, I put her in touch with someone who both has the capacity to help and wants to. Besides, Elly is awesome. Like I said."

Serafíne
"I don't know that it matters," quiet this, Sera.  Strangely reflective and open yeah and spare in a way that perhaps matches the season.

Less than two weeks ago she killed someone.

With magic.

She still doesn't know precisely how to contain that knowledge.

So she doesn't contain it.  She just is.

Eyes dark enough to be a bruise, her mouth wry, affectionate, tender as a wound, sliding now and then into an edgy little smirk, and right back out again.

It is a hard goddamned thing to be human.

"If he knows.  Just that he asks himself the question.  But I said that to you mostly because the way you just told me that story was as much about his fuck-up as anything else, yeah?  And maybe you should be careful how you phrase that, or even think about it.

"Think about him the way he should've thought about Alicia.  It;s just a thought."

A brief pause.  Another swig from her beer bottle.

"This Alethea.  How hard are the Techs hunting her?"

Grace
Grace's foot goes slipping back into the water again.

She thinks over Sera's words. Think about him the way he should have thought about Alicia. Like she's not thinking of Elijah like he's a fully-formed person who can handle his own damn shit? Like she's trying to protect him? Keep him in the dark, where it's safe? Not really.

The one thing that bothers her the most is how she had to censor him and tell him no, like she was some kind of 'crat herself. He can make his own choices, no matter what they might be, but when it comes to other people's continued existence, well...

She could stand to be a little less prickly about that. And that's... unfortunate.

"What it looks like? They want her bad, but can't find her," Grace says, at last, dodging the topic of Elijah. "At least I hope that's still the case, you know?"

Elijah
What does Elijah do these days?

He does all sorts of things, but he had something to do. Something big and important to do that started with an F and ended with a wrench Homework. He had things to do, and it felt a little odd to show up to the chantry with the expressed purpose of studying for a subject he already knew and not studying some of the vast depths and breadth of knowledge that he didn't already know but his grammar in French was pretty atrocious and the young man needed somewhere to study that wasn't going to promote falling asleep.

He'd been sleeping recently. He'd been sleeping a lot recently, and ever since he moved it became abundantly clear that the young man slept like a dead rock. Or a log. Or something else that was difficult to wake up because it wasn't something that woke up… well… ever. Elijah was content to be awake for now and coming to a place that he could actually get something done.

The door opened, and it was off to the inside of the chantry with him.

"Bonjour! C'est moi- Elijah. Je suis ici pour faire ses devoirs!" h  pauses, "goddamn I am never going to pass this stuff."

Ian
They arrived on foot, Ian and Jae-shin. There was no sound of wheels on pavement or the rolling purr of an engine to announce their passage. Instead Grace and Sera would pick up the tell-tale drum of feet on the earth, and the papery crackle of fall leaves tossed up in the wind. When the runners reached the edge of the treeline, they slowed their pace to a loping jog, moving like a couple of graceful animals over the grass. When they neared the Node, Ian dropped back to a walking pace, resting his hands on his hips. His ribs moved in a steady rhythm of deep breaths. He had on running shoes and a pair of track pants. Sweat dripped from his forehead.

He nodded first to Grace, then Sera, but did not immediately attempt to join their conversation. The man with him (Grace had met him before, but Sera had not) was Korean. He looked even more athletic than Ian, and resonated like something of the ocean. (Fluid and Abyssal.) Jae-shin smiled softly at Grace, then fixed Sera with a reserved but curious expression.

"Evening," he said.

Ian tapped him on the shoulder. "I'm going to get some water."

Serafíne
Grace misunderstands Sera's purpose there.  Which was mostly: hey.  Deep breath, pull back.  No need to tell everyone everything that Elijah did wrong.  Consider the story and consider the purpose and consider the words.  Sometimes those things can fucking hurt, even when you don't mean them too.

But Grace dodges the topic and Sera kind of assumes that Grace gets it and anyway; she's strangely circumspect about it.  Perhaps a bit distant, bottleneck cool where it is wrapped between her fingers.  The night strange all around.

--

And Sera doesn't speak French and Elijah's call-out is muffled as he enters the chantry by the closed doors butt there is enough noise from his called-out greeting to pull her chin up.  She breathes out -

- looks back at Grace.  That half-smile again.

"If they are that hot for her you might consider whether you guys finding her could increase their chances of finding her.  Right now, no one knows where she is.  She might not even exist.

"But when you know.  And Alicia knows.  And everyone else here knows, that near impossibility turns into a possibility, right?

"Maybe it wouldn't, but I think you and Alicia should think about why she wants to find this woman, and whether your plan places her in more danger, and whether the goal is worth the danger in which you place her, and yourselves, by contacting her.

"When she's hunted.  You know?"

Another sort of agency.

--

A flick of her dark (bruised/ing) gaze up as Ian approaches with a stranger.  The brief skim of Sera's smirk, a bit more flat and closed than you'd imagine it, but Jae-Shin doesn't just feel like the ocean (fluid), he also feels (abyssal) like other things still a crawling kind of knowledge in and beneath her skin.

"Hello," that smirk.  And it's not unwelcoming, what she says next.  It's just her way.  "Who the fuck are you?"

Grace
"I'll talk with Elly about it. He's been around the block a few times, it seems. But you're right. Trying to find her could be dangerous for her," Grace says, with a sigh.

"That," Grace says, rolling her head around to stare at Jae Shin's feet. "Is Soccer Guy. Ian's friend. I forgot his name."

She waves at them, and gives an upside-down smile.

Elijah
He follows the sound of people, because it sounds like there are people. Because he thrives on people, because he thrived on the idea of getting to do something other than pour over a textbook he didn't really want to pay attention to. He deposited the messenger bag... uh... somewhere. He looked at his pocket watch and headed off towards the sound of people.

Ian
[Awareness]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 4 )

Ian
Jae-shin's smile cooled, but he didn't seem especially offended by the question.

"Jeong Jae-shin, of the Akashic Brotherhood." He paused to take in a couple of breaths, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead. "And you?" His accent marked him as a non-native speaker, but he seemed comfortable enough with the language.

Ian glanced back a moment as he walked toward the house, then pulled open the patio door and stepped inside, heading for the kitchen. When he saw Dan, he nodded, and the faint edge of a grin touched the side of his mouth. "Hey."

(The last time that Ian and Dan had seen each other, Ian had been naked in the hot-spring.)

Elijah was there too. Ian felt his approach before he came into view, and there was a slow, measured glance back in Elijah's direction. Something quiet and thoughtful that hovered over him for a few silent beats. Then Ian grabbed a couple of glasses from the cabinet and filled them with water, taking a long drink from his own.

Serafíne
Sera's gaze slides quick easily back to Grace.  There's a gleam of compassion that, there slithers to the surfaces and turns and catches the light and sinks back down beneath the surface too.  Grace sighs.  Sera's gaze lingers there, for several long, passing beats.

"Cool."  Murmured, with a tip of her beer bottle as if in a toast.  "Just think about it."

--

Then back to "soccer-guy" to whom the creature's attention returns with a dark, wry sweep.  She sees the cooling smile, how could she miss it?  Somehow that always brings out the edge in her,

as it does now.  This smirk, more surface than deep.  She has a half-dozen mysteries floating beneath her skin and she's a terrible liar and here she is, standing see, as Jae-Shinn introduces himself.

"Seraf ne," she says, "Most people call me Sera.  Nice to meet you."

--

And Dan, inside, is drying his hands on a kitchen towel and catches the edge of Ian's grin and you understand, grinning himself, through the rough blond beard.  "Hey."  to Ian.  "Hey, man," to Elijah, before he kind of excuses himself and heads out to the patio to stick his head out for Sera.

"You ready or what?"  Dan asks Sera.

And, "Ready."  Sera responds.

"See you 'round," she says, by way of farewell to Jae-Shin.  And, "Later, Grace.  Be careful, okay?" then disappears back inside.  They'll head down the stairs, to the walk-out basement.  Start down through the fields.  They're going hiking, at twilight.

Maybe they'll be back later.  Maybe not.

Grace
Grace kicks her feet back and forth in the water. Everyone's always telling her to be careful nowadays, as if she didn't already know. As if she weren't.

"I always am," she says, as Sera leaves. Maybe she's saying it to Sera's back, but Grace wouldn't know. She's staring at the clouds.

Elijah
[I'm fantastique! subterfuge]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )

Ian
[Are you really? Empathy]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 4, 5, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )

Elijah
"Hey, Dan," he said. Smiled because he was content to smile, because the motion was practiced and it wasn't that he wasn't glad to see Dan, because he was glad to see Dan. Of course he was glad to see Dan. he was glad to see all sorts of people. He took his time, peeked out and around the kitchen and it looked awfully different when it wasn't filled up with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"What's shaken', Ian?" Casual enough. Of course casual enough, pleased enough because he could be pleased. Happy enough because he could be happy. It would seem well enough that things were… well… back to normal. Ish. Normalish for Elijah.

Ian
Sera didn't offer her Tradition, and Jae-shin didn't press for it. Instead he accepted her name with a nod and watched as she left with Dan. Grace was still lying back with her feet in the pool, and Jae-shin eyed her a moment, turning his head at tilted angle to look down at her.

"It's good to see you again."

He picked up a foot and stretched his leg back, glancing over his shoulder when Elijah appeared in the doorway. Inside the house, Ian looked away from Elijah and refilled his glass. Elijah said what's shakin' in a tone that felt far removed from their last conversation.

"Jae-shin and I came out for a run." Ian carried both glasses to the door and pushed the handle with his elbow. For a moment he looked as though he might say something else, but then he turned and walked outside. When he reached the pool, he handed Jae-shin one of the glasses. Jae-shin took it with a soft smile.

"Thank you."

Ian nodded. His eyes dropped to Grace. "You know the water won't bite if you actually get in."

Grace
"You too. Soccer isn't really my natural element. You caught me at a weird time for our first meeting. Not quite as weird as some times, but you know," Grace says, rambling on and then trailing off. Maybe Jae-shin doesn't know. And what is it that he's supposed to know exactly?

Then, Ian arrives to save her from the awkwardness of long pauses and stilted conversation, to ask her (for the second time tonight) why she isn't all the way in the water. She rolls her eyes.

"It's like I told Sera. If I did, my clothes would get all wet."

Elijah
[I am 100% cool with water, willpower!)

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )

Elijah
The last time Elijah and Ian had talked, it ended quietly enough, with some kind of confession and then helping his companion off to go enjoy the library. It was one of the better features of the chantry, that and the fact that they had a hot tub of near infinite potential and power, and that was a pretty impressive thing when he had time to sit and think about it. Elijah had a lot of time to think about a lot of things, and he did. He did think about things, for someone who spent so much of his time not thinking about things, he spent an inordinate amount of time contemplating heavens-knew-what… like nodes and missing persons and things he barely remembered seeing.

There was an increase in the number of people who went missing.

There were people outside, and the fact that he had to be outside if he was going to be around them meant… well… that Elijah was going to park himself outside with everyone else. Grace said she would get her clothing all wet if she got in all the way.

"So?" he asked, "they're just clothes, they've got to have a dryer around here or something… I mean, you wouldn't be sitting around naked forever waiting for clothes to dry, or you could just… y'know… be soggy. It's not that bad."

Says the man who was going nowhere near the damn water because it was water and like Hell he was getting in. Hello, pot, I'm kettle.

Ian
Ian glanced between Grace and Elijah and smirked. "You're not supposed to wear clothes in a hot spring."

There were other things he could have said. Thoughtful, reverent things about water and healing. Or some wry joke about skinny-dipping. Jae-shin looked at Ian as though he expected him to do just that, but Ian just tipped back his head and drank a long gulp of water. The Akashic's eyes hovered on him a moment, landing somewhere near the curve of Ian's neck.

When Ian was done, he moved to sit atop the rock that Sera had recently vacated

"So how've you two been?"

Grace
"Same old, same old. Although for people like us," Grace says, huffs out a laugh. Doesn't finish.

"I'm here to recharge a bit after we had a run-in with a fucking vampire."

"And yes, you're not supposed to wear clothes in a hot spring, so I am soaking my feet. Not everyone is so comfortable to go strip down in a place that's nearly every Mage in Denver's favorite place to be."

She closes her eyes. The water feels so nice, doesn't it? Even if it's just her feet soaking.

"Hey, Elijah," she says, waves a little. They hadn't properly said 'hey' yet.

Elijah
[more subterfuge! Because we fake it 'til we make it]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Ian
[Is Ian paying more attention this time?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 4, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Elijah
"'sup Grace? And hh, I'm getting by. French is kicking my ass, and I just moved so it's been pretty stressful, but overall things are pretty damned good," he says. he lies, because he wants to fake this until it is the truth. He pulls off the words with the rehearsed confidence of any actor, like he's had an answer for the question for some time. He cautiously approached the spring, a little uncertain as to how to approach this or if he should come closer (or if he's allowed to come closer, what was he supposed to do here? Was there a procedure? A protocol?)

He took a perch nearby, looking at the water cautiously before deciding to discard his vest. He was talking himself into something, of course he was talking himself into something, he was always talking himself into something, but this time it had less to do with- well, now, let's not talk about that.

"So, is it every naked person that bothers you, or is it just you being naked, because I kinda wanna get in now and if you're not supposed to wear clothes I'm not gonna fuck it up with… you know… clothes."

Ian
Grace mentioned the vampire, and Ian's brows furrowed into a slightly brooding expression. "Yeah, I heard about that." Jae-shin glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. The expression was subtly pointed, but Ian just looked at him and gave this small, almost imperceptible shake of his head.

Then Grace made that comment about Ian's comfort level with public nudity, and Ian looked at Grace and shrugged, as though to say: suit yourself. Jae-shin pulled off his shoes and socks and walked to the edge of the pool, lowering himself down next to Grace. He had on a pair of running shirts and a black singlet, and smelled a little of clean sweat. As he lowered his feet into the water, he leaned back and looked at the sky.

Elijah said that he was getting by That things were, in fact, pretty damned good. Ian's attention shifted back to him and hovered there for a quiet moment.

He didn't say anything. But when Elijah began to remove his vest, he raised an eyebrow.

Grace
[Perception + Awarepathy = Does Grace notice?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Grace
"I can close my eyes. Ask Ian," Grace says, to Elijah's question. Truth be told, it does bother her. A little. But she wants to use the Node, and she's not going to stand in anyone else's way.

Jae-shin joins her in the whole stick-feet-in-water-and-watch-the-sky routine. It's nice that they're not all going to strip down, eh?

Grace has seen Elijah completely going off. She's lived in the next building over from where he now sleeps in order to stay the hell away from the Technocrats he's contacted. So the happiness he has going on right now just serves to confuse.

Whatever. He can be happy if he wants to.

"Yeah. The Black Lotus is not as happy a place as the name would suggest. Which is to say, stay the hell away from there," she says, mostly for Jae-shin's benefit, as he does not have Ginger. Yet.

Elijah
[Raised brow? Awarepathy for the win!]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

Ian
[Subterfuge]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 9 ) Re-rolls: 4

Ian
[Jesus christ Ian]

Elijah
[... O_O]

Elijah
He stops with his vest, and keeps it at that. Elijah looks at the water, wary but not thwarted for the time being, and he inhaled slowly. Something practiced, something calm, something that he could be relaxed with, "yeah, I should probably do my homework instead of jumping in a hot spring anyway?"

Because he could be reasonable, this one, he could muse for a moment and remember the actual reason he came here (or the reason he said he came here).

"So we are all spared the joys of my not-so-clothed self for today. If I'm here solo, though, I am making no promises, people will just have to deal."

Ian
Jae-shin glanced between Ian and Elijah, but he didn't offer any comment or advice. If he had any thoughts on what may or may not have been the proper way to use the node, he kept them to himself. Instead he finished off the glass of water that Ian had brought for him. Grace warned him about the Black Lotus, and to this he nodded, his expression drawn and serious. "I will keep that in mind."

Ian's attention was still fixed on Elijah. After a moment, he stood up. "I can help if you want." There was a casual air to the suggestion, and when Elijah agreed, Ian grabbed his empty glass and jogged over to the patio.

Which left Jae-shin and Grace alone in the hot-spring. Jae-shin watched Ian with a veiled expression, but he didn't make any attempt to stop him. After a few long moments, he pulled off his shirt and slipped into the pool, treading over to a far corner to give Grace some space. Then he leaned back and closed his eyes. And for the rest of the evening, he was quiet.

Elijah
"Hey, Grace, I'm gonna go do homework, see you at… y'know… place?" he wasn't sure what to call where he lived now. It was a warehouse. It was a literal warehouse, and while it was better than staying between couches and lying to Jenn, it wasn't better because now he had to tell Jenn that he was moving out of their apartment to go live in a warehouse because it's hat he wanted and-

Yeah, that was a pleasant conversation.

He tossed his vest over his arm and started to meander back to they door, "Ian, I could seriously use the help with composition. It's not my forte."

Funny, that was probably the truest thing he'd said all night.

Grace
"I can deal. I'm so good at dealing," Grace says. It's a lie. She just thinks she's good at it. "Goodnight, though. Maybe on the way back I'll pick up some cupcakes."

Yeah, at the all-night cupcake store. Surely the hacker knows she won't be able to find any? Or maybe she'll be completely horrified to learn that most bakeries close after a while.

Grace does not take her shirt off and join Jae-shin in the water. No, for the rest of her time there, she will be content with the lovely foot soaking that has taken her this far.

Her company is quiet, and that's fine with her. She goes for her phone again and resumes browsing Hacker News until the stars begin to blink into view.

Oh, and what does that remind her of? The phone slips down a little as her mind wanders back to a time when stars were winking out of existence instead. Yeah, Jae-shin, you have yet to catch Grace at the most weird of times, have you?

It's good that Elijah has Ian there to help. It's good to have someone else around to not talk to. Everything's okay right now, even though everything's all precariously balanced on edge. And isn't it always?