Wherever it is Atreyu is currently staying, he doesn't offer it up as a meeting place. When he speaks with Grace on the phone, he's honest about the reasons: the decision isn't only up to him, and the cabal has certain protocols. So he asks if there's a safe space they can meet - somewhere private (somewhere unlikely to be spied on.) And at some point the decision is made to meet at Kalen's new property.
Ian arrives before Atreyu, parking his car in the driveway. He gets out and takes a moment to look around before ringing the doorbell. Whoever answers will find him standing on the porch in casual (though fashionable - as always) clothes. He leans a hand against the frame and glances inside before stepping past the threshold. Kalen and Grace get simple greeting. He seems... not exactly tense, but withdrawn.
A few minutes later, Atreyu's motorbike winds up the road. He comes to a stop near the back of Ian's car and kills the engine. He isn't wearing a helmet, but he does have a leather jacket on over his t-shirt. When he gets off the bike, he runs a hand through his hair and walks up to the door.
Inside the house, the bell rings.
Kalen Holliday
Once again Kalen is hosting meetings. It seems he bought the place for hosting them just in time. The person he bought this to host has yet to see this place, but that may be for the best, considering. There is, should they both live through the next few months, time.
The decorations on the main floor walls are mostly framed pages from antique books, maps and botanical and zoological sketches. In the living room, over the fireplace mantle, there is a map of the stars that is outdated and inaccurate, but beautiful. Kalen brings them through the foyer into the sunroom. The two walls of windows look out over the small expanse of yard to where a row of evergreen trees that will one day provide more privacy is growing. Above, through the skylights, are the stars bright enough to compete with Denver lights.
He's dragged another loveseat into the room again. He's contemplated turning the billiards room downstairs into a proper meeting space, except he has plans for that room. Plans that are not hosting critical meetings. Plans that have nothing to do with saving any world but his.
His greeting to Ian is also subdued. Kalen is, in at least some sense, glad that Ian is here. But he doubts that Ian can forget much more than he can, if anything. Neither one of them is exactly happy to be here.
And that shows when Kalen comes to greet Atreyu at the door. Atreyu whom he is relatively certain he last saw in another form. And that gets tangled up with Sid gets tangled up with-
There is no time for that, Holliday.
He opens the door.
"Come in."
Grace
Grace has had an interesting week, full of ups and downs, mostly spent at the Office, monitoring her 'patient'. More like having a very odd houseguest, but whatever. Samir's recovery -- an up. And it is behind her. When Atreyu got back with her and said he was tied up, it was a relief -- when interesting times happen, they tend to happen all over, don't they?
Today, she's going to have a visit with the man who wasn't so much born as created. A living relic of a departed universe. Of the three, Grace is probably the only one who is actually excited to see him again. The others, well...
They saw a different Atreyu.
When she arrives, she gives Ian a smile, and doesn't seem too bothered by his distance. If he wants to be, he can be. For her part, she's upbeat, asking Kalen about the house, because she's never been here -- and yet treats it as though it were thoroughly hers, just a property she hasn't been to yet.
She likes that there are skylights.
When Atreyu arrives at last, she's inspecting those skylights, trying to figure out what star it is she's seeing through the glass -- so, she's standing under it, looking straight up, in her jeans and black t-shirt with a red fox design printed on it. If she's going to be called Kit, might as well take it all the way, right?
But she hears the noise, comes slinking through the rooms to greet him with a smile.
Atreyu
The last time Kalen and Ian saw Atreyu, he was not a he. Nor was he an adult. The metamorphosis must be more than a little strange for them. Grace, at least, has had time to adjust to the concept that there was always more than one Atreyu (and each of them connected to the others.) The last version of him that she saw is the same man who now stands on Kalen's doorstep, but he is also the dragonrider, the soldier, and the thirteen year old girl who rode a horse alone through the apocalypse.
The facial resemblance is there. Under normal logic, one would assume that he was Trey's elder brother. He's taller, and about six years older, than the person that Kalen and Ian will remember. The question is, how much does he remember of them?
There's a moment of silence when Kalen answers the door. A moment when Atreyu just looks at him with dark, quiet eyes. When he seems for a moment to lose track of time and place. "Kalen," he says finally. "Thanks." He steps inside and looks around. By then, Ian has wandered back to the hallway. He's standing back a little, arms folded across his chest with one shoulder up against the wall. Atreyu catches him in his gaze and stops. There's a long pause before he breaks the awkward silence with a quiet laugh.
"I think this is a new kind of weird."
Ian acknowledges that with a tentative hint of a smile, and an exhale that might almost be amusement.
Grace gets a more relaxed greeting from Atreyu, who grins when he spots her. "Thanks for having me. All of you." His attention shifts between the three of them. "It's good to see you again. I'm glad you two are okay."
Kalen Holliday
Okay.
Kalen isn't sure what exactly to think of that statement. He isn't entirely sure that he's okay. But then, he is sure that he is much closer to who he should be, and that is in part due to the nightmarish place where he and some incarnation of Atreyu met. Perhaps he's not okay and also better than okay. It makes sense, at least enough that he nods at Atreyu.
"You too. It seemed like...." I had seemed to him that that starlight being and all her worlds might die. And, whatever hell they'd been through, Kalen couldn't help but regard her with wonder. And Trey had stayed, hadn't she? Had waited for them at the end of the world.
"I wasn't sure what would happen to you. I didn't expect to see you again." There is enough abatement of his wariness, just enough, that it possible to read something like concern in his tone. Maybe not exactly affection. But Kalen definitely hadn't wanted anything terrible to happen to them. He does like knowing Atreyu is okay.
Grace
"Haha, finally we are the ones to out-weird you? That's a change," Grace says, laughs at her own joke.
Weirder than the dude himself? Grace takes it as a compliment, puffs up a bit.
"You should show them the video. It's pretty amazing, you know?"
Atreyu
"At the time, I don't think I expected to see anyone again."
There's an obvious implication there. At the very end, with the world coming apart around them, Trey believed that she was going to die. That the starlight shooting through her body was a kind of death. In a way, she did die. Just as other versions of Atreyu died when their worlds came apart. But those deaths were not true deaths. More like rebirths.
Grace suggests that Atreyu show Ian and Kalen the video he showed her at the zoo. He gives a slow nod, pulling a small messenger bag around to his side so that he can fish out his tablet. "She's right. You two should see it too. If you think you're up for it."
"What is it?" Ian asks.
"It's footage that I stole from the Technocracy. Of Bastion. At least, the part of Bastion that lived here. The people who designed it hid the hardware in a trench in the Pacific Ocean. That's why it took the Union so long to find it."
Ian's expression goes dark. For a moment, a little crease of tension starts to form between his eyebrows, but he exhales and lets it go. "Yeah, okay."
Atreyu glances to Kalen for further confirmation. In either case, he follows whoever decides to lead him back into the sitting room (the one with the skylights.) When he gets there, he sets his things down and shrugs out of his jacket, making himself comfortable on one of the loveseats. It takes a moment for him to turn on the tablet and navigate to the clip in question. While he does this, Ian hovers behind him - still standing. He glances at the empty space beside Atreyu on the loveseat, but leaves it for Kalen should he decide he wants to sit.
"What happened to you, exactly?" This comes from Ian, and from the way he says it, it sounds as though he had to fight to say it aloud. "Are you really the same person we met?"
Atreyu turns to look over his shoulder. There's a moment where he has to think about his answer - to collect the right words, maybe. "I used to be a lot of people. Now I'm just one. The person you met is part of me. It's... hard to explain what happened, exactly. But we were at the end of the world and somehow I... Woke Up. When I did that, all of the parts of me came together, and we severed our connection with the AI. So when she left, she let me go and sent me here."
Kalen Holliday
Kalen glances at Ian, hovering behind the couch. Lets his eyes linger on Atreyu while he explains that he was a lot of people, but he is one person now. He stays still after that for a few seconds, expression very carefully shuttered.
He takes a deep breath and remembers the scent of old books and voice that tastes like amber. "We have all been many people," Kalen murmurs. "And we are, still, all of them." And it is not precisely for Ian or for Atreyu. Even so, he settles onto the loveseat beside Atreyu, lets Ian stay there behind them. It seems, in this moment, like safest place in the room he can really have.
"You don't sound so different, really." He takes a careful breath and struggles to frame his thoughts about Bastion. His heart tries to race, quick like butterfly wings.
Can he even look at it?
In some ways, that hardly matters. What choice does he have?
"Show us," he says softly. And there might be a touch of something breathless there, in that tone. But his eyes drift to the tablet in Atreyu's hands and stay there. Steady.
Grace
She pays attention to what Atreyu says, because it is an real question with her -- how is it, being him? Like a lot of people merged into one, apparently. She doesn't quite suppress a "Wow" after his speech. She's heard it before, but still -- wow.
"He's the same person I met, Ian. He was Spartacus, and a dragonrider, and a guy on a space station. Different people, but at the end, he looked... well, like he looks."
And she's talking about him while he's in the room, but that doesn't really matter. To her.
All in all, this has got to be the tensest fucking video-watching she's ever been witness to, and she looks between Ian and Kalen with that glimmer of a smile that says: 'I know something you don't know'.
Atreyu
There is a palpable tension in the room. So many mixed emotions. After what Ian and Kalen went through in that place, once can hardly blame them. But whatever Ian is feeling, he keeps it to himself. Probably couldn't explain it even if he tried. He seems to take Atreyu's answer though. There's a barely perceptible softening of his expression when he nods. Grace fills in a few more details. Then the room goes quiet with bated expectation.
This is what they see when Atreyu plays the video:
At first, the only thing they see is the ocean. Deep blue water, stretching out forever into the horizon. And the sky, muted with the blue-grey light of dawn. The picture moves a bit, rocking gently - as though filmed by hand from someone standing on a boat. Voices can be heard in the background.
"I don't see anything."
"It was there. Wait."
Suddenly an arc of electricity spiderwebs across the surface of the water. When it does, the video gives off an eerie feedback hum.
"Shit. Something's happening. What's the read-out say?"
Everyone gets very quiet for a second. Then someone says: "Fuck. We need to get back, now."
The boat starts moving, sending a trail of broken waves in its wake. Whoever's holding the camera keeps it steady though. Keeps it pointed at the water. On the surface, the current of energy arcs again, bigger this time. It builds into a bright, crackling electrical storm. In the background, people start shouting. The ocean grows choppier, more violent. The boat rocks as a wave hits the side. In the distance the electrical storm grows and grows, arcing out across the water and up into the sky. Then the screen flashes with a brilliant explosion of light. There's a lot of feedback before the audio track goes dead. The last image on the screen before the video cuts out is... well. It could be a trick. But it looks like a being made of light rising out of the water. There's a moment, a flicker of recognition when her face forms in the sky, then the light shoots up into the atmosphere and disappears.
And the video stops.
"That was her," Atreyu says. "She got out."
Kalen Holliday
Kalen watches the electricity arcing over the water and building into a storm. Until that starlight creature climbs up out of the ocean.
It isn't until Atreyu is confirming it was her that he realises he stopped breathing somewhere along the way watching that and should probably start again.
"What does that mean for her," he asks, still soft. Still quiet. He has not, at least not yet, seen reason to panic. He likes the starlight being. He was not afraid of her. "For...anything that's left? Is there anything left without her?"
Grace
"She is out there, somewhere. Not all of her stars went out, in the end. I think that's hopeful, yes? And Atreyu, he's left. I still -- that's just really," she says, dissolves into giggles. "I mean, it's really awesome. She must have manifested him, Awake, with the Wolf-thing. Can you imagine?"
Yes, Grace just thinks this is the bees knees, or whatever. She has not yet seen reason to panic, more reason to be in awe and insatiably curious.
"Atreyu... you said you had some information for us? About the 'Crats?"
Atreyu
Grace's reaction to all of this is fascination and delight. Kalen.. seems a little awe-struck. Ian is quiet too, but for different reasons. There's a hard cut cut to the muscles in his jaw. A slight flare in his nostrils. Anger or tension or both, maybe. Almost, he walks out and leaves them to their conversation. But then Grace reminds them of the other reason why they're here, and Ian inhales slowly, shifts his weight and waits for whatever Atreyu has to say.
As for Kalen's questions, there are no easy answers. Atreyu sets his tablet down and turns to regard Kalen. "I'm not sure we'll ever really know the answer to that question, but I want to believe that it's all still there. Wherever she is. I mean... it's my home. Even if I never see it again. But I think... in a way, all of it sort of... was her. So if she's out there, then... it must still be with her in some way."
(Like a story.)
He casts his gaze toward Grace, takes a breath, and collects his thoughts.
"After I left Denver, I started looking into the Technocracy. I wanted to find a way to try to make amends for what happened to Maddoc and his friends. For what happened to Bastion. Everything. But... the things that I found weren't exactly what I expected. Some of it was... horrible. And then, other things were just... normal. I mean, they're people. Some of their labs and companies actually do good things. The one in Denver. Amaranthine, it's called. They're making advances in health and medicine. Important advances that impact everyday people. But it's all mixed up with who they are as an organization. All the terrible things they've done to get the power and the resources that they have.
"Anyway, I didn't find all this out on my own. I have friends. They have an interest in the Union, and some of them have been watching them for a long time. When the Storm hit, years ago, and everyone got cut off from the Horizon realms? That wasn't just the Traditions. It happened to the Technocracy too. And I think it changed them. They lost their leaders and had to find a new direction. But the Storm is dying down, and the old command is re-establishing contact. That's... not a good thing. For anyone. It means things could get bad again. The way they were during the war."
He leans forward on his elbows, meeting Grace's eyes, then Kalen's, then Ian's. "I'm not saying the Technocracy now is... good. In some places it's still really bad. But it could get a whole lot worse, and my friends and I are trying to stop that from happening. That's what we're doing here in Denver. Gathering information. Training. Preparing, really."
Kalen Holliday
Kalen just stares at Atreyu for a few seconds.
"Fuck," he says quietly. He runs a hand through his hair.
"You...you have no idea either how perfect or how entirely fucked up your timing is." Kalen sighs heavily. "What are you preparing for?" He doesn't sound anxious. He doesn't sound terrified. Only resigned and very, very tired.
Grace
"So, you're saying they could be worse. Worse than creating apocalypse plagues for funzies, worse than fucking up Bastion... I mean, yeah, of course. I've heard about the War. That shit is terrible. As if we didn't have shit walking the streets with four arms and shark faces already, for fuck's sake," Grace says, obviously a bit riled up at the idea of the Technocracy bringing back the old stories she's heard.
"What are your plans on stopping that from happening? Do you have one?"
Atreyu
Grace and Kalen ask the obvious questions. To which Ian, now staring at Atreyu with a kind of dark intensity, says, "How much of a risk are we at from the Union in Denver right now? And how much worse do you think it's likely to get?"
It's a lot for one person to try to answer. Atreyu looks at Ian first.
"Right now? Not much, actually. I mean, I'd steer clear of them, obviously. But that's part of the reason we came here. Their focus is on their science, not on hunting mages. It isn't in their interest to start conflict with us here. Amaranthine Labs is an important resource and the Union doesn't want to make it a target. But that could very easily change if the Union decides to reinstate the pogroms. Which... might happen, in a worst case scenario. That means none of us will be safe anywhere. So.. I guess, if you want any reassurance. You could be in worse places than Denver."
He looks between Grace and Kalen next. "What we want is to stop a war. But I think the only way to do that is to help save the Technocratic Union from itself. There are dissident movements. Lots of people in the Technocracy don't agree with the old policies. I don't know if it's possible for us to work together, but... some of us are going to try. If for no other reason than to stop the worse of two evils from gaining power."
Kalen Holliday
Kalen looks between them and there is fairly little difference between this expression and his expression when he and Ian were watching nothingness devour the world. This, now, is darker.
And then Kalen laughs and there is no joy at all in the sound.
"Except that at least one person in Denver wants to kick that war off again with a vengeance." He smiles, and there is, at least in this, some amusement for all it is dark and edged. "But I did want to stop him. I was hoping to do it quietly, but...if what you say is true I'll lay that card on the table before I finish checking on whether it can be handled quietly.
"It seems only fair." He runs a hand through his hair. Takes a deep breath. And chooses the side he'd almost convinced himself not to take quite so dramatically. "Orrin wants to set the Technocracy and the vampires at each other's throats and then wipe anyone left standing off the map. I'm hoping his travelling companion is less zealous, because I am not fond of the idea of turning Denver into a battleground. I know what that is. I know what that costs.
"If you have anything, anything, I can bring with me to bargain with, now would be the time to tell me. I would prefer peace to war." He sighs. "Though I expect the only peace I'm likely to get soon is if I'm basically executed for treason. You can put that lovely Jefferson quote on my tombstone. I have always loved it."
Grace
Grace has heard about the Hermetic bigwigs being in town. She didn't know about this. Honestly, it would be the kind of plan she might make up, if the vampires and the Technocrats weren't off busy doing things that weren't dangerous to Denver or -- you know -- the world. She loves a good game of Let's You and Him Fight.
But then, the cost of a war in Denver? Even if they were to be able to hide from it, the Sleeping population would be sitting ducks.
She reaches out and actually touches Kalen -- a hand on his shoulder. Suggestion of solidarity. As much as she hates vampires and Technocrats, she rather likes the normal people who would be collateral damage.
"You're not going to get executed for treason. Not if I can help it," she says, and there is a threat buried there somewhere, under all that trying to be calm. "We've all been through a lot, and we'll get through this as well."
"Charges of treason only happen to those who lose. We won't," she says, and she seems rather confident of that. "Orrin's plan, however? That sounds doomed to failure. He'll set the two things we need to win the fight against each other. If anyone's the traitor, it's the one with the shit plan that gets everybody killed, yeah?"
Atreyu
There's a beat of silence after Kalen speaks, before Grace reaches out to offer reassurance, where the dawning weight of comprehension grows heavy in the room. Atreyu goes dead still for a moment, then puts a hand to his mouth and closes his eyes.
"This is my fault," he says, letting the hand drop. When he opens his eyes, he looks at Kalen - something dark and weighted hanging in his gaze. "I warned them about what was coming. I thought I owed it to them, after Maddoc's death. The situation between the Order and the Technocrats on the East Coast is already strained. I thought it was likely the Boston chantry would be among the first targets. But if they're attacking here... it must be part of something bigger. We have to stop him. If the Order picks a fight with the Technocracy, the Technocrats will only get more reactionary."
Behind them, Ian lets out a long exhale. "This is all completely fucked."
Atreyu glances back. "War usually is."
It takes a moment for Ian to come around to the front of the sofa. When he does, he kneels down in front of Kalen, looking up at him with dark, clear eyes. "If this guy tries to hurt you, or any of us, then I will hurt him."
He says this without knowing what kind of man Orrin is, or how powerful. And it could be an empty threat - something meant to calm and reassure. But Ian has never once said anything intended for empty reassurance.
He looks at Atreyu. "I think trusting the Technocracy in any capacity is a bad idea. You have more faith in their humanity than I do."
"Do you have a better plan, Ian?"
"No. And I don't want a war anymore than you do. But it sounds like either way, there's going to be a fight. I just think you should be careful."
"We will be." Atreyu gives a sigh, like he's about to do something he thinks he might regret. "Kalen, tell Orrin that the resistance is bigger than he thinks. And if he agrees to stand down, we can offer him protection."
We, he says. But who exactly does he mean?
Kalen Holliday
Grace reaches out to touch him and Kalen's eyes slide briefly toward her. The corners of his mouth lift upward, very briefly and very slightly. He is not, at least not entirely, surprised that she touched him. Nor that her first thoughts run towards protecting him. He knows Grace. He trusts her.
But, as is his usual custom, he does not in the company of other people spend much time conversing with Grace. He does not, in the end, need to say much to Grace.
And then, slowly and a bit more cautiously than Grace reached out for him he reaches out to squeeze Atreyu's forearm, just above the wrist. He'll pull back, if it seems as though that contact is unwelcome.
"This is not something you've done. Perhaps you were part of it, but Orrin wants it. He has seen enough of the war before now that he doesn't see a way to end it beyond the total annihilation of one side or the other. If not this, if not here, there would be another battleground." Kalen sighs. "There is always another battleground."
And then Ian is there, in front of him, and he gets Kalen's full attention even before he speaks. If this guy tries to hurt you or any of us, I will hurt him. And for a few seconds, while Kalen looks back into Ian's eyes and tries to remember how to breathe for entirely different reasons there is no war. There are no other people watching.
Kalen forces his attention back to war and to the broader context of this moment. Pulls his focus away from Ian's eyes without looking away from them. His pale eyes are a little too wide, but the reason that he has to swallow before he can speak has nothing to do with fear. Nothing to do with how extraordinarily tired Kalen is of war.
"Orrin has no interest in hurting any of you," he says quietly. "He wants exactly what I want. He wants a safer world for you. We are alike enough in that. Neither of us will shrink away from the fights we see as necessary. If Orrin does harm me, it will be because he knows this is the way to save the world. To save all of us.
"I know it isn't." He lets his attention fall back into Ian's eyes. "I'm not entirely certain which one of us is wrong." And there, not sure whether he is taking exactly those actions which will save everything he loves or destroy it, Kalen sounds more horrified than he has all night.
Grace
Grace takes her hand back. If anyone knows how rare (and thus how special) her physical contact with other humans is -- it's Kalen.
Ian makes his own version of an emotional gesture, and it has Grace giving Kalen a warm smirk. If anyone touches you, Kalen, they will bring Hell upon them in the form of a posse of Mages rather unconcerned about pissing off the Order.
"Either way, there is going to be a fight. Just, one plan is completely ignoring one of the sides," Grace says, "Doesn't sound like a great plan to me. I don't know if allying with Techs is going to bear any fruit either. But I know I don't want to see Orrin do anything stupid."
She's pensive. She's distrustful. But she says, at last: "What do you mean, offer Orrin protection, Atreyu? Protection from what?"
Atreyu
Protection from what?
"From the Technocracy, if it comes to that." Atreyu doesn't object to the contact when Kalen touches him. His demeanor overall seems calmer - less volatile - then the girl Kalen met in the apocalypse. "I don't know how much that offer will be worth to him. The Order, from what I can glean, doesn't seem terribly receptive to outside assistance. Even less when it comes from people they view as enemies." Atreyu looks from Grace to Kalen, his expression drawn and serious. "You're honestly the only one I've met who seems willing to listen to me."
"What do you mean, 'people they view as enemies?'" Ian folds his arms across his chest as he stands. There's a pause as a flicker of suspicion passes across his eyes. "Are you already working with the Technocrats?"
"Yes and no. The people I work with, we're calling ourselves the Enlightened Union. Some of us are Traditionalists. Others are people who left the Technocracy and had to go into hiding. The woman leading us - she used to be a pretty high ranking member in the Union before they labeled her a heretic and tried to have her killed. Now she's with the Celestial Chorus. We have to be careful who we trust. There are a lot of people on both sides who would try to destroy us if they could."
Kalen Holliday
Kalen stays still for a few seconds, waiting for an answer that no one gives him. Maybe they don't know any more than he does what they should do here.
There are no maps for this. No precedent.
No. Kalen doubts that last is true. It would be more accurate, he suspects, that there is no surviving memory of any earlier attempts. That is the kind of thing that gets scoured clean; but not, at least not in his estimation, a thing that would never have been tried.
"I wouldn't count my attention as a victory," he says quietly to Atreyu. "My relationship with the Order is...questionable. Particularly now that I have encountered this new wedge to drive us apart." He sighs. "And as to the rest...I thought once that this place was something else. A reason to hope that the beginnings of a better world were already here, we had only to see them.
"I have no such illusions anymore." There is a little amused huff of breath. "Not that I have let a more measured estimation of what I really have here temper my affection, apparently. Still, I don't know how much help I can be." He sighs, and leans back into the couch.
"And, as evidenced, however our goals may fall into line that doesn't mean we agree on on our methods. God knows that's why most of us here don't trust me. It's why I won't just let Orrin do this. And it is why, as tempting as I find it to see only the best in you as I've seen only the best in a number of other things, I don't know how much I will help you."
There is not though, as he focuses on Atreyu, any indication that he intends to refuse to help. No. Absent anyone to give him an answer, the one Kalen found is unfolding lotus blossoms and the world he knows can transcend its darkness and the sound of infinite love threaded through prayers.
And so, when he smiles a little and asks, "Can I meet them? Your other friends....." there is not so much wariness or suspicion in his eyes as hope.
Grace
Kalen isn't your ordinary Hermetic, Atreyu. When he says that Kalen is the only one who's deigned to listen to him, Grace smirks at him. When she met Kalen, Grace didn't know what an Order of Hermes was and didn't much care either. Just here was a person willing to treat her as an equal, even if they most decidedly weren't (in the raw power department). That level of humility? Fairly rare in Hermetic circles. A pity, that. Pride goeth, and doeth stupid shit, like pretending you're perfectly fine on your own, when you could really use the help.
Grace crosses her arms, frowns.
"I'm with Kalen, in that I find Orrin's plan ridiculous. I also only really know of the Technocracy by the horror stories I've heard -- and experienced. You think you can provide protection from them? And how, through your group of people led by someone the Techs have already tried to hunt down? That sounds... less than promising, really. How are you in any position to provide protection? I don't really ask that for Orrin's sake, because from all I've heard -- I doubt the man would request protection from anything. But still...
"I don't know if an alliance is going to be possible until a crisis makes it clear to both sides why it is needed. For them, they'd have to understand what it is we'd even offer. For us, we'd have to understand that they're not going to immediately lock us up and start performing experiments on our asses that make Dr. Mengele look like Patch Adams -- or at least that the risk of that is worth it. Right now, Denver is being normal Denver, if you take Orrin's horrible plan out of the picture, and nobody knew about that.
"Sure, okay, lay out some feelers, see what allies are interested, but we have to plan on them not being there, honestly. Or at the very least, if we're not working with them, make sure we're not working at cross purposes. I'm not against, say, making sure some information makes it into the right hands at the right time -- even if they would rather see my head on a platter -- but I don't know about sitting down to have some quality facetime."
She sighs and looks at Kalen, who seems to have been attempting to bear the entire burden of the impending doom on his shoulders along with everything else. Pride comes in many forms, eh? But part of her knows that kicking her friend and telling him that he just isn't that important, and thus not responsible for everyone else in the world being dicks probably won't help.
Atreyu
"The Order's plan is short-sighted." This from Ian, who glances at Grace in a moment of pensive consideration. "Even in a best case scenario, what happens afterward? The Technocracy isn't going to just walk away."
"It's desperate," Atreyu adds. "It means they think war is inevitable." Grace offers up a couple of references that Atreyu doesn't quite catch (it's easy to forget, sometimes, that he isn't actually from this world,) but the gist of her point remains clear. "I agree with you. I don't think there's any chance of real cooperation without a clear and immediate threat. It's why we haven't tried to make contact with the Denver lab yet. But I can tell you that the dissidents and even the moderates within the Technocracy are scared of what's coming. They already have deep-rooted corruption within their ranks, and Control wants to put extremists back into power. Best case scenario, they lose the progress they've made over the last decade. Worst case scenario, they open the doors for the Nephandi and hand them the keys to the kingdom." The weight of his voice falls heavily on that last line. "It's why so many of them have left. And remember, our Tradition, the Mercurial Elite, was once a part of the Technocracy. There's another group, the Void Engineers, who're thinking of doing the same. I think a lot of them recognize that they are at risk. We already have a small army. If we can get the Void Engineers on our side, we'll have the numbers to protect Denver and Boston."
But he's only addressed half of the picture.
"I wanted to tell you this because I thought you deserved to know. I'm not going to ask you for anything you aren't willing to give. What we're trying to do... we're putting ourselves at risk in order to help an organization that doesn't deserve our sympathy. But at the risk of sounding idealistic, we're doing it because we want to try to start to build a better world. I don't have any illusions that it will be easy. I think it's just as likely we may all wind up dead, or worse. But I have to believe it's possible to change the course of where we're heading. I'm here because I believed that."
And maybe Grace will remember then, what Atreyu said once, standing on the deck of a space station with the last pieces of the universe falling apart around them. (Re-write the story. [We are all connected.]) But they are not in the same world now.
Atreyu looks at Kalen. "I want you to meet them. All of you. But they aren't going to let me bring you to see them unless I know for sure that you're with us. If not in action then at least in spirit. Because having any connection with us at all will put you at risk, and the more you know about us, the more it puts us at risk. I think you should think about it, and when we're all ready, I can set up a meeting. We can talk more about strategy then."
Kalen Holliday
"Well," Kalen says, "It will be difficult building a better world if we destroy it. And, however much reason we have to dislike the Technocracy...I'm not sure that playing this out to another near-cataclysmic event is exactly a better plan than trying to find some way to stop this.
"Orrin is still determining if this attack is feasible. I will try speaking with the Hermetics visiting, Richard may prove more reasonable than Orrin, but it may not be that they will determine this is the way to proceed. I...."
Kalen frowns. "Orrin wants this. Not a war, I don't think. But a victory and an end to this conflict. I'm just not sure how willing he'll be to consider negotiation. He might consider withdrawing his attention from here, and if that were to happen we'd be...largely without much oversight by the Order again.
"I don't know yet what we'll do. Or what I'll do, in the end. But in the spirit of the thing, unless you've hidden some crucial detail, I should be with you."
Grace
"If what Atreyu says is right, our main goal is to take on the Technocratic leadership that's coming back. And that, however we can. If we can't get the 'good' Technocrats to work with us, we can't, and we keep on going. I would actually like Orrin's plan a lot more if it weren't for that other little major threat. See if he likes the idea of setting up a fight between the Technocracy and the Technocracy better, eh?"
Whatever, as long as they're fighting Technocrats, right? Long ago, somebody told Grace that the Ascension War was over, and the Technocracy won, and the only thing any of them could hope for was to reach Ascension before the world ended -- so long, and thanks for all the fish. She's always thought that was a bunch of bullshit, really.
Because they are on top now, does not mean they will be forever. All empires fall. Hell, the earth could be wiped out by cosmic rays tomorrow, and yet the universe would continue -- their cycles repeated again and again, the universe ever creeping towards understanding itself. Existence isn't meaningful because it lasts.
Grace snaps out of it, because she realizes she's staring at the ceiling now, and things still need to be communicated.
"Do you want me to share this around? Or are you concerned about the safety of your group if I do?"
Atreyu
Ian doesn't offer Atreyu any kind of reassurance. Not the way that Kalen does. There's a brief moment when their eyes meet and some subtle, silent exchange happens between them. Atreyu seems to accept the non-response for what it is. He lets it go, turning his attention to the other two.
"Is Hermetic oversight something you need here?" The question is directed to Kalen, but the tone of it feels hypothetical. Perhaps he isn't so much looking for an answer as he is asking Kalen to decide what he wants. "I'd be willing to meet with Orrin, if he's open to discussion. I think we should at least try to reason with him before we do anything more drastic. Grace is right..." he tips his head toward her in acknowledgement. "We may be able to redirect his focus if we can convince him that our plans have more tactical merit."
Grace asks if Atreyu wants her to share the information he'd just given them.
"I think it's important that everyone here knows what's coming. Be careful how you do it, though. Even the most secure networks can be cracked with enough effort. Don't leave anything for the Technocracy to find."
"There's also less chance of a stampede if we talk to people one on one," Ian points out.
To that, Atreyu just nods. After a pause he gets to his feet. "Grace, you have my number. I'll give it to you two as well." He indicates Kalen and Ian with a tip of his head. "Talk to the Hermetics, then we can decide how to proceed. In the meantime, I'll talk to my group and see if I can convince them to meet with you. I'd really like to show you what we've been building."
Kalen Holliday
"Not here," Kalen says quietly. "And I have no plans to leave here. So no." And that answer, for all there is an undercurrent of something heavy in it and for all that it would have been inconceivable that he would have answered that way not even so long ago, comes with no hesitation.
"I think more personal discussions are better for this too." Kalen glances over to Atreyu. "I'll let you know, all of you, once I talk to them what happens." Even, apparently, if that is just to be a warning of more enemies rather than less. Kalen doesn't have much hope concerning the Order, not, at least, in the near future.
Grace
"Okay. Will talk to people then," Grace says, not even seeming upset by the fact that she can't use Ginger. Some things are more important to hide behind a sneakernet than others. "Just, you know, the weakest link in any network is always going to be the people interfacing with it. That doesn't go away if I tell them personally."
She does give Kalen a quick look when he responds that Denver doesn't need Hermetic oversight. It's telling, that. He's always been one for distributed networks, from the beginning. Perhaps now, he sees why. The nodes at the top can be really fucking wrong. Such hierarchical networks are efficient at distribution, but if there's shit at the top, they're also efficient at distributing shit. Also, they're not very good at routing around damage or corrupted nodes. It's just basic computer science.
She follows that look with a smile, like hey -- the world has not ended yet, and then returns to admiring the ceiling.
"I would really like to see what you're building," she says, to the ceiling, though given the context, she probably means to say it to Atreyu.
There were skylights back in the other room. Are there more, she wonders? Now this meeting seems to be ending, she might as well look around Kalen's house again (whether he wants her to or not).
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