Spreading Information

Samir
Never mind how many times Sam took a trip into the city and stopped by the warehouse only to find that Grace wasn't there. It's not embarrassingly high but the fact that it took more than one occurrence before he realized the odds of her being there without his confirming first that she would be there.

This is somewhat inexcusable considering he could find a lost sneaker halfway across the globe without having to leave his fucking trailer but he likes to think the excursions into the city are good for him. All that time on the train counts as behavior therapy.

He doesn't do it a third time. He doesn't hack her, either. He sends a text message.

Are you going to be home this afternoon?

Turns out she was. So he came back to the city. Now that he has lock access he doesn't have to go through the whole knocking being let in not letting the damn cat escape rigamarole. He can just announce his presence by yelling.

"Yo, Evans! Where you at!"

Grace
She was going to be 'home' this afternoon, if only because Samir was looking for her. She doesn't really have time to be at the office and mess around right now. But she does have time to do what she's promised.

Part of her thinks that now that she's pissed the Nephandus off, if she leaves Mike, she'll return to find him bloodied and gone. But Mike is a big boy who can take care of himself. And there's not much she could do anyway. It's his fight.

It's a serious Grace that meets Samir, halfway down the stairs in her jeans and black t-shirt. "Here," she says. "Don't call me Evans, that's my mom's name."

Samir
"Sorry."

The Canadian aspect of his accent is strongest when he's apologizing. He doesn't often apologize but when he does it's for something major. Like going into Quiet for over a week or calling someone by their mother's name.

Takes him longer to get the word out than it does for him to realize she's not in her usual mood. It makes Sam frown and abandon whatever line of teasing he was going to go with.

"You alright?"

Grace
'Alright' is a subjective state of being. 'I'm fine' is the general response, because really, no matter what time it is that someone is asking the question, you're still breathing. Based on some scale somewhere, you are alright. Grace's eyes trail off of Samir while she tries to figure out which scale to use.

"I'm... alive? For at least a while, I think," she says, sighs, shifts her eyes back to his and smiles. "Been hunting a Nephandus."

That might explain enough to him, right?

"That's not really what I want to talk to you about though. Come on upstairs. Library?"

Samir
He knows about the Nephandus. Hasn't posted anything on Ginger to the effect that he knows but he did receive a visit from a guy in a suit who wanted to talk about it. He didn't have much to tell him and it only took a few minutes of discussion with said guy in a suit for Michael to decide Samir was better off staying out of this. Once bitten and so on. He was lucky. Better not to push it.

So yes. Sam requires no further explanation and that isn't what she wants to talk to him about anyway.

"Library," he says. He knows the way. He doesn't need to wait for her but he does anyway. Once she's nearer to him Sam asks, "So... vampires? Technocrats? Jehovah's witnesses?"

Grace
To that, she laughs out a little huff. "Right on two counts, at least."

As she walks up the stairs, she sighs. Yes. After the nephandus is dealt with (maybe before) there will be other shit headed down the pipe. Well, there has been a good long streak of somewhat good luck for Denver. It had to end sometime.

They'll get through this.

The door to the library is cracked large enough for a cat to walk through, and sure enough, there are library cats in this place. One of them has taken a sprawling seat across the back of the large marble lion statue, as if to say she is the true boss cat, not this lion-thing. The other is curled up on some stacked books. It makes Grace smile to see. Their cats don't know stress.

She takes a spot in a cushy leather chair, pulling her legs up into it, and watching Samir.

Samir
"... the Technocrats are posing as Jehovah's witnesses."

Sam keeps his hands in his jacket pockets and neither sits nor leans on anything.

Grace
"Yes. That's exactly right. So now you know! Go Samir, great prognostication..."

She laughs at herself, at the ceiling, her eyes swinging around to Pomegranate on her lion statue.

"Okay, so. You've heard of the Avatar Storm right? How we were cut off from the Umbra for a long time, and travel to other 'realms' and shit was scary and you probably wouldn't survive it. And now it's gone."

She waits for his reaction. Maybe he already knows this part quite well...

Samir
"I know." Sorry Grace. "Kiara told me about that right before she got blackout drunk and swiped a dimebag out of my pocket."

Continue.

Grace
Grace looks, momentarily, like she's trying to think up a response to that, but gives up, and keeps going. "Okay. Also, you know how, once the Avatar Storm happened, things cooled down a bit between the Traditions and the Technocrats. We both lost our leadership, essentially. They were trapped in the Umbra. The Technocrats on earth stopped caring so much about wiping every Mage off the planet."

And now, yes. We are getting to the point. Or at least, a point.

"I once met a guy who'd gotten marooned in the Umbra by the Avatar Storm. Time travels differently there, I guess. Like, a few hundred years had passed for him, as opposed to a few years here. He was a Chorister once, but when I met him, everything human about him had been stripped away. He didn't even remember having been human. Now, as he was a Chorister, he'd spent all his time and effort trying for holiness, and that's the kind of thing he became. Imagine, if you will, what the leadership of the Technocracy has become. If you need to wash your pants afterward, it's okay. We have a washing machine."

Samir
"It's okay. I already shit my pants once today."

He's joking. He's concerned but he doesn't have much frame of reference either. So the Chorister Archmage became an avatar of holiness. That means...

"... so, what, the Technocrats' leaders are now the most boring entities in the Umbra?"

Grace
"The most boring maniacal fanatics bent on control of all things? I don't know. I really don't. I have heard though, that the old command is reestablishing itself. It's coming back and trying to lead the Technocracy again. Although, if they're anything like my friend The Message? I'd imagine whatever trace of humanity they once had is pretty much gone. As if the Ascension War wasn't inhumane enough."

This is where Grace pulls her feet even further into her lap, like she's trying to curl up into nothingness, like one of the cats.

"Thing is, I don't think the current Technocracy wants them back either. At least, not all of them do. Their leaders may be coming back to a civil war."

Samir
This is the most confident Sam has ever looked and that's only because he's standing upright and has an expression of somewhat-stoned lack of concern on his face. He is concerned. But see: somewhat stoned.

"They've been gone for how long? Longer than we've been alive? I'd join that war, if I was a Tech. Fuck them."

Grace
"There's a group that's been set up who are trying to make sure that the 'right' side of the Technocracy wins. I've been contacted by them. Also, the Hermetics are playing a stupid game, trying to get the 'right' side of the Technocracy killed, because they're idiots and think that the vampires are too. Kalen's trying to talk them out of that.

"It's fucked-up. I don't like helping a 'Crat at all. But if what's going down is going down, we're going to need them to stay somewhat sane. As if we didn't have enough problems, right?"

Technocrats, vampires, and nephandi. How could life get any better? Persimmon yawns, with a click of teeth, completely uncaring about the world of the humans. It catches Grace's eye.

Samir
A soft snort. As far as Samir is concerned life is one big long unending series of problems he can't solve but he's a mentally ill young man who spends his free time hacking Dark Web hives of scum and villainy and peddling drugs on the side. Technocrats and vampires have always been there and tend to mind their own business. Nephandi are just a thing that happens. Like pedophiles and necrophiliacs and people who draw pictures of dragons fucking cars.

For a moment he almost looks sheepish. He did spend a significant period of September being a problem. But he keeps that thought to himself.

"Wait... what's this group that contacted you?"

Grace
"Ahh, yes, that," Grace says, and how to put this? "Did I ever tell you how I hopped into a Beta of Reality 2.0 and had to fix it? I don't remember..."

Samir
A scant nod. She mentioned it in an email several months ago.

Grace
"Well, my contact was a... citizen of that reality who'd Awakened while inside. I didn't think I'd ever see them again, you know? But there he was. Name's Atreyu, because at least somebody who coded that thing was a huge Neverending Story fan..."

So yeah, Samir. It's weird. That's okay. Grace is talking about this like it may not be the most normal thing in the world, but we're going with it. Mages gotta deal with the strange and unusual, right?

"Atreyu has no reason to love the Technocracy. They destroyed not just his world, but his entire universe. When he found himself here, he kinda went on a mission. And then discovered what was going on, with the whole command central coming back, threatening to make everything worse."

Samir
That is probably not the strangest thing he's ever heard in his life. He's a fucking Mercurial Elite. He goes into Quiet more often than he gets laid. Sam has seen and heard some weird shit in his life. An artificial intelligence named after a metafictional protagonist in a German children's book doesn't do so much as quirk an eyebrow.

The part where said A.I. found himself here though.

"Wait... did he come here to make sure the Technocrats fighting central command win, or did he just wake up here one day and went 'Oh well I got nothing better to do I might as well'?"

Grace
"I think he woke up here one day and decided to fuck with the Technocracy, because they'd destroyed everything that he ever knew was real," Grace says, her eyes rather far-off as she tries to remember that day.

"I mean, yeah. Nothing better to do than vengeance."

Samir
"So you're sure he wasn't reprogrammed and sent here by whoever coded the shit in the first place with the intent to have him get the Technocrats all riled up when we don't even know if central command is still sane enough to even contemplate coming back and taking over?"

This is what he gets for smoking pot before coming over to talk about something so secret and scary that Grace didn't want to divulge it in an email conversation that had been encrypted on both ends by Mercurial Elite hackers.

Grace
"The ones who coded the shit in the first place are all dead," she says. "I have that from a pretty trusted source. Who then promptly died. He was the last one, see."

She unhooks her legs, lets them stretch out in front of her on the chair. Sometimes, when she sits down, it's as though she's rejecting the very notion of sitting.

"I'm the one who reprogrammed Bastion -- that universe. Well, me and a friend of mine. Neither of us knew that Atreyu escaped too. I'm not going to say he's not been captured by someone and had his mind fiddled with, but I can't really say that about anyone, can I?"

Samir
"Sure you can. There's an app for that."

Grace
"Yeah. I know. There's also an app to hide the fact that you used an app to..."

Guh. Now who's talking funny.

"I guess what I'm saying is -- Ugh. Do you want me to scan him next time I meet him, or something?"

Samir
[perc + empathy: what's up with you, yo?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 6, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 4 ) [Doubling Tens]

Grace
[Grace is pretty stressed out. She's worried about this Technocracy vs. Technocracy thing, but it's nebulous, has yet to coalesce into something of an active threat. More like she knows something's coming and it isn't going to be good, but what exactly comes of it? No idea.

There is something else going on that is an active threat. She just hasn't wanted to talk about it. Instead, it's coming out as her not being her normal self.

She may be asking his opinion, in a roundabout way, about Atreyu. She doesn't much distrust what Atreyu has had to say so far. It has sounded pretty logical to her. If Samir smells bullshit, though, it's just one more problem on the plate, and the plate's getting pretty full.]

Samir
[manip + subt: for the lulz]

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

Samir
All Sam has to do is really think about Grace and what he knows about Grace and why Grace might be acting the way that she's acting for him to decide that he doesn't want to make things any more stressful than they already are. This happens in a matter of seconds. Like he's actually thinking before he opens his mouth for a change.

"No. Your judgment's fine. If you trust him, I don't see any reason to interrogate him. Does he need our help?"

Grace
[Perc + subt: You are so lying, Samir -_-]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 7, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Samir
[NOOO MY CAREFULLY CONSTRUCTED WEB OF DECEIT]

Grace
Oh, man. Samir sucks at lying. It's enough to cause Grace to involuntarily smile. He's trying so hard, it's almost adorable.

"If we can. I said I didn't know how much we could help. I'd be willing to risk dropping information in the right laps to steer things the way we'd want them to go, but working together? That's kinda laughable. I mean, unless what happens poses such a clear and immediate threat that we have to.

"Do you want to meet him, assuming I ever hear of another meeting?"

Samir can do the interrogation then, if he likes...

Samir
"I mean... why should you have all the fun?"

Since he's sucking so hard at lying he tries to laugh like to sell the fact that he's making a joke. He has zero interest in meeting anybody or getting involved in a Tech on Tech war and Grace can possibly glean since she's seen so far through his lie that the wall is practically showing itself through him that there's a personal reason why he wouldn't want to get involved at all but they're friends and her plate is already running over and and and.

Heh.

Grace
"Why indeed," she says, and leans back in her chair, contemplating this. Maybe it's because she keeps chasing after the 'fun'. Can't seem to do things any other way.

"I'm not asking you to get involved or anything. Just, things may happen in the coming months, yeah? It may not be so easy to stay uninvolved. I thought you should be aware of what's going on. The Hermetics are trying to pick Denver as a battleground. Probably because they don't have a Chantry to lose here, the pricks... And shit happens. Even if we never hear from Atreyu again, we could still get caught up in it.

"I'm considering my duty to the spread of information complete, then," she says, gives Samir a little smile. "Want some coffee?"

Samir
"Only if it's French press."

Something about the way she smiles makes Sam frown after giving her his preference. Being friends to people who don't want to talk about the feelings they don't do anything to hide is difficult. This must be some sort of karmic retribution for his being the way that he is.

"I do appreciate you telling me in person. This is the first time I've been on my own, you know? With a bunch of people who just do their own thing instead of one person being like 'Hey assholes here's what we're doing,' and that situation self-destructed back in Los Angeles and it kind of fucked me up a little. I'm trying. So. Yeah."

He gives an across-the-chest pump of his fist all faux enthusiasm for the spirit of adventure and trying new things.

"Coffee. Right. I'll see you down there."

Heck yes he's going to dart through the door in the hopes of avoiding any further comment on the self-disclosure he just dropped on her.

Grace
Since Samir is so keen on avoiding conversation, she just stares at his back as he leaves, with an expression that reads 'huh' on her face. Grace doesn't generally do well with telling other people what to do. She can advise, she can ask, but she doesn't force things.

She also doesn't take it too well when being told what to do, a thing Mike found out the hard way. Damn that man...

It's not surprising that Samir had issues with a situation self-destructing in Los Angeles. If he went into quiet, and some 'leader' decided for him what he was doing, maybe?

"K," she says, and follows behind him, but doesn't bring up LA again. If he wants to talk he will. If she wants to talk, she will. Neither of them seem wanting.