Sam learns Correspondence.

Samir
[corr 3: TELEPORTING. base diff 6 (WHAT UP SANCTUM) -1 bc appropriate resonance. spending quint and WP. needs 3 successes total.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (1, 2, 5) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Samir
[for christ's sake kid. extending.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (4, 4, 8) ( success x 1 )

Samir
Just before he executed the program he had in theory worked out would enable him to cross distances by moving from one point in space to another without actually moving Sam had received a text from Grace that just said "!!!!!"

At least he didn't jinx himself by making a Quiet joke. He was less worried about Quiet and more worried about being flicked into a paradox realm by the long middle finger of reality truth be told. And at least Grace can't see how the program doesn't execute as quick as he would have hoped it would. For a second he realizes if he hadn't put forth effort it would have just barely caught.

He's well aware of how easy it is for him to completely fuck up a program that he has no reason to fuck up and how little protection a sanctum offers him when he's extending a program over the course of several minutes if not an hour.

But he doesn't fuck up his inaugural journey from his trailer to the warehouse. He runs the program and then he disappears from his computer chair. When he opens his eyes again he's in the library at the warehouse. Flickers into existence before finally solidifying.

Sam drops his deck on the couch and looks down first at his hands and then at his legs.

"Holy fucking shit..."

Grace
It's some time before Sam actually makes his showing-off appearance. Grace is still gathering up "gifts" from downstairs, and has a hard time noticing him on a good day, so she doesn't immediately witness the totally awesome event.

One person who does take note, however, is a cat. Persimmon walks up, gives Sam a sniff (Are you okay, large cat?) and walks away again without much ado. Apparently they are somewhat used to the abnormal by now.

There is a star-shaped pinata in the room, with streamers. It's a rather out-of-place object in this library with marble lions and fancy chairs.

Samir
Once the disorientation and the ringing of his own awesomeness wears off Sam wriggles his fingers to make sure everything still works. The cat gives him a sniff and then decides Fuck this guy and walks off. Which means Sam can check and make sure his junk made it along for the ride.

Just in case anyone playing along at home forgot he's a twenty-three-year-old man.

Now that he's aware of his surroundings and assured of his solidity Sam can take in the incongruousness of the piñata in the formal study environment. Alright. Someone said something on Ginger at some point about piñatas. Maybe he thought he had hallucinated this information.

Onward and all that.

Sam picks up his deck and exits the library and shuts the door behind him. Unsure of where Grace is without plugging in a program for that too he decides to use his damned voice. It's the first time Grace has heard it in about a month and the last time he had been pretty well rooted in December's Quiet episode.

"Yo, Grace, where you at?"

Grace
Sam hears a thumping noise coming up the stairs first. Then, Grace's voice. "I'm on the way! You made it! How do you like the sensation of sliding through nothing? Weird, huh?"

Turns out the thumping is caused by her dragging a Christmas stocking and a piñata behind her. But in her other hand is a vial of water wrapped in a green silk ribbon.

Samir
"I dunno, it's not as weird as riding the train at two in the morning."

He stands out of the way so her passage up the stairs is unimpeded in spite of the load she's dragging behind her. Another piñata and a fucking stocking. The Charm is the least confusing of the offerings.

"Shit, dude, I thought you were kidding."

Grace
"I wouldn't kid about presents," she says, rolls her eyes at him. Then, the stocking gets swung in his direction.

"You can thank Kalen for most of those. And the piñata really. He got some special for you, filled with 'magic' candies.

"This thing though, came from the Chantry people. Healing potion. Shoulda made it red..."

Healing pots are supposed to be red. It's in the RPG rules or something, right?

Inside the stocking (A red, quilted thing with Sam's name embroidered on it, because Kalen doesn't do things half-way) is a clove-stuffed orange, a few small gold coins, fancy chocolates, and Grace's magnetic LED lights.

Samir
Though he isn't much of an athlete he is much less interested in getting hit in the face with Christmas stockings than he is in attempting to pretend he can catch. So he puts his hands up and catches the big red thing as she swings it at him. Rummages through it quick before she presents him with the vial.

"Oh, shit, magnets! Thanks, Kalen."

He'll have to text him later. This is more awkwardness than he was prepared to deal with this early on in the new year.

"What's the healing potion for? Is your resolution to step up your lasertag game or something?"

Grace
"There was just this basket of them at the Chantry. They were for everyone. So I just took a couple."

Honestly, Sam, with the frequency with which you get almost-killed...

"You want me to up my lasertag game? I could..."

And her fake-evil laugh ensues. She hands over the piñata in the middle of said laugh.

Samir
"Yeah, I mean..."

He gives the piñata a perfunctory inspection before holding onto it like a baby so he can keep a grip on the stocking. Doesn't seem as if he's in a hurry to break the thing open.

"That would make it more of a challenge. Kicking your ass at lasertag is like kicking an eight-year-old's ass, it's no fun and I kind of feel bad afterwards."

The vial goes into his pocket. To his credit he's really only gotten almost-killed one time. Like proper almost-killed not just thrown into a situation where he might have gotten killed if he were a pacifist. Sam is not a pacifist. He's a shut-in. Huge difference.

Now that they're in each others' presence and standing still she can see he hasn't been doing much in the way of sleeping. Having witnessed the effort he put into integrating Entropy into his paradigm Grace can extrapolate that this is because he has been tackling Mind and Correspondence. He doesn't fuck around when he's studying.

"So, ah... River tells me you helped her out, when she got lost. Thanks. For that."

Grace
"Oh you are such a shit," Grace says, having lost the taking-the-piss competition. He does kick her ass at laser tag.

She plops the healing charm into his stocking, and starts heading off toward the library.

"Yeah. That was... Kind of an unexpected camping trick. At least she wasn't so far out I couldn't get any reception. It was kinda pretty out there though. Not terrible for a rescue attempt."

Samir
Oh you are such a shit.

As if her stooping to name-calling is both a concession to the fact that he's right and a sign that she is totally showing affection right now Sam laughs a forced self-congratulatory laugh. Would slap himself a high five but his right hand is too occupied for that right now.

Instead he reels it in and thanks her for rescuing his dumb girlfriend.

"You kind of have to go out of your way to find a place where you don't get any reception anymore though. I'd be too impressed to be worried if that's what happened."

Grace
"It's easy to drop signal in the mountains, though," Grace says, ducking into the Library. "All that rock in the way."

"I mean, not that I'd let a little thing like that get in my way, but you know."

She usually just soups up the antenna, and it's good. That's the real benefit of being a Mage: she could browse for stupid cat pictures at the North Pole if she wanted. Nothing gets in the way of those cat pictures.

When Sam rounds the door again, he'll find her in the midst of 'sitting' in one of the overstuffed chairs, by hooking her legs over an armrest, and an arm across the back.

Samir
"Yeah, well, that wouldn't have done her much good. She doesn't know dick about communications signals."

He doesn't look as if he was planning on staying long when he first popped into existence. He hadn't taken off his coat at least. Now he is still wearing the damned coat and he doesn't set down his haul to make himself more comfortable. Grace can read people when she gets it into her mind to do so but she can't tell what's going through his head right this moment. Only that he's acting a bit squirrelly compared to usual.

"So... yeah. I mean it. Thank you."

Because it wasn't like she was going to call Sam. Why on earth would she have done that.

Grace
Grace spent a great deal of time asking her that very question. Talk about people acting squirrelly.

"Yeah. I... Er... You're welcome? Want to share some choclates before you go? Kalen doesn't buy bad chocolate."

"I think he has some presents for you too," she says, and her eyes wander as if looking for them. "Somewhere..."

Samir
Chocolate and presents lurking around somewhere. The absurdity of the whole Christmas situation the Denverites have created for themselves almost makes him laugh but aside from that fake laugh he'd loosed earlier Sam doesn't look as if he's in a very mirthful mood.

"That's alright. I should get out of your hair. You don't want to be around me when I've had chocolate anyway, I'm pretty lactose intolerant."

Grace
"Ohh man, sorry. I think there's some more milk-free candies in the piñata? So there is that.

"But uh... You know. Don't be a stranger, dude. I missed you."

And, at least he's not upset by presents and talk. That's something. With the lack in communication lately, well... Grace isn't the best at people. Sometimes she thinks if they're being quiet, they just really don't want to be bothered.

"Oh. Except. I'm going to Australia next week." Random, that. "I think Kalen has decided we need a vacation. And maybe it'll give me the chance to study..."

Which shows what Grace does on 'vacation'.

"I just hope things stay fairly settled down. Ugh."

Samir
At the 'I missed you' he considers pretending to be grossed out by the sentimentality of it but then he decides he doesn't have the energy and it isn't worth the effort anyway. Grace tells him not to be a stranger and she may as well be talking to the wall. It doesn't affect him.

He's been being quiet and he's intending to go back to being quiet.

It'll be easier to go about doing that when Grace is in Australia.

"They haven't since the dawn of time," he says. "They're not going to start now." He rummages into his inside jacket pocket for his deck. "Have a good trip. Thanks for the stuff."

Grace
"Thanks. I... I think Kalen is right. I needed a break."

From dealing with the... Everything. From wondering if all of those people still like her. From dealing with The Artist. And...

She helps everyone else. Not so much herself.

"Merry Holiday Of Choice. And Have a New Year."

The Holidays. They're fairly brutal, aren't they?

Samir
[perc + empathy: how bad should i feel that you're talking about needing a break and i'm over here being a piece of shit?]

Samir
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 6, 10) ( success x 3 ) [Doubling Tens]

Grace
[It's hard to say exactly what might be bothering Grace. But Sam has Ginger, he can infer, perhaps, a little of that. He won't know about Alex or the precise way she's concerned about River.

She just looks like someone who's worn thin, who has had one too many busy days either taking care of others, or locked up alone in this library and her cats, thinking about problems she can't solve.

What wouldn't Grace be able to solve? Other people have never been her strong suit...]

Samir
The two of them are more alike than they likely think they are. It's easier to help other people than it is to stop and take stock of what it is about themselves that needs changing. Half the reason he has such heavy bruises under his eyes is because Sam learned early on that if he just kept himself occupied mentally then he wouldn't have to worry about himself mentally. And he had plenty to worry about.

So did Grace.

So he looks tired. She looks like too little butter spread over too much bread. As he stands in a short spell of silence studying her he assures himself that keeping his mouth shut and staying out in his trailer is the best course of action. She's got enough on her plate.

The smile he goes for is as forced as that laugh was earlier.

"Yeah," he says as he finishes plugging in the program to go back from whence he came. "You too."

[corr 3/matter 2: take himself and his swag back to the trailer. diff 7 now bc he's not in his sanctum motherfucker, -1 diff for appropriate resonance, pls to not botch it.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Grace
Grace is watching this time, as Sam prepares to whisk himself away into a wormhole. Propped up on her elbows as he Works so she can catch sight of it as he leaves, so she can wonder if she, too, looks like that when she does it.

It is a wonderous thing, after all. A visual of the universe literally bending to another's Will. Persimmon yawns. The large cats occasionally just do that, he has decided.

She notices his smile is forced. Lets him get away with it, because maybe he needs to. Waves goodbye, and maybe he'll see that when he vanishes. Some level of genuine warmth in the smile she returns to him.

He'll be okay. It'll all be okay. She has to believe that, somehow. It's what you do in the downtime, to prepare for when it's not okay anymore.