Birthday Present: The Wall Falls

Kalen Holliday
[Nightmares - Kalen if you botch this time I will laugh so hard.....]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 5, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )

Kalen Holliday
[Awareness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 3 )

Kalen Holliday
Kalen is lounging over one of the couches.  There is a cup of coffee, still steaming, on the table next to him.  His attention seems more caught up in the scattering of books about Australia on the table.  Guide books.  History.  A historical atlas.  Ghost stories.  Botany.  You know, the normal things you need to plan a vacation....
There are notes already, of course, pages of them in small, precise script.  Despite the fact that the notetaking seems to have already distracted him from the coffee, he definitely notices Alyssa.
"Hello, Angel," he says, without looking up as he hears her coming in.  "There is coffee in the kitchen.  You're welcome to some but if you're going to throw scalding coffee at me please make some of that terrible instant coffee instead."  He doesn't sound at all angry.  Of course, only one of them really is angry about this.  That may change, but for now...for Kalen is just not terribly stressed out about this, apparently.

Alyssa Solomon
[[Magedar]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Alyssa Solomon
Kalen can sense Alyssa coming, of course.  In truth, she's not an overpowering avatar of Kali; she is not become Death, the destroyer of worlds.  And there are a lot of elements around the Chantry that are magical, so its not like picking up a roll of thunder in a silent field.  But he still doesn't have difficulty picking up on her adding to the general Resonance of the place with that tang of copper, the rustle of feathers.
At least its feathers this time.
She gets out of the Acura Legend, looking over the building with a frown.  She hasn't been avoiding it by any stretch, but she's been busy the last week.  This was the first time that she had to come around.  She kicks the door shut and runs a hand through dark red-dyed hair.  Her makeup is done up to add to that color scheme, with red eye shadow and a little black around the edges for effect.  She adjusts the leather jacket and comes up to the door, slipping inside.
Hey, Angel, is what he says when she steps in.  Kalen's casual attitude to the whole thing draws a scowl from her.  "Just another day in the life, eh?"  She gives a distinctly indelicate snort and sets her gun down on a side table.  There's no need for them to be armed for this and if truth be told, she's hoping it doesn't come to blows.  But should it do so...well, she knows her temper.  She doesn't want to have a sidearm to reach for.
"Hope I'm not disturbing anything important."  That's sort of a lie, she's not overly concerned about that.  But the sentiment is important.

Kalen Holliday
"Oh.  So, after our last conversation I was talking to Grace about how I have nothing to discuss in normal human conversation and suggested we go skydiving or whitewater rafting or off to visit the Amazon.  She countered with Australia, so Australia it is."
He sets his pen down, glances to her setting her gun on the table and with a faint sigh does the same.  He isn't expecting physical violence, but if she is going through the trouble of deliberately disarming herself, he'll do the same.  Of course, the gun is certainly not the most dangerous thing he could fight with.  As with her statement about not interrupting anything, the sentiment is important.
"Anyway, I'm sure you don't care about that at the moment.  The point is, I'm planning a trip I may never have the chance to take.  Between our lives and the honest estimation of my life expectancy."  He almost asks her something then, something not related to what they are about to get into, but then decides based on her tone that perhaps he should try not doing that.  "So, you're not disturbing anything I don't expect other things to disturb more."

Alyssa Solomon
She arches an eyebrow.  These two in this room, they have the same outlook on that sort of thing.  Neither of them expect to live long enough for those kinds of things; its just the way of their world.  If anyone asked Alyssa, she would say that she certainly believes she should have died years ago.  Several times over, really.  But it hasn't happened yet...which, frankly, probably just means that it's even more likely with each passing day.  Even among the Awakened, who alter reality to suit their whims, luck only holds out for so long and living on borrowed time eventually runs dry.
"Well, if you do, I hear the Great Coral Reef is a must-see.  Also, make sure you don't get too close to the dingos if you take children with you."  She sheds her jacket and drapes it over the back of the couch perpendicular to the one Kalen is on, twists her neck left and then right to pop the vertebrae.
"So."  She spreads her arms.  "Figured I'd give you a chance to make good before I got started.  Assuming you even think you did anything wrong."  There's a hint of hope, however dim, in the woman's eyes that he does.

Kalen Holliday
"This is where it will get complicated, because I don't."  His tone is still the same calm it was before, not defensive, not hostile, certainly not accusatory.  "I think I understand why you might think I did.  We looked at the same thing and we made a different call.  If there hadn't been a whole crowd full of people with limited inhibitions, I probably would have let you have at it.  I was more concerned at that point with not having a full scale riot than with anything else.  Because then people would definitely be getting hurt.  I was willing to cross all the other bridges when we got to them, but I did not think the risk of someone in that crowd seeing violence and not resisting the temptation to join in or angering the person who was running the effect and risking her anger spilling into the people could be ignored at that moment.
"You looked at the same situation and you made a different call.  There was no riot.  The effect was ended within seconds of that point.  That was the outcome I believe we were looking for.  It is not really possible to be sure there would have been a riot, I realize that is like saying I closed the front door to prevent any swans from walking into the Chantry and then claiming there would otherwise have been swans.  Although, in my defense, the swans are less likely."  He can't help it.  He can't.  "But very mean."
"It may be worth noting that I have no idea how people do this.  Lasting relationships...never my thing.  The ones I've had has mostly involved other people making an extraordinary effort.  I'm not saying you should do that.  I'm saying you should perhaps know I have no idea what to do with people who are angry at me other than walk away.  Or shoot them, but that would wildly inappropriate in this case."

Alyssa Solomon
That little bit of hope in her eyes slips away, smothered under a pillow when he says he doesn't think he did anything wrong.  It's replaced with a steelly look, her arms crossing over her chest as she listens to what he has to say.  And let's be fair to her...she does listen.  She takes in his points, isn't just waiting for her turn to speak.
...okay, that's not 100% true.  Because perhaps there's a little of that latter thing going on.  She's angry, and you don't end up without a few things saved up to say when you're angry.  But she tries, damn it.  "See, and here's where you're wrong," she says when he finishes up.  "Or I guess I should say, here's one of the places you're wrong.  We didn't look at the same situation.  You looked at a situation and said, 'I don't see someone getting hurt but it could get worse if violence starts.'  I looked at a situation and saw that people were getting hurt, and a brawl was probably less harmful than what could have happened.
"Those two fucknuts were basically slipping everyone mass roofies that let go of their inhibitions.  Inhibitions mean their consciousness, and their control over themselves.  And people have sick, dark things that their consciousness and control prevent them from doing.  Maybe it's nailing the hot chick in their apartment building now that they can't say no.  Date rape.  Maybe it's saying 'fuck it' and having a drink or twenty when you've been on the wagon for years.  Alcoholism.  Maybe it's getting down with someone and forgetting the fact that you're on some important medications.  Knowingly spreading AIDS.  Just because people weren't screaming or crying doesn't mean that bad things weren't happening because they wanted to get their vibe on."
She's getting herself worked up a little bit here.  "See, the way I see it, if I kicked shithead in the nuts then one of two things was going to happen.  Either they would have stopped it to prevent the whole thing from turning into a fight, in which case they weren't evil and were just short-sighted.  Or they kept it going, in which case they needed to have someone stop them.  It was a god-damned test, Kalen.  But because you were more concerned for the sanctity of the fuckstick's junk, you decided that it was better to trust their judgment over fuckin' mine."
Yeah.  She's definitely heating up now.

Kalen Holliday
"No.  I did not trust your judgment.  And before you get too upset about that, let us note that you didn't trust mine either.  I've been around a lot of Effects like that.  Incidentally where the things you are talking about didn't ever pose an issue, so yes, I was more worried about violence.  There was a good chance we had some mutual friends and I could have just fucking asked them to stop.  I suppose that I had a nonviolent test in mind never occurred to you.
"I understand that you are angry about how that happened.  I do.  But you cannot honestly actually expect that I should trust your judgment and that you have some kind of moral high ground when you still seem to think my concern in that situation was you hitting Basil.  We had different plans.  Because we have different experiences.  And we don't know each other well enough to just work together in a situation like that.
"I'm not saying what happened there is good.  I'm saying if not trusting you to handle it means I owe you an apology this is a situation where we both apologize because there is not a magical rule that gives you exclusive rights to be trusted over all others.
"It happened.  You're angry.  I understand.  We're probably not going to agree about how that should have happened or whose plan was a better one, and I'm not interested in trying.  The important part of this seems to be that we're going to be living in the same city and we should probably learn to figure something out."

Alyssa Solomon
She's trying really hard to talk it out with him.  The internal heat of her mood is rising, the pressure cooker of her temper building its way up, but she's trying.  When he says, flat out, that he didn't trust her judgment, you can almost hear the whistle begin.  She looks incredulous for a moment, as if the difference should be plain as day.
"Jesus fuck, Kalen.  I didn't trust your judgment because you made it abundently clear you weren't fighting magic that was directly affecting your freaking MIND.  Who the fuck knows at the time if he didn't lace something in there that made you predisposed to like him at the time?  Meanwhile, I had the brain power to protect my mind, so I know I was thinking clearly.  I can't honestly believe you don't understand the difference there.
"I get that you weren't just trying to protect the little shit.  But I would have hoped, if you trusted my judgment enough to ask for advice about Umbrood, that you would trust my judgment over the person who was fucking with people's heads just because he could and spouting off shit that made him sound like the Frat Bro version of a Bond villain.  I'm not just angry, Kalen.  This isn't about whose plan was better or whose fucking judgment was impaired or out of whack or not, and I don't give a shit about what you might or might not have done in that situation if you'd had the chance and I wasn't there.  If that was all it was I would have kicked you in the head right there, rather than give you some time in the hopes that it wasn't just the Id-loosening that was up.  But the fact is, you were sort of acting on instinct and that was some straight-up 'I trust you until I have to choose between you and someone who I just met but is in a real Tradition'-level bullshit right there."

Kalen Holliday
"What the fuck?"
Kalen.  Actually.  Starts.  Laughing.
"Oh, Angel.  You don't know me at all.  I'm sorry.  I shouldn't laugh.
"I certainly didn't trust him either.  If it is any consolation there aren't many people I would trust in a situation like that.  Regardless of their Tradition.  Or lack of Tradition.  That had no bearing at all on it.  Only one of us is hung up on who comes from what Tradition, or who has no Tradition, and it isn't me.  There are a lot of points I'll give you, but that isn't one of them.
"The Mind Effect one, sure.  It could have predisposed me to like him, but being as I wanted to punch him in the face at the time I had no reason to suspect that was likely.  Even if I had wanted to, I had no command of the Ars Mentis then.  It made my attempts to handle that situation less than ideal.  Undoubtedly.
"Look.  I didn't trust you.  Perhaps I should have.  I don't really get that either.  Not why it would have made sense to trust you.  Trust in general."

Alyssa Solomon
There's a distinct narrowing of her eyes and a tension that hits her frame when Kalen starts laughing.  The implication is obvious in her expression; she thinks that he's laughing at her, and one might not be too far off-base if they expected that violence was imminent.  It's there in the way that she clenches her jaw, tightens her hands into fists.  Prepare to launch in 3...2...1...
But then he speaks, and she holds off for just a moment.  You don't know me at all, he says.  And her hands loosen, at least enough so that she can turn them and grip the back of the couch as she gives him one last chance.  She's not sure if she believes him when she says that it isn't about her Tradition, but it's enough to ward her off for the moment.
"You know, you're not the only one who doesn't get trust."  She goes quiet a moment, staring an angry, intense hole through him.  "I at least thought we had an understanding though.  I was willing to try, but if you're not then you need to freaking let me know right now.  There's a lot that I can get down with, but I refuse to deal with trying to read tea leaves and do numerology to guess at what I can expect when I'm in a potentially life-or-death situation.  If I need to just not count on you having my back when it comes down to the wire, tell me right now and we'll move on from there.  But if you're going to have my back, then have my fuckin' back.  Don't act like we're friends and then come at me later and say 'No, I didn't trust you because whatever."

Kalen Holliday
"Alyssa," he says, and he must be serious because he uses her actual given name.  At least so far as he knows.  "I promise you I am not trying to make you feel badly for me when I say this, but I don't even know what having friends is supposed to be like.  I have had lovers, I still have some of them, but what we have isn't friendship.  It's based on a lot of things, and trust is one of them.  Also the fact that they can track me using magic, and do when I inevitably wander off and wouldn't come back.  That is sort of how that works.  I have an adopted father.  I have a priest.  Not Pan, a different priest.  And I have Grace, who is complicated and strange.
"If you're looking for someone to be friends with, you probably have the wrong person.  I mean...I was in mourning for a guy who was dead before I met him two days ago, but a year ago I let everyone who knew me think I was dead.  And I didn't exactly stop letting them think that on purpose.
"I don't know what that leaves.  It was what I was going to talk to Pan about, the last time we ran into each other.  And I think maybe he told me.  Just, without knowing that was the conversation and probably not on purpose.  And we were actually having a completely different conversation about the dead....
"Shit.  I kinda really suck at this, don't I?"

Alyssa Solomon
There's a half-amused snort when he says that he kind of sucks at this.  Before that, she's listening.  Still scowling, still in a suspicious and bad mood.  But she's listening, and that's something.  It's the use of her proper name that makes her listen, instead of just cutting him off when he doesn't give a direct yes or no; she had wanted to just know one way or the other and that hope is left dangling.  But still, that he doesn't use the playful nickname brings her down to earth a bit.
"Yeah, you really do," she says finally, and rubs at the bridge of her nose.  He's managed to deflate most of her anger, and she's...frustrated about that.  When you build yourself up to a certain level and things don't turn out how you expect--even if that expectation is for bad things that you don't want to have happen--there's a level of being left on a ledge with an unsurety of where to go.
"You're not some unique snowflake, you know.  I don't do friends either.  Not until this fucking place.  And not even really here.  You've got a few people, and great for you.  Seems like you have a whole bunch of Order brethren descending as well, and whatever your mileage is there...well, whatever."  She seems rather ambivalent about that whole situation.  "I get that that doesn't exactly mean friends.  Believe me, I know how devisive that shit can be.
"Anyway, I'm getting off-base.  The point is...I don't really know what the point is, actually.  But there is one."

Kalen Holliday
"There totally is."  And there is amusement in that, but not mockery.
And then he sighs, because as much as deflection is his thing when walking out isn't.... "I think, maybe, that it'll take time to trust each other.  You can't just will that into being.  I should know.  I've tried."  He smiles, very faintly.  "I think we're both used to knowing there wasn't anyone else there to help us or save us or back us up, and now that that's not so much true anymore we still don't know how to do much else.
"I trust you more now, if that's any consolation."
Alyssa Solomon
She frowns at his explanation that it'll take time.  Dammit, she thought that this would be easy.  It's a matter of her Will versus Reality, and how is that any different from magic?  Except that it's not Reality that she's going up against; it's her Will versus herself.  That's a much trickier game to play.
"I'll pretend it is," she says with a little bit of grumbling in her tone.  She doesn't move from her spot at the back of that couch, instead choosing to lean her weight against it, her hands pressed into the back of the couch.  It's still between her and him.
"I'm still pissed," she says, as an afterthought.  "You might get hit at some point.  Fair warning."

Kalen Holliday
"I am still a bit surprised you haven't hit me yet."  There is amusement in that tone, but no indication he is joking.  He doesn't seem angry, but he hasn't really seemed angry at all yet.
"Now what?"

Alyssa Solomon
"Now what?"  She snorts again, smirking and shaking her head as she finally lets go of the back of the couch and walks around to drop into a laying position on it, facing Kalen on the other couch.
"Man, fuck if I know.  Certamen to finish it all off?  Written oath of non-violence?  Become blood brothers?  Get drunk and screw?  Seriously, usually by now you--or the person in the position that you currently are in, rather--would be on the ground looking at some nasal reconstruction and perhaps a broken bone or three and I'd be telling you not to do it again.  I think they'd get angry if I got blood on the carpet, though.
"Did they Scotchguard the carpet?  You'd think that would be a standard house protection feature in any chantry, considering what probably gets dripped through here."

Kalen Holliday
"Not all of those possibilities are terrible.  Although I think some may be ill-advised.  If interesting."  Kalen shrugs.  "Life and Matter Effect makes clean up of that kind of thing a snap.  But we should totally see if we can Ward the Chantry against blood stains.
"Also, there is always the kitchen.  Relatively easy to clean up, plus added bonus that that's where the ice is...."  Perhaps, Kalen, you should not encourage her.

Alyssa Solomon
"Yeah, you probably don't want any of my blood in you," she says with a smirk.  "I'm still not entirely sure if the 'No Reflection' thing is contagious or not.  I suppose I should test the theory one day, but I don't know anyone I hate that much.  Do you have any idea how much it sucks not being able to see yourself when you have this much makeup to do?"
She arches an eyebrow when he points out the ice is in the kitchen.  "Is it now?  Hmm.  I generally don't put ice in my drinks.  Unless your Chantry did Certamen very different than I remember..."

Kalen Holliday
"I meant for after you hit me in the face, actually."
And then, still sprawled lazily over the couch like this was just any other conversation, he says, "Have you given any thought to a cabal?"  Frighteningly, he appears to be serious.  Relaxed, yes.  But also serious.

Alyssa Solomon
"Oh right, that."  She shrugs.  "Well yeah, that you'd probably want ice for."
And to be honest, it's probably a good thing that she doesn't have a drink because she probably would have choked on it when Kalen asks about a cabal.  As it is she blinks, sitting up from her laying position...at least enough to rest on her elbows.  "A cabal?  Uh..."
She reaches up and rubs just above her eyebrow lightly.  "No offense, man...but didn't we just almost get into a fight and then admit we don't really do well with trusting people?  I mean, I'm just saying..."
It's not no, at least.

Kalen Holliday
"I imagine trust is a thing we can grow into."  He raises one hand, in what has to be the laziest warding off of an argument ever made.  "Actually, though, as fucked up as it it might sound, hear me out a minute, okay?"
"I have wanted a cabal.  And, I wanted one that wasn't afraid to get in the middle of things.  I adore Grace, I love what we're doing with making a digital library.  But I have a skill set.  As do you.
"We're not always going to agree.  Hell, we are going to fight.  We might hit each other.  I am not going to tell you it won't ever be that way.  I'm not insane."  He smiles a little.  "Okay, arguably, but not in that respect."
"I started giving it some serious thought when I saw how Alexander handled being dragged through the Avatar Storm into some Umbral realm within two days of Awakening and I saw how he handled trying to protect Sera.  He's solid, he's got good instincts, and when Sera or I did tell him something, he listened.  Which is particularly remarkable with me because he hadn't met me until then.  But he knows when he doesn't know things.  Teaching someone things is easy.  Teaching someone what they don't know is far more difficult.
"You and I...we are definitely not going to see things the same way.  And that's probably a good thing.  I'm disconnected enough from a lot I need someone to be willing to come at me like the world is riding on it, because sometimes it might be.  And even if we are both incredibly different, I think we both really do want to make a better world."
He pauses and grins.  "Okay, so...on a scale of one to Kalen-did-someone-already-hit-you-in-the-head-today? how crazy did that sound?"

Alyssa Solomon
She shakes her head a little as Kalen spills out his reasons, the look on her painted face one of confusion and amusement.  It's not that she doesn't understand what he's saying; it's more that she doesn't really get that he's saying the words in that specific order.  It's like someone saying, Hey airplane.  Picture soda Leatherface bottle plastic bag!  Scotch tape fingernail clippers?
By the end of it though, she can't help but be chuckling a little bit.  "I'd say it ranks around Kalen-did-someone-already-hit-you-in-the-head-three-times-today, to be honest.  But it doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong, either."  She's quiet then a moment, considering.
"What are you thinking, exactly?  You, me, Grace and whoeever this Alexander person?  Just the two of us?  Or some other iteration?  I don't know how well Grace and I could get along, considering that my Resonance seems to set her stomach a-flutter."

Kalen Holliday
"Not Grace.  Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt she'll be more than willing to support us.  But I'm not thinking her skill set goes directly with what I'm thinking.  She and I...we are close.  I would be very surprised if she's never involved.
"And she has her own thing, although her partner in crime is missing.  I actually hope she can find a way to get it up and alive again.  I would rather we not have isolationist cabals.
"I'm thinking, in a vague sense, of knights errant."  He smiles.  "Don't worry, I'm not planning to get us horses.  Or lances.  General concept."
"I haven't given as much thought to who.  You, yes.  Alexander seems promising, but I have yet to have a conversation with him.  And I don't mean about this.  I mean at all.  Ever.
"So.  With that relatively non-specific framework in mind, what do you think?  About people.  About narrowing that into a statement of purpose that is more like articulate.  Generally...anything.  I could try this in a vacuum, but I don't want to."

Alyssa Solomon
"Knights errant."  She's familiar with the term, of course.  The wandering heroes, who owe their allegiance to no specific lord and search out places to be noble and good.  Something about it puts a quirk in her grin, and it's not an entirely unappealing sense of emotion.  Alyssa is no one's white knight--not really.  But she gets the point, and it does actually fit in a certain method to what she does anyway.
"I could be down for that.  As to who?"  She takes a breath, blows it out.  "Jesus Christ, Kalen.  You know these people far better than I do.  I'm not even on the outside looking in; I'm down the freaking block using a spyglass every once in a while.  I don't know, Pan maybe?"  She shrugs.  "Sid seems like a good sort, but I don't know her well enough to know if she's the knight errant type.  There's that new Hermetic Adam, but again I don't know him well at all and I certainly don't think 'wandering hero' when the Bonisagus come to mind."
She shakes her head.  "Before we get into mission statements though, you should probably know.  There's a chance that some Hermetics might, some day, come after me for a pretty serious Code violation.  I don't know whether it's even being investigated or not, but I put two bullets in the head of a Tytalan several years back.  I think he was disgraced to a pretty severe degree, but still.  He was, for a brief time after the Reckoning when there was sadly no one else capable of taking it on, the primary Deacon of the Chantry in D.C."
There.  Just dropped like it was no big thing.  She doesn't have a lot of nerves about revealing it; she's more concerned about his reaction rather than any chance that it might get back to the Order.  Mostly because she isn't concerned with what the Order thinks about the situation.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen does blink.  But that's all.  A few seconds later he's speaking, and his tone is still perfectly relaxed.  "I'm in the process of teaching Grace Enochian so we can work together and I've got ties to someone whose enemies probably blew up a Hermetic Chantry in Flagstaff.  I'm putting together a multi-Tradition cabal because I want to make a fucking point to some of the Order about why they need to stop treating everyone who chooses a different Tradition like wayward puppies."  He smiles.  "Trust me on this, if nothing else.  The Order may be my family, but you get us together and we fight like family.  And I might be about to get myself disowned."
"Pan?  Maybe.  I see only one real issue with Pan, and that's that if we invite him to this thing it is pretty inevitable it will become his thing.  He's got experience and I am not saying that that would be the worst thing.  But I wanted something where we found a balance between Traditions.  Pan...I love him, but he's not really into the balancing act I'm looking to do, I don't think."  Okay, for someone who is not comfortable using the word trust, Kalen is ridiculously comfortable using the word love.
"Sid...maybe.  She's brave.  She's not afraid to go up and get in a fight.  I'm pretty sure I'd be dead if she hadn't come on our trip to visit Lucia and Keller and Thakinyan.  We could talk to her."

Alyssa Solomon
Kalen's relaxted reaction isn't entirely unexpected, but it does put her at ease a little.  There was some level of concern with Alyssa that he might decide that was too much to submerge a cabal into, or that he would seem torn between loyalty to a cabal and loyalty to his Tradition.  When he shrugs it off, she can't help but grin a bit.
The grin evens out when they talk about people though.  She nods a little bit when he mentions the problem with Pan.  "Yeah, I can see that.  You think the problem you and I had was something, wait until he tries to take charge of a situation just because he knows better.  I don't recall, were you there when he balked at the idea that I might train Connor?"  There's a slight scowl.  Yeah, she hasn't forgotten that, though it's smoothed over and she's let it go because it appeared to be a misunderstanding.  "Not that I think I know everything, but I do see him as the kind of person who might take charge just because he's the oldest or the most experienced or whatever."
"As to Sid, I leave that up to your judgment.  I'm all for it, but I've had like two conversations with her.  You would know better than I do."

Kalen Holliday
"Pan and Eleanor went to deal with that whole Thakinyan mess, led it, really.  And I'm comfortable enough following their lead, but if we invited either of them to join us we would very much be doing that.  Honestly, the two of them would be better suited to working together than working with us, I think.  Commanding us...maybe.  But working with on the kind of level we're talking about...less so."
"I'll talk to Sid and see what she thinks of it next I see her.  I'm not sure either, but I'm comfortable explaining and then letting her judge for herself."
He smiles a little.  "That said...you have any purpose thoughts?"

Grace Evans
So, it's in the middle of this strangest of times (they start a scheduled fight, and then end up with forming a Cabal) that Kalen gets a phone call.
Upon checking it, if he does, he'll find the caller is Grace.
Which should be a bit of an eye-opener, considering she hasn't been capable of using her phone in forever.

Alyssa Solomon
"Purpose thoughts..."  She grins a little bit, and nods.  "Yeah, probably a couple..."
And that's when she falls quiet when Kalen's phone goes off.  She lets him answer it or ignore it, whichever he's doing.  (Hey, she doesn't know who it is...)

Kalen Holliday
Kalen looks at the phone, blinks, grins, and takes the call.  "Hey.  Happy birthday!  I got caught up at the House.  I take it you solved your riddle or found a way around it...?"

Grace Evans
"YES!" comes the response, and perhaps it's loud enough that even Alyssa can hear. "I just joined the club for real, apparently."
The club, yes, because she's not going to use the right name over a phone line that's not encrypted enough for her tastes.
"What's going on at the house?"
I suppose the more apt question would be, what isn't going on at the house?

Kalen Holliday
"Alyssa and I are having an interesting conversation.  Why don't you come by?"  There is a pause.  "No one is dying or bleeding and she hadn't hit me."  Again with the grinning.  "Yet."
He hangs up his phone and looks back to Alyssa.  "Sorry.  I figured if she could use her phone again there was news.  Also, she'd probably worry if I didn't answer.  She should be here soon."  He doesn't say it was Grace, but Alyssa can probably guess.  "Back to what you were saying...."

Grace Evans
"So you're not dead yet? You sure?" Grace says, a little humor there. Of course, she doesn't know that yes, there are people who have died and do not know it. "I'll come over, sure. Happy birthday to me, eh? I don't think the person responsible knew. See ya!"
Click.

Alyssa Solomon
To her credit, she grins widely and mouths the word YET as if its an important distinction.  She kicks her feet up a bit, putting her hands behind her head as she stretches out on the coach and lets the two talk.
"Oh, you're fine.  It's her birthday, eh?  Nice."  She sighs a little bit at a thought that passes through her mind, then shakes her head.
"Anyway, yeah.  Purposes.  I mean, you're a Flambeau who keeps yourself busy with a lot of things for the good of the city.  I'm a Hollower private eye and professional occultist.  In some ways, we're kind of in the same business.  Just different aspects of it.

Kalen Holliday
"In the sense that only one of us gets paid for it?"  Kalen asks with a soft, amused huff.  "But, we largely are in the same business.  And, even if you didn't stay with the Order, you have some training judging by what I've seen.  Not that you couldn't do this without the Order having trained you, but it may be useful if we're ever Working together, that kind of understanding.
"Well.  Depending.  I may have learned Time and Entropy magic totally outside of the Order."  He says this like it isn't incredibly irregular.
"And yes.  Her birthday.  I perhaps should have brought the cake and pinata here...."

Hawksley Rothschild
There's not a Porsche outside, and then there is.  There's no one on the porch, and then the sun that glorified Denver over the weekend rips off today's temporary veil of rain and snow and comes back, full force, drenching and warm and glorious,
and Hawksley is on the porch, whistling, spinning his keys on a finger before tucking them into his pockets and grabbing at the door handle to swing it open, striding into the entry hall and immediately stripping out of his coat.  He's still whistling, as though it's a summer day.  But apparently when you're him, every day is.
Fucker is tan.  He spent Carnival in Rio.  You know.  As you do.

Alyssa Solomon
She gives a little nod.  "I was trained for the Order from the first day I was able to read, all the way to the day I Awakened.  First in my class too, thank you very much."  It's said lightly, with a tinge of humor.  She isn't kidding, though; it doesn't have that joking sound to her voice.  "My Enochian's slipped a bit over the years, but that's what happens when you just have a book to read from in order to keep you in pratice."
"But anyway, yeah...you're right, it'll be good for us in terms of working together.  Most of my style comes from I learned as an acolyte, and what of it I could cobble together once I Awakened and realized what it was really like.  Plus the other stuff I picked up during that period as well.  Little Santeria, little bit of Victorian spiritualism.  Some Gnostic studies.  That sort of thing."
A pause.  "How old is she?"  It's asked out of idle curiosity, nothing more.  It seems like a weird sentence to form in her mouth.

Alyssa Solomon
[[Magedar!]]

Alyssa Solomon
[[Let's try that again.]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 4, 5, 6) ( success x 1 )

Kalen Holliday
[Awareness!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Hawksley Rothschild
[Hawksley's resonance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASO_zypdnsQ&feature=kp

Kalen Holliday
"It is a little more difficult to learn that way, I have fou...."  And then he senses Hawksley.  Breathes in with his eyes drifting closed for a second like he can taste summer and sunlight and peaches and feathers.  Only for a second though, and then he turns to look, a little warily at the door.  Resonance that Kalen could fucking get lost in or not, he has no idea who this is.
"I didn't even meet anyone from the Order until a couple years after I Awakened.  And...I may have picked up a bit of Santeria.  More Catholic, really.  But still, I've been around."
He frowns, because things like how old Grace is aren't what he really focuses on.  "Twenty...four...?"

Grace Evans
It's a little while before Grace arrives. From the Unnamed Warehouse, like most places, requires a bit of time to get there. Unless, of course, you have the appropriate understanding of Correspondence. But until that day, Grace must rely on the relative safety of her car.
She parks the little red Toyota in the driveway, next to an ostentatious Porche, and steps out into the sun of a chilly, but not bone-chillingly cool day. It feels like freedom. After so many days of enforced isolation, of goddamn internet withdrawal and servitude to the one she knows only as anrkyangel, it's time to...
Well, sleep would be nice.
But she hardly wants to sleep right now. More like binge on all the news in the world and stay up 'till 4 AM reading a certain forum. Bury her head in pixels, yeah? Grace is going to be out of it.
If it wasn't her birthday, there would be more of that going on right now, but she's been invited to the House, and she has news to share.
So on with it. It'll be going up on Ginger too, but not everyone has Ginger or checks it often, that much she knows. Hell, now that this blasted trial is over, she can get back to setting people up on the network again.
She walks in some time after Hawksley arrives, carrying her laptop bag slung across her shoulder. And she's wearing what she always wears. Jeans, grey turtleneck, sneakers.

Hawksley Rothschild
There's that whistling dude walking through the entry hall, and then the whistling is humming, some mixture of at least three different tunes.  He walks through whatever room it is they're sitting in, somewhere having procured an apple, and pauses.  His humming pauses.  He looks between Alyssa and Kalen, then back again, then begins humming again, shining the apple on his t-shirt, which is plain and white and v-necked and fucking tailored to show you all just what sort of physical perfection one can aspire to alongside mental and magical perfection.  After all, children, we all have the same number of hours in a day as a Beyonce.
He takes a bite of his apple, then turns to look over his shoulder, seeing Grace, who he hasn't seen in a dog's age, and he's no dog, by god, and Grace has the loveliest eyes.  Galaxies in her eyes, after all, isn't that something like what he said?  Look at them.
"Graaace," says Hawksley, grinning.  He waves the now-bitten apple in the direction of the other two, whom he has not bothered to say hello to.  "Who're these guys?" It is her job, naturally, to tell him things like this.  It would be anyone's job, if they were here, but anyone isn't here: Grace is.

Alyssa Solomon
She sits up when she senses a new Resonance, one that she doesn't recognize before.  It's warm, soaring.  Alyssa has a very different sort of wings in her Resonance...the bloody feathered kind.  And her reaction is something that could be considered akin to one bird of prey recognizing another.  There's a mix of guarded curiosity and just a touch of wariness.  Not fear...she doesn't go diving for her gun where it sits on the side table or anything like that.  More of the I'm holding off on relaxing until I meet you mood.
"I meet all the best people here..."  She throws a glance to Kalen, as if to silently ask if he knows who this is, and then rises from her laying position to stand up.  One doesn't lay down around Awakened that you don't net know.
"Uh...hi," is her response when Hawksley looks between them and then talks about them with Grace instead of addressing them directly.  It doesn't look like a good start to their dynamic.

Kalen Holliday
He looks over Hawksley, curious.  His asking Grace for introductions seems perhaps slightly off, but he doesn't worry about the demand so much as Grace's reaction to the demand.  Grace can introduce him.  That is fine.
He gives Alyssa a tiny shake of his head.  He does not get up.  He does not so much as glance at the gun on the nearby table.
He doesn't greet Grace yet though.  And that is telling, if you know him.

Grace Evans
"Oh! Oh yeah, guys, this is Hawksley. And Hawksley, that's Kalen," she says, pointing. "And that's Alyssa."
She leans in to Hawksley to whisper loudly, enough for everyone to hear, so fake-privacy is going on. "Alyssa was going to kick him in the nuts, but I think since nobody died and Kalen's not on the ground, it's all cool now."
"And ah. Ahem. Guys? I just now, a few minutes ago, joined the Virtual Adepts for real. Yay me. Even though the joining was about as ass-backward as you can get," she mutters.
Grace and proclamations of an official nature go together about as well as you might expect. And she's still a bit miffed at the being locked away from technology for that long. Maybe it shows in the somewhat grouchy look to her?"

Hawksley Rothschild
Okay so there's also a gun on the table, which Hawksley saw, but didn't much react to.  He has an apple, after all.
"Hello!" he says to Alyssa, whipping around briefly to beam at her, grinning, then looking back to Grace.  Grace gives introductions.  This is Hawksley, who feels like a bird soaring across the sun, who looks a bit like his namesake, his eyes piercing and his nose aquiline and his grin a slashing, predatory thing.
"Ewww," he finishes, because of what Grace says next.  He wrinkles his nose, sighing.  "Well, I suppose it can't be helped.  Congratulations, couldn't have happened to a nicer, et cetera.  Shall we drink?"

Alyssa Solomon
She frowns when Hawksley whips her head around, gives her little more than a single word.  It may suffice for him, but the introductions still aren't quite enough to smooth things over.
She has absolutely nothing to say for a moment, clearly unsettled by the fact that conversation she was having was thrown off course.  So she turns her attention away from the two completely and back to Kalen.
"Anyway, you were saying?"

Kalen Holliday
He is caught briefly between Happy birthday, Grace!  ZOMG, congratulations! and I have it on good authority I will love you. and We are forming a cabal!.  For a few seconds his eyes sweep over the three of them.
"Congratulations!"  He calls to Grace.  Hawksley gets a quick nod, but Hawksley seems more interested in Grace anyway, so his attention slips back to Alyssa.
"We were discussing our mirror-opposite training experiences," he says with a smile.  He doesn't seem concerned about Hawksley's presence.  Maybe love was an over-optimistic prediction, maybe it will take a minute.  That doesn't matter.  Sera's glowing reviews and Grace's lack of concern at least mean he doesn't treat Hawksley like he's likely to start stabbing people.

Grace Evans
"Oh geez, Hawksley, are you really going to be all 'it can't be helped' on me? I mean, I might have my problems with them, but it's not like you were completely divested of your technology for two weeks."
She looks up at Hawksley with weariness. Her trial did seem to take something out of her. "I would love a drink, in other words."
But then, she takes out her phone, and starts tapping away at the screen.

Hawksley Rothschild
He smiles at Grace.  "I have no idea what you're talking about!" he says, with a vague sort of delight.
Yes, she will have a drink.  AFTER TECHNOLOGY.  Hawksley laughs.  He shakes his head and walks over to her, taking another bite out of his apple.  "I'll be down in the library.  Bring your poison."  As he swivels on a heel, he looks at Alyssa, whose decision to ignore both he and Grace by way of Not Polite Enough An Introduction goes way beneath his radar, and Kalen, who he has no idea has heard about his library and may be interested in worshipping at its altars hey-ooo.
He clicks his tongue against his back teeth, giving them a finger-gun.  "Kalen, Alyssa,"
see, he did hear and retain their names for at least a minute and a half, that's something,
"it's been real, I'm gonna go wait for Grace to try and make me believe that computational linguistics aren't erotic, lates,"
which is his version of goodbye before he spins on his heel again, going back to his humming on his way out, and down, towards the library.

Alyssa Solomon
"Right, yeah."  She nods a little.  "Training experiences, that's it."
Hawksley says goodbye--with finger guns--and heads on to the library.  Alyssa frowns but raises a hand to wave to him.  No need to be rude.
"Where did you learn your extra-curricular stuff?  And was it before or after you joined the Order?"
She pauses then, looks over at Grace and offers a little bit of a smile.  "Congratulations, by the way.  Never met a Virtual Adept I didn't like.  Of course, I've only met like two, but still!  Three now."

Kalen Holliday
He watches Hawksley go with a mixture of amusement and curiosity.  "Well.  I'm going to have to check, but I think Proclus is buying the beer," he murmurs.
He looks back to Alyssa.  "Mostly before.  I met up with an Ecstatic and one of the Euthantos right after I Awakened.  I hung out with them for about two years, so most of my initial training was done then.  You can imagine how swimmingly that went over when I was brought into a Hermetic chantry to be trained."  He smiles a little.  "Some after, we've kept in touch.  I change my name and pretend to be dead and make a habit of slipping across country borders on a regular basis and they show up in little bars in the middle of nowhere to meet me.  So I've picked up a few things since, mostly recently, when they were two of the only people who knew I was alive.
"The religious part a bit in the Order, but mostly in Chile."

Grace Evans
Blink. Blink. Really, Kalen? Now this is a thing Grace has yet to hear. "You better not pretend to be dead around me, Kalen. I will find you."
Like she (hasn't) found Gadfly? Oh, maybe that stings a bit, doesn't it. To think of losing two mentors like that, and not be able to find them.
"Thanks, Alyssa. I mean it. I've only met one in the flesh, two in the virtual now. Though I don't even know this one's name. And I'm not sure I like them. They didn't appreciate my telling them their initiation rite was stupid."

Alyssa Solomon
Alyssa listens to Kalen's story, nods a little here and there.  She can't help a bit of a smirk when he mentions being brought to a Hermetic Chantry by a Cultist and a Euthanatos.  "Yeah, I bet that went over well.  I predict you got a lot of inferiority complex attemps lobbed your way."
The faked death/name change thing seems completely normal to her.  Or at least, she isn't surprised like Grace is.  "Hey, sometimes you've gotta start anew.  Sometimes it's not about hiding who you are; it's leaving who you are behind and getting a fresh start."  She nods slightly.  "I can understand that.
And she can't help but grin when Grace talks about her initiation rite and initiator.  "You wanna talk stupid initiation rites?  The guy who brought me into the Hollow Ones made me go through this long, elaborate thing where I had to pass like four trials.  I remember the worst one, I was brought blindfolded into a room with a bunch of different Victorian-era dolls.  I had to figure out which one was the one that had belonged to this little girl who'd died in a fire on the site where the nightclub stood at the time.  I used every bit of magic I could muster at the time to figure it out, and I couldn't."
She laughs a little.  "That was the point of that stage, he told me.  That magic is bullshit and sometimes, we just don't know.  He was kind of a dick, but in a good way."

Kalen Holliday
"They're just jealous of the incredibly hot threesome action going on," Kalen says with a laugh.  "And...in that regard, just so you know what you're getting into...my Word is Metamorphosis."
"Don't worry.  I'm planning to try not to pretend to be dead or become any new people for at least five minutes.  Months.  Maybe a whole year.  Or maybe I'll just go back to Nikolai.  I liked being Nikolai."  He does not talk about his initiation, but he does pay attention to what Alyssa says about hers.
"Sit down.  Alyssa and I might have a crazy plan.  You should hear it.  But you should definitely sit down first.  Then you can help us brainstorm, maybe."

Grace Evans
"The way I described it to this person is that what happened to me was like holding the Olympic ice skating trials, and telling everyone they have to take off their skates first. What kind of test of my skills is it if I can't fucking use them? It. Was. Stupid. More like, this was an excuse to have a laugh at the goofy apprentice, let's see what hoops we can make her jump through."
Grumble, gripe, grumble, gripe.
"It's not like I haven't been through this sort of thing before. At least they did no permanent damage that I can tell. I guess all organized groups are going to have their bullshit."
And then, it seems she's ready to move on to something a bit less grumpy, a bit less dour. She doesn't sit, but she does address Kalen again. "What plan? I always like your plans."

Alyssa Solomon
"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie...that sounds like something a Tytalan might do.  And Tytalans are a bunch of fuckwads who are probably better wiped off the face of existance, but I can see the value.  Because how cool are you if you can pass it without the easy way?  Best of the best, and all that.  I get why it would be infuriating though."
"Metamorphosis."  She nods a little to Kalen.  "Fair enough.  I don't know what that has to do with hot threesome action though.  What am I getting into, again?"  She deadpans it, playing it straight...but she knows exactly what he meant.  He's just having a row with him and the way he worded it.
"Since we didn't kill each other," she says to Grace now, "and we've decided that we really don't trust each other the way normal people should or even know how to properly trust, clearly the best move we can come up with is to form a cabal.  Idea of the year, don't you think?"

Kalen Holliday
"Look, one day you will meet them.  And all the jealousy will make perfect sense."  He smiles.
He turns his attention to Grace after that though.  "Yes.  A more confrontational cabal than I think you'll want in on.  And...and this is important, in some other ways it is better you don't.  Not because I want to shut you out, we still have a business and a Library and trips to Australia and a host of things.  I'm not going to vanish on you.  And, you haven't seen this yet, but in a lot of cases cabals can get insular really quickly.  And then you have little handfuls of Magi who won't talk and don't know how to work together, and I think we can all agree that's not what we want to see here, right?"
Oh.  Look.  Sometimes he can care if he hurts people's feelings.  Who knew?
Okay.  Who other than Grace knew?

Grace Evans
"What's a cabal?" Grace asks, because despite just having ticked off another checkbox on the road to Being A Mage For Real, she still doesn't know certain things. Like cabals. "I mean, I know the word means a group of people who work together, but I'm guessing it's one of those other words right? Ones we use to mean something special?"
Kalen seems like he's being all careful about something, but hell... Grace doesn't even know what he's talking about. "So like, you're saying you want to make a club, but you don't want to include me?"
And, she doesn't really sound hurt here. Just curious.

Alyssa Solomon
"It is one of those other words," she says with a nod.  "But it's one of those words that basically mean the same thing.  Think of it less like a club and more like...an away mission team.  Except they don't go away and there's far less beaming, unless you have your Ars Conjunctionis up through the roof."
Her phone rings then, sounding the cheery tones of Gravity Kills' "Goodbye," and she looks at it with a frown.  "'scuse me, guys.  I gotta take this, it's a client.  Poor sap's been seeing his dead kid when he wakes up in the middle of the night.  In his case I'm pretty sure he's just seeing things, but you never know."
She stands up and answers it, moving off into another room.
[[And this is where I have to go.  Thank you for the scene!]]

Kalen Holliday
"We're making a fighty cabal.  So...you're not exceptionally fighty.  It doesn't mean you'll never work with us, just that...cabals tend to have their own mission and their own purpose and often, but not always, their own methods.  So if you were to form a cabal...you'd probably focus on technology and information."
"Good luck,"he says to Alyssa as she leaves.

Grace Evans
"Oh no, I see a fight coming, I go the other direction, you know me. But hey, we do already work together, Kalen. I mean, we did a bang-up job profiling Thakky, right? And like you said, there's the business and the library and all." She shrugs.
"Technology and information, though. They're enablers. They can enable all sorts of things, even fighting." Sometimes, especially fighting. "You ever decide you need my help, for whatever, you know you'll have it."
"I don't see any reason why this cabal thing should stop us from working together as we already do," she says, trying to make a point. Maybe she doesn't require the label of 'cabalmate' or whatever to do whatever it is they do.

Kalen Holliday
He relaxes a little when Grace doesn't seem put off by his new plan.  "I told Alyssa you'd help us, if we needed you.  And...I really do mean it.  If we form cabals with just the handful of people we spend the most time with, things start to get divisive really quickly.  I don't want that.
"With that in mind....?"

Grace Evans
"With that in mind, what?" she asks, oblivious. "Do I think it's a good idea? I don't know. I mean, sure. Alyssa's nice. Not sure how well the two of you get along, but she's nice."
And probably sufficiently scary to do the fighty-cabal thing.
"And she's likely quite good in a fight, too. I was kind of betting against you when you guys had your showdown, you know," Grace says, grins like she's joking, only a little serious.
"But I guess you get to live another day."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen laughs.  "Hand-to-hand, I'm not so good these days, Kit.  You picked the right side for betting.  I actually wanted her because she'll challenge me.  If she thinks I'm wrong, I will know.  And I know that sometimes I'll be wrong, and when I am...well, I'd rather hear it from someone who can tell me sooner rather than find out later.  Finding out later is almost always finding out to late.
"But I was actually going to suggest you start looking for some people to help you with the digitization and the information and those things.  I know that Gadfly was helping you, but now he's vanished.  And I hope he comes back and he's fine.  But meanwhile, there are a few things you might want help with.  Best to find it in a not crisis and learn how you fit together, no?"

Grace Evans
"I have the hookup now," Grace says, gestures to the laptop bag hanging on her shoulder. "They don't let random people into the Virtual Adept advice channels. But I'm no longer random people."
Grace grimmaces. "I also have the number of someone who is apparently in Denver according to the area code, and who is responsible for setting me up with The Wall. I suppose it's time to be all non-confrontational and shit."
Like Grace has ever come across to anyone as confrontational? But yeah, she joined the Adepts and then immediately turned around and told off the person responsible for the invitation. Maybe she should say sorry.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen laughs again.  "Good.  Having help is good.  And...what other-Kit says about confrontation when he tries to drag you over to Tytalus...his choice of a House for you is wrong, but he is right that sometimes the best thing is to challenge someone or something, so that it can grow stronger."  He is still smiling, warm and amused.  "Your proper House, by the way, is Verditus.  But...I would also accept Griffindor.  Maybe Hufflepuff."

Grace Evans
It's Grace's turn to laugh at him then. "You did read it!"
And then, she gets a little more serious. "Well, other-Kit can go looking elsewhere for recruits. I doubt the others would be happy to hear if I let slip that someone was trying to recruit me into House Tytalus. Might end up with uncontrollable fits of dancing brought on by chiptunes that play every time his phone rings."
Because, yeah, doesn't that sound like a certain someone they both 'know'?

Kalen Holliday
"I'd already seen the movies, but I thought reading the book wouldn't hurt anything."  He smiles, but then his eyes go serious.
"A lot of people are looking for recruits.  It isn't just the Order.  Admittedly, they can be a little aggressive.  But that is partly trained into them.  And I'm hoping to break that a little.  At least here in Denver.  We'll see how it goes.  It's part of why I'm orchestrating.  I'd rather not play with things to use for politics, but...there are points that need to be made.  Challenges to make something stronger are not the sole providence of Tytalans."

Grace Evans
"You mean, like Hawksley saying my joining the Adepts couldn't be helped?" she rolls her eyes. Speaking of which...
"I should probably go get that drink. And join him. Want to come with? Hawksley's... interesting."
And the two would probably get on like a house on fire, she thinks. Or hate each other forever. Either way, they are likely to have opinions. And just watching that could be fun.

Kalen Holliday
"Perhaps not tonight.  Enjoy the drinking.  I have pinatas to hang.  Late, but better than never.  You should tell Hawksley to come to that."