Sharing Naan and Knowledge

Kalen Holliday
Some of them, Kalen calls.  Because there are books to be had and connections to be made and because some people just came to the realization that they could have friends.  Did have friends.  Some of them already have access to the security system and have offices.  There are two resident Bengal cats still growing into their paws and two half resident Mages still growing into...whatever the hell kind of bizarrely evolving relationship Kalen and Grace have.
The two rectangular buildings are freshly painted the pale blue edging into gray of a late afternoon in summer that heralds a coming storm.  There are keypads and biometric locks on the doors to the buildings, which are solidly reinforced.  The office building is furnished with elegant (but not ornate) handcrafted solid wooden furniture.  Rich reds and golds in the upholstery.  There are small statues and original paintings in gilded frames and antique maps in more gilded frames.  There is only one full size statue, of a marble lion, which is in the conference room, which is not so much a conference room as a library.  You could arrange a sizable group of people there, but the current arrangement favors several clusters of people and not a single unified mass.  There are a few grouping of couches and chairs around low tables, and shelves that have an impressive number of books for the beginning stages of this project, but which are still largely empty because there are shelves on all the walls and splitting off little spaces with single chairs.
Thus far, most of the room's use has been by the cats.  But...hey.  No day like today to start changing that.  And so they are all brought, eventually here.  Where there is a table full of Indian takeout and coffee and tea and a bowl of dehydrated ice cream sandwiches because some things will just never fucking get old to Kalen.  (They should be glad he didn't decide they needed more piñatas.  Like he does.)
[I am so terrible at room description.  But look!  Floorplans!  http://www.active.iotasigmapi.org/node/6]

Grace Evans
[Nightmares!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (4, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Kalen Holliday
[So distracted by setting post I forgot those!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 7) ( success x 1 )

Grace Evans
Grace was already here, or at least already at the Office. She's got a weekend ahead of her, and it made sense to get a good start on that.
In her room sits the beginnings of a strange project. There is her dutiful office plant (an ivy named Chloe) which now sports a framework made out of what looks like some kind of metal construction kit. There are a few cylindrical objects scattered around, as well as what look like small robot arms and tracks. Perhaps they're meant for the frame that surrounds the poor Chloe?
Anyway, it's yet another project. One that apparently has nothing to do with books. Or stalkers. Or school.
Kalen has plans for the day as well, and Indian takeout, and it's just about time for that little meeting, isn't it? So she abandons the toys and goes to visit him (and his dehydrated ice cream) in the library.
"Hey," she says, and slides into a chair, curling her feet up into it (because she's already shed her shoes in her office).

Alexander Brandt
There was a phone call from Kalen a little while ago, asking Alexander to stop by somewhere new.  The promise of books may not be as enticing to Alexander as it is to others, but the promise of meeting new people appeals.  He’s still new to the city and, apart from some of the people he works with, he’s a little short on friends in the area too.  So after a quick shower, he heads out on his bike.
And here he is, bike parked nearby.  A helmet with the sheen of being fresh out the packaging, containing a pair of leather gloves, is held in one hand.  A leather jacket, worn open, shows a tshirt underneath.  Black jeans and a pair of bike boots complete his outfit.  Alexander knocks on the door and paces around a little, wondering if he’d written the directions down right.  Heading out to some unmarked buildings in the middle of nowhere?  Good thing the man isn’t overly paranoid.  Yet.

Ryne Kelly
One would imagine that a high school senior might have more interesting (or at least... teenager-ish) things to do on a Friday evening, but such was evidently not the case where Ryne was concerned, because when he got the call from Kalen about the warehouse that was also an office that was also a library, his response was an enthusiastic yes.
It was a couple of hours after dinner-time that Ryne's blue VW Golf parked itself in front of the building. The kid unlatched his seatbelt and twisted around to rummage around the back seat for a moment, pulling a silver-trimmed navy blue messenger bag out from under the seat. His hair was a mess of soft curls when he stepped out into the chilled spring air, the breeze causing his coat to billow around him before he grabbed the sides and wrapped it more snugly about his torso.
He looked around while he walked to the door, taking in the property and the architecture of the building. Alex was already there when Ryne walked up, and the kid glanced up at the (significantly taller) man with a curious expression. "Hey."
The security at the front door made him pause, and he pulled out his phone to text Kalen.

I'm here. Is there a secret code or something?

Ryne Kelly
[Resonance-detection!]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 8, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Alexander Brandt
[Ooh, dice!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )

Kalen Holliday
[Oh.  Dice.  Tell me how distracted Kalen is tonight by resonance.]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 3, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Kalen Holliday
"Hey," he says back to Grace.  She notices the others before he does, which is hardly shocking given the amount of sleeping he didn't do last night.  He glances at his phone when it chirps, smiles faintly, and texts back: Hey.  I'm sending Grace to get you.  You're going to love Grace.
And then he turns to the only person in Denver he'll ask to go do things for him.  Like a minion.  Everyone should have at least one.  "Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit...do you want to go get our friends and bring them here?  Because it will take me like a million years to get them."  He lets his eyes get huge and all faux-pleading.

Grace Evans
She rolls her eyes at Kalen's fake pleads. "Yeah, yeah. Make me a coffee? With one of those rock-candy things in?" she says, and detangles herself from the chair.
Off to go invite in 'our friends'.
Which, she does, happily enough. She did get enough sleep last night.
The door cracks, then slides open for Ryne, and there is Grace, giving him a look she hopes says welcoming, but probably looks just plain awkward at the meeting of someone new. "Hi. I'm Grace. Kalen's upstairs."

Alexander Brandt
Alexander turns at the sound of the VW approaching, breaking the silence that surrounded building, and watches the younger man emerge from the car.  The sensation of fluidity tickles against Alexander, battling against the Frozen aura that surrounds him and putting him just a little on edge.
“Hey,” he replies, taking the other man in as he concentrates on his phone.  “Any idea how we get in?” he asks, just as the door opens a crack.  “Ah, like that.  Hi Grace.”  He stands and lets the other head in first.

Ryne Kelly
Ryne and Alexander were an interesting picture, when placed beside each other. One dynamic (fluid), one static (frozen.) And yet... ice and water were merely different states of the same element, were they not?
And despite their age difference (despite the fact that Ryne had the look of vivid and elfin youth about him, while Alex was older, more solid, and had probably experienced a great deal more of the world) they were both new to their abilities.
(People could wake up at any age.)
Ryne didn't seem especially phased by the solid chill he felt coming off of Alexander. If anything, he was interested. (All of this was interesting to him.) And when Grace opened the door, he looked up and met her gaze with alert, dark eyes.
"Hey." He smiled. "I'm Ryne."
And since Alexander seemed content to allow him to go first, Ryne stepped inside and made his way up the stairs to look for Kalen, following the faint prickle of the Hermetic's familiar, stormy resonance like a bloodhound follows a scent.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen is just finishing coffee for Grace as Ryne finds him.  He looks...well about the same as last Ryne saw him, which is abjectly exhausted and for some reason not just curling up to sleep anyway.  He waves at the food and the coffee and the tea.  "Hey.  Make yourself at home.  Food.  Coffee.  There are books.  People to meet."
He smiles a little as he finishes Grace's coffee and retreats to a couch with his coffee.  "One day, I'll have to take you to a circus."  The smile widens a little and his eyes flash with amusement.  "Of course, if I take you, it will be haunted or there will be extradimensional horrors or something.  Granted, I'm not sure all clowns aren't extradimensional horrors, so maybe that's actually a universal constant.  They would be just famished though, and there would undoubtedly be epic and cinematic and very confusing battles to the death in the funhouse."
"How are you?"
He half curls up into the corner of the couch.  "It's true.  Ask Grace.  Every time I take her anywhere it's a disaster."

Grace Evans
Grace lets them in, and then makes her way up the stairs. Perhaps she means to lead, but it seems as if Ryne knows the way anyway, following the buzz of ozone that Kalen leaves in his wake.
In any case, she arrives back at the library with her newbies in tow, and slips over to the table to pick up her coffee. It must be hers, right? It's got the rock-candy stirrer. Then, it's back to her seat again, to curl up into it, and wrap cold hands around her mug.
"I don't know. The last one wasn't a total disaster. We did good, I think."

Alexander Brandt
Alexander follows the other two through the building, trying to peer through doors as they pass.  Trying to figure out what goes on in this place, which must have taken a fair amount of cash to put together.  And it must hold something fairly important, given the security to get into it.
But they arrive at Kalen, his own Stormy resonance getting stronger as they work their way through the building.  “Hey, Kalen. You look... crap.  Have you slept at all since that other night?”
Alexander’s eyebrows rise a little.  He’s pretty sure they’re either joking not serious about haunted circuses and evil clowns.  Although there never did seem to be anything particularly cheerful about them, so maybe they really are all evil.    “The last visit to a circus wasn’t a disaster?  Or the last fight in one?”
Alexander sorts himself out a cup of black coffee, and waves the French press at the others in offer.  “I’m doing pretty well, thanks. Been playing with the coin a lot, and trying to figure out how the other things work out for me.  Getting there, I think.”

Ryne Kelly
Ryne made a face. "I kind of hate the circus, honestly." But his momentary distaste was washed away when he saw the selection of Indian takeout laid out on the table.
"Dude, you are so awesome." He dropped his bag by a chair and walked over to the food, helping himself to small portions of everything that didn't appear to contain any meat (although he ignored the dehydrated ice cream.) When he sat down on the sofa, he set his plate in his lap and ripped off a piece of naan, swirling it through a pool of sauce before he popped it into his mouth.
He'd already eaten dinner. It didn't matter.
"So um... how do you all know each other? I mean, did you just meet randomly or...?"

Alexander Brandt
[Bah - "He's pretty sure they're joking about haunted circuses..."  I can't proof my own typing. :$]

Kalen Holliday
"Well, then we're marginally safer from excursions involving extradimensional horror clowns."
He laughs at Alexander's greeting, then rolls his eyes.  "Ugh.  Don't remind me.  And there have been no fights in a circus.  Yet."
He watches Ryne fixing food with a faint smile.  "Mmmmmmm...so I met Grace at her college, much like I met you.  We played a guessing game about drupes and then I offered to teach her how to shoot.  She also may have had some initial concerns I was actually a serial killer."  There is a sudden flash a smile, because this next bit is just too perfect to drop on Ryne with no fucking explanation.
"Alexander I met while we were on our way to investigate a scarecrow of mysterious origin who turned out to be a manifested spirit who had come to ask us to come and hear the last words of a Mage who had been trapped in the spirit world but by the time we got to the spirit world he'd been dead for centuries because Time can be like that so we reached back through time, let him know through the vision that we'd come, took the book he left us, and came back.  He's...sort of The Messenger, but not precisely because...that might be enough of how we met.  But perhaps I should not explain the Avatar Storm right now."

Grace Evans
Grace snorts into her coffee, because Kalen is being himself, and this is a gleeful thing. "I did not think you were a serial killer, for the record."
Because that, of course, is the most interesting bit of verbiage that just came out of Kalen's mouth. Indeed.
She sets to drinking her coffee for a bit, and then joins Ryne in the making of a plate of naan and curry.

Alexander Brandt
“What’s a drupe?”  Alexander asks, as he picks up a bhaji  and leans on the back of a chair to nibble at it.  “Some kind of animal?”  Then, to Grace as well, “You guys shoot?  Let me know next time you go to a range, I’ll keep you company if you like.”
Kalen explains how they – Kalen and Grace – met him, watching the other man’s reaction.  As it comes to the end, he smiles sympathetically and holds out a plate.  “Samosa?”

Alexander Brandt
[To clarify - the smile and plate offering are to Ryne]

Ryne Kelly
Ryne grew still while Kalen spoke, momentarily forgetting his food while his mind tried to process the information that he was being given. A handful of different reactions shifted across his expressive face, revealing themselves in hints and fragments of muscle movement, but he was guarding himself enough that none of them stuck out as immediately obvious.
That he was... skeptical of some of the things he was hearing was more than a little likely. But what conclusions he ultimately drew about Kalen and the others from this information, he kept to himself.
He didn't... actually say anything, either. Just raised his eyebrows a little and nodded, then took a bite of his food. When Alexander offered him a samosa, he shook his head and picked one up from his own plate (it'd been hiding behind a mound vegetable vindaloo.)
"I'm good, thanks."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen laughs, then leans over to ruffle Ryne's hair.  "Sorry, Cloud.  Couldn't help it."
He settles back and takes a sip of his coffee, briefly studying the three of them.  "That's Grace, she's...been at this for long enough to have joined the Virtual Adepts, which are one of our Traditions, which are basically like factions.  I'll let her explain more about that.  But she's studied with them and with me and posssssssssibly with others....?  I didn't exactly ask her for a resume."
"And that is Alexander, who probably Awakened around the time you did, which is relatively recently.  I'm pretty sure the only reason he doesn't give me the same looks you do is because he's seen some really crazy things already.  I have no idea what his opinion on souls is."
"Kit, Alexander...this is Ryne.  He found out he was Awakened last I met him, when I accosted him in a coffee shop and took him home.  For reasons I cannot entirely determine, but likely involve having no sense of self preservation, he came out here to see books and meet you and learn all the things."
His attention turns to Alexander briefly.  "Oh.  We just use the one in the building over there."  He waves a hand lazily at where the other building sits, not that it's visible through the walls.

Grace Evans
"Drupes are fruits with a pit in them. Like cherries and apricots," Grace explains, and yet doesn't. Why does that have anything to do with anything?
"So you're saying you just let Kalen take you home, and then let him invite you to his scary warehouse? No sense of self-preservation. Riiight," Grace nods at Ryne. "Might want to fix that."
"He's not a serial killer. But still, man."
Grace nibbles on some naan dipped in deliciousness before continuing. "That's awesome though. Really, I mean it. You're Awake. What do you want to know first?"

Alexander Brandt
Alexander shrugs and puts the plate back on the table, unsure whether Ryne is taking everything in his stride, hiding it well that he isn’t, or doesn’t realise just how deep the rabbit hole goes – something he’s only starting to get an idea about himself.
“Last month, easy answer – souls don’t exist.  This month?  I know spirits exist now, but whether that’s the same thing as a soul?  I might need to spend some time with that priest friend of yours to figure that one out.”  He grabs another snack and his coffee cup and settles into a chair, shuffling a little to get comfortable.
He looks between Grace and Ryne as she talks.  “These guys know a whole lot more than I do, but I guess we’re pretty much in the same boat.  If you need any help with anything, though...”  Swings and roundabouts – people have been so kind, supporting him as he tries to figure out which way is up, that it’s only fair he passes on the favour.

Ryne Kelly
Ryne wrinkled his nose in mild indignation when Kalen ruffled his hair. He ran a hand through the soft mess of auburn waves, as though to even it out, but Ryne had the sort of obnoxiously perfect hair that looked good even when it was messy.
"Also walnuts and pecans," he added by way of an answer to Alexander's question. "A lot of things we think are nuts are technically drupes."
He didn't explain how or why he knew the answer to that question, but perhaps among this crowd, he didn't have to.
"I didn't think he was gonna hurt me," came the answer to Grace's question. "Anyway, I needed to find out what he knew. And see, now I get to meet you guys. So win-win."
He ripped off another piece of naan and looked between Alexander and Kalen. "You really think you saw a spirit?"

Kalen Holliday
.Kalen smiles at Ryne's question, rises carefully, and heads over to get more coffee.
He looks away from them before he starts speaking this time.  "Avatars and souls are intimately linked," he says, very softly.  Haunted.  "When we were dragged into the Umbra, what you felt was the fragments of Avatars which were shattered in...a cataclysmic event that proved the war with the Technocracy was...too costly for either side to continue.  Whether their souls are part of that...I am uncertain."
There is a slight pause, and then he blinks, picks up a rock candy stirrer for his coffee, and then heads back to the couch.  "By priest friend you mean Pan?  The one in Denver?  Have you met yet?  Anyway...you two can tell him about that adventure.  He's probably tired of hearing me talk."

Grace Evans
Spirit, sure. Or a daemon of Reality's OS. A piece of self-sustaining code, like the rest of us. Kalen speaks of the Avatars shattered. What they passed through, that felt like... like being flung through glass shards. Speaks of the War which is over (it is not over).
"How is the war ended when people are still being disappeared, though?" Grace asks, suddenly not so chipper. People like Gadfly, she means.
"This is why you don't just trust anyone you meet, Ryne. People who will hurt you will look nice enough at first. And when you're Awake, it's like a magnet for all the weird in the world to land at your doorstep. So just... be careful, okay?"

Alexander Brandt
“Ah.  Ok.”  Alexander doesn’t sound overly bothered about this new piece of information.  It could be useful for quiz machines or radio call-ins.  Otherwise?  Not so much.  But then Ryne asks about spirits.  He turns a little in the chair, tucking one leg under the other, to better face him.
“Before things went weird, I was just as sceptical as you sound.  Religion?  For the gullible.  Spirits?  New age rubbish, used by fakers to part the gullible with their money who told them what they wanted to hear.  ‘Oh yes, Granny is much happier now’.”  He rolls his eyes.  “I guess you could call me a practical kind of guy.  I need to see something to really believe in it.  So when I had something calling to me, trying to persuade me to jump through a rip I made into the spirit world?  That opened my eyes.  Then, with the scarecrow Kalen mentioned?”  He nods towards Kalen.  “When you’re pulled into a mirror world to this one, when you’re faced with what was essentially a dying man’s spirit which was slowly fading away after searching for help for who knows how long?  When you see creatures that exist there, that don’t exist here?”  He smiles again, emotions mixed at the memory – wonder at the potential, sadness that it had taken so long for the Sending to find who it was looking for, but happiness that its creator found his rest and the Sending its identity.  “I don’t think I’ve seen a spirit.  I know I have.“  There’s no doubt in his voice at all.
He takes a breath before answering Kalen.  “I’ve not met him yet, but you did mention your teleporting friend before.  And what else do you have tucked away here?”  Then, a third thought.  “Oh, when did you want me to take a look at his records?”

Ryne Kelly
"People are shitty. I knew that before I was Awake. You don't need to tell me to be careful, I get it."
(But did he though? Maybe he thought he did. Or maybe he had better instincts than people gave him credit for. Or maybe he was just a naive kid making empty reassurances.)
Alexander told his story, and Ryne listened, giving the man his full attention. Afterwards, he glanced down at his plate.
"That stuff you're talking about. Spirits and Avatars. They sound like memories." He spoke that last bit quietly (almost tentative,) before looking up and meeting Alexander's eyes. "I believe you. I'm just... wondering about it."
There was a certain thoughtful undertone to his words that seemed to imply not so much blatant disbelief as careful analysis.
"Tell me about the war."
(This last directed to the room at large.)

Kalen Holliday
"They certainly aren't unlike memories," Kalen says quietly.
"The war is...on a broad scale, over.  There isn't really peace.  There may never be.  But you don't need an all out war to have violence.  We had...a conflict of ideals.  Tradition Mages wanted wonder and magic and easing more and more of that back into a shared perception of Reality.  The Technocracy wanted to reinforce science, which...science is cool, but they were also for destroying magical creatures or Mages who didn't join them.
"It got bloody.  There are people who remember it.  Garrett.  I think probably Pan.  There was that other guy...I haven't really seen him again though. Garrett though...probably you shouldn't ask him.  He's...."  Well.  Grace has seen, but Kalen cannot bring himself to actually say just how at the edge of broken Garrett can be sometimes.

Grace Evans
"The Technocracy want to destroy the wonder in everything, including science," Grace scoffs. "They just want to control it all, including technology. My people try to fuck up that plan."
She glances over to Alexander, like she's unsure of how much to really go on about this. "Yeah, don't talk to Garrett about the War. He'll just scare you half to death."
Change the subject. Yeah, that ought to work.

Alexander Brandt
“I don’t really know much about it,” Alexander says picking at his samosa.  “I’ve been at this less than a month, and only picked up enough to know that it happened.  That, and they’re not the kind of people you want to be meeting if you can help it.  Beyond that,” he shrugs, “not a clue.  Before my time.  And there are plenty of other things to be careful of, too.  Vampires.  Scarecrows.”
He gives the younger man a smile before changing the subject slightly.  “What other memories do you have?  Weird ones, I mean.  Not growing-up-in-wherever memories.”

Ryne Kelly
Ryne frowned a little, eyebrows drawn together while he took in everything that Kalen told him. He couldn't quite help the little snort of derision that escaped his lips at the word: Technocracy.
"There's seriously a group of people who call themselves 'the Technocracy?' They sound like comic-book villains."
The war though... as a story, it had a familiar ring to it. You didn't really need to know about magic or Traditions or Technocrats to understand the basic human discord that lay at the heart of wars of ideology. History was littered with examples.
"So you guys really are like... different religions. Or philosophies."
Grace had said her people. As in, separate from Kalen's or Alexander's. (Traditions. These are words Ryne would remember, and some day place proper meaning to.)
Alexander asked him about his memories, and Ryne busied himself by putting a forkful of food into his mouth. It allowed enough time for him to gather his thoughts.
"Guess it depends on your definition of weird. I haven't seen anything like you've talked about."

Kalen Holliday
And Kalen, who hasn't mentioned how long he's been at this or how many weird stories he has, does not launch into storytime.  "As long as you don't call attention to yourself, you should be fine.  Don't send text messages or talk about things outright on phone lines that could be monitored, which is really almost all of them.  There are more people for you to meet, and...now that I think about it maybe I should give you the address for the church too.  Just in case."
Kalen smiles a little.  "I'm not sure how you'll get on with Pan.  But provided you're not leading a demon to eat his congregation, you should be okay to go to the church if you need something."

Grace Evans
"Just don't talk about anything weird at all using any form of digital communication. Phone, email, texts, anything. I'm sure you guys have heard about the ubiquitous wiretapping programs?" she looks between them all. "Did you ever think they were really after terrorists? Because how many have they caught so far? Zero. I'm sure they've caught plenty of us though."
She swirls some naan around in sauce, and uses it like a spoon to scoop up some curry. Pops it in her mouth whole, taking a far too big bite.
She turns to Ryne with a sad look to her. "Mm sorry. I know fiff is all a little frange," she says, mouth full. Then she resumes chewing fast. Perhaps a bit self-conscious at her lack of manners.

Alexander Brandt
Not that Alexander had, as far as he could remember, talked about anything overly strange over the phone when talking to the others he’d been in contact with, but nobody had mentioned that little fact – that Big Brother was listening.  Oh, he vaguely knew about the whole wiretapping-against-terrorists thing, anyone who’s ever read a newspaper had.  But now that she mentions it...  Alexander slides his phone out of his pocket, turns it off, then tucks it away again.
“Different philosophies, I guess.  I’m told they love arguing amongst themselves, anyway.  But I was given a bit of advice that seems to be good.”  He looks at Kalen.  “Get yourself sorted out before you start worrying about which gang to join.  They’re not going anywhere.”  Samosa finished, he wraps both hands around his coffee mug to warm his cold hands.
Looking back at Ryne, he continues.  “I guess anything the average man off the street would give you strange looks for talking about.  Like, you know... spirits and avatars.”

Ryne Kelly
Something about Grace acknowledging the absurdity of their conversation combined with the visual absurdity of her speaking around a mouthful of curry caused a brief bout of laughter to issue from Ryne's throat. The kid set his plate of food down on the coffee table and bent forward with a hand on his mouth.
"What the hell is strange anymore? I don't even know."
But of course, he understood what the others meant by their warnings, and when he looked up to acknowledge Alexander he gave a soft nod.
"What happens if they do find me?"

Kalen Holliday
"Sometimes you die.  Sometimes you join them.  From everything I've heard...I'm not sure which is the merciful option, but I lean toward the death one."  He smiles.  "Don't worry too much.  We don't run into them often.  I've seen more fatal car crashes than Technocracy agents.  But cautious, but realize the world isn't ending tomorrow.
"Well...probably.  I suppose it could.  But it's no more likely than before you heard about all this.  The world has always been dangerous, but the sun rose all the same.  It seems bigger and wilder and maybe scarier, but it's still the same world.  You just see more of it."

Grace Evans
Grace listens while Kalen speaks words he's told her before. About how the world was always dangerous, and she was only blind to it before. Yes, this is true. Difficult to accept perhaps, but she wants it to be true.
Looking back over to Ryne, who has yet to experience anything more strange than... likely this conversation? Poor guy.
"You'll know strange when you see it. You'll feel it, if you're lucky. Same as you can feel us, because we're also strange," she smiles.

Alexander Brandt
What is strange these days?  Good question.  “Yeah, it’s hard to miss strange.  If you’re lucky, you’ll have others around to help work through it.  If you’re really lucky, they’ll stop you doing anything too stupid.”  Like jumping into the Umbra?  Yeah, like that.  “Weird things do seem to attract us, and that does include others like us.  Lucky coincidences of us happening to be in the same place seem to come around nine times out of ten.  But, then, if it has teeth, claws, and an attitude worse than its breath, probably best to get away if you’re alone.“
He takes a sip of coffee, remembering some other advice.  “I was told to try to avoid being alone.  Trying to work all this out is hard enough with others helping you out.  Without them?  I’m told its doable.  But it’s a lot harder, and you’re at more risk from the bad guys.”

Alexander Brandt
[[Oops, missed a bit - 'Good question.  Others seem to treat crazy strange the same as taking out the trash.  Maybe strange is this year's normal.']]

Ryne Kelly
"That's not what it felt like though. It was more like... when you're trying to figure something out, but it's not working. And then one day... you just get it. And everything is different."
He'd said things to Kalen in the privacy of the Hermetic's home and during a bout of awed excitement that he seemed reluctant to admit here - though whether it was because he was worried how they might sound or because he felt protective of those experiences wasn't really clear. Kalen himself hadn't really heard the complete story - just hints and snippets. Maybe he was wondering when (or if) Ryne would bring them up on his own.
"I try to keep my head loose. And then... I can see more. Flow to a different place on the timeline. Or touch someone else's mind. We spend so much time building walls. Trying to like, create these rigid definitions that separate everything. But it's bullshit. Reality is a unified field."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen smiles at Ryne's explanation.  Which is...familiar.  "Definitely keeping you," he says with a soft laugh.  "Very definitely."
He glances over at Grace and smiles faintly.  "And yeah.  I'm soooooooooooo introducing him to Lena.  Have you two talked yet?  I know she wants to talk."
"Anyone have any direct questions?"

Grace Evans
Grace smiles at Ryne. Maybe she likes this one, yes? Unified field? Like the unified field theory? Well, that is one way to look at it, certainly.
But then, her face drops, eyes a touch wide at Kalen. "She what? I'm sorry, last time I talked with her, she made it sound like she never wanted to speak to me again."
Which would mean, no, Grace has not talked with Lena yet.

Alexander Brandt
“It sounds like there are worse ways to wake up.”  He rubs his head, remembering the truck...  “Certainly more painful ones.”    Then Ryne starts talking about a unified field, which starts to lose Alexander – sounds like science, which isn’t his thing.  But Kalen and Grace do seem to get it, so he relaxes back on the chair and listens to them talk.  The parts about flowing through time sounds interesting.
Any specific question?  Alexander shrugs at that, nothing’s coming to mind at the moment.

Ryne Kelly
"Dude, I've got about a thousand of them," he laughed in response to Kalen's inquiry. "Seriously, if you let me I will pick your brain apart."
Ryne unzipped his hoodie and slid his arms through the sleeves, dropping it over the sofa's arm-rest. Underneath he had on a plain white t-shirt that did little to disguise how delicately built he was. The knobs of his spine showed through the thin fabric. Anyone looked at the back of the kid's neck might notice the upper part of a still-healing tattoo on the back of his neck. An ouroboros: drawn simply as a black snake swallowing its own tail.
"How was it for you guys? Waking up?"

Ryne Kelly
[Edit: "Anyone who looked at the back of the kid's neck might notice the upper part of a still-healing tattoo."]

Kalen Holliday
"I was walking down the street, and I noticed someone was following me.  Now, there were a number of reasons someone might be following me, and none of them were good, so I was planning to get into this place I knew about underground.  Like...six blocks out from there I stopped because all the fallen leaves swept up into wild paaterns and I could just sense all of the possibilities of...eternity.
"And then those sharpened into immediate danger, and I turned and there was the guy who'd been following me.  Except he had fangs and his skin looked like melted wax.  He lunged at me, and he was fast.  Faster than normal people could be, but I knew where he would be, so I was never there anymore.
"And then I tripped him into the path of an oncoming truck.  And I thought that would be the end of it, there was that wet sound of snapping bones, but it got up on the other side of the street.
So I ran.  I ran past where I'd been going and I kept running and eventually I crashed into Kharisma.  And...that was I met the first of the Awakened I knew."

Grace Evans
Grace does not yet notice the tattoo, because she's facing people's faces, not the backs of them. At least for now, it'll go without a remark. However, his question...
"Well, like I said, mine came in a vision. I'd been hearing this humming noise all day, and then I got lost in the mountains. Couldn't find my way back to Denver. And I looked on Google Maps, and it pointed me to this power station out in the middle of nowhere, because that makes total sense, right?
I get there, and the hum is so loud. Electric, you know. I look up, and suddenly everything's... very strange. Apparently I was standing there looking at the roof of a power station for like 10 minutes or so, and this guy tells me I have to leave, and I must be high and whatever," she laughs. "But afterward, I knew exactly how to get home. Like the source code of the universe just did a massive memory dump right into my brain, and then... I just knew."

Alexander Brandt
The tattoo may be seen, but it’s not really noticed.  Lots of people have them, so nothing unusual there. 
“I’m not sure if this first part is related, but I started out dreaming.  There was snow, a storm blew up, then I heard someone calling for help.  A couple of strange people appeared.  Then I woke up.”  He shrugs, still not sure whether it was part of it all or just a random dream.  “The world seemed... brighter, I guess.  But I ended up having the absolutely shittiest luck you could imagine all day.  Things broke.  I came off my bike on a patch of ice on a sunny day.  I tried getting an injured bird out the way of a truck.”  Alexander pauses for a minute, the memories still fresh.  He’s looking down, staring at the carpet as he continues.  “I lost my grip.  It went under a wheel.  I heard it die.  But I fell too, following it.  Thought that was going to be it, until I opened my eyes and saw the wheel a couple of feet from my head.  I’d managed to freeze time, at least for a little while.  Then there was the tear into the Umbra that I’d opened up too, with something trying to call me too.  And seeing how everything linked together, all the potential.”
He takes a long drink of coffee before finishing.  “I thought I had gone mad.  None of that could have been real.  So I very nearly did jump through.”  He looks up at Ryne.  “What’s the worst that could have happened, right?  It wasn’t really there.  Which would probably have been it for me.  But Sera found me and managed to stop me.  Persuaded me that it was all real.  Really helped me out.”

Ryne Kelly
"Yeah, see, that's what I was talking about." Ryne smiled brightly at Grace. "It's like tapping into this limitless well. Or a river, maybe. It always feels to me like it's moving."
To Kalen he said, "For what it's worth, I'm glad you got away." And this time the smile was a little more tentative. When he shifted his attention to Alexander, he cocked his head a little and said "Who knows though. Maybe it would have just been a different beginning."
Maybe. Probably better he didn't have to find out.
Ryne swept up a couple of generous scoops of his food, then stood and walked back to the table, munching thoughtfully on a sauce-soaked samosa that he held between his thumb and index finger. A little of the sauce started to drip down the side, and he caught it with his tongue.
"How many of us are in Denver, anyway?"
Kalen had seen Ryne drink coffee before, but he avoided it now, moving instead to brew himself a cup of black tea. (It went better with the food.)

Kalen Holliday
He can't help it.  The resulting expressions (and that tentative smile) are too adorable.  He ruffles Ryne's hair again.  "Me too.  I am way too pretty to risk getting turned into one of those things.  Ewwwwwww....."  He makes a face, crinkling up his nose.  The stark contrast between Kalen when there is danger and Kalen in this moment, exhausted and playing with Ryne...it's probably going to be a shock the first time Ryne sees it.  Of course, to Alexander Kalen playing might be more the shock.  At least he's seen an intermediate form of expression.
"Maybe...more than a dozen.  I'm not totally sure how many more.  Some people drift away.  Some don't really interact with the rest of us as a whole.  My first mentors are in town, but they're...not really affiliated with the chantry."

Grace Evans
While Ryne is busying himself with food and tea, Grace did catch a look at his neck, at that tattoo.
"Oh... shiiiit," she said, eyes growing a bit wide. "And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.
"Listen, uh... Ryne. You ever hear of a Bandit? Or The Bandit perhaps?"

Alexander Brandt
“Maybe,” is all Alexander says to the suggestion of a new start.  He withdraws a little from the conversation; fading into the background, thinking more of that first day Awake.  Of just how low he was at the time, to even think about jumping.  Of... other things.  He sighs quietly, watching Kalen play a little with Ryne.  The difference in Kalen doesn’t really register though.
The name Bandit isn’t at all familiar, so he just listens for now.

Ryne Kelly
Ryne shot Grace an odd look while he waited for his tea to steep, tapping one foot lazily behind the other as he leaned against the table on one arm.
"Um... no?" The question was less an issue of uncertainty (he would have remembered [he remembered everything]) than of confusion at the nature of Grace's sudden interest and concern. "Why? Something to do with my tattoo?"
(Because he knew the quote she'd just spouted.)
Drawing attention to the mark made him more acutely aware of the healing itch that still occasionally struck his nerves there. Unconsciously, he reached back to scratch it before stopping his hand and diverting the energy to a patch of skin on his shoulder (as though to scratch by proxy.)

Kalen Holliday
Kalen rises and heads over to refill his coffee, letting Grace and Ryne discuss the tattoo.  He swipes one of the rock candy stirrers and swirls it lazily through his coffee and leans into Alexander's space a little to murmur to him, though he doesn't touch him this time.

Grace Evans
"I'm kind of... in uh..." Grace's eyes wander, like she's trying to find the words to explain this, especially to someone new.
"I'm in irregular, odd contact with a manifestation of an ouroboros. Or someone pretending to be, for shits and giggles. Not sure what yet," she explains.
"It's like, a game. Only, a mystical one. And I'm supposed to be looking out for signs, just like... you know," she points to his neck.
She looks over to Kalen, "It's something I ran across on that forum I cr...found."

Alexander Brandt
Alexander looks up as Kalen approaches.  He doesn’t pull back, or try to increase the distance between them as the other man leans in.  There is an attempt at a grateful smile, and a few muttered words back.

Ryne Kelly
"Oh." Ryne seemed to contemplate this for a moment before he pulled the bag out of his tea. "Well who knows. Maybe it's connected somehow and I just don't know it."
Or maybe it was a coincidence.
(It was probably a coincidence.)
"I totally wanna hear more about this though." He grabbed one of the dehydrated ice cream sandwiches, because why the fuck not. (Ryne was about to regret that decision.) "Care to share?" The smile he afforded Grace had the same innately endearing charm that Kalen had seen when Ryne tried to pry information out of him on their past visit.
Of course, Grace could answer or not, as she chose. If not, Ryne would (grudgingly) move on to another topic of conversation. Because there were always more questions and he never seemed to tire of asking them.
At some point, he'd probably ask about the chantry (since Kalen had brought it up.)
And the evening wound its way into night, though Ryne, with his seemingly boundless teenage energy, scarcely noticed. And eventually the group would either fall asleep where they were or break apart to head their separate ways - as these things go.
...But not before Ryne weaseled his way into Kalen's book collection.

Kalen Holliday
[Mmmmmmmm...because for wrap post....]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 2, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )

Kalen Holliday
He watches Ryne asking questions, though he seems mostly disinterested in answering questions at the moment.  The others drift off to other places (most likely) and after that he watches Ryne investigate the books for awhile before he does fall asleep.
And not peacefully.  There is twitching.  And murmuring.  No screaming, no thrashing.  Kalen sleeping is far less dramatic than Kalen awake.  But definitely not peaceful.

Grace Evans
"I don't know if I want to drag you into it, Ryne. I say it's a game, sure, but it's... I didn't ask to play. And I'm not sure it's benevolent in nature," she says, speaking of the game as if it were an entity.
She glances over to Kalen. Of course he'll  have to know eventually. But best to let him try to get good sleep for now, if he can.
"I'm more and more convinced it's not benevolent in nature, really. It's also watching me. But if you want, I could show you what I've found..."

Alexander Brandt
Conversation happens, but Alexander is only really half-listening to it.  Not brooding, so much.  More...  becoming Frozen again.  He really just wants to be elsewhere.  Not necessarily anywhere in particular – although that peak overlooking the city may just appeal – but more just away.  And so he makes his excuses – something vague about having things he needs to get done – and leaves the others to it.