anrkyangel
Continuation of last time. From an email from Jess:
Poison??????????? becomes:
The Poisoned Cup. Better be careful here. And the prediction is as follows:
Verdancy Ascendant + [long string of numbers = July]. Pin-Point July. First shadows go long and lightning in shadows? Lightning or electric shocks? The metal will react. That will happen for the rest to happen + snark a lot of snark + noodles? I think this will be v d4ng3r + Sleeper Cyclops. The cup is the danger but is it touching the cup or is it drinking the cup = will she drink? I think that she will drink even tho remembering I think that the ?? bees what the fuck the bees will still sing that song. The bees are going to sing after the shadows spark that will be the end of it. But first loss? Lost. Lost memory book-opened up. I predict eyes not These but other eyes and they will move like a stutter or fucking shaky cam? Not alone I predict that shoes and shadowless and ok after that a period of rest. Hibernation. Hiding, but only if the eyes are watching. Poisoned cup I wonder. Too much there and gum on the shoes sticky. NO FIREWORKS THO. More darkness tenebrous than anything. Address? [There is an address here - it is for a restaurant near the University.]
anrkyangel
They may not work in total sync with each other, but it is by their powers combined that the Virtual Adepts break apart that code and make some sense of it.
And what the untangled code reveals is...
Words scroll across the window of Grace's screen:
These are about you, G. What do you think?
Grace
July. This hasn't happened yet.
Grace types, and she sounds clear-headed in the text, but textual communication hides body language. On her bed, she's curling toes in thought, looking angrily at the screen. And under that? A little bit of creeped out, yeah.
I mean it sounds like it's all metaphors and whatnot, just like the Starbuxx Wyrms entry. But poison? I think I know what a lot of snark and noodles means though. Man Candy.
There's some more doing, as Grace looks up the address, and finds the restaurant. Will she be poisoned there?
What are the fucking bees?
Would be nice to grab her Adversary and perhaps obtain some Cliff's Notes to this prophesy, no?
Why would they be looking into my future anyway? What's so important about some n00b you're stalking that you'd start prophesying their future? Isn't this all a bit, I don't know, obsessive?
anrkyangel
You sure?
Riley doesn't know about LAST July, does she? No, she couldn't...could she?
But hey, she's been harping on Grace all night to consider all the possibilities, right? And besides:
There's a thread for 2014 and 2015. This wasn't in it.
She, too, looks up the address for the restaurant and starts to consider setting up her own surveillance, but hmm. What is she even looking for? Jesus, Ghost, could you have been more cryptic?
The answer, of course, is yes. But the euphoria of the chase is starting to wear off again. Luckily, that inability to see into Grace's space (because Riley doesn't wish it, doesn't need it) goes both ways. Just as Riley can't see Grace's toes curling in thought, she can't see Riley making this face: ಠ_à²
[please Jove, take it and don't fuck it up]
Grace
I'm sure. Of course, doesn't mean it's this July. Could be any future July. Or maybe something from my past I really really don't remember. But I think before I woke up, I would definitely have remembered the shadows spouting lightning. Or whatever that really means.
This last July was fairly quiet. Only real amazing thing that happened was that I Awakened.
So long ago. Like a lifetime ago, thinking back, at how the very idea of being poisoned, or being delivered a message like this one would have seemed so alien to her. Now, it registers on the Weird-O-Meter, but definitely not to the maxxed-out position.
I wouldn't refer to that as a poisoned cup, v d4ng3r.
anrkyangel
RE: Prophesying: Destinations are often a surprise to the destined. -- Neil Gaiman, The Kindly Ones
Doubt it'd be from before you Woke Up, tho maybe? I can't look around in Time (yet) so couldn't say.
No fireworks, could be July 4th, could just mean any significant event.
In the meantime we need to get you protected from prying eyes.
Yes, "we." Like it or not, Grace Evans, you've got an angel of anarchy looking over your shoulder. But will she be a guardian, or will she continue to wreak havoc in Grace's life?
I can set a firewall around your place, & in the meantime we can work on leveling your Corr skillz so you can do it yourself. Up to you tho.
So, again, Grace is offered a choice. By all appearances it's up to her to let Riley continue to help out or not. But could she really shut the other VA out? Only one way to find out.
Grace
There's a thing. She doesn't want to give Riley the keys to the castle. The castle being a secret warehouse/office compound with biometric locks on the doors (which she has been known to practically live in). That's Kalen's place. Technically.
And this apartment is hers, for all that the walls don't speak of a person who lives there.
I'd like to learn how to do it myself, but I'm not against help. Got to pay me back somehow, don't you?
I have to ask though. Have you ever seen anything like this before? The whole, forum thing? This isn't some other initiation hazing ritual, is it?
anrkyangel
Pay you back for what?
It's the internet, G, the new unknown frontier. New outlands. Never know what kinda outlaws you'll find out there.
Grace
For making me miss all my midterms.
I got a cool new job though, so you don't have to have any (ha) guilt about how I had to quit my old one due to absenteeism. They sucked anyway.
Grace bites her lip, starts clicking shit again on the forum, despite this probably being a bit unwise. She knows that. But still...
I don't know if I'm up to more predictions. Going to wear myself out at this rate. You want to poke around elsewhere?
anrkyangel
Hah
You're on the brink of such great power, Grace Evans
You'll be able to reshape reality
You'll be able to remake the world as we know it
And you're worried about midterms
What were you studying?
And no, not tonight. Need to clear Agents of SHIELD out've my DVR lol
Grace
Machine learning. Independent study in simulations. Advanced Topics: Augmented Reality.
I liked the sound of that last one.
Grace sighs. And you know, maybe Riley is right. It just feels wrong to give up on a goal like that. To stop going for an education. To stop being a student, and be... what? An adult?
No. A mage. And only a mage. Like Kalen, the man who wants to take her on a trip to Austrialia, just so he'll have something in his life that isn't mystical. Something they can talk about in public without turning fifty heads. There's life, and then there's the other life.
Someone once told me I could try to hold on to both of my lives, and it might be worth it. But it would be hard.
anrkyangel
Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty -- Teddy Roosevelt, lady
Awakened life ain't easy. Sleeper life ain't easy. But you can mix both and have an amazing time regardless, but you have to be willing to fight, tooth and nail, for your happiness.
There is a pause of a few seconds, and then:
My advice to you, G: Shut off your computer. Take a bath. Read a book about penguins. Try to get some sleep.
Now you must excuse me, I have five hours of secret government agents poking at alien tech and the night isn't getting any younger.
Good work tonight.
Grace
Sleep is overrated.
Sleep? There was a time Grace would have said sleep is for the weak. No, sleep is for those strong enough to deal with Hydra's scars, waiting in the darkness.
Penguins -- Not overrated.
Thanks.
You too.
anrkyangel
-- End Transmission --
[aka WRAP!]
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