Yes, Kalen, You Have Friends.

Kalen Holliday
[Nightmares]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Grace Evans
[Ohh yes! Nightmares!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (2, 2, 3, 5, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )

Kalen Holliday
Kalen is sprawled lazily over one of the couches in the living room.  There is the usual sprawl of things one associates with Kalen working on the coffee table: books, paper, a pen, coffee.  He takes up space, Kalen.  Entire couches.  Coffee tables.
Today though, he's added a laptop.  And stick page label tabs.
Thus far he has mastered several things involving the computer.  He can turn it on.  He can turn it off.  He has figured out how to lounge with a wireless keyboard and run the wireless mouse over any surface he damn well pleases that isn't reflective.
Useful things...he may have discovered mahjong.
No.  Upon reflection, that is the opposite of useful.

Grace Evans
It's Friday, and it's after school, and that means it's time to party! Oh, except no. Not really. This is Grace we're talking about here, and even her partying always has some reason for it other than just because.
No, today, as is true for most days, it is time to do.
Kalen and Grace's e-library project has yet to be formally sanctioned, but that doesn't mean she can't get a head start, does it? Figuring out what supplies the Chantry has in terms of computing equipment, figuring out what might be necessary to buy for infrastructure reasons (and also because she just doesn't know the status of the Chantry's network, what with using her own laptop, and that's a crying shame).
She wants a kiosk down in the library from which to access the e-greatness that is to come. There is a computer there. It's... well, it's... okay. Maybe it was fantastic when it was new, but that must have been over a year ago. I mean, come on.
Through it, she's able to find the rest of the computers in the place, taking stock of the local network and its security and its boring details (which are not so boring to Grace).
And then? She climbs the stairs, past the electronic locked doors, up to the living room where Kalen sprawls with his laptop, and the sight puts a little wry grin on her face. She's rubbing off on him.
"Hey, you find any of my cyber-stalkers yet?" she asks, the tone making it an obvious joke.

Kalen Holliday
"No.  And I think I might be able to do that with magic before I can do that with this thing."  He makes a little huff and sets the keyboard down.  "I rather imagine you'll find them find them first.  Does is stalking you so that I know the second you know creepy?"  He's...probably joking?
Probably.
He sets the keyboard and mouse on the table.  "Did you finish your diagnosis of the chantry computer?  Will it live?"

Grace Evans
She rolls her eyes and smirks. "It'll live. It's sufficient for what we have in mind at least."
A little jaunt has her behind the couch, looking over his shoulder (such an interloper). "What were trying to do that has you so frustrated? Can't be worse than cracking some encryption by hand.
"I swear, that Wall made me feel like a Hermetic -- filling a book up with a bunch of arcane writings that nobody else could possibly figure out. Mostly because my handwriting sucks that bad, though."

Kalen Holliday
"Some of us use secret languages and cyphers, some of us resort to terrible handwriting."  Kalen is, in a systematic if very novice fashion, trying to write very basic code.  It must be an exercise from one of the books on the table.  He smiles.  "Are we buying new computer parts?  Can I watch you fix it?"

Grace Evans
Oh, Kalen, you do know how to make Grace's day, don't you? She laughs, not at his novice code, but more in simple joy at his eagerness. "I swear, I'm going to make a technophile out of you yet."
She points at the screen over his shoulder. "Missing a semicolon. Easy mistake."
And that's just the start really. But first things first. Syntax is a pain, and so exacting it often throws those new to it.
"Remember how when you tried to program me to make lunch? It's very literal. It doesn't understand what you mean if you don't get the grammar just perfectly right."

Kalen Holliday
"Well, much as I am likely to learn to find your stalkers with magic first, I am also likely to have an intelligent computer by way of enchantment before programming.  But...backup plans never hurt anyone."  He leans over and inserts a semicolon.  "Also, thank you."

Grace Evans
"Hmm. Perhaps. But still, wouldn't it make it easier if you knew a little bit about how computers worked before enchanting one? Or does that not really matter at all, I don't know."
She crosses her arms over the back of the couch, leans over the thing, and puts her chin on folded hands. "Intelligent computer. Hoo, if you ever get that going, Kalen, I want to know. I want to talk to it.
"Speaking of backup plans, you know, I've been trying to get people signed up on Ginger lately. Would be nice if I wasn't Denver's single point of failure, in case I get hit with another Wall, and somebody needs access."

Kalen Holliday
"You love it when I learn to make technology do things for me and I love it when you make sound tactical decisions...."  There is so much amusement in his voice it seems like you should be able to touch it.  He adjusts his sprawl so he can face her.  "I'm listening."

Grace Evans
"Well, I've already done most of the hard parts. Making the software, making it work on different devices, you know? I think you should be able to install it. Or at least I can teach you how to install it. It's a bit different depending on what kind of phone or computer or whatever you're putting it on, but yeah... If you're up to it, I could make you an admin."
Anrkyangel would probably disapprove of this. Allowing a Hermetic to be an admin on the service -- and one who speaks of enchanting computers at that? But what better way to reel him further to the 'tech is awesome' side?

Kalen Holliday
Kalen watches her, expression all amusement save for his eyes which go serious as she pitches that idea.  "Assuming I can learn, of course."
A Hermetic who wants a self-aware library and thinks a computer that is granted sentience so he doesn't have to use a keyboard...?  Who doesn't think a telepathic connection with a computer isn't brilliant?  Isn't that what all of the advances in programming and nanotechnology and human-computer interfacing are for?  Their mind in perfect synchronization with the machine?  Instant communication?  Perfect understanding?  How could they not see that as telepathic bonds?  Sure, if the computer doesn't have a brain it cannot bond, but that bridge...give him a few years.  He'll be able to cross it.

Grace Evans
Grace huffs. "You can learn. If you learned how to perfectly draw all those sigils of yours, you can learn how to transfer files."
She walks around to the front side of the couch, and perches herself on the armrest like a regular heathen. "You know... I've been meaning to show you. Remember my Adversary? Hacking that stuff in your car?"
She pulls open her laptop bag, extricates her rig, and pushes the power switch. It's fast and silent, running an SSD inside instead of a hot and noisy platter drive. Boots up in seconds. And then, she's navigating.
"They remembered you. Thought I might share," she says, and turns the laptop to face him so that he can see the icon that was posted to the forum she cracked into. It's Kalen. A cartoony Kalen sprite, with a pink feather boa and a cane -- pimptacular.
"'Cause you know, I figure you'd get a kick out of this."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen's eyes widen and for a second it could be that you would think he was angry.  Until his head drops back and he starts laughing.  "Well.  Fuck.  Now I rather hope I don't have to shoot them."

Grace Evans
"I do too. For one, I think they'd be very difficult to shoot, when they can just puppet your body using chiptunes all day," she says, and sighs. "If they are bad news, I'm in some deep shit. If."
"Glad you liked their present though. Good to see the silver linings to things, eh?"
She flips the laptop around, types a bit, and then flips it back. On her screen are two similar sprites, both of Grace, only one's male and the other's female -- like someone couldn't decide which she was.
"I got one too. Or two too, actually."

Kalen Holliday
"Oh.  That.  That was adorable.  I can do something about that now though."
He studies Grace's sprites, head tilting to one side, then says thoughtfully,  "Soon, perhaps, even if I can do nothing else, I may be able to study them through their messages.  Location and tracking through cyberspace...was never my thing.  But I was taught to understand my quarry that I might find it.  If they keep doing things like this, that may prove of some help to you."

Grace Evans
"It's very strange. The message board I found was populated with a ton of posts from different people. And I was one of them. I still haven't figured out what it all means.
"I still think the only reason why it was so easy to crack was because I was supposed to. Part of the game. Have it be hard enough to break into to fool me into thinking the board's posts are legit. But then they strike me as the type to where if they really wanted to keep you out of a place, they would keep you out."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen frowns.  "You may have to follow where they lead for a time, but you'll have to figure out their ultimate intentions eventually.  Have you learned any of the Ars Fortunae?  I know you have some knowledge of the Ars Mentis.  The Ars Conliationis?"  In strategy mode we sometimes forget to translate the Spheres for our friends.....

Grace Evans
"The whobiwhat now?" she asks, amused at the long names, apparently. "Okay, I think I can figure out what Fortunae is, and Mentis is mental, right. But what the hell is Con-li-a-tion-is?"

Kalen Holliday
"Oh.  Sorry."  He smiles and draws out the word in an amused purr.  "Conligationis.  The art of connection and binding.  I believe the more commonly used term is Correspondence."  Unlike some of the Order, that correction was playful.  If she remembers it, very well, but he doesn't seem to think less of the commonly used non-Hermetic Sphere names.
"I think with those three, possibly with the Ar...."  See, this smile, when he catches it is still amused, but faintly apologetic also.  "Time.  Possibly with Time magic or exchanging Time magic for Entropy magic you might be able to jump to a step ahead of where they'll be instead of a step behind."

Grace Evans
Grace has not really thought of her studies as learning the Spheres of a Vaguely Latinate Magickal variety. Fortunae, for example, fails miserably as a word that explains the concept she knows as Entropy.
"Well, I know everything there except for how to see Time. I mean, I'm not even really sure it exists," she says, and what now? Time doesn't exist? She thinks about what it was that she just said, musing as her eyes wander the room. "I mean, if it really exists, and isn't just a figment of our imaginations. Like space, I guess."

Kalen Holliday
"And consciousness...?"  Kalen laughs, softer this time.  "It was one of the first things that I learned."

Grace Evans
"When I Awakened, I had this vision, you know. The world all fundamentally connected. I think that's the first thing that clicked for me, was that I could see the code, and it was all holographic. Holistic. You know? And then I went home that night and started trying to play with it, because."
Because she wanted some proof, some evidence that she wasn't crazy and the experience had been as real as it felt. Something like that.
"What does Time seem like for you?"

Kalen Holliday
"Fluid.  I don't see it as clearly.  I understand it more.  On an instinctual level.  Like how you know even with your eyes closed where your hands are.  Sometimes I do something, and I won't know why at the time.  And then, later, it is the perfect thing to have done.  As though I sensed it.
"Which...I see omens.  Have I ever told you that?"

Grace Evans
She shakes her head. "Omens? Like, predictions?"
There's a reason she uses that word. Predictions, like the ominous ones from a certain forum, yes?

Kalen Holliday
"Yes.  Usually in dreams, which makes having nightmares about all the ways in which people can die all the more exciting.  I can mostly tell them apart though.  So far as I know yet, always.  But one never knows, I suppose."  But there are those first few moments when he wakes where he has to sort it out.  There are reasons he doesn't often sleep in places near other people.

Grace Evans
"Oh, God. If my dreams are omens, we're all in a lot of trouble," she says, a sad smile -- like she's laughing at something though it's still painful. "You ever... have problems with convincing yourself it's all really okay in the morning?"
It's like she's on the same wavelength as Kalen here. Or just, has had this particular problem herself.

Kalen Holliday
"I have people for that.  Kharisma.  Ramon.  Jack.  Garrett."  He pauses and his expressions softens.  "If I called her, probably at this point Sera.  Pan.  Fuck, even other-Kit."  He stops and stares at Grace, suddenly intent.  "I think that makes them my friends.  Some of them are other things, but...that's what that is, isn't it?  I'm only used to that from the outside."  He sound a little hopeful, but more curious because he is Kalen.  And he does not know quite how to understand that sometimes friends are a thing that happens to him.  It has never been a source of real concern to him.  But now, now that maybe something new has happened, he is excited about it.

Grace Evans
"Sometimes, you know, I have trouble figuring out if you're joking or serious. Yes, Kalen. Those are friends. People who would do that for you are friends," she says, smiles at him. "Like me. Only, I can't take your nightmares away. Would if I could though."
"You tend to get friends when you are a friend to others. I figured that one out a while back. Took a while though, I will admit."

Kalen Holliday
"I know you would.  We are like family."  Oh.  Look.  At least he didn't just now realize he had an actual meaningful relationship with Grace.  Because that...well...that would be sad.  And he says they are like family with the kind of offhand assurance that you mention gravity.  Or the sun rising.  The speed of light.

Grace Evans
She wants to say no. They aren't like family. When she thinks of family, it doesn't usher in happy thoughts. But he means family in the good way. Like he's a cousin or a brother she never knew until a few months ago, and it clicks. "Yeah. We are."
Friends. Family. Pseudo-mentor and pseudo-apprentice.
"I'm happy about that. I mean, I think if I didn't have someone I could talk to about things, I'd just... Not be able to deal."

Kalen Holliday
"Yeah.  It's not an easy transition.  I worry a bit about Alexander."

Grace Evans
"He seemed to take a trip to another world fairly well. Better than I did. Man, when I was that fresh, I was still looking for information in the university library about what happened. I didn't even know anybody yet. I think he'll be okay. But yeah. He'll have people if he needs them, I'm sure."

Kalen Holliday
"I know.  It's just hard not to worry.  We ran into him again and he seems...more unsettled when he doesn't have a crisis to deal with."

Grace Evans
"I know that feeling. It sharpens you, a crisis. Makes you push all the nagging questions and fears away till later. And then when it's over? Bam," she says, and smacks a fist into her palm. Bam.
"Well, if I see him, I'll try to offer some words of 'I have so been there'" Not words of wisdom then, exactly. Just recent experience.