Grace
It was late, and Grace was still awake, still
at work on a 'project' and one that was taking a few cans of Amp to get
through. So far today, she's put together a present for Hawksley's
birthday party, worked on that over-the-summer thing for school (that
has been woefully neglected this past month, wonder why), and now this:
encryption protocols.
It's a shame that novel isn't getting
worked. It's not all that unheard of nowadays for a story to become the
prophetic vision of 30 minutes ago. But she's fairly certain she has
some time...
This particular project is important too. In two weeks, class starts. In two weeks, she'll commit a felony, again, and cannot cannot get caught.
So
she sits on the bed in pyjamas, surrounded by empty cans and a plate of
half-eaten food, working on a Friday night when others might be out
listening to or creating music, getting high or drunk. It's a life that
works for her, though. The parties they are sure to drag her to will be
more than enough of that.
Gadfly
Over the weeks
since he's come into her life, the personality known as Gadfly has been a
reliable source of random 'wtf' moments. It led one to believe that he
carried on conversations in their absence, and when he realized the
people he was talking to weren't in the same room, well that's when he
reached out to them with some random non-sequitor. Take tonight's
message to Grace, for instance.
Gadfly says: Do you think they put something in the pizza? Other than the usual, that is.
Perhaps it made Grace think of the time she saw him in the back of a crowded room, attention flitting every which way.
Gadfly says: Unless you're lactose intolerant. I'm not. At least I don't think I am.
Grace
Anymore,
she's no longer surprised by random messages from Gadfly. He's just
become that source of distraction (which, today she honestly needs a
little of) and also connection, strangely enough. The IM just makes her smile.
Chimeric1 says: I'm not eating pizza tonight, are you? I can't see.
A subtle reminder perhaps that while he can see all, know all, she cannot.
Chimeric1 says: Also, hi. I'm working on camo for Ginger.
Gadfly
Gadfly
says: And I'm working on the menu. Do you know how many major
start-ups over the past couple decades came about over a pizza? I don't
really know either. But I bet its a lot.
Gadfly
says: I'm not shoulder surfing, by the way. If that's what you meant.
I've worked out a technique that allows me to split my attention. I
haven't found a maximum limit really, but I don't like to push it.
Gadfly says: What I'm saying is, I'm doing too many other things.
Grace
Chimeric1 says: Split attention?
Seemed like he'd have no trouble at all with that one, like he's the type to come with a naturally shattered attention span...
Chimeric1 says: I'm also doing too many other things. I had a pretty full life before, now I am packed.
Chimeric1
says: Listen, something's been on my mind lately, and I need a break.
Did you do anything... special to me at that book signing?
He's
not likely to get it, she knows, but doesn't want to come out and say
it directly. 'Did you do something to make me wake up?' is the real
question.
Gadfly
Gadfly says: At the book signing? Nope. I was powered down. Well, mostly. I was multitasking a bit, but that's about it.
Gadfly
says: Plus, I'd only stopped in en route that day. Denver was
supposed to be just a stop in. Then you mentioned that visit you had.
That and they'd already hit my SLC set up.
Gadfly says: You ever play whack-a-mole?
Grace
She
had to read those lines again to see if they made sense. The book
signing hadn't been in Denver, and she didn't mention her visit to him
until weeks later. His mind must be simply going everywhere.
Chimeric1 says: Ahh, I see. It's just that right after that was when I woke up. Right after. I wondered maybe if you had, I don't know, done that to me or something.
Chimeric1 says: Yeah, I think everybody's played whack-a-mole.
Gadfly
Gadfly
says: Not our style. Our club, I mean. You gotta earn your way. All
your progress relies on you. I guess that would keep you busy.
Forever. Explains my social life.
Gadfly says: You ever get to
that point where you're SURE where the little bastard's gonna pop up
next and instead it goes back to where you JUST whacked it and catches
you off guard? That's what I'm doing.
Grace
'But I
heard you,' she wants to say. Heard his voice in the vision telling
her.. Still, it's something, that -- a sense of pride in having gone
that far alone.
Chimeric1 says: Whacking bugs? Or someone else?
Chimeric1
says: But you were watching me, weren't you? Of course you were, I
wrote that story... Speaking of which, that 'forum' you told me about?
Gadfly
Gadfly says: Trying not to get whacked by the Mirrorshades. But that was your big day, huh? What was that like?
Grace
Well, yes, that would be the one big failing she'd been bashing her head against ever since: how to put that into words.
Chimeric1
says: Like? It's impossible to say. I can describe what happened, but
that's way not enough. After I left, I got lost. My GPS led me to a
power station out in the middle of nowhere, and there, an antenna
reached out to me, literally. I touched it, and saw visions and heard
voices -- including yours -- telling me things. I flew, and saw the
electric grid. Connections to everywhere, you know.
Chimeric1 says: It's just not enough to say that. Sounds crazy, like a hallucination.
After
a bit, it sinks in what he's talking about, not getting whacked by the
'mirrorshades'. She furiously types out a quick response once it clicks.
Chimeric1 says: Are you in trouble? Do you need help? With the whack-a-mole?
Gadfly
Gadfly
says: No more trouble than usual. You realize that this might be the
only thing in your life that's black and white. You're either with them
or you're against them. Sometimes they leave you alone because they
already won the war and what the hell are you gonna do about it?
Gadfly
says: But sometimes you stick your nose in where its not supposed to
be. Half the time you don't even realize you're doing it. Next thing
you know they're seizing your assets, confiscating the contents of your
P.O. box and knocking on your mom's door asking if she's seen you
recently.
Gadfly says: So you had like a full on moment of
enlightenment. Do you have a history with hallucinogens? Or maybe
you're just religious?
Grace
Chimeric1 says: They won the war? What do you mean? I mean, my visions of the future don't always end up totalitarian, you know.
He sounded almost defeated. Like the thing's already written in stone. If so, what was the point of all this?
Chimeric1
says: No, and no, on the last questions. Big no on the religious bit.
But the offer stands, if you need help let me know.
Gadfly
Gadfly
says: Future? Oh. No one's explained this to you? Oh, I forgot we
stopped after the difference engineers. Didn't you ever wonder how
come, after knowing how far back things went with the subtle ones,
everything's so secretive and cloak and dagger now?
Gadfly says:
Take a moment. Look around. Who's controlling the development of
humanity? The war's over. Some one set up us the bomb.
Gadfly
says: Also, I don't want to speculate but I do try to keep an open
mind. A lot of the others clubs attribute their big moment to a
quasi-mystical source. Its a bit hard to wrap my head around it. I'm
not sure if its supposed to be a third party or just an aspect of the
self or...
Gadfly says: How's your Jung?
Grace
Chimeric1 says: Bullshit it's over. You can't tell me that we just lay back and wait to die?
Chimeric1 says: I don't even know where you're going with Jung. Collective unconscious?
Chimeric1
says: But see, there's the thing -- I looked that up on Wikipedia.
Accelerated knowledge, constantly getting faster due to advances in
connectivity. I'll grant you it's a race, but... I look to the next 40
or 50 years for it to be over over.
Gadfly
Gadfly
says: It should have been over a long time ago. It's been retarded so
it can be militarized and commercialized and fed to the masses at a
rate that THEY control. They limit the education, access to it and how
far it goes. They control EVERYTHING.
Gadfly says: We had an
out. Have an out. The 133ts were gonna help us pack our shit and go.
Reality 2.0, they called it. Then I guess the techs caught wind and
BOOM! Snow Crash. The big white out. And if you were plugged in at
the time it went one of two ways for the most part. You're brain got
fried and you left a smoking pile of empty meat (I don't know if there
was actually smoke) or you had to change your address to the realm
incorporeal.
Gadfly says: So now us Lame-O's and n00bs gotta find
our way there on our own with very little leadership. And stay alive
doing it.
Gadfly says: And I was aiming for jungian archetypes
but stick a pin in collective unconsciousness. Has anyone told you the
rules of meatspace? How things...work?
Grace
Chimeric1 says: The l33t I know said something about that reality. Said you could help me get there. I guess not.
He was
being downright defeatist, in a way she couldn't let get to her. If
that were all true, then there was no point to it all. No point to the
writing, no point in the pursuit of understanding. Understanding what?
The death of a world? Too easy. Too simple.
Well, she wasn't going to stop. But she also wasn't going to tell Gadfly that.
Chimeric1
says: Yeah, someone told me once that the world works the way it does
because the huge mass of people believes it does. I don't know what to
think about that one, to be honest.
Gadfly
Gadfly
says: Yeah, like I said, that guy's a Disco Warrior. I dunno. Seems
to me that particular method of sticking it to the man won't help you
climb the Matterhorn. Oh! Right, that's the big connection. Blew my
mind the when I found out about that.
Gadfly says: Am I doing you
a disservice telling you all this? See, this is why we don't mess with
the sleepers. Everybody's climb has to be special otherwise it doesn't
mean anything and we're no better than the techs.
Gadfly says:
Know what the earliest recorded instance of 'the m word' is? Its a
cuniform tablet explaining how a village managed to change the flow of a
river to benefit their crops. To them he was like Gandalf. To us,
that's just irrigation.
Gadfly says: The others go into it in a
lot more detail and I'm sure you can find some stuff written down.
Anyway, that's not the point I was making.
Gadfly says: So these
Jungian archetypes are aspects of the human psyche that are
simultaneously internal and external. The others have a name for it.
Well, they've got a bunch of different names for it, but most folks say
'avatar' and know they're all talking about the same thing.
Grace
The
m word. She hasn't heard it yet, seriously. And the connection does not
hit her. It's just another piece of the new tongue that stands unknown
for now.
Chimeric1 says:
Don't keep things from me. That's not how I work. You have something to
share, share it, please. I form connections between the stuff that I know.
There's
a bit of irritation on the other end, but he's not watching. The
slightest bit of anger in that 'don't you dare hold out on me' that
doesn't come through in text.
Chimeric1 says: Avatar, like in Hinduism? The physical manifestation of a god...
Gadfly
Gadfly
says: Well, yes. But only in the further mystical sense (that the
Hindus really do seem to have a pretty firm grasp on) that states that
the gods are all part of a universal soul and we all share in that with
them. Supposedly the avatar, in this usage, is that part of us that is a
part of everything else. The collective unconscious. The divinity in
man. The one. (we're not the only folks who find that particular name
significant, by the way.) What was that thing your friend Sid had
written down? "We are made of starstuff"?
Gadfly says: Anyway,
my point was, some of the others are convinced that this divine self is
conscious. That it pushes us. Hell, some even say they can talk to it.
I'm all 'Bonita Marie' about it. You ever hear that song?
Gadfly says: That first primer, was there anything about a Mountain in it?
Grace
Chimeric1
says: There was that, yes. Mount Qaf. And then there was another one,
Mount Analogue. There seems to be no end of mountains. And I do think I
get this bit. It's a climb, as you said. You don't get to see the top.
It's there and it's not.
Chimeric1
says: I did feel like that you know. This once, during the visions, I
felt like I was everything and nothing. Someone I know had a name for
that. Lakashim. I have been talking to people.
Chimeric1 says: There's another Sagan quote I think fits there. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
Chimeric1 says: I don't know if that means that the universe has an agenda, though. Never heard 'Bonita Marie', sorry.
Gadfly
Gadfly
says: The first line goes 'South of the border, in old Mexico, there's
a girl you must see to believe.' Then the second line goes 'Well I've
never seen her so i won't believe her. The girl called Bonita Marie'.
Gadfly says: That's me and the whole Avatar thing. Everyone's supposed to have one, but 'I've never seen her'. :/
Gadfly
says: But maybe the universe does have an agenda. For us at least. I
mean, ten different groups of people with completely different world
views and they all agree on one thing: the climb.
Gadfly says:
Also, its an actual mountain. When they theorized the need for R2.0
they went looking for a place in the Hypersphere to put it. And they
found a mountain already suited to their own needs. Tons of space
already formatted and ready. Just...there.
Gadfly says: You never said what you wanted on your pizza.
Grace
Chimeric1 says: I guess you and I are in the same boat then. I've never seen her either.
Chimeric1 says: Wait a minute, what pizza?
Chimeric1 says: And veggies.
Gadfly
Gadfly says: Our conquest pizza. For Ginger. Does pineapple count?
Gadfly says: Oh, I gotta go. There's a meth head about to pass by Gus's apartment. Gotta concentrate.
Gadfly says: We'll pick this up later, yes?
Grace
Chimeric1 says: Pineapple is under the general plant category, I suppose. And yeah... We can pick this up later.
And she wonders at this one... They will enjoy conquest pizza together, then?
Chimeric1 says: May the whack-a-molers always miss. See you.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Monday, August 5, 2013
Security Concerns
Grace
The Chantry (which Grace really only knows by the name "The House") seemed the obvious choice as a place to leave some information behind. People would run across her note, much safer than texting it out. And here, there would be nobody to see but those who needed to see.
Her note was drawn in black and red (for emphasis), and told the story of how she'd been hacked by a Virtual Adept and thrown a piece of juicy data. That data, that the Technocracy never left, was in hiding in some huge, state-of-the-art secret lab -- yeah, not so fun.
For now, she was in the middle of pasting it up in the foyer, where people would see it immediately upon entering.
As for Grace herself, she dressed in her usual jeans, sneakers, and t-shirt combo. This time, the t was a graphic print of Tesla and Edison having a brawl, Mortal Kombat style. It seemed fitting to her.
Lena Reilly
Lena has been putting off going to the chantry for a while. If you asked her, she wouldn't be able to tell you why; she wouldn't even think that she was doing so. It certainly wasn't a conscious thing. She's warm and friendly and personable (or she likes to think so), but she's also a bit wary of opening herself up. And thus, less time spent among her fellow Awakened.
She can't put it off any longer though. She learned the other night that the Technocracy is back in action and that means she's not safe by herself. And thus she rides her motorcycle (a green Kawasaki Ninja 250R, for those keeping track) out to where she has been told the place is. She stopped a ways away, finding something to chain it to, and decided to take the rest of the way on foot; she could use the exercise. And thus she comes up on the property, marvelling at the scenic surroundings and the house itself.
She sweeps a hand through her hair and makes her way up onto the patio. She's dressed in a simple outfit; pair of stonewashed grey jeans and a matching-color tank top. She smiles a little when she sees Grace inside, tapping at the door lightly but hard enough to be audible. She smiles more fully and waves at the woman inside.
Grace
Oh, well, someone's here, and for once, it's Grace who has to let them in. All she really had to do was reach over and swing the door out, though. And after a glance (yep, I know this person) she does so.
"Hey, Lena. I was just doing a little information dump. For, you know, the others. Come in!"
She smiled, her hands were marked in red and black in, though, so maybe that's why she kept her distance?
Lena Reilly
The Ecstatic slips inside when Grace opens the door for her, shutting it behind her. "Hey, Grace. An information dump...that could be good or bad." She says it amicably though, smiling. "How are you?"
It's a sincere question when it comes from Lena, not just a courtesy greeting to provide variety from the standard 'hello.' Then again, it must be noted that as Lena says it she's looking around the foyer, taking it all in, so her focus isn't entirely on Grace at first. But her ears are still perked up and she's listening; it doesn't take long before her eyes follow suit over to the relative newcomer to the world of the Awakened.
Grace
"Oh, bad, in this case. Just that thing we talked about the other night. Trying to reach more people," her face dropped, but they're in the House, far away from anything the note could be discussing, right?
At least, that's what she tries to tell herself.
"I'm, good, I'm good," she said, a little too fast. "It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. But I'm good."
Lena Reilly
She smiles a little bit, empathetic toward the other woman's experience, and nods. "Still new for you? It's always overwhelming for all of us. That gets better, I promise. It's just...well, you know. A hell of a lot to take in."
Grace explains that she's spreading the word more about the Technocracy. "Ah, right. Well...don't feel bad about telling people. I know that it's tough to be the messenger, but you're doing a great thing by telling people." She's walking around the front area as she speaks, looking at things here and there, taking it all in. "Sometimes information is all that keeps us safe, you know?"
Grace
"Oh, I don't feel bad. Better to know than be blind," she says, and in that sentence are two meanings, really. She follows Lena down the hall, assuming the other has been here before.
And information is so so much more than that, she wants to say. Information is everything. But she keeps that inside for now.
"It's very new for me. I'm hum.." she thinks back a ways, "It's been less than a month."
Lena Reilly
"Oh wow." She looks away from her examination of the place and smiles at Grace. "Well, if you've questioned your sanity less than, say, fourty times yet, you're doing better than I did. Did you have someone tell you about things before you Awakened, or was it all completely knew before you got new eyes, so to speak."
Lena pauses in the main living room, looking around. "How many of us stay here? Is there something I should be doing in terms of, like, security procedures or the like?"
Grace
Grace smiles at the 'questioning sanity' part. "I did a bit of questioning of my sanity at first, you bet. I didn't know a thing, and all the sudden I'm having hallucinations that were far more real than that. I guess I was less afraid I was insane, and more afraid everyone else was going to think I was," she grinned at that.
When Lena gets to the living room, talking of security procedures, Grace pauses in her tracks, her eyes working around in a circle, thinking. "Well, uh.. I don't know. I never asked. I know Shoshannah and Justin sometimes stay here?"
Lena Reilly
"Oh god..." She gives Grace an look that speaks toward being quite impressed. "I can't even imagine. I was brought fully into the fold before I was Awakened and I ~still~ thought I was just going insane all the way through. That takes a lot of strength to hold together like that."
When Grace says she doesn't know, the Ecstatic then gives a look around, perhaps a bit speculatively as if she's expecting machine guns to suddenly appear from the walls or a lighting bolt to strike her or something. "Well, if I get charged by a spiritual guardian or the like, do me a favor and vouch for me to it." It's said with good humor. "I'm all about new experiences but pain's never been a big one for me."
Grace
In some ways, perhaps, Grace had already prepared herself for what had happened. She knew stories, the power of the metaphor, the way to think.
"Well, I guess in my case it was a little different. I never thought of it in terms of 'magic'. That probably helped. There was a rational explanation, weird as it might seem. I did almost drive myself crazy trying to figure out what had happened, though. I wouldn't call that first week 'holding it together' exactly."
Grace's eyes widen at the mention of spiritual guardians. What? "Um... Yeah, okay, me either."
Lena Reilly
Grace explains how she had been able to get through it, and it makes the DJ smile. They all had their own ways of putting it all together, and Grace's is as effective as anything else.
"Ahh, that would help probably, yeah. I thought I was dreaming, or just high. Even though I'd largely cut off myself hallucinogens at that point...there's always flashbacks. Lucky for me, the guy who helped me Awaken knew what he was doing and got me through it just fine."
She speaks of her Awakener in fond terms, without the tinge of pain that some get when they talk about mentors who might be long gone. When Grace widens her eyes at the thought of spiritual guardians who deliver pain (and probably worse) to intruders, Lena smiles reassuringly. "Don't worry. If nothing's come out to smack down or at least investigate the new guest yet, we're probably fine. Something could always be watching, I guess."
Grace
She doesn't say that she doesn't believe in 'spiritual guardians', but truth be told, she hasn't yet seen anything quite that bizarre. Instead, she just doesn't go there. Such things are outside her purview.
"I'm sorry, I'm almost as new to this place as you are. I have no clue. Probably best to talk to someone else about security or whatever.
"And, ah, I would show you around the library, but I don't have access yet myself. It's really awesome."
She says that last sentence with a bit of honest reverence. The library must be just incredible to her.
Lena Reilly
She casually waves off the apology with a little smile. "No need to apologize. I'm not too worried about it anyway...whoever's in charge of that has it well in-hand I'm sure." It's been said by people in her past that Lena trusts too easy, but that isn't the case. At least, not in her perspective. She just has good instincts about people and she's actually somewhat slow to trust when those instincts don't kick in. But everyone she's met so far are people she's had good feelings about. Considering how relaxed she is around Grace, the woman appears to be included in that particular company.
Mention of the library draws some interest from Lena, but not overexcitement. She's not a woman who has historically found most of her enlightenment in the writings of others, though there are exceptions. She gives a little smile and looks around the room they're in again with a smile. "Very cool. I'll have to check it out when I get the chance."
She turns her attention back to Grace. "Are you local to Denver? I mean, you know, a long-time resident. I've only been here a little while, I was from Staten Island originally."
Grace
"I'm kind of local. I moved here for college a few years ago. Originally, I'm from Phoenix though. Definitely not anything as interesting as New York."
Grace goes and has a seat on the couch next to her laptop bag, which was haphazardly thrown on something soft when she arrived.
"So, why go to Denver?"
Lena Reilly
It's a valid question. The Adept takes a seat on the couch, and that's Lena's queue to sit as well. She could join Grace on the furniture but instead she takes a seat on the ground, crossing her legs and settling on the rug near the edge of it. "I didn't at first. I travelled all around. I work as a DJ and after I'd Awakened, I...learned some things about myself, I guess you could say." The smile is much fainter, but still there. "And I figured being a newly-Awkaned person was as good of a point to start over as anything. So I took my act on the road. Worked Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Miami. Made all the rounds of the big cities, built up my reputation a little.?
She picks idly at the leg of her jeans as she talks, the other hand tapping rhythmically on her knee. Her attention and eyes are still directed at Grace; it's almost a subconscious gesture that she's doing. She always hears the Lakashim. "And that was all great, but moving around constantly got old. So I picked out Denver and decided this would be a good spot to settle in. Which, pretty much, brings us to present."
Grace
It's a thing, being in the presence of one so traveled, with such different experiences -- Grace feels a bit separate from all that. Her wanderings are mostly mental ones. But the thing is, she does kind of put such people on a pedestal. The experiences Lena must have had...
"Wow, a DJ? And that took you everywhere. I'm so much more of a homebody myself. But ah, welcome to Denver!"
Lena Reilly
Grace's pedestalling of Lena is far from the most important part of her reaction in the DJ's perspective; in fact, quite the opposite. She simply smiles a bit, appreciating the welcome far more.
"Thanks. There's nothing wrong with being a homebody though...I mean, it's great to have roots, right? I've been a lot of places, but most of what I've learned is that despite all the superficial differences--language, races, nationality, pride, philosophies--we're all pretty much the same at our core.
"Which isn't to say there aren't differences," she adds with a smile. "And thank Christ for those differences. But we've all got the same heartbeat, you know? Most of us turn off their awarness of how we're all connected, but that doesn't mean the connection isn't there."
Grace
"I hear you there," she says, and again there is something a bit more to the subject at hand yes? Grace can still remember the feeling of being everything and everyone. Connectedness is not just an abstract concept.
"I try to write people as something a little better than stereotype. It works better that way. Feels realer, because that is the truth. Nobody fits into the boxes we try to shove them in. We're more than that." And there, she says what she does, or part of what she does -- write.
"What's your philosophy then? How do you see it? If you don't mind my asking, of course." Big question, that, she knows. Their kind are not the type to just be unaware of what they really believe. It wouldn't work that way. But she is the curious type.
Lena Reilly
Lena shakes her head amicably when Grace asks if she minds explaining her philsophy. "No, not at all...I'd be happy to."
Her fingers keep drumming in that rhythmic beat on her knee, and Grace is about to learn why as Lena reaches behind her neck and sweeps her har around over her shoulder. "It all started with my work, actually. See...I was into music almost as long as I can remember. My mom waitressed at nightclubs and I'd be at them a lot of the time. I loved dance beats deeply. There was something...special in them. The way they make people move, almost against their wills sometimes, you know what I mean?" She smiles, leaning back a bit with her one non-tapping hand resting behind her to support her weight. She talks with more than fondness...she speaks with genuine ardor. "It's inspiring...passionate."
"What I didn't realize then, and didn't until I was much older...long after I made my first remix, or worked my high school dances...was how universal it really is. The beat...that's what we Ecstatics call the Lakashim. It's the heartbeat of the world. We're all connected through that heartbeat...its beat is the same as our own. When we become perfectly in sync...that's Ananda. Bliss, joy, inspiration, enlightenment...call it what you want. It's just a sort of cosmic expansion or your awareness as you open yourself up to it.
"We usually find it when we break free of the distractions of life. Easiest way to do that is our passions. Think about it...when you have a moment of pure joy, or pure anger. You orgasm, or you get stoned, or your heart's been shattered and you're wracked by grief. You're not thinking about how your hair looks, or whether your rent's been paid...how much smog is in the air or if you remembered to set your DVR to catch Breaking Bad. You're completely at one with your passion and you grow stronger. The way a mother's fear allows her to lift a car off their trapped child, or the way an artist creates something of true greatness through inspiration."
She shrugs a little bit, smiling. "And those moments of Ananda...those passion-fueled instants in which you rise above yourself and open yourself to the consciousness of the Tellurian. The universe. Those are what we all call magick."
Grace
As the Ecstatic speaks, Grace listens and looks for connections. It's just what she does. As the talk continues, her eyes wander around, first to the ceiling and then the floor. It's not meant to be disrespectful. She is paying attention.
As it goes, she realizes how far the two are apart, and yet, that way -- it sounds so... fun. Out there, but fun.
"I have heard that term before, Lakashim. Serafine told me that's what I experienced..." but it was different, really. Far removed, and yet so close. "And really, I have felt like that before sometimes, especially when I'm writing something very.. interesting. Like, you can't think about anything else than your passion. Just, my passion is a bit different, I think."
Lena Reilly
She smiles and nods. "And there's nothing wrong with that. We all have our own ways to find Ananda. Computers, music, drugs, blood rituals, meditation, weird invocations or whatever it is the Hermetics do..." She says that with a somewhat-joking grin. She doesn't dislike Hermetics as a group any more than anyone else. They just made a good choice for a bit of humor there.
"I don't know how it works for everyone else. I just accept that, in their own way, they're touching Ananda. And as long as they're not hurting other people, however they do it is fine by me. Everyone walks their own path in life. Or lives, if you prefer. And in enlightenment, too."
Grace
And Grace doesn't know how it works for everyone else, she just accepts that in their own way, they're hacking the universe. When it all comes down to it, carefully crafted input is all it takes. She sighed, and figured maybe it's like that for everyone. They all make their own explanations.
"I was a bit afraid at first, you know? There didn't seem to be anyone like me, and the ones that were like me were... not good guys. I do my thing with computers. I figured someone sometime was going to point me out as an enemy. But that didn't happen," she says, a bit of a smile on her face.
"People are nice here. Open-minded. I like that."
Lena Reilly
She smiles a little at that, and nods. Its a restrained smile...warm and agreeing, but not the full-feeling one she was wearing. Experience has its upsides and its downs.
"That is great about Denver, yeah. I haven't seen anyone try and denigrate someone else's tradition, or their methods...or anything, really. Granted, I'm still mostly on the outside dipping a toe in, but there have been ample opportunities and it hasn't happened."
A pause, before she continues. "It's a good enviroment to learn about this stuff. At some point though, someone probably will. Whether they come here or you go somewhere else...someone's going to call you a wannabe Technocrat that shouldn't be trusted. Or you'll hear a member of the Celestial Chorus call a Verbena a heathen...or a Hermetic call a Hollow One a spoiled goth child. Ecstatics are burned out druggie sluts, Choristers are Bible thumpers, Euthanatos are murderers...and so on.
"I don't want to try and spoil your positive experiences or anything," she adds, quickly. "Far from it. Everyone here is really good that I've met so far, and there are many more of them all over the place in the world. I just...the more you know about the bad, the better. So you're not caught unaware when it happens."
She says it all in an apologetic manner. Now she's the one who, like Grace did before, feels bad about spreading some bad news.
Grace
"I don't even know half those names, by the way," she says a bit sheepishly. To not know something is difficult for her. But she can put some meaning to them. Celestial Chorus sounds like some kind of angel-cult. Verbena is a plant. Hermetics, she'd heard of in fictional, historical contexts. Euthanatos means, literally, 'good death', which sounds a bit odd -- same root as euthanasia. At words, she does excel.
"Ahh. I guess we are quite the same after all, even the prejudice. But thanks for the warning. At least now I'm a little more sure of myself than I was at the beginning. If someone here had greeted me with a 'Technocrat scum, get out.' I probably would have."
Lena Reilly
"Don't worry about the names," she says with a chuckle. "I had problems with it too for a while. It's a lot of information to absorb, and it doesn't help that we all use a lot of words to describe the same things. Don't stress the Tradition names and the terms and stuff so much; those are just details, in the end. Like the old Shakespeare line about the rose...you get the point."
She smiles a little. "And I'm glad no one said that, then. Because it's good that you're here."
Grace
"Thanks," she says, with a little chuckle-smile, and she does mean it. "I have been an information absorbing sponge lately. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It's like this whole new vista of things to know just opened up in front of me, you know?" Those eyes, they stray along the corners of the room as she continues.
"Some of it's not so nice, but then... Some of it is the most amazing shit ever. I just can't believe all this has been going on under everyone's noses."
Lena Reilly
She gives a little shrug. "That's the power of belief. People see what they want to see, and Paradox keeps us from going too crazy with things that might give Sleepers no other option but to see the truth. Reality has some pretty bad-ass guardians who you never really want to piss off." The smile that follows is barely a smile, more an upward quirk of the lips that contain just a hint of wryness to them.
"But yeah, there's a lot of beauty out there. More than enough, if you ask me, to make the bad shit worth it."
Grace
"Yeah, I think I already did kind of run head-on into the virus scanner of reality once. Got to watch those logic errors in my code. I didn't thing I was doing anything crazy, though. Just not quite right. It would be my first time trying something like that, I screw it up," she said, in grand sarcasm.
It had felt like ice in her veins, the feeling of wrongness, and it had been her first try. Such is her luck.
Lena Reilly
Paradigm is the great equalizers among mage. Through paradigm an Apprentice can sound like a Master and a Master can look as confused as any Sleeper watching a gargoyle come to life and rip itself off a building in search of prey. And that's exactly what happens here; Lena, the Ecstatic who has been around, looks fairly lose by what the freshly-Awakened Grace is saying.
It's not even the technology; for the most part, Lena understands that. She's a DJ and she works with computers regularly, after all. She manipulates perameters, but in pre-set ways allowed by the software. Terms life "logic errors in my code" make an abstract level of sense to the Ecstatic, but only in the entirely inadequate way that describing an acid trip works with someone who's never fried before.
Still, she gets the gist of what she was discribing. An effect going wrong, and Parados settling into her. She nods. "Yeah, that's happened to me from time to time. Even the best of us can't accomplish exactly what we're trying every single time."
Grace
"But I can't just.. not try. I don't think that's an option." Besides, it would be terribly unfun.
Grace does catch the lost look in the other's face. It happens a lot, enough to recognize the effect her speech sometimes has on others. And there, again, is that separation. She could try to explain, but that usually ends up with the other becoming even more lost.
But there is something she might be able to do...
"Would you like to see it?"
Lena Reilly
"Oh yeah, no...you always have to try." That's something she agrees with fully. "'The juice isn't worth the squeeze,' as they say."
And then Grace offers to show her how she works. The reaction from the Ecstatic is...well, ecstatic. One of the great things about the Joybringers is the depth with which they feel their Passions, and consequently their emotions. When Grace offers to show Lena something new, she's pleased. And that pleasure becomes (appropriately enough) joy, which unfolds from her practically in beams.
"I would love to."
Grace
And there, a chance to show off a little? Perchance to screw up again? But no, it doesn't seem like Lena would be the type to embarrass her if it didn't work.
Grinning ear to ear, she pulls her laptop out of the bag, and opens it up, boots it up, and then...
"It's all a work in progress, really. But I can at least show you what the code looks like, if nothing else. And we can always cross our fingers and hope it really does work this time."
She hasn't actually shown anyone else this yet, save for Gadfly and Razor, the ones to whom her little experiments are not so impressive. They have been there before.
Lena Reilly
Lena gets up off the floor and moves around the couch to look over the other's shoulder. Whatever the Adept is doing may not require Lena to actually see the computer screen, but the DJ is curious about the process too.
She doesn't crowd Grace; she rests her hands lightly on the back of the couch as she watches. She may not even understand what Grace's programming skills are accomplishing in terms of code, but she will at least see it.
"Well, if it doesn't then it doesn't. You've heard Edison's quote about the lightbuld, right? "I didn't fail to make a lightbulb, I just found a thousand ways not to make it before I found the one that did."
Grace
[Arete Roll, let's see if it works!]
Dice: 1 d10 TN4 (2) ( fail )
Grace
[Again! +1 diff]
Dice: 1 d10 TN5 (5) ( success x 1 )
Grace
"Edison was a prick," she says, with a bit of distaste. "Kept on fucking with Tesla, who really did come up with all the ideas." She pointed to her shirt, with the Tesla vs. Edison brawl going on. "Edison tried to prove Tesla's ideas were dangerous, by electrocuting elephants. A real piece of work that one."
It's obvious which side of the fight she's on, where that particular fight is concerned. But no matter, the machine is finished booting. She goes through the motions of opening the right files and programs, until her code is present. And it looks like fairly normal code, if one is used to looking at code, which Lena most likely is not.
Mostly unreadable, by most standards, anyway.
The first try, alas, does not succeed. At least this time, there lacks that icy surge through her, there is no pain. She looked a bit cross, and muttered, "really?" under her breath, and futzed with the code a bit. She does so want to show off.
Finally, it does appear to do something. The screen blackens, replaced with an image of what could only be described as a replica living room, complete with the two of them, outlined in glowing orange. And Grace's grin of triumph is a thing of pure joy.
"I just added the glowing orange bit yesterday. Good to see that works."
Lena Reilly
She can't help but grin a little bit as Grace goes off on Edison. It's not a condescending sort of mirth, but rather just an appreciation of the other's passion. She gives a little shrug, not arguing the point.
"Yeah, it's an unfortunate fact that even giant cocks find the right hole if they keep jabbing away blindly." Great imagery, Miss DJ. That thought finished, she shuts up and lets Grace work. She doesn't speak up, doesn't mock or encourage when it fails the first time. When it works the second and they're lit up on the screen like they're outlined in neon, the Ecstatic smiles.
"Nicely done!" She leans over further, taking a closer look at the image. "What's the glowing orange bit mean?"
Grace
"That's a lifeform indicator. So you know there's something living in the vicinity, and it pops out at you."
Sure enough, if one were to look closely at the screen, that's not the only orange in the otherwise black-and-white 3D scene. Tiny bits of it seem to float in the air, and out the duplicate window, a sea of orange can be seen. Each blade of grass outlined on its own.
"Next thing I'm going to work on is a filter, so you can kind of ignore all the little stuff, and only focus on people, say."
She waves into the air, and on her screen, the little image of orange Grace waves back.
Lena Reilly
She laughs at the wave, a sound of delight. "Okay, that's really bad-ass. It'd make a great idea to tie into the security. You should talk to the others about it."
She looks at the other woman, cocking her head to the side. "Not bad for a newbie. At least newbie in the Awakened aspect." It's said with gentle teasing in regard to the term, the tone warm and even congratulatory.
Grace
"Oh hey, that is an idea... We could have a display or something, showing all the people in the area? Could even restrict it to just those people the program hasn't been told about. That could work..."
She seems to consider for a bit. "It would take some doing, some equipment, and I'd have to get the code all patched up so it doesn't crash so often. But hey, it would work. I'll talk to Justin about that, see if he'd be okay with it."
The kudos, well, they make her happy. The feeling of being useful, also, makes her happy. And this shows.
Lena Reilly
Grace being happy makes Lena happy. "See? You're already way more useful than me." She says it with a grin and sets a hand lightly on the other's shoulder for just a moment, an act or camaraderie. It's about as close to a hug as Lena is known to give. And then the hand is back where it was, before it overstays its welcome.
And then the DJ is moving around to find a seat back on the floor where she was. "Seriously though, that is pretty cool. I use a computer more than your average Ecstatic, but that's just for work. I'm competant with it but even the non-Awakened part of that...way above my technological pay grade."
Grace
At the touch on her shoulder, Grace seems to tighten up a bit, but she doesn't jump or even let the feeling reach her face. And, it's not that she doesn't like Lena, it's just... a quirk.
She's been telling everyone this lately, it seems, but, "Computers aren't everyone's thing, I get that. But it is nice to be able to tell them what to do. You can do so much with so little."
Lena Reilly
She notes the tightening, and she recognizes it. She does the same, much as you might not expect that from an Ecstatic. "Sorry," she says, and she means it. She doesn't push it more than that, but she feels the need to say it.
"No, I totally understand what you mean," she says as she settles into her cross-leged position. "I'm certainly not a Luddite, and I wouldn't be able to live without my email, my phone, my mixing suite. I am obviously in like, ten thousand classes below you on the elite scale. But even at that level I understand what you mean about that."
Grace
And there is a little embarrassment there, in the way she can't handle that seemingly normal, human thing. Really, though, she doesn't understand why other people seem to love getting all touchy-feely. But she ignores that, and moves on.
"Well, there are those who are several thousand classes above me on the leet scale," she says, neglecting the e in front of the leet. "I met one of them a few days ago. Hacked my computer in 5 minutes, took over everything. And I've not exactly got the worst protected rig, you know?"
Lena Reilly
She gives a little nod, listening. She knows enough to know that the gravity of that situation is not light.
"And this would be Gadfly, or your new little tipster?"
Grace
"Gadfly is..." she thinks, trying to figure out how to put it. "Well, he's a friend. But he's still kind of new, like me. The one who hacked me, they were something else."
"I do worry about him, Gadfly I mean. The only time I've talked to him out in the world, it was before I Awakened. And he can't communicate. Like, he needs a keyboard to get an idea across. I think that's why he doesn't show his face. Sid doesn't get it. A lot of people won't."
She sighed, and looked at Lena, for once in her eyes. "I think he might strain some people's open-mindedness a little too far."
Lena Reilly
She isn't much bigger on touching than Grace is, if she's being honest. It's a thing with her, and at least one person in the city has an idea why. But eye contact she is perfectly comfortable with and it serves as emotional contact in a way that she loses without physical contact. Her expression is understanding, and sympathetic to the plight.
"That's got to be hard. I do understand. Many of my colleagues are people who generally hide behind their turntables and don't make contact with the rest of the world. I like to think I'm fairly social for a DJ and I..." She pauses, chewing lightly on her lip as she thinks of how to word it.
"...if I don't get a good first impression on people, I don't trust them for a long, long time. I get it, and I understand social anxiety. I also get people who are...have peculiar habits and mindsets. Even very extreme kinds.
"But I also understand Sid's standpoint," she says with a sigh of her own. "It would be all too easy for someone to use that excuse as a smokescreen. And all it would take is one Technocrat to figure out where this place is before...well. Exactly what we're all afraid of." She shakes her head.
"There's a middle ground. I'm sure we'll find it."
Grace
"I hope so. And I do get Sid's perspective too. Just, he's a fan of my writing. That's how we met, really. And anyone who's such a big fan of mine that they'd go out to a book signing, memorizing my stuff, and such... They can't be a fan of The Man. At all." She broke that stare into Lena's eyes, and her own started wandering again.
"But he's not going to meet someone face-to-face. I still can't fathom why he was there at the book signing to be honest."
Lena Reilly
She nods...again, she gets what Grace is saying. Though there is something nagging at the back of her head, and it doesn't take that long to vocalize it.
"I get that...and I get that this is his choice. And I don't mean choice as in 'he feels he has a choice,' because sometimes we don't, but...still." She shrugs a little. "I guess what I don't get was...wasn't this whole thing about possibly giving him some face time with Justin anyway? A tour, the library, all that? If he won't do a face-to-face, that's going to make that difficult unless he's going to peek across space-time the whole way."
She smiles a bit. "You feel somewhat responsible for him, don't you?"
Grace
"I don't know if he'll do face-time with Justin, to be honest. I just wanted to connect him with the rest of the community somehow. He did seem interested in that part. I mean, he's going to be hovering over my shoulder on occasion, and it would do for people to know what's up with that."
She sighed, and looked up at the ceiling. "And yeah, I kind of do feel a bit responsible. I used to be like that. I mean, obviously I can talk to people now, but I still get a little iffy around a crowd, you know?"
Lena Reilly
She smiles at that. It's a wry, ironic smile more than an amused one. "That sort of makes you and me opposites. I'm great with a crowd. Get me in the middle of the dance floor and I'm never more alive and comfortable. One-on-one is where I...do less well, in a lot of cases." She's hiding it better now than she sometimes does, but the little signs have been there.
"There's nothing wrong with that. I get it. I had someone I was like that with. Not the same situation, but still, I felt responsible for them and I did a lot of things to try and help. You just..." She takes a breath as she chooses her words, frowning. "You have to realize that your help can only go so far. You're doing what you can, you know? And you should do everything you're comfortable doing. But...you need to be careful not to overextend. There comes a point that they start relying on you too much and they..."
She just shrugs. "Sometimes they do have to take some steps themselves. I guess that's what I'm saying."
Grace
"Yeah, I get that. I think Gadfly's going to do what he very well wants to anyways, and there's not much I can do about that besides." Hell, he spouts wormholes, what is she going to do to 'help' a guy like that?
"But he's also been a big help to me too. Talked me through the running of this thing," she gestures to the open laptop. "I need his help, really."
Lena Reilly
"Well, he's got you, and that's good." She leans back a tiny bit, watching the other. "And if I can help you help him some way, I'll be happy to. Just let me know."
Grace
"Yeah, thanks, but I'd be happy just to let people know he's out there, and not such a bad guy... Once you get to know him. Which you might not. Or whatever."
She shrugged, a little out of her element in this. How does one help the antisocial? Well, she knows what worked for her, but there is no telling about Gadfly.
Lena Reilly
"He doesn't seem to be a bad guy at all. His game could use a little work." She grins a bit. "Symmetrical isn't the first pickup line I would think of. But other than that, he doesn't seem bad."
It's a joke, of course. If he has trouble with face-to-face meetings, then his "game' is the least of his potential dating problems. She just threw it out there to lighten the mood a bit.
Grace
"Oh, God, he told you that?" her palm met her eye like she was trying to un-see that particular image. "Oh, Gadfly..."
"Well, he meant well, I think," she smiled, awkwardly.
Lena Reilly
By the sound of her chuckle, she isn't offended or upset. "No, it's fine. It's near the bottom of the list of creepy compliments I've gotten, to be honest. I get that he didn't mean it in a bad way. There are far worse things to be called than equally matching down an axis."
She sighs a little, popping her neck to either side. "I should actually probably head off. I've got some things to do tonight before the sanctity of my bed calls. But it's been good to talk with you. I meant what I said earlier. I'm glad you're here."
Grace
"Thanks, I'm glad you're here too," she smiled at Lena, this time without awkwardness. "I'll uh, keep in touch. And thanks again for that security screen idea! I'll get on that one..."
Lena Reilly
"Any time. I gotta try and pull my weight somehow. Ideas seem to be my thing." It's said with light self-deprecation as she stands up.
"I plan on being around here more...which is to say, being here at all. So I'm sure we'll see each other here, but yeah also my phone is always happy to take a call or text."
Grace
"Oh, I should probably give you my number, shouldn't I... It's 314-1592"
"And, um.. I'll see you!" She leaned back on the couch, and started typing away at the keys on her laptop. Apparently, the other's leaving was a cue for her to work.
The Chantry (which Grace really only knows by the name "The House") seemed the obvious choice as a place to leave some information behind. People would run across her note, much safer than texting it out. And here, there would be nobody to see but those who needed to see.
Her note was drawn in black and red (for emphasis), and told the story of how she'd been hacked by a Virtual Adept and thrown a piece of juicy data. That data, that the Technocracy never left, was in hiding in some huge, state-of-the-art secret lab -- yeah, not so fun.
For now, she was in the middle of pasting it up in the foyer, where people would see it immediately upon entering.
As for Grace herself, she dressed in her usual jeans, sneakers, and t-shirt combo. This time, the t was a graphic print of Tesla and Edison having a brawl, Mortal Kombat style. It seemed fitting to her.
Lena Reilly
Lena has been putting off going to the chantry for a while. If you asked her, she wouldn't be able to tell you why; she wouldn't even think that she was doing so. It certainly wasn't a conscious thing. She's warm and friendly and personable (or she likes to think so), but she's also a bit wary of opening herself up. And thus, less time spent among her fellow Awakened.
She can't put it off any longer though. She learned the other night that the Technocracy is back in action and that means she's not safe by herself. And thus she rides her motorcycle (a green Kawasaki Ninja 250R, for those keeping track) out to where she has been told the place is. She stopped a ways away, finding something to chain it to, and decided to take the rest of the way on foot; she could use the exercise. And thus she comes up on the property, marvelling at the scenic surroundings and the house itself.
She sweeps a hand through her hair and makes her way up onto the patio. She's dressed in a simple outfit; pair of stonewashed grey jeans and a matching-color tank top. She smiles a little when she sees Grace inside, tapping at the door lightly but hard enough to be audible. She smiles more fully and waves at the woman inside.
Grace
Oh, well, someone's here, and for once, it's Grace who has to let them in. All she really had to do was reach over and swing the door out, though. And after a glance (yep, I know this person) she does so.
"Hey, Lena. I was just doing a little information dump. For, you know, the others. Come in!"
She smiled, her hands were marked in red and black in, though, so maybe that's why she kept her distance?
Lena Reilly
The Ecstatic slips inside when Grace opens the door for her, shutting it behind her. "Hey, Grace. An information dump...that could be good or bad." She says it amicably though, smiling. "How are you?"
It's a sincere question when it comes from Lena, not just a courtesy greeting to provide variety from the standard 'hello.' Then again, it must be noted that as Lena says it she's looking around the foyer, taking it all in, so her focus isn't entirely on Grace at first. But her ears are still perked up and she's listening; it doesn't take long before her eyes follow suit over to the relative newcomer to the world of the Awakened.
Grace
"Oh, bad, in this case. Just that thing we talked about the other night. Trying to reach more people," her face dropped, but they're in the House, far away from anything the note could be discussing, right?
At least, that's what she tries to tell herself.
"I'm, good, I'm good," she said, a little too fast. "It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. But I'm good."
Lena Reilly
She smiles a little bit, empathetic toward the other woman's experience, and nods. "Still new for you? It's always overwhelming for all of us. That gets better, I promise. It's just...well, you know. A hell of a lot to take in."
Grace explains that she's spreading the word more about the Technocracy. "Ah, right. Well...don't feel bad about telling people. I know that it's tough to be the messenger, but you're doing a great thing by telling people." She's walking around the front area as she speaks, looking at things here and there, taking it all in. "Sometimes information is all that keeps us safe, you know?"
Grace
"Oh, I don't feel bad. Better to know than be blind," she says, and in that sentence are two meanings, really. She follows Lena down the hall, assuming the other has been here before.
And information is so so much more than that, she wants to say. Information is everything. But she keeps that inside for now.
"It's very new for me. I'm hum.." she thinks back a ways, "It's been less than a month."
Lena Reilly
"Oh wow." She looks away from her examination of the place and smiles at Grace. "Well, if you've questioned your sanity less than, say, fourty times yet, you're doing better than I did. Did you have someone tell you about things before you Awakened, or was it all completely knew before you got new eyes, so to speak."
Lena pauses in the main living room, looking around. "How many of us stay here? Is there something I should be doing in terms of, like, security procedures or the like?"
Grace
Grace smiles at the 'questioning sanity' part. "I did a bit of questioning of my sanity at first, you bet. I didn't know a thing, and all the sudden I'm having hallucinations that were far more real than that. I guess I was less afraid I was insane, and more afraid everyone else was going to think I was," she grinned at that.
When Lena gets to the living room, talking of security procedures, Grace pauses in her tracks, her eyes working around in a circle, thinking. "Well, uh.. I don't know. I never asked. I know Shoshannah and Justin sometimes stay here?"
Lena Reilly
"Oh god..." She gives Grace an look that speaks toward being quite impressed. "I can't even imagine. I was brought fully into the fold before I was Awakened and I ~still~ thought I was just going insane all the way through. That takes a lot of strength to hold together like that."
When Grace says she doesn't know, the Ecstatic then gives a look around, perhaps a bit speculatively as if she's expecting machine guns to suddenly appear from the walls or a lighting bolt to strike her or something. "Well, if I get charged by a spiritual guardian or the like, do me a favor and vouch for me to it." It's said with good humor. "I'm all about new experiences but pain's never been a big one for me."
Grace
In some ways, perhaps, Grace had already prepared herself for what had happened. She knew stories, the power of the metaphor, the way to think.
"Well, I guess in my case it was a little different. I never thought of it in terms of 'magic'. That probably helped. There was a rational explanation, weird as it might seem. I did almost drive myself crazy trying to figure out what had happened, though. I wouldn't call that first week 'holding it together' exactly."
Grace's eyes widen at the mention of spiritual guardians. What? "Um... Yeah, okay, me either."
Lena Reilly
Grace explains how she had been able to get through it, and it makes the DJ smile. They all had their own ways of putting it all together, and Grace's is as effective as anything else.
"Ahh, that would help probably, yeah. I thought I was dreaming, or just high. Even though I'd largely cut off myself hallucinogens at that point...there's always flashbacks. Lucky for me, the guy who helped me Awaken knew what he was doing and got me through it just fine."
She speaks of her Awakener in fond terms, without the tinge of pain that some get when they talk about mentors who might be long gone. When Grace widens her eyes at the thought of spiritual guardians who deliver pain (and probably worse) to intruders, Lena smiles reassuringly. "Don't worry. If nothing's come out to smack down or at least investigate the new guest yet, we're probably fine. Something could always be watching, I guess."
Grace
She doesn't say that she doesn't believe in 'spiritual guardians', but truth be told, she hasn't yet seen anything quite that bizarre. Instead, she just doesn't go there. Such things are outside her purview.
"I'm sorry, I'm almost as new to this place as you are. I have no clue. Probably best to talk to someone else about security or whatever.
"And, ah, I would show you around the library, but I don't have access yet myself. It's really awesome."
She says that last sentence with a bit of honest reverence. The library must be just incredible to her.
Lena Reilly
She casually waves off the apology with a little smile. "No need to apologize. I'm not too worried about it anyway...whoever's in charge of that has it well in-hand I'm sure." It's been said by people in her past that Lena trusts too easy, but that isn't the case. At least, not in her perspective. She just has good instincts about people and she's actually somewhat slow to trust when those instincts don't kick in. But everyone she's met so far are people she's had good feelings about. Considering how relaxed she is around Grace, the woman appears to be included in that particular company.
Mention of the library draws some interest from Lena, but not overexcitement. She's not a woman who has historically found most of her enlightenment in the writings of others, though there are exceptions. She gives a little smile and looks around the room they're in again with a smile. "Very cool. I'll have to check it out when I get the chance."
She turns her attention back to Grace. "Are you local to Denver? I mean, you know, a long-time resident. I've only been here a little while, I was from Staten Island originally."
Grace
"I'm kind of local. I moved here for college a few years ago. Originally, I'm from Phoenix though. Definitely not anything as interesting as New York."
Grace goes and has a seat on the couch next to her laptop bag, which was haphazardly thrown on something soft when she arrived.
"So, why go to Denver?"
Lena Reilly
It's a valid question. The Adept takes a seat on the couch, and that's Lena's queue to sit as well. She could join Grace on the furniture but instead she takes a seat on the ground, crossing her legs and settling on the rug near the edge of it. "I didn't at first. I travelled all around. I work as a DJ and after I'd Awakened, I...learned some things about myself, I guess you could say." The smile is much fainter, but still there. "And I figured being a newly-Awkaned person was as good of a point to start over as anything. So I took my act on the road. Worked Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Miami. Made all the rounds of the big cities, built up my reputation a little.?
She picks idly at the leg of her jeans as she talks, the other hand tapping rhythmically on her knee. Her attention and eyes are still directed at Grace; it's almost a subconscious gesture that she's doing. She always hears the Lakashim. "And that was all great, but moving around constantly got old. So I picked out Denver and decided this would be a good spot to settle in. Which, pretty much, brings us to present."
Grace
It's a thing, being in the presence of one so traveled, with such different experiences -- Grace feels a bit separate from all that. Her wanderings are mostly mental ones. But the thing is, she does kind of put such people on a pedestal. The experiences Lena must have had...
"Wow, a DJ? And that took you everywhere. I'm so much more of a homebody myself. But ah, welcome to Denver!"
Lena Reilly
Grace's pedestalling of Lena is far from the most important part of her reaction in the DJ's perspective; in fact, quite the opposite. She simply smiles a bit, appreciating the welcome far more.
"Thanks. There's nothing wrong with being a homebody though...I mean, it's great to have roots, right? I've been a lot of places, but most of what I've learned is that despite all the superficial differences--language, races, nationality, pride, philosophies--we're all pretty much the same at our core.
"Which isn't to say there aren't differences," she adds with a smile. "And thank Christ for those differences. But we've all got the same heartbeat, you know? Most of us turn off their awarness of how we're all connected, but that doesn't mean the connection isn't there."
Grace
"I hear you there," she says, and again there is something a bit more to the subject at hand yes? Grace can still remember the feeling of being everything and everyone. Connectedness is not just an abstract concept.
"I try to write people as something a little better than stereotype. It works better that way. Feels realer, because that is the truth. Nobody fits into the boxes we try to shove them in. We're more than that." And there, she says what she does, or part of what she does -- write.
"What's your philosophy then? How do you see it? If you don't mind my asking, of course." Big question, that, she knows. Their kind are not the type to just be unaware of what they really believe. It wouldn't work that way. But she is the curious type.
Lena Reilly
Lena shakes her head amicably when Grace asks if she minds explaining her philsophy. "No, not at all...I'd be happy to."
Her fingers keep drumming in that rhythmic beat on her knee, and Grace is about to learn why as Lena reaches behind her neck and sweeps her har around over her shoulder. "It all started with my work, actually. See...I was into music almost as long as I can remember. My mom waitressed at nightclubs and I'd be at them a lot of the time. I loved dance beats deeply. There was something...special in them. The way they make people move, almost against their wills sometimes, you know what I mean?" She smiles, leaning back a bit with her one non-tapping hand resting behind her to support her weight. She talks with more than fondness...she speaks with genuine ardor. "It's inspiring...passionate."
"What I didn't realize then, and didn't until I was much older...long after I made my first remix, or worked my high school dances...was how universal it really is. The beat...that's what we Ecstatics call the Lakashim. It's the heartbeat of the world. We're all connected through that heartbeat...its beat is the same as our own. When we become perfectly in sync...that's Ananda. Bliss, joy, inspiration, enlightenment...call it what you want. It's just a sort of cosmic expansion or your awareness as you open yourself up to it.
"We usually find it when we break free of the distractions of life. Easiest way to do that is our passions. Think about it...when you have a moment of pure joy, or pure anger. You orgasm, or you get stoned, or your heart's been shattered and you're wracked by grief. You're not thinking about how your hair looks, or whether your rent's been paid...how much smog is in the air or if you remembered to set your DVR to catch Breaking Bad. You're completely at one with your passion and you grow stronger. The way a mother's fear allows her to lift a car off their trapped child, or the way an artist creates something of true greatness through inspiration."
She shrugs a little bit, smiling. "And those moments of Ananda...those passion-fueled instants in which you rise above yourself and open yourself to the consciousness of the Tellurian. The universe. Those are what we all call magick."
Grace
As the Ecstatic speaks, Grace listens and looks for connections. It's just what she does. As the talk continues, her eyes wander around, first to the ceiling and then the floor. It's not meant to be disrespectful. She is paying attention.
As it goes, she realizes how far the two are apart, and yet, that way -- it sounds so... fun. Out there, but fun.
"I have heard that term before, Lakashim. Serafine told me that's what I experienced..." but it was different, really. Far removed, and yet so close. "And really, I have felt like that before sometimes, especially when I'm writing something very.. interesting. Like, you can't think about anything else than your passion. Just, my passion is a bit different, I think."
Lena Reilly
She smiles and nods. "And there's nothing wrong with that. We all have our own ways to find Ananda. Computers, music, drugs, blood rituals, meditation, weird invocations or whatever it is the Hermetics do..." She says that with a somewhat-joking grin. She doesn't dislike Hermetics as a group any more than anyone else. They just made a good choice for a bit of humor there.
"I don't know how it works for everyone else. I just accept that, in their own way, they're touching Ananda. And as long as they're not hurting other people, however they do it is fine by me. Everyone walks their own path in life. Or lives, if you prefer. And in enlightenment, too."
Grace
And Grace doesn't know how it works for everyone else, she just accepts that in their own way, they're hacking the universe. When it all comes down to it, carefully crafted input is all it takes. She sighed, and figured maybe it's like that for everyone. They all make their own explanations.
"I was a bit afraid at first, you know? There didn't seem to be anyone like me, and the ones that were like me were... not good guys. I do my thing with computers. I figured someone sometime was going to point me out as an enemy. But that didn't happen," she says, a bit of a smile on her face.
"People are nice here. Open-minded. I like that."
Lena Reilly
She smiles a little at that, and nods. Its a restrained smile...warm and agreeing, but not the full-feeling one she was wearing. Experience has its upsides and its downs.
"That is great about Denver, yeah. I haven't seen anyone try and denigrate someone else's tradition, or their methods...or anything, really. Granted, I'm still mostly on the outside dipping a toe in, but there have been ample opportunities and it hasn't happened."
A pause, before she continues. "It's a good enviroment to learn about this stuff. At some point though, someone probably will. Whether they come here or you go somewhere else...someone's going to call you a wannabe Technocrat that shouldn't be trusted. Or you'll hear a member of the Celestial Chorus call a Verbena a heathen...or a Hermetic call a Hollow One a spoiled goth child. Ecstatics are burned out druggie sluts, Choristers are Bible thumpers, Euthanatos are murderers...and so on.
"I don't want to try and spoil your positive experiences or anything," she adds, quickly. "Far from it. Everyone here is really good that I've met so far, and there are many more of them all over the place in the world. I just...the more you know about the bad, the better. So you're not caught unaware when it happens."
She says it all in an apologetic manner. Now she's the one who, like Grace did before, feels bad about spreading some bad news.
Grace
"I don't even know half those names, by the way," she says a bit sheepishly. To not know something is difficult for her. But she can put some meaning to them. Celestial Chorus sounds like some kind of angel-cult. Verbena is a plant. Hermetics, she'd heard of in fictional, historical contexts. Euthanatos means, literally, 'good death', which sounds a bit odd -- same root as euthanasia. At words, she does excel.
"Ahh. I guess we are quite the same after all, even the prejudice. But thanks for the warning. At least now I'm a little more sure of myself than I was at the beginning. If someone here had greeted me with a 'Technocrat scum, get out.' I probably would have."
Lena Reilly
"Don't worry about the names," she says with a chuckle. "I had problems with it too for a while. It's a lot of information to absorb, and it doesn't help that we all use a lot of words to describe the same things. Don't stress the Tradition names and the terms and stuff so much; those are just details, in the end. Like the old Shakespeare line about the rose...you get the point."
She smiles a little. "And I'm glad no one said that, then. Because it's good that you're here."
Grace
"Thanks," she says, with a little chuckle-smile, and she does mean it. "I have been an information absorbing sponge lately. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It's like this whole new vista of things to know just opened up in front of me, you know?" Those eyes, they stray along the corners of the room as she continues.
"Some of it's not so nice, but then... Some of it is the most amazing shit ever. I just can't believe all this has been going on under everyone's noses."
Lena Reilly
She gives a little shrug. "That's the power of belief. People see what they want to see, and Paradox keeps us from going too crazy with things that might give Sleepers no other option but to see the truth. Reality has some pretty bad-ass guardians who you never really want to piss off." The smile that follows is barely a smile, more an upward quirk of the lips that contain just a hint of wryness to them.
"But yeah, there's a lot of beauty out there. More than enough, if you ask me, to make the bad shit worth it."
Grace
"Yeah, I think I already did kind of run head-on into the virus scanner of reality once. Got to watch those logic errors in my code. I didn't thing I was doing anything crazy, though. Just not quite right. It would be my first time trying something like that, I screw it up," she said, in grand sarcasm.
It had felt like ice in her veins, the feeling of wrongness, and it had been her first try. Such is her luck.
Lena Reilly
Paradigm is the great equalizers among mage. Through paradigm an Apprentice can sound like a Master and a Master can look as confused as any Sleeper watching a gargoyle come to life and rip itself off a building in search of prey. And that's exactly what happens here; Lena, the Ecstatic who has been around, looks fairly lose by what the freshly-Awakened Grace is saying.
It's not even the technology; for the most part, Lena understands that. She's a DJ and she works with computers regularly, after all. She manipulates perameters, but in pre-set ways allowed by the software. Terms life "logic errors in my code" make an abstract level of sense to the Ecstatic, but only in the entirely inadequate way that describing an acid trip works with someone who's never fried before.
Still, she gets the gist of what she was discribing. An effect going wrong, and Parados settling into her. She nods. "Yeah, that's happened to me from time to time. Even the best of us can't accomplish exactly what we're trying every single time."
Grace
"But I can't just.. not try. I don't think that's an option." Besides, it would be terribly unfun.
Grace does catch the lost look in the other's face. It happens a lot, enough to recognize the effect her speech sometimes has on others. And there, again, is that separation. She could try to explain, but that usually ends up with the other becoming even more lost.
But there is something she might be able to do...
"Would you like to see it?"
Lena Reilly
"Oh yeah, no...you always have to try." That's something she agrees with fully. "'The juice isn't worth the squeeze,' as they say."
And then Grace offers to show her how she works. The reaction from the Ecstatic is...well, ecstatic. One of the great things about the Joybringers is the depth with which they feel their Passions, and consequently their emotions. When Grace offers to show Lena something new, she's pleased. And that pleasure becomes (appropriately enough) joy, which unfolds from her practically in beams.
"I would love to."
Grace
And there, a chance to show off a little? Perchance to screw up again? But no, it doesn't seem like Lena would be the type to embarrass her if it didn't work.
Grinning ear to ear, she pulls her laptop out of the bag, and opens it up, boots it up, and then...
"It's all a work in progress, really. But I can at least show you what the code looks like, if nothing else. And we can always cross our fingers and hope it really does work this time."
She hasn't actually shown anyone else this yet, save for Gadfly and Razor, the ones to whom her little experiments are not so impressive. They have been there before.
Lena Reilly
Lena gets up off the floor and moves around the couch to look over the other's shoulder. Whatever the Adept is doing may not require Lena to actually see the computer screen, but the DJ is curious about the process too.
She doesn't crowd Grace; she rests her hands lightly on the back of the couch as she watches. She may not even understand what Grace's programming skills are accomplishing in terms of code, but she will at least see it.
"Well, if it doesn't then it doesn't. You've heard Edison's quote about the lightbuld, right? "I didn't fail to make a lightbulb, I just found a thousand ways not to make it before I found the one that did."
Grace
[Arete Roll, let's see if it works!]
Dice: 1 d10 TN4 (2) ( fail )
Grace
[Again! +1 diff]
Dice: 1 d10 TN5 (5) ( success x 1 )
Grace
"Edison was a prick," she says, with a bit of distaste. "Kept on fucking with Tesla, who really did come up with all the ideas." She pointed to her shirt, with the Tesla vs. Edison brawl going on. "Edison tried to prove Tesla's ideas were dangerous, by electrocuting elephants. A real piece of work that one."
It's obvious which side of the fight she's on, where that particular fight is concerned. But no matter, the machine is finished booting. She goes through the motions of opening the right files and programs, until her code is present. And it looks like fairly normal code, if one is used to looking at code, which Lena most likely is not.
Mostly unreadable, by most standards, anyway.
The first try, alas, does not succeed. At least this time, there lacks that icy surge through her, there is no pain. She looked a bit cross, and muttered, "really?" under her breath, and futzed with the code a bit. She does so want to show off.
Finally, it does appear to do something. The screen blackens, replaced with an image of what could only be described as a replica living room, complete with the two of them, outlined in glowing orange. And Grace's grin of triumph is a thing of pure joy.
"I just added the glowing orange bit yesterday. Good to see that works."
Lena Reilly
She can't help but grin a little bit as Grace goes off on Edison. It's not a condescending sort of mirth, but rather just an appreciation of the other's passion. She gives a little shrug, not arguing the point.
"Yeah, it's an unfortunate fact that even giant cocks find the right hole if they keep jabbing away blindly." Great imagery, Miss DJ. That thought finished, she shuts up and lets Grace work. She doesn't speak up, doesn't mock or encourage when it fails the first time. When it works the second and they're lit up on the screen like they're outlined in neon, the Ecstatic smiles.
"Nicely done!" She leans over further, taking a closer look at the image. "What's the glowing orange bit mean?"
Grace
"That's a lifeform indicator. So you know there's something living in the vicinity, and it pops out at you."
Sure enough, if one were to look closely at the screen, that's not the only orange in the otherwise black-and-white 3D scene. Tiny bits of it seem to float in the air, and out the duplicate window, a sea of orange can be seen. Each blade of grass outlined on its own.
"Next thing I'm going to work on is a filter, so you can kind of ignore all the little stuff, and only focus on people, say."
She waves into the air, and on her screen, the little image of orange Grace waves back.
Lena Reilly
She laughs at the wave, a sound of delight. "Okay, that's really bad-ass. It'd make a great idea to tie into the security. You should talk to the others about it."
She looks at the other woman, cocking her head to the side. "Not bad for a newbie. At least newbie in the Awakened aspect." It's said with gentle teasing in regard to the term, the tone warm and even congratulatory.
Grace
"Oh hey, that is an idea... We could have a display or something, showing all the people in the area? Could even restrict it to just those people the program hasn't been told about. That could work..."
She seems to consider for a bit. "It would take some doing, some equipment, and I'd have to get the code all patched up so it doesn't crash so often. But hey, it would work. I'll talk to Justin about that, see if he'd be okay with it."
The kudos, well, they make her happy. The feeling of being useful, also, makes her happy. And this shows.
Lena Reilly
Grace being happy makes Lena happy. "See? You're already way more useful than me." She says it with a grin and sets a hand lightly on the other's shoulder for just a moment, an act or camaraderie. It's about as close to a hug as Lena is known to give. And then the hand is back where it was, before it overstays its welcome.
And then the DJ is moving around to find a seat back on the floor where she was. "Seriously though, that is pretty cool. I use a computer more than your average Ecstatic, but that's just for work. I'm competant with it but even the non-Awakened part of that...way above my technological pay grade."
Grace
At the touch on her shoulder, Grace seems to tighten up a bit, but she doesn't jump or even let the feeling reach her face. And, it's not that she doesn't like Lena, it's just... a quirk.
She's been telling everyone this lately, it seems, but, "Computers aren't everyone's thing, I get that. But it is nice to be able to tell them what to do. You can do so much with so little."
Lena Reilly
She notes the tightening, and she recognizes it. She does the same, much as you might not expect that from an Ecstatic. "Sorry," she says, and she means it. She doesn't push it more than that, but she feels the need to say it.
"No, I totally understand what you mean," she says as she settles into her cross-leged position. "I'm certainly not a Luddite, and I wouldn't be able to live without my email, my phone, my mixing suite. I am obviously in like, ten thousand classes below you on the elite scale. But even at that level I understand what you mean about that."
Grace
And there is a little embarrassment there, in the way she can't handle that seemingly normal, human thing. Really, though, she doesn't understand why other people seem to love getting all touchy-feely. But she ignores that, and moves on.
"Well, there are those who are several thousand classes above me on the leet scale," she says, neglecting the e in front of the leet. "I met one of them a few days ago. Hacked my computer in 5 minutes, took over everything. And I've not exactly got the worst protected rig, you know?"
Lena Reilly
She gives a little nod, listening. She knows enough to know that the gravity of that situation is not light.
"And this would be Gadfly, or your new little tipster?"
Grace
"Gadfly is..." she thinks, trying to figure out how to put it. "Well, he's a friend. But he's still kind of new, like me. The one who hacked me, they were something else."
"I do worry about him, Gadfly I mean. The only time I've talked to him out in the world, it was before I Awakened. And he can't communicate. Like, he needs a keyboard to get an idea across. I think that's why he doesn't show his face. Sid doesn't get it. A lot of people won't."
She sighed, and looked at Lena, for once in her eyes. "I think he might strain some people's open-mindedness a little too far."
Lena Reilly
She isn't much bigger on touching than Grace is, if she's being honest. It's a thing with her, and at least one person in the city has an idea why. But eye contact she is perfectly comfortable with and it serves as emotional contact in a way that she loses without physical contact. Her expression is understanding, and sympathetic to the plight.
"That's got to be hard. I do understand. Many of my colleagues are people who generally hide behind their turntables and don't make contact with the rest of the world. I like to think I'm fairly social for a DJ and I..." She pauses, chewing lightly on her lip as she thinks of how to word it.
"...if I don't get a good first impression on people, I don't trust them for a long, long time. I get it, and I understand social anxiety. I also get people who are...have peculiar habits and mindsets. Even very extreme kinds.
"But I also understand Sid's standpoint," she says with a sigh of her own. "It would be all too easy for someone to use that excuse as a smokescreen. And all it would take is one Technocrat to figure out where this place is before...well. Exactly what we're all afraid of." She shakes her head.
"There's a middle ground. I'm sure we'll find it."
Grace
"I hope so. And I do get Sid's perspective too. Just, he's a fan of my writing. That's how we met, really. And anyone who's such a big fan of mine that they'd go out to a book signing, memorizing my stuff, and such... They can't be a fan of The Man. At all." She broke that stare into Lena's eyes, and her own started wandering again.
"But he's not going to meet someone face-to-face. I still can't fathom why he was there at the book signing to be honest."
Lena Reilly
She nods...again, she gets what Grace is saying. Though there is something nagging at the back of her head, and it doesn't take that long to vocalize it.
"I get that...and I get that this is his choice. And I don't mean choice as in 'he feels he has a choice,' because sometimes we don't, but...still." She shrugs a little. "I guess what I don't get was...wasn't this whole thing about possibly giving him some face time with Justin anyway? A tour, the library, all that? If he won't do a face-to-face, that's going to make that difficult unless he's going to peek across space-time the whole way."
She smiles a bit. "You feel somewhat responsible for him, don't you?"
Grace
"I don't know if he'll do face-time with Justin, to be honest. I just wanted to connect him with the rest of the community somehow. He did seem interested in that part. I mean, he's going to be hovering over my shoulder on occasion, and it would do for people to know what's up with that."
She sighed, and looked up at the ceiling. "And yeah, I kind of do feel a bit responsible. I used to be like that. I mean, obviously I can talk to people now, but I still get a little iffy around a crowd, you know?"
Lena Reilly
She smiles at that. It's a wry, ironic smile more than an amused one. "That sort of makes you and me opposites. I'm great with a crowd. Get me in the middle of the dance floor and I'm never more alive and comfortable. One-on-one is where I...do less well, in a lot of cases." She's hiding it better now than she sometimes does, but the little signs have been there.
"There's nothing wrong with that. I get it. I had someone I was like that with. Not the same situation, but still, I felt responsible for them and I did a lot of things to try and help. You just..." She takes a breath as she chooses her words, frowning. "You have to realize that your help can only go so far. You're doing what you can, you know? And you should do everything you're comfortable doing. But...you need to be careful not to overextend. There comes a point that they start relying on you too much and they..."
She just shrugs. "Sometimes they do have to take some steps themselves. I guess that's what I'm saying."
Grace
"Yeah, I get that. I think Gadfly's going to do what he very well wants to anyways, and there's not much I can do about that besides." Hell, he spouts wormholes, what is she going to do to 'help' a guy like that?
"But he's also been a big help to me too. Talked me through the running of this thing," she gestures to the open laptop. "I need his help, really."
Lena Reilly
"Well, he's got you, and that's good." She leans back a tiny bit, watching the other. "And if I can help you help him some way, I'll be happy to. Just let me know."
Grace
"Yeah, thanks, but I'd be happy just to let people know he's out there, and not such a bad guy... Once you get to know him. Which you might not. Or whatever."
She shrugged, a little out of her element in this. How does one help the antisocial? Well, she knows what worked for her, but there is no telling about Gadfly.
Lena Reilly
"He doesn't seem to be a bad guy at all. His game could use a little work." She grins a bit. "Symmetrical isn't the first pickup line I would think of. But other than that, he doesn't seem bad."
It's a joke, of course. If he has trouble with face-to-face meetings, then his "game' is the least of his potential dating problems. She just threw it out there to lighten the mood a bit.
Grace
"Oh, God, he told you that?" her palm met her eye like she was trying to un-see that particular image. "Oh, Gadfly..."
"Well, he meant well, I think," she smiled, awkwardly.
Lena Reilly
By the sound of her chuckle, she isn't offended or upset. "No, it's fine. It's near the bottom of the list of creepy compliments I've gotten, to be honest. I get that he didn't mean it in a bad way. There are far worse things to be called than equally matching down an axis."
She sighs a little, popping her neck to either side. "I should actually probably head off. I've got some things to do tonight before the sanctity of my bed calls. But it's been good to talk with you. I meant what I said earlier. I'm glad you're here."
Grace
"Thanks, I'm glad you're here too," she smiled at Lena, this time without awkwardness. "I'll uh, keep in touch. And thanks again for that security screen idea! I'll get on that one..."
Lena Reilly
"Any time. I gotta try and pull my weight somehow. Ideas seem to be my thing." It's said with light self-deprecation as she stands up.
"I plan on being around here more...which is to say, being here at all. So I'm sure we'll see each other here, but yeah also my phone is always happy to take a call or text."
Grace
"Oh, I should probably give you my number, shouldn't I... It's 314-1592"
"And, um.. I'll see you!" She leaned back on the couch, and started typing away at the keys on her laptop. Apparently, the other's leaving was a cue for her to work.
Friday, August 2, 2013
The Drop
Grace
Grace was on her way back through the university grounds to go home. Dull days, mindblowing nights -- this was the pattern of her life now. But while the lure of home was inviting, so was the lure of nature.
Sometimes, you do just have to stop and smell the roses.
She stopped at that place where her nature had been picked up by Justin -- a park bench. The memory made her smile a bit, stopped in her tracks.
Without many people here in the summer, it felt like seclusion to lay back on the bench and stare at the sky -- and that's how she'd be found, if anyone were to find her.
Gadfly83
There are a few people around. Very, very few people. One of them is rather pudgy young man with a rather flushed face, probably the result of his swift, forced marched shuffle across campus, and his arms loaded with a great many small shipping boxes. Who knows what else was in his backpack. He huffed and marched and occasionally shook his sweat soaked hair out of the way as he headed past the benches. And then...he stopped.
He glanced toward Grace on the bench and stopped. Or he stopped and glanced toward Grace. From the look on his face even he had trouble figuring it out. He backtracks, staring at her confusedly.
"Hey?" he says, utterly unsure of himself. Then his eyes wander about, almost distractedly.
"What was I...umm...Oh! Do I...do i know you?"
The end of the inquiry comes just in step with a message alert on Grace's phone.
Grace
The voice came out of nowhere, really. She hadn't really been paying attention to anything but the sky. Her eyes shifted to the sound... familiar.
"Hey, I don't know, do you?" she mused.
Her phone beeped, a message... Well, messages lately had been kind of important. Better not to ignore the phone for now. She fished around for it in her laptop bag to receive whatever text awaited.
Gadfly83
"No. Er...Well...Shit. I just saw you there and..."
The guy babbles on while Grace rummages through her things looking for her phone. When she finds it, the message, from an unknown number, reads: 'Your favorite shoulder surfer requesting permission. --Gadfly'
Meanwhile, the chubby dude is still trying to get his words out of his mouth, occasionally shifting his weight to get a better grip on his boxes.
Grace
Reading the message, she smirked a little. He listened. Good.
She quickly typed in a response of "Permission granted." before looking back up at the stuttering guy.
"So, do you not often see people?"
Gadfly83
"Mm." The guy says, obviously upset by the whole confusion of the thing. "It's stupid. Forget it." And he walks away, back to wherever he was going.
The activity on Grace's phone is only just beginning though. Another message comes in moments later.
--Aw, poor Gus. I think you hurt is feelings. Just kidding, the kids dumb as a bag of bricks. Don't know if he even has feelings.
Grace
-- Who is Gus? And why does he think he knows me, man?
She looked up at 'Gus' with confusion. The odd mannerisms and stuttering speech actually reminded her of someone else...
Gadfly83
-- An undeclared major with an expensive Marijuana habit and poor impulse control. That last bit being why he thought he knew you. He bought a bunch of hardware online on impulse too. No idea how to put it all together but he likes robots and somehow thought it'd be cool to have one.
-- Drugs, television, and rock and roll really do rot the mind. So whatchya doin?
Grace
-- Well, robots are cool. I kind of agree. How do you know that?
-- And, well, I'm just outside for once. It's been interesting lately. I have some things to talk about... Can't.
Gadfly83
-- Lets just say, once you learn to peek over someone's shoulder, its a short step away from whispering in their ear.
-- And I've been thinking about that. Only...I could use a little help setting up shop.
Grace
She looked like any other summer student, sitting at a bench, texting furiously into her phone. The commonest of sights, really. And yet...
The conversation topic they were delicately talking around, now that was something. Gus sat in the back of her mind, though, a mystery.
-- Sure, what do you need? And, why are you whispering in Gus' ear?
Gadfly83
-- You like spy movies? Sometimes agent A has to secure some top secret info, or get something to agent B without them being seen together. So they use a drop.
-- This applies to both conversations, by the way.
Grace
-- Hmm, okay. I think I understand. A little.
So, he spied on poor Gus to see where she was, without breaking the 'don't drop in without asking' rule?
-- But, what do you need me to do?
Gadfly83
-- It might have been before your time but I think we can go old-school. A BBM system. We'd have to get our hands dirty and sort of stake a claim, frontier style. Most of that old technology still exists underneath the present telecom systems. Backward compatabilty and all that. Anyway, point is its all still there and its the perfect drop.
-- Best way to hide something is to get people not to look for it. Its so...analog. So Afghani cave, y'know?
-- But yeah, no forms to fill out. We'd have to take it.
Grace
-- Take it by force you mean. I think I can help you there.
Grace sighed into her phone. A long time ago, she'd given up that sort of thing. Well, given up is strong language. She played games with the other students, sure, but hadn't done anything blatantly illegal in... Well, okay, so even playing around with the other students was kind of grey-area, but they weren't the type to turn her in.
-- You got a target lined up?
Gadfly83
-- When you get a chance, take a look at Strivers Answering Service. Check out their fat girls.
-- I gotta go. Gus just walked past a burger joint. It'll be hell keeping him on task now.
Grace
-- Ahhh, I see. I think I know that joint. You live around here?
She got up from the park bench, it was getting on in the evening, soon to be anyway. The thought occurred to her that she might try to follow Gus, find out where here pen pal was staying, even if he wouldn't say.
Sid
[my magidar is ALWAYS ON: awareness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 4, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
Gadfly83
-- No, Gus does. We've gone over this, haven't we? The drop?
Grace
-- Maybe I'm just dense. Sorry.
She took off on a leisurely stroll in the general direction of her apartment... Gadfly was being mysterious on purpose it seemed. Better than getting caught, bad for understanding. The sooner they could get secure comms the better.
Gadfly83
-- Oh man, did I just say something dumb? Listen, I'm gonna switch to you, okay? Multitasking can only get me so far. And Gus can find his own way home.
--Switching now.
(Though, if its okay with you guys, I won't roll for this.)
Sid
As Grace takes a leisurely stroll through the campus in the direction of her home, talking on her phone or something, there are still people, younger and older, wandering the campus with her. They walk, they bike, there is even the grinding roll of a skateboard's wheels coming from somewhere behind her.
No, coming in her direction. Whatever, right? Could be any student, but no, the rider of this board is not a student here, not yet.
Sid, having sensed Grace from a little ways off, shifted her weight and changed her direction, but she doesn't come right up behind her, no, that would be terrible. Sid does not do unto others as she freaks out on when it's done unto her. She comes at the newly Awakened at a swerve, drawn to that shifting, mercurial shift of resonance like a mouse to cheese. Or peanut butter.
"He-" she starts to call out, alerting the woman to her incoming presence when she notices two things. First, Grace is on the phone.
The second has her stop up short, her weight shifting back so the board kicks upward. This she catches, and already she's frowning, seeking out this newer sensation even as it tries to tug her attention left, right, back, around.
Grace
[Rolling Awareness finally, because...]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 4, 6) ( success x 1 )
Grace
It takes longer for Grace to notice Sid, so wrapped up in her text convo. The familiarity of that sensation pulled her mouth into a smile and she looked up and around trying to pin it down, when the abruptly halted 'hey' drew her attention.
She waved the woman over, "Hey Sid! It's you!"
Gadfly83
Moments later, Grace's phone buzzes with another message alert again.
-- Woah. Who's she? Friend of yours?
Grace
-- That's Sid, she's cool. Vetted.
Again, Grace sticks her face into her phone, yes, even directly after saying hi to Sid. It must be important.
Sid
Grace notices her, and Sid, her attention still directed elsewhere as she tries to locate the source of that feeling, frowns more deeply.
Gadfly83 is right to Whoah from wherever he's hiding. Sid is tall and lovely, with fair skin and warm dark eyes behind her huge black-rimmed glasses, and long red hair that curls over her shoulders in waves. Her shirt is a sleeveless tunic of red and beige and navy bars, her jeans hug the curve of her hips and flare above her dark green Converse sneakers.
Her head turns toward Grace and she slowly, hesitantly leans down to grip and lift her skateboard. The steps she takes to close the distance start slow and measured, then speed up.
When she reaches the woman she greets her with a, "Do you feel that? Someone else is here."
Grace
"Ohh, yeah, that's, uh..." she gestures to her phone, "Meet Gadfly. He's kind of looking over my shoulder. Sort of thing."
She leans in and whispers, "Hey, do you know somewhere we could talk, uh.. privately?"
She's got this very serious look to her, like this is something she needs to get off her chest, like now.
Gadfly83
-- Eyes wide open, this one. And you trust her? You did a background check?
Grace
-- If she's a bad one, then the community here is fucked. I'm sure she's as safe as any of them.
Again with the texting, "Sorry, he's kind of not the face-to-face type."
Sid
The look on Sid's face becomes a wild mix of confusion, astonishment, and then intense curiosity. She's leaning forward as Grace leans toward her, hoping to get a better look at her phone.
"What...how...ah," she snaps her head back and shifts her weight back and out of Grace's personal space. "Yeah. Yeah, I can...the science department's offices are empty by now." She lifts her left hand to point her thumb back over her shoulder in the direction from which she had come, allowing Grace to see the (then upside down) tattoo on the inside of her wrist, possibly even the scar. Long and thin and surgically straight, it runs along the skin above her ulna.
Gadfly83
-- Community?
-- Woah. Community!
-- She's a traddie!
-- There are traddies in Denver?
-- And you know them! You're chummy with the traddies!
-- Why didn't you ever tell me?
And each one comes with its own pressing, prompting, look-at-me alert.
Grace
It does catch Grace's eye, but she chose not to comment on the tattoo for now, "Great, perfect. I've got something the both of you should know."
Grace started off in that direction, but the massive number of bleeps her phone was setting off caused her to stop in her tracks and grin at Gadfly.
-- Yeah, Community, yes, she is, yes there are, yes I am, and why didn't you ever tell me you lived here?
Sid
Grace's phone starts going crazy, bleeping away merrily, but this time Sid does not try to look at the screen. Instead she angles her head so that she can see Grace and also keep a watchful eye of the road ahead of them, her skateboard tucked under her arm now, her other hand resting on the corner of the messenger bag her player never ever remembers to mention.
Instead she leads the way quietly, her stride brisk but not too fast. "What, ah," she stops because Grace's phone is bleeping. When she's answered, Sid tries again, "Where. Where is he?" she asks, because she doesn't want to assume and ask the question she really wants to ask, Is he in your phone??
Because if Grace can have her own personal JARVIS, Sid would kind of love to have one, too.
Ahead of them, the science department's building looms. It's large and new and crisp and clean looking, all its edges still sharp and its façade is still bright and shiny and fresh. Sid pulls out her keys as they near the entrance, which is still unlocked for now as students still come and go to make use of the labs.
Grace
"He's over my shoulder," she says, as though that explains everything.
Sid walks, and Grace follows, though she doesn't appear to be looking where she's going. Instead, she looks around her, trying to be all nonchalant about it.
Gadfly83
-- I don't.
-- I didn't.
-- I was just passing through until the other night. Didn't think they were so close on my trail. Now I'm laying low.
-- Woah, she has keys. Do you have keys?
Grace
-- Not to this building. To the comp-sci hall yes.
Oh, but that might pique his interest...
Sid
Sid does have keys, not a lot, but a few. This ring doesn't have the key with the telltale fat bow that distinguishes it as a car key. Either she has no car, or she has another set. Given the skateboard and Denver's occasionally not-terrible public transportation system, who knows.
Grace knows. Grace hasn't seen Sid's other keys, but she's seen her truck.
She pushes through the entrance and leads them down one hall and up another. The walls are plastered with photos and posters and banners for earth science, life science, space, astronomy, you name it. There's a poster announcing the upcoming meteor shower, and a handmade poster announcing a party for the one year anniversary of the Mars Curiosity rover's landing.
Sid doesn't take Grace and her magic cell phone to an astronomy class, though. She leads her down one hall and down a set of stairs to the faculty center, the edges of her hair gliding from her shoulders in the breeze of her own momentum. They keys stay in her hand, and she flicks them once, casts a nervous glance over at Grace, but pushes it down. This isn't the first time she's brought someone in here after hours, after all.
The keys come in handy when they reach a door labeled FACULTY LOUNGE. Sid puts a key to the lock and peers cautiously inside before swinging the door open further. Inside there are comfy leather couches and bookshelves covered in scientific tomes, and a few potted plants.
Sid glances around again, then turns to face Grace, her eyes dropping to that magic phone.
Then her gaze lifts to Grace and she looks at her expectantly.
Gadfly83
-- Different but the same. Is she a mad scientist? An etherite? Ask her.
Grace
Grace walked through the familiar building like it was no big deal, certainly not. Just a couple of student workers off to... do something. The thing is, this should be comfortable -- she'd had classes here. But now, she felt the need for paranoia, and it hitched her steps a bit.
Walking into the FACULTY LOUNGE should also be fairly comfortable, being an employee herself, but still.
"You're sure this place is safe, yes?"
She looked at her phone, just in case Gadfly had something to say about it, before continuing.
"Well, last night, I was contacted rather forcefully, and Gadfly, before you freak out, it was one of us. Oh, and Gadfly wants to know if you are an... uh, Etherite?"
Sid
Sid doesn't nod when Grace asks if the place is safe. Instead her mouth presses into a line and a shadow forms between her brows. One shoulder lifts in a slight shrug, noncommittal. That shrug says Eh. Something in her eyes says No place is safe.
"It'll be okay," she says, though Sid never sounds terribly reassuring.
Then her brows tense at the question and her head tips to the side. "No, I," she stops, and though she's talking to Grace her face is directed more toward the phone. As though it were a real, living, breathing person. It is, but she, hm.
Suddenly, she sets her skateboard down on one of the couches, twists her torso and shifts back the flap of her bag and digs inside for something. "I'm what they call an Orphan. I don't," she straightens, and she's holding a pen in her right hand. Her eyes shift to the ceiling as she taps that pen against her lips. "I don't have a Tradition. I'm on my own."
Holding her arm out in front of her, she draws. A diagram starts to take shape, just below the words WE ARE MADE OF STARSTUFF. As it comes together - the shape vaguely humanoid - Grace may begin to feel Sid's resonance charge the air around the redhead. It's a feeling of lifted spirits, of the rapture that follows a goal attained or a substance taken. It's euphoric.
[Life scan! Probably unnecessary but I like rolling magic. Coincidental.]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 5) ( success x 1 )
Gadfly83
-- Orphan. Oh well, that's sort of like a Traddie.
-- One of us? You're sure? What'd they say?
Grace
Grace raised a brow at Sid's display and the euphoria that lingered in the air afterward. "I guess that makes me one too. Kind of."
"Last night, I was hacked. In about 5 minutes. Gadfly, you'll be happy to know that any record of our recent goings on has been deleted out of the watch list it was in." She punctuated those last two words as if to reiterate the point that they really needed to be more careful.
"And I also received some intel. This person who can hack my everything and knows exactly what I'm thinking wants me to let everyone else know what the Techs are up to in Denver. But this isn't something I can just text everyone about, you know?"
"They're quiet in town because they've got a secret lab here. Bleeding edge kind of stuff. Razor said they were growing human organs and investigating nanotechnology under the banner of H+"
Gadfly83
-- Aw man. Pod people. Test tube babies. Not good. Not good at all.
Whether Sid discovers that one mouse that visits the staff lounge to pick up crumbs or anyone else in the building making out or actually spying, one thing is clear. The phone is not alive. And there's no heartbeat or thump hovering over Grace's shoulder.
Sid
Sid's head rocks back a bit at that news. Not that Grace was hacked, that's just unfortunate, but that there are Techs again. That someone can and did slip into Grace's head and root around.
"There were some here as of last month but, but I heard they didn't want to hurt anyone. They were looking for Nephandi. I thought," she stops, closes her eyes and shakes her head. That was stupid thinking, what she thought. That they left, or that they'd leave the Awakened here in peace.
"Who is Razor?"
Gadfly83
-- Razor? Razor is 1337. Primo 1337. Vet-vet. This is both good and bad. Vet-vets don't take holidays. Disco warriors. And Disco is dead!
-- Nephandi = Nasty, psychopathic demonic awakened. Not to be confused with nasty, schizophrenic awakened. Those would be Marauders.
Grace
Grace was busy plotting out an imaginary map on the ceiling, easier to deal with than all the anxiousness bubbling up inside. She'd thought it would be good to get it off her chest, but now that she was saying it... Damn it, she's just so new.
Gadfly's texts did explain a few things, when she looked back down at her phone again, and she flung out another text of her own, in complete disregard of how Sid might feel about the two of them having a little private conversation. It was much like having three people in a room, two of whom are speaking in Mandarin or something.
-- Let's just say, you have a conversation with that one, and it screams 1337ness. Also, wtf. I thought the T were all we had to be paranoid about? Ugh.
"Razor is the one who told me all this. And yeah, I have a rather... fertile imagination. I can think of all kinds of things they might be doing with human organs and nanobots, none of which is necessarily quaint. But H+, that's the logo of Transhumanism. Razor found that to be particularly odd for Technocrats to be allied to, and from what I understand of them, I kind of agree."
Sid
Sid was in Grace's position not that long ago. Part of a trio trying to converse with the one who would make them a quartet, having to translate to the one person who couldn't hear the voice. Only this time it's Grace, and Sid is playing the role of Sera. Except Sid could never really. Who could ever capture that spirit? That verve? Maybe once upon a time she could, but now? No.
So. She doesn't mind that Grace is texting. It's part of the conversation, albeit an unconventional one.
Sid shrugs. She doesn't know much about the Techs herself, just that they're Bad News™ and she needs to AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
However.
"I've heard of that. Their, uh, movement. Transform the human condition through technology. That's, I don't know. That sounds like what I've heard of the Techs. Secret lab." She brings her hand to her mouth to gnaw on her thumbnail a moment before she grimaces and puts that hand back down at her side. "Any ideas where to start looking? Anschutz maybe."
Gadfly83
-- What's so odd about it? You have pieces of the history. The D.E. were a part of them. WE were a part of them. If we can think of it, they can, or already have, and have the funding for it.
-- Its what they'll likely use it for that worries me.
Grace
"No, from what I could gather, it was almost as if Razor were deliberately not telling me, so that I'd have to get the help of others, and so... I don't know, I can prove my worth maybe? Does that make sense?"
Proving of her worth, proof of loyalty perhaps. Something to say, yea verily, this one deserves a Tradition. She looked over to Sid with her tattoo (the awesome Sagan quote). More alike than most.
"But I know where to start. The start is to spread this around. We're not alone in Denver at all, and the quiet probably isn't going to last."
She again bent over her cell phone, typing away.
-- Yeah. Test tube babies with nanobots in?
Lena Reilly
The text hits Sid's phone as she's trapsing her way across campus. Lena is doing some papering for her latest DJ gig, and that brings her onto the institute of higher learning. That made her think of Sid, for obvious reasons. And that made her pull out her phone and text. It's been a couple weeks since she's been out or seen the other woman, the one Awakened person she knows particularly well. And, she reminds herself, she needs to stop being a shut-in.
And so the text beeps across to her phone:
hey u, just walking cross the u campus, thought id see if ur around, maybe say hi.
We promise, she only types like that when texting, walking, listening to music and smoking all at the same time.
Sid
Sid frowns.
"Why do you have to prove yourself to anyone?"
The quiet not lasting causes a change of expression, a different sort of frown. It's...worried, yes, but nostalgic, too. Maybe a little regretful.
Denver is quiet, she told someone once, and at the time it had been weird but she'd liked it that way. She'd been left alone for several months. Then everyone popped out of the aether and started gathering like ants to honey.
From her pocket issues that same sound Grace heard the first time she and Sid met in person. And upward lilting sort of sound that might remind her of a particular game franchise.
"Ah, 'scuse..." she says, and trails as if there's supposed to be a me at the end that doesn't quite make it into existence. She pulls out her phone, flips it open, and the corner of her mouth quirks like it wants to resolve into a smile but doesn't. A quick glance to Grace, then back down to her phone. It's not as easy to type on the old number pads, Sid's phone isn't a fancy smartphone with a tiny little QWERTY interface.
Yes, stayed late. Come to sci dept faculty lounge. Strange things afoot. Can't transmit.
Grace
Why prove yourself to anyone? Well, that was a question. "Think about it like this. You're an old-school hacker, right? They find you, you're dead. And suddenly, a newbie appears. You don't want to just let them get sucked up by the other side, but you also don't want to expose yourself. So, you watch. You have the newbie do something to prove themselves, prove that they are on the up and up, so you don't get burned by having contact. It's a narrative that makes sense to me, at least."
She thought about that, the narrative. She does like making stories up about people, trying to figure them out in some way. They're all like characters in the story of her life, and she imagines that others do the same.
"Anyway, I don't doubt Razor has good reasons. And I don't doubt that I'm being watched either."
Gadfly83
-- She's right. Sort of. You do have to prove yourself, but this doesn't have to be the way.
-- Tangling with the techs gets you D.E.D. That's french for Disco et Dodo. Get it?
-- But a lot comes from knowing. And now we know.
Grace
She looked down at her beeping phone again.
-- I didn't mean to 'tangle' with them. But letting everyone else in on this, as opposed to sitting on it, or what have you? I suppose that would go at least some way, yes? Shows I at least have some use as a contact.
Sid
"You're awesome," she says just before she takes that text. She doesn't say it all upbeat, like it's a reaction. She says it as a matter of fact. A statement. Definitive. So at least she doesn't have to prove herself to Sid.
If Sid could hear Gadfly's end of the conversation she might say And knowing is half the battle. Or maybe she'd just smile a little to herself. She can't, though, so she doesn't do those things.
She chews on her bottom lip while she waits for Lena's reply.
Lena Reilly
Strange things afoot. Can't transmit.
Now, that right there most certainly got a raised eyebrow from the Ecstatic. She replies back:
gotcha. omw, c ya soon
And then she's setting off. She isn't a student here, but she's been around the campus more than enough to know where everything is and it isn't long before she's outside the faculty office. The light brunette's hair is down and falling free, as is normally the case unless she's working or working out. She's dressed simply, in a black tank top with one of those kitschy "Keep Calm" sayings; this one says "Keep Calm and Drop the Bea" with a multicolored spectum equalizer surrounding the last work. A knee-length skirt and sandals completes the look, with earbuds in and iPod playing as she texts once more:
here!
Grace
Grace just smirked back at Sid, "Well, you're awesome too."
"Anyway. That's really all my secrets. Aside from Gadfly, who... Hmm. Think you should probably send Justin a text about him? I just found out he's staying in town. I kind of don't have Justin's number..."
-- Would you like to meet the rest of us around?
Sid
Sid stops chewing her lip, though she doesn't relax. She snaps her phone closed and says, "My friend is coming. Lena, she's. She's a Cultist, like Sera, but...but not like Sera."
Because no one is like Sera.
She tips her head to the question of sending Justin a text about Gadfly. "Why...does Justin need to know about Gadfly? Why won't he show himself?"
A few minutes later she gets the last text, and she goes to open the faculty door. She knows that there is no one else in the area but them, at least not on this floor, she's checked already. She opens the door to Lena and she offers her one of her sort of almost kind of smiles as she steps aside to let her into the lounge.
"Lena this is Grace. And Gadfly."
Gadfly83
-- Define 'meet'. Like meat-meet? This seems nice enough to me, don't you think?
-- Wow. She's something. Very...symmetrical. Proportionate.
Lena Reilly
[[Magedar, go! Per Spec: Uncanny Instincts]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 6 )
Grace
Grace lifted a hand in awkward wave, "Hey, I'm kinda new, I don't think we've met."
To Sid, "I don't know, show him around, let him visit the awesome library, you know.. like you did for me?"
She looked down at her phone, and her face fell a bit. "If he wants to."
-- Don't be so anti-social. I found a kick-ass book at their house. Obviously one of our type of books, and full of margin notes, it was... what I built my program based on.
-- Oh, and... maybe if you were actually here, you could tell her that yourself. But I wouldn't. That's kind of rude, man.
Lena Reilly
"Hey, hon. Good to see you," is what she says when she steps through the door.
Lena knows Sid by now, and she knows that Sid is not someone that she hugs in all but the most stressful situations. They've been in those situations before, she knows when it's okay to hug Sid and when not to. So she doesn't try to do it now. Besides, Sid's introducing her to someone...and someone else. The Ecstatic's sixth sense ticks up; she pauses, and runs a hand through her hair as she looks around. It's brief though, and then she smiles to Grace.
"Hello, Grace. I'm Lena." She steps to the woman, extending a hand. She's all friendly and warmth, with her pulsing forward, withering back aura for those who are feeling sensitive. "And...hello, Gadfly?"
She looks between Grace and Sid. "Names in the right order, right? Sorry if I flipped it."
Gadfly83
-- Rude? Right. That's why I'm not there.
-- Maybe we can exchange numbers? Everyone's got a number, right?
Sid
"I don't introduce people to my friends I haven't met in person," she says, immediate and firm. Sid is cautious, and she is particularly careful when it comes to leading new people to her friends, though they are most of them fully-fledged grown-up magic wielders of considerably greater skill and experience than herself and can take care of themselves. But if she can protect them in some way, she will. And she knows absolutely nothing about this person. "If he has a number, though. I can pass it along." No promises of contact from the other direction, though, because she couldn't even if she wanted to.
Lena knows Sid mostly. She knows Sid from those stressful times when Sid hated the idea of people touching her, when her fears and her paranoia were so high she couldn't stand the idea of people being in near to her physically. Sid would hug the hell out of Lena, but she remembers that it's not her thing. And she gets it. She might not know the reason for it, if there even is one, but she gets it and she doesn't push. So she doesn't step into Lena and wrap her arms around her. She just gets that smallish sort of smile.
And she nods, yes, she got the names in the right order. "Tell her what you told me," she says to Grace. She might as well start spreading the information now.
Grace
Lena's hand was eyed a bit before Grace leaned in to take it. It's not the most normal of handshakes -- Grace is distracted, and this shows in her seeming inattention to social graces. She really does care, just other things are more important right now.
"Sid, I kind of, have met him in person. He was there with me on the day I woke up. He just doesn't like being around people. I'm sure you can understand?" she raised a brow at Sid as if to say, 'yes, I have noticed'.
And the memory of that version of Gadfly, the time she meat-met him in that strange little bookstore -- it's no wonder he doesn't want to be seen. But shells are made to be broken.
She typed again, having that silent, secret conversation.
-- Yeah, well, I don't know your number, and I don't know the number of the people who live at the house, sorry. So, give me a number?
'Tell her what you told me' then makes it to her consciousness, and suddenly, the attention shifts back to Lena. "Oh! Yeah. So, I got a contact who... Well, I think I can trust. And they gave me some info on the Technocracy in Denver. They're not gone. They've got some secret lab that they're hiding away. My contact said that their work involved growing human organs, and nanotech. I'm just passing on the bad news, I'm afraid."
"I know they say Denver's been quiet for a while, but I don't think it's going to stay that way."
Lena Reilly
So it's right into the fire with the conversation. The Ecstatic's brow creases, and she friends a little bit, sighing. "Well hell. That's just the kind of news that can ruin your day." It's said in a lighter tone than you might expect...to be fair, Lena has never had too close of a run-in with the Technocracy. But it's not so much underestimation as it is more a 'c'est la vie' tone. She's not dismissing it, she's just taking it in stride.
Lena looks at Sid a moment, pursing her lips. "I'm not exactly the world's foremost expert on the Technos. I just know what I was taught. That does sound like a time to shore things up though." A faint smile. "I guess I should finally stop by the clubhouse."
She's listening to the conversation about Gadfly, and she is still keeping aware of that distracting sensation. But on that front, she's more listening and observing at the moment...taking it in and absorbing the conversation.
Gadfly83
-- Fine. 555-423-3543. Though we'll have another number once we set up the drop.
Sid
Grace tells her that she's met her, but it's clear this is a point the Orphan will not budge on. If she hasn't talked to him, she's not sending him on, especially not to Justin. She didn't even give Grace anyone's number when she first met her, except for maybe Jim's and only then because she knew he already had hers. Sid will let Justin decide if he'll make contact with this new stranger or not, but she's not risking him to some stranger if she can help it.
"He's," she starts, then she turns her head towards Grace's phone. And she holds out her hand for it. Whether she gives Sid the phone or not, however, Sid says, "You're asking us to trust you without trusting us. I can give Justin your number. From there it'll be up to him."
She nods her head to Lena, though, agreeing with her. This is the time to shore up. If Gadfly would trust her, maybe she would include him in that. But if he wishes to remain separate, then separate he shall remain.
Grace
Grace sighed at her phone, at the 'fine.' that Gadfly left. "Well, I got him to give me digits, so pass this on to Justin I guess, Sid. 555-423-3543. Though, this number isn't going to last."
"And I'm no expert on the Technos either. Hell, I just became aware of their existence about a few weeks ago. But life moves pretty fast, and I already managed to just barely avoid detection by them twice."
Grace walked over, and sat down on one of the couches fairly hard, like that last sentence took something out of her. She didn't really have any idea of what would happen were she to have not avoided them, but with all the dire warnings given lately, it wasn't good -- she knew that much.
"It's a massive, state-of-the-art lab they've got going, with Transhumanism logos. And that means, upgraded people, in some fashion."
-- I tried, sorry. Most people aren't going to understand why you won't meat them
Yes, 'meat'. The typo was intentional.
Grace
[I'm going to have to get going guys! giving warning, Grace is going to go pop.]
Lena Reilly
Her lip curls a bit at the idea of upgraded people. That sounds...clinical. Lena is many things, but while she is forced by circumstances in her life to experience clinical situations, 'clinical' is about the last word that could be used to describe her.
"Transhumanism. Jesus Christ, that sounds like a new age cult." She shakes her head as she takes out her phone and sends a text to the phone number given for Gadfly. Lena trusts, sometimes a little too much. She doesn't extend that trust to giving out information for other people, but would rather trust for herself and get hurt than let other people be hurt. She'll be a guinea pig. She makes a show of pressing send, so that the mystery man can easily determine who it's coming from.
ground control to major tom. hows the weather up there?
Gadfly83
-- I get that.
Is the short reply to Grace's phone. Meanwhile, Lena's reply is more along the lines of:
-- Usually I'm ground control. Besides, doesn't Major Tom blow up?
and also
-- You're very symmetrical, by the way. Is that rude?
Sid
Sid takes the number and she writes it on the inside of her arm, just beside the little drawing. There is no spike of her presence this time, however, it's just there because she was still holding the pen.
Which gets slipped back into her bag again. She takes out her phone, flips it open, sends off a message, snaps it closed and puts it back into her pocket. She doesn't try to explain herself to Grace any further. If she doesn't understand her protectiveness, well.
"It sort of is," she says to Lena. "Advance humanity through technology. Advance the human condition, too, maybe." She shrugs her shoulder and rolls it, trying to loosen some of the tension there.
"I'll try to get the word out. Is there anything else we should know?"
Grace
-- I understand. But I also know how I managed to beat it. You can hide, but there are benefits to working on your face-time.
With that last bit of texting, Grace stood back up. "Guys, I need to get out of here I think, go grab some coffee or food or both... Anyone with me? I'm sick of talking about all this depressing junk."
Grace
"And no, I'm sorry, that's all I have, Sid. I wish I could tell you I know everything, but..."
Grace was on her way back through the university grounds to go home. Dull days, mindblowing nights -- this was the pattern of her life now. But while the lure of home was inviting, so was the lure of nature.
Sometimes, you do just have to stop and smell the roses.
She stopped at that place where her nature had been picked up by Justin -- a park bench. The memory made her smile a bit, stopped in her tracks.
Without many people here in the summer, it felt like seclusion to lay back on the bench and stare at the sky -- and that's how she'd be found, if anyone were to find her.
Gadfly83
There are a few people around. Very, very few people. One of them is rather pudgy young man with a rather flushed face, probably the result of his swift, forced marched shuffle across campus, and his arms loaded with a great many small shipping boxes. Who knows what else was in his backpack. He huffed and marched and occasionally shook his sweat soaked hair out of the way as he headed past the benches. And then...he stopped.
He glanced toward Grace on the bench and stopped. Or he stopped and glanced toward Grace. From the look on his face even he had trouble figuring it out. He backtracks, staring at her confusedly.
"Hey?" he says, utterly unsure of himself. Then his eyes wander about, almost distractedly.
"What was I...umm...Oh! Do I...do i know you?"
The end of the inquiry comes just in step with a message alert on Grace's phone.
Grace
The voice came out of nowhere, really. She hadn't really been paying attention to anything but the sky. Her eyes shifted to the sound... familiar.
"Hey, I don't know, do you?" she mused.
Her phone beeped, a message... Well, messages lately had been kind of important. Better not to ignore the phone for now. She fished around for it in her laptop bag to receive whatever text awaited.
Gadfly83
"No. Er...Well...Shit. I just saw you there and..."
The guy babbles on while Grace rummages through her things looking for her phone. When she finds it, the message, from an unknown number, reads: 'Your favorite shoulder surfer requesting permission. --Gadfly'
Meanwhile, the chubby dude is still trying to get his words out of his mouth, occasionally shifting his weight to get a better grip on his boxes.
Grace
Reading the message, she smirked a little. He listened. Good.
She quickly typed in a response of "Permission granted." before looking back up at the stuttering guy.
"So, do you not often see people?"
Gadfly83
"Mm." The guy says, obviously upset by the whole confusion of the thing. "It's stupid. Forget it." And he walks away, back to wherever he was going.
The activity on Grace's phone is only just beginning though. Another message comes in moments later.
--Aw, poor Gus. I think you hurt is feelings. Just kidding, the kids dumb as a bag of bricks. Don't know if he even has feelings.
Grace
-- Who is Gus? And why does he think he knows me, man?
She looked up at 'Gus' with confusion. The odd mannerisms and stuttering speech actually reminded her of someone else...
Gadfly83
-- An undeclared major with an expensive Marijuana habit and poor impulse control. That last bit being why he thought he knew you. He bought a bunch of hardware online on impulse too. No idea how to put it all together but he likes robots and somehow thought it'd be cool to have one.
-- Drugs, television, and rock and roll really do rot the mind. So whatchya doin?
Grace
-- Well, robots are cool. I kind of agree. How do you know that?
-- And, well, I'm just outside for once. It's been interesting lately. I have some things to talk about... Can't.
Gadfly83
-- Lets just say, once you learn to peek over someone's shoulder, its a short step away from whispering in their ear.
-- And I've been thinking about that. Only...I could use a little help setting up shop.
Grace
She looked like any other summer student, sitting at a bench, texting furiously into her phone. The commonest of sights, really. And yet...
The conversation topic they were delicately talking around, now that was something. Gus sat in the back of her mind, though, a mystery.
-- Sure, what do you need? And, why are you whispering in Gus' ear?
Gadfly83
-- You like spy movies? Sometimes agent A has to secure some top secret info, or get something to agent B without them being seen together. So they use a drop.
-- This applies to both conversations, by the way.
Grace
-- Hmm, okay. I think I understand. A little.
So, he spied on poor Gus to see where she was, without breaking the 'don't drop in without asking' rule?
-- But, what do you need me to do?
Gadfly83
-- It might have been before your time but I think we can go old-school. A BBM system. We'd have to get our hands dirty and sort of stake a claim, frontier style. Most of that old technology still exists underneath the present telecom systems. Backward compatabilty and all that. Anyway, point is its all still there and its the perfect drop.
-- Best way to hide something is to get people not to look for it. Its so...analog. So Afghani cave, y'know?
-- But yeah, no forms to fill out. We'd have to take it.
Grace
-- Take it by force you mean. I think I can help you there.
Grace sighed into her phone. A long time ago, she'd given up that sort of thing. Well, given up is strong language. She played games with the other students, sure, but hadn't done anything blatantly illegal in... Well, okay, so even playing around with the other students was kind of grey-area, but they weren't the type to turn her in.
-- You got a target lined up?
Gadfly83
-- When you get a chance, take a look at Strivers Answering Service. Check out their fat girls.
-- I gotta go. Gus just walked past a burger joint. It'll be hell keeping him on task now.
Grace
-- Ahhh, I see. I think I know that joint. You live around here?
She got up from the park bench, it was getting on in the evening, soon to be anyway. The thought occurred to her that she might try to follow Gus, find out where here pen pal was staying, even if he wouldn't say.
Sid
[my magidar is ALWAYS ON: awareness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 4, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
Gadfly83
-- No, Gus does. We've gone over this, haven't we? The drop?
Grace
-- Maybe I'm just dense. Sorry.
She took off on a leisurely stroll in the general direction of her apartment... Gadfly was being mysterious on purpose it seemed. Better than getting caught, bad for understanding. The sooner they could get secure comms the better.
Gadfly83
-- Oh man, did I just say something dumb? Listen, I'm gonna switch to you, okay? Multitasking can only get me so far. And Gus can find his own way home.
--Switching now.
(Though, if its okay with you guys, I won't roll for this.)
Sid
As Grace takes a leisurely stroll through the campus in the direction of her home, talking on her phone or something, there are still people, younger and older, wandering the campus with her. They walk, they bike, there is even the grinding roll of a skateboard's wheels coming from somewhere behind her.
No, coming in her direction. Whatever, right? Could be any student, but no, the rider of this board is not a student here, not yet.
Sid, having sensed Grace from a little ways off, shifted her weight and changed her direction, but she doesn't come right up behind her, no, that would be terrible. Sid does not do unto others as she freaks out on when it's done unto her. She comes at the newly Awakened at a swerve, drawn to that shifting, mercurial shift of resonance like a mouse to cheese. Or peanut butter.
"He-" she starts to call out, alerting the woman to her incoming presence when she notices two things. First, Grace is on the phone.
The second has her stop up short, her weight shifting back so the board kicks upward. This she catches, and already she's frowning, seeking out this newer sensation even as it tries to tug her attention left, right, back, around.
Grace
[Rolling Awareness finally, because...]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 4, 6) ( success x 1 )
Grace
It takes longer for Grace to notice Sid, so wrapped up in her text convo. The familiarity of that sensation pulled her mouth into a smile and she looked up and around trying to pin it down, when the abruptly halted 'hey' drew her attention.
She waved the woman over, "Hey Sid! It's you!"
Gadfly83
Moments later, Grace's phone buzzes with another message alert again.
-- Woah. Who's she? Friend of yours?
Grace
-- That's Sid, she's cool. Vetted.
Again, Grace sticks her face into her phone, yes, even directly after saying hi to Sid. It must be important.
Sid
Grace notices her, and Sid, her attention still directed elsewhere as she tries to locate the source of that feeling, frowns more deeply.
Gadfly83 is right to Whoah from wherever he's hiding. Sid is tall and lovely, with fair skin and warm dark eyes behind her huge black-rimmed glasses, and long red hair that curls over her shoulders in waves. Her shirt is a sleeveless tunic of red and beige and navy bars, her jeans hug the curve of her hips and flare above her dark green Converse sneakers.
Her head turns toward Grace and she slowly, hesitantly leans down to grip and lift her skateboard. The steps she takes to close the distance start slow and measured, then speed up.
When she reaches the woman she greets her with a, "Do you feel that? Someone else is here."
Grace
"Ohh, yeah, that's, uh..." she gestures to her phone, "Meet Gadfly. He's kind of looking over my shoulder. Sort of thing."
She leans in and whispers, "Hey, do you know somewhere we could talk, uh.. privately?"
She's got this very serious look to her, like this is something she needs to get off her chest, like now.
Gadfly83
-- Eyes wide open, this one. And you trust her? You did a background check?
Grace
-- If she's a bad one, then the community here is fucked. I'm sure she's as safe as any of them.
Again with the texting, "Sorry, he's kind of not the face-to-face type."
Sid
The look on Sid's face becomes a wild mix of confusion, astonishment, and then intense curiosity. She's leaning forward as Grace leans toward her, hoping to get a better look at her phone.
"What...how...ah," she snaps her head back and shifts her weight back and out of Grace's personal space. "Yeah. Yeah, I can...the science department's offices are empty by now." She lifts her left hand to point her thumb back over her shoulder in the direction from which she had come, allowing Grace to see the (then upside down) tattoo on the inside of her wrist, possibly even the scar. Long and thin and surgically straight, it runs along the skin above her ulna.
Gadfly83
-- Community?
-- Woah. Community!
-- She's a traddie!
-- There are traddies in Denver?
-- And you know them! You're chummy with the traddies!
-- Why didn't you ever tell me?
And each one comes with its own pressing, prompting, look-at-me alert.
Grace
It does catch Grace's eye, but she chose not to comment on the tattoo for now, "Great, perfect. I've got something the both of you should know."
Grace started off in that direction, but the massive number of bleeps her phone was setting off caused her to stop in her tracks and grin at Gadfly.
-- Yeah, Community, yes, she is, yes there are, yes I am, and why didn't you ever tell me you lived here?
Sid
Grace's phone starts going crazy, bleeping away merrily, but this time Sid does not try to look at the screen. Instead she angles her head so that she can see Grace and also keep a watchful eye of the road ahead of them, her skateboard tucked under her arm now, her other hand resting on the corner of the messenger bag her player never ever remembers to mention.
Instead she leads the way quietly, her stride brisk but not too fast. "What, ah," she stops because Grace's phone is bleeping. When she's answered, Sid tries again, "Where. Where is he?" she asks, because she doesn't want to assume and ask the question she really wants to ask, Is he in your phone??
Because if Grace can have her own personal JARVIS, Sid would kind of love to have one, too.
Ahead of them, the science department's building looms. It's large and new and crisp and clean looking, all its edges still sharp and its façade is still bright and shiny and fresh. Sid pulls out her keys as they near the entrance, which is still unlocked for now as students still come and go to make use of the labs.
Grace
"He's over my shoulder," she says, as though that explains everything.
Sid walks, and Grace follows, though she doesn't appear to be looking where she's going. Instead, she looks around her, trying to be all nonchalant about it.
Gadfly83
-- I don't.
-- I didn't.
-- I was just passing through until the other night. Didn't think they were so close on my trail. Now I'm laying low.
-- Woah, she has keys. Do you have keys?
Grace
-- Not to this building. To the comp-sci hall yes.
Oh, but that might pique his interest...
Sid
Sid does have keys, not a lot, but a few. This ring doesn't have the key with the telltale fat bow that distinguishes it as a car key. Either she has no car, or she has another set. Given the skateboard and Denver's occasionally not-terrible public transportation system, who knows.
Grace knows. Grace hasn't seen Sid's other keys, but she's seen her truck.
She pushes through the entrance and leads them down one hall and up another. The walls are plastered with photos and posters and banners for earth science, life science, space, astronomy, you name it. There's a poster announcing the upcoming meteor shower, and a handmade poster announcing a party for the one year anniversary of the Mars Curiosity rover's landing.
Sid doesn't take Grace and her magic cell phone to an astronomy class, though. She leads her down one hall and down a set of stairs to the faculty center, the edges of her hair gliding from her shoulders in the breeze of her own momentum. They keys stay in her hand, and she flicks them once, casts a nervous glance over at Grace, but pushes it down. This isn't the first time she's brought someone in here after hours, after all.
The keys come in handy when they reach a door labeled FACULTY LOUNGE. Sid puts a key to the lock and peers cautiously inside before swinging the door open further. Inside there are comfy leather couches and bookshelves covered in scientific tomes, and a few potted plants.
Sid glances around again, then turns to face Grace, her eyes dropping to that magic phone.
Then her gaze lifts to Grace and she looks at her expectantly.
Gadfly83
-- Different but the same. Is she a mad scientist? An etherite? Ask her.
Grace
Grace walked through the familiar building like it was no big deal, certainly not. Just a couple of student workers off to... do something. The thing is, this should be comfortable -- she'd had classes here. But now, she felt the need for paranoia, and it hitched her steps a bit.
Walking into the FACULTY LOUNGE should also be fairly comfortable, being an employee herself, but still.
"You're sure this place is safe, yes?"
She looked at her phone, just in case Gadfly had something to say about it, before continuing.
"Well, last night, I was contacted rather forcefully, and Gadfly, before you freak out, it was one of us. Oh, and Gadfly wants to know if you are an... uh, Etherite?"
Sid
Sid doesn't nod when Grace asks if the place is safe. Instead her mouth presses into a line and a shadow forms between her brows. One shoulder lifts in a slight shrug, noncommittal. That shrug says Eh. Something in her eyes says No place is safe.
"It'll be okay," she says, though Sid never sounds terribly reassuring.
Then her brows tense at the question and her head tips to the side. "No, I," she stops, and though she's talking to Grace her face is directed more toward the phone. As though it were a real, living, breathing person. It is, but she, hm.
Suddenly, she sets her skateboard down on one of the couches, twists her torso and shifts back the flap of her bag and digs inside for something. "I'm what they call an Orphan. I don't," she straightens, and she's holding a pen in her right hand. Her eyes shift to the ceiling as she taps that pen against her lips. "I don't have a Tradition. I'm on my own."
Holding her arm out in front of her, she draws. A diagram starts to take shape, just below the words WE ARE MADE OF STARSTUFF. As it comes together - the shape vaguely humanoid - Grace may begin to feel Sid's resonance charge the air around the redhead. It's a feeling of lifted spirits, of the rapture that follows a goal attained or a substance taken. It's euphoric.
[Life scan! Probably unnecessary but I like rolling magic. Coincidental.]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 5) ( success x 1 )
Gadfly83
-- Orphan. Oh well, that's sort of like a Traddie.
-- One of us? You're sure? What'd they say?
Grace
Grace raised a brow at Sid's display and the euphoria that lingered in the air afterward. "I guess that makes me one too. Kind of."
"Last night, I was hacked. In about 5 minutes. Gadfly, you'll be happy to know that any record of our recent goings on has been deleted out of the watch list it was in." She punctuated those last two words as if to reiterate the point that they really needed to be more careful.
"And I also received some intel. This person who can hack my everything and knows exactly what I'm thinking wants me to let everyone else know what the Techs are up to in Denver. But this isn't something I can just text everyone about, you know?"
"They're quiet in town because they've got a secret lab here. Bleeding edge kind of stuff. Razor said they were growing human organs and investigating nanotechnology under the banner of H+"
Gadfly83
-- Aw man. Pod people. Test tube babies. Not good. Not good at all.
Whether Sid discovers that one mouse that visits the staff lounge to pick up crumbs or anyone else in the building making out or actually spying, one thing is clear. The phone is not alive. And there's no heartbeat or thump hovering over Grace's shoulder.
Sid
Sid's head rocks back a bit at that news. Not that Grace was hacked, that's just unfortunate, but that there are Techs again. That someone can and did slip into Grace's head and root around.
"There were some here as of last month but, but I heard they didn't want to hurt anyone. They were looking for Nephandi. I thought," she stops, closes her eyes and shakes her head. That was stupid thinking, what she thought. That they left, or that they'd leave the Awakened here in peace.
"Who is Razor?"
Gadfly83
-- Razor? Razor is 1337. Primo 1337. Vet-vet. This is both good and bad. Vet-vets don't take holidays. Disco warriors. And Disco is dead!
-- Nephandi = Nasty, psychopathic demonic awakened. Not to be confused with nasty, schizophrenic awakened. Those would be Marauders.
Grace
Grace was busy plotting out an imaginary map on the ceiling, easier to deal with than all the anxiousness bubbling up inside. She'd thought it would be good to get it off her chest, but now that she was saying it... Damn it, she's just so new.
Gadfly's texts did explain a few things, when she looked back down at her phone again, and she flung out another text of her own, in complete disregard of how Sid might feel about the two of them having a little private conversation. It was much like having three people in a room, two of whom are speaking in Mandarin or something.
-- Let's just say, you have a conversation with that one, and it screams 1337ness. Also, wtf. I thought the T were all we had to be paranoid about? Ugh.
"Razor is the one who told me all this. And yeah, I have a rather... fertile imagination. I can think of all kinds of things they might be doing with human organs and nanobots, none of which is necessarily quaint. But H+, that's the logo of Transhumanism. Razor found that to be particularly odd for Technocrats to be allied to, and from what I understand of them, I kind of agree."
Sid
Sid was in Grace's position not that long ago. Part of a trio trying to converse with the one who would make them a quartet, having to translate to the one person who couldn't hear the voice. Only this time it's Grace, and Sid is playing the role of Sera. Except Sid could never really. Who could ever capture that spirit? That verve? Maybe once upon a time she could, but now? No.
So. She doesn't mind that Grace is texting. It's part of the conversation, albeit an unconventional one.
Sid shrugs. She doesn't know much about the Techs herself, just that they're Bad News™ and she needs to AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
However.
"I've heard of that. Their, uh, movement. Transform the human condition through technology. That's, I don't know. That sounds like what I've heard of the Techs. Secret lab." She brings her hand to her mouth to gnaw on her thumbnail a moment before she grimaces and puts that hand back down at her side. "Any ideas where to start looking? Anschutz maybe."
Gadfly83
-- What's so odd about it? You have pieces of the history. The D.E. were a part of them. WE were a part of them. If we can think of it, they can, or already have, and have the funding for it.
-- Its what they'll likely use it for that worries me.
Grace
"No, from what I could gather, it was almost as if Razor were deliberately not telling me, so that I'd have to get the help of others, and so... I don't know, I can prove my worth maybe? Does that make sense?"
Proving of her worth, proof of loyalty perhaps. Something to say, yea verily, this one deserves a Tradition. She looked over to Sid with her tattoo (the awesome Sagan quote). More alike than most.
"But I know where to start. The start is to spread this around. We're not alone in Denver at all, and the quiet probably isn't going to last."
She again bent over her cell phone, typing away.
-- Yeah. Test tube babies with nanobots in?
Lena Reilly
The text hits Sid's phone as she's trapsing her way across campus. Lena is doing some papering for her latest DJ gig, and that brings her onto the institute of higher learning. That made her think of Sid, for obvious reasons. And that made her pull out her phone and text. It's been a couple weeks since she's been out or seen the other woman, the one Awakened person she knows particularly well. And, she reminds herself, she needs to stop being a shut-in.
And so the text beeps across to her phone:
hey u, just walking cross the u campus, thought id see if ur around, maybe say hi.
We promise, she only types like that when texting, walking, listening to music and smoking all at the same time.
Sid
Sid frowns.
"Why do you have to prove yourself to anyone?"
The quiet not lasting causes a change of expression, a different sort of frown. It's...worried, yes, but nostalgic, too. Maybe a little regretful.
Denver is quiet, she told someone once, and at the time it had been weird but she'd liked it that way. She'd been left alone for several months. Then everyone popped out of the aether and started gathering like ants to honey.
From her pocket issues that same sound Grace heard the first time she and Sid met in person. And upward lilting sort of sound that might remind her of a particular game franchise.
"Ah, 'scuse..." she says, and trails as if there's supposed to be a me at the end that doesn't quite make it into existence. She pulls out her phone, flips it open, and the corner of her mouth quirks like it wants to resolve into a smile but doesn't. A quick glance to Grace, then back down to her phone. It's not as easy to type on the old number pads, Sid's phone isn't a fancy smartphone with a tiny little QWERTY interface.
Yes, stayed late. Come to sci dept faculty lounge. Strange things afoot. Can't transmit.
Grace
Why prove yourself to anyone? Well, that was a question. "Think about it like this. You're an old-school hacker, right? They find you, you're dead. And suddenly, a newbie appears. You don't want to just let them get sucked up by the other side, but you also don't want to expose yourself. So, you watch. You have the newbie do something to prove themselves, prove that they are on the up and up, so you don't get burned by having contact. It's a narrative that makes sense to me, at least."
She thought about that, the narrative. She does like making stories up about people, trying to figure them out in some way. They're all like characters in the story of her life, and she imagines that others do the same.
"Anyway, I don't doubt Razor has good reasons. And I don't doubt that I'm being watched either."
Gadfly83
-- She's right. Sort of. You do have to prove yourself, but this doesn't have to be the way.
-- Tangling with the techs gets you D.E.D. That's french for Disco et Dodo. Get it?
-- But a lot comes from knowing. And now we know.
Grace
She looked down at her beeping phone again.
-- I didn't mean to 'tangle' with them. But letting everyone else in on this, as opposed to sitting on it, or what have you? I suppose that would go at least some way, yes? Shows I at least have some use as a contact.
Sid
"You're awesome," she says just before she takes that text. She doesn't say it all upbeat, like it's a reaction. She says it as a matter of fact. A statement. Definitive. So at least she doesn't have to prove herself to Sid.
If Sid could hear Gadfly's end of the conversation she might say And knowing is half the battle. Or maybe she'd just smile a little to herself. She can't, though, so she doesn't do those things.
She chews on her bottom lip while she waits for Lena's reply.
Lena Reilly
Strange things afoot. Can't transmit.
Now, that right there most certainly got a raised eyebrow from the Ecstatic. She replies back:
gotcha. omw, c ya soon
And then she's setting off. She isn't a student here, but she's been around the campus more than enough to know where everything is and it isn't long before she's outside the faculty office. The light brunette's hair is down and falling free, as is normally the case unless she's working or working out. She's dressed simply, in a black tank top with one of those kitschy "Keep Calm" sayings; this one says "Keep Calm and Drop the Bea" with a multicolored spectum equalizer surrounding the last work. A knee-length skirt and sandals completes the look, with earbuds in and iPod playing as she texts once more:
here!
Grace
Grace just smirked back at Sid, "Well, you're awesome too."
"Anyway. That's really all my secrets. Aside from Gadfly, who... Hmm. Think you should probably send Justin a text about him? I just found out he's staying in town. I kind of don't have Justin's number..."
-- Would you like to meet the rest of us around?
Sid
Sid stops chewing her lip, though she doesn't relax. She snaps her phone closed and says, "My friend is coming. Lena, she's. She's a Cultist, like Sera, but...but not like Sera."
Because no one is like Sera.
She tips her head to the question of sending Justin a text about Gadfly. "Why...does Justin need to know about Gadfly? Why won't he show himself?"
A few minutes later she gets the last text, and she goes to open the faculty door. She knows that there is no one else in the area but them, at least not on this floor, she's checked already. She opens the door to Lena and she offers her one of her sort of almost kind of smiles as she steps aside to let her into the lounge.
"Lena this is Grace. And Gadfly."
Gadfly83
-- Define 'meet'. Like meat-meet? This seems nice enough to me, don't you think?
-- Wow. She's something. Very...symmetrical. Proportionate.
Lena Reilly
[[Magedar, go! Per Spec: Uncanny Instincts]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 6 )
Grace
Grace lifted a hand in awkward wave, "Hey, I'm kinda new, I don't think we've met."
To Sid, "I don't know, show him around, let him visit the awesome library, you know.. like you did for me?"
She looked down at her phone, and her face fell a bit. "If he wants to."
-- Don't be so anti-social. I found a kick-ass book at their house. Obviously one of our type of books, and full of margin notes, it was... what I built my program based on.
-- Oh, and... maybe if you were actually here, you could tell her that yourself. But I wouldn't. That's kind of rude, man.
Lena Reilly
"Hey, hon. Good to see you," is what she says when she steps through the door.
Lena knows Sid by now, and she knows that Sid is not someone that she hugs in all but the most stressful situations. They've been in those situations before, she knows when it's okay to hug Sid and when not to. So she doesn't try to do it now. Besides, Sid's introducing her to someone...and someone else. The Ecstatic's sixth sense ticks up; she pauses, and runs a hand through her hair as she looks around. It's brief though, and then she smiles to Grace.
"Hello, Grace. I'm Lena." She steps to the woman, extending a hand. She's all friendly and warmth, with her pulsing forward, withering back aura for those who are feeling sensitive. "And...hello, Gadfly?"
She looks between Grace and Sid. "Names in the right order, right? Sorry if I flipped it."
Gadfly83
-- Rude? Right. That's why I'm not there.
-- Maybe we can exchange numbers? Everyone's got a number, right?
Sid
"I don't introduce people to my friends I haven't met in person," she says, immediate and firm. Sid is cautious, and she is particularly careful when it comes to leading new people to her friends, though they are most of them fully-fledged grown-up magic wielders of considerably greater skill and experience than herself and can take care of themselves. But if she can protect them in some way, she will. And she knows absolutely nothing about this person. "If he has a number, though. I can pass it along." No promises of contact from the other direction, though, because she couldn't even if she wanted to.
Lena knows Sid mostly. She knows Sid from those stressful times when Sid hated the idea of people touching her, when her fears and her paranoia were so high she couldn't stand the idea of people being in near to her physically. Sid would hug the hell out of Lena, but she remembers that it's not her thing. And she gets it. She might not know the reason for it, if there even is one, but she gets it and she doesn't push. So she doesn't step into Lena and wrap her arms around her. She just gets that smallish sort of smile.
And she nods, yes, she got the names in the right order. "Tell her what you told me," she says to Grace. She might as well start spreading the information now.
Grace
Lena's hand was eyed a bit before Grace leaned in to take it. It's not the most normal of handshakes -- Grace is distracted, and this shows in her seeming inattention to social graces. She really does care, just other things are more important right now.
"Sid, I kind of, have met him in person. He was there with me on the day I woke up. He just doesn't like being around people. I'm sure you can understand?" she raised a brow at Sid as if to say, 'yes, I have noticed'.
And the memory of that version of Gadfly, the time she meat-met him in that strange little bookstore -- it's no wonder he doesn't want to be seen. But shells are made to be broken.
She typed again, having that silent, secret conversation.
-- Yeah, well, I don't know your number, and I don't know the number of the people who live at the house, sorry. So, give me a number?
'Tell her what you told me' then makes it to her consciousness, and suddenly, the attention shifts back to Lena. "Oh! Yeah. So, I got a contact who... Well, I think I can trust. And they gave me some info on the Technocracy in Denver. They're not gone. They've got some secret lab that they're hiding away. My contact said that their work involved growing human organs, and nanotech. I'm just passing on the bad news, I'm afraid."
"I know they say Denver's been quiet for a while, but I don't think it's going to stay that way."
Lena Reilly
So it's right into the fire with the conversation. The Ecstatic's brow creases, and she friends a little bit, sighing. "Well hell. That's just the kind of news that can ruin your day." It's said in a lighter tone than you might expect...to be fair, Lena has never had too close of a run-in with the Technocracy. But it's not so much underestimation as it is more a 'c'est la vie' tone. She's not dismissing it, she's just taking it in stride.
Lena looks at Sid a moment, pursing her lips. "I'm not exactly the world's foremost expert on the Technos. I just know what I was taught. That does sound like a time to shore things up though." A faint smile. "I guess I should finally stop by the clubhouse."
She's listening to the conversation about Gadfly, and she is still keeping aware of that distracting sensation. But on that front, she's more listening and observing at the moment...taking it in and absorbing the conversation.
Gadfly83
-- Fine. 555-423-3543. Though we'll have another number once we set up the drop.
Sid
Grace tells her that she's met her, but it's clear this is a point the Orphan will not budge on. If she hasn't talked to him, she's not sending him on, especially not to Justin. She didn't even give Grace anyone's number when she first met her, except for maybe Jim's and only then because she knew he already had hers. Sid will let Justin decide if he'll make contact with this new stranger or not, but she's not risking him to some stranger if she can help it.
"He's," she starts, then she turns her head towards Grace's phone. And she holds out her hand for it. Whether she gives Sid the phone or not, however, Sid says, "You're asking us to trust you without trusting us. I can give Justin your number. From there it'll be up to him."
She nods her head to Lena, though, agreeing with her. This is the time to shore up. If Gadfly would trust her, maybe she would include him in that. But if he wishes to remain separate, then separate he shall remain.
Grace
Grace sighed at her phone, at the 'fine.' that Gadfly left. "Well, I got him to give me digits, so pass this on to Justin I guess, Sid. 555-423-3543. Though, this number isn't going to last."
"And I'm no expert on the Technos either. Hell, I just became aware of their existence about a few weeks ago. But life moves pretty fast, and I already managed to just barely avoid detection by them twice."
Grace walked over, and sat down on one of the couches fairly hard, like that last sentence took something out of her. She didn't really have any idea of what would happen were she to have not avoided them, but with all the dire warnings given lately, it wasn't good -- she knew that much.
"It's a massive, state-of-the-art lab they've got going, with Transhumanism logos. And that means, upgraded people, in some fashion."
-- I tried, sorry. Most people aren't going to understand why you won't meat them
Yes, 'meat'. The typo was intentional.
Grace
[I'm going to have to get going guys! giving warning, Grace is going to go pop.]
Lena Reilly
Her lip curls a bit at the idea of upgraded people. That sounds...clinical. Lena is many things, but while she is forced by circumstances in her life to experience clinical situations, 'clinical' is about the last word that could be used to describe her.
"Transhumanism. Jesus Christ, that sounds like a new age cult." She shakes her head as she takes out her phone and sends a text to the phone number given for Gadfly. Lena trusts, sometimes a little too much. She doesn't extend that trust to giving out information for other people, but would rather trust for herself and get hurt than let other people be hurt. She'll be a guinea pig. She makes a show of pressing send, so that the mystery man can easily determine who it's coming from.
ground control to major tom. hows the weather up there?
Gadfly83
-- I get that.
Is the short reply to Grace's phone. Meanwhile, Lena's reply is more along the lines of:
-- Usually I'm ground control. Besides, doesn't Major Tom blow up?
and also
-- You're very symmetrical, by the way. Is that rude?
Sid
Sid takes the number and she writes it on the inside of her arm, just beside the little drawing. There is no spike of her presence this time, however, it's just there because she was still holding the pen.
Which gets slipped back into her bag again. She takes out her phone, flips it open, sends off a message, snaps it closed and puts it back into her pocket. She doesn't try to explain herself to Grace any further. If she doesn't understand her protectiveness, well.
"It sort of is," she says to Lena. "Advance humanity through technology. Advance the human condition, too, maybe." She shrugs her shoulder and rolls it, trying to loosen some of the tension there.
"I'll try to get the word out. Is there anything else we should know?"
Grace
-- I understand. But I also know how I managed to beat it. You can hide, but there are benefits to working on your face-time.
With that last bit of texting, Grace stood back up. "Guys, I need to get out of here I think, go grab some coffee or food or both... Anyone with me? I'm sick of talking about all this depressing junk."
Grace
"And no, I'm sorry, that's all I have, Sid. I wish I could tell you I know everything, but..."
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