Atreyu... Again. (Howl ST)

Atreyu
It takes a while, the search. Wherever Atreyu is staying, it must be warded, because all of Grace's efforts and algorithms come up empty. At least, at first. But then Monday evening, something happens: one of Grace's search protocols trips. And there's Atreyu leaning against the glass at the Denver Zoo otter exhibit. The otters themselves are in the midst of a frolicking array of underwater tricks, and they've attracted the attention of a number of visitors. A group of young children press up against the base of the glass with delighted squeals of laughter. They catch Atreyu's attention too, and for a moment he watches them in much the same manner he watched the otters: with this little charmed smile.

By the time Grace arrives, of course, he's moved on to another exhibit. It's late enough in the evening that the steady stream of guests has slowed to a sporadic trickle. In about an hour they'll be closing the gates, but a few stragglers still stand at the ticket window, waiting to get in a bit of last-minute animal-watching. The sun is dipping low on the horizon and everything in the park is lit up with a deep golden glow.

It isn't much trouble to locate Atreyu, after arriving. Grace finds him sitting on a bench by the polar bear exhibit, legs crossed with a backpack at his side and a sketchpad laid out across his lap. He's sketching a drawing of one of the bears sleeping beneath the shade of an overhanging rock.

He looks a little different than she remembers, though her memory is overlaid with multiple images. This Atreyu has longer hair than he did when she found him in the space station in Bastion. He's a bit older, and dressed in more typical clothes. He doesn't look out of place. Doesn't really feel out of place either.

His resonance has gotten a little stronger. Still that same dauntless energy, but more focused now. Seeking.

Grace
[Awareness!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 5, 5) ( fail )

Grace
Grace has daemons working for her.

Little seeking daemons made of code, background processes in all her servers. They're trained to look for a face -- to yell when they find it. After brute forcing her way to Atreyu didn't work, she got mundane-creative, built a web of eyes and waited. Wait time is officially over.

Now, the pursuing begins.

Knowing he's at the zoo makes him an easy target. There's a little worry that she's missed him, but even then -- she can get creative again. She doesn't need to. A bright, if wary smile reaches her face when she sees him, sitting there drawing a polar bear as though he didn't once belong to another world.

"I heard you were looking for me. So I had to come looking for you. Difficult to find, as usual," she says, walking up.

Atreyu
Funny that, how they always seem to find each other this way. How much of his time in Bastion does Atreyu remember? How many of his lives there are still contained within him? Perhaps Grace finds it odd, seeing him there in her world. A stranger from a strange land. Atreyu looks up from his drawing when he feels her approach. There is a moment of quiet regard while he takes her in. They've both changed (both grown.) And yet, their faces are just as they remember.

When he recognizes her, he smiles. There's a slow-burning warmth that always seems to resonate from Atreyu's smiles. In every incarnation, he (or she) was always something of a beacon. "I figured you'd find me eventually. It's... good to see you." He says it like it surprises him, almost. The way she reminds him of home.

There's space beside him on the bench. Atreyu nods toward it in silent invitation. The sketch in his lap is mostly finished. It's a simple thing, but the depiction is reasonably skilled, if perhaps not to a degree that would ever net him a career in the arts.

"I went to see Patience, but her house was empty. I guess she left."

Grace
"Patience, yeah, she moved on. You remember her too, I guess."

Grace strides over, plops herself down on the bench, and curls a leg underneath to sit on. "It's strange to see you. It makes me wonder a lot of things, really."

She glances at the sketch, but Grace has no eye for art. It looks like a polar bear. So do the bears lounging nearby. He could just take a picture, right?

"Like, yeah... what are you doing here? Not to be rude? But no, seriously. What the fuck?" The aggression in her words is a contrast to her face, which mirrors his seeking nature back at him. She just really wants some answers here.

"You should have seen Kalen's face when I told him you were here," Grace says, even though that face of Kalen's was only readable by people who are fluent in Kalen Face Language. He doesn't like to express shock or fear, especially not to Grace. "I think he expects the zombie apocalypse now."

Atreyu
Atreyu laughs when Grace questions him. The sound is relaxed (good-natured.) Her bluntness doesn't seem to phase him much, but her line of inquiry inevitably draws a more serious expression out of him.

Why is he there?

"Sometimes the things I remember feel like dreams. Sometimes there are are pieces that come and go. I remember Kalen, though. And Ian. And... Sid. I remember all of you. You're really the only pieces of Bastion that I have left, besides my memory. I know I didn't know you very long, but I guess I wanted to see you again. Plus, I'm always amazed by the mountains here. There wasn't anything like that on the Station."

None of that is really what Grace is asking, and it isn't a complete answer on his part, but perhaps Grace will forgive him a moment of sentimentality.

"I found something I wanted to show you." He slides the sketchpad off his lap and slips it into his backpack, fishing around for a tablet. When he pulls it out, he navigates to a hidden folder and a video marked, simply "Home."

"The Union found it, you know. In the ocean. Right before... everything happened at the end. It's fucking weird to think that everything I ever experienced was sitting on a bunch of hardware in a trench in the Pacific." He goes quiet then. Looks at Grace for confirmation. "Do you want to see it?"

Grace
"That's not really weird. Well, okay, it is. But I don't think that matters, technically. Experiences are experiences. They happened. And there's absolutely nothing that says we aren't -- right now -- sitting on a bunch of hardware in a trench in some other Pacific. Where do you think people got the idea to make Bastion in the first place?"

She scoots closer to him, leans over to get a look at the tablet. "I want to see it. What is it?"

There is a 'Home' folder. Something in that tugs at the heartstrings. He misses those disjointed dreams...

Atreyu
There are a hundred worlds there for him to miss. A hundred lives, each of them complete with their own experiences. How many of those experiences were merely stories implanted into his memory? Did that make them less real?

What is it?

"You'll see," he says quietly. And then he plays the video.

At first, the only thing Grace sees is the ocean. Deep blue water, stretching out forever into the horizon. And the sky, muted with the blue-grey light of dawn. The picture moves a bit, rocking gently - as though filmed by hand from someone standing on a boat. Voices can be heard in the background.

"I don't see anything."

"It was there. Wait."

Suddenly an arc of electricity spiderwebs across the surface of the water. When it does, the video gives off an eerie feedback hum.

"Shit. Something's happening. What's the read-out say?"

Everyone gets very quiet for a second. Then someone says: "Fuck. We need to get back, now."

The boat starts moving, sending a trail of broken waves in its wake. Whoever's holding the camera keeps it steady though. Keeps it pointed at the water. On the surface, the current of energy arcs again, bigger this time. It builds into a bright, crackling electrical storm. In the background, people start shouting. The ocean grows choppier, more violent. The boat rocks as a wave hits the side. In the distance the electrical storm grows and grows, arcing out across the water and up into the sky. Then the screen flashes with a brilliant explosion of light. There's a lot of feedback before the audio track goes dead. The last image on the screen before the video cuts out is... well. It could be a trick. But it looks like a being made of light rising out of the water. There's a moment, a flicker of recognition when her face forms in the sky, then the light shoots up into the atmosphere and disappears.

And the video stops.

"I think I knew that's what happened. But... it's different. Actually seeing it. There's more videos of the divers exploring the trench. The server got totally trashed, but what was left of it looked like an underwater city." He pauses and looks at Grace. The two of them are alone right now, apart from the bears. Some people are gathered at another exhibit across the way, but they're starting to thin out.

"I want to believe that it's all still out there somewhere. With her. Wherever she is."

Grace
"I had a dream about her. So did Kalen. It can't have been an accident," Grace says, staring -- perhaps a bit open-mouthed -- at the events occuring on Atreyu's screen. "It looks like she got away."

She looks up at him, then, once the video ends. "So, yeah. It is with her. And with us."

Then, her eyes find the video again. "How did you get this?"

Atreyu
"I've been trying to dig up anything I could about what happened." He pauses a moment, reluctant. "Wulf... found it for me."

He knows what he's telling her. What Grace will remember when she hears him mention a wolf. Nothing good, certainly. But she'd been there when Atreyu merged with the creature (the protocol.) Apparently some version of it was still with him.

"When I came here, it came with me. Sort of... sharing space in my head. Mostly it's dormant. But it wakes up sometimes when I need it. It took me a while to figure out how to let it out, but..." Atreyu reaches up to lift some of the hair behind his ear. When it parts, Grace can see what looks like some kind of device implanted into his skull. "It's pretty crude." (By his standards, anyway.) "But it works. The Mercurials say it's code, the Kha'vadi think it's a spirit. Personally... I don't make a distinction."

Grace
Daemons running processes in the background -- waiting until they are needed... "Mercurials might just be saying that because most of us don't know jack about spirits. Myself included."

She appears to be completely enraptured by the device sticking out of his skull, because already there are a million questions.

"I think you might be on to something though, about there not being much of a difference. It's all code in the end anyway..."

She trails off, but gives him a sideways glance, wary again. "You're in control of Wulf? Do you need to be in control of Wulf to keep him, it, whatever from hauling off and murdering anything that smells vaguely human because it might be a 'Crat? You did something to it, I remember... Fixed it?"

Atreyu
"When I Woke Up, yeah. He's... better." There's a hint of a smile when Atreyu notices the way that Grace's attention fixates on the device. There isn't much visible, but it looks like some kind of jack, and there's a little bump where the wireless antenna is located. He gives her a chance to look at it before letting his hair fall back into place. "I think I might have changed him a little, too. Turns out he's pretty useful for hunting down files and getting past high level encryption. Better at it than I am, anyway. One of my cabal-mates likes to call him the Ghost in the Machine."

Apparently, a lot has happened in the last year.

"I don't think you need to worry. Not about that, anyway." The sky is getting darker, and Atreyu glances up at the clouds. "We should probably get going before this place closes. But listen, there's... more that I need to tell you. I'm here with some other people. We've been looking into the Union for a while, and there are things you should know. A lot of things. But we can't talk about it here. I have a secure cell number I can give you. If you give me yours then we won't have to hunt each other down again."

Grace
"I thought that might have happened to you. Wondered if it could inside Bastion. You know, I have heard some Awakening stories before, but none quite so... extreme."

She looks up into the darkening sky when he glances at the clouds.

"Yeah. There are things I need to know..." Grace says, looks at him almost as if she wants to touch his face, just to see if he's really real. It's a silly impulse. It passes.

They exchange numbers, because of course she wants to know what's going on with the Union. They're rearing their ugly heads, for all it seems to be rumor and chance meetings that go nowhere. That the Mages of Denver have not crossed paths with them in years might be coincidence or by design, eh? And certainly not the design of the Traditional types.

There's a puzzle here. Grace likes puzzles. They're meant to be solved. There's a reason, she thinks, that her daemons found him today. The universe sometimes seems to have an uncanny knack at knowing what it's doing. Sometimes, not. Just like anyone else, really.

Atreyu
Atreyu looks like he wants to say more, but he doesn't. He probably shouldn't have risked telling her what he did in such an open, public place. (Grace found him, after all. It stood to reason someone else might do the same thing.) But despite his caution, he doesn't seem especially... worried. Perhaps there are reasons for that. Perhaps he's just a young man (albeit an unusual one) who forgets too easily what it means to be afraid. (That boldness is, after all, written into his very essence.)

So he gives Grace his number, and inputs hers into his phone. And when they're done he packs up his bag and stands.

"I need to speak with my cabal. I think it would be good if we could arrange a meeting, but I don't know if they'll go for it. We have to be pretty careful, for a lot of reasons. But either way, I'll find us a place to talk. And then I can tell you what we've found."

He slings his bag over one shoulder and gestures in the general direction of the zoo's entrance. "After you."

Brief Interlude of Wigging Out But Good

Kalen
Kalen is in his office.  His hair is still damp from a post-workout shower and he's wearing jeans and a charcoal grey tee-shirt.

There is a coffee mug next to a bunch of papers, half empty because Kalen is working on transcribing and annotating rotes and has basically forgotten it.  He has several heavy books out and his journal, and fountain pens full of multiple metallic colors and a few more normal colors.  There are a series of intricate sigils in gold and silver and copper and bronze, accented with other colors on occasion drawn on large sheets of nearly translucent paper.  There are sheets of actually translucent paper with annotations to serve as overlays.  Heavier textured paper to serve as covers and various colors of silk thread to bind little folios together.

He's really only a step or so away from art.

Grace
Kalen's office door swings open suddenly, because Grace has little patience right at the moment, and little things like courtesy go flying out the window when she is in deep thought. She does announce her presence with a loud "Kalen!" right before going for the door handle, but there wasn't much thought behind that to be honest.

She doesn't even bother to fully process what's going on in the background, with the sheets of paper and metallic inks. It registers, of course. He's making sigils. Working. It's still not quite as important as what she's got on her phone right now, its screen pointed at him, showing the selfie of a guy with shoulder-length black hair, tanned skin, and a serious expression.

"So, uh. I'm a little freaking out right now..."

Kalen
Kalen looks at the picture for a few seconds and then sighs.  "Why do I suspect this is more complicated than that he is cute, he's asked you out to coffee, and you suddenly care whether your clothes match?

"Not that that wouldn't be a legitimate reason to come flying into my office....."

Grace
What? Asked her out to coffee? She just blinks at him.

"Okay. Uh. No. You remember Bastion, right? This guy -- he was a part of that world. Atreyu. It's kinda complicated, you know?"

She slides the phone across his desk at him, doesn't sit down.

"He was the security protocol. Kind of. Also a living portal between worlds. Sometimes he wasn't a he, but near the end, he looked exactly like this. And this was taken at his request by Arionna who just came by to deliver the message that he's looking for me."

So, you know, talk about evidence that one is in another world, right? Arionna looking out for her fellow man? Gotta be a sign.

Kalen
Kalen goes very still at the menton of Bastion.

Stays very still until Grace has finished speaking.  For a moment after.

And then, quietly, "Do we know why he is here at all?"  There is no real emotional tone, because control.  But his eyes are just a little wide.  His breathing too perfectly even.  He might be good enough to fool most people most of the time, but he is not, not remotely, calm.

Grace
"She said he was also looking for some other people whose names she didn't recognize and didn't remember, other than that -- no idea," Grace says, paces towards the wall with a sigh.

"More great news? They had an 'encounter' with a lead scientist with the Technocracy. He had to have told her that -- she didn't seem to know what the Technocracy is. She said that happened at a bakery near the campus, which could be like ten different bakeries. She didn't know the name of the place."

She turns back to face him, leans against the wall.

"I'm going to go try to find him now, you know."

Kalen
Kalen does not seem surprised by the mention of the technocracy.  It has been brought to his attention twice recently.

He remembers zombies shambling, mindless and seemingly endless.  Remembers having a horse that was his only real companion for months.

Remembers standing in line at a cafe and feeling out what to do about the man with the Static Resonance and the black suit.  Until the world became the one he had seen before and he'd had to make a choice.  And he had, in that second, given a warning to someone he is relatively sure was a technocratic agent in the hope that what they both cared about most was not fighting.  That it was protecting the lazy afternoon crowd from people with a shotgun.

He hadn't told the others about that.  Not that in his vision Kelsey had killed him, not that the person he'd temporarily partnered with was perhaps his enemy.

Perhaps.  But hen perhaps a whole horde of people just really need to read A Separate Peace.  And pay attention.

"I would expect no less," Kalen says.  Still perfectly, carefully measured.  "Let me know if you need me for anything."

Grace
[Perception + Empathy = Does Grace notice how not-calm he is?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )

Kalen
[Manip+Subterfuge - Not that Grace can't tell, I just want to know how good he is at not freaking out.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 8, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Grace
"Do you need anything? Like... a Valium? I know where Elijah keeps his tequila."

He might be able to fool most people most of the time, but there's no fooling Grace right now. Something's up, there. Her own trip to Bastion wasn't a walk in the park, but what she heard of his? He doesn't like to talk about it. Nobody did.

"Listen. The world isn't falling apart. Not yet. And even if it starts? I'll fix it. Nothing I haven't done before," she says, gives him a smile.

Kalen
Kalen laughs at that.  "Look at you.  Definitely my best apprentice.  You learned the most important thing."  And he does, there, sound a little proud.  Grace is not the girl he met at a picnic table two years ago anymore.  She is no longer unsure how to respond to zombie dogs and unexpected Umbral trips and the looming threat of the apocalypse.

She has accepted that she can change the world.  And, if she must, that she should.

If she could have learned that or Enochian...well...the right thing took.

Grace
Grace rolls her eyes at that.

"Okay. Listen. I don't actually think the world's about to end or anything, but it might start getting interesting here real soon. I don't want to lead anyone or anything to something I care about, so I'm going to go do my thing from the parking lot of the Walmart on Wadsworth Boulevard. Just so you know."

Just in case she goes missing, she means. Which isn't going to happen, Kalen...

She walks over to his desk, leans over to grab her phone back -- Atreyu's face staring back at her. "Ugh, why couldn't you have told Arionna something important? Like how to find you? Jerk..."

She's talking to the phone of course. Then, she stalks her way back out of Kalen's office with her face stuck in it.

Are you sure you're Arionna?

Grace
The office. This place doesn't look like much from the outside, which is just fine by the ones who run it. There's an unkempt quality about these buildings that share a driveway between them -- but it's all for lack-of-show. Hidden cameras abound here. The doors are thick steel things with biometric locks.

It's a fortress, built against the apocalypse that everyone knows is coming and refuses to admit. Kalen was always truthful with himself about that. The world ends every day if not for the efforts made to keep it together. Someday, those efforts might fail. And then?

Of course, Arionna can't see it. She can hear it though -- the distance they are from the city center. The relative quiet here. She might be able to feel the deep, entrenched essences of those who spend the most time here. Elijah's tumult, Grace's winged razors, Kalen's shifting sky-colors.

Grace bides her time by watching the camera feeds every now and then, while keeping abreast of the latest in network security. She knows when Elijah and Arionna have arrived. So she's there, opening the door with a heavy metallic crunch of machinery.

Arionna
[awareness[

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 7, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Arionna
[alertness]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Arionna
She and Grace are not exactly friends. Ari doesn't have a fondness for her, and Grace doesn't for Ari. They've simply agreed that it was acceptable, and kept their distance. Ari had no problem with that. But now she had word to give, and she'd rather give it herself...mostly because she told Atreyu she would. Ari, if she gives her word, executes it. Mostly she didn't want to be in his debt.

She stepped out, putting her cane together and shifted towards the sensation of, well, Grace, and that of the building. She was slow, as it was unfamiliar, tapping the cane from each side as she progressed. It was when the door opened that she paused and tilted her head just a little towards Grace. "Grace..." She said, waiting for the response as if she knew exactly who it was. "Elijah has a phone call. He'll come in later, if need be."

Grace
This is the first time Grace has seen Arionna blind -- that she knows. There was that time at the park, but she'd hightailed it before she could tell.

She steps out of the way. Doesn't offer a hand just yet. "Right, okay. Well, here you are. Do you want to go sit down or... Whatever?"

Arionna
Arionna listens to her tone. It's the voices that tend to tell her things, the tones and way the words are inflected. She cats her head to the other side, her eyes hidden behind the sunglasses. "I suppose we can." She said evenly, stepping forward with the cane shifting from each side. "I doubt it'll take very long but I've never been very fond of heat anyhow. Somewhere cooler would be more...comfortable."

Grace
The door shuts behind Ari with another grinding crunch, like the shutting of a vault door.

"Okay. There's a  room in here," Grace says, her voice trailing off to the left.

Then, a little closer: "Would you like a hand finding a place to sit?"

Arionna
Ari is following her voice the best she can, pausing when she hits something with her cane and using the tip to find out where it ends so that she can move forward. She had an urge to decline the offer, but then Ari tended to hold onto spite and anger much longer than some. Instead she paused, considered it and gave in. "Yes." She said, knowing full well that this place was new and confusing. It sounded less like an actual building and more like something else...

"Though, verbal directions will suffice."



Grace
"Okay. About ten steps forward, you'll find the back of a couch," Grace says. "Can just follow that around to the right -- there's no side table. There is, however, a cat sleeping on the left side."

Grace sets her own self down in a chair for one -- so there will be no closeness with other people or things.

Arionna
Ari stepped forward and reached out her hand. When she felt teh fabric, she began to follow it to the right as directed and around. She sat easily enough and collapsed the cane. She set her purse next to her and slipped her hand in to find the phone. "Someone came looking for you. I'm here to bring the message." She felt the smooth metal between her fingers and pulled the phone out, and extended it for Grace to get it, wherever she was. "He took a picture to affirm his identity. He went by the name Atreyu."

Grace
Grace is silent for a while. She doesn't go for the phone for a few seconds after it's offered, because -- quite frankly -- Atreyu was the last name Grace was expecting to hear.

Atreyu was a part of Bastion.

Her heart rate climbs a bit, as she comes to grips with the notion that the last year or so may have been spent in Bastion still, and here comes the living portal, chasing after her for once.

She grabs Ari's phone, skims through it until she finds the picture gallery, and the last image taken -- of a man she remembers.

"Atreyu. What did he say?"

Arionna
"Only that he was looking for you. He mentioned others but the names escape me. They were people I'm unfamiliar with."

"We did encounter someone he seemed to know. A lead scientist at the...Technocracy, I believe. Briefly of course, but since I've never seen these individuals, and they did happen to appear at the same time and place I met Atreyu, it's something to keep in mind."

"He didn't provide me with a number or place of contact, but said he'd be in the city. "

Grace
"WHAT?" Grace says, and you can just hear the wide-open eyes in her tone of voice. If she'd been drinking, that would be the time of the spit-take. "You. Met with Atreyu. And encountered a lead scientist with the Technocracy. And how the fuck are you alive? That's an explosive combination there, Ari..."

She sighs while looking at the picture on Ari's phone. "I'm going to send myself this picture if that's okay with you?"

"I didn't even know the Techs had a lot of activity going on here. That's new..."

Arionna
"He pulled us out quickly and drove us away when he noticed their arrival. He'll be better suited to explaining it. He seemed to know them, after all. There were two of them though, I think."

There's a small dip in her chin. "It's acceptable. I would have sent it myself had I been able to contact you. Might have been more comfortable than meeting in person." Ari canted her head a little. "I do find it suspicious that they appeared at the same moment, at the same place... all of us converged at once. The gods rarely place with coincidence. There was a reason. Since I know so little about him, I assume you have a better understanding of the likelihood of his connection with them. I doubt they were after me." Her doubt of course was based solely on her lack of connection. What would they really gain from her?

Grace
"It's something I noticed soon after Awakening, Ari. The gods or the universe or the machine or whatever you want to call it -- loves herding Mages together in one place at one time. About 50% of the time, it means some huge nasty shit is going down within five minutes. The other 50%, it means we're going to chat a bit and go home.

"The Technocracy is an organization built by Mages, even if they refuse to call themselves that. They use scientific methods -- badly -- and infiltrate government, corporate, and media organizations in order to exert control over people. They're little shits. But powerful little shits.

"I'm going to tell you a story, and you don't have to believe it -- it is pretty unbelievable. But anyway... A while ago, I ran into one of the Technocracy's little oopsies. A group of Mages had decided to make a Reality 2.0 -- like a reality simulation. Another universe, basically -- based on this one, but better. The Technocracy considered it a threat, and decided to neutralize it by killing everybody who knew about it. But they found that they couldn't get admin privileges to Reality 2.0, and they'd killed everyone who did. Oops. So they abandoned it. Which was so brilliant, I can't even begin to describe, right?

"Bastion -- this other universe -- got desperate. She'd been under attack by the Techs and had been damaged severely. So she started abducting people in the hope that she could either feed on them or get help. She abducted Kalen and Ian and Sid one night. So we went in to 'save' them. Atreyu was... he was Bastion's security protocol. So he was fighting Technocrat attacks from the beginning. And the part of him that was semi-sane was helping us get to the place where we could fix things. We did, and everyone came back to this Reality okay, except for one...

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that this picture looks like a guy I knew from another universe. A guy who spent his existence fighting the Technocracy. A guy who I'm pretty sure was never born. If he's here, that's legit weird. I wonder if it's Bastion trying to send us a message? Or maybe I'm still in Bastion? I just don't know."

Arionna
"What you're attempting to say is that Atreyu is a computer program that has spent his life assaulting the Technocracy." She is quiet and she doesn't seem to move from her space. Ari is merely thinking.

"I'm sure my perceptions aren't all that important. Whether I believe you or not is irrelevant. Now nothing terrible happened when we left, and we weren't followed, but if I were a scientist studying magi, the best approach would be field observations first. If you're not aware of your prey's movements, it's best to learn them first, so that your method of acquisition or termination is efficient and effective. Tha is my perspective of course."

"The question remains... if I see him again, before you're able to meet, is there a method of contact you would like me to forward on?"

Grace
"You're right about the field observations bit. If we contact each other, I want it to be as clandestine as possible. No phone numbers or emails. If you see him, tell him to come here. But I'll be trying to get in touch with him in my own way..."

She sighs, flipping through menus to get to the one where she can share the photo via email. Sends it off to a burner account that's going to get burned immediately after this...

The phone gets handed over, and it stays stuck in midair because Grace has forgotten that Ari can't see. "Oh yeah. Here's your phone back."

Arionna
It hung in the air momentarily until Ari put her hand out, palm up, for Grace to drop it in. "I'll let him know."

Ari put her cane back together and rose slowly, slipping the phone back in her purse. "The particular place we met the technocracy is a bakery near the campus. Naturally I don't know the name. I don't know if they are regulars, but it is something to keep in mind."

Grace
"Are you sure you're Arionna?" Grace says, a little amusement in her. "I mean that in a good way."

"I never thought I'd have to thank you for doing something for me," she continues, her voice moving back toward the door. "But thank you."

Arionna
She stands still, thinking over Grace's words, then began to follow her slowly, keeping in mind the things in front of her. "Thank you isn't required. I have my reasons for helping as I have, and they are hardly in the interest of you or him. I'm not adverse to either of you benefiting, of course, but my intentions aren't innocent."

Grace
"Ahh, there it is. The Arionna I am used to," Grace says, though she doesn't sound upset, more amused again. It's strange to her, that Ari is even doing this. But then, maybe having a mentor is doing good things?

"This place is a safe place. If you ever have troubles, if the world is ending, whatever... You can come here. It's for everyone. I've been working on a text-to-voice translation of our digital books, because Kalen found out about your... condition. We figured that would be nice. If you'd like, you can stay for a bit and listen to some books?"

Arionna
[empathy, increased dif for voice only]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 8, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Grace
Grace is rarely dishonest. If anything, honest to a fault might be the case for her. She, after all, told Ari exactly how she felt the last time they had a meaningful conversation.

She means what she says. There are conversations that have happened between herself and Kalen, specifically about making their shared library accessible to Arionna (or any blind person, for that matter). The mission -- one Grace resolutely believes in, from the tone of her voice -- is inclusive. Even for those who adamantly don't want to belong.

Arionna
"About my being blind. Don't try to be sensitive. I have no eyesight. It isn't a condition. It's a choice. One I believe to have been the correct, no matter the cost." She's always hated people trying to be nice so as not to hurt someone's feelings. It always felt artificial. Besides, when people lied it was generally for their own benefit, not of the other person.

"However." She said, standing near, what she thought, was the door. "I appreciate the effort." Because there was nothing wrong with saying 'Thank You.' It was part of growing. They were attempting to be kind, and that was worth something, even if she suspected it was for some other reason than her own sake.

"Eli is likely waiting for me. I didn't anticipate this taking long. "

Grace
There is another creaking crunch sound as the door swings open. "Your choice. However, it is an open offer. If you feel like doing the audiobook thing, be our guest. Kalen's got a load of books on magic up there, and I'm trying to train the voice machine in mystical terminology so it doesn't try telling us all about the Elastic Records and Geeno Stick theology."

Ahh, the limits of translation software, eh? It's like the autocorrect on your phone keyboard only out loud...

"Tell Elijah I said hi."

Arionna
Her lips quirk into a small grin. "Elastic Records. I'd be far more entertained on the discrepancies between the text and the voice." She moved forward slowly. "I will, of course."

There wasn't much else between them. They were not pals, they did not share some sort of bond that would entail further conversation than a snide remark or a sarcastic joke. They didn't really need it.

Arionna made her way out slowly, orienting herself to the smell of the car and the sound of it when the engine perked. She had done what she said he would, and perhaps even learned of a place to further her own education. That was good enough.

When we fail to teach, we fail to mentor.

Grace
There is one way that Grace knows to summon a Jo, rather infallibly. It doesn't involve invocations to any deity, or drawing strange sigils in ink made of sky -- no. It involves sending a text like this:

Come to the office? I'm making waffles. Kalen bought these chocolate pomegranate cookie things too? I thought you'd like.

Jo would probably travel across oceans for the promise of food and sugar. It shouldn't take long. Should it?

Jo Hamilton
Jo would travel across galaxies for the promise of sugar. She was halfway there when she responded with an OMW.

She rode her bike there, as she always did, and she didn't bother to knock when she arrived. To Jo, the office felt like home now, and she might have even spent far more time than she ought to. Though recently, she had been spending more time in front of her computer. Mostly, she was playing games (and punishing griefers), but now and then....

Honestly she hadn't slept overly much in the last day or so, and it showed just under her eyes. But Jo? Jo was never really 'tired' after those first 24 hours. Something always kicked in...some need... and she'd be lost for awhile. She'd been having those moments.

Now she was at the office, her bike placed where it always was, and her laptop on her back in her backpack (Jo went nowhere without it). "Yoooooooo! Gracie! I heard ya'll had like foods and stuff!"

Grace
Jo's voice echoes down the hall, and that is when Grace appears down the stairs, a half-eaten chocolate-covered cookie shoved in her mouth, with a small box of more of the same cookies inside.

"Mmmmf," Grace grunts, and pushes the box at Jo.

This, followed by a little dance with her head held back and her hand over her mouth to ensure that no cookie crumb escapes eating.

Good cookies are good, you understand? Kalen has excellent taste in weird food.

Jo Hamilton
Her lips curl up into a grin, the box grabbed rather greedily. "Duuuuuuude!" She did a little jump-dance in place, opening the box to peer inside. "Dude you like, totally know how to like eat and stuff. So like, is he like crazy into the like unconventional? Cause I have totes never seen these before." She stuffed a cookie in her mouth, crunching into it, and lacking the good grace to keep her mouth shut when she spoke.

Grace
Crunch.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Alike, these two, neither care much for manners. Grace is only silent for a bit because she's incapable of speech at all with her mouth that full.

The cookies are indeed pomegranate-flavored, with a chocolate coating on top. It's tart and bright and sweetly dark with chocolate all at once. And it's all in a cookie. They're also insanely expensive, and somewhere in the deepest recesses of Grace's consciousness, she knows this and chooses to ignore it. Kalen will do what he wants with his money.

"He just likes getting random food items and encouraging me to eat them. This required little encouragement, let me tell you."

Jo Hamilton
Jo comes to a slow stop with her munching and then looks at the cookies, skeptically. She swallows. "Did he like...poison them?" Who buys food like this for the sole purpose of encouraging someone else to eat it? Ok..maybe some people do but still..

Jo seems to shrug it off and grab another. "Well dude is like totes welcome to like bring like a whole buncha stuff to the dorms cause like...I need gamin foods and all. Can't like game on nuthin ya know?" Jo bounced with the box towards the kitchen to set them on the counter.

Grace
"He wouldn't want to poison me. I make neat toys. I think he thinks I forget to eat sometimes, which is kind of true, if I go into a coding trance or whatever."

Or, when she barricades herself after almost dying, too....

Grace follows after Jo to the kitchen, which contains the promised Belgian waffles and (scattered around the countertops) various waffle toppings. Of course there are waffles. It's about the only thing Grace can legitimately cook by herself, so whenever she gets that specific wild hair -- it's waffle time.

"So I was thinking. You faced down a horrible beast lately, didn't you? I heard about that. I also heard you threw your bicycle at it," Grace says, frowns a bit. "I'm not saying that was bad, but maybe I can help you form a better response tactic. You know, for next time?"

Jo Hamilton
She dropped her bag on the edge of the kitchen and had already begun the process of making a waffle, which was pretty much putting a bit of everything on top of the bread. The waffle was really just an excuse for everything else; she didn't need it in the end.

"The dog? Was like some weirdo Mastiff or something. Like woah, what peeps be feedin their hounds anymore? Like crazy mutant Mastiff chow made from like the left over radiation at Fukushima?"

"Well see, I didn't like, ya know, have much  else, and I figure... ya know... might as well do somethin. Can't let Latvia ya know, kick the bucket and al. Least not until like we totes get a few good dates or somethin. Missed opportunities and all. Cause see, I'm not like ya know she-hulk."

"Course it busted up my wheels. I'd give it a good like kick in the head for it again."

Jo Hamilton
[*Lavinia. OMG player sucks]

Grace
My but Jo is a fearless one. A little fighter. And Grace knows just what she'd like to explain how to do, too...

"What if you could have shot electricity at it? Or thrown that bike at it with a lot more force, or made it trip over itself with the direct application of friction... Does that sound enticing to you?"

How's about learning the fine arts of becoming Thorina, Goddess of Lightningbolts sound, oh little fearless warrior?

Jo Hamilton
"Dude I don't like have a taser. I mean like sure, what eff, but I mean it was a burly dog. Like what voltage do ya gotta get to like shock a dog? Like a big greyhound or whatever? " Jo is still unwilling to accept that it was something other than some rabid animal. She probably just ate too many donuts that day; hallucinations can come from some weird places.

"I mean like really, it like...makes sorta sense now why you were all like wantin ta learn how to like shoot and stuff. I mean, coulda like wounded it or something so we could like find out who owned it ya know? Get a vet or whateff people do."

Grace
"If we could have found out who owned it, that could have been good. Though, the question would then become, 'Why did you take a dog and twist it into that?' From what Lavinia tells me, that was no dog you found. That was a thing that was once a dog."

Grace shifts her weight onto the doorframe of the kitchen, leaning like somebody trying for 'cool' and only halfway making it there.

"You could get a taser. Let it start the electricity generation, and then feed it more power -- throw the lightning that way. Would be easier than trying to make electricity by scratch..."

Jo Hamilton
She stuffed large bites in her mouth, chewing as she thought. "Nah probably had like rabies or somethin. Ya know? Got bit by like a raccoon or like a possum or something. Or like had mange like those like chupacabra wannabes or whatever. Get like some weird parasite and suddenly ya look like bite-size godzilla. Not my thing, ya know, Bio."

"Well I mean you could probably like amp up the like taser cause like..see they put caps on those things for like safety or like something. "

Grace
Ohh, Jo. Still so stuck in small ideas, isn't she? Grace smiles a bit in remembrance of a time when she had trouble thinking beyond the mundane. In some ways, better, in most ways -- worse.

"If you hack into the universe, the safety cap on your taser means exactly jack and shit. You could potentially use that taser to plasma-cut your way out of a steel box if necessary..."

Jo Hamilton
"Well, I mean if we're gunna go that way like, in the words of Morpheus...'If you could hack the universe, you wouldn't have to.' Cause like, if you can hack the main code? Like then you don't need to like cut things. You just like..delete. Cause why make it like more trouble than it is?
 She shrugged, pleased with the amount of sugar in her system. "But see I dun got all that yet. Like I got pieces of it. I mean a piece of code here and there but not like, enough to go on."


Grace
"Hmm... probably because deleting the steel box is more trouble than cutting through it. People cut steel all the time, but deleting atoms usually results in a nuclear explosion...

"You'll learn all the hows and whys of that, in time. If you'd like to. I could show you how."

Jo Hamilton
"That's cause you're thinking of atoms as atoms instead of just like numbers. I mean like, the code is everything so like, atoms are a form of the code. And deleting the code isn't like splitting an atom, it's making it like not there, ever. It's like telling the system that box wasn't there to like begin with. So just ignore that part. Not hard, I think. I mean. Just seems more trouble to edit when you can delete."

She reached her hand sup and then back, curling her fingers behind her head. "Sometimes I figure I just gotta wait. I mean keep learnin and all that stuff but if I wait, maybe I'll pick it up. Cause like, when I was a kid, one of my friends died ya know? Like.. died. But she like didn't. I mean she told me like a part of the secret. I figure maybe she got part of it and was like 'Hey Jo! This is super cool!' and maybe she'll like figure out some more and give it back or..something. I dunno. Hey maybe she's Clippy!"

Grace
Jo's speech starts going lopsided, and Grace is having trouble keeping up. Her head tilts to the side. But enough of that, let's stick to what made sense...

"In order to convince the system that the box was never there to begin with, you'd have to affect the entire system at once. Every particle, every piece, is intrinsically connected to every other. You can delete the box, but the universe would likely remember the box had been there at some point, unless you were somehow able to worm your way through and recode the entire universe. It would recoil. The ragged edges left behind from where the box used to be would snap back. It could hurt you, or the things around you and the box a great deal. Take this little bit of wisdom from somebody who has studied the concept of deleting and inserting new objects into the universe a great deal... That shit can be painful."

Jo Hamilton
She scratched her head a little. "You like.. well you talk like the code is a living thing but like it's not. It's just numbers and letters and stuff. And I mean.. I mean think about the Architect right? From the matrix? Like ok.. or The keymaker or the guard dude for the oracle. Like.. I mean they rewrite things like all the time. Or like infect things if you're agent smith. And the world just kinda goes on and 'corrects' it sort of.. I mean the manager just sort of makes it like something else or whatever. " She twitched her nose a little. "I know ...you're talkin about the consensus gettin like all upset and stuff and gettin back at ya for it. I get that, buuuut... I mean if you an override consensus..that'd be super cool."

Grace
"You'd be surprised what things are living and what aren't... I've had a conversation with a universe before. Not this one, but you know, in a way, I suppose..."

She leans up again, looking a bit less slacker, more like something sharp and sleek.

"Come on," she says, starts walking out the door. "I'll show you you. The code is partly living, because we are contained within, and we are alive. Who was your friend? The one who didn't die?"

Jo Hamilton
"Eh?" She blinked, rolling from heel to toe and back again. "Show me me? Like.. wha? Whatcha mean by that?" But Jo shrugged and moved after Grace. "But I mean like, hey, haven't steered me wrong yet or somethin. I think that's like what people say."

Jo blinked, pursed her lips and furrowed her brows. "You know..can't remember her name. Like.. she was ma best friend, probably like my first real crush too..and can't remember." Jo twisted her face a little more. "Man... that sucks."

Grace
"Really? But you remember what she was like?" Grace asks, on her way to the door that marks her office.

She slides her middle finger into the fingerprint scanner when she gets there, and the lock pops open with a click. Then, she swings the door open to the inside.

Jo will find the place pretty much the same as she has found it before, only this time -- there is the addition of a turtle-shaped robot on the work station.

Gamera-Bot in progress.

Jo Hamilton
"Ashley? That sounds familiar. Like... real familiar. I mean I don't remember much. I was like..9 or something.. we're talkin like middle school ya know? Like awhile ago. Like.. 10 years ago.  I mean. I think she had blonde hair. I think. I mean would kinda explain my preference or something." She grinned widely. "Mmmm Blondes."

"A turtle?" She gave Grace an odd look. "It like as slow as a turtle? I mean like..turtles aren't like know for their like battle prowess and stuff."

Grace
"Hey. Don't insult the robot that's going to kick your robot's butt," Grace says, and gives Jo a grin. "You know, Gamera vs. Godzilla? Don't tell me you forgot!"

She slides into her office chair and spins around in it a couple times, because this is a woman who has not yet learned the meaning of 'grown up'. And then, she goes after her laptop, opening it and booting it up.

"Okay, so... The code as a living thing. I want to show you something. It might help you understand more what I mean. And then we can cover electricity too..."

Jo Hamilton
"Tcht. Course it will. I dun have one yet. Like.. totes gotta get workin on that. Gettin side tracked and all. Rabid dogs, codes and summer work and stuff. Gamin.. man... you believe some dude totally griefed my dinos? Like totes took down my dino hut and like killed my raptor mount. Dude is like.. ugh. Gunna kick him."

Jo steps over, sliding her hands back behind her head as she watched. "Right..so code as a living...thing.. or..something. right. Well I'm open right?"

Grace
"Here, give me your hand," Grace says, and reaches out for Jo without looking at her. No, she's looking at her computer, scrolling, clicking... Looking at the Code.

Her interface to that Code is currently a mess of disjointed static bursts and jumbled stuff that doesn't seem to make much sense of anything. There's symbols, lines, colors, but it's all a wash.

"I want you to look at this. I'm going to whittle away at the Code until all we can see is your own Data. It'll be fun."

Jo
She squints an eye. "Look Grace. Like you're my homie and all but like, I don't look at ya like that. I mean.. don't get me wrong and all.. you're kinda hot but ya know, not my type. I mean... not girly enough. So I mean.." But her lips curl up into a wide grin and she holds out her hand for Grace. "Just don't like, do nuthin to it. I'm like..attached to my data. I like it. It's me ya know? Don't be like, puttin in Agent Smith or nuthin."

Samir
Grace's phone rings or vibrates or whatever it does to indicate she has a new message.

Samir
Hey G - It's Samir. I didn't want to just show up unannounced, since I kicked your ass at laser tag last time. You at the place?

Grace
[Life 1, Prime 1 = Looking at the Code of Jo.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (4, 5, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Grace
She rolls her eyes at Jo's pronouncement that she is 'hot' and takes the hand provided anyway. Grace's hands are cold, bony things anyway -- it's not too comfortable.

Her phone makes the text-message-received bleep, and she ignores it. For right now, everything else except for the code on her screen is getting ignored. Slowly, as though being sliced away from the core, the symbols on her screen slide off as she ignores the pieces she wants to ignore, and keeps those she wants to.

In the end, we're still left with what looks like a staticky mess. But, what is on her screen now was always there, was waiting to have the rest of the universe pared away so you could see it.

"Okay, so -- that is your hand. Your hand, separated out from the rest of the universe. It took a good amount of doing, because you're connected to everything else so much. You send data to the universe, it sends data to you. There's not a whole lot of real separation. Here, let me pass it through a viewing filter..."

And then, Jo's hand flickers into view on the screen, floating in blank nothingness. Make an obscene gesture, and it will be duplicated...

Something catches at the back of her mind, something important.. Oh yeah! She goes to her phone and looks at the message and starts typing away at it.

Grace
Jo's here. Just a warning. Teaching her some stuff.

Grace
And yeah, at the place.

Jo
[brb real quick! keep going]

Samir
Texting is not instantaneous but even by modern communications standards nearly a minute passes between Grace's message and Samir's response. That's a long time.

I can stop by another time. I don't want to interrupt.

Grace
Is the that scary? Really?

Grace
*she

Samir
Scary like "BOO!" scary or scary like "I'm concerned by how much caffeine she had to have ingested to talk that much" scary?

Jo
Her brows lift and Jo leans in to look at the code. "Noooo. So like, what would it look like for the whole thing? Cause I mean, I'm like.. more than a hand. I got a head and stuff too ya know." When Grace moves, Jo takes her place, trying to actually understand how she's doing that.

"So....totes not seeing how this means code is a living thing so much as I'm like made of data."

Grace
It's a shit-ton of of caffeine, and I know this because I feed it to her. I am a terrible person.

Samir
Such an enabler...

Grace
"The code is alive because you are alive, and you are code," Grace says, succinct. "People have a tendency to think of themselves as separate from everything else, and they like putting a wall between the human and the natural, like they're an outside observer to the machine. You are not on the outside. The universe thinks and breathes and speaks because you think and breathe and speak, and there is no real barrier there."

She drops the phone and heads back to the keyboard so she can do some more explaining... Takka takka tak.

Then, the screen adjusts so that Jo can see herself in full. The image is not that of a naked body, however, but of a living being made of connections between data points, and most of those disappearing outside of the bounds of the screen -- her connections to the universe at large.

Jo
"Uh... yeah I'm like totes not with that. I mean.. even if we like talk about being 'alive..' There's really like no way to like know we're alive. I mean we're all program right? But see we could really just be like some stupid simulation like all the like video games and stuff we play. Ya know, simulations within simulations sort of thing. Which means we're not really like alive, we'd be following a script. Well I mean it's more like a series of logical algorithms, but yeah like... the same really. But like see, even if we say we're 'alive' it's sort of subjective cause like, the only thing we have to compare 'alive' to is like..well this planet. I mean.. what if being alive is like..something else? Follows some sort of like different set of rules and we've like, just barely touched the basic ones?"

"So to say we're code, andalive, thus code must be alive, is sort of like resting on a like shaky premise. So.. yeah I dunno. And the universe itself? Nah it's not alive. It's just a puter, running math really. I mean like, to say it's alive is like really pressin into the whole spiritual thing. I mean, there's like nuthin wrong with like people wantin to like do that, buuuut not ma boat really. I mean like, I don't really like buy into the whole universe breathes dealio. It exists, sure, in some sort of like manner, but being alive? Nah. No more than like.. the house is alive, or like.. a spoon is alive. It's just matter and particles all running on a code that like none of us really know yet but are trying like desperately to like get to."

She leaned against the wall closest to Grace, squinting an eye at her phone activity rather temporarily. "Nah now yer just gettin all fancy and stuff. I mean, it's cool and all, but like...If we're talkin about people as made up of like numbers and letters and stuff, it's not gunna conform to the physical form we perceive. That's just like...how we're coded to see each other. It's not that like..rigidly defined or whateff. "

Grace
"What is alive then, if we aren't it?" Grace asks, before heading back to her phone. "I mean, if you accept as a given -- which I do -- that we are in a simulation of a world, does that mean there is a 'real' world with actual living people in it that we are a simulation of?"

Grace
It's like putting a harness on a cat with this one. I can't drag her to enlightenment, bah. You coming?

Samir
Twist my arm. Be there in like two minutes. You think getting her stoned would help? 80/20 serious/joking.

Grace
Probably. HAhaha.

Jo
Jo holds up her hands in a shrug. "Don't know. I mean it's not logical to like ask that question as if like the answer is evident. I mean.. just because we aren't alive doesn't mean anything else is like either or like, just because we don't know what is alive, doesn't like mean we're alive. Just a bunch of logical errors really."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "See, I don't really see things as evident. I mean like, yeah I think like we're all just a bunch of digital representations of something. Are we people? Like I don't even know if we are. Is there a universe outside of ours? Like....it seems it's likely that there are like a bazillion universes other than our own. If it is a simulation than it seems obvious that like, yeah, there would be others. But we don't like know whether there is or not. So... it's really just based on what like..have at our disposal to like get. "

"And like..maybe there are like real people, or maybe that's just like, what we think because we can't like, see ourselves as like living in a place that is pure digital without like something living controlling it."

"So like here's the thing. Descartes was pretty wicked in his original assumption that we gotta assume that like everything we like know is a lie right? And like work our way up from there. Problem is we get like all mixed up and we get hung up like he did when he asserted that like, God has to exist because like, he couldn't make it up himself." Jo scratched her head. "He had it for a second ya know? Like he really had it, then he messed it all up. But I think I'd like ta, ya know, start there. Drop all the assumptions and just like, start at the beginning."

Samir
Three minutes pass and then:

Let me in?

Grace
"You may not know of other simulations, maybe," Grace says, gets up stretches her arms (and phone) above her head. "Samir's here. I need to go get the door, bee-arr-bee."

She goes and skips off, leaving Jo with her laptop (and its representation of Jo upon its screen).

Soon enough, she's at the door for Samir, swinging it open. "Hey. You know, you want me to set the door up so that it will open for you? I can do that."

Samir
"Oh, shit. Hi."

Like she startled him by opening the door and cutting right to the chase. It's hotter than Hell today so he's ditched the leather jacket he tends to sport but he's still wearing an unbuttoned flannel shirt overtop his t-shirt.

As he answers Sam starts stepping inside. He remembers the warning about the cat from the first time he showed up unannounced.

"Uh... if that'd be easier for you, sure."

Jo
"Eh?" She quirks her face up at the mention of Samir, even lightly pushing at her cheek in thought. When Grace vanished, Jo dropped in her chair and rolled up to the screen to look it over. She put her chin in her hand. "Ah!"

Does she bother to ask Grace if she can use the computer? Strangely no. "We could totes just set a parameter to our definition of like 'alive.' I mean it's gunna be arbitrary but we can totes come up with a series of traits..." Is she talking to herself? Yes. Sometimes she does that. "Can't like say it has a pulse, cause that would be like, trees aren't alive.. though like.. I mean I suppose one could cause then you're defining it but then trees and plants aren't technically like living and like stuff.. but ..ok so if we say it has electrical current that..."  Jo leaned back in the chair, kicking off her shoes and pulling her legs up and in, getting herself comfortable while they did..well ya know..people things.

Grace
"If you don't mind our servers knowing your prints. Needs a palm-scan, right? We can do it later. Come on in," she says, and starts making her way upstairs again, oblivious to whether he's following her or not.

"We're in my office talking about the difference between living and non-living, and whether the universe is alive."

Because Mages, right? Right.

Samir
Today is not one of those days where he is intending to capitalize on the lack of imprint his presence tends to leave on other people's minds. He doesn't know if their server will even hold onto his prints. They'll cross that bridge when they get to it.

In the meantime: yes. Yes he does follow her upstairs. Maybe Jo can hear his voice out in the hall before they return to the office.

"Well... are you using a binary definition of 'alive', or...?"

Grace
"We haven't really gotten that far yet. I mean, viruses, right? And artificial life? Where is the line, I know. She seems to think that nothing in this universe is alive, because it is a simulation? And therefore we can say nothing about its aliveness. I think."

She talks her way up the stairs, down the hall, down to 'her' door and busts it open again, this time with a Samir in tow.

"You want a definition? Things which are alive are changeable, they reproduce, they grow and they produce. They take free energy and use it to sustain a level of negative entropy. To look for life, then, is to look for a place in the system where the code is recursively turning back entropy and making copies of itself, using that entropy it just destroyed in order to change. Complicated, perhaps, but if viewed like a fractal, you can come up with some rather simple equations."

Jo
She squinted her eyes over at the door, then widened them and leaned back in the chair, arms up. "YO! But like why? I mean let's be real here. Like, why that definition. I mean if yer gunna be like makin a definition for somethin, there has to be a logical reason to why you chose it AND there has to be a consensus. I mean the system is made up of like people's perceptions. I think you called it like.. 'reality' or something. Anyway, so if the system doesn't agree it's gunna be difficult to like logical explain why the definition is chosen. Don't mean they're right course cause that's ad popularum, but ya get it. "

"Still!" She slaps the desk. "Why? Why is change the thing that like defines life? Is time alive then? I mean it moves. Time changes, so like is time alive? Eh not sure I'd buy into that."

Samir
Samir looks between Grace and Jo with trace amounts of wideness in his eyes. Like what the fuck did he just walk into. Sounds more like an argument than a student-teacher moment. The two things aren't mutually exclusive.

"I told you I was only twenty-percent joking, right?" he asks Grace in a stage whisper.

Grace
"Time isn't a thing that changes, though, time is a measurement of change. And there are machines that locally decrease entropy, like refrigerators. But they don't reproduce, or else we'd be in a lot of trouble. Baby fridges everywhere.."

Now, Grace's brain has been invaded with baby kitchen appliances, and she frowns.

"You did tell me that, yes..." she whispers back to Samir.

"And the logical reason why I chose it is because I can prove it mathematically. Like, I have the code, Jo. Want to see how I just did all that on your screen there?"

Jo
She grinned widely. "But all that means is like, things change. It doesn't mean it's alive. I mean you're like creating a definition but no real reason as to why that definition works except that you can show the math is right. You're tryin ta like say that it's alive because of the math works out, but the like definition of alive is just like something you chose. Why change exactly? Why not like say.. a specific ratio of compounds as a means of making something 'alive' versus something that isn't. Or like, you could even say that like, only things require consumption of energy in order to continue existing or something. I mean you could choose like a whole bunch of definitions that you could use math or whatever to like 'show to be true' except that you're not showing that they're living. You're just like, showing your definition is plausible."

She curled her hands behind her head, shifiting her attention to Samir as she stretched her legs out and set her feet on the desk. "Yo homie."

Samir
His eyebrows are at half-mast and he's chewing his lower lip as he listens to the two young women talk. Though he could interject it's clear he's choosing not to. Either that or he's too nervous to say anything. Giving into anxiety is as much a choice as holding one's silence but they're different breeds of beast.

Jo puts her feet up on the desk and greets him. His eyes snap from Grace's face to the Orphan whose resonance is like a soft hum.

"Hey," he says. A hint of nervous laughter in his voice. His back is to the wall right now and he doesn't appear to have any interest in getting comfortable or finding a place to sit.

Grace
"Well, now we're just talking about definitions of things. And yes, it's true -- I am showing my definition is plausible. Can you come up with a better definition of what life is? Change, reproduction, energy consumption to support entropy reversal -- all those things are filters. When applied to the universe, I can slice away at the code that is and isn't that.

"But you're right, I could say I want to find something else, like... the color blue. But then we have to define blue, right? It can't just be a matter of 'I know it when I see it'. There are grey areas. Purples and greens. How do you classify viruses, for example? Are refrigerators partly alive, because they take energy and use it to support entropy reversal?"

She goes to sit at the chair opposite her student. Jo's sitting where Grace usually does, at Grace's own laptop, but it doesn't seem as though Grace minds this at all.

Jo
"Seeee and that's why ya can't just say somethin is alive and expect it to like make sense or stick. I mean definitions get weird. So sayin that the universe alive is really just like a matter of how you're defining it. So if my definition is different than yours, then well, the universe isn't alive to me. So it's subjective not objective so.. really like, alive is just a bad term. Alive has this like weird sort of biased organic feel to it. I think I'd prefer like to use the term sentient because then we can define it as having the like ability to make choices or like realize its own existence. But then like, do we? Can we really make choices if we're just like..a series of logical rules? I mean like...do we make choices or are we just like following some protocol? How do we like, test whether something is really a choice or not? Like how do we define free will then?" If only her grin could get wider it would have. Jo is enjoying this. "It's why I usually stick with like..inorganic stuff. Less complication I think. Easier to define. More fun to like mess with. And! You can like actually watch computers and how they do things. Like see the guts ya know? Figure out if like, it's followin a protocol or movin outside of its expectations."

She dropped her feet on the floor and leaned forward in her seat. "Soooooooooooo you gunna like hang out there like a mouse, Sammy or... sit down or whatever? I mean...I don't bite. Not guys anyway. So you dun gotta worry about me up in your bizz or whateff. Yer not my type."

Samir
Samir breaks eye contact to look over at Grace and give her a pointed what the fuck shrug without taking his hands out of the pockets of his jeans.

"You told me there were gonna be girls here who like to bite guys, Evans," he says. "Now I'm not gonna trust you, next time. Once not-bitten, twice... shame on...?" He looks back at Jo. "Shit. I mixed up my clichéd expressions. Sorry. Why are we..." He clears his throat. "Why are we arguing about...?"

Okay. She's right. He should sit down. Samir looks around the room to find something that doesn't look like it might be swarming with germs. A cushy sleeping couch. Excellent. Time to sit on the couch and not think about what it might be harbouring.

Anyway he figures it out.

"Oh are you teaching her about life data arrays?"

Grace
Grace smiles over at Samir -- guy actually knows how to make a joke on occasion. "Yup. Life. Well, we were talking about applications of forces, but then it got a bit sidetracked..."

Wonder how that happened.

"I can show you your guts if you like. It's very machine-like when you get down to that level."

Jo
"She did it to me too." Jo says with a mock serious look. "Told me there'd be strippers and cake..or maybe it was like a stripper IN a cake.. ya know, like hard to remember which. But ya know what? No strippers. No cake. Broke ma heart ya know? I woulda even taken a brunette." Jo pouted over at Grace. "Or a red head. I mean I'm all about the blondes and stuff but I can like, lower ma standards if I gotta."

"Nah I know organic life is like a computer or like well the other way around. But see when you keep your head in the inorganic, you dun gotta worry about life questions that are hard to like quantify. You can ya know, start at the basics and work up instead of tryin to classify at the higher level. I mean ya shouldn't be tryin calculus if you don't get basic algebra...know what I'm sayin? Same with inorganics and stuff. If ya wanna really define life? Ya gotta start with somethin like a machine and see if ya can replicate the things we call 'living' and then you can find out what those like..traits are that are simulated."

"Course you can do the Turing test too, but that's not like, the best method. It's got its issues and deals like ..mostly with perception. Eeeeeehhhh... so yeah. See I figure if we're going all organic, that organics are programs in a bigger system.Like cells are to our bodies ya know? We're a bunch of smaller programs built into a system of..something. Probably more like the Matrix but with less body battery pods or whatever and less recreating a space to keep people happy, and more like.. well I guess it ain't like that at all."

Jo scrunched her face in thought. "Hrm."

Samir
Once he's seated Samir still doesn't appear relaxed. He sits with both feet flat on the floor and keeps his back straight and his elbows anchored on his thighs. Rubs his hands on the denim of his jeans and then links them together between his knees. The young man doesn't wear jewelry. No rings or bracelets or anything that could serve as cultural or religious markers. Aside from the long hair and the punk-bohemian fashion sense he's a blank slate.

So he's not relaxed. But he's trying to be present and participate and blah blah blah so he doesn't just sit there silent while the other two talk. Being a wiseass seems to be working for him. Let's keep running that protocol.

"So... are you not gonna let her show us your guts, then, or..."

Grace
"Hey, if she doesn't want me to teach her that, it's no problem. Not doing a thing is lazy-easy," Grace says and smiles.

"We could always just go back and talk about forces again, but if we get stuck on deciding what electricity is, it'll be difficult."

She swivels around in her chair, leans back and looks up at the ceiling as it circles up above her head.

Jo
Jo put her arms around her middle dramatically and protectively. "Yo, you let someone like show you your insides. I like mine. Ya know.. all secretive. I mean like, I dun wanna see how close to mummification my intestines are and stuff. I'm alike super happy in ignorance. Then I dun gotta feel bad for all the food I eat."

"But! Electricity? Nah. I mean then you're talkin about physics and stuff and physics.. I mean it's got its ambiguities but it ain't liek super subjective like definition so life and like communication and stuff. When ya look at the like fundamentals, it's super easy compared to like.. bio and stuff. I mean we can quantify energy and stuff. "

Samir
Samir lifts his eyebrows. Turns to address Grace.

"Is she serious?" He turns back to Jo. "I'm..." Again with the throat-clearing. "I'm just curious, how... how is it easier to define light, or radiation, or... or any other physical force than it is to define... cells, or biochemical processes, or..." He worries his lower lip again and glances back over at Grace. "The last time I heard anybody say physics isn't a subjective field, I was stoned out of my skull."

Grace
She glances over at Samir, and whispers: "Harness. On a cat."

"Quantum mechanics is, essentially, the quantification of energy and stuff. Quanta, or 'packets' of energy, yes? However, subjectivity is also built into the theory. I mean, it's mind-bendingly so. You almost have to be able to view a quantum of electricity -- or an electron -- as a particle and a wave at the same time, that only ends up existing in a particular place because it was detected there. Otherwise, it can't be said to exist anywhere, but as a spectrum of probabilities?

"And that's just regular-old physics you could go out and teach yourself in college. They can only guess at what we can touch and taste and smell directly. None of this is exactly easy, Jo. Not anything worth doing is easy. But I can show you the equations for electricity just as I could for those of life... They aren't that dissimilar."

Jo
"See but it makes more sense than like trying to define the universe as a living thing. It's the difference between like..hocus pocus and like ya know, actual science and stuff. One makes sense and the other like.. not really." She pulled her legs in and swirled in the chair slowly. "Cause like one assumes a sort of.. uh... organic importance.. a sort of thought ability.. ya know.. a sort of capability that we like..tend to associate with ourselves. Like thinkin in some kind of like all-knowing entity. Doesn't make much sense. Totes old timey way of thinkin. But when you break it down and ya think about it outside of that, then you can make assumptions, so long as like, those assumptions make sense to make. No reason to assume the universe is livin."

"Now ya wanna talk about like, what makes up the universe... that's just math. Math is the universe. Everything relies on it. I mean that's just duh. You can't do nuthin in science without it. Can't run a computer or like, think about multiverses or whatever. Everything needs it. "

"Thing is, when people start talkin about life, they get all like touchy feely and stuff. I ain't like against that, but it's all humanities you know? So ya can say that other fields have subjectivity, but it's not like, nearly on par with like the more organic areas like.. ya know.... psych and stuff. And besides, like I said, you wanna talk about what life, I think ya should start with what life isn't, and start with the basics. I mean if you can make a machine replicate a human, you can start defining life cause you got the complete opposite of what we know as 'life.' But if ya can't? Maybe that tells ya somethin too."

"Meh. Guess what I mean is, I can accept assumptions if the assumptions make sense. But the assumptions you like provided for life, don't make sense ta me. So if you wanna start at the basics, like physics, mathematics, chemistry.. then that's just a better idea if ya ask me."

Samir
All Samir has to say about that he says with a flick of his eyebrows. Like Oh yeah the basics is a great idea she's got a point there without having to actually open his mouth. Hard to contribute to the discussion when he walked in halfway through. That's like trying to understand what the hell is going on in some stupid Marvel movie after missing the first hour.

Grace
Grace starts walking her chair over, around the little L arm of the desk, scooching the wheeled thing along the floor until she gets around to where she can take over from Jo.

Well, the spell stuck, didn't it? Jo's still there on the screen being all life-like. And so, Grace elbows her way in and banishes that program.

"Okay, so let's look at... just the electricity in this computer, eh? That should be fun."

[Forces 1, Prime 1: Let's look at the electricity code!]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 8, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Jo
She moved, rolling out of the way to let Grace take over. Which really was Jo pushing away and spinning at the same time. "Ha! Knew you'd see it my way. I'm like, the master of stuff. STUFF." Jo curled her legs back up in the chair and grinned over at Samir. "So what're you? Grace mentioned like some of the clubs or whatever you guys join and stuff."

But ah, there was grace, pullin out her mojo, and Jo used her arms to grab at things and pull herself closer to Grace. "Ooooh?"

Samir
Well that's interesting.

"'Clubs'?" he asks in a bemused tone. A tone pointed enough that it's obvious he's addressing Grace.

Grace
"Heh. Yeah, we're in the same club," Grace says, smile on her face. "The cool kids club."

"Virtual Adepts, that's Samir and me. And us Adepts run with the Council of Nine Mystic Traditions, which sounds a lot more backward than it is, really. Most everybody you've met in Denver who knows how to hack the universe is a member of the Traditions, or are unaffiliated with any group."

She's speaking to her screen, which again shows the static fuzz of the entire general area. Again, it gets pared and sliced, as Grace applies filters, making sense of the almost random data feed of existence piping its way through her computer. What ends up on her screen, well... perhaps it's a little more regular and orderly than what she showed before, but not by much. Again, there are connections between what's shown and the 'outside' that have been pared away and cut off.

It looks almost like blue, glowing water, only flowing too fast to see. Liquid, though, in how it takes up space and gets shut out from others as logic gates flicker ceaselessly. A dance, it is, much like the processes of cells -- taking energy and making order from it.

Jo
Jo rolls up to Grace and pushes her shoulder against Grace's as she watches the screen. "Ah that's pretty sweet lookin. Not how I would expected it to look or whatever.

"Mystic? See...totally all spiritual. I mean like... totally don't strike me as the occult types or whatever. But can't knock all the peeps I met. And have you seen the legs on Lavinia?" Jo let out a low whistle. "Magical. Def magical."

"So like, who isn't affiliated? And who is what and all that? Like, you and Sammy are Adepts or whatever, what's the others?" She lifted an arm and set her elbow on Grace's shoulder. "Somehow feel like ya told me and I'm just not rememberin. Lotsa magic and rabid dogs and stuff.. hard to keep track of all your lingo."

Samir
[Ack! Sorry, post around me for a bit I'm on the phone :( ]

Grace
"Well, you aren't affiliated. I mean, you haven't joined any of the clubs? But there are some who haven't joined up with anybody because they're fine with that, and some who haven't joined up because they just haven't done so yet. Alex isn't in a club. Ian isn't. I don't know if you've met them yet? Oh you've met Ian, I remember...

"Lavinia's with the Celestial Chorus, they're... uh... alright. I  mean, I haven't met any yet who want to try converting me. I guess they feel like that's a lost cause, and they'd be right," she says, laughs a little at that.

"They're like, they really do believe in a God, you know. Think they get their abilities through the divine.

"Then, there's Kalen. He's a member of the Historied and Vastly Self-Important Order of Hermes, Legendary and Awesomesauce -- or whateverthefuck it is they are calling themselves these days. Hermetic. Think... uh... Harry Potter?" she shrugs, because like she's going to cover Enochian right now...

"There's like, 6 more. Traditions. And lots of others too..."

Jo
"Ah yeah. Ian is super cool. Alexander? Cool dude too. Can't remember which one doesn't like play video games. "

"Celestial chorus?" She lifts a brow. "Aw well, I mean Lavinia can like, convert me any day. Long as it involves ya know, some 'hands on' conversion." She gave Grace a wide grin. "Eh? Eh?"

"See I ain't spent much time with Kalen. Seems a bit ya know, stuffy..course Ian is kinda stuffy too but not like as stuffy ya know? Do they like..get wands? Like ya know...at a wand shop? OH OH what house is he in? Totes can see him as Slytherin. He gives off the Slytherin vibe."

Grace
Grace rolls her eyes at that 'hands on' conversion thing. After this day's trial of learning Jo a thing about the subjectivity of the universe? Yeah, Lavinia -- good luck with that.

"Kalen? Stuffy? He's like... well okay. He can be stuffy maybe on a bad day. And he's in one of their houses which is all about going out and killing monsters? So I'd put him in Griffindor. Definitely Griffindor."

The sorting hat has spoken. Or at least, Grace has.

Jo
"Gryffindor eh? Huh. I mean I only like, saw him like once or somethin, so.. maybe he's more like Harry or whatever when he's havin a good day? Still, he's got a Slytherin look bout him...though you know there is this theory about like, the hat not actually puttin people in houses but people puttin themselves in houses and the hat really just conveying that sort of desire. So like when Harry and Hermione and all them get into gryffindor it's more cause they wanted to be in it, not cause they actually like.. ya know.. were brave or whatever."

"Weird, I know. But you gotta admit, it makes like way more sense than like, the hat knowin where people fit. I mean how did they like, gauge personality there? Eh? So... Ian and Alexander are like... rebels or whatever. Kalen is a wizard. Lavinia is a catholic, and uh.. lessee.. Kiara? The red headish one? And Sera? What are those peeps?"

Grace
"Kiara is a Verbena, I think? They're like, plant Mages? I... confess to not knowing much there. Sera is a Cultist of Ecstasy. She works with... mind-altering experiences. Yes. In her case, it's a lot of pot and shrooms and music and sex. Not in that order."

Grace shrugs. "There's other Traditions though. The Society of Ether, for example? Mostly use science and technology, like we do. It's not all mystical-spiritual stuff."

But, then again, the Traditions rub off on you, don't they? They start to turn you around to the mystical, if you hang out with them enough, if you experience enough. It's what makes Grace turn into somebody who thinks the universe is a living thing...

Grace
[Pause! And maybe return?]

[And I don't think we ever return, sadly...]

Swedish Death Metal

Samir
Let's try this again!

Without an email after his disappearance from the Danger Room last week Grace may have forgotten he had ever come by in the first place. He had and he had taken with him a phone rooted to Ginger and a better understanding of how little he understood about the way the Traditionalists in this city operated but he had not reached out to Grace again.

Given that he has a somewhat standing invitation to just drop by whenever the hell he wants and an aversion to setting times or allowing other people to expect his presence when it takes him so much effort to leave the fucking house when he arrives this day Samir has neither emailed nor texted Grace to let her know he was coming over.

Maybe he just happened to be in the neighborhood. Who even knows.

Samir hesitates when he arrives. He's already ditched the cigarette he was smoking as he came up the sidewalk and has gone ahead and paced back and forth four times to stave off whatever disaster would occur if he interacted with the door without pacing first. Then he takes a deep breath and steps up to the door and knocks.

Grace
[Awareness! Samir, you are so hard to detect...]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Grace
[Alertness!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Grace
[Alertness!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 6, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Grace
[Er, yeah, okay -- that first one...]

Grace
Samir knocks. And there is nothing. No response, for quite some time. Grace might be out of the 'house' perhaps?

Truthfully, there was a response. Grace heard a noise she wasn't expecting and went to go check the security cameras on the compound perimeter, and noted a man outside.

Just a man. Something familiar about him, in a hard-to-place way. Maybe its the aura of fear about him that sparks off a memory that cascades from there. After all, he'd just gone out of his way to be noticed, right? So she notices.

On the way out to the door, however, she has to struggle to remember why she got up.

Finally, the door clicks and creaks open, and Grace peers out of it, a little confused at herself until -- "Oh! It's you! I... Huh. Dude, you totally need to announce yourself in some way a little more obvious than a knock on the door. I might have just left you out here all night... Come in, man."

Samir
A self-conscious self-depreciating half-a-laugh and Samir nods and starts to open his mouth like he would apologize if she weren't telling him to come in in the same breath but she does tell him to come in so his nod changes tone.

"Alright," he says and steps over the threshold way quicker than he did the night Alexander happened upon him. "I... sorry, I forget, sometimes, that other people..."

That other people forget him. He abandons the sentence for no real apparent reason and starts over. The stammering's getting easier to rein in the more he meets her but Grace is not as open and easy to read as some of the other folks he's met recently. If she continues to think of him as uncomfortable if not outright anxious no one would blame her. He is.

"Anyway, I was just..." He has his hands in the pockets of his jacket now. Sticks his elbows out a little wider like to indicate the world outside. "... in the neighborhood..." Relaxes his shoulders so his elbows aren't sticking out anymore. "... and I thought I'd stop by. I don't know if you remember, last time I was here, when Jo came in? I booked without...?"

Does she remember. He gives her a chance to think before continuing on his rambling way to whatever the point of his visit is.

Grace
Grace thinks about it. And then her eyes open a touch wider. Oh. The last time he was here, Jo arrived, and was very Jo-like, and Samir fled the scene.

"Without saying goodbye. Yeah. It's okay. Jo can be a bit much to handle."

Grace shrugs, but -- damnit, Jo -- she is blushing with the return of that memory. To hide that, she turns and starts up the stairs, without really asking what Samir is actually here for. Whatever, most of the cool stuff is upstairs anyway. Unless he wants food. At that though, she turns again, twisting her body around just to ask: "Are you hungry?"

Grace
[at that thought*]

Samir
[perc + emp: ARE YOU ASKING TO BE POLITE OR DID I INTERRUPT YOU. specialty probably doesn't apply here.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 3, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Samir
Is he hungry.

Right now he doesn't know Grace well enough to know that she wouldn't ask him that if he had interrupted her going to town on a plate of spaghetti. She probably would have come to the door with noodles hanging out of her mouth. But there's still a moment where he argues with himself whether she's asking to be polite or not. Then it dawns on him Grace is asking because she actually wants to make sure he's not hungry.

"No," he says, "thank you, I ate earlier. I actually came by hoping I could talk you into letting me into the Danger Room again. We... I promise I won't just leave next time someone Jo-like stops by, I just..." Another wry laugh. "... wasn't expecting that."

Grace
"Oh yeah!" she says, and swings around to go the other way, back down the stairs again. "You didn't get to play any, did you?"

"We could just pick up where we left off then, I guess?"

And there she goes again, down the hall without regard to Samir. If he follows, she doesn't much care. It would just make sense, wouldn't it?

"I always like doing shit in the Danger Room. Unless I'm asleep... I sleep like a rock."

Grace
"Oh yeah!" she says, and swings around to go the other way, back down the stairs again. "You didn't get to play any, did you?"

"We could just pick up where we left off then, I guess?"

And there she goes again, down the hall without regard to Samir. If he follows, she doesn't much care. It would just make sense, wouldn't it?

"I always like doing shit in the Danger Room. Unless I'm asleep... I sleep like a rock."

Samir
And if he didn't follow she might very well find herself asking herself why she couldn't remember what she was just doing. It would be a great way for him to fuck with people if Samir were an individual who delighted in fucking with people but Samir is more of the type to treat others the way he would like to be treated and Samir does not like it when other people fuck with him.

So he does follow Grace. Even manages not to run right into her when she wheels around to double back down the stairs.

"Yeah, I..." What? She can't see Samir frown a baffled yet somewhat amused frown trying to figure out the relationship between the two statements. Walk it off, buddy. "... wouldn't want to sleep in there, either. Seems kinda impossible."

What with foul-mouthed hyperactive barely-legal girls barging in and all.

Grace
That statement brings Grace up short, and she pauses a bit in her walk. "Of all the things we do and see, you find sleeping in a room with a padded floor to be... impossible? Like, more impossible than having a long conversation with an angel, or more impossible than possessed horror movies?"

She walks on. "I'm going to sleep in there tonight, just because."

And thus, we get to the door, which she shoves open. The room is just as Samir remembers, with its drab color scheme and bizarre accouterments.

Samir
And Samir actually looks at her as if he has no idea what she's talking about when she mentions the two events he's read about on Ginger already. This group has had quite the spate of adventures since the city Chantry went to rubble.

He was being facetious but he'd rather she think him naïve or stupid or... not funny... than point out that he was trying to be funny. Besides she's already concluded she's going to sleep in there tonight because fuck you, Samir. No point arguing about what he meant.

"Right on," he says and then they're in the Danger Room.

He glances over his shoulder once like he's expecting the same thing to happen this time as happened last. Like they've got a couple minutes of almost-arguing before someone else is going to show up. This place is almost like a Chantry in that it's a hub of activity. Almost.

After that glance back Samir falls into orbit two arms' lengths from Grace and takes in the dimensions of the room and the potential beyond the grayness.

Grace
"So. Daaaanger Rooom," Grace says, waving her arms up in the air. "There's not a lot of actual danger though. I only have limited resources to heal massive damage."

Which suggests... if she didn't have limited resources... what kinds of things would she populate the room with?

She goes immediately toward arming herself, donning the red coat that is tailored to her, and picking out her favorite gun. Then, it's to the control panel of buttons and dials to make this whole thing more interesting. As she goes to work on it, Samir will notice a hissing noise as the mist generators come online from the ceiling (to make the lasers show up when fired) and the lights switch to their blacklight counterparts, turning the whites of their eyes odd colors.

"What do you think... Music?" she asks, with slightly glowing, blue teeth peeking out of her mouth.

Samir
I only have limited resources to heal massive damage.

Samir snorts. Might have said something smart-assed then if he didn't want to risk the smart-assery falling flat. He finds her reasoning humorous though. Maybe understands it a little. He himself has limited resources. Their potential isn't quite so limited but that's another debate.

Then she sets about preparing for battle and Samir startles like the movement has hauled him out of his own thoughts. Along the wall he sees hung those reflective coats but isn't sure if they belong to specific people or if it's a free-for-all. The red one fits Grace just fine. His eyes raise to sight the source of the hissing.

Truth be told after the Umbra that isn't anywhere near the strangest thing he's going to see this year. Then the black lights come and he blinks but doesn't seem otherwise fazed. Maybe he's looking for weird stains so he doesn't step someplace he shouldn't. If people sleep in here he doesn't want to know what else they do.

Focus.

Music?

"You got any Swedish death metal on that thing?" he asks.

Grace
"I got YouTube on that thing, so yes..." she says, and actually appears to be typing something in somewhere to achieve a certain effect. "You have any suggestions in particular?"

"Oh yeah, and uh," she says, and her coat turns on, its strips of flexible plastic LED lights outlining her in brilliant blue. "There's a switch inside the sleeves, and one on the guns. Not hard to find. Just, you know, if you want it to function..."

This is not strange. It's still very mundane. They haven't yet gotten to the real point of this little game. It is, essentially, a training simulation, and your target is another Mage. There is no rule against strangeness here.

Samir
Grace gives him the instructions for turning on the coat and the gun and Samir nods his comprehension. He finds a coat that looks as if it will fit him and a gun he might not drop right away and returns to the original more important topic as he switches on his gear:

"Do you not listen to Swedish death metal?" He sounds as if this is a foreign-ass concept to him but he could be joking. Given that they're standing in a blacklit room about to shoot each other with lasers he could have said anything and an outsider would be hard-pressed to take him seriously. "Alright, tell look up Nihilist. They're one of the grandfathers of Swedish death metal, YouTube should have an entire album on there somewhere."

Grace
"I don't listen to a lot of things. I'm pretty well versed in all aspects of not listening to music," Grace says, and that might actually be a foreign-ass concept to him. "I actually got a request for this whole sound-system deal? Which is why it exists."

She messes with the little pad by the door in order to connect it to YouTube, and then -- Nihilist. It's loud enough to mask light noise, but not a loud yell. Samir might want to turn it up, but Grace doesn't. It's just music.

Music that's quick to the beat, and gets the heart pumping, and...  sounds like somebody's dog is choking, but no -- that's singing. Okay. Whatever.

"Okay! Threetwoone go!"

And, she's off into the twisty corners of the maze she built herself. Already has a one-up on Samir in that she knows this place like the back of her hand.

[Stealthiness! Dex 3 + Stealth 2 + Arcane 2]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Samir
[oh are we playing the stealth game? arcane 4 halp.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Samir
Okay. So Grace doesn't listen to music. Given that their people can teleport and hijack other people's computers without an Internet connection and do all other sorts of things that rend the fabric of reality that isn't the strangest thing he's going to encounter today. Different people have different experiences.

He takes a moment to watch her reaction to what has just invaded the sound system. Young long-haired guy like him. Of course he listens to death metal. He bobs his head in approval of the quality of the recording if not the volume and then Grace is getting right to it.

He has no fucking clue what the layout of the maze looks like. About all he has going for him is the possibility of his disappearing beneath a mental fog the second they're out of each others' sight. Samir still goes barreling off in the other direction in hopes of orientating himself.

Shit-kicker boots are not the world's stealthiest footwear and he is not light on his feet. But death metal. Distracting. Brilliant.

Grace
[Lookin for a person! WHO IS REALLY HARD TO FIND!]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )

Samir
[perc + alert -2 for grace's arcane]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 3 )

Grace
Okay, Samir and his disappear-from-the-universe thing? That's cheating, man. The music is loud, the lighting is low, and if it weren't for the lights on his coat, she wouldn't have seen a damn thing.

But she knows there's only so many paths he could have taken, and she checks the most probable ones, and there... somewhere... a flash of red LEDs that she follows with speed and...

Fuck, does he see her too?

[Declare: Gonna shoot you, Samir!]

Samir
It's rare that Samir thinks of his fading permanence in the collective consciousness as a boon. Even in this moment he doesn't realize it's a boon. He's more concerned with finding a path down which he can hide until he figures out where the hell Grace has gone off to.

Which he does quicker than she returns the favor. A few seconds before she registers the movement of LEDs he's pointing and firing his laser gun.

[lol: dex + SOMEONE DOESN'T HAVE A FIREARMS SCORE.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN7 (4, 9) ( success x 1 )

Grace
And Grace goes dark. It's a part of the programming -- gives the loser time to hide, and shuts down their gun so they can't easily retaliate too. Grace is thinking about changing that right about now. Realism, right? Rarely in real life is the monster going to run and hide just because you put one bullet in it.

Yeah. For realism's sake. That's the ticket.

Samir gets the satisfaction of a curse from her general direction, before she leaves again, off behind walls.

[Stealthiness! Dex 3 + Stealth 2 + Arcane 2]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )

Samir
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

[And I guess break for real? I rule Samir won :P]