*Luckily for the world at large, it was still warm during the day, well low 70s is warm isn't it? It's probably why he was sat in the outside of a restaurant at a table with a book in one hand and a glass resting on his leg being held by the other. He had on his usual oakley shades, was dressed in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled back, a black waistcoat (vest to you american types) and for a change to mix things up a bit, he also had on a pair of dark grey faded black skinny jeans. From the left hip of which a chain could be seen one ankle rested on the top of his other knee as he read, on his feet though were a pair of thongs.*
Jennifer*A girl with long brown hair and a white shirt and white pants looks around seemingly lost. Her eyes are wide trying to take everything in.*
Danny(For thong, see flip flops)
Danny(How aware is he today?)
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )
HannahShe kept to the light areas. Whether the sun was sinking down or not, she kept to the light. The shadows, and the dark were not welcoming places. Her sneakers pressing into the sidewalk as she made her way through the people. "No I don't think that's what he meant." She said, her head tucked down a little as she walked. "I don't think he meant that the -" She went quiet. "Oh."
Hannah hugged her messenger bag against her hip, lifting her gaze up a little to see where she was going. The girl wore a dark skirt with a pair of blue stockings and a thin hoodie over a green shirt. A light green scarf was wrapped around her neck.
Danny*Something almost on the edge of his reasoning alerted him. She. He lifted his head from the book he had in his hand and began to slowly take in the drifts of those around him. Just a casual interest on first appearances.*
Jennifer*Perhaps it was Jennifer's purity that stood out from everyone else around her?*
DannyLubs on ma scary Sera!!
Hannah"Oh..." She nodded her head softly. "I see it." Hannah lifted her head a little to look at the door of the restaurant. Danny's presence hadn't been noticed yet, nor Jennifer. It was only within the last few feet that she seemd to realize Danny was even partly nearby. Hannah came to a stop. A dead stop, no matter who was behind or in front of her. She let her eyes slide towards him, using her hair to keep her vision partly blocked.
Jennifer*Jennifer takes out a bag with something in it. Is that a phone?*
Danny*Purity... He blinked from behind those shades, tilting his head a little as he did so, seeing Jennifer he paused, paid attention, then moved his gaze on to see someone else. Flickering, the pair of them were both new, both something he'd find unexpected to say the least.*
Jennifer
*Jennifer
Jennifer*Jennifer is poking awkwardly at the bag and looking confused.* "Where is that googlemap website?!"
SerafínePerception + Awareness.
Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 4, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )
HannahOne. Two. Three steps to her left, away from Danny. Then a circle, half, just around towards the door. Not having Victor with her made this even more difficult.
Even at the door, she gave Danny a side look. She reached for the handle, moving her gaze towards it as someone decided they were going to come from the other side. With a small noise, Hannah scurried three steps to the left to avoid them. Her hands gripped the bag strap.
Danny*And his eyes met with Hannah's, just a pleasant smile on his face as he began to watch her, then they moved to Jennifer, then back to Hannah, his drink was lifted lazily to his lips, he took a small drink from it, there were bubbles in it that broke the surface with tiny bursts of sensation on his tongue, then it lowered again with a soft clink of ice melting on top.*
SerafíneOkay: I know Danny's resonance. Do Hannah or Jennifer have any resonance? If so, what is the flavor?
DannyHannah's is flickering.
Jennifers is Purity.
Jenniferpurifying
Hannah[Yes! Sorry playtesting so didn't put it in. Dynamic - Flickering - 1]
Serafíne"You lost?" There's a stranger who just got out of a cab a few feet from Jennifer, lighting a cigarette. Striking thing, with dark eyes rimmed in dark mark-up and a half-shaven head. Blonde curls, deliberately dark roots in waves halo the rest of her head all golden.
The cigarette has a spicy-sweet scent to it and dark blue paper. Something direct about her gaze, more direct than the rest of the strangers on the street who are deliberately avoiding contact with Jennifer, who looks both innocent and lost. Like most, they don't want to get involved.
Sera though. Oh Sera.
There is something about her. The way she bends the world.
Jennifer*Jennifer looks up from the phone in a bag startled* "umm. yes. I cannot get my googlemap website to work. I need to figure out how to get to the Library from here."
HannahShe dropped her eyes quickly, shifting her weight a little from one foot to the other. Once the door was clear, She ushered herself in quickly. The inside wasn't exactly an escape plan, as there were plenty of people there as well, but it was an escape plan from him...for the moment.
But now everyone was looking at her. Or at least, it felt that way. Hannah stepped towards the counter slowly, shifting the weight of the bag. "Um..a coffee. please. To go." It was the hardest thing to do, to order something to drink. "No milk. No.. no milk." Her head shook slowly. "Please."
Danny*He raised one eyebrow, watching the quirky one go off into the building, then turned his attention back to Jennifer, ahhh... Sera had found her... that made him smile a little, almost a bit too much to be honest. So he swallowed it and rose from his seat to head over towards them, leaving his drink for a moment on the table. Probably not the wisest of things for him to do, but he did it anyhow and stood just on the periphery of their pairing, upnodding to Sera as he did.*
DannyHe had on his usual oakley shades, was dressed in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled back, a black waistcoat (vest to you american types) and for a change to mix things up a bit, he also had on a pair of dark grey faded black skinny jeans. From the left hip of which a chain could be seen one ankle rested on the top of his other knee as he read, on his feet though were a pair of flipflops.
Serafíne"I'm shit with phones, man."
Still that direct look, which is broken just once as she turns her golden head to catch the movement of Danny's upnod in her periphery. And perhaps to follow/feel the flicker of Hannah's resonance as the other young woman heads inside, up to the counter.
There's a note of interest in her eyes, though. For all the profanity, a note of concern, slightly banked, attenuated somehow, wrapped up in her skin.
"What do you need at the library?"
HannahCoffee. It's all she needed. She was content with soymilk, even if it wasn't her preference, and plenty of sugar. Hannah wrapped her hands comfortingly around the cup and made her way out slowly, dodging to either side as people slipped in, and waiting, trying her best to hide in a little spot and yet...failing.
When she finally made it out of the building, she paused, taking in deep breaths. Light was fading and she was confined mostly to the street lights, and the lights from the buildings. This made her move a little, doing her best to avoid even the smallest of shadows.
Jennifer" I was going to meet a friend there later." her voice is clear, but also quiet as if she is afraid of something about to get her.
Danny*There was nothing here to be afraid of, well, that was partly true... if only because the biggest thing to be afraid of right now was fear itself. But wasn't it written some place that the only thing to fear, was fear itself, and it's the wise man that knows his fear.
He frowned just a little then turned partially to glance at Hannah, then to his table.* Come and sit down, I'm good with phones.
Jennifer"oh, okay. can you teach me to use googlemaps website?"
*One would think she would say the Google Map app, but it was clear she was running it together and calling it a website*
Jennifer tentatively went closer to the table and handed over the bag with the phone. Upon closer inspection Danny could clearly see it was not just a ziplock bag, but some kind of bag a scientist or doctor might use to block radiation
DannyThat depends... *He eyed that bag with suspicion.* I'm not going to end up with radioactive... things... am I? *He didn't get much closer, just went back to his seat to sit down, putting his right foot onto his left knee again, what looked like musical notes had been tattooed onto the top of his right foot, perhaps that would explain the flipflops he wore.
His hand came out, waiting for the phone to be presented to him.*
JenniferJennifer cocked her head to the side and looked a bit confused. "This is to keep you safer. If you use phones all the time it gives off radiation." She blushed "I was raised not being allowed to have a phone because it might hurt my brain development..... I haven't quite gotten over the teachings I guess. So that keeps me from getting any trace radiation or anything else from the phone that would normally come from it. So my phone is the safest one!"
Danny*Well that got a reaction from Danny... Firstly, his eyebrows rose up slowly. Then one hand rose to run through those long dark tresses and then he tilted his head to study the girl. Then his hand moved down to his shades, to pull them down his nose slightly, he tilted his head again to peer at Jennifer over the tops of them levelly, there was the trace of a smile on his face as she finished going on about background radiation and phone signals, then not being allowed to grow up with such things... When he'd listened, she'd finished he lifted his head again and pushed his shades back up his nose.*
You're shitting me... right?
SerafíneSera flashes a half-lashed glance at Danny as he speaks up and remarks upon his expertise with phones. Then that look slides back to Jennifer, as if she were drawing a line between them. The tension between Jennifer's evident fear and innocence and her equally evident and immediate trust of complete and utter strangers ticks some half-open box somewhere inside Sera's head. The weirdness about Google Maps ticks nothing, though. It is absolutely nothing she herself would notice. There are times she's been too fucked up to remember how to use her iPhone.
--
But, for now, she sort of ambles over toward Danny as if she were - you know - ushering Jennifer. Keeping an eye on her, even as her attention is snagged, pulled out, drawn down the street again by Hannah's flickering resonance.
And Sera, like Danny, is impossible to ignore - it's not just her sharp features, the half-shaved head, the extraordinary eyes - it's the way she's dressed. Which has nothing to do with the current style and everything to do with her own: a black, French lace bra beneath an unbuttoned flannel over tiny leather skirt that barely covers her ass and seems to be made of safety pins and leather and nothing else. Fishnets, with visible garters, torn, naturally, and spike-heeled Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, with silver serpents just crawling up heels.
Ink visible on her arms, on her hands, the strangest assortment of random jewelry, and on and on.
Sera overhears Jennifer's explanation regarding the phone, and mutters,
"Oh my fuck."
beneath her breath.
Breathes out a cloud of smoke.
"I went to Catholic boarding school and not even the nuns were that batty."
DannyOh the irony... a virgin mage with the CoE.........
DannyTwo cult of ecstasy mages and a virgin walk into a bar.....
HannahIt's the warmth that makes her feel at ease, even in a place where people come and go so easily. They're flashes in her vision. Movement from one side to the other. Feet, voices, all moving as individual units, and yet becoming one. Too much noise, too much movement. Hannah finds a seat and she plops right down in it, trying to breath slowly.
Her knees press against one another as she tries to take up as little space as possible, and yet remains visible to all. "I know." Her voice came in a whisper. "I know it is. But...but I'm scared." There's a beat as Hannah hangs her head, her long hair sliding around her face. Then she nods softly. "Ok."
The coffee is set on the pavement at her feet.
Jennifer" I was raised in the mountains. It was just a few families and my mom was like a mayor and my dad was the preacher. I know I'm not like everyone around here. That is why I'm meeting my friend at the Library. He said he would help me out."
She allows Sera to lead her towards Danny. She needs someone to help with her phone so she can meet Elijah.
JenniferPercept + Aware
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
DannyOkay Princess. *he nods soothing his voice down to a comforting sound, not understanding in the slightest, but it took all sorts to make the world work.* Let me see. *he holds his hand out again for the phone.*
JenniferAs Jennifer hands Danny the phone she glances over and sees a girl trying to make a waif of herself. This girl seemed more afraid than she was. Jennifer felt bad for the girl and wondered how she could help her.
Danny*He looked at the phone, then nodded and went to work on it.* Ahh okay, pretty basic when you come right down to it. Okay...
*He pulled up the wifi and opened that up to log into the roaming networks that were around and free.* Firstly, you see this? *he turns the screen back to her.* This allows you to connect to the internet. If you don't have this symbol up on the screen at the top here? No hapla anglais. It don't work. *Then he turned the phone back to himself again and began to bring up google, then showed it up to her.* Google. The almighty search engine for funny videos of cats to all manner of erm... information...
*he glanced at Sera for a moment, then his eyes flashed to Hannah, then back to Sera. Then he spoke to Jennifer again.* You need to forget about google maps though, if you go into your menu bar, you can see this icon. *he tapped the map..* This'll show you where you are, then if you type in the zip code of where you want to go, it'll direct you. Give it go? Go on, it won't bite you none.
SerafíneThere's this subtle flash from Sera. The briefest lilt upwards as Danny meets her eyes. The cigarette is less than half-finished but she stubs it out in a convenient ashtray and exhales another breath of spicy smoke.
More or less meeting Danny's gaze over Jennifer's head.
"Might want to find out a bit about her friend, too."
Jennifer didn't seem like the sort who should be out wandering alone in this world.
--
Then Sera turnss, pivots on those ridiculous shoes. And she's not the sort you'd expect to see talking to street people but the truth is Sera talks to all kinds. Down near the Church of the Good Shepherd the abuelitas all think that she is a prostitute trying to seduce their beloved priest. That is: well, not really precisely half-true, but comes close to some distorted mirror image of the truth.
So, Hannah, bunched up on the sidewalk, sparking, muttering to herself, wary as all hell, whom strangers are avoiding because who knows what the fuck someone talking to herself might do - what she might fling, what she might mean to them, what it might cost them to acknowledge her humanity - there she is.
Serafíne just ambles right up to her. Not too close, mind, but close enough to reach out and pick up the coffee cup and set it down again, closer to the girl.
More out of the ordinary path of foot traffic.
"Hey." Half-humming beneath her breath, Sera. "You okay?"
SerafíneMind 2: reading surface thoughts. Difficulty 5. -1 practiced, -1 specialty focus.
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (6, 6, 9) ( success x 3 )
JenniferJennifer finger pecked at the keyboard and typed in Denver Library. She then looked critically at the screen and pushed the enter button. The map zoomed out and she saw the path to the Library.
"YAY! Thanks!!"
KiaraFor all the tentative, unsure steps into the unknown being made tonight, there's one step, or a set of such, that are anything but. In fact, they resound with a surprising degree of assurance as they round a corner, coming upon the scene.
Enter, stage right, perhaps?
The footsteps belong to a female. Tall (at least in her heels she's something teetering on it), with dark hair, loose around her face tonight, lips painted fire engine red and dramatic eye makeup. There's a bundle of flyers tucked under an arm and her jacket licks at the heel of her boots. They too, are red, but worn out, faded. The leather tenderized by constant wear. She passes by the Café, her footsteps slowing only briefly, before she carries on past it to a streetlight just beyond.
Gathers items out of a pocket and begins to tape something to it. She feels like the first gust of breeze after the storm; vital, full of earth and rain and the remnants of the storm. A myriad of bracelets rattle around her wrists as she works. Bites the length of tape with her teeth and affixes it with nothing short of satisfaction.
Up close the flyer is familiar. They've been appearing in recent days. REIKI HEALING, bold letters proclaim at the world and if a poster could arguably shout its praises to the heavens, this one likely would.
DannyYeah you're welcome Princess. *he nodded, then moved his foot and nudged out a chair.* You seem to be new... this your first time in the smokes? *He picked up his drink again to take a long sip of the fizzy bubbled clear liquid and set it back down again before reaching into his pocket to pull out a cigarette and a zippo, then casually runs it down his thigh to light it, then blazes up the end of the cigarette in his mouth, a puff of blue grey smoke comes out.* What's your name?
JenniferI have to get to bed.
HannahShe begins to slide her hand in her messenger bag to pull out a small notebook anda green colored pencil. "I know." She said softly. "I forgot." Hannah, sitting in a place where there was at least light, began to draw in her green colored pencil, just as Sera made her way up. Hannah slipped her eyes to look at Sera's feet, then turned them quickly back to her notebook. She curled in tighter.
"Yes. Yes. If I make the color go, it'll be ok. If the light stays. It'll be ok." She lifted her head up slowly to give Sera a smile, even if she avoided her eyes.
Hannah"Use the color."
"Keep yourself calm."
"No one is going to hurt you."
"Someone's here."
"It'll be OK."
Jennifer"yeah, I just came down a few weeks ago. Look I don't want to be late for Elijah. I'll see you around I guess!"
Jennifer skirted away not knowing that Danny had lifted her phone number while he was helping her with her phone.
She waved and slipped into the crowd and off towards the Library.
Ian[Awareness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 4, 4, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )
SerafíneSerafíne is crouched, balancing on the most fucking incredible pair of studded black leather peep-toe booties, and truth, she has one hand braced on the sidewalk so she doesn't fall on her ass.
The fringe of her sidecut is canted toward Hannah. The rest of her hair shadows her sharp features.
She's still humming, and she's a little bit drunk and a little bit stoned and aware of things the way she is aware of things, with her skin-and-bones.
Her mouth is rather small and it is seamed now.
Thoughtful.
"Are you trying to get somewhere? Are you in trouble?"
HannahHannah shook her head, hair tossing around her face as she did. "No. No place yet. I had to leave. They wanted a place of theirs. Victor couldn't come." She doodled nothing in particular, just lines for the moment, staring at the color on the paper. "Now the darkness makes it hard. If we want to go, the darkness is there. It's where they hide. Hard to dance in the light when the sun goes away,"
Hannah lifted her eyes again, never making eye contact. Her attention dropped to Sera's shoes and her drawing stopped. Her lips tightened. "Don't you hear them cry?"
Kiara[Hm. Are we paying attention, Kiara?]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )
Danny*He nodded, watching Jennifer go, then turned his attention partially back to Sera and where Hannah could just about be seen with a soft shake of his head at how she managed to stay up on those damned heels.
How, well, it would be more difficult if she ate less like a sparrow he guessed, but with the cigarette taking his attention away periodically, he kept his eyes drifting along. Take a pull on the smoke, hold it for a few seconds, then let it go and let the smoke drift casually as he did so. Then take another pull on the smoke, rinse and repeat.
His eyes moved to pick up Kiara, tilting his head as he watched her hang up and bind some sign to a post, then back to Sera and Hannah for a short while.
Smoking, it was really that simple; inhale, hold it breath it out. His other hand reached for the drink again to take another sip.*
IanSometimes one could go days wandering the city and not run into another Awakened will. Other times? It was like someone stuck a giant flashing beacon down on the street corner.
Ian was focused on his phone as he walked, so he didn't immediately sense the presence of the other mages up ahead. As he moved, he slid nimbly between passing pedestrians, not bothering to look up as he stepped out of the way. His index finger swiped quickly across the screen as he typed.
And then.
As he drew near the outdoor cafe, Ian stopped and looked up. His eyes searched the area and found faces he recognized (Sera, Danny) as well as some he did not. After a moment, he pocketed his phone. Sera looked as though she was occupied with the dark-haired girl on the sidewalk, while Danny was seated alone at one of the tables. Ian shot a lingering glance in Kiara's direction (she was something new and curious) as he walked up to Danny's table.
"Busy night," he commented dryly.
DannyIts becoming that way. *He nods and finally it was getting dark enough to remove the shades, so he did the next best thing, he slide them up into his hair on top of his head.* How's it going. *he stubbed out the cigarette onto the ashtray and looked at the guy.*
SerafíneThis noise in the back of her throat, a quiet hum. Sera is - well - wobbling somewhat but still steady beneath it. Her mouth curls into this half-edged smile though, because she has diagnosed, absolutely diagnosed, Hannah's problem.
"I think you're having a bad trip. You'll be okay, though."
--
The vibrant edge of her magic in the air, wreathing around her. That humming noise again.
--
"I gotta go, though. Promised Dan I'd meet him and he'll get worried if I don't show up."
SerafíneSo: Mind 3. Project: a sense of safety and light and wholeness on Hannah. Calling it coincidental so dif 6. -1 (resonance) -1 (focus) -1 (quint)
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (2, 9, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
SerafíneExtending. Dif +2 b/c she's not spending quint this time.
Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (5, 7, 9) ( success x 4 ) [WP]
KiaraIt's a delicate thing sometimes, playing coy to the world when the world is speaking right back to you. Kiara, for her part, feels her brows knit in, what would it be -- consternation, consideration -- her eyes journeying away from her task across the street, flitting, feeling with as much focus as as she can before she resumes her task, pressing her flyer firmly to the cool surface of the street light before stepping back to admire her work.
She rolls her shoulders, tilts her neck to one side, then another and after a beat turns and walks directly toward the table with the assembled awakened. Toward, and, after catching the eye of perhaps all at least in passing with a suggestive little smile banking there in the corner of her mouth passes by them and sweeps toward the counter.
There's a hint of something vaguely like intense that follows her; it's hard to put a finger on exactly. Like spices and flowers, left to their own devices for days. Decay and reformation, perhaps.
Serafíne(Hey: I think that should be enough. Up to you what you do with it. I gotta sleep because I work early in the morning, but I wasn't sure how to react to Hannah's posts and maybe now she can interact with the others!)
SerafíneAnd: Sera hails a cab. Maybe the same one she just climbed out of. She has somewhere to be.
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