Elijah[nightmares for the day]
Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 3, 10) ( success x 1 )
Kalen Holliday[Oh. Way to remind me. Nightmares.]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
Kalen Holliday[Awareness because it will be relevant in like ten seconds]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 3 )
Kalen HollidayKalen is jogging. Which is both fantastic because jogging and depressing because he used to be so much better at this. Still, this is better than just about a month ago when he was constrained to hobbling around with a cane. So, there is not so much sulking and a lot of, among other things, jogging.
And thus, Elijah gets to meet Kalen under circumstances most people don't. Involving running shoes and gray pants for working out in and a white tee-shirt. The running shoes, and this may or may not please him for tormenting Kalen later, are a bizarre mix of neon orange and ridiculously vibrant blue.
Lucy[awarenazzzzz]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
ElijahHe didn't much care for jogging, but he was told rather emphatically that he needed to go out and exercise because of something that one called a runner's hgih. He'd never actually experienced it. Elijah could run and run and the only thing that he got up here was a seizing feeling in his lungs and the reminder that there is no air in Colorado. It was clean, pure, and fresh, but there was about half as much of it as he was used to.
Elijah Poirot was accustomed to chewing the air. Jenn said this was totally worth it, but Jenn? Jenn wasn't always right.
Attire was comfortable. Tennis shoes, tee shirt from some cheap New Orleans gas station, and shorts. Reasonable shorts, not short shorts. Elijah Poirot was not serious enough about anything for short shorts, even if he did have the legs for it. He paused, patting himself down and noticing something very important was missing.
"Son of a bitch," he muttered, and the young man started to double back on his way. What did you lose? I lost something once... can I help you find it?
Eyes on the grass.
Hello?
Eyes on the grass, Poirot.
Oh, okay...
Elijah[awareness?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 5, 7, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 ) Re-rolls: 1
Lena Reilly[[Awaredar! Uncanny Instincts]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 6 ) Re-rolls: 1
LucyA park is not the best place for a Lucy to be walking, but it is in a park that we find the tall young woman with the (now) shoulder-length, vibrant maroon-red hair. That hair has been braided back from her temples and fastened at the back of her head, keeping most (but not all) of the strands from hanging in front of her bright green eyes.
She's not dressed for a park, not wearing athletic gear or even tennis shoes, though she is wearing shorts, so there's that at least. Shorts over a pair of sheer black tights that disappear into a pair of knee-high black boots. The shorts are denim cut-offs, and above that is a red t-shirt, long enough to cover Lucy's hips. The design on the front is of a black sugar skull. And of course there is the ever-present slouching canvas bag, today hanging across her body, the strap bisecting her body hip-to-shoulder. If one looks closely at her right thigh, it's obvious there's a large tattoo there, but it is blurred by the tights.
She is walking along one of the paths, directly in the center of that path, bringing with her a sense of cold, of frost creeping over each blade of grass and climbing over toes. Of needle-and-thread, threading through the Pattern and drawing-
Two Mages running, one walking, all of them converging in one way or another. One she recognizes, and on recognizing Kalen - storm centralized in the park, gliding along the path toward her - she lifts her chin and smiles in greeting.
Immediately her eyes are drawn down. And she stops in her tracks in the middle of the path, mesmerized by the vibrant color and movement of his bright orange and blue shoes.
Lena ReillyThere are times when Lena Reilly is exceptionally in sync with her sixth sense. It has been known to happen, and it is very often when she is lost in herself...in a good way, mind. Let's not quibble; Lena has been known to lose herself in the worst possible ways and get sucked into herself like an escape pod jettisoned directly into a black hole. But she's past that for now and today its the good form of losing yourself.
That means she's feeling the music. In this case (as in most cases), "the music" comes from the earbuds that go from the sides of her head into the iTouch at her beltline. She's not dancing; not exactly. This has been known to happen and Kalen has seen it before, but right now it isn't dancing. It's Walking With Rhythm, as the sandles on her feet make contact with the ground in time with the beat of the trance song in her ears. Her head nods along with it, a warm smile and half-lidded eyes as she slips along, heading over the grass toward the jogging path. Her heartbeat (all heartbeats) thrum in time to the beat; her Resonance pulses and then withers away in time to the music. It almost makes her an antenna of sorts; she's transmitting, you could say.
She has no intention of jogging; she's more wandering than anything. Remember the old Tolkein quote, ladies and gentlemen. Two mages running; one walking, and one dance-walking. Convergance strikes again, and Lena--so in tune with the heartbeat of the universe--feels those Resonances. It's how she knows they're there even before she focuses her eyes, takes a look. Two she knows. One is new. It is Kalen and Lucy who get warm and friendly waves, while the newcomer gets a curious look. The woman in the Paul Oakenfeld logo-screened T-Shirt and the slim jeans moves to approach the others, plotting a course for where they'll best converge.
Kalen HollidayKalen looks around when he senses another unknown Mage. Seriously? You know who should get to cold open conversations with all the new Magi? Connor. Or maybe Sera, nevermind she sent Connie bolting. Maybe one of the Mages who gets being an actual human being. That was never, even before he Awakened, Kalen's thing. He has that much in common with other Hermetics.
He spots Elijah about the same time that he senses Lena and Lucy. Lena and Lucy get waves and he slows to a stop as they come together. His eyes track Lucy's and he laughs.
"Yeah. I couldn't find any that were a nice charcoal gray with heraldry on them. I'm not sure what the world is coming to. We definitely did something very wrong somewhere around the Renaissance."
But then his attention snaps back to Elijah. The last Mages have been extra skittish. Hopefully this one won't run.
ElijahSomewhere, there was a wall that was screaming. Vicious, spiteful, angry I told you so again and again, because there is nothing the soul likes more than to be vindicated.
Elijah wasn't anywhere near walls, though. And it hits on his senses and he looks around and there is a disconnect in his green eyes because he knows precisely where the feelings of tempestuousness, the stormy feeling, the beating heart and that... those feelings weren't supposed to come from people. He blinked, having almost forgotten about his phone and instead he was staring at people.
A glance at Lena's shirt (faster, pussycat, kill!), another at the cherry-haired woman (Lucy) and the owner of some obscenely bright tennis shoes (Kalen)-
Then, a bright smile- not so much full of teeth but of the practiced calm that comes with holding a bag full of broken glass and pretending things are intact. Elijah Poirot was, for his part, good at pretending... but this was too weird.
"Hey... uh... You fine people wouldn't happen to have seen a phone laying around, would you?" there is the lilt of something hinting at the south in his voice.
LucyLucy wasn't a skittish new Mage. In fact, it was Lucy who'd had to make the first move for introductions with the first Awakened she met in this city. She is not wearing her fine fedora and there is no guitar strapped to her back, but then she was not out to go to or from some little performance.
In fact, if one sniffs the air when its direction shifts just so, they'd note the fair young woman who feels like a mobile cold spot smells like coffee. And the smell is too strong for it to've come from passing in and out of a coffee shop, Lucy wears it like a purfume. Which may or may not detract from the fact standing too close to her feels like standing in a graveyard in the middle of winter.
Kalen's voice draws her attention away from his shoes. With a blink she looks up, and she smiles at him. The last few times she's seen the Hermetic she's beelined out of his presence, but every time they run into each other things seem to have reset. She doesn't look like she's a little hurt, or a little concerned, or like she should pivot and take off in the opposite direction. Lucy gets that people can only handle being around her for so long, then they need a break.
"If you're looking for designs, I can stitch something into the sides if you want. Hermes' wings for swiftness, or maybe something a little more protector-y." He looks away and she joins him in looking, and she's about to ask if Lena and Kalen know that guy - Lucy's the new kid in town still, or one of them - when that guy calls out to them. Immediately, Lucy looks back the way she came.
She shakes her head, but she heads over toward the newcomer. "I haven't seen one, but I bet if we look together we'll find it. I'm Lucy," she introduces herself, and gestures over to the other two. "And that's Lena and that's Kalen. Do you remember where you had it last?"
Lena ReillyLucy is boondoggled by Kalen's shoes; Lena just finds them amusing. There's a sparkle of laughter in the Ecstatic's eyes in regard to the Flambeau's style of dress, but she is polite enough not to call attention to it. Lena is a lot of things and she makes apologies for relatively few of them, but there is a time and a place and this is not it. Instead, she joins into the banter.
"I suggest a lightning bolt," she says with a smile. "Now that you have your running feet again, I'm surprised you're not Flash-like all the time, racing everywhere you go."
Elijah comes closer and givesn them a bright smile, and Lena returns it with an only slightly-more reserved one. It's gentle and friendly, accepting. She glances over toward Kalen as if to say let's go say hi, then moves to follow Lucy. The headphones are withdrawn and pocketed. "Hey," she says with a nod. "Nice to meet you. I haven't seen a phone, but yeah...what Lucy said. I can absolutely help you look if you'd like."
Kalen Holliday[Kalen cannot help himself. He has to try to get a read on all the new people. Awarepathy. (On Elijah. He and Lucy can maybe play later.)]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )
Kalen Holliday"Not just now, no. But we can look." He gives Elijah a reassuring smile that actually hits his eyes.
And then he is distracted by this Very Important Shoe discussion. "Well, as far as know you cannot get running shoes in a sane color spectrum. So there may be no tasteful heraldry option. Further embellishing these...well...I suppose it may be that I should just embrace as much of the insanity as possible."
Introductions. You were on introductions.
He turns back to Elijah. "Yeah," he says, extending a hand, smile caught halfway between reassuring and playing now. "Kalen Holliday. I am occasionally more dignified." He holds up the hand he's not offering to shake up with his thumb and forefinger practically touching. Just a smidge, that gesture says.
Elijah"Well, it's a phone. In a worst case scenario it has insurance... we can call it an adventure," that smile turns into a grin, and there is delight in that, the idea of an adventure even if it was just for a phone. His handshake is firm, but his shoulders are relaxed. The young man makes good eye contact- not too direct, not too imposing. Long enough to show interest but short enough not to be creepy.
"I'm Elijah, Elijah Poirot," like Bond, James Bond. But backwards- James, James Bond. Somehow it didn't have the same ring. elijah is thankful his name isn't James, though his reaction times are a little slower than they would be.
"Last place I had it was in my pocket, but I figure I was at least by that tree over there-" he gestures off by a bench with atree near it. So descriptive, that bench.
Lucy[what the hey, let's go passive awarepathy on Mr. Elijah]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )
LucyLucy does not offer her hand for a shake, though she'll (reluctantly) accept if offered. Most people don't find it terribly off-putting that she doesn't pair her introduction with an automatic offer for someone to put 'er there. She is young, and young people these days are nothing if not devoid of manners, right?
Elijah points over to that bench by that tree, but Lucy doesn't follow the gesture. Her expression brightens, and then she pulls open her bag and starts searching inside of it. "Did you have the ringer on? Aha." She straightens, holding up her own phone. "We can try calling it. Sometimes you can even hear the vibrate go if it's loud enough. It's not much of an adventure, but if it works, hey. Denver's pretty big, I'm sure there's another adventure waiting to be discovered."
Lena ReillyFor all her quiet friendliness, Lena also does not shake hands. She lets the contact greetings go on but doesn't offer nor accept if offered, only smiles to the new man. "Hi, Elijah.
"That's a good idea," she says to Lucy when she suggests calling the phone. Smart girl. Lena hadn't thought of that, had only thought to go check around the tree and the oh-so-descriptive bench. She's good with electronics, but while she's happy to help find the phone and committed to doing so, she's more interested in the people that have gathered here. Kalen thinks he's not a people person but he's getting better. Lena tries, even if sometimes she gets a little skittish.
"I've misplaced my own phone so many times, you'd think I would have some good ideas myself." It's not untrue, but it's not self-recriminating; it's said more as a joke. "Let's go head that way, and we can call too if that's an option."
Alexander[Per+Aware, for fun and profit]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )
AlexanderMost of the city may be slowly thawing from the winter and the occasional snow storm that the mountains throw over it occasionally, but there are still parts that are frozen. One of those parts is Alexander, who just happens to be walking through the park just now. Alexander, who doesn’t believe in Fate but is constantly amazed by the sense of humour Chance has in drawing strands together, even if only temporarily.
So here is Alexander, roaming through the park absent-mindedly. Well, not absent exactly. More distracted. A pair of headphones, snaking down into a jacket pocket, drowns out what background noise there is with music. He’s walking, wandering really, while reading something in a slightly dog-eared tourist guide to the city. A few corners have been folded over, but most haven’t been touched. Desecration, some might say. Those that hold books in a higher regard than Alexander, maybe.
He drifts towards a park bench that he’s not particularly paying attention to and sits. A few moments pass before the niggling feeling of Others nearby gets enough attention for him to look up and scan the park.
#Alleinesein, Alleinesein, Heute bin ich einfach mein, In vertrauter Einsamkeit. Alleinesein, Alleinesein, Heute bin ich mir genug, Und das tut auch mal ganz gut#
Kalen Holliday"I love adventures. Although this may be the least interesting adventure ever. We'll have to add side quests to make it more exciting. Like for coffee. Coffee is amazing. Totally worth adventures and maybe even dragons." There is just a hint of an amused purr in his voice.
He watches as Lena and Lucy start being useful, searching for the phone and then notices Alexander. His eyes light up a little more, and he goes bounding over to where Alexander is sitting and drops his hands onto Alexander's shoulders. From behind him. With no warning. Because that is totally going to end well.
"How can you even do that, I go crazy if I can't hear what's going on around me," he says, whether or not Alexander managed to get his earphones out before he was accosted.
LucyLucy holds up her phone and unlocks it without looking at the screen. She's looking at Elijah because they're talking and then she's looking at him a little more curiously. And a little more intently. There are aspects of that look and the things he's trying to soldier past that she's seen before, and that she recognizes.
The look she returns to him is sympathetic as she holds out her phone to him, not really sure where to start with the questions she'd like to ask the poor guy, but there's something she wants to know first. Lena suggests they head that way and Lucy says, "Not yet."
She's still looking at Elijah, poor guy. Lucy is a lovely girl, friendly with an open demeanor, but there is Something Not Quite Right about her. About the paleness of her skin, or the cold, frosted resonance threading through and through the air around her. Kalen goes bounding off toward the other cold spot in the park and Lucy glances thataway, but her eyes flick back to Elijah.
"This is going to sound weird, but, have you had any strange meetings, strong, eye-opening epiphanies, or any other kind of bizarre thing happen that maybe belongs in an episode of the Twilight Zone?"
Elijah"Mmmn, coffee and the opportunity to vanquish a worthy foe. Kalen, you are a genius," Elijah replied, that hint of the south becoming more than a hint for just a second, "coffee is truly a worthwhile adversary."
Lucy has her phone out and Elijah, for his part, was… confused. she looked at him with sympathy and his first thought was that she knew- she knew something was off and she was looking at him with… no, it wasn't pity. He was smart enough that he knew what pity looked like. Wait, why was she being sympathetic?
"Recently or within the last few years?" he… isn't even sure why he's entertaining the notion. The young man's tone is a little guarded, but not guarded enough that he wasn't willing to at least answer.
AlexanderAgain, Chance seems to have a very dark, twisted sense of humour. If Alexander had been paying a little more attention to his surroundings... If he’d sat in a different place, looking in a different direction... If the music playing through the headphones was just a little quieter... If...
One of the things that a few of the others in the city might have learned is that it’s not always a good idea to sneak up on people. Not those with a profession which means that they’re constantly watching their back. Not when they have no idea that you’re there when you grab their shoulders. So instincts take over as the book falls to the floor, forgotten about for the moment, as the air suddenly turns chilled. Alexander grabs the wrist of one hand, turning away from the other hand as he stands. His grip on the wrist is tight as he moves to pull the owner forward over the bench and wrap it around the owner’s back to hold him (or her) where they land...
[Str+Brawl – going for a hold, so +1 diff]
Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 5, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )
Lena ReillyLena is supremely in sync with her mystical senses right now and so she feels another cold front coming in to the already-chilly, tumultuous storm that surrounds her. Some people might take that particular combination of Resonances as a sign to get the fuck out of Dodge. Lena? Not so much. It's rare that a Resonance bothers her; like most of them there are only certain feels that strike at something inside her and repel her away. Nothing currently present qualifies.
She grins as Kalen goes bounding over to sneak up on Alexander, shaking her head. They all make their own choices, and she isn't going to mother him not to nor prevent him from likely ending up on the ground. She gets how Alexander does that which makes Kalen go crazy; after all, that's exactly what Lena was doing when she walked up to the Hermetic and Lucy with Elijah not so far away. Music focuses her own senses and that's enough for her.
Lucy tells her not yet and she starts questioning Elijah about strange meetings. That draws a frown from the Ecstatic. It's not overtly disapproving, exactly. But it does seem to frustrate her somehow. And since the conversation has abruptly shifted with Lucy guiding the way, Lena is at a standstill.
So she stands there for the moment, letting Lucy and Elijah speak.
Kalen Holliday[Dex+Athletics - We'll just roll with that throw.... (hopefully)]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )
Kalen HollidayPractice being thrown around, Kalen has in spades. Recent practice, not so much. Still, for all he doesn't manage a spectacularly pretty landing, he goes with being pulled over a bench easily enough. He lands with one hand, as Alexander intended, caught behind his back. After a second to try to regain something like proper balance he drops his head back to look at Alexander and smiles, as though this is a perfectly normal way to be greeting other people.
"Hey, Alce. You should come meet our new friend."
AlexanderBrain re-engaged and catching up with recent events, Alexander realises who he’s just dragged over the bench and tried pinning down.
“Will you people stop doing that?!”
Letting go of Kalen’s arm, he pulls out the headphones and exhales loudly. But then a smile starts to pull at the edges of his mouth as he helps Kalen back to his feet and regain his balance. “Someone will get hurt one of these times, and then I’ll feel guilty for aaaages.” He crouches to recover the book, giving it a bit of a shake to knock loose anything it might have picked up from its brief stay on the ground. He looks towards the others, now that he is actually paying attention, and waves to Lena, Lucy and the other.
“Another member of the cool kids club? Wait... What?” Alce? Alexander’s forehead creases as he reruns that last bit of the conversation. Maybe he just misheard...
LucyIf Lena disapproves of Lucy's tactics - or if she simply chafes against someone telling her to hold her horses - she's more than welcome to wander on over to that bench. Lucy won't actually stop her, but she's curious. About it, about old Elijah here, about this park. She realizes that something is...different here, but she's going to start at the first step and circle out from there.
First step is finding out just why this guy is looking so unsettled. Lucy draws her own conclusions, given his distraction, and the way he's been looking at the lot of them like he's one confusing puzzle piece away from figuring something out. Of course, he could also just be on something. But he doesn't appear to have the telltale marks.
And so.
Does she mean recently, or in the last few years? "I'm guessing recently," she says, that smile and her demeanor kind. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but uh. You're not the only one waiting to hear Rod Serling's voice over." Oh my god Lucy let that go.
"Anyway," and here she turns to look at Lena before dropping her phone back into her bag. Then she's widening the bag's opening and searching until, "Aha." She produces what looks like a very strange pen, or maybe it's some brand's bizarre take on a lip gloss or lip stick holder.
Lucy turns away from them, then, and she closes her eyes.
Dusk handmaiden, let your light reveal what's hidden.
She pushes up on a switch on the side, and lo! It's a little Zippo candle lighter. The flame setting is not set to terribly high, and when it's lit, Lucy opens up her eyes. When she does, the temperature around her drops.
[Spirit 1: Scan for the stuff or whatevs! Coincidental and super crazy practiced]
Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (2, 5) ( success x 1 )
ElijahThis… this felt weird. This felt incredibly weird, like it was going to get even weirder even quicker and there were two incredibly attractive ladies talking to him and all of a sudden there were people and it was getting very hard to pay attention because all of a sudden whomever was on the other side was being very, very, very insistent that he listen to her because she knows he can hear her.
The lady was holding a pen and the weird got ramped up to an eleven and without warning his phone rang.
Never had he looked more relieved to hear something playing the meow mix song.
"Hey, I… need to take that," he offered an apologetic smile, putting a hand up and taking the opportunity to retreat.
"I… will be… right back."
Maybe.
Hopefully.
Maybe he was a little freaked out.
A little.
Lena ReillyHer attention is diverted when Kalen is thrown to the ground, a little grin lighting her face...at least once she knows he's okay. The deejay hasn't always had the best relationship with Kalen but they've gotten well past that now, and she's grown fond of him. She watches as Alexander helps him up and then returns the wave that they direct this way.
Lucy is talking with Elijah, getting into the beginnings of explaining some things to him. Lena wasn't entirely sure if it was a conversation that should have begun at this point--for all they knew, he was experienced--but she seems to be possibly making some traction and then she pulls out a lighter and starts working her magick.
The chill that emanates from Lucy sends a shiver down the Ecstatic's spine, and she reaches up to rub at her arms impulsively. Cold is often a precursor to being sick, and it's not exactly Lena's favorite sensation but she's not repelled away. There's a moment when she smiles to Elijah, a reassuring expression, but she doesn't interject otherwise at the moment. It isn't until Elijah hears his phone and makes a convenient escape to retrieve it that she finally speaks up, nodding.
"Take your time. We'll be here." Whether she agreed with Lucy's tactics or not, she's not abandoning the situation right now. She watches him head off, then looks to the Dreamspeaker.
"Well, that went well." It isn't said in the manner of judgment toward Lucy. It's more an attempt to insert some levity into the potential awkwardness, her little smile and the tenor of her voice indicating the good-natured humor.
Lucy[awareness-as-empathy to see if she picks up any of that subtext]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (6, 6, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 5 )
Kalen Holliday"Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr you could relax." Kalen grins. "I was reasonably sure you wouldn't shoot me. And outside of that...nothing I can't handle. Who else is crazy enough to do that to you?"
He laughs, bouncing his shoulder into Alexander's. "You don't even know what I Named you for, do you?" He is energetic, but also relaxed. There's no real tension in the set of his shoulders, and for all his eyes do flick over the park, there is no real sign of outright wariness.
"Our new friend seems to have found his phone, but hey...Lena and Lucy."
LucyOff away by another bench, Kalen is thrown to the ground and nearly pinned. The boys are rough housing while the ladies try to talk to the newcomer. And Elijah is new, quite new if Lucy knows that look.
Of course, it could be something else. There are people, Awakened and not, who can sense and even hear the presence of ghosts left behind after death without a knowledge of Spirit. Lucy performs a small rote to see for herself, and as she does her vision changes.
The park looks a little different to her eyes. There are people, and there are shades of people. There are Others. Most of who Lucy sees are benign. Listless wanderers so far gone even she can't help them at this point. But, nothing that looks like it would've distracted Elijah the way he'd been distracted. Curious.
Sighing, she lets the filter slide from her sight. The park is bright, the horizon dark with storms on the horizon. Two college aged males are throwing a frisbee back and forth. A couple is sitting on a blanket beneath the shade of a tree having a picnic. Everything looks normal again.
Except that they're down a person. Lucy looks around and she sees him, off a ways and talking on that supposedly missing phone. She frowns, because Elijah presents a puzzle, one she can't work out if she doesn't get a chance to talk to him. But first...
Well, that went well.
She looks at Lena and that frown deepens. Just because Lena doesn't intend for her words to be judgemental, that doesn't mean they're not. She looks over the Ecstatic, shrugs, and takes a few steps away. "Yeah, well I didn't see you helping. I didn't see anything that could be trying to get his attention in particular," she says, her tone and expression saying clearly that this is very strange. She's distracted by it when Kalen and Alexander make their way over.
"Hey..." And then she shakes her head. "I should go." Because once someone's unsettled by her - and in this case it appears to be not one, but two people - there is no comfortable recovery until they're given a day or two free from her presence. "It was nice to see you all." Dropping the lighter into her bag, she heads in the opposite direction of where Elijah went, giving the poor guy some space.
Alexander“Or I could get a t-shirt made, with a sign on the back saying ‘Danger of splattage: approach from the front. And of course I wouldn’t shoot you.” Alexander looks deadpan when he adds, quietly but loud enough for Kalen to easily hear, “My gun’s at home.” But the serious face only lasts a few moments when he answers the ‘who’ question. “Oh, Sera tried sneaking up on me. I kinda threw her on her ass in front of Shoshannah and some new guy.” He snorts in slightly embarrassed amusement at the moment. “She bounces well.”
Alexander bounces shoulders back before glancing sideways at Kalen, looking worried. “I have no idea. What was it you called me?“
He looks back towards Lucy as he feels a familiar tingle as what could feel like a cool breeze blows past. “Who is he?”
Alexander[Sorry, tack on the end of that]
He doesn't catch the conversation that passes between Lucy and Lena, but Lucy leaves abruptly. The reason unknown, but at least it's probably not him. He manages to get in a brief, "Hey" before she heads away though.
Lucy[oh! i thought that Kalen was talking to Lucy and Lena at the end of his post. Strike "by it when Kalen and Alexander make their way over" and that "Hey..." the rest still stands!]
Lena ReillyShe blinks when Lucy turns what was meant to be a light-hearted take on the situation into a reason to be offended, and flips it back on her. Lena is quick to her emotions anymore, and a frown quickly forms on her expression, especially when Lucy makes to go without giving her a chance to explain herself.
"Jesus." The reaction fuels her own mood, and then suddenly Lucy's not the only one walking away. She turns and starts off on her own direction, giving Kalen and Alexander an apologetic shrug. Her mood has been swept away and she's self-aware enough to know that she's just going to be bad company from here.
Kalen Holliday"Yeah. That doesn't surpri...." Lena and Lucy both leave as they arrive and Kalen blinks. He waves at them both, then sighs.
He waits until they are out of earshot to murmur to Alexander. "Have I mentioned that people are exhausting lately? Because sometimes they really are and also they confuse the Hell out of me. Plus not everyone fights and then decides to form a cabal. It's like all that matters or something. Please tell me they make sense to you. I would just be really glad to hear that they make sense to someone." He is mostly playing. Mostly.
"Anyway. Alce. It's like a griffin, but without wings. You know...the lion-y eagle-y things....?"
AlexanderThe air definitely feels a little chillier, and for once it’s nothing to do with the resonances of the gathered Awakened. Alexander holds up a hand in farewell, unseen by Lena as she stalks away.
The hand sinks, and Alexander looks just as confused as Kalen feels as he watches Lucy and Lena head off along different paths. “You mentioned the whole tiredness thing. But this? Yeah, not a clue. Maybe it’s one of those things you had to be there for. Hopefully they make sense to themselves, or we’re really in trouble.” Something Kalen said registers... “Wait a minute, does everyone who likes you try to punch, shoot, throw or otherwise cause you at some point?” He smiles as he says it – it is meant as a joke. “Was it Alyssa, Sid or both you ended up fighting with?”
Kalen explains what an Alce is, and Alexander looks a little blank. “Yeah, never heard of them before.” He runs through various combinations of the parts of eagles and lions, ending up with a bizarre mental image of a lion’s front half with an eagle’s rear end – although it ends up with more chicken legs. “Do I need to hit you again?” He nudges Kalen’s shoulder again before heading towards a bench.
Kalen HollidayKalen settles onto the bench, close to but not sprawling over Alexander. Thus far at least, Alexander is spared that. He keeps half an eye on Elijah, but staying aware of him and needing to actively watch him are two different things.
He laughs. "Well, Alyssa and I fought and then formed a cabal. Awhile ago though, Sid and I got into a fight in Trent's office and he had this expression like he was scared we were going to get blood all over his walls. Then she left and I tried to pick a fight with Trent. He wasn't having any of that though, so then we just started drinking whiskey and it turned out fine."
"Do you need to hit me? You're the one who somehow never learned your mythical creatures." He fiddles with his phone. "How does that even happen?" He shows Alexander a picture of a proper griffin on his phone. "Like this. But no wings."
AlexanderAlexander stuffs the increasingly battered book into a jacket pocket and relaxes back on the bench. He looks over to the man Kalen keeps an eye on, watching him in some animated conversation on his mobile phone – the distance too great to actually make out any of the words. “So who is he?”
He listens as Kalen explains his track record of fighting with the others. “I guess fighting is one way of breaking the ice. Although getting drunk with people might be easier on the furniture. Maybe. Except if tequila was involved. Was medical attention involved in the fights, or did you stop at first blood?” He looks around the park, watching the other city dwellers pass by in their normal – or not so normal – daily routines. “Who’s Trent?”
“Oh suuuure, like being able to stick together random bits of zoo exhibits is a useful life skill to learn. Although I’d like to see you get from First and Broad over to 23rd and Jackson in 10 minutes in rush hour traffic.” He looks down at the phone when it’s offered, contemplating the image. He grins as he says, “Ok, I guess you live.”
Kalen Holliday"No idea. His name is Elijah."
Kalen laughs. "Tequila is kind of how I got to know Sera, actually. None of those fights drew blood. I apologized to Alyssa. And Sid and I...." He glances around to be sure no one is close and leans a little closer to Alexander to say very quietly, "Sid and I did not get along until an evil Fallen Mage invaded our dreams to tell us she was going to kill everyone we knew if we didn't let her facilitate the entry of an evil spirit that feeds an fear and madness into this world. We were unimpressed by that threat. Then we stopped her. And now we're friends."
He regards Alexander steadily. "Fate. Mage." He grins. "I can totally do that. I might get in way more trouble for it, but I could do it...."
AlexanderAlexander nods, making a mental note of the name. “Any idea if he’s new-new, or just new to the city?”
He listens, eyebrows rising at the mention of the Fallen Mage, and replies equally quietly. There’s nobody nearby, but better to be safe than sorry and all that. “I like Sera, and she’s done an awful lot for me. But I can’t help feeling that I don’t really know her. Although talking to her, I can’t help wondering if she really knows herself sometimes. Or at least how she’s ended up where she is. Which, thinking about it, is kinda strange for someone who can look back centures to see what a long-dead Archmage did before he passed away.” He shrugs. Whether she doesn’t feel able to, or just doesn’t want to, look back is her decision.
“So exactly how much death and destruction have I signed up to fight against? It doesn’t sound like there’s been any great shortage of it so far.” It’s always nice to know exactly how large a hole you’ve managed to dig yourself. “And, um... any tips for not getting squished by big nasty things?”
Alexander smiles back. “Point. You’d save a fortune on fuel, too, but I hear that paradox is a bitch. If you ever want to start up a courier run, though, I can give you some tips.”
Kalen Holliday"Mmmmmmmmm...all of it?" Kalen smiles. "We can do that. Maybe practice a bit. Not so much here, but definitely. Actually, the four of us should. We should know each other's limits.
"It's not all bad though. And some of it is fantastic."
"My guess would be new-new, but it could be either. Or both, even."
Alexander“Maybe we can start out with something small and squeaky and work up. A possessed cat toy, something like that” Alexander smiles, laughing quietly, before getting a little more serious again. “Practice would be great, though. You know I don’t think I’m anything special at the moment in those kinda ways, and yeah – I know I can learn, and I’m definitely up for that. But I guess I want to find out what else I can do to help you guys out.” He remembers an earlier conversation, when Kalen was talking about the way he got between a spirit and a rather-out-of-it-Sera. “Other than as a meat shield, anyway.” He smiles again, not really serious – at least about the last part.
“Oh, I’ve seen some of the fantastic – you were there! It’s the bad that I haven’t met yet.”
Elijah"Jenn?"
Nothing. The young man started pacing. It wasn't ever a good thing when Elijah started pacing because it meant he wasn't going to stop. There was rambling on the other end. Lots and lots of rambling. It was clearly rambling because the expression on his face was somewhere between confusion and incredible focus because he could focus on this instead of whatever else was playing through his head loud and angry and echoing.
"Jenn, calm down."
She kept going. This clearly was not the thing to say.
"Have you talked to the land lord?.. well, put him on the line," he said, "what do you mean he's not there?.. oh… wow, really? Yeah, no, we are going to have- no no no, don't unpack anything. No no no it needs- don't get anything out of the truck fuck bedbugs. We are not moving into an apartment with bed bugs. We are getting our deposit back… well, does he need both knees?"
Elijah Poirot hated bedbugs. He hated them with a passion, with something fiery and bright and terrible. LIke the light of a thousand suns. His voice softened, "don't worry about it, we'll figure it out. Just go grab a hotel... yeah, i've got it."
Kalen Holliday"The Message was great but the...." He shudders a little, resettles a fraction of an inch closer to Alexander. "The Storm a bit less so. That was...that was when Sera showed up with tequila. She couldn't stay asleep. I was still awake. Maybe because we both knew what-"
His eyes flick over toward Elijah. "That's sounding like it's going well...."
LucyLucy did not leave because she needed to take a phone call. She didn't particularly plan on leaving, and when she took off - giving both the newbie Mage and the, well, and Lena some freedom from the uncomfortable chill of her presence - she deliberately went the opposite direction of Elijah so he wouldn't have to have this weirdly cold woman passing too close to him on her way to where she was going.
Unfortunately, Alex isn't the only person new to Denver. He's not the only one in need of a guide book. The difference is, he has a guide book. Lucy has her phone but sometimes the GPS is wonky and sometimes it freezes (hah) and a lot of times if she could afford to chuck it in a lake she would.
She is not even out of sight when she stops on the path and pulls out her phone and tries to get the blasted thing to load a damn map. Finally, she gives up and has to - very warily - head back toward the cluster of Magi. She glances at Elijah as she passes, but looks away again, mouth screwed up to the side.
When she's close enough to where Kalen and Alexander are seated, the maroon-haired young woman stops again. This time, giving all of them a wide wide wide berth. "Ah, sorry to interrupt, but do either of you know how I get to the twenty line from here?" Of course she needs to know where the nearest bus stop is, they both know she and her sister don't have a car.
AlexanderAlexander looks at Kalen when he feels, more than sees, the shudder. “It wasn’t pleasant, but it didn't seem too bad. Grace didn’t seem to suffer that much either. But I can’t imagine what you went through, and Sera..” He goes quiet for a few moments, aware now of exactly what it was that they had been dragged through. “Worth it, though. I hope the tequila helped.”
Alexander looks over to Elijah, as parts of the conversation start to drift over. “New to the city, anyway.”
He sits up and look around as Lucy approaches again, having stopped watching her walk through the park soon after she’d left. He gives her a smile – warm in the rather chilled atmosphere surrounding them. He pulls out the guide book, checking the back to see if there’s a bus map there. “Where are you trying to get to?”
ElijahElijah could deal with the Voice. He had done a decent enough job with medication and focus and dedication and hoping that anything he could throw at himself would make it happy, but he could not deal with bedbugs. There was an article he read once about how people feel like they have post traumatic stress after a bedbug infestation and Elijah Poirot was convinced that he was not going to go a day with wondering if it had burrowed into his books of some painting or took up residence in-
Elijah could have pantomimed shooting himself, but the fact that his finger-gun wasn't loaded didn't give him the incentive. Bed bugs- worse than death.
"Looks like we're going to be residents of the Marriott until we get a new apartment." he uncovered the receiver, "yeah… yeah… I met some people at the park… yeah… mmmn-hmmmn…. we won't have a fridge, so there's no point… okay… okay… okay I'll call him. I'll call him. Don't stress… okaybye."
bweep.
He looked back towards the people.
"Found it!"
Kalen Holliday"It was worth it. We did a good thing. I'm glad. It was just...a little rough for a minute." He smiles, and it is a real smile, even if his eyes stay a bit haunted.
And then he looks up at Lucy and his eyes are distant. "I...have no idea about where to find buses sadly." But Alexander is pulling out a guidebook and so he turns his attention to Elijah.
"Just in time apparently." He waves Elijah over toward them, rather than getting up.
LucyKeeping a decent distance means she doesn't exactly crowd in on a private conversation. If Lucy realizes she returned during some sort of heart-to-heart it doesn't show. Maybe she doesn't realize.
Her hands are in the pockets of her shorts and while that definitely makes her posture a little more closed off, at least she's not curled in on herself. As aware as she is of how her presence affects those around her, she is not ashamed or nervous or terribly self-conscious. Stray animals need their space, and in this case Lucy considers Alex, Kalen, and Elijah to be the strays.
"The nearest light rail station," she replies, glancing at Kalen. She offers him a smile that is more mollifying than it is apologetic. She'll be out of his hair soon enough. Her attention returns to Alex. It's a delicate dance she starts to do, trying to move a step or two close to Alexander without encroaching too much on Kalen's space and also giving Elijah room to breathe. It's delicate but it's practiced.
AlexanderAlexander taps Kalen gently on the arm a couple of times as one trail of conversation fades and others rise to take its place. “Give me a yell if you need more tequila,” he offers at the end, though.
He gets up from the bench and moves to stand next to Lucy, trying to make it a little to work out where they are on the small (crumpled, slightly muddy) map in the back of the book. He gives it a wipe before rotating the whole book upside down and taking another look. Had his resonance developed differently, maybe Lucy’s chill would have been a little more uncomfortable to be around. But, as it was, it didn’t overly bother him. And maybe it was his early exposure to spirits in his Awakened life that keeps the graveyard-feeling from getting too overpowering too. He hasn’t noticed his resonance having a similar effect on others – at least not yet, but who knows how things will develop. Sera, maybe?
“That way, I think,” he says pointing off towards one of the distant park gates. He glances at Kalen before looking back at Lucy. “Want some company?”
ElijahHe meandered over. It wasn't so much walking as trudging, and his attention turned and… there was that lady. Lucy, the one who made things feel like a sudden snap of cold. The one who happened to know any number of things about the world around him and, frankly, had a bit of a love of the Twilight Zone. Not that there's anything wrong with that; Elijah was a Seinfeld guy (not that there's anything wrong with that, but he wasn't even old enough to have seen it the first time around.)
With the promise of coffee, their darling rabbit began his approach.
"Hey, uh… sorry about that, I seem to have found myself unexpectedly relocated," he said with a smile not unlike someone who found out they were being held for ransom, "hoping to get a deposit back."
Kalen HollidayKalen smiles. "Yeah," he says to Alexander. "I'll keep that in mind. Go on." He waves a hand in a shooing motion. "I'm fine."
He rolls his eyes at what Elijah says. "Ugh. That is the worst. I used to have horrible luck with apartments. You still want to go on coffee seeking adventures?"
Hawksley RothschildThere are people. These are people in a park, special people who are simply more than other people. And then there's a man taking advantage of the cooling evening to work out in said park. He's jumping rope, rapid and clipped, turning the rope with flicks of his wrist. He is shirtless. He is wearing trainers and basketball shorts and a sweatband and his skin is made of burnished bronze, his hair is made of gold, and every time his feet leave the earth for a half-step one expects him to just keep rising. He has that sense about him.
Hawksley Rothschild[before anyone rolls, Hawksley's resonance: http://youtu.be/SeIJmciN8mo]
Elijah"Of course I want to go on a coffee-seeking adventure, I've been sent into apartment exile courtesy of hoards of tiny, tiny vermin- short of having bloody, squishing things-related vengeance for having been vexed so thoroughly, I could go for coffee," if what he drank actually constituted as coffee. It was mostly milk and sugar. Elijah Poirot was not ashamed of his coffee drinking proclivities.
Or proud, really. One should not be proud of how Elijah drinks coffee, because it's not really coffee at that point.
He paused, and looked over in Lucy's direction, "hey… uh… Lucy, right? Can we… uh… talk later? I think we got off to a bad start."
LucyLucy moves to stand a little closer to Alex, to peer at the map he's trying to read and maybe figure it out. She frowns at it, looking for the green square that is City Park, and then the little blue squares marking the bus stops. Her mouth screws to the side and she looks up and around. Alex offers to go with her and she smiles, giving him a look that is grateful and also amused. "You sure? Seems like you're always helping me get from one place to another."
Kalen isn't the only one who has some sympathy for Elijah's predicament. "Sorry to hear that. If you need a place to stay," do they think she's going to offer him a couch or something the way Kalen offered her sister and her his house? "my sister and I are at [some conveniently located inexpensive hotel *handwave*]. I know they still have some vacancies."
Then she blinks at him, clearly surprised. She doesn't let it steamroll her, though. She smiles. "It's...yeah, that'd be great. If you want," she looks at Alex who had just offered to walk with her, then at Kalen who she can never get a good read on, Kalen who looks distant when he looks at her. She doesn't look at him for very long. "If you don't mind, I can hang around a little longer. If you're looking for coffee the place where I work is pretty close?"
Lucy[sure why not, awareness again! (maybe i should stop being so offhand about it? perhaps that's why the 1s rain down?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (5, 7, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )
AlexanderAlexander smiles again. "I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure."
And then it's his turn for the mobile phone to start buzzing away in his pocket. He apologises and steps to one side to take the call, moving far enough away for his conversation to be inaudible to the others and vice versa.
[And now I go crash out because I've been awake for 22 hours and I need sleep. Thanks for the scene!]
SerafíneAwareness.
Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 10, 10) ( success x 5 ) Re-rolls: 2
Kalen Holliday"Yeah, that sounds like-"
Flying.
Kalen lets out a slow breath. He never quite manages to get along with Hawksley but his Resonance is just...blissful. Particularly considering Lucy's.
And Serafine? Serafine and the taste of sun-ripened peaches and flying? He smiles, looking to see where Hawksley and Serafine are.
"Have you met Hawksley and Serafine, Snowdrop?" He asks Lucy, then glances at Elijah.
"Brace yourself. There may be more introductions. And then we go on our coffee quest."
SerafíneGod, look at Hawksley working out. What the fuck is Sera doing? Drinking a blue-raspberry slush dosed with vodka, holding a second one in her other hand. She has been awake for three or four or five hours, and has eaten nothing except that blue-raspberry slush she is drinking, and quietly pensive all evening, as she has been for some days. Only Dan knows that, though.
What Hawksley knows is that she showed up with a pair of large slushes already dosed with vodka, wearing tiny denim cut-offs, hiking boots, fishnets, and black lace bustier accented by pink roses beneath a black hoodie, unzipped. Showed up and picked a perch on a nearby park bench to watch him work out while she drinks her breakfast of alcoholic champions and considers whether or not she wants to add to its nutritional content with a clove cigarette. Sunglasses hide her eyes and it hardly matters to her if the sun has gone down or not.
That's the way things are. When she showed up she might've slid the rim of the cold slush over the ripped line of his abs or something. To be helpful. Cool him off.
'Cos sweating.
Or something.
If he complained, she might've stuck out her tongue. Stained blue.
LucyFlight. Soaring high above the clouds, awash in sunlight. A place between places, but both places at once. Visceral and enthralling. Lucy's brows slant together and she turns her head, looking for them. In doing so her farewell to Alex is a little distracted. She looks a bit pensive. Hands still in the pockets of a pair of short, denim cut-offs, tights beneath just sheer enough to reveal a shadow of ink on one of her thighs but obscuring the details. Her boots are black leather and rise up to her knees - warm for the warming weather but she has reasons other than fashion. Her shirt today is an ordinary red t-shirt with a sugar skull silk-screened large across her chest and midsection. These are her work clothes. She smells like coffee, but not just like a hint of coffee she smells like she's been steeped in it, like she's been rolled around a pile of coffee grounds and now she wears it like a strange, earthy cologne.
Her hair is long and maroon, glossy in the late afternoon sun. The hair at her temples has been plaited into tiny twin braids that connect at the back of her head.
"I haven't," she answers. And her frown deepens. "I think I've seen her somewhere before." Because of course she has. Everyone has seen Serafíne somewhere before, haven't they?
ElijahWhatever was going to come out of Elijah's mouth was suddenly rerouted by the sheer concentration of oh dear god, wow.
He blinked, slow, then shook his head quickly, "oh, yeah, sure."
Wait, who was he talking to? What was he agreeing to? Elijah wasn't certain, he presumed it ended with him having his kidneys in the appropriate place because that? That was important.
Hawksley RothschildHawksley, precious Hawksley, hasn't the faintest idea the effect his resonance has on poor Kalen. He does hear Sera talk of it sometimes, privately, but Kalen doesn't really talk to him. Maybe once, when he was drunk, but Hawksley hardly remembers. Hell: he hardly remembers most people and what they say to him when he's sober.
He's jumping rope, shirtless and sweating, and Sera is watching him, but that's not why he's working out even if it is precisely why Sera made her way over here with her vodka-tainted slushies. He works out almost every day. He runs. He swims. He jumps rope. And yes, bro, he totally lifts.
He doesn't complain about Sera watching him. Didn't complain about her 'cooling him off'. He just flicks that rope, seemingly tireless about it, his heart rate dancing. He doesn't have the breath to talk, so he doesn't, but he does glance over that way, at Kalen and a redhead and Some Guy, You Know? Looks back at Sera as though to ask, well, does she? Know, that is. Them, that is.
Kalen Holliday"C'mon then. Let's go be social and then we can get coffee." He smiles and starts toward Hawksley and Sera, assuming that Lucy and Elijah will follow.
"You may have," he says to Lucy without looking back. "She's a singer. Her band plays around here fairly often."
He waves to Hawksley as he draws close enough. He only smiles at Sera, but it is warm and it softens his expression into something closer and touchable. Gentle and vulnerable are not, quite, the right words, but they are close.
LucyA week, has it only been a week? A week ago seeing that look on Kalen's face when he looks at that woman would've made Lucy sigh. It would've made the cold little bloom of hope she was ignoring in her heart melt, petals dripping and eventually evaporating in a way that is all too familiar to the dusk-touched girl. That already happened a week ago, though, so there's nothing more than a curious look from Sera to Kalen.
"Is she the one you mentioned, then?" He had mentioned a couple of people the day they met. A singer, two singers. Someone was an agent. This woman would be one of the singers, she guesses, because he said so.
Though she seems a touch reluctant it doesn't stop her going with Kalen to meet more people. Meeting new people is always interesting. It's the looks she gets. The distant, cool eyes, the aveted gazes, the shudders. Those always happen afterward. When the icy chill of her resonance brushes against the senses, coating them in frost. Or when she touches them, and her touch seems to leech the warmth right out of their bones.
Elijah(skip me for now, talking to roomie)
Serafíne"Kalen." Sera supplies to Hawksley at his unspoken question, with a quick, darting little shrug that looks perhaps more sparrow-like than she understands. Somehow inward, curling, infected by her underlying mood. "I don't know the others."
Then, when they are close enough that Kalen waves to Hawksley and gives Sera that smile - softer and warmer - she lifts, see, one plastic-slushie cup then the other plastic-slushie cup and returns his smile, though her own has a wry note to it that feels a bit like fading sunshine splashed against the rear window of a car.
And then she sort of slings her head back to watch Hawksley's body move some more.
Yes, she may be completely objectifying him.
No, she does not give a fuck.
(The truth is still somehow - different. Somehow, her appreciation of him is equally carnal and metaphysical. Don't ask her to explain. She wouldn't begin to know how.)
Hawksley RothschildThe rope stops. Slows first, for a couple of rotations, then abruptly hits its last smack against the asphalt path. Hawksley puts his hands on his knees and exhales, and despite the growing chill in the air as the day fades, he is still hot to the touch. He looks over at Sera, nods at his hoodie beside her. "Toss me that, would you?" he says, assuming she will. She wouldn't want him to catch a cold, now would she?
One way or another, he gets his hoodie, and tosses it on, tugging it up around his shoulders and giving it a half-zip. Sera has a slushie for him, but he actually declines it; he'll end up getting a banana-peanut-butter-hazelnut protein shake or something later, and maybe he'll have Collins make her one too and she can add vodka to that. It'll make it better. He'll swear.
His hand reaches down; to help her up, if she likes. What a fucking gentleman. "Yeah, I think I know him too," which means he does. "He's more of a social butterfly than he lets on, isn't he?" He tugs Sera upward, catches her if her ridiculous heels make her stumble, holds her hand if they don't. Whichever. "Wanna go get a smoothie? Any second now if I don't eat something I'm going to start in on the grass."
Kalen HollidayHe watches Hawksley and Sera a few seconds, then stops heading toward them, instead angling toward the coffee shop. Perhaps they don't want introductions.
There will be other nights for those. And anyway, they have a quest.
Lucy[awarepathy c'mon Lucy you can do it read Kalen for once in your cold little life!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )
Elijah[awarepathy seems fun, I wanna do that! let's all read Kalen]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 6, 9, 9) ( success x 4 )
SerafíneOH HI KALEN WHAT UP. AWAREMPATHY.
Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (2, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 7 ) Re-rolls: 1
Hawksley Rothschild[Hawksley has no concern for anyone but himself and probably just waves at Kalen as they head out. :D]
Hawksley Rothschild[thank you all for the scene! sorry it was a drive-by of sorts. goodnight!]
LucyMaybe Sera and Hawksley don't want introductions. Maybe they do, maybe they don't care one way or the other. Kalen stops head toward them and isn't Kalen sort of like their guide? Then he starts off toward the coffee place, the end of the first side quest and Lucy watches him with a curious sort of frown. It doesn't seem like any sort of major drama, though, and that's promising in a way.
As much as Lucy would like to befriend Kalen, even though everything in the world seems to point with huge signs in neon flashing letters that a friendship with the Hermetic just is not at all likely, not even a little (well maybe a little), she's not a follower.
Or rather, she only follows a certain person, and Kalen is not that person. Neither is Elijah.
Kalen strikes off in the direction of the coffee shop and for a moment Lucy looks from him, to Sera and Hawksley. Then she strides toward them, glancing down at the ground once when she leaves the path and steps onto grass. She stops several feet away. Hawksley feels like so much sunshine and Lucy feels like the heart of winter. Who knows what would happen if the pair of them got too close.
"Hey," she greets with a wave, and then corrects, "hi. I don't want to stop you going or anything, I just wanted to introduce myself real quick before they get too far." A nod of her head toward the others. "I'm Lucy, my sister and I just moved here a couple weeks ago. I thought it'd be rude to walk off without at least saying hello and introducing myself. That's all."
If they give their names in return fine, if they look at her like she's crazy she's used to that. Turning away, she hurries to catch up to Kalen and Elijah.
Lucy[thank YOU!]
Kalen Holliday[Thank you guys!]
SerafíneSera puts down the second slushie to toss Hawksley his hoodie. Reach and lift and toss are all one smooth arc of lovely motion that makes her feel like she is half-ocean. Sera thinks of waves and is still thinking of them, or perhaps shorelines, or something in between, when she straightens, and Hawksley is holding out his hand and lo, today she is wearing hiking boots, not her ridiculous heels, and she does not stumble, but she does take his hand and hold his hand and rise to her feet on the seat of the park bench and oooh, how tall she is then. Taller than Hawksley.
Maybe even taller than the giant.
Then she just jumps the fuck down, and splashing the slushie around a bit but otherwise really rather graceful, as these things go.
She never lets go of his hand, though perhaps her own grip tightens in his. On the ground, Hawksley offers her a smoothie, and Sera gives him a neat little shrug. She cares fuck-all about smoothies but she likes Going Places With Hawksley and she has alcohol and nothing else and she is a bit giddy and he's all sweaty so she kind of inhales him and glances up over his shoulder or whatever at Kalen as he decides to make introductions later because don't Hawksley and Sera look like they are going somewhere or Hawksley is going to start eating grass and that makes Sera want to laugh and laughing makes her want to kiss him so she does, inhaling with it and parting from him and lifting her slushie cup to wave farewell at Kalen because all the while - rising to jumping to kissing - she is holding Hawksley's hand.
PS - that vodka slushie sounds terrible, thank you.
PPS - probably, there are names exchanged.
