Ian Lai
Spring had finally seemed to settle in Denver
(for the time being,) and the air outside was a thoroughly pleasant 67
degrees, which meant that Ian wasn't the only resident of the city who
was out for a run in City Park. There were, in fact, a fair handful of
people making the most of the warm weather in exactly the same manner
that he was, jogging alone or in pairs through the winding trails that
laced the manicured landscape.
Ian was alone tonight (he usually
was when he ran.) The music from his earbuds played a steady rhythm of
lush electronic beats that kept time with his footsteps and the pulse of
his heart (elevated but steady.) He'd been running for a while by now,
long enough that the heat from his active body was enough to keep his
temperature elevated despite his relative lack of clothes.
Maybe
Alex saw him first, or maybe he saw Alex. It didn't really matter. These
things happened. Awakened wills passing each other in the night.
Strangers who had one very important thing in common.
Ian kept a
brisk pace. He was wearing a pair of black track pants with white
stripes down the sides, and silver running shoes. That, and the earbuds.
Ian Lai
[Per+Aware -1 from Alex's Arcane]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 5) ( fail )
Ian Lai
[Nope, Ian does not notice Alex first]
Alexander Brandt
[Is Alex's magedar any better?]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 6) ( success x 1 )
Alexander Brandt
After
crashing into bed after the sun had crept above the horizon and started
burning off the low cloud hanging over the city, he woke early
afternoon. After a few attempts at rolling over and getting back to
sleep, it just wasn’t going to happen. Breakfast eaten and coffee
downed, he packed for work and threw some running gear into the bag
along with the other bits and pieces that he’d need for the coming night
shift. He’s working near City Park at the moment, and hadn’t really
seen it yet. So what better way than to see it than go running through
it?
So here is Alexander. White trainers with day-glow green
stripes pound away at the asphalt, with long black shorts and a blue,
long-sleeved running top the only other clothes he has on. An armband
holds his phone, and there is a thin white cable running from it to a
pair of headphones. Those paying attention might be able to pick out
the regular beat of some kind of ambient dance music. As with Ian,
Alexander’s efforts have been doing a pretty good job of keeping him
warm. But, then, the cold doesn’t really bother him all that much.
There’s
that strange feeling, of someone a little more nearby. It’s not a
familiar sensation – and thankfully not that sense of decay reasserting
itself – so he slows to a walk, trying to place it. It appears to be
coming from a man coming from the opposite direction, crossing paths
with Alexander’s. Maybe the face looks familiar from somewhere? He
looks for any flash of mutual recognition – not for Alexander’s face,
but for what he’s become.
Ian Lai
[Per+Alertness - does he notice Alex watching him? -1 die from arcane, -2 diff from acute senses]
Dice: 4 d10 TN4 (1, 3, 4, 9) ( success x 2 )
Ian Lai
[Re-rolling awareness now that he knows Alex is there. +1 diff (hah, try not to botch Ian)]
Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 6, 7) ( success x 1 )
Ian Lai
At
first glance, there was no recognition in Ian's eyes. He was focused on
the path ahead, his gaze fixed on some point over Alexander's shoulder
in the distance. As they drew nearer, though, Ian's gaze shifted,
attracted by the awareness of Alexander's attention in his peripheral
vision. He looked, but still didn't recognize anything of particular
interest, until...
Ah. There it was. Like a breath of winter air
playing along his heated skin. (Ian, see... he didn't mind the cold so
much either.)
Likely Alex was looking at him for the same reason -
because he'd sensed the soft curl of elegant and cunning energy that
followed Ian in his wake (a beautiful lie, gracefully rendered in primal
motion.) That wasn't the only thing he'd sense, but possibly Alexander
was too new to Awakened life to understand why, when he looked at Ian
move, all he could think of was some feline predator loping through the
grass.
Ian slowed his pace and came to a stop a few paces away,
pulling the buds out of his ears and draping them over his neck. They
were bluetooth earbuds, not connected to the phone in his arm-band as
Alexander's were.
"You must be new," he greeted with a sly grin.
Alexander Brandt
The
resonance, the way that each Awakened has a difference feel about them,
is familiar to Alexander. Only a handful of the actual sensations
themselves are familiar, even if the hows-whys-and-wherefores behind it
all isn’t. So the impression of a stalking predator just gets tucked
away in the same mental box as either some weird twist on it all.
But
the other man is stopped too, and Alexander realises that he’s been a
bit too obvious about staring at the other man as he approached.
Although the face is still familiar somehow... Maybe the other man gets
it a lot.
“Sorry, what?” Alex stops, keeping the distance
between them, and pulls his headphones out to better hear the man. He’s
looking a little sheepish at being called out for the attention, even
though the resonance made the other man hard to miss. Alexander’s is
cold, already frozen. Unchanging. Like a moment of time trapped in
ice.
“New? Yeah, I guess. I’ve been here a few weeks.”
Alexander looks around to see where the others in the park are. Working
out how much it’s safe to say.
Ian Lai
Ian was
indeed used to getting stared at. He had to be, looking the way he did.
Beautiful in a way that made him a little unreal. He was in good shape
too - lean but athletic. He obviously worked out a lot.
But that wasn't why Alex was staring, and Ian knew that. (Didn't mean he couldn't play with it a little.)
"Very
new, then," he replied, stepping a few paces closer as his eyes
traveled down the length of Alexander's body and back again, not so much
flirtatious as curious and measuring. Alex stood a couple inches taller
than him, so he had to tip his head back just slightly to make eye
contact. Maybe Alex didn't understand the question, or maybe he did and
was answering in the subtle way their kind often did when speaking in
public. The exact time-frame of his Awakening wasn't that important.
Ian
raised a hand and brushed a damp section of hair away from his
forehead. His breathing slowed a little, causing the steady rise and
fall of his bare shoulders to soften.
"Any particular reason you were watching me, or is it just because my reputation preceded me?"
Alexander Brandt
The
headphones get wrapped around Alexander’s neck, the faint sounds of
some lyric-less ambient music drifting faintly out of them, as he looks
around. He notices Ian’s gaze and returns the favour, looking the rest
of him over. Slim, lean. Probably sees the inside of a gym on a
regular basis. Alexander? Fairly solid, although not overly so. No
gymnast, but no football player either. Certainly no stranger to
physical activity at any rate.
Breathing normally already,
Alexander takes a small step backwards. Not out of any obvious
discomfort. Just to save the other man having to look up too much.
Some tall people develop stoops and hunches to bring them down into
other peoples’ eye line. Not so with Alexander. It’s easier to move.
But
comfortable that nobody is passing close enough to overhear even their
slightly cryptic conversation, he elaborates a little more. “Well,
yes. New to a lot of things since I got here. A change of scenery can
really open your eyes.” There’s a little shrug. “A little of the
reputation. A little that I can’t help thinking that I’ve seen you
somewhere before.”
Ian Lai
Alexander didn't really
look like the type to attend fashion shows or page through glamour
magazines (though one never really knew what a person liked based on
their appearance,) so when he mentioned that vague feeling of
familiarity, Ian raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"Well, who knows. Maybe you have."
Of course, he didn't make any attempt to fill in the blanks, so Alex would have to go on wondering.
"Anyone snatch you up yet, or are you still flying solo?"
There
was a public drinking fountain nearby. Ian eyed it for a moment before
giving a gesture with his hand to indicate that Alex follow him. Whether
Alex chose to do so or not, Ian made his way toward it. When he got
there, he dipped down to take a long drink.
Alexander Brandt
Alexander
gives another shrug – maybe he has seen him around somewhere, and the
face stuck. Or maybe he looks enough like someone to seem familiar.
Either way, not overly important. “Yeah, maybe. I imagine it won’t be
the last time we bump into each other, though. Not with the way we seem
to attract each other sometimes.”
Alexander does follow along
with Ian to the fountain, leaning back against a fence while the other
man drinks. He looks around the park as he talks, watching a group of
women pushing strollers towards one of the lakes in the park. “I’ve had
a fair bit of help from different people, but I don’t have anyone’s
secret handshake and decoder wheel yet. Not sure if I will, if I’m
honest. I don’t know that much about all the cool kids yet, but nothing
much is standing out. But then I’m still figuring some of the basics
out.”
“You?” he asks when Ian straightens from the drink. “Been at this long?”
Ian Lai
When
Ian pulled back from the fountain, his lips were wet, and he brushed a
thumb over his mouth to keep the water from dripping down his chin. He
had this amused expression, like a part of him was deliberately reading
the wrong (and yet to anyone listening - seemingly the most obvious)
interpretation of their conversation.
(Not with the way we seem to attract each other.)
"We'll have to see about that."
But then Alex started talking about secret handshakes and decoder wheels and Ian's expression grew... thoughtful.
"Longer than you."
He
wasn't being very open, but then one's paradigm was a rather personal
subject. Ian glanced at the people nearby. At the women with their
strollers. They seemed to exist in an entirely different world.
No one was close enough to overhear them. It didn't mean they shouldn't be careful. Nonetheless, Ian said, "So what can you do?"
Alexander Brandt
We’ll
have to see about that. Alexander’s eyebrows rise, but the rest of his
expression stays... neutral. He’s not a complete stranger to certain
games, certain chases. Maybe not as familiar as Ian appears to be, but
then Alexander doesn’t look like he should be spread across a magazine
centrefold. He’s no prude either; there’s no frantic blushing at an
embarrassing misunderstanding. There is simply no reaction in kind.
There is a rather non-committal, “Maybe,” in response though.
Being
at this for longer isn’t particularly difficult. Maybe Ian is just a
private person, or maybe has something to hide. But, then, doesn’t
everyone? That maybe the whole issue of paradigm should be so personal
as to want to avoid talking about it doesn’t come to mind, though.
Everyone else so far has been quite open about talking about theirs. So
why the big secret here? Things just don’t seem quite... right.
“Nothing special,” comes the reply to Ian’s question. Two can play at vaguaries.
Ian Lai
Ian
smiled at that, a slow spreading of lips that revealed a set of teeth
which were very straight and very white and almost (just a little bit)
predatory. It was a smile that offered some grudging respect, while
still leaving a lingering sense of danger. (Sometimes cats liked it more
when their prey fought back.)
As of the moment though, Ian hadn't
made any deliberate move to appear threatening. Perhaps this was just
his nature - like the way that Kalen always felt like a storm was about
to break loose. Maybe he was dangerous, or maybe he just didn't like
giving straight answers.
"Nothing special, hmm? Tell you what, I'll show you mine if you show me yours."
Alexander Brandt
For
some things, Alexander has boundless patience. Minute after hour after
day can be spent on those things. For others? Less so. Trying to
pull him into a game when he’s already shown that he doesn’t want to
play? That would be one of them. Especially when it almost seems that
there’s a sense of superiority on display. Just like a cat playing with
its prey.
And Alexander doesn’t like feeling like the toy in
some game he doesn’t understand, where straight answers are the
exception to the rule. Games like that can hurt. Pushing himself up
from the fence, still with the neutral (Frozen now? How is that chill in the air?) expression, he replies. “Another time, maybe.” He turns back in the way he was originally heading and starts to jog away.
Ian Lai
Another time, maybe.
Maybe.
Maybe not. Either way, Alex made the choice not to play, and Ian let
him go, watching the man's retreating form as he ran down the path and,
eventually, out of view.
Then Ian twisted his earbuds back into
place, and the world was once again flooded with music, and the motion
of his body as he resumed his own rapid, agile pace.
Like two creatures passing in the night.
(But they would probably meet again.)
