Serafíne
Grace and Sera are sitting out on the patio
by the hotspring. Grace has her shoes and socks off, feet in the
water. Sera suggested that Grace go skinny dipping. Sera is perched on
a convenient rock, with a beer in hand. Dan's somewhere in the
kitchen.
Here is the last post:
Sera takes a deep
breath, drops her dark gaze to the edge light that cuts across the wake
of the glass bottle like a blade. She is - remembering something, which
is inside of her, half-eaten, half-consumed.
Darker than she often knows.
Ragged in her chest, as she takes in another breath.
Then
another, glancing back up at Grace, eyes glittering in all that
reflective half-light, the sunset or whatever a constantly changing
pattern in the choppy surface of the water.
Another deep
breath. "I know Elijah fucked up. Everybody knows that, you know? And
I'm glad that you did the right thing, and made sure that Alicia had a
choice in what happened next.
"But you can't hold that against
him forever. Alicia can, maybe, if she fucking wants. But you've
gotta give him space so that he can grow past his mistakes, you know?
And part of that is - " A supple, liquid shrug. That wry curve to her
mouth again. " - well, you can figure it out, what that means to you.
"The family friend. She's the one in hiding, right? What's the point of finding her?"
Grace
Grace
(for the newly arrived) is currently lying down next to the hot spring
Node, with her feet dangling inside, trying to soak up some quintessence
and obtain pruny toes at the same time. Shoes, socks, and her phone
have been discarded nearby.
"Yeah. I'm not mad at him really. I just wonder if he knows why
what he did was wrong? That the root of all this was his willingness to
reduce someone else's agency down to 'damsel in distress'? But yeah.
He's torn up about it bigtime. It's hard to be mad at someone who is
that miserable. Like he's doing enough chiding himself."
She raises a foot out of the water, lets the drops fall back to the water in order to make a pleasant sound. Toes wiggle.
"The
point of finding Alethea is that Alicia wants to. Alethea is an
Etherite. She's being hunted by Techs. From what I understand, Alicia
was pretty close to her. So yeah, I put her in touch with someone who
both has the capacity to help and wants to. Besides, Elly is awesome.
Like I said."
Serafíne
"I don't know that it
matters," quiet this, Sera. Strangely reflective and open yeah and
spare in a way that perhaps matches the season.
Less than two weeks ago she killed someone.
With magic.
She still doesn't know precisely how to contain that knowledge.
So she doesn't contain it. She just is.
Eyes
dark enough to be a bruise, her mouth wry, affectionate, tender as a
wound, sliding now and then into an edgy little smirk, and right back
out again.
It is a hard goddamned thing to be human.
"If
he knows. Just that he asks himself the question. But I said that to
you mostly because the way you just told me that story was as much about
his fuck-up as anything else, yeah? And maybe you should be careful
how you phrase that, or even think about it.
"Think about him the way he should've thought about Alicia. It;s just a thought."
A brief pause. Another swig from her beer bottle.
"This Alethea. How hard are the Techs hunting her?"
Grace
Grace's foot goes slipping back into the water again.
She
thinks over Sera's words. Think about him the way he should have
thought about Alicia. Like she's not thinking of Elijah like he's a
fully-formed person who can handle his own damn shit? Like she's trying
to protect him? Keep him in the dark, where it's safe? Not really.
The
one thing that bothers her the most is how she had to censor him and
tell him no, like she was some kind of 'crat herself. He can make his
own choices, no matter what they might be, but when it comes to other
people's continued existence, well...
She could stand to be a little less prickly about that. And that's... unfortunate.
"What
it looks like? They want her bad, but can't find her," Grace says, at
last, dodging the topic of Elijah. "At least I hope that's still the
case, you know?"
Elijah
What does Elijah do these days?
He
does all sorts of things, but he had something to do. Something big and
important to do that started with an F and ended with a wrench
Homework. He had things to do, and it felt a little odd to show up to
the chantry with the expressed purpose of studying for a subject he
already knew and not studying some of the vast depths and breadth of
knowledge that he didn't already know but his grammar in French was
pretty atrocious and the young man needed somewhere to study that wasn't
going to promote falling asleep.
He'd been sleeping recently. He'd been sleeping a lot
recently, and ever since he moved it became abundantly clear that the
young man slept like a dead rock. Or a log. Or something else that was
difficult to wake up because it wasn't something that woke up… well…
ever. Elijah was content to be awake for now and coming to a place that
he could actually get something done.
The door opened, and it was off to the inside of the chantry with him.
"Bonjour! C'est moi- Elijah. Je suis ici pour faire ses devoirs!" he pauses, "goddamn I am never going to pass this stuff."
Ian
They
arrived on foot, Ian and Jae-shin. There was no sound of wheels on
pavement or the rolling purr of an engine to announce their passage.
Instead Grace and Sera would pick up the tell-tale drum of feet on the
earth, and the papery crackle of fall leaves tossed up in the wind. When
the runners reached the edge of the treeline, they slowed their pace to
a loping jog, moving like a couple of graceful animals over the grass.
When they neared the Node, Ian dropped back to a walking pace, resting
his hands on his hips. His ribs moved in a steady rhythm of deep
breaths. He had on running shoes and a pair of track pants. Sweat
dripped from his forehead.
He nodded first to Grace, then
Sera, but did not immediately attempt to join their conversation. The
man with him (Grace had met him before, but Sera had not) was Korean. He
looked even more athletic than Ian, and resonated like something of the
ocean. (Fluid and Abyssal.) Jae-shin smiled softly at Grace, then fixed
Sera with a reserved but curious expression.
"Evening," he said.
Ian tapped him on the shoulder. "I'm going to get some water."
Serafíne
Grace
misunderstands Sera's purpose there. Which was mostly: hey. Deep
breath, pull back. No need to tell everyone everything that Elijah did
wrong. Consider the story and consider the purpose and consider the
words. Sometimes those things can fucking hurt, even when you don't mean them too.
But
Grace dodges the topic and Sera kind of assumes that Grace gets it and
anyway; she's strangely circumspect about it. Perhaps a bit distant,
bottleneck cool where it is wrapped between her fingers. The night
strange all around.
--
And Sera doesn't speak
French and Elijah's call-out is muffled as he enters the chantry by the
closed doors butt there is enough noise from his called-out greeting to
pull her chin up. She breathes out -
- looks back at Grace. That half-smile again.
"If
they are that hot for her you might consider whether you guys finding
her could increase their chances of finding her. Right now, no one
knows where she is. She might not even exist.
"But when you know. And Alicia knows. And everyone else here knows, that near impossibility turns into a possibility, right?
"Maybe
it wouldn't, but I think you and Alicia should think about why she
wants to find this woman, and whether your plan places her in more
danger, and whether the goal is worth the danger in which you place her,
and yourselves, by contacting her.
"When she's hunted. You know?"
Another sort of agency.
--
A
flick of her dark (bruised/ing) gaze up as Ian approaches with a
stranger. The brief skim of Sera's smirk, a bit more flat and closed
than you'd imagine it, but Jae-Shin doesn't just feel like the ocean
(fluid), he also feels (abyssal) like other things still a crawling kind
of knowledge in and beneath her skin.
"Hello," that smirk. And it's not unwelcoming, what she says next. It's just her way. "Who the fuck are you?"
Grace
"I'll
talk with Elly about it. He's been around the block a few times, it
seems. But you're right. Trying to find her could be dangerous for her,"
Grace says, with a sigh.
"That," Grace says, rolling her head around to stare at Jae Shin's feet. "Is Soccer Guy. Ian's friend. I forgot his name."
She waves at them, and gives an upside-down smile.
Elijah
He
follows the sound of people, because it sounds like there are people.
Because he thrives on people, because he thrived on the idea of getting
to do something other than pour over a textbook he didn't really want to
pay attention to. He deposited the messenger bag... uh... somewhere. He
looked at his pocket watch and headed off towards the sound of people.
Ian
[Awareness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 4 )
Ian
Jae-shin's smile cooled, but he didn't seem especially offended by the question.
"Jeong
Jae-shin, of the Akashic Brotherhood." He paused to take in a couple of
breaths, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead. "And you?"
His accent marked him as a non-native speaker, but he seemed comfortable
enough with the language.
Ian glanced back a moment as he
walked toward the house, then pulled open the patio door and stepped
inside, heading for the kitchen. When he saw Dan, he nodded, and the
faint edge of a grin touched the side of his mouth. "Hey."
(The last time that Ian and Dan had seen each other, Ian had been naked in the hot-spring.)
Elijah
was there too. Ian felt his approach before he came into view, and
there was a slow, measured glance back in Elijah's direction. Something
quiet and thoughtful that hovered over him for a few silent beats. Then
Ian grabbed a couple of glasses from the cabinet and filled them with
water, taking a long drink from his own.
Serafíne
Sera's
gaze slides quick easily back to Grace. There's a gleam of compassion
that, there slithers to the surfaces and turns and catches the light and
sinks back down beneath the surface too. Grace sighs. Sera's gaze
lingers there, for several long, passing beats.
"Cool." Murmured, with a tip of her beer bottle as if in a toast. "Just think about it."
--
Then
back to "soccer-guy" to whom the creature's attention returns with a
dark, wry sweep. She sees the cooling smile, how could she miss it?
Somehow that always brings out the edge in her,
as it does
now. This smirk, more surface than deep. She has a half-dozen
mysteries floating beneath her skin and she's a terrible liar and here
she is, standing see, as Jae-Shin introduces himself.
"Serafine," she says, "Most people call me Sera. Nice to meet you."
--
And
Dan, inside, is drying his hands on a kitchen towel and catches the
edge of Ian's grin and you understand, grinning himself, through the
rough blond beard. "Hey." to Ian. "Hey, man," to Elijah, before he
kind of excuses himself and heads out to the patio to stick his head out
for Sera.
"You ready or what?" Dan asks Sera.
And, "Ready." Sera responds.
"See
you 'round," she says, by way of farewell to Jae-Shin. And, "Later,
Grace. Be careful, okay?" then disappears back inside. They'll head
down the stairs, to the walk-out basement. Start down through the
fields. They're going hiking, at twilight.
Maybe they'll be back later. Maybe not.
Grace
Grace
kicks her feet back and forth in the water. Everyone's always telling
her to be careful nowadays, as if she didn't already know. As if she
weren't.
"I always am," she says, as Sera leaves. Maybe she's
saying it to Sera's back, but Grace wouldn't know. She's staring at the
clouds.
Elijah
[I'm fantastique! subterfuge]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )
Ian
[Are you really? Empathy]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 4, 5, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )
Elijah
"Hey,
Dan," he said. Smiled because he was content to smile, because the
motion was practiced and it wasn't that he wasn't glad to see Dan,
because he was glad to see Dan. Of course he was glad to see Dan. he was
glad to see all sorts of people. He took his time, peeked out and
around the kitchen and it looked awfully different when it wasn't filled
up with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
"What's shaken',
Ian?" Casual enough. Of course casual enough, pleased enough because he
could be pleased. Happy enough because he could be happy. It would seem
well enough that things were… well… back to normal. Ish. Normalish for Elijah.
Ian
Sera
didn't offer her Tradition, and Jae-shin didn't press for it. Instead
he accepted her name with a nod and watched as she left with Dan. Grace
was still lying back with her feet in the pool, and Jae-shin eyed her a
moment, turning his head at tilted angle to look down at her.
"It's good to see you again."
He
picked up a foot and stretched his leg back, glancing over his shoulder
when Elijah appeared in the doorway. Inside the house, Ian looked away
from Elijah and refilled his glass. Elijah said what's shakin' in a tone that felt far removed from their last conversation.
"Jae-shin
and I came out for a run." Ian carried both glasses to the door and
pushed the handle with his elbow. For a moment he looked as though he
might say something else, but then he turned and walked outside. When he
reached the pool, he handed Jae-shin one of the glasses. Jae-shin took
it with a soft smile.
"Thank you."
Ian nodded. His eyes dropped to Grace. "You know the water won't bite if you actually get in."
Grace
"You too. Soccer isn't really my natural element. You caught me at a weird time for our first meeting. Not quite as weird as some times, but you know," Grace says, rambling on and then trailing off. Maybe Jae-shin doesn't know. And what is it that he's supposed to know exactly?
Then,
Ian arrives to save her from the awkwardness of long pauses and stilted
conversation, to ask her (for the second time tonight) why she isn't
all the way in the water. She rolls her eyes.
"It's like I told Sera. If I did, my clothes would get all wet."
Elijah
[I am 100% cool with water, willpower!)
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )
Elijah
The
last time Elijah and Ian had talked, it ended quietly enough, with some
kind of confession and then helping his companion off to go enjoy the
library. It was one of the better features of the chantry, that and the
fact that they had a hot tub of near infinite potential and power, and
that was a pretty impressive thing when he had time to sit and think
about it. Elijah had a lot of time to think about a lot of things, and
he did. He did think about things, for someone who spent so much of his
time not thinking about things, he spent an inordinate amount of time
contemplating heavens-knew-what… like nodes and missing persons and
things he barely remembered seeing.
There was an increase in the number of people who went missing.
There
were people outside, and the fact that he had to be outside if he was
going to be around them meant… well… that Elijah was going to park
himself outside with everyone else. Grace said she would get her
clothing all wet if she got in all the way.
"So?" he asked,
"they're just clothes, they've got to have a dryer around here or
something… I mean, you wouldn't be sitting around naked forever waiting
for clothes to dry, or you could just… y'know… be soggy. It's not that
bad."
Says the man who was going nowhere near the damn water because it was water and like Hell he was getting in. Hello, pot, I'm kettle.
Ian
Ian glanced between Grace and Elijah and smirked. "You're not supposed to wear clothes in a hot spring."
There
were other things he could have said. Thoughtful, reverent things about
water and healing. Or some wry joke about skinny-dipping. Jae-shin
looked at Ian as though he expected him to do just that, but Ian just
tipped back his head and drank a long gulp of water. The Akashic's eyes
hovered on him a moment, landing somewhere near the curve of his neck.
When Ian was done, he moved to sit atop the rock that Sera had recently vacated.
"So how've you two been?"
Grace
"Same old, same old. Although for people like us," Grace says, huffs out a laugh. Doesn't finish.
"I'm here to recharge a bit after we had a run-in with a fucking vampire."
"And yes, you're not supposed to wear clothes in a hot spring, so I am soaking my feet. Not everyone is so comfortable to go strip down in a place that's nearly every Mage in Denver's favorite place to be."
She closes her eyes. The water feels so nice, doesn't it? Even if it's just her feet soaking.
"Hey, Elijah," she says, waves a little. They hadn't properly said 'hey' yet.
Elijah
[more subterfuge! Because we fake it 'til we make it]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
Ian
[Is Ian paying more attention this time?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 4, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )
Elijah
"'sup
Grace? And hh, I'm getting by. French is kicking my ass, and I just
moved so it's been pretty stressful, but overall things are pretty
damned good," he says. he lies, because he wants to fake this until it
is the truth. He pulls off the words with the rehearsed confidence of
any actor, like he's had an answer for the question for some time. He
cautiously approached the spring, a little uncertain as to how to
approach this or if he should come closer (or if he's allowed to come
closer, what was he supposed to do here? Was there a procedure? A
protocol?)
He took a perch nearby, looking at the water
cautiously before deciding to discard his vest. He was talking himself
into something, of course he was talking himself into something, he was
always talking himself into something, but this time it had less to do
with- well, now, let's not talk about that.
"So, is it every
naked person that bothers you, or is it just you being naked, because I
kinda wanna get in now and if you're not supposed to wear clothes I'm
not gonna fuck it up with… you know… clothes."
Elijah
It's
a lie, it's a practiced lie, but it's a lie none the less. He isn't
sure of himself, he isn't sure what to do, what he's doing with himself,
where he's supposed to go, and it seems that the more that is concrete
the more he seems to realize things are in the air. He's faking
confidence, faking poise that he's had before because he wants to fake
it, he wants to pretend like he still has it but in all actuality Elijah
isn't fine.
He's been sleeping a lot. He probably hasn't
shaved in a couple of days, not that he really needs to, but he isn't
necessarily pristine. Elijah Poirot wasn't lying about the move or the
stress, but things overall weren't pretty damned good. They could very
well just average out to okay, but not quite. He's more than prepared to
take responsibility for his actions and his course of thought but
Elijah? Well, he wasn't quite ready to forgive himself.
Beyond
that, he isn't sure if things are awkward between him and Ian. Telling
someone you thought about killing yourself before does make things a
little awkward. Especially now that he's not exactly a ball of sunshine.
Ian
Grace
mentioned the vampire, and Ian's brows furrowed into a slightly
brooding expression. "Yeah, I heard about that." Jae-shin glanced at him
and raised an eyebrow. The expression was subtly pointed, but Ian just
looked at him and gave this small, almost imperceptible shake of his
head.
Then Grace made that comment about Ian's comfort level
with public nudity, and Ian looked at Grace and shrugged, as though to
say: suit yourself. Jae-shin pulled off his shoes and socks and
walked to the edge of the pool, lowering himself down next to Grace. He
had on a pair of running shorts and a black singlet, and smelled a
little of clean sweat. As he lowered his feet into the water, he leaned
back and looked at the sky.
Elijah said that he was getting by. That things were, in fact, pretty damned good. Ian's attention shifted back to him and hovered there for a quiet moment.
He didn't say anything. But when Elijah began to remove his vest, he raised an eyebrow.
Grace
[Perception + Awarepathy = Does Grace notice?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )
Grace
"I
can close my eyes. Ask Ian," Grace says, to Elijah's question. Truth be
told, it does bother her. A little. But she wants to use the Node, and
she's not going to stand in anyone else's way.
Jae-shin joins
her in the whole stick-feet-in-water-and-watch-the-sky routine. It's
nice that they're not all going to strip down, eh?
Grace has
seen Elijah completely going off. She's lived in the next building over
from where he now sleeps in order to stay the hell away from the
Technocrats he's contacted. So the happiness he has going on right now
just serves to confuse.
Whatever. He can be happy if he wants to.
"Yeah.
The Black Lotus is not as happy a place as the name would suggest.
Which is to say, stay the hell away from there," she says, mostly for
Jae-shin's benefit, as he does not have Ginger. Yet.
Elijah
[Raised brow? Awarepathy for the win!]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )
Ian
[Subterfuge]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 9 ) Re-rolls: 4
Ian
[Jesus christ Ian]
Elijah
[... O_O]
Elijah
He
stops with his vest, and keeps it at that. Elijah looks at the water,
wary but not thwarted for the time being, and he inhaled slowly.
Something practiced, something calm, something that he could be relaxed
with, "yeah, I should probably do my homework instead of jumping in a hot spring anyway?"
Because
he could be reasonable, this one, he could muse for a moment and
remember the actual reason he came here (or the reason he said he came
here).
"So we are all spared the joys of my not-so-clothed
self for today. If I'm here solo, though, I am making no promises,
people will just have to deal."
Ian
Jae-shin
glanced between Ian and Elijah, but he didn't offer any comment or
advice. If he had any thoughts on what may or may not have been the
proper way to use the node, he kept them to himself. Instead he finished
off the glass of water that Ian had brought for him. Grace warned him
about the Black Lotus, and to this he nodded, his expression drawn and
serious. "I will keep that in mind."
Ian's attention was still
fixed on Elijah. After a moment, he stood up. "I can help if you want."
There was a casual air to the suggestion, and when Elijah agreed, Ian
grabbed his empty glass and jogged over to the patio.
Which
left Jae-shin and Grace alone in the hot-spring. Jae-shin watched Ian
with a veiled expression, but he didn't make any attempt to stop him.
After a few long moments, he pulled off his shirt and slipped into the
pool, treading over to a far corner to give Grace some space. Then he
leaned back and closed his eyes. And for the rest of the evening, he was
quiet.
Elijah
"Hey, Grace, I'm gonna go do
homework, see you at… y'know… place?" he wasn't sure what to call where
he lived now. It was a warehouse. It was a literal warehouse, and while
it was better than staying between couches and lying to Jenn, it wasn't
better because now he had to tell Jenn that he was moving out of their
apartment to go live in a warehouse because it's hat he wanted and-
Yeah, that was a pleasant conversation.
He
tossed his vest over his arm and started to meander back to they door,
"Ian, I could seriously use the help with composition. It's not my
forte."
Funny, that was probably the truest thing he'd said all night.
