Alex
It wasn’t a dark and stormy night, but it looked
like it soon would be. It’s late afternoon and the light of day is
already starting to wane, the clouds speeding overhead blocking much of
the sunlight and making the day seem darker that it should be. To the
west, the division between mountain and sky is blurring as snow falls
thickly. The rain hasn’t yet arrived over Washington Park. People are
already beginning to make their way home, to escape the oncoming
blizzard before it hits. What few families and runners and other random
people usually found in the city parks are starting to make their way
home, or at least to somewhere warmer and more sheltered.
The
park has been something of a magnet for the supernatural over the past
year or so, but it hasn’t done too much to discourage many of those who
are aware of such things from coming here. Perhaps because it’s just as
much a magnet for more positive meetings amongst the Awakened. So it’s
maybe not surprising to find Alexander here. He’s away from his usual
hangout, though. Away from the lake where he’d met the Message twice.
Away from the basketball courts. Away from the patch of trees where
he’s played Hide and Seek not so long ago.
He’s there,
though, near one of the stone circles that have been scattered around
for people to light fires. There’s a small fire flickering away, flames
buffeted by the slowly building wind. Alexander is dressed for the
weather – heavy jacket, hiking trousers, walking boots. He’s sat on a
folded-up blanket, protecting him from the wet and the cold of the
ground, and there’s a rucksack sat on the ground close by. His
attention is on the fire, arms outstretched as he absent-mindedly warms
them near the flames.
Ian
Winter has arrived
early this year. The wide open vistas of Washington Park lie still in
the fading light, blanketed with layers of new-fallen snow. By the time
Ian gets there it's cold enough to warrant proper winter attire. Cold
enough, in fact, that most of the park's visitors have surrendered the
fight to the elements and gone to warm up indoors. It's that relative
emptiness that attracts Ian to the park tonight. When he arrives he
leaves his car underneath the same streetlamp that he once damaged (on
purpose, and for entirely selfish reasons.) That was nearly a year ago
now, and the bulb has long-since been replaced.
He makes his
way through the park along one of the winding paths, hands in the pocket
of his coat as he watches the sky shift from blue to grey. Delicate
flakes of snow descend around him in a lazy pattern, cast about by a
drifting breeze. Elsewhere in the city, hoards of Black Friday shoppers
are bustling their way through the city's packed malls and crowded
parking lots, but here in the park those things seem a thousand miles
away.
Eventually the orange glow of a small fire appears in
his field of vision. Ian glances toward it and recognizes Alexander's
shape in the snow. The other Orphan feels very much as though he belongs
here - the crystalline, frozen quality of his resonance blends with the
scent of ice in the air. Ian takes a moment to consider the picture
from a distance before turning off the path.
He doesn't try to
hide his steps today, so Alex will likely hear him approaching. His
shoes crunch quietly in the snow as he approaches from the back. When he
arrives, he comes to a stop beside the fire, glancing between it and
Alexander. He's dressed in jeans, dark boots (heritage Redwings,) and a
sheepskin-lined leather coat, with a pale grey cashmere slouch beanie
hat. There are leather gloves on his hands too, but he pulls them off to
crouch down and stretch his hands over the flames.
"All alone today?"
Grace
[Awareness!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Grace
She doesn't really want to get out of the car.
Inside
the car, it's warm and dry. There's no snow on the inside. Things are
as they should be. Outside, well... It is Winter in Denver, and this
does not bode well.
However, as she was driving along this
afternoon, trying to pick up some things while the roads were still
somewhat okay to drive on, she found some... interesting sensations in
the direction of Washington Park. Normally, that would be a concern,
except that she has a sense for who they might belong to.
Is it enough to brave the outside? Well, she hasn't seen Alex in forever...
Shortly
after Ian arrives, so does Grace, with a scarf wrapped about her head,
and her red coat all buttoned up, her hands shoved in there like she'd
rather layer as much as possible.
"Mmm, it doesn't look like it from here? Hi Ian. Alex. 'Sup?"
Alex
Ever
since that eventful day nearly two years ago now – no longer New Last
Thursday – there had been something of an affinity between Alexander and
the winter climate of the city. He had always been something of an
outdoors person – much happier walking, running, hiking, climbing – than
someone who vegetated in front of the TV. But since he’d opened his
eyes to the true nature of the world, since his Awakening had marked him
with his resonance, it just seemed like he fit better.
So
here he perches, alone and seemingly unbothered by either the solitude
or the climate. But, then, he was dressed for the weather and he’d cut
off much of his link to the other Awakened in the city when he’d
received an unexpected phone call. That had been reinforced when that
woman had shown up at his place of work, unexpected and unannounced.
And seemingly well informed about what he’d been looking into just a
short time before. It had seemed safer to stay away from the Chantry,
the Warehouse… To be as ordinary as he could.
Alexander
looks up from the fire as he hears the sound of footsteps in the snow.
His had started to fade, covered by the light snowfall that held the
promise of what was to come over the next few hours. His attention
shifts to Ian, weighing and judging his arrival in his mind, deciding
whether to stay or go. For the moment, he stays. His reply catches on a
breath, frozen on his tongue, as Grace arrives too. This probably
wasn’t the greatest of places to be if he wanted to stay away from the
others, but then it had been weeks since he’d even set eyes on another
Awakened.
“Given some of the crap that’s been going on recently, it seemed like a good idea. How’ve you guys been?”
Ian
[Awareness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )
Ian
[and alertness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )
Ian
It's
been a while since Ian's seen most of the other Awakened himself. They
do that sometimes: flow together, drift apart. Life is often like that.
He doesn't feel Grace approaching the same way he felt Alex, but he
picks up the sound of her steps in the snow and glances back over his
shoulder to make note of her. The red of her jacket catches his focus
for a moment before he turns back to the fire.
"Mm, you may
not be wrong about that." He notes ambiguously to Alex. He tilts his
head to regard Grace, a faint slip of a smile pulling at one side of his
mouth. "That's a loaded question, these days." (Asking them how they've
been.) "All things considered, they could be worse." He glances back at
Alexander. "I've been trying to enjoy my last few days off before I go
on tour for a month. You?"
There's a brief pause before he adds, "Mind if I commandeer some of your blanket?"
Grace
"Loadiest
of questions," Grace says, sighs dramatically -- a bit too dramatic for
her to really mean it. "Chasing after a Nephandus did wonderful things for my psyche, I'll have you know." But not so much that she seems especially bothered.
She
gives a smile to Alex, a welcoming thing, even if she's not going to
request to share his blanket. He really thinks being alone will save him
from evil things? Is that it? My my...
"Everything's pretty calm now, though. Wonder how long that will last..."
Oh, enough time to have some good holidays, right? Right?
Alex
“Nothing
loaded into the question, although I guess that doesn’t make it any
simpler to answer sometimes. Hope you’re enjoying the free time.” Alex
shifts unfolding the blanket some more. There’s less protection from
the ground – the snow would melt through before too much longer, but
then the blizzard would most likely have arrived by then – but it does
give enough space for three to sit without getting cold, wet asses.
“Where are you touring?”
Grace gives Alex a smile, but it’s
barely returned. Maybe it’s just the talk of the Fallen. “Is she still
out there? Or has that whole thing been taken care of now?”
Ian
This
kind of news tends to make the rounds in Awakened circles. Ian hasn't
spoken to Grace in weeks (months?) but he's more aware of everything
that occurred than Grace may realize he is. When Alex asks her if
everything's been taken care of, he gives Grace the space to answer for
herself, his expression quietly cryptic and withdrawn. Alex unfolds a
section of the blanket and Ian sits down on it, draping his arms loosely
over his knees. The cold air bites at his unprotected hands, but the
heat from the fire is enough to keep the worst of it at bay. Alex is a
solid, grounded presence beside him. It isn't altogether unwelcome,
though the two of them would probably not call each other friends - not
yet, at least.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and have a calm winter," he offers to Grace, though he knows the chances of that are unlikely.
To Alex he says, "We're hitting a bunch of cities. Vegas to start, then LA. After that, you'll have to consult my calendar."
Grace
"I put a message up on Ginger. Yeah, the situation's... about as taken care of as it can be."
Mike
told her about how just killing The Artist wouldn't be enough. They'd
show up again, someday. Reincarnated. The whole thing makes about as
much sense to Grace as being reborn does, which is to say -- not much.
But whatever. That particular thing will be quiet. For now.
"No
more chimeras. No more serial murder sprees." The latter performed by a
man who swept her off her feet when she didn't even know sweeping was possible. But she's not telling them about that.
Alex
“If
I had anything to drink, I’d toast to a calmer winter.” Alex snorts at
the thought, though. As if the world gives a damn that they wanted a
bit of time to rest before the next end of the world. “Sounds like
whoever planned the tour doesn’t like being cold. Is Hawaii in the
itinerary too?”
Ah, Ginger. The indispensable messaging
service for the Awakened that, sadly, relies on them having some way of
calling into it. “That’s good to know. I’ve not been on Ginger in a
while. My phone met an untimely end.” Alex sighs, crossing his arms
over his knees and resting his chin on them. “I think the fans of dark
suits and mirrored sunglasses were getting a little too close, so I
thought it best to destroy it. One of them came to talk to me, seemed
to know a lot about my business.
“So, yeah. It seemed best to
avoid dragging any attention closer to you guys than I had to. That’s
why I haven’t been by the office in a while.”
Ian
No
more serial murder sprees. For the moment, anyway. Ian watches Grace
while she speaks, his eyes tracking the details of her face - the subtle
shifts in her expression. Almost, he starts to say something, but then
Alex asks if he's heading to Hawaii and mentions, a little too casually,
that he had a run-in with a (supposed?) Technocrat.
Ian turns his head a bit suddenly, regarding Alexander with an expression of muted alarm. "Wait, what? That's not... they don't just stop by for chats, Alex. They either watch you, abduct you or kill you."
See,
he can't really connect the dots. What he knows about the Technocracy
versus what Alexander just told him. But either way, the news is more
than a little alarming.
"What happened? What did they want to talk to you about?"
Grace
"Holy shit, Alex, what?" is Grace's reaction in a nutshell. All the sudden, that quiet time she was looking for just flew out the window.
And,
she goes silent as a hand comes out of her coat pocket with her phone
in it, and she begins to Work. If there are Technocrats after Alex,
she'll want to be sure he isn't being watched right now. Or set to
explode. Or any number of things.
[Corr 1: Any tracking devices in the area eh? Actually no, I know there shouldn't be, but that's the first thing to check...]
Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (2, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )
Alex
“A
mutual friend warned me of some unwelcome guests trying to get friendly
with the admin staff.” He’s talking to the fire more than to the
others. “Not long after I let you guys know about the case I’d walked
in on, I got a phone call from someone I didn’t know. She knew my name
and she knew the name of the guy involved in the case. That was about
the time that my phone met the shredder.
“Then the day after
that, this woman just appears and asks for me. Says she wants to help
me, but wouldn't say how. She wanted to get me alone. I refused, she
left, and I’ve not heard anything from her since. But that’s why I’ve
been so keen to be alone for a while and trying to be a good little
Sleeper.”
Alex looks to Ian, then to Grace. “I’m not even
sure talking to you now is the greatest of ideas ever. I should
probably go, but you said I should let you guys know if I thought one
was getting close. I would have, if I’d had any way of contacting you
that couldn’t be easily traced.”
Ian
Ian
watches Grace pull out her phone. He has a rough inkling of what she
might be doing, and it seems to relax him slightly. If there was anyone
in Denver who could pick out some kind of high-tech spying device, it
would be Grace. When she doesn't voice any immediate warnings, he turns
his attention back to Alexander, listening while he explains the details
of his encounter.
It isn't much to go on really. Ian's expression shifts into a pensive frown as he glances at the fire.
"Maybe
she was trying to feel you out. See if you'd make a good recruit, or
something." It isn't entirely out of the scope of possibility. Alex is,
after all, unaffiliated. And new enough that he probably doesn't present
much of a threat in their eyes. Still, the behavior feels odd. More
like something a solo agent would do than someone working for a vast
network.
He glances back at Alex, and there's a soft crease of tension between his eyebrows. "Or maybe she isn't what you think she is."
Grace
"Well, I don't think you're being tracked," Grace says, mumbles really, into her phone.
"You said she was asking about the Kozlowski case?" she asks, a little more loudly. But she's still messing with her phone.
Maybe
it wasn't Alex they were looking for, but Mike. And... okay, yeah, that
would look exceptionally bad wouldn't it? And Technocrats wouldn't be
the ones to take 'It was one of my past lives' as an excuse.
"Also, do you mind if I scan your body for other nasty things?"
Alex
“I
honestly don’t know what she is. She didn’t say, but then she wouldn’t
would she. All I know is that she had my name, she had my number, she
knows where I work, and she knows about a case I’d only just tripped
over.”
Alexander’s attention shifts from the flames to Grace
when she mentions the name. “Yeah. She knew the name, and that hadn’t
been released to the press at the time. That’s just one of the things
that have been worrying me.”
He takes a deep breath, blowing
it out slowly through his mouth. “I should go.” The decision seems to
have been made already, as he pushes up from the blanket and grabs his
bag. “You probably don’t want to be around me for a while. Enjoy the
fire. And enjoy Vegas.” This last one, to Ian, with a vague, brief
smile.
Ian
Two
years ago, if there'd been even the slightest suggestion of a
possibility that Alexander might have been a target for the Technocracy,
Ian would have vanished. Maybe not from the city, but
certainly from Alex's life. He's alive today because there are certain
risks that he never allowed himself to take.
He doesn't vanish
now, but there is a quiet sort of confirmation in the absence of any
objection to Alexander's claim. He gets to his feet so that Alex can
reclaim his blanket, watching the man quietly as he prepares to leave.
"Hey,
be careful." He says it to Alex's back as the other man starts to walk
away, and something about the tone makes it sound as though he might
genuinely be worried - not just for the risk Alexander might pose to the
rest of them, but more specifically for Alex's own safety.
When
he's gone, Ian looks down at the fire, banked low and licking lazily at
the ends of charcoal-logs. He gathers up a mound of snow with his boot
and kicks it over the flames until they go out. Then he slips his gloves
back on.
"How's Michael, by the way?"
Grace
"No,
wait, Alex! I..." Grace just breathes out her nose in a huff, because
she's talking to the back of Alex's head. Well, at least she knows where
he works, right? She can always stop by and... ask? At the police? For
him? Yeah, okay so maybe that's not Grace's favorite thing to do ever.
But like Hell is she going to let Alex handle this thing with a possible
Technocrat contact all by himself.
Nor is she going to just
let him isolate himself when there's likely no need. If they were after
Mike? Mike's long gone. He's in L.A. and the trail of murders stopped.
Speaking of Michael, she hears the name. Ian's asking about him.
"Oh,
uh. You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd think nothing ever got
to him. More like, he doesn't let it show. He sounded good, last time I
talked to him."
Ian
"Yeah, I get that."
Of course he does.
"Kiara
told me you and he were sort of close." It isn't an insinuation - the
truth is, she could have meant any number of things by that. Friends.
Lovers. Colleagues. Ian starts to turn away from the fire pit, walking
slowly through the snow. He settles his hands into his pockets, glancing
at Grace as he does so. "How are you?"
Grace
Kiara.
Ugh. Grace squints her eyes a bit in memory of that latest conversation
with her. Of course she'd tell Ian. And is that where it's going to
stop? Oh, no, it won't. Soon the whole city will know, and... and this
is all crazy-talk going on in her traitorous brain. Who the fuck cares?
Ian starts off, away from her, but glances back. Asks her how she is doing.
"Talk about fucking loaded questions, Ian..."
"I'm good. Recovering from emotional rollercoasters of doom, but good."
Ian
It's
the same question Alexander asked, and Grace fires back a very similar
response to the one Ian initially gave. But he wasn't asking out of
courtesy or small-talk. He was asking because he's worried. And maybe
she'll hear that - the subtle lace of it in his voice.
Grace doesn't give him any more detailed answers than she gave earlier, though.
She doesn't try to walk with him either.
The
sky is getting dark, drifting from afternoon to evening. As the light
fades, more snow starts to fall. Ian stops walking and watches Grace for
a long moment. It gives her the opportunity to open up more, if she
chooses. But perhaps he isn't the person she'd like to open up to. So instead he nods and says "Alright. You've got my number, if you need anything."
He doesn't just mean practical things, but she may not interpret any other meaning.
"Have a good night."
And then he turns to make his way back to the trail.
