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.

Atreyu

Wherever it is Atreyu is currently staying, he doesn't offer it up as a meeting place. When he speaks with Grace on the phone, he's honest about the reasons: the decision isn't only up to him, and the cabal has certain protocols. So he asks if there's a safe space they can meet - somewhere private (somewhere unlikely to be spied on.) And at some point the decision is made to meet at Kalen's new property.

Ian arrives before Atreyu, parking his car in the driveway. He gets out and takes a moment to look around before ringing the doorbell. Whoever answers will find him standing on the porch in casual (though fashionable - as always) clothes. He leans a hand against the frame and glances inside before stepping past the threshold. Kalen and Grace get a simple greeting. He seems... not exactly tense, but withdrawn.

A few minutes later, Atreyu's motorbike winds up the road. He comes to a stop near the back of Ian's car and kills the engine. He isn't wearing a helmet, but he does have a leather jacket on over his t-shirt. When he gets off the bike, he runs a hand through his hair and walks up to the door.

Inside the house, the bell rings.

Kalen Holliday

Once again Kalen is hosting meetings.  It seems he bought the place for hosting them just in time.  The person he bought this to host has yet to see this place, but that may be for the best, considering.  There is, should they both live through the next few months, time.

The decorations on the main floor walls are mostly framed pages from antique books, maps and botanical and zoological sketches.  In the living room, over the fireplace mantle, there is a map of the stars that is outdated and inaccurate, but beautiful.  Kalen brings them through the foyer into the sunroom.  The two walls of windows look out over the small expanse of yard to where a row of evergreen trees that will one day provide more privacy is growing.  Above, through the skylights, are the stars bright enough to compete with Denver lights.

He's dragged another loveseat into the room again.  He's contemplated turning the billiards room downstairs into a proper meeting space, except he has plans for that room.  Plans that are not hosting critical meetings.  Plans that have nothing to do with saving any world but his.

His greeting to Ian is also subdued.  Kalen is, in at least some sense, glad that Ian is here.  But he doubts that Ian can forget much more than he can, if anything.  Neither one of them is exactly happy to be here.

And that shows when Kalen comes to greet Atreyu at the door.  Atreyu whom he is relatively certain he last saw in another form.  And that gets tangled up with Sid gets tangled up with-

There is no time for that, Holliday.

He opens the door.

"Come in."

Grace

Grace has had an interesting week, full of ups and downs, mostly spent at the Office, monitoring her 'patient'. More like having a very odd houseguest, but whatever. Samir's recovery -- an up. And it is behind her. When Atreyu got back with her and said he was tied up, it was a relief -- when interesting times happen, they tend to happen all over, don't they?

Today, she's going to have a visit with the man who wasn't so much born as created. A living relic of a departed universe. Of the three, Grace is probably the only one who is actually excited to see him again. The others, well...

They saw a different Atreyu.

When she arrives, she gives Ian a smile, and doesn't seem too bothered by his distance. If he wants to be, he can be. For her part, she's upbeat, asking Kalen about the house, because she's never been here -- and yet treats it as though it were thoroughly hers, just a property she hasn't been to yet.

She likes that there are skylights.

When Atreyu arrives at last, she's inspecting those skylights, trying to figure out what star it is she's seeing through the glass -- so, she's standing under it, looking straight up, in her jeans and black t-shirt with a red fox design printed on it. If she's going to be called Kit, might as well take it all the way, right?

But she hears the noise, comes slinking through the rooms to greet him with a smile.

Atreyu

The last time Kalen and Ian saw Atreyu, he was not a he. Nor was he an adult. The metamorphosis must be more than a little strange for them. Grace, at least, has had time to adjust to the concept that there was always more than one Atreyu (and each of them connected to the others.) The last version of him that she saw is the same man who now stands on Kalen's doorstep, but he is also the dragonrider, the soldier, and the thirteen year old girl who rode a horse alone through the apocalypse.

The facial resemblance is there. Under normal logic, one would assume that he was Trey's elder brother. He's taller, and about six years older, than the person that Kalen and Ian will remember. The question is, how much does he remember of them?

There's a moment of silence when Kalen answers the door. A moment when Atreyu just looks at him with dark, quiet eyes. When he seems for a moment to lose track of time and place. "Kalen," he says finally. "Thanks." He steps inside and looks around. By then, Ian has wandered back to the hallway. He's standing back a little, arms folded across his chest with one shoulder up against the wall. Atreyu catches him in his gaze and stops. There's a long pause before he breaks the awkward silence with a quiet laugh.

"I think this is a new kind of weird."

Ian acknowledges that with a tentative hint of a smile, and an exhale that might almost be amusement.

Grace gets a more relaxed greeting from Atreyu, who grins when he spots her. "Thanks for having me. All of you." His attention shifts between the three of them. "It's good to see you again. I'm glad you two are okay."

Kalen Holliday

 Okay.

Kalen isn't sure what exactly to think of that statement.  He isn't entirely sure that he's okay.  But then, he is sure that he is much closer to who he should be, and that is in part due to the nightmarish place where he and some incarnation of Atreyu met.  Perhaps he's not okay and also better than okay. It makes sense, at least enough that he nods at Atreyu.

"You too.  It seemed like...."  I had seemed to him that that starlight being and all her worlds might die.  And, whatever hell they'd been through, Kalen couldn't help but regard her with wonder.  And Trey had stayed, hadn't she?  Had waited for them at the end of the world.

"I wasn't sure what would happen to you.  I didn't expect to see you again."  There is enough abatement of his wariness, just enough, that it possible to read something like concern in his tone.  Maybe not exactly affection.  But Kalen definitely hadn't wanted anything terrible to happen to them.  He does like knowing Atreyu is okay.

Grace

"Haha, finally we are the ones to out-weird you? That's a change," Grace says, laughs at her own joke.

Weirder than the dude himself? Grace takes it as a compliment, puffs up a bit.

"You should show them the video. It's pretty amazing, you know?"

Atreyu

"At the time, I don't think I expected to see anyone again."

There's an obvious implication there. At the very end, with the world coming apart around them, Trey believed that she was going to die. That the starlight shooting through her body was a kind of death. In a way, she did die. Just as other versions of Atreyu died when their worlds came apart. But those deaths were not true deaths. More like rebirths.

Grace suggests that Atreyu show Ian and Kalen the video he showed her at the zoo. He gives a slow nod, pulling a small messenger bag around to his side so that he can fish out his tablet. "She's right. You two should see it too. If you think you're up for it."

"What is it?" Ian asks.

"It's footage that I stole from the Technocracy. Of Bastion. At least, the part of Bastion that lived here. The people who designed it hid the hardware in a trench in the Pacific Ocean. That's why it took the Union so long to find it."

Ian's expression goes dark. For a moment, a little crease of tension starts to form between his eyebrows, but he exhales and lets it go. "Yeah, okay."

Atreyu glances to Kalen for further confirmation. In either case, he follows whoever decides to lead him back into the sitting room (the one with the skylights.) When he gets there, he sets his things down and shrugs out of his jacket, making himself comfortable on one of the loveseats. It takes a moment for him to turn on the tablet and navigate to the clip in question. While he does this, Ian hovers behind him - still standing. He glances at the empty space beside Atreyu on the loveseat, but leaves it for Kalen should he decide he wants to sit.

"What happened to you, exactly?" This comes from Ian, and from the way he says it, it sounds as though he had to fight to say it aloud. "Are you really the same person we met?"

Atreyu turns to look over his shoulder. There's a moment where he has to think about his answer - to collect the right words, maybe. "I used to be a lot of people. Now I'm just one. The person you met is part of me. It's... hard to explain what happened, exactly. But we were at the end of the world and somehow I... Woke Up. When I did that, all of the parts of me came together, and we severed our connection with the AI. So when she left, she let me go and sent me here."

Kalen Holliday

Kalen glances at Ian, hovering behind the couch.  Lets his eyes linger on Atreyu while he explains that he was a lot of people, but he is one person now.  He stays still after that for a few seconds, expression very carefully shuttered.

He takes a deep breath and remembers the scent of old books and voice that tastes like amber.  "We have all been many people," Kalen murmurs.  "And we are, still, all of them."  And it is not precisely for Ian or for Atreyu.  Even so, he settles onto the loveseat beside Atreyu, lets Ian stay there behind them.  It seems, in this moment, like safest place in the room he can really have.

"You don't sound so different, really."  He takes a careful breath and struggles to frame his thoughts about Bastion.  His heart tries to race, quick like butterfly wings.

Can he even look at it?

In some ways, that hardly matters.  What choice does he have?

"Show us," he says softly.  And there might be a touch of something breathless there, in that tone.  But his eyes drift to the tablet in Atreyu's hands and stay there.  Steady.

Grace

She pays attention to what Atreyu says, because it is an real question with her -- how is it, being him? Like a lot of people merged into one, apparently. She doesn't quite suppress a "Wow" after his speech. She's heard it before, but still -- wow.

"He's the same person I met, Ian. He was Spartacus, and a dragonrider, and a guy on a space station. Different people, but at the end, he looked... well, like he looks."

And she's talking about him while he's in the room, but that doesn't really matter. To her.

All in all, this has got to be the tensest fucking video-watching she's ever been witness to, and she looks between Ian and Kalen with that glimmer of a smile that says: 'I know something you don't know'.

Atreyu

There is a palpable tension in the room. So many mixed emotions. After what Ian and Kalen went through in that place, once can hardly blame them. But whatever Ian is feeling, he keeps it to himself. Probably couldn't explain it even if he tried. He seems to take Atreyu's answer though. There's a barely perceptible softening of his expression when he nods. Grace fills in a few more details. Then the room goes quiet with bated expectation.

This is what they see when Atreyu plays the video:

At first, the only thing they see is the ocean. Deep blue water, stretching out forever into the horizon. And the sky, muted with the blue-grey light of dawn. The picture moves a bit, rocking gently - as though filmed by hand from someone standing on a boat. Voices can be heard in the background.

"I don't see anything."

"It was there. Wait."

Suddenly an arc of electricity spiderwebs across the surface of the water. When it does, the video gives off an eerie feedback hum.

"Shit. Something's happening. What's the read-out say?"

Everyone gets very quiet for a second. Then someone says: "Fuck. We need to get back, now."

The boat starts moving, sending a trail of broken waves in its wake. Whoever's holding the camera keeps it steady though. Keeps it pointed at the water. On the surface, the current of energy arcs again, bigger this time. It builds into a bright, crackling electrical storm. In the background, people start shouting. The ocean grows choppier, more violent. The boat rocks as a wave hits the side. In the distance the electrical storm grows and grows, arcing out across the water and up into the sky. Then the screen flashes with a brilliant explosion of light. There's a lot of feedback before the audio track goes dead. The last image on the screen before the video cuts out is... well. It could be a trick. But it looks like a being made of light rising out of the water. There's a moment, a flicker of recognition when her face forms in the sky, then the light shoots up into the atmosphere and disappears.

And the video stops.

"That was her," Atreyu says. "She got out."

Kalen Holliday

Kalen watches the electricity arcing over the water and building into a storm.  Until that starlight creature climbs up out of the ocean.

It isn't until Atreyu is confirming it was her that he realises he stopped breathing somewhere along the way watching that and should probably start again.

"What does that mean for her," he asks, still soft.  Still quiet.  He has not, at least not yet, seen reason to panic.  He likes the starlight being.  He was not afraid of her.  "For...anything that's left?  Is there anything left without her?"

Grace

"She is out there, somewhere. Not all of her stars went out, in the end. I think that's hopeful, yes? And Atreyu, he's left. I still -- that's just really," she says, dissolves into giggles. "I mean, it's really awesome. She must have manifested him, Awake, with the Wolf-thing. Can you imagine?"

Yes, Grace just thinks this is the bees knees, or whatever. She has not yet seen reason to panic, more reason to be in awe and insatiably curious.

"Atreyu... you said you had some information for us? About the 'Crats?"

Atreyu

Grace's reaction to all of this is fascination and delight. Kalen.. seems a little awe-struck. Ian is quiet too, but for different reasons. There's a hard cut to the muscles in his jaw. A slight flare in his nostrils. Anger or tension or both, maybe. Almost, he walks out and leaves them to their conversation. But then Grace reminds them of the other reason why they're here, and Ian inhales slowly, shifts his weight and waits for whatever Atreyu has to say.

As for Kalen's questions, there are no easy answers. Atreyu sets his tablet down and turns to regard Kalen. "I'm not sure we'll ever really know the answer to that question, but I want to believe that it's all still there. Wherever she is. I mean... it's my home. Even if I never see it again. But I think... in a way, all of it sort of... was her. So if she's out there, then... it must still be with her in some way."

(Like a story.)

He casts his gaze toward Grace, takes a breath, and collects his thoughts.

"After I left Denver, I started looking into the Technocracy. I wanted to find a way to try to make amends for what happened to Maddoc and his friends. For what happened to Bastion. Everything. But... the things that I found weren't exactly what I expected. Some of it was... horrible. And then, other things were just... normal. I mean, they're people. Some of their labs and companies actually do good things. The one in Denver. Amaranthine, it's called. They're making advances in health and medicine. Important advances that impact everyday people. But it's all mixed up with who they are as an organization. All the terrible things they've done to get the power and the resources that they have.

"Anyway, I didn't find all this out on my own. I have friends. They have an interest in the Union, and some of them have been watching them for a long time. When the Storm hit, years ago, and everyone got cut off from the Horizon realms? That wasn't just the Traditions. It happened to the Technocracy too. And I think it changed them. They lost their leaders and had to find a new direction. But the Storm is dying down, and the old command is re-establishing contact. That's... not a good thing. For anyone. It means things could get bad again. The way they were during the war."

He leans forward on his elbows, meeting Grace's eyes, then Kalen's, then Ian's. "I'm not saying the Technocracy now is... good. In some places it's still really bad. But it could get a whole lot worse, and my friends and I are trying to stop that from happening. That's what we're doing here in Denver. Gathering information. Training. Preparing, really."

Kalen Holliday

Kalen just stares at Atreyu for a few seconds.

"Fuck," he says quietly.  He runs a hand through his hair.

"You...you have no idea either how perfect or how entirely fucked up your timing is."  Kalen sighs heavily.  "What are you preparing for?"  He doesn't sound anxious.  He doesn't sound terrified.  Only resigned and very, very tired.

Grace

"So, you're saying they could be worse. Worse than creating apocalypse plagues for funzies, worse than fucking up Bastion... I mean, yeah, of course. I've heard about the War. That shit is terrible. As if we didn't have shit walking the streets with four arms and shark faces already, for fuck's sake," Grace says, obviously a bit riled up at the idea of the Technocracy bringing back the old stories she's heard.

"What are your plans on stopping that from happening? Do you have one?"

Atreyu

Grace and Kalen ask the obvious questions. To which Ian, now staring at Atreyu with a kind of dark intensity, says, "How much of a risk are we at from the Union in Denver right now? And how much worse do you think it's likely to get?"

It's a lot for one person to try to answer. Atreyu looks at Ian first.

"Right now? Not much, actually. I mean, I'd steer clear of them, obviously. But that's part of the reason we came here. Their focus is on their science, not on hunting mages. It isn't in their interest to start conflict with us here. Amaranthine Labs is an important resource and the Union doesn't want to make it a target. But that could very easily change if the Union decides to reinstate the pogroms. Which... might happen, in a worst case scenario. That means none of us will be safe anywhere. So.. I guess, if you want any reassurance. You could be in worse places than Denver."

He looks between Grace and Kalen next. "What we want is to stop a war. But I think the only way to do that is to help save the Technocratic Union from itself. There are dissident movements. Lots of people in the Technocracy don't agree with the old policies. I don't know if it's possible for us to work together, but... some of us are going to try. If for no other reason than to stop the worse of two evils from gaining power."

Kalen Holliday

Kalen looks between them and there is fairly little difference between this expression and his expression when he and Ian were watching nothingness devour the world.  This, now, is darker.

And then Kalen laughs and there is no joy at all in the sound.

"Except that at least one person in Denver wants to kick that war off again with a vengeance."  He smiles, and there is, at least in this, some amusement for all it is dark and edged.  "But I did want to stop him.  I was hoping to do it quietly, but...if what you say is true I'll lay that card on the table before I finish checking on whether it can be handled quietly.

"It seems only fair."  He runs a hand through his hair.  Takes a deep breath.  And chooses the side he'd almost convinced himself not to take quite so dramatically.  "Orrin wants to set the Technocracy and the vampires at each other's throats and then wipe anyone left standing off the map.  I'm hoping his travelling companion is less zealous, because I am not fond of the idea of turning Denver into a battleground.  I know what that is.  I know what that costs.

"If you have anything, anything, I can bring with me to bargain with, now would be the time to tell me.  I would prefer peace to war."  He sighs.  "Though I expect the only peace I'm likely to get soon is if I'm basically executed for treason.  You can put that lovely Jefferson quote on my tombstone.  I have always loved it."

Grace

Grace has heard about the Hermetic bigwigs being in town. She didn't know about this. Honestly, it would be the kind of plan she might make up, if the vampires and the Technocrats weren't off busy doing things that weren't dangerous to Denver or -- you know -- the world. She loves a good game of Let's You and Him Fight.

But then, the cost of a war in Denver? Even if they were to be able to hide from it, the Sleeping population would be sitting ducks.

She reaches out and actually touches Kalen -- a hand on his shoulder. Suggestion of solidarity. As much as she hates vampires and Technocrats, she rather likes the normal people who would be collateral damage.

"You're not going to get executed for treason. Not if I can help it," she says, and there is a threat buried there somewhere, under all that trying to be calm. "We've all been through a lot, and we'll get through this as well."

"Charges of treason only happen to those who lose. We won't," she says, and she seems rather confident of that. "Orrin's plan, however? That sounds doomed to failure. He'll set the two things we need to win the fight against each other. If anyone's the traitor, it's the one with the shit plan that gets everybody killed, yeah?"

Atreyu

There's a beat of silence after Kalen speaks, before Grace reaches out to offer reassurance, where the dawning weight of comprehension grows heavy in the room. Atreyu goes dead still for a moment, then puts a hand to his mouth and closes his eyes.

"This is my fault," he says, letting the hand drop. When he opens his eyes, he looks at Kalen - something dark and weighted hanging in his gaze. "I warned them about what was coming. I thought I owed it to them, after Maddoc's death. The situation between the Order and the Technocrats on the East Coast is already strained. I thought it was likely the Boston chantry would be among the first targets. But if they're attacking here... it must be part of something bigger. We have to stop him. If the Order picks a fight with the Technocracy, the Technocrats will only get more reactionary."

Behind them, Ian lets out a long exhale. "This is all completely fucked."

Atreyu glances back. "War usually is."

It takes a moment for Ian to come around to the front of the sofa. When he does, he kneels down in front of Kalen, looking up at him with dark, clear eyes. "If this guy tries to hurt you, or any of us, then I will hurt him."

He says this without knowing what kind of man Orrin is, or how powerful. And it could be an empty threat - something meant to calm and reassure. But Ian has never once said anything intended for empty reassurance.

He looks at Atreyu. "I think trusting the Technocracy in any capacity is a bad idea. You have more faith in their humanity than I do."

"Do you have a better plan, Ian?"

"No. And I don't want a war anymore than you do. But it sounds like either way, there's going to be a fight. I just think you should be careful."

"We will be." Atreyu gives a sigh, like he's about to do something he thinks he might regret. "Kalen, tell Orrin that the resistance is bigger than he thinks. And if he agrees to stand down, we can offer him protection."

We, he says. But who exactly does he mean?

Kalen Holliday

Grace reaches out to touch him and Kalen's eyes slide briefly toward her. The corners of his mouth lift upward, very briefly and very slightly. He is not, at least not entirely, surprised that she touched him. Nor that her first thoughts run towards protecting him. He knows Grace. He trusts her.

But, as is his usual custom, he does not in the company of other people spend much time conversing with Grace. He does not, in the end, need to say much to Grace.

And then, slowly and a bit more cautiously than Grace reached out for him he reaches out to squeeze Atreyu's forearm, just above the wrist. He'll pull back, if it seems as though that contact is unwelcome.

"This is not something you've done. Perhaps you were part of it, but Orrin wants it. He has seen enough of the war before now that he doesn't see a way to end it beyond the total annihilation of one side or the other. If not this, if not here, there would be another battleground." Kalen sighs. "There is always another battleground."

And then Ian is there, in front of him, and he gets Kalen's full attention even before he speaks. If this guy tries to hurt you or any of us, I will hurt him.  And for a few seconds, while Kalen looks back into Ian's eyes and tries to remember how to breathe for entirely different reasons there is no war. There are no other people watching.

Kalen forces his attention back to war and to the broader context of this moment. Pulls his focus away from Ian's eyes without looking away from them. His pale eyes are a little too wide, but the reason that he has to swallow before he can speak has nothing to do with fear. Nothing to do with how extraordinarily tired Kalen is of war.

"Orrin has no interest in hurting any of you," he says quietly. "He wants exactly what I want. He wants a safer world for you. We are alike enough in that. Neither of us will shrink away from the fights we see as necessary. If Orrin does harm me, it will be because he knows this is the way to save the world. To save all of us.

"I know it isn't." He lets his attention fall back into Ian's eyes. "I'm not entirely certain which one of us is wrong." And there, not sure whether he is taking exactly those actions which will save everything he loves or destroy it, Kalen sounds more horrified than he has all night.

Grace

Grace takes her hand back. If anyone knows how rare (and thus how special) her physical contact with other humans is -- it's Kalen.

Ian makes his own version of an emotional gesture, and it has Grace giving Kalen a warm smirk. If anyone touches you, Kalen, they will bring Hell upon them in the form of a posse of Mages rather unconcerned about pissing off the Order.

"Either way, there is going to be a fight. Just, one plan is completely ignoring one of the sides," Grace says, "Doesn't sound like a great plan to me. I don't know if allying with Techs is going to bear any fruit either. But I know I don't want to see Orrin do anything stupid."

She's pensive. She's distrustful. But she says, at last: "What do you mean, offer Orrin protection, Atreyu? Protection from what?"

Atreyu

Protection from what?

"From the Technocracy, if it comes to that." Atreyu doesn't object to the contact when Kalen touches him. His demeanor overall seems calmer - less volatile - then the girl Kalen met in the apocalypse. "I don't know how much that offer will be worth to him. The Order, from what I can glean, doesn't seem terribly receptive to outside assistance. Even less when it comes from people they view as enemies." Atreyu looks from Grace to Kalen, his expression drawn and serious. "You're honestly the only one I've met who seems willing to listen to me."

"What do you mean, 'people they view as enemies?'" Ian folds his arms across his chest as he stands. There's a pause as a flicker of suspicion passes across his eyes. "Are you already working with the Technocrats?"

"Yes and no. The people I work with, we're calling ourselves the Enlightened Union. Some of us are Traditionalists. Others are people who left the Technocracy and had to go into hiding. The woman leading us - she used to be a pretty high ranking member in the Union before they labeled her a heretic and tried to have her killed. Now she's with the Celestial Chorus. We have to be careful who we trust. There are a lot of people on both sides who would try to destroy us if they could."

Kalen Holliday

Kalen stays still for a few seconds, waiting for an answer that no one gives him. Maybe they don't know any more than he does what they should do here.

There are no maps for this. No precedent.

No. Kalen doubts that last is true. It would be more accurate, he suspects, that there is no surviving memory of any earlier attempts. That is the kind of thing that gets scoured clean; but not, at least not in his estimation, a thing that would never have been tried.

"I wouldn't count my attention as a victory," he says quietly to Atreyu. "My relationship with the Order is...questionable. Particularly now that I have encountered this new wedge to drive us apart." He sighs. "And as to the rest...I thought once that this place was something else. A reason to hope that the beginnings of a better world were already here, we had only to see them.

"I have no such illusions anymore." There is a little amused huff of breath. "Not that I have let a more measured estimation of what I really have here temper my affection, apparently. Still, I don't know how much help I can be." He sighs, and leans back into the couch.

"And, as evidenced, however our goals may fall into line that doesn't mean we agree on on our methods. God knows that's why most of us here don't trust me. It's why I won't just let Orrin do this. And it is why, as tempting as I find it to see only the best in you as I've seen only the best in a number of other things, I don't know how much I will help you."

There is not though, as he focuses on Atreyu, any indication that he intends to refuse to help. No.  Absent anyone to give him an answer, the one Kalen found is unfolding lotus blossoms and the world he knows can transcend its darkness and the sound of infinite love threaded through prayers.

And so, when he smiles a little and asks, "Can I meet them? Your other friends....." there is not so much wariness or suspicion in his eyes as hope.

Grace

Kalen isn't your ordinary Hermetic, Atreyu. When he says that Kalen is the only one who's deigned to listen to him, Grace smirks at him. When she met Kalen, Grace didn't know what an Order of Hermes was and didn't much care either. Just here was a person willing to treat her as an equal, even if they most decidedly weren't (in the raw power department). That level of humility? Fairly rare in Hermetic circles. A pity, that. Pride goeth, and doeth stupid shit, like pretending you're perfectly fine on your own, when you could really use the help.

Grace crosses her arms, frowns.

"I'm with Kalen, in that I find Orrin's plan ridiculous. I also only really know of the Technocracy by the horror stories I've heard -- and experienced. You think you can provide protection from them? And how, through your group of people led by someone the Techs have already tried to hunt down? That sounds... less than promising, really. How are you in any position to provide protection? I don't really ask that for Orrin's sake, because from all I've heard -- I doubt the man would request protection from anything. But still...

"I don't know if an alliance is going to be possible until a crisis makes it clear to both sides why it is needed. For them, they'd have to understand what it is we'd even offer. For us, we'd have to understand that they're not going to immediately lock us up and start performing experiments on our asses that make Dr. Mengele look like Patch Adams -- or at least that the risk of that is worth it. Right now, Denver is being normal Denver, if you take Orrin's horrible plan out of the picture, and nobody knew about that.

"Sure, okay, lay out some feelers, see what allies are interested, but we have to plan on them not being there, honestly. Or at the very least, if we're not working with them, make sure we're not working at cross purposes. I'm not against, say, making sure some information makes it into the right hands at the right time -- even if they would rather see my head on a platter -- but I don't know about sitting down to have some quality facetime."

She sighs and looks at Kalen, who seems to have been attempting to bear the entire burden of the impending doom on his shoulders along with everything else. Pride comes in many forms, eh? But part of her knows that kicking her friend and telling him that he just isn't that important, and thus not responsible for everyone else in the world being dicks probably won't help.

Atreyu

"The Order's plan is short-sighted." This from Ian, who glances at Grace in a moment of pensive consideration. "Even in a best case scenario, what happens afterward? The Technocracy isn't going to just walk away."

"It's desperate," Atreyu adds. "It means they think war is inevitable." Grace offers up a couple of references that Atreyu doesn't quite catch (it's easy to forget, sometimes, that he isn't actually from this world,) but the gist of her point remains clear. "I agree with you. I don't think there's any chance of real cooperation without a clear and immediate threat. It's why we haven't tried to make contact with the Denver lab yet. But I can tell you that the dissidents and even the moderates within the Technocracy are scared of what's coming. They already have deep-rooted corruption within their ranks, and Control wants to put extremists back into power. Best case scenario, they lose the progress they've made over the last decade. Worst case scenario, they open the doors for the Nephandi and hand them the keys to the kingdom." The weight of his voice falls heavily on that last line. "It's why so many of them have left. And remember, our Tradition, the Mercurial Elite, was once a part of the Technocracy. There's another group, the Void Engineers, who're thinking of doing the same. I think a lot of them recognize that they are at risk. We already have a small army. If we can get the Void Engineers on our side, we'll have the numbers to protect Denver and Boston."

But he's only addressed half of the picture.

"I wanted to tell you this because I thought you deserved to know. I'm not going to ask you for anything you aren't willing to give. What we're trying to do... we're putting ourselves at risk in order to help an organization that doesn't deserve our sympathy. But at the risk of sounding idealistic, we're doing it because we want to try to start to build a better world. I don't have any illusions that it will be easy. I think it's just as likely we may all wind up dead, or worse. But I have to believe it's possible to change the course of where we're heading. I'm here because I believed that."

And maybe Grace will remember then, what Atreyu said once, standing on the deck of a space station with the last pieces of the universe falling apart around them. (Re-write the story. [We are all connected.]) But they are not in the same world now.

Atreyu looks at Kalen. "I want you to meet them. All of you. But they aren't going to let me bring you to see them unless I know for sure that you're with us. If not in action then at least in spirit. Because having any connection with us at all will put you at risk, and the more you know about us, the more it puts us at risk. I think you should think about it, and when we're all ready, I can set up a meeting. We can talk more about strategy then."

Kalen Holliday

"Well," Kalen says, "It will be difficult building a better world if we destroy it. And, however much reason we have to dislike the Technocracy...I'm not sure that playing this out to another near-cataclysmic event is exactly a better plan than trying to find some way to stop this.

"Orrin is still determining if this attack is feasible. I will try speaking with the Hermetics visiting, Richard may prove more reasonable than Orrin, but it may not be that they will determine this is the way to proceed. I...."

Kalen frowns.  "Orrin wants this. Not a war, I don't think. But a victory and an end to this conflict. I'm just not sure how willing he'll be to consider negotiation. He might consider withdrawing his attention from here, and if that were to happen we'd be...largely without much oversight by the Order again.

"I don't know yet what we'll do. Or what I'll do, in the end. But in the spirit of the thing, unless you've hidden some crucial detail, I should be with you."

Grace

"If what Atreyu says is right, our main goal is to take on the Technocratic leadership that's coming back. And that, however we can. If we can't get the 'good' Technocrats to work with us, we can't, and we keep on going. I would actually like Orrin's plan a lot more if it weren't for that other little major threat. See if he likes the idea of setting up a fight between the Technocracy and the Technocracy better, eh?"

Whatever, as long as they're fighting Technocrats, right? Long ago, somebody told Grace that the Ascension War was over, and the Technocracy won, and the only thing any of them could hope for was to reach Ascension before the world ended -- so long, and thanks for all the fish. She's always thought that was a bunch of bullshit, really.

Because they are on top now, does not mean they will be forever. All empires fall. Hell, the earth could be wiped out by cosmic rays tomorrow, and yet the universe would continue -- their cycles repeated again and again, the universe ever creeping towards understanding itself. Existence isn't meaningful because it lasts.

Grace snaps out of it, because she realizes she's staring at the ceiling now, and things still need to be communicated.

"Do you want me to share this around? Or are you concerned about the safety of your group if I do?"

Atreyu

Ian doesn't offer Atreyu any kind of reassurance. Not the way that Kalen does. There's a brief moment when their eyes meet and some subtle, silent exchange happens between them. Atreyu seems to accept the non-response for what it is. He lets it go, turning his attention to the other two.

"Is Hermetic oversight something you need here?" The question is directed to Kalen, but the tone of it feels hypothetical. Perhaps he isn't so much looking for an answer as he is asking Kalen to decide what he wants. "I'd be willing to meet with Orrin, if he's open to discussion. I think we should at least try to reason with him before we do anything more drastic. Grace is right..." he tips his head toward her in acknowledgement. "We may be able to redirect his focus if we can convince him that our plans have more tactical merit."

Grace asks if Atreyu wants her to share the information he'd just given them.

"I think it's important that everyone here knows what's coming. Be careful how you do it, though. Even the most secure networks can be cracked with enough effort. Don't leave anything for the Technocracy to find."

"There's also less chance of a stampede if we talk to people one on one," Ian points out.

To that, Atreyu just nods. After a pause he gets to his feet. "Grace, you have my number. I'll give it to you two as well." He indicates Kalen and Ian with a tip of his head. "Talk to the Hermetics, then we can decide how to proceed. In the meantime, I'll talk to my group and see if I can convince them to meet with you. I'd really like to show you what we've been building."

Kalen Holliday

"Not here," Kalen says quietly. "And I have no plans to leave here. So no." And that answer, for all there is an undercurrent of something heavy in it and for all that it would have been inconceivable that he would have answered that way not even so long ago, comes with no hesitation.

"I think more personal discussions are better for this too." Kalen glances over to Atreyu. "I'll let you know, all of you, once I talk to them what happens." Even, apparently, if that is just to be a warning of more enemies rather than less. Kalen doesn't have much hope concerning the Order, not, at least, in the near future.

Grace

"Okay. Will talk to people then," Grace says, not even seeming upset by the fact that she can't use Ginger. Some things are more important to hide behind a sneakernet than others. "Just, you know, the weakest link in any network is always going to be the people interfacing with it. That doesn't go away if I tell them personally."

She does give Kalen a quick look when he responds that Denver doesn't need Hermetic oversight. It's telling, that. He's always been one for distributed networks, from the beginning. Perhaps now, he sees why. The nodes at the top can be really fucking wrong. Such hierarchical networks are efficient at distribution, but if there's shit at the top, they're also efficient at distributing shit. Also, they're not very good at routing around damage or corrupted nodes. It's just basic computer science.

She follows that look with a smile, like hey -- the world has not ended yet, and then returns to admiring the ceiling.

"I would really like to see what you're building," she says, to the ceiling, though given the context, she probably means to say it to Atreyu.

There were skylights back in the other room. Are there more, she wonders? Now this meeting seems to be ending, she might as well look around Kalen's house again (whether he wants her to or not).

Ian

I'm in the neighborhood. Mind if I swing by?

Ian shot a text off to Grace a few minutes before he arrived at the warehouse. There'd been talk at one point of him paying a visit to see her robots, though with Ian it was just as likely that he had some alternative motivation. Regardless of his intentions, he hadn't forgotten their conversation in the park. And so it was that he happened to be driving out near the place where the warehouse property sat, and since (for once) he didn't have any plans for the evening, it seemed an opportune time to stop in.

When he arrived, Ian pulled into the lot and left his car parked near the building where he usually came to meet Kalen. He already had security access, so he let himself in, taking the stairs at a relaxed pace as he headed into the Office. When he caught sight of Grace, he leaned against the wall and smiled a greeting.

"Fancy meeting you here."

He had on dark jeans, black leather boots and a white v-neck t-shirt. Leather bracelets adorned both wrists. At some point recently he'd gotten his hair cut.

Grace

[Awareness]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )

Grace

The response comes almost immediately, because even when she's eating, Grace isn't far away from her phone.

You can swing by anytime :)

Ian's no stranger to the Office. She's felt his presence come and go in this place, without breaking her coding trance. Today, he texted her. Curious, that, but not unwelcome at all -- oh no. Ian is great. Ian can jump and makes her play basketball.

So, when she feels him coming, like some wild mystery knocking at her sixth sense, she peeks out of her office door.

Grace's hair is getting shaggy. It should get cut soon. For now, it just looks messy and unkempt.

"Almost like I spend four fifths of my waking hours here, huh? What's up?"

Ian

"Well, I did say I wanted to see your robots." Somehow when Ian said that, it came out sounding a bit like an innuendo. He stepped into Grace's office and let his eyes wander a moment, taking in the state of her surroundings - whether it was messy or organized, how many personal touches she'd left in easy view (photos, etc.) After a beat, he regarded her with a more genuine expression.

"I also wanted to apologize. For being dismissive about Arionna that day."

Ian Lai apologizing? What will the world come to.

Grace

She opens her door wide, and lets Ian peer inside, because hey -- here be robots.

The place shows some obvious signs of Kalen having been here and done the decorating. The walls, for example, are a deep cobalt blue, with constellations of stars painted in silver. If he had only thought to stud them with diamonds, he would have. Her desk is an L-shaped cherry-wood thing, with a workspace covered in leather, upon which sits a horrible-looking robotic turtle. Grace would win no awards for aesthetics. This is a solidly functional turtle, with a shell and retractable legs, and something that looks like a head, but there the resemblance to a turtle stops. Its feet are rubbery prongs. There are exposed wires. Presumably the latter will be stuffed inside the shell at some point for protection, but that time has not yet arrived.

There's also an ivy plant on the desk with a nametag that reads "Chloe III". There were two previous Chloes, but they died horrible dehydration-related deaths when Grace was dragged away from the real world for months at a time. This plant has a failsafe in the form of a glass bulb full of water, upturned and slowly dispensing into the pot. But what Ian would really notice is that It's surrounded by a scaffold which holds robot arms. Each arm holds a laser, and is busy teasing the leaves with tiny bursts of red beams.

Shelves line the wall, and they hold some leather-bound journals with "Teh Wall 01" and "Teh Wall 02" etc. labeling their spines in black Sharpie marker. There are many of these, from a time when Grace actually used journals instead of her computer (because she couldn't). A copper fox mask leans against the wall on a shelf, along with a Japanese wooden puzzle box and a container of syringes.

Also in the room is her office chair, and a large, overstuffed leather couch, that boasts a Grace-sized indentation in it, and a fuzzy blanket thrown over the armrest. She has her own mini-kitchen and fridge off to the side of the room in a little nook. Is it any wonder why she seems to live here? It has all the necessary elements. It feels like Grace here, like feathers, and like the edges are sharp.

"Robots," she says, and gestures toward her desk with the disemboweled Gamera-bot. "I have more impressive ones in the Danger Room, have you seen it yet?"

Then, he brings up Arionna. She squints. "I heard she's being taken care of now. A Chorister who will try to teach her the difference between evil and misunderstood. Maybe she'll get better someday," Grace says, shrugs.

Ian

[Awareness]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Ian

Everywhere in this room felt like Grace. Her resonance had long-since rubbed off on the objects and furniture, making the place feel more like a home than an office. It looked a bit like one too.

"You really do spend a lot of time here, don't you?" It was a rhetorical question. Ian's focus swung back to the robotic turtle for a moment, but when Grace mentioned Arionna's mentor, his eyebrows went up. "Arionna's being mentored by a Chorister?" Almost, he seemed about to object to this, but then he thought about it for a moment and laughed. "I think I might like to see that."

He wandered over to the sofa, but didn't sit down. Instead he ran a finger across the top of the leather. "I don't know if she'll get better. I try not to expect things from people. But she's human, whatever she wants people to think. Insecure kids who feel isolated tend to lash out." He glanced at Grace, weighing something in his head. "I spent some time in group homes when I was a kid. I saw a lot of that shit back then.

"Anyway, you really need to show me this Danger Room. Because right now I'm picturing something out of a science fiction movie."

Grace.

"If Arionna gets worse, well. Lavinia hunts demons as a hobby. She can take care of her apprentice, no matter what care that includes," Grace says, as if speaking of someone's descent into actual evil and subsequently being put down were just a thing that happens.

In her experience it very much is a thing that happens. It's happened a lot in Denver. Some Mage gets one too many kicks in the ego, or delusions of better-than-anyone-else and decides to unleash terror. Mages can do that quite literally. There's a problem with being the equivalent of a walking nuclear bomb, is that sometimes people are people and want to go off.

You have to want to become something better than your average Joe, with vengeances and hatreds and terrible fears, and yet do that without actually imagining yourself to be better than Joe.

"I know, Chorister... But Lavinia sounds good. Not out to convert people, and I doubt very seriously she's trying to do that with Arionna. I mean, can you imagine?"

Ian says he wants to see the Danger Room, and Grace lights up, thankful to have a change from having to think about the problem of Arionna. "It's my favorite part. Jo and I have played with the lasers in there. I learned to watch the floor, because I tripped over her!"

It's like tripping is awesome, because she learned something, right?

Ian

"Oh, Lavinia. Yeah, I know her. That's... a little reassuring, actually."

But Grace didn't much want to talk about Arionna, and Ian was happy enough to let the subject slide. Apparently the Danger Room had both lasers and robots, and this fact was doing nothing to deter Ian's natural curiosity. He laughed at Grace's excited description (and the image of her tripping over Jo.) "You think you'll do better with me?"

It almost sounded like a challenge. Ian lifted his eyebrows meaningfully and walked over to the door, where he paused to wait for Grace to join him.

Grace

"Haha! No," she says, and yet -- there is a grin on her face.

Ian is probably better at this than she. Grace is under no illusions that the room she built will be kind to her just because she made it.

"It's downstairs, I'll show you," she says, and starts for the door.

Sure enough, down the stairs and past a few doors is an unmarked one that Grace opens. Kalen has had little influence here. If he had decorated the place, the mirrors would be framed in gold and there might be plush carpet that wasn't black padding, and the walls wouldn't be a uniform shade of grey. It won't really matter once the lights are off, will it?

There are knobs and buttons along the wall here, labeled with plastic label-maker strips as: "Lights", "Fog", "Ultraviolet", and "START". A row of coathooks is on the other side of the door, and this at least shows some of Kalen's doing, because these are some classy coats. There's the one Grace wore all winter -- her red, sharply tailored thing -- but also many others, some of which are Kalen's old things, all done up with LED strips. Ian should remember that in action. Also hanging on the wall are a number of modded NERF guns with their own wires and added hardware. It's a little chillier here than in the rest of the office, just so one would be comfortable wearing a modded coat.

Hanging from the ceiling are a number of robot arms wielding the same (obviously fake) modded guns with laser attachments. You don't need a person to train with here -- Grace has provided autonomous antagonists. There could very well be more, hidden within the maze of mirrors and grey walls, but they're out of sight.

"I want to do much more with it, but this is a functional alpha," she says, grinning at the magnificence of her creation.  "We can totally play games here."

Ian

When Ian stepped into the training room, he cast a long, slow sweep of his gaze over the space, taking in the layout and the obstacles. When his eyes landed on the robot arms, he tilted his head and stared at them curiously.

"You really made all this?" There was a kind of quiet admiration in his voice. He stepped over to the wall, running a finger over a couple of the labels. "You know, I never actually learned how to shoot. Not properly, anyway. I've never really liked guns."

Maybe that sounded odd, coming from someone with as much martial capability as Ian had.

"You might kick my ass after all."

Grace

"Good! I have a chance after all, then," she says, pulls her red coat off its hook, dons it, and flips a switch in the sleeve. It lights up, of course, because otherwise, how would you see your target?

She also picks out her favorite gun. It's light plastic and doesn't take up much space, which is nice. They all perform basically the same, the bigger ones don't actually throw more of a punch, because it's all light anyway. They do run under slightly different frequencies, so that the game can be tallied at the end (a computer will know which gun shot which targets, for scoring purposes) but they're not too far off from each other.

She punches the fog button, which causes a few hissing jets to blow from the ceiling. The next thing she does it hit the lights, and then the ultraviolet lights, flooding the place with a dark purple haze that turns the mist, along with their teeth, eyes, and fingernails to slightly glowing. The low light doesn't illuminate as much as it makes the fog a more solid thing -- something to show where the lasers actually shoot, and something to hide within. It's not quite descended yet, the cloud of mist at the ceiling, but it promises to.

A glowing-eyed, bright-toothed Grace tells Ian: "The coats all have a switch in the right-hand sleeve, you just turn it on, and then we're ready to go."

Ian

[Mind 2 *innocent whistle* coincidental diff 5 -1 (cunning resonance)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (8, 8, 9) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Ian

[That's 3 dots of resonance cloaking for the duration of the scene.]

Ian

Ian watched the fog roll into the room, taking in the way the UV lights bathed the arena in an unearthly kind of glow. It wasn't the kind of environment that he was used to training in, but that only made it more of a challenge. Grace grabbed one of the coats, and after a moment Ian followed suit, finding one that was his size and made of light, breathable fabric. He also took a moment to remove his footwear. Quiet maneuvering would be easier barefoot.

Before they got started, he crouched down for a moment against the wall and closed his eyes, breathing in this steady, rhythmic pattern. Grace might well wonder what exactly he was doing. At least, until she felt his resonance dim and slip away, as though covered by a kind of mist of its own.

When he was ready, he grabbed one of the smaller guns and flicked the switch in his coat. Then he jumped down into the arena.

Grace

"Oh, we're playing that kind of game, eh?" Grace says, smiles, pulls her phone out of the pocket of her jeans.

The first bit of magic she ever did was to sense space. The second was sensing life. If reality-bending antics are on the menu, Ian will have to do a lot more than just mask his resonance in order to hide.

At least, that is the theory.

A few flicks of the thumb, and she's opened her special program, the raw data feed of the Code. Now, it's time to tell it how to render...

Her gun hangs from her pinky finger as she types out the designation -- she wants relative coordinate information and an indicator of that complicated fractal-like material called living tissue.

[Corr 2, Life 1 = Life forms, you precious little life forms, *musical button pressing* where are you?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (1, 3, 4) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Ian

[Awareness to see if he notices her casting something]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )

Ian

[Mind shield from this morning. Diff 4 -1 (practiced as all hell)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (4, 8, 8) ( success x 3 )

Ian

[Extending once +1 diff -1 for going slow]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (4, 6, 8) ( success x 3 )

Ian

[We'll call this a level 3 shield for one month.]

Ian

[I sense Life magic, and, uh, something. Mind 3 / Life 2 (targeting himself) - there is no living pattern here. (This is meant to counter attempts to sense his pattern via Life magic.) diff 6 -1 (cunning)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (3, 6, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Ian

[He's going to roll an extension for that but I'll save it for next turn.]

Ian

Ian didn't get far into the arena before he felt the first stirrings of Grace's will. It wasn't a surprise, really. He'd started the game off by employing a trick of his own, and Grace was nothing if not resourceful. So Ian stepped behind a blockade and took a moment to focus his mind, slipping back into the meditative breathing as he began to weave a second cloaking effect into his own pattern.

Yes, it most certainly was that kind of game.

Grace

Okay, the universe is not cooperating. She has to grab these strings of the right kind of data and merge them into a structure that makes some sense, and it's just not working all that well.

So she bashes her phone on the side, with a grunt. Come on, function...

All the while, she's focusing intently on her phone and not on the game. Just standing there concentrating real hard is... not a good strategy.

The mist begins to descend over the room, offering Ian even more ability to hide. This is going to be a tough game.

[Extending!]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Ian

[And rolling that extension, +1 diff]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Ian

[3 successes toward the effect, 1 to last the scene. Stopping there so he can do actual things now.]

Ian

It wasn't wise to waste too much time sitting still when someone was hunting you. Ian gave himself just enough time to build a reasonably effective illusion before slipping off quietly into the mist. Grace could stand there trying to track him if she liked, but in the meantime he was going to put some distance between them.

The room was dark and full of fog, and the strips on his coat glowed with that ultraviolet cast. His feet tread softly along the floor as he moved, keeping as much out of sight as he could manage.

Grace

She's got... something. The bacteria on surfaces, a spider in a corner on the ceiling, herself. All these shine out like beacons, but Ian?

Oh you little jerkface.

But note, she's smiling. He's making this a challenge.

Something in here is hiding, and she's going to find it.

[One more! Extending agaaaain!]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 6, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Ian

[Stealth]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Ian

[Alertness - Grace are you really still standing in plain sight? (acute senses -2 diff, fog +1)]

Dice: 6 d10 TN5 (2, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6) ( success x 3 )

Ian

Ian was on the move. But Grace? Grace was still just... standing there. Like a small, glowing beacon across the room. Ian peered out from behind an obstacle, staring through the mist until his eyes landed on the glowing streaks of light that marked Grace's coat.

Ian knew both his strengths and his weaknesses. The best thing for him to do would be to close with Grace and fire at point blank range, where his lack of gun training would be less of a hindrance. But look, there was the target standing in plain view just... begging to be fired at.

So he did.

[Dex 4 + Firearms 0, +1 diff for an untrained skill]

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (3, 4, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )

Grace

Buzzt! Grace's coat makes a noise at her, and her lights go out. She's got a little time to re-position before the targets and her gun go active again.

Doesn't matter, got target. "Ian! You got me," she shouts, laughter in her voice.

And she got him. His is a weaker signal than anything else in the room, but he's there.

Now that that's done, she's on the run, skittering her blanked-out self into the arena to go hide.

[Stealth too! Dex 3 + Stealth 2 + Arcane 2]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 1, 2, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Ian

Ian had no way of knowing whether his various cloaking effects were sufficient to block Grace from finding him, but at the very least they'd given him time to get in a free shot. He grinned quietly to himself when Grace's coat went dark, but he didn't respond verbally to her confirmation. No sense revealing himself if he didn't have to.

Of course, Grace knew where he was anyway.

Grace dashed into the arena, hiding herself from sight. Ian gave her a few seconds before he began to creep around the obstacles. Wherever she was he couldn't see her, but he listened - hoping for some hint of movement. A rustle of fabric. A footstep.

[Alertness]

Dice: 6 d10 TN5 (2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 6) ( success x 1 )

Ian[And stealth again, not that it matters]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5) ( botch x 1 )

Grace

Really, she almost doesn't need the display showing her where Ian is right now. He's being... uncharacteristically obvious. Still, she can see where he is (on her phone, by the noise he's making, by anything really) making hiding from him easy. Once her lights flick back on, she's positioned herself right behind the bend he's rounding, ready and waiting.

Gotcha.

Maybe...

[dex 3 + firearms 1 = shooting Ian with laser!]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Ian

"Fuck." Ian hissed when he felt a buzz in his jacket, dropping his silent act for a moment. His toe still throbbed a bit from where he'd stubbed it against the corner of an obstacle, but he ignored it. The pain was less severe than his irritation with himself for making the mistake in the first place. A moment later he jumped behind the obstacle, hoping to move out of Grace's line of sight (though he wasn't entirely sure which direction the shot had come from.) He took a moment to listen to his heartbeat, expanding his senses out to search for Grace's pattern. Without her mastery of Correspondence, he wouldn't be able to pin-point her exact location, but a little extra awareness couldn't hurt.

[Life 1, diff 4 -1 (practiced)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (1, 2, 4) ( success x 1 )

Grace

[Stealth!]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Grace

In between successful strikes, the best thing Grace can think to do is use that intervening time to put some distance between herself and Ian, getting ready for the next successful strike.

One further benefit she has over Ian right now is that she built this place. The maze is her own, and she's got the twists and turns mapped out in her head, simply from having put up the walls herself.

So, she knows where to hide.

Ian might have other tricks up his sleeve, but she's fairly competent at staying out of his sight while she waits on his time-out. He'll have a hell of a time trying to spot her, even with the mirrors around to help with that.

Ian

[extending *mutter*]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (7, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )

Ian

[Alertness again]

Dice: 6 d10 TN5 (1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Ian

It was difficult to sneak up on Ian (his natural senses were sharper than most,) but Grace had already proven herself quiet and inconspicuous enough to accomplish it. Even now, as he finished working his effect and looked around, listening carefully for any sign of movement, her presence went undetected - at least by mundane methods.

He could feel her though. A subtle heartbeat flickering at the edge of his senses. The closer she was, the clearer the impression became. Rather than following it, Ian darted in the opposite direction - forcing her to chase after him. His intention was to head for the far end of the arena.

[Dex+Athletics - *zoom*]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 6, 6, 9, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 6 )

Ian

[And Stealth]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )

Grace

She's watching the faint trace of Ian on her phone every now and then while she plots the next move, when the dot that represents him leaps off to the other side of the arena faster than anyone should be able to. It's like he's not in a maze, but running a race somewhere.

Damn. Gotta give him props for that, no?

Grace is not nearly so agile as to try to race him back. This isn't a speed contest, it's a hunt, and the maze has limits. She'll follow, inexorably and slowly, trying to cut off the available paths -- trying to corner him.

[wits + athletics = nuh uh, no escape!]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )

Ian

Grace had the advantage here. She knew the layout of the arena like the back of her hand. Ian had barely gotten a cursory glance before the room was plunged into shadowy fog. At present, his only real boon was his speed and agility, but that couldn't help him if he was cornered. He felt Grace's pattern recede as he put distance between them. And for a while, there was a sense of relief, because wherever she was, she wasn't able to follow quickly enough to catch him. But she kept after him anyway, using her knowledge of the space and Ian's own breakneck momentum against him.

Until suddenly he found himself facing a dead end with only one available escape route - the route from which Grace was steadily approaching.

Animals hated being cornered. So Ian did the first thing his instincts told him to do - climb the fuck out of there.

[He's going to attempt to scale over the side of the wall. Dex+Ath, diff... 7?]

Dice: 8 d10 TN7 (2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Grace

[Dex + Ath = Can she stay out in front of him with this new wall-climbing strategy? Double-back in the maze quick-like!]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

Grace

[Now, can she stay quiet and sneaky while she does this?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )

Ian

[Oh, can he actually detect her this time? Maybe?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN5 (1, 4, 4, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )

Grace

She's got her gun ready to go again, because Ian could very well choose to come right to her, with his choices so limited. She keeps glancing at her phone to be sure of that. But then?

The dot on her screen hops a wall.

She blinks.

Resourceful, oh yes...

She was walking forward, but then turns on a dime and quickly shuffles her way around a corner, through a doorway, out to... a better spot.

Ian

[Initiative +7]

Dice: 1 d10 TN1 (9) ( success x 1 )

Grace

[Initiative + 6!]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( botch x 1 )

Grace

[Shoot Ian! With laser!]

Ian

[Split roll (this is going to be hilarious) 1a: Shoot 1b: Evade]

Ian

[Dex+Firearms -2 +1 diff, and yes of course he's spending WP]

Dice: 2 d10 TN7 (4, 7) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Ian

[Dex+Athletics (evasion spec!) -3]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (6, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 6 ) Re-rolls: 1

Grace

[Well, you were right, that was hilarious! Shooting Ian, which is not going to work!]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 9) ( success x 1 )

Grace

Ian is fast, and he was not surprised by Grace's presence. Now is the time for him to shine, apparently, and the lights on her coat go out just as she was going to shoot him back.

Not that she could have, because like a ghost, he's gone in a split second, leaping off behind walls again, much faster than she could possibly chase.

"Daaaamn. Okay, fine! You win at laser tag!"

It's a concession, to be sure, but boy does he deserve it. Ian could be a Navy Seal or something, good grief...

Ian

It was perhaps inevitable that the two of them would end up in a face-off. Grace managed to trap him down a corridor, but when he jumped the wall she was forced to change her route. Perhaps it was surprise or carelessness, but her footsteps made just the barest bit of sound as she moved. Between that and the approaching pulse of her pattern, Ian knew where she was. And she knew where he was. There was nothing left for them at that point but to face each other.

In the end, it came down to simple agility. Both of them raised their guns, but Ian was quicker on the draw. Grace's coat went dark at the same moment that Ian leaped out of the path of her aim.

Okay, fine! You win at laser tag!

Ian dusted off his jeans and grinned as he walked into view again. "I suppose it's only fair, considering you helped Kiara tie with me at basketball."

Grace

[Manipulation + Subterfuge = I'm totally not going to try to shoot you as soon as my rig comes back to life again...]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 5, 6) ( success x 1 )

Ian

[Per+Subterfuge - oh I see how it is]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 4 )

Grace

Ian shows himself again, while Grace is still down for the count, her glowing-bright grin showing just how gleeful and... menacing she is.

"Hey, I help out the underdog. Somebody has to help balance the scales right?"

Heh, heh, heh. Balance things indeed.

Okay, count the seconds -- three, two, one...

Ian

[Dex+Brawl - grab Grace's gun]

Dice: 8 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Grace

[Dex + Ath = noooo, don't take my gun!]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 9, 9) ( success x 2 )

Ian

[Strength]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 8) ( success x 1 )

Ian

Something about the look on Grace's face made Ian pause a moment, eyeing the tense set of her shoulders. And just as she went to raise her gun his hand shot out, fingers wrapping around the plastic muzzle as he pulled it up and out of the way. He didn't disarm her - not quite - but she'd have a struggle on her hands if she wanted to try and shoot him.

He raised an eyebrow pointedly.

"Sore loser, I see."

Grace

Grace is still in a rather playful mood, so her pout is a decidedly fake one. Boooooo, she loses again!

"Well, I had to try! I can't catch you, so..."

Her eyes shift from side to side. "Good game, though. Want some coffee? More robots?"

Ian

Ian pressed the button inside his coat sleeve, releasing his hold on Grace's weapon now that he was no longer an active target. "Yeah, it was... fun." He said that last word as though it surprised him a little. "I should probably get going though. I have to be up early tomorrow." He unzipped the jacket and slung it over an arm, walking back toward the row of hooks and switches on the wall where they'd come in. The room looked different when he flipped off the fog and the UV and turned the regular lights back on. Less ominous. He returned his gun and coat and knelt down to put his boots back on.

"Hey," he asked, glancing up from what he was doing to take in the profile of Grace's figure. "Out of curiosity... are you into women, or... just not really into anyone at all?"

Grace

Okay, that came out of nowhere. Grace is busy putting her coat away when he brings up the question of Grace's sexuality, apropos of nothing.

She gives him this sharp look, still quite amused. "Are you that upset that I don't stare at your butt? Does it bruise your little ego?"

"Seriously, though? Complicated question. I count myself as rather asexual, though, yeah. For the longest time, I really didn't want to touch anybody, but I still tried out of this desire to be normal. Of course, now, I have given up on ever being normal. It's not exactly in the cards for me."

Ian

There was a huff of laughter at that. "Upset? No. Just curious. I thought you might be, but then I saw the way Jo acted around you. Figured instead of making assumptions, maybe I should just ask."

Ian finished sliding his second boot on and got to his feet. "Anyway, it's not abnormal. People are who they are. I take shit for having too much sex, you probably get shit for not having enough. Fuck other people's opinions."

He started through the door, but turned back, smiling. "Also, my ego is not little."

Grace

"The way Jo acts around me?" Grace has to actually think about that one. But then, the only other person to have remarked on her unusual lack of attention to either sex -- was Jo. Hmm.

"She doesn't act like that with everyone?"

There's a shrug to that.

"And I meant that as a sarcastic 'little'," she says, following him on the way out.