Kalen Holliday
[How awake are we?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Kalen Holliday
[And how distracted by Resonance are we?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 10) ( success x 3 )
Kalen Holliday
In a run down diner on East Colfax seems like perhaps not the place to expect to find Kalen, but he is there. He is slouched into a booth, as perfectly at ease with the tape-patched cracked vinyl as he was Hawksley's ridiculous house. There is a half finished slice of lemon meringue pie and a nearly empty coffee mug on the table. A pen. A notebook. A highlighter.
Kalen is reading a paper. It looks...well...it looks surprisingly normal, if you discount the fact that almost no one reads physical papers anymore. If he were slouched into the booth reading on his phone, he might pass for a college student. Journalism? History? The sociological impact of the evolution of theater? It's hard to imagine what Kalen might be if he wasn't a Mage. He does so little that is not an extension of that.
Alicia Romero
She doesn't come out of nowhere. Alicia has barely got her eyes open. She couldn't teleport if she wanted to and who doesn't want to teleport. Teleporting is fucking awesome.
The front door opens and in out of the powerful-warm early autumn day walks a young woman with long wavy black hair and sun-bronzed skin. She's wearing a knee-length red-and-white gingham dress with Oxford shoes. No more jewelry than the dead green plastic watch on her left wrist and her father's ring on her right thumb. Handbag that looks as if it weighs as much as she does slung across her torso.
He has time to see her coming but he can feel her resonance without lifting his eyes. After a few seconds Alicia walks across the diner to toss her handbag into the booth across from him. She slides in like she was fucking invited.
"Hey," she says. "I owe you an apology."
Kalen Holliday
Kalen does not look up as she walks in, but then...why would he need to? There is a flicker of a smile when her bag impacts the bench across from him. He lowers the paper enough that he can watch her over the top of it.
She owes him an apology. His head tilts a bit to one side. He cannot imagine why she thinks this. "Accepted," he says. That wasn't precisely an apology by most standards, but it's downright eloquent by Kalen's. He forgives easily enough anyway.
"Do you know they have fourteen kinds of pie here? It's fantastic. I think the blueberry one is the best. The cherry tastes like someone made pie with Jolly Ranchers and wine coolers. Cheap ones, mind. I advise against it. But there is a whole list and they are your taste buds. I suppose you can make whatever choice you make." He folds the paper and drops it onto the table.
"How are you?"
Alicia Romero
Bless her she just sits there and accepts that Kalen is going to ramble on about baked goods. He rambled on about baked goods the evening he found her crying in the park too. The more of their people she meets the more she finds herself inclined to accept that they're all a bunch of goddamned weirdos.
By the time she gets to wield the same power some of them do it's safe to say Alicia won't exactly be the most normal person in the room either. She already feels like a neonate universe.
"In the mood for pie, now that you mention it."
She reaches for a menu and rifles through it while she waits for a server. It doesn't take long. Alicia isn't a girl who's easy to ignore. She orders a cup of coffee and a slice of blueberry pie with ice cream. Fuck it. She's young.
Once the server has gone away again she says:
"So... just out of curiosity, is there anything we ought to be doing about that nightclub, or are we just gonna ignore it?"
Listen to her. 'We.' Like apprentices have a say in anything ever.
Kalen Holliday
"We aren't ignoring it," Kalen says quietly. "We are simply refraining from charging in like bulls. When you can, you should take a proper measure of your enemy.
"Though. There were some things that came up in the general discussion that at least were partly on account of your presence." He smiles a little. "Are you in a yelling mood? Because they can wait. Granted. This is Colfax. I doubt anyone will even really notice if you start screaming. At least not and care much about it."
Alicia Romero
The question as to whether she's in a yelling mood sucks away whatever friendliness she had carried into the building with her and Alicia sits back in her seat and crosses her arms over her chest. She's making a valiant effort not to scowl but he can see the lack of amusement on her expression even though she doesn't scowl.
"What've people been saying?" she asks.
Kalen Holliday
"Relax. It's not about what you think. Alexander doesn't even know about all that. We were just remarking that we should have thought head a bit more. Given you, among others, a crash course in how to handle things you might encounter. Offered to teach you to use a gun if you don't already know.
"Certainly not just you. Alexander too." He does not mention Elijah. Look at that. "Well. Alexander definitely knows how to use a gun. That's in his job description. But...he hd no idea what to do about that whole situation either. We're lucky that only ended with a few bruises."
Alicia Romero
The waitress drops off Alicia's coffee and pie without interrupting the conversation and Alicia gives her a tense smile of gratitude but doesn't uncross her arms. They're lucky that only ended with a few bruises.
"What's it like being a presumptuous asshole all the time?" she asks. "I know how to use a fucking gun. How would that have helped me that night?"
Kalen Holliday
"Did I not say, if you didn't already?" Kalen rolls his eyes, but the corners of his mouth threaten to smile. "It may not have. That wasn't the point. The point was that you and Elijah were standing in the mouth of an alley conferring about what to do and Alexander was trying to bludgeon something that can't really be bludgeoned. There are other things we could have taught you that might have helped you that night. Under other circumstances, that could have been a disaster.
"At least two of you had no idea that that kind of encounter was even really possible." The corners of his mouth twitch again. "For the record, that count doesn't include you. Not that you would ever make such an assumption, of course."
Gwendolyn Bishop
Why the holy Hell was Gwendolyn Wade-Bishop in east Colfax? She didn't seem like the type.
Except, of course, she was the type. Saying that she wasn't the type to hang out in east Colfax was disregarding the fact that the doctor happened to be a teacher, and a public school teacher at that. So, naturally, when other people were out enjoying the social rituals and doing what-have-you with their Friday nights, Gwendolyn was grading chemistry papers. Lots. And lots. of chemistry papers. And tests. And homework, because she was the type of person who would give an exam on Friday because people should at least enjoy their weekend, right?
Right?
Of course right.
So, there she was, wearing a pair of jeans and a tee shirt and a blazer because it was autumn and she needed a jacket and nothing said I am a professional like wearing a blazer. Maybe she needed to wear a blazer, mostly because she couldn't actually fit things like her keys or her cell phone in her messenger bag because it was too full of other things. It was full enough, in fact, that Gwendolyn needed to carry a second bag to carry all the things that didn't fit in the first note.
"Note to self, make bigger bag," she said to herself, and thus it was off to seating herself.
Uh… somewhere. Her sunglasses were tucked into the pocket of her blazer.
Alicia Romero
"Yeah, sorry, Dad only covered governments agents, unplanned pregnancies, and pissed-off realm spirits in the Things That Can Fucking Kill You handbook before the Techs shot him and dragged him off, we didn't have enough time to get into what to do if you run into a fucking vampire at a nightclub."
Well at least she's not crying. They've got that going for them.
"Is What's His Face getting the same lecture? Because I'm not the one who fucking body slammed a fang-banger for the hell of it."
Kalen Holliday
Kalen laughs at that. "If you mean Alexander, no. We discussed how horribly that might have gone but there was no lecture. There wasn't really any lecturing for you. That was an observation. Honestly, other than Grace who stayed the hell out of it, you did better than anyone. No lectures for you.
"But if you want the crash course on monster slaying, let me know. That's all."
Alicia Romero
That went better than expected for a conversation that was prefaced with are you in the yelling mood. Maybe someone is getting a grip on her post-traumatic emotional instability.
She keeps her arms crossed over her chest a few seconds longer. Breathes deep and even and stares across the table at him like she's not sure if he's fucking with her or not. Her recollection of that night involved falling on her ass for a tall dark handsome stranger who later turned out to have fangs and a literal blood lust and then running to put herself between the end of the stranger's gun and a man she had never met before because she figured the guy wouldn't shoot her since that would be a waste of perfectly good blood.
Competition was fierce that night. She was surrounded by men doing stupider shit.
So she sits and she stares and after three ticks of the second hand she uncrosses her arms. Unwraps her silverware to extract the fork and start eating her pie.
"I want the crash course."
Gwendolyn Bishop
She had two options. She could sit by herself, spend her Friday night like she normally spends her Friday night (grading papers and tapping away on her tablet whilst balancing equations for Who Knows What) or she could approach the two people that she sort of recognized (kind of) and engage in awkward social rituals and small talk over food and watching people eat pie.
Gwendolyn adjusted her first bag, then adjusted her second bag, and decided to at least go over and say hello because… well, because. Maybe she was lonely. Maybe she didn't want to be grading papers on a Friday night because she studied people enough to know that she was missing something. So, she headed over, tennis shoes making a slight squeak on the floor as she moved. It was clean, she could give the place that.
"Hey Kalen," gawd, that felt awkward to say. There was a battle to not call him Mister Holliday. "Hey, Alicia."
So, it turns out, she's good with names.
Kalen Holliday
"Lovely," he says to Alicia. "I'd tell you to drop by the library, but Elijah is staying there at the moment and there are not enough drugs in the world to make me want to be in the middle of that.
"I'll e-mail. Here is...hardly the place."
He looks up at Gwen and nods. "Hey."
Alicia Romero
Alicia smirks around her first bite of pie. She would flip him off but Kalen was right. The blueberry pie is delicious and here is hardly the place.
Then Gwen is upon them. Holy shit. Alicia brightens faster than sunlight come in through yanked-up blinds and scoots further into the booth to make room for her. Suffice to say Kalen has some emailing to do.
"Gwen!" she says. "How's your phone! You want some pie?"
Gwendolyn Bishop
[Matter 1: Is this pie gluten free?]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (9, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Gwendolyn Bishop
Does she want pie? Is her phone okay.
"Yes on both accounts," she said, and the woman slid herself into the booth. She smiled, bright and content and especially content to ditch her first and second messenger bags in favor of not sitting lopsided and uncomfortable at the table. "Hang on a minute."
The young woman dug through one of her bags and dug out a tablet. Like your average Generation Y member, she carefully took a picture of the nearest piece of pie like it was Instagram-worthy. She scribbled something on the screen, tapping away like this was just something that she did every time she went out somewhere.
"Do you want my pie crust? This isn't gluten free but they used real sugar instead of corn syrup so this could very well become one of my new favorite places."
Alicia Romero
"I love pie crust," Alicia says in a dreamy voice.
Kalen Holliday
Kalen smiles a little. Of course they've met. Of course they're all excited about each other. Perhaps they will make spa appointments now. Nail painting. They will almost certainly not invite him, but that's okay. He has other people for manicures and elaborate eye makeup and face masks.
At least they're with him on this pie thing. There are few things no one has resisted, but so far Denver Magi do not hate pie. Probably he will find one. But, meanwhile, perhaps he should bring a pie to the chantry. Apple? Pumpkin? Cherry? Gwen clearly wants complicated ingredient pie. Or, perhaps, lack of complicated ingredient pie. Who would put corn syrup in pie? He's pretty sure he doesn't want that either.
Maybe to be safe he should bring like six pies?
Gwendolyn Bishop
"I'm so excited, there's blueberries," she heaves a sigh of delight in the way that only young women who are swooning over famous people or sales on purses or, most accurately, a woman who genuinely loved blueberries could say. "Generally speaking, if it's delicious I'm allergic to it."
Alicia Romero
"Oh, man. Celiac?" Because of course Alicia would know that word. "That sucks."
Sorry Kalen. They're getting excited about pie and talking about intestines at the dinner table. That's what you get for knowing so many girls.
Gwendolyn Bishop
"Yeah," she said glumly, "that and I'm allergic to corn? Do you have any idea how much corn is in, well, anything? It's astounding the things that we use corn for, they sneak it into everything."
Not conspiratorial, but really just astounded and delighted to talk about the horrors and wonders of corn.
Kalen Holliday
"Just beware of the cherry. It's like the unfortunate cross between Jolly Ranchers and terrible wine coolers." Kalen settles against the wall, the better to let them get all rhapsodic about the pie. "But better than the place by the museum with apple pie that also tastes like nuclear winter." Nuclear winter is a flavor? Apparently to Kalen.
And the subject wanders off into corn. There was this one time he wandered off into an actual corn field with - probably not for this conversation.
So he stays still, pale eyes slipping between the two of them. Quiet.
Kiara Woolfe
The bell jingles. Or the door creaks. One or the other and a rush of Denver air swirls into the little diner the Magi have picked for this evenings gathering to discuss pie and intestines. So, we insert the Verbena because it seems about as accurate a summoning for one of her ilk as any, no?
"I'm just saying -" She, the interloper of the scene is a brunette, folded away in a tan, thigh length coat and jeans, hair lazily pinned to her nape with a clip. She's also mid conversation on a cellphone as she presses inside. "If the guy sounds like an asshole and acts like an asshole, there's a fairly good chance your instincts are dead on." She smiles at someone behind the counter, presses a fingertip to a slice of pie under a plastic lid and mouths thank you as she adjusts her phone under her chin.
"Right, well, do whatever babe but my warning stands."
The conversation is cut off, there's a struggle with a coat and the unknown female brandishes a wide smile as she settles at the counter. "Hey, do you guys have any whipped cream? Maybe just a little, on the side?"
Alicia Romero
[perc + aware: SHE TOTALLY HAS A DOT NOW I'M GONNA ROLL THIS ALL THE TIME]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4) ( fail )
Alicia Romero
[AND STILL BOTCH. YES.]
Kiara Woolfe
[Oh that's fun. I'm gonna pre-emptively roll this too. Because Mages.]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )
Gwendolyn Bishop
[Because... mages?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 3 )
Alicia Romero
And out of nowhere she feels as if she's being eaten alive and regenerating just as quick as the unseen mouths can take away her flesh and she doesn't have time to marvel over the strangeness because the strangeness is also wicked uncomfortable and she doesn't know where it's coming from.
This has happened before. Kalen was there the day the girl had a strong reaction to too many resonances or one person's resonance in particular and she had a panic attack. Screamed at him in the middle of the sidewalk and then turn around and nearly ran right into Lena. That wasn't the last time. This probably won't be the last time either.
Alicia starts to breathe deep and fast and as she reaches up to test the strength of the table the Hermetic and the Etherite can both see her hands are shaking. Can see the discomfort and the panic on her face.
"Shit," she says under her breath. This is unpleasant.
Gwendolyn Bishop
Gwendolyn sits up a little straighter, a little more precise. She understands how these things work, and she understands how people react when they are panicking, and it's much easier than dealing with a large group of people who are panicking. Her breathing is calm, and she models appropriate behaviors. Deep, calming breaths, relaxed demeanor-
She doesn't understand people outside of a technical perspective from time to time, but this was something that she could do. This was something that she could handle. She reached into her blazer pocket and retrieved her sunglasses. Her voice is calm, her presence is calm, but her demeanor is that of a woman who has handled crisis before. The composure of someone who was in control of a situation.
"Alicia? What are you feeling right now?"
She waits for a response, and she takes a deep breath. Exhales long and slow and mirrors positive behaviors.
[Mind 2- let's project yourself some calm-ness. Diff 5, -1 quint]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (6, 8) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Kalen Holliday
[Are you magicking?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 2, 2, 4, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )
Kiara Woolfe
In another age, they might just have burned Kiara Woolfe at the stake. In another life, perhaps they did just that. She certainly presents ... a striking image of, if not a by the numbers witch, a new and beguiling sort of presence. There's the way she feels as if she's peeling away flesh and bone, breaking down the fundamentals of what makes a living organism just that -- living, breathing, part of that bigger whole -- and rebuilding it right back. The first gasp after the fall. That rush of exhilaration and reformation.
She's leaning her weight against the counter, but she notices them. In the corner of her eye. Tilts her face and makes a study. It's a pretty face, full of expression. Her mouth is coated in bright pink lipstick, the features sharp, angular. Yet there's a sort of outward confidence, like a feline that's glimpsed a sparrow and isn't quite sure what to make of the potential yet.
Her pie comes. She stabs a fork into it, and swirls it into a generous slathering of whipped cream.
Kalen Holliday
Kalen raises an eyebrow at Gwen, but she and Alicia do seem close. That is not his most pressing concern anyway. His eyes drift over to Kiara. There is no real hostility, but there isn't really any warmth either. She is also ordering pie. He adds this information to his complicated pie for the chantry calculations.
It isn't the most important thing. It is, however one. And he was able to see Gwen's observational distance so easily because he has his own. His just isn't academic.
Alicia Romero
"I'm fine," she says in a tight wavering voice, "I just can't breathe..."
She only likes being the center of attention when she makes a conscious effort about it. Sometimes she ends up being the center of attention just because she can be the loudest person in the goddamn room despite her short stature but the midst of a panic attack is not when she wants everybody watching her.
Luckily the newcomer who brought this strange resonance in with her and the man who brought pie into this in the first place aren't paying attention to her. Gwen asks what she's feeling. She gets a response. Alicia coughs out a sobbing breath that portends tears and drags in a gasping one to replace it. She knows she needs to breathe slower when this happens. That's another thing her father made sure she knew how to do before the Techs came and got him.
She takes a breath to mirror Gwen's slow one and wouldn't you know it the panic starts to evaporate.
Alicia blows out a breath and smiles a chagrinned smile and swipes at her eyes. Thank goodness for waterproof mascara.
"Sorry about that."
Gwendolyn Bishop
"Breathing's necessary for maintaining homeostasis, shit happens," she said, but she kept on breathing slow and deep and sure enough she's aware that good behavior and wearing the appropriate mantle of authority was enough to project the appropriate feeling in the air. And order, ladies and gentlemen, could be maintained because Gwendolyn Bishop Said So. Or maybe just appropriate applications of psychological procedures trump involuntary biological reactions.
The body can't distinguish between real and imagined danger. Cortisol and adrenaline are released into the bloodstream whether that is brought on by someone robbing the store or the feeling that something was… off.
"Your makeup is still good," she assured Alicia.
Kiara Woolfe
Kalen glances at Kiara, who glances right on back at him, smiles around the forkful of pie in her mouth and salutes him with said implement. Then, with a brief slide of dark eyes over the other two women with him, she sucks the last vestiges of sweetness off the fork and hums in apparent satisfaction.
"Yum. Can I get a coffee to go? Decaf, por favor."
The Verbena finishes her pie, and swivels in her chair, fork in hand to face the crew in the corner, crossing one leg over the other. "Good pie tonight." She offers by way of greeting in a pleasant, carrying tone. "It might even be a game changer. Pie this good, makes a girl want to come back." Her eyes linger on Kalen. An eyebrow wings up.
"Repeatedly."
Kalen Holliday
"Repeatedly?" Kalen asks, not involving himself at all in the process of checking Alicia's mascara. Engaging strangers, he can do. And...he at least tends to enjoy the process. Of course.....
"I have this remarkable effect on people. Almost none of them would be interested in risking meeting me again after our first meeting, even when this admittedly remarkable pie is involved." He grins. "It's uncanny. Anyway. Join us?"
Alicia Romero
We all know strangers are safer than people you've fought with before. Alicia doesn't expect anything from him. She gives Gwen a grateful smile and laughs a small laugh at the assurance.
"Thanks," she says.
And then Kalen is inviting the woman with the strange resonance to join them. Or it sounds like he's inviting her. It's hard to tell with him until he gets to the point.
"You are so fucking weird."
She takes a swallow of her coffee to wash the taste of near-panic out of her mouth and starts to rummage for her cigarettes. Nobody on Colfax Avenue gives a shit if you smoke inside. They put ashtrays on the fucking tables for a reason.
Kiara Woolfe
The Verbena grabs her jacket, hops off her stool and comes over. There's only a brief hesitation to gesture toward the table at a bored waitress who seems more preoccupied with filing her nails than working and the brunette walks over.
Picks up a stray chair as she does and parks it beside their booth. Assuming its a booth. Or else there's an extra chair dragged over and Kiara folds her jacket over the back and settles in it, extending a hand adorned with an impressive silver ring as she does. "I like challenges. I'm Kiara." Up close, there's a very faint smattering of freckles on her cheeks, her eyes are a very dark brown and her mouth attracts the eye if only for that brilliant pink she's painted on.
Kalen's companions get attention now. Kiara smiles at both. Widely. There's innate satisfaction for her apparently in making new acquaintances. "Ladies."
Gwendolyn Bishop
And thus, she took part in the social ritual. She spent her time, and while they were in the process of getting people moved and situated she ordered pie because, goddamnit, this was a place where there was fabulous pie and there were people flaunting their normal-pie-eating privileges and there were blueberries to be had.
"Mister Holliday is the master of first impressions," she told the woman. She offered a hand. Composed, poised, confident. "I'm Gwendolyn."
Kalen Holliday
Kalen takes her hand, and for a second, while he is smiling and not absently needling anyone, he seems charming enough. "Kalen." Her hand is squeezed once, and then released.
He glances between Alicia and Gwen and laughs. "Look," he says to Alicia, "I wasn't properly socialized. My only friend from the time I was eight until the time I was fourteen was a feral cat." Is he serious? He might be. He's still smiling. It's hard to tell.
And then he rolls his eyes at Gwen. "Harsh, coming from the only person I've ever met who fails as hard at people as I do." There's no particular venom. He just, apparently, plays gloves off with Gwen.
Alicia Romero
"Everything's a competition around here."
This from the tiny girl in the corner. She reaches out far as her arm will go and shakes with Kiara last of all.
"Hi. Alicia. I'm socialized as fuck. Nice to meet you."
Kiara Woolfe
Kiara's charming in her own way. It's a disarming sort of charm, she seems utterly casual about the fact she knows (or does she) who she's mingling with. She takes up residence in her chair and brushes stray strands of dark hair from her eyes. Smiles when Kalen accepts her hand and returns the squeeze, just briefly.
Her hands are very warm. Sure.
She takes Gwendolyn's, Alicia's. Brushes her thumb over the knuckles of the last as she returns it and then offers a vocalization of pleasure as her takeaway coffee arrives. "First impressions can be overrated," this, as she pries the lid off, tears open a sachet of sugar with vicious accuracy and tips it in.
Stirs the frothy surface with a little plastic stirrer. "I think it takes at least two meetings to get to the good stuff." She lifts her cup to her lips, studies Kalen over the rim. "People get more interesting. Like a wine. They ripen."
She smiles. Shrugs. "Or rot. Either way. It takes longer than the first time."
Alicia Romero
Oh right Kiara hasn't met Alicia before a note about the ring on her right thumb:
Her resonance is very small and befitting a girl who has only recently Awakened. That silver band though still hums with the resonance of the person who owned it before she did and that person was not recently Awakened. His resonance was not small. It is only a ring but the echoes of the scientist's experiments still bubble and whirl through the fabric of reality. It's reminiscent of a madman's laboratory or an explosion bound to happen. Something cyclical and pressurized. Something inevitable. Progress until it's not. Whoever owned that ring before Alicia did was a Master.
Kiara can feel it when she shakes the girl's hand.
Gwendolyn Bishop
"We recognize our own," she told Kalen, even shot him the barest of grins when her heard her phone go off. Gwendolyn paused, took a moment to look at the number and, "oh, I need to take this. It won't be a moment."
She stood up and took her tablet with her and headed off to the bathroom. Because, clearly, leaving her wallet was fine but leaving that tablet was not.
Kalen Holliday
Gwen gets a wave as she departs.
Kalen laughs. "In general. At least." He rises. "However, more interesting things will have to wait until then, I'm afraid." But he does slip Kiara a card, though all that is printed on it is his name, his phone number, and an e-mail address. "Welcome to Denver, if someone hasn't managed that already."
Alicia gets a little nod. "I'll e-mail," he says by way of goodbye.
[Thank you for scenes! I, alas, must flee.]
Kiara Woolfe
[Thanks guys! :) ]
Alicia Romero
[And we're fading here bc some of us are about to die in a one shot in another system THANKS FOR THE SCENE LADIES]
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