virtual crash course, P1 [samir]

Samir

By "later" he appears to have meant "later tonight." Or else he keeps the same weird hours as their ilk are wont to do. Kiara received her first email from Samir at 4:42am the day after they met.

Hey Kiara: This is Sam Lakhani. We met at the gallery opening tonight. I enjoyed talking to you, and am glad you gave me your email address.

You mentioned the possibility of arranging contact with other people, and I appreciate that. This has been kind of a strange week. I met someone who I suspect belongs to the same group I do, but you know how our lot are.

To be honest, it's pretty easy to find out information about other hackers if you put a bit of time in, but people who live and practice in the physical world are trickier. This is the first city I've been to where the second I've shown up up a herd of Hermetics hasn't knocked on my door to ask me who the hell I am, so this is a new experience for me.

I'm not the most memorable person in the world, so if you need to give anyone a physical description I'm 5'10" and have black hair and brown eyes and am really ridiculously good-looking.

(That last part is a joke. But I am actually 5'10" and half-Indian so the rest of it is true.)

Thank you again for giving me your contact information, and I hope to hear from you again soon.

-S.L.

Kiara

He doesn't get a reply right away. At least, not in the hours following but to be fair, given the hour he contacts her he's probably not that surprised that he doesn't hear back from the striking brunette until the following evening. A little after 8PM his inbox alerts him to a new message.

There's a title attached: Color me impressed

And then below his response reads:

Sam -

I have to admit I really didn't think I'd hear from you so soon. Dare I be bold enough to suggest I made an impression? (that was rhetorical, I am, in case that wasn't already obvious, very much bold enough to). 
 
There's a flicker of a smile as she types, intent via textual communication was challenging at the best of times, but the mind's eye conjures the idea of the woman at the computer; the neon glow reflected on her skin; the curve of a supple mouth; the dark fall of hair over a shoulder. 
 
I'm glad you contacted me. I spoke to a friend today who I believe you might have met, blonde hair, striking eyes, feels a little like being around some kind of psychedelic otherworldly entity, or a really impressive trip. He'd have introduced himself as Kalen (he is, in fact, one of those Hermetics but I don't think you're in any danger of him breaking down your door unless you're really his type). 

If you want to meet some of the others in town I can probably figure something out. Arrange a meeting somewhere neutral. Some of us are a little harder to coax out than others. To say we're paranoid isn't strictly an exaggeration, I just prefer to think of it as smart, savvy and still alive. 

The woman you're probably talking about is Grace. She's good people and definitely one of yours. You just have to prove you can be trusted before you crack her. If she doesn't want to be known to you, she won't be. That's sort of her style. 

Talk soon, tall, dark and good looking.

-K.W

 Samir

She must have embarrassed him a little. If not embarrassed then at least made him nervous enough that he wanted to think before he sent his next message. If not any of that then he was busy or something happened or he just didn't go near a computer for a couple of days. Given how connected their lot are and how difficult it is for someone with a smartphone and access to wireless Internet to claim connectivity issues it's more likely he just wanted to think good and hard before he hit Send.

Kiara: I'm sure you get this a lot, but you did, in fact, make an impression.

Unless there are two Kalens with the Order of Hermes in Colorado, I'm pretty sure I've met him. He mentioned robot battles and laser tag and other things that involve leaving the house occasionally and interacting with other people, so I've got a bet going with myself that he isn't really with the Order, he just tells people that to fuck with them.

You don't have to confirm or deny the allegation. A little mystery now and then never hurt anything.

Based on my own experience, a unified front is better than a bunch of traditionalists and disparates doing their own thing, so to speak, but if SOP here is to stay out of each others' business I don't want to disrupt that.

-S.L. 

Kiara

The response comes through after about a day. Maybe she's been busy, she was a professional of some kind, right? At least, that's what the card she gave him would lead one to believe. She has a virtual footprint, if a minimal one. Not too much turns up that isn't on the card she passed him, if he does decide to check. Her age, her DOB seem accurate and her birth place is most assuredly New York.

Or so the Government has been lead to believe.

There isn't much else, though. Perhaps like so many other Awakened souls, Kiara Woolfe has buried much of herself away from prying eyes.

Sam -

I usually do.

That was Kalen all right but I won't destroy his mystique and give away all the answers. Where would the fun be in that, anyway? ;) I don't know if I'd say it's SOP but I'm probably also not the best to advise if it's not. Based on what I know, people hang out, it's just that experiences have made some of them a little gun shy. Vampires in Washington Park will do that for you. 

Don't worry, most of that seems to have resolved itself for the moment but it doesn't hurt to be aware they're around. The more distance between them and us, the better. 

We do have our means of staying in touch though. Grace or Kalen can probably hook you up with Ginger. Not a hot date, unless you consider technology sexy which, come to think of it, you just might. It's how we alert everyone if there's something big going down. Or if you ordered too much pizza and need company. You get the gist. Grace can wire your phone up. 

I'd offer to myself but I don't have that kind of mad power yet. I'm working on it, though (that was a joke). If you've got questions or anything, you can always hit me up. 

Kiara 

Samir

Given how acquaintances and even friendships tend to pass around here when hours slide into days Kiara may very well think something has happened to the young man whose face no one would blame her for having let fade from her memory already.

Or maybe time just works differently for people who tend to tell the passage of it by what their bladder is telling them and not what the sun or the stars have to say about it.

At any rate she doesn't receive another message from him for over a week. This is the beautiful of email. It's like modern-day letter-writing. You can just pick right up where you left off without having to explain yourself overmuch.

Kiara,

Not gonna lie, I haven't encountered anything more frightening than a herd of college kids playing hackey sack in Washington Park yet. I'm starting to think this vampire problem is an urban legend your lot concocted to spook the new guys.

(Joke. I've never met a vampire and I never want to.)

On the Ginger front, Grace has wired me up. Success!

Speaking of questions or anything: she and I were discussing realms (long story) and the thought occurred to me that I don't know the first thing about the Umbra or Digital Loa (tech spirits?) or anything of that nature. Apparently Grace doesn't either. Mercurial Elite problems.

You seem like you're pretty attuned to the non-physical aspects of the Tellurian. Is there anything I can offer besides pizza in exchange for a crash course in otherworldly... stuff?

- S.

Kiara
 
It takes a while for the pagan to respond. The wonderful thing about this method of communication (and sometimes, the drawback) was the lack of physical cues that Kiara's presence would offer. The expression on her face as she draws back from the screen, the frown as she considers her response; fingers poised over the keys.

Sam -

You want to know about the spirit world? The other side is a pretty complicated subject to navigate. I can definitely try and translate it, though. I should probably warn you that the way I look at it won't necessarily compute with what you do know - or the way you probably think of it. My understanding of it comes from a pretty different place than yours and Grace's. At least, if what I know of Grace's way of thinking extends to yours, too. That being said - I've never been a girl afraid of challenges so if you want to try - it might be easiest for me to show you.

At least, to begin with. Seeing is believing, right?

As for what I want in exchange - hold onto that thought. I'm sure I'll think of something. Have you been out to Red Rocks, yet? They have concerts out there all the time at the amphitheater - it's also great for Umbral gazing. Less interference.

Kiara

 

Samir

Kiara -

Red Rocks is outside Morrison, right? I haven't been there yet. I don't drive so that tends to keep me downtown. I do have a bicycle, though. The Internet says it's only a 20-mile ride and other than thunderstorms the end of the week we're supposed to have decent weather going into next weekend.

Shall we?

-S.