Schmoozing

Riley

[Always put on a hat before we leave the house: Alter-Ego, Mind 2, -1 time, -1 practiced]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Riley

[and extending]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (1, 6) ( success x 1 )

Riley

[what the hey, extending again because who needs to go into the office ever??]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 5) ( success x 1 )

Riley

[I guess that's just two suxx off any attempt to read her resonance, grrrr oh well whatevs]

Riley

[okay, 1 to pull off the effect, 1 for the scene, 2 suxx = -4 to resonance seeking!]

Adam

[Yay, people!]

Lena Reilly

[[Let's see how the Magedar is today!]]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 7, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 4 )

Riley

[and mine?: Lena edition]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 7, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Riley

[Adam edition: -3]

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

Riley

[once more with the right number of dice *shakes fist at roll*]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3) ( fail )

Adam

There is a restaurant somewhere on Federal Boulevard. Okay: a lot of restaurants. This one, specifically, looks like it was somebody's residence once -- a small, pinkish clapboard affair, black iron bars on the windows shaped to give a Spanish flair set off against that pale pink, and oh it is just desolate to be in the middle of a dirt yard that has been converted into parking. There's a little gabled porch and some twinkle lights and an open sign hanging from the roof, a helpful arrow sign pointing inward like yeah it's this way to food, three sad tables outside that look like they came from a garage sale (maybe the garage sale this house had before it was converted to a business).

The food is Guatamalan and Adam came here for breakfast (dinner, whatever), and where is Adam now? Boring, boring Adam, essentially Mysterious, the man most people ignore, but most people aren't special, huh? Adam's food has long-since been cleared away, and he's leaning hard on his elbow, and he is reading a book.

Naturally.

[Sure. Awareness?]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

Lena Reilly

[[Ah yes, Adam Edition!]]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5, 5) ( fail )

Adam

[That guy over there, Lena? He's totally a Changeling. :)]

Lena Reilly

Lena Reilly doesn't "do" breakfast.  It's not her thing; she gets her morning off to a start with two things, and neither of them can be considered food.  However, one of those things still counts as something you would find in a restaurant and while she would normally just stop in at your local Starbucks (yes she still goes to Starbucks because it's everywhere and cheap, and because not every Starbucks has a Hydra mechano-bee), today the line at her local one was a bit too long for her tastes.  She's nursing a headache already from caffeine withdrawal and she's grimacing as she steps inside the place, her Resonance pulsing like a withering heartbeat that is just barely clinging to life.

The deejay hasn't been out and about much at all, keeping to her work and reorienting herself emotionally.  Recent events have allowed her to make some progress in that way and she doesn't look like an emotional wreck.  She's dressed for spring in a black tank that reads "In Love with the DJ" with a pair of headphones silk-screened around the words, and a pair of jeans.  Her ever-present iPod is at her waist, headphones just being taken out as she steps inside and goes to find a seat.  Such is her lack of Awareness regarding Adam that she fails to notice him at all, even as she takes a seat at a table one away from his own.

Riley

Riley almost but does not quite fit in with the Federal crowd.  She is an ethnic blend of something across-the-ocean and something that paled those waters, with long brown hair and large dark eyes to either side of a bit of a roman nose.  She almost doesn't stand out at all except for how she tends to tower over those around her.  But to most, particularly those with a special kind of awareness, she is ordinary.  She has an everyday girl-next-door charm to her looks, but most eyes tend to slide right on past her.

Like her eyes slide right on past Adam, sitting there, reading his book as she comes to sit out on that tiny little patio and enjoy a nice, warm-ish day.  Her gait is striding, she moves with a seemingly unstoppable (inexorable) purpose.  Something in the air around her shifts, is constantly changing, is never the same thing twice.

To most, though, she's just another person.  Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt [TALK NERDY TO ME, white text on black] and Converse sneakers.  The laptop bag slung over her shoulder gets pulled free before set gently down on the ground as she takes a seat.  Just before her ass finally makes contact with that seat and her legs are given a rest from the burden of holding her lean figure upright, she pauses.  She glances Lena's way and then not quite as subtly as she'd like rises up.  Moves around to the other side of the table.  Parks herself there.  Looks around herself all, Yeah, yeah this is better, the light's better, just better better better.  Then she finally pulls her laptop free of her bag, and she waits.

[percept+subt: DOO DE DOO I JUST WANTED BETTER LIGHT, IT'S TOTES ABOUT THE LIGHT AND NOT THE IFFY MAGE RESONANCE *WHISTLES UNCONVINCINGLY*]

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

Riley

[not percept, MANIP sheesh]

Riley

[in case it was not clear (i'm pretty sure it was not), Riley shifted so she could watch for Lena when she leaves the building]

Lena Reilly

[[Noted]]

Adam

Here comes Lena and she feels to Adam like a bassline -- or perhaps like a flower, withering, dessicating, to a pulsing rhythm. That rhythm's a heartbeat to scrape off one's tongue to feel behind yours like a sickness fading, starts out strong (ba-) ends atrophied (-dum), then starts out strong again (ba-) and by the end has withered (-dum) away the surge can't last forever can it but oh can't it.

Riley, he barely feels at all, even as on as his senses are, just this faint niggle of something both inexorable and mercurial, paradoxical but not Paradoxical, like noticing a gleam of color on a feather, subtle.

His book is called Aten: The Aegyptian Paradox. He turns a page; Adam has dark circles under his eyes, his eyelids are purpled with sleeplessness, and he looks (or he would look, were he not just so beside-the-point) as if he could use a shave or a trim, hair like the kind of bird's nest birds wouldn't want to stay in after all thank you. He's not dirty; just wearing his twenty-four or forty-eight or whatever hours on his sleeve. And Adam, he also watches Lena. 

Leaves his table to go to hers and say, "Pardon me." 

Lena Reilly

She wasn't in the building long, just long enough to order her coffee, but it was long enough for Riley to get situated where she can watch Lena.  And then she's seated at her table, having pulled out her laptop so she can get some work done.  The headphones are transferred directly from the iPod to the laptop; she barely even has them out of her ears in the in-between time--and it's booting up as her fingers subconsciously tap a rhythm on the table.

And then she's looking up because Adam is approaching.  "Hmm?"  She pauses there, frowns (in the curious way, not disapproving way) and takes her headphones out.  "Oh, sorry...too loud?"

She means the music.  She sometimes fails to notice if it is.

Riley

So there is Adam sitting and reading, and there is Lena sitting and waiting for her laptop to boot up, and then there is the not!Sleeper peering occasionally over the screen of her laptop at the deejay as they both prepare to work.  Riley tugs her hair back from her shoulders and begins blazing through her emails, but she starts a little when the unnoticeable one suddenly, briefly becomes noticeable.  She blinks at him, then diverts her attention back down again to her work.  Glances up, quickly looks down.  Curious but watchful anyway.  Maybe he knows her, maybe he's like Riley and presently untraceable.

Adam

"No. But I was wondering, are you..." He frowns. "Is there some name I should know you by? You seem very familiar to me."

Lena Reilly, DJ Halcyon. The young Bonisagus is not the kind of Mage one would typically (or ever) find in a club, not unless he were dragged, and even then he'd just as likely escape as soon as possible: it's like trying to give a cat a bath. But clients who come into An Arch Key Books are often otherwise, and Adam does make nice (occasionally) with them, especially the regulars, because otherwise Sarah will be wroth, and sometimes even idiots say things that help one with whatever only for terribly clever people problem one is working on, so there have been perhaps a couple of youtube videos, or a flier ("Can I post this on your clothesline, Kit?").

She seems familiar.

Or perhaps it's that withering, pulsing which seems familiar, even as it makes him feel light-headed and sick.

Riley and Adam play a game of glances missing, strangers passing in the night. Riley starts and glances at him then glances down at her laptop. Adam glances over as she glances down at her laptop. Then his eyes return to Lena. Riley glances up again, and Adam, for who knows what reason, glances over towards her one more time. He isn't suspicious of her (or is not any more suspicious of her than he is of any body), but glances instead in that direction as if he might've forgotten something, or perhaps he feels as if he is interrupting what might turn out to be a high school reunion, of sorts.

The next time he glances in her direction, perhaps the game will be up and their eyes will meet. If they do, he smiles faintly, quizzically.

Lena Reilly

Adam asks if he should know her, and she smiles in a friendly and warm, but practiced way.  She doesn't get that kind of attention often because let's face it: a fairly well-known deejay among the club scene isn't exactly famous by any stretch.  But it happens, enough that she knows how to respond.

"Maybe.  I'm DJ Halcyon."  She nods to him, but doesn't extend her hand.  It's an engaging attitude but a bit reserved, as well.  "Lena Reilly when I'm not working.  I work the clubs around town, so you might have been at one of the places when I was spinning."

She doesn't catch Riley at the moment, her attention focused on the man who's come up and asked about her.  "Nice to meet you."

Riley

[Google is my friend: uh, wits for speed + computers I guess?  that's data retrieval, right?]

Dice: 8 d10 TN5 (3, 5, 6, 6, 8, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 7 )

Riley

The game of spy-and-look away ends the moment Lena Reilly gives her names.  Then the other Riley's attention is on her laptop, hitting up the Google to look up and see what there is to see about this dj that some random person should maybe know.  Should Riley know her, too?  Was she at some point a ship passing the Awakened disc jockey in the streets of some other city?

A few keystrokes and the internet opens up for Riley, divulging all available information on DJ Halcyon and Lena Reilly that she could possibly desire to know.  Luckily for Lena, Riley doesn't actually desire much (all the good stuff, the Awakened stuff, isn't likely to be found in an ordinary Google search).  She really just wants to know if she should have heard of her herself.  The first few links are YouTube videos, extreme shaky-cams of a few of Lena's - or rather DJ Halcyon's performances.  Sets.  Gigs.  Whatever it is DJs call it when they get up and make people dance.  Riley finds her own set of ear buds - wireless bluetooth, natch - puts them into her ears, and literally seconds into the first song her mouth goes wide and her eyes go wide.

"OH MY GOD."  Ear buds, Riley, try to remember that you have them on and that you're trying to keep your presence to a minimum.  Truth is, though, the most that Riley can do to mask her presence is to dampen her resonance and keep her mouth shut.  Once that's open, all bets are off.

Adam

There is something both listening and intent about Adam's expression, poised between attent and friendliness, between curiousity and something perhaps more subtle than curiousity. He doesn't extend his hand when she doesn't extend hers. Needn't push. Needn't be businesslike. Needn't do any of that. His shoulders lift like he caught a chuckle in his throat and swallowed it and it pushed his shoulders up to get out but didn't get out after all and he shakes his head (another side-glance for the Techno-whatever with the laptop), and she says Nice to meet you.

He says, "It's Kit to most, Adam to a few. Halcyon; is that for idyllic days gone forever or for the kingfisher? 'AS kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme.' Erm, sorry," that sometimes accent of his appeared when he started quoting, stayed to twist his 'sorry,' "DJ Halcyon. That is it. I haven't seen, erm, is that what one says? 'Seen'? Seen you myself, but some of my patrons are fans."

His face can be quite animated; it is animated now, light-struck, an idea. "In fact, if..."

OH MY GOD, Riley says, and Adam's eyebrows lower, and this time the glance is a deliberate what is wrong with you glance.

['Sup with you, girl? Percept + Aware-pathy. Specialty People I Totes Get You.] 

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Riley

[that is recognition and a surprise at the recognition, and a complete and utter lack of repentance for breaking the quiet of the street]

Lena Reilly

The smile stays as Adam asks where the name came from, and even widens a bit into something less practiced, more sincere.  Which isn't to say there isn't a touch of the routine in it.  But usually that's when people walk away or do something to make her uncomfortable.  At the moment, Adam has yet to do that.

"It's a little of the former.  The calm of winter was part of it, but also halcion.  The insomnia drug.  Trance music, ambient...it evokes a dreamlike manner, at its best.  Plus I'm a huge Orbital fan, and 'Halcyon' is an amazing song with an absolutely transcendent remix, so..."  She shrugs.  "That's sort of where the idea came from."

He introduces himself as Adam and she smiles a bit in response.  When he gets cut off by Riley shouting OH MY GOD, she follows his gaze over.  His expression may be What is wrong with you, but Lena's has a much different look.  It's a combination of curious and concern, sort of an Is everything okay? thing.

Riley

Riley continued listening to the first song that popped up in her search.  And she may well indeed look completely insane at the moment, staring at a silent laptop, eyes closed as she moves her head to a beat neither of the others can hear.  She opens her eyes to glance over at the other table and--

Shit.  That's her initial thought and her initial reaction all wrapped up in one startled look.  Shit shit shit shit oh well here we go--

She smiles, broad and charming and now a little chagrined where a moment before she'd been unapologetic for having caused a disruption.  It's because she didn't realize she'd done it, but now she does and now she's so full of regrets.  But she smiles anyway, and that smile is genuine(ly awkward, and yet it still has a magnetic pull).

Reaching up, she plucks an ear bud from her ear.

"Whoops, was that out loud?  Sorry, it's just, it's you!  I've been listening to your stuff for about a year now.  Didn't think you'd just be..." she glances around, and there's no way anyone who owns or works in the little restaurant wouldn't take offense, "here."

Adam

There is a certain something twilit about Adam's suppositions. He belongs to an Order that is certainly not for the modern age (yes it is [ask him about it]), but he is young, Awakened 'after' the Ascension War, taught by its dregs, those it left behind, and he enjoys modern convenience as much as anyone -- until it starts getting in his way. He may have a typewriter on his workdesk, but that's more because Adam is a hipster than because he has anything against computers. He is surprisingly okay at computers.

And yet: a girl with a whiff of inexorable and mercurial at a laptop [vile Technomagery???} suddenly filled with recognition; it gives him a paranoid pause. But what is Adam Gallowglass if not (too) confident of his own perceptions? He judges her genuine: enough. His expression smoothes out; wavers; becomes something touched with amusement, coupled with a reserved smile which crinkles up his eyes and threatens to carve a line down from his eyes into his cheeks. Too tired for more.

The threat of more smile-lines is carried out when he looks from Riley to Lena, to see how DJ Halcyon takes the way her fans are popping up like mushrooms.

He'll get back to whatever he was going to say in good time. He's in no hurry, after all. The book will keep.

Lena Reilly

He'll get back to whatever he was going to say in good time. He's in no hurry, after all. The book will keep.

Adam isn't the only mystic in the vicinity; Lena's Tradition is nearly as old as time itself.  That being said, when you consider Time a fluid thing and that all points in time are really the same (insert wibbly wobbly timey wimey joke here), how old is it really?  Anyway, the point is that as much as the Cult of Ecstasy is a primal thing, it's also a place of expansion and pushing past the boundaries of society.  That includes their own, which is why it makes perfect sence for Lena to be a musician of the modern, technological age.

That same smile, warm and friendly and appreciative, is directed to Riley when she geeks out.  "Yep, I'm here.  Deejays do not live on music alone."  They also live on caffeine, as Lena can attest to.  "Would you like to join us?  I'm Lena, and this is Adam."  When people know you under a professional name, she's found that it's always best to introduce yourself under your real name.  It's more humanizing.  Lena doesn't detest her fame (it is part of the appeal, even if only a very, very small part), but she does like interacting with people more on a person by person basis.

Riley

Riley does geek out a bit, though there's a touch of something more to it than just that.  She is not just a fan seeing a person whose creative output she's enjoyed on more than one occasion.  Adam saw her recognize the music and then the woman who created it sitting across the way and there was a moment of concern about what that recognition might mean.  Is Riley about to turn one or both of them over to the mirrorshades?  Hm hm, good question Adam, good ponder, and yet another reason in the list of why Riley doesn't go out into public until she's masked her resonance.

Lena introduces herself in a way that is humanizing but it still doesn't make her quite human to Riley Poole.  They are Awakened, the both of them.  They use a little bit more of their brain than your average human, which doesn't make them not-human, but it definitely makes them something Other.  And they are Other together.  And Lena has so far been friendly and that gives the newcomer to the city a little bit of hope for the Awakened citizens of Denver.

She laughs a little when Lena says that deejays do not live on music alone, because Riley has known a few who could, or at least seemed to.  It's a dangerous thing, syncing up with a rythm, losing oneself so completely they forget things like eating and sleeping and dreaming and living.

The Ecstatic draws her attention to Adam and Riley blinks at him.  And that blink is wary.  She knows what Lena is but she does not know what Adam is, or if he's anything other than what he appears to be.  Looking back at Lena, she asks, "You sure that's alright?"

Adam

"I certainly don't mind," Adam says to Riley. He is reserved but not shy (valiant [relentless], it is a thing that is in his bones, that fuels his heart, even when it passes unnoticed).

"Wasn't my intention to horn in on your coffee for long, Lena, so I'm just glad you've not booted me back to my table. Erm, the calm of winter isn't what I'd think of as 'Halcyon,' you know, I find that connection interesting, but I'm afraid I can't pretend to know Orbital. She's good then? Or they are?"

He doesn't pat himself down. He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a thin wallet. He knew just where it was and just what is in it. In this case, what he's after is a business card for An Arch Key Books (not Night Owl - believe it or not, the bookstore actually has two different sets of businesscards), and he does needs frown as he rifles through one for Night Owl and another for Night Owl and one for a barber and one for Night Owl and one for a Thai food place and one for Night Owl and one for a book dealer and there. An Arch Key.

He puts that business card on the table for Lena to take instead of holding it out for her, unless she meets his gesture half-way. 

Lena Reilly

Riley asks if it's all right, and Adam says he doesn't mind.  It's clear from the Cultist's expression and stance that she doesn't either.  The others may be guarded, wary.  And that may well be a wise state.  Lena herself often is, and was exceedingly so until very recently.  Something snapped in her though, and she has reached the point that she has to try trusting.  Yes, even people she hasn't met.  It won't always work and she'll have her moments.  But she's trying.

"It is absolutely alright, if you want."

She looks back to Adam then and smiles.  "Halcyon days.  Those are the days in the myth of Alcyone when, for seven days in winter, storms never occur.  Alcyone was the wife of the Morning Star.  Not Lucifer, the Greek one."  She takes the business card when he sets it on the table (she doesn't take it directly from his hand) and looks it over.  "You run a book store?  Right on."

Riley

Riley casts one last look Adam's way before she shrugs, well alright then.  If they're both really okay with her joining them at their table, she's not one to refuse for very long.

Or, well she is, depending on the company.  So far neither has figured out precisely what Riley is, neither has threatened her person or her personal wards.  She is OK.  They are OK.  This should (hopefully) be OK.

So she makes her laptop take a nap before sliding it back into its carry case, then drops her ear buds into a small pocket, then finally rises.  Just in time for someone to be coming out with her plates of food, wouldn't you know it, perfect timing.  She can share her granachas (or at least offer).  Shifting from one seat to the other, she lifts her hand to alert the waiter to her presence at the cool kids table.

All the while, Lena and Adam are talking about Halcion and Halcyon and trance and

"Halcyon, that's at the end of Mortal Kombat, isn't it?  I love that soundtrack, it's one of my favorites.  Riley Poole," she says, without offering her hand or a business card.  She slides the plate of fried tortillas with their guac and refried bean toppings to a somewhat central location on the table.  That's all the indication she gives that the others are free to dig in before she scoops up a tortilla for herself.

Adam

He ate a while ago now. The smell of fried tortillas and refried beans reminds him of this. His stomach growls and Adam digs in once Riley has offered. He even sits down instead of looming over Lena and Riley. He hadn't intended on sitting when he came over, but he also doesn't intend on casting a shadow. This is not least because he does not and he cannot and if the sun moves somebody might notice. Perhaps not Lena or Riley; they have already missed the more obvious fact of his presence. Knight-boy, this is what happens when one sallies forth outside of one's forest of words and pulp and trees turned into knowledge, the alchemical dark wood of yore: How he loves it. 

With his mouth full, he starts to say thank you to Riley, then swallows, licks a crumb from his beard, and says it in a clear and understandable fashion. "Thanks."

"Yeah, An Arch Key." Sounds like Anarchy, though Adam pronounces it with the spaces, and there's more emphasis on 'Key' as its own word. "What I was going to say is, oh, erm, I like that game. They have it at that 1-Up place, don't they? Ah... Right, right," back on track, Adam, "What I was going to say before is that actually if you come by some of my customers, like I said, they're fans, and we've some fliers, so if you'd sign a couple that would be really wonderful. Or ... well, you can stop by for anything, really, but I'd like that." 

Riley

[percept+alert: oh that's right the shadow, let's go +2 diff because distracted/didn't notice it already/etc]

Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (1, 6, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )

Lena Reilly

[[Oh yeah, huh?  Same as Riley]]

Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )

Riley

[once more with the -3 for Arcane]

Dice: 2 d10 TN8 (2, 6) ( fail )

Adam

[Aw, Riley, you can notice anyway.]

Riley

[Riley sees nothing but tortilla nacho things hahaha]

Lena Reilly

[[TBH, I don't think Arcane applies in that situation.  He's already drawn attention to himself.  She may or may not remember the detail later, but it doesn't detract from die pools once you are aware of them.]]

Adam

[I would argue that, actually. But your call is The Call, boss. *grin*]

Lena Reilly

That lack of a shadow, finally, is noticed by Lena.  She opens her mouth, pauses, and then looks at the card again.  An Arch Key.  It sounds like the kind of thing that hints at a little mysticism, and the shadow...

Jesus, Lena.  Are you that far out of it that you can't even pick up on people anymore?

She smiles a little bit and pockets the card, nodding to Riley.  "That's the one.  That soundtrack really sort of changed my life.  That and a couple other things.  That's one of my favorite remixes ever.  And nice to meet you, Riley."

And then to Adam: "Really?"  She blinks when he says he wants her to sign some things.  She doesn't get that request all that often.  But then, maybe it's just an excuse for them to talk Awakened things.  "Yeah, sure, I'd be happy to.  I'll definitely stop by sometime."

Riley

Riley is oblivious to the missing shadow, so intent on the granachas is she.  Maybe she would have noticed it earlier, but no, not then either, she'd been too busy trying to be a peering, peeking sort of spy.  She knows that two of these people are Awakened.  If she realized they were a set of three things might be different, but for now she continues to assume that Adam is no one in particular.  This isn't helped at all by the fact that details of his countenance and his part of the conversation are sort of shifting and sliding around in her head.

He thanks her for the food, though, and she grins at him and nods, her own mouth too full to say You're welcome just at that moment.  Someone was hungry, well no wonder.  It takes a bit of effort sometimes to put up her shields, and that makes her hungry sometimes.

"Anarchy," she says, once she's swallowed.  "Sounds intriguing, Adam, what sorts of texts do you offer?  The kind that might spark - specifically spark, not just the general sparking all books have the potential to do - a revolution?  Or is the name just a name?"

Riley

[and now i have to run to the store, so talk amongst yourselves while Riley noms.  i shouldn't be gone for too long!]

Adam

Lena would be half right. An excuse to get Lena into his lair (den [castle]), off the street where he can introduce himself properly. Neither Lena or Riley have asked him in a round-about fashion (or less-than round-about; he suspects Riley would be less-than round-about, but there is that hint of Mercury - ) whether or not he is Awake. They've not made any references to bravery or valiance or to knights, as one did, and if there is a secret handshake in Denver, Adam does not know it. Perhaps that Pan guy's name. He isn't going to use it. Names are Power.

But only half right. He gets some guacamole on the corner of his lip and fails to notice he has. Luckily the next chip he eats takes care of that, replacing green with bean curd. Mm, mm. Crunch, crunch, swallow.

"I'm glad to hear," he says, to Lena. And he really seems to be sincerely glad that she will come by. "Our hours are strange, but sometimes I'm in the back, so just hammer on the door."

And now he smiles at Riley. This, too, is a sincere sort of smile, for all it is quiet; dredges up a certain wistful poetry to his gaze. "Of course. Of course to both your questions, Riley. A name is just a name, and I might offer texts to spark, specifically, a revolution. I love books," simple, that, "and I love to read, but philosophy is just ... erm, well, 'I die, as I have lived, a free spirit, an Anarchist, owing no allegiance to rulers, heavenly or earthly.' A free spirit can be set on fire in any bookstore; by any text; any, erm, name.”

Lena Reilly

Just hammer on the door.  Adam seems like a decent sort and Lena hasn't said anything hinting at the idea that she suspects he's Awakened, but she still regards him a little more intently.  Maybe a new start with some Awakened she doesn't have baggage with isn't the worst idea.  But then again, she isn't so trusting as to be naive.  Trust, then verify.  Which she'll be doing.

"I'll definitely stop by.  Thank you."  She takes a sip of her coffee, listening to the young man talk about anarchy, of spirits being set afire by the right book. 

"What book set you flame, then?"  She asks it with a bit of a smile, curious as to what Adam will say.  "Just one example.  Since I'm sure as a bookstore owner there have been several."

Adam

"Just one?" His expression wavers, again; this time it is poised between consideration and a certain helplessness. Choose a star, Adam. Choose just one rune, Adam. Choosing which baby to let die and which baby to let live might be easier. He rests an elbow on the table; where is his shadow? It has flown away; perhaps he will say Peter Pan. He strokes his chin, bristles going scrape-scrape. "From the Mixed-Up Files o... ah, no, the Once and Future Ki... erm, well wait, perhaps I'd rather say ... no, I suppose Once and Future K--well, really, the Book of Thr.... ah, hmm. The Once and Future King. There."

He is not a sheepish young man, Adam, but there is a certain rue in his expression now, eyebrows rising and rising because he knows very well how scattered his answer was.

Riley

"Voltaire," she says, grinning in a way that draws, all charm and magnetism.  Which is to say she grins like a child.  Adam would be correct in assuming she would be less than subtle if she really suspected him (both of them, it would have to be both of them) of being Awakened.  She is perhaps older than the both of them, but she is guileless as any child could be.  If she suspected Adam while she feels that withering pulse of Lena's traveling over the skin of her bare arms you better believe she'd be blunt as a sledgehammer about it.

"Nice," she says, completing the thought.  The name is just a name, but he does have the sorts of books that could spark a revolution.  For one of her ilk - a Cypherpunk, one of Sherwood's merry information thieves - it's definitely intriguing.

"I hope you don't mind if I drop by sometime, too."  If she remembers that detail.  Which..."Oh, hey," doesn't really remind her, but if they're going to be trading information, then Riley is going to lean over to dig through her laptop bag to find her own business cards.  They are rather easier to find and pass out than Adam's had been.  Grabbing out two, she holds one hand out to each of them.  Ordinarily she wouldn't give out any personal information (other than her name, and how personal is that in the end?), but Lena seems alright, and if Adam's giving out where he can be found then Riley can trust enough to give them a way of finding her.

The cards are simple business card stock, with some downtown tech company's logo on it and their tagline, whatever it may be.  And Riley's name, Riley Poole, just above Riley's position, Security Software Engineer and a phone number, a fax number, an email address.  She sets them down in front of them unless they take them from her first.

Lena asks Adam which book set him aflame, and Riley, she rests her elbow on the table's edge and she rests her chin in her palm, and she watches the bookworm with a kind of delight.  It's not malicious or mean-spirited, nor is the chuckle she lets out when he finally stops.

"I know the feeling.  Might as well ask him," she says, sitting up off her hand to point her thumb toward Adam as she looks at Lena, "to pick which limb he could do without."

Riley

[edit:  VOLTAIRINE!  i can read what i pull up on goodreads i swear  ¬_¬]

Lena Reilly

Adam mentions The Once and Future King, which gives Lena a look of vague recognition.  Mention of Voltairine from Riley is not one that she knows, but she makes note of it.  She knows Voltaire, but has not heard of the feminist anarchist. 

She chuckles a little when Riley compares choosing a favorite book to deciding which limb to lose.  "Yeah, I've been there."  She pauses.  "I mean, in a place where there are too many good options for something I'm passionate about.  Not losing a leg."

Adam

He takes the bill-fold wallet out again and first shuffles in Riley's card and then thumbs through all those other business cards until he finds another one for An Arch Key instead of Night Owl, which he slides across the table toward the Security Software Engineer. He doesn't seem to have a problem just taking the card from Riley's hand as soon as it looks like she's going to offer it; perhaps he was being overly respectful of Lena, not wanting to overwhelm her with fandom.

"I could do without a leg, if I had to," Adam replies. "Knock on wood," a brief, crinkle-eyed grin. 

Lena Reilly

[[Gah.  Clearly my brain is failing to function.  Lena totally takes the offered card from Riley.]]

Riley

[i roll because it amuses me to roll two dice that are not arete: manip+subt]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 3) ( fail )

Riley

"You say that," Riley to Adam, "but wait until you're running from-" Uh!  Something mundane something mundane not Technocrats not Technocrats but "dogs or something."  The pause would almost be unnoticeable except that it drags for a hair too long and Riley's dark eyes widen and her breath catches in her throat and, yeah.  It's not an unnoticeable pause.

So they've mostly passed around their information.  Perhaps Lena will get a clean slate with a new little bunch of Awakened who don't know about all the things she's been through or how she handled it.  And Riley is maybe going to learn that the Awakened population in Denver does not consist largely of pissed off Technocrats or Sleepers, or Nephandi, or Marauders, or -- Riley has some things to learn about this place yet.

"I could maybe do without my legs if I could have Professor Xavier's hoverchair or something.  Otherwise, I would kind of prefer for everything to be intact."

Lena Reilly

Adam's joke about doing without a leg if he had to evens out Lena's smile a little.  It isn't that she's traumatized and she doesn't flinch away or anything, but...well, let's face it.  The deejay has seen no small amount of physical trauma during her time here in Denver.  It would be just her luck to have someone she just met lose a limb.  The smile quickly returns though, and she reaches out to--as the Hermetic suggested--knock on wood.

"There, done."

Riley's momentary pause and shift in gears draws a quick shift of Lena's eyes to her, brows knitting gently.  It certainly doesn't seem like she was going to say dogs.  She gives the woman a curious expression, but doesn't say anything for now.  It's a little odd, but nothing more.

"Yeah, I'm a proponent of keeping all of my limbs, thanks."  She sweeps a hand through her hair and shrugs.  "I wouldn't mind a hoverchair though.  Even if I did have two legs.  They don't always want to do what I tell them when I wake up, and it would be nice for me to have something to take me to my coffee machine."

Adam

The pause-skip between from and dogs; Adam notices that, too, and his eyebrows wing upward. "I could hop," he offers, and he is still quiet for the most part, isn't he? Even while he is being friendly, friendsome. He could hop, or he could wait to meet whateve sent others running: valiant is another world for stupid.

He laughs at Lena's reason for not minding a hovercraft: full-out laughter. This means he hunches over because laughter's a full-body thing, that his eyes go all squinty and amused and that he coughs on a crumb of tortilla, and has to hit his chest (hollow thump, hollow thump).

"Oh," throat-clear, "Very good. Though personally I'd rather learn how to pronounce the word for 'Flight,' and fly without recourse to furniture. Though really pronouncing 'Coffee' properly and having it just appear in my mouth would be interesting, too."

And probably lead to accidents. Good thing Adam doesn't have the appropriate Spheres to mess around with that rote yet.

But if anyone were looking at his Fate, 'burning his face and then getting punched by paradox' just became a little more likely to happen.

Riley

Riley does not look too closely to see if the other two noticed that hiccup and what it might mean.  Better to forge on ahead, inexorable, unstoppable.  Let's talk about hover chairs.

Which sets Adam to laughing so hard he nearly starts choking.  Riley has little to know knowledge of the medicinal arts (nobody let her try the Heimlich on them, please), but she could whack Adam's back if it seemed like that would help.  It doesn't, though, it looks like he's got it, so she sits watching him, brows quirked together, eyes brimming with concern.

She's about to ask him if he's alright when he says he'd rather learn how to pronounce the word for Flight.  Riley's face shifts then, sliding from confused to potential understanding to suspicion of him at last.  It lasts a moment before she shrugs.

"My head's too full of code to worry about pronunciations."  Her eyes go dreamy-distant and she leans forward, resting her chin on her clasped and upraised hands.  "I bet with the ride string I could make a hoverchair."  Forces, probably, maybe?  Yes, probably Forces.  Adam isn't the only one contemplating future rotes, though for Riley Paradox is more like a kick in the teeth.

Lena Reilly

The other two are talking about ways to teleport or to create gadgets via their magic, and it's an odd sort of convergence in terms of conversation.  That being said, none of it is overtly Hey, I'm a mage and could even be passed off if you were suspicious.  Lena has more suspicion about Adam's status; after all, maybe someone could invent a hoverchair via non-magical means.  Lena doesn't know enough to guess one way or the other.

She laughs a little bit and shrugs.  "As great as those might be, it's a lot of work just to get to the coffee."  She gives a mock forlorn sigh.  "I guess I'll just have to settle for my own legs.  It's a sad day when it's too much work to be lazy."

Adam

He manages not to laugh so freely this time; to contain all laughter in a crinkle of skin around the eyes, in a smile that is not careful, but is neither unabashed, and a Heh chuckle. He shifts in his seat a little, chair going rock-a-rock against the pavement on the patio, and then he pushes it back to stand up.

And here, that air of the Mysterious is suppressed completely, to give this moment clarity which lasts beyond; like throwing back the hood in order to deliver a line.

"Well I hope that Sloth does not keep either of you away from my bookshop, although I will be quite gobsmacked if, erm, you ride in on a hoverchair, where would you park it?"

"I should be on my way, but it was nice meeting you both."

And the hood is back on, though it's a hood with a mind of its own, isn't it? Wants to swallow him. He nods to both women, and returns to his own table after farewells, to his book which he gathers while yawning behind his hand.

[ooc: and I'm out, guys! Thank you so so so much for coming in, though. YAY OPEN SCENES. :D]

Riley

Riley at least is trying to tease out of the both of them where they've thrown their hats.  She has a good guess for Adam, but Lena could be just about anything still.  She's a music-maker and she's in front of a computer and there are beats and heartbeats and synth beats that could lead to anywhere, as far as Riley's concerned.

Lena doesn't take the bait, and Adam makes his farewells.  Riley smiles up at him, all light and charming and friendlier than when she started if you can believe it.  It's hard for her to be coy, or closed off, or terribly untrusting for terribly long.  The opposite is her true nature, and those other things are newer, learnéd things.  Signs of someone slapped too many times by fate or Fate or Paradox, maybe.

"I'll park it at a signpost," she says, looking at him like this is the most obvious answer oh my god Adam how did you not think of it?  "I'll be seeing you," she says as her own farewell, and it sounds like a promise.  He'll be seeing her, some way or another.

And to Lena, she sighs heavily and says, "I should probably get going, too.  You have my card if you ever want to talk about music again."