Friday, July 4, 2014

Mulligan

Kalen Holliday

[How awake are you?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 4, 4, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )

Mulligan

Everyone on the ground, on the ground- you! On the ground!

Easy now, he feels a voice say. It feels like it's his but it may not.

There was the pump of a shotgun, a familiar sound, a leveling, and the shaking hand of an amateur.

Somebody screams, and Kalen Holliday wakes up with the intimate knowledge of what it feels like to take a twelve gauge to the chest.

This isn't supposed to happen yet, a voice says, rings in his ears throughout the morning- or afternoon, depending on the man's schedule- but the voice sounds timeless and apologetic. Desperate.

---

It was a coffee shop. Any coffee shop, really. One of those little hole-in-the-wall places with patrons who were discerning about their taste in roast. One of the best places for French-pressed whatever it is that people drink when they like coffee. Their biggest claim to fame is that their coffee is ethically sourced and they are not at all a Starbucks, despite the fact that they could make more than twenty-four different espresso drinks.

The walls are a burnished copper. There are couches and there are tables and there are people everywhere- maybe half a dozen excluding the staff. There were witnesses- there were always witnesses.

There's a couple talking over a cable, looking as though they were young and in love and on their first date. There's a guitar case nearby, but no place for someone to play in the event that this particular coffee shop decided to run an open mic night. There's a college student in the corner pouring over a macbook and looking like he was on his fourth cup of something heavy. There's a young woman with a tourist guidebook. There's a business professional in line with a crisp gray suit and a bored expression his face and a paralegal in line behind him. She wishes she were somewhere else. Everyone knows that look.

This is where the scene opens, with coffee.

Kalen Holliday

[D= 3 | 2(Sphere) + 3(Standard) - 1(Taking time) - 1(near a Node)//Suxx target = 8 | 2(duration)/1(to pull off)/5(effect)

Obvs planning to extend.]

Arete

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (3, 6) ( success x 2 )

Kalen Holliday

Extend (+1 Diff; D=4)

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 7) ( success x 1 )

Kalen Holliday

(Extend)

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (1, 2) ( fail )

Kalen Holliday

[WP to save that - D=5 now]

Kalen Holliday

Extend, WP

Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (1, 4) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Kalen Holliday

Extend, WP

Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (2, 3) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Kalen Holliday

Extend , WP, Q D=4

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (4, 4) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Kalen Holliday

And one more time. Extend. WP

Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (8, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Kalen Holliday

Kalen may not be at his most energetic, between his dreams and his precautions. But, he has survived evil Umbrood and the journey to the spirit worlds and the journey to another reality entirely; it would seem actually ridiculous to die in some mundane fucking robbery. Also, he's pretty sure Alyssa will track him down in whatever new incarnation or afterlife he ends up in and beat the hell out of him if he dies on her right now. And anyway, he has things to do.

In the spirit of having things to do, he goes to pick up coffee. Because coffee is delicious and he is kind of already zoning and would love some caffeine. He scans over the place. Once. Twice. And then he steps into the coffee shop and lets the door close behind him. He joins the people in line and scans the flavor listings. Because why not make organic hazelnut and raspberry coffee? That sounds awesome. Hazelnut raspberry mocha? Yes, that. Definitely that.

Breakfast sandwich croissant? Bagel and cream cheese?

So. Many. Choices.

Infinite worlds of infinite possibility. All spinning. Alight and shimmering and sometimes spilling into each other at odd angles. In unexpected and complex and beautiful ways.

Mulligan

[Who are you? awareness?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )

Mulligan

[Yes, who are you? awareness.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )

Kalen Holliday

[Per+Aw]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 6 ) Re-rolls: 1

Mulligan

That, you see, would have been a tragedy, a damned tragedy at that. There were choices beyond choices, and a person behind the counter seemed more than patient.

"Go ahead," the man in the suit said to the paralegal. She was more than happy to cut on in line and freezes up once she realizes it's her turn to order.

What Kalen feels at first is because of proximity. At first he feels something stalwart and strict. Strict being the most prominent feeling. The man in the gray suit seems blasé and bored, and he looks back just briefly to see the young man behind him. So. Many. Choices. He looks back down at his cell phone; holds on and he waits ever-so-patiently for the paralegal to order. The man in the suit's features are forgettable. His hair is graying at the temples.

Beyond that, there is joy. Joy beyond joy. Sugar upon sugar and honey upon honeyed sweetness and joy, something explosive and dizzying. Something that thumps hard like a drum beat from the woman with the travel booklet in the corner. The tourist turns the page and looks up. She locks eyes with Kalen for a second, just a second-

Which was when Kalen noticed the people in the corner move towards the guitar case. He feels familiarity wash over him and he feels a tightening in his stomach because this? This was how it started, those people in the corner were bad news and not because they were magical but because they were young and stupid and desperate.

Everyone on the ground, he remembers.

Kalen Holliday

Kalen takes a deep breath. They have to get to the case. They have to open it. Aim.

Each of those things takes time.

All he has to do is stop them. He's been that young. He's been that young and that wild and he knows how desperate the world can feel. Can be. How wild and imperfect and unstable.

"This is about to go sideways," Kalen says quietly to the man in the gray suit, as though remarking on the weather, not the couple about to pull a gun.

And then he runs. Because he wants this to be over before it begins. Because it's better there is never a gun out. A gun up. People on the ground. Because if he can get there first, no one has to bleed at all.

Mulligan

"I haven't had my coffee yet," the man in the grey suit said with a sigh, like this was how his life work. He had the voice of a long-suffering father. Like the prospect of being int he middle of a situation going tits up was just the icing on the cake, "life never waits, does it?"

The couple in corner is on their way to standing up and going to their collective guitar case. They were quiet an chattering but then there was a person running for them. Which, of course, immediately made one of them panic. They were amateurs. The man flipped a table, coffee clattering on the floor and it was enough to draw attention- as if the blond man making a break for it wasn't enough to draw attention.

[Dex+athletics, please!}

Mulligan

[Lady - OMG run for the case!]

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

Kalen Holliday

[Dex Ath (at -1 die because coma)]

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

Mulligan

It looked like he was making a break for the people, and it was enough to make the people startled, Kalen Holliday's real target was the gun, and ti was there to get those people disarmed to keep them from doing something stupid. Something incredibly stupid. But desperate people do desperate things, and desperate things are rarely the smartest of things.

The woman gasps in surprise as Kalen reaches the guitar case at the same time she does. Her eyes widen and she reaches for it.

"Uhhh, Bill?!""Don't worry baby doll-""what are you doing?!" the woman shrieked angrily at Kalen.

Both parties had their hands on the case, and it was a matter of wrestling the case out of someone's hands. In the mean time, Bill- the man who had told "babydoll" that things would be fine- was reaching under his shirt and into his waistband. The man in the gray suit, however, was also reaching into his coat.

Somewhere, Kalen hears a familiar voice, timeless but desperate, say "This isn't supposed to happen yet."

Kalen Holliday

They reach the case at the same time. She shrieks at him.

People who are not them are pulling weapons.

And then the voice.

Kalen shudders and turns to meet the girl's eyes. He is not struggling for the case. Because he is trying to avoid a fight and struggling like that is fighting. Instead he looks directly into her eyes and he says, "So when police finally ambush Bonnie and Clyde, she lived long enough to feel it. Not for long, but long enough to know. You must want better than that. For you. For him. Stop."

Mulligan

She looks at him. He's not struggling, he's not trying to wrestle anything away from her and she just holds onto the guitar case like she wanted to go do something but just… just had doubts now. And doubt was enough to make her stop moving with purpose and, instead, hold onto the guitar case like a security blanket.

They both knew what was in there. Only one of them knew if she would reach for it.

"Bill, I don't wanna do this anymore," Babydoll says. She sounds spooked.

Bill, at this juncture, had a pistol out. It's old, probably hasn't been used terribly frequently, but it's something that fits comfortably in his hands. Babydoll looks from Kalen to Bill- who seemed a little more sure than she did.

Something, though, made the man in the gray suit pause, take a few steps back. He hadn't finished retrieving whatever was in his coat, but damned if he wasn't ready. The rest of the patrons looked panicked. The kid on the laptop, the staff behind the counter- the tourist seemed more intent on the scene in front of her, keeping an eye on the scene unfolding.

She tapped something on the table on front of her. Triplets with her left, quarter notes on her right.

"Bill, Bill we don't have to do this-""Like fucking Hell we do, baby doll, everyone on the ground! You-" he points the gun at Kalen "-on the ground!""Don't!" Babydoll reached for Bill, for the gun in his hand.

Mulligan

"Bill, Bill we don't have to do this-"

"Like fucking Hell we do, baby doll, everyone on the ground! You-" he points the gun at Kalen "-on the ground!"

"Don't!" Babydoll reached for Bill, for the gun in his hand.

Mulligan

[Loop, extended]

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

Kalen Holliday

Kalen does not try to talk to that one. He kneels, but as he does his eyes catch on the girl reaching for the gun.

"Don't-" Get yourself shot. Pull the trigger. Happen.

But he does not finish that statement.

Mulligan

"Bill-"

"No! Goddamnit, no, baby we've-" Bill saw her reach for him, for the gun, and he has the presence of mind to move his hand out of the way and, luckily, he doesn't shoot her. Unfortunately, he does fire a shot into the air that is enough to make people shriek. Enough to show people that he means business. Enough to make people forget that his hand was shaking and now Babydoll was crying.

"I'm doing this for us, sugar," he tells her, "get on the ground babydoll."

And, like that, she went from being an accomplice to being another person in the crow. The only person that wasn't on the ground was the tourist, who seemed to be taking her time getting there. Triplets and quarter notes, tapped front he table to the ground. The drumming was easily drowned out by the sound of Nora Jones playing over the speakers overhead.

Babydoll took a step back and, in confusion, took a place on the ground.

"Don't do this, Bill, please?"

"okay, everyone, I'm only gonna say this once, valuables out and in the middle of the room. Anybody calls the cops and this asshole-" he points the gun at Kalen, who seems (because of proximity) to have been relegated to the realm of hostage "gets it, got it?"

The man in the gray suit didn't do anything. Instead, he just... seemed content to play along. And watch.

Kalen Holliday

Kalen just looks at him for a second. "You just fired that thing. You don't have time to rob this place. Even if no one here calls the cops, there are windows. People passing by. Your only real chance to get out of here is to run. Now. It's really a shame no one ever taught you how to do this. The location is alright, but your method is way off.

"But, look. You can still run. I recommend through not the street entrance. You just got some attention, but some dye, some contacts, some new clothes, and not being a guy waving a gun in their face and I bet these people wouldn't recognize you. Change the way you move. Speak. Your name, if you want to be safe. You were probably planning to relocate anyway. Was it Mexico? Please tell me it wasn't Mexico....."

Mulligan

[last round's extension]

Dice: 3 d10 TN7 (6, 7, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Kalen Holliday

[Manipulation+Subterfuge]

Dice: 6 d10 TN5 (1, 5, 7, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 5 )

Mulligan

He listens. He really, really listens. The man pays attention and he can feel the weight of it all hitting him. he hadn't planned this. Hadn't covered his face, hadn't anticipated being stopped and hadn't even thought about the windows. There were people. There were people everywhere and his eyes went from Kalen to the spot in the corner of the room where a little red light flashed in rhythm with the drum beat that damned tourist kept tapping because who fucking drums in the middle of a hold up and it was too much.. It was all too much.

Hastily, he wiped the gun off on his shirt and he tossed it to the side. By the ministrations of fate alone did it not shoot anyone. With little more ado, he took a quick look to the left and right.

Not to Mexico.

"Fuck," he hissed, and was immediately out the back way. Gotta hand it to the man, he was pretty damned fast.

Nora Jones finished her song, and a rendition of fly me to the moon came on over the speakers. Nobody said a word.

Kalen Holliday

Kalen winces when Bill tosses the gun, then rises. He brushes himself off then glances down at the girl. Offers her his hand. "Normally I would say something else obnoxious about you reaching for guns pointed in your direction, but since you were trying to prevent that guy from shooting me or any of these nice people in the face, I think I'll play nice.

"And I always appreciate people who know when to fold."

He smiles, just a little. "Shall we?"

Mulligan

Babydoll looked up at Kalen- neither of them seeming to go by the name at this juncture that they were given at birth, and she nodded. She listened, wide eyed and scared out of her mind because dear jesus she almost robbed a place and her boyfriend was running away and her mascara was a complete and utter disaster. Now that there is a second to look, there is time to really look at her. Her hair is red, curly, and doesn't match her eyebrows. Her eyes are blue but red-rimmed. She wears cheap mascara because it's running down her cheeks and she's erring on the tan side of things.

"Where are we going?" she asks, and people are starting to mill about, and there is a general sense of panic in the air and the man in the gray suit has deigned himself to be more than content to walk out the front door. the tourist stayed precisely where she was, and Babydoll?

Well, Babydoll just wanted to run away, and Kalen was giving her an out.

Kalen Holliday

"To somewhere that is very definitely not here. From there...we'll see." He takes her, at a rather calm pace, because he may have exaggerated slightly about how much time they have, out onto the street. He is about to need to make so many phone calls. But, hey. He got a second chance to be a person. Terrified redheads can have second chances too, so far as he is concerned.

Mulligan

(returned!)

Mulligan

The redhead continues on along her way. he's taking her somewhere that was definitely not there. She doesn't take her guitar case, and she didn't come with a purse. Instead, the woman was content to follow along and keep crying like all of this was a bad dream. Like she hadn't realized how big of a mistake she'd made until she was making it and-

"What's gonna happen to Bill?"

Kalen Holliday

"Let's just worry about us until we get to the car, okay?" Kalen says quietly. "The less we say until then, the better. It isn't far. And then we can talk about your options. Because there are a few." He keeps leading her toward his car, which is nearby. He was too tired to be rambling through the city today.

But look. Here. At this redhead he's shepherding. She's worth being a little exhausted, probably.

Mulligan

She nods, and the lady is quiet the rest of the time on the way to the car. Her hands are shaking, her cheeks are pale, and now that the adrenaline was starting to wear down it hit her that she could have gotten shot and the sheer volume of possibilities of what could happen hit Babydoll hard and fast and the furthest thing from her mind was Bill and instead all she could think about was her future and how terrible everything felt.

She'd almost done something very, very bad, and for what?

Once they're at the car, or at least near the car, she looks at the blond man she'd almost had to point a shotgun at. She has no idea that in his dream, it ended much differently. She has no idea that, before this, the likelihood that she would level the gun in that case at his chest and accidentally blast herself to a life sentence was astronomically high.

"I'm sorry a-about… that…"

Kalen Holliday

"I think there were a lot of people a lot more bothered than I was. I may have actually thought it was a shame you couldn't have waited until after I'd had some coffee to do anything requiring my attention. I'm...not so much like most people anymore though. Too many crazy things have already happened to me." He smiles as he unlocks his jeep, which is a sort of nondescript grayish-blueish-green.

"Get in. We have things to do."

Mulligan

They have things to do.

And it was in the jeep with her. The first thing the Babydoll did when she got in the jeep was reach up and pull at a few pins near her hairline. She shook her head and soon enough she discarded what appeared to be a red, curly wig into the floorboard. Her hair was definitely shorter than the wig led people to believe, and held back in an awkward, sweat-drenched ponytail.

She reached up to look at her reflection and wipe her eyes.

"What are we gonna do? W-why do you- my boyfriend was going to shoot you," she said. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

Kalen Holliday

"Once upon a time," Kalen says, as he backs out of the parking space. "I was not the nicest person. I'm still not, I guess. But, had things gone only a little differently, I might have intended to shoot a number of people I shouldn't have.

"You won the actual help prize because you not only stopped, you tried to stop him. I don't know how you got into that mess, but you decided not to be there and then you acted. Which is admirable. So I think you deserved better than being arrested right there."

Mulligan

"What do I owe you for all of this?" she asked cautiously. Warily. Because she understood precisely what it was that was going on, or at least she thought she did. Surely, he couldn't actually be trying to help her. Surely, this was going to end very, very poorly.

At least she'd stopped crying, though, that seemed to be a big point and testament to her willpower.

Or the fact that her stomach hurt now and she didn't have anything left to cry.

Kalen Holliday

"Relax. It's alright. Really. I'm going to take you somewhere you can hide for a bit, and we'll figure out what to do with you. I know a good cop, and if you want to just turn yourself in and take your chances, you can do that.

"That's not really what I recommend, but it's one thing. In some ways the least risk. I can help you get a new identity, new IDs, new paperwork, new everything. I can make some of it well enough, but there are a lot of things I can't do, so to really set you up I'd need help. And I can get it, but it'll take time.

"Meanwhile, I kind of need a partner I can trust. One who isn't overly concerned with legality. I'm not asking you to kill people. You might want to learn to get comfortable with guns, because I may one day ask you to go to some scary places, but honestly, I'm not into killing people.

"I may need things picked up and delivered. Things that are not drugs. I run a security company. So, I might want you to pick up office supplies or hand out somewhere with binoculars and a video camera. I want someone smart enough to know when to cut their losses but brave enough to go in the first place. That seems kind of like you."

Mulligan

"I-I don't' wanna go to jail," which was nothing but truth. Who in their right mind wanted to go to jail? Not Babydoll, that was for damned sure. She shook her head no vigorously.

But that was about when it hit her that this man was offering her an out. She didn't even know him, but he was offering her an out, a job that sounded a lot better than her current one, and… well… it wasn't like she could go back to linking coffee. Babydoll just kind of held up a coffee shop, and the patrons flittered from place to place. She suspected that she was going to become an avid tea drinker soon enough because she just couldn't be caught dead in a coffee shop again.

"I can handle that… It… it's better than jail time, you seem nice enough," which was also true. He was the favorable option.

"Do I need to know your name?"

Kalen Holliday

"I'm pretty sure no one needs to know my name," Kalen says with a laugh. "Nikolai."

"What should I call you?"

Mulligan

She thinks about this for a minute, rolls the name around in her head before deciding-

"Kelsey."

Kalen Holliday

"I like Kelsey. Good choice." He brings the Jeep into the garage of his house and brings her inside. "I...only arguably live here. I mostly use it for meetings. There's a spare room, so even on the few occasions I am here overnight, we'll both still have our own rooms. I can get more groceries if you cook. Do you cook? I pretty much like on takeout, so there's not really food to cook here."

Mulligan

"I can make coffee," she said flatly, "but to be fair, I'm a barista. I get paid to make coffee."

This was proof that in Kalen Holliday's life, the world was conspiring against him to find people who were capable of actually cooking. Well, to be fair too she wasn't exactly a barista anymore; "Kelsey" was going to be a no call/no show tomorrow. Her lease was going to lapse. her phone was going to probably go unpaid but, then again, her phone bill was already starting to hit the point where it wasn't going to get paid.

"Do I need to learn to cook? Is that part of the job description?"

Kalen Holliday

"No. Cooking is not part of the job description. Someone else who can make proper coffee wouldn't be bad. I have good coffee and a French press. Maybe I'll get an espresso machine. I never learned those. But if you know them, there's no reason not to have one.

"You should probably stay out of sight for a bit, but I'll pick up some things for you. Do you like to read?"

Mulligan

Does she like to read?

"I read some stuff? I started reading the Game of Thrones stuff, Song of Ice and Fire or something like that? I'm normally- heh- I normally read crime drama novels," she laughed, and the sound wasn't bitter, but it had the hints of some self deprivation, of pressing on a fresh wound to see if it still hurt. it did. It really, really did.

"If you have Popular Science around, I'll read that, too."

Kalen Holliday

"National Geographic, I have. In volumes. And we can get Popular Science."

He thinks for a minute. "What about dogs? Do you like dogs?"

Mulligan

"I used to have dogs when I was little? We raised pit bulls, they're so smart, and they are absolute hoots, and it really does break my heart with breed specific laws and-"

She stops, her cheeks turning pink.

"Yeah, I like dogs."

Kalen Holliday

"Well. Having someone to train dogs would actually be great. That can be part of the job description. Possibly not pit bulls. I don't know what breed specific things might be going on here. Why don't you find out about that, if you don't already know. What breeds we can have. What we'd need to do to train and sell dogs. Possibly to breed them. That seems like a good place to start.

"My partner and I are pretty caught up in other parts of the project, so we'd need someone else to manage the dogs part anyway. You okay with occasional errands and dogs?"

Mulligan

"I would love to be tasked with occasional errands and dogs," she perked up.

Wait. This was it? This was what she was going to get to do? She got her dream job after having nearly shot someone? This is … this is strange.

"I am completely qualified to breed and raise dogs and run errands."

Kalen Holliday

"Excellent. I'll have to find somewhere to do that. It shouldn't be too hard."

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