Pho

Grace

Grace can be found taking it easy most of the time these days. Her body wants to ease back into the whole 'moving' thing as it were, and Grace's impatience at this doesn't exactly make the process go any faster.

That doesn't mean she's been letting her mind off easy, though. She may be stretched out on a couch in the library, but she's got her laptop up and humming, working on something or other. (Or she's browsing Hacker News. It's almost always one or the other.)

Persimmon has decided to curl up on her feet, which she tolerates because Persimmon was insistent. Apparently being nudged off five times just means 'try again, I really want you on my feet' in cat language.

At least her feet are warm.

Elijah

Elijah had things to do. He had any number of things to do, actually, and most of them involved getting people to help him. It involved talking to people, persuading people, and doing... well... the near impossible.

He comes in, having failed at his task but having succeeded at getting something to eat.

"Hey Grace, do you eat pho?" because that was the herald for his arrival. Then, followed by a door swinging open and a tall, blond young man coming in.

Grace

"I love pho. Also, are you sure you're not Kalen? Because this is a Kalen thing to do, you know," Grace says, and an arm arises up from the couch to give him a wave.

"I may have to dislodge a cat in order to eat though. So sorry, Persimmon."

It should be noted that Persimmon takes the moment of attention as a cue to stretch and emphatically not care.

The cats have it good here. Seems like just in time for their two carers to get sucked off into another universe, they picked up a third.

Elijah

"If I were Kalen, I would not live in my apartment," he replied as he half sauntered over to lay out the little spread of delicious food-like things. The beauty of pho was that there were a number of good, cheap places, "besides, I said I would bring you food so I am bringing you food."

Take out pho is a glorious thing, because provided that you don't scald yourself on the broth, you can almost get the in restaurant experience making it all at home.

"Besides, I may or may not be trying to figure out how to bribe you."

Grace

"Okay, what now?" Grace says, and nudges Persimmon off her feet for the sixth time. Poor thing. She then swings her legs around so that she's actually sitting on the couch, so the cat no longer has a bed made of human feet to lie in. How very rude.

"I will warn you, food isn't all that likely to change my mind."

She slides the laptop onto the table and shuts the screen down to get it out of the way. It registers that perhaps staring at Hacker News while Elijah is talking about bribes may not be all that acceptable.

"That doesn't mean I'm not eating it, mind you."

Elijah

"This is actually a completely normal and reasonable request," he lies. He doesn't even try to hide the fact that he is lying. He doesn't even try to come up with something that doesn't sound like it's going to be a horrible, horrific task.

"I was wondering if you could find information on another mage if I got you their name. The problem is that I'm having a hard time getting a name and I have no idea what he looks like," presumably vaguely like Alicia.

Grace

The expression on her face doesn't change, she just blinks at him. A few seconds later, she comes back with, "Listen, I know we've all shown you we can do some pretty incredible things, but it's a bit out of my league to magically figure out who you're talking about in order to magically get information on them."

Persimmon jumps up on the couch again, looking rather tired and annoyed. It's Grace's turn to emphatically not care.

"I mean, so far the only data point you're giving me is that he's male and a Mage. That doesn't narrow things down too far. Who is this guy? And why do you want information about him?"

Elijah

(back!)

Elijah

Who was he talking about? He had to narrow things down for her.

"It's Alicia's dad. I mean, this isn't some weird Maury stuff, he got kidnapped by technocrats," he starts, because the more he says it the less strange it seems to sound to him and the more ominous it rings in his ears. Elijah's imagination wandered fora second, to places where other people's expressions tried to take him when he told them. "So, even if he fathered her when he was, like, sixteen, he's somewhere between the ages of thirty five and fuck if I know. I want to know information about him, because I want to try and find him. Or at least find his friends who can help us get him back."

He put up a hand, soon as though he were waving off the potential for someone to fling noodles at him or emphatically tell him that he was not going to be doing this in the slightest.

"I'm not doing anything until I have information, and I am not doing any of this alone."

Grace

Well damn. Elijah does try to buy a lot with some noodle soup, doesn't he. How desperate for food does he think she is? Grace's eyes widen a touch at his mention of the Technocrats.

But as he continues, she just trains her eyes elsewhere.

"That's still not much to go on. I don't know who Alicia is, and I'm sorry to hear about her dad, but it's not like I can just go to somebody and say 'the father of this person my friend knows got kidnapped' and expect them to know what I'm talking about."

She cranes her head to look up at the ceiling and sighs.

"Even if I could find out exactly where he is, and being held by whom, it's no guarantee anybody we know would be able to actually mount a rescue operation. But if you can give me some more information, I can try to get you some more information.

"Don't hold out a lot of hope, though. I had a mentor once, you know? Guy was being traced by some MIB asshole. He disappeared. No Virtual Adept I've ever been in contact with has been able to figure out where he disappeared to, and he was one of us."

Elijah

He listens.

You have to hand it to the boy sometimes, because his attention is direct and he sits strangely still. He doesn't ever seem to sit this still, and the young man whose resonance insisted he was a ball of energy was calm. Attentive. Taking his lessons where he could find them. She tells him not to hold out hope, but he perks up because what he does hear is the important part- if he can get her information, he can try.

"I don't need to know where he is, or who he was with, I just… need to know about him. If I can understand why someone would want to kidnap him aside from the obvious then we can narrow down the why and maybe find some of the people he used to know-and-" he stops.

He stops because he's doing exactly what Grace told him not to do.

"Your mentor just disappeared?"

Grace

"Yeah. He was a good guy. Taught me how to find wormholes. He's the one who came up with the idea for Ginger. Mainly because we'd been spotted by the Techs via their spying on our texts. He wasn't always the most careful when it came to things like that.

And then he disappeared one day. I don't know for sure, but I suspect it was the MIB who was tailing him. And aside from that, I know nothing."

And you want to know how much that bothers Grace, Elijah? It's written on her face, though she's still staring at the ceiling. To know so much about so many things, but not know that. It has to hurt.

"So you know, do not be asking people about Alicia's dad over the phone. If he is captured by the Techs, that's painting a target on you that you do not want. You've heard this spiel before, but it's a good thing to hear again.

"Is there a reason why you can't just ask Alicia about her dad herself? Seems like she would know these things. Including, you know, his name."

Elijah

[can I touch Grace in a non creepy way? awarepathy]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )

Grace

[Grace pretty much always keeps her distance from people. It's the little things, like subtly stepping away when they step closer, that broadcasts this. She's one of those people whose bubble of personal space extends quite a bit. Elijah has never witnessed her touching anyone.

But at the same time, she doesn't seem as though she would scream if touched. It's more on the level of discomfort, not phobia.]

Elijah

he doesn't know what to do here. He's not fabulous at reading Grace, so what she does get in her time of pain was a pat on the shoulder- the only contact he is fairly certain that she isn't going to completely murder him over. Grace gave the feeling that one does not make contact with Grace, like a cat in a way much different than the way that Kalen was like a cat. He doesn't even pat long, he just seems content to pat and then retreat almost immediately so he can beat her to the punch there.

Was there a reason he couldn't ask Alicia himself?

"We may or may not have had a fight over this, and she may or may not be not returning my phone calls now," he said awkwardly.

Grace

Grace stops looking at the ceiling when he pats her on the shoulder. She gives him a short-lived confused glance, and then her eyes dart away again.

Ah yes. That is a thing people do. It's supposed to be comforting. It's never particularly been a comfort for Grace, but then she is who she is. And Elijah is who he is.

Her eyes find him again, and she looks like she's thinking a hole straight through him when she gets to her feet and stretches out a hand (like she's trying to keep the bulk of her body as far away from him as possible) and pats him twice on the shoulder.

Because hey, he might need one of those himself, huh?

"I wish I could be of more help."

Elijah

"Grace? Let's vow to never pat each other on the shoulder again."

Grace

Grace sighs, sits back down on the couch. Oh well, it was a good try, at least. She should have just asked first, what was she thinking?

"Sorry. I guess I'm that bad at it, huh?"

She tries to disguise the awkwardness with a smirk.

Elijah

"You're not, like, afraid of germs or anything, are you? Because I'm clean, I swear, but... I mean, maybe we're not a shoulder-patting kind of friends. I appreciate the sentiment, though... If I wasn't pretty sure you would dissolve into a puddle of no I was really tempted to hug you."

Grace

Germs. Afraid of germs? There was the one germ that nearly destroyed her life, but aside from that particular one...

"Not really. My family was just never the touchy-feely kind of people. The first time I really got wrap-you-in-the-arms squeezed, it was by a teacher and I thought they were trying to rub their BO on me," she says, and shrugs.

"I'm not going to dissolve into a puddle of no," she says, and ponders the concept. "That would be a very strange puddle."

Elijah

"I don't know when I got to be a touchy feelie person, but one morning I woke up and was like oh my god, people and I haven't really... y'know... depeopled since," he said with a grin. Cheeky, because it was always cheeky. Playful, because it was always playful, but we digress.

"So, like... if I gave you advanced warning in writing for at least a week in advance, we might hug... or maybe we could just fistbump or something and graduate up to shoulder patting. I think we jumped the gun though with the shoulder patting."

Grace

[Manip + Subt = Can she hide how much this bugs her?]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 6, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )

Elijah

[do I know? per+empathy]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )

Grace

Grace gives him an awkward smile (but then again, aren't all of her smiles a bit awkward?) and laughs a little at the jumping the gun bit. She's doing an alarmingly good job of hiding the fact that he's stumbled upon and is rubbing her nose in her biggest weakness.

She raises a fist, holds it out -- for him to bump presumably. Hey, at least it's not a handshake. The purpose and symbolism behind bumping fists together eludes her, as does most things involving a touch. It almost seems like playacting at violence to her, but whatever.

It'll serve to hide how utterly unfathomable she finds the preceding few minutes.

Elijah

Elijah is clueless at this juncture. Call it stress or call it a lack of real context with Grace, but he notices that she is holding a fist out and she seems to understand the appropriate social ritual of bumping fists and, thus, he does so. As though they have something triumphant to be celebrating. He didn't get a no from Grace, not as he saw it, so surely this was something worth fist bumping over.

Even if it was awkward, it seemed to please him immensely.

"So, if, big if, I'm able to get you information- good information that is in no way awkwardly suspicious information, do you think you could do some research for me?"

He had to confirm.

Grace

"I can at least try," she says, retracting her hand back into the voluminous bubble of personal space she carries around. "No guarantees.

"And you be careful in your asking around, okay? This seems kind of radioactive to me."

Elijah

"I'll be good, cross my heart and all that," he said with a grin, his constant companion and all… though he did take a second to center himself, remember that this was a serious matter, and the moment of levity passed, "kind of radioactive? Like how the sun is kind of hot?"

Grace

Grace rolls her eyes at him. The kid reminds her so much of Kalen sometimes, and she's not sure whether that's a good thing. Kalen at least knows how to handle himself.

"No, no you won't be. But I knew that already," she says, smirks at him.

"How are you doing aside from the whole man-without-a-name problem?"

Elijah

If Elijah makes it to Kalen's age, it will be a miracle, and that is saying something because he isn't that much younger than Kalen, all things considered. We digress, though, and soon enough the young man has things to think about, a new question of how he is and my if that wasn't a complicated one?

He actually has to think about it, and it is clear that the green-eyed young man does, in fact, have to think about it instead of having the standard canned answer.

"I.. uh... heh. I'm doing okay. Sleep's kicking my ass," he admits, but tries to throw it away, "but hey, death, taxes, and nightmares- constants, right?"

Grace

"Not necessarily. I had nightmares for a long time, you know? I think I got them licked though. I only occasionally dream of nasty shit anymore," she says, tries to give him a reassuring look, but it's gone as soon as her eyes start registering book titles again. Not all of them have titles scrawled along the spine. Some are just that old or that secretive. It's that kind of library.

"I had a run-in with some people before," Grace says, and she says the word 'people' like she doesn't really mean it. "I think they were Technocratic consors -- regular Sleepers who know about the whole supernatural shebang, right? But what they had gotten a hold of was nothing made by a Sleeper. It was a virus, like ebola. Only you couldn't just heal yourself of it -- that made it worse. They called it Hydra, because if you cut off its head, two more would sprout in its place.

It made you dream and hallucinate your own death. Things like being flayed alive, eaten by bugs, drowning in your own blood. Great stuff. And even after I got cured, the dreams didn't stop."

She's been staring a hole through a book titled "Alchemy Through the Ages" while going on her spiel, but then glances over at Elijah afterwards, because she's aware she might have scared the piss out of him. And if she has scared the piss out of him, all the better. After all, it's best that he at least knows exactly what kind of hornet's nest he's likely to be swatting with a stick, eh?

"Until they did stop. I met my Avatar, and slayed a few of my Hydra demons in the process. It doesn't have to be forever."

Elijah

It isn't the story that has him chilled, but it is the look in Grace's eyes. The way she pins a title and seems so far away. The way she seems to have words roll across her tongue and the way the memory is clear and fresh and terrible in her mind, but not permanent. The story, though, made his stomach turn. Made his body tense and for a second he did seem scared.

And then steeled. And then prepared because knowing this, knowing what could be happening was enough to remind him why this needed to be done. But the look on grace's face stuck with him, made him hesitant to reply.

But eventually, Elijah did reply. "I… don't think I want to find out whatever my avatar wants me to know. I just got where I can be sure the walls won't talk to me."

An interesting fact- if given the opportunity, he sits in the middle of wherever they were. If given his preference, he stays away from the wall, stays outside if he can because then something might not have the opportunity to gravel on and insist whatever it wanted. There was a moment, "I don't think it means bad things, but… yeah."

he paused.

"But it might go away, right? If I figure this all out, they might go away."

Grace

"Why don't you want to find out what your Avatar wants you to know?" she says, and ahh there is the playful smirk on Grace now. "And why are you sure the walls won't talk to you?"

"Would you like to see what they have to say? We could always ask."

She's not crazy, Elijah. But she is serious. Seriously asking him if he'd like to listen to the walls with her.

"Usually they don't say words to me, but the sound can be interesting."

Elijah

"Because I- wait... we can listen?"

He paused, and for a second he thought that maybe she was mocking him but now, there was a legitimate question. Did he want to listen to the walls with her? Did he really want to know?

"Y'know... sure, why not? Maybe that could be kinda cool, ya know? Let's have a listen."

Grace

Let's have a listen, he says, and Grace's eyes light up. She goes for the laptop again, flipping up the screen and abandoning Hacker News for something else.

"So, I figured out how to make visual displays a long time ago. But visual information is just one of many channels, right?" Grace says, and her fingers flit across the keys with muffled clicks. What's on her screen, if Elijah dares to look, doesn't seem like much. She's running programs. It looks like white text on a black background.

"Then I started thinking about different ways of representing data. So, if I looked into, say, the atoms that make up a wall, what would it sound like?"

She glances up at him from beyond her laptop, and crosses her fingers.

[Corr 1, Matter 1, Prime 1 = Listen to the Walls]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 3) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Grace

[That'll do, WP. That'll do.]

The laptop speakers start making a sound like static, which Grace slows down to a crawl. Once she does that, in the library's strange acoustics, it seems almost like whalesong is pouring out of her laptop speakers, if a bit more regular. Each 'note' is really a subtle rise and fall, punctuated by sharp staccato bursts.

Elijah

He listened. He waited and he took a moment to really focus on what it was that she was saying. His eyes were open, his focus was there, and there was a quiet delight in his eyes and in his posture. They were going to listen to the walls and she was going to show him something cool. When he looked at the screen, Elijah cocked his head to the side and seemed confused by the lines of code and the data on the screen.

The explanation, however, made more sense.

And when the room erupted in sound and each note came out with its rise and its fall his eyes lit up and his posture straightened and he leaned in ever so slightly to strain to catch more in the song that was coming out.

"Do all walls sound like this?"

Grace

Grace shrugs, "Somewhat, yeah. Although the composition of the wall will have an effect on the sound produced, you know."

You know. As if Elijah does know. Well, of course he does.

"The walls are singing to you, Elijah," Grace says, and makes what she hopes are 'woo-woo' finger-waggles at him. "Now I could tell you that what you're listening to are the vibrations of atoms in the wall and stray electrons and photons disturbing them, but that's just another way to look at it, right? The point is, we do live in a world where the walls can talk to you, right? That doesn't mean you're crazy. You have the capacity to see that what's really going on is not insanity, but something understandable. Your goal is to understand it."

Elijah

So, this was what he was given. He was given a whole world full of mysteries, of wonders, and he had a whole world of things that he could do. A whole world of mysteries to unravel and knowledge to gain- this was a gift, and listen to how beautiful it could be. Not a graveling, angry sound. Not a terrible whisper on the wind that rattled there, but music. The walls themselves were not the sum of what lurked behind them.

"That sounds... logical," he started, "I think I can do logical."

Grace

Elijah had brought pho -- a thing which he had forgotten, but Grace's constitution hadn't. That is what being in a coma will do to you -- take away all your lovingly-built muscle and have your body eat it instead of noodle soup. Now that she's back, this is going to change.

So she gets up from the couch and swipes his bribe, just as she said she was going to do. She tells him to go and get bowls from the kitchen down the hall, while she unpacks everything. They proceed to prepare and eat delicious, messy soup while listening to the song of the walls around them, in a library full of books on the arcane arts, with one sleeping Bengal cat, and one large marble lion.

It's a thing that Mages do.

At some point, Persimmon will wake up and beg for flank steak, because that is a thing that cats do. In short, at least for a moment, all is right with the world.