[did you survive last night?]
Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 6, 9) ( success x 1 )
Elijah[I AM NOT A PHYSICAL HUMAN BEING, dex+athletics]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 3) ( success x 1 ) [WP]
ElijahIf one was going to do things outdoors, Colorado was the state for doing it. The weather was not truly atrocious. The scenery was breathtaking, and even the city parks could have the potential to sam less than planned and, instead, a little like an inlet of nature in an otherwise urban setting.
He hadn't spent time with Richard since Hawksley's birthday party, and it had been a crazy enough party that Elijah wasn't entirely certain he remembered most of it but he did very distinctly remember feeling the grass and people casting circles and while the magic was not precisely the purpose of the meeting, the thought of magic was one of them. Elijah didn't so much have ulterior motives for asking Richard to come run with him, but rather, that he had multiple interests in hanging out with Richard that boiled down to one simple fact: Richard is awesome, and therefore good company to hang out with.
He wasn't sure he was going to ever admit this, but Elijah was not a physical creature. Not that it really mattered because, at that juncture, it was more than obvious that while he had asked Richard to come running with him, Elijah was not a runner. Elijah had never been a runner, and while he was hoping to she day experience a runner's high he was more hindered by the fact that holy fuck running with an Olympian is difficult. It was through will alone I set my mind in motion he set his body in motion and kept it in motion and not falling flat on the concrete path beneath their feet.
Jesus, they'd just started and he was already exhausted.
"C'est quoi ce bordel!" he panted.
RichardRichard is pretty awesome. Richard is absurdly tall and ridiculously goodlooking and unfairly athletic and pretty fucking smart to boot. Richard is one of those people you'd just love to envy and hate just because he represents exactly how unfair the Powers That Be are when it comes to doling out blessings, except it's hard to envy and hate someone who's so damned nice, and easygoing, and laidback, and sunny, and kind-natured. Well. At least if you're a good person yourself.
However, none of that is the point right now. The point is: Elijah asked Richard to go for a run, and Richard gladly accepted. They met at some predetermined streetcorner -- Richard lacing up the strings on a slick pair of Pumas, his shanks a mile long, his calves bunching with lean muscle. When he sees Elijah he waves, that big white grin spreading across that perfectly tanned face. He gets up, fluid and lanky and loose-jointed, dancing his weight from foot to foot to warm up.
Now it's ten, twelve blocks later, and they're at altitude, and Richard's stride seems roughly the length of a cheetah's, and Elijah is panting and Richard is talking -- animatedly -- about some movie he saw the other night. Elijah breaks out the French; French obscenities to be exact. Richard bursts into laughter.
"C'est exercice!" he replies, and let's just add another line to the Why Life Is Unfair list: he's fucking French. On top of everything else, this modern-day David, this twenty-first century Adonis, is fucking French. "I didn't know you spoke French. Actually, wait; maybe I did know that. I may have forgotten. Let's go this way; it's downhill."
Call it a small mercy.
ElijahThis is what he had wanted, of course, to go running with someone who was much better at this than he was but Jesus it just wasn't fair. The gods were unkind when they made Richard, because truly the only thing that might be considered terrible about him was the fact that he was a very tall man and that might somehow be inconvenient to him when he has to go in places built for tiny people or getting into smart cars. So long as Richard avoided smart cars, he should be fine.
Though laughter was contagious, and laughter reminded him that he needed to breathe like a normal human being, and that was good enough for the time being. he didn't know Elijah spoke French, "I'm from Louisiana- french happens- but-it's… my grammar blows."
He laughed again, and he turned along to follow the path to wherever they were running because this was downhill and Elijah wasn't going to stop, but he was certainly going to take whatever small mercies he could afford.
"And I'm a French major."
RichardRichard snaps his fingers. "You did tell me that. French major. I didn't realize you spoke it before that though. Cajun parents?"
They round the corner. True to his word, Richard takes them downhill now -- though of course that just means later on they'll have to climb back up. Unless of course they walk back. Which is an option. It's always an option.
"How'd you end up in Denver, again? I'm almost positive we talked about this at Sera's party, but somehow," wry, "I can never quite remember exactly what happens at Sera's parties."
ElijahCajun parents?
"My dad is, Mom's-from-" breathe-inhale "-from Quebec. What about you? You can't see it? Because I'm dying? But I'm jealous of your linguistic-" exhale "-prowess." He was, however, a dead man running. Literally, and trying to hit his stride with his breathing.
"Dude, who was that chick that was on the couch with you? I have no idea who she was, but she was cool," not that he remembered anything else about her, but he did remember talking to Richard for awhile about… uh… something. Halfway through the conversation he'd become enthralled with the feeling of leather and the taste of lavender lemon cookies so the conversation had steered towards… uh… fuck. Something happened, but Elijah did remember very much enjoying himself and talking to Richard and fucking fantastic cookies. And that Richard had a fantastic texture.
That was one more thing- Richard had a fantastic texture on top of being tall, French, golden, and gorgeously smart and nice.
"I came because … I… don't really know? I felt like I needed to be somewhere that wasn't Baton Rouge, so I came here. Denver feels right. Why'd you come here? College? How did you meet Eleanor?" he seems to have hit his stride, at least with the breathing. A slow, rhythmic inhalation through his nose and exhaling through his mouth and even though he wants to pant and fall over, Elijah knows better.
Richard"There you go," Richard says, encouragingly, as he notes Elijah sounding less like an asthmatic elephant and more like a runner. "Sometimes you just gotta get over that hump five minutes in. Then you settle in for the long haul, see?"
Meanwhile, Richard continues talking. In complete sentences. In paragraphs.
"Yeah, I came here for college. My parents are French ex-pats. I grew up in Berkeley. Could've gone to school there, I guess, but after being all over the world it was weird to go back home like that. Denver seemed like a good option. Far enough from the West Coast in location, but still pretty liberal and healthy and environmentally-conscious and all.
"And, Eleanor was the professor for one of the courses I was auditing. And she has that feel to her, you know? So I knew she was Awakened right away. And then I just sort of sought her out after class one day. I'd been awake for like ten-plus years, but it was never really something I pursued until I met her. I guess the timing was right. Maybe it was fate."
They're at a red light. Richard jogs in place, waiting.
Elijah"Holy fuck how did you not go crazy?" he asks, and there is no small amount of wonder in his voice. He looks at Richard like he must be a miracle, a genius, ten years without any incident of-Well, now, Elijah wasn't aware that his particular unpleasant relationship with his avatar probably wasn't normal, but then again they were able to bend reality to their wills. What about a mage is normal, is mundane? What about the nature of magic is anything short of miraculous?
They stop long enough at a red light that Elijah is content to stop near dead in his tracks, hands on his knees and he takes the time to recenter himself and get air into his lungs, or at least try to force it there in slow, deep breaths. Like it was meditation. Maybe this was what Jenn had been talking about, memories of being chastised by the tiny pole vaulter for his shoddy form and his forgetting to keep up.
Maybe it was fate, Richard says.
"I think… that… like some things are supposed to happen? like… that we are where we're needed and the universe kinda… I don't know, does what it needs to do to get you there so long as you're paying attention to it. But then there's the whole free will thing- can destiny and free will co-exist?" There were things Elijah thought about, and now that he wasn't running he had a second to try and put them into-
Oh shit, the light was going to turn green soon.
Exhale.
Richard"I had a mentor at the start; we didn't really get along. So that was part of it. But honestly?" And Richard says something that sounds like pure absurdity: "I think I didn't go mad because I'm not that talented."
He's not an imbecile, though. He's not faux-humble either. He's not one of those people who are annoying unaware of their own blessings -- nor one of those who pretend to be unaware. He slants a wry glance at Elijah, quickly adding, "At magic, I mean. I know I have talents. A lot of them. I'm very lucky in many ways. But magic?" He squints into the light, across the street. Shakes his head. "I'm decent. Maybe even good. But I'm not ... incandescent, the way some people are.
"I've met people whose will is so powerful that I think they couldn't have ignored it if they tried. People whose ability to bend the world is so strong that I think if they tried not to use it, they really would lose their minds. I'm not one of them. I was able to Awaken, to see, and then ... to kind of just let it rest.
"And," the light turns. Without missing a beat Richard starts jogging again, "I was talking to someone the other night about destiny and free will. And chaos. And quantum mechanics. And yeah, I think they can coexist. They must. The very laws of the universe dictate it. That's where the chaos and quantum mechanics come in. Boiled down: you can't possibly predict everything. You just can't. Uncertainty is built into the system, and even the slight wiggle in the starting conditions causes a huge deviation in the outcome. That's what physics tells us. Which in turn says: you can't predestine everything. And what's not predestined -- well, that must be where the free will comes in."
Elijah[Nothing to see here! Manip+sub]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )
ElijahHe can't quite wrap his head around the idea of Richard not being that talented at… well… anything. it's obvious, too, because of the way that Elijah just kind of looks at Richard and forgets to run for a minute before finally remembering right he has to do things and he runs to catch up with the taller man.
Well, runs faster, pushes a little harder because heavens he needs to push to keep up with what could very well be a leisurely stroll for the other man. "To me? Sera… sera seems that way… like… she is magic." No small amount of wonder there. Though, he does continue, "I tried to ignore it all for awhile… that… did not end well," he laughs it off, though, downplays the fact that this? All of this?
Had not gone well in the slightest, that he knows exactly what happens when you ignore your avatar for too long, and how too long can be insignificant to something eternal.
he listens along, nods and pays attention to the determination of free will and destiny and how even physics makes them coincide. "Huh," he says, but it's more an affirmative than confusion, "I did not know that. And that… that makes sense. I'd always kinda wondered? But… y'know… I'm a liberal arts major for a reason."
Richard"Sera's magic is so raw and present," Richard replies. "Eleanor's magic is so potent and controlled. And that girl I was talking about, that friend I was discussing free will with? Her magic is just ... enormous, and wild, and joyous. She was definitely talented.
"I don't know about Sera and Eleanor, to be honest. They might be talented. They might also have just worked very hard to get where they are. Granted, I can see Eleanor doing that, and I can't really see Sera doing that. But my point is," and he grins at Elijah, "it's not all a lost cause for those of us who aren't talented at magic. That's the nice thing about being Awakened. You can make yourself better if you just work at it. Some of us just have to work a little harder than others.
"You're a liberal arts major," he adds, "which just means someday you'll find your own beautiful, poetic way to reconcile fate and free will. It won't be all theories and numbers like mine. But it'll make just as much sense." Richard claps a hand on Elijah's shoulder, reaching over as they jog along. "Anyway. Enough talking. Ready to run back up that hill?"
Elijah[does he survive this hill?]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 7) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Elijah"Fuck yeah, let's do this!"
And with that, there was less talking, and more running.
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