Feels Like Bedlam

[Molly Quincannon] After conversation with Nathan, Molly goes back to her shopping, wandering and looking in windows. Mostly it's bookshops and kitchen implements, but occasionally she stops at stores stocking pretty things. She lingers particularly long in front of a jewellery store window, looking at pendants. She's shopping for a very belated birthday gift.

[Ellie James] Ellie wandered down the street peeking in store windows and assessing the crowds. She hasn't been down this way in a while, and figured it wouldn't hurt.

When she spots Molly lingering in front of a jewelry store, she pussy-footed her way closer, humming the 'Jaws' theme. "Dunduh, dunduh..."

[Molly Quincannon] The pussy-footing actually got some serious tension in Molly's carriage; nothing twigs up the senses like someone apparently trying to sneak up. However, the humming of the Jaws theme stops that in its tracks before she even turns around, and she takes a deep breath and relaxes even as she turns towards the humming. At which point she smiles, pleased to see the girl and ... perhaps a little overly relieved. "Ellie! Good to see you. Been wondering where you got off to." Then she shakes her head and chuckles a little. "Sorry; I dunno if you managed to miss it, but it's been ... there've been issues. Anyway, how are you?"

[Ellie James] Ellie blinked at the ultra-relieved expression, and leaned forward to hug Molly. "I've been around. Wandering, flirting with the college kiddies, reading." She stepped back to look her friend up and down. "What did I miss? I seem to miss things. A lot. I mean, there was the one thing in the antiques shop, but somehow I doubt you're talking about that." She tilted her head. "Gonna fill me in?'

[Molly Quincannon] Molly returns the hug; there's still that bit of tension, but it's fading out. "Yeah, Thomas told me about that one." Thomas is hard to recall (bloody Arcane), but there might be a vague recollection of a British guy. "Glad you made it out okay and we're working on ... um, trying to give Isabel a bit of an education. Poor kid has no clue, and the 'gentle gentle' approach Emily dictated awhile ago just isn't going to cut it at this rate."

Then she pulls Ellie a little ways aside to be out of the main traffic flow and less likely to be overheard. "Okay. I don't know how much you know about the stuff that threatens mages and everything? But there's one bunch - Nephandi. Very simple explanation is they're evil. Their Avatars have been twisted and they're bent on corruption, destruction and the perversion of everything good. There was ... a group of them in the city for awhile. It was ... a miniature war. A few people's places got burned to the ground. There was an attack on our Chantry house. One fatality." After a short pause, she adds, "Nearly two. And the nearly was held captive for two days and tortured. They were trying to recruit." There's a lot of weight to that last - that last is personal in a major way.

Then she shakes her head and smiles a little. "Still, we finished it a couple of weeks ago. Took the whole mess down and things are as normal as they ever get around here ... for now. But given the mess everything was in ... I'm just glad you didn't get caught in crossfire."

[Terence Wilson] Shopping is generally speaking not this man's main concern. Sure, there is the occasional glance at the odd window here and there, a glance and a grimace at the virgin megastore and even if one saw him down at the far corner of the street as he'd come 'round a long look up at the Watertower Mall. But otherwise the bald-shaven Scot in the dark suit and green tie does not in fact seem to care at all about what seems to be the sole purpose of the throngs that crowd the streets on weekends.

Things are normal here.

She hasn't met, as yet Chicago's newest interloper. In fact Mad Maudlin for all her savvy wouldn't even recognize his nomme du plume, unless she's very, very interested in the slightest buzz inside the other traditions. Nonetheless to her, in her reality in fact things have likely returned to a sort of status quo. Unfortunately for her though, insurgency hates a status quo.

[Awareness//just you know...passive]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 5, 7, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Ellie James] Ellie paused for a moment, trying to recall who she's talking about, but Isabel she remembers. "I remember her. Wanted to beat her over the head with a clue stick." She sighed.

"I've heard about them. Lots more, though I'm avoiding them so far." She froze, though, at the mention of a casualty. She caught up - or tried to anyway - one of Molly's hands, eying it like she's looking for scars or signs that someone had hurt her friend. "I keep feeling like I ought to be helping more. Everyone I've met - aside from Isabel - seems to be doing what they can to help, and I'm just... not."

[Molly Quincannon] Anyone in the know Awareness-wise will feel a lot of dynamic energy coming from an out-of-the-way corner near a jewellery store window - flighty for the younger girl, outright frantic from the bespectacled woman in black. The frantic one turns to the flighty one and gives her a reassuring - if tired - look. "Well, just to be clear, I was the 'near'." She pulls down the collar of her T-shirt to show some light scars under her collarbone, surrounded by rather mangled gear-wheel tattoos that indicate that the wound was a lot worse before magical healing was employed. "I'm doing okay. And look; you stayed clear and unwounded, and you want to help, which puts you head and shoulders above a few I know. I dunno; being a help is sometimes really damn dangerous. It's not for everyone. Don't feel too bad about not being on the front lines. Though if you do want to help ... I could suggest a thing or two. But that's your call."

[[Perc + Aware; for kicks]]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 7, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Ellie James] ((perc+aware, because I forgot to do it before I posted. *headdesk* ))
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 7, 7 (Failure at target 6)

[Terence Wilson] For all the head up, shoulders back, cheshire gallantry one might get the feeling the Mage aproaching the two women is anything but one to stay clear and unwounded. The moment one thinks they've got his resonance pinned down into words it seems to surprise of it's own volition. It's a warping srt of dynamism, an active battle against the world as it is and at the same time a sort of question, one without a direct answer that leads only to another question.

One yo didn't even realize you were asking.

He stops, not three feet from them and turns full-body toward the window, from their vantage point admiring the cut of a rather large sapphire. It's faces reflecting his own, again reflected in the window and all that back again in the man's eyes. "Have either of y'got a light then?" It's a low sort of Scottish, that accent. Poorest of the streets of Glasgow. It runs against the grain like seemingly everything about him does, this walking tribute to postmodern thought. He never looks up, never away from the stone in the window, no clues as to whom the man addresses.

[Ellie James] Ellie's expression darkened as she looked over the faint scars. She reached up to touch the damage, and then pulled Molly in for a tight hug. "Oh, Molly..." She stepped back, releasing Molly from the hug. "I do want to help."

She jumped a little and turned at the Scottish accent, and turned to look at the man staring into the window like his future was hiding in the glass. She moved a little in front of Molly out of some misguided desire to protect her friend, and shook her head. "Might. Gonna share what you're smoking?"

[Molly Quincannon] Molly hugs back, nearly as protective in her own way, and is about to say something about the wanting to help when...

Well well well.

Molly is Curious; there are no questions that she doesn't know she's asking, because she asks them all. Still, the resonance off this one is intriguing ... and thankfully doesn't spark off worries about Marauder ... and certainly not Technocracy, not with that oddness of it. That's 'demented' if she's ever felt it. Therefore, she isn't quite so cagey as Ellie; she pulls a Zippo lighter out of a pocket and says to Ellie, "I did not know you smoked. If he won't share, I will. I carry a pack for emergencies." Then, as she passes the lighter to the newcomer, she recalls her conversation with Ashley and Emily from yesterday and wonders, even as she says, "Hi. Name's Molly. I think we have a few things in common. Good to meet you. What's your name?"

[Terence Wilson] Reflection, refraction, transmission, dispersion. Changes in phase velocity are particularly- [Gonna share what you're smoking?] something interrupts the man's blank expression with a puzzlement due only for those who've answer completely counter to the premise of a question. It's followed by a slow, careful turning of his entire body once again toward the two.

He refuses the zippo.

If nothing else the stare he's giving the two of them, each in turn never both rather always one and then the other, is one of disappointment. A ticking clock of a neck finding each face in turn. It's as though they were new hope in a city hope has left for a moment and now that's an opportunity lost.

"I meant on the inside."

[Ellie James] Ellie leaned out of the way to let Molly pass the Zippo to the stranger. She shrugged. "Mostly only when I'm upset." If Molly was willing to be chatty and nice, Ellie could get out of the way of being in the middle of the conversation, moving over to stand next to Molly instead of in front of her.

Ellie blinked at the man, feeling vaguely confused. "Now I'm really not sure what you're asking."

[Molly Quincannon] When the Zippo's refused and the question's asked, Molly smiles; it's wry and a bit mischievous. "Yes. Both of us." She raises an eyebrow. "From what's coming off you, you've got your own, if that's what you're talking about. And I did ask your name. I'm only wondering because someone with a light on the inside has my phone number, and I'm wondering if you're him. You feel like ... Bedlam."

[Terence Wilson] Now it's his turn to smile. An answer got only by a question refused and turned away. Socrates would have a field day with this. There's a part of him that wants to correct that no, his is a whole fire of chatting gleaming code, that in this place in his computer as it were he's of operator status. But No, he's about to say something.

You feel like Bedlam.
He's not been that for long. A few months and save for a few bits of chatter most haven't yet linked new self with the old. This one's canny, she is.

"The boys taking the picture got it to web, then?"

[Ellie James] Oh, that kind of light. Sometimes Ellie definitely got the feeling that she was one of the dimmer lights in the 'business'.

Definitely the dimmer bulb. She glances at Molly, disconcerted. "You know each other, Molly?"

[Molly Quincannon] "Not directly." Molly addresses Ellie first; she's young, is Ellie, and reassurance is a good thing. But it's to both of them, in answer to both of them, that she explains, "I spoke to Ashley and Emily. Ashley in particular mentioned you. Said you were looking for like-minded folks in the city." That's entirely to Terence, of course. "That'd make you Terence. You didn't call." Still the mischievous little grin. "But then, it hasn't been long, I guess. Cool to see another fellow from across the pond. And you missed the loud, flaming, painful fun."

[Terence Wilson] "You don't want me to call." There's no smirk to indicate whether that statement no matter how light in tone might be a joke. There's an inward look at the outward, a mental reflection on resonance and he does just the most damnable thing something more than one willworker has gone on tangents screaming directly into his face over. He falls silent and simply stares at the first of the two to answer his initial question. The one who feels like tying to watch a hummingbird feed from ten containers at once. But he just stares, unblinking, without expression, sizing her up into-

What?
Chunks of data?
Personality Archetype?
The sum or difference of some lengthy constructed mathematical representation perhaps?

None of these. [All of them.]

It's something one of them is intimately familiar with. Calculation.

And as quickly as he entered those seconds of silence he is, again out of it and speaking as though he hadn't been. "I heard there was a rash of trouble. But it's probably best I missed it, bullets are a right downer on your wardrobe, man." And there's the other one. The use of the male pronoun in address of everyone.

[Ellie James] Ellie can accept that. Molly's pretty good at hearing about people even if she hasn't met them straight on yet. Like hearing about the Isabel and jewelry issue before Ellie could tell her. Ellie herself needed to start doing a better job of keeping her nose to the ground if she wanted to be able to help.

The teen bristled a little at the way he stared, even if he wasn't staring at her. He could be staring at the wall and Ellie would frown. Bullets were harder on more than just a wardrobe, and Ellie had seen people shot, knew people who'd been shot at, knew that "That's not funny."

[Molly Quincannon] [[Okay, WP roll. Thank the gods she's had over a month to recover...]]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 5, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Ellie James] Ellie can accept that. Molly's pretty good at hearing about people even if she hasn't met them straight on yet. Like hearing about the Isabel and jewelry issue before Ellie could tell her. Ellie herself needed to start doing a better job of keeping her nose to the ground if she wanted to be able to help.

The teen bristled a little at the way he stared. He could be staring at the wall and Ellie would frown. That he was staring at her like that, like she's on display for him... "What? Is there something in my teeth?"

((sorry about the poor reading last time.))

[Molly Quincannon] Terence is staring at Ellie. Molly is watching Terence. Not staring; watching. Different intent, similar calculation, overall analysis. Whatever conclusions she's come to ... well, they're pushed back by a reaction to the thing about bullets being a bummer on the wardrobe that she doesn't bother to hide. It's been over a month; the flashback is easy to fight back, and she can resist the urge to punch him (He doesn't know; how could he know?), but the analysing look turns unimpressed. Still, there's a mix of rue, wry, bitter and levity in her voice when she says, "Oh, I dunno. The Mind-corrupted scumfuck that put two bullet holes in my chest and took me to a Fallen stronghold to, among other things, get my nerves chewed on by Life-mangled parasites for two days seemed to think that it was a laugh a minute." Then she shrugs. "Anyway, he's right. It's a bummer on the wardrobe, bullet holes and blood. I was wearing one of my two good tops at the time, and a really nice leather jacket that was only fit for scraps when they pulled me out."

Then she turns to Terence. "Sorry if I'm a bit of a bitch about this. It's a little too soon for the casual with this one. Anyway, welcome to Chicago, home of the generally healing wounded. I'd ask questions but I notice you don't answer them. So I'll stick with 'hi' and point out that I'm more or less a directory for 'like-minded' sorts. And I kind of did want you to call me. Curiosity's a bitch."

[Terence Wilson] "Dear,"

She isn't so much younger than him that the tone of the word comes of as paternal, rather it's rather naked in that it's patronizing. That maybe for the same reasons he barely responded a moment prior to the short story of horror she narrates to the two of them. Save for a raised eyebrow of interest that belies little concern. He's a veteran of the Ascension War and these days those fall into three camps. Those that welcome the peace and hide away again to study, those that run in place unsure whether to fight the consensus for their godhood, or begin another battle and those who've pretended there's no such thing as an armistice.

One can easily guess from that callous manner which this one is.

"I got a list, tha's all. Could I have figured out which were the most important? Sure, yeah. I could've gotten a right dead rolodex in order of who's got the biggest mojo in the city. But you know love? I'm a mite busy for that."

With that he pulls out a cellular phone, a nice mobile manufactured by an american company who's named itself for a fruit and flips his thumb across the screen more than once. "Which one are you?"

[Ellie James] Ellie twitched in at Molly's so-cheerful depiction of what she'd been through, the thing that Ellie hadn't been around for. Not that she would've been able to help, but she'd been gone, and Molly could've used a friend when she got out, and Ellie hadn't been there.

This guy, though... right now she's getting the feeling that if he was in trouble she'd help because he was family, but only in the broadest sense of the word. First impressions were important, and so far his wasn't that great. Staring at her, making unnecessary smart comments... his first impression is ranking there with that foster parent a few cities and lives back. Gonna have to watch him. "She already gave you her name."

[Terence Wilson] [Arete// Damn Near all the spheres i've got. (Ent 2, Corr 2, Mind 1) need 3 sux. Spending 1WP, 2Quint.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 4, 8 (Success x 2 at target 3) [WP]

[Molly Quincannon] For her part, Molly doesn't seem overly fazed by the reaction she receives from Terence. It wasn't a bid for sympathy, the recap, but a warning. Others might not be so nice. (She knows at least one person who would have quite possibly gnawed his ankles off for that particular comment.) She isn't a veteran of the Ascension War, but those who first trained her were; she's generally in the third of Lord Bedlam's three categories. She still fights. If she didn't, she wouldn't be out here.

She smiles a little at Ellie and says, "Not my full one, admittedly. Though I think there's only one Molly in the wider community." Then she turns back to Terence. "Quincannon. Molly. Cult of Ecstasy. Dissonance Society, if you're interested." Which he might; they tend to have a rep with the VAs - albeit for being a little bit nuts.

[Terence Wilson] "Should've guessed." He's zoned on the screen at the moment and something crackles. They'll both feel it near instantaneously. It's a release very much like birth into the world, the snapping of something deeply interwoven in the fabric of reality. No, more...something wanting at being born is more apt. His thumb scribbles and scrapes and if they could see his end they'd see lines looking very much at first like nonsense and then something near-hermetic over the top of a google maps image.

One wonders how he's still listening. [How could you not when your mind opens this far?]

"If you can get to the Salvation army on Cicero they've got clean outerwear they're tossing. Might find a new replacement for your jacket." The phone slips inside the breast of his jacket and his hand draws out again against his tie, ruffling it for just a moment. "But I really can't say when, love." He's smiling even as a single bead of sweat falls from around one eye on this cool day. Not so much a turnabout as a rush of seratonin and neurepinephrine to the system.

"Terence. Lord Bedlam. Reality Coder." This for the one of the two who doesn't know already. There's little pleasure taken though at the naming, the convention of all of it, the pigeon holing. Even if this particular neo-shaman does secretly enjoy te sound of the owrds reality and coder next to one another.

[Ellie James] Ellie shrugged - she was just saying that he should've paid more attention. That was all. Really.

The shiver of reality, a nudge of something changing or coming into being, makes the teen jumpy and scoot just a trace closer to Molly. "Pleasure, I suppose?" Molly's heard of him, so he must be saying hello to her. "Hi."

[Molly Quincannon] Ellie isn't giving her name, so Molly will respect that and not use Ellie's name in conversation. She also won't appease Ellie's nerves by telling her that she's met an asshole mage that makes this Lord Bedlam look like a model of propriety, tact and goodwill to all men. (Not in Terence's earshot, anyway.) She does raise an eyebrow at the magic, though. It hikes higher at the statement about the jacket. She does not point out the replacement she's already wearing. He is, after all, trying to be nice. Or just to show off. Either way, no need to take the wind out of his sails. "Thanks," is all she says. "I'm pretty sure I can manage to be in the right place at the right time." That's a clue enough to at least some of the things she can do, as she has some fair idea now what he can. Though it's likely that's just the basics with him. It is for her, after all.

"And what she said about the pleasure, only less tentative," she adds. "We're kind of short of techies these days. Though there's a couple of mad inventors you may or may not have in your Rolodex of awesome. One's part of my crew."

[Terence Wilson] "Met the wee Bean." Is all he offers in response to the statement of a rolodex and he doesn't make anything in the way of fuss as he may've less than a week ago at another Mage who had assumed him some sort of magical computer hacker. Or at least assumed him only that.

But that's what one gets when one joins a tradition, is it not?

At the mention of a crew though, the very last in the statement gets the slightest rise in his shoulders, the most curious look for a moment on his face. He says nothing though, letting the subtle motion show only the corners of the cards he's holding. "I'll be visiting your Chantry a bit more often, I'll likely see the rest of your lot there, yeah?" That isn't a question so much as it turns upward at the end in a very localized idiom.

"Ever need an ear to bounce philosophy with, come calling."

[Ellie James] Ellie doesn't want to give this guy her name, she doesn't really want to talk to him. He stared at her, made Molly uncomfortable, postured. Back in the foster system all over again, getting sized up and judged by the next prospective parent looking for a scapegoat. She bites her tongue on the philosophy comment; she already knows she and Molly aren't that alike trad-wise.

So she bites her tongue and waits.

[Molly Quincannon] Molly's the last person to assume that one is 'only' an anything; people do tend to mistake her for a VA a surprising amount. But he's hardly to know; he's not in her head. She smiles at the mention of 'the wee Bean' - "Henri," she says, obviously fond. "She's awesome. You should ask about her shipmate sometime."

But there's an uncomfortable Ellie who Molly knows for a fact doesn't eat as she should, and so there's the nod to Terence and the reply of, "Yeah, you'll see me around. I'm sure we'll run into each other while I'm on sentry duty over there. And I offer the same to you. You're the one with my phone number, after all. But for now, I promised this one lunch and it's probably about time I delivered." She nudges Ellie's shoulder with her own and adds, "Your turn to pick the place." Then she nods to Terence and says, "I'll see you around, then. Look forward to getting to know you a bit better."

With that and a respectful, friendly nod and a wave, she takes Ellie's arm and heads down the Mile with her young friend.