[Molly Quincannon] After the receipt of a displeasingly vague note from her housemate and summary explanations of said note much later on, Molly's had a not-so-vague urge to keep tabs on the people in her life, particularly when she knows they've been off on dangerous missions. So there are phone calls, general check-ins and a question of "What's going on? How'd the field trip go? Wait, don't tell me, my line's secure but it's better to do this kind of thing in meatspace and yes, it's me saying it." Which is more or less an open invitation to visit Fort Quincannon for the people on her call list. Nathan's actually second on the list after Atlas, who is around but apparently in the middle of something or otherwise unable to turn up.
All this to say that on turning up at Molly's place, Nathan will be greeted by a Molly dressed in a manner to which he is more accustomed - black jeans, T-shirt that says "PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE - THE FINE ART OF WHACKING AN ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE UNTIL IT STARTS WORKING AGAIN" and a lab coat with so many patches of varying colours and patterns of fabric that it looks more like Joseph's Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat than anything you might actually find in a lab. She's also wearing safety goggles, presumably over contact lenses. She doesn't bother with 'hi'; she launches straight in with, "I have a soldering iron and a bad case of karma. There is coffee and a variety of caffeinated beverages and even chocolate-covered coffee beans. Come in!"
[Nathan Spriggs] Fortunately for Molly, as anyone who knew Nathan might know, things like cellphones and computers were on his 'least trusted' contact methods list. Right up there with Batlights and mid-stadium billboard messages. So when she cuts in to say not to answer, he's saved the seconds it'd take to shoot down the idea himself anyhow. Instead, hanging up, he heads off down the path of Doom (better known as Southside Chicago).
Her appearance upon greeting earns an oddly amused quirk of the brow but no comments for once, it was becoming far too normal for him at this point. Yep, that bad was his situation these days. So, rather than argue, he simply steps inside and shoots back her greeting with a, "All of which, given your greeting, I'm gonna assume you thoroughly taste-tested? If you're too busy right now, I can come back later."
[Molly Quincannon] "Oh, great Google, I could use the break anyway," she tells him, shutting the door behind him. (There's that beep-thunk noise, which Molly would by now have explained as the deadbolts and the current in the steel plating switching back on.) "Anyway, looking at soldering iron sparks for too long gets aggravating and I think the wiring part's done anyway. Now I just have to set my command phrases and the encryption stuff. But yes, I have thoroughly taste-tested ... well, most of them. Not so much the other caffeinated beverages, though, because Mountain Dew on top of the gorgeous gourmet coffee Israel got me for the holidays would be some kind of sacrilege. Want any? There's a pot going. Anyway, I think Ellie's off hanging out with the fire-sprite and she'd be glad to know someone's keeping me from working myself into a shadow of my former self. So ... yeah, take a seat."
She shrugs off the lab coat and the goggles - she doesn't even do contact lenses in a normal way; hers are a bright, unnatural purple - and piles onto her side of the poofy red loveseat. "So ... you look unscathed."
[Nathan Spriggs] Here, he puts on a small show of checking himself for signs of... well, bruises and other injuries. A look over to his back, into the unbuttoned denim jacket he's wearing tonight, down at his light gray jeans and even at the soles of the sneakers Molly saw last time. The weather was too cold for him to be wearing a suit outside right now, it seemed. "Huh, it would appear I am." He says finally, with a hint of surprise and fake amazement.
Then a beat, as he takes a seat in any chair/couch-seeming object, before he gives her a wry grin. "Yeah, it went fairly smooth. I think they never even knew we were there. But I'd rather not assume so as far as planning stuff goes. How're things on your side?" The fire sprite comment gets a momentary look though, parts inquisitive as much as (yes, this time real) amazement. "Wouldn't happen to be called Addie or something along those lines, this fire sprite? I need to meet this so-mentioned Ellie some day, too..."
[Molly Quincannon] The theatrical look-over gets a giggle and a roll of the eyes. "Well, I'm glad. Bruises, burns and gunshot wounds are overrated, appearance-wise. Glad to hear it all went over well, anyway. Good to know these things can come off without running and screaming and near-death."
All that comes as she gets up and pours coffee (Nathan gets the Starfleet mug). When she brings it to Nathan, she answers the bit about the 'fire-sprite': "Yeah, so Ellie said when she came back. Still, all the note I got said was 'Gone to Cabrini-Green to poke a fire-sprite' so ... you can imagine the queue-and-ay session that ensued when she got home. Mostly I got was 'teenaged Texan pyrokinetic with a case of the skittishness', but it's nice Ellie's got a friend her own age. Unless it isn't, I guess. You met her; should I be worried about my housemate?"
She settles in with her own cup of coffee ("I Prepared Explosive Runes This Morning") and then asks, "So would you be cool with favouring me with a readme on the whole recon thing? I could get it from Atlas but he's up to his eyes in engine parts and while I do understand Atlas-speak, I'd rather not leave too much margin for error."
[Nathan Spriggs] He muses upon the long-past meetings with Addie for a moment after taking his cup, watching the surface of the liquid as his left hand absentmindedly taps on the nearest surface as he always seems to do when he's thinking hard enough. When he couldn't glance up the roof/sky, anyway. "Hm, she's in more danger by accident than by intention... I think." That's the impression he'd gotten from the girl, anyway.
Then a chuckle when she mentions Atlas-speak and margin for error, a shake of his head to indicate it's no problem before he adds, "But I'll leave it on the quickie notes for now. I'll be giving a more thorough report soon, I have a feeling. So I'll save surprises for that!" A mischievous glance then.
"The place was easy enough to break into, got an electrified Mage/Magical creature detection fence on the perimeter, but it can be fooled by dumping Quintessence on it. Once inside, there's Scanners, which I'm figuring are the reason to your detection later time, that're like a goddamn Picasso painting of Magic. It's... breathtaking, I gotta give it to 'em. Basically scan the rooms and innately pick up Magic, and Unweave it. Nevermind they also alert everyone and their mothers. The Node, fortunately, takes care of that, as well as the fence, every once in a while, about 20 minutes by my count though it was getting faster and faster as we went deeper, due to it's... well, it's weird in all sorts of way. Spawns creatures we haven't seen since mythological stories long past, like the dragon we killed. Techies are barely handling it as is. But it interferes with technology it seems, because of it's nature. Dunno much on the whys and whats, all I can say is it was a goddamn sight to see, even if it did nearly annihilate me once."
A pause, as he quiets down and sips his Starfleet mug for a brief moment. "That's about it, really. The bigger, finer points anyway. The Techies have the place locked down tight though, I doubt we can take it. Though maybe the Node screws them over more than it helps them as it currently stands."
[Molly Quincannon] The bit about Addie gets a raised eyebrow, but no further comment. She'll ask Ellie, who seems a bit more certain.
The raised eyebrow is joined by a wry little smirk when Nathan talks about surprises, and then she just listens, nodding in a couple of places. Not a lot of it seems to surprise her, at least because... "Yeah, I saw that; what it could be if everyone just damn well left it alone. It ... the meeting wasn't the time or the place to go into detail, mostly because I think everyone had more or less made up their mind what ought to be done, but ... what I saw if it was left alone was the kind of beauty that made the risk the forward-scrying was worth it from a personal point of view at least. You say the Mirrorshades made with the Picasso, magic-wise? That thing was ... is ... could be - the Time thing plays merry hell with the grammar, but anyway - think da Vinci and Mozart at their finest. I didn't see dragons, but maybe it's fighting back. If we could talk to it - the Node, I mean - get it to fight back harder..."
She sighs and runs her hands through her hair. "Sorry. It's just ... hard to destroy something with so much potential. I don't want them to have it, and I don't want us to have it either, but I don't want to see it snuffed, and I guess I have to get over it." Then she shakes her head. "Either way, I guess it means we're going to have to try to find a way to deal with this. Huh." She sips her own coffee, looking thoughtful. Nathan knows that look - it usually goes along with her brain ticking along at high speed, analysing the problem and sketching out solutions.
[Nathan Spriggs] To Molly's words, he simply sips coffee silently as mulling over the issue himself. Silence reins in the room for a while, until at last, he closes his eyes and slowly says, "Well... What if what you saw is how it could have been? Maybe it's already too late, the Technocrats might've awakened something that won't fall asleep again. I don't like it either, but sometimes you gotta commit the lesser of two evils..."
Nathan sighs then, as the conversation borders the depressing subject of whether it was right or not to sink a Node. Especially with what he'd seen. It would be a lie to say he didn't have his own misgivings on the decision. "But in any case, there's nothing we can do about it right now. So before we take the downer road, what were ya building?"
[Molly Quincannon] Molly shakes her head. "No, faulty logic. Look, if you're right and it was their Picasso Magic Unweaving trick that tried to tune out my peekaboo routine, that means they were already there when I did it. And since the anchor point is always my concept of now ... well, at least at that point, it wasn't too late. And if it's still dicking them around, it can't still be too late. Whether it will be by the time we do what we do ... well, that's a matter of possibilities and what-ifs and ... well, I could try looking again, but it's still never certain and someone'd have my head, probably."
That, though, is added to the ticking-away of plans and possibilities in the back of her head and she accepts the change of subject with a nod and a bit of a smile before she gets up and darts out of the room, into her bedroom/garage/workshop. She's back a second later and holds a hand out in front of him, palm up. In it is what looks like a hearing aid. "Bone conduction earpiece microphone," she tells him. "It's not that I was building it; you can get these things on eBay. Just customising it. Look, ForceFeed is great, but the problem with using any focus that relies on that kind of kit is that in a crunch-time situation, getting it out of a pocket or fiddling with a touch-screen costs time I don't always have. Learned that one the hard way." There's a bit of a shudder at that; he saw her iPhone after the shooting, and probably understands. "So I thought I'd set it on voice-activation. And Bluetooth headsets are too visible, and they have batteries that need changing, while this works on the vibrations in my jaw. My iPhone could be at home and I could use this to work Forces. So now all I have to do is set my command phrases and things, and ... voila. Hands-free Forces." She grins a bit. "If you're sticking around, you can watch the test runs, if you want."
[Nathan Spriggs] With a shrug, he says, "Assuming it was going out of control already then, true. But Time is a tricky thing, as we both very well know." With that, he makes a wave gesture to say 'but whatever' and officially moves on the conversation.
Then she jumps up, up and away for a moment and Nathan's left... just staring at the air with a surprised look on his face. Right up until she returns, anyway. Reacting instantly in order to avoid her noticing his surprise, he turns his head to her and listens to her explanation, a small grin edging further and further out as she continues to explain the reasoning. "Nice. That's a good idea, actually. I wish my own methods were easier to shorten out, Prime isn't so hard... Entropy's a goddamn bitch and a half, though I have an idea on where to start thanks to Israel."
[Molly Quincannon] "They aren't all," Molly says as she sits down, plugs the earbud into her ear and then reaches for her laptop. Apparently sufficiently confident in her multi-tasking skills, she types as she explains, "Forces? Sure. I mean, the iPhone was a recent development given that the iPhone itself is pretty recent - Skank spent most of his time burbling Enochian at a Bluetooth headset back in the day, after all - so at least there I can find room for less hands-on solutions, at least as far as the tech goes. Getting away from the tech ... well, I've been trying and I think it's working. I mean, you saw at the whole ... erm, fill-the-armband-with-Hope thing at Israel's a couple of weeks back. I knew ay-ess-ell was going to come in handy one day but it's a whole different way of Will-working. I'm ... trying a broader scope, I guess. Been thinking a lot about how we do what we do and what it's all about, in the end. It's ... weird. Probably enlightening, but ... it's been awhile since my brain got stretched quite this way."
[[For kicks, Wits + Comp, no speciality. Let's say 5 successes for the coding.]]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 4, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Molly Quincannon] [[And again...]]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 4, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Nathan Spriggs] "Unfortunately, I think I'm fairly set in my ways as far as foci go... A lot of it just doesn't fit into my way of things, even with plenty of hammering. So I try to lower the time sink rather than 'broaden my scope' so to speak." Nathan responds while watching her typety-type on the keyboard, no doubt writing up stuff he wouldn't even know where to begin in understanding. "I like to learn, though, as you already know. So maybe some day, when my back's pushed against a wall or somethin'."
[Molly Quincannon] Molly doesn't look up from her keyboard, but the wry, rueful little twist of a smile she gives is clearly meant for him when she says, "Word to the wise from the wise-ass - when your back's to the wall is generally a little late in the day to come up with a new focus on the fly. By the time I worked out that dicking with a touch-screen was a bad idea, I didn't really have the option of coming up with a solution." She clears her throat, then says, "Access ForceFeed", hits a few keys and gives the Enter key a final little bash.
Then she goes back to the subject as though she hadn't just interrupted herself. "We talked about what you use for Entropy, and I've seen you work Matter, but I never got to grips with how you did the rest of it. I mean, you know my ... well, call it paradigmatic root code, I guess ... but ... how do you think it all works?" Another clearing of the throat, then: "HeatAmp. KinetAmp. SparkyPenguin. AnotherBrick. SpectraSkew. LightAmp. EarthSuck. Cross-Ref. Target Designation. Area Effect. Self. As Indicated. Janeway. Roland. Popple. KidWizard. Constantine. Alice. C3PO."
She thinks a minute, then abandons the litany and actually looks up at him. "Listening. Sorry. Patching in voice commands." She's still typing, but she's mostly paying attention, really, for all the random vocalisation.
[Nathan Spriggs] He raises his arms in surrender at her recommendation, with a smirk on his face. "I take your word for it. Here I thought you were all about being able to do anything and at any moment." Then he just watches her work on the commands, with a clear look of curiosity on his face, it was always interesting to try and predict how someone worked their stuff.
A minute passes after her question though, as she continues to tinker with it, before he gives any real sort of answer though. "Right, right. Well, for me, it's not all some universal code of Reality, or rather not just. All of it, Matter, Life, Prime, blah blah blah... It's all interconnected and interweaving but also standalone in and of itself, the 9 Keys of Heaven are just the 9 aspects of reality as we understand and manipulate it. Who knows, there could even be many more. It's like how the Greeks used to think the elements were just Air, Water, Fire and Earth. Or in the proper order... Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! ...Heart!"
Why yes, he did know that, grew up on it. It was hard to forget, really. He also sounds close to breaking out in full blown laughter by the time he pauses for just an instant at Heart, if the reference hadn't been caught until then.
[Molly Quincannon] The first bit, about her being about being able to do anything at any moment, gets a slightly self-derisive snort. "I am. Or I try to be. There's always room for improvement, though, grasshopper. And when I find a way to make myself more able to do anything at any moment than I am, then I use it."
The reference to Captain Planet gets a spate of the giggles that, for the first time since she started, stills her typing completely. And yes, she started laughing around about Fire and it just turned into uncontrollable giggles at Heart. After stifling it a bit, she says, between occasional spurts of renewed giggling, "...Cheesy 80s cartoon references aside, I don't think it sounds all that different to what I believe and what I do. Just our ways of communicating Will to the aspects of reality are kind of different. And there's always been that speculation about the tenth sphere, hasn't there?" She goes back to typing, considering. "As to the Nine Keys of Heaven, I like Israel's way of putting it best, I think. She calls them the Nine Understandings. Which is nice. A Key, a Sphere ... well, both can be seen as physical things, and that leads people into looking at them as just tools, but Understandings ... that feels closer, somehow. No use in downgrading them just 'cos we can bend 'em, right?"
Another clear of the throat, and then: "On my mark. Fuego. Pyrofuego. Hexus. Forzare. Ventas servitas. Palpatine. Shields. Cloak. DarkSight." There are a few more key phrases, some Latinate, some not, and then she pulls away and shuts the laptop. "That'll do for a start. Now all I need to do is test it." See the glee and the grin and the urge to bounce up and down. See the 'kid-with-a-new-toy' gleam in Molly's eye.
[Nathan Spriggs] "True, true. Israel does have a way with words, it's why the Guardians work like we do. God knows she's the morality pet to our ideas at times. Understandings does sound nice, maybe I'll start using it. Who knows." With that, he raises a brow at the look on Molly's face as the keys finish and she's wanting to test it. He can almost feel her excitement.
Which might or might be unnerving after their last training session (nevermind it was his idea to use explosives). So, rather than ask how or where or what, he keeps it simple. "Not it."
[Molly Quincannon] At which point, Molly pouts - it's probably for show. "Oh, what, did you think I was going to Fuego at you? I'm going to need you for a guinea pig but I was going to stick with DarkSight for that. It's a basic apprentice-level thing and you'll have seen my base notes on that anyway. Having it cast on you by someone else just lets you get a feel for it. And tell me that's not a useful skill for a gunman, seeing based on heat rather than light."
Then she stands up. "Okay. Something simple. Something ... not involving you just yet. Let's see. Access ForceFeed. ...HeatAmp. Target designation: as indicated." Short pause, and then she points at a candle on her dining table. "Flickum Bickus. One of the weird pseudo-Latinate things she set up earlier. Apparently, she means to light the candle with it.
[[And does she? Vulgar, no witnesses so diff 6 -1 focus -1 resonance (overexcited air molecules, specifically), so diff 4. + WP because she would like this to work, thank you...]]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 5, 9 (Success x 3 at target 4) [WP]
[Nathan Spriggs] "It might not be completely out there, no. Dragons seem to like doing it." He shoots back, an instant answer, honestly. That in and of itself made it amusing, even without the 'that's what they all say' tone he uses to say it. Then he just turns and watches for... well, whatever it is she's doing. He knew Latin, but this seemed less straight ball Latin and more Harry Potter.
[Molly Quincannon] The candle wick bursts into flame, and Molly bounces up and down, clapping her hands and cheering and generally looking like a large five-year-old. "Yes! It worked it worked it worked!" Then she realises - or rather, remembers - his own knowledge of Latin and settles down, blushing a little. "Okay, the Latin is of the suck. I know this. It's a borrowing from the Dresden Files. Harry Dresden sucks at Latin but bad Latin makes for good focus. For him it's because it's his bad Latin and it means a thing to him. For me it's because I've read it work so many times that it's sort of ingrained now." Then she blinks. "Huh. I guess it really is all down to belief in the end, isn't it?"
Then she gives him the puppy-eyes. "So. DarkSight? Maybe? Please?"
[Nathan Spriggs] His look is in between amusement and acknowledgment to the words, and because of that, even he's not quite sure what to say for just a moment. Then, "Well, whatever. I'm not the Latin police, here to accuse you of unlawful crappifying of the language. If it works, it works," a beat then, and wry amusement, "Just don't blame me if I don't understand any messages spoken in it."
A long, long, long glance at the candle follows. More for dramatic tension than seriousness, though he is trying to figure out just what she did. It was one thing to see Magic of the Forces variety worked, a whole 'nother to understand the foundation and what happened. Finally, a sigh and a nod.
"I better not get cancer. And no X-Ray vision either."
[Molly Quincannon] Molly had started to giggle, if in a sort of scandalised way, at the cancer thing, but the X-ray vision comment derails her for a moment. "You know," she says, slowly, "I actually hadn't thought of that? But you could do the whole em-arr-eye deal, couldn't you, with Forces. At least. Huh. Let's see, if I loaded up the more magnetism-related components of SparkyPenguin ... or the frequencies on SpectraSkew..."
Then she shakes her head. "That'll take some time on Google and looking back at my old Physics homework. So no, no X-ray vision and definitely no cancer. I've used DarkSight enough times and I'm fine and if anything's going to give you cancer, it'll be the smokes. Anyway!" She clears her throat and then: "Access ForceFeed. SpectraSkew. Target designation: self, Constantine. On my mark..." There's a pause - some things take longer to process than others, apparently, and then, "...DarkSight."
[[Coincidental, -1 focus so diff 4, need 2 successes minimum for affecting another. WP.]]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 6, 7 (Success x 3 at target 4) [WP]
[Molly Quincannon] It doesn't take as long as she suspected, apparently. For Nathan, the room goes not dead black, but mostly; there is a certain amount of heat in the room, after all, and the radiators stand out from the darker patches of the furniture. Mostly what he sees is a yellow-orange-red clump over where her computer desks are, brightest around where he might not know the hard drives of her boxen are, the two cups of coffee on various surfaces, the candle of course, the light fixtures, the two ferrets running through the pipes on the wall, and Molly. He's probably seen an infared point of view on TV a time or two; he's seeing it now. There's a click that's the only real indication that Molly's turned the lights off and the yellow-orange-red Molly-shape asks, "So?"
[Nathan Spriggs] "Jesus Christ! My eyes! Nah, kidding. It all looks... interesting," he says, and she can probably see his figure craning it's head left and right to look around the room before adding, "Though I can't shake the idea that it was a very convenient sounding excuse to turn the lights off." Still, he continues to look around, even standing from the chair to circle a bit around the room, touching spots here and there.
Even burning himself on the radiator once by accident. "Ouch, remind me not to touch that again." Finally, when he's satisfied his curiosity for the moment, he slinks back on the chair and crosses his arms with a look (that's undoubtedly missed) that's more of a pout than anything else. "I take offense to that, y'know? 11 out of 10 doctors agree, smoking is a 100% safe way to relax and look cool at the same time."
[Molly Quincannon] Since Molly doesn't turn off the DarkSight straight away, content to let Nathan explore, Nathan discovers an interesting thing - one can tell when a person is blushing through this kind of sight at least as easily as one can by the actual colour-change of skin. "Oh, really, Nathan, you wound me, to think me so devious. I prefer the lights on for that kind of thing, anyway. I like to see what I'm ... doing, so to speak." She doesn't add Or, shall I say, whom. She doesn't have to, but the heat signature of the blush does intensify.
But that's enough of that; she winces a little when he burns himself on the radiator and chuckles a bit, then flicks the lights back on and switches the DarkSight off (with a murmur of "Disengage") just in time to catch the pout. The combined effect gets another laugh out of her, and she shakes her head - the blush is fading out, at least. "Well, I suppose depending on the array of talents you pick up, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm just saying, is all. You don't worry about cancer when you do any of the Mind-enhancement stuff. Why should Forces be any different?" She seems genuinely curious about this. "I mean, I guess you could deliberately do that with the right sort of energy signatures, but this is like using infared goggles."
[Nathan Spriggs] Though smirking as he sees the blush intensify the reading around her, his response came in an oh-so innocent tone, "What? Oh, no. I meant for power conversation, y'know how the oil prices are up these days. Really, Molly, your mind is in the gutter."
When the lights are back on, he's still smirking, in case there was ever any doubt. Though the comment she makes does get a raised brow. "Well, I'm not the sciencey type. Don't ask me how it works. Giving someone cancer on purpose sounds vicious, though. But I think the difference, and let's assume what one reads in articles about radiation is right because I'm pretty unsure on it asides from a high school level growing up back in the day, I'd say it's the playing with radiation waves and blah blah rather than the act itself. No?"
[Molly Quincannon] The power conservation/mind-in-gutter thing gets a roll of the eyes, now seen. "Can everyone please remember that I'm a Cultist who was dating a sexual null zone for the better part of six months? My mind deserves a vacation in the gutter after that particular series of frustrations. I mean, come on. A guy's reaction to hearing that the girl he's dating and occasionally sleeping with even if he won't ever call her 'girlfriend' or anything has taken up belly-dancing should not be a shrug and a 'Cool'; I mean, have you seen how belly dancers move their hips? Great Google, what a--" She cuts herself off there, closes her eyes, presses her lips together and says, "Tee-em-eye, I know. Sorry. Moving swiftly on."
The rest gets a grin. "Well, I am the sciencey type and it really depends on the radiation in question. It's got to be a high dose and very concentrated to do any real harm. I mean, there's radiation everywhere; you're being exposed to it from natural causes - magnetic field of the earth, ionic stuff, ultraviolet light from the sun, all that - every day of your life. That's even without radio towers and everything. You're faintly radioactive. But unless you're seriously overusing it in a serious way or standing close-range to a nuclear reactor or something, DarkSight's not going to be any more harmful than walking around on a sunny day. Less so, given the big honkin' hole in the ozone layer having cut the natural ewe-vee filter it represents. I don't think I've ever bent the spectrum to a harmful place, though. I mean, not counting the Palpatine deal and Fuego, but that's manipulating an entirely different force. And we all know the risks of standing too close to overexcited molecules, right?" She looks at him, and then at the radiator, to illustrate her point.
[Nathan Spriggs] He nods slowly, very slowly as he takes it all in and finally gives her a strange look. "Well, all I really got out of that was lots of nice words... RADIATION! EVERYWHERE! And the fact that you really are a geek, christ. Not that that's an insult, I mean" Nathan finishes it off with a smile, innocent and sweet... which turns into a grin soon enough. To the first part though, that he'd waited a while before reaching, "Well, that answers the question I've always been asking myself: How good was Chuck in bed? Now that I know that, my life feels completely. My search for knowledge is over, people. In other news, though, do tell me more about belly dancers and dancing."
Still, the grin pressed on, this time a raised brow. "Given past tense, I'm figuring out your last few talks never worked out?" Now he's a tinge quieter and more subdued, clearly not wanting to infringe too far into personal territory.
[Molly Quincannon] "Well, somewhere in there should've been 'not all radiation is bad and it's okay in small doses'," she points out, chuckling a little with a shake of her head. "As to the geekness that is me ... seriously, you're just figuring this out now? But yeah, I cover the bases, geek-wise. It's not all sci-fi and machine code. Sometimes it's pure laws of physics. Now you see why I get Forces so well."
The thing about Chuck in the bedroom ... well, one benefit of contact lenses over glasses is that one can facepalm without frames and lenses getting in the way, and Molly proves this by demonstration. "I think I got misconstrued, but what the hell. As to belly dancers ... you've got a computer at home. Jay-eff-gee-eye. Trust me, jeans really spoil the effect. So find some belly dancers on YouTube and let your imagination roam free. I have the costume, y'know." Tiny little grin of mischief, there.
The subdued thing gets a snort. "You think he's called me to own his shit and apologise. That's cute. I haven't heard from him beyond occasional guild shit since the blow-up at the coffee shop. Well, I did him know the Mirrorshades are in fact in town, as a matter of courtesy given the House of Leaves breaking up and Emily being almost as pissed with him as I am, but that was email. I told him to call me if he ever got his head out of his ass. Didn't think it was likely. Apparently the head-in-ass comfort zone is worth a hell of a lot more than I ever was to him, and thus I say 'good riddance'. I should have done that months ago."
[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan slowly slides back into the couch as comfortably as possible as Molly talks, though when she mentions to 'JFGI', he gives her a questioning look before responding to the rest, "Will do. Or even better, since I'm too lazy and will have forgotten, got a laptop I can use handy?" He returns the grin in kind here, too.
Everything about Chuck though, it earns a creasing of the brows and a scoff as he digs through his pockets for a death stick. "Don't mind if I smoke, d'ya? I don't think I can hear stories of VDept douchebaggery without my fill of nicotine first. Or instead... where did we leave off on our dinner conversation last time, again?"
[Molly Quincannon] For a moment, she just looks at him, all wry. ".......I'm not sure whether my incredulity should be reserved for the idea that you of all people would have forgotten anything, or that you can ask me that question given that you saw me typing on one not ten minutes ago." Then she shrugs and says, "Well, to be fair, that was my travelling hack-box, not my travelling surf-box. Which you have also seen." She delves into the laptop bag again, pulls out her MacBook, opens it, switches it on, fires up Firefox and even enters the relevant search term in before handing Nathan the machine. "There you go. You can look at that while I get The Ashtray. Which is to say, no, I don't mind. Thomas smokes in here all the time. To the point where I had to get The Ashtray."
The Ashtray, when she sets it down, turns out to be a square ceramic dish the size of the average bread-and-butter plate with words painted in tiny letters on the bottom. There are names (George W Bush features), there are organisations (RIAA and FCC are in there) and companies (Sony, Electronic Arts, Fox) in the list, along with 'Mirrorshades' and 'Nephandi'. The names alone probably gives the clue that this is the Things Molly Hates List.
The last question gets a thoguhtful look. "Well, if you mean at your place, we got as far as gift-giving and how we spent the holidays before you told me about your re-enactment of St George and the Dragon. If you mean at DaVinci's, we were talking about awkward subjects about our bleak and distant pasts and whether there were any more to dredge up. So ... ask away."
[Nathan Spriggs] He responds to her in a straight-forward, over-the-top serious manner, even buttoning up his jacket before speaking, "Well, Miss, you see, when one is as paranoid as I am, one keeps the 'publicly open' property well away from the 'private use' property so to speak." Then just as quickly as it came, as the words come to an end, he drops it for a grin and a shrug, "I just figured you had so many computers, I should see if there's one I hadn't seen." Assuming what he said wasn't serious?
To The Ashtray's arrival, he picks it up and looks around it, under it, and then settles it down again. Lighting up his cigarette, he looks at Molly with a curious look as he says seriously, "So I take it you voted Obama? Or are you more hands-off with your politics?" Nathan and politics, a conversation that should not happen. It was like a warning for Molly to walk away from it.
"Right, right, St. George. Guy had nothing on us. Though I'm always open to hearing more about your dreary past, it's good for raising my mood."
[Molly Quincannon] The over-the-top seriousness gets more laughter. "Oh, seriously; you've seen this one too. As for publicly open versus private use ... eh, I've got my own ways of being paranoid. I didn't suggest you use one of the six switched-on computers over there, did I?" She's not serious; her expression indicates that he probably could use them if he wanted ... but he wouldn't have a hope in hell of finding what she considers 'sensitive', or know what he was looking at if he did.
The bit about politics gets a shrug. "Me? I voted for Daria Morgendorffer. Take that as you will. As to my dreary past? Well, if you understood sign language, you'd know most of it already. So ... first hospital trip! Aside from the whole 'being born' issue, I mean. Mine was ... I was eight and a half or so, guy in my class who'd been beating up on me for my entire elementary school career broke my glasses and grabbed me for that really piss-annoying Indian-burn thing. So I head-butted him. That broke his nose. He broke my wrist. Casts itch like a bastard, eff-why-eye."
[Nathan Spriggs] Okay, maybe his TV savvy had certain limits, as Molly's comment on who she voted on goes right by him, indicated by the raised brow and '...who's that...?' look on his face. As to the hospital trip, he considers it for a moment. "Hm, y'know, I don't think I've ever really gone to a hospital post-'being born' issue. I dunno if you count underground doctors, though... Now you got me curious though, you used to get bullied, huh? I wouldn't have imagined."
[Molly Quincannon] To the confused look, she just gestures to the laptop he's still holding with a look that says, 'jay-eff-gee-eye'. The rest, she chuckles a little and says, "I suppose underground doctors count, mostly because I've never been to one and I'm curious now about what they're like. And yeah, I got bullied. Pretty much every day from elementary school until I finally left for college, though breaking that guy's nose stopped the physical stuff, at least. I grew up in this litte town where men were men and women were Stepford. All the girls there were being raised to be somebody's housewife. I was ... different. The different are always bullied. Especially when they are skinny, nerdy little kids in glasses. I gave as good as I got as much as I could, but when the teachers and my own parents were on the bullies' side, more or less? Y'know, the whole 'Well, if you just acted normal, this stuff wouldn't happen'?" She shrugs; she's more or less made her peace, but it's not like she's forgotten it. "Let's just say it builds hella fortitude."
[Nathan Spriggs] "I can imagine, and a fair share of issues too. But I'm just gonna assume you got off scotfree from those for the most part... Or hope, anyway." Nathan says, whilst proceeding to Google the name and going quiet for a moment as he reads the description and... then a facepalm. Of course, he still had the belly dancing video in another tab, but the conversation kept him too preoccupied to look.
"Right, right. Well, I've gotten stabbed and shot, the stab incident wasn't anything serious, I just had to get a quick check up. The shooting though... man, I can't even recall the full details of how I survived that. I'd lost so much blood, I think some kid called for help and I ended up ditching the ambulance after they'd superficially patched me up and bleeding out in a cab until I got to a, er, 'safer' doctor. It's hazy at best, though." One had to wonder what it was he did to get in these situations, but the Mage life was such that it would no doubt be accounted for, mostly. "I think that's the first time I realized what a fucked up person I am."
[Molly Quincannon] "Actually, you'd be surprised," is the response to the issues thing. "I wouldn't appreciate friendship and trust and all that half as much as I do if I'd known it all my life as I do having come into it as late as I did. Also means I can live without it if I have to, and be glad I don't have to. I think that's sort of the antithesis of 'issues'."
Then there's the talk of the stabbing and the shooting, and she looks ... well, 'worried' isn't the best word, as she knows that it's long past, but perhaps 'horrified'? That'd work. "Holy shit; how'd that go down? I mean... Wait." She's thinking. This is never good. "How is you getting shot any kind of indicator of your level of fuck-upedness, as a person? I mean, last time I got shot, while I appreciate that the circumstances could call some question on my sanity, I'm actually pretty sure it was the guy doing the shooting that was fucked up. So ... explain to me the logic? ...If it's not too personal," she adds, recalling who she's talking to.
[Nathan Spriggs] He considers the question for a moment, though there's a clear understanding of her initial words, too much of an understanding really. Even if the circumstances and reasons are different. Finally, Nathan, taking a slow drag, answers, "Call it near-death enlightenment. That and questioning of one's philosophy of life and beliefs. Way I figured it, the kid had no reason to call for any help. Sure, there was a guy there, bleeding out from gunshots, in some dark alley near his house. Didn't profit though, no money in it for him, no glory probably, absolutely nothing at all. Was probably better off stealing my wallet and disappearing. I still can't quite understand a lot of it, really." These are the times when the self-derisive comments she might've heard from him or others about his past attitudes really came to light, the sheer cynicism in his tone when he says it. Like saving someone's life for no profit really was that hard a concept to understand, saving a life.
Of course, times changed. He'd experienced those moment, even if he didn't understand them still. But the question always remained there, in the back of his head. Had it been the same? The battle for someone's soul when faced with the deep, dark abyss that is Nephandi and other monstrosities wasn't the same as that moment. "But anyway, I don't figure you're interested in diving into philosophy right now," he finally adds, a clear attempt to reroute the conversation topic once more.
[Molly Quincannon] Molly just looks ... puzzled by the whole thing - well, the cynicism, frankly. It takes a moment to truly understand (as much as she can, from her own worldview, anyway) why the idea of saving someone's life for no material gain would make Nathan think his own life was fucked up. Then it hits her, and if possible, she looks yet more thoughtful. Maybe he's trying to reroute the conversation, but she's Curious. She wants answers, always, and some of the places in which one can dig for answers are very dark.
Frankly, she's lost for a conversational segue. Way leads ever on to way, after all, and she thinks a bit like the Internet works - a vast series of interconnected points. Not seeing a life saved as a net profit = a life not being worth anything = people are nothing = consensus is a fallacy and the world just is, populated by nothing; ergo, clearing out the nothing that is humanity and existence as a whole to make an actual nothing might... When you look into the darkness, sometimes it looks into you. She shudders a little, still thoughtful, as some tiny glimmer of actually understanding what Riveira and that demonic little kid believed, wanted to get her to believe, hits. Nathan may wonder if saving her from Nephandi is like what that kid did to save Nathan's life, but Molly is interested in diving into philosophy, like she is in diving into everything else, and the pool she's found to dive into is deep and cold.
She doesn't say anything. She just goes pale and hugs her coffee.
[Nathan Spriggs] Silence takes over the room, and yes, the atmosphere seems to become heavy, almost noticeable in it's own ways. Molly's dropped to her own dark thoughts, and Nathan's realized his slip up in what he's said and gone quiet himself. Still, he doesn't miss the way she pales or hugs her coffee, that look she has. After what feels like an eternity, and he isn't even sure if it's been mere seconds or minutes, Nathan speaks again, softly and with a controlled calmness to it, clipped even, "What's wrong? You seem... lost in thought..."
[Molly Quincannon] [[Ahahaha, Molly's actually going to try to ... not lie but downplay this.]]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 5, 6, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Nathan Spriggs] [I will destroy your roll... I hope]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6) Re-rolls: 2
[Nathan Spriggs] [Reroll at diff 7, please?!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 7) Re-rolls: 1
[Molly Quincannon] It's a second before his question registers; when it does, there's a flutter of eyelashes and then she looks up at him in something like shock. It's that look Nathan probably gives the world when he finally pulls himself out of one of those deep-concentration book-fugues, with a lot of haunted look behind it. "Huh?" Then she rubs her face with her hand, gives a shuddery sort of sigh and gets reoriented. "Oh. No, I--" Then she shakes her head; trying to tread delicately here for a lot of reasons, not least of it being the reaction she normally gets from people when she cops to this kind of curiosity about this particular subject. "I ... went off on a tangent, is all. Unrelated thing. But you're right; philosophy, not so much the order of the evening."
Then she finds a change of subject, apparently just glossing the whole thing over. "Hey, you've got my surf-box; is there anything showing at the movies that you actually might be interested in seeing? At DaVinci's, we did talk about the movies, and TV at your place doesn't count, fun as it is." She's still maybe a little pale, but one thing that can be said for Molly, she bounces back well. At least, she seems to.
[Nathan Spriggs] Maybe he doesn't notice it at all, or doesn't comment if he does, probably too wrapped up in his own issues to realize her's. The problem here is not an obvious one. Whatever the case, Molly's sudden flip earns a look of concern for the barest moment and then he responds to her comment on tangents with a sigh and a nod in agreement.
To the movies, he says: "I have no idea what's on right now. So no opinions, that said, I'm always open to suggestions?"
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