Shoshannah
It's getting into evening, which means the sun is starting to think about setting . . . which means Shoshannah is slightly more comfortable in her skin than usual, actually. It means that the Dreamspeaker, so often in an obviously ill temper, is actually almost smiling as she pushes her bike along a path (by which we mean an almost street-width expanse of concrete or asphalt that stretches through and around the parkland) near the playscape. There are a handful of kids still there with their nannies or parents or grandparents and so she stops to watch, enjoying the sounds of play.
(It's not the first time that, as she watched a similar tableau, people grew uneasy, looked for the source, and saw her. It's also not the first time they hustled their children away from the potential creeper, never mind that she's a beautiful young woman only in her teens. Even this doesn't dampen her mood, though, at dusk under the new moon. This is her time.)
Today, the girl is much cleaner and more presentable than when she'd initially met Justin; then she'd looked as she was, someone road tripping on a bike and sleeping in a tent at least as often as not. (One might wonder how she keeps warm when she does that, or not. One might not care.) She still has her bike, but today there's only one instrument in the large, custom saddlebags - one of the smaller cases. And so it is that she'll be stumbled over, were someone to head her way.
Sid Rhodes
[where all my mages at? awareness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
Mara Andrews
[Be aware]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 8, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )
Justin
[Be very aware]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 7, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )
Shoshannah
[Dum dum duuuuummmmmmmmmmm (aware)]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
Sid Rhodes
Just as she was the last time she was seen in this area, Sid is just passing through. At least, that's her intent. Last time she was spotted and interrupted on her way to the museum on the other side of the park. Today?
Today she feels the tell-tale tingle of resonance, and an unpleasant one at that. She stops dead in her tracks, lifts her head, and peers around owlishly through black-rimmed glasses, red hair loose, tendrils caught by the occasional cool breeze.
There, up ahead of her some small ways, stands a young girl with a bike. Not an altogether uncommon sight in Denver, plenty of people ride bikes, fixies and multi-speed, around the city. None the less, the sight of the pretty young woman - or rather the angerthat resonates from her, the defensive air that surrounds her, it causes tension to spike through the older woman, drawing up her shoulders. In the pockets of her hoody, her hands ball into fists.
Lips firming into a tight line, Sid starts to move again, a little slower (which is to say she moves at normal human speed), wary. Cautious.
Mara AndrewsTwilight, the beautiful limbo between light and dark. It holds a special place in many hearts and minds, in cultures both new and old, and it holds a special place in the heart of the woman who stood off the path upon the grass. She stood facing the sun, turned from the gathering dark at her back as she took in the growing grandeur of a sun soon to set.
She stood motionless for several long moments as she watched the sun, taking in the subtle shift of hues and tones before she began to move, spreading her arms and legs in slow, purposeful motions. Most people practiced Tai Chi in the early morning, rising with the sun....Mara seemed to prefer the reverse.
Dressed in a pair of loose fitting brown khaki's and a flowing grey rough cotton shirt she moved easily, in the fluid motions of one with a trained and honed body, a body hidden by the baggy nature of her clothes.
A tick in the movement of her head through a slow turn was the only sign that Mara had noted the pull of the many resonances upon the tapestry about her. For now a small smile was her only reaction, her body and her mind, continuing through the old practiced motions.
JustinJustin would have noticed Shoshannah even if he hadn't wanted to. Even if he'd been deliberately ignoring the world around him (not that he ever would - or even could.) Tonight he felt her cold shiver prickle the hair on his arms long before their paths actually crossed. He'd had a day off from work today, which meant that his limbs and muscles were alive and itching to stretch; his strong heart aching to beat (faster, faster.) There was still a part of him that felt some surprise at that - that his body could take and take and still just keep. moving. That his heart would continue to beat.
One could possibly call it a religious experience, if one were inclined to do so.
In any case, his path had taken him through the city, and was now winding inexorably through the park. He moved at a decent clip, winding his way between trees and across the grass, making a loop around a large group of students playing touch football. He was dressed as you'd expect: running shoes and black shorts (no shirt,) and came into the park from the opposite direction as Sid and Mara, so they'd likely see him coming just as well as they felt him.
But as Shoshannah was nearer, it was she who was first graced with his presence. The Verbena slowed his pace to a light jog as he drew up to the eerie girl with the bike. "Evening."
Shoshannah
Desperation, Shoshannah understands. Intractability too, to a certain extent, even endurance. Euphoria and vitality, though? The dead cling to her as if she's one of their own, swirl in the shadows around her, and the days she remembers that she's alive instead of in purgatory are the really good ones. They're the ones that, like today has, curve her lips a little.
It's a skirt she's wearing, a long one of the sort that can easily be hiked up when she wants to ride, and some battered Chucks, no socks. A red tank top over an orange cap sleeve t-shirt, haphazard and mix-matched, inexpensive and not-quite- gaudy bangles and necklaces layered nicely, the top half of her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail allowing the rest to curl around and do as the wind (or spirits, or both) want it to. The arm warmers are apparently sewn together of rainbow colored scraps of sweater and sweatshirt material, covering her arms from the palm of her hands to just below her elbows - pretty, homemade, possibly by her own hand.
"Hey," she answers back, tensing up just a little at the oddity of actually being spoken to rather than ignored or, possibly worse, being edged away from. "How're you?"
It's rusty, small talk is. But there's a blessing to being as weird as she is, sort of - people usually don't expect much. She knows, of course, that Mara and Sid are off to the opposite side from where Justin's appeared, and a portion of her attention is there (just in case) . . . but for now, most of it is heavy on the Verbena.
Her eyes are the sort that seem to flay to the bone, to the soul - discomfort is generally a kind word for the feeling Shoshannah instills in those around her.
Sid Rhodes
As she draws nearer the girl, Sid notices other things. The fast approaching twilight as the sun dips beyond the mountains' still-white peaks. The damp, cool tang in the air. The woman - Mara, augh - moving her body fluidly through some form of physical Asian art. The students playing touch football get her full attention for several seconds, though not in the way one might think. Or maybe they would given the way two of the will workers present have seen the woman act. Timid, watchful, like a frightened animal. Tension knits her brow as she watches them, but they're more interested in their game than they are in the lanky redhead.
Returning her attention to the girl, she notices she's not alone anymore. That man - boy? He seems awfully young to Sid but she's terrible at guessing ages - from the other day. Due to her brief inattention, he seems to appear from nowhere, standing beside the bicycle girl like a gleaming, athletic god from a long dead pantheon. She doesn't look at him that way, though. Sid watches him in much the same way she had the young people at their game, which is only slightly less panicked than the last time she'd seen him.
Sid's trek along the path takes her first past Mara. The dying light of day bleeds through the cloud cover, creating an explosion of gold and pink and orange in the western sky. It casts a warm glow on the Mara's face, and makes Sid's hair into fire. It makes her lovely. Not that she isn't normally, but she keeps it hidden, tucked away behind wavy, disheveled hair, frumpy clothing, and those glasses.
She has a hope, albeit a slight one, that Mara will let her pass without comment. Maybe she'll be too busy with her Tai Chi or whatever and talking to Sid will break her conversation. Then she can nod a brief greeting at Justin, acknowledging his presence and that of the otherworldly girl before getting the hell out of Dodge.
It's not likely, but she can hope.
Mara AndrewsThe awakened, they gathered in this place. The familiar feelings of desperate euphoria, of enduring vitality press against the young woman's mind, her very spirit and she moves through the slow, beatific motions of form as if she might well weave them in the air with her own, bringing them back to the tapestry..or making something far greater then the sum of their parts. That is until that shiver ran up Mara's spine, a chill that at last shook the woman's fastness and caused her to look about, seeking the source of such a disturbance.
Her arms continued through the movements, her legs sliding from position to position as if her body were on auto pilot. But those pale green eyes flitted about in the gathering darkness, pinpointing Sid and drawing a smile upon her lips at the sight of the woman. Then...then she spies Justin, her eyes lingering upon him for several seconds until she pulls her eyes from him to at last find Shoshannah.
It is upon this woman in the distance that Mara focuses as her bare feet slid through the cooling grass. That is until Sid passes near, and those green eyes traverse to the timid woman and give her a smile and a wink, but continues her motions for a few moments more, before she brings herself upright and seem so simply breath.
After letting her body rest for a few moments more Mara stepped a few feet to the left and slipping on a pair of old sneakers that waited there for her, before turning towards the path and moving after Sid, intent on following her to Shoshannah and Justin.
Mara was coming....
JustinSometimes appearances lied. Sometimes girls who felt like spectres were lively and all-too-human. Sometimes people who jumped at shadows could be stronger than one might ever guess. And those who seemed serene might be hiding any number of inner turmoils. Or... sometimes people were exactly what they seemed. None of the mages in the park could answer these things about each other yet. They were all barely more than strangers.
Justin's skin lied. It lied and told the world that it had no scars. That his body has never been broken or torn (that every part of him had always been whole.) It still felt wrong to him sometimes, when he'd look in the mirror, or when he ran his hand over a place that had once born a mark or a ridge and was now only smooth.
He'd had to get used to being shirtless. It didn't bother him now, but it had once.
Shoshannah wasn't used to having people speak to her with normal courtesy. Like she was a person and not a thing. If Justin noticed the awkwardness, he didn't show it. Instead he smiled lightly and shrugged, lips parted as he pulled in deep, steady breaths. To keep his limbs from tensing up, he kept moving, walking around Shoshannah in a lazy circle. "I'm alright. The ground's a bit muddy, but otherwise it's been a good evening for running."
He looked up ahead, at Sid and Mara, and raised his hand to greet them as they drew nearer.
ShoshannahOne corner of her lips curls up, wry, as he mentions running. "I wouldn't know. I bike for transportation more than exercise - don't really do much of anything for the latter. I'm just lucky, I guess." Because she's slim and lithe, with just a little baby pudge to her face yet though it's long since sleeked its way out of the rest of her body. A body that is filled with increasing tension, it must be admitted . . . and though Shoshannah is trying to appear natural, nonchalant, she's not really so good at deception. When people are alone, they usually don't get too nasty.
A group, though?
And this boy - what had his name been? The one who'd known Padre (which she still calls him in her head, even if she has deferred to his desire to be called by his given name out loud), who'd done work at the church - an unknown factor, is friendly with the other two. It's not a flight instinct that fills Shoshannah despite any apprehension she feels, though; that would be far too easy. The Dreamspeaker fights for everything she has, fights tooth and nail.
"I guess you work out a lot, yeah, running and stuff? You look like it, anyway." Blush, awkward? No, not Shoshannah. Of course not.
Sid Rhodes
[percept+alert: AM I BEING FOLLOWED BY A SHARK??] Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 5, 5, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 ) Re-rolls: 1
Mara Andrews[Totally a mantis shrimp >_>]
Sid Rhodes[NOOOOOOOOOO dex+ath to flee (j/k)]
Sid Rhodes
Shoshannah isn't the only one here growing apprehensive about the convergeance of bodies. There are only three of them, and while Sid has met two of them, she would never claim to know them, let alone trust them. Though she may be approaching something like the measure of Mara, she knows absolutely nothing about Justin. She trusts none of them, that much is apparent.
Justin lifts a hand in greeting and Sid, she startles like a deer, her head snapping up suddenly. An expression of surprise melts quickly into something approaching crestfallen. Before it can shift again, Sid's whole body tenses. A few steps away from the pair ahead, she sidesteps quickly, casting a quick look back over her shoulder.
Back at Mara, following in Sid's wake. The redhead frowns, chin tucking down, shifting her weight to her other foot as though she might start walking again. But she doesn't, not right away. Instead she waits on the path, not hesitates, but actually waits for the younger woman to come abreast of her. She'll continue the rest of the way toward the others with Mara, perhaps even allowing herself to fall a half-step behind. Anything to keep the woman in her sights rather than out of them.
Mara AndrewsMara moved with a powerful confidence as she followed along behind Sid, her movements fluid and intent. Her gaze shifted slowly between the woman directly ahead of her and the duo now only a little ways away.
When Justin waves, Mara waves back, her hand raising, her digits waving quickly as an amused smile spread across her lips. In that moment Sid froze up, having realized that Mara was behind her. When she looked over her shoulder Mara once again waved in that finger wiggling manner, the smile still upon her lips as she strode up next to Sid.
"Hey girl...how are you feelin tonight?" She asked with a gentle tilt of her head. When answered she stepped onward, letting Sid fall back if she wished, the woman could do what she wished after all. When at last they were closer to the others Mara spoke once more.
"Justin, your doing well I see." She said with a slight smirk upon her lips. Her eyes held upon the man as her head turned to Shoshannah, it was only when her head had settled firmly in the direction of the young woman that those pale green eyes turned to her as well. The smile upon her features faltered, the woman not able to hide the curious discomfort she felt so close to Shoshannah, but she stepped forward and gave the woman a nod.
"Sup girl? I'm Mara." A hand was stuck out then, offered in greeting.
JustinJustin was probably a few years older than whataver Sid and Shoshannah had pegged him at. It wasn't uncommon for people to miss-guess his age. He had one of those faces. Like he'd gotten stuck somewhere around 20. (It fit, too, with his resonance. Eternally alive and healthy the way that young people are.)
Not that 25 was old by any stretch of the imagination.
Shoshannah made a comment about his probable work-out regime (and it was true - no one who looked like him got that way by chance,) and Justin paused and swept a glance her way. He raised an eyebrow and gave a soft huff of laughter. "Well, I do manual labor for a living." This obviously wasn't a complete answer, but perhaps bragging about his athleticism wasn't something that especially appealed to him. After a pause he added, "I do like to run, though."
And then there was Sid and Mara, and you're doing well I see. And that soft smirk on the Akashic's face. Justin looked at her and gave another soft laugh, glancing at the ground for just a moment as he reached up to scratch his neck self-consciously. The gesture wasn't so much shy as... well, awkward. Like he'd suddenly just realized that he was standing shirtless in the middle of a group of women. Two of whom had drawn attention to this fact.
At least Sid was still... well, Sid.
He coughed quietly and looked up. "Thanks. You too."
ShoshannahThese things happen at about the same time: Mara greets Sid, Justin mentions his manual labor livelihood.
".....I didn't know," Shoshannah says with a shrug. "I do whatever comes up."
Then, the stars align and all four mages are standing together - Shoshannah shrinks in on herself a bit, but not in the manner of one trying to hide. She's more like an animal hunkering down for the attack than a deer about to run - she's on the defensive, constantly.
"Justin, that's your name. I'm Shoshannah," she offers as Mara's hand is eyed not-quite-suspiciously, and as there had been with Pan there's a pause before the younger girl accepts the shake.
Sid RhodesSid's only answer to the question is a deepening furrow of her brows and further ducking her chin. Mara means well, probably, but Sid does not relax around her. Perhaps she won't ever relax, not around the Akashic, certainly not around a small cluster of near-strangers.
They're all together now, clustered on a path in a public park, a knot of desperation and euphoria, of angery defensiveness, bombastic, intractable, vitally enduring. No one comes near them now, they can't handle that chaotic mass.
Here Sid hesitates. Part of her wants to flee from this place, get as far as she can go so she can hide somewhere and pretend she's safe, if only for a moment. She doesn't, though. She stands rooted in place as though she were planted there, eyes downcast, shoulders hunched, hands stuffed into the pockets of her hoody.
Everyone else is talking, carrying on small talk. Chit chatting. For a moment, Sid feels awkward. Not in the way of the outcast, she doesn't feel like she doesn't belong or like she shouldn't be here. Shifting her weight onto her right leg, she kicks the left back, tapping the toe of her sneaker on the path.
When it seems the introductions are going around, she introduces herself only as, "Sid." Her hands stay firmly locked inside her pockets. Dark eyes slide sideways, flicking at Justin when she hears that quiet cough, then dropping down again. Who knew her ratty black sneakers could be so enthralling? "It's uh." Her brows tense. It's an effort, finding her voice in the middle of a group of relative unknowns. "It's good to see you."
Mara AndrewsJustin offers his own casual compliment to Mara in return for her own, it draws a curious and amused look from the depths of the woman's mind and she briefly looks down at her very baggy clothing which does nothing for her looks and she chuckles gently as she raised a brow. "Thanks, I guess."
It was then that the tensed Shoshannah took her hand and shook, Mara's offering in the ritual was a few smooth shakes before releasing her and grinning at the woman. "Good to meet ya..." Oddly in that moment Mara fell silent and the smile fell away before she took a few steps back, either giving Shoshannah her space...or getting some for herself.
"So who the hell woulda seen this coming eh guys?" She asked with a shrug, her hands gesturing out at them as a group. A moment passed as she looked around at their surroundings, noting that they were..as far as she could tell, alone.
"So, anyone up for some...well proper introductions?" Her fingers raising to quote the word proper. "Doesn't matter to me, but i figured I'd table the idea given our little unexpected palaver here."
JustinJustin wasn't sure if Sid's greeting was meant for him or Mara or the group at large, but he smiled anyway. That she'd made the effort at all was a pleasant enough surprise, given how clearly uncomfortable she was dealing with strangers. He didn't (and wouldn't) attempt to ask why. They all had their demons, the Awakened. (Scars that did or didn't show.)
He hadn't really meant the compliment the way Mara had taken it (more focused on her mood and her warmth and the fluid strength with which she carried herself,) but he'd just as soon let the moment pass, so that was exactly what he did.
Mara stepped away from Shoshanna like a breath of ice had suddenly crawled up her spine. He wasn't surprised. Shoshanna seemed to have this effect on people (himself included.) Then Mara asked for proper introductions, and Justin didn't pretend not to know what she meant. He glanced over his shoulder, eyes making a slow scan of their surroundings. Chances were he'd hear anyone approach before they even got close enough to listen, but one could never accuse Justin of not being careful.
"Justin Hale," he finally answered with his full name. And then, after a pause that made it seem as though he didn't much like revealing personal information, he said, "Verbena."
Shoshannah"Stars. Numbers. The Ones That Watch and Wait." This is an answer (a few, really) to Mara's question, though Shoshannah doesn't specify; she figures everyone here is probably smart enough to come to the right conclusion. "And just because there's no one here doesn't mean there's no one here."
It's not a yea or nay on proper introductions, just information offered; it's not like they'll be throwing around True Names or anything like that. If, in fact, any of them believe in that sort of thing. (Shoshannah actually does, though not in precisely the same way she's heard the Hermetics do.) And never mind that she looks vaguely slapped (and then less vaguely self-deprecating about it - hers is an expressive, elastic face) when Mara steps away. It's not surprise, exactly, or even hurt. Goodness knows, if she were asked she'd say she stopped caring about that kind of reaction ages ago.
"Shoshannah," the first name a whisper, a clammy finger on skin, an ethereal susseration over the ears, "Mitchell. Dreamspeaker." Which is likely a surprise to no one. "It's . . . um . . . nice to meet you all."
Sid RhodesThree of their number are almost hyperaware of their surroundings. The youths on the grassy expanse of the park grounds have collected their belongings and are making their way back from whence they came. Soon it will be too dark to see. The Rockies make night fall with alarming speed over the city. Already the stars of which Shoshannah speaks are peeking through the sparse cloud cover to the east. Despite the darkness, if someone were to attempt eavesdropping on this conversation, it's a sure thing at least one of them would notice. Justin glances, Sid's dark eyes dart here and there, checking, double-checking, triple-checking in a matter of seconds. Justin is careful. Sid is just paranoid.
Mara steps back from Shoshannah, putting space between them. That catches Sid's attention. There is something off about the girl, yes, something that seems to shake people out of their comfort zone. Sid notices, but as her comfort zone is already as far away as the moon, maybe farther, it doesn't show as much as it would with the others. To her, it's curious. Mara's reaction becomes a thing to be studied, if only for a second before the offering of proper names is proposed. Sid's attention snaps from one mage to the other to the other, but it's not with the same level of tension, of fear that such a part of how she interacts with the world. The giving of her name? That's an easy thing.
"Rhodes," she says, "Sid Rhodes," in a way that absolutely no one would consider 'Bond-like.' Her mouth quirks, and she reaches up to push her hair back behind her ear. "Or- uh. Orphan."
Mara Andrews"Touche girl...touche." Mara says with a light hearted laugh to Shoshannah's response to her question and she nodded a few times, Her initial reaction might have been to draw away, but Mara seemed more then willing to try and press past Shoshannah's background noise, that intractability shining through.
They slowly moved around the circle, full names and traditions coming to the fore. Mara watched them all, giving each an encouraging nod when they spoke their piece. Sid's answer draws particular interest from the bald headed woman, her eyes meeting Sid's for a moment that stretched, laden with potential..one might think Mara might draw a sneer on her lips and deride the woman for her non existent tradition..but instead she draws an appreciative smile to her features and nods to her.
"Right on Sid...stick it to the man." She said before she turned and looked at all those gathered, hands rising to settle upon her hips, forcing the clothing in ever so slightly to do so, but not enough to define the shape beneath.
"And last but not least, I'm Mara Andrews. Of the glorious and everlasting Akashic Brotherhood." Some might take her words as overly ostentatious...but there is a hint of irony in her voice as she speaks of her tradition, a sliver of displeasure given voice. But the moment passes and she claps her hands together.
"Right, this is freaking awesome. Now, all we need is a good joke about four of us in a park and we'll be set." A smile stretching across her lips once more as she glanced about at her fellows.
JustinOf the group of them, Mara was probably the most likely to come up with said joke. Justin merely huffed a nonverbal response, softly amused in spite of himself. They'd made their introductions, and the only real surprise of the group had been Sid. When she'd uttered the word Orphan, broken and hesitant as it was, Justin's eyebrows had furrowed softly. The expression he wore was thoughtful and... perhaps a touch wary. (Not of her but for her.) But this was hardly the time or the place to ask a near-stranger personal questions about a thing that was best left for closed, private places.
Mara'd had rather a different response. It spoke to their variant perspectives and experiences.
And now here they were. Waiting for someone else to say something. And Justin said, "I suppose we could start a bowling league."
(And it turned out he was the one to make the joke after all.)
ShoshannahIt's not that the Dreamspeaker, the youngest of their number (by over half a decade!), doesn't have a sense of humor - she does, though it tends to be dark and gallows-y. It's just that, "I've never been bowling." It's a matter of trivia, something that doesn't matter, but in current company it makes her feel like she stands out still more.
She's the proverbial sore thumb.
"I." There's a gently cleared throat, embarrassment. "I'm crashing with Padre, for now." This is for Justin, mostly, who she knows understands what she's talking about. "If anyone needs me. But it kinda means I have to be back at a decent time. So . . . I'll see you around, I guess."
Sid RhodesWith formal introductions made, Sid feels a touch more at ease. She doesn't know them, not even a little, but they've all shared a little more of themselves than they might have cared to, and they've all come to the other side of that sharing none the worse for wear.
There are reactions to her own introduction. It doesn't appear that any of them, Mara's favor (the look missed, Sid's shoes are simply too enthralling for her to look up at the other's faces) or Justin's sudden quiet or Shoshannah's , are new to her. As quiet as Sid is, as shy and as wary of others, she's not as young as they are, and she's not entirely new to the life of the awakened. She hadn't hidden her non-affiliation, though she probably could have. She could have tossed something out, thrown them off for just a little while until she figured things out, but why? What would be the long-term good of that?
There's quiet for a beat, then Justin makes the joke that Mara suggested. In the same moment Shoshannah says, "I've never been bowling," Sid says, in that quiet way that may be lost beneath Shoshannah's voice, "I don't bowl."
Her head tips up slightly, brows knit slightly together as she looks at the teen. Shoshannah clears her throat, and Sid jerks her head away as though she'd been caught peeking at something she shouldn't.
"I'm going, too," she says with finality, and she takes one step, stops, frowns. She looks briefly at Justin, her eyes swiftly moving from his face down his bare chest and torso. Then she looks at Mara and the frown deepens, could almost be considered stern. "Don't follow me."
She hesitates only long enough to look at Shoshannah's bike. "You should...get a light for that. If you're going to ride at night," she finishes in a rush. Without waiting for a reaction, and without saying farewell or see you later or anything to any of them, Sid pivots and takes off, her bowed, long legs carrying her to the other edge of the park at a ground-eating pace.
Mara AndrewsAs quickly as they'd come together it seemed that they were destined to separate just as quickly. Shoshannah declared her departure first, followed by Sid, and Mara didn't or couldn't hide the look of disappointment on her face as the two women prepared to depart. "Aww man, all we had to do was get the punchline down and we would have been set." She shook her head and raised a hand to wave at the two who were departing.
"Well girls, I'll catch you all later." She then looked at Sid specifically. "You sure you don't want me too? Could be a lot of fun." She grinned and then waved it off.
Turning she looked over at Justin with a raised and speculative brow. "Aren't you getting cold just standing there?" She asked blatantly, a hand gesturing to the fact that he was standing in the night air with only a pair of running shorts to keep him warm.
Justin[Quick before she goes - Per+Alertness: Did she just check me out? -2 diff from Acute senses] Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (3, 6, 6, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 5 )
JustinI've never been bowling, Shoshanna said, at precisely the same moment that Sid responded with, I don't bowl. And Justin just quirked a smile, like he found their literal reactions a little endearing.
Then the two of them prepared to leave, and Shoshanna mentioned the priest, and Justin nodded his acknowledgment of this information. "I'm sure I'll see you." Because it was quickly becoming apparent that the Chorister was one of the more influential magi within the city, even if he did mostly stick to his own flock.
"Later guys," he offered as the two made their departures.
And then there were two. Mara asked if he was cold. It was a bit chillier tonight than it had been lately, but considering the weather he was used to up North, a cold breeze wasn't going to phase him. The brush of the air on his skin while he'd been running had been a welcome thing. Now it was beginning to cause some numb spots, but the chill had yet to penetrate the surface of his muscles. He shrugged lightly. "Not yet." It hadn't really been that long since he'd stopped running, and his core temperature was still elevated.
"Is that a subtle way of asking me to go?" There was a little humor in his eyes when he said this, so perhaps he wasn't suite so awkward as the momentary lapse earlier might have made him seem.
