Amalgam

[Amalgam] It's getting to be late in the afternoon, and Enid and Austin may be out. Perhaps contemplating dinner, maybe out exploring somewhere. Wherever they are, Enid happens to get a phone call. The screen on her phone indicates that it is Uncle Zeke.

[Enid Geraint] She's laughing, speaking in rapid-fire, fluent Chinese with some vendor at a street market and offering translation for Austin - who is no doubt significantly better at the language than he was when they arrived, but still not conversationally fluent. Her phone rings, and she fumbles it out, only smiling wider when she sees who it is. "It's Uncle Zeke," she tells Austin, excuses herself from the vendor (who likely speaks at least a little English) and steps back enough to politely take the call.

"Hey, Uncle Zeke," she says, all warmth and pleasure and girl-on-vacation good time. "I was wondering when someone would call. What's up?"

[Amalgam] Uncle Zeke's voice is familiar and friendly, and Enid can tell that he's smiling at the other end of the phone. "Hey, kid," he says. "Nothing's up, I just thought I'd call and see how you were doing. I have a little bit of time to myself and I was wondering if you'd like to visit. Give me a chance to talk to that boyfriend of yours."
to Enid Geraint, K. Geraint

[Austin Conway] Austin's Mandarin had improved significantly over the past couple of months, despite his professed ineptitude with languages. Being immersed in the culture certainly helped, and he found more and more lately that he didn't need Enid to translate for him. Still, it was difficult to catch more than a handful of words here and there when she spoke that quickly, so he was grateful that she took the time to make sure he'd understood what was going on.

It was often this way, with them. As they wandered the city, Enid socialized and interacted, and Austin... watched and absorbed. It wasn't that he was particularly shy, per se. The Akashic simply had a quieter, more contemplative demeanor. Often he would stop to look at something, and one got the sense that he was pondering something deep and philosophical, though he never outwardly admitted to such.

Now he stood by quietly as Enid took her phone call, and he watched bicycles pass by on the street while half-listening to whatever Enid was talking about with her "uncle."

[Enid Geraint] "We'd love to visit," she says, pleased. "I was hoping we'd get the chance. How long are you here? I have your address, so I suppose a cabbie'd be able to find it." She hasn't been, wouldn't be able to find it on her own, but it's a start; she reaches out, squeezes Austin's hand, and actually bounces a little. She's studious, this Hermetic apprentice, but she never has a problem letting it be known how she's feeling. She's excited, and obviously so. "Want us to pick up carryout for dinner or something?"

It's easy to forget how young she is, sometimes - not that much younger than Austin, really, but still young enough that her perceived authority figures are important. And that she loves Zeke like family makes him all the more so.

[Amalgam] "Sure, bring over some carryout. Can you swing by the office though? I have some work I'm trying to get finished up, and then after that we can maybe talk about going out for the evening. Sound good?"
to Enid Geraint, K. Geraint

[Austin Conway] Not surprisingly, Austin's reaction to this invite is somewhat less excited than Enid's own. He glanced toward her as she reached out to squeeze his hand, and there was a carefully guarded expression on his face. Enid's close, personal relationship with the Technocratic Order was cause for some concern, even in a Tradition mage as young as Austin. He kept his opinions to himself much of the time, because it wasn't in his nature to judge before he'd been able to gather his own impressions, but that didn't mean he was particularly eager to have dinner with the supposed enemy.

And he certainly didn't trust them.

[Enid Geraint] "Hang on just a sec," she says, and raises an eyebrow Austin-wards. "Uncle Zeke wants to see us, but he's stuck at the office a bit longer," she says, enough away from the receiver that it's faint, mixed in with the sounds around her. "Are you okay with bringing carryout and eating with him? We'll all three of us go out and do something fun after, I bet. He's good at that, finding things that other people don't necessarily think of." Plus, he spends a lot more time here, so would have a lot of ideas to begin with - maybe some that Emily hadn't given, even.

That she wants to see him is obvious; since handing in her security badge and telling her would-have-been boss that she wouldn't be taking the internship after all, she's been half waiting for Kaye or someone to call, asking her what she was thinking and why she was throwing away such an opportunity. She wouldn't blame them, not really - it feels a little crazy, giving up such a chance to make connections in her eventual field, but in the end she simply hadn't been able to get Ashley's voice, talking about how the people her mom, aunt and uncles work for (because she can't think of Kaye and the rest being a part of it) brainwashing people.

She pouts prettily now, though, pleading, and Austin knows how she feels about Zeke; he's her favorite. Of course she wants to jump at the chance, and she wants him and Austin to like each other too.

[Amalgam] Zeke holds, quiet and patient on the other end.
to Enid Geraint, K. Geraint

[Austin Conway] Enid... pouted. And Austin, of course, relented. Because he was highly susceptible to female manipulation from the Enid camp, even for all his supposed training to the contrary. Maybe if his mentor had still been around, things would be different. Maybe in a few years, he will have hardened himself against the crashing waves of emotion and hormones. But underneath it all, he was only an eighteen year old boy.

And he wanted to make Enid happy. So he sighed a bit, then shrugged. Then, finally, offered a hesitant smile. "If you really want to."

[Enid Geraint] "Thank you thank you thank you!" She wraps her free arm around him, rises up on the balls of her feet to kiss him, and then puts the phone back to her ear. "Yeah, we'll be there. Any requests?"

Austin doesn't trust him - any of them. Enid does, for certain values of the word, and Zeke, she'd trust with her life. There's never a time she isn't pleased to see the youngest of her mother's associates, her 'good cop' near-uncle.

[Amalgam] There's a long stillness at the other end of the phone as he overhears Enid give Austin a flurry of thanks. And then a pause, a quick heartbeat, before he answers her. "Hm. Nothing specific. You know what I like," Zeke tells her, and then he gives her the address of his office building. "I'll see you soon."
to Enid Geraint, K. Geraint

[Austin Conway] Enid thanked him profusely, and Austin laughed in spite of himself, accepting the kiss without complaint.

"Just, you know, if they try to recruit us, I'm out of there. And taking you with me."

Austin very rarely delivered decrees, like that. He wasn't a controlling sort of person. Hell, he wasn't even the aggressor in their relationship. So despite his casual tone, it's likely that he felt fairly strongly about this subject.

[Enid Geraint] "Oh, they won't. Maybe they actually understand - and if they were going to try," she says, half scoffing as the points out a likely food place and heads that way, hand in hand with Austin, "I don't think it'd be Uncle Zeke. I mean . . ." There's a shrug, wry, and a smile. "Aunt Pete and Uncle Dan are kind of the heavy hitters, you know?"

So it's into the restaurant to put in their order - favorites for everyone - before hailing a cab and heading towards the office building.

"They're not that bad," she reassures Austin. "I can't . . . I've known them for my whole life, you know? I'd know." Or so she thinks.

[Austin Conway] "Sometimes it's hard to see the bad in someone that we care about. You get... blinded by emotions. But who knows, maybe you're right. I guess technocrats are just people, like everyone else."

And he shrugged, at that. Willing, if a bit resistant, to give someone that Enid cared about the benefit of the doubt. He'd spend most of the cab ride in relative silence, reacting only when Enid directed a specific question his way. Thinking.

[Amalgam] The office building that they come to is a small one, chic and modern, angular and paned by reflective glass with a sleek metal framework. None of those ugly boxy brick things that offices end up being so often in Chicago. It's winter, but there's a place around the front where there would usually be a nice garden, and one could imagine that in spring it will be gorgeous in full bloom.

The doors slide open for the two of them without Enid ever needing to provide identification. It smells clean - clean, but not sterile - and the inside is decorated with the sorts of attractive but pointless paintings one finds in office buildings. Colored spheres and shapes and angles, usually colored as a gradient, sometimes in water or the like. Boring things.

The wallpaper? Gray, of course.

Zeke's office is near the back; Enid is aware of this, as he told her on the phone.

[Enid Geraint] It's maybe an hour, all told, to order food, get it, hail the cab and arrive at the building. There, she's a bright spot in her wine-colored top, with her red hair and fair skin and freckles. She's holding Austin's hand in one hand and a bag of food in the other. Austin was quiet in the car, and so she'd told him about the time she'd dumped a bucket of pool water on Zeke's head and accidentally fried his laptop, next to him, when she'd been around seven and he'd been watching her. And about the time she convinced her 'uncle' to bake with her because Kaye wasn't home, and they'd both ended up throwing dough at each other and covered in flour. Happy stories, normal stories. Because to her, yes, they're just people.

At the offices, she smiles - comfortable, at home, despite all the dullness. "He's back here," she says and leads the way to wrap lightly on Zeke's door.

[Austin Conway] This is the kind of place that one imagines when they think of an office building. Clean, sterile, boring. It was so mundane as to be almost smothering. Easy to forget that any real power might lie underneath it. That any awakened person could spend a significant amount of time here and not feel creatively stifled seemed surprising. (But then, everyone had their own way of looking at the world.)

Austin followed Enid inside and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, looking around absently while he waited for them to be allowed into Zeke's office.

[Amalgam] There's a quick series of footsteps. Not very many, as Zeke doesn't have far to go to the door. But it swings open, and there he stands just as Enid remembers him. He has a smile for her, big and welcoming, as he holds the office door open for the two of them. It appears to be one of those that's hinged so it will automatically swing shut; they would have to kick down the doorstop in order to keep it open.

"Hey, freckle-face," he says, and for a split second there's a flicker of something in his expression that reminds Enid of the look Ashley had just before she left. Something haunted. He's quick to recover, though, smiling over at Austin too. "You must be the boyfriend. Austin, huh? I'm Zeke."

He smiles and offers his hand.

[Enid Geraint] "Hey," she says, and reaches out to wrap her arms around him in a tight hug. It's been a shorter time between sightings than it tends to be, but still - she misses them all when they aren't around, and especially him. "Hope you haven't missed me too badly, Shades."

The look is caught, and puzzlement flickers briefly, but it doesn't stop her - the bag is set on Zeke's desk, and she laughs. "You met. Not for long, granted, but at the restaurant when you were all in town between Christmas and New Year's. Austin, this is Uncle Zeke. They're not making you stay too late, are they? And tell me you're at this branch for a few days, at least. We should hang out, all three of us. See a show or something, maybe. It'd be fun."

[Austin Conway] The boyfriend. It was odd to think of himself this way, like a kind of accessory in someone else's life. Then again, he'd been continuously referred to as the Apprentice by various Akashics back at the chantry, and ultimately, this wasn't all that different. Zeke stuck out his hand, and Austin looked at it for a second (perhaps warily, but if so, it didn't show) before reaching out to accept the greeting. His own grasp was neither hesitant, nor as strong as it could have been. Willful intimidation wasn't typically his style.

"Yeah, nice to meet you. Officially." They had been introduced on a previous occasion, but Enid had whisked them away so quickly that impressions hadn't really had a chance to set in.

[Amalgam] Her hug is returned. Tightly.

"I remember," Zeke says, still smiling at Austin. "But all we really had time for was to throw names around before you rushed everyone out. Didn't want to be stuck with us old folks, I guess." To Enid, he nods. "I'm here for a few days, yeah. Why don't you both come in, I just have something I need to finish up really quick."

He straightens, giving Austin a firm handshake in return - his palm is pleasantly warm - and holds the door open for the two of them. The inside of the office is large and surprisingly spartan, with a desk, his laptop open, and two chairs on the other side of it.

"You can both sit down."

[Enid Geraint] "Aww, you aren't that old. Are you working on anything interesting?" She steps in, sets her jacket over the arm of her chosen chair and sits, patting the other chair for Austin. And of course, she doesn't necessarily understand the more numbers and shareholders and business oriented end of things, but still she asks; it's only polite. And who knows? Some day, even in law and policy, she may need to know these things.

Then, wry: "I should be quiet so you can finish up quicker. We could have come a little later, you know."

[Austin Conway] It felt like a little like a job interview. Like they were building up to something, rather than just... hanging out. But that may just as easily have been the particulars of the space they found themselves in; this clean and sparsely furnished office, with two chairs conveniently placed in front of the desk Zeke sat behind. Austin followed Enid and sat down next to her. Briefly, he let his eyes wander the room, taking in any details he could find.

[Correspondence/Forces scan on the building - where is the electricity going? - diff 4 +2(not using focus) -1(taking time)]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 3 (Success x 1 at target 5) [WP]

[Austin Conway] [Extending - watch him botch]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 2 (Failure at target 5)

[Enid Geraint] [Because she has an assignment! And vacation is no excuse for slacking . . . Per + Aware (speaking of botch)]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 5, 5, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Amalgam] "Well, I hoped I'd be done by the time you got here," Zeke says, and maybe he really had. He walks around to his side of the desk and then takes a seat in front of his laptop. His fingers touch the keys.

To Austin, the building looks much like any other - the wiring seems largely normal, routed throughout the building and to numerous devices within. One thing he -does- notice, however, that seems a little odd, is that several rooms at the end of the hall - just next to this one - do not seem to have any power routed to them whatsoever.

Zeke's fingers touch the keys and a minute or two ticks by; he's silent. But the two of them can hear steadily approaching footsteps down the hall, and then, before they've fully had time to process the fact, the door opens.

Austin and Enid both recognize them; Austin met them, ever so briefly, during that evening when he and Ashley happened upon Enid out with her mother. They file in and the door shuts after them, and Pete and Steve take up positions near the door. Zeke steps away from the desk and back toward the far wall, looking exceedingly guilty, as Dan steps forward.

[K. Geraint] There is a woman in a chocolate brown pant suit, a color which turns her hair a fiery coppery rather than a true red, coming down the hallway as well. Through the office door, they can just hear the click of heels on the flooring, measured footsteps drawing nearer. She knocks once, only once, and waits for a few seconds before pushing the door open and stepping into the room.

Kaye Geraint is all business today. With barely a small smile for her daughter, a nod to Dan, she crosses the room to take up her station near Pete and Steve. Only then, does she catch Zeke's eyes. There is a brief flicker of something (apology [hesitance]), and then she's chin up and all calm, cool and collected once more.

No helloes. No how are yous. No questions about the internship. Kaye already knows what she needs to about all of that. Mama Geraint folds her hands neatly in front of her. This is not her show to run.

[Enid Geraint] ".....you didn't say everyone was going to be here, Uncle Zeke. Where's Mom?" But she's wary, and the puzzlement that flickered is now there to stay; she watches Zeke, confused at his reaction, then stands. "Hey, Uncle Dan," she says, ready to give him a hug like Zeke's, if not quite as warm. They are not as close, never have been, but she calls them all aunt and uncle.

Pete and Steve get a smile, an attempt at laughter, but Enid is more nervous now - as stated, she's wary. "You look like American Gothic, Aunt Pete and Uncle Steve. Or a pair of gargoyles."

She doesn't like this, and it's strange to her - strange to not be laughing, strange to not be trading quips and greetings. It's been a couple months since they all saw each other, after all. But then there's Kaye, which answers that question - Enid's face lights up brightly, briefly, and then it dims again.

".....why do I suddenly feel like I've been called to the principal's office?"

This is asked looking at Zeke; he's the one most likely to give her an answer that makes sense.

[Austin Conway] It only lasted for a moment. Austin's desire for subtlety had made the effect more difficult, and his senses strained to catch what information they could. In a flash, there was space, and the current of power that ran through that space, threading along like veins in a human body and pulsing with energy.

Nothing unusual, really, for an office building, except where it went black. Maybe that was notable, and maybe it wasn't.

Then the door opened, and the rest of Zeke's amalgam began to file in. Austin snapped his attention back to the immediate area, and he stood up from his chair and turned to watch the faces of those who'd just entered.

It felt like being called to the principle's office. More than that, it felt like being cornered, and Austin reached out to grab hold of Enid's wrist, to keep her standing close to him. He stared at the man Enid referred to as Uncle Dan for a long, silent moment, then asked, "What's going on?"

[Mind 2 on Dan - seriously, what's going on? - diff 5 -1(focus) -1(practiced)]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 3) [WP]

[K. Geraint] ((Kaye: Aware + Perc))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 6, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Amalgam] [Dan - countermagic with Mind 3]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 5, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Amalgam] ((Ignore that, it's 8 to counter, failure.))
to Austin Conway, Enid Geraint, K. Geraint

[K. Geraint] ((Kaye: Countermagic ))
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 6, 7 (Failure at target 8)

[Enid Geraint] [no, really really, what's going on? Per+Aware again]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 4 (Failure at target 6)

[Amalgam] It's Dan who answers Enid, not Zeke. The same very serious man Austin met - the one who seems to fit the cold Technocratic stereotype easily, Zeke's counterpart - steps around in front of them and sits down. "Enid, we need to talk about your internship," he says. "And I'd like to talk with you, too, Austin."

Regardless of how Dan may actually feel, at the moment he doesn't seem troubled by what he has to do. He watches the two teenagers, expressionless. "We understand that the lifestyle has a certain appeal for you, but you're both making a mistake. I wanted to discourage you both from throwing your futures away."

He pauses just long enough for them to absorb his words, but not long enough for them to respond. "Do you understand exactly why what you're doing is so harmful?"

[K. Geraint] Brown eyes, not unlike her daughter's, came to rest on Austin for a moment. The full-weight of Kaye's stare could be withering for full grown adults, but today there is something almost clinical to it. Removed. She knows what Austin is, what he is attempting, and likely what lies he's spun into gold for her impressionable, barely Enlightened daughter.

There is some pushback, but ultimately his Will triumphs. Kaye steps away from her position to move nearer to Zeke, the kinder of the Uncles. Her hand rests lightly on Enid's back for a moment as she passes. It's the sort of affectionate, reassuring gesture that most girls would want from their mothers. In this context, with the crackle of resonances riding high in the spartan office already, it is more ominous.

Kaye steps in close to Zeke, says something very quietly under her breath, and then moves apart to stand beside him. They are not shoulder to shoulder, but it is easy to imagine that sort of solidarity in their stances.

[Enid Geraint] Austin has hold of her wrist, stopped her from going to hug Dan . . . who is not the Uncle Dan she knows right now. He's always been cooler, more distant, but this is something else again. This is . . . well, Enid, who has been caught off guard, doesn't have enough synonyms in her head right now.

Still, her head rises, her back straight, and she doesn't move away from her mother's touch despite the oddity of it in this setting, under these circumstances; she doesn't pull her wrist from Austin's hand, but does turn so she can keep as many of her uncles (and her mother and aunt) in at least her peripheral vision as possible. She is haughty, she is proud, she is her mother's daughter, for all her bent towards Deviance.

When she speaks, it's with a confidence she doesn't feel. Her voice stays even, calm. "What I did was harmful. What I'm doing isn't hurting anyone; I'll get contacts at school, in the fall. There will be another internship."

[Austin Conway] Austin may have only been older than Enid by a scant year (and likely still very much a child in the eyes of the real adults in the room), but he had been awakened longer. Long enough to have trained in the arts, and certainly long enough for a tradition to snatch him up and set the impression of their paradigm deep within his belief system. It would take a great deal more persuasion, in his case, and that kind of thing did not happen in the span of a single meeting.

Then again, it wasn't a good idea to underestimate the combined force of an entire amalgam, especially when placed up against two who were so much younger and only just coming into their abilities. Still, for all the potential threat, Enid was defiant, and Austin glanced at her briefly with a touch of admiration, even if, underneath, she was as nervous as he was. He looked around, unsure which of them was ultimately the ringleader of this particular intervention. Ultimately, though, since Dan had been the one to address them, he responded in that direction, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"You honestly think that there's anything you can say to convince me to join you? Funny, for people who profess to know so much, you see very little." That might get a laugh from the group at large, or maybe just a cold stare. In either case, he tightened his grip protectively on Enid's wrist and started to move towards the door. "We're leaving. Please don't try to stop us."

[Amalgam] Dan seems as though he will answer Enid, and then Austin, but before he can do so, the Akashic has taken hold of her wrist. Don't try to stop us, he says, as he tries to bring Enid toward the door.

And Steve and Pete reach for handguns. It's Enid they look at, though, once, almost imploring, before they turn their attention to the young man bravely attempting to march out of the room in spite of what he's facing, in spite of their greater numbers.

"You aren't leaving," Dan says, "and if we have to kill you and keep her here, we will."

[K. Geraint] ((Kaye: Remember when...?))
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[K. Geraint] ((Kaye: Mind, target Enid))
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 3)

[Austin Conway] [Per+Aware]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 5, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Enid Geraint] [Yep, me too]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 7 (Failure at target 6)

[Austin Conway] [Counter-magic]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 5, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[K. Geraint] There is a reason that Kaye is standing in the room with them, beyond personal concern for her daughter. There is a reason that she has orders to be there, beyond rectifying the oversight she made in allowing Enid to go Deviant on her watch. There are reasons, and here is one of them.

Kaye bows her head a little, shakes it sadly. "Enid," she says, and here she speaks her daughter's name gently. Compassionately. "Honey... we know." There is a little pause, and her eyes meet Enid's without a moment's hesitation. "We know about Bryan." A small, almost pained look touches her expression. It draws warmth back into her eyes.

"And I wish I could tell you that it would stop there," she continues, just as gently. Kaye's very words pull the memory up to replay in Enid's mind, over and over again. The shock, the fear, the overwhelming guilt. Her mother was not telling her that everything was okay, or that she wasn't at fault. "But if you continue down this path, I can't promise you that. We've known you all your life, Enid, and believe me we have your best interests at heart. We will make sure that it doesn't happen again, not like that, never again like that. And that you have the training and tools to use your gifts to remarkable ends."

There was no absolution in Kaye's words, no feel good message, but there was open concern. Rightfully so. Her daughter had killed another human being upon Enlightenment, and she was now swaddled in the sort of Deviance that would lead her down that path time, and time again.

"Consider the people you've kept close to you since then. The advice you've taken. The things they've done," this is all said gently, too, just mere suggestions for Enid to consider. Suggestions overlaid with the memories around her Awakening.

This the reason she stands in the room with them all: to issue a mother's plea.

[Enid Geraint] And if we have to kill you . . . "Stop it, Uncle Dan, you're scaring me."

Pete and Steve have guns.
Pete and Steve have guns.

There are no words for how much this bothers Enid, how much it shocks her. They reach for them, and she freezes [ice water in her veins], twists her hand awkwardly so that her fingers twine with Austin's. Her throat clears, and it's a strange, distant sound in her ears. Still, she manages that feigned confidence; she's always been good at that, always been fantastic at looking strong, at being okay. "Austin," she says, pulling slightly, holding him so he can't get too far. It's warning. It's plea.

I don't think we're in Kansas any more.

And then Kaye speaks, and Enid is not only frozen, but stiff; Austin can feel a slight tremor running through her starting with we know, and intensifying as her mother continues. Her face flushes, bright and impressive as only fair skinned redhead blushes can be. She can hope that's all that makes it through, the blush. She can hope they don't see that tremor, don't hear her knees locking in a concerted effort to keep from buckling. It's like being punched hard, in the gut, and she doesn't hear her own intake of breath, doesn't realize how obvious that is.

She keeps their names out of her head as much as she can, doesn't think of faces she's come to like, maybe trust a little.

"I . . . nobody's perfect, Mama." It's a big flaw, hers, a huge one. She has killed, but, "I can promise that it won't happen again, that it will stop there. I don't need this. We don't need this."

[Austin Conway] No, they definitely were not in Kansas anymore.

And for all his careful consideration of the situation, there were three certain truths about Austin that could not be avoided: 1) That he was essentially the physical embodiment of a loaded gun just waiting for someone to pull the trigger. 2) That his teachings regarding technocrats had him believing that they were in fairly serious danger from the moment the rest of the amalgam had walked in the door. 3) That Enid's mom had just committed what felt like an obscene abuse of the bond a parent shared with their child. And that made him very angry.

(Focus. Be calm. Control your feelings - they will undo you.)

The person he wanted to hit was standing behind the desk. But he was next to the door, and Pete and Steve were blocking the way. And they had the guns. So he let go of Enid's hand and launched himself at Steve first.

[And I'm guess we'll need to be rolling inits. ^^]

[Austin Conway] [Guessing. Sheesh. I need to look before I hit send.]

[Amalgam] ((All right. Inits please.))

[Amalgam] ((And please keep declares to 3 minutes until we're out of combat.))

[K. Geraint] ((Kaye: Init, +6))
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1

[Amalgam] [Pete - +8]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1

[Austin Conway] [+7]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 6

[Amalgam] [Steve - +6]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9

[Amalgam] [Dan - +7]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4

[Enid Geraint] [+5]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2

[Amalgam] Declare in reverse.

Steve - 15
Austin - 13
Dan - 11
Pete - 9
Enid - 7
Kaye - 7
Zeke - No action

[K. Geraint] ((Declare: Draw firearm.))

[Enid Geraint] [get between Austin and Kaye]

[Amalgam] [Pete - Pistol whipping Austin.]

[Amalgam] [Dan - drawing firearm.]

[Austin Conway] [Declare:
1a: Called shot punch to break Steve's gun arm, spending WP
1b: Punch]

[Amalgam] [Steve - Jab pistol, target Austin]

[Amalgam] [Steve: Dex + Melee, spending WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 8 (Failure at target 6) [WP]

[Austin Conway] [Dex+Do -2, diff 5 +2 for the called shot]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 7, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 5 at target 7) [WP]

[Austin Conway] [Str+4+2]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 4, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[Amalgam] [Ow, my squishy mage body]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 4, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Austin Conway] [Dex+Do -3]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 7, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 5)

[Austin Conway] [Str+2]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 7, 7, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Amalgam] [Dan: Spending a WP to abort. Casting for extra actions. Time 3 rote, -1 for focus. Extended, will continue into next round.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 5)

[Amalgam] [Pete: Pistol whip, Dex + Melee. Spending WP, her partner just got gakked!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6) [WP]

[Amalgam] [Damage - Bashing. Strength +1, +3.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 4, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[Austin Conway] [Soak +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 5, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Enid Geraint] [look at me, Mama, you wouldn't shoot your own daughter.]

[K. Geraint] ((Kaye: Spending WP to redeclare. Casting for slowed time effect. Time 3 rote, -1 for focus.))
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 4, 10 (Failure at target 5)

[Amalgam] [Zeke's conscience is clear. Init, +6]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2

[Amalgam] Declare in reverse.

Steve - x.x
Austin - 13
Dan - 11
Pete - 9
Zeke - 8
Enid - 7
Kaye - 7

[K. Geraint] ((Kaye: Pull Enid out of the way.))

[Enid Geraint] [don't move!]

[Amalgam] [Zeke: Draw firearm, splitting action to fire the gun at -3.
Pete: Pistol jab, target Austin.
Dan: Extending Time rote.]

[Austin Conway] [Declare: (Because it worked so well last time)
1a: Called shot punch to Pete's gun arm
1b: Punch Pete]

[Austin Conway] [Oh, and spending WP!]

[Austin Conway] [Dex+Do -2 -1(injury mod), +2 diff]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 7) [WP]

[Austin Conway] [re-rollin 10's, cause I'm an idjit]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 4 (Botch x 1 at target 7)

[Austin Conway] [Str+2+2]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Amalgam] [Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 6 (Failure at target 6)

[Austin Conway] [Dex+Do -3 -1]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 5 (Success x 1 at target 5)

[Austin Conway] [Str]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 4, 6, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Amalgam] [Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Amalgam] [Dan: extended rote, -1 for focus.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 7, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6) [WP]

[Amalgam] [Pete: Pistol jab, Dex + Firearms, -2 for wound penalties.]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Amalgam] [Scratch that. Pete is stunned, moving on to Zeke.]

[Amalgam] [Dex + Firearms]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Amalgam] [Damage, +1]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 5, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Austin Conway] [ouch]

[Enid Geraint] [not movin' = Str]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6) [WP]

[Amalgam] [And, quick note. Due to Dan's rote the Technocrats will be receiving extra actions at the end of this round.]

[K. Geraint] ((Kaye: Contested strength, get enid out of the way, +WP))
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 6, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6) [WP]

[Amalgam] Dan: 1T - Making your brain bleed. (Mind 3 to do damage, -1 for focus.)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 5)

[Austin Conway] [Soak +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 6, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Amalgam] 2T - More of the same.
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 6, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 5)

[Austin Conway] [Soak again!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Amalgam] Pete is still stunned. Zeke...fires again. 1T - [Dex + Firearms]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 7, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Amalgam] [Damage, +4]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 5, 5, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Austin Conway] [really, really ouch]

[Amalgam] [Recap post incoming.]

[K. Geraint] Zeke's office -- but by now they have realized that it is not Zeke's office at all, just an adequate setting for the events that must unfold -- is not that terribly large. It has ample floorspace, and few furnishings, but with seven adults the space shifts to feeling claustrophobic, heated, intense quite quickly.

Steve and Pete are standing at the door, barring the exit when Austin launches himself at them. Steve jabs at Austin, missing the fleet-footed younger man who turns that momentum immediately to his advantage. In spite of the numbers, the overwhelming feel of stasis pressing in around him, Austin finds calm. It's calm that guides his fists in two deft, lethal blows that lays out the older Technocrat.

Across the room, Enid's bad cop Uncle (Dan) calls for the group to rally together, speaking in sharp authoritative tones. Reminding them to work together like the seamless unit they are, regardless of the blow that death of their teammate presents.

Pete, spurned by the loss of her partner, bashes the Akashic with her firearm as Kaye shifts to work her own, subtler brand of Science and Zeke abstains from combat.

Austin opens the second round with a few well-aimed blows, stunning Aunt Pete. Dan finishes working with his device and his voice stills ominously. Zeke, who is the good cop Uncle, the conscientious objector to this melee, draws his weapon and fires a round into the young man who had entered with Enid.

Kaye shoulders Enid out of the line of fire, away from the fray, against her protests as Dan's effect unfolds. Using a hand-held device, he presses against Austin's mind, trying to subdue the young man through a sort of psychic pain -- perhaps to spare Enid the pain of watching her honorary family shoot him down at her feet. But Austin resists, and Zeke fires again, dropping the young man to the floor. Incapacitated.

One of their teammates has died. One of the Deviants lies dying on their floor. Kaye, who is still close to her daughter, who has not yet draw her firearm, says to Enid:

"A year ago, young lady, you would have told me that you would never have taken a life. Not with your hands, not with your will. And you stand, ready to throw this young man's life after the other's. Is that what you want?"

Willpower expenditures & Wound levels / Dice Penalties:
Austin: 2B, 5L. (incap) ; -2WP
Enid: -1WP
Dan: -2WP
Pete: 5L. (mauled) dice penalty is -2, -1WP
Steve -- DEAD
Zeke:
Kaye: -2WP

[Amalgam] Enid is free to answer as she likes. Her answer does not affect the other amalgam members. Zeke puts away his pistol, eying the young man on the floor as he does so; he's just shot Enid's boyfriend in the back. Twice. When he wanted to defend himself, get out of a position that they put him in, in the first place.

Zeke bows his head and remains in his corner.

And Pete, well. Stunned as she is, she has to get her wind back, and she drops to her knees to attempt to revive Steve. Professionalism doesn't really help to keep the panic out of the features of any of the Technocrats, the grief: they've worked together for years without this happening.

And Dan is the quickest to assert his hold over himself, to calm himself. He's not a terribly strong man, but he hooks his arms under Austin's. When Austin wakes - and it will be much, much later - he will be in a dark room on a cement floor. Bare and soundless and not fifty feet from where they stand right now.

[Enid Geraint] She killed them, Bryan and Val, oh god, she thought she'd accepted this, though she was ready, thought . . . she doesn't even know what she'd thought, really, and it roils through her mind, everything she remembers about it (and the things said by people she's come to know, people whose opinions she values, people she's so carefully not thinking of by name or image right now because who knows what can or will happen if she does and everything is ringing with feelings that shouldn't be coming from people she knows and loves and trusts), and now there's fighting and sounds that she's [pretty sure mean someone else is dead] blocking out by singing a Chinese lullaby at the top of her mental lungs. It doesn't help. Nothing helps and nothing is making sense and god there are guns and she's overwhelmed by resonance and her mother is part of this and

".....what the fuck, Mama?"

there's incredulity, disbelief as she moves between one hard, cold piece of metal too many and her boyfriend and fights to stay there when Kaye, no stronger than her daughter but for a desparation borne on the desire to keep Enid safe, the conviction that she's doing the right thing, tries to move her out of the way.

Or something.

Zeke, dear Uncle Zeke - favorite, friend - shoots, and again, and Enid's ears ring and Dan is doing something and there's panic and Enid has killed but there's nothing she can do now, nothing but be shoved aside, out of the way by her mother who is a part of this and Zeke shot and there's pain (but not physical, no, that's not for Enid) and panic and she doesn't want to look at what's behind her when she hears Pete move (Pete is lighter, smaller, and so it sounds different) to attend to Steve and Dan

".....don't touch him, he needs to go to the hospital, please Uncle Dan....."

hauling Austin by the shoulders and taking him somewhere and in her own ears her voice is high pitched, shill, whining, a little girl in completely the wrong place [not in Kansas, and there's no white rabbit, and this is no Hundred Acre Wood] with all this happening. Her face, flushed red with blush not so long ago, is now shock-white with freckles in stark relief.

It's not her mother with whom she pleads, not her mother she answers. Not first.

".....make someone take him to a doctor, Uncle Zeke, please? I . . . you . . . he didn't do anything but what he thought was right . . ."

Someone behind her is dead, and that makes three. A boyfriend, a best friend, an uncle . . . and maybe Austin too, she can't tell if he's breathing, doesn't understand . . . Her eyes rise, so much like her mother's, and pin to Zeke, who isn't looking at her, who has his head bowed and stays in the corner. Then they move to Kaye, and there's a disconnect there - an anger that's more than, that presses close to the heat of hate, and so much of it is born of fear and confusion.

"If I do what you want, will you make someone make sure he's okay?"

[K. Geraint] Yes, her mother was part of this. Her mother stood at the center of all of this, this madness. She stood at the center of it, with Enid, bearing the brunt of the younger Geraint's hatred. Kaye felt it seep into her skin, felt it sink in beside the grief, the loss, the multitude of other emotions that this trial had brought up in all of them. But she has decades on Enid, and she has been part of far, far worse things in those intervening years, so her countenance is not as troubled, her pallor not so ashen, her eyes not as gleaming and angry.

"I love you, Enid," she says, and it's the only reply she offers to the young girl's tirade. To her pleas. Kaye smiles thinly and counts the moments until bad-cop Uncle Dan comes to take Enid to her own concrete floored room. Her own place of silence and solitude, where the younger Geraint could seethe, and fume, and ache until her head and heart were weary.

"I know you don't understand, or believe that right now. But we love you."

And then the ever-composed, ever-collected Kaye cannot say anything more. She turns away when Dan re-enters the room, closes her eyes for a moment. That it is necessary doesn't make the day any easier, doesn't render any of the losses (on either side) less poignant.

[Amalgam] Enid pleads and Zeke avoids her eyes, and then the girl is led away after Austin to an adjoining room.

Neither of them know how long they are in the cells. Sound appears to have been muffled: they can hear nothing of the outside world from within. That alone could be enough to drive a person insane, given enough time - after a little while in such a place, one turns to banging on the walls, yelling, just to have some noise. Speaking to oneself just to hear another voice. But it's dark too, almost black, and just cold enough to leave the fingertips and toes tingling.

Austin finds his wounds bandaged, but not healed. He is given nothing to help with the pain.

The room itself is utterly bare. The walls are smooth concrete, as are the floors. No pits, no texture, no holes. Nothing, even assuming any such thing could be found in darkness. Food and water do not come through the doors at any point, and at first the only thing they can do to mark the passage of time is by how hungry or how thirsty they feel.

In time, of course, all of that blurs together too. They can feel it sapping away at them. Austin feels his calm beginning to unravel; Enid feels her Will being drained away into nothingness - and both of them can recognize the art of Mind at work here, even if their scientific counterparts don't.

[Amalgam] ((Okay, and. With that. I don't think finishing up the scene will take -that- long, but we've already been at this a while and it's late. I could continue, but I am not sure about any of you guys.))
to Austin Conway, Enid Geraint, K. Geraint

[Enid Geraint] ((I'm so very, very far from tired right now, but it's up to those of you who have work and class and things later!))
to Amalgam, Austin Conway, K. Geraint

[Austin Conway] [I'm good! We can keep going :)]
to Amalgam, Enid Geraint, K. Geraint

[Amalgam] ((All right! Onward.))
to Austin Conway, Enid Geraint, K. Geraint

[K. Geraint] ((I'm pretty tired. But you don't technically need me for the rest of it *S* So if you sweet talk CP into running it and send me a transcript, I'll catch up with what happened in the morning.))
to Amalgam, Austin Conway, Enid Geraint

[Enid Geraint] ((Thank you so much, Syll! You play an awesome Mama Geraint.))
to Amalgam, Austin Conway, K. Geraint

[Enid Geraint] Enid paces, counts how many steps it is from one wall to the next, running her hand along the wall in the dark. She tries the door, and at first she has the resolve, the dignity, to not kick and hit and yell. But she is a seventeen year old girl and just a wee magelet, yet; she doesn't have that much strength of will (or Will). It comes - it always does.

But after that comes quiet, comes straining to hear something in the hallway, in a room adjacent, until she's sure she must. Or that her imagination is playing tricks on her, one of the two. Her cell phone was in the pocket of her jacket, left over the arm of the chair in [.treacherous.] Uncle Zeke's office. There are no games to play, no texts that could be sent. Instead, she pulls forth track and cross country exercises and stretches to keep warm, recites old debates and rebuttals. She sings pop songs [roma oo la la-a] poorly, but not painfully so. Anything to not think about how alone she is, about what might be happening to Austin (He killed Uncle Steve, oh god, he was just trying to get us out but Uncle Steve is dead . . .), just what the hell is going on, what happened, why.

They brainwash people, Ashely'd told her so many times.
Not me, is Enid's answer now.

Pace.
Try the door.
Sing.
Try the door.
Stretch.
Try the door.
Recite.
Try the door.
Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Austin Conway] [Per+Awareness -2]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 7, 7, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Austin Conway] Tim passed.

And Austin had no way of knowing how much. At some point he woke up. Explored the space that he was in. Felt the walls and the floor and sensed the flow of resonance that permeated everything around him. That he was even alive at all was a surprise. His wounds were bandaged, but not healed. Evidently, the technocrats had something in mind for him, though that was likely only to serve as a bargaining chip with Enid. He had, after all, killed one of their own, and nearly killed another.

Steve was not the first person that Austin had ever killed, but he was arguably the first who had something resembling his own mind. And a soul, if one believed in such things.

He was only barely alive, and the pain was severe. Bad enough that no matter how he focused, he couldn't create a single effect, even so much as to sense where he was. So after awhile... he just sat down in the corner of the room and meditated. And he would stay that way, trying desperately (and often failing) not to think of Enid. Until someone or something came to find him. Or until he died. (Whichever came first.)

[Amalgam] It's nearing the end of the third day that a panel in the door opens, revealing a grate. For both of them, it's the first light they've seen in a while. By now hunger seems to be gnawing a hole in their stomachs; ever present, it's hard not to think about food and what it will be like to taste it again (will they taste it again?). They are weak with thirst, their lips and tongues dry.

In the state that they are both in, the voices are neigh unrecognizable: Austin's is someone he does not know, Enid, after a few moments, places Uncle Dan's voice.

Austin hears only: "Are you ready to talk and be reasonable?"

Enid hears: "Enid. Have you given any thought to what your mother said?"

[Austin Conway] [Tim passed? Wow, where did he come from? *sticks an e in there.*]

[Austin Conway] It's a simple response. In fact, it's no response at all. Austin looked at the open grate, heard the voice, and said nothing.

The implication? No.

[Enid Geraint] "Will you let Austin go?" Such a simple question, but it's not. She licks her lips, which are cracked; her voice is hoarse from talking, from lack of liquid. "It's hardly conducive to clear thought, not knowing how he is, or what's going on, or . . ." She doesn't want to ask about Steve. Is furious with Zeke, Pete, Kaye and Dan all.

"This is . . . isn't this what they do to prisoners in places like Guantanamo?"

[Enid Geraint] [someone ding at me just in case, my screen isn't always refreshing.]
to Amalgam, Austin Conway, K. Geraint

[Amalgam] The grate on Austin's door slides shut, metal slamming on metal, sounding impossibly loud in this tiny space. And then the room around him is silent once more.

Dan speaks, and when he does, his voice sounds chiding. "Enid, we're giving you time to consider, and you're in here for your own good, not because we want to be cruel to you. Everything your mother told you is true, and I want you to think about this: power corrupts. And what deviants have is too much to be in the hands of any one person."

A pause. "Austin is all right, and he'll continue to be so if you behave and help me help you."

[Enid Geraint] "I want to talk to Uncle Zeke." She doesn't, not really. But Zeke is the one she's most consistently been able to get to give her what she wants. "And I'm cold. And whatever I did . . ." her voice cracks here - because of scratchy throat, because of emotion, because of whatever. And then, there's something - a little sob, maybe.

She's seventeen.
She's their Enid.

"Please, Uncle Dan. I'm . . . it's dark and cold, and I'm scared."

[Manip + Expression + WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 5, 5, 5 (Failure at target 6) [WP]

[Amalgam] Uncle Dan sounds completely unmoved. He sounds stern, in fact, the sort of voice he used on Enid when she was a small child and tried to lie her way out of trouble. Why no, Uncle Dan, of course I didn't flush your expensive phone down the toilet. The neighbor kid must have snuck into the house and found it.

"This is wrong. You're being taught to unravel reality and you're placing countless numbers of people in danger because you want to play with something you don't understand. I'm not going to have it, Enid."

What Enid feels next, she recognizes as magic only because she's had some recent studies into it. She feels as though the walls are closing in around her, as though the authority in Dan's voice is making the place that much more unbearable. As though she wants to break down and cry right there and doesn't have any will left to fight.

[Mind 3 - sapping a WP. Using a focus, -1.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 7, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 5)

[Enid Geraint] The whimper this time is real, true - it's not pain, but it's something close. "Maybe . . ." She hates the sound of her own voice. It's the only company she's had for goodness only knows how long, and now, on top of cracking with dehydration, it sounds weak. "That's . . . not what I'm being taught. You all say the same. damned. things, in different words, with different emphasis."

She has to stop, to try again, her voice goes completely, here and there, and she has to wrangle enough saliva to swallow. ".....history, mostly. Like being back in school."

And last, so small, "Don't do that again, please. Whatever, however. Just . . . don't."

[Amalgam] Dan ignores most of what she has to say. "I'll be back tomorrow, Enid," he tells her, and then the grate slides shut.

Time passes. After a while - not really that long, considering - a bottle of water is set within the confines of each cell. Light lances in from outside, illuminating the bleak space, and then it is gone again.

And yet more time. For Austin, it is a deep physical ache, something that's radiated outward from the wounds to the rest of his back. It's painful to lie down, it's painful to sit, it's painful to hold his head up. Enid, who does not have Austin's training, is contending with simple despair, which is just as agonizing in its way.

And then the grate above Enid's door slides open again. The voice is quiet, urgent. "Enid? It's your Uncle Zeke. I need you to be very quiet." The light from outside as the door cracks open is dim, muted, and yet after what she's been living in, it's still so bright it's nearly unbearable.

[Austin Conway] Unsurprisingly, the voice on the other side of the door left, slamming the grate back into place.

And Austin let out a quiet breath and leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes.

More time passed. Eventually, a bottle of water appeared, and when Austin noticed it, he felt a horrible ache - worse even than that from his wounds. Dehydration had long-since taken hold, and he was hovering dangerously close to the edge of death. So close, in fact, that he could barely keep himself conscious for more than a few moments at a time. The human body wasn't equipped to deal with a significant loss of blood, coupled with lack of food and water. He couldn't heal that way, and he was weaker than he could ever remember being.

Still, when he looked at the water, it felt like the span of miles to cross to get to it, rather than one room. And dimly he wondered what might have been put in it. Or if keeping himself alive would only serve to delay the inevitable. Or, worse yet... be used against Enid.

So he didn't drink it, and pretty soon, if nothing happened, he was going to die.

[Enid Geraint] She wants to shriek at him, wants to punch him, wants to cry and have him hold her and tell her it was a bad dream, that everything's okay, that he still loves her and of course Uncle Steve is still alive and she hasn't been slowly losing feeling in her fingers and toes for days (if she remembers bio properly, it can't have been more than that, but it sure seems like it has). She speaks quietly and carefully, voice still hoarse, cracking.

"Why should I do anything you say?"

That is not the voice of the girl he'd talked to not so long ago, the laughing, happy girl who'd come into his office so he could have some quality time with her and her boyfriend. That's not the voice of the girl who's trusted him unconditionally for all her life.

"I don't know if Austin's even still here, or if there's any reason to behave." The last word is all but spit at the floor.

[Amalgam] "Enid, just come with me. We don't have time for this. We're going to get Austin and get you both sent on a flight home, and we have to do that -right- now," Zeke says. The door swings the rest of the way open and she can see him outside it, imploring.

If she doesn't answer him, he doesn't wait. He goes to the next cell, to Austin's, and opens it. Steps inside and wonders for a moment whether the young man is already dead, before he reaches into the bag he's carrying with him. Distantly, Austin can feel himself being rolled onto his stomach, hear the tacky sound of his bandages being pulled away.

Seconds later, something cold and clinging slaps into his back. Twice, once over each wound, and an odd chemical smell fills his nostrils. Not quite alcohol, but sterile. Medical. The bullets were removed when his wounds were bandaged, and he can feel his flesh beginning to knit itself shut.

"Come on, get up," Zeke tells him.

[Enid Geraint] She may not trust him - may never again, for all she knows, but there are a few things that are undeniable truths in Enid's world.

She will never, ever get below a 3.85 GPA.
She will surpass all expectations at every opportunity.
When Uncle Zeke speaks in that voice, she has little choice but to do what he says.

The bottle of water, from which she's only taken a few sips, is scooped up, brought with her - of course she follows. She wants to see what he does, what's going on. Inquisitive and studious, that's her. "Mama and Uncle Dan are going to be furious," she says, watching as Austin's back starts sealing itself back up; her eyes are wide and there's a hint of the excitement there that she gets when Ashley and Wharil show her new things. And it's tentative. She may not trust him, may be just as furious as her mother and Uncle Dan will be, in her own way, but she wants so badly for something to be just a little alright.

[Austin Conway] Out of the blackness came smells and sounds.

Sterile. Chemicals. Something that... wasn't right. But it helped.

And Zeke, telling him to stand up. Austin did, though his head swam alarmingly and his legs, numb and sore from so little movement, threatened to give out underneath him. There was a long moment where the Akashic simply stared at Zeke, storm-grey eyes almost piercingly angry. And maybe the Technocrat half expected the stubborn boy to attack him again. Austin himself certainly considered it, despite his pathetically weakened state.

But then he saw Enid, and a rush of relief flooded through him.

"Are you okay?" he croaked, wanting to say more but nonetheless wary of their present company.

[Amalgam] When Enid says that Mama and Uncle Dan will be furious, Zeke doesn't answer her. Because he knows they will be more than furious. He knows what is going to happen to him in the morning when they find the cells vacant and when Kaye discovers that Enid is going back home, halfway across the world to hide with her boyfriend, likely hidden by her reality deviant mentor and friends. When she discovers that her daughter has disappeared.

He reaches down to offer Austin a hand up. "Come on, we don't have a lot of time."

[Enid Geraint] Austin struggles to stand, and whatever else might worry her (Uncle Steve, oh, that sound, and Mama said . . .), she moves to his side to help support him. Whatever the chemically stuff was, it makes her wrinkle her nose, makes her want to sneeze. Not . . . right, exactly, maybe, but it smells of hospitals and doctors and is making things a little better.

"Don't touch him," she snaps, automatically, though there's no strength behind it. There's very little will, let alone Will. "I need to get my bag from the apartment." Not her suitcase - she doesn't care about the clothes and accessories she'd brought, or even bought while they were here. It's Ashley's books that concern her, and the necklace . . . automatically, her hand moves to feel for it, for the reassuring weight of her great grandma's ring.

[Austin Conway] "Enid," he said, quietly. Austin's voice was strangely calm, but then, that was probably due more to dehydration and exhaustion than anything else. And then he moved (carefully, unsteadily) toward her, and reached out to pull her against him. It was a tentative thing, and easily resisted should she desire to. But he needed to reassure himself that she was real, and to hold her, and tell her...

"I'm so sorry..."

For failing to see this coming. For not protecting her. For killing an old friend. And maybe he would have cried, but he had no tears left to do so.

[Amalgam] "We don't have time, Enid. You don't realize how serious this is. You have to go, now, and you can't go back to your father's house. Forget about whatever's in the bag, it can be replaced."

Zeke lets the two embrace, lets them have that moment, and then he walks for the door.

[Enid Geraint] You can't go back to your father's . . . "What am I gonna tell Daddy?"

It's confused, that, but she's not arguing; it says a lot, perhaps. And she doesn't understand - she's exhausted, and dehydrated, though at least she hadn't been shot. And she's following, as steady as she can (which isn't that steady) with Austin's arm around her, giving what she can.

[Austin Conway] This was the kind of experience that could make or break a person's will. Or make or break a relationship. Enid was too weak and confused; too anxious to really do more than flit from one concern to the next, her attention not really on the present. Not on escape, and not on Austin. He was simply there, a quiet pillar to lean against, though he himself desperately needed something to lean against himself.

"Think of it later. There's no time. Let's go."

And then Austin was following Zeke out the door, and hopefully Enid would come with him.

[Amalgam] "...Better not tell him anything, for right now. I don't know what's going to happen, Enid, but I doubt your mother is just going to let you go, and..." He pauses, looking toward Austin with his mouth pursed. He doesn't remind them that Austin killed Steve; it's lingering in the back of all their minds already.

And he leads them out of the office building (which is a small building, after all) to the street; outside there's a cab waiting, and he pushes both teenagers toward it. Placing a roll of bills in Enid's hand, he says, "Don't do any wireless transactions for a little while. Nothing. I booked a flight for you already. Go straight to the airport."

Zeke steps back. "Be safe."

[Enid Geraint] He hands her money, and her hand closes around that and his fingers both, her eyes rising to meet his - she looks at him, truly, for the first time since she was begging him to make sure Austin was okay, even as Dan was dragging the Akashic out to a cell. "Come with us. We'll . . . we'll work something out."

She doesn't know what or how, but still - he's Uncle Zeke, her favorite, her friend (and never mind that she can't erase the sight of him shooting from her brain any more than she can the sound of Uncle Steve breaking, dying behind her) and she wants him to be well.

"I . . . come find me. Thank you." And then it's into the cab and off for the airport.

[Enid Geraint] ((Thank you so very much, CP! It was an awesome scene.))

[Amalgam] ((I'm glad you guys had fun! Enjoy your shiny new issues.))