A Dare Plus A Hat Equals A Date

[Star]

He watched her do the paper clips again. He'd left his staple gun at home. There just hadn't been any more space in his pack. Still. They'd get through the door. What was the saying? By hook or by crook. A shoulder dipped, and he slipped the pack off. While she worked, he produced 2 Gatorade bottles --red flavor, natch, a bottle of water, and various Propel flavor packets. He'd only ever seen her drink water. So, water. But also options. He set the bottles on top of the pack in her sight line.

"Hmmm. Actually? Illusions are all about understanding what your audience sees. A lot of the prep is controlling what they see. So, yes and no. But, yeah. I'll prep. But I don't expect. Well, other than something's probably gonna go wrong, and I'll have to improvise. I spent a lot of time... on the road. Traveling."

Grifting. Before.

His hand twisted the cap off of a Gatorade bottle, plastic snapping with more force than necessary. The propeller gave a sad, lazy half twirl as he tilted his head back and took a few swallows.

"There's nothing wrong with being stubborn. Especially if your expectations are better than whatever else happened."

Conviction. Vision. A sense of purpose. It's a thing, yo.

"But. Well. It'll get better. Because I get the vibe that you're kind of sheltered? Like, Amish? Or something."

Something. But seriously. Because heuristics.

[Avis]

She shot a furtive glance up at Star, eyes flicking to his face and then back to the lock. Her lips formed a slight moue, but that could have been from concentrating on the lock. Subtle clicks and scrapes sounded as she worked, the paper clips massaging the resistance out of the lock. Just inside the edge of her hearing was the sound of the pins sliding up. Good. Hopefully it would just take a few more minutes. Really, she expected a building like this to have better security. But maybe that was more of a focus for airports, rather than trains these days.

Progress made on the lock, another quick glance slid to Star. "Or something," she finally admitted. Her tongue wanted to lie, wanted to say something about very religious parents, but they'd already developed a sort of understanding about lies between them. "There was definitely a time when, I don't know, most things weren't really accessible. But that's not the case now, and I'm learning. Adjusting." That was as much as she'd ever told anyone. Willingly.

Her focus slid back to the lock, tongue briefly flicking out to wet her lips, wiping the ruby spot away. Her face betrayed no sign that she'd noticed, and more whispered tinks and scratches came from the lock.

"What about you?" she asked suddenly, from the midst of lock-picking. "Had too much of hopping trains and decided to seek out a bit of shelter?"

[Star]

The dodge didn't bother him, at all. It hadn't been a question, and an explanation hadn't been expected. It was an explanation, for him. A smile crept out. He'd noticed. No lies.

"Please don't. Adjust. All the way."

One of the reasons, yo. Because when she saw what everyone else saw? Well. Even if this never went anywhere. Because doors.

"Uh."

Funny thing, when you ask for something? It's a two way street.

"Nah. It was kind of a suggestion, when it was time for me to do the Visus thing on my own. But, I wasn't lying, before. Sacramento really does have an amazing trees per capita count."

He took another drink. A sip, this time. Because bladder.

"You know it's a school night, right? You gonna get that thing open before midnight?"

[Avis]

"Oh? You have somewhere to be tomorrow?" she replied flatly, eyes still focused on her work. The lock would open in its own time, there was no reason to rush. Honestly, the thought of purposefully slowing down teased at her mind, but then Star might just push her out of the way and finish it himself. Well, ok, he wasn't really the type to push, but slowing down would be a useless gesture. At this point she was eager to know what lurked inside the building. Star's refusal to say what lay inside was frustrating, but she couldn't deny that the mystery enticed her mind. If there was one thing 'being sheltered' had given her, it was a ravenous hunger for experience. At times, that hunger was just kept at bay by other less pleasant but equally persuasive emotions.

Either way, she was going to open the door. Just when she was ready to. Which...was now. Finally she got all the pins flipped and could tension wrench the lock open. The improvised lock picks went back in their box, the box disappeared into a pocket, and then she rose out of the crouching, turning to face Starcut while she stood.

"You might say you're not lying, but that tree thing stinks of bullshit, just so you know," she said, eyebrows rising in challenge. She held the look, just long enough to make the point clear, and then her expression softened. "Still, whatever your reasons are, I am glad you came here. And made the Cabal with Zoey, Asp, and me."

[Star]

"Well, sure it's bull," he agreed.

"But that was the point -- to nicely tell a stranger that I wasn't going to tell them. Oh, hey, you want a drink?"

He motioned at the bottles on the pack. Since it was 'go' time. After she'd made her decision, he rummaged in it.

"Seriously, though? Coming here was suggested to me. To open my little newborn Visus eyes. That's straight up. That wasn't baloney. Sorry if I kind of muddied the waters. I was just... making a joke."

They weren't puzzle pieces, but he was slowly assembling a user manual. Humor? Sure. But not sophisticated. More... juvenile. Like teasing. Sarcasm. He stood, dark cylinders in his hands as he shrugged the pack back on. Flashlights. Other, smaller things.

"Yeah? Good. I'm glad I came, too. Same for the cabal." The edge of his mouth ticked upward in the beginning of a smile.

You can tell, right? When you're having a Hallmark moment. Don't push it, yo.

"It's kind of... strange... to try and imagine what this would have been like without the three of you. Like, so strange I can't wrap my head around it. Hmmmm. How long were you at the Circle? Before?"

He offered her flashlights. Two. One tactical style, and one squarish one mounted on a headband.

[Avis]

"No thanks. Aaannnd, um, good question," Avis replied, taking the 'tactical' flashlight. Why? Cause the headband made your head a giant, glowing target, and it was harder to throw and/or hit someone with something strapped to your head. Also, she enjoyed the extra illumination control holding the light gave her. Also made for something to fidget with; she found herself tapping the cylinder against her off hand while thought.

"Shoot. Um. I think a week. I don't know. I kinda just got oriented for walking and busing around and then hunkered down in my room. Reading or watching movies and stuff. Wasn't very long." She shrugged and then turned to push her way into the building, the flashlight flicking to life after she crossed the threshold into the building.

"The reason I came here was 'cause I suggested it to myself," she volunteered, the beam of her flashlight sweeping the building. "See, I heard that the Sacro Talon Caucus had gotten torn up and that they needed fresh blood. Being in the Windy City, which was full of people and didn't need anymore, I thought Sacro sounded like a great fit. It's nice to be needed, ya know? Useful somewhere. Few things are worse than being redundant."

[Star]

She turned before he could explain. Or show. He kicked up his good leg, sliding the headband around his foot and up above his knee. Then turned it on. A pool of light spilled out from his leg, swinging it's as he walked, following. He stopped for a moment to set his bottle in the jamb of the door.

True fact: You spend more than half your time shining your light at where you're walking.

"Well, lucky you, it's a good thing we rescued you from those... movies."

He laughed softly, adjusting his volume for the suddenly close space and concrete walls. His hand flashlight made a soft scraping sound as he spun it in the palm of his gloved hand. No point in firing it up yet.

"Go down further? We're going to take the stair well on the left. I get what you're saying. It can totally be frustrating. Discouraging? You know. I get that, with the Visus. So many Mastigos. Mastigoseses. Mastigoi. Ummm. You know. Tons of casts on the dee ell. Most of my stuff is Exxon Valdez style. So I kind of had to learn to improvise. To be useful."

At least, when he was around other Guardians. Because Valdez Badger. And, yeah. Some were Mastigos. Some were Warlocks. Just sayin'.

"You, uh, feeling better about being needed? Here? In Sac?"

[Avis]

"What's Exxon Valdez? Or, um, I guess who?" She wasn't speaking loudly but the concrete stairwell amplified the question and sent it bouncing throughout the building, the upturn on the last word creeping eerily higher in pitch with ever duplication. That made her pause, pulling up so suddenly Starcut might have run into her if he hadn't a dancer's grace. The echo of footsteps trailed away into nothing and then Avis shrugged.

"Sorry. Just making sure. But uh, anyways, yeah, I have no regrets coming here. Sacro can use whatever it can get. What, between Del Taco and the all fuckers actually trying to kill all of us, we're even glad when we get cripples. Or, ya know, magicians." A quiet snort and a few barely unrestrained snerks followed the cruel joke. "Um, not that I have anything against Striker," she explained, mirth in her voice, "or you." Another burst of snerks cavalcaded off the walls, mixing with the sound of her footsteps as she started down the stairs again. She couldn't help it. The joke formed itself, and her mouth was just the vessel. Or something like that.

[Star]

"It's..."

Shoes scuffed on the stair he was on as he caught himself mid-step when she stopped. No big? Usually. But his leg wasn't 100%. His hand flew out to the railing for balance, knocking the flashlight free to tumble downward with a loud clatter.

"Uh. Oops. Dang."

At least he still had his knee light. They'd get it.

"Wow. Thanks. You're, uh, you're really doing wonders for my already shaky self confidence, y'know? First I get blind-sided by a train, now you... "

She couldn't see behind her, but he grinned.

"Oh, but, Exxon Valdez. Some oil tanker, way back when. Massive oil spill. Some of, uh. Uh. The Visus I learned from. They used it. As an expression for Vulgars. Valdez, Vulgar, and spilling nastiness. I dunno. It kind of stuck." Dang Smiley's People. He probably had a head full of Cold War anachronisms.

"Hook a left at the bottom. Then the last door on the right. Big metal boiler room looking door. And watch out. Don't trip on my flashlight? Man. I don't know if it's just Del Taco. This city is, uh, kind of weird. Ummm. It's funny, because I was thinking about what you said? At Firehouse. About support systems. It's like the city never got over Cartright getting killed. And that was, like, years ago."

Threats, yo. Might be the most legit thing in the city. Which was all kinds of scary.

"What kind of stuff has been trying to kill you? And, like, when? Where?"

[Avis]

Clearly Cut wasn't really bothered by the joke. She couldn't see the smile, but the way he easily slid to the next topic said everything he didn't. And she kind of liked the oil spill comparison. Paradox was the Abyss, and the Abyss was evil. Slippery, sticky black, made of violent beasts that had been killed by the cosmos itself only to rot into a black filth that seeped beneath the earth and tainting all that it touched when it was dug back up? Yeah, oil was a damn good metaphor for the creeping malevolence of the Abyss.

Smiling unseen in the half light cast by her torch she continued down the steps, pausing to pick up Starcut's flashlight and hand it back to him. There, now her smile could be seen, just briefly before she started walking again. When the beam of her own flashlight hit the door Starcut had mentioned she quickened her pace and tried the handle, spurred on by the realization that the death of the mystery was nearby.

"I don't think I know the story about Cartright, but what I meant was all the fucked up shit running around this city," she explained, pausing briefly. "Banishers, Scelesti, probably Seers too. Between them and Del Taco, city's been caught in a grinder. That's part of why I'm glad I came. All of us new people are like the, I don't know, the good thing that's finally happened to the Consilium."

If the door opened under her hand, she continued onward...