Coffee shop epiphanies

[Thistle]

Theo was disapointed to not hear more, but he had said he'd tell Kyle about his own secret.
"Yes and no. Everyone has the potential." He considers how best to explain it.
"The day I arrived in Sacamento was the day I had my became a Mage. Awakened to magic. When I exited the airport my perspective shifted. To truely describe it would be to experince. It was like a waking dream. A play where things became embodiments of symbols and characters.
A great storm arose that had always been there. A torrential downpour made of water, fire, ice and lightning. The scope of it was a aweful. Wonderful but terrible." Theo's eyes get the far off look that sometimes comes with his rememberances but there are many pauses and stuttering of words and lack of detail uncommon to when he told of his past.
"And I knew I had to travel through the storm. I could see.. I knew a flood was in the distance that would overtake me if I didn't. A flood that would extiguish me if the rain didn't first. So I walked through the rain with two suit rolling suit cases and a backpack.
"It wasn't easy even walking down streets. The storm was against me. There was wind driven sleet that stung, cut. Water streaming around my feet to the rising torrent that threatened to take out my footing. The rain was blood, ice, unmaking, creation, energy, Macht." He lists off words don't just don't capture what he's trying to say.

[Kyle Franesco]

Kyle's face was unreadable. All he knew so far was that it wasn't something you were born with. "So was it an hallucination or dream or what? He wondered if Mages were the same as Witches, and if they ran around naked at night.

[Thistle]

"Think of it more as an overlapping of two realities. I was interacting with this one as well as another Realm, the Aether. There are Watchtowers within five different realms. They call souls across the Abyss that seperates this world and them. This can manifest in many ways. The type of Awakening I experinced is called a mystery play. It wasn't real in the way that it was only dealing with this reality, it was more than real in a way." after another pause he continued his story.
"I met several beings that offered me escape. A dragon who said it would carry me away, a serpent of ice that gave me the choice to let it freeze the waters, and a firery goat who offered to burn it away. I can't tell you exactly why I didn't accept. It felt wrong is the best way I can say it. Deeply wrong.
"I continued for hours through the downpour. I was about to be swept away."
When he speaks again there is a passion Kyle hasn't ever really heard in Theo's voice before. "I felt clarity. I could feel that I had always the power to dispell the storm. It was a moment of understanding. I knew creation, felt past illusion and saw the primal divine flow in a way that went past simple mundane senses. It was knowing faith."
"I reached out my hand and sent my light into the heavens and wiped clear the sky of clouds burning them away. And behind them was a field of infinite stars each as bright as the sun and my light took it's place among them, marking my place among them." His voice had crescendoed without him knowing it. Theo could still visualize that glorious moment and it took him a little while to come back to the present.
"The play ended and I found myself soaked to the bone, shining a torch into the night sky but I retained the understanding and had made my mark on the symbol of the Watchtower with my soul. It's that sympathy with the Supernal Realm of the Aether that makes me a Awakened and able to perform magic."

[Kyle Franesco]

"I'm sorry, except for the fact that you were awake at the time, that just sounds like a very professionally made dream to me." Kyle is quiet as he digests this information.

"Is what I saw in the coffee shop what you see all the time? Did this Awakening alter you so that you can see and affect things most people can't?" Because that would make more sense to Kyle than just 'WAM! I have magic powers' does.

[Thistle]

"I generally keep up that spell constantly so yes, but it's not something I can do without a spell. Standard perception isn't changed too much. I still see the world as I used to, but I know there is more. Not just know with my mind. I know with my soul. Every mage does and it increases focus and concentration.
I can understand what I see when such spells are cast. I can use the mage sight to examine things beyond the capability of standard senses. It's called scrutiny. It's how I was able to determine your nature. Your aura is different than a mortals." Theo ran through several fact he knew.
"I am able to sense active magic, such as the two spells you cast at the Faire and the one just now," He reached up to indicate Kyle's changed appearance. He felt the desire to run his fingers along the fur again instead dropped his hand.
"I can affect my will on three out of ten different aspects of reality, Arcana is what they're called. Prime, the aspect of magical energy; illusion, mana, auras are some examples. Forces, the aspect of mundane energy; fire, sound, light, weather. And Life, the aspect of vital animation; viruses, animals, healing, shapechanging. The others are Fate, Time, Space, Mind, Space, Spirit, Death and Matter" Theo sounded like he was reading out of a book.
"I have the highest understanding of Life out of the three but it is harder for my to do improvised spells and more difficult for me to learn. Since I Awoke to the Aether I can effect the aspects that rule that Realm more spontaneously, Prime and Forces."
Theo realised he was babbleing on a little about things Kyle probably didn't understand without a better foundation of knowledge. So he summed up.
"Sorry, I've become an occult researcher of sorts since I came to Sacamento. So no, I don't see things differently. I feel and understand them differently. I can affect some things most people can't or at least in ways they can't fathom."
He looked on Kyle. The man's own "awakening" to magic had changed him in ways Theo's hadn't, at least physically. It saddened him for some reason. Kyle must think that Theo had gotten off easy. Had a dream, come out with superhuman powers and more importantly still thought of himself as human.
"Hey," the little bit of worry had returned to his voice "I know what I went through wasn't like what happened to you. You were changed physcially as well as spiritually." He did reach up and put his hand on Kyle's shoulder this time. "But neither makes you any less human." He spoke softly and with a conviction of faith.

[Kyle Franesco]

"I don't mind if you touch it," Kyle says, referring to his face. "People do it all the time, but they don't notice it."

"I envy you though. Sometimes I wish I could turn off what I see for awhile. But the Wyrd is always with me. I have to put a lot of attention forth to keep the Glamour and the mundane world from getting mixed up, and sometimes things overlap, threatening the clarity I've built up. He doesn't mention that what Theo did (technically at his request, but still) may have shaken it severely. He was getting a little buzz just out of his hearing range, like when he's around something not normal. It might just be Theo though.

"Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't turn my back on everything I can do now. I've paid for it already after all. Signed the Contracts in blood and everything." Something about the way he says this makes Theo realise that that isn't just a turn of phrase he uses sometimes. "Want to find out something of what I can do?"

[Thistle]

Theo did feel like turning off what he could understand sometimes. It didn't happen often but when things got overwhelming it was nice to dismiss his mage sight. He also knew about wanting to keep lives seperate, though for Theo it had been something to protect others rather than himself.
A sensation had been traveling up Theo's arm and through his body without him registering it. It was like stepping into the air of a warm humid night. It was invigorating, and made him want to express it in primal ways. It almost caught Theo up but he removed his hand and it lessened to a controlable level. He had felt something like it before when he had touched Kyle, only this time it seemed to extend even beyond tactile range because he still felt the heat and was having to push back the urges. Probably a Changeling version of a nimbus that seemed to be on constantly. He wondered if Kyle always felt like that.
He wiped the sweat off his palms on his pants. "Yes," he relpied simply to Kyles question. He wasn't sure what to expect and did his best to expect anything.

[Kyle Franesco]

Kyle leans in close and takes a deep breath, Theo smells like Tide and Irish Spring soap and god dammit Kyle just wants to do things to him. He holds the breath for a few moments, then he slowly breathes out with measured force. It smells like new grass and rose petals and just-after-rain and Theo fills up with an invigorating energy that seems to make every cell in his body say 'today is the first day of the rest of your life'. He is fully alert and any hunger he might have felt is gone, as are all the minor aches and pains a body collects during the day.

Then Kyle does it again, only this time to himself. All his muscles go loose as the tension of the last hour just melts away, like he's just gotten the most amazing massage. God it feels good.

Gift of Warm Breath

Kyle rolls 10 to Gift of Warm Breath (Resolve 3 + Survival 2 + Mantle 5) (10 Again)
1, 5, 9, 10, 10, 8, 2, 7, 8, 10, 3, 6, 3 (6 successes)

Theo gets the following
Effectively has just risen from the best eight hour sleep of his life
Has had a full breakfast of whatever he likes best
All deprivation penalties are removed
Gain +1 Stamina for the scene

Kyle rolls 10 to Gift of Warm Breath @ self (Resolve 3 + Survival 2 + Mantle 5) (10 Again)
1, 5, 3, 3, 10, 1, 3, 7, 9, 4, 1 (2 successes)

Kyle gets the following
Everything Theo gets, except the Stamina bonus

[Thistle]

The close distance uncomfortably reminded Theo of just how good Kyle looked. His breathing naturally synced with Kyle's. Looking into the blue eyes and feeling the effects of Kyle's Mantle, Theo almost forgot what it was he was anticipating as he too leaned in.
Theo had used magic to increase his endurance before but this was different. It felt better and more natural. It didn't feel like he had just woken or eaten. It was like he had breathed in Life.
Theo couldn't bring himself to withdraw. He was held there, entranced by the eyes more than fascination with the spell, even as his upbringing fought at the very back of his thoughts to tell him it was wrong, sinful and unnatural to think what he was thinking now.
"Wow," was the only word he manage.

[Kyle Franesco]

Kyle looks uncertain about where to go now. He knows what he wants of course, he always wants it and it's been bouncing up and down in the back of his head all evening, but isn't sure if it's what Theo really wants. He seems conflicted, and it doesn't take a contract for Kyle to understand why. People have so many hangups about sex it wasn't even funny. Now normally he didn't have any problem putting desires into people's heads that would overpower all but the deepest aversions to something, but he never really knew those people on anything more than a completely superficial level. It just seemed like a dickheaded thing to do it to someone he knew.

"So now what Theo? We both know a bit about what the other one is, and something of what he can do. Where are we going from here?"