But without the crash part

William
She told him that he needed to wear something noticable, probably a pocketsquare. But something was said in such a fashiobn that it seemed like it should be something made of poetry. It was Pen, Pen said words and they were beautiful and they were movement and she's taught him more than a dozen things and one of those things was teaching him to rise to the occasion. To play to the top of his intelligence.

He might not have been the smartest man in the room, but there was a chance that he was the most perceptive.

It was a nice little niche of a coffee shop next to a place that sold tarot cards and ritual supplies and was run by a lovely young woman with many, many tattoos. After he'd finished flirting with the proprietress of that store, he went to the coffee shop next door to flirt with the proprietor there and to wait for Nick. Pen told him that the man he was waiting for was dark haired and kind. Those were the ways that one could tell Nick was who he was- there is something about him that relays his confidence and his competence and, yes, his capacity for compassion. William thinks highly of Chakravanti, it's an automatic point in his favor.

But he is there with coffee in a mismatched cup-and-saucer. he's waiting and he's got a messenger bag tucked underneath his chair. Sitting by a window, looking out at the street. Slacks and button up shirt and vest and, yes, pocket square. Pink. Makes his eyes look greener than green. Makes the grey of his vest seem intentional. William knows how to dress himself with all the vanities of being a young man not-too-recently out of his teens.

Listens to the sound of the cups being washed in the back.The conversation three tables over. The sound of the glass rattling almost imperceptibly.

Nicholas Hyde
Even if Pen had not told William what to expect from Nicholas, he might have known him when he walks into the coffee shop anyway.  Summer is not Nick's season (ironic, given that his place of birth and residence until twenty-three felt like a distant cousin of Hell or Mars during the too-many summer months, with its blasted red rock and shimmering heat.)  The hallowed hush of him does not sit quite at ease with the thrumming energy of this month.

He steps in and there is a bag slung over his shoulder.  He is dressed more plainly than William, his colors more muted: light gray pants, a pale pink shirt and a tie that is similarly muted.  It brings out the light brown of his skin, the black of his hair.

Nick does not flirt with the proprietress of the coffee shop.  He is polite and pleasant and he orders his coffee black, and then he takes it to the little station to the side of the counter and adds cream and cinnamon.  He has a heavy hand with both; his eyes are on the wall most of the time he is shaking and stirring.  He seems to be paying little mind to the sounds emerging from the back, or maybe he seems unfocused because he hears everything; it's a fine line.

He feels as though he ought to be in a churchyard or a barrow hill, and not here.  Nonetheless, here he is, and now he is searching for a young man with a pocket square.

His eyes don't take very long to light on William, and when they do he smiles, and he takes a few steps over toward the Hermetic, lifting a hand in greeting.  "Hi.  Are you William?"

William
They match, in a way, and when he sees Nick he stands, he smiles, he offers a hand and seems so bright. Around him, there is unrest. There is the feeling in men's hearts before revolution, the feeling of the sea- not the eye of the hurricane but the actual storm itself and all of it wanting to try harder, push harder, to be more than it is right now. He is upheaval searching for some form that it may break and build anew. Constantly seeking a limitation to overcome.

"Hey," bright and pleased. Is he william? Yes, given the pocketsquare and the smile he must be, "do you go by Nicholas or Nick?"

Takes a seat when the other man does. He doesn't seem phased by the heat, is much more uncomfortable with the cold that comse in other months. Summer sunshine Leo creature.

Nicholas Hyde
The offered hand he takes and gives a firm pump or two.  Nick shakes hands often throughout the day: he is practiced at it, just as he is practiced at conveying warmth.

"By Nick, usually," he says, because in truth only his mother and Pen really ever call him Nicholas: and Robin does or used to.  He takes a seat when it becomes apparent that William is waiting for him, setting his coffee down on the table first and then easily sliding into the seat.

Not only is Nick's hair dark but it is also curly, a wild Dionysian mess that tumbles and corkscrews over his forehead and around his ears.  He does not seem to have made any attempt to control it today, though it is evident that he probably just came from work.  "You're the one Pen's been teaching swordplay to, huh?"  And he is amused here but not unkindly so; if anything maybe he has noted William's youth, his eye for color, and how it doesn't seem that hard to imagine him a bravo.

William
There are people in the world who know how to shake hands, as though this is something that was in their DNA. Shaking hands. Shaking hands and being warm deslite the fact that the world around them can be stifling. Nick isn't stifling- not like some he's met at least. Not overwhelming. Not choking on the air like he has with another person he's had meetings with as of late.

There is adventure to be had. There is a push for something- a quest. He seems the type to quest, easy to imagine him a bravo. He's nearly six feet tall and comfortable in his skin, dresses in a way that amkes good on the fact that his frame is all potential and not quite converted to kinetic.

"Yep, I've been stealing your wife away at dawn to semipublicly humiliate myself, builds characters," he grins like he was born to do it. Mischief, this one, "I'm pretty bad at it. Do you... y'know? With the stabbity pokey sword things?"

Nicholas Hyde
Nick takes a sip of his coffee, which is not something done quickly: he raises it to his lower lip first, inhales the steam which is redolent with the scent of cinnamon and in truth of his childhood.  It's one of the few reminders he enjoys, and one of his few concessions to nostalgia if only because it has become so indelibly wrapped up in his present as well.

He does not have time to return the sly smile William gives him because William is asking him whether he stabs things, and his only response for a half a heartbeat is to laugh.  "Me?  No.  That's all Pen," he says.

If William could have been a fly on the wall to watch Pen try to teach Nick how to defend himself when surprised with a grab, he might not have even asked the question.

"I know how to use a gun, barely.  That's really the only weapon I know how to use.  I'm more of a talker, I guess."

William
"Ohhh, then you're doubly dangerous," says like he's completely serious, "well placed words are how countries are made and fall. So, are you a public speaker or a mediator or..?"

what do you do for a living? he says without saying. Curiosity gets the better of him and he knows it's rude, knows it in the pit of his stomach that it is a harmless question and yet it can be so loaded. People feel pressure to answer a certain way and he isn't trying to probe.

Oh lord, Nick has to see how desperately the young man wants to make a good impression

Nicholas Hyde
Nick can indeed see how desperately the young man wants to make a good impression, and see: he finds it endearing, finds that it taps into the well of tenderness in him that is never buried too far below the surface.  Being young and inexperienced is not so far behind him.

"I'm a counselor," Nick says.  It may be a loaded question, but it's a common one to hear from other people once one has attained a certain age: the certain age at which people are expected to have a career that they are working on, that consumes a full half of their waking hours.  "I work in hospice at the main hospital downtown."

The assertion that he is dangerous, well, he'd only smiled at that and it was maybe a little self-conscious and a little wry.  Enough to make it clear that he does not especially think of himself that way.

William
"I keep trying to convince my dad that we need to move my great uncle out here and into hospice up here, but Bonus-Grandpa is pretty entrenched in New Orleans. Didn't even move after the hurricane, just built the house again in the exact same place. Same blueprints and everything," he nods as he picks up his coffee cup. he does not drink it black- it's doubtful that what he has in his cup really even constitutes as coffee anymore given the amount of stuff that is in it.

"It doesn't get so damn hot up here."

a beat.

A moment of horror.

"Oh god, I'm talking about the weather."

Nicholas Hyde
[Am I making you nervous?  Perception + Empathy.]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 5 ) [Doubling Tens]

William
He is nervous.

He is nervous because he wants to make a good impression because he likes Pen, because he likes Arianna, because he likes their cabal and Nick is nice and William knows whole heartedly that he, personally, is a screw up. And while he might have fooled the Hermetic Order he won't be able to fool Nick for terribly long.

He realizes he's being ridiculous.

He also realizes that he has no idea what to talk about. Pen did not prepare him for this. He knows that Nick likes gardening and that? That is it.

Nicholas Hyde
William's horror, his half-apology and his self-consciousness (and beneath that, shame: isn't that what underlies these things, ultimately?) is met with a sort of warm, wry amusement.  "Your grandpa sounds like a tough old guy.  Are you from New Orleans, originally?"

He takes a swallow from his coffee, which is a pale brown with the cinnamon and cream, and then sets it back down in front of him.  "The weather is a completely acceptable thing to talk about.  It tells you who is thoughtful enough to look for the things they have in common with others.  It's underrated."

William
"I am!" he says, perks up, "we moved to Baton Rouge after Katrina, but I still have family in the area. I moved here to go to college because I figured the scenery change would be nice. It's not nearly as quiet up here as I was expecting, but there's a lot fewer giant reptiles so I'll take it."

The weather, he asserts, is underrated. Safe topic, yes, not abbrasive. Not painful, not something that is going to readily traumatize a stranger. It is the quintessential small talk topic. Will nodes at that.

"Talking about the weather makes me think of old senators campaigning for younger men in white suits before tent revivals."

Nicholas Hyde
Again, that flicker of amusement.  The corners of his eyes crinkle up when he's amused: it's not vocal, but if one looks for his laughter that way it seems to appear far more often than one might expect, when first taking in the somber set to Nick's features.  "It makes me think of trying to talk to my grandmother's friends when we'd visit her place.  I had just enough Spanish."

He gently swirls the coffee in his mug to redistribute the cinnamon, which tends to float to the top if left undisturbed for long enough.  "Pen tells me she's been teaching you to swordfight.  On rooftops."

William
"I finally got to a place with Spanish that I feel like I can have a decent conversation. Honestly, for the longest time when I was little I felt like I had juuuust enough English to be able to get into trouble," he grins, which is just the most appropriate amount of knowing anything, really. Knowing just enough to get into trouble. Knowing just enough that you can understand what you're not supposed to do so that you can do it anyway.

"Where else are you going to learn sword play but rooftops?"

Nicholas Hyde
"I've forgotten most of it, now," Nick says, and again this air of amusement; this is how he meets William's smile.  There's something sly there though if you look: he might know just enough to get himself into trouble too.

"Most of the Hermetics I've known made their apprentices and initiates learn in gymnasiums.  Rooftops sound a lot more interesting."

William
Troublemakers know each other when they see them.

Sure, Nick might seem nice enough. He is charming and he is kind and he is polite but at the end of the day, Nick probably has a streak in him that doesn't sit idly by and play nice all the time. Maybe there is a hint of adventure there. Enough of a hint that William grins, is delighted byt he prospect that the little bit of slyness tells him.

"Most of the hermetics you've known lack a sense of style and adventure, then. Rooftops, I've found, are wonderful for anything. And where's the risk of falling off of a gymnasium- nowhere, that's there."

He takes a drink, "I didn't really have a normal apprenticeship, though."

Nicholas Hyde
"Most of them did," Nick says, and if his tone is carefully couched here well, he can perhaps be forgiven. He is talking to a Hermetic and he is married to a Hermetic and he has been in a cabal with two others in the past: he must like them, even if he's met some that don't impress him.  "I'm pleased to see Pen passing on her flair."

And he is, see.  Then, "What was your apprenticeship like?"

William
"Pen's a blast, I met her in a wardrobe."

Totally a story there.

But, he moves on to the idea, to the question of what his apprenticeship was like, "full of being in near constant trouble and a bit of a minor custody battle before ending up with a legitimate Hermetic mentor. I think I got fast tracked once I met Henry, because we didn't spend half as long as most people do in their apprenticeship, and I feel like if I did we'd be the same rank by the time I got out."

Nicholas Hyde
"In a wardrobe?"  And here he laughs: because if there is a story here it's not one that he heard from Pen, or if he did it was during a rushed phone call when he was exhausted and packing and still in New England and she was here.

That seems like a long time ago, now.

"The initiation process for a few of the Traditions can be pretty long," he agrees: his own is among them.  Ideally.  "Who is Henry?  I don't think I know him."

William
"Henry was here, but he left town a little bit after you and Pen got here. We had our big Tradition meeting, then Henry and this Verbena named Leah went off on some epic quest for an artifact that had to do with who she was way way way long ago in some incarnation past this one," said like he is completely on board with the idea that there are past lives. Said like he knows this for a fact, that there is no real need to convince him.

"You know that turquoise armoir you guys have? I helped her move that because a guy that I was doing a lighting gig with was selling it and she needed help getting it where it needed to go and she wanted to see the thing, so I took her to see it and we're like well, obviously, we need to make sure this isn't a portal to another dimension and everyone knows an armoir is only worth its salt if it can fit two full grown adults in it."

Nicholas Hyde
There is a flicker of recognition there as William mentions Leah: evidently Nick has heard the name before.  This is often the way entering a small community goes, picking up past events in little snatches and stories and piecing it all together.  "So Henry was your mentor, then?"

Here: amusement, again, and maybe a touch of fondness here too.  It is not difficult evidently for him to imagine Pen jumping into a wardrobe to look for Narnia.  "What would you have done if it had been a portal to another dimension?"

William
"He was! And is, technically, we're no longer in the strictest sense of apprentice-and-mentor but I feel like I will always be Henry's apprentice and Henry will always be my mentor. Even if, someday, I become some terrifying archmage he will forever be that person to me. He's grewat, he's an author, little troublemaker of an old man with the best library and a talking fox for a housemate."

As for what he would have done?

"I would have had my first adventure with Pen," he replies with a grin.

Nicholas Hyde
"I heard about the talking fox from Pen," he says, and another smile here.  "She told me much more about the fox than she did about Henry, actually.  I think mentors do stay that way to us, though.  They're like parents."

Even for people who would rather have been taught by someone else: in that, too, they are alike.

He takes another swallow of his coffee.  "So what made you choose the Hermetics, out of curiosity?"

William
"I said I wanted to know everything, and they said we can do that," he said, "what about you? Why turn the wheel aside from it being a natural cosmic calling?"

Nicholas Hyde
Asking a Chakravanti why they decided to become Chakravanti is similar to asking a therapist why they decided to become a therapist: it is, more frequently than not, a loaded question and often asked more lightly than the subject matter the inquirer receives in return.  Nick has been asked both questions with regularity.

He swirls the coffee in his mug again, after another smile cast in William's direction at his reply.  "I fell into an episode of Quiet, and a Chakravanti helped me through it," he says.  "After that, I understood that I had a responsibility.  So I stayed, and she initiated me.  I was a Disparate for about two years before that, though."

William
"Someone who used to be one of my best friends had a few episodes of Quiet while he was here... it was horrible," he said, something about it made him think, made him linger. Made him stop and give way to seriousness. Interest, but understanding the gravity of it.

There are things about himself that he has no idea, has no clue how close he's ridden the line of madness. Has no idea how easily he may slip, or that he may have had episodes in those formative years when magick went awry and he hadn't the first clue as to what was going on. When he didn't know what was real and what wasn't and the world came apart so frequently.

He's still wary for walls, but knows why they talk now.

"I was a disparate for a long time, but I didn't get the whole magick thing until I moved here."

Nicholas Hyde
And here, just like that: the tone of the conversation changes.  Nick is used to having that effect; conversations naturally turn this way when he discusses his work or his Work with other people, or his history.  For many people it is a fearful topic.

"It can be horrible.  It's worse, in some ways, when it's not," Nick says.  Because: he has seen people lost to the siren song before.  He's killed them.

"What do you mean, you didn't get the whole magick thing?  Did you not realize that was what it was?"

William
[This was totally not a terrifying thing for me. Manip + sub]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )

Nicholas Hyde
[Very nice, but...]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 5 ) [Doubling Tens]

William
"I was on my own from sixteenish to... uh.. nineteen? Just about? I turned twenty while I was here and here was the first place I'd met any other awakened people so I spent three years just kinda... you know... thinkin' I was crazy. Apparently, your avatar doesn't like it when you ignore it for three years," shrugs it off. Gives a wave and sounds flippant except-

Except.

There's more to it than that. The ease at which he has that little canned answer of fine-ness that gives way to the fact that, perhaps, that hadn't been as easy or as pleasnt as it seemed. Peopler throw around the word crazy pretty lightly.

Nicholas Hyde
Except.  There's more to it than that, isn't there?  And Nick is aware that sometimes he asks too many questions: he's aware that sometimes people don't want to delve into the deeply personal upon first meeting, or at all.  So there is always some internal debate about whether to ask, and perhaps some restraint.

"It was a little like that for me, too.  Only I was lucky, my sister had Awakened before me and was able to explain after a couple of months."  And here: there is a little furrowing of his brow.  A half-smile, though this is not mirthful: a wistful and knowing thing.

William
"That's a relief," he says with a smile, "I was legitimately starting to think that the people in Baton Rouge were avoiding me and it was like gah, what's the deal, I'm awesome."

Nicholas Hyde
There is a little furrow to Nick's brows there: maybe it is making him recall his own Awakening, or the nudges he was receiving from his Avatar, or whatever they were.  "I didn't tell anyone what was going on.  I was in grad school to become a counselor, so I sort of knew the score and what would happen if I told anyone about it."

William
"I wish you'd been practicing in Baton Rouge, you could have saved me a pretty lengthy inpatient stay. We could have compared notes," he laughed, "have you considered taking on Awakened clientele? I feel like that is a niche."

Nicholas Hyde
William suggests that and Nick laughs.  "It probably is.  I do know some Sleepwalkers who practice.  I've referred people to them before when they need someone who understands but it wouldn't be ethical for me to take them on.  The whole dual relationship thing."  A beat.  "But I am sorry that happened."

William
"Dude, I'm sorry you couldn't talk to anybody for a few months, it sucks being alone and I'm glad you had someone," he sounds genuinely happy for Nick, too. Not at all resentful of his situation. Not at all envious of Nick but, rather, in a state that he isn't as prickly as he would have.

A second.

"Wanna go jump out of an airplane with me this week?"

Nicholas Hyde
Nick's eyebrows pull up into a pair of smooth arches and he laughs, then, because: this is the kind of suggestion he might have expected from Sera.  "Um.  Sure.  I've never jumped out of a plane before, but I suppose it's as good a time as any."

William
"Sounds great. You. Me. Airplane- pewww-" like they're plummeting to the ground "-but obviously without the crash part. More the gentle float part."

Nicholas Hyde
"Have you been before?"  Nick does not sound nervous, not precisely, but: well, the fact that he is suddenly showing a little apprehension is probably a good sign.

William
"Yeah! I went when I was eighteen, so I was pretty much excited to do anything that was on my own so my first response was let's jump out of an airplane. My parents were livid, but it was fantastic. Total rush. Haven't tried recently but I think I'm gravity proof... not going to test it now but at some point I'm going to see if I can fall off a roof because that's important to know."

Nicholas Hyde
Nick laughs this time, though it is a quiet thing, more of a rumble.  "Well, I can probably talk to Pen about gravity proofing us both, just in case.  Unless you think that would ruin the experience."

William
"We'll bounce, it's fine."

He grins, jokingly.

Morbid, yes, but joking.

Nicholas Hyde
Nick smiles once more: no stranger to morbid humor.  "All right.  Just let me know where and when to meet you."

William
He gives a thumbs up, raises his mug of coffee, and is content to continue on with pleasant conversation. He heads out when he needs to, but for the time and for now, he's happy to spend time with the older counselor.