The great equalizer

Ned
They'd begun to make this a habit, though not regularly enough to call it a Mentorship.

Ned would have gotten in touch with Nick with a simple text message.

Alright. So what's next?

Like someone fiddling around with a gun, eyeball down the barrel for a split second while fumbling with it around in his hands. If Ned had any indication of how it came across or represented him, he either didn't seem to care or was beyond considering the diplomacy of such things. Nevertheless, they agreed to meet and Ned would make his way out to wherever, whenever Mr. Hyde opted to point him.

"You know..." Somewhere on the way, Ned chimes in with a carefully constructed bit of thought in his tone. "I didn't realize before but your last name...do you get a lot of Jekyll 'n Hyde jokes...?"

Nick Hyde
Mr. Hyde opts to point Ned to the chantryhouse, where he already planned to spend some of his day.  While he tends to be a more hands-on and experiential sort of learner, picks up and performs magick in a far more intuitive manner than his wife and several of his prior cabalmates, Nicholas occasionally does find books to be of some benefit.  He's an intelligent man: he just isn't necessarily studious in the way one tends to imagine such things.

He has been at the chantry for a few hours already when he receives Ned's text, and so he suggests that the relatively new initiate come out to meet him there.  When Ned arrives he is no longer pouring over tomes but instead out behind the house, where earlier he scribed a circle in ash and memory.

Whatever he was doing there, he is done with: there is a smudge marring the circle, and it lies there broken.  He is in the process of ducking next to the hot spring behind the building, gathering water from it into a small vial, and that is where Ned will find him upon his arrival.  And so: Nick straightens, and he offers a smile and greeting.

"I do," he says, though it is without any particular sourness toward the fact.  "I got it more often growing up when other kids thought they were being funny.  My Hermetic friends who were given to nicknaming didn't seize on it because it was too obvious."

Ned
"Right, because someone who's empathically inclined having a name like yours. Does sort of ring with 'on the nose'..."

Ned offers it without much mirth and no derision. His hands are stuffed into his pockets and his eyes are gathering around the landscape of the Chantry house, with all of it's...oddities and the sense of out of place that comes with it for a city boy like Ned. To say he's uncomfortable would be inaccurate. There is no mistaking the slight wince of...well, weirdness he must be feeling at the moment.

"So this is the big deal, huh? The way the Doc described it, I was expecting some sort of flashy delivery or fortified bunker. You'd think the lot of you would want to keep this place as secure as possible."

Nick Hyde
Nick has taken a small cork out of his pocket, which he works very carefully into the mouth of the little vial, tapping it a few times down with the pad of his thumb and pressing until the nail goes white.  He gives the vial a little shake or two, holding it between thumb and forefinger, until he has satisfied himself that it is not going to leak.

It is tucked away beneath his shirt and out of sight; once he slips it past his collar it seems to vanish entirely.  A corner of his mouth lifts at Ned's wry comment about his name.  "You didn't know me as a teenager."

Once the vial is gone, he brushes his hands together, perhaps to rid them of any residue from the circle he drew and from the springwater, and follows Ned's glance around the little outdoor space.  "I think in the old days there might have been more fortification, but that was before both our times.  Besides, some of the fortification that is here isn't visible unless you're looking with the right eyes.  There's a spirit guardian and some other weaving here."

Ned
"Huh."

Ned is weighing the pros and cons just then of activating something. Peripheral, perceptual or just outright x-ray to do some scans but the way Nick suggests some things and outright claims at a Spirit Guardian makes it momentary. Ned is not a student of Spirit and one would be hard pressed to convince him to begin or become one. That was what Margot was for, afterall.

"Are there no permanent residents? Or is this like-" Ned struggles for a second for the right word, hands brushing down the length of his jeans for a moment to rid them of sweat "-Communal space? No residents just guests whenever?"

Nick Hyde
"I think there might be permanent residents that I haven't met.  I'm not out here very often," Nick says, with a shrug of one shoulder.  This is not hard to imagine: the chantry house is an hour's drive outside the city, overlooking the plains and mountains and rocky knolls.  Still: it is not hard to imagine Nick out here.

"Some chantries do have permanent residents.  The one I used to frequent back in Connecticut had three or four people who lived there regularly and would take care of and maintain the grounds.  But they were all pretty close, and had a lot in common with each other.  Most of the time it's difficult to get people like us to share space on an extended basis."

Nick flicks his curly head back toward the door.  "Do you want me to show you the library?  The node is in the spring."

Ned
"Is it part of today's interrogation?"

Ned has approached the spring while Nick is speaking, eyes dipping into the waters with careful scrutiny and an attempt to decipher...well something. Maybe he's willing himself to try and see what those with Prime might sense intuitively. Maybe he's just trying to inspect the physical properties and whether they may be different to the naked eye. Regardless the question is passed over his shoulder at the older man.

"The Doc's Library is fairly extensive. I'm learning about Matter right now, which has him particularly smug in the teaching efforts. I assume a Chantry's library is far broader in scope given how many different paradigms come wandering through here at any given point."

Nick Hyde
"Do you feel as though you're being interrogated?"  Here, another slant of a smile.

Steam surrounds the spring, visible even in the summer humidity and heat: it hangs over the spring like a fog, like the mists of Faerie.  Step into them and you could step into another world, and you might not come back.  Ned could sense the significance of such a place, even without Prime.  Knowing how to drink from its waters is something else again.

"How is it going, learning Matter from Andrés?"  Nick's pronunciation of the Etherite's name is easy, rolls off his tongue; he has never taken to calling him the Doc the same way Margot and Ned do.  "You do get a broader scope here in a chantry, though it's still biased toward certain styles of learning and so certain Traditions and schools of thought.  Also certain histories.  There are plenty of historical texts back there too, and literature written by and for Awakened audiences, if you have any interest."

Ned
"I knew you were going to say that."

Ned tuts and snorts and chuckles all at once.

"It's fine. We're similarly minded in scientific interaction across both Matter and Forces so it has been a pretty smooth transition for those. There was a brief indication when I was still an apprentice that it'd be a good idea for me to become a Son of Ether." Ned's tone doesn't betray just how he might feel about that particular element.

"Science isn't everything though." He pulls back from the pool of water with it's reflective come hither, turning to face Nick again, hands in pockets and careful steps drawing across the grassy turf.

"My interests usually revolve around the present and now. I hated history in school. Lot of mistakes folks refused to learn from. Lot of the same stories and beliefs and structures replaying themselves over and over and over again." He laughs suddenly. "No matter how simple the wheel is, folks seem to keep repeating their same shitty mistakes."

Nick Hyde
"Clearly I should change my game a little, then," is Nick's rejoinder, once Ned's chuckle stills in his throat.

To the rest, he listens intently.  This is not always with his eyes on Ned; he has leaned back against the arm of one of the wood chairs that are scattered around the porch.  He lifts his foot so he can tug at the laces of one of his shoes (well made brown leather dress shoes, if worn at the heels and the outer edges) and wiggle it off of his foot.  He nods once or twice, here and there.  "What made you choose not to go with the Society of Ether?"

He tugs his sock off, tucks it away in a ball inside the shoe and lets the whole thing drop to the floor with a clatter.  Lifts the other foot to tend to it in the same way as he listens.

"People have short memories.  Most people don't remember the lives they had before, so to them it's all new every time.  Even if you do remember, the sense of you as an individual usually prevails over that connection to history and the larger whole."

Ned
"If anything, they're incomplete. Kind of like everyone else I've investigated." Investigated sounds a bit made up. Or at least, fantastical, when Ned says it. As if he'd given cursory glances at every Tradition under the sun and in the 'book' and come away with an opinion. Nothing worth it's salt or substance, but enough to go by.

"Science explains a lot, but only in so much as it's a cipher for how to understand the universe which...doesn't really want anything to do with those of us thinking kind. The universe does whatever it does, however it does. Same with the Umbra and spirit. They're going to operate and function regardless of our efforts. The impact we have is questionable, at best. You throw in the relation with have to any of them. Time, Entropy, Corr...each of them is a separate sort of interaction that has similarities to maybe a few others. Ultimately, it comes down to puzzle pieces. Each sphere represents a corner or a section that each Tradition is working on to understand proper but...without the other sections and their understandings, it's only ever going to be a part of the puzzle so..."

He shrugs, hands clapping infront of him, clucking his tongue at the back of his throat.

"Science holds sway in the realms of Forces and Matter. Scientific principle makes too much sense that way. Spirit and Prime are in their own House, wholly outside of the boundaries of 'mortal thinking' and mysterious. Time and Space...or Corr...are a step above even the Science of Forces and Matter...while Mind and Life are entirely, thoroughly intimate and impossible to ignore on a personal level..." He pauses, a hand coming up to count each of them off for a second before fingers snap.

"Leaving Entropy. The great equalizer across all spectrums. Each Tradition has a section of the puzzle they've been working on. Except the scope is so big, so broad to vast as to make Time and Space and Reality all just 'parts' of the whole...it is unfathomable." A pause. Brow furrowing. "At least from our current perspectives but then...that's enlightenment, yeah? What we're all working toward?'

Nick Hyde
Nick is a good listener.  This is generally the first thing other people notice about him, how he reflects others' emotions back at them sometimes before they know what they are feeling, how his eyes convey understanding.  He nods, intermittently, as Ned speaks to him about Spheres.

"Say more about Entropy being an equalizer across all spectrums."  His shoes and socks are off now and he has turned toward rolling his pants up at the bottom, cuffing one leg and then the other neatly at the middle of his calf.

Ned
"Kind of hard. Half of me expects it to act as the over-arching definer for each and every other sphere. They can't all be immortal or shift and change without some semblance or rate of decay. Mind and Life are obvious for that, while Matter and Forces produce it in inertia, gravity, momentum and the lack of perpetuation. What we conceive of as 'infinite' is just a term that we attach to a concept too vast to think about in truth. So entropy is the answering force to reduce and make efficient all other Spheres and Infleunces. It's what ensures everyone and everything has room to play in and that the odds are always geared toward maintaining that sense of 'fairness'."

Ned's face screws up at this last word, as if it struck him as all wrong. He thinks for a second and then shakes his head, unable to decipher another word to use.

"Entropy feels like it could be above the others but it also seems like it's just a slave to them as well. Constantly needing to put away the toys of everyone else, so that the day, the sun, the wheel...can keep turning."

Nick Hyde
"So you're looking for some sort of great unifier, then, moreso than an equalizer," Nick says, and his voice has the quality of a musing.  There is a thoughtfulness too in his eyes, in how they track off into the mist that he stands in front of.  He is headed over toward the spring, meets it in a few brief strides.

It is too hot really for him to slide to the ground in front of it and let his feet fall into the waters, but he does it anyway.  The mist around it wreathes him, settles into his hair and lends him an otherworldliness.  He belongs in this sort of place.

"You're looking for missing pieces.  What do you think might be missing from the Traditions you've spoken to so far, and the points of view you've heard?"

Ned
"That would be the deciding factor. Whether it's an equalizer or a unification process. Regardless of that decision, it's above my paygrade in all this. The complexities are vast and I have about as much understanding of how it all fits together as one would expect...namely, that of a second year uni. student thinking they've defined the world according to all the second year philosophy studies they took during first year."

He doesn't follow Nick over to the spring. Simply waits nearby, hands in his pockets as the man's feet slip into the water. Ned is observant. Curious, perhaps of what might occur or whether they would be some noticeable change in the way Nick begins to interact. Safely removed though.

"I'm content to wait for the pieces to come to me but the Puzzle is there. Hard to deny. Mainly I'm discovering that the rules are no where near as simple as they first seemed and that is only on par with my understanding. I have no doubt the higher up the echelons you go, the more complex and intensive it all gets, to match the level of enlightenment and regard you need to achieve those echelons."

He sighs next, head lolling back to stare upward.

"Of those I've spoken with or had some exposure to? Commonality seems to be the key. The only time I've been told that the Traditions work together was during this Ascension War and that...did not go well but again...these are all simplifications. Mainly, what I imagine is missing? Is a willingness to admit that others can be right." He holds up a hand. "Not admitting that you're wrong. But that others can be right."

Nick Hyde
At this, Nick makes a thoughtful sound deep in his throat.  "I think that might be true of each Tradition, as an entity.  Individuals, though, I think have to accept that other people can be right in order to work with them.  At least, I think most of the time that other people are right for themselves, even if their philosophy isn't right for me."

Trust a counselor to say such a thing.

The air around him does not change; perhaps he is only choosing to soak in the water, for now.  Or perhaps he is preparing himself for something else: it would be difficult to say to one who is as yet uneducated in the Spheres Nick tends to make the most use of.

"What would you rather see, or what sorts of things would other people say to you, ideally speaking?"

Ned
"Well given what being an individual outside of the Traditions entails more often than not? I'd say that speaks to how important an Individual's opinion is."

He chuckles, dismissive without being bitter or unpleasant about it.

"Traditions are as much a clubhouse of respect and backing as they are a philosophy. Having that amount of history and power behind you can do a lot for your voice and recognition. For your place in the world and how much influence you might be able to have on it. Comes with its prices and demands, mind you but that's to be expected."

"I-" He pauses. Thinks about it for a second. "-don't know what I want to see just yet. Most of it revolves around various methods of making life better for others. Or just ensuring comfort is there, whether you're dying, living or want to do either. "

Nick Hyde
"Individuals shape Traditions.  Each of us matters, as an individual, and each of us can shape reality.  I don't think we can overlook that, being the sorts of people we are," he says.  And Nicholas is an idealist, but the words are not said without a certain gravity to them.

"Admittedly, Disparates get dismissed in a lot of circles, but there are still some that have power and influence.  I knew a few in Boston who probably knew more about the inner workings of the Traditions there than most Traditionalists did."

Nick's feet sway in the spring, and he leans back on the heels of his hands.  "How would you make life better for others?"

Ned
"Not overlooking it, simply giving history it's due. Individuals don't have nearly the level of impact on long stranding Traditions as they do in maintaining them. Half of history's problem is wrapped up in how people adhered dogmatically to the singular method previously defined in earlier generations." He snorts slightly.

"Helping others is....a big topic. It depends on the individual-" He snorts again, laughing this time. "You help whoever you need to whenever you need to, but only if you have the capacity to help otherwise you're just hindering or spending time someplace you could be spending elsewhere. Or fucking things up for the person further. You gotta know and if you don't, figure it out and if you can't, leave it alone until you can or find someone else who can. Other than that...it's just details."

Nick Hyde
"Do you not think the details are important?"  There is a glance back over his shoulder for Ned here, a half-lashed look up at the younger man as he leans a little bit farther backward on his hands to allow for it.  "I think it is important to understand your limitations, though, at least until you manage to surpass them."

Likely his wife would disagree; they have had discussions about that very thing.  Such are the travails of being married to someone outside of one's Tradition.

"Do you remember any lives before this one, Ned, out of curiosity?"

Ned
 "I think the details are ignored. Which is what people are fond of doing. Ignoring facts to believe and that...well is sort of the crux of us isn't it? Believing what we like or hope or demand, to ensure we can do what needs doing. If the details get in the way of that...well, it's a long road to Enlightenment."

Ned shrugs. He has yet to draw closer. Yet to approach the pool. There's something....distrusting in his stance and regard, that says the Chantry as a whole is probably not up to his particular comfort zones.

"I don't remember anything past early childhood and there are spots and sections that are blurry at best. Past lives are something I can't put a lot of stock in until I get some sort of understanding about why they exist or why they function the way they do. If it's a universal truth that all lives are multiples across Time, that says a lot about both Life and Time as spheres."

Nick Hyde
"They may be ignored by other people, but they might be important for you to know in order to do what needs to be done."  He is still glancing back at Ned, sweeping his attention over him and his stance and how he hangs back rather than approaching the pool.

Perhaps he had known that the chantry would be a bit outside Ned's comfort zone.  Regardless, he does not call him forward.

"What do you think it says, if it's a universal truth across Time?"  A beat.  "Let's say you were to discover some universal truth.  Do you think it would be truly universal, or only your perception of what universal is?  How would you know?"

Ned
"I wouldn't. Thus, not really something I can put a lot of thought into until I get some level of personal proof, truth or fact behind it. Right now it's as valid as the Doc telling me the-" and here his hands flutter and flit about in the air overhead, eyes rolling in tandem "-flux capacitor requires ionizational charges off the core components found in red on the buffer triangulation device. Though only because I've seen the Doc make something like that happen with my own two eyes....and I've talked to River."

The comparison there could not be any more distinctively different but Ned's tone suggests there is a correlation he is comfortable with.

"Finding out details. As much as possible before the decision is made. If I can, I will, if I can't, then I'll make the time. If I can't do that, I'll leave it in the hands of someone that can. If I can't do that, I'll make the hard choice." A pause. "As far as universal truth goes well....I suppose I'd go looking for that truth until I found it, or something to make it irrelevant. Like a Tradition...or bullet."

Nick Hyde
Ned describes the way Andrés perceives magick, perceives making magick work for him, and Nick laughs.  It's a sweet sound, sudden and clear as a bell at dawn, the sort of sound that other people might not immediately attribute to him.  When he speaks again, his voice still carries traces of amusement in it.  "What if it's all true?  The way Andrés sees it, and the way the Conventionals see it, and the way I see it, and you?  Do you need more proof than that it works?"

There is a furrow in his brow when Ned continues.  This, though, he does not address immediately.

His feet sway in the water, and perhaps it's only to soften the sound: it's a hard word, bullet.  The Hermetics, those who have studied Enochian, might shape the word itself and all the significance around it, everything it is and means and could possibly convey: this is the power of a Word.

Ned
"It all is true, is the thing. I've seen what the Doc can do. I know what I can do. I know what Margot can do and those are vastly different elements and belief structures. If anything, belief is the commonality behind it all but even then, that's suspect at best. I don't really...care though." He shrugs rather helplessly.

"Half of belief is about what you have on your inside self and how well you reconcile it. Mostly I know what I believe and what it represents to the way I work reality. Some of it interacts comfortably with how the Doc sees things and some of it interacts more with the way Margot does. There are whole elements yet to piece themselves together running in the background, that might be where your past lives structure fits. The main idea though is...well....any soapbox preacher can tell you and believe wholly and deeply the world is going to end tomorrow....and he'll be wrong because he isn't awake. He isn't working with the puzzle, just the little piece that he is."

Nick Hyde
"Belief is the commonality, but it seems to conflict with your desire for proof," Nick says, and there is a slight smile here.  There are traces of warmth in it; there is no mockery there, though perhaps Ned will perceive such anyway.  He is a distrustful man, after all.

"Maybe the preacher isn't wrong.  Maybe it's just that no one is listening to him in the right way, or he hasn't discovered the right words.  You'll find plenty of doomsayers who are Awakened, too."

Ned
"Belief is proof. You don't need facts to make someone certain, just convince them to believe by whatever means they're comfortable with. That's where Science sort of falls apart. Preacher's wrong because he doesn't have the tools or the equipment to make belief real, regardless of what's been proven before a thousand days to a thousand days before hand. World didn't end then, it won't end tomorrow."

Ned sucks in a breath, slow and deep, exhaling it out in a long sigh.

"Say what you want about a War, when it gets waged, it's done to high proof. High concept. High belief. Soldiers don't need facts, just an enemy they believe is in the wrong and the weapons and orders to make it right again. Folks die by that Tradition and they die by the Bullet. Everything else is-...heh, details."

Nick Hyde
"Science is as much its own religion as anything else," Nick says, and he says this with a shrug of one shoulder.  "The Technocrat purists don't want to admit that, but I think some of them know that they have to inspire people with it in order to get them to believe."

Nick lifts one of his hands away from the cobblestone floor, examines it and scrapes a pebble away with the tip of a finger.  "It sounds like you're more interested in being the soldier than someone who examines the high concepts, then.  Which is all right.  We need soldiers too."

Ned
"I'm more interested in doing what's right until I get the proof I need to figure out what's right. Traditions have been around for a long time and if there's any thing I've begun to recognize in the last while it's that Traditions don't die easily, the alternative is a Brown Paper Bag with a White Collar and the third option is what I'm currently doing which is nothing and an early death sentence. Nothing gets you killed. Or worse."

Ned swallows, gently. Something about his tone suggests there is a quality there that might not have been before. A recognition that being outside of the boundaries of what is these days...really really wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Nick Hyde
"So what right thing can you do, then, until you figure out what's right?"  And Nick's voice too is gentle; there is something of Ned's manner, of his hesitance, reflected there in Nick's tone.  It may be something that is done unconsciously; Nicholas Hyde often responds to others and to situations intuitively.

He is an instinctive creature, if one is inclined to boil it all down, no matter how many layers of thought and analysis he has attempted to heap on the world.

"And how can I support you in that?"

Ned
"I can kill, where necessary and I can..." He sucks in a breath, as if this next part is the actual difficult one. "I can keep people from being killed. Those two are...remarkably, outstandingly easy. Beginning and an end. Allowance of progress or the cessation of it. What they do after either is beyond my paygrade. Outside of my boundary." He's shaking his head. Remembering an old man with a glass knife. Remembering a broken sibling to a best friend. Remembering worse than both combined.

"Failure in either, means a problem but it's a problem I'm equipped for. It's a problem I can solve. The Tradition is equipped to help me believe those have purpose. That there's something beyond those two options. That the Wheel provides and that if there are lives beyond this one? Those individuals have a chance. An option. But they have to be given that chance and that option. Because taking a life...or sparing it. Those are easy. Anyone can do it.... Anyone at all."

Nick Hyde
"I don't know if I would say anyone," Nick says.  "But I understand the desire for simplicity, after you Awaken into a complicated world."

There is a little furrow of his brow here, lines and ridges that appear and shift, the motion of the world made miniscule.  "But I hope that you do understand that if you're initiated, sometimes you'll be called upon to understand when killing is necessary and when it isn't.  That requires some understanding of nuance.  Details."

Ned
"Nick."

He pauses. As if he realizes who he is about to...correct. The pause doesn't last. Longer than any he's managed before, but it doesn't last.

"Living in this world, awake just makes me realize there are a far cry of experiences, entities and beliefs that can make anyone of sound mind and rational thought, willing to believe, capable of anything at all. They just need the right motivation and if proof doesn't exist...or rather, if belief is the promise we make to be right well...anyone can kill or spare a life. It's just the details that make that process complicated."

A shrug. A hand rising to scratch at the back of his neck, a slight wince riding his face. That same level of unspoken discomfort that he buries in his tone and convictions a moment later.

"I understand the details and when it's necessary I'll do what needs doing or find someone who can. Belief doesn't need nuance though. Belief doens't make you kill someone or spare them it just...convinces you it's a good idea. After that, you make the choice and the choice...well yeah. I'll consider ever detail I can before making any choice in this or ever. You can't not. Even serial killers pay attention to the details, it's all they have to go on half the time." He pokes the air, like tapping a fact on a white board. "Make everything just so."

Nick Hyde
Ned says his name just before there is a breath of air, and it is long enough to draw Nick's eyes up from the water and back to the younger man.  Something has caused his eyes to narrow just slightly: it is not quite a squint, a desire to see more clearly.  It is still kin to it, perhaps.

For a handful of heartbeats he says nothing.

"All right," he says.  A beat.  "Sooner or later, I'd like to hear what you're learning about Matter in more detail.  It would interest me."

Ned
"Was pretty simple, really, which is probably why I didn't see it to begin with. Science explains how Matter is constructed in all it's components. I was having trouble defining how I could use the Sphere, to alter Matter from one shape to the next. Or from compound to chemical. Atom to other Atom. It is all very complex, trying to decipher molecule from molecule and how to transfer over. Puzzle pieces though." He pauses, puffing his cheeks out.

"The Doc helped me see that it wasn't about fitting the puzzle together properly so that I could turn lead into gold. It was about changing the puzzle itself. Like a rubix cube. Instead of turning the sides and pieces to make the colours match up...you just take the Rubix cube apart and put it back together so the colours all match. Change the rules of the puzzle. How the pieces fit together."

He shrugs and stuffs his hands in his pockets again, murmuring.

"All I have left to sort out is how best I can change those details within the tools I've got. How best to apply it. I think...." A frown. "Getting there though."

Nick Hyde
There is another moment, here, in which Nick is silent, and his free hand drifts upwards and runs through the curls at the back of his neck.  It tangles in them, once, as they snake around his fingers and hold them there like twining ivy.

"Getting there is always the hard part," Nick says, and this thing he says at the least sounds like some sort of agreement.  "What do you think it means, to discard the rules of how reality already works and make new ones for yourself?  What do you think that means, in the long term?"

Ned
"Not so much making new rules, as discarding the rules currently in place. They expect the Rubix cube to function the way it does. The belief is that it's 'cheating' if you don't turn it the way it's meant to be turned but getting the colours to match up, even if it means taking the cube apart. That's just as valid. Unless you believe otherwise and we do..." He chuckles.

"Some people take it apart and put it back together. Some people peel off the colours and stick them onto the appropriate sides. Some people throw the rubix cube away and bike around." He 'pops' his lips, the sound audible, like the cluck of the tongue. "Belief is the only thing that says any of those is wrong. Or that any of those will work. Reality...I think is infinitely more flexible then I give it credit for."

Nick Hyde
"It is flexible," he says.  "But I think I would treat the idea that conventional wisdom and ethics are all wrong because belief is the only thing that makes things mean anything with caution."

Nick yanks one of his curls out so that it is straight (and see, it would fall nearly to his shoulders if it didn't curl that way) and then lets it spring back in place.  He draws one foot out of the water and lets out a sigh.  "I'm not saying you're wrong.  Just that I would think on that a little further."

Ned
Ned stares at Nick for a second, contemplating as he does. After a long moment his jaw shifts to one side.

"Caution noted. Though admittedly, I anticipate having to change my mind pretty frequently in the coming days as well."



Nick Hyde
Nick observes Ned's jaw shift to the side, watches as it does, and hears the reply.  As it does, there is a subtle movement of the set of his shoulders, of his chest; they seem to ease, to deflate.  When had he become uneasy?

"You will," he says.  "A lot, within the first year or two.  After that it's going to get easier."  Because things do, and because few are more open to the possibilities of the world than the newly Awake.  "It's important to experiment with ideas."

Ned
"Yeah. About that..."

Ned's fingertips do a flutter, his head canting around to one side, eyes regarding their location again as if memorizing some of the details.

"I've got a bus to catch back into town but I wanted to hear some thoughts the next time around from someone who knows more about it because realistically...the Spirit World makes about as much sense as...well a Horror Movie."

Nick Hyde
Nick's eyelashes flicker as Ned says this, and his smile belies whatever memory such a thing might have triggered.  It is difficult to know what sorts of things lie in anyone's mind: not without that particular Art, at least.

"I'll share with you what I know, in as simple a manner as I can manage it.  I'm probably going to take off soon myself, if you'd rather have a ride back to town instead of catching the bus."

And should Ned take him up on that, well: he'll find that after a while the questions stop, because sometimes it's pleasant to simply enjoy music and the scenery.