[open] and you can tell the sun in his jealous sky..

[starryeyed_cass]

[OOC: Just to let everyone know, Cassie is backdated to the thirteenth. Everyone else is on the current date. :)]

On the thirteenth, it is Cassie Riddle’s twenty-third birthday. In the early morning, she is up on the roof of Kashtta, playing guitar. She’s singing a pretty little folk song she was fond of from back home to the skies of the

Comments

[sophicsulphur]

Iris is almost off her shift at the cafeteria when she notices the man with his stacks of books, practically alone in the place as the day winds down. The way his notes are taking up almost every square inch of the table reminds her fondly of Kaden, and she can't resist a peek, glancing over at him as she wipes a nearby table down.

Technically, she's supposed to be in the back doing the cooking, but all the cooking's been done and there's no one else to clean tables, so cleaning tables is what she'll do. Besides, she gets the feeling that work at the Kashtta basically consists of "whoever's there, do what needs doing". And those tables are mighty dirty. No, it's not about snooping on this guy's work at all. Nope. Not Iris. She wouldn't be interested in that.

...maybe just a little.

Especially when she glimpses the things written on some of those papers. A study of the statistical scattering of rift locations in Chicago, Illinois. A cross-sampling of supernatural Wanderer abilities not native to their home worlds. As someone who's been searching for her purpose for being here since the very night she arrived, the chance to talk with someone with hard facts on the situation can't be passed up. Seeing it's almost time for her to clock off, she finishes up the last table and bops on over to him, smiling politely.

"Ah, I-- hope I'm not interrupting," she says with a little bow. "I just couldn't help noticing what you were reading. You're studying Wanderers and Rifts?" There's a scholarly curiosity in the way she scans the table that looks almost out of place on this peppy little girl, but then Iris is no ordinary teenager.

[i_robert_capa]

Capa hasn't noticed Iris wandering around, cleaning tables around him. His eyes remain on his notes, his hand twitching here and there as he writes down more notes. He's working on a theory that riftpowers given to Wanderers are more than just random, but a little more personal, as if the rift sees into someone as they pass through:

'In what I believed to be my final moments of life, I observed the bomb activating around me and turned to be facing the flares of the sun. On my journey, I had held such wonder of our star. It haunted my dreams and I felt some indescribable emotion toward it. It’s a feeling I still cannot describe today. And in my last seconds of life in my own world - I reached to touch the sun. And behold, I found myself decades in my past in Chicago. My rift powers showed instantly. I had obtained the ability to produce fire.'

The voice doesn't startle him, he's slow to react to her at first. His exhaustion and focus into his work has almost consumed him, interraction with others is going to be a bit of a struggle. He looks up with a tired smile, "Not at all,"

He straightens up a little more when she asks what he's doing. He's always more than happy to talk about his research. "Yes, correct. I'm trying to find out all I can, as well as work out my own theories," he tells her, "I'm trying to work out if the rift is more than just a portal and a DNA manipulator. I feel as if the abilities Wanderers gained are specifically tailored for that person, it's not just a random power that's given,"

[sophicsulphur]

She can't help the grin that spreads over her face. "Actually, that's exactly the type of thing I've been curious about myself," she says. "--Hey, wait a sec. Let me go wash my hands, and I'll be right back."

She's dashed off and returned in a couple of minutes, still beaming at having clearly hit the motherlode. "Back when I first came here, I formed some theories of my own, but... well, I don't have any hard information, and I never really knew where to start gathering it." She gestures to the table, taking in his swathes of notes. "You seem to have collected a lot. And that theory... I'd never thought of it before. But if it were true, that would definitely be evidence that the Rifts are acting with some kind of purpose. Which is what I'm trying to find out about." Why we're here. Why we've been called. What part we all have to play, in what's shaping up to be a a cosmic war.

"What have you got on that so far? People's abilities matching them, I mean." She racks her brain, trying to think of the abilities of people she knows and whether they match up. The trouble is, she'd have to know most of them better to know. Does darkness fit Cassie, for example? She doesn't think it does, but maybe there's a connection deep down inside she doesn't know about.

And when it comes to her riftpower.... After a moment's thought, she realises she doesn't actually know what her riftpower is any more. She'd thought it had been the hallucinations, but what if those are just an effect of the possession?

Chicago is starting to seem less and less simple, the more she delves into its depths. Perhaps that's part of why she's drawn to what this man's doing now. If she can only find the patterns within the chaos, maybe life can start making sense for her again.

[i_robert_capa]

Capa's own interest is piqued as the girl talks, it's refreshing to find someone to talk theories over with. Since Hermione (or rather, the Hermione he was friends with) disappeared, he's not really had anyone to talk to about things like this. He misses her terribly, he'd never met a more intelligent and talent young woman in all his life.

"I've searched all sources in regards to finding these," He tells her with a nod. To be honest, a great deal of these notes were once Hermione's - she'd already done a lot of research by the time he fell through the rift. "I feel most people don't particularly like to talk about the rift. Which is... understandable,"

He rubs at the back of his neck with one hand, "It certainly feels that way," he says with a slight shrug, "Well, not much - just yet. I still need to collect that particular research. But I'm using myself as an example to begin with. In my own world, I was on a mission to the Sun. Our star was dying and needed to 'kick-started' with a stellar bomb. Things got a little complicated... and to put a long story short, I was about to fall right into the sun and when I fell through the rift - I was given the ability to create fire,"

He falls silent for a moment. He'll never forget just how much the star had ate away at him - it still consumes him today. Even now, he still dreams of falling into the sun, the screams lingering in his ears even after he wakes up. "Another Wanderer I met was an extremely talented and well-read person. She was given an ability to allow her to read any written language,"

Capa tilts his head curiously, "What power did you recieve?" he asks her.

[sophicsulphur]

Iris has never flinched from discussions of the Rift: if one flinches from knowledge, one never learns. And since it and its influences play such a huge part in all their lives here, she considers it a pretty darn crucial thing to learn about.

His story's fascinating to her, and it shows on her face. "Fall into the sun," she says, trying to wrap her mind around how such a thing could be possible. On the one hand, it sounds incredibly scary. On the other... sort of awesome. To be absorbed into the very heart of fire.... "So you're sort of a hero, then? One thing I've noticed myself about the Rift-- a lot of the people it seems to bring here have done extraordinary things back home. I keep wondering if that's a factor. If the Rift's trying to bring together... people who've fought in exceptional ways, for some kind of battle."

She lets out a nervous laugh, mirroring his neck-rubbing gesture. It's one she's very familiar with. "Not that I've been able to work out what kind, or what for. That's... part of what I've been hoping to find out." Oh yeah, and he asked her a question. "As for my power... I really don't know. A lot of things have changed for me, and I've no idea what came from where. The... closest thing I can think of I have to a riftpower was that I gained the knowledge I was meant to be an angel. And, uh. Realised I like to date girls."

She laughs again. "It's hard to say. Someone like me, who works with magic... you think I'd've figured it out by now, but nothing seems certain. Whatever it is, it's kind of obscure."

[i_robert_capa]

Capa looks down, a little flustered and awkward - he's not really sure how on earth to react to that comment. It was the kind of thing he wasn't looking forward to if the Icarus II had successfully made it home again, if things hadn't went wrong with Pinbacker. People would hail them as heroes, they'd saved mankind. With a bomb. His bomb.

"I'm not a hero..." he says weakly with a shake of his head, "I'm... I'm just a physicist," He doesn't even know if the bomb worked. At the time of launch, all would become theoretical. Even he couldn't say for sure if his bomb would work. He feels an awkward laugh become caught in the back of his throat, "Oh, I'm no fighter either," If he is some kind of hero, he's a pretty lame one.

"Well... perhaps there is. That we're not here by coincidence - but it's something much more complex. I should have died back in my homeworld - but I didn't. Perhaps there's something coming, something bigger than anyone could imagine. And our precense here, whether we're still around to be there or not, will shape that event,"

Capa sits back in his chair and looks at her with a frown at his brow. His brain working, cogs ticking and turning in thought. "Interesting," he murmurs. "What was your homeworld like? Did you have angels?"

The change in her sexuality is not one he's heard of before and he's not quite sure how to work out that one. "Perhaps... the rift has reversed you in some way?" He shakes his head, "I'm not sure, I really can't say," He smiles weakly, "Yes, I'd agree with that. That's Chicago for you,"

[sophicsulphur]

Iris just smiles. Of course a true hero wouldn't want to think of themselves as one. "Not every hero needs to fight," she says, gently. "At least, not with weapons. There are plenty of ways to fight, and... perhaps some of the truest heroes are those who don't believe that's the answer. That wars should be won with hearts and minds, not swords." She waves a hand over the table, indicating the papers strewn across it. "Like-- like all of this. All that you've done here, this could already be helpful, if we can put it all together, work out some patterns. That's much more useful than going out and killing someone."

She pulls up a chair at his table, then glances up at him, remembering manners. "--Oh. Mind if I sit down? But yeah, what you were saying-- we did have angels. I don't have access to my, um, what do you call them, genealogical records back home, but it's possible they're in my family tree. At least, that's my going theory." She flushes a little, still giggling nervously. "And maybe! I mean, before, I was pretty sure...." She flaps her hands in front of her face furiously. "But you don't wanna hear about that. I guess what I was trying to say is it feels like a lot of little things have changed, but I can't point to any one big one."

[i_robert_capa]

Capa continues to look down awkwardly, still rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand. He's still clearly embarrassed by her compliments; he polite enough to thank her for them, even though he still doesn't think himself as a hero. "Ahh.. the pen is mightier than the sword?" he comments with a nod of his head, looking up her for a moment before his eyes return to the table.

He nods again, "But yes. To think is better than to act out - violence will only cause more tension and we won't get anywhere," He needs to be calm and collected in order to get answers.

Capa straightens up, finally looking at her instead of the table. "But of course, sure," she says, gesturing to the seat. He tilts his head to one side with a slight smile, "Perhaps that's exactly the case. The genes passed down through the generations have suddenly been triggered by the rift. Perhaps they've been dormant genes - but the rift has made your body and mind feel as if they should be dominant,"

It's only a theory, he's not an expert in genetics. Biology may have been something he'd look at the academy, although it was brief. Physics are his forte. Capa pauses for a moment as he listens, a little embarrassed for a moment. He doesn't want to make this conversation any more awkward. "Maybe it's something to do with your perception of the world around you. How you see things. Some sort of psychological change. That the rift has made you see and feel things in a different manner compared to what you once were in your home world,"

[sophicsulphur]

She sits herself down without further preamble, taking in his words. What he's saying is so fascinating, and makes a lot of sense. In fact, it makes more sense than any theory she's heard thus far. Not that she knows what a dormant gene or a dominant gene is, but she gets the general idea. Besides, she's heard the words genome and genetics tossed around enough in reference to species that she's caught onto the idea that the two are related. The same way genealogy, apparently, means a family tree. What you get from your parents; the reason you look like them, and not like anyone else. It makes sense.

Still, it's always good to double-check your terms. "So what you're saying is... sorry, I don't really have a good grasp on how it works," she admits. "But the stuff passed down through the generations. Way back in your bloodline. I've heard of it coming alive many generations after the fact... like a throwback. I guess that's what I figured I was. But you're saying the Rift maybe wakes it up?" She nods. "That makes a whole ton of sense. I mean, I think this has always been there, but... I didn't feel it so strongly before, you know?"

The excitement's showing through in her voice, now. Finally, a real working theory of how she got this way, and all the pieces seem to fit! It's a vast improvement on the usual state of things here in Chicago: confusing event after confusing event, adding only more layers of dissonance to the pile.

Glad that something actually makes sense in this mess of a city, she skips right over the embarrassment this time. "But yeah. I do see things a lot differently. I guess you can't not... nothing feels or works the same here. From the way people act, and what they believe is right or wrong, to the magic, even the very structure of the land... it's all so different. I can't predict anything, and... it's like I'm constantly rethinking stuff." She grins a little. "I don't think my mind had to be changed for that to be true. This world does it to you alone. Though it does explain some things."

A little frown creeps in, to replace that grin. If his theory is true, how much of her might have changed without her even have knowing it? Can she really consider herself the same person, now. --But then, she supposes she did die. It's not surprising that she'd be changed, after that event. Perhaps she should add that to his pool of information. "Oh, one thing I just thought of. When I came here, I was dead. --I mean, I came here from the afterlife. So it's kind of like I was reborn, in a way. I guess if stuff in me has changed, it could also be due to that."

[i_robert_capa]

Capa smiles apologetically and nods, he needs to remember that not everyone understands his science babble. While he's not trying to insult the girl's intelligence - genetics is not a subject he'd use in everyday conversation. "Yes, that's exactly what the case may be with you. The rift's awoken something deep inside, something you thought may have been there but couldn't put your finger on. Something which could have remained tucked away inside of you had you remained in your homeworld. The energy of the rift must have brought it to the surface. That's perhaps why you feel this way now,"

He smiles meekly, he's happy for her excitement over his theory. He's glad his thoughts have given the young girl some clarity. He too knows of the chaos of this world and the importance of what little order there is here.

Capa nods, "Hmm.. that's true," he considers, "If you've come from a place where everything you see is a huge contrast compared to here, then perhaps you might naturally perceive things differently," He makes an awkward face, trying to smile, "But yes, which one is it? The rift? Or you?" He shrugs, unsure.

He straightens up as she talks about being from the afterlife. Now that is definitely something that's going to interest him, or perhaps, annoy him. Since.. since everything. Pinbacker's beliefs. He'd lost his own faith. While he'd always once been open to the concepts of religion, he was never a devout follower. But now, there's nothing. He finds no comfort in the thought God or prayer.

When Pinbacker asked 'Who are we to challenge God's plan?' Capa had thought: "No. Who is to say when we must come to an end and die? We are more than dust. So much more."

He's silent for a while as he thinks on this, and when he speaks once more - his voice is quiet and cynical. "There's an afterlife?" He doesn't mean to sound so nasty about it, but it's a touchy subject for him. He can feel his skin about his hands and arms tingle and grow hot in frustration, "Surely not,"

[sophicsulphur]

She grins at his words, practically glowing with energy. Something deep inside, brought to the surface. The thought is nothing less than enchanting. This is really me. She's pretty sure of that right now, but it never hurts to have it confirmed. Especially given all those who doubt.

The Rift or her, indeed? She shrugs right back, smiling. It's hard to be sure. One thing she is pretty sure of, however, is that she's experienced the afterlife. When you exist in a place that's realer than reality, it's kind of a hard thing to doubt.

She's always thought faith was an odd sort of concept, in general. She's interacted with gods and afterlives, up close and personal. To treat them as a matter of faith would be like having faith in rain, or faith that your friends exist. Technically, she supposes, the idea that anything exists is something you have to take on faith, but the chance that it's all just an illusion seems so miniscule as to be absurd.

So when she speaks, it's with perfect confidence and bland casuality, as if she were describing the park down the street. "Yeah, there's an afterlife," she says. "It's really nice. Most people think that sort of thing is scary-- death and stuff, you know. But it's the most amazing thing. I'd go back there in a heartbeat, if I didn't feel like I had stuff to do."

She contemplates for a moment, amending her statement. "Though I guess not everyone goes there straight away. Some people hang on as ghosts. I had a friend who was a ghost. She hadn't had a brain for centuries, so she was a little...." She makes an apologetic sort of grimace, making a wavelike motion with her hand. "You know. But I think that probably only happens when you don't get all the stuff you want to done in life. Or something like that, anyway." She doesn't actually know that much about ghosts. Other than that, in her experience, they're friendly, vapid, and far too obsessed with interior decorating.

[i_robert_capa]

Capa just stares at her, as calmly as he can, his jaw set. This girl might claim that there is some sort of afterlife, but he just refuses to believe that. His own bitterness has made him stubborn in the last year. The brutality he witnessed, everything. He sees that life is all people have, this is when we should press on, do all we can - aspire to be more. Because that is all there is. He believes that at the end, there is nothing. It's a difficult thing to explain, even in his own head.

He feels a flick of flames shoot up his hands. He sighs, frustrated, before pausing for a moment to calm himself again. He's letting his own thoughts and feeling get in the way again. He mustn't do that. He shakes his head, finally speaking.

“I.. uh, I’m not afraid of death,” he almost scoffs, “I was mere seconds away from it before I ended up here. I had long accepted that I would die to save a great deal of people, I dreamed of being consumed by solar fire every time I slept,” He closes his eyes, shaking his head once more, “No, I’m not afraid,”

It's only now that he allows himself to smile a little, "It's nice you have that belief though, that sort of... calm, knowing," he says quietly, "Once that goes, you'll never get it back," It sounds pessimistic, but it's how he really feels. He'll never get his own faith, his peace, back.

For the love of science, Capa. Be nice. It's not the girl's fault that you don't agree with her beliefs, he thoughts on... yes, well. Just be nice. Very hesitantly, he offers her a slightly warmer than usual hand to shake, "I'm Robert... by the way,"

[sophicsulphur]

She startles a little at the rush of flame. "...Whoa there," she says, holding up her own hands and letting out a tiny, nervous laugh. "I was just saying."

It's a joke: she doesn't think he's really mad at her. But as the conversation continues, she finds herself becoming unsure whether he was or not. It seems a strange thing to be mad about. But then, she's known people in her world and this to get prickly about all sorts of spiritual topics. She finds it unfortunate. Why can't people just accept the evidence in front of their eyes?

"I... doubt I'll lose my belief," she says, a quizzical smile flitting over her lips. "I'd be foolish not to believe in something that I can see. It'd be like not believing in rain. Or bagels." ...Great, and now she's hungry. Well, she is in the cafeteria, she supposes. Maybe she could duck out for a moment and pick up some food.

"Iris. Iris Fortner." She shakes his hand, as seems to be the custom around here, and offers a light bow, as is hers. "--Hey, mind if I just run to get something to eat? I'm a touch hungry, I just realised."

[i_robert_capa]

Capa looks down and shakes his head, sighing heavily. "No, it's not... it's fine," he says awkwardly. Great, now he's gone and spooked her. Why can't he just have a conversation with someone. Why is this so difficult? "Sorry," The word is strained and awkward, but sincere. He rubs at his arms and hands, wiping the flicks of fire away.

It's not because he's mad at her. He might feel a little annoyed, but really it's just because he's frustrated and tired. He can't remember the last time he slept. He's in control of his powers, but they have a tendency to spark up a little when he's not in control of himself.

He nods his head briskly, "Good, that's good," he says quietly and falls into another awkward silence. As he shakes her hand, he tries his best to smile warmly, "Nice to meet you, Iris," he says, nodding his head at her bow.

"No, go ahead," he says with another nod of his head. Good, he can give himself another scolding in his head while she does.