Round and Round We Go

[Nox]

[[ gonna add to my post cause things moved to a point in the other thread we can pull them together after a response from Ryker ]]

The fun and interesting things had been discussed and Nox was all for fun and games, but they where also here on business, and it wasn't just fun and games, though it was all about playing the right sort of game. While Ryker had been out Sage had been busy at work connecting to old services and finding his way in the New World systems. Not that they were the new world anymore, and russia was hardly the Mother land of the days of yore, but still it was called that from time to time.

"We saw you scoping out the old fashioned way." Nox nodded towards Sage sitting up at the ceiling like he was doing absolutely nothing. He looked higher than a fucking kite and he was sorta. But he was lost in whatever 1's and 0's he was dealing with. And he had a lot going on. He was tracking Connor and his wife. He was researching this so-called brother who was looking for him. He was annoying Elyse's father. And he was surveling every place their marks might go and following them around like the little stalker he was. And he was in heaven. If it were so easy to do his job he might find it relaxing too, Sage probably had other things going on as well. He never did just one thing. He couldn't. He was so addicted to the information flow that he couldn't stop even if he wanted to -- and he didn't want to.

"Didn't want you to think we were slacking on the job. I've just found it's easier to let him do his thing, so I can do mine without being seen and getting caught. I don't exactly blend in right now." Those viral videos had done a number for his imfamy in moscow. But usually only in the not so great sort of places. Who knew what sorta viral sensation might trickle back to the states. Not that Nox really cared. He wished Sage would just remove it and keep it gone, but Sage had other plans.

"You find anything useful with your digging? Or were you just looking for the best place to put one in my brain afterwards?" It was a joke, mostly. He wouldn't put it past the Ascendancy to end him like that. Totally in character and straight up on the mark. Why get your hands dirty? Why else would he send someone else with him? But there were two guys, and they didn't know which one of the two brothers could channel, or maybe they both could. But Nox wanted to know how he made the bullets. And he was seriously hopeing to get a few of them before he was made dead. But that would be for later -- for now, they had to get ready for their lovely little plan. "Sage has reservations for us at a local pizza joint across from one of the points. All other locations can be accessed on foot and will give Sage a good place to make his head quarters in public. No one's gonna care about the high kid with a baby sitting in a book just being normal. Though they might call CPS on him. Which hopefully he'll have managed before it even becomes a problem."

[Ryker]

Ryker flopped into the nearest chair with the kind of bone-deep exhaustion only a career in espionage could cultivate. His boots hit the floor with a dull thud as he leaned over to adjust the laces, fingers tugging at the knotted strings with the absentminded precision of someone who had done this a thousand times. Meanwhile, Nox was talking—still talking—dishing out advice about surveying the area: walk the paths, map the escape routes, scope out the best places to stash a body if things went south. You know, the usual.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ryker muttered, not bothering to look up. “Walk the streets, know your exits, avoid stepping in anything that smells worse than a two-day-old corpse. Got it.”

Nox, unsurprisingly, kept going. Ryker stopped fiddling with his laces long enough to glance up, one eyebrow quirking in mild irritation. “Hey,” he cut in, snapping his fingers for emphasis. “I could survey this whole city while sitting on the shitter if I wanted to. Just slap a drone in the air, tap into a few feeds, maybe run a satellite scan if I’m feeling fancy. But,” he pointed at Nox, his tone pointed, “I don’t trust any eyes except my own. Never have, never will.”

He tugged his laces tight and sat back in the chair, his arms folding across his chest in a posture that managed to look both casual and vaguely combative. “Technology’s great and all, don’t get me wrong. But there’s nothing like breathing the smog, inhaling the delightful aroma of traffic fumes, and dodging the literal dog shit clumping up the curbs to get a real feel for a place. You know, a full sensory experience.” His lips twitched in the faintest shadow of a smirk as he added, “Also, pretty sure the satellites can’t tell you how soft the dirt is when need to start digging.”

Ryker let the comment hang in the air, his gaze shifting briefly to Nox. He still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the guy. Cocky, sure, but not an idiot. Too flashy for his taste, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t useful. Then there was Sage—Ryker’s eyes flicked toward him with a look that could best be described as skeptical. The kid (was he a kid?) had been drifting through the day like he’d spent the last twelve hours floating somewhere between dreamland and whatever was past dreamland. 

“Speaking of dirt,” Ryker drawled, tipping his head slightly toward Sage. “What’s his deal?”

He made a vague gesture with his hand, as though trying to summarize all of Sage’s weirdness into one ambiguous motion. “Because I’ve been watching him shuffle around like he’s one bad nap away from trying to commune with the furniture.”

Ryker let his words linger, his eyes sharp and assessing as he glanced back toward Nox, waiting for a response. But then, as if the thought had just occurred to him, he added with a dry smile, “Also, while I am bragging, I clocked a pizza place earlier. Bet I could find it again with my incredible surveying skills. Can’t say the same for him, though.” He nodded vaguely in Sage’s direction, as if to underscore the point. 

Sinking further into the chair, Ryker stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankles. He didn’t look particularly invested in whatever explanation Nox might give, but that was just his style—casual, detached, but never not paying attention. “Anyway, I’m all ears if you’ve got answers. I like knowing who I’m babysitting these days.”

And if they are a liability.

[Nox]

Nox listened to the interruption. He talked alot. He knew that. Was a thing he did. Sage usually didn't care, probably why they were friends. Sage was always in his own little world even if he was fully in the conversation. Which he wasn't right now. "I haven't had to dig holes a few years." Nox said as he drew the five elements into balls and started juggling them. They caught Lily's attention and her eyes followed the bright balls round and round. "Sage is unique. His parents experimented on him when he was younger, put a computer chip in his brain. So what you and I think, he thinks ten times faster and has twenty other things going on at the same time. All that information is like the best high you and I can ever find, and he has access to it all the time. I trust his eyes better than I trust my own."

The orbs winked out and the horde felt a billion times closer in his mind. He was still hungry, still antsy, and there was nothing to really fill that void. He growled to himself and picked up Lily from her seat and cradled her in his arms. "Tomorrow I meeting a so-called friend. I'm pretty sure his wife has been hired to try to kill me, there is no other reason for them to contact me, and being in the US now, yeah. Too many coincidences lead to one conclusion. Sage has some reservations at that pizza joint you clocked. It'll make a good place to move when we need to. Sage has surveillance on our targets, we'll know when they move. And he's watching my so-called friends. You got any sage advice or concerns?"

[Ryker]

The information about Sage was surprising. A kid whose parents experimented on him certainly came from a fucked up home. He wasn’t sure he believed the boast - superhuman computer brain? It wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility, not in a world where magic was fucking real. He said no more on the matter, though, except to throw a quizzical look toward Sage as if pondering how much of the tale was bullshit. Finally, Ryker was ready enough, ahe only piece of advice he had was a cryptic one.

“Don’t get caught,” he said, laughing.


((We can move on if you're ready))

[Nox]

[[ continued here ]]