2020-09-10: Soft Reset

Soft Reset
Vic visits Rufus; they discuss the local Traditions, Spheres and other subjects
IC Date	September 10th, 2020
IC Time	Late Afternoon/Evening
Players	Rufus and Vic Rasmussen
Location	Rufus' Underground Bunker
Spheres	Traditions

Rufus got a text from Vic wanting to meet, but wanted to meet in private. Since his calculations suggested that there would be nowhere really to go that wouldn't be private for very long he made the rather bold decision of sending latitude and longitude coordiantes to Vista, California. The coordinates lead to a crevice amidst the Vista hills that inside, is an underground terminal that leads...oddly, to a front door. Rufus buzzes her in as he is currently on a stepladder, installing the last of the LED lights in the living room. The living room, it seems, looks finished...and furnished. And has power. He is wearing glasses that are giving holographic information, but otherwise he looks more or less the same.%r%rOn the coffee table is laying a massive bundle of fur. A Main Coon that is half black, half brown with white, black and faded grey streaks of fur bats it's bushy tail this way and that. Discolored eyes stare at Vic when she comes in, but doesn't move from her perch.%r%r"Hey Vic." Rufus shouts. "Come on in! Feel free to raid the fridge. Almost done."

---

"Interesting place you have here, Rufus," Vic says as she enters the bunker. She sets her bag down on one end of the couch and takes the offer to raid the kitchen. With her head in the refrigerator she says, "Ah, you have IBC root beer, good!" and asks, "Do you want something while I'm in here?" punctuated by the sound of bottles rattling next to each other as she moves things about without concern for any prior explicit order as she looks for things to accompany the named soda.

---

Rufus looks down from the ladder. "Me? I can take a root beer too." He says, finishing the wiring and then, once the light turns on fit the fixture into the wall. Afterwards he puts the masking glass ontop of it and then comes down the ladder. He folds the ladder up and stashes it in one of the hallways. He pulls off his glasses, snaps off a pair of gloves and meets Vic in the kitchen. "I got pizza stashed in the oven if you don't mind day old pizza." He says. The rest of the fridge is a cook's fridge. It's all unprepared food as if Rufus knows how to cook. The pantries have all sorts of chips, predominantly sour cream and onion. "Otherwise I can make you something if you want something specific."

---

"Pizza's good. Want me to re-heat it then once I set this stuff down?" Vic asks of the pizza while she pulls out two bottles and a selection of cheeses she gets a plate for and lays out some round, scallop edged buttery crackers to accompany the cheeses. She carrys the plate out with a set of small knives she found in the chef's kitchen in one hand and the two bottles held by their neck between two fingers each in the other.

---

Rufus looks at the odd selection to go with pizza, butter crackers and cheese...but that's cool. He goes over to grab the bottles under chin so she doesn't look like she is trying to escape with the full kitcehn with how her hands are full and her neck is full. "Hey hey hey. I got these." He takes the bottles so she can at least walk level headed. "Nah, I can heat it up. You got the crackers." He does just that, heading back to the kitchen and turning on the oven.

Schrodinger stands up, stretches and hops off the coffee table, approaching Vic and sniffing her ankle.

"That's Schrodinger. Partner in crime." He says, finishing the oven. "So. You doing okay?" He asks as he comes back to grab his bottle and pop the top.

---

Vic grins. "Schrodinger, eh?" she asks about the cat as she holds her hand out to it to allow it to smell her hand. Regarding the question she says, "I had a very weird day yesterday actually. Not the least of which involved Bobbi properly using a computer analogy to explain Hermetic teachings."

---

Schrodinger sniffs Vic's fingers, then rubs her face across her hand. And again. Then opens her maw and tries to bite her finger but fails to gnaw. She pulls back and licks her chops before brushing against her leg with the full force of a battering ram.

"Yeah. Named for her epic appearance. Heterochromatic like me, figured it'd be fitting." He says taking a swig. "Found her wounded in an alley. Took her back and fixed her. Been eating me out of house and home ever since." He waits in the kitchen for the pizza to heat. "Uh-huh." He leans down to check the oven. "Sounds like you learned something." He stands back up.

---

"I did, yes," Vic says confidently. "I unlocked Mind," she says, and the capital letter of the Sphere's name is quite audible when she says it, "After the discussion with Merek first and then with Bobbi it just kind of clicked for me. I'm still working on integrating it into my repertoire fully however." As she explains this she sits down and cuts some bleu cheese from a block and makes a sandwich of the cheese and two of the crackers.

---

Rufus nods. "Good!" He says. "Broadening your horizons makes you more elite." He says. "Sure...a bit antiquated, but if it works it works for a reason." He says, pulling out the box of pizza and heads over to put it down next to the crackers. He opens up the box and takes a slice of pizza and begins to eat. "Iffa goo' 'fing." He says with a mouthful, then swallowing.

---

Vic cocks an eyebrow at the antiquated comment but doesn't ask immediately. Instead she finishes the cheese and cracker sandwich and then takes a piece of pizza. Before taking a bite of it she asks, "You think that the Mind sphere is antiquated?"

---

Rufus shakes his head. "Hermetic teachings." He clarifies. He takes another bite.

---

Vic nods. "Yeah, a bit," she says and then adds, "One of her students approached me later in the day. Gave her the same explination Bobbi gave me and suddenly she comprehended everything Bobbi was trying to teach her... though the lens of computer technology."

---

Rufus nods. "Nifty." He takes another bite of pizza. "See wu'appens when u upfade their views? Boofm. Upfade fdws." He swallows after mouthful talking. He takes a drink of his root beer to wash it down. "Cool cool."

---

"Have you met Evie?" Vic asks after washing down her previous bite of pizza also. "She's the one I was talking to. Mortal but on the verge of Awakening based on my impromptu analysis yesterday," she explains before taking another bite of the pizza.

---

"Know of her. Met her at one of those sit-ins." Rufus explains. "But I never -met- her, as in talking to her." He shakes his head. "I have heard similar about her though. The whole...struggling awake scenario." He does state. He takes another swig of root beer.

---

"Everyone had to be a n00b at some point though," Vic says on that subject and then asks, "So how about you, do you have Mind unlocked by any chance Rufus? If so, what are your thoughts on the Sphere?"

---

Rufus nods. "We were all n00bs. It's true." He says, kicking back and relaxing with his bottle of root beer. When she asks whether he has learned any of the Mind sphere he shakes his head. "No. Sadly. Not my bag. Entropy is my focus, at least until recently. With no real coders for the web I've had to take up the mantle of Forces and Prime sadly. So...getting involved with that." He says. "That said, I've discussed mind before. But that ain't what you wanted to know so." He shrugs.

---

Vic nods. "I've half the equation, should I try to unlock Forces also?" she asks regarding the coding question. She adds, "I'm primarily sensory focused on the Spheres I have other than Data right now. I've always figured that once I've unlocked them all I can expand."

---

Rufus gives her a weird look when she says 'Data'. "....Seriously?" He blinks, then considers. "Technos. Right. Makes sense." He takes a chug of his bottle. "I mean if you want? I ain't gonna stop you. We're all looking to better our skills right? I ain't gonna say no to if you wanna go that way. Sounds like your pretty invested in Mind though at the moment. Forces can wait. It'll be there tomorrow." He says waving a hand dismissing tomorrow for...well...tomorrow. "I went and talked to other Trads too." He lifts up his shirt to show off his lack of pecs! And abs! Not really. Instead the only thing if note is a large tattoo on his sternum of an eagle, holding a dreamcatcher. Save the entire tattoo, upon close inspection, is designed as if drawn entirely out of circuitry lines. "Dreamspeaker." He lowers his shirt. "Sent me on a," He air quotes. "Vision quest. Next thing I know I'm tatted, like I was in prison." He shakes his head. Even as he complains, he smirks at the memory. "I didn't learn spheres though. I learned philosophy. Wanted to learn the Retro Forms. Like the Hermetic thing. Learn em' n' upgrade them. Didn't learn spheres, updated a couple of nifty rotes though from an enterprising Akashic with a lot of meditative prowess."

---

Vic looks at the tat, and the chest and abs, appreciatively. "A 'vision quest' huh?" she asks and then pursues the question by asking "What was it like?" while her free hand moves closer to him by a hair and then stops and returns to her side.

---

Rufus looks over to Vic. He didn't seem to notice her hand, or anything for that matter. The shirt comes down over his very flat chest and he explains. "It was....weird." He purses his lips. "Like...you've been high I guess?" He says. "It has that sort of feeling...but without all the drug-induced loopiness yet has that..I dunno..ephemeral quality to it?" He shakes his head. "So not weird in a bad or dumb way. It was definately unique. We were...god. in Arizona." He nods. "Out at a native reservation at his house. I did what he told me to do...next thing I know I'm laying in some smoldering ruin outside of a metropolis megacity, complete with neon-tinted arcologies spiring toward the city with flying cars and active webslingers. Spent an entire DAY in that place."

---

Vic cocks her head to the side and stares at Rufus incredulously at the question about being high and then just shakes her head as he obviously has forgotten the magic muffin he shared with her. Rather than counting on him remembering on his own she says, "I had the raspberry muffin," and adds, "And that wasn't my first time using hash," after he's finished the explanation. "A whole day and then you woke with that eagle tat, huh? Did the `speaker tell you why he gave you that tattoo?"

---

"I know you did! I didn't know if you got high off of it though." Rufus grumbles. Awww. "'The spirits told him it was a good symbol', he said." He shrugged. "Then we sat around all day eating smores and cooking at a campfire and basically talked about the whole experience. The vision quest? Weird. The talk though? Was pretty epic."

---

"Well, a little bit at least," Vic says regarding the high and then laughs and says, "Sounds just about right regarding the tat. What was the jist of the discussion if that's not prying into personal matters?"

---

Rufus arches a brow. "You think I'm an eagle?" He arches a brow. But doesn't think on it too hard. "Well. I told him that it was like...what happened if Reality 2.0 came to the Meat-realm. You know, like..complete interfacing, vulcan-mind-meld merging shit. Completely enmeshed. People runnin' around able to jack into the Web as they please, free transmission of data, free exchange of ideas and information and tech. So he asked 'what was it like?' and I told him. I said it sucked. You had a metric fuck-ton of poor ass people squandering in...i'm pretty sure it was shit, begging for jacks and credtime while other people didn't even talk to anyone. Just sorta wandered around in a daze ignoring everything. I didn't talk to anyone for hours while I was there, everyone just ignored me." His face takes a contemplative expression, thinking back on the conversation. "So he asked me what was wrong with it, because that's sorta the goal right? The Endline. Reality 2.0, total freedom of thought and being. Sure, people ignore everyone else and don't interact and act like thei world isnt there but that's the jam, right? I was like no...that's a shitty world to live in." He shakes his head. "There's no life to it. Nothing useful is being done with all that awesomeness. Just a bunch of people doing what they already do today, with different tech and different stuff. Nothing changed. So he told me," He paraphrases. "Life is more than the next iteration. The next iteration must embolden the life before, the life now, and the life tomorrow. Otherwise, when you upgrade, you don't just renew yourself and improve, you leave parts of you behind."

---

Vic belts out a laugh at the eagle question and is holding back laughter while she listens to the beginning of his explanation of the conversation and vision quest. This ends when he talks about the obvious negatives of the world Rufus describes. She nods towards the end. "Some of that actually sounds like the world I'm from," she says; "Cybernetics among the Sleepers, fewer middle class and larger poverty class, and the like," she explains adding, "Its barbaric, but hey, it was home." She finishes the pizza slice she was eating during the explanation then says, "And how would I know if you're an eagle, its just cool, y'know?"

---

Rufus gives a huh. "Who knows. Maybe I saw your dimension maybe. I dunno." He shrugs. He saw what he saw, and the look of his face suggests he is still contemplating it. "Anyway, he used it to lead me to learning how to, as he put it, commune with my past soul." He says in air quotes. "And guided me in the process. Still can do it too." When she asks how would she know if he was an eagle he blinks and looks at her. "I dunno! You said he was right. Figured you might have thought it." Which she doesn't, so it is clarified. He takes a swig of his root beer.

---

"I just don't know you well enough to say, y'know," Vic says before taking her own swig. "Maybe you did, maybe you didn't not for either of us to say as I wasn't with you and you can't be sure of my world... at least until I can lay my memories on you or pick up your's and review them," she adds with a grin before eating some more cheese and crackers also.

---

Rufus blinks and looks at her. "You askin' me out?" He asks, leaning forward to take a slice of pizza. He leans back and takes a bite. "Cuz a date with you'd be /awesome/." He says taking a full bite of the new slice. He chews and swallows, lamenting on the latter. "Hey hey hey now. Mind-prances for at /least/ the third date, k? I got ethics." He holds a hand up as if to stop her, a teasing motion that is punctuated with finishing off his root beer.

---

Vic laughs and shakes her head. "No, I'm not... at least not tonight. And I'm not anywhere near good enough to do those kind of tricks, Rufus," she says, "Even if you don't have Mind unlocked yourself you should know that everything starts out Basic before moving on to more advanced concepts."

---

Rufus nods. "Fair enough." He raises his empty bottle and sets it down on the table to consume his slice of pizza. "But on a serious note, no one is giving you grief about the whole 'your from a different dimension' thing are you? Adjusting here okay? Need anything?"

---

"Actually," Vic replies, "I'm sort of amazed how sub-zero everyone's been about that. Someone should be uptight about it but I haven't received even a hint of push back." She, too, finishes her root beer and sets the bottle down on the table. "Curiosity has been the 'worst' I've faced so far. As far as adjusting, its going fairly well. Made friends among the Traditions already. Met a few sleepers that are worth talking to as well."

---

Rufus nods. "Awesome. I'm glad your doing okay." He nods a few times, finishing his slice of pizza and licking his fingers. "I figured everyone and their dog would be haranging you about your home dimension." He says, taking her bottle and his and getting up to dump them in the trash. "Nifty. I'm apparently supposed to be playing in Katie's D&D game. I think she's a Sorcerer. Her and Adeline, who I think called herself a Society of Ether/Cultist of Ecstasy." He shakes his head, trying to ruminate how that cohesion works.

---

"I've met them both," Vic says; "Katie identifies as an Orphan, as far as I know she's a mage, just not like us." She eats another cracker and cheese sandwich without saying anything more on the subject.

---

Rufus nods. "Her and Adeline...Astra! I met Astra." He tosses the bottles away and returns to his perch. "She's cool. Bobbi. Who I had a date with. Talked about Paradigm basically the whole time." He doesn't seem bothered by this. "Ugh....Luke. Met Luke. Bit of an Etherite Stiff if you ask me. Xiu, whose a Verbena. Met her with Luke. She's cool." He goes over the laundry list of people he's met since he arrived. "No one else really sticks to mind, present company excluded."

---

"You've met more than me then," Vic says, "Adeline, Arumi, Astra, Bobbi, Evie... though she's not a mage yet... Katie, Raise and you. Vertigo and I've exchanged some emails also of course. Also a Bygone who'll be good to have in my corner in a pinch. Can't tell you much about them right now, gave my word." She leans back against the sofa and says, "Have you met anyone outside the Traditions that you can let me know of and who I should be aware of?"

---

Rufus shakes his head. "Nah. Everyone is the spitting image of 'tell me all about you, but my entire life heritage is one cryptic riddle'." He says, stretching out. "But I haven't really made much connections outside of the Trads. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I'm cooped up here 24/7, just never get to meet anyone particularly defining." He laments. He looks up at the clock. "It's getting late. If you want, feel free to crash on the couch if you don't feel like making the commute back to Prospect. Just don't mind Schrodinger, she's a bit of a cuddler and she -will- like your face more than anything else. Feel free to have full run at the kitchen. Workshop's that way if you wanna work on stuff. If you get the crazy idea of swimming in the lake downstairs, I swear to god, if you swim near the generator I will -not- save you." He says with a smirk.