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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2021 16:55:23 GMT -8
Slow day was slow, but made it all the better to book a time to meet with the Lost known as FireBringer. He had actually got whiff of her more so through a friend of a friend who brought her up for her mundie work - not a first but an unusual turn of events for even the Archler. Needless to say he had made sure the books were clear. The office with its grey modern walls and comfy black and white chairs was empty sans the secretary at the desk, a handsome young man who was on the phone at the moment setting up some catering. Once the young lady arrived and mentioned anything about an appointment she would be motioned back to the sanctum that was Archies office. What was the king of this castle up too? Watching some show in Spanish, with a couple moustached guys that looked like they were up to no good, but there was a horse in the background so could it really have been that bad? He looked professional enough with a collared long sleeve black shirt that was dotted with smokey red buttons and a black speckled bow tie, which were a hard contrast on white pants, but the shined up red derby’s really helped bring it home. Now it was just a waiting game. Firebringer |
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Firebringer
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Elemental Ifrit, Presence 3 (Intimidating)
Posts: 634
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Post by Firebringer on Feb 9, 2021 17:18:17 GMT -8
Firebringer, guided back by the weirdly attractive dude at the front, makes her way back to Archie's office. The Torrent is wearing a black trapeze tank top, a pair of black, distressed jeans, and her standard black boots. There is a genuine question if there is any color variation in her closet.
Her long and crispy, fiery hair is down in what one might call waves. Really, she'd tried to curl it and she lost a piece in the front. ...this is why she shouldn't touch heat tools, as ironic as that sounds. She might have cried. Her makeup doesn't look fantastic. It would have, had she not had a wee cry fest.
Crap. Am I underdressed? Nah. Since when do we care about that? Just another Lost. A Spring. ...Rowan is getting to my brain me thinks.
She walks into the office and in her low, kind of bro like voice says, "Hey. Archie, right? Name's Firebringer."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2021 18:06:41 GMT -8
He heard the shuffle of feet and leaned up in his chair just as Firebringer made her presence known, and he was quick to stand, hands up in a welcoming manner towards her. However he could tell that something may have been...off. Either way he made his way around the desk, offering her hand to shake in a warm welcome. “Its great that you had time to make it, trust me this not a normal cup of tea for me - but you know what when I heard about you and what you were doing, well sure as shootin’ I wanted a chance to meet you so we could talk some shop. That is if you don’t get sick of me first.”
He offered a chuckle at the notion that Archie of all people would be boring! He motioned that she could take a seat in front of his desk as he made his way around. “But before we get to any of that stuff, I gotta ask - do you want…”
He sat back down and opened the bottom drawer on the left side of his desk and pulled out a fresh bottle of Jim Bean, apple. “Or do you want the mystery prize?”
He waggled his eyebrows and patted the right side of his desk. Strong King - ArchieToday at 5:55 PM
Fire and Nice
You doin' okay there, FB?
Wits + Empathy
@dicecord-CoD roll 5
Dicecord-CoD
BOT
Today at 5:55 PM
@strong King - Archie rolled 5 dice and got 1 success. 2 8 1 2 5 |
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Firebringer
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Elemental Ifrit, Presence 3 (Intimidating)
Posts: 634
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Post by Firebringer on Feb 9, 2021 21:43:01 GMT -8
Firebringer comes in closer, taking a seat in front of his desk. She crosses one leg over the other, leaning back against the not surprisingly comfortable chair. "I assume you mean my work in social justice and not my crap slam poetry."
She raises her eyebrow at the weird eyebrow gesture from the Fairest. Mystery prize? He was offering me a drink or...? Or what? "I may be a rather spontaneous person, but people offering mystery prizes are sus as all hell. Though, I'm sure you just find it to all be in good fun, right?" The Summer chuckles, though it is clear she's a bit weirded out.
She brings a hand to her hair, wrapping her finger around a lock that is somewhat shorter than the rest, watching him curiously for his response. She might have seemed a little timid at first, as if something might have been wrong, but at the moment, she seems fine. Perhaps it was just the awkwardness of that first 'meeting up with someone you really don't know'.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2021 22:24:00 GMT -8
She was fiiiiine. “Little of column A and a little of column B - but lets not lie, mostly have heard about your work from the former versus the latter. Though I wouldn’t say that I am against crossing the lines - I mean who doesn’t love a little Allen Ginsberg, amiright?”A chuckle came from Archie as he pulled open the other drawer of his desk and this time produced a much more elaborate sealed package. “I figure Jim would be fine for the office, but you may need something to sup at in the evenings so.”
He shrugged. “I know it must seem odd, but such is the life of the Lost isn’t it? At the end of the day no matter how different we are there is always a sense of familiarity as distant as it may seem. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that everything is peace, love, and namaste, but there are some unspoken understandings. Coincidentally something I am acutely familiar with both with, and without mask. Regardless, after seeing what you do for communities that need a voice, and seeing as we share a very different community - but a community nonetheless, I was excited to meet you.”
He spun around to retrieve a pair of glasses from a set that had been sitting on the cabinet behind him, popping open the mini fridge to drop some ice in his before looking over to see if she was wanting ice in hers as well. “And to get around the bush beating, I wanted to extend an offer to help out if I could.”
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Firebringer
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Elemental Ifrit, Presence 3 (Intimidating)
Posts: 634
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Post by Firebringer on Feb 10, 2021 14:10:35 GMT -8
Firebringer picks it up, unwrapping it a bit to get a look of exactly what was inside and is genuinely surprised. "Wait. This is good shit." Why am I surprised though? Also, what is this dude's game?
She looks up at Archie with a hint of confusion, but then just gives a wee smile, "I appreciate it. I'm newer in town, so it is good to start getting to know some of the others out and about. And I'm still working with getting with my scene, going through the works. Have you been to The Back Door?"
She then pauses, "Is this office not chilly people level secure?" It was weird hearing someone talk in vague talk while in private. Was this office not secure?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2021 19:24:24 GMT -8
“I do everything I can to keep this place snowman free. Though I am sure that the frosty fingers of Winter have finer things to do than mess around with my office. I mean if they did I would be more surprised than anything, means that I have to be doing something right, doesn’t it?”
He laughed gently as he leaned back in his seat and nodded in acknowledgement.
“Regular haunt for you? Wish I could say I frequented more often but my Spanish isn’t particularly strong, and I know I can get by without but - all things considered - that is what makes me feel left out.”
He smiled and shrugged, fully admitting he wasn’t the most multilingual.
“Now if you know any bars that Yiddish is the jam, pencil me in please because other than that it really only helps when arguing with the old men at Temple. Are you multilingual or do you just like the place?”
He casually asked the question as he rocked back and forth in his seat, wanting to learn a bit about the woman he had in front of him.
“Well, when you feel like you have an in I would love to help you put together some speaking events. Normally setting stuff like that up is a big contractual thing, and I do a fee, but…”
He shrugged and pursed his lips.
“I’ve been on the shitty side of things in the past. So I have respect for what you do. Feel like doing something good on the mundane side while helping a member of the community? A real win win.”
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Firebringer
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Elemental Ifrit, Presence 3 (Intimidating)
Posts: 634
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Post by Firebringer on Feb 10, 2021 20:22:45 GMT -8
She chuckles a bit, "I work at The Back Door as a bartender there. It's also where I do a lot of my soap box spiels and make sure to poke people to go scream at their representatives." She grins a bit. "Back in Baltimore, I was a bit more of a fire starter." Well, that one time was an accident and it was only a dumpster. "I'm still trying to get my footing here to see what I can do."
She crosses one leg over the other and leans back a little, "Now, I'm not trying to run for public office, let me make that clear. I'm no AOC." She laughs a bit, "Plus, I've got some sketchy backstory things that no one really needs to know about." It really wasn't that much. Middle school fight clubs and showing up to knock a few people out for cash. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
"It's nice to know someone who wants to help put some right back out into the world though. Especially now when people are so complacent. That's when things go through hidden rooms and no one finds out about it until its too late." She lets out a soft sigh. That shit really pissed her off.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2021 0:54:48 GMT -8
“Soooo...Hable espanol?”
He teased her about not getting a direct answer to his question, but was unlikely to pursue it past this point of the conversation, more a curiosity than anything at this point.
“Baltimore? Bit of a move to make, change of scenery or circumstance?”
That was a big move, but Archie wasn’t about to come at her with a direct questioning of it, everyone had their motives and this was his first time meeting her. So if she wanted to elaborate he left it open for her, but wasn’t required. Gave her a quick one or the other, leave it at that.
“Trust me, we are more than the sum of our parts - if I really cared about someone’s backstory I wouldn’t really be able to live another day in the Lost community without going absolutely insane. As good or bad as you may take that, but we all move on from transgressions and problems. Its growth, never staying static or we are really just lumps.”
He shrugged with a smile.
“Now, on AOC, are you saying that as in you are a better bartender or a worse politician?"
A chuckle as he finally got to pouring the Jim Bean into the glasses, pushing one towards her to take. The good stuff was all hers to enjoy at her leisure.
“I mean I think we agree on that, but hidden rooms are what happen when systems are beaten into people. When everything is rank and file, day by day, the news is all doom and gloom, and we are all encouraged to just shut up and take it? People do need to fight for the world they want.”
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Firebringer
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Elemental Ifrit, Presence 3 (Intimidating)
Posts: 634
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Post by Firebringer on Feb 11, 2021 10:16:41 GMT -8
"Oh. Sorry. Didn't realize I hadn't answer that." She laughs, "I speak enough to get by. The obligatory few years in school," Before I dropped out. Though if I hadn't been taken, maybe I'd have gone back. "It really isn't as bilingual as you'd expect, but we do get a good bit of Latin Queens who come to visit."
She pauses, giving Archie a look over, "You know, you'd make a really pretty Drag Queen. I'm sure the girls would love to bring a new face into the family." She grins, though she fully expects that it will have no real teasing effect on the Spring.
The Summer has never really been secretive about why she is here, "My sister moved here. Gotta keep on the big sister duties." Even if she wants nothing to do with me. She doesn't let the hurtful thought get to her though. It is a wound long closed by now. And she understood. Who wants to hang out with the sister who suddenly disappeared, leaving you behind, leaving you to end up in foster care, and then suddenly reappeared like it was nothing. It wasn't nothing.
"Very true on transgressions or problems though. Ish. It's kind of Spring to leave it behind and create new memories. I need to leave it there long enough to punch it first," She laughs.
"I'm probably a better bartender though. Ya girl can throw a drink together. Then again, you won't really care what goes down your throat after the second drink." She picks up the whiskey Archie had poured for them and takes a sip. The burn of the apple flavor lovely on her tongue.
"That's very much what I'm fighting for. Problem, of course, is that people are tired and even when we succeed in making these things more obvious to the public, they're weighed down by just everything else. Though nothing pisses me off more than the 'whataboutisms' from people who want less things to care about. I wouldn't call myself the persuasive public speaker, however. I'm the one to inspire rage."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2021 19:50:07 GMT -8
“I am awful at contouring, and the word ‘tuck’ terrifies me.”
He made sure to really enunciate the word terrify with plenty of good fun in his voice.
“Now I am not going to lie and pretend I can speak like I have my pulse on the issues of the LGBTQ+ community, but I am smart enough to know that they exist, will continue to exist, and don’t have enough acknowledgement. This also isn’t some tax right off, so don’t think I am just tossing around stuff willy nilly. So tell me - what can I do to help you best? I have a wide social media network, I have adjacent allied talent, and I am sure I could whip something up but what are your thoughts?”
Archie was interested, sometimes he let his desire for charity outstrip his own infrastructure and planning. He knew he had wanted to do something but he would be damned if he had a concrete plan. However seeing as this was well wishing and not just a business venture he may have let his eagerness override his sense of preparation.
So he tossed the ball back into her court, see what the Lost had to say, and they would be able to spitball something from there.
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Firebringer
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Elemental Ifrit, Presence 3 (Intimidating)
Posts: 634
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Post by Firebringer on Feb 12, 2021 1:06:40 GMT -8
The Torrent laughs, "It's not so bad if you're getting paid, apparently." Okay, but I can't even imagine having to go through that. Binding can hurt enough as it is, not that I have much in that department. She absently looks down at her chest, not entirely realizing it before looking back up at Archie as he speaks.
There is a slight stare she gives the Fairest, "Try not to have the 'us' versus 'them' mentality. We are more than our place in the community; we're people." It was just something about the way he worded it that left a bad taste in her mouth.
She takes another moment to consider his question though, her orange eyes seeming concentrated, which looked a little odd on the fiery torrent. But then again, going off into a daze wasn't unusual for her. What would be useful?
"The best way you can help is getting the word out. Use social media to spread word of important laws trying to be passed that negatively affect the community - or positively, for that matter. You could get word out of my PSAs at the bar. Having them potentially streamed would be good too." She taps her finger against her glass as she considers before taking a sip of her drink.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2021 7:43:23 GMT -8
There was something to talk about there, so the fairest swung casually to one side in his chair, leaning back just a touch more as he picked up a pen from his desk, holding each end between either hands fingers and spinning it as he let her finish her ponnient suggestions.
“So, consider this more a curious question than any sort of business, but does it ever become hard to reconcile an ‘us’ vs ‘them’ mentality? More in the sense that - yes you are completely correct, everyone is a person, but our own personal experience naturally color us as the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ in regards to our time away from this world. I can tell by the mantle you wear that you are one to believe that the vanguard serves a vitally important role an that meeting the enemy head on.”
Thus was Summer afterall, and at a base level Archie appreciated and understood the role the Ruby garrison played - if not a lesser one in Vegas comparatively to what he had seen elsewhere in passing.
“In your pursuits what happens when you run into people who are not reasonable, not amenable, and would sooner see you swept away. Is it ever hard to not slip into lashing out at ‘them’?”
The topic was a sensitive one, but Archie had genuine interest in hearing what the Rose had to say about that seperation, if it was difficult to sometimes escape the almost Keeper like control some wanted to impose on others in more mundane ways. It was similar in flavor by not parallel to Archie’s own experience of being the other.
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Firebringer
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Elemental Ifrit, Presence 3 (Intimidating)
Posts: 634
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Post by Firebringer on Feb 12, 2021 21:08:41 GMT -8
The Torrent blinks once, "I'm sorry. I must have misheard you. Did you just compare the, albeit fucked up people I would genuinely like to punch in the face, and I'll admit to having done it more than once more twice, some I would love to make sure got their kids taken away and locked up for child abandonment in other situations, to my beef with Keepers?" She knows the comparison was just in the similarities of the 'us' versus 'them' mentality, but nothing can be compared... she didn't know how to word it. It made her angry.
"The mundies can do some horrible, horrible shit, enough that it brings them a bit too close for comfort from being able to be compared, but fuck. There isn't a moment when I slip into lashing out beyond what is acceptable. I'm not the sweet girl who doesn't fight people who are wishing death on people like me; I have thrown punches in many a bar, but I'd never compare that to my wrath as a Lost."
There is this incredulous look on her face and her brain just isn't seem to put it together.
"You get to a deep low when you treat humans how you want to treat the Keepers or you know, privateers. Just... wow. No, I don't have trouble with that one." Simmer down... There is a slight sizzle at the ends of her wiry hair, as if slightly smoking. But it isn't like the is anything that pissed her off beyond an initial shock.
She pauses, closes her eyes and sighs. I know how to not throw punches at other Lost. What was it Triss said? Don't blame the Spring? They don't know how to not piss off a Summer with their sweet backstabbery? That doesn't apply, but... it's close enough.
"All right, Archie. Before I start getting pissy. Tell me about you. Since we're already in that tense space, tell me what pisses you off. What makes you want to punch someone?"
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2021 21:46:56 GMT -8
It was a loaded question, not one you ask lightly. However, sometimes you had to ask hard questions to get hard answers. Offering resources was one thing, doing it without any type of screening was another thing. Volatile wasn’t inherently linked with being detrimentally dangerous - so he could at least expect the girl to be able to hold face should. However, she threw something of the same at him, and you know what...
FAIR. He wasn’t the only one that could ask questions, so he was almost caught off guard by the question, but he gave an expression of ‘well done’ as he mused on that for a moment. That was, after she had put him through the ringer,
“So, not really the punching type you know? Just was raised to be more of a lover than a fighter. There are always other ways to settle issues than lashing out, or so I was taught. So I have always tried to avoid doing the whole punching thing.”
He wrinkled his nose a bit.
“But…”
Oh?
“I am sure that wasn’t the sort of answer you want to hear.”
It was rhetorical there, of course it wasn’t.
“So,”
He held up his pinky
“This is between the two of us. And I’m going to trust you.”
He was a little more serious on the matter it seemed.
“Do you ever feel like you could never relate to anyone ever again after you came back? Like you were alone and your experience was isolated? It gets a little better when you find other Lost, it is a shared nightmare that no matter what happens we can all sympathize with. Color me lucky, I didn’t really have that cliff to fall off of because when I came back I found people who I could truly sympathize with. Color me as surprised as anyone when it was Temple of all places that really helped me see the light - but hey I am not going to argue.”
He held his hands up in a ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ style.
“For the sake of not being grim, or distasteful, I spoke with people who had seen the ultimate evil, had been taken by the ultimate evil, been stripped of their dignity and humanity by the ultimate evil, tortured by the ultimate evil, and you know what...They survived, they moved on, they were sitting at Temple with me. Helping me understand some of the things I never understood before. They were there with their families, living their best lives despite what had been wrought upon them…”
Archie seemed to be getting a touch emotional, but a deep breath and he was back on track.
“Anyway, sob story I know, anger, punching, right? Well to be blunt, when I see some hate spewing, pathetic excuse of a human, spewing dreck and carrying the symbols that represent everything was inflicted upon my elders, knowing they would love knowing that I suffered for no reason? I want to scream. I want to hit something, I want to hit them, I want to tear them down and force them to build something of their own rather than sit high and mighty on their privilege.”
Archie’s cadence had gone from storytelling to a more heated tone, and by the end he was talking with no breath before he caught himself, deep breath, and leaned back in his chair…
“So yeah…”
She had been earnest so he returned the favor.
“Oh, and people who double park.”
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