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Erik Samuelson:
It was a very rare occasion indeed that Erik didn't work the Saturday brunch rush, but the stars had aligned just so and the Bound had the morning off for a change. Thus he was sitting at one of the booths in the supernaturally-aligned diner, a cup of coffee in one hand and his phone in the other, enjoying the relative quiet.
Maddy:
Maddy might own the eponymous diner, a supernatural neutral ground for people to meet and discuss, share ideas and hopefully get to know one another better in ways that head off conflict.
That doesn't mean she's there all the time. Or often, at all. Lately, the Druid's wanderlust has kept her away from Philly more often than she's been there. She comes and goes like the breeze, sweeping in and out.
This morning she sweeps in, appearing in the garden outside the diner moments after a heavy fog starts rolling in across the ground. It's knee high on her when she seems to step out of a swirling eddy of it, appearing from nowhere along side a white stag with two sets of massive antlers who veers away from her and over toward the growing vegetation that provides a lot of the diner's produce.
The Acanthus is carrying a giant box labeled as being eggs, at least a good dozen dozen if not more, and pushes her way through the front door rather than the portal that most visitors use to make their entrances. She looks around, spots an unfamiliar face amongst the diners as she's heading toward the kitchen, and smiles so freely and uninhibitedly she might as well think Erik is a dear friend she hasn't seen in years.
Erik Samuelson:
The fog suddenly rolling in outside caught Erik's attention, watching curiously through the window as the mage and her companion emerged from within it. His eyebrow quirked up at the stag in particular, eyeing it for a moment before turning his attention back to Maddy as she made her way inside. "Morning." He said with a smile of his own, hers a rather infectious one indeed. "Need a hand?"
Maddy:
"Thanks, but I've got it," Maddy answers in a chipper tone. Her accent is local-ish, more coal country than Philly proper, but it does at least make her sound like she's from around these parts, generally speaking. She hefts the box up onto her shoulder as she's passing through, so she can avoid bumping it on chairs, stools, or other patrons, and drops it at the end of the bar counter where it opens up to allow staff into the back.
Once it's deposited, presumably for someone else to pick up, her bouncing steps bring her to Erik's table and she just sits herself down across from him and extends a hand. "Maddy," she says. "Have I not seen you in here before personally, or is my memory still off wandering the Mists somewhere?"
Erik Samuelson:
"First time we've met, I believe." He took her hand and shook it firmly but not too firm, his own marked with the occasional nicks and cuts that came with regular blade work. "Erik Samuelson, nice to put a face to the name."
Maddy:
Maddy shakes with vim, if not vigor. "Madeleine Chevalier," she answers more fully. "A pleasure. I hope there's not too much dirt on the face as you put a name to it, or sticks in my hair or something. But I guess these days that would be a generally truthful depiction." Despite the words she seems pretty clean at the moment, aside from a bit of road dust that's unavoidable with hours of hiking around."
Erik Samuelson:
"Nope, you look good." He chuckled, sitting back in his seat. "You run a pretty tight ship here. I've been in the industry a while myself and this is one of the better places I've been to over the years."
Maddy:
"It helps that I can pay well above market rates, and that my staff is empowered to levy magically enforced bans on patrons who act like twats." She just shrugs. "I have a somewhat different set of problems to deal with than the average restaurant does, you know? I can't take all the credit for the differences."
Erik Samuelson:
"True enough. I just have to deal with the usual entitled customers and suppliers trying to put us through the wringer. Haven't seen too many folks causing problems when I've been here, though."
Maddy:
"Being an entitled dickbag isn't explicitly against the rules, but the rules allow for everyone on staff to unilaterally ban people if they choose, and I'm glad a lot of the community has seen as much value in this place as I did." Maddy reaches for the salt shaker at the end of the table and starts unscrewing its top.
"I think people either behave in ways that will let them come back, or they weed themselves out quickly." She pours most of the salt out on the table and starts shifting it around with her fingers.
Erik Samuelson:
"Seems that way." He watched her fiddling with the salt curiously, taking a sip of his coffee. "This place is definitely a plus for the local community. I've met some solid people here that I wouldn't have otherwise."
Cillian Rory Temple:
A red headed man entered through the portal. Locals into politics would recognize him as Cillian Temple, a local Union Lobbyist. Today, he wore thick cargo khaki pants, a matching heavy jacket with flannels beneath it. As he moved through the aisleway, he was almost as thick as the entire aisle with dense bones, heavy musclature and his height of 6'2". Pulling off worksmen's gloves, he took a scan of the room, while ordering the sweet sicily scramble with fruit and coffee.
His geist followed closely, in twilight of course, being a dessicated corpse, mummified but with a firely glow where the heart would be, that extends out from the mouth and eyes.
Maddy:
Maddy seems to be idly making an image with the salt, thinning it out in some places and building it up in others to give shading and gradient, but what she's creating will take more time to become clear. "That's what I've hoped. I need to make some revisions to the protections, minor changes to the rules and some changes to the blanket effects, but I haven't been in a hurry since there haven't been major problems. I've just learned new techniques since I initial set things up."
Erik Samuelson:
"Makes sense. Hopefully those updates go smoothly when you do them."
The presence of another Bound naturally caught Erik's attention, watching Cillian and his spectral companion curiously as they headed for the counter. His own Geist remained out of sight for the moment but a faint whiff of ash hit the air as the mark of his liminal nature reacted to Cillian's arrival. "Morning."
Cillian Rory Temple:
The Sin-Eater turned to face the pair, "Good Morning!" And then his aura and Erik's met up and he straightened up.
His deep resonant bass came out as he spoke further, "Pleasure to meet you. I am Cillian Temple."
He approached the table and motioned, "May I join you, friends?"
Maddy:
"I'll probably close things down for a couple of days." Maddy shrugs as her fingers keep moving. "For one thing, the portal will be gone until I finish, most likely, but I also wouldn't want people doing things without the protections in place. Maybe I could just put new ones over top, and then let the others fade. I haven't decided."
She gestures an invitation to Cillian and then offers him her hand. With salt on her fingers. "Madeleine Chevalier, also known as Maddy," she says. "Be my guest, although admittedly I just helped myself to a seat uninvited, so maybe I shouldn't compound that by inviting other people to the table."
Erik Samuelson:
"Whatever works best for you." He nodded, looking up to Cillian as he approached and scooting over to give the other Bound room at the table. "The more the merrier. Erik Samuelson, good to meet you as well."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Pleasure to meet you, Madamoiselle Chevalier," he said with fluent French pronunciation, albeit American accented. His normal words had a Pittsburgh dialect to them as well.
"Thank you for bringing this place of relative safety to us..."
And then he offered his large hand to Erik and Maddy both before sitting.
Maddy:
Laughing, she says, "Maddy is fine. Despite the extraordinarily French name, I hardly speak a word of it." She does sound like she's relatively local, based on accent. "You're welcome, but I'll admit my motives weren't purely selfless. I spend a lot of time wandering the world, or other ones, and having a central place where people come to me means I can make the most of all the time I'm here."
Erik Samuelson:
Erik took the offered hand and shook it, his own marked with the occasional nicks and cuts that came with regular blade work. "Makes sense. Guessing the fog that rolled in with you when you came in is part of that?"
Cillian Rory Temple:
His hands were thick with callouses and scars, a worker's hands for sure... and looks like a few broken knuckles healed from fights in the past.
His eyes swept through to the windows to see the aforementioned Mist, before sweepoing back to the pair. He drank the coffee with nothing added to it.
Maddy:
"It was," Maddy says, and much like Erik just suggested, there's a dense layer of fog outside that blankets the ground up to about knee height, even if the rest of the city doesn't have any fog to it. There's also a giant white stag with two full sets of antlers in the garden outside, eating the crops.
"There's a place call the Mists, a realm more or less made up of destiny and potential, and I spend a good deal of time there, exploring and reading the possibilities. It's become something of a part of my magic, at this point. I also spend a lot of time traveling in this world, too, though. There's more of it to see than I could probably manage in my lifetime, unless I didn't bother to really look when I got there."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Huh. Sounds... fancy," a chuckle, "I don't know much about that sort of stuff. If it wasn't for being dead and coming back, and talking to ghosts, I probably wouldn't know any of it."
Erik Samuelson:
"Ah...interesting." He nodded, taking a moment to polish off his coffee before it got too cold and setting the cup off to the side for a refill. "I've done some traveling the old-fashioned way, along with a few jaunts down Below."
"Have you been back for long, on that note?" He asked Cillian, looking him over.
Maddy:
"Fancy?" Madeleine asks. "I don't know if I'd say that. I've never been much for fancy." She looks at his hands, not hiding the look, and then up at Cillian. "My dad was a coal miner. My mom was a housewife. I run a diner. It's purely a matter of happenstance I'm not still living in a town out in the Coal Region, working minimum wage or raising kids. I wouldn't know about any of it, either."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Mainly traveled around the Northeast here, or yeah, Underworld," he agreed.
To Erik, "I've been back a few years. Setup in Pittsburgh by and large, until... things happened. I decided to come down here to Philly and build something lasting. Have you heard of Cre-8, over in Fishtown? It's a new community center. We offer counseling, and art classes, trades, tutoring, all sorts of things..."
Back to Maddy, "Oh. I just meant the magic in general. I'm a very hammer-meets-nail type person. Sometimes the nail is made of iron, sometimes it's made of ectoplasm, and sometimes it's made of flesh and blood... but I will fix the problem and do my best to build something better out of it."
Erik Samuelson:
"Yeah, this was all news to me when things happened as well." Erik nodded, thanking the server who came by to refill his coffee before continuing. "Will be three years for me in a couple months. Don't think I've heard of it, but I'll definitely check it out."
Maddy:
Maddy suddenly points at Cillian then bangs her hand on the table in a way that makes the salt dance, messing up all of her work. That might be alarming if it wasn't for the grin on her face. "Haven't heard of it, but I like the idea. Are you looking for people to help with some of that? I'm a Druid, and this place aside I live off the land. I have a cabin I built myself, out of trees I cut, held together with nails I forged using tools I assembled with my own two hands. I hunt or gather most of my own food. I would love to be able to pass some of these skills on to others. Maybe get some more people involved in guerilla agriculture, growing food for their communities in abandoned lots and stuff."
She starts working on fixing her salt painting, which she hadn't gotten far with in the first place. "It's been... 14 years for me, now, since I became a mage."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"I died in 2018. Came back and ran with a Krewe for a while. I don't quite know hwat happened... I was knocked out, and when I woke up..." a shrug. And then he moved on, "I would love to have anyone that can offer classes come and help. We have things for little ones, teens, and adults. I think there's even an Accountant that wants to offer tax services this time of year."
Erik Samuelson:
"Hmm...sorry to hear that. Been running solo myself for the most part, although there are a few of us around that I've met so far."
"That's impressive," he added to Maddy, glancing towards the garden outside briefly before looking back to the mage. "I've been trying to convince the owner of where I work to set up a rooftop garden so we don't have to source out as much of our produce as we are now, so I might take you up on some tips on that front if you're willing."
Maddy:
"Oh shit. I need to make sure my property taxes got paid," Maddy says suddenly, along with a laugh. "Thank you for reminding me." She wipes the salt into a pile with her hand, then grabs a napkin and sweeps the whole pile onto it before bundling it so it doesn't spill everywhere.
"I'll have to come check your place out," she tells Cillian, also adding, "and I'd be happy to give you some tips, Erik. I can show you some of the gardens I already set up, and talk to you about the space you have, the conditions it gets, and what will grow best there. I should get moving, though. I have to check some things in the back, and then get back on my way before Oisín eats everything in the garden." Having tidied up after herself she stands up.
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Be safe, Maddy. We're over in Fishtown, should you get that way," and stood when the Druid stood.
To Erik, "Yeah, there was a big to do, and I just don't remember it all. It's strange."
Erik Samuelson:
"Sounds good to me." Erik nodded, watching Maddy as she got up. "I'll leave my number with the staff before I head out. Was a pleasure meeting you finally."
"Huh...very. Your other half didn't have any insight on it either?"
Maddy:
With a wave Maddy is gone, off to go do whatever she has to get done before heading back out on the road.
Cillian Rory Temple:
He sat down, and smiled, "No. I leave it up to the strange things that can happen in this world. I didn't even see any masks when I woke up. Just... nothing... and no one came back at the normal time."
Erik Samuelson:
"That is odd." He frowned a touch, sitting back in his seat. "Glad you weren't taken in by it, whatever it was."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Yeah.... of course with the rage... " he frowned, "That couldn't be it. I wouldn't..." he growled low for a moment, and then sat back, "So. Vengeful here, and I guess I'm a Fury... but I also like to build, so who knows..."
Erik Samuelson:
His eyebrow arched a touch but he didn't comment on the half-muttering, instead giving a nod. "Lean more on the Necropolitan side myself, from what I've been told. Chef by trade, been working in the industry since I was a kid."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"I was a foreman and union man in one of the last steel foundaries up that-a-way. I've always built things... and metal always made sense to me. Even got some science classes and the like to learn about the ins and outs, yinz know?"
He took a bite of his food as it arrived, "But I hate bullies... and that led to ... the first time. And now, Fires and I bring a little of that hate to the bad guys."
Erik Samuelson:
He thanks the server as his own plate arrived - simple waffles, bacon and scrambled eggs, nothing too fancy - nodding as Cillian continued. "Right. Was a mugging gone wrong on my end. Guy had a knife and got a stab in at just the wrong place and I went down for the count."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"So ... you find a lot of ghostly business here? I figure with things from the Native Peoples, through the American Revolution to the present... has to be a lot."
Erik Samuelson:
"A good bit, yeah." He nodded. "I work in the Old City for the most part, along with keeping eye on a gate in North Philly."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Cre-8 is built on a warehouse that had a massacre back in the day. A Cenote showed up and everything... so I've been keeping a close eye there and surrounding areas."
Erik Samuelson:
"Same for mine; there was a cemetery there back in the day and there's enough residual energy that it's worth keeping an eye on."
"My other half is tied to fire as well, amusingly enough. Think he was a firefighter back in the day."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Pretty sure mine was Miner. We saw this old pick-axe in a shop and they needed it. Absolutely needed it..."
He flexed his fingers, to keep them from growing stiff before eating more.
"So Chef? What style?"
Erik Samuelson:
"I've done a little bit of everything, honestly, but where I'm at now is modern American. Lean towards Mediterranean when I'm cooking for myself."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Oh. Delish. I can cook... but it's always better in the hands of a true professional."
Erik Samuelson:
"I do my best." He said with a proud little smirk, then nodded to his own plate. "The food here is pretty solid, I will say. Was pleasantly surprised the first time I came in, along with the whole 'use a magical portal to get here' bit." The last part was said with a chuckle, eyeing the wall where the portal resides.
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Yeah... deifnitely a strange way to find a restaurant. ANd yet, it's a good thing. Though still weird that it exists at all..."
Erik Samuelson:
"It is, yeah. I've met some good folks coming here, and the community at large here is pretty well connected to each other. Take it's not that way in Pittsburgh?"
Cillian Rory Temple:
"I don't know. I found a few folx here that pointed me here. I might have ran across a few Mages or Medium types, who knows the difference until they say something, back home.. but ... mostly ghosts and related problems."
Erik Samuelson:
"Gotcha. I've met a few of the former here, including our host," he tilted his head towards where Maddy had headed off to, "and they seem like a solid bunch. There's some bigger stuff going on in the background that a lot of folks are getting involved in; I've offered a hand where I can although I'll admit I'm not as up to date on the current happenings as I probably should be."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"I certainly understand that. However, if you, or they, need something guarded, or broken, I'm usually a good hand there..." a few more polite bites, and his gaze swept back up to Erik, "You get into any trouble, or hear about it more?"
Erik Samuelson:
"Noted. I'm more of the 'talk people down when things get sporting' sort, but I can handle myself in a pinch." He nodded, taking a few bites of his own meal. "Nothing directly myself, no, but going by what's on the board here and the news recently the robots that the police force here is using are bad news. Best to be careful around them if you run into one."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"I saw that... makes me want to... find them, truth be told."
Erik Samuelson:
"And see what it takes to take one apart, I'm guessing?" He smirked a touch, taking a sip of his coffee. "Best of luck there."
Cillian Rory Temple:
"Yep. I have my tricks... but I haven't ran across something out of the Underworld that worries me physically."
Erik Samuelson:
He nodded towards the bulletin board briefly. "I know someone was looking to acquire parts from them a bit back, might be worth reaching out to them."
Cillian Rory Temple:
Finishing his plate, he grinned and nodded, offering Erik a card, "You can reach me by mobile or at the Cre-8 Center."
Standing, he handed quite a few bills over the requirement to he waitress and heading off.
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