[Fiction] Pow wow: Fourth of July.

[Wakinyan]

Some say among his people this is a day that also marks the death of their way of life. They might have been right but it doesn't stop the Sioux from blowing shit up like every other American on this day.

Totem's ears had gotten used to the explosions and screams of fireworks zipping into the sky all day. His fur and feathers twitched and flexed for awhile as he heard them but he had settled down.

The first rodeo had come and went. Dwight Flying Bird had won the calf roping. For fun they had asked him to come over try it himself. Totem charged out as the gate dropped and scooped the calf up in one hand. Surely scaring the young cow to death but the crowd got a kick out of it. He felt so at home now, most of the regulars where really starting to warm up to him despite his feral presence. He did his best to enforce that he was friendly and welcoming. Like a mascot at a theme park. Look at the big Griffin why, he is just like Mickey Mouse!

It was getting on near Dusk and the fireworks where in place out over the lake. Sakurako had promised great things from this display. Earlier in the day she had spoke of shaped Plasma charges within short lived Electromagnetic bottles. Totem had no clue about what she was talking about, he just nodded alot and grinned as she went on about it. He was sure she was over at the docks ensuring a spectacular show.

He found a spot that was away from most folks yet easy enough for them to still see him. He knew a lot of people didn't come just to experience Sioux culture. They came to see the Mythical animal and other Novas who came and went. That they got to experience Native culture was just a bonus.

His head still throbbed a bit from the events of the opening day. He had watched the video of what happened and he couldn't believe what he saw. While he didn't doubt he was the one who did it. He just had a hard time truly accepting it. With a skull the size of his he always thought he wouldn't get Node skull pressure pain that others got but the headache confirmed he was just as vulnerable to it.

The show was ten minutes from start time so the big Griffin got up and walked over to a refreshment trailer and began negotiating for a large cooler of ice and Gatorade.

[Wakinyan]

Returning to his spot Totem settled down and got comfortable. He could hear the chatter of people who could only wonder what a Nova pyrotechnic display might look like. He had no idea himself but he was bound to enjoy it no doubt.

His thoughts drifted back to the ceremony of the opening day. All the images and sounds that he apparently created out of thin air. He shut his eyes and focused, trying to harness powers hidden within him. A twinge of pain let him know that his node responded and he opened his eyes. Around him drifted wisps of glowing blue smoke. Shapeless clouds circling him as he examined his work. He watched one for a long moment trying to understand how to make it something more substantial when suddenly it molded into his exact shape. A glowing copy of the Griffin he was.

Suddenly he realized he was drawing stares from the crowd nearby. A few oohs of wonder made him wave his claws through the form quickly dissipating it. Somewhat happy that he found a new power that he could play with he turned his attention back to the lake waiting for Sakurako's patriotic display.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

The fires burn. They spread light and warmth. Some of the natives gather round them, away from the noise of the public festivities. In other areas, chants are spoken and dances performed. Still, in others they burn unwatched, untended, merely pretty lights and nothing else.

Above it all, the fireworks burst and burn, their brief, tiny lives one of a single orgasmic moment of joy followed by a silent afterglow into oblivion. She senses them, little beacons of life cut quickly short. Many many years ago, when she was a child, she recalls watching a movie with Robin Williams and Bill Cosby called Jack, and a conversation about shooting stars burning more brightly and more memorable than any other star in the sky. This almost makes her smile, but part of her, feeling the life going out of those colorful balls of fire, mourns their passing. She continues onward, pushing them out of her mind.

The flickering tongues and fingers of the ceremonial fire reach skyward, almost as though trying to touch the fireworks as they die to offer them some comfort, to give a warm hand upon their cheek to ease their passing. It is that one she chooses. Those flames arc suddenly, pulling into the center and molding into a human form.

The firey humanoid slowly begins taking on characteristics. Nose, fingers, breasts, hips, the definition of hair and ear, until it is obviously female in form. Then flesh, materializing into life like a spirit becoming tangible, until there is a young Amerasian woman standing in the center of it all.

The flames continue to lap around her, almost as the very tongues they seem to be. The ceremony stops as she looks out over it all. This was not her intention, but it's not everyday something like that is witnessed.

She takes a step, and then another, until she emerges from the fire completely. She carries with her her own fire, rising softly upwards from her flesh. Her torso is almost completely without clothing. On her shoulders, Stigmata's handiwork is cleanly visible. A giant bloodworked salamander rests lazily upon her shoulders, its head leaning over her left shoulder with its right forepaw there for support, its left forepaw on her shoulder blade. In each of its paws, and in its mouth, a symbol is held. Each symbol is different, though the one in its mouth is definitely Japanese Kanji. Her breasts have electrical tape in an X-pattern covering her nipple area, and that is the extent of any clothing she has above. Below, she wears loose-fitting black pants which seem to be made of velour, and simple rope sandals.

[Ghostwriter]

Codex sits nearby, watching Salamander step from the conflagration. She wonders if her ability to withstand hostile enviromental conditions extends to fire and stands up. Hobbling over to the fire, she extends her fingers, letting the flames caress them. Taking a deep breath, she walks into the pyre, only semi-aware of the gasping breaths of the crowd behind her.

The fire is quite pleasantly warm as it roars about her, leaving her eufiber unharmed. She was glad she'd thought to get her knee-brace fireproofed, or she'd have melted metal and plastic against her flesh. Codex couldn't actually manipulate the fire like Juri could, but she could certainly liven it up a little.

She spun her juice into a great skyward burst, manifesting it in a huge spray of rainbow light. The difference between this and the fireworks was the fact that the sparks became creatures of myth and legend - Coyote yipped soundlessly at the red-eyed raven of the Morrigan while a salamander curled itself near Juri and winked one fiery eye. A gryphon flapped his mighty wings to create the wind that spun a graceful heron around, cherry blossom petals falling from the latter's wings like rain. She spun the illusions over an area of fifteen metres or so, the figures dancing on invisible winds until they reached the apex and vanished into thin air.

In the midst of the conflagration, her anima banner spun like made, forming words that could almost be read if someone made enough effort: "For....am....I am....do....what....I do."

She released the illusion and hobbled from the fire, leaving a stunned silence behind. She walks over to Juri, barely batting an eyelid over the skimpy attire and nods politely. "Heck of an entrance," she says wryly, looking a bit tired. "If you don't know me, I'm Codex from the boards. Nice to finally meet the lady who thinks I'm a quantum accident."

[Singularity]

Singularity follows Codex with his silver eyes as she walks into the fire, arching an eyebrow at her destination. He's still amazed by Juri's display, but Codex's explosion of imagination only heightened his sense of awe. He eagerly follows the images' dance, eyes darting around the sky and the fire itself. The moment carries him, rare child-like joy escaping from his eyes.

As the display ends, Singularity hears a few quiet whispers express their awe. "That was amazing!" "Mommy, what were those beautiful creatures?" "I never thought I could see such things..." Silver eyes dart to either side briefly and a small smile of pride escapes from Singularity's lips as he enjoys the fruits of Codex's magic. His face slips back to its customary vigilant expression as she approaches Juri. He quietly uses the awe generated by move closer to the pair, remaining seated to not draw attention nor interrupt their conversion. After all, he ponders, this is a celebration and even Juri isn't that brash. His shoulders roll in a silent chuckle; nor is Regan.

[Wakinyan]

He sees her but he watches and waits. The display is impressive from both women. One he has adopted as almost a older sister and the other. She was fiery like her power. He watched her exit the flames enthralled by her. She was more than just a Nova who could control fire. She was a part of the fire. Her reflection twinkled in his eyes as he watched.

Stretching his wings Totem pondered what the hell he was doing now. How could he think about her in the ways he was now. He thought of Apep and her darkness and now Juri and her light. What was the message this was trying to tell him. Fiery passion walking from the flame and cold cunning of the animal calling in the back of his mind.

He scrapped up the ground a bit with his paws as he tried to look back up to the fireworks but he just couldn't drag his eyes completely away from her. She would come to him when she was ready. He hoped it'd be soon.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

She watches the little illusion of her namesake as it moves and winks, until at last it vanishes from existence. She could not sense it, no true burning or heat from it, so she did not mourn its passing.

The illusion's creator approaches her. The woman's wry tone can be taken many different ways, she's not certain if she's brought up the quantum accident reference in genuine distaste or a point of common remembrance. It feels confrontational to her.

How to respond to that? Not even here five minutes yet and already someone wants to throw that back in her face. She knew she'd stepped on a few toes in the beginning, but she truly did believe a difference existed between the self-erupted and the quantum-accidents. Codex's statement begs for either an apology, which she is not going to give, or further confrontation.

"I'm Salamander," she begins with the her own wry tone. She speaks with a dizzying New York by way of Honshu Island accent. "Nice to meet the woman who really is a professional victim."

She lets that hit home for a moment, but doesn't let it linger. Tit for tat, so they say. Time to be friendly and move on. She smiles a mischievously warm grin as her tone changes to light-hearted. "You just met me and already you're complaining about me persecuting you."

[Ghostwriter]

Regan has the good grace to wince at Juri's retort. "Touche," she concedes, inclining her head with a rueful chuckle. Her accent is clearly Australian but just as obviously educated.

She looks admiringly at the salamander on Juri's back. "Nice bodywork," she says. Her eufiber is shaped in a simple white version of her T2M uniform without the logo today, revealing her own tattoo of the knotwork tree bearing colourful triskele fruits. "What do the symbols mean, if I may ask? My Kanji's a little rusty."

[Lemmy Chillmeister]

Down the road a low moaning broke out from the nothingness. It increased in volume and intensity, equal parts terror, pain and ecstacy, until a brilliant light erupted, leaving young man and woman standing alone in the road.

"Are you sure you want to do this lover," The woman spoke, her hands trailing over his nude torso, tracing the patterns etched into his flesh. She traced the changing colors. "It hasn't been very long."

The young man grinned manically, "Oh hell yeah."

[Wakinyan]

Crossing his paws in front of him Totem tries to settles down and watch the show. Idly his feathers mimic the events unfolding in the sky above him. Reds and blue as well as a myriad of other colors swirl through his coat. Only vaguely to be seen in the darkness.

Concern crosses his face a moment as his ears track Salamander and Codex exchanging words. He ponders intervening but his ears tune to the growing noise. It draws his attention and seems like an siren at first but he dimisses it quickly. It's something else, something that raises the hackles on his neck and causes his mane to bristle. 'No worries now it's most likely just another visitor' he thinks as he calms down his feral side.

His senses take in the scene and all those nearby. Mostly without him even realizing it. The sulfur of the fireworks, the tang of ionized air. The scent of all who are near. He finally settles back down and stares into the darkness away from the aerial spectacle.

[Lemmy Chillmeister]

Lemmy strides forward through the groups of people sitting on their blankets looking up at the sky and the explosive show being put on. Even through the light of fires and lanterns he looks different. His skin shifts and changes colors, traveling along the cool shades of the visible spectrum, purple to blue to green and back again. His tatoos seem to react to the changes and alter themselves so they remain in contrast.

The tatoos are revealed in their entirety as Lemmy is nude from the waist up. He wears a pair of extremely tight leather pants that do little to hide his most obvious masculine trait. His feet are bare.

He walks along, choosing not to see, or at least acknowledge, the baselines that surround him. No one recognizes him. Yet. But his appearence is strikingly different. Stopping finally he nods his head for a moment and concentrates deeply. He begins to glow lightly as a shimmer of blue envelopes his form. He then begins to rise up into the air, arms spread and grinning like a madman.

[DigiGeist]

DigiGeist, stops contemplating the past events of the festival so far, to enjoy in something he has liked since he was just an ordinary kid. Fireworks.

He had heard that Sakurako had something in mind. Always looking foreward to her screwing up yet again, he tries to get as advantageous of a spot as possible. Moving through the crowd like a shadow, somehow timing his movement with the movement of teh crowd, he effortlessly moves through the mass of humanity like a ghost. Something he's picked up through a few months of walking around, learning how to navigate using his unearthly speed and agility.

"Hrm, it's amazing how people will gather to watch someone use controlled demolition charges as mortars..."

He then looks up, and sees a man starting to hover upwards. Arms outstretched.

Someone thinks they're Jesus...

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako fiddles around with her control device, getting the timing down in simulaton before the show really begins. She had done this before, for a festival on Okinawa not too long ago. So this should not be too hard. It's just the timing of things she's almost got worked out.

Bloody hell, why did I have to use phased frequency mag-bottles... I have to time this bloody perfect or I'll EMP-Pulse all of western South Dakota...

Then her device clicks... BINGO.

She flies over to a second station and plugs her note-book sized computer into it. Uploading the firing sequence in a matter of a second.

Now... Let's get this started!!!

The first salvo of green balls of energy, which explode with perfected timing, appearing like weeping willows as they dissipate, light the fairgrounds, letting the people below that the show has begun.

She breathes a sigh of relief.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

The Bloodworked salamander covers all of her shoulders, spilling over both sides. Its head and tail fall on the front side of her, with two paws on her shoulder blades for support from behind. All of the symbols it holds appear to be made out of red-hot iron.

Just above her left breast, the salamander holds Japanese characters in its mouth. She points to them with her right hand. "Mystic fire."

The one in its right front paw looks like a stylized triangle. "The alchemical symbol of fire."

The one in its right rear paw is an odd combination of triangles and lines. "The Sumerian writing of fire."

She turns slightly, pointing to the left front paw. The character looks like a sideways V, or the hiragana character Ku. "The Rune for Fire."

The final one, in the left rear paw, looks like a few lines drawn in pattern indicating burning, or smoke.

"And this one," she says deviously as points to it, "is a secret."

[Ghostwriter]

Codex tilts her head as Juri explains each symbol, then nods slowly. "Interesting," she says and steps back towards Franklin.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

"Nice to meet you," Salamander says pretty much to herself. She didn't expect to make many friends here, but she also anticipated that most of the novas on the forums wouldn't really want to be her friend. A few of them, maybe.

The little half-naked burning woman walks away from the ceremonial fire, past the participants who long before stopped moving or chanting.

"Where are you," she whispers, walking around the grounds, searching.

Unlike Codex, almost everyone else here stared at her as she moved among them. She'd gotten used to it since her eruption, when the flames first started rising from her skin.

She kept her expression just a little on the mischievous side of neutral. She's did the bit with the electrical tape for this reason. If everyone was going to look at her, she might as well give them something more to look at.

A lot of people were here, a lot more than she expected. Less novas than she thought, but then again, she'd met barely a handful of novas, and that's if you included Singularity whom she recognized but who didn't introduce himself. Wonderful to see so many of them at once. One day, she promised herself, she'd have to visit Ibiza or New York or Tokyo and actually see what the wild life of homo sapiens novus was really like.

And then, suddenly, there he was, looking up at the little detonations in the sky.

And he was big.

She remembers then, at that moment, something she overheard some boys talking about in elementary school. It was big, really really big. No, bigger than that. It was BIG. She didn't know where the words came from, if indeed the boys didn't just make it up then, but she'd found it funny and remembered it throughout her life as she grew.

Totem was BIG. His old sig line used to say that a fourteen-foot tall griffin hunched over a computer was amusing. All she could think about right then was that fourteen feet tall was almost three times bigger than she was. And he wasn't even standing right now.

He was pretty damn beautiful, too. The pictures didn't do him justice.

She might have gotten herself in over her head, she thought, taking a deep breath. Still, pushed that thought out of her head and began walking towards him.

[Lemmy Chillmeister]

Lemmy floats high into the air as Sakurako's clever little devices explode around him.

"Time to add a little to the show. Let the little people know a Winter Spirit is in the house." His concentration explodes from the little tight little ball inside him and expands through the sky. He is suddenly aware. Aware of temperature variances and the effect they have on the sky around him. He pushes a little here, pulls a little there. High clouds gather, higher than the fireworks, giving them a rolling dark backdrop. Thunder rolls in, punctuating the explosions as if on the back beat, creating music from the noise. Then the lightning comes. Huge arcs creasing across the sky, somehow never approaching the ground but still forming big beautiful forks of heavenly flame. The lightning lashes out, again in a rythmic pulse in time with the fireworks.

Lemmy looks down and spy's the great beast below. "Time to talk with the head honcho", he says as he floats back down to the ground.

Landing a dozen feet in front of Totem with a low sweeping bow Lemmy seems almost giddy. Pulling back up with a flip of his hair he exclaims in a near shout "Greetings from Big Winter you great, gorgeous monster!!"

And then a light snow begins to fall.

[Wakinyan]

Sakurako's display continues to create a myriad of fantastic shapes in the sky and Totem watches. However his other senses revolve around the girl as she wraps up her conversation with Codex and departs.

Drinking in her scent he listened to each step as it falls, every drum beat of her heart. When it skips a beat he knows why. She isn't far from him now and as the sky begins to boil and mother nature adds to the incredible show in the sky no one else around notices the two.

Huge piercing eyes move from watching the sky to looking straight at the cute Amerasian girl standing nearby. Looking as if he is trying to see her soul no word is spoken. There isn't a need for it, not yet. He can smell a trace of anxiety from her. If this is the moment to turn and run he won't hold it against her. She doesn't, instead she comes forward like a sacrifice to an altar. Pushing through whatever gave her pause.

He watches her intently his wings ruffle in an unconscious response to the snow that begins falling but nothing seems to break his focus on Salamander. Nothing until Lemmy drops down like a slow falling hail stone from the sky, directly between them.

Suddenly interrupted from his prey Totem growls low in his throat but quickly stops and gathers his poise. "Sorry for that you just surprised me." Surprising him seems rather ludicrous but he pushes on. "Thank you for coming Lemmy. Impressive display I wasn't aware you spoke to the sky. You look different than your Opnet images. Did you get a makeover during your time away?"

Totem makes small talk and takes a breath. What was he just doing? He had went tunnel vision for a moment on her. There she was, over Lemmy's shoulder as they spoke. He could still taste her fiery essence over Lemmy's own cold presence. He blinked, suddenly realizing he was looking at two elemental spirits in front of him. "Peta na Caga." He muttered to himself as he looked from one to the other.

[Singularity]

Singularity watches Juri walk away and he turns his head toward Regan while keeping his eyes on the small Amerasian. "She was more civil than I expected. Intent never comes across correctly on the OpNet but I thought her attitudes were rather clear," he says softly and privately to Codex, "But it seems she may have other things on her mind. Do you still want to..."

His words are cut off as the snow slowly falls on the pow wow and silver eyes scan the area before assuming a wry squint, "I see we have ice for the fire. I have never met him before but I believe that is Lemmy. Tonight seems to be a series of astonishing entrances."

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

Just a few more steps. A few more steps and she'll be face to face with him. Already his eyes bore holes into her.

Definitely different, she noted, than seeing footage on the OpNet. She continued walking forward, but now she couldn't get out of her mind the growing instinct that she was approaching a raptor. She'd best not forget that.

It suddenly became very, very cold. Snow doesn't make it to the ground unless the air around it prevents it from melting. Snow in July. Her flames, unfortunately, provide her no warmth to speak of. Her flesh, exposed as it was for the summer air, goosepimpled and became tight in the rapid change of temperature.

Then he plops down from the sky between her and Totem.

She recognizes his voice. She has his chips, after all. It can only Lemmy. He looks way different than his pictures make him out to be. Hypnotic even. She imagines some of her college friends zoning off while buzzed to Lemmy's color changes.

She's never been in the presence of another elemental before. Not like this, anyway, someone who by all definition is her polar opposite. Ice male to fire female. Poetry exists there, and she knows it, feels it in fact, but that's not why she is here.

Her eyes dart back to Totem, now engaged in conversation with Lemmy.

Interrupting would be rude, especially interrupting such a meeting: a fellow elemental spirit and a totem spirit.

There is time, and she can wait her turn.

She lowers herself to the ground, sitting in a lotus position, and watches the conversation.

[Lemmy Chillmeister]

Lemmy smiles even broader if that's possible as he is greeted by Totem. The glance past his shoulder is impossible to miss though and Lemmy looks back to see a very attractive young lady, nearly nude and goosepimpled sitting on the ground.

"Awww shit!!!" Lemmy looks around at the snow falling from the sky, "I'm sorry little lady." With a twinkle in his eye the snow stops and the air begins to warm. He looks back and forth between Totem and Salamander. "My name's Lemmy," he says to Salamander. "Did I interupt something?"

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

The young woman smiles, rising to her feet. "Yoroshiku, kouri no rei-san. Atashi wa hi no rei desu."

"It's great to meet you. I'm Salamander," she adds, as though that should explain everything about the situation.

[Wakinyan]

"I am not really sure what you interrupted Lemmy. But perhaps it was fate you did so. However cruel." Totem rumbles, his annoyance is evident though he tries to hide it. The thought of crushing the Novox under his paw occurs to him and is summarily dismissed. That just wouldn't be a very good first impression and violates his own rules.

Instead he gives Juri another look as she responds to Lemmy. Being tested straight out of the gate with such a temptation for her might be a good thing. All things considered he pondered. If she introduces herself and is quick to leave with Lemmy then the fork in the road is easier to decide. The thought of it causes his tail to flick rapidly in annoyance. 'Sure it was an accident Lemmy just decided to come visit right now' he thought. The more he thought the more enraged he was getting. She came to see him not to get intercepted within feet of her goal by some Novox star who was more flashy and human than he!

The hairs along his spine began to straighten as the anger welled within him. He fought it silently as the two Novas chatted. He took a moment to look back into the sky at the exploding fireworks reaching a crescendo and began to calm down and try to keep his wits about him and the feral side at bay.

[ronin]

It had been a few days since the festival's opening, and ronin had come and gone several times in that span. Business called him elsewhere, whatever that word meant to the lone wanderer. The Pow-Wow had proved to be a worthwhile and intriguing endeavor while he bothered to stick around, but the constant babble of minds around him would give him a feeling not entirely unlike a headache, in short order. ronin's Telepathy was dually problematic in that while it was not terribly powerful, what it did accomplish, it did a little too well. The topical thoughts of entities around the man constantly invaded his mind, as if the inner monologue of every thinking creature was spoken aloud. And while it was a talent that often times proved useful when he spoke to an individual, being able to better assess their mood and expectations and act accordingly, when he was trapped in a congregation, it became mostly a troubling annoyance, and one he was happy to be away from.

...only got another sixty bucks, and... ...could stand to go at least fifteen more... ...if she likes me, then maybe my... ...betraying our heritage!! Our... ...the fuck up, you insipid, backstabbing... ...novas ruining everything... ...hope I get laid this weekend, or I'm gonna be... ...had one too many last... ...need to get back to the tent for some aspirin... ...fuck, I'm tired... ...slit my fucking wrists... ...so beautiful, they're like angels... ...can they read my thoughts? Oh, god, I... ...paid and laid, bro, paid and... ...oven on?...

Sometimes the babble was too much to stand. The more time he spent around groups of people, the more he came to disregard them. There really was nothing new under the sun, it often seemed. Seeing people for the naked, vain, petty creatures they were beneath the smiling facades was enough to make him ill, sometimes. It seemed that all most baselines wanted -- shit, most sentient entities at all, baseline or nova or whatever else -- just wanted things, food, sleep and sex. And while ronin could understand the desire for these things and enjoyed them all on some level, he had come to a point in his existence where such habitual desires seemed a little sad to obsess over. It all seemed so selfish and atavistic to him, to not be cognizant of a world that exists beyond the proximity of your own fat ass. So he spent most of his time alone, and he liked people better from afar. They were far less disappointing that way.

The Pow-Wow had, at times, served as a reaffirmation of this self-created maxim. Sometimes he surprised himself by allowing the Armor to slip for a moment and he enjoyed himself, but for the most part, he was solemnly aware that for all that surrounded him, he could have been at Burning Man. Woodstock. Leonardo's Symposium. The Coliseum. Circus Maximus. The only real difference was the number of novas.

"Plus ca change...", ronin muttered under his breath in the crisp morning air, stepping from an early-morning shadow to greet the day. Dressed again like Clint Eastwood a la 'A Fistful of Dollars', ronin smirked to himself, the man with no name, and stalked over to the cook tent for a sizeable cup of black coffee, which he drank down hastily and asked for another, and another still. He didn't need the caffeine; he just enjoyed coffee on some visceral level that spoke to the cowboy in him.

Throughout the better portion of the day, ronin entertained himself by remaining as low-key as he could manage and sniffing out the other novas in his midst, calculating on them, watching them, pinning names to attitudes and identities, recalling facts and incidents, sizing up. He watched with a tacit sort of satisfaction at the rodeo, a look of forgotten appreciation on his mug. No place may be home, he thought to himself, but some places are sure as hell more home than others.

The day wore on, and ronin continued his contemplative swagger about the Pow-Wow grounds, looking for anything that might catch his attention. He at one point encountered a young man who reminded ronin not the least bit of Rodrigo Diaz, known more commonly as 'El Cid'. He talked with the young man for three hours, and gave him a few polite tips as to how to improve his horsemanship and archery, which the young man accepted voraciously, along with the philosophical points the stranger had argued with him and a newfound sense of purpose and resolve in life.

The upcoming fireworks display didn't particularly interest him, though he felt a certain sense of obligation to pay attention, and he did look forward to seeing what Sakurako had done with the pyrotechnics. The spirit of the holiday was not in him, but the excitement and fervor of the crowd appeared to be carrying.

It was as the fireworks display began that the first hint of a snowfall began in the stratosphere above, a barely noticeable twinge at first, an atmospheric change ronin could smell as plainly as roses in bloom. He struck out towards the anomaly, sensing a concentration in the ebb of quantum in the vicinity. As he neared the source, he could see Totem's massive arched back and spread wings first of all, then Juri's engulfed form and it's magnificent corona, and then, joining them, the lanky form of a man he knew to be Young Man Winter himself.

As ronin drew closer still, the chaotic neasma of thoughts began to swirl and invade his senses. He experienced joy, amusement, shyness, and something that may have been hate, all at once, a sensation that left him feeling even a bit ill. There was talk of spirits, of elements, of pain and violence and blood. ronin knitted his brow and stepped plainly forward into the fray.

"Fire and Ice, good to finally meet you both." He smiled wryly at Juri and Lemmy, then bowed his head ever so slightly to Totem. "I'm having a wonderful time, Totem. Again, thank you for your hospitality." Clapping his hands together, the gruff character tipped up the brim of his wide hat to make his eyes -- or what it just 'eye?' -- more visible. "I'm guessing you two would know me as 'ronin', if at all. I haven't been as active over on the forums as I'd like to be, of late. You know, duty calls." He grinned wolfishly, laying down concrete slabs of innuendo. "Oh!", he added somewhat overdramatically, as if remembering something he knew already. From under his pancho he produced a small vinyl case, and from the vinyl case, a small plastic square, colorfully illustrated. He smiled over at Lemmy, to whom he offered up the chip along with a pen. "I'm a terrible fan, Lemmy. Could I trouble you for an autograph?"

[Wakinyan]

"Glad that you are enjoying yourself Ronin." Totem responds over the pop of another one of Sakurako's spectacular PlasmaArt. "Ms. Hino seems to be as well. She has really helped turn this event into something unique. The council is planning to adopt her to the tribe if she likes but don't tell her that. It's a suprise."

As Ronin turns to Lemmy and begins chatting him up something behind Totem's eyes urges him forward. He needed her alone at least for a moment. But how could he get that here of all places. For a moment he imagined holding her in his talons as he flew off into the night and proceeded to roll his eyes. That wouldn't go over well at all. She'd freak and the other Novas would wallop him thinking he had gone berzerk. He had to come up with another plan.

Standing up he takes the offensive. Slinking around the Icey Novox until he looms over Salamander. The Griffin sits back on his haunches as his wings stretch out around him. Surrounding his front half and all of Juri within his massive outstretched wings.

Still he doesn't speak he watches her a moment reading her expressions. Looking for fear, yearning or anything else she might betray.

With the only thing lighting the shelter Totem has made with his wings being Juri's flickering aura and the occasional flash of light from outside it creates a surreal enviroment for both of them. However it allows them both a moment to focus on one another. No Pow wow, No other Novas, Just the two of them.

"Hi."

[Lemmy Chillmeister]

Lemmy seems actually taken aback when the friendly stranger introduces himself as ronin. A half beat later he smiles "Yeah, sure m'man." He signs the proffered item with a practiced flourish and hands it back. He looks over as Totem looms around Salamander and cocks his head to the side. "Huh." Sensing a desire for solitude he shifts back to ronin and whispers "Dude, I think I might have intruded on something here. Shall we step away for half a 'mo?"

[ronin]

ronin grins incandescently, stuffing the chip back into this satchel and plainly hooking it back onto his crust leather belt and letting it hang on his hip, the contents a seeming anachronistic anomaly in contrast to the rest of the man.

Lemmy leaned in slightly, Totem's attention obviously diverted elsewhere, and whispered to him "Dude, I think I might have intruded on something here. Shall we step away for half a 'mo?"

ronin tilted his gaze over his shoulder to Totem and Juri, the former, in his mind, staring slack-jawed and dog-eyed at the latter, the lust of the moment written clearly across his features. The man with no name turned back to Lemmy and smiled condescendingly, then nodded in his direction. "I think that'd be a good idea. Wouldn't want the kid to think we were trying to cock-block him."

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

Things happen quickly. Another nova calling himself ronin shows up, intercepting Lemmy. Lemmy turns his attention to the new guy. She's about ready to look back to Totem when suddenly he all around her. Looming overhead and encircling her with his wings.

A single thought races through her mind as Totem closes the outside world off from her sight, a memory of something he once said to her. The thought of gutting you had crossed my mind. But that was a long time ago, wasn't it? Hadn't she tried making amends with him in particular?

Yes, that's true. She was invited here, after all. And if that was the case, then he must want to be with her. Especially after that look he gave Lemmy.

She looks into his eyes, looking for signs of his intention. Seeing only the same curiosity reflected back, she smiles. No anger and no intent to harm her. She didn't misjudge him.

Reaching up with her left hand, she gently tries to stroke the area where his neck would meet his shoulders.

"Hello there," she replies to his greeting. "It's good to finally see you face to face. I'm Salamander."

She says leans closer, whispering, "Atashi wa Peta no Wakan Tanka desu."

[Wakinyan]

Muscles not used to forms of gentle touching from others flinch beneath his deep feathers and fur as she touches him. Where her hand meets him his coat turns a bright red. Almost glowing in reaction to Salamander's fiery touch.

Totem let's out a small growl and lowers his head so his chin rests lightly on her shoulder. Mindful of his talons he moves a paw to her back and pushes Juri into him, embracing her in a tender hug but almost burying her in his mane. "Good to meet you finally as well Salamander. I'm Totem believe it or not." He rumbles a laugh in his throat. His voice as soothing as he likely could make it in his deep bass. He nuzzles her neck with the side of his beak, not fearful of her anima flames in the least, letting them dance across his snout. Perhaps he was taking to much liberty with the girl. He was trying not be to overwhelming on her but was probably not doing a very good job of it.

More urges wash over him. The desire to be somewhere private with her. Despite his screen he knew people where watching and talking, Whispering. Did he care really? No not at the moment. Conflicting thoughts warred within him. Some growled to take her then and there, take her as his own. Kill anyone who would dare challenge for her. While the other side fought to keep the moment innocent. Holding her was something he needed. Codex, Tina and Sakurako all had hugged him before and he relished each time anyone touched him without fear. This time it was different, this girl liked him. Maybe even had a crush on him still, even after seeing all of him or at least 'most' of him. That was enough to reign in his heavy instincts to claim her.

Still in the dark shadow of his mind the other slithered. Calling to him, telling him Salamander could never be the beast she could offer him. He shook it off, one at a time for now. He couldn't deal with both so he lost himself in the moment.

For the moment she was his fire spirit and he intended on letting her burn him.

[Ghostwriter]

Codex turns to face Totem, arching an eyebrow as she watches him and Juri snuggle up. She shrugs slightly and moves closer to Singularity, still silent.

[Singularity]

Singularity raises his eyebrows and almost imperceptivily hesitates before turning his head down towards Codex. "I think they want to be alone," he says in Hindi, "I do not think they will get another chance. The more good memories Totem can make, the better."

He looks up briefly at the continuing fireworks and switches back to English, "What do you say to seeing how Sakurako pulls this off? I am sure she would talk about it for hours."

[Lemmy Chillmeister]

As they walked away Lemmy breathed deeply and stretched his arms out. "Man, nice to be out and about for a bit." Despite his and ronin's appearence the attention of most of the crowd seemed glued on the continuing show above them. The snow and lightning apparently being dismissed as simply a planned portion.

Without turning towards him Lemmy speaks to ronin, "So, any reason you're jerking my chain here? I mean, an autograph? Just your way to clear it for Totem and Juri to get a couple of moments to themselves? I'm cool with that an all. Just curious."

[Vox Via]

Vanguard was a rather imposing figure in the flesh. He was not large, nor was he fearsome in his form. It was something about him. He walked as if owned the world, and that he was letting people around him use it. When walked everything around him grew dimmer. The light faded. His face was always cast in shadows. He was here for two reasons. One a pleasant one, and another a needed one.

Upon seeing the light show he moved threw the crowd. He received stares. Jaw hung upon in awe, people parted, children cried. He paid little mind them. It wasn’t his job to comfort these animals. As soon as he was mere feet from Lemmy he spoke in a stern tone.

“Slaves, pets, whores, I say. You earn so much to be human that you give up yourself. You seek their approval at the cost of your soul. You show them your abilities, as they were some sort of parlor trick. You wish to be treated as gods so much that you beg for their praise. You are their silken chains, and they are your mental shakels. Rise above their praise. Rise above their love. Rise above their hate. Rise above their fear. Rise above them. You can, and you should, for no mater if you hate or love them, you are not one of them. I can’t make you see yourself as what you are. But I can help you along the way. So stop bowing down to those you to become a god to, and be yourself. Be a nova.”

[Lemmy Chillmeister]

Lemmy stops and turns from ronin, looking the new comer up and down slowly, "Yeah, right, okay. You said your piece, we were all very impressed."

He turns back to ronin, "Okay, so, what gives?"

[Ghostwriter]

Regan gives Vanguard a sardonic look before turning to Singularity. "Posers," she says wryly, loud enough to be clearly heard by several people.

[Machina]

As well-informed as Machina told himself he was, logic, he ruminated too late, would dictate that there would be a fuck lot more people here than anyone's wildest expectations.

He had given some serious thought to showing up at this gathering he'd heard about through the grapevine. The potential for seeing several novas was thick, and here, in a forum where if he so chose he could still pass as normal, he reckoned he be more comfortable than at, say, the Amp Room, where the price of admission meant verifying that most loathsome fact about himself; that he was a nova.

Machina -- Gerad, to himself -- had flown to the area in an ultralight one-man craft of his own design that could fly at speeds ranging from 40kph to mach 2. It was decorated with cigarette butts on the inside and grease on the outside, but as he flew along blaring Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time", he could imagine no vehicle better.

Gerad had purposefully missed the opening ceremony up until today. That hippie bullshit just didn't do it for him. Spirituality was something kids played with, and had no place in the mind of a logical, intelligent, skeptical entity such as himself. What had served as the greatest lure was the technology being provided for the grounds by some young skirt who was supposed to be a tech genius. The OpNet had been buzzing with rumors about what the fireworks display would be like, and Gerad had opted to put in a personal appearance just this once.

But showing up here as he did, at this time, with this many people around, he couldn't help but groan. Snarling slightly as he rolled his eyes, he dashed out the butt of his current Lucky Strike, lit another and sped back to his laboratory.

Maybe it's time I threw in over at N!, if I really want to talk to other novas.

[ronin]

Cut off before he could begin to answer Lemmy's question, ronin eyes the peacock who had interjected himself into the fray with terse bemusement.

"That is spectacular, Vanguard.", the grizzled samurai said with condescending enthusiasm, slapping the younger man on the back with forced comeraderie. "I'm glad we can have these little talks."

Turning, ronin grinned with startling impishness, obviously pleased with himself as he directed his attention back to Lemmy. "You must be referring to that brief bit of motherfucking earlier in the year. If I actually offended you, I apologize, but I reckoned your skin was a might thicker than that. You're probably just curious as to why I'd be so genial to you after that incident, and that's a legitimate question. In the way of answering you, let me say in all honesty that life has cast much into doubt for me, of late, and I find myself constantly re-examining things I once held as flawless truth. I think it would be a mistake for me to condemn anyone for being what they are. I choose not to live like you, Lemmy, but nothing about what you do is a particular affront to my way of life.

"But I'm bogging you down with nonsense, I see. In the way of short answers, Lemmy, I'd like it if we could be friends.

"I mean, hey.", he added. "It isn't every day that I get to see my favorite contemporary musician. Asking for your autograph was my awkward way of letting you know that I'm a great fan. ... And for the record, as much as I was a great fan of Motorhead, so far as I'm concerned, you have exceeded your namesake." ronin smiled, and offered forth a weathered, meaty hand for the shaking.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako looks up at Lemmy's addition to her fireworks, although not sure who did it or why.

"Whoever pulled this off, is pretty good, but... I do have reservations." She says, muttering under her own breath.

"Doesn't any nodespark around here realize this messing with the climate cannot be any good..."

She crosses her arms slightly annoyed as th display reaches 25% complete.

"At least my part of this is going without a hitch..."

[DigiGeist]

"Heheh. this shit is crunk."

DigiGeist looks up at Lemmy's display, combined with Sakurako's handywork.

"This is quite the merger of Science and Technology..."

As he looks around him, he realizes he's the only one around. He stands at the opposite end of the lake from the fairgrounds. All quiet except for the thunder of the fireworks and the lightning.

"...This would be far better if I would have stuck around..."

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

Her fingers continue to move along Totem's coat where the neck meets the shoulders.

Strange one, she thinks. Lakota Sioux boy somehow erupts into a mythological being of Greek and Roman origins. She did her research as thorough as one can without becoming obsessive about it, and the griffin has no real origins in any native American tribe that she could locate. A Sioux boy becomes a symbol of the people that ended their way of life, and he is revered and considered almost sacred. Almost worthy of writing a thesis paper about for an upcoming class. She regrets missing the Sun Dance; surely it would have been a moment to remember.

Of course, she is a Japanese-American (Irish and Italian descent on her father's side, lest she forget her own lineage) girl who moment ago proclaimed herself Wakan Tanka's Fire, and she had no Sioux blood in her that she knew of. She considered this to be true nonetheless, in that she was the embodiment of fire given flesh, regardless of what tribes and peoples would claim her as such. Did he feel the same of his eruption as well?

Is he similar to her, she wonders as the giant holds her against him. Does he see the magic that they hold? Or does he, like so many of their kind, think of it as just yet another one day explainable puzzle for the scientists to unlock?

So many questions she wants to ask him. So many things to explore with him, if he wants to go accompany her on her journey of discovery.

For the time being, she enjoys this moment, moving her hand up to stroke higher along his neck.