[Fiction] Neighborly Welcome

[Blur]

The introduction and assumption of duties ceremony for Sandcaster had been modest, enough for Boise and the surrounding area to get to know its new guardian. Most outsiders would wonder what needed to be protected in Idaho aside potatoes, but at least some individuals understood that rural areas were a breeding ground for fringe groups. And that location doesn’t matter; helping people was the important goal.

Blur had caught the articles about Sandcaster’s public split with the Windy City Knights and her subsequent acceptance of Boise’s offer but he had put it aside for the last two weeks. It’s not like he had a “territory” or “turf” that he protected; he was just a concerned citizen who tried to be a Good Samaritan whenever he could. And avoiding interference with public defenders had remained one of his goals. Why begrudge someone for taking a public role with their life?

This Anne Vincenne, however, was slightly different than your typical public defender. She had spent ten years defending a section of Queens while simultaneously holding a position as a high school teacher. And when she was fired in a nova backlash, she hooked up with the Windy City Knights and continued to serve people who had understandable reasons to be wary of her and her goals. Not only that, she took leadership of the group and came out of the closet.

And now she’s moved on to Boise. So, did that mean she genuinely cared about people (especially considering her relationship with education) or was she just stuck career tunnel vision?

The flight from Eugene to Boise wasn’t very long, eventful, or even necessary but it was enjoyable. That little detail wasn’t lost on Blur either; too many times he caught himself “taking the long way” to get to places when he could’ve just as easily changed his location instantaneously. Granted, most times he did that he ended up finding something that required his attention, be it disaster, accident, or crime. It was funny how coincidences worked out like that…

The skyline of the city was low and lacking any truly dominating structures. I can see one possible reason why she picked this place; it looks nothing like Chicago or New York. Dusk was beginning to settle on the city and it helped obscure Blur’s unfocused from in the sky as he dipped closer to the ground as he approached the downtown area. The modern city hall building still hadn’t been replaced and it hadn’t moved; it was her first day and it wasn’t likely that she’d be patrolling or relaxing at home already.

Halting his movement, Blur floated above the government building and settled his mind before sending out a quick “ping” from his node. Sure enough, another node echoed in the building below him, specifically in a rather unceremonious location near a wall that faced a narrow alley. Either she’s modest or the city’s office budget is horrible. Maybe both.

At least there wasn’t another node in the room; that meant her lover wasn’t there. All that was left was to find out if she was truly alone. The last thing I need right now is to talk to a city clerk who’ll probably think I’m picking a fight with their new champion.

Rushing through the air again, Blur soared over the roof of the city hall and then dipped into the narrow alley feet first. Floors and windows passed in front of him as he homed in on the location of the quantum echo he had heard before, all the while remaining unnoticed by the few civil servants working late. Years upon years of flying had taught him that people often didn’t look up in the sky nor did they look out of windows that had a boring view.

One of the few illuminated windows slowly settled before Blur and he halted his descent. Inside, he could see a short woman that seemed to be made of sand hunched over a sate-of-the-art OpNet terminal, carefully typing out some sort of information on a plastic-covered keyboard. With a smile that was probably lost in the blur of his features, he brought up a hand and lightly rapped the closed pane with two knuckles and spoke through the open pane, “Hi. Am I interrupting?”

Guess who’s coming to dinner…

[Sandcaster]

*Are you coming home soon?*

The quick note had popped up on on her terminal as she was still trying to transfer over the massive database she had "borrowed" from the Windy City Knights. The database - comprised of Alchemist's nova-specific countermeasures as well as the huge bulk of former Utopian threat files - was an extremely useful tool in her job... and an extremely convenient excuse for tonight.

*I want to finish up getting some things organized and set up here; I'll be back as soon as I can.*

Sandcaster couldn't bring herself to use the word "home"; whatever else a room at the Motel 8 may be, it wasn't a home. No, the place that was supposed to be her home - at least temporarily - was full of stacked drywall and replacement fixtures, as a crew clocking double-overtime during their luxurious coffee breaks slowly brought the second-story apartment back up to something resembling a livable level. She still hadn't been able to get a consistant description of who had trashed the place in the hours prior to her arrival; between the half-dozen new neighbors in the building, there were not two stories that matched.

Truth be told, she could leave the database to transfer itself over, and probably should; Rhayne was probably climbing the walls of the little motel room. But Sandcaster was hoping that she might get a chance to take a look through the files once they had finished installing... that she might find something about this mysterious Rheinlander who was almost certainly behind the destroyed apartment and conflicting accounts of it's destruction.

She had just about considered trying to access the partial files when there was an unmistakable knock... not at the door of her small office, but on the open window that looked out upon weathered brick of the turn-of-the-century commercial building next door. With the lightheartedness of a coronary, she swung around to see... a blur?

"Hi. Am I interrupting?"

The blur didn't move, but remained blurred nonetheless. After several blinks, the form hovering outside her window was as poorly defined as ever, while the rest of her field of vision was as clean and crisp as it had been for the past fourteen years.

Oh joy. Not a single day, and a nova is knocking on my window.

With both a sigh and a touch of tenseness, she faced the odd visitor without leaving her chair and said, "Can I help you?"

[Blur]

Christ, she sounds more wound up than I am on Mondays. Blur forced his smile to take more of his face, hoping it would be visible through the refracted light around his body, “I’m just looking to say hello and the like. It might be weird if someone notices you talking to someone floating in front of your window; mind if I come inside?” It could’ve gone worse; she could’ve attacked him for the surprise or called for the police inside the building.

"Um... sure. Mind if I ask who you are?" she said, rising from her chair while eyebrows crept skyward from her deep blue eyes. Yep, she needs a vacation more than I do. Especially with her partner in that picture; wow.

Giving the half-opened window a shove until it was open as far as it could go, the blurred nova swung his legs into the building with obvious superhuman grace. It was handy to have a nigh-perfect awareness of one’s surroundings but it wasn’t something that could be always hidden. “Someone called me ‘Blur’ once and it’s kind of stuck,” he shrugged while reaching for one of the heavy wooden chairs in the office. He stopped for a moment before sitting down and looked back at her, “Do you mind if I call you Anne, Sandcaster, or Ms. Vinncene?”

Nodding at the chair, she settled back in her own with little fanfare, “Well, considering that you're sticking with Blur, let's go with Sandcaster for now.” Sadly, that didn’t come as a surprise.

“Touché,” Blur shrugged and he sat down in the straight-back chair he’d selected. He took a fraction of a second to realign himself in the room and to get a full sense of the space around him. Nothing had changed but there was no harm in doing it again. Besides, there always seems to be some kind of disaster right around the corner and who knows what kind of nutbars followed her here.

Senses realigned, he smiled again at Sandcaster and held up his palms with an obviously friendly air, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to complicate your first day but I thought it wouldn’t be neighborly of me to not come by and say ‘hello.’ That and I’ve got to admit your whole public profile is quite rare; most novas who take this sort of job don’t share your history nor your apparent perspective on some issues.” Blurred fingers spread and extend for a moment in an apologetic manner, “The city has been making sure your biography showing up in articles all across this half of the country.”

[Sandcaster]

"So I've heard. I've gotten some... interesting calls in the past week." Interesting was one way of putting it; hateful was another. The recurrent theme was that she should keep her 'perverted ways' in Chicago, or maybe take them to San Francisco and join up with Rainbow Rodi.

"But I think I can do some good here. There seems to be a general escalation of the supremacist fringe groups in the region, for example, and I might be able to help keep some of that in check - bring in the ringleaders who are actually inciting crimes, that sort of thing.

"That said, I wasn't aware that there was anyone in the area that would be likely to stop by my office window to be neighborly. I take it that you're from the area?"

While she spoke, Sandcaster had been clicking away at her keyboard, carefully sticking to a rhythm in keeping with what this visitor had seen as he had floated serenely outside her window. The data transfer was on hold at 83%, and the composite file for a nova known as Blur was on her screen. It was, she noticed with distaste, extremely short. Confirmed sightings starting in 2000, but hints of him all the way back to the start of the Nova Age - he's probably one of the 200, she noted with a moment of concern - and next to nothing in the way of useful information. Activity started to spread out from Oregon in 2003, and is now global. Powerful, with teleportation capabilities and flight mixed in with what appeared to be some spatial control methods and - oh hell - temporal control, along with a whole plethora of other observed talents. Shows up at crimes, disasters, accidents and the like and appears to be as close to completely altruistic as any nova she had ever seen; a few police records, but all of the "we want to talk to this guy" variety. No record of having ever killed anyone, anywhere. And no record - anywhere - of his real face or his identity.

Who is this guy? Superman? And can I trust him enough to help with the growing storm that I have landed myself in out here?

[Blur]

“I get around in the area,” Blur shrugged again, “Though I spent a lot of my life a lot further west of here. But, I like to get around the rural and ‘flyover’ areas; there are people here too, right?” It was almost certain there was enough information available to extrapolate where he lived when he first started getting seen while blurred but it didn’t hurt to not confirm about where he was currently living. Real privacy was hard enough to find in the Nova Age without blabbing about one’s life.

Genuine appreciation slipped into his deep voice, “I think you’re right about doing good out here. The Triads and Yakuza stay away because they’d stick out like sore thumbs and the C-Z and the Medellín don’t seem to bother outside of hiding from heat, so at least you’ve got that going for you.” He didn’t need to confirm the benefits of not needing to deal with nova criminals or under-the-table elites; she’d definitely had to deal with that enough in her time.

She’s noticing something… it’s subtle, she’s hiding it, but she’s definitely processing some sort of information or observation. I know I do this to myself, but why does it always have to be some kind of dance? “I haven’t heard too much about supremacist groups,” Blur arched an obscured eyebrow, “But if there was ever a perfect breeding ground for them it’s a rural and isolated area.

“Though, most of the problems I’ve see with fringe groups in the region were with the Michaelites; like what happened with that young woman… Sylvan, if I remember her name correctly. Their ilk are pretty focused on touting the evils that we supposedly represent, which could be a sort of baseline versus nova supremacy… but something tells me that’s not the sort of supremacy you’re talking about.” And why do I always seem to bring up shoptalk?

[Sandcaster]

Sandcaster gave another sigh as she opened a desk drawer. There was a rattling noise like candy in a dish, and then her hand came back out with a couple of distinctly non-candy looking white tablets. Swallowing the Alka-Seltzer without the benefit of water, she looked back over at Blur.

"The Michaelites are a major pain in the neck. Cell-based operatives supported by a church that is painfully correct on toeing the legal line... they're a nightmare. More often than not, I find myself stuck with the job of protecting them - from counter-protestors at one of their little hatemongering rallies, or from novas that want to retaliate for Michaelite activities. And before you say anything more about them, I'm going to come out and say that I sincerely hope you aren't in the latter group." Sandcaster already knew from his file that Blur had never been even remotely implicated in an attack on CoMA, but it didn't hurt to say it anyway.

"No, the problem children that are topping my current list are white supremacists. Some nova going by the handle of 'Rheinlander' has been whipping up the neo-Nazi and Aryan Nation types up north for the past few years, and the city is concerned that it's going to catch and take hold down here as well. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, this Rheinlander has left his first calling card for me; when my partner and I showed up at our new apartment yesterday, it had been gutted all the way down to the studs, and everyone in the building had a different story that they believed as the absolute gospel. This guy is just going to be a joy." Her hand dipped into the bowl again, and a couple more tablets found their way into her stomach.

[Blur]

She’s popping that stuff like it’s candy; this woman doesn’t need a better job, she needs a vacation… though I doubt she’d be more likely than me to take it. “I’ll make it easy on you and tell you that I’m not one of those novas,” Blur half-chuckled with a hint of fatigue, “They’re playing right into the hand of the Michaelites.” And yet so many of those novas thought baselines could never be that crafty… “Besides,” he continued, “From where I stand – well, sit at the moment – only the weak succumb to violence. It’s not a common or popular view but there it is.”

The Aryan Nation issue, however, was something else. It was odd, he mused, that it hadn’t been much of an issue. “I wish I could tell you something about this Rheinlander,” he held up blurred hands apologetically to Sandcaster, “But something tells me I know less than you. Whoever he is, he knows how to not attract attention. Worse, it reminds me of what frustrates everyone the most about the Michaelites: they visibly stay within the lines of the law.

“Still,” he sighed, the edges of his unfocused body seemingly ending in perfectly smooth borders where it met the chair, “The right to speak up doesn’t mean much if only a few people get to do it. Duplicity might thrive under that but I suppose that’s part of the price of the ability to choose freely.” Easy there, killer, there’s no reason to start talking about free will and philosophy behind societies. I might understand and even embrace those ideas but giving her reasons to doubt it wouldn’t be very neighborly. She’s got enough doubts considering the rate she’s taking in those tabs. I wonder if she’s bought stock in the Bayer company yet…

“Anyways, he sounds like one of the worst kind of problems out there; someone with a mission and followers that believe in it. On the upside, her might not be as entrenched as the people down in Colombia are… but do you have any ideas on how to deal with this kind of fanaticism? This sort of thing wouldn’t end with a simple arrest…”

[Sandcaster]

"No, a simple arrest won't do it. It's not like dealing with Wakinyan." Stopping herself short, Sandcaster blinked, then looked straight ahead as she said, "You know, I never thought I'd see the day when I would prefer dealing with Wakinyan."

Shaking off her momentary side-bar (and a bit of stray sand with it), she sighed again and sat back. "This is going to be one of those long, drawn-out problems of trying to change people's minds. It's like the gang problems I used to see back in Long Island. You can arrest gang leaders until the Dodgers come back to Brooklyn, and it won't fix a thing; there's always someone else willing to step up as the new leader, and even if not the leader turns into a sort of martyr while he's behind bars.

"No, the real way to stop this business is to remove the causative problem, which is poverty and ignorance. Hatred is just the love child of those two conditions; take them out of play, and you start to win the war."

Another sign. "Unfortunately, fixing those problems is a herculean task, and the latter is a lot harder to deal with than the former. You can provide people with food and shelter and the other necessities of life in a worst-case situation; unfortunately, you can't force them to learn. Hell of a shame, too; I've seen plenty of kids go from gang member to good citizen just by getting hooked on learning. Problem is the ones that have no desire to... and once you get most people past a certain age, their willingness to learn drops like a rock."

Sandcaster fell silent; what she was feeling was somewhere short of dispair, but it filled the room nonetheless.

[Blur]

Hallelujah, she has a clue. But does she have the endurance to keep going? Hell, do I even have it… “I agree that education is the best, if not only, way to permanently deal with this sort of evil,” Blur nodded slowly and solemnly, “And it’s a shame that not enough people who want to do help make the world a better place understand that fact. Maybe education could have worked with that Wakinyan fellow, eh?”

Despite her apparent despair, Blur found it heartening that she felt this way. It wouldn’t necessarily make Sandcaster happier to hear that, but it did bode well for the future. Confidence remained in his voice despite the dark mood touching the office, “So why not teach as well as carry out your Defender duties? You seemed to accomplish that well in New York and with a smaller community you might be able to have tighter control along with a broader effect.”

I got to remember to be careful… or just say “fuck it” to eighteen years and hand her a business card, sheesh. Despite his discretion, there was a sense of familiarity to Blur’s voice as he pressed on, “You have a certain level of expertise in education and the local school districts might want to capitalize on that. Further, this is the state capitol and you could serve as a resource for the department of education and the education committees within the legislature to help shape things in a positive fashion. The public nature of your status as a nova, as a city defender, and as a minority might limit some of your immediate effectiveness, but you can help influence policy makers and even create enough momentum to overcome the inertia holding back a truly effective reform in education that will eliminate harmful ignorance.

“The immediate emergencies do need to be solved, but why not create a prospective solution at the same time while there’s an opportunity?”

[Sandcaster]

A faint hint of a smile played across Sandcaster's lips for a moment. "Believe it or not, Wakinyan actually did make a little progress down that road. While he was in custody in Chicago, I worked with him on resuming his high-school education, and he earned a G.E.D. not long after getting out. He never really followed up on it, though. And now, he's apparently gone for the next several years, or so he and his wife claim out at N!Prime; I'm just hoping that he's still receptive enough to learn from whatever it is he's going to experience during his time away... wherever 'away' may be."

And then, Blur mentioned her heart's desire. Oh god, how I wish I could get back into a classroom. She mentally shook off the image; another bout of disappointment wouldn't help anything.

"I couldn't get hired by schools with chronic teacher shortages in Chicago, Blur. I'm a nova, and I'm an out lesbian; add those together, and there's not many schools in the country that would touch me with a ten-foot poll these day. That's part of the reason I left Long Island in the first place. After Ibiza, the idea of having a nova teach little Johnny and Jane doesn't sit very well with the PTA. And out here in Idaho? Just the sexuality issue would be enough to sink me.

"No, right now I'm not going back into the classroom. But I can hope that my actions as a municipal defender will help to bring enough positive light to both novas and gays that someday, that door will be open to me again. And when it comes down to it, that's the part of the education system where I really know how to make a difference: standing there at the front of the classroom and helping young minds open up to the world around them."

Realizing that she was looking down at her hands, Sandcaster looked up again at the indefinite form of Blur. "Boy, don't I just sound like a bundle of optimism?" She managed a black chuckle. "After you get kicked in the teeth by systemic intolerance enough times, it gets a little difficult to see opportunities. Yes, I could probably manage some sort of work with the city or county education departments, but I do have to establish myself first. Until Boise is used to having Rhayne and I here, until they've gotten to know us as people rather than a perjorative term, I'm best off sticking to my day job."

[Blur]

Listening silently, Blur cataloged the additional information. Gone away? I might have to look at this; where else could someone go unless… ah Christ, not more of that shit. Maybe once conflict gets solved permanently and cancer completely cured I can get people to start paying attention to being responsible with time. I’m careful and I cause enough stress on time on my own.

He let Sandcaster continue with her thoughts, listening to her pour out a bevy of wishes and evaluations. Much of it was things he had recognized in himself, after a fashion, and she at least deserved the respect and understanding to let her walk through the difficult situation. And she’s giving me yet another reminder why anonymity has served me so well for so long. She’s got so much to offer at a mundane level, only at that level, and her uniqueness is keeping her from it, same as a black teacher in the South fifty years ago. When it comes to herself, she’s right; one step at a time, Ben, one step at a time.

The dark tone of his unfocused face was clear in the office when Blur tapped his cheek with a finger and a hazy smile, “Indeed, entrenched biases and intolerance gets to be a real hassle after a few years of experiencing it. But there are some people here who must feel that you’re something more than a simple description, otherwise you wouldn’t have been hired. Or you could renew a relationship with regional or national educational associations if you haven’t already; it’s a way to say up to date and to provide yet another reason why you’re employable when it becomes a possibility.” Not that I’m going to name the social worker and counselor associations; I might be able to keep my lives separate but there’s no reason to actively risk my anonymity.

“Not to pry, but since I’ve read your bio I’ve been wondering; what brought on the dual life? I understand the need to work and the offer you received, but it seemed to be an odd leap. And I must say I admire your habit of sticking with city defending despite what happened with the school district.” Assuming you’re not just in that career rut…

[Sandcaster]

Another grim chuckle made its way past Sandcaster's lips, both to Blur's note regarding his skintone - something that had long ceased to have any meaning to Anne - and his note about the trust that the city of Boise apparently had in her.

"Truth be told, I think that the mayor here was just plain desperate. They needed someone with a lot of experience if they weren't going to fall into some of the traps you just talked about... and I happened to be available and willing to accept their offer without negotiations. I also think that Mayor Parmalay is hoping to leverage me as a symbol of a more progressive city; he's been trying to put Boise on the map as a cosmopolitan place ever since he took office in 2012, and I have the bad feeling that he thinks of me as his last chance on that, too.

"This business with the white supremacists has a lot of people worried around here; they've seen what has happened up in Couer d' Alene, and they don't want that kind of bunker mentality to settle in down here... and given my feelings about supremacists of every bent, I'm going to do my damnedest to do something about it."

Blur's follow-up question regarding her background - he'd been doing his own research, it was obvious, well in advance of this 'neighborly welcome' - caught her a little off-guard. "It was never really a dual life. The kids in the classroom were aware that Ms. Vincenne was also Sandcaster, and so were the drug dealers and killers I was hunting down on the street. I never really bought into the whole 'hidden identity' thing; I was a teacher before a defender, and sixty-grit skin or no, I saw no reason to stop teaching even if I was going to be spending my after hours tracking down organized crime figures rather than watching the Discover Channel... especially when I can get by nicely on a few hours sleep every few nights or so. It's not like I could really hide what I am; the dorming-down trick never worked for me." Reluctance edged her voice, but so did pride - not a boastful pride, but the knowledge that she had done her level best to turn what some would think an unfortunate situation into a community benefit.

"After Ibiza and the decision to let me go - from both jobs - back in New York, I had hoped for a teaching position in Chicago. Nothing came through, of course, not with the shift in public opinion, but even if it had, I think I would have signed up with the Knights."

The sand-skinned nova leaned forward in her chair, and her voice was almost strained as she continued. "There's... there's a responsibility involved with what we are. I think that, in the end, those who take what has happened to us and turn it into playing at billionare godhood are missing out; they've withdrawn from the larger community, they've let themselves become untouchables by choice, and I don't think that those few that stay sane through it are going to be able to look themselves in the mirror in the long run."

[Blur]

“Supremacy is just another version of fear and hate,” Blur chuckled with old familiarity, “And I must admit that, deep down, I always get a great deal of humor hearing the Teragen talk about being ‘beyond the humans and their trappings’ with the one hand and then, with the other hand, go on to repeat the same mistakes made over and over throughout thousands of years of history by the same societies they disparage. Surely it’s a little petty of me, but none of us a perfect.” There was the off-hand chance that she was sympathetic to the Teragen but he doubted it; no city looking for a public relations boost would be that reckless.

The explanation of her prior career choices made sense and reminiscent of his own choices, but her addendum of her apparent motivation snatched at his attention. Her attitude isn’t exactly unique, but, God, it’s nice to actually hear a nova, or anyone, mention it without an eight figure salary from Utopia backing it up. Identification and a hint of encouragement hung in his voice, “I think there’s a measure of responsibility for all rational beings, baseline and nova alike. Yes, as novas we can have a significant effect on the world, but I don’t think that necessarily invalidates, say, the donations or volunteer hours a janitor with Down Syndrome provides every year.

“I can look at myself in the mirror each morning,” he paused to chuckle for a moment with a shrug, “When I’m not looking like this of course. I might feel like there isn’t a meaningful choice to do something other than helping people, but I guess too many others don’t want to accept the price that can come with doing the right thing.” And a steep one it is, paid by more than we who make the choice…

There were steel in his words, softened only by a deep fatigue, “But those who withdraw from the community, the untouchables, I agree they truly are missing out on the wholeness of life… but I fear it’s partially a product of novadom. If eruption does anything, it enhances us; both for good and ill elements. How much would you be willing to bet that a vast majority of the godheads would have their pre-eruption personality mapped out by the DSM-IV? Or that, perhaps, they already had a misplaced sense of superiority before the ‘universe granted their rightful destiny?’” Okay, so maybe that was a little catty of me…

[Sandcaster]

Blur was making excellent points, points that meshed very nicely with her own on the topic of novas and their place in the larger world.

Unfortunately, Blur was also eating into what remained of the evening. The database was at 98% transfered from the jump drive, and there was still a ton of work to do before she could let herself relax enough to consider going back to the motel for the night.

Nodding at her fuzzy guest's comments, she said, "I think we're pretty much on the same note. Unfortunately, it's time for me to change the tune. I still have a lot of work sitting in front of me for tonight, so thank you for the welcome... but unless there's anything pressing you need to talk about, I really need to get back to it."

[Blur]

“Nothing pressing, no,” Blur shrugged from his chair, “There’s always something falling apart somewhere in the world but nothing quite yet here in your jurisdiction.” Of course, there were others out there who could and do take care of things and there are plenty of things that slip beneath everyone’s radars until it’s too late. Not for forever, though; it doesn’t need to always be that way.

Alright, she needs to do work, I should let her be for now. At least I know I won’t have to worry about her. For now. The heavy chair barely makes a noise as Blur stands up with complete fluidity, “But, once again, welcome to the neighborhood and I’m one person who shouldn’t give you too many headaches. Whenever I do stop a crime I leave the scene as untouched as I can; it’d be useless for me to stop, say, a drug deal but destroy the evidence that would convict the dealers. You guys have enough problems and you don’t need anyone making it worse on you.”

That same grace stayed with him as he went to the window and he paused before slipping out into the alley, “There really aren’t too many nova problems out here… but if you need a lending hand, try giving me a call. I might not always be available or able to help, but sometimes it might be something that’s already on my radar. So long as my privacy is respected of course.” She’s got a good heart but I’m not stupid.