1 - Kyle Murphy

Despite Kyle’s best efforts, or perhaps because of it, they were about to be late for school.

How did this happen? What will you do, if anything, to try to make it in time?

Kyle cursed again as he pumped harder on his bicycle pedals. First day of school and Dan pulled this stunt to motivate Kyle to finally get hi license. "If you had yo license I wouldn't have to drive you around. You're old enough and finished drivers ed last year. I see no reason that I should drive you"

So no he was running late. If he had known he could have taken the bus, which he might have to do anyhow once it starts snowing, or just left earlier to get there on time. He cursed again as he knew he was sweating and would totally sting for the first day of the new year. Its not that he didn't want to learn but right after he finished drivers ed at the end of junior year is when all the weird things started happening and he still wasn't confident that putting himself in a thousand pound machine that might glitch at his touch was a good idea.

As he pumped the pedals his thought wandered back over the summer. It had all started when the drone started acting up. He had tried to fix it and return it to school but any time someone tried to reprogram it their system got infected with some weird computer virus. In the end he had been forced to pay for the drone, as well as help to restore the crashed systems. That had resulted in him working at the local tech shack all summer.

Besides learning the joys of low end tech support and all the junk people tried to dump on them or claim they had ruined he had also been learning more about his new abilities. The drone, which he had taken to calling Glitch, turned out to be a help there. The drone had built in cameras and a microphone which seemed to allow it to "See" and "Hear" but thank goodness it didn't have a speaker and was forced to "Talk" via text messaged on it LCD or to it's remote. Some how Glitch seemed to know more about what was going on with Kyle than he did himself and the thing had been tutoring him on how to access and consciously control what he could do.

As he rounded the last corner on the schools long driveway and saw the gates ahead Kyle took a moment to slow down and unzip his jacket. It had been too cool in the morning but now he was hot. He had moved here midway through the previous school year and hadn't had a lot of luck finding new friends. The robotics club had been a great place and at first he was excited. Then Glitch came along and now he just hoped they weren't still mad. Thankfully most of the students affected had been last years seniors and moved on , still that was not a mess he was looking forwards to rehashing. All he wanted to do now was finish high school and if he was lucky get into a decent college. Glitch kept laughing any time he tried to make plans for the future up but wouldn't explain saying "You'll see"

Teenagers on the cusp of adulthood weren't typically given to superstition and other such easily-dismissed thoughts. But if there were a chance for hindsight years from now, the Awakened ones of the Class of '26 might be able look back to as early as their first day of school to realise that change was in the ether. Perhaps it was the greater weave of fate that pushed against their coming back, as if delaying them, keeping them away from the penumbral shores, from what was about to happen.

But they wouldn't have known that of course. To them, the situation was simply that they would be late. Kyle had to pump ever so much harder on his pedals to climb the gentle incline of the long driveway as buses and cars whizzed past him, but he was certainly going to be earlier than the remaining stragglers on foot. At least he wouldn't be as sweaty as the schoolmate on the skateboard! But would any of these last few be on time? If Glitch were with him it would have flashed him a snarky emoticon.

Kyle presses on, accelerating through the gates and off to one side e of campus. Riding straight up to the bike rack he hopped off and slipped the lock into place. Loosening his jacket to cool off as much as possible before school and grabs his phone to recheck his first class, though hes double checked several times already this morning, and runs for it. Weaving through the scattering of other last minute arrivals Kyle smiles at the absolute randomness of life.

The bicycle though was absolutely suited to navigating past the last bottleneck at the main gate, which was jammed with cars held back by two school buses which had for some reason pulled up side by side, effectively blocking anyone from reaching the drop-off. Kyle was certainly faster than those on foot, and reached the walkway of the student parking lot where the thoughtfully sheltered bicycle racks were, one of the nice touches the school admin had installed. No class in the first lesson despite the timetable, because it was superceded by morning assembly at the auditorium!

"Have a seat." Despite the serious formality of the title of Doctor, Veritas was generally regarded as a motherly figure amongst the staff, more youthful in appearance than one might guess her true age to be, though her chopped bob and bangs, slightly streaked in grey, gave her some kindly gravitas to match.

The counselling room was furnished with soft armchairs and a table for the counsellor, carpeted but enclosed with no natural light. A small shelf sat to one side with a tray of glasses and a water flask.

Today though the shelf was partially blocked by a third person in the room."Ms Nixon will join us today as well, as part of the school's efforts to improve our care programme." The woman looked as proper as she did yesterday, again in nearly the same shade of grey suit. In her hand was a tablet and stylus.

"How are you doing at the moment Kyle. I am concerned about what you may have experienced at yesterday's blackout. Can you tell me a bit about what's going on with you right now? I'm ready to listen if you're willing to share." So that’s what the school was calling it, a blackout.

Her tone was gentle, but nonetheless probing..

"Have a seat." Despite the serious formality of the title of Doctor, Veritas was generally regarded as a motherly figure amongst the staff, more youthful in appearance than one might guess her true age to be, though her chopped bob and bangs, slightly streaked in grey, gave her some kindly gravitas to match.

The counselling room was furnished with soft armchairs and a table for the counsellor, carpeted but enclosed with no natural light. A small shelf sat to one side with a tray of glasses and a water flask.

Today though the shelf was partially blocked by a third person in the room."Ms Nixon will join us today as well, as part of the school's efforts to improve our care programme." The woman looked as proper as she did yesterday, again in nearly the same shade of grey suit. In her hand was a tablet and stylus.

"How are you doing at the moment Kyle? I am concerned about what you may have experienced at yesterday's blackout. Can you tell me a bit about what's going on with you right now? I'm ready to listen if you're willing to share." So that’s what the school was calling it, a blackout.

Her tone was gentle, but nonetheless probing..

Kyle signs and grumbles inwardly. Ever since his parents accident people keep trying to get him to talk about how he is doing or feeling. Kyle is pretty sure he doesn't work like everyone else. First of all he is not 100% convinced his parents are dead, as they have yet to recover any bodies, though he is pretty sure it is what happened. Still, so what? Most people seem so intent on focusing on the tragedy they ignore how Kyle is actually doing, which in his opinion is pretty well. Sure having to leave his siblings and moving in with his uncle was an adjustment but he would be out of school by the end of the year and he could go anywhere he wanted to then. Seems to him most kids fled home for college or a job as quick as they could. Now Kyle and his siblings actually tried to stay in touch.

Jerking his wandering thought back to the present as he realized he had been quiet too long, councilors liked to read waaaayyyyy to much into things like that. Kyle shrugs as he replies. "First day back and there were a few glitches. It's not like a blackout is all that rare. I'm not afraid of the dark or anything so it was not biggie. Just stand sill until the lights come back on." and he shrugs again. "It nice to have events like that. You know, it give memorable experiences so we have things to look back on once we graduate besides long hours in class. "

As he talks he examines "Ms Nixon" surreptitiously. From his point of view she doesn't really seem the type to gain a kids trust. Too stiff and formal. She may deserve respect he guesses but as far as Kyle is concerned Doc Veritas at least put forth the effort so had earned his respect.

The same disconcerting feeling Kyle had yesterday as his eyes darted to Nixon even as he recounted his version of the affair was amplified, for the guidance counsellor from the Board of Education revealed no expression throughout, save for the occasional scribing on her tablet. This was regardless of what Kyle said or how he said it, nothing seemed to garner a response.

Veritas was in contrast warmer and much more assuring in her manner. "Stress can sometimes make events feel distorted. I am glad you handled the situation so well Kyle, Ashford is proud to have a senior with your maturity. Did you talk to anyone else about it? I trust you were able to speak with them in the same way."

But there it was. All savvy teens were alike, able to give an account to an adult to get out of trouble. The question was whether Kyle had gone too far in trying in his version in saying how memorable it was, and whether Veritas believed him at all.

Kyle had the feeling though that the version of the story he chose to tell was somehow important to himself personally. That it would shape how he dealt with his newly experienced reality in some way.

"I have the impression that there is something you would like to tell me, but you are unsure whether you ought to or not. Since talking about it might be difficult, tell me instead why you are hesitant. Is it hard for you to explain it in a way that you think it ought to be understood? Are you struggling with how it makes you feel right now? Or are you afraid of what might happen if you reveal it?" Veritas nudged Kyle along with her usual gentle affirmative tone, which would have felt entirely safe were it not for the fact that Kyle could not ignore the presence of Nixon still sitting in the periphery.

Kyle looks down at the ground for a bit and shrugs "It's not bid deal. It's just that I, uh, got a bit bored and kind of took over a group of freshmen. I mean I really didnt take a group, just that I notices some groups got too bit to handle as the freshmen moved around, not all of them stayed in their assigned groups, and so I decided to help out some other seniors who were swamped so I toke some of the better behaved ones to tour and then we joined up with some other groups just before the blackout and well" though all of this Kyle kept speeding up and he blurted the truth of the situation, or at least a truth. "Anyhow after the blackout I realized I didn't really have a roster so am not entirely sure no one wandered off. I am pretty sure I still had all of the kids I took from the other groups but there were some who decided to tag along with us, or the other groups going the same way? Anyhow after the light came on some people seemed to be looking for some missing freshmen. All I know is that the ones I was guiding were still there. The rest was a mess. Total chaos. Then the teachers took over so I just split once the freshmen we in hand by an adult." Kyle focuses on the anxiety of the temporary authority he had taken upon himself then the relief when it was all over. The rest of the things were just a jumble and Kyle was not quite sure what pieces belonged to which narrative so he stuck to the common knowledge of the other students and fact.

"Mm-hmm," Veritas nodded and interjected at the appropriate moments as Kyle recounted what he considered was as accurate an account of how he involved himself in yesterday's proceedings. He was discovering through, that he felt compelled to tell Veritas about the other strange occurrences he had observed, even though he knew it wasn't the wisest thing to do and could potentially not just get himself, but some of the others in trouble as well. Unless he searched within to find the inner strength to hold his tongue.

Kyle sticks to the public story and theorizes about rumors from others but will avoid revealing anything out of the ordinary that he personally experienced unless the general student body was discussing it and definitely reveals nothing of his own abilities

"Honestly, the weirdest thing was how some of the adults reacted. Overreacted if you ask me. I mean, it was just a black out, right? The more adults react to 'calm and comfort' kids the more they tend to get worked up. Kids watch adults and when you react to something it make us more anxious. The more you reassure some people the more they get worked up. It was the first day of school. Anyone who expected it to all go according to plan to just has unrealistic expectations. It not like anyone actually got hurt or lost, right?"

Slumping back in his chair he rolls his eyes in exasperation to cover a flinch as that last bit was a slip of the tongue.

"That is a very mature view Kyle." Veritas nodded approvingly. "I trust you if you do see others who are anxious, you will also help to assure them that everything is well. Will you do that Kyle?" The question was rhetorical as Veritas brought the session to a close. And still, Nixon said nothing throughout.

Kyle will begin tinkering in an attempt to better understand his abilities as well as how well he can sense technology and/or information manipulation with code vs with magick. Using scraps in his shop he starts working on something to help deliver the upload as quietly and stealthily as possible if he has time. (either a trinket of just a prepared magic effect to be triggered later)

He makes sure to get home before uncle Ryan with enough time to each and then meet up with the others at Myra's

Kyle gets as much work done as he can, attempting a few experiments mixing magic with technology to bypass computer or phone restrictions to upload the images as he promised. he doesn't want to stay to lake and would love to go to meet up with the others but will have to head home before that to check in with his uncle. He has no idea how long the others plan to meet so will just get as much done as possible and give them a call after getting dinner at home.

Kyle prepared whatever he could. Doing so in his hideaway did ensure the privacy of what he was attempting; if he had worked in school, or plugged into the wifi network at home, he would have to work so much harder to scrub anything that could be traced back to me. His preparations on what Jonathan gave him were reasonably complete. All that was needed was to turn up in school tomorrow and deploy his upload to the few more vulnerable social media accounts he found and tweak the algorithms so that their social feeds rose to the top of the searches amongst friends. That'll be sure to incite the buzz that Jonathan was thinking of.
Night was beginning to fall, and thanks to his newfound awareness he did feel as if the woods were not as innocent as he used to think they were, before his awakening. Dinner was waiting for him at home, uncle Ryan was as responsible and as caring a surrogate parent as Kyle could ask for, and Kyle had never given him cause to worry about anything. Kyle had discovered a number of things today: how the counselling centre disrupted his own phone scans of the place, how there were others in school which abilities, such as Zane, not just the immediate group he spoke with, and how the inexplicable 'darkness' of the some part of the school network was still a mystery to be solved. Most immediately, he discovered how someone had come close enough to detect his sanctum, someone whom Kyle could trace as 'magical', who had either entered school or left school, passing by his hideout.
These last thoughts remained in his mind as he cycled home. He wondered if he could, in his tinkering about with robotics, whether he could invent things to help him detect other such phenomena. Amusingly, even as he thought this, Glitch seemed to signal to him its approval, as if it were encouraging Kyle to make more stuff just like how Glitch was invented.

The idea of recording, and possibly identifying and tacking, a persons aura seems like something Kyle really need to get into. Of course he also need to find a way to either increase his security and/or secrecy for the out building. That will take some thinking.

Not wanting to get into trouble with his uncle, Kyle cleans up and locks up. Racing home on his bike, with Glitch latched onto the top of his pack, Kyle wondered if ti was too late to join the others. It was getting dark and he doubted that uncle Ryan would want to take him someplace. But if it was to socialize it might be possible. Ryan was always trying to get him to do more stuff with other teens.

As he bikes he ponders the equipment me might need for the aura recorder/detector/tracker. He starts rambling ideas out loud and listening to Glitch's responses. He got in this habit over the summer and though Glitch does not speak (other than the occasional sound byte played back at the most inopportune or hilarious times), Kyle swears the drone is communicating and somehow he understands most of what it 'says'

Myra's invitation to her place was still open. All Kyle needed to do was to let his uncle know where he was going and what time he might be back. Uncle Ryan certainly did think that Kyle should 'get out more often', and not spend all day glued to his computer or his engineering tinkering. This was why Kyle kept most of his science experiments away from home; it wouldn't do to start filling up the garage which all the bits and bobs and his equipment. Which was why his little hideaway was perfect for the times where he didn't want to be constrained by the school labs or the tech workshop. He was proud of the little stash he had put together here, and it puzzled him how come someone finally managed to notice it, for it had remained largely ignored for all the time he had been using it. But whomever did didn't seem to be curious enough to intrude further; they didn't trepass or vandalise or break in.

Before it gets even darker Kyle quickly heads home, working up another sweat. He definitely needed a shower. While waiting at a light close to home he sends a quick message to Myra to see if the invite is still good.

Getting a response from Myra Kyle sends a quick text to Ryan
Heading home
Invited to a friends house
Can I get a lift?
Upon reaching home, Kyle called out to his uncle he was home, dashed into his room, grabbed a new set of cloths, and bolted into the bathroom for a quick shower. Not bothering to let the water get warm the cold shower helped cool Kyle off and in a minute he was toweling off then getting dressed.

Uncle Ryan's voice through the door startled Kyle. "Hey, what's with the last minute heads up? I don't mind giving you a lift but an earlier heads up would have been nice."

Kyle Called back as he pulled on his pants before unlocking the door, not bothering to open it, leaving that to Ryan. "Sorry. I got held up working on a project and didn't realize how late it is. So can we go? " Finishing pulling on his clothes he opened the door to look at his uncle.