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I'm Waking Up: Origin Stories.
You’re an old man who had a nasty run-in with Something That Went Bump in the Night, and once believed that the only way to make sure that you never had another problem like that again was to pick up a gun and shoot supes in the face before they killed you or hurt your family – and then some government shitheads called you up and told you that they’re your friends, you all have to get along. They took your weapons, sent you to some fucking program that felt too much like Alcoholics Anonymous. You hang up on them every time they check on you, but they still know exactly what you’re doing, every second of every day.
You’re a house wife in a quiet little town, accustomed to turning a blind eye towards the strange things that happened to people after dark because the local police either didn’t have a clue or were letting those things happen in the first place – and then some nice people in coats came in from God Knows Where, arrested some crooked cops, and made it all go away.
You make a new batch of cookies every Sunday, to give to the coated fellows who still hang around at the street corners downtown; some of them are young, so very young, and remind you of your younger brother. Your little ones want to be just like them someday.
You’re the kid who learns Judo rather than Track and Field after Math every day (Teacher Felipe says that you have to know how to defend yourself), then takes a quiz all about vampires, fairies and werewolves in Occult Studies. Every Wednesday, you tumble around with your classmates, and get mad whenever your best friend does his Superman thing and beats everyone to the top of the hill by flying there. Every Friday, a guy with more guns than you have teeth comes to school, takes over PE classes, and talks to everyone about what he does for a living. Sometimes, he takes “special kids” with him to another school, for special people like them. You hope that he won’t take your best friend away.
You’re the manager of one of the biggest call centers in the country. You’re happy because life’s been great ever since you opened your doors to the local vampire community. They’re damned good at their jobs, and you don’t have to deal with the HR nightmare of overtime, of medical bills and lawsuits anymore. And you feel safe, because you know that if one of them ever steps out of line, you know exactly who to call.
You’re the girl who leapt through time, who met a handsome stranger who took you to a fantastic place full of talking trees and flying fish, the girl who was loved and fucked and tossed aside when you started getting boring.
You came home and found that your house wasn’t your house anymore, that your parents have been dead for decades and all of your friends were old and gray while you haven’t aged at all.
They found you crying on a swing. They told you what happened, and helped you set things right.
You’re the drunkard at the local bar who sees monsters in every face, and still remembers what it was like years ago, when you didn’t have to be afraid of the dark, or wonder what’s beneath all the human skin and human smiles of every person you meet. The Truth fucked you up, you see. You wish that once upon a time, you had the better sense not to listen.
o r i g i n s t o r i e s.
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Keep it. [ Lighting up now and exhaling with her lips pursed like a fish. ] Long flight?
[ Saying that now with a touch of amusement. She don't like planes, she prefers to ride, thank you very much. ]
Or is it because of all the shiny?
[ Manila's pretty awesome, okay. ]
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Definitely the shiny. I mean, I've never actually been in a city like this before.
[ Rolling mountains and vast forests are kind of her thing -- or so she thought? The buzz and hum of the tech all around her is, in a word, exciting. ]
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Technomancer, yeah?
[ She's exhaling a breath and not bothering to hide that smile.
Actually, you know what? She'll fish her phone out and shoot off a text to the fam.
TO: DAD, MOM, REN
Save me food might be late. Wanna offer an impromptu tour
to the new Technomancer. I'll grab lechon on the way.
If Brooke decides she wants to take up the offer, at least her bases are covered. If the kid wants to hightail it to Falner, Maggie's good with that too. ]
Tell you what. [ Tucking that phone away now. ] Why don't we finish our sticks and I give you a quick tour before I have to drag my ass back to Falner.
[ A beat, then: ] Totally your call.
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And then she's remembering what she came here for, and who she's with. Herp! ]
Um! Are you sure? [ Wide eyes now. ] I mean, I don't want to take up too much of your time!
[ Riders were kind of really busy, right... ]
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Brooke, [ and that right there is the face of this one full of wry amusement. ] Two, beautiful words -- or at least my dad likes to think:
"Shore Leave."
[ She's going to go and enjoy the rest of her stick now. ]
Trust me, you will be doing me a favor because all I would be doing otherwise is sit at home and have front row seats to my parents being overgrown teenagers.
[ She is half-joking. Maybe. ]
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[ If the Inquisitor is okay with it, then...
Then...
Dear Elaine. I love you so much. More than I already do. ]
I guess we can go once we've finished up?
[ This is so cool. ]
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[ She really is. ]
I'll just toss this, [ stubbing out what little is left of her stick now on the sole of her boot before she steps away from her bike to walk towards the nearest bin. ] You enjoy yours, and we can roll out when you're good.
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[ She's a lot more relaxed around the Inquisitor now. Maggie, like other Ferals, is pretty upfront about the way she moves, and how she views Segan. She seems like she can be trusted.
It doesn't take the girl all that long to finish her stick. She puts it out properly once again, and then takes the helmet that she was offered. ]
Let's go?
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I'll hit the major highway and then we can detour a bit through the Fort.
[ They called it Taguig 'Global City' back in the day, according to her mom. She likes 'the Fort' better, given the history behind the name. There'll be lots of things for Segan to see there, old and new. ]
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And to Segan's credit, she doesn't flinch in the slightest once you're off. Seems like she's used to riding in fast vehicles, or she's done some driving around herself.
Big Rock managed to do SOME things right, at least. ]
What's the Fort?
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It's a section of the city that used to be owned by the military, the Armed Forces' official HQ is still there, but that's just a portion of the whole district. [ She leans to one side and eases into the turn. ] They called it something else before the government settled on Fort Bonifacio.
That's the abridged version.
[ There's a grin in her voice when she says that. ]
There's a quicker route through the other side that'll bring us straight up to McKinley Road, but I said I'd show you the sights so I'll hit up the long way around.
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[ She paid rapt attention to all of that, especially since it would have been cool to see even at least a part of that HQ. She never had the opportunity of going on a legitimate military base before. ]
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She'll slow down when you hit EDSA to give you a better look now. You've got time to kill, and the whole point of this ride was to show you the sights. ]
That's Makati coming up ahead on your left. The main gates of Falner are there. I'll take you through that later.
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So what's Makati known for?
[ Beyond the war stories that she gets from her father and her sister, the only thing she knows about Metro Manila is that it's a metropolis.
Yep. ]
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Mostly it's the Central Business District for the metro. So you've got your malls, a hospital that's been around since before I was born, the Philippine Stock Exchange, and all the buildings that cater to business people.
[ And that's one of the trains zipping by now, because the highway runs parallel to it. Pretty, huh? ]
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You guys have really good zoning, right?
[ Makati seems to give off that air, at any rate. ]
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We do now. It didn't used to be that way, supposedly. But that was way back when, and I've never really seen the metro to be too different from what you see now.
[ Veering right now, away from Makati and taking a turn into the street that cuts right through Forbes Park Village. The high walls and the amount of greenery that disguises most of the residences ( and they seem really, really huge ) give off the impression that these homes have been around for ages -- which they have.
The only break in the stretch of gate upon gate upon gate is the gorgeous looking church that a lot of people appear to frequent. That's on your right, and yes, just across it something that looks like a mini-mall with all the usuals: a Starbucks, a bookshop and a handful of other stores. ]
Fort's up ahead, Brooke.
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Aaand checking all of this stuff out. ]
This area alone is already bigger than Redtree.
[ Also admittedly much more exciting? The newness gets to her, but in a good way. She can feel the hum and pulse of technology all around her, and the chatter of machines just below human awareness. ]
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It's incredibly convenient that while she slows down, she spots the way the traffic light switches to green in the distance, and the way the cars up ahead are moving accordingly. She'll veer left onto McKinley now. There's a lot of things to see, but what are most relevant are the areas that relate directly to the Vigil. ]
Feel free to let me know if you want me to slow down for something.
[ Turning another street at that, the one that'll take you both past the Rhiannon Towers. They're... kind of hard to miss given sheer size and the fact that you might have never seen a building that's so... red. And that includes the people who are wandering closeby, either picking up coffee or meals from nearby establishments. ]
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Um, how about here?
[ Rhiannon Towers: she can recognize them on sight. This one, though, is REALLY high-tech compared to the ones she read about. ]
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I'm going to have a stick, you want one?
[ It'll give you the opportunity to soak up the sights, in any case. ]
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[ And this girl has a big, excited smile on her face as she turns to you, and brings out the fresh pack that you gave her earlier. She's looking around as she lights up.
Should she try to establish contact with some of the tech spirits in the area? She is kind of really tempted... man, this is so cool. ]
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What're you thinking...? [ Oh, she's seen a similar look. ] Because you look like my brother when he gets a new toy to take apart and put back together.
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UM.
SO MUCH EMBARRASS. ]
S-sorry! [ Eep. ] It's just... I kind of want see if I can touch base with the spirits in there. There are so many of them.
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Go ahead.
[ Weren't you small town Technomancer girl for the better part of your life? And now with all this shiny around you, you want to be shy? ]
This city's great, and what better place to touch base right? Falner's not as high-tech, at least, not like this.
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