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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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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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Excuse her as she looks like you've just told her that Christmas has come early. She's going to glance back up at the building, worrying at her bottom lip out of sheer excitement --
-- and then you're going to see that typical Technomancer thing where their eyes become miniature computer screens for about five minutes. She's smoking all throughout, smiling every now and then, and nodding, as if she's talking to somebody without ever opening her mouth.
Wew.
Just. Wew. ]
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Putting you right smack dab in the center of technology-driven Metro Manila is like loosing a bird back into the sky or setting a fish out of a plastic bag.
Everyone's got a place where they're meant to be. Here's probably it for you, at least until you find the next big place to go.
She'll finish her stick and light up a second one. Like she said earlier: there's no rush until you tell her that you want to head on over to your new home. ]
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They're really proud of themselves. They said something about their towers being the most advanced Rhiannon Tower yet...?
[ That did explain the way they had resonated. ]
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Sounds legit-- [ a puff ] --I mean, I don't know for sure if that's how it is, but the Towers are about less than three years old if memory serves me right.
[ She's letting her eyes scan the general area now.
Those are a lot of red suits. ]
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Oh, that makes sense. It was around the time of Inquisitor Vice's disappearance, right?
[ She read about that. ]
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Same year, well after he came back though.
[ Maggie's lifting her eyes to both Towers now. ] There's an access point into Falner through there that leads right into the West District's Liquidated. It's a nice place, though the name's ironic given who runs it.
[ Dead Man humor. ]
Let me know when you want to move. Taguig's not that huge and other than bars and restaurants and office spaces, this is pretty much the most that you'll get from here.
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I think I'm good!
[ Moving back to the bike now, and suiting up to go. ]
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Anything else you'd like to see before I drive us both back to Falner?
[ She promised a tour and she sticks by her word. ]
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[ Saying that mostly because "everything" probably isn't a good answer... ]
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