Half past Dusk, Quarter 'til Dawn *FIN*

[Lucas Janzen]

Still, she was quiet, perhaps uncomfortably so...and yet, she was following him. Tiff followed him into his apartment building, up the elevator, and all the way down the hallway and to his door, without so much as a tiny peep that could have started another casual, comfortable conversation. If she was suddenly going to be such so tight-lipped and mousy, carrying herself and her book much differently than before, then he was starting to think he should just let her go. If she felt uncomfortable with her present company but even more uncomfortable excusing herself, then why should she stick around? Exactly. She shouldn't.

However, since they were already at his door and his keys were brandished, Lucas gave her yet another chance. Yet another chance for her to stay true to her original word. She did seem intent on...something, so that was it. In his mind, the debate had come to an end.

Sliding his keys into the lock, turning, and opening, Tiff could probably now see his apartment-- unless she was standing right behind him, since, facing the music, Lucas was a pretty big obstruction. Accounting for that fact, he walked right in, thus allowing Tiff to see everything. What a sight to behold!

It was Lucas' pad, and his decorating was less than impressive. A few items of clothing were strewn over the back of his sofa, a brown microfleece blanket crumpled and sprawled over its arm, and his laptop resting on one of the cushions. Stacks of white file boxes were pushed into the corner, along with a broken-down computer Lucas would someday try to fix.

Flat against a wall and perpendicular to a window, a fishtank's light glowed a soft, ambient blue. Inside of it, a yellow-and-indigo betta fish named Carbucketty observed his owner and another strange human with big, springy hair walk in. Carbucketty almost felt like hiding behind his plastic pirate ship, but he decided against it for the time being-- if anything, he was curious as to what was going on. Had he ever seen his owner alone with a lady before?

Walking across his living room, to the barrier of counters between it and one edge of his kitchen area, he dropped his keys on the counter and sat on one of the matching twin stools lined up against them-- ostensibly his dining nook, since no other place in the apartment could be one. If they ventured further and down a short hallway, they would reach his bathroom and eventually his bedroom, though he severely doubted Tiff would get as far as the latter.

So once he looked back at Tiff, he realized something he'd already noticed before. A book, and not just any book! Unless he was mistaken, it was the same copy of Activating Evolution he had flung into her backseat, in some epic, defiant effort to avoid the truth. He was surprised to see she had even thought to bring it again, since she cut off their discussion so quickly before. Maybe it was better to address it right away, he thought. "So, um...why'd you bring that here? You wanted to talk about it some more or something? Got no problem with that..."

He capped his statement with a shrug of his shoulders and, standing from his stool, he slowly walked back to Tiff. Past the back of his sofa, past the end table that flanked it, upon which was probably the most suspicious item in his home-- a heavily-condensed glass of water, probably still a bit chilly, in fact. Downing several drinks and partying heartily that night had probably wiped the incident mostly from his mind, since he sure as heck didn't notice the glass that had been frozen solid earlier. However, if Tiff noticed, it would open a few proverbial doors.

[Tiff Baumer]

///// Tiff Baumer

^{toronto, canada}
_{chapter one: ripples}

When Lucas had opened up the apartment, she followed him in, still quietly, still seeming detached or perhaps in something of a daze. In fact, she looked a little out of it when he turned to her and spoke, and she snapped out of it as if she was merely zoned, "Oh, wait, this?" she asked and held it up, "Aw... why did I bring this heavy thing..." she shrugged as if she didn't know, and turned to set it on the same countertop where Lucas had set his keys, right beside them.

She rolled her arm in the joint as if she was hurting from holding the book. Of course, that would seem a little odd. The book was pretty big, and pretty thick, but it wasn't that huge. "Man, it sucks when you don't have anybody to help you load your equipment..." she shared, implying that her muscles were actually worn to soreness from heavy lifting. "Sorry I've been quiet, man, I've just had a lot on my mind. Can I trust you, like... with a secret?" she half-squint one eye as if expressing a sort of coy expression of counting on him.

"Lately, I've just been so out of it. It seems like everything about me is just so goddamn delicate, you know?" she went on to explain, turning and raising her hands as if holding them to the world around her, or the edge of her own personal 'bubble'. "Every little thing I do, something goes wrong. I lift a finger, everything falls apart..." she explained, but stopped herself, dropping her head and rubbing at her forehead with her fingers.

"Been on the road sixteen hours... ain't had no sleep..." she grumbled, "I just need some sleep. I was thinkin' of cuttin' my tour short, but if you're not too tied down to this place to take a little vacation..." she shrugged, "I could use someone to help me move the equipment. We'd hit six more cities down along the coast and reach Georgia and... well the pay's awesome, I promise." she smirked.

So perhaps it all came out jumbled, like spilling over several trains of thought all at once, but perhaps that was the intent. If nothing else, she looked like she was keeping some kind of a dark secret, and the truth was, she was, but that wasn't the point. It would get his mind off of that book long enough for her to get away with leaving it there on 'accident' for him to discover later.

That, and perhaps the secret would pique his curiosity.

[Lucas Janzen]

Sitting back on the stool before he even thought twice, Lucas felt an overwhelming urge to put up his feet and grab a cold one while Tiff went off on a lengthy (and rather amusing, to his cruel streak) tangent. Looking up from Tiff's book, which he had taken and opened again not long after it hit the counter, he observed. She paced and seemed to jump all over the place with her words, but the central message was clear to him-- Tiff was complaining. A lot. Lucas hated when people complained. A lot.

If she wanted to angst so much about the troubles she went through daily, why didn't she just join an online community? Those seemed to attract drama by the droves, and she'd be right at home. She could act like some whiny emo kid all she wanted, and, after the smart people fled in their wisdom, sympathy would abound. More importantly, Lucas wouldn't have to put up with all that damnable nonsense that didn't involve him in the slightest.

...Except that last notion was soon drawn into question. Damn it. Lucas couldn't help but feel sympathy for Tiff, since, contrary to popular speculation, Lucas did have a heart and a conscience, even though these were quickly overshadowed by acrimonious and satirical humor. Raking his spiked hair through his fingers, Tiff's last words were seared into his mind, as was the expression on her face and the meek, defeated stance of her slumped shoulders.

Because of this, Lucas was most definitely at a loss for words, but he kept trying to raise objections classified under "no way" and "go to hell". Quite a vision of dejection himself, though, he was slumped over a bit, his hands between his legs and gripping the stool's edge, while his face was aimed to the floor. His crass objections would lose themselves somewhere between his mind and mouth, at the latter of which they seemed to turn into steam and escape as small huffs akin to an abused child. Then, rolling his eyes behind angrily sunken lids, Lucas topped it all off with an unfriendly growl, barely loud enough to hear. Tiff's book had taken to lying open, face-down on the floor somewhere along the line.

Lucas wasn't mad at Tiff-- far from it. Rather, he was angry with the sudden onslaught of inner turmoil. He didn't know Tiff that well and vice versa, and his life in Toronto was firmly rooted, with a good job, an apartment to call his own and...well, little else. That was it. Where had all the excitement gone? Was it lost in nights spent clubbing, come once in a blue moon, while the next morning was spent wishing he could have his sore and hungover body put out of its misery? Were his days doomed to be spent quipping at computer-illeterate nimrods who didn't know a motherboard from a mousepad and sharing small talk around the water cooler about last night's episode of...whatever?

For a second of profound significance, Lucas put his life into perspective-- and it was boring!

No...it wasn't boring. That was only part of the puzzle, and there was one missing piece. A big missing piece, at that-- probably half the size of the puzzle itself. Not only that, but it was shiny, translucent, and bluish, covered by a layer of gritty frost. Yes...the missing puzzle piece was made of ice, predictably enough. Proof alone that Lucas' mind couldn't be quite so creative in its current state!

Had she walked into his life at another time in another place, where he wasn't cursed with superpowers among normal, everyday society, Lucas would have turned her down in the time it took her to finish her sentence-- only to change his mind once it was too late. Yes, life was monotonous, but the biggest change that kept slapping him in the face was also the one that was urging him to stop his slow metamorphosis into a tedious old fuddy-duddy. He could just picture himself wearing bifocals and a sweater vest, which inwardly made him cringe.

"Dunno what to say," Lucas muttered, befitting his state of mind. What better way to end bouts of silence than with an obvious statement like this? Perfection, no? His eyes, heavy-lidded, swayed and sprung around his living room in brief contemplation. He looked at Carbucketty, then at the slowly-accumulating piles of junk in several corners of his living room. Perplexingly, he even looked at the condensation-coated glass of water set atop a some prurient magazines piled atop his end table-- and he did so far longer than he should have, in all logic.

"You," he raised his face toward Tiff, away from its floor-facing dolor. Any intelligent person with insight to Lucas' normal temperament would probably expect a rather curlish response (and be correct, ninety percent of the time), but at that point, he was far too pensive to be that brash. "Gimme time to think," he said, tilting his head far to the side, almost fallen onto his shoulder. He would expect her to discern what he meant, it seemed, through just two following words. "Tomorrow morning...?"

[Tiff Baumer]

///// Tiff Baumer

^{toronto, canada}
_{chapter one: ripples}

Tiff seemed to be smiling a bit now, nodding in agreement to Lucas, "I mean, it's not as if it'll be a chore, I'm sure the pay beats what you're makin' now, and it'll also be way more fun than the daily grind you're probably used to." she noted, and realized she was making a bit of a guess, and there was the slightest chance he made more than she expected, but she was generally too sure of herself to actually imagine herself wrong for no reason until proven otherwise.

It brought on the curious urge to ask him how he made his living, but what she really needed was to move along, and give him time to sleep on it. "Well, I'll be back tomorrow, maybe take you out for breakfast or somethin' if ya like," she offered, remembering the book she had brought up. She had every intention of leaving it for him to sate his curiosity in after she left, so she checked her pocket for her car keys, a bit of a habit before driving, and turned to make her way out, "Have a good night, man, rest up..."

[Lucas Janzen]

He had enough time, it seemed. Tiff would meet him in the morning and learn his intentions, but it seemed like Lucas' mind had gone past deciding if he would go and was now thinking on how he could tie up all his loose ends by the next morning. The idea, Lucas concluded, was too tempting to ignore. Unfortunately, Tiff would have to wait until the next morning to hear his verdict, for Lucas had shrunken back into a rather hushed tone, distracted by his plans as he followed her to the door and ushered her out. All in all, his mind was made up and the deal was sealed.

So yes, Lucas was that impulsive...

---

He had slept deeply on the sofa long enough to wake and meet the crack of dawn from his window, at which point he was far too excited to shut his eyes for too long. That day, he could turn his boring life around, and yet he didn't even know what time Tiff would come knocking on his door. Regardless, a surge of industriousness told him he needed to prepare. Squaring away things to be thrown out and packing the essentials in his trio of suitcases, Lucas' morning was jam-packed.

More importantly, his friend Shane was contacted. Having previously said to Lucas that he 'owed him one', Lucas was ready to see how far that generosity would get him. Lucas knew that having friends would come in handy at some point, and he had apparently forgotten to care that Shane had left him behind at the nightclub earlier.

Lucas woke his friend with a phone call around seven in the morning, and savored the laughter caused by the loud groaning sound Shane made upon being reminded of their deal. Normally true to his word, Lucas felt it was a cinch reeling Shane into doing the dirty work once he was on the open road. As for Tiff, then, how surprised would she be when Lucas answered her deal with an emphatic 'yes'?

Not to mention the intensive clean-up his apartment had gone through...

Feeling tired only after he called and gruffly resigned from his job, Lucas sat down beside a rather confused Carbucketty-- who had been taken from his fishtank (hence the confusion) and put in a bucket full of water for easier travel-- and noticed the book lying on the floor. Underneath the stool where he sat the night before, tired and buzzed, he took the recognizable tome to his hand and flipped to the page he had wanted to read. It looked to him like the chapter was all about his newfound ability, but for all he knew, he had a limited time to look it over. It was as good a time as any, he thought as his gaze quickly scoured the page.

[Tiff Baumer]

///// Tiff Baumer

^{toronto, canada}
_{chapter one: ripples}

10:49 AM

As she pulled up into the parking lot of Lucas apartment building, she looked up in the general direction of his apartment with an obvious curiosity. She was wearing a thick, puffy, dark blue jacket when she stepped out of the cab of the truck and shut the door, quickly shoving her hands into her pockets and making her way to the apartment where she'd find Lucas, and find out if she had picked up a new moving man.

Her reasons were legitimate if scattered. She certainly really did need someone around to help her with her stuff, but more than anything... there was something curious about the guy. There was a hunch there, in Tiff's brain, the more she thought of it, but she wasn't ready to put it to words just yet.

With her hair tied back into a puff behind her head, she wore work gloves as well, and had probably already been awake for a while. When she arrived at Lucas' door, she pulled back the sleeve of her jacket and shirt and took a look at her digital watch. 10:53, the LED read, and she quickly raised her hand and gave the door a few taps.

"Rise and shine, Lucas!" she called through the door, "I picked up a couple of them little crossoint sandwiches at the fast food place down the road..."

[Lucas Janzen]

It had been a while. Three hours or so, to be exact.

If Tiff had walked in at that moment, she'd see Lucas slumped over, sleeping with his face over the open pages of her book. He had been reading the excerpt about his power word by word, over and over, until he simply drifted off into sleep. Considering that Tiff visited much, much later than he could have predicted, though, he deserved it. If he had any real guess, there would be a pretty busy day ahead of them.

Bolting from his sleep at the first few knocks, then taking a quick look around to make sure all his hard work wasn't just a dream, Lucas stumbled to his feet and walked over to the door. The book, still open to the exact page on cryokinesis, was retired to the table nearby the door when he opened and saw Tiff standing, waiting for him. Rubbing his tired eye, he smiled. "Great," he snatched one of the sandwiches from her, "Thanks a lot."

Walking back into his living room, he held out his hand, permitting her to take a look around. "Well, as you can see," he said, "I made up my mind." Since there were full boxes and suitcases packed, a betta fish inside a bucket, and his living room strangely empty, she would see for herself just what he meant.

Lucas was ready to leave his life in the dust.

[Tiff Baumer]

///// Tiff Baumer

^{toronto, canada}
_{chapter one: ripples}

"Oh!" Tiff suddenly lit up, "I forgot I left this here!" she moved over to the counter top where the book had been left laying open. She moved quickly and with a purpose, but it would likely come off as curiosity. She leaned over the counter, over the book, and quickly began to read over it, to see where he had turned to. Cryo, eh?, she took note. Not just the front page of Cryo, either, but several pages into it's chapter.

She cut a glance back to Lucas and smirked at him, "You know, a walkin' icebox like this could come in pretty damn handy. I bet there'd be better employment opportunities than club DJ, or--" she nodded toward Lucas, "...club DJ's packmule." she joked. "Anyways, I suppose it would be a pretty cool thing to be able to do..." she started to flip idly through the pages.

Several chapters ahead, she stopped, and began to read, "Through these varied kinetic capacities, one may be able to exert their own mental energy toward affecting impact directly..." she cut her eyes to the side, again, toward Lucas, "Fun stuff," she turned from the book and made a gesture for the door, "Anyways, start bringin' stuff down and I'll have the truck pulled up by the stairway. By all means, though, take a moment for yourself..."

She nodded, "To finish your sandwich, I mean."

[Lucas Janzen]

If she kept doing that, Lucas would start suspecting things.

...Or maybe that was too late. She was talking about powers again like they came as no great surprise to her, and again, she drew the line between fiction and fact somewhere during that time. Had he remembered too clearly that he mentioned his ability (the chapter on which Tiff must have seen when she picked up the book) the night before in the car, the thought probably would have rushed back to him and collided like a ton of bricks. However, he was too preoccupied wondering what the devil Tiff even meant by flipping open the book to a completely different subject.

It was strange and random, to say the least. Keeping in mind his own abilities (like always), something struck Lucas so as to turn his face red at several points, though. Maybe it was the feeling that he may be found out, but maybe not. Why would Lucas Felix Janzen, of all people, fear having his strangest secret exposed?

"Uh...yeah," Lucas droned when Tiff ended the topic. Having lost himself in thought for the briefest moment, he shook his head like he was snapping out of whatever trance he drifted into. "Sorry, I got a bit...spacy. Hungry, you know?" Chuckling, he looked at the food she had brought him and, altogether, couldn't complain. It looked to be the typical cookie-cutter bacon-and-egg croissant from a fast food place's morningtime menu, but he was all for breakfast anyway.

After Tiff left for the truck, the sandwich was downed quickly, and the words about needing a moment to himself, which perhaps rung true greater than he thought, had time to digest. Whatever he was getting himself into, it had to be more satisfying than the here-and-now. No way in hell it couldn't be! On the other hand, it would be a big move and...

...Bah, he was wasting valuable time thinking.

Carbucketty's makeshift home and one of the suitcases were taken on his first of two trips downstairs, where, upon exiting the front door into the parking lot, he saw the silhouette of Tiff's distinctive puffy ponytail inside a truck-- her truck, no doubt. With a bucket in one hand, a valise on the opposite shoulder, and sunglasses guarding his eyes from the brisk, sunny mid-morning light, Lucas approached the truck and opened its passenger-side door. "So, where to first, boss?"