When we stepped into the Flame Riot Militia headquarters I expected to be noticed. I figured people would show up and try to rope us in, or there would be someone conveniently having a hushed conversation we could overhear. There was, obviously, nothing like that. I did my best not to let on what I'd been thinking when we'd showed up because I was embarrassed. Being a cultivator made my life kind of a story at times, the interplay of recursion causing some outlandish things to happen. Being reminded that reality was still reality was a bit jarring.

I suspected that happened less as you got more powerful and ended up around larger concentrations of Ascendants though. The way some of the cultivators acted made me suspect that this was partly what Zeke had been talking about when he'd mentioned how cultivation could change us for the worse. Reality warped in odd ways around Ascendants, and not just the obvious ones.

With so many of us around, biases and assumptions would slowly change things to a more dramatic and fantastical bent, and even everyday things like this would be more likely to end with coincidences and interesting developments. Things like 'fortuitous encounters' (the unbelievably pretentious way I'd heard some rich kid at the Academy refer to lucky shit happening) became more commonplace because people heard more about them. The world of cultivators was a strange place, and it got stranger the deeper you got. We were all the heroes of our own story, like Zeke said.

In that light I couldn't help but wonder how much of my own accomplishments were even mine. I was a child of the Wyndham family, a scion of the Wishmaster. Did that make me the recipient of more of that implicit bias. Was people's subconscious assumptions about what someone like me could do altering the course of my destiny? Did it even matter if they were? All Ascendants dealt with recursion...maybe- I jumped. Callie was standing in front of me, arms crossed and fingers raised as she snapped them in front of my face.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Callus to Shane? Where's your head at babe? You look...odd. Are you alright?" Her lips were twisted with worry for me, and I forced myself to take a deep breath, exhaling slowly after holding it in for a second. I did that three times, closing my eyes as I did, before opening them with a reassuring smile. When she saw me relax she looked relieved. "Ok, well you seem to be a bit calmer now. What exactly was that?"

I just shrugged. "Nothing important. I had an existential crisis related to cultivation. Some of what Zeke said the other day shook me a bit, and I just made a few realizations about it as it pertains to me. I'm fine though. Thank you Cal." I leaned down to kiss her softly, and she melted into me, relief evident in her body language. I pulled back from her lips but kept hold of her. Having her here with me was nice. Life affirming I guess, or whatever you would call it. But eventually I had to let go and step back.

She seemed to realize when I did where we were and she flushed. She looked around, seeing that we happily hadn't drawn much attention because no one cared what we were doing. "I'm glad you're ok. As for the rest...yeah. Honestly that whole thing shook me too. Like...what are we? Are we still people? And if we are, when do we stop being people? Can we prevent ourselves from losing that? Should we even try? The ramifications of recursion get kind of terrifying when you think about them."

She shivered lightly, and I put and arm over her shoulder as I took my place next to her again. "You know whose problem that sounds like? The future versions of us. They can figure it out. Stop trying to sabotage my living in the moment, I work really hard at it." I winked at her and she giggled a bit at my ridiculousness. Then I kissed her again. "Can you live in the moment with me? Or do I have to go figure out where your head is at and drag you back here myself? Because I can do that." I poked her in the side like she'd done me, earning an adorable squeak that caused her to look mortified as soon as she made it.

She smacked my hand away with a playful scowl. "Alright you giant goon, fine. I'll live in the moment with you. Just stop poking me." Then she smiled sweetly and snuggled up against my side. "Come on, lets go sign up for this place. Benny is hopping foot to foot like a kid who needs to use that bathroom, and if we keep ignoring him he's probably going to break down and cry." She shot a side ways glance at my now appalled best friend, and I grinned at her.

Benny had absolutely been about to start harassing us, though I thought it was less wanting attention and more nervousness about us all not being on our guard. His offended expression made even Cark burst out laughing though, and we all headed for the counter deeper into the room where the receptionist was waiting, leaving him stammering with offense behind us. I looked solemnly down at Callie. "I think you broke him. Don't get used to this. Making him shut up is a rare and wonderful thing, but it isn't something that can be planned, only obtained by chance."

She cracked up at my serious delivery. When we finally got to the counter we were all in a much more relaxed mood, which I think was a good thing. Infiltrating any place I could think of would go smoother without having to deal with being all tense and suspicious. It's easier to stay unnoticed when you aren't drawing attention to yourself by being super twitchy and obvious about hiding something.

As we had crossed the room I had to take the time to marvel at the decor. The walls were the same white marble as the rest of the building, but something about the dimensions of the room changed the feel when you looked at the material. From the outside, it was sacrosanct, like a temple, and the white stone was pristine and gave a feeling inviolability. Inside though, through some trick of the angles and furnishing, that same marble made the place seem welcoming, homey almost. Whoever the architect who designed this place was, he was demonstrably fantastic at his job.

The woman at the desk was also...interesting. She was about five foot six or so, with close cropped black hair that was purple at the ends and black lipstick. Her nose and eyebrow were pieced and she was actually kind of cute in a girl next door way, though it was obvious she was working very hard to avoid that impression. She was reading a magazine, looking bored, when we made it to the counter, and we had to knock on the countertop to get her attention. When she finally looked up, it was with annoyance. "What?"

I wondered why they would put someone with people skills like that on the counter, but that wasn't my business or my problem, so I just mentally shrugged it off. Cark, knowing this would mostly be up to him, stepped forward with an easy smile. "Hi there. I'm here to sign up for the Flame Riot Militia? I know you all usually do this in the other districts, but I thought I might be able to skip the line if I came down here myself." He shot her a wink, raising a hand to call a ball of blue flame into existence.

The girl's bored expression melted into interest, though I couldn't tell if it was the bounty hunter's flirting or his ability that caught her eye. "Well then. That's a whole different issue. Pyro's are pretty rare. I can definitely get you a meeting with someone." She leaned forward, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "Most people probably couldn't, but I'm kind of a big deal around here." She held out a hand to him, which he took, kissing the back of her hand gallantly. "I'm Sage by the way."

He gave her a dazzling smile, giving her his first name rather than his usual moniker, which I kind of understood, and I made a mental note to apologize to Benny for Callie and I flirting all the time. He was right, sitting here through this was annoying. I cleared my throat and Sage pulled her hand away, making sure to bump her scan ring against Cark's as she pulled free of his loosely gripping hand. She turned to us, her semi uncaring expression reasserting itself, though with a more polite cast. "Oh, sorry about that. We don't usually recruit here like he said, but really important people sometimes come down to sign up at this branch. Being able to get down here is kind of a test, not to mention being a pyro is a surefire way to get a meeting. If you guys take a seat I can call this up."

We all nodded in relief, and I wondered if Callie had known about people being able to sign up in the branches here. I honestly hadn't even considered that they might not accept applications down here, but now that I thought question it I felt stupid for not wondering about that. Callie didn't seem worried or surprised at all though, so I guessed she had looked into that already. I was glad she was the one making the plans, because I clearly didn't have a head for all this political shit.

While Sage left to set everything up, we all sat down in some of the chairs lining the walls. Made from rich, dark wood, the chairs lined each side of the entry hall, sitting on either side of the wide, plush carpet that led from the open double doors of the entryway to the desk we'd just come from. The chairs were a polished dark wood with white cushions that were surprisingly comfortable for how thin they were.

We all sat comfortably, chatting as we waited, and the three of us teased Cark a bit about the girl's obvious interest, but he just grinned shamelessly and shrugged it off. I got the feeling he was used to it. The rest of the time we just chatted about what we'd seen so far, trying to avoid any sensitive topics. We were probably being watched, and none of us needed Callie to mention that we shouldn't talk about our business here where people might catch us.

Finally though, Sage came back. She was escorting a small red haired man, with warm brown eyes and an easy smile. He was a literal foot shorter than me, but he wasn't making any effort at all to hide his Impact. Just from his presence, it was obvious we were dealing with an E ranker, and I only knew one of those in the Flame Riot Militia. He was considered the strongest person in the gang and their undisputed leader. I saw the others come to the same conclusion, and I wondered if he was planning to do something to us. Had we been figured out somehow? Was the other candidate here?

Burning Fist, one of the hundred strongest people on the entire planet, grinned down at us pleasantly, not a sign of violence of unhappiness in his eyes as he completely ignored both Callie and I and focused on the relaxed form of Cark. "Well now, my daughter said we had a blue flame pyro on our doorstep looking to sign up. I haven't seen a new one of you in a dogs age." He stepped back, gesturing us all through a side door he had just come out of. "Please, come in, and bring your friends." I felt myself relax internally. Oh. He was just scouting Cark. Well damn, maybe this plan would work after all.