A Shadow Of His Former Self

Participants:

abby_icon.gif cardinal3_icon.gif

Scene Title A Shadow Of His Former Self
Synopsis Message received, Abby tells Cardinal what she's surmised and found and wants to know what he thinks she should do. Tell everyone of course, is the answer. She's also a bit taken aback by his state.
Date March 2, 2010

Back of an Ambulance


Another day starts, a message given to Liz to get a hold of Richard for her and let him know she needs to talk to him. She's scared, very scared. She also has plans, ones that include the bag filled with vials for holding blood to be tested and ice packs to crack and keep blood cold till she figures out where to stash it. Probably run it by a Ferry facility. She'll get peter's help later to do it all, before they get off shift.

For now, she's got a box full of supplies from the depot, ambulance doors closed and in work early to stock her rig from the previous riders and make sure things are clean. Blonde hair back and up, uniform and jacket, stethoscope worn around her neck like a stole. Probably not the sight that Cardinal ever expected to see the blonde. There's no singing, no tapping of her feet to an unseen tune, she's serious today and that alone will probably tip off her rig mate.

Of course, Richard's been there for a little while. He just hasn't spoken up until she was alone. Once he's certain that she is, the darkness creeps from the corners of the ambulance, threads of tattered, ripped shadow spilling over its floor and spilling across her feet. After a few moments, he speaks - not quite the familiar voice, more hollow, distant, wavering in and out of volume like an ill-powered radio, and echoing now and then. Not always quite the same words first spoken.

"Hello, Abigail." Abigail…

Richard? "Richard?" She has to look around, instinctively looking for the bird that he tends to adopt the shape of when they interact and he's not corporeal. The shadow she does find though, it also instinctively brings about a worried look. "Well, if you don't look a sight for sore eye's, flapping there in the breeze" Not that there's a breeze. "Liz said you were back. Worse for wear, but you were back"

"What's left of me, anyway…" A hollow chuckle stirs from her feet, the shredded darkness indeed fluttering faintly as if there was a breeze anyhow, torn bits drifting away only to be gathered back into the whole, "…it's good to see you." See you…

"well, that part of you just fluttered,d but its' gone back so.. give it time maybe? You'll be a whole new man" Maybe, there's hope in her voice. "I'm glad you came listen.. there's something wrong, and I don't know who to go to. I really don't. I'll give this to the ferry too, they need to know and i'll leave a copy of the files at the bar for you to send someone by to get them" because quite obviously, Cardinal wasn't walking off with them. "That H5N10 Evolved affecting strain.. Richard, I think it's the shanti virus"

"Maybe. Maybe…" Maybe… Then there's that revelation, and even the fluttering darkness stills in shock for a long, silent moment, before spreading across the floor like a shotgun blast of black across the ambulance. "Shanti… fucking bloody hell— !" Slowly, he begins to drag himself back together, "What— who— how did you find out?" Find out…?

"lets just say, the headline of the paper and the words of seldom seen friend. I was up all night Richard, just comparing pictures of the catabase shanti and what Rebel put up, they had microbiology classes that we had to attend, it's.. it's not the shanti virus, not the strain that the company had or even the one that Kazimir was fiddling with, but it's related there's enough similarities, that it's scaring me. How many other viruses do you know of Richard that have a devesating an effect on evo's? This new flu, that's.. that's not the symptoms of flu, it doesn't pick on just evolveds"

"None. None, I… my god. The scientists. What if that's what they've been working on…?" Zimmerman, Gregor… The echoes conspire amongst each other, whispering like gossips in the distance as Cardinal nearly snarls out, "Damn them. I'll have word spread throughout the community…" Community…
"I'm going to have peter take a bunch of Blood Richard. I'll spread it out over the week. Before Kazimir and the bridge, Teo brought home some of the anti-virus. He gave it to me as a safe-guard in case we failed. If that is a strain of the shanti, maybe someone you know, maybe someone in the Ferry can find a way, I dunno to use the antibodies in it, to protect people. I was thinking of giving this to Parkman too"

"It isn't the same strain, but it couldn't hurt…" Couldn't hurt… The shadowman's finally beginning to get a hold of himself, drawing himself back into himself, "…damn it. We need to get a sample of this new strain, so someone can get to work on it…" Work on it…

'Couldn't hurt. Might give people a chance, might give those who are evolved and afflicted, Richard, a chance to not loose their ability" Because she can't imagine someone else going through what she did. "I can't get my hands on the new stuff, I'm just an ambulance driver and glorified assistant to my partner" She wishes she could get her hands on it.

"If this is really what it is… this is bad, Abigail. This is… all kinds of bad…" Very, very bad… Cardinal falls silent for a moment, "I'll make sure to spread the word that this may be what it is."

"Richard, I haven't been awake all night for nothing. I killed a man to make sure this didn't happen and now…" And now, it's happening and the cocktail in her blood may or may not protect her if it mutates into a strain that kills both humans and evo's. "I'll give the information to the ferry, spread it as far as we can"

"We can hope." A roil of Cardinal's shadows, "I should go let them know at the library. I'll start the network moving…" Moving…

"Okay. Just send someone to the bar Richard" She leans forward, letting her fingers run through the shadow as if she could actually touch it. "Little war torn. Worse than I looked after Ethan was done with me. But you'll be .. you, some day Richard" She says softly, quietly and sadly. "some day. You should get going before my partner gets here and thinks I'm talking to myself

Richard Cardinal doesn't say anything as he's 'reassured' by the young woman, the shadowy substance of his being briefly playing over her hand - although she can't feel it - before falling away in tatters. "I will. Be well, Abigail…" Abigail..

"You too Richard, God bless" She murmurs to the shadow, opting to sit quiet and watch him go off and do his business, however men stuck in shadow forms do their business. She'll also shed a tear to two, for the state the man is in. A shadow, quite literally, of his former self.


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License