Are You Her?

Participants:

des2_icon.gif eve2_icon.gif lynette_icon.gif

Scene Title Are You Her?
Synopsis Making sense of what's been seen only brings up more questions.
Date March 10, 2018

The Benchmark Recovery and Counseling Center

Benchmark is a tall, red brick building renovated into a rehab facility. The first floor holds doctors' offices, reception, waiting areas and conference rooms. The lobby is warm and inviting, with a rust-colored design scheme and paintings of calm oceans and pristine beaches. The common areas follow this design, but each doctor has designed their own offices to their own tastes. The upper floors holds dorm-style rooms, split for two occupants per room. Each floor has a communal shower/bathroom. Very dorm-like. Freshman dorms. There is one room on each floor for an employee assigned to that floor, as a communication point for the clients and semi-guard for them, too. This room is more self-contained and the employees are not expected to use the same facilities as the client.

The top floor is different, set up more like an apartment building, where people come to live. These are typically ex-Ferrymen or the like who need a place to stay and are willing to exchange room and board for some work maintaining the building. They do not interact with the clients. The doctors are also welcome to stay in these apartments, but most choose not to.


Lynette sits on the floor in the common room with the radio playing in the background, paperwork spread across the coffeetable, and a pen tapping against the papers. Sure, she has an office she could be doing this in, but it is all the way downstairs and she's not ready to go down there just yet. Down there is work, up here is home.

Coffee has been made, a luxury she's going to enjoy for as long as she can before the shortage takes it. Although, perhaps she's hoping the shortage will be solved and she won't have to worry about her coffee. Maybe her dad will send her something. That thought is jotted down in the corner of one piece of paper.

Des, now back to her senses, makes her way into the common room. She's changed out of her pyjamas and into a grey trapeze dress with a collar that comes up to her chin, a pair of black leggings beneath tucked into flat yellow shoes. "Am… I interrupting?" she asks at the sight of Lynette and her paperwork. "I was hoping to play."

The piano is gestured toward with one hand. The other is balling up the fabric of her dress at one side nervously. While she trusts Lynette, and knows she's safe here, she still feels like an intruder in her space. Like an outsider.

Out down the hall near the front doors is the sound of feet slamming on the floor. A nearby worker blinks, "Hi- Miss Mas are you okay?" The worker doesn't get a reply as a blur of midnight dark hair and a dark gold dress whizzes past him. The seer's light gray eyes wide as she slams into the wall of the hallway blinking as if disoriented. "Let me in. Let me in. Let me in." she says over and over again as she looks this way and that way, before the worker can come to her, she pushes herself off the wall and lunges into the doorway leading into the common area.

"Letmeinletmeinletmein."

Eve's hands are bandaged, blood is fresh and collecting in the wads of cloth wrapped around both palms, Eimi had helped her clean up the mess and get her wrapped up. Her pale fingers are stained with red but that would seem like it was paint which would explain the multiple tubes of rolled up paintings she has slung over her back. "LYNETTE!" It is rare that Eve calls her or anyone really be their legal name. When she does, it's usually a sign that things aren't good. "I.. The triangle.. THe.." she gulps as she skids to a stop and her gaze comes to rest on Des. It's.. not the blonde she saw in her dream, the blonde she painted. But those eyes. Eve's mouth drops open as she screams from deep in her belly, wailing with tears in her eyes as she shoves herself back into the wall her expression one of terror.

Des flickers in front of her, one moment she's the woman turning the dial in her dream and then the next she's the brunette with glasses in front of her. Eve's scream continues.

When Des enters, Lynette looks up from her papers, a hand moving to smooth her hair. "No no, of course not. Come in," she says with an easy smile. "I long for the distraction." The common room isn't a good place for solitude, after all. "And by all means, play." She gets up to her feet to go turn the radio off. Which is where she is when she hears Eve.

Well, she wanted a distraction.

"Eve?" Concern is evident in her voice and in the way she rushes from the radio to the precog. "Eve!" The use of her name is not good. The screaming is worse. But Lynette comes to her, putting her hands on Eve's face. "Look at me. It's Lynette, hunny. You're okay. You're safe." These are all familiar words. She tries to bring Eve out of her own head, her own visions, using herself to ground her. "You're at the Benchmark. Everything's okay."

She spares a look over to Des, and it's an apologetic one. "I'm so sorry. Her ability— " It's difficult, obviously. Lynette might be starting a collection.

Des staggers backward when the seeress looks at her and starts screaming. That's not an entirely unexpected reaction. Fear of recognition has been at the front of her mind ever since she returned to New York. It would stand to reason that her luck would run out eventually.

A shaky nod is given to Lynette's explanation. She of all people can understand that, but her eyes are still wide and fearful behind her large red glasses as she looks at Eve. "Please, please don't scream. It's gonna be okay. Everybody's safe here."

The screaming stops as Lynette claps her hands over Eve's face and tries to calm her. The seeress blinks and looks from Des to Lynette, she starts to become aware of her surroundings again and her eyes narrow, "Who's this bitch?"

"Are you her?!"

The dark haired woman would try to lunge for Des but Lynette is in the way. She's against the wall, eyes wide. "ARE YOU HER?!" The seer shakes herself free and grabs one of the paintings from the tube. Pulling it out fast a few splotches of her blood on the back of the canvas, she unrolls it to show.

A woman that looks just like Des, but not. She's pounding on the surface of triangle of light and static, blonde. There's an expanse of water behind her, seemingly unending. An old radio tower floats behind her. Seagulls fly in circles around it. The woman's expression, no Des' expression is one of horror. She's trying to get out.

"Let me innnnnn, let me in." She moans the last one out and sags against the wall.

"Eve. Stop." Lynette frowns at that first question, and definitely stays in the way before Eve does anything to her other guest. "You don't have to answer her," she says to Des. When Eve gets free of her, she still angles herself between them and keeps herself close to the seer. The painting unrolls and she steps closer to look at it.

It does look like Des, but Lynette doesn't echo Eve's question. Instead, she comes over to where Eve sags and slides an arm around her. "Come on, Eve, come sit. Let me clean you up. You're hurt," she says, turning to the practical matters before the more troubling ones. "We'll get you some water and you can try to relax. Okay?" She knows not to dismiss Eve's visions, the things she knows, but she'll get to it in a moment. After she's taken care of Eve.

While Lynette supports Eve, Des hurries over to the kitchen area to fetch that water. The image from the painting is burned into her mind already. She knows exactly what all of that is. The triangle, the tower, all of it.

She doesn't approach right away, standing at the counter with the glass of water in her hand, trying to decide if it's safe. She can hold her own, but she'd rather not be attacked, and Eve looks like she might attack. "It's…" Des sighs softly. "That's me, but it isn't. It's one of the other versions of me. From another timeline." She looks to Lynette, shrugging one shoulder slightly. This is what she was talking about before.

The mad woman breathes deeply as she looks from Des to Lynette and back and forth. Her eyes close as she slams the back of her head against the wall. "Let me out. I have.. to let her out. We have too.." She snaps quiet and pulls in a breath before whispering to them both, "She can see me. Eye to eye."

As Des returns, she would notice the fight has momentarily left her. She reaches with a shaky hand for the water. "The other river," She locks eyes with Lynette. "We've lost an otter to another river, down he goes. All alone." Eve's eyes grow wide, "You aren't her, you are her." this time said softly and in disbelief.

Slowly, Eve unrolls a few more of the rolled up paintings. The first of her seemingly except she has irises the color of molten steel, her raven dark hair a nimbus above her as her nude body steps on water. The half helix symbol on her chest.

The next few show familiar faces to the two women. Richard Ray and Tamara pounding against the triangle. Wanting to get out. The landscapes behind them different from the one behind Des' doppelganger.

The last one she places on the crowd is of Mateo, not an otter as usual. Instead it's his own face turned toward the swirling black abyss behind him. Stepping in.

"Let me out." She whispers.

Lynette helps Eve down, then stands up to check on Des. Since this has been a tense introduction so far. "Thank you," she says when she sees her getting the water. And she waves her over when it's clearer for her to come close.

"Oh," she says to the explanation, which is a mild reaction, but she hasn't worked out what is the proper way to respond to all this cross-timeline trouble that she keeps standing witness to. "You know which one," she observes, since Des is connected to her other selves. She lets out a sigh and sits on top of her paperwork to look at Eve.

Ration schedules will be waiting for later.

"She's not going to hurt you, Eve. You're safe here. You know I'll fry the shit out of anyone who tries to hurt you." It's said in a soothing voice, reassuring, even if the content is unquestionably violent. When the other paintings come out, she looks down at them, at the different backgrounds, at their faces, at the triangles. The one she picks up is Mateo's, though. It worries her. She tries to hide it, but she can't completely erase it from her face. Her finger moves to trace the swirls of El Umbral.

"Eve, I'm not sure it's a good idea to let anyone out," she ends up saying simply. "What can we do? Even if we could open a door and bring them through, are we supposed to do with them? Keep them here? Give them an island somewhere?"

Des hands Eve the glass of water and looks over the paintings with open curiosity. "I know these people…" Her hand finds Lynette's shoulder as they both study the image of Mateo, giving a reassuring squeeze.

"Each of these is a different timeline," Des says knowingly. She has no way of truly knowing, but there's a familiarity she can't put into words. Some sort of innate knowledge. "That triangle is — I think — the Looking Glass. It can see across timelines." After a heavy sigh, she turns her attention to Eve. "You keep saying that…" Her eyes close for a moment, remembering a sensation behind them when she heard those words.

Let me in.

Blue eyes open again behind large glasses. "I've heard that voice too."

"If we don't.. I think she'll be mad." Eve sips her water but she's rocking back and forth a few splashes if water get on her dress but she doesn't notice. She has calmed down but not totally. She grips Lynette's hand at her comforting words with a nod, she knows Lynette and a whole host of deadly women would come to her aid. But the voice…

Then Des is explaining more of what Eve has been seeing and she nods her head. "Richard.. my other Sister Seer. They're in different rivers," She leans forward a wild look in her eyes. "They connect," she taps her foot. "How do you.." she locks eyes with Odessa. "She sounds so powerful…"

"You've talked to her?"

"That makes sense to me," Lynette says, as far as each being its own timeline. "Why do they want to get out? How do they know they can? Is this all common knowledge in all the other timelines? That it's possible to jump from one to the other? Are we supposed to know this?" She has more questions, but those are the only ones she voices before she reaches up to squeeze Des' hand. "The Looking Glass?"

Something else Des says gets her attention, too, and she lifts an eyebrow. Hearing voices isn't so strange for Evolved, though. She looks back to Eve to see her reaction. She doesn't like it.

"Who is she, Eve?" Before Lynette worries about making her mad or not, that is the important question.

"I don't know if people know it. Not unless they can see across like I can. The other me, in the Flood? I saw her sitting in front of the Looking Glass. It's like an old television," Des explains, thinking it sounds crazy even in her own ears. "But the screen only shows static. But you can hear. I heard things from other timelines from her Looking Glass. And I think Richard and I have seen footage of a prototype of it from our world."

As to who she is, Des shakes her head. "I don't know. Eve, be careful. I think you're right - she'll be mad if we don't let her in. But… I think I've let her in before." Shoulders grow tense as she recalls the mangled corpses all over what should have been a quaint home. "I don't think it's a good thing."

"I think she wants out Lady Zeus.." Eve looks scared and her eyes go far away as she remembers more of her dream. "You can see through the Looking Glass?"

Eve looks at the other woman for a moment in a different respect, "Who are you?"

"Name Miss."

The seer grips Lynette's hand tighter. "But what if she knocks us down? All to come here." That Des has let her in before makes Eve shudder. "How did this happen?" She looks scared.

"So another you can hear other timelines. And you can feel a connection to the other versions of you, at least some of them. And something wants us to let her out of one timeline and into another?" That Des let her in before gets a frown from Lynette. "Is that what happened to you?"

Because Des was sorta… out of it. For a bit.

Lynette looks back to the paintings, her gaze drifting to the self portrait. "What's going on with your eyes here, Eve? They white over, they don't turn all…" She waves a hand that way, because she's not really sure what to call it. But then she looks back to the painting in her hands. Her expression turns sadder then. She knows this isn't her Mateo, but she sometimes feels like they all are. Or that she is theirs. Or that some version of her and some version of him always meet. Even if it's sometimes as enemies, like the book says. "She's going to use him."

That's one of those things she can't know, but seems to know on some level anyway.

"We can't let that happen." Her tone is dark there, because the levels she would go to to protect him are deep and dangerous indeed. Levels she's already been to in her past. Places she would like to not revisit, but would in a heartbeat. For him.

"That's… really well put, actually." Des lifts her brows, impressed with Lynette's summary of the situation. But her expression quickly goes apprehensive again, and she lets out a shaky exhale as she looks to Eve. "I think I am the Looking Glass," she admits. There may be a device out there somewhere in their timeline that can look through the barrier between worlds, but she is a living, breathing connection to at least the most immediately adjacent ones. Or… so she speculates.

"She won't have him," Des assures Lynette, her hand squeezing her shoulder again reassuringly. "I won't let her." Even if it means giving herself over. Again, she thinks.

Eve's question hasn't been ignored, but the answer is something that's been mulled over silently. "I'm called Desdemona — Des. The other versions of me go by other names." This is a dangerous game she's playing, and she knows it. The more people question her identity, the more precarious her situation becomes.

"I will flay the backs of any creature who try. I will smash the eyeballs of them," Eve stands up suddenly her water glass on the table and she puts a hand on her hips. "I will eat the things they don't want me too." She's rather proud of that statement there. "They better not fuck with Otter Eyes." There's a finger waving in the air. It would seem she is now united with Des in something and not just freaked out by her. "A girl has many names. Which ones the one!"

Eve claps her hand and nods, "I bet one of mine goes by Kendra or some shit." She waves a hand out in front of her, the scare gone she's returning to her old self. "Listen, I think she's me, but not just me." That explains it. "Maybe I have a twin."

"Or maybe I'm a metaphor."

"My brainpan thinks.. this lady wants to knock the window out." She points at Des, "Des, if you see her run!" A beat, "She sounds like if you don't answer her call she'll blow your house down though." And everyone in it.

"It's very sad that I can reason through things like this now," Lynette says dryly. O, for the days when the multiverse would make her dizzy. Even the declaration that she herself is the Looking Glass doesn't get more than a blink. "Well, I suppose you are, since you're connected. The other you is listening to a device that replicates what you are and perhaps it works because… you work? Hmm." She lets it go with a sigh, though, and nods to Des instead. "So how do we protect you? If 'she' can use you— has used you, perhaps— then you're the one in the most danger."

Eve's declaration gets a warm smile, particularly when she mentions eating all of the things. "Just so long as the things you are eating are actually edible. And not human ears." Caveats. "You probably are a metaphor," she notes, at least as far as the painting goes, "You said she sees you eye to eye?" How better than being her mirror? Her twin.

"If she wants to blow the house down," she notes, "we'll just have to get storm windows."

"I think I have to allow her," Des reasons. But she doesn't know. She can't remember how it happened, just knows that it did. But maybe, in her panic about being separated from her brother, she heard the whisper of power and allowed it to take hold of her. She wants to believe she had a choice, and that she was just a little girl who didn't know better.

The glasses are pulled off her face so she can rub a hand over her closed eyelids, expression momentarily frustrated. "It makes sense," she agrees. "Maybe she can see us from the other side of the Looking Glass." The mirror.

"I need to find a better way to unlock my memor…ies." A realization comes over Des and she lifts her head slowly, but doesn't look at either of the two women. Sliding her glasses back on, she lets out a heavy breath and then shakes her head quickly, like she's dismissing a thought. "So what you've seen here, Eve, hasn't come to be yet?"

"I don't know I don't know. Who she is, maybe she's a friend in need." In need of them. "Storm windows should be good. Maybe we can hire a forcefield dude! You know, green hands," Eve's eyes narrow as she stares in the space between the woman. "Maybe she can see us through the mirror. Maybe you're… beacon. A beacon. It's blinking. Doink doink." She flashes her hands to go with the doinks.

Eve's eyes close as she shakes her head, "It hasn't." The older woman's eyes snap open and she stares at the ground. "But if you've seen her… some of it has happened. Maybe she's going to get closer." The possibilities that come with dreaming the future and the paintings that ensue are confusing and many and she can't always know what's what. Sometimes her intuition is spot on with her ability, other times she hits a wall. Of this dream…

"I believe… if you've seen her before… and recently… you'll see her again and soon. But closer, right near your ear. Maybe you should hide." But Eve thinks that this woman could find them anywhere.

"Should we go where they made it? The Proto-you?"

"I don't think she's a friend, Eve." Lynette is pretty sure about that. And as Eve speaks, a knot of fear and anxiety grows in Lynette's chest, pressing down against her ribs, threatening to crush her. So she stands. Sharply. Her hands roll up the painting of Mateo and she takes it with her when she crosses the room to pull the first aid kit out of a cabinet. Like she might be able to stop what's happening there if she doesn't leave it behind.

Her hand braces flat against the counter and she looks down at her feet. "I should call Brad," she murmurs to herself. But it will have to wait. She picks up the kit and crosses back over. The painting goes across her lap when she sits, so she can use both hands as she starts to clean the blood off of Eve. "How would we even find it?"

Des' flavor of crazy isn't the speaking-in-riddles kind, so she glances between Eve and Lynette for a moment. "Proto-you? Can… Can someone translate that one for me? What is sh-" She stops herself. Talking about Eve like she's not in the room isn't very polite, and the woman does seem capable of explaining herself. "What do you mean?"

A worried glance is cast to Lynette. She feels the concern for Mateo keenly. Or maybe it's just her own that she feels. She wants to tell her that it's going to be all right. That between the two of them, nothing and nobody will get to Mateo. But after what she went through in her own mind, Des isn't so sure that's true anymore. Her power has been called into question, and that's an unsettling feeling.

"Oh oh. You said a prototype Looking Glass. We must go there." Eve's eyes go so unfocused they cross as Lynette cleans her hands, "Thank you," theres a Sorry in there and her eyes say it all to her blonde friend. She knows her behavior is a lot but.

"Do you have something that can.. help me connect to that.. machine? An item.. photo.. Hm.. I can induce a vision.. it might give us insight."

Whether they really want that insight is the question.

Lynette is gentle with Eve, both as she cleans her up and when she responds to that thanks. And the unspoken apology. She leans over to give her a kiss on the forehead. And then she leans back to bandage her up properly.

"Des, you said you and Richard saw footage of it? Of the prototype?" She looks over at the doctor, her eyebrows lifted in question. She's not sure she wants the insight, but she knows ignoring this particular issue is not going to make it go away. "Maybe if Eve were able to see it, even just a clip of it? That would probably do."

"I think that could be arranged. Especially if Eve is willing to offer a painting in exchange." Des has seen Richard's collection and suspects another would be a sufficient exchange of knowledge. "I'm not sure you want to connect to the machine, though, Eve…"

She frowns and sits down to face the precog. "I know you know there are some things people aren't meant to see," she begins gently, "but if you wound up connecting with your other selves, and their ability… I don't think the results would be good."

She takes all this in and looks to Lynette and then Des with a shudder. "Paradox." And that wouldn't be a good thing. The oracle tilts her head and then nods. "I would like to see the traveler. It has been some time." The traveler. "A painting it shall be. He'll want his anyway. But another, yes."

It's a fair exchange.

"Maybe it has to be destroyed." Not Des, the machine. "We'll know when we see.. hopefully." It's not always clear.

"I'll connect to it," Lynette says, "My ability isn't like Eve's, so it would hardly matter if me and myselves saw one another. And she doesn't know me, so maybe I'll slip by under the radar." Not like the beacons here with her. "If we manage to find it."

She stands up again, now that Eve is patched up. "I need to make a call. I'll just be out in the hall, so shout if you need me." She pulls her phone out of her pocket as she steps away from the other two and she pulls up Brad Russo's info before she puts it to her ear and steps out of the room.

"That… might work," Des reasons of Lynette's solution. "We'll have to think on it. We may not even find the thing. But… We can try." She offers a reassuring smile. Ignoring the mystery won't make it go away and it won't make any of them safe, so Des is prepared to chase it down.

And she has an idea on how to do that. Only once Lynette has left the room does Des lean in to whisper conspiratorially to Eve. "I think I know what we can do to unlock my memories and find some answers. Do you want to go with me to find Richard?"

There's a blink and then it's as if Des' words unlock something in Eve and she grins. "Well, Dorothy." Extending her arm to put it through Des' arm. There's that wicked grin on her face with the wild look in her eyes. In the moments that lead up to this moment Eve thinks about the implications of what they're all trying to do. But.. well this sounds like…

"Shall we go on an adventure?"


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