Participants:
| Scene Title | Coming To Frution |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elisabeth reveals that the long awaited project will become reality very soon, news that leads around to deeper topics. |
| Date | August 18, 2011 |
Skinny Brickfront : Endgame Safehouse
The only muting that is being done is to keep the music in the basement. Elisabeth told anyone who was present in the building to pop downstairs for an impromptu meeting at 9:30 in the evening. After curfew. And frankly… she's got a sparkle to her eyes all day today that hasn't been there in ages. As the group begins to trickle down the stairs, halfway down it is literally like walking into a wall of music. It's cranked up loud enough to let Elisabeth launch her voice up and over it.
"~Now I'm all in, I'm all in for life…~"
The beat of Lifehouse is … contagious sometimes.
"~There's no taking back what we've got, it's too strong, we've had each other's backs for too long there's no breaking up this time.~
"~And you know it's okay, I came to my senses, let go of my defenses, there's no way I'm giving up this time.~
"~I'm all in, nothing left to hide, I'm all in, falling like a landslide…~"
The blonde with the purple, blue, and pink streaks is in rare form. Actually… happy, it looks like. She looks up as the group completes the descent not bothering to stop singing until she hits the bridge. And only then does she grin. "Hey there."
Trask comes down the steps his foot seems to be tapping to the music even before fully inside the bubble as his own bubble kisses hers and deforms it in one part of the edge. He smiles seeing Liz in such a good mood and says nothing to bring her attention to his presence, just takes a spot on one wall and listens.
Jaiden was down there with Lizzie while she sang her song. Getting that piano down here was a chore, and getting it tuned using a pair of vice grips and an iPhone app he downloaded took some time. Sure, the C is a little sharp and a D is a little flat, but hey, at least she can play. He's sitting on the ground next to the piano, rocking back and forth in time with the music. If he had a pipe clenched in his teeth, he'd be a little more comfortable since it would be so anachronistic, but he's happy just to be here. "Hey there, Trask." Jaiden waves to the man, reaching over with one hand to pat Lizzie's knee. "We'll be sure to get one of these once we get out of here."
Long sleeves cover the telepath's arms, and a pair of shapely jeans that don't look too designer. Remi apparently has decided that the dark hair didn't suit her, as is evidenced by the new color in her hair. Her hair is now a soft blonde color, sporting curls that she normally doesn't allow to show through. She definitely doesn't look like she did with her dark hair, nor does she look like she does with her natural red hair.
As she passes Trask, she flinches, and her steps speed up. She doesn't stick around him for long, making it a point to get as far away from him as she can, all the while frowning on him. Something is muttered in French, as the woman slides up to a wall to lean against it.
Hoodie and jeans despite the fine weather of the day, Devon comes down the stairs slowly. Hands rest in the pocket of his sweatshirt, and shoes make a light thumping as he descends into the basement. A nod goes to Jaiden and Liz and Trask, and a wary look at Remi. His shoulders hunch slightly as he reaches the floor, eyes slanting to the floor briefly then angling off toward Elisabeth and the piano, before he takes up a place nearish the stairs.
Turning the music down, the back beat lowering to a nearly inaudible volume, Elisabeth smiles at the group. "You know what? You're a bunch of morose people when you should be celebrating. So… everyone get a grip, please. Because it's time. It's probably the last thing we're going to be able to pull off, and I think we're just about ready to go. I've put the video into Phillip's hands. It'll hit the airwaves soon."
Trask frowns a little "I am not sure how much I like the sound of that whole last thing bit. And I am afriad I've been out for a little while working on running the Wray leads down so not sure what the video is?" He then smiles just a little at her enthusiasm though.
"It's not a bad thing, Trask, I assure you. It's just one of those high-profile things that make us doing other things a little more dicey. But it's a thing that's game changing enough to be worthwhile." Jaiden grins and levers to his feet, bending to give Elisabeth a kiss on the cheek before grinning over at Remi as she leans alone against the wall. He leans against the piano now, nodding to Elisabeth. "Any idea when the shoe drops?"
Blue eyes turn toward Devon as he arrives, Remi's face remaining unreadable. She instead turns, peering quietly at Liz with her head tilted to one side. Brows raise for a moment, then the telepath lurks over toward Jaiden, quietly nudging up against him to wrap an arm around his waist. A simple touch is enough for her to figure things out without needing an explanation. Still, she remains silent, idly pushing her now-blonde hair away from her face.
Remi doesn't stray too far from Jaiden's side once she reaches him, instead keeping close. Nor does she utter a single sound.
A grin is mustered, not much of anything really, but Devon puts forth an effort to the good news. A glance ticks toward Remi as she moves, and less than a second later he turns his head a fraction and looks at Trask. "It's something Elisabeth's been working on for a while," he adds to Jaiden's explanation, facing Elisabeth next as though asking how much he should say about the project. "Something to hopefully make people reconsider all the government's decisions involving the Evolved."
Elisabeth's chin comes up. "Endgame as it was set up originally was Richard's baby. As its name implies, it was intended to be… his gambit, with those of us who followed him, to try to take down the Institute and Humanis First in the bargain." She pauses and admits, "I'm not that kind of strategist. I'm not… a chess player. And frankly, after seeing what that bullshit did to Richard in a future I pray to God we're derailing even as we speak… I wouldn't want to be. I'm sending the information we have on Georgia Mayes public far, far sooner than it would have gone in their timeline. Because I think enough has changed that this could be a pivotal first domino in taking down her, the rest of her Humanis First cell, and ultimately a way…. to at least make them start paying attention. The only other goal that I have for us as a group besides survival is a possible attempt to remove the ALIA intelligence from their grasp somehow. That part we haven't made a lot of progress on, but …. this part, I think we have enough footage to start making it very uncomfortable. To start serious public investigations." She looks at them all and smiles a little. "I know… that you're all tired of hiding, and I'm sorry. I wish… that I had better ideas, more long-term plans. But …. I have always said I was not the brains of this outfit. And with Richard's removal to wherever or whenever the hell he is… I cannot attempt to follow through on his plans. I don't even know what they may have been."
Trask just listens notating what she says, he makes sure to keep just oput of range of both Liz, and Remi. The first for security reasons to keep her own defenses up, the second because of his obvious effect on her. He has moved at this point to cover the most people possible without over lapping the two of them.
"You're doing fine, Lizzie." Jaiden says from his spot over next to Remi, giving her shoulder a light squeeze, doing his best to think positive thoughts because, hey, it helps to think positive. "You were put in charge of a ship without a rudder and have managed, quite skillfully, to steer us in a direction that gets us closer to a worthwhile goal." Jaiden pauses for a moment. "What do you want to do with Steve the Robot? Mail him to the New York Times in a FedEX box and watch the feathers fly?"
The telepath listens to Liz intently, quietly moving to rest her head against Jaiden's shoulder. Blue eyes travel across each face in the room, nodding quietly along. As Jaiden offers his reassuring words, she turns to peer at Elisabeth, allowing a faint smile to form on her features. "Oui, I agree with Jaiden. You 'ave done remarkably well." She tips her head toward the woman, while squeezing Jaiden's waist in return to his squeeze of her shoulder.
"I don't think it's a good idea to just give it away," the teenager states more firmly than he likely intended, looking at Jaiden. "If we want people to see it, I'll take it to them, but no one's getting their hands on it." Right now, at least. Lest someone discover a way to repair it, or it attracts the wrong sort of notice. "Let's see where this video gets us first. It's just one battle in the war, and we need to see where we're at after it before we go shipping things off."
There's a faint smile and Elisabeth says quietly, "I appreciate the vote of confidence." Her blue eyes scan the group and she nods to Devon. "I don't know when precisely it'll be going on, we'll be working out the logistics as we go. But … " She shrugs. "I just thought you ought to know. And I agree that for now we're going to sit on the robot. If we need additional proof, then we'll start pulling that together." She jumps slightly and pulls one of the burn phones from her pocket, a faint furrow to her brow. "On that note, I'm going to leave you guys to hang out or what have you. I need to take this."
Trask watdches her go and shrugs, "Well that was short and sweet."
"You probably know as well as anyone, things weigh heavily on the Queen of Endgame." A bit of a pun from the Australian as he watches Elisabeth go, still standing next to Remi. "And I know it's not a good idea, Devon…it was just a bit of facetiousness to lighten the mood. Steve would look fairly nice mounted above the mantel at my place in Australia."
Devon steps aside to let Elisabeth head up the stairs. "…What's Endgame," he asks, entirely dropping the topic of the robot. One of those niggling questions that gets forgotten until you hear something that reminds you of it again. After a look at Jaiden, the question is angled at Trask as well as the boy turns his attention to the negator.
Trask says, “It's Richard Cardinal's version of Pariah…Pheonix…The Ferry, another form of gurellia organization to stop….all of this. I am afraid I was out of the country for the whole end game period of time pretty much so I can't tell you more details then that.”
"Basically that. Cardinal had a vision of the future - where he got it from, I don't know, but it was enough to start him moving against it. The Dark future, the one we're fighting against. The one where Evolved are put into camps and forbidden to have children without special permission…." Jaiden sighs, rubbing his chin. He's dreamed of his future, in one of those camps, before being rescued. He's dreamed of one child, Beth, who died of the flu, and of JJ, his son from Monica, who came back to change it all. "It was his way to make the future a better place."
Blue eyes turn briefly toward Devon, before the telepath turns and rests her head against Jaiden's chest this time, closing her eyes. She doesn't speak much these days, and she's been going through even more of a quiet spell in the past few days than ever before. As Jaiden's thoughts turn to dreams, the telepath turns an interested look up to him, brows raising slightly. Yet…she doesn't speak.
"Huh." Devon's shoulders shrug slightly higher, hands pushing down against the confines of the pocket of his hoodie before his arms relax again. He's heard about the group from the future, has met a number of them, though in truth only knows a couple of that group as being from the future. "Kind've like Messiah. I've heard about some of the things from that whole… what might've been."
Trask nods, "I've been to one of those futures myself, in person. The one I visited was a bit better then the one Cardinal apparently saw. Our visit may be what caused it not to happen.
"I've only seen the bad ones, so anything the takes the chances of that future down to zero is a good thing. The fact that our kids came back to change the future, at a risk of their own existence, is a big, big deal." Jaiden shifts slightly against Remi, giving her a gentle hug, giving her a bit of contact that she may have been craving for a while.
Remi remains quiet for a moment, still clinging to Jaiden like some helpless little thing. It seems, for a long while, that she has something that's resting just on the tip of her tongue, but it takes her a bit to come around to actually letting it out. "I 'ave 'ad dreams." She says this in a quiet tone, one that others may have to strain to hear.
It is a big deal, and Devon nods slowly to Trask and Jaiden's comment. He's spent time with Kincaid, enough to know some of what the man has sacrificed to change things from his time. He starts to say something more when Remi speaks up. Pressing his lips into a thin line, he frowns at the telepath. Shoulders hunch slightly more, head hung between them. He turns a half step toward the stairs, though without intent to retreat, instead resting the backs of his shoulders against the doorway frame.
Trask raises an eyebrow, "Dreams? What kind of dreams?" His voice is soft at this point as he leans forward a little, careful not to get too close though, keeping her in the comfortable zone.
"I think we all have..at one time or another." Jiaiden says softly, looking to Remi. "Dreams of the future. Of what might be."
The redhead-turned-blonde turns blue eyes up to Jaiden, before glancing toward Trask. As he inches closer, she inches back, half hiding behind Jaiden. She doesn't like the negation field. It's too much of a discomfort when she's grown so used to the chatter in the back of her mind. "What Jaiden said. I dreamed…of a son." She shrugs quietly, turning her eyes to the ground as if she feels like she shouldn't have said a word.
If Devon could believe his own words, he'd label himself as a naysayer. Having not had such dreams himself, but being around those who have, it makes it difficult to be a disbeliever. Instead he makes a sound in the back of his throat, a breath forced out of his nose that goes along with a shake of his head. "I'm going to bed. Later, Jaiden, Mister Norton." A hand comes free from a pocket long enough to pull his hood up over his head as he turns and climbs the stairs, footsteps fading as he leaves the basement to find the room he shares with Graeme.
Trask says, “I…..held my son in my arms. I heard him play concert piano as a musical prodigy at the age of 10, in that world I died before he was born…in this world…he will never be born. I still have…." He touches his chest, "I have a cd of his music that his mother gave me before we left."”
The Australian goes quiet as Trask tells of his son, letting the man finish before speaking himself. "I had a daughter. She was born in the camps and, at around eight months old, caught the flu. She was a weak child…with the right medical care and prenatal checkups, she probably would have made it, but…she died of the flu. I was captured trying to get vaccine a few months after she died, and put into eltingville. Not a fun future to look forward to."
The telepath's blue eyes follow Devon as he departs, brows raising slightly, before Remi turns her gaze back toward Trask, studying him intently. As intently as she can without being able to see in his mind. "Would zat I 'ad more zan just a vivid memory of a dream." She quietly squeezes Jaiden as he recounts his tale. "My son…'e took after 'is father. Young, strong as an ox…and I remember feeling…" She smiles faintly, sadly. "Loved…like I've never felt it before."
Trask nods, "I had to walk through a door way, knowing in doing so my son may never have existed because of it. The only consolation is that I see him in his mothers eyes every day."
Jaiden nods to Trask. 'and I have to know that my actions, whatever they are, might cause mine to never be."
"And I will never know if my son will ever exist…not yet, at least." She glances toward the stairs, then back to Jaiden, before she turns to peer at Trask thoughtfully. "I want him to, though…"
Trask nods and sighs softly, "There are a lot of choices that we have to live with. And always remember those that didn't get the chance to do so.
As Jaiden departs, Remi casts him one look, a mildly surprised expression upon her features as she turns toward Trask, brows raised. She chooses not to divulge what she is so surprised over, however. She instead turns the topic of conversation in another direction. "So, are you unable to turn that ability of yours off?"
Trask shakes his head, "Friend tried to get me to turn it off once, ran through a bunch of tests…though a lot of the reason she wanted me to be able to do so was so she could use her ability on me." He grins and shakes his head, "I cant control it, turn it off, make it bigger, smaller, it is even there when i am asleep. It's less of a power as a state of being.
The telepath tips her head toward Trask, brows raising. "Sounds a bit like mine…" She reaches up, tapping her forehead. "I can control it…make it not so bad, but I can't turn it off." Remi offers a shrug. "And though it is chaotic, hearing everything like I do…I've grown accustomed to the din."
Trask nods, "Which is why you avoid me…." He smiles "A lot of people do. Some people find the lack of a power a blessing, others a curse. I….only lost mine 3 times, each relatively briefly. Once was to fix some bullet holes so i could go help kill a psychopath, the other two both ended up in time travel, once by accident once on purpose. But honeslty I dont even know my power is there..unless someone else is reacting to it.
"It's nothing personal, I promise." Remi smiles faintly, standing. "I don't like the silence, is all." She then offers a yawn, stretching faintly. "I think I need some rest. I am sure we shall speak again soon, oui?" She doesn't wait for an answer, skirting around Trask as she heads toward the stairs.