Fearing The Day

Participants:

eve_icon.gif gabriel_icon.gif

Scene Title Fearing The Day
Synopsis Of death and judgment, mainly. Gabriel has a Midtown encounter that doesn't end in near death and profit.
Date May 9, 2009

Ruins of Midtown

Standing in the ruins of Midtown, it's hard to believe New York is still a living city.

There's life enough around the fringes — the stubborn, who refused to rebuild somewhere else; the hopeful, who believe the radiation is gone, or that they somehow won't be affected. Businesses, apartment complexes, taxis and bicycles and subways going to and fro — life goes on. Perhaps more quietly than in other parts of the city, shadowed by the reminder that even a city can die, but it does go on.

Then there is the waste. The empty core for which the living city is only a distant memory. Though a few major thoroughfares wind through the ruins, arteries linking the surviving halves, and the forms of some truly desperate souls can occasionally be glimpsed skulking in the shadows, the loudest noise here is of the wind whistling through the mangled remnants of buildings. Twisted cords of rebar reach out from shattered concrete; piles of masonry and warped metal huddle on the ground, broken and forlorn. Short stretches of road peek out from under rubble and dust only to disappear again shortly afterwards, dotted with the mangled and contorted forms of rusting cars, their windows long since shattered into glittering dust.

There are no bodies — not even pieces, not anymore. Just the bits and pieces of destroyed lives: ragged streamers fluttering from the handlebar which juts out of a pile of debris; a flowerbox turned on its side, coated by brick dust, dry sticks still clinging to the packed dirt inside; a lawn chair, its aluminum frame twisted but still recognizable, leaning against a flight of stairs climbing to nowhere.

At the center of this broken wasteland lies nothing at all. A hollow scooped out of the earth, just over half a mile across, coated in a thick layer of dust and ash. Nothing lives here. Not a bird; not a plant. Nothing stands here. Not one concrete block atop another. There is only a scar in the earth, cauterized by atomic fire. This is Death's ground.


From the clock shop to the crater. Gabriel is pretty sure he's skipping a few steps on this symbolic journey of self discovery or whatever the fuck this is supposed to be, but. It'll do.

He maintains some distance from it, knowing that when the graveyard buildings start to become so melted and twisted that they look as random as nature, he's pushing what flimsy luck he has when it comes to radiation poisoning. It's been mere hours since sunset and the sky is velvet navy, speckled with stars that manage to break through bleaker streaks of cloud.

In the ruined street, Gabriel stops, and considers his options. Turning to look up at one completed guttered building and wondering if he could climb to the top and get a view from there, but then again, it's too dark by now for it to matter. His black coat over his black pants and black shirt and maybe even more black beneath that is weighed down on his left side by a newly purchased hand gun, and his right hand is tightly wrapped up in black fabric. It used to be his sleeve. It's stiff with blood and held cautiously, left hand gripping his wrist.

He turns in a circle, and for a moment, everything seems exactly the same. For a moment, Gabriel is lost within the graveyard he helped create.

Lost only to be found by an old friend of sorts. A woman's figure should be seen out the corner of Gabriel's eye. The woman stands on top of a pile of rubble. Hand on hip, her dark blue dress rustles as she shifts her weight to one hip.

Light grey eyes study the man in front of her and her long raven black hair is placed in a messy bun. "/Gabriel/." Eve says with a light smile.

Of sorts. Gabriel's head snaps around, dark eyes yielding nothing in these shadows and his distinctive brow furrowed, tense and alert. If there could be hackles, they would be up. Random meetings in Midtown have not gone well, if there's anything to be said about his bundled up hand and his own alertness.

It's because he hears her voice before her foot steps, and he can't hear her heartbeat at all. It's disconcerting.

It's the seer, he can recognise that now. His mind leaps back, first, to the first night of the new year, and then forward again, a moment in a graveyard wherein she didn't try to shoot him. In a limbo of uncertainty, Gabriel simply takes a step back, and is quiet.

Eve is quiet as Gabriel steps back and the moonlight falls down to surround Eve. "Peter's been looking for you and Gilly.. have you seen her? I'm going to get the three of you together." The seer looks up towards the sky. "Things have been crazy lately."

She shakes her head, "I've been trying to dream you and Gilly to find you guys. But no luck, until now." Eve's soft voice says. "He told me some stuff happened, I saw a man covered in metal in one of my visions recently."

Slowly, slowly does it, Eve's words inadvertently coax Gabriel off some metaphorical ledge. Whether that be wildly shooting bullets around until he's alone again, running away from a little girl, or some other inexplicable reaction. A long breath of air is sighed out, and he releases his wrist, holding the injured hand to his chest. The other decidedly dips down to bury into the pocket housing the loaded handgun, but its not withdrawn.

The step back is negated as he wanders a little closer, listening. Under what little moonlight there is, Gabriel isn't quite his best right now. Pale and sleepless, his hair uncombed and face unshaven. "I know where Gillian is," Gabriel says, voice guarded. "We've been— " His gaze wanders over Eve's form, then up towards the sky as well. "We've been hiding. Before deciding what to do. What did Peter tell you?"

Her eyes travel to Gabriel's hand and she tilts her head, "He told me of a man that shoots red lightning and that after that his powers were gone.. all of them." Eve says to the man, "Peter was in pretty bad shape, he couldn't heal. Gillian left him at a safe house on Staten. That's where I found him."

"What happened to your hand? Is Gillian ok?" Eve has been worried sick about the augmentor. If Eve knew that Gabriel thought she was going to shoot him, she would be appalled! She would never do such a thing.. ok there was that one time but those were special circumstances. "Missed you Gabe. How are you feeling?" Eve begins to hum softly and her gaze goes over to the ruins, taking in the destroyed buildings and area.

Gabe. That gets a slightly sharp glance, but no reprimand. Why bother, really? He's come a long way from his screams of undiluted rage when people used the name he goes by now. Names are only so much ash, anyway. He's learned his lessons, or learned to hate himself, who he was, less. One or the other.

Gabriel raises that injured hand, splays it out for her to see. The 'bandages' of his torn shirt sleeve obscure much of the damage, but his fingers are a little reddened. "Played with fire," he answers, shortly. "Got burned. I suppose you know I have my memories back. So I'm fine." In the grand scheme of things. "Gillian, too."

Everyone is just fine, fine, fine. "He couldn't heal? What else couldn't he do?"

Eve notices the sharp look and smiles softly, she meant no offense really. Nodding at Gabriel's information that he and Gillian are fine makes her feel relieved. "I don't know everything that he can't do. You'll just have to see when we all get to meet. I was thinking of once I talk to Gillian that we could all just meet at my apartment. Might be the safest, or here if you guys really wanted to."

Her gaze studies the man for a moment longer. "You and I.. have a had a weird relationship." Eve comments and tilts her head to the side as she looks at Gabriel. She is thinking of all the weird things they've done. Like dance in the moonlight. "It's good to see you." She actually means it too. Though she knows that Gabriel is weary of her, she would be too. A crazy seer that can wield a gun can be a scary person.. right?

Impatience flickers across Gabriel's face at this emphasis. About meeting Peter again. That's what got them all into this mess, but— but. Like he'd told Teo, Peter is an important puzzle piece to this dilemma. Now that Phoenix, under Teo's guidance, will likely be working to get Peter's abilities restored so as to fix what he'd broken, the best Gabriel can do is—

Tag along.

His eyebrows arch a little at her more personal words. Weird isn't so inaccurate. "Just because you were never scared of me and I liked to play with you doesn't equate to a friendship," he growls out, about to dismiss it with a shrug before he goes still. Suspicious, in the rigidness of his shoulders and the narrowing of his gaze. "Did you know this would happen? Is that why you were unafraid?"

"Ah friendship.. or association. Whatever." Eve shrugs lightly and puts a hand on her hip. "We /played/ with each other." She chuckles softly. "I always got the sense.. that you didn't like me too much." The singer moves back and then forward a few steps. "Did I know what? That this whole mess with the powers was going to happen? Not until to late, I.. I just never had a reason to really fear you Gabriel, not after the raid on Primatech. If you are referring to you being able to kill me.. I.. I've never been afraid to die and so if you killed me.. I'd be sad for the moment that I felt the pain and then.. free, away from this place of pain and hurt." Eve looks at Gabriel. "Are you afraid to die?"

Like. Dislike. Hate. Love. The amount of words for such things imply a lot of depth of feeling that Gabriel isn't privy to, and so Eve mostly just gets a blank look, gaze dipping down to the broken concrete after that and drawing his hand back closer.

"I think you'd be afraid of it the day you start to dream about it," Gabriel says, keeping his gaze locked downwards for now. "Because otherwise you can go wherever you want, do whatever you want, knowing your time hasn't come yet because that's not how the cards fell when you opened your eyes that morning."

The wind howls above them, through skeletal buildings, high enough that it only translates as a subtle breeze, roadside. He's glad he didn't climb up there, after all. "Yes," he answers, bluntly. Honestly. No sense of bravado exuded. "I don't have your gift, or— " Any gift. "I've come too close to it not to fear it. And next time it won't be so easy."

"In the first dream I had of you.. you killed me. I /hated/ or rather feared you then." Eve admits with a light shrug. "I've seen it too many times now, I just realized that everyone has to go at some point and you can't change that, /but/ what you can change is the /how/ that person's life comes to an end." Eve looks away from Gabriel, a faraway look enters her gaze, "Why did you do it?" she asks, hands held at her sides.

"Depends." The word comes clipped, not irritated exactly. Defensive, perhaps. Gabriel's head tips somewhat proudly. "That's the thing, with you people." You people, hard to know what he means. The general network that makes up Teo, Abigail, Eve, Peter. The lines he draws between them and himself. "Someone dies, the killer is a killer until they say 'sorry' enough for it to sink in. Blood is spilled and because it's all red means it's all the same."

His teeth show in the darkness, glinting a little when he lips pull back. "It isn't. And because it isn't, there's no solitary why. But if you really want one…" Gabriel's neck straightens out of that tilt. "Because it's in my nature."

"All the same." Eve repeats, the seer steps closer to Gabriel her gaze now on him again. "Why do you mean? In your nature? To kill and take people's abilities?" The singer looks frustrated and she curls her hands into fists.

"Do you fight against your nature?" The wind breaks Eve's hair from the bun and it flies into her face.

Hostile environment, this. Not only are there ghosts and blue-eyed demons around its corners, but even the wind is trying to remove them. Gabriel's shoulders raise in defense against the chill, keeps his eyes on Eve. "I'm a fugitive serial killer for a reason," he states, flatly. "What do you think?"

"You could fight.. if you wanted. I can see that it must be easier to just give in though." She brushes the hair out of her eyes and looks at Gabriel. "I fear the day that you must face your past and be judged." She fears for him. Eve sighs and the wind is now blowing even harder. What is going on?

Fearing is a bit like pity, but Gabriel doesn't recoil, exactly, just lets out a huff of bitter laughter. Gravel shifts and grits underfoot as he transfers his weight from one leg to the other. "There's nothing to fight anymore," he says, somewhat dully. "And when that day comes, I'd fear for those doing the judging, if I were you." A beat, and his tension drains a little. He's pretty sure the day has already come, somewhere in the past few months. "I'll talk to Gillian. Meet with Peter. Make things make sense again." The barest promise laid out between them, Gabriel is then turning on his heel to go.

"I think we should all fear that day." Eve says softly, at the same time that Gabriel does she turns to walk away. "Be safe, tell Gillian I said hello." That's if he sees her first. And each step bringing the two further and further apart.


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