Hypotheticals

Participants:

brennan_icon.gif cardinal3_icon.gif liette_icon.gif

Scene Title Hypotheticals
Synopsis As per their arrangement, Doctor Brennan brings Liette out of hiding to converse with Richard Cardinal.
Date March 22, 2010

Staten Island


Liette and Brennan are standing on the shoreline where the snow isn't so deep. Paths made by previous people who walk around the island, bundled up and hands moving. Thansk to Cat's pamnesia, the task of teaching Liette sign language - but not lip reading - was a way to pass time. And so, instead of verbally speaking, they're doing it through Marlena's method of conversation. ESL.

«Have to go meet up with a homeland agent. About something Genevieve and I saw at the start of the month. Do you think you'll feel safe with Joseph? You know what the back up plan is» In his pocket is a gun, his only method of protecting her against those who aren't evolved or who's ability doesn't incapacitate when negated.

For as much as Liette enjoys sign language, the simple and somewhat distracted nod of her head seems to suffice for communications. Perched atop a rock poking out from the windswept snow, Liette is crouched down and staring into the frozen tidal pools around her, having lost her fascination with the old fisherman's wharves down the shoreline and the bouy-laden shack near it. Bundled up like she is in heavy winter clothing that is just a tiny bit too big for her, she looks something like a brown furry Ewok straight out of Endor and ready to jub-jub with the best of them. She's managed to pull her knees up inside of her jacket in her crouch, playfully finding the whole thing amusing.

"Doctor Brennan, when's the snow going to end?" Liette asks aloud, blue eyes lifting up from the frozen tidal pool towards the lapping shoreline, then finally over to the taller silhouette of the doctor amidst the arctic cold of the dark of night, her breath spilling out in cold gusts through her scarf.

"I've been starting to wonder that myself…" Myself… A whispering, echoing twist of voice that stirs over the snowy piles of the landscape, just before Richard Cardinal makes his appearance; a moth-eaten and frayed shadow that smears itself across the ivory powder, leaving tendrils and patches of darkness that coil in once more once it gets further, a black bloodstain on the winter wonderland, "…I'm beginning to get worried. Good evening, Doctor… I'll be getting you that information as soon as possible, but I'm afraid that my— hands, most often, Miss Whitney, suffered a family tragedy last night. It may be a bit…" A bit…

"Hello, Liette."

Down brennan crouches beside her. "I dunno Lee" The doctor confesses. "I know that Michelle and a few others might try something. There's someone doing it. There was another girl who came to our house one day and they planned to try and use their atomokinesis to track down who was doing this and then try and change it back to how nature intends it to be." He drops a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. "Too much snow, is never a good thing Lee. Nor is too much sun. For all that Michelle can make the weather do what she wants, she remembers that what she does, affects other people and with her power and she has to use it responsibly. Maybe, she and the others when they gather up, can do something hmm? We can pray and hope they succeed"

But there's that bodiless voice and Brennan's quick to look around for the darker patch of shadow. "Liette. Richard Cardinal. Richard Cardinal… meet Liette" «remember. We'll stop when you want to» he remind hers before facing the shifting tattered shadow. That's not good, family tragedy. "When you see her next, give her my condolences and my sympathy for her loss. She's been a good patient. I'll give you this week Mr. Cardinal. We had a deal, family tragedy's not withstanding."

Brows furrow when Liette hears a voice she's not expecting and she just rocks back a little too far off of where she's balancing, landing with a whumpf in the snow behind where she was. Squirming, the young blone offers a laugh as she pulls her legs out from within her jacket and crawls up to her feet, brushing snow off of the back of her jacket and off of her jeans. Blonde hair hangs in loose tangles at either side of her face, streaks of faded pink in them and the white knit cap she wears covering much of her head. "Hello," she replies a bit guardedly, offering an anxious smile, "uh, Mister Cardinal sir."

Teeth toying with her lower lip, Liette circles around the rock, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket, nose wrinkling and brows furrowing as she considers the shadow. "Obtenebrative Transubstantiation! Neat!" There's an amused squeak from Liette as she gives the more scientific description than the Registry's "Shadow Form" description. "That's a cool trick Mister Cardinal, I've never actually seen that one before!"

"Careful, there, we wouldn't want you getting pnuemonia from the cold, Liette…" A whispery little chuckle, that trails off in a pause as the girl rattles off the technical name of his power. Richard's never actually heard it before. "…well, well, it seems that Jack wasn't exaggerating about how much you know, was he? I'm glad that the two of you aren't around him anymore, he's a… dangerous person. I was rather worried when I found out you were there." Were there…

"You're not here to discuss Mr. Jack if I remember correctly Mr. Cardinal. The longer we stay out here, the greater a chance of being seen by those who are intent on making sure that something untoward happens to her. So maybe to spare us the excess time of standing out in the cold and snow…." You might speed it up. Incorporealness means he can't feel the cold. Won't get frostbite or the like.

"Mister Jack seems pretty nice, he's just really lonely is all. He totally let me watch television while I was there, Pop never lets me watch that." Blue eyes offer a nervous look to Brennan as she notices his attitude, brows furrowing before that same expression is afforded to Richard's ephemeral form. "Doctor's orders," Liette chides with a wag of one finger, as if Brennan's word was the perfect supreme authority on these matters.

But despite herself and despite Brennan, Liette seems to be enjoying sneaking out after dark and enjoying a little play time in the snow, espescially with her ratty new shadow friend. "Are you hiding in the shadow 'cause of the cold? That's really clever 'cause you won't feel it there." Liette admits with a feigned nod of studious understanding. "So, what'd you want to talk about Mister Cardinal?" Chipper to the last, even if unintentionally cagey and a little nervous.

"I can't… turn back anymore, Liette. I had an… accident." Munin… A whispered sigh stirs from the shadowy form as it ripples, coiling in upon itself to keep the remnants of Cardinal closer, "…but the Doctor doesn't want me to stay and chat for long, so I guess I should follow his orders, mm? I'm looking for my… friend. I think he might be working at the lab that you come from, and I was hoping you could tell me if he was there or not. You don't have to tell me where it is. I just want to know if you've seen him." Seen him…

There's a raise of brows from Brennan at the finger wagging and a glance to the shadow as he points to the finger wagging. "I did not teach her that"

Lips pursed together and brows furrowed, Liette eyes Cardinal a bit curiously, blue eyes flicking back and forth over his tattered form, but she remains quiet as he asks the question he'd come here for. "Sure, I know lots of people since I came from Pop's lab. Most of the people who work with Pop don't talk much to me, an' I'm not supposed to talk to the people who're there for experiments an' stuff, 'cause I'd disturb them. Do you have a picture of your friend, Mister Cardinal, 'cause then I could tell you!" Her enthusiasm is perhaps the most frustrating thing about this, because does Richard look like he has fucking pockets?

"I wish I could've brought it… I would've brought someone with it, but the snow's too much right now. I'll… slip a picture into the files I'm sending to Doctor Brennan," Cardinal offers in that drifty whispering voice that he's forced to use right now, "…he's an… older man, sometimes wears little round glasses. Very blue eyes, a high hairline… his name's Doctor Edward Ray. He…" A moment's hesitation, "…his ability is probability analysis." Edward…

"Oh! The man in the box!" Liette chirps out, "That sounds like the man in the box but I'm not really sure if it's him, but he had big buggy blue eyes and Pop says he can predict probability for anything he knows about! But I'm not allowed to talk about him because he's an active experiment." She over emphasizes the words, adopting a fake little French accent in the process, perhaps emulating Pop's manner of speaking in a teasing manner. "He doesn't talk much 'cause he's in a coma, but Pop's gonna make him better again! So don't worry Mister Cardinal, if that's your friend he's gonna be alright! Pop's the best scientist in the world when it comes to brains!"

She's absolutely thrilled to be helpful in this regard, even if it is moderately unfortunate that by helpful Liette is actually making all of Cardinal's worst nightmares come manifest. Her impish smile behind her scarf is clear indication that perhaps she has no idea just how difficult she just made one particular shadow morph's life.

There's silence for several very long moments, before Richard Cardinal replies in an even quieter whisper than usual, "…yes. That's… him, yes. His daughter misses him very much, so hopefully he'll be up and about soon." Sort of a bending of the truth. His daughter doesn't think very much of him, and never knew him, after all. "Thank you, Liette. Oh, there is… one more thing, you know a lot about abilities, right? You even knew what mine was called. Do you know much else about it…?" Just a hint of hope enters into his tone there, quiet and ragged as it is.

In a corner of his mind, Cardinal bemusedly considers that he has Nalani Hollingwood to thank for leading him, essentially, to where his mentor's imprisoned. He supposes that makes them even for her having him arrested.

"Yep! Pop has a big archive of information he has me read when I'm at the lab, and my sister does a lot of reading there too and we quiz each other on it." Wrinkling her nose, Liette purses her lips and rests her hands on her hips. It's her first day with her arm out of the sling, and she seems to be doing well for it, even if the necessity for painkillers is still there.

"I know you can turn into shadows and pass through any non-light sealed space, I know you can turn other people to shadow as long as they remain in contact with you, and that you can trans-sub-stantiiate," she has a little trouble with that word, due to her nose tickling and the threat of a sneeze coming on— close call but no achoo, "seperate parts of your body individually. It's a really versatile power, 'cept ou can't affect the levels of ambient light, 'cause that's an umbrakinetic or photokinetic differential line in SLC-expressive determinations!" Mortimer was right, she's a walking, talking encyclopedia of Evolved knowledge.

Huh. Some of that's actually news to Cardinal as he considers what she's said. Perhaps he should've taken more time to explore the different aspects of his ability… but it's somewhat moot, now. "You do know a lot. Maybe…" Maybe… The shadowmorph hesitates, "…I was… disrupted when I absorbed a nuclear bomb, Liette. Do you… know of any powers that might be able to— fix that?" Maybe…

Absorbed a nuclear bomb? This man in the box has a daughter who's looking for him? Brennan's brows pull down, looking towards Liette and then to the shadow but saying nothing.

Wrinkling her nose, Liette furrows her brows and chews on her lower lip a little. "Umm… this is one of those hypothetical tests, isn't it? I'm good at these!" Bringing a hand up to her mouth, Liette purses her lips and rocks back and forth on her heels, eyes focused down at her feet and clearly gears working behind her eyes. "Okay, so the information posed to me in this hypothetical research situation explains that an obtenebrative transubstantiative took critical physical damage presumably while in insubstantial form by merit of verbage," Her head quirks to the side, blue eyes unfocusing. "This means that tissue and nerve damage would have been inflicted on a molecular level within the transubstantiated form of his corporeal body."

Blue eyes dart up towards Cardinal, and Liette makes a quiet and thoughtful sound in the back of her throat. "I don't…" She doesn't want to say she doesn't know, simply because that wouldn't be the appropriate answer. "My best hypothesis involves discovering a proper SLC-expressive healer capable of handling your mass tissue damage and partially transubstantiating part of yourself to make physical contact with them and draw them into your shadowmorph form, allowing them to interact with you on an incorporeal and tangible level simultaneously?"

Then she waits, to be told if she's right. Because this is an exercise, and not a consultation, right?

There's a long moment of silence from Cardinal as he considers that solution, as frustrating as it is. "I don't think I can… wait. If Gi— I could maybe do it, with an amplifier's help. If I could find a healer…" A healer…

"…thank you, Liette. I think that… might work." Work…

Brennan weighs the words from the young woman in his mind, tilting his head from one side to the other. "Sounds quite plausible. The individual healer would need to be able to concentrate to function in the shadow form, but.. the theory is sound. Would be a difficult healing and one likely for the scientific journals"

"Alternately I bet Pop could give you a better answer. Maybe you could come with me when I go home, and we could go back to Pop's lab together. I bet he'd love to have you in his laboratory!" It's both an extremely honest and terrifying answer to come from Liette, inviting Cardinal directly into the proverbial Lion's Den with all of the enticements of having a normal human body again right at his disposal, in exchange for whatever unfortunate events might well possibly occur to him within the walls of the laboratory she calls home.

"So, did— did I do good?" Liette asks with a furrow of her brows, looking from shadow to doctor to try and discern if she gave the correct answer or not. Clearly these hypotheticals she's used to come with affirmations of failure or success.

"I do plan on visiting Doctor Luis's lab eventually, so who knows?" Of course, Cardinal's plan for visiting the lab likely involves a lot more murder than the innocent girl's current imagination in that direction, although he keeps his tone light despite the weight upon his thoughts. "You did… very well, Liette. An excellent answer." Answer…

"You did good Lee. I'll see if there's some ice cream stashed somewhere cold when we get back and we'll celebrate" The doctor offers with a lopsided grin to the young woman. "And I guess we'll know if the practical application works, if we see Mr. Cardinal without his shadow self. Because right now, if I negated him, we'd never find out because it would kill him"

There's a puzzled look to Brennan from Liette at his words, lips pursed to the side and brows scrunched up. "Don't— hurt him? He seems nice." It's like she's sort've trying to figure out what Kill means, but is just sort've dancing around the notion incoherently. "Um, so— " Blue eyes move from Brennan to Cardinal a bit uneasily, given the last few words from the doctor.

"Was— was that everything you wanted to ask me, Mister Cardinal?" There's not even so much of a reaction at Luis' name from Liette. It's highly possible that she simply didn't even notice it in conversation because it was placed exactly where it should be. There's no surprise, no confusion, she clearly either knows who Luis is or understands that he fits perfectly into the conversation there.

"My nose is cold." Liette murmurs after the fact, bringing up a gloved hand to it.

"As much as I'd like to chat with you longer, I suspect the Doctor would get rather annoyed at me…" A wry whisper from Cardinal's shadowy form, "…so I should leave you be to get inside and warm up, Liette. It was good meeting you, and thank you for helping me with my questions." My questions…

"I won't hurt him lee. I'm not in the business of hurting people" Despite the gun in his pocket. "Mr. Cardinal and I have an agreement that I am sure he intends to stick to, as I have my side" His hand falls to the small of her upper back and he tweaks her nose to get a glimpse at how quickly blood flows back. "We could stand with one more question. Her nose isn't so far gone that I'd have to cut it off" He teases the younger woman.

A squeak slips from Liette when her nose is pinched, brows furrowing and cheeks puffing out as she feigns a glare up towards Brennan, lips pursed behind her scarf and expression all stern indignation like a kitten that got its fur rubbed the wrong way. But for as much as she's flashing that faux glare at Brennan, she's also trying to stifle laughter and a smile, blue eyes darting back to the ratty shadow on the ground nearby. "Oh! You know this reminds me, Mister Cardinal! Mister Jack asked me a really neat hypothetical about people with your ability too! He asked me what poissible ways there are to hurt someone with your power, and I listed all of them! I knew that one real good!"

There's a smile in her eyes, that is to say, aren't you proud of me?

Well, Cardinal, aren't you?

"…how nice of him. I'll have to remember to thank him for asking you at some point," Cardinal replies in tones which dip a bit on the dark side, "And for giving you such good hospitality while you were down there… did Mister Jack ask you any other very interesting questions like that, Liette?" Liette…?

Brennan catches the tone, understands the tone and it's enough to cause him to stiffen and his hand to be firm at Liette's back.

"Yep! He asked me all about mechanical intuitition people and how you could trap someone who had logical or intuitive mechanical aptitutde! I told him about the clock room idea, sort've like how the tick-tock Croc scares Captain Hook in Peter Pan!" Liette bounces up and down on her heels, blonde hair blowing in the chill breeze as her head bobs from side to side. "He was asking me about technopaths too, and how to fight them and trap them! I couldn't tell him an answer though because that'd be telling him about Pop's security system!" Liette flashes a smile and nods her head once, "it's really clever though!"

Pursing her lips, Liette eyes Brennan and quirks her head to the side, then looks back to Cardinal. "Are you and Mister Jack friends, Mister Cardinal?" Oh the best of friends.

"Mister Jack's a very curious guy, isn't he…? Sylar and Rebel… ambitious, isn't he…" A whispered sigh from Cardinal, "…we've worked together before. I wouldn't say we're friends but we get along…" Or we did…

"But I should leave you to the good Doctor for now. I'm sure we'll talk again sometime, Liette."

"You know how to get a hold of us. I really suggest leaving the files or you won't get the second chance" He disappeared once on them, he'll do it again. Brennan offers out his hand to liette so she can take it and they can start heading back. "I expect a heads up if you know if Rebel's making a move on us. It's in your best interest"

Reaching up to wind her gloved fingers around Brennan's hand, Liette stares up at the doctor, then over to Cardinal with a mild smile and a furrow of her brows. "It was nice meeting you Mister Cardinal, hopefully I'll get to see you again some time." There's an innocent earnest tone in her voice, head tipping down into a nod before her hand squeezes Brennan's just a bit harder.

"G'bye Mister Cardinal… tell Mister Jack I said hi if you see him!"


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