I Need To Talk To Your Mother

Participants:

cat_icon.gif gillian2_icon.gif

Scene Title I Need To Talk To Your Mother
Synopsis Of the children who discovered they were adopted, one person might have some answers. Gillian seeks out Cat to try and get an appointment with her adoptive mother.
Date September 17, 2009

Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost borough of Greater New York, and even before the explosion, this area was diverse. Though known infamously throughout the world to be a low-income area, it was not without its finer points, as well as home to the Yankee Stadium. It was dense with life, for better or for worse.

For now, it is the the south-west areas of the Bronx that are unrecognisable. Clean up has not gone steadily, and buildings still lie in ruination. It is now hard to tell what this place is even for. During the day, construction teams work to clear more and more roads of South Bronx, although people seem to take liberties by driving over the burnt out rubble if they have the means. There are make-shift trailer camps and soup kitchens for those that don't have a place to go. One feature of South Bronx is the Yankee Stadium, so far untouched. There is irreparable damage done to the building itself, and no game has played there since the tragedy. Graffiti tags the areas available, and people often congregate illegally upon the wrecked grounds. The field itself is overgrown with weeds between fallen debris.

Heading away from Manhattan, the Bronx takes on more function and hope. This borough, once a place of Jewish immigrants, then Latin-Americans and African Americans, is now a diverse mix of all races, any and all New Yorkers taking up residence on the other side of the wreckage. There is even a semblance of a transport system, the electricity back on and functioning, but crime rates are higher than ever.


She's at the wheel of her car, the purple Neon, parked on a fairly empty portion of street. Cat's got a window rolled down to enjoy the comfortable outside air, and is watching whatever activity occurs nearby where a Primatech building used to be. One hand holds a sandwich from Piccoli's she brought with her and has decided to eat, the other a large Pepsi in a restaurant cup with a straw. In the back seat, placed for easy reach should she feel the desire, is her guitar case. Keys are in the ignition, the engine is running, just in case she needs to bolt quickly. The Bronx's reputation isn't lost on her.

Elsewhere in the Bronx is the abandoned firehouse she bought which is becoming a second franchise of Alley Cat Couriers, but she's stopped here to eat and enjoy the sights.

Because she loves the sight of a former Primatech place being turned into a parking lot in the morning.

Even with the reputations, the Bronx has a lot of personal memories for the young woman that walks right up to the running car. The passanger window is knocked on, she bends down to look inside. Gillian looks pale, but she no longer wears the blonde wig she'd worn to the last meeting she actually attended. Instead her dark hair is pulled back into a ponytail, lighter roots grown out quite a bit. She's not colored her hair in a while, but her natural color is close to the color she'd used last time.

Once she opens the door, she doesn't hesitate to get in, pulling her bag in on top of her legs. "Thanks for answering my call. I know I missed a meeting or two. I had to take care of some personal stuff." Her voice is a little distant, but not jittery like it'd been before. Her fidgetting continues, a mild twinge to her fingers as if she can't keep them still, but it's less than before.

"Interesting place to meet up. A lot's happened here…"

"You're welcome," Cat replies in turning partway as the car is opened and entered, "I was on the way to a place I bought. And I just had to stop here." Her eyes return to the location, and a smile of sorts breaks out. "Municipal Lot 336. It's a beautiful sight, yes?"

"It looks like… a parkinglot to be," Gillian says as she glances over at the 336 lot. It's a nice round number, but she may not have the same appreciation for what is being turned into that, besides what she's read in the Catabase. Or then again, maybe she does. Her teeth grit together for a moment before she looks back over at Cat. "This is actually kinds close to the topic I want to discuss… Your mom. Your parents. They used to work with Arthur before— they were involved with… with what happened to us. I know you're mom's busy right now, but do you think you could… call her, put in a word for me, cause… I think she might be one of the only people left who can tell me about my parents."

"It used to be a Primatech place," Cat remarks with her eyes lingering on the location and a satisfied smile present, "the one that got blown up not long before they ceased operations and dissolved. The Company's out there and underground now, of course, but this is a happy place. One where they were apparently defeated."

After a few silent moments, though, she turns to face the car's other occupant with the smile turning to a neutral expression. "Father and Mother both worked with the Company, left, then joined Arthur. Fortunately they realized he was insane. I'll call her," she agrees.

"It'll be interesting when she's elected Mayor.

"Thanks," Gillian says quietly, with a hint of a smile, even if it's saddened. Her eyes go back out to that lot, the former Company place. Must have been the facility Peter had mentioned, when he lured himself away from the facility in order to lead himself to where her and Gabriel would meet up. Where the fight would happen. So much happened to her in the Bronx… This could be another one.

"I know it's… they weren't the ones who raised me, but I feel like if I knew a little bit about them it'll help me understand… me. I don't know. My real name, their names… it just somehow seems important right now." When she's lost so much…

"When she's elected? You got a lot of faith that she will be."

"I could have my own questions about the Forrests," Cat muses, "so I get it." Mason being lost in the reactor, the body still unclaimed, makes another person close to her who didn't get a funeral, doesn't have a place where ashes were spread or a body buried. "I'm told my original name was Jane."

A quiet chuckle follows. "I prefer Cat. How could I make a rock stage persona based around that other name?"

"Jane. Not sure that suits you, Cat does work better," Gillian says with a grin that pulls up dimples. At least the woman she's asking a favor for is one of the few who might be able to understand. To a point. "I like my name too. I do. Childs maybe not so much, but that's cause I got called Julia Childs enough as a joke by people. I can deal with a different last name, but I like my first." There's that pause again, eyes slide off to the parking lot to be.

"I found out who my doppelganger was. It's a clone of mine. I'm not sure how, but I guess when… when everything went down one of my clones stayed behind. So you really did see me. Not just someone who looked like me. But since I don't have Peter's power anymore, I don't think there's any way to get back together with her."

"That's unique," Cat offers after a time of quiet reflection on that occurrence. "Is it maybe like discovering you've got a sister you never met, except for sharing memories up to that day?"

"Sort of, she'd have all my memories, yeah, but there was a… I didn't really tell anyone about it cause it just never struck me as important since, you know, they were temporary…" Gillian trails off a moment, staring off before she looks back, "Each of my replicants had a single ability, and they were all me but they had… differences. I'm not sure exactly, but she's me, but she's not. She'll be act different, respond to things different. Hopefully she's handling her fucked up life better than I was until recently."

Giving her head a shake, she focuses back on the driver. "So what'd you buy out here?"

"So it's something like the other times this has happened," Cat speculates without using names, "she's you and has the memories, but she has a different aspect of your personality. And the strength she showed probably shapes it further."

With the question asked of her, she shifts topics. "An abandoned firehouse."

"Yeah. Kinda like what happened to Peter and Brian," Gillian says quietly, having a private thought for a moment. One that luckily can't be read. The mentioned of the abandoned firehouse makes her smile again, genuine this time. Dimples show up on her cheeks and it even touches her eyes. "That's great." It'd been her idea at the last big meeting she went to, so of course she's happy to hear it caught on, even if she didn't fulfill her end of things very well beyond initial scouts. "You going to turn it into a business too?"

"I am," Cat confirms. "I also bought Alley Cat in Chelsea. The firehouse is going to be a second franchise." Her eyes turn back briefly toward Lot 336, even as she has memories of that first visit to the Chelsea location enter her mental vision.

"That's the bike courrier thing? That's good investment. It'll give people who work with us access to a lot of areas, and coming and going'll be totally normal as long as people wear the right outfit and have a bike," Gillian nods, obviously pleased with this turn of events. "I think that'll be good. I don't know how much time I'll have away from the Lighthouse, but I might be able to work a day a week, or something. Brian seems to have gotten his footing back, though, so he can probably handle things on his own…" He's been handling it on his own while she detoxed, after all.

"Exactly," Cat replies. "It's under fronts, my name isn't tied to it at all. We may be able to arrange secret entrances at the firehouse, ways to get into and out of private areas without being seen near the place too. If you want work, part time or otherwise, I'm sure it can be arranged. Got to hopefully find a trustworthy manager for the firehouse."

She doesn't say so, but trustworthy may well mean one who can have full knowledge.

"I hope you find someone," Gillian says, before she looks back at the woman beside her. Similar backgrounds in some ways, completely different in others… "Will you let me know if your mom agrees to a meeting? I'm glad that you understand— hell I'm glad there was someone I could ask. The only other people I know who would know anything about it is… well… they used to be there. And I'm not that desperate."

"Of course," Cat tells her without hesitation. Eyes meet, there's that understanding present in them. "Part of me still wants to wonder if it were true, there's a temptation to snag a strand of Mother's hair and have the DNA tested. And there are questions also, about their lives. Whether or not Father's job at the insurance firm was ever real, for one. I never suspected any of that was just cover for their Company work."

"I think my parents— the ones who raised me at least— I think they knew some things, too," Gillian says, keeping eye contact, though it shifts a bit when she corrects herself. Two sets of parents, one she never really knew, one she can't help but feel betrayed by… "I never suspected it, either. That they weren't my parents. I never did get Victor's sample to test, so… who knows. Maybe he's my cousin or something."

There's a trail off, something she's not counting on getting. Not when her brother is a cop. "It's not really something you want to suspect, I guess."

"You could get a sample and have it tested," Cat offers. "You could ask Victor, or maybe find a way to get hair from his comb. Or… you could buy him a bottle of something and keep it after he drinks. Swab the neck, send the sample in if you'd prefer not to tell him."

"I know," Gillian says, glancing back out the window and down the street this time, perhaps watching for something that she can't quite see. "I know I could find out, and fairly easy, too. Having a sister on the run from the cops and hiding under assumed names probably isn't good for his police man career… especially not when his other sister was…" Murdered. Last year. "Anyway, thanks. I should probably get going."

"Need a ride somewhere?" Cat offers before taking a drink from her own cola. "I've got time." People who've been murdered aren't spoken of, she perhaps not wanting to think about Danielle and Mason right now. It's September, and what would've been her lover's twenty-seventh birthday is coming up.

"A ride is always welcome," Gillian says with a nod, even smiling faintly as she does. "If I still had Peter's ability, you'd never see me walking again. You can't imagine how convienant flying and super speed were for travelling around this city. Only thing better would've been teleportation, but I never got that." After a moment, she gives a good drop off point. Somewhere close to the place she'd been staying to detox.

She takes a bite of her sandwich, then sets it on the console between seats as the car is put into gear and starts moving. Cat's quiet while she chews, her manners in doing so very much Emily Post. But when her mouth is once again empty, a question is floated. "Have you ever seen that symbol on the sign at Pinehearst anywhere else? It looks to me like a strand of RNA."

"An RNA strand?" Gillian asks, confused before she moves her bag so she can buckle a seatbelt. It's the law to buckle up, and there shouldn't be any reasons to be pulled over if it can be helped. "Don't think so. Maybe if you show it to me I can keep an eye out for it next time."

"A single helix, with a few bits of connecting material," Cat replies. "The curly thing on the Pinehearst sign. Magnes said he's seen it a number of places, most recently on tarot cards owned by a woman he met somewhere. She's got an extrahuman ability, and he's wondering if there's a connection. So am I, now, as an idle curiosity. It's also in the 9th Wonders comic books." She too belts up. Bites of the sandwich are taken on occasion without removing attention from the street ahead while driving.

"A woman with tarot cards… I got my tarot cards read after Pinehearst. Helena told me about the place," Gillian says, frowning for a moment as she settles back into the chair. "She's in a bookstore in Roosevelt Island. Her reading was— she told me I need to figure myself out, or some crap. I'm hoping finding out about my real parents will take me that way. I didn't really test the theory on if she was like us… But I could next time. I intend to go back for another reading cause the first one was kind of fucked up."

"It was in his book, her name was Ichihara," Cat supplies. "Probably not the same person, the city is large and there must be tons of tarot readers." At a light a block ahead she slows when it's red but doesn't need to stop; it turns green before the car is close enough and she resumes standard speed.

"She was part Japanese, at least, so it could be the same woman," Gillian says, but she can't deny there's a possibility it's not. Even if… "When Magnes is concerned, I stopped believing in coincidences. We were internet friends for over two years until I finally met him and found out he knew many of the people I met in completely different circumstances."

"Me too," Cat answers. "Too many things end up tied together. Peter, Nathan, their parents both being Company founders. Matt Parkman and his father being one of those founders. You and Brian. Hiro and his father, also a founder."

"Magnes," Cat states after a brief silence, "is quite the character. A large part of him is unsubtle, unpleasantly so, but he does get things and shine on occasion. Last time we talked, he told me he came across Emile Danko and some of his psychos. Said he didn't engage them full on, but did seek to delay their operation and get out of the area after making comments about his fellows. And," Cat laughs quietly, "dropping a dumpster into his boat, sinking it. I told him psych ops are always valuable. Make them doubt and turn on each other. Get them to start using SLC tests on people among their numbers. Never know when one might turn out to have an unmanifested ability."

"He's reckless, but means well, even if he thinks he can do a lot more than he actually can," Gillian says, glancing straight ahead for a moment. "He wants me to help him with his ability a bit. I probably will, once things… slow down a bit. It'll teach me to augment better too, I think. Practice for the both of us. I do think SLC tests on their own members is a good idea. I know if they ever grabbed me I'd force anyone nearby to use their ability and hope to hell it's one of them."

"If they were led to doubt each other, trust is undermined, it's a good thing. Especially if it's a cell whose members have known each other for years. Suddenly demanding tests could be offensive to the others, and if a test turns up an ability in someone who held a lead role, well…" Believing that to be self-explanatory, Cat trails off.

Some short time later she pulls up at Gillian's destination. "See you soon," she offers.

"Yeah. It'd be a pretty big morale blow, definitely," Gillian says in agreement, undoing the seatbelt and making sure she has her bag so she can step out of the car, "Thanks for the ride, Cat. You still got my number, so just leave me a message when you can." The door closes behind her, and she pulls the bag up to her shoulder so she can behin the rest of the walk to the posh apartment Peyton owns, the place she'd been rehabbing herself.

And despite getting out for a few hours, she didn't even look for a dealer… Well, not seriously enough that she found any, at least.


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