Not A Phone Conversation

Participants:

elaine2_icon.gif sable_icon.gif

Scene Title Not A Phone Conversation
Synopsis Elaine and Sable have a conversation best not had on the phone.
Date April 4, 2011

A coffee shop, New York City


She should have been in class.

Really, Elaine was supposed to be there, but given her late night, classes just weren't top on her list of priorities. So when she'd called Sable up and requested the yellow-eyed girl meet her for coffee, she had been a jumble of apprehension and nerves. On top of the fact that she was cutting class.

Wool coat resting on the back of her chair, Elaine's got her arms folded over her chest, a long sleeved blue shirt with a row of buttons on the front worn for extra warmth. She's always cold. A very tall cup of coffee sits in front of her. Given that she had a bit of trouble getting to sleep after her dream, it's no wonder she needed the caffeine. She hasn't drank much of it yet, though, her arms shifting from folded over to her chest to resting her hands on the legs of her jeans, wiping them nervously before her arms move back to their stalwart position.

A wary penitent, Sable is here after asking what might have seemed an unnecessary permission from Delilah. A sudden call about an unspecified 'something important' rarely bodes well when it comes to former lovers, and while Sable is probably not going to end up paying any child support, she still has room enough to fear something she does not know yet. For she doesn't know - to what this pertains, that is.

She swings through the door to the coffee shop, layered in her leather jacket and her incredibly tatty BU hoodie. Sable has a hard time not wearing her heart on her sleeve, and her brow is already knit with concern as she sidles up to Elaine's table and takes a seat. She's smiling, yes, but, y' know…

Something important.

"Hey there, hon."

"Hey…"

The reply is simple, but her voice is nervous. In spite of everything, Elaine still manages to smile, reaching to take ahold of her coffee cup and sip from it. Perhaps to channel her nerves into something. "Did you want a coffee or something?" She offers, though the answer really isn't important. She didn't ask Sable to come just for coffee. She's not messing around, though. Delaying what she wants and needs to say longer just isn't necessary.

"You know those dream-things everyone's talking about? What… what do you think of them?"

Let's be clear: Sable doesn't know why she's been called here. And she doesn't know what dream Elaine has had. Her dreams, remember, have been filled with violence and death. So understand that it is not meant woundingly when she says, with a concussive finality:

"Fuck 'em," accompanied by a sharp hand gesture, "what I seen will not come t' be."

There's a shaky hand as Elaine reaches for her coffee again, giving a bit of a nod. "I wasn't sure, considering that whole… going back in time stuff? How you thought it was kinda… destiny, somehow?" Her free hand sinks into her hair, sliding through it in a somewhat nervous gesture. It's not as nervous as before, maybe, because at least she thinks she knows how the rest of this conversation goes.

"Had another one. Last night. Funny cause it was my birthday… and in the dream too." She hesitates. "But it was also my wedding day."

Confronted with her own poorly cobbled mythology, Sable quirks her lips, turning back the pages in the Ongoing Saga back to when she was that girl, both remembered and remembering, and recalling what she - the scholar of her own life - had made of it all.

"Destiny ain't what's gonna be f'r sure," Sable states, with the simplicity of an axiom, "it's what should be and what might be, and tryin' t' figure out which is which. 'N' it always comes down t' a choice."

But then there is talk of a wedding day. Sable blinks. "Oh," she states, nonplussed, "whatall- whatall happened?" The question so general as to betray an avoidance of specificity.

The hand around the cup tightens, the redhead shrugging her shoulders a bit. "Always a choice," she agrees. Hadn't it been a choice where they were at the moment? She'd made a choice or two that changed things. Things that very well might have stopped events in the dream. Elaine sips her coffee, taking a moment to gather thought and words and weave them into something of an explanation.

"My dress was beautiful… Juniper sewed it for me because we were all hiding out in Bannerman… we were safe, and nothing bad happened. It was… it was a good dream. Everyone was happy, there to celebrate. Mad Muse was the band playing, of course…" She blinks for a moment, looking down to her coffee cup. "I thought I should tell you. What the dream was, cause you were there. I thought that was important even if these dreams never happen. I know if it were me, I'd wanna know."

Why her is a question focusing in on the real pride of place point here. Sable is not dim, and she has something of a flair for creative thinking - this is a story, and there are roles in it, and at a wedding there's a bride and there's a groom. Only one is accounted for.

"Who's so lucky, hon?"

Elaine's other hand finds its way around her cup, trying to shake off her nervousness. She shouldn't be nervous, she thinks. No reason for her to be nervous, is there? She sips her coffee, gaze downcast. "It's not as important. It was a dream, and it's not truth and it's not gonna happen, but…" She peers at her coffee cup, unsure of how to force the words up and out of her mouth. "Normally I wouldn't take any dream about something like this seriously, but it was… it was like those other dreams, so…" Now, now she's stalling.

"What I mean to say is that it was you. I just thought you'd want to know. It felt like lying, keeping it to myself."

Nighttime brings portents. She said so herself. And with the world yet again echoing with might be's, Sable can hardly afford to dismiss such a thing out of hand. But she also knows better than to grasp onto it as validation. If she had had the dream, she wonders, would she feel differently? If she had been there? But she wasn't.

"I dinnit have no dream like that," Sable states, as if that weren't made clear by her surprise, "anyone else in there with y'? Anyone else have, like th' others?"

"Juniper, from the Lighthouse… I was talking to her. I think the whole band was there, but in the background, I didn't see anyone, just you right at the end, right before I woke up," Elaine shrugs a little, taking another sip from the cup. It's a distraction. She peeks at the lid to try and determine how much is left.

"I was gonna let Kaylee know… she was the one getting info about people's dreams, and I was gonna find out if Juniper saw anything, but… I dunno. There were a lot of people but I don't know who. I don't remember seeing anyone… y'know how dreams are, when you know that there are people but you don't remember what they look like. I was just talking to her, so… if she didn't have it, then maybe I'm the only one." She shakily removes the lid to her coffee. "Anyways, I just thought I should tell you. Since you were in it. Quinn told me I shouldn't, but… I thought you should at least know."

Sable is afraid to move. She feels like the point of some great pendulum, suspended from the infinite above, is hovering over her head, putting Damocles' pig sticker to shame. She's put great stock in her own strange methods of interpretation, and claimed great understanding of temporal mechanics in a conceit that would be mostly harmless were it not for the fact that hearts hang in the balance.

But that very assumption is a conceit. Vain, yes, arrogant in her way, Sable never thinks less than the world of the people she loves, and she won't presume herself to be the whetherweight. And caught in the incredible zone of indecision - a space not of not being able to decide but rather of having no idea what is being decided - she is strangely silent for some time, and strangely still.

The pendulum swings by, its passing weight rippling the air, which she feels against her scalp in a broad line of chill.

"'s good t' know," Sable says, at last, dipping her head in nod; she tries, yes- yes she succeeds in smiling, "guess y'all were able t' tie me down, huh? That ain't no mean feat, girl. Congratulations."

The smile from the shorter women allows a tiny one of Elaine's own to escape. The smile is gentle, barely an upward turn of lips, but it is there. "Guess so. Life's funny that way, and it's kind of strange to see what life would've been like if things were different, you know?" The coffee lid set aside, Elaine hurriedly finishes off her coffee. A lot of caffeine in a short amount of time. "A-Anyways, I just thought you'd like to know. That's all. Wasn't exactly a phone kind of conversation, I thought."

"Hell, I'd've called that a happy endin'," Sable says, leaning forward, elbows on the table, chin coming to rest on her laced fingers, "but it ain't th' only one. Think here," she unravels one hand and points down at the table between them, "us meetin', 'n' sharin' this here moment 'n' this here little glimpse. And then think," she parts her hands, gesturing at dispersion, "we part, and you," she points at Elaine, "go back home t' yer beautiful girlfriend," she taps her own chest, "'n' I go back t' mine."
She folds her hands on the table, leaning back a little. "Now, that ain't sayin' I'm in any rush t' have y' run back home. Tarry with me, gal?"

"I think I'll have a happy ending, I believe that, it's just… it's hard to sit through. To see something like that and to…" Elaine's trying not to choke up. "It's hard. Quinn.. she got so upset. I don't want her to think she's making a mistake being with me and she was so hurt that it wasn't her. So hurt… I really thought for a half a second that she was just gonna break up with me or something. And I hated it because what would I have then? An ex-girlfriend who hates me for some dream that isn't even reality? A future that isn't even possible? It's not easy." She reaches up, rubbing her face vigorously. "Wish you'd had the dream. Then at least it wouldn't feel like it was just shit I was making up or something."

"Elaine, darlin'," Sable says, brows lifted, head lowered so she looks 'up' at her, "if Quinn so much 's thinks 'bout leavin' you over some fuckin' thing flitted int' yer head y' had no say-so in bein' there, I will personally pound some sense int' her." She lifts two fingers, a scout's pledge, "God's honest."

That gets a little laugh from Elaine, though there are tears welling up. "I'm probably being stupid over it, but she was really upset. She honestly wished it was her and I feel bad that it wasn't. I can't dream it differently. It was hard even explaining it to her because even though it wasn't a bad dream, even though I know it's not possible… it wasn't a dream she liked, and I feel like shit for liking it. Because I like that in a shitty future like what everyone has seen… I like that there's a little happiness there. Can't tell her I like that because the second I do she thinks I'm just fawning over you and she'll get all worried and I hate that. I really do love her, Sable. I think if we hadn't only been going out for a month I would've just told her we should get married, you know? To prove it."

Sable wrinkles her nose. "Arright," she says, like she's setting the ground rules, "while I'll admit I'd cut th' fuckin' rug at my own weddin', 'n' while certainly th' thought 'f marryin' fame and fortune and a rock legacy like mine is somethin' that does tend t' produce some fawnin', you ain't in that position 'cause y'all already are serious in love with someone also got fame 'n' fortune 'head 'f her so-" she huffs, "she's got nothin' t' worry 'bout." A beat. Married? "Shit- y'all could talk t' her 'bout it. Ain't no harm lettin' her know she c'n surprise y'all with a ring, eh?"

There's another laugh, and Elaine leans against the table a bit. "You got up and fucking played music at your own wedding. You've got some balls for that. I think you need tougher stuff than me to tie you down anyways." She looks at her cup, reaching up to wipe her eyes with a free hand. "She said as much. That she'd like to do that someday. Quinn and I've only been together like a month, though. Not like that's even something to talk about. Don't want to push us into something we aren't ready for. I dunno, though.. that dream? It made me happy more than anything because I was married. That's something I've always wanted and I want that in my future."

Sable rolls her shoulders in a shrug, smiling more easily now. Elaine would look beautiful in wedding finery. What a thing to see! "I'll still play music at yer weddin', hon," she says, "time comes. I- I ain't 'xactly th' person t' give no advice 'bout marriage or nothin'. I- well, it's always 'n' f'rever f'r me if it's anythin'," she rubs the bridge of her nose, "jus' a wildfire, real bad I know. But- jus' let 'er know. Y'all can take it slow in y' need t'… but fuckin' take it."

"That's good advice, Sable," Elaine agrees, a smile on her face. Her gaze settles on Sable again, sobering slightly. "You be careful too, Sable. If you're gonna be a wildfire like that… make damn well sure someone's on the other side planting trees. What'll you do if you run out?" She does look serious, regardless of the odd analogy. "Quinn's gonna hate me for having told you about this at all. She didn't want it to make problems for you and Dee. I don't think Dee will take it too seriously, but be careful if you decide to tell her or not. I'll leave that up to you."

"I figure I'll tell her," Sable says, this conclusion coming relatively easy to her it seems, "I want her t' know my mind, and honest - this'll be on it. Hard f'r it not t', eh?" She places her hands together, palms against palms, dips her head - Namaste? - "F'rgive me if yer tellin' me brings y' any discord with Quinn. But don' worry. We know our hearts, we jus' gotta trust 'em."

"Not your fault. Kinda my decision to make… I don't think she'll be mad for too long, especially if everything is fine with you and Dee," Elaine says, offering a smile. "I'd better get back to her. Kinda wanna fess up to telling you before I lose the nerve. I think it'll be okay." She looks back over. "In any case… I'm glad we talked."

"Yeah babe," Sable says, tugging her hood up and tipping the brim, "that's two. Y'all be safe, honey. Give Quinn my love. Let 'er know, we gotta put t'gether a setlist, 'cause with spring comin', we gotta be ready t' ride th' season 'f love."


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