The Angel On The Queen's Shoulder

Participants:

elisabeth2_icon.gif eve3_icon.gif

Scene Title The Angel On The Queen's Shoulder
Synopsis Eve comes bringing tidings.
Date Dec 6, 2010

Textile Factory 17


It's late morning and the birds are chirping. And someone is humming as a figure makes it's way around the facility. Dressed in a long dark coat, the hood drawn over her head. Raven dark hair spills out from it. Her footsteps can barely be heard as she comes next to a building, probably where the members of FRONTLINE sleep and she waits a second, by the door.

Coming to lean against the wall, her face is covered and shadowed. The sun beating down on the dark clad figure, her boots then tap lightly on the cement. And it would seem.. that she's taking a nap.

Her chest can be seen rising and falling and her breathing has become slower, more controlled. Whoever this dark figure is.. she's clearly tired. Arms crossed as her head bobs up.. and then down.. a light snore escapes her.

Had Ruth Crow Dog been alive, the animals themselves would have alerted the residents to the presence of an extra person. Lacking the woman's abilities, they have gone back to their own passtimes, most of the dogs wandering off though the jays remain. And jabber and scold quite loudly as the figure makes herself at home against the wall. But eventually when she does nothing else, they go back about their business, leaving only one of the Evo-trained dogs to come through, sniff at the human on the ground, and plop himself there to guard. And so it is that when the current director of operations comes back from a frigid morning walk around the grounds, trying to get her lungs back in shape after the bout of pneumonia, she stumbles right onto the sleeping form.

"What the fuck?" Elisabeth asks on a grimace. "Don't we have fucking perimeter guards for this shit?" It's Red Hook, after all. In spite of being unarmed, Liz walks the rest of the way to the sleeping form and gently toes the sleeping person. "Hey! Hey, this isn't a crash pad, lady. Up and at 'em," she demands, not ungently.

"Ahhh!" The figure yelps and flails her arms around. "Stay. Or I'll have Jax and Dex take you out, they are ferocious.. and they don't like strange dogs around their momma." A voice soars out from under the hood directed at the dog, no comment made to Liz yet. Though that voice where is it from? Where does Liz remember it from? Chuckling she shakes her head, hood rustling as she speaks. "You know how tired I get Liz."

With that, the hooded figure stares up at Liz with piercing, eerie grey eyes. The face familiar to Liz but it couldn't be possible right? Well.. that's Eve right there. Yes it is. "Hello there." She says in a soft tone, rising to her feet with a small smile aimed towards Liz.

"It's been ages." Eve Mas says in a singsong voice and she nods towards Liz. "Let's get inside. I need something to drink." She breathes slowly as she waits for Liz to open the door. She acts like it's just totally normal that she showed up.. in a secure facility to talk to Liz.

There's a look of complete astonishment on Elisabeth's face as Eve's features are revealed. "Jesus Christ," she murmurs. "I shouldn't even be surprised, should I?" Shaking her head, helping Eve to her feet, Liz pats the dog absently and escorts the precog into the building if only to get her off the grounds. Liz's office isn't that far away — and there's a small fridge with bottled water and a coffee maker in there. She closes the door behind them, shutting out the world. "Eve, what on earth? Are you okay?" She is beyond worried — they talked about MINDWIPING her if she left!

As if she knew she's been here before. Eve walks to the fridge and opens it to retrieve some water from it before settling in a chair in the office. "Looking good." She says softly as she looks around the office. Then she's concentrating on what Elisabeth is asking her. "Well.. there are holes. But I'm fine. When was the last time we saw each other Liz? You look good." Yep, she remembers nothing of their meeting in November.

"They released me, gave me an apartment in the Octagon. But I must confess, can barely sleep there. It doesn't feel like home." her home is Mas Mechanics. That's her true home. "I've been.." she doesn't finish what she was saying. Apparently there's something on her mind.

Shaking her head, she just sips on the water and begins to hum. A sweet and sad song, one she hasn't sang in a while. "That asshole, he left all his toys at Mas Mechanics." Though she already reprimanded Warren and threw a stapler at his head. There goes the humming again and the sipping of the water. She doesn't seem like she's any less sane than when Liz last saw her. But she's definitely been having one of her episodes lately.

It saddens Elisabeth to see that Eve's less…. cogent. "Just several weeks ago," she answers gently, perching on a corner of her desk with one foot swinging. "I'm sorry that you don't remember it. I was … terribly glad to see you. I'm glad you stopped in." Because what else can the blonde say? She is glad. Answers from Eve are never exactly simple. And the woman usually only turns up when she has things that must be said. "How are you doing?"

The woman stops and she leans forward, laying a hand on Liz's leg. Her gaze boring into hers, "Please.. tell me everything that happened. I can't remember that.. please." She says, a little desperation in her voice. Then the seer is removing the hood and shaking her long hair out.

"I'm.. doing okay? I feel.." she looks out of the window as she speaks, as if she's not there and then it's like her mind snaps back into place. Because she's speaking normally now, her eyes focused on Elisabeth. "I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.. singing at the Lounge.. I'm thinking of opening my own concert hall." She admits with a slow smile and then she's sipping more of the water. "By the way, how are you and Cardinal?" she asks with a knowing smile.

"Do you know where Gillian is?" It's the second time she's asked about her best friend. "I haven't.. seen her yet. And I'm getting worried." The speak of her best friend and the emotion of worry that comes behind it all, makes her head hurt and she squeezes her eyes shut as she rubs her forehead. "Have to be careful." She says to Elisabeth with a sad look.

"I'm a work in progress." In terms of her mental health.

Reaching down to hold Eve's hand, Elisabeth says softly, "Nothing too much happened. You were living in an apartment in their facility. You seemed…. happy, honestly. Content in ways I've never really seen you. We talked for a little while, Dr. Broome was pissed off at me for upsetting you by asking you if you wanted to leave. Reassured us both that you were free to go whenever you wanted, but if you did so, it would require removing some of your memories of the facility." Elisabeth pauses and says quietly, "I was hoping to hear from you by phone, if you want the truth. I would have felt better if you'd stayed with Tamara in some ways."

She sighs heavily and then says, "I haven't seen Gilly. I think Richard's seen her, though. So far as I know, she's okay at the moment, Eve. And he and I are…. finding our way," Liz finishes. "It's…. not as simple as it used to be, I guess." She smiles a little. "We're all a work in progress."

"I.. I've been dreaming about that.. the apartment. It looked like a beach house.. I loved it. Simon.. he treated me like a daughter." Eve says quietly and she sighs as she rubs her forehead. Her head jerks up at Elisabeth. "Tamara?" she asks with a raise of her eyebrows. The precog's gaze travels around the office again. "I'm sure I'll see her soon.. I have too." She has so much to tell the power amplifier.. or well.. not really since she doesn't much of anything.

"It's because things are changing, change is good sometimes." She says, in answer to her talking about she and Cardinal's status. "It's also hard and can make people do things.. that they wouldn't normally do.. just to keep things the way they use to be.

"Liz, they have my paintings." She says this, and let's the gravity of the situation fall on Elisabeth. "All of them. I've been painting what I see since I was sixteen.. sixteen. And some of those paintings haven't come true yet.." How could Simon do this to her? How could he take all of her work from her? That was her everything, her life's work. And he stole it from her?

"I need to get them back.." she says. "They're mine." And the look she gives Liz is one of complete and utter hatred, it's not for a few moments that Eve remembers that Liz isn't the one that took them from her and she shakes her head. "I'm.. I'm sorry."

Shit. "Yeah," Elisabeth says softly. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure how we're going to manage that little feat, my dear," she replies. Her foot swings back and forth and she considers. "I'm not going to tell you that we can't get them back, but …. it may take a long time, Eve." She pauses and asks quietly, "Eve? Many things are changing. You told me that you didn't think that Simon and his boss were…. necessarily doing the right things. How much of what you've seen is firm right now?" She's not sure she wants to know what Eve's seen, and she's not even sure the precog will tell her. "The things that haven't happened yet, I mean."

"We'll get them." She says in that same tone.. the one that just seems to be sure that she's right. When Elisabeth addresses her, she stiffens her back and looks around the office as if she's expecting someone to be eavesdropping. "No, I don't think that Simon or the other Cardinal are very right.. but then again. I don't think that you're Cardinal is right. Either." she waits a moment before adding, "I can't remember why though.. for the life of me. At least not details, just my feelings."

"Everyone is approaching this like it's a game, like it's really chess. I guess I have Edward to blame for that little metaphor. He's an idiot." She says blankly and then she's shaking her head again. "It's not a game. The future is not a game, fate is not a game. And.." she stops herself. "If they get too out of hand.." she doesn't finish her sentence leaving it at that. "You can't just declare yourself grandmaster and move the pieces as you will.. because nobody that is around here is the grandmaster. And if this was really a game? We'd all be pawns." Every single last one of them.

"But that's for the two of them to sort out, as long as they don't get out of hand, I'll keep my mouth shut. Though I guess with what the Cardinal running the Institute is doing.. I should start yelling at him now." Eve chuckles softly and looks up towards the ceiling, her mind is an even stranger place than before. With memories gone and such.

"Liz, when I tell you this. You cannot repeat it. To anyone. Please." She begs the audiokinetic. "It's really important to me.. I can't.. I can't admit it to people." Her eyes water as she rocks back and forth. "They took it!" she screams and her hand beats the surface of the desk next to Elisabeth. Her other hand cradling her stomach. "They took my memories of my dreams that I had there." And then the body wrecking sobs follow, her shoulders shaking and breathing becoming hard for her. It's like they cut a piece of her away. "It's like their there.. but.. I can't see them. Can't remember them. But I can fill them. I know I had them." Who knows how many dreams Eve had while in there.. in the Institute's care.

Elisabeth is quiet as Eve talks to her about the game. And she narrows her eyes on the precog thoughtfully. "Well, here's the thing," she says softly regarding the chess game that is being played. "The Cardinal running the Institute has decided that any attempt to continue to change the things that happened in his timeline is bad. Whereas I've pretty decided that no one gets to actually have a roadmap of the future. One Edward Ray told Richard to kill me. One Edward Ray told him to not follow the other Ray's list. So those two have entirely negated their credibility to my mind. And we're back where we should be, in that case — doing what we can do to stop the worst of it all, to change the things that we see coming as best we can. And getting certain people out of the fucking picture if possible. Because some things are not meant to exist, Eve — and a man sent forty years into the past should not have been resurrected to be the architect of the future."

When Eve moves to stand up, acting as if she's worried about being heard, Elisabeth does what has become instinct to her. She slams up a silence field. And the migraine explodes into being behind her eyes instantly. The scream from Eve is thus blocked from the hearing of anyone else outside in the operations center, but the cost….. oh, the cost. Blood begins to trickle from Liz's nostril and the blonde continues to hold onto and attempt to comfort the woman in front of her. "I'm so sorry, Eve. I can only tell you that I know you agreed to this condition by the fact that you're here. I wish I could give it back to you." She squeezes her blue eyes shut, agony etching itself across her features as she fights to hold the field. It's wavering. Sound waves pummel at the periphery of her awareness for the first time since she blew out her ability.

"That's just it Liz.. nobody knows anything anymore. And everyone is fighting for control of this future. Everybody wants to be king."

Eve shakes her head and then stops as she spots Liz's nosebleed. "Bring the field down.. now." She takes Elisabeth and is ushering her to take a seat. Handing her the water bottle she was just drinking out of.

"I'm sorry.. it's just hard to deal with this." She shrugs her shoulders as the tears keep rolling down her face. "I had to have a good reason right? I wouldn't just let them take my dreams away.. would I?" she's questioning herself at a time when she really doesn't need to.

"Will you promise not to tell anyone?" It's more of a pride thing, more than anything else. "It's just something I have to deal with." That's all, something she has to get used too. "I'm sorry, Liz. I can still be unstable at times.. I didn't mean to have you hurt yourself, because of me."

Elisabeth allows herself to be led from her perch on the edge of the desk to the chair. Oh fuck, that hurts. Dropping the field eases it only vaguely, and tears spring into the blonde's eyes as she lowers herself into the chair to dig her palms into her eyes. "I won't tell anyone," she whispers. The water bottle is accepted, and Elisabeth looks up. "You needed a safe space to scream, Eve…. and I'll be okay. As to why you agreed…. I don't honestly know. You never really told me what you knew. The only thing I know is that I can't let my Richard become that Cardinal. I can't."

"Thank you."

Is said to her friend, and she blinks as she looks around. Inside her mind, something seems to tick. She has somewhere to go, to be. Eve's eyes travel back to Elisabeth and she holds her hand, "You've been an amazing friend to me. Since the first day we met.. honestly. I believe fate shone down on us when we were first met." She believes it too, everything happens for a reason.

She makes for the door, walking silently after giving Elisabeth's shoulder a squeeze and kissing her on her forehead. "He won't." she says with a brief sigh as she opens the door and prepares to leave.

"I'll kill him before he does." And she says it like she really means it. Really. "Be careful Lizzy. I feel it, something is coming.. and it's changing.. everything."

"Eve," Elisabeth says, looking up. Her blue eyes clouded with pain and worry, the constant exhaustion that she battles is evident in her expression. "I don't want you to lose yourself. Just…. try and keep in touch? Please?" She bites her lip. "If you see anything… let me know." The part that always bothers her about what they do is that they believe they're doing the best they can for everyone — but that has justified any number of megalomaniacs over the ages. Who the hell is she to claim she knows what's best? And still she keeps doing this job. "If things I'm doing are making it worse…. your input will be valuable."

"Honey, you're gonna be seeing a lot of me." Eve says with a brief wink before she begins to shut the door. "I promise. Don't you worry." Her light grey eyes now only visible as she closes the door more, a fraction by a fraction. That's exactly the point that Eve is making, at least Liz seems to get it. Nobody knows if they're making the wrong mistake until it's too late. Until there's nothing can do, to change it.

"Get some sleep Liz, I mean it. And if you don't.. I'll make you sleep. You're gonna need it." She says softly before the door shuts and the hood is raised. As she walks away, quiet as a shadow. Her coat furls about her as she moves. Tears run down he face as she makes her way to wherever she's going.

"God, help us all. We're gonna need it."


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