Participants:
| Scene Title | A Demonstration of Ability |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | In order to get his COM certification to work for Raytech's Hydroponics initiative, Jaiden has to put on a show. |
| Date | April 2, 2018 |
April 2, 2018, Afternoon.
The security to get to Governor's Island is tight. The appointment was confirmed for April 2, 1 p.m. with the promise that if he didn't make the appointment, there might be a weeks-long wait to get another. At the ferry dock, Jaiden was checked for weapons (never mind the fact he'd be on a boat surrounding by his weapon of choice) and his IDs and fingerprints were scanned. The ride across is a chilly one — the weather hovers just above freezing, and the moisture in the air dampens everything, biting into the bones and making a mockery of the promise of warmer weather just a few days before.
As the boat nears the docks, the slim figure of Veronica Chevalier-Sawyer (or just Agent Sawyer, as she's called here) stands in a black wool trench coat, holding a clipboard with a file on it, waiting for the boat to dock and for Jaiden to disembark.
Jaiden, in his life, has put up with a lot of things. Airport security, courthouses, and even Richard Ray's insanely complex security to get into Redbird, he's dealt with. Traffic getting to the dock was something he had planned on, too, so he arrived several minutes before he was due to leave on the ferry. The scan for weapons did find the man rolling his eyes a little of the absurdity of it all, arms extended as a trainee with a wand searched his person for anything that might be considered dangerous and, when nothing was found, he was sent on his way. Dressed in his comfortable warm clothes, a thick wool mariner's coat over his form, his cane clutched lightly in his right hand, he stands at the bow of the ferry, watching the island drift ever closer.
When the boat arrives he waits patiently for all of the docking maneuvers to complete, only moving when others on the ferry start to disembark as well. He makes his way slowly, but surely, up the gangplank to the shore where a guard directs him towars the woman with the clipboard.
"Good afternoon." He says plainly, checking his watch. "I trust I'm at the right place?"
As Jaiden approaches, Veronica moves forward, unfolding her arms holding the file to reach out to shake his hand. "Mr. Mortlock, I presume." She more than presumes — she has an alert on her tablet that rests on top of the clipboard that popped up his registry file and pertinent information about him, so she has a photograph to go by in case there were any question.
"I'm Agent Veronica Sawyer. Be aware that your demonstration will be filmed and documented and kept on file. We have some forms for you to fill out of course, but I figured that we would do your test outside, given the nature of your ability and the fact we have plenty of water to work with right here." She separates her file and the device from the clipboard, the last of which she hands to him. "If you can fill that out and then we can get to the demonstration."
There's a moment of pause, Jaiden shifting his cane from his right to his left hand, leaning on it, and taking the woman's hand to shake, his grip firm. "Yes ma'am, that's correct." When his hand is released, he switches the cane back and uses it to support himself, but seems to favor not using it to using it.
"More forms…" Jaiden gives a shake of his head and takes the clipboard, fishing a pen out from one of the inner pockets of the coat, his cane resting on the side of his thigh. "of course, of course. Let's get this set over with so we can get to what you've been sent out here in the cold to see." He looks up at the sky, overcast, squinting at the paleness of the sun through the clouds. "Do you have somewhere I could sit? Balancing like this is a little precarious with my knee. If not, I can make due."
"It is voluntary, and we're still a bureaucracy," Veronica says with a small smirk that pulls out her dimples when he shakes his head at the forms. "Of course," she says, not unkindly, and tips her head to a grassy area to the left of the docks where benches dot the green lawns so that people can sit and watch the water.
She moves in that direction, moving slowly — it's not at all a far walk and actually much closer than the walk to the nearest office building. "What sort of work are you planning to do?" she asks, more for conversation's sake; obviously the form asks for some of the same.
The clipboard is held under Jaiden's arm as he moves towards the benches and the grassy area, the cane not really slowing him down but giving him an easier time of it. "Oh, I know, Agent Sawyer. The thing that a bureaurcracy runs on is paperwork and red tape. The same here as anywhere."
"Something for Raytech in regards to hydroponics, from what I learned in a very brief meeting. Any more than that I really don't know. They just need water, lots of it, and very pure, and they're familiar with my work from before the war so they reached out." He lifts a hand. "and voila, Here I am, filling out form…" he flips the clipboard around. "204-COM, Registration for Commercial Usage, Evolved Ability Class C."
"Ah, interesting. Say hi to Shades for me," says Veronica, a slightly softer smile than her polite business veneer for the mention of her old friend's business.
The 'lots of it' makes her lift a brow. "I will assume all the water you find and use will be done in a legal manner. Environmental impact reports filed with the appropriate organizations and all of that 'red tape and paperwork.' That's not our jurisdiction, usually, unless an SLC-E individual is involved."
She taps her tablet to view his information already present on it. "So you can't actually generate water. How will you be using your ability at Raytech to assist with this?" She types something into a tablet, the sound of an outgoing message chiming cheerily before she looks back at him.
"Certainly." Jaiden's pen scratches on the paper as he fills out required information. Name, date, address, mailing address, contact information, age, weight and the like, pausing as he fills in 'Hydrokinetic' under the heading of Evolved Ability. "i'm sure he'll be glad to hear from you.
Jaiden gives the agent a nod. "From my understanding, any and all water I deal with will be legally acquired by Raytech for use in this…whatever it is…I'm working on." He writes a moment more. "In the event that there is an issue, I will certainly bring it to the attention of my supervisor and the proper authorities."
"Correct. My ability is manipulation of water molecules. As long as there's water, I can do something with it. Even in the case of water vapor in the air. Here…" He lifts a hand and, after a moment, a small blob of water starts to pool in the palm of his hand, rising from it quickly until it stands approximately a foot tall. "I can pull moisture from the air, from drying concrete, from clay and mud, and from the ocean, river, or stream." he flicks his hand, the spike of water splashing on the pavement as he continues writing. "Simply put, I can act as a water purifier, by moving the molecules of H2O and isolating any pollutants to be properly dealt with on a massive scale."
The little demonstration is watched with interest. "Nice," says Veronica as she types something into the tablet. "I trust Ray. And I have no reason not to trust you. It's just with the damaged infrastructure and the scarcity of resources, we need to be sure that everything is done on the up and up, which is in both of your best interests as well, as you're well aware."
As she speaks, a young man in a warm coat comes hurrying down from the nearest office building carrying a small black case. "Sorry I'm late, I was finishing up a screening!" he says, cheeks flushed from either the chilly air, the rush from the building, or a little embarrassment; possibly, it's from all three. He moves to the bench to set down the briefcase, opening it up. There are several empty cups along with a cup of a pink fluid and a couple of cups with objects in them.
"It's okay. Mr. Mortlock, this is Kyle, one of our lab assistants. Go ahead, Kyle."
Kyle picks up the sample of pink fluid and hands uncaps it, handing it to Veronica to hold, and then uncaps one of the empty cups. Mortlock, J. Ex. 1a says the label on the pink sample. Mortlock, J. Ex. 1b says the clear cup. "If you could extract water from the cup into the empty cup, sir," Kyle says, as Veronica pushes a button on the tablet and holds it up to film the demonstration.
To (Jaiden, Raquelle), Squeaks pages: I need to get my shoes on and run my errands. I'll probably be gone a couple of hours but will pose when I get home.
It's nice that she's considering the same things he brought up with Ray in the brief meeting they had. Pulling pollutants is easy, but putting them somewhere they won't hurt very many people? That's the hard part. Jaiden sets aside the clipboard once he's done filling out the forms, signing and dating it at the bottom with a flourish, sitting back with his bad leg drawn over his good.
Kyle gets a short nod as the test is set up, and Veronica gets a glance as she is given the pink sample. "Any particular concentration or just….do?" And at that word, the contents of the pink bottle start to lift into the air, out of the bottle, a demarcation point appearing just above the bottom of the bottle as the pink liquid swirls and starts to arc, gracefully, from one bottle to the other. "Centrifugal force works wonderfully for larger, heavier things - lead particularly - but when you get to things like dye, getting it out takes a little more finesse." the liquid starts to darken in Veronica's bottle as the water is extracted and, as it gets to be about a quarter full, the contents lift from the bottom of the bottle to the top, against gravity and, if one watches closely, little powdery flakes of dye start to sublimate out of the water and float, gracefully, to the bottom where they're dry.
The whole endeavor takes approximately ten seconds.
When all is said and done, Kyle's bottle is full of water while Veronica's bottle only has a pile of dried dye at the bottom. "how's that?"
The bottle of clear, pure water is capped and set back into the case by Kyle, as Veronica caps the now dried flakes of dye and hands it to Kyle, before typing into the tablet once more.
"Awesome," Kyle says enthusiastically, still young and new at his job, though Veronica simply nods. "Thank you for that."
The next sample in the case is pulled out, along with another empty cup. Inside is a lump of what seems to be mud or clay. "Can you extract the water from this?" The premise is the same — pull the water out, put it in the empty sample cup.
"Quite welcome." Jaiden says, turning his attention to the lump of clay in the cup. This one takes a little more effort. It doesn't show on Jaiden's face, of course, but this extraction takes a little more time than the liquid did. For the first few moments, nothing seems to happen but, after a second or two, little droplets start to appear on the surface of the clay and then flick themselves out of the mouth of the bottle into the cup.
"Mud is considerably easier, since it's mainly made out of organic stuff. Just move the organic aside and then pull the water out. Clay is a little more difficult, since it's based on minerals and a lot….thicker." Jaiden makes a 'come hither' motion with his fingertips, the clay clinking, stone-like, against the side of the plastic cup as the last of the water is pulled from it, cracking in half at the bottom, completely descicated.
"Awesome!" says Kyle again, with Veronica smirking at the younger man's enthusiasm.
"Very useful," says Veronica, making another note on the tablet. The samples are capped and set back in the case. "I think that's enough for the small stuff. Is there anything you'd like to demonstrate that might be useful in a commercial sense on a larger scale?" she asks, gesturing to the water. "Nothing that would get me fired or kill any local wildlife of course," she says with a smirk, hinting at a sense of humor beneath her professional facade.
"During the Dome incident before the war, it's what kept me and a few friends hydrated with pure water. Being cut off meant that getting something good to drink was hard. It let us trade and kept people hydrated, this ability. Pulling water from places it was too polluted to drink." Kyle gets a grin and, after a second, thanks to the dampness of the air, a little pyramid made of water, appears, does spin on the table, shifts to a square, a circle, a diamond, and then vanishes with a splash.
Something larger on a commercial scale..that won't hurt wildlife." Jaiden nods with a chuckle. "Very well." He pushes himself to his feet and walks to the edge of the park, overlooking the bay. He looks back over his shoulder as if to ask, silently, are you ready, before he rests his hands on the railing separating the bay from the walkway he's standing on. And for a second, nothing happens, but as he concentrates, a wall of water starts to rise from the surface of the bay, featureless, save for the few confused fish swimming in it about 12 feet by 12 feet and a foot thick. "part of the thing I can do is move large portions of water, like so." He gestures to the wall behind him, an extension snaking out from it to rest on the ground next to him, Jaiden taking a step to the right before the water lifts him into the air, moving beneath him as he stands there with his cane above the surface of the bay, walking on water. "So, you'll have to imagine." He's calling out loud now. "Raytech has needs of water and the ocean is right there so, wtih the proper permits, plenty of potable water can be created. Once I get into a groove, it's fairly simple to just….go."
Veronica raises her tablet to film the demonstration; she doesn't look particularly impressed but rather slightly amused, tipping her head and arching a brow at the spectacle. Kyle, however, has wide eyes and a large grin. "That's amazing!" he says, clapping until Veronica gives him a look and his hands slide into his pockets.
The agent lets the assistant watch while she lowers the tablet so she can snap shut the black case then push it into the lab assistant's chest. "Get back to work, Kyle," she says with a smirk.
"Yes, Agent Che- Sawyer," he says before scurrying back up the lawn toward the building in the distance.
Veronica sighs loftily and picks up the clipboard, scanning the answers for a moment, to be sure he didn't skip anything pertinent. "That will do. It'll take a couple of weeks before you get the updated ID but we'll have it updated in the system before then, so you should be good to work within a week."
"I really don't like doing big things. It's….overdramatic, really." Jaiden says, lowering himself to the ground, the water retreating back into the bay, leaving only wet smears on the stone that quickly vanish, the fish in the wall of water sinking back in once the control is lessened. "hey, look at the cool thing I can do." Jaiden shakes his head a little as he starts back towards Veronica, watching Kyle run off into the distance with the testing samples, pausing when he's a few feet away, balancing on his cane.
"I understand why you need to know what I can do. It just seems like doing the last parlor trick is a little dehumanizing. Breaks me down into what I can do, not who I am. It's why I never registered with Linderman, all those years ago."
"Mm. At least you can demonstrate what you can do without having people attack you," Veronica says wryly, which might hint to her own ability. "For the record, I didn't ask you to do a parlor trick, just something that could be useful in a commercial sense. Moving that amount of water certainly could be." She lifts a finger. "Again, with the right permits." The words are accompanied by a smile — she doesn't really distrust him.
She begins to walk, slowly, back in the direction of the ferry dock where the boat that brought him to Governor's Island is still waiting to take him back. "Chesterfield's voluntary and if I have my way, it will always be. If it isn't, we'll have to change the name because Cat wouldn't stand for it any other way, and I'll have to quit, so, we're all on the same page there. We didn't fight in the war to go back to where we'd been, after all," she says, reaching for his hand to shake again. "Any questions before you go?"
"No, no. I understand. I really do." Jaiden lifts a hand to run fingers through his hair as they walk. Her slow pace is appreciated - knee replacement is in Jaiden's future almost certainly with the rate he's going. "Call it my cynicism, more or less, tainting the conversations I have." He pauses, swapping the cane again to give a firm handshake and a nod. "God willing, we won't have to fight the same war again and we can start making this place the shining city on the hill again." He shakes his head to the question. "No, not really. You've got my address and the place that I'll be working, so if all goes well they should have the approval within the next week and I'll have a nice little addendum to my card." He gives a salute, almost military, before a smile appears. "Thank you very much, Agent Sawyer. Hopefully the next time I come out here is just as pleasant." And then he departs to the ferry.