Participants:
| Scene Title | A Fine Time for Alcohol |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | When isn't it when these two have a night out? |
| Date | March 2, 2020 |
It's funny how time changes some things and not others. The flash of auroral light that happened over Detroit went around the world in the news, but it's not really that big a deal because the focus is more on what happened in Hart Plaza. It's taken her a couple of days to be able to make this visit in person — Elisabeth's been texting and checking in on all the travelers that she has contact information for since the aurora. Making sure those she can reach are okay.
As she sits down at the bar, she offers Sassy a sad smile. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart," she tells Eve's bartender. She lost more than one friend in Detroit. It's not the first time, by far. And it won't be the last. But it never hurts less. And yet she takes these moments to console him instead of herself.
By the time Isabelle arrives, she's turning the glass around and around in front of her. It's been a long time since that first night of sitting at a bar together… and in this moment, Elisabeth looks almost as beaten down and exhausted as she did that day.
Sassy just offers a weak smile and pats Liz on the hand in comfort before walking on and grabbing a rag as he does to blow his nose into it before disappearing into the back. "Don't mind him, he hasn't been the same since-" Poppy stops herself and waves her hand. "You know," For Poppy, death was becoming something very normal for her to live with. Her parents, best friend, and now mentor and friend. The mood in Cat's has been a somber one since the news broke a few days ago. The bar was packed more than usual but it was quieter than usual as well.
Just outside the doors across the street from the venue a small group of people holding various anti-Expressive signs march in a circle, shouting about how Evos had to go. "Slice em up like they do us, dirty blood! Dirty blood!" They can be heard because the double doors open to allow Isabelle to enter the place. Holding a flaming middle finger to the people behind her before the doors close once more. Dark brown hair swinging free and just past her shoulders. Her hair almost covers the large scar on her face that glows a faint orange. "Honestly, I'm only coming to this place because that crazy bit-"
For once Isabelle is stopped from drawing contempt on Eve's name by Poppy's intense stare. The glasses on the bar shake and dance around the surface for a moment before Poppy looks away and walks over to someone crying at the bar, refilling their drinks.The young woman's eyes wide in shock. "Sorry." She says to mostly Liz as she slides into a seat next to the blonde and looks at her. "Earthquakes in New York, the whole place is going to hell." The glasses have settled.
"Was it crazier than the ride home or?" There was only one ride home that could be considered as crazy as the recent events. Isa pulls out two crisp hundred dollar bills and waves them at Poppy. The darker skinned woman glares and walks over very slowly, "My mouth gets me into a lot of trouble, something Eve and I shared. Sorry again," Handing the money over to the woman who holds her hand out after a few seconds have gone by.
Isabelle orders two doubles for her and two refills for Liz before she slides her black leather jacket off and puts it in her lap.
The rattling could just as easily have been Elisabeth herself — Isabelle has been around for a couple of those kinds of panic attacks. She holds her glass steady until it ceases, offering the pyrokinetic a small smile a hand waffle. "Ehhhh. Maybe not crazier but certainly in that range of crazy," she replies. She raises her glass and touches it to Isabelle's gently. "To fighting again another day," she murmurs.
The blonde savors the mellow slide of the bourbon on her tongue. As she lowers the glass to the bar, she says, "Alessandro told me what happened. Thank you." Aurora's utter hysteria had been, from all reports, quite something to behold. She looks at her friend. "I never thought anyone would have to make that call, but thank you for going to her."
Clinking glasses before she guzzles most of her drink and slams it on the table. Isabelle wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and shrugs and pats Liz's arm. "She just needed someone to listen to her while you were away." She wasn't the best with kids but she could be trusted to care for them. Her natural aversion to them made her being a mother to Namiko much easier seeing as she was practically an adult.
"I'm glad she wasn't made an orphan, what in the fuck happened?"
The pyrokinetic lifts a cigarette from the pack in her pocket and lights it with her fingers fashioned like a gun. A tiny jet of orange flame shoots up and ignites the end. Isa drags the ashtray close and taps her cigarette. Hazel eyes on her friend. "I know that nut bag," Tone lowered for respect, "Crazier than a chicken given a bad patch of LSD but I don't think she'd just murder a group of people. On live television?" To hear Isabelle coming to the mad woman's defense is certainly odd but it could have to do with the fact that Isabelle doesn't believe there are that many true monsters in the world.
Monsters knew their own.
Shaking her head, Elisabeth murmurs, "Christ, Iz. It was … ." The blonde lifts her glass and swallows another mouthful, quiet while it burns its way down. She slips a field around them so no one can hear what she tells Isabelle. "The thing that came home with us, the one that Kenner was worshiping and sort of blasted through the tunnel when we got here?" She looks at Isabelle. "It's sentient. It was trapped between strings by Arthur and Kaito and that crew," she says in a low voice, "and we ripped open a way for it to come back. If we thought Volken was a megalomaniac… this dwarfs him too. It's fucking ancient. Eve thought it was the first of us, centuries old. It turned Adam into an Evo, if you believe that story." She's not sure it's a true thing, but it's an operational theory. "It's been on the loose since we got back, slinking around the back of Eve's head, I guess. Mazdak apparently worships it just like Kenner did. Adam was seemingly trying to stop it, but he was going to fucking kill every non-Evo on the planet to do it." She grimaces.
"When we took her down — and I don't know if we actually destroyed her or just slowed her down." And maybe pissed her off more. "They were trying to open some kind of portal. I could feel it. And when we fought to stop her, she sort of exploded into that borealis over Detroit. I … it kind of looked the same way it looked when Eve exploded last time, so I'm not even sure if we really did a damn thing except scatter her again."
Elisabeth really has no idea whether we succeeded or not.
The pyro nods faintly, swishing the liquor around in her glass. "I remember, it spoke to Lynette she said. Spoke to everyone." It's hard for Isabelle to really lean on the metaphysical but with the way she entered this world and others, it was becoming even harder for her to ignore the obvious. It was vast improvement that she hadn't scoffed at the word entity. Or even at Eve's involvement.
"Seers are always up to no good, whether they mean to be or not." So maybe not so progressive but there is some movement in the direction of total acceptance.
"So she's really dead, wow." Silence envelopes the two. "Does this thing have a name or are we calling it entity, or the thing?" A nameless enemy was one that could instill more fear, the more information you had on your enemy, the more- a thought strikes Isabelle.
"What does it want? Is it our enemy?" If it was the first of the Expressives did that mean they were safe from harm? She didn't know if the people murdered were expressive or non.
"Right now, it's just the Entity, I guess. From what Richard's been able to gather, Eve was right about at least one thing — it's been around a long fucking time. It may have given Adam his abilities. And it can apparently rewrite DNA on the fly." Elisabeth grimaces. "The fact that about the same time we blasted it, people started randomly erupting with powers they never had before makes me hope that we killed it, but…"
But they're usually not that lucky.
"And honestly? I have no idea what it really wants. It's shown me a future — supposedly
our own. Looks like the fucking Wasteland all over again." Bitterness edges her tone and she downs the last of her first shot, picking up the second to nurse it. "Like we haven't seen enough of this shit." It's not like that idea should be news, given Pure Earth activities.
Elisabeth shakes her head slightly. "Aura's a mess," she admits softly. "We're back to her therapist three times a week." The aurora in the sky seriously scared the little girl. "She won't let Richard out of her sight. She doesn't want to even go to school. She's asking about you and Shahid and Kain every day, making sure you're all okay." They are the child's constants.
Why couldn't any of these realities just be chill?
Isa takes another gulp of her beer and signals for another round. "Well, fuck. So Kazimir Volken but worse," Seeing as the thing within him was known as an old as fuck energy. Wrinkling her nose at being shown possible futures, "They always want everything set in stone." A roll of her eyes. Her disgust towards seers was always clear but the way these visions muddied the waters or made people act out of character rubbed her the wrong way. The pyro pulls from her cigarette and ashes in the tray nearby.
Her niece's coping or lack thereof makes Isa nod with a frown, "Kids are resilient. You're doing the right thing at least having her talk to someone." At least enough to be able to function years after trauma. Isabelle should have seen a therapist when she was young, maybe some things would be different today. "We'll come visit soon." It's a promise for dinner soon or something of the like.
"So we'll burn the piece of shit out," Though Isabelle knew that it wouldn't be that easy to destroy something of that sort of power.
"I would love that. I see you out here but I haven't seen Shahid in months," Elisabeth smiles. "I know it's … a little awkward." After all, this Richard isn't the one she grew up with and he struggles to find his footing with the alternate version of Izzy. But her own ties to this woman are tight.
Glancing down at her drink, Elisabeth sighs. "Let's hope it works for her." There's a faint grimace. "Is it terrible that I wonder sometimes if it would have been better for her sake to have stayed with Felix and Lee?" In the Bright world where at least the rotten core was hidden from the children.
She knows it wouldn't have been better, but yeah… sometimes she doubts that she's made the best choices for her daughter.
"Beyond awkward," Isa agrees and looks off to the side, she would never see her Cardinal again but the one here had went through all the same things as his alternate in their fundamental years, that was something made the Traveler more comfortable. "Shahid is… Shahid." As Liz only knows too well. Isa's husband was a wildcard albeit the most gentle one you'd ever meet. "I need to stop over more to see Card, a better effort. We both do."
The memories of all the firsts she experienced with Cardinal growing up run through her mind, first cigarette (stolen from his pocket), first time stealing from a liquor store, first beer (it was disgusting but Isabelle soon learned to love the effects).
"Ha no, it just means you're a good mother who always wants the best for her kid." Something Isabelle had been learning now with Namiko, "Sometimes I think about if we had stayed there, instead of coming along for the rest of the journey. Maybe life would have been a little less fucking crazy. But I wouldn't have met my daughter, wouldn't have had a second chance with my childhood best friend." In other words, Isabelle had made the right move she believes in hindsight.
Pulling in a slow breath, Elisabeth offers a smile to her friend. "Thank you for that." She's struggling right now, but she'll pull it together quickly — if only because what the hell else is she going to do? "I always believed that we were exactly where we were meant to be at any given moment, Iz. But believing that also means that all the bad shit was going to happen no matter what you did. I can only keep hoping that my choices lessen a little bit of the bad." Shaking her head, she forces a smile for Isabelle. "Tonight's a night for drinking and maybe they'll get lucky and I'll sing for them." Liz definitely needs a break. She holds up her shot glass. "To crazy lives, lady."