Participants:
| Scene Title | Am I Going To Regret It? |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Cardinal comes around to casa de Brennan to ask a favour while Brennan makes an inquiry himself. |
| Date | December 18, 2010 |
Brooklyn - Brennan Household
Use the downstairs door, that was the instructions for Cardinal. This meant that Brennan would likely be in his office, and privacy offered for the both of them when Cardinal arrives. Don't bother knocking, come on in - It's assumed Cardinal would bypass turning a doorknob in truth - and if Brennan wasn't there, then to just wait, he'd be back down.
But Brennan is there, in the basement office of his Flat Bush Brownstone and he's not alone. Cardinal's seen babies before, but this one is impossibly tiny and cradled in Brennan's arms, likely giving Michelle some much needed rest while he watches some television on the TV in the little cave of his. Lights low, volume low but still audible, all is quiet in the Brennan household it seems.
Hey, Cardinal knocked last time! Of course, that got a little awkward, and he gets the feeling that Harve would rather not expose his family to him too much. Which is fair, he supposes.
The shadow slides along up the inner side of the door, and Richard steps out of it and into the apartment. "Hey, Harve," he calls over, offering a wry smile over to the man, "Sorry about the inconvenience and all…"
It's not that he wants to limit exposure, god alone knows that all the kids have gone through plenty with regards to the Ferry and New York in general. At the call out, Brennan swivels his chair, looking over to it's origin with a slight smirk, attention changed from television to shadow made real. "Cardinal. Not in the least. We've only been back today. You called at a good time"
"Go on a vacation or something?" Cardinal arches a brow as he walks over, carrying a bag in one hand, "Probably for the best. I wish I could get a vacation at some point… God knows I could use it."
"Michelle birthed the spawn. We got back from the hospital this morning." He gestures to said spawn in his arm. "Richard Cardinal, meet Henri marius Brennan. I will be kind enough to not make him Harve Patrick the fourth. One of my brothers can do that" Which likely, at some point, they will. "Vacations are fables, things you see other people do and not yourself. What can I do for you Richard?" Henri sucks away on hi soother, eyes closed and oblivious.
"Oh" At that news, Cardinal's taken aback for a moment before approaching slowly to take a look at the baby. He offers the infant a faint smile, raising his free hand to wriggle at him, "Hey, kiddo. Hopefully you'll grow up to a better world than this…" He pauses, then, "I hate to ask, but I need a favor."
Henri doesn't care. Henri would have a hard enough time seeing him anyways if his eyes were open, but they're not and he sleeps peacefully, unaware of the world that he's inheriting or the respective roles of the two men in it that surround him. "Am I going to regret doing the favor and will it cost me my job or harm my family?"
"No." Cardinal's hand drops down to his side, and he straightens, "It's… it's nothing to do with business or anything, Harve, it's— a personal favor." He scrubs his fingers against the side of his neck, glancing away for a moment, then back to the doctor, "I need some DNA checked for sibling relation. You've got access to all that high-tech shit, right?"
"At the Suresh Center, I think, likely. We even have a genetecist on staff who I might be able to borrow for a bit to do it. Or I can process it through my personal practice if you don't want any chance of it being picked up by the institute" Because, you never know. "Why exactly though, do you need sibling relations ascertained?"
Oh, right, Cardinal was afraid that he was going to ask that. "It's… a long story," he admits, letting his gaze focus on the television since it's a safer place to look, "There've been so many lies and records altering in some people's backgrounds, it's hard to take anything on faith anymore."
'Except pure hard medical science and a piece of paper. Do you want me to be there the complete process, or.. are you fine with me sending it out?" Since to Brennan, that would be the difference between doing it at the Suresh Center, and sending it to some independent lab. Brennan leans his chair back, then forward, using it's spring to rock. 'Your siblings?"
"Yeah. Maybe. I don't know, that's…" A vague gesture of the bag, and Cardinal admits wryly, "…what this is all about. You can send it out if you want, but— from what I understand you need everyone to sign for it personally, and since some've the others aren't exactly legal they're not really up on the idea of showing up to fill out the paperwork, you know?"
"How many samples are we talking about that need to be compared?" Somewhere, in his mind, Brennan has a though, a stray thought.
"Three," Cardinal says, glancing back to the other man for a moment, "Just three."
"I conveniently have many children Richard. Even more, Henri here, well lets just say that while I know he's mine, he conception date was aroudn the time that I was absent from the life of my family. I could manage to pass it off as a DNA test from within my family. I don't need my children to sign for permission since they're my children" If Cardinal gets his gist.
Cardinal shoots Brennan a somewhat startled glance at the offer— silent a moment, he nods then, offering a faint smile, "Thanks, Harve. I appreciate this."
"What I do need to know is Genders, so I know which of my kids that I need to pass this off as, because any geneticist worth his pay is going to know gender from gender if I try to pass them off as from my kids" Brennan points out. He doesn't want names, just gender. "Have you talked with Peyton?"
"One male," Cardinal says with a slight nod over, "Two female." Yes. He has two sisters. Pity him. The latter question brings him pause again, "Peyton? Why?"
"I tried to get her help,r egarding a girl named Delia Ryans. She's a Oniermancer, lost in the ether right now. She came asking for help in finding her body. I have a way to get her tagged in the ether and keep a hold of her, a plan to get her into her body but… Need to find her body. Wouldn't happen to have come across a redhead, creamy skin" Brennan carries on describing Delia in as much detail as he can.
"I don't know when, but there's going to be a barrier of no return soon enough, and she'll… be vegetable in the real world"
There's silence from Cardinal as he listens to the other man's description and explaination. Then, reluctantly, he nods, once. "I know her," he admits, almost grudgingly, "The Institute can't be allowed to get its hands on her, Harve. The consequences could be… devastating."
"This is not the institute. If it was the institute trying to get their hands on her, then it wouldn't be looking for her and grasping at whatever non-instutute straws that I have to be able to save her. I've met her before, just after she manifested. I'm trying to save her before she does further stupidiness or she become another… nightmare… man or whatever it was that came before her. I have one oniermancer looking out for her, I have a meeting with a telepath to see if he can't catch her and keep her. The only missing part of my equation is her body"
Brennan looks up from Henri to Cardinal. "Do you know where her body is though. If we know where her body is, I can bring the telepath to her. She probably doesn't have much time left Richard, she's brand new at her ability… God I want to smack her ass and ask her what she was thinking in the first place. But I'll leave the lectures for if and when I can save her"
"Of course I know where her body is," Cardinal replies as if insulted, "It's my job to know that sort've thing. I don't trust the other oneiromancers. I don't know who they are… I have my own telepaths, too." He rubs one hand against his neck, stepping over to drop the bag on a table, "What's your plan?"
A glance to the bag, probably the DNA material. Find her body. Option A is to bring her to the Suresh Center, square her away in a room. Option B, take her to another location, square her away there. Some place where her vitals can be watched over. The telepath, it's a Matthew Parkman, I have yet to meet with him, would be the telepath who's strong enough to supposedly get her mentally, and anchor her down, keep a hold of her. From there, a matter of just placing the two side by side and the telepath, so I've been told, can just pour her into her body much liek you pour tea from a teapot, into a cup"
Brennan levers his head side to side. "Mind you, it sounds simple, but things are never as simple as they seem. There's also the trust issue, which is, no one seems to believe that I won't just hand her over to the institute"
"Suresh is a little… too watched," Cardinal says with a slight shake of his head, "She's safer where she is right now, and her vitals are being looked over and everything. We had a doctor set everything up to take care of her. Actually, we do have an alternative to having to get someone to her." A frown, "The trick is getting her into the right dreamscape. Apparently, she can leap between a duplicate's dreams — and we have a duplicator keeping one've his bodies asleep next to her at all times."
"You're getting beyond what I know and what I was able to find out Cardinal. Doesn't have to be the Suresh Center, but whatever is being done, it needs to be done soon. She's fledgeling, she won't last much longer, if she's from the sounds of it, already been out for a while. As I was told, they get stronger and better with age and she's still a baby with her ability, but even babies of that Ability can wreak devastating havoc"
"I know. Hokuto…" Cardinal grimaces, his head shaking tightly, "…we don't want another Nightmare Man. There're people working on it, though, like I said. I don't know what they're doing exactly, but — they're working on it. She's been ducking in and out of everyone's dreams, I think."
"Understood" Back off? Maybe. Maybe not. "DNA samples in the bag?" He worms a hand free and gestures to ut.
Hey, Cardinal didn't say to back off, per se. "If you have any more ideas, let me know," he allows, "I can pass them on to the people keeping an eye on her. And yeah. Four of them, mine, the other male and two female, like I said."
"Labeled I hope, at least, in a way that I can relabel them or figure them out" IF not, he'll figure it out on his own, see if he can't get Elijah to help him out. Henri in Brennan's arms, starts to get a little red in face, the soother not so held tight in his mouth and face scrunching.
"Yeah." A faint smile as the babe starts to cry, and Cardinal offers a slight nod, "I guess I should go… congratulations, again, Harve. And thanks."
"Unless you have a breast that I don't know of that can produce milk, yeah, I'll get back to you soon as possible with the results, though don't expect them before Christmas" It'll take longer than that to do the matching of that, Brennan is sure, even as he's rising from his chair, heading to the door that leads to the rest of the house and not the outside. "Take care"
"Now that would be a disturbing ability, wouldn't it?" Cardinal exhales a chuckle as he turns away to head to the door that leads out, already darkening towards shadow as he moves. "Take care yourself… take care…"