Participants:
Scene Title | Bifurcation |
---|---|
Synopsis | Mateo brings news of his interaction within the Garden to Richard. |
Date | December 4, 2018 |
Richard's Office: Raytech Headquarters
One would think most visitors wouldn’t show up first thing in the morning, before the doors were even normally opened, but that is not the case today. Mateo and Lynette Ruiz checked it at the desk and were shown up to the office due to being on the list of those to be allowed up immediately. All the while he spent the morning thinking of how to explain the situation to the other man. He wondered if they should have tried to see if Kaylee was available too— but they can always ask for her after, if he needs evidence.
When they enter, he immediately starts before waiting even for a greeting, “Sorry about the no notice thing. We would have called ahead, but…” it’s sometimes a running joke these days. But it’s still true even if it was a joke.
It looks as if the man hasn’t slept well. Because he never did make it back to bed after he woke up, with many hours left in the morning. But it gave him plenty of time to get warmly clothed and shower and shave and all the other things, so he doesn’t really look out of place. Just tired. Maybe he hasn’t had a morning coffee yet.
Except he has had a few.
“We have some news. Well, Mateo has news,” Lynette says, although she is here to provide more than moral support. At least, she hopes so. What she’s seen of her other lives, especially the one traveling through timelines, it would be nice if it could help instead of just upsetting her.
There weren’t very many Lynettes or Mateos left, it seems. At least in the worlds they’re witnessing.
She doesn’t look much better off, sleepwise, but there is the magic of makeup that helps her seem more together. But her eyes can’t hide how tired she is, no matter how she tries.
They’re not the only ones that haven’t been sleeping well. There are shadows beneath Richard’s eyes as he turns away from the main window, which currently has an overlay of weather reports and atmospheric conditions showing through a delayed satellite internet stream spread across it.
“You’re always welcome, don’t be ridiculous,” he waves off as he turns away from the window, offering a wry almost-smile, “I’m guessing this isn’t good news, mostly because nobody brings me good news anymore.”
He steps along over to the desk, waving to the chairs offered. One of them has a sleeping kitten in it, curled up like a ball of red fuzz, but there are two more that are empty.
For a moment, it looks as if Mateo might stay standing, if only because of the pent up energy in him. So much to explain. Though he knew that of most people, this man would not balk when he did explain it. That helped him nod and sit down before he jumped right in.
“I talked to Lynette. Another Lynette.” It’s a simple explanation for something much more complicated. “The one that’s travelling with Elisabeth and Magnes. And the other me.” The other Otter he almost calls him, he had with Lynette. It was funny how that nickname had stuck on all because of a figurative dream. Though he still didn’t understand why the precog had seen him as an Otter of all creatures. “Her ability and… mine had been switched somehow. And I think that gave her a connection with me.”
There was certainly anxiety in his voice, as if he wished he could tell everything in one quick burst, but so much to tell, so little time. The important parts were best.
“She thinks she’ll need my help to get them here. To aim correctly.”
“It isn’t bad news,” Lynette says with a crooked smile. That smile disappears when she looks back to Mateo. “Not all of it.” Not what they were here to talk about, in any case. The news about Eileen and the children was a bit less helpful.
When Mateo starts to explain, Lynette puts a hand on his shoulder. Support. “It makes a certain amount of sense. She makes one half of the portal, he makes the other. The theory makes as much sense as anything.” She’s seen El Umbral; it fits that the hungry void is actually reaching for its other half. Wherever it may be. “The problem is in the execution. Coordinating across timelines… that’s where we need help.”
“Switched? Fuck, they must’ve run into Tyler— anyway, regardless. She’s right, and you’re right…” Richard sinks down into the faux-leather of the chair behind the desk, leaning back wearily into its embrace but offering a faint smile that’s no less genuine for the weariness, “Right now they’re just randomly leaping between strings because they’re lacking an anchor, which is where you come in.”
He leans forward then, hands clasping on the desk’s edge, “I know where, and when, there will be a weak point between the strings— one that you and he— er, her— can use to link up and form a usable passage. The trouble’s been trying to get that information to them so they can use it… do you think you could contact her again?”
“I can try, certainly, though I’m not sure how often it will work. My… did Kaylee tell you what my mind looked like when we entered it?” Mateo doesn’t really wait for him to nod, because even if she had he’s not sure how much the man would remember. It had been so long ago. “It’s a maze. I think my mother may have built it. She had been a telepath like your sister.” Not exactly like her, but powerful in her own right. “I think she made it to help hide me, and… maybe another reason. Maybe to keep me disconnected. There was one moment in there where— it was like I had overlapping memories.” He’s not sure exactly how much of it had been fabricated and how much had been…
Well after seeing Lynette maybe it had been more. “And the sky was odd. Usually there’s always an eclipse overhead. But last night it was surrounded by an aurora. Colored clouds that seemed to swirl around it. With lightning in it. Anyway, if I see the aurora overhead in my dreams again, I can try. Maybe Kaylee could help me too, but I think I can without her, now that I know what to look for. I’m not sure we’ll get to choose when though. Maybe whatever it is causing those visions…” The Benchmark is filling up with people who need therapy based on what they’d seen. “Maybe that’s thinning the line enough that we can talk. Sometimes.”
"Time is broken," Lynette says, a gesture to their own sky, blaming it for so many things that have been going on lately, "And you're connected to time. It stands to reason that the maze she built would be showing signs of it, too." It's not even a theory anymore, not as far as she's concerned. "And if we can use that to get them home, then that's good."
Her attention turns to Richard. "I'm hoping whatever you've got means we don't have to break it any further." It's the part about this that makes her the most nervous, that they might do something they can't fix in their efforts to get everyone home.
“Odessa has… a connection with her multiversal selves,” Richard admits, almost reluctantly, “Given everything I’m not surprised that you do as well, although it sounds like it’s— differently arranged. Which I suppose makes sense. X-axis, Y-axis— anyway, anyway.” He waves himself out of the brief divergence to focus.
“The superstrings are coming more into alignment. We need to be in a specific place, at a specific time— Christmas Day. Eleven-seventeen in the evening. And thirty-seven seconds. If you activate your power then, at the height of the auroral overlay event,” he points at Ruiz, “And she uses hers at the same time, you’ll link up. Both of you will need to be on the roof of the Deveaux building.”
He grimaces at Lynette’s words, admitting, “There is— risk. Mateo and Odessa are both connected to the Entity, and— well. We don’t have time for me to build a Looking Glass. If we miss this chance, they’ll— probably never get home.”
“I’m not sure I know that building,” Mateo admitted, looking toward Lynette as if she might be able to inform him on it. He’d not really come to New York until she had brought him last year, so he doesn’t know most the buildings. Except some of the more notable landmarks, and that rooftop apparently had not been among them for him.
The mention of the Entity puts furrows in his brow, but he slowly nods. He knew there was something going on, even if he didn’t have all the details. “We need to help them get here. So whatever I can tell them to help, whatever I can do to help, I’ll do it.”
Because of a couple parents separated from their children, because he feels like this was connected to him as much as to anyone else. “I’ll mention the building. Is there anything else you think I should tell them, or ask?”
"That's… in Manhattan, isn't it?" Lynette lets out a heavy sigh. Luckily, they have a few connections between them that could make going there a little… smoother, but it still isn't exactly a happy place to visit. Not to mention the entity and whatever else comes through with them.
"We'll have to work out identification for the people coming. They don't need to live out their double's lives— it'll be strange enough to have people walking around that already exist here. Or used to. We'll have to figure out what to do with them." Practical matters. That, she knows how to solve, given the resources. Metaphysical shenanigans are a bit beyond her.
“Yeah, it’s in Manhattan. I have one of Eve’s paintings that shows where it needs to be,” Richard says with a tip of his head— always the one following the trails, the clues, the hints and strings to the future. “We can get in. I’ve gotten through officially before. Mateo, do you need— I know you draw on electricity in some way, do we need to provide a power source for you to pull on?”
Then he’s shaking his head, “We do it legally, officially. I’ve already briefed SESA on the alternate-worlds issue. They get here, and we put them through immigration.” A faint smile, “This is New York, after all. Give us your poor, your tired…”
Manhattan. The closed area. The place still covered in bodies, as far as he knew. Mateo shakes his head, knowing that this will not be pleasant by any means. But due to the missing children, he knew it was necessary. Not to mention the others lost in time, unable to get home. Though learning about the children had sealed it, in his mind. The desire to help. Quietly he makes mental notes to get names of who might all be coming, but it didn’t matter half as much as actually getting them there.
As for the question, he grins. “Usually I would say yes, but we have Lynette here. I think as long as the two of us are up there, we could open a decent sized portal. If you want to set up a power supply, though, it might help.”
But if not, he remembered practicing with her in Mexico. It might not be exactly the same, but their abilities definitely complimented each other.
Lynette just lifts a hand and waves at the mention of a power supply. Mateo explains better, but she seems to think the gesture will do. "And hell if I'm letting him go up there without me in any case," she says, looking over at Mateo with a warm smile. If he's in, she's in.
"What, legally?" Lynette takes a beat, then laughs lightly— at herself mostly. "Right. The Country of Origin field is about to get very interesting. Sorry, once a Ferryman…" It's baked into her bones, that kneejerk reaction to handle things themselves, without prying eyes. It's baked into her facility, too, with its safehouse to spirit those in need away to.
“I have an idea or two I’m going to toss around, maybe kill two birds with one stone…” Richard then grins, his hands spreading to either side, “C’mon, Lynette. Picture it. Vincent Lazarro’s face when he’s told that Homeland Security needs to do background checks on interdimensional travellers— it’ll be absolutely priceless.”
He pauses, “There aren’t, uh. I mean how many people are we talking here?”
“I don’t think I want to be there for that face,” Mateo admits, as he recalls what little he knew about Vincent and the man’s interactions with his wife. He half wondered what they might try to do with him once they figure out what his ability was capable of. He hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with the registration folks about the full extent of what he could do.
At Lynette’s encouragement, even. They didn’t need to know the exact damage his ability could do to someone. And what would they do when they found out how they got there?
Well that’s a bridge they would cross some day, and not today. “I don’t know how many. I’ll see if I can get an estimate.” Not an exact headcount, but an idea. “So the… Deveaux Building and a estimate on headcount— anything else?”
"Oh, I definitely want to see that face." Lynette and Vincent bonded over insane things— seeing them and doing them. And she doesn't seem to hold the worry that Mateo does, mostly because she trusts that bond pretty far.
"From what I've seen of her," she offers, as far as the headcount, "there's at least ten people I can imagine will come. Or rather… people she would be devastated to leave behind. Which amounts to the same thing." Lynette can imagine how far she would go to get her people somewhere safe, and all Lynettes are her, deep down. "Some of the people in her memories are… well, they're her family, aren't they?" She knows, or at least guesses, that her connection to the other Lynettes and their minds has been complicated by the introduction of Mateo's ability, but while she has access, she does the only thing she can think of. Categorize everything. Notes upon notes. "I think we can safely assume it will be more than a handful."
“Okay, then… so at least ten… maybe more,” Richard pinches two fingers between his eyes, “Alright. We can’t leave the door open for too long, we don’t want to risk breaking the prison open— “ Unless that’s already happened. “— but we need to get them through. We’ll need medical equipment on site in case of injuries… and guards. No telling what’s going to come through.”
There was a lot logistically to figure out. But Mateo knew that everyone in the room had a stake in this succeeding. Lynette and him for a family they don’t know that isn’t technically theirs (but is at the same time) and Richard for a lost loved one.
A lot to figure out. Hopefully enough time to figure it out well. Starting with making plans.
“You get the hard work, it sounds like.” Cause asking questions across dimensions and opening the door seemed like the easiest part. “But at least we’ll have a place for them to stay when they arrive.” The Benchmark always had room. Even with their added guests due to the strange visions.
“We’ll do whatever we have to to bring them home.”