Participants:
| Scene Title | Cruel Like a Cat |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | He also has a rough tongue in the verbal sense but when he purrs, Mister Logan can be quite sweet. |
| Date | April 3, 2011 |
Eltingville Blocks — The Brick House
It's almost dark by the time the key scrapes into the lock and it swings open to reveal Delia's figure plodding through. One of the dogs rushes from the kitchen to greet her and its rewarded by a kneel and a hug. It's been a long time since she's had to make her way to and from an outside job and she's a little too tired for it all to be real. Her muscles aren't lying though, the log walk is quite real.
It's not until she gets up again that she actually turns and closes the door. Then opens it again to let the dog out, "Stay close to the house, don't wander far." The warning to the dog is made cheerfully enough, as though he actually understands. When it's closed again, she slumps and leans against the frame, waiting for the dog to do its business.
Tania has been pretty scarce over the last few days, but tonight, hoping that Logan was gone off to work already, she's ventured down into the kitchen for an evening snack. But hearing someone coming in, she stills, fridge door open and everything. But when it's Delia's voice, she relaxes some, grabs a bowl of grapes from within and lets the door close before she comes out again.
"Miss Deliya," she greets softly, nodding her hellos. "Is everything alright?" She peers at the door, looking sort of wary rather than curious.
From her place at the door, Delia glances over her shoulder and gives the girl a smile. "Yes, it's all okay." Opening the door one last time the dog is ushered inside and it's closed and finally locked. The pack is slipped from the weary woman's shoulder and held down at her side as she makes her way into the kitchen with Rhett at her heel.
She takes a seat at the table and settles down placing the pack next to her feet and then glances at Tania again. "Are you okay? You seem a bit off… Was— was it the dream? I'm sorry if I scared you, I didn't mean to."
Setting down her bowl on the table, she moves to get a glass of water for Delia before she sits down herself. The woman's question gets a blink of surprise, and a moment of something between dread and embarrassment on her face before she realizes which dream Delia must mean.
"Oh, no. That was very odd, and I did not understand at first, but it was not so bad. I worry for Miss Ebby, though." She frowns gently, looking down at her bowl for a moment. "Mi— Mister Logan said you are… dream walker. Yes?" She peeks up there, glancing up at Delia curiously.
There's a small glimmer of relief in Delia's face and she nods with a smile as she takes the offered water. One sip is emptied into her mouth before she places the glass down in front of her. "Mister Logan told you?" It's not anger, more a curiosity that conjures the question to the younger redhead. A moment is spent watching the girl and a long breath inward is taken.
"I'm glad that he did," she finally says, the smile growing on her face. "It means I don't have to fuddle to explain or anything. I think— I think Abby's in a lot of trouble. I'd like to find out more but I'm not allowed to contact them anymore because I live here. In Eltingville." There's a measure of sadness as she lets out the words but it's gone with a shake of her head. "It's alright though, I have everyone here, right?"
"Yes, he explained because… I have been having strange dreams. He was not just…" Oh, but then Delia's okay with it, so Tania's explaining cuts a little short. "What sort of trouble? I wish I could go see her, but I think… I think they would not let me, either. Plus, it is hard to leave my brother."
The girl glances toward the door, as if expecting the other Russian to come strolling in. Not that Sasha really ever strolls.
She looks back to Delia, though, at those last words, and she reaches over to lay a hand on her arm. "You do have this. An odd little family, no?" She smiles a bit there, but there is still some embarrassment for her own word choice. She didn't really mean to say that exactly. "A different life is not always a thing to be sad over."
"Family," the word is said with a little sigh and Delia places her free hand on top of Tania's. "Yeah, I guess we are sort of like a family here." Though the roles they play seem a bit muddled. Who is who, the older redhead can't be too certain of.
"As for Abby, Sable's our neighbor. She'll be able to get us news, even if I can't. She'll definitely tell us what's going on." The older of the two women seems quite certain of this fact. A couple of pats are given to Tania's hand before she reaches for the water and takes a few long drinks. The glass is drained before the puts it down again, pushing the glass away from her as indication that she doesn't want any more.
"What sort of dreams have you been having?"
"Sable," Tania repeats, filing the name away for later. The ladies next door will probably get a skinny Russian on their doorstep soon.
The question about her dreams gets her looking away again, and she lets out a bit of a sigh. "I think… I do not know, exactly, how to explain. But Miss Ebby, she had one… with me… once," Tania furrows her brow there; she still has a hard time wrapping her brain around this dream stuff.
"The best way to explain anything is to start at the beginning and end at the end," Delia says quietly. "It's what my mom always used to say and she's probably the smartest person I've ever known." Especially now, the young woman holds the ghost in complete reverence.
Without the water to occupy her hands, she twiddles her thumbs around each other as she waits for the story. Her blue eyes have a soft quality to them, perhaps weary from too much walking. She's not quite back to full strength and beginning to wonder if she ever will be. "You don't have to tell me everything, just the basic things. If it makes you feel any better, there's a lot of people who tell me about their dreams."
Tania is quiet for a long moment. Not that she's debating whether or not to say anything, but rather… what to say, exactly.
"First, I had a dream. I was older, some. Ebby was with me and a man came to me for help. He lived here, and his daughter had been taken. He was married to an evolved, I think. She was taking something. In the dream, I understood it? She was taking something because of what she was, and he assured us she never missed a day. But they took his daughter anyway? She was very young.
"In the next dream, we were with Mister Logan while he was making a deal with them. Ah, the… people that Miss Ebby is with now." Who we means, she doesn't say. "They needed medicine. He was, ah… a supplier?" The word is more foreign than just being in another language. The concept, it's outside her current experience. "That is what I dreamed. The second one, I was much older. Everyone was much older. And there was a man with… ah…"
Tania lifts one hand, holding it up sort of like a claw and looking at it as if it would give her the word she's looking for. "His hand, it was machine."
"We were with Mister Logan?" Delia's eyebrows furrow and she looks away from Tania to stare at the glass. The choice of words throws the older redhead off a little, perhaps assuming that she was there as well. "How old? Do you remember how old we were?" There's a confused furrow of the young woman's eyebrows and she purses her lips together into something of a frown.
"Tania, did you recognize any of the people in the dream? Do you remember their names?" She doesn't quite explain anything yet, not having enough information to piece together a semblance of a timeline.
"In the first dream, I was maybe… twenty? And Miss Ebby was there and the man was named Eaddy. John Eaddy. In the second dream, I think I was… thirty? Maybe a little older. And Mister Logan was there and the others…" Tania takes a moment, her eyes closing as she tries to recall that dream enough to remember their names. Her brow furrowing doesn't bode too well, but she eventually opens her eyes and says, "Flint. The man's name was Flint. There were two women, but I… I knew them, but I do not… know them."
"Mister Deckard," Delia's clarification on who the man is comes quite possibly because she knows absolutely no other Flints. "It gives me a place to start.. I had a dream too, I was older. I don't know how old. I didn't live in Eltingville with you anymore, I was trying to get people out of a ghetto. The government had stopped taking care of the people and just started taking them."
There's worry as she flits a gaze to Tania and then toward the kitchen window to stare at the black night that falls much too quickly. "They said they were going to group homes, but the man we were with, he's a man that works with my dad. He said there were no group homes, just extermination camps." She falls silent for a few minutes, the silence only broken by the clicking of Rhett's paws against the floor. "My mentor, she said something to me the last time I saw her… she said there are memories where they don't belong."
"I am not sure where I was living, in either dream. I know there was a house in the second, but I am not sure where it was." Tania tilts her head as Delia explains a little more, her frown deepening. "I hope that is not… what is coming true." There's a little glance around their home and the keen knowledge that there are three evolved living here. "I do not see how memories can get where they are not? It cannot be a memory if it has not happened, yes? Why are they here?"
"I— " the young woman starts and stops, trying to figure out how to say it so Tania can understand. "Last year a whole bunch of people all over the city had visions, a few minutes of the future. I had one where I was on boats and going to where Abby is now." Delia doesn't say the name of the island or even refer to it as such. "There was a woman who was shot and I offered to help her. When it came to pass, I got there a few minutes too late for my vision to come true… but a man that saved me, he'd been shot."
She levels a serious look over to Tania and lifts one shoulder up on a shrug. "I think, what my mentor was trying to say is that these dreams are like that. Just on a grander scale. The only way to stop it from coming true, is to not do what led up to the dreams themselves. In mine, even though there were horrible things, I was doing something good again. I was helping people."
"But… how can we stop it if we do not see… how it became that?" Tania sits back, bringing her feet up to rest on the edge of her seat as she wraps her arms around her knees. "And how are we having these visions? In mine… I think I was doing a good thing in the first, and I think I was happy in the second, but I wake up and I wonder how could I be happy?"
And it's a real puzzle, because the girl flumps her chin onto her knees and lets out a sigh. Ah, to be sixteen again. Everything's dramatic.
There's a slight tilt to Delia's head as her eyebrows furrow just a little. "I think it's someone like me that's giving the dreams. I was told to find someone and to talk to her… It didn't go quite so well." A guilty expression finds its way to the dreamer's face as she folds her hands in front of her and stares down at them. "I got angry, she was wearing a necklace that I'd given to someone else. I didn't realize that she could have just pulled it out of my head or his and liked it. I just— I thought he'd given it to her and I was jealous."
Chewing on her lip, she shrugs a shoulder and looks away. "Anyway…" a long sigh is given and she glances around all of the corners of the room as if looking for mice or ghosts. "Why did you wake up wondering how you could be happy?"
Tania smiles a little there, not amused, but understanding, perhaps. "I think I understand. I have read many books." Jealousy, a common theme! "Was it Mister Logan?" Her eyebrows lift, the curious expression of one trying to work out a puzzle.
Oh, but then an almost similar question is tossed her way, even if Delia doesn't know it, exactly. Tania lifts her head there, and shakes her head a bit. "It was just… very strange. I think I need to… think on it a little longer, before I can explain why. But I was in a situation that seems very unlikely."
Delia's lips part and nothing but a sharp breath of air is sucked in, as though she's just about to say something. Instead her head tilts back and her eyes drift to the ceiling and an almost fearful countenance makes its way to her features. "No.. it wasn't Mister Logan," she quiets a little too quickly, not bothering to explain any further before she reaches down to grip her backpack.
She swings it up onto her lap and keeps her eyes down, focusing on her knees instead. "I d-don't kn-know what you know about Mister Logan and I but I didn't give the necklace to him." Her stammer, a combination of nerves, guilt, and outright fear, is quelled by hugging the pack closer to her body like a security blanket. Every night she's been closed into her own bedroom, save one, a night when Logan wasn't even home.
"I am sorry, Miss Deliya," Tania says, dropping her feet back to the floor, "I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. I just thought… you must be close to him, to be here, yes? I have never seen him with his friends before. Beside my brother."
The girl's tones are soothing, trying to smooth things over and get out of what is clearly awkward territory. "It is not so strange, for friends to give each other gifts, yes?"
"No," Delia says quietly, hugging the pack tighter to her chest and resting her cheek on it. "Mister Logan used to be everything that was perfect to me. He's still— still very nice to me but I'm not here because of that." She gives the young girl a crooked smile with her head still resting on the bag. Her eyelids droop lazily as she stares at Tania, studying her. "The man I gave the necklace to, I lost him because I'm here. He doesn't like Mister Logan very much… with good reason.
"But it doesn't really matter anymore, right? I'm here with all of you, Mister Logan is giving me my life back." Her eyes close fully now and she almost seems as though she's about to fall asleep. Instead, she keeps talking. "He's been more than generous, he's done so much for me. If I didn't see it, I think I wouldn't be able to believe that Mister Logan could ever be cruel and heartless."
Tania is quiet for a long moment, but she looks over at Delia with an almost comforting expression. "I think Mister Logan is very generous and very kind, but… on his own say so. This is what I think. Miss Ebby, she does not like him, either. But I stay here. I stay for my brother and because, like you say, he is very generous. He is doing — and has done — a lot for me and I am very grateful. But I think, he can be as cruel as he can be kind. He is like… a cat, yes?" and that little metaphor makes Tania smile crookedly, a barely-there expression.
"I think, maybe when you have settled… maybe you and your friend can find there's a place still for you to stay connected. Ebby still cares for me, even though I am here. And it is not worth throwing away a friendship over something like this. If you like one another, it should not matter who is helping you." She is, perhaps, a bit optimistic.
Delia's eyes open and she lifts her head to shake it. Finally, she stands and regards Tania, her expression hardened to something a little more neutral. "I couldn't do that to Nick. As much as I wish that I could be that selfish to keep him with me, I couldn't do it. Yesterday, he wanted me to go with him, said he would put me up somewhere." She shakes her head with a sardonic smile and looks down at the floor. "I made a promise to Mister Logan that I'm not going to break. As long as he needs me with him, I'll stay."
When she lifts her chin to look up at the ceiling again, she greets it with the same sort of smile one would when graced by the light of an angel. "I think, as long as I am good to Mister Logan, he'll be good to me. I just have to stay good to him."
The backpack is slung over her shoulder and she picks the glass up to carry it over to the sink. Once deposited, she pivots toward the door and long strides carry her toward the frame. "I should get some sleep Tania, I hope your dreams don't bother you. If they do… I should be in my own head from now on. You can come wake me."
"Well, I hope it won't always have to be the choice, one or the other. It would be sad to have you leave. I would be the only girl again." Tania tries a little smile, but it isn't quite heartfelt this time.
She turns to follow Delia's trail with her gaze, and she gives her a much more genuine smile before she replies, "It is alright, Miss Deliya. I think dreams, they are over when I wake up. But I will tell you, if I have another one that is strange." She lifts her hand in a little wave, her expression holding a little apology.