Participants:
| Scene Title | Different Instruments, Different Loves |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Two musicians reconnect and discuss other things they have in common. |
| Date | February 6, 2009 |
Somewhere in Nuked York City
It's Friday, some hours before it's time for the meeting with the remaining Phoenix members to meet up and do some brainmoshing to find a way to get their captives free again. Not exactly the easiest task around, that, but that didn't mean that Anne was quite ready to let them just rot.. wherever they were. However, they were other problems as well. One of these was what had her attention right now, scratching down thoughts in a notepad. The woman herself is seated in a big couch in one of the Ferrymen safehouses, with lots of blankets wrapped around her. She's not really all that healthy still, but at least her fever is down and the hallucinations are gone.
She's been looking for Anne a while, without success, along with other persons who'd gone missing, and upon being told where the fellow musician is, Cat pays a visit. She goes through the security procedures, arriving with a guitar case over one shoulder and backpack across the other. Once inside, Anne is sought out.
Anne pulls her fingers through her hair and sighs, tapping the end of her pencil against the notepad as she does so. Thinking, rather obviously. When she heards the footsteps from Cat she starts a little bit, putting her hand over her heart and exhaling slowly when she sees who it is. "Dear goodness, Cat, you scared me. How're you doing? And oooh. Guitar." There's a bit of a sigh at the sight of the thing. "I miss mine. I've only got my flute here, and while that's awesome in many ways, sometimes I just want to feel the strings under my fingers." Different instruments, different loves.
She considers the woman in silence for a few moments, then unslings the guitar case and sets it down, followed by her backpack and coat. Then the case is opened and the instrument is pulled out. A red Fender Stratocaster, in excellent condition. "I don't let just anyone touch Courtney D," Cat tells her somberly as it's offered over. Inside the case is a small portable amp and the lead to plug in with. "I'm good," she adds, in reply to her question. "You seem not so good."
"Oh, trust me. I've been much worse than this." Anne replies with a bit of a laugh to her voice, though she accepts the guitar with proper care and reverence. You should be careful with another's lover, after all. When she strums the guitar there's a smile playing on her lips, and the starts of a melody starts coming from the instrument. "Your cortney is in excellent condition." She says, finally, looking up at Cat. "What can I do for you today?"
"I'm just paying a visit," she replies, while listening to Anne's playing style. Then she reaches into the backpack and pulls out a few Jethro Tull discs. "I thought you might enjoy these, also. Ian Anderson's good with the flute, and they made the two blend well with progressive rock. It's good to see the water you fell into didn't keep you, Anne."
"Most of that wasn't on me, though." Anne replies, tilting her head to the side a bit as she speaks. "Brian got me out of there, and I don't even know how exactly. Was unconscious at the time." She looks back down at her fingers. Her playing style isn't that of a true expert, but it's clear she's practised more than just a little. While she couldn't hold a concert with a guitar, she's more than skilled enough to use it for singing and other such things. "Thanks for the music. I kind of like Ian myself, though I don't play too much of that kind of music. More of a classic, me."
She lifts one leg and braces the foot against the inside of her knee, while lifting her arms into the position of someone playing flute and balances there for a few seconds. "It'd need both of us, really, to sound right. Guitar and flute together. He did a good bit that has a classical feel, also." Cat pauses there, shifting tacks. She's remembered something, not that should be any surprise, this woman is memory after all. "You were unconscious when you fell. Do you remember feeling oddly numb just before that time, Anne?"
Anne pauses her playing at that, putting a flat hand over the strings to silence them. "Odd numbness?" She considers that for a moment before simply shaking her head. "I can't really say that I did, but. You have to take into consideration that Kazimir had all but sucked the life out of me, I had multiple cuts all over my body and shortly after that I got a block of concrete in my head. So, even if I had felt a touch numb," Which she doesn't remember, either way. "I wouldn't have registered that as perticularly odd. In fact, I probably wouldn't have remembered it at all. What's going on?" It's not like it's the most common question you can have, after all.
"At our location, after the building we extract the box with the virus container in it, the building blew up. The three of us were thrown across the street, and I used thermite to destroy it just as Homeland Satan put boots on the ground. I found my legs got numb, had to crawl to the target, and the farther I got, the better my legs worked. Abby later told me she felt something similar on the bridge, said it caused her to lose grip and fall in. Helena also was apparently affected by whatever it was. You were there, and fell in, I wondered if maybe it hit you too, and if so how far you might have been from Abby and Helena. It's me brainstorming, trying to estimate range. But even if it did hit you, other things from the fight made it not stand out."
"Yeah.. well. I can tell you that I wasn't far from Abby while I was conscious, but, I can't really say what happened at that point. I mean, when I was awake, I was real close to Helena too, but appereantly something happened in between those two times or I wouldn't have been sitting here." Homeland security would have taken Anne as well, and she wouldn't be here. "How're you holding up, though? I mean, I heard things didn't exactly go well for you, that much is obvious. What happened to the others?" Details, as opposed to just 'gone'.
She just nods as she listens, knowing there won't be any estimate of range from this account. Cat speaks quietly, recalling that day in Jersey City. "We were all thrown across the street, Homeland Satan put boots on the ground, and I crawled to the target, used the thermite, and it burned. Then I looked back to see Al and Brian still down, with agents closing in. I knew I couldn't help them, going that way would make my legs fail again, so I took off. No point in three captured instead of two. At the bridge, Abby told me, she felt that same numbness and went into the water, couldn't keep her grip, and said as she fell the numbness faded. She also saw Helena just collapse. So I have to believe that's how they got her."
That has to be worse in so many ways, Anne figures. Having to run away from people you care about, though there are other complications as well. "And you, of all people… if you were caught?" There's not a thing that couldn't be gotten out of Cat's brain. Every address. Every detail. Anne s coots over towards Cat, and reaches out to take her hand and hold it. Not more than that, but. She's a touchy feely person. Also, her fingers are still hot with fever, even if it's not that much anymore.
"I don't relish the prospects of being at the mercy of a telepath, or telepaths," Cat replies, letting her hand be taken. "I'd like to believe I could resist, not think of things, but if they're skilled, able to go past the surface and explore, I don't hold out much hope. Especially if I'm in prison. They could stick me in a cell and leave me alone while the telepath works, and I'd never even know one was present." Cat goes quiet there for a short time.
"You understand this, and I understand this… Getting Brian to understand isn't that easy."
Anne squeezes Cat's hand for a long moment before she lets go. "Maybe it's too early for him to understand it yet? I mean.. a very real part of him is missing. I don't know about you, but I can't even imagine what that'd feel like. What it was he lost, you know? That said, it has to suck for you as well." Kinda wasn't a fun experiment for anyone, that. "Though you know.." She pauses again, looking back to her notebook. "Sometimes I kinda wish we had a telepath on our side too. Not so much to ferret out secrets, but so we could practise like. Not sharing our own. You know? If it's possible."
"It would be," Cat agrees. "I estimate things like telepathy on the long side. Best to assume they can get to anything if given the time to work a prison setting provides until and unless we know they can't. It's also true I can't fully grasp Brian's experience, having not lived it myself. The closest I get is when I get too close to Sergei. I don't ever go within ten feet of him if I can avoid it."
Anne nods a little bit to this. "Yeah, that's probably it." She rubs her hands together in a slightly nervous manner. "Kinda weird, how something like your evolved ability becomes so normal. I can't hardly think what it'd be like to be trapped. I mean, this last week is the closest thing I've come to it in a long time." And by now she could teleport if she really had to, it's just like running when you're sick. You can do it. Then you suck the consequences.
"I get too close, and everything is a fog. It's like instantly losing seven years, so fuzzy, can't even think straight. I just keep it in my head, ten feet, ten feet, ten feet, and get back beyond that quick as I can," Cat relates. From there she shifts tacks again. "Good work with the bridges and finding the bombs, Anne. I never got a chance to tell you that."
"Thanks." Anne ducks her head a bit at the praise. "It might be silly of me, but that really means a lot. I feel like, most of the time, I'm swimming in too deep a pond. School just doesn't prepare you for this kind of thing." She looks up at Cat's face again. "Sometimes, everyone just seems so together around here, though.. I've come to realize that at least to some degree that's just a facade. Everyone's likely scared sometimes."
"You're very welcome, Anne. People are often together when they have to be," Cat replies, "and let the coming apart happen when things are calmer, when there aren't any witnesses." She lets her eyes rest on the guitar for some moments, then seeks to pack it away. "I've got some places to be," she states quietly. "I'll drop in on you again soon. Rest and get well. Hopefully you can make our meeting today." And with that, Cat's getting back into her coat, shouldering her gear, and making her way out.
 February 5th: Supplies |
 February 6th: Jaws |