Don't Faint

Participants:

f_elisabeth_icon.gif trask_icon.gif f_ygraine_icon.gif

Scene Title Don't Faint
Synopsis Lis brings Trask to watch Cameron at play in Central Park, where they bump into Ygraine. Trask complements her cleavage, while she offer help and manages not to point out timeline problems with him being Cameron's father. At least he's probably not a Bodysnatcher….
Date April 10 2019

Central Park

An array of paths and tracks wind their way through stands of trees and swathes of grass, frequented by joggers, bikers, dog-walkers, and horsemen alike. Flowerbeds, tended gardens, and sheltered conservatories provide a wide array of colorful plants; the sheer size of the park, along with a designated wildlife sanctuary add a wide variety of fauna to the park's visitor list. Several ponds and lakes, as well as the massive Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, break up the expanses of green and growing things. There are roads, for those who prefer to drive through; numerous playgrounds for children dot the landscape.

Many are the people who come to the Park - painters, birdwatchers, musicians, and rock climbers. Others come for the shows; the New York Shakespeare Festival at the Delacorte Theater, the annual outdoor concert of the New York Philharmonic on the Great Lawn, the summer performances of the Metropolitan Opera, and many other smaller performing groups besides. They come to ice-skate on the rink, to ride on the Central Park Carousel, to view the many, many statues scattered about the park.


Central Park has been, and remains, a key attraction in New York City, both for tourists and local residents. Though slightly smaller, approximately 100 acres at its southern end scarred by and still recovering from the explosion, the vast northern regions of the park remain intact.

An array of paths and tracks wind their way through stands of trees and swathes of grass, frequented by joggers, bikers, dog-walkers, and horsemen alike. Flowerbeds, tended gardens, and sheltered conservatories provide a wide array of colorful plants; the sheer size of the park, along with a designated wildlife sanctuary add a wide variety of fauna to the park's visitor list. Several ponds and lakes, as well as the massive Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, break up the expanses of green and growing things. There are roads, for those who prefer to drive through; numerous playgrounds for children dot the landscape.

Many are the people who come to the Park - painters, birdwatchers, musicians, and rock climbers. Others come for the shows; the New York Shakespeare Festival at the Delacorte Theater, the annual outdoor concert of the New York Philharmonic on the Great Lawn, the summer performances of the Metropolitan Opera, and many other smaller performing groups besides. They come to ice-skate on the rink, to ride on the Central Park Carousel, to view the many, many statues scattered about the park.

Central Park on April 10, 2019. It's a cool day, though bright and sunny. Her son's school is out today — Good Friday's next week, and since he goes to private school, they set their Spring Break this week, and a workday today. Elisabeth and Norton have stood off to one side of the playground for nearly a half an hour by this point, watching one small blonde bundle of energy race around with some of his friends, his nanny on watchful duty. Though Mary Grace, the nanny, is aware of their presence, Elisabeth asked her not to let Cameron see them for now. The young woman, no more than 21 and working her way through college courses while working for Liz, understands at least some of the situation — Norton Trask is a historical figure and she's grown up in a world where Evolved powers, even the rarest of forms like time travel, are not exactly unknown. So she keeps Cameron's attention away from that side of the playground whenever necessary. Liz told Norton they could stay as long as he wanted to.

Trask still has some good spy craft in him, he has positioned himself where some tree branches will partially obscure Cameron's view of him, and he has reached out to take liz's hand and give it a tight squeeze while he watches. There are no words, just silence as his eyes take Cameron in.

Though she's officially working from home today, Ygraine has come to the centre of the city to indulge in a little enjoyment of the clear sunshine of Spring. In contrast to the gown, jewellery, and medal worn for the fund-raiser yesterday, she is in biker's boots and a leather jacket decorated with the flag of the United Kingdom - the successor to a jacket of similar design she wore a decade ago.

Though her backpack contains both a laptop and a sketchpad, she is drawn towards the playground by the sound of the children enjoying it, a wry smile curling her lips as she comes to a halt near the edge, gaze focused upon the noisy youngsters.

Holding his hand, watching their son play, Elisabeth can't help but smile. This… this is a moment she never expected to have. Her son is her pride and joy, and to watch him play standing next to the father he has never met… that's priceless. "He likes the monkey bars," she tells him quietly. "And as you can see, he's always busy… if he's not in motion, chances are he's sitting at the piano or playing his guitar or violin or …. god help us, a saxaphone is his newest."

A little girl slips as she reaches for the next monkey bar falling a devastating 24 inches to the ground. The little blonde boy runs over and offers a hand to help her up without thinks. Trask just watches a little tear touching his eye and he squeezes Liz's hand a little tighter at her words. He doesn't answer her, possibly because he can't right now.

Ygraine frowns a touch as the girl slips… then chuckles as the young knight errant comes to her rescue. She shakes her head a touch, then starts to stroll around the edge of the play area - wary lest the leather-clad stranger start prompting any parents to panic by seeming to stare too long at _their_ child.

She'll stand here as long as he wants to, but the new arrival does attract her attention, same as it attracts other parents' or nannies'. And both her eyebrows shoot to her hairline. Elisabeth hisses urgently, "Norton, we gotta move. We need to get away from here…." She nods toward Ygraine. "If you want to talk to her, it needs to be away from Cam, okay?" They've agreed not to tell their son for a couple more days, until they can determine if Norton's trip is long-term.

Trask blinks like awakening form a dream, "Her?" He looks to see who Liz means and then moves a little too fast to be casual behind the tree from Cam and Ygraine. Of course a man on the edge of the playground /suddenly/ ducking behind a tree is bound to draw attention, and he has left Liz standing out there in the open so anyones eyes who move to see what the movement was will see her standing there.

Ygraine does tend to be rather alert to rapid movement, thanks to years of training on the roads. Her head jerks around to track that peripheral blur, a frown creasing her brow… then she blinks in surprise and picks up pace, moving closer to Elisabeth. Even as she offers a smile and raises a hand in greeting, she shoots a dubious look towards the tree….

Lis raises a hand and steps out toward Ygraine, out of Norton's power's range murmuring words that will drift back to him easily on the breeze once he can't negate her. "Meet us by the park bench around the corner." She gestures down the path, and then turns to walk that way. To Ygraine, she smiles. "C'mon… trust me. This'll blow your mind," she says as she walks with the woman towrad the bench, trusting Norton to join us momentarily, once they're out of sight of the playground.

Trask is sitting on the park bench by the time they arrive, he has found a discarded newspaper and has it up hiding his face as he "reads" it.

Ygraine moves to take Lis's arm as they walk, cocking her head as she gives the other woman a very curious look. "A fabulous new flavour of ice cream? You've got yourself a girlfriend?" She cracks a broad grin. "It's good to see you…"

Laughing softly, Liz comments, "Yeah… as if a girlfriend would work for me. And no new boyfriends lately, either." Oh no… definitely not a new one. This one? This one is the old one. The one who was always her constant. "So uhm…. a funny thing happened on the way to work the other morning. I opened the door and found some visitors. Real blasts from the past," she says quietly. "Ygraine… for God's sake, don't faint on me, and don't scream. I won't be able to mute you, and he can't afford attention right now. But you deserve to see him too." She smiles at the woman. "It's been a while … I hope you and Jen are doing all right," she says. It's a weird conversation, waffling back and forth as she is. But when the arrive at the bench, Liz says, "And when I say blasts from the past, I mean literally." She stops and nods toward Norton.

Trask folds the news paper nonchalently, placing it on the bench next to him, he smiles tightly, "Ygraine Fitzroy? Still fighting the good fight?" He hasn't aged a day…in fact he has actually gotten younger since the last time you saw him.

Ygraine frowns quizzically at Elisabeth, clearly both surprised and rather worried by her emphasised caution. She shoots the paper-hidden man a dubious glance… then double-takes and takes a sharp step back, breath sharply sucked in. She looks from Trask to Lis and then back again, before offering a low and shaky laugh. "So… ahh… how's the invasion going? Are there pods growing in the nearby bushes? Christ, Norton… is… how? Is it actually you? Sorry. I'm babbling. But… I can think of at least… two possible ways it could be you, and some it couldn't."

Elisabeth nods slowly. "Yeah… that's pretty much my reaction too. Along with some barfing." She sighs softly. "Sometime during the raid on Moab, they got hit with a time-travel snafu. We're working on getting it straightened out, but in the meantime… we've got some visitors from the past. It's going to be…. interesting, to say the least." Especially given that some of them are iconic figures nowadays. And of course, the one before Ygraine is Liz's son's father — something Ygraine might remember when her shock passes.

Trask nods and looks around to make sure that noone is paying attention. "Let's just say it's complicated, and we still don't know what it all means. We are trying to keep this quiet so far." He looks over at Liz and shakes his head. "What have you been up to?"

Ygraine chuckles softly, running a hand over her hair. "Me? I, ahhh…. Encouraging people to learn from the sacrifices of the brave, rather than merely… eulogising and turning the dead into saints. I've told people they should be inspired by you, Norton. It's… rather odd encountering… yeah. Ummm. Otherwise? Got hitched, have kids, work for the UN. Have a couple of medals. I'd rather talk to the world about politics, but most journalists would rather ask about what it's like to be the wife of a Broadway actress or where we went to get our dresses…"

Elisabeth shrugs mildly to Norton's look — even if we're keeping it quiet, Ygraine was both Phoenix and she's someone who was Norton's friend. She deserved to see him, and he deserved to see some friendly faces. She moves to sit next to him on the bench. "He's been… catching up on Cameron's life," she tells the other woman mildly.

Trask leans back on the bench, "A lot of catching up to do…I missed a lot…and… At least so I have been told, I am going to have to miss more. Every second we are here puts this paradise in jeopardy.

Ygraine blinks. "Oh, of course….." She then frowns and cocks her head. "I…." A glance to Lis, as she performs some quick arithmetic, then considers Trask once more. "I… well. Whatever dark secrets there might be, they're pretty well-hidden from me. I'm back to getting in trouble for the same sorts of views that might have been espoused before Nathan Petrelli's famous press conference. When… when are you _from_, exactly? How long have you been here?"

"He's from 2009, Ygraine. The Moab raid that failed … in our timeline they all came home. Assuming he's even from our timeline, which is possibly not the case. Just…. yeah, it's time travel. Total paradox no matter how you cut it." Even thinking about it gives her a headache, though she's been doing a little research on some theories the past couple of days. "Ygraine's sort of the watchdog of the governments of the world — warning people that Evos are just normal people, good, bad, and ugly."

Trask nods, "Sounds like you are living your dream then. I am glad everything turned out so …well." He smiles and looks over at Liz, "And I will do everything in my power to make sure it stays that way. "

Ygraine sticks her tongue out at Lis, chuckling. "My stance is more that everyone's equally corrupt and stupid, on average, and that it's as counter-productive as it is immoral to victimise people. Conflict analysis can in large part boil down to "be cynical", at root. I'm a "safe" foreign liberal who can be rolled out in front of the media to prove how even-handed journalists are being - or, to the more frivolous media, I'm the taller one of that pair of brunette dykes who show up at charity events and premieres. My actually useful work's virtually all behind closed doors, where people are more interested in my conclusions than in my accent or whether my cleavage is bigger than my wife's."

Liz snickers at that one. She can't help it. "So, uhm… you ready to head back, Norton?" she asks him softly. "Or you wanna wander past the park one more time?"

Trask smiles, and nods, "We should head back." He rises and offers Ygraine a hand, "Personally I've always been a big fan of your cleavage for the record." He grins and winks at her.

Ygraine laughs and rolls her eyes. "I didn't really have much of one, the first couple of times we met", she points out. After a moment, she accepts the offered hand, her other moving to his shoulder. "If you ARE really you, then it's truly good to see you", she says sincerely, eyes searching his face. "Whatever's going on, I hope that it turns out well. And… if there's something I can do, tell me." A glance to Lis. "That applies to both of you."

Elisabeth smiles at Ygraine. "I'll definitely keep it in mind. We've been rallying some Phoenix types to keep the eight people who showed up on the down-low. But it could be that we need a hand, and I'll make sure you're on the list. I have your number, if he's here a while… I'll nag him into meeting you for lunch." She doesn't interrupt their banter — in truth, she's glad to see it.

Trask smiles and puts his other arm around Ygraine and holds her tightly for a few moments, they have never really been huggers before, thier relationship more beers and political discussions then anything else, but in that moment she is a piece of his past still here in a world where everything else is changed, he lets her go after a few moments and smiles over at Liz. "I think I am ready to go. We should get back before Company gts bored and makes trouble." He still hasn't been told her name.

Ygraine was clearly a touch startled by the phrase "eight people", but manages to muster a laugh and a warm smile as well as a return hug for Trask. "I'm not exactly one for covert missions - not the least-known person in the city, these days - but there's always been more I could offer than being another spear-carrier. Whether it's a press-conference, analysis, or just meeting for lunch, I'm happy to help you out. Both of you."

Elisabeth offers a grin, and then she turns to head back toward the apartment building, ambling along on the walk with a man long dead.


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