Participants:
| Scene Title | Duplicity |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Cat visits the Garden to let Liette know more about her own ability and Lorraine reveals just exactly what her ability is and how Liette came to be. |
| Date | May 14, 2010 |
Situated in a copse several miles away from the nearest stretch of asphalt, the Garden is accessible via an old dirt road that winds snakelike through the woods and dead-ends at the property's perimeter, which is surrounded by stone wall plastered with wicked coils of rusty barbed wire to keep would-be intruders from attempting to scale it. Those with a key can gain entry via the front gate.
The safehouse itself is a three-story brickwork cottage over a century old and covered in moss and ivy. It slants to one side, suggesting that the foundation has been steadily sinking into the wet earth; incidentally, this may be one of the reasons why its prior occupants never returned to the island to reclaim their property when government officials lifted evacuation orders and re-opened the Verrazano-Narrows shortly before its eventual destruction.
Inside, the cottage is decorated in mismatched antique furniture including a couch in the living room and an armchair nestled in the corner closest to the fireplace that go well with the safehouse's hardwood floors and the wood-burning stoves in some of the spare bedrooms. A heavy wooden table designed to seat eight separates the dining area from the rest of the kitchen, which is defined by its aged oak cabinetry and the dried wildflowers hanging above them.
Early mornings are hard to distinguish from late afternoons these days. With the timing of the sun rising and the sun setting still being on a normal springtime schedule, the diffuse gray of the skies seems the same at six in the morning as it does at six at night, and the twelve-hour clock on the wall of the Garden does little to help abate this difficulty in discerning when is when.
The roar of a snowmobile at whatever hour of day it is has attention of those who have risen early, which largely is only two of the Garden's total of five residents at present. Harve Brennan, Jonas Regan and Jensen Raith are both getting well deserved sleep after a long night of keeping the fire stoked and watching the kerosene heaters to make sure that the safe houe doesn't burn down around them in the middle of the night. This change of shift has left Lorraine Fournier awake to watch over the young woman seated in the main room of the ground floor.
Liette was the first to hear the sounds of an approaching snowmobile, first to hear the noises of a guest's arrival that has her up and off of the saofa, padding towards ice crusted windows. Her nose wrinkles, eyes strain to see anything beyond the blurry, indistinct shapes outside. There's nothing save for movement and a suggestion of shape to be seen. Wringing her hands, she turns to offer a warning to the kitchen where Lorraine is.
"Someone's heeeere," is delivered in a sing-song voice. Maybe she realizes when and where she is right now.
Crunch. Crunch. Plodding feet in snowshoes come to the door, the snowmobile parked outside as close to the building as possible. Any weaponry Cat might have is stashed away outside, the better to avoid alarming occupants. To the door she comes, opening it and quickly stepping through so she can close it and seal out the cold in a manner of maximum swiftness.
She is perhaps barely recognizable as a woman, given the thick coat and the layers of clothing under it. Her parka is up, obscuring most facial features. Gloves protect hands, thick boots her feet. Before any move is made to enter further, she busies herself with clearing frozen di-hydrogen monoxide from them rather than tracking it in.
One of the first things to greet Cat's senses would be the smell of… pastries. If there's one thing a woman raised in France knows, it's how to make pastries. Glazed with what sugary substances they have in storage, the tray gets set down on the counter, gloves removed to be laid beside it, as Lorraine exits the kitchen with a comment to Liette, "Don't touch the tray, it's hot— they'll cool in a few minutes."
All this is said in warning, before she makes her way to the sight of the door, with the cold air that rushed in when the woman in many layers makes herself known. Even inside, the blonde woman is bundled up. Not nearly as much, but the sweater and pants are heavier than one would ever expect in May. Most people wouldn't expect New York to turn into Siberia, either.
"Hello?" she asks the woman, trying to step in front of Liette, until the identity of the visitor is revealed.
"Hi Cat," Liette says rather blaise about the fact as she ambles past Lorraine with her blanket wrapped around herself, trailing patchworked quilt behind herself as she moves into the kitchen. Heedless of Lorraine's warning. Liette reaches up with bare hands, paws at the tray and reaches for one of the pastries. There's a wrinkle of her nose as she picks one up, rolls it around in her hand and leans to the side to watch Cat and Lorraine before biting off a corner and chewing contentedly.
The inherant immunity to heat involved in her remaining pyrokinetic ability is good for more than just surviving fires, it's great for engaging in fresh out of the oven confectionates.
"«Bon matin, Lorraine, Liette»," she replies with the hood being lowered so her face can be seen clearly. The assessment begins from that moment, noting the girl addresses her by name without having seen identity, and that she doesn't seem to be speaking with someone she can't remember meeting before. So back to English goes Cat.
"You remember who I am?" she inquires evenly.
"Just don't go and eat all of them, even if you can eat them without problem," Lorraine says with a sigh, taking her daughter's multitudes of abilities in stride. It'd be nice if she knew what each of them were… She might have been told if she'd asked. "It's good to see you again," she adds, nodding toward Cat, whom she recognizes from the moment she was reunited with the man she once knew as Michael Moon.
"There are some pastries. But you'll have to wait a few minutes for them to cool."
Waddling back in, swathed in enough blankets to make her look like some kind of linen-composed penguin, Liette looks up from her pastry to Cat, a smudge of strawberry across her lips. "For now," is her somewhat cold answer for the point of memory, "Doctor Brennan's got me keeping track of things in a journal, 'cause it's breaking up pretty bad…" there's a nervous swallow and a look up to Lorraine, wordless worry from a daughter to be unable to remember their mother shows on her face before she looks back to Cat.
"I've lost my telepathy entirely, and my aerokinesis, and my chemical replication. I dunno if I still have Melissa's power, I haven't tried using it in a while…" there's a furrow of her brows, and she looks back down to the pastry, suddenly looking less appetized for it now that she's had a few bites. Maybe it's the topic.
"Doctor Brennan and I played hypotheticals a couple'a days ago… I think," she thinks it was a couple of days ago, telling time now has been difficult. "I think something's wrong with me, but— but I dunno what." Wandering back over to the ratty but comfortable looking sofa, she settles herself down and rests the pastry on the edge of the crooked coffee table, drawing her legs up beneath herself on the couch and pulling the blankets closer around herself.
"Some days it works better than others," Liette admits, offering a look up to Cat, "today's a good day. But— but it's supposed to be five to six months before an ability starts to break down in my system. I— I dunno what's going on…" teeth toying at her lower lip, Liette looks down to her lap, nervously. "I'm scared."
"I didn't think much about it when we last talked," Cat shares quietly with eyes resting on the teen as she sheds her thick antarctic-quality coat, "but you had a bit of memory lapse then. My pregnant friend had a bout of morning sickness. You asked if she was okay, and I explained how it works. A few minutes later you repeated the question."
Words echo in her mind, of being told one Fournier teen can't exist without the other, and she wonders if prolonged separation is at work here. If so, great. She'll just keel over and die, no need to kill her if the weather attempt fails. But she's not about to tell the girl's mother about that. Any of it.
"Do you still have the amazing memory sometimes?"
"Sometimes it is better than others," Lorraine testifies, moving past the girl into the kitchen to begin cleaning up after the baking, and perhaps to begin something else. It also gives the two a bit of a distance, so that they can talk, while still being close at hand to supervise.
"Right now my— your memory's fine." Liette admits, looking a bit disheartened in her explanation. There's a look up to Lorraine, blue eyes vacant for a moment before she looks to Cat. "I never should've copied your ability…" Liette offers in a hushed explanation, her jaw trembling slightly. "I— I never should've stayed here. There's a reason I was around a lab, I think. Cat, I made a big mistake… I— I don't know if I can stay here like this, away from my sister, away from the people who know how my ability works."
Swallowing nervously, her blue eyes look down to her lap, and Liette hangs her head slightly. "I'm… I'm worried, about— about a lot've things. I know you guys don't like my Pop, I— I know you don't like the people he works with, or— or all of that." Blue eyes turn to Lorraine, apologetically, then back to Cat. "But I— I'm worried if I stay here, I'm gonna die. Something's wrong with me… I— I don't want to— I…"
Liette's jaw gives a small tremor, eyes focused down at her lap, and then hands come up to paw at her cheeks. She sniffles, softly, and then lets out a faint squeaking sound. "Why'm I crying?" There she goes again.
"I don't know how to rescue your sister from the Institute, Liette," Cat tells her in sympathetic voice. She'd honestly like to do so. "I know you want to go back there, you don't believe what we say, but it's true. You don't know anything else, really. It's familiar, so it's comfortable, right?" Her thought process continues as she lapses into silence for a stretch of heartbeats. What makes sense, she thinks, is that the girl is dying from separation and losing her abilities is symptomatic. But… if that's the case why isn't there evidence Julie is also dying in improved weather?
"We were just talking about things not being right with you, Liette. You had a memory lapse."
How many memory lapses til the girl forgets that it's her mother standing right next to her? Lorraine finishes cleaning up, transfers the pastries to a serving tray, and brings them closer. "You already had one, so one more should be enough. They're very sugary." Mostly thanks to the glaze. A few moments later, the tray is offered to Cat as well.
Hands trembling, Liette throws her blankets aside and drops down onto the floor, reaching for a zippered bag beneath the table. She hastily grabs it and pulls it up into her lap, hands shaking as she pulls the zipper open and withdraws the notebook within, folding back pages one by one until she finds some handwritten notes and begins looking them over. There's a tight swallow at the back of her throat, blue eyes alight to Lorraine, then Cat, then back down to the notebook again.
Mouth moving slowly, Liette starts counting backwards silently, eyes closed. Her head bobs slowly, fingers curl around the notebook and eyes open again, looking at the pages, trying out a mnemonic device to get her head back in the correct semblance of order. After a few week and weary moments, it seems to work, and Liette manages to choke back the remainder of a sob of fright.
"I need to go home." Liette whispers tensely, curling up into a ball with that notebook cradled to her chest.
Hands trembling, Liette throws her blankets aside and drops down onto the floor, reaching for a zippered bag beneath the table. She hastily grabs it and pulls it up into her lap, hands shaking as she pulls the zipper open and withdraws the notebook within, folding back pages one by one until she finds some handwritten notes and begins looking them over. There's a tight swallow at the back of her throat, blue eyes alight to Lorraine, then Cat, then back down to the notebook again.
Mouth moving slowly, Liette starts counting backwards silently, eyes closed. Her head bobs slowly, fingers curl around the notebook and eyes open again, looking at the pages, trying out a mnemonic device to get her head back in the correct semblance of order. After a few week and weary moments, it seems to work, and Liette manages to choke back the remainder of a sob of fright.
"I need to go home." Liette whispers tensely, curling up into a ball with that notebook cradled to her chest. Blue eyes stare up at Lorraine, at the tray of pastries, at the face of a woman who was — for the longest time — just her nurse. Weakly smiling, she shakes her head and looks back down to her lap. "I'm not hungry anymore."
Brennan stands at the bottom of the stairs, made his way quietly down - not up - and regards the scene before him. Cat, Lorraine, Liette. For once, he's not openly ignoring and getting all verbally negative with the woman and there's a nod to Lorraine in welcome. "I'm sure Lee, that they'll do what is best for you, your health and wellbeing" The doctor offers up as he comes in on the tail end of the the current portion of the conversation. His feet meet the floor proper, pushing the sleeves of his sweater up. "Lorraine, someone's asking for you upstairs. Chesterfields here so someone's with us. Should be safe" He's adhereing to the rules that Eileen set down.
"If you're not hungry lee, pass that over, I'll take one, and you should see if Doctor Chesterfield would like one. Missing memory does not excuse manners" He politely reminds the young girl, nudging her elbow and tilting his head towards Cat. "Chesterfield, good morning"
She takes one of the pastries offered by Lorraine, while her mind mulls over various possibilities through silence held as Brennan shows up. The possibilities as Cat sees them: 1. Liette is dying from separation, confirming Sarisa's intel. 2. Liette is lying, putting on an act of these things taking place to try getting sent back to Hell. 3. A mix of truth and lies, designed to play on emotions.
But… there's no easing of the weather, so Julie might not be in the same shape. Or she is, and yet manages to still affect weather. Maybe, maybe… if Liette is fading out and Julie isn't, that means… A. What Liette's experiencing is a side effect of being on, then off of, Amp. B. Julie is still on Amp and thus the effects of separation are blocked. C. The fading of abilities is somehow connected to Lorraine. The Institute had her in a tank, there's something they wanted to study. If not, they could just have disposed of her permanently. D. Some combo of all those.
With the pastry held in hand, her eyes settle first on Brennan. "Good morning to you also." Then they move toward Lorraine, who might well be gone before she can ask the question. "Have you an SLC ability?"
"Thank you, Mister Brennan," the blonde woman says as she hands over the pastry tray to the man who just came down to breakfast. Basically donuts, of the french variety, but a good breakfast none-the-less. Rather than make her way upstairs, she kneels in front of the curled up figure in the blanket and touches her shoulders with both of her bare hands. "I love you, Liette. I wish that I could make this your home, I really do…"
And it sounds like she's sad, cause she knows it may never be. Or anywhere else, for that matter.
There's a pause as she's about to retrieve the pastry tray and take it upstairs, when she looks at Cat. "Yes, I do." It seems her exit has been stalled, for a moment.
Wide, blue eyes stare up to Lorraine, watching her nervously with the expectations that a child has for a mother, but none of the parental bonding or life lessons built in. Lorraine has always been a peripheral figure in Liette's life, for the short time she was in it, and the one person who truly feels like family is somewhere far, far away.
Liette doesn't say those three words back, but she does smile, maybe apologetically so. Sometimes she's more mature than her age, sometimes she's downright infantile. Being raised the way she was, it's not surprising. For all her silence, Liette's eyes don't ever leave her mother, not when she picks up the tray and not when she goes to make her departure. They flick off from Lorraine briefly to regard Doctor Brennan with a wordless smile, but then settle back on her mother when Cat asks that very pointed question.
Suddenly, Liette is engaged in the conversation again.
The answer doesn't surprise Cat. Eyes remain calmly on Lorraine as a follow-up query is asked. "What is your ability?" Then she bites into the pastry and chews carefully, making no sound and not letting crumbs escape.
Brennan would bet a large amount of money that she is, and she is. He'd also bet a large amount of money as to what her ability is. That and a few other things from his conversation with other people. But Cat queries and Brennan remains silent, only an approving nod for Liette as he lifts his own breakfast goods for a bite. All eyes on Lorraine.
With all eyes on her, Lorraine doesn't shrink away, or attempt to flee the rest of the way upstairs. "I never registered, so I never got a label put on my ability, but since I was younger than you— " She nods toward Cat, to indicate early twenties, but definitely older than Liette. "I could be in two places at once. Duplication, I guess you could call it. My current duplicate is somewhere in the city, and I haven't had the chance to meet up with her to recombine, due to the weather." There's a pause as she looks at Liette.
Likely Cat's gears will start spinning frantically again. "You And Julie weren't supposed to be twins. I was only pregnant with one child."
Recomb—
Liette just stares. There's a vacant, blank expression on her face as she slowly rises into a straighter sitting posture, then up onto her knees and turns around to look over the back of the sofa so she can more clearly view Lorraine. If there's one thing that can ground Liette down, it's dealing with hypothetical situations, but something like this, something like the revelation that not only is her biological mother special but that she can generate a double is outstanding.
"How— how does it work!?" This is in a way a yuong girl trying to find out more about herself, frantically so. Lorraine, genetically, has so many answers to questions Liette has had about herself. "I— I want— I want to know everything!" Scrambling over the back of the sofa, Liette's feet touch down on the floor, "Do you have a biological limitation on the number of replicants? DIstance limits? Empathic link? Memory sharing?" There's a wid-eyed quality to her expression as she scrambles towards her mother.
"Are you like Durmont? Do— do oyu need to rejoin eventually?" Liette fumbles over her babbling, feet padding across the hardwood floor to Lorraine's side, a hand reaching up to tug at her sleeve. "Tell me everything."
"That's interesting," Cat murmurs when the ability is revealed. One she's familiar with. "I've seen this before. One person duplicates and reabsorbs by force of will, copies come out naked. The other is energy-based, taking the force of physical impacts and using it to create others." Her head tilts, the thought process goes on. "Not meant to be twins… Either the child became children, absorbing your ability, or you duplicated while pregnant and it happened that way."
Back to silent speculation for Cat. Maybe Lorraine is absorbing Liette back into herself, thus causing the lapses.
Not quite what he speculated, and his own thoughts are kept silent as another large portion of the french donut is sacrificed to the gods that live in his stomach. The corner of his mouth turns up though, at the sheer enthusiasm that the young girl shows.
"Did you produce a pregnant duplication of yourself, and carried both to term, or…" There's a pointed look towards Liette.
"I've only ever been able to make one duplicate, which is why I say duplication instead of replicants," Lorraine explains, glad to answer these questions perhaps because it's the first time her daughter has shown such interest in questioning her. "There's no communication, but I know what direction she's in, and a basic feeling that she's still there. We have to be in close proximity to recombine. I've mostly used the ability to learn, attend classes in twice the time that I normally would, and I wouldn't benifit from it if I didn't recombine. Once I do, I have shared knowledge of everything that we did while apart."
There's a pause, as she perhaps is tempted to glance over at Cat, but doesn't. "I didn't duplicate while pregnant. As soon as I found out, I moved and changed my lifestyle to fit a single person. One day I was pregnant with one child, and within a week I— was struck with terrible pains, and my daughter, Juliette was born— " Julie. Liette. She takes in a slow breath, looking down a bit. Their abilities combined gave her two daughters instead of one, but it wasn't just that. "You were born as conjoined twins. Joined partially at the head. It was due to these complications that I believed them when they told me you both died. And until Arthur Petrelli found me and told me differently, I believed it had been my fault. The fault of my ability." There's a glance at the other parent in the room, Brennan, as she adds, "That I hadn't been careful enough."
Staring up at Lorraine, Liette swallows noisily. She looks down, to her feet, then over to Cat and Brennan, then back up to her mother. Reaching up to rub her forehead, there's a weak sound in the back of Liette's throat, and as she turns to step away from Lorraine, one hand is lifting up to curl a finger around one lock of blonde hair.
Blinking a few times, blinking away emotion, Liette looks over her shoulder to her mother and then down to the floor quietly. "I remember… when I was little," Littleer, "I used to ask Mister Bishop why Julie looked so much like me, and… and he told me it was because I loved her very much." There's a faint smile on her lips, blue eyes tracking from side to side. "I asked him why he didn't look like Ellie, and he got really sad…"
Biting down on her lower lip, Liette wraps her arms around herself, rubbing her hands up and down her biceps to stave off the cold; pyrokinesis does nothing for that. "When're we stopping the storm?"
No more words come from Cat as the Fourniers speak of what happened and their memories. Her face twitches slightly as those names are mentioned. Mr. Bishop and Ellie. She's given to wonder: is this what Odessa Knutson was like ten years back? There are questions about the past, how she was gotten from the Company to Pinehearst. But they'll keep. The most important question is the one Liette herself just asked.
"We'll stop the weather soon as we get all the people we need in the same place at the same time. The earliest possible chance, Liette. Augmenter, weathermakers, some others."
Then she glances over at Lorraine. "Speaking of which, I should get to rounding them up to make it happen. If you tell me where your duplicate is, I'll pick up and bring her here."
"You looked like her because you are more closely connected than even twins, Liette. You're both beautiful and strong individuals— and you both have your father's chin, and my eyes," Lorraine says, moving to gently touch the girl's cheek. She seems to have forgotten to go back up stairs, but—
Morning pastries for the lazy ones can wait a little longer, as she answers Cat's question. "The last time I talked to her, she was working as an assistant chef at the Corinthian, in the French Restraunt they have there. If it still has power, she's likely still there. If you do find her, tell her that Lori Moon sent you. It's an identity very few people know of."
"Got it," Cat tells Lorraine. "I'll go have a look at the Casino for her." She readies to do just that, getting back into her parka and heading for the door where boots are waiting along with gloves. "I'll hopefully be back within eight hours or so." Questions she still has can potentially be asked of the other Lorraine when they meet.
Maybe an empath could discern the look on Brennan's face, watching Liette and Lorraine interact, the look from the older woman when he spoke before having sunk into him. A hand rises to rub the back of his neck, play over the sweater there and then traverse across scruffy jawline and pull at either side of his mouth before he too decides that he should probably be elsewhere in the house instead of watching the two of them. "I'll be in the other room" To no one in particular as he heads off that way.
With everyone else leaving, Lorraine finally seems to recall she'd been intending to leave to go up to the upstairs, where someone had wanted her. Rather than leave the young teen alone with her sprinkled memory, she holds up the tray and offers, "Do you want to join me upstairs for the delivery of morning pastries?"
"No, I don't think Jensen really likes me anyway…" Liette offers in heartbreaking earnesty as she wraps her arms around herself and makes her way back over to the sofa, her head swishing from side to side idly with a brush of hair over her shoulders, blue eyes up towards Cat as she leaves, her smile a silent farewell, then a look at Doctor Brennan's retreating back.
The teen smiles, looking over to Lorraine, then dips her head into a subtle nod. "I'll be with Doctor Brennan…" she adds, circling around the sofa to take the pastry she had left some time ago, then moving to join Brennan in the kitchen.
Maybe if she knew the truth, things would be different.
Maybe not.