Participants:
| Scene Title | Homegirls in the Making |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Isabelle's hiding a bottle of the good stuff. |
| Date | November 28, 2011 |
Lucky Lady
She makes her way back toward the Lucky Lady, ever wary of the halls here. Edward recommended another visit — not for moonshine but for a merlot that Izzy might be hiding behind the bar. But at this moment, Liz isn’t entirely sure she wants something as mild as a glass of wine. Meeting up with Richard Cardinal face to face and then having to tell Ygraine about where she comes from have been a strain. Magnes is…. Doing his own thing. Very busy with trying to learn how to meld his power with Ruiz’s.
It’s seriously time for a drink. And so she finds herself making her way to the bar and dropping onto one of the ratty stools that Izzy has managed to come up with. “I don’t suppose I could get that drink on credit this time? Since I still owe you a singing gig?” she asks the bartender wearily.
Blue eyes narrow as Isabelle spots Liz walking in the bar but she quickly makes a wide grin appear on her face, I do like you Liz, yes really of course. Playing the part that Magnes has asked her to has been hard. She’s really ready to tear everything up. But for now, a drink. Or seven. The always bartender raises a brow and puts a hand on her neck to massage it, hip leaning on the bar.
“Tough day?” Being displaced in an alternate reality could do that to you she figures. She peers around the bar and says in a more quiet tone. “Got some whiskey and a red stashed.” She peeks around and grins while wiggling her eyebrows.
“Normally I'd be all over the red… but it's been a tough couple days, yes.” Elisabeth eyes the woman. She is someone Richard thought a great deal of in her own world and she's not sure how to broach conversations with her. “Join me for a drink?” she invites the pyrokinetic. “If it's real whiskey and not that scary moonshine, I'm definitely going that route,” she smiles.
Izzy bends down under the bar and resurfaces with a big bottle of.. You guessed it. WHISKEY. She saves it for special occasions. And pumping Liz full of alcohol and getting her to tell her what’s going on — Magnes has been straight with her but she’d love to get another point of view. Her eyes are alight as she pours them both a glass and slides one over to Liz. “What’s got your brain all twisted up and running out your nose?” The bartender blinks.
“Did Magnes try to ask you out on a date?” Yes, we start with funny back and forth Elisabeth.
Elisabeth snorts. “Not if he values his balls,” she retorts instantly. Tossing back the shot, the blonde puts the back of her hand against her mouth and closes her eyes on the burn of that sliding down her throat. Then she pulls in a quick breath and offers the glass back for a refill.
“If I told you I missed home … and a guy… would you scoff and call me a stupid bitch?” Liz is mildly amused, expecting the answer to be yes, but it's also the truth.
“Well where’s home and how hot is he?” The questions is sent back with a refill of the whiskey, Isabelle pours another for herself and shoots it with a smile and, “Ahh. Don’t tell Kaylee I have this, I really want her to drink the moonshine until she sees double.”
Isabelle waves a hand, “If he was a good lay, I understand. If he supports you.. I understand. If he’s hot.. Show me a picture.”
Elisabeth’s smile is pained and she looks sideways, sipping the whiskey this time. “Supports me? Yeah, you could call it that, I guess?” She considers. “He can be a hard man to know. Used to tell me all the time he wasn’t a ‘good man.’ And then 36 kids killed themselves.” She takes a long swallow, finishing the second shot and setting the glass down. “He might occasionally have the ability to be a massive sonuvabitch, but he couldn't stand the thought that kids were so terrified of being Evo that they killed themselves. So… we eventually teamed up to fight together.” The blonde chuffs and soft laugh. “Fell in love with that guy totally by accident. I've never met a better man, outside my own father, I think.”
Her chin firms up and she half-smiles. “No pictures left. Not in this fucking place.” There's a long pause and she shrugs. “He was good looking, amazing in bed, and I think we were happy.”
“Well I'm sorry he's not here.” Because clearly he has to be dead. “Cheers to..” she pours them a third shot and raises her glass. “What's this studly man's name?” She dangles her glass in front of Liz.
Drinking with her was becoming nice.. much as she was hating to admit it to herself. Liz seemed smart just like Magnes said she was and she's proving it. She's been keeping the ruse up for this long, Isabelle had been taking bets with herself as to how long it would take for Liz to start spilling beans.
Oh, no, no. Elisabeth isn’t quite drunk enough to spill THOSE beans. Yet anyway. She smiles faintly. “Lamont Cranston,” she tells Isabelle, taking the third shot, amused at the thought of using the Shadow’s alias. Richard went by it. Sometimes. Holding up the drink and touching it to Isabelle’s she meets the other woman’s eyes for a long moment in which her walls slip just a fraction to let the grief flash across her features. “You’d have liked him a hell of a lot, I think,” she tells the bartender softly. “He was a thief, before all this hell rained down.” Still is, really. But so much more.
When she downs the third drink, she sets the glass on the bar. She’s going to need a few minutes to really soak up the alcohol that’s now been practically mainlined into her bloodstream. But she’s no slouch in holding her liquor either.
“Why don’t you tell me about your studly men?” she invites. “Considering it’s the end of the world, isn’t everyone fucking everyone else around here?”
Isabelle watches Liz’s face closely. She hadn't really grilled Magnes for Information about the blonde but that was coming soon. She registers the grief on Elisabeth's face and she tilts her head. She really liked this guy apparently. It makes her feel for the woman briefly.
“Thieves. I've got a knack for running into them.” And she really does. Isabelle takes a fourth shot because she's a trooper and she wants the personal satisfaction of outdrinking Liz. She's not sure why she feels.. a rivalry of sorts with the other woman. Perhaps because she also had Magnes’ ear.
“Richard isn't so much studly as he is all in the shadows and ready for a good romp when the mood strikes.” She grins and sighs as she looks up at the ceiling. “I've known him all my life practically, same group Home.” It's a sad time for Isabelle to think about save for Richard and Vivienne.
“More best friends that fuck than my man but the things.. he does with that..” she stops herself and fans herself. “There are a few others.” She waves her hand dismissively, Richard doesn't occupy her time enough to be the only one. “I collect them, like they think they collect us.” She's a feminist yes.
Elisabeth barks out a laugh, genuinely completely amused at the description of Richard Cardinal. She knew that they’d been in the same group home, which was why she took the chance and used the CIA alias Richard had instead of anything close to his real name. She’s grateful it didn’t out her. “Met Richard and Peyton a couple days ago,” she admits, hiding further grief behind the casual demeanor. “I can see that about him.” She rests on her elbows on the bar.
“I don’t …. Like to think that I’m collecting guys, although it’s probably an accurate representation,” she admits. “I just have a lot of friends who happen to be guys… and a few of them I wind up in bed or … even sometimes in slightly more serious relationships with. Best friends and bed companions always seems to work out well for me too.” Or at least, it always did. Here? Liz isn’t about to step into the puzzle of crazy that comes with sleeping with alternate versions of men she knows back home. That just seems like asking for trouble.
Well if she asked Izzy if she should. Isabelle would say yes. Even if she knew it was Richard. She's feeling a low.. homegirl vibe from Liz. Maybe they could get along.. “Yea he's not like Mandingo but boy knows his shit.” Another fan and then she's pouring Liz another shot and herself. “Look it's fine, we can collect guys. Like I said, they are always trying to collect as many women as they can so let's do the same.” Isabelle needs another, “I need another partner in crime with this, Brenda doesn't get it. You can't just bed any man and say you're collecting them. They have to be up to stock.”
“Magnes thought I wanted to fucked him.” She slams a shot back and hastily pours herself another. “That feels like I would be taking advantage of my little brothers friend that is like my little brother.” Izzy wrinkles her nose. “Has he come on to you?”
Elisabeth can’t help but snort a laugh at the Mandingo comment. But she shudders in abject horror about the idea that Magnes hit on Isabelle!! “Like I said — if he values his balls, he better fucking not. Even. Think. About. It. I am so not kidding right now,” she retorts. Her tone isn’t exactly grim, but it’s definitely dead serious. If Magnes makes a move on the blonde, she will hurt him. She holds off drinking the next shot…. Three is starting to feel really damn good right now. “If I thought getting laid would actually do the boy any good, I’d tell you to point someone out. But I don’t. He’d just get… attached. Maybe even obsessed. I know one of the girls he dated before — it was… awkward.”
She toys with the glass that Isabelle put in front of her and comments, “I’m really not in the market for a guy, Isabelle. A little… raw right now.” It’s an understatement. She’s only been in this world for a couple of weeks, but there is very little hope here. And being other people’s hope while keeping her own fear about being stranded tamped down so deep is hard enough. She admits to the dark-haired woman, “I’d settle for being able to sleep a whole night without nightmares right now.” Because every time she closes her eyes, she’s seeing all the people they left behind and an imploding Mallett Device or a flooded world or… God help her… riots and people falling like dominoes in front of her power or a mushroom cloud made of darkness and tattered shadows spread across the snow like horrifying confetti.
Isabelle looks nervous as Liz talks about Magnes and awkward girlfriends. Attached. “He may.. have already gotten there.” Izzy sighs and puts her hands in her face. “I tried to teach him I really did.” The bartender stretches her arms out and shakes her head. “He's a special man,” she's stopped saying kid by this point. Magnes deserves more respect than that.
“Ah Liz..” the pyro lays a hand on the woman’s arm and sighs. “I'm not sure they ever will stop Sister.” Izzy has them too just not of leaving her timeline behind and scary time devices, instead she dreams of the people she saw die in front of her of the virus. Of the panic and the riots.
And the blood.
“But if we drink enough, maybe we get so drunk that we can't dream.”
“Is there enough alcohol in this entire fucking place for that?” Elisabeth asks. “Because I’m seriously more than willing to try it,” she admits. The touch of the other woman’s hand on her arm startles her, though, and she looks up at Isabelle. Izzy strikes her, in many ways, the same way Richard did at first. Very rough around the edges, but good people on the inside. Abby seemed to really like the other woman. And though she hesitates, she puts her hand over Izzy’s, briefly squeezing it in thanks for the gesture. “I’m pretty sure we can’t use the moonshine for that without literally going blind, though,” she laughs quietly.
“Bah I wish girl I wish!” Izzy chuckles lightly and she appreciates the squeeze of Liz’s hand. It's odd, she can feel herself warming up to the other woman and it's not just the liquor.
“You know what.. you're right let's keep our sight.” She laughs as she leans back against the wall behind the bar. “Gotta keep our eyes open, danger all over. I like you Liz,” She says it unexpectedly, “I actually really do.”
Friends?
It’s the oddest feeling… Are they going to be friends? Might they have been friends in another world and another time? Elisabeth hesitates for a long moment, looking for all the world like she’s a little bit lost. And then she smiles slightly. “I like you, too, Isabelle.” She doesn’t really have many female friends, even back home, so definitely a strange moment for her. Shaking it off, she says, “We’ll keep our sight, but let’s finish that bottle before someone else realizes you have it, hmm? We deserve to get shit-faced.”