Participants:
| Scene Title | I Do Get Spirituality |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Planning to move, Abby meets with Cat. |
| Date | August 19, 2009 |
The Verb, Cat's Penthouse
Arriving by any of four elevators, visitors will find they open into three foot corridors facing wide double doors made from sturdy southern pine which swing outward and have the strongest locks available. The stairs lead to single doors, also outward opening, at the end of three foot corridors. Entry requires both a key and a keycard; other security measures are a video camera and voice communication terminal at all doors. The 4th Street side has floor to ceiling windows interrupted only by the access points. Cream colored curtains are normally kept closed.
This level has enough space for sixteen apartments. There is an office space with reception area, conference room, and executive office; a room for archery practice and other forms of physical exercise; a very well appointed kitchen and dining area; a music zone with an array of instruments, electronics, and amplifiers; an entertainment area with an HD set covering an entire stretch of wall from floor to ceiling; a locked room where security footage for the building is recorded and can be monitored; a laundry room; a staircase for roof access; central air and heating; the main bedroom and a few smaller guest rooms; plush deep wine carpet everywhere except the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms; and track lighting everywhere overhead. The light levels can be lowered or raised in the entire place, or selectively by segments. The overall decor suggests the occupant is a woman.
It's a Wednesday. Cat got up much earlier than normal. She ate, had coffee, put on her lawyer suit and trundled off to the Suresh Center for her morning session on Evolved Ethics. It'd gone fairly well, there were tough questions raised and not so many answers, a lot of ideas, though. Raising the issue is the important thing, to just address the topic and compile info for her eventual writings on the subject. Maybe in ten years they'll be as famous as the Federalist Papers.
After the session, around noon, she returned home to the building some locals and residents have taken to calling The Verb and found two missives from one Abigail Beauchamp to take with her. They aren't read until she reaches the penthouse and sits with a glass of cola and a sandwich from Piccoli's. Good stuff, that. After reading, though, she realizes the time has come to meet with her. The iPhone is taken out, numbers are tapped in, and…
…Moments later Abby's phone rings.
"Beauchamp and Shelby household, Abigail speaking." There's the scrape of a spoon against metal in the background and a weary voice answers. "How can I help you today?" The blonde is in the apartment, phone pinned between ear and shoulder, making something.
"Abby," Cat begins, looking over items set out on the kitchen table while she eats and speaks into the iPhone with hands free. Earbuds and the microphone on the cord are such nice features. "How can you help me? Get Paul McCartney, Ringo, Robert Plant, James Page, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Joan Jett, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Steven Tyler, Axl Rose, Bono and The Edge with the rest of U2, and AC/DC to come hang and and jam with me?" Cat laughs quietly.
"I maybe know who… three of those are… So I think you're out of luck on that count, Cat." No laughter from Abby. "You got my notice. Let me guess. Come join you in the penthouse?" The bowl in her hand is slipped into the fridge in anticipation of just that and she turns, heading for the front door so she can get her flip flips.
"There's that, and some other things," Cat replies. "Got some things to share with you too, if you're free." She rises from the table and proceeds to put tunes from each of those artists into a playlist and start it. Abby will be exposed to them thusly and perhaps learn. It's a good thing she's doing for her, really. "The door'll be open, come in and turn left. You'll find me in the kitchen."
"Be there in three." Click. The phone is tossed to her couch, landing beside the cat that startles and she heads out, keycard slipped from her pocket and door locked. About that many minutes later, indeed, Abigail's opening the door and letting herself in. Directions taken towards the kitchen. "Catherine!" Giving her fair warning.
Poor music, another 3/4's of that is just not her kind of music.
Greeting Abby in the penthouse are the sounds of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, just starting to play. Cat is once again seated at the kitchen table with some things laid out before her in addition to the food and glass of Pepsi. One of them is a stack of 9th Wonders comics, the one on top featuring Claire Bennet on an autopsy table as its cover. Another stack is of printed material and photographs, the top of this pile is the image of a bald man with sunken eyes.
"Thanks for coming up, Abby," she greets while getting to her feet. "Are you thirsty?"
"Nope. I'm good Cat. I had a swamp sludge not too long ago" The items are given really just a passing glance, no more, no less. "I came. I only got so much time before I have to go to the alternate location for my exams Cat." She's jumping into business instead of pleasure. "Moving to above bar by the end of the week. Leonard's coming with me."
"I see," Cat replies. The topic of moving isn't given much attention beyond that as Cat picks up the photo and shows it to Abby. "This man's name is Danko, he's a former Marine. Danko's a dangerous fellow with Humanis First, so if you see him don't let on he's been recognized and call Elisabeth or someone else with the police you can trust, fast."
Eyes lift to Abby's face as she adds "We're told Helena Dean's father is with that group too."
Abigail's eyes glance over the picture. He's unfamiliar to her. Perhaps if Cat had an audio recording, she could place face with person, but. Abigail nods, committing the face to memory. "Danko. Okay. If you give me a copy, I can put it up at the bar in the back, that way the girls know" But damn. Helena's father is part of the organization. "We have a picture of him too? Is he in the city? Last I knew, her family was back in Sleepy Hollow"
"I hope to have one soon," Cat replies. "I need to talk to her about it, the whole thing is disgusting. When I have one, you will too. Emile Danko's seen me and I saw him the night the Suresh Center opened. Not surprising he was there checking the place out." Her features show a scowl as she speaks of Humanis First and their members.
"Peyton Whitney was one of our guests," she states quietly, "a few weeks back. Didn't take the advice Brian and I gave to stay put, got grabbed by those guys at some bar. allegedly. I hope the police can find her today, because tomorrow…" The voice trails off, her features go distant, Cat is no doubt remembering events from last December when Dani was the target of such an ultimatum. The demand to hand over a technopath or she'd be killed and being helpless to do anything to save her. Of having the choice be not a choice at all, regardless of how much it did and does hurt.
"The Center won't close, can't close, and they're right to make that decision. It wouldn't matter if they did, she'll be killed anyway if she's not found. That's what Humanis First does. It's what Ethan did."
"Uh… She got grabbed… at my bar, Cat." There's that little confession and probably the only reason she's not feeling massive guilt is due to a pill bottle in her apartment. "Well, just outside it. Nothing seems to happen inside it, just always outside it. There were cops crawling all over the place." Somewhat good for business, though it made others wary. "Phoenix going to try and find her before tomorrow?"
"We'd have no more idea where to start than we did when Dani was held under similar conditions, Abby. Large city, short time, so many places to hide." Her features turn stony, evidence of things held back, it being Cat's way not to let on most of the time. "At Old Lucy's… Don't let them grind you down, Abby. Don't let them back you down a single millimeter. Live your life with proper caution and your eyes open, but don't let fear rule."
Shifting topics, Cat pulls her assessment of the Suresh Center out and offers it to the blonde. "Read this," she suggests. "I've started holding sessions there on Mondays and Wednesdays at 9 and 18:00. Had one a few hours ago, in fact." The cola is lifted again, she drinks from it, before moving on.
Speaking sincerely, she offers "It's good to see you have life where you want it and in a place where you can be self-sufficient, Abby."
Abigail takes the offered papers, looking them over, scanning them. "I'm not Evolved, Cat. Never was. I don't even test positive." Ethics. Law and ethics to be more precise. "They don't grind me down Cat. They miss Izzy like I do, and we're all doing what we do to keep her dream alive. Pastor Sumter doens't even really think that owning it is a bad thing. Not when I'm using what I get from it for good, and giving shelter above it" The paper is offered back if Cat wants it, unsure of whether she's supposed to keep it or not.
"I didn't mean the customers," Cat explains, "I meant things that happen around the place. As to the Center, it isn't just for people with abilities. It's also for helping reach a time where all of us get along, at least in what they say publicly. Jury's still out on whether or not it's a DHS or Company front, as I wrote there. Contrary to what Humanis First wants believed, we're all human." With Abby having read that report and now offering it back, Cat places it on the table.
And she moves on from business. A slight grin forms. "Still got that stash of Guinness stout in the back room, Abby?"
"Oh." Right. The people outside work. "Always have the Guinness, Cat. Why do you ask?" There's a sort of puzzlement there. "Sorry, if i'm a little weird, there's just been a lot of stuff yesterday and then I was at School yesterday. We all got a… practical final exam, you could say, with what happened. Was with the two cops who died afterwards. But, we always have Guinness. You need a case?" Would be strange if Cat did, since she could just instruct one of the people downstairs to just go out and get her a case. "I can have someone bring over a case."
She chuckles. "In case I get thirsty and sneak in the back door, Abby," Cat explains. "If I'm welcome to do that, of course," she adds.
"Why wouldn't you be welcome to Cat? You've never been not welcome to. You'd know if you weren't welcome" The picture of Danko is picked up again to peruse his features. "Humanis first" She doesn't like them. Not in the least. If there were any group she wouldn't have healed when she could, it would be them.
"I wasn't a formula baby." Blue eyes glance up and over the edge of the photo. "I was five years old. His name was Francois. I apparently met him in the woods. I don't remember what happened there, I was too young. But between Mr. Nakamura and my father… It happened then. A man missing and a lot of blood on a tree. So swears my father on a stack of bibles."
"Hiro told me about him, said he'd met Kazimir in his original German body when he was torturing a man called Francis Allen, or Francois Alleynde, who hosted what he calls the Life Kami. The opposite force of the Death Kami, which Volken had. Or which had Volken. He seems to have escaped Volken, and passed it to you."
"We'll never agree on the mechanics, the traditions, and the literature, Abby," Cat opines, "but I do get spirituality."
No. They never would. She knows that much for sure. Abigail knows that somehow, she was different, in some strange way and touched. "Can I keep this picture? To drop off at the bar. I'll see if any of the girls recognize him" It's tapped on the table twice for no good reason other than Abby feels like doing that.
"I'll be moving out start of next week, once i'm done Finals. I'll be taking over my tuition and such. I'd appreciate it too, if it wouldn't offend you, to set up a way for me to re-imburse you for what you did pay for my tuition for this ending semester"
"You don't have to pay me back anything, Abby," Cat replies, "but you will anyway because you're you, and it would bother you not to. How and when you pay back is up to you." She flashes a grin. "I expect you'll be keeping a ledger, even, and marking off the price when I slip into the back room and boost stout from time to time."
"The stout is free, and you know it. Unless you insist." Booze does not equal tuition. Somewhere in Abby's mind it doesn't. "Listen. I need to finish what I was doing and I wanted to check in on one of the survivors. I don't think I can convince Flint to go visit, I don't want the hospital to get the wrong idea. But I wanted to check in on them. That means that I need to get going. Unless there's anything else that I need to know?"
"As to the photo, it's yours to take. I'd just recommend you get them to not let on knowing anything's out of the ordinary about the man if he shows up. Emile Danko wouldn't be the type to not react badly if he seems to be made or in danger," Cat cautions, "and if he doesn't know he's been recognized there's a better chance he wouldn't run off before the police show up."
Getting to her feet, she moves to go with Abby to the doors. "Take care, Abby," the panmnesiac offers.
"I'll let em know. THey're pretty good about that sort of thing." Rising from the chair, denim skirt rustling, she holds the paper carefully. "Thank you Cat, for what you have done. I think, things would have been very different for me, I'd be in a different place mentally if I hadn't had this place to live in. The security it offered. And I mean it" Her hand on the door, looking back in and over to the woman.
"You're welcome, Abby, and there's always a place for you here whenever you want or need it," Cat replies. "See you."