Participants:
| Scene Title | Lemon Death Moonshine and Kansas |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elisabeth goes looking for something to help her sleep and finds that Magnes is right — Isabelle often has just the right thing to say. |
| Date | December 9, 2011 |
Lucky Lady
She's been very quiet since she arrived at the Lucky Lady tonight. "Moonshine" was her drink of choice, and she was trembling badly when she took the jelly jar being used as a glass for it. Leaning on her elbow on the bar, she sips the high-octane alcohol and keeps her eyes cast down on the bar, ignoring what few other people are in here at this hour. There aren't many — despite 'day' and 'night' having no meaning, there is still a sort of common 'nighttime' where most people are sleeping. It was probably nearing what Izzy would term 'closing time' — like 4am — when Liz slipped in. By the time the blonde looks up, she and Isabelle are the only ones left in the bar. And it's near enough to morning that Liz can feel her power reacting to the emotional turmoil she's in. A low buzzing seems to be accompanying her as she sits there, her glass doing a sort of trembling itself on the countertop.
It's been a slow night and now that's it's just the two of them Isabelle is relaxing, she pulls the bun her hair was in out. Shaking her brown locks free she goes around humming slightly as she blows out the candles at the outer places to sit.
There's a yawn and a stretch but she's been drinking tonight so she's feeling nice and warm. Not as warm as fire gives her but it's something.
Swinging her hips as she rounds the bar again to pour Liz another glass of the liquor before grabbing her own glass.
"So something has you rattled lady."
Isabelle's in on the secret. And that means Liz, now that they're alone, doesn't have to watch her tongue so much. "Nightmares," she admits to the pyrokinetic. She's finished off the first glass, so at the very least, she's not physically trembling. But that buzz that tickles the skin and ruffles Izzy's hair when she gets too close will let the other woman know that Liz's shot is due in the not-so-distant future. Blue eyes come up to meet Isabelle's dark ones. "My world may be better than this one… but it's not perfect. And given what I've been doing the past three years… I've seen a lot of fucking shit." She takes another sip. "At one point… I was held by an anti-Evo faction, pretty much took pages out of the Taliban's book about how to treat prisoners."
"At least you guys got rid of the big anti-Evo group in your world." Isabelle takes a sip and nods towards Liz, "That's awful though." She runs a hand absently back and forth over the flame of the candle lit on the bar. She feels the heat but in a totally different way then she's use too. It gives her a pang in her chest and she almost recoils from the flame. Like a lover she couldn't talk too anymore. At the thought she glares and nods her head as she drinks more moonshine.
"How the fuck did you get out of that?"
"I didn't," Elisabeth admits softly, taking another sip. "Emil Danko put a bullet through my brain and dumped my body in the Hudson." Her jaw clenches. She can actually say it out loud now without too much trouble. "If it weren't for Hana and Teo… they came looking for my body and caught… something. Some neuron firing that shouldn't have still been there, I guess. And brought in an Evo healer." She holds up her glass in a mock-salute. "Came out of it missing somewhere around 10 years of my life in memories… but alive. Changed how I looked at a few things, for sure." After another sip, she grins. "You know, I arrested you once in my world. You were such a bitch about it."
There's a blink and Izzy's hand stops, hovering over the flame for too long and too close and she snatches it back. She's still use to the flames but.. her skin is not. Not after this long.
Raising her glass in support of mock salute she winks and grins, "Well fuck me running I'm hanging with a real bonafide Lazarus!" She takes another sip of her moonshine and nods. She remembers Hana, she was dead.
"Well listen bitch, I probably had my reasons for being pissed the fuck of being arrested." Theres a pause as she takes another sip of her moonshine.
"Like I had some fuck date or something." She laughs out loud at that. "I mean how bad was I? Really."
Elisabeth laughs outright. "Well, you did…. mainly because 1) you weren't actually the person we were after, and 2) I through nasty vertigo waves at you. But it still doesn't excuse that you fucking burned Baxter's Tink tat right off of him when you tried to fry me." She tips the glass toward the other woman. "The other you… unfortunately… went to prison for nearly killing my ass and his. I … don't honestly know if we could have straightened that out. And Richard reamed me up one side and down then other for you going to prison, too." She rolls her eyes, amused at that memory. She swallows the gasoline masquerading as liquor, unable to really taste the shit anymore. "He thinks the world of you," she comments mildly. Though whether she means here or there is rather murky.
"I only spent a little bit of jail time back in '04. Petty theft," She holds the glass loosely in her grip. "They just hadn't ever found out about the 10k I had stashed under the floorboards of an abandoned church." There's a dark grin and she grins over at Liz.
"Fuck. Well I could imagine we wouldn't have been friends there Yea. But, I'm glad I'm learning your ass now." Liz got a nice one yea! But she's not outright referring to that.
"Ah well.. he's a sap. Always has been." She scoffs but her cheeks redden because he has a soft spot in her heart as well. "Sorry I haven't been around to keep his ass in line." Cuz that's what Isabelle knows how to do.
Elisabeth looks away and smiles faintly. "I think I've done a halfway decent job doing that on my own… although he never really needed me for that," she observes mildly, taking another sip. The hum around her has ratcheted down significantly by now — high-octane alcohol for the win. "He became one of the underground Phoenix-types after 36 kids committed suicide and sent their reasons viral on the Internet. He couldn't have kids killing themselves just for being Evo." She shook her head. "After that? There wasn't any keeping him out of the do-gooding. Because for all that he'll tell you he's not a good man? He's also not a bad one." She swirls her drink, swallowing hard. "I wish I could have gotten to know you before all that shit. That you'd never gotten caught up in it, Isabelle."
Izzy considers this and nods. "I feel like lots of people think they're worse than they are." Maybe Isabelle in Liz's time actually was. Her eyes are wide and she chuckles as she shakes her head. "He can't resist the kids. I'm glad he protected their memory." Kids? The virus had taken so many. She was used to that. It still sucked.
Reaching over to grasp her hand, "So have you fucked him here yet?"
"What?" Blinking, startled, Elisabeth looks up. "No!" she replies, rather jolted by the question. And the shaft of confused emotions that lance through her when it's asked, too. She's hardly the most well-adjusted person when it comes to the psychology stuff. "I hardly know the man here — met him like twice." The blonde grins just a bit. "Not that it would normally would have stopped me, but …" She trails off and looks up into Isabelle's gaze. "Somehow it's just not the same thing when you're in love with one incarnation of a guy and you run into the alternate-reality version of him. You know?"
She's just drunk enough to chuckle. "No, of course you don't fucking know. But … take my word for it. Just talking to him and not seeing what I usually see in his eyes when he looks at me? It's enough to rip your fucking guts out." She finishes the dregs in her glass and holds it out. "And if you want to pick my brain more, it's gonna cost you one more of these so that maybe when I crash, I'll actually not dream."
"That," Isabelle pulls the bottle of moonshine out to set right in front of Liz, "Is fucked up." Drink up girl. "I never thought about to that way. You could be so happy to see this person.. alive But they aren't your person."
The thought makes Isabelle scratch her head. Magnes sorta feels like her Magnes. He's not worlds different.. but it's still not her Magnes. And that causes Izzy's drunk brain to be sad. She's not okay with losing her Magnes still. Even if she's gained another one.
"You guys didn't exactly leave on the best terms..? Not like bad ones but whole fight to the death and save the world doesn't really make for good goodbyes."
Liz takes the bottle and pours another stiff amount in her glass, helping herself to a long swallow — her taste buds are clearly dead. How much of this shit has she had? Who the fuck cares… it's taking the edge off of everything. Her laughter is brittle, and Isabelle's understanding of the situation gives her permission to let a couple of those silent tears well up, though she quickly wipes her cheek. "We… said our good-byes the night before," she admits quietly. "The last thing I saw before I had to go after Magnes, floating up into the goddamned sky, was the look on Richard's face when the metal scaffolding collapsed around him." She takes a long swallow of her drink and then says to Izzy plainly, "He didn't have his powers. So I have no idea if he survived that… even in the armor we had, it's questionable. But… it's a far fucking better last sight than I got to have last time we fucking saved the world. That time, he pulled a fucking nuclear warhead into the shadows with him."
Horror and a visible, haunting agony are clear in her blue eyes when she looks up at Isabelle. "I will never, for as long as I live, forget the sound of that scream …. tatters of shadow falling out of a mushroom cloud onto the snow beneath us. It is seared into my memory." There's a momentary sob that she catches by covering her mouth. Then she chokes out a laugh. "Wanna talk about a man with nine lives?"
She learns something new every day with Liz and Magnes. Sometimes it was things that she didn't really wanna know. At all. And hearing about this just makes her sad and angry. She reaches over and grabs Liz's arm. "He survived that? Well.. he can survive anything then."
She means it too. And then she's taking another gulp of moonshine. Her eyes bright as she regards the short haired woman. "He reallyyy got under your skin." She's happy Card has a partner like her, in Liz's future anyway.
"Okay okay lets not talk about that. How about.. are there any other old flames walking around here?" Waggling her eyebrows.
Blowing out a breath, Liz says, "Sorry! I'm sorry… I have no idea why I opened my mouth about that. I never talk about it. He did survive it. With a little help." She grins just a bit, blue eyes dilated wide — she is definitely sheets to the wind. "He did get under my skin… Somewhere along the way, it turned into this… whole THING, Isabelle. We were gonna have a baby." What the fuck, right??? She herself sounds boggled by it all! "Like… actually planning one. Together!" Her eyebrows shoot to her hairline. "I never thought I'd ever want to have kids. Seriously. Cops? We're shit bets for relationships."
She shakes her head at the other question. "God, because it's not complicated enough that one of my lovers is here? No. Thank God for small favors, I have seen none of my other guys. It's… I don't even want to think about what happened to them. I really don't. This fucking world of yours sucks."
The babytalk makes her blink and tilt her head, so they were, are in love. "I'm happy you're not pregnant here, that would suck." The notion of Richard impregnating Liz is lik, head scratching. The Richard she knows would for surely give Liz the eyes but Baby Daddy? And the remark about cops being shit at things just makes her snort, um duh girl. "When you get back, you'll be having that baby."
She hopes so, Liz deserves that happy ending in her eyes.
"Who you telling?!" Isabelle slams back more moonshine, "Once we're out of here, someone should toss a match behind us. Burn the whole place to the ground."
"Are we talking about babies…? I take it Dirk has been through recently?" …recently…
A shadow climbs the wall, the silhouette of a man in a fedora leaning against the bar although nothing casts it, the sibilant whispers of Richard Cardinal sounding amused.
But how long has he been here?
"Fffffuuuuuuuck," Elisabeth murmurs. "I'm glad I'm not pregnant here too." That thought doesn't even BEAR thinking of. And then, even as she takes a swallow of Lemon Death, her back goes stiff and straight because damn it, he always does that! Without thinking, she whips her head around to give him The Eyeball. "I swear to God, you sneaky fuck, I'm gonna put a bell on you and then smush your fedora. How many times I gotta tell you don't do that when I'm freakin' the fuck out, Richard?!" She seems to have forgotten for a moment that she's not at home, because he always finds it amusing to mess with her there too. She points at him with the same hand that's holding her drink. "And do not get any fuckin' ideas, lover, we ain't havin' no babies in this shithole."
And then she blinks. "Oh…" Yeah, it kinda just hit her. AWK-ward.
As Cardinal makes his presence known, Isabelle throws a glass at the shadow of one of her oldest and best friend. "Stop with the creeping! You're so lucky Brenda isn't here." The pink haired woman tended to call Richard 'Shadow Dick' It never went over very well. Ruffling the back of her hair a bit she levels that shadow with a blue eyed stare. "Where the fuck have you been today?" Izzy must have been expecting him, "I wanted you to open with me. You owe me a whole day parked right there," she points at the barstool with an expectant look.
It's all teasing but it's how the two of them work. She's known the man since they were kids. "I will cut Dirk's dick off." She had heard of these damn pamphlets. "Like, no there will not be new babies born into this shit." Isabelle waves a hand and sighs as Liz goes and does it.
"Well, look what you did."
There's just silence for a long moment, the shadow seemingly looking back at Elisabeth for a long moment.
Dryly, then, the whisper comes: "In vino, veritas." …in wine, truth..
"No wonder you knew so much about me, Harrison," comments the shadow, "And you've told Izzy about all this?" …other worlds…
Elisabeth sets the glass down, dragging her hands down her face. Oh God. Oh my FUCKING God. She pulls in a long breath and blows it out slowly, struggling to contain a sudden urgent desire to bawl like a two-year-old. When she has it under control, she rests both elbows on the bar and looks back at the shadow. "Yes." Her blue eyes clearly give away exactly how shit-faced she is… and it's significant, but not so much so that she's slurring. "Yes, Isabelle knows — because Magnes told her, not because I did. I was still trying to keep things quiet. Yes, I know more than a little about you and your life because we're far more than friends. And yes, I have zero expectations of you — whatever is in my world is in my world. Think of it like a twin brother you never met, and just… ignore me if I look at you oddly once in a while, okay?" She looks away from him, picking up the glass to take a fortifying swallow. "Fuck," she whispers in a pained tone.
"Magnes told me, we're BFFs sorry I forgot to send the memo." She teases and stretches her arms out. "Since we're being honest." She looks from the shadow to Liz, "I don't trust the Head Honcho pulling the strings." But Liz is here telling the man she loves about how she doesn't expect anything from him. And while she lays with Cardinal, hearing that makes her head tilt as she looks at her shadowy friend. "Liz, you were just doing your.. Duty." To the mission of getting them home.
"Thank my tits I don't have to act like I don't know what's going on to you," Not that Card would be that fooled, these two know each other way too well. History.
"You did okay Liz." Drunk Isabelle offers comfort. "It's not like you've gotten drunk and climbed into his shadow bunk naked."
The shadows chuckle, a hollow and echoing sound, and Cardinal tips his 'head' in a nod, one tenebrous hand lifting a 'hat' as if in salute.
"So long as you hold up to your end of the deal, Harrison…" …Elisabeth… The shadow-hat is set back upon a shadow-head, "I'll pretend I never heard anything. At least my other self has good taste." …good taste…
"I don't care if you heard about shit, Richard," Elisabeth tells him quietly. "You don't generally blab. Hell, sometimes you don't talk even when you fucking should. We're basically telling anyone who needs telling at this point. It's starting to look like we're going to be here a while. So fuck it. I don't care who knows." She helps herself to more Lemon Death from the bottle on the bar, turns to look at both of them and holds the glass up. "Nice to know you still think so, even in another world. But no, I won't be climbing in your bunk anytime soon — I have no issues with sharing, but I dunno who-all you've had in that bunk and I don't want scuzzies or the clap. You're welcome to slither into my bunk anytime you like, though." And then she tells the barkeep, "Isabelle, if I go fucking blind with this shit? I will kick your ass." She's so definitely shit-faced. She would never have said that sober.
"All this Slytherin talk makes me queasy." But she's laughing because Isabelle holds her liquor well, not a puker. But, she is hammered at this point and just in time for Cardinal to arrive and for threats about blindness being made. "Bitch," Isabelle pours Liz another shot, "If you're blind you can't find me duh!" There's a crack of laughter and she shoots her moonshine with a 'AAAAHHHHHH' afterwards. Isabelle hears Liz telling Card what's what and she is here for it. Leaning forward as if she's watching a tennis match.
"That tone of voice you're using is very aggressive. But sexually. I mean come on girl, you wanna catch the clap before you catch Shanti!"
An idea slams Isabelle in the head and she slams her palm on the bar. "Liz," a beat, "I think we need to get your biscuit buttered babe." It's the remedy.
As if talking about snakes and sex summons her Brenda barrels through the door with a bag full of stuff she must have been out trading. "Bitch I found some SPAM!" Pink hair in pigtails, her blue eyes take in Cardinal's shadow shape and the shape of the two women he's hanging with and Brenda drops her bag on a nearby overturned box before placing her hands on her hips. "Did I just walk into a threesome with Shadow Dick?"
A light enters Isabelle's partner in crime's eyes. "WHY DIDN'T YOU WAIT FOR ME?!"
The shadow of Richard Cardinal just answers all of this in a single deadpan comment.
"Speak of sexually transmitted disease, and lo, Typhoid Brenda shall arrive…" …arrive…
Elisabeth can't help it. She starts giggling. She tries to stifle it. Honest! But … nope. She laughs hard. After a hiccup, she sets her glass down and sagenods. "Yep, okay… I'm done. Any more than that, and I'll be upchucking on the floor." She seems to be… all in all… a relatively happy drunk. Or at least not a sloppy one. And with it being 20+ hours since her last shot, her ability is back just enough. "Hey, Izzy…. I owe you one, right?"
She knocks a couple of times on the top of the makeshift bar, and sits up very straight. Though she's calm enough now that the air around her is no longer buzzing, there's a subtle build-up of something else in the air nearest her. Almost a sound. A slow crescendo of not-sound that is finally low-volume music — not played from a radio or the piano over in the classroom. She's never really tried to layer sound waves like she's doing now — it didn't really occur to her that she could make music until Ygraine made such a suggestion when they were in the recording studio. But now, there's actual music floating in the room. "
I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone.
All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity.
Dust in the wind…
all we are is dust in the wind…
Brenda giggles to her credit and waves a hand, "Hey SlenderDick."
She loves her nicknames.
As the air buzzes around them Isabelle raises an eyebrow, she had wondered what that was.. The display of ability makes her envious. She wants her fire. She wants it.. Now. "Wow Liz you are ringing like a beacon girl." She rubs her neck as she drunkenly considers just how dangerous an ability like Liz's would be. I must have been a crazy bitch in her timeline to try to roast her. There were circumstances though. Brenda on the otherhand is rushing over to the bar as Liz starts to sing. "Girlllll pour me a glass, she's singing her death song."
Izzy swats Brenda with a playful look and slides the bottle of moonshine over. "Let the lady entertain, her clothes might come off next."
There's been silence for long moments from the shadow. It's the benefit of not having a face, or body language; it's easy to hide what you're thinking, what you're feeling. The perfect poker face. "Try and keep these two drunkards alive, would you, Brenda…? The music box just might be the one to save us all…" …save us all…
Cardinal spills down the wall like rain over a window, vanishing to the gloom of the floor.
She's a music box. Elisabeth brows pull together and she listens to what's happening around her. Both brows shoot up and she tells Isabelle, "Well… shit. You know, I think I did think once before. I sang a song that I hadn't intended to be recorded — a friend made me record a couple for the album she wanted to put out. Before we got dragged here. But … I thought at the time that she'd piped in background music." She looks rather befuddled. "Huh. Looks like it was me. Okay, that's just really cool."
Looking after the shadow, she can't help the grin. "Really wish he'd at least gone solid before he left. Hate to see him leave, but love to watch him go," she admits candidly.
And then she chuckles lightly, sliding off the stool. "CLEARLY it is time for both an injection and bed," she informs Isabelle and Brenda. "Cuz if I can do that shit, I gotta be due. I'm not supposed to be able to do that on these drugs. And they're shitty drugs too, just so you know." She begins to make her way toward the door as well, obviously intending to get a little sleep now that the nightmares are a thing of memory, what with Lemon Death fuzzing her brain significantly.
"Yea yea see you in this drunkard's bed later ass!" The only time that Isabelle acknowledges her and Cardinal's sometimes physical relationship. She fixes Brenda with a stare, "Leveling up while negated basically? Well hot damn we might be saved after all Brenda." To which the pink haired woman cheers and slams moonshine back, she's clearly had a bunch and that mixed with the music has Brenda face first on the bar, mouth open as she snores loud. It's like a fucking cartoon. Isabelle grins and snickers at her friend as Liz stands.
As Liz walks out, "Gilrie, you do that next time you're in and you'll be drinking for free more than usual."
And that's a promise.