Participants:
| Scene Title | Morning Coffee |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Cat enlists Gillian's help in fixing the weather, gets morning coffee and offers a snowmobile for the Lighthouse to use. |
| Date | May 11, 2010 |
The place is quiet now. It was quiet before, despite the unexpected guest and the reactions to him. Cat sacked out on the couch offered by Colette as the sole place available, covered in what blankets and such are available along with her coat and other gear. Gillian's sleep remains undisturbed, they can talk in the morning.
When the morning comes, Cat is still aslumber on that couch and looking not very troubled. Odd things might be happening in that sleeping mind, as Gillian can perhaps attest from having visited it nearly a year before. If, that, is, she remembers.
Remember and recall can be two different things. The journals that she kept during the time help her keep pieces of it, but Gillian hasn't read them in a while, and it's not a dream that she's entering when she spots the slumbering Cat on her way down to start the coffee. A few minutes of quiet tiptoeing past leads her to the kitchen, and the coffee is brewed. The smell may start to help with the waking process, before a hand finally touches her shoulder and disturbs the dreams.
"You might want to get up before the horde awakens. I made coffee."
Before she's touched, stirring happens. Coffee is nearby, and the olfactory properties of it are powerful. When contact comes, it progresses past a twitching nose and moving fingers to opened eyes and torso shifting. "Morning, Gillian," Cat offers slowly. "I had this dream of a broom lying on the floor, and me with my foot on the bristles like it was some guy's chest. Y'know, kinda like the Virginia flag. Warrior standing over downed opponent."
She rubs her eyes a few times, then stretches and sits up. Couch doesn't seem to disagree with her as a sleep location. "I was coming to see you, got delayed making it, then Smoke Man decided to solidify."
There's a coffee mug with steaming hot coffee held nearby. Not for Gillian, but offered out to cat as she begins to sit up on the surprisingly comfortable couch. "Smoke Man? Nothing I have to worry about, right?" The title just sounds omnious, so she's worried for a moment, before settling down on the nearby loveseat. Only after Cat has her coffee, at least, Gillian's can wait, as she's been asleep longer.
"What'd you need to talk to me about? Must be important if you travelled this far— did you have to ride a snow mobile?"
The nose detects, and hands reach. Fingers curl around the steamy dark brew, bring it close, and she lets herself enjoy the scent of it. No matter she can recall the scent of coffee in full detail at any time, the physical act is still better. "Coffeee," she lets out, "thanks." Eyes close briefly.
"Yeah. Smoke Man, Vincent Lazzaro. Works for Praeger, or Sarisa Kershner, or whoever else. Maybe all of them. Suddenly appeared here last night just after Colette opened the door." And she nods.
"Snowmobile's outside. I own a few now. Want one? And yes, business. I came to talk with you about the weather, and he wanted to talk to me about the weather."
"Until the weather stops it'd be a good idea, to have at least one. We've done our best to keep our small section shovelled, but I don't dare go out without Magnes, in case we need to levitate the whole freaking car," Gillian says, looking toward the fireplace to check it out. Her voice is being kept down, lest they wake up all the other people in the house. One of the warmest ones in the city.
"You guys come up with a plan, then?"
"We did," Cat affirms. "Dee and I talked to Liette recently, she agreed to help with the weather. Can't really communicate with her sister through distance, but she thinks if enhanced she can pull something off. She would," and here Cat hesitates briefly, this might go over like a Lead Zeppelin… "Said the Institute has a drug called Amp, which boosts abilities. Apparently Julie is on it. But she claims an augmenter, whose power she can copy, could be linked with to augment each other and score some results."
"Great, just what the world of Evolved needs. Me in a vial, or pill, or whatever they put it in," Gillian mutters a bit under her breath, complaining. "Augmenting each other— that's pretty dangerous. You saw what happened to Moab, and there's a block of Staten Island that got leveled when I did it with Gabriel the first time. How do we know we won't end up making things worse? Freeze the whole fucking planet."
"We don't," Cat replies dryly, "but the alternative is doing nothing, in which case the Institute lets Julie freeze the whole fucking planet." She trails off briefly, the eyes going distant as a memory is partaken of. "I didn't see what happened to Moab," is shared moments later, "I was suddenly in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. Anyway…"
Eyes settle on Gillian. "The idea is also to get others in on things too. Helena and McRae, Gabriel."
"I was suddenly in Antarctica," Gillian comments quietly, though there's some humor in her voice. She hopes it doesn't end up being a yearly trip for her— though the base she visited is gone now. Also with her assistance. Just not cause of an augmentation loop this time. "All right. I'll do whatever I can. You'll just have to give me the when and where— I don't recommend here. Somewhere with very few people would be best, in case it goes wrong."
There's a nod. "Then we both wind up in fucking Antarctica. We come back, and fucking Antarctica follows us home." Cat grumbles as the cup is lifted. "You'll get the details soon as I have them." As she sips from the cup, her mind wanders a bit.
"You just got back from Vegas, I heard. How'd you manage to make it out in all this? Getting a flight had to be murder. Even worse now, with the airports closed." If they weren't before.
"I'm afraid that's Abby's to talk about, not mine," Gillian says, moving to stand up from the loveseat finally to go into the kitchen and pour herself a cup. The cup even reads Las Vegas on it, with a picture of the sign. "It wasn't conventional travel, though," she offers that much, as she takes the first steamy sip.
"Hopefully we can get this done and kick Antarctica back where it belongs."
The reply is accepted with a nod, and no commentary on whether she'll ask Abby or not. Cat takes another sip from the coffee, then musing "I've been curious for a long time if I could get away with counting cards at a blackjack table." A slight grin forms, she seeming content to sit there and converse on lighter topics for a time.
"You have a perfect memory, you probably could," Gillian says, looking down at her coffee as she retakes her seat. "Wouldn't recommend it though. Not if you were playing for actual money— not that you have to. Since you might be the richest person I know."
"It's not cheating," Cat opines, "to use just my wits, but casinos don't like it. They call it cheating just the same. Don't need the money, this is true, but… I'd love taking huge stacks of Linderman's away from him." More coffee is sipped.
"Trouble is, card counters get spotted. They win more than they lose long-term, and eventually the house shows them the door."
"Hey, Linderman's money is part of why we still have power here, so I'm not as inclined to render him broke— but at least this money we know is going to a good cause," Gillian says, not making any recommendations otherwise. "And I guess whatever it is they're doing south of here helps too."
As she says that, the sounds of sturring can be heard upstairs, and she glances up and sighs. "I should get to work on breakfast. Magnes likes to help cook, but— you want to join us?"
She refrains from commenting on Linderman's role, according to Arthur, in letting the city get nuked. And from what she might do with any money so gained. She could just do it and drop the funds on the Lighthouse anonymously. In fact, Cat says nothing more regarding the man. "Thanks, but no, Gillian," Cat proffers, "I need to go make more arrangements. Get back to Manhattan, see some people."
Later in the day, if it's possible for such a thing to happen, the Lighthouse receives a new snowmobile.