Participants:
| Scene Title | Not All There |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Outside the Dome, two musicians meet. |
| Date | February 3, 2011 |
Long Island City - Outside the Dome
Long Island City, a run-down neighborhood on the western edge of Queens, just across the water from Manhattan. From here, the skyline that was changed forever by the bomb is a constant reminder of what once was. A window into the past as well as a scathing reminder of the present. The waterfront is a largely industrial area, riddled with freight train stops, warehouses and shipping companies; the vast majority of which have ceased operations or gone entirely out of business in the wake of the the bomb. While this neighboorhood was spared from the disastrous nuclear fallout, it was crippled by the equally disastrous economic fallout. Businesses closed left and right, leaving blocks of abandoned facilities all across the neighborhood. As the property values took a steep nose dive, so too did crime in the area rise. Now, rife with gangs and refugees, the once bustling region looks more like a ghost town.
With over a thousand people trapped within a giant bubble, it's a wonder that more people aren't flocked to the edge, awaiting word on their loved ones. At the moment, in this small area, there's at least one, slowly approaching the edge, with a hand stretched out. Adel's face is twisted with concern and worry, as she looks through the ability already called 'The Dome'. She seems so tentative in her advance, like she expects to be thrown back, until her palm comes into contact with the smooth, glass-like surface.
Her eyes close, her head lowering in thought, or perhaps prayer.
For an instant, her hair starts to shift, as if the cool winter wind caught it. There's no sound, other than a surprised gasp, before the young woman is tossed back a few feet, landing in a snow drift with a thud.
Ow.
"Careful! They don't want us in there." Comes a fussy female voice as Eve Mas makes her presence known. The older woman rushes forward and tries to help pick Adel up. She's dressed in a thick dark grey dress that falls to her knees and a thick black wool coat. Her black boots make holes in the snow.
Her hair is pulled up into a messy bun and her eerie light grey eyes study the younger woman in the snow. "Friends stuck in there?" She asks softly and taps her foot. Eve's looking good, not as crazy as she normally is. Her black messenger bag swings on her shoulder.
"They who?" Adel asks, voice holding her anger and concern, and the ow as well. But once she's getting help returning to her own two feet, she starts trying to wear the smile again. "Yeah. A… close friend of mine got himself stuck inside. I thought maybe…" she trails off with a shrug, as if she can't finish what she was trying to say.
Or maybe she doesn't know what she thought. Or she's just embarassed it didn't work.
"Hey— you're— " she starts to say while she tries to dust off the snow that's gotten on her clothes, though even that stops for a moment. "You look familiar."
"I don't know if I lost a friend in there.. my ability won't work in there." Eve glares at the forcefield and picks up a nearby rock and throws it at it. "They.." The singer throws her hands up, pointing as she does so. "Okay.. there isn't a they.. but usually people think there's a 'They', right?"
Eve chuckles before Adel says she remembers her from somewhere. "I.. well I'm Eve. Eve Mas?" she extends her hand with a tilt. She's never seen Adel she doesn't think.
Looking between Eve and the Dome, Adel frowns as if she might have a response to the talk about powers and how they don't work right where the Dome is concerned, but she leaves that to imagination and nods, scratching the tip of her nose for a moment while she looks back at Eve.
Eve Mas… Eve Mas… "OH!" she suddenly bursts out, smiling wide. "You sing! You're a singer. Not really my kinda music, but I knew I recognized you! You're supposed to be like…" her hand moves, but she trails off.
How do you ask someone if they're supposed to be crazy?
"Oh! Yes I am! Are you a musician?" Eve is excited to meet more musicians. Especially lately, the darker haired woman taps her chin with her finger as she stares up at the sky. She hums softly to herself. "I am." She says softly, to Adel's unanswered question.
"Who're you?" she asks with a lift of her shoulder. Digging her feet into the ground, Eve looks nervous. She's been nervous a lot lately.
"I'm Adel … Starkey!" she says with her hand suddenly flying outward in an offer to shake. There was an odd pause before the last name, like she suddenly forgot it for a moment. "I'm a drummer in a band, Mad Muse. We're totally primal. You should come see us sometimes. I also drum for Robyn Quinn, too. She's just got a CD. I— " She suddenly pats down her oversized black coat, and winces. "I didn't bring one with me…"
Like she might carry CDs around in her pocket half the time. Not so at the moment.
"But wow it's totally cool to meet you. Do you still sing? Do you have any concerts coming up?"
Shaking the hand with a smile, Eve nods her head. "Starkey? I love it." She laughs and watches as Adel looks for a CD. "Oh, Quinn.. with an accent. She saw me sing the other week at the Orchid Lounge? I sing there a lot, if you want to come." The older musician says as she wanders over closer to the force field. "I'm suppose to be coming to one of your concerts soon.." Eve trails off and she runs a finger down the 'Dome'.
"What were you trying to do with it?" She tilts her head and presses her palm against the blue light. Eve smiles gently and whispers something softly to herself. Her messenger bag falls in the snow but she doesn't seem to notice.
"I wish I had an awesome accent," Adel says with a kind of a disappointed pout in her voice. "I mean, I guess to certain people I do have an accent, but otherwise…" Her voice is soft and gentle and well enunciated, but the only hints of an accent are mixed in nature, between mainstream and something else.
"But it's awesome that you're going to come to our concert. You'll get to see me play! Quinn's stuff really is good, and I supply the beat." With that, she shimmies around as if dancing, before looking back at the blue sphere. "Nothing, really. I guess it just didn't like me." Not 'they'. 'It'.
Eve looks at Adel over her shoulder and she stomps her foot. Drumming on her legs as Adel shimmies. "I really can't wait to see you guys play. Honestly, I'm sure it's going to be amazing. I might even ask to open for you guys.. or write a song with Quinn that gets recorded. Who knows?" That's right, nobody really knows..
Eve looks back at the Dome and tilts her head. "It doesn't seem to like anyone. Have you known your friend inside long?" Because if so, then Eve will feel even more sympathy for the young woman. "I would hate to have a loved one trapped in there.. but I guess. I'm already without my best friend.. I haven't seen her in a really long time." Eve actually plops down in the snow with a sigh and puts her hands in her face, peeking through her fingers at the other side of the Dome.
"That would be totally— !!" The word is cut off, as if Adel is catching herself wanting to swear. "I mean, we'd probably really like that! I don't sing, but I could totally add a cool beat to your music, I think. Mom always used to say that drummers are the heart of the band. Thump thump, and all that." As she says that, she even pats her chest with the thumps.
"But— yeah, he uh— we've known each other since we were kids. Childhood friend and all that, but it wasn't til recently that we…" She trails off, cheeks turning a little pinkish. "Anyway, I hope you don't got anyone stuck in there, cause… I miss him a lot."
"I don't have drums in my music too much.. but I think we could figure something out." Eve winks at Adel before nodding towards her with a sad expression before she's staring back through the Dome. The singer wraps her arms around her knees, closing her eyes. She smiles gently, "New found lovers.. or boyfriend and girlfriend.. sounds sweet." Sounds innocent and something that Eve has never had.
"Sometimes I wish I talked to my childhood friends.." the rowdy kids on the street she made while dad was working in the shop and mom was dancing early days at the club. She was just like them, without real parental guidance and lonely.
In her eyes, things have come full circle.
"Then your music needs drums, I say!" Adel enthusiastically intones, despite the cold, moving closer to the taller woman and holding out her hands. "Come on, you need to get off the ground before you catch cold. I've been close to most of my friends since childhood. A few others after, but— we're a tight knit little group. Our parents definitely had a 'it takes a village' frame of mind. Better than it taking the village people, you know?"
Tugtug, she tries to get Eve up on her feet.
"It's freaking cold, so we should probably go home now, anyway. You can't sing if you catch cold!"
"Okay, okay okay!" Eve says with a light grin as she allows Adel to pull her up. Then with a chuckle she's placing a arm around Adel's shoulders. "Some hot coco or something?" she asks with a tilt of her head. She likes this young woman, she has so much energy. So refreshing. Eve needs that.
She looks up towards the sky and whistles. "We should meet up for some songwriting stuff.. aka.. plan out what songs you would play drums too and we need to ask Quinn if it's okay that I open for you guys. I'm sure she'd say it's fine." Eve smiles gently at the drummer.
"Well, if you're going to fill me full of hot chocolate, we can do that now!" Adel says with an excited tone to her voice, though at a slow glance toward the dome that worried look returns. It doesn't last long. She seems to be trying hard to not let anything get her down too long.
"Do you have marshmallows cause I love marshmallows, especially in hot chocolate. Or in smores. Chocolate involved in both." There's a pause, as if she suddenly had a thought. "Do you think graham crackers go well with hot chocolate and marshmallows?
"It'd be a crime to have hot chocolate without both."
With that, Eve is racing away and up ahead from Adel, leading her. "Come on! Last one to.. there has to do twenty pushups!" She cackles gleefully as she dances away. Beckoning for Adel to follow her, Eve hops and twirls away.
A last look is given to the Dome as well, with a raise of an eyebrow. "I'll see you later." She says softly and then she's moving away again. Off to whatever adventure, she and Adel are going to go on.
"I just hope we don't have to see you too much later," Adel says, sticking her tongue out at the offending dome, before she links arms with the older woman and says, "Let's go to a coffee shop. I think there's one close by— do you have a car? I don't like taxies. Avoid them like the plague." Also because they require a registration card. But that isn't something she's going to admit to.
Not right now.
"Public transportation creeps me out," she uses as the excuse. That sounds less illegal.
"Sometimes.. the cab drivers follow you home and…" she trails off with a mock frightful expression on her face. Teasing the younger woman, she pats Adel's arm as they link and she steers her towards another street where lo and behold. Her old school custom Mustang sits by the curb. "Meet my baby." She says proudly and gestures for Adel to follow her to the car where she slides in the driver side and unlocks the car for her new friend to slide in.
"I've been working on this beauty for years and now she's finally really all complete.." Thanks to some tinkering that Warren Ray did her vehicle. She still hasn't looked at everything he's done. She's not sure she'd understand anyway. Turning the car on, it seems to purr and Eve kisses the steering wheel. "I will love you forever and one day. My child will enjoy you too.. as long as they don't crash you." She chuckles as she looks over at Adel.
From her position in the passanger seat, Adel leans back into the chair with a big smile as she lets out a laugh. "You may not be all here, but you're funny. I like you— and your baby too," she says, patting the dashboard as if it were somebody's head. The woman's baby, after all! "Hot chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers, here we come!"
Her fist is even up in the air, raised as if to tell the horses to get moving. Or in this case, the Mustang.