Participants:
| Scene Title | Not Yoda |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | But cute with big ears? |
| Date | Oct 14, 2009 |
New York Public Library
Although she's been here the past several nights from about 9pm until well past curfew, Liz has been studying. Intently. The string map, all the labeled incidents and names, looking at the angles, thinking through what we know and what we don't. She's been slipping out when Richard comes in — her manner's been casual and 'gotta go' whenever he sees her, but she's been avoiding him just a little since their 'altercation' on the front stairs.
Last night was a rather sudden reversal of attitude. When she made her way into the library, he was doing exactly what they've been doing for days. And she didn't speak a single word to him, she merely slipped off the jacket she was wearing and dropped it inside the doorway and then promptly kissed him. Didn't even bother shutting the door to the room, just entirely ignored the possibility of being walked in on by any of the other sometime residents of the place who might be looking for Cardinal and everything else. The silent demand that he shut the fuck up and not talk was pretty clear.
Only now, sitting with their backs to the wall and her head on his shoulder — at least they're mostly dressed at this point; it's too cold in the library not to be!! — once more looking at the string map, does she finally speak to him. "I might have pissed in Linderman's corn flakes."
It is getting pretty cold lately. Cardinal's got to look into heating the place somehow before things get any colder.
There's been a bit of avoidance on his side as well, and he's seemed rather quiet of late; pushing himself more into work, less into socialization. He came home in a decent if thoughtful mood the night before, only to be attacked by a ravenous policewoman. He didn't seem to mind, responding with a certain desperate, wordless urgency of his own.
As she speaks finally, he exhales a faint chuckle, "Who hasn't?"
Elisabeth chuckles quietly, her hand stroking down his thigh absently, almost petting him like a cat. "There are far too many players in this, and I still can't get a handle on it. Edward Ray…. thought that turning a quarter of a million people into Evos would push things into the right alignment to stop …. Arthur Petrelli. Right? His endgame was intended to keep the future that our friends saw from happening because… it was like an apple rotted at the core where it couldn't be seen." She nibbles her lip. "It's still rotten. *Every* governmental system is at least a little corrupt at the core. And peace won't come until after the fight. When the fight gets big enough — what if an Evo versus human war is actually the reason that the island sinks? The more I look at the knots here, the more I'm forced to consider the possibility that Edward Ray has manipulated us into this fight knowing that we can't fucking win. Hell… every action we've taken so far as just escalated it. And maybe…. maybe that's the point. To make it explode around us, create the martyrs he needs — because the successful causes always have martyrs that people remember… Kennedy, King… — and what if we're not really supposed to STOP it at all? What if we're just supposed to die trying, so the world sees that ALL Evos aren't bad guys… so that the moderates finally start to rally." She moves her head now to look up at him.
"No, not… exactly," Cardinal's head rests against the wall, his gaze lifting to the ceiling, "Arthur was already beaten before Edward tried to pull that stunt. It wasn't meant to counter him, it was meant to counter the Vanguard, Norman White, and a bunch of other threats that haven't even been identified yet." He brings a hand up, rubbing against his face, "The alternative to peace is war; you're right, there, but you're thinking too simple. Edward has… several contingencies left. I think one of them is that— you heard Else's song, right? The Beaches of Thirty-Fourth Street, or whatever?"
"Yeah… I've heard it. At least parts of it. Sure." The comment about Edward and several contingencies merely brings a faint smile to Elisabeth's face. "I really hate that bastard. Seriously. I want to find him — cuz you know he's fucking alive somewhere sitting there plotting out more statistics in his damn head — and kick his ass and make him lay out *all* the possible actions he sees and the probabilities of their outcomes. I mean… it's all just probabilities and percentage chances, but … at least it would actually be a road map to work from instead of flying blind all the time." She elbows him lightly. "And don't call me simple."
She adds, "Even if it's true."
"That'd be nice, wouldn't it?" A faint chuckle from Cardinal, and he looks back over to her with a wry, tired smile, "Would save me from having to work things out, I guess." Thump, goes his head against the wall again, smile fading once more, "I wish he'd left at least a few more clues. I don't have much to go on, although since I keep realizing things he'd set up for me, I guess I'm going in the right direction here."
Elisabeth says wryly, "Or at least the direction of the witch's house at the center of the woods." She rolls her eyes. "Every time I look at the damn thing I sit here and wonder — are we being set up to actually try to do this herculean task in front of us or are we being set up to not do it." She sighs and scoots herself around so that she's looking at him, nudging him to raise one knee up so she can wrap her arm around it while they talk. "If we have to have a war, Richard… the sinking of an island's sure a damn good start to one. I'm not sure there's any way to turn the tide and make Humanis First look responsible in the public eye. Not now that the Municipal Building has come down. But … maybe I'm just not seeing the big picture." She shoves her free hand through tousled blond hair. "Seems to be a recurring theme in my life lately."
Cardinal shakes his head just a little. "You're not thinking about this right…" He twists a bit to face her, one arm draping over the top of his own knee as a weary smile's offered over, "We're— past the point where we can get a real happy ending, at least for us, babe. Things are going to get real messy, and all we can do is… hope to steer it to minimize the damage, or to make sure that things work out decently in the end, after all the smoke clears. You know? If a war's inevitable, it's— inevitable. We just need to steer the war."
Elisabeth fffffs with a roll of the eyes. "Don't make me hit you," she tells him mildly. "I realize that we each have our roles in this conversation — mine's to be the optimist and yours is to be the fatalist. And I get it. Bad things are going to happen no matter what the hell we do. My question is… which collateral damage are we trying to stop here? The sinking of the island with the attendant deaths? If that's the case, then we should probably put all our energies into freakin' killing Norman White." Because jail sure as hell in this instance won't hold him. And he killed 600 people. The death penalty for THAT, she's fine with.
"I plan on it," Cardinal says firmly, giving his head a tight shake, "We should all get together and go confront Shard, because— fuck, this is going to be bad. I'm sending someone out to try and find out White's plans, too." He rubs a hand against his nose, "We can't just focus on one thing and ignore the rest, though."
There's a nod, and Elisabeth reaches out to lightly brush along his chin. "Tell me what you see as the three biggest threats…. and then tell me where I can be the biggest help," she replies softly. "I'll be your sounding board if you want me to be. Or not, if you think I really have the possibility of fucking it all up on you. Whatever eases the stress for you is fine. I've spent a lot of time just…. staying out of the way until someone decides it's time to move. It's what's worked for us in the past, so maybe we shouldn't mess with a good thing."
"I don't." Cardinal turns his head to brush a kiss against her fingers, murmuring, "They're just cards, Liz." His hand lifts, claiming hers and bringing it down in his lap as he looks up to her, "The three biggest threats, right now? White, Humanis, and the Vanguard's nuclear weapon."
Elisabeth's smile is faint, her blue eyes weary. "You know what? I already figured that out — it was just a convenient thing, a small, stupid thing to get mad at that was just the straw that broke the camel's back. But if you keep repeating it, I'm going to start to wonder if it's me you're trying to convince or yourself. You were… a convenient target for a lot of things the other day, and I'm sorry." She squeezes his hand, her expession apologetic. Then she says, "I haven't heard much about the nuke, honestly. Just that supposedly they have one. Frankly, I don't even know if anyone's been working on that aspect except maybe Wireless? What have you learned on that front?"
Cardinal's nose wrinkles slightly. "I've been following prophets for awhile now, Liz, sometimes it's hard for me to figure out what's real or not," he admits, drawing back and letting his gaze drop, "It's all right. I'm sorry too." Fingers brush against hers, and he draws in a breath, "I think it's set to blow— either the twelfth, or thirty-first of December. There's eclipses on both days. Someone - either Fedor, or one of his agents - dropped off some documents listing all the russian nukes being stored. We think we know what weapon it is, question is, where is it…"
There's a thoughtful expression, and Elisabeth thinks to ask, "Out of curiosity…. did Muldoon have ties to the Vanguard? I don't think I ever knew for sure." It's sort of out of the blue, but …. eh, can't hurt to ask. "And as you once pointed out to me… there's a lot of risk involved in acting on knowledge of things that haven't happened yet. In changing one thing, we run the risk of making it worse. Like….. by taking out Pinehearst, we gotta deal with Moab idiots ourselves."
"Muldoon? No, Muldoon was one of Linderman's men," Cardina replies curiously, scratching at the side of his neck, "As far as I know, anyway." He smirks a little, then, "True enough. Is that worse, though? One problem might lead into another, but at least they're still solvable problems - and not a clear loss."
There's a frown, and Elisabeth nods. "Yeah…. I knew that. I just…." She nibbles her lip. "Eh, it's probably nothing. Coincidence at best. I just got some intel recently that mentioned Muldoon and Russia in the same sentence." She shrugs. "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," she says mildly. "At this point, I'm not all about a clear win or loss…. just all of my own people getting out alive. And as many of the others as we can save too."
"Hm." Cardinal's lips purse in a frown, brow furrowing, "Maybe it is… maybe not. I don't know." He shakes his head, "I don't know what's going to happen, Liz, I'm not— Edward. I can just guess, and do what I can."
"Well, since we haven't got any answers, let's focus on where we are with the three main issues." Elisabeth braces her free hand on the floor, not moving to release his hand with the other. "White. I'm pretty sure you'd have mentioned confirmation on his death. Do we have any ideas where he might be holed up? Besides the very general 'Staten Island' idea?"
"No. I think I'll send Juliet in," Cardinal's chin tips up in a wry sort of nod, "I found out who she is, by the way. She's— well, feel kind've sorry for her honestly, she's had a fuckin' rough life, I think she's actually fond of the cowboy— she could probably infiltrate and get us some information."
An eyebrow shoots up. "You found out who she is?" Elisabeth eyes him when he says she's had a rough life, studying him closely. "You know… usually when you sound like that, you've found another little teengirl to take under your wing? What's up with the Juliet chick? If it's a good enough story, I'll get the cowboy off her ass," she offers idly. "OH!" She sits upright. "And that fucking reminds me… You see or heard from Laudani?" She grimaces. "I've been putting out feelers for days. Asshole waltzed into Homeland Security with my goddamn therapist as a hostage the other day."
"Possessor," Cardinal says with a shrug of one shoulder, the comment bringing a faint twitch to his lips, "Her original body died years ago, so now she spends all her time feeling guilty as shit about stealing others' from what I can tell. Doesn't hold on to one for too long." He exhales a sigh of breath, "She was working for Monroe, but, she didn't know what the asshole was into." A pause, "Laudani? No, not since we talked about the nuke codes last week. He— what?" Blink. Blink. "I don't… I don't even know what the fuck to say about that."
Elisabeth looks alarmed, sitting bolt upright. "You talked to Teo about nuke codes? Like… we have nuke codes? And then he up and kidnaps a shrink and walks into Homeland Security with her?" She looks flummoxed. "Uhm…. shit." Not a clue what to think about it. "You know… we've got that girl Peyton who wants to help. I'm starting to wonder if we should sit her in a room and just make her freakin' peek through people's eyes all day." She grimaces, and though she's not exactly serious, there is a tone of exasperation all the way around.
"One of Fedor's agents - or maybe Fedor, I don't know - dropped off a top secret document listing all the nuclear weapons in Russia," Cardinal replies with a shake of his head, "One to me, one to Laudani, one to Cat, maybe others, I don't know. I think we've pinpointed where the Vanguard's stolen nuke came from…" A lean back, lips pursing thoughtfully, "Not a bad idea. Maybe we should get her on this — I know she's seen White before."
Glancing at him, Liz shrugs. "Can't hurt to ask her, but… considering the insanity that's going on in Phoenix at the moment, I'm not sure she'd be able to do it." She hesitates and says, "You heard that some guy named Doc bodyswapped Helena, right? Cat believes the body Helena's in — and Wendy Hunter, the girl who escaped them before I was taken — may be in Humanis First's custody." She grimaces. "I'm pretty sure they've got Peyton working overtime attempting to locate them. Especially with Wendy's ability."
"Whoa, whoa…" Cardinal scoots up, straightening to stare at her, jaw slack for a moment, "Rewind a bit. Doc did what to who and where?"
Elisabeth shakes her head. "The news went out a couple days ago. It happened out at the carnival on Roosevelt. Cat said Doc was doing the swap — I don't know why or under what conditions or whatever — and it was interrupted by a Humanis assault. They're looking for Doc." She didn't realize he didn't know.
Cardinal's brow furrows into deep lines, "Shit. I didn't know what Doc's power was…" He rubs two fingers at the bridge of his nose, groaning, "Christ, Doc, what the /fuck/ are you doing…"
"If you know where he is or can get in touch, babe…. maybe you should put him in contact with Cat. They've got Helena's body with the other person inhabiting it. I don't know what they're going to do with that person, or even who it is. But… " Elisabeth grimaces a little. "I shudder to think of what Danko and Bill Dean will do if they realize they actually have Helena Dean in their possession. Seriously, Richard."
"I'll get someone in contact," Cardinal's eyes close, and hr buries his face in his hand, "Fuck. Alright, we've got work to do, then…" He reaches up, pulling himself to his feet with a grimace, "You focus on this issue, see what you can do with Phoenix… I'll work out a strategy for White, and try to get in touch with Doc."
Heaving a sigh, Elisabeth hauls her body off the floor. "I'm telling you… I wanna go to fuckin' Tahiti," she grouses under her breath. "Barring that, I want to get very drunk, fuck like bunnies for days, and … and… and…. something good enough escapes me." Her mouth twists into a pout. "Join the rebellion, they said. See the galaxy! Hmph!"
"Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. An evolved craves not these things…" A smirk as Cardinal offers her a hand up, "Sounds like a plan, though. Nice tropical beach somewhere… preferably clothes-optional…"
Elisabeth chuckles up at him as she gains her feet, her hand captured in his. "Fruity drinks with umbrellas!" she adds to the wish list. When she's steadied, she leans up and kisses him softly. "You have your moments. Not many of them, but you do have them," she teases gently, the glint in her blue eyes perhaps giving away that maybe they're not entirely her own words.