Participants:
| Scene Title | Nothing Quite So Poison… |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elisabeth makes a visit to Riker's to find out just where someone she thought was a friend went wrong. |
| Date | March 12, 2020 |
Riker's Island is not a place Elisabeth is unfamiliar with… although to be fair, she hasn't been here in a number of years. The procedures for visiting seem much the same as she remembers — checking in, leaving her firearm at the desk along with anything else that could be deemed 'of use' to a prisoner. AS she waits in the visitors' commons, the blonde gives the impression of having come from work, in that she's wearing a pair of black slacks, sturdy (albeit nice) laced shoes, and a tucked in blue and green short-sleeved blouse that might have been beneath a blazer jacket at some point earlier in the day.
She's standing near the reinforced windows as Aislinn is brought to the visitors' room, and she turns toward the other woman as the door opens. Her expression is neutral, neither happy to see Aislinn nor upset, though her arms are crossed. She waits until the door shuts behind the agrokinetic before asking mildly, "How are you doing?" 'How are they treating you' seems a question that assumes the wardens are assholes — sometimes they are, but she's trying not to assume.
Aislinn as well seems rather neutral - her expression is blank with a hint of annoyance, her gait and posture as straight and even as she can manage. It's only when her eyes finally land on Elisabeth that she betrays her emotionless facade, head tilting just over so slightly askew as she regards Elisabeth with a clear if understated curiosity.
As she's settled into her seat, she stares ahead at Elisabeth, waiting for someone to break the silence; as soon as Elisabeth does, Aislinn interjects in an attempt to cut her off. "You don't look like someone they'd send t' be my lawyer," is a bit of an odd statement, though it carried the implication she's expecting one. "What's that all about?"
With a toothy grin on the facade breaks further, Aislinn shrugging in a way that intentionally makes her restraints clink and clatter. "Just wonderful, y'know. Nothin' like waitin' t'find out if the UKs gonna want you back to throw in an even deeper hole, right?"
There's a faint smile, amusement although not at Aislinn. "Nah, definitely not your lawyer. Although… I might be willing to help make sure you have a good one." Elisabeth's blue eyes on the other woman are intent but not malicious. More… curious. As she moves to lower herself into the seat across from Aislinn, she seems as if she's searching for something in the other woman's face. This is not the Aislinn she met in those first days of 'travel', but there are pieces of her — in the way she goes on the offense so nothing seems to mean anything to her, in the way she uses sharp edges to keep people at a distance.
"I'd like to ask a lot of things," she admits quietly. "But I'm not here in an official capacity — and I don't want anything I might ask you about to be held against you somehow. So there are really only two things I feel like I can ask you. One is whether you need anything in here while you're sorting things through. And the other is were you playing Raytech and Richard?" Her tone is even — she doesn't appear emotionally invested in the answers so much as thoughtful about the answer to the last one, perhaps using it as a barometer to gauge whether she'll ask anything else.
"The only thing I need, they won't give me." Because Aislinn knows they know better than to give an agrokinetic a plant, particularly one with talents such as hers. She did wish they'd at least give back the one she was brought in with, though. She liked Andi, they'd made it out of that Ziggurat together.
Aislinn peers at Elisabeth, offering her own appraising gaze as her eyes flick to her and then over. "I'm not going to tell you anything I haven't already explained on questioning," she wants as she fold her arms across her chest. "But I did believe in what I was doing at Raytech. I want to make the world a better place." Leaning forward, she quirks an eyebrow. "And with how much of a thorn in the side of my… friends Richard Ray has been it made for a good opportunity." So a little of both, it seems.
Shifting so that she sits straighter, she lets out a course sigh. "Now my turn. Knowing that, why are you here, Liz?"
Tipping her head thoughtfully, Elisabeth glances toward the door to the commons. And then drops a sound field around herself and Aislinn so that no one else can hear what gets talked about. She doesn't bother to hide from Aislinn that she's done it — all the ambient sounds are just not there. No clanging or humming in the background.
"Richard's a thorn in a great many people's sides for a variety of reasons, some good, some bad." Her tone still holds amusement. "Did you know and support the end goal, Aislinn? Dropping that modified virus?" she asks quietly. She doesn't seem to have blame on her mind here. She's more curious about whether Aislinn was on board with the ultimate goal of eradicating the population.
When the sound field goes up, a thin smile curls across Aislinn's lips - not sinister, not amused, not appreciative, but certainly one that notes it's presence. "I cannot express to you how happy it would make me to not have to worry about the non-evolved anymore, Elisabeth. They have held me back my whole adult life." Her smile turns to a sneer as she learns back, expression darkening. "I have had countless promising papers, thesises, trials, potential life saving discoveries burned in front of me, because I was evolved!" She tries her best not to let her body language or posture betray her anger to the onlooking staff - she has an idea how this sound bubble works for sure
"Even trying to save lives when I was a nurse," a common thread between this Aislinn and the one Elisabeth knew, "I met people who would rather die than accept my help. They are worthless to us." Shifting her posture again, she looks down her nose at Elisabeth. "But I never signed on for gasing that I can remember. Subjugation, like they tried to do to us, maybe. But not elimination."
That Aislinn has had her work subverted, Elisabeth can understand the rage in that. It's the other part that just doesn't compute for her. She observes quietly, "For a woman who studied to be a nurse and wants to make the world a better place, I'd say you took a wrong turn at Albuquerque." Subjugation or elimination of people just doesn't seem the way to make anything better, to her mind.
She leans forward on her elbows and studies Aislinn's face. "Do you remember the overlay events people had a few years ago… and a few months ago? Dreaming of the future and of other worlds? I've seen what happens when that virus, or one just as bad, is loosed on the world. Those who did manage to survive in small clusters? They were basically the walking dead, they just hadn't figured out how to lay down and actually get it over with." The genuine horror of living it is visible in the way her expression shifts, though she averts her eyes slightly to focus on a spot over Aislinn's shoulder.
When they come back to Aislinn, there's a neutral expression back on her features. "You were doing a lot of amazing work in the greenhouse. I'm sorry that work wasn't important enough to change your course. You could have changed the world." There is sincere disappointment that it won't turn out like that. "You asked me why I was here? To see how committed you were to Adam's cause… to find out if it's worth trying to help you." Because lawyers and resources and stuff.
A soft scoff is Aislinn's initial response, looking off to the side. "Yeah. I remember th' overlays," is said with a hint of more than just a little disdain. "Unpleasant little things. Even th' best of 'em still had th' worst a' this place." She continues to stare off into the distance, away from Elisabeth. "I told you, I never would've agreed with a virus. I'm not going t'pretend that it didn't turn out I didn't know the whole of what was happening. What Monroe was up to."
Her head shakes slightly, gaze held otherwise steady to whatever aside she imagines off in the distant wall. "I was doing a lot of amazing work in Scotland too, Harrison. I was on the cusp of such greatness. Did it matter?" A snort, and she turns her gaze back to Elisabeth, head lazily canted to one side. "No. It was never given a chance to matter. I was denied money, resources, proper facilities to run tests! All because I'm a fucking evo!" She motions at the other woman dismissively. "An' sure, Raytech's different. I believe in Richard and the work we were doin', but how long will it be before we don't have a choice? It almost happened here once already."
She leans forward, peering into Liz's eyes. "Because you're right, I could've changed th' world."
Elisabeth doesn't dodge the look she's given, meeting Aislinn's eyes head-on. She's seen some really dark shit over the years. Including what happens when people as angry as Aislinn are tempted by the wrong people. Just like this. "You've got a long while to think about this. I hope you do. You. Still. Can." She moves to stand up, her gaze never leaving the agrokinetic's face. "Despite the fact that you spit on it… Richard tends to be pretty forgiving. And he believes that you can do exactly that, Aislinn. Who fucking cares what they think or want? Yeah, they treated you badly. And yeah, a lot of people will. Their opinions don't fucking matter. Raytech has the money, the resources, and the proper facilities. And this would not be the first fucking government we've toppled for being fucking assholes and trying to screw the lot of us just because the genetic lottery gave us something unique." She shrugs a bit. "Think about who and what you want to be when you get done in here, hmm? Because I'd really like to see the kind of world you could create with a free hand."
Although if or when that does happen, Elisabeth is smart enough to keep a far closer eye on the other woman. Fool me once and all.
All that posturing is met with a pointed snort as Aislinn leans backwards, arms folding across her chest. "Who th' fuck cares? I fucking care. Do you realise th' things that 'ave happened because they shitcanned my work?" The woman sucks in a breath, shaking her head. "No, y'probably don't."
There's just the smallest bit of deflation as her shoulders sink just enough to be noticeable. "It doesn't matter anyway," she responds very matter of factly, shrugging nonchalantly. "You an' Richard can do whatever ya want. I expect t' be here a very long time, or in a hole in Scotland Yard f'r a very short time. They're not going t' let me walk out of here for what happened t' Zimmerman." Aislinn's gaze angles downwards, fingers bending so she look at her nails like it's nothing at all. "And I have no plans to run away from what I've done."
There's a mild look of regret, though it's hard to tell if it's feigned or not. "She knew, y'know, Claudia. She woulda had us if it hadn't been f'r Alice Shaw. I was willin' t' walk away from the whole thing, but everyone had t'press on. Shame, really."
Looking off to the side, she sighs again. "You want so bad t'be a help, Elisabeth? Check in on Elspeth for me. No one's going t'look after her while I'm here."
There's a slow blink and Aislinn can see surprise. "Elspeth's alive?" It shouldn't necessarily be a surprise but for some reason… it hits Elisabeth a little harder than she would have expected if she'd even thought about it.
Pulling in a breath, she nods in a jerky movement. "I'll check on her and keep an eye," Liz promises quietly. Elspeth — or another version of the woman — was exceedingly kind to her when she had no reason to be. Aislinn was always prickly as hell, so this one being similar isn't a huge surprise. But she studies the agrokinetic.
Curious, she asks, "What do you mean, she almost had you?" Elisabeth has no reason to think Aislinn will expand on it, but she can't help asking.
"She knew why we were there," is a rather flippant response from Aislinn, again shrugging. "Who we were, who we worked for. She was a step ahead." Shaking her head, she chuckles quietly. "And two steps behind." An honest assessment of that situation if there ever was one, really.
But Elisabeth's reaction to Elspeth has caught her attention more than anything else. "Oh, familiar with 'er then, my sister? That's rather impressive, I have t' say." Despite those words, Aislinn's expression is flat. "Richard got a file on 'er t' go with mine? Or did he actually not go snoopin' int' my past?" She clearly expects that he would have. "Can't imagine why else ya'd think she's dead."
Staring at Elisabeth again, she chuckles bitterly and lets her gaze slip downwards. "Alive, if you can call it that," is a swerve in the conversation. Again, Aislinn looks down at her nails as if the conversation were boring her. "Comas don't really feel much like either, if you ask me." For something so potentially devastating, Aislinn seems to be able to relate this in stride. "Didn't have t' be that way either. You wanna know why I hate them? Well."
She spreads her hands. There it is.
Her jaw tightens as Elisabeth nods slightly. "I'll make sure she's taken care of," she tells Aislinn in a low voice. Now it makes all the sense in the world. And maybe, just maybe, there's a way to bring Aislinn back from this destructive path.
"It wasn't rhetorical," she says as she walks to the door. Looking back at Aislinn, Elisabeth shrugs. "Think about what you want to do. And if you still want to make a difference in the world when you get out? Come talk to us. I would really like to see you succeed and rub it in all their faces."
She taps twice on the door for the guard.
Aislinn sits at the table, starting to chuckle as Elisabeth rises and begins to walk away. "That's cute. The getting out part. Then again, Richard does make a habit of employing thieves and criminals, doesn't her?" A wicked smile crosses her face as she sits up, leaning forward.
"Tell you what," she stage whispers as Liz knocks on the door. "You do what I asked, an' I'll give it some thought. Fair trade after all, yeah?" Slowly she settles back into the chair, her smile widening as the door opens and Liz steps out. "Just remember, Harrison. There's nothing quite so poison as…"
Meanwhile
"…a promise."
A bright faced young woman stands in front of a customs desk at Floyd Bennet Airport, a passport laid out on the counter in front of her as she fishes around in a beige purse for something else. Dressed in a white sundress and a wide brimmed hat, she offers an apologetic look to the clerk behind the counter.
"Uh huh." The clerk sounds disinterested as he stamps something into her passport, waiting for her to produce another identification card. It's only when the woman pulls it out of her bag that he returns to giving her his full attention. "A promise seems like a heck of a reason to come all this way. How long are you staying?" The ID card is set back down on the counter, the clerk turning to a computer and beginning to enter information into it.
"I don't really know," the other woman admits sheepishly. "Hopefully not long, but promises are a blessing and a curse, not so easily resolved, you know? It might be a while."
The clerk seems disinterested in the response, sitting up at his computer. "If you're planning on staying in the Safe Zone for the duration of your time here, there'll be some additional paperwork that needs filling out." A printer behind him starts to come to life even as he picks up the ID card and passport. "Hope your, uh, promise is worth it."
The woman chuckles softly, smile curling up at the corners. "My sister has a saying," she remarks stiffly as she picks up the ID card and slips it back into her purse, followed by the passport. "There's nothing quite so poison as a promise," she offers as she looks at her own picture in the passport, smile growing.
