Participants:
| Scene Title | Opposites Do Not Attract |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | …but sometimes they have to work together. |
| Date | Oct 11, 2009 |
Manhattan Municipal Building
There are temporary tents set up around the Municipal Building where food and coffee and water bottles are being distributed to rescue workers. Elisabeth Harrison is standing just outside one as dawn lightens the sky to gray, a cup of coffee in her hand and exhaustion creasing lines into her face. In the past 50+ hours, she has managed to catch perhaps 6 hours of sleep offsite before returning to put in more hours. The longer people are trapped, the less likely finding them is, and she couldn't find it in her conscience to just vanish and sleep. Not with her ability and its potential for helping. She walks slowly toward a police cruiser and leans on the hood with her coffee, watching workers climb and crawl over the wreckage under the huge floodlights. Not for the first time, she has a bleak expression on her face — It looks like the World Trade Center site. Liz herself is wearing a jumpsuit and covered in grime. Her hair is gray with dust, her face is streaked black except where the surgical mask has covered it.
Aude's put in her hours at the site too, same jumpsuit, same dust and grime in her frizzy hair and skin. The cruiser that Liz is leaning on already supports Aude parked on the hood and guzzling down a glass of water, hardhat beside her. Fucking evolveds bringing down buildings to 'prove a point'. She's of the particular mindset as others that it was Mr. WHite who did this and wants nothing more than to put two bullets dead center into his head.
So when Liz settles on the front of the car, her uncomfortableness could be attributed to the situation that they are both helping, instead of the proximity to one of scouts finest and a god damned fucking evo. Forget that she's using the ability for the better. Aude doesn't care.
"Harrison" Out comes a wet wipe from a pocket, a small travel pack of them so that the woman can wipe her face down. What? One has to keep up appearances.
Elisabeth looks up tiredly and offers a subdued smile of gratitude. "Thanks, Castalides." She reaches out to take the wet wipe, setting her coffee down on the hood behind her while she wipes her hands and face as best she can. Her blue eyes look back out over the mess. "You holding up?" As she recalls, Castalides was not on the force in 2001, but she can't be sure.
"Yup. Running on minimal sleep but, we're pulling folks out. God damn Norman White to hell and back for pulling this stunt" She takes out a wet wipe herself so that she can rub it all over her face and her hands. "Fucking shit this city is seeing these days, it's a wonder anyone is still living in it. I ran like thirteen people in last night for curfew violations. Two of them were unregistered Evolveds"
There's a grimace and Elisabeth admits, "I ever get that fucker in my sights, I'll blow his goddamn brains out without a qualm of conscience." She picks up her coffee again, still looking over the rubble. "Norman White and people like him are the reason people like me get shit on." She shakes her head. "I can bust my ass out here five times as hard as anyone else, and for some of them? It still won't make a goddamn bit of difference. I'll still get lumped in with people like White." Yeah, okay, there's a mild amount of hypocrisy in there, she has to acknowledge silently as she remembers Conrad. But there's a difference — combatants versus civilians. Or so she has to tell herself. Whatever. She sips her coffee. "We're still finding survivors. For now."
God. Whine whine whine. She's starting to think that Danko might have the right of it. Shoot them in the head before they can complain. Dead evo is the best Evo. Maybe. "I'll second that Harrison. Man needs a serious case of bullet-in-brain-itis" the grimey wetwipe is scrunched up and tossed into an adjacent trash can before she's back to sipping her water.
She ought to wince. Elisabeth is too far beyond tired to even wince at the imagery, the reminder of her own death or near-death. "Yeah," she finally says quietly. She finishes her coffee and tosses both it and slides off the hood. The cup and the wet wipe both go in the can. "Coming back up?" she asks, reaching into a zip-pocket on her leg for a new surgical mask. She's clearly heading right back into the rubble.
"Right behind you Harrison. I'm not stopping till i'm off shift" Aude's digging too for a new mask, sliding gloves back on after tossing the plastic bottle. "Hey, careful at the precinct. IA's poking and sniffing around. The guys an asshole, pretentious as hell. Little nerdy even. Seems like he needs a good lay and to get the stick up his ass surgically removed. Dunno what he's looking for, but he's asking questions and they're not too pretty"
It takes all that Liz has to keep her expression neutral as she pulls out a new set of gloves too, snapping them over her hands. There's a faint smirk at the 'needs a good lay' comment, and she checks briefly to be sure her hair is till secure in its ponytail. "Yeah?" she asks mildly. "What're they digging for this time?" Because really, IA is just a thorn in everyone's side all the time.
"Stuff, asking questions. Who's been where, done what, pointed questions about certain scout detectives" Okay, maybe that wasn't true, but who gave a flying fuck. Aude's gloves snap into place themselves too, pulling the mask down to cover the lower half of her nutty hue'd face. "Careful Harrison, watch your back. Don't want to see you get written up or even fired. Keep your nose clean"
There's a moment there where Liz looks startled. "Oh. Well… shit." She rolls her eyes and grins slightly. "Whatever. They want me, they can come at me." She's too damn tired to care, and she's too smart to freak out while someone's watching. Though the paranoia now ramps up in the back of her mind. Shit. She puts her mask back on and heads back out there. She's helped locate more bodies than she can count in the last two+ days and she doesn't have the luxury of worrying about what IA is up to right now. Too many people are still under this mess.
"Amen sister. Come on, lets go save more lives" Aude eyeballs Liz before she strides off towards the devestation. Three more hours then she's off, twelve hours off and then she's back on, beat duty with Patricks. But inside, there's a twinge of glee. Fucking evo. Make her run around and panic as to what IA could want with her.