Participants:
| Scene Title | Pizza Delivery |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Eve brings pizza and doom. |
| Date | October 17, 2011 |
It's the morning and the cold crisp air is the kind that finds it way beneath your clothes no matter how many layers you have on. The street is pretty deserted save for a few vagrants and among them a certain seer walks hurriedly in the direction of her destination. A simple black dress with a slit up the side is worn as well as leggings for the cold and a coat that hasn't seen much airtime since the days of PARIAH. Her scuffed combat boots thump on the pavement as she hurried along. A simple messenger bag on her shoulder. A ball of orange zips along the pavement behind Eve Mas, always just a few paces around. Baloo inspects the garbage on the street and a rat or five.
“Come come Baloo! Those rats probably have radiation poisoning or something.” Rings out the oracle’s voice and the tabby momentarily stops to cant her head up at her master. “Okay. Maybe just one.” And the seeress turns off the street going into an alley. Snaking her way through the alleyways she never looks up from the ground. The hood over her head with midnight dark curls peeking out. She soon makes her way to the safe house that keeps her friends away from their enemies. Instead of using the door she takes a moment to peer around the alleyway. Baloo having now caught up, her belly just a little fatter.
“I hope you aren't too fat now that you can't climb.” Is said as her light grey eyes take in the sight of the fire escape and she takes a leap grabbing the bottom rung and pulling it down as gently as she can. The cat meows and licks her paw. Obviously bored with the adventure now that she had satisfied her appetite. “One way forward, one way up. Maybe they can feel it.” Eve says mostly to herself but she may have hoped for Baloo to chime in with some sort of guidance alas she is content with sitting in the alley.
Sighing and with a shake of her head the dark haired woman picks the cat up and stuffs her inside her jacket much to Baloo’s annoyance. Eve climbs up the ladder quickly and moves onto the next level before crouching and petting the cats head. “Shush silly. She’ll give you milk.”
With a slight shake of her shoulders her gaze latches onto the window she's looking for. With a light smile she crawls over to the window and leans in close to peer inside eyes wide.
Tap tap tap
“Your pizza is here.”
There's a shadow that falls over the window at the tap against it, as if someone had just moved in front of the curtains on the other side to investigate the sound. It lingers there for a moment, and then bleeds down the window as if it were melting, darkness spilling across the fire escape in a wash that leaves the metal dark without touching the precognitive.
"Funny… we didn't order pizza…" Pizza…
It appears that Richard Cardinal has come home to roost.
It’s cold enough that the blonde audiokinetic is probably a minute or so behind Cardinal. She has to find an extra pair of socks to put on so she doesn’t freakin’ freeze to death! She doesn’t pad to the window, however, until the shadow’s whisper indicates that it’s not a threat. Only then does she walk to the window, pull aside the drape, and shove the old window upward. “Did you really bring pizza?” she asks, somewhat hopefully.
Backing up to let Eve climb in through the fire escape window, LIz pads back to the pallet and its sleeping bag, sitting cross-legged on top of it and setting the firearm that came out from under the pallet’s edge back where it lives. “It’s good to see you,” she tells the oracle with a small grin. “Come in, warm up. We’ll find some coffee.”
“What's the fun in knowing the pizza’s coming?” Eve snickers her eyes scrunching up as she tries to cover her mouth but Baloo is all in the way. Feeling around in her messenger bag she eventually procures two slightly mangled boxes of pizza meant to hold a single slice each. The cat meows at the shadow. Baloo remembers the shadow man. “Hello Traveler.” Is said to the perching shadow with a light grin. “Are you jetlagged?” The tabby leaps from inside Eve’s jacket right as the window is opened by the White Queen. Landing softly in front of the blonde, she stares up innocently. Don't you just wanna pet her?
At the same moment as the cat presents herself to the co lead of Endgame, the dark haired woman presents Elisabeth with the boxes. “Ahh my Queen.” Eve readily curtsies with a wide smile her eyes wide with excitement at her friend. “Yes you need brain food it's important. Saving the world makes you hungry.” Rambling a bit she climbs into the room and nods. “Tea if you don't mind. Baloo may nag you for milk. But he will pay by hunting your rats.” This is said very matter of factly.
An idea strikes the precog as she hops a bit and starts to dig in her pocket. “I have found the perfect present!” Huh?
"Funny." There's no echo that time, the joke falling slightly more flat.
The shadow spills into the room like a tide of dark across the floor, slithering up the wall before erupting into the form of Richard Cardinal, who steps along past the precognitive and closes the window again. Curtains drawn, he glances back over his shoulder with a wry expression, "If it's a watch I'm going to give you such a look, Eve. Also, I don't see any pizza, and now I'm disappointed. I apparently haven't had any pizza in six months. That's cruel and unusual punishment."
Elisabeth holds up the two slightly squashed single-slice boxes with a wry smile. “See? Pizza. Apparently she knew you were craving it, lover.” There is genuine amusement across her features — she’s gotten used to Eve just showing up whenever the mood strikes her. Although in truth, it worries her. What if Ezekiel tries to reacquire her? Still, keeping the precog in any one place has never really gone well for anyone.
“Eve,” Liz asks, “it’s good to see you. Are you just coming by to say hello? Or did you have something else going on?” Even if she did, whether the woman will remember what she came to say is another question altogether.
“Well I figure you had enough of the ticking clocks, the both of yous.” Taking on her father's accent real thick New Yorker with a twinkle in her eyes. The oracles pale hand slowly draws out pulling along something white.
“You’ll have more sleepless nights better to fuel you up now before there's no time.” At the word time Eve barks out a harsh laugh. “How funny is that? No time, there's time, whirlpool. Woo.” Flicking her finger around in a circle near her head her eyes rolling along with it tongue lolling out of her mouth. “I mean come onnnn What is the fun in knowing the pizza is coming?” And with that the woman grins and slides her hand forward dangling… a bonnet.
A crisp fresh bonnet along with a pair of mittens a beige color and black booties. The bundle hangs in the air and Eve wears a wide grin as she presents it to them. “One for each don’t you think?” Her wine colored lips haven't smiled this hard in forever. “The oven is freaking hot. And whether the world is ending or beginning. The beginning should be celebrated always. Right?”
At the sight of the boxes, Cardinal brightens a bit. "Oh, you are a treasure," he approves, though the promise of gifts has him regarding the precognitive with just a hint of wariness. You never know what Eve might be pulling out as a gift. A sketch of your horrible death? A fingerpainting of a future that must be stopped. A Cinnabon<tm>?
It takes him a minute to figure out just what's being held out, then, brow furrowing — and then he lets out a bark of laughter, one hand raising to rub against the nape of his neck. "Of course you'd know, wouldn't you? Christ…"
No time? There’s never time… and time always keeps moving. Elisabeth has no need to reply to that; she simply holds the boxes up on her hand until Richard takes them. Genuine laughter lights her features, which is a nice shift from basically the rest of life right now. The only other time she looks that relaxed is holding the twins. And she laughs outright at the bonnet. “Oh, that’s cute!”
Wrapping her arms about her knees while she remains sitting on the sleeping bag, she tilts her head and pets the kitty who seems content to twine about her. “Pizza delivery … well, it’s one of the better gifts you’ve come bearing, my dear,” she teases the precog lightly. “Are you doing all right?”
No Cinnabon's here but next time if everyone behaves. But lo and behold! The holder of baby items continues to hold them out towards the two. And it doesn't seem like she's gonna stop holding the bundle out until one of them takes it. Both of them. Whatever but someone is going too. Her eyes flick from one then to the other. “Births are like one of the only things that don't make me queasy that I see. Well there is the blood.. and the poop and the spilt-” Eve stops herself and shakes her head eyes closed. “Wowza if you stay stuck on that tangent you're bound to get dropped.”
“I'm as right as rain. The end of the world is coming as always and I still haven't found my favorite gun. It's stashed. Ugh all of it stashed. It's needed but goddamnit I can't excavate the box of doom and run around delivering messages that get thrown in fire. There are necessary steps one must take. If you falter then who knows what happens. Maybe Jenga falls. Maybe it's upright. Could you tell the difference?” Each word she puts emphasis on by stomping her foot. Baloo hisses at Eve for embarrassing her in public.
The dark haired seer catches herself after a moment and chuckles at herself. “Sorry sometimes I get aggro when I don’t finish my to do list. Then you have another set of tasks on a day that is already spoken for. I mean it's enough to make even the sanest old bastard Koo-Koo. I should carry a watch. Keep myself in line.” The last line is said sarcastically. Her free hand flicks to her messenger bag and the hint of pages can be seen in the now open bag.
"You need to switch to decaf," is Cardinal's opinion as he reaches out to accept the bundle, looking down at the bonnet-and-booties collection with an oddly gentle smile for a moment — then a glance up to her, his expression wry, "You're starting to sound like Tamara."
The bundle's set down on a table, and he asks over, "Who's been burning your messages?"
Elisabeth can’t help the giggle that escapes her — it’s a rare sound. But Richard telling someone else they need decaf? Yeah. That definitely does it. She watches Richard handle the baby stuff with a small smile, amused at the expression that crosses his face. She hasn’t seen him with that look except when it comes to that topic. “We’ll make sure she gets it,” she tells Eve, though Harmony’s on her way to the Adirondacks by now.
Tilting her head, a frown does furrow her brows together as the news that someone is burning Eve’s messages pops up. Cardinal asks the question so that she doesn’t have to, so she simply waits for the answer. And raids one of the pizza boxes that Eve brought — Richard can have most of it, but she wants a bite.
“And you need to buck up. Cuz this ride. Is gonna be like none we have ever seen before.” Her hand goes out in the circle as she elongates the last syllable of ‘before’. “Tamara?” Eve’s eyes close and she tilts her head. She doesn't know a Tamara. “Is she.. my friend?” Color rushes to her face as she smiles warmly. “Why haven't you introduced us? I know all my friends jeez.”
The seer reaches into her messenger bag and produces a multitude of sketches. They aren't the most clean thanks for pizza grease but the images are all crystal clear, or as clear as Eve’s visions can get. The pages begin to flutter to the floor and she keeps pulling them. “Don't let your children go to the island. It reeks of death no matter how hard you spin the wheel. The young falcon.. she's not willing to listen. Eileen is afraid of the ghosts of her past? The Ferry might go on…” she bites the inside of her cheek.
The sketches are of a multitude of things. The eerie death that had settled over Pollepel Island dominates many of the pages. Some of them having to be pieced together to make a full picture. The faces of various people they may or may not know gaze up at the trio from the floor. Gabriel, Eileen.. Gillian.. the doctors in the lab, Luis and Zimmerman among them. Nathan dead. Peter. Sea of bones, clouds of ash. The dark door at the end of the crumbling corridor looms ominously on the page.
“All these things.”
Her hand shakes as the last pages fall and she scrambled to arrange them in some order. The pages that only seem to be black lines scribbled on the pages seems to make something. A clock. Maybe it's another gift. The clock has many cracks and is missing gears but it still seems to be turning. Inside of the clock are the faces of multiple friends and foes. Among them the face of Cardinal’s newfound sister Kaylee. Shadows thick among them all. “There's an infection. And it might already be here.”
Eve looks exhausted as she sits on her heels and a tear falls out of the corner of her eye. “Sorry to ruin your good news. It's not like death and destruction is new but I wish I saw.. more births.”
As the pages start to flutter to the floor, Cardinal all but lunges down to catch them — down on one knee as he gathers them up, and then looks over as the black lines are organized into the shape of a clock. Ironic, that he was joking about a watch when she first arrived.
"…I knew the island was a bad idea," he mutters, slanting Elisabeth a look that says I told you so without actually speaking it aloud, looking back to the papers, "They never should've let the Remnant gain control. Damn it."
He reaches out, then, fingers brushing over the picture of Kaylee sketched in the broken clock. "It's okay," he says quietly, "Not like you write the future. You just predict it. An infection… what sort of infection?"
That one, Elisabeth can answer. “The H5N10 evo flu has made the jump to non-Evos,” she reminds him quietly. It happened after he left, but she did tell him that Calvin had loosed the virus. To his told-you-so look she merely wrinkles her nose. “I wouldn’t go to the island anyway — Beach Street.” Too many Ferry members and innocents already killed because of her. She still won’t chance it. Besides… a dream scene showed them being bombed in the not-so-distant future. “I’m reasonably sure that given what we know of what was supposed to happen, they’re making plans to get people out.”
There’s a long sigh as Elisabeth contemplates the images that Eve has brought with her. Fear is a powerful thing, and the blonde is not immune anymore than anyone else. “It doesn’t matter what we think of the Remnant. They’re in charge of the Ferry right now, and the Ferry members are choosing their own leadership. They are our only hope of having enough people for this raid, Richard. Before they made their approach to me at the beginning of October? I was getting ready to pack our own people out of here. We don’t have enough people to fight alone. Together, we have a chance.”
Gathering the tabby cat into her arms Eve places her back against the wall staring down at the images. “It's hard to know. Which is averted and which is just re-routed. Down a sneakier path that nobody can see until too late.” Long legs splayed out in front of her she caresses the cat as she whispers into her ear. “Don't be afraid. There are so many more rats when we’re all gone. You can buffet everyday.”
“Mommy and Daddy must work with the dark ones. Formerly dark? Were they ever dark I thought they were just stupid.” You have to be if you're trying to eradicate your own species. That's for the Vanguard members that were/are Evolved.
“Have you heard from anyone up there? I haven't seen Simon in so long. I can't ever see up there. It's all fuzzy and dark.” She looks at Cardinal. “You don't want me to see there.” She sighs. “What if we just all stopped.”
"If that was an option, don't you think Edward would've seen it?" It's regretful, the admission, Cardinal's head shaking ever so slightly at her words. The papers are gathered up, and he pushes himself up to his feet, stepping over to lay them out on the table. "And no, no I haven't. Probably for the best, since we're all going to be shooting at each other soon…"
A sidelong glance over to Liz, "We can only hit them if we're all still alive for it. Hopefully the raids go down before whatever happens on the island." His fingers brush the sketched lines on the papers before him, and he looks down at them, "Whatever it is, it doesn't look good."
God knows, Elisabeth would love it if just stopping would change anything. It could, she supposes… they could let Ezekiel destroy it all and just deal with the fallout. “I wondered,” she admits quietly, “after Arthur Petrelli, whether we should have just left things alone. Done what we could with what we knew while letting events play out. Just… mitigating the worst of it.” Pulling in a slow breath, she looks up. Her expression is haunted. “Because of what we did, Humanis First gained their foothold. This is our fault.”
She climbs to her feet, setting the pizza she’d thought she would eat back in the box and closing it. Her appetite is clearly gone, the subaudible hum riffling people’s hair as she crosses her arms and walks to look at the images. “This is our fault,” she whispers. “And it’s up to us to stop it.”
“Being of the few who have been so unlucky to see this unraveling piece of yarn from its start..” Memories of the raid down to Level 5 to do God knows what Eve can't even remember what made them think that was a solid idea. It has always felt like a catalyst to the events they are living now.
As the woman with a tight smile walks up from her back being against the wall. Her cat falls to the floor and goes to explore the rest of the building. Eve comes to stand next to Liz and Cardinal. Searching her sketches as she always does. Seeing the answers. Knowing the risks. Wanting the reward. “When isn't shit our fault.” A slight shake of her head and she scoffs a boot on the floor one hand going to rest on the table that holds the drawings. “Always wanting our cake and wanting to eat it too.”
Have they eaten enough?