Participants:
| Scene Title | Revelations 9:6 |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. |
| Date | April 17, 2018 |
The Yamagato Industries corporate headquarters in New York is the single most advanced building in the United States. But above the white-walled and pristine halls of the lower floors, the executive levels are coded with black and gold aesthetics. The floors are lined with black marble with gold veins, the walls are papered with a matte floral print with a hush of gold leaf antiqued over its textured surface.
Frosted glass gloves that shed warm light are suspended from the ceiling by black cords, and the mountain symbol of the Yamagato corporation is stamped above each tall doorway. The sound of heels on stone echoes down the halls, past security desks, to the inner offices of Yamagato’s highest level executives.
Barbara Zimmerman is escorted by Yamagato security chief Eizen Erizawa. “President Egami is very interested to meet you to discuss some of the energy initiatives but…” his brows furrow. “This is a different matter, apparently.” It's an ominous portent to meeting the second in command of one of the largest corporations in the world.
More ominous is the metal bracelet around Barbara’s wrist, glittering with a single blinking blue light. A security precaution according to Eizen, so that the building's automated security doesn't detect Barbara as a threat. It seems unoccupied enough, as all dangerous things are.
Yamagato Building
Executive Floor
When they reach the black glass doors of President Egami’s office, and opens one side of the doors and motions for Barbara to head inside. Beyond the doors, Egami’s office rests in the building’s southwest corner, with one corner nothing by gradually sloping walls of glass clearly viewing the ocean and the dimly lit ruin of Liberty Island.
The office is cathedralesque in height, with tapered black columns trimmed in gold rising to the ceiling. Ferns and other potted plants are spaced around the room along with six foot high decorative trees. A single black slab desk rests beside the windows, behind which stands an aged Japanese man with a dour demeanor. At his side, sitting on the corner of the desk, a dark-haired woman in a pin-striped burgundy suit with a red crimson vest beneath.
“Miss Zimmerman,” President Egami says, turning his back to the window. “I'm certain you know the chairman of the Fellowship,” Egami motions to the woman on his desk, “Kam Nisatta.” Behind Barbara, the doors to Kin Egami’s office slowly closes with a click.
"Of course." A different matter. It seems like it always is. Despite the terse response, Barbara offers Eizen a smile and a nod in response. "Seeing what Yamagato has in store for their corner of the Safe Zone, and New York as a whole, is of course keenly important to me. Already seeing the innovations you have pioneered and the strides made in restoring Yamagato Park have left me impressed."
She's quiet until she reaches the doors to Egami's office, adjusting the collar of her white button shirt, making sure her blazer is comfortable, red hair straight, and in general trying her best to look as presentable as possible - which, in all fairness, she thinks she already does a good job of.
Stepping, she takes in the sight of the expansive room with a deep breath, letting her eyes wander for a moment before they land on Egami and - to her surprise - Kam. Kam's choice of seat is so noted by Barbara and filed away as she lets her smile brighten, quickly closing the distance between the door and the desk.
"President Egami, Ms. Nisatta." She hates making the assumption. Each greeting is offered with an incline of her head towards each respective recipient, hands clasping behind her as she stands a few feet ahead of the President's desk. "It is a pleasure to speak with you both," even if she's unsure what the topic will be. It'll be fine, though.
President Egami motions to Kam, who slides off of the desk to stand near Barbara. “This… is a sensitive matter that we need to discuss, and we’re approaching you not as the representative of the department of energy, but as a former member of the Ferryman council and a voice within the Deveaux Society.”
Kam slips around behind Barbara and begins walking away from the conversation across the office. President Egami rests one hand on the back of his chair and looks down to the desktop and then back up to Barbara.
“I know this is a sensitive topic, but you were a survivor of the Pollepel Island massacre, weren't you?” Kin’s brows furrow, and behind him the rain coming down outside casts many-branching streams down the dark glass.
The mention of the Ferry puts Barbara a bit on edge, though she doesn't particularly show it - her history with the Ferry isn't a secret, after all, and more than a few people had questioned her decision to work for the government in the wake of the Civil War. At least, at first. She offers a slow nod in response to Egami, watching Kam as she slips away.
The mention of Pollepel darkens her expression, though she remains respectful. "Yes, sir" she replies after a moment of consideration. Standing a bit straighter, she nods again. "I was there. Whatever you've heard about it, I'm sure the majority of it is true." As unfortunate as that may be.
Massacre was a word only used by most in modern retrospect. It a word that sits with her oddly - the truth, but not the presentation she grew familiar with in the wake of it. She is curious about what any f this has to do with Yamagato. For now, though, she won't press her curiosity.
Kin Egami pulls out his chair and settles down into the seat. The leather creaks under his weight and it feels as though Kin creaks a bit as well. Reaching aside, he pulls a humidor closer and opens the top to remove a cigar. “Some time ago, a former member of the Ferrymen came into Yamagato Park seeking… I suppose asylum.”
From inside of his suit jacket, Kin removes a cigar cutter and snips off the end, then sets it down on the desk. “They have been under our protection since, though I fear I do not fully comprehend the nature of their concerns. That said, we've come to a mutually agreeable relationship with one-another…”
Kin considers the freshly cut cigar and politely offers it up to Barbara to see if she's interested in joining him for a smoke.
With a politely raised hand, Barbara waves off the cigar; she's never been much of a smoker of any kind. "No thank you," the simple response given, "but thank you." The mention of a Ferry refugee raises an eyebrow - now she understands the measures behind this meeting, and why it was her that was asked for.
She purses her lips, nodding a shallow nod again. "I see." A thoughtful look crosses her, though she never takes her eyes off of Egami. "In that case, I understand and appreciate that you brought this to my attention." A weary sigh, practiced but with a hint genuine feeling behind it, escapes from her. "The truth is, we lost track of many people during and after the events of Pollepel Island."
She closes her eyes for a long moment. "As… former Ferry, I thank you the hospitality you have shown whomever it is that you have taken in. It's an appreciable show of faith." Not in her, but in the idea. For what she used to do.
The sound of a door opening behind Barbara reminds her that Chairman Nisatta had gone off somewhere else in the spacious office. “For the time being we’re asking for your personal discretion in this matter at the request of our asylum-seeking guest…” Egami smiles faintly, retrieving a lighter from his pocket and lighting up his cigar. “I'm sure you’ll understand.”
Heels click on the floor, and Kam Nisatta returns from the far side of the President’s office with a measured and steady stride. But in the office’s dim lights she can tell Kam isn't alone. There's someone behind her
The wind picks up outside, battering the windows
with rain.
As the figure follows Kam into the room, light rolls
off bare shoulders and the deep, swooping neckline of the black dress that the stranger wears.
If they are a stranger. Barbara can’t be entirely sure based on their gloomy style of dress or the earrings winking at her from beneath the tousled cascade of hair as dark as the lingering shadows that obscure her face. Sensible heels make a sound like flinty pieces of stone cracking together. Their eyes, too, possess a strange hardness offset by a painted mouth, milk-pale skin, and feathery lashes.
Floral perfume hangs in the air and a smell like stale tobacco smoke clinging stubbornly to freshly washed skin. It's the scent that tips off the former Ferrymen council member rather than the voice.
Some senses are stronger associated with memory than others. “Hello, Barbara,” the not-stranger says, tone clipped, cool, British.
The ghost of Eileen Ruskin emerges fully into the light and offers Kin a rueful smile. “I’ll partake if she won’t.”
"Of course," Barbara repeats, with the same respectful dip of her head. She isn't sure what to except - there were Council members to her knowledge unaccounted for, numerous Ferrymen and women both before, during, and after Pollepel who has never resurfaced and were long thought dead. And it could also be a pretender, someone looking to use Ferry ties to their advantage, someone like Odessa Price or Susan Ball. "You have my utmost confidence that this will remain within this room until desired otherwise."
Thus, with her expectations tempered, Barbara is slow to turn around when she years Kam making her return, another person with her. But for Barbara, there are immediately what one might normally consider warning signs - instead, they are echoes of something more familiar.
Eyes narrow slight, head canting just the slightest bit to the side. That the smell of the perfume, the clinging grasp of of something like cigarette smoke that a death grip on an ashtray. It takes a moment as the other comes fully into view, and at first Barbara is disbelieving.
It the voice, one not heard in many years, that seals it for her.
"W-what-" Barbara does a lot to keep a cool, collected facade, but for a moment, at the sight of Eileen Ruskin, it falls away for just the barest of moments. At look at this woman who resembles the former councilwoman - and someone Barbara considered a friend - and then she turns back to Egami.
"I know you aren't in the business of jokes, President Egami, but-" A series of much harsher words cycles through her mind, rapid fire before she finally settles on something more more gentle than her initial ones, looking back to… Eileen?
"You know this can't be possible." Can it? Because that memory of Pollepel is not one easily forgotten.
Slipping by Eileen as she makes her way to Barbara’s side, Kam gently rests a hand on the redhead’s shoulder and tilts her head to the side, offering the former Ferryman councilor a pleasant look.
“I've learned something in my life, Ms. Zimmerman, that may be of great truth here.” Kam looks over at Eileen. “We live in an age of miracles…”
“Where anything is possible.”