Participants:
| Scene Title | Scary Things |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Don't think about them… |
| Date | May 26, 2011 |
Back Alleys and Trains
The conversation with Liz lasted a good while, but it finally came to pass that Jaiden was on his wat to a bowling alley in Brooklyn via subway and public transport. Not the glamourous way that he was used to going, but it would work and it would do wonders for keeping people off of their trail if hey were being followed. Still, he was careful, checking out the place long before the requested meeting time, and even then, he did spend a little time actually bowling, as to not make people wonder why h was hanging around the place.s Still, as darkness falls, Jaiden finds himself in the alley, waiting for Remi, or a sign of her, paying close attention to anything that might be out of place or a trap..
Her mind is clamped down, tight, like a vice. Lots of people are in the bowling alley, and she's been in seclusion for a bit too long for her liking. Remi is sporting dark coppery-colored hair after changing it, with the glimmer of hope that it would make her mostly unrecognizable. No registration card, Remi has stuck to walking. Her leg isn't so bad any more, thankfully. That's partially why she stayed with Magnes for so long, if only just to heal.
Now, wearing a pair of somewhat loose men's jeans and a green t-shirt with the Green Lantern symbol on it, along with a black jacket. All of the clothes are a little large on her, meant for someone with a little more bulk than her. At least she's got comfortable shoes. She slips back into the alleyway, after a brief spotlight mind probe around the area to ensure she's not being followed, and to ensure that it's only Jaiden in the alley waiting for her.
Blue eyes search the darkness, one hand feeling along the wall. She knows where he is, but her eyes still need to adjust.
The alleyway that they chose had multiple points of entry and exit, including back into the bowling alley and a storm sewer that Jaiden had pulled the lid off of and covered with a bit of cardboard just in case everything went straight to hell and Remi's rescue was a trap. He's nervous, that's for certain, the man crouching in the shadow of a dumpster, relying on the light of the streetlamps at the back of the alley to illuminate the incoming Remi. And eventually, he does see her, or at least, someone who looks like her. Sure, the clothes aren't fashionable and the hair might be a different color, but the body - slim and lithe - is definitely Remi-shaped. He rises after a moment, his hand tucked into his jacket, and whistles softly, like a mockingbird on a summer's day.
Jaiden. It's me. Feet take sure steps through the alley, until she moves within reach of the man, ivory hand reaching out to touch his cheek. To make sure it's him, perhaps, even though she can feel his mind right there. There's no words to sully this moment right now. She missed him something fierce, and now he's right here.
Suddenly, she wraps her long arms around his shoulders, and raising to stand on her toes, she promptly plants her lips against his, hugging close to him. This will probably be her standard greeting for a while, with more than a few people. She missed Ygraine and Graeme, too. And Liz. Maybe she'll kiss Liz. That might be nice. She could easily pass it off as overwhelming joy.
After a moment, Remi pulls away, smiling to Jaiden and mumbling something in her native tongue to him. It doesn't take fluency to determine, however, that she's saying something akin to 'I missed you'.
That splash of color in his mind, the joy that she holds in that simple touching of minds, is all the proof that he needs that yes, this is the Remi he has known over the years. Yes, she has been beaten and broken and gone through things that not many have gone through, but she is here, and she is real.
He was about to speak when his words are stolen by a kiss, and it's with great reluctance that he breaks it. "Missed you too, Remi-girl." Jaiden's voice is soft, one hand moving up to brush through those coppery curls, chuckling as he feels them run through his fingers, ducking down to grab a small wand like you would see at an airport terminal to search for guns.
A quick wave of the wand over Remi to check for bugs and, when none are found, he tucks it back into his backpack and squeezes her in a hug. he doesn't speak, but thinks it. "Let's get out of here. To somewhere safe, before we talk."
Keeping close to Jaiden, the redhead smiles softly, returning the squeeze with a soft sigh. Then, she offers a slow nod toward him, gesturing for him to lead the way…though not before she steals one last kiss. It is so good to see you, mon amour…it has been far too long. That's the most that she offers, more than anything just happy to be back in his company, and away from Magnes, who is a sweetheart, but a little creepy.
He takes her hand in his, giving it a squeeze, shouldering a backpack, but not before passing her an evo registration card that he picked up from somewhere. If all goes well, Jane Curtin's card won't even need to be used this late at night, since it's close to curfew, but they'll avoid public transportation until they get away from here.
The conversation is shared through their minds as they walk through the darkned streets. "Are you okay? Would he not let you leave the apartment? It is what I gathered when we spoke….that you couldn't leave."
No, it's not that. Magnes…is actually a fairly nice, if…somewhat creepy guy, with a fascinating mind. I just…didn't feel safe to leave until now. My leg has still been healing, and I can just now walk on it without pain. She does carry a slight limp, but she's been working to get rid of that. Always the hard worker, Remi, even when injured.
The Registration card is taken, glanced over as she memorizes her new name, before she pockets it. There's a simple overnight bag draped over her shoulder, which is promptly handed to Jaiden. He can carry it, he's a big strong man! I was free to come and go as I pleased, I just…didn't. It's…they don't want me here. The Government doesn't. Because I didn't tell them what I can do. They didn't even give me a chance, they just…kicked me out.
"Well, you knew there would be a few questions if your power was outed for what it really was instead of what it was reported to be. And with you knowing Ygraine, Lizzie, and me…well…" Jaiden shrugs, taking the overnight bag and slinging it over his shoulder. "You were kind of doomed from the outset. It was safer for you in France, too. the Doppelganger screwed everything up for you and until we get all that cleaned up…well…you'll be our guest for a while."
"You will 'ear no disagreement from me. Marseille in ze spring and early summer…it was beautiful. I was out enjoying ze sunlight, until 'e drugged me and flew me to Canada. Zen 'e took me on a boat to 'ere." The petite woman frowns faintly, leaning against Jaiden a bit. "Ze ozer Magnes, 'e is ze one 'oo saved me from ze bad Magnes. It was…confusing." She shakes her head slowly.
"I was fine in Marseilles…père was mostly in Paris for 'is business, and it was fine. Quiet. I even 'ad Jules with me." A frown suddenly creases her features. "I wonder if père even misses me…" She squeezes Jaiden's hand, mostly to comfort herself.
"Oh come on now, Remi, you know he does. It's not every day that a daughter is kidnapped from the grounds of a heavily fortified estate in France, and I'd bet he's trying to find out where you are right now." Jaiden's hand is as strong as she remembers it, closing around her diminutive one, almost encasing it completely as they walk. "We can try and get a message to him - that you're okay, that you're alive, and the like, but unless you go back to France you'll have to keep yourself out of sight. Hanging out with us has a few rules now."
The woman shakes her head slowly. "'E didn't even come to see me when I came back. I 'ad to find 'im, and zen 'e kept ze conversation short. As always. And all he would think about was fucking Frere Jacques." She keeps her voice low, shaking her head slowly. "'E is scared of me. Scared of what I can do. I'm sure 'e is thrilled zat 'e doesn't 'ave to tiptoe around me." She frowns quietly.
"I can keep out of sight. I've been getting good at it." To emphasize, she pauses before they near an exit in the alley, watching a patrolman walk past, before continuing onward. Away from the patrol man, obviously.
The shadows are comforting, providing anonymity to the two who are probably on several 'most wanted' or 'capture on sight' watch lists scattered around the city. The problem with living in a police state is that so many people are wanted, it's often easy to be overlooked in the shuffle. Unless someone is specifically looking for you, of course, and then you have more problems than the average patrolman.
Jaiden leads Remi away from the patrolman, to a subway entrance where that leads down into the cool darkness of the subways. Their passes work, thankfully, allowing them entrance to the trains. They're heading east and south from the bowling alley. Their destination? The safehouse that Jaiden calls home.
"With me being on the run…." he says once they're seated in a relatively empty car. "My garage is pretty much a no-go now." It was raided, as far as I know, and I've not been back in more than a few months."
Remi quietly follows along with Jaiden, blue eyes flitting over the path that they take, though she can't see quite so well. She mostly stays close to Jaiden and keeps a mental ear out, just in case. It's easier to avoid people when you can hear what they're thinking. Once upon the train, she settles down, gripping the bar quietly as she peers around. Two months ago, she wouldn't have dreamed of setting foot in one of these. Disgusting. Filth everywhere. It's still pretty gross, but…she'll deal.
"I'm sure neither of my 'ouses are safe. I do not think zey know I am 'ere, and zat offers an advantage…'owever, I definitely need to keep low." She runs a hand through her darker hair. "Zis country is ridiculous."
Jaiden chuckles softly and nods, settling down in one of the injection-molded plastic seats that had seen the asses of thousands of New Yorkers over the past few months, resting his backpack between his feet, looking up at Remi hanging on the bar. She'd be 'hearing' Jaiden on edge, watching every station for movement that looked out of place, listening to announcements, listening to the car itself for the sound of brakes in places they shouldn't be. It's a risk that Jaiden came to get Remi, and although he's glad she's with him, he's also worried she may be a trap. It's why this train trip is not anywhere near direct to the safehouse, just in case someone is watching them or following.
"Yeah, it's pretty messed up, but it's getting to be like this all over the world, sadly enough. This place is the forefront of the changes, so we have to be here to fight it where it happens. I never thought I'd be a hero, but here I am, standing up for the little guy."
Blue eyes watch Jaiden for a long moment, a hurt expression on her face. That he doesn't trust her hurts, but then…she can't quite blame him, either. After all, he is on the run, just like her, and he doesn't have the advantage of mind-reading at his fingertips like she does. Instead of trying to convince him otherwise, however, she simply moves over to him, settling down in the seat next to him and snuggling up to him. A young couple. Hopefully they'll be overlooked.
She reaches up quietly, pressing her hand to his cheek. "You're a marvelous 'ero, Jaiden. My 'ero, at ze very least. You didn't 'ave to come and get me, but…you did." Fingers stroke along his cheek bone. Then, suddenly, her eyes widen a bit, her expression going blank. Like she's seeing something, without actually seeing it, since she's staring at a particular spot on the wall behind Jaiden.
That something just so happens to be the actual visualizations of Jaiden's thoughts.
This has never happened before…
He doesn't have any of those advantages that Remi has - he is only able to use what he can observe externally to determine what people are thinking - building on actions instead of things left unsaid. It would have made his job as an investigative reporter so much easier if he could read minds, but alas, he cannot. He smiles slightly and closes his hand around hers, a sturdy shoulder to lean against, one arm going around her shoulder as if they were a couple.
When her eyes go wide at something behind him, it takes a moment for him to notice, giving her a few uninterrupted moments of his thoughts. Jaiden turns to check before looking concerned. "Remi? You okay?"
His thoughts?
Peaceful, is what his thoughts are now. A beach, the moon hanging just above the horizon. A breeze, salt-scented and heady, blows over the beach where Jaiden sits quietly in a hammock, rocking back and forth, the only light from a small flickering camp fire and the stars glimmering overhead. The sound of waves crashing against the shore lulling the man into relaxation. For now, he's alone, but as he looks over his shoulder, the glimpse of someone - perhaps Remi, perhaps Ygraine, perhaps Elisabeth - someone, comes into view, but that snaps away when he notices her looking wide-eyed at him…
The flash is enough to stun her. A vivid imagining of a beach, the moon, the smell…she can almost feel the breeze on her skin. Her hand remains against his cheek, even as he glances back to look at the offensive dent in one of the metal pieces between the windows. She couldn't see that, really. Not while she was in his mind, seeing what he was imagining.
And it takes her a moment to recover, too. Once the imagining of the beach ends, she blinks a few times, slowly pulling her hand away and turning blue eyes to stare down at it in silence, an awed expression on her face. It's like she's slowly awakening from a trance, and for a moment it's as if she doesn't even notice Jaiden. However, after a moment, she jumps slightly, as if coming to reality.
"Who was it? Who…who was at the beach with you?" This is asked in the quietest of whispers, the woman still staring at her hand. "I just saw something…I've never seen anything before." This is asked in an even quieter tone, and Jaiden will have to strain to hear it over the hum of the train they ride.
The beach? Jaiden blinks, a bit confused. The contact - the vision Remi had of his thoughts - he was completely unaware of it. If she could manipulate it, or join in, he might have noticed, but her observing of his thoughts, instead of simply hearing them, is a new thing, and was unnoticed by the large Australian. "What beach? I mean…" His eyes widen now at her words - words he has to strain to hear. "You…you saw what I was imagining? You saw my daydream?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…I didn't even know I could do it." An apologetic look appears over Remi's features, leaning back in her seat for a moment with raised brows. She's surprised at herself; she didn't actually know that she could do that. "It was a daydream?" She blinks up at the man, brows raising slightly as her own surprise grows. "I saw it…I could almost smell ze breeze…"
All of her words are low, quiet and barely audible over the sound of their roundabout transportation.
The subway slows, then stops, the bell ringing three times to signal that it's a stop and if you want to get off, get off now before the doors close. Jaiden doesn't notice, however, sitting in the seat, looking down at Remi. He nods after a moment, glancing up at the hiss of a closing door, rocking against the train as it starts to move again.
If it were anyone but Jaiden that this happened to, there would probably be a bit of a riot, but since it was, and since he's got a bit of a relationship with Remi already, it's not nearly as bad. "No…it's okay." He pats her hand lightly. "It was a daydream and….well, it looks like you've got another trick in your arsenal that you didn't have before." It might have been why Future Varlane wanted to capture her, but Jaiden doesn't say that. "We should explore this a little further…"
The woman nods slowly, glancing down at her hand once more. "I…guess?" She frowns a bit. Now it's going to be more work. More learning to control this new aspect of her ability. Is it going to happen every time she touches someone? What if someone is thinking of some bad things, will it scare her? The beach was nice, but someone else could be thinking of vastly different things.
Remi glances up once more, brows furrowed as she peers at Jaiden. Then, she reaches out to touch his cheek once more, curious. Maybe she'll see who was at the beach with him. And when his thoughts do return to her mind, her eyes glaze over once more, before fluttering closed. Just don't think of scary things…
"I won't think of anything scary - just something pretty tame." Jaiden sits back in the seat and lets out a breath, thinking of something simple. Something that both of them would remember, but for Remi, a different view. Jaiden thinks of the first time he saw Remi dance in Paris, in the studio, surrounded by her retainers and hangers on, before she knew who he was or even what she could do.
Blue eyes glaze over once again, this time staring unfocused at Jaiden's face. Her expression softens slightly as she views his memory, her up on the stage and performing her heart out like she always has. That was back when she was still normal. When she was still the Prima Ballerina who everyone loved, instead of a nobody on a subway car.
After a moment, she pulls away, reaching a hand down to rub at her leg. Once they get to wherever it is that he's taking her, she'll have to practice. She can't lose that spark that she once had, and she's lost way too much of it already. She's quiet for a long moment, before suddenly nuzzling herself up against Jaiden's side, closing her eyes.
"I miss those days…"
The memory - that's what it is - is as clear as the day it happened. The smell of the polish on the floor, the sound of the leather toes of the shoes against the wooden barre as the women and men stretched and worked, and in the middle of the whole mess, Remi, dancing as effortlessly as one would breathe.
"It was a good memory." Jaiden offers softly, resting his hand on her knee, giving it a light squeeze, his arm going up and around her shoulder to give her another tight, reassuring squeeze. "We'll recapture them, somehow, Remi." Sometimes being anonymous is comforting…
Remi closes her eyes for a moment, snuggling up close to Jaiden and generally enjoying the closeness. To the French woman, anonymity is foreign. Surreal. There's no public recognition for her success now. There's no designer clothing setting her apart from the common person. There's dirty subway trains that smell of filth. There's hiding away from prying government eyes to avoid detection.
There's being stabbed in the femoral artery in public and getting kicked out of the country for it.
She frowns quietly, hugging Jaiden tightly. "I wish…I wish things were back the way zey were."
"I know you do. I do too. I wish that everything was sunshine and beauty now, but things have changed. We're working to make it better, but it's going to be hard." Jaiden strokes a hand over Remi's hair, tangling his fingers in it lightly as the subway draws to a stop. "It wasn't fair, but we'll have to deal with it. Mourning what was gone won't make today any better. But working to right it may make tomorrow more than it could have been." He stands, offering her a hand. "You're extrordinarey, Remi, in my eyes. What you can do is amazing, and your ability is magical too." She can read his mind to know he's telling the truth. "It'll be hard, but it'll all work out in the end. You'll be with me, and you know I won't let anything bad happen to you."
The dark-haired French woman blinks up at Jaiden, listening quietly to what he has to say. Optimism in the darkest places…that's definitely what she needs right now. Someone to help her keep a bright face on when everything seems so dark and miserable. His words are inspiring. They help. And they manage to draw a small smile from the willowy redhead, who nods slowly in response to his hopeful words.
After a moment, she reaches out and takes his hand, squeezing it once as she raises to her feet. She doesn't let go once she's standing, either. "I'm glad zat I 'ave you…it makes all of zis easier." She murmurs this softly, closing her eyes for a moment. Then, she takes a soft breath. "We should go, oui?"
"We should. The place we're going may not be much, but it's safe, warm, and home." Jaiden offers her a hand. "Come on. Let's go home."