Participants:
| Scene Title | The Host |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Eve Mas seeks an audience with Kam Nisatta. |
| Date | October 24, 2018 |
Pale blue lights and reds shine in the alleyway, smoke rising from grated sewer covers. The sound of people eating, drinking and celebrating has taken over Yamagato again this evening. The artificial light no matter how festive and innovative, it's nothing compared to the shimmering lights hanging in the sky, the moon shines brightly. The drip of water in a small puddle echoes down the space and the shadows shift as a figure moves finally, waking from a nap.
Sitting on the ground, head tilted back and snoring softly it's an abrupt change when the woman flails out and yelps clutching at her chest with wide brown eyes and a open mouth, oh whew. She's alive. Patting herself down, Eve takes a moment to gather her thoughts. Why was she here? She had gotten sleepy but she was going to…
Kam.
"Oh yes yes. Ok I'm up, I'm up!" Looking out at the night sky, she pauses as eyelids flutter and her head rolls before she's scooting herself up the wall to a standing position. Slapping her cheeks softly she looks at the wall in front of her and then turns her head to peek out of the alleyway. She was near, she just knew it. Squinting her eyes and furrowing her brow, the pale woman tries to call forth her gift. "Give me a sign.. where's the host?" She whispers softly to herself and the world around her.
The Rolling Stones have a saying that’s appropriate here. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you get what you need.
Screams erupt from the ground, steam from a sewer grate turns into smoke. Kam Nissata stands before Eve, one arm outstretched and eyes shock-wide. There is a bullet hole in her forehead, blood running down her face, chin, and neck. She has one hand outstretched, holding a rusted copper pyramid out to the seer.
Eve’s head throbs and her vision swims, disorientation hits her like a truck, and her difficult schedule and taxing strain of willingly calling forth hallucinations has her slouching against one wall of the alley, a hand reflexively drawn to her head at the sensation of sharp pain in her temple. She blinks, and it seems to change the hallucination like a change in a slideshow.
Sibyl is sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed in the alleyway, both hands covered in blood, playing with wooden blocks that take the shape of a city. Her bloodied handprints are all over the wooden pieces, and with one bored motion she knocks the entire city.
Eve’s throat is dry, vertigo makes the world spin, and each time she opens and closes her eyes there’s another vivid hallucination stalking her senses. In the bat of her lashes Sibyl is gone.
Three identical blonde women stand in the alley facing Eve: Niki, Barbara, and Tracy. All three are dressed in white linen robes with thin hoods, each stare at Eve with glowing gold eyes. “We are very disappointed in you,” they say in unison. Quickly, they’re replaced by three identical brunette women and one with vibrant pink hair. Their eyes, too, are gold. Then they become Chess, who is likewise dressed in white with eyes of gold.
“Eve.” They all ask demandingly. “What have you done?”
Like waking up from a nightmare, Eve feels a rush of adrenaline in her system and the vision comes to a rapid conclusion. The vertigo ends, and Eve is… mostly certain of the reality of her surroundings.
Mostly.
The hallucinations take her and Eve staggers against the wall, jet black eyes wide as she tried to backup further. "I didn't do anything!!" She shouts to the apparitions and just as soon as they appear they are all gone along with the sense of Vertigo though the seer doesn't stop clinging to the wall, "Crone?" Sibyl.. why.. the pyramid. As her eyes fade back to that brown shade she rubs her forehead, feeling the intense headache that has now settled on her. It worked. This was very different than inducing visions, this felt.. stranger. The toll it took makes her vision swim again before it resettles and she holds there.
Niki… and her sisters. Boomer and her sisters. The Entity. "Made in… its image. Sisterhood."
The bloodied face of Kam sticks in her mind as she starts forward out of the alley, no. "No, not like this." The wild woman shakily tucks a strand of midnight hair behind her ear as she wraps her midsection with a long, pale arm.
She had to find Kam. She was in danger.
The whispers and the echoes curl behind her perception but Eve doesn't listen instead she looks down to her phone and sends a text.
» Moni. Saw something Level 5 bad.. I'm peachy tho! My head hurts a lot owwwww. I'm staying over tonight okay? Okay! Can we have sake?
Priorities.
//The Yamagato Building
One Hour Later
“I'm sorry, Miss Mas, but President Nisatta is unavailable. If you'd like to make an appointment I can give you her assistant’s number.”
The lobby of the Yamagato Building is a sprawling, palatial thing. The white walls and pale floor give it a sense of serene brightness at all hours of the day. But for the security guard behind the front desk for the night shift, there is only patience rather than serenity. “But public hours are over, so I'm going to have to ask you to leave.” He grimaces, “You can always come back tomorrow, but…”
The security guard, Niko judging by his nametag, slouches back into his chair. “I hope you enjoyed the Matsuri, regardless.”
The pounding headache throbs and Eve rubs her temple gently as she nods, "Yes yes.. Niko is it. Lovely name, I hate to be a dramatic witch but it just seems to be in my genes." The effects of her straining herself and flexing the new branches of her ability were heavy upon her but the image of Kam sticks in her mind and she flinches looking over her shoulder, "Just hold on, don't die on me yet."
Snapping out of it Eve leans forward and looks Niko directly in the eye.
"There is a threat against the President's life I must speak with her immediately, this is NOT a metaphor! I'm talking whoo whoo one trip down to the Underworld! Call her up!"
Brow twitching, Nico smiles the thinnest of nervous smiles and gently depresses a panic button under the desk. As he leans back into his chair, Nico grimaces and swallows his anxiety and straightens his necktie that is tucked into his vest and looks toward one of the elevators and back to Eve. “Ah, yes… alright, I ah…” There’s a twitch of a smile at the corner of his mouth, one born entirely of nervousness. “One moment.”
Feigning to follow her orders, Nico swivels to his computer screen and clicks a few buttons on the keyboard. “I’m calling up to her office.” His eyes dart around the screen, nervously flick back to Eve, then back to the screen again.
She knows that nervous smile and Eve matches it with her own dazzling smile, radiating confidence. "Thank you so much, with your recent explosions I figured you'd wanna know that someone was coming to shoot Kam in the hea" The pale woman's eyes bugle unexpectedly and she falls forward onto the desk, flailing as she reaches for Nico and cries out, "Ughhh ah.. help!" Legs go out underneath her and she's full body on the desk and clinging to the man. Eyelids flutter as her whole body shakes like she's having.. "Brai-.. seizu" choking as eyes grow wide and she stares into Nico's eyes with great intensity.
Nico scrambles back out of his chair when Eve grabs a hold of him. Her fingers find purchase in his shirt and jacket, around his tie, and he twists and tugs to get out from her grip. Somewhere along the way, Eve’s fingers snag around Nico’s keycard ID on an elastic lanyard clipped to his belt. She palms the ID as Nico finally pulls free and paws at his chest and shoulders, making sure she didn’t sink claws into him or something else unexpected. When he realizes he’s whole and intact, he feels the missing badge from his waist, eyes growing wide. “Excuse me,” Nico yelps, looking to Eve’s hand clasped around the card. “Excuse you!”
There’s a ding at the back of the room as one of the elevators opens, revealing a tall and thin man in a black suit with long, dark hair and a well-manicured beard. He looks at Nico, then spots Eve flopping around on the desk and slowly raises one brow and tilts his head to the side.
"Raraarara" Eve flops and flails around while inside she squees from grabbing the card successfully, not so successful in grabbing the card the most discreetly but. With a jolt the pale woman falls to the ground and rolls over, head lolling to the side for a brief moment before she is shakily getting up. "I.. I have seizures they Oh you!" Eve's eye catches the tall man and she waves, "I had an episode but I'm feeling better, just some water.." maybe a joint…
"I was trying to let your.." she looks over sheepishly to the guard whose badge she has in the palm of her hands. "Must have grabbed this by mistake trying to gain some support my apologies." Whoopsie. Eve slides the badge over on the surface of the desk with a shaky hand, eyes downcast in embarrassment of her "condition" that Yamagato if they looked up Eve's records might find..
"You have to tell Kam it's an emergency. It's literally life or death. Not a metaphor." Eyes look over towards the tall man, pleading. Breathlessly, "Her life is in danger." Eve repeats. Someone has to listen to her, she's serious!
Eizen Erizawa’s expression is the picture of stoicism in the face of Eve’s tempestuous flailing. His dark eyes betray neither belief nor disbelief. just certainty as he looks to Nico and waves one hand dismissively. Nico understands the simple motion, and taps something under the desk again. As Eizen looks at Eve, there’s a severe tension in his jaws, and he takes her by the bicep in a way Eve has been manhandled for much of her life; a familiar come with me young lady grab of disciplinarians everywhere.
“This way.” Eizen says through his teeth, practically dragging Eve across the lobby and through a double set of wood-grain patterned ground floor doors. “You’re lucky,” Eizen begins with a sharp and frustrated tone, “that I don’t get much sleep lately, otherwise I would’ve had to fish you out of a detention cell in the morning.” He stops in the middle of the hall, roughly letting Eve go and looming over her with a disapproving stare.
“What,” Eizen flicks the words at her, “are you going on about?”
"You're quite the tall man has anyone ever told you tha— " As she is pulled through the double doors, "I don't sleep much either, not truly." Fidgeting before she goes stock still and lays a hand to her chest a look around the hall, it was so different nobody being around. Grabbing onto the bicep that was just grasped by the taller man, "Pretty strong too, I wonder if Moni knows.." stopping herself before she gets one of her best friends in trouble trying to hook her up with her superior, ever the matchmaker Eve hasn't forgotten why is she here.
"I'm sorry I didn't want to drop in, just planned on seeing the pretty lights and sleeping on Moni's floor." Not that Monica wouldn't offer her a more comfortable set up… " I saw something, it has to do with she and I's last meeting, points of gold and hosts, she has it in her hands but that's not all she has, she's dead. Someone is coming for her. Please, I just need a few moments." Brown irises shake and Eve gently rubs her forehead, the headache full on there and throbbing. "I would ignore it but, you really can't ever know which echoes are true and which aren't coming."
Giving her best sincere and desperate expression Eve leans forward into his loom coming under his shadow.
“President Nisatta isn’t seeing anyone right now,” Eizen says firmly. “You need to go, Miss Mas. But if there’s a pressing security concern, you have my attention for the moment, and as the head of security I can assure you I will look into every threat seriously.” Eizen gently lets go of her arm, in that tentative way that implies don’t make me do that again.
“Otherwise, I’m going to need to have you escorted out of the park.” Eizen’s brows raise, slowly. “Which will it be?”
Weighing her options, Eve looks down at the floor and then up to the ceiling. The throb at the back of her head but still she squints again, one more try.. Where are you Kam? "You aren't hearing me. A bullet. To your President's brainpan," her tone insistent, "A bullet to the brainpan. The Praxis sisters." She repeats more feverishly as she leans forward and winces at the pain in her head. Show me.. come echoes please. Eve silently begs as she begins to back away from Ezien. "Do you know she's the Host?"
Her back presses against the door as she finds the handle with her hand, "They're coming and I tried to tell you." It's frustrating but the expression on her face stays "manic". Eve always tries to tell them, tell the story but it's not always wanted.
“I'm going to need more from you than cryptic gibberish. What “sisters”?” Eizen raises one brow. “How many of them are there? Where are they? How is it that you know about their actions? What else do you know about them?” Specifics.
“I can shout panicked paranoia after the bombing, but unless you have information we can use, the fact that we’re in danger is already well established. But if you have dates, names, addresses… that's real. That's tangible. That saves lives rather than just showing that you know something vague.” For all that Eizen is patient, he's also frustrated.
"The Praxis Sisters," as if Eizen should know this already. "Circling your president, circling this place. Circling my circle as well." It's as clear as Eve is getting at the moment but she tries further, eyelids flutter. She needs clarity, leaning mentally on the dream that steadied her in the Benchmark. Steady steady Crazy Betty.
"The clones. The Chinese genetic experiment that was an utter success. It's always a good thing.. when more of us Gifted arrive. Science Fairies rather proud of themselves I suspect, do you have any here?" Eyebrows raise a tick. A curious question. Her voice is clear and her gaze steady as she reclaims her breath, "Dark haired, one pink. Three of them," Four if she counted Alix. "I know about them the same way I know about everything Handsome." Tapping her temple with a snort, "One of the dark haired ones was spotted working for sneaky Zhao." She had plans for him and his little factory. "Zhao who works for Adam Monroe, who is in league with Praxis Heavy. Ahhh when the dots connect, lovely thing hmm?" She doesn't mention Niki or Barb, just like she doesn't mention Chess.
"The rusty triangle? The one I see Kam holding. Looking Glass, an old science fairy experiment, an abomination destined to rip the worlds into shreds." A hand goes to smooth back wild hair, "What do you know of them and their trying to get to your President?"
Eizen claps a hand over Eve’s mouth with a sudden forcefulness, leaning into her with a surge of momentum that not only carries her off of her feet but pushes her through an open doorway into an unlit office. Eizen closes the door with his heel, pressing Eve into the corner between wall and door, and he says only one thing to her, in a hurried panic.
“Shh.”
A moment later, Eve’s world floods into darkness from an unseen and unfelt blow to the head. A psychic hammer, and then…
Sometime Later
Phoenix Heights
The dinging of a car door opening rouses Eve from the strange serenity of dreamless unconsciousness. Her head is cloudy, cottony, swimming in a vertigo that has her questioning what is up and down. Waking up in the back seat of a car isn’t a new experience for Eve, but it’s never comfortable. Or shameless.
“No, I’m at her house. I’m just going to make sure she gets in alright after that seizure scare. I’ll be back at the office shortly.” Eizen’s voice, on a phone. He’s standing outside of the large black sedan Eve lays across the back seat of, rear passenger side open, alarm dinging softly. Beyond Eizen’s dark silhouette is the front of the Cat’s Cradle, the lights are out, it’s dark. It’s late. Eizen ends the call, turning to toss his phone into the driver’s seat, then leans down in and takes a knee, brushing a lock of Eve’s hair from her face. He raises one finger to his lips, a universal ssh gesture.
“You gave me a scare there.” Eizen says, pointing to his phone in the seat, then looking pointedly to Eve. “You started to say something then blacked out. I had medical check you out and I’ve driven you home. Are you feeling alright?” He keeps that finger in front of his mouth, nodding slowly, feeding her a reaction. She’s been around the block, she know soperation security.
The phone is listening.
Squinting her eyes as her nose wrinkles and she tries to refocus her vision, oh no did she get high with Eizen? Is the first thought and a hand goes to her chest to check her bra, aha no they didn't the tiny joint is still tucked in there. Eve has half a mind to light the thing before she hears the man and then sees him leaning in over her. Brown eyes widen a fraction and she shifts her gaze to the front seat and that phone. A slow dip of her head, she understands. Top Secret. She was good at this, only until she wasn't but here and now she felt herself gaining more control of her body and tongue, oh right.
"I.. I am so sorry to scare you. My.." she slowly starts to push herself up in the seat, flexing her toes. She was home, that was good.. but no Kam.. why had he brought her here? Maybe a secret meeting. Tea with the President. She could only hope. "My condition sometimes.. it's unpredictable just like meee." She says softly in a singsong voice, "I'm feeling better, a little woozy but. Nothing a little J won't take away." Snorting, the expression of wide eyes never leaving Eve's face.
“Of— course.” Eizen stiffens at Eve’s demeanor, too stuffy to be totally comfortable around a woman with as few social boundaries as her. He does, however, take her by the hand and gently help her out of the car. Then, leaning in, retrieves her shoes and sets them down on the curb for her and shuts the car door.
The moment the door is shut, Eizen looks up to Eve with furrowed brows. “You nearly got yourself killed,” he says in a hushed tone of voice. Not threatening, but genuinely concerned. “I've been investigating the bombing of the Yamagato building for months. I knew about the connection between Praxis Heavy Industries and the clones after getting access to some of our more secure files. But…”
Eizen looks up and down the street, then back to Eve. “Ms. Mas, I need to know exactly what you meant when you said that Kam is the host.” Furrowing his brows, he steps in closer to her, a heavy hand on Eve’s shoulder. “As clearly as you can.”
Not putting the shoes on but instead picking the flats up to carry them into the place her back turns and she looks up at Eizen as he whispers and her eyes widen, considering. Eve weighs what she knows, suspects.. dreads. "Mmm there are secrets being hidden even from you, no no that won't do Handsome. How will you protect your castle?"
"There is a being.. don't look at me like that it's the only way to describe it and I shouldn't be at all but bahhhh," waving her hand in the air Eve makes her way to the bar and pulls out a bottle of tequila and whiskey. Pouring a glass to knock back the smokey liquor and placing a glass for Eizen, she can guess he won't. "It's old… I suspect it's the First of us with Gifts. Adam Monroe has a history with this Entity, that grows stronger the more people that know and speak of it. Kam.. has a history with Adam and.. his little shadow group Praxis." Wagging her finger at Eizen and making the motion of connecting different dots in the air between them.
"Years ago, a group of individuals with Gifts, the Company performed a.. Ritual- no no.. a operation see? I can speak your lingo." Wink wink, "The operation was too destroy the thing.. it's symbol that of Gold Eyes.. instead they could only banish it. Kam was there on the roof, she was the one who housed it." Her tone and face growing more serious even as eyebrow twitches along with the corners of her mouth.
"Pulled a fast one over on me, I.. I knew she had a connection but I didn't know it was now. She was the Host.. is the Host. Has the link to it. It's.. powerful.. it tricks she told me. She was tricking me," or maybe she can't.. "Or maybe she can't control it. We have to get to her Handsome! You have to believe me. Have you noticed anything strange with Your Lady?"
“Can you prove any of that,” is all Eizen says as he follows Eve into the Cat’s cradle. He doesn’t approach the bar, instead paces the ground floor with his arms crossed and head downturned, frowning intensely. “Is there any single scrap of physical evidence, something beyond a dream or a hunch. Something you can point at and…”
Eizen draws in a breath, then exhales a sigh. “No. Of course there isn’t.” He doesn’t need Eve to say as much. Instead, Eizen looks over to Eve with worried eyes and a furrowed brow. “You’ve filled in a decades old puzzle piece, Ms. Mas. You’ve answered a mystery left in the wake of Kaito Nakamura’s death, and…” he looks around, lost, uncertain, “now it must be cleaned up before it’s too late.”
As dark eyes flick back to Eve, Eizen draws in a breath through his nose. “Can you do me a favor?”
Eizen would be right to think that there isn't a shred of physical proof to share on the matter of hosts and interdimensional beings breaking through into their world. "All I know is that it's coming and she's.. she's a part of it somehow." Shuddering Eve rubs her shoulders and looks over to Eizen with a tilted head, "The father of that Time Fairy Hiro yes," leaning forward, "He was a hoot. Haven't seen him in.." Well in as long as she's not seen Peter. There's a frown, what a time it use to be.
"Moni said you are a good boss." Leaning forward more, she nods her head, "What is your favor? I can provide, do you need my gun hand?" Eve ever the woman ready for action, "Or..?" There's a furrow of her brows.
"Can you do one for me also? I love a good exchange."
Eizen’s expression tenses, lips downturning into a frown. “I need you to stay away from here, from her, from everything. Please. But I can promise you that we’re on the same side, I just need you to trust me. Just this once.” Eizen takes a step over to the bar, jaw set and head shaking slowly. “If Kam suspects anything, it will put you and the people you care about in considerable danger.”
Resting one hand on the bartop, Eizen tenses, as if bracing for something. “What is it…” he starts to say, hesitating as if knowing better than to ask. “What’s your favor?” He finally asks, worriedly.
"We are already in considerable danger if that thing gets out my dear. Do you know anything at all about what I have spoken of.. what do you plan to do?"
Her favor, was to see Kam. She has the answers. "I have to talk to her, not to accuse her. I know she's scared of it, she doesn't revel in it." Eve knows that's not what he wants to hear, "There are pieces to the puzzle, soggy and wet. She can dry them." Eve believed it with all of herself. She was already preparing her lie about leaving things alone. Why did everyone think they had a better handle on things then a woman who saw the future?
Maybe her delivery needed work.The oracle prepares herself for him to say no, he's all but said it already. "I've lost time and invested pieces of myself into this burrowed so deeply… it is apart of me Handsome." Whether that says she will leave it alone or not.
“You can't talk to her,” Eizen insists, “not now. Perhaps not ever. I wish I could explain to you, but I can't. Whatever it is you've come to warn her about, she knows. I assure you, she knows too much.”
Brows furrowed and posture tense, Eizen takes a step toward the door. “You've answers a lingering question for me, Eve. But that's where your involvement ends with her. For your own safety.” Then, nervously. “For mine.”
It's not what Eve likes and it begins to frustrate the woman. People were getting in the way much the same way she was use too. With a slight narrowing of her eyes she looks off to the side and lights that joint she was keeping in her bra, smoke wafts around her face and clings to her fingers. "I've answered a question that was grinding your gears but you cannot answer mine." Her posture stiffens as well and she slowly turns her head to examine the tall man. For her own safety. The oracle spares the Yamagato employee a roll of her eyes, she wasn't called the Murderimp for funsies. "Don't worry Handsome, I rarely need someone to explain the tea leaves to me." Meaning: what you know that I don't.. I may know soon.
Turning her back she begins to make her way to the steps that lead down to the Oracle Room, pondering, brow furrowed. There someone was telling her where her involvement ended. It reminded her of her parents. This was when she was sent to her room. "Have Monica make sure you don't die." A plume of smoke spews out from her wine colored lips as a pale hand trails around the bannister to the steps. She had a factory to blow up with her friends.
Eizen narrows his eyes, uncertainly, and then looks away from Eve as he considers what she said. Troubled, but also torn, Eizen lingers at the door to the Cat’s Cradle, jaw clenched eyes searching side to side as he goes through his thoughts. But by the time Eve’s footfalls hit the stairs to the basement, it’s too late.
“You too…” Eizen says to himself, briefly looking back over his shoulder before stepping out into the night.
They both had somewhere else to be.