Participants:
| Scene Title | The League of Extraordinary Gentleman |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Cardinal and Peyton discuss a strange man with a dangerous power — along with other phenomenal people they know. |
| Date | March 2, 2010 |
Footfalls sound on the corridors and a glance at the monitors will reveal Peyton's approach, heading to the filing room to tackle her new filing system — color-coded stickers, new files to replace the old, raggedy files, laminated sheets to protect newspaper clippings. She may not be a mastermind at strategy or a quantum physicist capable of figuring out string theory and the nebulous web of possible futures, but she can file. She carries a box of paper supplies to help her with the task, glancing at the shadows along the way, as any of them might be her "Boss."
As suspected, one of those shadows peels away from the others, the torn and tattered substance of Cardinal's darkness making itself known. "Peyton…" Peyton… "I've had a rather interesting evening… how has yours been?" The tattered shadow spreads up the wall, rippling along a doorway to match her passage.
"My … last night was fine. It's morning right now," Peyton says, slowly, giving the shadow an odd glance. "Look! I got stickers — I was going to get a color file system but then someone — don't worry, they don't know what I'm up to! — suggesting color dots because you can cross-reference. So … instead of say, putting Pinehearst in a blue folder, I can put a blue dot in it, then I can also put a red dot on it for Arthur Petrelli…" Yes, she's excited about her color-coding. She holds up dots to show the shadow. It's all very surreal. "What happened that was so interesting?"
Oh, right. It's morning now, isn't it? Cardinal sleeps less and less often these days. He's been losing track of what time it is, when he can't see the sun. "That's not a bad idea… some color-coding could be helpful in the files…" The files…
The shadow's tatters draw themselves back together after it's silent for a moment, "I found an… Evolved… I'm going to try and make contact with him, but just in case something goes wrong, I thought I should let someone know." Know…
"Found an Evolved?" Peyton says, her head tilting. "I didn't know we were that hard to find. If you ask Wendy, every third person in this city is an Empath." She smirks a little at that, then grows more solemn, looking at him with narrowed eyes.
"What do you mean, if something goes wrong? It's not dangerous is it? If they're dangerous, if their power is dangerous but you want to help them, shouldn't we leave that to Ferry? Like that kid the other day — I helped some kid who can microwave things — people — by putting Ferry in contact with him." She shakes her head. "Cardinal, you're … you're already too weak and stuff. Don't push yourself or do something dangerous if it's risky. Let someone else do it." Of course, maybe that's why he can do it, but still. "I can do it, if you tell me what it is."
A hollow little chuckle from the shadows. "Do you have any idea how bored I am, Peyton…? I'm not just going to… haunt the library like some impotent spectre…" A twist of bitterness to Cardinal's voice at the last, and he's silent for a moment, "…but yes. His ability is… very dangerous. I don't think he could effect me, though." Probably…
The clairvoyant frowns, setting down her files and stickers. "I just don't … if something happened to you again…" she begins, her face contorting for a moment before she takes a deep breath. She's not going to cry again. She lifts her chin and smiles. "All right. What can he do and how can he help us?" she asks. "And how can I help?" She's clearly trying to be a new person — it's a bit of a contrived, forced fit, but she's making the effort.
"Apparently he consumes the youth and vitality of other people to reduce his own age…" Age… Well. That's a rather ominous sounding ability. "That's all that I know about him, but — I don't think we should leave someone like that simply wandering about freely on their own." Their own…
"Um. That's… do we want him in here with us?" Peyton says, eyes wide. "Though if he meets Claire, what would happen?" she theorizes for a moment. Death Match: Regenerator versus Youth Sucking Vampire! "I'd think that'd be something Ferry should handle, don't you? Unless you want to… use him to kill people…" She frowns at the thought of that. "How do you know what he can do?"
"I didn't say that I was recruiting him, Peyton." There's just a hint of black amusement from Cardinal's shadowy form, tatters of blackness draped across the wall gently wavering as though in a breeze, "I said that I was going to speak to him… he could be a threat, but given his ability, he could potentially be as old as Adam." Adam…
The name Adam makes her grow pale. "Adam… is that how Adam stays young? By stealing people's … vitality?" Is that why he tried to tranquilize her for absolutely no reason? She doesn't know the details on the man that terrorized her in the hospital so long ago, just that she's afraid of him. "Fine, just be careful. Let me know when you go so that …" she shakes her head. "Maybe I should go with you — at a distance? Then I could keep an eye on him, later. How do you know what he can do?"
"What? No… no, Adam's just a perfect regenerator, like Claire. The fact that he's a few hundred years old is just a side effect… but he does know a great deal because of that." Of that…
At the question, Cardinal pauses, "I wouldn't want to risk you… I doubt he can use his ability on me. And I saw him use it. He baited a mugger out to try and knife him for his wallet, and drained the man of his life." His life… At least it wasn't some random innocent?
Perfect regenerator. "So Claire will live that long? That's kinda creepy." She frowns, then listens to the more disturbing news and pales a touch, her still-healing cut growing more livid against her face when her color blanches. "I guess maybe if he is luring bad guys out rather than just taking anyone's life, that's a point in his favor, but… he could just die like any normal person instead of trying to be all Dorian Gray." Apparently she did read a book in high school — or maybe she just saw the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. "So what, you just want to talk to him to see if he's a risk? And what if he is? What are we going to do about it?"
"Assuming that something doesn't manage to kill her permanently… she's essentially immortal, yes. And it isn't easy to kill her, either…" Either… The Dorian Gray reference brings a faint, echoing chuckle from the living shadows, "…more or less. And if he is, we'll deal with it like we do any threat." Threat…
"Which is … what? I'm still new, remember? Not as new as Bones or Angelina, but all I've done is basically peek in on a few people, talk Bones into not ratting us out, and filing." She smiles, leaning against the table. "I mean, murdering futures is one thing. I didn't think we were out bagging and tagging like that Company group. Not that I like the idea of this guy out there — I'm not saying it'd be bad to get rid of him if he's a threat. Just … I don't know how we deal with threats."
"It largely depends on what the threat is. If he turns out to be some sort of… psychopathic serial killer," Cardinal observes quietly, "Well— perhaps Elisabeth will get an anonymous tip, and FRONTLINE will happen to kick in his front door. Or in extremis, maybe someone will give Raith or Ethan a call." A call…
The name Raith earns a scowl. She met him at Cardinal's wake, sort of — she was told his name later anyway — and she saw him exit the roof when she was being manhandled by Danko. "Who's Ethan? That's good — I just didn't want to suddenly be on a gun-toting mission to go kill some life sucker guy who can kill me," she says with a chuckle. "I'm not so good on the violence thing, obviously." Which reminds her — "By the way, I asked Mack for some pointers on fighting. He kinda freaked out when I said you were back and … sans body more or less." She frowns. "I haven't talked to him since. You might want to visit him."
"A psychopath, but a useful one." The Wolf… A hollow chuckle stirs to the latter as Cardinal admits, "I largely prefer to foist off wetwork on other people if at all possible. If we just went around killing every maniac in the city, we'd draw way too much attention." Attention.
A pause, "Freaked out? How?"
"There are a lot of maniacs in this city…" Peyton agrees and shakes her head. "He came to help me with some self defense, showed me one move, and then I accidentally sort of blurted out that you were alive… I figured he knew but then I realized he hadn't been around. He was just really quiet and then suddenly had to go — he'd only been there five minutes, so it was obviously because he was upset." She looks worried for the man — clearly, whatever differences they had over Giselle are in the past, as far as her considering him a friend.
"Hm… perhaps I'll have to track him down…" Track him down… Cardinal's torn fabric ripples down across her feet, "…in any case, I should let you get about your business, Peyton…"
"My business is your business, boss," Peyton says with a grin, glancing at the shadow. The grin doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Cardinal?" her voice is a little smaller. "Have you … have you asked anyone, been to a … I know, it sounds so dumb to say it, but a doctor or anyone to see if there's anything they can do? There's a doctor, he's Evolved, I can maybe ask, but I know it's not something you want passed around, that you're back and like this."
"There isn't anything a doctor can do for me, Peyton. There are some people that I… intend to ask on the matter," Cardinal says, as the living shadow pauses, "Perhaps there'll be some… good news." Dead…
Peyton's eyes drop and she nods, because what is there to say? But then the hushed word dead has her glance up, face contorted again — the inner battle not to cry, to be strong for him. Stupid, she thinks to herself, for asking the question and obviously upsetting him. "I'm sorry," she whispers, bending to begin the task of organizing the files further — to find solace in the organization of something she can control.
The darkness lingers uncertainly for a few moments… and then slips off into the surrounding shadows, as Cardinal makes his escape without another word that might reveal some further degeneration.