Participants:
| Scene Title | There is Dead and Mostly Dead |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | And someone has been among the latter…? |
| Date | Mar 7, 2011 |
Jaiden's Garage
It's about 8:00pm on Tuesday night and Jaiden is in the middle of dishes. His sink is full of suds and water, and on the right side a few bits drain into the other side of the sink after being rinsed. Music plays in the background - some jazz, a video on the TV, and the lights are mostly off. It's a very quiet, very serene place.
The serenity is not broken. At least not overtly. Elisabeth lets herself in with a soft knock on the door, being reasonably certain that he's not got personal company. "Jaiden," she says quietly from the door, alerting him to her arrival. She walks through, carrying a black blazer over her shoulder. She's wearing black heels and black slacks, a dove gray silk blouse. "Just wanted to check in on you," she says as she leans her shoulder on the wall where she can see him.
Jaiden looks up from behind the sink, arm-deep in suds, in surprise at first but, once he realizes who it is, thanks to the greeting, he grins at the unexpected arrival. "Evening, Lizzie." He rinses a red plate, setting it in the rack after wiping it down with a towel, adding a few bits of silverware to it to dry before reaching in to the sink to let it all drain again. "I'm doing okay….you?"
She looks… perhaps more relaxed than when they spoke last. Not wound as tight. "Okay," Elisabeth admits. "Tired. Always tired, it seems like. But I was heading back to make an early night of it and …. figured I'd check." She smiles a bit. "I think I've hit the end of my tolerance today." Her head ducks down a little and she moves, dropping the blazer on one of the chairs and sinking into a seat in his living room where she can just curl up and talk to him for a while. "Walked out of a meeting at 4:00, haven't made it back to the base yet. Needed to … straighten out some things, I guess." She shrugs slightly, sliding her feet out of her heels to tuck them up under her. "Had a nightmare," she says finally. "Stressing over Richard's …. whatever… is making the anxiety worse, so I wanted to clear the air. Thought at first I might hit him."
She smirks up at him, the twinkle in her blue eyes lightening her features further. "I might still. But not today." Elisabeth's weary but not bone tired.
A quick swirl of the faucet around the sink washes the rest of the suds down the drain, a towel coming in to play to dry of soapy hands. "He deserves it, really. To get smacked in the head for that. We could re-vamp all the reasons, but that'd just get you all wound up again, and there's no need in doing that when you're here to relax." Jaiden pokes the mute button, Miles Davis still rocking out, but no sound coming from the speakers.
Jaiden makes his way out from behind the bar in bare feet and shorts, a t-shirt covering his arms and chest, padding across the hardwood floor to the couch opposite Elisabeth, flopping down comfortably and giving her a smile. "I'm an odd one. Ever since Delia left, I don't remember my dreams. But I wake up sometimes in a cold sweat, but don't remember. What was your dream about?"
"Bad," Elisabeth admits softly. "I think… maybe prophetic." She grimaces. "Richard wants me to try to contact Delia about it, since she's a dreamwalker, but…." There's an edge to her tone. "Don't take this the wrong way, but …. I'd rather pop her in the face right now than Richard. What he did was just stupid and careless. What she did just pisses me off."
"No,I'm kind of in the same boat, but since she's at Pollepel island and the flu's there, and she's the only nurse that they have as far as I know, so no knockouts until the epidemic is done." Thinking more of the people who need her rather than how _good_ it would feel to indulge in Elisabeth's fantasy. "I'll see if I can get the person who taught Delia how to dreamwalk to make a visit. Her name is Hokuto, so if you see an interesitng looking Japanese woman in your dreams, tell her I said hi." Jaiden's face is fairly neutral now, but a few cracks of emotions show through. "Wasn't right what she did, and I wish she hadn't. But she did."
Elisabeth goes bolt upright in the chair. "What?" she demands sharply. "What the fuck are you talking about? Hokuto Ichihara is dead." But then again… Liz has been dead. And Richard's been dead. And Felix has been really dead. Why the hell would this be different?
The big australian remains where he is, on the couch, looking a bit startled at the reaction. "I'm talking about the japanese lady who taught delia how to dreamwalk. From my understanding she left…her body?" There's a bit of a lilt at the end of that, like he's not sure what to believe. "At least that's what I was told.
"I….. thought she was dead," Elisabeth is pure white in the face. "You met her? Where the fuck is her body? Who has that??" It's actually somewhat… urgent, as if the blonde might be panicking slightly. She's fumbling for her shoes. "Does anyone know?" Remember that whole thing that seems to keep happening when she gets upset? Yeah… well, that subsonic hum has begun again. Deeper, like standing at a concert right in front of the massive speakers.
Jaiden sits up, slowly, remaining slow even though the fillings in his teeth are starting to vibrate along with some structural beams of his place, a bit of dust starting to fall. "This is out of my undrstanding - remember…new guy.
"Something happened - I don't know what, and she left her body behind. She's a spirit now, living in the dream. If that makes sense."
That makes her pause, a frown furrowing her brow. Elisabeth looks at him with puzzled blue eyes. "She's …. you mean like Rebel lives in the computer, she's living in the fuckin' dreamscape?" she asks incredulously. "After what happened?" She drops her shoes and reaches up to shove her hair back with both hands, leaving them cradling the back of her neck as she hunches over to put her elbows on her knees.
"I … don't know if you were in town back when the 36 happened," she says quietly. "Thirty-six kids… drank poison in a suicide pact. One of them survived, her Evo ability something to do with toxins or something. They, uhm… " She clenches her jaw, flashing back to walking in to that scene. "We found out later that there was a mental influence. And we found out much later still that … it was basically a multiple personality sort of issue, like Niki's sort of, only Hokuto's was a dream manipulator known as the Nightmare Man. He…. convinced 36 kids…. and maybe a lot of other people… to kill themselves."
"I haven't met Rebel, or even heard of her…well, heard the name, but didn't know what she was or who she was. Just….thought she was an evo good with computers and technology." Jaiden sighs and sinks back, the weight of all of this seeming to weigh him down. "Heard about them, but didn't hear any of the underlying stuff. But I could believe it." He appears to be thinking for a moment, looking down and away before fixing Elisabeth with that warm gaze of his. "Hokuto, apparently, was the cause of Delia getting lost, too." His voice is soft, green eyes almost luminous in the darkened apartment.
The blonde did not want to hear that. She really didn't. Reaching up to rub her forehead, Elisabeth hisses, "Motherfucker." And now she has to wonder… is Hokuto the one sending dreams to random or not-so-random people? And if so… how do you trust that? "Jaiden…. I think I could use a stiff drink or four, and then I'm going to go back to the barracks and pass out." She lifts blue eyes to him. "Think you can help me out with that? Cuz I really…. " She reaches up and rubs her face tiredly. "I really do not want to relive finding 36 kids dead on a floor tonight. I just don't."
IF anything deserves a drink, that does. Jaiden gets up from his spot on the couch and walks to the cabinet next to the tv. Opening it reveals bottles and bottles of booze - good booze, too. Looking over his shoulder to look Elisabeth over, he gets a 750 of whiskey out, passing it to her. "Drink up. I'll be here as long as you need me."