Participants:
| Scene Title | Three Stern Aunties… |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | … come to scold him is what Niles Junior believes his visitors are, at first. |
| Date | June 24, 2009 |
A wrought-iron fence borders several small garden beds and the stone stairs leading up to the house's front door. The house itself is a structure of old stone - not even concrete blocks, but quarried stone — with natural-color wood doors and window frames. The windows on the ground floor are barred.
Inside, the level is divided into only three rooms. The first is the foyer, with polished hardwood flooring, a freestanding coatrack on either side, iron-dark against soft-amber interior walls. The main staircase spirals up from one corner of the foyer, girded by a wrought-iron railing.
To the right from the entrance is the kitchen. The walls just off from white, the floor tiled in dark gray. In the center of the kitchen is a black-topped island, matching the counters that line the room. One wall is dominated by an eminently modern stove framed by an anachronistic brick hearth. Cabinets above the counters have glass doors; the windows above the sink are framed in light-colored curtains, the illumination they let in adding to the expansive atmosphere.
The dining room takes up the back of this floor. The far wall is brick and stone, with a facade of a fireplace mantle in the center. Interior walls have been painted a tone intermediate between amber and ivory, which is also the accent color in the dark rug beneath the long dining table.
Niles has been doing the Safehouse Shuffle lately, even more what with all the chaos on Staten Island. He's marked as 'moveable' whenever they run out of room at one safehouse, or after a period of time has passed - whichever comes first. Which means he's been living out of a duffel bag for weeks now. He's currently in a small room, unpacking a few things. He looks tired, pensive, but more stable than he has in awhile.
She's shared word of the vision gotten from Pastor Sumter, and Elisabeth has reported back information on the name she was given from that gravestone, so with them having agreed to approach young Niles Wight Cat makes her way to the Hangar, not so far from her own digs. Expecting Elisabeth and Gillian to join her, she waits near the entrance for one or both of them to arrive.
With heavy laden footsteps, Gillian moves up to where Cat is waiting. The young woman wears a hat and a coat that covers most of her appearance, for reasons that might look suspicious. The former librarian looks more like a statue than a person as she gets closer, made completely of iron. A glance to the old house makes her hesitate a moment. "Probably won't be good for the floors if I don't de-metal," she says, even though she'd led the woman to believe she had been stuck that way. There's a visible wince on her iron face as it slides her body, like carbonite thawing out— without the heat or the gasping for air or the blindness. She just stumbles a few steps, bends over, and rubs her hands over her face. An inhale follows. "Okay— did we need to wait for the other one?" She remembers the name.
An eyebrow lifts as Gillian alters back to her not iron self, but Cat doesn't comment on the presumed inability to do so. "Grace will thak you, I'm sure," she observes. "As would Scott and Alistair. We can go in, I believe, and start talking to him while we wait for Elisabeth to get here, I believe." She's then moving to enter the Hangar.
"Let's go, then," Gillian says huskily, straightening. There's a tightness in her throat that seems out of place as she moves to step inside after. In another situation, she'd be grateful that the other woman isn't asking any questions, but the redness already forming around her eyes might be some kind of give away. "What room is Niles staying in?" she asks a person who appears to be in charge, so they can get directions to follow that lead them to where the young man is packing.
Entering the Hangar, Cat stands aside as Gillian speaks with the attendant, musing to herself that Grace and the other two organizers must be out and about on business. She waits to hear the location of Mr. Wight, ready to follow there when it comes. A clock is glanced at, as she wonders what might be keeping Elisabeth. Hopefully there haven't been any more disasters in the city like collapsing subways and people going berserk in medical centers after finding out heart-wrenching moves.
With the directions given, Gillian moves down the hallway and knocks on the door. A lot always seems to be going wrong every day. "Niles?" she even calls out. When they'd discussed this meeting, she'd told Cat and Elisabeth that she saw him not too long ago in the Hangar. They'd spoken. Though no exact details had been given, really.
"In here," calls a young British voice from just down the hallway. Niles sits on his bed and is balling up pairs of socks. He blinks in surprise when Gillian comes into view. "Oh, hi. Am I in the wrong room or something? That's happened before."
Elisabeth arrives late due to a bit of extra caution making sure she's not being tailed or something. She nods to the person who allows her entry, and she actually catches up with Cat and Gillian as they reach Niles's room, the last one to enter. She shoots the young man a smile.
Stopping near the doorway to that room, Cat stands quietly outside for the moment to let Elisabeth and Gillian take point, as they're the ones who've met and spoken with him before. She's content to just watch, listen, and remember.
"No, you're in the right room, but— we needed to talk to you," Gillian says, glancing back at the two women, as if to ask them just how much they're supposed to be telling him to get their answers. A hand reaches up to rub at her eyes— almost as if she's suffering from a sudden bout of allergies. "I know we'd just recently met…" Offically… "Has everything been… more or less okay?"
"What's…what's going on?" says the young man as he looks between the three women. Niles blinks and looks rather cornered. Or rather like a kid about to get disciplined by three stern aunties. His shoulders hunch and his nose wrinkles, not out of disgust or anything like it, but rather uncertainty. "…more or less. What's this about?"
"Don't panic, Niles…. you're not in any trouble. In point of fact… we're here hoping to keep you out of it," Elisabeth tells him gently. She moves to sit, keeping her distance from him but trying to make him not stress. "Do you remember what I told you about how I came to find you in the first place? About the future version of yourself and that he is trying desperately to change his own — and your — fate?" She grimaces a bit. "He's getting more and more out of control, Niles… and we need your help to figure out how to short-circuit him."
"Oh— so he knew about that. Would've made my vague explaination less vague," Gillian says, reaching up to rub at her reddening eyes again. Maybe she's not getting enough sleep. "There's a possibility— when I met him, he seemed intent on— fuck, I don't know what he wants anymore. But we could use your help."
"Short…circuit him? What do you mean by that, precisely?" Niles balls a pair of socks up in his hands and purses his lips into a long line. "Do you mean kill him? Are you here asking for my help to kill myself? Or…lock him away?" His eyes widen somewhat at that. He looks at all three women. "You do understand what you're asking of me, yes?"
"We think, Niles," Cat calmly states, "he'll make a move on you if nothing is done. We're asking how to defeat his ability and stop him from killing you, essentially." Or anyone else. But she isn't going to mention that just now.
Elisabeth looks at Niles and says quietly, "What I'm asking of you is to take a look at where you are now and where you want to be in ten years, Niles. I know what happened to your stepfather…. and I know that you hate it. He …. isn't even really sorry anymore. The night he came to me to ask me to help you…. he killed the man across the hall from me. He sat on the foot of my bed, covered in blood, and asked me to help not HIM but YOU. And that's what I have to do. He doesn't want my help…. I think he honestly just wats to be stopped. And you're the only person who can tell me how to stop you."
"When I was trying to tell you to make a new life for yourself… That's what I thought he wanted too," Gillian says, putting her hands down and tightening her jaw. "If it comes down to you or him? I only met both of you once…" Until now… "But you're the one that belongs here— you're the one that might have a future."
"Killing me? What makes you think he's going to kill me? Or even find me? You people have kept me moving around so much, I hardly know where I am half the time." Niles laughs, but it's not the most humour-filled sound.
He turns his attention to Liz as she speaks. The incredulous laughter fades, replaced by a confused set to his mouth and eyes. He doesn't deny what Liz is saying. He knows, from what he was feeling before Deckard healed him, that he is capable of such an action. "A man. The man who was watching out for me. Deckard. He touched me by accident and I felt…better. More in control. Maybe that could work for my counterpart." If Deckard could get close enough and could trigger the ability purposefully enough. The older Niles would likely have to be taken down first. "Will you take him to Deckard if I help you capture him?"
"I promise you that I have no intention of killing the man unless I have no other options," Elisabeth tells him quietly. "If we can subdue him and get him safely into Deckard's orbit, we'll try. You have to understand, I can't guarantee anything, Niles. But I'll do my best."
"I don't want to kill anyone— and if that guy can help him, yeah, we'll do that." Gillian's promise may not be as sincere, but she also meant it when she said if there had to be any picking, she's already picked. "We'll need a way to trap him, though. Cause— there was a vision. Which is why we think he might have… changed his mind on protecting your future." She looks back at Cat, as if she has more details.
Explaining herself, Cat shares part of the story. "Someone with ability to show people potential futures gave me a vision of the older you in a cemetery. He was speaking, seemingly to me, of being timeless and godly. I couldn't be sure which of you he was. But after he finished talking, there was another you present, and the one who spoke fired electricity at you. There was a gravestone there, with a name and a date on it, one perhaps familiar to you, Niles. Eric Willard."
Niles inhales slowly through his nostrils, then exhales, fingers knotting through his hair. It's a dilemma, to be certain. Helping people to trap his future version. Is that betrayal? If it's not, then what is it? He also tasted enough of his older counterpart's madness to know how far it could have gone if left unchecked.
"I'm…not entirely sure how the people who trapped me did it in the first place. But if my replicants are separated from my body for too long, or trapped, then I fall into a coma. They function on the same principles as conventional electricity. Water interrupts them and gives me headaches, but won't stop them. If you tricked a replicant to pass over something that would capture or ground electrical currents, he would pass out. The replicants will continue to see and feel and will still be dangerous, but it hurts like a fucker and they're easier to avoid."
He looks up at the mention of a vision. As Gillian and then Cat speak, his jaw works to the side and his face pales. "Eric…" He swallows and rubs at his face. He drops all eye contact. "Visions. And…that's odd. I don't fire electricity…" He looks up again. His eyes are moistened, but he holds it back. "Forgive me, I…need to let this all…sink in a little. I…" A beat, "Can I have some time? To think? I can't tell you more specifics on how to capture him other than to ground electrical impulses." Another beat, then, "If you need me to help test something, I can do that."
Elisabeth nods a bit. "We dont' have much time, but there's a little, yes. We'll come back tomorrow, all right?" She glances at Cat to verify that's okay and moves to stand up.
"It's possible the future version of you is more powerful— people's abilities seem to grow with age," Gillian offers, hesitating to mention the senior one said he could fry her heart before she could even blink. "But yeah— think. Just be careful." Not that he hasn't already been, but now there's a new threat.
"We'll be back tomorrow, Niles," Cat offers in a calm voice. "Thank you for listening to us." After that, she turns to make her way out of the room and the Hangar.