Participants:
| Scene Title | Time Travel or Refrain Trip? |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Melissa shares some good news with Ling, who thinks it's the results of a refrain trip rather than the truth. |
| Date | September 23, 2010 |
When Ling returns home this evening, there's a vastly different aura to the place than normal. Melissa is drunk and in the backyard, which isn't really unusual anymore, but she's smiling. Big, huge, happy smiles. She's not even watching a movie and she's happier than Ling has seen her…well…ever. She's puffing away on a cigarette as she sits in the grass, Jerry curled up beside her, the two just relaxing and being pleased.
Ling's return is as conspicuous as usual, a small mass of black smoke floating into the backyard and forming up into the shape of a thin Chinese woman. Thus, it doesn't take long for her eyes to settle on Melissa as she sits there, smoking and looking just pleased as punch (though Ling would never use that phrase). It's a curious thing, to see Melissa looking so thoroughly amused, a siht Ling can't really recall ever seeing. Simply hints of it across teh woman's face on occasion.
Naturally, this bares investigation.
"Hello, Melissa," Ling remarks as she approaches, dressed in her usual black business like attire, shoes rather unfit for the backyard terrain. "You look as if you've had a good day. Judging from the way you're leaning, I suspect you've been out drinking again. Should I be disappointed?" Despite the lack of mirth on Ling's face or in her tone, Melissa's surely grasped by now that the Chinese woman has her own way of showing her amusement.
Melissa looks up at Ling and just beams at the other woman. "He's alive, Ling. Kendall's alive. And yes, I've been drinking, but it's in celebration. He's alive. No gunshot wound, no more corpse, just…Kendall." She laughs and hops up, and then throws her arms around Ling to give the woman a big hug. Oh yeah, she's happy.
"Perhaps you've had a bit too much to drink," Ling replies dryly, shaking her head. "Or you're… taking Refrain." This possibility has Ling frowning visibly, for reasons Melissa will remember if she thinks hard enough about it. The hug, though is sudden and uncomfortable, at least for Ling, leaving her squirming in place.
Melissa laughs again and shakes her head, leaning back to grin at the Chinese woman. "No, I'm not. Well, yes, I'm drunk, but I'm drunk because I'm happy! I went back in time, you see, and warned Kendall, so he was able to illusion it all to look the same, and we brought him back! He's upstairs now, passed out. I swear. You can look if you want, just don't wake him up."
"Went back in time?" That certainly sounds like a Refrain trip to Ling, the Chinese woman finally just… stilling herself in the hug, hands slipping into her pockets. "Perhaps I should go and see this for myself." If only so she can prove to Melissa that she's just had a very, very happy trip, as some people are wont to do when on the drug in question.
"Mmhmm. First there was this old guy, then Delilah showed up to stop me, then this guy named Hiro showed up and made everything better." Ling's disbelief doesn't seem to bother her and she just nods and plops back down. "Go see. I'll be waiting here when you get back."
Ling's eyes move back to the back door to the Little Green House, and she nods. "Alright. I will. But Melissa, if he's not there, I think we're going to need to have a very important talk." Right now, Ling is hoping that the Refrain that Melissa may have used isn't the stash she has, retrieved once she returned to town and hidden carefully, in teh even she ever needed extra money, as much as she loathed the idea of going back to such a thing.
It's a quick walk inside, Ling wasting no time in rounding through the den, to the entrance foyer, and up teh stairs towards what used to be Kendall's room. She doesn't make any attempt to be quiet, knowing full well that there's not going to be anything waiting for her when she gets there. Rolling her eyes, she rounds the corner to Kendall's normally closed door-
And there he is. Lying in bed sleeping, just Melissa had said he would be. Ling finds herself unbelievably dumbstruck. Just… staring. Hard. Because what she sees, she simply can't believe. At all.
She's back outside twice as fast as she made her way up, a cigarette out and lit by the time she reaches Melissa, an almost menacing scowl on her face as stares at Melissa. "What in the world did you do."
Melissa tosses a grin at Ling. "I told you. I went back in time. Have a seat'n I'll tell you the whole story," she says, patting the grass next to her, the opposite side from Jerry. She doesn't, however, wait until Ling sits before she starts telling her story.
"Woke up someone knocking on the door. There was this old guy, with an oxygen tank. He knew…things." She shakes her head and draws her knees up, wrapping her arms around them. "He told me that I could save Kendall, get him back, if I did a favor for him and some guy named Samuel. They wanted me to give an envelope of money to some people in the past so they could leave New York after the bomb. Seemed easy enough, so I agreed."
She glances to Ling. "Showed up in a trailer park, sometime in the past. Then Delilah showed up. She was sent to stop me from doing it, since the family I was going to help was hers, and it would mean that her baby wouldn't be born." She rolls her eyes. "Like a girl her age needs to be having a baby." She shrugs and continues. "Anyway. We were arguing, then this guy, Hiro shows up, on Delilah's side. But he gave me another option. For him to help me, without changing anything else. So I agreed."
She draws in a deep breath. "We showed up in Kendall's room, the day before the Biodynamics attack. Told Kendall some of what was going on, then we went to the attack. Just after he got shot. It was all an illusion. He was alive. No bullet or anything. Just him, safe and sound. So…we came home."
Ling stares at Melissa with just the most blank expression on her face. "A-Are you sure about that, Melissa?" She still sounds very sceptical, despite having just seen Kendall herself. "Are you sure you didn't fall asleep watching a movie, and kendall had been hiding in the backyard this entire time?" Which is actually probably rather insulting, but Ling isn't exactly jumping at this time travel idea. "Hiro… sounds like an Asian name," she comments wryly. "Someone who assuredly ahs watched too much of the terrible television over there." Ling waves a hand dismissively, turning from Melissa. "Are you sure this is what happened?"
Melissa glances over to Ling, arching a brow. "Yes, I'm sure I didn't fall asleep watching a movie. And since Hiro was Asian, that makes sense." She frowns. "Why don't you wanna believe me? You turn into smoke. I inflict pain without touch. I have a friend who can stop time. Why not time travel?"
"Because, Melissa," Ling says, beginning to pace a bit. "There are some things that seem too extraordinary even in today's world." Her hands fold across her chest, eyeing Melissa carefully. "Time travel is such a thing. Would you believe, had you not bee taken yourself, that a person could go back and change history?" And it's as if actually saying that triggers something in Ling. A thoughtful look on her face. And then a devious smirk.
"Yes," Melissa answers simply. "But why the smirk? And seriously, Ling. If I didn't go back in time, then how do you explain Kendall? I wasn't the only one who saw him get shot in the chest and not get teleported out with us. I mean, you were there. you saw it!"
"Kendall is an illusionist. I'm sure you can imagine the practical, if cruel, applications of such an ability," Ling responds very matter-of-factly. 'However you realize a well enough point. I… don't know Melissa. To me it is an unbelievable idea. But unfortunately not one I can discount, having seen Kendall myself." The smirk - the ideas she has now - are not things she chooses to address.
"Kendall's many things, but cruel isn't one of them," Melissa says, shaking her head. "But really, doesn't matter. He's alive. He's upstairs, asleep. However it happened, I'm happy. I'm happier than I've been in a long time. Too long." She shrugs and pulls out another cigarette and lights it up. "Had another good thing happen. Remember I said the old guy wanted me to give an envelope of money to that family?"
"I suppose that's fair enough," Ling says in reply, arms clasping behind her back as she eyes Melissa. "I saw him with my own eyes, there is little to deny on that fact. I will have to say hello to him when he wakes up." Despite her flat expression, the words are said with… well, a bit of warmth. "Did you keep the money?" she asks with a raised eyebrow, almost sounding hopeful that she did.
Melissa's lips curve and she nods. "Yeah. Every cent of the fifty thousand dollars. I mean, I'm not hurting for money or anything, and if I was I could probably get some from my parents, but damn if that doesn't help. Enough that I can't even figure out what the hell to do with it."
Ling visibly staggers back a bit, noticeably taken aback by the amount of money Melissa has just revealed she has acquired. "I-am speechless, Melissa." A rareity for Ling - she may not use many words, but she uses them often. "Perhaps you can afford additions to the house that you spoke of."
Melissa glances back towards the house, her head tilting. "Yeah…I really do want more rooms, my only concerns there…This Northern Staten Island. Would a contractor come out here? And it would just draw more attention to the house. The noise of construction I mean. Mmm. Unless Edgar knows how to do the work. He looks like the sort who might."
"It is a thought at least," Ling says with a nod, beginning to pace again. "Congratulations, Melissa. You have done the impossible." She turns back to look at her, eyes narrowed. "Do well with it. Absolutely make sure Kendall is never going to do something so stupid again. Are we clear?" As if she has to tell Melissa. "Things are likely to get even more dangerous. He must be careful." She pauses, looking back up towards the house. "Particularly now that Rupert knows of his inclination."
That brings an instance grimace to Melissa's face, and seems to sober her a bit. "Yeah, believe me, I will. Right now I'm too happy to have him alive and well, but he'll be getting an ass kicking, even if he did save my life. Oh jeez. I sent a letter to his parents! Telling them that he was dead!"
Sobering up Melissa seems to be something Ling does constantly, even if unintentional. Her remark, however, has Ling snorting. "Let them think that. From what you told me, it is of little true concern to them anyway." She waves her dismissively again, looking back out into the backyard. "Be happy, Melissa."
"It was him I'm worried about," Melissa admits. "And I'm gonna try. But I think I'll settle for being happy that Kendall's alive for the time being." She smiles. "And thanks, Ling. For listening. To all my rambling."
"Mm." Ling hadn't considered that Kendall would be upset. Personally, she doesn't see why he should be, if what Melissa tells her about his family is true. Melissa's thanks, however, has her both looking and feeling uneasy, as she is wont to do in such situations. "You're… welcome, Melissa."