Participants:
| Scene Title | To Ignore Or…. |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | After yet another episode, Kaylee tracks down her brother for some advice. |
| Date | March 26, 2021 |
Raytech Industries
The events of the morning had been nagging at Kaylee, but she tried not to let that show in front of Carl. Evening going so far as to slip on wide-lens sunglasses that just barely managed to cover the evidence that she’d had another episode, make-up at least helped a bit more.
Once they had returned home from a day out, Kaylee had left Carl in the apartment with one of his favorite movies, lounging in a bean chair with Willy curled up in his lap. The guard that normally stood outside the door, agreed to hang out in her apartment to watch the boy.
Kaylee needed some advice.
“Oh good, I caught you before you got home,” Kaylee sounds relieved when she manages to catch her brother just outside of the elevator. Even though she’s inside, those sunglasses were still on, though they are no match for the sharp-eyed Richard. “I need an opinion.
“Hey…” Richard notices the sunglasses, his lips pursing briefly in worry before he looks back at his sister, eyebrows lifted a little, “Sure, always happy to offer an opinion. Hell, it’s usually harder to get me to shut up.”
That quick grin of his, and he waves her with him down the hall with him, “What’s going on?”
There is a smile in return and yet Kaylee doesn’t argue his assessment. Moving to follow, she doesn’t talk just yet, enjoying a short moment with her brother, since their lives are rather crazy, but after a few moments, she sighs and pulls off her sunglasses.
Looking at him, the bruising around her eye is very visible and the sclera is all red from ruptured blood vessels, making the blue in that one eye stand out. “I had another episode early this morning and again with a childhood memory. One I know already, but there were more details this time.”
“Another— “ Richard stops in his tracks, looking to her with a worried expression, “Kaylee, have you seen the doctor? That’s not— it’s not an episode, it’s a mini stroke, it’s not anything to take lightly…”
Memory, sure, crazy lives, yes. But he’s more worried about her in this moment.
There is a grimace at his concern and some guilt, Kaylee probably should have contacted someone. “Carl’s worried and was a bit freaked out this morning, but I am fine. It was short whatever happened and no ill effects.”
That she knows of. Kaylee won't say that out loud.
“Well, beyond this anyhow,” Kaylee motions to her eye before slipping the sunglasses back on. “It wasn't really like the other. That one was… really bad.”
Standing there in the hall, Kaylee looks down to the floor between them as she struggles to put the experience into words. “There was light sensitivity, a headache… and I ended up… I guess blacking out? Not sure it was that, cause I was still standing in front of the mirror when I came back… but I was stuck as a third person observer in a memory of Edward and my mom fighting over me. Like with dreamwalkers. That… that same feel.”
Richard gives her a look at her insistence that she’s fine, but doesn’t push the matter too far beyond a slight grunt that communicates ‘I am absolutely walking you to medical for a check-up after this conversation’ without a single actual word.
“Okay… that’s, I mean, given some of the theories about your condition that makes sense,” he frowns a little, “Memories could come up more— strongly if there’s an issue. Alternately it could have been an actual dreamwalker…”
“Last time it was transposed over my room. The one of Edward comforting me after a nightmare about a tornado. She was sitting on my bed.” However, Kaylee waves it off giving a shake of her head as if it wasn’t important at the moment.
“What stuck out was the end of the memory this time. My mom wasn’t acting like a total bitch, but that wasn’t the biggest thing, Richard… Little me gave her a rock with an Oroboros painted on it and I told her it would all be okay, because it’ll all come back around.” Worry is heavy in her tone, eyes hidden behind dark glasses watch him.
“…huh.” Richard brings one hand up to scratch at the nape of his neck, “I take it you— don’t remember that happening before? I mean, kids say some weird things sometimes, but that is… pretty strange.”
After a moment, he asks, “Do you think it was something significant? Like, a dreamwalker or something meddling…?”
“I don’t know what this was,” Kaylee admits quietly, looking lost as she probably feels. “You know I don’t have a lot of my memories from when I was a kid. One or two, here and there. But this one memory has haunted me with almost every dreamwalker that has invaded my dreams, ever since the Nightmare Man threw it at me.” Which was when she had learned about who her father really was and her mother’s lies.
“I have a feeling that memory and that apartment are important, because of Edward,” Kaylee says, as if she’d really wished it wasn’t. “It was the first thing shown to me when Edward had a dreamwalker take me to him and you know he does things for a reason. Then there was the nightmare about the Entity, in it was a model of that old apartment.” There is a slow shrug of uncertainty. “There is no way there isn’t something there. I know that. It’s just with everything going on… I just haven’t been able to pursue it.”
A heavy sigh escapes Kaylee suddenly and she rubs hands over her face, before giving Richard a tired look, “I had planned to go and see if it survived the war, but I didn’t think all this.. whatever I am… stuff would go on for so long.”
“Alright,” Richard just nods, not arguing in the least, “What do you need, then? Where was your old apartment, I don’t— quite recall. Was it in New York?”
“If you think it’s significant, it probably is. There doesn’t seem to be any such thing as a coincidence anymore, and…” He grimaces, “You’re right in that we don’t know how long this— stuff— is going to go on for. Makes it worse that we can’t even risk trying to pry through your memories with this going on.”
“Boston, actually,” Kaylee says without hesitation. “I figured I’d see if any of the DoE agents want to go with me, since they seem to have an interest in the Entity… and clearly my past and Edward’s seems to be tangled with it, though in what way isn’t completely clear.” They knew that his ability was given to him by it, but that was it.
Kaylee looks down and pulls her phone out of her pocket, attention shifting to the darkened screen. “Talking about coincidences,” she says with some hesitation, her thumb brushing across the screen to light it up. A picture of Carl and her cat on the screen. “I’m having a hard time with one. Just before I had that episode, I looked at my phone and saw a voicemail.”
Looking up, Kaylee seems uncomfortable, fidgeting with her phone. “It was my mom, Richard.”
The woman that his sister had a badly strained relationship with, mostly raised by her Grandmother. “I had convinced myself, after I went back to Kentucky, that she and my Granny were dead….” the area had been a battlefield after all.
“I just….” A heavy sigh escapes from her nose. “I feel like I should be happy, but… I feel… wary? Last time I saw her we had a huge fight, because she stuck by her story about Edward.”
“You might want to ask Cassandra, just in case there’s… something there. A stone with an ouroborous painted on it, for example,” Richard allows, his tone a bit wry, but then he’s looking at her in surprise. “She’s— alive? Shit.”
Hesitation, “She… I mean, she didn’t know why Edward did what he did. How could she?”
“It’s more than that Richard,” Kaylee says softly, “She told me he was a sleazy lawyer in New York. A married man that got her knocked up and threw her out in the streets. When she was married to Edward and I was born in Boston. Our last big fight was about that… walked out and never went back.” A small part of her regretted that, especially when it meant she left her Granny behind.
Of course, there was one thing to consider…. There is a small sigh that escapes her at the thought.
“Though, knowing what we know now…” Kaylee starts a bit reluctantly, looking down at the message translation, “There is a good chance someone wiped her memory and replaced it.” Her lips pressed into a thin line, looking up at Richard again, “My money is on it being our father’s doing, especially since she wouldn’t listen to him and take me out of the city.”
“I… there’s one other possibility there, you know,” says Richard with a slight shake of his head, “Remember, the variable that he didn’t know was that he was being watched over and protected the entire time.”
Reluctantly, he admits, “I wouldn’t have put it past Charles to decide to ‘fix’ things like that in Edward’s wake.”
Kaylee lets out a sigh at that suggestion, but nods her head a bit. He did after all have a point. “I’m just not certain I want to let her back into my life or let her into my son’s.” Maybe it was the hard feelings about her history with her parents - or what she knows of it - that makes her feel that way.
“Am I being unreasonable?” Kaylee asks her brother, looking uncertain at her decision.
“I mean… at least your mom understands all the crazy shit we get into,” Kaylee says, gesturing at an invisible catalogue of Ray Family Adventures. “I’ve never really talked to my mom about what I am, Granny knew.”
“I mean, you know what happened when we went looking for my father,” says Richard with a sigh - and a shake of his head, “So I’m not one to talk, but…”
He motions a bit with one hand vaguely, “It can’t hurt to— talk to her? At least once. If you decide after that to cut her off forever, that’s fine, but give her the chance.”
Kaylee makes an uncertain and pained sound at the back of her throat and gives her brother a look, cause she knows he’s right. “Carl’s already curious about her. Last time she and I talked, I was pregnant with him.”
Fingers pinch at the bridge of her nose. “Really didn’t need this on top of everything else.”
Taking on a mocking happy look, Kaylee says to someone not there, “Oh hey mom, how are you? Me? Oh, I’m great. I may or may not be your daughter since I’ve just been turned into an organic, powerless, robot version of myself. That’s all.” Her head falls back to where she stares at the ceiling and she sighs.
When she looks back down at her brother again, it’s with a self-deprecating smile. “Our lives, man,” Kaylee huffs out humorlessly.
“I mean, look, you can tell her that you’re honestly worth almost as much as the entire company,” Richard suggests, trying to lighten the mood, “Because you are! The organic hardware within you alone…”
He reaches out, then, trying to wrap an arm around her in a hug, “…you don’t need to tell her any of that shit. Just talk to her.”
No matter how she’s feeling about everything, Kaylee can’t help but chuckle at the comment of her worth in tech alone. Her head briefly alights on her brother’s shoulder when he hugs her. “You’re right… you’re right,” she sighs out. “She’d probably mentally melt down, either way.”
Pulling away, Kaylee looks in the direction of the apartments, “I better get back to Carl.” Turning a smile to Richard, Kaylee says, “Thanks for the advice. I’ll work on getting a team together to go to Boston. With hope, the place isn’t a bombed out shell and empty.” The pull of her mouth to one side says she isn’t sure they will be that lucky. “With hope… it’s not a dead end either.”
“You get used to chasing dead ends, trust me,” Richard admits ruefully, having found more than a few of his own in the past couple of years. He ruffles her hair a bit as she pulls away, stepping off, “Just let me know if you need anything.”
Kaylee’s own smile reflects his ruefulness. “I’m getting there.” Used to it that is. “I know it’s part of the job.”
Looking at her phone messages again, Kaylee leaves her brother to get on with his day. He’d given her plenty to think on, just like a good brother does. Her thumb hovers above the button that would connect her to her mother for the first time in years.
However, that moment of bravery flickers out quickly as anxiety takes over again, slowly her thumb moves away from the button. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Kaylee murmurs to herself, tucking her phone in her pocket. “Maybe tomorrow.”
Or the next day after that.