Participants:
| Scene Title | Unspoken Futures |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | While making plans for a possible vacation, Faye tells Peyton a little about what she saw in her flash, finally. Peyton doesn't return the gesture. |
| Date | July 28, 2010 |
Peyton's Condo
The morning hours aren't usually a common meet up time for mother and daughter, but Faye stands outside the door with a cup carrier of coffee (the expensive kind) and a second bag with some various donuts, pastries and bagels. All ones she knows that her daughter likes, or at least has eaten before, without sticking to a select few that would rob her of options. The telepathic bond between them has faltered for some time, due to inability to get together as often as they might like, leading her with no way to 'call ahead' except for conventional means.
And she might think a surprise would be good, anyway, as she knocks unannounced on the condo door. Out of uniform, she's enjoying a day off, and intends to enjoy it with her daughter.
The door opens immediately, meaning the person standing on the other side was on their way out. Only, it's not Peyton, but a tall shaggy-haired young man of Peyton's age who looks like he could be an underwear model, given the physique under his tight gray t-shirt. Bright blue eyes widen as he takes in Faye with coffee and doughnuts and then a Colgate-smile flashes. "Oh, hey, I was just leaving. You her roommate?" he asks, stepping aside to let the brunette in, reaching up to push still-damp hair out of his eyes.
Over his shoulder, he calls, "Hey, babe, someone's here for you! I'll give you a call!" Maybe.
And out he goes.
The interior of the apartment is less tidy than it has been in the past, partially because Aaron no longer lives here to clean it, and partially because of the shot glasses and bottle of tequila on the coffee table, a party of two the night before, apparently. The red and foxy-eared puppy comes running over to Faye, putting small paws on her shin and peering up with dark eyes. Meanwhile, Peyton yells "Coming!" from the bathroom, before appearing in a short purple robe, her hair wet. Her cheeks color a touch at seeing Faye, but she hurries forward anyway to greet her mother, glancing at the door a little chagrined. "That was, um. Blake."
Roommate. For a moment, Faye attempts to do a 'stare', but the young man is just gone too soon after she gets the shock together enough to manage it. It's true, almost no one would believe the 'I'm her mother' line, anymore— she'd been a young mother already, until an ability effect was added into the mix. "Well— I see you have a healthy sex life that I don't want to hear anything at all about," she says with a smile, mood softening as she steps into the condo and walks over to the counter to put down the coffeeholder and breakfast foods.
"Good morning, Von," she says to the puppy, kneeling down to scratch at his ears. Sure, the dog can't hear her, but it doesn't mean she can't still talk to him while she showers him with a little tactile affection. "So where'd you meet the underwear model?" Just to start a conversation without asking too much.
"Is that what he does?" Peyton asks with wide eyes, then shakes her head. Clearly she doesn't know him too well, if she's not sure. "Wait, no. He said… well, he is one of those 'I'm gonna be an actor' types, but I think he's just a bartender right now," she remembers, gesturing to the alcohol on the coffee table to explain her uncertainty.
"I met him at a club," she adds, though she doesn't add "last night." It's probably a given. "Hey, is that coffee?" she non-sequiturs, moving to take the coffee from her mother, then offering a slightly awkward hug — it's been some time since they've gotten together, so the bond, both telepathic and simply familial, needs to be rebuilt a little.
The unfortunate side effect of working— it's difficult to get time to spend together. Especially when they've both had other things on their mind the last couple of months. The future being the big piece of that. Faye does lean into the hug, closing her eyes and letting the warmth seep into her. Warmth, and humidity. "He just looked like a underwear model, but bartenders are always fun to date. My ex-husband was one." Not the girl's father, obviously, but the rest.
Though— she suspects it's not going to be dating… She doesn't say that, though.
"I have the day off, finally, so I figured I'd surprise you with coffee. And there's donuts and bagels in the bag. We haven't had a lot of chances to spend time together."
"Awesome, I'm starving. I don't remember eating last night," Peyton says with a little laugh, running her hand through her wet hair to make sure it doesn't dry in tangles. A glimpse of the new tattoo is visible, though Peyton doesn't mention getting it. "No… did I tell you I'm investing in a security firm? I'm actually going to work pretty soon. I mean, I am working on it now, but you know, that's just prep, but if we get customers, then it will be actual work. Kinda crazy." She smiles, curling on the corner of the couch. "How's your job, by the way? I ran into that Lancaster lady last night. She's charming as ever." There's a grimace to imply that by charming, Peyton means not.
"Lancaster— she's a piece of work, isn't she," Faye admits with a smile, thinking on the strange woman who… well sometimes doesn't seem like a woman at all. But that's probably the point. "I hope she didn't talk down to you too much, I'm aware she's… special." In many, many ways. Not just the ability to blow things up by staring at them.
"The job's fine— I think I may take a few days off sometime in the fall, a couple weeks, maybe we could go to see your brother if you'd like to." Away from there. Away from the place she may get shot in the face with a shotgun. But what happened in her vision had only been shared with one person— and it'd not been her daughter.
"My brother," Peyton murmurs, staring at her bare toes, newly pedicured in the taupe-gray color that's such the rage right now for nail polish. Even if she personally thinks it makes her look like she has a fungus or something, the person at the salon had talked her into it. "It's so weird, to have family that… you know. I didn't know I had," she says with a smile. And to have it at all, since her first family, all but one grandmother, is gone. "I'd like that. Can we make it like… in September or October or something?" She doesn't think she'll be alive if they do it after November, and she'd like to meet her brother at least once. "Or earlier, even."
"And now you have a whole nother family," Faye says with a smile, keeping a hand on the young woman's arm, even if she's stepping aside to allow access to the yunnies and coffee. After all the coffee may get cold if they don't drink it! "I was actually thinking early November— with… everything that is said to be happening, I thought it would be a good idea to not be in the city. Just enjoy a nice vacation in Boston with your little brother, maybe go on a boat. It's not too cold for boating." And it may be safer on the boat than on the ground.
The clairvoyant nods, taking the coffee and pulling a sip from it, nodding again as she thinks. For Peyton, the 8th is not the magical day that the visions will all come true just as foreseen; she knows that there changes in the paths being made that will make some of the visions come true earlier, some later, some not at all. Her particular vision, she knows will happen. Maybe not on the 8th, but soon. She's crossed paths too many times with Danko, with HF, she's angered him and he vowed he would come after her — even if he didn't know it was her he would come after.
The date isn't important to her. She just isn't sure she'll be around, if her personal reaper comes for her sooner than the visions said he would.
"What…" she says quietly, her bloodshot eyes suggesting she has a hangover she hasn't complained about, "What did you see, Faye?" she asks, her dark eyes studying her mother's.
From the slow inhale, Faye is hesitating. Finally her hand drops away and she reaches to grab her own coffee, to pause longer while she sips on the hot liquid. It buys her some time, as she moves away— though she would now be capable of talking without her voice. Once the cup lowers, she turns back, still seeming to be pondering how to say it… "I was on a mission for FRONTLINE," she finally offers quietly. "It was a raid of some kind, and I wasn't— I didn't like what I was ordered to do. Or what happened. So I think that it would be better if I just took a vacation and wasn't in the city when it happens."
"What… what was FRONTLINE doing?" Peyton asks, her own voice soft, her eyes on her mother before reaching out to offer her free hand. She doesn't offer to share what she saw, nor will she unless asked, and if Faye asks, well, she'll lie. But she says none of that. "I ask because a friend of mine is trying to figure out everything that happens on that day so that there's a chance it can be stopped. Those raids, those riots… those things don't have to happen. We can change them." She believes the words she says, wholeheartedly, and her eyes shine earnestly as she looks into her mother's. She just doesn't think she can change that fate for herself.
"It was a raid of an apartment building of some kind— there were families there. It could have been anywhere, honestly," Faye says, having not been able to find the building, cause what little she saw of it looked generic and normal. Just an apartment building. "There were even children. I don't know why we were ordered there, since I came to in the middle of it, but I sent to someone— that this wasn't what I signed up for."
Peyton's brows knit and she takes another sip of her coffee. "If you see it ever, let me know, okay? Where it is. And there's people I know who can maybe help change it. Or you know, maybe we can at least warn them to get out of there," she says, her low voice a bit rough from the drinking and whatever else the night entailed with Blake. "I wonder if it has to do with the registration stuff or those, you know, ghettos, that they're trying to make."
"It could be," Faye says, moving to reach into her purse next to the pastry bag, to pull out a printed article. "I thought I'd recognized one of the faces in the… vision." She unfolds the article, to show it to her. It took most of her freetime searching through newspaper microfilm in the library, but she did eventually find it. Helped that her memory had narrowed it down a little. A story about the Evolved Pastor of Guilding Light Baptist, giving a sermon and sharing his pro-Evolved views. The reason she recognized him, is because later on, he would be connected to her daughter's story— a target of Humanis First. "He was in my vision. Joseph Sumpter."
Peyton's eyes widen. She knows who Joseph is, though she hadn't actually met the man, or at least that she can remember. They have been in the same room, have heard one another's voices, but she was blindfolded at the time. "Oh," she says softly, taking the article and reading it, glancing at the face in the picture. "If it's where he lives now, I can probably find out where it is… give them some warning. If… you know. If they don't already know. They may have seen it coming, of course."
She isn't sure where Joseph is living these days, but she can easily call around. "Let me go get some clothes on and we can watch movi… no, bad things happen when we watch movies. Wanna go shopping?"
"If possible I'd like to meet him, but I understand if you can just find a way to arrange a meeting." Faye says, noticing the sudden change in discussion, and mentions of movies— no, good things rarely happen when they watch movies. Ex-loves show up and die. Things like that. "Peyton," she says instead, moving a little closer to her. "What did you see?"
The question is ignored as Peyton stands, careful to keep that skimpy robe tucked around her. "I don't know him personally, but I know people who know him, so I can try, but you know. 'Peyton Whitney wants to talk to you' are not words that are likely to really interest a minister, unless it's to try to save my wretched lost soul or something, right?" she says jokingly, even as she moves toward the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. As if in an after thought, her voice muffled from the walls between them, she calls back, "Nothing much!" It's easier to lie when she's not sitting close.
Not today, but one of these days, I hope you'll tell me, Faye sends a thought through the wall, ignoring all muffling obstacles, as she walks to put the pastries and bagels in the fridge, so that they don't sit on the counter all day. The coffe they can carry with them, until they get to the store, which— "Let's go shopping. I could use a couple nice dresses for the summer."
The empathic bond can't be ignored, but Peyton doesn't respond, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, trying to be sure not to think anything her mother will pick up. The silence is enough to admit she saw something, without having to say it. She gets dressed quickly and simply, a bright pink tank dress, silver gladiator sandals, and her hair up in a bun to show off the tattoo.
"There's a great boutique that just opened over on the West side that I keep meaning to go back to. Let's go there," Peyton says brightly, stepping out of the hallway. She bends down to pet Von — he's too big now to be a purse pup, so he has to stay. She picks up her coffee and her purse. "Retail therapy, coming right up."