Participants:
| Scene Title | Warnings |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Chess visits Eve and the two trade warnings — another comes in a mysterious way along with the return of Eve's sight. |
| Date | May 14, 2018 |
The door to the Cat’s Cradle opens and Chess enters the establishment, dark eyes scanning the bar first and then the stage, and finally the various groups of patrons to find the one person she’s come to visit. The door still held open for a moment, she casts a quick glance behind her, before letting it shut and stepping inside proper.
She makes her way to the bar, one hand curling around the shoulder strap of the courier bag. She doesn’t sit, but instead merely leans a hip against the barstool, glancing down the length of the bar, as if to check for familiar faces. Not finding any, she waits for the bartender, though her focus goes back to the door.
There's a cough and a commotion from the downstairs and Eve’s head pops out from around the corner a big pair of sunglasses on her face, a bright pink color. There's a grunt and then she's throwing something on the ground, a crutch. “I hate it!” She screams, mouth worked in a frown as she moves forward hobbling and holding onto tables as she moves.
“She's been like that for the past two days,” Sassy Bartender comments as he slides Chess a drink with a nod.
Eve’s head snaps up and she narrows her eyes in the direction of Sadat's voice. “Are you talking about me like I'm not here? Maybe I'm not here, maybe you're everywhere. You ever think of that?” There's a manic laugh and she runs a pale hand roughly through her raven dark mass of hair. “I'm blind not deaf buddy!”
“Are you psychic too?” Chess asks with a glance down at the drink she didn’t order, but she picks it up with a smirk, turning to look at Eve just when she calls out she’s blind. Her eyes widen at the sight of the woman on crutches, apparently visually impaired.
“Eve? What the fuck happened?” she says, setting down the drink without even tasting it and hurrying to the woman, taking her by the arm to lead her where she is trying to go. “Who did this to you?” she says, her tone demanding, like she’s about to rush off to seek revenge in Eve’s name.
“I just have the best memory in this place.” Is said with a snort and then Sassy is hurrying along with Chess to assist Eve.
“Ah ahh.. listen I'm fine, I’m fine!!” Eve is not fine and the shawl she wears over her head barely covers the bandage she still wears over the scar where she had brain surgery. “I..I.” She struggles to speak for a moment, it still happens sometimes.
“Whose that? Did Red send another stripper? The last one wasn't real.” There’s a startled grin from the seer until she grins even wider at knowing that voice. “Boomer!” She leans into Chess and Sassy as they make a way to a bar stool that is next to Chess’ drink. She smells of marijuana and cookies. “Mother.” She whispers to Chess as she sinks into the stool and leans against the bar. “Mother, I saw her. She ripped my brain out of my skull and made it mush. Brain putty.”
Massaging her hands, “No more sight, no more echoes, no more futures.”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Chess, aka Boomer, says, brows drawn together with worry as she stares at the woman who was perfectly healthy the last time she saw her. She shakes her head, then rolls her eyes at herself for using body language the other woman can’t see.
“Your mother did this to you?” she asks. She should know better, that Eve’s words are rarely literal, but not knowing Eve’s family tree, it might make a lot of sense. Apple, tree, not far, et cetera.
“I… jesus, Eve. I’m sorry,” she says, reaching out to take one of the woman’s hand sin her own and squeezing it. “I guess I won’t ask for any insights then. Now I feel like an asshole.” Because that’s why she came.
“No..not just mine. All of ours. She takes who she will in her quest to be seen. She.. wants out.” Eve’s face is close to Chess’ and she whips off her glasses. “To be let out.. you have to first be let in.” Her nose wrinkles and she thinks of her last few dreams, those eyes burning gold she shudders. The seer looks nervous and she bites the bottom of her wine colored lip, eyebrows reaching up to her hairline.
“Insight? What is wrong?” Eve’s change of topic is swift and though Adam and his companion stay on her mind the notion that Boomer would need to consult with her has her worried. Not many people came to her with simple questions or requests, there was usually something amiss, off.
“The only asshole here is Mother currently, sh-” he seer stops and ducks down fast as if there was something hurtling towards her. “Ah ah sorry, thought she heard me.” Her blind gray eyes shift this way and that.
“Ah,” is said a bit flatly. “You know I don’t believe in any of that gods and goddesses stuff.” Chess is an equal opportunity doubter. “It’s someone with a power who did this to you or you burnt your own out, Eve, simple as that. If it’s the latter, we can figure out who and get even, yeah?”
Chess reaches for the whiskey the bartender had given her, taking a swallow and closing her eyes at the burn down the throat, then shakes her head, following it with another eye roll when she realizes she’s done it yet again. “No, don’t worry about it. You have your own drama, clearly, and you don’t need to worry about mine. Especially when you’re practically a pirate.” One bad leg, one bad eye.
She rubs a hand over her eyes and sighs, then knocks back back the rest of the whiskey. “What’s your prognosis? I mean, maybe not having your ability’s a good thing. But your vision… Shit.” Her tone is sympathetic, if blunt.
“Chess,” She reaches forward and the use of Chess’ real name causes for a real shift in the mood of the seer. “She is all of it. Do you remember the tale of my beheading back in 17 something Japan?” Eve reaches forward to grab Chess’ hand and she tries to look straight at her even though all she sees is black. “She is the woman with gold eyes, the one that put me back together again. She is around, she is near. I.. it's hard to explain right. The images all there and not, BAM there again.” She twitches with a nervous snort.
“I would love a parrot.” She quips.
Pressing Chess on her own issues doesn't seem to be the route to go and so Eve lays off and shrugs her shoulders. “The docs don't know. My case is unheard of! A blind pirate! I've lost my booty.” She’s leaning back again and fishing around for what is discovered to.. a tampon. “Ah, that's not it.” She throws it back in her bag with a snicker and soon pulls out a piece of tissue. “SHIVER ME FUCK!” She digs in her bag more frantic and then pulls out a joint. “There you are you little bastard.” She says feeling along the edges and of the spliff before leaning over for Sassy to light it for her with a nod of thanks.
Blowing a bit of smoke up towards the ceiling, “I think she did something to it. I'm not sure if I miss it.. or if I don't.. it's just empty.” Eve had been experiencing the future through her ability for so long when it was removed from her she could get lost. “I'm so use to carrying the pieces of the puzzle, shuffling them around. There is good that can…” She trails off.
Chess lifts a brow, clearly dubious; this time she doesn’t have to hide her skepticism, though, because Eve can’t see it. She snorts when the woman comes up with everything but what she’s looking for.
“The lord giveth and the lord taketh away, I guess,” she says, though it’s not a sincere sentiment. “It’s probably a telepath or something fucking with your head. I don’t know. Like maybe they put a mental block on you or something. They can do that, I think.”
When the bartender’s done lighting up Eve, Chess taps her glass for seconds on the whiskey. “Your ability does do good,” she says softly, squeezing Eve’s hand. “But maybe it’s good to get a rest from it, too. You been to anyone who specializes in abilities or just the medical people? Someone else might be able to help. SESA or whatever?” That sounds a bit uncertain, as the young woman is uncertain about her feelings on the agency.
“Do you trust them?” she says, suddenly. “SESA?”
“Yes she does.” Eve agrees with Chess on the Lord with a nod of her head, dark hair rustling with the movement, she wants to convince Chess. Something in the pit of her stomach tells her everyone will be convinced soon enough. A flash of the horsemen and that child with orange hair and she stiffens before slowly relaxing.
Puffing away on the spliff, she hold the thing between her lips while she pulls sunglasses back over her eyes feeling some kind of way of having her eyes in the state they are in. “A break is good, even the fastest cheetah have to take a rest.” Maybe Chess was right, at that moment Sassy comes up to pour Chess pour liquor.
On an exhale, “I trust people. There are friends in all sorts of places. Molessss, speedy, it all depends.” Eve smiles softly, ”Few of my friends work there! Red, Sir Knight Cesar..”
Chess flashes a smile at Sassy, then glances back at Eve, reaching to tuck a strand of the woman’s dark hair out of her face. “I don’t,” the younger woman says, a bit flatly. Trust people, she means. Only a few.
She takes a sip of the newly refilled drink. “What about Yamagato? Do you trust them?” Her tone is neutral, but carefully so. She reaches for the spliff to bum a toke, then carefully puts it back in Eve’s fingers.
“And that is why you're alive Boomer!” Eve says with a light smile. “I might be too trusting some say,” maybe that's because she sees what people can be if given chances. “But people almost always get a chance to hop down another path, at least.. one.” Whether they decide to take it or not is evident all around them. Choices leading to where people stand today.
The blind woman smiles softly as Chess tucks her hair behind her and hits the joint before passing it back. “You are special Boomer, thank you for seeing me.” Eve knows it's nice to be reminded of that fact. Special.
“They are a country in a country,” She let's that's sit for a moment, “They have the money and power to do what they would like too. I wouldn't say trust them.. maybe if I had a tantalizing offer for them.. that they couldn't refuse and would work out in their benefit then they could be trusted. That's an awful lot to ensure they act trustworthy no? They throw a great party, I was there and saw Monica.”
She stops and looks over at Chess, “Monica, you can trust. She is a true friend and is someone you'd rather have on your side then against.” This talk of Yamagato has Eve tilting her head. “What.. why are you asking about them dear?” She's heard the news but…
“I’m not,” Chess says in that matter-of-fact tone — there’s no self deprecating there, simply a matter of fact in her opinion. “Not even one of a kind,” she adds a bit more wryly, but she doesn’t follow it up with any explanation.
“Monica’s with Yamagato?” she asks, brows drawing together a little as she takes in this bit of intel. At the question, she shrugs again. “I’m willing to admit I might be a bit more paranoid than reasonable at times so trying to figure out what the few people I do trust think about these groups. I mean, at some point, the people in the Institute or the Company or any of those places probably thought they were doing more good than harm. Maybe they even started out that way. But…”
She trails off and sighs. She sounds tired. “You have a lot going on so it’s nothing you need to worry about. At some point I might need to trust someone who has more power than I do, is all. Not yet, though.” She takes the joint, taking a drag from it before tucking it back between Eve’s fingers. “Don’t mention it to Cesar or Monica or any of those people, yeah?”
The dark blot in Eve’s vision crystallizes into a clear image like a blurry camera lens finally coming into focus. Where once was darkness and occasionally muted light, there is suddenly everything in vivid color. Eve’s vision comes back in a wholly unnatural way, and Chess can see the seer’s blind eyes clear from their cloudy milk to their healthy, normal color.
As Eve sees Chess for the first time, there is a moment in which she sees someone standing behind her. Shorter by just a touch, thinner by just as much. A dash of bright pink hair instead of chestnut brown. Whoever she is, she is draped in an oversized plum-colored cashmere sweater. Then, as if by a trick of the light, she’s not there anymore.
Was she ever?
“Boomer you're my friend we have to help ea-” she's cut off mid sentence as her vision suddenly clears. There's a sharp gasp and Eve is reeling backwards her eyes wide as she looks up and down and over to the Sassy Bartender who raises his eyebrows at her antics. There's a light layer of tears that well up and the seer grips Chess’ hand harder. “I can see! Oh Boomer was it you? What happened? It's like Christmas! It's like-”
She’s frantic in her speech and there's a smile on her face. She can see but then she notices someone behind Chess and her eyes widen even more if that is possible. “Oh oh behind you Boomer who is..” but the woman is gone..
“Who is the pink hair..” her brow furrows and she looks confused. Tears still falling down her cheeks as she looks at Chess. Taking her free hand she smacks it upside her head a couple times. “Maybe the signal is off..”
When Eve trails off, Chess’ brows draw together. She shakes her head when the woman asks if it’s her, but she gasps, too, when she realizes Eve can suddenly see.
And see.
She shakes her head again. “I don’t know anyone with pink hair,” she says, but her voice is a little uncertain. “But maybe it’s a warning.”
Raking her lower lip through her teeth, Chess waits a moment, before speaking again. “Listen. If anyone says they’re my sister and asks about me, don’t tell them, all right? Even if they look like they might be.” She hesitates, then adds, “Especially if they look like they might be. Call my number — it won’t go through but I’m checking the voice mail sometimes. Or… you know. If you’re back to good, you will find me.”
She reaches to squeeze Eve’s hand again. “Do you need to go back to the doctors? So they can figure out why it’s back?”
A warning..
Eve’s now clear and back to pale gray eyes take in Chess’ face, she studies it before doing the same to Sassy and then to the surface of the bar. Taking in every detail, every line. Not willing to take this for granted again. “I.. don't .. I don't understand Boomer.” She's musing on the woman with pink hair, “Maybe she has something she needs to say.”
It's a little hard to focus but then Chess is talking about sisters that shouldn't be believed to be sisters of hers. “Has someone stolen your face?” She tilts her head looking at her younger friend once again. “I will call of course.” Eve breathes softly and she sighs as Chess grabs her hand to squeeze in comfort.
“Gilly would say I should go to the hospital.” She's eyebrows raise a bit as she looks down at her black dress clad figure, a hand going to touch on the part of her hair that was shaved on the top, a thick black tuft of hair was already growing to fill the space.
“The Docs might get a kick outta this.” It's jarring, seeing again so suddenly and so vividly. It didn’t just slowly fade back into view.
Stolen her face? Chess huffs a short, breathy laugh at that, ringing just a hair too close to the truth.
“No. Someone’s trying to kill me. Might be a few someones. They look… I don’t know. Kinda like me but not Chinese?” Not that Chess’ looks are so easily pinned down, biracial as she is. “She didn’t have pink hair.”
But there might be someones. She doesn’t repeat that.
Chess sighs and wipes a hand over her own eyes. She looks exhausted, now that Eve can see her, dark circles under her eyes, her complexion a shade or two too pale compared to her natural tan. “Don’t worry about it. I’m more worried about you. I’m laying low.” Not as low as she should be, of course.
Like her but not Chinese. Eve takes a moment to jot that down in her head. “Have you been sleeping?” The seer looks concerned and she leans in close really studying Chess’ face again. “I still worry..” even if she's going through her own shit.
She jumps up with a start as she realizes she can see, it hits her again. Eve reaches over and waves at Sassy, “Paper and Charcoal stat!” To which Sassy smiles a little and reaches under the bar to pass a sketch pad and charcoal that she kept there. As Eve is handed the art supplies she immediately gets to work. “In my dream.. the one that caused this.. war, blood, so many bodies, floating up towards the sky. Their time has come. Our time has come. Time time time.” The sounds of charcoal on paper filling the space of her speech.
“Adam Monroe is coming.. he's.. dancing on the backs of dead men. Flinging the blood in his wake.” there's a flash of the Brit covered in blood with golden glowing eyes in her mind. “He doesn't like the ones who don't have gifts.. this world was not made for them. I quote.” There's a broad stroke and she leans back to inspect her work. A symbol is there on the page, some kind of twin lines connected at the top. Some sort of Japanese figure..
“This is her symbol I think, Mother. If you see this,” the oracle gives Chess a serious look. “Please let me know.”
“A little,” isn’t a lie. Chess shrugs. “I never sleep well.” Not since the end of the war, though Eve doesn’t know that, of course.
Or maybe she does.
Chess watches as Eve sketches and nods at the symbol. “Is that the symbol for Gemini?” she asks. “Or a curvy Roman numeral two?”
She frowns at the second thought, but shakes her head at that. “Sorry. It’s one of those things… like how humans make faces out of clouds and wallpaper and stuff? I’m seeing numbers in everything.” She rolls her eyes at herself yet again, though this time Eve can see it. “So this Mother, she’s a person in the flesh, or just running around and doing shit in your head?”
“The Gemini? ..the gemini.” Eve’s brow furrows and her eyes widen as she leans forward again, “Does.. are there two? Her sister. Her brother. Maybe Adam.” She's muttering furiously to herself for a moment before Sassy is laying a hand on her arm. He slides over another thing, something Eve hadn't been able to appreciate before with her sight loss. A stainless steel bo staff, the ends retracted so that it looked like a thick walking stick. The seer’s pale gray eyes take in the staff as she places it towards the floor and presses a button in the middle. The end ending the floor of the bar with a thud.
“Both,” running pale fingers over the staff before raising her gaze to meet Chess’. “I'm not sure if she's in a body right now, she's roaming aimless but trapped, trapped behind the Looking Glass.” Her tone is hushed, leaning on the staff and using her free hand to trace circles on the surface of the bar.
“She says she wants out. Let me out. I think she needs my friend, Otter Eyes. His black holes or something. He was there. In a dream I had of her. Letmeoutletmeoutletmeout.” her pitch raising in fevor.
Chess’ almond eyes widen a bit when Eve begins to imitate the “Mother,” whoever that is, and she reaches to take Eve’s hand and squeeze it. “Shit, you’re still creepy, Mad-Eye,” she says, though it’s with fondness and a smile — the smile’s a little strained, though, between the worry she’s been carrying and the fact that Eve’s got even more to add on to it.
“I don’t think there’s any otters in Alice in Wonderland, or I might just be remembering it wrong,” she says wryly. She may have given up getting answers that make sense on just what’s happened to Eve and just who the threat is.
She taps her glass thoughtfully for a moment, then looks around, making sure that even Sassy isn’t close enough to over hear her. “Listen. We need a code, something only you and I know — in case you ever meet someone who says I sent them. Or anyone who looks like me… before you help them or do anything dangerous for them, yeah? Something simple and quick, but that only you and me know.”
Mad Eye snaps to attention and grins wildly at the woman across from her. The return of her sight was making her return to a bit of her old self. There was a tainted shadow there though from the recent trauma, something she hasn't yet addressed. Eve’s hand grips Chess and squeezes in warmth and friendship, “sisterhood”.
“Otter Eyes has no regard for which story is his origin, he just goes where he goes. Ending up near the Looking Glass, an unfortunate line of destiny it seems.” Grinding the end of her bo staff into the ground slowly as she speaks but when Chess makes to look at Sassy who is down the bar and polishing glasses the fiddling with the staff stops and she lowers her voice.
Thinking quickly, “The cuckoo’s fallen,” and then Eve taps Chess’ palm, “And the answer back: All things fall.”
Chess lifts a brow but laughs, shaking Eve’s hand as if they’ve struck a deal.
“Very Double-0 Seven. I like it.”
She stands, reaching into her back pocket to pull out a bill and tuck it under the empty glass, before bending to press a kiss against Eve’s forehead. “I’m glad you’re better. Sorry I wasn’t around earlier. I shouldn’t be here now, really, but you know me.” She’s a restless sort.
“Be careful, okay? Don’t chase after all this stuff, maybe, give yourself some time to recover,” she suggests.
“We're covert agents, hiding in the shadows.” Eve’s version of the shadows must be in plain sight with a tuba but that's neither here nor there.
Eyes close at the kiss on her forehead and Eve snorts, “I'll behave. You know where to find me. Mad Eye is ever watching, now.. Constant Vigilance.” They are both wanderers, kindred spirits on the road. “Watch the corners Boomer, pink hair.. remember her.”
She leans on the staff as she stands awkwardly then balances on her feet with the barstool at her back. “Your face is your own, even if others wear it.”