Participants:
| Scene Title | What Brings You Out Here? |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Abigail pays a visit to the Lighthouse, to invite Gillian on a Vegas Trip. |
| Date | April 28, 2010 |
From the outside, the Lighthouse looks as if it has had better days. The massive tower rising out of the house has fallen from its former glory. It is no longer a shining beacon, guiding wayward ships in from the lost harbor — though some may argue its purpose now is even more admirable. In its current state, the lighthouse seems to be in disrepair. Though upon closer inspection it all seems to be in the details. The paint has chipped away, leaving a discolored patterns of grays, whites, off-whites, and more grays. The occasional graffiti tag is here or there along the large building. One would notice that the doors, the windows, and the integrity of the building are all quite sound and newly repaired. The lighthouse has just been left with the look of abandonment.
Inside is a completely different story. Upon entering the main door, one will find a completely furnished and cozy arrangement. A spacious living room lined with two large blue sofa's, facing each other, a coffee table between them and several large bean bag chairs have been planted in the room. Shelves have been hung on the wall to display various different pictures of the occupants. A large bookcase is against the wall, holding a large variety of books from Dr.Seuss to the Bible, and even a copy of the Qur'an. The living room is focused on the fireplace a small black fence encloses it, the wood stocked on the bricks in front of it.
Connected to the living room is a kitchen, complete with a large rectangular table capable of seating around four on each long side and two on each end. A sink, a stove, an oven, a microwave and two refrigerators complete the look. Several low and overhead cabinets line the kitchen. At the edge of the kitchen are a pair of doors, one leading to a bedroom and the other, which has a padlock on it, leads to the basement.
At the back of the living room a glass sliding door leads out into the backyard of the Lighthouse, but just before it a staircase leads to the upper levels of the structure.
The Lighthouse has it better than most places. There's heat from the fireplace, water coming in the pipes, and coffee. Why yes, there is coffee. Brewing in the kitchen, and filling the place with the nice smell of the stuff, while the rest of the house has the smell of fire burning in the fireplace. The different wood gives different smells, though there's almost no sounds of children in the downstairs. Only a few footsteps wandering around, a couple kids doing their homework early at the table… And Gillian sits next to the curtained window, reading from a book. Silently. This book is for her. Reading time can come later.
A solid looking truck with snow tires, a ford that has withstood the test of time and technology is coming up to the Lighthouse. Someone who frankly hasn't been here in ages and forever, but has a good reason to come now. From the window, the door creaks open, crutches popped out and soon followed by a bundled up person who is doggedly making her way through the out of doors and towards the front door of the Lighthouse. Not hard to figure out who it is when she gets closer, one Abigail Beauchamp.
With all the time between now and the last time they'd seen each other, Gillian's rather surprised at the form visible through ice and snow gathered on the window. With the crutches, she'll be slow enough that by the time she's a the door, the book has been marked and put aside, the woman has thrown a coat on to fight against the chill of just opening the door, and the door unlocks and opens. "Abby, what brings you out here," she says, surprised to see her, but waving her inside. "There's coffee in the kitchen. You could probably use some thanks to this cold." Coffee, and a fire in the fire place. One closely tended.
"Coffee, would be a godsend Gillian" Abigail confesses, hopping up the stoop and into the lighthouse proper. It's warmth welcome and the even the trucks heater just keeping the worst of the cold off in it. It's old. It's drafty. "I'm taking a trip. I'm heading out west to meet up with someone and escape the cold. Heavens knows, I'd take the whole city with me, but then… well"
Door close and heat no longer escapes and the ladies can peel off coats. "It's short notice, I know, and I apologize. It's a last minute thing but.. do you think.. you might be amenable to joining me in Vegas? I mean, I know you're running this place and all but…"
It's the older kids down doing their homework, so they just glance up, one flashes briefly with jealousy at the mention of Las Vegas, before Gillian leads to the kitchen. "Technically Brian still handles a lot of it, but— yeah, I've been doing a lot." As she reaches to grab a clean coffee cup, one that's plain light blue, she bites down on her lower lip. "How long would the trip be? I can probably make a few calls. There's been enough offers of help, and this place is appealing, even with kids and chores. If only cause we still have running water." Hot running water.
"A week? I mean, I can get you back sooner, it's not like we're flying there. I know a teleporter that I can rely on, to get us there and back. I was going to invite Mel as well, and she's got a sixteen year old that she takes care of, so I'll have to count on him coming too. But… Teo.. Teo knows I'm going and he's just short of told me, to take folks with me, friends. Most still have to work or they can't go or…" Or they're involved in clandestine things.
"I promise I won't even have my homesec babysitters. Parkman promised me that I wouldn't have to have someone if I didn't want to, because the odds of anything happening there are very low" The ones doing their homework at flashed a smile at, a glance to their work as she thumbs through. A plastic and latched contraption around her foot wool socks beneath that and over that to keep her foot warm.
"You don't have to pay for anything but your food if you don't want to. I thought we might.. stay some place fancy, sorta fancy"
"A teleporter? So if there's an emergency here, I could probably come back early and not fuck up the whole trip?" Gillian asks, frowning a bit down at the coffee that gets poured and handed to Abby. It looks like the blonde could use a lot of downtime, but at the same time— who couldn't? The storm has everyone housed in, and with certain other things. "I don't know if I know Mel, or Kendall, but— I do think of you as a friend, and— fuck." She realizes she's cursing and glances at the door. No one's watching, or listening, more accurately.
"I can pay. I got my scholarship from Apollo turned into money. Most of it I put in a trust in the Lighthouse's name, so if we have to send any of them to college, we have money saved up, but the rest is in my bank account. It's not a lot— but it's enough." Enough for a few days of relaxation, naked dancers, comedy shows, gambling and drinking.
"I'm sure that if you needed to get back, he'd teleport you back. I'm sure he'd be sticking around Vegas himself, he strikes me as the kind of guy who would enjoy it" Crutches are passed to one of the kids to take and put to the side while coffee is taken and cupped. "To eat, it's not that bad there, so I've heard. I thought maybe we might… see a show, time permitting. Mel.. and you, would get along I think. You both know he who shall not be named that I work with. Both of you have uhh… you know, broke something over him"
"Are you kidding me?" Gillian asks, looking at the blonde, and figuring out— no. No she's not kidding. "Get the deranged dead Nazi out of his head and suddenly he's a fucking Cassanova again. If I didn't know better, I'd think his real ability was 'get people to fall in love with me so I can break their hearts'." And she would know better, cause she was stuck wit his ability for months and she didn't suddenly have a bunch of suitors appear out of nowhere. "At least we'll have something to talk about— or argue about. Sometimes both can be good. We even make it a drinking game."
"No.. no" No" Abby's hands come out, almost touching the other woman but pulls her hand back at the last moment. A momentary flash of oh shit across her face. God knows what touching Gillian might provoke. "No. She, she had a thing for him, they almost dallied and then he just.. He chose Kaylee over her and .. okay well, he's a really good Paramedic?" Trying to find the silver lining in her partner. "And there for me in a pinch. I guess, if you don't date him, things are better right?" Hopefully, maybe.
'Okay, well. Vegas" Getting the subject back on track.
"I don't think that's true, cause I never actually dated him," Gillian says quietly, voice trailing off as she looks away. Chose Kaylee. There's sadness there, now. He'd also chose Kaylee over any attempt at being his friend. He showed that blonde girl the video that she bought him, and told him to not watch with anyone but her. Back to the subject, she rubs at her face and nods. "Vegas would be a good break. It'll be good to take a vacation that doesn't involve— dangerous things. This doesn't involve dangerous things, right?"
"Well, if you ask the guys, Danger follows me, or I plow head first into it but hey" There's a lift of Abby's shoulders, a twinge of her ribs. "Truth be told? Caliban, the guy who gave you the tickets for the Gala? I.. something happened that, I don't really want to go into but, he's in Vegas right now, dealing with some things and well, it's me. Guy beats me up, I sulk and then run after them to find out why" Sarcastic smile creeping up the side of her mouth.
"That sounds… kinda like me. Except I tend to wait for them to come back, or refuse to let them leave," Gillian says quietly, touching the scar on her forehead that had been given to her by Gabriel so long ago. There's another mark that would be there, if her body hadn't regenerated, from Peter, when he smashed her head with a wrench. "But if he tries to hit you while we're there, I'll claw his eyes out."
If he tries to hit her.
"He won't hit me. Gillian, we think I manifested the night that that it happened. That something I did made him.. attack me, thinking I was some other person imitating his Abigail" Slender fingers cup the coffee cup and she looks over at the other woman.
"Manifested?" Gillian asks, looking at the woman only a little younger than herself more carefully, but not really understanding. But she does understand abilities causing someone to go crazy and do things they wouldn't normally do… Like hit people they care about. There's movement upstairs that might draw attention, the sound of footsteps. It sounds like the boys are playing a game of some kind.
"Surprise? Listen, we're just.. it's being kept quiet, till we know what I can do but.. I'm evolved now. You know, like, one shot and boom. So far.. it's just fevers that are annoying and…" There's a gesture to the booted foot. "Dislocated ankles" Bruises beneath the turtleneck that are finally fading. Last anyone knew, the healer was devoid of any ability and even un-registered.
"He's out in Vegas and I just.. I need to know what happened, but not while I'm crouched behind a couch and needing a time stopper to keep him from killing me"
"I'll have to be careful not to augment you, then," Gillian says quietly, looking at her for a long moment. "I actually learned a new trick that I haven't told the government— or next to anyone really, about. So your secret is safe with me." Though the idea of walking around with something that could make people attack them…
Instead of dwelling on the possibilities, she claps her hands together, "When we leaving?"
"Gillian, we don't know if.. I can do that, just that.. Well, Peter mused that that might have been it. Mel doesn't think that's it. SO just.. yeah, skin to skin. Hopefully Vegas won't be too crowded when we go there and… the plan is to leave tomorrow morning, that good enough for you? Can you manage that?" The blonde looks hopeful at the brunette.
'And.. what new trick is it that you learned?" Curiosity coming to the fore of her mind as she lifts her cup to take a sip of the black coffee.
"Should be enough time to make some phone calls, talk to Brian, and make sure the kids know I'll call every single day," Gillian says, rubbing a hand over her face as she realizes she'll probably look forward to the calls more than she would imagine. Thank god for long distance cellphone packages and the fact the Lighthouse is legal government okayed work.
"Well— it's a little complicated. But the energy I use to augment people doesn't have to come just from me, anymore. I haven't really had much a chance to test it, but I think I could weaken people as well as strengthen them. Kind of like— like what Kazimir could do. Take life and give. I can give and take energy." While she explains this, she's watching the door. "I kind of got the idea from him." Or Peter as him.
"You could drain a person of their energy or the source they pull on for their ability… give it to another?" Abigail queries, head tilted as she regards the woman. "Sorta… a dampener instead of augmenter?"
"I think so. But like I said, I haven't had a chance to practice it. I used it once on Meredith, when I augmented her out of control. Took the energy I gave back. And once on Lance…" When she was augmenting Gabriel in an attempt to save Jenny… Gillian shakes her head a bit, still unsure what happened there, or if Jenny was okay, but it's not something she'll be able to ask about from her cellphone in Vegas. "It feels different, though. There was one time, when I was augmenting Gabriel, when it seemed he took control of my ability, drawing more from it then I wanted— And I found out I could pull back."
"Maybe if I ever find out what I actually do, you can help me practice control" Abigail muses. "Dampen it if I need to" If she needs to. "The other two are evolved as well. So if they come, it won't be that bad, Mel's got pretty good control over her own but I don't know about her ward"
Abigail inhales deep, shifting "This will be good. I mean, you know, besides what I'm going there for. This should be good, I've never been, Mel's never been and it'll be warm. We'll probably not want to even come back"
"I've never been, either," Gillian says with a nod, grinning a little to herself. "This'll be the first time I've left New York for something that didn't involve shootings and saving the world. It's been about a year for me." And a year ago, it was a few hours in Hawaii on a beach by herself… Thanks to Peter. "At least this time I won't have to spend it alone. And neither will you. The kids should be enough to bring me back. Not sure about the rest of you. The kids mean a lot to me."
"Work, the bar, there's other things to bring me back. There's the reason I took the formula to manifest too. Richard hoped I'd manifest healing. If I have and it was just.. Robert, well, I'd have to come back for that. Listen, do you need some help with the kids for a bit? I can hang around for a few hours before I need to head back to the Rivage" She offers to the other woman. "It's been a while since I've been out here'
"Yeah, we could use some help," Gillian says, cleaning up a bit in the kitchen in an oddly nesting-like motion. She never was the homely type, until now, but she does have some of the instincts. "And it was nice of you— to try and manifest to help Cardinal. It'd be good if he could get back into his body again sometime soon." And no, not just because she slept with him a few times— that was casual. Even if she could use good casual sex right now.
"It's almost reading time. You can help me with that. We'll have to pick something short, though, so they aren't left waiting." And so she doesn't have to attempt to do reading time over a speaker phone.
"Reading, reading I can do" Abigail grins at that thought. She won't voice about the niceness of doing this for Richard. It's not the only reason why. Half of it is pure selfishness. The other half is the desire to see if she could help Richard. The cup is pushed over and she pushes back herself, fetching crutches so she can head into the livingroom proper. Time to find a book to read.