bigapplesauce | Bennett's Arrival~ [OPEN]

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Bennett's Arrival~ [OPEN]

All of the sudden, Bennett's awake and her head is swirling, and she flinches, sitting up against the brick wall she's found herself leaning against. This, she notes immediately, does not make any sense at all. Just a moment ago, according to her memory, she was sitting in a chair in a lab in the LA Dollhouse, working on Caroline's personality wedge, and now she is in a dark alley that smelled of garbage in a city that is most certainly not LA.

Out of nowhere she recalls the gunshot, and her lips press together tightly as she tries to piece it together. I was shot. She checks herself over carefully, but there's no blood or pain to indicate a gunshot wound. Strange, as she can just barely recall --

"I couldn't find -- " Topher was saying, and her head swung back

No. It makes no sense. There is no way she's survived a gunshot wound to the...

"You all right, girl?" a man calls out to her, and approaches her where she's sprawled silently. Her nose wrinkles as he gets closer; he's clearly homeless at best, and she immediately reaches around for something to defend herself with, but finds nothing. She has to lash out with what she has in order to survive, and her head is still spinning.

"Go away," she says directly, coolly.

"Eh, fuck you too," the homeless man answers, and leaves her be. She climbs to her feet at long last, her knees weak, and heads towards the street. A street sign will mean an address, and an address will mean a location, which is the information she needs more than anything else right now.

Where - how?

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"Romac isn't the only gig in the city. And not the most moral, either, depending on who you talk to." He tips his head to look at her curiously. She's definitely right about something strange going on here. This has all been a little too easy, a little too much like a set-up.

"Everyone dumped through the rift is stuck here, in the city. That might be their doing, might not be." He shrugs. "Again. Who you talk to." He wouldn't mind going to Romac himself, if he thought it might get him some straight answers about what's really going on.

"I am sure I've worked for less moral people in the past," Bennett says matter-of-factly, and slips her glasses on. The confidence is back, and she's talking without thinking it through very much. "I can't tell you anything further. The company I worked for can be very ruthless." She pauses. "Of course, it seems that I am very hard to kill. Which is completely illogical. Humans in general are very easy to kill." She shrugs. "Which is why I gravitate to the closest bastion of power, on average."

"That must be why you gravitated towards me." He flashes a grin, completely pleased with himself. And hey, it's true. He's probably the most powerful thing in the vicinity. It had definitely been lucky for her that he was around when she had shown up. He can do a lot more than the average man on the street and he's probably the best person to take her into Romac if she's determined to go.

Bennett raises an eyebrow, but despite herself a chortle escapes and she claps a hand over her mouth. "Thank you," she says, now very serious, and determined to pretend she didn't just do something like laugh at a stupid joke. Caroline would have had a witty comment. That sobers her.

Despite being very aware of her sudden shift in mood, Gabriel smiles back at her. "It's what I do. Now." He claps his hands together. "Lets go see the boy toy, shall we?" He offers her his hand, holding it out to her to take of her own free will.

She stares at his hand, confused at the connection between handholding and transportation, then realizes that she's dealing with a world where there's a hole in the sky that people fall out of, some of whom have been brought back to life. Teleportation would be the least strange thing that would happen today. She seizes his hand.

"This may be a bit...jarring." he warns her, and the next moment, they're standing outside of a tall skyscraper, it's walls glinting bright silver. Gabriel looks up at the height of the building and whistles, long and low. "It definitely pays well, whatever they're doing."

He checks that Bennett is standing upright and isn't in danger of freaking out or falling over before he lets go of her and and walks forward to open the doors. He notes to himself that he's already feeling a little more tired than usual. Usual being not tired at all. Frustratingly, teleporting tends to be more difficult now than it used to be. Adding passengers to that burden must make it all the more difficult.

Bennett ignores that her head is spinning a little, nonetheless that something that should have been impossible just happened, and follows him, now determined to see this insanity through. She gives him a brief nod in gratitude at his holding the door, eyebrows raising when he appears to be winded. "Generally amoral things pay well. It's one of the perks," she says simply.

"Not in my line of work," Gabriel says, before traipsing up to the front counter. He leans against the surface of the counter, only slightly leaning into the personal space of the young woman behind the counter. He smiles warmly and nods to the computer, his entire manner a little looser than it had been a moment before. "Hey, uh." He scratches the side of his face with manufactured uncertainty. "I'm looking for Topher Brink? Could you tell me where his office is?" He nods back to Bennett. "We're friends of his."

The girl nods and picks up her desk phone. "I'll call up. Who should I say it is?"

"Thanks. Just say it's Gabriel."

Edited 2013-02-20 05:49 (UTC)

"Brink's office," Mira answers the phone.

"We have two people here to see Mr. Brink, a Gabriel and companion, claiming to be friends of his," the woman informs her.

"Topher doesn't have friends," Mira answers stiffly. "But if they clear screening, send them up, I'll talk to them."

She hangs up, then speaks into the intercom to Topher's bedroom. "Topher, someone to see you. They're on their way up."

Downstairs in the lobby, the woman smiles at Gabriel. "Take the elevator to the 52nd floor, then head left, you'll find it." She's already made sure that Gabriel's and Bennett's intentions are innocent enough. Half the people at Romac's got powers of their own, and she can sense if anyone's up to anything sinister.

Bennett exhales, nerves suddenly creeping up on her. She puts a hand to Gabriel's arm to steady herself, and somehow, that's enough. She nods firmly and removes her hand from him. "Let's go." She can be panicked, she can be nervous, afraid, but the important thing is not to show it. She hits the button for the elevator and stares into it for a blank moment as it pings open.

Gabriel waves a thank you to the receptionist and follows Bennett into the elevator. He presses the correct button (because who doesn't like pressing buttons?) and waits as they make their ascent. Eventually, the doors ping open again and he leads them out into another fairly nondescript hallway.

"So, let me know," he asks idly as he scans the labels on doorways, "Is this going to be a happy reunion, or should I be prepared for nuclear warfare?" He glances back at her, raising an eyebrow. "Duck and cover, build a bunker, that sort of thing?"

Bennett considers the question, as it's actually a good one. On one hand, things were going rather well before she was apparently murdered. On the other, Topher is the kind of person who might suspect she is a zombie.

"He... he'll be startled," she decides on.

Gabriel takes that information and mulls it over for a moment before he spots the right door. "Here we are!" Without preamble, he pulls the door open and waves for Bennett to go ahead. He's a bit disappointed that Topher isn't waiting inside, but he can deal with another receptionist.

He walks forward and offers her his hand. "Hi there. We're looking for Topher. Blond, geeky, big fan of sweater vests?" With his free hand he points to the adjoining door. "Is he through there?"

Don't let her hear you calling her receptionist, Gabriel, Mira will be pissed. She shakes his though, because that makes it easier for her to get a read on his abilities. She withdraws her hand fairly quickly, looking rather uncomfortable. She has a thing about non-humans, and Gabriel is a rather over-powered non-human. She doesn't comment however.

She moves her gaze over to Bennett - not a very strong or threatening power, one similar her to her own, an extra sense. Empathy, she'd wager.

She looks back to Gabriel and gives him a nod, getting up. She doesn't even try for a smile.

"I'll fetch him," she answers, going through the door behind her into Topher's apartment.

Topher's still in the process of getting himself a coffee - he's fully dressed by now, but pretty dishevelled and with hair sticking up, definitely looking like he's just woken up.

"Man and a woman to see you. The man's name is Gabriel--" she starts, but Topher interrupts her.

"Gabriel? Short dude, brown hair, smirks a lot?" She nods. "Did he pass the screening?" She nods again. Topher hesitates. He's not particularly keen on talking to him.

"He's fairly powerful, I felt a mix of powers, particularly illusions. The woman is less powerful, I'd guess she has enhanced empathy," she informs him, pulling out her phone to text someone. "I'll notify security, just in case, make sure the bodyguard's watching."

"Fat load of good that's gonna do against illusions," Topher points out with annoyance.

Edited 2013-02-20 07:35 (UTC)

Bennett stares at the woman's vacated desk, then says to Gabriel without looking in his direction, "He thinks I'm dead. I think. I don't remember my death very well," she says, a little blankly. "So... this is going to be ... interesting." She clearly doesn't think that's a good thing.

"Dying is overrated." He chuckles, but there's definitely something sad behind that statement, if Bennett happens to be working her empathy skills in that direction.

He nudges her in the side and nods toward the closed door. "If you really want to make him shit his pants, you could work some zombie action. Shuffling. A bit of drool." He smirks, imagining Topher passing out from shock. "I could enhance the effect, make it convincing."

Bennett is suddenly struck with a pang of angst, which is disarming at best and vaguely horrifying at worst. This is not something she's used to at all. "Um. Um," she gets out, then says, "I... don't think that would be appropriate."

Topher eventually finishes grumbling to himself, and steps out from his apartment into the office. Mira stays behind, making sure security is doing their job.

Once he sees who's there, however, he completely forgets Gabriel even exists. He more or less forgets how to breathe. The only reason he hasn't dropped his cup of coffee is because he's holding it so tightly he starts losing feeling in his fingers.

A million half-formed thoughts are racing through his head, and it would be impossible to try to make proper sense of them. He just stares.

It's really him. It's absurd how her heart starts racing and she's staring back at him just as blankly as he looks at her, but words aren't coming to her. Eventually she stutters something out, not even really caring what: "I'm not a zombie! I'm real. It's me. Bennett. I know that I died, or I think I did, and I don't understand it either, but you're here too so that means..." That means what? She's losing her grip.

"That means..." Gabriel says, prompting her. When neither of them seem to be making much progress on speaking further, he pushes himself up from his seat and walks over to stand beside both of them. "That means that you're both here, and alive." He takes a deep, dramatic breath through his nose, his mouth closed in a tight smile. "Reunited, and it feels so good! Right?" He looks first to Topher, then Bennett. "Right."

He sits back down on the arm of the couch, a bag of popcorn suddenly appearing in one hand while the other makes a 'roll-tape' motion. "Okay, action."

Topher doesn't properly react to Bennett's little speech, except for with a lot of feelings that present themselves mostly through a certain wetness in his eyes, and a slightly quivering lip, as if trying to speak. He looks quite lost and confused.

However, when Gabriel starts speaking, Topher seems to remember he's there, and focuses on him instead, his forlorn look being replaced by a hateful glare, as a lightbulb turns on inside his had.

"Get out," he tell him roughly, voice breaking a little. He assumes this is some cruel trick played by Gabriel. Illusionist, right. "I don't care how you found out, just get out."

Gabriel's halfway through a handful of popcorn when Topher turns to him. He chews and swallows before vanishing the bag and holding up both hands. He's a picture of innocence here, just look at him! "Hey kiddo, no trick. She tumbled out of the rift into my lap. She's the one who asked to come here."

He very pointedly doesn't get up or make any move to leave.

Bennett does not like the mood whiplash she keeps experiencing, has experienced since she woke up, and it's hard to tell if that's what sparked the flash of anger or what. "Gabriel," she says coolly, "I think you should go. Please." She wants to step forward and reassure Topher somehow, with basic fact and logic, but that doesn't seem to be even passing through her mind right now. How is she supposed to do this?

"Topher," she starts, but the most solid proof would be physical contact, so she approaches him, if hesitantly.

Topher takes a step back, so not ready to be proved anything at the moment. At the moment he's in complete denial, refusing to believe she can be back when she's been dead and gone for half a year and he's had to come to terms with that fact. Hoping for one moment that she might not be would mean he'd go through the pain of losing her all over again.

He doesn't say anything, just gives Gabriel a pointed glare. One the slim off-chance he's telling the truth, Topher will forgive himself for judging him unfairly, but for right now he just wants him out of there.

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