Bennett's Arrival~ [OPEN]

[offthechart]

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?

Comments

[has_a_horn]

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?"

[romacstaff]

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.

[offthechart]

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.

[has_a_horn]

"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."

[offthechart]

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."

[brink]

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.

[offthechart]

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.

[has_a_horn]

"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."

[brink]

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."

[has_a_horn]

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.

[offthechart]

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.

[brink]

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.

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel sighs and snaps his fingers, disappearing from sight. If they want privacy they can have....well, he'll sit in the same place and be invisible. That's almost like privacy, right? Right.

Anyway, he's still interested in what's going on between these two. If he leaves, who's going to give him the dish?

[offthechart]

Bennett doesn't allow herself to be startled -- at least visibly -- when Gabriel disappears, but he's gone, so she looks back to Topher and toys with her long sleeve with her good hand nervously. "Hi," she gets out, now gutted at the look on his face. He did love her. The doctor was right.

[brink]

Topher can't quite bring himself to look at Bennett just yet. She's still there, though. So not an illusion, or probably not. It makes sense though, once he thinks about it - he doubts Gabriel would've thought to trick Mira into reading a power from her.

He swallows hard. He feels entirely wrong-footed, a crazy mix of emotions. Bitter, scared, angry, relieved, joyous and heart-broken all at once. "Bennett, you're dead," he croaks.

[offthechart]

"I-I know. I mean, I was. And now I'm not. I entirely understand if you don't believe this, because that -- that is not a thing that should be able to happen." Bennett bites her lip. "Coming back from the dead. Unless you fixed me, only you could fix me -- " She's rambling.

[has_a_horn]

Well, that's definitely interesting. If he's getting Bennett correctly, apparently Topher is someone that can 'fix' dead people. That...doesn't sound moral. Or sanitary, not that he thinks about it. He is surprised at how Topher is taking this whole meeting. He'd marked off Topher as someone not likely to form many deep connections. He still could be right, but it's a lucky coincidence Bennett showed up around someone that could actually bring her here.

Once Topher's satisfied that Bennett is real, Gabriel wouldn't be surprised if this gets him in his good books for a little while. He glances back to the closed door, wondering if Mira is going to come back out or just avoid the scene altogether. He wouldn't blame her if she did.

[brink]

Hey now, don't blame this zombie thing on him. That's not really how it works.

Topher watches her as she explains, though he has to look away when she thinks he's fixed her, crossing his arms as if he's hugging himself a little. He finds it quite painful to look at her.

"I couldn't fix you..." he answers quietly, bitterly. "There's a rift it time and space here, sometimes it changes people. You're not the only one it's happened to. It's not my doing, it's been here for years."

[offthechart]

She shifts her weight from one foot to the other and then makes her decision to just leave him be. "That... I guess that explains a lot," she offers weakly. "I wish it had fixed my arm." No, that wasn't funny. That wasn't even close to a joke. Her eyes are welling up, and she blinks furiously because Bennett Halverson doesn't cry. She's being absurd. "I. I can go. If you want."

[brink]

"No," he answers quickly, head snapping up immediately. "I just..."

He's just having trouble dealing. He doesn't do vulnerability well. He's scared because the one time he opened up, romantically, genuinely, without the basis of years of trust like with his other friends, she got snatched away literally the next minute. That sort of thing leaves you scarred.

"I haven't seen you in half a year." He hopes that might explain some of it, or at least give an inkling. He still has trouble really processing her as a real live person, rather than a memory.

[offthechart]

Oh. That makes more sense. She's never been good at this empathy thing, either, reading people's faces and all that, but that is... deeply startling, even if it explains everything. "I saw you... right before I -- " She manages not to say it out loud, for his sake. "So. Um. That's. I'm. Sorry."

Is she really giving her condolences to someone about herself? This is surreal. "I get it," she says suddenly, rapidly. "Maybe, um. Maybe I should see you... later?" People need time to process things, she figures.

[brink]

He'll certainly be a bit more prepared next time, but as much as he's having trouble relating to her, he doesn't want to let her out of his sight either.

He starts forward, stops, then reaches for her as if to check if she's solid. That she's not just a phantasm, conjured up in some way with the help of his memories, by Gabriel, or the rift, or something else entirely.

[offthechart]

She doesn't flinch away, even though her first instinct is to do so, and just meets his gaze. I'm real, she wills at him, her nerves still thrumming.

[brink]

When Topher's hand touches her shoulder, it's like she solidifies in his mind. Suddenly he believes it, perhaps partly because of her empathy skill, though that doesn't occur to him.

He makes a strangled sort of noise, and without warning, he hugs her, quite tightly. She'll just have to deal with it.

[offthechart]

The hug stuns Bennett, and she just stands there at first, but finally she puts her arm around him and holds onto him, too. She's loath to admit it but she's finding comfort is welcome on a confusing day like this. She starts blushing when she realizes how close they are, a split second later, but just says, "I'm glad you're here."