dreaming

[makes_you_tick]

Sawdust and wood chippings are spread across the ground, and the smell of wood and fried treats permeates the air. Despite the fact that the midway has been stomped down by hundreds of feet, and despite the bright, shiny lights everywhere, the entire carnival is quiet enough to hear a pin drop. No one is here, not a single child or parent. No one's at the booths or in the trailers. The ferris wheel moves in the distance, empty of passengers.

The way out is hard to discern. All that can really be seen beyond the rides, in the fading light of day, are the shadows of a gray, rolling landscape.

A single jet flies overhead, filling the sky with sound for one short moment.

[ooc: Feel free to have your character wander in and interact. :3

ETA: Okay, so apparently it's a good time for my migraine to resurface. Awesome. I'll be slow but I'll still be replying. Just...slow. >_>; ]

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[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"A living ship," Sylar says, with appreciation. He sits next to her, trying to be mindful of giving her enough space. "How does it know the pilot's desires? Are they input through some sort of mechanism? Do you talk to it, or communicate telepathically?"

He realizes he might be a little overly curious here. "Feel free to ask anything of me, of course," he adds with a bit of a smile. "I'm sure you must have some questions."

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"It has dials and instruments like any other shift, but... there's a passive connection as the ship has some of the pilot's genetic material integrated into it's systems."

She looks at him wondering where to begin. "Your abilities, are they something you were born with, or did you develop them later in life?"

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Sylar is definitely impressed. "I don't suppose there's a TARDIS in the City, is there? The deities wouldn't want something that impressive in their little prison." Although the Enterprise shuttle made it here somehow, so maybe there was hope.

He'd made sure he got that bit about the TARDIS in, because he's not sure Romana's going to want to continue to talk to him after this. He hopes he words this correctly, but either way- it may be forgotten in the light of day. That was a relaxing thought.

"I was born with one, and it had a side effect. It let me know how things worked, but it always made me want to know more, to study more. It drove me." His eyes shift down to his hands. "There's a way to copy someone's ability with that one, but you have to actually see the brain, open up the skull and have a look. I was horrified with myself after the first time. I was 'saved' by someone else, but she just wanted to see how I'd done it, so she tricked me into it again. After that, I let the addiction take hold." He sighs and looks up at the sky. "Of course, I found out recently that I don't have to do it that way. Far too late. I'd made myself into a monster a dozen times over."

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"There was - the Doctor's TARDIS was her until he left... it followed him."

Romana paused to listen to the rest of his tale, dread slowly blooming in her chest. Was he really sitting there telling her that he was a murderer? A dozen times over? It seemed so... wrong for him. For the Gabriel Sylar she'd been talking to, who'd agreed to help her test her creations.

Belatedly, she remembered the Master - seeming so nice and agreeable over the Network, and yet harboring such a horrific past. She was unwilling to believe he'd repented, and by that same token probably shouldn't believe Gabriel, but what was she supposed to do, where was she supposed to go - trapped as she was. She couldn't, and didn't speak this time, just staring with a mix of surprise and revulsion.

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He finally looks down, looks at her, more melancholy to his expression than the usual glee he tends to get when he's telling someone this. Of course, those people were usually pretty obnoxious.

"Sorry," he says, because he's been feeling like he can say it now. "Maybe I should've waited for that, but most people don't like when I do." He shrugs, lacing his fingers together and leaning forward. He turns back to look at her, a sad smile on his face. "The problem has always been stopping. It's been easier here, but I'd always go back home, and it'd start up again. People keep hurting me, I keep reacting. Revenge over and over again. But I think I've figured out a way to stop this time." His eyes shift, looking up and around. "That's part of the reason why this is what it is."

Leaning back in his seat, he also partially leans away from Romana, giving her more space while he mostly just looks relaxed. "You don't have to spend your time here with me. I certainly understand if you don't want my company at this point."

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

He seems genuine, much moreso than the Master, but that can easily be explained with the simple fact that the Master's reputation far preceded him and Gabriel... she met him without this knowledge. She met him and considered him, well, perhaps not a friend, but certainly an allay, someone who could be trusted.

But she's not always been the best judge of human character.

"You're... you're very forthright about your crimes. Are you so penitent back home, have you really found a way to stop and will you stand in judgment for your crimes?"

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He thinks for awhile before he answers. "I haven't figured it out so well back home," he says. "The only people there who have offered to help me really only wanted a killer on their side. It doesn't really help when you're trying to find the right path."

He shakes his head and sighs. "But here? There have been genuine people here- I know it sounds ridiculous but I'd never met any back home. It made me realize they exist. It made me realize what my damage was doing to people."

He closes his eyes for a moment, almost wincing. He blinks at the harsh lights when he reopens them. "I won't remember when I go back. I'm getting closer, but I don't think it'll ever get through to me. So- yes, I plan to stand in judgment. But I can't do it back home."

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"So... you're saying you're a different person - significantly different - here, than you are back home?"

It's certainly not unheard of, but she's not sure if she's grasping at straws.

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"It's been almost two years. Almost as long as I've been...collecting back home." He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "I'm still separate, but I can belong in some superficial sense here. I've made and kept friends, until the City took them away. I've had hope here. So yes, I'd say that's significantly different."

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"I... see. I think."

She pauses, thinking there should be something else to say - she's a Time Lady of Gallifrey, chosen to accompany the Doctor on a mission of utmost importance... or at least that's what the Black Guardian had said. Perhaps he lied, stoked her ego to get her onboard the TARDIS. She wasn't as clever as she thought she was.

"Two years? I'll have been here one this month."

Misdirection, a change in topic, evasion. She can't process it right now. Not with him right there.

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"Have you? Most don't last that long." Sylar will follow the topic change. He's about hit his limit as far as baring his soul goes. "I imagine you want to get home. Most do. Have you ever looked at the Clock mechanism, the one Underground?"

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"Not myself, no." A sad smile touches her lips at the memory of friends lost. "But the Doctor told me all about it. He was endlessly fascinated, but then he usually is about such things."

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"Oh, but it is fascinating," Sylar replies with a smile. "I've been a watchmaker most of my life, but I've never seen something so very alien and yet so very...perfectly put together. But no one's ever been able to get past the barrier, as far as I know. So much of it remains a mystery."

He could honestly go on all day about the Clock. It was on his mind constantly, even moreso now that he lived alone.

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"You sound a bit like him, when you talk like that."

That sort of passionate curiosity that always seemed to get the Doctor in trouble when she should have been focused on the task in front of them. Seeing that... in a self-confessed murderer was a little daunting.

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"The way you talk about him, I'll take that as a compliment," Sylar says, with a bit of a smile. It was a good thing, for most, to be observant. To want to learn. For him, it was dangerous- although he'd been trying to reorient himself toward the constructive lately. He just always ended up twisting it up somehow.

He shrugs, pushing back a strand of hair that had come loose. "I never did end up meeting the Doctor. What was he like?"

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"He is... clever, not what you'd call smart in a classical sense." She smiles at the memory of their early meetings. "He was a poor student, but his brilliance is more adaptive, off-the-cuff as it were."

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"Adaptive," Sylar replies, a small smile on his face. "He was more of a practical genius, then, from the sound of it. That can be a lot more help in some situations. But not terribly well received, I imagine."

He thought about that for a moment, quiet as more stars fought their way out into the night sky. "I'm sorry he had to leave the City," he eventually says. "I know how hard that can be."

More quiet, and then he adds, "Harold Saxon's from your universe too, isn't he?"

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"No, not really. Most everyone back on Gallifrey regards him as a lunatic or worse. To be honest, half the time, I'm not quite sure I disagree."

She's silent and doesn't comment on the holes that have developed in her life. Despite the... kinship she might feel with one who has lost, it's not something she wants to share with someone who is still little more than a stranger and all the more strange for it.

But the Master... a chill runs down her spine. She doesn't know what the Master's game is, what he's up to, and she's loathe to open up. But Gabriel... he may provide interesting insight.

"Yes, he is. Admittedly, I wouldn't recognize the name Saxon, nor the face he wears were it not for warnings the Doctor gave me upon arriving in the City. He became concerned when he heard me conversing with his wife, Lucy, and told me the story."

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Gabriel nods. "I knew Lucy as well. She gave me a gift, at a time when I didn't get gifts, really."

His expression is serious and thoughtful, as he ponders his next words. "I've talked to Mr. Saxon as well. He's really quite dangerous- I'm keeping an eye on him. But-"

With a sigh, he leans back on the bench. "I think he might've done something to me when I couldn't remember my own name. I'm trying to find it and tear it out, but I don't know how successful I'll be. I'm not very familiar with his form of telepathy." This is insurance, really.

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"You truly have no idea how dangerous he can be. You'd do well to stay away from him."

Because if the Master found a way to recruit him...? Gabriel certainly wouldn't be the first to fall under the Master's spell, and far from the last.

"With the- With Saxon, it's not just a matter of telepathy, it's... charisma, charm, very much like hypnosis. The telepathy just helps it along and makes it much more dangerous."

She looks at him out of the corner of her eye, considering and then spoke again. "When this is over, if you'd like assistance...?"

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Hypnosis. It's worse because of his lack of understanding- and it isn't as if he resisted the telepathy terribly well when it had hit him. "I'd appreciate it, if you're willing. I'm not a big fan of people messing with my head." Ironic, but true.

He laced his fingers together and stared straight ahead. "It's not as if it's new for me, being used by someone else. But this is a little more direct than usual, and I'm honestly getting tired of it altogether."

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"Of course I'll help. Despite what you have done, no being should exist under the control of another...especially one such as him."

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Sylar chuckles a little at that, sounding somewhat bitter. "I know a lot of people that would disagree with you about the control- but no, even they would probably be glad to keep me from someone like that, just knowing what I'm capable of. Thanks."

He looks over to her then, with a small smile. "I'll seek you out, although it may be a week or two. I have a couple of things that are demanding my attention right now- when I'm not sleeping, anyway."

[lady-wandering.livejournal.com]

"That's quite understandable."

She looks around again and realizes that the scenery around her seems to be dissolving.

"Oh, dear, it appears I'm leaving, Gabriel. I'm so sorry."

[ooc: Figured it was okay to wrap this up?]

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"It's all right," he says, smiling. "Thanks for visiting- even if it wasn't your idea."

He watches her dissolve, then heaves a heavy sigh. It was nice while it lasted.

[ooc: Oh, yeah. :3 ]