(no subject)

[makes_you_tick]

Thank you to everyone who calmed me down yesterday. I apologize for my outburst, and I'm relieved to note that I didn't end up hurting anyone. Of course I had to reawaken on a curse day.

I'm back, for those few who might have wanted my assistance at the shop. And Doctor Sahl? I think I'll take you up on that offer to look at the hospital equipment today, if it's still open. Thank you for your kindness yesterday.

[Private to Mohinder]

No story today, sadly. I'm still reeling from the past few days. Thank you for keeping me relatively sane from making any rash moves. I'm sorry I missed your birthday, but- well, I imagine my non-existence was present enough.

[Private (but viewable to Angela)]
I feel wrong. I've never felt like there was anything wrong with me before, but now I feel broken and wrong. Like I'm missing a battery, or a heart. Maybe that's just how it feels when it lies in your chest and doesn't beat. It was stupid of me to let Peter do that- I knew my death would be an option. I just didn't know I'd feel like this if it happened.

The ghost of a heartbeat ticks in time with the City clock. It's all I have, so my mind clings to it. I wonder if there's any way to connect to it more. I wish I could hear it like I used to

I hope this will be like a fallen tooth, something I can't help but run my tongue over and over again, but eventually fading to normality. From what Eden described to me, that's likely. I'll get used to it.

Comments

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

"Still an akuma, but not a proper one, not even a level one." She loved how people gave themselves away sometimes, the smirk instead of a horrified reaction telling her all she needed to know.

"It's not just a case of being surprised. Most people don't have a chance against an Akuma. They're just not strong enough. The kettle's boiling." she said, nodding towards it.

Road made a small humming noise before continuing. "Allen's just fun because he is. Even he has no idea what he's capable of. And he's so...innocent~ sometimes. Can't believe a human is capable of anything but good. Can't understand it."

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He turned away to get the tea before it starts whistling- the noise still grated on him, even without that hearing ability. Listening to Road talk, he wasn't sure if he was glad about Allen having gone back or not. Road was going to bring him here- here- and have him look. And remove things. It would have been a good test, but Gabriel honestly didn't know if he could take a test right now.

"I don't think I've ever met anyone quite like that. Good people, yes- but not innocent. Surely, he's seen enough to change that by now?" But maybe not.

And even though he was fighting a losing battle, Gabriel was proud of himself for letting the conversation move away from Allen's 'strength' for now. He wanted to hear what Road has to say on Allen's character, as well.

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

Road scrunched up her face in thought. "Has he? I wonder. He has, but only if he weren't Allen. The other Exorcists aren't quite like him either. So hopeful, even with everything he's gone through." Even with everything we've done to him, she meant but didn't say.

She was getting bored of doing all the talking herself - not bored of the subject, of course, but she was curious about Gabriel himself, and had all the tolerance of a child when it came to getting something she wanted, even if it was just knowledge.

"What about you? What are things like for you in your world?" The tone of the question was childishly innocent, even if the mind behind it was anything but.

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Gabriel smiled, and chuckled a bit at the question. He'd indulge her- and himself, if he was to be honest. He loved it when people asked about him, and it was likely the best way to distract him from nearly any subject. But he was going to have to get used to answering mostly truthfully again.

"It's hard to know where to start," he said, pouring them each a cup of hot water before offering her an assorted box of tea bags- earl grey, orange, peppermint, old english, and the like. There's even some hot chocolate in there. "Please choose whichever you'd like."

"My world was very-" He searched for the right word. "-boring, for me, up until about a year ago. Boring and frustrating, but otherwise happy. I had a shop much like this one- far more clocks, but the shop had been around for decades rather than a week. Then a geneticist came through the doors and told me that some people had superpowers and that I was one of those people. Since then, everything has been...insane." There was a hint of a smile still on his lips, though- fond and not so fond memories, but at least they had all been interesting.

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

Hmm. Hot chocolate or earl grey. Hot chocolate or earl grey. Choices, choices. Road picked out earl grey finally. It was close to the kind of thing she was used to at home.

She was listening attentively to everything he said. It was a familiar story, someone changing everything you knew with just a few words. "That reminds me of when the Earl found me~." She smiled as she said it, a genuine smile in spite of being a bit mischievous.

"How's it been insane? What happened then?"

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He chose English tea for himself and pressed the bags into the hot water with a spoon for each. He handed Road's to her and offered her some sugar. He always took his black, but knew that most people didn't.

He could press Road for more information about herself and the Earl, but just knowing that much was enough for awhile. If he did this right, he wouldn't have to ask her anything at all. He loved this sort of interchange- back and forth, and they both played. It was good she came by.

"Then he tested me, and he didn't find anything. He gave up on me. Desperate, I figured out how to take someone else's special power. That's how I got this." He stared at his teacup and held a finger up, watching as the tea bag rose out of the water, wrung itself out and then neatly deposited itself into the sink. His eyes flicked back over to Road, a vague smile on his lips.

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

Road spooned in the sugar - three heaped teaspoonfuls - and slowly stirred her tea as Gabriel continued talking. Her face remained expressionless as she followed the movement of the tea bag, and then she turned back to him.

"If you could take one power like that...what others have you managed to take?" And she was interested now, really interested, especially since thanks to Peter she has a good idea of just how Gabriel takes all those powers.

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He leaned back in his chair. "There's been a lot of them, but I lost some as well. An engineered virus took them away."

He stopped to take a sip of his tea, blowing on it. He regarded the teacup with something that looked almost like regret and said, "I used to have cryokinesis. I really liked that ability, but it's better it's gone. Now I have rapid cellular regeneration, alchemy, clairsentience- all of these abilities come at too heavy a price. I'm through collecting."

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

"A virus?" She frowned, swinging her feet while she thought about what he'd said. "I've never heard of one that could do that."

"Cryo...freezing things?" she asked him, not sure she'd ever heard it referred to that way. "You know, some people - most people, actually, wouldn't think there was a price too high to be able to do those things." She shrugged. "If you have a power, there's no reason not to use it."

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He smiled, but it didn't last. "No, once I have it, it's mine, but taking it- I have to see their brain, so I end up killing whoever I take the ability from."

He sighed and ran and hand back through his finally long-again hair. "I became a serial killer in order to collect as many abilities as possible. I thought I needed them to be special, but- I've decided against that. I have a mother that believes in me, so I'm trying to be a better person now. The transition is- er, difficult."

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

"Was it really that bad?" Doing what you could to make yourself stronger? If they were too weak to stop you, well." she shrugged. "That's their problem, not yours. But I guess if you wanted to stop..."

"I just don't see how it makes you a better person. By whose reasoning? Theirs?" Her teacup half hid her mouth as she spoke. She wasn't smiling but she was amused.

It was one of the things she found funny, after all, dragging up differing points of view and throwing them at people to see how it affected them. Even as they defended what they thought, she could always see those tiny nagging doubts creep in.

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"The corruptibility of people really intrigues you, doesn't it?" Gabriel said, after a moment of contemplation. He smiles, looking amused himself. "Don't worry, it does me, too."

He set his tea down on the counter and stared at Road. He hadn't been avoiding her gaze before, really. But neither had he been staring directly at her, the way he was now. "Think about it like this- there are quite a few people here that already know me, know what I'm capable of and what I'd been willing to do. Those people would never have let me into their life, never let me close. I had spent my whole life alone and without support. Suddenly, someone told me that I could have that support, I could even have the occasional ability- I could have family, if I could just behave myself. It sounds like compromise, but it's not."

He was going to have as much time as he wanted, too, due to his regeneration- that was before he died. But now he had plenty of time here- he'd figure something out. "I've always been a greedy sort of person, Road. But sometimes you have to be unconventional to get everything you want."

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

She burst out laughing at that. "Of course it does. Because that's what humanity is, corrupt inside out, everyone." Her brown eyes had more of a goldish tint to them now, somehow, and it grew more conspicuous as she continued talking.

"I must be ever so~ lucky then. My family don't expect me to do anything except what I like. I wonder what it would have been like, to have to settle for one or the other. I don't think I could. They wouldn't be family if they didn't let me be myself."

Road grinned wide. "Such a good thing that your mother offered you exactly what you wanted. And I'm sure she didn't want anything from you in exchange." She tilted her head. "Or did she? Well, I'm sure it wasn't anything you weren't willing to do. Especially if you could even have an occasional ability if you did as you were told."

And then she remembered something. "Peter didn't take it too well, did he?"

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He mostly just watched her reaction, bright eyes and a feral grin on his face. At the question, his gaze moved to the floor, dipping his head down as his smile faded to something more calm. He was still worried about his brother, but he wasn't about to let Road know that, in this context. "No, but then I have tried to kill him a few times. It was to be expected."

He looked back up to Road. "So what's your family like? I have to admit, I'm not terribly experienced with them. I've gone from 'suffocating' to 'mutually beneficial'."

That was neatly avoiding the issue of his mother, wasn't it? He'd asked himself that and come to the conclusion that he didn't care (but if he found out Angela was lying to him about being his mother, he'd rip out her spine)- they were both manipulators, and they both knew that. They respected each other for it.

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

"Well, he's made up for that now." A snicker. "I didn't think someone like Peter was capable of it, actually."

And she noticed the avoidance, but let it pass, especially since they'd moved on to her other favourite topic.

"My family is everything. They're precious to me, the only ones like me. Some of them are silly, some doting. We play together, and we'd look out for each other if we needed to but we never need to because they're all stronger than anything you can imagine.

They're the only ones who understand, who've seen the same things. Who remember everything. The only ones who'll still be alive when we end the world."

She sipped the last of her tea.

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"Mmm." It was a murmur of assent, and was accompanied by a nod. That explained a lot of things. "Your world is nothing but corrupt- except for Allen, possibly," he admits. "So your family is planning on destroying it? Is that right? What do you mean when you say you remember everything?"

He was genuinely curious about this- the fate of a world that was not his own and not the City didn't really concern him, after all. He was really just interested in Road, how her and her family worked, and what the situation was over there.

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

"My world? It's the same everywhere there are humans. It's the same here." she huffed, even though she wasn't really put out by what he'd said. "Even Allen's not going to be able to hold out much longer. Not now he's started remembering too." The last remark spoken in a quieter tone, to herself.

"That's what they say this City is for, you know. The countdown to the end of everything, all the worlds. Marvellous, isn't it?" Genuinely pleased at the idea, her face alight at the thought.

"We're not planning on it. We already are. It's already started."

And now she was looking at him intently, leaning forward and speaking in a whisper, even if there was no one here to hear her besides him. Road always had a flair for the dramatic after all.

"What came before the first great flood, the reason for it, how it failed to wipe away humanity as it was supposed to. How humans built themselves up again, weak, old, ugly, corrupt, all their mistakes, all their sins. Seven thousand years of it." And she can't quite help it, or maybe she didn't care, but the stigmata across her forehead start to show, the seven holy marks of a Noah showing starkly again her pale skin which was rapidly turning a dark ashen grey.

And then she sat back in her chair, laughing hysterically, holding her sides as if they were about to split. "Was that what you wanted to know? Was it?!"

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

The smile was no longer on his face, but he was staring intently at her, watching her change. He'd have to be careful here- or maybe he wouldn't. She was right, after all. About the countdown.

"I want to know everything," he stated quietly. "Even if it's something horrible like this. I can't say it's a surprise- I've known about the clock since I arrived. It nearly drove me mad- relatively, of course." He gives her a small smile at that.

He took his teacup in hand and looked back up to her, taking a sip. "So if humans are nothing but corruption, sin and ugliness, why do you spend so much time with them? No choice? Or is it just fun seeing how far you can push them?"

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

"I have to have something to do, don't I?" Answering his last question first, because it's the easiest of them. "Don't you know what it's like, to wear a mask and push people a bit here and there to get them to do what you want?"

"To hurt them. Because I hate them all." I hate you all, is what she meant. "You're already dead, and probably very hard to kill, but..." still smiling, always smiling. "There's so much worse than that, and it only makes it better if you can't die." The threat was left open ended. She meant it, yet she didn't, even she didn't know quite what she'd do from one moment to the next, because this was nothing she'd bothered planning for.

And she chuckled at the thought of being driven mad by something as simple as a ticking, after everything she heard around her all the time.

"Then you'll have to try and find out. I don't care what happens. It doesn't matter. Not much does, in the end."

"But, if it's true. What are you going to do then. What can you do?"

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He listened to her quietly, now very serious. Threats were something he was accustomed to, but he knew better than to not take her seriously. He knew what she meant.

At her question, he almost seemed to break out of whatever reverie her words put him into, and he shook his head. It took him a moment to understand. "Why would I do anything differently? I'll keep learning. It's what I am. The answers always present themselves, if I keep looking. They don't have to come with powers attached."

He finished off the tea in his cup and let go of it, letting it set itself on the counter. "Do you think there's anything after this, then? Once everything is destroyed, it'll just be you and your family?"

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

"Not everything has to have an answer. But." A casual toss of her head. "That's not going to stop you looking, I guess. If you have the proper questions."

She looked thoughtful for a while, wondering how to phrase it. "We'll be the last. And then, well. Everything comes to an end, even things that are endless." She wasn't saying anything more. It wasn't for him to know.

Road broke the mood by yawning, covering her mouth with one hand while stretching the other arm. She was getting a bit bored with this, but she didn't want to play with Gabriel quite yet. It had been interesting to see how he took everything she told him, and if she broke him now there probably wouldn't be any more cosy little chats over tea.

She stood up, and, almost as an afterthought, let her cup float down gently to the counter next to his. "Tyki's probably expecting me home soon."

Log~

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Gabriel made a face that was reminiscent to a young boy's who has been told he needs to stop playing video games and finish his chores. He didn't want to stop.

At least she gave him a little bit with her use of power. He smiled at the floating cup, delighted, and said, "Really? Or you're tired of talking to me, which is fine. Thank you for the chat, really. It was very illuminating."

He wondered what Road talked about with Peter, when they met. He was willing to bet it was nothing like this.

Log~

[dreamsofnoah]

"No, not really, Tyki never bothers. If it was Father he'd be tearing down half the City looking for me by now, though. Maybe I am~ just a little bit bored, but you wouldn't want~ me to stay if I was." She laughed at the look on his face. "Thank you for the tea."

And then, because she couldn't quite help herself, she decided to take a short cut back home. A large pair of red and black chequered doors appeared from the ground - far too large to fit in the small kitchenette, yet somehow they did. The doors swung open on their own to show nothing but a swirly purple surface.

"Bye~ Gabriel. See you soon ♥" were the last words Road said as with a wave she stepped through, the doors closing after her and disappearing as silently as they'd come.