2008-07-02: Big Showstopper, Baby Steps

Starring:

Gabriel_icon.gif Kory_icon.gif Quinn_icon.gif

Summary: Kory (and Quinn) drop by Gabriel's with dinner, and discussion of plans for taking down Pinehearst. Quinn shows off her talent. Gabriel hangs onto his momentum, barely, and Kory takes some steps toward being proactive as her friends are.

Date It Happened: July 2nd, 2008

Big Showstopper, Baby Steps


The Deveaux Building - Gabriel's Apartment

It hasn't been too long since Niki Sanders left Gabriel's apartment, and the ex-killer hasn't moved an inch since she did. Eyes are directed towards the window, feet propped up on the table as he leans back in his chair, balancing the feet precariously on the floor. Arms are crossed over his chest, and he watches as lazy clouds float on a darkening sky, soft tinges of pink beginning to take over as the sun nears the horizon.

Kory's had a couple days of peace and quiet since she pretty much dreamscape boomwaved a small portion of the city's population. A visit from an extremely talented doctor who shall continue to be referred to as Awesome has done away with the bruises and the burns. Kory's back in her typically crazy comic book inspired clothing, though the colors are still going toward purple and black. She's not quite done grieving. But at least she's more herself now, and is cooking again. Which results in having enough food to bring Gabriel. Knock knock.

The two knocks cause Gabriel to turn his head towards the door, wondering if perhaps Niki has come back with something forgotten. He leans forward, legs of the chair hitting the floor with a dull thud, and he crosses the apartment to the door. "Yes?" he says, opening the door, fully expecting it to be Niki; only it's not, and there stands Kory. Gabriel's eyebrows raise up into his forehead, gaze switching back and forth between Kory and Quinn. "Kory!" he says, taken aback. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed resting?"

Kory raises a brow at Gabriel. "Um, no?" she says, a little surprised. "It's not like I was badly injured or anything." At least, not physically. "Besides, my brother annoyed Dr. Awesome into coming over and having a look at me." She holds up her hands — no burns. She rolls up her sleeves; no bruises. "She's really good." A quirk of her chin. "This, by the way, is Quinn. She's one of us. A Listie."

Quinn offers a nod. She says, "Quinn Lyons. Nice to meet you. I figured, well, I should try to meet some of the others. It'll be hard to coordinate efforts if we don't.'

"Resting can be for more than just physical harm," Gabriel says, a note of almost Older Brother disapproval in his voice. He moves past it, however, and steps back, allowing them both access into the apartment. "I'm still glad to see you're doing better, though." He gives a nod to Quinn, smiling at her. "I'm Gabriel."

"You're sweet to worry, Gabriel," Kory says, genuinely touched by his concern and his brotherly disapproval. "But I'm either fielding visitors or staring at the walls trying not to think about it. It's better I stay busy." She tiptoes to kiss Gabriel's cheek if he'll permit, a gesture of thanks. "Gabriel fixes stuff. Including me, it'd appear," she teases gently.

"Gotta pay the bills somehow," Gabriel says, wearing a smirk across his features after the cheek-kiss from Kory. "Make yourselves at home," he continues, stepping forward to close the door behind him, and then turning back to the apartment. Eyeing the container of food in Kory's hand, he gestures towards the kitchen. "You know the ritual," he says, still wearing that same smirk. Turning his gaze towards Quinn, eyebrows raise a bit. "Vegas impersonator? Like… Elvis?"

"Yup," Kory assures Gabriel, "I do. But this one's gonna take less time." She walks into the kitchen like she knows the place. At this point, she does. She gets a deep skillet and dumps one of the containers into it. Even cold, the carne asada smells good. She uses a fork to separate it out, then turns it on low heat to cover it. The seven layer dip is in a glass bowl to show its layers off, and left to warm to room temp while the meat warms back up. "Oh, like Elvis and then some," Kory calls as she returns from the kitchen. "Who's your favourite singer, Gabriel?"

Quinn breaks into a laugh, "There's kind of a glut of them on the market, so I never felt the urge." she looks curious, at Kory's question.

"I.. don't really have one, I guess," is the response from Gabriel, brow furrowing a tiny bit as he thinks about it. "I mainly listen to… older stuff. Frank Sinatra, ones like that. It's what my… dad… used to listen to when he worked in the watchshop," he continues, faltering on the word dad. His eyes glaze over for a moment, as if he were looking into something from his past, but after a little bit, he shakes his head, clearing it.

Kory frowns, taking a moment to indulge her own worry about Gabriel as his eyes go distant, focused on something internal. "Ooh, how about something from Guys and Dolls? Have you got the CD?" Kory grins, flopping onto one of Gabriel's chairs. See, she's trying to at least get past the urge to be morose and gloomy.

Quinn oohs as she says, "I love that movie, though, of all people, Brando got all the good songs." she laughs, and she hmms, 'That's an idea… But this really isn't the best venue. I can fix that." she figures.. time for a show stopper. There's no shimmer, no tinkling of bells like you see on the movies. Its just… one minute, this is his apartment. The next, it is Hollywood's interpretation of a sewer, and standing there in a sharp suit is 'Sky Masterson', including a wad of cash in one hand, and dice in the other. But its Quinn's voice that comes out, at first, slowly transforming to Marlon's distinctive sound, "Something like this?"

"Guys and…. Dolls?" Gabriel shakes his head. "I don't think I've heard of that." He moves past Kory, taking a seat in the chair on the opposite of her, and motions for Quinn to have one as well. It's shortly after that, however, that his apartment suddenly becomes a sewer. "What— the hell?" Gabriel says, standing from his chair, looking around. "You're… you're doing this?" he says, looking at Quinn.

Kory gasps. This is a bit more than she realized Quinn could do. But she has teleported before, and knows the feeling. There was none of that here, so she knows rationally they're still in the same room. Plus, she can distantly smell the carne asada warming. "Wow. Okay, yeah, that's good."

Quinn hmms as 'he' says, "But you know, Frankie is good too. I can do a young one. He was skinnier." grinning as slowly Quinn transforms into the young, skinny Frank Sinatra, voice and all. "Well, I don't get to do the full effect that often." she chuckles, "Its kind of obvious, even for my act."

Were anyone able to hear it, the constant thumping of Gabriel's heart would slowly be elevating as he watches Quinn with a curious expression. He closes his eyes. No. He's been down that road, he's not going down it again. "That's an amazing ability you have," he says, finally opening his eyes. He's still Gabriel. "I can't do anything quite like that… I can only make myself disappear, really. In terms of changing what one sees."

Kory may not have the hearing required to recognize that Gabriel is reacting to Quinn's performance on more than one level, but she's able to see it through knowledge of the man and his body language. She leans forward, just slightly, as Gabriel fixes Quinn-Sinatra with that curious expression, biting her lip. She'd be pretty powerless against him if he decided to unlock that door in his backbrain, but she has seen him make progress. She has helped him learn to fear less the monster behind it. So she only lets out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding when he opens his eyes and is still her friend Gabriel. "And I can't do anything like that unless you're asleep," she points out, faux-sulkily.

"No, no, you're fine," Gabriel says, casting a glance in Kory's direction. As soon as he looks, however, he looks away, wondering if she might have caught his little moment where he almost.. went back a few steps. Taking a long, deep breath, he lets it out slowly, closing his eyes again for a few moments, before opening them and fixing both of the girls with a smile. "Chin up," he says, glancing at Kory again, smirking slightly.

Kory's actually getting back up as Gabriel turns toward her. The food is almost ready. So if she caught his near-miss with backsliding, it isn't readily obvious. "I better heat up the cheese and chips." She adds, though, a moment later, as Quinn reflects on their plan, "I was thinking of doing some morpheus-style reconnaissance, actually. So we could get the layout of the place. Find out how deep the rabbit hole goes, you know? How many people are just innocent dupes, and how many know the real deal." A pan is filled with thick tortilla chips and then sprinkled with a thick layer of monterey jack cheese, then stuck into the preheated oven.

Quinn nods thoughtfully. "I can, I guess, well, distract, or do reconnaissance, or something. Just let me know what you need. Let's see.. I can change the way I look, and about, well, the size of the room. It works on cameras too."

Following Kory into the kitchen, Gabriel begins to grabs the necessary dishware. Plates, a few glasses for drinks, and silverware, if needed. "I know the general layout of the place," he says, loud enough so his voice carries into the living room so Quinn can hear. "I don't know everything, because they've got some rooms 'off the grid', so to speak, but I know most of it."

Kory blinks. "Oh. Well then. I guess …" Useless again. Some Muse you are. Kory pauses for a moment, biting down on her inner voice, before she continues, "…that saves us a lot of time."

Quinn hmms, 'Knowing about the off the grid ones would be handy, to make sure there's no nasty surprises for us. And maybe what sorts of security they have. Where the cameras are, and if there's anyone that can be imitated or something?"

Following Kory into the kitchen, Gabriel begins to grabs the necessary dishware. Plates, a few glasses for drinks, and silverware, if needed. "I know the general layout of the place," he says, loud enough so his voice carries into the living room so Quinn can hear. "I don't know everything, because they've got some rooms 'off the grid', so to speak, but I know most of it."'

"We'll need to find out about the rooms off the grid. Those will be the most important, and the ones we'll have to be sure about. I only know about the general layout, like I said… so anything that could be found on public blueprints, really. I don't even have the blueprints. It's all here." He reaches two fingers up and taps the side of his head. "So finding out the secret stuff? That's your game. However you have to do it. Just… be careful." It's directed at both of them. They don't need any more deaths, or anyone else getting hurt. Over the clattering of the dishes as he puts them on the table, he lowers his voice so only Kory can hear. "Are you sure you're doing okay?"

Kory checks the bubbling meat as it cooks into the marinade once again. "It may take more than one dream session to do it, but if I can borrow Sasha for a day, Benj and I can hit a bunch of dreamers in quick succession. I'll find them." She peers at the cheesy chips, approvingly, then glances up at Gabriel. "Mostly," she assures Gabriel, pitching her own voice a little lower in reflexive response to the whisper. "I miss him. I still feel like I failed him. But if we don't stop his future, I will have to live with knowing I failed him twice." And lost him twice, as he counted Kory as a good friend even in the dystopia. "It's just something I'll have to work past." She squeezes Gabriel's elbow gently, in thanks for his concern. That he's suggested her plan could still prove useul has helped.

Reaching a hand out, Gabriel places it on Kory's shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze as he nods. There isn't anything he can do or say to change what has happened, and the most he can do in spite of that is be there for Kory. "I'm not sure," he calls out in response to Quinn, moving past the moment. If they need to, they can talk about it in detail later. "But it does smell delicious."

Kory laughs, pleased at their reactions. "Nachos. It's a specialty. I learned how to cook it early on. After my dad…" After her dad what? "…my mom worked three jobs, so I learned how to do the cooking from my grandma and my nana." She seems satisfied, and plucks the mitts out of their drawer. "And they're ready. Let's eat. We can resume plotting against the forces of evil once we've fortified ourselves with good food. I think better on a full stomach anyway!"

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