Interlude - 1. Lisa
December 27, 2010, Boardwalk Cafe - Brockton Bay, 12:21 PM
Lisa liked to come to this little cafe on the boardwalk at least once a week. It began as a rebellious 'fuck you' to the enforcers who once used to eye her like a piece of trash, but then grew into a habit. She really loved people watching. She'd come, sit with a vanilla latte, look at people, and let her power tell their stories. So many stories, some sad, some creepy, some horrific, some merely bittersweet. If she'd be in a good mood she might go and offer a word or two of life changing revelations to someone who needed it. It was a guilty pleasure to do a little good with her power. Being a pressganged supervillain was sometimes fun, sometimes exciting, mostly fucked up, but never happy. Once in a rare while she would even find a really happy story that would vicariously make her day. Today was not looking like one of those days.
As she swept her gaze through the tables, her power supplied snippets of stories to browse through:
Just broken up. Looking for a rebound. Dreading a rebound. Wants to...
Feeling lonely. Likes to feel lonely. Revels in feeling lonely...
Texting on phone. Texting about last night. Texting about...
Discussing school. Discussing torture in school. Planning a humiliating prank. Planning to...
Discussing prank. Finds prank revolting. Glad it's not her. Finds prank deliciously revolting...
Finds her luscious. Thinking about her. Imagining her. Imagining her n...
Eating slowly. Hasn't eaten in two days. Eating slowly because doesn't have money to...
Mindful of self. Mindful of own trench-coat. Wearing nothing un...
Can't decide what to order. Can't decide whether to order. Can't decide...
Trying to hide face. Trying to hide bruise. Bruise from wife. Wife found out he was...
Loves the smell of tea. Finds her attractive. Knows her. Wants to help her. Wants to buy some of this tea...
Finds this place pretentious. Wants to be pretentious. Wants to fit in...
Wait, what? She looked back to the sweatshirt guy in the corner. He was looking at her.
Looking at her. Knows her. Wants to help her. Knows about her situation. Knows a lot about her. Knows about all her...
What the fuck?
Does not know anything. No discernible intentions. No discernible emotions. Emotions being suppressed. Body language neutral. No discernible external tells.
What just happened? Who was this guy?
She started walking towards him. Intimidating grin #4 plastered on her face. While pushing her power to high gear on the identity of this person.
Not from around here. South Asian. Indian. Came from India recently. Immigrated from India recently. Facial features somewhat familiar. Facial features bear resemblance to Dave SenGupta. Related to Dave SenGupta.
That name sounded familiar. Oh, she remembered coming across the name while leafing through Fortress Construction's new hires. Fortress had some possible shady ties to Coil's funding that she was trying to track paper trails of. But it was exceedingly hard since the last few weeks, it seemed that all trails were simply vanishing into legit ends. So she had been going through their personnel to check for fake employees and such. She pushed her power to connect the dots.
Related to Dave SenGupta. Cousin of Dave SenGupta. Named as next of kin in hiring documents. Name and picture in immigration documents. Picture match 95%. Name: Aveek SenSharma. No other family. Orphaned at childhood. Orphaned 10 years ago.
Okay, so she had a baseline of who he was. She was almost at the table, he was still looking at her with a completely neutral expression. How did he know her?
Did not know her when she came in. Did know her when she was ordering. Knew a lot when she looked at him. Does not know anything. Conscious body language suppressed. Subconscious...
This was going nowhere, she hated her power when it started going in circles. She gave another push, was he a thinker? How did he have so much emotional control? He was harder to read than Alec!
Human. Not thinker. Not a parahuman. Human. Not a parahu...
Okay okay, going in circles again, she knew if she pushed it too much now she'd get a headache. One last push. If he was human, if he was like Alec, what kind of trauma makes someone so emotionally deadened?
Traumatic experience in past. Orphaned 10 years ago. Orphaned in India 10 years ago. Orphaned in Hyderabad Leviathan attack 10 years ago. Saw Leviathan from up close. Saw Leviathan from less than 20 metres away. Saw Leviathan approach...
A mild headache was already starting to build. She forcefully clamped down on her power, grateful that she'd already ordered her coffee. It'd help. She still had no idea what the guy knew. She pulled out the chair in front of him. Face still stuck in rictus grin. She opened with a curveball.
"Hi Aveek. May I join you?"
His face morphed into a bland smile. Her power supplied that it was emotionless.
"Of Course. Do I know you?"
Ah, so he was doing that routine was he? Two can play at that game.
"Don't you?" She sat down.
"You did seem familiar. But I guess I don't. How do you know me?" His words were clearly enunciated, neutral in tonality. No emotions. No inflections. Neutral North Indian Accent. Her power supplied. She clamped down on it harder, a headache would be a bad at this point.
"Oh, I was one of the people who processed your cousin's transfer paperwork at Fortress." She wanted to see if her lie would be caught. He blinks, waits, smile widens. Still fake smile. Trying to fake emotions. Trying to appear normal. Okay, that's a lot like Alec.
"I see, you're Dave's colleague?" Knows she's not a Fortress Employee. Dammit, he was just playing along! Time to try another bait.
"No. I'm a freelancer. I do analytics for many companies, Fortress is just one of my recent ones. Has he mentioned me? Is that how you know me?" Key to lying with a straight face, don't try to tell direct untruths.
"No, I would remember if he did. I don't think I know you." Cares deeply for Dave. Trusts Dave. Doesn't know anything. Half truth. Technical truth. Doesn't know anything. Doesn't feel anything. Emotio... Okay, enough is enough. Her coffee arrived, she took it, took a sip, he was waiting patiently. She kept her eyes on him, looking for any clue. Took another deep sip. She was getting tired of her power going in circles, but she had faced this before. If you can't breach a wall, go over it. She pushed her power, he may not know anything now that his whole emotional structure is a blank. But what did he know when he saw her?
Knew her. Knew about her. Knew about her power. Knew about her identities. Knew about her team. Knew about her Boss. Knew about her past. Knew about Reggie. Knew about her recruitment. Wanted to help her. Wanted to get her out of Coil's grasp. Wanted to befriend her.
There! Her power may be futzing about him now, but it wasn't then. He must have powers, such ridiculous emotional blanking is not human! Why did he want to help? How could he know? Was he a trump?
Not trump. Not Parahuman. Is human. Not parahuman. Human. Does not have parahuman powers. May have ability to blank emotions. May have other a̳͟b҉i̥͎̻͓̭͓̘l̬͕̘̙̓ͫͨ̓̓̈́i̻̊ͤͯ͆ͭͣť̖ͨ̓͐͌͘ī̖͂e̹̠͍ͮ̅̆͐̇͗ͬs̞͉̐. Wanted to help. Wanted to help because he knew of her situation. Wanted to help because he did not like her being pressganged into villainy. Knew about her when he looked at her. Knew using a̮̝̻̝͘b̏́̊҉i̧͕͖̙̱̼̮͚̒ͤl̻̤̩̠͗͛̊ͨ͢i͒ͭ̉͂̀ͯ̚t̥̤͑̀ȋ̩̱ͤ͌̏̿͛͞ȩ̥̜̬̥̞̟ͣ͆̌s̢̪̱͇̊. Knew using u̐ͩ͌͏̺̙̗̟̜͎n͎͙̲͎̗̳̗̿̓͂k͏̪͔͙̯͓̥͙n̛͎͍͔̺̠͖̘̋̇͗̈̚ö͚̯̪̫͔̖͡w̠͔̪̺ͧn̹̭ ͪ̄̍̎ͪa̺̜̿ͦ͆̚ḇ̈ͮ͊̆ͮ͞i̭͇͇͌ͤͅľ͎͇̮̣͔̞̀̐ͯͅȋ̫̘̘̬̯͗͐͂̑ͪ̓ṫ̙̙̦̎̚ḯ̒e̼̤͉͈͐̊̃̍̉ṣ͔̘̻͓͉̼͐́. Has no parahuman power. Is Human. Not parahuman. Human...
And the futzing was back, with side helping of spikes of headache. Ouch. She rubbed her temples, he was still sitting all zen with a vacant face. Then he leaned forward with fake concern.
"Are you alright Sarah?" She reeled as if slapped! How dare he!
"Don't call me that!" She hissed. "Listen Aveek, or whoever you are, enough of this game! I know you know things, I want to know how, you're not a cape. Psychics don't exit, however much I claim to be one. I want to know exactly what you know and how you know! What abilities do you have? How have you used them on me? You will tell me! You wouldn't want anything to happen to Dave don't you? He's all you have after Leviathan took away everything else! You don't know what I can do!"
She was furious! How dare he! She could destroy him with a few well placed words!
"Calm down Lisa." Again that enunciated fucking monotone. That mirthless. fucking. smile.
He was fucking toying with her! She was too enraged to even try to use her powers. Fuck! She had lost her cool! Damn! This must be how it feels to be Tattletale'd. Lesson learned. She closed her eyes and started taking deep breaths. She didn't dare speak, too afraid that her voice would break and the game would be forfeit.
"While I do know exactly what you can do. You have no idea yet, of what I can do." His smile sobered a twitch, but this time with real emotion in his face. What did that mean? Her power gushed in reply.
Anger. Concern. Pity. Hope. Sadness. Resignation. Knows what she can do. Knows he's immune to it. Immune to words and emotions. Not worried about Dave. Believes he can retaliate if needed. Does not wish to. Wants to help. Can destroy her. Can destroy her right now. Can destroy her in many ways. Does not wish to. Wants to help. Can ruin her life...
Shitshitshitshit! She'd lost her cool, misfired all her weapons, and apparently tried to poke a hornet's nest with with a broken finger. It hurt like a bitch, but it failed. And she was glad it failed. This felt far more dangerous than her recruitment. Her cool had given her the finger and gone for a vacation. She sat stock still in terror. Her face drained of all blood, her hands up in a placating gesture.
"Please," she almost whimpered, "I just need to know." Her voice reeked of desperation "You really want to help?" She choked back a sob.
His smile returned. His emotions gone again. "Yes. Trust me." He began to pour another cup of tea.
She nodded meekly this time, then shook her head, "I can't. Not with your mind all blank like that."
He nodded. "Understandable. Let me propose a fair exchange, you answer some of my questions, and I'll answer yours. Then I'll ease up on the... mind blank. And we can have a civilized conversation, no games. Okay?"
She took a few more deep breaths, composed herself, and nodded.
"Great, firstly, please finish your coffee, would you like another?" She shook her head, gulped the rest of the latte, massaged her head a bit more. And generally calmed down.
"Now, Tell me all about Coil that you've found out."
