A Bitter Pill To Swallow

GRAYBRIDGE, 4 NOV 2023
Sunny Side Up Diner
Eva feels like an idiot the moment she asks about movies and dates, and Tanya’s reactions just reinforce the feeling… and all serve to remind her of her time at the Lake.

"I don’t remember movie nights… but there’s a lot I don’t remember from being there."

Don’t focus on Wyvern Lake! Don’t scare her off! Don’t tip your hand! No prying!

Eva shifts a little uncomfortably, worried that she’s diving straight into what she really wants to understand. Fucking Wyvern Lake.

"Creature from the Black Lagoon. I don’t know that one. What’s it’s about?"

When the conversation turns to dating and Tanya laughs, Eva turns a little red. Why did she ask about this? "There’s a guy I kind of… I dunno. There’s a guy I wouldn’t mind… ugh. I don’t know! And who is Olivia? Another… sister?"

ANNESBURG, 4 NOV 2023
The Park Outside Brian's Apartment
Despite the time of year and the fact that most of the trees have already lost their leaves, the park still looks nice. It's well-maintained and clean. The occasional jogger or dog walker mostly ignore the pair, though once or twice, Dave notices he draws a skeptical look. Nobody bothers him and Melissa, however.
Dave's phone alerts him to an incoming text message and when he checks, he finds that it is from Brock Kaminski, the guy from his church group.

Brock:

I kind of fucked up big time with Anna. She wants to come to the group next week but I kind of need to talk as well. Mind if I come an hour before and we talk then? Or some other time that suits you. I'll buy you a beer

GRAYBRIDGE, 4 NOV 2023
The Cicada

"I'm not gay, just so you know. Breaking up with Brian didn't do that big of a number on me." She smiles uncertainly. It's a joke that could go either way. Augusta isn't that big on jokes and her timing is off.

She looks up at the mirror, wondering for a second if she's serious. Or maybe it's a joke about the ludicrousness of a mirror on the ceiling.

"I played as a child yes. Violin first, then piano for theory, but then my parents had me focus on that, even though I wasn't sure I liked it better. Eventually I was good enough switching to something else seemed like a waste."

She switches topics back to Bree.

"What do you do? For Plaxo, right? In the pharmaceuticals side, or administration? Patent law?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 4 NOV 2023
Sunny Side Up Diner
"The… the monster is gay?" Eva says with fairly plain confusion marking her attractive, strong facial features. But the conversation rapidly gets more personal… and more uncomfortable for the inexperienced young woman. She wants to ask who Dr. Richardson is, but then Tanya is pressing.

"Just a guy I met, I don’t know! He works in this store, but comes by for coffee a lot at the place where I work. We’ve been on one date. One sort of date. And I really don’t know. I mean I see him looking at me sometimes, but that’s just like a guy thing, right?"

ANNESBURG, 4 NOV 2023
The Park Outside Brian's Apartment

Dave brought out his flip phone and checked the message. "It's Brock." he sighed. "Guy from the support group." He wasn't sure how familiar Melissa was with the group given the number of 'pass-throughs' that show up a few times and then stop coming. Happens to most groups, so Dave never took it personally. "Just asking if he could show up early next time to talk. He and his girl have enough issues to open a comic shop..."
He stopped walking to text back tersely:

SURE. I'LL BE THERE AN HOUR BEFORE

GRAYBRIDGE, 4 NOV 2023
Sunny Side Up Diner
Eva smiles and chuckles — it’s a good look for a woman who doesn’t seem to often drop her guard. "Not sure I could help you there. I have seen a few movies in the theater and some shows or whatever on my phone, but they confuse the hell out of me half the time! Sounds like your creature movie would be in that category."

As the conversation turns to men, Eva finishes chewing a mouthful of eggs, slurps some of her own coffee, and nods fairly vigorously. "Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s just a guy thing. Lots of… staring."

But when Tanya mentions the date with Mike, wondering obliquely if Eva likes him, the taller blonde shrugs her bare, beautifully toned and muscled shoulders. The tank top shows off her physique in ways that few garments in her limited wardrobe do. The embroidered butterflies on the front are a little distracting, but…

Then she’s remembering. The awkward moment with Crandall, in the alley outside the Italian restaurant, in the rain. She… may have come on a little too strong, Eva now knows, after watching a whole bunch more WB.

"I really don’t know how I feel about him."

The feeling is amplified when the pill bottle is suddenly on the table, and when Eva glances at Dartella. The waitress looks tired, but she sure looks good. Her hair, the way her cute diner outfit hugs her body…

Then Eva’s eyes are on the drugs, and then she’s looking Tanya in the eyes. "What is this stuff, exactly?" she asks, picking up the bottle to see how many pills are inside.

ANNESBURG, 4 NOV 2023
Brian Floyd's Apartment

When Dave describes the carpet as a tool, Melissa sees scenes from TV shows in her head; murderers wrapping bodies up in lengths of carpet. The seriousness of what might happen next hits home and she wonders what she has gotten into. As Dave reveals the horror of what kind of whacko Brian really is she stumbles in shock and almost falls to the ground. Grabbing onto Dave to steady herself, her jaw tightens as her heart races.

"I slept with that man. Oh my God!" It takes her a bit to regain some composure, at least enough to attempt an answer to Dave's questions. "I don't know much as it has happened only twice. I think it's brought on by some kind of stress or threat. So far it's come as a surprise and ends before I have a chance to really register it. It just happens. I suppose I should try and consciously make it happen sometime and see if I can control it at all.

Wringing her hands Melissa thinks about Belinda then. What do you know about why she is in the TANC? Is Brian mixed up in all that?" Her mind wheels back to Brian. His recent behavior. It's starting to make some sense. Was he using both her and Augusta?

"That fucking bastard. Fucking, Fucking bastard. He used me!" Melissa whispers her curses, mindful of the public location but she is seething at the betrayal.

When Dave receives a text she uses that moment to digest this latest information about her lover. Now feeling a little paranoid, she scans the area, for what she's not entirely sure

GRAYBRIDGE, 4 NOV 2023
The Cicada
"Bi? Am I? I'm afraid this is all new." She looks down at her outfit, far more outrageous than she was used to. "I spent a long time trying to get this right. I'm usually a lot more reserved, but I wanted...." She sighs, and takes Bree's hand. "I wanted you to look at me, and like what you saw."

The piano. "I did love the piano, now, and I could have argued, I suppose, but I was raised to just go along, to behave properly. I've decided recently that that is not my way. I rode a racing motorcycle the other day, and might buy one." She grins toothily. "I do want I want now.

At the topic of the lake, she looks up and to the side, picturing the lake. "Is it pretty there? I'd love to see it. Can you swim there?" She looks back at Bree. "Maybe at night?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 4 NOV 2023
Sunny Side Up Diner
Still looking at the pill bottle, Eva asks, "If all what goes well?"

The muscular blonde wants to laugh when Tanya says the medicine isn't dangerous, but she's busy making eyes at Dartella, trying to surreptitiously tell the waitress everything is cool. Eva is awful at this kind of non-verbal communication, and it probably looks more like she's desperately trying to not fart than anything, and she gets distracted regardless when her 'sister' touches her hand and tells her it helps.

"I know it does," she says back. "I just... it's just still weird is all. Are you -- are you giving all these to me?"

ANNESBURG, 4 NOV 2023
The Park Outside Brian's Apartment

"It's not just you..." Dave tried to be reassuring. "You're far from the first on or off the Brian Floyd merry-go-round. Guy's left a string of victims in his wake tho I don't know how many have ended up with paranormal abilities like Augusta and you..." He decided that wasn't the most helpful thing to say but maybe it was something she needed to hear. "Belinda was the friend you and Augusta went to see in the TANC when Eva and I visited my friend, right?" he asked. "If she's in the TANC then she's got powers or paranormal abilities of some kind... They don't throw people in there for purse snatching or writing bad checks. What do you know about her, really?" He couldn't say whether Melissa's friend was caught up in the whole convoluted mess or not. There were a whole table of puzzle pieces out there waiting to get connected.
"First things first, tho. We need to get you sorted with your visions." he tried to refocus her, get her thoughts away from Floyd for the time being. He could see the enormity of the situation start to get the better of Melissa's mental grip. He pulled a white badge with a green strip imbedded it from the plastic bag he produced from his coat pocket. He affixed it to the backside of a tree a few steps from the park walkway, hidden from Melissa's view. "Seems like both Augusta's and your abilities, if they're similar enough, are tied to emotional states but can be controlled through willpower. Try to see the badge on the other side of the tree. Try to read the name on it."

GRAYBRIDGE, 4 NOV 2023
The Cicada

"You don't think that Asian woman on a sportbike trope is a little dated? A little 1997?" She laughs. "I'm definitely going to get one. Do you ride? Or did you ride bitch?" The inelegant word squirms from her mouth like it might be the first time she's said it aloud. She covers her mouth with three fingers, embarrassed.
...

"My step-brother also got into a lot of trouble, as much as one can get into really. I started to spend time with him at the TANC. We didn't have much in common, didn't really know each other, we'd never met before. I became obsessed with trying to make his incarceration better. I started a non profit and got a lot of coverage on the news. I think things got better, but I went back there recently, and I think they just got better at hiding the worst of it." Her eyes blaze with passion she feels as much as she had cultivated for the camera.

...
"That's a long commute, for sure. And you probably get used to the view. Plus all those guards... I always wonder, do places like that use contractor guards, or are they staff like you? Security and corporate espionage, all of that seems complicated to manage. It's so different; no one is ever trying to steal my music sheets!"

GRAYBRIDGE, 4 NOV 2023
Sunny Side Up Diner
"These are yours?" Eva asks, cocking her head before she slides the pill bottle back across the table.

There's a different project. That's what we need to find out about. Don't blow this!

"I can't take your meds if this is all your have, Tanya. Don't they keep you in supply?" Hesitating a moment, the golden-haired metahuman adds, "What happens if we don't take these?"