10078/So, About Jon...

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So, About Jon...
Date of Scene: 07 February 2022
Location: Lobby - Titan's Tower
Synopsis: Cael meets with Caitlin to inform her of the plan to rescue Jon from the underworld.
Cast of Characters: Caitlin Fairchild, Cael Becker




Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's a pretty redoubtable person. Or at least, she's good at setting things aside to be dealt with when she's got the time to think it over. Right now the time is not for a discussion about the nature of angels or the plans Michael had in place. It's about Jon Simms, and the disposition thereof.

A message had been relayed to Caitlin's phone from the Titan's terminal. With Cael Becker identified as the sender, making a request to meet, Caitlin had hesitated only briefly before keying her an invite to Titan's Tower.

There's a parking lot on the quay and a boat on standby to ferry anyone to the island, day or night. It doesn't take long for Cael to get over the bay and onto the island proper. When she gets to the imposing front doors, they're waved open by Caitlin. She's wearing neutral colors; granite grey yoga pants and a brown hoodie that hangs loose even on her athletic frame. Her red hair, gone curly with the humidity, is mostly held back in a ponytail spray by a leather band.

"Hey, Cael," Caitlin greets the woman. She speaks first. It's a little awkward, after all. They'd been throwing hands not long previously. She waits a beat, then partially turns towards the interior and waves a hand to invite her in. "C'mon in, if you like. We've got coffee an' some baked goods for visitors. If you're hungry."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I could murder a coffee," Cael agrees easily. There's heavy bags under the woman's eyes - with Jon gone, she hasn't gotten much if any sleep. Any sleep she does find is disturbed by dreams about Michael, and about Jon. A mess of images, many of them violent - and in some of them, she's committing the violence, under Michael's compulsion.
    There are issues she needs to work through, eventually.
    She mentions none of this, however, as she and her large white dog step into the tower. "I wanted to thank you - for saving Sara. She'd be dead right now if you hadn't intervened, and stopped the bleeding. So... thank you. She's recovering in the Triskelion. It'll take her a while but... she'll get there. She's stubborn."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin ducks her head at the gratitude, unsure of how to reply. She covers by moving to the food service table and pouring Cael a disposable insulated cup full of it. It's plated up with some instant cream and sugar, and just to be safe, she adds some grapes and a doughnut to it. Cael looks like the sort who appreciates emergency carbs.

"I get the feeling stubborn's something you guys have in spades," Caitlin suggests with a ghost of a smile. She invites Cael to sit; there are a couple tables and chairs, and a low sofa with a coffee table in front of it.

"But I think I've got a long way to go before I'm owed anything remotely close to a 'thanks'," she points out. Caitlin inhales and slowly lets the breath out, taking her time to keep her emotions under control. "Um... not to cut right to it, but we're all on a bit of a time crunch. What did you need to talk to me about?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Oh, I'm pretty fuckin' pissed at you for attacking Jon at the end of that last battle," Cael says casually. "But you saved Sara, and... if I'm being frank, and to the point, we need you," she says bluntly, as she picks up the coffee - ignoring the cream and sugar - and grabs the donut as well, before moving to one of the chairs.
    "Here's the thing," she says bluntly. "Michael is going to return Jon - in what shape, we don't know. But probably not good. I have to help him get well enough to go back out into the field to try to finish this thing - this 'game' we're playing. And he's going to be killed." She takes a deep breath, and lets it out before she can force herself to continue.
    "Apparently, whatever's wrong with reality is in the afterlife, and someone needs to die for us to get down there and //fix// things. And the intel we have says that if we're going to succeed... I need to go down there, to remind Jon of who he is, and what he's fighting for. Phoebe needs to go down there to light the way. Lydia needs to go down there to guide us - because she walks between life and death. And we need //all three 'Champions'// working together to fix this thing.
    "So. ...I need you to agree to go to afterlife and back, to save all of reality, and the man I love. No pressure, right?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin winces visibly at the profanity-- but also at the reprimand in Cael's tone. She finds a seat and settles into it with a graceful amount of care, back straight and one ankle tucked behind the other. It looks like something she adopted out of an Emily Post book.

"I was hoping I could help -find- Jon," Caitlin admits. "I'm not-- I don't know that I'm all on board with what you're doing," she cautions. "But Michael never said 'torture'. Now I hear he's... he's hurting Jon. And I've seen how mad Jon made Michael. Furious. Like ... like a furnace on full go. I don't know what Michael's doing to him, but he needs to be stopped."

She swallows, going a little paler. "As for getting -to- the afterlife... that might be a little complicated. I'm assuming your plan isn't for us to drink tainted Kool-Aid. That means we're gonna need some magical assistance. I don't even know if Raven can get us to... wherever Jon is." Gone unsaid: whether he's gone upstairs... or down.

Cael Becker has posed:
    The look Cael gives Caitlin is, frankly, baffled. "Michael tortures people," she says flatly. "You knew this. I //told// you this. He did it to me - and you said I probably deserved it," she points out in a matter-of-fact tone. There's no acid behind it - she's too tired for that. But she is confused that Caitlin seems at all caught off guard by this.
    "I can't tell you how long and how hard I fought to prevent Michael from getting his hands on Jon. I failed. He has him - and there's nothing we can do about that. What could we possibly do to save Jon from a being as powerful as Michael? Do you understand just //how// powerful he is, and how weak we are by comparison? Even you? Even Jon, when he had Gaia's strength? There's nothing we can do, and nothing Jon //wants// us to do, until he's been returned to us."
    Cael closes her eyes for a moment, reaching down to stroke the head of the dog beside her, while sipping at the coffee. She tries not to think about what Jon must be enduring right now - but sometimes... she just can't block out the thoughts.
    Opening her eyes, she ploughs ahead instead.
    "Jon will go to Duat, //his// afterlife. He serves the Egyptian Gods. His heart will be weighed against a feather, all of that. He's been... preparing for a while now, since he learned that would be his fate. Trying to lighten his heart. Lydia Dietrich has some sort of ceremony that she believes will get us there - which includes each of us eating a live scarab. But... no Kool-Aid, no. We'll still be alive."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin discreetly reaches for her purse nearby and digs out a little nasal spray. She awkwardly twists away and uses it for two sniffs, then cleans it with a napkin and packs it back in her bag.

"Allergies," she mumbles apologetically, and waves a hand at the dog. Just to be safe she scoots back another six inches and makes sure the nearest air vent is blowing dander away from her seat.

"I don't know Lydia," Caitlin admits. "Not... well, anyway. But there's no one I trust more than Rachel. Er, Raven," she clarifies. "I'm going to ask her for help. This is right in her wheelhouse and I'd feel a lot better knowing she's ... nearby, I guess."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael considers this for a moment - then shrugs. "You know what - have at it. If that's what makes you comfortable, fine. Your Rachel-Raven will have to coordinate with Lydia, and whoever else she may have dragged into the spellwork on her own. But it can't hurt having an extra set of eyes, right? And we need this to go well... Or reality gets unmade at the worst - and I lose Jon." Which is not an outcome she's willing to contemplate.
    "...but you're willing to work with us? Me, Phoebe, Lydia, Jon... and Lady Death," she points out bluntly. "From what I've been told, it takes all six of us to pull this shit off."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Please stop swearing," Caitlin requests in a plaintive tone. She closes her eyes and takes a breath, hand rising and falling in apology. "I'm sorry. I'm feeling... pretty raw. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

She purses her lips and gets her focus back in order, then turns her green eyes back on Cael. "I'm willing to do whatever I can to get Jon back and ... I don't know. I don't think any of this can be 'fixed'. I'm going to do what I can to right the things I can," she explains. "And that means not leaving Jon to his fate. He took a bad hit that he didn't have to. He did it to try and help me. I couldn't see that before; not until Michael stabbed -me- in the back. I realized he'd been lying to me and manipulating me all along." Her fingers twist at each other and she looks down at her hands, then back up at Cael. "I still don't understand why. But right now, 'why' isn't important. Once I accepted that Michael lied to me once, I have to question everything he ever said. And since I helped Jon get into that mess, I have to help him out."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Yeah, well, we're all pretty fu- ...raw," Cael answers. There's little doubt as to what word she almost said there, and she doesn't look at all sheepish about it.
    "Michael can't lie," she says bluntly. "But he does say things that contradict one another. But somehow - one way or another, he believes everything he says. And he doesn't understand use, or our lives, or our deaths. He doesn't understand pain and suffering. He thinks the things he did to me - getting into my head. Making me WANT to be tortured. Getting me to nail myself to a cross in ecstatic expectation of being killed," God, how fucked up is her life that she can say all these things in a flat, even tone without skipping a beat? "Is no worse than the things humans do to each other day in and day out. He has no sense of... scale. And he believes all of his actions are good, and just, and proper. That is Michael, as best as I can understand him. And there aren't words enough to express just how much I hate him. I had to walk to that church, and hand over the man I love. I... I want to bomb that church to the ground," she states flatly.
    She stares down at her coffee before adding softly, "There's no getting Jon out of any of this - not so far as I've been able to tell. Michael will keep Jon until Tuesday morning - and then return him to us. And I have to get him as well as I can, just so he can die. ...and then we can try to set things right. Fix reality, bring Jon back, and try to help him, and ourselves, recover from all the trauma this has caused. I... have to believe we'll find some sort of peace and happiness on the other side of this hell."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I'd agree, but I think for once, I might just be too deep in to make my way back," Caitlin says. Her posture breaks, voice and expression gone dark and hollow. If there's a way back... she can't see it from where she is.

She looks up at Cael and clears her throat, making herself sit up. "Anyway. This is my direct number," she says, and offers a business card to Cael. It's fairly plain; TITANS in one corner, a stylized picture of the Tower's T, and Caitlin's name and number and email. "Please have Lydia send over an idea of what she wants to do and I'll talk to Rae and make arrangements here. I've got to take some special measures before I do any, uh, dreamwalking."

She stands, hesitating, then offers a hand up to Cael. "We'll get Jon back," she says with a quiet but firm resolution. "It's the right thing to do."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael accepts both the card, and the hand up - giving her a small, tight smile. "There's a way back from all of this. Like I said before - you saved Sara's life so... I'm morally obligated not to hate you." She flashes the woman a small, tight smile. "I mean, I might still take a swing at you sometime over all of this, but after that... we'll be good. At least you and me, and Jon... He doesn't hold any of it against you. He's determined to become your friend, so..." She gestures with the card, "I'll pass this on to him too, yeah? No one else, though." She leaves the half drunk coffee, and barely nibbled donut behind as she starts towards the exit.
    "I'll be in touch. If you help us save reality - then that should buy you plenty of cred to put this shit behind you. And if we don't..." She shrugs her shoulders. It's not like any of it will matter then, anyways.