[Thread] It's the middle of the night

[poprocksuic1de]

Characters: AU!Ava Wilson, OPEN
Where: The park
When: Nighttime
Summary: Ava can't sleep and decides to go for a walk in the snow.
Warnings: Unknown as of this particular moment

Comments

[mind_hunger]

There was a certain quality of stillness that rendered one, if not invisible, then still nearly unnoticeable. Sylar had perfected it long ago, this knack of blending into the background, and employed it now as he stood in the shadow of one of the park's larger trees, gaze trained on the air above the compound. He wasn't stargazing, per se, though the appearance of the thing would likely be similar to anyone who happened to notice. Instead, he was watching the eerie hovering orbs that drove home more strongly than anything the simple fact that this was the wrong worldThe crunch of boots on snow alerted him to the presence of another of the city's prisoners despite the lateness of the hour, and he dropped his gaze and turned, seeking the source of the sound. He blinked once in mild surprise when he noted Ava; he was still accustomed to New York City, in some ways

[poprocksuic1de]

At the masculine tone, Ava's heart leapt into her chest and her blue-green eyes searched for the sourced and they landed on the young man, maybe a few years older than her, leaning against a tree several yards away. The brunette did her best to slow her heartbeat.

She breathed a chuckled and shrugged her slender shoulders. "Got insomnia. Can't seem to sleep," Ava replied in a tone that seemed to say 'guilty as charged'. "Haven't been sleeping well the past few weeks, actually. For crazy reasons, you'd never believe," Ava added in a 'life is crazy' type voice.

[mind_hunger]

Sylar straightened, pulling his hands from the relative warmth of the pockets of his heavy wool coat and raising them to chest height, palms facing forward. It was the near-universal gesture for 'I'm unarmed and harmless'. It was also an utter lie on both counts, though both it and the slight, apologetic smile he offered appeared genuine enough. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

He looked up, the gesture quite obviously meant to draw attention to the hovering Keepers, if only for a few seconds. "No? Is it more or less believable than being kidnapped to an alternate universe, to a point possibly decades in the future, to fight in a civil war for a race of sentient alien lighting bugs?" He allowed himself a slightly wry chuckle. "Honestly, I don't know what I'd believe right now."

[poprocksuic1de]

Ava watched as the man lifted his hands and she forced a small smile, keeping her hands in her pockets, protect them from the cold. "It's alright. It's not like I was expecting to see anyone outside in the middle of the night."

Ava lifted her gaze to the floating orbs overhead then returned her gaze to the man beneath the tree, her cheeks darkening a fraction as she realized how ridiculous it all seemed. "Hehe. Lightning bugs...I can totally see that. And that's true. If someone here couldn't believe anything, they'd need some serious drugs."

[mind_hunger]

"Neither was I," Sylar admitted, smile taking on a faint, wry quirk to it. "Especially given how cold it is. It's a good way to get away from the crowd, though." Not that the number of people in the small space would be particularly noteworthy elsewhere. The press here, though, was grating in a way it shouldn't have been.

He nodded his agreement, burrowing his hands back into the pockets of his coat. Despite this and his reference to the temperature, he was not entirely uncomfortable with the chill. It couldn't do him any harm, after all. "Yeah. Once you get past the point where this all seems like a bad dream, it becomes pretty pointless to hold on to much in the way of disbelief."

[poprocksuic1de]

Ava breathed a tiny chuckle, the warm air whooshing from her lungs, condensing in a small cloud before disappating. "Yeah. Not a whole lot of people willing to be out in, like, below thirty weather."

Ava drew in her shoulders a little, trying to make herself a smaller targer to the chill winter wind that had chosen to rush through the complex, rustling the trees and sending a shiver down her spine. "Yeah. Once the disbelief's over and done with, it's really a matter of 'well, crap, now what do I do?"

[mind_hunger]

"Try to find a way out?" Sylar suggested reasonably, though there was a hint of lingering apology, in acknowledgment of the fact that this, at least, was the obvious course. "Not that they seem to want to make it easy. I suppose it would spoil their fun, if all of their captives ran off." He glanced toward the wall in the distance and added, "Or flew off. Did you see that? I almost regret getting here late enough that I missed it."

[poprocksuic1de]

Ava shrugged her shoulders. "I'm smart, just not smart enough to figure that out. Let alone giant lightning bugs that had the technology to pull us here." Ava replied then shook her head.

"No, I didn't see it. Some guy tried flying over the wall?"

[mind_hunger]

"Assuming it was something technological," Sylar replied, though the absent quality to his quiet voice was such that he was likely speaking at least halfway to himself. "I know that's the common assumption, but it seems a little risky to trust the word of the things that brought us here."

He looked back at her, smiling slightly, and shrugged. "So I hear. Weird, isn't it?"

[poprocksuic1de]

Ava glanced over at him, arching an eyebrow. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Could be magic." The brunette couldn't help but chuckle softly. "I can't believe that stuff's real in my world."

Ava lifted a hand to brush her bangs away from her eyes, grunting at how cold her hand turned in such a short time. Tucking her hand back into her pocket, she nodded. "Yeah. People that can fly? Crazy enough on its own."

[mind_hunger]

"Magic?" Sylar's thick eyebrows arched upward, his expression turning somewhat bemused once again. "You have that in your world? Actual magic, I mean, not just stage tricks?" That was something he hadn't considered, and was not, despite his earlier statement, entirely certain he believed. Strange abilities, yes, but spells that derived their power from some outer source?

Or perhaps it was just another word for evolved abilities. Had they been evident in less enlightened times, that would likely have been the explanation, after all.

He laughed, low but not unpleasant, as though amused at his own agreement. Or at the situation, in lieu of any other viable reaction. "It's not normal, I'll give you that. People don't, then, where you come from?"

[poprocksuic1de]

"Far as I know, yeah. I know a guy who knows about the weird stuff way more than I do," Ava nodded slowly. "I mean, I know there's demons and spirits and stuff, I guess. But I haven't seen the magic, myself."

Ava shook her head, her brunette locks shifting on the shoulders of her coat. "Nope. Not without a plane...or a jetpack...or a wire fighting team hiding somewhere behind a wall," Ava replied with a laugh.

[mind_hunger]

"Demons?" That, too, was a surprise. He'd never seen any sign of the supernatural himself, any sign that there was a higher power that cared one way or another about humanity. Just the opposite, perhaps. "Do you mean in the actual, biblical sense? Or just..." He looked around the park, eyes narrowed faintly as though he peered into the shadows. "Creatures? Like some of the more unpleasant ones here."

The faint quirk of a grin he flashed at her joke was actually genuine, though it's source was not quite the likely-anticipated one. People were so often blind; nearly anyone asked in his own world would give a similar answer. "I don't think special effects count. Though a jet pack could have been involved. I didn't think to ask..."

[poprocksuic1de]

Ava's teeth captured her bottom lip and she chewed it thoughtfully. "I haven't seen anything scary and creature-like, personally. But I know that there's the ones in the biblical sense. A...well, sort of friend of mine knows a lot more about it than me. We're sort of...not really talking at the moment because in his reality...I kind of tried to kill him," Ava said with a small grimace. "So, yeah, kind of awkward."

Ava snapped her fingers at the special effects not counting. "Well, damn it." She breathed a chuckle. "Maybe he's got light bones, like a bird. Get some lift," Ava grinned, not feeling the cold so much as she was distracted with the conversation.

[mind_hunger]

That gave Sylar pause, and he eyed Ava thoughtfully for several seconds before replying, "Well, I can see how that might put a strain on the friendship. Still, if it wasn't even you..." He smiled a little awkwardly, as though unsure of quite what to say. It wasn't entirely inaccurate, either. "Why did you...no, your doppelganger. Why would she have tried to kill him?"

He feigned a sympathetic wince at the thought of hollow bones in a human. "I hope not. That would make it even more painful to hit the ground. Still, if we're looking at it from the angle of infinite Earths, there's probably someone somewhere who does." It was an out, obliquely offered.

[poprocksuic1de]

"Well..." Ava began tentatively. "We're both sort of the same. Apparently, we were chosen by this...demon guy to do...something. Sam and I, and a couple others, were brought to this ghost town to do the something, fight it out or whatever. And alternate me was going to kill him before he killed me. Very Thunderdome. Two man enter, one man leaves," Ava shrugged. "I'd been asleep for five months in a shed, I don't know how I was able to survive without food or water or...medical assistance. Must have been some weird demon thingy."

"If he's got the light bones, he might be able to control his landing. Not crashing into the ground or whatever," Ava muttered off-handedly, then shrugged her shoulders.