tampered | log, ongoing;

When; Saturday, September 5. 6pm
Rating; Let's start with PG
Characters; Gabriel Sylar (

makes_you_tick) and Eden McCain (

suicideslowly)
Summary; Body switching! Great fun for some, horribleness for others.
Log;

Sylar had just had a very difficult day. He'd waited to make the trade with the deities until he'd managed to put a great deal of his shop back together, thinking that the rest of the repairs would be easy. Unfortunately, he hadn't counted on his attention being diverted every ten minutes or so with reminiscing about what he used to be able to do, or what others could do. He hadn't counted on the lack of intuitive aptitude making him feel dumb and blind as he tried to sort out what pieces he needed to put display case back together. He hadn't counted on his hands shaking as he tried to replace gears in one of his previously favorite pieces.

This whole week had been a bust, and it was going to take much longer than he anticipated to get things working again. He was probably going to have to hire some help. It was humiliating, and he wasn't looking forward to it.

So he was in quite the bad mood as he made his way back to Building 12, his hands shoved in his pockets.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That doesn't tell me much. Any details to share with the class?" Eden asked, stepping out of the elevator and waiting for Sylar to lead the way, not exactly knowing where his apartment was, nor caring to try and remember the address.

He walked immediately toward number 1532, his apartment. It was a well-traveled way, obvious that habit moved him more than anything, and he looked back while talking. "I'd rather be here than at home. There's more hope for me here. Despite what it's done to me, it's given me...perspective."

It was leaving a large opening for disbelief. If Mohinder or Claire were here, they'd almost certainly have a scathing remark for him. He was never quite sure what direction Eden would go, given that sort of opportunity. But he was being honest with her, if somewhat vague. He didn't have much of a choice.

And there they were, thankfully. "Keys are in your left pocket," he noted as he nodded at the door.

"Perspective," Eden echoed, following Sylar quickly as they made their way to his apartment-- the sooner they got there, the sooner a solution would be found, hopefully. Extracting information from Sylar would have been a nice touch, but her normal ability would have helped just as much with such a task, if not more. She didn't know how to use the wide array of tools suddenly laid out in front of her, by Sylar.

There was no scathing remark that came to Eden's lip, although some measure of disbelief made itself known by the way her brows arched, just slightly. It was nothing really different than what Sylar had told her before, on some occasions. But repetition didn't mean too much of anything.

She tossed the keys in Sylar's direction, not wanting to get even close to him, if at all possible.

"Let's just get through with this. The sooner either of us looks on the network for... anything, the sooner this gets fixed."

Sylar opened up the door to his apartment and walked in, relaxing visibly as he left the stroller near the door. This was a place where he was comfortable- all the walls held built-in bookcases that curved and sloped elegantly, and all the bookcases were full. The whole place had been rebuilt a few times, and by his own hands. It was a testament to his skill (which most likely lay in his aptitude, he knew), and it was a relief to see that it hadn't all been destroyed.

"Make yourself comfortable. If Shanti needs to sleep, you can set her up in the guest bedroom," he said quietly. "I've got extra blankets in that closet." He pointed towards the linen closet in the hallway. "And if you're hungry- which you might be, I haven't had dinner- feel free to raid the fridge."

His laptop was in the living room, which they entered as they walked in. He dropped onto the couch and opened it, immediately looking at the Network. As soon as he seemed to settle into this task, he spoke, without looking up. "We can keep dancing around the subject as much as you'd like, really. But Shanti has an ability, doesn't she? I can tell."

Almost as if on cue, Eden's stomach did growl, although she merely sat herself on the couch and continued to glower a bit, not having much of an appetite, despite the hunger. All the tension, unanswered questions hanging in the air, served to make her feel more nauseated than she had been in quite some time-- which was saying quite a bit, given all the events that had taken place in the past year. Mohinder's changes. The pregnancy.

Shanti squirmed in her arms again, yawning for a moment-- but her eyes didn't open, and for that, Eden was glad. Less opportunities for the secret to come out, until--

Her breath hitched a little, and even without abilities, that was probably enough of a red flag, for Sylar.

"You can tell," Eden repeated, narrowing her eyes, gaze wandering away for a moment. "Maybe I shouldn't be staying here, after all."

"Oh, I don't know if it would be such a good idea to separate," he noted, glancing over to Eden momentarily. "We still don't know the terms of this condition."

Sylar floated around the Network for a moment, noting gladly that others were in the same position. He'd check on that in a minute. Maybe they needed to have this out now. "I know you think you need to protect her or I'll rip her head off, but I have no plans to harm your daughter." It was the truth. He found Shanti to be something that he had helped with (slightly- he had checked to make sure she was growing correctly, after all.) and he wouldn't intentionally harm a hair on her head. Unfortunately, he'd realized he'd gotten quite good at unintentional destruction, but that was why he'd left that part out.

Which was why he was going to have to play this card. "The sky is green, you know." A blatant lie, designed to set off the lie detection ability. He was confident enough that he felt he could ease around directly lying to Eden. He had been doing all right with it so far. He may not have much, after trading his abilities away- but this he was still good at.

While not nearly as skilled as Sylar himself in manipulating words to achieve a certain response or effect, Eden was also familiar with the idea of twisting words, of the gray area which lay between playing lies and truths. Crafting words just so had been both her strength and also, ultimately, her downfall-- meeting someone who was more than a match for her, as she crashed so painfully through the cell glass. Still, Sylar didn't have much reason to lie.

The tingling sensation hit almost instantly after his second declaration-- that the sky was green, of all things, and Eden hunched her shoulders slightly, unsure what it was. The sky is...

"You're a lie detector, now," Eden murmured, eyes opened slightly wider than usual, both stunned and apprehensive. After a momentary pause, she decided to pry a little more, as well as swerve the topic of the conversation. "Do you have a pen and paper? Could you try writing it?"

If there was anything that could distract Sylar, it was the discussion of his abilities- even if they weren't his right at the moment. He smiled a bit at the wide eyes and nodded when she questioned him. "I could, but it only works with the spoken word."

He grabbed a pen and pad of paper from the side table, and wrote in surprisingly loopy letters (at least surprising to him), "The sky is green." He passed it over to her and said, "See? Maybe it could be developed, but I have a feeling it operates entirely off voice inflection."

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