VIII-Dust and Ashes [Khalidah]

[Gabriel Constant]

I know the pieces fit
'cause I watched them fall away
Mildewed and smoldering,
fundamental differing

Hotel Angelis, Las Vegas, Nevada
15 June 2012

[dropcap]The rift opened in the center of the office. Nearly invisible, it took the colors of the area around it and warped them, swirling them gently like a mirage does. It widened a bit, enough for an average-sized person to fit, and a rubber ball shot out of it, only to bounce and disappear right back in. A few seconds later, Gabriel stepped into the room, safely extracting himself from the wormhole.

He had not created the wormhole, of course. If only. His brother had influential and powerful friends, and had introduced him to Crystalynn, one of his coworkers. The cheerful young woman was more than happy to help Gabriel get from place to place, minimising the amount of time he had to spend away from Alex and the girls. A plane ride to and from Vegas from Hawaii would have been far too long. Walking through something as supposedly impossible as a wormhole had bothered him at first, but now, the second time he had done it, he found it rather convenient.

The last time he had traveled in such a manner, it had been to settle a GEIST-related matter. This time… he was going to see how things went. A funny thing for a precog to do, but that was his plan. He had an idea of what would be said and done in this meeting, but this particular aspect of the future had been too fickle to really place. It happened sometimes.

He was meeting Khalidah Rahal, an icon in the world of biotechnology. Having been a regional planner for a couple of decades, he had been familiar with IntelliTouch's work, but had not realized there was more to Ms. Rahal until he had started putting some clues together. She was the woman his visions had shown him causing the solar event through Reggie Sawyer. He had only recently come to realize this; his visions only gave him so much to work with.

Having gathered his bearings, he straightened his jacket and turned toward the door. He had materialised in Dakari Johessman's office inside the Hotel Angelis. The office was empty, as he had known it would be. There was nothing top-secret about this meeting, he simply had not wanted to cause a scene in a public place by appearing out of nowhere, with someone obviously having used their abilities.

Leaving the office, he strode down the hallway and came upon the lobby, where he took an elevator to one of the upper levels. The more exclusive clubs were found the higher up one went, and he understood the Rahals had earned access to them through Dakari and Ana Johessman, following an incident involving someone being defenestrated. The same offer had not been extended to Gabriel, but as the Angelis served as one of a few unofficial safe havens for GEIST, he knew how to get in without trouble.

There was a gentleman standing at the door; though he was dressed in a suit, his build and posture exposed him as a bouncer. "Name?" he asked simply, as though bored by the night's non-events. Usually, Gabriel would have been pleased to stir up something, but tonight, he was on his best behaviour.

"Jake Tanaka," Gabriel answered, and was allowed inside. Jake Tanaka was always on the list.

The room within was a little dimly lit, but not such that it was impossible to see faces. One wall was composed of glass windows, as most of the building was. Red and gold alternated in the design, with black stools along the bar and black outlining the tables and chairs. It was as nice a place as Gabriel had expected. He usually felt out of place in such settings, but he could handle it. Being in the company of Lucius, who preferred the finer things in life, had helped him adjust to being back among the stateside upper class.

Gabriel took a seat in a corner, where they could speak quietly and not worry about being overheard, in case the subject turned sensitive. There was a light overhead, and a window to his right. A young woman approached the table just as he took a seat, and asked him whether he would like something to drink.

"Just club soda and grapefruit juice." Gabriel had decided not to drink while Alexandria was pregnant, and though the babies had been born, she was still wary of drinking while she was breastfeeding, so he continued to avoid alcohol, even when she was not around. The woman had a way of knowing things she had not seen. She just knew.

The young woman nodded and left, and Gabriel settled back into his chair. Dressed in a dark blue dress shirt and black pants, he blended into the shadows a bit. Now that he was losing weight, there was less reason for him to worry about which colors were slimming. It was freeing, in a way Gabriel had never expected ten months earlier.

The drink was delivered and a tab opened, more out of tradition than an expectation that he would drink much more. He had been early, as he usually was. There were still several minutes to wait before the time they had set via Facebook. The social networking site had actually been useful to him for once; Khalidah had been easily reachable there, and that was how they had made their arrangements. Whether she was aware of what he wanted to talk about was another story.

He had been purposely vague, mentioning his occupation - regional developer - and an interest in discussing future opportunities. Only his tone and choice of words would have given any hint that what he meant did not necessarily have to do with business.[/dropcap]

Words: 964.
Attire: Dark blue shirt, black pants, etc.
Excerpt: Tool, "Schism."
Comments: Time for noms.

[Khalidah Rahal]

You said, "Where have you been for a hundred years?"
Out in the sky, you fell beneath
Turnin' down a road, leads I know not where
Forever turnin' back, yeah

Hotel Angelis
Las Vegas, Nevada

[dropcap]It paid to be a Rahal in Las Vegas. Then again it paid to be a Rahal anywhere in the world. The IntelliTouch empire had spread to virtually every corner of the globe, with her at its head. Khalidah not only knew how to run a business; she knew how to run it exceptionally well. Conspiracy theorists believed that she was in cahoots with the Illuminati and other so-called secret societies.

That was cute.

She had far better things to set her sights on that didn't involve the creation of shadow governments to keep the bourgeosie where they were. That was just . . . boring. Right, like people hadn't been trying to do that for centuries on end. They always made the same mistake. It was impossible to fully control a legion of humans who had free will. They would always find a way to rebel.

Prior to heading out to the hotel, she slipped into a chic-looking sapphire blue dress with a plain pair of black heels and a sequined black clutch purse. Never one to spend more than five minutes on her appearance unless the occasion called for it, she gave her hair a once over with a brush and twisted it up behind her head, fastening it in place with a clip.

The drive to the Angelis was uneventful. She dropped Betty off at the valet desk and made her way to the elevators that would transport her to her ultimate destination. When she reached the club on one of the hotel's top-most floors, the guard at the door stood aside to allow her entrance. Opening her clutch, she produced ten crisp $100 bills and pressed them into his hand. “I'm afraid the dining hall has been reserved for the rest of the night. I'll be catching up with an old friend, and I'd prefer not to be disturbed.”

He made decent money as a bouncer, but a $1,000 tip was always more than welcome. It would cover his mortgage payment for the month, that was for sure. He folded up the bills and hid them inside his jacket pocket for safe-keeping. “Understood, Ms. Rahal.”

The only other person in the club thus far was the man that she was supposed to be meeting. She'd done more than her fair share of research on him over the past few weeks after he'd taken the time to contact her on Facebook. They knew of each other from the Ark Industries chatroom, and they seemed to have a lot of the same goals in mind.

Khalidah seated herself across from him at the table and grimaced as he uttered his choice of drink. Club soda and grapefruit juice? Gag.

“I'll take a bottle of Russo Baltique, if you have any on hand.”

The hostess raised an eyebrow. “Sorry. We're fresh out of $1.3 million vodka and free Russian sportscars.”

She smirked and chuckled. “Just keeping you on your toes. Not a lot of people know about Russo Baltique. Consider yourself lucky. A bottle of Belvedere will do just fine.”

With their drink orders in mind, their hostess politely excused herself to go fill them.

“So, Gabe, how's the family?” She knew that his wife had gotten pregnant right around the same time as Felicia. Though science dictated that they should have given birth roughly within a few days of each other, genetics said otherwise. The average pregnancy for a Rahal woman lasted nearly ten and a half months. Nowadays it seemed that doctors wanted to induce if the mother hadn't given birth within two weeks after her due date. But as long as neither the lives of her grandchildren or her daughter were at stake, she was willing to let nature take its course. “Felicia's still got a few weeks left. Maybe a month at the absolute max. She's a pro at this.”

They hadn't intended for their meeting to solely focus on familial happenings, but it was as good a place to start as any.[/dropcap]

חלדה רהל חלדה רהל

∞ Word count: 734
∞ Mood: Meh.
∞ Outfit: See poast!
∞ Lyrics / Quote: Mystery, Pearl Jam
∞ Illustrations: None.
∞ Comment / Informational links: None.

[Gabriel Constant]

Over exposure
of repetition blinds ambition slowly
Frozen in motion
the time is ticking by with every moment

Hotel Angelis, Las Vegas, Nevada
15 June 2012

[dropcap]Whether his hostess approved or not, Gabriel would be drinking his club soda and grapefruit juice. He was far more concerned about what would happen to him if his wife found out he was drinking when he had promised not to than he was about impressing Khalidah with his drink choice. Then again, he probably could have picked something more appealing that was also non-alcoholic, but sometimes he just had a taste for grapefruit juice. Maybe it was the pregnancy still lingering. He'd had a hell of a time with his own symptoms.

Gabriel flashed an apologetic smile as the waitress walked away. "They're wonderful. The girls are healthy and beautiful, and Alex is ecstatic. She's still keeping us off alcohol, though." A wave of his hand indicated that his drink choice had been vaguely related to that.

She told him about Felicia; he did notice that there was a disparity between the birth of his twins and Felicia's, but apparently this was normal for Felicia. He did know she'd had plenty of children before, as had Khalidah, so if neither woman was concerned about the length of the pregnancy, then neither was he. They knew best.

"That's good to hear. I hope she and Inaki are excited. Twins are… something." Gabriel chuckled. Athena and Demeter had already developed a lovely pattern, in which one would cry and the other be quite happy, then once the crying one was calm, the other would take up the wail. They slept at completely different times as well, and their appetites hardly matched. It was extremely inconvenient, but they had gotten used to it. They also thankfully had an extra set of hands, with the Babysitter having taken up residence already.

They had told very few people about the twins, and even fewer knew where the girls were. That had been discussed on only a need-to-know basis. Knowing that there was at least one group that wanted her dead, Alex had been afraid to give birth in the States, where she could be easily found while she was defenseless. Gabriel's precognition had been no help; he had assured her that no one would find her even in the States, but she had wanted to take every precaution anyway.

Once the drinks were delivered, Gabriel felt comfortable enough to get to business, or at least start considering it. He and Khalidah had spoken on occasion via the chat room, so he had a general idea of what her thoughts would be, but guesswork and conversation were quite different things. Gabriel had never been one for guesswork.

"I hear business is good. Didn't I just see you on one of those morning TV shows?" Gabriel asked with a smile, his tone conversational. The businesswoman had been quite busy, as far as he could tell. So much more did he appreciate her taking out a moment of her time to meet with him. "I know your time is not to be taken lightly, Khalidah. I won't waste it."

What he was going to tell her was probably nothing new to her. Most people might quail at hearing such as she would hear, but for all she had done and as long as she had lived, he would not be surprised if he was not the first person to say such words to her.

"As you probably know, I'm precognitive. Part of my job… or perhaps my former job was to keep track of the future, as it was vital to my work. Lately, those visions have had more and more to do with your activities." He paused. "The world is at a turning point, a tipping point, and things could go in any direction. You seem to be at the center of it all."

The future was a fickle thing, of course, and he could not say for sure what Khalidah was doing in it. One vision might feature her supporting a political figure behind the scenes, another might have her using her powers to destroy a city. The only constant was her influence - the presence of either herself or someone she sponsored.

"I'm not asking you about your future plans. Unless, of course, you're looking to share them. The reason I'm bringing this up is actually quite selfish. Working together, I suspect we could influence the future of the world. That has been my aim for the past year or so, but I was taking the wrong approach. I'm looking to correct that."

He fell silent, taking a sip of his drink, as though the topic he had broached was something as simple and natural as the weather. Though he did not say as much, his general affect indicated that they were speaking openly and Khalidah could ask him any questions she wished, and most would get an answer.[/dropcap]

Words: 821.
Attire: Dark blue shirt, black pants, etc.
Excerpt: 10 Years, "Baptized In Fire."
Comments: About damn time.

[Khalidah Rahal]

I've seen the horror, I've seen the wonders
happening just in front of my eyes.
Will I ever, will I never free myself by making it right?

Hotel Angelis
Las Vegas, Nevada

"That's good to hear. I hope she and Inaki are excited. Twins are… something."

“Yes, they really are. They tend to run in our family every few decades. We're not sure why.” She hadn't really bothered to spend the time figuring out the intricacies of their genetics and how to produce children who would grow to later exhibit special abilities. Regardless of whether her children had abilities or not, she loved them all the same. Not in this lifetime, though. She wanted at least a century to herself before she even thought about raising another child. After birthing—well, somewhere in the range of 2,984 children over the course of her lifetime (but who kept count?), she needed a long break. Several of her births had been multiples, though it had been rare for all of the children who had shared her womb to both have an ability. More often than not, all of her twins and triplets (and the occasional quads) were humans, or half of them were born with abilities. Rarer still were the siblings who'd been born with abilities which mirrored her own. Her son Caleb had been one of them. His brother hadn't been as lucky, though he lived a long and fruitful life.

"I hear business is good. Didn't I just see you on one of those morning TV shows?"

Khalidah tilted her head sideways and grinned at him. “I might have been. CNN likes to use me as an expert in the biotechnology field.” She really had no feelings about being in front of the camera whatsoever. As long as she wasn't showing up on the front cover of Sun magazine or some other trashy tabloid, she didn't care. Both she and Felicia knew how to stay well out of the media's eye and they could disappear quite easily if they had to. Money definitely talked all over the world.

Gabriel took another sip of his drink and gave her a contemplative look. He'd probably never been face to face with someone who commanded so much power, though she liked to consider herself to be humble. "I know your time is not to be taken lightly, Khalidah. I won't waste it."

She glanced at her watch. “Well, I have a few hours before I have to go run my linkshell through Voidwatch. Have to get an Atmacite of Persistence off Kholomodumo.” He probably had no idea what she was talking about. But that was one of the joys of being a gamer. At least her linkshell understood everything she said. If she'd wanted, she probably could have quad-boxed and solo'd the beast on her own, but, eh, another day.

Gabriel had other business to attend to with her. She knew that much. It wasn't rare for her to hang around in public with “regular” people (as far as she was concerned, she was a regular person). She preferred the company of regular people to power-hungry, socially and morally corrupt CEOs. There weren't any CEOs who particularly wanted to have her company either, unless they were of a like mind and believed in sharing a portion of their wages with all of their workers. Her business model was one that every large corporation could learn to live by—which was probably why none of them wanted to try it out, despite how successful it had been.

"As you probably know, I'm precognitive. Part of my job… or perhaps my former job was to keep track of the future, as it was vital to my work. Lately, those visions have had more and more to do with your activities." He paused, whether for dramatic effect or to take another sip of his (ugh) drink, the halt in conversation allowed his words to sink in. "The world is at a turning point, a tipping point, and things could go in any direction. You seem to be at the center of it all."

Great. That was just the place she hated to be since it meant that she had to deflect suspicion. But true to the song lyrics she so dearly adored, she'd seen kingdoms through ages rise and fall. She'd been the reason several powerful kingdoms had fallen in the past, and had seen to it that their names had been obliterated from history. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought that Sympathy for the Devil had actually been the story of her life put to lyrics.

She raised an eyebrow at him as she tilted her drink toward her lips, but said nothing. Gabriel would expound if he felt the need to do so.

"I'm not asking you about your future plans.”

Except that he was.

“Unless, of course, you're looking to share them.”

Khalidah shrugged. She hadn't intended on sharing them beyond the confines of her still-living immediate family members and possibly some of their direct descendants. She'd prided herself on being cautious and secretive, but sometimes that too had its price.

He admitted that his intentions were entirely selfish. At least he was being honest. Most people would have claimed that they wanted to do something 'for the greater good' (and she'd seen how well that had worked out for Dumbledore). “The reason I'm bringing this up is actually quite selfish. Working together, I suspect we could influence the future of the world. That has been my aim for the past year or so, but I was taking the wrong approach. I'm looking to correct that."

She set her drink back on the coaster on the table and thoughtfully scratched her ear, a rueful smile touching her lips as she chuckled. “Well, first things first.” Khalidah crossed her arms at the edge of the table and leaned upon them. “And I know this is going to sound like some Matrix-y, spoon-bending bullshit, but you can't influence the world. The world can only influence itself. People will always see what they want to see in someone regardless of whatever facts might be slapping them in the face.” There were always people out there who would say just how nice and friendly people like Ted Bundy and John Gacy were and how they never could have committed all those horrendous rapes and murders. “You can lead the world in a certain direction and take measures to correct it if it gets off course, but you can't just run in there and be all, 'You're going to change because I said so and that's final!' It might work on kids, but it doesn't work on humanity.” Humanity was much more cunning and intelligent than most people ever gave the human race credit for. They were still alive, weren't they?

חלדה רהל חלדה רהל

∞ Word count: 1186
∞ Mood: Sick.
∞ Outfit: This.
∞ Lyrics / Quote: Jillian (I'd Give My Heart), Within Temptation
∞ Illustrations: None.
∞ Comment / Informational links: Included in post.

[Gabriel Constant]

Leave a whisper to get by
And I would gladly let go
A life here left afire
Don't tell me how his honor
Will still keep him alive
and then rattle off something helpful

Hotel Angelis, Las Vegas, Nevada
15 June 2012

[dropcap]Soon the conversation turned from the relatively light topics of family and business to the subject Gabriel had wanted to discuss. There were very specific reasons why he had wanted to speak with Khalidah, and he had not mentioned all of them yet. Despite wanting to be completely forthcoming, Gabriel was all too accustomed to holding back. It was simply a habit he had been unable to break, even with Alex. That woman had gotten him to do things he had never thought he would do, yet sometimes could not get him to talk about his thoughts and his past. He would reveal only what was necessary and in his own time.

One of the reasons he had yet to make clear had to do with the very thing he mentioned as an apparent non sequitur, her involvement with the media. Khalidah had pull in more areas than Gabriel could identify, and she had a much farther reach than Gabriel did, as he happened to have the most influence with underground or less than reputable associations. Mix the two and they might have greater success than they would individually.

Indeed, as he studied her, he noted the quiet strength with which she carried herself, the understated power that teased the air around her. She was a powerful woman, and his visions had shown him that her abilities had limits beyond his comprehension, but that was not all; she had managed to build and control an international enterprise, and was something of an icon in the business world, despite being, to all appearances, a very private person. That took a sort of skill that Gabriel knew he had not mastered, that very few people had managed for that matter.

The difficulty he faced, as he well knew, would be in convincing Khalidah that they should join forces. She did not need him to accomplish any goals she might have in mind, so his argument would be that having him along for the ride would make things happen that much faster. Assuming, of course, that she had any interested in changing the course of human history and recent events. She was clearly reticent to reveal anything she did have planned, which did not make Gabriel's task any easier.

Besides, her time was valuable, as he'd said, and though he had no idea what it was she had said she needed to do, he did recognize that they did not have all night to go back and forth. He set his drink aside and nodded as she spoke. The problem she mentioned was one he had seen himself, and had been one of the leading causes of his last effort's demise. However, GEIST's fatal flaw had been internal - its people and the different motivations that drove them. One wanted to rule the world, one wanted money, one wanted revenge, one had no reason to be involved other than their own enjoyment, and other such things. In the end, they had not come together the way Gabriel had needed them to. They had not acted. His plan was nothing without action.

This time, if he did build some sort of team, he would ensure they all had the same vision in mind, and relatively similar motivations, as well as the ability to work together. As a loner by nature, he was not used to working in teams either, but at least he knew he could. Any others would have to know that as well, and at least give teamwork a try. Otherwise, his plans would once again come undone. He wasn't going to let that happen.

Gabriel smiled faintly at her "spoon-bending" comment. "I certainly would not react well if some gentleman appeared out of nowhere and told me how to behave," he agreed. "Yet there are forces that shape perception well - pop culture for some, religion for others, and so on. Establishing a cult of personality, maybe. That does not seem to be the key to changing the world, but it does seem to be part of it."

He had considered this often regarding his best friend and colleague Lucius Kilvayne. Knowing that Lucius both wanted to rule the world and had the wherewithal to do so, Gabriel had imagined placing Lucius in a position to lead through charisma and the power of suggestion. The problem was that, like Gabriel, Lucius had a few noticeable character flaws, one being his lust for power, another being his temper. Both were flaws that could have been muted by the presence of a less volatile partner, but Lucius seemed to have chosen Dakari Johessman as a consort, and Dakari's temper was no better than Lucius', and she also came packaged with a high propensity for violence. Gabriel was the last person on Earth who could talk about picking a bad match - he had chosen his from among his own future enemies - so he was not going to interfere, but he did need a new plan.

"I will stop short of referring to people as sheep," he said, "but they do have a tendency to follow rather than lead, to absorb rather than think. In my experience, at least. If there were some example to follow, someone - or several someones - whose views were adaptable enough that others could relate to them, then it would be less a case of being told and more the world choosing to change. Then all that would be left would be to keep it on course."

That was his plan, at least, in its most basic form. Divulging any more would make this a very one-sided conversation. He was already at a disadvantage; he did not need to put himself any more behind. This was no simple conversation, after all.[/dropcap]

Words: 966.
Attire: Dark blue shirt, black pants, etc.
Excerpt: Parabelle, "Kiss The Flag: The Widow."
Comments: Tired.

[Khalidah Rahal]

I watched with glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the gods they made

Hotel Angelis
Las Vegas, Nevada

"Yet there are forces that shape perception well - pop culture for some, religion for others, and so on. Establishing a cult of personality, maybe. That does not seem to be the key to changing the world, but it does seem to be part of it."

“Yes, that's certainly a part of it, but look at how quick people are to tear down pop culture icons, even.” Like any normal human, she too found the supermarket tabloids quite entertaining. It was true, though. Bringing about a new era wasn't something that happened overnight. The world was still waking up from the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the Women's Rights movement of the 1970s, and there was still a great deal of cognitive dissonance on both topics. No one wanted to recognise their hand in racism and subjugation because it was something they profited from. They might feel bad about it and know that it was wrong, but unless the world was directly affecting them, everything was of little consequence.

"I will stop short of referring to people as sheep," Gabe continued, "but they do have a tendency to follow rather than lead, to absorb rather than think. In my experience, at least. If there were some example to follow, someone - or several someones - whose views were adaptable enough that others could relate to them, then it would be less a case of being told and more the world choosing to change. Then all that would be left would be to keep it on course."

That was what had seemed to work in the past. Leaders had to make their people see that they both wanted and needed change to occur. People were generally very resistant to change if life was going their way. A little change was never a bad thing.

She'd seen whole civilisations rise and fall under the leadership of a variety of rulers. There was no doubt in her mind that history would look back on the era of the 20th and 21st centuries and see anything but imperialistic endeavours. One country was always trying to overtake another. Cultural clashes and genocides were fairly common with little more than ten years of peace following years of war. Conflicts in the Near and Middle East raged out of control without compromise. The world was well set on a path to destruction make your time ha ha ha. Sometimes destruction was necessary to sow the seeds of a new empire. Even after the most catastrophic forest fires, whole forests had returned to their former glory in a matter of years, relying upon the fires to clear out dead, old brush, and to force seed pods to burst open upon the earth so that they could take root.

“Did you have any particular individuals in mind?” Khalidah was certain that she could think of a few. “It's always best to start with the youth.” Kids and teenagers were sometimes far more perceptive than their adult counterparts gave them credit for. Children were well aware of everything occurring in their surroundings; they had to be if they wanted to survive. She surmised that their awareness was probably ingrained into their genetic code; they always needed to be aware of when predators were near. It wasn't that long ago that humans had been on the menu for a number of species.

Humans really were gullible. For years, conspiracy theorists the entire world over had been concocting stories of secret societies bent on controlling the world's financial and agricultural systems. There really was no such thing as a secret cabal of the world's most powerful lizard beings controlling anything, as much as George Tsoukalos wanted everyone to believe. Sometimes it really wasn't aliens. Or reptilian aliens in human skin. People needed an 'other' to believe in; something that they could blame for their own problems. Money was tight? The failing economy must have been the fault of the Illuminati or the New World Order. It couldn't possibly be because their country had made a full century's worth of ill-advised financial decisions which had practically buried it in debt.

Every so often, however, small underground societies did evolve as a means to answer the world's ills. What the world needed now was Loki, sweet Loki new Renaissance.

“In your studies, have you ever heard of something called Lux Aeterna? I'm assuming you can gather what it means from the name alone.”

חלדה רהל חלדה רהל

∞ Word count: 832
∞ Mood: Fucking HEADACHE.
∞ Outfit: Same as previous posts.
∞ Lyrics / Quote: Sympathy for the Devil, The Rolling Stones
∞ Illustrations: None.
∞ Comment / Informational links: I want to go watch Interview With the Vampire now. Also, gdi, why won't anyone listen to me and prescribe me some goddamn Percoset for my headaches?