OOC: Closed. Planned, Gwen/Zeke.

Zeke was deep in a fix here. He couldn't run from the truth, but he couldn't face it either. Honestly, she was probably in the camps. He hadn't given the idea the time of day before, but now the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. She had to be there... where else could she be? If Evie wasn't in the camps, Zeke would be be extremely worried. Then again, if she was in the camps, he had a seperate set of problems.

How do I play this and not get caught? Not sure what to do here... it's dangerous. Risky. Very crazy. I'll probably get caught, killed, or worse. They'll trace me. She won't even be in there. It'll all be for nothing and I'll never find her because I'll be spending my time in a mutant concentration camp. I'll die. I will die there. Dead. Death. I'll die.

The impulse that had driven him to this idea was beaten down by the new impulse that told him this was ludicrous. Honestly Zeke, it won't work.

Then it hit him, like a ton of bricks. Her face flashed before his eyes, with her golden hair and bright yellow eyes she smiled at him. For a moment he thought she was real, like she had just walked into his apartment and sat down beside him. But reality shocked him with a resounding 'No' and he cleared his mind to see there was nothing but an empty chair.

Evie. Her name. That was all. It was enough. Once again, for the fifty-seventh time this evening, Ezekiel White changed his mind. He would do this crazy thing, and he would do it right. He would go all out, if that was what it took to save his fiancee. They say that obsession is dangerous thing... well... they're wrong. I hope. He closed his eyes and wiped them in weariness, then stood to his feet. Opening his eyes, he found his cell phone on the coffee table.

He spun to his security room, set all the traps, then carefully left the flat. He skipped all the checkpoints with the practiced air of someone who knew what they were doing. Also someone who had been hurt before. He didn't trip his own protection these days, he had failed far too many times to fail again.

Taking the elevator the ground floor, he hit the streets of New York City, bypassing his car. He walked, and kept walking. Walking. Walking. He walked until he felt he couldn't walk anymore.... like he was somehow safe enough now. He hadn't seen a Stalker in an hour or so, and after four hours of walking that was pretty good.

He flipped open his phone and sat on a nearby bus stop bench. It was nearly ten p.m., but he had to do this. Earlier in the day he had sought out the number of the camps. It had been hard to find, but with the internet and a skilled user, anything was possible. The number was in his phone, and Zeke had only to hit the 'Send' button twice.

He did.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang. It felt like an eternity.

Two thoughts came, the first: This is crazy
The second: Evie.

Suddenly a click on the other end of the line sounded, signifying someone had picked it up. Zeke decided to take the plunge and make the first move, he would speak first, in a lower voice, "Yes, hello. I'm searching for my daughter. She has mutant-like abilities, and I haven't heard from her in some time." He raised his voice a little to indicate fatherly distress... though maybe it wasn't entirely unnatural, "I was wondering if you could help me with that?"

Gwendolyn was not in a foul mood. Foul was a pile of crap on the floor, and a boot stepping in it. Gwendolyn was in a mood like a granite mountain in the path of road construction. Day by day, by subtle pick and premeditated explosions, she was having a hole worn through her.

She pulled open a drawer on the office desk, and took out a simple white sheet of paper. Not even a full sheet: a half sheet. There was wispy black printing on it, impartial squares and tiny labels to help idiots fill them in. It was a standard death certificate. Standard. Ha.

It wasn't that death was an uncommon thing at the Camps. It wasn't that Gwendolyn wasn't used to seeing death. It wasn't that she had known the deceased in any special way. It was just the thought that some deranged mind had planned out a needlessly complicated murder, and had gotten away with it. It baffled her. It made her tired. It caused a rockslide on the mountainside, and left her with the task of clearing out the rubble, heavy stone by heavy stone. Shya. Who in their right mind--or even their undiagnosed lunacy--would murder Shya? Would bother with murdering Shya? There wasn't anything special about the girl. Only that she'd been surviving, right up until the moment she died. The story of the Camps.

Gwendolyn pressed her thumbs into the corners of her eyes. Then she picked up an impartially bright blue pen, and started filling in those idiot boxes. The blind girl's body was already disposed of; now her name and date of death would be filed away with the rest, in an alphabetized file, in a cabinet no one even bothered to lock. As Slaughterhouse 5 would put it: So it goes.

She didn't even realize the phone was ringing until she came to cause of death, and paused to think up a description succinct enough to fit the box but volcanic enough to match her feelings on the subject.

With a sigh, she picked up the phone and held it to her ear. She stared at the blank wall across the room as the man on the other end did all the talking for her.

> "Yes, hello. I'm searching for my daughter. She has mutant-like abilities, and I haven't heard from her in some time. ...I was wondering if you could help me with that?"

" 'Mutant-like abilities'," Gwen parroted, unable to stop herself from being dryly amused. Daddy's little girl couldn't possibly be one of those big bad mutants, now could she? She could only display 'mutant-like abilities'. Daughter. Gwen sucked in a sharp breath, and held her tongue in check. Shya. Suddenly, all she could think to ask the man was whether or not this daughter of his was blind. She held her tongue in check. "How did you get this number?" She waved a hand in the air, dismissing her own question. "Never mind. If you were looking for the Camps, you've reached them. And if your daughter's here, I'd know." She started tapping the bright blue pen against the desktop. "What's her name? On the off chance she gave a fake name at Registration, a run-down of her mutatio--sorry, of her 'mutant-like abilities'--would be damn useful, too." Gwendolyn sounded exactly like she was: a feed-up woman who needed a nap and a bottle that came in a brown paper bag. Not necessarily in that order.

((ooc: Do you want Evie to be in the Camps?))

OOC: Hmmm... it complicates things to have her in the camps, but it also gets Zeke involved in the plot directly. So I guess yes, go ahead and have her in the camps. Not quite sure where we can go with that, but it atleast gives Zeke a reason to keep speaking with Gwen if nothing else. He'll look into breaking her out later.
IC:

The voice on the other end didn't sound especially kind, but that was to be expected from someone who worked in the camps. Zeke had never actually seen or heard from anyone inside, but he could imagine, it had to be pretty rough. Even for a homosapien who believed firmly in the Registration, it would be hard to work in the camps and not be a little depressed, frustrated, annoyed, ticke off, or simply sick of what was going on. Unless of course, the person was a maniac-mutant-killer. If such a person existed (which Zeke guessed was likely) he couldn't imagine it was the person he heard talking right now.

He waited for her response, then quickly ran down the list. "Her name is Evie, sometimes known as Severity. Her abilities... are interesting." He paused and took a deep breath. Time to lay it all out there. "She's a gravity manipulator. Can affect the gravity around things, causing some things to float or sink." Another breath.

This is it! Is she in the camps or not?
Dang. Right now the woman is probably running scans on my voice into mutant databases, if such a thing exists. She probably is tracking my phone and already knows who I am. I am so dead. Suddenly, he glanced down and noted that his scrambler was securely fastened to his phone. Oh. Guess they won't be tracking me today... not without a lot of hacking.

A woman on the streets passed by a little to close for Ezekiel's comfort. He turned his back on the woman and tried not to look like anything more than a bumb on a bench. He slipped the phone down away from his ear long enough for her to pass, a second or two, then lifted it to his ear again. No chances.

"So, do you think you could locate her? I'm so worried, I haven't heard anything in months! Please..." He stopped there. Held his breath.

This is it...

OOC: Would Gwen be interested in validating his 'father' story? or maybe tracking Zeke. I don't care one way or the other, but I'm wondering if she would be suspicious and try and learn the truth. With a little work it probably would be possible, and he would fess up to being a mutant looking for his lover. Don't know... just an idea.

"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Or partnership at least.

> "Her name is Evie, sometimes known as Severity. Her abilities... are interesting. ...She's a gravity manipulator. Can affect the gravity around things, causing some things to float or sink. ... So, do you think you could locate her? I'm so worried, I haven't heard anything in months! Please..."

Gwendolyn let out a relieved breath as the man spoke. Then she gave a little shake of her head: this wasn't a time to be relieved. The man's daughter was definitely not Shya, but that just made her some other poor shmuck stuck in these Camps. "Yes," she delivered the news, rubbing the end of the pen in small circles on her temple. "Yes, I can locate her." Easily. "We have an Evie here. She matches that power description. She's alive, but she's been here for awhile." It was a telling statement for someone who knew how to listen: 'she's been here for awhile' was both a state of mind, body, and spirit. 'She's alive' could get very worn down with every day that went by, and every idiot guard a mutant crossed paths with.

((ooc: I don't think Gwen would be interested in validating the father story; that just doesn't seem like a Gwenish mind frame. I think I can get her tracking you down, though. Maybe to try and give you the possessions Evie had to surrender when she entered the Camps, or something. Don't know how hard she would naturally look, though; are there any leads that an average woman (who's not really all that motivated) would be able to follow back to you? We could always go with a "random encounter" approach. She could recognize your voice, or some such.

Is there any info about Evie's condition in the Camps that you'd like to get across in this conversation?))

Zeke litsened intently while the woman spoke on the other end of the line. He was safe enough, he knew, but was Evie? He held his breath as he heard her checking for Evie's name, on the other side of the conversation. Please, Lord, please.

His breath held. He didn't make a sound. A pindrop could be heard. A good deal of his emotional welfare depended on this moment.

Then she confirmed that she was there.

Relief washed over Zeke like a hurricane storming a beach full of tourists. It raised his heart beat about 50 times per minute. It got his blood flowing and his breath racing, as he started to breathe again. All his hopes and dreams were once again alive, in Evie. Evie. Evie. Evie. The name gave him love, love gave him hope, hope gave him a future.

Then the woman told Zeke she had been there a while, with a 'but' at the beginning of her sentence. Zeke knew that couldn't be a good thing. The camps were a horrible place to be, and even though Evie was alive, her spirit was probably in a ton of turmoil and stress. The camps wore down the strongest of people, and although Zeke could vouch that Evie was a strong girl, he didn't exactly know how the camps would affect her. He just prayed she was okay.

Breathe. Okay. Get a grip. Next question.

"Whew. Thank you so much, that's such a relief. Is there any way you could let me know how she is doing?" He waited again to see how she was.

OOC: That's fine. I'm totally cool with anotehr random encounter, maybe even a slip so that you find out that Zeke has powers. I don't want him landed in the camps, but a good run for your life situation could be fun. Or maybe Gwen/Zeke relationship is purely business, and his being a mutant wouldn't change much? Not sure, your call.

Yeah, I'd be glad to know her mental, physical condition after the camps... it realistically would be grim, which would push Zeke to join the breakout attempts. Good plot furtherment with him.

> "Whew. Thank you so much, that's such a relief."

Of all the reaction the man could have given, Gwendolyn hadn't been expecting that. "You're welcome," she put in automatically, her voice flat with surprise. That was the first time she'd ever been thanked for the news that someone's loved one had been tossed into America's finest Holocaust rendition. Father of the year, this guy probably wasn't. At the least, he probably wasn't the sort of dad who always knew just the right thing to say to his precious little girl.

> "Is there any way you could let me know how she is doing?"

Gwendolyn leaned back in her chair, and shifted the phone to her other ear. "Yeah. She's... holding up. Not a frequent visitor to the infirmary, which is always a good sign." She cleared her throat. 'Not a frequent visitor'? Right. She wasn't. She had been in her fair share of times, though. Everyone had. "It's... it's harder for the women here, you understand." If that wasn't a loaded statement, Gwendolyn didn't know what was. She leaned further back, and rubbed her free palm against her temple. "As far as I've seen, though, she's staying mostly under the radar. You've got a smart daughter, Mr...?"

((ooc: Probably at this point, an in-camp encounter would be best, once the breakout begins. Sorry for the delay in reply!))

Honestly, Zeke was just relieved to know where Evie was. He had been so worried that someting might have happened, since Black. Maybe the mutant had resurfaced and kidnapped her?? Well, that was now not a possibility, and Evie was smack dab in the middle of the mutant camps. Fantastic... His mind played sarcasm over and over again. Not a sarcastic sarcasm, a sad sarcasm. He was happy he knew where she was, he was sad that she was where she was. Dangit...

I have to get her out, I can't leave here there. Suddenly, panic set in. It was always this way with Zeke, one minute he was okay, the next his emotions were on the fly. Out there for the world to see. Sometimes see. Either way, with one danger set aside, the danger of her being in the camps had become much more real to him now. He thought of the horror of the camps as the woman on the line told him that it was hard on women there. His fears intesified. If a man dared touch her... His anger started to set in, his resolve to get her out growing.

"Mr. Gray, Chad Gray." He used his fake name to cover himself. He knew that Evie's last name was different, so he pulled the other card. "Evie's my adopted daughter, whoever her birth-parents were, they must have been... different." He calmed himself for a second to send the lie over the line. But inside, his panic was growing, so were his thoughts on how to get her out.

"Thanks. She's definitely a smart girl. Knows how to handle herself. Thank you for letting me know about her. Still, I find it dispacable that you are holding my daughter against her will, reguardless of her so-called 'mutant' abilities." This time he did let his emotions go over the line, his anger was being exposed. "I can tell you, I will not put up with this, and I will do all I can to secure her release."

Then, Zeke flipped the phone shut. Conversation over, at least on his end. The call was untracable thank God, but this wasn't over. The woman knew his voice, and could connect him that way somehow. If he ever got Evie out, 'Chad Gray' couldn't exist anymore. Evie... here I come.

OOC: So the name's is obviously a fake, and there's probably enough give-away that you know something isn't right about the conversation. I like the idea of somehow in the raid Gwen hearing Zeke speak and recognizing him. If maybe even she pulls him aside and they talk, Gwen tells Zeke the gov group idea?? Idk. Thinking out loud.