I2DT - I Have You In Mind

[Narrator]

A nice car pulls up outside the gates and the driver gets out. He's a large man with his driver's cap pulled down low. He steps up to the intercom, "I am here to pick up a Miss Mnemosyne."

[Miriam Bell]

After a while Miriam steps out of the dorms and heads towards the gate. She's wearing a tasteful black dress and some jewelry. It's not as fancy as she'd like, certainly not enough for the nicest restaurant in London, but for Maldon it'll do. For a while she'd considered asking Will for help but ultimately decided against it. It would have been hard to hide his presence from another telepath anyway. She steps through the gate as it opens and gives the car and the driver an appreciative look. She hadn't expected to be picked up with this much style.

[Narrator]

The man nods to her. "Miss," he says with a mild Russian accent. He opens the back door for her, "Miss Trinity is waiting for you at the restaurant."

[Miriam Bell]

"Why thank you." she says and gracefully climbs into the car.

[Narrator]

The man exudes a very stolid sense as he settles back into the driver's seat, but she can't sense any of the tampering that she picked up on the cop. This just seems to be his normal mood. He pulls away from the school and in a short period of time, he stops the car in front of the small restaurant, opening the door to let her out. "Have a pleasant evening, Miss."

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam smiles politely and heads into the restaurant. The driver didn't seem like she'd convinced him to help, not did she quite get the feeling he was being paid. At least not as a chauffeur. She still doesn't really trust Trinity and unfortunately she didn't have a chance to talk to Thereza yet, which might have shed some light on this, but she's not going to let this keep her from enjoying the evening. If something is going on then no one says that she has to get directly involved after all.

[Trinity]

She's escorted to the table and Trinity rises in unison as she approaches. The triplets are wearing dresses of the same style, but one dress is red, one is black, and one is white. Miriam can feel Trinity gently shunting away curiosity about them so that none of the other restaurant patrons are paying them any particular attention. "Mnemosyne," says the triplet in black, "Your timing is exceptional. I was just getting ready to ask for some wine. If you have no objection that is."

[Miriam Bell]

"Trinity." she smiles, taking the hand of the white triplet and placing a faint kiss on her fingers. "Wine sounds lovely." After Trinity send a car to pick her up Miriam feels she needs to even the playing field a little. And being forward with one of the three that isn't the one actively addressing her should do.

[Trinity]

The triplet in white smiles at her and the smile spreads to the other two. The red triplet pulls her chair out for her as the black triplet motions for the waiter and discusses something quietly with him. "I trust the driver was courteous," says the triplet in white, "Ursus can occasionally forget to mind his manners."

[Miriam Bell]

"He was nothing but courteous." she says as she sits down and smooths her dress. "Your employee?"

[Trinity]

"More like a friend and business associate," said the triplet in white as they all sat down again. The waiter returned with the bottle of wine and served it before retreating again. "We have several," said the black triplet, "we like to surround ourselves with people we can get along with."

[Miriam Bell]

"Who doesn't. But it's awfully nice of him to do you a favor." she says, wondering if maybe she should have asked Will to literally play arm-candy for her as a piece of jewelry. She takes a sip of wine and lets her eyes skip across her three dates.

[Trinity]

"He's handled transport for us for a while. We had a disagreement with our previous driver and she decided to pursue her own interests." There was maybe a bit of bad feeling behind that statement, but Trinity covered it up quickly.

[Miriam Bell]

"That's unfortunate. If you don't mind me asking, what is it that you do?"

[Trinity]

"A little bit of everything. Mostly what we do is to fund a rescue organization for mutants who are in bad situations. Not everyone trusts X-Corp and it's monolithic presence so we provide an alternative resource."

[Miriam Bell]

"More bureaucratic than monolithic, in my experience, but it can be intimidating." she nods. "More alternatives can't hurt, if there's the backing for it."

[Trinity]

"We do what we can and we're occasionally willing to get our hands dirty or get into scrapes that X-Corp would leave as long and drawn out negotiation affairs. It's the sort of thing a small organization like ours can do. Be agile, respond quickly."

[Miriam Bell]

"Favouring mutants over humans when interests collide." she asks, though it doesn't sound much like a question.

[Trinity]

"If it comes to that choice, yes," the black triplet said with a slight shrug. "We have our values and priorities like anyone else," said the white triplet.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam kept her focus on the red one while the others are talking, both to remind herself of the fact that she's just one person and to not give her too much clout in dictating the situation by sheer numbers and making Miriam split her attention according to her whims.

"Oh I wasn't judging. X-Corp, despite their mission statement, has a lot of human members. There's bound to be bias, even if it just manifests itself in a tendency for compromise."

[Trinity]

"A compromise is only a compromise when you still get something out of it," the red triplet responded with a smile, "otherwise it's just surrender." The waiter returned to take their order and retreated again once it had been given.

[Miriam Bell]

"Cooperation is needed when interests collide. It's just that human interests have a tendency to force themselves into things that don't concern them."

[Trinity]

"Precisely," the black triplet said, raising her glass. "And it's not that we're blind to their actual needs. Some of their needs coincide with our objectives, but we're very careful about what mundanes we work with."

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam can't help but glance over when Black talks. It's just reflex to look at a person talking to you.

"I could see the benefits of a grassroots approach to supporting mutants. Go where individuals need more personal help..."

[Trinity]

"Unfortunately there's only so many of us and we can only be so many places, even those of us who can be three places at once," said white with a laugh.

[Miriam Bell]

"That makes me wonder, how far apart from each other can you go?"

[Trinity]

They looked at one another meaningfully for a moment before red spoke up, "It's been a while since we've tested that, but the last time we tried we were able to manage two miles without any break in communication."

[Miriam Bell]

"Remarkable. And your multitasking is quite incredible as well. I'm envious."

[Trinity]

"Obviously the fidelity of emotion and thought is better in close proximity as are other things," she said. "Since we're comparing measurements, what's your range?"

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam lets out a snorting laugh at that.

"Not anywhere close to that. Less than a hundred meters is when things begin to fade out, but it's close proximity to really be effective. There's a certain intimacy to it, I suppose and seeing somebody's face helps a lot." she says, fudging the specifics a little, much less revealing the true extend of her ability to slip into someones subconscious mind. She's not entirely certain how well she'd do against another skilled telepath, but she'd rather have Trinity think that the triplet has the upper hand anyway.

[Trinity]

"There is quite a bit one can read in a face," white said, "sometimes a look can mean everything." She gives Miriam a sultry, half-lidded look.

[Miriam Bell]

"Oh, absolutely. Some are more obvious than others, but it always helps to feel the intent behind it echoing in your own mind." she smiles, slipping out of one of her shoes underneath the table to run her bare foot along the leg of one of the triplet, curiously watching whether any reaction spreads to the other two.

[Trinity]

The contacted triplet gives a pleased smile that spreads to the other two. "Testing, are we," asked black.

[Miriam Bell]

"Can't blame me for being curious." she smiles back. "And there may have been other, baser factors to." she goes on, the corner of her lips twitching up into the hint of a smirk.

[Trinity]

"Nothing wrong with baser factors," white said with a grin, "there's a lot to be said for them keeping one sane. Grounded even."

[Miriam Bell]

"Here's to staying grounded then." she says and raises her glass of wine.

[Trinity]

After a pleasant dinner, Trinity walked back out to the sidewalk with Miriam. "So I guess that leaves one question," red asked, "should we have Ursus take you back to the university or would you like to see our place?"

[Miriam Bell]

"The night is young and I'm curious." she smirks. "I'm not quite ready to give up the pleasant company."

[Trinity]

"Lovely," Trinity said as Ursus pulled the car around. Ursus opened the doors and Black got into the front seat while Red and White joined Miriam in the back. They drove for a while, though at some point Miriam became aware that some of the 'distance' was purely for show though Red and White did their best to distract her. They finally pulled up to a nice farmhouse and Ursus let them out at the front of the house. The house itself was in excellent shape and had obviously belonged to someone well-to-do at some point. Trinity opened the front door for her. In the entry hall, she could see the stairs up to the second floor. Off to the right, from what had probably once been a sitting room came the dull glow of electronic screens, but otherwise the bottom floor was dark and quiet. "It isn't much, but it's home for now," Black said with a flourish.

[Miriam Bell]

"I suppose you move around a lot and have to make do. It's quite lovely, considering." she smiles as she tries to get a feel for whether somebody else is in the house. She'd been eager to let herself get distracted in the car, but it had been hard to miss that they'd driven longer than it takes to get pretty much anywhere in Maldon.