taxonomites | V [VISUAL/LOCATION: OSTEN/SHELLEY LINE] NO ON REMAINS QUITE WHAT HE WAS WHEN HE RECOGNIZES HIMSELF

There was little that could be said about Gabriel's day so far. He'd woken up, gotten dressed, gotten something to eat, and then made his way out of the Sanctuary For All in order to head back to his shop and clean up the few loose ends that had been left dangling while he'd been making sure that Peter didn't end up killing himself from over activity the last few days. With the other man all patched up, there was no reason that he had to stick around constantly now. But he was only intending on popping out for an hour or so as it was.

He wasn't sure what had happened mid-way through the stream of his plan. He'd been perfectly content when he'd sat down on the trolley from Osten to Shelley, but by the time that he had arrived at his destination, Gabriel's entire attitude had shifted. The meekness had seeped out of his character. He'd reached up and removed the glasses that had been perched on the end of his nose with so much force that he nearly snapped them in two. And as he fished his tablet out of his pocket, electricity crackled on his hands, provoked by the sheer intensity of his anger.

As he flipped on the visual function of the tablet, Sylar's rage was more than clear on his facial features as he demanded in a voice that was very much not the timid Gabriel Gray that he had been for the past few weeks, "I want to talk to whoever's in charge of this place and its sick little jokes. Now."

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"I don't think they're listening," Max replied to the transmission that had popped up on her tablet. "Not according to what everyone I've met since arriving has told me, anyway."

"Brilliant. Just brilliant," Sylar grumbled, running a hand through his hair in frustration before looking down at the tablet again and furrowing his brow for a moment. "Not that I really expected to get a response, but still... There's always the hope that maybe they'd realize there's only so far that they can push us."

But so far, that was hardly the case.

"Max, right?" Sylar asked. He'd seen her around, obviously, considering they were both at the Sanctuary. But he didn't think he'd talked to her before now. But then again, it was impossible to say what he might not remember or how they could have possibly messed with his head.

"Once they find that limit, they'll just push you further," Max replied. This was something she knew about - Manticore had been all about pushing you to new limits. It had been bad enough as a child, but in the eleven years she'd been in the outside world, they seemed to have focused all the energy not used on trying to find her and the rest of the '09 escapees on finding new and exciting ways to break you.

She frowned, but nodded - she'd seen Sylar around, too, but of course, he'd been Gabriel. She wondered if Peter had mentioned her to him. "Yeah, that's me. You're...Gabriel, right?" She was pretty sure that was what Peter had told her.

Well, that was interesting. Someone with apparently similar life experience to their own, at least enough to be cynical about how people behaved when they were given the opportunity to lord themselves over someone.

Her statement of his name shouldn't have been surprising as it was, considering she'd either found out from Peter or Helen, but there was a momentarily flash of confusion before it was cleared up with a slight nod, "Yeah, that would be me. Surprising that we haven't talked before this, but I suppose in a place like the Sanctuary, people are bound to get lost."

The size of the place made it easy for them to miss each other, after all.

The only father figure she'd ever known was a colonel and she'd had military training practically since birth, so Max definitely knew how people could behave when given that kind of power.

She nodded. "Surprised you're not given a map when you enter. What just happened that got you so pissed?"

"Apparently this place decided that I needed to have the experience of being my old self for awhile," Sylar said with a quiet grumble, raking a hand through his hair. "Let's erase two years of my memory because clearly that will be beneficial to my sanity."

Peter had mentioned that happening to her - the fact that the memories from the past two years of his brother's life had been missing when he'd touched his hand. (Back when he still had that power that could pick up all your memories, that is. She was glad he didn't have that anymore.)

"That's pretty whack," she said sympathetically. "At least it was only temporary, right?"

Though it made her wonder how often things like this were going to happen to people.

"At the very least," Sylar said as he stood, hopping off of the trolley and heading back to the Sanctuary. He was hardly going to go back to the shop, not in this state. And he was hardly going to stay dressed like this for any longer than was necessary.

"Been here long?" Sylar asked as he grinned down at Max. "Settling in well enough?"

It was highly preferable to what he was used to. He had to wonder if it was preferable to other as well.

"A couple weeks at this point, I think?" Max replied, pushing a lock of her hair over one ear. "And yeah. This is actually an improvement over the living conditions back at home. Not that that makes me all that much happier about getting abducted or the possibility of the people in charge screwing with me."

Though it was nice to escape from everything going on at home for a while. And she'd met some nice people.

V [VISUAL/LOCATION: OSTEN/SHELLEY LINE] NO ON REMAINS QUITE WHAT HE WAS WHEN HE RECOGNIZES HIMSELF

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