Bad Smoke

Participants:

anna_icon.gif magnes_icon.gif

Scene Title Bad Smoke
Synopsis Magnes' attempt to stop Anna from smoking turns into Evo debate.
Date November 13, 2010

Sam's Comics

Even from the outside, this store clearly caters to specific crowds. Cardboard standees of Spiderman, vie with Gandalf and one of the many manifestations of Dr. Who, and small posters declare release dates for various comics. Once inside, it is clear that comic books are the main sell. Everything from the most well-known to the obscure are present, lined up on the walls and on metal racks, every single one bagged and boarded individually to protect them from damage until they are sold. The store is updated weekly, so all the newest titles are available. Off to the side in a corner are other merchandise, action figures, board games, and figurines that make this place a haven for geeks. Right by the entrance is the counter with a display of the many manifestations of dice, with packets of cards sold behind it keeping the cash register company..


Wearing a blue Superman hoodie with black sleeves, a large S on the front, and a red hood with a smaller S on top of it, Magnes lands on the edge of the Sam's Comics roof. His neatly fitting dark blue jeans crease slightly when his black sneakers step on to the edge of the roof, peering down the alley. That's a minor, smoking a cigarette. "Kids shouldn't smoke!" he calls down into the alley, his eyes slightly obscured by the hood.

The first response to that comment is clear, "Fuck off." It's only then that Anna realizes that voice came from above… so she looks up. "What the hell is up with that, supes?" She half jokes, half mocks. "And I'll smoke when I want damn well feel like it, okay?!"

As if to demonstrate that, the girl inhales another puff of smoke, before blowing it up in the rough direction of Magnes, not that it won't be scattered before it arrives there, but that's besides the point. "Or are you gonna stop me, supes? Are you gonna save the day by getting one kid to stop smoking?

"Saving one person, changing one life, means as much as saving the entire world." Magnes jumps down from the roof, carefully descending to the ground in front of her, staring down. He removes the hood, revealing himself to be Magnes J. Varlane, that guy who lifts choppers in the news and runs into burning buildings. "Smoking is bad for you, it can cause cancer, give you a smoker's voice, age you at least ten or twenty years if you become a longterm smoker, and you can end up with a hole in your throat."

"Says the monster." Anna responds, inhaling another puff of smoke before trying to blow it into Magnes' face. "Play superhero all you want, doesn't change the fact you're not human, and will never. You're a monster, so why should I listen to your rambling?"

"Besides, do you really think I don't know all that shit already?" The girl rambles on, "C'mon, I might be a kid, but I'm not stupid, I've heard it all before. And you know? Life sucks anyway, and I've nobody to live for, so I might as well enjoy a few bad things like a good, relaxing smoke, understood?"

"I'm just as human as you or anyone else, many people have genetic defects. You could just as easily be Evolved too." Magnes watches the smoke, and it seems to immediately drop to the ground when it gets too close to his face. "You'll have people to live for one day, life isn't always bad, it won't be forever. I lived my entire life without friends, until a few years ago. My parents never let me have them, they raised me to be some sort of genius, and they thought other children would be a bad influence on my upbringing. But, it gets better, for everyone, they just have to never give up."

"You're one of them Evos, so no, you're not human. You're a monster." Anna seems quite adamant about that. "Your folks killed my parents" Another bit of inhaled and exhaled smoke. "You monsters are the reason I don't have anyone to live for anymore."

She ignores the entire issue of herself potentially being an Evo, "I gave up years ago, man. Life's not gonna get any better, not while your kind is running around to make it worse." She shoots Magnes another glare, "And whenever I get a friend, they have this tendency of being murdered by the like of you. So why should I bother getting any friends?"

"You can't make a sweeping generalization. If your parents were killed by a woman, would you say that all women are responsible? Or caucasians, or Native Americans? The world is hard right now, I don't disagree. A lot of people I care about have been killed by Evolved and humans alike. My last girlfriend was tortured by a crazy Evolved man, and now she can't even remember who I am, so I had to let her go so she could get better without me." Magnes offers his hand, despite how futile the gesture may be. "Everyone suffers a lot of loss now, but it gets better, it always gets better. You have to live the way the people you've lost would have wanted."

"Sure I can, I believe I just did." Anna bites back. "And we are not the folks running around with crazy powers unchecked. That's your lot, you know, the same guys who blew up the center of new york and took my parents with it? Who killed my parents in a robbery?!"

The hand is not taken, at all. Instead, another draw of the smoke is taken. "I don't need to know you, nor do I want to. fuck off, monster." She glares, "My break is almost over anyway." Okay, that's a lie, and she's not the best of liars, so it shows. "I gotta go back to work soon."

"The world isn't black and white, that's the first major lesson I had to learn in life. I'm sorry for your loss, I just hope you won't hold this anger for people just because they're different, forever." Magnes sighs, taking his hand back, then starts heading for the end of the alley. "And I think the people of Hiroshima and Nazi Germany would say differently, about non-Evolved having crazy unchecked power."

Anna doesn't even bother to dignify Magnes with a response as she finishes up her smoke. After finishing up that smoke, she gets back to selling stuff inside the store, to children and adults, evos and humans, etcetera.


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