Electric Pull

Participants:

lynette3_icon.gif mateo_icon.gif

Scene Title Electric Pull
Synopsis Lynette learns of Mateo's ability due to it's effect on her personal element.
Date November 8, 2016

Benchmark Recovery Center: Mexico


Sometime in the middle of the evening, a week after Mateo showed up, there's a sudden flicker of lights throughout the house. She can feel the way the electricity is pulled from the building, from the electrical lines, like something tapped into them and suddenly drew more electricity than they could handle. A moment later she feels a new electricity— something not contained, as if that energy that had been pulled out of the walls started to hang, floating in the air of one of the rooms. A moment later it happens a second time.

His door is unlocked. He hadn't been concerned with privacy, since he's been sleeping out in the desert more often than not.

Inside Mateo stands, looking at two holes in the air, both surrounded by a thin layer of electricity. The static in the air has been pulled into those rings of crackling black energy. He stands there, shirtless, staring at them, as if trying to do something with them.

There's a part of Lynette that is always alert. The part that got her through the Ferrymen's exile. The part that got her through the war. That's the part of her that springs out of bed and grabs a gun from the drawer in her bedside table. It takes her a moment to really register what she's feeling, but when she does, she puts the gun back and grabs a thin robe instead, throwing it on over the tank top and shorts she wore to bed. By the time it happens a second time, she's calmer, but an urgent pace takes her out of her room and down the hall. She follows the electricity right to his door and worry wins out over decorum because she swings the door open without any preamble.

Unsure if she's going to fine him hurt or find a reason to hurt him, she steps inside. The rumors about her protective streak are not difficult to believe.

But when she looks up, seeing the holes hovering overhead, her worry fades into surprise. And maybe some wonder. It isn't everyday you see that, after all. She blinks and looks over to Mateo, which seems to remind her that she's just barged her way in.

"Is everything okay?"

The opening of the door seems to surprise him, or startle him slightly as he turns to look at her, very surprised that she's standing there until he remembers what Silvia talked about her doing. Even as he does the holes continue to float, unaffected. They no longer pull new electricity into them, but she can still feel it, suspended in the air, as if that electricity were powering them.

After a moment, Mateo gestures for her to come in and close the door if she wants to, as he looks back at the holes, both easily visible. "My ability activated on me. But I'm much better at controlling it than I used to be, or I wouldn't have risked staying the night."

The holes don't seem to be doing anything, but they also aren't disappearing yet, either. "Silvia said you did something with lightning. That how you knew to come here?"

He looks back at her, making note of the robe, but being polite enough not to say anything.

At the gesture, Lynette comes in and closes the door softly behind her. She comes over to his side, looking up at the holes and feeling that electricity hanging there. She starts to reach a hand toward one, but pulls it back and looks over at him. "You still could have stayed. We can help with that, too. Control. Were you asleep?"

A hand moves to her hip, not seeming to mind that she's not exactly dressed for company. He isn't, either, so it's even. If she notices him looking, she doesn't react. And she seems to do much better at being more subtle when she looks at him this time around. "Electrokinetic," she says, as if something with lightning doesn't quite cover it, in her estimation. "I haven't quite figured out how to get that one to translate," she adds, as an aside. It comes with a crooked smile, a bit of self-directed humor. "But, yes. I noticed it pulling from the building. It's quite a trick you have there, Ruiz."

"No, trust me. No one could help with this," Mateo responds quietly, a hint of bitterness in his voice as if part of him hates whatever it is he does. "If I didn't know how to stabilize it now, this whole building and everyone in it could be gone before you have time to react." He goes back to squinting at it, but nothing happens, so he shakes his head and turns away. He wanted to close them, but they will just have to fade on their own, he supposes.

"I draw electricity from the area to open them, umbrales as I like to call them." Thresholds. "So I tend to stay places that don't have much to draw on. It's one of the ways I avoid using it." Sleeping in the middle of nowhere, where all he has is the ambient electricity in the air. Static. Lightning. As long as there's no storm it doesn't tend to activate.

"I woke up fast enough and opened the second one, so no damage was done. It's stable now." But it could have been much worse, from the way he sounds as he sits down on the edge of his bed.

Lynette looks over at him at that bitterness. Aside from the time right after her manifestation, she's never disliked her power. Times that she went without it were some of the worst in her life. But she doesn't bring that up just now, she just looks over at him, sympathy in her expression. "That must be hard," she says, softly.

Her attention turns back to the holes, though, and she holds her hands out in front of her, trying to gauge whether or not she can pull the electricity away from them. Evenly, of course. She doesn't just go for it, but she feels it out.

There's a glance back to him and a gentle sigh before she comes over to sit next to him. "Well, thank you. For keeping my campus intact," she says, and she even seems to mean that genuinely. "We can make some adjustments to this level," she notes. "Do you know how far away you can pull from? The electricity, I mean. We can see about reducing how much is available."

From the feel of it, she probably could pull the electricity away, but there's something odd about it, as if the energy is both fueling it and containing it at once. Who knows what it would do if she drew it back. "It's fine. I can feel when it activates. I wouldn't still be here if I didn't." He definitely does not like his ability, but he's also not taking negation drugs to stop it, either. Probably not a surprise after the revelation that the drug they released on the market might one day kill you.

"It can have it's uses sometimes," he adds, looking back at it, where it just hovers there. Waiting. He leaves out that even when he doesn't use it for a long time, he can feel it. Pulling on him.

"I think it needs to be close, at least for the small holes. When I purposely make bigger ones it's different. I blacked out a town once." Though in Mexico that might not have been very much energy.

Given that the outcome is unpredictable and that they are in a building with many other people in it, Lynette leaves it be for now. But the idea is catalogued for later. He may think there's no hope for controlling it, but she doesn't.

"Well, we'll fix the top floor for less electricity and see how that goes." Except her, of course. But that's different. "And you'll promise not to black us out on purpose. That's a real pain to fix," she adds with a crooked smile. Because she'd have to fix it herself, see. But she nods toward them a moment later. "Where do they go? A doorway has to go somewhere."

"I had to get out of there fast," Mateo responds with a laugh. As if that would explain the reason he used it on purpose. To explain, he picks up a rolled up pair of socks and tosses it at one of the holes. It's just small enough to fit through, and when it does it comes flying out the other one. "It's a quick way to get from one place to another, as long as I can see the place." Almost as if something going through them had been all they were waiting for, the electricity flickers, the blackened surface looks like oil for a second, and then they collapses in on themselves.

"When there was only one, I don't think it goes anywhere. Or at least nothing that's gone in has ever reappeared." From the way it sounds that might have been people at some point. It would explain the bitterness and hatred for it. "And it… pulls everything around into it. Which is why I call it unstable. It's what happens when point A has no point B."

Lynette watches the demonstration with interest, because it is fascinating, in a way. "I can see that. Nice for a getaway." She smiles over at him, but the flicker gets her attention back over to the portals, watching them until they collapse. She takes a moment to feel out her building's electricity, just to make sure there's no outages or flux that shouldn't be there.

His tone draws her back to him and her expression settles into a frown. Her hand comes over to rest on his shoulder, a show of comfort. "I can see how that could be a bad thing," she notes. "It's not your fault, you know." She knows guilt when she hears it. She lives there, after all. Her words are quiet, but insistent.

"The first time, maybe not. But the twelfth?" Mateo shakes his head, looking back at her. She might understand. He might take great steps to avoid hurting people most the time, but he might not have always. "It doesn't happen often anymore, though." Which is the only relief he might have for it. It sounds as if it might have happened more once, but now— But he didn't want to downplay the danger, either. Her words, her expression, the fact she hasn't left the room or told him to leave seems to have surprised him. Most the people who saw his ability in action probably did— or who knew what it could do.

Now that it's no longer lingering there, he finally puts a grin back on his lips, looking back at her. "Sorry if I woke you." And he pointedly looks at the robe, cause— well— it looks like he woke her.

"Control takes time. Unfortunately, accidents are a part of the process for a lot of us." Lynette certainly doesn't seem afraid of his ability, it's true. "Doesn't make it any less painful, though. I'm sorry." Her hand gives his shoulder a squeeze, then pulls it back to fall to her lap. When he smiles, she mirrors it, if a little dimmer.

At his apology, and the look toward her attire, Lynette lifts her eyebrows and glances down at herself. "What, this? Just eveningwear." She looks back up at him, her smile a little wider there. "Don't worry about it. I never mind handsome men finding a reason to wake me," she adds, teasing. "But since we're up. Coffee? Cocoa? The kitchen is open all hours."

At the offer of a drink, Mateo gets up from his seat on the bed and goes to grab a shirt (unfortunately). It's a button up flannel with long sleeves, which he doesn't bother to button, but at least decided to put on in case someone else happened to come down into the kitchen. There's definitely no sign of any of the gunshot wounds, now that she's not distracted by his tiny thresholds in space.

"I'm never one to say no to a beautiful woman," he says with a wink, as he pulls the shirt straight. She called him handsome first, so it's only fair to rightly return the favor— Especially when it's true.

Lynette tilts her head a little. She's looking. It's something he may have to get used to. But her expression looks more curious than anything. Which might be a little different. But she gets to her feet after a moment, to step toward the door.

His comment isn't missed, of course, and she looks over her shoulder as she pulls the door open. "I'll keep that in mind," she says, wryly. It's a promise of many requests in the future. Her smile promises that they won't all be unpleasant.

"I hope you do," Mateo responds, catching that promise of many more requests in the future, and his own silent promise that, he would, indeed, say yes. To almost anything that she might ask of him. Especially the more pleasant ones. "I'm glad that Silvia made me come here," he adds, as he steps out the door.

Not just for the bed, not just for the company. Not even for the food and the accessable showers and bathrooms. All of which he is very grateful for. "I might not have met you if I kept on." He still doesn't know who he reminds her of, but that wink seems to bring back that memory again.

See ya in another life.

The reply gets a more genuine smile, which maybe Lynette doesn't mean for him to see because she takes a moment to turn it crooked. She watches him pass her into the hall, lingering behind for a moment or two before she follows him out and pulls the door closed behind her. "I'm glad she did, too."

The memory is easy to fish up, and she frowns for a brief moment, perhaps trying to work it out. Or maybe grieving someone truly lost, even if he is standing five feet from her.

She pushes it back, though, and strides over to catch up to him. Her fingers tie her robe closed, since there might be people about who she's less careless around, but she smiles softly over at him. "We'll see if you feel the same in a few weeks," she says, her tone dry.

"We will." The fact that Mateo is willing to stay in the same place for a few weeks already speaks volumes, but she doesn't quite know that much yet. Though she might have been able to gather from the fact he doesn't tend to have a bed, or a place to stay often. For good reason, now that she knows what happens when Point A doesn't have a Point B.


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