Participants:
| Scene Title | Freudian Lunch |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Magnes brings lunch, but spills some beans and gets high instead. |
| Date | May 26 2009 |
Village Renaissance: Delilah's Apartment
Just entering the apartment, it gives of a feeling of comfortable homeliness; light colors, pastel shades, floral designs, clean and sweet smells, and only accents of dark where it most fits. The front room leads to a den further on, with a large sofa in a coffee cream color sitting opposite a similar chair, and a wooden table in between. There is only an almost retro-looking television off on the other side, but the things hooked up to it show that it is not as old as it seems. Nothing is, really.
To the far end is the kitchen, which always seems to smell like something recently cooked there; the appliances and counters are squeaky clean, but obviously used on a regular basis, and the leftover anything in the fridge can attest to that, as can a perpetual dish of cookies on the table. The bathroom is also squeaky clean, and it seems as if anyone coming out smells significantly nicer than when they had gone in; there is a closet within where the washer and dryer stay. There are two bedrooms, but one is emptied and instead made into a big rainbow-colored sewing and storage room, complete with fabric bolts and racks on wheels centered around a masterfully ordered sewing machine and table.
The actual bedroom is based in those mainly soft colors, yet the lower walls have at least two long, cluttered tackboards home to pictures, clippings, seemingly random crafts, and generally quirky things. A desk in a similar state sits in the far corner by the closet, opposite a low, wide, fluffy-looking bed swamped in pillows and comforters. At least half a dozen stuffed animals peek out from various points.
Earlier in the afternoon, Magnes is in a pretty good mood, carrying two cookies & dream milk shakes in a cardboard cup holder in one hand, and a bag from taco bell in the other. He's wearing a black t-shirt that says in white letters, 'My Girlfriend is a Pilot', with a small Macross logo under it, loose fitting blue jeans, and cheap black sneakers. Delilah's door is knocked on with his foot, and he says, "It's me!" rather eagarly.
"Me who?" Delilah knows who it is- but why would you want to say 'it's me' to a closed door? She never understood. Pet Peeve. After a few moments, the closed door unlocks and opens, revealing the redhead in a scoop-necked cotton shirt-dress, dark magenta in color down to her knees. "Hey." The front of her hair is pulled away from her face, clipped in the middle of the back over the rest. Delilah seems a bit tired, despite it only being the middle of the day. Usually she is chirping and hopping around, but not today.
"I brought tacos and milk shakes." Magnes offers, nodding behind her. "Can I come in? You look tired." he says with a slightly concerned frown, tilting his head a bit.
"Yeah, yeah!" Delilah suddenly seems to remember that she is the one standing in the door, moving aside so Magnes can come in. "Tacos and milkshakes. Is this some sort of Freudian lunch?"
"What do you mean?" This seems to be genuinely lost on Magnes, cheeks red at the many random possibilities of what she could possibly mean. He walks to the couch, sitting down and placing the bag and cardboard cup holders on to the table.
"Nothing. Nevermind." Her hands visibly wave it off. If he didn't catch it, then that is fine. Lilah joins him on the sofa, leaning over to peek in the bag. "How was your morning?" She sounds as if she might expect him to say something interesting happened. Something did, technically, but not what she is thinking.
"I have a new job, can't tell you the details yet, I'm not even sure. But they're gonna completely get rid of this terrorist stuff on television, I won't be wanted or anything." Magnes starts taking out taco wrappers, laying them all out on the table. There's ten. Then, looking over at her, he eyes her neck, idly raising a hand to gently run his fingers over it. He's noticed something, that or he's just copping a feel.
Delilah mutters a quick thank you before he has time to answer, listening to the rest. "Mmm. You haven't seen the news yet, have you?" The question comes rather softly, and innocent enough. She picks up one of the wrappers, hunting for napkins out of the bottom of the bag.
At the almost sudden touch of fingers on her skin, Delilah jolts upright a few inches and turns her head. "Magnes. Didn't I say something about the hair?" Being creepy? Or perhaps, Delilah's neck is simply one of the more sensitive spots on her. Everyone has different places, after all.
"The Humanis First people? I'll do something about them, I won't let them hunt us down." Magnes decides, apparently having already resolved that in his head, he continues caressing her neck, moving in a bit closer. "Hey, do you remember having a few hours, or maybe days of missing time? Like a blackout?"
"They already shot down that plane. They're a militia. What's to stop them from tumbling a building…?" Surely not Magnes. Not that she does not have any faith in him, but Magnes is only one person. Instead of reprimanding him about the neck thing a second time, for now she bears with it. Though, for a second or so, it seems like she might be liable to go into bird-mode when it comes to that touching. Not fair!
Leaning slightly away now, she busies herself with pulling out the napkins and unwrapping one of the tacos. He brought food, so she is eating it. That was the point! "Blackout? Not …recently."
"I know people that can help now, it'll get handled." Magnes assures, seeming more concerned with her neck at the moment. "Now, don't freak out, but I know what this thing on your neck is." He sits up, no longer touching her neck, just waiting to see how she reacts first.
Delilah reaches up to rub at where Magnes was touching her, thoughtful. "What? That? I pussed out on a tattoo, I think. I didn't really remember…" Hey, wait, how'd he figure that? "I asked some people at the trailer park and they said I'd been out on one of my rogue…things. I used to leave for days at a time, so I figured it was that. How'd you know I didn't remember?"
"Have you ever heard of the Company?" Magnes asks, his tone very gentle as he reaches over to place a hand on her shoulder. He's touching, and not being a spaz, so that must mean he's serious.
Delilah raises her eyebrows and sits quite still. Then, her brows lower, and her gaze wavers on Magnes. "Uh. No." What kind of a stupid question is that?
"Alright, well, I don't know too much about them, but they kidnap Evolved, find out about their power, then let them go after putting a tracker in their neck. They call it bagging and tagging. That's about all I know." Magnes tilts his head to the side, pointing at the same mark on his own neck. "I don't remember getting mine either, or getting taken."
"What, like they catch people and tag'em like anima- aaawaaahhh?" Delilah's words are cut short when Magnes points out his own, and she promptly grabs onto him to pull his mark closer for inspection. Cue world spinning faster, 3, 2, 1.
"Yeah, don't worry though, I don't think they actually do anything unless you become dangerous, at least, that's my assumption." Magnes moves to place a gentle hand on her cheek, fighting his heart rapidly beating in an attempt to reassure her. "You'll be alright, I promise. I've been this way for months and nothing's happened."
"I'm already dangerous! God, how long has it been-" She clamps a hand onto that spot of her neck, fingers digging in and making a silent wish that she could just tear it out. "January. Since January." The hand on her face is completely disregarded. Her other hand hasn't left Magnes' shoulder, fingers still pushing his collar away from the mark on his neck.
"I don't care if nothing's happened- this- this is wrong! I'm not an animal!" Delilah actually snarls through her words at this point. Talk about unusual. There is also a slickness to the skin under her eyes, the thin parts of skin over her collarbone… and on her hands. Magnes may or may not feel the dampness escaping her palm on his own skin- the touch is already warm, after all- but no matter what, it will not be long until Magnes starts to feel the effects of a small dose from her.
"Delilah, I know it's a hard thing to hear at first, but it's really not that bad. You're not dangerous, you're not doing anything bad to anyone, you're not trying to kill anyone. I promise I'll find a way to fix this, I know a lot of people." Magnes' hand doesn't leave her cheek, he just smiles, running a thumb under one of her eyes to wipe her tears. "Trust me, I'll fix it." And, he just might be feeling the dose, gradually losing his nervous inhibitions, finding comforting her much easier.
"I am dangerous, but I know I'm not doing anything bad. So why would someone do this? This is exactly why I never want to register! I knew they'd either treat me like some monster or just lock me up…" Her hand leaves him now, but not before seeping a larger dose of the drug into his skin. She doesn't seem to realize, either. "You can't fix it! You're just one guy. Knowing people isn't going to do a fuckin'thing unless you know someone that can take out a whole tracking system, which I very much doubt."
"You're not doing anything bad, that's what counts. And we will get through this, both of us, you've just gotta have faith. Believe that I can help you, believe that I'll get you through this." Magnes sighs, still appearing rather calm, happy, reassuring, that extra dose just completely destroying his awkward inhibitions altogether as he starts to lean in, clearly starting to go for her lips. "I'll help you, Delilah, trust me…"
It's the sigh that warns her- doesn't he seem a bit too calm for this? "Magnes-" Uhoh. She checks her hands, frowning, and then quickly wipes them on her skirt. Delilah looks up in time to realize that he's leaning closer, and she leans decidedly away, putting both hands on his shoulders to steer him backwards. Nnnnnno.
"Something wrong, Delilah?" Magnes asks when she pushes him back, then suddenly he just starts to float, with her too, if she's still touching him. He floats and floats, just slowly going across the middle of the living room. "I feel so much more calm lately, thanks to you. You're the nicest girl, you never yell at me or anything." he says almost tiredly, staring at her with half-lidded eyes.
Her first reaction is to hold on, but about a foot or so up, she lets go and lands flat on the couch with an 'ooph'. Delilah looks up at him, watching the slow meandering of his across her vision. "Magnes, come down-" Like that would help. "I- Well. I'm glad you feel better." She is sure the drugs help too.
Magnes hugs his legs and rolls around in the air in a ball, like an astronaut floating in a ship. He gradually makes it back down to her, moving to wrap two arms around her waist. He wants to snuggle! "It's not just now, it's all the time, Delilah. You let me come over, and you don't judge me, and you don't think I'm an immature kid, I don't feel like crap at all. Why aren't we going out?"
This is all very …interesting. If she opens the window would he float out? Delilah sits up slightly where she is, eyeballing the young man as he floats back down, arms outstretched. He only somewhat succeeds, and she ends up sitting against the arm of the couch pretty much with a Magnes on her lap, his arms only halfway around her. "I do all that stuff because I'm your friend." The friend you seem to really like. "I- something about staying friends first. Because then later if anything happens and it messes up, we'll have a fallback." And nobody will lose a friend! They went over this the other day, didn't they?
"Oh, I like that too." Magnes just agrees, eyes closed in her lap, still happily whispering things as he lays there. "You're an awesome friend, you know? I wish I had more friends, I miss Isabelle, and Hiro, and Kimiko. And Elvis disappeared, and I don't know what Xiulan is doing. I don't think Abby likes being around me anymore…" Here comes the low, tears starting to stream from his eyes, his grip around her a bit more firm, but not uncomfortable.
Things got weird at 'Elvis', but soon the redhead's more maternal mode kicks in. Delilah puts a hand on his back, between his shoulders, the previously dangerous touch now simply a touch; and like any good source of comfort, Dee's palm rubs softly over his upper back. Her anger is easily curable, sometimes. There are more immediate things than throwing a fit over the strange mark on her neck.
"I want everything to be like before, life was getting so good, but then Isabelle disappeared, me and Abby got kidnapped, then Adam and terrorists, and now everything's…" Magnes presses his face into her stomach, lightly sobbing against her. "It's not fair. Please don't change, Delilah." He looks up at her, turning over so he can lay on his back and look up at her from her lap, releasing his grip around her waist. "If you stay you, everything's gonna be alright."
People change. At least a little bit. But, Delilah does not see much of that in her near future. Perhaps new opportunities- and unless Magnes slips up and figures out he is Company- she won't change. Her hand finds Magnes' forehead, stroking back at his hairline. "I'll do my best, Magnes."
"You smell nice…" is the last thing Magnes says before burying his face into her stomach again, his breathing slowing, snuggling up tight against her, and gradually drifting off to sleep. Hopefully she saves him some tacos and puts his shake away.