Something Wrong With The World

Participants:

magnes_icon.gif melissa_icon.gif

Scene Title Something Wrong With the World
Synopsis An early morning meet in the park leads to conversation about serious subjects.
Date March 12, 2010

Central Park


It's mid-morning, and despite the several feet of snow, there are still a few people out and about at the park. One of those is Melissa. Sort of. She's bundled up and sitting on a bench she's cleared of snow. There's a thermos of something resting on her knee, held by one hand, and the other hand holds a cigarette that she doesn't really seem that interested in. Her puppy is nearby, having a ball jumping into snowdrifts and attacking random icicles. And though Melissa's eyes follow Jerry, it seems as though her mind is miles away.

He's not working yet, at least not today, he still has a bit before he needs to head home and get dressed. Magnes has been flying around the city, trying to get a grasp of the constantly changing layout due to the snow, taking note of landmarks that don't seem to change all too much. He finally stops in Central Park, wearing his red hoody with the small yellow Robin R on the chest, some jeans, and a pair of black snow boots. Who knows if it's on purpose he lands near Melissa's bench, but as soon as he takes a seat, a wide circle of snow gets pushed away from them.

"I started smoking and quit in a span of two days. Abby ripped up my cigarettes last night when she saw me." says the hooded gravitokinetic, who turns his head to her so she can see who it is, smiling.

Melissa blinks and looks up to Magnes, staring at him blankly for a moment. Well this isn't like Melissa. Not at all. "Yeah, well, I think I have plenty of reason to be enjoying a cigarette right now. You're lucky I'm not working at getting drunk, even this early," she says finally, shrugging and lifting said cigarette to her lips. But she grimaces faintly and drops it into the snow, where it hisses and fizzles out.

Magnes frowns down at the cigarette, then looks back up at her with a sympathetic gaze. "What's wrong? I spill my problems to you all the time, so, I'm here if you need me."

Melissa considers for a long moment, gaze sliding back to Jerry, who hasn't yet noticed Magnes. "It's been a hell of a week, Mags. But the worst was yesterday. A little girl I know…this sweet little thing…" She shakes her head slowly, looking sad. "The flu got her," she says quietly. "That alone would be enough to completely spoil the week. This poor little girl…she was only three."

"Wait, she…" Magnes doesn't finish, he's still no good at dealing with these topics, so he simply waits for her to.

Melissa looks back up to Magnes. "She died, yes," she verifies softly. "She has a twin too. A little girl who doesn't understand why she lost her parents and her sister. And there's nothing I can do to make her feel better. It just kills me."

"Christ, I hope they find a solution for this virus. A lot of my friends are getting sick, I have a sick kid in my apartment…" Magnes closes his eyes hangs his head back, looking utterly hopeless. "That's just not fair, that little girl, her sister… I know it sounds childish, but I just can't understand why the world keeps doing these cruel things to people."

"It's not childish," Melissa says, shaking her head as Jerry bounces back towards them, proudly showing off a stick he found. Melissa pets him, taking the stick and throwing it. "Things like this shouldn't happen to kids. It's bad enough when it happens to adults, but kids…They should be sheltered from this sort of thing."

Magnes opens his eyes, head turning and tilting slightly to face her. "What do we do when cruel things do happen? What do we say?"

Melissa shrugs slowly. "I wish I knew, Mags. I wish there was something I could say that would make that little feel better." She sighs and tips her head back, face to the sky, eyes closing. "How's your week been? Better than mine, I hope."

Magnes lets the subject go, instead letting it stew in his mind. What can one say or do for that little girl? "Well, Tracy's driving me into the ground, I'm writing my first song with Sable, I think we're gonna call it Atomic Heart. I'm taking care of a sick friend, who's only a kid, but his parents threw him out when they found out he was Evolved, out in the snow. I've had some personal dilemmas again, but I've been doing my best to work those out considering I lack a therapist now."

Melissa doesn't open her eyes, but eyes aren't needed for conversation! "What's the kid's name? And what sort of personal dilemmas? Not a therapist, but if you need to vent or whatever, go for it."

"His name's Kendall, though I don't wanna tell everyone he's Evolved, he's a bit sensitive about it. He tries to rationalize what his parents do and say a lot, and he keeps placing the blame on himself. He actually hopes his flu takes his ability away, because he thinks his parents will take him back. I tried to explain that they should accept him for who and what he is, but…" Magnes shakes his head, far too young to be the acting parent of a teenager. "As for my personal problems, well… most things seem to be going right in my life, it's not that I'm unsatisfied with what I've got going on, but I still feel this void, and it makes me unhappy pretty often. I feel like I'm ungrateful for what I have, and that makes me feel even worse."

Melissa's eyes do open when Magnes mentions the name. "Kendall? I met him. Not long after I got to the city. Like sixteen or seventeen or something like that, right? Didn't know he was evolved though. Shame about his parents too. He seemed like a nice kid."

"Yeah, he's not bad, reminds me of me a lot, really. Our parents had the same general goal in mind, they just went about it in completely opposite ways. Mine were all about tutors, private teachers, things like that. While his had utterly high expectations that he was supposed to meet completely on his own. The one thing they all had in common was that they mapped our futures out completely." Magnes stares over at her shoulder for some reason, appearing to consider something, but whatever it is, he doesn't say. "Since he'll be living with me, I had to lay down some rules. He doesn't have to get a job or pay rent, he just has to finish this last year of school, I don't want him to drop out. Though Abby suggested I take him to some sort of education planner to see what's best for him, so I might do that…"

Melissa nods. "It'll be good for him to finish school. Just because his parents kicked him out doesn't mean that he shouldn't work at having a life, and a good one. In fact, it's more reason for him too." She shakes her head, a mild look of disgust showing on her face now. "I can't believe they kicked him out for being evolved. It's not like it's something he chose. I swear. People are either treating the evolved like lepers or lab rats, and it pisses me off. We're human just like everyone else. We just have a little something extra."

"He wants to be an artist. He told me he doesn't need school for art. So I basically listed every subject and why he needs it for art." Magnes laughs and lightly nudges her arm with his hand. "This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that he keeps trying to defend their decision to throw him out. He genuinely doesn't want to accept that they're wrong."

"Of course not. They're his parents. He wants their love and acceptance, just like most kids," Melissa says, shrugging. "If he wants to be an artist though, and wants to go to art school and is having trouble getting in, let me know, okay?"

"Sure." Magnes agrees, though there's a bit of a question in his tone, he doesn't ask it. "I'll be going out of town one of these days, to find out why my parents left me, speaking of parental acceptance. I've been trying not to think of it too much, trying to get my life together before I throw something else on it. Oh, and do you know anything about Felicia Varlane? She's the commander of a FRONTLINE unit, and I've been trying to figure out if we're related or anything."

Melissa shakes her head. "Only Frontliner I know is Rachel. Sorry. Though I wish I could help." Her lips curve a touch. "Part of me doesn't get the hangup people have about parents. I barely saw mine when I was growing up, and I think I turned out alright."

"I mostly just want answers. After the Midtown explosion, they just up and vanished. I always thought they just had no way to contact me, but a few months ago this government woman told me they basically moved away and abandoned me." Magnes lazily raises a hand, which causes one foot of snow to raise from the ground, then he closes his hand, forming a tight sphere, and motions a finger for it to float over to them. "Sometimes, when I think of the sanitary environment I was raised in, I'm not so surprised I get hung up on women. All that touching, telling each other how we feel, that's not something I ever experienced until…" He pauses, then grunts lightly. "Still can't remember her name. I swear, the ability to mind wipe is something I wish never existed."

Melissa's head tilts. "Can't remember her name? I thought Claire was the first girl you were ever serious with?" she asks curiously. "And touching is nice, but…you can get that from anyone. If the physical contact is all you want, it's easy to get."

"Claire was the first serious person I was with, the first person I really called my girlfriend, but I did date one girl before her. We didn't exactly go saying how much we love each other or anything, we weren't in love, or really even much of a couple, but we'd kiss and stuff, or just lay there and she'd tell me about her life, things like that. It was pretty nice." Except the part where she turns out to be a sociopath, but… Magnes' eyes go to his crotch for a moment, then over at the hard ball of ice that lands and rolls on the ground in front of them like the head of a snow man. "I don't wanna just be physical with any girl. I wanna at least be friends with her. It's not that I don't enjoy things with Delilah, but she's usually so quick to remind me that we're just screwing, it sort of ruins the affection part."

Melissa's gaze drops, and she rubs her boot in the snow, then shrugs. "So lay off the sex until you find a girl who won't remind you that you're just screwing, because you're not just screwing," she suggests. "Besides, you should just be happy that you've had people who cared for you. Some people go their whole lives without finding a single person who does."

"It's complicated with Delilah, especially the laying off the sex part. It's like being able to get into your crush's pants every few days even though she has no feelings for you. In a way it's really messed up, but, well, if you have a hot doughnut, you're not just gonna let it sit there and not eat it. But Delilah's moot anyway, she's got that flu too, so I won't be having sex for…" He counts his fingers. "A long time. But I haven't been fixating either, so I've basically not met any new women or anything like that, except co-workers. And what do you mean we're not just screwing, anyway?"

Melissa shakes her head. "No, I meant…Wait until you find a girl that it will be more than screwing with. So she won't tell you that's all it is, because it'll be more. And yeah, I know she's sick. Feel bad for her. Wish there was something I could do." She glances back to Magnes, shrugging. "If you knew the donut was gonna make you sick you might, hot or not."

"I don't want a relationship. Man, my whole love life is a paradox. I don't want screwing to seem like just screwing, but I don't want a relationship. It's no wonder you told me to swear off women. Well, you didn't say that exactly, but I'm certainly thinking it. Let's just change the subject." Magnes' head drops, the ball of snow crumbles, and he just seems… down, now. "It's a really good donut." he lowly adds.

Melissa laughs softly. "I didn't say go looking. I said wait until you find someone," she points out. "But what would you rather talk about then?"

"I have no idea, I just don't wanna even remotely think about women, that part of my life is completely hopeless." Magnes' finger starts to anxiously tap the bench, looking almost ready to fly away at any moment. "If I take one of your cigarettes, will you keep it a secret?"

"I'm not your keeper," Melissa says, pulling out her pack and offering it and her lighter to him. "Honestly though, I should get home. Get me and Jerry out of the cold for a bit, then get to work. Trying to get the club ready to open."

Magnes starts to reach over to take the pack and the lighter, but hesitates for a few seconds. He stares, and finally slumps back against the bench and says, "Goddamnit, Abby." and doesn't take the offered pack. "Yeah, alright, I'll see you around then." He seems intent on staying there, wallowing in whatever he's feeling as he lets his hood fall over his eyes.

Melissa doesn't leave immediately though, her brow arching. "Okay, what's the real deal? Why do you look like someone beat you while you were down?"

"It's just, a lot, too much to list, even taking away my girl issues. I don't know, there's things I need to get over, things I need to accept, people I need to realize I'll never see again. I just want to take it all away and not feel… anything. I want to enjoy my life without feeling so terrible." Magnes rubs the under side of his left arm. "It's no wonder people take Refrain."

Melissa's eyes narrow, then she very calmly, very deliberately, reaches over and tries to punch Magnes in the arm. "I ever hear you say something like that again, I'm going to seriously kick your ass."

Magnes grunts and reaches over to rub his arm after she punches him, looking over at her now. He looks more surprised in his wincing than angry. "I'm sorry, just… I couldn't feel any lower than I have been lately. I try to bury myself in work, I try to enjoy the band or work on projects, but there's so much wrong, it's hard to just push it all aside and stop thinking about everything that's wrong. It's not even depression, I just have it stuck in my head, how cruel life keeps being, how people keep getting hurt or taken away, how people betray and lie to you even though you thought they were your closest friends. Life is just so wrong right now…"

Melissa smiles faintly as she rises to her feet. "That's life for you. Take some time to just go have fun. Go to the movies with friends. Go dancing. Have a snowball fight. but do something that is far from serious, okay?" She reaches over to ruffle his hair. "See ya later, Mags."

Magnes smiles up at her; something about her tone, possibly the fact that she genuinely cares, but it does make him feel a little better. "I'll try, Melissa. And we could hang out some time, I don't exactly have a lot of friends who aren't off doing secret missions, or stealing jewels in Paris."

Melissa grins. "Maybe!" Then off she goes, whistling for Jerry, who comes running up.


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License