The Promise Of Flight

Participants:

gillian_icon.gif hailey_icon.gif magnes_icon.gif

Scene Title The Promise of Flight
Synopsis Magnes helps out at the Lighthouse, which has two new big dogs to help keep the kids safe. There's talk of other measures of safety, comics and tiny Magneses.
Date March 26, 2010

The Lighthouse - Backyard


Suddenly, the Lighthouse has a lot more people around at various hours of the day. The run down building has more life in and around it, and part of that has to do with the two large huskies that are now chained in the back. One of the kids, a blonde girl, sits near them all bundled up, letting them nudge her face with their large bodies, and hugging onto them. Despite what happened, it seems the kids don't mind dogs. Just the ones that eat their friends.

Not too far away, Gillian stands, with a truck backed into the yard. Two large dog houses sit in the back, big enough so each can have a comfortable living space, for the time being, safe from the wind and somewhat from the snow. They're hardy dogs, built for cold weather, but she still bought heating pads to put in with them. "Think you can help me get these down?"

"Yeah, I got it." Magnes is wearing his black Venom jacket, hood down, some black jeans with a red oriental dragon spiraling up and around the right leg, and his black snow boots on his feet. He moves his hand, motioning it as if he's telling the first dog house to come over to him as it floats. He rests it on his shoulder, then does the same with his other hand, until he's balancing one house on each arm. Gravity! "Where to, Gillian?"

The earth around this part of the Lighthouse has been cleared of as much snow as possible, to make room for the houses. The little girl looks up and smiles widely, clapping her hands toegther at the floating and the heavy lifting with one big house on each arm. "That is soooo cool! Can you lift a whole house!?" The dogs bark, starting to get up, mouths open with the 'play now!' look, before the girl grabs onto their collars. "Nooo don't jump on him, he'll drop your houses!"

"I don't think he could lift a house, even with my help," Gillian comments, before motioning toward the cleared off spots. "Over there. I can still run a cord to plug in their heated beds as long as it's close to the house. Thanks for this, Magnes." It's hard to keep smiling after what happened, but… if the kids can smile despite it, so can she.

"Hey, it's no problem. With me around I'll make sure they're safe." Magnes assures, then carefully places one house down at a time before turning and smiling at the girl. "One day, if I practice a whole lot, I'm sure I can lift a house! But right now I can barely lift a car."

"Oh wow, you can lift a car!?" the young girl, probably around eleven or tweleve yelps in surprise, letting go of the dogs as soon as the houses are down, and they run along the length of their chains to jump at Magnes with their big paws and happy faces. They're heavy, but such things only matter so much to a person who feels gravity normally. They seem very happy to see him, though, as they lick at him.

"Gillian says one day I might be able to talk to animals, or make them feel what I want them to feel, but right now I can just tell that they really like you," she explains, moving after and looking at Gillian for approval. Apparently, she likes him too, and wants to make sure it's okay. "My name's Hailey!" she adds on, putting a hand on one of the two dogs.

"I'm glad that everyone's coming to help," Gillian adds, having given a nod to the girl. There's something serious about her expression, which he actually saw in her before. In Argentina. This is a different kind of war, though, but one she has a big stake in. "You're welcome any time."

"My name's Magnes." he introduces, which is possibly the first time Gillian ever heard him introduce himself with just his first name, and suddenly he's rolling around on his back with a dog. "Dogs are the best! I never had a pet before, except that penguin…" He's more than happy to be on the dirty ground with a dog, seeming far younger than someone who's only about a year younger than Gillian. Animals turn him into a kid!

"They're technically on loan, from Eve," Gillian says, grinning a bit at the sight. It's hard not to be amused by it, even if… well… She'd known he would get along with the kids, and that the kids would get along with him. Hailey even starts clapping happily again, jumping onto the other dog and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"We've had a cat for a while," the young girl says, all smiles, while the dogs bark and carry on and play. "But cats aren't near this huggable. Chandra squirms a lot and gets bitchy." Gillian clears ther throat loudly. "I— I didn't say that! Um, he gets cranky!"

"I never met an Eve, but she sounds nice!" Magnes carefully sits up from under the dog, then reaches up to take Gillian's hand. "I know you're stressed and worried, but things are gonna be alright. I've been surveying the area from the sky to try and get an idea of where those dogs might be hiding. I was thinking of an idea, it's something I never tried before, but I think I could do it…"

The serious talk isn't lost of Hailey, but she has the dogs to play with, so she doesn't run off to the house, or anything. Still, she buries the side of her head into the thick warm coat of the dog, and listens while Gillian responds in quiet tones, "I'm focusing mostly on making sure we're safe here, from now on. I hope the dogs will make them think twice about getting so close." The noise, the smell. Dogs are supposed to be territoral, right? "It was Raith's idea— but if you got an idea you want to try, you should. I doubt mine are the only kids in danger." They're just the only ones she calls hers.

Magnes stands, which is more like floating up and then putting his feet down on the ground, still holding Gillian's hand as he motions his other to point around the general area of the Lighthouse. "All this snow, I could probably use my ability to build a very sturdy wall. From everything I know of physics, well, the stuff I didn't suck at, I could probably make a pretty good one that surrounds the place but isn't too close to where the kids play."

"A wall of snow? Like a snow fort?" Hailey asks, perking up from the excited and happy dog, but then settling back down. The last time they had a snowball fight… She lets go of the dog and gives it a scratch on the back of neck, getting to her feet and dusting off what remains of the snow.

"There's certainly a lot of snow. We could try that. I'm not sure how good it would be, they could still go around it. Cause not all of us can fly, like you." And a snow fence would be hard to open! "I had concidered seeing if we could get funding to build a real fence, with gates. It'll probably be handy for more than… this." Deter thugs, and the like.

"Yeah, like a really big snow fort!" Magnes answers the excited girl with his own excitement. "You could help me, Gillian." He walks away from the two a bit, waving and motioning his arms, occasionally pointing at things while he explains his idea further. "See, we'll build the wall around the general parameter of the Lighthouse, but right there," He points directly in front of them. "We'll leave the wall open to the outside. With someone monitoring that opening, the rest of the wall can more or less be left to do its job. Though keeping someone on a general patrol with a whistle would be required, to make sure there's no breeches."

He's either been studying more, or he's just really good at tactical games, who knows. "This will work pretty well while it's cold, but yeah, after a while we'll need a real fence. I still have a lot of money from the whole overseas thing, and I've been saving up from my new job which pays quite a bit too. How much do you think it would cost?"

"I'll have to bring it up with Brian," Gillian says, through from her nod she'll be talking in favor of the idea. "And no, keep your money. You earned it. The whole place is already funded by some really rich people, and considering what happened a fence would probably look good on their continued donations. If not, I can always ask Cat— she can spare whatever it costs, I'm sure." Or at least she hopes so. There's one more person she could go to, but that is something she'll do if everyone else says no, most likely. "Hailey, go get the dog bowls so we can feed them, okay?"

The little girl jumps up and runs toward the sliding glass doors that lead back inside, to go and get the bowls as requested. It will likely take her a bit, despite the enthusiasm… That was the idea.

"So what's your plan for finding the wild dogs?"

"Well, essentially I have this map…" Magnes unzips his coat, revealing a hint of his Fantastic Four shirt. He hasn't worn that Batman shirt he bragged about in a very long time. He reaches in and pulls out a folded map, zipping his coat back up and unfolding the map so it's floating inbetween them. "I used Google Maps and printed out the general area. Luckily there was a photographic map. I've been checking the parameter from above, knocking apart anything that seems like it could be some sort of dog den, then marking the areas off. I'm gradually building a radius so I can see how far of a trip these dogs are making to actually get here. If we do that, we can make a rough estimate of where we should focus our search, then waste a lot less time and energy protecting the kids from places there's not really any danger. I've also been looking for traps… do you know any psychometrists?"

"Psycho— uh, I don't think so," Gillian says, looking a little confused for a few moments as she tries to figure out what that word probably even means. Once upon a time she'd tried to find out what all the abilities around her were called, but now she's not so much interested. "Not a bad idea. Raith and Eileen might be better suited for the tracking and such, so maybe you should see if they won't help you with the plan."

"Yeah, I'll talk to them. I'm sure they would." Magnes is suddenly frowning a little as he starts folding the map, then slides it back into his coat. "The worst thing about being smart is thinking of how everything fits together." he says without much context, turning to look away from the Lighthouse before he continues. "The dogs that killed that child, probably domestic dogs gone feral, which is likely why they aren't afraid of humans, and there's probably families wondering what happened to them, not knowing what they're out here doing. I think about how those families would feel, if they knew. Those dogs probably came from happy families, had happy lives, and now they're out here doing this, and we're going to put them down."

He doesn't sound so much sorry for the dogs as he seems to be upset by the whole situation, closing his eyes for a moment to take a deep breath. "This world's become so twisted and wrong…"

"This is Staten Island, Magnes— they could have been owned by drug dealers or pimps for all we know," Gillian says, losing the smile she might have had as she walks over to the truck and pulls out the bucket of dog food. It's heavy, so she only pulls it down and drops it onto the ground, then makes a motion for him to help. That'll have to go inside, or they might try to escape— or it might attract those dogs. Then again, it'd give them something else to eat…

"But you're right. Twisted, wrong. But what are we going to do? It's not like we can really ask to pull over and get out." Well, they can, but— "Anyway, thanks, really. I know the kids will love having you around. And they make this twisted shitty world worth it." Yeah, she's the reason some of the kids have potty mouths.

"I'm sure we can do something, with time, I hope." Magnes holds a hand out to the bucket of food, levitating it up so she can grab it. He's taking care of the weight. "I brought a backpack of stuff. I'll read Runaways volume 1 to them, I mean they're orphans, they should love Runaways. And y'know, I'm really glad we can hang out more. You used to get me through the days, when my life was mostly studying. Having someone to talk to who knew all this stuff about the world… I still hated all your boyfriends though."

Hated all her boyfriends. Gillian doesn't laugh, even if it was said as a joke, because, well… "Seems everyone did," she says with a shrug. Perhaps she could even include herself a little on that one. At least somewhat. "Just don't give Lance any ideas. He's enough of a troublemaker as it is. I don't want him deciding to run off an be a super-silent super-hero." Though how his inaudibility would make him a good superhero is unknown. She has a feeling Magnes would find a way.

Almost as soon as that's said, the little girl comes back out with two big bowls and drops them down, waiting to be filled, as the dogs greet her once again, like she'd not been gone for just a few minutes. Dogs, always happy to see you.

"Hey, me and Gabriel were, well, sort of friends, until he tried to cut my girlfriend's head open and all. And I'm still friends with…" Magnes coughs, not finishing when the girl comes out, then he smiles at Hailey and moves on to the next subject. "Don't worry, comics these days are good at showing the hard part of being a hero too."

No more boys talk. It's a nasty topic. And besides, kids don't want to hear about that. Even ones finally moving into the 'boys are cute' stage. Hailey raises her hand up from under one of the huskies and suddenly says, "I want to be a hero when I grow up!"

Despite her earlier words, Gillian smiles at the mention, even if she says, "Yesterday she wanted to be a puppeteer…" Thanks Doyle. "She'll soon realize that you only want to be a hero until you actually are." Or that's what she thinks about the notion.

"Can I see you lift a car?" the kid suddenly asks, eyes bright and cheerful.

"No," is the answer she'll get, though from the one who'd probably have to help, and not the one who'd do the heavy lifting. "But if you're good, I may let him take you guys flying."

"Wooosh!" Magnes cheerfully exclaims, holding both hands up to take her a few feet into the air for a few seconds, then right back down. "We can do more of that later, but like Gillian said, only if you're good!" He smiles, looking over at Gillian briefly, then to the girl. "I think I want kids one day."

"Eeee that was awesome!" Hailey yelps happily, the dogs barking in surprise, but seem to realize it's a game, like throwing a ball in the air. They bounce around and pant, tails wagging. Even Gillian's smiling, so it seems he didn't break any boundries— until—

"Oh my god, now I'm picturing Little Mags running around." It must be a funny image, cause the dimpled woman is doubling over in laughter.

"Well, don't worry, I made sure Delilah won't be seeing any of those any time soon." Magnes laughs, and apparently forget that he hadn't told Gillian about his thing with Delilah yet, so that little bombshell is slipped quite casually. "Hailey! You ever read a comic book before?"

"Just the ones in the newspaper," Hailey says, all smiles as she looks back at the dogs. "Gillian's reading me Watership Down right now. It has bunnies!" And a lot of other things, but— the kid is still stuck on the bunnies and making sure they're all okay in the end.

Cause the good guys are always okay in the end.

Right?


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