A Long Story

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magnes_icon3.gif ff_remi_icon.gif

Scene Title A Long Story
Synopsis Magnes and Remi have a conversation.
Date December 5, 2018

The Sayonara


It’s a fairly run-of-the-mill kind of day out here; the rain isn’t too bad, it’s not too cold out, and it’s generally a pleasant day to be outdoors. The crew of The Sayonara are out visiting their families, making their purchases, and generally enjoying being on stable ground for a change.

Her captain, on the other hand, has gotten most of that done previously, and is currently handling a bit of the upkeep of her precious sailboat, quietly cleaning the mast and the main boom, humming some unknown tune as she does so.

Eventually, humming turns into singing in the woman’s native tongue, “Non, rien de rien, non, je ne regrette rien…

"I heard you're the captain of this boat." Magnes says from behind her, with no particular noise to indicate that he actually walked on board. "Pretty nice. And you have a nice singing voice, I used to play piano for a French woman."

It isn’t easy to surprise Remi. Usually, her ability makes it damn near impossible. However, this is one exception — she was taking a rest, and with her back to the water, was not exactly expecting anyone. So she lets out a soft squeak as Magnes suddenly speaks from behind her, whirling around with a knife suddenly drawn.

It doesn’t take her long to realize that this isn’t a threat, however, and she quietly puts the knife back into its holster on her hip. Even as she does so, her ability is reaching out, skimming the man’s surface thoughts. “Merci,” she replies, looking Magnes over for a moment. Then, she’s back to polishing the boom. “I am the captain of the Sayonara, yes,” she replies, nodding. “Soleil Davignon.”

Magnes didn't receive the telepathic training of Elisabeth, ironically, so the first thing he thinks after she introduces herself is 'Remi', thinking surface level memories of what he remembers of her, particularly fighting with and then throwing a shark at his clone. "I'm still a bit confused about what all of the ship captains do. Do you all just go out and fish, or…?"

The woman seems slightly taken aback by the wash of thoughts about this other her. Seems that this one had a relationship with her, too. For a moment, she looks on Magnes with a rather reserved expression, still polishing the boom. “We fish sometimes. I personally make frequent salvage runs, and I hire out my boat for those who need to get places quickly.” She slaps a hand on the freshly polished boom. “Before the flood, the Sayonara was used for racing. She is called a cutter, because she cuts through the waves like a hot knife through butter.”

After a moment, she turns back to Magnes, watching him thoughtfully. “So your friend Elisabeth was very reserved, but you seem to lack her inhibitions.” And her sensibilities — Remi respects the audiokinetic, the woman is wise to be cautious around her. “You knew the other me. The same one that she knew?” Surely he knows what she can do.

"So you know about all that." Magnes asks, leaning against a rail before nodding. "Yeah, I knew her. Maybe she met some others along the way, I don't know. I used to play piano for the Remi back home, and saved her from my crazy clone when he kidnapped her."

He shrugs. "Kind of a long story that I'm not entirely done figuring out."

“It sounds like this other me had an interesting life, at the very least.” Remi tosses the cloth she was using to clean the boom into a bucket nearby, before she goes about tidying the ropes that are used to hoist the sails, coiling them around each other. After a moment, however, she stops, turning on her feet and quietly approaching Magnes.

She holds a hand out. “May I see? I would like to learn about this other world that you lived in.” The former actress offers a warm smile, intended to set Magnes at ease.

Magnes reaches out to take Remi's hand. "Okay, I mean, I couldn't really stop you if you really wanted to know, so I'd rather show you what I can." he decides, at least answering honestly.

It's a bit tricky, when it comes to his memories. He's spent years being stranded in other worlds. He thinks back to the chaos of the robots in Wasteland, the years of living a relatively quiet yet double life in Bright with Elisabeth, Elaine and his child, Addie. The absolute hell of Virus, with the image of Peter Petrelli dropping two skulls after descending from the sky, an entirely different Magnes shooting himself in the head…

But after breaking through all of that, he remembers the band, a different Elaine, Quinn, Sable, Monica. More things with the other Remi who, while he didn't know her long, he did spend a bit of time with her. Then he takes his hand back, staring down at it. "Sorry, that was just… a lot to remember."

Remi smiles faintly, gently gripping Magnes’ hand. “Most people around here don’t know what I can do, but I try to be as respectful as I can.” Most of the time. At least, with people who know what she can do — others are pretty much fair game, within limits.

With a final smile, the woman closes her eyes. And suddenly, Magnes will feel something entirely different. It’s as though suddenly, there’s no more walls or ceilings in his brain, and the entire world is open. From all directions except for the open sea, he can hear soft whispers, indistinct and quiet, but there. And his mind isn’t entirely him any more — Remi is there, and it’s like she’s always been there, even though she hasn’t.

When he remembers, Remi remembers as if she were there as Magnes himself. It’s quite strange, really, seeing her other self through Magnes’ eyes. This other version of her seems so much more weak and frail — and so scared, despite that raw confidence that she used to carry herself with. And a ballerina. Remi was quite into ballet, but theater won her heart when she got a part in her first play — dance fell to the wayside in favor of acting.

It’s certainly an intimate experience — for this short moment, Remi and Magnes are of one mind. Something in Magnes comprehends that this ability is a two-way street, and that he could delve into the telepath’s memories just as easily as she can his if he so chose to — assuming she offered him the opportunity to do so.

When their hands part, Remi’s eyes remain closed for a long moment, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “You have had quite the journey, Magnes Varlane.” Her eyes flutter open to stare quietly at the man.

Magnes doesn't dig, not for lack of curiosity, but the sheer intimacy of the telepathy almost gives him the vague feeling that Elaine wouldn't be particularly happy about this. It'll definitely be a weird and awkward discussion to have later.

He nods at her assessment of his memories, placing a hand on the side of his temple. "It's not over yet. I'm not good with sports terminology, but I think we're at the home stretch. We're almost there."

"In the first new world, I wanted to save everyone. But now, having come so far, I realize that it's impossible to save everyone, it's impossible to take entire worlds somewhere better, and I'm still not sure what to do with that." he admits, staring up at the sky. "I lived to be in my fifties in this world, it's so strange. But technically I didn't really exist, he had to die for me to live. It's kind of sad, it's hard for me to tell where he ends and where I begin, or if we're the same person, or if any of it even matters."

The telepath tilts her head to one side, watching Magnes and listening intently. “I can only imagine it must be quite strange to meet yourself.” She cants her head toward one shoulder, moving over to the bow of the boat and seating herself so her feet dangle over the edge, nearly touching the water. She pats the deck next to her, if Magnes should so choose to sit.

“I know the other version of you. As to your wondering…” She turns her somber gaze away from Magnes, sweeping over the other ships moored at the docks. ‘Does it really matter? You are who you are, and everything that you have been through has made you into the person you are today. Each action you take is like a brick, added to the top of the wall that is you, changing the design into something new. Sometimes the effect is small, sometimes it is large, but it is you.

The telepath, much less fancy than the version of her that Magnes knew in his own timeline, turns and smiles softly over at Magnes. “And speaking from experience, you are certainly an interesting fellow, Magnes.”

"Well, I guess by now I'd seem pretty interesting in any context." Magnes says with a shrug, taking a deep breath as he looks out over the water. "The entire world being covered in water, it's so strange. I can feel so much under us, it's like the city is still the city, but drowned."

"It's so strange that this even happened. How long ago must this have been planned for almost every aspect of this world being different to have had no effect on it? This is more different from any world I've been to, the changes reach so much further back for some reason." He looks in the general direction of the twin towers, still staring with a bit of awe. "It makes me feel so far from home."

Remi’s gaze follows Magnes’ to the twin towers. “Those were destroyed in your time, yes?” She spends a moment in contemplative silence, quietly observing what is left of the cityscape. When she finally speaks again, it is with a melancholy tone. “Before the floods of this world, I was an actress. One of the more famous in Hollywood, for that matter. I earned many awards, and I even had a star on Hollywood Boulevard.”

She pauses, leaning back on her hands. “When the floods came, all of that stopped mattering. My entire life just…stopped. The only reason I didn’t die was because I had this boat. I liked to go sailing for pleasure before this, but then the Sayonara became my entire life. She’s all I really have any more.” The telepath finds herself frowning, her gaze casting down to the water that ripples against the sailboat’s hull.

“I hate this world. I hate it.” She turns to peer quietly at Magnes, idly fidgeting with the hem of her coat.

"Not everyone with us is from my world, obviously. There are plenty of refugees with us, including my fiance. I know that I can't save everyone, that's why I can't truly make the offer unless we have no choice, or if they ask and really, really want to go." Magnes stares at her for a long, lingering moment. "If you want to come with us, it won't be easy. You'll be risking your life, and except for literally one person in existence, crossing universes isn't an exact science that we've mastered, though we're pretty good at it, even though we keep ending up not home."

"Everything that we know so far, though, tells us that the next jump should take us back to my world. Which, well, I hear it might not be in great shape right now, but…" He looks around them, then back to her. "It's at least not flooded, I helped stop that."

The woman thoughtfully watches Magnes, a contemplative look on her face. “I’ll consider that,” she murmurs, a faint smile appearing on her face. “I appreciate the offer, and I might take you up on that.” She turns, looking over the flooded cityscape.

“There’s not much for me here. There’s the Sayonara, there’s a lover or two, but…I don’t feel like this is the place for me. I just…exist. I try to make sure my crew and friends eat healthy. Aside from that, though, it feels like there’s nothing to really fight for.”

She closes her eyes. “It has to be better than this.

"This world is in many ways a less dead version of the Virus world. I'd say this world is a lot less hopeless, but it's also still very… it's not what we knew of as life. I also once saw a world better than the one I came from, you saw it in my head, a world of futuristic science, I stayed there for so many years. But it was like a fantasy… it wasn't my world." Magnes stares almost longingly at the sky again. "My daughter was conceived in one world, born in another, and she'll live in a third. I always hoped that if I had a daughter who wasn't an adult from the future, she'd be able to escape all the dimensional and time displacement. But… I'll find her, and I'll make my family whole."

The telepath inclines her head in Magnes’ direction, still staring at the ruined cityscape, the half-flooded buildings. If she could leave all of this and go to something better…she would. Even if the better isn’t completely better, it would still be better than this. Better than living half of her life aboard her cramped sailing yacht, and the other half among flooded buildings with questionable structural integrity.

“I’ll try to help you get back, at least,” she finally says, moving to her feet. “And if I can go through with you…if I can escape this shithole of a world, then I will.” She nods quietly, turning to peer quietly at Magnes. “Thank you for being so open with me.”

"It's one of my horrible flaws." Magnes admits, finally running to the edge of the boat, waving behind himself. "I'll see you around. If you really want to get back, then I guess the best thing to do is believe that we can get back!"

Then he takes a leap, landing on the dock before he just walks a bit more casually. He kept his leap at least kind of discreet, but it was still more impressive than the average person, given his ability.

Remi dips her head in a half-bow to Magnes. "I will be seeing you around, Magnes." She watches him make his way off of the boat, marveling just a little bit at his ability. Then, she picks up the cloth she was using to polish the Boom, and starts working on the mast itself.


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