Participants:
| Scene Title | A Mutual Failure To Trust |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Helena and Magnes meet up to discuss a few things, but ultimately don't trust each other and get nothing done. Also Magnes emos a bit. |
| Date | August 22 2009 |
You know the place, in the midst of the Midtown ruins.
The Deveaux Building's rooftop has not seen a lot of action these days. Most of those for whom it is significant seem to have moved on to other things, but at the moment, Helena leans against the pigeon coop and studies the bullet shot, crumbling angels that frame a view of the still degrading shambles of Midtown. Despite the sluggish heat of a New York summer evening, the air around her is crisp and cool, like a balmy spring day. After a few moments of silent reflection, alone wit her thoughts, her eyes raise to the sky expectantly.
Fresh from a shower, once again wearing the faded black t-shirt with the Batman logo, a gift from Claire, some comfortably fitting blue jeans, and his inline skates, Magnes lands pretty hard in front of her. He was flying pretty quickly, but not Nathan quick.
Running fingers through his damp brown hair, he smiles as if they were old friends, despite only meeting once before. "Helena. I uh, I remember wanting a meeting with you, and I know one of the reasons was wanting information on Humanis First, but I'm afraid whatever the other reason was, is erased."
Helena studies him a few moments. "Magnes Varlane." she says by way of greeting. Her air is slightly skeptical, but not rude. "You want information on Humanis First. Why?" She cocks her head. "What are you up to these days, anyway?"
"At first I only wanted the information so I could help people with a case, to find Peyton. Now I want the information to pass it on to someone who's gonna build a case against them. I'm not really sure who it is, but he seems to be setting up something big." Magnes explains, casually pacing on his skates until he turns around and looks over the ruins. "This is…" But he doesn't finish, after having realized just what roof they're on.
"I'm graduating from the police academy soon, hoping to make a difference or something. Moved back into Panucci's so I could have a low rent place to stay. Dating a girl named Claire, she knows Abby, so I guess you might know her too."
"Yeah, kissing and all, the whole nine yards." Magnes laughs, apparently amused by her reaction instead of painfully embarassed for once. "Basicaly, I get information, I pass it on to him without citing my sources, then he passes it on to people he believes can best use the information, after he's thoroughly investigated and determined who would be best suited for the job. So some busts may be best suited for the police, while others could be best suited for Phoenix, or some other organization. I hear he's building some sort of information network, though nothing on computers I don't think…"
Helena lifts a brow. "You just…pass information to some random guy you know nothing about. And you want me to give you information that you could pass to this same guy?" Her incredulity is mounting. Claire for the moment gets backfiled.
"I have a reason to trust him, but I can't just go blabbing to other people." Magnes sighs, starting to roll to the edge of the roof, looking down the edge of the building. "Maybe this meeting was a bad idea, but essentially I'm here to start an information exchange. Do you think this would be better if he had something to give you first?"
"I think this would be better if I knew who I was dealing with." Helena responds matter-of-factly. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to just put information out there and hope that whomever you trust isn't pulling a fast one on you. It's been known to happen. I'm not sure what you're hoping to accomplish, but I have to think about risk factor for others, and I can't just take your word that your Mister Mysterious is square."
"I understand." Magnes says calmly, turning around to offer a rather content smile. "Do you mind if we keep this conversation between us? This isn't as big a deal as it sounds, and I don't want people to freak out and take me time traveling for something I have under control."
Helena frowns a little bit. "Well uh, I'm actually going to ask Claire about you, because buh." She actually says that to express the wtf-ness: buh. "I can keep it within certain confines internal to my organization." That's probably the best he's going to get. "When you're ready to give me more information about your dealings, we could probably talk again."
"Claire doesn't really know about this, it's pretty recent. Can you let me tell her when I can give her enough details she doesn't think I'm doing something that'll get me killed? I'm never gonna lie to Claire, but I need at least a month. If she or anyone else knows details, all this hard work could go right down the drain." Magnes sits on a ledge, sure to make his weight light enough to avoid accidentally breaking the ruins. "This doesn't involve blowing things up, or killing anyone, or something silly like crime fighting thugs on the street. His number one goal is giving the power back to the police and the citizens, through a network of information. And of course taking the power away from criminals. This isn't about some political cause, like I'm sure a lot of people are, this is only about information."
Taking a breath, he gives her a look that says 'please understand'. "Just remember all of that, alright? He has no interest in taking the law into his own hands, only aiding people like you and the police in doing it yourselves."
"I think you're mistaking Phoenix for some kind of vigilante force, not an organization of civil disobedience." Helena says seriously. "But regardless, I'm sorry - I just won't deal with anyone who's going to insist on being too secret to know. "But I can tell you that law enforcement is the last group that needs more power, until the Linderman Act is repealed. Otherwise their jobs mostly consist of forcing people to register, and allowing those Humanis First bastards to walk around doing what they did to those poor girls."
"That's why even though I'm gonna be a cop, I know I need to do more. I registered, I may have lied on the application, but I still sacrificed my beliefs for a way to help. I'm against registration, but there's a long road before the Linderman Act is either repealed or heavily modified." Magnes momentarily closes his eyes, just appearing generally exhausted, not at the situation, but… everything. "I considered trying to learn more about Phoenix, or joining, but I don't expect any of you to see me as more than some immature geek who just gets into trouble, so, I'm just doing what I can now."
"That's your assumption to make." Helena says, folding her arms across her chest. Suddenly she feels quite tired. "Good luck in your efforts. If you decide to reveal your source, let me know."
"I'm just stating how I'd feel if someone accidentally created martial law in another country. I probably wouldn't want such a risky investment in an organization I worked so hard to make." Magnes says with clear guilt in his face and tone, that thing in Japan bothering him far more than he usually lets on. And, without another word, he quickly ascends into the sky.