Participants:
| Scene Title | Ass Kicked |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Magnes shows up at the Lighthouse covered in bruises and some drying blood. He gets to take his clothes off in front of Gillian, but still gets rebuffed on advances. |
| Date | April 17, 2010 |
From the outside, the Lighthouse looks as if it has had better days. The massive tower rising out of the house has fallen from its former glory. It is no longer a shining beacon, guiding wayward ships in from the lost harbor — though some may argue its purpose now is even more admirable. In its current state, the lighthouse seems to be in disrepair. Though upon closer inspection it all seems to be in the details. The paint has chipped away, leaving a discolored patterns of grays, whites, off-whites, and more grays. The occasional graffitti tag is here or there along the large building. One would notice that the doors, the windows, and the integrity of the building are all quite sound and newly repaired. The lighthouse has just been left with the look of abandonement.
Inside is a completely different story. Upon entering the main door, one will find a completely furnished and cozy arrangement. A spacious living room lined with two large blue sofa's, facing each other, a coffee table between them and several large bean bag chairs have been planted in the room. Shelves have been hung on the wall to display various different pictures of the occupants. A large bookcase is against the wall, holding a large variety of books from Dr.Seuss to the Bible, and even a copy of the Qur'an. The living room is focused on the fireplace a small black fence encloses it, the wood stocked on the bricks in front of it.
Connected to the living room is a kitchen, complete with a large rectangular table capable of seating around four on each long side and two on each end. A sink, a stove, an oven, a microwave and two refrigerators complete the look. Several low and overhead cabinets line the kitchen. At the edge of the kitchen are a pair of doors, one leading to a bedroom and the other, which has a padlock on it, leads to the basement.
At the back of the living room a glass sliding door leads out into the backyard of the Lighthouse, but just before it a staircase leads to the upper levels of the structure.
It's late, and luckily Magnes took hiding extra sets of clothing around the city like Peter Parker to heart. Even more luckily he hid them in places the snow wouldn't ruin them. He's carrying a black dufflebag, wearing an unbuttoned black wool trenchcoat with a dark-blue t-shirt under it that has a black Nightwing symbol on it. On his legs are simple black jeans, and on his feet are his black snow boots. The shirt seems a bit thin for this weather, and it's strange that his coat is unbuttoned.
Of course, as he walks up to the Lighthouse, the first thing Gillian will notice is that he's beat up. Some parts of his face are bruised, luckily the swelling went down, and he has a bit of dried blood coming down the bottom of his cold lips. He's limping and walking in a way that says that his face isn't the only problem. She's just never seen him this beat up before.
Even in Argentina.
And they'd been through quite a lot there. "Holy fuck, Magnes, what did you do, fly into a building?" Gillian asks, holding the door open. Her voice is kept down, though most the upstairs and downstairs lights in the building are turned off. The kids have been put to bed for some time now, and likely to remain there. At least if they don't find out their favorite super hero comic reader decided to stop by after getting hit by a car. Or— something.
"Get inside before you add frostbyte to your list of injuries," she nods, directing him into the house, and closing and locking the door behind him. By this point, he knows the house pretty well, and she motions him toward the downstairs bathroom, which has no shower, but at least it has a sink. "What happened to you?" she asks, during the trip, keeping her voice at a soft whisper.
"Was testing myself, against a guy whose ability basically makes him Batman. I refrained from using the external portion of my ability until the very end, I wanted to beat him in pure melee, but he was just too good." Magnes removed his coat at some point, but takes the bag with him. She can see the outsides of both his arms are bruised, on top of the face that under the short sleeve of his t-shirt, she can see the bandage from where he was burned in the recent fire. There's a lot of bruises. "I heard the fight ended in a double KO, and that's not good enough, I had to use my ranged ability to knock him out. I'm not strong enough yet, I need more training. I have to find that guy and ask him to train me…"
"You're nuts, you know that?" Gillian says, staying in the bathroom with him, despite the cramped conditions and him beginning to strip down, as she pulls out a first aid kit and a few small hand towels, which she runs water over it. The water in the faucet was already at a constant drip. Not cause it's broken, but to keep the pipes from freezing. As long as the water keeps moving through it, they know it hasn't frozen. The towel gets applied to his face with a soft dabbing, as she looks over the wounds and frowns. "You're going to get yourself killed one of these days, you dumbass."
"I had to test myself, I can't just be a complacent intern. I train every single day, but I never have anyone suitable to test myself on." Magnes winces, staying mostly calm after he gets his shirt off, revealing another bandage, this one on the left side of his torso, just under his arm, also from the burns. He seems to have gotten the crap beaten out of his ribs too, and there's one big bruise across his back. If he hadn't gained the muscle mass he has in the last year or so, it's safe to say something would be cracked or broken. "I wanna be able to protect you, and everyone else…" he reminds as his tone grows a bit somber, then he smiles right before a wince when she touches his lip.
"Don't get any ideas, but take the rest of your clothes off," Gillian says, closing and locking the door to the bathroom just in case a curious kid decides to sneak out and try to wander around. Or a curious Brian. "Except the underwear, of course, keep that on. You should change your bandages after that trauma, I think. I'm not First Aid person, if you really need some, we'll have to call Eileen, and I think it's too late for her to come out here."
So he'll just have to deal with her. Whatever's under the bandages should be washed and cleaned, in case the trauma ruptured them. Or that's what she's guessing. It seems logical to her! "You don't have to protect everyone, you know."
"I don't know, I always have ideas around you, a bit late for warning me now." Magnes teases, then drops his pants, revealing white boxers with black letters on the back of them that say 'Plain White Boxers With Black Text On The Ass'. His legs are quite bruised up, though notably not as badly as his arms.
Most of the bruising is on the front of the shin bones, but it's all rather neat, as if he were just kicking someone else very hard and repeatedly. "I need to protect everyone I can, though. I know I can't protect everyone, but I need to protect everyone it's in my power to, I have to make an effort. You're probably my closest friend, I never wanna lose you."
When the bandages are peeled off in the case of his ribs, and unwrapped in the case of the arm, she'll see that the burns aren't that bad, they're not disfiguringly bad, just the kind that could get an infection if they aren't wrapped.
"If we had ever slept together, you'd probably have died tonight," Gillian says quietly, motioning him to sit down on the toilet, which is likely one of the least sexy things in the world, even with the stool down. It just happens to be the only place he can sit, where she can get to most of him. The towel is gently ran over the burns, looking for broken blisters that need to be cleaned, and then when she's satisfied, she pulls out fresh bandages from the first aid kit and begins to put them back on.
"I'm staying out of trouble as much as I can." Nevermind the window that got broken, and the kid that got hit by a stray shot upstairs. It was a fluke… Even if he doesn't quite know what happened. The feds have pushed the FRONTLINE disaster under the radar. And she hasn't tried to tattle on them too much. "If you want to train with someone, then you should train, but— just be careful. You're not going to protect anyone if your nose gets punched into your brain."
"If you thrust your palm at the correct ankle into someone's nose, you can dislodge a piece of bone into their brain like a projectile." Magnes offers that bit of trivia, and starts wincing when she rubs the burns, but he tries his best to just suck it up. "I hope you are. And I met Colette, I said yes to joining the Ferrymen. She said you sent her."
Sitting on the toilet is probably a most undignified position, but he doesn't seem to mind it much. She's seen him kill robots, so he figures not much can ruin his image for her. "Sometimes I wish I just went for it on the boat, with you. I think as far as firsts go, you'd have been pretty appropriate. But a part of me is glad you weren't the first, I mean, I actually know what I'm doing now, kind of. And I'm thankful for every month I live, so I'm happy to do everything I can to make the most of what time I have."
"You're not helping your case of 'I want to get punched in the face a lot'," Gillian says, poking at his chest a bit, before continuing the bandaging. The mention of Colette gets a nod of relief. "I'd hope she would. I'm sure there's some people in the higher ups who will need to talk about it, but I can think of at least three recommendations in your favor, now." And Raith, the one she won't mention outloud, could be the loudest one. Eileen's working towards the top of the leadership, and he's her right-hand.
The talk of firsts does get a less gentle response, a smack against the side of his head, that might not help things at all. "When I said you'd probably have died, I meant it. I think I'm cursed when it comes to sex, or love." Which are not always hand in hand.
"Well, that's good. She's pretty nice, gets along with Sable pretty well. She kind of invited my bandmate too." Magnes winces at the poke to his chest, but doesn't move. He's still trying to act tough and suppress showing the pain. "And you're not cursed. Every girl I have strong feelings for ends up having a really screwed up life, but if I start thinking I'm cursed, I'll just emotionally cripple myself."
He raises a hand to comfortingly touch her cheek, shaking his head. "I could prove you wrong, y'know. I'm more than willing to prove you wrong."
That hand gets grabbed and pulled down from her face. From the stern look, Gillian isn't really in the same vulnerable situations as she'd been the last times he'd made comments like that. "No, Magnes. We're friends, and it's staying that way." The last bandage slapped on, she closes up the first aid kit and grabs his pants, tossing them into his lap, and perhaps hiding something else that could be involved down there. "Get your pants back on."
"It's alright, I shouldn't be doing anything with girls right now anyway." Magnes starts pulling his pants up, grunting every now and then when he moves the wrong way. "I'm starting to think I'm not over Claire, and I don't know if it's like, some sort of cheating if I do that now that I'm having these thoughts, even though we're not together anymore. I don't know how this all works."
He starts zipping, buttoning, then going for his shirt. "It's weird, I never think about sex when I'm happy, well, not since I was dating, at least. Is that normal?"
"I bet you still think of sex a little bit. It's only natural for a guy. You just don't feel like you need it all the time," Gillian says, taking the kit and putting it under the sink again, before making sure the faucet continues to drip, drop. They have so many problems in the house, she wants to make sure frozen pipes are avoided as long as possible…
"I know what it's like to not quite be over someone, though," she says, clicking the door to the bathroom unlocked, and opening it. There's no little heads peeking out to show the kids have overhead anything and snuck out of the dorms. "I'm guessing you need a place to stay tonight? There's room on the couch, though kids jumping on you in the morning may hurt."
"I float when I sleep, you know that. It won't freak anyone out?" Magnes stands after getting his boots tied up, trying his best to stretch, then starts following her. "It's not that I feel like I need it or anything, I just don't have any huge desire for it unless I'm feeling like crap, or really stressed. Which, lately, is because of things bigger than Claire and getting beat up."
"Then while you're around me, I encourage you to stay happy," Gillian says, shrugging her shoulders a bit as she steps out of the bathroom. The image of him floating above the floor when the kids wake up brings humoreous pictures of them pushing him to see how far he will move before he wakes up. "The kids are used to strange things. It's you I'm worried about. And our walls."
The walls could be the real casualty, as she knows he can get himself beat up all on his own.
"I'll be fine, I don't go flying around, I just float. I don't usually end up in the air unless I toss and turn. Claire once woke up on top of me and we were like six feet in the air. That freaked her out a bit." Magnes starts heading up with her, yawning in exhaustion. "Don't worry, I won't hit on you or anything. You made it clear you just wanna be friends, and that means more to me than sex."
"I'm more worried about Lance and Justin deciding to play catch with you," Gillian explains, shaking her head a bit, before motioning toward the living area. "You know where the couch is. And the extra blankets and pillows." Those were from the naptimes, for the younger kids, in the downstair's closet. Sometimes they'd fall asleep on the couch, listening to him read the comics, and she would fetch a blanket so they didn't get cold.
"Sleep well, Magnes," she adds, before beginning toward the stairs back up to where most of the bedrooms are.
"Good night, Gillian. And um, sorry for all the awkward." Magnes lays back on the couch, completely beat, not even bothering to look for the blankets. "Though you did ask me to strip." he teases, before closing his eyes and drifting off.