Best Friends at the End of the World

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vf_isabelle_icon.gif vf_magnes_icon.gif

Scene Title Best Friends at the End of the World
Synopsis Magnes and Isabelle reunite, and Magnes trusts one of his best friends of all time with his secrets. Isabelle, as usual, tries to guide him into the future.
Date November 14, 2011

Lucky Lady

Less fancy Old Lucy's


It had been a little bit since Liz had her first drink at the Lucky Lady. Days. And nobody had really seen Isabelle out and about. The news that the blonde had arrived here with her friend who she had thought was dead did a lot of things to Izzy emotionally. And Isabelle does not deal with emotions well, so she's been stewing. It's silly, she should be running around screaming Magnes' name trying to find him but she's just.. So angry. Not at Magnes but at herself for not being there for Magnes when he needed her, she can't imagine what he had went through.

She's sitting in guilt, the bar "closed for a personal day", she drinks directly from the bottle of moonshine, her expression one that's grim. "God fucking damn it." She snarls as she hurls an empty glass into the wall shattering it into pieces.

There's another long sip of that moonshine and she slams it on the bar.

Magnes has just sort of been wandering around. In some ways avoiding pushing his impending responsibilities off for as long as possible, in others just trying to find some way to deal with… life.

He knocks on the door. He knows that the bar is closed, but this is the apocalypse so maybe all the rules don't entirely apply all the time.

Who knows.

He's wearing black boots, blue jeans, a green t-shirt with the Surge logo on it, and his fingernails are painted black.

"WE'RE CLOSED!" Isabelle shouts and throws another glass, "Closed closed closed closed. God damn it." She yells and takes a deep swallow of her moonshine before she looks over at the door. "Look! It's the end of the world so maybe we can have a customer, BUT you gotta come in here motherfucker, I am lazy and in a mood. Drinks on me because I'm feeling pissed and I won't be fun to be around."

That voice.. Hers rings out clearly and she leans back in her chair before taking yet another swig and setting the bottle down.

"For fuck's sake you've interrupted my wallowing are you gonna show your face?"

"Isabelle?" Magnes asks as he suddenly walks in, looking a bit more stubbly and not skin and bones like he was circa 2008. He's a bit more like someone who's been around the block in the last 4 years. "What the hell…" He swallows hard. He knows, on an intellectual level, what this situation is, but at his very core… "Shit…"

The door closes behind him, and he's just sort of staring at her.

And then there's his voice.. So familiar, it's right there Isabelle stiffens and stares ahead at the wall, her tattoos on her shoulder peek out from the stained tank top she wears. Her brown hair pulled into a ponytail, blue eyes are closed as she slowly wheels around. "Oh hey, I was just drinking about you." Yes, she has had a fair bit to drink this day.

She sorta just stands there too, staring at him. If she hadn't met Liz earlier, she would have said that this was a mirage but.. She doesn't say anything, she doesn't think she can..

Not many people have seen Isabelle cry, not full on at least. Magnes gets too and as Isabelle begins striding forward towards her friend the tears as flowing and she's hiccuping and laughing and gasping, is this real?! She gets to him and embraces him tight, she feels the muscle and he smells different. He carries himself different. But it's still Magnes, her Mags.

She hugs him while weeping still for a minute, "I thought you fucking died." She whispers and holds him again tight against her. An eyeball picks out the black fingernail polish, "Oh no don't tell me you've joined the Death Glam Squad."

"I thought you were dead too…" Magnes isn't really sure what things like death actually mean anymore. It's something certainly weighing on him. Tears haven't found his eyes yet, there's a certain shock to all of this, a shock to constantly seeing people come back to life, or seeing people less broken than he last saw them before…

What does it mean, what does it really mean?

He raises his arms to wrap them around her, embracing her tightly. "Is… is Thalia here?" he asks, of someone else he knows to be dead… Someone Isabelle wouldn't have even known him to know.

"W-who?" It would seem that in this timeline Isabelle has not met her sister either. Thalia's fate unknown to her. "I'm not sure who that is.. Old girlfriend?" She would say she can't keep up with Magnes' love life but she remembers the few it encompassed at the time. A Thalia wasn't one of them. "How.. how did you get here?! You so buff, you've been working out Mags." Clearly impressed with her friend she grins through tears.

She places her palms on either side of his face and starts to laugh her breath smells of moonshine, reeks of it. Shaking his head from side to side, "I cannot believe you are standing right here, a grown ass man."

"Wait, you don't know your sister?" Magnes asks, and then he thinks back, and it all hits him. That was, well, that was a while ago. "Oh fuck I fucked up." He holds his mouth.

"Okay let's start over!" He stares at her, taking a deep breath. He has to breaaaathe. "Sorry, seeing you here, it's just… emotionally I'm not keeping it together very well."

She stops and blinks, still clutching at Magnes' face. "What?" The fuck? "The fuck?" Her blue eyes go wide and then squint and then she's looking at Magnes closely as he tries to 'start over'. "No, Magn- MAGNE-Magnes MotherFUCKING Varlene."

She presses her hands together on the side of his face tight, not to hurt but to keep his eyes forward on her. But not her boobs, no no look up here. Yes it has been a long time, later.

"If you don't explain yourself and what you're talking about with me having a sister right now, I'm gonna make you wish you were dead." Ah, there she is, yea she's the same. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all punched in the gut getting all teary eyed as you're standing here. But you better not start our reunion by bullshitting me, you know I hate that shit!" She gives him a hard stare.

"Okay, here's the thing… Elisabeth, Edward Ray, literally no one, can know that this conversation is happening." Magnes pulls away from her grip to head to the door, locking it. "I can't lie to you. Everyone else, fine, it's for their own good, but of all people, I can't lie to you. You're still… you're still you. I'm not a robot, I'm not going to lack compassion…"

He turns around to face her, taking a deep breath. "I have no idea what happened to the Magnes Varlane in this universe. But where I'm from, you… you died… I don't know who killed you, no one ever told me."

And there Isabelle goes, tumbling down the goddamn rabbit hole. Another Magnes? This Universe? That Universe? "I knew that bitch was hiding something." First thing out of her about Liz, she doesn't know that she's a former cop. But she smelt it. "Oh boy.." Somebody's killed her? That would have to be pretty damn crafty to get the drop on her. Like a goddamn psychic or something.

She knows Magnes, she knows that.. He can be eccentric, a little naive but he doesn't do drugs. And he doesn't look like he's doin drugs but..

"Sit, we need moonshine. I made this batch, Brenda's bitching about it but fuck her." She sniffs as she wipes her nose and walks back over to the bar, handing Magnes his very own bottle and grabbing hers. "OK," taking a swig and then holding it out to Magnes to cheers, "To both of us being alive in the same Universe." After the cheering is done, "Ed and your blondie won't hear a peep from me." Taking a breath, "But explain to me in english what's going on." She leans back in her chair and takes a sip. Ok GO.

Magnes does the cheers and then takes a sip, and immediately his eyes go wide as he swallows, "Oh god…"

Coughing, he sits the bottle down. He has not grown up to that level yet, if ever. "Okay, so…" A breath. "I came from one of the universes that sits next to this one. There's a few timelines. Not time travel, but literally the same time period, but one little thing changed at some point in the past. With this universe it's the, uh, the virus. That was stopped back where I'm from."

"I was on a mission with a lot of people. Elisabeth, my daughter who came back from the future to do something. I can't really follow half of these crazy evil plots so bear with me." He tries to take another sip.

It doesn't go any better.

"Okay, so…" Coughing. "This guy made my power go nuts, I turned into a blackhole, Elisabeth jumped into it, and then we got spit out of Ruiz's blackhole. We think they formed an interdimensional wormhole and became a portal that connected our two universes. So, here we are."

“Hol…y shit.”

Isabelle knocks back more moonshine and it’ll be a miracle if they get through all the details at the rate she's drinking and the rate she's gonna make Magnes drink. Reunion~

“You have a daughter? Wow.” Magnes as a dad doesn't super compute for her but she knows he's a good guy so, “That kid is lucky Mags.” She smiles faintly and takes another gulp before pushing it away from her. “Listen. All these,” She waves her hands around in the air, “Interdimensional sex positions and futures are things I don't know much about at all.”

She leans in close to Magnes and stares him dead in the eye. “But what I wanna know first is,” she leans in closer.. and swats the back of Magnes’ head. “Why haven't you avenged my death already?!” Swatswatswat, she's not hitting too hard just enough to say HEY.

Izzy sighs and puts her fingers on the bridge of her nose, “Secondly, you went through a wormhole.” Cool. “Thirdly, your ability and Ruiz’s ability has sexual intercourse. Wow Magnes you do what every woman in this freaking structure wants to do before you even pop into this existence.”

“And fourth.. what's the fucking plan.”

Because Izzy knows there's has to be one and also she's gonna help out her Magbutt!

"She's my daughter from the future, she's only like a year or two younger than me. I'm… I'm not really sure if she survived what happened or not. But if she was caught in the black hole, I'd think she would be here… I don't know." Magnes takes a drink. He cringes every time he drinks even a small amount. "She has like four or five moms. It's, uh, it's complicated. Also I apparently die in her future, soooo I'm on track it looks like. They all probably think I'm dead."

"I can't avenge your death if I don't know who killed you!" Magnes widens his eyes and rises his shoulders as if to say duuhhh. "And uhhh, well, my plan is to find a way to open another wormhole and save everyone. That's why Elisabeth and Edward Ray can't know. Elisabeth can't know because she won't trust me if she knows I told you. She doesn't really know you, so she won't have any idea that she can trust you. And Edward Ray can't know because I'm increasingly convinced that he's a monster, and he's a big deal supervillain where I'm from."

"So… right now we're just waiting for pieces to fall into place." He shrugs, laying his head onto the table. "I really hate this, all of this. This is the first time I haven't felt totally isolated, like I had to live a lie. Me and Elisabeth aren't really friends, that's the hard part. I wish we were friends, it would make this so much easier. I'm trying, but I can't live a life where I'm just a lonely lie. I needed you here, or Sable, or someone, to keep me from going insane living this lie. There's so much… so much I need to tell someone who really knew me…"

"She's trying, she's trying to be there for me, and I'm just letting her down. Even now, even telling you, she'd lose it if she knew that I told you. She doesn't know our relationship." Another sip. "I can't be Cardinal, I can't be Peter or whoever. For all I know, who I am is gonna get me and everyone else killed. I don't know. My entire mission is to rip a hole into two goddamned universes!!! Do you know what kind of pressure that is?!"

He grunts, then lays his head down onto the table, suddenly shifting the topic. "When you died, Thalia, your estranged sister, suddenly came looking for you. Someone, uh, someone killed her too. I think it was human supremacists… god I'm sorry…"

“Well.. I'm happy you took my lessons in wooing women in stride.” With wide eyes Isabelle definitely takes a sip from her moonshine bottle. “Okay so daughter from a timeline not this timeline.” She's learning.

“I.. okay fine But I just bet that blonde MF knows some shit about it. I wanna shake her down.” But she can't cuz she's promising Magnes to not put him. Isabelle is a fireball of impulse so this, will be difficult. But.. she's willing to try? At the mention of Edward being a super villain somewhere other than here makes her smirk. “See I knew there was something off about him. You can't trust someone that can see the future. Those assholes just rig it for themselves.” Isabelle is convinced.

“Look, you opened a ducking wormhole from your place to ours,” She is a bit more drunk now. “And that shit happens. No pressure. You're gonna do this.” Because Isabelle is gonna make sure anybody that tries to stop Magnes gets a wrench to the throat. She cracks her knuckles and lays a land on Magnes’ shoulder. “I don't know who Sabby is but she sounds lovely Mags, well you got me.. and Brenda if she's needed. That bitch can wield a knife like no other, a point that we keep to ourselves because homegirl to homegirl, everyone assuming Brenda is a dumb is better than she's a dumb that knows how to stab.” Yes Magnes, homegirl.

“Ah fuck Peter, I fuck Cardinal, you just do you. You gotta like, listen to people you trust. Side eye people you don't know But if they are smarter than you.. catalogue that info cuz the brains be thinking.” She is still there, halfway. Standing in a stretch she regards her younger friend with one eye open. Her husky tone vibrating in the room.

“It sounds like my bloodline is cursed in your timeline.” That kinda sucks, “Was she at least I don't know.. badass taking no names and had a rather impressive set of these,” pointing down to her own chest. “Because I feel like that would be a family trait. From our mother.” Our Christ this is real, but given that she can throw fire and Magnes can fucking float, she can believe what he's saying.

"Don't shake people down please. Just, do what you're doing and if I need you I'll let you know. This is very delicate, we might only get one chance." Magnes is drinking a little easier, the drunker he becomes, and reaches across the table to take her hand. "Your sister was beautiful. I mean, uh, we uh, I mean, I don't wanna say a lot, it was just for a little while. We weren't a whole thing…"

“Fine. For you.. I will just get drunk and not shake down. I mean if I start poking around it will blow your top off.” Isabelle is not about outing her friends, she has few real ones. At this point.. Brenda, Richard.. and Magnes are her friends. K-Mart is.. a K-Mart. “Just let me know,” Isabelle is itching to go deeper down the rabbit hole.

It would be deja vu if this was the Prime Timeline Isabelle. Just like when she decided to take the vial that resulted in her death in Magnes’ timeline. She sighs and takes Magnes’ hand.

Her expression immediately turns to one of surprise. “Well, I wish I had been around to tease the shit out of the both of you.” That would have been real nice. “I.. I'm so fucking happy you're here.” Isabelle isn't this nice to anyone, Magnes just pulls it out of her.

"Thalia was a weird thing. She was very mysterious, don't really know why. I don't think we were ever really close… I mean, in the emotional sense. But we always bonded over you, she always wanted to know things about you. She really looked like you, it was pretty striking…" Magnes gently squeezes her hand. "I always wondered what you'd think of me, after all I've been through. I helped save the world a few times, I had girlfriends and stuff. I wasn't a good boyfriend, but I kind of hope I learned from all of that now…"

He stands, a bit wobbly, taking his hand back for a moment. Then he lifts his shirt up, showing a few bullet wounds, knife marks, bites that are not even remotely human. "I've… done a lot."

Isabelle gapes as Magnes delivers all of this. Her sister was mysterious, damn well better have been. Good girl.

Her Magnes, well he wasn't that far along in his progression of life as this one was. Multiple Girlfriends? Saving the world? This universe sounds just peachy compared to hers. She wants it. That's a thought for another time for now, “Ah I'm a shit girlfriend don't worry just be great at sex,” she stares at Magnes in the eye as she says, “No no just make sure if you're shit emotionally than you're a hellauva fuck. They will hate you but they will love you.”

As he shows off his scars her eyes widen and she leans in to trace a few of them with her index finger. “Magnes.. what have you gotten yourself into?” This is all a bit much but.. she lifts up her own tank top to show her collection of scars.

“I don't have as many as you but this one,” pointing to a jagged one slashing down her side, “This crime lord? He.. was not nice.” Not nice indeed.

"I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty sure I'm not that good at sex. I really, really like sex, but I'm pretty sure I'm not that great at it." Magnes shrugs. More moonshine, yes, that is what is needed right now. "My longest girlfriend was pretty honest by the end. I do the same thing every time. Like, I'm good at the same thing I do every time, but it's boring after a while."

"I didn't know you had a whole past… And what I got myself into, well, there were the evolved hunting robots, which is technically still an issue, the time Kazimir was in Peter's body and Kazimir helped us save the world from the last bit of the Vanguard. All the time I spent as a vigilante. I shot John Logan in the leg two times for all the crap he did. I was a cop, a secret agent, I have tax exemption status as thanks from the government, I time travelled a few times, and I'm in a band." he shrugs, then reaches out to gently touch her scar as well.

He smiles, taking his hand back. "You used to seem so intimidating. I mean, you were nice, but back then you were like a goddess. Now it feels more like we're equals, like we can kind of talk on the same level, though I think you'll always have more wisdom…"

“Well the trick is to really lean into it. You gotta push that button Gravoman. Have you tried sex in the air? That might be some next level shit.” As Magnes details more things she has no idea about, she does recognize names though. “You shot him in the leg?! Magnes! I see the scars but when did you become all TOUGH!” He's always been a strong kid in her eyes but..

Then he's being all saps and she can't help but squeeze his hand back and says, “Oh we were always equal honey. You just didn't know it.”

"I mean I've done float sex but it doesn't really make you much better at the basics. And uh, I don't know, I guess I got tough during the robots, I probably started to get tough that time me and Abby got kidnapped and that guy bit my arm off… I'm not sure if that happened in this universe or not." Magnes shrugs, groaning for a long few seconds with his forehead laying directly down on the table. It's drunk groaning. "I need you to listen to Elisabeth. I know you think she's a liar but there's good reasons we can't have people learn that we're here… She's gonna be the better at planning stuff between the two of us, I'm just trying to stay ahead of Edward Ray. You can't tell him that we knew each other before, it'll give him information for his probability models, and I have to keep having him know as little about me as possible."

There's a pause, and he considers… "Or, if you do tell him about me, tell him things that aren't accurate. Like you can say I got drunk and told you that I'm afraid of him, that I find him very intimidating. It would be useful if he actually believes that. But be careful, don't say anything unless he asks."

“I guess float sex would be lame after a few hundred times.. but what about upside down while floating?” Izzy shrugs and swigs more moonshine. She nudges Magnes to do the same. “Keep drinking, it gets way easier see?”

“SOMEONE BIT YOUR ARM OFF?!” Isabelle chokes and is then reaching across to grab hold both of his arms, confused as she feels them up. Yes those are muscles and yep he has both arms. “Fucking shit. Have you started a comic yet? The Adventures of Gravoman?” A gentle joke, her first nickname she gave to Mags. The pyro takes a moment to consider what Magnes is saying.

“Look I'm drunk.” She surveys the rest of the room perhaps to make sure nobody is around. There isn't and hasn't been. Isabelle gives Magnes a look, he has really changed in so many ways. But not so much in other ways. It moves the woman to see him standing in his own strength. “Okay I will repress my darker urges in order to not fuck up your plans.” She rolls her eyes. Moreso at the situation then Magnes himself.

“But you gotta promise I get to punch someone in the face by the end of this or melt their face. You get to pick.” A dark grin crosses her lips and it looks like the Isabelle that Magnes knew well. Extending her hand out she closes all fingers save the pinky.

“Pinky promise?”

Magnes holds out his hand, locking pinkies with her. "I promise. But if Elisabeth needs you, I really do need you to trust her, okay? She knows some people, especially Edward Ray, better than I do, and she's a well-meaning person, she was only lying to you for all of our sakes. We're trying to get us all out of here, that includes you."

"I got my arm back don't worry…" He groans as he looks down at the moonshine, then drinks more. "You keep looking at me like you want to sleep with me, that's kind of a new thing." he says before a burp. "Isabelle! I care about you, you can't get involved with me, I'm the worst for women!" he slurs, swinging his moonshine bottle around as he explains. "I can't do that to you, sex can't make friendships better! We have a good thing going!"

At the sound of getting everyone out she smiles, yes she would like to see this non virus universe very much. And get Brenda over there too.

“I will trust Liz, I understand she was just doing her thing. I would probably lie too.” She does understand, she just hates when she's the one lied too.” At some point she's sure they will all be having conversations for sure, mums the word.

She balks at Magnes and blinks. “Magnes! I thought you were dead!! I don't wanna fuck you!” She swats him and drinks more, way more cuz that notion is just not. “I would eat you alive. You will never have the privilege.”

“But you can be my wingman and I'll get you laid. Have you found any tail around here? It's healthy to de-stress.” While you're trying to save the human race of a different timeline from extinction.

Magnes entirely forgets everything else about the topic, then suddenly slams his fist down onto the table. "PEYTON! Get me laid with Peyton!" he answers without any real hesitation, then takes a loooong swig of that moonshine. "You're one of my best friends, I don't want to ruin our friendship."

A pause, and he says, again, "So uhhh, Peyton…"

"I let her do this." He raises his hands, showing his black fingernails. "I don't know what the next step is."

“The chick that likes bright shiny colors in her hair just as much as Brenda?” Isabelle raises an eyebrow and shrugs, “Fine, bring her here. We’ll get you both some liquid courage, Liz has said she will sing here so, we’ll only have one candle lit and she’ll sing the most romantic tune ever. Then you look that bright haired bushy tailed lass in the eye and say: It's the end of the world baby, let’s make.. er..”

Isabelle takes another long swig and looks at Magnes out of one eye her face screwed up in a pinched expression. “I don't usually have to go that far so I'm actually lost at what to tell you.” She ruffles the back of her hair and looks up at the ceiling. “You gotta just be you Mag. You're a little buff now, flex those muscles, but for God's sake don’t let her paint your nails unless it's your toes and unless that pedi comes with a happy ending after.” She pats Magnes face, “Goth does not work on you.”

"I don't need her to be drunk, that seems wrong! But, I'll bring her over here!" Magnes starts to stand, then flops right back down, his head laying on the table again. "In my universe, Peyton had a baby with Evil Cardinal who came from the future to end the world. Evil Cardinal is who made me turn into a black hole and that's why I'm here. I don't really know if they beat him or not…"

"Peyton didn't like me very much in that universe, 'cause I was super lame. I don't even know why she had a baby with Evil Cardinal! I don't really know Peyton at all. I like this Peyton more, she's nice, even if she's sad about life and doesn't want hope. But… but!" He holds up his moonshine. "I'll save Awesome Peyton, I'll show her that hope is real! I wanna see hope in her big, awesome eyes! I'll find a Gabriel in a universe without an Eileen, I'll make Eileen happy too, she'll have a Gabriel without a Kazimir inside of him! And, and, I'll reunite Elisabeth with Good Cardinal, and I'll hug my daughter from the future again, because there's no way my daughter would lose!"

"RAAAAHHH!!!" he shouts, his head springing up from the table briefly, then lays back down again. "You're alive, Isabelle! Mala's alive, Denisa is alive. It's like everyone amazing came here when they died, which kind of sucks. I'll take you all back over. I came here, to the underworld, to break you out of Hell!!!"

“DON’T GET HER PISS DRUNK!” Isabelle is yelling, she leans in close and looks at Magnes, “Wetting the whistle is for nerves not to sedate a girl so she can't say no.” Izzy ain't habving that and she's happy that Magnes agrees. “You're a good kid. I love it. Sorry man.”

"Goooood, I want to have deep conversations with her and stuff!" Magnes burps, then just suddenly closes his eyes, his head thonking onto the table.

He entirely loses consciousness.


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