Participants:
| Scene Title | Disgusted Housemate |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Lawrence and Minea bring home Thai after meeting with Cat. Magnes has moved in so she can keep an eye on him and while Lawrence and Magnes get along, Magnes abhors Thai food and makes assumptions. |
| Date | June 3, 2009 |
Le Rivage - Minea's Apartment
One of the studio's of the apartment building and located on the top floor, this is the home of a woman who has seen the world and saw fit to bring it back with her. Not cluttered by any means, it is however a studio that is filled with well thought out things and of good quality. From the suede living room set that occupies the main open area, to the tables and chairs where one eats. There's thick plush Persian carpets a fairly modern and large spaced kitchen.
Off to the side in a spacious alcove is a set up of computers and fancy lighting. A drafting board and racks of inks, papers, you name it. There's also a few computer systems and a fairly expensive looking printer. A door off to the side denotes where the bedroom and the bathroom are, and if the doors are open, one can see the influences of southern France in the airy fabrics used for bedding and the decorations about the room.
Lawrence and Minea had gone off to do their thing. What thing? Magnes was never told. But there were keys to the new apartment, and instructions. He could move into the spare bedroom as till such a time that Len was comfortable with the kid being on his own and not about to blab. She didn't tell Magnes that Len lived next door. Other rules included stay away from her weapons, stay away from the computer area. If either were disturbed there would be pimp slapping. She actually said pimp slapping.
Meeting with cat over, and the wire safely tucked away, she invited Lawrence back to her place, picking some food along the way - Lawrence's choice since she was still learning his food preference - with a warning that Magnes was staying with her.
"…Magnet is staying with you?" Lawrence is asking as they reach the front door, Thai food bagged and ready for eating. He didn't have his super hearing on, see. "Oh. Am I meeting your significant other?"
"I have no significant other" Minea points out. "Magnet is staying with me. I can put the fear of god into him and maybe make him into what Len believes in, which is a good agent. God that curry smells so good" Her key is out, slipping into the lock and turning, same for the deadbolt. "I was married once though, bet you won't find that in my files"
Magnes brought quite a few of his things with him, though mostly enough so he'd be comfortable. His modestly sized television, a few of his older videogames, since he's probably not allowed anything with wi-fi, a few stacks of comics, posters, and other assorted nerd things. The walls are, yes, already covered in Lois Lanes, Supermans, Robins, Batmans, Spider-Mans and all sorts of other things, even a Smallville or poster of a motherboard here and there. He's also put up his shelves, the kind of shelves you can just stick on the wall and easily remove without screws or anything, and on those are his 9th Wonders comics. Sure, he's not a huge fan, but he liked the look back at Panucci's.
Right now he's just lounging back in a blue beanbag chair with a Superman emblem, playing Kirby Superstar on his Super Nintendo. He's wearing a white t-shirt, some baggy blue jeans, and no shoes.
"Oh," is Lawrence's reply to that. "I never was." He doesn't really figure she'd think it was likely anyway, but it seems the polite thing to say. They're sharing facts, after all. A ten second wait and his hearing is flicked to; he tilts his head to the side. "…Video games?"
'Video gam… oh right" The door is opened, letting Lawrence in first, so that she can go through her ritual of locking the door a couple times. She'd bellow for Magnet to come out, but with Lawrence's hearing, she thinks the better of it. "Kitchens through there, plates are the top cupboard, bottom shelf, i'll go fetch magnet so you can meet you" All spoken as she's moving away to go knock on one of the doors in the studio.
Game paused, Magnes stands up and walks to the door, opening it to reveal just what horribly geeky damage was done to her spare room. "Hey, Miss Minea." he says rather neutrally, straining to look her in the eye as if he were staring directly into the sun.
Lawrence takes this as a hint he should get plates out, so he crosses over to the kitchen and adjusts his senses to focus back on sight. That's usually the safest, as long as he doesn't look too hard at plates.
"Partner is over. Get out here, be social. He has enhanced senses so no yelling" Hopefully the kid has good hygiene as well. "Thai for dinner, if you don't like it, well, tough luck" With that, the company agent walks away from the door, collecting forks and knives, napkins and glasses to go on the dining table. "I'll get the tape to Len tonight, and hopefully, maybe. Things will work out" This to Lawrence.
Magnes smells like BOD bodywash, because apparently he believed the commercials. He follows Minea out, closing the door behind him, looking for the person he's supposed to be meeting. "Um, Miss Minea, are my abilities almost back?"
"One would hope," is Lawrence's mild reply to Minea; his gaze shifts to Magnes and he really can't help it: his eyebrows go up. "You seem awfully young." How startling.
"No kid, you got till tomorrow night. We told you, it's a 48 hour dose we gave you. Congratulations, you're still like me. Sit. We have some stuff to discuss, but introduce yourself to my partner if you will." And then Lawrence does exactly what she knew he would. The innocuous comments that could be taken either way. The brunette just settles herself down into a seat and starts serving herself..
"I'm not that young, I can fight, sort of, didn't you see the video?" Magnes asks, only a tad defensive, but then introduces himself. "Magnes J. Varlane, Delivery Boy." with a polite nod. "And I hate not having my abilities. When I wake up my neck hurts and I feel like I was sleeping on a rock. I don't know why not having my abilities makes sleeping so hard." Because he has no idea he floats.
Lawrence claims a seat for himself, peering owlishly at Magnes with his watery blue eyes. "I'm Lawrence Cook," he introduces himself. "I'm afraid I don't know which video you're talking about. Is it on YouTube? I dislike that site. People keep sending me to that Rick Astley song."
"He means the one that got him noticed by us. Where he ran around Tokyo beating the ever living Christ out of some guy named Jake and destroyed thousands of public property. Probably an easy million in damage. Kid, you float when your unconscious. I'd almost bet, that you float when you sleep. Suck it up, stop complaining. You don't see Lawrence here whining about how he can see every microbe on the table do you? You're suppressed, get over it. It's temporary" No molly coddling here.
"I didn't mean to destroy all that stuff, I was sort of fighting for my life and Kimiko's. That was the first time I ever met someone with an ability that really scared me, and I've met Sylar, who wouldn't seem all that bad if I didn't time travel to 2006." Magnes sighs, staring at Lawrence's eyes, then the table, curiously plucking a crumb to the middle. "I float? I guess that explains why sometimes I feel like I just fell to the bed when I wake up."
"You keep it very clean," Lawrence asides to Minea regarding the table. He sounds grateful. "Goodness. Over a million in damage. Noteriety. What was this Jake fellow's power?" He serves himself, putting some curry onto his plate.
Minea just starts eating, letting Lawrence and Magnes talk. Who knows, one might do the other good
"I'm not sure, at one point it seemed like he had super strength, then another time it was like he was resistant to damage, then he even jumped high. It made me think that maybe he has a power similar to mine."
Magnes answers, only briefly glancing at Minea, but chooses to focus on Lawrence, starting to eat as well. "See, I kept increasing my weight so I'd be heavier than whatever I was getting thrown into. I still got cut up, but my bones didn't break or anything, well, until I tried to kick him. I can definitely jump high, but he mentioned some sort of limitation with his jumping. And I can feign super strength by making myself heavy at the right time. So we were working with very similar powers, but something about what he was doing made me think it wasn't gravity…"
"And who were you defending in this epic battle?" Lawrence asks, going for some noodles and scooping them into his mouth with chopsticks.
"Kimiko Nakamura." Magnes quickly answers, since, they're all working together, right? "Hiro's sister, she's not Evolved. She's one of my mentors too, she taught me to focus, and the samurai virtues, and she beat me up a lot in my training. It's not like what we do, I mean, there's some instructions, but it's mostly me getting beat up to give me fighting experience. Adam kidnapped her, but she's fine now."
Lawrence's chopsticks hover halfway to his mouth. "Hiro and Kimiko Nakamura," he repeats, blinking a few times. "…How did you get involved with them, if I may ask?"
"He considers them his teachers. He's their protege" Minea offers up, though Magnes will need to expand beause Minea is interested too.
"After we got rescued from the Evolved cage fights, where I got every single bone in my body broken, but healed by Abby," Magnes explains, reaching down to rub his ribs, then starts eating again as he speaks. "My friends kept trying to talk me out of doing the whole superhero thing and getting myself killed, but I wouldn't listen. I used to think Hiro was a fictional character, from 9th Wonders, by the way. But back to the story," He briefly pauses, looking around for a drink, but continues.
"So, I go and tell Flint Deckard, if he doesn't tell me the names of bad people he knows, so I can put them on an island, I'll put him on an island. He gives me some names, this Kain guy, someone else I forget at the moment, and Miss Minea. I went after her, she tases me, and when I wake up in the trunk of a car, there's Hiro, only, I thought he was a cosplayer." Another breath, looking between the two, taking a sip of his drink. "So then Hiro just starts appearing, just like that, poof. And he just shows up one day and says he has things to teach me, and we go back to 2006. He shows me this scene straight from the comic, of him when he was younger, talking to Ando. And we go to the outside of a diner, where he explains that his girlfriend is inside, getting killed by Sylar, and he can't do anything about it. Then we go to the bomb, it was only a minute or two before Manhattan went up, and, I, well, I saw Ando get sliced to pieces by Sylar."
Looking up at Lawrence, he adds, "I should note that some of this had to do with making me stay away from Sylar. See, I read Sylar a comic book, but that's another story."
Lawrence glances sidelong at Minea again - he checks with her often. And then to Magnes. "This superhero thing. Do you still want to be a superhero?"
"Abigail Beauchamp is a registered healer" Minea supplies for Lawrence quietly. "Flint Deckard is a criminal wanted for many counts of many things. He didn't like that I kicked his ass a few times or that I was one second away from getting him locked up" When he talks about her tasing his she just shrugs. It's life.
"I'll always wanna be a superhero, but I'm not gonna do things that get me or my friends hurt. Well, alright, so I make mistakes, I'm only human, right?" Well, a human with powers, but they should get Magnes' point. "Why can't I live with Veronica?"
Lawrence shakes his head a little. "Superheroes are good for comic books," he says, taking a mouthful of noodles, chewing, and swallowing before continuing. "They don't work so well in the real world. Superheroes aren't subtle. I don't think you should try to be a superhero; I think you should try to be a good person, a helpful one. That's what I believe in. I think the Company is a good thing that helps protect people from dangerous Evolved and also one that helps those who can't control or use them properly. But it's an adult sort of job and if you're going to be taken seriously you're going to need to be an adult."
There's a mental high five for lawrence at his words and Minea just smiles.
"I can be an adult, I can buckle down and work hard, but I also don't wanna change who I am. I'll keep my virtues, and my comics and video games and skates, but I can work too." Magnes, staring at Lawrence very seriously now, "I can be me and an adult at the same time, but I believe you when you say superheroes aren't subtle enough, well, except Batman, and Robin, and most of the stealth heroes, but that's not my point. I wanna take the virtues of being a superhero, and apply them realistically, does that make sense?"
"Not entirely," Lawrence replies, blinking again. "I don't think it's possible. How old are you, Magnes?"
"I'm 21." Then, Magnes in his bit of a frown at Lawrence not understanding, adds, "It does make sense, as long as I follow rules, get proper training and all, I just have to uphold justice and not do evil things. It's not hard."
Lawrence still looks dubious as he continues to eat, eyes on Magnes' face. "I suppose we'll have to see," he finally says.
"Now now boys. play nice" Not that she doesn't agree with Lawrence. There's real world and there's imaginary world. "Time will tell hmm? How's the food?"
"It's interesting." Magnes says in regards to the food, staring at it in a bit of disgust. Apparently he doesn't like it. "From now on, can I just make dinner every day from scratch? All I need is flower and fresh meat, and you can let me handle the rest. Mister Panucci says pasta makers are for novelty chefs."
"Acceptable," is Lawrence's reply. Magnes is peered at anew, though less shrewdly. "You make pasta?"
"I'm not eating pasta every night Magnes. But if you want to make it a couple nights a week or other stuff, you go right ahead" Minea offers. Quick as a wink, Minea reaches out, brushing her fingers over Lawrence's wrist then back again.
"Pasta isn't the only thing I can make. Just, buy real food, alright?" Magnes requests, pushing the Thai food around with his fork, though continues eating. "You buy real food, I'll cook it. Deal?"
Lawrence doesn't react to the touch; he just seems to accept it as normal. And it is, now. "People in Thailand might disagree," he remarks absently.
"Tell you what magtag, I'll give you a vise gift card, and you can go buy the groceries while you live here. But once a week, we're having Thai, whether you like it or not, and another night, Chinese and those will not be cooked, but bought. Don't like it, make food for yourself"
"I can live with that. But I'm guessing you or someone else has to go to the market with me, right?" Magnes asks, since he's sure they won't just let him go wandering off alone. "And can I have cable in my room?"
Lawrence frowns slightly, sniffs, and rises from his seat. "Please excuse me for a moment," he asks. He's gotta go to the little boy's room.
"You can go get groceries, there's one around the corner. I'm pretty sure that between there and here, you can keep your mouth shut Magnes. Welcome to hell. I'm going to be crawling all over your ass till Len thinks you've smartened up enough to be off your leash. you behave, there's a treat for you at the end of it all"
"I'm gonna miss my friends, but…" Magnes smiles a little smile, one not entirely aimed at Minea, but aimed down into his drink. The drink deserves it more! "I guess as long as I can talk to Veronica, I'll survive. Why can't I live with her, again?"
"Because she's not your handler Magtag. So, you can either actually stay outside the company walls and in my good company, or i can toss you back into the company an you can have a plain old room there? Your choice"
"I'll stay here, I'm good here." Magnes is very quick to answer, giving her a 'don't-hurt-me' look and a frown. "Does Veronica at least visit you? Could she visit me if she wanted?"
"Veronica hasn't been here yet, but if it'll make you feel better I'm sure she can come over for dinner if she is the one who wants to" Minea points out.
"Thanks, Minea…" Magnes says with the first genuine smile he's ever given her, looking her directly in the eye. "Tomorrow I'll make you something really nice."
Lawrence re-emerges from the washroom, sniffing once.
'You do that Magtag. You do that. Lawrence, how good of you to join us. I was about to tell Magnes here about the plan to paintball if he behaves"
"Paintball?" Magnes asks, eyes lighting up a bit. "I've never done that before…" And, apparently he's done eating, pushing his food again and holding his stomach.