Participants:
| Scene Title | Electric Sniper |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Miss Bishop's first day back at Primatech. Elle, meet Magnes; Magnes, Elle. Some things never change. |
| Date | June 21, 2009 |
Primatech Research - A hallway
It's early in the evening, and Magnes is wearing a plain white t-shirt with black cargo pants and black sneakers, walking down the hall with a thick Y: The Last Man volume 1 paperback in his hands. He smells fresh like a shower, suggesting he's recently finished with the gym.
For Elle, after two (or has it been three?) months of truancy, it's still hard to believe she's finally back. And then there had been the surprised reception from all her fellow agents to plug through. But tired as she is, it's still far too early to think of bed— so for now, the electrokinetic does nothing more than pace down one of Primatech's hallways in slow, musing thought, fingertips brushing along a sterile wall of the building she calls 'home'. Dressed in a periwinkle haltertop and pinstriped grey slacks, hair looped into a messy fan of a bun, she looks almost like she never left. She does look up suddenly when she hears Magnes approach, her heels stopping their sharp, precise clicking as she does. One side of her mouth lifts into a puzzled but observant smirk. "…I've haven't seen you around."
She's, well definitely new, at least to him. Magnes looks up from his book, struggling to keep eye contact, because that's what he was taught by his two older female mentors! "U-uh, hi!" Oh god, what an awkward greeting! His voice practically squeeks from nervousness, prompting him to clear his throat. "I uh, I mean, hello. My name's Magnes."
Oh, heavens. If anybody ain't new, it's Elle Bishop; as far as being a resident as concerned, she's older than dirt. Her smile grows wider, seeming at once to contain sunniness and a gentle, mocking quality. She crosses her arms over her abdomen, leaning one shoulder into the wall beside her. "You're a new kid, aren't you?" she inquires, not bothering to offer her name in return. "You weren't here when I left. And I know everyone around here."
"Y-yeah, I'm new, I've never seen you before." Magnes places a hand against his chest, for a moment, then places it back on to his book. "So, are you one of the uh, Evolved, or non-evolved? I don't really meet many of the Evolved agents. I'm not really a full agent yet, I'm still training." He raises his book to hide his face when he takes a very deep breath, then lowers it with a slightly more collected look. "W-what's your name?"
Elle reeeeaches out to lower the top edge of Magnes' book so she can actually see his face over it, one eyebrow lifted, the movement coinciding with the agent-in-training's own. "I'm Elle," she says matter-of-factly as she withdraws her hand, comfortably recrossing her arms. Perhaps that will ring some bells. Perhaps not. "You know, you're so cute when you stutter." This is said innocently, of course.
"I-I uh, I mean, I'm sorry. No, wait…" Magnes, confused and flustered, cheeks red as blood pressure rises. Who is this mysterious woman?! Oh, right, Elle, who he unfortunately knows nothing about because no one tells him anything! "Y-you're uh, you know," He pauses, then whispers very lowly, "Cute too."
My, my. Elle laughs aloud at this reaction, inhaling warmly and stretching out her hand again to play with a tiny strand of hair by Magnes's ear. This time, her touch doesn't go away, nails brushing over skin as lightly as a feather; her blue-eyed gaze is kind of unnaturally intense. Man, has she missed this more than she knew. "You're so nervous and confused. Don't apologize to me." There. One more feminine mentor for the poor lad to take advice from.
"I'm sorry, I uh, mean, sorry! Crap!" Magnes' eyes avert to her arm. He has to redeem what little image he may have left! "Sorry, uh, so," Conversation starter, ice breaker, must say something that doesn't acknowledge the hand! "Y-you do anything for fun?"
What an impeccably timed question! A tiny electric line, longer and brighter than a mere spark, ZAAAPs into Magnes' cheek out of the center of her palm. It's as sudden and unexpected — as, well, something dropping onto his head from the ceiling, probably. Elle's hand promptly pulls away as she accomplishes this, and she's laughing again. Well, Magnes has his answer. "No, Maggie," she answers in mock consolation, tossing her head as though absolutely nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "I never have any fun at all."
…Or too much, apparently.
Magnes suddenly jumps up to the ceiling at the jolt, standing up there on his hands and knees as he looks down at her. "Y-you did that? I've never met anyone who could do something like that before." At least he thinks and hopes it was her, and not, say, some electric sniper or something. He lets himself drop back down in front of her, holding his book in one hand. "I can understand how this place probably isn't too fun, though. If you don't have much to do, maybe we could hang out? I have a ton of hobbies, maybe you'll like one."
"That was me, yeah—" But then it's Elle's turn to be surprised; her eyes narrow as her brain tries to make sense of the fact that stutter-boy is, indeed, standing on top of the ceiling. "Hey. Neat trick," she comments when he hops back down. "And yeah, we should hang out sometime. I could… show you a thing or two of my own." This is said a little more wryly. Um. No suggestive hints at all. None at all.
"T-thanks, I could take you up there if you wanted." Magnes offers, but tries very hard to ignore any suggestive hints! Truly these things are all in his head. "I uh, I'm just gonna warn you right now, so my interests don't like, spark a sudden realization of immaturity. I have comic posters all over my room, I make costumes, and I intend to invite you over to my place to watch movies and play video games. I just wanted to get that out of the way." He sighs, looking down at his shoes, then back up into her eyes. "So, uh, if we were flirting at all, because I can't really tell, did I just mess that up?"
All this results in a sobering of Elle's expression. "No, I couldn't do tonight," she tells him with a tiny shake of her head, the sorrow practically reflected in her widened, amused eyes. "I have things to do. And oh, you silly, adorable thing— you did just fine by me." Teehee. With this, she flashes a large, reassuring smile and runs a teasing fingertip along the edge of his jawline again (plus another gratuitous, painful ~ZAP~), lingering for just a moment before she starts off down the corridor again, her small, confident form brushing right past a perhaps bewildered Magnes.
Magnes jerks visibly from the zap, but he doesn't go shooting up again, he has to be able to take that kind of thing around this kind of girl! At least that's what he thinks. "I, uh, maybe some other time then!" he calls out, bewildered and obviously wanting more.
Though Elle's already a good distance down the hallway by now, she does raise a forearm and wiggle her fingertips in a wry, cheeky good-bye wave without turning to look or stopping her stride. Only then does she round the next corner, out of sight.