Participants:
| Scene Title | Everything Will Work Out |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elaine stops by Linus' apartment with cookies and good timing. They both cheer each other up some. |
| Date | September 10, 2010 |
Linus' Apartment
Peanut butter chocolate chip. Elaine was stress-baking. While things weren't bad, per se, she had a lot on her mind and had decided to make cookies. And considering Linus had been so nice given everything, she thought it'd be a nice gesture to bring them by. It was thoughtful, and Elaine considered herself enough of a thoughtful person. Plate of cookies in hand, covered in saran wrap, she marches down the stairs, heads over to the door to Linus' apartment, and knocks.
Normally, Linus would be doing only a few things at this time of day. Working, playing video games, or reading among them. Instead however, he simply lays on his couch, hands behind his head as he stares at the ceiling. Head swimming with thoughts about the previous few hours, the knock on his door snaps him back to the current time and place. "Just a minute," calls the voice of Linus. Shortly after, the door opens. He looks more worse for wear than usual, a days worth of stubble and bags under his eyes. It's not often he is seen any other way than fit and full of energy. "Oh. Hey, Elaine. You don't need to knock, remember? Come on in."
"You sure? I wouldn't want to walk in on you in some compromising position or something." Elaine smiles, offering the cookies forward. "Made these! I figured I'd bring them to you. I thought you might like them and I wanted to say thank you for being you: purely awesome." She pauses, though, peering at him carefully as she steps inside. "You look like you didn't sleep. You okay?"
Linus takes the plate of cookies in one hand, shutting the door behind Elaine as she steps inside his apartment with the other. "I'm not really sure what sort of compromising positions you're thinking I get in, but I can probably assure you that isn't going to happen anytime soon." He lifts the tray of cookies. "Thanks for these, though. I'm starving." He walks over to the couch, setting the plate down before rising back to his full height and rubbing his face. "I slept, but.. I registered yesterday. They sent me to a place to get tested today, and they really took it to me. I'm exhausted."
Elaine chuckles. "One never knows." She blinks a little as she looks at him. "I'm lucky. My ability was kinda easy to deal with. Plus it's not like it takes energy for me." She moves towards the couch. "Should I let you sleep? You look like you need it."
"No, it's alright. I could just go outside and perk right up, you know? Function of my ability and all. I actually want to be tired and exhausted for a change." He plops down on the couch, unwrapping the plate of cookies. "They registered me as tier 2. That means where I live, all my information.. hell, anyone with a brain can find it."
She winces. "I guess I'm lucky on that part too." Elaine scowls. "Just be careful, right? Those Humanis First jackasses… I don't trust 'em." She moves to offer a hug. "I think they're careful with how you can get the information, you know?"
Linus lifts one arm to pat Elaine's in response to the hug, a very weak version of a hug on his end of things. "Yeah, thanks. Hopefully they'll see what my power is and think twice about coming after me. Of course, knowing how dangerous I am, they'll probably come take me when I'm asleep. I'll never even know. I'll just disappear." He picks up a cookie, nibbling on it. "I'm scared, Elaine."
"Hey! Don't be scared. I won't let them just take you, Linus. You should see the kind of investigative stuff I did to make sure Magnes was okay." Elaine offers a smile. "If you disappear suspiciously, I'm gonna hunt you down. And I've got friends who would help out. Heck, I'm sure Magnes would help… and I know he knows how to kick some ass. He saved my life the first time I met him. So don't be scared. I won't let anyone come disappear you."
Letting out a long sigh, Linus leans back into the couch. His head turns toward Elaine and nods. "Thanks. That actually makes me feel better. I mean, I really shouldn't worry anyway.. nobody is going to think I'm useful for anything. I doubt anyone would come after me." He takes a larger bite of the cookie, chewing slowly. "These are pretty good. You made them?"
"Mmmhm. Baking is stress relief!" Elaine points out, taking a cookie and nibbling on it a little before she takes a big bite. She's not shy when it comes to the noms. "Oh, come on. Linus, you're plenty useful. If anything, I'm not quite so useful. I can talk in other languages. So what? I'm no hero." That, however, causes her to seem thoughtful for a moment. "You could protect yourself if you needed! It's a good thing! Plus you're useful outside of your abilities. You're a good friend."
"Oh, I know I have talents and skills and things outside of my ability.. I just mean, I'm a coward, you know? I'm not the hero type. And nobody is going to make me be able to hurt anybody, I'm just not that type of person. So nobody is going to make me a bad guy, either." He hunches forward some, chewing on the cookie. "You can be a hero. It's not about ability, or skill. It's about doing what's right at the right time, when it's hard for you to do so."
"Ugh." Elaine wrinkles her nose at a number of circumstances in her life she wasn't quite 'heroic' in. "I don't think you're cowardly. You're defensive. And that's fine. I'm sure you'll be okay. It doesn't matter, even if you think you're cowardly. So what? I'm sure if there was something you had to do, you'd do it. He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day, right?"
"I guess so. But at the end of the day, I just feel like I'm a normal guy, you know?" He dusts his hands off, rubbing them on his jeans at the knees. "All of this stuff, it is still so crazy to me. I know I'll get it figured out one day. I know one day I'll know where I should be and what I should be doing." He pauses, taking a moment to rub his eyes again. "One day."
"You don't have to rush it." Elaine smiles. "You're fine the way you are. And being normal's okay. Sometimes you gotta break away, though. Sometimes you have to try and be special. I've been normal all my life and people seem to want to keep me that way. But I'm tired of it."
Linus smiles meekly, turning his head towards Elaine to look in her eyes. Then he pushes her shoulder playfully. "Hey, if it means anything, I think you're pretty special. Not very many people could cheer me up in how many different languages and how many different accents?" He grins, standing up to walk over towards the window, opening the curtains to let the sunlight flood over him.
"I cheered you up! Yes!" Elaine cheers with a bit of a grin. "Mission accomplished!" She leans back on the couch a bit. "And that does mean a lot. Again… people always seem to want me to live an ordinary life. I think I owe it to my parents to be something special and make something of myself. I wanna be an extraordinary ordinary person. Being a paradox could be fun…"
Hisutting his hands on the edge of the window and leaning forward, Linus closes his eyes as the sunlight soaks into his skin. "Yeah. You did." He stands at the window for several minutes before he pushes away, walking back over to the couch. He looks a lot better already, but still not his usual self. "I think my parents think I owe it to them to be something special. I'd rather just do it for myself. I don't want to be what people expect me to be."
Putting his hands on the edge of the window and leaning forward, Linus closes his eyes as the sunlight soaks into his skin. "Yeah. You did." He stands at the window for several minutes before he pushes away, walking back over to the couch. He looks a lot better already, but still not his usual self. "I think my parents think I owe it to them to be something special. I'd rather just do it for myself. I don't want to be what people expect me to be."
"That's why I left New York, originally. I wanted to be special for me. I left, it saved my life, and now I don't have them. Now I have just me, and I owe it to them to keep it up. They would have wanted to see me be special. They never expected me to be more than ordinary, they could hope, but they never put pressure on me like that. They were happy with what I was, even if I wasn't. There was so much I wish I could have done and shown to them." Elaine shrugs. "Everyone's got a tragic bomb story, but that's mine." She nods to him. "I kind of want the world to see that I'm awesome. That I've got stuff to give it. The few people I know really like me and so at least I know that's true, it's just… I want to impact the lives of people. I want to help people. And my ability is good for that. I can help people understand other people… and not just in that one way. I can really make people understand each other, more than just in language."
Linus sits down next to Elaine, letting his arm drape over her shoulder as she speaks. "I'm sorry about your parents, Elaine. I really am. I know that you'll do them proud, though." He sighs, trying to think of how to best put his next statement. "Here's how I see it. Whatever way you want to look at these gifts. Either from some god or gods, or just pure evolution - they are here for a reason. If god gave them to us, he wants us to use them for good. If we got them through evolution, we got them because we need them." He pats her knee assuringly. "You have one of those gifts, and I'm certain you'll do your parents proud by it."
"Thanks. That means a lot, coming from you. And I think you're right. There's a reason I've got this and I figure if I can use it somehow… then that will be just fine with me." Elaine looks at him for a long moment, then offers a smile. "You ought to get more sunlight. You look a lot better, and I'd rather you perk up to your usual self. I hate seeing you down."
"Yeah? I think you just want me to stop touching you." Linus chuckles, slinging his arm off of Elaine to march back over to the window. "Though I agree with you. I feel like hell when I don't get sun." He basks again, this time actually leaning half-way out the window. Not a dangerous lean, but enough to get a little closer. "I think we're going to be alright, Elaine. I think everything will work out, somehow."