Participants:
| Scene Title | Expanding Horizons |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Magnes works on his floating techniques and then talks Veronica into playing video games at Minea's house. Vee doesn't find Blockbuster as romantic as Magnes does, however. |
| Date | June 7, 2009 |
Primatech Research and Blockbuster Video
It's morning, and Magnes is wearing his white t-shirt, black cargo pants and black sneakers, floating about six feet off the floor in the middle of the Primatech Gym, over a pad. His legs are crossed and eyes closed, hands resting in his lap as he tries to rotate in one spot, in 360 degrees, appearing to possibly be meditating in some weird gravity way.
It's another one of those days Veronica needs to pound something, a punching bag or the rubber mat of the treadmill with her feet, due to all of the issues cluttering her head. She glares at Magnes, looking so relaxed. Must be nice. She heads over to the punching bag and begins to punch it — right, left, right, right, left, kick. The sounds of bag being punched and kicked echo against the bare walls of the gym, no doubt interrupting his reverie.
Slowly hovering over to the general sound of Veronica's punching, he turns and floats in her direction, hovering there, eyes still closed. He stays around five feet away, not being able to actually see, he doesn't want to get too close. "Who's there? You smell like…" His cheeks suddenly go red, as if the realization of who it is suddenly made him flush.
"Telling people what they smell like isn't really polite, Maggie," Veronica says coolly. Uh-oh. He's Maggie again. That isn't good. She hits the bag harder, then jumps into a hook kick, before punching it again. "What are you accomplishing, by the way? That looks a lot like sleeping to me," she points out, her voice a little breathless from the exertion of throwing her weight into the heavy bag of sand.
"I-I think you smell really nice, Veronica…" Magnes admits, rotating all the way back, then upright again. "I'm trying to get rid of my vertical horizon, or control it. I can only fly with my eyes closed, but when I open them it all gets crazy. So I'm meditating, trying to get used to the feeling, so I can copy it when my eyes open. There is no up and down, I keep repeating that in my head."
Veronica chuckles a little. "Well, thank you, I guess," she says as she steps away from the punching bag and moves over to the treadmill, having beaten the crap out of the bag enough to soothe her aggression a bit. "Sorry, I'm in a bad mood. I didn't mean to take it out on you. Vertical horizon? That's an oxymoron, if I ever heard one."
"I don't know any other word to explain it. You know how on the ceiling it felt like we were standing on the floor, and not the ceiling? I'm trying to control that, so I can get rid of that feeling when I need to." Magnes explains as he begins to rotate 360 degrees again, though continues speaking. "You should come to Minea's, play some video games with me, that's what I do when I have aggression. Just give it a shot."
As she programs her run into the treadmill, she glances over her shoulder at Magnes. "Video games?" she asks. "The closest thing I've ever done is the shooting simulations when I was training to be a cop." She begins to run. "But I guess that makes sense. Vertical horizon. Just that you know, horizon, horizontal…" She nods. "Minea told me to come over if I could. Sure, why not. It could be fun."
"What do you like to do for fun, outside of work? Maybe I can rent games that'll fit your interests, if Minea lets me go to Blockbuster." Magnes uncrosses his legs, blindly floating around, occasionally bumping into something, but he's moving quite slowly. "This is so easy with my eyes closed. My ability always has stupid limitations. I used to only be able to use it with my skates on."
"If you used to only be able to do it with skates on, and now you don't need the skates, it's not a limitation, just something you need to learn to do," she says, her speed quickening as the warm up section finishes. "It's like babies… they can't walk at first. They have to learn to scoot, then crawl, then walk by holding on to something… eventually they can run, ice skate, dance… all things they couldn't do without learning how to do the other steps first, right?" She pushes the button for the incline. "My interests outside of work? I … don't know, kid. I'm one of those married to my work people. Everything from the age of 17 on has been about protecting and serving and stopping bad people."
"Well, um, Abby taught me how to do it without skates, by kissing me… I float when she kisses me." Magnes admits, cheeks bright now with a bit of a stupid grin on his face. "I didn't float when Miss Strauss kissed me, I just sorta jumped out of the window.." he randomly adds, sighing at that situation. "Well, I'll get you into video games. Hey, you think we can go to Blockbuster right now, if I'm escorted by you?"
"You're like some crazy Disney character," Veronica says with a laugh. "We could probably go by a Blockbuster, as long as it's not one that is near your friends' houses, and if you see any of your friends, you tell me immediately and do not approach them and we get the hell out of there." Her voice is all business in regards to his "grounding."
THere's a light sigh for a moment, then Magnes just nods, opening his eyes to slowly float back down to the ground. "Want me to take you to a Blockbuster in Queens? I don't think I know anyone in Queens. You can ride on my back." he offers, attempting to cover the redness of his cheeks with one hand, and turning his head away. It fails.
"That's not laying low, Magnes… we'll take the subway, like normal people," Veronica says with a laugh. "It's broad daylight. You should only use those powers when you need to or when you can get away with it without being noticed, now that you're Company." She finishes her run, now walking for a few minutes for the cool-down.
"Wait…" Magnes, suddenly appearing worried as he walks up to her. "Are you saying I can't keep my pizza delivery job when my training is done?" he asks, despite getting a fat Company salary, apparently still worried about his old job. "And no one's gonna notice, I do Incredible Hulk jumps to make sure… if you have any idea what those are."
"I have no idea what that means, but… uh, no, I don't think you can? You'll have to ask Len, but usually you work here full time, and weird hours. I don't think you can really have two jobs… unless it's your cover, maybe." She shakes her head. "I don't know how a pizza job cover would work out but maybe…"
"I don't want Mister Panucci's business to suffer from me not being able to deliver all over the city." Magnes elaborates his concerns, beginning to walk to the exit while motioning for her. "The subway, buses, do we really have to do that? It'll take hours, I can get us there and back in like one hour, depending on how long it takes us to pick stuff out."
"No. It doesn't take that long, and you're laying low." She disappears into the women's locker room, where she takes a quick shower and changes back into street clothes — jeans, t-shirt and flip flops, since it's her day "off," if such a thing exists. After about fifteen minutes she emerges again, hair wet and pulled back into a pony tail.
"Laying low really sucks." Magnes quickly points out not bothering with the shower, since it's morning and he hasn't really worked out since he took his last shower. "Let's get going, I'll help you pick out stuff you might like. God, the subway…"
Veronica smirks. "It's good for you to suffer along with the common people, your highness," she points out. "I'd take a car, but the subway's faster. And it's a Sunday, so it's not like it will be that busy, all right?" They head out, and Veronica steers him toward the closest entrance to the subway.
When they arrive at the Blockbuster, it's rather empty, being morning and all. He smiles back at her, then immediately starts heading for the game aisle. "This is kinda cool, I mean, Blockbuster with a girl…"
Veronica stands with her hands in her pockets, watching him roam the store. "You've never been in Blockbuster with a girl before?" she says teasingly. "Is it like a Haley's Comet kinda thing?" She looks at the various game titles, raising a brow skeptically. "That's a lot of games. I don't know how to play any of them."
"It's like…" Magnes looks down rows of games, pointing to the various genre signs. "It's, kinda romantic." In a totally geeky way that only he likely understands! "A guy and a woman, on the video game aisle, picking out something to play together…" His head is down as he speaks, very bashful-like.
"Romantic…" she echoes and chuckles a bit. "So what are we going to play?" she asks, narrowing her eyes as she picks up some game with a busty woman on the cover and wrinkling her nose before setting it back down. "Are all video game women sporting double D bras?"
"Depends on who the game is aimed at. Like, this game," Magnes grabs Twilight Princess, a Zelda game. "Zelda is a fantasy game, mostly aimed at everyone, even though the story is somewhat deep. Boobs and mindless action aren't the main focus, it's mostly story and adventure, so you won't see huge boobs, except maybe one or two characters. But then here," He reaches over, grabbing Resident Evil: 4. "While it's more actiony and aimed at a more mature audience, the world is more realistic, other than the zombies. So you'll see more 'real' looking women. Actually, most women in something like Resident Evil would be like, well, you."
"Like me?" Veronica says with amusement. "Well, I'm glad I could make the cut for something including zombies," she says playfully. "Well, pick out whatever you think is best. What sort of system do you have at Minea's, anyway?"
"There's nothing wrong with you." Magnes compliments, still in his bashful mood as he looks over at her. "I mean, you're basically perfect. And uh, I have a Wii, a 360, PS2, and some older systems, but I have all the games you're probably gonna want for stuff like Super Nintendo."
"Thanks. There's nothing wrong with you either," Veronica says dryly with a bit of a smirk curving the corner of her mouth. "And thanks, I think." She chuckles, and lets him pick out his games. "I'm not staying for hours on end, though, so you know, pick out what you'd like, whether I'm there or not."
"Alright, but I want you to pick at least one thing you think is interesting." Magnes suggests, and grabs a game in the PS2 section. "And I think you'll like this, Katamari, it's really awesome."
"Here," Veronica says with a shrug, picking a game up without even looking at it, and handing it to him. "Let's hurry. Your furlough shouldn't be too long or Minea will flay us both, buddy." She starts to head to the checkout counter.
"I'll burn some DVDs and we ca—" Magnes pauses, looking a bit awkward. "I mean, I won't do that, because it's illegal." he corrects, momentarily forgetting they're sort of the government as they approach the checkout counter.
Veronica snorts. "Magnes, we don't care about pirating. We have more important things on our hands. But don't say it too loudly in a business that profits from you not pirating," she says and she lets him handle the checkout business. She uses Netflix, herself. She hasn't had a Blockbuster card for at least five years.
"Well, alright." Magnes skeptically agrees, giving Veronica a playfully suspicious look, then pulls out his red debit card, with the Robin III 'R' in the middle. "H-hey, um, Veronica, not that I'm gonna ask or anything, since there's already like two or three girls I have a thing for, but uh, what would you say if I asked you out on a date? I'm not asking! I'm just wondering what you'd say." he asks in a very flustered way, fumbling with his card when the clerk takes it.
The clerk looks amused at the two customers. Great. Just what Veronica needs — an 18-year-old Blockbuster employee laughing at her. "Is there any girl you've met that you haven't gotten all tingly over, out of curiosity, Mag?" she asks, walking through the metal detector and taking the bag the clerk puts there. "I think it's not a good idea when we work together, at any rate."
"Tracy Strauss, Minea, this girl named Bebe who I don't really know, Kimiko, even though she was nice looking, Huruma, Isabelle, but she's nice looking too…" Magnes lists off various names of women he doesn't want to date, getting his card back from the clerk once everything is neatly stacked into the bag. "And alright, if it's a bad idea, that's fine." he only appears a little disappointed, but he asked early, just in case!
Veronica chuckles. "Come on, Don Juan, let's slum it on the subway and get to Minea's so you can cook me some pasta and make my workout pointless," she says, pushing him toward the door. "It just makes things complicated, and you have way too much to deal with as it is. So do I for that matter, all right?"
"Yeah, I know. I guess it just feels like I'm never gonna see a girl outside of the Company again, so, y'know…" Magnes leaves the rest up to her to figure out, walking to the door with the bag.
"I didn't mean ever," she tells him, following, her hand on his shoulder. "You just should focus on training and keeping your nose clear, on impressing Minea and Len so that you can get a bit of your own life, buddy. Eventually, you can maybe date someone you work with, if you think it's not too complicated. Sometimes… someone who's not an agent is a good choice. A lab assistant or a secretary, someone who knows what you do but isn't someone you have to worry about being out in the mix of things… then you start trying to protect them and stuff like that, and it just gets confusing, Magnes." She pats his shoulder. "Get through training first. Worry about girls later."