Far From Home

Participants:

adel_icon.gif magnes_icon.gif

Scene Title Far From Home
Synopsis Magnes finally finds his once future daughter who is enjoying her extended vacation a long way from home.
Date April 12, 2019

Makua Beach, Kauai, Hawaii


When one wants to get away from the world, one travels, and there are few better places to go than Hawaii. Untouched by the various wars, it still remained a place where people could go to relax, assuming they had the money to afford the flight and pay for the food, much of it still imported. Still, with the lack of those with the money to afford the trip, the beaches had a noticeable absence of crowds, making it an even nicer vacation spot for those who could make it across the ocean.

Adel had been using it as an escape since the final mission that she’d gone on with Wolfhound. She intended to go back, to apologize for the long absence, but she also knew she needed a break. She needed to learn how her ability worked now that it had come back. And she just needed time.

So long she’d lived with one goal in mind, to find her grandfather and make sure he was captured. Once it was finished, she didn’t know what else to do, really. Should she even go back? Was she done? She would figure it out eventually.

Which is why she laid on the beach with golden sands, stretched out on a long towel, enjoying the warm sun that had already turned her skin a golden brown, with sunglasses protecting her eyes as she enjoyed the sound of the ocean caressing the beach. A bag sat nearby in a sand bucket, like one a kid might use to make sandcastles, complete with sunscreen, as she had no intention of actually burning as she enjoyed her time on the beach.

It's a strange thing, when gravity manipulators like Magnes are near each other. It's like feeling an overwhelming mass at first, something entering the scope of your senses, like diving into water.

That's the first tip off for Adel that something is happening. Descending from the sky is a figure, landing next to her towel and looking unfamiliar.

With sunglasses on, and with how different Magnes looks, with his long hair and his bit of facial hair, it's difficult to tell exactly who this is. But one thing is for sure, she can feel his gravity, how he feels so much larger than any normal person, something that tugs at the core of her ability as if to urge her closer.

But when a few seconds have passed, it becomes more apparent. The man holding a red dufflebag over his shoulder, wearing a grey t-shirt with black letters that say Dad To The Bone, some blue jeans, and black boots, is quite obviously her dad. "You did a good job." is the first thing he says, smiling down at her.

His tone, even in those few words, is so different from when she last saw him. He sounds more like what one would expect a dad to sound like, how one expects a father to talk to his daughter.

It was a strange feeling. Adel sits up as she feels the change in the air, eyes narrowing under the cover of dark sunglasses until she spots the figure starting to descend from the sky. For a moment her breath catches. She wonders if she’s been laying out in the sun too long, or if she fell asleep. Or if…

“Are you another one of those weird clones?” she asks, a hesitant sound to her voice as she floats off the beach and unto her feet. Her ability doesn’t work how it once had, there’s no sphere around her. She just floats up and lands on her toes on the sand, expression a mix of emotion. She’s afraid to believe, wondering if she needed to pinch herself to wake up.

But the most likely scenario was the one she questioned. There might have been more of him flying around. Though why one would wear that t-shirt, she couldn’t say.

"I mean, I'm technically a clone, but I've always been a clone." Magnes answers very unhelpfully, then reaches out to touch her shoulder after dropping his bag to the ground. "I just happen to be the clone who is also your dad, the only one who can have kids. I had to kick open holes in the universe to get back to you after I turned into a black hole, but I eventually made it. Did you get my song message? I played bass on a rooftop while we shot a laser through universes so I could get that song to you."

He smiles, reaching up to touch her face. "You have a sister now, I understand the whole dad thing finally. Seeing you now, it's so different, like… I never really understood what it was like to see you with the eyes of a father. But I look at you now, and it's like you're my little girl, saving the world and being a healthy adult."

"Your ability's different… it's more like mine now." He reaches down to touch the core of her stomach, gently pulling back to try and expand her field out a bit into his own. "But it feels like you're very tense with it, like when I was younger."

Looking up at her dad from over her sunglasses, Adel frowns as she watches him. Yeah, her ability had changed for reasons she didn’t understand, but she was happy to be able to fly now. Happy to be able to know that Pete was once again behind bars. And now— now her father was somehow alive? “So you were always a clone?” It doesn’t sound like she disbelieves, because, well, they were under the working assumption that Adam had clones too. And his father’s ability had been so fucked up that she shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore.

Including the dead coming back. “So how do I know you’re the one that was in Alaska with us.” She tries to think of a question to ask, something that only that one would know, but it had been ten years and they hadn’t really known each other that well. “When we met, do you remember what mythical animal you were singing about?” It’s the closest she can come up with.

"A unicorn, obviously. But I remember a lot. I wanted you to kill me, it was an unfair position to put you in, now that I understand more what it means to be a dad, what I should expect from my daughter." Magnes stands up straight, staring down into her eyes, smiling. She can feel her gravitational field held firmly within his, as if he were keeping her safe and secure even on a quantum level. "I became a blackhole that day. I felt everything, it felt like I could feel the whole of the Earth and everything around it. It felt like losing myself. And then we woke up in the Virus world. And, well… that's years of story. Years of trying to get back to you."

With that, Adel pulls off her sunglasses and gets to her feet, looking up at him. The gravity around her feels off, like she’s having a difficult time keeping her feet on the sand, but she stays there for the most part. “You’re fracking right, it wasn’t fair to ask me to kill you. And a good thing I didn’t or you’d just have been dead.” She puts her hands on her hips. She didn’t know how else to say it. “You were on the radio. We could hear it.” It had been odd, hearing what they heard. She hadn’t quite understood what it had meant.

But she had recognized the song.

After a second, she jumps. Floating forward and barreling into him and wrapping her arms around him for a hug.

“Took you long enough,” is what she whispers as she holds him close, their gravitational fields mixing and strengthening each other’s.

"It was tough." Magnes says as he tightens his arms around her. "But at least I get what it means to be a dad now. It's just so different, seeing you with the eyes I have now." He reaches up to gently stroke her hair, looking down at her again. "I feel proud of you. I know that you've done so much, helped so many people, even travelled through time. To think that my daughter would do all the crazy stuff I did, it makes me feel proud."

“I only joined Wolfhound so that I could find Pete,” Adel admits with a shrug, as if she doesn’t think what she did was that great really. “And so I could jump out of planes.” She adds as she loosens her hug to grin at him. “That part was pretty cool. And you should’ve seen the armor we got to wear, it was so primal.”

The way she says it almost sounds as if she doesn’t really intend to go back. She had completed her reason for joining. “He’s in jail now. Pete. You should see if they’ll let you in to punch him for everything he did. But don’t bother killing him. It’s super gross if you try that.”

She makes a dramatic face. “I’m on my vacation now. Not really saving or helping anyone. Just trying to relax. And get a tan.”

And apparently see her dad after so long thinking he was dead.

"I learned a lot about our family while we were away. About all my sisters, well, two. As far as I know, one of them is dead, the other is out there somewhere, maybe. I met an old version of myself, in a world where the original me survived and lived to his natural age. And my daughter, because I was a complete idiot when we had her, I named her Adele because I assumed any child I had would just be you."

He smiles, gently stroking her cheek. "I hope you understand that I was an idiot. But… I'll definitely talk to my father. I've learned a lot about the things he's done while I've been gone, read a lot about who he is as a person."

There’s so much to unpack in all that, but Adel finally tilts her head at the mention of a daughter. “Wow, dad. That was kinda dumb. It’s going to be really confusing when you have to yell at us.” It’s a joke, honestly, as she pushes on his arm. She doesn’t seem mad or upset, but— that was difficult when he kept admitting he was an idiot. “He was awful. Had this poor kid and was making him do things even. But it’s okay. We rescued Matty and I think he’s living with Robyn now, so that’s good.”

She still considered Robyn one of her many moms. So that kind of made Matty another brother in a way.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it. There’s a nice tiki bar about two blocks away. We could sit down and exchange war stories.”

"Sure. I honestly am happy to see you. When I was in those other worlds, I was never quite sure if you survived, if anyone survived. I turned into a black hole. For all I knew this entire world was gone. That weighed on me a lot until we got word from this timeline. When I sent that message, the song you brought back to us, it was for you. I figured, if anyone was going to get the weird message I send to this world, it would be my daughter." Magnes starts to float, holding out a hand for her to grab.

"Let's go to that tiki bar. Can you drink? I think in my mind you'll never be old enough to drink. Sorry, I really am infected with dad brain now." he shrugs a bit. "I ended up getting engaged to another Elaine, because, as I said, I am an idiot, but I related to her in a different way from the one in this world. She's a bit of a different person. But… she didn't make it here."

It takes a moment, but the gravity around Adel fluctuates as she realizes what she didn’t make it here must mean. She drops down to the sand more solidly, feet sinking into the heat. With a hand up, she seems to be asking him to wait, turning back to get her belongings, which only really amount to a carrier bag, and her towel and sandals, which she drops into the bag.

“I’m sorry about— the other Elaine.” Mom? She isn’t sure what to call her. Other Mom? Almost Mom? DIfferent Mom? She won’t say she wished she could have met her. “We’ll have to drink a few extra for her— cause yeah dad, I can drink. I’m almost thirty now.” Not that she looks much older than she had when he met her. The biggest difference would be that she now wears her hair short. With that said, she takes the hand to float off to the bar.

They’re definitely going to need drinks for these conversations.

"I refuse to acknowledge that you're almost thirty. I'm buying you a teddy bear as soon as possible." Magnes insists as he reaches out to take her hand. "But just know that I never stopped thinking about you, and I never stopped wanting to be a person you could be proud of. I even went to the world that you came from, or at least the world that started off as where you came from. I saw what it was like, the kind of place you grew up in. And seeing it with my own eyes… you're much stronger than I ever imagined."

“Lasers, you really did go on a big cross-timeline adventure. This is gonna be a good story,” Adel says with a smirk, ready to hear about all of it. Their world might have been bad, but it still managed, somehow, to produce her. A little bit insane, but with mad coping skills.

“And you have to tell me about Adele Two.” Cause that’s what she’s going to call her until she has a better name for her.

They float away toward the tiki bar, leaving the beach and the hot sand behind.


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