Participants:
| Scene Title | Frustrations |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Remi and Magnes meet again, and unexpected things happen. |
| Date | March 21, 2019 |
Bay Ridge Pier
Spring is here, and it reflects in the lovely weather — it’s not warm yet, but it’s certainly no longer winter, and the weather can only improve from here. Remi is taking advantage of the weather. It’s a bit more windy out here on the pier than it is in the city proper, without all of the buildings to block the gusts, but today is relatively calm.
The woman is seated at one of the picnic tables, poring over how-to manuals on how to operate the ship that is moored at the end of the pier. Said ship, a bright red 289-foot-long Tug and Supply ship, is currently under construction — crews are preparing and setting up the bare bones of the dinner theater that she and Silas are planning to open.
It's not too hard to find certain people, and it's even less difficult for Magnes to make it to them when he does.
Finally deciding to talk to people he travelled here with, he decides to check on Remi, one of many people who suffered greatly on the way back. He arrives from high in the sky, landing about five feet in front of her. "Hey."
Despite the weather, he still wears the long black coat, hands in his pockets.
The woman jumps as, suddenly, there is a Magnes standing there — she’s about halfway out of her seat with a hand reaching behind her back when she actually realizes who it is, blue eyes blinking rapidly as she fights off the shock.
Oh, it’s him.
She relaxes after a moment, settling back down into her seat at the concrete picnic table. She wears a long sweater and black leggings, with a dark gray t-shirt featuring the Raytech logo — a casual day for Remi, who has been enjoying the comfortable life of being (mostly) land-locked.
“Magnes,” she murmurs, marking her spot in the book and closing it. “Haven’t seen you since we went through.” She quietly regards the man, a small frown on her face. Seeing him brings back a few memories she likes not remembering, but she might as well face them sooner or later. She always said she’d punch the guy — but that doesn’t seem necessary any longer.
"I couldn't really look at anyone. I couldn't deal with everything that happened, and I wanted to get Addie back. I'm still working on that, but… I just feel weird, looking at everyone." Magnes shakes his head, perhaps aware of how strange that wording is. "Seeing people moving on, starting lives. The thought was too much, knowing that I'll never really be able to move on."
“That’s pretty defeatist, really. Not something I’d expect from someone who tore open the universe to get to his daughter.” As always, Remi is pretty blunt. “You lost your wife. I lost the man I was going to finally marry, after being together for well over a decade.” The broken telepath reaches up, pulling a ring on a chain from beneath her shirt. “I don’t even have a kid to fight for. I lost everything but the dream of this place.”
Blue eyes turn to the sky, and the Frenchwoman smiles, suddenly. She turns her face to the wind, going silent for a long moment as she enjoys being out by the water by choice, not by necessity.
And then, Magnes once again has Remi’s attention. “Instead of mourning, I’m trying my best to make something. You should do that, too.” And suddenly, she’s standing and making her way to Magnes, stopping well within what most people’s bubble range would be and reaching out to place one hand on his chest. “Would Elaine want you to suffer like this over her?”
There's a tinge of guilt in his eyes when she mentions her loss. But then she asks her question, and Magnes frowns. He stares down at her hand, then averts his eyes to the boat. "She wouldn't, but… I can't. I'll focus on my daughter, I'll do things for Addie, but I can't just move on. We came too far, it just…" He shakes his head, closing his eyes. "I can't just let her go, I feel too much guilt, I miss her too much."
“You don’t let them go.” She reaches up, touching the ring again. “That’s not how grief works. You never forget, and there’s always that ache there. Anybody telling you that to move on you have to let go of a person has never actually experienced loss like we have.” She doesn’t move her hand from his chest.
In fact, she lifts her hand to gently touch his cheek. There’s no mind link this time — Remi is Remi, without her telepathy to help her through life. There’s just her, standing there and peering up at the man. “All you can do is cope, and try your best to keep going for the important things. For you, it’s your daughter, oui?” She gestures to the boat. “For me, it is my floating dinner theater.”
"I know that I need therapy and everything, but I just… I don't know. About anything, really. I just know what I have to do for the people who need me." Magnes reaches up to take her hand from his face, though he continues to hold it. He has to close his eyes again when she looks at him, hanging and turning his head slightly. "I love her, I don't want the world to think that I love anyone but her."
For a moment, Remi watches the man, staring up at him for a moment. The gears turn in her head, milling over potential choices that she could make here and now, and how they might affect things in every facet of her life.
Then, her other hand reaches up, clasping his hand between hers. Why not? They’re both lonely and filled with grief — it couldn’t be worse than it already is, right?. “You should speak to Richard. He can help you find some counseling, I’m sure.” She glances back to the boat, then back up to him.
“Forgive me for being so bold, but…perhaps you and I can…” A glance back to the boat again. “Work out some frustrations on our own.” Definitely no suggestions of love — Remi’s not ready for that, either.
"I can't do that." Magnes says very firmly, lowering her hand as he frowns, seeming very resigned to his general stance here. "It's just… it seems wrong. Like cheating."
2 Hours Later
Magnes suddenly sits up in Remi's bed, his scar covered torso completely exposed as he starts to look around for his clothes. "I need to go, like, now." He's already grabbing his paisley shirt and trying to put it on, fumbling with his buttons. "This never happened, this isn't, like, it's not a thing. It doesn't exist, it didn't happen."
The captain’s quarters are the first thing that Remi had fixed up — there’s still work to be done, but there’s a brand new bed that just got broken in, and the carpet is new as well. The previous inhabitant was a bit more blue collar than the Frenchwoman could ever be, and there was a bit of a stench to be rid of.
For her part, Remi probably added a few scars into that mix — the last two hours weren’t exactly gentle on either side of the uncanny equation. As Magnes suddenly sits up, Remi stretches out on the bed, pulling a cigarette from her pack and sitting up to light it. “Well, it did happen, but I can keep a secret.” Well, Silas might find out, but he’s the most trustworthy person she knows, so it likely won’t go much further than that.
She takes a draw from her cigarette, and offers the pack out to Magnes — she’s much more relaxed than he is right now, it seems, much more casual about the rather unexpected outcome of Magnes’ visit.
"This time I really am leaving." Magnes says, firmly this time. He doesn't take a cigarette, mostly because he doesn't smoke, but he starts quickly getting his clothes back on and grabs his coat. "It's basically like I cheated, on principle. I can't, just…"
He stops, and starts taking deep breaths. "It was a mistake, I was stupid, it won't happen again." Though, he pauses again, and holds up a hand. "This time I mean it, which is why I'm leaving."
Remi is much less frantic, leaning down to ash her cigarette on the ashtray she has on the floor next to the bed, before rising back up again, watching Magnes thoughtfully. “I feel like I could tell you that you didn’t cheat — that you were just coping with your grief like any human would, but I feel like you won’t believe me.” She sits up, then, raising her brows at Magnes.
“This wasn’t me trying to be with you — this was just…both of us forgetting our grief and sadness for a brief moment.” She pauses, taking another puff from the cigarette, before putting it out — she’s not much of a smoker, and it’s only really fun to take a few puffs after occasions like these. After a moment, she stands, crossing the room with a catlike gait to lift an emerald green satin robe from the chair, wrapping it around herself.
"It feels wrong to forget, to stop feeling grief. It doesn't feel right." Magnes finally finds some sense of chill, somewhere in him, and heads for the door. "Let's, I don't know, talk in public somewhere, another time. This is my first and last time in here." he declares right before opening the door. "Sorry for, I don't know, whatever I'm sorry for. I'll see you later."
“It’s not, but…again, I won’t even try to convince you otherwise, you’re too frustrating for that.” Remi seems much more nonchalant about this whole ordeal, quietly tying her robe around herself to keep it snugly in place. She then sets about messing with her hair a bit, picking a brush up off of the desk that will eventually become her vanity. “Let’s just leave it at no apologies, because there’s really nothing to apologize for. We were both being human.”
Then, she sets about brushing her hair — if Magnes is leaving, she’s certainly not stopping him. Unfortunately, a few of the construction workers might hoot and holler at him as he leaves — the past two hours weren’t exactly quiet.