Participants:
Scene Title | Gotta Take Risks, Gotta Move On |
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Synopsis | Magnes and Claire catchup on things at a Chinese restaurant. |
Date | March 20, 2010 |
A Chinese Restaurant Somewhere
Having just come from a hectic meeting with Tracy Strauss which required remembering all sorts of poll numbers on the fly, Magnes decided he definitely needed a break, and despite what Melissa says, it's been far too long since he's seen Claire.
When she enters the Chinese buffet, she'll spot him motioning her over sitting in a booth. There's not really any windows in this restaurant, at least not where people eat, so no need to worry about snipers! He's wearing a moderately expensive dark-blue suit, almost black, with a matching tie over his white buttoned up shirt. His briefcase is sitting next to him in the booth, and he seems to be a mixture of happy to see her, and a tad exhausted.
Her dead boss might tell her this is a bad idea, but maybe it's the guilt of what happened that brings Claire out of the confines of EndGame's base to meet with the gravity manipulator. Spotting the waving of the hand, Claire starts that way, knit cap and scarf removed as she makes her way too him. "Hey Magnes." She offers softly, a glance going to the room as she unzips her jacket and shrugs out of it.
Sliding into the seat across from him, Claire studies him with a touch of amusement. "Gone corporate?" She asks brows lifting slightly. "You don't seem like the suit and tie type."
"Abby said suits and yelling into a phone aren't me. But the vigilante thing, it's something I can't do on my own, y'know? You always told me that. I figure maybe I can make a difference from a political side, put my brain to good use, who knows… I work for Tracy Strauss now." Magnes doesn't seem particularly enthused about it like he was previously, mostly thanks to a talk with Abby, but… "It's good to see you again, though I wish you'd have let me pick you up instead of walking through the blizzard. I don't know if your regeneration keeps you warm or not." He smiles with his light scolding, eyes scanning her face as if to see if anything's changed at all.
"I can walk just fine, I needed to stretch my legs anyhow. Besides, I don't get frostbite." Claire comments with a hint of a shoulder shrug and a small smile. "My body regenerates the damage, so I'm not all that worried about it."
"So not corporate, a political nut huh? That might work out better for you then the vigilante stuff. Less chances to get hurt. Though you might still get stabbed in the back… figuratively speaking." Claire says with a small chuckle. "It's a good choice."
"I don't know, working for Nathan Petrelli's PR person probably has its physical dangers too. It's nice and pays well, though I'm still not quite happy, y'know? There's lots of things in life that are making me satisfied and content, but I haven't been happy in a while. Makes me think I'm ungrateful, but Abby thinks I need to see my parents, which I guess I should plan after this blizzard ends." Magnes looks over at the food briefly, though seems to want to continue talking a bit first. "I kind of miss the vigilante stuff, but I've come too close to dying from doing it myself too many times. Peter agrees that I should be doing what I'm doing now too, so…"
"Well, Peter… yeah." Claire sighs softly, glancing at the table, brows furrowing a bit, "If you want a normal life it's the way to go. So he's right your in the right place." She gives him a bit of a crooked smile. "Me. I'm just dealing with things as they come along. Thinking about getting an apartment. Nothing fancy. We'll see though. I haven't made a decision on that."
"College though, I think is gonna wait a bit. I got time till Fall, but I don't know. Just have to see." Claire seems kind of nonchalant about it. Her mom would kill her to hear that, but then if any of her family knew what she was planning. They'd kill her.
"I… well… when I was with you I wanted a normal life, what got me through Argentina was the thought that you'd be pardoned and could do normal stuff, y'know? But lately, now that I've begun evaluating my life without you in it, I'm starting to realize that it wasn't really a normal life I wanted." Magnes sounds more thoughtful than at all bitter, as if he's really been giving his life a lot of thought lately.
"I'm working for Miss Strauss because I feel like I need to learn what she can teach me. But aside from the band and my usual interests… I'm so bored, and I feel like I'm wasting away. I read about these murders in the papers, I still occasionally see a friend disappear or die, and I think 'I wish I could be out there doing something'. But I know it's impossible, and that I'm doing the only thing I can do right now…" He shakes his head, looking up at her from the table. "Sorry, I went off target for a moment. What I'm trying to say is, it wasn't really a normal life I wanted, I just didn't want to worry about you getting arrested when we went on a date or something. Now I don't have to worry about that, so I feel like I could care less about a normal life."
"When I was a teenage and I had Sylar to deal with and my life was far from it, I wanted it." Claire says quietly, leaning back on her side of the booth. "After PARIAH and all that, I realized I'm not normal, why live a normal life. I can't. Hell Magnes," She leans forward arms resting on the table so she can half whisper, "I can't have kids. Especially after Madagascar and there is a chance that I've never been able too."
"No. My life isn't normal and I find I don't crave it." Claire admits, without any regret in her words. "What I do now I do I will see the results of in fifty, one hundred years." She goes silent as a sever arrives, "Ah.. coke please?"
Magnes nods to the person for the same, though when they leave and he looks back to Claire, he seems generally alarmed. "Wait, you can't have kids? Why? What did they do to you? I just… sorry, I shouldn't ask, I'm sorry." He sighs, sounding as if he just remembered it's not his business, then stares down at his hands on the table.
"You're another reason I really don't want a normal life, with a wife and all that. I don't want something like this happening again, like, the guilt that I couldn't do anything, the pain of knowing you're going through something I can barely imagine, that you went through stuff I'm not even sure I want to know… You were an incredible relationship, and I can live with you being the first and last. I have a lot of good memories, but in the kind of world we're living in, it'd be crazy to try and be with someone else." He smiles, shaking his head as he pours a packet of sugar into a floating sphere of gravity in front of him. "I don't crave anything about a normal life except what I already have right now, because I don't want anything getting taken away from me in this kind of world."
"Truth be told. I remember a lot of bad things, but a lot worse happened, but I don't remember any of it." Claire says with a small shrug. "I've heard about some nasty stuff happened, so… maybe it's a good thing I lost the memories." Brows drop a bit as she searches those blank spots in her memories. "But.. right now it's cause I have Malaria. My ability has allowed it to mutate to a point that it's incurable." She doesn't sound broken up about it, mostly accepting. At least she doesn't have to watch generations die before her.
"I wouldn't count yourself out Magnes," The young regenerator says with a small smile. "Someone will come along when you least expect it and throw you back in the game. Me, I don't know what the shot gun did to my head… but… I haven't really had much of a desire to get close to anyone. I… thought I did." Her nose wrinkles a bit, "But… I don't know. I'll focus on what I've been doing."
"I hate it, I know it's immature, but I hate thinking about what could have happened to you. It makes my stomach knot and twist and…" Magnes stops, taking a deep breath as he tries to calm down. Probably not the first time he thought about it. "It's not that I haven't liked other girls. I mean, I haven't liked anyone more than you, and I know I'd be capable of moving on if I really tried, but I don't really want to, y'know? When It hink about being with a girl again, even when I think about being with you again, all I think of is what could happen to them, all the ways I could lose them, all the ways I could lose you again. I don't want that, I can't risk that… I'd rather be alone than feel the loss I have, again, y'know?"
"If I had that kind of attitude towards what happened to me… " Claire doesn't continue the sentence leaning forward on the table again, a finger stagging at it's surface. "If I let that shotgun blast to my head effect me, like it's effecting you? I wouldn't have been able to do what I had to in Antartica." Mainly putting that gun to her head and suiciding herself to save people and help take down the bad guy.
"If you don't want to let go.. well then all your misery over it is your fault." Claire's tone turns serious and she leans back again, eyeing him quietly. "I've moved on Magnes. Not talking so much about you and me. I'm talking about the whole thing. I've moved on to the next crisis that needs help. Cause if I bury my head in the sand and live in the past, then the future will be a very bleak place."
"I have nothing to move on to, I don't know what's happening anymore. My usefulness to… you and your friends, kind of wore out after the mission ended." That is when Magnes' bitterness rises a bit, but he tries to keep it in check with a shake of his head. "All I can do is go on with this boring normal life, trying to help but not really helping at all. It's like being squeezed into a tight box, not being needed or wanted by anyone when I did want to help. And as far as moving on goes, like I said, it's a risk. People always tell me not to take so many risks, they tell me I'll get hurt. For once I actually feel that instinct."
"You have to take risks to get anywhere, Magnes." Claire says softly, her brows rising as she states rather matter of factly. "Only you can decide how much risk your willing to take. People don't want to see you get hurt, so they will say not to take the risks… but it'll happen no matter what you do." She sighs softly. "Do what you feel is in your gut. Go with it and see where it takes you. Do what you need to do and screw everyone else's concerns."
Claire holds up a finger suddenly and pins him with a serious look. "But, be prepared to be hurt over and over again. Also be realistic about it, somethings you just can't have." She shrugs. "That's all I can tell you."
"I can be a bit of a coward when I'm not trying to show off for you, can't I?" Magnes smiles softly, then stands and holds a hand out to help her up. "I remember when I was a cop. You entered the television station with Shard, and I happened to be in the neighborhood with my partner. I saw you there, trying to leave. I knew you had something to do with what was going on, but I let you go anyway. That's around when I realized I was probably going to have a very short police career. Come on, let's go get food."
"Sadly, Magnes.. I don't remember. I've been told about all that Shard stuff though." Claire had to have the shadow of a man, Richard explain it to her, so she could quit looking confused. The hand it takes long enough for her to scoot out of the seat, but then it's dropped. "Eating sounds like I plan. I still have a few things to take care of before tomorrow." Calire offers him a bit of a smile.
"Don't stress so much, life has a funny way of working itself out."
"It's alright that you don't remember, as long as…" Magnes pauses for a moment, grabbing two plates and handing one to her. "As long as you're doing what you want, as long as you'll be happy. I want that more than anything, for you to be happy, eventually. That's why I haven't been calling you recently. I figure it'd make your life easier, but, today I just wanted to see you, I guess. A friend of mine says I should be selfish occasionally… ew is that squid?"
"I'll be happy, when all the work is done and the future looks brighter." Claire says, matter of factly as she scans the bar, taking the plate and slipping to the other side to pick up some sweet and sour chicken. "As my boss use to be fond of saying. 'We'll rest when we're done.'"
"Just don't get so caught up with work that you don't forget to be a person. You're a twenty year old girl, Claire, try to… take time to be that sometimes. If you do nothing else for me, just try to do that, some time." Magnes softly requests, placing a gentle and brief hand on her shoulder, then starts going for all sorts of fried stuff. Not healthy. "When we get back to the table, I'll tell you about the time we had this awkward moment where you got yourself set on fire, and ended up staying the night. Talk about tension." He laughs, staring down at his loaded up plate.
"I haven't forgotten what I am Magnes, but there are things girls my age do that, frankly, I'm not all that interested in." That hand on her shoulder lifts some as she shrugs, moving to continue to add food to her plate.
"Sure." She says softly, she can do that for him at least… Listen to the stories of a time gone from her memories.