I'm Tense and Miserable, what's your name?

Participants:

laina_icon.gif magnes_icon.gif

Scene Title I'm Tense and Miserable, what's your name?
Synopsis Magnes and Laina have a roommate chat.
Date March 8, 2011

Magnes' Apartment


It's getting late, around 10PM, so an hour after curfew. Magnes is in a tanktop and a pair of blue jeans, laying on the couch with an encyclopedia of viruses resting directly on his face, book open. It's hard to tell if he's asleep or not, but with the way his arm hangs over the side of the couch it might be assumed.

Laina is sitting on the other end of the couch with her laptop, watching a youtube video of the sheep demonstration she had to leave early from the day before. "Oh, c'mon!" she berates the video at one point, sounding annoyed. And, "Yeah, that makes more sense!" at another.

This evening, she's lounging around in red plaid pajama pants, a sky blue T shirt, and her slippers, now fluorescent green. Her hair is back to its natural blonde.

Magnes yawns, his book sliding to the floor. He wasn't quite sleeping, but definitely in a deep rest. Eyes shifting down the couch so he can watch her, he continues laying in his spot. "Blonde, my favorite." He has no favorite, but right now he's decided that blonde is. "What's wrong with you?"

"Wrong?" she asks, pausing the video and arching her eyebrows as she looks at Magnes.

"You sound like something's bugging you, I don't know." Magnes lazily elaborates, one of his bare feet nudging at her side. "So what is it?"

"Oh, this demonstration I was at yesterday, with the sheep in Battery Park," Laina explains with a smile at Magnes. "The artist guy was smashing them, but I had to leave before he explained the whole thing. I'm watching it now." She turns the computuer so Magnes can see the screen, which is paused on the image of a man in coveralls standing atop a giant white sheep. "Turns out, the colorful sheep are supposed to represent the normals, and the plain white sheep represent the Evolved. Something about our purity and all that." She rolls her eyes. "This other guy who's arguing with the artist makes so much more sense." She unpauses the video until the camera swings around to show Cardinal, then she pauses it again.

"That's Cardinal. Figures. And I'm far from pure. I've seen Evolved do far from pure things to other people." Magnes drapes an arm over his eyes, apparently done with the video as he sighs. "Why can't the world just relax for one day."

Laina shrugs, even though Magnes can no longer see her. "So, doing some light reading?" she asks with light sarcasm, as she gestures to the book on viruses.

"It's one of my hobbies on the side, working on a project." Magnes' arm shifts a bit further up his forehead, uncovering his eyes again. "I'm sorry for how the party went. I guess I'll try and fix things with Quinn, I'm not so sure about Elaine… I can't take all the guilt tripping anymore. She dumped me, I shouldn't have to feel lonely and bad just because it bothers her, if I wanna sleep with a woman then I should be allowed, she's dating someone else, it's not fair that she can just go and judge and lay guilt because I want someone to comfort me too."

"I don't think that's what she was saying … " Laina says uncertainly. It didn't really sound that way to her.

"Sounds like she was calling me some sort of manwhore even though she's the last girl I slept with. And even so, she's implying that it's wrong for me to sleep with other women, even though she dumped me." Magnes shakes his head and grunts after that, averting his eyes. "I should have just screwed you the other night, that'd have shown her."

"Yeah … um, well, I had a vote on that one, too. And I wasn't gonna let you go that far," Laina says, in an attempt at diplomacy. Back to the original subject, "I think Elaine just had a hard day, having something to do with one of her friends having a nervous breakdown, and she was hurt that you shouted about her sex life to a stranger. I don't think she was really trying to guilt you." After a pause, Laina adds, "Anyway, I don't think you should lose a long friendship over it."

"I'm sick of being hurt by her. I'm sick of her making me feel like I'm a terrible person. I'll make up with Quinn, but I just can't take Elaine hurting me again." Magnes rolls off of the couch and lands on his feet, standing up straight to start heading for his room. "I think I'm gonna go to sleep. Too stressed, too much to think about."

Laina is beginning to see a pattern emerging, with Magnes running away every time things get tough, emotionally. But she decides it will probably be best if she doesn't mention it, at least not right away. "Magnes, don't go. We've barely gotten to talk since I moved in here." She fishes for another topic. "Did I tell you I got a job?"

"Sorry, I just need a break. Elaine used to be that escape from the rest of the world, and now I have to try to find that escape in myself. It's hard." Magnes crosses his arms, leaning against his bedroom door. "Where do you work?"

Laina has to hold back a laugh at Magnes' phrasing, and it ends up coming out as a mirthful snort. But she answers the question. "At Oh So Sweet. I start tomorrow."

"I'm glad it worked out for you. What will you be doing there?" Magnes asks without moving from his spot at the door, just generally appearing to be stuck in his bad and incredibly tense mood.

"Waitressing and serving drinks," Laina replies. "I guess I'll find out the specifics tomorrow." She smiles, but it's hard for her to truly show excitement when there's a Magnes-shaped ball of tension a few feet away. "Want me to give you a back massage? You look like you could use one." She's just glad that her hands are mostly healed from the glass. She's gone from wearing large bandages the first few days, to bandaids on the deeper cuts more recently, until today she doesn't have any form of bandage at all. Soon enough, the small scars will vanish as well. None of the shards went in too deep.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, but good luck with your job." Magnes reaches for the knob, ready to head into his room already. "I'm sorry for being a crap roommate tonight."

"Well, then, do you want to talk about it? If you've got a lot on your mind, sometimes it helps to talk through it." Laina doesn't like seeing her roommate like this, but she's pretty sure at this point that there's nothing she can do. Despite her efforts, he'll probably disappear into his room and close the door.

"What's to talk about? I can't seem to find this whole inner peace thing I'm searching for, and I'm feeling pretty miserable right now." Magnes opens his room door finally and walks in, beginning to close the door behind him.

"I kinda thought you could talk about that," Laina says, not holding out much hope. "But if you'd rather be by yourself," she shrugs, "goodnight."

"Like I said, I'm a crap roommate tonight." Magnes finally closes the door behind him, dropping face first into his bed.

"Glad we had this talk," Laina mutters sarcastically to herself. She sighs, then unpauses her video and continues to watch.


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