Participants:
| Scene Title | Je Te Deteste |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Remi pays a visit to Magnes. |
| Date | January 4, 2019 |
Ark Brig
Breathe in, and then out. Just one breath at a time.
Remi has had to prepare herself for this. And after her attempt on the night of their arrival, it’s a wonder she’s been let in at all. But all it required was a brisk search to determine that she isn’t smuggling anything in, and a warning that if she tries anything, she’ll be back in the brig, and here she is.
She stands, her face close to the door as the guard unlocks and opens it, taking the pause in momentum as a chance to further steel herself against what is to come. Really, she wants to find something hard, preferably with an edge, and hit Magnes with it a lot — it wouldn’t bring Jasper or Geneva back, and it probably wouldn’t do much to make her feel better about their loss, but it would feel good to do it.
As the guard admits her to the rusty apartment, Remi slips in without a sound, standing by the door with her hands clasped behind her back, holding a small lantern. She doesn’t move further into the room just yet, her posture rigid and uncomfortable. Gone are the thick clothes she wore on the sailboat — now, she wears the same warm clothes that everyone else wears to protect against the chill.
She stands in silence, eyes searching the apartment with a stony, neutral look etched into her features.
Magnes sits in the middle of the apartment, legs crossed, meditating with his eyes closed. He lacks his ability, and lacking his ability tends to put his other senses on high alert, like being blindfolded. Hearing her footsteps, feeling the change in air current as the door is opened and closed, and then the sound of her breathing when she stands there.
He doesn't know who his visitor is until he opens his eyes, staring up at her. "I didn't know he'd entirely lose his mind, but I won't ask for forgiveness or try to justify what I did. I took a necessary action, and there were consequences for that action. If you want to yell at me, if you want to hit me, I won't stop you. Even without the deaths, I didn't expect what I was going to do to sit well with people…"
"I can't make it better, all I can do is continue doing what I believe is necessary. All of the losses in all of these worlds, all I can do is try to carry the weight and hope that in the end it wasn't for nothing. Every action or inaction I decide on risks lives, and I have to weigh that against losing even more lives. It doesn't make it better, it doesn't make me less guilty, but it's the reality of all of this." He stops talking finally, closing his eyes as if accepting whatever comes next.
For a long moment, even despite his words, there is…nothing but complete silence from the former telepath. She simply stares at him, quietly contemplating what to say — she’s rehearsed what she’s wanted to say over and over in her head, but the words are still difficult to conjure out of the air. She wants to scream and cry and launch herself at him and hit him until her hands bleed, but that will only accomplish more time down here — something that she simply can’t afford.
“I can’t hit you, they’ll lock me back up — and they probably wouldn’t let me back out this time.” Her words are short, clipped, with the French accent shining through a bit thicker than normal. “Vous parlez trop.” After another moment of deliberation, she steps a bit
“I want to blame you, but…I can’t.” She lowers her hands to her side, the spare lamp casting more light over the rusted out luxury apartment. “From what I’ve gathered, the attack that killed Geneva and Jasper was already planned — you just became a convenient catalyst.” The Frenchwoman frowns at Magnes.
"Planned or not, I had a hand in it. They're more lives gone that I have to live with in trying to get home. More lives disrupted because I'm in a world I shouldn't be in." Magnes hunches over, staring at the floor. "I'd quit all of this, years ago. I quit, while I was dating the Elaine from my world. I let myself get dragged back into saving the world and all of this stuff. If I'd stayed out of it, we wouldn't have even visited these other worlds, so many more people might still be alive."
"We helped save multiple worlds, but at what cost?" he asks, looking up at her now. "I'll be dead soon. I want to live for my daughter, but I don't have a choice in the matter. I keep thinking to myself that when I die, when this temporary resurrection wears off, maybe that'll be what's best for the world. That my ability and constantly thinking that I need to save people be removed from the world."
Remi pauses, leaning against the arm of the couch, setting her lantern down on one of the end tables as she watches Magnes quietly, a frown etched permanently into her features. “You don’t know the future. You may think you do, but you don’t.” She shakes her head slowly, frowning.
“Vous êtes un idiot.” She closes her eyes, seeming to center herself for a moment. Man, she’d love to just swing a right hook at his jaw as hard as she can — but she’s not going back to ‘jail’’ again. She’ll be satisfied with delivering a blow when they’re free. “Tous vos problèmes viennent de vous pensant que vous savez tout.”
She shakes her head. “Stop living like you know the future. Stop living like you know what’s coming next. If the future is set in stone, there you go. I for one don’t think it is, and I don’t understand the way you are reacting to this supposed knowledge you have.” She frowns, narrowing her eyes at Magnes. “Start living like you want to change whatever future you have seen. And for the love of god, learn how to keep your mouth shut.”
"I have to believe to some extent, I have to believe or there's no hope for getting out of this, no hope for seeing my daughter again, for seeing Elaine happy again." Magnes sounds almost like he's had to repeat this to himself over and over again. "You haven't seen what I've seen. I need absolute faith and conviction. I can't know how horrible things will turn out, but I can at least know that there's something good at the end…"
The telepath frowns at the man. “I don’t give a shit what you’ve seen,” she replies, turning a sudden glare toward the door. “When your visions lead you to things like what happened at the dinner table,” she explains, gesturing widely, “you have to admit that you have a problem.” She sighs, turning her glare to the ground.
“Just stop with the ‘I’m gonna die’ bullshit. If you’re going to die, then you’re going to die. But perhaps you should take measures to not die.” She shakes her head. “I don’t know what I was trying to accomplish by coming down here.” She pushes off of the couch, starting toward the door.
"No amount of thinking differently is going to make this any safer. I told you that this would be a huge risk, I told you to really think about this. This whole journey is nothing but loss and suffering, and realizing that the difficult decisions we have to make will inevitably lead to more and more blood on our hands." Magnes takes a deep breath, then stands, starting to walk away from her. "I can't take back what a hellscape this entire journey has been, I can't fix anything, all I can do is get everyone home. If that means I have to be hated and despised, then so be it. I'm doing what I have to do, and I won't let people not understanding that stand in the way of getting my daughter back."
“You don’t make any sense.” Remi shakes her head. “I’m not even going to pretend to understand you. At least Elisabeth sounded sane.” She pauses near the door, frowning over her shoulder at the man. “Keep your shit together.” There’s things that are going to happen, but she won’t go into detail — they’re listening, after all.
She shakes her head, lifting a hand to knock on the door — but she doesn’t yet.. “If we ever get out of this, I am going to punch you in the face.” She says this as matter of fact, like it’s definitely going to happen.
After casting a brief glance back over her shoulder, she shakes her head and knocks on the door, slipping out when the guard opens it.