Participants:
| Scene Title | Karma's a Redheaded Scot |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Magnes saves Elaine, takes her in from the cold, and they relate. |
| Date | May 1 2010 |
Magnes' incredibly geeky apartment
It's getting later in the evening, the sleet from earlier in the day is finally over, but it's -44 below out right now, and people are generally indoors. A few such people don't have much of a choice in the matter, trying their best to find warm roofs so they don't freeze to death, one such person being Elaine, having found herself in the upper-class neighborhood of Upper West Side. But every place has its abandoned buildings, and an abandoned furniture warehouse is where she'll currently see the heat of a fire from rusted holes in the metallic door.
The other person out tonight is one Magnes J. Varlane, wearing a thick black fleece coat with plenty of things under it to stay warm, with the black hood over his head. The coat stops above the knees of his blue jeans, matching his black snow boots and gloves, and tonight, he's on his way home! At least he would be, if he hadn't just spotted the redhead in the alley of the warehouse entrance. It's kind of cold to be wandering alone this late, so he lands on the roof, deciding to watch for a bit to see if everything's alright.
How on earth a pale, slim young woman like Elaine manages to get by in this weather is a miracle in and of itself, but the real miracle for her is having been fortunate enough to stumble across a haven for the night. Well, in this district, she'd be least-likely to have someone offer her a cup of coffee or show some kindness, but the places to camp out tended to be a little nicer, and Elaine was tired of sleeping places that smelled.
"Just need to land a job or two, things'll be fine," she muttered to herself as she gave the metallic door a little nudge and slipped inside.
The not-thick-enough coat she was wearing was pulled tighter as Elaine stepped inside, taking a quick survey of her surroundings as she shifted her backpack a bit. Checklist of things to look for: warmth, safety, seclusion. Well, this just might work. And even if it doesn't? she's not looking forward to heading back outside anytime soon.
Inside this 'haven' are four men, somewhere in their early forties, wearing tattered dirty clothing and huddled around a pile of burning furniture. They seem harmless at first, allowing her to get close, then one stands and walks to the door, standing in front of it, while another stands and pulls a knife from his old dirty green jacket. "Don't make any sudden moves little girl. Empty your pockets and maybe we'll let you go back out there in the cold."
She's walked into a dangerous situation, and so far there's no sign of that situation improving at all. It's freezing outside, and there's apparently violent refugees surrounding her.
Of course, this leaves her with little choice. Lose what little she has and freeze to death, run away and possibly get stabbed and freeze to death, stay inside and get stabbed to death? the options are endless, and most of them end up with freezing, death, and stabbing. Elaine frowns, taking a moment to assess the situation. Right, don't panic. There are four of them, one of her and?
"I don't have anything in my pockets."
It's true, and simply her being honest. Other than her cold hands, her pockets were empty. Sure, she knew what the implication was, y'know, give me all your stuff, but she couldn't help but be honest. Especially since she wasn't really wanting to give up her backpack. What else would she put stuff in? Besides, the food in there was supposed to hold her over for a few days.
"You think we're stupid, you little whore? Give me that bag!" The man with the knife starts heading to her, at least until there's suddenly a loud bang. It's not the sound of a gun, it's the sound of the rusty door suddenly being kicked down, flooring the man standing in front of it.
It's Magnes, and he looks annoyed, not pausing to say anything witty, he starts running forward as the door lifts from the ground by some invisible force, then goes flying into the man with the knife. Right after that, he jumps over Elaine's head, kicks another man in the face, before just plain thrusting a hand out to gravity-push the remaining man clear across the room.
"You alright?" he asks as he walks from the downed man and over to her, trying to see if he waited too long or not. "Sorry, my name's Magnes Varlane, I thought you might be in trouble, so…" He motions around the room, indicating the downed men.
Well, that was enough of an entrance to have totally sparked Elaine's interest. With a set of moves clear out of an action-film, even if he hadn't just saved her from the thugs, he'd displayed an interesting ability and an interesting attitude about the situation to boot. She blinks for a moment, just checking to make sure that she hadn't imagined the rescue, before she steps forward with a smile.
"I'm just fine, thanks. You saved me a great deal of trouble. I shouldn't have liked to have been stabbed." She takes a long moment to look at him, shifting the backpack on her shoulder. "Elaine Darrow. It's nice to meet you. It really is."
"It's nice to meet you too, and I try my best to help people." Magnes holds a hand out for her's, offering a friendly smile as well. "Some people don't realize that bad times don't mean they have to be bad people. Why were you in here anyway? It's dangerous, walking into abandoned buildings, especially this late at night and in this weather."
Elaine accepts the hand, a bit of a sheepish smile as hers is a bit colder than she'd like for the handshake. She offers it anyway, in spite of her sheepishness, and continues to smile at him. "Well, it's nice to know someone's still benevolent out there. Some people do need some helping." Her eyes dart over to the fire for a moment as he questioned her presence in the warehouse, and then she proceeded to look back at him. Well, might as well be honest. No reason not to be—he'd already proved himself trustworthy enough simply by saving her. "I don't have anywhere else to go and it's freezing outside." She states, simply. "Warmer in here, at least."
"Well I'm not letting you spend the night in a warehouse." Magnes states firmly, starting to head to the now doorless exit. "I live in Dorchester Towers, you can stay there and I can help you get back on your feet. You should be able to fit most of my roommate's clothes, she won't mind. She's moving soon anyway."
"What, just like that, you bust in and save me from certain death and now you're offering to give me somewhere to sleep?" Elaine isn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so she starts to follow him. "Did I hit my head or something? Or are you really this nice?"
"I don't know why everyone asks that, I can't be the only nice person in the city." Magnes laughs, stopping in the alley and offering his gloved hand. "I know this woman on drugs, and she's always acting suspicious just because I wanna help her get sober. And my roommate, who's also my bandmate, was always acting really weird because I wanted to help her too. I'm an avid comic reader, I just believe in helping people." He motions his hand for her to take it. "I'll fly us to my place and we can figure everything out in the morning. Tonight I'll just make you something to eat and I can dig through my roommate's stuff for clean clothes."
Elaine laughed. "Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing. It's just that people don't usually help people unless there's something in it for them." She looks at the offered hand, then takes it gently. "The comics… I guess that would explain it. Gotta have someone who acts like a real hero, huh? I coulda used that /years/ ago." The last part seems a bit more as an aside to herself more than anything.
"Well, I get the nice feeling that comes with helping someone, if that's anything. Though I probably sound kind of cheesy. You might wanna hold on tight, this is going to be very cold." Magnes suddenly bends his knees, then leaps into the air with her, holding her hand firmly. There's no drag, he seems able to keep her flying at equal speed next to him, but it's cold with the wind moving so quickly against them. "Don't worry, we'll be there in a few minutes!"
She makes a face at the chill, making sure to hold on tight, though, as he proceeds to move them through the air. "Cheesy, sure, but it's nice to know such things still exist." Elaine says, speaking a little louder to make sure he can still hear her. She does, however, proceed to take the moment to marvel at the fact that they were /flying/. That's one thing she hasn't really done before. At least, not without a plane. Sure, it was cold, but the chill was worth it for a few minutes of fun.
He lands on top of the building, a large bloom of snow blowing away from the roof door, then opens it and ushers her in. "It's nice to be appreciated for once, I don't get that too often. I mean, I don't help people for praise, but it's nice when I do get it." he admits, closing and locking the door behind them, then heads down the steps with her.
Elaine steps inside, pausing to let him lock the door before she follows him down the stairs. "Okay, I get that you don't go out expecting that everyone you help will praise you for it, but if you go around saving people from the scum of the earth or from freezing to death… aren't there people who actually thank you and show their gratitude for it? I would think there'd be more people doing it."
"Well, I guess I don't exactly stick around waiting for it either. Sometimes I pop up in the news and they sometimes turn it into some sort of Evolved debate. But I'm registered now, so there's not much bad they can say about me without seeming like hypocrites." Magnes finally leads her down to his apartment, opening the door for her. The place is rather spacious, warm, blue carpetted. There's a few geeky posters on the walls, four doors and a little space cut out for a kitchen. He has a few bookcases of incredibly advanced books mixed in with graphic novels, a dark blue couch with a wooden coffee table in front of it, and a nicely sized television with a stuffed entertainment center to make the setting complete. "Make yourself at home." he says as he locks the door behind him again.
"My friend's room is over there." he points across from the television, the first door to the left. "You can sleep in my room tonight, I'll take the couch." He's removed his coat and gloves, as well as his wet boots, revealing his long-sleeved red shirt with a yellow Robin R on it, then he heads for the kitchen. "Want something to eat, and some hot cocoa?"
"A superhero /and/ a gentleman. Wow, I got lucky tonight." Elaine murmurs, peering around. She manages to stop herself near the door to take off her coat and shoes, but as soon as those are out of the way, she makes a beeline for the bookcase, peering over at the various different books and scanning the titles.
"I'm registered too, but unfortunately I'm not out there saving the day and earning praise," she says, not looking up from the books. "Can't remember the last time someone thanked me for something. I guess I kinda miss the feeling of being helpful." She peers at one of the books on the shelf, glancing back towards the kitchen. "Food and hot cocoa would be great, thanks!"
She can already smell the cocoa boiling, and he takes some raw meatballs he prepared earlier from the fridge, mixing some tomato sauce with herbs and such, then dumps the meatballs into the pot and just lets it all cook.
He walks back out into the living room, taking a seat on the couch as he looks over at her while she stares at his books. "There's never a shortage of nice things to do, though in this weather, you should probably focus on trying not to freeze to death." He motions her over to the couch, then grabs the remote. "So, you're registered? What's your ability?"
"I'm pretty good at the whole not freezing to death thing so far." Elaine comments, moving from the bookcase over to the couch, proceeding to sit on it and make herself comfortable. "Languages. Didn't realize it was an ability for a really long time, but I'm pretty fluent in pretty much every language I've heard."
"Oh, weird. So you're like Cypher." Magnes casually says as he looks her up and down, as if trying to somehow size this ability up. "It could be very useful. Cracking codes, programming…" He hands the remote over to her, since she's the guest and all. "My luck with associating with redheads has been kind of weird lately, but you seem nice so far."
Elaine laughs. "Well, they aren't /true/ redheads, then. We're /all/ supposed to be good." She grins, however, at the comparison. Seems she's actually read enough to get the reference. The remote, after being handed to her, is glanced at in a half-second of contemplation, before she offers it back. "Glad you think I'm nice. So far. I try. Can't say that I go out saving people every day, but at least I can be nice."
"Being nice goes a long way. And most of the time I save people is by the luck of being at the right place at the right time. Otherwise I'm usually occupied with being an intern or my band." Magnes also has bruises all over his face, though no swelling since they're a bit over a week old now. "How old are you anyway? I wouldn't want to be contributing to delinquency."
"I'm eighteen. Trust me, I'm not delinquent from anything." Elaine does take a good note of the bruises, leaning back on the couch a bit. "Sounds like a good life. You're lucky, rescue people from bad situations, occasionally get thanked, use some pretty cool powers in some pretty cool ways. You're also.. an intern, and in a band? Yeah, sounds like you're set." She peers over at him. "So, you're happy, then?"
"Would I sound completely ungrateful if I said I wasn't?" Magnes asks somewhat seriously, , idly channel surfing as they talk. "Don't get me wrong, I love the band, but that's my way of helping Sable get her dream, she's my roommate. My internship, that's my job, my way of not wasting my educational opportunities. Going out and using my ability usually means I'll end up on television and lose more privacy, but I have to sacrifice that if someone's in trouble, and a lot of the times saving people nearly gets me killed and then people call me stupid for it." He shrugs, seeming almost used to it all. "I guess I do seem set, but, I'm far from truly happy, and despite all the people in my life, it feels increasingly lonely, being in a unique position that no one really understands."
"You do sound like a comic book," Elaine muses, drawing her legs up onto the couch and turning to face him as she studies him seriously. "I don't think it's ungrateful to admit that. You've got a lot of good factors in your life, but good is really a relative term. For some, my life's pretty good. I'm alive, aren't I? Could be a lot worse." She leans against the couch, resting her head on the back of it, still watching him. "If you don't mind this near-stranger making an observation, I'll give you my two cents." She gives him a second, in case he wants to protest (which she doubts he will in the first place), then proceeds to sit up straight and study him intently.
"I think your problem is… really connecting with people. You're saying no one really understands you cause you've got a unique position… and I guess that makes a lot of sense. But it's gonna be impossible to find someone who's got the same thing because of the definition of the word unique. If you're lucky, you'll find someone who might be in a similar position that can really understand what it's like to be in that sort of a thing. Or maybe, barring that, someone who can truly understand even if they can't relate."
She pauses for a brief second, then continues. "But like I said.. I don't think you're connecting with people or with what you might really want. You're working to help your roommate out, you're doing what you feel is right because of your education and what you have to do for a job. You're using your ability to help people, which you enjoy, but you again sacrifice something great for it. It sounds like you do a lot of helping people, which is great and honestly something I've personally benefitted from… but what do you do to help yourself?"
"I don't know if there is anyone in my position, but I guess understanding it is possible… maybe." Magnes turns to face her now, laying his head on the couch parallel to her. "And I've tried being a little selfish, doing things for myself, but… it didn't really pan out in the end. I rarely do anything too selfish or for myself, I'm just not really good at it."
Elaine laughs, though it doesn't sound as if she's making fun of him, more of the laugh of someone who's realized something. "Well, I wouldn't worry about it, if I were you. Sounds really like you need someone who's just got that personality type too. I mean, there aren't crazy amounts of people running around and saving the day for everyone, but there are some people who sacrifice a lot of stuff they want out of life in order to help others. Even if it's just in little ways. I kinda know what that's like." She sighs. "You find someone like that, then they can help you and you don't have to worry about yourself. You help them, they help you, you're both helping each other and need that assistance. Won't be lonely like that."
"I'll be fine in the end, I hope. And you seem to understand me just fine." Magnes notes, still watching her from the position of his tilted head. "I should probably start getting this couch ready for bed. If you wanna sleep, my room is over there." he thumbs behind him.
"Yeah, well, I know what it's like to be lonely, so I guess I can understand that more than anything." Elaine moves, getting up from the couch so that he can go about setting it up. "I know you'll be fine, even without /knowing/. You've go those eyes and attitude that say you've seen and done a lot. You've made it though so far. You've already got something going for you… so maybe you'll keep getting lucky and things will be better than 'fine' in the end."
"You seem like you can see right through me." Magnes says seriously, but quickly shakes his head and smiles, heading into his bedroom, then coming out with a heavy blanket for himself. "God, you're so nice, I'd feel like a total jerk making a pass at you." he says as if he was actually thinking about it, then sits back on the couch. "Or um, maybe it's one of those selfish things I should just do for myself?" he asks in a playfully hopeful manner.
Elaine can't help but smile. "I've had a lot of practice watching people, but in your case, I think it's just that I relate. In a completely ridiculously incomparable manner, but I relate." Her smile, however, turns into a bit of a grin. "I can't stop you from being selfish.. and honestly, you wanting to be selfish is a good sign. It means there's something you actually want for yourself. Besides, they say nice guys finish last. Well, the same is true of nice girls."
"I've been shot a few times, so I hope you don't relate completely." Magnes snickers, then sits up when she finishes talking, staring and giving that some real thought. "Wait, so like, you're saying you're not a nice girl? Ah, hell, I'm not even going to over think this. You want company?" he finally just outright asks, nodding his head toward his bedroom.
Elaine winces. "Thankfully not been shot, so I guess we proved we don't relate in every way." She snickers a little bit, folding her arms. "Wasn't what I meant. I was just sort of implying that nice girls and guys finish last, so, you know, you could always battle the stereotype." She pauses. "Yeah, now /I'm/ overthinking things." She glances towards the bedroom. "Honestly? Yeah. I do want company."
Now Magnes just has to repeatedly tell himself in his head not to act eagar as he stands with the blanket and heads for the bedroom, motioning for her to follow. "Oh, crap, the food. Uh, you wait for me and I'll go make sure the house isn't burning down." He tosses the blanket into the bedroom, then heads into the kitchen. He gets everything put up in plastic and sits it in the microwave, then goes rushing out to the bedroom again. "Alright, it's safe!" At least he assumes it is.
She watches him scamper frantically towards the kitchen and can't help but smile as she makes her way into the bedroom. Elaine had honestly forgotten about the food in the midst of everything, but it seemed the food was safe enough for now. She grins a little, looking back to Magnes. "You turn the burner off?"
"Yeah, yeah, it's off." Magnes is catching his breath from all the sudden rushing, closing the door behind him. His bedroom is far more geeky than the rest of the house, posters covering nearly every inch of the walls and ceiling, models and figurines sitting on shelves and his computer desk, and he's even got one more bookcase in this room too. "So…" He walks up to her, then carefully slides his arms around her waist. "Let's stop thinking…"