Participants:
| Scene Title | Lowered Walls |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Evening of his first day at the academy, Magnes is beat. Carrie shows him some mercy and they talk about friendship and their differing views about the evolved. |
| Date | July 01, 2009 |
Carrie and Magnes' Campsite - Woods of Fort Hero.
It's a bit later in the afternoon, around six, and Magnes is completely worn. In a white t-shirt, a pair of dark blue cargo pants, and his white socks. He hasn't even bothered to get into his sleeping bag, he's just laying face first in the tent, groaning in pain.
It's been a long day for both, that's for sure. So while she's not in the sort of pain he's in, Carrie is still feeling the exhaustion of that grueling first day. Pushing aside, the flap of the tent the woman, slips into the tent. She's in an old pair off grey sweatpants, a tank top and her shoes. The last is shed and pushed aside. He can smell the soap and shampoo she just used in the showers, her hair still plastered to her head and neck. "Buck up, Maggie Boy. You survived first day." She sounds kind of proud of that fact. Kneeling down next to him, a couple of plastic bags rustle as she puts them down. Rummaging around in one, she pulls out a large bottle of Gatoraid and sets it next to him as well as a bottle of Ibprofin. "Brought you some stuff to help."
Taking the bottle of Gaterade, Magnes starts downing his drink rather quickly, then sighs and lays his head down again. "Thanks, but I don't want any medicine. I've felt a lot worse than this, even though this is really really bad, I just wanna rest it off." he says with another light groan, choosing to endure it all.
"Well it's there so when those sharp pains hit in the middle of the night." Carrie studies him for a long moment. "I'm proud of you, Varlane. It seemed a bit iffy there at times, but you did great, kiddo." Pushing, wet strands of hair out of her face, she tilts her head to look at him. "Where does it hurt worse?"
"Back, arms. My legs are used to a lot of work, so they don't hurt too much." Magnes answers, squirming slightly, but overall just not bothering to move. "I have to do that every single day?"
Carrie chuckle and moves to where she can kneel along side him, leg not quite touching him. "Yes and no." She comments lightly. "First day they drive you into the ground to assess your strengths and weaknesses." He feels her fingers on his back as she starts pressing and rubbing them into the knots on his back. "But it'll still be heavy training like that, just…. not so intense."
"I thought I was done with intense training after all that getting beat up by Hiro and Kimiko." Magnes lets out a sigh of relief when she starts to rub his back, which is surprisingly not skin and bone like one would expect, he has a growing layer of muscle from two long months of training. One with Hiro, one with the Company.
"There will always be training in one form or another." Carrie says softly, her concentration focused on massaging out the tension out of his back, with the pressure of her thumbs. "But no.. not so intense once we get you through this." She's quiet for a moment as she works, then sh finally asks. "How did you feel about your first day?"
"It wasn't so bad until I slowed down, whenever I slowed down all the pain just hit me at once." Magnes groans at the thought, but her massaging quickly calms his mind again. "I started thinking, I was homeschooled, never really had many friends, and I'm seperated from the few I managed to make now. But I start thinking, with this ability I have, maybe this is how it was meant to be. Me having no attachments, just training, becoming some sort of hero with nothing to lose."
"It's always worse when you have time to think about it." Carrie agrees. "If you can't think about the pain, you normally won't feel it." The pressure on his back increases as she starts pressing the heel of her hands into the back, working in circles down his back, a hand on each side of his spine. "When I had finally took up police work, I was a lot older then you are now. You've already got a foundation to work from. Me.. I went from mother and house wife to police cadet. You can imagine how painful that was."
"It's kinda weird, when you can finally be a superhero, it doesn't seem so great. It's selfish, but, at some point you realize that you're gonna lose a lot more than you're ever gonna gain." Magnes, being a pessimist today, just tries his best to relax into her hands, eyes closed. "There's not gonna be any girlfriend, or marriage, or even being a kid. It's just, this is where my whole old life ends. No more love-hate Abby, hate-hate Deckard, Mister Panucci, Delilah. Maybe I'll see Hiro, but he can be anywhere."
There Carrie pauses, her hands still resting on his back. "Do you really believe that?" She pats his back with one hand before pulling them out of the way, "Turn over and look at me." Carrie says a touch firmer then she means too. "Let's talk."
Magnes sighs again, then groans in pain as he sluggishly shifts over on his back to look up at her. He could be using his ability right now, but he's choosing to do this the hard way. "It feels like that. Life is gonna pass me by. By the time I'm off probation and finished with my training, nothing's gonna be the same. I won't know how to fit in again, I'll just end up having to move on too, the Company is gonna be my life, that's how I see it."
"If you think that way, it will be that way." Carrie says seriously. She leans across him a bit, resting a hand on the other side of him, so that she can look down at him. "Will things be the same? No. They won't. Your right. But, the things you mentioned will not be out of your reach. If you ask some of the older agents. I but you find that some of them are leading normal lives, with wives and kids." She sighs softly and considers him for a long moment. "And friends will come and go, it is the nature of things, but there are always more there, ready and waiting to meet you." Her free hand moves to touch under his chin as she smile. "Cheer up. You life isn't at an end. It's not over by a long shot. Look at it as a new beginning."
Just staring up at her as she speaks, Magnes nods, placing a hand on her's as he closes his eyes again. "You know, you're my best friend right now."
Chuckling, Carrie allows him to have her hand, giving it a squeeze. "I'm surprised you feel that way, Varlane. Since well.. I'm the reason you just went through hell today." There is a soft sigh and she smiles at him. "Admittedly, I never thought I'd call someone with abilities a friend. Guess you could thank Grim for that." Looking away from him, her tone serious and a touch sad, she says. "I use to loathe anyone who was evolved. My experience around them was they dd nothing but hurt people.. all I saw was the hurt they caused. So you should know…" She tries to look at him as she says it, but she can't. "I support registration and the Linderman act." She moves to sit up, waiting for the same judgment that was thrown on her by Dutch in their last meeting when she admitted that to him.. "If you are going to call me a friend.. it's best you know that. " Her gaze drops to her lap and she closes her eyes, waiting to hear the hatred.
"You know, two years ago, in the Marvel Civil War, they tried to force registration on people. There were the heroes who were for it and the ones against it. They weren't fighting each other because they were enemies, it's just, this huge wrench got thrown into the world, and it took Captain America dying for people to get their shit together again." Magnes squeezes her hand right back, smiling up at her as his eyes open. "I learned something from all that. You can't let political stuff split friends and family. It affects us all in different ways, and we all have our reasons for making the choices we do, but in the end, to avoid war and bloodshed, we should all just sit down and talk it out. People shouldn't be forced to do one thing, and others shouldn't try to force it away completely."
He starts trying to sit up, wincing, because sitting up hurts. "It's true that I'm against registration, I don't wanna be forced to do anything, but I believe that it should be there for the people who genuinely feel comfortable with it. I can't change how you see things, I wouldn't want to, I know you lost someone, but," He wraps a second hand around her's, trying to be as comforting and understanding as possible. "Those 35 or 36 kids who died, I met one of their mothers, so I know people who have lost someone from both ends of the stick. And then that woman who was killed. I just, I don't know, I think registration, if we must have it, could be done much better, and shouldn't be forced. For someone like me, it's really, really scary, and I don't think someone like the man who took your daughter would ever register, forced or not. Registration should be there to help people, but it won't catch criminals, so being forced won't help." He continues to smile, looking up into her eyes now. "I just thought I'd explain how I see it, I don't want this to be a thing between us. Is it a thing?"
Tension seems to drain out of Carrie, when the hatred doesn't come. "I can imagine it is.. And.. I don't judge you for what you believe. I'm not in your shoes, I've only walked in my own." Her dark eyes open finally, looking at him. "But I have had someone turn to me in hatred after he learned that." There is a tug of a smile at the corner of her mouth. "And Grim I never told, cuase I think he would have thought less of me." Reaching up she ruffles his hair playfully and smiles. "Will you believe me when I say, that you'll still have girlfriends.. and you might even get married someday. Don't think of the Company as this thing that will take over every aspect of your life. It only will if you let it." She doesn't say it out loud but she thinks it, 'like me.' Easy for her to speak the words, then life by them.
"I've been through too much and met too many people to judge you based on your beliefs. I've had everyone from people who seem to think they're the Justice League, to downright terrorists offer me a job. They all seem like pretty nice people, despite their beliefs." Magnes moves to gently grasp her wrist, looking down at her hand. "I think I'll wait until my training is over to decide if I can really be normal, then I'll know what it's really like to work for the Company. And uh, you wanna feel kinda what it's like to have an ability?"
The question throws her off for a moment and Carrie just stares at him. Then she suddenly looks cautious. "I dunno…" studying him carefully, she adds. "How would you do something like that anyhow?"
"Like this…" Magnes starts counting under his breath, concentrating, trying to get it just right… then he relaxes and releases her hand. "I lowered your gravity for five minutes. I can change it back at any time though. Go ahead, try to bounce around a bit, you're safe with me."
Giving him an odd look, Carrie arches a brow, then she gets an odd expression. "I… am not sure.." She reaches down to push herself up to her feet, only float upward with a shout of surprise. There is a touch of panic as she scrambles to grab his hand and grasps it with both hands. "Okay.. maybe I don't want to know." She says rather nervously, as she settles slowly back to the ground. "Man.. I need that when I get on the scale," giving an equally nervous chuckle.
"I guess we're a long way away from me flying you over the city?" Magnes floats up with her, far easier to control her gravity when they've got constant contact, just hovering around in slow circles as he holds her hand. "See? It's not so bad. You can't fall, I control what's up and down."
One of her hands move to grip his forearm tightly as if doing so would anchor her better. Her voice betrays her fear a bit. "No.. I think we're a good long ways from that, Superman." Glancing down at the the floor just an inch or two below her, she breaks into a smile. "You have really improved a lot since that day I met you."
"I've been practicing every day since that day, and that Grim guy helped me realize things about my ability when he did that space illusion." Magnes is silent for a moment, his cheeks going red as he apparently has some sort of thought. After a while he just says it, "A lesser guy would make a joke about gravity and boobs."
"Well, I'm glad his wacky illusions helped." There is something like warm affection when Carrie talks about the Company's illusionist. "I still feel bad he played that trick with the doorway and sucked you into that illusion. He did that to me once." There is a small smile as she turns thoughtful. However, his last comment causes her to stare at him and then she ends up laughing. "Yet he opens his mouth and still let's me know he's thinking it." She leans over and kisses his cheek, just a quick friendly peck, and gives it a pat with her hand. "Your cute sometimes. Now.. Let me down. I brought a couple of subs for dinner."
She gradually descends to the ground when Magnes releases her, gravity shifting back to normal, then he lands right next to her, rubbing his cheeks. "Ah, uh, well, you know." Speech broken, he just stares at the floor and waits for his sub.
Digging out a wrapped sandwich she offers it to him. "Eat and then I think an early night would be a good idea. Cause tomorrow will be pretty bad too." Sitting crossed leg next to him, she unwraps her sandwich. "You did real good today, Varlane. Should be proud of that.. I know I am." She picks up the sandwich and gives him a bright smile. "I think you'll be ready by the deadline."
"Can you do something for me?" Magnes asks as he takes his sandwich, slowly unwrapping it. "You don't have to be at the academy first thing in the morning or anything with me, I just want you to do this one thing before you come. Can you check on Abby and Delilah?"
The sandwich in her hands pauses midway to her mouth, a brow arches and she watches him face for a moment, "Who are they?" She asks curiously, before taking that first bite. "I mean I'm not sure if I can just go up to them and say.. 'Hi, I'm a friend of Magnes.. he can't come see you right now.'"
"Abby is my friend, very religious girl, she was locked up in the Evolved cage fights with me on Staten. Delilah lives in the same building as Abby, she's my friend too. Just tell them the truth, I'm in the police academy and can't see them right now."
Chewing slowly, Carrie listens to him, nodding a bit. "Alright. I'll do it for you." She makes that sound like she wouldn't do that for just anyone. "Just make sure I got the information and any messages you want passed before you get taken to the academy." She takes another bite and asks around it, "So tell me about these cage fights? Musta been before I came here and joined up."
"Just tell them I'll be back soon, and well, see if they're doing alright." Magnes starts taking large bites of his sandwich, though rubs his ribs when she asks her question, the kind of ribbing one might do when they're completely broken. "These guys, John Logan, and Muldoon, they captured me and Abby. They were using her to heal the Evolved fighters, and, they shot her, and cut her tongue out." He has to pause at that, taking a deep breath. It's not a pleasant memory, he can still remember seeing her when she first arrived in her cell, bloody. "I fought, figuring I could keep them from hurting her, but I lost both of my fights. The first fight was against this woman who could control blood with her mind, she basically ripped it right out of my skin and held me with it. All I managed to do was dislocate her arm with my shirt, but she won. Then this other woman, a really huge fat woman, well, that's what she looked like at least. She could completely control her body, making spikes with it and everything. She beat and crushed me to almost nothing. Everything was broken, my whole body. Abby stayed next to me, healing as best she could, that was before her tongue and stuff…"
Carrie stays quiet while she listens to what he says. As he continues she slowly looks like she's losing her appetite. Maybe it's the image of the young man broken and bloody that plays through her head, but she slowly sits her sandwich down. "The fact that anyone could do that… I can't even wrap my head around it." Seeing his discomfort, she reaches out and rests a hand on his shoulder. "I need to check on someone that I think might have been involved in the explosion of Primatech.. So it won't be too out of my way to check on them. Just…don't tell anyone why I'm gone. They don't want us doing anything right now, but I have to do this thing."
"I won't." Magnes lowers his sandwich as well, wrapping it back up, then he moves to lean his head on her shoulder. "Can I put my sleeping bag next to yours again?" he asks almost in a whisper, his mood clearly, well, shot.
She is somewhat surprised when he rests his head on her shoulder, but something in Carrie can't push him away. Sandwich forgotten, Carrie wraps her arms around him resting her head on his. "I'm sorry Magnes, I shouldn't have brought up something so painful. I didn't realize how bad it might have been." Her voice is soft and comforting. "Yeah, you can sleep close to me.. You helped me.. I'll help you. Just make sure you stay in your sleeping bag." She says the last with a slight amused tease to her tone.
"You didn't know, it's alright." Magnes assures, taking a deep breath. "Let's go to bed."
A hand moves to rest on the back of Magnes' head and Carrie sits there for a moment, her thoughts on the what he said. Evolved or not, it hurt to think of the kid being treated like that, her eyes filling with tears for a moment. Blinking them back, she gives him a hug. "Yeah, got another long day tomorrow. I think after class the guys here want you for some ability training." She let's go of his with a small sniffle and starts folding up her own sandwich. She frowns a bit at the thought that this kid has broken down her defenses so quickly, it bothers her some.