Off To A Good Start

Participants:

colette_icon.gif magnes_icon.gif sable_icon.gif

Scene Title Off To A Good Start
Synopsis When Colette takes the initiative to feel out two prospective Ferry members, she finds herself in unexpectedly familiar territory and surprisingly enjoying the company of people closer to her own age. Who says life's all about 40-something mercenaries?
Date April 16, 2010

Dorchester Towers


It'd be hard to tell by the comfortable temperature inside of Dorchester towers, but outside the highrise luxury apartment building the temperature has dropped into the single digits. With the sun having finally set, snow has begun to fall from the clouded skies above. News reports say that there are drifts in central park some thirteen feet tall, the frost on the outside of the apartment's windows blotching up the view of the Manhattan skyline is the only obvious testament to how bone-chillingly cold it is outside.

When the lights dim for a moment inside of an apartment only three stores up off the ground, it seems for a moment like another rolling blackout is imminent, but despite the flicker the electricity manages to stay on, and the wind outside continues to howl against the high rise's windows. Being snowed in like this for as long as they have has afforded this apartments tenants time to get to know one another, and while Magnes J. Varlane has lived a considerably different life than the young woman who insists on going by the alias of "Sable," there is some overlap that the pair may not be aware of.

The sound knocking four times on their apartment door is where they overlap. It only comes once, a steady rhythm of four quick raps and then silence, the shadows of feet shuffling in front of the door visible against the hardwood floor from across the apartment. It's a miserable night out for anyone to be traveling, and Tracy doesn't knock — or really visit — which means it's either the takeout that Magnes ordered an hour ago, or just one more wrinkle in his week.

"They said he'd knock four times…" Magnes dramatically says, after having made Sable watch a ton of Doctor Who recently. He's dressed down considerably, even for him, wearing a white vintage Super Friends t-shirt and some old blue jeans. It smells like cookies, and he grabs the tray on the coffee table as he rises from the couch, and opens the door after moving the slot away and looking through the little hole. "Cookies?" he asks before getting a good look at the person on the other side.

A fair bit of the classic British sci-fi humor is lost on Sable, who tends to ask pointless and/or unrelated questions during these screening, but who seems to enjoy, at least, making cat-calls at Billy Piper. And, of course, the thrill of cosmic escapades does genuinely grab her attention. Still, the finer points of a show with such a lengthy and respectable pedigree are lost on her, so her reaction to Magnes' witticism is 'Huh?' And to to turn towards the door, of course.

The yellow-eyed girl is in her 'about the house getup, which consists of a white tank top (more or less part of her uniform) and loose sweatpants. She's barefoot, though, and has her legs tucked up under her on the sofa as she peers over its back and tries to make out the visitor who is right now being offered cookies. Already points against the unexpected caller - the more the visitor eats, the less there will be for Sable.

"Who the hell is it?" Sable calls out, suspicion in her voice about as prominent as Magnes' hostly good manners.

Who answers the door like that? For all the confusion plastered across Colette Nichols' face, embarrassment is perhaps more prevailant. Bundled up in forest green winter jacket with black fur trim, black scarf wound around the lower part of her face and snow caked to the dark legs of her skinny jeans from the knees down, she looks like she's walked at least part of the way here, cheeks red and stiff in posture, mitten covered hands tucked into pockets in her puffy jacket. "Hey," comes the quiet voice from behind the scarf, green eyes staring up at Magnes, dark bangs swept over one partly, held in place by the black knit cap on her head.

"Ah, Christ this is— " Colette's eyes flick down to the cookies — who answers the door with cookies, seriously — then back up to Magnes, "This is the— " over to the number on the apartment door, then back to Magnes again, "You're Magnes, right?"

Leaning to the side and up onto the toes of her boots, Colette steals a glance into the apartment, then drops back down onto her heels and furrows those dark brows together. "Gillian wanted me to talk to you about some— " Colette pauses when she realizes what she saw sitting on the sofa, rising up on her toes again to get a clearer look at Sable and then down on her heels again. " — some — stuff?"

Way to recover.

"And you're Lois Lane herself. It'd be nice to finally get your name. Come in." Magnes opens the door all the way, still holding the tray of cookies. Colette gets quite a good look at all the geeky posters and the bookcases of TPBs and complicated college textbooks, more textbooks than one normally needs. If he had Cat's ability, he'd have built a laser by now.

"Oh, this is a girl who keeps almost getting killed. I don't know her name though." He looks down at the tray, then back up at the girl. "You sure you don't want cookies?"

"She's sure!" Sable answers, on Colette's behalf. They're near to snowed in and Magnes just wants to dole out their limited supplies? Madness! She gives Colette a searching look, much enhanced by Magnes opening the door fully, but Sable still has to lean around to get proper line of sight. Under all that padding it's possible to make out the dimensions of another young woman. Sable's mouth quirks to one side, then…

"Well come the fuck in," she exclaims, "Take off that shit and warm the fuck up. It's the ice age out there." She grips the back of the couch firmly, then vaults over, moving up to a more conversational position, and gesturing for Colette to enter and make herself at home. Change of heart, one supposes. She also takes the chance to reach over and snag a cookie, her seventh by all counts, but she doesn't eat it yet. She just holds it, talismanically.

"Hhh— Hey." Colette almost wants to protest but honestly there is a certain reaper-chasing quality to her life on consideration. "Don't— you like…" there's a furrow of Colette's brows as she glances to the left and right of the door before coming in, tracking snow and meltwater onto the hardwood floor on her way in. "Sorry I'm like— not used to just being invited in to places without needing to— " there's a wave of a mitten covered hand into the air, and Colette turns to look uncertainly at the apartment door, then carefully just pushes it shut with the heel of her boot until it clicks.

One brow lifted she flicks a look around the apartment, her attention not grabbed too intently by one one piece of decorative geekery hanging on the walls, though she seems content to stoop gargoylish right in front of the door, shoulders hunched forward from the cold still sunk into her. "N— No I ah, I'm not really hungry, I think my stomach needs to thaw out or something."

Wrinkling her nose, Colette reaches up to pull down the fabric of her scarf and tuck it beneath her chin. "Hey um, if you've got like— company— " there's an implication there, "I can totally come back another time." While she distantly recognizes Sable's distinctive yellow eyes from her time living at the Lighthouse, there's no wave of greeting, her posture and manner a little too awkward to afford either at the moment.

"It's nothing like, uh, pressing or anything. So— wow I'm sorry…" Reaching up to slide off her knit hat, Colette's ink black hair is messy and disheveled beneath, and she makes no effort to really smooth it out at all. "You're really Magnes? How— fucked up is this?" A look is given to Sable, as if wordlessly asking her the same question, all serendipity considered.

Magnes heads over to the couch, sitting the tray of cookies back on the table as he sits back, watching the two girls. "Oh, we're not like that or anything, she's my bandmate and we're just watching TV. Come on, take a seat." He pats the cushion of the couch next to him, apparently perfectly comfortable with someone Gillian sent. "Well yeah, I'm Magnes. Do I have some reputation where I'm super hot or something but you're totally disappointed?"

Colette is revealed, and in moments Sable has a crooked smile on, giving Magnes a small jab in the ribs with one elbow. "She's /cute/," Sable opines, sporting a sort of theatrical leer, "Oh yeah, no worries. Seriously. Ain't nothing here but comradeship. He's single," she thumbs in Magnes's direction, "and so'm I, by the way." The yellow-eyed girl tips a quick wink in Colette's direction before sidling to the side and fully clearing Colette's way.

Sable folds her arms before her, snickering at Magne's inquiry. "Naw, man. I'm sure you live up to whatever reputation you got, my friend." She tilts her head, "Though I'm wondering too, whatall is supposedly fucked up. I mean, that particular quality could be applied to a whoooole lot of things."

Practically choking out a laugh at Sable's comment and trying not to turn herself — and the room — bright red, Colette's dark brows shoot up behind the ragged fringe of her bangs and she shakes her head. "N— No, Magnes, n-nothing uh, like that at all." She deflects, as if it was Magnes' joke that gave her the reaction. Colette turns around to look behind herself, spotting the coat rack standing tall beside the door. Tugging off her mittens she tucks them one by one in her coat pockets, then unzips the jacket with her back to the two. "Actually uh, I dunno if I'm even supposed to have this conversation with you with anyone else around? It's like— uh— one've those secret things?"

Unshouldering the winter coat, Colette looks over her shoulder, one brow raised. "But like, I dunno, I can kinda'— vouch for her." There's a faint smirk offered to Sable, and the dark-haired teen's turning around to pullt he jacket off, revealing a thinner black denim jacket beneath. Winter coat hung up, the extensive removal of layers continues, with the black scarf unwound and draped over the same arm of the coat rack her hooded jacket is.

"Um, yeah, just so this isn't any weirder than it already is you're— rollerblade kid from the roof that time, right?" Offering Magnes her profile, Colette continues to get thinner as she sheds layers, unbuttoning the front of the denim half jacket and taking it off, now just in a snugly fitting, thin black turtleneck. "When— when there was the shooting?" She can't even bring herself to mention the name of the young woman that was killed, and there's a look to Sable when she brings up the violence, trying to gauge acceptance of the situations. "Magnes I guess— kind've… saved my life, uh, twice?" Green eyes divert to Sable, and Colette's crouching by the door, pulling up the leg of her jeans, revealing the height of mid-calf black combat boots with a knife strapped aorund it. Unlacing the buut down to where the knife is strapped on, Colette starts to tug it off of her foot, eventually getting it off and revealing a bright lime green sock.

The boot's dropped to the floor with a clunk, snow sloughing off of it and melting cold and wet on the floor.

"I'm really, really sorry for coming by so late. God I started riding out here like two hours ago, but I tried to take a shortcut and got my bike stuck in a fucking snowbank." Shifting where she sits, Colette rolls up her other pant leg and unlaces the other boot, tugging it off and— nope, this sock is dark blue. The boot clunks next to the other, and Colette's getting herself standing again, brushing off the snow from her legs as best as she can.

"You should have gotten my number from Gillian, I'd have picked you up. And I trust Sable with whatever you have to say, so don't worry about that. Take a seat on the couch, I'll make hot chocolate for you both." Magnes stands up, heading into the narrow kitchen where they can both still see him as he gets pots and mix.

"I remember the shooting, and I remember you. You should have waited on the roof for me, I came back for you but you were gone. You were in that fire too. You get yourself into trouble a lot." He turns the stove on, and starts stirring and mixing things, the smell of cocoa already rising into the air. "I don't know how I'm single but women go in and out of my apartment constantly."

It's with an evolving fascination that Sable watches Colette disengage from her ad hoc arctic survival gear. Layer after layer falls away, rendering the actual Colette with greater and greater fidelity and then BAM a knife, along with combat boots.

"Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph…" Sable murmurs, then looks up from the blade to Colette's face, then over at Magnes, or at least in the direction of the kitchen. She motions to the couch, wordlessly supporting Magnes' offer of hospitality, but doesn't yet go to sit herself. She taps her chest. "Yeah, Sable. That's me. And don't worry about it being late or nothing, seriously." She scowls a bit at Magnes' last comment. "Christ, man. Don't make the poor girl feel like she's just one of many. Please," she's talking to Colette now, "Excuse him. He's…" She makes a sad face, and forms her hands into the outline of a heart, thumbs touching, fingers arched, placing it over her chest and then parting her fingers, 'breaking' the heart. "Y'know?"

Wrinkling her nose at the comment about a revolving door a women, Colette catches Sable's little heartbreak pantomime and offers a small frown. When her green eyes track back to Magnes, she's waving a hand in the air dismissively to Magnes more to the offer of a ride. "I had a lot of other errands to run, I'm— sort've a courier, so I'm on my dirtbike a lot, just… this fucking weather kind've blows."

Thinking back to the time she was dropped off on the roof, Colette looks down and away, then back up with a guilty smile. "Um, I… was kinda' still on the roof. You just— couldn't see me? I didn't know who the fuck you were so I just kind've bugged out." Walking on her toes across the floor, Colette lingers by the arm of the sofa, head tilted to the side as she tracks Magnes' movements across the room, sweeping her bangs out from her face and tucking hair behind one ear. "Yeah, yeah that was me in the fire too. I— I owe you for that. Fuck, if I'd known it was you I would've… I mean, coming out here I would've— I dunno, baked you a cake or something?" There's a snorted laugh from the teen, and she lifts one leg up enough to settle down halfway on the arm of the sofa, using one foot to balance herself on the perch and keeping the other tucked beneath herself.

"Gillian told me you've been volunteering at the Lighthouse? I um, I used to live there last year. For a while, s'how I kinda' know Sable. I remember seeing her and that— dorky— curly haired— dude?" Rocket "I'm really bad with names, sorry. Um," Colette's brows crease together, "God this is way/ more awkward than I thought, how the hell do they do this." Laughing nervously, Colette reaches up to smooth one hand over her mouth, then offers a quiet look to Sable before turning her eyes back to Magnes, not dismissing the offer of hot cocoa because //that sounds marvelous to her.

"I'm here to talk to you— both— I guess? Uh, about the Ferrymen. I— don't even know if you know what that even is, but… it's to the point where people kind've wanna' see what you're all about." Smiling faintly, Colette folds her hands in her lap, two fingers idly playing with a crooked looking silver ring on one finger. "You've been on their radar, uh, for a while I guess? Gilly's pretty impressed with how you handled stuff with the kids, with everything that's gone on there it— it's nice to know there's somebody there that'll help take care of them. Brian's been so busy lately," and busy for a guy who can be in twenty some-odd places at once is busy, "I'm just happy knowing there's somebody there to watch out for her. Staten's like, super dangerous."

"I guess I would end up on someone's radar by now. And I'm guessing some are starting to put together that I was involved with rescuing those prisoners in the vans, who were being tested on. I tried to keep that to myself." But Magnes heard West mention it, and if West can figure it out… well…

He pours chocolate into three mugs, carrying two in his hands and one staying in front of him with gravity. He takes a seat on the couch and places the three mugs down, nodding for the two to take a drink after he drops a marshmellow into each. "And yeah, I'll do everything I can to protect those kids, when I heard about the dog thing I just had to. And I've heard of the Ferrymen, I just don't know what they do, or who's in it."

Sable assumes a perch on the other arm of the sofa, toes curling over the edge, arms wrapped around sweat-panted legs that are drawn up to her chest. She's trying to follow Colette's words, words that suffer from a certain lack of detail even for their speaker. But she's able to put /some/ of it together. "Oh man, whatever happened to the ol'd Rockster? I never gave him that keyboard I, like… um… got for him." The words she was going to use, the most precise words, were 'stole for him'. But a little self-censorship in the name first impressions never went amiss.

"Wait, there was the part where you mentioned, like, wanting to talk to me?" Sable interjects in a manner that suggests this isn't just another piece of color commentary. "Because while I know Magnes here… oh, fuck yeah," this in reaction to the mug og hot chocolate, which she plucks from the table and holds precariously by its handle, her own fingers in no real need of further warning, "While I know Magnes here," she continues, "Kicks ass almost as well as he makes cocoa. (Thanks, by the way.) I can't exactly say that, like, guard duty is something I've ever… um… done. Ever? 'course, I'm not saying that I /don't/ want to help the moppets and all. 'Specially if you're asking, hon," she gives Colette a winning smile across the breadth of the couch, "I just don't want you to mistake me for something I ain't. What I am is at your service, of course. What I ain't is some badass Evolved with a love of danger and a practiced trigger finger. Refer elsewhere, if thems the prerequisites, got me?"

Color drains out of Colette's face at Magnes' comment about the vans. Jerkingly, the teen she sits up straight, jaw tense and throat working up and down in a noisy swallow for all that it feels like her mouth just went dry. Opening her mouth to speak, there's just a breath, and the teen's jaw gives the faintest tremble as a glassy look comes to her eyes. The color that does come back to Colette's face is entirely out of embarrassment, wiping her thumb beneath one eye then the other, bobbing her head into a nod. "I'm— sure those people're— really grateful."

Eying the mugs, Colette's content to let it sit there steaming for now, fresh hot cocoa is always voncanic in temperature and her stomach is twisted in knots at the moment anyway. Failing to do good at feigning uninvolvement, she Colette clears her throat and looks back up to Magnes, then over the top of his head to Sable and back again.

"The Ferry's like… It's not some like Rambo thing." She manages a hesitant smile at Sable's comment, "The people that work for us do all sorts of things. I mean, the group as a whole's pretty simple. We help people, preferably without needing to shoot anyone or break anything or stuff. Like, our main job is getting people who don't wanna' register out of the country if that's what they wanna' do, otherwise just helping 'em lay low. We move people around, sort've like the uh, you know, the underground railroad thing from the Civil War?" The generalizations of a girl who did not finish High School are somewhat lacking but get the point across.

"I work for the Ferry and most of what I do is courier supplies from safehouse to safehouse, drop of food, you know, stuff people need to survive in hiding. Because've my ability I kinda' get in some dangerous situations though, 'cause I'm the only one in our organization who can do what I do, so— It— sometimes we have to do dangerous stuff. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and volunteering happens. But like— we're not about fighting."

Offering Sable a smile, Colette's awkwardly quiet for a moment, then looks down to Magnes. "Those people you rescued? They— were really fucked up. The Ferry helped them, got them healthy again, got— got them back to normal lives. Or— I mean— 'normal'." Her fingers make air-quotes at that.

Magnes doesn't comment on her awkward demeanor, he's often awkward himself, just not much at this very moment. "I've been kidnapped myself, so I know it can be a bit tough to get back to normal life. Every day I wake up, knowing exactly where to find the person that kidnapped me, and I have to give myself a good excuse to not put a bullet through his head. I usually just tell myself that Abby wouldn't respect me anymore if I did it."

He's letting his cocoa cool off as well, sitting back with the remote to flip channels while they all talk. "What are the Ferry doing about the camps, and the virus, and everything else that seems to be wrong lately?" He apparently knows about that stuff.

Sable listens to Colette's explanation of the Ferry and their goals with only one interruption. When Colette says 'Civil War', Sable lifts her finger and, lapsing into full-on Georgian, corrects, "Ah ah ah. War Between the States." Though her smirk afterword indicates she may be less than serious about the amendment.

Magnes' rather chilling insight into the mentality of the kidnapped wipes her expression clear. Further mention of camps… this keeps her usually quite buoyant smile held deep below the surface. Her brow furrows. "Fuckin'-A, man. Are you serious? I never know, like, how I'm supposed to take all the crazy stuff you talk about." She looks to Colette, pointing at Magnes with the hand unburdened by a mug, "He serious? I know he's not /lying/, but…"

Shrugging her shoulders, Colette gives something of a beats me look to Sable. "I dunno actually. I hear all sorts of crazy shit, like— I heard someone talking about Russian assassins one day, and I'm pretty sure the guys I heard talking about flying pyrmids over China were just fucking around, but— S'not my like, business? The virus is totally real though I mean that's on the news. It had a bunch've people sick, and— from what I know we were just taking care of the sick people and keepin' 'em in safehouses with our doctors so they didn't have to register and go to the hospital. I heard something about one safehouse getting found out and all the people getting brought to the hospital on Roosevelt Island but— I guess everyone's okay there, just— you know registered." Wrinkling her nose, Colette wrings her hands together.

"I don't know nothin' about any camps, or— I mean the whole network doesn't know everything. That way if like, a part of it gets captured or something everything isn't screwed up. But usually I at least hear about things so… I dunno about the camps thing. We're— doing some stuff about the virus, you know, we don't have any of the vaccine, 'cause that's for hospitals and stuff. I can't really go into more specifics with you though, 'cause that's like— member's only."

Magnes is certainly taking mental notes. The Ferry and Messiah have similar information protocol; good to know. "I'm serious, and I'm guessing someone else will tell me if I ask. If you're gonna let me in, then I'm in. Just know that I have my ethics and clear limits on what I'm willing to do. Some people cross the line into terrorism, and that's not me." He takes the mug and blows on it a bit, then takes a slight sip. "So, do I get a new members package or something?"

Sable gives Magnes a 'really now?' expression. "What, like a fuckin' membership card, what gets us a discount at participating fuckin' stores." Though actually… "Not that I'd say no to such a thing if it /did/ exist." She lifts the cocoa to her lips, blows, sips, "So okay, okay, I get that it's a good cause and all, and I believe that the word is love, sure, sure. But what exactly are you here to do? Is there some sort of meeting? Secret initiation? Do we gotta go on a scavenger hunt around the city, with our parkas and, like, dogsleds?"

"Somethin' like that," Colette says with a smirk, shaking her head from side to side. "I'm here just to see if you're — I guess both interested — and then we take it from there. I gotta talk to some people who know you, I already got a list for Magnes, I'll ask Brian about you, Sable, but I figure he'll just make cheek pinchy motions or something." There's a snorted laugh at that, and Colette offers a look down to Magnes.

"It's not as simple as just you saying you're in and getting in though, s'why I'm here. Like a friend of mine said, anything good's worth waitin' for." There's a small nod of her head, teeth toying with her lower lip and Colette's sliding forward off of the arm of the sofa, leaning forward to test the temperature of her cocoa mug, then lift it up carefully and sit perched on the edge of the sofa's arm, one lime green socked foot braced against the coffee table.

"While I'm checkin' people out, I guess I talk to someone who'se in charge and see what they wanna' start you with. Probably some volunteer work that you're both comfortable with. I started out mostly doing stuff at the soup kitchen at St.John's Cathedral, but that was before I knew I was working with the Ferry. Given that you know a bunch've people, we'll probably have you both come to a safehouse and do a meet, one that doesn't have too many people in it, I— guess? This is my first time doing this." Colette's smiles a bit awkwardly at that, green eyes diverting downward as she lifts up her cocoa, tests it with her lips and takes a sip.

"But you know what I mean. We're not trying to make a message, we don't have anyone to make scared, all we're doing is helping people who wanna' stay unregistered stay that way." Pursing her lips, Colette brings the mug up and takes a sip, then wrinkles her nose and lowers it, looking across Magnes to Sable.

"So I guess… if you're both cool with it, I'll make some calls and talk to some people and we'll see what happens. You volunteer as much as you're willing to, you never have to do somethin' you're not comfortable with, and you get to— you know— do the right thing. No pressure on either've you, 'cept for one thing…" Colette lowers her cocoa. "Don't talk about it outside of the network. Ever. I'm not even like kind've fucking joking, because even if you're telling someone you're super close to, someone else might overhear and like— hundreds of lives depend on secrecy. You tell oen person one wrong thing, and suddenly all these innocent people are going to jail or— fuck knows where." Colette's green eyes divert back and forth between Magnes and Sable. "Can you two promise me that? If you don't wanna' do the whole secret swear thing, that's fine, you don't have to hear any more about this than me blabberin' today. But… just promise to keep quiet, that's the only promise you gotta' make."

"Sable will keep quiet, I tested her ability to keep a secret quite a while ago." Magnes sits the mug back on to the table, then relaxes against the couch again. "Do what you have to do, I can keep a secret. Oh, and Sable, that stir-fry in the microwave is yours, I forgot to tell you." He notes, tilting his head to peer at Colette. "You can stay the night if you want, it might start snowing pretty hard. I can fly you where you need to go in the morning."

"Wait, when the hell was this?" Sable says, blinking at Magnes uncomprehendingly, "You tested me? How? And how did I pass? Dammit, I must have forgotten what it even was you told me to keep secret. You gotta tell me again now, cuz it doesn't count, since I forgot it so I can't have told anyone, could I have, eh?"

Frantic inquiries taken care of, attention is given once again to Colette, not long neglected. Sable's face is serious, and for reals serious, not just pretend serious in order to be funny, which is not uncommon. "Damn straight. I'm no fucking rat. In the name of all that rocks," she taps the spot over her heart with two fingers, "You have my word."

Magnes' suggestion is met with a vigorous nod from Sable. "It's hell out there. Stick around. We have cookies." As if this last were news, instead of something Colette was informed of even before confirming Magnes' identity. Which reminds her… She fishes the cookie out of the pocket she was keeping it in, blowing off a bit of lint before dipping it in the cocoa and taking a bite.

Fidgeting where she sits, Colette offers an askance look from Magnes to Sable at the offer, then furrows her brows and looks down at her cocoa. The girl's quiet for a moment, then looks up and over at the windows and the snow blowing against them. "I got a few hours before curfew kicks in…" she admits, teeth toying with her lower lip, "yeah, I'll pull up some couch. Nobody's expecting me to get back tonight anyway, I guess…" Drawing her lower lip between her teeth again, Colette's green eyes look from Magnes to— was that cookie in her pocket?

Watching Sable blow lint off of it before dunking it into her cocoa, Colette's lips part in a befuddled expression before her brows lift up and she just looks away and pretends she didnt' see any of that weirdness. "Um— " clearing her throat, Colette plants both feet on the ground and stands up, squinting at the weather out the windows. "Alright, um— do you guys have anything real to eat? I— haven't had anything since breakfast and that was just some sort've calorie bar thing."

They were supposed to have Chinese takeout, over an hour ago. Maybe he got lost in a snowbank too.

"Ill make you something. Sable can eat her stir-fry I forgot about. I'll make some popcorn too, and we can all relax and watch a movie before I do my training drills tonight." Magnes stands, stretching, then heads into the kitchen. "I'll make a calzone." he decides, starting to get his ingredients together. "And hey, don't go sneaking into my room or anything, I'm bad at saying no when I'm under stress." It's hard to say if that's an invite or an actual warning, but he leaves it at that.

"Screw the stir fry!" Sable exclaims, "Leftover crap. Where the hell is the Chinese we ordered? I want me some /fresh/ stir fry." She rocks a little, back and forth, her mug held out before her so as to not risk its spilling any precious contents. "Guess it's cool. We were gonna pay cash, so, like… it's not like we gotta call 'em back." She lifts a skeptical brow in Colette's direction, but the incline of her head indicates it's Magnes the skepticism refers to. "Hon, you can have my bed. I'll take the couch. God alone knows I've slept in worse places. Don't even think of refusing, y'hear? I'll sleep on the /floor/ out here if you don't take my room."

Colette actually breaks out laughing at that, one hand waving at Magnes before shaking her head. "Okay— okay— no like— you totally don't have to worry about that with me, Magnes. You're— not my type." There's a red-faced laugh at that, toothily smiling as she backs away from the gravitokinetic, sipping at her cocoa again as green eyes divert to Sable at her offer.

"This— is totally your guys' house I'm just— " As much as Colette considers the whole dignity in humility aspect, not sleeping on a couch or a roll out cot for one goddamned night this week sounds amazing. "Alright," Colette notes with a quirk of her brows up, eyes staring down into her cocoa. "No takebacks on that though." The teen notes with a wry smile.

"So, uh, aside from being easy," Colette teases Magnes, padding on her toes over to the arm of the sofa again and climbs over it to slide down and steal Magnes' seat now that he's up. "You do like— martial arts stuff? The trainign thing?" There's an arch of one of Colette's brows at that, curiously. "A friend of mine gave me some pointers on this weird uh, fuck I forget the name of it, I dunno like Afghanistan martial art or something. It was super cool, even if she totally almost busted my stitches throwing me down to the mat. I've always wanted to learn some better self defense stuff," there's a crease of Colette's brows, and the teen rocks up on her toes and then back down on her heels.

"I— " It looks like Colette only just now realized something. "I'm kind've really all over the place." Snorting a laugh at that, Colette shakes her head slowly. "I've had my ability trained by two different people, an' I got some firearms lessons from two other guys, and two women in the Ferrymen taught me different self defense things. I've— picked up a lot of things since I joined… Christ."

Licking her lips, Colette looks up and over to Sable, Colette lifts up her mug of cocoa. "If the calzones are as good as his cocoa is, he's going to become the Ferry's cook." Because wouldn't that be fate's most dignified destiny for Magnes — the mess-hall cook of dystopia.

"Hey, I'm not easy. I just realized I'm not over Claire yet, so, I figure with enough excuses and hitting on women, I'll eventually get over it." Magnes has to blame West for giving him that little epiphany of still wanting Claire. West is just a terrible person overall. "I can guess any girl's type." he points out, mixing dough and other aspects of his prep. He's got food laying all around the counter. "Tall, bad boy, facial hair, not twenty-two." He's not at all bitter, really! "Actually, there is a girl who likes me, but that's all sorts of complicated and I learned I'm terrible at letting a girl down without making an ass of myself."

But he's quickly moving on to the next subject, chopping chicken, vegetables, grating cheese, and he's even got some sort of tomato sauce boiling on the stove with spices in it. "I've learned martial arts from a lot of people, bits and pieces. I can use two melee weapons and I'm pretty good with a few guns. I'm still trying to get good with a sniper rifle, there's a surprising amount of math involved. But I find I learn the most from experience. We can spar later if you want."

Though there is one thing that he hasn't forgotten about, looking out at Sable. "Oh, and I can't tell you what the secret is, it's kind of super secret, so, she can't know what it is."

Sable rolls her eyes. "Likely damn story," she says, "You wouldn't tell anyone, would you…" And then it hits her. She has no idea what this gal's name is. "Y'know… I was about to vouch for your total trustworthiness to my boon fuckin' companion over there, but I realize… I dunno your name. So…" Sable slips down from the arm of the sofa, sitting next to and facing Colette, legs crossed Indian style. "What are we to call this blade-weilding slip of a gal that's graced our dreary ol' doorstep?" Her smile is broad, and maybe a little wicked.

"Oh— " Colette's eyes go wide, lips purse together and face turns red. "Jesus I— I'm sorry I thought you heard from— someone— Oh God neither of you know— " Ducking her head and rubbing one hand across her forehead, Colette bubbles with laughter again and scrunches her brows into a look of embarrassment. "My name's Colette. I— God I didn't even think. I'm so sorry that was stupid rude of me."

Reaching up to run one hand thorugh her hair, Colette offers a lopsided smile to Sable. "I— I'm so sorry, I must seem like a total dork coming in here all super spy and not even dropping my name." Toothily smiling despite herself, the teen straightens her back to get a look over at Magnes. "And ah, thanks for— you know, the sparring offer. I— shouldn't, though— Spar, that is. I've got stitches in my side from what I fell on at the fire and I'm still kind've— sore from Hana kicking my ass."

Grimacing slightly, Colette reaches up and rubs at the back of her head, turned to look over at Magnes in the kitchen. "You also got my type wrong, Magnes. I mean you didn't even line up the right gender." Colette teases with a crooked smile, breaking out into a bubbling laugh as she turns her eyes down to her cocoa, almost half gone now from the slow pace she's handled it.

"Gillian told me you did some kind've army thing or something, but she couldn't really talk much about it. S'cool though, she told me about what your power is too, but I guess I've already seen it first hand too, huh?" Snorting out a laugh, Colette lifts up her cocoa, then wrinkles her nose and stretches forward to settle her mug down ont he coffee table, revealing the reddened line of black stitches going two inches long up her right side to Sable when her sweater slides up.

The cocoa mug is settled down on the table and Colette slouches back. "Too much chocolate and now my stomach's all oogh at me." Green eyes angle over to Sable, one black brow raised. "What about you? Are you— like me and Magnes? I mean— it's cool if you'd rather not say I just— you don't have to, God I'm sorry that's super fucking rude. Again." Reaching up to cover her face with one hand, Colette laughs again, this time against her palm.

"You're a lesbian? I've never met a lesbian before. You might get Sable excited." Actually, Magnes has met a lesbian before, he just has no idea. Colby is totally a lesbian! He starts spreading things out on the dough after flipping it in the air a bit, layering sauce and cheese inbetween meat and cheese. "Yeah, unfortunately I've been involved in far too many secret things. But if you watch the news at all, you'd probably have a good idea of what I can do even if we never met."

He puts the prepared bread on a tray, after brushing a light layering of oil and assorted green herbs on top of it. Right after, the tray is placed in the oven, and he's walking back out to join the girls on the couch. "Who's Hana? And honestly, I could use a little more training myself. I mean, I train almost every day, but I haven't been learning anything new lately, just refining what I already know. Oh, and what can you do?"

Sable's brow lifts almost imperceptibly as Colette corrects Magnes. Her smile goes lopsided, and she quips, mostly off hand, "Then what's your type of girl? Tall, bad girl, facial piercings?" Mirroring Magnes' guest into the other side of the gender spectrum.

Then the big question. "Like you /and/ Magnes?" She grins crookedly, "Whassat supposed to mean?" But she's playing dumb, and not for long. "Yeah. I am. Really, it's as much a curse as it is a gift." She glances to Magnes, "You can vouch for that fact, right? The nights I stay up /tormented/, just fucking /tormented/. It's a great burden to bear, y'know? Having genetically hardwired incredible musical genius."

Sable keeps a totally straight face.

Looking a bit wide eyed at Sable, Colette swallows awkwardly and shifts her green eyes to focus on somewhere else. "I— don't— uh— strange I guess— is my type." How does one classify her type? That's very difficult and likely sibyllic in description. But the very tongue-in-cheek explanation of Sable's ability, of course, is totally bought by Colette.

"Woah, really? That's— awesome. I know this lady who can remember like everything ever. Is it like that, can you memorize music, or do you mess with sound?" She sounds so excited. "My first teacher was a sound manipulator, he was the nicest guy in the world and a huge hero. I— I always wanted to meet someone who had his power!" She's actually so excited and so earnest about it that it seems kind've sad that it's not the case at all, really.

Since Sable answered and Magnes asked and she's sure not going to answer the question about Hana, the question of her power is fair game. Colette's grown to be far less shy around others when her ability's the topic of conversation. In fact, it occurs to her that her ability is hardly ever the topic of an actual conversation, not since Tavisha trained her, at any rate.

"I manipulate light." Colette says with a smile, lifting up one of her hands, curling her fingers closed, and then slowly opening them to reveal a finger-painted butterfly composed of blue and red light that waggles its wings and then takes flight away from her hand, looking like a light-painting photo trick brought to life.

Once she stops paying attention to it, the butterfly breaks apart in flakes of color like peeling paint as green eyes divert to Magnes. Sable, being up close, notices that when Colette was manipulating her ability, her pupils dilate in ways unusual, as if a bright light was being shined into her eyes and then taken away entirely.

"I do a bunch of stuff with it. That time you took me to the roof? I was completely blind then, I burned myself out with my power, scarred my eyes with it and… I had to learn how to see with the rest of my body. Feel light, and how it reflects off of stuff. On the science side of things, basically I manipulate photons, but only in the visible spectrum. I can't do anything with ultra-violet or infra-red." It sounds like, just as with Magnes, Colette's become obsessed with the science of herself.

"I can't create light though, I can just move around the light that already exists. So in pitch blackness I can't really do anything special. I can bend light completely around stuff," Colette explains, holding up one of her arms so Magnes and Sable can both see, as from her fingertips down to her elbow, her arm just disappears, like someone slathered comical disappearing ink down it.

When her hand starts to fade back into view, Colette offers a look to Magnes with a smirk. "Get me enough light and I can make lasers too. Honest."

"Huh, that's weird. I don't know if I'm strong enough to bend light, but I've never exactly had the opportunity." Magnes takes a seat inbetween Sable and Colette again, taking a good look and plenty of mental notes while watching the demonstration. He smiles and places a reassuring hand on Colette's shoulder, shaking his head. "Sable's just messing with you, we don't actually know if she's Evolved. I've been meaning to get a test kit for her. But if you did want to meet a sound manipulator, I happen to know one. I'll ask her some time."

Sable maybe should feel bad for so misleading Colette, but the resultant enthusiasm only makes the yellow-eyed girl smile wider. She tries to look casual like, y'know, no big deal, thanks for thinking so well of me and all. And her own enthusiasm is marked when Colette shows off her own (actual) gift. She leans forward to get a better look at the butterfly before it disappears, and her eyes widen as the other woman's arm disappears. She's maybe about to go into detail about her own 'gift', when Magnes has to rain on her parade of lies with a torrent of truth.

"Hey!" Sable protests, jabbing at Magnes with a finger, "You don't fuckin' know. Who's to say, huh? Are you denying I'm a genius? Way to prop up your bandmate, reallllll nice." The scowl and growling tone shouldn't fool Magnes; all part of the show.

Sable test her cocoa, which has reached a low enough temperature to be gulped and, by God, Sable gulps it, all the way to the bottoms up position. She thumps her chest with a fist, suppressing a burp for the lady caller's sake, and then sets the mug on the coffee table.

"Now that's done with… holy SHIT, that was cool, girl. Jesus… man," she looks to Magnes, "Jesus. Lightshow? Sweet Jesus on a rocking horse, we need to hire her ass. Lightshow, dammit!"

Wrinkling her nose, Colette slants a teasingly narrow-eyed look at Sable, her shoulder tensing nervously for just a moment when Magnes sets a hand on it. It's obvious to Magnes and Sable both that she caught herself about to flinch just a moment too late. Offering an apologetic smile, the teen scoots back and gives Magnes a little more room when he comes between her and Sable on the sofa. Though there's something a little nervous about the way Sable seems terribly enthused about her ability.

"I— I don't— I don't think that's a very good idea. I try not to use my ability in public, 'cause I'm not registered. I— I don't wanna cause any problems for my family. It's cool though, I mean, I appreciate it but— I try not to use my powers unless it's important. You know, responsibly. That's something both my teachers made certain, that I only ever use 'em when absolutely necessary."

Feeling like she may've been a bit too serious, Colette slants her head to the side, jaw cocked and eyes angled down to the cocoa she'd left. There's a squint, and she looks back to Magnes. "Ferry's got test kits," green eyes divert past him to Sable, then back again, "maybe I can get you guys some when we give you a walk-through of one of the safehouses. They only take a minute to work too, just a finger prick and a drop of blood, red your special blue you're ordinary." Folding her hands in her lap, Colette leans back against the arm of the sofa, her seated position mirroring Sable's.

"I'd— I'd really appreciate getting to meet another sound manipulator, though. Ever since my tutor died, I just…" Lifting up one hand, Colette scratches at the back of her neck, staring down into her lap, "…it'd be nice to be able to meet someone who knows what he knew. It helped me figure out my own power a lot, 'cause sound and light aren't a whole lot different in the basics, it's all waves."

"Hey, I don't deny you're a genius, but you're a genius all on your own. If you have an ability, I bet it's something really great. And test kits would be appreciated." Magnes gives a brief nod to Colette after reassuring Sable, then he's suddenly turning both hands up, as if he's molding something above his palms that the other two can't see. "I'm not sure if you could call gravity a wave, and the graviton hasn't actually been proven to exist yet. But in the most strictly proven scientific sense, gravity is a curvature of spacetime."

He's rubbing his chin, then stands up to head to his room. "I need to get my journal, I think I just thought of a theory for all the social coincidences amongst Evolved in the world."

"Nice save, Einstein," Sable says to Magnes, wrinkling her nose. Note that the nickname is apropos the conversation topic! As Magnes gets up, Sable scoots over towards Colette, speaking with her voice a bit low, confidential like. "Sweet heart, don't you worry. I was only jokin'. Or /mostly/ jokin'. I think you'd make the best goddamn light show of all time, but I'm sure you've got bigger fish to fry. With lasers, too. But sure, I'll take the test, but if it ain't my genius that's my special whatever, beats me as to what it is. I guess I'm pretty good at shoplifting and I busque okay, but nothin' superhuman."

Almost as if Sable were a leopard in the tall grass sidling up to a grazing gazelle, Colette leans just a touch away from the yellow-eyed young woman, one brow arched before she returns to her proper posture on realization that Sable isn't going to drag her by the throat to the ground, she just has that look about her. Glancing up to Magnes, watching him head across the apartment to his room, Colette's green eyes find Sable's more lemony ones with a squint.

"It'd probably be cool, yeah… I mean— it… it sounds fun I just…" A lightbulb literally appears over Colette's head, finger-painted and smudgy with a flash of raidated lines. She's smirking, of course, it was intentional, but the crooked cast to her smile seems all the more mischevious.

"I could help, if it wasn't a public show. Like— if you and Magnes wanted to put on a show for the Ferry. We've got this space, like, huge space with great acoustics where nobody on earth would ever hear it… I— think that might actually be a huge morale boost too."

Nodding her head slowly, Colette's smile grows a bit. "Okay, mark me down as a maybe and I'll see if my idea's even feasible. But it'd be damned cool if we did it." Colette's only now realizing it, as she leans back more comfortably on the sofa, that this is the first time she's spent around people her own age in a long time. The children at the lighthouse are years younger, and most of her other friends are 40-something ex-soldiers — It's odd.

"Alright, let's see…" Magnes is writing in that infamous journal of his, with Magnes' War Journal neatly written on the brown leatherbound cover. "Statistically speaking, it's highly unlikely that so many people with abilities that are so similar to eachother in physics would meet so often, out of the blue. And then taking into account the fact that these people often become friends, like me and Hiro, or rivals, like Peter and Gabriel. It's as if similar abilities mean something on some grand scale!"

It's rare that people see him when his mind is really moving, Sable's seen him that way when he's inspired for a song. "Now, if I account for the fact that true randomness requires repeats, and the mysterious symbol that keeps appearing everywhere, as if telling us that there are no coincidences… Colette, shoot me with a laser!"

"You're telling me that the Ferry's got themselves a concert space?" Sable says, peering at Colette as if this, on top of everything else, is now simply too much to be believed. "Hon, if that's the case, first song I do in there… 's gonna be dedicated to you. No fuckin' lie." She taps the spot over her heart once more.

But now it appears that it's time for science, and Sable eyes Magnes, uncertain. "Should I, like, duck for cover? Because I'm not dying until I'm twenty seven, okay? Not gonna do it."

The nonplussed expression of lifted brows, pursed lips and what on Colette's face isn't quite a laser but it burns like one. "One, what did I just tell you about responsible use of powers. Two, there's— nowhere near enough light in here for that." Wrinkling her nose, Colette folds her hands in her lap again and keeps one brow arched as she looks at Magnes. "Last time it took a magnesium flare and someone augmenting me to get enough light to do it, so— " Colette's shoulders shrug and there's a somewhat helpless noise in the back of her throat.

"I can make laser noises if you want." One hand points like a gun at Magnes, "Pew, pew." That's not quite what he was hoping for.

Leaning over towards Sable, Colette smirks and shakes her head. "It's not like, a concert hall or nothin' but it's big enough to be one. I— I really wanna' tell you more but I can't right now, but it'd be really awesome. I'll ask the guy that runs the space and, you know, assuming this all works out… I'd love t'see it happen." Admittedly the idea of a song dedicated to her is coloring her response, and her cheeks, more than she intended. Looking awkwardly away from Sable, Colette turns back to Magnes.

"Pew." She noisily states, in case he needed one more.

"But, my theory!" Magnes frowns like a child who's just been denied ice cream, but goes back to writing in his book anyway. "I still think it works though, it makes so much sense…" He sits next to Sable now, since she's moved so close to Colette. "I wish Doctor Suresh wasn't so busy, I bet this is the kind of thing he could figure out. Have you two ever seen the symbol anywhere?" He opens the journal, showing the two the few pages on the helix symbol.

That kills her. Now it's Sable's turn to prop up /her/ bandmate, as she wraps her arms around her stomach and topples over laughing at Colette's 'laser alternative'. A knee may get slapped in the process, it's quite possible. As Magnes comes to sit, the girl straightens, pulling herself back together. Sable gives Colette a very warm smile. "No, yeah, I'd love to see it too. Here's hoping, eh?" The yellow-eyed girl lifts her hand and crosses her fingers.

At the proffering of the journal, she peers at the pages. "What in the hell…?" she inquires, trying to scan the words and process his ramblings. "Man, all this tells me is that you roll with a bunch of Japanese folks I've clearly never met."

Pursing her lips, Colette arches both brows, stares at Magnes and then looks at Sable with a holy shit did he just lost his mind in his bedroom expression, which is surprisingly easy to convey. Smiling a bit awkwardly, Colette looks back to Magnes and shakes her head, then stops and furrows her brows. "Uh, well— actually. If you put two've 'em like, together?" Colette's hands come upboth cupped and unterlocking together. "That was the symbol of this company called Pinehearst…"

"But— that also doesn't count cause it's two of them, so— no. I guess not." Glancing back at Sable, Colette purses her lips to the side, then looks back to Magnes uncertainly. "I ah, I think you might've— did you hit your head while you were in there? It's okay if you did, I can go get an ice pack or something." Now she's just giving him a hard time.

"No, no, I'm fine, I try to… save these inspirational bursts for when I'm alone, or writing music with Sable. Most people don't appreciate wild theories. It happened once in Arg… er, well, it happened once when a lot of people were around, and they didn't really listen, and some bad things happened." Magnes holds his journal up, closing and patting it a few times. "I wildly write in this at times, when I get a theory or an idea. I just fill this thing up with them and rarely actually speak of them. I was raised to be a scientist, practically trained to think like one and put things together. I don't have a huge interest in being one, but, I still have that way of thinking…"

Sable gives a sage nod, "I worked for a guy that had a journal like that. He thought the lizardmen controlled the national treasury, which I used to think was crazy cuz, y'know, how did they hide their scales and tails, right? The obvious question. But then he explained that these lizard men disguised themselves as Jews. So then, y'know… I quit." She gives Magnes a light punch in the arm, "Boy, I think it's a virtue to be suspicious. Keeps the Man at bay. As long as you still have love in your heart, right?" Her sincerity is very hard to judge at this point. The /affection/ seems sincere, at least.

"Maybe a mad scientist." Colette ribs with a laugh, and it seems like she and Sable have found their point of connection: keeping Magnes grounded with sarcasm. It's strange to Colette despite her good-natured laughter and crooked smiles that all of this feels much more natural than anything else she does in her life, the simple act of sitting around on a couch and joking with people in the same age bracket as her seemed like something reserved for a wholly different life. Here, on the sofa of someone she just met, next to an acerbic young thing she hardly even knows, Colette feels a bit disconcertingly at home.

Yet she's here to drag them out of this, and into the lifestyle that's had her living underground, sleeping on roll-out cots and being flung down elevator shafts to name just a few calamities. Dark brows furrowed, green eyes lifting to Magnes and then over to Sable as her smile only slightly falters, Colette has the barest of second thoughts about what she's doing. Being normal's for other people though, no matter how good it seems. Besides, she has a job to do here, and so far…

…she's off to a good start.


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