Participants:
| Scene Title | Oh God She's A Lighthouse Kid |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elaine and Magnes discuss her origins and other random things. |
| Date | May 1 2010 |
Magnes's Geeky Apartment
It's morning, and Magnes has returned from clearing the front of the apartment building of blocking snow. He's stripped down to his jeans again and returned to his room where Elaine has her waffles, closing the door behind him. The large television hanging on the wall across from the foot of his bed is turned on, and he sits next to her with his legs crossed, careful not to hit her wooden tray and spill the glass of milk on it. "You enjoying them? I made the batter myself."
Elaine nods eagerly before wiping her mouth off with a napkin. "They're amazing. I haven't had something like this for.. well, maybe six months or more. Kinda makes me feel spoiled." She takes a sip of the milk.
"I worked in a pizza shop for a few years, my boss taught me a lot about homecooking, and I practice a lot in my spare time." Magnes flips channels again, never seeming to settle on anything in particular. "So, why don't you tell me about yourself? You're Scottish or Irish, right? How'd you get in your situation? Oh, and Sable's getting clothes for you to wear."
"Well, we're American, but a couple of generations back we came from Scotland. I went and visited there when I was 14." Elaine rubs the back of her neck. "Which was cool, I got to travel with some other students all over Europe. It's where I found out about my ability. World's a lot more interesting when you can understand what everyone's saying about you." She clears her throat. "Anyways, I was on the trip when the Bomb went off. Probably would be dead if I hadn't finally had the courage to get up and do something with my life and go on the trip." She takes a sip of the milk. "That's pretty nice of her to go through the trouble of getting me some clothes."
"She doesn't mind sharing, she used to be homeless herself. I finally decided to make her get a job." Magnes laughs, though looks at her with some concern when she mentions the bomb, moving to place a hand on her shoulder. "Sorry. So… your family?" he leaves the question up in the air for her to answer.
"Bomb got them. Came back to New York only to find out I'd lost them." Elaine frowns a little bit. "Not much I could do but get passed off from whatever agency had space for me until the next. It's not the kind of thing any kid should have to go through."
"Sorry. During the bomb I was around your age. Mister Panucci took me in when my parents disappeared. But they're apparently still alive, I'm gonna see why they haven't contacted me when this blizzard ends." Magnes strokes her back a few times, finally settling the television on the Flintstones. "But you'll be alright now. You can stay here and we'll figure out what to do with you when it's easier to move around outside, and the temperatures aren't practically fatal."
Elaine finishes her milk, carefully pushing the tray out of the way before she looks back over at him. "You got pretty lucky. Luckiest I got was staying in the Lighthouse for a short bit of time. Finally just gave up on the whole system in general and figured it'd just be easier to try and make some money and live on my own. Which, as it turns out, is a lot harder than I anticipated." She looks down for a moment. "You really don't have to do that. Who knows how long the weather will be like this, so you're basically dooming yourself to be stuck with me." Her eyes flicker back to him.
"Hey, us superheroes are pretty used to doom." Magnes snickers, then leans over to peck her on the cheek. "Don't worry about it. Maybe you'll improve Sable's manners. And… the Lighthouse?" he asks, seeming rather surprised at that. "I regularly take care of and tutor the Lighthouse kids. Man, this is kind of surreal for so many reasons."
"Yeah, but you shouldn't have to deal with doom at home, too. Home's supposed to be the safe place." Elaine smiles at the peck, then grins at the suggestion of improving manners. "I used to be a good kid. Maybe I'll have some luck with that, though I don't know how much I'd be up against." She does laugh at his mention of the Lighthouse. "Those are pretty weird odds. I wasn't there /too/ long, haven't gone back since I left.. which was after the place needed a bit of, er, rebuilding. I should probably drop by again sometime soon. They're pretty much the only people I'd care about going back to visit these days. Seriously, though… what are the odds?"
"Admittedly, the odds aren't too bad. I'm one of the only people in the city who goes flying around in the middle of this weather. But I've been coming up with a theory involving coincidences and people seemingly unconnected meeting. Still no real evidence for it, but I think there's something to it…" Magnes shakes his head, laying back on the bed and barely pays attention to the television while staring at a Starfire poster above his bed. "I'll take you to the Lighthouse some time. I love those kids, maybe you could even volunteer there with me."
Elaine nods a bit before laying back on the bed as well. "That'd be nice. I'd have to see how many of them remember me. The older ones should, I think, and maybe some of the younger ones if I made an impression. Great kids. I obviously relate to them too." The last part is added with a bit of a smirk. "I'm just glad they're all safe in there. It's a good place."
"Yeah, I do my best to keep them safe and happy, I don't want them to have to grow up thinking the world is all bad now." Magnes reaches over to take her hand, relaxing and sighing. "I felt like the world was closing in on me these last few weeks. Nice to meet someone new who doesn't act like I'm going to bite them."
"You make biting sound like a bad thing," Elaine teases, twining her fingers in his. "That's a good thing you're doing. Kids need reminded the world isn't all that bad. Almost feel like I've got to come up with some cover story, going back there. It's probably not very encouraging to hear about one of their own ending up homeless on the streets and nearly freezing to death. I think I might just leave that part out." She chuckles. "But really? Glad I met you. And not just for the whole saving my ass thing."
"But for the hopefully amazing sex and the home cooked chocolate chip pancakes?" Magnes laughs, then sighs a little, lazily laying there with very little intention of going anywhere. "I should probably call in a favor with the few friends I have on the force, maybe they can do something about those homeless guys. Can't have them trying to mug another woman."
"The amazing sex and chocolate chip pancakes are definitely a perk," Elaine admits with a smile. She, too, seems quite comfortable just lying there. "Yeah, I'd appreciate that. I'd really not like to hear about some woman who ends up dead because of it. Losing your stuff sucks, yeah, I know that, but losing your life is a bit more permanent."
Magnes turns his head to look at her, all sorts of questions running through his mind. "So, just curious, but do you read comics, play video games, or, do anything geeky at all? I'm just trying to get an idea of who you are."
Elaine chuckles. "Somehow I thought you'd ask that." She gestures with her free hand at the room. "Y'know, given all your stuff." She turns to face him a bit. "Well, I'm probably not as geeky as you, but I've got my qualities.. I've read a few comics, I've played a few games when I was younger, things like that. Nothing big, mostly cause I haven't had the opportunity to really get into much. Except books. I read anything I can get my hands on… and I do happen to read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy." She pauses for a long moment, then her eyes light up. "Oh.. oh, you're going to like this. Can't believe this slipped my mind. So, you know how I mentioned the language thing? I can basically get to pretty much any language that's got enough real rules to function as a language. So, uh, there's a few I've learned that you could consider a bit geeky. Again, I do read a lot and any audio I can get on them when I've got the opportunity to."
"Whoa, so you can like, speak Klingon? That's awesome!" Magnes seems quite enthusiastic about that, though refrains from actually asking her to speak it. "Well, you're free to mess around with anything in my room. I've got my computer, video games, there's comics everywhere, so, just enjoy!"
"Klingon and Tolkien's elvish language, Quenya. The movies helped a lot for the latter one." Elaine can't help but grin. "Yeah, kinda figured you might like that. Maybe I can teach you some sometime." She does glance around the room a bit. "Well, you do have a lot. Careful, depending on how long I'm here, I might just read all your comics."
"Oh, you might like Spider-Man Loves Mary-Jane. It's got all the drama of one of those girly shows, but with superhero stuff." Magnes slips out of bed, then grabs volume one in the form of a trade paperback from the bookself, then sits next to her with his legs crossed and hands it over. "I love these comics."
Sitting up on the bed, Elaine takes the comic, flipping to the first page. "Love the superhero stuff. This is the kind of thing I idolized as a kid. The seemingly unrealistic stuff that could go on. Which is funny, now that you think about it, cause it can easily happen now." She glances to him. "I just never thought /I/ would get caught up in this kind of thing. Me, of all people."
"The superhero thing can lead to tons of trouble. You heard of the Shibuya Incident, right? That thing where the two Evolved fought eachother and basically destroyed the Tokyo crosswalk? That was me. I was trying to stop someone who kidnapped my friend, and things got out of hand because I had poor control of my ability back then." Magnes throws that out there, trying to be honest in case she doesn't watch the news much. "No one got hurt, except me and him, but, yeah…"
"Ouch. Yeah, that kinda thing can get messy. I always wondered why superheroes in comics and stuff never had to pay for the damage they did. You'd think cities and private citizens and stuff would come hunting for them and asking for damages. Maybe someone should sell superhero insurance…" Elaine gives him a bit of a smile. "Still, it's pretty cool what you can do. Mine's a little tamer, but I still think it's neat. I've always loved eavesdropping when people think I don't understand what they're saying."
"Well, that's why superheroes wear masks, to protect their loved ones and to avoid getting the bill for collateral damage. Lucky for me my affairs with Japan are settled." Magnes grabs her tray and folds it, sitting it on the nightstand next to the bed, then motions a finger for a jar of brown Playdough to float over to his palm. "Your ability has a lot of potential. You could crack uncrackable cryptology, crack secret messages over open airwaves with the right equipment, learn to program and be an amazing hacker…"
"Oh, god, you're making me sound badass!" Elaine laughs, her eyes lit up as she grins, a genuinely pleased look on her face. "I can already pretty much translate a bunch of languages. When I've got the resources, I plan on learning a few more. Basically, any language I can get my hands on. It's pretty cool."
"I know a lot of people who don't see the use in their abilities, it's just a matter of having imagination. There was a time when all I could do is jump really high and walk on walls." Magnes has yet to say what exactly his ability is, and he takes the Playdough from the container, then it suddenly squeezes into a sphere. "Keep an open mind. You can't relate an ability to the human experience, that's far too convenient. You say your ability is understanding languages, but you have to look beyond that, you have to ask yourself 'What is language?'"
"Thinking out of the box. I got it." Elaine watches the playdough with fascination before glancing back to him. "Language is communication. I've been able to figure out Klingon and Quenya because someone put the effort into making up rules and vocabulary, and figuring out how it all works. I guess, if those same rules are followed…" She pauses. "Oh. /Oh/. Oh my gosh.. I could make an entire language. And teach it to myself. A language no one else in the world knows!"
"You could write impossible to crack codes, and decoder rings to go along with them." Magnes offers, though he raises an eyebrow at the idea, trying to wrap his own head around it. "I'm not really sure how you'd make a language though, I guess that sort of ability is hard to understand. There isn't really sufficient science to explain my ability, the graviton isn't even proven to exist yet."
Elaine grins. "That's just it. Languages have rules. Kind of like math, patterns that you put together with different pieces fitting into place. There are subjects and verbs and nouns, and if you understand how they all work, you can put them together and and have a language. It's pretty simple… all you have to do is take the pieces and put them together. Make your own verbs and nouns, figure out what rules change them, set up a structure… and you have a language." She seems to have really come to a bit of an epiphany. "Besides… your ability is on a way larger scale. You don't need to understand it as much as just be able to feel and control it. Mine's all based on understanding. If I didn't understand how it worked, it wouldn't."
"It's taken me a long time to really understand my ability. I used to have a kind of mental block that only let me affect things that I'm touching. And this isn't like telekinesis, there's rules to what I do too, or at least, complexities." Magnes allows the sphere to hover about his right palm, then it starts to twist and bend in two different directions. "This, for example, is what happens when I alter the gravity in different sections of the dough. If I didn't understand physics, this might be a lot harder."
"Yeah, I guess that's true. These sorts of things.. they're all pretty complex, all sort of different." Elaine looks down at the comic in her hand, which she hadn't even started reading. "You're a very distracting person, Magnes. I'd almost forgotten about this."
"Go ahead and read, I think I'll take a nap since Tracy hasn't called me in for work today." Magnes closes his eyes, leaving the remote next to her in case she wants it. "Still morning, but I'm still tired. You sleeping in my room again tonight, right?"
"Yeah, I am." Elaine states definitively. "You rest, I read. It'll be peachy." She smiles, flipping back to the first page. "Besides, reading in bed on a snowy day is exactly the sort of thing I enjoy."
"Just wake me if someone calls or knocks…" Magnes is already drifting off, closing his eyes. Since he woke up before her this morning, she didn't get to see what happens when he sleeps. He starts to slowly float, only a few inches up, so she's capable if pushing him back down if he chooses. He loses his gravity when he sleeps.
Elaine manages to stifle a giggle, reaching over to gently push him back down onto the bed. "You're a weird one, Magnes Varlane." She murmurs to herself, glancing back at the comic, keeping one hand near him… just in case.