Participants:
Scene Title | Putting In A Good Word |
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Synopsis | Magnes brings Monica to meet the couple and some awkwardness ensues. At least for one party. |
Date | June 14, 2011 |
Elaine & Quinn's Apartment
Showing up unexpectedly in the middle of the afternoon, Magnes is in a pair of red Chucks, blue jeans, and a black suit jacket over a Red Robin shirt. He doesn't knock on the door, he instead motions for Monica to start playing the acoustic so he can sing. "Quinn and Elaine, I'm sorry I made this all totally lame. I want nothing more than to apologize, thinking things over and missing you guys. Some days I wonder, unsure of it all, slaying green eyed monsters instead of giving a call."
He leans closer to the door, continuing to sing instead of knock. "Even if the world should end tomorrow, you should marry Elaine Darrow, Quinn and Elaine… I'm sorry I'm totally lame. Quinn and Elaine, I hope you guys are glad I came. I want nothing more than to come in, I just want to be your friend again, Quinn and Elaine. Things could be the same… I'm sorry." The last two words are stated more than sung, then he just waits.
Luckily, Monica is pretty spot of with a guitar, proving that she hasn't completely focused on picking up offensive skills. Sometimes she's grabbed something fun, too. As much as she didn't expect to ever play a hallway of all things, she's here for Magnes' sake. A little moral support and a little prodding to make sure he didn't chicken out on the way over here. But at least the music is good!
By and large, QUinn's dad had been rather, well, boring, as it ever is when she doesn't have much to do. In fact, most of the day's been speant istting on the couch, guitar on one side of her, bass on the other, and jer keyboard in front of her - much too lazy to head up to the studio, choosing to engage in her writing downstairs, in her comfortable apartment where she has cookies, ice cream, soda, a distracting TV, a video game console, her fiancee sitting further down the couch from her…
Really, it's amazing she's getting anything done at all. And yet, as Elaine's heard, she's almost completed a song just in the span of the day.
Fingers moving across the keyboard keep her from immediately hearing the sound of the guitar on the other side of the door. It's Magnes' voice that catches her, her expression almost going crosseyed as she blinks, first looking at Elaine, and then tot he door, silent as she listens to the singing. And when there's a moment of silence,s he leans forward and shouts. "You've lost your goddamn mind!" though said in an amused, happy tone. "Doors unlocked. get your stupid self in here!"
Elaine, at least, gets up off the couch as she heads to the door to open it. The song has her laughing, and by the time it's over, she's standing with the door open, hands on her hips. "You know, I think that's the sweetest thing I've ever seen you do, Magnes Varlane." She says, grinning. "Get in here and give me a hug."
Magnes smiles and lifts Elaine up, carrying and hugging at the same time before sitting her down on the couch. When he's standing up straight again, he thumbs over to the door. "She's Monica, so now you have a face to the name. I haven't really been seeing Elvira, I've been spending most of my time with Monica lately."
Monica hangs back when the door is opened, not quite inside, but not quite staying out in the hall, either. Like she's not sure she's welcome. But more likely, it's just to give Magnes a post-apology moment with his friends before she tries to slide herself into the conversation.
But, of course, Magnes does it for her. She gives the girls a wave, her smile friendly, "Hope you don't mind I tagged along. And congrats on the engagement and all." Can't turn off that Southern-bred politeness, really.
Quinn can't exactly jump up and come say "hi", surrounded by instruments as she is. It's enough, when she does get up, not to bump into and knock over her keyboard. She perks up noticably at the mention of not seeing Elvira. "Good. That woman's a bad seed. You know I saw her hit a dude and do nothing about it?" Well, her driver, but same difference at the end of the day. Moving the keyboard aside, she looks back up towards the door to see - well, a somewhat ffamiliar person. "She saw it too," Quinn remarks as she points at her and cracks a smile. "I didn't know this was Monica. Hi, Monica!" A small wave is given, before Quinn turns to Magnes and throws open her arms, expecting a hug of her own.
Elaine laughs as she's deposited on the couch again, looking rather overjoyed at the news. "Okay, Magnes, you've officially made my day. No offense, Robyn, but it'd be hard for you to top this right now." She looks back to Magnes. "I'm really, really, really glad you're hanging out with Monica instead. You have no idea." She looks back towards Monica and offers her a wave. "Come on in here, I promise we don't bite. In a bad way, at least."
"Hey, no making Monica a lesbian vampire." Magnes lifts Quinn up the moment she raises her hands, then takes a seat with her in his lap. "I hope you've all been alright. Me and Monica have been doing a lot. Cooking, having at least twenty awkward moments a day, losing 10,000 dollars in Atlantic City because I had a crazy plan that didn't quite work out."
"That was his—" Monica doesn't finish that sentence, mostly because she was never quite sure what Elvia was in all this. But it's pretty clear she's not terribly impressed at her first impression of the lady doctor. "It's good to get a name with the face," she says, after shutting the door and coming over to join the others. "Now I'm less surprised at you wandering around Midtown. Any friend of Mags' has got to be just as crazy as he is." Herself included, of course. She is the one that kicked a robot.
She sets the guitar gently down to lean against the side of the couch, chuckling a bit before she looks over at Magnes with a lift of her eyebrow. "Does that mean I'd only dig chicks at night or what?"
Quinn lets out a little "eep!" as she's lifted up, laughing as Magnes settles on the couch with her on his lap, and for once rather than awkwardly moving to get up, she sits there, still laughing as she slings an arm across his shoulder. "You went t' Atlantic City without me? Fuck! I've been wantin' t' go there since February. We'll have t' scoop up Sable, Adel, and Jolene and head out there sometime." Being in Magnes' lap doesn't, however, keep Quinn from reaching over and taking Elaine's hand, Quinn looking up at Monica.
"Crazy's one way t' put it, I guess…" Quinn scratches the back of her neck, offering Monica a smile. "I go out t' midtown t' practice somethings. Dangerous, but not really stuff I can do in front of people." A small shrug and a chuckle, Quinn shaking her head at Magnes. "Lesbian vampires only exist in movies and my dreams," she remarks, the dry delivering making it difficult to tell just how serious she is. "Anyway! It's nice t' really meet you, Monica. You play music, too? Magnes, you're collecting musicians again, aren't you."
"Oh, I see how it is, you dream of lesbian vampires?" Elaine smirks. "Am I not good enough? I guess I should get more creature-of-the-night on you or something." She looks back towards Magnes. "Besides, lesbianism isn't like vampirism. You can't just bite a chick on the neck and turn her into a lesbian. Although usually you find out quickly if they are by doing that…" She reaches over and squeezes Quinn's hand. "I'm glad you're back here, Magnes. We've missed having everyone around and such."
"Sorry, I had to think things through and get my head together, and I have a lot of other things in my mind too, so it's just taken me a while. And Elvira hitting a guy with a car doesn't really… surprise me." Magnes looks to Monica, smiling. "Adel's been teaching her to play the drums. Oh, and uh, Monica's the mother of Adel's boyfriend, which makes things a bit weird, but I have hope that it won't put an end to many more awkward moments that I think either of us would die if you two knew."
"It's nice to meet you, too. Both of you. Magnes has only had nice things to say about you guys," Monica says as she pulls herself over a chair to sink into. "I… well. I know how to play some things." But for whatever reason, doesn't fit herself into the classification. "Yeah, Adel's been trying to add another."
When he explains about the whole future child issue, she can't help a bit of a laugh. "I like that you just drop that into conversation. And, I'd like to point out, you'd die a lot more than I would. Just saying."
"Magnes, youdon't get t' talk about awkward moments with Adel until she refuses to stay over so she doesn't interrupt your sexy time, because apaprently she was totally used to that with me and Elaine." Quinn replies rather quickly, and with a wide grin. "Unless you hit on her. At least Jolene wasn't actually around when I started talking about how cute she was." Quinn's face turns a bit red, still incredibly embarassed about that, knowing what she knows now.
But the fact that Monica is another future parent has Quinn's attention immediately turning to her. "You're Jay's mom? I haven't met him, just heard the name. It's amazing how tight knit the people the kids came from are," she muses, letting out a bit of a sigh. "Why's Adel teaching you frums, though? She's not planning on fading away any time soon, is she?"
"Adel is not allowed to fade away or any shit like that," Elaine states, frowning heavily. "Much as you seem nice, Monica… I don't think that Adel'll be quitting the band anytime soon." She pauses. "But, for the record, I think you're practically family, all things considered." She chuckles a little bit, leaning her head back as she looks up at the ceiling.
"Hey, just because I'm the one who suffers all of the rejection! But you totally like my attempts." Magnes grins playfully at Monica, seeming so focused on her that he doesn't even seem to making a big deal out of having a woman in his lap. "Adel's not going anywhere, no way. And uh, I told Adel to pretend to be my girlfriend at a party once. Now I know why she got so weird."
"Yeah, don't worry. I'm not here to usurp her gig. I think she was mostly just looking out for me. JJ — Jay, he's not exactly in a position to be able to come check on his parents often. And I gather she was close with his family." She's a little reluctant to say me or us, given the very distinct division between that life and this one. "And she said that in the future, I taught her how to play, so try to unpretzel that one."
Magnes gets a Look at that comment, something giving the impression she'd throw something at him if she had something on hand. But she doesn't! Which is probably good, since there's bystanders at the moment.
Elaine's frown, noticable to Quinn, gets the musician tof inally rise up and out of Magnes' lap, and instead she moves to plop down in the taller woman's, wrapping arms around her. "Oh, I was just joking," she says a bit quietly, leaning against Elaine. "Sorry. I didn't mean t'…" make her worry sounds a little strange to say out loud, so Quinn trails off, confident taht Elaine knows what it is she means.
Though Elaine probably doesn't appreciate it when Quinn fails to stifle a snort, poisitoined as close to her hear as Quinn is. "You asked her t' do that? Okay, so at least we're both pretty bad off there." She turns to Monica again. "Well, maybe you can come drum for me, at least, when she can't? I know she's not planning on leaving or that you're takin' ove rher gig. It's just- yeah. A little weird still. I'm still amused when Jolene tells me the things I learned or came to understand in their time that I have now. It's kinda nice t' know that I never really change."
Elaine hugs Quinn around the waist, leaning in against the other woman as she looks back over towards Magnes and Monica. The latter of the two gets a warm laugh. "Yeah, now that is surprising right there. Makes me wonder who you learned it from where she's from… kinda weird tying the world up in knots like that. Can't imagine what that'd be like to be them. I'm glad they're here, though."
"Well, you girls can all talk amongst yourselves, I'll go bake cookies and we can snack later." Magnes stands up and starts into the kitchen, fiddling with his shirt. He tries not to duck too hard at Monica's look, trying to run in quickly. "Have fun."
"Yeah, exactly," Monica says to Elaine with a nod, "I should ask her if she knows." Not that Monica remembers where she's picked up half the stuff she knows how to do. "I'm glad they're here, too. JJ's just… he fits right in. And Adel, she's a sweet girl, Elaine. Makes me a little proud of all of us in their time, able to make a good life for them, in spite of it all."
As Magnes head out to the kitchen, she shakes her head a little, but there is a bit of a sheepish look toward the other ladies. She knows he's mentioned her, but she has no idea what sort of impression he might have left with them.
Waiting untl Magnes has made his way to the kitchen, QUinn quirks a smile as she looks back to Monica. "You know if he ever gets annoying, you can just hit him in the head repeatedly until either it gets through or he suffers brain damage and forgets." A pause, and she turns back towards the kitchen. "Magnes! I need you to help me pick out a video game soon!" That shouted, she turns back, settling against Elaine. "So, Magnes hasn't really told us much about you. I know you're as crazy as we are, at least, so that's a plus. An' you're Adel's boyfriend's mum, that's a plus. But that's about it, besides teh fact that you're not Elvira and that's about a thousand pluses."
"Robyn's right… I can't say I really know all that much about you. Magnes hasn't said too much, I can probably say that's because he's been away for a while and not really on good terms with us," Elaine squeezes Quinn gently before her full attention goes to Monica. "I guess we've established we're all crazy, so I guess anything on top of that is icing on the cake."
"Ah…" Monica shifts in her seat a little, brow furrowed as she tries to figure out just how best to sum herself up. "Well, I'm from New Orleans," she starts, kinda slow, unsure, "And I'm… into comic books. And I do some martial arts. Some parkour… and just sort of…" Gosh, it's really hard to describe her life while trying to dodge certain buzzwords. Terrorist, for one. Fugitive. Most Wanted List… "I was a costumed crimefighter for a while, too, actually," she says, a smile coming to her face. "Actually, that ended up having been foretold in a prophetic comic book, so I guess I'm sort of… I got some experience with this whole, seeing the future thing."
Quinn's mostly just nodding a long, listening with fairly obvious interest. At least, until Monica mentions being a costumed crimefighter. Quinn can't help but roll her eyes - though not really at Monica. "Oh, God. Now I understand why Magnes likes you so much. Just, please don't let hiim start running aruond as White Knight again. He was causing more trouble than he was helping. I figure since I ahven't had to watch YouTube clips of you or watch brazen fights out in the street, you have a better idea how t' do that kinda thing." The tone in her voice isn't disapproving, but it defintiely carries a sense that she's not fond of the vigilante idea. Never mind that she's a terrorist, technically. Realisation of hypocrisy is selective.
"Yeah, I don't have any flashy ability and Robyn's not the superhero type, so it's nice to know Magnes has a bit of a kindred spirit," Elaine says, but she grins at the mention of a prophetic comic book. "I went back in time, once, to save a friend. So, I guess it all just ends up with everyone having pretty crazy lives. A lot of life experiences I'd have never thought I'd have."
"Oh no. I'm a ninja." Monica delivers that with a total straight face, too, which might just mean it's really not a joke. "And I gather Magnes is trying to play it straight for the moment. Upstanding citizen and all that." Elaine gets a smile and a nod, "I went back in time, too. Actually, to save JJ's… dad, which is kinda funny in an odd way now that I think about it. But, you sorta know how the kids feel, being here now. Guarding something they think is important enough to risk everything for? New York has a way of doing that to a person. With the odd life experiences."
"I went to the past and all I got was pistol whipped," Quinn grumbles a bit, said like teh phrase should be on one of those I went to XXX and all I got was this t-shirt shirts. "I'm glad t' hear that he's sticking with that. I know he wants t' help people, but things are always just so much… better when he's not sticking his neck out like that." A cough, and Quinn shrugs her arms a bit. "Anyway, I'm glad you're able t' do that and keep a low profile. We all have our ways of helping out. Though my ability sucks for teh whole super hero thing."
"Ninja's are cool. Stealthy's the way to go," Elaine says, grinning, but she pokes at Quinn's stomach. "Don't knock your ability. Yours is way better for superheroing than mine. Not that we'd even want to, but…" She looks to Monica. "Yeah, New York kinda has an effect on people, I think. Changes people. Sometimes we're lucky enough for it to be for the better, even if the circumstances might be crappy in the short term."
"We all want to help. I can't really hold it against him. I mean, I did it, too. I just… don't think he should go it alone. When you're alone and you screw up… people pay for it who shouldn't. When you've got people to help you decide how to come at it… it gets a little easier to handle." Pause. "I imagine." Monica is not all that good at lying, as it turns out, so she clears her throat and tries to just move on. "What is it you girls… do, anyway?"
Any sor tof fumbling on Monica's part goes unnoticed as Quinn quirks an eyebrow in surprise. "Really? You should watch more TV.Or listen to the radio." Quinn leans forward a bit, point back towards teh wall closest to what's technically her room, where sits the cover of the April issue of Pause, laminated and then framed on the wall. Underneath it sits a framed copy of Quinn's album, received when she picked up the initial shipment in Jersey. "I'm a musician. I have a radio show too, over at Studio K. I mean, obviously I'm a musician, since I'm in the band, but I don't really have a side job. It's what I do."
"Magnes tends to get into trouble most when he does things on his own. I think he could definitely use more people watching his back," Elaine looks between Quinn and Monica, though, at the question of what it is she does. "Uh, well, uh… I go to school, right now. I mean, I'm studying stuff, and I've got some side-jobs that aren't really all that exciting. So I guess I mostly just leech off of Robyn's fabulous life."
"I don't actually have a TV. Or… a radio, come to think of it," Monica says with a bit of an apologetic smile. She's not really sure what it is she's missing until Quinn points it out to her. She turns to look at the frames and blinks a little before she turns back. "Wow. I mean, I knew that you guys did music, but I didn't know anyone was all… famous. Congratulations," she says, with a genuine smile. Then she looks back to the magazine again, her brow furrowed some. "I need to get out more." Which isn't exactly true, since she's out a lot, but, you know, not in the loop on this sort of thing.
"Yeah, that's when I got in most of my trouble, too. On my own. School?" She's type to hop from conversation to conversation, apparently. "Anything specific or are you just testing things out?"
"Oh." Quinn tilts her head to the side a bit, grimacing. "I'm sorry. We should totally fix that. Not even so you can see how awesome I am. It just must get… awfully boring without anything like that." And then Quinn gives a sheepish little laugh, looking a bit off to the side. "I'm not famous, despite what some people think. I've just gotten a bit lucky over the past few months more than anything else." She looks over to Elaine, waiting for her to answer Monica's question. "You know, either way," she comments, looking up at Monica after a minute. "It's good for Magnes t' have a friend who isn't either a lesbian, one of his ex-girlfriends, a horrible person, or… well, let's just say he doesn't always associate with people that a lot of us might consider shinin' beacons of humanity, even if they are good people."
"Oh, linguistics. Languages are kind of my thing. So, yeah… I'm just doing the schooling so I've got some sort of… credentials, I guess," Elaine says. "Plus it's a neat thing to study, and I'd like to be able to have some good references and stuff for the future." She looks between the two of them. "And Robyn is famous. She's got fans and stuff. There's even some chick fawning all over her."
"It's okay. You get used to it after a while. Plus, I could always borrow Magnes'." Monica looks over to Elaine, looking pretty impressed. But she always is, with those things she can't master herself. Language is one of them. "That's cool. You could end up being one of those people that decode ancient languages and stuff, I always thought that was amazing." And like a tennis match, she looks back to Quinn with a chuckle. "And here they try to tell you famous people don't have modesty." But, on the subject of Magnes, there's a glance toward the kitchen, then back to the girls. "He's a good friend. I'm glad to have him around. It's nice to have a place you know you can go and be taken in."
"They don't," Quinn replies with a wide grin. "That's how you know I'm not." When Monica looks towards the kitchen, so does Magnes."He's a good guy, he jus kinda lives at exteremes most of the time. I'm glad he's doin' right by you, though." Once she says that though, she eyes Monica for a lingering moment, before glancing back at the kitchen. "So, are you too actually, like… you know?" A finger waves back and forth between Monica and the kitchen. "I mean, I don't want t' be rude, but I'm curious."
"I can definitely do that kind of thing. It's, uh, well, my ability has to do with language so it's entirely true… I was gonna take some classes in a dead language or two but…" Well, we won't talk about Rupert. "Magnes is a good friend. He's good for taking people in and making sure to take care of them. I know if anyone's got my back, it's Magnes. I mean, he saved my life the day he met me and basically got me out of a pretty shitty situation." Her eyes flick to Quinn, then back to Monica at the question. She's not going to ask it herself, so she's glad Quinn brought it up. Saves her the trouble.
Rock stars are a good topic, abilities, also good. Magnes and Monica is a bit of a more difficult one. And that question gets a bit of a pause at first. "Well… You mean dating?" This is what you know means to Monica. Which might speak a few volumes. "We're not. I mean, I know he'd like to, but there's a few— I have… Not a lot of time to dedicate to dating. I mean, we're hanging out. We're friends. But things are just… complicated." The last word comes out with a bit of a sigh.
Complicated is something Quinn understands well. Oh, oh so well. It's the word that has defined her romantic life for just over a year now. She gives a small nod, trying to look understanding. "I know what you mean," is asked quietly, lacking entirely in any sort of judgement. "I'm just glad you guys having something, even if it's not exactly what Magnes wants. We all could use another friend around. Just be careful with him. He's hard t' dissuade, if you let him get certain things in his head."
"If you ever need Magnes-related advice… you can always hit me up. I'm a pro," Elaine insists, offering a genuine smile. "And don't worry if it's complicated. Sometimes that's okay. As long as you're both okay. But either way, you're friends and that's important. Magnes needs his friends."
"I'll keep that in mind," Monica says to Quinn, and she seems to be seriously taking that in. As well as being relieved that neither of them seem upset with her. "I'll always be his friend. I just— You know, truthfully? I'm not very… good with guys. I mean, I'm good at punching 'em," she says, a fist even coming out in front of her to demonstrate for a moment before it drops to her lap, "And I'm experience with being pursued is people trying to kill me or toss me in jail, not, like… romance. And I'm… really dedicated to what I do. Like a workaholic. I never could hit the balance right.
"And on top of it all… I'm pretty literally, a character straight from a comic book, so you can see how I'm feeling that point might be coloring his perceptions a bit." She is trying to keep her voice down, of course, not wanting the cook to overhear at this point. "I'm not St. Joan. I mean, I am St. Joan, but I'm not always St. Joan, you know what I mean?"
"It'll be dfine, I'm sure. Just don't let him get carried away." A beat, and then Quinn smirks, crossing her arms. "ANd let yourself get a little carried away," she says with a wink. "But yeah. I gt why you're catious. But I'm sure it'll be okay. I doubt you want me t' give you a psuedo-lecutre on the nature of Magnes."
"You could write a book on Magnes," Elaine points out, looking back to Monica. "I've not got the best track record with relationships. I'm not exactly queen of them, but I turned out okay. Even if you aren't really used to it… just let things happen naturally. Don't try and force it or force it away. Much better if you just… let it go on its own. It'll take you where you need to go that way. And comic book or not… Magnes knows how to deal with that. Trust me, there is no one better suited."
"That's ironic advice," Monica says, to Quinn, with a bit of a chuckle, "Considering how much time I spend trying not to get carried away, you know, with the ability stuff." She looks between them, nodding a little bit. "I'll give it all some thought. I just want you guys to know… I'm looking out for him. I'm not… you know, trying to change him and make him unhappy. He's got a good set up going and I don't want to be the thing that ruins it." It's a little cryptic, but she seems sincere, at least.
"WHat? No, we never thought you were!" Quinn replies with an amused laugh, leaning back in against Elaine. "No one can change Magnes anyway. We can just help him tone down some of his more outrageous behaviour. But Magnes is Magnes. You're not going t' ruin anything for him. He goes through… phases, sometimes. He was bad off after he an' Elaine split, an' when he found out we were engaged. But he bounces back. So, you'll be fine. Trust me."
"Changing Magnes is a bad idea. Mostly because people stop making Magnes himself when they do that. You can polish him and make sure he's not doing something crazy all he time, but…" Elaine nods a little. "He was really torn up for a very, very long time after I broke it off with him. I understand why he was really pissed about me being engaged to Robyn… and I'm just glad he's doing better. He does bounce back… and I don't think whatever you do will screw him up. He's resilient, beyond everything else."
"I'm glad he does bounce back. It's sort of necessary around here." It's a trait Monica prides in herself, too, so it's no surprise she tends to linger around others who do the same. "I guess I just wanted you guys to know he means a lot to me, too. He's my best friend." Only friend sounds a bit too depressing for her at the moment, and instead of going there, she smiles warmly over at the other two. "I'm glad he brought me over," she adds, since she might have been a tad worried they wouldn't like her. Just a bit. A smidgen.