Participants:
| Scene Title | Superman and Batman |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Ash and Magnes have a sit down at Shooters |
| Date | April 27 2009 |
It's late afternoon, and Magnes has dressed up for this particular occasion. Something in the back of his head tells him to protect his identity for this Messiah work. He's wearing that all white outfit again, like in the cage fights, the only difference is that this time he's got a red scarf around his neck. He gets a few stares due to the white mask and all, not having a hint of skin on his entire body showing, not even his eyes, but he's just another weirdo in the city.
He sits at the table, not bothering with any drinks considering he'd have to either drink through his mask, or remove it, so he just sits there, waiting for Ash.
Ash is over at a pool table playing pool. His own scarf is looped about his wrist into a cloth bracelet of sorts. His shots are incredibly accurate, not a result of his physical abilities, but of his mental ones. A lot of people that interact with Ash don't know that the man is quite intelligent and was an avid student. Were it not for his power manifesting he'd probably be in college at the moment.
He lifts his eyes as the masked figure comes into the room, and his eyes give a slow roll before his head shakes slowly. He finishes up his game, not bothering to hide his red scarf, then makes his way towards the table Magnes is sitting at. He stops, pulls a chair out, and settles down into it, peering at the man across from himself. An eyebrow lifts at him, and he just… stares.
"You're that guy!" Magnes says with his voice slightly altered, pointing over at him. "The guy from the fights, I've been trying to find you. I didn't know we'd be working together." He motions a hand to the bartender. "I'll buy you a drink."
Ash cocks his eyebrow higher at Magnes as he speaks and gets all excitable. "Why are you hiding your face kid?" He asks him, his arms crossing over his chest slowly, eyes centered rather studiously upon Magnes. "And yes, we fought in the fights. What interests me, is you could have destroyed me at any time during that fight but you didn't, you tried to fight me fist to fist. You could have flattened me into a pancake, or at least into unconciousness with little thought. That was pretty obvious…" He lets a little smile tilt his lips upwards. "You've been trying to find me?" Yeah, so he answers stuff in a little bit of a random fashion, but he does reply!
"I can't rely on my ability." Magnes answers simply enough, getting a drink sat in front of Ash. He's had enough of a hangover after the night before. "I can't take it for granted, I have to become a good fighter on my own merit. I want you to teach me, I wanna be as good a fighter as you. You've got this… peak human condition thing, you're the best possible person who could teach me."
Ash leans back into his seat, stretching a touch before relaxing. He eyes the young man, or at least, who he believes to be a young man. The floating in the air thing was a bit too coincidental. Seeing it in the elevator, and then again at the fight. Not something one sees every day. He dosn't voice this, but there is some suspicion in his eyes. "You can't always trust your ability, that's true. Gets easy to rely on it. And the government has some nasty fucking gas that robs it from us. You been hit with that shit yet?" He uncrosses his arms, reaching a hand out for the drink that was set before him. He lifts it in a thank you salute to Magnes, then takes a sip of the whiskey in the tumbler. THe drink is lowered and he eyes the man in white. "And you didn't answer the question about why you're hiding your face."
"I've had my ability suppressed before, I need to find a way to suppress it so I can train without it. I have this problem where my equilibrium is off while my ability is suppressed. Before I can start training, I need a reliable way to negate myself." Magnes raises a hand to touch his face for a moment, or at least, his mask, which is zipped all the way around the neck to connect it to the shirt. That's definitely a custom job. "I do sensitive work, I have to protect the reputation of my boss. I can't afford to get caught doing certain things or it'll be a huge deal."
Ash narrows his eyes at the mention of doing sensitive work. He gestures to the red scarf around the young man's throat. "So your first loyalty is to someone other than the mission and your compatriots?" he asks, and yeah, this is a pretty important question. There's a lot of weight behind his voice, and his eyes narrow as he waits for a response from him. He puts the drink down on the table and folds his arms over his chest, his eyes watching intently. "I can't trust someone to have my back who's loyalties are somewhere else before they're here." When he says here he taps the scarf on his wrist, then just waits for the other to respond.
"It's not a matter of loyalty, I'm just determined to not let saving the world consume and destroy my life like it has so many people I care about. I have a day job, and a future I've decided to pursue instead of waiting for this utopia we're trying to build." Magnes sounds rather serious about his beliefs on life, hunching with his arms against the table. "I'm determined to save the world, but as far as my own life goes, it's now or never. I'm in love with someone who pushed her life aside to save the world, and I want to show people that it doesn't have to be that way."
Ash listens to the young man speak, and in the end he leans back against the chair behind him, his lips pressed tightly together. He doesn't speak for a rather long little time, just staring at him, quite obviously weighing things in his mind. When he does finally speak his voice is level, neutral. "For some of us it's not a choice. Some of us had our lives ripped away and we won't ever be able to have them back until the world changes." He looks down into his lap, then back up to Magnes. "And, if you are the kid I think you are, from the elevator… then I know you already have problems…." He pulls in a deep breath, then lets it out in a long sigh. "And I wouldn't want you to be denied a real life kid. Enough of us have had that stolen from us."
Magnes sighs lightly, but doesn't confirm or deny who he is, he just keeps talking. "I know the world has to change, I'm just trying to make the best of my opportunities and what's been given to me. I wanna make everyone else happy in my own way. That's why I fought you the way I did, without using my ability too much, I need to get stronger. I need to be able to protect people with some sort of skill. My friend's having a baby, and she means a lot to me, I wanna be confident that she's safe when I'm around."
Ash furrows his brows together as Magnes speaks further. "if that's what you want kid then go home. This is not a /safe/ thing. This is dangerous. THis is real shit. Not pussy footing around stopping thugs on the street corners kind of shit. THis is world changing shit. I don't expect to live very long. But while I do live I'm going to do every fucking thing I can to change things for us. To make things better. Even if that change has to be forced in whatever means necessary. YOu have to be made of steel to be a part of this. Can you be steel? Or will you be Iron? Unbending and strong until the moment you break?" He is not being harsh, or angry, he's asking the man honest questions.
"I have my limits, I made that clear to Rebel. I won't let pragmatism pull me down. I'll change the world and keep my soul doing it. I don't care who believes it's impossible or impractical, that's what I'm going to do." Magnes firmly answers, crossing his arms now. "They already know how I'm approaching this. For now you've just gotta trust that I'm gonna do what needs to be done, but don't expect me to shoot a baby in the head."
Ash narrows his eyes slowly, a dangerous edge entering Ash as he sits there. "I'm a cold blooded bastard. I've killed a lot of people since Moab spit me out. But every one of those kills was justified and deserving. I do not kill for no reason. I do not inflict pain for no reason. Everything I do has a purpose. And I don't have to trust anything kid. I trust Rebel, but that doesn't mean I trust you. Especially knowing you're not all in which you've just rather clearly told me." He shakes his head slowly, and he slides up from his seat, leaving the drink half finished on the table. "I can't fight beside someone who is half dedicated kid. I don't begrudge you not wanting to die, not wanting to sacrifice yourself. I don't begrudge you wanting yo have your own life. But there's an old saying about cake that comes to mind. I'll train you if you want, but I won't be fighting beside you any time soon if I can't trust you to have my back against whatever comes when we're out there."
"You just don't understand where I'm coming from. I'm about protecting people and doing what I think is right. I've had to kill people too, but I don't think there's such a thing as a justified killing, I don't think killing is a means to an end, I just think killing is a last resort that occasionally is very impossible to escape." Magnes, still firm about his beliefs, begins to stand and shake his head. "Having the back of my comrades is not something anyone has to worry about. Choosing not to let go of my ethics is not an act of disloyalty." He pulls a piece of paper out with his number on it, then slides it over the table. "That's my number."
Ash looks down at the number on the table before he shakes his head slowly. "Rebel will connect me to you if we need to get a hold of each other. Keeping that around would only implicate you if someone were to capture me." He slides the paper back. "I didn't say anything about violating your ethics kid. But you don't seem to understand just what it takes to force the kind of changes that need to be forced. You're a super hero kid. You're like super man. Good, just, true, powerful, but limited by your moral code. I'm batman. I do what needs to be done. I have my limits, but they are dark limits, not ones most heroes would approve of. I'll teach you though, like you asked. Both with and without the use of your power." He tilts his head to the young man, then walks back to the pool table and scoops up his beaten up brown wool coat, pulling it onto his powerful frame and then turns and begins to make his way towards the doors.