Participants:
| Scene Title | Theater and Thrillseeking |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Magnes gives Abby a thrill and they discuss life. |
| Date | March 8, 2018 |
Various
It's clear that numerous things have been weighing heavily on Magnes' mind, so, with a strong desire to escape all the insanity of his general life, he decided to invite Abby to a play.
Despite all the ways in which he's grown as a person, he decided they should try this small Spider-Man play that's been advertised. It turned out to not exactly be Broadway, as only around thirty people showed up, and there was a lot of silly string, cheap costumes, but at the very least good acting despite all the… not goodness of everything else.
When they finally leave the play, Magnes takes Abby to the Red Hook market, insisting that he's going to make her pizza. So now he's crouched down staring at cheeses, looking very intense. "I wonder if I can make Asiago work on a pizza. Mister Panucci was never huge on getting too fancy."
Overall, today has been a fairly good mood, discussing this and that, like old cringey stories.
A babysitter for Kasha, Abby was in need of escape too and for her own reasons. Call it a deperate attempt to get out of her own skin. If this didn't work, she'd go find somewhere to flame up and park for a few hours. Literally out of her own skin.
But it had been silly, gaudy, stupid and it had made her smile at least. Beside him she walks, a brow raised at the comment of Asiago. "Will it melt? It's fairly crumbly, I think it bypasses the melt stage and goes right to crisp. It's why it's put on top of bread usually, and salad."
"See, this is why I don't like to mess with different cheeses. Once you start going crazy, the pizza goes entirely to Hell." Magnes stands up straight and holds up a finger. "Two pounds of provolone, please."
"You know, something that I'm learning as a proper adult is how important it is to take a break from all the craziness." he suddenly says as the… cheese man cuts the cheese. Yes, cheese man, that's probably correct. "I wanted to be a superhero so bad. I did all of that stuff, saved the world, literally learned how to fly. And now all I really want to do is spend time with people and avoid fights."
"People who work in restuarants, only long for homemade meals, not made by them." Abby points out, watching the man set about to filling magnes order.
"I do enjoy a homemade meal. I think I missed making pizza though, I was in so many places where I literally couldn't get the ingredients to make pizza." Magnes practically shivers at the thought. "And I'm still kind of in dad/fiance mode, I can't help it I guess. I keep wanting to cook for people and do things for them, though I guess I was always like that a little."
"You'll always be making pizza's. And flying." Abigail muses, smiling. "You do what works for you magnes. Find your equilibrium again. It'll take a bit, after what I have surmised you've been through, you and Liz. Solid ground beneath the feet takes time to find. Took going back to Butte la Rose for me to find mine and I don't know that I've found it here. I've found something here but…" She doesn't know if it's what she needs to find.
"I'm not sure if there is much for me to find. I want to raise my daughter, put together a good life for her, protect her. But as far as my life goes, I don't know. Maybe I can make the world better with science or something. I can't… do love and stuff like that anymore." Magnes reaches out for the brown paper bag of cheese, handing the man his money. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm a monk."
'No offense magnes, I have no desire to talk about love, or… monks." ABigail looks uncomfortable, watchign the trade of coin for cheese. "So, pursue something in the vein of science. Find a way to use your ability for the greater good in a capacity that is not super hero in nature."
"It's okay. My head hasn't been in the best place. Thinking about the future is a painful thing, that reminds me of things I'm no where near over." Magnes starts walking again, looking around at various stalls, occasionally paying for this or that thing, most of it pizza related. "People talk a lot about how much I've changed, but you've changed a lot too. I remember when you were just a naive southern girl. I admit, I didn't really know much about your life by the time I left, but I can tell it all made you grow a lot."
"I try to not think about the future. Or the past. But that doesn't always work." Abigail walks with him, not objecting that he's paying, having offered already once to pay. She'll get the next outing. "I wasn't naive. No more so than you were Magnes. We were young, with unmarked hearts, and our beliefs held tighted and inexperienced. Not naive."
"I wonder what we are now." Magnes considers, starting to head for the exit of the market as he keeps all the bags in one hand. It's not as if weight is much of an issue. "It feels like we kind of understand life, but it also feels like we're missing something. Like, some great secret that will give us all the answers, or something."
'Why do you keep saying We?" Abigail stops, looking over at him.
"I keep a mental checklist of things that might offend your sensibilities, considering how much of my young life I used to dedicate to being less awful around you." Magnes admits, turning to face her as they stand just at the exit. "Love was never one of those things. So, i can only imagine that something is on your mind, that maybe you aren't entirely yourself, or maybe I'm misreading you."
"I'm not trying to pry, but…" he shrugs. "Maybe I'm projecting my own pain onto you. If so, I'm sorry."
"I think it's been ten years since you saw -me- magnes, and you're doing your usual method of making grand presumptions." She regards him. "I think it's been ten years since we crossed paths and that yes, I've grown. It's ten years Magnes. How can anyone not grow and change. But make no mistake, you are projecting. Can we just have a night with no kid or monkeys and… less internal introspection and psychological examinations?"
"Wait…" Magnes seems stunted when she says 'monkeys', but then shakes his head, stepping from the market and into the open air. He holds a hand out to her. "Fuck it, wallowing in whatever is in my head won't solve anything. You want to do something exciting? Come here, take my hand."
"So long as you're not gonna fly me up into the atmosphere and deprive me of oxygen." Abigail looks to the people around them and unlike all those years ago, there's no fear really of letting abilities go. Or his at least. Hers still ahs issues and she really likes her jacket. But she steps out, offering her hand and sliding it into his.
"I'm pretty sure I'd die too. I might be immune to my own gravity, but I'm definitely not immune to lacking oxygen… at least I don't think I am." Magnes has never tested, but it's probably a safe assumption.
He pulls her in close, to slip his arm around her waist. But instead of waiting for her to protest, he instead launches them high into the air, going high enough for them to see the whole of New York from above.
His flight is definitely different, faster, a bit less disorienting and shaky. Possibly a product of his control.
She doesn't cling like she might have in the past. There's space between them but not so much there might be fear of falling. Abbyc lsoes her eyes for a moment during the initial launch. Protect her face, her eyes from the blast of pressure. Her hand wraps around his waist as well and holds tight. But when things are more settled, she opens her eyes, smiling at the sight.
"I fly a lot, when I want to clear my head, or feel some kind of adrenaline. Sometimes what people need in life is a thrill, so that's what I try to give myself. Flying never really stops being exciting." Magnes starts to fly again, though not unbearably fast. He flies to the more deserted streets, landing on a rooftop, then leaping back up, clearing an entire street before landing on the next building.
"This reminds me of the old days, when I used to wear skates all the time and couldn't fly at all. I just jumped all over the place." He laughs, considering how long ago that was.
'Reminds me of sitting on top of buildings in midtown, watching the sunset." Once they've landed. The view of the city even from this height. She hadn't been up top since returning. She has things to tie her down these days. No more taking off at a whim.
"Not to get super deep, but I kind of want the future to be this." Magnes releases her, though she can still feel something a bit off with how she occasionally feels a slight pull when he walks away. The telltale sign that he's tethered her to his gravitational field for her safety, even though they're standing on a fairly solid rooftop.
He hasn't really stopped being protective on some level.
Placing a boot on the edge of the roof, he looks out over the city. "Just, flying around, making food, doing fun things." He sounds hopeful, but there's also something a bit sad in his tone as he suddenly goes a bit quiet, not turning around.
"Stop that." Abigail warns softly, a gesture to the air around them when he moves away. "I'm a grown woman. Who has been on rooftops before. If I fall, I can save myself." She points out. She listnes to him though, moving to the edge and sitting down on the riser,s wigning her legs over the side. "You need to talk to a therapist Magnes."
"I know… it just feels like I have a million things to do before I can take care of myself." Magnes moves to sit next to her, and when she does feel the tether release, he immediately reaches out, as if to catch her. But when she doesn't actually fall, he sighs and just lowers his arm. "Wait what do you mean you can save yourself?"
She lifts her hand, pushing sleeve back and lets her palm change, skin crawled over with flame until there's no skin and just the coronal surface, fingers defined and flame licking, the heat flaring hot for a moment before it's banked to a comfortable warmth. IN fact, the air around them has -been- comfortable warm. "Ten years." She points out. "I would float down, not fall. I'd have to turn, but." And then she extinguishes her hand and flame gives away like water drying on pavement and skin comes patchily back into existence. "So no Magnes, I won't splat against the sidewalk."
"That's pretty hot." Magnes deadpans, knowing very well that this is the worst pun he can possibly think of. "I can touch space now. It's a bit of a pointless skill, but I've seen other versions of me do cool things that I haven't been able to figure out yet." He reaches out, then touches the space in front of him pushing. It causes light to distort a bit, as if he put a strange camera lens on it. When he takes his hand back, space snaps back into place like rubber.
"I'd ask why you can suddenly turn into fire, but I guess stranger things have happened."
"I think you've forgotten the time spent when I first had it happen. The time spent in the ruins learning to ramp it up without imploding." She points out to him. "It's been ten years. I learned to light parts of me, keep the air warm, a bunch of things. Preparing to teach Kasha when she hits eighteen." Upside to having information about your daughter from the future, is when she'll manifest and -what- she'll manifest.
"In my defense, the last time I saw you was in another world where a version of you healed me after getting stabbed in the chest with garden shears. The different worlds get a little confusing." Magnes stares down at his hand when she mentions having to teach Kasha. "Thankfully I can't turn into anything without an extreme level of augmentation. I don't think I've ever want to turn into that again. But I think it's cool that you're the Human Torch now."
"So uh, I don't suppose I can ask about the fact that you have a little kid now?" He asks this very cautiously, as they'd talked about Kasha a few times, but he's avoided actually asking details. "I know how I used to be and all, but, I'm an adult, you're an adult, I'm not going to fly off into the sun in a fit of jealousy."
'nah, not the Torch. I can't fly." She points out. "Nor ignite the atmosphere." Someones been learning. He asks about Kasha and there's a ashake of her head. "You don't remember too much do you?" And she's reaching into her purse, taking out her wallet and pulling out a picture of a stoic looking ten year old that looks nothing like Abigail. Not even the blonde hair is the same shade. "She's officially mine. They didnt' look too hard when we made our way back to the US. Her mother died even before the war. No father turned up in any DNA searches. Huruma found her… hours after she was born? Many years ago. She was part of the lighthouse kids. But she's why I left during the war. I- that wasn't a situation to raise a child in and I knew what would happen if we stayed. So we didn't."
She smiles, there's pride in her voice. "Her grades are top notch, she's a great gardener, keeps her room clean and says her prayers. Kasha Deanna Beauchamp" Not Caliban. "She'll be heading back to Butte for a couple weeks for spring break and some, to my Dah's. She is the love of my life, and she is my anchor."
"I certainly remember Kasha, I just… never really knew the whole story. And being how I was, I had ideas in my head, because I'm awful." Magnes can't help but cringe at his past self a little, but he smiles, staring at the picture as he listens. "I get that. I think Addie and Adel certainly keep me tethered. I think I'd completely lose it if I didn't have to keep it together for them. I get that Adel is from the future, but… now that I have a daughter, now that I know what it means to be a dad, Adel is like… my little girl who happens to be a few years younger than me."
"I hear she's in Wolfhound. It takes everything in my power not to go ground her for hunting Nazis." He has to laugh, but it's clear that he's kind of a typical dad in that regard.
"Wolfhound?" Abigail looks confused. Nazi's?
"I'm not really sure about the details of the group, but I hear they hunt Humanis First and war criminals who are still on the run, anti-evolved people. Well, in this world I guess the term is SLC-E instead of evolved. Hard to get used to the cultural differences." Magnes explains, though appears to know almost as little as her. "Seems like something I'd have joined a long time ago. I shouldn't be surprised that my daughter would. I wish she'd just… be a librarian or something."
"You're learning now that what we want our children to be, is never what they want to be." Abigail looks at the time and frowns. "And that there is never enough hours in the day. If we're going to make pizza, we should go make it. Your place or mine?"
"My place has been other people's couches while I try to get life straightened out, so yours is good." Magnes hops off the edge of the building, landing on absolutely nothing. The way that he walks on the air is clearly not flight, it almost looks like if a mime actually had an ability.
He offers his free hand to her again. "Hanging out with you is kind of a very healing thing, not to sound weird."
She's not going to go hop off the side. She likes her jacket. There's no stash of clothing here that she knows of, like she might have in the past with Ferryman. There's a gesture for him to come closer so she can take his hand. "My place. I can let the sitter get on with her afternoon and you can meet Kasha. She's going to show you her plants in the basement. Just nod and try a leaf or two. She gets everyone to try her Basil."
"Hey, if she grows enough, maybe I can put it in a pizza one day." Magnes pulls her close again, just like earlier, then starts to fly off in the direction he remembers from dropping her off when they met before. "I get very dad-like when I'm around kids, I'm not sure if you'll be prepared for it."
"You'll keep your dadness to yourself. You undertand? You're in my home, and she's my kid. Not yours."
"I didn't mean it like that." Magnes seems to understand what she means, starting to slowly descend untli they're in front of her place. "You know, I don't even think giant robots put more fear in me than you taking a stern tone."
'Gia-" Nope. Nope, she's not asking. Not at all. Just going to introduce an old family friend and make pizza and eat pizza. Yup.