Participants:
| Scene Title | Veronica's First Time |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Game Fuel is had, Adam is discussed, Magnes shows his progress, all while he pops Veronica's gaming cherry. |
| Date | June 13 2009 |
Minea's Apartment - Magnes' room.
Batman and Superman beanbags, 9th Wonders comics on shelves, lots of geeky posters, video games!
Later in the afternoon, Magnes has gotten everything set up for Veronica's arrival. Yes, his usual posters and things are all around the room, Lois in a business suit and busty comic Starfire above his bed in a bikini. But, knowing that Veronica is coming, he's sure to put a modestly-busted Kitty Pryde right next to his bed. Those Batman and Superman bean bags are on the floor in front of the small TV and entertainment center, which is filled with a mixture of classic and newer videogames. Then, there's the smell, the apartment smells like homemade cooking, not the stuff you'd smell in a fast food place or even your average corner store take-out place, it smells good. He's got a large dish with two beef strombolis sitting on the floor, about twenty cans of orange Game Fuel, and a bag of nachos with a cup of what looks like homemade Italian dip.
He's sitting on the floor instead of in a beanbag, wearing just a pair of baggy blue jeans and a black t-shirt that says in plain white letters 'Batman was a virgin until he was thirty, I read that somewhere, really…'. Needless to say, he doesn't wear this shirt outside, and it was likely a gift…
Veronica walks into the room and quirks a brow. She's in "casual" wear — jeans and low-rise converse sneakers, a snug t-shirt. She looks more like she's his age than five years older. She moves to one of the bean bags and lowers herself into it with a little bit of a chuckle. "What's in that orange crap — if it's got cow pee or whatever in it, I'm not drinking any of it…" she points out, bending down to reach into his bag of chips.
"It's Game Fuel, Mountain Dew trying to capitalize on the gamer community." Magnes grabs a can and pops it open, taking a long gulp. "It's working." he adds with a playful smile. "So, now we're in my room. Is there anything I should do before we get to the game playing? I mean, is there some sort of protocol for this?"
"Ummm. I have no idea… I've never done a video gaming marathon before. You're the expert, right?" she says with a chuckle. "I don't like orange sodas, though. So maybe you could get me some water or something instead." She chuckles, looking around the room and shaking her head at the comic book paraphernalia.
"It doesn't taste orange, just try it." Magnes instructs, but he stands up and goes to get her water anyway. By the time he gets back, he has a large bottle he uses for training, sitting it on the floor next to her as he returns to his bean bag. "Alright, let's start with a simple game. We wanna ease you into gaming. So, Grand Theft Auto 4! The game you picked."
"I picked Grand Theft Auto?" Veronica says, not really remembering choosing anything — but that's because she grabbed the nearest game to hand to him. "And this is simple? Wouldn't, like, Pong be simpler?" she says, smirking a little. "Remember, I'm a video game virgin, not counting things like Oregon Trail that they made us play in school or like shooting simulations we used for training. So be gentle."
"Sorry, the earliest thing I have is a Super Nintendo. Well, this is a Famicom, but it's the same thing. I bought it in Japan. But we're playing the X-Box." Magnes gets everything set up, and apparently he played it to a point where she could just pick up and go. But then she says things like 'video game virgin', which wouldn't be so bad, if not for the other stuff. "B-be gentle, uh, I um, sure…" Cheeks flushed, he holds the controller out to her. "U-uh, I might have to show you what buttons do what…"
Veronica smirks a bit at the blush. She should be gentler with him, probably, truth be told, but it's too amusing to make him flustered. "Yes, show me how to handle the equipment," she says in agreement, smirking a bit at the double entendre there. She holds the controller between them so he can instruct her.
"A-alright, let's see, uh…" Magnes puts his hands over her's, which, from anyone else, might seem like making a pass, but, it's Magnes. "Alright, first, you move the character with the control stick, and you shoot with this, change your weapons with that, jump like this, and then you can steal cars. Here…" He makes her run over to a car, then pulls out and punches an old lady before getting in. "That's how you steal a car. When your stars go up, it makes the police get more aggressive and advanced. At five stars, you've got the whole army after you, but it's hard to get up that high."
"I… why did you make me beat up that woman? She wasn't doing anything wrong!" Veronica says with a gasp as he takes out the granny. "And why do I want all those police after me? Isn't that a bad thing?" she says, frowning at the screen and then at Magnes.
"It's fun, well, you can avoid it, it's usually good to avoid the police. Commit crime when the police aren't looking!" It may seem a tad surreal to hear Magnes talk this way, but it's clear he has a deep seperation of fiction and reality… well, at least when it comes to GTA. "You can let out all your frustration and do whatever you want. Snipe people from a building, drive on the wrong side of a road, run people over, get a rocket launcher and blow up cars. If this is too violent for you, we can try Animal Crossing."
"Too … violent…" Veronica repeats and starts laughing. "You know what we do for a living, don't you Magnes? I mean, you haven't been out and about on a real job yet, but … when the people we're trying to bring in are not good people and they don't want to come in nicely, it's not all fun and games and safe stuff, Magnes. People try to kill us sometimes. We sometimes have to shoot them back. This? This is just crazy, pretending to be bad guys, but it's not too violent." She begins to use the controls on her own, driving in rather crazy lines, having difficulty with steering. "Shit, I look like I'm drunk."
"Try to ease up on the gas." Magnes suggests, moving his finger without the control to give her a good idea of the gas-pressing intervals. "And well, yeah, I guess I understand, as long as we're not punching grannies. We're not punching grannies, right?" he asks with a look of mock worry, raising an eyebrow.
"The only old people I've had to try to fight were Adam Monroe and this guy who's a puppeteer and an evil bastard, so the fact he was old and fat didn't strike any sympathy in me," she says, her eyes on the television as she mimicks his motions on the controls. "No grannies. And I've never gotten to commandeer a car."
"You ever go undercover?" Magnes curiously asks, nodding in approval as he watches the screen. "I always wanted to go undercover, so I could be a charming guy." Shuffling through the Blockbuster games, he doesn't seem intent on asking to switch, instead wanting her to sink her teeth into this one first. She must see the joy of video games, so she will crave more! "I'd love to have charm, I could do all kinds of stuff."
"Yeah. Especially when I was first in the Company, since I looked so young…" she murmurs, following the game. "Where am I supposed to go?" she says with a laugh, shaking her head. "And you have charm, of a sort. It might not be like an Ability, but it's something you can learn a bit, I think. It's not all James Bond shit though. Being undercover. It can be really dangerous and not in a glamorous way."
"How do I have charm? And if you noticed, does that mean it worked on you?" Magnes tenses slightly, staring down inbetween his feet as he attempts to change the subject. "U-uh, what's the most dangerous thing you did?"
"You have boyish charm, but I think I probably outgrew that working on me a while ago, Magnes," she says with a laugh. "The most dangerous thing? God, I don't know. Or if I do, I can't tell you." She chuckles at that.
"I wanna be a man!" Magnes firmly says, apparently sick of being called immature. That's how he's taking it. "I don't wanna be immature, I'm sick of Abby and people always treating me like a kid, like I don't know anything. I'm old enough to drink! I wanna be a man."
"Ack, what do I do!" Veronica says, shoving the controller into Magnes' hands as something dangerous happens on the screen. "And I didn't call you immature, Magnes. It's different. Boyish charm isn't a bad thing. And this job will probably kick the shit out of anything boyishly charming soon enough. You'll be jaded and bitter in no time."
"I'm not gonna be jaded and bitter, I'll be able to fly soon. We can go to Hawaii or England whenever we want. They have Doctor Who conventions there." Magnes quickly takes the controller, speeding away from the cops down a steep hill, then he hits a ramp, dramatically goes over the water, then lands on a boat and promptly explodes. "Well, that almost worked…" he sighs, shaking his head. "I think the opposite is gonna happen, you'll stop being bitter and jaded, and I'll make you a happy person again."
"You're going to make me be un-bitter and un-jaded just by flying me over to Hawaii or something?" she says with a shake of her head. "That's a nice dream, Magnes, but it's not going to happen. If I live to be thirty, I'll be surprised, to tell you the truth." He's getting a rarely honest Veronica today. "Oops. I take it you weren't supposed to explode…"
"Not really…" Magnes sighs, looking through his games again, then pulls out Animal Crossing and switches from the X-Box to the Wii. "I'm not gonna let you die, Veronica, you're gonna live and be old and everything. Not Adam, or Sylar, or Jake, or anyone else is gonna change that. You're my friend, don't talk like you're gonna die, ever."
Veronica shakes her head. "It's okay, kid. I don't expect to live past thirty. If I do, anything else is bonus round, you know?" she says with a smirk, watching him change the game systems. "We're going to play some little kid game? Did all the explosions and violence upset you?" she says, picking up the game box to look at the cover.
"Hey, it's not a little kid game, trust me. Most people who play animal crossing are older than us, there's lots of micro-management." Magnes explains as the game comes on, and he starts setting a character up for her, giving it her name and everything. When she's finally in the town, and all the talking is done, he finally explains the game. "You go around doing chores for people, collecting things, fishing, pulling weeds, all while perfecting your house. I once read a story about this guy's mom, she was dying but she kept playing the game long after he stopped. Then, after she died, her son decided to play it again, and in his game mailbox were all sorts of gifts and notes from her, and he cried."
Veronica listens and chuckles. "Well, that's sweet," she says as she begins the tasks that the game gives her. "I don't see myself playing video games by myself, though… and I think if I were dying I'd be a bit too busy to do anything like that. Especially since it won't be anything long and drawn out. But that's a good thing." She pushes a strand of hair out of her eyes as she watches the screen.
"See, here, if you switch to the fishing rod, then walk all the way down to the peer, you can try to get a really big fish and sell them to the market, then you'll have money for all sorts of house items. And there's tons of items, you get addicted to collecting." Magnes just shakes his head though, then rubs his chin. "If you wanna play a two player game, there's Mario Kart, or Smash Brothers, which we can play on the same team. Oh yeah, first person shooters too, we can play Halo and shoot aliens in the head. And if you were dying, I'd find a way to save you."
"You're big on this 'I'll save you' motif," Veronica says with a chuckle. "How do you know it won't be me saving you? That's so very sexist of you, Magnes, baby." She smirks a bit, and shakes her head. "Collecting stuff for a pretend house? I don't know. I don't even like shopping for my own apartment… Two-player has to be more interesting than watching me play, though, right?"
"I like watching you play stuff, it's uh, well, you know, c-cu, uh…" Magnes clears his throat, moving to gently take the controller so he can save the game, then switch them again. This time it's Mario Kart, and he places the Wiimotes into steering wheel controllers, holding one over to her. "You could save me, I'm sure, but, I wanna be there to protect you from the people with powers."
She takes the steering wheel and moves it a bit, getting a feel for it. "I usually do okay on that on my own… But everyone makes a mistake at some point. Listen, Mag, make sure you don't make the mistake of trying to protect someone when you should look out for yourself. Because usually when that happens? Both people end up hurt."
"People keep telling me I need to learn to look out for myself," Magnes says, sounding all too familiar with her words, but apparently not disagreeing. "That's a part of the reason why I'm in the Company, getting training. I wanna know how to look out for myself so I can better look out for others." He starts them off with a simple enough race track, the Mushroom Kingdom, then they start zipping off. "Make sure you run over the boxes, then you get items you can use to slow people down, like turtle shells and bananas."
"Well, yes. You can help other people. But like… let's say we're on a target's case together. And somehow I'm in danger, but you can either help me or take the guy out. Don't stop to help me first. Take out the other guy. If you come to help me… chances are we're both goners," she explains, as she drives. This time she's better, with the actual steering wheel to help her out.
"I understand, I guess we're gonna have to do some practice runs so I know how to uh, control my altruism." Magnes randomly holds his wheel up, then lets it go. It stays in the air for quite a while, and doesn't seem intent on falling. "I can make stuff stay up for a whole minute now. It took a lot of practice, but I seem to be able to change the time limit."
She looks at the steering wheel though her diverted attention causes her cart to run off the track. "Dammit," she says with a laugh, turning back to the game. "That's great. You're coming along great. How's the flying practice you love so much?" she asks curiously. "And believe it or not, once I was altruistic too. It fades."
"It'll never fade for me, not as long as I hate being alone." Magnes grabs the wheel again, since he messed himself up too, then starts driving again, trying to catch up. "The flying is, well, getting easier. I can fly with my eyes open, but only if it's very slowly. It's hard to keep my concentration and control my vertical horizon, but I'm getting there."
"Still, that's pretty amazing. You should be proud of yourself," Veronica says quietly. "As for being alone — you might not hate that after a while. It makes it easier to do your job." She steers around an obstacle of some sort but knocks into his cart on accident. "Why is this so much harder than real driving…"
"I don't know, see…" Magnes laughs, not seeming the best at driving himself, but he does fair pretty well. "I don't know how to actually drive a real car, I don't have my license. I've been jumping roofs for five years, why would I need one?"
"Well, not like most people need a car in this city. I'm from California, originally. Everybody has a car in California. You know that song, Nobody Walks In LA? Totally true." She veers for a sharp right and crashes again. "Shit." She hurries to catch up with the pack.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'll let you teach me to drive." Magnes raises an eyebrow at her now, tilting his head. "When you were doing that whole showing your cleavage and recruiting me thing, you said I'd get a car. Where's my car?"
Veronica snorts at that. "I haven't done a lot of recruiting, but looking at your file suggested that feminine wiles was the best way in. Sorry, kid," she says, but her lips curve into a smirk. "And the car… you know, they lend you cars if you need them for jobs. That's more what I meant. But with your salary, you can afford a really nice car. What kind did you want?"
"Well, uh…" What Magnes says next would probably be suspiciously awesome if one doesn't watch much television. "A 1967 Chevy Impala. And uh, so far almost all my money is going to the bank, I'm not allowed to go anywhere I"d normally spend money."
"Well, I'm sure you can afford one of those if you can find one. Why do you want that? I mean, you could afford a porsche or a corvette or something if you really wanted…" she points out, growling as the other team's cart cuts her off. "Bastard."
"But, it's an Impala! Like the Winchesters!" Magnes protests, slamming into other cars, then fires a red turtle shell and sends someone stumbling. "A-and, uh, wouldn't girls like it? I mean, I could wear sunglasses and everything."
"The kinds of girls you want to date, Magnes, aren't going to be impressed by what kind of car you drive, are they?" she says with a shake of her head. "Drive what you want because you like it, not to impress someone. But I guess you should get your license first."
"Even though it wasn't an official date, I took Xiulan on a picnic to show her the kind of date I always wanted to have with a girl." Magnes suddenly brings up, since he hasn't really had the chance to tell anyone. "I cooked dinner and everything, and we ate it on the Statue of Liberty's head. It's impossible to get all the way up top unless you're a worker or can fly or something."
"See, that's pretty impressive. No Chevy Impala required," Veronica says as she dodges something the other team throws at her. The finish line comes into view, and she's still behind one of the other team's cars. "Dammit… I hate losing. That's probably why I never play this stuff…"
"I think I know something you'd really like." Magnes says with a smile, changing games again. This time he goes for WiiSports, removing the Wiimotes from the wheels, then standing up. "Come on, we're gonna bowl. And uh, what would you do if I did one of my crazy romantic gestures? I'm just wondering, in case I ever like someone who's a little older than me."
Veronica blinks. "Bowling?" she says, shaking her head. "We already talked about the whole dating thing, yeah? That it's not a good idea?" she reminds him. "But I'm not really the kind of girl that guys do … crazy romantic gestures for. I'm not the type that gets brought out on picnics or whatever. It's okay. I'm sure it's because I put out a kind of anti-picnic, anti-romantic vibe."
Of course, Magnes' Hero Complex(TM) kicks in. "There's nothing wrong with you, I mean, I'm the last person that should be saying this, since I've been trying to change my whole outlook on life just because people think I'm immature, but you're not defined by what other people think." he states firmly, moving to lightly pat her shoulder as the bowling game comes on. He shows her what buttons to press, which is actually only one or two buttons, then moves his arm in a bowling swing. It's very realistic. "You're just, well, you need love, I guess."
Veronica does a practice move and then nods, getting the concept. "Without the smelly shoes or carpal tunnel syndrome. I like it. I hate real bowling," she says, as she bowls the first frame. "And… like I said, it's easier not to get involved with people in this line of work. Maybe you can make it work with someone. I naver have. And it's easier not to get close. My last … fling… well. She died. Monroe killed her."
"I-I see, so that's why you want me to hurt him." Magnes says, non-judgementally, he just nods in understanding as he swings his arm on his turn. In this case, real bowling skills actually count, and, he's not that great. "Y-you're um, a lesbian? If it's not offensive to ask or anything."
"If you can take him down, you'll be a hero for reals, Magnes. Yes, I'd like to see him die for what he did, but also because he's a bad man. He hurt me, too. Took me by gun point for no reason, except that he recognized me for showing up when he got away last time," she explains, actually getting a strike on her next turn. "And no… I'm not… really… it was unexpected." She actually blushes a bit. "I usually date men. Or, aside from Kat, I've only dated men. I don't see myself with another girl, if that answers anything for you."
"I um, don't really understand, about the girl thing, but I believe you." Magnes offers a genuine answer, he's just slightly confused. He is not familiar with experimenting! "I can't kill him, Veronica. Well, I could, very easily, but I won't. What I can do is make sure he goes away forever and never comes back, if my power works the way I theorize."
"You can't. Not easily. The killing part. What do you mean, goes away forever and never comes back? What do you think your power can do?" she asks, curiously, bowling the next frame and getting all but one pin, then picking up the spare. "Don't by the way — don't go after him unless you're assigned, just in case you go all heroic on me."
"Don't worry Veronica, I won't do anything stupid, and I know about the order to not go after him; I don't intend to." Magnes assures her, smiling, then swings. His bowl goes right into the cutter, which earns a muttering, "Damnit…" before he quickly covers his mouth. "But uh, it's hard to explain, it's more a feeling. Like, I can feel gravity since I started practicing, it's not as abstract as it was before. When I remove it, I know it's creeping back into an object, but I feel like if I tried really really hard, I could remove it completely, or change it permanently with my own gravity. It's just a theory, but like, it's in my gut I guess."
"So like… you'd send him out to outer space or something?" she says, lifting a brow as she watches the bad bowling attempt. "Hey, this might be the only game I'm better than you at…" she says with a grin. "I guess that might work… you need to practice that a bit — you know, with something safe, somewhere safe… and see if it works." It's not a bad idea.
"Well, not space, the atmosphere would probably kill him." Magnes points out with his Science Hat, snickering when she says she's probably better, because he really isn't all that great, and he's just happy to see her enjoying it! "My idea is to permanently make him super heavy, so that even if the cells were broken into or something, he'd be that way forever unless I fixed it."
She nods, slowly. "Interesting. Though the atmosphere would be good too," she says as she finishes the last frame. "Well, work on that theory. We need more options when it comes to him," she says with a wrinkled nose. "All right. I think I'm officially video-gamed out. Let's eat, and then I need to get home and prep for some work stuff tomorrow."
"You could uh…" Magnes clears his throat, then shakes his head. "Nevermind." He turns the game off, finishing his can of soda, then plops back down on the bean bag and starts going through his movies. "Wanna watch something while we eat?"
Veronica chuckles. "Whatever you want is fine," she says, settling back and picking up the water bottle to sip. "I can't stay through the whole thing, though. It's late, and I have to do some work yet."
"It's alright, it was fun. I never really did this with a girl before." Magnes pops in a movie; Hellboy 2, then sits down so they can finally eat. "It was nice, thanks for this."