Scaena Interruptus (open)

[Ϛ The magician]

The main factor explaining why the magician looked much older than he was was that he spent a large portion of his time... without spending time. Or, more simply put, he spend a lot of days and nights wandering around with time stopped, ageing while the rest of the world remained frozen.

Tonight was such a night.

New York was a big city. One of the biggest. He had spent countless hours, certainly days worth, exploring it. To the outside observer, the whole ordeal would appear to have occurred instantly (or more accurately, would appear to have not happened at all), but to him, it was quite the lengthy adventure.

He had not been completely thorough, preferring to avoid doors and other obstacles that he would have to bring into the time field with him and manipulate, thus conserving his strength. This rendered most all the buildings, vehicles, etc. out of bounds. However, he had explored quite exhaustively the parts of New York that he had easy access to, and had seen some very interesting scenes, frozen in time.

This one was quite a bit different, though. Different enough that he brought the person involved into the time field with him, freezing the rest of the world for the subject of his attention, too.

"What are you doing?" he asked of the person, not bothering to explain why a) everything had stopped moving, b) why he cared what the person was doing, or c) why he was dressed so...

Ridiculously.

[҉ Joshua Lorne]

It was indeed a peculiar scene, probably even more so if someone happened to have frozen time at the exact moment this awkward scenario took place. Honestly, what were the chances that someone would have seen Joshua Lorne being the unfortunate victim of a flying banana in the Bronx of New York?

Let's rewind, shall we?

Josh didn't use maps. He had his own method of finding things with his ability to see anywhere he liked within his mind's eye. This Clairvoyance was something he often used before rounding a corner, or if he was looking for a nearby bathroom, or if he was driving and trying to avoid construction. He'd use it while he was walking, and still be able to see what was directly in front of him... like of like watching tv while looking out the window at the same time. You were aware of what was happening, you just didn't pay any particular attention to the mundane and uninteresting things like trees and lamp posts, but you knew they were there.

Also while he used this Gift, his other gift... Precognition... was accessible to him too. So while you're watching the latest episode of Glee where Brittany dances to Britney Spears, and checking out the cute girl walking past your house, you also feel your phone buzz before it starts ringing with an untimely phone call from your mother.

Only the tv was a woman being mugged around the corner, the window was Josh heading in that exact direction, and the phone call was the most bizarre distraction in the world. A wild flurry of events unfolded in his mind's eye...

First, there was a banana, second there was a man in a crazy costume... and then this sequence of events unfolded just as he predicted.

The woman flung the banana at her attacker, and Josh managed to artfully dodge it with nearly matrix-like reflexes. The magician caught him in this ridiculous position, eyes wide, with the banana boomeranging overhead.

"GAH." Josh lost his balance and promptly fell over. He scuttled backward and looked from the deranged-looking lady to the man running away, but his eyes landed on the frozen banana. What the?

"What are YOU doing?!" He demanded, trying to figure out what sort of phenomenon he was currently included in. This was so... strange. The eldest Lorne brother got to his feet, focus shifting from the banana to the man behind it. "What's going on?"

[Ϛ The magician]

The magician blinked, a gesture pronounced enough that it would be difficult to imagine it was an involuntary one. Which it wasn't. Sort of. He was really just surprised that the first words to come out of Joshua's mouth weren't in direct response to his own query. The possibility that he would be met not with answers but with questions simply hadn't occurred to him.

His blank blink was not long for this world, though; a frown and furrowed brow hastily replaced it as his not-so-inner child countered with, "I asked you first."

However, a chink in his egocentric armour revealed the observation that Joshua, who seemed to be rather confused by the whole ordeal, might not be answering questions any time soon, so he turned his attention to the banana. For the time being, it was the most interesting variable in the equation, and would probably remain that way until Joshua got a hold of himself.

Circling Joshua to get a better idea of the trajectory of the fruit, he quickly took stock of the situation around the corner and, deciding with a delighted grin that the woman had the right idea but the wrong sense of location, plucked the banana out of the air as though it was just hanging from a tree, as opposed to the frozen fabric of the space-time continuum.

Then, ignoring Joshua for a moment while he worked, he stood in front of the woman and threw the potassium-rich produce precisely at the mugger's head, freezing it again a split second before it connected. What remained was an edited version of the original that the victimized woman would surely find preferable, if rather insulting to her sanity.

With an approving nod, he turned his attention and gaze back to Joshua, though this time without so much as a word.