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| Chasing The Night; 05/23-evening- (617 Pete & Kitty) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 20 2013, 10:45 PM (1,072 Views) | |
| Shadowcat | Oct 1 2013, 08:17 PM Post #31 |
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Immaterial Girl
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Normal dating, definitely not her strong suit. Kitty couldn't even blame Raven for it (much), even if Pete seemed to automatically think she was at fault. Sound reasoning, but mostly it was just the way things seemed to have worked out. With him, though, she was definitely game to give it another try, even if their track record to now suggested they'd probably be in for more of the same. Especially if Pete kept saying things like that out loud, where the universe (pretty much any universe at this point, it didn't seem to matter) could hear him. Of course, she could fix that by just kissing him some more, but she managed to curb that impulse for the moment even if she already knew that wouldn't last. “Too late to take it back,” he shrugged, still grinning. “We’ll have to avoid taxis, I suppose.” It was a good start, as far as it went, but when he was talking about the two of them it meant they needed to go a lot farther than that. "And cars in general. And the subway. Maybe bridges, too, just in case," Kitty added with a smirk, very nicely aware of the journey his hand was making along her hip and leg, trailing a soft, diffuse warmth in it's wake that made her go soft inside in ways it probably had no business doing. Not that she was about to complain. No way. Neither of them would probably complain about whatever exploding would almost inevitably happen on any dates they actually planned, either. In fact, she wasn't sure they'd even know what to do if things weren't going crazy around them. Though it might be novel to find out what that was like, now that she thought about it, and Pete did still owe her a dance. The last might not technically have anything to do with the rest, but she felt like pointing it out all the same and it got her a widening smile for her trouble. “I haven’t forgotten,” he assured her but she already knew that. A dance that got interrupted because your partner was teleported away by a flying metal head was pretty hard to forget. Even for Pete. “Like I told you before, long as I’m around, you’ll always have a partner.” Yeah, she knew that, too, and this time it was her smile that softened and she was still smiling when he kissed her again. Hand lifting to thread through his hair, Kitty shifted more toward him as he did the same. Wanting him closer as the kiss deepened, stretched on until it captured her complete attention. Well, no, that wasn't exactly right, because she was completely aware of every touch, every movement of his hand and shift of his body. The way he was pressed against her that brought that slow curl of heat sliding languidly along her her skin. Felt the tensing of muscles against her fingers as Pete rolled them over, bracing himself over her. A soft gasp escaped as he pulled away, mouth trailing a of kisses from her throat to her chest, over her breast. Palms sliding down his back, unconsciously urging him in closer, her neck arched his tongue dragged over one still sensitive nipple, then the other. A tight, hot pull of renewed arousal shivered over what felt like every nerve ending she had and her fingers tightened at his sides. God she hoped he didn't expect her to carry on any kind of coherent conversation if he kept doing that. “Some place to do some dancing, then,” he said, voice dropping an octave and doing absolutely nothing at all to move her back toward coherence for the conversation they were apparently still having. “Should be plenty o’ those to choose from.” "London's full of clubs," she agreed absently, mind not really on her answer as his mouth left a heated trail of kisses down her torso, muscles of her stomach and abdomen drawing tight in anticipation. As much as she liked the idea of finishing their dance, dancing was being edged progressively out of her thoughts in favor of other things. Pete really was such a bad influence. In what she quickly decided was the best way as the warmth of his mouth met her skin in an increasingly heated trail along the ridges of her hips, then along her thigh as she automatically shifted her leg a little to the side, giving him better access. “Although there are a few places we might want to avoid, now that I think about it,” he said, lips brushing the sensitive skin at her inner knee and making her shiver involuntarily, breath catching. The words barely registered, just the sound of his voice adding to a soft but rapidly growing haze of desire, “Well. Avalon isn’t technically on earth. We're not likely to wind up there on purpose.” That did register, though. Mostly. Did he say Avalon? Propping herself up on her elbows, Kitty sat up slightly, brow creased as she looked down at him. "Avalon? As in fairies, Celtic gods, that sort of thing? Avalon in Otherworld?" Not that she knew of a lot of other Avalons, but it never hurt to be clear. Brows rising - because when exactly had Pete been to Avalon and why hadn't he mentioned this before now - she continued with, "Pete, you know Roma and Merlyn originally put Excalibur together, right? The CBC is based there. So, yeah, I think it's more than likely we'll wind up there at some point. We usually do." Soooo maybe he'd better tell her why it was that they might be needing to avoid a place that Excalibur couldn't seem to avoid for any length of time even when they tried. |
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| Pete Wisdom | Oct 5 2013, 10:35 PM Post #32 |
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Knows perfectly well what canny means
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Their first dance had been one for the record books. Between the way it started and the way it had been cut short, Pete was going to remember it for a good long while. Kitty seemed to have decided this meant he still owed her one, and he figured she had a point. He’d been wanting to finish that dance just as much himself. She’d never have to want for a partner so long as he was around. He could offer to make that dance up to her right now, he supposed. Except they didn’t have any music here, and he was certain they wouldn’t get far before they were both distracted by other things. Which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, come to think of it. He’d have to keep that option open for later. Right now, however, he was having other ideas. They could still discuss the matter, as soon as he was s done kissing her again. Kitty’s hand slid through his hair as the kiss deepened. He loved the way she did that, the feel of her fingers tracing gentle paths along the back of his head. It was a soft, sensual, deeply intimate touch, and he was acutely aware of her body as she they shifted closer to each other, her every response while his free hand stroked her leg more aggressively. His pulse was on a slow, steady climb as he rolled them both over. The kiss ended, only for Pete to being a series of brief, smaller kisses down her body, starting from her throat and along her chest. He was rewarded by the sound of Kitty’s soft gasp, her hands stroking down his back to encourage him further. Concentrating on her pleasure, he made sure to give extra attention to whatever she liked best during his slow journey, all too aware of his own growing arousal. At this rate it wouldn’t be long before they were both too distracted to continue the conversation, but he was good with that. He fairly coherent so far, however, and as long as dancing was on Kitty’s mind, Pete suggested they might look for someplace to do that as far as planning a date went. "London's full of clubs," Kitty said, sounding a little lost in sensation while Pete progressed along her torso. Any other time, those words coming from her would have been a teasing threat, but Pete had a feeling she wasn’t entirely aware of what she was saying at the moment. London did have plenty of clubs, but Pete would sooner give up drinking than wonder into one of those places willingly. Well, the idea was out there, but if they made any formal plans they could find themselves heading to some interesting places. Considering the effect Kitty was having on him right now, muscles coiling in response to his kisses, leg shifting invitingly to the side, he was having a lot more trouble keeping track of the conversation himself. All that was being edged out of his mind, his focus rapidly narrowing to Kitty and her responses. Pete was only dimly aware of what he was saying as he placed a kiss on her inner knee and felt her shiver against him. Something about avoiding certain places, which was probably a good idea. He was having some trouble remembering most of them at the moment, but Avalon did spring to mind, and he absently mentioned that they might not have to worry about that one as much, considering it wasn’t technically on Earth. He was drawing closer to her center, anticipation building, but she abruptly sat up, interrupting the next kiss. Pete glanced up to find her sitting up a little and looking down at him with some degree of confusion. "Avalon? As in fairies, Celtic gods, that sort of thing? Avalon in Otherworld?" Well. Apparently he hadn’t imagined saying that out loud after all. It certainly seemed to have gotten Kitty’s attention. “I don’t mean the one in Victoria,” he said, but he gave her a slight nod just to confirm that she was right. And she looked fairly surprised about it, brows climbing toward her hairline. "Pete, you know Roma and Merlyn originally put Excalibur together, right? The CBC is based there. So, yeah, I think it's more than likely we'll wind up there at some point. We usually do." She was right. And that did complicate things a bit, didn’t it? “That’ll be something to look forward to,” he said, making it clear he’d be more inclined to avoid it if at all possible. There usually wasn’t a lot of choice in the matter when it came to these things, however, as their current location illustrated rather well. Pausing just long enough to give her inner thigh one last kiss, like a promise that he’d be back, Pete climbed forward to slide back up to Kitty, lying next to her and draping one arm over her as he met her eyes. Pressing against her was keeping him very conscious of what he’d been doing just a moment earlier, but he managed to focus all the same. “It’s not as bad as all that,” he assured her, “but it is one o’ the things I need to talk to you about.” He took a deep breath, as if he were about to start, and then gave her a slightly wicked smile. “But I believe it’s your turn, yeah?” he said, tapping her side lightly with one finger. “The other you’s a bit of a blabbermouth. She was convinced I had you and all the rest under some sort of mind control.” He closed his eyes for a second, giving his head a slightly weary shake while his hand stroked lazily along her side. “Didn’t go into any detail apart from a few names, and I didn’t want to hear it from her,” he said. “But I am curious.” He gave her a reassuring squeeze. Maybe she didn’t need it, but he didn’t expect this would be an easy topic for her, and he wanted to make sure she knew she had his complete attention and his full support. They had a lot to share, between the two of them, but they'd get through most of it tonight. Of that he was certain. |
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| Shadowcat | Oct 6 2013, 09:34 PM Post #33 |
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Immaterial Girl
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That was...really, really distracting. And very, very nice. Very nice. Nice and distracting and Kitty was barely paying attention to what she was saying. Or what Pete was saying for that matter. Something about dancing and clubs and... Had she just suggested Pete in a nightclub? Pleasantly foggy and distracted memory informed her that she may have and the brunette couldn't be bothered to stop the slow curving of her lips. If he'd disagreed, she hadn't noticed, but she didn't think he had. Which told her he was nearly as distracted as she was, possibly more so if there wasn't sputtering and general protests at the very idea of going near anything labeled a 'club'. They'd figure it out later, though. When he wasn't doing that and she had two functioning brain cells to rub together again and her pulse wasn't rushing in her ears and increasingly hot through her veins. That same heat was coursing along her skin, everywhere his fingers and mouth touched. It was Pete mentioning Avalon that did cut through that very pleasant haze of escalating, renewed arousal as he mentioned places they probably shouldn't go. Wait...Avalon? The Avalon of Arthurian legend with fairies and Celtic gods? Avalon in Otherworld? “I don’t mean the one in Victoria,” Pete replied with a confirming nod as she propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at him. That...yeah, that could be an issue, considering that Merlyn and Roma had formed Excalibur to begin with and that the Captain Britain Corps was based there. And that they seemed to find themselves sucked into Otherworld every other month for some reason or other. It wasn't anything but pure luck that it hadn't happened since Pete got there, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. Most likely sooner. “That’ll be something to look forward to,” and that was definitely not Pete's 'I'm thrilled about this, when do we start' voice. This, Kitty suspected, was going to be some story. God, she hoped it wasn't anything, too bad, since she was pretty sure Pete wearing a wig and her costume and passing himself off as her wouldn't work nearly as well for him as it had for Ray when Saturnyne was on her 'hunt down Rachel Summers and shoot her back off into the timestream' kick. "You have no idea," she replied wryly, then gave into another brief moment of distraction as Pete planted a kiss on her inner thigh that had her shivering in response. They would definitely get back to this, she promised herself, once she'd heard this tale of Pete Goes To Fairy Land. Or possibly Pete Accidentally (Or Possibly On Purpose) Wreaks Havoc in Fairy Land. And maybe figure out how much of a headache it was going to end up being for Brian, so they could be prepared for the moaning and groaning to come. Though after everything else this week, some of Brian's normal grousing would actually be pretty welcome. Pete slid himself up to stretch out next to her, arm wrapped over her and she turned onto her side again, shifting in closer automatically because it just felt right, the better to pay attention. “It’s not as bad as all that,” he assured her, causing her brows to inch their way upward juuuust a little skeptically. Yeah, when you had to preface things that way? Usually it was exactly as bad as all that, but she she grinned a little, too, all the same, “but it is one o’ the things I need to talk to you about.” That was fair enough, considering she had plenty of things of her own that fell into that category. So, as he took a breath and opened his mouth, she slipped her free arm over him in turn, settling in for whatever insane thing she was about to hear. Because it was Pete, and so it had to be some crazy thing or other. The decidedly wicked smile that followed, though, had her definitely intrigued, but what followed wasn't at all what she'd expected. “But I believe it’s your turn, yeah?” he said, tapping her side lightly with one finger, causing her to let out an involuntary gasp. Hey, she was ticklish there! “The other you’s a bit of a blabbermouth. She was convinced I had you and all the rest under some sort of mind control.” Blinking at him, she let out a short bark of laughter as he shook his head, eyes closing momentarily and hand stroking over her side in way she was still very aware of but that was less distracting this time. "Mind control? What the heck did you do to her, Pete?", Kitty couldn't resist teasing. Of course, given what she'd seen of her younger counterpart since they'd both been in the same universe, he probably hadn't done anything at all other than be himself. Though how the hell did she get mind control... But he'd also said she was a blabbermouth, hadn't he? And it didn't take much to put two and two together. The smile and humor slowly faded from her expression. What the hell had the younger version of herself said to him, exactly? “Didn’t go into any detail apart from a few names, and I didn’t want to hear it from her,” he said. “But I am curious.” Pete's arm tightened around her in a light squeeze as she sighed, expelling a heavy breath of air as she pressed in closer and gave him a wry look. "I may kill her. Just so you know," Kitty told him, lifting her free hand and pushing the hair at her temples and forehead back and out of her face. "There's a lot, Pete," she admitted, hand lowering to rest on his upper arm as she met his eyes. "I can kind of guess where the 'mind control' idea came from, I think," It was, she supposed, as good a starting place as any, if not an easy one. "You've heard me mention Emma already, and I'm guessing she might've mentioned Lilith. And Ogun?" There were less than a handful of people, aside from her and Logan, who even knew about Ogun. Illyana, Rachel, her long-absent father. She hadn't spoken the name out loud in years, never talked about that time and everything that had happened. One of the hardest things she'd ever gone through. Hell, that entire year had been that way, but she didn't, even for a second, think about trying to deflect or change the subject. This was Pete, and she loved him, and if anyone who hadn't spent half their life doing this could ever understand it, it'd be him. |
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| Pete Wisdom | Oct 11 2013, 12:15 AM Post #34 |
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Knows perfectly well what canny means
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Avoiding Avalon was going to be more difficult than Pete had hoped. Just about impossible, from the sounds of it. He could hardly wait. The way Kitty was talking, not to mention the tone of her voice, there was much more behind her interest than just the basics she’d laid out, too. That was going to be an interesting conversation in its own right, he expected. For now, it was his own history with the place that had Kitty’s interest, however. And it was one of the things she ought to know. She looked more than a little dubious about his assertion that it wasn’t as bad as she might think. He had to wonder just what it was she was imagining he’d done in the land of the fair folk. Reluctantly, very reluctantly, he abandoned his current position to lie next to Kitty, the better to have that talk. But not before one last kiss inside her thigh, because he was looking forward to finishing what he’d started. It was comfortable lying next to her, and even more so when she draped her arm over him, her soft brown eyes on him expectantly. Before he got into that, however, she needed to have a turn. Playfully, he tapped her side, only for her to let out a sharp gasp of protest. He hadn’t expected that. How about that? Kitty was ticklish. He made a mental note to be careful about that. No matter what some might say about it, in his experience, the only way anyone felt about tickling while they were being tickled was how badly they wanted it to stop. Still, it might come in handy in case Kitty ever found the spot where he was ticklish. Undeterred, Pete let Kitty know how careless her other, younger self had been with personal information. Not to mention her odd theory that he’d brainwashed Kitty and was putting one over on the rest of their mates as well as everyone else in the mansion. For a brief moment Kitty stared at him, blinking her eyes in bafflement before she let out an explosive laugh. That was a good sign, and even though they were having a fairly serious conversation, he was smiling. His hand continued to caress her, because he was still very aware of her and the way they were lying next to each other and every point where their skin brushed against each other. "Mind control? What the heck did you do to her, Pete?" It was a playful question, and Pete gave her a relaxed smile as he shrugged his shoulders. “I was rather confused meself when she tossed that one out,” he said. Which was what had led to her spilling more than he should have heard from anyone other than the woman he was in love with. His expression sobered, and Kitty’s slowly did the same, and her curiosity had a warier look about it. He thought as much. There’d been some names, before she’d caught on and stopped herself before he had to do it. Too late to take it back, but he figured Kitty had planned on telling him, and he’d had it on his mind in varying degrees since. He expected it wouldn’t be the easiest discussion, however much her intentions to get into it were. But that was alright. However she wanted to do it, and whatever it was she had to say, he was going to be right by her side and give her whatever support she needed and as much comfort and understanding as he possessed. Pressing in closer, her expression turned sardonic again. "I may kill her. Just so you know," she said, brushing some of her hair away from her face . He nodded. “Think she already knows that.” He drew in another deep breath, Kitty’s smell filling his senses. He’d missed that. Hadn’t even realized he was aware of it, but days of being without it, he recognized it as uniquely her, and it was another comforting reminder that he was exactly where he belonged. Her hand fell to rest on his upper arm as she met eyes with him. "There's a lot, Pete," she said, confirming his suspicions. "I can kind of guess where the 'mind control' idea came from, I think, You've heard me mention Emma already, and I'm guessing she might've mentioned Lilith. And Ogun?" He answered with a brief nod, then gave his head a slight shake. “I don‘t recognize that last one,” he said. They’d all been bad. He didn’t even need to guess at that, and he was ready to hear about each of them. Frost, he knew, had earned her place as once Kitty would never forgive, and there weren’t many who crossed paths with Dracula’s daughter like that and were still around to talk about it. But Ogun. That one had wounded her the deepest. He could tell just by the way she’d said the name. The look in her eyes. He leaned in, gave her a light kiss. Rubbed her shoulder. Pulling back, his eyes sought hers out again. “Tell me, Kitty,” he said in a soft voice. He loved her, and he was about as ready to hear all this as he was ever going to be. |
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| Shadowcat | Oct 11 2013, 07:51 PM Post #35 |
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Immaterial Girl
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If you strangled an alternate universe, younger version of yourself to death, was it still murder? Or did that count as suicide? As Kitty mused (alright, not entirely seriously, but it was tempting) on that particular conundrum internally, she couldn't help but wonder externally what the hell Pete had done to make other her think he somehow had them all under mind control? Pete was good, but not exactly the next Mastermind. His power set didn't really cover that. However her younger self had managed to come to that conclusion (and Kitty could only imagine it had been through amazing feats of twisting logic in something like taffy and then tying it into knots), Pete didn't seem overly bothered by it. His smile was easy as he shrugged his shoulders. “I was rather confused meself when she tossed that one out,” he said not at all surprisingly. Yeah, that one definitely had her stumped, too. Quite the feat, when she was talking about someone who was, basically, herself. Younger, some different experiences, still the same brain. And enough of the same experiences that you'd think her counterpart should know that mind control wasn't an unfamiliar thing and not nearly as easy to pull off these days as it had been when she was fourteen or fifteen. Or maybe that Was part of it, only the other way around. There'd been a lot of possession, manipulation, mind control and attempts at mind control in her life. Maybe more so, and more overtly in some ways, in her counterpart's life. So maybe she was seeing it around every corner now. Though, still, Pete? Seriously? How did that even turn into a thought? Apparently, it'd turned into way more than that. From thought to what sounded like a lot of spilling of things that weren't the younger Kitty's to spill. At least not to anyone but her own boyfriend, and certainly not to Pete when she hadn't had a chance to tell him any of this herself. Yeah, she just might kill her and figure out what to classify it as later. “Think she already knows that.” Pete confirmed with a nod. Okay, so it sounded like it really hadn't been on purpose at least. Still, there was a lot. More than she'd even realized as she started trying to line it all up in her head. A lot of event, some of them hopelessly tangled up together in a big mass. The weight of a lot of memories that she hardly every talked about. Yes, she could guess well enough where the mind control idea had come from, crazy as it was. He'd already heard her mention Emma, even if he didn't know those details yet. Some of the others her counterpart might've mentioned were easy enough to guess. Lilith. Maybe Ogun. Easier to say that name than she'd thought, lying here next him, but then she'd never had any problem talking to Pete, had she? Even in the beginning, when it was technically more yelling and snapping than actual talking. Pete nodded, then shook his head. “I don‘t recognize that last one,” he said. So she'd mentioned Lilith, probably Emma, but not Ogun. Apparently it wasn't a name her younger self brought up casually, either. Then he leaned in for a soft kiss that had her smiling back at him as he rubbed her shoulder. No, she wasn't afraid of telling Pete...anything, really. But some old wounds were harder to open up than others, she admitted, meeting those blue eyes of his again as he said softly and simply, “Tell me, Kitty,” and there was no question that she would. It was just a question of a starting place. "A lot of it's all tangled together," she began, deciding that the only way to start was to pick some place to do that and just go with it. "but Lilith came first out of those. We'd fought Dracula before. He'd taken Ororo and we almost didn't get her back." That moment was still there in her head, when she'd forced that choice on Storm. Fight it and stay who she was, or give in and follow Dracula. And kill her in the process. She hadn't needed Ororo to tell her to know what a close call it had been. "He came back, though, about the time my parents finally divorced. Tried to take her again, but Lilith was following him and she wanted her father dead." Arm slipping around him again, just for the added contact and closeness, the brunette let out a long breath, one corner of her mouth tipping up wryly. "So Dracula took Storm, and Lilith took me - possessed me more than mind control, I guess - and I took Peter. Or Lilith did," she added with a shrug, because it was one in the same by that point. "She had the Montessori Formula and she wanted her father dead. There was a huge fight, because there's always a huge fight, right?" Kitty continued with a brief flash of humor, "Ororo stopped me from reciting the spell but, in all the confusion, one of Dracula's own vampires shoved a stake into his heart and that was that." Rachel Van Helsing, who'd asked them to put her out of her misery after that and Logan had. "After that, Lilith let me go and I only really remember bits and pieces of what happened, like snatches of a bad dream." For a while, she'd had nightmares of waking up in a coffin in a moldering castle, riding in her own body like a passenger, not able to take any kind of control, as someone else did the driving. Dreams of screams and blood and terror, but after a few days they'd thankfully faded away. And if Peter had any memory of what had happened when she'd put him under her thrall, he'd never admitted it or talked about it. Pausing to take another deep breath, she let her hand drift over the warm skin of his back, lightly along the line of his shoulders, comforted by that real, grounding contact. For how easy and comfortable it was to just talk to him, even about all this. All things they'd have probably gotten to before now, if circumstances hadn't conspired against them. "Emma," she continued thoughtfully, eyes seeking his again as she moved to the next name in line, "she's been a thorn in my side since I was thirteen. She wanted me for the Massachusetts Academy. Had her goons chasing me around for a couple of days right after I manifested and scared the hell out of me and kidnapped some of the X-Men in the process." Brows drawing together, remembering how frantic and panicked she'd been, just a scared thirteen year old girl, she shook her head briefly, looking back up to Pete. "Emma Frost was the first true evil I ever knew, Pete," Kitty tried to explain, though she didn't have to wonder if he'd understand that. She knew he would. "Even when that was over and she'd lost, and I joined the X-Men, she never let it go." Because Emma couldn't stand losing. Once she was older, Kitty had come to the conclusion that it wasn't even about wanting her, necessarily, as much as it was wanting to win. Hand lifting briefly again, she made another attempt at pushing her hair back off of her forehead, then rubbed momentarily at her eyes. Thinking too much about Emma always seemed to give her a dull headache. "When I was about fifteen, Emma invited Doug to the Massachusetts Academy. The Professor seemed to think he might be better off there, even if god knows I've never understood why. But I insisted on going with him for his campus visit. We thought Emma was out of commission, but I still had a bad feeling." Slipping her arm back over him, she opened her eyes again, shaking her head. "I was right. She ambushed us on the plane ride, kidnapped me, kept me prisoner along with some of the New Mutants for a week or two. Tied me to a chair for...what felt like at least days, tried to brainwash me, tried to mind control me, did everything she could think of to force me to join the Hellions and just tortured the hell out of me in general." Lips pursed, because those were not her favorite memories, she paused a moment, fingers lifting to slide through the dark strands of his hair. "I managed to get a message back to the mansion and Yana and Dani got us out. If they hadn't, I think she might've actually managed to manipulate us all into thinking we wanted to be there. So, yeah, she can claim to be reformed as much as she wants and I can't do a thing about them just handing over a whole new set of young mutants to her to do god knows what with," even with Sean there to supposedly keep things on the up and up, she still wasn't convinced he knew what he was dealing with, "but I'll never trust her. Not in a million years." All she could do was hope that she was wrong and that everyone wouldn't live to regret putting her in charge of yet another school full of kids. |
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| Pete Wisdom | Oct 13 2013, 02:35 PM Post #36 |
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Knows perfectly well what canny means
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The younger Kitty had mentioned the name Ogun twice. Had even alluded to the fact that the encounter had changed her in some significant, permanent way, but Pete had never heard of whoever that was. The name meant nothing to him. He’d even tried researching it in what spare time he’d had. Knowing who this Ogun was wasn’t the same as finding out what Kitty’s past with him had been. His search had turned up nothing, his contacts just as empty handed as Pete. His sister might have had more luck, but he’d dragged his feet some on reaching out to her. As things were, he may as well be hearing about Ogun for the first time right now, and possibly, it was better that way. He was ready to hear it, and all the rest, though, in whatever way she chose to tell it. He didn’t doubt for a second that Kitty would tell him everything, that she wanted to, but wanting to didn’t necessarily make it easy, especially if she wasn’t in the habit of saying it much in the first place. There were no secrets between them. Not anymore. Only stories they hadn’t gotten around to telling each other. "A lot of it's all tangled together," she said, once she’d settled in enough to start. It usually was, in Pete’s experience, though mind control wasn’t often part of the picture. They weren’t disconnected anecdotes, where one was just a valid a place to start as another. A tapestry of defining moments, woven together in ways most might not suspect if it wasn’t viewed from up close. No matter which string you tugged, bits and bobs from the rest would start spilling out with it. "but Lilith came first out of those. We'd fought Dracula before. He'd taken Ororo and we almost didn't get her back." Christ, Dracula too? Not the usual sort for them to cross swords with, and not a foe to be taken lightly. He could see the ancient Lord of Vampires taking an interest in Munroe, and he wasn’t known for letting any defeat go unanswered. Sure enough, Kitty‘s next three words confirmed it. "He came back, though, about the time my parents finally divorced. Tried to take her again, but Lilith was following him and she wanted her father dead." A thirteen year-old with parents fresh divorced. It all fit. Pete had felt that pain himself, known the helplessness and frustration and impotent rage. Lilith always wanted her father dead and fed off of young women who had similar feelings about their own. She wouldn’t have needed to even try with Kitty. The way she must have been, she’d have all but put out the welcome mat for her. Despite himself, Pete felt a slight chill, but Kitty’s arm slipped around him, her warmth chasing it away. Kitty paused to breathe a long gust of air and then gave Pete a sardonic smile. "So Dracula took Storm, and Lilith took me - possessed me more than mind control, I guess - and I took Peter. Or Lilith did," she said, shrugging. Once Lilith sank her hooks into a victim, it was more or less academic who was who. "She had the Montessori Formula, she continued, and Pete’s eyes widened slightly. The Montesi Formula. That was no minor spell, and Black Air had long sought to take possession of it. He let out a long breath himself, trying to picture the effect of just holding that spell in her hands, regardless of who happened to be doing the driving. “and she wanted her father dead. There was a huge fight, because there's always a huge fight, right?" Kitty continued, and Pete let out a soft laugh. “Always,” he confirmed. "Ororo stopped me from reciting the spell but, in all the confusion, one of Dracula's own vampires shoved a stake into his heart and that was that. After that, Lilith let me go and I only really remember bits and pieces of what happened, like snatches of a bad dream." So that explained it. Of course, Lilith would have released her voluntarily. It was the only way it could have happened without leaving permanent scars or worse, breaking her completely. Kitty had been lucky, and was probably better off not remembering much of it. But that wasn’t the part that was truly unnerving. Once in, what was there to keep Lilith from coming back any time she chose? If Dracula’s daughter ever decided Kitty would be useful, she’d have her, and it might not end as well a second time. Or had there already been a second time? Pete shifted closer when he felt Kitty’s hand slide over his back and up to his shoulders. "Emma," she said, signaling that Lilith had, possibly, not gone after Kitty since then. Thank god. Pete pressed his lips into a thin line as her eyes met his and he waited for Kitty to start on the history she’d earlier alluded to having with the haughty blonde. "she's been a thorn in my side since I was thirteen. She wanted me for the Massachusetts Academy. Had her goons chasing me around for a couple of days right after I manifested and scared the hell out of me and kidnapped some of the X-Men in the process." She paused, knitting her brows together at what Pete was sure had been an especially unpleasant memory. The slender brunette gave her head a slight shake and looked back into his eyes. "Emma Frost was the first true evil I ever knew, Pete," she continued. The former spy didn’t have to even think about that, or try to put it into any kind of context. He’d been a child himself when he got his first taste of real evil. It had a way of sticking with you, no matter what else changed. "Even when that was over and she'd lost, and I joined the X-Men, she never let it go." For the second time, Kitty made a swipe at her hair to get it out of her face. She massaged around her eyes, as if trying to work out a dull pain. Pete’s hand moved up and gently brushed the troublesome lock away and stroked lightly through her hair to make sure it didn’t keep intruding on her. "When I was about fifteen, Emma invited Doug to the Massachusetts Academy. The Professor seemed to think he might be better off there, even if god knows I've never understood why. But I insisted on going with him for his campus visit. We thought Emma was out of commission, but I still had a bad feeling." After nearly two years, Pete expected Kitty would have developed a good sense for trouble. One that was on the mark more often than it wasn’t. Her arm moved away from her temples and she draped it back over Pete. "I was right. She ambushed us on the plane ride, kidnapped me, kept me prisoner along with some of the New Mutants for a week or two. Tied me to a chair for...what felt like at least days, tried to brainwash me, tried to mind control me, did everything she could think of to force me to join the Hellions and just tortured the hell out of me in general." Pete tensed as she described the affair. That wasn’t much different from the way Shrine had tried to kill Pete back in Dream Nails. Tried and nearly succeeded. What Frost had done, though, that was worse on multiple levels, and Kitty not even fifteen years old. The expression on her face said a lot of how unpleasant the memory was, the distaste she felt for it, and Pete pressed his forehead against hers, adding that bit of contact to the rest while she slid her fingers through his hair. “Ah, Christ, Kitty,” he breathed, voice barely audible. He shifted his head back slightly to look at her face again as she continued. "I managed to get a message back to the mansion and Yana and Dani got us out. If they hadn't, I think she might've actually managed to manipulate us all into thinking we wanted to be there. So, yeah, she can claim to be reformed as much as she wants and I can't do a thing about them just handing over a whole new set of young mutants to her to do god knows what with, but I'll never trust her. Not in a million years." Pete nodded slowly. He wasn’t sure anyone else much trusted her either. Even little Katie had regarded the woman with suspicion when she’d decided to tag along after some of her students. She might not be the same person she’d been then, might not be as evil as before, but none of that would change how much trust she was due. Especially from Kitty. “Good,” he said with conviction. “Maybe that’ll make her try harder to do what’s right. Maybe she’ll chafe on it and show her true colors. Either way, it keeps her from doing all that to anyone else.” Someone who’d fare much worse than Kitty, he’d expect. No matter how strong he already knew Kitty was, things like this made it clear that he still hadn’t seen it all. And she’d been that way for a long time. So had the other one, he realized, but that strength hadn’t kept her from breaking. Nobody was so strong they could weather the worst of it forever. It made it harder to think about what that Kitty must have been through to bring her to that state, and emphasized just how different the two of them were, even as it showed just how alike they were as well. And Kitty was far from done. Pete’s hand unconsciously continued to stroke her hair as he watched her face. He leaned in, placing another soft kiss on her lips, and moved in a little more. She was only getting started, and he waited quietly. Bad as the two before had been, he was certain the next one would be the worst of them all. |
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| Shadowcat | Oct 14 2013, 12:03 AM Post #37 |
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Immaterial Girl
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There was, Kitty mused, a difference between not having gotten around to all the anecdotes of your partner's crazy life adventures (I got a demon for Christmas and destroyed the house or my boyfriend dumped me for an alien girl he'd known three days, some of which Pete already kind of knew about) and not realizing the person you were sleeping with, and in love with, was the heir to a hell dimension or had been imprinted by a mystical demon ninja. Or that they'd tried to commit suicide when they were fifteen. Maybe she actually owed her younger self a little thanks (though she was still reserving the right to strangle her all the same). At least with the names she'd thrown out at Pete she'd given her a place to start working through all that. So Lilith it was, for a starting place. Not easy, but easier than some of the others, and it helped that she was talking to Pete. That he was close, right there next to her as she dragged it all up from memory. Lilith, Dracula, the possession, the Montesi Formula (which got her a look of surprise, and she didn't have to wonder why; very few people had ever seen that spell, much less held it in their hands), the fight - because there was always a fight, wasn't there? “Always,” he confirmed with a soft laugh that had her smiling back just as softly for a second before she dove back in. Which was, really, the end or the closest thing to it. The end of Dracula, if they were lucky, and Lilith had let her go and there were huge pieces of it she didn't remember at all, or remembered like they were fuzzy pieces of a dream. Kitty could practically see the wheels turning in Pete's head as he processed it all, maybe a little concern there, too, and she could probably guess why, or something close. But she'd been young and a lot less experienced then. She wasn't the easy target for that sort of thing that she had been and if someone managed, well, Kitty wished them luck when Rachel came for them. Then it was Emma, and that...was different. Maybe not harder, but it went deeper and she found herself shoving at her hair, rubbing at her eyelids because Emma was a headache in more ways than one. Taking that extra second to get her head in some sort of order, she felt Pete's fingers at her temple, sliding through her hair. Just...there, which was exactly what she needed him to be. Emma was less complicated to explain in some ways. More complicated in others. Her first real experience as a mutant teenager had been running from the goons she'd sent after her and that had taken some of the other X-Men. The White Queen had been the first real, true evil she'd ever encountered. Emma Frost had terrorized her, but she'd lost that round and she'd never let that go. That fact had led to her ambushing her and Doug en route to the Massachusetts Academy. Kidnapping her and some of the New Mutants. Torturing her, terrorizing her, trying to control her mind and force her to join her Hellions. “Ah, Christ, Kitty,” he breathed, voice barely audible as her fingers combed lightly through his dark hair and Pete's forehead tilted forward to rest against hers. Slipping her other arm around him, she drew him a little closer. Just because. That hadn't worked for Emma, either, but it was a near thing. If not for Illyana and Dani getting them out of there, well...who knew what might've happened. Regardless, and 'reformed' or not, she'd never trust Emma Frost. Not as long as she lived, because she knew exactly how black that woman was at the core, regardless of how pristine she might look on the outside Head pulled back a little, now, and looking her in the face, Pete nodded slowly. He didn't know Emma, of course, but he knew her and he'd know she wouldn't say that about anyone lightly and without good reason. “Good,” he said with conviction. “Maybe that’ll make her try harder to do what’s right. Maybe she’ll chafe on it and show her true colors. Either way, it keeps her from doing all that to anyone else.” Maybe, Kitty allowed, but it might not stop her from trying. "Here's hoping," she replied, small, humorless smile pulling the edges of her mouth upward, tilting her forehead in against his this time. "At least with Jubilee there, I know Logan will be keeping a close eye on things." And Sean, but they both knew that Emma had him a little too wrapped around her finger. Moira'd made no secret of that or how not happy she was about it. Now...now they were to Ogun and Pete must've sensed the tension slowly creeping in as his hand lifted to stroke her hair and he leaned in, lips soft on hers. Reassuring in a way she couldn't put words to, but that was palpably real. Then he moved in closer and she tightened her arm around him again, eyes on his face. "Ogun," she said, just the name - saying it out loud - brought up more feelings and emotions than she could categorized. Not as sharp, as intense and cutting as they'd once been, but still there. "You know my dad's in the Witness Protection Program," Kitty began, since that was a piece of this he'd be familiar with. "He has been since I was about fifteen and he's there because he embezzled a lot of money from his bank. To try to get out of it, he got involved with the Yakuza, laundering money." That, she knew she wouldn't have to explain. Pete would be familiar with the Japanese mafia, might've even come into contact with them during his time in espionage. The rest...it was still harder to say, to admit, than she liked. His intentions might've been good, but what Carmen Pryde had done hadn't been and it had taken her a very long time to come to terms with the fact that her father wasn't quite the man she'd thought he was. "It was just after Peter and I broke up, I'd gone to Chicago to stay with him for a while, but then he suddenly had to go to Japan. He tried to send me back to Westchester, didn't want me to know what was going on," she added, expression sardonic to match the half-smile that went with it, "You know me, of course I didn't listen. I stowed away on the plane to Japan, followed him around, realized what kind of trouble he was in, and managed to get myself caught by the local Oyabun - the local Godfather." Or that was the closest equivalent in English and it was near enough. "Shigematsu gave me over to a Ronin named Ogun, for services rendered. As payment." What came next...it was harder. Still. So much harder than the rest and Kitty closed her eyes, took a deep breath, held it as her hand curled over Pete's shoulder. Using him as a ground as she tried to find her center. Let the breath out slowly, trying to drive the growing tension she'd barely noticed out of her muscles. "Ogun was more than just a man," she started again, voice more quiet and swallowing around a lump trying to form in her throat, "He was mystical, the next best thing to immortal. He'd lived hundreds of years, maybe longer. He was one of the greatest ninjas who ever lived. The man who trained Logan." Lips pursed, she opened her eyes again, met Pete's bright blue ones. Didn't bother trying to hide how deep this one went, or even think of trying, "Pete, he unmade me. Took everything I was and wrote over it, like writing new information over old on a computer disc. Ogun imprinted his psyche on mine, turned me into a killing machine, and sent me after Logan. I very nearly killed him. If it hadn't been for another Ronin named Yukio, I might have." Feeling restless, because thinking of Ogun always seemed to make her restless, she let out another heavy breath, turned onto her back again, though she stayed close to Pete, one arm still around him. But she was looking at the ceiling now and that was somehow easier. "Logan had come to find me, I'd nearly killed him, but he was determined to save me. He wasn't sure he could, Yukio didn't think he could. Honestly, neither did I." She turned her head again at that admission to look back over at him. "It was the hardest thing I've ever done, literally taking my own soul back. I almost gave up more than once, but Logan kept pushing me, kept trying to help me. Finally, I managed to break that hold Ogun had over me completely. Then I went to kill him." Because she'd still been fifteen and she'd still been more than a little stupid. "But I couldn't. I fought him and I beat him, but in the end I couldn't kill him. Not lying there helpless." Reaching over with her other hand, she lightly traced the line of his jaw, seeing him, but seeing that scene in her memory, too. As real as it had been that day. "We turned around, would've left him and gone back to the US, but Ogun couldn't stand to lose. He was going to stab me in the back. Logan yelled and I phased and Logan's arm went through me and Ogun was dead." She felt the first tear slip free and reached up to wipe it away negligently. "Logan killed the man who'd been like a father to him to save me. My dad turned himself in for what he'd done. And I went back to the X-Men with new codename and, in a lot of ways, as a completely different person." Changed, in a lot of ways, but she'd never questioned that it was for the better. It had shown her who and what she was and what she could be capable of. Ogun hadn't chosen her by chance, and she knew that, but he also hadn't got to choose who she'd be. |
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| Pete Wisdom | Oct 15 2013, 10:23 PM Post #38 |
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Knows perfectly well what canny means
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From what little Pete had seen of Frost up until now, he couldn’t say if anyone actually trusted her much, if at all. He had an odd feeling she might not even trust herself all that much, but there was no way of knowing yet if that impression were true or not. Nobody seemed to much like her, either, and the there seemed to be plenty of overlap between the two. Considering the history most had with her, it wasn’t all that surprising. But Kitty’s history with her went well beyond any of that. After everything that woman had put her through, it was no wonder Kitty would never trust her as long as she lived. Frost may have changed her ways, but it didn’t look like she’d changed her attitude much from what Pete could see. As long as there was at least person who didn’t trust her, it was possible it might keep her in the right path, or she’d get tired of the ruse and go back to her old tricks. Whatever it took to make sure she never tortured another child the way she had Kitty. There was no humor in Kitty’s answering smile. "Here's hoping," she said, resting her forehead briefly against his. It was like a grounding contact, which seemed to add another layer of comfort every time they did it. "At least with Jubilee there, I know Logan will be keeping a close eye on things." Ah, yes. That. It occurred to Pete that he still hadn’t dealt with Logan since the friendly warning he’d received from Munroe during his ill-fated coffee run. That might change soon, and though he took the meaning of Kitty’s comment about Jubilee, he couldn’t help wonder how that encounter would go when it happened. That was a matter for another time. For now it was just them, and this. Only one more place to go in this particular part of their journey. Only one name left. The worst of them. The unease was practically radiating off of Kitty. It wasn’t a reluctance to talk to him about it. Pete sensed it was the act of dredging it up, of reliving those painful memories through words and in her mind’s eye. He said nothing, but reached out to her in small ways, letting his presence itself be its own kind of reassurance. To make it a little bit easier, if he could. For him to be whatever it was she needed at this moment. A kiss. Fingers through her hair. Increasing their closeness to each other. Eyes never leaving hers. She tightened her arm around him in a gentle squeeze, as if finding a center in the act. "Ogun," she finally said, and the name held an ominous weight. "You know my dad's in the Witness Protection Program," Kitty continued, and Pete confirmed that with a nod. It had barely been a week since she’d brought that up most recently, even if that time it had mostly been in jest. "He has been since I was about fifteen and he's there because he embezzled a lot of money from his bank. To try to get out of it, he got involved with the Yakuza, laundering money." Pete’s lips thinned, but he said nothing. She was just getting started, and there was no point saying what she already knew or had probably guessed. He’d dealt with the Yakuza before. Knew how dangerous they could be. How desperate and foolish could her father have been to look to them for help? That was a terrible thing for Kitty to carry around about him. The shock and disappointment she must have felt when she discovered it, "It was just after Peter and I broke up, I'd gone to Chicago to stay with him for a while, but then he suddenly had to go to Japan. He tried to send me back to Westchester, didn't want me to know what was going on," she said, and her face said plenty of her thoughts on that level. Pete supposed it was good he’d at least tried to protect her from that, but the man had to know what his daughter was like. Pete couldn’t help a wry, phantom smile of understanding himself. If he hadn’t been able to shake her back at Dream Nails, what were the odds she’d quietly agree to be left behind at that age? "You know me, of course I didn't listen. I stowed away on the plane to Japan, followed him around, realized what kind of trouble he was in, and managed to get myself caught by the local Oyabun - the local Godfather. Shigematsu gave me over to a Ronin named Ogun, for services rendered. As payment." Payment. Pete felt his throat tighten at the word, and the automatic thought which followed. Almost as quickly, he pushed that aside. Any other time it would have been the logical conclusion, but not in this case. It never would have worked, for one thing. Not with what Kitty could do, and her experience, even at that age. Her mates would have torn the world apart looking for her, stone by stone. And even if none of that was true, the scar she was baring didn’t have that feel. Different, but not necessarily better. Had her father known? Had he at least tried to get someone to help? No matter how much trouble he was in, he wouldn’t have abandoned his own daughter like that, would he? Those questions Pete had to work harder to keep to himself. To wait until she was done before he spoke. She needed to tell this at her own pace, and not get sidetracked. And he could tell this was getting worse for her, the telling. Her eyes squeezed shut and she drew a long breath, like a gymnast preparing for to vault onto a set of parallel bars hung over a pit of acid. Her hand molded to the curve of Pete’s shoulder while she held that breath. Pete slid the arm he’d been stroking her hair with down to her side and gave her a slight squeeze, letting her take as much time as she needed to get to the next bit. She released the breath she’d been holding, but her voice was smaller now, as if she were having trouble holding it steady. "Ogun was more than just a man," she said, eyes still pressed shut. Pete shifted his free hand up slightly and gently brushed her cheek with the back of his knuckles. "He was mystical, the next best thing to immortal. He'd lived hundreds of years, maybe longer. He was one of the greatest ninjas who ever lived. The man who trained Logan." Her eyes opened back up, revealing a bottomless ocean of pain Pete couldn’t hope to define, but he could see all the way down into it. "Pete, he unmade me." Christ. Pete felt his skin begin to crawl at that, a sick twist in his stomach, and barely suppressed a shudder. "Took everything I was and wrote over it, like writing new information over old on a computer disc. Ogun imprinted his psyche on mine, turned me into a killing machine, and sent me after Logan. I very nearly killed him. If it hadn't been for another Ronin named Yukio, I might have." Kitty turned onto her back, but not away from Pete. She kept one arm still around him as she gazed at the ceiling and heaved another long breath. Pete kept his own arm loose around her, giving her the freedom to move however she needed to. He dipped his forehead briefly to her shoulder and then gave it a quick kiss. "Logan had come to find me, I'd nearly killed him, but he was determined to save me. He wasn't sure he could, Yukio didn't think he could. Honestly, neither did I." When Kitty turned her head to look back to Pete, he nodded slowly and seriously. Something like that, what could anyone really do? But he tried. He hadn’t given up, even if it sounded like Kitty might have if he hadn’t insisted. "It was the hardest thing I've ever done, literally taking my own soul back. I almost gave up more than once, but Logan kept pushing me, kept trying to help me. Finally, I managed to break that hold Ogun had over me completely. Then I went to kill him. But I couldn't. I fought him and I beat him, but in the end I couldn't kill him. Not lying there helpless." Pete smiled faintly. That sounded like Kitty, all right. She’d kill, he knew that. But only if there was a reason, never if she saw another way, and never without some form of regret. She traced the line of Pete’s jaw with her fingers, a soft caress of skin and bone and stubble. Her eyes were still on him, but part of her had gone off to the memory, seeing it, reliving it. As her fingers reached their zenith her turned his head slightly, giving her hand a kiss, letting his own eyes slip shut for a moment as he tried to put himself there as well. He opened his eyes and turned his head back to her as she started again. "We turned around, would've left him and gone back to the US, but Ogun couldn't stand to lose. He was going to stab me in the back. Logan yelled and I phased and Logan's arm went through me and Ogun was dead." A tear fell from her eye, but didn’t get far before she swiped it away, as if barely giving it notice. Pete drew in a long breath as he watched her. He moved his free hand around to stroke through her hair again, while his other hand caressed her side. He’d never seen her cry before. Not even a tear. Not once since he’d known her. "Logan killed the man who'd been like a father to him to save me. My dad turned himself in for what he'd done. And I went back to the X-Men with new codename and, in a lot of ways, as a completely different person." Pete brought his hand up to her shoulder and shifted closer. He kissed her slowly, slipped his arm around her for a tight embrace, and kissed her again. “Like a new forest after the old one’s burned down,” he said softly. He stroked her cheek once more and leaned in for a third kiss. “Different, but still you. The strongest, brightest part of you, I’d say, if that’s the person I’m looking at right now.” He swallowed and unconsciously brushed her hair back away from her face as he looked at her. “Back when you were taken,” he said, and drew in another long breath at the memory. “When it was still all shock and confusion and lost tempers, and Rachel was out of control.” He almost felt guilty describing it in that fashion, but it was the simplest way to put it. “I had to convince her she’d regret it if she went ahead with what she was about to do, so I opened me mind to her. The whole lot. She knows everything I keep locked away, all the things I’ve ever done.” Things he hadn’t even gotten around to telling Kitty yet. But that was going to change soon enough, and there was no one else outside of Kitty he’d rather have know him that deeply. A semi-perplexed look came over his face, and he grimaced slightly. “But while she was rooting around in there, I got a glimpse in her head as well.” He took another deep breath as he looked into her eyes. “I saw the way she was unmade and what it was like for her to come back from it. Was it anything like that?” |
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| Shadowcat | Oct 16 2013, 02:14 AM Post #39 |
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Immaterial Girl
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The way Pete's lips thinned as she began, yeah. He knew the Yakuza. No need to explain that part. Or the part where she didn't bother listening to her dad when he'd tried to send her back to Westchester and leave her behind. That was something that hadn't changed from fifteen until now and the wry, ghost of a smile on his face told her he knew it as well as she did. He'd gotten a first hand demonstration during Dream Nails, if nothing else. In fact, it was a trait she knew she shared with her younger counterpart here, but she'd managed to curb at least some of her worse impulses. This world's Kitty Pryde still had a little work to do on that from what she'd seen. The rest, well, it came out in as much of a coherent stream as she could manage. The trouble her father had been in, getting caught sneaking around by the local Oyabun, being handed over to Ogun as payment for his services to the Yakuza. What he'd done to her. How he'd overwritten her like old data on a computer disc. Tainted her soul in a way no one, including herself, had been sure she could ever get rid of. And Pete was right there. Not interrupting, though she knew he probably had questions. He wouldn't have been much of a spy if he didn't, since she was keeping it to the basics, the big pieces, and skimming over the lesser details. He held whatever they were in, though, letting her spill it out, hang onto him when she needed to, always seeming to know when to give her the quiet reassurance she needed with a look or a touch. Let her just stare at the ceiling when she needed to, because it was somehow easier that way when she got to the hard part. Felt his fingers on her face, her hair, the warmth of his lips as he planted a light kiss on her palm. His hand on her side as tears she hadn't even realized were there slipped free because telling it was almost like being there again. The memories were that clear, that sharp and strong, still, after nearly six years. The sight of Ogun lying on the ground, beaten, his sword nearby. Wanting to kill him. Wanting that so badly she could taste it in the back of her throat. Put an end to the monster and the man for what he'd done to her. She could still feel the hilt of the katana in her hands, sturdy and sure and she could've done it so easily... Only she couldn't. Not to a helpless, beaten man. Couldn't let herself take that step, because then she really would be like him. In the end, Ogun could've walked away. They would've let him. But he was too proud, he couldn't take the loss and so he discarded his honor and lost his life and she would never, as long as she lived, forget the look on Logan's face as she phased and his claws shot forward, through her, and struck home in the man who'd been like his father, who'd trained him, helped make him who he was. It was giri - the burden of obligation, a blood debt - of a kind that she knew she could never repay. Not that Logan would ask her to, or expect her to, but he'd saved her in ways that there weren't any words for. It wasn't just a new codename that she'd gotten from that trip to Japan. In a lot of ways, it had been a different Kitty Pryde who'd come back to Westchester. A slightly darker one, maybe. Or maybe just more self-aware. Definitely a stronger one than had left. Without saying anything, Pete's hand closed over her shoulder and he closed the small distance between them for a slow kiss that sent her head spinning again as his arm slid around her. Then he kissed her again for good measure as the tension that had gathered in her body slowly drained away again. Yeah, she could definitely get used to that. “Like a new forest after the old one’s burned down,” he said softly the next kiss catching her with the beginnings of a soft smile on her face as warm fingers brushed over her cheek and she tightened her arms around him in turn. “Different, but still you. The strongest, brightest part of you, I’d say, if that’s the person I’m looking at right now.” God, she loved him. How she hadn't realized that before now, she wasn't sure, but looking up into those eyes of his right now, there wasn't any doubt at all. "A few years older," she replied, soft smile back on her face and fingers drifting idly up and down his back. "Maybe a little less hot headed, or at least I like to think so." Though she was pretty sure a few people would be glad to argue the point. Possibly even Pete himself, considering how things had gone when they'd first me. He was still looking at her, obviously turning all that over in his head as he brushed her uncooperative hair back from her face again. There were probably a mountain of questions building in there, but that was okay. She'd expected it and talking to him came naturally, even if the subject wasn't the easiest one. “Back when you were taken,” he said, and drew in another long breath at the memory. “When it was still all shock and confusion and lost tempers, and Rachel was out of control.” It took her a second to realize he meant the most recent 'when you were taken' instead of the Japan 'when you were taken' from years ago that they'd been talking about, but then she nodded, both acknowledgement and understanding. At least for that part. Rachel...yeah. He'd never really seen that spectacular, scary, fiery, side of her before. “I had to convince her she’d regret it if she went ahead with what she was about to do, so I opened me mind to her. The whole lot. She knows everything I keep locked away, all the things I’ve ever done.” Kitty nodded again, watching his face, arms tightening around him a little more. "It's all safe with her," she assured him, though she knew he'd already probably know that. The idea that he'd done that, apparently completely ignorant of what could've happened still scared the hell out of her. Not that Ray would ever hurt him or anyone else on purpose, but even the resident Phoenix had limits to what she could deal with and still react rationally and she knew her best friend would've been past her limit. Thinking of Rachel, and all she'd been through on top of the sudden, disappearing wedding party and guests, she couldn't help but wonder how she was doing with Calvin and Hope. But she didn't have any sense that anything was off kilter there, so she took that as a good sign. Pete, though, was suddenly looking a little confused, which had her doing the same as he made a slight face. “But while she was rooting around in there, I got a glimpse in her head as well.” He took another deep breath as he looked into her eyes. Ah, so that was it. Yeah, that would have been...a lot to process. “I saw the way she was unmade and what it was like for her to come back from it. Was it anything like that?” Considering that for a couple of seconds, Kitty nodded slowly and thoughtfully, fingers lifting to toy with the ends of his hair at the nape of his neck. "Yeah," she confirmed, meeting his eyes, "at least in some ways. Not as bad as what Ray went through, though." Shifting closer and fitting herself comfortably against him, Kitty continued with, "It took her years to break free of Ahab and she had to do it on her own. There wasn't anyone to help her do it, it was all on her." How Rachel had stayed even remotely sane after all that time, she still didn't know, much less how she'd managed to be the astoundingly strong, amazing person that she was. "For me, it was a matter of days, weeks, but yeah. As far as trying to get your self back from something like that, the basics are pretty similar." Pulling him closer, she let her chin rest on his shoulder, head canting slightly to rest against his. "Ray and I were lucky, odd as I know that sounds," Kitty added, thinking aloud more so than really planning what she was saying, "We not only got away, we got free." Or as much as anyone could ever be free of those sorts of events and memories. "Illyana...she got away, but you know I'm not sure she's ever really gotten free of what Belasco did to her." Which, yeah, that was probably going to need another explanation before they were done, wasn't it? Well, it was already on the list anyway. |
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| Pete Wisdom | Oct 18 2013, 12:52 PM Post #40 |
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Knows perfectly well what canny means
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Kitty’s story had raised dozens, maybe hundreds of questions, but Pete was content to save those for another time. She had to tell this her own way, and right now he didn’t really need the smaller details in order to get what she was telling him or what it all meant to her. He listened patiently, which was always easy when it came to her. When she needed him to be there, he was. With a kiss, or a touch, or whatever else might give her comfort or reassurance. And when it became too much and she needed a little extra room to breathe, he gave her that, too. Even going over just the major parts was a lot to take in. Watching Kitty relive it, the way those memories affected her, trying to picture it himself. None of that was easy, even knowing it was something from years ago and Kitty had better than survived it. And she’d been about fifteen. Somehow, even knowing that she’d been to the ends of the universe and helped save the world a time or two by then, it was still hard to factor that in. And maybe for good reason, Pete thought, when he noticed a tear falling from her eye. She swiped it away almost without seeming to notice it was there, but it definitely got Pete’s attention. That was the first time he’d ever seen her cry, ever saw something affect her that deeply. When it had been him, unable to hold back the tears when he told the story of his mum, she’d been there for him, holding and comforting him as best she could. Now, with the roles reversed, he did the same without even thinking about it. It must have taken an incredible act of will to spare the bloke who’d done all that to her, but he’d have never doubted Kitty on that, no matter how young she’d been at the time. It wasn’t much of a surprise to hear that Ogun hadn’t taken his defeat that well, either. Explained a lot about the bond between her and Logan, too. As for her being a completely different person, Pete had his own take on that. That new person had still come from her, the core of who Kitty was, regrown into someone stronger and more vibrant than ever. The woman he was so deeply in love with he couldn’t fathom how it was possible it had taken him this long to see it. Kitty’s arm tightened around him as they embraced, and she was smiling when he pulled back from the kiss. "A few years older," she said, tracing her fingers lazily along his back, leaving a pleasant, warm trail in their wake. "Maybe a little less hot headed, or at least I like to think so." A soft chuckle escaped Pete at that. “Must be the reason you only threatened to put that cig out on me, yeah?” He may not have known her back then, but he’d heard a few stories. Especially over the past few days. There seemed to be no arguing that she’d been quite the hothead back then, at times, but he’d seen her temper rise up enough times to wonder if it was quite as toned down as she fancied. It had been a nice diversion, but Pete’s mind quickly returned to their main topic, and the implications it entailed. He still had plenty of questions, more now that she was finished, which she probably anticipated. One bit in particular had dug into his mind and he’d been worrying at it ever since. Unmade. Bad enough all by itself, but recent experience had given it an even stronger resonance. Kitty already knew that he’d talked Rachel down after the chaos which had thrown Kitty, Rachel’s parents and all the rest into this dimension. He hadn’t had a chance to tell her some of what had come from that, however. He’d let Rachel into his mind, not the usual way that sometimes came up. He’d lowered all his defenses, opened himself to her completely, and now she knew absolutely everything about him, including the darkest parts he usually kept buried, but never forgotten. "It's all safe with her," Kitty said with a nod of perfect understanding. She tightened her arms around him again as she looked at him, and Pete smiled faintly. Yeah, she was right. He wasn’t the least bit worried about Rachel. If he could choose anyone other than Kitty to know those things, it would have been her. For Kitty, that was probably just how things were normally with Rachel, given the bond they shared. But neither he nor Rachel had probably expected what else had come of that. The window had opened both ways, and Pete had seen more of Rachel than he’d ever imagined. In some ways it had given him a better understanding of her. In others, it was like seeing her in a while new light entirely and he was still trying to figure some of it out. He’d seen the way Ahab had taken her and twisted her into a Hound. He knew the way she’d struggled to overcome that, and he had to wonder if Kitty’s experience had been anything at all like that. For a moment or two Kitty was silent as she thought that one over. Finally she gave him a slow nod and he felt her reach up to toy with the hair at the nape of his neck. Her eyes met his and she said, "Yeah, at least in some ways. Not as bad as what Ray went through, though." Pete didn’t suppose it was, not given how long Ahab had been Rachel’s master, and not after all she’d done on his command. But it sounded like it could have been as bad. It could have been much, much worse. She nudged herself closer, molding her body against Pete’s. "It took her years to break free of Ahab and she had to do it on her own. There wasn't anyone to help her do it, it was all on her." In a world, a future like hers, how much harder did that make it? To even feel that it was worth trying? "For me, it was a matter of days, weeks, but yeah. As far as trying to get your self back from something like that, the basics are pretty similar." In effect, that confirmed what he’d been wondering. The particulars were different, but there was plenty the two of them had in common with what they’d been through. Kitty drew herself up slightly and placed her chin against Pete’s shoulder. His hands automatically tightened around her, seeking more contact, wanting them to be as close to each other as possible. That wasn’t all that difficult. Their bodies fit amazingly well together, and seemed to find places to mesh all by themselves. He couldn’t look her in the eyes anymore, but there was a whole new connection between them in the way her head tilted to lay atop his that was just as acute. "Ray and I were lucky, odd as I know that sounds, We not only got away, we got free. Illyana...she got away, but you know I'm not sure she's ever really gotten free of what Belasco did to her." It didn’t sound as odd to Pete as it might to most. But then, he had Black Air to ‘thank’ for giving a bit of perspective with that sort of thing himself. He also understood the distinction between getting away and truly being free pretty well. As for Illyana… Pete recognized Belasco’s name, knew that he’d been in charge of Limbo before Illyana took over, and that he was part of the reason Kitty’s friend was older than her instead of just entering her teens about now. And it wasn’t hard to see the internal fight Illyana waged with the darkness inside her, as well as the darkness itself. Pete had noticed it in her before he’d had even the slightest idea about Kitty or Rachel. “Why’s that?” Pete asked. He shifted his head slightly to nuzzle at Kitty’s neck, then let his own chin come to rest against her shoulder. One of his hands slid along the small of her back in a gentle, slowly widening arc. “What'd he do to her?” Might have made more sense to ask Illyana about that, but Pete had the feeling there was something more to Kitty bringing it up than just idle musing for the sake of comparison. She was tied up in that as well, somehow, though just like with Rachel, that didn’t come as much of a surprise when it came to Kitty. What that connection was, however, he couldn’t begin to guess, but it seemed he was about to find out. |
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| Shadowcat | Oct 19 2013, 06:14 PM Post #41 |
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Immaterial Girl
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So, there it was. The story of Ogun. What he'd done to her, what Logan had done for her, what her father had done, how she'd managed to come out of it and reclaim herself, despite not being sure herself at the time that she could possibly manage it. How, in the end, though she'd wanted to kill him she hadn't been able to strike that last blow against a beaten man. And how Logan had had to, in the end, because Ogun couldn't accept that sort of defeat. It was scary and it was traumatizing and it was one of the worst things she'd ever gone through in her life. When she'd gone back to the States, she'd been a different person in a lot of ways. Just like the person she was now wasn't that scared, wounded fifteen year old anymore. Pete was right, she was still her at the core, the same as she'd always been. A little older now with a temper than was toned down from where it used to be. Or she liked to think that, anyway. Pete chuckled at that, and she didn't have to guess why, smile turning to more of a wry grin as he said, “Must be the reason you only threatened to put that cig out on me, yeah?” Well, he was probably a little more right there than he realized, since he didn't have real basis for comparison to now and she hadn't said she didn't have a temper at all. "Must be," she agreed, not even bothering to try to tamp down the grin any, "If I was still fifteen, I'd probably have just punched you, then had Lockheed set you on fire and not bothered with the warning." A slight exaggeration, maybe, but not by much. Come to think of it, the version of her from this universe reminded her a lot of herself at around that age. Opinionated, overly impulsive, and with some definite temper issues still. Like she still hadn't managed to get past all the things that had happened to her, and maybe that was exactly what it was. As she pondered that, Pete was turning all she'd told him over in his head. He had that look on his face. Yeah, he probably had a million questions and then some and she was okay with that. It was almost a reversal (though this one with considerably less clothes, she mused) of their situation just a couple of weeks ago, when the trail of that crazy mutant serial killer had steered them to Pete's family and he'd told her what had happened to his mother. He started with Rachel, what had happened after they'd all vanished, the glimpse he'd gotten into her head when he'd opened his own to her. God, she still couldn't believe he'd done that and, later, they were going to have to have a long, long talk about adding 'I don't like when you throw yourself at the frantic, out of control Phoenix avatar' to that list that already included 'I don't like people pointing guns at you'. Thank god someone had been able to do it when she wasn't there, but still. She'd really rather he not risk her coming home from an impromptu interdimensional trip to find out he was a pile of ash out on the lawn somewhere. Whatever Ray had seen in his head, though, that was safe. Kitty didn't even have to question that and she didn't think Pete really was, either. He might not have expected it, but it wasn't anything to worry about. In fact, his question didn't seem to be about that, but about what he'd seen of Rachel's past. Her time with Ahab as his Hound. What she'd lived through, what she'd been forced to do, how she'd had to dig herself out of that. Did digging herself out from under what Ogun had done to her compare to what Rachel had gone through, working her way out from under Ahab's control? Maybe? Probably, Kitty decided, at the very basic level of how you had to fight, how hard you had to work to reclaim yourself from something like that. As a whole, though? No. She'd been lucky, there were people who'd been able to help her fight her way out. It'd been a couple of weeks for her or so, at most. Rachel had been under Ahab's control for years, forced to do things the brunette herself had been spared through probably luck alone. Rachel had had to save herself alone, and she had. Had clawed her way out from under Ahab's conditioning and brainwashing tooth and nail until he'd thrown her into the Bronx Camp. Where, finally, she had people who could help her. No, her own experiences with Ogun weren't to that level, but it wasn't a contest anyway and who had it the worst or had to fight the hardest really didn't matter. They'd both lived and they'd both, more importantly, gotten free. Body and soul. Some memories would always haunt them (or more than haunt them, but god she couldn't think about Rory now, Pete would see it on her face and it wasn't her thing to tell, not even to him), but that's all they were. Insubstantial ghosts of things that had been. Things they'd fought and won. Wrapping her arms around Pete, for comfort and closeness and the simple ease of how they fit, Kitty's mind couldn't help but turn to her other friend. The one she'd fought with just a few days ago. She still felt guilty about that in a lot of ways, but she also knew she wasn't entirely wrong and she didn't know what was going to happen with Yana. The third person in this 'friendship triangle' the Russian girl seemed to think she was getting the short end of. And the one of the three of them who, though she'd gotten away from the person who'd used her, tried to corrupt her - her 'monster' as Kitty remembered her calling him and thought it was a fitting description of Belasco - the slender woman didn't think had ever really gotten free. It wasn't until after she'd said it that Kitty realized Pete wouldn't really know much of what she was talking about, and maybe that wasn't her story to tell, either. But she'd brought it up and at some point they were going to have to go there anyway. Because she was tied to Limbo, herself, in ways that could affect him more directly than memories of Ogun or the Brood or even Emma Frost likely ever could. “Why’s that?” Pete asked lips warm against her neck and sending a small, renewed thrill of pleasure through her before his chin settled on her shoulder, his hands stroking along her back. “What'd he do to her?” In for a penny, in for a pound, she supposed. God, her life was insane. How the hell had she never realized just how insane before she had to start laying it all out for someone who hadn't been around for most of it? Then again, Pete's life might not've been up to nearly being assimilated by alien bug people or evil, slutty blondes running around in their underwear, but working for Black Air hadn't exactly been your normal day job, even by the loose spy world definition of 'normal'. "He was her Ogun, or her Ahab," she replied, pulling back enough to look at him again, fingers still absently sliding through his hair. "When she was six, Belasco pulled her into Limbo. He was...well, I guess the best description is demon lord." Once, he'd been a man, from what she understood, but he definitely wasn't even close to that when they'd gone into Limbo after Yana and hadn't been for a very long time. "He ruled Limbo, but he was trapped there, too. Some kind of punishment. And he wanted Illyana, wanted to corrupt her, make her his apprentice so she could set him free." Lips pursed, she shook her head slightly. "We went after her, ended up all stuck in Limbo, too, trying to get her away from Belasco. Limbo was...a pretty horrible place then." Even now, it was unsettling but nothing compared to the way it was that day, the things they'd seen there. The things that had happened. "It's a long, complicated story, nothing new about that, either, I guess," Kitty added, though she couldn't muster a lot of humor in this case, "But to make a long story a little less long, we finally found her, got her away from Belasco and were going home through a portal when Belsco snatched her back at the last second. He kept her for seven years time in Limbo, but for us it was only a few seconds. When we got her back maybe three seconds later, she was my age." Expression serious and thoughtful, she paused, giving some thought to her next words. "She killed him, to get away from him, but I don't think she ever really got free of the things he did to her and the things that happened there. I don't think she's ever quite put it behind or believes that she really can. Yana still thinks she's damaged goods, that her soul's black and there's nothing she can do about it. She still believes all the things that Belasco told her." And maybe she was right, but Kitty didn't think so. Belasco was the prince of lies, he'd do or say anything to keep her under his control and in a way, she was afraid he had. Because Yana couldn't seem to let that go, couldn't seem to accept that she didn't have to let all of that dictate her life. "And...there's one more thing you kind of need to know about Limbo and Illyana, Pete," she added, teeth tugging at one corner of her lip hesitantly, "Something happened there. We don't really know for sure what, but something tied Yana and I together. Something neither of us understands and that can't seem to be undone. If anything happens to her, I inherit the Soulsword, and Limbo, and I'm not very good with either of them, I'm afraid." Pete thought his sister and her affinity for magic was strange and annoying? Yeah, he obviously hadn't ever had to deal with his girlfriend inheriting a magical sword, a demonic dimension, and turning into the Limbo version of Carrie in the process. |
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| Pete Wisdom | Oct 21 2013, 02:48 PM Post #42 |
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Knows perfectly well what canny means
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It had only been one question, but it was a big one. Kitty’s answer went a long way as well, explaining far more than most of the other questions Pete could have asked combined. The similarities between her and Rachel’s experiences weren’t perfect. There was no way they could have been. But it was close enough to give Pete a slightly better understanding of exactly what she’d gone through, as well as give an additional layer to the bond the two women shared. And it wasn’t confined to just them, it seemed. Rasputin and her history with that Belasco bloke shared a few echoes on that wavelength as well. But while Kitty and Rachel had were free of what had been done to them, she wasn’t convinced Rasputin could say the same, even after all this time. Holding Kitty close, his senses were filled with her. Her fingers felt nice as they toyed with his hair. He could feel her heartbeat against him, slow and relaxed. The tension which had brought a tear to her eye seemed to have almost drained completely out of her. The warmth of her smooth skin, so close he could feel every tiny shift between them. His thoughts threatened to wander at the slightest provocation. He managed to keep his focus, but he expected it was mostly because he was consciously doing so. Pete could feel the emotions in her voice, the way they reverberated through him from where she’d rested her head against his. There was an undercurrent in that, something that went beyond that particular common link. It was no accident, Kitty bringing her into the discussion, but Pete couldn’t be sure where it might be leading. She could tell him anything, though, and that’s what this whole, delayed conversation was all about. It brought to mind other things Pete had noticed as well. Rasputin seemed to have been avoiding most of the team over the past few days. Right about the same time the younger Kitty had swapped places with Madrox. Couldn’t help wonder if something was going on there as well, or if that might also enter their chat. Kitty lifted her head off of his and pulled back so they could look at each other in response to his question. "He was her Ogun, or her Ahab," she said. Her fingers continued to tease the hairs at the nape of his neck, slowly, absently. "When she was six, Belasco pulled her into Limbo. He was...well, I guess the best description is demon lord. He ruled Limbo, but he was trapped there, too. Some kind of punishment. And he wanted Rasputin, wanted to corrupt her, make her his apprentice so she could set him free." Already the distinctions were creeping into the story, starting with Rasputin’s age. Someone so young would be easier to shape to his will, to manipulate into what he wanted. Pete’s brows knit together, his lips shifting to the beginnings of a frown as he listened. Apart from her age, why would she have been chosen in particular? The answer didn’t take long to come, sparing Pete the need to ask. Her mutant power. Teleportation always passed through Limbo, like a way station. He could see how that might gain notice, even before her power manifested, and how much more appealing that would be to someone who sought to escape Limbo himself. Pursing her lips, as if the memory itself had a bitter taste, Kitty gave her head a slight shake. "We went after her, ended up all stuck in Limbo, too, trying to get her away from Belasco. Limbo was...a pretty horrible place then." Pete had seen enough of Limbo as it was now to understand the significance of that. He could imagine what it must have been like to find yourself there, for it to be the first impression Kitty had. In a way, it wouldn’t have been much different from her experiences with Frost and the feelings she was left toward her, no matter how much things might, or might only seem, to have changed. "It's a long, complicated story, nothing new about that, either, I guess," she continued. Her voice lacked the kind of wry amusement a remark like that might have otherwise contained, and Pete’s expression was grim as he nodded agreement. "But to make a long story a little less long, we finally found her, got her away from Belasco and were going home through a portal when Belsco snatched her back at the last second. He kept her for seven years time in Limbo, but for us it was only a few seconds. When we got her back maybe three seconds later, she was my age." Seven years lost because of a single instant, and no possible way to undo it. Pete knew time worked in odd ways in Limbo, and knew it was the reason for Rasputin’s premature adulthood, but he hadn’t known the circumstances behind the way she’d been taken, and her eventual return until now. Seven years in that place. It was a wonder she hadn’t lost her mind. A short silence passed as Pete watched Kitty. He could see she was preparing what to say next, and he allowed her the time she needed for that. Saying nothing, he absently continued to stroke her back. "She killed him, to get away from him, but I don't think she ever really got free of the things he did to her and the things that happened there. I don't think she's ever quite put it behind or believes that she really can. Yana still thinks she's damaged goods, that her soul's black and there's nothing she can do about it. She still believes all the things that Belasco told her." Most of those things would have been the cruelest of lies, Pete expected. The dark-haired man mulled that over for a bit. Perhaps it was odd, but he saw a few common elements in that story and the way he himself had been used by Black Air. Like Kitty had said about herself and Rachel, there were more differences in the smaller details, but in the larger, general sense, the similarities stood out, almost glaring in his eye. “Think I might have an idea why,” he said thoughtfully. “You and Rachel, you know who you are, yeah? You know what parts of yourself had been taken away or twisted round, and were able to use that when you put yourselves back together. Maybe it got a bit muddy from time to time, but the two o’ you have a pretty good idea of where their corruption stops and you begin.” Maybe that was oversimplifying it, but he had no doubt Kitty would understand what he was driving at, there. He moved in, almost without thinking, and gave her a long, gentle kiss. His pulse took an immediate jump but he resisted the urge to deepen it. Pulling back, he continued. “Does Illyana know what kind of person she would have been if she’d grown up here?” he asked. “It sounds like it’s a lot worse than just thinking there’s something wrong with her soul. There’s no basis of comparison. All she’s got is some idealized image of who she thinks she ought to be, and no matter what she does to try to heal the damage, she’s always going to fall short of that.” He shook his head slightly and met Kitty’s eyes again. “Killing that bloke probably makes it worse,” he said. There was no going back. Ogun was dead, but Kitty had managed to hold back from being the one to do it. Rachel had beaten Ahab, and out there in the future, he lived with his defeat. But Rasputin hadn’t gotten that closure, or that victory. Probably, he thought, she’d had no choice, but having no choice didn’t always make those things weight less on a body. “Might be it could help if I talked to her,” Pete suggested. “See if I can get her to open up and let me in. Maybe if I got to know her better, she might start to see things a bit differently there, yeah?” He wasn’t sure himself it it would do any good at all. He wasn’t exactly the one anyone would imagine going to for a council of any kind, but maybe it would be worth a try. Kitty looked like she had something else to say, though, and Pete set that line of thought aside. "And...there's one more thing you kind of need to know about Limbo and Illyana, Pete," she said. She had her lip caught between her teeth and a pensive look in her eyes. That wasn’t very encouraging, was it? "Something happened there. We don't really know for sure what, but something tied Yana and I together. Something neither of us understands and that can't seem to be undone. If anything happens to her, I inherit the Soulsword, and Limbo, and I'm not very good with either of them, I'm afraid." Hang on a tic. Inherit? What? Pete blinked at her as his mind attempted to process that little information grenade. “Inherit as in absolute ruler, like her?” he said, mostly for confirmation, though he was certain he’d heard it all clearly. Romany would flip if she knew this. He could almost hear her cracking open old tomes and summoning dead spirits in anticipation of all the secrets she’d expect that might unlock. “And this is something, after all this time, that you’re a bit rubbish at.” He arched one brow carefully. “I can’t say for sure if that’s something I ought to find a relief, or be a bit worried about,” he confessed. Sensibly, he’d think that for something like that, when the stakes could potentially be immeasurable, it would be a good idea to figure things out and know that if the time came, she could handle it. On the other hand, he wasn’t sure how comfortable anyone ought to be with the idea of being very good at a thing like ruling sodding Limbo, so it was something of a worrisome proposition either way, wasn’t it? |
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| Shadowcat | Oct 22 2013, 01:56 PM Post #43 |
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Immaterial Girl
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And now, on to 'Crazy Stories From Kitty's Life: Part III', even if this one wasn't exactly hers. It was Yana's. The complicated story of Belasco and Limbo and how they'd lost her as a six year old, gone after her, and got her back as a thirteen/fourteen year old. Seven years in Limbo. She'd been there that long in what was only a few seconds for them. That half a breath between the time she'd lost her grip on six year old Illyana's hand and when she'd found it again had, for Yana, been seven years. And unlike her and Ray, she didn't think Illyana had ever really been able to move on from those years completely. Never gotten herself free of what Belasco had done to her, had made her believe. Expression grave, Pete just watched her, waited as she paused to gather her words, took it all in in that way that had become as familiar to her as her own habits over the last four months. His hands stroked reassuringly along her back and it was a comforting counterpoint to all the memories being dragged up. From what she knew - and Kitty knew she still probably didn't know it all, even now - Yana had defeated Belasco, probably killed him, to get away. And she had, but she hadn't ever really gotten free. Couldn't seem to put it all behind her and realize the lies that the demon lord told her were just that: lies. In some ways, Belasco still had that hold on her that Yana hadn't seemed to ever be able to escape and the Inferno had only made that worse, even though that hadn't been her fault, either. Pete, she knew, would be able to relate to at least some of that. Maybe not the demon lord/hell dimension stuff (though from what she'd seen of Scicluna, Kitty would bet she could give Belasco a run for his money), but the manipulation part. The part where someone or something makes you believe you're irredeemably damaged, how hard it was to get out from under that. “Think I might have an idea why,” he said thoughtfully. “You and Rachel, you know who you are, yeah? You know what parts of yourself had been taken away or twisted round, and were able to use that when you put yourselves back together. Maybe it got a bit muddy from time to time, but the two o’ you have a pretty good idea of where their corruption stops and you begin.” Fingers leaving his hair to stroke lightly over his shoulder instead, Kitty's brows knit together as she gave that some thought, then nodded slowly. "Maybe," she ventured, though they'd all been young. "Yana was the youngest. She was six, I was fourteen, Rachel was eleven. I guess we at least had some more idea of who we were than Yana did, so that could definitely be part of it." What he was trying to say was easy enough for her to understand. At the age Yana was when Belasco got her, she would have been the easiest to manipulate. And, instead of force, Belasco had lured her with promises of love and attention, something that Peter's six year old, adored baby sister wouldn't have questioned. Pete moved in to kiss her again, then, temporarily interrupting her thoughts with that soft, slow contact and upping her heart rate in no time flat. Kissing him was definitely going right at the top of her list of favorite things. He pulled back way too soon for her, but then they were kind of in the middle of a conversation. “Does Illyana know what kind of person she would have been if she’d grown up here?” he asked which was a valid question, but then they could ask that of a lot of them, couldn't they? Him, her, Rachel, a ton of others. What would any of them had been if this life hadn't come along? “It sounds like it’s a lot worse than just thinking there’s something wrong with her soul. There’s no basis of comparison. All she’s got is some idealized image of who she thinks she ought to be, and no matter what she does to try to heal the damage, she’s always going to fall short of that.” Again, Kitty nodded, mulling that over as Pete gave his head a slight shake, meeting her eyes again. “Killing that bloke probably makes it worse,” he said and there wasn't any real doubt about that. She hadn't been able to do it with a beaten Ogun, Rachel had been the same with a beaten Ahab, Yana...she wasn't sure she'd had any choice with Belasco. “Might be it could help if I talked to her,” Pete suggested. “See if I can get her to open up and let me in. Maybe if I got to know her better, she might start to see things a bit differently there, yeah?” It was a sincere offer and it was things like that - the parts of Pete that the rest of the world didn't always see, or that he wouldn't let them see - that had caught her attention to begin with. Had helped bring them to where they were now. Had made her fall in love with him before she even realized it. Leaning in, eyes closing, she indulged in a brief, soft kiss before pulling back, smile tipped a little crooked. "Another time, I'd say it wouldn't be a bad idea," Kitty began, then let out a long breath, shaking her head slightly, "right now, I think she'd assume I sent you and she'd resent it and wouldn't listen. We...kind of had a fight the night she showed up with Mini-Me and to pick Jamie up." Which kind of brought her to the part of this that involved her, and that Pete might end up having to deal with at some point. Okay, probably would have to deal with at some point. It was likely inevitable that one day he'd end up faced with the results, and the proof, of her ties to Yana and Limbo that neither of them quite understood and no one could seem to break. She was the heir to the Soulsword and to Limbo and she wasn't exactly great with either of them most of the time. Pete blinked at her and, yeah, probably not anything close to something he'd expected. He'd integrated with Excalibur so relatively seamlessly, she sometimes forgot he didn't know all this stuff already. The look on his face right now, though, was the definitive proof that he didn't. “Inherit as in absolute ruler, like her?” he said, and, teeth still pulling at her lip a little, Kitty nodded. "Pretty much, yeah," she confirmed. Generally without the horns and hooves, but no need to get into that since she was pretty sure Pete hadn't been confronted with the Darkchylde yet and no point dumping that on him right now, too. His brain was already doing all sorts of gymnastics as it was, she was sure. “And this is something, after all this time, that you’re a bit rubbish at.” He arched one brow carefully and suddenly she wasn't sure whether to be annoyed by his automatic assumption she'd had a lot of practice wrangling demons and hell dimensions and couldn't seem to master it, or to be amused that that was what he was focusing on. “I can’t say for sure if that’s something I ought to find a relief, or be a bit worried about,” he confessed, and she let out a short, surprised snort of laughter that she couldn't quite help. "Well, it's not like I go there to practice taking over," she protested with a roll of her eyes, still kind of caught between mild annoyance and amusement, "and 'ruling hell dimensions' wasn't really part of the X-Men training package." Though, on second thought, maybe it should've been. "So no, I don't always deal with it that well when it happens." Taking a breath, her expression sobered again as she met his eyes. "I'm not comfortable with it, and that's part of the problem," she continued more seriously, "but it's not that dire. There's no point worrying about, but you do need to know about it. Just in case it's ever an issue." Or was an issue again, but no point saying that since it would probably shoot him right back to 'worry about it'. "Actually, that's how this whole mess with the time displaced people from here ending up back home started," she confessed, since it didn't sound like Yana or Rachel had mentioned it. "Yana was trying to grab me while I was trying to figure out how to contact someone back home. I called the Soulsword just as she went to pull me through, it threw her aim off, and she got them instead. So, like I said, not all that great with this stuff." Desperate times, though. |
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| Pete Wisdom | Oct 23 2013, 01:18 PM Post #44 |
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Knows perfectly well what canny means
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What sorts of things would a demon lord say and do to get Rasputin to do what he wanted? To be what needed her to be. And how easy would it have been feed her nothing but lies in all that time? Pete hadn’t dealt with any major demons himself, not directly at least, but he knew how they worked well enough to guess at the answers to those questions. That sort of thing happened outside the demonic often enough, and in a way, Pete could almost relate to the sorts of things Rasputin had been through. If she’d been having more trouble shaking off Belasco’s influence, if she wasn’t truly free in the same sense Kitty and Rachel had managed, Pete could make a few guesses as to why. For one thing, when Kitty and Rachel had been putting themselves back together, as difficult as it might have been to find their way, they did at least have some idea of where it was they were going. They could remember who they’d been before everything had happened and were able to use that as both guide and goal. Kitty’s hand drifted from his neck to the curve of his shoulder, gently stroking it. She seemed to consider the idea for a bit before she gave a slight nod. "Maybe," she said in response to his theory. "Yana was the youngest. She was six, I was fourteen, Rachel was eleven. I guess we at least had some more idea of who we were than Yana did, so that could definitely be part of it." Nothing was certain, but it was a thought worth exploring, Pete supposed. Not before giving Kitty another long, sensual kiss, however. It was never too soon for more of that. He loved everything about kissing her, and it took some effort not to just abandon the conversation for a bit and keep it going. He did manage, but with no small amount of reluctance. Following his line of reasoning, Pete ventured that Rasputin might be holding herself up against an impossible standard. Her battle against Belasco’s influence could never be won. Not by the terms she was defining victory, and if she had killed Belasco, it would make finding that closure all the more difficult. Kitty listened as he thought it through out loud, nodding as considered it herself. He hadn’t spent much time with Rasputin, despite how close she and Kitty were, but perhaps that ought to change. If he got to know her the way Kitty did, he might be able to provide a few thoughts that would do her some good. It wasn’t the sort of offer most would expect of the surly Brit, but Kitty understood him, had seen through his mask. She knew him more deeply than almost anyone else, and wouldn’t have found it odd of him at all. As if to confirm that, her eyes slipped shut and she brought her lips to his in a soft kiss. A lopsided smile was on her lips when she pulled back a short moment later. "Another time, I'd say it wouldn't be a bad idea," she told him, and wasn’t that a loaded way to start her answer? Pete’s eyebrows rose in guarded interest as she exhaled and gave her head a little shake. "right now, I think she'd assume I sent you and she'd resent it and wouldn't listen. We...kind of had a fight the night she showed up with Mini-Me and to pick Jamie up." That went a long way toward explaining why she’d been acting so odd and avoiding the team like she had the past few days. Pete nodded, his face lined with concern. “Alright,” he agreed. If that was the case, it would be for the best if he didn’t intrude, no question there. At some point, if Kitty wanted to, they should probably talk about that fight, too. “I’ll keep it in mind after you two patch things up.” No way to be sure how long that would be, but Kitty was a good friend. Eventually they’d get past whatever it was. For now, there was something else about Kitty’s connection to Rasputin she wanted to discuss. As much as Pete liked to tell Kitty how weird her life was and friends were, he did not what came out of her mouth next coming. He’d be surprised, though, if anyone could have anticipated that she was tied to Rasputin in a way that couldn’t be defined, but meant that the Soulsword and Limbo itself might someday be passed on to her. He had to start by making sure he understood that correctly. Kitty continued to chew nervously on her lip as she nodded. "Pretty much, yeah," she said. So there might be some distinctions, but when it came right down to it, she was basically in line to get the total package. There was no getting around the fact that it was a lot to take in. And there was more to it. Now that that was established, he moved along to the next possible area of concern. She stood to inherit a power that was both undeniably immense and undeniably dark. Had for quite some time. And yet she was apparently no good at it. There weren’t a lot of things on that list to begin with, at least as far as Pete had seen. In this case, he didn’t even know if the opposite would necessarily be a thing to cheer about. That earned him a quick laugh of surprise. Rolling her eyes, Kitty said, "Well, it's not like I go there to practice taking over," sounding like she was trying to decide whether to be put out with him or to keep laughing. She rolled her eyes and added, "and 'ruling hell dimensions' wasn't really part of the X-Men training package. So no, I don't always deal with it that well when it happens." Pete smiled slightly and made a small, lopsided shrug. “It might have been thoughtful of Illyana to give you one or two pointers, though, yeah?” he said. Never hurt to think ahead, especially when it came to something like that. He understood her point, though, and slid his arm down to her hip, letting it rest there for a moment. After another breath, Kitty met Pete’s eyes, and the humor had retreated some as the gravity of the subject reasserted itself. "I'm not comfortable with it, and that's part of the problem, but it's not that dire. There's no point worrying about, but you do need to know about it. Just in case it's ever an issue." He nodded in understanding, expression as serious as hers. That would be a rather disconcerting surprise to just spring as it happened. “Hopefully it won’t,” he said. It was a bit strange that none of them could explain why the link was there at all, or why they hadn’t been able to do anything about it. Either, as she’d said, it hadn’t been urgent enough to explore every avenue and check with the real experts on that sort of thing, or they had, and it really was a fundamental bond between them. “Even if it wasn’t like all that, I don’t fancy anything bad happening to your friends.” Another thought came to Kitty then. More pieces that he’d been missing from either Kitty’s history, or the events since her disappearance. It turned out to be the latter in this case. "Actually, that's how this whole mess with the time displaced people from here ending up back home started," she said. "Yana was trying to grab me while I was trying to figure out how to contact someone back home. I called the Soulsword just as she went to pull me through, it threw her aim off, and she got them instead. So, like I said, not all that great with this stuff." Pete brushed his knuckles lightly over her cheek again. “It’s not like you could have possibly known,” he said, giving his head a slight shake. “I’m glad you did everything you could to try to get hold of us, even if it was more of a last resort.” He took a deep breath as he continue to absorb that. “All right,” he finally said. “I’m in love with a woman who’s in line to rule a hell dimension.” He nodded considering. “Pretty sure I can live with that, but I'd like to make sure of a few things all the same.” When he moved in to kiss her this time, he didn’t resist the urge to deepen it. He sank into it completely, heart pounding, the room feeling like it was slowly spinning around them. He gently rolled her on to her back, never breaking contact with her lips. It was a long kiss, full of desire, and he was a little short of breath when he finally broke it. Looking deep into her eyes, he said in a low, husky voice, “Tell me you won’t be in too much danger.” There was no way for her to be perfectly safe with something like that, but as long as she could handle it, then they'd deal with anything that happened when and if it happened. He gave her enough time to answer, and shifted down, placing another firm kiss on the nape of her neck. “Tell me nobody else will, either.” Because the potential for that couldn't be ignored either. Waiting again, he lowered himself further, to just below her breasts, and gave her another kiss at the juncture between them. “Tell me you won’t have to stop being you.” Because he loved her, and he was even more committed to her keeping herself now that he knew about all those who'd tried to take that away from her. More. A kiss right on her bellybutton. “Tell me it won’t be a problem if I’m by your side, because I will be by your side, no matter what.” Moving lower, he slid his hands along her sides, following the curves of her body, passing along her waist until he reached her hips. He began to slip them over her thighs, heading inward, and paused. He lifted his head and gave her a slightly cautious look and a fairly wicked, unrepentant smile. “This doesn’t mean if something happens to Rachel, you become the Phoenix, too. Does it?” |
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| Shadowcat | Oct 24 2013, 10:53 PM Post #45 |
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Immaterial Girl
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After all this time she wasn't better at ruling Limbo if/when she needed to? Oh, good grief. What, he thought she should be training for this somehow or other? It wasn't exactly something that was in the normal training program rotation, and 'practicing' pretty much meant she had to have control of the place herself, which she'd really, really rather avoid when at all possible. Times like these, Kitty didn't quite know whether to be annoyed or laugh or what, but she settled on a roll of her eyes as some sort of middle ground as Pete shrugged with one shoulder, hint of a smile on his face. “It might have been thoughtful of Illyana to give you one or two pointers, though, yeah?” he said and that had her opening her mouth to offer more protests, or to point out why it didn't quite work that way, but then closed it again. It wasn't that important and they'd just wander off on tangents pseudo-arguing over the possible methods of how you practiced ruling a hell dimension or how someone was supposed to give you 'pointers'. What it came down to, on a basic level, was that she just wasn't comfortable with it, not entirely okay with that part of her that would allow her to wield the Soulsword to begin with. It wasn't so dire Pete needed to put it on his 'to seriously worry about' list, but it was something he needed to know. Just in case. He nodded, understanding in his eyes and face, though she hadn't expected anything else, expression serious. “Hopefully it won’t,” he said and she knew this was something he'd probably end up turning over in his head, looking at from various angles for a while. They probably weren't done talking about it and that was okay. “Even if it wasn’t like all that, I don’t fancy anything bad happening to your friends.” No, neither did she. The fight with Yana was still bugging her and...they probably needed to talk when she got back, provided Yana was still speaking to her. It hurt in so many ways that it'd even happened. Yana had been her friend since the Russian girl was six. She'd tucked her in, told her bedtime stories. They'd been roommates, best friends and she still couldn't quite figure out where or how it'd all managed to get so muddled. No point going over and over that now, though, but it did remind her of one other thing. The reason that the 815 people had ended up back home to start with. She'd apparently had the worst timing ever trying to call the Soulsword as a way to make some sort of contact back home. Yeah, maybe not one of her better ideas, all things considered. Pete's knuckles grazed her cheek in a light caress and she sighed softly. This, however, had definitely been a stellar idea, she decided, turning her head to brush her lips over the back of his fingers. “It’s not like you could have possibly known,” he said, giving his head a slight shake, which was fair enough and she knew that. “I’m glad you did everything you could to try to get hold of us, even if it was more of a last resort.” Her hand came up again, fingers tracing along his jaw. "I was a little frantic at the time. No idea if all of us were here, or scattered across the multi-verse, or even who Widget had teleported off for sure." So, yeah, at the time it had seemed worth the gamble. Even if it had freaked this world's Illyana out a little and 'whoops'-ed a bunch of people from this worlds past over to her world's present. Day in the life, she guessed. Meanwhile, she was still watching Pete's face as it all tried to sink in. Even for him, and the life he'd led, this was...kind of a lot. And still not all of it, but no point in trying to cram it all in at once. “All right,” he finally said after taking a deep breath, like he was about to jump into an ice cold, bottomless lake. Kitty decided to keep the fact that he was already neck deep in that lake to herself for the moment. “I’m in love with a woman who’s in line to rule a hell dimension.” He nodded considering. “Pretty sure I can live with that, but I'd like to make sure of a few things all the same.” That seemed reasonable, but before Kitty could say so, there was more kissing, which totally wiped whatever she'd been planning on saying right out of her mind. What replaced it, as the kiss deepened and she sank into it was an increasingly familiar rush of heat and desire and affection, want and need and love, all of it rolled up together so that there was no separating one from the other as he rolled her over again. When he pulled back, Pete met her eyes, raspy note in his voice sending a fresh shiver along her nerves endings. “Tell me you won’t be in too much danger.” 'Too much' was probably relative here, but she wouldn't be in any more than she'd ever been, so that was an easy enough request to grant. "I'll be fine," she assured him softly, fingertips trailing slowly down the middle of his back. Then he shifted down a little, lips warm against the nape of her neck. It drew a physical shiver from her this time, raising goose bumps along her skin though the feeling that went with them wasn't cold but hot. Her arms wound around him again, tugging him closer. “Tell me nobody else will, either.” That was a harder promise to make. Like she'd told him, she didn't always do so great when the Soulsword came to her. So far, she'd avoided complete disaster, but once or twice it'd been sheer luck. "You know I don't want that, either," she replied a little breathlessly. "I'll figure out how to get a handle on it." It was a vow she made to herself as much as him, because the person who'd be at the greatest risk if she lost it, and the last one she'd ever want to risk, was Pete himself. And she could do it, Kitty knew that. The ability was there, she just had to conquer the worry and unease that kept her from using it. He moved a little farther down, mouth on her skin again and drawing a soft moan from her as he added, “Tell me you won’t have to stop being you.” "No," she whispered, not having to even think about that assurance as she gave her head a brief shake, eyes closing, "I'll always be me." She'd fought to hard to earn that and she liked who she was. Liked her life. Now, with Pete - with this - it was only getting better. No way was she giving that up. A little farther down and her blood was rushing in her ears, hands tightening on his shoulders as Pete planted a kiss on her navel. Her muscles tightened in anticipation, breath coming faster still. “Tell me it won’t be a problem if I’m by your side, because I will be by your side, no matter what.” If she hadn't loved him already, she would've then as something inside her went soft, vulnerable in a way that should've scared her, but didn't. Because this was Pete. Her partner, her friend, the man she was in love with in a way that made her dizzy. Like she'd said a few days ago that felt more like a few weeks ago, he'd never hurt her. "I wouldn't have it any other way," Kitty assured him again, then grinned a little because she couldn't help it and added, "but I'm not sure how Lockheed's going to take the news." Worrying about her dragon's reaction to this new development in their relationship wasn't really the primary thing on her mind, though, as Pete slid lower still, hands skimming along her sides in a way that had her back arching and her pulse hammering in her ears. It'd been a long day and they should've probably hit the shower before another round, but she couldn't quite keep those thoughts in her head, either as warm, sure hands trailed along her thighs and her legs opened wider all on their own. “This doesn’t mean if something happens to Rachel, you become the Phoenix, too. Does it?” What?? Opening her eyes again, Kitty peered down at him and his wary look that was completely ruined by that smile he was wearing, which was anything but. Jeez, admit you get a weird, demonic sword from one friend, and this is what happens. Well, he'd asked. He couldn't blame her for giving him an answer, right? "Oh. Uh...yeah," she began tentatively, trying to keep any trace of humor out of her expression and pausing in seeming reluctance, "I was going to get to that later, actually, since it's a lot to deal with all at once. But, yeah, kind of the same deal with Rachel. If anything happens to her, I get the Phoenix Force." And if he actually believed that, Ray was right. He really was the worst spy ever. God. Then, because she really couldn't hold the serious expression any longer and it was a miracle she'd held it that long, Kitty rolled her eyes, reached behind her, grabbed her trusty weapon of choice and swung the pillow at his head. "You're awful," she informed him with a laugh, since she'd neglected to do that since he'd got here. "And if I did inherit the Phoenix Force, the first thing I'd do was turn all your cigarettes into something good for you. Like tofu." |
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3:32 AM Jul 11