| Welcome to X-Men: Dark Horizons. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Misery Loves Company; 5/20 late night (Illyana, Jono) | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 31 2013, 12:05 PM (54 Views) | |
| Magik | Jul 31 2013, 12:05 PM Post #1 |
|
What IS an unseelie bitch, anyway?
![]()
|
There. One Jamie (or was it two? She wasn't quite sure how that worked) dropped off where various medical people could fuss over him. Fortunately, she'd managed to pop back out before anyone could start fussing at her for violating the X-Men's "keep out of the other dimension until we come up with a scientific explanation for things you can do in your sleep" decree. She wasn't in the mood. Tired though she was, she wasn't much in the mood to go to sleep, either, and after popping back to her room to change into PJs that didn't have what had to be twenty years of accumulated interdimensional dust all over them, she'd found herself wandering the mansion. To look at it all, not much had changed over the years, despite the number of times bits and pieces had been rebuilt. Appearances were deceiving, though. Everything had changed. She felt tears well up in her eyes, and brushed them away irritably. She was not going to start bawling her eyes out, just because Kitty'd made it clear just what a crappy friend she felt she'd been. She wasn't going to make excuses for her either. Granted, she'd obviously been tired beyond belief, and she'd probably been hit pretty hard by the revelations about the Prof, having never believed him capable of that kind of shit. She hadn't had any such illusions, but as usual, no one had ever listened to her. Still, Kitty'd been out of line. Hadn't she? Okay, maybe she hadn't handled the whole thing with Rachel well over the years. Not that Rachel had handled it any better, but she could have made some effort to keep Kitty out of it, even if Summers hadn't. She knew Pryde didn't like being stuck in the middle of shit like that, and she was willing to admit that she had, maybe, tried to get her to take sides. But Kitty was her best friend, wasn't she? She always had been. Or, well, she'd thought she had. Right up until she'd gotten back from Limbo, and found her place usurped by the redhead who'd shown up and then disappeared again back while she'd still been a New Mutant. Who'd made it clear from day one that she wasn't welcome, and that as far as she was concerned, Kitty was hers. Hadn't she? Illyana shook her head, pushing that aside for now. Whatever the redhead had or hadn't done didn't matter at this point. What mattered was that things weren't what they'd been, any more than the stair railing might look the same at a glance but didn't have the fracture marks from the time Sam had flown into it. Whatever else Kitty might've said, that part was true enough. Things had changed, and she was going to have to accept it. Even if it sucked. The problem was, she wasn't sure she could. Not if she stayed with Excalibur, anyway. Oh, she had other friends there - Kurt and Amanda and Meggan. But it wasn't the same, and she wasn't sure she could realistically keep her mouth shut if Rachel decided to gloat. Hell, she wasn't sure she could do it even if the high and mighty Phoenix didn't. So... She headed down the hall to the rec room, figuring it was late enough that no one would be there, and considered her options. The X-Men - no. The whole "scientific explanation" crap would drive her nuts within days - hell, it was doing that already. Excalibur was the only team that seemed to actively embrace magical solutions to problems, but the X-Men seemed to have serious issues with them. Or maybe with her, she wasn't entirely sure which, but it came to the same thing. Besides, Piotr would want to try and fix things for her, and she wasn't altogether sure they were fixable. X-Factor - she didn't know much about X-Factor, other than that Forge was there. Which was reason enough to avoid the place like the plague, even if the Jamie she'd brought back had been kind of cute, sort of tentatively flirting with her. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, and - well, if she wanted to find out, she could always pop in and see him. But joining his team was out. She smiled a little at the thought of going back to school at the place Emma and Sean were apparently running, then rolled her eyes. Yeeaaah, that was going to happen. Not. She might have the equivalent of a remedial 10th grade education, but that didn't mean she was eager to try and finish it off. Besides, from what she'd seen she'd spend half her time trying to come up with reasons why not to send Sam's sister and her obnoxious little friend off to Limbo. *They're not quite that bad usually,* a male voice said in her head, and Illyana frowned as she looked around. What the fuck? Even beyond the simple fact that she had no idea who the hell it was, how was a telepath snooping around in her head, anyway? Even the Prof couldn't- A hint of dry amusement drifted across mental airways. *I'm special. And you're leaking thoughts like a broken tea ball. Don't want me to comment, keep them to yourself. It's not like I want them. Just saying, the Firecracker's not usually this bad. She's all freaked out over her damn Wolverine going missing is all.* "And Sam's sister?" she said aloud, as she tried to zip up any cracks in her mental defenses as she turned into dimly lit Rec Room. One of Emma's kids was stretched out on the couch, the one who looked like he'd gone so Goth he'd needed the extra room for all the black and had covered up half his face. *Could be there's a bit more to it than that,* he retorted, his mental voice sounding a little testy. *But Sunshine? Yeah, she's somethin'* She headed over to where he was sitting and stared at him. "How're you doing that? And don't give me any shit about brain being a leaky tea ball." No reply for a moment, but then the kid - no, he wasn't much younger than she was, was he? - sort of stretched and sat up, an almost but not quite confused expression on what she could see of his face. *You're...hard to explain it, luv. But you're concentrating so hard you're making words in your head, instead of the usual hodge podge that floats around.* He shrugged a little, almost dismissively, and added, *Thought you were talking to me at first. Sorry.* She waved that aside and, taking his movement for invitation, walked over to plop down on the other side of the sofa, relieved that this one didn't poof dust up all the cropped tank top and shorts she was planning on wearing to bed when and if her brain ever settled down enough to actually go there. "Must be tired," she said by way of explanation, because it made as much sense as anything else she could come up with, then turned to look at him curiously. "Who are you, anyway?" she asked, her mind running over the list of GenXers she'd heard of. Not Angelo - she'd met him on her way into the bachelorette party, talking with the Asian girl who was apparently codenamed "Firecracker". Everett? *Jono*, the guy replied, whether in response to her thoughts or question she wasn't sure. *Jonothan Starsmore, if you're looking for the whole thing. Or Chamber.* Illyana's eyes flickered over the bandages, her face warming a little as bits and pieces of conversations she hadn't paid much attention to fell into place. "Oh, you're the one who-" *Who blew out his face and chest when his powers kicked in?* he interrupted, sounding defensive as his eyebrows shot up. *Yeah, that's me. Guess I'm just famous that way, huh?* She shot him an annoyed look and continued as if he hadn't interrupted, "Who blew up that restaurant in London," she finished. "It was on tv." Meggan had dragged her in to see it, actually, fussing that she hoped that everyone was okay, and they'd shown pictures of him, pre-accident. It was too bad, she reflected, that he'd apparently lost half his face in the process. He'd been pretty hot in the photos. *Yeah, not much to look at these days,* he observed, sounding almost irritable. Which was totally unfair, considering she hadn't said anything. "Y'know, you should really stop snooping around in people's heads," she snapped back, turning a little more so she could glare at him properly. "And don't tell me you can't help it - even the Prof can't read my thoughts." *Then maybe you're wanting me to?* he retorted angrily, the volume in her head rising with the intensity. *What, tired of feeling sorry for yourself so you're flipping it over to me?* "I am NOT feeling sorry for myself!" she yelled. *Right. You're not wandering around the halls, whining about how your mate doesn't love you anymore. Must've been someone else.* An impression of a derisive snort accompanied that, and he turned away to look at the wall. Oh no. He was not getting off that easy. "Says the guy who's sitting around in the dark because what, you lost half your face?" *No, I'm sitting around in the dark feeling sorry for myself because Layla, the bloody know-it-all twit who thinks it's fun to ship people off without so much as a by your leave, told Paige she should stay the hell away from me because I was going to make her miserable!* he retorted, his mental voice echoing around inside her skull with the sheer intensity of his reply. His shoulders slumped as if everything had drained out of him with that, and when he continued, it was at considerably lower volume. Which was a good thing, because if he kept on shouting in her head she was going to have a splitting headache on top of everything else. *Not that I hadn't told her that already, but she believed her.* Illyana wrinkled her nose, unable to hold onto her (justifiable) irritation when the kid looked so...well, defeated. "That sucks," she acknowledged, leaning forward to prop her elbows on her knees and craning her head to try to see what she could of his face. Granted, it also fit her own, admittedly dated, impressions of Paige, but she figured pointing that out probably wouldn't help much. "Did you talk to her?" Another mental snort was followed a half second later by a shrug of his leather-clad shoulders. *Tried,* he admitted. *But what's the point, really? I don't much like it, but the brat's right enough. Sunshine'll be happier without me.* "So what, you're gonna just let her go?" she asked, eyebrows raising skeptically. He nodded, and she let out a snort of her own. "Nice." *Wot, like you're not doing the same thing?* That gave her pause, and she took a breath, considering. Was she? Should she stay with Excalibur, try to work things out with Kitty? They'd been friends for a long time, after all, and neither of them had exactly been in a great frame of mind when they'd started the conversation, let alone when they finished it. Her mind flicked over to the other Kitty Pryde, though, with whom she'd spent a good part of the evening. How natural it had felt, spending time with her and just talking, even though they were from two different dimensions and hadn't actually met before she'd yanked her over. It had been a long time since she and Pryde had fit like that, and...maybe Kitty was right. Maybe that wasn't all Rachel's fault. Maybe it was just inevitable. "It's not the same," she admitted reluctantly. "We just...don't fit anymore. And I can't make us fit, just by wanting it. It won't work." Jono looked over at her and shrugged. *Not so different here, luv,* he replied, sounding resigned and almost a little sympathetic. *Better to end it now, right? Than to wait a couple years until we can't stand to look at each other anymore, then admit it?* She thought that over for a minute, then nodded reluctantly and sighed, elbows dropping back to her knees as she propped her chin on her hands. "It still sucks, though." There was a long silence, and her eyes flicked over to see that Jono was mirroring her pose, bandaged chin supported by his own hands, his eyes unnaturally bright. *Yeah. Can't argue that. They both fell silent, then, Jono apparently lost in his own thoughts about what might've been, but wouldn't be. Until finally, Illyana looked over at him and smiled a little. "Y'know..." she began, waiting until he'd turned to look at her before continuing, "X-Force doesn't sound like a half bad team. They probably won't stay at Murderworld long." Jono turned his head, forehead furrowing. *That's for real? The Murderworld thing? I thought Paige and Jubilee were taking the piss when they talked about it.* She laughed a little and shook her head. "No, it's for real," she assured him. "Been there, done that. But..." she paused for a moment, wondering whether or not she had any business making the offer, then discarded the idea. The New Mutants were family, after all, and she'd been invited. Sam wouldn't argue if she brought someone else along, even if it was his sister's ex. He might want to, but being Sam, he wouldn't. "It's a pretty big place," she began. "There'd probably be room for one more, if...you didn't want to hang around in Massachusetts." He looked at her for a long moment, as if trying to decide whether or not there was anything he could take offense to, then shrugged. *I'll think about it, luv,* he said finally, his tone sounding inexplicably lighter than it had before. Relieved, maybe, that there were other options - she didn't know for sure, but at least he didn't sound angry about it. *Might not be such a bad idea, at that.* She nodded, offering a little smile, then got to her feet. "C'mon," she said, jerking her head towards the door. *Wot? I didn't mean now -* he protested as he got to his feet. She rolled her eyes at that and shook her head, then smiled half heartedly. "Nah. But the roof's a way better place for brooding. Almost an Xavier's tradition." *I'm partial to basements, meself,* he argued, but he picked up his guitar anyway and followed her out. "That's only because you've never been up on the roof," she assured him as they headed for the elevator. She wasn't going to be sleeping tonight, anyway, and neither was he. That much was obvious. They might as well watch the sun come up in the morning. |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · Rec Room · Next Topic » |








3:37 AM Jul 11