aterat | Winter log

Entry tags:

Winter log

Who: Everyone!
What: Open Log
When: December
Where: The Hunter's Lodge
Warnings: N/A
Notes: This is a mingle log, so people are free to set up their own TLs under it. So tag in and tag around!

Snow has fallen outside and while it's not heavy it's set just enough down to gently cover the wooden benches and ground outside. The chairs have been removed but the lanterns are still out and lit (as well as the little lights that have been replaced with more festive ones) if people want to walk around outside and have private chats among the snow, the trees and the lighting.

Potluck - Food is all around. Got a story about how the food you brought is part of a long standing family tradition? So much the better! But Ignis for his part has been researching and working on bringing the foods he's heard about. So here you'll find an appetizer platter along with a cream cheese tree, turkey, ham, his version of the Crown City roast, stuffing balls, roasted potatoes and roasted vegetables, and of course a few different desserts.

So you can find him making sure the table is decked out in christmas colours and full of food. But as he sets the last appetizer tree down on the table, he nods. "Quite glad to see that you could make it."

Trim a tree A small group of freshly cut green trees are sitting in a corner with room to go around the back. Simple lights are already in place, but there are ornaments with hooks sitting in silent invitation to decorate the tree and gather around as well as different coloured garland too.

But there's plenty of supplies and being able to decorate a tree with Nida last year was all sorts of fun as it will be again this year. So the advisor is definitely happy that nature can come inside at least temporarily.

Ignis stands back and takes a look at the trees with a satisfied sort of nod. "I suppose after the holiday, I will see about replanting it outside." Turning to his guest, there's an easy smile. "It won't do to simply throw it away do you think?"

Gift exchange - Gifts aren't required, but people are free to do so. This can be as private or as public as wished! The royal strategist is busy arranging gifts under the tree, trying to make some sense as to how they should be grouped, so he's on his knees trying to keep the order straight. As soon as someone approaches, he acknowledges their presence with a smile. "Would you mind handing me that blue wrapped gift sitting on the chair right next to you?"

Wild card- Dancing? Snowball fights outside? Feel free to make up a thing here!

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"So you caught on?" There was a tiny part of her that was a bit surprised he had, but proud none the less. He was definitely sharper than people gave him credit for.

"Precisely. You often have to practice quite a lot to get the exact result you want," she said with a casual shrug. "This was something I had never practiced or attempted. I just thought on doing it at the moment."

Mono seemed to stand a little straighter at that, looking rather pleased with himself when he realized he’d caught on to something clever.

“I guess that makes sense. Everyone here says I should practice stuff more to get better at it, too.” Even if he couldn’t practice, it made sense. And he did practice with talking to people with his job carrying messages and mail to various shops around the city for the delivery service. “And you must be good at coming up with stuff fast, if you just thought of it when you saw the snowmen. I never made them before, so it really tricked me! I wasn’t sure if it was normal or if I did something weird by mistake.”

"Practice makes perfect," she said with a shrug. In theory it was always a good idea. The problem always seemed to be that people took it a bit too far. Including herself. It was easy to get caught up in that practice and forget about other things. Or, in her case, lose bits of yourself completely to it.

"I have had a lot of time to practice," again she shrugged. Despite how she looked Illyana had spent much more time than most people would ever realize, or know, studying magic. Time worked very differently in pocket dimensions after all. "Where I grew up you died if you were not quick to come up with things fast." Survival of the fittest was a daily occurrence in Hell. How the imps survived was anyone's guess.

"I also had several...strong teachers." Strong was an odd word to use, but it was the only one she could think of. Only one of them had really been a good teacher. An argument could be made for Magneto being a half-decent teacher before he went off the rails again, but that was a stretch. No, most of her teachers hadn't really been good. They had been strong, knowledgeable, and each had taught her a valuable life lesson, but they hadn't been good. She imagined that was the kind of teacher she would be should anyone ever have the misfortune of learning from her.

"There probably is a world where there's an entire race of snowpeople who talk. You'd be surprised what kind of alternate realities there are out there."

“I heard people say that before!” He chirped back with a nod, and it made sense. You could only get better at things if you kept practicing and working on them.

Mono probably shouldn’t have asked the next question, but it’s not like he knows what’s rude or not. “A lot of time? Like ‘cause you're older?” Adults had been around for a lot longer than kids. That just made SENSE! So he wasn’t exactly calling her old, so much as older than him and thus more experienced.

He nodded, though with a particular understanding about learning to come up with things faster… “Yeah, that’s kinda how I got really good at sneaking around in my world and quickly finding hiding places. You gotta learn to um… anticipate stuff!” Other wise, as she said, you died.

He’d never had teachers before, not in his world… So, finding himself with teachers here? It was an interesting experience. “Yeah? And they helped you with all the practicing and getting better at doing stuff? I got someone showing me how to climb better so far. It’s kinda neat.”

Mono’s eyes widened at the mental image of a world full of talking snow people. “Really? Wow…” He turned to look back at his little army of snow people. “I think the snowman you made talk would have liked a place like that. I guess it makes sense though, everyone seems to come from really different places than mine… So there’s gotta be so many that we don’t even know about!”

"The multiverse is more similar than you'd think," she said with a shrug. Some things changed, but far too many things stayed the same.

"Because I'm older and then some." The statement didn't make sense and she knew that, yet she didn't offer any further elaboration on the topic. Sometimes it seemed like it was almost a game to see how vague she could be, how many questions someone would keep asking. Why exactly she found enjoyment in the game was anyone's guess, she tried to spend as little time thinking about whys as she could.

"Limbo was like that. It was either learn to hide better, or learn to fight better." It was never really a choice though. "They did. They each taught me something different, white magic, black magic, the art of combat, my mutant abilities. The only common lesson between them all was the lesson that life isn't fair." That was the most important lesson of all though and each one of them had hammered that into her memory.

"If he'd been allowed to talk for too long, maybe he would have made one," she said with a laugh. "Or tried to. His revolution wouldn't get very far." It might be funny though. Imagine stopping the Old Ones from destroying her world only to create a Snowman that tries to destroy it.

"In my world there are countless realities. There are entire organizations dedicated to protecting the order of it all." Which seemed like a job they kind of sucked at considering how often realities clashed with each other. "They suck at their job."

Mono really didn’t know what to make of her vagueness, other than guessing that meant she was REALLY old compared to him and maybe other people. “I guess if I get to be around that long maybe I’ll get really good at the stuff I can do too?” He wasn’t sure, but it was… a nice idea. He’d like to have more control over his abilities, to figure out what he could do with them and see if he could use them to fix things.

As Illyana described all the things she’d learned, Mono stopped fussing with the snowball he’d been working on. That was a lot of stuff to learn, which… perhaps cemented in his guess that she was a lot older than he thought she was. But there was a sadness that settled into his expression at the final lesson, “Yeah… It should be more fair… But it’s really not.”

Glancing at the snowman again, he wondered what that might’ve been like. “Yeah, I dunno if he woulda gotten far. I didn’t really give him legs or anything… I think he’d have been easy to knock over with a shovel, or um- if it gets warmer and he melted.” Clearly the kid had given some thought about what to do about the snowman, had it gotten out of hand before Illyana intervened.

“That sounds like a really complicated job. I don’t think I’d be good at it either…” He hummed a little. “Who even decides to make a job like that?”

"Maybe. It might require time travel and pocket universes to get there though." Perhaps his powers could do something like that though. He really seemed to have exceptionally little idea about them and how they worked.

"Many things should be things they're not." And that was just the way things were. It was unfortunate, but it was reality. Still, for some reason she felt a need to offer him some comfort. "There are good things though, things that are more fair. My brother would say it is important to focus on those." It seemed a bit silly to her, but so did a lot of what her brother said.

"I suppose he'd have to learn to hope to move and in order to do that he'd have to be very strong." That was actually kind of a scary thought, a strong snowman. "What if he was able to come back together after melting?" An immortal strong snowman. She arched an eyebrow. "You've thought about it." Curious. But she was impressed in a way.

His question gets a simple shrug. "That I can't say."

Very little idea, which was problem… He had vague ideas, and half-formed thoughts about what he might do if he were better at it. But a lot of it was learning as he went and figuring out some new aspect depending on what was going on around him. “People can time travel? That would be super useful, like going back to stop whatever happened to my world before it got as bad as it did.” That was an interesting thought… Poor kid didn’t realize time was already pretty broken in his world. He might never properly realize it, either.

“Yeah, there’s good stuff here, I guess.” He responded, though it wasn’t a bad way to look at things… But he also wasn’t sure how focusing on the good things would make the bad stuff any less bad. Especially where he was from. The kid tended to hang onto things pretty hard. “Maybe that’d be easier if things were more like here where I’m from. But I dunno what good stuff to focus on, other than when I get away from something.”

Mono wondered what a properly strong snowman would look like. That was almost scary… He was kind of glad he was still pretty bad at making them proportionally. Maybe if he’d done a better job, the snowman might’ve been strong enough to do more. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m not good at making big snow people yet. He might’ve gotten really carried away if I did a better job!” The kid’s eyes widened though, “That would be bad if he could reform himself, then there’s no getting rid of it!” Horrifying thought, Illyana, that would stick in his head for a while.

But yes, he’d definitely thought about how to stop it. “Of course, you gotta think of stuff when you’re trying to decide if it’s dangerous. Either you stop it or you run away from it.” The snowman, size-wise, reminded him of the porcelain bullies from the school. A good shovel swing seemed like a logical response to the attack. If it had been bigger, running would have been the instinct.

The kid gasped a little. Something Illyana didn’t know? Mono was surprised. She seemed like she knew so many things! “Really? I guess it’s one of those weird, mysterious things that you gotta figure out.”

"I can time travel," an important correction in Illyana's mind. "It's part of my mutant ability." Which, confusingly enough, was completely separate from her ability to do magic. "I did that back home. Sort of." It was a bit more complicated than just deciding to go back in time to try to fix things, but weren't most things in her life?

"Perhaps survival is the good thing you can focus on. If you survive long enough you may find something good along the way." She was really terrible at optimism. "Piotr is better at this sort of thing." Her brother would probably like Mono quite a lot actually.

"I think you did a fine job." Considering that implied that she thought the snowman could have gotten carried away, maybe that wasn't as comforting as she thought it was. "I imagine he'd be able to reform though. It would seem logical." As logical as a talking snowman trying to take over the world could seem.

For a second she looked a bit sad and then she shook her head. "At least there is little running to be done here." He shouldn't have to run so much. Not when he was so young.

"I'm sure someone knows. My world likes teams and organizations. It seems like a new one is being made every week."

Mono looked fascinated by that, his eyes widening in awe. She could do that?? And it wasn’t even her magic? “Wow…! You can do that?” He tilted his head curiously. “And you fixed stuff with it? That’s really amazing!” But he hummed a little, if it was her special ability thing… “I guess that means that it’s not a thing anyone can just learn to do though, huh.” Which was too bad, he really would have liked to try to do that too.

“Maybe?” He tilted his head a little, surviving was definitely better than the alternative… Even if the constant struggle got tiring after a while. “I hope so… It wasn’t as bad when I had my friend Six around, so maybe that’s the good thing I gotta try for. I gotta get her back.” He nodded. So while her attempt at optimism wasn’t great? At least it gave him an idea. “I dunno. You make a lot of sense to me. Maybe you’re better than you think!”

Shrugging a little, Mono looked at his snow people collection thoughtfully. “You think so? They’re kinda smaller and lumpier than the ones I saw kids making last year, but I’m still practicing.” He had planned to work up to making much bigger ones, but now he was kind of glad he hadn’t gotten that far yet as Illyana mentioned it would probably have been able to reform itself. “So hitting it with a shovel wouldn’t have stopped it for long if we had to, that’s kinda scary…”

She was right, though. There was a lot less running to do around here. “Yeah, I haven’t had to run a lot yet. Except from the tall wizard guy when he caught me spying on him, but I guess I didn’t need to run from him. So mostly I just run when I gotta deliver something or when I feel like it.” Which was nice. All in all, his life was a lot less scary than it used to be. A lot of the bad stuff seemed pretty easy to avoid by comparison, too.

“Yeah? I guess that makes sense… Stuff is easier when you’re working with other people. Six and I found stuff a lot easier when we started working together.”

"My discs? The one we went to Limbo in? They allow teleportation to far more than just places around the world. They let me cross dimensions, time, and space." Her face wrinkles up into a frown for a second. "My team uses me as transportation sometimes." It's annoying. But she moves on quickly. "And yes, I fixed things. I was looking for something through time but what I found was..." pretty unpleasant actually. "A world where the Old Ones had one. Earth was overtaken, most of my friends were dead, and there were way too many tentacles around." There should never be that many tentacles. "So I went back and time and made certain it wouldn't happen."

That made her sound a bit too generous and heroic for her liking. "I wanted the chance to destroy the Old Ones once and for all more than anything." Saving her friends was just a byproduct of her own desires. At least that's what she'd insist. It was better for her image. "But no, it is not something most can do. There are other mutants with teleportation and time related powers. None quite on the scale of mine." It isn't bragging if it's true, right?

"Then do all you can to get her back. Then maybe you'll both find more good things." Kitty would say something like that. She'd probably also throw in something about how a good friend could get you through anything and create good moments just by existing.

"They clearly had more time to practice." So comparisons were pointless. "They are about as good as the ones I made as a little girl with my brother. We had a lot of snow there." She rarely mentioned her childhood to anyone and she wasn't sure why she was now.

"The tall wizard guy? Who is that?"

Mono listened curiously. He had thought her discs just took her to different places… Different times were really amazing! Even if she tried to downplay her heroics, it was hard for the kid to not latch onto that a bit. A world taken over by these ‘old ones’ and most of her friends dead? That was kind of a big deal to stop, at least to him. “Wow… So you stopped the bag thing that was ruining your world and stopped your friends from dying! That’s kinda really great, Illyana.” He responded, expression somewhat awed. It wasn’t like he knew anyone to ask if she was bragging, either. To him, she was just that powerful, and so it was impressive.

Getting Six back was the most important thing to Mono, even here in this world where everything was better and he shouldn’t want to go back… But he wanted to, he wanted to go back and save her because they were a team and you didn’t leave your friends. She had been the first one he’d had in a long time, and so he was perhaps reluctant to forget or abandon her. “I’m gonna! At least I’m gonna try my best whenever I go home.”

Looking at his snow people again, Mono hummed a little. “I guess that’s true, and I’m gonna keep making them. It’s been kinda fun.” Though the child tilted his head up curiously at that, “You and your brother? I bet that was fun too! And you must be really good at making them, if you and your brother had a lot of snow.”

The question gets a little shrug. “He doesn’t look like a wizard, so maybe that’s why you didn’t know him!” That seemed… logical to Mono. The guy didn’t look like the wizards from stories, so how could anyone expect him to be a wizard? “His name’s Harry! I only found out he was a wizard after he chased me and knocked me off a drain pipe with his magic stuff.” That had been kind of scary and awkward, but at least Harry had turned out to be nice.

"I did. I didn't expect all of them to survive but..." she shrugged. "I made some strange choices." She still wasn't quite certain as to why she'd veered from her plans to make sure she saved one of her friends. It was still something of a mystery to her.More than likely it had something to do with sentimentality, but she hadn't had all of her soul back at that point.

"That's often all someone can do." They can do their best and after that it was up to fate. Unfortunately, fate tended to be really shitty.

"Piotr was better," she said with a hint of pride in her voice. "He's the artist of us three. It translated to making snowmen as well." Though he could have been horrible at it and she'd still say he was the best. "He'd like you."

"Ah, I've spoken to him. He's not fond of misuse of magic." He was fond of telling people about that. She narrowed her eyes at his description though. "Why did he knock you off a drain pipe?"

Mono tilted his head at that. “Sometimes it’s the weird choices that you wouldn’t expect to that solve a problem.” He had to do some really weird things to make progress in his world, otherwise he’d have been stuck for a really long time.

“Yeah? I never met an artist before, but I guess that kinda makes sense.” He wondered what snowmen made by an artist would look like. Were they super detailed or just really well-made snowballs? Mono couldn’t really imagine it either way. Illyana sounded pretty proud of her brother, so that at least meant he had to be really good at it… right? “Do you think so…? I always worry people might see me and realize what people in my world think… So I’d like to meet him if he ever showed up, if you think he’d like to.” Though Mono looked a bit curious, “You said three, do you got another brother or sister too?”

The question gets… an awkward little shrug. “I was following him… ‘Cause he’s so tall, he kinda reminded me of someone bad in my world and I wanted to try to make sure he wasn’t like that. But he kinda spotted me when most people didn’t, and I ran, so he chased me. I guess he didn’t mean to make me fall?”

"Sometimes," she agreed. Though it still felt strange to her in a way that she could not place. It was irritating.

"He still accepts me despite all I've done. He's quite...accepting," she said frankly. Naïve was another way to put it, but that wasn't quite as nice and she found it difficult to be anything but nice about Piotr. "He would like you." Strange again that she felt something stirring in her, an emotion that took a moment to place: loneliness. Even in Limbo she'd missed her brother, but she'd run from that back home. It was harder to run from it here.

"Mikhail." She said after a moment in response to his question. "He was the eldest." And another complicated story. Just how much of her life had been complicated? Why did all three of them have to have such horrid things happen to them all the time?

"I see. It sounds as though he didn't really prove he wasn't bad. Should I send my imps to him?"

Mono nodded quietly for a moment. He wondered what that was like… He liked hearing about people’s families, even if it sometimes made him wonder if he ever had one. He supposed he must have. Kids didn’t just spring up out of nowhere. Probably… “I already think you’re really great, so I bet he is too. At least he sounds really nice.” He wasn’t sure how likely it was for people to just show up here. It seemed pretty random… But the kid sure hoped that one day Six and Illyana’s brother might show up.

So she had another brother, Mono tilted his a little. “Yeah? That’s neat. What was he like?” He was curious, of course, and no one here seemed to tell him to stop asking questions… So he just kept asking them.

Sending imps after Harry seemed like a bad idea. “I dunno, that might get them in trouble! And it’s okay. He said he might be able to help me figure out how my power works, so I guess that kinda makes up for me falling.” Did it really? Mono seemed to think so, at least, and he was bound to latch onto anyone who made suggestions about something he’d been so confused over… Even if he was being cautious about it, in case Harry decided his abilities were a bad thing.

"He is much better than me. Nicer and more heroic. Piotr always believes in the best in people. Even when he should not." Like with her. It was what caused her to avoid him when her more demonic form took over.

"Mikhail? Manipulative and mad. He and I had much more in common." Piotr was the good one, while they were the damaged ones driven mad by circumstances. Despite what Mikhail had cost her, somehow she could still relate to him more. "Our government knew of his abilities and they used him. He lost much from it and he didn't take his loses well." Though did anyone? Other than that she wasn't really certain what to say about her eldest brother. He wasn't precisely someone she knew well outside of when he'd tricked her.

She burst out into a laugh. "Are you concerned for the safety of my imps?" how amusing that was. "Does it make up for it? I suppose if he gets results it would."

Mono blinked a little. “I think you’re really nice, though?” He did, though his opinions were a bit skewed compared to most people. He supposed Piotr must be extra nice compared to people if Illyana thought he was better somehow. Which… Was weird to try to imagine.

“That all sounds really bad…” He responded though, tone darkening somewhat. Why did people have to go and use or hurt other people just because they were different and could do stuff? “I’m sorry about your other brother. That’s really dumb to use people and make them lose stuff and hurt.” Were other worlds not as nice as he first thought? He didn’t like the idea… It would be disappointing if they were all just as bad, in slightly different ways.

Her laughter gets a little startle from the boy. “I guess a little? They’re smaller and kinda really bad at doing stuff.” Thus, probably should be worried about in some way. Even if they didn’t get hurt, they’d probably make a mess of dealing with someone more powerful than them.

“I dunno if it’ll really get results. It’s kinda hard to explain stuff to people without showing them.” He responded with a little rise of his shoulders, “But he wanted to try, so it kinda makes up for it, I think. Even if we don’t figure stuff out.” Mono was not getting his hopes up.

"To you." To others? Not so much. At least not all the time, especially when she hadn't had her soul. There had been quite a lot of things she'd done in that time that were not nice. In a way it made her hope he never fully saw any of the things she'd done.

"It was. Piotr and I went to the US to try to escape being used like he was." And yet it didn't go any better for them there. Despite his best efforts to protect her. "It's a common thing for people to have happen to them." And her family seemed particularly cursed.

"Maybe I should send them to live with you for a bit then." See if he really wanted to be their friend after that. That would be an amusing thing to watch at the very least. "If you say so."

“So you’re not nice to everyone… I haven’t seen you be mean to anyone, though.” He responded with a curious tone in his voice. Not that the kid knew anything about her time without a soul or had seen her in her own world. Mono was a bit innocent of that, and hadn’t happened upon seeing her do anything particularly bad or mean here.

“Yeah? I’m glad you got away…” He mumbled quietly, still thinking about that rather seriously. The fact that it was a common problem for people to have happen to them? He didn’t like it, not one bit.

Mono blinked at the idea that the imps should move in with him for a bit. “I don’t mind. My apartment’s kinda weird and empty most of the time, since it’s just me in it. Maybe they can learn to do stuff if they see me!” He had gotten a few things, like clothing and a music box, but he really wasn’t sure what to do with the space. It was kind of weird having a place to live and not moving around every so often for safety.

"Do you watch me specifically often?" she said with a little upturn of her lips. "I'm only cruel if the situation calls for it. Most of the time I'm just dismissive." Which was actually pretty accurate, at least in regards to how she saw herself. "Besides, you've never known me in Limbo or at war." And a part of her hoped he never did see either of those things.

"From that. Only into another situation of being used." But that was the way of her kind.

Well, that was definitely not the reaction she expected. She tilted her head curiously. "Well, perhaps I will send them to you then."

“Um…” He fussed with a button on his coat, “Yeah, I Kinda do, I guess. At first it was ‘cause I was following everyone to make sure they weren’t like people in my world. Now I just like to check on people and make sure things are okay.” He could always ask, but Mono didn’t always think about that. Since he didn’t have much to do most of the time, the kid just randomly picked a person to follow and check on to see if they needed any help.

There were a few people, of course, who he found actually needed the help… But most of the time it was just him curiously following someone until he got distracted or something came up.

“Oh… That sucks.” He responded, having learned the term more recently. It seemed fitting for her situation, after all. Going from one bad spot to another, that just didn’t seem right.

Mono nodded quickly at her response. “Okay! I’ll make sure I got some extra snacks for them.” That was what you did if you had guests, right? Especially guests that needed to learn to not be bad at things. Treats were… rewards…? No, Mono had no idea what he was doing here.

"You should be careful who you watch. You never know what unpleasantness you may accidentally see." Especially if he was watching her. "Should I be offended you don't think I can take care of myself?" It was actually kind of sweet in a weird way to think he'd watch her for her safety.

"Sucks describes it accurately." It seemed like a good word to describe things that couldn't really be changed.

"Don't spoil them too much."

“So far I haven’t seen anything unpleasant, at least not compared to home.” The boy shrugged a little at the warning. No, he wouldn’t be taking that seriously… The foolishness of youth, perhaps. “And I know you can take care of yourself! Um… But I kinda like to make sure, you know? If you ever needed help or a warning, I could!” He added clumsily, words coming out a bit hastily.

At the request to not spoil them, Mono tilted his head thoughtfully. “I dunno what would be spoiling them, but I’ll try my best?” The kid was absolutely going to spoil them, Illyana. He wouldn’t know any better…

"It seems as though you don't know," she said with a little smirk. "I hope I'll never need a warning like that. This place is hardly that dangerous. At least not compared to Limbo." And she'd survived there. For the most part.

"Well, I do hope you enjoy their company."

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monochromatically - 2022-03-10 00:56 (UTC) - Expand

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