aterat | Return of the Queen

Entry tags:

Return of the Queen

Who;Illyana + You
What; Network + Log of her return
Where;
When;Night on May 2nd
Warnings; Talk of death

I. Network

I found Athony. Turns out he has his own pocket dimension. Aspect of death and all that. Looks like they've at least mastered using the portals to go from here to there. Good for them.

Anyone visited the Academy while I've been gone. Been told recently that we could all do with a few lessons.

II. Wandering the streets

After what had happened before Illyana probably should have learned her lesson. Too bad she'd never been that great of a student. Sure, she picked up on things unusually fast, but she'd always been too headstrong to make a perfect student. Besides, she'd just gotten back and she wasn't really sure if she actually wanted to see anyone. Her head was a jumbled mess of memories of death from her home.

Memories of a small child slowly wasting away from a virus her own brother gave her. The memory felt more like watching a movie, as though it weren't actually her own memory. I hope to act like it does, if nothing else.

Was that all she was doing here? Acting like a real girl? For the first time she felt the full pang of missing her brother. She wished he was here. Big simple Piotr who only ever saw his little sister as the Snowflake she once was. She missed him, just like she missed Kitty and every one of the New Mutants. Tears welled up in her eyes, tears that she'd insist mainly came from frustration.

A portal appeared around her feet and engulfed her body only for her to remain exactly where she was.

"How dare you," she muttered as she wiped the tears away from her face. A series of curses in Russian escaped her lips and she pulled the hood of her jacket up.

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[ Mono had not realized that about the sword in the least. People expressing their concerns for him to be careful with the blade made more sense now than they would have about him accidentally hurting himself with it! ]

I coulda ended up there by mistake? Wow… I’m glad I was careful with it. I wouldn’t wanna go there without you.

[ Not that it made his friend’s current predicament any better. ] Who brought you back? We should go see them and ask them to fix the mistake!

[ That’s how it worked… right? Whoever brought Illyana back had just made a mistake, and now they needed to fix it so she could go where she needed to so she could feel better! Dying was bad enough, and she didn’t deserve more bad stuff on top of that! ]

No, you would not. Most who do end up dead. Or worse. [ And it'd actually happened a few times, though those people hadn't gone in by her sword. ]

Athony. [ She replied hesitantly. ] He's aware of his inadequacies. He forced me to stay to recover for a few days. [ Which had annoyed her considerably. She'd wanted to return to Limbo, to run away from everything that had happened to her, but he wouldn't let her. Then when he'd finally thrown her out she'd realized she couldn't even get there. ]

He brings people back when they die here, but it seems to be a struggle for him. [ She bit down on her lip and cast her gaze down. ] Belasco brought me back wrong too.

[ Well, he was definitely glad that he hadn’t played around with the thing more. The child was well aware of how easily someone could end up dead in a place like Limbo, because the place reminded him of his own world. ]

That Aspect guy? [ Then they had to talk to him to get this all fixed! At least he thought that until Illyana continued. ] So… He already knows he didn’t do it, right? Did he even try to fix it? Is it permanent??

[ He was still very glad that Illyana had not stayed dead… But she already had been through so much bad stuff from people bringing her back ‘wrong’ as she put it! That just wasn’t fair…

The kid was grasping at straws a little, wanting to help… So he continued with an uncertain expression. ]

If someone else could use the sword to go to Limbo, even by mistake, could I get you there with it?

Yes, that Aspect guy. [ She heaves a sigh and shakes her head. ] I think he expected it to happen. Maybe it's a consequences, or maybe he's just incompetent. Belasco was. [ And now he reminded her of Belasco, which was a pretty shitty thing. Though, she hardly wanted to admit how twisted up inside it made her feel. ] He made me stay for recovery, so I assume he's aware of failures.

[ She shook her head. ] No, I don't think it will work.

That’s really stupid… If he’s gonna go around doing stuff he should make sure he knows what he’s doing, shouldn’t he? [ The boy friend, annoyed on her behalf. ] I’m… I’m still glad you’re not still dead, though. I would miss you if you were gone forever.

[ But… He still hoped that she got her power back soon. Maybe if she had to rest for a while, maybe that meant her ability was something that needed to recover after with rest too? The fact that there were so few straightforward answers was really starting to bother the kid… ]

Oh… [ He mumbled, sounding a bit disappointed that his idea wouldn’t work. ] I guess if that was the case you woulda asked already. Is there anything I can do?

They never do. They think they understand the spells but they don't. [ It bothered her more than she wanted to let him know. Perhaps it was because it reminded her so strongly of what had happened with Belasco and her original resurrection. ] Someone as young as you shouldn't worry so much. That frown will get stuck there. [ She tried to tease but it lacked the usual edge. ]

You did plenty by keeping my sword safe.

It doesn’t make sense to do stuff you don’t know how to do well. There should be someone who knows better in charge.

[ He thought it should be as simple as that, but for some reason, the world didn’t seem to work like that. Not his, not Illyana’s, not this one. Why couldn’t things ever just be simple and make sense?? Then his friend wouldn’t be hurting as much as she was… It just wasn’t fair.

Mono tilted his head a little at that. He already didn’t smile much, no one in his world did, and so when he did smile, it tended to be pretty clumsy… But he never thought of it that way! ] It’s hard to not frown when you wanna fix stuff you can’t fix.

… Can it really get stuck like that?

[ Hey, he was still young and inexperienced enough to really know what was and wasn’t possible. For all he knew, maybe that’s why smiling wasn’t something he was good at! ]

Yeah? I know it was important to you, and I wanted to make sure I could give it to you when we found you or when you got back. I just wish I could fix stuff so you could be happier again…?

There should be, but we're stuck with these [ she waved a hand dismissively. ] incompetent Aspects. [ She should be thankful that she was brought back, but she wasn't. ] I'd have rather stayed dead. [ Than to be brought back wrong and with the knowledge that it could happen again. ]

Of course. It'd become frozen like that. Very painful too. [ She did manage to keep a completely straight face when saying that. ]

I'm not unhappy. [ She can lie. ]

I guess… [ Mono kind of understood what Illyana was saying, of course, but it was hard to miss the deepening frown at the idea that she might stay dead at all… The boy didn’t like to think about that at all. He didn’t want to lose another important friend, especially in a way that he couldn’t get them back. ] But maybe it won’t last for long.

[ The kid’s eyes widened with some panic. ]

Well, I dunno how to stop frowning! This kinda all keeps making me feel all frowny!

[ Mono gave Illyana a look at the lie. One wouldn’t think someone so young could manage the sort of expression he was wearing, but he did. ]

You just said you’d rather have stayed dead. I dunno, but that kinda sounds unhappy to me.

It better not. [ But there was no way to be sure how long it would last or if it would potentially be permanent. She closed her eyes a bit sadly. ] We'll see.

[ She let out a tiny chuckle. ] Then it's time to practice.

[ It was impressive that someone so young actually managed to stand up to her against her lie. She heaved a sigh. ]

I have bad memories of my last resurrection.

[ Mono’s expression at least perked up a bit when Illyana finally chuckled. It wasn’t much, but… Well, the kid would take it! And it made it a little easier to not frown… Well, not frown as severely as before. ] I guess I better, I don’t wanna end up with a frozen face… Then I’d have to wear the bag all the time again, maybe draw faces to make up for it.

[ He commented thoughtfully, since he had started to wear it again in the last couple weeks… Just sometimes when he felt nervous or worried, which… Well, that had been a lot after Illyana disappeared. ]

Oh… Yeah, I guess that makes sense since all this reminds you of that… Would it help if I distracted you from the memory?

[ She probably should feel a bit bad about tricking the kid like this, but unfortunately she just finds it mostly amusing. ] I can purchase you some sharpies. [ Do they have sharpies here? Maybe they at least have markers of some kind.

She looked down and shifted in place awkwardly. ]

No. I should go. Thank you for keeping my sword safe.

I dunno that those are, but if you can draw on bags with them, then that might help if I gotta draw faces on the bag.

[ But the boy was internally trying to figure out how to not allow his face to freeze that badly. It was going to haunt him now. ]

Oh… [ He tilted his head slightly, worried. ] I guess if you gotta, okay. And you’re welcome… I’m glad I could give it back.

[ Someday he'll probably get some delivered to him. She will continue this joke. She shifts a bit awkwardly. ]

I'm... sorry you were worried about me. [ She frowns a little. ] And that my sword came to you. It's only ever done that with Kitty.

[ Mono shook his head. He didn’t really know why she should be sorry about either of those things. ]

You don’t gotta be sorry; you didn’t mean for me to worry and stuff… I’m sorry you’re still not okay, even if I’m glad you’re back. [ Though the boy still didn’t know why the sword came to him. ] And you didn’t mean for it to come to me, and nothing happened since I didn’t use it, right?

[ She let out a tiny sigh and then forced a smile. ] I'll be fine. Maybe I'll even tell you about how the sword works more one day.

I hope so… But if you aren’t okay for a while I kinda understand, bad stuffs like that. [ Mono squinted a little, like he was trying to decide if he believed that smile or not… But he would be keeping an eye on her a little more closely than he had before, perhaps. Like he did with a few of his important people in this world, just to be on the safe side, not wanting her to disappear again. ] Okay, I wanna hear more about it too when you’re feeling better.

I'll be fine. [ She folded her arms across her chest defensively, more an attempt to cut anyone off from her than to seem tough. The smile stayed on her face, though it faltered some under his scrutiny. It was definitely time to be on her way. ] Then you'll hear. [ When she speaks again she sounds awkward, thanks is definitely not something she's used to giving. ] Thank you. You're an innocent boy, it's good it went to you.

[ Instead of someone else that would have been an idiot and tried to use it. And with that final statement she smirked, weakly, and then teleported out. Unfortunately not to Limbo. ]

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Return of the Queen

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