aterat | Video

Entry tags:

Video

Who; Illyana + OTA
What; Video post at Academy + Beach Shark
Where; Network, new beach, and Academy
When; Throughout the month of July, this is a catch all
Warnings;None.

A. [ V I D E O ]

[ The video feed opens to what some may recognize as the Academy that randomly appeared a while ago. It's not in the greatest condition as shown by the camera moving around. Whose moving the camera? Good question, because it eventually focuses to reveal Illyana floating in the air upside down with her legs folded one across the other.

It's a very normal way to address people. Don't question it. ]

So, I guess we've just got this place now, huh? Clean up crew that came in really could have done a slightly better job. [ No judgement though. Well, maybe some judgement, but that's Illyana: snarky and judgmental. A brief glimpse of her imps working to clean up some rubble can be seen in the background here and there. Followed by a very loud CRASH sound and Illyana snapping: ]

Hey! Be careful back there. [ Is she concerned they'll get hurt? No. ~~Maybe~~ She sighs and then returns to addressing the camera. ]

I was thinking maybe I could teach here. That's what it was used for before right? Not sure how many of you would have the talent, but it'd be something to do. [ And boy is she bored. ]

B. Night of the Shark

Illyana arrived at the beach in the afternoon wearing an actual bikini and giant sunglasses that looked like they belonged in the 80s. Try not to judge her too much, they were in style back when she went to beach parties with her friends. Imagine that, she thought to herself as she walked up to the shore. It felt like it was a different life that she was at a beach with all the other New Mutants. In a way it was, but that was more complicated than she wanted to spend time thinking about. Same could be said for the majority of her life both there and here now. Everything somehow got complicated when you thought about how you felt. Really had a way of killing the mood. Or at the very least for making the mood more sticky and twisty. Yup, that's exactly how she'd describe her weird feelings.

At least this place changed every now and then. That served as a way to at least attempt to find a distraction from weird things like remoistening about the past (she missed her friends) or thinking about the future (why did she want to see him right now?). The fact that the arrival of a beach just seemed to be making her sad was not lost on her as she wandered up and down the shore. She kept away from people as the sun began to set and barely paid any attention to anyone else around. This wasn't what people meant when they suggested she try to be more social. To add to the antisocial look she kept her sunglasses on even as the sun completely set.

That was when she noticed something out of the corner of her eyes that looked suspiciously like a fin.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" A new project. That's what she'd found here. And so began her nighttime adventures with a landshark. Illyana can be found out at the beach at night sitting on a rock casting some sort of spell. Occasionally she can also be found...riding something. That's right, she's learned how to ride a landshark. Only a bit of it's body can be seen sticking out of the sand, mostly it ends up looking like she's just gliding on some sort of large rock. Gliding on it and having a stupid amount of fun. Not that she's going to admit to that part.

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"Always, hmm? Good, I wouldn't want one of them to eat you. That might be unpleasant." Might be? Probably more than might be. Honestly, she doubted the validity of this always careful claim, but she let it go with only the single comment about him being shark food. It occured to her that her desire to warn him off potential danger indicated just how much she'd grown to care for him. How strange.

"I'm more dangerous," she said with a proud smirk. "Monsters are predators, they always respect the top of the food chain." Was that true? Yes. Was that how she managed to ride a shark? No. Not at all. "It recognized that."

Mono definitely didn’t want to be eaten. He’d been in danger of that once or twice. “Nah, I try really hard to avoid being eaten.” He responded with a serious nod, though it could be said that he had started to feel a lot more confident of late concerning the idea that he wasn’t likely to get attacked or eaten here. Even if he was worried it might change one day, at the moment it just… felt safer. Partly thanks to Illyana, of course.

“So they think you’re scary enough to not try to eat??” The kid responded, eyes wide. “Even though you’re not scary? How do you make yourself seem scary enough to not be bugged by monsters??” Yes, Mono absolutely didn’t find his friend scary. Which was probably because she’d never given him a reason to be scared of her before, since she’d always been nice to him and shared an understanding of unrealistically scary worlds and growing up in dangerous situations. If anything, the kid wondered how you learned to be that scary. Maybe the viewers and other residents of the Pale City wouldn’t be so bad if they were scared of him?

"A good thing to avoid," she said through the smallest of smiles one could ever see. Somehow, perhaps through some sort of strange witchcraft, she managed to keep the smile small even after his next statement. It really was a miracle she was able to keep a straight face.

"Of course they think I'm scary enough to not eat." Wait. Why did he not find her scary at all? Okay, well, now she was a tiny bit disappointed. "...I'm plenty scary and threatening." Thank you very little. How dare he not even find her a tiny bit threatening, she worked hard for the image she thought she had. "Jagger get frightened of me." Was that more because of the unpredictable nature of how she used her magic around him? Maybe. Might have something to do with summoning the full illusion of an eldritch looking entity from Limbo. But he'd been freaked out and she was taking the credit.

"I could show you."

Somehow, even with her occasional trolling, Illyana had become one of his ‘safe people.’ The kind of adult he trusted and just liked to hang around, which meant she wasn’t scary at all. At least not scary by the standards of adults he knew. Really, Mono might be pretty confused, though, if he realized she thought he should be scared of her. “I wonder why he’s scared. Maybe he’s just kinda confused… Wait, do you want him to be scared?” He added belatedly, putting a few pieces together based on her comments. Maybe that was it. If Illyana wanted someone to be scared of her, then she was scary?

The offer gets a small start from him. “Really??” She really was willing to show him how she made herself scary enough to not be bothered by monsters? The boy looked up with an eager curiosity. “That would be great! Maybe I can learn how, and then I won’t get chased around anymore in my world.” Or even here, if he ever found himself in a place where things that were bigger and scarier than he was existed!

"Of course I do." That wasn't exactly the truth. She didn't want to be seen as a monster, especially by the few friends she had, but it in her mind that was what she was: a monster. Nothing more, nothing les. "People should always be afraid of monsters." Back home there was no end to the reminders that many people thought of her as an untrustworthy monster. They believed her to be a demon that had stolen a piece of their dear friends soul. That was all they saw, turning a blind eye to the fact that Illyana hadn't had a soul at the time. No soul meant no conscience. There had been only a blind hatred that fueled an endless sea of emptiness inside of her. Sometimes she missed the emptiness. At the very least it was less confusing.

She tilted her head and then raised a hand. "A small demonstration then. Lashinga Bahrahta Finguku!" With the words came the smell of sulfur as the air around them began to get hotter and hotter. Behind her a fiery snake like head began to materialize. Only a single one at first and then another head of the hydra began to solidify into the world. The heat continued to rise as a claw solidified on the ground and another head swiveled around to look directly at the two of them. Somehow the creature was both there and not there at the same time, like an illusion threatening to become reality if just a bit more energy was pushed into it. After a dramatic few seconds she brought her hand down and all at once the hydra disappeared, leaving behind only black smoke and the strong scent of sulfur.

“I think we got a different idea about monsters. You’re not like the ones in my world at all.” The boy responded in a serious and slightly confused tone. Illyana was the farthest thing from his description of a monster, after all. She had never been too mean to him, and at least had never let her jokes get too far. She also didn’t seem to mind him being around, and never tried to attack or hurt him like the warped adults of his world.

Well… Maybe one could say the boy had a very skewed perspective compared to other people. Because of that, his experiences weren’t exactly normal for a boy his age.

But he waited excitedly, wondering what she was going to show him and how it might work to scare people… Only to find his jaw dropping and eyes widening as she summoned what looked like a giant, fire covered snake thing. Then… Then it had more heads??? A startled gasp escaped him as he watched more heads appear and then swivel to look at him, and if Illyana hadn’t been the one to make it appear? The kid would have probably taken off quickly, his instincts always strong to hide from things that were that much larger than him. “Wow…! How’d you do that?? That thing was so big!! I bet that scares lots of people if they don’t know it’s gonna appear!”

"Magic." It was a simple answer and yet a true one. "The illusion is a spell, the simplest kind of magic. Though adding in the flairs takes a bit more skill." Of course she had to add that part so he knew there was some skill involved. The real difficulty was the finer details like the smell and the heat, but she'd long since mastered that much.

"What really summons them is the hydra itself. This was just an illusion, but I can summon the real thing. Should I have need." She wasn't that much of a show off to summon the real thing here. Besides, she wasn't sure how that'd go and she didn't really want the hassle of having to deal with it if it got loose somehow. "It's a subject of Limbo, so it answers to me." Whether it wanted to or not.

Mono finally sat on the rock and listened curiously, “So that one wasn’t even real? It looked like it was really there!” He added with an impressed sounding tone. Even if she hadn’t informed him of how much skill that took, it was pretty clear the boy was impressed by the display. He bet even the more dangerous people in his world would be really scared of something like the hydra thing she had just shown him!

And because the boy was just curious now, as she explained, he settled in to continue asking more about this neat ‘illusion’ thing. “So, does it gotta be a subject of limbo in order for you to make an illusion?” Or could she make an illusion of anything??

"Nope, not real at all. If I needed it to be real then I could have finished summoning it. I might be able to teach you." Rather than sitting down next to him she started to float in the air and folded her legs one over the other and rested her chin upon her hands. Maybe she was showing off a bit. Maybe.

She shook her head. "No. Illusions are limited only to the imagination," she smiled, "and I have a good imagination."

“Really? I dunno if I my powers work like that, though.” He responded with a curious tilt of his head. This wasn’t what he had expected when she spoke of being scary. To be fair, though, Mono didn’t even know the full potential of his own abilities and wasn’t quite aware of the extent of what he could do yet.

Even as she began to float in the air, looking as though she was sitting on nothing, the boy continued to stare on, impressed. “So you can make anything appear like it’s there but not really, just as long as you can picture it?? That’s so neat!” he commented, slightly awed. He wasn’t sure if he had a great imagination or not, but he certainly had seen a lot of weird things in his short life.

"Everyone in my world can learn magic. It's a matter of if they want to put in the effort," she said with a casual shrug. Theoretically she'd always assumed it'd be the same in this world. "Dr. Strange was nothing more than a human that learned spells and then named himself Sorcerer Supreme of Earth." Maybe it was a tiny bit more complex than that, but it wasn't as though Illyana was particularly fond of the man. "Belasco was a simple human sorcerer before his lust for power transformed him into the demon lord of Limbo." He'd probably been pathetic as a human, just like he was as a demon. But with all that in mind, she'd be curious to see if more people here could learn.

She turned herself upside-down and let her hair fall down like a waterfall while she looked him over. "Yup. I could even make duplicates of us appear if I wanted to. There are spells I could use to make them real too."

So anyone could just learn magic? That was kind of appealing, if the kid was being honest. Though, that aside, Mono had a hard time not getting hung up on part of that. “You can just name yourself something big and important sounding and people kinda go with it?” Dr Strange sounded kind of weird to the boy. He was pretty sure you earned titles and promotions and stuff. At least that’s how it sounded when he was listening to other adults around the city.

“Isn’t that gonna make you all dizzy and stuff?” Mono continued as she began to sit upside down, eyes wide. He was still impressed, but he’d ended up upside-down before and it always made his head kind of woozy after a while! “So the real ones would be like copies instead of those illusion things? And no one could even tell it wasn’t us?” That would be really useful, couldn’t it? If monsters thought they were chasing you but they were only chasing a trick, then you could get away a lot easier!

"Evidently," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. It was definitely more complicated than that but he didn't know that and he didn't need to know that. "I had to wage war in an entire dimension to become sorceress supreme. Seems unfair." She leaned in closer to him to whisper something. "His name is actually Dr. Strange too. It's not even a codename." Let the Strange slander continue.

She straightened herself up but continued to float. "Nah, I don't get dizzy." That might have been a tiny lie. "You got it. They'd be solid and functional. Takes a lot more work to get something like that though."

“Really? That does seem really unfair. How come you had to work so hard but he could just call himself that ‘cause he knows magic?” Mono responded with an entirely surprised tone, that didn’t sound right to the kid at all! And then… Because it sounded like the guy was prone to doing this, Mono continued. “Did he only just call himself a doctor too??” Not that Mono had the best experience with doctors in general. The one he’d met was… not quite what a most people would imagine…

Mono would never have known she was feeding him a small lie. He simply looked impressed and guessed it might be more magic on her part to avoid being dizzy! That made a lot of sense, right? “I bet it would be a lot harder! But really neat, and you could use them to be really sneaky and distract people you didn’t wanna see yourself or lead stuff away from ya!”

"Because he's a man and an Avenger. They all have egos," she said in the most matter of fact tone that one could possibly use. "Nah, I think he went to school for that before he learned magic. Evidently his tragic backstory is that he had some sort of accident that made it where he couldn't be a surgeon anymore. Then he tried to learn magic to fix it or something and eventually ended up an Avenger." That was...probably the worst description of Strange's life ever, but Illyana really didn't care. It was hard enough keeping up with the X-Men let alone all the Avengers and their constant roster changes.

"Ohh, I could use them for that! Maybe I should..." If she made one it could do all the boring things she didn't want to do for her. "You need a few items from the person you're making one of for the spell. Beyond that it's not too complicated."

“That sounds kinda stupid.” He responded with a confused little shake of his head. Why should he get a big title all easy because he was a man? He was pretty sure he was never going to understand how adults decided things in these other worlds. Her description of Dr. Strange’s life was definitely not something he could follow particularly well, either. So he was one thing, and got hurt, and decided to try to do something else to fix it… and just kinda ended up being ‘sorcerer supreme’ or something because he couldn’t be a doctor anymore? At least, that was how Mono was summing it up in his head.

Admittedly, her response to his idea made him feel very clever. Should one encourage the shirking of social obligations through trickery and doubles? Probably not, but it wasn’t like Mono had the social skills or maturity to know that himself. “Yeah! Then you could focus on the stuff you wanna, and the people you don’t like will be too busy and not realize they got a fake!” And if you needed items from the person to make one, it would be easy for Illyana since she had all the stuff she needed already, right?

"Did you have much hope for someone who continues to just call themselves Dr. Strange? At least I picked Magik," which was 100% a better secret identity name. First of all it was actually something secret and second of all it wasn't just her actual last name. "Who tells their enemies their actual last name?" Only a loser, that's who. Had she still had family to be concerned for, she'd probably worry for their safety if she walked around using her actual last name. Then again her family had been well known by the Russian military, so it probably wouldn't have done anything.

"Exactly! You always impress with your cleverness," she said with a smile. He should be proud and feel clever, more often than not he seemed to be more clever than most of the adults here. Though, there was always a sense of sadness that lingered over that little fact. How horrible his life must have been for him to have thoughts like this at such a young age. It was...sadly relatable to her.

“I don’t even have a last name and I think it’s kinda dumb to use it as your secret identity thing! ‘Cause then it’s not a secret, then everyone would know exactly who you are. Magik sounds cooler, too.” He responded with a little nod of agreement. He’d been learning more about stuff like that and it seemed like it defeated the purpose to use your actual name.

It was hard for the boy to not feel a rather large boost of confidence at that, he impressed her with being clever? Really? That was kind of a big deal, considering Mono was pretty sure she was one of the most powerful and clever people he’d met here so far. Especially compared to some other adults, she always seemed to just… Get the things he said or mentioned dealing with better than other adults did. Probably because of her childhood, which was sad… “Yeah? I just thought it was a neat idea, but thanks! Do you think you’ll try it while you’re here?”

"You have no last name?" Come to think of it, she never had actually asked that had she? Last names had no meaning here, so there seemed like no reason to ask. "I thought it was pretty cool when I picked it. We all have codenames. Some better than others." Hers being the absolute best.

Illyana would have very little idea of what to do with the high esteem Mono put her in. The fact that he wasn't afraid of her and also seemed to respect her was strange enough on it's own. That wasn't something that had happened before. Most who had respect for her also had a healthy amount of fear.

"Why not? It could be entertaining."

“Nope! At least I don’t think I got one. At the orphanage the other kids just called me Mono, I think… That was a really long time ago.” At least it seemed like a long time, so long that much of that was rather hazy… Which was probably odd since he was pretty sure he was only ten… or eleven now, he supposed. He also wasn’t sure when his birthday was, since no one made a big deal about those anymore where he was from.

Mono nodded though, “It is really cool! It’s the kinda name that gets your attention.” So he was pretty sure she would be right in saying it was the best, although he also didn’t really know what the other people’s codenames were to compare beyond a couple. But Illyana’s just sounded all magical and cool, so he was at least somewhat confident in the assumption.

But he tilted his head with an almost excited curiosity. She would try it?? “Yeah?? I wanna see if you do. You gotta tell me how it goes.” Because he bet it would be kinda funny too, if everyone all thought they were bugging Illyana, but she wasn’t even there.

"I see," a frown touched her lips at his admission. There was something rather sad about that, though she could not quite place what about it made her sad. Perhaps it was just the simple fact that it reminded her of his lack of family. Despite the...complications involved in her own life, she held her family in extremely high regards There were few people as important to her as Piotr. Even if there were confusing feelings of guilt and shame mixed in there due to the things she'd done without her soul.

"You're not missing much." They were trouble than they were worth. Probably. "I had a different name in Limbo." Maybe she was bragging. Just a tiny bit. Maybe.

"Then I will show you. You can come to the casting if you want." She wouldn't mind showing him how she did things like that.

Mono did, of course, get curious sometimes if he had ever had family. He knew most kids did, even if they lost them at some point to have ended up in the orphanage… But his own history was so strangely clouded. He couldn’t remember anything from before the orphanage, and even his time there seemed a bit cloudy at times beyond the night of the fire when he’d left it behind. Really… Trying to think too hard about his past gave him a weird sinking feeling, so he tried to not dwell on it for too long. There were too many interesting things here, anyway!

“Really?? You had a whole other name too?” That was honestly a lot of names, and Mono couldn’t help but wonder how someone could have so many names, while other people didn’t have many names at all. “What was your name in Limbo?” Because of course the boy would have to ask, curiosity was like that. It was hard to put to rest unless you asked the questions.

Mono’s dark eyes widened a bit. He could come along and see her do it? That would be so cool! “I could? That would be really neat! I wanna see for sure!” He agreed, nodding quickly at the idea. It was always so cool to see how people did stuff around here, and he bet a copy would be even more interesting to see than an illusion thing.

"They called me Darkchilde there. Most still use it as a name for my demonic side." Most included herself. Sometimes it was easier to consider that part of herself a completely separate being. After all, it did make it less difficult to reconcile with the things she'd done without a soul. A moment passed where she just sort of hesitated, as if she were on the precipice of saying something more. After enough mental debate with herself (she couldn't decide how embarrassing she wanted to allow herself to be) she decided to just say it. "My brother also calls me Little Snowflake." She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "It seems he does so more than my name." A hint of a smile was in her voice at the admission.

The smile only widened at his reaction to her invitation. He truly did remind her of herself at times. Whenever Ororo had offered to teach her things or let her watch in her garden in Limbo she'd gotten wide eyes quite like that. "You could. I would always be happy to have you along if you have an interest in seeing how I work."

“So you even got a name based on the different parts of yourself…” He commented with a thoughtful tilt of his head. At least if she wanted to go without anyone really knowing her real name, it would be pretty easy, right? She could just give one of the other names! He felt himself more than a little curious about her brother’s name for her. “Why does he call you Little Snowflake?” She didn’t look like snow, or was it because she liked snow? She did seem to have fun when they were hanging out in the winter time around his slightly monstrous snowmen after her prank.

“Thanks Illyana! I definitely wanna see. I bet it’ll be really neat.” He added with a brighter smile, definitely looking forward to the chance to see a little more of what she could do. After all, he felt pretty safe around her already, so he didn’t find going to Limbo as scary as going back to his world might be. Especially after seeing the garden she had been trying to work on… And she could do such cool stuff! The kid couldn’t help but want to learn more about his friend, it kind of helped sometimes to see how much someone who grew up in a similar situation had learned to do and achieved… Especially considering how he felt about the uncertainties around his own abilities.

His question got a little shrug from her. "He was considerably older and even though he's not anymore he still refuses to let it go." Not anymore made sense to her, but probably not most people. Then again, most people didn't grow up in a pocket dimension where time didn't work the same way. Years in Limbo barely equaled anytime on Earth and when she'd finally seen her brother again she hadn't been the six year old he'd known. She looked a bit distant for a second and then, despite herself, she smiled awkwardly. "We played in the snow a lot when I was a child. Russia is a very cold place." Sometimes she missed that. It was certainly much more simple back then.

"Perhaps. If it works out. New spells can be tricky." Though...she sounded a tiny bit exciting. There was something interesting about trying them, especially as she was learning more of a variety here. So much of her magic had been based around Limbo that she'd missed out on fundamentals that came to Earth magic.

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