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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"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.

“Isn’t that kinda nice, though? That he’s got a special name just for you?” Even if she wasn’t as young compared to her brother as he treated her, it sounded like the nickname was a something special that was just for her. Maybe that was normal for family?? Mono wasn’t really sure himself, but it sounded kind of like that might be how it was. Especially when he spotted a small, awkward smile on his friend’s face. “Oh! Like how the winter is here, but more. I bet that was fun. It was cold, but I liked getting to make stuff in the snow.” Even after she’d tricked him with that snowman, it was still a good memory and a nice experience in ‘fun’ that he seemed to always be so far behind his peers in this world in figuring out. Even the beach had been kind of confusing for the boy.

“Yeah, but you’re really smart. I bet you’ll figure it out easy!” Mono responded with a rather confident tone. He really did have a lot of faith in Illyana and her abilities…

"It...was strange to be called such even when I was not really me." By strange she meant terribly confusing, especially given how adamant he had been about it. She had felt like an imposter and the worst part was she was technically correct in that. Before she had reclaimed her soul she hadn't truly been Illyana. "Much colder than it was here. But I did not mind. It was what I was used to." And people were always more comfortable with what they knew. "Though I did enjoy the snow here." She smirked at the memory of the trick with the snowmen. That had been a pretty good one on her part and she was still mildly proud of it (whether she should or not).

"If I did not know you better your flattery would be suspect." But she did.

“Ohhh… I guess that kinda makes sense. If you weren’t who you were when he used to call you that.” Mono responded with a small nod. He would be pretty confused if that happened to him, he guessed. But it was interesting to think about where Illyana was from, if it was always colder than here… Maybe it was normal for some places to have the same kind of weather all the time, like how the pale city was always rainy and foggy?

But he grinned one of his clumsy tilted little grins. “Yeah, it was a lot of fun, more fun than I thought it was when I first got here.” Honestly, Mono had found the winter one of the more fun seasons, even if it was pretty cold. It had been easier once he got clothes for that kind of weather at least, and he really did get into the winter activities people had shown him.

Mono blinked, “Really? How come, is flattery a thing people don’t say when they mean it?” He asked with a little tilted of his head. A few other people got a bit weird when he said something positive about them. It always confused him since he really did think that these people, Illyana included, were pretty great and amazing.

"When I first came back to life I had the memories of Illyana, but not her soul." She knew it probably made little sense to him, but she knew no other way to really describe it. How did you really explain the impact a soul could have on someone's moral compass? It seemed like an impossible task without someone having knowledge o their own.

"It was more enjoyable than this heat." She wasn't really a fan of how hot it'd been lately. Though most of that was probably just because she distinctly preferred the cold weather she was used to as a kid. "Piotr would build entire snow forts for me" She kind of hoped it would be like that again this year.

"Flattery is often something people use to manipulate. Demons are well versed with it. Or they try to be. S'ym was terrible at it. N'astirh was better."

It really didn’t make much sense, given he really didn’t know much about souls, either. The kid did his best, though, at least making guesses based on how she spoke of it. Souls, it seemed, were part of what made you who you were. Like your personality, maybe. People kind of described those similarly. “So you knew stuff, but you still weren’t you without it. So like… You kinda didn’t know how to feel about stuff like that?” Then again, there was a lot of stuff he didn’t know how to feel about things, but he was pretty sure he had a soul, right? So maybe not…

“Yeah, the heat is kinda icky sometimes. It’s like it just gets too hot and doesn’t know it. I still kinda like it better than all the rain and fog where I’m from, but I decided I like the not-hot weather better now that I know what to do with it. The in-between stuffs nice too, though.” Clearly the child had thought long and hard about the different kinds of weather… He did have a lot of time on his hands aside from when he was working, after all.

“Oh… I don’t think anyone knows that or uses it where I’m from. So I guess I didn’t know that… But that just means I’m telling the truth when I say stuff!” He responded, coming to the conclusion after a few careful moments of thought.

"Exactly. A soul gives you moral guidance. Without one you feel nothing at all, least of all guilt for your actions." Which didn't mean you didn't feel that guilt somewhat once your soul returned to you. That had been a....frustrating side effect. Though, she was still fairly certain she sucked at figuring out how and what to feel most of the time. "The more soul you're missing the more darkness takes over." That much was simple enough at least.

"Rain and fog all the time is just depressing. And inconvenient." Things could hide in the fog and surprises like that were never fun. She gave him a little sympathetic smile. "Cold weather does take planning. When I was small I never understood why I had to take so long to dress in so many layers. Going out without it taught me better though." Lessons learned. "In-between is easier." You could just step outside with in-between weather. Illyana approved of his assessment of the best time.

"It's a good thing to not know that, honesty is usually the best policy." ...not that she could talk. After all she'd lied to everyone for a long time. But, hey, he didn't need to know that. "Or so my brother would say."

Ohhh… So a soul did all that too? He did feel a lot of guilt about some things, so he guessed he definitely had a soul. That was good to know, or at least know, the difference. “I guess I kinda understand? I never know a lot of that stuff before. Souls sound pretty important, more than I thought.” So the boy noted that down in his head to consider later, another little bit of new knowledge to keep in mind that he hadn’t had before.

“Yeah, it was super inconvenient! I don’t think I ever saw the sky without a bunch of dark clouds before I got here, at least not that I can remember.” So he was glad that he wasn’t the only one who thought so, or that in-between weather was way easier than other kinds. Mono nodded, though, as she explained how she hadn’t understood dressing in layers before going out in the winter. “I didn’t get it either till I tried walking in it! It’s way colder than it all looks, so I didn’t like it much till I got shoes and jackets and stuff too.”

Honesty is the best policy, huh? Mono was pretty sure he’d heard people say that too… “Yeah, I think I hear people say that sometimes. I just don’t always think of lying, well… I guess I kinda do sometimes. If people ask about stuff, I don’t think they’ll like the answer to in my world. At least some of the time.” Not all the time. Usually he’d say something then realize that it might be better to not tell a person everything.

"Souls are very important. Few understand how much power one can get from one. Particularly in spellcasting." A slow smirk curled on her lips. "Which is a good thing." The knowledge of how to use a soul was certainly not a good thing. After all it had cost her nearly everything in her life and it had caused a lot of pain for another. It was certainly not something she would actually ever teach people about now.

"What a depressing sounding world." It seemed even more depressing that, from what she could recall he'd previously said, he wasn't even sure what caused it all. How could they fix it then? If there even was anything to fix. "That must have been very unpleasant at first." Poor kid. Sometime she forgot how little he knew about the world outside the desolate place he came from.

"If you have to lie to survive, there is no harm in it." At least in her opinion. "And you cannot help what you do not know." It definitely sounded like a situation he'd be in dangerous in his world.

So it wasn’t something many people knew about? Aside from the obvious, souls sounded important regardless… But for magic, Illyana made them sound extra important. “Is that because people would try to use souls for stuff they shouldn’t?” That was the only reason he could think of as being why it would be good that not many people knew. There were probably lots of people who would use it for stuff they shouldn’t, if they knew.

Scuffing his foot lightly on the rock, he nodded. “I guess so, but that’s kinda just how it is. I dunno if I can even imagine it being not like that, even if it must’ve been before.” He responded with a little shrug. The Pale City was a weird, cursed place. Depressing for a lot of reasons beyond the weather itself, but that definitely cemented the atmosphere. “Yeah, it kinda was since I arrived in the winter. But it got better after that. People were weird but a good weird.” People were still weird, of course, but he had gotten used to it a lot since then.

“You think so?” That was good, at least. It made him feel a little better about the fibs he’d told and facts or details he’d left out since getting here.

"You are very smart." Especially for someone so young. "Souls can be used to forge some of the most powerful spells any sorcerer could cast. Belasco wanted mine to use as a key to open the prison of the Elder Gods. Nothing would work for that beyond an innocent soul. Those are the most powerful." Why was that? Suddenly she found herself curious about that particular aspect. What was it about innocent souls that always made them the most valuable? It was a universal thing, appearing in stories and almost all cultures. How odd.

"There must have been a time where it wasn't like that. I never encountered a world that was just born like that in my jumping." Did that mean it was impossible that there was one? Certainly not. She wasn't arrogant enough to think that. Logically though it stood to reason that something caused worlds to fall like that.

"I know so," she sounded confident in that and nodded her head. "I know few things as well as I know survival."

He was? Again, Mono wasn’t sure what really gave anyone the impression he was smart. A few people had said it to him before, and someone even explained that there were different kinds of smart from what he knew… But he still wasn’t sure what made him smart beyond just saying things as they made sense to him. But… Well, it still felt kinda good when people told him he was smart. Especially people as smart and cool as Illyana. “So the more innocent you are, the more your soul is worth? Wow…” It really was good that not a lot of people knew about using souls like that. There’d probably be a lot more kids without their souls roaming around. Still, Mono frowned. From past discussions about Belasco, the kid didn’t like the sounds of the guy. He was glad that Illyana had gotten her soul back.

“I guess it’s just hard to imagine it different? But…” He frowned slightly, “I hope you’re right. Because if it was better once, then maybe it can be better again someday.” Maybe if he made it to the signal tower. Maybe he could fix things. It felt like he was supposed to go there, anyway. Why else would that be, if not to help get Six back and stop the tower from broadcasting its signal??

Mono could take Illyana’s word on that. She definitely knew a lot about surviving herself. She was older and had more experience and dealings with people who probably would be dangerous to tell the truth to. “Then I guess I don’t gotta feel bad when I do, then.” He responded, committing that lesson to memory.

"Yes. That is why many stories exist of demons targeting children or virgins." For dramatic effect she paused for just a moment. "They are not just stories." Someone would probably tell her that she shouldn't be telling a kid these things, but it wasn't as though he came from a normal innocent world. As much as she disliked how used to danger he was, it was still an undeniable fact that he was, in fact, used to it. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other in a rare display of awkwardness at the subject and then shook her head. Why was this stirring so much in her?

"If you can figure out what may have caused it, then you should be able to figure out how to fix it." That seemed like logical advice to give. "You may not like what you find though. Be prepared for that." When she had found out what had caused bad futures for her own friends she certainly hadn't been pleased. It only felt right to warn him that it might not be all good to find out.

"You do not," she said with a soft smile and tiny nod. Other people might disagree but they didn't matter.

Somehow them not just being stories wasn’t hard for Mono to believe. It should be. The kid should feel more skeptical of the idea, because that was just kind of sad to think he could accept the idea so easily… But she was right. He was used to these ideas more than most kids. “Kinda makes sense that they wouldn’t just be stories, seems kinda scary to tell people just for fun.” At least that was how it made sense to him, plus… He knew enough about Illyana now to know better than to even think it was a story, considering her soul had been taken and she’d had to get it back.

“That’s what I hope I can do when I go back. I think I just gotta get to the signal tower. If I can do that… I think I can do something.” He responded with a nod, comforted by the advice his friend was giving him. Even if he frowned a little, slightly apprehensive as she continued. “Yeah… I kinda don’t know what I’m gonna find. Sometimes I get a bad feeling about it… But I gotta do something. I gotta at least try.” He ended resolutely, even if his tone didn’t sound as brave or certain as he’d like it to.

"Ah, but scary is the point of such tales! They were used to make sure bad little girls and little boys behaved as the adults around thought they should." Which might seem mean, but that was the point wasn't it? To be mean and make sure children didn't misbehave too much. "Most of those adults are foolish and have no idea of the truth hidden in their tales." Lucky for them.

"Respectable to wish to at least try. Though, if you do not know what this signal tower really does, you could be stepping into danger." A part of her wanted to tell him to not go at all, but she kept herself from saying that. When he returned to his own world he'd have no memories of this place or any warnings she might give. Not only that, but it would be unfair to try to stop him. This was clearly something he needed to do and that he felt strongly about. Who was she to stand in the way of that?

“I guess that would work. Still kinda weird to make kids do what you want them to because you scared them.” This was why Mono’s thoughts on adults really were so very uncertain at times. A lot of times adults seemed better than the ones in his world, then other times he learned they did stuff like that! It definitely seemed kinda mean to him, even if they didn’t know the stories they were telling were true. In a way, wasn’t that almost worse? Talking about stuff that was real, without knowing that?

“My friend is stuck there, so I definitely gotta, even if it is dangerous.” Even if it had been drawing him in from the start, he hoped that he could be quick enough to get her back and find something to stop it and get out. “It’s what’s making everything bad, I think. There’s a thing in it, and the man who was chasing me came from there too. But since he was chasing me, that means he isn’t there right now, so I’m kinda hoping it’ll be easier if I get to it before he goes back.” The other thing was just an amorphous blob of gross stuff with eyes. That might be dangerous, but surely he was faster than something that big. It never caught him in the tv’s either, it just… watched.

"I think that has always been the way adults act. At least where I am from." Perhaps it was more of a European thing, she hardly knew. She supposed it was the only way they could think of to control their children. Which did seem just a tiny bit pathetic if you asked her. How did they lack that much knowledge on how to handle their own children?

"I believe you have mentioned that before. I hope you are able to find her," she said with a sympathetic expression. She knew what it was like to be young and trapped somewhere frightening. She also knew what it was like to want to save someone important to you. "I hope you have more success than I did." Regret took the place of sympathy as she recalled those unfavorable memories. "Do you have any idea what the thing is?" She gave a nod. "That is a solid thought. Though do you know if he has any ability to travel quickly?" If so then he could get back a lot more quickly than he anticipated.

Mono still kinda thought that was a stupid way for adults to do things, but it also kind of made sense that they would do stuff that way. At least the ones Illyana had known and things he’d heard about other adults in his friends lives.

He appreciated her words, though, knowing that if anyone understood this stuff? It was Illyana. The question gets a small, uncertain shrug of his shoulders. “I… I kinda have ideas, but I dunno for sure. It’s got like… A lot of eyes, and it looks kinda like a lot of gross pinkish red stuff. Sometimes I wonder if that’s what happens to the people who lose their faces. Eventually they kinda disappear, so maybe that’s what takes them?” He wasn’t really sure how to describe it other than gross and creepy, but it felt like an important thing concerning the tower and what was happening. Between that and the man in the hat, it had to be connected, right?

On the subject of him, Mono hesitates. Because that was kind of a flaw in his plan… “He moves kinda weird? Like when he’s around, the air gets all weird looking around him. He looks like he moves really slow, then sometimes he suddenly appears way closer than he should be. Like he kinda skips like a weird image on tv. And… He can kinda go through televisions like I can. So I guess maybe he could move quickly in a weird way, but he was really focused on getting me. I had to make the train separate to get away from him, but then that’s when I was suddenly here.”

"It might absorb their faces." How....disturbing. There were demons deep within Limbo that she had seen that did similar thing and she wondered how similar they looked in the end. "There was a movie about a blob that absorbed people into it. Been a long time since I've seen it." Not since the New Mutants had movie nights. But that's what she was picturing with his description. A mix of it and demons with many eyes that she'd seen in Limbo. No matter what it actually looked like the one thing she knew with certainty would be that he'd be in for a difficult time against it.

"Hmm. He's the only other person with powers like you, isn't he?" Strange that their abilities were so similar. It wasn't something that she'd have found strange in her own world, tons of people had similar powers. In a world where it wasn't common though? It seemed like a strange coincidence. Maybe their powers had the same source and that was why he wanted Mono so badly? To eliminate the only person that could stand up to him? "Maybe he's afraid of you."

“Right…? If they’re always so close to the television and that thing is on the other side, then it kinda makes sense?” But it was disturbing, and the fact that the eyes had followed him so closely every time he entered a tv was really quite scary in his opinion. But at her description of the movie, Mono looked a little confused. “What would people make a movie like that? Isn’t that kinda scary? Especially if it could really happen?” Not that it could happen in all worlds, but Mono really didn’t look at it that way. It was just a potentially ‘normal thing’ for him.

The boy nodded though at her next question, “Yup, he can more than I can, I think… But he can go through the tv like I can.” And he only said he ‘thinks’ because he hadn’t tried and he was a little afraid of the implications if he could do everything the man could do. The suggestion gets a startled little look. “Afraid of me? But I’m so small and he’s so big, and he seems like he knows how to do stuff better than me. Why would he be afraid of me?”

"Guess it was true to say television rots the brain." This probably wasn't the time for that joke. "They made it twice. People love scary movies. We used to have movie nights and Roberto loved to try to jump scare us during the horror movies." Which definitely 100% never worked. Ever. She never got jumped scared. "Warlock got into it too. He was better at it." But Warlock was also a living alien technovirus so he had the scare factor innately built in. It was a strange to talk about her companions from home but also kind of nice. Even more strange was the realization of just how much she had started to miss them. There was a time when things were normal, where they were almost just teenagers. "Most humans don't think the things like that could really happen. It's just entertainment."

Normal for him was sadly not normal for the majority of people.

"He's older, he's probably had more practice." Practice is the only way to get better when it comes to powers. But, she does understand being frightened by your own power. "Maybe only someone with his powers can defeat him and he doesn't want you to ever learn how."

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