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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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"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."

“Do people say that?… It does seem kinda true, so I guess that’s why people would say it.” Because honestly, the joke did go over the kid’s head, if only because that did kind of sound appropriate as a description of what he’d seen. Really, the kid couldn’t quite wrap his head around the idea that people watched stuff to get scared on purpose… Were some people’s lives that boring?? Was there some kind of fun in being scared, or was it fun because it seemed like that could never really happen?? Listening to her explanation thoroughly, the boy’s face scrunched a bit. “That sounds kinda weird to me.”

Now on the subject of the man, that… actually kind of sounded like it made some sort of sense? “Then maybe… Maybe I can do something to stop him and the thing in the tower. Maybe if I keep away from him long enough, I can figure stuff out?” Was that a tiny note of hope in his voice? Yes, it was. An innocent one at that… Hopefully it could work out like that, even if he knew he could just as easily fail if the man caught him.

"They say it to make kids watch less." Though evidently in his world it seemed actually true. She could see his confusion and in a way she could understand it. His life seemed like something out of a horror movie from what she had heard. It must be confusing to think some people watched things like it for simple entertainment. "Have you ever seen a scary movie? There are different kinds, some are funnier than others." Though Illyana found most fun in a weird way.

"Maybe." There was no way for her to tell and she felt like promising him he could fix it would be wrong. Even more so after she caught that innocent glimmer of hope in his voice. "There are no guarantees but I think if he is so invested in catching you, there must be something important about you. Something he's afraid of. If there's truth in that, then maybe you can do something."

That kind of made sense, if adults used stories to scare kids into behaving… Why wouldn’t they tell kids' stuff to scare them away from other things too? As mean as it seemed, that did seem to be the pattern if Illyana’s explanation was anything to go by. The question gets a small shake of his head. “Nah, not aside from some of the weird stuff that appears on the TVs in my world.” The programming there was as weird as the world, so maybe you could say he had. But they were mostly short programs with strange imagery. “I know there’s a place for movies here? But I never went there yet.”

It was probably smart to not boost his hope too much anyway, otherwise he might be more upset later… So he nodded slowly, accepting that it wasn’t a guaranteed thing for him to reach for and succeed at. “I hope so. I hope I can do something at least.”

She put her feet on the ground finally and then smirked. "Wanna go sometime?" Seemed like that was the obvious solution to the problem here. Besides, she hadn't been either. The last movie she had seen with someone had been interrupted by the awakening of Elder Gods. Perhaps it was time to have a day to watch movies.

"Keep hoping. I have heard that will take you far." Did she believe it? No. But her tone was more sympathetic and kind than it would be to anyone else.

The question gets a curious little tilt of his head. Maybe it would be easier to understand if he went to see one? And if it was with Illyana, it would probably be fun at least. He trusted her to choose good things, after all. “Yeah? Okay, I kinda wanna know what they’re like if everyone thinks they’re fun to go to.” Because the kid really did need to learn more about things that were fun to do, especially when people kept telling him he should just go and have fun sometimes.

“I will, I gotta. I dunno what else to do but hope and try. Maybe that’s how hope works?” He wasn’t sure, but it would be nice if that were true.

"Then we'll set aside a day for it. Wonder what they actually have..." Time for a special movie night! "We'll have to find snacks too." Because that is clearly one of the most important things that exists when you're going to the movies. If Mono was going to learn about movies he had to learn about movie snacks too.

"Unfortunately, that is. All you can do is hope and then have faith in that." Which...wasn't really helpful, but sometimes it was all you could do.

Mono knew she was probably right, and it kinda sucked… But he just needed to focus on that and the potential that maybe he really could do something!

So, at least for now, the boy focused on the idea of a trip to the movies with Illyana, which honestly sounded kind of fun if there were snacks involved. “Yeah? Thanks, Illyana. What kinda snacks do they have when you go to the movies?” He asked curiously, since he hadn’t really checked the whole thing out himself. All he knew was there was a giant screen and longer stuff than you saw on televisions was played on them. But it wasn’t like tvs, at least from what people had explained when he asked about them.

"Popcorn and candy. A lot of different kinds of candy." That was what she remembered from their movie nights at least. Everyone had a favorite and they all fought over who got what. "Sometimes you even mix it all together."

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