aterat | I'm only a nightmare

Entry tags:

I'm only a nightmare

Who; Illyana + Anyone!
What; Nightmares and magik
Where; Red Building and near the edge of the forest
When; Early October at night
Warnings; None so far!

Nightmares. It seemed like it had been an eternity since she had experienced nightmares like this. Memories bubbled to the surface of her childhood in Limbo. Every waking moment there had been a nightmare and night never held any reprieve. The older she got though the more accustomed she had become to living a nightmare. Perhaps it was something to do with the loss of bits of her soul. Or perhaps it was simple conditioning. You grow used to horrors when they are all you see. Eventually, nightmares had faded from her life completely.

Until now. Now they returned with brutal vengeance. Reminding her of things she wanted nothing more than to forget. At first she just woke with tears and fear. Both were things she wanted nothing to do with. Others feared her, not the other way around. Not anymore. Yet as the nightmares grew more frequent and more memorable the fear grew within her. Then the bear imagery began to appear.

With that she screamed. Those in the red building may find themselves hearing the young woman's scream occasionally. She's always quick to leave her room and the building itself, teleporting out in an attempt to avoid sleep itself. Her teleportation leads her to the edge of the southern forest.

"It cannot be you again," she said loudly to the forest itself. "But if it is, I will find you." Her tone seems weary but firm. Defiant and filled with bitterness. "You do not scare me." But the nightmares did. That would not be something she would admit readily.

Any who stumble upon the scene will be met with a scene straight out of an occult book. Candles line the way making a path to a fiery circle with a pentagram in it's center. Above is Illyana can be found floating with her eyes closed. Any who have encountered her before will notice the change in her appearance: a prehensile demonic tail can be seen flicking in irritation and large curved red horns now protrude from her forehead. She's muttering something in a strange language that cannot be linked back to most familiar languages, even the most ancient ones.

It is not something she would wish many to see, but something about the imagery in the nightmares has made her more reckless than she might usually be.

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Steve had been out trying to get more of a feel for the strange place he'd found himself in ever since being taken away from his fight with Thanos. Walks around were common and he didn't really fear much. However that night he decided to venture near the forest and see what's out there. And that's when he found that his feet led him to an interesting scene. He'd seen the candle light and approached it slowly.

Blue eyes kept a wary outlook and he turned to the side, not wanting to miss anything just in case of trouble. The pentagram on fire had him slow even his slow cautious pace, wishing he had his vibranium shield with him but Tony had it. Eventually the nomad stopped and looked up in the light afforded by the candles.

There was a woman floating there, with a demonic sort of appearance. Nothing was supporting her, so maybe she could float like Wanda. And out of respect for understanding there were things that he didn't understand, Steve stood there now unmoving. He hoped there wouldn't be any trouble and didn't want to start it by disturbing her.

The thing with magic was that it connected you to things around you. At least hers did. Which meant if someone approached she could generally feel it. This lead to her sensing the approach of someone who then just stood there. At least he was polite enough to not say anything, she could give him credit for that. Perhaps she should have been more prepared of what to say if someone appeared. Well, it was too late to think of that now. She slowly put her feet down on the ground and turned to face the man. There was some bit of familiarity to be found in how he looked but she couldn't quite place it at the moment.

"Do you enjoy watching?" There was a hint of hesitation in her tone and her tail curled upwards in an attempt to hide it's existence. This was not the way she wanted people to see her.

He continued to wait, trying to see what was going on. This was something like out of a Halloween scene with the old movies that Nat and Sam had him watch to try and 'catch him up' with modern times. So when she lowered herself down, he felt himself tense up. Rogers wasn't there to start a fight or cause trouble, he tried to save that for the sewer monsters or the upcoming fight against the Lich that he'd heard of in the cemetery.

The question however grabbed his attention and Steve shifted his weight a little nervously. "Ma'am?" What did she mean by that question? Well he..was standing there...

"Sorry to interrupt. Just wanted to make sure everything was okay with.." he gestured to the candles. "Whatever's going on here."

Ma'im. Now that was... something. Very few people tried to be polite to her, especially lately. "I believe you are the first person to ever call me ma'am," she shook her head and then looked down. There was a certain degree of awkwardness in someone seeing her like this. At least it was someone she did not know, a small positive. It was quite strange trying to find a positive outlook. Strange and very unlike her.

"A summoning. I was attempting to contact subordinates in hell," she replied with a completely serious face. "It was going well. Until an interruption occurred." It was not the truth but sometimes she liked reactions.

That ma'am comment had Steve cock his head to the side. No one he could think of himself might call her that, but this was Steve Rogers and he's a really old school type of person. "Really? I'm sorry to hear that." There was sincerity in his voice because he believed in treating people fairly and with respect..until they showed him they didn't deserve it.

But he looked around again and wasn't sure if he believed in summoning things, especially the types of things in the place she mentioned. This part he was going to try and play off even though he'd dealt with his own version of hell which had been Thanos.

"Well, they can't be as bad as some of the people I met back home."

"Is that something to apologize for?" Curious. That was all she could think of to consider it. Curious.

There was some disappointment in his reaction. Evidently he was someone who had seen his own demons, which meant spooking him would not be that easy. Oh well. Worth a try at least.

"For demons, most are not so bad. At least not anymore. I have taken care of those who were causing problems." Thankfully. Though she was a bit unsure if ruler of a hell dimension was really the title she wanted to carry. "What sort of people have you met back in your home?"

"I'm a firm believer that manners don't ever go out of style, no matter the time frame." Steve said this with conviction but he didn't even know what year it was now. "I also believe that kindness, courtesy and respect go a long way."

So says the guy who promised to 'always be a good man'.

Demons..for half a minute Steve wasn't sure if she was serious but the more she went on, the more it seemed she was. "As long as they're not causing problems here, we won't have problems." But at the last question he shook his head. "The best and the worst kind. The last guy was one who was trying to wipe out half of the world's population."

"How...wholesome," she said with a mildly disinterested tone. A large part of her wondered how sincere he was with that statement. Genuinely good people were difficult to find, but not impossible.

"Hmm, we certainly would not want to have any problems." Though, perhaps she did. It might be interesting at the very least. "Only half the world's population? How dull."

He took the compliment even though he was pretty sure that she didn't mean it by her tone. But then again he was a different person and from another time and another set of principles. While he didn't try and convert anyone over to seeing things from his point of view, he maintained his own personal standards and was happy with doing so.

But at her question he cocked his head. "You got a better plan?" Steve asked this wondering exactly what a person like this would have for stakes in a world. And he was trying to find out more of who he was dealing with.

"Complete annihilation of all sentient life? Or perhaps complete rule over all sentient life..." she shrugged nonchalantly. That always seemed to be the goal of the things she had experience fighting against. Either they wanted to wipe all life out or they wanted to rule over it all. In some cases it had been a mix of both. The only acceptation to that seemed to be the humans that only wanted to get rid of her people.

"Though there are many groups of humans who have grand plans of ridding the world of my people." She tilted her head inquisitively as she looked him over. Maybe that was what he was talking about? A villain only targeting certain people for some reason?

He wasn't going to argue here, but instead listened and nodded. "Wipe out half of existence, and probably to rule over the rest of it." That sounded like him at least to Steve's mind. This was what he was trying to fight and had somehow wound up here after getting his lights punched out. But that part he didn't reveal because it wasn't important to the story.

"Well this guy would wipe out everything no matter what or who it was." And it was the truth. Rogers only knew the guy was Bad News and what his plan was at least as far as taking out life. "It wasn't only us, but it went for all planets, everywhere he went."

"Who was he?" she said with a slight hint of curiosity. "Or is what a better question?" Seemed like what might be more accurate, though she could not quite say. This man was certainly fond of being vague. Could she really complain about that? The last few years of her life had been spent being as vague as she could possibly be.

"His name is Thanos." There was a flat tone when Steve said it, not wanting to somehow accidentally invoke the man into being by saying his name. And Rogers hoped beyond hope that it would never come to pass. But at the part about what he just shook his head. "We don't really know, but the only answer we have is that he's a plague, wiping out half of life while traveling planet to planet."

The name caused her to look over at him finally with a peaked interest. "Thanos?" She titled her head. "Large purple man with gaudy gold armor?" If it was a version of the Thanos she knew of then who was this person? He had seemed vaguely familiar. "Who are you?"

The fact that she described the tyrant so well made Steve's blood run cold and he stayed absolutely still. Blue eyes widened as he realized this lady might know who he was.

"You know Thanos?" And if so, had he somehow spared her life or escaped his deadly wrath? Or was it just rumours or...

His thoughts trailed off as he shook his head. "My name is Steve. Steve Rogers."

"Indeed. Everyone knows of the Mad Titan. Though he is your enemy more than my people's," she said with a curious tilt of her head. At least she understood why he looked so familiar.

"Captain America of the Avengers." Now the mystery was what universe was he from? "I had not expected to meet an Avenger here." Nor was she particularly excited about that. Mutants and Avengers always seemed to have something of a rocky relationship.

He wasn't sure if he was more horrified that this woman knew of Thanos or that it rankled him in thinking the plague still might show up here.

"Ma'am?" He wasn't sure how Thanos could be more one people's enemy than everyone's but he let that slide because the next part stunned him further.

"Wait..you know who I am?" He stepped forward cautiously, not sure how this woman knew him. She didn't look familiar at all to him and he found that he almost felt bad about it.

"Not you exactly, a version of you," she corrected. It was always interesting to encounter alternates that did not actually know about alternates.

"I am familiar with all the Avengers. A few of my teammates have even belonged to your team before." Which she did not really see as a particularly good thing.

"A version of me?" That had thrown Steve for a real loop. First she knew of Thanos and now he has a doppleganger? He wasn't sure whether or not to believe her or not, but it was just beyond his scope of thought. Something like this was more Tony's or Bruce's scope of things, definitely not his.

And then she knew the Avengers? "So you've..met us?" Again he scanned his brain and she didn't look familiar at all. But he could ask Nat since she was here with him and maybe somehow he missed it.

"Are you not familiar with the multiverse?" If not, this would be difficult to explain. Perhaps she took it for granted that most of her world was aware of such things existing.

"Several times," she said with a shrug. "The X-Men and the Avengers have a long...history together." History seemed like the nicest way to put it. "Have you ever heard of us?"

Steve's head shook but he felt like it might be about to explode. "The what?" He had absolutely no idea what was being spoken about and it wasn't often anymore since he'd woken up, but he felt like that kid from Brooklyn again.

There was such a confused look in his eyes that he couldn't even think of how to begin to figure out who X-Men were. "No..sorry." He wasn't sure if he should apologize here, but hey it was genuine.

"Ah," she said with a shrug and a flick of her tail. "You will be eventually I'm sure." Every version of their world seemed to eventually find out about the multiverse for better or worse. Usually worse, much worse. "I could explain, but there isn't much point." Unless he was really interested in the multiverse it just seemed like a waste of time to explain more.

"Are there mutants in your world?" She paused before adding: "The Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver?"

"Ya.." Steve's tone was more like 'ya right'. Well at least he could ask Nat tonight or tomorrow, wasn't really a hurry on it, since it wasn't likely they were leaving this place tonight. And he didn't feel like springing this on her if she was busy.

"Mutants.." and it came out more like a question but there was still something flat toned about it enough that it could've been a statement too. But blue eyes blinked. "Wait, you know Wanda?" He didn't want to get into her twin's fate at the moment.

"Homo superior, the next step in human evolution. The X-Men are made up of mutants." She almost thought to explain it as them being like the mutant version of the Avengers but she did not really want to consider them that.

She gave a curt nod. "Unfortunately. Wanda is a mutant as well. One without loyalties to her people." She shrugged. "I guess she liked you all more. Maybe she wanted to be human."

Blue eyes blinked in more confusion. "So mutants are..gifted people?" That was what Steve considered her. Would he be considered as such, enhanced as he was? But he didn't have the abilities Wanda had.

"Her people?" Now he was confused. Wanda had been loyal to them..until it changed. She and her brother had been loyal to the people who raised them and they told stories about their parents. "Liked us more..what does that mean?"

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