Summary:Sam and Illyana track down little-miss-legbreaker to offer love and support! Predictably, it goes badly. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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How do you fill your days, when you're a clone alone in the big city? It's not like Laura Kinney has a job to go to. The folks taking care of her very much have jobs, and lives, and they can't sit around fawning over her all day and night. So during the day, Laura leaves the safehouse to learn.
Laura opts to learn by observing. She goes to places that are busy enough for her to blend into the crowd, sits, and watches. She listens. She catalogues what she sees, and what she hears, and runs the statistics in her head to determine what behaviors and responses and idioms and slang are 'the most normal.' It's serious work, but it helps Laura to look at her current status as a mission, with the goal of infiltrating freedom.
Right now, Laura is in a bookstore in Brooklyn. It's a two-floor, fairly expansive place, apparently safe so far from the bookstore implosion that's struck most of the world. An employee comes up to her while she pretends to scan titles in the Fiction section: "Do you need help finding anything…?"
Laura turns and looks at the employee, and shakes her head gently, twice. "No, thank you." A half a beat while she remembers the correct response. "I'm just looking right now." The employee filters away, no doubt privately grumbling about people who 'just look' in stores, while Laura goes deeper into the Fiction section, out of view of the rest of the store.
While Laura might have managed to make with the Houdini act the other night on the dance floor, she left a bit of herself behind. Sure, it was just a few strands of hair and Sam gave Illyana an odd look when she stepped over to where the clone disappeared and crouched down before coming up with the dark strand. Illyana didn't explain it then, just saying 'later'. Apparently, 'later' is now.
Saving Sam from another day of 'making himself useful' and pruning something within an inch of its' life, Illyana's first stop was Limbo. The castle again this time, in a large room with a faceted crystal the size of a Fiat that hung in the air, slowly spinning. The sorceress pulls out that dark strand and holds it out before her a moment before letting go. It levitates a moment, and then drifts towards the crystal, which slowly lights up and images swim in each of the facets like a collection of TV screens.
Illyana's eyes narrow, arms raised and hands outstretched towards the crystal as she works to 'tune' into Laura in the here-and-now. Slowly, each of the facets fix on Laura in the bookstore. "Bingo."
Using Laura's location as a starting point, Illyana finds a spot around the corner so as to not immediately freak out the potentially feral young woman and opens a stepping disk that she and Sam can step through. Of course, they don't know about her enhanced senses, and that she might pick up on their sudden appearance even if she doesn't see them arrive.
Sam Guthrie is wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans, nothing fancy, at least not looking as entirely like a refugee from Hell's own Hot Topic as Illyana. He's not entirely certain surprising the girl who broke legs so recently is a good idea, but he's concerned about her welfare, enough to take the chance. He does prepare to raise his blast field just in case the girl tries to get frisky right off the bat.
"Just try not to scare the bejesus out of her?" he smiles to Illyana.
Laura herself is dressed mostly the same as she was the other night. Jeans, tennis shoes, t-shirt. Just another nondescript, petite young woman. Her hair is worn down, and she hasn't bothered with makeup.
When Illyana and Sam arrive, Laura is already focusing on listening to the world around her. So when suddenly, she hears two heartbeats that weren't there before, she freezes where she is. Her nose twitches strongly: Sam's voice is recognized, and the scents that are suddenly there confirm the presence of both of them. Talking about 'not scaring the bejesus out of her.' Laura doesn't need to guess who the 'her' is.
Laura begins edging along the bookshelf on the other side of the corner. One of her fists curls and aligns itself with her wrist so that she can pop her claws at less than a moment's notice. Her eyes are wide as she keeps inching forward, like she's ready for the two of them to jump at her.
Since Illyana had scryed ahead of time, she knows where Laura is. Or, was a moment ago, so she turns down the stack to lead Sam towards 'her'. "What, me, scary?" Illyana remarks dryly, smirking back at Sam. Protip: Most of the Xavier students think she's scary. "We're just here to talk." She assures Sam. "If she rabbits, we let her run. Cornering dangerous things is a bad idea."
Illyana looks much as she did at the club the other night, because that's pretty much her standard attire. Like Illyana herself, the clothing might smell 'wrong', since it was conjured by magic and doesn't have any of the usual processing and packaging smells. It doesn't even have the lingering smell of *her* that would come from wearing it over time.
Turning the corner, Illyana blinks a bit as Laura is sort of *right there* and obviously waiting on them. "Well hello." There's a brief pause. "You heard us coming, didn't you?" There *was* the comment about how Illyana smelled.
Sam Guthrie raises an eyebrow. He hadn't anticipated that, but in some ways it might be a blessing. Totally appearing out of the blue was bad enough, but sneaking up on top of it probably wouldn't have helped. He holds his hands up in a conciliatory gesture, "We ain't here to hurt you or grab you or nothin'. We just had some questions. And we wanna make sure you're okay. We're…special, too," he says, "Each in our own ways. Maybe her a little more'n me," he grins. "We try to look out for other special people, when we can."
To Illyana's credit, her conversation with Sam helps her case. If they don't know Laura's listening, why would they lie about only being there to talk? To Illyana's detriment, she does in fact smell 'wrong' to Laura. Not just the clothes. Illyana smells like someone who hangs out a lot in Limbo. It's not a set of scents Laura has any categorization for, other than they make her brain go 'alert, alert, alert.'
When the two come around the corner, Laura freezes again, in her clearly combat-ready stance. Or maybe not full-on combat, but she's ready to move. Her arm stays out in that ready-to-pop-claws position, but without knowing about that, it looks kind of like she's going to try and draw an invisible quarterstaff. Her brows knit as her gaze locks on Illyana first, then Sam. She doesn't say anything just yet. Her poker face is a strong one, but it's clear she's waiting a moment ot see what the next move these two have planned is.
Illyana Rasputina doesn't raise her hands in that universal 'I come in peace' gesture that Sam does, but her manner is mostly relaxed, though she has an ever-alert manner about her that Laura is probably well familiar with. It's the look of someone that's had to be on guard practically their entire life.
"Is this new to you somehow? Being around people?" Illyana says, starting off bluntly. Because that's how demons do. "Either limited exposure or no exposure to them in a casual setting somehow?" Maybe she was raised by wolves. At least she knows how to speak.
Sam Guthrie isn't as certain as Illyana. The girl just could have some sort of mental illness or instability. Still, something to respond with compassionately rather than with fear.
"You want a coffee or anything? Maybe a pastry? Just sit with us a bit. You don't even have to say much, if you don't want," he says, nodding towards an empty table with enough room for the three. "My treat."
The tactic of 'offering food to a quasi-feral weirdo' often pays great dividends, but it doesn't seem to have much sway here. As odd as Laura is, and as much as she's kind of resembling a guard dog in how she's behaving right now, she doesn't seem starved. Laura just glares at Sam when he offers.
The glare directs back toward Illyana. The fact that Illyana's right might actually make the glare intensify a bit. "Where did you two come from? Why are you looking for me?" Her tone is clipped and curt. "Don't say vague things like 'special people.' Be specific. I don't trust you."
Illyana Rasputina rolls her gaze over and up to Sam briefly at Laura's aggressive manner. She doesn't fully take her eyes off of Laura though, and settles her attention back on the younger woman. "We came from Limbo. It's another dimension where I grew up. When I got here, I didn't understand people all that well, and resulted in a few broken bones." She quirks a brow upwards as though to say 'sound familiar?'
"We came looking for you because it looks like you're having to adapt to a new situation, and doing so on your own clearly gets other people hurt in excess of what they feel is suitable. You don't want to go riling the masses, little devil. There's a lot more of them then there is you. I had some folks to help me learn what was acceptable, so I could blend in. We can help you, too."
Sam Guthrie raises an eyebrow, "Well, she's from Limbo. I'm from Kentucky. I was just visitin' her plae," he admits. "She's got the gist of it, though. We're mutants, people born with powers, different than the rest. Our kind have been hunted and regulated before, although we're trying to find a coexistence now." he says, borrowing one of Xavier's favorite words. "We're part of a group that offers safety, training…home. People like us."
These answers don't seem to actually soothe Laura all that much. Maybe she just doesn't like being told she's going about things wrong, or maybe this talk of mutants has her all ginned up. Who knows? She does, and she says as much: "What group? I told you to be specific."
Laura's voice is increasingly harder-edged. It's as if this has transformed from the two of them dropping in on Laura, to Laura interrogating the two of them. To reinforce that point, Laura's outstretched fist makes a 'snikt' noise and two foot-long, bleaming blades slip out of the back of her hand. They look sharp enough to cut God, as the saying goes. "I'm not messing around. Who sent you?"
Illyana Rasputina doesn't flinch in the face of Laura's edgy manner, though her eyes narrow a bit consideringly. "I suppose if you need a group, X-Men. Though they didn't send us."
While Sam pitches the warm fuzzy, Illyana's mouth sets into a firm line. She has her own feral sort of tendencies that comes from a lifetime of demonic culture and she doesn't really take someone being aggressive at her very well for too long. She steps forward, her cold gaze set on Laura. Eyes that have seen too much for her years. "You're not used to people helping, are you? Do I need to prove myself to you before you'll listen?" Illyana's brows arch upwards, questioning.
When Laura pops her claws that gets a blink. "Huh. Now, that looks familiar." Illyana frowns. "You don't have an older brother, do you?" She and Sam had *just* seen a similar display by Daken a few days ago.
Sam Guthrie frowns and can't dismiss the similarities. That guy wasn't exactly a winner of the sunny attitude sweepstakes either.
"We belong to the X-men, yes, but we sent ourselves after what we saw at the club the other night. If you're on the run from someone, we can help you. If you're in trouble, we can help you. That's all we're here to do. Offer help. And maybe a pastry."
Laura looks between the two again. She's ready for a fight, clearly — but neither Sam nor Illyana is bringing one to her. After a moment, the claws sink back into her hand, with a 'snakt' sound. There's blood on the back of her hand, and a few droplets hit the bookstore's floor. When those claws pushed through her skin, they PUSHED THROUGH her skin. But it doesn't look like there are wounds there. She rolls her wrist like someone trying to loosen up and avoid carpal tunnel.
"I don't know who the X-Men are. Or who either of you are. You pushed me into a group of people jumping around at a concert. Now you're following me. And you're doing the good cop, bad cop routine. I know what that is." Sam and Yana probably didn't PLAN on being good cop, bad cop. But guess what? They are. "I don't have a brother. I don't want a pastry. This is all suspicious. I don't like that."
Illyana Rasputina's gaze dips to Laura's hand as the claws retract, and then to the floor as the blood drips there. She doesn't bend down to do anything with it though, not with a jumpy Laura right here.
When Laura notes she doesn't know who the X-Men are, the blonde smirks. "Well. I suppose we're doing a good job of being a secret group of mutant freedom fighters then." The sarcasm is real.
Illyana has to chuckle at the good-cop bad-cop bit, and shrugs. "Well, Sam really *is* a nice guy. And I'm *really* not. So it's not really a routine." She shakes her head. "Don't ask why he sticks around with me. I don't get it myself somedays." Illyana's return to a rather flippant manner might not sit well with Laura, but she can't help it.
The blonde sorceress offers her hand, since Laura's put away the cutlery. "My name is Illyana. I grew up in hell and had to learn how to deal with humans again. I pushed you into the crowd because it *appeared* that you were there for the same reason we were. To dance. Though there are differing opinions on if moshing actually qualifies as 'dance'. How's this: YOU'RE suspicious. We want to make sure people don't end up hurt. Including you."
Sam Guthrie nods, "And we didn't follow you. We just found you. She's good at that. The thing is, she's not the only one. If you're hiding from something, it's going to come along, sooner or late. Better to have friends to watch your back than to face it down all alone," he says. "I've been in plenty of fights and bad spots in my day and, in the end, it's always been my friends who kept me alive."
"Look, if we turn out to be awful and you decide we're doin' you wrong, kick our asses and go back to hiding. But I'm betting you're probably a little tired of all that already and if you ain't…you will be soon enough."
"I'm not going to go away with you somewhere I've never heard of just because you two say it's good," Laura says, as if she's explaining the concept to children. Maybe if they'd offered a few weeks ago, circumstances would have been different. But aside from whatever damage Laura has going on, she at least learned the lesson about nice-sounding people offering to give you a drive home in their van where they also have a new puppy that you can pet.
"And I'm not going to get hurt," Laura says. She looks down at Illyana's hand that's being offered. There's a very clear decision-making process happening behind her eyes. She reaches forward and takes Illyana's hand, but she squeezes a little too firmly. Her forearm is heavy. That makes sense, because it's full of knives. "I'm going to find out about who you X-Men are." Laura isn't letting go of Illyana's hand, by the way. "Every group says they're 'freedom fighters.' That's subjective. But I'm going to find out more. And then, when I know more, and I've made a decision?" Laura lets go of Illyana's hand, and inclines her head towards Sam, and SNIFFFFFF. "I'll find YOU."
"We only asked you as far as the bookstore cafe for a pastry." Illyana notes, smirking over at Laura. When the other woman takes her hand with that too-tight grip, Illyana's eyes narrow a bit and her jaw sets with annoyance. Everything about Laura's mannerisms is challenging and Illyana is used to putting that down with extreme prejudice. It's taking a lot of control to 'play nice'. And she's still the bad cop!
When Laura lets Illyana's hand go and makes her statement, Illyana smiles. It's… not terribly pretty. She opens a stepping disk at Laura's feet to drop the young woman into Limbo. Even with Laura's reactions, it's hard to do anything when there's just suddenly no ground beneath you.
Laura will find herself in the blasted hellscape that is Limbo. The source of that *wrong* scent about Illyana. The sky above has no sun or moon or stars, just a blood-red dome above. Her heightened senses will pick up movement around her as her presence causes the demons around to stir and emerge.
Sam Guthrie yelps as Laura's suddenly dropped out of one world and into another, even reaching out for a moment to try and catch her hand, futile though it might be.
"That…might have been counterproductive? Not exactly the way to earn her trust," he sighs, running a hand through his scruffy blonde hair, "Tell me at least she's somewhere safe and not dropped into a pit full of demons?"
Illyana Rasputina gives Sam an innocent look. "Not a *pit*." Unless you consider Limbo a pit. Because it's full of demons. So… OK, maybe a pit full of demons.
The blonde sorceress shakes her head at Sam. "Remember I told you she reminded me of me? Well I'll tell you about less-civilized me. The only one I listened to was my brother, because I remembered that I loved him, and strength. And I'd push, and push, and push until someone could prove to me that they deserved my respect."
With a wave of her hand, Illyana opens another stepping disk, this one more like a hobbit door that she can step into and Sam can follow. It doesn't put them in the same spot that Laura was dropped off in, just in case, but it's fairly close. Of course, more time has passed in Limbo that the few minutes she's spent talking with Sam and if there's a few bodies lying around, Illyana wouldn't be surprised. She's also pretty confident that Laura's still alive herself, given what she's seen of the young woman and because her demons are generally not allowed to outright kill folks she drops into her realm.
It's true: a greater amount of time has passed in Limbo than just the few moments Illyana spent in the bookstore with Sam. So when the two drop in, the situation has changed.
It's not "a few bodies." It's a trail of them. Demons and monsters and barely-sentient tooth-beasts and all manner of predators that would gobble a human up whole… cut up, punctured, sliced apart, torn. The trail of carnage goes on some distance. It terminates at what's literally a hill of monster bodies, atop which, Laura is covered in the blood of Things That Should Not Be, continuing to fight, her claws flashing. It's as if she's seized by some kind of berserker rage.
The trail of bodies isn't hard to follow, Illyana leading the way and not looking particularly broken up or annoyed that some of her critters are lying in several pieces. Nor does she bat an eye at the amount of blood spattered about, or things that should be on the inside suddenly and violently exposed to the outside. As they reach a rise where they can see Laura, Illyana glances back over her shoulder at Sam. "See? She's perfectly fine." If by 'perfectly fine' one means 'a roiling mass of claws and death'.
Illyana continues forward, down the incline to where Laura fights. Lifting her fingers to her lips she blows a shrill whistle that catches the attention of all of the demons. To some of their detriment. "Scat." The blonde says, waving a hand and, some with angry snarls, the demons peel off and disappear into the landscape. "I see you are once again making friends."
When the creatures turn tail at their Mistress's command, Laura is left alone. She looks up at Illyana. Her position is hunched, her claws are all out — two on each hand, one on each foot — and she's drenched in that previously mentioned 'should be inside' stuff. She breathes heavily, and the thousand-yard-stare she has could mean just about anything.
Illyana Rasputina doesn't get too close, keeping perhaps a dozen feet between them. Enough time for her to react. She can see full well how deadly Laura is. "Mmm. I thought so." The blonde says her words more of a murmur. She blows out a long sigh through her nose. "Right then."
The blonde sorceress extends her hand out towards Laura, and the ground moves beneath the dark-haired woman's feet as though it were a fluid. It sucks at her feet and tendrils climb up out of the earth to wrap around Laura's wrists to restrain her firmly, though not painfully. Only once the little hellion is secured does Illyana close the rest of that distance. "Calm down." Right. Like that's going to happen. "They wouldn't have really hurt you, you know. But they scared you, didn't they? And made you lash out." Which is what Illyana's afraid might happen back on Earth.
Laura gets grabbed — she has plenty of training for how to elude being clinched by human, or at least humanoid opponents, but tendrils from the earth are not her most practiced opponents. She squirms, and struggles, but eventually the rage that had been controlling her begins to subside. She still doesn't look very happy, though.
Laura's nostrils flare. She looks Illyana right in the eyes, but it doesn't seem like she's about to bite Yana on the face or anything. "What's your goal here?" Laura finally snorts. "What IS this? Some kind of stupid test?"
Illyana Rasputina leans in and taptaptaps at the center of Laura's forehead. "I'm trying to talk to the little feral you've got lurking on your brain." Illyana says before straightening and then gestures around them. "Look at this mess. What if these were people? I mean, I'm gonna admit, I pushed you a bit. Most sane people freak out when demons are looking at them like lunch." The blonde looks back to Laura. "And maybe your control is better than I think and you wouldn't do this to a person." That cold blue gaze rests on Laura and she arches a brow, the silent question 'would you?'
Without stepping away, Illyana snaps her fingers and the liquid earth turns back into dry, sandy dirt, leaving Laura free to move about. And potentially attack Illyana who is still very close to the little wolverine.
When the earth releases her, Laura's claws 'snakt!' back into her body. "My control is fine," she replies, sounding a little insulted. "I broke the legs of two men who groped me. They'll heal, they'll walk again, and hopefully won't grope people in the future. I confronted two people who cornered me and started saying weird things about their special club of freedom fighters. I killed monsters." Laura doesn't sound very repentant about that.
"You're right. You pushed me. And you're still pushing me. So stop it, and send me back to where I was." Laura doesn't take a swing at Illyana, or anything. She does sound angry, but she's choking it back — it sucks being furious when the other person's point is 'look how angry you are,' because then you have to pretend to be calm.
Illyana Rasputina's lips twitch as she works to repress a smirk, even standing two feet from le petite mort of the non-fun variety. "Anger leads to hate, y'know." Odds Laura's a fan of Star Wars? Probably pretty low.
"Yeah, they'll live. They'll walk. But there are other reactions that come with that. First and foremost, coming from a demonic background? You broke the rules. Injuries like that exceed the acceptable levels of violence. That means you start to have the police involved. But in addition to that? They're probably going to point fingers at you being a mutant, even if you're not, because a 'little girl' shouldn't be able to take both of them out. Which puts heat on other mutants that can't hide their differences. Next, you didn't just break their leg. You've likely put them out of work for a few weeks minimum. Which could affect any families they have. I agree, they're scum for what they did, but there's always a bigger picture to try to consider. Did you do that? Or do you just not care?" Most of those who know Illyana tend to think she doesn't think much of the consequences of her actions. Which is quite the opposite. She's always thinking about them. It's part of what weighs on her so heavily.
Laura glares at Illyana through the entire speech. It's the angry glare of someone who knows that the other person is making sense, but is too angry to give them the satisfaction of acknowledging it. Illyana might be familiar. Maybe more on being on the other side of it, but still. Backing down isn't an option for Laura at this stage in the game, which becomes weird when pursuing aggression isn't, either. "Send me back," she repeats.
Illyana Rasputina gives Laura a long look, and then just shakes her head. A wave of her hand and Laura's suddenly cleaned of all the blood and ichor and other nastiness she was coated head-to-toe in and a stepping disk opens off to the side. The doorway out.
"If you can learn to say 'please', it might help you out in the long run." Illyana says with a faint smirk. It's something she hasn't managed, but maybe Laura will.
Laura looks down at herself as she's suddenly, magically clean. Even her shoes aren't squishing with monster blood anymore. She looks at the disk, then at Illyana. The thought is clearly crossing Laura's mind that this is just a trick door into another pit of behemoths. So maybe that's why Laura sounds like she's just a bit irritable or sarcastic or something when she says "Thank you," and then steps through the portal.
Illyana Rasputina crosses her arms and looks back over her shoulder to where Sam's been standing quietly and gives a huff of amusement. "Maybe she'll do OK, hmm?"
Or maybe a pissed-off Laura will stalk Illyana back on Earth and snikt her. Who knows.
Sam Guthrie looks at Illyana for a long, long moment. "I feel that could've gone better."