ax_main | Tommy and Illyana | Backdated to 8/16

Tommy and Illyana talk, post mission. Neither of them really listens.

"Stupid Danger Room rules," Illyana was muttering under her breath as she entered the kitchen. All she'd wanted was to slice something to bits, preferably with a sword. But nooooo. The Danger Room had kindly informed her that the skill level was too high for an unattended sim. Which was stupid, because she'd been slicing things to bits for years. Thank you, Cat. Nonetheless, she'd had the DR in mind when she'd gotten dressed, and was wearing a pair of jeans (artfully ripped) and a black tee, with her hair pulled back in a pony tail. Not a great look, granted, but it had worked for what she'd intended. Fortunately for her, it was also an acceptable look for grabbing ice cream and going back up to her room to feel sorry for herself.

Unfortunately for her, the kitchen was already occupied by the same person who'd put her in a slice and dice mood to begin with. "Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to bother you," she said as she crossed the room, heading for the freezer. Get in, get ice cream, get out.

Tommy's day had gone from terrifying to flat-out shit in the past six hours. The one thing he could understand - and fix - was how hungry he was after unleashing his powers. The kitchen had been blissfully empty by the time he got there (the cafeteria was really not a place he felt like being right now), and he actually installed himself at the counter to put together some real food. He wasn't a super cook, but he could put together a basic cheese steak, and right now his body was screaming for something fatty, high-protein and terrible. Fatty and high-protein he had covered.

Then terrible walked in the kitchen door. The cloud that was hovering over Illyana's head hadn't gotten any lighter since she'd called him names and teleported him to... something... at the facility. If anything, from her expression, she'd been brooding over it and making everything worse. So much for staying out of her way until she forgot to be mad. "Kitchen's big enough for two." He was still annoyed with her, for that matter, but he really wasn't in the mood to pick a fight.

"I'm just getting ice cream," Illyana said as she pulled a pint of Ben & Jerry's out of the freezer. And then sighed and turned towards him. She might as well get it out, or she was going to keep brooding about it.

"Y'know, I know this was a shitty thing for you. I get that. I get why. But when I was freaking out last night about having to teleport everyone out? You were the one who said 'Oh, no problem. We'll just make sure we don't have to teleport.' And then, the first thing you did when you got sick of listening to Phantazia tell us exactly what we needed to know? You ordered me to teleport us out. Not because we were in imminent danger of death or anything, but because you didn't want to be there."

Some of that, okay, that was fair, except for the part where she assumed that she understood just how beyond shitty things were. And the part where what she'd done was all suddenly his fault.

"Since when do I have the power to order you to do anything?" Tommy asked, frowning. "I didn't say please, sure, that was rude and on me. But you could have said no." He poked at the pan and watched things sizzle for a second. "For that matter, it wasn't everyone, it was just me. And we were telling each other stuff already. You knew I wouldn't freak out, or you wouldn't have said anything in the first place." If he'd held a gun to her head and said 'teleport everyone out of here now or I shoot,' that would have been ordering. This had been different.

"Actually, I didn't." Illyana crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "If I'd known you wouldn't freak out, I'd have told you already. But it isn't exactly how I'd have told you if I'd had the choice. And it could've been a lot worse, if I hadn't accidentally 'ported into my own room."

"You had the choice," Tommy felt the need to point out again. "You wanted to stay and bond with the chick who knocked me on my ass, fine. I could have run where I needed to go instead. No-one made you do anything." Not that he would actually have left her behind, but he could have, theoretically. It was a thing that had been physically possible. And he was burning to ask about 'her room,' use up his question, but it didn't feel like they were at a place where she'd answer him instead of pouting more. Not yet.

"Fine, you didn't make me.". She could admit that, even if it didn't feel like it at the time. "You knew how I felt about it, though. And you didn't care. You just wanted out."

Tommy’s stomach clenched, his mouth tasting sour. “Yeah, I wanted out. We weren’t supposed to be there long, suddenly we’re facing off against other kids who were either other prisoners or in league with the assholes who had been holding me, and then the entire shitshow falls apart with nothing to show for it? I could have kept running yesterday morning and skipped the entire goddamn drama.”

"So sorry. But, y'know, as part of that entire goddamn drama who now knows who was running the thing, at least? Not so sorry, really." Illyana sighed and pushed her hair back from her face. This was getting them nowhere, and it wasn't doing anything other than making Tommy admit he was miserable. She already knew that, it wasn't a newsflash.

"We weren't there long, though it probably seemed like forever. I get that you wanted to go. I at least kinda get why. But Tommy - if I'd been ready to show you Limbo, I'd have shown you Limbo. I thought about it, but it never seemed like the right time, and I didn't want you to blow me off. You knew that, at least kinda, and you didn't care."

“I’d have to know what the hell Limbo is – or that it was even a thing -- before realizing that you didn’t want to show it to me,” Tommy reasoned out. “All you said was that transporting the group would mean people would know something. That could just as easily have meant that teleporting turned you naked.”

"You've seen me teleport in. You know I'm not naked," Illyana pointed out.

"And Gar's clothes disappear when he shifts and come back when he's done." Something started to smell burny and Tommy turned back to his cooking long enough to get things fixed again. "You can't hide pants anywhere on a woodpecker. I don't know how most of this shit works, and neither do you."

Illyana opened her mouth to point out that woodpeckers didn't have anything to do with anything, then shook her head and let out an exasperated sigh. "You're deliberately missing my point, now," she accused. "Is it that hard to just admit you were wrong?"

Tommy braced his hands on the counter, his head hanging for a moment. "Is it that hard to admit that you're mostly pissed at me because you're embarrassed about something? I can't go back in time and add a 'pretty please' on to a request I made in the middle of a massively fucking stressful situation. I'm sorry that you feel like I somehow tricked or pushed you into it."

"I'm not embarrassed. It's just...awkward." Illyana sighed and looked down at the floor for a moment. Technically, she could wait and make Tommy use his question, but honestly, she just wanted to get it overwith. "I lived there. In Limbo," she admitted without looking up. "For the last few years, at least. And before you ask, Limbo's a demon dimension."

“Oh... kay.” Tommy stole some time to dissect that concept, to try and remember the details of the things he’d seen in the room – which were a bit hazy through the overriding sensation of panic, but even so, yeah. There had been things in that room that he’d never seen before, and thinking about them too hard sent shivers up his spine.

First mutants, then magic, and now demons were a thing. Could he cope with that knowledge? Not much point in fighting it, he couldn’t go back in time six hours and un-know it.

He tuned back in to regular speed, his brows drawing together as he overthought his reply. “So ... that makes you a demon? Or more like a demon-wrangler?” Yippie kay-yay.

Illyana looked up at Tommy, trying to figure out if he was mocking her, and couldn't decide. "Part demon?" she offered reluctantly. Damn it, Kitty'd been a lot easier to read. "Or, well, a demon sorceress. But part of my soul is...twisted."

He bit down on his tongue. If there was an appropriate time for stupid jokes, now was not really that. The burning sizzle popped up behind him again and he moved the pan off the heat without turning to look for more than a second.

Tommy hadn’t ever believed in God, despite being dragged to church as a kid, and that took the devil out of the equation as well. So when she said ‘demon,’ she obviously wasn’t talking about good old Mephistopheles in red tights and horns.

“Does that make you... not a mutant? I know you and Inu-yasha have this whole demon-magic club thing happening, but I’m still stuck on the differences between that and the regular crazy of the x-gene stuff.”

Illyana quirked a faint smile, mostly at the thought of a demon-magic club thing, then shook her head. "No, I'm a mutant. It's just my mutant ability is to control the stepping disks in Limbo." She shrugged. "I don't know how Belasco knew that was going to be a thing - time in Limbo doesn't work like it does here, so maybe he scryed it - but I think that's how I grabbed his attention. I was six when he lured me there."

Tommy wasn’t sure how they’d gotten from ‘Shepherd, you asshole’ into a true confessions scenario, but it came with the distinct sensation that he wasn’t completely off the hook yet. And then the words she’d chosen hit home, his face draining of blood. “Lured? Jesus, ‘Yana. What-”

‘Lured’ meant a whole different level of shit when it came to little girls. He wasn’t oblivious; a lot of them ended up in juvie afterward too, rightfully furious at the world for every last goddamn thing. Illyana’d never even hinted at something like that, but even so, even if it hadn’t been that way, the rest had obviously been bad enough.

Illyana took a look at his expression, and shook her head. She wasn't altogether sure what she'd said that had caused that, and she was still a little to shaken herself to try and figure it out. She could only guess how he was feeling. Besides, she'd gotten the distinct impression that he'd started to zone out before that. She'd gotten her apology - she could go binge ice cream without brooding. Mostly. "Later, okay? It's a long story."

Oh thank fuck. She was letting him off the hook for now. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to know, but the everything of the last day – the last week – was too much and it was being too much all over his brain right now, leaving no room at all for making comforting noises or listening to someone else’s confessions. “Yeah,” he nodded, pretty sure it wasn’t what he was supposed to be saying, but fuck everything. He just needed to eat, and then sleep for a couple of days straight, and try and forget. “Sure. I’ll catch up with you later.”

"Sure." Feeling a little hurt that he hadn't pushed, despite the fact she knew she really shouldn't be, Illyana called up a stepping disk and disappeared. With any luck, Kitty'd be around and they could watch something utterly mindless on Netflix. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to sleep.