multiversallogs | i am hung with graveyard flowers;

Entry tags:

i am hung with graveyard flowers;

Who: Ilde Decima and Hasi; OPEN
What: The water helps her.
Where: The Gross Tar; initially near her waterfall territory in Raven's Gate, after that various areas.
When: Givdi with Hasi; open after that through Shundi.
Notes: Specify time/place (if not Raven's Gate) if you tag in, please!
Warnings: Descriptions of LM:A-related horrors to follow in the thread with Hasi; discussion of rape & related fall out in thread with Jae.

When she finally goes down to the water, it feels so good that she hates herself for a moment sliding in, her clothes on the bank under an illusion. It soaks into her skin like she belongs there and she's glad that she got there first, that Hasi isn't there yet, because sinking into it hurts a little and it's-- not anybody's business what internal conflicts she's having. She just died. She's allowed to feel...whatever this is that she's feeling, and whatever it is she's going to feel it at the bottom of the river for a while, her tail catching light as it flicks up before she dives.

She'll surface, eventually.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The disturbance above the surface catches Ilde's attention and she interrupts it a few moments later, following the ripples, alarm and the flapping duck until she spots where Pietro collided with land and-- just goes over there, because 'is this any of my business' is not a question that it ever occurs to her to ask when it happens on the river.

Of course it's her business, fuck you.

"Did you just brake for a duck?"

...look.

It takes him a second to register where the voice is coming from, which he surely can be forgiven for considering the speed at which he just slammed into the ground. (He's lucky for those extra-durable bones.) When it clicks that yes, he's being talked to, and not from the landward direction, he pushes himself up on his forearms and squints at her.

"What? Yes." What was he supposed to do?

"You look familiar," she says, which is an entirely separate thought (...he doesn't remind her of ducks, for instance, however many heads they have) that evidently pops into mind when she gets a better look at his face. His distinctive bone structure, namely, though the first person he reminds her of is Tommy and it's the speed and the slamming into things. She's never actually seen Tommy slam into anything like that, but falling into things like a dumbass is something she associates with teenage boys in general.

(Spoiler: all boys are dumb, and all men count as boys.)

"...are you all right?"

"I had thought so, but now I'm wondering if I have hit my head harder than I thought." Make more sense, Ilde. Pietro pushes himself up into a sitting position with a small amount of wincing, then tilts his head as he takes a better look at her. Definitely not human. Probably not a mutant either, given the variety in this place, but still. He exhales, seeming slightly more at ease.

"I don't believe we've met before, if that is what you're implying." He would remember her, he thinks.

"No," she agrees, tilting her head and studying him closer-- she comes closer, too, her tail a ripple and a gleam in the water, catching light from over the river when she moves. She's never met him, she'd remember, too; she's good at remembering people, most of the time. From the nearest rock that she stops against, holding onto with both hands, she says, "I'm Ilde Decima."

Tell her your name or forever after this be Crashes Into Things Guy, Pietro.

His gaze flicks almost imperceptibly quickly to follow her tail in the water. He's seen similar characteristics in mutants, and Inhumans as well, but it seemed much more random, somehow – an accident of genetics that happened to result in a features commonly associated with a mythological creature. Not like this.

"Pietro Maximoff," he replies, sounding just slightly distracted. "Are you a mermaid?"

A flash of recognition for the surname-- Wanda Maximoff, so that explains why he looks familiar, because he's part of their family. The cheekbnes and the jawline remind her of Erik, she realizes, which is why she says: "Rheintochter," mimicking the way he pronounces it. "Rhinemaiden. Mermaids are from the sea."

Salt water does nothing for her and she's not over-fond of the ocean in general, it being a place where she's much lower on the supernatural foodchain than she is in her river. She can't be blamed for preferring her own territory.

The pronunciation has an effect, though perhaps not the one she meant. His memory for his father's accent isn't so exact that he connects the two in any concrete sense, but the auditory association is enough to make him tense, just slightly.

"I know the term." ...Which comes out a little snappier than he meant, ahem. "–I had never put a face to the tale, however. It's a pleasure." That much sounds sincere, if a bit– awkward. His manners are a little rusty, okay.

It had been a reflex more than anything calculated to prompt any kind of response, but she's a watchful thing and his daddy issues have been duly noted like the information-related opportunist that she is; asking questions never nets such interesting results as just waiting. See?

...either way, she's not one to judge awkwardness and her feathers metaphorically unruffle as he eases his own snappishness.

"Someone gave me Wagner for Christmas," she says, smiling; Catenrat, actually, but who's counting. It felt like Christmas, almost, even though she'd been somewhere else in her mind and hadn't registered the season until it was almost over. At this point, she has too much on her mind for the faint guilt she'd had for it before to stir again, so there's that.

After a moment, "I think I know your family."

"Do you?" Which does not seem to alarm him nearly as much, possibly because what he associates with 'family' is so very different. Wanda is his family, and now the boys– "Not Tommy, I hope."

The most affectionate of disparaging remarks, right there. (Look, he knows what his nephew is like, and they do look rather alike.)

Ilde's grin is sweet but shuttered, gone as quickly as it came. "Tommy," she confirms, amiably, "and Wanda, a little bit." Mostly she knows Remy, in that particular family unit; Tommy came to her attention through him, and he's also the one who told her who Erik is to them and why she has to be careful, there. (More careful than she is being, probably, but a little affection goes a distressingly long way with this one.) "Erik, from the different world."

Which is a careful specification -- awareness of connection with no associated assumption of meaning, so he can tell her or not tell her what he wants to there, because there's no assumption to correct. It just seems polite to mention, in Ilde's curious definition of things.

"Remy's teaching me sign language," she explains, instead of dwelling on precise details of alternate universes. "Since I can't hear much above the water."

...Oh. It's, uh, good that she doesn't make any assumptions; the name alone triggers a flat look from him, his lips pressed together as he bites back the urge to reject the very idea of his father being counted amongst his family, but at least there isn't anything specific for him to contest.

"It's heartening to know LeBeau is good for something," said begrudgingly, like backhanded compliments (or....lesser insults, does that even count as a compliment?) are somehow physically painful for him to manage. The fact that she spends time with Remy is not actually the most concerning of the things she's just said, however.

"How do you know 'Erik'?" he asks after a beat, very carefully.

She doesn't have an excess of details, but she can guess at some of the motivation behind that question - enough that it derails her from what might've been an objection to his apparent dislike of her favourite person, pushing her slightly off-balance as she loses the train of her rising response quite visibly. It takes her a moment to reorient and decide what she's reacting to, but that happens, sometimes.

"He made a box into a sphere for me," she says, remembering; it'd been a quietly stressful evening and he'd been a quieter port in the storm, good company for a little while. Remy had explained, later. "He offered to help me with German, sometimes; I don't know it very well. He found the craftsman to make my harp."

(He's going to buy it for her, too, but she doesn't know that yet.)

She could just say he's my friend but it isn't exactly the way she thinks of him, someone she looks at for a reassuring steadiness and whose gestures of affection and concern matter to her because they just do, because she sees herself through everyone else's eyes. He's not the only person she looks at for validation, he's not even the most important of them, but it's there in how responsive she is to anything like parental treatment.

There's a sinking feeling in his stomach as she talks. The way she explains it--the gifts, the air of mentorship--alarms him infinitely more than if she'd simply expressed affection for Erik, because it's so very familiar. He gives a small, tight nod.

"He's very good at that, being kind." His words are sharp, bitter, but nostalgic too, because he remembers what being under Magneto's wing was like, at first. "Right up until he needs you to kill for him – or die for him – and then, well, you're no more important to him than a bullet."

"I would not call him family, whatever the world, and I cannot stress enough the danger of calling him friend."

It isn't new information, not exactly; Remy had made it clear that she's to be wary, and why, and for the most part she's kept that in mind, doing the social math of whose judgement she can trust on the fly. The problem is that Ilde is easy to sway and harder to untangle, that she's always looking for approval, that she's just not quite sufficiently discerning about where it comes from. The word is 'susceptible'.

She watches Pietro for a few moments, dark-eyed and inscrutable, thinking about Sonja's army, how they are weapons first, and how Lucas chose her because she would hurt to lose. (She wishes Sonja were here.)

"I already died," she observes, and it's an oddly abstract statement; she tucks her hands behind her back like a child chastened. "I know I'm not supposed to trust him."

(She wants to; she wants to trust all the people she cares about, she wants to be important to them, she wants them to hurt for her-- she doesn't want that, except she does.)

Pietro is beginning to suspect slightly off statements are something he should get used to from her. Fortunately, he comes from a world where dying is something people do occasionally have the chance to talk about after the fact. The admission gives him pause, but the look he gives her at that has an uncomfortably empathetic edge. "I... 'died' once myself. He killed me."

You know, in case she needed a more concrete example of why this is a terrible idea.

"It's not only a question of trust. My father destroys everything he touches – mere proximity is enough." Which isn't the fairest assessment (not even of his actual father, let alone an alternate he's yet to so much as meet), but Ilde can probably guess that much from the unnecessary harshness in his tone. He shakes his head. "I have no desire to lecture you, however."

Even if he is starting to wish he could build a large, impenetrable plastic wall between her and Erik.

The reflexive response to that is Sonja will kill him if he tries anything but Sonja isn't here and it's a sharp, painful reminder of that absence. It's reaching for something and clasping air and some part of her withdraws, under her skin, to where it's quiet and she doesn't feel the hurt.

"Remy said we're being careful." It's probably not that difficult to infer that Remy's not actually any fonder of Ilde's aforementioned proximity to Magneto than Pietro is coming to be, though debatable as to whether or not he's inclined to relate to the other man even theoretically. Nice guys, these ones.

Careful means what you keep close to keep an eye on it, she thinks; she keeps this in mind.

After a few moments, she swims to the edge, pulling herself up onto the bank beside him and trading her tail for feet and the glossy illusion of humanity (...and a dress, because people tend to object to her nudity more when she looks almost human). "He reminds me."

Her tone is a slight concession, slotting his not-lecture into the same category of those reminders she knows don't go amiss.

Oh, Remy again. "Two uses for him in one sitting. I am in absolute awe." His tone is droll, however, and without venom, because he does in fact agree with the general sentiment; he just couldn't possibly express said agreement, of course.

And she is a little distracting. He's grateful for the dress, yes, but the fact that she can simply create one--or the illusion of one, at any rate--out of nothing is a fascinating feat in itself. He gives her a sidelong look, his expression a hint softer.

"You could do with better friends, you know." Just a thought.

It's not the most creative dress in the world, little more than the appearance of fabric spun loosely around her body, but the ease with which she calls it up is something all the same; there's a great deal that Ilde is capable of, but illusions will always be her greatest strength. (There's a psychoanalysis to be made there, but she isn't interested in hearing it.)

Following his suggestion, however, she's quiet for a short time-- transparently going through her acquaintance in her head to see if she can think of anyone she thinks Pietro would approve of. (Everybody likes Hasi.)

...eventually, clearly pleased with herself for having applied logic to the situation and totally won: "You'll do. You can't not approve of yourself."

(What this suggests about her social circle is best left unexamined.)

Edited 2012-02-03 20:33 (UTC)

Did she just— (Yes, yes she did.) Surprise isn't an expression that crosses Pietro's face very often, so enjoy that, Ilde, and it's followed by what may (god forbid) be a smile. He doesn't mind her, he decides. She's strange, but he doesn't mind her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i am hung with graveyard flowers;

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject