amorphic (amorphic) wrote in age_of_miracles, @ 2008-02-04 20:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | magneto, mystique |
Log: Mystique and Magneto
Who; Raven and Eric
When; February 4th, night
Where; The White House
What; Eric's going a bit batty, and Raven tells him to stfu and get some sleep.
People were still dying.
Sapiens, specifically, and Eric had a country to run. Occasionally, Raven stepped in and took care of a few members of the hit list herself, but with Eric in and out all the time, Raven kept an eye on things. With the way he was acting, she had to think he might have really been losing it -- but weren't a lot of great leaders a little batty? Caesar had been brilliant, but he'd been none too stable.
Maybe it was something in the water. Hn.
So she was just coming back from taking care of one of the former government officials, wiping off her hands on a towel in her office so she could handle her work without smearing blood all over it.
Eric was killing more than necessary. It wasn't reported, but it was rare for a person to cross him and come out alive. This didn't just apply to sapiens----he was killing mutants, his own staff, disposing them like he'd dispose of tissues. He was incommunicative, angry, and divided his time between Washington and the Lair----or, he should have been. He'd planned to build Remora a small version of Cerebro... and he wasn't doing any of that. He had a country to run. He couldn't be bothered with any of that. People were so damn incompetent, he couldn't stand it.
"Is it done?" He practically snapped at Mystique, which really wasn't normal for him, and brusquely walked past her in the hall on the way to his office.
"Don't ask me stupid questions, Eric." Mystique had had it about up to here with his attitude -- and she was the only one who would even dare to show it. She knew what he was doing, but she had her job. She did it, and did it well, so when Eric used her as a soundboard for his finicky moods, Mystiqe didn't much mind telling him to go take it out on someone else.
Eric paused to look back at her, frowning. "Clean up the blood. I don't want a mess in here."
"Don't give me stupid orders." Mystique regarded him evenly, shaking her head and wiping her hands off on the paper towel before tossing it in the trash. "I know how to do my job."
"Don't test me, Raven," Eric murmured, turning to fully face her, his hands tucked into his pockets. "Don't even think about it."
"Then don't treat me like one of your Children." Mystique frowned. "What is wrong with you, Eric?"
"There's nothing wrong with me----I----" Eric jerked his head around to look over his shoulder, and then back to Mystique. "Charles. Charles is what's wrong."
"Of course." Mystique shook her head, pulling out her chair and sitting. "Nevermind."
"He... invaded my mind," Eric finally said, slamming the door shut.
That made Raven put her head up. "He what?"
"Years ago." Eric leaned back against the door and it was obvious now that he genuinely looked paranoid. "I don't know when. I----I don't know when he got at me, Raven. He tampered with me and smugly sat by and never said a word."
"Son of a bitch," slipped out before she could catch it. It made sense now; at least it wasn't Eric being stupid. "I'm not surprised." Raven shook her head, setting her jaw in what was clearly an aggravated look. "So someone else has to take him out." That would be fun.
"No," snapped Eric, before he could stop himself. Raven knew what this was about, could figure out what he meant about what Charles had done to him. "No."
"I thought so." Raven stared at him for a while, looked away, sighed. Well, this would sound awkward. "...Do you want to talk about it?" Raven wasn't the touchy-feely, 'but how does it make you feel' type, but Eric looked ... horrible. Still, the sentiment sounded unpracticed and almost uncomfortable.
Eric folded his arms across his chest and slowly lifted his eyes to look at her. "...I beg your pardon?"
"Do you want to talk about the Charles thing?" She gave him a look that clearly said 'I'm only asking once'. Someone to talk to wasn't exactly something people like Raven and Eric admitted to needing -- ever.
"Charles is acting joyously smug to think that he saved his own life in that little winning move over me, even if he was claiming he had no idea what I was talking about," Eric muttered. "He must have done this as a preventative measure years ago... and here I thought it was my own weakness and loyalty to Charles."
"Why haven't you asked Betsy to fix it yet?" Raven didn't mean to sound accusatory, but it was a valid question.
Eric chuckled softly. "Betsy. I wouldn't let Elisabeth Braddock anywhere near my mind."
"Which makes us stuck, doesn't it? Do you know if the ... suggestion causes you to prohibit other people hurting Charles if you're aware of it, or haven't you tested that yet?"
"I don't know," said Eric, tossing up his hands. "I don't know the extent of it. I just know that Charles Xavier tampered with my head." He was far more concerned about the betrayal and the idea of Xavier messing with the 'rules'----Charles didn't do that. Charles never played dirty... and it had Eric scared.
Mystique sighed. Eric was getting emotional again, and it wasn't helping. "Dwelling on it won't fix anything," she reminded him quietly. "You have a problem. You have to fix it, or work around, Charles be damned."
Eric wanted to say that he wanted Charles dead. He wanted to tell Mystique to end them all----but he couldn't do it. He just couldn't. Instead, he took it out on other people. Killed other people. "I don't want to discuss it anymore. Later. Not now."
"It's been a long day, Eric. Why don't you try to sleep?"
Eric looked old. Weary. Not entirely sane. "What---?" He frowned slightly, but then he nodded. "I'll do that," he said quietly. "Tomorrow... there's a lot to do tomorrow." Pyro and Rogue were still missing and he couldn't devote any attention to it. He had a country to run. People to keep in control. He would have loved the power if he wasn't paranoid and angry. He'd loved it at first. Now, the strain of keeping everything together was stretching him far too thin. He kept a brave face, he seemed strong and powerful to anyone else, but.. Mystique was allowed to see the rest, even if he didn't voice it. He didn't have to.
Mystique was there to make sure he didn't fall apart -- as much as she could help it, if he was driving himself insane. He would've kept on working, kept on looking, kept on moving until he was exhausted if he didn't rest now, so perhaps it took someone else (someone he trusted) shooing him to bed to get him there before he collasped.
"Sleep well." Or try to.