WHO: Tony Wyrzykowski and Lina Okeanos WHAT: A long-overdue reckoning, and some next steps. WHEN: Evening, Saturday, August 31 WHERE: The general store, then down by the lake. RATING: Language, feels, unhappiness
Everywhere Tony went these days, people asked him about Zarya, which was perfectly fine with him -- he could talk all day about how beautiful she was, how much she'd grown, how strong she was. She was his main topic of conversation all over town, and tonight was no exception: he was laughing as he backed out of the general store with his arms full of groceries. "I'll bring her in sometime and you'll see," he promised the girl behind the counter. "You're gonna eat your words. I'll put my niece up against any newborn witch in the whole-- oops," he interrupted himself as he stepped on somebody's foot, and turned. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was g-"
For as small a town as Snowcap was, he'd done a great job of avoiding Evelina the past few months, even during the toughest times when his anger had almost gotten the better of him and he'd had to tamp down on the urge to go and find her and demand answers, explanations, restitution. It was kind of amazing that they hadn't bumped into each other since that day, and as he stared down at the last witch he'd ever wanted to see again, he found he wasn't quite sure what to do or say. He stood silent, his mouth open, his face gone pale, as the door swung shut behind him.
Given her line of work she was required to be professional at all times regardless of any personal issues. However, that didn't stop her from pretty much going out of her way to avoid talking to anyone either related or too closely connected to Tony ever since their run in back in May. Sure, it was pretty cowardly. Especially considering the fact that she wanted to try and make amends but given the way he'd reacted that day she hadn't exactly been rushing to fix things with Tony. That wanting to give space had only increased after the encounter with Kent at the masquerade.
Everyone had to shop for groceries but this had been the last place she'd expected to bump into him, and she couldn't help but take an instinctive step back from him the moment she looked up into Tony's shocked face. The fact he'd stepped on her foot was the furthest thing from her mind in that moment. "I... uh... it's no problem. I'll just..." She stammered as she made a move to try and step around him. Because as much as she wanted to fix and make amends, the last thing she wanted was some big public confrontation that would put the masquerade scene to shame.
It took a moment for him to rally, and by that time she was already stepping away. "No, wait," Tony said finally. His voice sounded hoarse in his own ears, and he cleared his throat. "We need to talk."
He glanced around them; small as Snowcap was, just about everybody was out in the streets on this nice summer evening, and this wasn't the place for the conversation he needed to have. "Come on," he added after another moment, and set his grocery bags hovering in the air behind him as he turned down toward the lake, tipping his head at her with no trace of his trademark easy smile on his grim, set face. "Walk with me."
Well, she couldn't disagree with that. They did need to talk. She just couldn't quite believe that Tony was the one actually suggesting it.
Even when he suggested for her to walk with him she was admittedly still hesitant — and paying no mind to the tiny little voice that was telling her she could absolutely handle herself if he tried anything. Lina weighed the choice up, and ultimately realised she probably wasn't going to have much luck in Tony actually being willing to talk again before she left town. She gave a nod, and they started heading towards the lake away from the wider public that were milling the streets at that hour.
Lina glanced over at Tony for a moment as they walked, and yet just when she'd thought of something she kept silent. There'd been a lot of times where she thought of how to start this particular conversation but now that it was actually on the cards she just didn't know how to start without setting him off. So it was that the walk was mostly silent except for the ambient noises around them.
"I'm.... uh... I..." Lina let out a frustrated huff at her inability to string more than a couple syllables together the moment they'd reached the edge of the lake. Taking a calming breath she looked up at Tony. "Look, do you want to go first? Because I'm fairly sure you're not wanting to hear any platitudes however much I actually mean them."
Tony let his bags drift down to rest under a tree, then tucked his wand away and folded his arms across his chest, facing Lina squarely, a wary distance from her. He took a deep breath, too, and let it out on a sigh. It was hard to say how he was feeling, facing Lina for the first time since she'd told him how she'd cursed him and taken his memories. Some combination of that rage and hurt and helpless panic that had swept over him that day and landed him in medical unable to breathe, but it was dulled with time and everything that had happened since.
"I hired the best lawyer in Deseret," he said after a moment's consideration. "I wanted to take you to court and get whatever justice I could after all these years, even if it was too little and too late, but the court wouldn't prosecute you. Apparently using your crossbreed powers to hurt someone is only a crime if you do it to a human." He almost spat out that word, with venom in his tone and a curl to his lip that were not Tony-like in the slightest. "Did you know that? Is that why you thought you could get away with cursing me?"
That wasn't surprising. Honestly she'd expected to hear from someone about reparation a while ago. When she hadn't heard anything she didn't think she was off the hook and simply thought Tony hadn't gotten around to it just yet for whatever reason. Lina winced. At the time she hadn't actually know the Confederation's laws when it came to beings, and in fact didn't learn about it until years later when she applied for a position with BACO. "No, I didn't actually know at the time that was the case. I didn't... I wasn't thinking someone would be coming after me but no I wasn't actually expecting to get away with it."
Lina ran her hands over and through her hair with a sigh. However, he reacted Tony deserved the truth even if there was a chance he didn't believe her. "I came back alright! I came back. It might've been more than a month later but I came back because I regretted what I'd done—and I still do! Only when I got back to Salt Lake City you weren't there any more. I wanted to track you down but what was I going to give as a reason? I couldn't exactly tell anyone what I'd done."
She'd started pacing somewhere in the middle of her little speech. It wasn't usually something she was prone to doing but anything to stop herself from potentially losing control and making a tenuous situation even worse. "I didn't know how you'd react either, and... you couldn't remember anything anyway, so... gods, I gave up trying, alright? I still regretted it but until I ran into you that day out in the reserve I hadn't really thought about it. And I know you don't want to hear it any more but I'm sorry. Okay, I'm sorry! And it won't ever make up for what happened but I'll make whatever reparations or amends that you want."
She was right -- he didn't want to hear her apologies. There was a part of him that sort of understood why she hadn't come looking for him after he'd left Salt Lake City at the end of that season, but a much bigger part of him that would never accept that excuse. Tony tightened his arms around himself defensively, his eyebrows drawing together in a frown. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? You never thought about what you did to me, and I couldn't remember anyway, so no harm done?" His voice was rising, and the water in the lake below was rising with it, waves slapping at the shore below them. "Yes harm done, do you get that? I got hit so many times I should've been able to dodge, I have a body full of scars. I almost died. Twice. I threw every bit of myself into the game for years, trying to be as good a player as I should've been, and no matter how hard I worked it would've never made a difference. Because I maybe made a dumb mistake when I was nineteen, basically still a kid, that I can't even remember making, and you decided I should pay for it my entire life. Can you even imagine how that feels, Evelina?"
Lina didn't even need to look to know how the lake was currently behaving, and that was probably just as well because right now she wasn't sure she ought to be taking her eyes off of Tony. Not that she expected him to act deliberately but a half-naiad who didn't seem to have much control over what abilities he may have could instinctively, and unintentionally, react without meaning to. Lina knew she deserved his ire, and them some — not that it made her feel any less frustrated about it being directed at her. "No, I didn't expect it to make you feel better! But you're wanting answers, yes? I'm trying to answer honestly okay! Or would you prefer that I just lie about it all?"
She started mentally counting backwards from ten in Greek. No sense in causing the lake to suddenly erupt or flood the town. "Obviously not," she barked mulishly. The need to apologise yet again was at the tip of her tongue only she knew too well how that'd go down. "It was a stupid gamiménos mistake, and yes I might've stopped thinking about it and yes I should've tried harder to track you down but that doesn't change the fact that I regret what I did whether you believe me or not. Gods know it's not the same but do you have any idea what it's like to be with someone, who you thought was maybe just a fling or bit of fun but you're really starting to like them, only to catch them sleeping with someone else?! Only for them to turn out to be just the same as your lying cheating ex of a husband?! Because it pragmatiká ponáei!!"
Not that he'd know at all, or even remember for that matter, that Lina's slipping back into her mother tongue was a sign of her emotions starting to get the better of her. There was a sudden burst of water up into the air like a geyser somewhere near them — with her eyes closed as she fought to stay calm Lina couldn't be sure. "I don't ever expect your forgiveness, and I don't deserve it but... look, just decide what in Ádis you actually want from me, and we can just both move on or whatever."
Tony huffed out a breath at the idea that she'd had feelings for him, which was obviously ridiculous. The fountain of water exploding into the air behind him made him turn his head to look, unsure if that was his doing or hers, and after a moment he unclenched his fists, dropped his hands to his sides and took a calming breath, letting the turbulent water subside into its normal rhythms. When he turned back to Lina, he was indeed calmer, though his eyes as he looked at her were still tight with anger and blame.
"You don't get to pretend you're the victim here," he told her, his voice low and rough with all that emotion. "If I cheated on you, there was probably a reason. And I only have your word for it that was what happened, because you took my memories." He turned away, covering his face with his hand for a moment. "What I want, he said, muffled, "is to never have met you. Or I want justice. And I'm not gonna get either of those things, so I guess all I need from you is… is answers." He dropped down to sit on a rock, looking up at her. "Tell me about it. How we met, what it was like. And what happened."
Lina pinched the bridge of her nose as she breathed heavily through it — once again counting back from ten in Greek. "I'm not trying to play at being the victim," she bit out. "And there is never never a reason for cheating on someone. Which I've apologised for, which you don't accept, and for which I offered to return them but we both know how that went don't we?" She stared at him dumbfounded for a moment wondering if he'd completely missed the part where she said she wanted to make reparations before realising he probably wasn't looking at getting any kind of monetary justice — because how would that make up for what she'd done? "If you're sure... I've always been a curious thing, it's why I left home in the first place, travelled around Europe and... well, you don't need the whole backstory but basically I was exploring and searching out water creatures and beings, and studying them and learning everything I could about them. I ended up coming to the States, and started doing the same thing. For a while I'd kind of stopped but after marriages two and three I guess I threw myself back into it. It was easy, I enjoyed it, and more importantly I wasn't having to deal with men who couldn't understand that I just didn't want kids yet."
With a sigh Lina stopped pacing and sat down on a rock a little ways away from Tony before picking up the story again."Sorry a little off track. I met you one day in Utah, while I was there looking into the creatures and beings that called the Great Salt Lake home. It was late June or early July, and there you were swimming in the lake. I was curious, and you were fascinating." Her voice sounded wistful for a brief moment before realising it was better for Tony if she kept things as neutral as possible. "I'd met part-beings but you were the first, outside of those I know that live on Ogygia, I'd met that had any water being heritage. And before you ask, I had intended to bring it up, especially since you'd been very curious about how and why I had scales over my arms, legs, and back; but after seeing what a touchy subject your parents were I figured it was better to leave it alone. Maybe things might've been different if I'd said something — I don't know. Anyway you were young, enthusiastic, athletic, you were funny, adventurous, and... you just had this zest for life that was infectious. So yeah, I was definitely intrigued by you, and... well, as it turns out water crossbreeds are generally always strongly attracted towards one another."
Taking a moment to breathe she pondered asking Tony if he was sure he wanted to hear it all, and maybe should've done instead of deciding to continue and just getting it all out so that then he could ask questions or... well, whatever he decided to do. "They were four really amazing and fun months, and you never stopped trying to get me into Quodpot and seeing matches. And then—" Lina closed her eyes for a second trying to stay away from the emotion of the memory. "—I was coming back from studying at the lake one day, and... and caught you in bed with one of your teammates. I... I just reacted... I was so upset, and angry, and hurt, I screamed and shouted at you, and... I'm normally so in control, and I just wasn't then. I didn't think, I just sang, and I... I took your memories, I made you forget what we were, what we'd done, and... well, you know the rest..."
Lina hung her head with a sigh, fingers tangling in her hair, as she rested her head in her hands while her elbows rested atop her legs.
Tony was silent, hardly breathing, as she recounted the story of what seemed like more than just a fling. Four months was longer than any relationship he'd had those first few years in Quodpot, and it seemed almost impossible now that Evelina had been in his life for that long. He watched her closely as she spoke, searching his memory for any hint of fondness or the sense that he'd ever felt anything positive about her, but he came up empty. Whatever she'd done to take away his memories, it was powerful magic, and she'd done a near-perfect job of it. Aside from that vague familiarity he'd felt when they'd met months ago, that niggling sense that he knew her from somewhere, he couldn't find any trace of her in his memories of Salt Lake City at all.
"So you knew I wasn't all human the whole time, but you never told me," he said slowly after a long, pregnant pause. "And you knew about that -- that connection, the attraction thing, and I was clueless, and you--" His stomach turned over suddenly, and he dropped his head into his hands, feeling sick, dirty, used. "God. And I had no way of knowing whatever I felt around you wasn't real. Four months! I don't--" His voice broke as a shudder went through his body, and the water in the lake below shivered too with tiny, choppy, distressed waves as he hunched over, sick to his stomach at the idea of being used and discarded like that and never even knowing it had happened.
"What was I supposed to say when you never wanted to actually talk about your family beyond your uncle and sisters?! I couldn't have actually told you anything more than that you were a part water being, I didn't know what you were." It was a slight cop out but the truth nonetheless. Back then when she'd seen how touchy a subject his parents were she hadn't pushed because she hadn't wanted to make things worse. Lina looked up sharply at the implication Tony was making. "You honestly think that I'd... gods, I know you think I'm some kind of fucking monster but seriouslyReally hurt. But she was a little more concerned with the fact that Tony could unintentionally end up flooding the town if he didn't take a second to calm down; no matter how justified his anger was.
Somehow the pair of them remained standing though completely soaked through. Lina threw her hand out and the water just suddenly froze; not literally but it wouldn't be heading towards the town and causing havoc if she could get Tony to calm down just a little. Lina glared at him. "I get that you're angry, and you have every right to be. You have every right to say every horrible little thought you've ever had about me since you found out what I did. But unless you want to be the reason Snowcap miraculously got flooded than you're going to need to try and calm down," she told him. "Because despite decades of experience this isn't exactly a walk in the park to do."
Tony looked up then, startled by the sight of the massive wave hanging above them more than by the cold lake water falling down to soak them both through, which he barely even felt. He was shaking from impotent rage, unable to do anything about it, and at the moment calming down seemed worse than impossible. Still, her words got through the haze of frustration and fury at least a little; his eyes turned toward town, toward Nat and Njall's house down the shore where his tiny niece was probably napping right now. He sucked in a breath and shoved with all that instinctual magic he'd had building up, and the wave crashed down over both of them, sweeping Tony off his feet as the water dragged him hungrily into the lake.
What an untrained half-being lacked in control they certainly made up for in raw power. It was the fact that Tony didn't have any, or very little, control that was making it somewhat difficult for Lina to hold the lake water back from flooding the town. Noticing what Tony was about to attempt, Lina had managed to anchor herself mere seconds before the wave crashed down — leaving her standing upright, and dragging Tony out towards the lake. Even knowing it was near impossible for him to drown she couldn't help being concerned. Once the water was no longer hanging around her legs, she reached out with her magic and cocooned him within a bubble — or more accurately a large enough pocket of air for him so that he could breathe normally and not potentially drown however impossible it might be for him. Moments later she'd pulled the bubble to the shoreline, dissolving it and letting Tony get to his feet in his own time. "Look I know the last thing you'd ever want from me is advice but you, and probably your sister for that matter, need to learn control before something like that happens again," she suggested. "You can do your own research if you want, or I could give you a list of names of both naiads and half-naiads that I know who could help—you can then research them to your heart's content if you don't trust me on them—but you need to learn control before you end up hurting someone who can't actually defend themselves against water."
Even being pulled down into the lake by the powerful wave, Tony hadn't been scared. Once the initial surprise of not being on his feet anymore had passed, he just closed his eyes and floated. He'd taken as easily to swimming as Nat had when they were kids, but after he'd discovered the joys of flying he'd spent more time on a broom than in the lake, and it had only been recently, since discovering the truth of their heritage, that he'd spent much time in Lake Hercinia again, swimming and testing out his abilities in water. It was the same kind of weightlessness and reassuring lack of gravity as flying; the water wrapped around him, held him in a comforting cocoon, and for a moment all his helpless anger left him and he just let the lake's deep current carry him without fear.
Only for a moment, because then that cocoon became an air bubble, and he flailed in surprise as it dumped him on the shore, soaked through and startled.
He pushed himself to his feet, dripping everywhere with his shoes full of water, and with every word of Evelina's the seemingly-bottomless pit of anger inside him deepened. "You're trying to lecture me about hurting people? About control? Where the hell do you get off, Evelina?" He rarely swore, and the language and the harsh tone sounded weird in his voice. Tony pushed his sopping hair out of his eyes and took a breath, holding it until he could be sure he wasn't going to accidentally call on the water to rise up again, and then he cocked his head at her, belatedly registering the offer of help. "Wait… you know naiads?" he added, softer, and despite all the anger and contempt rolling around in his soul, the question held a note of uncertain yearning.
Lina chose to ignore the angry words rather than answer them. Whether Tony could remain calm or not she wasn't wanting to set him off further by trying to get him to understand that she wasn't trying to lecture him but simply stating a fact. Fortunately, he seemed to have actually noticed her mention of naiads, and that was a decidedly safer topic of conversation. "Yeah, I do. I mean, I'm better acquainted with the few that live on Ogygia but yeah I know some who might be willing to help out if you contacted them," she answered. "There's at least one here in the States, and I know a couple who probably wouldn't mind travelling. I could contact them myself but since we both know how much you actually trust me I can give you a list, and you can decide for yourself."
Lina paused for a moment because there was another avenue of information she had access to; though it would involve accessing the Being Registry on the sly; which wasn't entirely wrong of her to do—if she didn't get caught—but there were definitely certain 'feelings' people tended to have when it came to the Registry. "If you wanted I could probably access the Being Registry to see if there are any others in the Confederation?"
He wrestled for a moment with his deep aversion to having any more contact with this woman, but he and Nat hadn't had any leads yet and no answers to the million questions about who they really were, where they came from, and whether they might still have any family out there. Tony sucked in a breath through his teeth, looking away from her. "I want that list. I -- we don't know anything about our mother. I guess you already know that." He shoved his hands into his pockets, his brow furrowed with consternation over asking Evelina for help. "We want to find out."
"Didn't actually," she said plainly. It was the truth. All she'd had were guesses and suppositions. "Not really anyway. Like I said earlier you never wanted to talk about your parents so I just kind of assumed." Lina could understand the position Tony and his sister were in even if it was from the opposite perspective. While she'd always known about her Psione heritage she'd known very little of her human, her wizarding, side. She'd never known her father at all, except a name and the fact he even existed, until she'd met him some years after finally making it to the States. That had been... an interesting experience to say the least. It had been years since she'd had contact with him, and with the trouble her niece had found herself in she was somewhat reluctant in contacting any of them given the family and Being connections they shared.
"Paper, or I can text or email you a list of names and contact details?" she asked. "And don't worry, if you pick the latter I'll immediately delete your number or email."
Tony worried his lower lip between his teeth, his eyes on the ground as he thought about it. "Paper," he said finally. "Leave it with one of the Adlers at the Kestrel, I'll pick it up." He looked up finally, meeting Lina's eyes. "I don't want to see you again."
Lina honestly thought Tony might've suddenly changed his mind and decided to not accept help from the devil he thought she was. "Right. I'll leave it with them tomorrow morning," she responded. "Lucky for you then that the BACO investigation is nearly over — so I'll be headed back to New York soon enough." At least that was currently the plan but she wasn't so sure with the niggling idea of just packing it all in and heading back to Ogygia that lingered.
With everything said and done, even if rather unresolved still, there was no point in lingering about any longer. "I..." she paused, and sighed. "Bye, Tony."