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Illyana Nicolievna Rasputina (ex_darkchyld899) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-08-18 18:27:00

Entry tags:

arrival, clark kent, complete, day 11, illyana rasputin

Day 11: Illyana's arrival
Who: Illyana Rasputin and Clark Kent
When: noontime
Where: Limbo, then the forest and pool areas
Rating: Let's say PG-13 to be safe.
Status: Complete

It had taken far more out of her than she'd anticipated to reverse the damage done by S'ym and the other demons from Limbo. She'd nearly exhausted her magical abilities, but Illyana still wasn't quite done. Just a little more, one more spell, and she'd effectively cease to exist, at least as she was now. This last spell would make it so that Belasco had never taken her; it would erase her existence from this time, and in turn, seal off Limbo for good. She could go back to being a little girl again, an innocent with an intact soul, and grow up like a normal child. Piotr would appreciate that, at the very least.

But as she began to recite the incantation which would seal Limbo away and return her to normal, Illyana felt an odd presence invading her Otherplace, and felt the tug of a teleportation seize her body. She didn't even have time to register what was happening before she found herself in some kind of forest, in the middle of one hell of a storm. She screamed in rage and shock as the winds and rain assaulted her. She stumbled forward a few paces before her brain kicked into gear. Her mutant powers must have interacted badly with her spell, and sent her somewhere inadvertently. Since her stepping disks carried her across time as well as space, it was highly likely. She braced herself against a tree, and concentrated on summoning another stepping disk. Whatever had happened, she couldn't just leave the spell unfinished. She'd teleport back, finish the spell, and be done with it.

Except her stepping disk refused to appear. She concentrated as hard as she could, focusing all her energy on summoning one just large enough to take her out of the storm, but couldn't call one to her. The harder she tried, the more useless the exercise felt. And feeling useless only served to make her more angry. She screamed again and lashed out with her darker magic, blasting the tree she'd been using to keep herself upright. It exploded where it stood, sending splinters of wood and leaves everywhere, including at Illyana. She turned away, letting loose another scream, and held her hands up to her face to protect it. She felt the fangs in her mouth through the skin on her cheeks, which only served to make her more upset.

Once the remnants of the tree had been carried off into the wind, Illyana lifted her head and peered through the raging storm, trying to figure out her next move. She had no clue where she was. Probably somewhere in Florida, or the Bahamas, with a storm like this raging. Cyclops had contacts in Florida, so if she could find civilization and calm down, she could call them, and in turn, contact the others and find out what had happened. She started forward, not really sure of where she was going. She used some of her more benign power to conjure a shield to keep out the elements. Concentrating on the spells was difficult, but not impossible as using her mutant powers had been. That made her more certain she'd ended up on Earth when she'd teleported. Her powers were always so limited outside of Limbo. That she could still access them, and still display some of her more charming physical traits meant that the spell to seal the dimension away hadn't finished. So much for having a more innocent childhood again.

She broke from the relative shelter of the trees and found herself facing some sort of resort compound. She made for the first building she found, but it turned out to be a stable of some sort. There weren't likely to be people in a stable during weather like this. What was this, some sort of Gulf Coast vacation resort? The next buildings she found looked very foreboding, so she opted to walk on a little further, until she spied a more friendly-looking building. She slipped inside, and found herself staring at an enormous indoor pool. Definitely a resort of some kind. She dropped the magical shield, just in case whomever she ran into didn't know about such things, and glanced down. Shields would be the least of her problems, since she could still see her tail in shadow behind her.

"Calm down, 'Yana," she growled. "Can't give in, right? What would Kitty or Dani think?" She shook her head, trying to calm herself, even though she wasn't sure it was possible at the moment. She was too upset at herself for losing control of her powers, and then for flying off the handle. She reached up and twisted her long blonde hair, wringing out the water that had soaked it before she'd thought to shield, and tried to remember what Dani had taught her about finding focus and calming down. A noise nearby startled her from her concentration, and she whirled around to find someone staring at her.

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ex_darkchyld899
2008-08-21 05:39 am UTC (link)

"Did I get the quote wrong? It's from MacBeth," Illyana said when Clark didn't seem to get her reference. Maybe Shakespeare didn't exist in his dimension? "We had to read it for class." She nodded along when he offered a more scientific explanation for the planet's power. Science wasn't really her realm of expertise. Doug and Kitty had always been so much better at it than she had. She shook her head a little, trying to force away the wave of sadness that hit her when she thought of them. There'd be time to deal with all of that later. At least neither of them were here to see her flip out like she had. Especially poor Doug, God rest his soul. At least he hadn't seen what she'd become during the Inferno. She thought Kitty might have been there; she doubted, thinking back, that Excalibur would have stayed in England with everyone in New York in such trouble, especially Phoenix's "brother" Nathan.

Clark asked about the demon, stirring Illyana from her thoughts. She laughed, but it was hollow-sounding. "I'm not exactly what you would call a pure soul," she explained. "I don't know if there are demonic dimensions where you come from, but there are where I'm from. The ruler of Limbo before me, Belasco, was a very powerful dark sorcerer and demon. He corrupted part of my soul to further increase his power." There was no point in mentioning the Elder Gods to Clark. She had a feeling it wouldn't go over well. "The pieces of my soul he stole away from me he replaced with demonic energies, which react to my more negative traits. Hence, I go demon sometimes." She sighed. She didn't know how Clark would react to her story, but he seemed to be pretty accepting so far, and for that, she was grateful.

She laughed more genuinely when he expressed disbelief at Magneto's name. "Yes, he really is called Magneto. I think the Professor knows his real name, but he prefers to go by Magneto. The "Master of Magnetism." She tried her best to impersonate his most pompous declaration of his name, tried to infuse some of the swagger. 'Berto could do a much better impression than she could. When Clark expressed sympathy for her school situation, Illyana just shrugged. "Goes with the territory," she said. "Usually we can take the fight to the enemy before they get near the school, but we're not always that lucky."

Illyana found herself smiling as Clark described his life at home. It was exactly the sort of thing she wanted for herself, when she was willing to admit life beyond the X-Men, a nice quiet life away from all the crazy and hectic. It might have been boring, but boring meant no demons, no corruption, and to Illyana, that sounded wonderful. "It sounds a lot like how Piotr and I grew up," she said. "We were raised on a farm in Siberia, until we came to America for school." Illyana probably had better memories of the farm than Piotr, since she'd been there only a few short years ago, when she was six, before Arcade and the madness began. "There's nothing wrong with ordinary, you know. Be glad you don't have to deal with super-powered crazies beating down your door."

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