InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "What have you done today"

Illyana Nicolievna Rasputina (ex_darkchyld899) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2009-02-17 20:49:00

Entry tags:

andy gallagher, complete, day 32, illyana rasputin

Day 32: Tree House Time!
WHO: Illyana and Andy
WHAT: It is time to build a tree house
WHEN: Day 32, early/mid-afternoon
WHERE: the edge of the trees out back behind the residence buildings
RATING: um...PG-13 to be safe
STATUS: Incomplete

Hangover miraculously cured by a long draught of clear liquid, Illyana felt at last ready to greet the day. It was about time she and Andy got started on their tree house. They'd been talking about it for a couple of days, but thanks to those forced group-things, neither had been able to get started. Today, that was going to change. Best way to deal with problems was to keep going, keep living. At least, that's how the New Mutants dealt with things. After Doug had died, Magneto hadn't let them sit and mope for long. After the news about Piotr in Dallas, he'd given her time to rant and rail, yes, but in the end she'd had to keep going, keep up her studies. When things sucked, you gave fate the finger and kept going.

After lunch, Illyana headed out to the trees and scanned them carefully. Most looked like suitable tree house trees, at least at first glance. Branches large enough to hold platforms and wide enough to support the weight grew partway up the tall trunks. She found one she liked just inside the first line of trees, which left a bit of a natural buffer between the tree house and the open field leading back to the resort. This spot wasn't too far off from where the snowman army had been days before, which also suited her. It would stand a memorial to the melted army.

"Tools," she said out loud. "Hammers and nails, saws, and some timber, if you don't want us cutting too many of your trees down, Planet." She knew killing wasn't allowed, and was pretty sure, after her rather explosive arrival, that felling trees wasn't considered killing, but it was possible the Planet had simply chosen to overlook her destruction of its life that one time, as a favor or something. "Oh, and some rope, so we can haul stuff up and down," she added, watching the required items appear in front of her.

The Planet could teleport things around. Others could teleport here. It really wasn't fair. She scowled at the materials for a moment, and her hand drifted to the amulet around her neck. Always safer to wear it, especially if there was a chance of getting upset in public. Last thing she needed was to spoil her growing friendship by going demon on Andy. She sighed and surveyed the materials again, trying to figure out the best way to start the project.

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brain_ninja
2009-02-24 08:26 pm UTC (link)

Andy looked back at Illyana, impressed. "Hey, that's better than nothin'," he said. He found himself, for the first time, a little jealous of her, when he thought about it. If he had the power to heal, he'd be far more likely to take advantage of it when needed, whereas even if he needed to use the mind control, he would think twice after having used it on Tracy and seeing how she reacted to it. He noticed a movement in the corner of his eye, but by the time he'd registered it, she'd dropped her hand back down and gone back to work, so he shrugged it off. "Hey, don't feel bad," he said in reference to her mentioning a tainted soul. "You're not alone in that, you know."

He smiled when she returned the sentiment and wondered to himself when the last time he'd heard those three words had been. He thought it had been from Tracy and probably years ago, but even that was different than this. Andy didn't think of Illyana the way he thought of Trace, not by a long shot. It was nice to hear.

Illyana's answer to his question was a little more vague than he'd have liked, but he let it go because it wasn't like she'd ever done this before, either. They were going to have to do a lot of guesswork, he thought. "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking," he replied in reference to the supports she suggested. "We'll need the reinforcement, I'd think."

She looked to be struggling with drilling the holes in the planks and Andy frowned. That was going to take ages, now that he thought about it. "Hey, Mirage," he called out to no one in particular. "Put holes in the planks as I finish 'em, will ya? Make sure they look just like the ones she just did."

As he sawed off the last of the planks and started to drop it into the pile, he grinned, noticing that the Planet had already done just that. "Well, hey, it's kinda nice not to have to do all the grunt work, huh?" he asked Illyana, grinning.

Andy got to his feet and stretched before sitting back down beside her. "How can I help thread it without getting in your way?" he asked, not wanting to hinder her work, but also not keen on standing by supervising instead of lending a hand.

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ex_darkchyld899
2009-02-26 09:02 pm UTC (link)

Illyana smiled her thanks for Andy's attempt to make her feel better about her soul. He really didn't have any idea how far gone hers was, because she had no intention of letting him find out that particular secret, among others. At least, not yet. But he was sympathizing with her, and accepting of her, which he did a lot faster than some of her teammates at home, for which she was grateful.

"I wonder how many people here are freaks like us?" she said, finishing up her second hole and reaching for another plank. This one had been affected already by Andy's time-saving request. "Why didn't I think of that?" she asked. "You're just too brilliant, you know that?" She reached for one length of rope and pushed the end through the hole. She pulled the rope almost all the way through, but left enough at the end so that she could tie it into a knot, to keep the plank in place. She looked up at Andy when he asked how he could help. "How about I do one rope and you do the other? If we do 'em more or less at the same time, we'll be able to make sure the boards stay level."

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