đđđđđđ„ (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} kineticals) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} somerealityrpg,@ 2020-04-06 15:49:00 |
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| Entry tags: | active: remy lebeau |
WHO: Remy LeBeau and Marian Carlyle Rogue
WHERE: A Boutique then the Villa
WHEN: Day post Remy's arrival/Beginning of Disney
WHAT: Remy runs an errand for Emma and bumps into Rogue.
WARNINGS: Nup
STATUS: Complete
Saturday had been spent running around with Klara and Molly, and then drinking with Kitty and trying very hard to not to think about the fact that Gambit was here, in Goodland - only not her Gambit. Sunday morning she had spent several hours with Pyro to cheer herself up, and now she was by herself, doing a little shopping. One bag dangled already from a gloved hand as she walked slowly along various windows, only to stop outside of a fancier dress shop when she spotted something sparkly. Rogue always had a soft spot for sparkles, and this particular dress, even with its vaguely âmermaidâ theme, seemed to be just the right level of interesting for her.
It wasnât as though she had to be anywhere right this moment, so after studying it through the window, she finally stepped inside to see about trying it on. Ten minutes later, she stepped out of the dressing room wearing it, and moved in front of the circular wall of mirrors to study it from all sides. Her hair - an odd mix of red and brown but with her signature white streak still very prominent - hung loosely over her shoulders, and she lifted her gloved hands to push it back so that she could get a more full view of the entire look.
Yeah, it suited her, and distracted her just enough that she didnât notice the man walking up behind her right away. âAhâll take it,â she announced in her southern brogue for the benefit of the saleswoman she knew was hovering nearby.
Getting a run down on the place, almost literally since Emma just showed him what she knew so far, had at least allowed Remy to just go with it. By this stage of the game it wasnât utterly out of the ordinary for these things to happen, and if he wasnât the only one dealing with this insanity it felt a lot less like he was having a mental breakdown.
Emma was here, his Stormy was here, even little Kitty. Even if there were faces that were from other places, like Roguie and Laura. It wasnât like Remy could do anything about it.
It had taken him two hours to convince Emma to come to the parks with him, all he had to do was go pick up an order she placed and sheâd come out -he wasnât at all surprised that she didnât have family friendly attire for a theme park at all, âBonjour, here tâ pick up an order, Emma Frost?â He could only imagine what sheâd been able to find in this place for herself.
He just had to wait at the counter for the staff member to go collect whatever it was, leaning there naturally meant scanning the area, maybe heâd pick up a nice bracelet or necklace for Emma as a thank you too. Of course his eyes landed on the woman trying on the glittering gown too, âLooks trĂšs bien, chĂ©rie.â
The words were an eerie echo of the murmured words in her mind, and the accent? Exactly the same, and it pulled her from her musing over the dress to find his eyes in the mirror. For a long moment, Rogue just stared at him, taking in the differences and the similarities. Her Remyâs hair had been more red, and heâd been younger than the man gazing at her now, but there was certainly enough of Gambit himself in his eyes that she was thrown off balance, just a little.
After another few seconds of studying him, Rogue pulled her eyes away and instead looked at him over her shoulder so that she could shoot him a saucy smile. Thanks to what she knew from Kitty, Rogue knew she looked enough like his universeâs Rogue that heâd recognize her, and at the moment? She didnât want to be the only one unsteady here.
âAh know, sugah.â
The hair was kind of a give away, years after their first meeting and Remy still hadnât seen anyone with anything similar to Rogueâs unique skunk stripe. âAinât think you got anything to worry âbout,â Remy just smirked, red eyes sparkling with mischief. âYâ be a knock out in anythinâ Iâm sure.â
The staff member returned just then, a small box with her containing whatever Emma ordered, Remy signing for it and tucking it carefully under his arm.
âBig plans for the night, chĂ©rie?â The dress certainly wasnât park attire.
She wanted to ask about whatever was in the box he was being handled, but Rogue decided that it wasnât any of her business, taking the opportunity to turn back to the mirror and turn a little so she could check the back of the dress. It was maybe just a tiny bit lower than she would have liked, but with her hair down that shouldnât be too much of a problem. At the question from Remy, she idly smoothed her gloved hands over her hips.
âNot tonight, but maybe soon,â she drawled. It was already in her plans to have some kinda fancy dinner with Pyro while they were there, and this dress would be perfect for that. âDoinâ some shopping of your own?â She asked as she walked back into the dressing room to change back into her street clothes. And if she was taking her time, well - she didnât think anyone would blame her for it.
As was prone to happening, a shine from some of the more glittery accessories caught Remyâs attention, as Rogue admitted the plans were in the works for her to show off the sparkly dress. A dress like that deserved showing off after all.
He glanced over as she waltzed into the dressing room in her slinky dress, Remy finger rifling through some of the bracelets and necklaces, box still under his arm, âOui, kind of. Pickinâ up somethinâ for Emmy. She donât like not having somethinâ suitable for an occasion.â Even if someone told her anything she wore was suitable, she mightâve had a point with the more revealing of her clothes.
âWoman wears more bikinis than a swimsuit model.â
âEmmy...yâmean Emma?â Rogue hadnât met the woman before sheâd come to Goodland, and only knew a few things about her from Kitty - whoâd made it clear she didnât really like the woman. Still, she intrigued the younger mutant a little, but wasnât stupid enough to want to get caught up in mutant politics herself. It was still interesting to learn that Remy was close with her, though - particularly after sheâd seen him flirting with Storm on the ânetworkâ.
âAhâll have ta take your word on that one,â she replied as she tugged her shirt down to the edge of her jeans, gave herself one more quick glance, then stepped out with the dress and its hanger over one arm. She was now more clothed herself and not showing nearly as much skin as the dress had - wearing a dark red shirt with sleeves to her elbows, faded black jeans, and short dark gray boots. Her hair was still loose, though one gloved hand flicked it out of her eyes as she slowly walked over to the counter where Remy stood so that she could hand the dress off to the cashier.
Her eyes dropped to the box he held, and she tilted her head curiously before giving him a small smile. âCan ah see? No idea what kinda taste the lady has and ahm a mite curious.â
âDats the one. She only lets me call her that cause âm pretty.â The smirk on Remyâs face couldâve been thought of as a joke, but it was a little true. Remy knew no one else would get away with nicknames like that for Frost.
She definitely looked a lot more like the Rogue he knew, less glitzy, more casual. But then, he and Rogue hadnât really had the time to do those glitzy fancy things in a long time. Not since they both went back to the hero gig, since her powers returned and they had to put those barriers between them again.
âSure,â the box wasnât sealed, so it wasnât a big deal, and Remy already knew it wasnât anything couture, because the point was dressing down. Inside was a white linen dress, a very sweet style that was very unlike Emmaâs usual. âHuh,â even Remy was a little shocked, although it did look like a very short and low cut dress. âTâinkinâ sheâs trying for a more family friendly look.â
Generally speaking, Rogue didnât really wear things that made her stand out or drew attention - but sheâd been in the mood for something sparkly, and the dress had caught her eye, which was how she often picked things out. It was rare for her to actually buy something, but a snatchânâgrab was a little harder with a dress like that then it would be for a piece of jewelry.
As the salesperson took the dress from her, Rogue cast her eyes sideways to study Remy for just a moment, but she decided not to comment on whether or not he was pretty because stroking his ego wouldnât do either of them any good right now. Instead, she shifted her attention to the box he opened, and she gave a faint smirk.
âThatâs what you call family friendly?â With her teeth, she tugged one glove off and held it between her lips for a moment so she could reach out and idly brush a finger down the dress out of curiosity, then drew it back again. âKitty mentioned sheâs big on wearing white a lot. Whyâs that?â
âToldây, she wears less than a stripper sometimes,â although Emmaâs costumes tended to be tasteful, they were revealing, and Remy wasnât sure that anyone really complained about them. Leaning against the counter, Remy got a little caught up in thinking about Emmaâs costumes through the years, âShe used tâ wear a corset, inât battle. I know she got some style but that was just out there. Sâpose the femme is good at distracting people.â And then some.
Although Remy did wonder just what Kitty had told Rogue about Emma. They werenât exactly bosom buddies all the time, heck Remy was sure that his Stormy didnât like Emma most of the time either. She did have that history of double crossing people though.
âThey call her the White Queen, so, she mostly sticks to white. Itâs a Hellfire thing.â They all had their style though, especially with their outfits for battle. âEmma and Stormy, they make it work, yâknow?â Better than Loganâs yellow, or those blues that Scotty wore.
Rogue just shook her head a bit. For her, imagining someone wearing so little while in a fight was beyond strange, though sheâd seen what her Jean and Ororo had often worn, among others. Still, she herself likely wouldnât be doing any of that at any point, so she just shrugged it off as she pulled her glove back on slowly, then looked over at Remy.
âHellfire, huh? Ainât sure Ahâve heard of that one, either. âCourse Ah tend to miss most of the mutant gossip.â The only time sheâd really picked up all that much had actually been during that brief period sheâd been involuntarily made a member of the X-Men. She still resented the Professor a little for that one.
Rogue paid for her dress and took her own box, then turned more fully to Remy. It seemed odd to have such a benign conversation with a man who looked so much like the one whose voice was still sometimes in her head, but she was trying to ignore that fact. âSo whatâre you up to next?â
âAh, the Hellfire Club wasnât really inât advertising. Secret folks controllinâ the power anâ all that. Where Emma was bâfore she join the X-Men. Reason Kitty donât like her too much either.â Having a checkered past wasnât uncommon with them. He was thief, Logan had done a lot, Stormy stole to survive. Emma was a lot less ashamed of how she became who she was, and it rubbed people wrong sometimes. It wasnât unreasonable, given Kitty had been adversely affected by it. But stillâŠ
âWe goinâ tâ Disney. Convinced her tâ have a good time, non?â Why not? It was there, even if Emma wasnât one for rollercoasters and screaming rides, sheâd have fun if she let herself and after Phoenix and the break up, well, Remy was sure everyone needed something uplifting.
âWhat âbout you, chĂ©rie? Planninâ on enjoyinâ de Magic Kingdom?â Remy tucked Emmaâs package back under his arm, extending the other to let Rogue go in front of him as they left the store, plucking the sunglasses off the top of his head for when the sunlight hit his eyes again.
Rogue had to roll her eyes a bit over the idea of some secret society being in charge, or whatever he meant by that. It was just the right kind of weird for their lives in general, so she couldnât be surprised - but it was still a little funny. So was the whole âWhite Queenâ schtick. When Remy answered her question about the rest of the day, she shifted her attention back to him, and gave a shrug.
âFeel like Ahâve already been over half this place with mah girls,â she replied - forgetting the fact that he probably didnât know who he meant by that. âAnd itâs more fun with them, so for tâday Ahâll probably just take this back to the villas and relax. Maybe take a dip in the jacuzzi, âcause they ran me a lil ragged yesterday.â It should have felt strange to fall into step beside him as they talked, but instead it felt completely natural - so much so that Rogue didnât really notice as they matched paces while they walked. She herself didnât bother with sunglasses, but she did shift both of her bags into one hand, leaving the other free just in case she needed to do anything at all.
The run down Remy got was that this place changed so often it was usually a good idea to embrace the change. It made sense that the kids around here wanted to get as much fun in as possible. Although he wasnât sure what âgirlsâ Rogue was talking about, it could be as simple as little mutants from her world.
âDats only half though. Pretty sure yâ get a day break before the other half, ainât that how it usually works?â Remy couldnât tell you for sure, but he was pretty sure those ânormalâ family style people did those things. Week long visits to the theme parks and all that.
âYâ need tâ tell me where the best places to go are. Ainât been to one of these places before.â Heâd just need to deal with the sunlight, maybe grab a cap to cut some of the glare.
âSomethinâ like that, ah guess. Never been here mahself before, so ahâm just playinâ it by ear,â Rogue replied. Her dark gaze shifted to study their surroundings for a moment. Sheâd never had this kind of life growing up, but she was glad that Klara and Molly could have a little bit of it, at least.
âAh can tell you a few, but some of them youâre gonna wanna avoid âless you want those damn songs stuck in your head for hours.â Looking over at Gambit again, Rogue shot him a quick, disarming smile.
âOr maybe ahâll send you straight to the worst ones of thâbunch just to see how you handle it,â she said teasingly. âIn the meantime - why not tell me somethinâ about yourself while we walk? Canât say ahâm not curious.â In fact, she was almost dying to know more about him, even if she wasnât sure sheâd believe even half of whatever he told her.
Heâd heard tales of tunes that got stuck in peoples heads for days and days, but it wasnât really like Remy would be overly bothered by that, âYâ wanna torture a poor boy already, chĂ©rie?â Seemed like a very cruel practice, but it was on point for Rogue and his teasing edge too. So it wasnât that surprising.
âWhatâcha wanna know?â For all that Remy talked, and he did talk a lot, rarely did it go beyond the superficial stuff. At least at first. At this point his Rogue knew just about every demon he had, but that was because sheâd absorbed so many of his memories by now there wasnât anything left to hide from her, Stormy knew most of it, enough that he still didnât think he deserved her affection at all.
âDonât think we walkinâ far enough if you just want me to start talking.â
âItâs not torture if yâenjoy it,â she drawled with a light smirk. Despite the fact that she was starting to relax around him, Rogue still kept a careful half foot between them - it was instinctual, as she generally did the same even when she wore her suit if she was out with John or the girls.
At the question, a thousand flashed through her mind, before she finally just gave a shake of her head. âYa know what? Just tell me one lilâ thing you havenât really told anyone else. Just enough to whet my appetite - that should be easy enough for you.â Just as easy as a little light flirting was for her, apparently.
Hey, she was in a pretty good mood.
There were a great many things that Remy could say about torture and enjoying it, but it really didnât feel like the time or place.
He was too caught up thinking about something he hadnât told anyone that wasnât deep enough to really bother him about sharing. It was just made weird because he was pretty sure he could ask his Rogue, the one he spent so many years in and out of a relationship with, to fill in a blank and sheâd just roll her eyes at him.
âIâm an Eric Clapton fan.â Which, although a degree of a joke and a deflection, was still true.
Out of all the things he could have told her, that was what he went with? It made a strange kind of sense. They didnât actually know one another, and it was just another reminder of the metaphorical distance between them, which was far greater than the physical. Now Rogue did give a roll of her eyes before she looked away, even as she smirked just a bit. The apartment building was nearly in sight, which meant their walk was close to being over anyway.
âHad ya pegged for a Stones guy, myself,â she drawled as she glanced over and gave him a faint grin. âSeems our walkâs nearly over, and who the hell knows when youâll get this chance again - but you got any questions for me?â It was a roll of the dice, giving him this opportunity to ask a question of her, and this one time she might just give an honest answer.
He wouldnât say he wasnât a Stones guy, although music was rather eclectic for him. He enjoyed the soft jazz that sometimes played through the mansion when Charles got nostalgic, or the old pop songs whenever Jubilee visited. His Rogue used to favour the old Nawlins goldies too.
The only thing was probably Logan and his tragic country music. That was enough to want to blow up the mans radio.
The offer to ask Rogue a question was there, and he figured he could definitely be more specific, see if she lied or avoided the question, but figured it was a little early for that. âWhatâs yâ favourite colour?â
She shouldâve known heâd go with something small, meant to throw her and whatever expectations she might have off - and for a moment, the sheer simplicity in the question itself did throw her, enough to have her considering her answer rather than give something flippant and inane in reply, like âredâ or âblueâ or anything like that.
âSunlight,â she finally said, and her own surprise at the answer had her glancing at him to see if he was gonna laugh. âAh know it sounds silly, maybe kinda dumb, or like a cop-out, but thatâs actually my fave, Ah guess.â For a moment she hesitated, but then figured that if sheâd come this far she might as well go all the way.
ââFore Ah ever met my Remy, âfore Ah became an Xmen for a lilâ while, Ah was beinâ kept in this place. They pulled me out from time tâtime to make me use mah powers and do things for them, sure, but when they werenât usinâ me they were either torturinâ me or keepinâ me in this tiny room, a kinda cell. Anyway, Ah found that Ah missed the sun more nâanything while Ah was there, so.â And now she shrugged as if it didnât really matter, looking away again. It felt weird to talk about herself, but sometimes it seemed like people treated her like sheâd had it easy in her world, when almost none of them knew the truth.
It didnât seem to matter what world it was, which universe the stories came from, there was always some kind of oppression, some kind of mistreatment, some exploitation. Those were the times where Remy understood Wandaâs breakdown, the shift they lived through, the impulse to make things different.
âAinât never seen it right.â Which was maybe a little more than heâd shared with a few people. His Rogue knew, the âpaths thatâd been in his head, the ones that could get through his static mind, âMâ eyes filter it differently,â he didnât think he saw things the way that Scotty did, Remy could still see colours, he was just overly sensitive to light. âDe professeure tâinks its part of my mutation, but ainât everyone agree on that one.â
They thought he was a demon in New Orleans, Le Diable Blanc, but there wasnât any proof of that either.
âLeast round here, yâ get to see lots of it, eh chĂ©rie?â
âKinda figured,â she replied quietly as she looked over at him. When he mentioned Charles, she barely refrained from rolling her eyes - there was something in his tone, something that said he cared about the man, and Rogue had difficulty reconciling that with the Xavier of her own past. But that was a whole world away for now - she hoped. âWhat do you think?â She asked instead.
His own question brought a half smile to her lips, and Rogue gave a shrug. âGuess so - âleast âtil the damn Entity gets wind of it and gets a bug up its ass about making us miserable.â As they reached the villa and headed inside, Rogue glanced on last time back at the door, then headed for the stairs. She preferred them over the small space of the elevator.
âThanks for walkinâ me home, Remy.â
âRemy tâink thereâs a lot still tâ learn.â He couldnât say for sure, he had his own thoughts, but he had absolutely no interest in finding out if he was right, that rabbit hole would swallow him and he was sure of it. Learning the truth wasnât always the best idea. It was largely why he asked Henry not to run any of his genetics through any system. Remy didnât need to know where he came from. âBut it sound reasonable enough, non? Mâ mutation responsible for lots of tâings.â
Tied things up in a pretty bow after all.
This Entity sounded more and more like a puppetmaster the more Remy heard about him, but that was something to take up later, once people werenât enjoying all the fun laid out for them.
âYâ welcome, chĂ©rie,â it at least allowed Remy some time to work out some of the differences, rather than ponder over it. Heâd put part of his relationship with Rogue to bed, started to heal from the destruction of such a huge part of his life for so long, at least this way it wasnât going to be dredged back up for him to state again. âDonât be a stranger, oui?â Even though Emma was on the second floor, Remy could take a hint, heâd slip into the elevator for the two floor journey to give Rogue the space.