ᴇʀɪᴋ (metalize) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-04-18 09:14:00 |
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This would be the first time that Erik hosted a bonfire - first one on Genosha, ever, and the first one held for family and friends after the ceremony a couple days prior. Just something simple in the courthouse, exchanging vows and exchanging rings with Peter and Wanda present, along with Anka Irene in a new dress. The bonfire was open to everyone - Erik had made more friends than he ever thought he would (it was still about quality over quantity, but considering he had never been good at letting others in the few friends he did have and hold close were important to him), and he wanted to celebrate with them as he and Anna entered this new chapter in the world they’d found themselves in. A bonfire was the perfect way to do that, with its golden light and the way the brightness echoed the stars, a supernova that would be the island’s own personal sun. They just had to set it up, which was the next step. For that he had Tommy with him - a young whippersnapper who was kind enough to help his ancient grandfather (granted, Erik didn’t look his age - and he supposed he could thank mutant genetics for that), though he wouldn’t mention the word ‘kind’ since he had a feeling it would involve giving the boy hives. “Everything will be cooked over the clambake,” he said, surveying the beach, the expanse of sand and the greenery and brush that crawled a ways away; they ought to make the fire in its own spot, free from catching the trees alight. “So we’ll need rocks and seaweed to help with that. If you don’t mind finding those, I can gather twigs and grass. And some driftwood.” On the menu he had lobster, chicken, mussels, and clams - also kabobs, meat and vegetable ones, and plenty of potatoes and desserts as well. There was going to be a ‘DIY s’mores bar’ set up, and Erik put that on his mental to-do list after they got all the supplies for the actual bonfire situated. Tommy spent a stupid amount of time staring around Genosha when he had been invited over. It wasn't the strangest place he had been but it was difficult to shake off that this belonged to an alternative universe version of Magneto, who was his granddad, sort of. But not this version. And somehow this haven still existed. Things were somehow still the same across worlds. This would be where Billy would say something like I told you so, and Tommy wanted to mentally punch him. Instead, he said something like, "Sounds fancy," at the mention of a clambake and was only gone a few seconds after Erik stopped talking, returning—appearing, really—with his hands full of seaweed and rocks. "Do you want me to get the driftwood too, old man? Bet I can get a pile going before you even pick up a piece—" Tommy dropped his contributions, not even waiting for an answer (it would take too long) and returned with driftwood too. He slowed down just enough to stack it in a haphazard log cabin shape, waggling his eyebrows at Erik to say see? "You know," Tommy said, zipping off for more rocks and seaweed between one breath and the next, "you are way less uptight than actual Magneto me and Billy know." Oh. He’d certainly heard all about Tommy’s abilities (and was familiar with the speedster thing, given Peter’s abilities - he’d been on the receiving end of those a few times, most notably when his own son broke him out of a Pentagon prison) but it was always amazing seeing something like that in action. Erik had to let out a chuckle, one that was smooth as a vat of shea butter, eyebrows poking upward. “Yes - driftwood. Thank you for that,” he said, and he meant it because it was true - he didn’t even have a chance to pick up damn near anything before Tommy came back with all the necessities. With him, he’d bought the right supplies to build a fire and a cooking pit - lighter fluid, matches, a shovel for digging. He started with the shovel, to begin digging the pit and lining it with rocks. “I haven’t heard much about the other Magneto,” he added. “Or, well - when I first arrived, there were some concerned with my intentions to ‘take over the world.’” The air quotes were implied - he found it interesting, considering that had never been what he wanted. While he wasn’t naive enough to go along with Charles’s notion that peace was possible, he did desire - at the bare minimum - basic rights and freedoms for his people. That was the difficulty, since humans didn’t see his kind as people or equals at all. “Anna’s told me some things about the state of her world - your world, though not everything. You’ve all been through quite a bit. I suppose we all have.” Wanda was from a different world too, and now they were all here - he admittedly liked the idea of trying to build some kind of family. “I’m sure this will also only take two seconds, but - can you fill up the buckets with ocean water? Just in case,” he added, and he brought some of those too - a bonfire was a fun idea but he didn’t want Genosha to go up in flames so it was good to be prepared for all scenarios. "Yeah, the you I know gave big Take Over the World vibes. But you're getting married, and a pipsqueak to take care of now. It's really domestic and—" Tommy made a gagging sound, mostly because it was expected for him to be anti-commitment. He would do the same to Billy when he and Teddy got handsy on the spaceship, or at the Kaplan house, or on the couch at headquarters. "I'm only getting this water because I need to get away from all the almost-newlywed feelings and not because you asked." Much like before, Tommy zipped away in a literal flash with an empty bucket, and appeared again with it full of seawater, and slowly—dramatically so—put it down next to the rest of the supplies. "And our world is pretty crappy," Tommy said, picking back up on the thread of conversation from before as if he hadn't just taken a break to complete a task. "Anna—Rogue? I feel way too close calling her either of those, but I'm sure Billy would probably freak out at me. Anyway, they were always dealing with shit. No one cuts anyone a break on Earth. Or any planet, it's been awhile since I was back." Tommy paused, an actual pause, before he squinted over to Erik. "Have you gone to space? I don't recommend it." “You can call her either, Anna or Rogue - I’m sure she wouldn’t mind,” Erik said, mouth twitching with some semblance of good humor - as if he was fighting a smile, imagine that. Admittedly, he was probably the only person who called Rogue by her birth name, but she’d probably prefer that over being called grandma. Calling her ‘Mrs. Lehnsherr’ also might be weird. “And no - surprisingly, I haven’t been to space. Not yet, anyway.” The X-Men had gone on a mission there - Peter among them - and that’s when they ran into the trouble that was the Phoenix force, among an endless black that cradled the starlight. Erik had been on Genosha at that time, minding his own - he’d struck a deal with the government, leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone. It had been going well, all things considered. Until it got turned upside-down. He got a fire going, tending to the rocks until they became red-hot. Ash was raked off as much as possible and then that’s where the seaweed came in. Right on top of the rocks - he’d start cooking in a moment, to get the food started for when guests began arriving. It would smell inviting, if nothing else. Then all he had to do was convince Tommy to help set up the DIY s’mores bar. “What did you do in space?” he wanted to know, curious. Tommy watched Erik—grandpa, Magneto, Grandneto?—start the fire. While Tommy was fast, like stupidly so, if he didn't know how to do something, what was the point of doing it fast? Building a bonfire on the beach in order to cook food seemed too outdoorsy for him. Tommy wasn't really a roughing it kind of guy. He wanted to ask, thought knowing how to set something on fire legally was important, but that would mean showing an adult he needed help and that fell under his hard no column. "Uhhh, sort of. Billy has been more than me. That's because his boyfriend-slash-future-husband and nerdy-soulmate is an alien. Half-alien. Everyone went planet-hopping to find an another alien impersonating his mom. It was kind of messy. But it's space, so who knows what shit is out there, it's always going to be messy. I don't really remember most of it." He didn't want to talk about how he disappeared and had selective amnesia for what had happened. Tommy decided to abruptly change the subject instead, smooth. "So if you weren't trying to take over the world, what did you do before coming here? I'm allowed to ask that. We're related and we have to start sharing some of the family secrets." Erik supposed it was true, they were related - or another version of him was related to Tommy and his brother, but that was more than good enough. If there was one thing that Erik held dear, especially after Nina and Magda were killed, it was family. He’d been empty for so long, fighting his way through gales and storms - moments of grief would come upon him like an ambush, and he’d gotten entangled with Apocalypse during the lowest point of his life. He had worked through that and he sometimes felt like he’d risen from the ashes in his own way too - family was important then, and it was important now. “I actually had recently acquired Genosha - and built it up. It was still in its raw form, sort of as it is now, but most of these structures here I had made by pulling metal scraps from the sea. I attempted to make a safe haven for mutants - it was going well until there was an altercation with the Phoenix force, which had hitched itself onto one of the residents of the Institute.” For the wedding celebration, a dance floor was meant to be quartered off - using twinkling lights (fairy lights, as Anka Irene would call them), actually, to section off a large patch of sand. Erik let the fire crackle and rummaged in the supplies he’d brought, handing Tommy an end of those lights to hang onto so he could unravel the string. “We lost...many people during that debacle.” Tommy surveyed Genosha, or what he could see of it, as Erik spoke. The last time he was in Genosha it did not look like this and he was glued to Billy's side, on the search for Wanda. Now he was back here, hanging out with Magneto, and Wanda was living at the Sanctum having sitcom hangouts with him and Billy. What a weird turn of events. Even Tommy couldn't have predicted it and he had been through some weird impossible shit. He quickly took the lead on the lights, taking one end to hang in a second and then back. "You mean Jean? Or I guess, it's probably in someone else now. No spoilers! Someone is going to get on my case about butterfly effects or whatever. I'm probably causing the space time continuum to do backflips just talking to you, but too late now, am I right? If the future is just one giant boom—" Tommy made the sound an explosion, his hands gesturing wide. "It was not my fault. This time." His attention caught on to the other stuff that hadn't been unpacked yet and he blipped over to them and back to supervise Erik still unravelling the lights, while shoving a marshmallow for the DIY S'mores Bar into his mouth. "Sorry about losing people. That shit's not easy." Tommy knew this, from experience. “I do mean Jean,” Erik confirmed - interesting that there was also a Jean where Tommy came from, but he supposed he couldn’t really be too surprised. The string of lights were battery-operated, and he got what he thought was a decent enough size for people to dance in - barefoot or otherwise, but on the sand it was always pleasant to feel it between your toes for some reason. “Though I’m not sure about the space time continuum. I think you’re alright,” he assured, such a grandfatherly twinkle in his eye - it was also amusing how different Billy and Tommy were; he would like to continue getting to know them individually and together. For example, Billy probably wouldn’t have shoved a marshmallow in his mouth like a chubby bunny - but nothing was going to stop Tommy. “I’m sorry you’ve lost people too. You’re right, it’s very difficult,” he added, glancing up from where he had the pieces of the s’mores pièce de résistance - it was kind of a lazy susan set up; he planned to already have some marshmallows on skewers, and then in the various compartments there’d be graham crackers and other options of toppings. A whole lot of sugar, really - peanut butter cups, peppermint patties, banana slices, strawberries. Going with just the plain variety of boring. “But - if it means anything, I’m glad to have met you here? Or is that too sentimental?” "If I disappear again, like in that blip all the Avengers talk about, I'm blaming you. Gonna leave notes behind that say Magneto said I'd be alright!" Tommy said around another marshmallow that he probably shouldn't have eaten. But he was tactfully avoiding the other part to this whole set up—Tommy showed patience for once, literally ever, and did not start vacuuming up peanut butter cups like his life depended on it. Someone needed to appreciate this. He decided to focus on the sandy dance floor—which was not so bad, he nodded in theatrical approval—but stilled about the next words coming from Erik. It made his whole face twist up, but instead of getting mad, like he used to, he just let out a long groan. "It is sentimental and that's not really my thing here. Or anywhere, it's not you, man, it's me. But because you're all married now and this is like all the nice things ever on one day, I will say yeah, I'm glad to have met you here too." And he was. Expressing his feelings weren't easy, not when it came to family, but the fact that Tommy admitted it at all was telling. "Just don't expect hugs or cards on grandparents day or whatever. I will get you a wheelchair though when you're back gives out. That's soon, right? You're like ninety now?" Leave it to Tommy to defect a nice moment by being a dick. Habits were hard to break. How - sweet? Yes, something like that. Erik would take what he could get. He wasn’t always the greatest at expressing his emotions either - it took a lot for him to truly open up and when he did even that was fragile; while it took a lot for him to open up, it took not very much for him to shut down. And he had before - those who were close to him were also patient with him, however. Those who knew him best also knew that he sometimes just needed time, that he wasn’t wired like your typical person (who wasn’t emotionally constipated). So did he take offense to the quip from the youngster? No, not at all. In fact, he found it kind of funny. “I trust you to pick out only the best in wheelchairs to help me get around in my old age,” he deadpanned. “But let’s see - it’s 2021 and I was born in 1930, so yes. Around age ninety.” And nary a grey hair to be found - it was impressive, wasn’t it? Tommy would likely be looking all fresh faced when he was ninety as well, thanks to genetics. But anyway, that was definitely enough sentiment for the time being - he wouldn’t torture the poor teenager by bringing up uncomfortable topics like feelings, at least not anymore for today. It was meant to be a celebration and he wanted everyone to have a good time, alternate universe grandsons included. “Alright, now let’s keep going - if you help me set up the s’mores bar, you can have first dibs on the peanut butter cups.” As long as he didn’t eat all of them, that is. Tommy watched Erik's face shift, maybe even be moved by their common ground—it's cool that you're cool Tommy's expression seemed to say—and Tommy supposed that he got that. Even if he was a soul son, concocted out of thin air by his mother's magic, she had to get these personality traits from somewhere. Genetics were deep rooted. Sharing feelings was a Magneto thing, he guessed. "Ugh, you are old," Tommy said, with all the exaggerated disgust he could have about adults. "Are you saying you need one now? I'll push you around on the dance floor really fast for your wife, so she thinks you can still do whatever dance move was hip to you geriatrics. " Tommy shrugged, like he wasn't just insulting one of the most powerful mutants in history across universes. Bonus that they were tangentially related. But food was his instant compromise and Tommy was setting up the entire s'mores bar within seconds. Forget it if Erik had a plan or if there was some sort of flavor palette requirement to take your s'mores on a journey. Tommy wanted a peanut butter cup and by the time he finished, he was standing at the other end from where he started unwrapping the chocolate at normal speed. "Anything else? I can set it up if you need to take a nap since you're literally ninety." That setup would do - honestly, Erik wasn’t picky. He didn’t need the s’mores bar to look like something from a catalogue (or even Pinterest, even if the idea had been lifted from Pinterest), he just needed for it to be functional and to appropriately feed the guests. From its appearance, that seemed to fit the bill. “I’m going to start cooking - so I think that’s what’s left and you don’t have to stick around for that. You did good though, definitely earned those peanut butter cups,” he grinned, and it was boyish enough with the way it squinted his eyes to make him look far less than ninety anyway. “But if you’re hungry - “ Of course Tommy was hungry, when was he not hungry? “There’s some food at my main house, looks like the hull of a ship. Or just help yourself to any of the fruit growing on the trees.” There was passionfruit, coconuts, papaya, things like that - he was sure Tommy wouldn’t have any trouble grabbing anything. Plus the wards Erik kept up by the main house had been adjusted and expanded - now either Billy or Tommy could go in, along with Wanda and Peter in addition to the usuals (himself, Rogue, Anka Irene). It was something he wouldn’t share with just anyone, but family was a different story. Tommy could have gone back to the main house. He did his job—quickly, ridiculously so—and that meant he had fulfilled his civic duty of spending time with family for the day. Or until guests arrived and they had this whole reception thing. It was a lot of bonding time that Tommy, extremely allergic, would have balked at. But he glanced back at the smattering of housing Erik had put together, then to the trees filled with fruit (another way to pass the time), and he decided nah. For all his feelings are gross feelings, Tommy was unexpectedly soft about this shit. There was still a part of the table unoccupied by food or decorations, and Tommy zoomed to sit, while nabbing one more peanut butter cup, shoving it unto his mouth. "I can hang around a bit. You know, for fire safety. Don't want you accidentally ruining the clambake if you inhale too much smoke or something and pass out." Shrugging, Tommy could help himself but get one more jab in, "Think of me as your personal life alert. If you’ve fallen and you can’t get up, I’ll be there to take a picture first and then help you up." |