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Andy Gallagher is not the droid you're looking for ([info]brain_ninja) wrote in [info]vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-07-18 01:33:00

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Entry tags:!complete, andy gallagher, day 16, illyana rasputin, location: carnival

Day Sixteen - Morning
Who: Andy Gallagher and OTA
What: Andy finds his van
Where: In the carnival
When: Day 16; 10am or so
Rating: PG-13 (language maybe)
Status: Complete



After the day he'd had yesterday, Andy slept like a log. His body was tired, his mind was tired, and he was completely and totally drained. He'd awoken that morning with Elliot in his arms and a mouthful of her hair - well, not really, but it was the principal of it; a stiff neck, an aching back, and something jabbing into his side as he rolled away from Elliot to stretch. With an angry, half-awake mutterance, he'd reached underneath himself and extracted the culprit before sitting up. It had felt like a set of keys...because it had been. His keys. Andy's face had fallen into that of a kicked puppy expression; they were messing with him again. Sighing, he'd tucked Elliot's hair behind her ear to get it out of her face and woke her just enough to let her know he was going to head up to the gas station to grab them breakfast and he'd be right back.

The hoodie he'd been wearing was slung over his shoulder as Andy headed up the road toward the carnival that he'd cut through to go the shorter way to the gas station. It was hot as hell, not that he was complaining. It just hadn't registered until he'd gotten out under the cloudless sky where the sun was shining brightly. So brightly, even, that he extracted from the pocket the aviators Sam had given him the morning they'd found the body hanging from the clock tower. Slipping them on, he made his way into the carnival, almost enjoying the feel of his car keys jabbing into his leg from inside his jeans pocket. Almost...because they were still only the keys and that was just mean, he thought.

Just as Andy came around from behind the tea cups ride to cross the street and nab some munchies, he stopped dead in his tracks. No fucking way! "Ohhh! Oh, baby!" he cooed loudly, making a break for it and all but slamming himself up against the warrior princess painted on the side of his van. "Oh shit, Maggie, I missed the hell out of you!"

For a few moments, Andy just stood there, leaned against the van, only barely refraining from actually kissing Maggie, Queen of the Polar Bears (as he'd dubbed her) painted on the side. Finally, realizing all over again that he had the keys, Andy pulled them out of his pocket and moved over, jamming them into the keyhole. Taking a deep breath and thinking to himself, Please God..., he turned the key. The lock popped up with a low thunk and Andy's eyes widened. "Are you serious?! Oh fuck yeah! YES!" he shouted, extracting the keys and pulling the door open, hopping in to settle into the driver's seat and putting the keys into the ignition to try his luck again.

The engine roared to life and Andy's lips parted as he let out a sigh of relief. "...I think I just came," he laughed to himself, running his hands lovingly over the steering wheel and dashboard. The radio was silent and Andy looked over at the display, confused. The current track was over and the two-second silence at the beginning of the next song was counting back. -0:02, -0:01, 0:00---

"Before you slip into unconsciousness,
I'd like to have another kiss.
Another flashing chance at bliss,
Another kiss, another kiss..."


"Shit, I missed you, Jim," Andy said quietly, leaning over the passenger seat and feeling around for his stash. Hell yeah, right where he left it. Suddenly, Andy's eyes grew wide and he threw the door open again, jumping back out and heading around to the back of the van to open that door. The disco ball still hung, the books and blankets and pillows were strewn haphazardly around on the mattress...and then his eyes fell on Moby Dick, still filled appropriately with water. "Nope. Now I just came," he said to himself, snatching up the massive bong and slamming the door shut behind himself again as he made his way back to the driver's seat.

The Doors blared from his speakers as Andy turned back the key to keep from wasting the half tank of gas he still had left in the tank. And Andy?

Smoke filled the van, pouring out the driver's side window he'd rolled down as the telltale sound of bubbles and suction in the base of the bong filled his ears. Shit, he had missed that more than he'd really realized until he heard it again. Between the first couple of hits, he'd scribbled a note in his journal. Fuck the church and fuck those pews. Andy was sleepin' right where he wanted to be. In his own bed, in his own home; in the back of the motherfucking van. Because, the way Andy figured it, he deserved to after yesterday. Hell yeah he did.



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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-19 07:33 pm UTC (link)
After parting company with the two boys, Illyana decided to wander around on the periphery of the town. She wasn't sure of exactly where she was yet, and wasn't sure if the place was friendly to mutants or not. Even though she didn't have an obvious mutation, it was still safer to keep away from masses of people until she had a better awareness of what was going on. She passed through a derelict carnival, which was more than a little creepy. She smirked at the idea of a demonic sorceress being creeped out by a run-down carnival. Good one, 'Yana. Let the odd atmosphere get to you.

As she walked, she noticed some odd smoke ahead of her. Training kicked into gear, and she headed toward it, hoping it wasn't something bad, and there wasn't someone in trouble. Wherever she was, she was still a New Mutant, and she couldn't just let a potential problem go. S'ym would revel in that way too much, besides. It had an odd smell to it, she noticed as she got closer.

She rounded a corner and saw a brightly-painted van, smoke pouring out of the driver's side window. Now, she was concerned. That couldn't be good. "Hey," she called, jogging toward the van. "Anyone in there? Are you hurt or anything?" Illyana got right up to the door, covering her mouth and nose with her hand. The smoke smelled really weird. Maybe something in the engine had caught fire? Or something inside the van itself. She coughed and peered through the smoke. "Anyone hurt in there?" she called again.

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-19 08:02 pm UTC (link)
Coughing and choking slightly on the smoke, Andy leaned his head back as the CD came to an end and he turned the key back in the ignition so as not to waste the battery. Maybe tonight, he'd start it up again and listen to the CD from the beginning or see if he could find a radio station in wherever they were, but until then, he could wait. The Crystal Ship playing over and over in his head would be good enough because it was fresh in his memory. That'd do for now.

The sound of a female's voice interrupted his zen moment as he exhaled the smoke and he carefully set the bong down in the passenger seat, waving his hands around to help it dissipate. A snort issued itself as he tried not to laugh. She was worried he was hurt, whoever she was. Interesting that someone other than Sam, Lexie, and Elliot would give a shit, he thought, and he cleared his throat. "Look out," he said gently, hand on the door handle. "I'm gonna come out and I don't wanna bean you with the door," he added by way of explaining the command.

Pushing the door open, Andy hopped down out of the van and leaned against the side, head pleasantly swimming in spite of the fact that his stash of weed wasn't quite as strong as the stash he'd acquired here. "I'm fine, by the way, but thanks for the concern," he said with a smile and then he held out his hand. "Andy Gallagher."

Whoever she was, she was pretty. She looked young, though, he thought. Probably jailbait. Of all the fucking things to turn his good luck around again, friggen jailbait. That figured.

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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-20 02:04 am UTC (link)
Illyana took a couple of steps backward as she heard a male voice from inside the van. She watched, thumbs tucked into the pockets of her jeans, as the young man jumped out and proceeded to prop up his van. He was a few years older than she was, by the look of things - maybe Sam's age or, and her heart wrenched to think of it, Piotr's age.

"What's with all the smoke?" she asked as he protested that he was fine. "Engine didn't catch fire, did it?" When he offered his hand, Illyana took a step forward and took it, giving it a good, firm shake. "Illyana Rasputin," she said, offering a brief smile. "You live around here?" Perhaps he could help her figure out where the hell she was and how she'd gotten here.

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-20 04:25 pm UTC (link)
Smirking, Andy shook his head. "Nah, it was me," he replied, waving a hand in front of his face as some of the now slowly dissipating smoke crept out of the window of the van and hung in the air between the two of them. "I take it you don't smoke," he went on with a bit of a shrug.

Andy cleared his throat and nodded, shaking her hand when she took his. "Illyana...damn, that's kind of a cool ass name. I've never heard it before," he said thoughtfully. His smile faded then, when she asked whether he lived around here.

Eyes moving downward, he sighed. "I do now..." he said quietly before looking back up at her. "You must be new, huh? Did you wake up here this morning or, like, yesterday?" he guessed.

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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-20 04:58 pm UTC (link)
Him? Ah, smoker. Odd-smelling smoke, but Illyana decided not to comment on the nature of it. She had a feeling she didn't want to know. "Nope," she said, shrugging in response. "Not that I care if other people do," she continued, not wanting to insult anyone quite so early in the morning. "It's just not my thing."

She smiled at the compliment. "Thanks. It's Russian. In case the surname didn't give it away." So far, she was liking the conversation. It seemed so refreshingly normal, and that was a rare thing for her to deal with.

Then, he talked about this place, and the mood seemed to shift. Illyana stiffened unconsciously at his now. She wasn't sure she liked the implication. She nodded in response to his first question. "This morning, with a couple of guys, out in the woods. Is that typical, I take it?" That really didn't bode well. Maybe she should have gone with her first instinct and teleported out of the area. Then again, if there was some sort of problem here, well, who better than a mutant-sorceress to figure it all out and fix it? Assuming people wanted help, of course. "So, what's the deal with this place?" she asked, shaking herself from her thoughts and turning her attention back to Andy.

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-21 03:11 am UTC (link)
At Illyana's response, Andy smiled and gave her a shrug of nonchalance. "Hey, to each their own; I'm not big on peer pressure," he replied. "So, I'm not gonna try and talk you into it or anything, promise," he laughed. ...and laughed a little more because his head was swimming and he felt good today.

"Russian?" he asked, pulling a face as he nodded his approval. "Cool. It's pretty," he added. She went on to say that she'd awakened here that morning with a couple of guys and Andy nodded his understanding. "Yeah, pretty much. Usually we come in pairs and groups of three or whatever," he agreed. "I'm sorry to say...you're not going anywhere. We're still trying to figure a way out of this bitch. I think we gave up on figuring out why we were picked, so that's kinda all I got for ya..." he said sympathetically.

Andy wished, for the first time since the first day, that he could ask whether she had the mind thing. He wanted so badly for there to be one concrete reason that the people in this place were chosen to be put here. Without a reason, when it came to who the unlucky "chosen" ones were, Andy was fast losing hope that they were there for anything other than experimentation and that alone; that the choice of subjects was random and there was no one thing that could be pinpointed as to how they could escape.

"What's the deal?" he asked, taking a deep breath and letting it out. The pleasant lightheadedness faded and Andy sobered almost instantly, thinking back on the previous day as he raised a hand to run it through his hair. He wanted to tell her to open her journal and ask there, because that Shannon chick almost seemed to take some kind of sick pleasure in explaining that everyone here was essentially fucked. "I don't really like being the bearer of bad news," he prefaced and then paused, deciding to leave it at that. Maybe she wouldn't ask for the rest. Maybe he wouldn't have to be.

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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-21 12:08 pm UTC (link)
The fact that her morning experience was typical really didn't sit well with Illyana. Who had the time or power to kidnap people and dump them in the woods, and for what reason? Because Illyana knew it wasn't any sort of teleport gone bad. She couldn't use her stepping discs if she was unconscious, and she wouldn't have chosen to go to the woods. She scowled at Andy's declaration that she wasn't going anywhere. "Why not?" she asked. "What's keeping people here?"

The fact that Andy seemed to not want to talk about the place only made her unease grow. If it was that bad.... She bit her lip, debating over whether to drop her "nice normal girl" act and just teleport out of this weird place. She could make a stepping disc big enough for Andy and his van, and then come back and try and help the others. It would blow cover badly, and Magneto would kill her for that, but maybe just for one person. She didn't have to tell anyone else who she was, just do a snatch and grab sort of thing, and be gone before the other people here noticed her.

"Can I trust you to keep a secret?" she asked at last, stepping just a little closer to Andy. Oh, Magneto was so going to kill her for this. "Like, not freak out or anything?"

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-21 04:52 pm UTC (link)
Andy wasn't surprised when Illyana's response to his nonchalantly bad news was a scowl. Truthfully, he felt a little badly about even saying that much. Somehow he'd gotten it in his head that it was everybody else's job to do the telling, because everybody else were the ones trying to get out. Andy was resigned. Didn't mean that he liked this place, because he sure as hell didn't, but it also didn't mean he was going to work his ass off to achieve disappointment, either. If everybody else wanted to, that was their thing.

"That would be the glass wall," Andy replied with a frown, squinting reflexively as he looked over his shoulder toward the tree line back behind the carnival. "A giant glass wall surrounding the whole premises...if you believe the rumors and you're too lazy to look for yourself, anyway," he said. Andy hadn't seen the wall, himself, but he'd heard plenty about it and if Sam was inclined to believe it, that was good enough for Andy. "Unbreakable," he added biting back a nearly reflexive "they say," wanting to keep from sounding too much like he was passing on some urban legend or something.

Raising his eyebrows, Andy pushed off the side of the van and stood up straighter as she moved closer. Whoa now; don't stand so close to me...seriously, I don't think I'll look good in orange, pretty girl... he thought to himself. He let out a huff and grinned.

"Man, what is it with chicks telling me secrets here?" he joked. First Sarah, then sort of Lexie (okay, she hadn't told him a secret, but he'd promised not to tell that she'd had a break down), Elliot - if not telling about the encounter in the church starring Hot Docs Gone Wild counted - and now this Illyana girl. Oh shit...he was the nice guy. "I'm keeping plenty; your secret's safe with me, too," he replied. "And...as for freaking out, after yesterday, good effing luck trying to say anything that would freak me out. I think you're probably safe."

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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-21 05:16 pm UTC (link)
"Unbreakable glass wall?" Illyana repeated, raising an eyebrow. That was it? Seriously? Clearly, no one in this town was a teleporter, because if they were, no one would still be hanging around. Piece of cake, as far as she was concerned.

Andy's word was good enough for Illyana, at least for now. If he freaked out after what she was about to do, well, she could always use a spell to make him forget, like she did to Stevie Hunter years ago. Wouldn't be the best thing to do, but Illyana hadn't been the good moral girl for years now, not since Belasco had stolen 3/5 of her soul. She smirked at his next words. "Don't say I didn't warn you," she said, stepping back another pace.

It was easy to summon a stepping disc, even here. So very, very easy. Her bond with Limbo grew stronger every day, whether she liked it or not. She'd just teleport back home, explain what had happened, then pop back and start getting people out of the crazy glass cage. She sank into her little extra-dimensional disc, offering a wave as she did so.

And that's when things started going wrong. She hadn't intended to stay in Limbo more than she had to, but as soon as she felt the pull that said "Limbo," she felt herself wrenched away. It didn't even register to her eyes before she found herself back on solid ground again. And decidedly not where she'd intended to be.

"What the...?!" she exclaimed, blinking at the solid wall of glass in front of her. She could tell it was there because of the distortion of the scenery beyond it. Tentatively, she lifted a hand and placed it against the glass, as if to prove to herself it really was there. "No way," she said, shaking her head. This time, she wouldn't get stuck. With a low growl of frustration, she summoned another stepping disc, focusing her energy on the copse of trees she could see through the glass. Yet again, she felt the odd twist and pull, and she ended up still on the side of the glass she'd been on, only a few feet down from where she'd been before. Glancing back where she'd been, she could still see the mist from her breath on the glass.

"Okay, seriously not funny," she said. Again and again, she tried to get past the barrier, but each time she was thwarted. It made no sense. She couldn't feel any magickal barriers surrounding the glass, but she could not get past it. It was like Dallas, just like Dallas. She sank to her knees, summoning another stepping disc as she did so, and brought herself back to Andy. By the time she felt the ground underneath her again, the tears had begun falling.

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-23 03:36 am UTC (link)
Illyana's response to the glass wall wasn't really the one that he was expecting to hear. He'd thought she would have asked whether he was sure it was unbreakable or was he sure there was a wall at all. "Yep," was all he could come up with for a response to the question. Somehow he didn't think repeating it for a third time wouldn't help anything.

This time, Andy raised an eyebrow at what Illyana was saying. "Warn me?" he laughed. This oughta be good. Twice as good 'cause I'm baked, he thought to himself, amused as she stepped back. And then his eyebrows raised higher as she sank into a foreign object and waved at him, disappearing before his eyes.

"What...the fuck?" he gaped. Suddenly, Andy wondered just how long he'd been in Cold Oak. He'd been in Vas Captio for over two weeks, if he wasn't mistaken, but he had no frame of time for Cold Oak...and if he'd been in there as long as that Ava chick had been, according to Sam that day, then maybe his weed had gone bad. Did weed go bad? And if it did, would a bad stash lead to hallucinations? He shook his head and blinked.

And then a few moments later, Illyana reappeared in tears. "Whoa, hey..." he said quickly, dropping down to his knees in front of her and touching her shoulder gingerly. "Hey, what's wrong? You okay?" he asked, brow knitting with concern. For the moment, her disappearing-reappearing act was forgotten; he'd get back to that in a minute.

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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-23 02:51 pm UTC (link)
Illyana flinched at first, feeling Andy's hand on her shoulder. But he was asking what was wrong, and in the same tone of voice that her friends would when she had problems, and before she even realized what she was doing, she flung her arms around him, crying in earnest.

"Dallas," she managed through her sobs. "Like Dallas couldn't get through to Dallas couldn't save Piotr couldn't help anyone Doug's dead couldn't help Piotr's dead can't do anything." All this was said in a rush, strung together in one breath she'd managed to draw before the sobbing continued.

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-25 05:50 am UTC (link)
Andy was taken aback slightly when Illyana threw her arms around him and really started to cry. He could barely make out what she was saying in between sobs as she blurted out names and places. Dallas. He caught that. So, okay, good. She was from Texas. He knew where Dallas was. Andy filed that away in his memory and hugged her back, rubbing her back slowly.

"Relax, okay? Breathe," he told her quietly. "It's okay, you're all right, right?" he asked. "Hey, listen...calm down, okay?"

He felt kind of badly trying to tell her to calm down when he knew how it felt to be overwhelmed with negative emotions in such a way that he couldn't control the things coming out of his mouth. It hurt to be that downtrodden, but he couldn't really help her if he couldn't understand what she was saying. That was his only saving grace against the guilt he felt creeping in as he tried to tell her things were going to be all right even when he knew that he was lying through his teeth. Especially knew it after yesterday.

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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-25 06:08 pm UTC (link)
She knew she should calm down. Her thoughts were racing, circling around and around, but she knew she had to pull herself together. But it felt so good to just be a little girl, to be able to lose it, and not in a bad way, to just break down and let someone else take care of her, just for a moment.

When Andy asked if she was alright, she managed a nod. She squeezed him more tightly, and did her best to take a few deep breaths. "Sorry," she mumbled, hiccuping at the end of the word from trying to cry, breathe, and speak all at the same time. "Sorry, 'm not usually like this."

No, usually she'd have gone completely demonic and started laying waste to everything around her if she were this upset. The fact that everyone here was as helpless as she kept her from flipping out completely. The anger and lashing out would come later, when she was alone, probably.

"That's not just glass," she finally managed. She pulled away from Andy just a little, enough to look him in the eyes and wipe at her own. She sniffed, and wiped her nose on her arm in a very unladylike manner. "The wall, it's there, but it's not just glass."

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-26 09:24 pm UTC (link)
Andy's brow furrowed sympathetically when Illyana squeezed him harder and he felt her hiccup as she tried to catch her breath. He went on rubbing her back and moved to stroke her hair the way he had Elliot the night before. Funny, he thought, how he was fast becoming the shoulder to cry on for so many women and yet he still felt, on the whole, pretty lonely in a crowded place.

"Don't worry about it," he told her in a low voice when she tried to apologize for her behavior. She hadn't any reason to be sorry, so far as Andy could tell; he just needed to be able to understand her if he wanted to even try to help.

Finally, she had calmed enough that he could understand her and he looked confused as she pulled back to look at him and wipe her eyes. Andy took no notice of the way she wiped her nose on her arm, probably because it was something he did constantly when necessary. She said that the wall was there but it wasn't just glass and Andy's brow knit again.
"What do you mean it's not just glass? How do you know?" he tried. It didn't make a lot of sense to him that she could know just by looking at it. At least that would make a pretty decent segueway to asking her how in the hell she disappeared and reappered like that.

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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-27 01:03 am UTC (link)
Illyana sniffed again and rubbed at her eyes as she sat back on her haunches. Talking was helping. Andy was helping. "It's not just glass," she repeated. "There's something else either woven through or around it, some sort of barrier. Whether it's magickal or scientific, I don't know. But," she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "it's keeping me here. I can't teleport out. And something here's acting like a magnet on my stepping discs. I can't make them work like usual." Best to not mention Limbo right now, she figured. Admitting her mutant powers was iffy enough - let's not add in the demonic sorceress bit, right?

She looked Andy dead in the eye. "I'm what you'd call a mutant," she said matter-of-factly. She'd teleported right in front of him, there was no point in denying it to his face. "That means I've got a twist in my DNA that lets me do things regular people can't. It works in different ways for different people, the mutation. For me, it means I make those stepping discs and can use them to go from one place to another without walking."

Illyana clasped her hands in front of her, then unclasped them and reached up to rub at the back of her neck. Well, that was that. Secret out. She watched Andy carefully, trying to gauge his reaction. She really hoped she wouldn't have to use any sort of memory spell on him, but she would, if she had to. Safety first.

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-27 04:53 pm UTC (link)
As Illyana calmed and went on, Andy sat back on his heels and listened. He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say about that. So that thing that had appeared was, she said, a stepping disc. Used for...teleportation. She went on to say that she was what would be called a mutant and there was something different about her DNA that let her do things most people couldn't. Andy knew that feeling. "I prefer the term 'freak,' personally," he interjected. "Mutant sounds so...Chernobyl," he added.

For a moment, Andy looked back at her thoughtfully. Jake had super strength. Sam and Ava had visions. Lily could stop hearts with nothing more than a touch. Webber and Andy himself could control minds. Illyana, apparently, could teleport. Huh. "You know about the Yellow-Eyed Man?" he tried, tone more curious than accusatory; more thoughtful than forceful.

Having Sam around was okay, except that he was never really around, preferring to spend time with Shannon - for which, after seeing her on the monitors, Andy couldn't blame him - and Lexie and Elliot were nice, but they didn't really know him. They didn't know what he could do and he wouldn't tell. They were normal, every day - gorgeous - women, but he wasn't going to burden them with the knowledge that he was a freak of nature. He actually liked having them around and he wasn't going to jeopardize it by being honest.

Illyana, though...she would know how he felt. She would know what it was like to be different. He gave her a small smile. "If it makes you feel better, I'm a freak, too. I can't do that, but..." his voice trailed off and he shrugged sheepishly.

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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-27 05:46 pm UTC (link)
She wasn't quite sure how to take Andy's preference of term. So often, she'd been called freak as an insult. But the way he said it, it made it sound like he was used to using it, but not in a bad way. Illyana wasn't immediately sure what to make of that. He wasn't getting upset or hurling insults; that was good. He wasn't running away in fear; that was better. No, he was looking at her, like he was sizing her up. She stared back, waiting for him to make the next move. That would determine how she reacted.

"Yellow-eyed man?" Illyana said. Honestly, she knew a few of those, but the only one that invaded her thoughts at the moment was Belasco. She stiffened. Maybe that's why he was being so nice to her. Maybe he worked for Belasco, and this was all some sort of ploy to trap her and catch her off guard. She frowned. "Demon?" she asked, her voice going hard. She wasn't sure how much more to give away than that. If he did work for Belasco, or knew of the demon, that would be enough.

Then, he smiled, and told her that he was a mutant as well. Freak, he'd said, but in Illyana's mind, they were synonymous. The flash of anger she'd felt dissipated, to be replaced with curiosity. Maybe he hadn't meant Belasco after all. Maybe the Yellow-Eyed Man was some famous mutant where he was from. She was just too worked-up today, seeing trouble at every turn. "You too?" she said, leaning forward. "What're the odds of that?" she asked, a smile finally rising to her lips. She folded her arms. "So, what do you do?" she asked.

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-28 04:26 am UTC (link)
The way that Illyana stiffened upon mention of the Yellow-Eyed Man was not lost on Andy. If he hadn't already been convinced that she was one of them, he was convinced now. "Yeah..." he said slowly, drawing the word out as he reached up and scratched the back of his head in a nervous tick. "I'm still kinda trying to wrap my head around that bit. The whole demons are real thing. But, that's what Sam said, and I guess he knows that stuff or whatever," he replied with a shrug and another sheepish grin.

She suddenly looked a lot less like she felt threatened and a lot more like she was curious about him. That was better, he thought. The last thing he wanted was to get his ass handed to him by some girl, especially one that looked barely legal. "Yeah, well..." he said with a smirk. "It's not usually something I wanna talk about, but I figure you'll keep from judging me based on what I've already seen," he replied with a wink.

Illyana crossed her arms and asked him what he could do. With a grin, Andy shifted himself and got to his feet, holding a hand out to her as he nodded toward the van. "Not to be all creepy but I'd rather sit on the mattress in the back than on my own feet on a dirt road if we're gonna talk freak," he joked. "And...I can control minds." He paused and then shook his head, holding up his other hand defensively. "Oh, but don't worry; I don't think it works on other freaks. Well, except the pictures, I can still do those on Sam, so I can probably still do 'em on you, but I promise I won't."

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[info]ex_darkchyld899
2009-07-28 12:51 pm UTC (link)
"Oh, they're real, all right," Illyana said, the bitterness and hurt creeping back into her voice. "Real, and nasty, and...." She cut herself off before she went further in her diatribe. She was afraid if she talked for too long about their 'merits', she'd let something slip that would end up freaking Andy out, and she really, really didn't want to mess up what looked like it could be a decent friendship.

She understood all too well about not wanting to talk about powers, and the consequences of doing so with the wrong sort of people. She remembered Reverend Stryker and his people, and what they'd almost done. "I might end up judging you," she smirked, "but not on that score. Depends on what you do with them. Robbing banks? Definitely not a good use of powers. Taking down bank robbers? Much better option." The smirk turned into a grin. "Unless, of course, the bank's screwing you over, right?" Magneto would definitely not approve of the joke, but his approval didn't really matter here, did it?

Illyana took Andy's hand and let him help her to her feet. "Not creepy, practical," she told him. "Talking about this sort of stuff out in the open isn't the best idea I've ever had." When he said he could control minds, her eyes widened. He was like Shan, then? Possession? But then he said it didn't work on other mutants - freaks - and she forced herself to relax and let him help her into the van. "What do you mean exactly by 'control minds'?" she asked, settling herself down on the mattress. "Like, possession, or suggestion, or...?"

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[info]brain_ninja
2009-07-28 05:00 pm UTC (link)
Nodding, Andy set his jaw as Illyana's voice changed, sounding upset and bitter when she agreed that demons were real. He was still trying to absorb that; he'd seen one with his own eyes and still he was having trouble letting it really sink in. Demons were not only real, he reminded himself, but they were the reason he was the way he was. They were the reason Webber had been the way he was. Demons made Webber into a killer; made Andy into a freak. Andy said nothing in response to Illyana's quick mood change.

His smile returned, though, when she teased that she wouldn't judge him because of his power, but because of what he did with it. "How about getting free coffee and sending away debt collectors?" he asked, smirking back at her. "Is that somewhere in the middle?" He didn't want to offer up that he'd used it to save Tracy's life; to save Martha's. He didn't want to offer up that he'd used it to help provide food for the people in this place or that he'd insinuated he would use it to protect rations for Sam. None of those things were things that he was proud of, because none of them had mattered, in the end.

Pulling Illyana to her feet, Andy then let go of her hand and climbed into the back of his van, laying back and lacing his hands behind his head, staring up at the disco ball. "Well, try to keep the 'practical' part in mind once you see," he joked. He knew that the back of his van looked like a love nest. Once upon a time, that had been what it was meant to be, even if it hadn't ever come to fruition. Andy had just been too lazy to change it and had gotten used to it; even comfortable with it. He didn't see any reason to change now since it had looked like this for years, now.

"Possession? Like the Exorcist you mean? Nah. I mean, like, suggestion, yeah. If I want you - not you, but you know what I mean? - to jump up and down, you will. If I want your car, you'll give it to me," he explained. If I want you to kill yourself, you will, was the thought that crept into his mind against his will and he refused to vocalize. Doing so would make it real and even if he would never do it, just saying it would make him feel too connected to Webber for his own taste.

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