Mutant Guilt Powers

March 22, 2018:

Illyana visits her big brother to help take his mind of wanting to punch some evil mutants. He guilts her into telling him what the deal was with the Demon Bear situation using his amazing mutant guilt powers.

Mutant Town - NYC

Piotr's Art Studio in Mutant Town.

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions: Scott Summers, Rachel Grey, Danielle Moonstar, Jane Foster, Bucky Barnes, Brotherhood Mutants

Plot:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

Only a few days after Piotr officially setup his studio in Mutant Town, Scott had a run in with the brotherhood in that very neighborhood. Somehow in Pete's mind this just convinces him that his desire to spend more time in District X was a good one. Now that Scott is out of the hospital and back at the mansion, Pete has returned to his studio. There is music playing as usual, but it's much more subdued and quiet than what he has been listening to lately. And after a few hours of frustratingly starting and restarting a painting, Piotr reaches for his phone.

Text to Illyana » "Care to stop by? Need distraction and can not find Brotherhood Member to punch."

He then picks up his coffee cup, long since gone cold. He sniffs at it and decides he's not exactly sure if it's from today or not so he moves to dump it down the sink. Looking back over the studio, he frowns and gives a frustrated snort. He needs a distraction.

*

Shouldn't Illyana, as Piotr's dutiful sister, have been on hand to help him set up his studio? Or at least present for the grand opening? Some people, overly suspicious people of course, might almost believe that she's been avoiding him. Surely nothing could be further from the truth?

And yet, despite nominally occupying the same house, large as it is, the Rasputin siblings have somehow conspired to avoid running into one another for a little while. Or at least one of them has.

Still, when she's summoned, it doesn't take the devil long to appear. There's no response to the text, but when Piotr looks back from washing out his mug, he'll find that his familiar studio has a new addition: Illyana, looking over his aborted painting. She's dressed in her signature black, of course, but her outfit's a small departure from the norm, a long tank-style dress that reaches her ankles.

As if she feels his eyes upon her, Illyana looks over at Piotr with a smile. "Am I supposed to guess what it's supposed to be?" She asks, in a lightly teasing tone.

*

Piotr is rather used to Illyana being evasive when she so chooses. It's not that he thinks of his sister as a cat per say, but there are certain similarities. He accepts that she is quite private in general and tries not to always be the pushy older brother. Tries. So he has been content that eventually she will stop avoiding him and it seems like today is that eventually.

"That? That is supposed to be the representation of my frustrations at feeling helpless at not being there when Scott was attacked." Well that's very specific. But he goes on to clarify, "Or another urban landscape of the district. Mostly the second one." Because he is a pretty open book, in contrast to his sister. He is straight forward about his feelings, his frustrations and about how terrible that painting is going.

"I am glad to see you snowflake. It has been a while. Would you like a coffee or tea?" He doesn't have much to offer as it's not a proper apartment, but he does have some basics at least. Coffee. Tea. Vodka.

*

There's a subtle change in Illyana when the attack on Scott is mentioned. A slight hardening of the look in her eyes, a slight thinning of her lips. She still puts on a dubious expression and looks between Piotr and the painting once more as he explains, because it's expected. "I'll take your word for it." She tells him, still teasing. She knows just how good an artist he is, even if he's struggling with his present work.

"Tea, please, brother." She replies, making a slow circuit of his studio as if to familiarise herself with every inch of it, before joining Piotr as he prepares the drinks. Shifting some painting supplies to one side - avoiding rearranging them as much as possible - Illyana hops lightly up to sit on the counter in the space she's cleared, hands braced either side of her.

"Maybe you should wait until you've found that Brotherhood member to punch." She suggests. "It might make for a more satisfying painting. I'll even help." She grins, the expression not entirely pleasant, which matches her thoughts about the Brotherhood themselves. "But until then, how can I distract you, Piotr?"

*

Piotr catches the darkening of her visage and understands the emotion all too well, a member of their team was put in the hospital, it's upsetting. Worse still none of them were there to even help. He moves back to the cabinets and retrieves some tea and puts a kettle on a hot plate. There is nothing fancy about the place, and that suits Piotr just fine.

"I have heard rumors that they are very active in his neighborhood. Preying on the mutants here who feel let down by society. It is unfortunate, but their message is finding place here. It is all the more reason I want to have a presence here." He originally came here because he didn't want to feel separated from his fellow mutants. He wanted to be inspired by and be apart of that community. Now? He is starting to aim more towards wanting to fix or improve it.

"You could start by telling me why you sent me with your sword on the great bear hunt." He looks at her with a mischievous smile, "If you are willing."

*

It seems that not even Scott being hospitalised is enough to distract Piotr from wanting to know just what she was up to while he was fighting bears and other forms of supernatural wildlife. Illyana hadn't exactly hoped that the attack on Scott would have diverted Piotr's attention, but… it would have been convenient. Her brother can be annoyingly single-minded at times, when it comes to her at least.

Illyana doesn't even try to hide her grimace. "Why is it when you say 'If you are willing'…" She even attempts a deep voice, which doesn't really come off, "I actually care that you'll be disappointed when I say 'no'?" It's clearly a rhetorical question, and Illyana folds her arms defensively, just looking at Piotr in silence for a couple of seconds before she blows out an annoyed huff of breath. "Fine. But only because you asked nicely." She says, her tone sounding faintly sulky.

"I suppose you want both the truths, and not just the nice one." She says, after taking a moment to collect her thoughts, no longer sounding quite so put out now that she's made the decision to answer. "But you can have the nice one first: A warrior, strong of arm, brave of heart and pure of soul, wielding a magic sword? You were exactly what was needed, brother. The old legends exist for a reason, they aren't just stories." She smiles. "Well, not always." The smile fades a little as she continues.

"The next truth is that the bear brought out the worst in me." She's chosen her words carefully, and they fit her light tone. "Everyone needed to know what they were fighting." She eyes him sidelong. "You know I don't always look like this." She doesn't elaborate. She knows he's uncomfortable with her darker aspects.

"And the last truth?" Illyana says, with a quick grin. "That's the one you aren't going to like." Wait, the last truth wasn't the one he wasn't going to like? "The bear weakened the walls between realities when it broke through. When you fought it, those walls got stretched thin. Dani knew they could tear, and they did. She asked me to throw back anything that found its way through." Without her sword. "So I did." She doesn't sound particularly triumphant, more distracted. She shakes it off, and the grin's back as if it never left. "Ray helped a bit." She adds, magnanimously.

*

Yes, Piotr is certainly single minded about making sure he keeps tabs on Illyana, his overly protective nature is bad enough for the X-Men, but magnified even more so for his sister. He allows himself a small smile at her reaction. As for why she cares?

"It is part of my mutant powers. Extreme older brother guilting. Even powerful sorceresses are weak to it."

At the first truth, Piotr just cocks and eyebrow and looks skeptical. "Are you trying to butter me up Illyana? I some how doubt I am more effective in using your blade merely by virtue of my virtues."

But the light teasing tone and smile fade when she starts to actually get into it. He doesn't outright frown but his look does shift to concern when she talks about the bear bringing out the worst in her. And Piotr does do his best to forget that his sister does have another form. While his other shape is more akin to a knight in shining armor, hers is difficult for him to reconcile with his mental image of his snowflake.

And then she gets to her mission. The part that he suspected but couldn't get a straight answer on. He grunts as his fears are confirmed, he knew what she was doing was likely important and likely dangerous. But his response is, "I am glad you were able to hold it back. I know I worry, but you are an X-man." He then breaks into a smile and says, "I will not pretend I love you being in danger, but I do trust you are capable of handling it. Especially with Rachel's help."

Thankfully this slightly sappy moment is broken by the whistle of the kettle. Piotr sets out two mugs, with tea bags and pours the water. "But to your earlier point. Da. I think my painting would flow easier if I got some punching out of my system."

*

Illyana just pulls another face when Piotr is smug at her, with his talk of extreme older brother guilting powers. Almost the worst thing about it is that it actually works. The very worst thing about it is that, when it comes to him and him alone, she can't even manage to be angry about it.

He does get a glare when he doubts the first truth she offers him, though. She wasn't just trying to distract him with flattery, she knows what she's talking about! His pure soul is more dangerous to creatures like her than he realises. Her eyes narrow and for a second it looks like she's about to take him to task over it, but then she just leans over and punches him in the arm. She's not using her full strength, but it's more than a tap. Hard enough to make her point. "Don't interrupt." She tells him tartly, her glare mostly for show by this point.

Her brother's reaction to the other truths goes more as she'd expected, and she looks down at her hands where they rest in her lap rather than see the concern in his eyes. Compared to that, telling him that she was busy risking her life without him to back her up is easy. There's light in her eyes again and a smirk on her lips. "If I hadn't held it back, you wouldn't need me to tell you about it now." She points out, and shrugs. "We handled it." She omits telling him about the huge spider-like demon that shredded her wards like tissue paper, or its horde of young, or just what she had to to force it back through that tear in reality. "AND picked you up from Jersey, too." She adds primly.

When Piotr turns to make the tea, Illyana lets out a careful breath. She navigated that as well as could be expected. "The Brotherhood think they're untouchable." Illyana opines. "They beat up the leader of the X-Men. We need to show them there are consequences."

*

The punch only gets a laugh from Piotr, who is rightly put in his place. "Okay. Okay." He is quite used to people punching him, mostly because he's a big hard target that people can punch without much damage. He does rub the spot on his arm though, mostly to show that he has learned his lesson though.

"Illyana, if you want to talk about it. I would love to hear it. Sadly my adventure with the bear consisted of landing maybe two blows? I fear I was not that effective. And yes, the small woman punched me into New Jersey." Here he shudders, not on purpose but in actual disgust at the horrors faced there. "Thank you again for retrieving me from that place. I can not express how hard I will strive to never find myself there again."

Handing her the mug of tea, and taking his own he narrows his eyes at his sister. In a joking manner he corrects her, "You mean stop them before they hurt or kill anyone else of course." Because Piotr may be noble, but he is definitely not against some revenge punching in this case.

*

Piotr's rubbing of his arm got a roll of Illyana's eyes. She probably couldn't hit him hard enough to actually hurt him, even if she tried.

The offer to listen to the full story of her adventures while he was being punched into another state draws a quiet snort, but that's apparently a step too far. "I'm saving it for next time we're swapping ghost stories by the campfire." Which is almost certainly going to be never. The last time Illyana told a campfire story she was about fourteen, and it wasn't about spider-demons that nearly ate her. "And see?" She adds sweetly, "There ARE places that are worse than Limbo." Which is not a very nice thing to say about New Jersey.

Taking the offered mug of tea, Illyana holds it between both her hands and waits for it to cool before taking a sip. "Absolutely, Piotr." She says, with her best innocent look. "I guarantee the things that I would like to do to them would definitely stop them from hurting or killing anyone else." Ever again, she doesn't add, and takes a careful sip of her tea.

*

Piotr laughs at the crack about Jersey being worse than Limbo. And in someways it's kind of true. Those demons are evil by nature, it's a actual hell dimension. New Jersey has no one to blame but itself. "Ah yes, our usual campfire stories that we never do." He fake reminisces with her.

"Keep your comm on. I have a feeling it will not take me long to attract their attention here. And while I do not mind taking them all, I am sure you will want to get in at least one or two hits." And for once, Piotr's not even giving her furrowed brow about implying that she is going to kill them. Of course he doesn't actually plan to let her, but he fully understands the reaction. He does state for the record, "I believe letting them rot in SHIELD custody would be an appropriate fate. After we are through punching."

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