Illyana and Crystal, Thursday, March 29

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Crystal and Illyana chat on the grounds.


Late May, 2006
She nearly died that day in Limbo. Nobody would ever have known - that’s what she thought, afterward. Nobody would have known.

It happened quickly. Not much to tell - not that she was going to tell anyone. Something coming at her from the shadows, quick, with claws like knives going straight for her throat. It was an instinctual reaction to cover her face with her hands, and, because of where she was, a half-made thought brought her sword to life, cutting through a flying demon which was probably the size of a pterodactyl. If she had to guess how big a pterodactyl was.

“God,” she had time to say, before the second one caught a piece of her hair, and she had to deal with it, too. And suddenly they were coming from everywhere, from the ground and the sky, over the hilltops, and what was odd was that other demons seemed to be engaging with them.

What had gotten into the damn water?

She had to grasp strands of Limbo’s inherent magic and really pull on them before the air around the demons started to combust. The retreat was messy and angry - she could hear shrieks ring across the lows of the valley for a long time, afterward.

What the hell had that been? She looked out over to the flat horizon, watched the relentless sun sinking a little closer to it, and frowned at the bodies that had been left behind.

It was - a little odd. Before ‘porting back home, she made sure that the dimensional walls were intact.

She liked it out here, on the grounds, even when spring hadn't really firmly set in. It was all landscaped grass and old trees and stately architecture, which she appreciated; she liked it better, in fact, than the plain old wilderness.

That, she'd seen enough of.

She'd been coming out here more, lately, to sit; it was quiet, a good place to come and try not to think. Thinking wasn't getting her too far, if she was honest, though she thought she might have a lead - not that this hadn't happened already, without avail. It was enough to make her quit, but that was - well, unthinkable. So she was sitting outside, staring at her tennis shoes, working up the motivation to go and try her luck again.

"Good afternoon," Crystal said, nodding politely at the other girl as she landed. She really didn't know much about Illyana other than the fact that the girl seemed to want to hate everyone if her posts on Mondo's first journal post were any indication. Crystal hadn't seen Illyana around that much and had assumed the girl had been quite truthful about hating pretty much everyone here.

Illyana's head snapped up, and she frowned – took a moment to put a name to the face. "Oh. Hi – uh – Crystal," Illyana said, squinting up at her. "Um, how's it going?"

It? What exactly was "it" and how did she know how "it" was going? Of course Crystal knew what Illyana meant, but she still found many of the phrases people used to be unusual, odd, and quite nonsensical. Plus, she was not a fan of the question because, most of the time, people really didn't want to hear the true answer. It was more of a statement than an actual inquiry, just something to say when you say someone.

"I am fine," Crystal replied. "How are you?"

"I'm - " Sitting on wet grass trying to figure out how reclaim my hell dimension - " - great. Just, you know. Sitting." Illyana was talking to people too much lately. That was her problem. She vaguely remembered Crystal as the overly-literal new girl, but that had been a long time ago, and she could barely hold a conversation together as it was.

Great. Right. The girl wanted to be left alone. That much was clear. What was bothering her wasn't so clear. Maybe she was upset about the mansion's latest additions because now she had more people to hate. "Oh, I see. Well, I am sorry for disturbing your... sitting. Please enjoy the rest of your afternoon." Crystal gave Illyana a brief nod and prepared to leave.

Illyana said it before she could help herself: "So, did I do something to offend you recently, or are you always like this?" Then she cursed herself, with all the creativity and depth of a girl who'd been raised to know curses personally and by name. This was that thing she could never do at the appropriate moment. What did the kids call it? Oh, yes: Shutting up.

Crystal looked at Illyana raised an eyebrow ever-so-slightly. "Am I always like what? You pointed out the fact that you are sitting. It appeared to me as though you did not wish to be bothered, and therefore I was attempting to leave you alone."

Yep. Strangely-literal girl. Illyana sighed and tried to think of the best thing to say. Failing that... "Listen, I didn't mean it – well, I meant it like it sounded, actually, that would be a stupid thing to say. I just – well, I am sitting, and I was, I don't know, surprised to see you, and I don't know you all that well, so I just – said that. That's all." It wasn't quite an apology, but then she hadn't apologized even when her ability to form whole sentences was present.

At least Illyana hadn't said anything about hating Crystal. That was definitely an improvement. Maybe the whole hating people thing had been an act, or maybe she'd changed. "Well, I could sit with you if you do not wish to sit by yourself," Crystal said thoughtfully. "You could even speak with me if you wished to do so. It is hard to know someone if you never talk to them." And even then, how well did you know the people you did speak with? Who was to say if what they said was real or not, and what about all of the things that were left unsaid?

"Please do," Illyana said, nodding. It wasn't that she was searching for conversation, exactly, but she was tired of sitting and worrying and trying to make her head work faster. She hadn't been around the mansion for so long – it felt like a short time, to her, but maybe once all this was done she could settle down and really do all the schoolwork that she was meant to be doing. "I don't think we've ever really spoken," she added thoughtfully, rather than vocalizing any of her previous thoughts.

Crystal sat down near Illyana. "You are correct; we have never actually held a conversation with each other." In fact, Crystal wasn't sure that they had ever said anything to each other at all. "You, ah, well, I thought that you would be an interesting person to talk to and get to know, but since I was under the impression that you were not interested in getting to know anyone I did not attempt to speak with you."

"Yeah." Illyana shrugged, a little awkwardly. "I'm not really what you'd call a people person. Even in my best moments." Her lips twisted in a kind of smile, and she didn't say what was probably obvious even to Crystal, who didn't know her: There weren't too many of those.

Crystal wasn't quite sure where she fell on the "people person" scale. Really, it just depended on the situation and/or the person. Stick her in a nightclub with people about to come to blows and she'd smile and keep them apart, but stick her in a room full of teenagers and she wouldn't be quite sure what to do. She could handle boring talk at social parties, but finding things to talk about with the students here could be quite trying at times. Even here, for some reason Crystal actually felt a bit comfortable talking to Illyana, and she was tempted to inject a bit humor, but she wasn't quite sure how the other girl would interpret it.

"No one is required to be a people person," Crystal said instead. "Despite what some people around here want people to think, not everyone needs to be like everyone else."

That elicited a short huff of amusement. "No," Illyana agreed, pulling her knees up and resting her forearms on them comfortably. "But, I mean, try telling some people. It's like putting the world off its axis." She actually managed to make herself smile wryly. "Although I guess my opinion's a little biased. I pretty much set the bar, weirdness-wise."

"Oh? People like to say that weird things happen here, I know, but they appear to be accepted as commonplace occurances," Crystal replied, smiling slightly. "Many things that people seem to classify as 'weird' are merely power accidents, and it is perfectly understandable that such events will occur." She paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. "I think people seem to expect these so-called weird events to happen now. Students and teachers go missing without much being said in public view; such a thing seems to be considered a rite of passage. Demon attacks are still mentioned all of the time, even though from what I understand such a thing has not happened for years." Another small smile. "I think that, maybe, to some extent people even want these 'strange occurances' to happen."

Illyana snorted softly. "Yeah. Well. Sometimes it's cute. Mostly – it wasn't cute. More like something you joke about after." Even at the club, that time when it wasn't her fault. She remembered hauling Jubilee back to the medlab. "But I guess it sounds like TV, 'till you've met a demon and figured out that pretty much the only fun part comes when you're not dead at the end of it. But. I think people thrive on extremes." Her smile went just a bit self-deprecatory. "Even me. Sometimes."

Crystal gave a small nod. "Yes, joking about things, things that ought to be taken seriously, seems to be something that is quite popular at the mansion. It is a way to cope with things, I have been told." In her own way, she had taken to doing that, at least, a bit, hadn't she? "However, I must say that I am rather glad that I have never met a demon. As, ah, interesting as it sounds, I believe that life is complicated enough without having to fight demons. Still," she shrugged lightly, "if need be, I would do it."

Thankfully, Illyana stopped herself just in time from denying – too vehemently – that no one was going to be fighting demons anytime soon. Instead, she said, "Good attitude," and made it as bland as she could. "Life is definitely complicated enough without dealing with the occult. Though with demons, my suggestion would be to run away. Discretion being the better part of valour, not to mention the part less likely to get you killed."

"I said I would fight them if I needed to do so," Crystal reminded Illyana with a small smile. "I have no desire to be slain by demons, or anyone else for that matter." Still, Crystal had to wonder just what she would do if faced with demons. If they were just there, that was one thing, but if they were threatening others could she really just run away?

Illyana smiled wryly. "Again, good attitude. Just a little uncommon. When I first got here – got back, I mean – people just rushed off into battle at the slightest provocation. Although that was when the girl who killed a bunch of people still lived in the basement, so everyone was extremely crazy back then, too." She rolled her eyes expressively.

"Oh, they do not rush into battle so much now?" Crystal asked, raising an eyebrow. "They are not extremely crazy now? The X-Men still constantly go off to save the world, or a part of the world, when they are not busy beating each other here, that is. I suppose that some people might like living in basements." The fact that a girl had killed a lot of people didn't take her by surprise; she was sure that this girl, whoever she was, was in no way the first or only Xavier's resident to have killed people.

"Touche," Illyana allowed, amused. "Yes, they are extremely crazy now. Only, now it's usually the leather-wearing crazy people rushing off to battle, not the students. There has been a decline in the general insanity of the student population. Lots of people moved out," she added explanatorily, not including her thoughts on the general intelligence of the student population more out of brevity than a lack of opinion.

"The students used to go into battle?" Crystal allowed herself a look of surprise. She could not imagine any of the current students doing such a thing. "I do not believe that such a thing is allowed anymore."

"Not so much, no," Illyana agreed, "but it wasn't really back then, either. It was more out of circumstance – the whole Asgard thing, with the fighting and magical horses and ear-pulling and such. And," she added, "of course some people were extremely stupid back then. I think this has improved. Somewhat."

Crystal nodded, looking thoughtful. "'Stupid' is not a word I believe I would use when describing any of the people I have met while in New York." Other words came to mind, words such as "impolite", "crass", "immature", and "insane", but "stupid" was not one of them. "What is this about ear-pulling? This was part of the journey to Asgard?"

"The kidnapping to Asgard," Illyana corrected. "Also the fault of the X-Men. And yes. Miss Blaire was made mute, which vastly improved her in my opinion, but she found ways to express herself that were very unnecessary, honestly. I was in forced service to the goddess of hell, so you'd think I wouldn't be held responsible for my actions." She wasn't really still indignant about all that, but she felt it deserved some explanation.

"In forced service to the goddess of hell," Crystal repeated. "I see. That must have been horrible." She gave Illyana a curious look. "How did the X-Men cause this kidnapping to occur?"

Illyana made a face. "They annoyed a god. Which is pretty much the worst thing to do, in terms of gods. It's usually better to do what they say. Or get someone else to take the fall. Anyway – I was never exactly sure how – but they annoyed this god, Loki, and he kidnapped us while we were playing baseball."

"Why did he kidnap students instead of kidnapping the ones who had annoyed him?" Crystal queried. "Was it a mistake, or was he trying to punish them by taking away the students they were supposed to be responsible for?"

Illyana considered that, frowning. "It was never made clear. Mainly I think he was just blaming us by association. I certainly make it a habit not to get on the wrong side of the gods. It doesn't tend to end well. Although I suppose nobody died or anything in Asgard, so that's not all that bad."

"Yes, it is certainly good that none of the students died there," Crystal told Illyana, "and if I ever meet a god, I will keep your words in mind."

"Good plan," Illyana said, but, realizing the time she was wasting, stood up, looking a little apologetic. "I'd better go. I, um. I have some work to do." She waved, but was through a portal back to the house before Crystal could say anything in return.