xp_logs | Immram: Phratry

After her abortive lunch with Trask, Wanda heads to the mansion to tell Nathan the shocking news. Which isn't particularly shocking to him, and leads to a screaming argument.

The office was empty; it was Juliette's afternoon off, and the others were either busy elsewhere or doing non-Elpis things, and Nathan was perfectly content that it should be that way. The boathouse itself was an oasis of quiet, with Rachel up having some quality time with her uncle Charles, and he was tired enough to rather be enjoying it. He was skimming idly through a few reports he needed to read, although he would have been hard-pressed to tell anyone what they said, if he was pressed. His mind was drifting. Miraculously, not to Medusa and Crystal and Forge and Attilan, and that was a first, this week.

There was a short, heavy knock before a wind tossed mop of hair appeared around the doorway. It was attached to an equally wind tossed Wanda, looking rather disgruntled. "Are you busy?" she asked, not really bothering for an answer before she came the rest of the way in. "You are better off not hearing how many traffic laws I violated on my way here."

Nathan blinked. "I'm... not particularly busy, no," he said, mystified by why Wanda would be rushing to the mansion to see him. He closed the folder in front of him and rose. "Um... drink or something? You look out of breath." And annoyed. "Is there something wrong?"

"Water and nothing is wrong in the sense of is the world going to end in flames, natural disaster and the return of Elvis in all his glory, no." She didn't bother to sit down as she felt far too agitated but at least she didn't pace. "I was invited to lunch with a new colleague of mine. I met with her and a...a gaggle of other women. Not strange, really, unless you consider the fact they were all speaking Askani as easily as they breathed."

Nathan nearly dropped the cup he'd been about to fill from the water cooler. "What?" he asked, his voice nearly cracking and his face gone ashen as he turned towards Wanda.

"That was my reaction. Not one of them looked confused, they've been doing this for a while, obviously." Reaching over, Wanda rescued the cup from his hand and filled it herself, agitation causing her to drink it quickly. She grimaced at the cold. "The newest staff member at the college seems to be the ring leader. Her name is Tara Trask and the women are former students of hers."

Nathan stared at her, and although he wasn't particularly surprised to hear it, that didn't stop the sense of spinning shock. She didn't just know Askani, she had taught it to others? What the fuck... He laid a hand on top of the water cooler as if to brace himself, breathing out a bit shakily.

"Nathan? Are you alright?"

"I... she's at Columbia?" Nathan said, without really thinking about what he was saying. It would strike him afterwards that speaking before thinking had been a really bad idea, in this case.

Wanda started to nod and then froze, eyes suddenly narrowing into slits as she thought over exactly what he'd said. "While you sound surprised that she's at Columbia," she said slowly, "you do not sound surprised about her. You aren't surprised, are you?"

"I-she-" Nathan actually stammered before he stopped, flushing. Oh, that was not a promising look. "I've been... looking for her, for about a month. I met her at this charity ball, back in May... she was strange. Stuck a note written in Askani into my jacket pocket while I wasn't looking. I didn't find it until I was leaving."

"I see." Though it was very clear that, actually, she didn't see at all. "In May you said? Did you deign to tell Scott, Ororo or the Professor?" Now she tilted her head, eyes still narrowed, looking all the world very bird like.

A large, angry, predator bird that was just poked with a stick.

Oddly, natural caution did not kick in. Defensiveness, however, did. "Towards the end of May, yes. You remember May? The month with the crazy-ass former friend of Moira's? Followed quickly by June and the mass kidnappings and disappearing islands?"

"And then the crazy woman speaking a language that is not even born yet!" Wanda shot back, slamming the cup down on the desk. "Who deliberately sought you out and managed to slip a note into your pocket! Which means she physically got close to you without you noticing. And you decided to keep that close to your chest? Are you insane?"

Nathan's defensive retort about the kidnappings, both sets, got her on edge right in return.

"She didn't get close without me noticing, I was dancing with her!" Nathan snapped right back at her - then stopped, realizing just how strange that sounded. His flush deepened, and he turned away. "She was at the same table as me. I left my jacket on the chair at one point, when I was elsewhere. That's all." He turned on Wanda more quickly, looking almost angry now. "And I have been looking for her! Bryn Mawr stonewalled me, said she was traveling before taking up a visiting position.. but I looked into her career, even read her damned articles and her book..."

There was a second where Wanda's anger nearly collapsed into hysterical laughter--since the first part really was strange sounding--but Nathan's own anger was feeding her own. A small part of her couldn't help but wonder if they were simply taking everything out on each other.

Of course, it didn't stop her from spreading her arms and glaring at him. "I may never have actually met the woman but I do have contacts in the academic world, if you care to remember? Bryn Mawr potentially would have buckled more had I gotten in touch with them At least then I would have been more prepared when she showed up on my doorstep." She paused, arms falling to her side as she stared at him. "Mine, Nathan, not yours."

"You know, your current place of employment is making you utterly paranoid," he growled at her. "Did she do anything to threaten you? No? I didn't think so. She didn't do anything to me, either, and treating her as a threat just because she speaks Askani is a little too much of a doomsday scenario for me."

"Rather paranoid than dead or worse!" Wanda bit back. "I still would have attended but I might have stuck around a little bit longer. But even now I've got no idea if they know I can speak Askani." She stopped suddenly, eyes widening slightly. "She said something about enjoying my writings, Nathan...I assumed at first she meant articles I had written here or there but I am not published as much as I would like. But there's something else I wrote, though. The Askani history journals."

Nathan sucked in a sharp breath. "Not just them," he said. "Alison released all that Askani music online, too..."

"I did not put much online, just some of it but it was under a different name. It is not impossible she could figure out who I am but it is surprising." Wanda rubbed at her face for a second. "We might want to contact Alison to see if she has received any invitations. Trask might have overlooked her for academic purposes but with the Askani connection..."

But how did she find me? Nathan wondered suddenly - and then stepped on the thought. It didn't matter. "I don't want to bother Alison with this," he said curtly. "I'm sorry you got caught up in this, but you don't have to be - you can avoid the woman, right?"

Wanda peeked out from between her fingers at him and stared. "So you think it's a happy little coincidence that this woman can speak Askani?" she asked and then dropped her hands. "No, there is a very good chance I will not be able to avoid her completely. And all things considered, she will not go out of her way to avoid me. I will not be surprised to find her waiting for me the next time I go to campus, just to see why I disappeared from lunch today."

"No, I don't think it's a happy little coincidence that she can speak Askani, but I don't want to make this into some big... issue," Nathan said, frustrated.

"Yes, because I am going to run around with a giant sign announcing that you have a potentially insane woman who speaks a language from the future and is teaching it to others." She grimaced. "But think of it this way, Nathan...who's going to have more access to her to keep an eye on her? You or me?"

"I don't care. I don't want you or anyone else anywhere near her if they can help it." The words coming out of his mouth were irrational, he knew they were irrational, but he couldn't help the impulse to keep Wanda and anyone else out of this. It had been nagging at him constantly, preventing him from just asking for help. If he'd wanted to, he could have picked up the phone and asked Pete to do him a favor and find the woman weeks ago. But he hadn't.

She fixed him with a look that was gentler than her previous ones but just as unmoving. "Trask's already taken that choice out of our hands," Wanda pointed out simply. Shifting her stance, she blinked and then asked outright, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Nathan said restlessly, going over to one of the chairs in the mini 'conference area' and sitting down. "But you do remember all the stories I told you about the growing pains early in my relationship with Askani? Literally pain, in far too many cases..."

Rescuing her nearly forgotten cup of water, Wanda trailed after him and settled in an empty seat across the table. "I remember those, yes," she responded before taking a drink.

"I don't know who Trask really is, or what she wants, and I don't want to know." Which sounded strange, given that he'd spent a month on-and-off looking for her, but... this was all very confusing, Nathan thought fretfully. "I paid whatever debt I owed to Askani when I skipped off into my uncle's hands to let her rid history of him, and I'll be damned if she or anyone else comes back looking for more. From me, from any of us. I'm done. We're all done. I am not doing this anymore!" His voice had risen on the last, rather more sharply than he'd intended.

Wanda winced at the volume and then leaned forward, hands resting on her knees. She wanted to approach this carefully since he was looking more and more agitated by this entire mess. "You're right, you don't owe anyone anything," she agreed. "Whatever happened between you and the Askani is done--for better and for worse. The problem is this woman might not agree to that and not knowing can be very dangerous. We do not want to provoke this woman or stir up trouble..." She gave him a sly grin. "For who am I to stir up trouble? But I recommend against being caught with pants down, proverbial or literal."

Nathan leaned forward, his features settling into a mutinous expression. "I do not want you... engaging this woman," he said, biting off the end of each word. "Have you ever heard the expression 'don't borrow trouble'?"

Irritation showed in Wanda's face as she leaned forward as well. "It's not like you could stop me," she gritted back, knowing she was only making things worse but he kept pushing her to the point of not caring. "Even if you did try to lock me in my room, I'd blow the damnable locks off."

The burst of Askani that followed that statement was impressive in both its volume and length - definitely not just a few brief profanities. Nathan sprang to his feet and paced across the room, looking back over his shoulder and berating her, his voice a snarl that was very much at odds with the nearly-musical language he was speaking.

With a speed that spoke of both her training and having a brother who she argued with, Wanda unfolded herself from the chair. Rising half-way up, she leaned forward and tossed the contents of the cup towards Nathan with a sharp motion of her hands. As luck would have it, it got him right in the face and drenched the front of his shoulder and chest.

"Feel better?" she asked sweetly.

Nathan wiped the excess water off his face and glared. Behind Wanda, there was a suspiciously watery gurgle from the direction of the cooler.

She glared right back as a red light reflected off the table. "I will make your water cooler explode if you even think about it, Mister Move Things With My Brain."

The noise of frustration he made was far less articulate than his previous tirade. Nathan's hands clenched into fists at his side. "I am not having a water fight with you in my office, you..." The closest English equivalent of the Askani word that slipped out was probably 'harpy'.

Wanda smirked, just a little. "Water fight or talking sensibly?" she asked, putting the now empty cup on the table. With a sniff, she dried off the spots of water on her hand.

"I don't want to talk sensibly! None of this is sensible!" The response was loud, but more upset-sounding than anything else. The last vestiges of rationality on the subject were sliding away, with alarming speed, and right now he wanted nothing more than to see Trask, and Wanda, and anyone or anything having to do with someone who was supposed to be dead, twice, and not born in the same way the third time, to go away.

Normally, Wanda would have asked him if interaction with ghosts from a future that might not happen was sensible in any way but she barely kept her mouth shut. "It's not like you have much choice," she replied, straightening all the way and sliding the chair back under the table. Turning back, she sighed. "At this point, nothing I will say is going to get through and we are just going to keep snarling at each other until the cows come home. Blame it on paranoia or common sense, but I highly recommend not burying your head in the sand. I'm going home. My boots are slightly damp, I did not actually get anything to eat at lunch and I have work to do. If you come to your senses any time soon, you know how to find me."

Tucking her hands in her pocket, she ducked around him, still feeling incredibly irritated and miserable on top of things. Not to mention her boots were squelching slightly as she walked.

"~Don't go near her. She's dangerous,~" Nathan said, almost as miserably - and not at all sure where that had come from.

Pausing, she turned half-way back and gave him a tight smile. "~Everything in our lives is dangerous,~" she said, sounding tired. "I'll be careful if you be careful."