xp_logs | Topaz and Marie-Ange || Logic vs. Not!Logic

xp_topaz posting in

Topaz faces her fears - and Marie-Ange. Conversations with MA are weird sometimes.

Fun Fact: Sam and Frito wrote this log in literally one night. They don't know how it happened.

Topaz stared blankly at the door in front of her, chewing on her cuticles. She had been avoiding this. She wasn't going to act like she had any good reason for not coming here sooner. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to knock on the familiar door before opening it slowly.

"Anyone home?"

"Of course. Where else would I be?" Marie-Ange was at the kitchen counter, un-characteristically, with an oven mitt and a pot of instant ramen noodles. "Amanda restocked tea, the kettle is clean, feel free to steal tea." Given tea was, technically, not stolen tea, but calling it stolen tea was more amusing. "Do you think I can put frozen peas in ramen?"

The sight of Marie-Ange in the kitchen for something other than tea might have been the most surprising thing about the whole situation - if Topaz' attention hadn't immediately been drawn to the bandages over her eye. "I uh... I dunno," she muttered, shrinking into her too-big sweatshirt as if trying to lose herself in it. She leaned back against the door, her weight closing it completely. "I've never been much of a ramen person."

"Neither have I, but I am conducting an experiment." The timer on Marie-Ange's phone chimed and she took the pot off the heat, turned the burner off - and left the oven mitt on. "And this is the only food that I would not worry about ruining if I set it on fire." She fumbled with the oven mitt, unsure what to do with it and finally set it on the counter - and then, finally, turned the timer off. "I wonder if I could put an egg in it?"

"Maybe?" Topaz shrugged helplessly, twisting her fingers together. "I'm probably not the best person to help with this experiment, I just wanted to..." Deep breath, trying to look composed. "I wanted to say I'm sorry about all the trouble I caused. Especially for you, Ms. Colbert." Trouble wasn't quite the right word. But it was all she had.

The spoon that Marie-Ange had just picked up hit the floor with a ding, and she turned to face Topaz. "No. No, I am not doing this a second time for anyone. Especially not one of you. When it was Doug, changing what he called me because he was an idiot, it was quite bad enough." She bent, picked up the spoon and pointed it at Topaz. "But you? You know magic. You know what names mean, and I did not ask you to change what you called me. Names have power, and you know it, and I do not demand a change in title."

Topaz' shoulders hunched further, eyes dropping to the floor. "I - I just, I..." Marie-Ange was right, of course. Topaz knew exactly what kind of power names had. It was why she couldn't call Taboo Luca anymore, why she stuttered over even calling him her father. It was how she'd held people at arm's length for as long as she could manage before the demand of simply being a human being had taken over. "I'm sorry," she whispered again.

"For being overly formal? Apology accepted." This was said so plainly that it was almost unaccented - and completely obvious that Marie-Ange knew Topaz was not apologizing for that at all. "For all the rest, no. There is no apology needed."

It took Topaz a moment to lift her gaze again. There was a brief flash of pure misery and guilt in them before she attempted to mask her expression. “All the rest is my fault too,” she pointed out quietly.

"Did you possess Adam during my fight with him?" The question was as cold as Marie-Ange could get.

“No.” The answer was obvious. She barely even remembered her own rescue.

"Oh, well, then did you put him up to either kidnapping you or hurting me?" Marie-Ange tapped her eye - her arm - her other bandages peeking out of her sleeves.

“He followed me here.” She sidestepped the questions. “Him, my problems... they’re supposed to stay away from the mansion, away from people I care about.” She said that with surprising ease. “None of this would’ve happened if I wasn’t here.”

"None of this would have happened if Amanda had not been here to rescue you. Is this her fault?" The spoon punctuated Marie-Ange's point with a little clink on the counter. "Oh, ah, no, wait. if Amanda had not helped rescue me from New Orleans once, I would be, probably still killing people for money, so perhaps this is all my fault. I am sure someone had a contract out on Adam Destine." It counted if she was the one considering putting the contract out, right? "Oh, but, no, I know, if Doug had not made horrible decisions. If Emma Frost had not needed to counter the Black Court. If Remy had not rescued Amanda. Whose fault is this, Topaz?" Each statement came with a little spoon clink, all the more awful because of how tiny and tinny the noise was.

Topaz squeezed her eyes shut, taking a few deep breaths. It suddenly seemed stupid she’d thought she could handle this. “I...” Her voice shook slightly. “I don’t know.”

"There are only two people to blame for my eye." Lay all the cards on the table. "Adam Destine, and myself."

That got a response. “That’s not...” Topaz finally looked up and looked Marie-Ange in the eye. “I mean, Adam, yeah, fine it’s his fault.” She was under no delusion she was the only one who held fault. “But you were...” trying to save Topaz. Again.

"Topaz." Marie-Ange set the spoon down, and gently took Topaz by the shoulders. "I have known since I was sixteen that I was going to lose an eye. Ask Doug, the next time he comes to see you, about my migraines, and watch what he does. Then ask him about Asgard." She fussed her hands away, back to the stove, to a carton of eggs on the counter, and cracked one into the pot of still-steaming noodles. "I have put this off for half my life. It was long overdue, and I was not going to waste it on the wrong person."

Topaz watched Marie-Ange, stunned. Of any response she had expected, “I knew it was going to happen” hadn’t been anywhere on the list. “I... okay.” The knot in her chest loosened slightly. She’d ask Doug about everything else, but there was one thing... “How did you know who the right person was?”

"Je ne sais pais. Which makes me a terrible french cliche, but I own more wine than food and just paid a designer money to embroider eyepatches. I can afford a stereotype or two." Marie-Ange said. "I do not know how I knew, but, as I am a cliche walking, I see the future. I get to cheat and know things without knowing how I know." She tapped her sleeve and the packet of cards on the counter, next to the eggs. "But I am as certain about this as I ever have been. It was the right decision.”

Tears stung Topaz’ eyes, and she scrubbed them away quickly. Marie-Ange didn’t do emotions, and Topaz had had about enough of them at least for a few hours. “Okay,” she said faintly, looking up again when she felt a bit more composed. “Thank you.”

"You are welcome." Marie-Ange said, absently stirring the pot of ramen. "Would you be very disappointed in my generosity if I did take out a contract on Adam Destine? Also .. the other one? Grace? Jasmine? I do not know which one is still very evil." She tapped her spoon on the pot and then set it aside. "If so, could I make it up to you with noodles? I am almost certain they are not terrible."

“I think Grace is dead?” Topaz pondered. “I haven’t really had the stomach to look at any reports yet. I don’t think I would be overly opposed to someone else taking care of Adam for us, though,” she added dryly. That was a problem that would need to be dealt with at some point. Later. Much, much later. In the mean time....

“Being your test taster sounds like a noble way to die. Let’s do this.”