The Color of Horror - Who Pays the Piper?
Nov. 4th, 2021 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsAfter the collapse of Avalon and the loss of Topaz, Doug takes Amanda to Marie-Ange.
Doug had already texted Marie-Ange a brief summary of the situation as he steered Amanda toward the suite that the two women shared. He'd told her to have cards and wound cleaning supplies ready - he knew that Angie would expect both of them to get their scrapes and bloody knuckles cleaned, and he also knew that both he and Amanda would not want to waste any time determining Topaz' status.
The door to the suite was propped open by a laundry basket full of towels, and when Doug and Amanda arrived, Marie-Ange was already coming out of the bathroom with a double armful of first aid supplies. "You go to the infirmary as soon as we are done here." She said, pointing with her elbow at Doug. Her eyes were bloodshot with fatigue and grief, and a messy spread of cards was already on the kitchen table. "Do we need stitches, or just bandages for the rest?"
"Antiseptic and bandages, I think," Doug replied. "I don't think either of us has more than bloodied up knuckles." He would still go to the infirmary to make sure, because it was both sensible and he knew better than to blow Marie-Ange off when she was like this. "Amanda?" he asked, looking down at her hands.
She didn't immediately respond and it took a second repeating of her name for her to look up. "Huh?" There was a certain vagueness in her expression that neither of them had seen since she'd been swallowed by London and spat out again, many years ago. Then she seemed to rally. "'S not too bad," she replied quietly, looking down again at her knuckles. "Didn't get much time to do much damage." There was a cut on her forehead too, a deep scratch from one of the creatures that had attacked, but she didn't seem to notice that one, or the blood that was drying on her face.
"You are both terrible liars." Marie-Ange pulled a flexible ice pack out of the pile of supplies and handed it over to Doug. "If you can make a tight fist with that hand I will be surprised." Then she pulled a wet cloth out of the same pile. "Blood in your hair, twice in the same month." She began gently cleaning the blood off Amanda's face, and then plucked the tube of antibiotic cream from the pile she'd dumped on the table. "The future is in a holding pattern. The only thing I know is that waiting patiently will pay off." The last was spat sarcastically, as though the quick reading she had done was offensive.
“She was the last one, you know. The only one to survive the world ending. And now she’s gone.” Amanda didn’t seem to have registered Marie-Ange’s words at first, but as the sting of the antiseptic on the cut on her forehead cut through the numbness, she looked up. “She’s alive?”
The table was close enough that Marie-Ange could scoop up the four cards in a line and hand them to Doug. "Doug, what are the odds of me getting these four cards, four readings in a row?" She turned back to bandage Amanda, four little butterfly closures in a line. "The Hermit, the High Priestess, Temperance and the Nine of Wands. I have to do more readings, and perhaps push my precognition into a bit of a state, but they all mean patience."
Doug looked at the deck, numbers already spinning in his mind, everything else pushing toward the background as his eyes grew distant. The urgency of trying to find out if Topaz was still alive, Amanda's injuries, Marie-Ange's solid presence...all of it was still there, just...muted. Odds of a particular card, 1 in 78 A particular card out of the remaining deck, 1 in 77, and so on. "Odds of a particular four-card reading, approximately one in thirty-four million," he said somewhat mechanically. But to repeat the same reading became a question of exponential growth.
"If we assume the first reading as a baseline, the chances of repeating it three times after is somewhere on the order of one in forty sextillion - ten to the twenty-second power." His eyes flicked, considering. "If you start from nothing and ask for those four cards in four consecutive readings...it would be something like one in a nonillion - a one with thirty zeroes following it." He blinked, eyes focusing again on the other two people in the room as he came out of the fugue. "Either way, pretty astronomical." But that was life with a precognitive.
He handed the cards back to Marie-Ange and nodded. "What do you need for a more in-depth reading?"
"All I have right now is wait and see, and that Topaz still has a future." Marie-Ange said softly. "And Doug's astronomical numbers. Right now we get both of you bandaged up, and then I need a few days to throw into the readings." She taped a piece of gauze over the long scratch on Amanda's face, and brushed a few locks of hair out of the other woman's eyes. "Time, I suppose to test your theory on if I can pre-load my precognitive credit card, as it were. I had Doug give up energy drinks to save Jubilee's neck last year, literally. What cost is ensuring we know when and how to save Topaz?"
"I'll pay it. Whatever it is, as long as we can get her back," said Amanda at once, predictably. The idea that there was something they could do was more heartening to her than anything else so far.
"Why." Marie-Ange groaned. "Why is everyone so willing to throw themselves at horrible things on my word." She patted the last piece of tape, fingers more gentle than her words and then pointed at Doug. "You do not get to offer either. You know what you did. First we figure out what we will need to give, and then we will figure out who gives it."
Doug -had- been about to offer a blank check of his own. And he -had- been about to tell Amanda some of the same things that Marie-Ange had. He bit back a sharp defensive retort and took a long deep breath instead. "I did. Because you asked me, and you told me it was necessary, and doing the necessary things so that others don't have to is what we-" he waved a hand to encompass all three of them, and X-Force by proxy "-do." He shrugged. "And when you say something is necessary, I believe it." He could see the hints of guilt in the stab of Marie-Ange's finger, and he put extra effort into keeping anything like accusation out of his voice.
"All three of us would give without question for Topaz." It wasn't really a question, but he looked at the two women anyway and saw agreement in their eyes. "And all three of us would give without question to protect the other two people in this room." His eyes lingered on the eyepatch on Marie-Ange, and the very faded bits of scarring on Amanda. "But we just got back from a mission where it was pointed out that none of us gets to make that decision unilaterally for other people." Again, he made sure the reminder of Topaz' words to Amanda was delivered as gently as he could manage. "And that includes our peers as much as the younger set."
"So. How about if, instead of playing self-sacrifice roulette we stop, figure out what is actually required, and -then- talk about how we can do that in a way that lets us share the load and support each other."
Look at that, using his words. Almost like therapy was helping or something.
"Your knuckle is jammed." Marie-Ange finished bandaging Amanda's worst injuries and took Doug's hand. A firm grip and a single yank pulled the joint back into place. "Still the infirmary for you after." It was a conceit to Doug being the reasonable one this time. "First we tell the rest of X-Force. They may have additional ideas, and then yes, we figure out what I will need to get some kind of better answer than a perhaps. In the meantime, I can keep making sure we have the option. As long as Topaz still comes up having a future, we know we should still keep looking for more answers. That I can do, it is like... unlocking the door but not opening the gate."
Amanda blinked. “Unlocking the door…” she murmured. “Unlocking the door… But how does she find the door in the dark? We turn on the porch light, of course.” The vagueness had left her face and despite the cryptic words, she seemed far more with it than she had since Doug had pulled her away from the chapel wall. “You’re a genius, Frenchie,” she continued, before grabbing Marie-Ange’s face and planting an enthusiastic kiss on her. “I need to go round up the ducklings. I think I have an idea that will help.”
Marie-Ange could only blink for a moment, and automatically kissed back - and then, finally, managed to compose herself. "I love being accidentally a genius but please elaborate? I am done with missing people I cannot help. I can help this time." She turned, scooped up the deck of cards and flipped half one-handed. "Not just with these, but I can get information this time. Topaz has a future.”
Something flickered across Amanda’s face, drowning out the joy for just a second, before it was gone as soon as it had come. “She does. She has a future.” She grinned again. “And we’re going to leave a light on for her to come home.”
Doug had already texted Marie-Ange a brief summary of the situation as he steered Amanda toward the suite that the two women shared. He'd told her to have cards and wound cleaning supplies ready - he knew that Angie would expect both of them to get their scrapes and bloody knuckles cleaned, and he also knew that both he and Amanda would not want to waste any time determining Topaz' status.
The door to the suite was propped open by a laundry basket full of towels, and when Doug and Amanda arrived, Marie-Ange was already coming out of the bathroom with a double armful of first aid supplies. "You go to the infirmary as soon as we are done here." She said, pointing with her elbow at Doug. Her eyes were bloodshot with fatigue and grief, and a messy spread of cards was already on the kitchen table. "Do we need stitches, or just bandages for the rest?"
"Antiseptic and bandages, I think," Doug replied. "I don't think either of us has more than bloodied up knuckles." He would still go to the infirmary to make sure, because it was both sensible and he knew better than to blow Marie-Ange off when she was like this. "Amanda?" he asked, looking down at her hands.
She didn't immediately respond and it took a second repeating of her name for her to look up. "Huh?" There was a certain vagueness in her expression that neither of them had seen since she'd been swallowed by London and spat out again, many years ago. Then she seemed to rally. "'S not too bad," she replied quietly, looking down again at her knuckles. "Didn't get much time to do much damage." There was a cut on her forehead too, a deep scratch from one of the creatures that had attacked, but she didn't seem to notice that one, or the blood that was drying on her face.
"You are both terrible liars." Marie-Ange pulled a flexible ice pack out of the pile of supplies and handed it over to Doug. "If you can make a tight fist with that hand I will be surprised." Then she pulled a wet cloth out of the same pile. "Blood in your hair, twice in the same month." She began gently cleaning the blood off Amanda's face, and then plucked the tube of antibiotic cream from the pile she'd dumped on the table. "The future is in a holding pattern. The only thing I know is that waiting patiently will pay off." The last was spat sarcastically, as though the quick reading she had done was offensive.
“She was the last one, you know. The only one to survive the world ending. And now she’s gone.” Amanda didn’t seem to have registered Marie-Ange’s words at first, but as the sting of the antiseptic on the cut on her forehead cut through the numbness, she looked up. “She’s alive?”
The table was close enough that Marie-Ange could scoop up the four cards in a line and hand them to Doug. "Doug, what are the odds of me getting these four cards, four readings in a row?" She turned back to bandage Amanda, four little butterfly closures in a line. "The Hermit, the High Priestess, Temperance and the Nine of Wands. I have to do more readings, and perhaps push my precognition into a bit of a state, but they all mean patience."
Doug looked at the deck, numbers already spinning in his mind, everything else pushing toward the background as his eyes grew distant. The urgency of trying to find out if Topaz was still alive, Amanda's injuries, Marie-Ange's solid presence...all of it was still there, just...muted. Odds of a particular card, 1 in 78 A particular card out of the remaining deck, 1 in 77, and so on. "Odds of a particular four-card reading, approximately one in thirty-four million," he said somewhat mechanically. But to repeat the same reading became a question of exponential growth.
"If we assume the first reading as a baseline, the chances of repeating it three times after is somewhere on the order of one in forty sextillion - ten to the twenty-second power." His eyes flicked, considering. "If you start from nothing and ask for those four cards in four consecutive readings...it would be something like one in a nonillion - a one with thirty zeroes following it." He blinked, eyes focusing again on the other two people in the room as he came out of the fugue. "Either way, pretty astronomical." But that was life with a precognitive.
He handed the cards back to Marie-Ange and nodded. "What do you need for a more in-depth reading?"
"All I have right now is wait and see, and that Topaz still has a future." Marie-Ange said softly. "And Doug's astronomical numbers. Right now we get both of you bandaged up, and then I need a few days to throw into the readings." She taped a piece of gauze over the long scratch on Amanda's face, and brushed a few locks of hair out of the other woman's eyes. "Time, I suppose to test your theory on if I can pre-load my precognitive credit card, as it were. I had Doug give up energy drinks to save Jubilee's neck last year, literally. What cost is ensuring we know when and how to save Topaz?"
"I'll pay it. Whatever it is, as long as we can get her back," said Amanda at once, predictably. The idea that there was something they could do was more heartening to her than anything else so far.
"Why." Marie-Ange groaned. "Why is everyone so willing to throw themselves at horrible things on my word." She patted the last piece of tape, fingers more gentle than her words and then pointed at Doug. "You do not get to offer either. You know what you did. First we figure out what we will need to give, and then we will figure out who gives it."
Doug -had- been about to offer a blank check of his own. And he -had- been about to tell Amanda some of the same things that Marie-Ange had. He bit back a sharp defensive retort and took a long deep breath instead. "I did. Because you asked me, and you told me it was necessary, and doing the necessary things so that others don't have to is what we-" he waved a hand to encompass all three of them, and X-Force by proxy "-do." He shrugged. "And when you say something is necessary, I believe it." He could see the hints of guilt in the stab of Marie-Ange's finger, and he put extra effort into keeping anything like accusation out of his voice.
"All three of us would give without question for Topaz." It wasn't really a question, but he looked at the two women anyway and saw agreement in their eyes. "And all three of us would give without question to protect the other two people in this room." His eyes lingered on the eyepatch on Marie-Ange, and the very faded bits of scarring on Amanda. "But we just got back from a mission where it was pointed out that none of us gets to make that decision unilaterally for other people." Again, he made sure the reminder of Topaz' words to Amanda was delivered as gently as he could manage. "And that includes our peers as much as the younger set."
"So. How about if, instead of playing self-sacrifice roulette we stop, figure out what is actually required, and -then- talk about how we can do that in a way that lets us share the load and support each other."
Look at that, using his words. Almost like therapy was helping or something.
"Your knuckle is jammed." Marie-Ange finished bandaging Amanda's worst injuries and took Doug's hand. A firm grip and a single yank pulled the joint back into place. "Still the infirmary for you after." It was a conceit to Doug being the reasonable one this time. "First we tell the rest of X-Force. They may have additional ideas, and then yes, we figure out what I will need to get some kind of better answer than a perhaps. In the meantime, I can keep making sure we have the option. As long as Topaz still comes up having a future, we know we should still keep looking for more answers. That I can do, it is like... unlocking the door but not opening the gate."
Amanda blinked. “Unlocking the door…” she murmured. “Unlocking the door… But how does she find the door in the dark? We turn on the porch light, of course.” The vagueness had left her face and despite the cryptic words, she seemed far more with it than she had since Doug had pulled her away from the chapel wall. “You’re a genius, Frenchie,” she continued, before grabbing Marie-Ange’s face and planting an enthusiastic kiss on her. “I need to go round up the ducklings. I think I have an idea that will help.”
Marie-Ange could only blink for a moment, and automatically kissed back - and then, finally, managed to compose herself. "I love being accidentally a genius but please elaborate? I am done with missing people I cannot help. I can help this time." She turned, scooped up the deck of cards and flipped half one-handed. "Not just with these, but I can get information this time. Topaz has a future.”
Something flickered across Amanda’s face, drowning out the joy for just a second, before it was gone as soon as it had come. “She does. She has a future.” She grinned again. “And we’re going to leave a light on for her to come home.”
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Date: 2021-11-09 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-10 05:31 am (UTC)