Amanda and Pyotr - Friendly Warnings
Dec. 4th, 2022 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsWith Illyana back, Pyotr decides to make sure she's safe and goes to talk to Amanda. It is not a happy conversation.
Now that his sister was back he could not seem to wipe the stupid grin off his face. Client work slowly drying up? Did not matter, Illyana was back. Stupid arguments about training and ethics of violence? Baby sister back, yay!
But there was one thing he had to set straight before he could truly give himself over to the thrill. His sister had an enemy, one who was not going to enjoy the snowflake's return. And she needed to know some things.
So he went to go hunt Amanda down wherever she may be in the Mansion. He wasn't so dumb as to go to Snow Valley to have this conversation. No, he wanted to catch her alone, give friendly reminder that attempts to banish his baby sister back to Limbo would not be received well.
If Amanda had been a mind reader, she would have been very surprised at this particular train of thought. However, while the magic allowed her to do many things, being psychic was not one of them. So as she leaned against the railing of the back porch off the kitchen, having a cigarette and watching the squirrels scampering around in the light covering of snow, she had no idea of what was coming.
He couldn't help but wrinkle his nose at the cigarette smoke. "Good evening." he told her with his best effort to be understood and suppress his Siberian accent. "May I join you for a moment?"
She looked surprised, but at the nose wrinkle, she stubbed out her cigarette in the sand bucket provided. "Sure," she said, with a small shrug. Of course, with Illyana now back, she should have expected he'd seek her out. "What did you want to talk about?"
He didn't answer her question right away, instead he took a moment to appreciate the view she was appreciating. Finally, he spoke. "As you've no doubt heard my sister has returned on her own from Limbo." he said. "It occurs to me that you might not be tremendously welcoming." he said, concentrating on his English to make as sure as possible of there being no misunderstandings.
Her eyebrows rose. "Oh? What makes you think that?" she asked, careful to keep any defensiveness out of her voice.
"How hard you pushed against the idea of anyone trying to rescue her." he said simply. "She returned of her own will. Plans to stay for the most part." he mentioned, like it was no big thing at all. Since she put her smoke out he took a deep breath of the clear night air and then released it.
For her part, Amanda huffed out an exasperated breath. "I wasn't against trying to rescue her," she replied. "You totally misunderstood me. What I was saying is that we had no idea where she even was or if she needed to be rescued. You were totally fixated on her being in trouble, and I wanted to be sure you weren't going to go running off making deals with demons to get her back. That was all."
Pyotr steeled himself - metaphorically - to try to speak in ways she would understand. "Believe it or not, I am a gentle man." he said. "Do not wish to resort to might to make points understood. But Illyana, she's my little sister. Were very close growing up. She means everything to me. If she were to disappear again, would break my heart. And if learn her disappearance was not of her will, well, that would have consequences. Do you understand?"
"Of course. If Illyana disappeared against her will, I'd do everything I could to make sure she was safe, same as I would for anyone here." Obviously logic wasn't going to work here, so Amanda opted for being reasonable. "Keeping the mansion and its people safe is important to all of us here."
"Da, of course." he said agreeably. He thought she was dancing around his point but he wasn't sure his eloquence in English was enough to keep pace with her. Still, he owed it to his baby sister to try. "Would be awful to find little sister gone because it would be convenient." he offered.
"Oh, for fuck's sake..." Amanda muttered under her breath. She turned to face the larger man squarely and switched to Russian. Her accent was terrible, but her words were understandable. "~Let's make it very clear, okay? I have no intention to harm your sister. I am not going to make her disappear. I have never wished harm against her. So you can stop with the veiled threats, okay?~"
He obligingly switched to Russian as well. "Good. Then you have nothing to fear." he said pleasantly. On the topic of threats he was silent, but he was sure now that his message was received.:"Had to speak language you'd understand." he said, still in Russian.
"Because I'm a spy? Fucking hell, Rasputin, the Cold War is over and the KGB don't exist any more. Enough with the 'spies are Big Bad Boogeymen', okay? You sound like a relic." Amanda's response was in a mixture of Russian and English as her frustration bled through. "We're here to help mutants, same as the leather brigade and that especially means the people we bloody well live with. Including Illyana. So all this posturing and hint-dropping? Makes you look like an idiot." She took in a deep breath. "Now, if you're satisfied the mean nasty spy lady isn't going to hurt your baby sister, I'm going to go back to my room and get back to working on something that's actually happening."
Pyotr didn't rise to her bait, but it took a great deal of self-control. "Already had co-worker try extorting for favor. And da, the KGB is no more, but try living under an FSB threat for most of life, then come back and say don't understand spies. Big brother was mutant, says the FSB man, and mutantcy runs in families. Pay FSB man, do his favors, or find out what happens to mutants in mother Russia. Pay FSB man, farming collective, or Red Room come and take away little sister. Pay, pay, pay! You're all alike, just the masters change. Yes, you look out for mutantkind. No doubt on that. But even so, just cannot _help_ but try to reap benefit." he said with a near-snarl. "Pfaugh. Go back to spy things. Did not want it to come to this, but here we stand." he said. "Find next threat so can deal with it. Keep people safe." he said, then followed it with an exhausted sigh. "So can keep sister safe." Why was this so hard for her to understand?
Had they gotten their hooks into her already?
"Do you have anyone you care about deeply? That you would protect above anything for yourself?" he asked. "I do. And I'll do anything to protect her. You say do not understand spies? Maybe. Here's chance to show worth."
She snorted. "That FSB man was a gangster, not a spy. Actual spies would have watched your collective, collected evidence and when they were sure, you would have just disappeared. Nothing so tacky as standing over you for money. As for the rest..." It was hard to keep the anger out of her voice, anger laced with the long-carried grief of what was known as M-Day. "I've been connected to this place for twenty years. I came here as a student, I stayed to help protect it. Because it's not just one person I care about, it's everyone in this whole bloody madhouse. And you have no idea what I've already done to protect them. What I'll do to protect you, and Illyana, because you belong to this place now. I'm not the enemy here, Rasputin. None of the Trenchcoats are." She drew in another quivering breath - damn her emotions, she wasn't winning any prizes for self-control today. "I know my worth, and I have nothing to prove to you."
"So long as trenchcoats do not try to make sister disappear, are right. Have nothing to prove. If she does? Have conversation again, but much less friendly." he said, then gave her a sad little smile. "Am sorry had to go like this. Not what I wanted. But had to, to make understandings, da? Now we all know where we stand. And would like very much to be wrong. Find the one set of benevolent spies in all the world." he told her with great sincerity, then took a step back to walk away.
"Believe me, I didn't want this either. But you're the one with your knickers in a twist for no reason." Her tone was definitely less than gracious and she'd pulled her cigarette pack out to resume her interrupted smoke. She didn't look at him again, intent on lighting up. The conversation was over.
Now that his sister was back he could not seem to wipe the stupid grin off his face. Client work slowly drying up? Did not matter, Illyana was back. Stupid arguments about training and ethics of violence? Baby sister back, yay!
But there was one thing he had to set straight before he could truly give himself over to the thrill. His sister had an enemy, one who was not going to enjoy the snowflake's return. And she needed to know some things.
So he went to go hunt Amanda down wherever she may be in the Mansion. He wasn't so dumb as to go to Snow Valley to have this conversation. No, he wanted to catch her alone, give friendly reminder that attempts to banish his baby sister back to Limbo would not be received well.
If Amanda had been a mind reader, she would have been very surprised at this particular train of thought. However, while the magic allowed her to do many things, being psychic was not one of them. So as she leaned against the railing of the back porch off the kitchen, having a cigarette and watching the squirrels scampering around in the light covering of snow, she had no idea of what was coming.
He couldn't help but wrinkle his nose at the cigarette smoke. "Good evening." he told her with his best effort to be understood and suppress his Siberian accent. "May I join you for a moment?"
She looked surprised, but at the nose wrinkle, she stubbed out her cigarette in the sand bucket provided. "Sure," she said, with a small shrug. Of course, with Illyana now back, she should have expected he'd seek her out. "What did you want to talk about?"
He didn't answer her question right away, instead he took a moment to appreciate the view she was appreciating. Finally, he spoke. "As you've no doubt heard my sister has returned on her own from Limbo." he said. "It occurs to me that you might not be tremendously welcoming." he said, concentrating on his English to make as sure as possible of there being no misunderstandings.
Her eyebrows rose. "Oh? What makes you think that?" she asked, careful to keep any defensiveness out of her voice.
"How hard you pushed against the idea of anyone trying to rescue her." he said simply. "She returned of her own will. Plans to stay for the most part." he mentioned, like it was no big thing at all. Since she put her smoke out he took a deep breath of the clear night air and then released it.
For her part, Amanda huffed out an exasperated breath. "I wasn't against trying to rescue her," she replied. "You totally misunderstood me. What I was saying is that we had no idea where she even was or if she needed to be rescued. You were totally fixated on her being in trouble, and I wanted to be sure you weren't going to go running off making deals with demons to get her back. That was all."
Pyotr steeled himself - metaphorically - to try to speak in ways she would understand. "Believe it or not, I am a gentle man." he said. "Do not wish to resort to might to make points understood. But Illyana, she's my little sister. Were very close growing up. She means everything to me. If she were to disappear again, would break my heart. And if learn her disappearance was not of her will, well, that would have consequences. Do you understand?"
"Of course. If Illyana disappeared against her will, I'd do everything I could to make sure she was safe, same as I would for anyone here." Obviously logic wasn't going to work here, so Amanda opted for being reasonable. "Keeping the mansion and its people safe is important to all of us here."
"Da, of course." he said agreeably. He thought she was dancing around his point but he wasn't sure his eloquence in English was enough to keep pace with her. Still, he owed it to his baby sister to try. "Would be awful to find little sister gone because it would be convenient." he offered.
"Oh, for fuck's sake..." Amanda muttered under her breath. She turned to face the larger man squarely and switched to Russian. Her accent was terrible, but her words were understandable. "~Let's make it very clear, okay? I have no intention to harm your sister. I am not going to make her disappear. I have never wished harm against her. So you can stop with the veiled threats, okay?~"
He obligingly switched to Russian as well. "Good. Then you have nothing to fear." he said pleasantly. On the topic of threats he was silent, but he was sure now that his message was received.:"Had to speak language you'd understand." he said, still in Russian.
"Because I'm a spy? Fucking hell, Rasputin, the Cold War is over and the KGB don't exist any more. Enough with the 'spies are Big Bad Boogeymen', okay? You sound like a relic." Amanda's response was in a mixture of Russian and English as her frustration bled through. "We're here to help mutants, same as the leather brigade and that especially means the people we bloody well live with. Including Illyana. So all this posturing and hint-dropping? Makes you look like an idiot." She took in a deep breath. "Now, if you're satisfied the mean nasty spy lady isn't going to hurt your baby sister, I'm going to go back to my room and get back to working on something that's actually happening."
Pyotr didn't rise to her bait, but it took a great deal of self-control. "Already had co-worker try extorting for favor. And da, the KGB is no more, but try living under an FSB threat for most of life, then come back and say don't understand spies. Big brother was mutant, says the FSB man, and mutantcy runs in families. Pay FSB man, do his favors, or find out what happens to mutants in mother Russia. Pay FSB man, farming collective, or Red Room come and take away little sister. Pay, pay, pay! You're all alike, just the masters change. Yes, you look out for mutantkind. No doubt on that. But even so, just cannot _help_ but try to reap benefit." he said with a near-snarl. "Pfaugh. Go back to spy things. Did not want it to come to this, but here we stand." he said. "Find next threat so can deal with it. Keep people safe." he said, then followed it with an exhausted sigh. "So can keep sister safe." Why was this so hard for her to understand?
Had they gotten their hooks into her already?
"Do you have anyone you care about deeply? That you would protect above anything for yourself?" he asked. "I do. And I'll do anything to protect her. You say do not understand spies? Maybe. Here's chance to show worth."
She snorted. "That FSB man was a gangster, not a spy. Actual spies would have watched your collective, collected evidence and when they were sure, you would have just disappeared. Nothing so tacky as standing over you for money. As for the rest..." It was hard to keep the anger out of her voice, anger laced with the long-carried grief of what was known as M-Day. "I've been connected to this place for twenty years. I came here as a student, I stayed to help protect it. Because it's not just one person I care about, it's everyone in this whole bloody madhouse. And you have no idea what I've already done to protect them. What I'll do to protect you, and Illyana, because you belong to this place now. I'm not the enemy here, Rasputin. None of the Trenchcoats are." She drew in another quivering breath - damn her emotions, she wasn't winning any prizes for self-control today. "I know my worth, and I have nothing to prove to you."
"So long as trenchcoats do not try to make sister disappear, are right. Have nothing to prove. If she does? Have conversation again, but much less friendly." he said, then gave her a sad little smile. "Am sorry had to go like this. Not what I wanted. But had to, to make understandings, da? Now we all know where we stand. And would like very much to be wrong. Find the one set of benevolent spies in all the world." he told her with great sincerity, then took a step back to walk away.
"Believe me, I didn't want this either. But you're the one with your knickers in a twist for no reason." Her tone was definitely less than gracious and she'd pulled her cigarette pack out to resume her interrupted smoke. She didn't look at him again, intent on lighting up. The conversation was over.
