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It's remarkable how certain things have their routine, have their place, and one can count on them working like clockwork. Laura, for instance, is still being an oddball keeping to Central Park and avoiding the more populated areas of the city. If Lorna were to look out for her, she'll find her in close proximity to their last meeting spot. Perched high on a tree branch, her position suggesting that like a jaguar she prepares to pounce some prey below. Something alert about her, all perked up and aware. Though it's not quite clear just what is it she might be looking after.
*
To say that after the protest gone riot had changed Lorna's perspective on people around her was an understatement. Despite Crystal's attempts to keep the young mutant at Xavier's and offer comfort, she was back out and pacing. A newspaper was crumbled and shoved into her purse, a scowl on her lips as she walked along the sidewalk she'd run into Laura on before. Every time she saw one of those papers it boiled her, though she had yet resorted to stealing them. She gave pause to the thought that perhaps she could ask Tommy or Pietro to…
A paper bag, held up in one hand was fisted tightly in a clenched grip as she walked. A healing shiner on her forehead from when someone had kicked her, as well as a split lip completed the look. Oh, and her hair was back to the mousy brown it had been before she'd met Laura. The signs that had been cropping up in the city 'Mutant Free' had clearly had something to do with that impulse.
Lorna heaved a sigh, kicking a rock on the sidewalk in a morose mood.
*
The protest was not exactly the highlight of Illyana's week, either, and the 'Mutant Free' signs are nothing that makes her smile. Then again, this is Illyana. Her smiles fall into the categories of 'wry' or 'sarcastic' or 'mischievous' or occasionally 'sadistic'. She's not busy just now — was just getting a few things squared away in Limbo — and paused to scry on her friends and family to make sure all were doing okay.
Lorna is morose. That's never pleasant.
There's a flash of light as Illyana arrives, falling into step beside Lorna with her hands clasped behind her back. "It's not all bad, you know. There are cookies."
*
The green hair was a sure sign to recognize Lorna, but with her dyed, it is her scent that tells Laura she's nearby. Emerlad green eyes shift, and a frown forms on Laura's visage when she spots the hair color of Lorna. At first she holds a internal debate with herself, on whether to question Lorna about it or let it be. Her instincts say to leave the girl alone, but then Illyana appears in a flash of light. That was not natural. Furthermore, from Laura's experience, people who flash in and flash out of places are more often than not, up to no good.
As Laura rather liked Lorna last they met, she decides to protect the green haired girl in disguise. Both Illyana and Lorna likely hear Laura's roaring growl as she leaps towards them, and seems to already prime her running mid-air, before her feet even touch the ground, and while she is headed for the two, the more alert would note she is aiming straight for Illyana.
*
Lorna jumped slightly as Illyana appeared, nearly dropping her bag of fried foods and the crumbled up newspaper under her arm. "Illyana! It's not all bad? What? They're calling my father a criminal when all he was trying to do was draw people away from hurting others that couldn't protect themselves. And now there's anti-mutant signs all over the place and—" The young woman clearly was looking for an outlet and tears gathered up in the corners of her eyes, which she rubbed at stubbornly.
"And what kind of cookies?" Was the warbling question, before the growl sounded and Lorna blinked hard. It took her long enough to process what, or who was the growler, that she really couldn't so much as attempt to step in other than a shout.
"Laura! Woah! Cut it out."
*
As queen of a hell dimension, Illyana sometimes feels she must play the devil's advocate — some would, after all, consider her a devil. "Your father DID sort of make loud angry statements that might lead them to such a conclusion," Illyana notes. Not gently, because Illyana is far from gentle. "What kind of…"
At this point the roaring charge of the miniature and gender-shifted Wolverine (because miniature Wolverine could just be Logan) gets Illyana's attention. She's got decent enough reactions, though, to teleport out of the way, winding up on the other side of Lorna. "What kind of cookies would you want?" she finishes before noting, "Welcome to Central Park, where the wild animals are sometimes not even animals. Hello, girl I don't know but Lorna does."
*
Laura is all set on pushing Illyana away from Lorna, or if need be, beating her down till she gives up, when Illyana suddenly shifts again. These impish stepping disc, you never know what they'll do next! Then again, Laura doesn't even know stepping discs exist, nor who Illyana is, but now she has a moment to calm down, mostly due to Illyana teleporting and only second thanks to Lorna bidding her to stop. Given this moment to stop and ease, rather than work on instinct, she realizes something is very odd about Illyana. Could be otherworldly traces in her scent that just shouldn't be, but not knowing anything about such things, Laura can only tell Illyana is different as well. "Hello." She says briefly in turn at Illyana's greeting, before shifting her gaze to Lorna, "she is not attacking you?"
*
Lorna released a breath of relief, her shoulders loosening as she realized Illyana teleported behind her and Laura halted her charge. "Uhm, I don't know? But I feel like cookies are a poor consolation to my father being called a criminal.." She muttered toward Illyana and glanced back to Laura with a strained smile.
"No, she wasn't attacking me. She's my friend, and one of my former roommates. We lived together for a while." She held out a bag of fried fast food stuffs toward Laura.
"Here, it's for you. And Laura, this is my friend, Illyana. Illyana, this is Laura. I met her a while back."
*
"And yet not all is bad," Illyana tells Lorna, because even if your father is being touted as a criminal, my dear, there are cookies to be had, and I was not stabbed in the gut by your friend. It's a pleasure to meet you, Laura. I would scarcely hurt Lorna — we're old friends. We roomed together in school. And I'm trying to cheer her up with cookies, though she feels this is somewhat less than sufficient for good cheer." She purses her lips, studying Lorna thoughtfully. "Clearly this calls for something more. Cheesecake."
"
*
Laura stands perfectly still until Lorna explains that Illyana is her friend, in the meantime she does quip, "what do you care if they call your father criminal?" It seemed like an odd concern to Laura. Wasn't it just enough that Lorna had a father? It was an odd thought in her mind. "Is that why your hair is dyed?" Laura asks Lorna curiously.
"Cookies?" Laura is quite baffled by Lorna's friend, it seems that much like most of society find Laura odd, she finds Illyana odd, never having heard of pastry serving for a cure to foul moods. Not that she has much of an understanding of moods, being a small sized package of rage. "Cheesecake?" So apparently there's a scale involved, that alone makes Laura feel more comfortable. Quantifiable criteria makes it easier to improve performance. "So…you went to school?" Laura has an inkling it may not be similar to her experience, and so wagers a question, "what did you do there?"
*
Lorna pressed a hand against her forehead, and let it drag down her face. "Yes, at least you weren't stabbed in the gut. But what if they go after my father and try to arrest him? I'm pretty sure he did break laws, even if he was trying to keep people from being hurt. I dunno, are there laws against ..that?" she hooked a brow upwards, glancing between the two. "And what if they try to get my father and lock him up in jail? A-and what if there's crazy scientists or something? He went through that already with the Nazis, that's not fair like at all—" She broke off, and hung her head biting her lower lip.
She held her silence for a beat, then a second one before she released the breath she'd held. "Yeah we were roommates for a semester at college. But I don't even know if I'll be able to stay there if this anti-mutant stuff keeps up." She grumbled, "We trained some at school, took classes for stuff.." She wasn't sure what Illyana was even trying to major in, if anything.
"It most definitely more than a cheesecake day, Illyana."
*
"Vatrushka it is," says Illyana. She glances at the watch on her wrist briefly and nods. "Should be available in twenty minutes or so in Yaroslavl. Don't worry, Lorna: it will all be better soon." She glances at Laura and shrugs. She's not the best at dealing others' pain — she's had an awful lot of her own.
"If they try to arrest your father, the guy who controls magnetism, they will be hard pressed to do so unless he goes along with it," she continues, turning toward Lorna and placing one hand on each of the green-haired girl's shoulders. "If there are mad scientists, he will make them eat their own probes. And if all else fails, Lorna, I will go get him. I promise."
*
Laura looks blankly at Lorna when she's concerned about potential lock ups and scientists, "there are always scientists when you're in confinement, it's not random," so yeah, she has her own experience to relate from. That also might differ from the experience of most. Just like somebody who stepped in late in a movie, it seems Laura finally has a grasp of what ails Lorna, "your father is in trouble? Want me to save him?"
*
To Illyana Laura offers a nod of acknowledgement, she also isn't well versed when it comes to emotions and dramas. She doesn't know what a Vatrushka is, but then she also didn't figure out how cookies or cheesecake relate to the problem at hand. So she doesn't even try to grasp at it.
*
A glance was spared toward Illyana and Lorna made to plop down on a nearby bench. "Yeah, okay.." She mumbled, "Most jails have iron somewhere." Never mind Mojo, Lorna hadn't thought there could be a prison made without iron. Give it to an interdimensional monster to have one on hand just for her. She shrugged, pulling out the newspaper and smoothing it out with care.
"And I know you or Wanda, or Billy or Doctor Strange would help get him out. I just.." She winced and pressed a fingertip against the bruises on her forehead. Her gaze swung toward Laura and she winced, "See? That freaks me out. Seriously. I already have nightmares from what happened with Mojo, did I ever tell you about that Illyana? Never mind, but that whole experimented on thing keeps me up at night. It's freaky." She wrinkled her nose and glanced back down at the newspaper. A hesitant smile pulling at her lips.
"He might be in trouble, I dunno. It depends if anyone actually tries to arrest him.."
*
Illyana's lips curl into a smile that is anything but pleasant, a note of 'you know nothing, Jon Snow' about it, even if the reference is better than thirty years ahead of schedule. "Your father should find a lawyer," she says. "Even if he is arrested, he has rights. Prisons are run by the government, and if he has somebody watching over him the government has to obey laws. They cannot simply make him disappear if people don't stop watching."
She can certainly envision an ironless dungeon, but Magneto can control the change in the guard's pockets, their keys. She does not see much that could keep him imprisoned if he didn't allow it.
*
"Why?" Laura asks of Lorna when she mentions how it freaks her out, "it just happens. Lucky when it doesn't happen to you, but when it does, it's just your turn." Laura seems perfectly fine with the idea, before offering, "but if you kill them, then they stop."
Laura nods along with Illyana's assessment, "they can't make him disappear. I found many who wanted to disappear, they can never hide for long. Come to me if he disappears, Lorna." Nevermind Magik and her witchy scrying pools.
*
Lorna blinked and considered both of her friends, "Oh. A lawyer." Her head tilted as if she had never considered that before. "Huh." She pursed her lips, "Yeah that's a good idea. I just.. with everything weird going on, magic riots and killer robots .. I completely forgot about that." It was so mundane, so normal and it made sense and that more than anything, seemed to ease Lorna.
Her gaze swept toward Laura and she made a face. "Because, well, I lost time when I was caught by this kinda giant monster slug thing from another dimension. I don't know what he did to me. I don't remember. I just know that it must've been something because he was able to clone me." She grimaced and scratched the back of her neck.
"Never mind that my father went through the Nazi camps and well.. They did things to him. And it's also how my sister and brother came to exist.. soo yeah, little freaked out by that concept."
*
"Hey," says Illyana. "Fourteen years in Hell, remember?" She raises her hand to indicate who's dealt with that. She's never told anybody all the details. She's not going to. "Imprisonment is horrible. Especially when it's not deserved. Your father lost his temper the other day — that's not enough to take him away from you, Lorna. Never mind that I almost lost my pants." The indignity!
*
Laura listens rather passively, nodding along as Lorna relates her story. Quite simple to tell she'd never make a good therapist, but then comes the mention of the experiments and how her siblings came to be, and her eyes brighten and open wide. "Where? Who? I want to meet them."
Then Illyana says something spectacular, causing Laura to turn towards her immediately. "You can get to hell? I was often asked to send people there. I understood it as having to eliminate a target. I may have been less than optimal. Can you show me how to get there?" Funny. Illyana mentions her own harrowing experience, and the thing that most bothers Laura is that perhaps her perfect record of success isn't that perfect. Maybe she was meant to actually transport some people to Hell, if it is a possibility.
*
A small smile flickers to life at Illyana's comment about nearly losing her pants. "Hey to be fair, that's my usual trick to get guys to leave me alone. But I doubt it was my father's intent." She glanced back toward Laura and then back to Illyana, unsure exactly what to say about Limbo.
"Uh, it's uh.. Illyana, maybe you can explain it better than I can? I don't really get the magic stuff." She shrugged, pushing her hair back from her face. "As far as my siblings go, sure? I mean Wanda and you might get along. She's the one that doesn't always get English sayings and things. Pietro is my brother and he's uhm.." How to explain the speedster? Lorna shrugged and gave up.
"He's really fast.." She offered lamely.
*
"Your father is an old pervert who wants to see my butt," Illyana informs Lorna solemnly, without any trace of humor — though Lorna should know her well enough to know that there's nothing serious about the statement at all. She turns her blue eyes from Lorna and looks at Laura critically, her lips an even line, before explaining, "When I was a child I was kidnapped to Limbo — a hell dimension. There are many of them. I can go there — my teleportation disks take me there. So I could show you the place, but it's not someplace that's easy to go to without my help."
*
Laura seems to have already made up her mind without elaborate explanations, she needs to meet Lorna's siblings, "I will meet them," she asserts rather than says. At Illyana's explanation about Hell, or rather Limbo, or however many versions of it there are, she looks displeased. "Seems I was setup to fail from the start…nothing new there. I need to reflect," she announces, and turns her back and leaves, potentially being her way of saying goodbye. At least for the time being.
*
Lorna snorted a laugh at Illyana's joke, "Well, he's dating a Princess at the moment, so there's always room for improvement right? You're technically Queen, after all?" She arched a brow, smiling at her friend before her gaze swung back toward Laura. She nodded to the feral woman, and as Laura took off she sighed gently, glancing back at the newspaper.
"And here I thought that 1964 was going to be a better year than last year.." She grumbled.
*
Illyana gently wraps one arm around Lorna's shoulders as Laura retreats. "That girl has issues," she observes, not that she's one to talk. "Lorna, there is no last year. It is all one time, and every day is as good or as bad as the last." Maybe it's a Russian proverb, or just Illyana's personal philosophy. "Come. I take you to Yaroslavl." Her accent is thicker for a moment. "We'll pick up Vatrushki."