asgardeventide | 1st vision

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1st vision | Video

ooc: Ghani got a very special visitor during the 4th wall event, and it's tearing her up that he didn't get to stay. This would be her failing to hide that fact. Put this post under a cut just in case because it contains big spoilers from her canon (Children of Dune).

[ The pain of being irrevocably separated from her brother is not unfamiliar to her. Back on Arrakis it was her constant companion, the knife in her heart twisted just a little bit more every time her twin came to her and asked for death when the agony of his tortured existence became too great.

But this is still new, the wounds inside her fresh and bleeding. When he appeared in Asgard she had dared to hope that perhaps... perhaps it could be different here. Perhaps in this place another path could be found for them than the one he had foreseen and thought to be the only one possible.

But Leto hadn't been allowed to stay, and once more she must find some contentment in a life she has not chosen and that he cannot be a part of.

Intending to find some distraction she turns on the video feed, questions on the tip of her tongue just waiting to spill out, along with offerings of sympathy to others who may have lost someone during these days... but for a long moment all she does is stare at the luminescent touchscreen in front of her face, her impossibly blue eyes doorways to infinity and her face a mask of composure and regal calm.

The stinging in her eyes is a sensation so unfamiliar, and her mind is so preoccupied, that she doesn't recognize it for what it is until a blink and a slight inclination of her head causes a tear to fall from one of them and land on her hand. She twitches as if she's been burned when it hits her skin, and that tiny droplet of water almost seems to be taunting her. Fremen do not cry, not even in grief can such a waste of the body's moisture be allowed, and yet here she is, giving water to the memory of her brother. She has grown water-fat in this place, and it only serves to underline how far from Arrakis she truly is.

"One day each of you will come face to face with the horror of your own existence. One day you will cry out for help. One day each of you will find yourselves... alone."

Her aunt's words drift through her mind as she lifts her hand to her mouth and her tongue flicks out to reclaim the tear, mimicking the older woman's last act in life as her consciousness folds in on itself and the room around her fades away. How true those words had ended up being.

She almost feels as if it is Alia looking out from her eyes and not herself as she finally speaks, her voice the cracked whisper it had been when the words were spoken by her dying aunt. ]

I want my brother.

[ And then the world snaps back into focus and she looks directly at the screen in front of her once more, face hard as she reaches out to turn off the feed before she exposes herself further. Whatever message she had wanted to put out on the network will have to wait.

Curse this place, and may the wind strip the flesh from the gods' bones. ]

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Ghanima. What the hell was what?

[ She considers not answering him, but the truth of the matter is that much as she hates that she lost control of herself like that, part of her is still in a way grateful that someone actually wants to know why. ]

Memories.

[ She seems calm again, but her voice is hollow and lifeless. Pretence seems relatively useless at the moment, and Pyro is the closest thing she has to a friend in this place. At the very least he's the one who knows the most about her, which isn't really saying much, but it will have to suffice. ]

Reacting to them so publicly was unintentional.

What kind of memories.

[Yeah, that's completely flat. No inflection at all. There's memories and then there's memories, according to what she told him, and he wants to make sure they were her own.]

[ Her features soften a little in something that's almost the hint of a smile at the question, since it's a pretty perceptive one and she actually appreciates that there is someone around who understands the danger she is in more or less constantly in spite of the defence mechanisms she has. ]

My own, mostly, though I will admit that some of them were... uncomfortably tied to those of a relative.

[ She sighs and wraps her arms around herself, looking very young and a little vulnerable. ]

[His own memories start to drift back at that, memories he'd locked away so well before coming here, and his own face hardens while hers softens.]

He was here, huh? Your brother.

[What would he have done if his parents had come? Once he would've said kill them, instantly, but that seems too little for them now. Besides, after meeting someone like Euri, there are questions he'd like answered before the end.]

[ She notes the shift in his countenance, aware that they relate to the subject of family very differently, to say the least. ]

Yes he was. But he didn't get to stay.

[ Why would the gods not want to keep him there? He is the strong one. ]

And I just got some shitty X-Men.

[It's meant to be light, but his face doesn't match his tone.]

You're both the same, you guys?

[ She nods. ]

We're twins.

[ Which doesn't really cover much in terms of explaining the connection she and Leto share, but there really are no words for it anyway. ]

Who are the X-men?

[There's a few seconds of silence on that, but he doesn't comment. He doesn't even know how siblings work, never mind twins.

Easier to latch onto a familiar topic.]

There's two factions on the mutant side. Professor Xavier has the X-Men, who're all about appeasement and peaceful resolution and all that good shit that never works, and Magneto has the Brotherhood, who fight back and prove that we're not animals who can be doped up and caged or put down if they think we're too mean. Honestly, the X-Men spend more time getting in Magneto's way than doing anything themselves.

[ The change of topic suits her just fine for the moment. ]

And you are a part of this Brotherhood?

[ That's what he seems to be telegraphing clear as day, at least. ]

Recently joined. As in about an hour before I got here. But they're here, even if they're from about fifty years ago.

[He looks proud and defiant, even though he doesn't expect her to question her choice. She doesn't seem amoral by any means, but she hasn't intruded on his decisions yet.]

[ Not amoral, no, but definitely a fighter. She doesn't know enough about the situation he's from to have much of an opinion on it, but she certainly doesn't see much wrong with fighting back when you are being persecuted.

So her reaction to this is simply to nod, and raise an eyebrow a little. ]

So they are from a different point in time than you, but from the same world? It makes a kind of sense I suppose.

[ She doesn't think about time in the same way that many other people might. ]

Edited 2013-07-18 22:43 (UTC)

It's weird as hell, actually. One doesn't look too different because she's a metamorph, but hanging around with a dude who's probably in his 30s when I'm used to him being around a hundred is freaky.

[Not to mention the things he's found out about Magneto's past. Still, he has to say:]

I'm loyal to them, from any time period. But it's freaky.

I just meant that it's not that big of a stretch that someone that can just pull people from any place can also pull them from any time.

[ She shrugs a little. ]

Then again my perception of time isn't exactly the same most people's I suppose.

Just wait 'til one of your head-relatives shows up needing a diaper changed. You'll get it then.

[And once again, his smirk is half-smile.]

They come back a lot, y'know. The people who leave. Mystique's been here twice, and I'm still expecting the Professor to show up again. Euri just had someone come back after pretty much giving up on him.

[Encouragement? Nah, of course not. Just stating the facts.]

[ It might not be encouragement, but those facts he's stating do make Ghanima smile a little bit. Not that he was trying to accomplish that or anything, but there it is. ]

Thank you.

[ For absolutely not being sweet to her. ]

It... [ She hesitates a little, but decides to follow through with what she was going to say. ] It's not really all that different from what it's like back home. Waiting for him. Hoping.

[He doesn't respond to the thanks, in look or word. Just considers what she said.]

I'm guessing he's in that war you're dealing with back home.

[She cannot help feeling sympathy upon seeing this post. Because Nils, Nils...]

My brother is not here either... I'm sorry, my lady.

Thank you.

[ What more is there to say than that, really? She had not meant to metaphorically bleed all over the network, but that isn't this stranger's fault. Ghanima is angry with herself, but she is not so unfair that she would take it out on someone else. ]

I am sorry for dumping a private matter into the public's lap, so to speak. It was unintentional.

He more or less won it for us, actually.

[ It sounds a little absurd when she puts it like that. Civil war that would have spread across an entire galaxy ended by the actions of one young man.

It is far more complicated than that, of course, but it is true that it was Leto who settled the matter in the end. ]

But he had to change to do it. He... [ She swallows, again unsure whether or not to keep going. But she wants to tell someone, and while she doesn't trust Pyro, she thinks she has enough of an understanding of his character to open up a little. ]

He allowed creatures we call sandtrout to merge with his skin, and it is changing him. He is becoming a desert creature himself. He runs and runs and runs over the sands, and I wait for him. He comes back, each time a little less the brother I used to know, and he puts his head in my lap and begs for death. And I can't help him.

[That silences Pyro for a long, long time. It's like someone taking on a mutation by choice, only not quite - he's leaving everything behind, not just the title of "human." An entirely different species rather than a discrete branch.]

He gave up his humanity to save human life. [After awhile, there's a slow shake of his head.] That's not a fair trade any way you look at it.

As I think you have bitterly experienced for yourself, life is very far from fair.

[ She swallows around a lump in her throat, but her eyes remain dry now. She will shed no more tears over this. ]

And that's what you couldn't stop.

[For one of the extremely rare times in his life, he actually sees a situation from the other side. It's just a flicker, but he sees someone doing something that massively life-changing and reckless and how it must feel from the other side.

He's quick to write it off - he'd never go that far, and he's always justified in his actions - but Ghanima's pain actually touches him for a second, and it feels strange. Uncomfortable.]

[It's some time before he responds to the short and clearly unhappy message - not from any lack of empathy on Jamie's part, but rather due to the poisoning that's swept through the city. He'd simply been too sick to put up a message sooner. And while he knows she's likely had a bit to recover from what it was that'd upset her originally, there's still enough concern over what had happened that he chooses to send a message anyway.]

Ghanima? Are ye all right?

... Maybe it was unintentional, milady, but I guess no one is an island. Wanting to be heard is not a bad thing in itself, specially in a place like this...

Edited 2013-07-20 12:43 (UTC)

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