Conversations with dead people!

[steelartisan]

When Piotr came in earlier, it was the end of a long day at the Mansion: training with the students, and then training with the team, and then all the little chores and negotiations that make up a day at a school-cum-superhero base. A quiet day, at least, however long

Comments

[sorceressupreme]

Illyana was walking.

Where from and where to were fuzzy.

There were billowing fields wheat under a blue sky dotted with clouds as far as she could see, the golden waves rippling in the breeze that set her hair to dancing at her sides. She plucked a stalk of wheat, bringing it to her nose.

Had she been looking for someone; something?

[steelartisan]

These aren't quite the wheatfields of the Ust-Ordynski farm, not from the waking world's perspective. The hills don't lie right; these golden fields go on forever, rippling over the land, unmarred by road or river or houses.

But dreams have a deeper logic than fact, sometimes. And in the dream, Piotr is home.

For a moment, the familiar figure on the horizon is completely unremarkable. Just one more piece of the landscape; one more expected piece of home.

And then he remembers that he's been waiting for her to come home -- that she was away, somewhere, some nebulous time; it doesn't occur to him to think of the details. She was gone and he missed her, and now she's back.

His face lights up, and he's running.

[sorceressupreme]

She feels all together too big and too small. The only different spot under the sky and field, each of colors too bright to feel particularly right, to feel real. It's almost like they could fade together, mingling like paint on a canvas.

Her eyes scanned the space that felt endless, turning around with a strange wave of panic, searching for....searching for...and then there was something else in distance.

Tall and large and moving fast.

And Illyana laughed, fear vanishing in an instant, delighted even as she was unable to make out the face yet.

She knew. Of course, she knew. He was always the one to come find her when she'd wandered too far from where she was supposed to be. What would mother say?

[steelartisan]

That is a big brother's job. To protect; to find; to sacrifice for, and to be there.

(In this dream, in this moment, he doesn't remember the failures.)

One moment he's running towards her across a long slope, and the next he's picking her up, with no sense of distance or transition. "There you are, little snowflake!"