712/Home is where you hang your cannonball

Home is where you hang your cannonball
Date of Scene:	23 March 2020
Location:	Dawnrise Apartment Complex
Synopsis:	Sam shacks up, Doug shakes down, and Illyana has words.
Cast of Characters:	Illyana Rasputina, Douglas Ramsey, Samuel Guthrie

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Illyana Rasputina has posed:
When searching for a new place to live, clearly a young man needs backup. Doug makes sense, not only to decipher the value of any WiFi connections or other services, but for the necessary snark to put off tricky landlords. Illyana, likely for expertise in managing contracts. Who better than an actual demon queen to know the ins and outs of binding yourself financially, physically, and legally to an entity like a landlord?

Salem Center isn't exactly known for slumlords. New York City's protections to tenants may not extend quite this far. Nonetheless, buyer beware and all that. The Dawnrise are those kinds of apartments that bespeak modernity and pretty design, all smart Cape Cod flat colours instead of the old brownstones prevalent just about everywhere else. Glass and natural hues abound, which is saying it's all so... cosmopolitan. Charming. Soulless? Clean?

Illyana crosses her arms over her chest and glares at a charming little advertisement for hot yoga somewhere nearby. "Nyeh."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug is pretty obviously not happy with the whole thing. But he's being good, he's staying silent, he's biting his tongue as they look at apartment after apartment. The fun one was when he listened carefully, put his techno-organic fist through the drywall, and pulled out a big handful of cockroaches.

But finally, while they're looking at quite a pleasant little apartment, he looks up at a light fixture and says, "...This is a mistake."

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie looks over and says to Doug "Ah talked to Jean and Scott, they think an apartment is better than bringing her into the mansion, till they have cleared her and know more about her." He will tell him friend. "I did take your advice and talked to them." He says as he is looking at the apartment and then over to doug.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
"To think they let me on the property. Charles' signoff, I suppose," remarks the blonde, her hair pulled up into two buns and the rest left floating in long pigtails. If anyone calls her Usagi, they're in trouble. Or going to send that right over her head with a reference the girl doesn't get. She laces her fingers together and ghosts through the tiny foyer of the place, hauling open a closet and looking up to the ceiling as though expecting a mindflayer to leap out and hug her face. "She is a hot commodity. We cannot put the children at risk if her father will come to take her back, da?"

Her nose wrinkles quite a bit, and she turns back to Doug. "You hear it too?"

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug looks up at Sam and holds up one finger. He opens his mouth. There's a one second pause, and then... "Ty glupets! Posle vsego etogo ty deystvitel'no dumayesh', chto ona sobirayetsya uyti ot svoyego ottsa? Ty dumayesh', on prosto sobirayetsya yeye otpustit'? Kak ty mozhesh' byt' takim chertovski plotnym! Vy smotrite na devushku, i vdrug vash mozg sdelan iz skuchnogo kapitana Khrusta! YA prosto ne mogu dazhe s toboy seychas! YA dolzhen podderzhat' tvoyu igru, a ty takaya tupitsa!"

He throws up his hands, and storms into another room, slamming the door behind him. Yeah, it's not his apartment. So what?

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie looks over to Illy, and says "Ok, my Russian is not that good, want to fill me on what he said?" He frowns a bit looking after his friend.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
"You are supporting the American grain market with your decisions," Illyana replies. For her to be the cool one isn't unexpected, the Russian stoicism as strong as the cultural trait for fatalism. Pass her a glass of vodka and she can brave the very worst. All she needs is a moment to push her bangs from her face, elbowing the closet door shut with the slightest clack. "He was on Genosha, da? Maybe you put your heart before your head on this one, Sam. We stick together and that will not change. He and I have our doubts about her father."

A glimmer of those pale blue eyes holds an edge, shadows moving under a glacial sea, snow bears hiding in the wrath of a winter's storm on the tundra. Hard to tell. "My methods to take care of him are too rash." An echo of someone else talking there. "Are you really certain this girl, she is willing to give up everything she knows for you? Do you know what that costs someone?"

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
If anyone wants Doug, he'll be in the Angry Dome. "Asal balbh!" He can be heard saying from the other room.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie 's brow raises a bit at the first part pretty sure it lost something in the translation. "It is going to be hard yes, but tell me this should we leave a mutant with her father who is a mutant hater. How many mutants have we seen shun or worse by their parents when they found out they were mutants. It is often bad when the parents are just normal people, tell me what do you think he will do when he finds out the girl who ha has been flaunting as the best of the best of humans, is a mutant?" He looks to them "Yea, she is giving up a lot and is scared of it, even wabbeling on the fence, but well, Ah know she wants to be with me.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
<<Myjd ihnbb oepg zygnlyjd, dy'pcel ez hrl fygmxlj s'nho,>> Illyana's reply comes with a guttural clash of syllables and soaring, brittle consonants that aren't meant to be produced by the human physiognomy, yet still she manages without coming off like someone threw a handful of potsherds at the tile floor and waited for them to rebound. The broken clatter makes English seem like pure poetry next to it, the very constructions more familiar. Rolling her shoulder, she ventures down the hall to the first of the doors and assesses the common area. Suspicious, always. "Family ties do not wither at the first rejection." A flick of the light switch tests the fixtures, revealing any shadows or Doug hiding in the corner scowling at windows. "There is duty and honour, da, and also the black shadow of reality."

A slight arc of her brow is all there is for emotional response as she turns back to Sam. "I do not know him. Human psychology? Ask Jean. Shame will drive him, contempt and disgust riding as its horsemen. Not enough to excommunicate her, he will destroy her piece by piece. The only way to show this impurity of his seed is burnt out totally." The slow circling of her fingertips, pointer on thumb, is telling. "Wobbling, da. Love is not enough, Sam. It never is. She cannot do this for you, and you will not like the hard truth. It has to be for herself, by herself. See the monster he is. See what waits in denial. We can show her the way but you cannot fly her over those steps. I still say it would be easier to dump in the abyss for a few years."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
What Illyana says silences Doug's ranting -- but now he's plainly sulking, and nobody could sulk quite like Our Douglas. He's probably sitting and looking all pensive and frustrated--

But then he comes out and says, "You barely know this girl! You know me! *I* am your friend! *I* am the one who agreed to leave with you at one in the morning when you didn't *have any pants on*! And I'm trying to give you the best advice that I can."

He sinks to the ground with a huff. "And it's plainly not enough. I want to grab you by the ears and yell at you that this idyllic life you've got in your head *isn't going to happen* because he will *kill her* before he will let it, Sam. And deep down she knows it too."

Then he sighs, and rubs the back of his neck. "Amor vincit omnia, et nos cedamus amori?"

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
The demon queen is going to ask, because that's what she does: "No pants?"

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"You're the ones who threw him out of the house." Doug retorts, "Or don't you remember?"

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie looks over and says "And I will fight to make sure he does not hurt her." He looks to his friends, and says "Ah have faith and protecting her from him is what Ah am doing. Hell, Ah think Scott wants to try to use she is a mutant against him. Ah want her safe, and you think Ah should just leave her to his mercies? She is scared yes, but she is also someone who stands up for what she believes in. I aint trying to carry her through the steps just hold her hand to help support wen she needs it.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Illyana Rasputina offers that slightest curve of a smirk to Doug, the golden boy in their midst. She has absolutely no qualms about her actions or the questions, other than to spread her fingers in a fanned arc as though to say 'And so?'

Still, there he is, on the floor. Stalking over to him is likely peculiar given her boots give off practically no sound, modulated to let her walk with an unhealthy modicum of stealth. Swinging around behind him, she bends from the waist to consider the situation. What do normal people do in this situation? Hell if she knows; Limbo came without a manual on human interactions that wasn't prefaced by 'And destroy everything they care about' in the first three lines. Therefore, she loops her arms around Doug's neck and gives that impression of weight, her hair dusting the finer waves of his, icy pale flax on a sea of gold. "This is where I tell you, Sam, he does not want to see you hurt."

She rolls her shoulders anyway, but mostly stays put, almost, almost resting her chin atop Doug's head while watching Sam with curiously pale, almost blank eyes. "She will fall. It will hurt. He threatens any of you, understand I /will/ kill him."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug looks away, and then sets his jaw. "I have to back your play because that's what we do. But I *don't* have to like it and you can't make me." He sits there, with Illyana draped over him, and says, "You need to slow the heck down, Guthrie."

"Moving in with a woman you met three weeks ago is a Berto move."

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie looks over and says "You think he could get a woman to move in with him that quick?" He looks to his friend, and says "At least I did not leave the planet with her on a first date?" He looks about and says "Honestly expecting to be living at the place a month or two and then she be at the school. If we are still wanting to stay together, maybe see about a cabin out there or something."

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
There are certain topics into which Illyana simply will not wade. This is one of them. She gives a mere shake of her head, and leaves the matter at that, expression obscured by the devilishly fine golden hair. Her smirk briefly displays the points of her canine teeth, and no more.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"...Don't." Doug says, steepling his fingers together. "Don't make me laugh. Don't you DARE make me laugh right now, Sam Guthrie, I'm going to sit here, and I'm gonna be frustrated and mad at you. You're taking *so many* unnecessary risks here and it's not okay just because you're *you*. Don't extend privileges to yourself you wouldn't give us! And don't you *dare* make me laugh."

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie looks to his friend and says "Doug, Ah am all for letting my friends help me, heck, Scott even basiclly told me to get Berto to pay for the apartment." He will admit. Ah would say would do a place near you guys place, but think the commute might be harsh." He looks to them, and says "We talked a bit more about it just the other night. And well." He pauses seeming to think about how to say this "Well while she is worried about how she will get to preform for sure, she did say something for us not for her or me, but sharing it."

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
"Performing is her thing, da? Turn her attention to survival first. Music as the solace with doors closed, but not this need to be publicly out there?" Illyana's words have a slight flat tone, just a fraction in the deadpan delivery. She finally straightens up, back flexing and her hands moving up Doug's chest and his shoulders, splintering their connection. "You can laugh and be angry. I do not like this. There are dangerous elements that must be fixed."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"We all had things taken from us, and we all had to make sacrifices when we found out what we really were." Doug says to Sam. "You had to give up your family and college. I gave up--" Doug shakes his head, "Pretty much the same thing now that I think about it. Dani lost her grandfather. Berto lost Juliana. Illyana--" Well, say no more about that.

"This isn't some hazing ritual, if she's unwilling to defy her father outright and give up the familiar things in her life, she's exposing herself -- and you -- to danger.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Illyana Rasputina's expression goes distant for a moment, but her fingers traipse along the slope of the omniglot's shoulder again. Contact matters, after all.

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie says, "Well, Ah will be keeping my eyes open, and know to call my friends in to help if need be, maybe it will give Illy a reason to feed her dad to the demons." He looks a round the place. "So, know how many bedrooms these apartments have? One, two.. err three?""

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug looks up at Illyana. "You can't make mom and dad start speaking to me again." Doug says to Illyana, before he looks back to Sam. "And you know I'll back your play. I'm just sitting here begging you to slow the heck down and deal with the problem of her bigot father *before* you start pitching woo. That's all."

"You don't want this apartment." Doug says, "There was a camera hidden behind the mirror in the bathroom."

Samuel Guthrie has posed:
Sam Guthrie blushes a bit at what Doug says but just rubs the back of his neck and keeps quiet.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
"You are family. Take your time," replies the blonde sorceress to Sam, missing the blush or just unbothered. "Look closer to Chinatown. It will be beneath his notice."

That said, she stretches her lower back with a slight arch and turns her focus to Doug. "I am hungry. Let's go get some more orange juice."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"Yeah I know Sam." Doug pats his shoulder. "I'm a day late and a dollar short."

Doug looks up at Illyana, and mutters, with Cleavon Little's exact inflection, "Bay-bee, I am *not from Havana*--"