ArchivedLogs:In the WaspKing's Court (pt2)

In the WaspKing's Court (pt2)
Dramatis Personae Ivan, Jackson, Rasa, Thea, WaspWomen
In Absentia	2013-06-09 Jackson and Thea find out what the WaspWomen have done. (Part of Them! TP)
Location Somewhere in Clinton
The inside of this abandoned building has been stripped. The top floor, in what used to be space 6 or 8 apartments by the look of it, is now essentially one big open space with just the load-bearing pillars for support. The windows have mostly been blacked out or boarded over. In two places, the room has been walled off with a translucent papery material which is deceptively sturdy. These areas have been partitioned for privacy, and seem to just be a bathroom, and a bedroom. The bedroom looks like it was made for a king. A king who is also a teenaged boy. It has a king sized bed, a huge flat screen TV sitting on the floor and an apparently random collection of DVDs and video games in a pile near it. Afternoon rolls into evening in the Bug King's lair. While things may look still on the surface, one Rasa laying in bed (still clothed) cuddling one Ivan, there is stuff going on underneath. The telepathic metamorph has spent most of this time coaxing Ivan silently, trying to stir up something inside him that is more him and less bug. It is exceptionally tiring, especially when ze started out with a headache. << You were going to tell me stories, >> ze starts again, tugging on the conscious parts of Ivan's mind. << I was going to read fairytales and you were going to tell me about the ones that have sparrows in them. can you tell me one where the sparrows are victorious? I am curious how this works as they are such small and adorable little birds. >> Ze shifts, hir cheek resting on Ivan's shoulder, hir hand playing gently across his chest. << I still can't believe you're naked, >> ze notes with a creeping blush. It's been a slow process, dragging Ivan (thankfully now with his lower half under some sheets) out of one world and back into the other. And even now, he lies still as he can without forgetting to breathe, his eyes thoughtfully on the ceiling. << ... I forgot where I put my clothes. >> He admits, after a long spot of silence in which he /sorts/. It's a continuous process with new information cluttering his mind non-stop. It's only because of Rasa's help that he manages at all, but there's an absent sort of feel about his thoughts, as if they're pushed out onto the surface only to have their ties with the rest of him /cut/, immediately afterward. The touch of hir hand on his chest is lost in the mess of his thoughts, if he notices at all, even if it causes a muscle to /twitch/ in his neck. << There was a bear. And a wolf. And a sparrow family. >> Oh wait, did ze say victorious? Because the next thing that flashes across Ivan's mind and over into Rasa's is a memory of a picture, a yellowed page with a watercolour illustration of a tree, said predators below it, and a large collection of sparrow-feathers whirling freely (and sparrowlessly) through the air. << Come on, Vanya. Focus. >> Rasa pushes hirself up, resting on one elbow, hand on his chest continuing to maintain contact. << You didn't tell me the story. You skipped to the end. >> Ze shifts so that hir other hand grasps his shoulder, dragging the other hand to rub at hir face. << How did the bear and wolf eat the sparrow? >> Rasa's coloration is off. It's a human shade, something similar to Ivan's, but paler, drawn. The image of the tree and its feathers with the two dark creatures spreads out on hir back. Hir mind slips into dark places and blood starts dripping from some of the tree's leaves, knocking feathers out of the sky from time to time. Hir attention slowly drifts back to Ivan's vacant expression, trying to focus hirself on his eyes. << I get it that you're tired, Vanya, but you're not even trying anymore. You have to try. You have to really, really try, or you're going to lose me. I feel like I've already lost you. >> << It is not the end of the story. >> Comes after a pause, from Ivan's mind. << Rashka. There were more. It was a family. Five. Two in a big tree. >> Another flash of a page in Ivan's memory, this time of a smaller, thinner tree. Too frail for the bear to climb onto. But the wolf's jumping up high to snap its jaws at its branches. Again, feathers are trailing their way down around its maw. << Two in a small tree. >> << The last one... in a deep hole in the ground. >> A third image flickers across his mind to illustrate the point - the bear and the wolf, jumping right after the last sparrow. Unwisely, perhaps, seeing as the hole appears too deep for them to be able to climb back out, the steep walls allowing for little purchase. Alas, even with Ivan focusing on the story, his conflicted mind drifts off again. The reason? The layer of insect presence in his head once more increases. << ... She's coming back. >> {Thea} "Thea." The wasps do indeed become more agitated in this moment. Not angry or scared, but excited. And through Ivan, the barest hint of nervousness. The feeling a child gets when it sort of knows it did something wrong, but doesn’t really understand. They bustle about, once again trying to straighten up, an activity which they also don’t fully comprehend, but do their best anyway. Up on the roof, Sugar lands softly and trots a short distance to use up a little extra momentum, before coming to a halt. Thea waits for Jax to dismount, and then does the same. Sugar trots to another portion of the roof where she can hide behind broken old AC units and lays down. Thea starts for the roof access door, and then freezes. She cocks her head like a dog, and then turns back to Jax. “Oh shit... Someone’s here, but... I don’t know how. I swear we didn’t take your people. But there’s... there’s someone else inside.” She turns and runs for the door, banging it open and jogging down the stairs. One floor down, and one emerges in the middle of the top floor, the open floorplan revealing everything, including King Ivan’s sleeping area. And Ivan. And Rasa. In bed. The wasps are standing off to the side, shuffling nervously, looking like they’d rather be hiding. “What the hell is /this/?” Thea demands of the three. Ivan and Rasa are essentially ignored for now. “I said keep people out. Where the hell did she come from?” Jackson is quick to dismount, though he is conscientious to thank Sugar after getting down. He follows Thea towards the door, eyebrows raising when she stops. He doesn’t give answer to this, only hurries in after her, jogging down the stairs behind her to Ivan’s room. He stops in the doorway, lips thinning and his hands, for a moment, clasping tight behind his back. Only for a moment, though, before he slips around past Thea, a few steps closer to the bed. “Rasa,” the concern in his voice is clear. “How did you -- are y’all OK? You don’t look -- are Shelby and Kris with you, we’ve been worried.” His head turns slightly. From Ivan to wasps to Ivan again. “-- Ivan?” << Thea? Who is Thea? >> Rasa frowns when Ivan grows distracted, when the bits of him ze is interacting with start to slip away. Ze looks toward the entrance, hir eyes narrowing, hir skin rapidly gaining a bronze color, the tree disappearing. Ze places hir hand back across Ivan's chest possessively. A tail grows from hir backside, to slip across the sheets and twitch unhappily. Then, ze finds hir voice. "Keep people /out/?" Green starts to seep into the bronze, mingling and mixing like pigment in paint. "Keep people OUT?" Hir tone is hard and angry. Ze switches between glaring at Thea to looking distinctly uncomfortable at Jackson, not quite able to maintain a glare in his direction. Ze lets out a low grumbling exhale and then an even deeper inhale, still gripping Ivan like he may slip from hir grasp at any minute, gaze unfocused. "You /took/ my /person/. How …" Ze takes another deep breath and looks distinctly at Jax. "They /took/ us. We were just out, at Evolve, trying to just... be normal for a little bit and then we got jumped and woke up here. I sent Shelby and Kris home. Shelby couldn't handle the wasps, couldn't handle anything. Told them to tell the school, to send help." And then ze is glaring at Thea again. Ivan doesn't quite respond to Jackson entering the way he possibly should - sitting up as far as he is capable, watching his advisor much in the way one may watch a stranger. Ascertaining. Trying to figure something /out/. Then, he looks to Thea. Much more alert, but visibly affected by the nervousness that plagues the wasps. {Rasa-- is one of...} He starts, to Thea, but stops mid-way in his explanation. When Rasa starts speaking, his gaze switches uncertainly between all of the individuals in the room, frustration steadily bubbling up from within. {What the hell /is/ going on?} He grabs for Rasa's arm, clumsily in its lack of coordination, and appears to start moving to /get up/. Sort of stumbly, movements sluggish and weak with distraction of multiple sources fed into his brain, unable to shut any of them off as he draaags the blankets across the bed with him. Hfh. His voice is hoarse, reflecting the slowly growing frustration all too easily even if he doesn't look up at anyone in particular. "We do not- NEED help. We are /fine/." The wasps drop to their knees and sit back on their feet. If they were actually human, they would probably be weeping, but their bodies don't work that way. In the buzzy mental network they share with Ivan and to some degree at this point with Rasa, they plead, {We're sorry, we're /sorry/. He wanted hir, his Rasa, more than anything. He /needed/ hir. It was making him /sad/. We could /feel/ it. Sadness…} They're speaking in a wild mash of their three voices so quickly, its hard to tell who's saying what exactly. The amount of individuality they've been developing recently begins to dissolve in the wake of their utter and complete fear. {You said bring him what he needs…} The mental equivalent of a sob. {Please, PLEASE, don't ~unmake~ us…} 'Unmake' is not exactly the right word, but neither Ivan nor Rasa's mind has anything closer linguistically, to comprehend what they mean. Thea grinds her teeth for a moment, glaring at the wasps, before finally sighing. She walks to the kneeling women and hugs them against her middle. "Shhh," she says out loud, cooing to, and comforting her babies. She half turns to Rasa, still holding them to her, and says, "My dear, I'm so sorry. This was not supposed to happen. They don't always understand our ways." She looks from Rasa to Jax as well. "If I can make this up to you… please believe me. They can't hide their truth from Ivan, just ask him. But also please know, Ivan came to /us/. And has always been able to leave." And looking around the room, it really doesn't look like much of a prison. Stairs go up, they go down. Not much in the way of locks anywhere. Just a big open space for a boy to be with his wasp-friends. Jackson listens to the others with a slowly growing tension to his posture, msucles tightening, fingers clenching, a faint shimmer of light growing around him. His sunglasses fix on Ivan most of all, lips compressing still thinner. “--Thea, /look/ at him,” he says finally, “he can’t barely even /walk/ and you don’t think there’s nothin’ /wrong/ there? He. Can’t. Leave. Not everyone’s abilities work the same way. Bein’ around bugs -- have you ever talked to a telepath?” His palm presses to his forehead, and he exhales heavily. “I think it could be good for him. Having your friends to talk to. To /learn/ from. But not like /this/. He can barely remember who he is when he’s around /ordinary/ bees sometimes and --” His words cut off with a frustrated chuff. “Ivan, your friends was scared and kidnapped and you think that’s /fine/?” He doesn’t move towards Ivan or Rasa, stepping back instead towards the door as the glow around him brightens -- dims -- brightens. “I think,” he says to Thea, quieter -- though not /gentler/, his tone brittle around the edges with a very /determined/ (and none too steady) effort to keep it in control, “that we might need a few minutes. /Alone/.” "Came to you?" Rasa scoffs angrily. "You over/whelm/ him to the point where he can't think. You think this is a decision Ivan made? This is not. This isn't even Ivan." << not my /whole/ Ivan. >> "Everything in his mind is completely wrapped around every tittering little thought from your wasps, every other insect and spider in the vicinity," << and are /YOU/ in here too? >> Ze shakes hir head slowly, moving slowly with Ivan, almost holding him back, but not letting him get away from hir either. "You talk about how he's free to go, that he could leave any time he wants, but at the same time, you don't want people here. How is that freedom? Did you hope that he'd just get so very absorbed in what is going on that he'd forget everything in his life, his friends, his family? Or did you just not /care/? It seems you people --” “Rasa,” Jackson’s voice has not lost its edge when he cuts in here, “-- shut /up/.” His palm is pressing up against one temple. “Nobody wanted anyone messed --” Another soft frustrated noise. “-- just need some space to /think/.” Rasa closes hir mouth and sets hir jaw, silent. With Rasa still holding onto him, Ivan's attempts to get off the bed slow. Instead, he lifts both his hands to his head, palms pressed hard over his eyes and fingers digging into his hair, teeth gritted. He shows few signs of catching the rest of the conversation, though one of his arms twitches uncomfortably at Rasa's telepathically sent comments. It takes him some /effort/ to speak aloud again, ribcage expanding and contracting slightly more rapidly as he begins to mutter, partly in Russian, "I am-- fine, it is... {I'm fine, things have been good and-- I've only got a headache, I learned to... I can learn to...}" {I'm myself. I am Ivan. I am myself.} Thea listens to Jax, and then to Rasa, her expression becoming icy. "It was wrong of them to take you, Rasa. I can't even begin to- I'm so sorry. Truly." Her voice is cold, but sincere, as if she hates /needing/ to apologize, even though she means it. "But do you two really know what’s best for Ivan, better than he does himself? Do you understand his ability better than he does?" Thea hugs her wasps once more and says, "Go downstairs and wait for me. I'm not going to hurt you. We just need some time here." They nod, gratitude and joy instantly replacing the grief and fear within the simple creatures. Once they file out of the room, the hive-mind network dims significantly, but doesn't entirely go away. Ultimately, they're only 50-60 feet away, and the building materials wouldn't dampen that by much. "I'm afraid I can't leave the three of you alone though," she says, when its just the four mutants in the room. "I have to make sure you don't take him against his will. And no," she says directly to Rasa. "I don't have the same kind of link to him, because I'm not an insect. All I've ever done is give him what he wants. Lots of people… don't care for the families they were born into. Families who don't understand us. Appreciate us. Why should you decide what’s best for Ivan?" “/Yes/, actually,” Jackson answers Thea kind of abruptly, “Thea, these are /children/. I don’t know about you, but when I first manifested I sure as hell didn’t know how to use or control or even safely /live/ with what I do. They will. In time. With the support they need to get there. You’ve known Ivan for /days/. I’ve been working with him a hell of a lot longer and I can see the difference between Ivan /happy/ and Ivan so overwhelmed he /can’t think/. You say he’s not here against his will but that has about as much meaning right now as if you’d /drugged/ him and then asked. I think s’real possible he /could/ be happy, with you an’ your friends, but this ain’t the way to find /out/.” When Ivan shifts and begins muttering, holding his head, Rasa stills further, the tightly wound spring of anger starting to uncoil within hir, hir grip loosening, hir gaze locked on him. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't... be so angry," ze mutters to him, resting hir forehead against his shoulder. Ze listens to what people are saying and stays quiet for a while, until Thea brings up family. When there is quiet, ze begins. "Most people... are not Ivan. Ivan has a very loving and supportive family - one so worried about him, that his father spent money they probably don't have to fly halfway around the world to find out where his son is - and to try to find him. His brothers and sisters and mother miss him quite a lot. If you knew Ivan -" Rasa shakes hir head, taking a deep breath to keep from displeasure rising once more. "I am not saying I know what's best for him or what decisions he will make when his head is clear, but I am telling you that I am telepathically linked to him as we speak and his mind is very, very much altered from normal. Mr. Holland's description of him being drugged is very appropriate. If you don't believe me, then why don't we all go somewhere far away from your group, allow him to wake up fully, and let him speak." Thea nods at Jax's allowance for the possibility of Ivan's happiness. The diplomat has his way. And Rasa's shift in tact softens her further. She's much less defensive. She holds out a hand, palm up to Ivan, without approaching lest she inflame things further. "I've only ever wanted Ivan to be happy. He's precious, and unique in my world. I'll send them home, to prove the point." Thea walks down the stairs and can be heard telling the wasps to 'head home'. The buzznet reports their disappointment, and sadness at the perceived punishment, but they do as they're told. Before long, the hive-mind fades completely, and Ivan is left with just the sense of Thea's presence, and the presence of Sugar, on the roof. In Thea's case, she must be /enough/ insect to trigger his senses, but no more. Likewise, Sugar is no smarter than a horse, and is not a member of a hive-minded species. Aside from those dim awarenesses, there is no further impact on Ivan's mind at the moment. Thea returns and holds her hands out at her sides. "I hope this clarifies my intentions." The tension in Jackson’s posture starts to ease. The glow around him starts to dim in its flickering. He exhales a quick rush of breath. “-- Thank you,” is to Thea, hand scrubbing at his temple again. He looks back to Rasa, to Ivan, shoulders sinking slightly. “Sorry. For gettin’ mad, I --” His head shakes. “-- Ivan?” He takes a step closer, dark sunglasses focused on the boy. “Ivan, y’know when we worked on focusing on /you/-things to stay grounded? Y’ -- might could want to try that right now.” As the noise in his head fades, Ivan sinks forward, hands still covering his face. He sinks into Rasa's direction instead, blindly, and with little regard for where it may land his torso. "{I'm sorry, I'm-}" He mutters first, fingers digging deeper into his hair before his grasp relents. Should he have been here under different circumstances, he might have wanted to stay here forever out of sheer interest, utter fascination! But right now? Merely a weak, "I want to... go home." Like a runner whose adrenaline was the only thing keeping them going, now released from most of the week-long tug-o-rope that was his brain, Ivan just... falls. Exhausted, his face buried in his arms and what he finds of Rasa, mind blipping into restful unconsciousness. Rasa is quiet as ze accepts the wilting Ivan onto hir lap, arms held a little up and off until he finally relaxes into unconsciousness. Then, hir arms settle on his back, fingers running gently through his hair. Ze looks up after a moment, first to Jackson, then finally over to Thea expectantly. Thea’s face falls, her expression completely deflated. “I... didn’t realize.” She walks briskly toward the stairs and stops before she goes up. The look of embarrassment is painfully obvious. “We’ll always be here for you Ivan. You know how to find me...” Her voice constricts and she strides up the stairs before she can show any more emotion.