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Bend and Not Break; [Tag: Teddy]
Topic Started: Oct 31 2013, 10:34 PM (338 Views)
Wiccan
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Reality Warping/ Nice Pashmina
Date: 23rd September
Time: 19:15am
Day 1 of Darkness



Sleep right now would be good. In fact, Billy's body was craving him to sleep. Though that wasn't all it craved. The constant drain from the use of his powers in the past twelve hours had made things complicated for him. He had never had to use his powers for such an extended effect before - usually his spells lasted one or two hours tops and they were never spells that were huge. This however - the world would die on its current crash course. So what had he and Dr Strange done? All they could. There were now several artificial suns in the atmosphere above New York city providing light and more importantly warmth to the city. Even they weren't enough though and where Billy and Teddy lived in Mutant Town the suns didn't reach their windows, Billy hadn't even bothered opening up the curtains when he got up - it was still dark outside, that wasn't going to be changing anytime soon.

For once though, Billy had something of an understanding for what it felt like to be his twin brother. Normally he ate like a normal person. His powers didn't really consume energy like Tommy's. Today though, he needed food, lots of it and plenty of energy to keep sustaining the spell that kept the sun in place. He was stood in the kitchen. Thankfully they still had electricity and so the electric lights were still working for them - allowing him to see what they had in the cupboards. Things still weren't easy for the young couple they made ends meet, but some luxuries were still missing from their life.

Closing the freeze door, the carton of cookie dough ice cream sat in Billy's hands as he reached for a spoon. Stifling a yawn, the young reality warper was ready for this year to be over already. Between Exodus' nightmares and the world ending events he was tired. Tired of it all. There was so much that was wrong with it all - he still questioned why he couldn't just spell away all the evil in the world. He was confident that if he developed something in the Dark Dimension he could perhaps eradicate the evil from the world completely. That was all a theory though, Billy's control over his powers wasn't exactly in control or predictable. There were still times when he did something and he got unexpected side effects. It was getting better and wasn't anywhere near as bad as it was when he was younger but it was still a problem.

Taking the lid off the ice cream he dropped it on the work top before moving his way back into their living room - despite their strict budgeting for things like utilities, Billy had all the lights on right now. Just to drive away some of the darkness in the place. Tiredly he flopped onto the sofa and sank the spoon into the ice cream.
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Ted Kaplan-Altman
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It had taken some time and a lot of effort, but ultimately Billy had been successful at creating some temporary suns to help alleviate the darkness. Dr.Strange was doing something similar on the other side of town, and for all Ted knew Wanda was also getting in on the action somewhere... maybe on a larger scale. This plague of darkness was hardly limited to New York, after all. Basic high-school geometry seemed to suggest that there was no way to create an artificial sun beneath the level of the stratosphere that would light more than a small fraction of the Earth's surface, but then basic high-school biology was pretty clear about ruling out roses that joined you on morning jogs through the woods, also, so Ted wasn't especially confident about the relevance of such rules to Billy's family.

Barring some such global feat of magic, though, or its technological equivalent -- any sufficiently reliable magic being indistinguishable from technology, in Ted's experience -- all they'd done today was fight a holding action. Those artificial suns were just a way of limiting the local deathcount, ultimately more symbolic than anything else. Those lives mattered, of course, and saving them was time and effort well-spent, but it was easy to let the neverending flood of death and destruction bury any semblance of hope. Sometimes Ted thought that was really the point of what they were doing... maybe it wasn't really about defeating the villains, which they seemed unable to make any real progress towards, but just about giving ordinary people some reason for hope. Maybe someone was looking up at the sky now and seeing Billy's sun instead of the darkness and deciding maybe they'd stick around for another few days and see how it turns out, maybe they'd help their neighbors out instead of go out looting.

It was a nice thought, anyway.

He'd gone upstairs to change clothes once they made it home, leaving Bills alone in the living-room and hoping he'd take a nap -- Lord knew the man needed it -- but as he padded downstairs in bare feet he could hear the sounds of rummaging in the kitchen and knew it hadn't worked out that way.

"Wizard needs food, badly," he quoted as he sat on the sofa next to Billy, kneading his boyfriend's tense shoulders with one hand. "And no surprise... that was an impressive thing you did. You should be proud." Frowning a little, he added "I just hope we can make it unnecessary before things get too much worse."
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Wiccan
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Billy grinned at the reference as Teddy joined him on the sofa. "We do, and ice cream is the only source of food that this wizard wants right now. It has magic properties you know?" The reality warper laughed, he was making that last part up - well he was mostly. Ice cream did have some sort of quasi magic properties but that was depending on the situation that it was being eaten in, then there was also the small fact that if Billy really wanted to - he supposed that he could give ice cream real magical properties if he really truly wanted. Though there was always the chance that could backfire on him, warping reality came with its risks. Billy was perhaps more aware of that than anyone, so he was never eager to change it in minute ways that could run the risk of it backfiring on him in some way - so ice cream would just have to continue to be mundane and boring. He could do without the ramifications of having to deal with the potential for a massive ice cream monster stomping around mutant town.

Wiccan began to relax as Teddy kneaded his shoulders though that couldn't stop him fixating on what caused the darkness, or whether what he had done was actually going to make a difference. "I just hope it was enough." He added a little hesitantly burying the spoon back into the ice cream as he considered what Teddy was saying to him. "I don't know what could cause such a darkness, I could sense it, it was strange and not of this dimension." Billy added a little tentatively, Wiccan still choosing to tip toe around the subject of their being other realities and dimensions where things lived and breathed. It wasn't because he didn't feel comfortable talking about it - he just didn't want to be insensitive to Teddy. Though in truth, they were both extra-terrestrial beings. Teddy a Skrull, Billy having been born in a whole different reality and time and then being sent back here by his mother. It was pretty cool when you got down to the very basics of it, though each came with its own set of problems.

Helping himself to some more of the ice cream, he stuck the spoon back into it and then offered the pot to Teddy as he leaned against him. "I wish I could just magic the dark away - mom could potentially do it. But what if that had the side effect of banishing darkness forever? We'd still be in the same situation. It'd just be inverted." Billy frowned as he began to over think ways in which he might be able to drive the darkness back.
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Ted Kaplan-Altman
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"No, that's news to me," Ted replied, chuckling, to Billy's comment about the magical properties of ice-cream. Not that he took the comment seriously, but then again he didn't exactly dismiss it as a joke either... like much of what came up in the context of Billy's magical practice, as far as Ted was concerned it fell into some poorly understood middle ground between the two. He was aware that the rules he'd grown up believing were laws of physics, and in some cases of logic, actually turned out to be more like strongly worded suggestions -- more things in Heaven and Earth, and all that -- but every time he thought he'd fully internalized the ramifications of that, his boyfriend and his family had a way of demonstrating that he hadn't even come close.

He'd gotten used to the New York Flood pretty quickly, for example... it wasn't that different from what Ororo could do, for example, and he would not have been too surprised to learn that she'd made similar mistakes with her power when she was young and inexperienced. Well, actually, given what Selene and the Hellfire Club had done to Ororo, he actually wouldn't be too surprised to discover that she was routinely doing similar things now, but he preferred not to think about that too much. Which had actually become less challenging after Cyclops, Surge, and Sebastien had all gone over to the Dark Side... it was just too big for him, it was easy to just not think about it.

"I just hope it was enough."

"Yeah, me too." Which, of course, it wasn't. How could it be? It had been impressive as hell, but at the end of the day all they'd done was light up parts of New York State, leaving the entire fucking world in darkness. Hardly worth doing at all, when he looked at it that way.

Of course, nothing any of them were doing was worth doing at all when he looked at it that way. That's why Ted made a point of not looking at it that way.

Usually, in moments like this, when a crisis seemed insurmountable, Ted asked himself what Scott would do. The problem was, he'd seen what Scott had been doing during this particular crisis. Seen it, wrestled it, damned near gotten his eardrums punctured by it. They'd been kids before Scott and Noriko and Sebastien and the rest had turned them into monsters. And, sure, that was over now, whatever had faked Scott's death and messed with their heads had been undone, and Ted still held out some hope that the X-Men would save the day, just like they had so many times before, somehow, some way that nobody could anticipate or predict or sometimes even understand.

"I wish I could just magic the dark away - mom could potentially do it. But what if that had the side effect of banishing darkness forever? We'd still be in the same situation. It'd just be inverted."

Ted wasn't sure what 'banishing darkness' would even mean, actually. From what he understood from SHIELD's science geeks, the current crisis was a shell surrounding the Earth, blocking the rays of the sun... that kind of made sense to him, though the scale of it was hard to imagine. But what would the inverse look like? It made no sense.

Then again, he'd seen what Wanda could do, and it had nothing to do with sense.

"That doesn't sound so bad, to be honest," he replied, only half-serious. "At least it wouldn't be so cold. But I'm sure Hank and the science guys at SHIELD and Horizon Labs and everyone will figure something out." And he mostly was, actually. It was a well-defined problem... punch a hole in the darkness, let in the light. They were good at well-defined problems, and hell, Ted wouldn't be doing what he did for a living if he weren't essentially an incurable optimist. They'd been solving one well-defined seemingly unsolvable problem after another for years.

Unfortunately, it seemed their enemies were even better at creating them.

He took a spoonful of the proferred ice cream, enjoying the taste of it, tried to shake his mood. This was the first evening the two of them had both had free in a long time and he didn't want to ruin it. So he put the spoon back, continued to massage Billy's shoulders, tried to make more casual conversation. "So how many darkness dimensions are there, anyway?" He remembered what Billy had said about the darkness being extradimensional, and he knew from earlier conversations that the 'Dark Dimension' Billy worked in didn't have anything to do with the darkness they were dealing with, or with the darkness Darkstar controlled, or that Hellfire's Black King did, or that the Blackheart creature SHIELD previously had in lockup comprised, or that Jay's wings were made of, or etc. But he really had no idea whether all of those were one dimension or several, or even whether that question meant anything.
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Wiccan
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"Well if it isn't a thing..." Grinning at Teddy as he pondered just what properties he would give the ice cream if he were to make such a move. "Then one day I will make it a thing. Wiccan's cure all." Laughing as he thought about it, though really this would have been much better five if not six or seven decades ago. "I could have a stand on a corner somewhere with a sign and everything." Pondering for a moment. "Though I'm not sure that's entirely legal. The ice cream companies would probably want to sue me or something." Taking his spoon in hand Billy attacked the ice cream, from the edges inwards breaking off small chunks with each scoop as the pot steadily got emptied of its creamy contents. At the edge of his peripheral thought remained the ever constant ebbing of his powers as his energy supplies were slowly being pulled away by the suns that he had created to illuminate the dark.

This was a low point for Billy, normally he could think of remedies for situations that he could make happen with his powers. This situation though? It was bigger than him and Teddy. It was bigger than the world and he really didn't know if there were people on this world that were capable of dealing with it. They had to though. If nobody dealt with the darkness then their days were numbered. It wasn't that Billy was defeatist. He tried to keep a positive view on life, but this time? He really didn't see a way out that could work. Thankfully though Teddy didn't add to the doom and gloom with the thoughts that what they had done wasn't enough. They both knew it wasn't, but neither of them had vocalised them, because they needed something to hope for. Something that would happen to save them. Because neither of the men were ready to give up on life yet, they still had a lot to live for and neither were about to throw it away.

"Yeah you're right. I'm sure the science guys at Horizon, SHIELD and the school will have this under control." He nodded a little hesitantly as he answered, he wasn't quite sure though whether he believed it entirely. Even though this wasn't the worst thing that they had ever been through, in Billy's eyes Apocalypse was much, much worse than this still. But then that was a crazy guy who could be stopped, who knew what? Or more importantly who, was causing this darkness. Sure it was likely the Illuminati as they had been behind everything this year in some form or another, but what if they weren't this time?

As Teddy continued to rub his shoulders, Billy's head tilted to one side as he tried to keep focused on what they were talking. "Dark dimensions?" Billy repeated as he tried to remember the names of the dimensions that he was learning from Dr Strange when they weren't busy trying to save the world. "Well you have the Darkforce Dimension." Billy started, he was trying oh so very hard to not get teachery, Teddy was his boyfriend and his peer. He didn't need to hear Billy's teacher voice. "That is a dimension that is full of darkness, a sentient darkness. The same dark that I think is blocking out the sun." Billy explained, thinking of the other facts that he knew about the Darkforce. "There's no light there and the darkforce drains the life of anything that enters its realm. I've never been there myself." Quickly adding, nor was it a place that he had any desire to go to any time soon.

"The other dimension. The dark dimension, that is sort of like the universe before the big bang." Billy continued to explain and it was the dimension that was most dangerous to him. "There is some landmass there, and there is something that lives there. My powers are amplified there and me and Dr Strange do some training there. Though it is dangerous for me to spend too much time there as it's easy to get lost and forget my way back." Which was to do with the pull of the power of the place rather than Billy actually forgetting how to get home.
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Ted Kaplan-Altman
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"Well, you could sell it on the Internet now, I suppose," Teddy mused, "which is more efficient than hawking it on a streetcorner, right? Especially now, when --" he began, then cut himself off before mentioning that practically nobody who had a choice in the matter was out on the streets these days, or how in any case with anti-mutant sentiment being what it was lately it probably wouldn't end well. They were trying not to talk about all that, after all.

So he switched gears to something more light-hearted. "But you're right, the ice cream companies would probably take exception, and they're a scary lobby. Not to mention you might come to the attention of that Eye Scream guy. Not that he's especially dangerous, granted..." now there was an understatement, back at the Institute he'd been kind of a running joke as everyone's favorite example of the most ineffectual mutant supervillain ever, "...but I figure it's like playing chess at a tournament against someone much much worse than you. Always a risk, because anyone can have a bad day, right? And then there you are, no longer Billy Kaplan the mighty Wiccan, Apprentice to the Sorceror Supreme, Conjurer of Suns and Enemy of the Darkness... you're just this guy who lost a fight to friggin' Eye Scream, you know? I don't know how you would live that one down, hon. I mean, I would still love you, of course, but can you imagine what that would do to your rep? So yeah, probably best not to risk it."

Having swung from end-of-the-world to complete-goofiness in 3.2 seconds, Ted was actually quite happy to sit and listen to his boyfriend lecture on the dimensions he worked with. He knew about the Darkforce Dimension, thanks to Darkstar and Darkheart and various other allies and threats with "Dark" somewhere in their names, but the dark dimension Billy worked with was something Ted didn't understand at all, and the idea that something actually lived there was, frankly, creepy. "Don't get lost there," he replied. Which was a silly thing to say, he realized; it wasn't like Billy was going to do it on purpose or anything, but still. "Because, you know, if you do, I'm just going to have to go in and drag you back out, and my interdimensional passport isn't up-to-date so that would mean all kinds of paperwork to fill out and you know how much I hate paperwork." He tried to make light of it, but Ted hadn't forgotten how Billy had disappeared earlier in the year when he'd gotten stuck in Sanctuary; he'd been pretty freaked out.

"I mean... well, I guess what I'm trying to say here," he continued haltingly, suddenly very serious despite his attempts at light-heartedness, "is that I don't want to be without you."
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Wiccan
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Billy laughed, not some meaningless laugh. But a genuine laugh; Teddy was cheering him up and making him feel better despite the fact that all around them the world was going to hell. It was why he loved the shapeshifter and nothing was ever going to change that, even when the world was at its darkest. Teddy somehow found a way to keep Billy from giving into the dark and despair. Billy knew it wasn't easy being his boyfriend; Billy was often rash, or acted without thinking even when he had best interests at heart. Not thinking of his own safety, not to mention the crazy time traveling thing of his time line or the fact that he was the grandson of a terrorist. But he knew that none of that mattered when it came to him and Teddy, they were things they dealt with on a case by case basis, things that Billy was working on fixing - he was trying to be less rash and so far he hadn't gone off on some crusade in at least a few months.

"I really don't want to be the one person in the world to lose to him." Sighing in an over dramatically way. "So I suppose I best give up my dreams of having an ice cream based empire." Not that he was really all that disappointed. It was a fun joke while it lasted but Billy had his eyes set on doing much more with his life than make food to sell to people for a stupid amount of money.

The conversation on ice cream naturally came to an end and Billy gave his little miniature lesson on the various dark dimensions that existed in the multiverse. The topic got a lot more serious as Teddy began to speak of getting lost in there; It was mostly the reason why Billy rarely if ever practiced in that dimension alone because of the risk of him getting lost.

Now adjusting himself so he could lean against Teddy; "I promise I wont go getting lost there." Lifting his finger up and making a cross symbol across his heart. "I don't want you to worry about me getting lost; not again. So I wont go in there alone unless Doctor Strange is with me." It was the truth, he would try his best to limit the danger he put himself in. "Though given my family we will have to make sure your interdimensional passport is up to date." He grinned at Teddy, though the humour quickly died away as Billy looked at Teddy seriously. "I mean it, I don't want you to be worrying about me, in case I do something stupid. You're more important to me than anything, so if it eases your mind I'll be on my best behaviour."
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Ted Kaplan-Altman
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"You're more important to me than anything, so if it eases your mind I'll be on my best behaviour."

Ted blinked in surprise at that, and his mouth worked for a while without any actual words coming out.

Not that Billy's feelings about him were news, of course; and he felt the same way about the young mage. But he'd never quite looked at it from the perspective he was right now. It wasn't obvious from his manner, but Ted was pretty sure Billy was one of the most powerful people on the planet, or at least had the potential to be, and to hear an affirmation like that coming from his mouth was awe-inspiring in the most literal of senses. There was no way he could deserve something like that; it was an unearned grace, and the best he could hope to do was be as worthy of it as he possibly could.

"It does," he finally said. "Ease my mind, I mean."

Of course, he knew there were limits to what 'best behavior' could really mean in practice. Neither of them lived safe or normal lives. Both of their jobs -- Ted's as a SHIELD agent and Billy's as the Sorceror Supreme's apprentice -- involved putting themselves in some of the most dangerous situations imaginable both on- and off-planet, and working routinely with forces that could level entire cities if mis-handled. And Billy was part of one of the most powerful and dangerous mutant families in the world, while Ted was one of the few survivors of an alien race that had literally (though, thankfully, briefly) taken over the world altogether. However careful they might be, neither of them really had any reason to expect to die of old age.

But right now that didn't matter. There was something about living in a world plagued by darkness and volcanic eruptions and extradimensional assassins and nightmares both sleeping and waking that somehow made Ted far more appreciative of the little joys than he normally was. Not that he was normally a cynic or anything; quite the contrary, he enjoyed his life. He was dating an awesome guy, had fantastic friends, worked with some of the smartest, most capable people in the world doing some of the most important jobs he could think of. But right this moment, with his arm around his boyfriend, laughing together over ice-cream-inspired silliness... laughing not in spite of the darkness, but in a way that made the darkness simply irrelevant for a while... well, right in this moment his enjoyment was somehow more than that in a way Ted could not express and did not really understand, but nevertheless knew he wanted as much of in his life as he could manage.

But he also knew that it wasn't the sort of feeling you could really pursue for its own sake. All you could do, really, was live the sort of life that created opportunities for it to arise on its own... and Ted suddenly realized with perfect clarity that one of the things that meant for him sharing his life, however long or short it might be, with the man currently pigging out on ice-cream and discoursing on the ontological nature of occult dimensions in his arms.

He'd gone silent again, he realized, and Billy was looking at him curiously, and he opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to find a way to put all of that into words.

"I love you," he said, finally. That wasn't quite it, but it was certainly a step in the right direction, and it helped clarify what he actually wanted to say.

"Marry me?"
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Wiccan
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As Teddy's mouth opened and closed and opened again as if he were saying words that Billy couldn't hear, Billy couldn't help but grin. While what he said was pretty big to people of their age, it was just how Billy felt. He loved Teddy and would do anything for him. If there was such a thing as soul mates then Billy was certain that Teddy was his; there had never been anyone else in his life - which didn't really say much they were only twenty years of age, but Billy didn't see himself being with anyone else ever. He loved their little place, and living with Teddy.

If it meant that Billy was going to cut down on his life fast die young style (which really wasn't all that grand in reality.) Then he would do it for Teddy because if he didn't do it for him then who would he do it for? "That settles it then, I'll try and get myself into fewer life or death situations. I'm sure that wont be too difficult." Billy laughed a little; though it was kind of an ironic laugh. It wasn't really like he got much of a choice as to whether or not that he got into those situations; if he was a pre-cognitive then he might be able to avoid getting into them, but given his familial connections and his powers it was unlikely that he would ever be able to completely stop winding up in situations where his life was in danger, but he'd at least be a little more careful from here on out.

The pot of ice cream that Billy was nursing in his hands was beginning to get a little warm now and around the edges it was beginning and was much easier for the reality warper to dig his spoon in and dig out more of the creamy goodness from the pot. Yes he was intending on eating the whole carton tonight. He needed sustenance and it was ice cream that he wanted right now.

As he helped himself to more of the ice cream, Billy caught that Teddy had gone oddly silent again; he knew it wasn't because of anything he said (or so he thought it wasn't because of anything he said) and put the spoon back down into the carton and looked across at Teddy trying to figure out what was going on inside his boyfriend's mind. "What's wrong?" Billy asked a little hesitantly - Billy knew that SHIELD had telepath's so there was a chance that Teddy just got a message from one of them. Perhaps something had happened and he was going to need to go into work; or perhaps they had a break through with the darkness and found a way that they would be able to bring the whole thing down.

But it wasn't anything that affected anyone beyond the two in the room right now as Teddy spoke those three words; which neither Billy or Teddy were unfamiliar with hearing. Though it was something in the way that Teddy said that caught Billy off guard and made Billy blush a little. If he thought that was all though, Billy couldn't be all the more wrong.

The next question truly caught him off guard; so much so that Billy's mouth dropped open in surprise. Staring at Teddy for what seemed forever as he processed the question. Did he just? Did he really just ask him to Marry him? Billy didn't know how long he was quiet for, there was no track of time right now as he took it all in. It wasn't really such a huuuge change for them, they already lived together on their own. But at the same time it was a HUGE change for them both, it would mean so much. Though the consequences of such didn't matter to Billy right now for there was only one answer he could possibly give to such a question.

"Yes!" He finally blurted out and without thinking about the ice cream in his lap he twisted and turned and put his arms around Teddy and hugged him tightly. "Yes of course I will." He repeated as a big grin spread across his face.
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