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Simone has mostly.... slept, since she was wisked off from her home and to the Firebird's sanctum. A lot of sleeping, because Waking Up can be really fucking hard. It's late, late in the night when she rouses, looking a bit... hung over. Hair a mess--even messier than when they found her, pulled back in a lazy bun. She's in a different set of PJs, clean ones, either taken from Fox or her own house. Still the bunny slippers.
She's sitting on the balcony, knees pulled up to her chest, looking out over the view. Face a bit scrunched up, like she's got a headache, or trying to think about something really hard.
A dog lays beside her, curled up protectively. A large, puffy white thing--maybe not a pure breed, but definitely some sort of Samoyed blood in the doggo.
Well, Fox's pyjamas are mostly Vasha's stolen t-shirts or absolutely nothing, so probably someone thoughtful and not totally focused on their baby sister, like Mei, or Vasha, gathered up her stuff. Or, you know, Zoya just whipped out her credit card and bought a bunch of pyjamas.
The pigeons coo contentedly in their loft; Fox has put a heavy piece of cloth baffling over the loft to keep them warm, with one corner tucked neatly open in order to provide for air circulation for her sleeping friends. She pads out onto the balcony, freshly washed, wearing one of the aforementioned t-shirts, one of those ridiculous custom ones that says PROPERTY OF ONE POSSESSIVE GIRLFRIEND! SHE WAS BORN IN NOVEMBER AND HAS GREEN EYES! SHE'S SWEET, FUNNY AND IF YOU TOUCH ME SHE WILL END YOU! A TRUE PHILADELPHIA GIRL. There are so many fucking fonts on this thing, it truly pains the eye. Also, she comes bearing a blanket and a Forces bubble of heat. No more winter winds!
She pads out to her chair, curls her legs up as she sits down on one of the other chairs, on one side of her sister. She brings the warm for human and dog alike. Activating her Speak with Beasts attainment, she reaches down with one hand gently extended toward the dog, and slowly gruff-chuffs, It's okay. We are safe here. Good job taking care of your mom. Be kind to the protective dog first so he's at ease: it is the Fox way.
Then she looks up at her sister, then. "Hey, Baby Girl."
Vasha has been good enough to give them both space since their return home. He'd policed his brass, accounted for his rounds downrange, and saw to it that Fox knew where to find this fence or that tree that needed mending. If there's one thing a Time mage is exceptional at, it's putting a scene back together good as new. It's always a feather in a decorticator's cap when he can redact his own scene. Kinda like he'd done this a few times before.
Aaaaanyway. Once his weapons were checked back in, cleaned, and racked? And once his gear was aired out, cleaned up, and racked? He got himself a hot shower, a nice warm robe, a glass of warm cognac, and one of his prized cigars. He comes sauntering out onto the balcony likewise, exhibiting the literally unheard of courtesy of existing in everyone's perceptions literally the entire time.
"It's the spy. Mind your words. I hear he reports to Kremlin."
Good thing, because that is a very protective dog. Looks like there might be some chow chow too, based on his round face and nose--and they're known for being possessive and protective of their person. The dog eyes Fox and gruffs back, Mom hurt. Simone is not physically hurt, but dogs don't necessarily understand more delicate human concepts of stress and trauma. Protect! My human! wuff gruff wuff. I keep her safe.
Simone looks between Fox and the dog, her scrunched up face only seeming to get more scrunchier. "....Are you talking to my dog? Should I be surprised that you're fucking talking to my dog?" she asks, voice laced with hints of tired but fond sarcasm.
She looks up at Vasha, bewilderedly, clearly not sure if she's supposed to know what he's talking about. Granted, she's not sure of anything right now. "...Who?"
Fox is momentarily distracted by hearing Vasha's approaching footsteps and not just, you know, having Vasha right there suddenly. God, people who do that are such a pain in the ass, amirite?
Anyway, after she blinks up at him for a moment, and her smile is as big and bright as the morning sky. "Hello, My Heart," she greets him, reaching out a hand towards him.
A small, kind of sheepish smile -- her teeth still concealed, one thing at a time -- and she tips her head to the side, looking at Simone. "I am talking to your dog," she confirms. "You can be surprised. But it will happen a lot. You have a good dog. He says you're hurt and he wants to -- no, he will -- protect 'my human' and that he keeps you safe." A beat's pause. "He's a very good dog."
"... who is not a spy reporting to the Kremlin, Vasily Alexandrovich Tometchko," and the long name comes rattling off of her tongue so easily. "He's teasing you. It's how he shows he cares."
"Believe nothing this one tells you, tovarsiche. She is an American and a capitalist." Vasha makes the latter word sound so much worse than the first one. But his sneer breaks into a sudden and sunny expression; wide gray eyes and a chip-toothed beaming smile. "I am kidding you, khudozhnik. I. Am not good at. Eeenh." Vasha goes searching for the word as though its very concept is foreign to his native tongue.
"Chummy. Yes? But I want to help you. You are very important to me?" Vasha looks briefly to Fox as he closes the distance to her. Is he doing this right? This is how you talk about your feelings, right? He looks back to Simone with somewhat plaintive eyes. "You feel like you are falling when what you are doing is flying and I want to show you the difference."
"Comrade," Fox briefly translates when Vasha uses Russian words. "And artist."
She looks back down at the dog and her face melts. "Awww, Mochi..." She relaxes her legs, stretching them out and coaxing the dog that is too large to be a real lap dog onto her lap. She wraps her arms around him and buries her face into the fluffy white poof. The dog licks at her ear. "You are such a good boy. I'm okay, baby."
After a moment she lifts her head again, looking between them. She's maybe still... in shock, about everything. The reunion with her sibling, awakening, russian spy fiances, it's a lot for one day. Brain overload, 404 error.
Sarcasm seems to be her default for dealing with said shock. "Avigail... Are you marrying a Bond villain?"
When Vasha starts getting serious, she sobers a little, sarcasm temporarily set aside as she looks up at him. She frowns--thoughtful and a little overwhelmed, not troubled. "Kuduz-wha..." As Fox translates, "Oh." There's a few seconds pause, before she nods slowly, smiling at him. "If you're important to my sister, then... you're important to me. So. Yeah." She runs fingers through the dog's fluff for comfort. "....Yeah. You're pretty on the nose with the falling thing."
"His name is Mochi? Oh my God, that is so, so cute." Fox stretches her hand out toward the dog again for a sniff and rumble-chuffs at him gently, You do a good job, taking care of your Mom. Do you want to meet friends? He is a friend, too. He helped save Mom. A soft gesture with her head toward Vasha, and then she sits back and reaches her other hand to take Vasha's. She doesn't say anything, but her look up at him is adoring, full of reassurance and love.
A little laugh, there, and a shake of her head. She manages to stop herself from grinning, but only barely. "I am not. I am marrying the man who saved you, among his other very many wonderful qualities. Simone, please meet Vasily Tometchko. Everyone in my cadre calls him Vasha. He's often grumbly, his sense of humor is sometimes abrasive, but he's the most loyal person I know, will throw himself into danger in order to save someone, and like Tanya said, he's secretly a giant teddy bear." She blinks slowly, like a contented cat.
"Also, I -- um. I haven't gone by Avigail in a very long time. Vasha has never known me by that name. Everyone calls me Fox now."
A trace of a smile at the flying/falling analogy, and then she suddenly snaps her head back to Vasha. "I am not a capitalist!" Like that just caught up with her. How dare!
Vasha reaches up and removes the knit cat from his fast balding head, his unruly blonde curls flopping out more than a little haphazardly. He holds it to his chest in a manner that offers him twice the dignity removing the hat denied him in the first place. "Captain Tometchko, miss. Vasily Alexandrovich. 2nd Rifles, Donetsk Volunteers, Ukraine." As though this is all he has to offer her or anyone else as evidence of his essential humanity.
"And I know you are, miss. We all dance on that silver wire. It's good. It's... It's good." Vasha again looks to Fox, gesturing to her for assistance.(edited)
"Yeah, his name is Mochi. He's my spoiled rotten baby," she replies, scritching behind the dog's ears.
Mochi's nose snorffles at Fox's hand, and allows the petting with a regal, proud sort of dignity. He looks towards Vasha when she gestures to him. ...No teeth. No claws. I protect better, he replies jealously. Strong good big scary Mochi.
"...Oh." She looks back at Fox and just... stares for a beat, because she suddenly bursts out laughing--that sort of overwhelmed, nervous, emotional laughter, as she rubs a hand over her face. "Fox. Of fucking course you're called Fox. Right... Okay. Uh, sorry. I'll... do my best to not call you that again."
She looks back to Vasha, the laughing seeming to melt some of her nerves, even if it sounded a bit unhinged. "Do you prefer Vasha, Vasily, or Captain Tometchko?" she asks, that light sarcasm returning. Another similar laugh. "Is it?" she asks, though she pauses after to consider her own question, gaze drifting away from the two briefly. "Maybe. Yeah. Shit."
I'm sure you protect better, and you are strong good big scary Mochi. Fox answers, in a solemn and understanding tone, and then turns her attention toward the humans. "Mochi says that he is better at protecting his Mom than the Vasha, because Vasha has no teeth or claws. He also asserts that he is 'strong good big scary Mochi.'" She pets one hand against Vasha's side and leans her head into him.
She shrugs her shoulders. "Those footprints in the snow? The silver fox that came out of the Verge -- that's what that door was, I can explain more later -- those were, um. It mimicking my footprints. They weren't just ... footprints, they're... my fox footprints."
"It's okay if you slip. I just -- that's -- " A vague shrug. "It's not me anymore."
When her sarcasm returns, Fox grins broadly without thinking about it. And there are the thin, pointy teeth. "Yeah. So. All of this? Is why I dropped off the face of the earth. I wanted to protect you all, and -- I went too far in trying. That's the broad strokes. I can tell you all the details on a day that isn't today. Some real cool shit happened to you today. So. It is good."
Vasily ends up looking a little defeated as he looks away from both women and returns his cap to his balding head with a mild show of stubbornness, "Vasha." As though she had to ask. As though it weren't obvious. So suggests his wounded tone.
But he wisely does not further pursue the point, and let's the sisters discuss deadnames.
This acknowledgement appeases Mochi. The dog relaxes some, though remains sprawled possessively across Simone's lap, for now. "The best strong good big scary Mochi," she agrees with a nod, and more pets.
"That... makes sense," she says, blinking a few times slowly as threads connect, thoughts realign. Truths are revealed. "I knew, I think. That it was--it would lead me to you. That it was the most important thing in the world and I--had to--" her face crumbles, tears welling up in her eyes and overflowing her cheeks. "You're really here."
If she notices the teeth, she doesn't immediately react to it--but maybe she doesn't, cause now her vision is all blurry from tears. Or she's just too caught up in the sudden bubbling up emotions to let her mind process it.
She rubs at her face with the back of her hand, managing a small nod in reply. "Vasha. Cool. Cool..."
She looks up at him briefly, and pushes herself up to stand on the chair so she can kiss him all over his face. "She is only trying to be polite and not too familiar on first meeting. You were calling her 'miss,' My Heart."
And now Fox stands on the chair for a minute, and then hops down and runs to peek in at her pigeons since she's up, before returning to stand in front of her chair. But -- before she can sit down again, Simone is crying. A brief moment of distress flashes across her face, and she says, quietly, "My Heart, could I impose upon you to get drinks for us, too?" If he brings something Simone won't drink, after all, Fox can just ... change it.
A heartbeat later she's circled around the chair, her arms wrapped around Simone from behind, her head resting on top of her sister's just so. Very similar to the posture she took once Simone finally sat up in her house. "I'm here, I'm here," she agrees quietly. "I won't leave you again. I promise." And someone who is marrying a Fate Master doesn't easily make promises they can be held to by an ironclad Oath. "You did it, though. You found me. And you found yourself, in such a profound way there aren't words for it. You've seen what the world could be."
Vasha grunts, adjusts his knit cap, and goes off to get drinks, cigar hanging from his hand, still slowly smoking.
With some gentle nudging, Mochi reluctantly slips off of Simone's lap with an indignant gruff, but lays down beside the chair instead, resting his muzzle on the edge of the chair.
Simone turns into Fox, wrapping her arms around them and clinging tightly, starting to cry into his shoulder. Words come bubbling up in between ugly sniffles and muffled sobs, broken and warbly. "I looked for so long and never gave up--none of us ever gave up--but I--it felt like--like... everything was building up, more and more--and I kept wondering what I had done, kept going over every little thing in my head, looked at every photograph of us--trying to figure it out, and I couldn't.... I knew there was something, something I was... missing... but I couldn't... and then you called me. And it was like--fuck, like a fucking pimple that is all swollen and gross but then it pops and it... it hurts for a moment, but then everything is just--spilling out..."
She stops, face scrunching up and making a frustrated noise. "Ugh--that's not right--that's gross and this isn't gross..." She sniffle-snorts, all teary and snotty. "Okay, I'm gross..."
She comes around to the side of the chair, making the hug easier, and wraps her arms tightly around her baby sister. (Doesn't matter how old she gets, she'll always be the baby sister. When you help teach someone to walk, it's just like that.) "Like a dam breaking," she agrees quietly, murmuring into Simone's hair, kissing the top of her head. "The pressure had built up for so long, all that water pushing against the concrete, and then it just bursts and at first it's scary and the noise hurts your ears, but then it's just the rush of water and everything starts to stabilize."
"Your metaphor was good, too. And bodies are just bodies. The imagery doesn't bother me." She hugs tighter. "I'd show you my favorite trick but I don't know about Mochi's play drive," laughs Fox gently.
"You have a lot of feelings you have to get out. That's okay. Today was a lot. When I Awakened, I wandered around in the snow in St. Petersburg. Nearly froze to death. My Mentor found me. Mischa."
She continues clinging, but the crying slows a little as Fox validates the Big Feels. She sniffs wetly again. "Y-yeah. Yeah, like that. Fucking Hoover Dam. That fox... I knew somehow, that it would... lead me to the truth. Lead me to you, without lies or distance, just--just you."
She pulls back enough to rub snot off onto her sleeve. "Maybe... keep fancy tricks for later. I already feel like my brain is leaking out of my ears." She takes a deep breath, struggling to compose herself, but her eyes are puffy and her face is splotchy pink and red. "Awakened. I guess... that's one way to put it, huh..."
Another kiss to the top of her head, just staying close. "I have some really cool tricks," she offers with a smile audible in her voice. "But -- another day, you're right. There's so much wonder in this world, and I can't wait to share it with you." Now it's Fox's turn for her voice to crack and for her to bury her face in her sister's hair. "You've got me. That fox brought me. Fucking Fate," she laughs softly.
"Awakened is what we call it," she agrees. "Everyone who lives here is like I am. Like you are now. Your eyes open and you can see what's really, really real. We call ourselves Mages or Awakened."
"Do you want to talk about what you saw, or would you rather talk about, you know, normal-ish stuff like who lives here and what to expect in the next few days? I'd kind of like for you to stay here until you get a handle on stuff at least. It's gonna take some processing."
When Fox's voice cracks, Simone effortlessly shifts her grip so she's holding Fox, and reaches up to pet her wild hair while she sniffles softly. "I love you. I missed you so much, A--Fox." She lets out a heavy, long sigh, shoulders sagging against her. "You can whisk me off on a magic carpet ride later. Right now, I just... want to be here. Not fall or fly or--anything. Just sit here."
She listens, then sits up and rubs her face off again, this time no more tears immediately redrenching her face. "Normal-ish things, I think. That'd be good. Sorry I upset your fiance."(edited)
"I love you too, Simone. I missed you every day." Her family was the secret that she kept from everyone. Everyone. For twelve years. Someday Vasha will realize that, and maybe -- maybe! -- be Very Impressed. She hugs tight and kisses the top of her head. "Come on. Let's go in to the living room and sit on the couch. Then there can be better snuggles."
"I'm not sure if I could actually do a magic carpet ride," she ponders aloud. "Maybe with Forces... " and her voice trails off. "Mm. Not important right now." She gently extracts herself from her sister's arms but takes hold of her hand. Right now, she's happy to be a Really Real Anchor To Reality.
"Oh. It's okay. He'll be fine. He's like -- I know it can be hard to tell with him -- but this is the most genuinely, unguardedly happy I've seen him in a while. Like, consistently, not a little tiny moment and then gone." Her hand squeezes Simone's. "He just did a good thing, a truly good thing, he threw himself into danger without question for someone in danger, for my sister in danger, and Fate led him through doing this truly good deed to an apprentice on the other side." She speaks about Fate simply, like it's just a fact. Since, you know, it is. "You can't be expected to know Russian naming conventions. His disappointment just means you matter to him. That's like. Rare emotion showing, for him. Because you matter."
She nods, standing, and accepts her hand. "Come on, Mochi. There will be room for you too, baby."
She follows Fox into the living room, where she flops back onto the couch and curls up beside Fox, with Mochi hopping up to claim the other side, resting his head on her lap. She listens, resting her head on Fox's shoulder. "...Huh. Okay..." She takes a moment to pick that apart. "That worries me a little that that is him unguardedly happy, but... so long as you're happy, that's what matters. And you seem happy..." She closes her eyes contently. "Apprentice, huh?"
She grabs the blanket she brought out, releases the Forces effect once they're inside, and then tucks them both in gently on the couch. Her head rests on her sister's head. "Vasha has been through... " A long pause. "A lot. More than I can explain. But I am happy. He's really, really good to me. We were along for a long time too, for ... oh it's too complicated for tonight. But I have him back, and it's ... good."
"Yeah, Apprentice. So... " Here she does that Fox thing where she pauses in order to find the best way through what she wants to say. "In Mage society, there's a recognition that... when you first Awaken, you're like a kid who just got handed a flamethrower. You can be dangerous to yourself and the people around you. So... Mage law, at this moment, views you not as a child per se, but recognizes that you don't know enough yet to not be a danger to yourself. Thus the Mentor/Apprentice system. Some people say 'Master and Apprentice,' but that makes me gag, so I don't say it. What are we, fucking Sith? Anyway. So under Mage law, that means that Vasha is responsible for you, and you are sort of ... shielded... from any mistakes you make, because Vasha, who knows the rules, is going to answer for those mistakes. You're not ... forced to stand on your own. You're being protected and spoken for by Third-Degree Adept Pavlichenko." Beat. "Yes, we have formal Mage names. It's complicated. The point is, Vasha stepped up to protect you."
"Here. This is the note he put up in one of the big gathering spots, when I was bringing you back here:" And she pulls up an image of the note on her phone, like Vasha like, texted it to her or something. (He did.)
"AWAKENED:
I, PAVLICHENKO, THIRD DEGREE ADEPT, GUARDIAN, SCION OF THE LUNARGENT THORN DO CLAIM художник," And here an aside where she translates, "It means 'artist', he basically gave you a temporary Shadow Name until you pick your own," before continuing, "AS MY APPRENTICE.
HER WRONGS ARE MINE TO ATTONE FOR. YOUR PATH TO HER IS THROUGH ME.
SHE IS MY TREASURE AND MY GIFT.
MAY HER AWAKENING PLEASE GOD AND OUR COMMUNITY."
"So... yeah. Apprentice. And you can change that if you want, but trust me, no one is gonna be more invested in making sure you have every opportunity than Vasha."
"I guess... that makes sense. So I... really have... powers?" She squints as she tries to wrap her head around everything. "...Can I talk to Mochi too?"
She accepts the phone and stares at the screen. A few seconds tick by. "...This looks like a serial killer made it."
[paused]
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