Template:Featured Articles/20-2023
 He didn't answer her question right away, instead he took a moment to appreciate the view she was appreciating. Finally, he spoke. "As you've no doubt heard my sister has returned on her own from Limbo." he said. "It occurs to me that you might not be tremendously welcoming." he said, concentrating on his English to make as sure as possible of there being no misunderstandings. Her eyebrows rose. "Oh? What makes you think that?" she asked, careful to keep any defensiveness out of her voice. "How hard you pushed against the idea of anyone trying to rescue her." he said simply. "She returned of her own will. Plans to stay for the most part." he mentioned, like it was no big thing at all. Since she put her smoke out he took a deep breath of the clear night air and then released it. For her part, Amanda huffed out an exasperated breath. "I wasn't against trying to rescue her," she replied. "You totally misunderstood me. What I was saying is that we had no idea where she even was or if she needed to be rescued. You were totally fixated on her being in trouble, and I wanted to be sure you weren't going to go running off making deals with demons to get her back. That was all." Pyotr steeled himself - metaphorically - to try to speak in ways she would understand. "Believe it or not, I am a gentle man." he said. "Do not wish to resort to might to make points understood. But Illyana, she's my little sister. Were very close growing up. She means everything to me. If she were to disappear again, would break my heart. And if learn her disappearance was not of her will, well, that would have consequences. Do you understand?" "Of course. If Illyana disappeared against her will, I'd do everything I could to make sure she was safe, same as I would for anyone here." Obviously logic wasn't going to work here, so Amanda opted for being reasonable. "Keeping the mansion and its people safe is important to all of us here." "Da, of course." he said agreeably. He thought she was dancing around his point but he wasn't sure his eloquence in English was enough to keep pace with her. Still, he owed it to his baby sister to try. "Would be awful to find little sister gone because it would be convenient." he offered. "Oh, for fuck's sake..." Amanda muttered under her breath. She turned to face the larger man squarely and switched to Russian. Her accent was terrible, but her words were understandable. "~Let's make it very clear, okay? I have no intention to harm your sister. I am not going to make her disappear. I have never wished harm against her. So you can stop with the veiled threats, okay?~" He obligingly switched to Russian as well. "Good. Then you have nothing to fear." he said pleasantly. On the topic of threats he was silent, but he was sure now that his message was received.:"Had to speak language you'd understand." he said, still in Russian. "Because I'm a spy? Fucking hell, Rasputin, the Cold War is over and the KGB don't exist any more. Enough with the 'spies are Big Bad Boogeymen', okay? You sound like a relic." Amanda's response was in a mixture of Russian and English as her frustration bled through. "We're here to help mutants, same as the leather brigade and that especially means the people we bloody well live with. Including Illyana. So all this posturing and hint-dropping? Makes you look like an idiot." She took in a deep breath. "Now, if you're satisfied the mean nasty spy lady isn't going to hurt your baby sister, I'm going to go back to my room and get back to working on something that's actually happening." |
