soulmagiks

[soulmagiks]

“ you probably noticed i like to stir things up.” ( mad sweeney and illyana rasputina )

with the point of the soul sword dug into the ground, illyana leaned her weight on the oversized weapon. “is that what you are doing? can’t say i’m opposed.” she’d always quietly embraced chaos – it felt more natural to her than the alternative. her head tilted in mild curiosity as she looked over at the man. she wasn’t one to judge, but she could feel something different with him. being all mutant, sorceress, and demon – she knew he at least didn’t seem to be anything familiar to her. “what are you, anyway?” @occultbat​

[soulmagiks]

thephoenixrising‌:

“ so… do you think there’s any instant noodles left in the stores? or have they all been cleaned out by the billionaires? “ // @soulmagiks​

Jean peeked over her book at Illyana and let out a light laugh. When it came to everything going on, she wasn’t sure what to believe. What she did know was she liked to think someone was innocent until proven guilty, but she still found Illyana’s statement amusing, “Billionaires don’t strike me as the type to buy ramen or any type of instant noodles unless they’re running a school,” she pointed out. She wasn’t going to get on anyone about how unhealthy it was. She was sure they all knew that and they’d eat it anyway. And some days even she had to surrender to eating it. “Should we teleport to a store and find out? It can’t hurt to check a few, can it?” she asked, setting her book aside.

“you never know, i’ve always suspected rich people are into some weird crap. even things as trivial as ramen noodles.” illyana pointed out. admittedly, she wasn’t very concerned about it, but it was an amusing thought to follow. “or they’re all going to turn into hoarders, hiding in their mansions given the current hit out on their lives.” she mused further having heard the recent news, and while she didn’t actually believe any of them were going into hiding, she was curious as to why they were targeted. finally, she gave a shrug. “but sure, we could always stock up on more given the amount of adolescents living here. plus, if i show up in leather with a sword, i usually get things for free.”

[soulmagiks]

occultbat‌

“There are bigger sacrifices one might be asked to make than going a little mad.”   - @soulmagiks​

“are there?“ stephen asked, pondering the idea of it all before turning to look at the blonde. “i think keeping one’s sanity is a bit better than losing it, no matter the cost.” he’d given the topic plenty of thought before - usually when he was alone with his own mind and the lingering horrors of when he had to face dormammu would come up. “but if you believe going insane would benefit and save this entire city, then i am not going to stop you.” he smirked, indicating to her that he wasn’t really being serious about it. “or i might, depends on how many people you drop into limbo first.”

“bold of you to assume i haven’t already lost my sanity.” illyana pointed out, the corner of her mouth quirking in a hint of a smirk, the only indication that she was mostly joking. she was sure there were some that would agree with the sentiment, though. “i don’t solve all of my problems by dropping people into limbo, for the record, most of the time.” it was always a good threat, and the circumstances varied, but limbo wasn’t for the faint of heart. illyana directed her attention to some knick-knack she pulled off a shelf. “i do have some ideas, though. limbo is called limbo for a reason, it’s the dimension between everything – places, time, even other dimensions, and my magic and powers are tied to it. what if i could use limbo to find whatever has made the dimensions combine here? of course, to be realistic, pulling that much power from limbo could bring out a less than pleasant version of myself.”

[soulmagiks]

scxttsummers‌

❛ i was halfway across town , hungover and thinking about breakfast. ❜ @soulmagiks​

“So did you get it?” He asks, nonchalantly taking a bite from his sandwich while his eyes focused on her. “Breakfast, I mean. After all, that’s most important isn’t it?” Slowly, he grins and puts his food down, taking his bottle and downing the remains of his protein drink. “Why were you halfway across town anyway? I didn’t think you could get drunk enough for that.”

“i had ten pieces of bacon and a bloody mary, i would call it breakfast.” she shrugged, leaning her back against a wall opposite of him. it made for an unusual day – illyana wasn’t exactly a party-going type, though just how responsible she was could still be easily debated. “i can – russian vodka and teleportation, not my best moment but it seemed better than walking.” she mused. “if anything, it served as a reminder of why i don’t drink often.”

[soulmagiks]

The New Mutants (2020)

[soulmagiks]

magicandiron‌

John had been practicing his yoga in the library - well dressed in nothing but his boxers - when he heard someone rooting around. Opening his eyes and coming out of his downward dog position, he sighed as the other addressed him, necessitating a response.

“Objects imbued with dark magic, love? You’re going to have to be a lot more specific than that. We have quite the collection here.” Grabbing his trousers and pulling them on, he glanced up. “Oh, it’s you. I don’t think we’ve ever been properly introduced. John Constantine. You’re… Stephen’s – student? Ward? Guardian? Person who kicks his lazy arse around?”

illyana let out a small hum as she picked up an old book, flipping through the pages before setting it back down. evidently, she wasn’t nearly as concerned with his state of undress as she was with finding what she was looking for. “i need something, or multiple somethings, with enough power that i can channel it for a spell.” she explained slightly further, she was loose with the details for now. she was still working out a plan, and the darker the magic she thought to look into, the more likely it was someone would try to stop her.

“my name is illyana rasputina,” she introduced, turning towards him with the tilt of her head. “but i also will respond to magik, darkchylde, the ruler of limbo, queen of the demons, etcetera etcetera.” illyana shrugged. “i learned my magic in another dimension where it worked differently, stephen assists me in using it in this dimension. i suppose that makes him a mentor of sorts. better than the last one i had.”

[soulmagiks]

occultbat‌

“alright you sorry suckers, look who’s here, it’s me, harley quinn - and i’m gonna take this no good sorry town and make it my own,“ she whirled her mallet around before setting the blunt end to the ground, leaning onto the handle. sure, she just got here and the place was a little crazy - kinda the fun crazy like gotham used to be, but brighter - but who didn’t want a brighter, shinier, gotham? batman, probably.

was he here?

oops.

anyway, harley chewed indelicately on her bubble gum, blowing out the bubble as she watched a bunch of rioters start to loot a store. “oh this place is nice, i like it, it’s got a lot of pizzas. is that the word for it? maybe not, who knows - anyway, HEY THAT’S MINE.” she yelled, storming off towards one of the goons as she ripped the necklace from his hand, sticking her tongue out at him, and then putting it on. “a bit gaudy but it’ll do - oh, hello, how ya doin’, how’s the weather?” she turned to find herself face-to-face with what she could assume to be a do-gooder. party poops.

petty crime was never much importance to illyana – it was part of nature, she supposed. when rules were imposed on any living things, they had some sort of innate desire to break those rules. the reasons of which varied, as well as self-control, but they all wanted to at some point. so, while illyana was particularly aware that the store was being looted, she continued on searching what she’d come there for. so long as no one risked death, she let most things slide.

“you have a large mallet.” illyana mused as the other addressed her. “i have weapons i’m fond of as –” before she could finished her sentence, a looter pushed past her, shoving her forward slightly. taking in a quick breath, she looked back to the odd but intriguing woman. 

“want to see a magic trick?” 

without hesitation, illyana grabbed hold of the looter and opened a portal to limbo, putting him through it and holding him there, likely witness some number of horrors before she pulled him back through and let him go, head tilting as he ran away screaming. 

[soulmagiks]

( illyana & constantine ) @magicandiron

she didn’t always live there. illyana moved between the merged version of the sanctum and xavier’s institute – being both mutant and mystic, while never being sure if she truly belonged with either. she kept to herself though, choosing not to always make her presence entirely known. even now, she stood partially through one of her stepping disk portals, shuffling though books and objects on a shelf in search of something. “it was here –” she huffed to herself in mild annoyance. “hey, you – guy with the thing for trench coats.” illyana addressed as she spotted constantine, “you haven’t seen some objects imbued with dark magic laying around, have you?”

[soulmagiks]

occultbat‌

the assassin tilted her head, giving a soft hum while trying to think on whether or not it’d be a good idea to allow the blonde to show her power. “none of them see consequential to history and word on the street is that the pirates by the docks are officially stuck here with us, so i guess history doesn’t matter anymore,” she offered a quick smile before shrugging. “i’d say show them your power, after all, you can’t ungrind ground meat,” she turned her smile into a smirk, recognizing the other’s russian sayings and inflections in her tone. “natalia romanovna,” she whispered, offering her true name as a greeting to the other. “it’s nice to finally meet another russian. we should catch up after this.”

“i don’t suppose their lack of importance to history makes it acceptable to feed them to a demon realm, does it?” illyana mused with too much honest curiosity, and perhaps a disturbing hint of hopefulness. she wasn’t oblivious, she knew the general principles of right from wrong and what was considered frowned upon – but she also knew what was effective and had a willingness to do what needed to be done, no matter how ugly. “illyana rasputina,” she gave in return with an understanding nod. “of course – give me a moment.” without missing a beat, she disappeared in a portal opened before her, reappearing as another portal opened over the army and allowing her to drop into the middle of it. for the most part, she was able to use the soul sword to effective knock them unconscious. it was most lethal to magic users and things of a paranormal design, but with a mortal army, she could use it to mystically knock them out. when at least half the army was incapacitated and the rest were left confused, she portaled herself back to natasha. “the only other russian i know in the area is my brother, piotr, and he is significantly less fun.”

[soulmagiks]

House of X #5 Magik variant by David Lafuente

[soulmagiks]

dialedsenses‌

“my strength is a better than average, but i don’t think hers is. plus, like you said, it’s bigger than she is. she’d argue it’s okay because she can’t feel pain, but...” laura agreed before trailing off, waving her hand and shrugging her shoulders. she still wasn’t sure what all was the same and what was different between her and gabby’s power sets – there were similarities, of course, but also some differences, and they couldn’t be sure whether it was like gabby would get the abilities in later or not. laura wasn’t really sure if it worked that way or not. she was a fighter, not a genius. “uh… not bad? it’s weird, but… i’m just happy the school’s still standing. i don’t know where we’d be if this place wasn’t around. gabby thinks it’s all cool.” she paused. “what about you?”

“i understand – her interest in my sword is more rooted in simple childhood curiosities.” illyana mused thoughtfully. “when she’s older, i wouldn’t mind teaching her to wield a sword of her own if she wished, but right now she’s still only a child. i think it’s admirable that you do as you can to help her hold on to that.” there was a near softness in her words that the sorceress would usually otherwise lack. illyana knew too well what it was like to have your childhood taken from you, to be corrupted – and she knew laura as well. “i have no doubt that one day she’ll be quite the ‘badass’ herself, a fighter – like you, but that day doesn’t need to be today.” she concluded, pausing to think it over before glancing around with a nod. “the school being here is a relief, too many people need it. i move between here and the sanctum sanctorum, as needed, to help here and train with doctor strange as well. moving between realities and times isn’t a stranger to me, but being stuck in only one is. i still have access to limbo, but i can’t move further than that.”

[soulmagiks]

thephoenixrising‌

So, there were three places she could go, but she could only help one group. There was the t-rex in midtown, but it looked like that was being handled well enough by a group of vigilantes. There were the pirates on the docks, which also looked like they were being sufficiently handled. And then there were the Romans. She’d decided she’d be of more use here than the other two places, so she had landed in a group, absorbed the language, and started a conversation with one of them. It was quite an interesting conversation to say the least, though the general she spoke to definitely seemed like he wanted to take New Gotham for the glory of Rome. Every general she spoke to was pretty much the same when it came to that. Sighing, Jean lifted herself onto the roof of the nearest Starbucks, not minding the eyes that followed her, “I’m completely out of ideas for getting them home,” she said to no one in particular, “outside of pretending to be one of their gods, there’s no way we can convince them they need to pack up and go home,” and she really only wanted to use her power like that as a last resort. 

“i have many ideas – but few that would be approved of by the majority.” illyana deadpanned, only eluding to the idea that she could open a large enough portal to drop the entire roman army into limbo. of course, she suspected that most of the other proclaimed heroes in the area would disagree with that tactic. she let out a hum as she glanced down at the army below, “i believe you aren’t the only one that has contemplated the angle of gods.” she mused over the thought, fairly certain she’d heard that another had one convinced she was such. “though that may make them wish to stay to serve and worship you. fear may prove more effective.” if there was one thing illyana knew for certain, was that fear was a controlling factor for the typical human man. “i suppose if i rode with horns on the back of a demon, they may consider me a harbinger of death and flee a land they’d consider cursed.”

[soulmagiks]

“My powers are broken. Just like yours. Just like every one of us who touched that damned Phoenix Force. The difference here is mine are connected to  magic – to Limbo. The difference here is that mine are connected to things that I don’t fully understand. Truthfully? I never did. I know that I know just enough to know that I don’t know everything. In our simpler days it was good enough. But now… for the first time since I was a little girl proper… I am so scared. I am so confused. And I do not know what to do.”  Uncanny X-Men #5

[soulmagiks]

Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin/Magik in The New Mutants Trailer

[soulmagiks]

dialedsenses‌:

it’d been… about every five minutes that gabby would run back into the room where laura was sitting with illy to ask if she could see illy’s sword, and every time she did, laura would give her a look and she’d quickly run out of the room. gabby, unlike any of her sisters, retained at least some of her childhood innocence. for laura, that had been stripped away long ago. “i’m sorry about her,” laura says, laughing softly as she shakes her head. “she thinks you’re badass. she’s right. but you don’t have to go to the trouble.” she says, waving her sister off and giving her friend a small smile. “and now i’ve completely forgotten what we were talking about before,” she laughed softly.

@soulmagiks​

contrary to what many of the others may believe, illyana enjoyed children. she wasn’t always the best with them, often forgetting that she had to choose her words carefully as they weren’t all yet aware of the cruelties of the world. yet, it was gabby’s innocent excitement that brought a smile to her lips, reminding her of a time when she once held similar innocence. “it is not a trouble at all, i can bring out the sword if she’d truly like to see it – though i believe it is larger than she is so perhaps holding it should wait.” illyana mused – trying to remember what would be appropriate. at gabby’s age, illyana had already been exposed to things she wouldn’t wish on anyone else. “i can’t say i’m entirely sure myself – but how are you and gabby faring here with the entanglements of realities?”

[soulmagiks]

occultbat‌

“oh boy,“ natasha muttered to herself as she reached to tie her hair up and away from her face. she stood standing at the edge of the police building, watching the romans carefully, assessing the situation and debating if she should get involved at all. silently, she pushed down off the ledge and made her way to the ground before approaching what seemed to be the man in charge. <you’re far from home - don’t you think it’s time to head back?> she asked in latin, easing into a smile. the man eyed her warily before responding, giving her the expression that he was not leaving and this land was to be for the glory of the roman empire. typical. sighing, nat turned to look at the nearest resident of new gotham. “looks like we’ll have to send them packing, they don’t want to play nice.” she paused and scrunched up her nose, “you think we can threaten them with a godly power?”

at that precise moment, illyana had been internally debating the pros and cons of summoning a demonic army to fight against the roman one. overkill? maybe. quick and efficient? mostly. but it would cost her the fun of taking care of it herself. her head turned at the question posed by the other woman, a hum on her lips. “perhaps. i could show them a power, though i’m not sure how godly it would be considered. they also likely would not survive, which could have consequences in terms of the timeline.” she shrugged, the hand of her armor clad arm resting on her hip while the other held the oversized sword over her shoulder. “but you don’t cry for your hair when your head has been cut off.”

[soulmagiks]

@occultbat