(no subject)
Illyana's relaxation tonight seems to be the product of a long day, rather than a workout directly before. Rather than a utilitarian swimsuit, she's wearing a bikini in a pastel blue shade, though much of her is hard to see under the water as she revels in the heat, head resting down on the edge, water at her chin. Her hair is supposed to be in a bun, but the bun's in the last stages of escaping to blonde freedom.
Mantis strides toward the hot tub, wearing a utilitatiran black one-piece, a bright yellow towel over one shoulder, and a broad straw sun-hat perched on top of her hair (also in a bun, but almost entirely constrained by hat + hairpiece). "Illyana," she greets as she invites herself in the water. Her shields are up today. Perhaps a form of relaxation.
"It's not the season to be that sunny, no?" Illyana asks, peering with slight bemusement at the hat. She regathers herself in perhaps some body shyness, but doesn't go so far as to cross her arms over her chest or any such.
"I have never allowed the season to determine my wardrobe. Better that my wardrobe determine the season." Mantis fans her fingers out on the side of the hot tub, a minute sort of stretch.
"I wouldn't mind the sun you're bringing, then," Illyana says. She sinks a little lower, more comfortable, and pats at her bun. Uh-oh! "You like summer?"
"Yes. I like it because it is more an anomaly, where I lived. Something to look forward to. Something to," Mantis snaps her fingers up at the ceiling, "coax out of the sky."
"Maybe you could really do it, in my place. The weather there is moody." She lets her foot float up, wiggles her toes in the comparative cool of the air. "How have you been?"
"Perhaps. Your place is more receptive, is it not?" Mantis tilts her hand. "I have been well. Perhaps I grow mildly restless. Are you moody, then?"
"Am I?" Illyana counters with a quirk of a smile that's a little hesitant about the full implications of Mantis being able to determine that. "Some lately."
"And why is that, my friend?" Mantis asks with her cool-natured interest.
"People getting hurt," Illyana tells the surface of the water. She lets her toes fall, trying to get the surface of the water to smooth over. "But I've been having more fun with something else at the same time. It feels strange."
"Yes. X-Factor does seem to have its fair share of injured at a given time." Mantis runs her hand idle over the rim of the tub. "But what is this fun thing that perhaps you feel guilty about?"
"Someone," Illyana says, flushes, and leaves it there. "I wonder if you can get too--not feeling, about people getting hurt. Since it happens so often. As long as they're not dead--" She winces. "And even then, sometimes."
"Ah." Mantis smiles. "Someone." A beat accompanied by the lowering of shields, of curiosity unfurled to listen. "You feel bad for not exhausting yourself with worry and grief."
'Someone' carries a giddy sort of interest and excitement. Certainly not love. Caution, too, threaded through liberally. Illyana nods, emotions turning as she considers the question and answers verbally. "Exhaustion wouldn't do anyone any good. But I don't want to be the kind of person who doesn't worry, yes?" She doesn't feel like that kind of person in her head, either, but there's a sense of unfamiliarity with familiarity with worry.
"You could see it as a matter of faith rather than a matter of neglect. Everything will work out somehow and in some way." Mantis's eyes go lidded and she slips deeper into the hot tub. "People will act capably and if they are injured, it is a surprise, not a confirmation of worry. Faith always better than fear."
"I do think that." Illyana fans fingers across her heart, unconsciously. A solid foundation of faith in her mind, with roiling doubt above it. "But this world seems different than that."
"Does this world require us to be neurotic?" Mantis asks.
"Maybe," Illyana says, with lips pressed and amusement bubbling up. "It's very popular!"
"I think not," Mantis eases, her eyes slitting back open. "It is well to be happy. You should not feel guilty for such things."
The 'someone' attached emotions seep back in. "Good," she agrees. "It feels good for spring. Starting new things. New habits." She tilts her head. "Do you celebrate Easter?"
"I am uninterested in holidays," Mantis says, almost apologetically. "I prefer to celebrate unfettered by the calendar."
"Have you had reason to celebrate lately?" Illyana finally dunks under the water to slick her escaped hair to her head, and pops back up to hear the answer.
"I do not believe in waiting for reasons," Mantis says with a lift of shoulder.
Illyana lifts up a handful of water, lets it splash down like confetti here and now. "I'll have to try that with someone. Tonight, we should celebrate. Why? Because!"
"Who can resist?" Mantis's smile grows wider, if almost cooler. "Why let one day draw featureless into another?"
"If you celebrate every day, that makes them all the same again, though," Illyana points out. She lowers her hands, no less amused by the idea, but not really throwing her whole self into it.
"Not if you celebrate them differently," Mantis light-counters. "It does not all have to be getting drunk and watching movies."
Illyana ducks her head, finding plenty of herself in that comment. "What other kinds do you prefer?"
"Improvisation. Walks. Watching stars, watching people." Mantis gestures behind one ear. "There is much to celebrate."
Illyana looks up at the sky. There are no stars out at the moment, of course, bur Mantis can feel her respond to that idea. "Visiting my place, to see its beauties."
"I wonder about the beauties of your place," Mantis almost cautions. "Whether exploring them is much like exploring the insides of your eyelids."
Illyana shakes her head, emphatic. "I'd never imagine half of the things there. But I don't--make friends, with the people found there. That is like imaginary friends."
"Either the world is imaginary or it is not. The people are real or figments." Mantis straightens some in the tub. "I could not tell you which. But you should love this world as much as yours. Come to eventually."
"I do!" Illyana asserts. Her internal voice of doubt is indeed very small. "I've had years to come to that since you first met me."
"Good. I only mean," and Mantis gestures with her other hand, "that there is much to celebrate here. This is all. Now. Will you tell me about this marvelous someone or no?"
"Oh!" Illyana shakes her head even as her emotions jump at the chance to talk as soon as politeness is satisfied. "I have to be careful. I had trouble with another marvelous someone when I got too serious." The earlier cautious explained.
"Every marvelous someone is trouble," Mantis says, smile gone a bit knowing and sly.
"Yes," Illyana agrees, fingers up to half hide a smile. Delicious trouble. "Did you dream the dream with everyone else?"
"The-- oh, yes. That dream." Mantis frowns a small, regretful sort of frown that quickly disperses back into a smile. "I did, I suppose, but I remember little useful or interesting from it. I wish I had dreamed better. Who did you meet, then?"
"I sneaked into Iago's dream." Illyana's emotions twist in a clot of anticipation of Mantis' reaction, good or bad, to the name, even as she minimizes it by hurrying forward. "It was very strange, dreaming a place like one I've never seen or imagined before."
"Iago I am not much acquainted with," Mantis milds. "But his dream was a marvelous one, you are saying?"
"It was Japan. The--houses, yes?" Illyana's hand ascribes something of the angle of a pagoda roof. "I've never been there, but he has. The houses are so different."
"Ah, pagodas," Mantis can at least identify. "So you were drawn by his - novelty?"
Illyana has to think over the word, frownishly. "He's so--bright-colored, and fun, and--" She gestures hands wide, perhaps some quality of showmanship.
"Then you should be happy with him," Mantis decides easily.
Illyana looks at Mantis in surprise, eyebrows up, then she /smiles/. "You think?" She laughs. "It is only for friends, not more than that."
"Friends with--" Mantis gestures for a continuation.
"Benefits," Illyana completes obligingly.
"Of course. I was not expecting you were tennis-friends, but I wanted to be sure," Mantis ends.
"I don't know how to play tennis," Illyana says, trying to pretend she's not blushing brightly, with the emotions to match. "Now it's very strange to be around his real friend, though. Do you know Zaza? Do you think she minds?"
"Zaza seems the type of woman who is happy to see others happy," is veritably Mantis's answer.
Illyana nods, somewhat dubiously, but wanting to believe it. "I hope so. I handled it really badly last time with a friend I didn't tell about it until later. But he was her ex."
"Are they also bed-friends rather than tennis-friends?" Mantis moves to confirm. "If so, you may be in trouble."
"Could you--tell?" Illyana tiptoes up to the idea. "If you watched them together? Me, I have no idea."
"Hmm." Mantis's smile turns thoughtful indeed. "Possibly. Yes, possibly."
"Tell me if you do," Illyana says, eager. She sits up straight, and then her emotions twist in anticipation of a positive determination, leading thus to trouble.
"You will be first to know," Mantis says, and rises from the water.
Illyana nods. She checks fingertips to find them pruney, reminded by Mantis' exit, and pushes up herself. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Mantis says with a yet brighter smile and departs.