WELCOME

[ELIZABETH BRADDOCK]

Betsy Braddock had been through alot in her life. The loss of her parents, the loss of her own body and the loss of her older brother had made her a very changed woman. However, she was a Braddock. She was a Braddock, and Braddock's pushed on. They continued on and moved along like a river, only stopped until the force of their flow pushed them on. However, lately, with the absence of Charles Xavier and the thoughts of her brother Jamie had pushed her to the mental edge. So, like any good brother, Brian had suggested they go to brunch and a spa session for Betsy, something that she had been looking forward to all through brunch. Elizabeth had always been used to attention, even before her transformation. She had been more outgoing than her twin, thriving for attention at any point. This of course had been a problem when she had gotten into her teens and had caused alot of frustration, she knew, for her brothers. Boys seemed to flock to her, and it didn't help that she had telepathic powers; at a young age, she figured out that she lived to tease. This fact was made worse after the body swap; gone were the blonde curls and blue eyes and in their place, she had been given purple-tinted eyes and dark purple hair and the ability to speak multiple languages. Also, what Betsy had quickly realised is that her attitude had changed in ways as well. While before, she had been a flirt, now with the Kwannon's personality merged with her own, she purposefully tried to push buttons just to see how far she could go, to see how wicked she could truely be. She found amusement in watching men nearly fall at her feet in passion. And, lord knew the men came flocking, and if they didn't, they most certainly had questionable and amusing thoughts. Such as the man who had given her a massage. While many women were content with keeping at least some articles of clothing on during a massage, Elizabeth was content being totally nude, if only for the thoughts that she could hear in her head from the men and even women that worked on her. Lying on her stomach, she had smirked as the man's hands traveled along her back, sliding down dangerously low on the small of her back, and she lifted her head from the face pillow, glancing over her shoulder at him, a wicked smirk crossing her face.

No need to be shy, darling.

To say she was satisfied was not entirely true, but the man surely had been with the images that she had put in his head. His hands seemed to move across her skin with a sensuality that she wondered if he truely believed. Was it using someone? No, at least not in her mind, because she had seen long before that the man had wanted it from the moment he had seen her. All too soon, however, the sound of tinkling bells alerted the man that the massage was over, and she pulled back the images in the man's head, though towards the end she hadn't even had to put any sort of thoughts in his head at all. She looked over her shoulder, watching as the man seemed to blink, arch an eyebrow, and then moved to look down at himself before quickly excusing himself as he exited the room. She found herself laughing a slight chuckle escaping his lips before she moved, turning over onto her back and lifting her arms up over her head to stretch with a slight sleepy yet happy smile. While a good shag was most certainly what she was needing, that would have to do for now, she thought silently with a smile. Soon, she was dressed and she walked out of the room, down the hallway and to the lobby. At the reception desk, a woman smiled and handed her a peice of paper. Elizabeth unfolded it with a small smile, and arched a single, perfectly shaped eyebrow as a slight murmur of amusement escaped her lips. The man's name and phone number were written on the slip of paper. "Rykeir. Of course. Bloody Americans." she murmured with a roll of her eyes before she tucked the slip of paper into her purse. The poor dear had probably thought they had shagged and now wanted to spend every waking moment with her.

Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she made her way to where Brian was sitting. Her light purple dress was tight against her skin, and she had to admit that she felt a glow, though that thought made her lips twist up into a smile as she saw Brian. Had he felt the emotions? Oh, how amusing her connection with her brother could be at times. "I trust you weren't terribly bored?" she murmured, though as he looked at her, she laughed a full laugh, hooking her arm into his as he stood up. She moved, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Oh, darling. You don't realise how much you amuse me at times for the simplest of reasons. It's why I love you so." she told Brian, glancing over her shoulder to see the masseuse standing at the receptionist desk. She gave him a smile, winked and turned to look at Brian. "You know, I've said this before, but you are the best brother a girl could ever have, love. Pampering me as you do. I feel oceans better." she told him as they walked out of the building and onto the sidewalk.

However, as her heels clicked on the sidewalk, her arm tightened in her brother's as she felt...uncomfortable. Her face twisted up into a slight grimace as a chill seemed to cross over her. She glanced behind them, arching an eyebrow before she looked over at Brian. "...do you feel that?" It felt...no. No, it was impossible. Impossible because...no. It was just her nerves, she told herself and she looked over at Brian, wrapping her arms around his waist as they walked. "Nevermind. I think the city is getting to me. It's hard to block out the emotions of hatred that travel all around this bloody place. Be thankful you're not a telepath." She pushed a smile onto her face. "So, where are you going to spoil me now, my dearest brother?"

[BRIAN BRADDOCK]

i've got this feeling that there's something that I missed. Don't you breathe, don't you breathe. Something happened, that I never understood. You can't leave.

Brunch had been on him, this whole spa treatment thing had been on him, and while Betsy was busy getting plucked and primped like a bird, he was sitting out in the waiting room, having himself a time reading magazines and the one book he had brought with him. Of course, brunch had gone well, nothing too painful when it came to using his credit card. The charges would probably be exponential, but at this point he could afford it, and it was his sister after all. However, he hadn't figured out what the hell he was supposed to be doing while she was getting her massage. He supposed he could have gotten one himself, but then he had never really been a huge fan of a stranger touching him, and he had no strong desire to have someone take him into a room and dig at his muscles until they were tingling. No, perhaps that was an interest of his sister's, and he could stand to pay for that much for her, but keep him out of it. He had, however, for some reason, been talked into at least getting facial peel or whatever. However, it had only taken a short while to do that, and before long he was out in the waiting room, feeling violated and less masculine than he had before.

Yes, degrading, that's what he would classify it as, and he had to resist the woman at the desk after she started to try and persuade him to also get a manicure done. Men getting manicures? No, the idea did not amuse him, and he was even less enthused by her attempts to convince him how sexy it was, and how much she dug a man who got facials and manicures, because it showed he cared about his skin and his appearance. Well, Brian cared about his appearance, but he wasn't going to become obsessed with his cuticles or the condition of his skin. So long as he took his showers, kept himself clean, and avoided smelling like a garbage bin that was enough for the woman who he was with, at least...he was convinced it was all. She had never tried to force him to do anything that would be less than pleasant for him, and it wasn't like he had ever forced her to do something that she didn't want to do. Of course, they had in the past made sacrifices and changes for one another, but the fact was that they didn't need to for the sake of proving they loved one another. Now, the woman at the counter was giving him a pair of eyes, like she was trying to look through him, to see what made him tick. She'd applauded his very English accent – how she could applaud something that wasn't up to talent was beyond him, but it had happened – and now seemed to be trying anything to hear it again.

And considering the radiating sense of lust he was getting from his twin – aimed at whoever the hell had taken her into that room, he guessed – his comfort level was currently on the ropes, and it was not making an effort to punch back. So instead of paying anyone too much mind, he had his book open and was currently going through the volume at an alarmingly quick rate, which only made it feel worse to be out there. What the hell was taking so long? By the time he'd come to the sixteenth chapter and looked up, Betsy had returned from what seemed like a two-hour session, the man behind her looking a little less than...well, sobered. Brian didn't like the look of that, and he gave Betsy the eye again as she started in his direction. Of course he hadn't been terribly bored, the book which he was reading – by a European author of course, first printed in English for the UK, and only recently released in the US – had been thrilling enough for him. Giving her a smile, he shook his head. “Not terribly, but enough. However, I see you have had your fun once again.” She must have, because she had that mischievous look on her face like she was happy about having taken advantage of someone. “You didn't get the poor bastards hopes up too much, did you? I feel sorry for him.” Eyeing the man, he sighed a moment. It seemed as though he was giving Brian this sort of envious stare, and despite the sunglasses he was wearing, he tried to put on like he had nothing to do with the woman who had just hooked her arm in his.

It was in those moments that he missed when his sister actually looked a bit more like him. Too often did people notice how unalike they looked, and couldn't believe the moments when they declared that they were twins. To outsiders, it could look like some dark and twisted fantasy, but he often times tried to keep his tongue behind his teeth about it. “I realise how much I amuse you, I just don't necessarily care to be the butt of the joke.” He rolled his eyes at her as he lifted his sunglasses, moving her toward the door. “Come on, I don't need this starting some kind of trouble with that man.” Did the man picture her an easy one? A harlot? Defending his sister's honour was always a pleasure, but creating a scene with an American – human, he imagined – was not his plan for the day. Today was supposed to be about relaxing, about getting his mind off things. “Oh yes, you feel better, I feel violated. They did something to my face...it feels softer, but it feels like someone has ripped a layer of my skin off as well.” Not that it hurt, but there was this weird cool sensation, like his face was naked all of a sudden. He imagined that the daily grime from the streets and from travel had been lifted from him, exposing him.

Still, to be back on the pavement, walking along, he forgot about it for the moment, his mind wandering to several things at once. He had made that call, but he had yet to report back to Betsy on it, and as for the moment, he didn't think now was the time. Hiding things wasn't in his nature, but she had nearly taken his eye out with a nail-file the night he'd arrived. He didn't want to actually lose it this time. 'Feel what?” He asked, putting on his best face of curiosity. Yes, he'd felt it...but he wasn't about to get paranoid...and typically he could only receive any sort of panic or fears from Betsy, so it was more or less that she had felt it, and he had received it. His mind went to one person though, Jamie. Shoving the man out of his mind, he tried to tell himself like Betsy had that it was impossible, that Jamie couldn't have awoken. But he knew better. “Um, well...I thought we might catch a show tonight. Never seen a Broadway production, and I've found a place where you can easily get tickets for cheaper than the box-office.” He grinned at his own silly idea, seeing as he'd never once been to a musical, besides the productions in London. Of course, in the United Kingdom, there was a lot more attention for dramas and comedic plays than musicals. “Or, perhaps now it's your turn to treat me...you know New York better than I do.” Moving an arm around her shoulders, he sighed, adjusting his sunglasses on his face so that the sun didn't beat down into them.

TAGGED : jamie & betsy! // LYRICS: somewhere a clock is ticking by snow patrol / WORDS: 1294 // NOTES: tadah!

TEMPLATE BY FOXY

[JAMES BRADDOCK]

we can never go home

He was back.

Awake. Asleep. Those words didn't have meaning to him anymore, so when his eyes had shot open while he lay suspended in his room in the Muir Island facility his doting siblings have abandoned him in, he hadn't bothered wondering if he'd just woken up or just fallen asleep. All that he knew, and all that he cared about, was that he was back from wherever it was that he'd been. He could stand, he could breathe, he could move, he could see. All the important little things that let him know that he was alive. Being in his previous state had been a very peculiar kind of hell for him. He could only remember the whole affair vaguely--a side-effect of his severely addled mind--but he remembered darkness, confusion, rage, sorrow, pain, and worst of all, total stillness. He had learned in the brief time since his awakening that all others had thought him totally comatose all this time. He couldn't be sure if that was the case, but he'd definitely been aware of something awful.

All of that was over now, and a full seven days separated James Braddock Jr. from his time in a coma. He'd spent that time collecting what little sense he had, piecing together fragmented memories, and testing the limits of his powers, which were still fairly new to him. They were quite magnificent, and why shouldn't they be? After all, if this was a dream, it was his dream, and no one else deserved power over it more than he did. That very belief was his most pressing reason for making his way to the Big Apple. He knew he'd find his dear little sister there, and if he found her, his brother would probably come running before too long. He cracked a wide grin as he thought of his beloved younger siblings whom his parents had taught him always to protect. He didn't know exactly how long he'd been out of commission, but he was certain that it had been too long since the three of them had been together. The time had come for a family reunion.

Only a man as mad as Jamie could feel so much love while simultaneously carrying a heart filled of pure fury. He wanted to see them because he missed them, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to tear them apart for being the only rogue elements in this dream world of his. If not for them, he might be a king--no, a veritable god--but his own siblings (one of whom was responsible for a significant portion of his suffering in the first place) had betrayed and imprisoned him. He had forgotten a lot of things, but he could never forget that. He had his feelers out as he walked the streets of New York in a fedora and overcoat to hide himself, his fingers dancing along the many threads that comprised all that he could see. He giggled briefly as his hands made contact with the one that would lead him to Elizabeth. "Together already?" he muttered to himself. "Those two. Always leaving me out. Bet they'll be surprised to see me." He was sure that Elizabeth must at least be feeling him by now, though; she'd been sensitive to psionic disturbances for quite some time, and his fingers on one of her threads probably counted as a disturbance.

He wasn't trying to hide, so that was just fine with him. In fact, it was about time for him to make his presence truly known. A little tug, and he was on top of a three-story building. He could see them now amidst the walking masses, looking happy as ever as they strolled along. Stretching his facial muscles to their limit, he widened his grin. Seeing them happy made him want to smile. Seeing them happy without him made him feel...fratricidal? That sounded about right. A guitar appeared in his hands...nah, too conventional. A shining golden lyre appeared to replace the guitar, appealing to Jamie's more classical tastes. Besides that, it was just a helluva lot cooler. Maintaining his grin, he plucked a few strings, and the world around him froze in place. Vehicles stopped, people fell silent, and not a creature or device within miles was stirring. None but the Braddock twins, anyway. Certain that that little display would be enough to get their attention, he took a seat on the edge of the roof and looked down at them to see how they'd react. He was really hoping that at least one of them would freak out; that would be the most satisfying reaction.

Tag: Betsy & Brian Clothes: Fedora & Overcoat Notes: Sorry to keep you waiting!
Credits: lumos OF Caution.

[ELIZABETH BRADDOCK]

However, I see you have had your fun once again.

As they walked out, Elizabeth rolled her purple eyes behind the sunglasses she had dug from her purse. "Please. The boy was begging for it; you should have seen the look on his face when I walked in. It'd like he had seen a goddess come to life or something. If his lips weren't begging for it, his mind certainly was, and Brian, if I didn't get his hopes up, I most certainly did my job on getting other parts of him up and running. It's not a crime at all if someone wants it but they can't admit it." However, the grin returned to her face as she thought back to only moments ago. "He was quite envious of you, Brian, that you can be sure. All sorts of wicked little things running through his head of what I was going to do to you when we got home." She laughed, waving a hand. "It's almost amusing how people can take such a thing as this right here and create the most lavish of ideas as to what happens when we're alone. And the fact that you would want to defend my honour against an idiotic American male?" she brought a hand to her heart as if shocked. "My brother is the epitome of a gentleman." However, Betsy's face wrinkled as he talked of his discomfort at the facial.

"Are you serious, Brian?" she asked with a sigh, as if disappointed in his thoughts. "That facial probably knocked off the layer of disgusting mess that is trans-atlantic travel. And also? You look completely handsome, not that you didn't before. You look...refreshed. I know the secratary thought so." Her lips twisted up into a smirk. "Oh yes. The woman behind the counter wished for you to whisper sweet nothings into her ear and sweep her off her feet." She scoffed slightly with a smile. "You seemed annoyed with her. Thank god she wasn't telepathic. Talk about getting hopes up and then violently crushing them." She stuck her tongue out at him with a slight smile before shaking her head. "So stop being a baby, Brian, and enjoy the feeling on your face. It's a lovely feeling and so freeing." She told him, smiling wider as she felt his arm wrap around her shoulders. Gone were the thoughts of Jamie, of the worried feeling in the back of her mind as she focused on Brian's words, ones that made her laugh. "Brian Braddock, are you insisting we be cheap?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I can afford tickets to a broadway show, Brian. And if I couldn't? There's no need to go and be near those scalpers." She faked a shudder with a smile. "I did want to go see the young boy from Harry Potter. I heard he was positivly delightful." She took in a breath and let it out with a quick sigh, nodding her head as if decided. "Alright, it's decided then. We go to a show tonight, I treat you to a fantastic New York dinner, and maybe Central Park tonight? The walks under the lamp light are devine."

Yes. Yes, they were going to go out and have a wonderful day, because it had seemed like forever since they had a perfect day to themselves. The last time she had remembered spending an entire day with Brian was when she had been back in London. God, it seemed forever ago, and even The smile that spread on her face seemed as if it'd break her face in two as they walked. However, no matter how perfect the day could have gotten, how wonderful the feeling of walking with her arms around her brother, talking about going to see bloody musicals of all things made the feeling of uneasiness, of fear go away for only a second, before it slowly crept up once more. It started slowly, almost as a nagging feeling in the back of her head. She tried to ignore it, trying to focus on where they were going to eat. "I was thinking someplace nice." she told him, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "Cyclops told me that Dorsia is lovely. I've never eaten there and he says it's hard to get into, however, I'm sure I could probably work something out to get us in." So there was the plan; Dorsia, a show, and then a walk, a lovely walk through Central Park and yet everything good in her thoughts had been...changed and a chill of fear had crossed over her, making her stop and look behind her. "Brian..." she started, though she wasn't sure why her voice was as shaky as it was. Why her thoughts rushed, and then sharp, quick stab of pain shot through her head, making her wince and bring a hand up to her forehead. "Brian, something's--"

It was almost as if her heart had stopped along with all of the people around them. Cars stopped in the street, people froze in midstep and for a second, she had to wonder if she had done it. "Brian, we have to---we have to go--" And then, her heart did seem to stop because she felt as if she couldn't take a breath. As if fear had stopped her lungs from working as she heard the sound. The sound of a harps chord. To any normal person, it would have sounded almost plesant, but to Betsy, to the Braddock twins, it was terrifying, because to Betsy, it was a sign that something bad was most certainly going to happen. Her eyes found her target, the man standing on top of the building and her hand quickly moved down to take Brian's tightly while the other clenched in a tight fist, a dark purple glow coming from it. How was he here? She had made sure that she had put him so deep, so down into himself that only she would be able to get him out. And even then? Well, she had told Moria that she wasn't sure if she could ever bring Jamie back because she wasn't sure if he wanted to be back. Their parents death, the loss of her body, the torture and the events that followed, with the torture of her and her brother at Jamie's hands instantly rushed through her head, and for a second, her eyes grew cold. Cold and dark and she tried not to remember the sounds of her brother screaming, of her own screaming that matched it when she thought that she wasn't going to be able to help him. That she'd have to watch him die just as he had watched her die.

"Jamie." Try, she told herself as she tried to push back all of the anger and the fear. Try to be calm. You're stronger than him, she told herself in a feirce mantra. You proved that before. She glanced over at her brother before looking back up at the roof. "Jamie, please...just come down. Talk to me? Please?"

He wants to kill us, Brian.

[BRIAN BRADDOCK]

i've got this feeling that there's something that I missed. Don't you breathe, don't you breathe. Something happened, that I never understood. You can't leave.

Brian scoffed for a moment, shaking his head and trying to hold back on exactly what he wanted to say, but it wasn't going to happen. When he had the urge to make a remark that might not have been classy or might have been a little rude, he usually had the ability to edit himself quite well, however when it was any of his family he could not resist. They knew him better than to think he was like that in public, but for a private conversation, he sometimes let his filter slip. “Oh, yes, he was begging for it. You know what kind of people say that? Sex offenders.” Of course, she carried on, and every part of his well-being cringed at her words, wanting to stop her but knowing that he couldn't. No, Brian was more or less a soft-spoken person when touching on personal matters, and his sex-life and the sex-life of others was not something that he wanted to exploit with Betsy. Especially the part where people tended to take their body language and their unrelated appearance and turn it into something sexual. “Please stop, I had a decent brunch and I'd rather not be ill at the moment.” He made his disgust evident with the grimace on his face, and otherwise ignored the rest of what she was saying for the moment.

He didn't necessarily feel refreshed either, he felt violated, like someone had done something to change him. Of course, that was probably what a woman felt like when they were waxed clean of body hair, at least he thought. “Are you suggesting that I don't clean up? I'll have you know I clean up...and I clean up damn well.” He was English after all, there was a certain level of grime he could stand before he had to shower up and have a cuppa to feel somewhat prepared to deal with mankind again. However, she seemed to be loyal to this idea that it had somehow made him better, thanks to the attraction of that secretary. “I doubt it, she was just an overly friendly woman...like those annoying, chattering dogs that women carry around in their purses. And there is a big difference, Betsy.” He hadn't intended to get the woman's hopes up, no...whatever had happened had been in no part something born of his efforts. Brian would have rather had this woman find someone that could provide for her in return. He wasn't senseless enough to taunt them, like his sister was so pleased with. He hoped she could sense what he was feeling on that too. “You're so...ugh. Frustrating.” His words were spat a bit as he looked across the street, feeling a little bit like his beat was off. Something was different about all of this, and he wondered just what it was. However, he wasn't planning to analyse the street down to the bones to figure out what it was. He was sure if there was a problem, it would present itself.

“I'm not suggesting we be cheap. I'm just saying we could save some cash. I haven't got more than a few American tenners on me as it is.” Yes, as far as cash went, he had very little of it at the moment, and he'd had to pay for everything thus-far by card. “Oh god, don't be so dramatic. I wasn't suggesting scalpers.” However, his nose twitched, and he started to disregard whatever the hell it was about Harry Potter that she was saying. That was not exactly his division after all. He didn't pay attention to magic unless it was a part of Arthurian legend. Something caught his attention from above for a moment, a flashing glint, but when he looked up, he couldn't be sure where it had come from. “What?” He asked, looking back to her. “Oh, oh yes...sure, divine walks in the park, fabulous. More for your torture-victims to fantasize over about the pair of us...” But now his mind was lost, thoughts of their brother suddenly popping up again, and he wondered now if it was because of something he had seen, or because of what his sister had been thinking about before. She had seemed rather distracted, and now he too was feeling it. And the feeling increased, as though amplified by his closeness to his sister. “I can't say I've ever heard of the place myself.” He responded a moment later after she had talked about a restaurant that her friend from the X-men had mentioned.

There was no time to think about restaurants after thought though, not when he suddenly had collided so unexpectedly with someone. Looking back, he saw that they were frozen, and his eyes widened now in the realisation that fear was probably the least of their worries. “I know...” he said, a moment too late. When he finally looked back to where he had thought he'd seen something before, he noticed the man, and the lyre. With all of that, his fears started to boil into as sense of despair that he couldn't really understand. It wasn't that he felt any outrageous sense of terror, because long ago he had realised that they weren't ever going to be done with Jamie, that he was still their brother and that eventually something would change...but he hadn't thought it would happen here. Still staring up, he instinctively came between Jamie – even at the distance he remained – and Betsy, not wanting her to become his first target at the moment. No, the sinking feeling in his chest couldn't stop him from putting himself in the line of fire, should something happen in the next few moments. “I'm sorry, Elizabeth.” His apology was a little late, and it was probably due to the fact that he had been withholding the results of that call he had made. The call that Moira had answered in a fit of fear and confusion. She couldn't explain to him where Jamie was, or what had happened.

But the result was in front of them, the not-so-fully awakened and potentially volatile Jamie. The man he had left in the hands of one who wanted to torture his brother, only because it was the way that he felt he could exact his revenge for Jamie's actions. Despite having wanted to kill Jamie in that moment, he knew not long after that he never could have. However, that didn't mean that he didn't regret leaving his brother with that man all that time ago. No, because look at the result. A fractured mind, a fractured man. A man that nearly, and likely would have killed him and the rest of his team – as well as his twin sister – had Betsy herself not been able to stop him. “Jamie, you don't have to do this to them...” Looking to the people around them, he could only wonder how his brother had been able to stop them all, what manipulation of their realities that he had chosen to use. He wanted to tell Betsy that it was unlikely that Jamie had the intention of chatting with them liberally at the moment, but he could only muster words to answer thoughts she had shared with him. “I know he does...” But Brian would be damned if Jamie was actually going to get to their sister without having to face him. Despite the fact that the youngest Braddock clearly had no upper-hand over the abilities that had been graced to his siblings, he had quite a bit at stake, which gave him drive to make up for it. “Come down, Jamie. It doesn't have to be like this, not again.”

TAGGED : jamie & betsy! // LYRICS: somewhere a clock is ticking by snow patrol / WORDS: 1288 // NOTES: oh good god.

TEMPLATE BY FOXY

[JAMES BRADDOCK]

we can never go home

"Brian. Elizabeth. So good to see you!" said Jamie, drawing out each of their names as if he had forgotten them after so long. For a few moments, he ignored the fact that they seemed to be utterly terrified of him and remained firmly convinced that there was a beautiful reunion taking place among the three of them. It was only once he began to approach them--walking through the sky--that his countenance began to shift. The closer he got, the clearer it became that they didn't seem to be as happy as he was. Their words weren't particularly endearing either. "Talk to me, Jamie." "It doesn't have to be like this, Jamie." Their tones indicated displeasure. Their words indicated mistrust. Their faces indicated apprehension. Nothing of theirs indicated love. Once again, it seemed that the two of them were in perfect sync, united as always with one another while he stood and watched from a higher place. Did he really want to condescend and become one of them? Was being the third wheel better than standing on high? Before, his mountaintop had been wealth and fame. Now, it was power, pure and unadulterated.

And he still wasn't totally sure that being high and alone was the better option.

"You guys don't look happy to see me," Jamie pointed out, his eerie grin morphing into a frown that seemed just as pronounced, if not more so. "After all this time, one would think it proper to greet me with an embrace at the very least. Yet there you stand, regarding me as a dangerous stranger. Honestly. Did our parents not instruct the two of you in proper conduct among relatives?" Brian's request had fallen on deaf ears. Jamie did not raise his golden lyre again, having no intention of releasing the surrounding masses from suspension. And why should he? All they would do was interrupt what was supposed to be a beautiful reunion. Besides, he wasn't even hurting them as Brian seemed to fear. If anything, he was protecting them. It hadn't occurred to Jamie that a fight might break out between him and the twins (despite the fact that he intended to hurt them), but with that possibility growing ever greater, it would be better for the common folk if they didn't meander into the line of fire. It wasn't as though they really mattered, though; they weren't truly there anyway.

He came to a halt a few meters away from his siblings to keep some distance for his own safety. Until such time as they started to treat him like their brother, he was going to have to be careful. "Come. Greet me properly," he said, holding out his arms invitingly. A glowing pink staircase appeared in front of them so that they could reach him--slowly, if they knew what was good for them--and the shadow of a smile returned to his face. "Come, or else I shall have to punish you. It's what mother and father would want." He found himself thinking about them a great deal since his awakening, likely because they had treated them so much better than Brian and Elizabeth had. He was sure that he could even hear them speaking to him at times, and that was nice. They kept him company when no one else was around, but when he was out to enforce his own will on his world of dreams, they kept quiet and let him do as he pleased. Yes, he found them quite supportive just as good parents should be.

Tag: Betsy & Brian Clothes: Fedora & Overcoat Notes: N/A
Credits: lumos OF Caution.

[ELIZABETH BRADDOCK]

Brian. Elizabeth. So good to see you!

"James..."

Her hand tightened around Brian's at Jamie's words and while any other family could have seen the words as happiness, to Elizabeth Braddock, the words send a chill through her body. As her eyes looked up at him, she stiffened and almost stepped back, though she told her feet to freeze. Freeze and not move, because if she moved, he'd know. He'd see weakness and then it'd be over. She felt the tears burn at the back of her eyes, and she took in a sharp breath as Jamie spoke again. He spoke of them not being happy to see them, and she wished it had been different. She wished that it could have been like it had been when she had been a little girl. The memories she had were happy at times; Jamie had been the older brother, an adult by the time she had been ten and that had facinated her. Jamie had cars and a job and a life and to a ten year old, he had been a god. A perfect human being sent from the heavens to watch over her and Brian, and he had. He had been the older brother that she looked up to and yet, in a painful second, it had all been torn down. "Jamie, please." she whispered, though his next words made her heart stop and her throat tighten.

Their parents. At one time, the Braddocks had been picture perfect; Sir James and Lady Elizabeth Braddock had raised their children to be perfect, smiling and happy and god, she missed them. She missed her father's smile, her mother's laugh. It was the strange thing that she could see her parents in her brothers. She could see her mother's smile in Brian's when he laughed, the way his eyes sparkled like hers had and in Jamie...In Jamie she had seen her father's gaze, strong and steady and yet, kind. But now? Now, his gaze was lost. His mind was lost and it was all her fault. It was all her fault, but as he mentioned their parents, the rage boiled up inside of her. Boiled and shifted and twisted around her heart, her gaze was cold and dark and she didn't realise that she was clenching onto Brian's hand as if he was the only thing to keep her standing there and not attacking Jamie. She wanted to hurt him just then, break every single bone in his body and watch him suffer because he had made her suffer. He had made her scream and had made her watch as her brother, her twin scream out in pain and everything that she had felt that day and the days afterwards filled her mind again. Hatred. Hatred for her own flesh and blood. Her family. Her heart was telling her to stop, to ignore the feelings because she was stronger. Stronger than that but her head, her mind was telling her to attack and as he stepped down on invisible stairs. She watched as a pink staircase appeared, and she heard him order them to come to him. To embrace him as she once had and she wished she could. She wanted to grab him and hold him and have him tell her that it was all going to be okay because they were together again. All were together again and they would all be alright. Braddocks would stick together and never faulter.

Come, or else I shall have to punish you. It's what mother and father would want.

Her blood boiled in her veins and her eyes which had been filled with hot, angry tears spilled over and narrowed. Releasing Brian's hand she moved slowly, feet moving cautiously on the ground and then up the stairs up the stairs slowly. The height made her stomach flip but she pressed on until she was standing nearly in front of him, though a few steps down. "Proud." She echoed the word as venom spat at her brother. "Our parents would be...proud." She scoffed, a sharp sound against the strange silence of the street they were on. "You know, Jamie...I'm glad our parents are dead because if they could see--" She grit her teeth, resisting the urge inside to scream at him, and she spoke between clenched teeth. "Our parents are crying for you, Jamie. If father could see you now, he'd die all over again over this--this heartache that you've caused all of us. This is not what they wanted for us. This is not what I wanted for you, James, I--" There was a rage inside of her, one that was barely able to be contained, but his smile. That fucking smile that was spreading on his lips sent a rage inside of her boiling to the surface. She remembered the laughter that had come from Jamie, and it echoed in her brian, making her wince and grit her teeth hard enough that she nearly felt that they could break.

"You want to know the real truth, brother?" she asked, looking at him coldly. "Sometimes I cry for you. Sometimes I cry so much for you because I think of everything that could have been. I think of the life you could have had and I weep for you. But most times? I hate you. I hate you for what you've become and this is not what mother and father would have wanted, Jamie. You're sick. You're sick and you've lost yourself and I want to help you, but in the end? I know you don't want my help and that is the reason that instead of crying for you, I wish you would have died." It hurt her slightly to say the words, but she did all the same. "I couldn't bring myself to do it last time but if you don't let these people go, bring them back to the present I swear, Jamie, I will end this once and for all."

//Brian, go. Please, go. I can handle him. I don't wish to see you hurt again like he did before; I need to finish this, so please. Run.// Her voice was shaky inside Brian's head though her eyes were cold as she watched Jamie. //Please go, Brian.//

[BRIAN BRADDOCK]

i've got this feeling that there's something that I missed. Don't you breathe, don't you breathe. Something happened, that I never understood. You can't leave.

His suspicion of his brother's intentions caused him to narrow his eyes, looking for any sign of a vantage point should he need to attack the man. It wasn't that he wanted to think like that, and he had grown to regret his decision with Jamie in the first place. However, Jamie had become a problem, a problem that he might have lilled if he had been given the chance all those years ago. Brian's older brother had gone mad though, and was only a shadow of the man that he used to be. Still, he kept himself in front of Elizabeth, hoping for both their sakes that this didn't turn into a fight, because he didn't know what would happen if he couldn't stop either of them. And why should they be fighting? This wasn't on either of them...no, he had been the one to make the initial mistake, even if Jamie's actions seemed to have forced his hand. “I-I am, Jamie. But this isn't how this should be happening. You could have phoned. You're very smart...” Oh yes, lead with a compliment, that would always work. In truth, he wasn't unhappy to see his brother, it was fear that was stopping him from giving the man the greeting that they both wanted, a fear and an anger like a knife through all of those plans, and it seemed like it had severed their connection. Now, of course he hadn't had a connection with Jamie as he had with Betsy, but he had looked up to the man, probably in more ways than Betsy had. Jamie was his role model before, and he'd always had a habit of asking Jamie's opinion on something when he'd been...fooling around with science.

Finding out that he was a monster though, a criminal, had ripped that image away from Brian, and he'd been left with decisions to make, decisions he was sure he'd messed up on, but knew they were deserved. “And slave trade? That was what mum and dad wanted too, was it?” He couldn't help the bitter snap in his voice as it happened, but anger toward his brother had become an easy thing, Yes, he understood that Jamie's mind wasn't in the right place any more, that he wasn't Jamie any more, but that still didn't stop him from just being angry, so very angry. “You are the very last authority on what our parents would want of us, Jamie. You turned your back on their memory the day you started gambling away your money.” Oh, he could feel his anger brimming to a point where he could have hit Jamie, but he kept a close watch on himself. In a fight with Jamie, he was the underdog. Jamie could have had him on his knees, crying out for help, begging for some sort of mercy, and his only hope would be to get his hands on the man. And that's when it hit him. Jamie was opening that door to him, he was giving Brian reason to be close to him. So long as Brian was at his side, if the man did anything wrong, he could be there...and initially he stepped forward, but then Betsy let go of his hand and started toward their brother. No, Betsy. Don't.

That certainly complicated his plan, and so did her rage. After her transformation into the body of Kwannon, Betsy had had less of a cap on her rage than he did, which was a new development for the both of them. Worse, he could feel it rolling off of her in waves. Of course, with this discussion of their parents, he could only feel a greater wave of guilt and pain. He had been so close, right outside of the manor when it had happened, outside with his date at the time, so close they had been able to see the light from the electrical explosion. Trying to push all of that out of his head, he stepped closer, not daring at frst to walk up Jamie's staircase, but at least making himself realise that he had to stop this somehow, and that he couldn't just stand there waiting for things to blow up. “Betsy, enough.” His words sounded more like a harsh growl than his own usually pleasant tone of voice. He wasn't sure how to get through to his sister though, seeing as when she got on a roll, she didn't stop until she couldn't continue. “No one is at liberty to say how our parents would have reacted. Not even myself.” They had been waiting up for him, waiting up for him to get home. “And bickering over it...” Brian had to stop himself there. He was trying to warn Betsy to watch herself, that there were better ways to deal with this. It wasn't that it wasn't well-deserved, it wasn't that her words weren't true, they very much were.

The situation was likely to escalate from her argument though, into something violent, something physical and violent, rather than verbal. He ignored her advice, ignored her telepathic pleading to him to run. Seeing as he wasn't that man, and he wasn't going to leave her on her own, he started to hover, levitating up to the step his brother was on by his flight alone, before stepping down to stand between him and Betsy. Brian knew what the man wanted, that it wasn't just this greeting, this reunion, but he knew that the man wanted revenge for what had happened to him, and he hadn't had it when he'd initially taken Excalibur hostage, when he had tortured them, and his sister, himself even. Despite being hesitant, he stepped forward, wearily putting his arms around his brother and trying to embrace him, their height-difference a lot less obvious when Brian was half-standing on a lower step, even if he towered over his brother by a good five inches. “You don't have to do this any more, Jamie.” He tried to look into his brother's eyes, searching them for any part of the man that used to be there, even has he half-hugged him. “You're awake now...” Perhaps that wasn't the right thing to say, perhaps his efforts were in vain, but he felt better having given it a shot rather than just letting Jamie hurt the two of them and be done with it. “Can we all go somewhere? Leave these people alone and just talk?” He wanted it to be simple, he didn't want anyone to get hurt, no casualties. However, that wasn't necessarily how Jamie did things, was it?

TAGGED : jamie & betsy! // LYRICS: somewhere a clock is ticking by snow patrol / WORDS: 1106 // NOTES: tadah!

TEMPLATE BY FOXY

[JAMES BRADDOCK]

we can never go home

For the better part of Elizabeth's long, caustic diatribe, Jamie maintained a somewhat spacey smile. He was hearing the words that were coming out of her mouth, but they didn't register immediately, blocked out of his mind by his thoughts of how beautiful she looked in that new body of hers. This wasn't the first time that he'd seen her in that form, but it had been a while. He was having trouble deciding whether she had traded up or traded down; the Braddocks had some good genes among them for sure, and Elizabeth no longer shared them. His eyes shifted to Brian, who also looked even more handsome than Jamie remembered. They couldn't have grown any further, could they? Just how long had he been out of commission? Chances were that his absence had simply made his heart grow fonder of them as absence tends to do, but he didn't consider that for long. When Elizabeth's words finally began to sink in, his pleasant mood began to fade.

His smile, however, did not.

While Brian climbed the stairs to give him the hug he had asked for, he made a subtle change to the current reality. Where once he had been a single entity, now, he had become two, and his double strolled up casually behind Elizabeth while the original gripped Brian tightly for a long overdue embrace between brothers. "I've missed you so much, little brother," he said, but he chuckled and decided that a correction was in order. "My apologies. I suppose I really shouldn't call you that given how big you are. I guess I'd forgotten after so long." He released Brian and listened to the man's request with a smile that suggested dark amusement. "Go somewhere? Brother, we already have."

He spoke as if the movement had occurred a while ago, but he knew good and well that he'd only moved them from the city streets and instant after Brian had asked him to. By means of a relatively simple warp, they had arrived in a rather strange and disturbing place where the laws of physics had been thoroughly subverted. They stood on what seemed to be an invisible platform surrounded by several miniature stars to serve as their sources of light. These lights aside, there was darkness all around as far as the eye could see, but Jamie had seen to it that Brian would not get lost on the off chance that he decided to try flying away; this place was an infinite loop, so he would simply find his way back to his point of origin if he tried moving too far in any one direction. Hopefully, this place was empty enough to satisfy Brian's apparent desire to converse in a place where there were no others. Since he was the only one who seemed to really want to talk, though, Jamie had taken the liberty of leaving Elizabeth behind.

"So, Brian, what did you want to talk about?"

---

Jamie's double placed a hand gently upon Elizabeth's shoulder and hoped that she would not freak out and strike him in surprise. With Brian gone, it was just the two of them in a frozen world, but it didn't have to stay that way if "Betsy" was so dead-set on releasing the hoi polloi. "You know, I don't think you understand just how much your words hurt me," said Jamie, once again wearing a rather dark expression. "What's your problem with me keeping these people still? I haven't harmed them. I've simply halted their motion. If you'd just kept your mouth shut, they never would have known that anything was wrong." He subtly implied that he was going to do something to them now because she hadn't kept her mouth shut. Ultimately, Elizabeth might be able to take solace in the fact that he at least didn't plan to hurt them, but the alternative that he had in mind probably wouldn't make her feel much better about the way things would turn out.

He turned his back on her and took a few steps away, stroking his beard all the while as if in deep thought. "Maybe things would have been easier for everyone if I had died before," he admitted, "but no one save Brian really wanted that badly enough to make it happen. That man that was allowed to do as he pleased with me for weeks on end only wanted me to suffer for as long as possible. It's just more evidence of the truth, I suppose; no matter how much you suffer in a nightmare, you'll never really die if it's your nightmare." He took hold of one of reality's invisible threads and wrapped it around his finger. Turning to face Elizabeth with a sadistic smirk on his face, he posed a question that he hoped would actually be as clever as it had seemed when he'd thought of it. "So, shall I let these people go, or would you prefer not to test yourself against the denizens of my dreams?" He intentionally left his meaning vague and hoped that his sister's altruism would get the better of her.

Tag: Betsy & Brian Clothes: Fedora & Overcoat Notes: Shoot me a PM if anything needs clarification!
Credits: lumos OF Caution.

[ELIZABETH BRADDOCK]

I've missed you so much little brother.

She loved her brothers. She loved her brothers so much that it hurt her heart, hurt her soul to think that at some point she had wished Jamie dead. Jamie, the man she had once looked up to, smiled whenever he had come in the room and the one that had been the man with all the future, she wished him dead and it tore at her, so much so that her eyes filled with angry tears. She realised then once again that the same man she had loved had also killed. She had watched as he tore and ripped his way through people and lives and worlds and while her tears were out of saddness, they also burned hot with anger. She could feel her brother's thoughts, his emotions. He was trying to stay calm. Trying to reason with Jamie and she wanted to tell him that maybe, just maybe there was no reasoning with their brother anymore. The words were on the tip of her tongue, and she started to speak, but something stopped her. Something told her that badness was going to happen and in an instant, Brian and vanished. A scream ripped through her throat and out of her mouth, Brian's name a screeching sound of fear, and while she could still feel her brother somewhere, he wasn't standing next to her. He wasn't standing next to her and she couldn't protect him.

Jamie's hand on her shoulder made her jerk and spin around, fists clenched and shaking, though somehow, she managed to still her hand. Her entire body was shaking, trembling with fear and anger and she wished she could have controled the tears that welled up in her eyes. "Bring him back!" She sounded like a child then, screaming for her security blanket and she was sure that Jamie knew exactly how true that statement was. Her eyes traveled over the frozen people and the lump rose in her throat. "James..." she whispered, and then he started speaking about the man who had tortured Jamie and she felt sick. She had wanted to murder the man in cold blood for hurting Jamie and yet, Jamie had managed to do it for her.

"Stop it, James. Just--Just stop! None of us--none of us knew, James. No one and if I had know I would have stopped it." But they hadn't and everything else had gone horribly and terribly wrong. Purple eyes traveled over Jamie's face, and she couldn't help the tears that rose but she wouldn't let them fall. No, she couldn't. "Let them go, Jamie. Let them go, they are of no use to you! This isn't a nightmare, Jamie! It's real life! It's real and people have died but that's over with if you want it to be! There's no more pain, no more heartache. Just you, myself and Brian. We can be a family again." And deep down? That's what she had wanted. She had wanted her family back. "I want my boys back, Jamie. I wish for you to be back in my life because I have missed you terribly, James. You were the man I looked up to. You--you were a god in my eyes, Jamie! You were beautiful and full of life and older and--and I loved you so and I still do! Even though I know I shouldn't, I feel myself needing your presence and when I realise that you aren't around, it pains me. Please, Jamie. Come back to me."

[BRIAN BRADDOCK]

i've got this feeling that there's something that I missed. Don't you breathe, don't you breathe. Something happened, that I never understood. You can't leave.

The moment seemed to last for too long, and he was only given one chance to look back at Elizabeth, trying to smile for her in that moment so that she knew he was going to try his best to make everything work. However, that had passed all too quickly, and he looked back to Jamie for some direction in all of this. A slight laugh rolled through him at Jamie's remark, as it was all too true. It had been some time, and he hadn't been shorter than Jamie for ages, but now didn't feel like a time for jokes, not when there was so much hanging in the air between them. Especially with Brian's mistakes in the past seeming to rear their ugly heads up at him all at once. In the moment that had passed, he hadn't noticed the scenery change. However, as Jamie let him go, his attention quickly took to where they were. “No!” He simply shouted at first, turning all about to get a grip of the situation, where they were, but they weren't – technically speaking – anywhere. It looked like space, hell, it was space, but it couldn't possibly have been. They weren't struggling to breathe in a zero-oxygen environment, and he had this unsettling feeling of nothingness all around him. This was all Jamie's game, and now Brian couldn't help but feel he was simply just a pawn. Expendable.

“Jamie, what have you done?” He found himself walking to the edge of their platform, having to lean back into it again as he realised that the physics of the place still would have allowed him to fall. “Jesus Christ...” He mumbled under his breath, though he shouldn't have been cursing. It would only show Jamie his unsettled feelings, that he didn't trust the man still, that he didn't trust his brother. Oh, how he wanted to trust Jamie at the moment, but he simply couldn't. As he searched around their little environment, Brian knew better than to try and run off, to try and find a way out of this. This was Jamie's world, and it was likely to be a labyrinth that he couldn't get out of. Either God had a twisted sense of humour, or the devil was on his brother's side, because Brian was unfortunately again at a disadvantage. If his powers had been something different, something telepathic, hell, something omnipotent, he might have been able to subdue his brother without a problem, but now, he could only feel fear, and when Brian felt fear, he also felt a sense of rage, brought on by his hopelessness. “You know this isn't what I meant...” To be split up from Betsy posed a lot of problems.

He had just wanted them all to be able to go somewhere safe, somewhere where he didn't have to hurt anyone, or put them in danger, a place where they could all have it out without a fight. However, he had known better, as it was never just a talk with Jamie any more. Jamie had been the first born, the first to impress upon their parents his extensive intellect. He had been the one to take over the company, but then he had ruined all of that when it had come to his illegal activities. Jamie had known who he was, had known he was Captain Britain, had even helped him at times. Now? They stood as what felt like enemies. Brian had tried time and time again in his heart to forgive Jamie for all of the things he had done, but he found it less likely every day. “Where is Betsy?!” If Betsy was separated from him, he knew what could happen, what exactly Jamie was capable of. Sure, Betsy had been the one to stop him before, but there seemed to be a blood-debt to pay, one that Brian himself owed as well. If he was about to hurt Betsy, there would be no way for him to stop Jamie, not if he was quantum locked in real time, or just gone in general, he wouldn't know if Jamie was walking around in two realities. “Please, Jamie...I beg of you, stop this. Stop all of this.” When he turned back to his older brother, Brian was reaching out to him, but the moment he stepped closer, he took a hold of Jamie's shoulders.

“James, I know I messed up. I know I made a mistake leaving you-” He still couldn't finish that out loud, but Jamie would have known what he was talking about, would have been able to understand without him having to summarise the memory for the both of them. All the while Brian was trying to find the words, he was getting these feelings, feelings he knew were from his sister, a shadow of panic that he didn't want to be feeling himself, but it was slowly seeping in and becoming his own. “I know I caused this, that whatever happened to you is my fault.” If he hadn't left Jamie there though, he might have killed his brother. His passionate hate for his brother had been undeniable in that moment, and he had thought it was better to leave him where he was. Even now though, he was starting to believe that he couldn't have brought himself to kill his brother. “Don't punish Betsy for that...please. Don't punish anyone else for that. It's not their fault.” That overwhelming sense of worry took over him again though, and he started to think of what it was his brother could be doing to their poor sister. “Stop this nonsense now, and come back to reality.” Perhaps there was no way back to reality for Jamie though, and they were walking into a game that would end in a loss for both him and Betsy, like it had nearly been when Jamie had attacked Excalibur. Brian had made his brother a monster.

TAGGED : jamie & betsy! // LYRICS: somewhere a clock is ticking by snow patrol / WORDS: 994 // NOTES: tadah!

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