Event Log: Is It a Wonderful Life?

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for Is It A Wonderful Life? event
Where: All over the city
When: Jan 4th-8th
Warnings: None

Throughout the next few days, you may find yourself plagued by visions and dreams of back home. The dreams will be lifelike and difficult to tell apart from reality, as the world will be constructed from what you remember of your world. However, unlike usual dreams, you won't be present, and will find yourself unable to be seen or heard by those around you.

The dreams are vivid reminders of what might happen in a world without you: a world in which you disappeared when coming to Hadriel, a world which desperately needs you back for some reason or another. You may see your parents putting up missing posters, your significant other moving onto their next relationship, or even your hated villain finally taking over the world without you there to stop them.

When the vision leaves, you're back here and nothing about the city has changed. Though maybe you have a different outlook on it now...

► This log covers January 4th-Januray 8th.
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you try a weird solution to make it back home, please let us know here.

Comments

[braveoff]

Oh, it's that kid -- Nick had told Drake about him, that he'd need an evaluation at least, but had been patrolling alone already and seeing as Drake himself was already tied to a pole in the storage room... yeah. A month ago still feels like yesterday to Drake, who's been frozen the whole time, but he acknowledges that this might be a little suspicious and confusing to the kid. And he really should have set up the eval anyway, once he recovered, but he's kind of weak and has a lot on his mind right now, it slipped.

He tries to square his shoulders and look somewhat professional, at least.

"Anything clear is good news, these days. Hi, Peter." He offers his hand to shake, pretending that the mask isn't strange and sort of off putting -- in his world there are 'superheroes' too, but they're just idiots who think they can fight crime that rack up the body count in the city even more because they have no clue what they're doing. That isn't the case for Peter, Drake's sure. "How've you been?"

[itsnotaonesie]

The mask would probably be less weird if he had the whole spider ensemble going. Ooor maybe it would be even more weird. Either way, Peter honestly wouldn't give too much of a shit. As weird as he dresses, he still has good manners and shakes that there hand.

"How've I been? How have I been? I sure have... uh. Been. I'm being right now, in fact."

Terrible. He's been absolutely fucking horrible. Just the worst.

"How's um. Y'know. Stuff?"

He assumes Drake's answer is also somewhere along the lines of Terrible and Absolutely Fucking Horrible, and he kind of wishes he could take that awkwardly executed question back, but hey.

[braveoff]

Drake considers lying, at least the little white pleasantry lies, knows that normally he could pull it off -- he's an excellent bluff -- but doesn't want to start off that way. Especially not when Peter seems just as miserable, and this is their first meeting. No, he's not going to lie about the fact that he feels like shit. It actually feels good to make that decision, to let himself feel a little anger and bitterness over this newest manipulation.

"...stuff sucks. Stuff has sucked for about a month and a half, honestly, but this one's just mean. You want to talk about it?"

[itsnotaonesie]

Peter, on the other hand, has never been a good liar. Hence the mask, the ultimate poker face.

"Oooh, I..." He hesitates, then waves a hand in the air dismissively. Does he want to talk about it? Not really. Does he think talking about it would help? Mmmmaybe? But what he's actually going to do is beat around the bush because that's how adults deal with their problems.

"What I'd actually like to do is go back to punching mammoths. Those fall down when you hit them hard enough. This? I can't punch this. I mean, technically I could, but the last thing I need to do is knock myself unconscious because the being unconscious part is half the problem."

[braveoff]

"After the ones killed in the stampede it looks like we've got enough mammoth meat to last the city months. So.... maybe don't go punch the mammoths. You can hit me, though." It's less weird an offer than it sounds, bear with him. "I know you've been doing great on your own but you need your guard evaluation. So it's all official and everything."

His grin tells Peter he's not entirely serious -- he's just offering an opportunity.

"You wanna? Maybe we can talk about it after, get to know each other a little."

[itsnotaonesie]

"Ooooh, evaluation, right. Totally forgot that was a thing. Probably because I'm already a professional."

There's an obvious tone of jokey joke bullshit in his voice. He may feel like shit, but he can still force the quips when he has to.

"I'm totally down for that evaluation and talking and everything, but do you maybe have something I can hit that isn't a person? I don't wanna hurt anyone."

[braveoff]

Drake laughs softly, he can tell it's a joke but wants to clarify anyway. "Like I'm not? Everybody gets an assessment, I was just indisposed after the move."

The next question has him thinking for a moment.

"I mean, we've got training dummies but that's not the same. And you can't really hurt me unless you get me in the head, so I'd rather just spar. You can hold back if you're that worried about your strength."

[itsnotaonesie]

"Hey man, it happens."

No biggie, bro. Everything around that time was kind of ridiculous. It's still kind of ridiculous.

"More like a skill test than a strength test, makes sense. Yeah, okay, I'm down for a spar or whatever. I will definitely not hit you in the head."

[braveoff]

"Exactly. The people and monsters here don't always behave like you think they will, so adaptability can be more important than throwing a hard punch."

He considers location, giving Peter a once-over.

"Nick said you like the roofs and use webs to swing around? That's a definite bonus. How are you without them, just in case?"

[itsnotaonesie]

"Uuuuh, hmmm."

Peter shifts a little and looks down at himself, like he's sizing himself up. He finally pushes his mask up so they can have a slightly more normal conversation and shrugs.

"I dunno, probably pretty good. I admit, I don't really have any formal training? Everything I do is self taught, and a lot of it is improvising with my webs and just kinda wingin' it.

[braveoff]

"You know, I didn't think you were gonna take that off. Hi." Drake grins, then addresses the rest. "I'm like half self-taught. If you wanna learn some martial arts, I'm down, but it sounds like you've been heroing successfully for awhile?"

[itsnotaonesie]

"Hi."

If he were back home, he definitely wouldn't have taken it off. Keeping his identity secret has never been a huge concern here, and frankly, it was way easier to keep secrets in New York. Weirdly enough.

"It probably wouldn't hurt to have something like that under my belt, but yeah. I've been at it for-- how long have I been here... probably a few months, so goin' on a couple years now. 'Professional' isn't actually the right word, but I have experience. Since I got here, I've been trying to keep an eye on things and help new arrivals out. It's not all that different from what I did back home, only there were a lot less weirdo monsters and stuff."

[braveoff]

Drake would understand that. He kept several identities separate from one another in Seattle but here things get around. Small towns, and all that... small city? Whatever.

"You might be ahead of me, but we'll find out. Maybe I'll learn something new instead. Come on." He starts leading the way back to the colosseum, a large open area where no one will mistake their spar for a fight. "There are people who think they're superheroes back in my world, but they just get themselves hurt or killed most of the time. It's been different here, meeting people who can actually do superhuman things. Were you born with your abilities?"

[itsnotaonesie]

And Peter follows. The colosseum isn't really his favorite place ever, but he knows it well enough. Plenty of big shit to throw around.

"Nah, I wasn't. I got bit by a spider and uh... I mutated, I guess? I think that's a good word for it. That's kinda weird, though. How does someone think they have superhuman abilities when they're just like, a regular dude? I mean, it was real obvious when I found out I had them."

[braveoff]

"Mutated...? You mean like your DNA? Because nothing's visible." He shakes his head about the rest. "They know they don't have abilities, they just think they're superheroes for some other reason. Like they're smarter than criminals or cops, or have better tech, or just can fight better... it's narcissism and it always backfires."

[itsnotaonesie]

"Yeah, yeah, most of it wasn't like really visibly obvious."

Either that or he grew four more limbs and is just really good at hiding them.

"So they talk a big game, but can't back it up. That just sounds like a recipe for disaster, right there."

[braveoff]

"What was visibly obvious? You look like a normal guy to me." He has to keep himself from saying 'kid' because he used to hate that at Peter's age.

"It's always a disaster. Sometimes they manage to get legit intel but they never come to us with it, they try to handle it themselves and then we have to pick up the pieces."

[itsnotaonesie]

"I went from like, twig, to actually having biceps over night. That was pretty cool. Kinda weird to explain to my aunt, though."

'Kid' doesn't bother Peter as much as it would most people, he's used to being on the rookie side of things. It's definitely appreciated, though.

"Were you a cop or something? This kinda sounds like some cop stuff."

[braveoff]

"Sounds like a step up. What else changed?"

Oh, whoops. Or not whoops? It doesn't look like Peter minds the discovery.

"Uh, yeah, I was. I usually keep that quiet around here, though, especially since I'm in the Guard. People really hate cops."

[itsnotaonesie]

"I mean, visibly, not much else. I don't need glasses anymore, there's that."

Too bad he didn't get any taller or something, that would have been pretty nice.

"Why would that be a bad thing? I feel like having a background like that would be really helpful if you're gonna be in the Guard."

[braveoff]

Drake shakes his head.

"No, people don't want the Guard to be law enforcement. I mean, we're not, we're just about protection, but the thought of an organized group trying to police the activities of the city really rubs people here the wrong way. If you haven't noticed, it's not the most upstanding crowd."

[itsnotaonesie]

"I meant more in the sense that you've got training and stuff that would help when things get crazy around here, not so much in policing other people. I see what you mean, though."

Peter probably wouldn't say that about the people here in general, but he's definitely run into at least a few people that would absolutely not take to being told what to do well.

...Himself included, to a certain degree. But shhh.

[braveoff]

"Well between you and me? Most of the Guard is either law enforcement or soldiers -- the soldiers go over way easier than the law enforcement. Always have, probably always will, because no matter how many times we say we're not the police people still think we're gonna poke our nose into their business. Unless you're trying to kill the whole city, we don't."

Yes, he's talking about Caedra. Since she did that.

[itsnotaonesie]

I mean yeah, that sounds like something Caedra would do. That little rascal.

"I figured most of the Guard was probably experienced in fields like that, yeah. I dunno, man. I guess people are just paranoid? Considering the kind of place this is, I can't say I can blame them, but I'd think there are way bigger things to be paranoid about if it was me."

[braveoff]

"I'm with you, but I think the important difference people aren't recognizing is that organization isn't authority. We aren't trying to be in control of anything, just to help. It's not really different from the clinic in that way, nobody has an issue with them." He shrugs, sounding neutral but a little frustrated. "If we stopped killing and chasing out all the monsters that come through the Door monthly, people would definitely be in way more trouble way more often, for example."