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

[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."

[itsnotaonesie]

"Nobody has any issue with the clinic because they're not the ones out patrolling or carrying weapons around. Do you guys carry weapons around?"

Peter never has, at least. Unless his web shooters count as weapons, but even then they aren't exactly lethal.

"Either way, it's not like you can just stop doing your job for a month to prove a point to everyone else. Has anyone ever like actively tried to... I dunno, break the Guard up or something? I mean, I've literally never heard anything bad about you guys from anyone I've talked to."

[braveoff]

Drake actually laughs a little at that, shaking his head.

"Peter, they're not worried about us having weapons. Almost everybody here has weapons, and a ton have magical powers way more powerful than somebody with a weapon in the first place. It's about authority... and things have calmed down in that regard but I've got a long memory. Might just be the drama was before your time."

[itsnotaonesie]

Nooooo don't laugh now Peter's embarrassed about saying a dumb thing.

"R-right, I mean, I was about to say."

He met a like ten year old kid that could shoot fireballs, weapons aren't really all that impressive next to something like that anyway.

"I guess even if it was a while ago, it's a good idea to keep it in mind?"

[braveoff]

Drake nods agreeably, he didn't mean to make the kid feel awkward. It's okay Peter.

"Yeah, it's good to keep in mind. If anyone comments on it at you, just say we're not the cops, we only want to protect the city."

[itsnotaonesie]

Peter spends about 80% of his time feeling awkward, it's all good.

"That's basically what I was doing back home anyway, so that'll be easy enough."