middleofsomewhere

Entry tags:

To Climb

Preparation

Just after light on the seventh day since boarding the train everyone’s SCA glows with the colours of the void before showing a message. A briefing for the mission to come. No one gets much time to process this before there is a shaking, like turbulance before there’s a jolt and flash of colour.

”Welcome to Hub World#5739. Our next stop will be Ciyesia in a few hours.”

Outside the windows the void is gone. The train is winding through a mountain range. The mountains tower up around them. The sky is a beautiful blue though every now and again there is a swirl of colour, like the void is trying to break through.

The countryside wizzes by, sometimes you go past settlements, small villages of wooden houses. Sometimes you pass farmers in fields. Sometimes herds of animals, horses, camels, strange animals with six legs and curled horns.

Eventually the train slows. ”Now arriving at Ciyesia. Passengers must wear their Safety Control Apparatus. Please ensure you take all equipment needed for your mission with you when you leave the train and take extra care when you step from the train to the platform. Next stop Ciyesia.”

Arrival

And in a billow of steam the train comes to a stop. The doors hiss open and there is indeed a rickety wooden platform, fallen into disuse. Sat upon it were two children, a boy and a girl who were staring at the train with open mouths.

Before the doors were even fully opened they were off running, “Ma! Ma!”

The platform is in a clearing, surrounded mostly by trees but down the path the children took a building can be seen. If you follow the children you will find it a large homestead, with a sign outside. The Weary Wanderer. The children are on the doorstep talking to a woman and gesturing towards you.

As you approach she smiles, a little nervously. “Well. This is not something I thought I would see in my lifetime. Welcome Treckers, I offer you the hospitality of my inn.”

She gestures them in. Inside is a large common room with wooden tables. There is a fire place but the day is warm enough that it is not lit. At first glance it looks old fashioned to anyone from a modern world, even fantasy-esque for those who would recognise it as such. Indeed her and the children are dressed in simple layered, loose tunics. But then you may notice some of the candles are battery powered and! there’s a coffee machine on the bar.

“Maia can you ask our guests what they would like to drink?” The woman hands the little girl a slate and chalk before she begins rummaging around on the bar for mugs and glasses. “I’m sorry, it’s the quiet season so we aren’t quite guest-ready.”

They become guest ready in an impressive amount of time. The little boy runs off and returns a short while later with a plate of oat biscuits that he begins handing out.

Sheltered and soon to be fed it is time to learn more about this land and plan for your journeys ahead.

(OOC: Information for this event is here and the initial briefing is here

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah-Multiplication, division-they're mad useful and depending on the calculator-some will even graph for you." He states adjusting again so he can loop his arms around his knees. "There are a lot of different kinds of technology-most often people think of like.. more advanced but it's really more just science-specifically different kinds of applied sciences and how you use them to solve a problem-like the calculator-it solves math problems."

He looks down at her as she says that part about Mr Stark thinking she's a stupid baby. He doubted the man would have meant it that harshly. "Mr Stark doesn't think you're stupid he's just kinda harsh sometimes. He just feels like he has to protect everyone-no matter who they are. And he's a major control freak-he put a tracker on me-uh... a little device that lets him know exactly where I am at all times and got super pissed when I took it out. He also has this in my suit-don't tell anyone I told you this-called the baby-monitor protocol-basically it records-like the communication center things do but he records every single thing I do in the suit.

"...My point is, he might have got upset and said somethings-but it's really just because he's worried. He yells at me for doing stupid things at least once a week. You'll know when he's actually upset with you, trust me."

There's a lot to unpack there. She still doesn't really understand calculators or technology but the more interesting things is that Tony was the same to Peter, didn't trust him to be able to look after himself and do missions.

She didn't understand everything he was telling her but he had a suit (or armour, she's still assuming) and somehow Tony could track it and spy on him. She understands that, she and her sister had been followed by Taiwan on their first few missions, from a distance but they had still been pretty annoyed when they had found out.

But Taiwan was one of her guardians, it was in his interest to make sure she didn't get into trouble, didn't do anything stupid to betray them and he had stopped after a couple, once they knew she had learned well. She wasn't a baby and Tony wasn't her boss.

"It do be being different though, you do be being belonging to him." In what way exactly she is still to figure out. He's not Peter's parent because Peter had told her they were dead, he was his boss but in doing what exactly was still a mystery. "I did just be being meeting him, he do no be knowing me at all."

Which didn't mean he couldn't get mad at her, or yell at her but it was stupid, she hadn't asked to be brought here.

"What? Belong to him? Uh no? People don't belong to other people-that's called slavery and it's hella frowned upon." He point out, voice raising an octave as it tends to do when he's shocked by something.

"I mean... I'm his intern-or... actually that's just a cover story for whole being a superhero thing and no one figures out who I really am-He's my Mentor but I don't belong to anyone. I live with my Aunt May-but she's my guardian that's different."

She sighed. "I do be knowing what slavery do be being. It do being illegal in my world too except in two countries which do be meaning really it happens everywhere but people do be getting scrunch faced mad about it. It did be..." She shook her head. She's still stinging from the fact everyone had argued like she was a little kid who couldn't do anything and her instinct is to talk facts until he realised she wasn't stupid at all.

But also that's not what they were talking about. "I did no be meaning you did be being a slave. I did just be meaning you did be being his. He do be being your mentor, your boss. You do be belonging to him."

Tony had said so much had called him "my... Peter."

"Whoa, calm down-I didn't think you did. But uh no, I wouldn't say I belong to Mr Stark. I mean, yeah, he's my Mentor and he helps with uh superhero stuff and even helps me out a lot when I make mistakes-which is pretty often-actually." He admits. "But it's uh... complicated, I guess you could say."

He lets out a breath and looks down at the ground a moment. "Mr Stark is complicated. Sometimes it seems like he knows what mistakes I'm gonna make before I even make them. And yeah, he gets mad when I screw up but he's always forgiven me. It gets annoying sometimes when he doesn't trust me to handle things on my own-and then really annoying when he turns out to be right but really, there's no one better to have on your side than Tony Stark."

She wrinkled her nose, but alright, she wouldn't say he belonged to Tony if he didn't like that. Even though that's exactly what it sounded like. A mentor, helped him with being a hero, helped him when he made mistakes and got mad at him when he screwed up.

He sounded like a good mentor, mad but forgiving. She figured he can't have done anything too bad, he seemed like an idiot sometimes but he was smart.

"Well he did be saying I do be being a kid who do no be knowing my limits." Not true at all, "But he do no be knowing me, I do no be needing to be being looked after."

He is complicated. She liked him, he had been kind and let her choose what he called her but then he said such things about her being innocent...

Peter just nods because wow that sounds familiar. Maybe Mr Stark treated all kids like that? How can he tell her not to worry about it too much without blowing up in his face later? Peter knows the frustration so well it's hard not to tell her to just ignore it and do what she thinks is best.

"Yeah, yeah he does that. When he first started uh... mentoring me, he tried really hard to keep me focused on the little problems. He didn't trust me to handle a weapons dealer and I decided I had to impress him by doing it anyway-I don't advise doing that-by the way-but at the same time-Uh... I kinda just don't have it in me to ignore something if I can do something. I think Mr Stark gets that but he still gets frustrated-I mean, he's Iron Man-he's got in his head he has to protect everyone."

He chews thoughtfully on his cheek briefly, trying to think of a lighter subject. "...Wanna see something cool?"

She gave a small smile at that, she understands wanting to do more and feeling like you could do more than you were given. But at least her guardians knew she could handle herself. She nods sagely at the last, Tony thought he should protect everyone. It was a very strange, but interesting idea.

"You do be having something cold?" It's already cold, he had lent her his hoodie. This seemed like a strange offer.

"Hm?" Peter raised an eyebrow before it struck him cool might not have been common vocabulary where she's from-not in the way he uses it anyway. "Oh, uh-cool can also mean like something that's neat or fun-you say it's cool. Or if it's something you really, really like you can say it's awesome." He explains before taking the webshooter off his left wrist.

"Can I?" He asks carefully, going to put it on her wrist."

"Oh." Neat or fun or awesome. Cool. She nodded. Yet another word added to her growing vocabulary of words that for whatever reason didn't exist in her world.

Cool. She liked it. She blinked at Peter and nodded her permission, holding out her arm. "What do it be being?"

He attaches the webshooter to her wrist like a bracelet and locks into place.

"It's one of my webshooters." He explains holding his right hand up and aiming off the roof. "You double tap your palm like this to fire the web-" He does. "And press again to release."

He turns his attention back to the webshooter on her wrist. "And then if you touch this, you can change the settings-like this one's a web grenade, and this is the splitter web, and then taser webs."

A webshooter... Webs like spider webs because he was spider man because he hadn't died from being bitten from a poisonous spider.

She watched as he showed her how to make the webs shoot out and release. It was indeed like a real spider. Sort of.

She has no idea what a grenade is, what a splitter web might do or what a taser was. But she touched the part of the device he told her to and then double tapped her palm, like he had shown her.

"Whoa!" Peter lets out as he leans away as a web shoots off into the distance-sparking against the night sky as Peter had switched the setting to taser webs.

"Yeah, you got it! Pretty neat, huh? I made the original and Mr Stark decided it needs some upgrades. But he always does that-and I gotta admit he's got like tons more resources that I do-did. He lets me use his lab sometimes. With supervision. Not allowed in there alone. Not since.. uh.. the incident."

"Whoa!" That was amazing! "That do be being really... cool!" She watched it sparkle out into the night. Peter had made these? He really wasn't stupid at all. She noted that she had to make sure not to underestimate him. Clearly he knew a lot about these technologies.

"The incident? What did you be doing?"

She doesn't know what a lab is, but it sounds like a story.

"Oh... you know..." Peter starts awkwardly, looking away like maybe he was embarrassed by something. "J-just some uh... poor choices, Parker luck and uh... lot of.. fire." He shakes his head.

"It wasn't pretty. I mean, Mr Stark got really mad at first but when I told him what happened he just started laughing but then banned my from his lab without him present. Which is fair considering like everything I do has a way of backfiring and blowing up in my face all at one."

"Spiders do no be liking fire, it do be being a good way to be killing them."

She says it almost absently, smiling at his story, he must have very bad luck indeed or be very bad at making choices. "That do be sounding sensible if you did be setting his lab on fire. If I did be setting something on fire I would be being in so much trouble."

But luckily, she's not stupid enough to set things on fire.

Peter just starts laughing because her words remind her of a certain meme and suddenly he really wishes he had his phone to show her some memes and pictures and a that video he shot on his phone in Germany.

"I mean-to be fair you can kill just about anything with fire." he points out. "But also, that's a little harsh don't you think? Spider's just wanna live their best life, chillin' in webs and eating bugs. They're totally misunderstood-also they're like way more afraid of you, than you are of them."

She tilts her head, wondering again if he was laughing at her. But it seemed he just found her words funny. Laughing was better than being scrunch faced mad.

"Even the poison and rad... Rado-active ones? I do no be thinking they do be being afraid. If I could be killing people just by biting them I would no be being afraid of nothing."

That he still doesn't want to kill spiders despite almost being killed by one says a lot about him.

Peter listens to her reasoning but as it registers what she's saying he starts making a face and staring at her in concern.

"Whoa. Whoa, whoa-time out." He makes a 'T' with his hands. "Okay so-First off, a spider doesn't know that it can kill a human with just a bite and the really, that's not true in my universe? You get bit by a Spider, you keep an eye on it for a few hours and then if it get swollen or you feel numbs or get staph you go to the ER and then you're bankrupt for the rest of your life-uh... basically you have no money and have legally declared you have no money-but you don't die from the Spider-bite. At least not the first one-you might want to after the second cuz' lol not worth going to the ER again."

But he's getting way off topic. "Uh... anyways second of all-to a Spider you're like a giant, you're like a hundred times bigger than it-of course it's gonna be afraid. But the most important part I think we need to address is that just because you know you'll win a fight-doesn't mean you don't need to be afraid. Over confidence leads to mistakes, and mistakes can lead to disaster." He explains.

"That's not saying that you should always be afraid when you go into a fight-but you do need to keep in mind you're not invincible-even I'm not invincible-I mean yeah, I heal super fast, I'm super strong and I'm... uh... sticky but I can still get hurt-I mean Hell-uh-heck I got laid out by flowers-flowers! I survived a building getting dropped on me but a little bit Lavender almost kills me?! If that's not the stupidest thing I've ever heard then I don't know what is."

Time out? She blinked but he seemed to want her to be silent so she stopped talking and let him talk instead even if most of what he said made no sense at all. You got bit by a spider and then you had no money? Spiders robbed you? That... sounded ridiculous but it seemed to be what he said. Or spiders bit you and this ER robbed you while you were dying, or not dying. He hadn't died after all and he didn't look like he had no money...

She's still not sure spiders would be afraid but then his lecture has moved on to the importance of not being too over confident and apart from the weird words and the more... energetic way of talking he could have been Kant. She had heard this lecture many a time but this one contained talk on him being sticky? And also having buildings dropping on him?

"I do no be knowing, you have been saying lots of stupid things since I did be meeting you."

She spoke without thinking and then her eyes go wide and she makes to scramble away in case he did not like her cheekiness. It's fine, she's a fast runner.

He also didn't even bother with the ER. Aunt May and Uncle Ben were poor enough from other medical bills and things like daily living expenses of having an unhealthy, and weak nephew with asthma. But that was in the past thankfully. He doesn't have to worry about that ever again. At her words he he can't quite determine if she was trying to joke or not. Either way, he lets out a mock offended gasp, hand going dramatically to his heart.

"Okay so, maybe I ramble a little-okay a lot- but that doesn't-" He pauses though, watching her carefully. Why was she trying to escape? "Hey wait, you don't have to go-I'm sorry! I'm not really offended! I was playing!" That was certainly an alarming reaction though. He wants to ask about her guardian's again but he's probably looking too much into it-just over thinking it like he tends to do about practically everything.

Edited 2019-07-25 04:34 (UTC)

"Oh." He wasn't offended, she relaxed. She hadn't gotten very far and she sat at the edge again letting her legs kick off the side of the building. "You did be pretending? Like a play?"

Why? She is confused but maybe it's just another Peter-thing. He has a lot of those.

"Yeah, basically. Just joking." Peter nods, relieved to see she didn't feel the need to retreat. He's still concerned though-was she not allowed to kid around with people back on her world? It's not like a Harry Potter situation is it? Should he ask? That seems like a really invasive question. Maybe her world just doesn't have sarcasm? How do you teach someone about sarcasm?

"And anyways, it takes heck of a lot more than that to offend me-I've been getting picked on since elementary-or uh... since I was nine by that same jerk that likes to try and hit me with his car. He hasn't always had the car because you can't drive until you're sixteen at least in my world-anyways, he and his friends like to torment me. So I've been called everything from puny to orphan to unwanted." He stops a moment, taking a second to push the bad thoughts out.

"You don't get picked on at all, do you?"

Since he was nine? All those many many years of being picked on by the same guy? When he had survived a spider bite and had a hero name and a disguise and magic webs that could be used like weapons?

Yet some jerk always hit him with a car? And called him such names?

"No. I do no be being picked on because if anyone did be trying to be hitting me with a cart I would be smashing their cart and if they did be calling me puny I would be punching them in the face."

She grinned, showing teeth. "Maybe you should have been trying that."

Peter just bites at his bottom lip in thought as he just nods. At least she could defend herself from bullies. That's something. He lets out a sigh leans back a little on the roof.

"I couldn't." he admits after a second. "I mean, Ben tried to teach me when Flash and his gang like chased me home one day but uh... before the Spider-bite I was weak-I really was 'Puny Parker.' I don't know if your world has it or not-but I had asthma really bad-which basically means it was really hard for me to breathe or catch my breath if I over exerted myself-I had have inhaler-uh a thing that helps me breathe during an asthma attack-everywhere I went or could have died. So... not great. So I just couldn't defend myself and Flash took advantage of that." He shrugs again like it doesn't much matter.

"I could now, but I couldn't back then and now I'm so much stronger than him it wouldn't be right, you know? Plus if he's picking on me then he's not picking on anyone else."

To Climb

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