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

She blinked as he handed her his hoodie. "Do you no be being cold?" It was cold, how was he not cold? Still she pulled on the hoodie, it was way too big for her but it was warm and she pulled it over her knees.

"He do be running over you? Do you be lying on the floor?" She tried to visualise that, perhaps he tried to knock him over first by running into him?

"I do be liking tall buildings, you can be seeing a very long way. I do be liking this view, I did be knowing mountains did be being big but they do be being..."

Even taller than she imagined, awe inspiring.

Peter just offers a shrug. "I still have my NASA shirt on underneath." Yes, he's a little cold but he was a little cold before and there's little sense in them both being cold. Besides, if it gets too bad, he'll just go back in and curl up into a blanket cocoon on his bed. At her question, a look crosses his face but he's quick work out the difference in technology is at play here.

"Uh.. no um... let's see... how do I explain this." He wonders a moment if he even should since Flash is a dick but she might get frustrated if he doesn't explain it. "Uh... your uh world has wagons, right?" Probably, it'd be hard to do anything without getting passed the invention of the wheel. "And horses or oxen carry the wagon, I'm betting-well basically he tries to hit me with his wagon-except it's called a car where I'm from-no one really gets around in wagons anymore 'cause cars can go so much faster."

He leans back to look up at the starry sky-it's nice. He's never really seen the sky lit up with Stars. Not like this anyway. "The mountains are nice." He agrees. "New York's so lit up even at night you can't really see the night sky-so it's nice to just... look at the Stars."

She nodded, of course her world had wagons. So this person in his school tried to kill him by knocking him down with a wagon. Every day. Why didn't he stop him? Surely he could. She realised he was light following but even they would kill to defend themselves.

She looked up at the sky, "The lights do be being so bright you can no even be seeing the stars?"

That... She can hardly imagine that.

Peter just nods, gaze still directed up towards the sky. "It's not so much that they're just so bright, it's that there's so many of them-and in New York they're always on. So all those artificial lights reflect back into the sky and then you can't really see the stars anymore. There's a term for it actually. It's called light-pollution." He explains. "Sometimes, there'll be a star burning so bright you can barely see it but usually the sky's just kind of... a really, really dark bluish color." He states.

"It's a shame, really. Stars are really cool-like did you know, even though we can see them, they're actually trillions of miles away? Well like, except the Sun I guess. It's only Ninety two point ninety six million miles away. But all the other stars-they're so far away you can't even accurately measure their distance in miles or kilometers-Instead we measure them in light years. Which is exactly what it sounds like-how far light travels in one year. Which to figure that you'd have to take the speed of light-which is one hundred eight-six thousand miles or two hundred ninety-nine million seven hundred ninety-two thousand four hundred fifty eight meters per second- and times that the number of seconds in a year which is thirty-one million five hundred thirty six thousand."

So many of them and always on? Like never ending fire? Or were they like the lights on the train, in glass jars and not like fire at all? Light pollution that made the whole sky look dark blue instead of black with pin pricks of light.

It sounds wonderful and terrible all at the same time! It must be hard to sneak around in a city of so many lights and it must also be hard to sleep!

But Peter was still talking, about how stars in the sky were far away. She already knew that but he was putting numbers to it and it all of a sudden struck her that this boy who had been bitten by a spider and made idiotic mouse noises was not stupid at all.

He was really clever. If he's telling the truth. But he doesn't sound like he is tricking her. She hadn't even known light travelled. Surely light just was. It was there. Still like air without wind. But he was saying it moved and could travel in a year and had one speed.

"Um... I will have to be writing it down. They do be being big numbers to be times-ing, I do no be thinking I can be doing it in my head." Maybe he would think her stupid, like Tony did. But she's not. They are just huge numbers and she isn't really sure what a mile is at all.

She had her notebook though, in her hoodie pocket and she tried to remember the first number.

“Yeah, Really big numbers. It takes practice but there’s always a pattern with math.” He offers with a shrug. He doesn’t think her stupid at all and he’s always happy to share his knowledge with anyone willing to listen to him rant about science and math. “If you can’t do it in your head, my world has these things called calculators that’ll figure it for you.” He states. “And of course-I’d be happy to teach you-I mean-I’m only a junior in high school but I do go to a school that specializes in science and technology-it’s called Midtown School of Science and technology-actually. But everyone just calls it Midtown Tech for short.”

“...but man, I could talk for hours about space and stars.”

She pauses from where she is writing down the numbers, realising that she has no idea how to even do this with numbers this big, "A calculator? They do be times-ing numbers for you?" They sounded magical as well. What a place Peter came from! A place where there were trains, schools, poisons she had never heard of, and cities with so many lights that they blocked out the stars!

"Mister Stark did be telling me about schools but what do technologies be being?" She sighed, "There do be being a lot of the things that do no even be existing in my world."

She threw another nut off the roof, "No wonder he do be thinking I do be being a stupid baby."

"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.

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