metalogs | CONFLUENCE 25

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CONFLUENCE 25

CONFLUENCE.

A Confluence, capitalized, is the converging of one or more supernatural forces.

Whoever you are, whatever you had been getting up to - it doesn't matter, because suddenly you're falling. The sky opens up, and out comes you. You tumble towards the ground above the city of Little Love.

Something ancient and alien hums underneath the Earth. The spells in place Summoner vines that snap up to catch you catch you just before impact, carefully binding your limbs before easing you carefully down to the ground in front of a sign that proudly proclaims this to be Little Love,Kansas. Welcome to the world of Metaheroes.

ALIEN ACTIVITY

Little Love is the kind of sleepy little town where nothing is really meant to happen. It’s the kind of town where people go if they want to start over. With space faring possible again, the population is notably… nervous.

Old technology appears to be coming to life. The moment the new arrivals touch down, they will hear the hitch-pitched hum of something dangerous coming alive beneath the Earth. Something golden glows dimly in the middle distance, and suddenly a fist is punching up and through the Earth.

A massive terraforming machine in the shape of an enormous scorpion has come back online. And it is intent on making this alien world more habitable for its long gone owner. The machine sets eyes upon the new arrivals and any who have come to greet them, throwing its arms out wide. The magic that set them down onto the Earth oh so gently turns in on itself, vines becoming thorny and lashing out at all present. The machine itself attempts to scan and douse any creatures that get too close with a mysterious chemical compound.

The machine might be attempting to destroy the crops and all life-forms, but that fluid has a shelf-life that is well past… mostly. Getting splashed with it has an immediate strengthening effect rather than a weakening one.

Fight to bring the machine down, and then get whisked off to the wonder of Arcadia.

The strengthening effect from that chemical soon fades… however, it isn’t without side-effects.

While the effects aren’t immediate for those doused, there are some… after effects. Throughout the next two weeks, you will find yourself surprisingly sensitive to different minerals. Some augment your strength and some weaken it. ARCADIA, WASHINGTON

Upon arrival, all newcomers will eventually be directed to Arcadia, which is located near Excelsior. This community has an unusual history for some of the Starfallen, but for the wider world, it's simply an AI-generated, AI-run community put together to offer metahumans a place to call home. Unconditionally (for the most part). There are two ways to get to Arcadia: through a building designated as a transport/teleporting point in Excelsior, or through the front door off the outskirts of the city proper. Either way is acceptable.

All newcomers will be greeted by an AI named Virgil. Friendly and welcoming, Virgil will do everything they can to help someone adjust and feel comfortable. Their goal is to help metahumans and Starfallen alike have a place to stay, and their housing complex acts as that for many. Always adjusting and always changing, Arcadia is an important resource, and it's helped along by funding from Winters Industries.

Virgil will provide everyone the rundown they might need, as well as their new living quarters. These quarters are fully adaptable to the needs of its occupants — aesthetically and otherwise. If someone needs special conditions to live, Virgil will work alongside the AIs that directly run Arcadia to help someone find what they need.

Arcadia offers additional resources to its' Starfallen occupants. If anyone's eager to brush up on their knowledge of this world, they can sit through a bunch of (only a little boring) informational videos. For anyone unused to powers, Virgil has designated training centers. However, all training centers are unavailable to metas who aren't affiliated with a Guild. All newcomers are recommended to join a Guild as soon as possible to receive additional support beyond what Virgil themselves is able to offer.

After settling in, all Arcadia occupants receive a credit card to manage their expenses (this card is typically intended to help someone buy food, clothing, and other necessities). It's very apparent that these stipends are provided by Winters Industries and not Virgil.

MISSIONS

The headquarters of the Guardian Alliance are easy to find. It’s located in one of the taller and more ornate skyscrapers of Central City

The first floor is something of a public space. There’s a small museum dedicated to the Alliance’s most famous exploits, standees of famous heroes for tourists to snap selfies with, and even a little gift shop! For metas, though, the real business starts upstairs. You’ll have to check in with a receptionist, who will unlock the elevator to HQ proper. There’s not a lot of visible security beyond that, but you still get the feeling that any kind of trouble here wouldn’t end well for the troublemakers.

The Guardian’s Club is the central hub of the headquarters. It’s an open and sunny lounge area with shining white walls and floors. The furniture is modern, in bright primary colors, and there’s a high ceiling that allows for people of any size, or those who just want to fly around for fun. Off to one side is a large games area - the main attraction is the large pool table, but there’s also some board games, co-op video games, a snack bar, and even a DDR machine. Bonding with your fellow heroes is a great thing!

Outside of this area is where you’ll find the mission board. It’s a modern touchscreen display, on which Alliance members can tap their member ID, input mission preferences, how many they intend to take out with them, and receive a mission.

Where the Guardian Alliance’s headquarters gleams, The Society’s headquarters is much darker. The two buildings are actually quite close to each other. Entering here, you’ll find a similar reception desk where your credentials must be verified before going into the headquarters proper. Security here is far more visible, with clear cameras on the walls and buff guards, often with visible powers such as rocky skin or hands that crackle with lightning, posted nearby. You have to imagine, though, that the real safeguards here are the ones you can’t see.

Inside the Society Lounge, the furnishings are classy in a far more toned-down sense. The furnishings are dark wood, with chairs and long couches upholstered primarily in reds and violets. Here, there’s a full bar! According to the sign posted above it, however, any disorderly conduct within the Lounge will be swiftly dealt with.

The mission board is a sleek electronic display posted on the back wall of the lounge. It’s quite high-tech, updating itself regularly. You can use the touchscreen to request a job. After inputting one's member ID and the amount of people they intend to take along with them, it will assign out tasks based off of what it thinks they will be able to handle. But be careful; who gets assigned what is all public information, and it sure would be a shame to fail.

Please fill out the form and post it below our MISSION REQUESTS header.

CHARACTERS INVOLVED:

GUILD: What guilds are the characters affiliated with?

REQUESTED DIFFICULTY: Easy/Medium/Hard

REWARD REQUEST: Is your character after money, or a specific item?

LIMITATIONS: What do you not want your character to get assigned? Please note we are happy to offer new missions if our initial offer doesn't work!

CLIFF NOTES.

➢ New arrivals land in Little Love, where a terraforming machine comes to life and begins to terrorize the town. It douses anyone it can in a terraforming fluid which enhances their strength for a total of two hours, before leaving them with some strange sensitivities to earth's minerals. Line the colors of your favorite precious stones up with Kyrptonite for some fun effects.

➢ All Starfallen will be granted a place at Arcadia, though no one is required to take that spot. Everyone who decides to live there will be provided with a stipend, as well as fully customizable living quarters.

➢ Guild members are expected to participate in missions at least once monthly. However, this does not have to be the missions offered on this post and can be handwaved. PCs are also welcome to switch missions between themselves for one that better suits, if their monthly assigned one won't work for them.

WILDCARD.

Metaheroes takes inspiration from all walks of comics. Take a look at the CITIES to get an idea as to what day to day life is like in the other cities. Perhaps you've encountered a supervillain (or hero) who needs to be thwarted, or a metahuman with unusual powers creating bizarre effects.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( most metahumans just feel it. wanda once said no more mutants and even now, years later, people are still suffering. billy has possibly been manipulating his boyfriend into being in love with him since they met because he's that powerful, someone who's supposed to redefine the laws of magic itself sometime in the future.

but it's fine to just feel it. totally fine. he isn't ruining or breaking anything. he's not anxious or anything about the whole demiurge thing. it's fine. )

Yeah, I'm not going for a repeat of the last time someone higher up figured out who I was. ( not what but who. wanda maximoff's magically reincarnated witchkid comes with it's own prejudices. ) But thanks for the warning.

[ Tim touches his finger to the side of his nose. Nobody’s talking here, although statements like that make him itch with interest.

Wiccan’s alluding to Something like Rook should know, and he can poke around at a distance. (He’d be dead if was a cat.) He can’t just ask. ]

I’m full of warnings. Don’t join any religions - there’s a bunch of cults - stay away from clowns, and remember that Starfallen are second class citizens. Look up Frances Starling if you want to see how they treat “others.” What else would you want to know?

( a vine starts towards them, but it doesn't get very far before billy's noticing it moving and--a barrier blocks its path, zaps it when it hits against it and burns it away. see, he said he'd take care of any attacking shrubbery. )

So, not all that different from back home. ( mutants are generally treated fairly poorly. billy had the advantage of growing up well before things turned for the worst, and even now his parents are stupidly supportive. they're great. most people aren't. not that it's usually been an issue for him considering the circles he tends to stick to, but. . . that's not always the case. ) Starfallen, I'm guessing that's what we are?

[ Tim trusted that Wiccan would cover the vines, but he also whipped his bo-staff out of its holster. Keeps it out , although he wonders if he’d end up playing tug of war with a vine for it.

He comes within a centimeter of tapping it on the energy wall. Doesn’t, because he likes his bo, but he’d like to see how selective the destruction is. ]

You sure know how to make a guy feel superfluous I’m used to being the competent one.

[ He looks from the wall to Wiccan. ]

Didn’t even hear you chant that time.

[ Half-wondrous, half-teasing, and now fully returned to the matter at hand. ]

It’s their umbrella term for extra dimensional metahumans - all Starfallen are metahumans, not all metahumans are Starfallen. Looks like you had your powers before the Confluence, but if you didn’t, you’d have them now. Just know that you might find them changed.

I think they’re called Starfallen because most Confluences cause them to fall from the sky.

Just because I've got magic, doesn't mean you aren't the competent one. That swing you pulled off earlier? I could never. Like I'm not uncoordinated but, ( a gesture down at himself with his hands. you know. billy and his noodly self with barely any muscle-mass billy. ) you know.

( he'd been out of the game for a while before getting on noh-varr's ship, too. billy's been training, but not to catch a guy using while playing spider-man with a grapple gun. )

I don't always need the chanting either. It's more for uh - concentrating. Mostly for bigger spells or things I need to put a lot of power behind. Guarding against vines isn't a big deal.

( usually. as long as it stays small-scale like this. )

And I guess that makes sense. Given I did fall from the sky.

[ Rook's eyes follow Wiccan's hands, and he tilts his head from side to side while he considers form to size. ]

You could with some practice. You're really lean, so you don't need much muscle mass for a short, solo swing. If you can catch your falling weight and you can hold a dead hang for 90 seconds, you'd be fine.

[ Those are reasonable goals, right? He thinks they're normal. He hasn't been to a gym with normal people in it since freshman year of high school. ]

If you need a mental break, let me know. I have knives for the vines, and C4 can handle the bots.

I missed out on falling from the sky. I got buried in a field of potato monsters, also here in Little Love, Kansas.

I can't even do a single pull up. I have flown while keeping Kate from falling on her face before though, so.

( kate is a little leaner than him though. and that was less holding her than holding on for dear life so she didn't go splat on the ground. )

Maybe I'll work on it. Just in case. ( he's been depowered before, knows it's a possibility to be on the lookout for. just in case. ) You should tell me about your potato monster adventure. While we're out here and all, just in case they pop back up.

[ Rook laughs good-naturedly, thinking it's a joke. Thinking they're both jokes, the lack of a pull-up and the flying but -

No, he thinks he remembers that Wiccan can fly. Magic usually goes hand-in-hand with flight.

(And Wiccan's not laughing, so the pull-up is probably real too.)

Someone please shoot him before he insults the new guy again. (Where is Jason when he needs him?)

It's fine he can salvage this. ]

If you join the Guardian Alliance, we have a gym and there's personal trainers available. I'm supposed to upsell you. Is it working?

[ He can point out that Wiccan could have flown and avoided the scorpion tail strike, but it won't make much of a difference. He's not going to develop faster reflexes from the news, so Rook will remember to grab him if they have to dodge quickly. ]

I woke up buried 3 feet down in the dirt - one of the more terrifying ways to come to - and there were these... voices, at the back of your head? Telling you how nice it was down there in the dirt. Safe. Quiet. Snug. When I dug myself out, I got in a threeway standoff with a potato and a raccoon.

Edited 2024-02-16 23:18 (UTC)

( rook laughs, and billy wonders what he's said that was so funny. takes a moment to connect that he's laughing over billy's complete lack of ability to do a pull up which is. embarrassing really. i mean fair, billy can't do those things, and considering he wears a cape and used to go out intending on hero-ing and is currently in a cape--well. you'd expect him to be somewhat physically capable. it's not like he has a good reason to not be, aside from a dislike of going to the gym.

personal trainers sounds terrible. he should probably get back in shape if he's going to be - out there again, but also he really doesn't want to be. only was back home because he ruined everything. and there's plenty of hero-types here, aren't there? like rook.

he opens his mouth, planning on ignoring the whole trainer and pull up thing, to laugh over the potato and raccoon traumatic dirt incident that rook went through that billy's glad he got to miss out on, except before he gets a word out, he's screeching as a vine sneaks up under him and grabs him by the ankle, picking him straight off the ground to fling him high into the air.

his cape flings itself around, covers his face, which makes seeing very hard. and makes figuring out how to get out even harder, but he's--flinging his arms around, trying to grab onto red fabric to take it off his face. )

[ He’s too dialed in on Wiccan’s face, trying to gauge his reaction to the laughter and getting a sinking feeling when Wiccan suddenly blurs out of frame and up.

Crud, the vines! Tim wasn’t kidding about having knives. He’s got his bo away by the time the screaming starts and a tanto knife out of his boot soon after, but he doesn’t immediately cut him. Wiccan’s cape has him entangled more than the vine, so Tim has to time this out properly.

(That slick fabric with its weird, moving galaxies is not conducive to tracking and predicting motion. Good against enemies, bad for allies.)

If his foot is angled there, and his arms are there and there, then he’ll fall right when he’s —— there!

Tim slashes through the vine hard, throwing the knife clear to get under Wiccan for a clean catch. ]

Gotcha!

[ It sounds a little like oof, but Rook sticks the catch in an princess carry and holds steady to make sure he doesn’t stagger and drop the guy. ]

You’re kinda having a Day.

[ he says with considerable kindness, because this is some bad luck. ]

( he's fine. this may be a first - getting attacked by vines, but he's been thrown around plenty of times. he just needs to get his cape out of his face, see where he's being flung around at, and he'll be able to get his bearings, figure it out. except he's being flung around one way and then the other, the wind it's making is keeping his cape over his face, and he's still screeching, until finally, finally he manages to get the cape away.

only to be immediately dropped down at high speeds. also not abnormal. this has happened before. it'll probably happen again but it's hard to concentrate when he's rushing to the ground and he's two seconds away from going splat when he's shutting his eyes tight, bracing for impact, only to have

two arms grab onto him instead of the ground. it's instinct to wrap an arm around tim's shoulders. not really intentional, more just - he's used to teddy catching him like this except this is definitely not teddy, teddy feels a lot bigger, and he's opening his eyes, looking up to rook and just.

lets out a low groan. )

Please, drop me now. I deserve it. Just let me hit the floor and I'll just stay there for eternity.

[ The good news is, he’s talking and none of the words are ow.

The bad news is that he’s unreasonably charming in that moment, looking up at Tim with his arm around Tim’s shoulder. All all eyelashes and kaleidoscope eyes and self-effacing embarrassment. ]

Your eyes are pretty - hazel.

[ That’d be the real cue for Tim to acquiesce and put Wiccan down, keeping up the chatter to put as much space between that til I behold him - dead poignant pause as possible. ]

Real hazel eyes are a lot less common than people who claim them.

[ He dips forward, dropping the arm hold Wiccan’s legs but tightening his arm around his back, free hand moving to Wiccan’s chest to lightly brace him. Nobody’s falling to the floor on his watch. ]

Less than five percent of the population has hazel eyes, so I can’t leave you here for eternity and the vines. We have to protect genetic diversity.

( this is it. this is how he goes. it's not death by mother, getting taken out by any of the other countless villains that may target them. the spider epidemic. or falling from the sky. it's here in rook's arms that the embarrassment'll take him. rook keeps talking and billy had just been almost killed by vines like a nerd despite being able to fly and he doesn't say a word as he gets his legs back under him, grip on rook not loosening yet because - okay, falling to the floor and being left there would be great, but instinctively he does not want to hit the ground hard.

feet hit the ground and billy gets his balance back, moves his hand to rook's shoulder.

looks straight at him when he blurts out, )

I'm gay. Super, super gay. You're not defending genetic diversity, my genetics aren't going anywhere. Trust me. I had a whole plan for adopting with my boyfriend except now I'm pretty sure we've broken up for forever and now I'm going to die alone while my brothers all go off and get married and I'm just living at home with our parents and my two cats that I don't have yet but that's the thing people do when they're single forever, right? They just get a bunch of cats. So I'll get a couple cats and live with my parents until they die and then Tommy will take pity on me and move me in with him and his partner and I'll just watch them be sickeningly cute while I'm forever alone.

[ He’d had every intention of letting Wiccan go once he was solidly on his own two feet, but now?

(If he told someone that he was bi and they immediately let him go, he’d be crushed. He agonized over every person he told for months until it felt more like a part of him that he could speak more openly about, and even now… it would hurt. )

The arm around Wiccan’s back stays in place and doesn’t slack. The hand on his chest does move, but to his mask, to hit the trigger to slide up the lenses to better hold the eye contact. ]

Take a breath, okay? You’re still genetic diversity even if you don’t plan to contribute. You matter.

[ He knows panic when he sees it, and he thinks he does a fair job talking people through it. Unfortunately, he’s had a lot of practice. Doesn’t really matter if he doesn’t know the underlying cause. ]

Maybe you get cats, maybe you don’t. You don’t need a boyfriend to adopt or get a surrogacy. There’s nothing wrong with living with your parents, or Tommy, or by yourself or with an army of familiars, witch boy. You don’t have to have it figured out now. I certainly don’t.

[ The corners of Tim’s mouth pick up into a gentle almost smile. ]

I’ll tell you a secret: the only time I haven’t lived with family, I was renting a decrepit houseboat from a supervillain that was always five minutes away sinking. You’re doing fine.

You’re not going to be single forever and you’re definitely not going to die alone. Or tonight. I’m sticking with you until this is over, and I promise you’re going to be okay.

Edited 2024-02-17 05:01 (UTC)

( he's been out since--forever, billy doesn't put thought into who knows and who doesn't at this point, everyone who knows wiccan exists knows he's with hulkling, they're not subtle except they're not together anymore, teddy walked away, and billy's dropping the hand from rook's shoulder easily enough even while the one on his back stays where it is. )

There is so much wrong with living with Tommy--I mean last I knew he was kidnapped by a. . . a thing, I don't know what it is. A multiverse traveling, brother kidnapping entity. But like aside from that he doesn't know the meaning of the words slow down and--

( he's being as bad as tommy is with word vomit, isn't he. rook knows of him but doesn't really know him and billy has been here for three seconds and he's dropping his forever alone breakup nonsense onto him over a comment about his eyes. )

Sorry. Shutting up now. I know I'm--fine. That I've got time and staying with family is fine and maybe I should get a familiar. One that tells me to get it together when I'm spiraling.

( a salem to his sabrina. )

Totally dying alone though. But I've made my peace with it. ( in the last two seconds. )

[ Ah, Tommy is one of the brothers. Tim almost assumed it was the ex-boyfriend.

He lets go after Wiccan does, seems like the right idea to match his spatial needs. ]

Your world is on pause. It’ll be there when you get back.

[ That’s reassuring, right? It’s not to Tim, but his personal life is a disaster.

(Shit, so is Wiccan’s.) ]

I don’t think you’d listen to the familiar, and I like it when people talk a lot: I learn a lot.

[ Just constantly restructuring the arguments until he finds the one that works and puts him back at relative ease. Sans cats. ]

But you dying alone is someone else’s big loss. You’re too cute to die alone.

( everything being on pause isn't any better. it gives billy more time to - sit and wallow maybe. not have to worry about mother while also handling everything else currently going on, he can take the time to sit down and process. or stand here and not get attacked by vines, either way. )

You've got a point. I wouldn't listen to a familiar. ( though talking a lot isn't doing him any favors either. first he almost gets knocked over by a scorpion, then he gets flung around, dropped into someone's arms, a someone who just happens to be stupidly understanding and--a little dorkish, if the random eye statistics say anything about him. not that billy minds. he likes dorks. except he's an embarrassment who's gone ranted a little too much about his bleak future as a witchy cat hoarder who will forever be alone because he messed up and teddy left and there's no way to fix it. and even if there was, he's here. and rook's trying to make him feel better which is--sweet. very sweet. even if billy's fairly certain he doesn't deserve it at this point, considering he's just made a bigger mess. )

Thanks? You're, uh, cute too. ( this is a completely normal conversation to have, isn't it. ) And see? I told you that you're definitely the competent one here. I'd never stick a landing like that. Also - a houseboat owned by a supervillain? Sounds like a fun story, if nothing else. Like how many people could claim to have lived in one? Not many.

[ Handling compliments is all about expectations and mindset.

When he’s in vigilante mode, he’s got the mindset sewn up. He’s working with his best skills, he’s showing off; he might not be assured in relationships, but the certainty of everything else bleeds over. He can deliver lines like “Chicks dig the cape” with panache.

Expectations let the side down. He wasn’t expecting to have the compliments turned back around at him by someone who’s plotting out his future as a cat gentleman.

Rook might be better equipped than Tim, but he’s still clearly fighting off a flattered blush. He looks to the side, pretending to be scanning for vines and enemy electronics. To Wiccan -

(No, that was a mistake.)

To the ground and then back up, because he’s thought of a clever response. ]

Technically, you stuck the landing, not me. You’re the one who KO’ed the robot, baited the vines and landed perfectly in my arms. Guess that makes you the impressive one.

[ See, Wiccan, he can get you just as tangled in compliments out of left field and then find something else to hide behind. ]

Did you see where my knife went in the middle of that awesome?

[ He has a decent sense of the trajectory and scuffs around at the grass to find it. ]

And you wouldn’t want the story to be yours. It’s a one liner only. The whole story is he called himself Moriarty, stalked me for months physically and electronically, made clay clones of my brothers, kidnapped the guy I was dating and tried to blow up the boat.

I was flailing through the air, you're the one who caught me. You get full credit for me not hitting the ground, not me.

( being able to fly and being able to catch himself before hitting the ground are apparently two entirely different things. the small smile he offers rook is a little playful, but more meek than anything else. he focuses on looking at the ground, searching through grass to try and find the fallen knife. but he hadn't been paying attention to it when he was busy trying to free himself, so - billy has no idea where it might have fallen. )

Clay clones, huh. I guess for going at it alone stories, that's nowhere near as fun as it could've been. I haven't been with my family in a little bit, but it's--complicated. I've got a friend who has a spaceship we've been traveling around in, given we haven't been able to go anywhere near home in a while.

( a wave of his hand, before he bends down to inspect what turns out to be a stick, not a knife. it's closeish. )

Was the guy you were dating okay? ( avoiding the words boyfriend and ex-boyfriend because the was makes it sound past tense, but he's not digging. repeating his words back at him feels more safe. )

You were in the right position to be caught, and I say it was teamwork.

[ He knows it was a lopsided effort, but Rook wants to share the W out of sympathy for difficult days. There is something to be said for positioning and there's only so much the catcher can do with from the ground.

He's shining a flashlight on the tilled field to catch a glint off the blade. The light it throws back shows his face. He's upbeat and growing more chipper at the back-and-forth, despite mixing Moriarty into the topic. ]

I argue with speedsters regularly and of my own free will. You're not going to win the argument. Don't beat yourself up over that: I cheat and change the parameters the entire time. And yes, he was fine. Maybe a little traumatized, but it went better than the first time I rescued him.

My brother's a speedster.

( less meant to inform rook, more meant to show he gives up already. he's not arguing with someone who chooses to start fights with someone who thinks their way through an entire conversation before he's even able to get in a word. not that tommy regularly starts arguments with him. and billy can win just as easily by just not participating except that's not really winning, but more winning because he refuses to start. )

As one of your save-ees, I'll give you full points. Very little additional trauma here, but you do have the advantage of catching me years after I'd put on a cape. So a few falls and almost deaths by mecha scorpions are unlikely to do much.

Oh, so you're not having a Day, you're having a Life.

[ Having found the knife, he straightens up and gives Wiccan a full grin. His index finger pointing at his own eye and then ticking over towards Wiccan with a perfectly timed click of his tongue. He thinks he knows so much about Wiccan's relationship with his brother that he could narrate his biography. ]

Full marks? I think the judge from Earthsea is inflating the scores. Everyone knows that you can't get full mark if the sav-ee screams twice.

[ And then, with the first sentence much more serious than the rest: ]

I'm glad there's no additional trauma. I hope that you continue to choose Rook for all your future saving services.

You don't even know the half of it.

( he is definitely having a life. becoming an avenger was a dream, but the events before and after it were... messy, to say the least. finding out he's wanda's reincarnated child and that he had a brother who was in juvie, who then moved in with his family for a bit because his parents are overly supportive, but left because billy is, well, billy. then the whole, teddy's parentage thing, watching teddy being dissected, cassie die, a lot of the mess in between--if billy hadn't already struggled with depression and anxiety, everything he's been through would have been enough to trigger it.

but they don't need to get into that. rook doesn't need to hear billy's whole life story, or every incident that's broken him or nearly broken him down. he doesn't need to know about his time-traveling friend who turned his life upside down but also jump-started everything.

instead, billy offers him a smile. )

Stick around long enough, and I'm sure I'll end up falling through the sky again at some point. Or being knocked over by something else. Or anything else equally embarrassing for someone who's supposed to be a reality warper.

[ Yeah, he understands that feeling. Even if he wanted to share more, one conversation could never be enough to cover the an extradimensional parasite. Forget “everything.” ]

I’ll stick around until the higher ups take over.

[ Rook indicates the tent in the distance, card tables and chairs stacked up inside. They’ll be logging the new arrivals shortly. ]

And if you want to shoot for everything, you can, but I should tell you that Prodigy would probably tell you to keep your secrets. You can tell him I said that, too, so he knows I wasn’t digging for information.

[ He’s nosy, yes, but that’s a fair heads up for someone so concerned about being embarrassed. Rook has a long memory and longer reports. He has the impression that Wiccan wouldn’t want to be in them for reasons other than privacy.

(He’ll leave out the catch to be nice.) ]

But I’m not sticking around because I think you’ve embarrassed yourself. It’s nice to have someone watching your back. That’s why you’re on a team, right? I know it’s why I was. Reality warper or not, you can’t have eyes on everything.

I know you're not.

( billy'd argue he's usually a fairly decent judge of character. rook's nice. definitely a dork, which makes him billy's kind of person anyway. )

I've known Prodigy for the last. . . few months or so? Point being that like, he's my friend, but a lot of our history doesn't intersect.

( he has a feeling from that digging for information comment, the two of them have a thing going on. he'll ask david about it later. )

So anything I tell likely doesn't have too much to do with him, other than he probably knows it. I used to update my hero wiki page, most of what comes out of my mouth isn't more than most people already know. Or I guess, know back home. Since this isn't my Earth.

( most. because his newfound future as a sad cat person who lives forever with his parents after messing up with his boyfriend definitely is not on his wiki page. )

I used to update his, too, but I have a feeling his public information back home isn't what he wants shared here. ( because david is prodigy but everyone knows prodigy is david and apparently he's not sharing with rook. who billy'll have to look into later, because he doesn't seem like the kind of guy you'd need to hide things from. but maybe david's just being extra secretive. )

My team reasons were a little more complicated than that, and my team team's been broken up for. . . a while, but yeah. The makeshift one we'd been in--well. ( a loose shrug. ) I'm no Hulk, or Captain America, or Thor. I can only handle what I can handle, but I've got a good team to cover what I can't.

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