abraxaslogs | you and i are friends of empty graves

[ there's very little of peter that resembles pietro. he gets snippets of it whenever wanda mentions him, bits and pieces of his demeanor and his reactions: pietro is secure in himself in ways that peter isn't, who tends to downplay a lot of things through his self-deprecating humor. but they're both antsy, both have too much energy than they know what to do with, even if peter has calmed a little more since charles and logan first found him.

there's something about steve that feels familiar, though. peter can't really put his finger on it. but it makes him want to fix his posture a little, look a little more alert, even if he gets the feeling steve doesn't really care about that kind of thing. ]

I mean, the food's great, I'm not gonna lie. They've been spoiling me with homecooked meals every day. [ they as in multiple families in the primary settlement, as peter has mostly avoided staying with a single family, opting to help everyone he comes across instead. ] But it just doesn't hit the same, you know?

[ like twinkies, like hot dogs. things he used to be able to get whenever he wanted back home. ]

Yeah? What's your favorite in Cadens?

[ Honestly, Steve's glad that they're finally meeting face to face, or at least as close as they can get to it right now. He should track the kid down in Nocwich sometime too, but that's obviously not happening this month. (Should he explain that? At some point, probably. Or maybe Wanda's already said something.)

Either way, Steve's glad for the chance to get to know Peter as his own person, and while it will always be complicated because he's a version of Wanda's brother from some other universe, Steve wants to understand who he is without him just being derivative of Pietro.

Already, it's clear that they're pretty different from each other. ]

Can't go wrong with that. [ Said in response to the remark about homecooked meals. There's nothing like them. ] But I get it. Sometimes you just want a taste of the stuff from home, even if it's something that's not nearly as good for you.

[ Or because of that.

He takes another bite as he considers the question, one hand casually slipping into his pocket. Faceless figures and gridlocked cars move around them, but it's not like anyone is actually interacting with them. ]

They've got something that's kind of like shawarma. Sam found it. That's probably the place we visit most often.

[ He pauses then, realizing that he doesn't actually know much about Peter's origins other than "he's American." He raises an eyebrow at him. ]

Where are you from, by the way?

Exactly. I've been living off whole grain everything for the past three months. Sometimes, I just wanna feel what it's like to eat something artery-clogging again.

[ awful. then again, peter's diet wasn't the best before coming here, so this is really just to be expected. normally, his hot dog would be gone in a few bites, but maybe it's because this is the horizon that makes him slow down a little, to savor it more. ]

What're the chances of you bringing some to Nocwich? I'll trade you a pie for it. Solvunn loves pies.

[ but anyway, on the subject of where he's from, peter waves his free hand at steve's constructed new york— ]

Here. Well, not here here. This is Brooklyn, right? I'm over in Westchester.

Edited 2024-09-23 22:13 (UTC)

[ Steve chuckles and nods, as he really can't argue that point. The future (or what's been his present for years now) introduced him to so many new and interesting foods, many which were terrible for the human body.

But everyone has to indulge once in a while. ]

Besides, Horizon calories don't count.

[ So, they can have as much as they want.

Steve does perk up at at the idea of a real-life food exchange, though. He takes a moment to polish off his hot dog and grabs for a napkin from the cart to wipe his hands. He waits until he's swallowed all that food before he actually speaks up. ]

Dessert pies or meat pies? Either way, I'm pretty sure something could be arranged.

[ Though any further thought on that is derailed when Peter mentions where he's from and Steve's expression lights up with recognition. It's not New York City, but it's just north of it. Of course he knows Westchester. ]

Some version of Brooklyn, anyway. Well, we're practically neighbors then. [ Steve turns more directly to Peter, looking him over as he stands akimbo. ] How often do you go into the City?

Who says you can't have both?

[ steve is, honestly, so correct and it takes peter a little by surprise by how much of an enabler he is. not that it's a bad thing at all, but it's interesting. he'd spent most of his recent years in life being around charles, around hank—it's refreshing, having someone who humors him. ]

Officially? Every weekend. Unofficially, every other night.

[ he finishes his hot dog before explaining, speaking around his mouthful but trying to be less rude about it. ]

Scott's the one with the car, so he's on babysitting duty whenever he takes the gang down. Curfew, and all that. As for me, well. [ he shrugs. ] What the Professor doesn't know won't hurt him.

I won't say no.

[ It sounds like this food exchange is more or less set in stone, then. As soon as Steve is free of his time in the mines, he'll have to reach out to settle the details, but he considers it as good as done.

But then Peter starts to explain about his life back home, mentioning names that Steve's never heard before. Scott, the Professor, to say nothing about babysitting duty and curfew. While he expected something to do with a superhero team in some form, this sounds pretty different from his own experience.

(Tony tried to put Wanda on house arrest all of once, and look how that turned out.)

Steve raises a curious eyebrow, arms crossing as he realizes how little he knows. Just because Peter is some other version of Wanda's brother doesn't mean Steve can assume much of anything about him, it seems. ]

I think we might have to circle back a little bit and start at the beginning. [ He can't help but smile fondly. It's just like a speedster to get ahead of themselves. ] If you have the time, we can head up to my apartment and you can tell me all about it.

[ he doesn't need to confirm with steve to know that wanda has mentioned him at some point, likely from the beginning. given that group chat they had a few months prior, peter is pretty confident that they're all (or most of them) from the same universe, which means steve knows about pietro. which also means he knows that peter is the wrong brother.

it's interesting. he wouldn't have expected steve to want to get to know him, given who he is and, consequently, who he isn't. maybe he just wants to know what and where the differences are. maybe in the end he'll realize where peter is lacking and decide he's better off not knowing anyway. it wouldn't be the first time he's been passed on. a part of him still wonders how long it'll be before wanda will inevitably push him away.

but he wrestles those thoughts down before they can really take hold, eyeing steve's fond smile as he takes a can of coke from the hot dog stand and nodding. ]

Sure. Got nothing but time.

Edited 2024-09-26 07:39 (UTC)

[ Grabbing a drink for the road isn't a bad idea, and so Steve also plucks up a can and then gestures for Peter to follow him. He exudes a certain kind of confidence as he leads them down the crowded sidewalk. Even if the presences passing them don't have any notable features, Steve still moves past them as if they're real, winding through the crowd of people until they reach an unassuming door nestled between two storefronts.

He digs into his jacket pocket for his keys and unlocks the front door, turning back to Peter as he lets him inside. ]

It's a walk-up. Fifth floor, if you want to go ahead.

[ Based on what Wanda's told him, it sounds like Peter has plenty of nervous energy that he needs to let out from time to time, so letting him zoom up the stairs probably isn't a bad idea. ]

Apartment four. See you there.

[ it's easy enough to follow steve, popping open his can to sip from as they move through the throng of people. it'd be even easier for peter with his super speed but he refrains, keeping pace with steve until he lets him inside the walk-up first.

there's a shift in peter's expression for a brief moment, as if he's unsure whether to laugh or protest — he's not some kind of... dog, or something that has to be let out. but also, steve isn't actually wrong, so after plucking steve's keys from his hand, he zips up the stairs to the designated apartment.

by the time steve makes it upstairs, he'll find peter lounging on the nearest couch or chair, flipping through one of his books. the rest of the apartment looks untouched, but as peter is terminally nosy, he's definitely peeked into each room. ]

[ Based on what Wanda has told Steve about Peter, he does seem to need outlets for all of that pent-up energy, to the point that it sometimes exhausts her. That's the only reason that Steve felt it might do him some good, and in the end there's no protest as Peter disappears up the stairs in a flash.

It's not like Steve is that far behind him, either. He takes the stairs two at a time, but even then, when he reaches his apartment Peter's set up as if he's already made himself at home. Honestly, it's a good thing — he doesn't want Peter to feel unwelcome, especially when Steve invited him.

Nor is there anything in this space that he wants to hide.

He takes a seat in one of the chairs facing the couch, since Peter's claimed that already, and then cracks open his can of soda. ]

So... you mentioned a professor. And trips into the city. Do you go to... some sort of school?

[ He tilts his head, then takes a sip. It's hard to imagine, frankly. ]

Yep.

[ peter closes the book he was flipping through and seems to suddenly disappear, the can of coke he was holding left suspended in the air for a second before he returns to his spot on the couch, now book-less. if steve turns to look, he'll find the book back in its original place on the shelf as if it'd never moved at all.

but, the school— ]

The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Well, now it's the Jean Grey School for Gifted Youngsters. It's a big mansion owned by Charles Xavier, we all call him Professor. [ he shrugs. ] It just kinda stuck.

[ peter tilts his head briefly in thought, mulling over how he should explain it. wanda mentioned that she knew erik when he was summoned here, but peter isn't sure if steve had met him also. ]

... You ever heard of mutants?

Edited (wORDING.) 2024-10-04 01:38 (UTC)

[ It's been a long time now, about a decade if he's going to put a number on it, since Steve's seen a speedster in action. Even then, his time with Pietro had been all too brief, and since then he's only had Wanda's stories when she was in the mood to reminisce.

So it's a hell of a thing to see it now, the way that Peter moves around the room so quickly Steve can't even track it — to the point that he can leave a can of soda suspended in the air and trust that he'll be back before it falls.

None of the names mean anything to him. Charles Xavier, Jean Grey, a School for Gifted Youngsters, the Professor. It doesn't ring a single bell.

But then Peter drops the word mutants, and that's enough to make it all click. Steve's back immediately straightens when he hears that. His conversation with Erik was almost a year ago now, but it had been a memorable one. ]

Yes, actually. [ He gives a quick shake of his head, as if to rid himself of his briefly stunned expression. ] There was another Summoned who told me about them. A man named Erik. He could reshape metal, that was his... mutation, I guess. [ He tilts his head, watching Peter closely. ] Do you know him?

[ so they did meet. well, that makes things a little easier. peter is not a scientist by any means, a lot of the technicalities surrounding mutants aren't something he's ever had to care about. as far as peter is concerned, he's always had his speed—it's as much a part of him as each of his limbs are. something natural and crucial. ]

Right. Like mine is super speed, Charles is a telepath, Hank can turn into a huge blue beast— [ he waves his hand as he takes a sip of his coke. ] You get the idea.

[ if erik had given steve the context, then it's less he'll have to parse through. and while he should come to expect it by now, the question about who erik is to him still catches him off-guard. ]

Yeah. He's, uh... my dad. [ a flicker of—not quite pain, but something similar to it in his expression before it smooths back down, his cheeks puffing out briefly with his long sigh. ] I didn't grow up with him, though. I'm pretty sure he still doesn't know I'm his kid. But I guess you could say I got my mutation from him.

[ A huge blue beast? Instead of a green one? That's an oddly similar "power." Then again, it would make sense that there are some strange similarities between their two worlds, if a version of Pietro exists in both. That could very well be the case for others too.

Steve really isn't expecting what Peter says next, though, his eyes going wide and his head jerking back in brief surprise. His dad? Come to think of it, Erik had said something about how if he had any children they would also be mutants, and there had been a certain look in his eyes when he said it. Something melancholy, something that told Steve not to pry further.

But then Peter says that Erik didn't even know about him, which confuses the situation. ]

... He did explain that if he had children, they would inherit the mutation. Or a mutation, anyway. [ Since clearly their powers are different. ] He also mentioned that there was a team of mutants who were trying to do some good in the world, but that he wasn't a member. Are you part of that team, then?

[ it's almost funny how everyone—or more like, two people—has had that same reaction whenever peter reveals his relationship with erik. not that he can blame them, really, and he doubts erik has talked about him at length. he's sure erik has had his own hangups about his family, given everything that happened. ]

Yeah. Honestly, can't tell you how it works in terms of the mutation lottery, but my mom was a normal human so I got him to thank for my ability.

[ should he know the details of it? probably. but, again, he's no scientist. he nods when steve mentions the team, ]

The X-Men, yeah. Charles formed it, and there's like seven of us. Well, [ his expression twists a little. ] Five, now.

[ raven's death is still fresh. same with jean's disappearance. peter knows they won't see her again, either. but he moves on. ]

Charles sent us on missions, wherever they needed extra help. It wasn't always disasters or crises—he has this machine that helped him locate other mutants like us who were stuck in bad situations, or needed a safe place to stay. A few of us would go pick them up and bring them back to the mansion.

[ Steve isn't a scientist or geneticist either, but it seems simple enough. If there's at least one mutant parent, there's a chance that the child will be a mutant too. But how the power manifests is seemingly random. It's so different from how powers work where he's from that he can't help but find it fascinating, and he wonders what someone like Bruce or even Stephen would make of it.

The X-Men. It's the first time that he's heard the name, since Erik didn't bother to give it. So they were based at the professor's mansion and he would send them on missions to help with world-threatening events or even to recruit other mutants in need. It sounded like a nice setup, and not so different from what Avengers Tower or the Compound had once been.

As for who stood in for the professor — well, it was either Fury or Steve himself, wasn't it?

Steve's jaw tenses when Peter corrects himself on the number of members. He has an idea of what it's like when a team fractures — to say the least. He isn't going to pry there. ]

That sounds a lot like the Avengers, except that recruiting new members was usually something that just happened along the way. We didn't have a way of tracking people like that, but I bet it's pretty handy.

[ It also would have made the Accords even more complicated, though. That was one hell of a powerful surveillance tool.

This next question might be pushing too far, but Steve missed the chance to ask Erik, so maybe Peter will be forthcoming about it. Steve shoots him a careful glance. ] Why was it that Erik wasn't one of you? He seemed to care about mutants too.

you and i are friends of empty graves

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