INTRO LOG #2

[abraxasmods]

Intro Log #2

It has been two months now since the initial group of summonings first took place. Castle Thorne, or at least the part above ground, is buzzing with a vibrant air of hope following the 'success' at the Singularity. Eager smiles and excited chattering are to be found in nearly every corner of the castle and surrounding town. The honored guests may find grateful looks turned their way more often than not. A new and brighter day seems to be dawning on the kingdom.

In the dungeons it's a different story entirely. The mood is somber and uneasy. The prisoner taken for trial has yet to return, and no word has come regarding her or her fate. There has been no mention of any further trials as of yet and guards seem to have little patience for unruly behavior or even conversation. Some seem to not even look at or acknowledge the prisoners at all.

[ Feel free to continue threads from the TDM here or start your own! As cell and room assignments will be short-lived due to this month's event, you're free to assume whichever cellmates and roommates you like instead of officially signing up as long as there are ICly no more than four people in a cell or room at once. ]

Comments

[piqure]

[ over does have a weird sort of finality to it that implies it won't get so bad ever again but he knows that's not what doctor strange means. then there’s a remark that catches him off guard - more so than he already was and he blanches. ]

Oh, aha, that’s - [ a nervous laugh expelled as he swiped his hands along his knees, full-bodied relief to a question he was too afraid to ask anyone from the future. ] Thank you.

[ arms crossed over his chest, and he looks away. it isn’t that he hadn’t been worried. it’s that he hadn’t asked because he didn’t think anyone would even know, hadn’t thought about it longer that a breath or two because the idea of something happening to aunt may would have sent him careening into something irreparable.

it was already a little suffocating to know about stark. if aunt may had…

he can’t - doesn’t, won’t - ask if stark had a funeral. talking and thinking about him in past tense when it hasn’t happened yet seemed impossible. ] Okay -

[ he breaks the short silence, because he’s not going to be talking about home all this time, because he should be thinking instead of how to get out of here. of next steps! and anything else! to get back home. damn it. ]

Okay, so. That Ambrose guy - what’s up with that? Do you trust him? [ Strange might be little more than a stranger in the long run, but Peter trusts him a hell of a lot more than anyone here by inherent default, choosing to defer to the sorcerer to tell him what to think of the other magic man. ] Because we’re getting a lot of this hospitality stuff for free while some other people are arrested by fantasy cops, and it’s freaking me out.

And - not to mention, pulling everyone from different corners of multiple universes and different times of the same universe opens up a whole other thing, like continuity of everything, when we go back, and what about -

[ he cuts himself off, as if gaining a momentary sort of self awareness that he’s been talking a little too fast for a little too long, following the breakneck sprint of thought. its easy to follow that trail more than dwell on the other set of circumstances. it isn’t that no one else told him stuff but sam recommended he talk to doctor strange and then here they were!

but, he has enough wherewithal to look sheepish as he says: ] - sorry.

[rehandle]

[ Ah. Turns out that was the right thing to do after all. Peter doesn't take a long moment but he doesn't push him to move through it quickly, instead turning his head slightly to the side to afford him what little privacy can be offered given they're the only two people in the room.

It doesn't take long for an Okay -, and then just like that Peter Parker is off and away.

Stephen doesn't interrupt. Lets him run on, one essential train of thought meeting another at the place the tracks converge and hopping across to stop in at another station. Peter goes on at lightning speed, giving him a crash course in exactly why it was that this kid of everyone in New York City had ended up on that ship with them, hot on the heels of Tony Stark.

It's not that he hadn't known he was an asset. His contributions to every phase of that battle had spoken for themselves. But these aren't the questions of a child who'll need walking through every step of his time here - they're the questions of an ally interrogating the situation at hand.

Peter apologies, but Stephen's already brushing that off with a half-smile of pleasant surprise and a shake of his head. No need. With his opening in the conversation made, he doesn't waste any time in answering in kind. ]

Ambrose and I disagree fundamentally on the appropriate treatment of the people they're keeping down there, but that's the product of Thornean culture and law. He's brought us here because he believes we're the solution to his perception of the problem that the Singularity presents, and without having had the opportunity to do my own research I couldn't tell you if he's right or wrong. But as to whether I trust him?

I believe he believes he's doing the right thing in collecting us here, but I certainly wouldn't say that I trust him to do right by anyone who doesn't play by his rules. And I don't believe he'd use any power he gained from our help in re-harnessing the Singularity to benefit this world in its entirety.

[ A man with a worthy cause who is also at the behest of a powerful kingdom. If the multiverse needs protecting from destruction, that's one thing. If a powerful mage with a political bias is asking them to help harness the power of an apparently multiverse-sustaining Singularity when there's an ongoing war lurking just out of sight? That's something else altogether. ]

As for the rest, we're going to have to cross that bridge once we come to it. So far I haven't found any way to check on the situations we've left behind, but Ambrose has alluded to being able to see the number of universes connected to the Singularity, so the spells must be out there. Until we have them or find our own means of investigating, all we have is conjecture.

[ Not necessarily reassuring, but he's not going to start shielding Peter from the things he'll otherwise just end up surmising for himself. Sometimes we don't know is the best you can do, no matter how much you wish the answers were ready-made. ]

[piqure]

[ he stands and listens with rapt attention, tries to keep himself from pacing and wrings his hands instead before he leaps at the next opportunity to jump back in. ]

So - aside from the fact that this is just kind of like - fancy kidnapping, we need to know a whole of a lot more about that Singularity thing, right? If there’s more than one perspective on it… Are there books you found? Or - a field trip?

[ the last part is mostly a joke. haha, unless…?

but, he gathers himself up, a little taller and a little more resolved, leaps upon swings of thought and processes and then he’s realizing he just said we and then there’s that uncertainty again. we need. can he say that?

is he part of the team? he quickly rushes through the next statements, tries not to appear flustered. he was never a full avenger - and as far as he knew, neither was Dr Strange but they were fighting to save the world together just days before. surely that can extend here? ] I’m - I’m just saying - I want to help. With figuring this stuff out, I mean.

We’re all stuck here, and maybe we need to be, I don’t know, but I know I’d really like to - be part of the team? It’s not like I have schoolwork - obviously —so please let me know what I can do to help you here, sir! [ the worst sales pitch ever but he hopes the heart is there. please keep him busy and thinking about anything other that that one thing he’s going to want to think about. it won’t be productive, and it won’t do anyone any good. and because he knows he can do a lot here and he will be rushing headlong into whatever trouble and chaos might arise here regardless of teamwork. maybe it doesn’t matter what dr strange will say, in the end. maybe peter has already made up his mind who he’s going to come to dump discoveries to, but he’s still rather hear what the sorcerer has to say to all of that. still prefers something akin to validation, and isn’t that a weird thing.

whatever the answer may be, it doesn’t look like that was the extent of his questions, but he’s trying to pace it out into something more reasonable than twenty questions in one minute. ]