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April-May 2024 Test Drive Meme
April-May 2024 TDM
Introduction
Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not.
All TDMs are game canon and work like "mini-events". For new players and characters, you can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Current players are also allowed to have in-game characters post to the TDM so long as they mark their top levels ‘Current Character.’
TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.
Playing and interacting with the TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.
🦊 New Star Children meet the Fox still in their worlds, and she brings them into the new realm of Folkmore. As you follow her, your body begins to change and new characteristics emerge. These may stay for a while, or perhaps they will hide away after. And during all of this, the Fox explains to you where you will be going: to Folkmore.
and then... you fall like a shooting star, falling to the land in a burst of starlight.
🦊 Experienced Star Children are already familiar with this time of the month. There are shooting stars all across the sky, and some fall to the land, which means the Fox has brought new arrivals. These newly arrived Star Children will face some tests, but Thirteen wants the more seasoned residents to participate as well.
Perhaps you follow the falling stars on your own, or perhaps the Fox simply teleports you there, but it appears you too will be part of this.
Content Warnings: Forced Relocation, Forced Sharing, Potential Violence & Harm
New Star Children arrive in Wintermute. Not at the hot springs, the school, or anywhere else near civilization. They arrive in the middle of white, snowy nowhere. The good news is that Wintermute is no longer dark twenty-four seven. There is enough light to avoid crevasses, blocked up wells, and other dangerous features of the landscape. Further, no one is expected to figure out how to get out of there on their own.
Usually Thoth finds the lost travelers in the cold expanse of Wintermute. However, she's busy exploring the multiverse for new and interesting ideas for technology. Not to fret! She hasn't abandoned ye who've entered here. There's a new emergency lost and found network:
The Wandering Dog food carts are now open twenty-four seven! The dogs work in shifts, but the food remains as delicious as ever. When a Star Child gets lost in Wintermute, another Star Child will happen to be buying food from a Wandering Dog somewhere in Folkmore. One such lucky unlucky Star Child gets transported to the School of Thoth. Specifically, to where the mechanical sled dogs hang out. They receive a warm winter coat over whatever they were wearing and another one on hand for whoever they are rescuing. Then it's off across the snow! Don't worry, non-mushing experts, the dogs know what they're doing and lead the sled right to the designated lost Star Child.
The rescuee gets to lay in the sled for the ride back, wrapped up warm and cozy in their new winter coat (it may be spring, but it's always cold in Wintermute). The sled dogs bring Star Children back to the hot springs, so that they can warm up even more. Alternatively, Star Children can explore the Cutting Edge, the School of Thoth, or something else in Wintermute. However, the Star Children cannot part ways or leave Wintermute immediately.
The sled dogs, yes the whole team, will stay with the pair to enforce this. They may surround the pair like a pack, cuddle pile on top of them, or lay around the edges of a hot spring. No matter how long it takes to realize the dogs are doing this and that there's a reason for it, Star Children will eventually find instructions in one of the dogs' collars: Share something that other people have refused to listen to you about. Everyone ought to be listened to.
Only once both Star Children have shared something with each other will the dogs let them part ways and see, perhaps, the rest of Folkmore.
On the walk to Akhlut Station, Star Children will see plain weapons sticking out of the snow: swords, guns, knives. These are simple, non-magical practical weapons. Experienced Star Children may know to suspect such free offerings, but nothing immediately happens upon picking one up. However, once on the train, the train will be attacked by frost spirits. These icy spirits must either be hacked to pieces until they can no longer reform or melted with fire. Innocent passengers who didn't pick up a weapon may be forced to get involved, but the frost spirits will be most focused on those who picked up weapons.
New Star Children arrive in Wintermute. Not at the hot springs, the school, or anywhere else near civilization. They arrive in the middle of white, snowy nowhere. The good news is that Wintermute is no longer dark twenty-four seven. There is enough light to avoid crevasses, blocked up wells, and other dangerous features of the landscape. Further, no one is expected to figure out how to get out of there on their own.
Usually Thoth finds the lost travelers in the cold expanse of Wintermute. However, she's busy exploring the multiverse for new and interesting ideas for technology. Not to fret! She hasn't abandoned ye who've entered here. There's a new emergency lost and found network:
The Wandering Dog food carts are now open twenty-four seven! The dogs work in shifts, but the food remains as delicious as ever. When a Star Child gets lost in Wintermute, another Star Child will happen to be buying food from a Wandering Dog somewhere in Folkmore. One such lucky unlucky Star Child gets transported to the School of Thoth. Specifically, to where the mechanical sled dogs hang out. They receive a warm winter coat over whatever they were wearing and another one on hand for whoever they are rescuing. Then it's off across the snow! Don't worry, non-mushing experts, the dogs know what they're doing and lead the sled right to the designated lost Star Child.
The rescuee gets to lay in the sled for the ride back, wrapped up warm and cozy in their new winter coat (it may be spring, but it's always cold in Wintermute). The sled dogs bring Star Children back to the hot springs, so that they can warm up even more. Alternatively, Star Children can explore the Cutting Edge, the School of Thoth, or something else in Wintermute. However, the Star Children cannot part ways or leave Wintermute immediately.
The sled dogs, yes the whole team, will stay with the pair to enforce this. They may surround the pair like a pack, cuddle pile on top of them, or lay around the edges of a hot spring. No matter how long it takes to realize the dogs are doing this and that there's a reason for it, Star Children will eventually find instructions in one of the dogs' collars: Share something that other people have refused to listen to you about. Everyone ought to be listened to.
Only once both Star Children have shared something with each other will the dogs let them part ways and see, perhaps, the rest of Folkmore.
On the walk to Akhlut Station, Star Children will see plain weapons sticking out of the snow: swords, guns, knives. These are simple, non-magical practical weapons. Experienced Star Children may know to suspect such free offerings, but nothing immediately happens upon picking one up. However, once on the train, the train will be attacked by frost spirits. These icy spirits must either be hacked to pieces until they can no longer reform or melted with fire. Innocent passengers who didn't pick up a weapon may be forced to get involved, but the frost spirits will be most focused on those who picked up weapons.
- New Star Children arrive in remote areas of Wintermute.
- Star Children buying food from The Wandering Dog get teleported to the School of Thoth to rescue people with a team of sled dogs.
- Star Children get amazing new winter coats!
- Star Children cannot part ways until they share something others have refused to listen to! The dogs enforce this.
- Simple, non-magical weapons stick out of the snow on the way to the train station.
- Anyone who picks up one of those weapons will see their train get attacked by frost spirits.
Content Warnings: Potential Forced Participation, Potential Harm
Thoth has been listening to any and all ideas people have had around science in the last few months. Whether they were shower thoughts or a discussion between scientific colleagues or anywhere in between, she's made her list and built every one as an experiment. On a human scale. A human test subject scale. Because every idea has merit. That's right: Thoth believes in you.
Posters saying Thoth Needs You! go up around Folkmore. They offer a reward for participating in an experiment. Simply tear off a piece of paper from the bottom of the poster, and at some point in the future, you're in. Now, there might be a little hiccup here or there. These posters are experimental too! So some Star Children who don't tear off a slip might get pulled into an experiment as well. (Who said Thirteen ought to recruit for her trials? Thoth listened… or she tried.) Oh well, at least it's all in the name of science!
Perhaps Star Children need to sing Baby It's Cold Outside to convince the other to stay (it really will be cold outside). Perhaps they have a choice of spinners, buttons, levers, or other devices to interact with. Perhaps they make their way through a maze. Perhaps they try a new contraption. Perhaps they even recognize their own idea come to life! There's a multitude of new tech to try, and it has not been safety tested.
Nothing will explode. Probably. Maybe. Okay, some experiments are definitely going to have explosions. How about pressing that button anyway and finding out if it's this one?
Once Star Children survive the experiment—and they will, Thoth may be a loose cannon of a scientist, but she's ensured that much—they will emerge from one of the School of Thoth's laboratories. Togo, the grey wolf mascot, waits on the other side with an item for each test subject: an item from home. This may even be a weapon or magical item.
No one is left to the cold to fend for themselves. One of the nearby classrooms has been set up as a first aid center. Dog spirits of all sizes, from the smallest Maltipoo spirit to the largest Great Dane spirit, staff a healing clinic and will treat any injuries Star Children received in the experiments (or already sported). They offer hot lemonade—lemon juice, molasses, and hot water—to everyone to warm their soul. Injured Star Children can find a corner to rest by themselves or company with which to discuss their experiments.
Thoth has been listening to any and all ideas people have had around science in the last few months. Whether they were shower thoughts or a discussion between scientific colleagues or anywhere in between, she's made her list and built every one as an experiment. On a human scale. A human test subject scale. Because every idea has merit. That's right: Thoth believes in you.
Posters saying Thoth Needs You! go up around Folkmore. They offer a reward for participating in an experiment. Simply tear off a piece of paper from the bottom of the poster, and at some point in the future, you're in. Now, there might be a little hiccup here or there. These posters are experimental too! So some Star Children who don't tear off a slip might get pulled into an experiment as well. (Who said Thirteen ought to recruit for her trials? Thoth listened… or she tried.) Oh well, at least it's all in the name of science!
Perhaps Star Children need to sing Baby It's Cold Outside to convince the other to stay (it really will be cold outside). Perhaps they have a choice of spinners, buttons, levers, or other devices to interact with. Perhaps they make their way through a maze. Perhaps they try a new contraption. Perhaps they even recognize their own idea come to life! There's a multitude of new tech to try, and it has not been safety tested.
Nothing will explode. Probably. Maybe. Okay, some experiments are definitely going to have explosions. How about pressing that button anyway and finding out if it's this one?
Once Star Children survive the experiment—and they will, Thoth may be a loose cannon of a scientist, but she's ensured that much—they will emerge from one of the School of Thoth's laboratories. Togo, the grey wolf mascot, waits on the other side with an item for each test subject: an item from home. This may even be a weapon or magical item.
No one is left to the cold to fend for themselves. One of the nearby classrooms has been set up as a first aid center. Dog spirits of all sizes, from the smallest Maltipoo spirit to the largest Great Dane spirit, staff a healing clinic and will treat any injuries Star Children received in the experiments (or already sported). They offer hot lemonade—lemon juice, molasses, and hot water—to everyone to warm their soul. Injured Star Children can find a corner to rest by themselves or company with which to discuss their experiments.
- Thoth has built experiments to bring Star Children’s ideas to life.
- Pick a paper tab off a Thoth Needs You! poster to participate. Or don’t. A mishap may bring Star Children there regardless.
- Do science! Be a human experiment! Maybe experience explosions!
- Togo, the Thoth mascot, will have an item from home for every Star Child who participates.
- Dog spirits man (dog?) a first aid center in a nearby classroom.
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"Oh, that's probably not good." Matt quickly crosses himself. This feels like blasphemy even though he didn't choose this. Matt would never choose a halo for himself. A pair of horns would be more fitting.
He's deeply uncomfortable with being given a halo by some magical fox that kidnapped him. God will forgive him, hopefully. He will.
Matt takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Maybe this is another test? To see how he handles it.
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Why is this is life. Why not, right?
"They're really pushing the good and evil thing." Peter pauses for a beat, that all too heavy kind of silence, as a terrible thought occurs to him - he may have heard the fox spirit, but Matt was right, there was still so much about this world they didn't know. "Kind of makes you wonder what the 'evil' looks like."
And truly - Peter didn't have a halo, at least, he doesn't think so. Does that mean Matt's been sorted as more 'good', by whatever metric? Is Peter in danger of sliding down the scale? Questions on questions.
"Maybe it's a rank thing," Peter shrugs, determined to make it seem like no big deal - the discomfort radiating off Matt, the way he takes a steadying breath, tells Peter all he needs to know about how Matt feels about it. Peter might not be able to calm himself down when he was wound up, but ridiculous distraction has always been one of his strong suits. "Maybe I just have to work at it and I'll get a sick hat too. Hope it doesn't clash with my mask. Think they have one in red and blue?"
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Matt is really starting to dislike this fox spirit.
"It could be... based on the universe I come from," he suggests. Moral assignments when people are so complicated and deserving of chances to change and grow seems a poor choice when they're supposed to reach their full potential. "Or it could be... my perceptions of the term Legend and what it should look like?"
Though angels are not legends but aspects of his faith... it still feels like a decent possibility.
"I hope this doesn't come across as rude but do you have a halo?" Matt can't sense it. If Spiderman has been changed in some way he hasn't been able to determine what it is.
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After all, 'Legend' was pretty vague; it certainly seemed like it was built to be open to interpretation.
"I don't think so." Peter slides a hand over the top of his masked head, just to doublecheck. No dice. "I don't see anything, and I don't feel any different..."
"No wings, either," Peter jokes gently, though he can't help but wonder what he was missing. Surely he wasn't spared? What if he was - or was that a bad sign? Shit. Now he's worried.
Unbeknownst to him, his eyes have changed color of their own volition, the light orange color of anxiety. There's even an ambient glow emitting around the glasses of his mask, preventing him from using it as a method of concealment.
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What he can identify is the rising anxiety radiating off of the man. He's a little surprised that not seeing his traits is making Spiderman so uncomfortable. Matt was much happier when he didn't know there was a halo floating over his head.
"I've been told that some peoples traits are hidden," Matt says, trying to reassure the younger man. "And that they can summon and dismiss them when they want. Maybe you're luckier than I am. You're already hiding them."
He would like to know what Spiderman got but if he doesn't know then he doesn't know and that's fine. It was Matt's own curiosity that made him ask in the first place.
"Although, if you really want to know maybe you should ask someone with working eyes." Which Matt does not have at all.
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"I hate not knowing," Peter admits, leg bouncing underneath the jacket spread across both of their laps. He can't help it, nervous energy bubbling to the surface. Part of him wants to crawl up into the corner of the ceiling again, but he stifles the impulse. "Imagination is a thousand times worse than reality, you know?"
"You're the first soul I've seen, so you're stuck with me, buddy." Peter nudges Matt with his shoulder, swaying with the motion of the train. Then he stands, unable to contain the restless energy any further. "I'll just look in the window, see if I see anything. Pair of wings sprouting out of my back - ooh, maybe I'll be biblically accurate, with the millions of eyes. Give the 'spider' part of my name some onus. It'll be great for the hissing."
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Matt focuses on his own breathing, slowing it down and hoping his own calm presence can help settle Spiderman before he goes into a full blown panic. He hates listening to panic attacks. That much fear with no source tends to make him feel useless. He's much better when he can punch a threat.
"I can't think of anyone better to watch my back than a friendly neighborhood Spiderman," Matt says with a genuine smile. "I don't mind."
He's not sure he's the best choice to look after Spiderman in return but Matt will probably do his best. Spiderman sounds so young and he's clearly not adjusting to this place well.
"You can take your mask of you know," he suggests. "I couldn't tell anyone your identity if I wanted to. We're from different universes. And I can't see it. You're safe."
It feels important to say that. Spiderman is safe with Matt.
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The option to take his mask off does give him pause for a moment, but it's the latter part of Matt's sentence that strikes him the most. You're safe. When has he ever been safe? Especially now, on a train to who-knows-where, taken by a Fox spirit to maybe fight some type of good vs evil war?
He's extrapolating that part, maybe, but it probably says more about him that those are his first concerns, that he doesn't take the apparent safety at face value. That he can't, inherently - what were those weapons for, out in the snow?
But the beat of silence stretches, before Peter raises his hands to rip off the band-aid, pulling his mask off, over his face. He'd been wearing it earlier because it was cold, but Matt was right; there was no real reason to keep it on, and to be honest, it might make it easier to breathe.
Moreover, he appreciated the gesture, and didn't want Matt to feel like he didn't.
"You're missing out on all my devilishly handsome spider-charms, I assure you." His fingers twitch, itching to put the mask back on, but he just curls it in his gloved hand, finally moving over to the window. There, he pauses for a second, hesitation unspoken, but palpable. "...you can call me Ben."
It's not really his name (okay, technically speaking...), but he's sure the sign of trust won't go unnoticed. He may not be safe, generally, but he is here, with his new acquaintance, radiating calm.
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It's not fully a lie and frankly given Spiderman's somewhat erratic heart rate from anxiety it's a little hard for Matt to say for certain. He needs to spend more time with Spiderman to fully figure out when he's actually lying or not.
"Hi Ben. It's nice to meet you." Matt will play along. "What do you see in the window?"
Matt's senses don't extend outside the train very well. It's hard to hear past the windows and the metal walls. His senses beyond the car they're in are fuzzy impressions of not much really. Judging by the temperate at his back it's still cold wasteland.
But there's nothing following them that Matt can pick up on. There doesn't seem to be anyone else on the train either. It's just them and the driver.
Odd now that Matt thinks about it. With so many new people arriving the train should be full. Huh.
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Peter's attention does turn to the window, however, and the white, blank snow beyond. At first it's - nothing, really, just a wall of empty blur, but Peter stares out intently.
"There's something out there."
As soon as it passes his lips, he knows it's true, with a bone-deep certainty. He can feel the hairs on his arms standing up, knows the physical sensation well that alerts him to danger. It's the passing kind of thrill, a rush with nowhere to go - they're not being attacked, but whatever it is is dangerous.
There's something moving in the snow; the longer he looks, the more he sees. It's hard to make out, but he sees a pair of wings, shifting shapes that don't make sense for simple snow blowing in the wind.
"I can't see what it is, but it's definitely there." He's tempted to put a hand against the glass and see if it gets closer, but equally as afraid to tempt fate. "Something moving, in the snow."
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"Must be some sort of local animal," he says with a shrug and feigned casualness. "Like rats running along the subway lines back home."
Matt takes a deep breath and focuses his senses. Stick's voice perks up from the back of his mind much to his annoyance. He can listen outside moving vehicles. It takes a lot of extra work on his part and often lets it more sensory information that he likes to handle.
So he listens past the train, blocking out sounds one by one until he hears it running through the snow, heartbeat racing with exertion. It's doing a good job keeping up but what bothers Matt the most is... there's more beyond that one. Fuck.
"Just one?" he asks casually, like he's interested in a zoo animal or something. "I've heard you can see reindeer run along train tracks in Alaska in big herds. It isn't something like that is it?"
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They fall into a lull of silence, Peter staring, laser-focused, out the window. His senses are all enhanced, but he has less practice with his super-hearing than Matt, by far. Still, shapes move in the snow, following the train, managing to keep pace. His fingers tighten where they grip his mask, ready to put it back on if he needs to fight.
"No," Peter says quietly, taking a step back, almost defensively, like he's ready to put himself between Matt and whatever's out there. "No, there's more than one."
He hesitates, finally breaking his gaze away from the window to Matt, whose air of calm is coming across as unaware - Peter doesn't want to alarm him, but he also doesn't want to lie. "...there were weapons in the snow, on the way to the train."
The maybe there was a reason for that goes unspoken.
no subject
"Those were weapons?" Matt could actually name a few that he sensed. Tonfas. Kitanas. Bo staff. He had touched a few but hadn't picked any of them up. He had no reason to and it would be highly suspicious if a blind man was carrying weapons.
"You think we're under attack?" Matt should probably sound more worried than he does but he's keeping his cool.
Spiderman can be nervous. Matt's going to keep it together. It takes a lot of concentration to not get involved if they are attacked. He hates playing helpless victim but it's just him and Spiderman.
Matt's going to have to be just a blind guy.
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"Yeah, all kinds. Think I even saw a few halberds." His tone isn't as easy breezy as he might have hoped, but he knows for fact that whatever's out there is dangerous, and it's hard not to let Matt cotton on to just how dangerous. Or to attempt to, anyway.
"Not think. Just...trust me. They're not friendly." Peter backs up again, this time unmistakably positioning himself between Matt and the danger - the window. He shakes out his arms - shit, no webshooters. Well, they wouldn't have been that useful in an enclosed space anyway, except for sticking Matt to something, if need be. His eyes dart to the ends of the train car - there are no bathrooms in this one, no enclosed cubicles he could utilize to help get Matt out of harm's way. Shit.
"Okay. Okay. We got this. You and me buddy, we've got this." The pep talk is part of his coping mechanism, it's fine. Peter claps his hands together, hopping from foot to foot. He scans the car, finally spotting something useful, and crosses quickly to free the defibrillator kit from the wall before returning to Matt. He presses it into his hands, already turning to the next. "Hold that for a sec?"
"It's a Defibrillator," Peter tells him, crouching and running a gloved hand along the floor, the seam of the carpet running down the middle of the train aisle. He finds an edge, sticks his fingers to it, and rips the fabric up. Property damage is part of his gig, after all; and in the name of self defense, he's sure it's fine. "I think we can electrify the car. Might be enough to deter anything that comes at us."
Or it might not. But Peter has his fists - he'd just rather not let any unknown creature get that close, not when he has Matt to protect.
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"What?" He takes the defibrillator kit and is actually genuinely surprised by it. "You do realize we're in this car."
Matt's not an expert in electricity by any means. Just because he can hear the hum of it through walls doesn't mean he understands the science behind it. He doesn't think a defibrillator has enough charge to electrify a whole train car.
"And if this thing doesn't have some sort of voice instructions or braille on it, you know I can't read the manual, right?" Matt's not sure what Spiderman is thinking here but maybe playing the helpless civilian will be easier than he thought.
He would've just let the creatures board the train and punched them. Spiderman is apparently thinking bigger. Crazier? It's unclear to Matt right now.
no subject
Helluva promise, but he plans to deliver. Peter takes the rug, ripping off a chunk from the end - he wraps this around one of the ceiling handles, where one would hang on if it were standing room only. The rest, he drapes over the seats, tucking it in at either end to make a cushioned, insulated layer. Crude, but it would suffice.
"I fought this guy, once, called himself Electro." Peter returns to the floor by Matt's feet, kneeling down on the bare patch he'd dug up by ripping the carpet. There's an access hatch there, as there always is with a modern train car - Peter's fucked around in the subway long enough to know that much. He pops it open, reaching into the mess of wires it reveals. "Packed a punch, let me tell you. Learned a lot about electricity."
"Like for instance," Peter reaches further, half his arm sticking into the floor, now. "Train cars run off a continuous conductor. That's why they tell you not to touch the third rail, right; it's a live wire. It produces a negatively-charged electron, which generates an electrical current. Most energy efficient trains run off kinetic energy - regenerating their forward motion into usable energy."
"The defibrillator," Peter finds what he's looking for, pulling up a mess of wires from inside the floor. His hands work through the pile, untangling wires, working as fast as he dares. "Has positive and negative electrodes. So if we overload the capacitor on it and cross the positive current of the defib with the negative current of the train, induce a little constructive interference, bada bing bada boom..."
Is his rambling making sense? Peter has the wires he needs, now, and he kneels next to Matt, holding a hand out for the defibrillator kit. "If you could hand me that and stand on the seat, I'd be much obliged."
Still, his anxiety grows. This may be enough to deter whatever's outside...or maybe it would just slow it down.
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"Okay, one quick question." Matt doesn't slide the defibrillator over to Spiderman just yet. "What's your plan if this stops the train from working?"
They would be stranded, essentially, in the middle of a cold wasteland. If the electricity did nothing to these creatures then they were not only stuck they still have the problem of whatever was chasing the train car. Whatever was chasing them.
He can feel them now. They're so cold it comes through the train car. Matt's not sure what their shape really is. Mostly he gets the impression of a cloud of intense cold. It's like someone has given life and movement to the worst part of winter in New York.
"Because I get what you're trying to do." Kind of. Not the electricity part fully but the idea is to take out as many as possible as quickly as possible. "But if you strand us here and more are coming we've got no where to run to."
There's no escape in Spiderman's plan. It either works or it doesn't and then they have a lot of problems. Problems that Matt might have to get involved with and he doesn't want that if he can help it.
no subject
"It shouldn't, hypothetically." He can't say that it won't, which, fair. "But the circuit we'd be overloading is in the defibrillator, not the train car, and we're not sending the current back to the rail - we'd attach it to the metal of the undercarriage, since we're looking to electrify it as a deterrent."
"If it did stop, though," At this, Peter flashes a nervous smile, half-shrugging. "Guess we're had to jump for it, to the next car. The brakes will engage on the entire train if one loses power, but we've got about a mile in the brakes before it stops. Jump, disconnect this train car...kickstart the next one."
The temperature is dropping significantly as the creatures get closer to the glass, and Peter looks up sharply, out the window. The shape is difficult to determine even with sight - swirling snow and ice prevents a full visage, but he's pretty sure whatever it is has overly-long arms for the vaguely humanoid shape it possesses.
"If we don't try something, we might be stranded anyway." Peter points out, running a hand over his hair, sending it up every which way. "There's more of them than there are of me. I'd rather have to fight five than ten, you know?"
no subject
Matt slides the defibrillator towards Spiderman's voice and then feels his way over to the carpeted chairs. He's probably a little too graceful as he climbs up but Spiderman has work to do that's more important than making sure a blind guy can keep his balance.
He shivers from the drop in temperature which makes the creatures stand out remarkably well in his senses compared to everything else around him. They're colder than the cold beyond the train and they're freezing compared to Spiderman's warmth and the warmth of the electrical wires.
"You've saved more people than I have," Matt says sincerely. "Let's try it."
And if it all went to Hell Matt might have to step in more than he really wants to.
no subject
"Spidey rescue service delivers in thirty minutes or less, or your money back guaranteed." Peter takes the machine when Matt obliges to pass it to him in tacit agreement to the hair-brained scheme, and he makes quick work of ripping the case open to get at the wires inside. He finds the positive wire, prying it open with his teeth, and digs around in the train car electrical box to splice the two wires together, negative to positive. Matt's already getting up on the chairs, safe on the rug; Peter spares one nervous glance at the window, frost gathering on it from the creatures outside.
He rips the sticky pads off the end of the defib package, bastardizing them to start sticking bits of exposed wire along the metal undercarriage of the car. This involves warping the metal underneath the exposed floor, but it's not a problem to exert the amount of force necessary. Peter takes a second to tinker with the defib control unit, disconnecting the inhibitor that managed power flow - should give the battery the extra juice it needed for what they were trying to do.
"I don't know how long a pulse we've got." Peter admits, stepping up onto the chairs with Matt, shoulders brushing; he sets the defib box next to their feet, ready to be activated. "We should probably let them get as close as we can."
no subject
He should probably act more afraid and unsure of what's going on. He's still wary of Spiderman's electricity plan. What he can hear from the wires is kind of a mess now. There's an unevenness to the buzz though it doesn't seem to be interfering with anything.
The creatures are circling closer to the train. The cold cuts through the windows and if he didn't have his senses he'd guess that they were on top of them right now. Matt knows they're still outside car, still keeping pace and trying to encircle it.
Close enough seems to come when one takes a running leap and lands on top of train car with a sound much like ice falling. Matt flinches at the higher frequency sounds. His radar sense gets... fuzzy for a few seconds.
"One is close enough," he says as he rubs at his ears.
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Something lands on the roof with a loud, ominous thunk, and Matt doesn't need to tell Peter twice. He presses the button, the defib machine whining with a high-pitched charge before it releases, sending the pulse down through the wires. The hum of electricity gets louder, pitching in a strange way as it works, and Peter can't deny he's kind of delighted that it did. That is, until something outside screeches, a horrible, awful noise that raises goosebumps on his arms. Whatever's outside lets go of the roof, presumably rolling off, and the buzzing sound of the electricity dims, pulse ended.
"Well, maybe - " Peter starts, but whatever he was going to say is lost when the train car actively rocks, shoved from the outside. His hand reflexively latches onto Matt's elbow, feet sticking to the carpet to keep them both upright. Uh oh. Someone was pissed.
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"Ah!" he groans, his ears still ringing as he tries to right himself. He shakes his head, glasses coming slightly loose from his face. Matt hates sharp loud sounds. High frequencies and pressure waves are the bane of his existence. The way he 'sees' the world relies heavily on sound.
He can still feel the creatures because they're just so damn cold but that's all he can really make out. And Spiderman's hand on him holding on with more strength and... and stick than he expected.
"Guess we didn't get them."
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"We got 'em, alright." Peter eyes the window, half-covered in frost by this point. "I think they didn't like it."
Understatement. Something latches onto the side of the car this time, and Peter presses the button again - the machine whines, charges, and releases. This time, whatever it is doesn't scream, but does tumble off the side with a series of metallic thumps.
That's all they're going to get though, because the battery on the machine is totally shot, screen flickering and then dying.
"New plan." Peter steps down off the chair, his hand still on Matt's elbow, ready to assist him if he needs it; he seems disoriented, and the last thing Peter wants is for him to fall. "At least one of those things is going to get through the window. Stay behind me, and if there's an opportunity to run for the next car, take it."
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These things behave more like predators. They'll want to pull someone from the herd and take them down alone. Matt rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck. The world is coming back into focus now, lighting up with flames again so he has a sense of the world.
"I think you're going to need help." He reaches up and takes his glasses off, tucking them into the pocket of his suit jacket. He doesn't want them to break in the middle of this.
Matt puts his back to Spiderman and raises his fists, ready for them to come in. This isn't ideal. He doesn't want to reveal his other abilities but he doesn't have a choice. Spiderman doesn't really have this under control and Matt's not going to run.
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