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August-September 2024 Test Drive Meme
August-September 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 a canon item from home, 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: Potential Wilderness Survival, Potential Death
New Star Children arrive in Amrita Academy, the largest school in Folkmore. They might arrive in the medical wing, or they could arrive in areas of the school that don't look like a school at all: forests with animals to hunt or gather, including for their medicinal properties; rocky crags with climbing routes; fields full of growing grains; meadows with sheep covered in soft wool; lakes and rivers with unusual denizens. It's like a miniature of Folkmore all in one school.
A fox with a clipped ear and a few scars greets each Star Child upon arrival. She explains that while things can be summoned with Lore, the best survivors learn to scavenge and to find what they need. New Star Children haven't earned much Lore yet, so that surely applies to them double. In fact, as befits a survival school, there are items that will help Star Children survive hidden all around and immediately outside the school. Star Children are directed to make a list on their Relic of everything they think they need to survive. Once made, the list cannot be changed. They will be more likely to find those items than others (though it will not be impossible).
Race, jog, or stroll around the expansive school in search of these items: clothes, bags, first aid kits, tents, survival supplies, etc. They might be harder to find than expected as they will be miniature and in little cubes aka survival squares (a misnomer). These cubes may be tucked away above, below, beside, or inside something. They also may float against a rock face or in the air among tree branches. The most likely locations are those densest in Lore. The longer Star Children explore, the more they will realize that these cubes are best and most easily obtained by working together. In fact, they will try to dodge and avoid the grip of a Star Child more than ten feet away from any other Star Child. Perhaps that's because two Star Children interacting are creating Lore and a Lore dense location? Once two Star Children touch the cube at the same time, the cube will disappear, and the item inside will grow to full size. Congratulations on being one step closer to survival. Remember to share.
Come mid-September, few cubes will remain inside the school. Star Children will have to check the perimeter of the school to find more survival squares. That task grows exponentially harder as the cubes are in the molasses-thick moat of concentrated Lore surrounding the school. Should anyone dip their spoon in the moat, in the Lorasses if you will, they will find that it tastes sweet, a rich spicy sweetness. Amazing! Less amazing? It is impossible to get past the moat of Lorasses. No matter how strong a swimmer or oarsman, it is impossible to make headway through or atop the Lorasses. Anyone attempting to fly across the moat will find themselves slapped by a giant sticky slappy hand rising like a goliath from the depths with perfect aim. Star Children can find themselves slapped anywhere from the shore to the center of the school. Star Children are free to get creative with ways to dig the survival squares out of the Lorasses, but beware! They'll have difficulty freeing themselves on their own from the sticky substance, should they fall in.
Since Star Children are likely to find themselves in sticky situations quite literally, they may be pleased to know that Amrita Academy has showers available for use. Unfortunately, due to one student's experiment, the shampoo is all made of beer. That's right, beer. It's good for one's hair! Or so the study should demonstrate. Be sure to fill out a feedback card outside the locker rooms.
New Star Children arrive in Amrita Academy, the largest school in Folkmore. They might arrive in the medical wing, or they could arrive in areas of the school that don't look like a school at all: forests with animals to hunt or gather, including for their medicinal properties; rocky crags with climbing routes; fields full of growing grains; meadows with sheep covered in soft wool; lakes and rivers with unusual denizens. It's like a miniature of Folkmore all in one school.
A fox with a clipped ear and a few scars greets each Star Child upon arrival. She explains that while things can be summoned with Lore, the best survivors learn to scavenge and to find what they need. New Star Children haven't earned much Lore yet, so that surely applies to them double. In fact, as befits a survival school, there are items that will help Star Children survive hidden all around and immediately outside the school. Star Children are directed to make a list on their Relic of everything they think they need to survive. Once made, the list cannot be changed. They will be more likely to find those items than others (though it will not be impossible).
Race, jog, or stroll around the expansive school in search of these items: clothes, bags, first aid kits, tents, survival supplies, etc. They might be harder to find than expected as they will be miniature and in little cubes aka survival squares (a misnomer). These cubes may be tucked away above, below, beside, or inside something. They also may float against a rock face or in the air among tree branches. The most likely locations are those densest in Lore. The longer Star Children explore, the more they will realize that these cubes are best and most easily obtained by working together. In fact, they will try to dodge and avoid the grip of a Star Child more than ten feet away from any other Star Child. Perhaps that's because two Star Children interacting are creating Lore and a Lore dense location? Once two Star Children touch the cube at the same time, the cube will disappear, and the item inside will grow to full size. Congratulations on being one step closer to survival. Remember to share.
Come mid-September, few cubes will remain inside the school. Star Children will have to check the perimeter of the school to find more survival squares. That task grows exponentially harder as the cubes are in the molasses-thick moat of concentrated Lore surrounding the school. Should anyone dip their spoon in the moat, in the Lorasses if you will, they will find that it tastes sweet, a rich spicy sweetness. Amazing! Less amazing? It is impossible to get past the moat of Lorasses. No matter how strong a swimmer or oarsman, it is impossible to make headway through or atop the Lorasses. Anyone attempting to fly across the moat will find themselves slapped by a giant sticky slappy hand rising like a goliath from the depths with perfect aim. Star Children can find themselves slapped anywhere from the shore to the center of the school. Star Children are free to get creative with ways to dig the survival squares out of the Lorasses, but beware! They'll have difficulty freeing themselves on their own from the sticky substance, should they fall in.
Since Star Children are likely to find themselves in sticky situations quite literally, they may be pleased to know that Amrita Academy has showers available for use. Unfortunately, due to one student's experiment, the shampoo is all made of beer. That's right, beer. It's good for one's hair! Or so the study should demonstrate. Be sure to fill out a feedback card outside the locker rooms.
- All new Star Children arrive in Amrita Academy.
- Star Children are greeted by a fox who prompts them to write a list of what they need to survive. These lists cannot be changed once made.
- Star Children search for tiny cubes with survival supplies, especially ones on their lists.
- Star Children must work together to catch & open the cubes.
- Come mid-September, Amrita Academy is surrounded by a Lore-rich molasses moat—Lorasses. Thou shalt not pass.
- Once the moat arrives, most cubes are in the moat. Shower to get clean afterward with beer for shampoo.
Content Warnings: Forced Close Contact, Coerced Behavior
It can be stressful to arrive in a new place among strangers and strange things. It can be even more stressful, sometimes, to be among people one knows. The fact remains that in Folkmore, no one is an island. The Shattered Spoon Shrine is a testament to that. Interact or perish. Those interactions usually don't even have to be positive. An emotionally charged argument generates Lore same as a touching reunion. However, Amrita's iteration has taken charge of Folkmore this month. She values cooperation and connection.
What does this mean for Star Children? It's time to get along.
When Star Children fight—physically, vocally, emotionally—they get stuck together in a magical t-shirt. This plain white t-shirt has 'This is our get along shirt' written on it on both sides, one in each Star Child's handwriting. (If a Star Child does not have handwriting, Thirteen will invent a handwriting she feels best represents them). The shirt works exactly as written on the tin. Until the two Star Children can get along, they will be stuck together in the shirt. Getting along can look a few different ways. It could be working through the reason they were fighting. It could be cooperating to accomplish something else. It could be helping someone else together. It could be large or small. Somehow, Star Children will have to get along to accomplish something.
The shirt will disappear, leaving them standing next to each other, only to reappear duplicated in each of their hands, perfectly sized to fit each individual. Should they so choose, either can be used for a repeat performance, with both of them trapped inside again. While the same condition will apply—they must get along to get out of the shirt—the shirt will now make it easier for them to work it out. Note: only the two people who originally wore the shirt can put it back on. No one else can wear these shirts.
One time only, a Star Child's cooperative escape will have an additional prize: their souvenir t-shirt will be wrapped around an item from either their home universe or their partner's. That's right, getting along can get a Star Child something from another universe.
It can be stressful to arrive in a new place among strangers and strange things. It can be even more stressful, sometimes, to be among people one knows. The fact remains that in Folkmore, no one is an island. The Shattered Spoon Shrine is a testament to that. Interact or perish. Those interactions usually don't even have to be positive. An emotionally charged argument generates Lore same as a touching reunion. However, Amrita's iteration has taken charge of Folkmore this month. She values cooperation and connection.
What does this mean for Star Children? It's time to get along.
When Star Children fight—physically, vocally, emotionally—they get stuck together in a magical t-shirt. This plain white t-shirt has 'This is our get along shirt' written on it on both sides, one in each Star Child's handwriting. (If a Star Child does not have handwriting, Thirteen will invent a handwriting she feels best represents them). The shirt works exactly as written on the tin. Until the two Star Children can get along, they will be stuck together in the shirt. Getting along can look a few different ways. It could be working through the reason they were fighting. It could be cooperating to accomplish something else. It could be helping someone else together. It could be large or small. Somehow, Star Children will have to get along to accomplish something.
The shirt will disappear, leaving them standing next to each other, only to reappear duplicated in each of their hands, perfectly sized to fit each individual. Should they so choose, either can be used for a repeat performance, with both of them trapped inside again. While the same condition will apply—they must get along to get out of the shirt—the shirt will now make it easier for them to work it out. Note: only the two people who originally wore the shirt can put it back on. No one else can wear these shirts.
One time only, a Star Child's cooperative escape will have an additional prize: their souvenir t-shirt will be wrapped around an item from either their home universe or their partner's. That's right, getting along can get a Star Child something from another universe.
- When Star Children get in a fight of any kind, not just physical, they get stuck together in a magical t-shirt.
- The shirt says “This is our get along shirt” front and back in characters’ own handwriting (or imagined handwriting).
- As written on the tin, Star Children are stuck until they figure out how to get along
- When they separate, both partners will get a copy of the t-shirt that fits them. They can choose to get back into said t-shirt together to figure out how to get along easier in the future.
- One time only, Star Children receive an item from their home universe or their partner’s.
no subject
She's seen that expression before, but she only unconsciously recognizes it as guilt. Mostly because Peter always seems to think he has something to feel guilty about. He's probably going to blame himself for her winding up here, even if she's the one who'd followed that fox of her own volition.
When he asks what she remembers, she can only assume that he's checking to see if Strange's spell had taken root. And maybe it had, and she'd just sort of blacked out for however long it's been until Peter had been able to break it. That still doesn't explain the cut, though, nor the fact that the last thing he claims to remember is....
"Oh Peter," she sighs, reaching for his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. She still doesn't understand how that's possible, that he doesn't remember the minutes after that fight, or what he means by ending up back here, but he's right in that they need to backtrack and take things one step at a time, or else she's just going to get overwhelmed all over again.
"You know you didn't, right? Kill him. Because you didn't. The older Peter - oldest, I guess - he stopped it before things got to that point." She frowns, then, thinking about what happens next. "You really don't remember what happened afterwards?"
Maybe the spell had backfired somehow? It wouldn't exactly be the first time magic didn't do what it was supposed to do.
no subject
"I... oh." A relieved whoosh of breath escapes him, Peter tips his head back for a moment, just needing to take in the relief rolling through him.
The information doesn't fix everything, doesn't make his anger disappear completely, but it is a balm he didn't realize he needed. He isn't a murderer, he didn't betray what he always believed of himself. "I am, so, so happy I didn't do that, oh my god-" He scrubs at his face with his free hand. He needs just a second.
"I don't." He answers as he gathers himself back together, just squeezing her hand gently. Grounding himself with her presence, even if he's aware he's going to ruin everything good between them soon enough.
"I've kind of been yanked around the multiverse a lot, MJ. Enough that I've lost time and got some back. We're from the same place, same universe, I mean. I've also just been to a couple different places now."
no subject
Instead, she tries to focus on what he's actually saying; they can sort through their respective feelings together, once they have all the facts and can let catharsis do its thing. Shaking her head, she murmurs, "I don't understand. What do yo mean, yanked around-...? Is it because of the spell?"
Right, no, she's jumping ahead, and that sorcerer has cast enough spells that she'll need to clarify which one she means or else Peter's just going to assume she's referring to something else entirely. "After the whole Osborn thing, you went to talk to Strange. I don't know what you said, but it looked like the sky was breaking and he was just barely holding it all together. When you came back to me and Ned, you told us...."
Thinking about that conversation still hurts, because she'd been so relieved to see that he'd ended up okay, only to be horrified by what he'd told them next. It's a wound just as fresh as the one to her temple, though significantly more painful. It's okay now, though. Either the spell messed up or it's over, and she knows who Peter is and they can move on once they find their way back home.
Taking a deep breath, she explained, "You told us that the only way to fix things was for everyone to forget about you. And that that was what Strange was going to do. We'd just all... forget that you existed." She catches her vision wavering a bit the way it had when he'd first told her, and she offers him a tight, unblinking smile and a dry laugh as she attempts to hold the tears back. "I have no idea how you thought that was going to fix anything, but if you'd been bounced around the multiverse without anyone noticing, maybe you saw something the rest of us didn't."
no subject
The weight of it just leaves Peter feeling, sick to his stomach. He got what he wanted in a way. A clean break from home, a way to leave his New York. He wanted to be sure he never risked MJ, Ned- anyone else he loves getting hurt again. This was just how it happened.
Looks like he got his wish.
Some wish that is. Knowing how it was going to hurt MJ given her reaction just makes it a sour taste in the back of his throat.
"That, definitely sounds like something I'd do." He answers with a grimace. "We both know I'm kind of a self sacrificial idiot, so, it's a choice I'd make if I was half convinced it would fix anything." He tries to joke weakly at the sight of her tears. It is more awareness than he usually had back home. A sense of insight about his own choices and behavior. He reaches out again to gently touch her cheek, unable to stop himself from trying to comfort her.
"Thank you for telling me." He starts a little uncertainly, "I-" He struggles for a moment, "This is a long story, but, I think we have time, right?" He didn't want to lose MJ again, even if he knew they wouldn't be what they were before.
"I guess, I'll start with, hey, the multiverse is really, real, which, you know by now, though, and- I got dragged into it, before Strange and everything that just happened. There are places like this that pull people out of their own worlds, and they kind of get lost."
no subject
She nods slowly when he asks if they have time, even if it's entirely rhetorical. She'd always thought the concepts of alternate universes and time travel were nothing more than science fiction, but after the Avengers had apparently developed time travel to save the universe and she'd come face-to-face with two other versions of her boyfriend, she can't really refute that they potentially have all the time in the multiverse to figure things out.
Opening her eyes and still getting used to the fact that she needs to tilt her head up to look up at Peter, she listens to his explanation carefully before asking, "So... you're saying that this happens to you a lot? And you just never told me? How do you get back?"
Because there definitely needs to be a way to get back, since she'd never noticed Peter missing for any suspiciously long stretch of time. At least, not since learning about the Spider-Man thing; after that, any absence had been anything but suspicious, even if they'd seen each other practically daily since coming back from London.
no subject
"That's... kind of the problem, some places take you like in between points in time, and everything keeps moving forward with two of you existing at the same time." He knows it sounds like gibberish at best.
"It isn't a 'I didn't tell you' thing, as much as I didn't know kind of thing. Most of the time, you're not even really gone, nor can the you who left come back. It's-" He wrinkles his nose a little, "A lot."
He sighs softly, frowning openly. "It's been almost two years for me- maybe a bit more, being between places like this."
no subject
And also, she just feels a lot safer when she's close to Peter versus the alternative.
"I don't think I understood a single thing you just said," she tells him in no uncertain terms. "Please tell me there's a SparkNotes version of all of this in a local library."
Of course, there's one thing she did understand, even if she still hopes there's some kind of misunderstanding involved. "Two years? You've spent two years just... wandering around in places like this?"
Tactile or not, the thought of Peter spending two years without her, without Ned, without anything from home is enough to make MJ finally break, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. It feels weird, not just nestling her head on his shoulder thanks to this weird new height difference, but it's not like the pair of them aren't used to a little weirdness. "I'm sorry. I wish... I wish I'd found you earlier, in that case. Even if it doesn't really work that way."
no subject
"Unfortunately, that is the SparkNotes version." He half jokes back, trying to make light of all the inherent weirdness going on. He probably should have expected the hug, but it still surprises him. That much is easy to feel in his body language. The brief stiffness before hesitantly relaxing into the embrace. The familiarity they once shared, having become more a memory than a reality. Not a completely distant memory, but still something Peter hadn't dwelled on. He does return the hug, careful with MJ, still overly aware of his own strength.
It hurt to think about sometimes. A life he wasn't a part of anymore. He was some broken off piece found by Thirteen. A shard of something so much bigger. He wasn't the only Peter Parker, he wasn't even really the original anymore. He was something else entirely. With more context MJ gave him, it looked like... he wouldn't even have that at home. He would make another sacrifice to protect the world.
How much did he need to keep giving up to be Spider-Man? How much did he need to let go of to be a hero?
"This feels so weird." He says with a weak laugh, "Being taller, I remember..." He trails off, "Thank you, I missed you." That is real, that he means every word of.
"A lot has changed, though. I'm not even really the same person sometimes. I'm sorry. I've kinda... put down being Spider-Man, if that tells you something. Not forever, but..."
no subject
Just before something hot and ugly could settle into her gut, he puts his arms around her, and MJ forces herself to calm down. She needs to be careful. Her emotions are running high, and while no one can blame her for that, she doesn't want to end up being a puddle of embarrassing feelings. At least not until after she's had some sleep and can actually figure out what those feelings are.
She's so on edge that she can't help tensing again when he claims that hugging her feels weird, but then he clarifies and confirms that he's missed her, and her heartrate slowly starts edging towards normal again. That's good. They're good. If she's going to be stuck in some weird hub world overrun by sentient foxes or whatever, at least she's stuck there with him.
When he tells her he's given up the Spider-Man mantle, though, she starts a little, lifting her head to look up at him incredulously before thinking about it for a moment. "I guess there isn't really a lot of crime to fight when everyone's more concerned about surviving and getting home," she concedes. "I mean... it's been two years, so I get it. And from what that first fox told me, there seems to be some kind of focus on personal growth here. But even if you've outgrown being Spider-Man, you're still a good man. That's what matters, Peter. That's all that's ever mattered. To me, at least."
no subject
It will only get worse, that only amplifies his anxiety.
Her assurance just softens the guilt he feels about his choice. For as much fighting as he had done for this, to wear the mask, to keep it on and do good, Peter knows he can't keep it up forever. Not without an actual break. "I... thank you." He swallows a little, trying to even find the words.
"There is still a lot, I want to tell you. Would you be okay if we got out of here?"
He does not want to break up with her in the middle of a field full of other people and cubes. He knows they had gotten a few passing glances, but no one lingering to listen.
"I'm pretty sure you need, like, five minutes to maybe freak out a little." He offers more quietly back to keep that between them. "I broke down pretty bad after, everything."
no subject
So she manages a small smile when he thanks her, and breathes that much easier when he suggests they go somewhere else. "Anywhere but here," she replies in a droll tone. "I'm not exactly the survivalist type." She has no idea what the rest of this place looks like, but if Peter's there with her, she thinks she should be okay.
Of course, him telling her that she'll need to freak out raises a couple of red flags, and she suddenly doesn't want to go anywhere since that will require her to let go of him when he's all that's anchoring her right now. But she's never been accused of being clingy and isn't going to change that now, so she gives him one last, brief squeeze before reluctantly taking a step back, her hand instinctively slipping into his.
"That's not super encouraging, but yeah. I'd rather hear the worst parts about this place than have it sugarcoated and find out about them the hard way."
no subject
"I'm more thinking, all of- what happened before you landed here." He offers back in explanation, squeezing her hand gently. He is glad to at least still be holding onto her somehow. Offering her some semblance of comfort. "We had been going without really stopping at all, MJ. All the fighting, the near-death experiences, wizards, and you know, magic spells I decided was so the answer without consulting anyone else." He could at least call himself out now to some degree.
He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly with his free hand, "Thirteen's realm doesn't exactly do danger in the same way." He pauses before snorting a little as he starts walking. "Well, okay, no, Thirteen forces you to socialize with random people and work out your deep inner trauma with strangers. I know you'll hate that."
no subject
It's meant to be a light joke, but honestly? After coming back from the Blip, she would've been in therapy immediately if her parents' insurance actually covered it. Hopefully healthcare here is a little better than it is in the United States.
Then again, given what she hears next, that sounds doubtful.
Following alongside Peter, she can't help the way her face contorts a bit at the mention of forced socialization. "Oh, so you're saying we're in hell. Great. The only sound advice my parents ever gave me while growing up was 'don't talk to strangers,' and now I'm stuck someplace where that's exactly what I have to do." Squeezing Peter's hand a bit, she asks, "What if I just use you as my armchair therapist and ignore the strangers instead?"
no subject
He also kind of had a feeling MJ wouldn't want to talk to him... as much about her feelings after everything. The thought makes him bite the inside of his cheek, expression briefly settling on something uncertain. He didn't want to lose her as a friend at least, but, Peter wouldn't blame her if she just didn't want him around. He couldn't stop himself from worrying about it.
Unfortunately for Peter, MJ knows him and likely pick up something is wrong under the surface, even if he's not saying it yet. He forces himself to keep going regardless of the guilt settling under his skin. "Some stuff I really wish I hadn't been forced to talk about, helped sometimes I guess?" He rolls his eyes a little at the thought, "I do know an actual counselor though, I'm surprised he isn't swamped with people sometimes."
no subject
She's managed to keep quiet about some of the darker aspects of her family life, with Peter only knowing that her parents fight a lot - about money, about one another, about anything that grabs their attention on any given day - but not really knowing any of the more intimate details. She'd been planning on keeping it that way until their relationship had gotten more serious, like when they'd inevitably start discussing living together sometime after graduation and he'd need to know why it had taken so long for her to really open up and trust anyone. But even if life has a great knack for never turning out how she'd planned - even with her constantly expecting worse-case scenarios - she still can't imagine opening up in that way with anyone but Peter.
Especially since he's an open book to her, whether he means to be or not. She's had the impression that there's something wrong, some weird barrier keeping them from being as comfortable as they usually are, and she's just assuming that it's these two years of being jolted around the multiverse that's to blame. That can do a lot to a person, to a relationship, and her ever-present paranoia can't help but wonder what it's done to him and what it'll do to them.
Instead of giving voice to any of those concerns, though, she gives Peter's hand another squeeze in an effort to reassure him that she's there for him. "Hey. I'm here now. You've probably made friends in all this time, but if there's ever anything you're forced to talk about, you can lay it out on me. Weird multiversal fox magic or otherwise."
no subject
Peter at least remembers the two of them circling certain topics, MJ reluctant to touch one thing whilst Peter couldn't quite touch another. He knew they had been working on things. Making plan.
Then their lives blew up again. He wanted an easy solution for a problem he inflicted on Ned and MJ for sticking by him, and it just... hadn't worked.
"I..." He hesitates, mentally jumping between options. Nearly all his friends with connected to his boyfriend in a large way. What he had to talk about was tangled in his social circle in the same way. "I was in a different place before Thirteen's realm, it was more- well, probably your speed minus the controlling government agency part. We were supposed to solve these mysteries, look at cursed artifacts, try to understand what was corrupting that world."
Ironically, talking about the ADI of all places felt safer.
no subject
"So... as Strange would say, you were literally Scooby-Doo-ing shit," she brings up dryly. "At the behest of a controlling government entity or in spite of them? Either way, you look like you came out of that okay."
Of course, looks can be deceiving, and Peter might be hiding some scars that she just can't see, be they physical or otherwise. That's why she tilts her head as she peers up at him in that discerning way that she has, trying to make sure he isn't needlessly hiding something from her.
"Did you?"
no subject
He looks back to her, "Well, I- am now. I have my powers back, at least." Trying to explain half of what happened feels like a lot to just drop on MJ out of nowhere. Unfair. As unfair as anything else.
Peter knows he's being... avoidant in a way. He wants to tell MJ everything, catch her up. He also keeps dancing around the biggest issue he needs to touch. He wants to talk to her somewhere actually private. Somewhere that isn't here.
"Okay, I know you're not really a fan of web swinging, but, would flying be alright?" His Legend features aren't always prominent, but, he could at least make his wings appear.
no subject
But even if she accepts what he's saying as the truth, it doesn't mean that she can't pick up on the fact that there's something there he isn't saying, and that's what bothers her even more than all his talk of secret government agencies trapping people in other universes so they could work for them.
"Got your powers back...?" That's going to require some additional information, but Peter's definitely right insofar as knowing that she needs some time and space away from other people to really process everything the way she needs to.
She assumes that "flying" is just another way for him to refer to his web swinging, and that he's just asking for her consent before carrying her off somewhere. "Yeah, sure," she replies, a faint smile on her face. "Whisking me off to a rooftop somewhere so I can have my mental breakdown in peace?"
no subject
They kind of had other things to discuss.
"Honestly, something like that, yeah. Better than- this." He gestures vaguely at their surroundings with his free hand. The survival school isn't bad, but it isn't the place for this kind of conversation. "We can probably figure out role stuff too. That's a whole thing here." He says this casually while manifesting his wings. They look like a loose cape initially before Peter spreads them out into a more traditional wing span. He flexes them absently.
Peter gives MJ a moment to at least adjust, aware this is a whole additional jarring thing on top of everything else going on.
no subject
Before she can even process what he might mean by "roles," Peter throws another wrench into things. She blinks, stopping to look at him as she wonders over when he'd started wearing a cape, but then he spreads them out and she can only gape at him in shock. Is that-... are those-... are they attached to him?
This is weird. Super weird. Even for them. Even if this were some kind of mutation thanks to his spider-powers, she's pretty sure there aren't any species of spiders with wings. But then, she'd also thought she knew that foxes couldn't talk.
"Those are new," she finally says after a long while. "Uh-... so when you said 'flying' earlier...?"
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Their lives were probably never going to be strictly normal, but Peter liked to fool himself occasionally.
Peter is definitely glad he didn't just scoop MJ up, he can guess that wouldn't have helped any. "Yeah, this- is it!" He motions vaguely at his wings, trying to not feel self conscious about the whole thing.
"I'm a Legend, uh, the other two roles are Familiar and Myth." He explains best he can, aware this is just way more information to just drop on MJ as is. "They all have different traits going on. I have wings and a halo sometimes."
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A Legend. With a halo. What kind of Judeo-Christian angelic symbolism is going on here?? She can feel a migraine beginning to build behind her eyes, and eventually she gives into the temptation to simply close them to try to get her bearings straight.
But since they're closed anyway-....
"Just... take me somewhere," she tells him, blindly holding her arms out so she can cling to Peter as he goes off on this crazy flying thing. "I have way too many questions not to try to process them all one by one."
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"Yeah, this is going to be a long conversation." He agrees, a touch of humor still in his voice as he moves to gingerly scoop MJ into his arms. Once he's sure she's well as comfortable as she can be, he pushes up off the ground. His flying isn't perfect, but it is far, far smoother than web swinging.
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But she doesn't notice the uncomfortable, jerky swooping motions that attack the pit of her stomach when he's web swinging, and after a few moments, she opens an eye and looks around. If not for the wind whipping through her hair (albeit much more gently than she's used to), she wouldn't have even realized that they're actually in the air. She's still a little breathless, but since she's not afraid of heights so much as she just hates that jarring sensation of haphazardly swinging from place to place, she blinks before looking around, still curled up against Peter.
"How-... I don't get it," she says, voice raised slightly over the wind. "How did you become Spider-Moth?"
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cw: sort of self harm?
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gives MJ a chance to flee if she so wishes, lol
oh she so wishes
life is never easy for MJ