I've been chillin' out on a star with my 5 star view

[lucetimods]

Who: All draftees
What: The space battle commences
When: After 3PM on the 19th to the 23rd
Where: In Space! On the Moon!
Summary: The battle finally begins! First there's asteroids to take down, then we finally arrive!
Rating: SPACE

MORE SPACE

All the details you need are here, so read up on it. This didn't get mentioned before, but you can tag the cultists instead of killing them. Details on this are on a previous draft post. Using the scanners are optional!

There will be a thread for interacting with NPCs, but they may not all go up at once, so keep an eye out for them.

Note: A log for the events in the village will go up on the 21st, in time for the hurricane and droid incursion.

Comments

[selfhelp]

[His fingers twist in the metal of his headband, searching for what to follow that with- how much to say, how to say it, how much is even truth or just stuff he's been told. He feels like it's the truth. It's the only thing that makes sense.

But.]

She didn't know me. Some bad things had happened, and... she'd lost her memories of ever having kids. But she- she was an Avenger. A hero. And I was just a kid in trouble, so she wanted to check on me. It's a miracle we even noticed each other.

[Or fate? He'd like to think it was fate. She has the power to change reality; it's why he even exists. Maybe they both needed to meet that day.]

She asked me if I was a mutant, and I said I wished I was. And... she said being a mutant just made things worse.

[He glances briefly at her. Sound familiar?]

She said that, too- that I should be myself. Stand up for who I am. Human or mutant, powers or not, I shouldn't be afraid.

[touchofrogue]

["Some bad things" had happened, huh? Of course, they always seemed to. And she wonders just who had messed with his mother's mind to leave her so bereft of such an important memory. Family was family, and Wanda knew that - that's why she went after Magneto so fiercely, why she even tried talking with Pietro first - her family had treated her horribly, and she knew it was wrong. What a new chance would have meant to her...

An Avenger? That was more surprising, somehow. She hoped Wanda had come to that side of the line honestly, without anything twisting her up inside.

...but then, his mother wasn't "her" Wanda, and she'd do well to remember that.

No wonder he said he wasn't sure.

...this encounter obviously meant a lot to him. She wonders how he found out, why he didn't go to her once he knew...]

That sounds like some good advice.

[selfhelp]

It was. I didn't take it, though. Good advice couldn't get around the fact that I was afraid. For someone like me, standing up and fighting isn't an option... you either try to blend in or you become invisible. It's the only way to survive.

[He's short, he's scrawny, he's got no muscle and no fighting skills. And, as she'd said, he's the epitome of a hate crime waiting to happen. Or one that has happened, repeatedly.]

You probably know how those types are, though. If they lose a punching bag, they go out and find a new one, and high school's got no shortage of targets. When I saw that happening... I don't know, I couldn't stand it. Nobody likes getting punched, but I can't just watch someone else get hurt because I'm a coward. That's when I followed her advice.

[touchofrogue]

[There's a lot to say to that. But Rogue wasn't the preachy type. Even if she's learned the hard way that bravery isn't not being afraid - it's being afraid and acting anyway.

Instead she just listens, really listens. Her focus is such that her psyches are reduced to static, and there's a certain amount of weight or awareness in her gaze - that comforting (and sometimes slightly disturbing) feeling when someone is listening, truly listening and not judging? He should be getting that feeling about now.

She'd much prefer to learn about peoples lives this way. But she'd still been through enough, in things experienced through her powers and throughout the course of her life that her empathy was never very far beneath her skin. She did know what those people were like. She winced, imagining having just escaped that sort of pain, only to witness it inflicted on someone else.

Plenty of people would have just walked away, Billy.

So she just nods, once.]

Sometimes it's easier when it's for someone else.

[selfhelp]

Yeah... sometimes.

[He nods, smiling faintly- it's what made him become an Avenger, ultimately. Or a Young Avenger, anyway. With a lot of wishful thinking. The smile is short-lived, though, because he's finally at the part he's been working towards: the point of this story, the reason he's telling her. Her, specifically, though he won't tell her that much. She doesn't need to know how much he knows. But having something in common with someone can make it easier to talk to them.

And maybe he just needs someone to understand.]

My powers decided to manifest that day, and... I couldn't control it. I almost killed him.

[touchofrogue]

[Oh. Hell.

And in fact, she exhales just that:]

Oh, hell.

[Because yes, she knows that one. Some people are lucky - they fall through their floors. Some people people cause earthquakes and get high off the power trip. And some of them shoot uncontrollable beams of power from their eyes, or suck the life out of a cute boy with a touch. It's dangerous, becoming what they are. Dangerous to them, and dangerous to everyone around them.

But that's all she says, because she's still listening.]

[selfhelp]

[He's quiet for a long moment after that, letting that sit like a weight between them, that unpleasant reality. The Scarlet Witch had been right- being a mutant wasn't necessarily better. It got people hurt. It changed lives.

It painted a target on your back.]

I tried going back to the mansion. I wanted to find her- I thought she'd understand, that she could help me. But the Avengers disbanded. She'd gone missing. I couldn't rely on the X-Men, either. I was on my own.

[He lifts his head then, shifting to the side just enough to lean on the wall on the other side of the bed, his gaze finally turning back to her. It's a miserable story, but it does have a happy ending- and he wants that fact to stick out, he really does. Bad things happen. But good things do, too.]

That's when I met a new team. When everything changed. And... I'm okay now.

[touchofrogue]

[No Avengers. Unable to rely on the X-Men. That painted a pretty bleak picture of the world he'd be facing, from her experience in Tony's world where the Avengers were a reality, and from her true experience, where she knew how hard the Professor worked to be there for mutants like Billy.

I was on my own.

That's something Rogue only had to face briefly - granted, at the time, it looked like the X-Men were trying to kill her - but from that point, she'd hooked up with Mystique and then... the rest was history.

So he knows.

He knows how much of a target he is. Of course he does. And something in her heart constricts that her careless words would have made him feel that way again, even if only for a moment.

Guilt-stricken, she looks down.]

I'm glad.

[selfhelp]

Yeah, me too. [He relaxes, finally, and offers her a small smile. This could have gone a lot worse, and he kind of told her a lot more than he intended, but... maybe it's better to get it all out like that.] It could've ended badly- if the wrong people found me, or if I'd been different enough to become a criminal... or a terrorist. [Another smile, with an ironic twist. A history of crime to heroism- maybe that's the legacy of Magneto's family.

...Tommy would probably bitch at him for that one.] I got a once in a lifetime chance.

[touchofrogue]

[Ah yes, the criminal and terrorist years. She remembers those well... though hers was more along the line of a month or so.

...yes, well. Let's move on, then.]

I'm sorry that what I said caused you pain - I didn't mean for that to happen.

[Why an apology? Because Rogue owns her mistakes.

She's not the best at accepting forgiveness, though. So she stands up.]

I'm glad you're all right, Billy. Get some rest.

[selfhelp]

Mm. It's okay, I get it.

[He shrugs, lifting a hand to wave it off. He hadn't been the smartest about what to say, himself, so he can forgive the slip-up.]

Take care of yourself out there. I'll see you around.