Post-Event Blues

[lucetimods]

Who: Everybody, everybody!
What: The battle is won. Now what?
When: The eleventh, twelfth, and onward
Where: Luceti
Summary: With Zompano dead and the cultists routed, Luceti is restored. Kind of.
Rating: F for Feels

On the eleventh, things were slowly breaking down. Memories of their true lives were breaking through. The village, scarred by the battle with the cultists, began to rebuild itself. Community buildings that had vanished were returned to their rightful places. The battle dome was uncovered from the earth that had covered it. Hundreds and hundreds of fake homes slowly faded away. Paved roads gave way to trees and grass. It was an incredible sight for anyone who was willing to sit aroun and watch it happen.

Things wouldn't be easy for the villagers, though. The memories perpetuated by the last ten days would not be easily removed. The feelings and hatreds it had created would take time to conquer and remove. Perhaps, in a way, that was Zompano's nastiest trick of all. The village itself may heal from his invasion, but it would take far more than a few Shifts to fix the people left behind.

Towards the end of the day, their wings returned. Much like some of the buildings, they seemed to just reappear, as if they had never been gone. Their barcodes became visible again as a singular reminder that they were, ultimately, just the property of another entity who as a whole were not much better than Count Zompano.

By the twelfth, the village looked as though nothing had ever happened. Sure, the contents of buildings might have been messed up or destroyed during the battles, but things were otherwise as they were supposed to be. The night before, people would have had to find their old beds to go sleep in, as they no longer possessed the old ones granted to them in another life.

The village was peaceful.

Modly Note: That wraps up the event. As noted in the prose above, you have the option to play up the after effects of the event more than in other ones. While it won't have the same impact universally, the Shift was constructed in such a way that people may have difficulty shaking off the emotions they developed during the event. In effect, it was a cruel send off to Luceti so they would have to deal with the loathing and hatred that came with the less desirable parts of it. Of course, that means the feelings of familial bonds will also persist for awhile as well. It's up to you, as players, to decide how much or little to play with it!

Comments

Thursday

[selfhelp]

[Well, it's therapy day. And Billy - who has to remind himself every once in a while that he prefers Billy over William, that he's moderately well-off back home and not wealthy, that he's the son of Jeff and Rebecca and Wanda and (sort of) Vision and not Tony Stark and Pepper - has already been to the clinic a few times, at first as a very confused and powerful-but-uncontrolled son who probably exploded a lamp or two, then as a friend still trying to sort out his own thoughts. For the most part, though, he's... okay. Feeling guilty about hurting a few people, wondering how the hell to come to terms with everything (including his boyfriend dating his mom, how weird is that), but otherwise unscathed.

Tony, he figures, did not get off so easy. And a promise is a promise, even with injury and experimentation, so on Thursday he shows up to visit right on schedule.]

[alloys]

[ He sees Billy in the doorway, and his brain feeds him the wrong name. ]

Will?

[ But even as he says it, the name sounds off to him. Like he isn't saying it right - but how many ways were the say 'Will'? And he should know. Tony's his father.

Except he isn't. He's pretty sure of that. So why does it seem otherwise? ]

[selfhelp]

[The name makes Billy pause in the doorway, one hand on the frame, his lips pursing. If Tony's still confused, if he's too stuck on the family mentality, he might not be game for this. After all, who can talk to their own kid about their problems?

Still, that's no cause to leave, so his response is calm, patient, but probing at the same time.]

...It's Billy.

[alloys]

[ Billy. That's right. Billy - his therapist, the fanboy. Not his son. Why did he have such a distinct feeling that he was his son?

Luceti. Somehow remembering where they are is explanation enough for the time being. ]

Right. Billy. I'm still...[ He motions with his hand. ] Calibrating.

[selfhelp]

[He can't help but smile at that. A part of him wants to think, "that's such a Dad thing to say", but it isn't, not at all. His father is Jeff. He's a cardiologist. He's horrible with computers, he'd never use a term like that.]

You would phrase it like that. You're not a machine...

[But it's such a Tonyism, he can't even fault him. Still, now that he's recognized a little better, Billy approaches him to sit by the bed.]

How're you feeling? More like yourself now?

[alloys]

A bit. [ To be honest, he couldn't recall how he'd been the days before. He only knew he was making progress on account of what Pepper and others told him. ] I seem to be holding my sarcasm just fine, so that's good. Wouldn't know what I would do without it.

[ He manages a weak smile. ]

[selfhelp]

I don't think you ever actually lost that bit.

[Which may or may not be true - it's been a rough couple of days - but either way, progress is excellent. Billy will happily take what they can get.]

So, um. It's Thursday. I wasn't sure if you'd be up for the usual, but I figured... after all that, I'd darn well better show up.

[alloys]

[ It takes him a moment to place the significance of that time. Thursdays - right. Therapy day.

He was in therapy? ]

Right. All that. [ He pauses. ] This would probably be a good time for me to mention that I don't exactly have all my thoughts in order.

[selfhelp]

Honestly, I'd be more alarmed if you said you did. Getting your thoughts in order is kind of the point of this.

[It might be a slightly - okay, majorly - different situation from normal, but that didn't make the connection any less legit.]

Talking it through helps. My head's actually pretty clear, so maybe I can help you sort things through.

[alloys]

[ Right. Talking things through. He's not anticipating it, but he knows he needs to do it. He needs to get down to the bottom of what's real and what isn't. ]

Was I kind of shit at being your dad? I mean - I'd like to think that I wasn't, but honest to god, I don't remember.

[selfhelp]

[Kind of shit at it? Truth be told, a lot of that was kind of foggy on Billy's end, too. He recalls too many children from too many different moms, and a very awkward household, but...]

I don't know if I'd be giving you any Dad of the Year awards, but I didn't hate you. Either way, though, it wasn't... really us, you know? You were different, and so was I.

[alloys]

[ Tony isn't clearheaded enough to separate himself from his other self, and even if he was, he wouldn't necessarily buy that. ]

Were we?

[selfhelp]

...An alternate reality where everything we know and love had been twisted around and connected in ways that didn't exist before, where you had four kids and multiple families, where I was afraid to even be myself.

[There were similarities between one lifetime and the other, yes. Parallels. Certain inherent personality traits. But even so...]

We were definitely different.

[alloys]

[ It's hard to argue when Billy puts it like that. It's also hard to argue because Tony is having trouble concentrating on any one train of thought for more than a handful of seconds. ]

...You were kind of a brat, by the way.

[ This makes him feel better somehow, because the real Billy was decidedly not a brat. ]

[selfhelp]

[Pffft, okay, Billy laughs at that one. Really, how could he not?]

I totally was. But I'm allowed to blame you for it, "Dad".

[...He makes a face after he says it, though. Wow, even as a joke it just sounds wrong to call him that.]

[alloys]

[ The response makes his stomach sour, and he tries to hide it, though he vaguely remembers this is therapy and he should be willing to talk. ]

If we're gonna play the blame game, best get - [ He stops abruptly, realizing again that he doesn't know in the slightest what caused all this. ] Malnosso?

[selfhelp]

Ah... not exactly. I mean, I don't think so. It was, uh-

[He gestures at his back, indicating the shapes of larger wings.]

Those people we fight during drafts. That's how it looked.

[alloys]

[ His eyebrows lift. ] They got in? Any word from our overlords yet?

[ He knows he should care, so he asks, but it's hard to feel it. ]

[selfhelp]

Nothing so far. [Billy shrugs; he... actually doesn't care too much about what they have to say yet, either. He has too many other things (and people) to worry about.] I'm pretty sure it's inevitable, though.

[alloys]

[ It doesn't sit well with him, but it's so hard to focus on that he just doesn't. He's still having a hell of time telling reality from fiction. ]

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. [ Nor the first time he was so greatly affected by it. ]

[selfhelp]

I heard something about that, yeah. Were you a part of the last time it happened? Do you notice any differences between now and then?

[He only has the barest amount of information - vague details at best - but he means more about how it's affecting Tony, specifically. Still, it's an open-ended question, to answer with whatever he's comfortable sharing.]

[alloys]

Yeah. [ He swallows, his thoughts swimming as he picked apart the truth. ] That was...god. Vivid. Extensive. I remember - everything about that life. People...they became a part of worlds they weren't supposed to. In mine, I adopted Rogue.

[ Then his eyebrows lift, as if he's surprised at the words he just heard come out of his mouth. ]

...Shit, that's...not something I usually share.

[selfhelp]

[Billy shifts in his chair a bit, elbows set on his knees, and allows his clasped hands to act as a chinrest. He quirks a brow.]

Welcome to therapy?

[That's kind of the whole point of it all, talking about stuff you can't tell anyone else. The adopting bit is interesting - he definitely had never heard about it - but he refrains from commenting on it for the moment. Let Tony say what he has to say first.]

[alloys]

It's not just my secret. [ And what had happened between him and Rogue then was hard to put into words. Everything was hard to put into words right now. ]

Thing is - she was actually part of my real life. This is...different.

[ Though the lines of what was his real life were still blurry. ]

[selfhelp]

What do you mean?

[Since he wasn't part of the first time around, it's not immediately clear to him what the differences are beyond what was just mentioned. The adoption bit would probably surprise him more if he hadn't just experienced the weird family situation from a few days ago.]