House of M - The Beginning

[selfhelp]

Who: Billy Kaplan + Anyone who wants to be involved in the House of M Plot + Related CR + Anyone Really
What: Um. The House of M Plot.
When: October 1st-7th
Where: Literally anywhere in Luceti, yo
Summary: Billy returns from a kidnapping feeling a bit, er, different. A white light envelops the village for just a moment, and when it fades... well. All kinds of things are different, actually.
Rating: Varies, anything above R take it elsewhere!

Still accepting last minute sign-ups, if anyone is interested.


It starts off so innocently, early on the morning of October 1st. A burst of light, a warm rush of energy that consumes everything it touches, and it's gentle enough to feel like stepping out into sunlight from the shade. It's so brief that some people might not even notice it happened. But there are certainly... differences. Some subtle, some not. And those changed won't even understand the problem.

After all, why would perfection be a problem?

The truth is, there are no problems. There can't be. It's perfect, Billy thinks. Believes it. His belief is his reality, and now, it's their reality. It all has to be perfect; they deserve it, all of them, for one reason or another. And he'll do whatever he has to protect that perfection from being tainted, ruined, taken away from them.

Teddy died so this could happen, after all.

So what is your new reality?


((first two threads reserved for the intro thread and billy's status; after that consider this log a free-for-all.))

Comments

[abjurer]

No. It's magic. I know because I... I did the same thing once. Much smaller scale, much more completely.

How long do you think you've been in Luceti? How long do you think I've been in Luceti?

[widows_kiss]

[She didn't have a number anymore. Time in Luceti had always passed strangely. She shrugged, frowning slightly.]

A few years now. A while.

[So much so that the world they'd left behind was almost forgotten, inconsequential. They were happy here.]

[abjurer]

Since January. Not even a year. Not for me. Maybe a year for Jack and Eugene.

It's been months, not years. Just a couple of months since the cultists invaded and turned the place into some weird town full of aristocrats and whatever.

[widows_kiss]

Then you and I have a very different knowledge of the passing of time here.

[She remembered that event - how could she not? That was when she'd first met Rue, a Shift that first brought them together as mother and daughter.]

[abjurer]

Half the village does. Half of you really think years have passed but not one of you looks any older, not even a day.

[widows_kiss]

If that's your proof, you're going to need something a little more concrete than that. [There was no condescension or disbelief in her tone. Just a mere stating of fact. Physical signs of aging didn't mean anything, as she knew firsthand. And it wasn't one she could agree with entirely anyway.] Rue has grown. She was younger when Bucky and I were married. Tony and Pepper's daughter, I remember her birth, remember her birthdays. She's five now.

[abjurer]

[He gave a growl of frustration and roots through his bag, pulling out a notebook and opening it.]

These people. Vastra's Jenny and her kid for example. You don't see them out of Vastra's company. Not really. They don't talk, don't get involved when they're not with Vastra.

Other people too.

The other signs I can't really share except that I can feel the spell like spiders running over my skin.

[widows_kiss]

A wholly unpleasant feeling, by that description. [Natasha leans over the tablet, taking in the names and examples he has written down there, recognizing many of them.] These are the people you believe are affected by this magic?

[abjurer]

No. I mean, sort of. I mean... they're the people who... [This is going to be bad. Really bad.]

I don't think they exist at all. It's the people around them who are affected by the magic.

[widows_kiss]

[She tenses a moment as that sinks in, her eyes going back to the list. Staring at names there. Important names.

She abruptly closes the notebook and slides it back across the table to him.]

That's a theory no one connected to this is going to want to hear, Max. Do you realize how that sounds?

[abjurer]

[Well, he's not been punched. Does that count as a win?]

I know. I know how it sounds. I am intimately acquainted with how other people take it when I claim that reality has been altered. Trust me. Why do you think I haven't done anything about it?

[widows_kiss]

Except for exceptionally pissing off my husband in a matter of a few short sentences. [She gives him an arch look as she leans back in her chair, studying him intently.] And what are you going to do about it?

[abjurer]

He wanted to know. He just didn't like the answer.

[He lets her study him, his expression entirely stubborn. He's never known when to back down after all.]

I don't know. Stop it. Find the person who did it and shake some sense into them because this can't end well.

[widows_kiss]

Max, no one is going to like that answer. Any of it. Do you realize what you're talking about ending? What that will take away? That is not going to end well. If this is true... [She didn't believe that, couldn't believe that, but that didn't mean she couldn't look at it logically, at the facts he presented.]

If this is true, do you honestly think the people affected would have any interest in giving up what they have?

[abjurer]

I- I know that. I do! But what am I supposed to do? Just let people eat their lotuses and live a lie? Sooner or later something has to give. Sooner or later there'll be too many discrepancies and it'll crumble. Or whoever cast it will be unable to hold the spell.

It isn't real.

[widows_kiss]

It's real to the people living it. [She leans close for a moment, her gaze intent.] It's real enough when they go home each day to a family. Children. They will fight to keep it, if they can. Are you sure destroying that happiness is the right thing to do?

[She doesn't know if she wants to hear his answer. She doesn't want to think about what he believes, contemplate whether or not what he says is more real than this. But there's part of her that will always doubt a perfect life. She's been through Shifts, she's been through worse, and she can look at the blunt facts from angles others won't want to see.

If he was right... how long did they have?]

[abjurer]

[He's silent for a moment when she looks at him like that, speaks like that. And part of him would love to let them all just keep living like this. He could even leave it to the Malnosso, because he's sure sooner or later they'll intervene. But still.]

And what happens when whoever's done this decides that you don't quite fit right? When they decided that you all just need a little tweak to fit in better? Is that okay?

[widows_kiss]

[Something sharp flares in her gaze at that, something icy and dangerous and she gives him a slow smile for a moment before shaking her head. That hadn't been directed at him, not really, but he'd brushed against something all the same.]

No. But every action has consequences. Make sure you know yours are worth the risk before you make them, Max.