maskormenacelogs | so deliver me from evil 'cause the little things relieve us.

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so deliver me from evil 'cause the little things relieve us.

WHO: Residents of the Meadows & OPEN to visitors
WHERE: The Meadows outside De Chima
WHEN: Throughout September
WHAT: Day-to-day encounters at the magical farm commune.
WARNINGS: Look to the subject headers.
NOTES: This is a mingle/catch-all log. Start your own threads! Tag around!

The Meadows, being a place largely created from magic, has a subtle strangeness to it. From the outside, it could be taken for any old Appalachian farm: scattered barns and stables, a lakeside castle, a roomy wooden farmhouse, a 19th century stone chapel that some hoodlum graffitied. There's evidence that the farm is home to unsupervised teenagers, too, in the donut tracks that mar the grass and the remains of regular bonfires. As long as the monsters are out of sight, everything seems ordinary.

Once inside the farmhouse, however, the odd discrepancies become more apparent. The layout of the rooms doesn't quite match how the house appeared from the outside. There are windows where windows shouldn't be, stairways like vertical mazes to secluded rooms, and views from rooms that look into other worlds entirely. Half of the appliances work without any source of electricity, fresh coffee's always waiting in the pot without anyone having to brew it, and the refrigerator never seems to run out of leftover pizza. Things are simply wrong about the place, for all the cozy warmth of its design.

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Probably, Ronan Lynch would not normally be capable of sneaking up on Peter Parker. It just so happens that Ronan is made of the same weird and disorienting energy that makes up everything else in the area, including the bantha. Peter can't be blamed if he doesn't detect Ronan's presence until he's right there, taking a seat on the fence beside him.

"Howdy," he drawls.

He's been working in the fields, which maybe (maybe?) explains the black cowboy hat and distressed grey overalls he's sporting. It's too hot for a shirt, so he's forgone one, which puts his tattoo on display and makes him just about the weirdest-looking farmer in the county, if not the state.

Yeah, it's tough to sneak up on Spider-Man? But blending into the background weirdness is a surefire way to do it. He jumps at that, having to brace (gently) against Bob to keep from falling off the paddock wall. And then he turns guiltily back towards Ronan, keenly aware that. Oh yeah. He's kind of trespassing here, isn't he.

"Sorry," is the worst word out of his mouth. "I - um, I came to visit Kylo, and then I realized that Kylo probably doesn't really want visitors that don't ask first."

He's also quietly eying that aesthetic, uh. Nothing but respect, but. Wow.

It's like Peter's never seen a goth farmer before. Ronan merely stares at him, enjoying that moment of brief panic and subsequent bewilderment over his whole... thing.

He corrects Peter, "Kylo doesn't mind unannounced visitors. Unannounced visitors usually mind him."

No one ever seems to expect Kylo Ren in various states of undress.

"Besides, he knows that anyone's welcome here as long as they're not out to kill something. There's no point in a sanctuary that's closed to visitors."

Crazy how that works. He at least calms down after a second, just. Sighing and burying his face in the bantha's fur for a second.

"Of course I'm not here to kill anything," he says with a sigh. "It's kind of been a crazy week, so I thought petting Bob would be nice too."

Why the heck would he hurt a hair on her head, anyway. He's kind of mad in theory at people who would do that!

Peter will perhaps understand the theoretical threat better when he eventually encounters Henrietta.

"Bob appreciates petting, so it's a win-win situation."

Heartwarming, that Peter chose the Meadows of all places to seek solace. The farm may be open to everyone, but it's not the first stop for most newcomers. Which leads Ronan to believe that, while petting Bob might be highly therapeutic and Kylo can make surprisingly good company, Peter may be in need of more than just emotional support.

"What was crazy about it? Your week."

Well. Part of it is that Peter doesn't have many other places to go just yet? And the ones that he would normally consider are the ones that Beck's aware of, and he just wants a quiet spot that isn't complicated. Where he can kind of think and try to figure out how much of this Beck means to do and how much he doesn't. A miscalculation at this stage could be fatal for both of them.

"I got adopted," he says with a sigh. "By someone I mostly don't hate any more, but might be trying to control my life."

It doesn't take much guesswork.

"Quentin Beck."

Peter has unknowingly touched upon something that is very personal and familiar to Ronan. Oh, he could rant for hours about legal custody and people trying to control his life, but this isn't about Declan Lynch. This is about...

"The guy who tried to kill you."

Welp. He thought he was being subtle, but apparently not. Peter just nods, a little helplessly.

"Yeah, the guy who tried to kill me. Multiple times." Now he's ... whatever, Peter doesn't even know? What even is his life. "I think he's genuinely working on it now, but he's not good at not being creepy."

"Understatement," Ronan scoffs. "He's the fucking creepiest."

Alright, maybe it's oversharing time. He knows an unfair amount about Peter's situation and Peter has no idea why this random person has been following his situation so closely.

"Here's a story: When I was a kid a couple years younger than you, this guy named Greenmantle hired this guy named Gray to kill my dad. And he did. A few years after that, Greenmantle sent Gray after me. We're talking about two guys who committed the same crime, right? They killed my fucking dad. They ruined my life. It'd be totally justifiable to hate them both forever."

He's not going to give Peter the opportunity to linger on the horror of the act for too long. It's not the point.

"Gray was supposed to kidnap me and deliver me to Greenmantle, who was ready to hand him a nice fat paycheck for his trouble. Gray didn't do it. Not only did he not do it, he spent the next year keeping Greenmantle away from me. He almost died, over and over again, doing that."

Plucking the cowboy hat from his head, Ronan sighs and fans himself with it. It's an irritated gesture, somehow.

"I get it. You wanna believe people can be better than they were before. And sometimes they are. Greenmantle wanted to keep me in a cage in his basement. Gray wanted to give me something like a normal life again. I didn't trust either of them, but it's not hard to see, right? Which one gave a shit about what was good for me and which one didn't."

All of this to say:

"You know which one Beck is."

Peter falls silent at that, listening. The parallels are easy enough to draw; he assumes that Beck is Greenmantle here, wanting to keep Peter in a (metaphorical) cage. And - what, control him? Get approval out of him? That's the part that confuses him the most; he doesn't know what Beck wants.

And that's what makes him hesitate. Even now, even with those lines connected. "I don't know for sure," he says. "That's what makes this hard."

But. Beck did try to kill him, whereas Gray probably didn't? Ugh, he kind of hates this. Can he ask questions instead? He'd rather know what the heck happened to Ronan. It's way easier than talking about Beck.

"Why'd he try to kill you to begin with?"

Such denial. Ronan leaves him to it for now. If Peter enjoys the delusion of Beck's redemption so much, maybe he'll only learn better when it comes back to bite him in the ass.

"Greenmantle, in his infinite stupidity, believed that my power was something he could scoop out of me and harness for himself."

Ronan, being delusional as well, refuses to acknowledge his own father's role in perpetuating that belief.

"I guess it's always possible he would've just forced me to do what he wanted, instead. But Gray was pretty sure it was gonna come down to dissecting my brain."

Ugh. Well - at least he's fairly sure that Beck doesn't want to dissect his brain? Not literally, anyway. "Did he - ever get close to trying?" he asks. That seems like a bad question to ask, but he's not sure what else to say.

It's not a bad question. Ronan brought it up, after all.

"You mean did he ever manage to get me strapped down to a table and start sawing into my skull? Nah."

Peter winces a little at that.

"I wasn't - I mean, I was but - " Oh boy. This is a can of worms he's opened, isn't it. "I meant more if he ever caught you. Not if he actually got you on the table."

Since "in a cage in his basement" is also a pretty terrible state of being.

"He didn't really know what he was looking for," Ronan explains wryly.

The deeper they go into this topic, the less it'll make sense. But if Peter's curious, Ronan's willing to keep talking.

"Greenmantle had sent Gray looking for an artifact that belonged to my dad. He never figured out I was the artifact. Gray did, and Gray was the one who caught me, and that was the closest I got to being completely fucked. But since he couldn't stomach the idea of delivering a fucking kid to a psychopath, knowing what Greenmantle would do once he had me, Gray covered for me. Pretended he'd stolen the artifact to use it for himself. So Greenmantle kept looking for a thing, not a person."

He's definitely curious, so tell him everything you want, Ronan.

"Did he ever figure it out?" he asks. "That what he was looking for was you?"

Ronan seems quite pleased to announce, "No. Never."

If he had, Ronan would almost certainly not be sitting here today.

Peter had gotten that impression, but he hadn't been sure how to ask it.

"Sounds like you were close to Gray then," he says, statement and question both. "Is that still - is he alive?"

Ronan squints in thought, tipping his face skyward. He would not characterize his relationship with the Gray Man as a closeness. The murder of one's family does build quite an emotional barrier, no matter how much forgiveness is involved. Gray cared for Ronan, in his way, and Ronan appreciated that, in his way. They maintained a professional coexistence, in that Gray's remorseful devotion held Ronan back from exacting violent revenge.

"Yes," he answers. "I'm not sure that bastard knows how to die. He was here until last winter, too. Trained me every day so I'd know how to protect myself whenever he was gone. Of course, that was before Kylo."

Now he'll never have to fight for his life ever again.

He was going to ask what on earth Ronan needs protection from if Kylo Freaking Ren is there. Like. He would also like a Kylo Freaking Ren backing him up. That seems metal AF.

But whether the relationship is what Peter's picturing or not - and he's not quite picturing that level of "I'd murder you if you were even slightly more of a dick" - but he can guess that it's not as rosy as his own relationship with Stark. Not that he has any illusions about how close he and Stark actually were either.

"Ported back out?" he says, quiet.

What Ronan doesn't mention is that he did attempt to murder Gray. And promptly got his ass handed to him. As far as they got in their training, Ronan still wouldn't stand a chance at victory. The important development here, though, is that now he wouldn't try.

"They all go eventually."

Maybe that will be a comfort to Peter.

Not really. His mind has shifted to Tony Stark, now, and how he was recently ported out. By all accounts, the man who was actually here was the Evil Dick AU version of Tony Stark, but Peter still desperately wants to meet him. Would have been ecstatic to meet him, if maybe also instantly disappointed.

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess they do."

Which sort of raises the obvious question, right? What's the point?

To Ronan, it's not an obvious question at all. It's not a question that's even occurred to him.

He notices the melancholy in that response, though, and examines Peter just a little closer. "Are you hoping to stay?" he asks. A much more interesting question, to him. He knows why he has to remain, but the ones who have a life to return to? Why would they want to?

Peter jolts a little at that, surprised? He's completely misunderstood Ronan's question here, mostly because he can't even comprehend the thought of wanting to stay here forever. He has to go home. Disgraced or not, unmasked and framed for murder or not, he has to go back to his world. So, clearly Ronan is asking something else.

"Here? At the farm? With you and Kylo?" He seems bewildered, and - maybe a little hopeful? That would be nice, wouldn't it? If he could just leave this whole Mysterio mess. Wait out the clock instead.

Well, now. That's even more interesting. It's certainly the place Ronan was going, but they've arrived several minutes early.

"Why do you sound so surprised? I told you anyone's welcome."

And Peter is assuredly not here to murder Bob.

"It's up to you. People come and go whenever they feel like it. The door's always open." Literally. He doesn't bother to lock it. "And if you decide you wanna settle here, we can make a space for you."

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