۞ Like What's Up Neighbour

[timestones]

WHO: Stephen Strange and MF #005 roomies/you?
WHERE: Maurtia Falls and around
WHEN: November, before the world ends
WHAT: Stephen, getting settled in
WARNINGS: Nothing so far.

Closed to Maurtia Falls #005

For most people, arriving somewhere at the end of the world would be a pretty bad day, all in all. But Stephen's seen a lot of stuff lately that there's something almost refreshing about appearing in another world's End Game. At least he's in the right mindset for it.

What is evident to Stephen is that he needs to get to work. There's a lot of ground to cover in a very short space of linear real-time.

When he arrives at the apartment he's been delegated, Stephen (and his cloak) take a brief glance around just to get a general sense of the layout, but after that Stephen makes short work of settling himself on the floor, cross-legged with his device and Time Stone, to get to work, creating a steady loop of time to enable him to go through the network in 15 minute bursts of reading. It's jolting work and each time it takes him longer to get back to the point he started reading from.

Anyone wandering in while he's in the middle of his work is likely to catch him looking a bit like a two frame looping gif, very slight twitching every fraction of a second.

Finally, Stephen doesn't have enough time in his loop to catch up to his mental network bookmark and breaks the effect, slumping with a deep sigh as he rubs his eyes. Some decent headway has been made, but he'll need to start the loop over.

Oh. There's someone there.

"Hi," he offers mildly, dropping his hand to look up, "Guess you'd be one of my roomies, huh?"

Wildcard.

[Come at me with something random, or hit me up on my OOC intro / Kralkatorrik if there's a specific place you'd like to meet Stephen and we can hash out some ideas for a starter :) ]

Comments

[fremde]

"Ah, yes..." Jonas sounds somewhat mournful about it, like it's a regretful inevitability. He doesn't share the others' confidence that it will be averted or their determination to prevent it.

The world ends, and ends, and ends.

"You shouldn't bother. Those people don't know what they're doing."

[timestones]

"Ordinarily, I'd say you seem a little young to be that kind of despondent about the world and people--"

Stephen keeps a rather hawkish stare on Jonas, curious and attentive, without boring into him, though at the same time as though he's trying to stare inside of Jonas somehow.

"But I get the feeling that's not entirely accurate. Is it?"

He breaks the stare then, glancing off toward the kitchen and taking a step away. The cloak stays exactly where it is, still in the shape of Stephen's shoulders and sways back and forth slowly.

"So tell me: how do you take your tea, Jonas?"

[fremde]

Oh! The cloak is no longer attached to the wizard! Jonas also doesn't immediately follow Strange, taking advantage of the opportunity to pet the friendly sentient article of clothing. What a weird animal.

He has no comment on Strange's assessment of him, anyway. He may be young but he's also ancient, the way time travelers are, having lived throughout a century and witnessed lifetimes abbreviated, observed entire revolutions and breakthroughs in brief glimpses.

"With milk, please."

[timestones]

Well the cloak is happy as Larry, doing a slightly more energetic wiggle before starting to circle Jonas at a surprisingly respectful distance. It'd make more sense if the thing had eyes.

With his back to the scene, Stephen feels his way around the kitchen as if he hasn't just been desperately trying to cram several hundred thousand interactions into his brain in the space of an hour. Time's weird like that.

"You don't think they're worth trying to save?"

[fremde]

"I don't want them to die, if that's what you mean."

Jonas drifts toward the kitchen, tailed by the circling cloak, which he doesn't seem to mind. When he takes a seat at the breakfast table, he reaches a hand out to it again, exactly as he would to a sniffing dog.

"I think that most of them won't do what they have to do if they want to save themselves, and that's not something I can do for them."

[timestones]

Generally, Stephen doesn't worry about what his cloak gets up to or into, though he does remember the first adjective used to describe The Cloak of Levitation being 'fickle.' Stephen does slide a sideeye in its direction as the crimson fabric reaches forward to wrap around Jonas's hand give it a shake. It's more than Stephen offered.

"It doesn't have a name. It's just The Cloak of Levitation."

It's a preemptive answer to a very likely question, combined with him filling a kettle with water and putting it on the stove to boil.

"And no, I don't suspect that you can. Do it for them, I mean. And you're also right that when it comes to making tough choices, most people would rather try and avoid making it. Especially heroes. And this place sure is full of them."

Stephen wouldn't consider himself a hero, just a problem-solver.

[fremde]

"It's the problem with calling yourself a hero, isn't it?" Jonas muses. "Instead of doing the right thing, you choose to do the heroic thing. Very good for your image. Not so good for the world."

His hand feels more like it's tangled up in fabric than caught in a handshake, but he doesn't struggle to get himself free. Belatedly, Jonas tells it, "They should call you Levi. Cloak of Levitation is too much."

[timestones]

There's something quite endearing about listening to Jonas talk sort-of-to and sort-of-about the cloak while Stephen fixes the tea. Good thing his back is mostly to the scene so the private smile on his face gets to mostly remain a secret.

"You're not wrong. It's also similar to difference between morals and ethics and how people think the two things are the same, but they're not."

[fremde]

Jonas turns his attention from the cloak to Strange, considering that statement. "How do you mean?" he asks, unsure if it's a gap in his understanding of English or a matter of philosophy he hasn't gotten around to mulling over. After all, he would be paralyzed if he had to weigh his decisions by ethical standards. He's sure time travel itself is unethical.

[timestones]

Really, Stephen could just make the tea happen, have it all appear ready and warm in Jonas’ hands, but he wants to do it the old fashioned way. Or old fashioned for him, anyway. A time before magic. Having something physical to do is a bit of a novelty, even if his hands shake and rattle the cups.

"It's sort of like you just said—the right thing isn’t always the heroic thing. Sometimes the right thing isn't what we'd like, isn't what we approve of or personally agree with, but it's the right thing. Or at the very least, not something that should be the basis for passing judgement on."

Stephen does summon the milk to his hand for Jonas’ tea, but he pours it himself.

"Think of it like when people ask doctors about how we can treat violent criminals. How we can stand to try and save rapists and murderers. Morally speaking, these people have done great harm to others, the logic then goes that don't deserve saving. Ethically speaking, life is life and to refuse to treat someone on the basis of judging their actions creates slippery slopes."

Picking up Jonas' cup, Stephen turns to offer it to him.

"Morals enshrine certain kinds of thinking: who deserves to live, who deserves to die, whose voices are elevated, whose voices are silenced, who we are allowed to love, who weren't not. It makes some lives seem more tragic to lose than others: people treat child death as inherently an ibjectively more painful loss than adults, but life is life and all loss is loss. Some of the logic is arbitrary. Morals are what we learn a version of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable from. Ethics is more complicated, more uncomfortable. Doing something that is ethical isn't necessarily moral. Sometimes they're actively at odds with each other."

[fremde]

"I see."

He should devote more time to questions like these, Jonas decides, although he runs the risk then of starting to sound rather like his older self. Of course, where he used philosophy to manipulate Jonas, Strange seems sincere about investigating the boundary of right and wrong.

As he reaches up to accept the cup of tea, Jonas says, "You remind me of someone I know." Not himself, but someone better.

[timestones]

Resting his back against the kitchen counter, Stephen curls both hands his hands around his own cup with a slight, consistent tremble that doesn't really register for him anymore.

"Sorry to hear that," he jokes, a small quirking smile at the edge of his lips. "What kind of jerk goes right for the big life questions over breakfast? I could be asking how long you've been here, or what's Germany like, or how you knew I was in a timeloop."

Y'know, casual things.

[fremde]

In a single breath, Jonas answers, "Since July. It doesn't exist anymore. And I have eyes."

There may also be something like a smile making a fleeting appearance on his lips, but it disappears behind his cup as he takes a small sip.

[timestones]

What a smug little shit. Stephen likes him.

In contrast to Jonas' potential humour vanishing his tea, Stephen's amusement and approval becomes clearer as he gives a small click of his teeth and a shrug that's more in his fingers around the cup than anywhere else.

"All right, I'll give you that. But a lot of people have eyes and don't see a whole lot with them, that's all I'm saying."

[fremde]

Jonas sets his cup back down, a measured and precise action that doesn't match his unkempt image, as if someone much more tidy ought to be performing it. He moves as if he wants to avoid disturbing even the air.

"I simply saw you repeating," Jonas clarifies, "and when I tried to move the time around you, it withstood me."

[timestones]

Stephen pauses as the edge of his cup brushes his lip just in time for Jonas to finish his reply, his interest clearly piqued.

"When you tried to move the time around me, huh? Sounds like we have a little something in common here."

Y'know, time manipulation: a little something.

[fremde]

"I think you're probably better at it than I am," Jonas replies humbly. "Before this place, I needed a lot of technology to move through time. Now I only need my thoughts, but it's all very complicated for the human brain."

He considers Strange for a moment, then clarifies, "Mine, at least."

It's doubtful that Strange struggles with the same limitations.

[timestones]

Stephen makes a small noise of agreement against the rim of his cup, closed eyes and high-arching brows giving a prelude to him muttering, "Tell me about it."

He gives a small nod in Jonas' direction.

"But you've been doing this yourself, what, four months? Plus whatever time you've gotten and given away working with time? Don't throw anything at me, but... give yourself some time."

Stephen's thumb subtly strokes along the edge of his cup, mentally weighing up an offer before he gives an affirmative nod, mostly to himself.

"If we've still got some kind of a universe left, maybe I'll give you some pointers."