maskormenacelogs | weep not for the memories

Entry tags:

weep not for the memories

WHO: Everybody!
WHERE: all cities
WHEN: March 4 - March 6
WHAT: it's a catch-all log, sucka! Tag here and thread around for the Dorian Ruins Everything Guilt Extravaganza part of the overall March plot. Please check out this ooc post for details!
WARNINGS: Traumatic memories. Possible talk of murder, death, blood, other nasty things. I'll try to update if the warnings needed but please use content warnings if it gets super nasty!

It starts off on March 4th, the early morning before the sun's even risen. You know those weird mirages that were hanging around the day before? Well now it's getting a little personal.

These mirages come and go seemingly for no reason. They might stay for a minute, they might stay for an hour. The images vary between person but the unifying factor is that the mirages consist of people the player characters have hurt, whether people in-game or from their homes. Whether they murdered them, slandered them, or even had a petty little argument, the unifying factor is the guilt each character feels towards or about this mirage. After all, you know you hurt them somehow. You know their existence somehow makes you feel guilty.

Another unifying factor? The creepy way these mirages just seem to stick to you. They'll follow you if you try to leave, staring you down with their creepy unblinking mirage eyes. And whoops: everybody can see said mirages. Hopefully you're not being stalked by someone you and somebody else both know, wouldn't that be awkward?

Have fun confronting your traumatizing past and/or wondering why your buddy's got some creepy ghost guy following him, imPorts!

( ooc: this is a catch-all log! Make starters of your characters getting haunted by their creepy mirages, have other people react to said creepy mirages, ???, profit. Hit me up on the ooc post if you have any questions! )

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[ Erik, meanwhile, has been awake for what feels like ages, trying to find some work to do, get his mind off of things. That's probably why they'd keep him around even if he was trouble; he could clear out their entire backlog of work just with one day of too-many-thoughts and can't-talk-about-his-feelings.

There's a little girl that runs past Jaime and The Negotiator, but her feet doesn't make any sound when she runs across the concrete floor. She looks just like Wanda. ]

Jaime.

[ A pause. ]

Did you ask me a question earlier? I wasn't sure if you were talking to me.

[ He puts the hood down and looks up. Oh, nope, talking to his friend.

Wait. ]

Nice suit.

[ He tips his chin forward, as if to ask, no metal? ]

[ Jaime's eyes track the little girl. It only takes him moments to realize who this must be, and his mouth flattens out into a straight line as he considers that dreadful thought, thinking about how rough it must be for Erik to see. It seems like a special kind of cruelty. ]

He won't answer, [ he says, waving one hand through Negotiator's frowning face. ] He's a ghost, or something like it.

[ He grabs the office chair from where it's been tucked neatly into a workdesk, and pulls up a seat. ] You, um... obviously know all about them already.

Oh.

[ His nostrils flare as he considers it a moment; this is such a horrible situation. ]

I think they're on another plane. Like we are. There might be rift; it's probably porter-related.

It might decide to bring them here in person, next.

[ He tells himself this because it might make it hurt less, to imagine she'll be here anytime now, or to imagine that someone else is taking care of her. ]

This is Nina.

[ I guess he'll wait for Jaime to introduce his friend... ]

[ He nods at Nina. It doesn't seem sufficient, somehow, but he's not sure what else to say about that. She must have made you very happy? She looks like you? She was beautiful? None of those things are lies, per se, but they do feel like platitudes in the moment, so instead his eyes meet Erik's, sympathy clear in his expression. There's not much to say there, except that he selfishly hopes that his own spectre doesn't end up materializing here. ]

This is...

[ He turns around, looks over at the Negotiator's face, as rigid and poised as he was in life, not that strained, struggling expression he wore in death. There are no tears in his eyes now. It's lucky, Jaime thinks; he would hardly be able to stand looking at him frozen in his last moments. ]

I only know him as the Negotiator, [ he says, softly. ] That might be his only name. I don't know. But... he wasn't a very nice man.

[ An understatement, perhaps, but it leads into what he says next. He has a feeling that if he told Erik he doesn't want to talk about it, he'd let it go. But that doesn't seem productive right now. ]

He actually has to do with, um... you know how you asked if you could do anything for me, the other day? I was hoping we could talk.

Edited 2017-03-11 04:17 (UTC)

[ It's alright, Erik wouldn't have liked platitudes anyway. He always finds them so jarring, even when he gives them. Anyway, he's expecting Jaime to have some sort of... emotional attachment, or something. He's not really sure what he's expecting, but not that.

He puts the hood down. ]

Sure. Privately?

[ They're alone, but the others might start to trickle in; some of them can be hard to predict. ]

Privately, yeah. [ He makes an expression that's halfway between a smile and a grimace at that. He knows he's taking a risk, revealing something like this, but he needs to talk to someone about this, someone who won't just stand in silent, imperious judgment.

Erik seems like a safe choice. He knows how this goes, better than Jaime does. He's dealt with this kind of man before. ]

And this is all between us, yeah? [ As they walk into the back room, the spectres follow them, undeterred by something as simple as a closed door. There's no good way of saying this, so he just says it. ] You've heard of the Blue Beetle, right?

[ No, they're not deterred by anything of the sort, and Erik relegates himself to pointedly ignoring the corporeal ghost of his daughter playing with a ball in the corner of the room. She looks so jarringly happy in contrast to how Jaime looks. ]

Of course.

On both counts.

[ Erik's not the kind to spill secrets unless someone's picking them out of his brain, anyway. And he did say Jaime could ask for anything. ]

Yeah, well. That's me. [ It's definitely one of the most anticlimactic ways that could come out, but it's certainly the simplest. ] Blue Beetle the third is me, that is - there are two of us here, I'm just the one in the crazy suit.

[ Not that Ted's suit isn't a little crazy, in all honesty - why do they all run around in brightly coloured spandex? - but his isn't alive and doesn't talk to him, which means that Jaime wins on that count. He hesitates, then nods over at the Negotiator, figuring that full disclosure is the name of the game here. ]

I killed him. [ He's surprised at how calm his voice comes out, because he doesn't feel calm when he thinks about it. He feels remorseful, and guilty, feels like a hypocrite, but, well, he doesn't exactly feel regret. Not when the alternative was so much worse. ] That's um, not what this is about, but it'd be weird to have him standing here without talking about it at all. I didn't want to, don't get me wrong, but... I did it anyway.

[ The Negotiator, and god only knows how many other people were on that ship. Jaime prefers to think that his lackeys knew what was coming and decided to get the hell out of dodge. Enough of them had already gone down to Earth for the invasion, but not all of them, Jaime knows. He can't evade blame like that. ]

So, uh, that's part one.

[ Technically, Jaime being Blue Beetle is part one, but Erik will let it pass. He reserves judgment on the killing not because his hands are permanently stained, but because he knows Jaime. He would have a hard time believing he didn't have a very good reason to take someone else's life, or in any case, he'd have a reason stronger than it would take for Erik to do the same thing.

He lets Jaime take his own time, but then asks: ]

Okay. What's part two?

[ And though he looks a little stern, he seems otherwise cool about the whole thing. ]

[ Erik's lack of reaction isn't what Jaime was expecting. He wasn't expecting anything big, which is the whole reason why he's coming out with this in the first place, but he was at least expecting a little more visible surprise, a little more visible... what, exactly? Queries, to see why Jaime did it, if it was the right thing to do?

But even if he's surprised, he's not displeased. This is the best reaction he could hope for, from anyone. ]

It's kind of a complicated story. You remember how we talked about metas and mutants being treated differently between our worlds? Even though we're a lot more accepted where we're from, there are still people out there who want to see us dead. [ He laces his fingers together and looks down at them, brow furrowed as he tries to sort out how to talk about this, how to describe something so laden with history and loss, if not for him, then for everyone around him. ]

There's this guy. He made this army of - cyborg soldiers, I guess? They're meant specifically to hurt or kill metahumans, based on all the intel he's gathered about our weaknesses. He was killed once already, but he's come back again, only this time he used his own powers to convince everyone but a group of people I've been working with that he never existed in the first place, that we're crazy. As far as they're concerned, we're criminals.

It seems like something you know a little about already.

[ He listens to Jaime patiently, trying to keep his face passive. He wouldn't interrupt Jaime baring his soul like this, what is so clearly weighing heavily on his mind. He can't help but to crack a grin at the last thing he says, because, yes, that is exactly what he was thinking. ]

My army was an android army, but I see your point.

If I were you, I would've done the same thing.

[ He tried, anyway. ]

So... do you want me to hide him from your sight? Or something?

[ He's not sure he can do that; he's having a bit of trouble with that himself... ]

No. I mean, if you could, that'd be great, but he's not the guy I'm talking about. The guy I'm talking about is still out there - we were still trying to hunt him down when I got ported back in here.

[ He feels like he should have a grand point. He could ask Erik for advice about how to track someone down outside of the law, certainly, and he'd gladly take it. He'd gladly take any advice, because him and Booster and Skeets and the rest of their motley crew are doing a piss poor job of hunting down this megalomaniac. But mostly, he wanted to have a chance to say it out loud to someone else and not be met with glazed eyes and silence. Ever since he caught up with the JLI, they've had nobody to talk to about this but each other, and when they talk? It mostly ends in yelling.

Nobody's happy about any of this. ]

I'm hoping I'm back here for good - for long enough that I can remember stuff here when it comes time to hunt him down again.

If you want to recover memories, I can help you. Track him down, I can help you with that too.

[ It's not as easy in 2017, waltzing into CIA headquarters and walking out with classified files, but he's quite certain it won't take that much effort. The only difficulty's being famous.

Either way, he promised to help and all he wants is a solid directive. ]

I appreciate that. It's not something we can do here, but... I mean, if the time comes, maybe.

[ They could use all the help they can get. He's not sure whether or not the others would be on-board, but hell, after all those dead people, they should pull out all the stops. Maybe short of killing the guy, but --

But sometimes, they don't have a choice. The Negotiator is right there, proof of that very fact, even if Jaime does wonder how differently he could have handled things. ]

How... do you do it? How do you track people like this down when the rest of the world thinks you're insane, and they've got all the resources you don't?

[ Oh boy, he'll get to teach Jaime just like he taught Raven. ]

You have to chase a lot of leads. Most of which don't go anywhere, most of which won't allow you access. But you'll find people are generally trusting, especially if you act with authority.

[ Not to mention the pile of dead bodies Erik left after threatening them... ]

Talking to people is always the easiest way to get what you want.

Yeah. That's one I'll have to work on.

[ Public speaking, speaking with authority, learning to accept what he's told -- Wally beat that into his head when he was here, how important they were as symbols as opposed to just people who happen to do some good. What Erik is talking about isn't remotely the same thing, but the same end goal is there: to speak with confidence and authority.

It's something Jaime's always been bad at. He's too shy, too timid, too uncertain of himself. He finds it difficult to even let his voice be heard amongst friends and colleagues, let alone distrustful strangers. ]

And I guess that's how you find out who to talk to, too, right? By talking?

It's a lot of getting people to trust your intentions.

[ Revealing the big secrets here, sorry Jaime. ]

It's not always fast... The fastest way is... pretty destructive.

[ He assumes Jaime wants to avoid something like that. ]

Yeah, that's out of the question. The less people involved, the better. The people who've been helping him have no idea what they're doing - they're just victims too.

[ It was a lot easier when they were just openly malicious, like the Reach were. You can take care of people like that easily. Give them a pop on the jaw, do what you have to do. People like this? Who are just being taken advantage of? They know as little as the JLI does. All they can do is dance around the subject, get context clues instead of asking after Max directly. ]

It's a lot harder doing it this way, huh?

It is.

[ He won't lie about that or mince words, like yeah, they could just start attacking everything. Erik's done that once or twice. It's usually an overreaction, he usually regrets it later.

And he's been lucky sometimes to have a later. ]

Who are your leads?

Government spy agency -- Checkmate. But we broke in there already, and that tipped Max off on what we were doing.

[ He leans back a little, frowning a little, an expression that's a little too old on his face, but this whole thing is above his paygrade. He's fallen into taking care of the small stuff, or working as a part of a team, nothing like this, where the heroes most equipped to deal with this have nothing to do. ]

He's been one step ahead of us this whole time. He's leading us, not the other way around.

[ He wanted to get the JLI back together. ]

How'd you tip him off?

[ Though he knows it was probably just a case of... this guy's clearly been at it a lot longer than Jaime, and has more resources and less scruples at his disposal. That's alright. It's not checkmate. ]

[ Jaime's quiet for a moment, trying to figure out what to say, and how to say it. Eventually, he decides the truth works. ]

He used to work for the JLI - Justice League International? That's what the guys I've been working with used to go by, before they split. He was their friend, their leader in some ways, like - he really got to know these people before he went off the deep end. We figured out that he created chaos around the members that were still alive to push them together.

But he couldn't put the full team together, because - well, he killed the last Blue Beetle. But he still had access to files on every metahuman out there, which means he had a file on me, sent his cyborg army to my house, and the JLI went chasing after them. He's known what he was doing from day one.

[ He doesn't think Max wants to kill them. He doesn't know what Max is thinking, only that he needs to end up in jail, and soon. ]

He knows everything about us. From there, it's not hard to guess how we'll react, I guess. Everyone but me, that is.

[ That's one thing they have on Max: he doesn't know Jaime. The files that Bruce has are incomplete, Jaime figures, because he's never done half the crap he's capable of, and while Jaime was busy figuring out how to be a hero, Max was still dead. He's a non-entity, a kid along for the ride, but he doesn't intend for it to stay that way. He just needs to come up with a plan of his own. ]

How detailed are these files?

[ Erik likes to think he has a good read on people, but even then he's not 100% at predicting what they're going to do. Even his telepathic friends have trouble sometimes. People aren't quite as linear as imagined. He supposes unless someone is a Fate. ]

And how accessible is the data? You might want to erase what's still there.

[ He frowns, thinking. A small crease appears between his brows as he thinks, absently picking up a pencil and fiddling with it just to get his fidgeting out somewhere. He's frowning like this more and more often over the past few years; in a couple years, he's pretty sure he's going to already have the beginnings of wrinkles. ]

Pretty detailed. [ It's Batman's. He's not going to rat Bats out or anything, but he knows how anal he gets about the small details. He's not sure if Max still has access to his files - considering Batman doesn't think Max exists, it sure isn't out of the question - but he's equally as sure that Batman didn't do the right thing and erase all of his files after Ted's death. ] It at least lists our weaknesses and our civilian identities, which means he'd have access to anything that's public knowledge. When it comes to our families, our homes... that can mean a lot.

[ And, of course, he's got knowledge of everyone's tragic backstories in the JLI. They were teammates. That stuff comes up. ]

We're talking some of the least accessible files out there - more on lock-down than some government files, I'd bet, but... I bet I could get in there. It'd be worth it, even if I'd get into - man, I don't even want to think about how much trouble I'd be in.

[ He reaches a hand out to steady Jaime, placing it on his shoulder in a comforting manner. If it helps, he can't see any wrinkles, but the kid's like what, 16? Please. ]

I'll help you.

[ Hopefully before Tony gets into it and then gets into the business of outing everyone, too. ]

And your secret is safe with me.

weep not for the memories

Re: FOR ERIK

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MUTANT DAD MENTORING HIS META CHILDREN A+++ CONTENT

IT'S TOO CUTE