[Network - voice] @ SuprNerd- we could be heroes, just for one day

[moderatelymaladjusted]

[The audio starts with the sounds of rustling papers, as if Quentin is reading this from something he's written down (he is) and his voice starts out stilted.]

Hello? This is for all of you who live here in Beacon and it's about something I've thought about since the town meeting. At this meeting, there was one thing we didn't-- okay, so there were actually two things, but I want to talk about the one thing and-- shit. Sorry. There was one thing we didn't talk about, and that's the fact that several of us can do things. I've talked to some of you and-- fuck. Hi. I'm, uhm, Quentin and I'm a magician? We're from, well, Eliot and I are from the same world? Or, the same timeline? I don't know what to call it, but we came from the same place? But, yes. I'm Quentin. Hello.

And I've talked to some of you and you could do amazing things. Brilliant, magical things and that made me think that, what if there's more? What if a lot of us can do amazing things, but we just don't know because we haven't told each other yet? So I'm proposing that we talk to each other and if you're not comfortable with everyone knowing what you can do-- and I get that, I do, because back home we weren't really supposed to talk about magic either, at least not to non-magical people. But okay-- if that makes you uncomfortable, you could always just talk to me? There's a private setting to these texts or we could meet up. Or maybe some of you will want proof of magic and I can show you?

But most importantly, we can do these amazing things and that could maybe help with some of this? Right now, everyone is searching through the forest on foot and in small groups. If we find out what we can do, maybe it's possible to make teams that can search without having to put themselves in harms way? Maybe someone out there can fly? Someone who could fly out and see which way we need to go to get through? Maybe someone is telekinetic? Or, can talk to plants? Maybe one of you can warg in to some of the spirits? Maybe someone is a shapeshifter or a skinwalker-- or, god, you're getting all of this from popular fiction and now everyone has to hear about it... sorry, where was I?

Okay, so maybe if we talk to each other about this, maybe we can find a better way of exploring this place and maybe we can find a better solution to the problem of World Eaters coming for us.

Because the X-men were better when they were a team? And-- and even Frodo couldn't get the ring to Mordor without the Fellowship. So, maybe we can do something like that. Make powered teams and use this, to defend ourselves and to explore this world.

But, uh, it wouldn't be fair to expect any of you to share with me, if I'm not willing to share myself. So, if-- I can do simple wards? For our homes. To ward places like the church, which we know has been destroyed once already or maybe the Inn? I'd need someone to cast with me, but I think we can do it. Ward it from harm or put a shield spell on it, so it's safe. I can mend things, and if anyone wants help mending small objects, I'm willing to help.

I guess that's all I have to say. I hope you'll consider this and that you'll help me keep us all safe.

[indistinct and muttered] and fuck that guy for saying I couldn't. Stupid, fuck-- [click]

Comments

[moderatelymaladjusted]

It never said that all resets came because people turned on each other? I--

[Stuttering to a halt, Quentin frowns, hand barely skimming over his lantern where it's attached to his belt and he jerks his head up, not really buying the apology but also, it's not like there's much of a choice but to choke it down, since Riku has something to show him and he helped, even if he did get a little handsy about it.]

That's fine. [It's not fine, and Quentin for maybe the first time since he set foot in the park to find Riku, holds his head up and makes eye-contact, voice low and intense.] We need to trust each other, even if every other person who came before us fucked it all up and started in on a murder campaign. We need to, because if we don't-- that's when the murders really start up. When we turn on each other for reasons. Sure, at first it's going to sound like really good reasons but it's going to end with people killing each other over the last slice of cheese.

Twenty-five times? That's nothing. Where I came from, someone reset the timeline thirty-nine times, because we failed to listen. Because we didn't find each other fast enough or we didn't trust each other enough when it really mattered, because we all thought we knew better. Too arrogant, too full of pride and spite and fear. Thirty-nine. Times.

[39 times, before Jane figured out that removing Julia from Quentin was the way to go. It made Julia a Goddess and Quentin learned to trust other people than just her. Learned to lean on them and be leaned on in return, by pushing all of his self-doubt, all of his anger and resentment and how small he usually felt, all the truths about who he is and what is, pushed so far down he's choking on them on most days. But they won. In the end.]

We could even be the same people, who just keeps coming back - over and over- until this gets done. A fixed time-loop to prevent the attack. So. What if we do something different this time? Ask Will if-- when-- how it started for his group. And do something else.

I'd give you my lantern again. Just don't-- do the. Please don't put your hands down my pants again?

[equinoctials]

[ It never said that all resets came because people turned on each other. Riku realizes he'll need to check the log books again. Or at least do a better job telling people they exist.

Riku stands, facing Quentin not head-on but from the side, spine straight but still closed off - but he listens, his attention sharper once he realizes that Quentin doesn't just have a similar experience, but a more drastic one.

He has a lot of questions. Like was it time magic, similar to that used egregiously by Xehanort, or some digital simulation, like what the real Ansem did to Roxas?

The important part is that Riku appears to be swayed by his story, or at least by his conviction; eventually his shoulders lower, he exhales in a sound that might be one little laugh.

Sounds a little embarrassed. How does Quentin manage to make it sound worse every time he references it? Riku pushes his fingers into his hair as he shrugs. It's an old and practiced gesture, with nobody left here to recognize it for what it is. ]

Not even if you asked me nicely.



I get it. You're just like him. You'll trust and hope it works out because you looked for the best part of someone, instead of anticipating the worst.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

I don't-- [Speech delivered and Quentin falls in on himself a little, shoulders hunching and he looks down at the ground at his feet, panting softly. Hands that had balled themselves in to fists at his side as he stepped forward to press his point him, to hammer it at Riku to make him understand why repeating the same pattern over and over again would bring nothing but pain and resets and maybe more darkness.]

What?

[And, okay, so there was more to what Riku was saying and Quentin gets stuck on the 'even if you said please' part, like. He feels vaguely insulted and also, wants to argue the point that hey!]

What do you mean, even if I said please? That's not-- that's not a nice thing to say to people?

[Shut up, shut up, shut up!]

Nevermind, I sound like-- someone you know?

[equinoctials]

[ These aren't even bad people. This is a clinically depressed nerd and a jock with complicated grief and the both of them are socially awkward, they're not bad they're just a little bad at this.

So no, it's not a nice thing to say.

Neither was framing Riku's admittedly hands-on demonstration of how to hook a lantern in his belt as something sexual, let alone when no permission was granted let alone solicited, and Riku feels-

Bad about it. And bad about what he just said. ]

Sora. He was always helping people. Had this way about him, he'd find a way into anyone's heart. Made people want to be... better.

[ Riku's hands have balled up again. He makes the conscious effort to loosen them. ]

Because he believed in them.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Oh.

[Past tense and they're all dead here, and sometimes it's just too easy to forget that little fact. To forget it while they're breathes are misting in front of their faces or when his heart beats too fast. But they're dead. They're all grieving. And Quentin clears his throat and shakes his head.]

He sounds-- like a good person. Like someone who-- like a person who did the right thing? Even when it got hard?

I'm not that kind of person, though. I wish I was? But I'm not. I'm just trying not to, well, dying sounds wrong, but. I'm trying to get through this? With as many of us as possible?

[To stop the reset, to find the clue that leads to the answer that makes all of this be not for nothing, that lets him get away from this place because Quentin is not up for staying here until the end of time, just because some woman in the lighthouse thinks they should.]

But thanks? For-- saying that?

[equinoctials]

Me too.

[ He could mean a few things by that. Me too as in, Quentin's not the only one who feels like he doesn't do the right thing when he should. Or me too as in they're just trying to make it through this with as few casualties as possible.

Riku made a promise and he intends to keep it.

He exhales, his shoulders sagging a little, then rising in a shrug: ]

Do over? I think we were gonna do magic.

[ Wasn't this supposed to be a magical You'll show me yours if I show you mine sort of deal? Yeah, after that whole thing about getting into a guy's pants, Riku's just not making the mistake of speaking up more than that. ]

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Oh-- right.

[The whole point of this, which went out a window a little with the almost-blackmail and the unnecessarily cruel demonstration of Quentin's own faults, as if he needed it shoved in to his face with comically large neon-lights that he was pretty much useless at this. That the rules had changed and Quentin had failed miserably at picking up on it, again, and now he was putting himself in danger. Now he was standing in the fucking park spilling his trauma all over some poor dude who only came out because they need to work together on this, or they all might die trying.

Taking a deep breath, Quentin closes his eyes for a second and exhales through his nose.

Do over.

Sure.

Why the hell not.

Trust.]

Okay. So-- yeah, do over. You wanted to show me something? That's why you agreed to-- to come out here with me. So, uh, I'm ready. To be shown.