tushanshu | [console | video] then we do it again (pre-hurricane)

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[console | video] then we do it again (pre-hurricane)

[Hi there, Keeliai. Remember this guy? It's been a while.

He's sitting in what looks like a cafe out in the city. For those who don't remember him from his previous stay, he's beautiful, with striking eyes that unfortunately have some pretty dark circles under them. He looks like he hasn't slept well in ages. He's wearing a three-piece suit and cradling a cup of something in his hands--lid on, because his hands shake.

He's... seen better days.

When he speaks, he's got a pronounced Irish accent.]

Right, I... I'm back. Surprise. [He smiles and his face lights up for a moment before the smile slips.]

I don't know how many of the people I knew are left. I know... I know we're missing some. [Studiously going to avoid mentioning Anton, thank you very much.] If you're still around and we were friends, or... talked, maybe drop me a line? And hello to all the newcomers. I know I've spoken with a few of you.

I'm back at the shelter, so. I mean, Brigid and Sonja are doing the real work, the paperwork and all that. I couldn't keep paperwork straight these days if I tried.

[The thought trails off. He looks a bit lost.]

If anyone happens to spot a talking skeleton, let me know, will you? He's got another punch coming if he shows his face again. And... if anyone happens to spot a tall, skinny redhead with an accent like mine, please tell him I'm looking for him.

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[There's a delay of several minutes before the reply text comes back.]

I'll be back at the shelter soon. I don't mind.

Okay, I'll be over in a bit.

[And sure enough, within half an hour or so Pepper is there at the shelter, sporting a nervous smile and carrying a batch of scones that Marie had made. Erskine never seems to eat enough.]

Hey. [Hopefully, Erskine will notice that there's no real hesitation in her; she's not avoiding his gaze or trying to keep too far away from him except to allow him space if he wants it. She's certainly not looking at him like something aberrant, either.] I brought you something. Our new housemate is thinking of starting a bakery and we have way too much to eat ourselves.

[Erskine wasn't really sure what to do with himself when he got back to the shelter to wait for Pepper. He's expecting company, yes, but the last time they spoke it... didn't go so well. He's a lot more nervous these days than he used to be and he doesn't want to sit around for however long, worrying about the impending visit. That's just going to make it worse.

In the end he decides to work at his loom for a while in the antechamber just off the main entry, to keep his hands busy and to keep himself calm. He's there when Pepper arrives, and he stays sitting at the loom when she offers the scones.

He does offer up a smile, at least, in response to the gift.]

Thanks. It smells wonderful. [He pauses] The girl from the network, you mean? I spoke to her a bit.

[There's something about seeing Erskine at the loom that just fits, like he belongs at the seat. She places the scones on a table and moves a little closer, examining what he's working on.]

Yeah, she was asking about what people might want out of a bakery. Marie's been staying in our spare bedroom since she got back. It's been kinda nice to have her in the house. [Pepper sighs quietly. Beating around the bush won't help here.] I, um-- I'm sorry I didn't come see you before now. Really. I just-- wasn't sure what to do. [She's still not sure, honestly.] I don't-- I don't hate you, for the record. Mostly I'm just worried about you.

[His heart drops a little when Pepper shifts the conversation to their previous talk at the guild. He plucks at the strings of the loom absently with the fingers of both hands, small movements, not much more than fidgeting, and his gaze drops to his hands instead of looking directly at Pepper.]

No, I'm the one who should be sorry. I... I shouldn't have just thrown my life story at you like that, when I could barely remember if we'd even been friends. I just--

[He pauses for a moment, biting his lip]

I just thought you should know, since you'd been so kind. So you could make an informed decision about whether you wanted to keep talking to me or not.

[Pepper kind of wishes there was more room on the seat next to Erskine so she could sit next to him.]

Well. I'm here, and I'm talking. And... thank you, for telling me. I know it was hard-- [Captain obvious, she is.] Just so you know, that wasn't the first time someone's told me a story like that. Not exactly like that, duh, but... It was at least the fourth time. [Pepper drifts a little closer and brushes her fingertips along one of the arms of the loom.] I'm still friends with the other three people. I'm dating one of them. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is: I'm not going anywhere. I don't do the leaving-people-behind thing. I do-- I do still have questions, but I'll try not to press too hard.

[She'd done that already, and it hadn't gone well.]

[Erskine can't help but chuckle a little, though it's quiet and he doesn't quiet look up at Pepper as he does it.]

So you're saying you have a soft spot for terrible people?

[He sighs and finally glances up at her, just long enough to smile for a moment.]

Thank you. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to keep a friend when they find out you're a mass-murderer. [Jesus, when you put it like that.... He swallows, takes a deep breath.] Alright. I--

[He looks around suddenly, as if just realizing--]

I'm sorry, I've completely forgotten my manners. I haven't even offered you a seat. Did you want to go sit in the lounge? Or.... [The lounge isn't a great option for talking about sensitive subjects.] I can bring a chair in for you?

I have a soft spot for people who need help, is more what it is, I think. [Her smile falters a little at the phrase 'mass murderer', but only for a moment. Gene was a mass-murderer-in-waiting now. The moment they returned to New York, that ship was going to explode and hundreds if not thousands of people were going to die. It would be his fault, even if it was, in a way, an accident.] I do actually know how difficult that is; I also know that Keeliai is the right place for second chances.

[And third, and fourth, and fifth chances sometimes. She nods in answer to his question.]

A chair would be great. I'd like to watch you keep working on the loom, if that's okay.

That's fine. I'm still trying to remember what I'm doing on it, to be honest. Aside from the last time I was here, I haven't touched one of these since before Napoleon was born.

[So he says, but the partially-completed work on the loom doesn't look bad at all. It's nothing fancy--a blanket for the shelter--but the weaving is tight and even. He rises from the bench at the loom and ducks past Pepper out into the lounge, leaving her alone for a few moments in the antechamber while he collects a chair.]

You mages and your not-getting-old thing.

[It's teasing; Pepper knows they do age, just very slowly. When Erskine steps out, she looks the loom over more closely. His work is neat, even if it's simple. The loom itself is lovely. Pepper has never seen one this size before, and it has some kind of writing on it that she can't decipher, but if she had to guess based on the script and Erskine's heritage, it's probably some kind of Irish language. What was it called? Gaelic? She'd heard Skul talk about it, and speak it once or twice.

She runs her fingers along the writing. Something secret, something personal must be written there. Something only Erskine and probably the other Dead Men could read. Pepper of course wants to know what it says, but one thing at a time. The redhead straightens when Erskine returns.]

This is really beautiful. How come you stopped weaving before?

[When Erskine returns to the antechamber it's behind a small, plush armchair floating about two feet above the floor. His right hand is held up at waist-level, channeling the air magic that's levitating the chair, so it's obvious the floating is his doing. He sets the chair down near the loom so Pepper can watch him work as she'd requested and then settles himself back on the bench, careful to allow Pepper to stay at the loom and admire the machine if she likes.]

I didn't see much point in it anymore. The couple who adopted me taught me to weave; it was going to be my trade. It would have been a good life for a mortal. But then I discovered the little tricks I could do were magic. I was introduced to the magical community and I barely paused to look back.

[He smiles down at the engravings Pepper's been admiring, one of the more genuine smiles he's been able to muster since he's been back. His fingers trace along part of the inscription lovingly.]

Hopeless thought it might be a good tool for therapy. Something soothing, something to keep my hands busy.

Edited 2017-01-15 23:00 (UTC)

[Pepper's delight at the floating chair is obvious; magic is still awesome, even though she's now capable of some herself. It hasn't lost it's shine. After another moment or two to admire the loom, she settles herself in the chair Erskine's brought.]

I guess that makes sense. Learning how to do magic is kind of a big lifestyle change. [Hopeless was on the right track, she thinks, and she hopes she'll get to meet him some day.] You're good at it. Bakura likes to have something to do with his hands, too, but it's usually wood carving. Maybe there's something about creating stuff that's good therapy, too. Does it help, doing this?

[Erskine smiles a wry little smile]

Oddly enough, Bakura's usually the one lending me a bit of string to make cat's cradles, to keep my hands busy. I suppose we are alike, in that respect.

[Yeah, he still has no idea about Bakura and Pepper. He nods.]

I think it does. I spend more time focusing on the weaving, or what sort of project I'm going to make, than on... other things. [He picks up the shuttle, though he doesn't immediately begin weaving again right away. Just holds it in his hands, staring down at it.] What was it you wanted to ask?

He's had even longer than you to figure this stuff out, so. He lets me come over in the middle of the night to practice if I can't sleep - for being so prickly he's good at reading people and pointing out what might help.

[Pepper shrugs lightly, smiling fondly at nothing in particular. She'll drop the dating bombshell on Erskine later. Her smile fades slowly at the last, but she did say she had questions. No point in avoiding it now.]

Well, I guess how you're doing is a good place to start. It doesn't really look like you've been sleeping much. Or eating, which is part of why I brought scones.

[If Erskine were a little less... preoccupied, we'll say, he might give Pepper's comment about Bakura some serious thought. Popping over in the middle of the night and all. Except he had much the same sort of arrangement with Bakura the last time he was here, so the thought doesn't even cross his mind.

He's quiet for a long moment, considering, before finally starting to weave again. He works slowly at first while he weighs how to come at her question.]

I'm... better than I was, at the Guild. Not jumping at shadows quite as often as I was. [There's a weak laugh at that; he's definitely still jumping at shadows.] I've never slept very well. I told you I was having nightmares after Mevolent...? [He glances at Pepper, though he doesn't wait long before speaking again.] They were better for a time. Not good, but better. And now... they're worse again.

It helped, having Anton nearby. He'd play music, let me curl up next to him if I needed to. Even sang, once in a while. And now he's gone.

You mentioned the nightmares, I think, but not about what. But it makes sense, given...

[Given who and what he had been tortured for. She could imagine what kind of things he might be seeing, but she didn't know enough to really put detail into the ideas. Pepper looks at him with a sad smile.]

I can barely imagine Anton singing. That sounds nice, though. I, um, can't really sing, but-- well, I'm really good at talking. You can-- you can call me, if you're having trouble sleeping. I'm used to being up all night anyway.

[He doesn't offer up more information about the subject of his nightmares, just moves on when Pepper does.]

I appreciate the offer. Maybe I'll take you up on that, some night. But it's every night, these days. Music helps a little; I haven't been able to sleep without music or some sort of background noise since I was a child. But after--

[The thought cuts off abruptly.]

You can't sleep either?

Hm? Oh. I meant that, you know, being a superhero usually means a lot of all-nighters. I got used to only sleeping a few hours some nights, but it's totally worth it.

[She hesitates for a moment. Give and take; Erskine was willing to talk to her about the hard stuff. Pepper could do the same, and it might make him feel less lonely, too, even if she's still troubled by what he's done.]

Sometimes, though... well, since coming here it's not always because I'm out flying. There was this vision, a little while after I got here. About the baby turtles dying. Kind of hard to forget. [She twines her fingers together in her lap, sighing.] And then sometimes it's because I miss my dad, too. Although lately I can't get the image of him dying out of my head. He's not actually dead, it was an illusion, but... it didn't seem like one the first time I saw it. It was part of a test.

Oh. Right, yes, I-- I suppose that makes sense.

[His lips press into a thin line as he listens; after being the one doing the talking for so much of their recent conversations, he's more than willing to listen if Pepper wants to talk. He keeps working at the loom but the motions are slow, deliberate as they talk.]

You... you've mentioned your father before, haven't you? I don't quite remember--

Yeah, I probably did. He works for the FBI; we live in New York City. It's just been the two of us since I was six. We make a pretty good team. [She sounds fond, and tries to keep the sadness out of her tone. Pepper misses him so much it makes her chest hurt.] He's the reason I wanted to be a SHIELD agent and fight crime and everything. I've been trying to help him on cases since I was little, but there's this whole 'needing to be an adult' rule that he keeps bringing up.

[There's a small smile now. Pepper knows that legally she's not entitled to arrest people and do half the things she's done, including hack into the FBI servers repeatedly (but they made it so easy), but legality has never really stopped her from fighting for justice.]

He was here for a little while, last April, when we had that big influx of Foreigners. I was kinda distracted by him, so I didn't get to meet all the other people that came. [Like Hopeless, and Rover. She'd met Ghastly, though.] It was cool getting to introduce him to a few people I never thought he'd get to meet. Weird, but cool. He and Rhodey are probably the only reasons I want to go back home; I'd be okay staying here permanently, if they were here, too. There's people here I'd miss just as much if I were home.

[The part about 'needing to be an adult' draws a soft laugh]

Being an adult is overrated. Our world's been saved half a dozen times by a girl no older than you.

[At the mention of her he pauses in his weaving, gripping the shuttle tight for a moment until the spike of panic passes. He's trying not to interrupt Pepper.]

Maybe you'll get lucky then, and he'll show up one day for good. Or you can treat your time here like a holiday and enjoy going back to your own world and your father when it's time. Since we go back to the time we came from.

[As he's recently confirmed, very painfully.]

[Pepper isn't sure what causes that tension in Erskine, but it must have something to do with whoever this girl is.]

I've done some world-saving myself, you know. More day-saving than world-saving, but I don't fly around in power armor just because it's fun. Only partly because it's fun.

[She shrugs and then sighs softly.]

I'm not really looking forward to going back, actually. As soon as I do, a giant alien ship is going to explode over Manhattan, and a lot of people are going to die. I know most of my friends survive, and my dad does, too, but it's not gonna be fun. Not for a while. At least we'll be together, which is good. I just... I don't want to forget, but I'm also not sure I want to remember. I'm not sure which'll hurt worse.

I meant to ask, actually--how did you end up a superhero? I'm assuming you didn't fall into a vat of radioactive waste or something like that.

[He's grateful for the diversion back away from her, and smiles a little as his weaving returns to its former rhythm. The smile predictably fades, however, at the mention of things exploding and people dying.]

I'm glad you and your father survive, at least. But we're happy to have you here for now. We'll just have to make the best of the time we have, I suppose.

No vats of anything, although I did get sprayed with hazmat foam once. It got up my nose, [Pepper recalls, faintly amused.] Tony needed a distraction while we were infiltrating a high-security building.

[The matter of Erskine's past doesn't seem quite settled, but she feels the tug back to lighter ground and goes with it.]

It all started when Tony came to the Tomorrow Academy - that's our high school.[Skipping the part about his dad supposedly dying and it being Gene's fault, whoops.] He was friends with Rhodey, who was sort of my only friend at the time, and so we all ended up together, more or less. And right around then there was this armored superhero that showed up called Iron Man - stopping runaway trains, catching villains, that kind of thing. [She's glossing over some of the less pretty bits of the story.] Anyway, I was pretty sure Tony and Rhodey were up to something and that Tony was Iron Man, and once he actually did the big reveal I started helping them out. Mostly I was operating suits remotely since I didn't have my own and it took me a little while to learn how to fly in one, but the three of us basically started doing a bunch of supervillain-catching and world-saving and whatever. A little while before I got brought here, Tony gave me my own armor and that was that.

Tony... I know I've heard of him, here and there, but I don't know if we've ever actually met.

[Other than that comment and a few appropriate nods along the way, he's quiet as she talks.

There's a faint tug of a memory at the name 'Iron Man,' something to do with Anton, but he doesn't remember well enough to say anything about it. He just looks puzzled for a moment before settling back to his weaving while Pepper continues.]

So you've got your suit here then, I assume? And you're moonlighting as a superhero to the kedan in between delivering fantastic smelling treats by day?

[console | video] then we do it again (pre-hurricane)

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Spoilers for Skulduggery Pleasant through book 8

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