hotwash, hogwash, same difference [video]

[stickypete]

[Peter looks...high up in his far-caster video. God knows where he is in the city right now, but it's definitely not at ground level.]

[He's still not sure about how he's decided to deal with his secret identity here. It feels like he's playing a dangerous game allowing people to see him without the mask, and just hiding his name, but with such a small group, it'd be exhausting trying to keep the identities apart. If he was just a guy hiding himself in a big city, it'd be one thing, but it's the other Strangers he has to work with. It's not a big team.]

[So he shows his face and if a few people connect his voice to that weird guy in the spider jim-jams he's not going to deny it. Bare minimum, they're probably going to notice that said face was nowhere to be seen anywhere during the fires.]

Anybody else notice how some places in the city are exuding an aura of bloodshed and pure evil? Just me? It might just be me. I don't know how many of you have gotten close to some of them.

[In his aerial exploration of the city, he'd passed over or past a few areas that had just...felt bad. He'd made sure not to land on the roofs or linger long; who knew what security they had.]

Food's not the worst, I've noticed. [He bites into a Frankenstein approximation of a hot dog and keeps talking with his mouth full.] There was a sausage vendor in the bazaar that makes some decent brats. A few people watched me combine one with a roll, some ketchup-like stuff, and some relish - think I blew a few minds. If pizza doesn't exist here, I'm going to see if I can talk someone into inventing that next.

[Just casually reporting on the food, because clearly that's important.]

[He segues into what's actually important without much of a segue at all.]

I also don't know how many people heard, but two of the queen's guys were talking, loudly, after the fire. Yada yada Queen was hurt - maybe bringing us in - blah blah she might have lied about eventually sending us home. We should maybe talk about that? And the fact that we're strangers here - hence our nifty little built-in magical superteam name that none of us actually agreed to.

As we all know, this world is a garbage fire [he feels secure in calling it such, being one himself] and the city occasionally is on normal fire, and that means even the people that want to fix it like the Queen might be willing to completely screw us to do it. So instead of being reactive, we need to be proactive.

[He looks like he feels a little stupid pulling a "go teamwork," and that's because short of the other spiders he's never actually had many other superheroes to do any teamwork with.]

We have to try to help this place in whatever way's best for everyone but we're going to have different people pushing their own agendas. So we need to cooperate. Pump as many sides for intel as we can, share information, and try to get a spin-free picture of everything that's happening. And also watch out for our own butts, because nobody else is going to. [He gestures with the hot dog.] We should maybe be low-key about it. It's more useful to us if everyone else thinks we're an uncoordinated and easily-manipulateable group of stooges that can be nudged around the board. Element of surprise and all.

[It probably doesn't sound that illogical but the man it's coming from doesn't really seem like someone who knows what he's doing. Starting off with a report on the food options, getting relish on your shirt, and not noticing the ketchup at the corner of your mouth tends to damage your credibility when public speaking to a group.]

I'm Ben, by the way. Ben Reilly.

[ooc: set after the fire and the tdm, but before Fayura's open.]

Comments

[phykios]

He said this place, Terreille, has been dying for the last five thousand years. A ton of the Blood were killed, or died, or something -- no one knows what really happened. But after that, the land's been dying, and the Blood and landen have been at each other's throats. That's the thing the Queen wants us to fix, apparently. Uh, Terreille, probably not the Blood-landen thing.

He's not lying about something being wrong here. [ he hesitates, then says, ] I can feel it. Nature really is sick.

[ he's no satyr, obviously. grover would be much better suited to telling, or a child of demeter. but percy can sense the water, and the river felt fundamentally wrong. even the fish chatter indicated that the river wasn't as good a home as it used to be. ]

Though, that doesn't explain why the Queen chose to ask us for help now, if this has been going on for millennia.

There's something else too. The magic the Queen did to bring us here? Nearly killed her. That's what Allairavar was so upset about. He probably thinks if she tried to send us back, that'd finish the job.

But here's the thing. He said she didn't tell anyone what she was doing. That morning, she told her First Circle that she was going to work some powerful magic. She warned them that something was going to happen. And then that night, surprise, the Hunter Guild showed up to kill us. I don't think that's a coincidence. Somehow, they found out, and decided to try to stop her. I guess killing us didn't seem like a big deal if it meant throwing a wrench in her plans, whatever they are.

[stickypete]

That's some good initiative there, kid.

[Peter deeply appreciates that he doesn't have to chat with anyone to figure it out himself. He's still adjusting to talking to actual human beings again instead of spending most of his time alone in his depression cave.]

The part I'm especially interested in: How did they find out? That suggests mole. Or they've got some tech worked up to sense the Queen's magic.

I'm curious about all her secrecy, too, unless she's aware there might be a mole.

Also the potential lying about being able to send us home? Not great. And I don't like the idea that someone might have to die to get us back. [A pause and he say the next words to himself.] Ha. Irony.

If we're going to get around that, she needs to be honest about it so we can find a way to do it that won't kill her by the time we're ready to leave.

[phykios]

I'm thinking mole. The tech thing is possible, but I dunno. [ he means that pretty literally -- that's not his forte. he notices the conversation down-post, adds, ] You should talk to Leo about that. If anyone could figure it out -- well, I don't know a lot about everyone else here. But Leo's your guy for machines stuff. He can figure anything out.

[ if that kind of tech is possible; if it exists; how to detect it; how to make it and, probably, do it better than anyone else has ]

I feel the same way. I don't know if she was lying, or just -- [ willing to risk dying for them? that seems crazy. but she's done it once already. ] optimistic, I guess. We'll have to find out. I told Allairavar I'd try to help find another way...something less dangerous for her.

[stickypete]

[By the time he responds, the last of the hot dog is gone and he seems to be pacing. Except his hair is doing something strange, and falling slightly in one direction, as if gravity is pulling it sideways. Each time he turns to pace in the other direction, gravity pulls his hair the other direction.]

[He's pacing and since the streets are crowded, he decided to do it on the side of a building in an alley.]

I'll pick Leo's brain - and start digging around to see what the landens' tech is capable of. Across the board. We need to know what else might get thrown at us.

[He's no slouch with machines either. If he and the other mega-nerds go in together on this maybe they can dig in and see what advantages tech might give these assassins in the future.]

As for the queen getting us home, it doesn't really matter whether she's lying or getting wishful. We still need to figure out an alternative.

[He crouches down almost reflexively, as if crouching is his natural go-to position for mulling something over and problem-solving.]

If some of the tech here can bypass magic - like those breaker things seemed to be able to maybe do - I wonder if it can augment it. It's not like either side would be willing to try that out, so for all we know, they haven't yet.

[phykios]

[ pet...er...... ]

Yeah, that's a good idea. I doubt that's the last we've seen of the Hunter's guild. [ or, potentially, any other stabby landen. it'd be way too easy for all their enemies to be in one place. ] I'd try to find out what we can about the Blood, too. Just because the queen wants us here doesn't mean the rest of them do.

[ he pauses thoughtfully on the topic of the queen, then answers, ]

You mean magic and tech, working together? I guess that's possible.

[ he's glad he directed peter to leo tbh; leo will have way more useful input on this line of thinking than percy can. percy's better at the battle side of things.

he sighs. ]

Guess it was too much to hope for that we'd just have some monster or god to take down, huh.

[ THOSE WERE THE DAYS..... ]

[stickypete]

Sorry, kid, looks like we were right about no rings to toss into any handy volcanoes. And there aren't any eagles that are coming along to save us.

[None of this is going to come easy.]

Scary thought: we are the eagles. [A pause.] Scarier thought: we're the Eagles, but the football team. Even worse.

[Who can resist the urge to dunk on Philadelphia?]

[phykios]

[ NO ONE CAN....which is why he laughs, despite himself. ]

I wasn't really expecting backup, [ he admits. a bad situation with no cavalry coming? he's been there more often than you'd think. ] But I was hoping the problem would be easier to solve, for once.