longestnight | Let's do this One Last Time [video]

Let's do this One Last Time [video]

All right, people. I’m going through the archives of this place to convert all the parchment confetti into indexable data sheets.

You can thank me later for saving you all the headache.

[ The vibe of this is an 8 AM Stand-Up Meeting rather than a gathering of guardians. The video's pov is from his lab, which in addition to the completed gigacomputer, was beginning to have half-finished little magitech doohickeys scattered in sparse nooks of free space. The amount of spiderbots seems to have been left at one (1) so far.]

First item: Mission debriefs. If you've fought any dark forces recently and have extra concerning details to share, we should write it down instead of keeping it in our heads.

Second: Current Projects. Anyone who's a friend to reindeer - you ought to talk to Phil and do him a solid for all the holiday prep. For the science nerds lurking around, I’d like to borrow your brains over here.

[ He'd normally have Lyla take care of this, but he's stuck with non-sentient computers. He hates it! ]

Last: Introductions for the new kids. And universe number, if your world has one of those - the chalkboard maps are getting digitized. I'll start.

My name is Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man of Nueva York. No, they aren't vampire fangs. [ tired hand wave, as if recapping for the millionth time. ] I‘ve been mopping up messes in my neck of the multiverse until getting picked for fairy-tale duty with the rest of you.

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I cooked up something that should save us some work, once we input enough by hand to get proper pattern-recognition and observation going. It's the first phase that takes some time.

[ this thing won't be cool and snarky like Lyla, but it'll do for being a minimally clever info-sorting machine. ]

I'll need to borrow you for the interface, and to register your dimensional signature. Might be a discrepancy between yours and Stacia's if you come from different dates in time.

...So you're gathering a data set to feed into an AI model? What's it going to do with it? Please tell me you're not doing anything predictive, that literally never ends well.

[She really meant interface in the people sense, but she's willing to be a UX tester.]

Yeah, it's probably different. I'll start heading your way if you're available.

Eh. It’ll be a gizmo that can sort all the documents we give it and retrieve what is asked for. I think Lyla would glitch my suit if she heard me call it AI.

[ Spiderbot would be closer to the Nueva York version, but she has more personality and less functions than your typical tech assistant. ]

Anyway, drop by the lab when you have a chance. I still have work to do here all day.

[ like usual. ]

I'm free now.

[Elle goes to where the area she's pretty sure Miguel's lab is and lets his scent lead her the rest of the way. They haven't really met in person yet.

She opens the door slowly.]

Knock knock? I'm, like, 99% sure I got the right place, but my nose has been known to fail me at times.

[This is a joke. Her nose is very discerning.

Elle currently wears a short sleeve shirt, leaving her partial left arm exposed. The stitches are gone, but the stump still looks a bit raw.]

[ the design of the place won’t be a surprise to anyone who has bumped into enough spiderfolk around. Much taller than it is wide, with pathways up the walls and spaces in the ceiling to anchor and hang. There are paths marked by his talons, which are used the same way one might use a railway.

To be honest, it might look like a fun jungle gym for a cat if it wasn’t home to the resident workaholic.

She gets treated to a very typical Miguel greeting of him hunched over his favorite perching console two dozen feet above the ground. He doesn’t seem to get the joke.

When he turns to greet her, there’s a reflective glint in his eyes that would explain why the lighting of the place was one or two steps above abandoned basement. ]

Was that from Burgess? What the hell happened?

[ Elle?? Please explain the arm?? ]

[Elle's eyes also reflect light in the darkness as she eyes the setup with interest. Any other time she would be be climbing up in a heartbeat, but unfortunately she's still adjusting to the missing limb in her other forms.]

Russia, actually.

[She thinks she's funny.]

You know, you might be the first person who's actually asked me that.

Anyway, yeah, it's from Halloween. Loki and I had to pay a visit to the Baba Yaga after Jack failed to solve her riddles three.

Edited 2023-12-17 05:28 (UTC)

[ Elle is literally missing a limb, so she gets a pass at attempting to be a comedian. He is instead rather suitably horrified that the damage got this bad. ]

Will the healing magic cover this?

[ He lowers himself on a tether of light-web to ground level in a smooth, easy motion to meet her. He looks pissed off on her behalf, and that intensity was kind of a lot up close. It was a reminder of what thoughtless, free-flowing disorder will get them. ]

I'm going to have to ask for more details, Elle.

[Elle's got literal god-given Rage issues. She can handle the intensity.]

Yeah, it'll grow back. If my healing weren't nerfed it would happen way faster.

[She narrows her eyes at him.]

Then ask.

[She straightens her already excellent posture, sets her shoulders, and stares him dead in the eyes.]

I'll tell you what happened because I think the system you're proposing will be helpful and I don't have anything to hide about what happened. But I'm want to make one thing clear: I'm not going to stand here and wait for you to pass judgement. You're not my boss and I am no one's subordinate.

I will respect you, your capabilities, and your work as an equal as long as you give me the same consideration. Otherwise, I'm walking out this door right now.

[Her posture relaxes as she steps back out of his personal space, slipping smoothly back into a friendlier expression. It's almost as if it never changed in the first place.]

Sound do-able?

[ The response defuses whatever bomb he was saving for someone else, mostly because he's not expecting pushback. Elle's really going to dig her heels in about an irrelevant detail like that?

Miguel knows he is right about this, and she came here to talk of her own volition. All this faff in the middle was annoying, but not enough to toss out what they were trying to build. Half-way points. Here he was being met with one.

He doesn't break eye contact, and it was easy to see how he might steamroll through being challenged a little too much back home. But he wasn't there - and ultimately, what he wanted was to prevent a repeat incident like this. So, a sigh softens out the rigidness in his back, this time. Flexible! Sort of. ]

Fine. [ dry, but mellow ] Can you tell me the events in more detail?

[ literally the same damn request, in his opinion. ]

[Elle smiles and focuses her gaze on the wall so she can recall the events accurately.]

Happily.

A woman named Vasilisa, presumably from the folk tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful", reached out to inform us that Jack was being detained by the Baba Yaga. He had been attempting to make a deal to aid us in defeating the witches. Katherine vouched for her, so we took her seriously.

Loki and I volunteered to go. When we arrived, I took the lead in talking to her-- my culture has rituals and customs surrounding the interaction of mythical beings and I have spoken to ones like her before.

Assessing the situation, and knowing that things were continuing to escalate in Burgess, Loki and I managed to make make a deal for both Jack's freedom and his original request without tricking her or causing the relationship between the Guardians and her to deteriorate further.

We both offered a sacrifice. I do not feel comfortable discussing what Loki gave because I do not know how private he wishes like to keep it, but I offered her a piece of my own flesh to add to her stew.

She took the deal, the deed was done, Jack was released, and we were free to go. We teleported back to the North Pole where my injury was treated in the infirmary while Jack and Loki returned to Burgess.

[Elle quirks an eyebrow, making eye contact again.]

Any questions?

[ His hackles lower fairly quickly once the staredown breaks and Elle starts to explain. Miguel could be stern on topics of authority - but really, what mattered was getting the question answered. And his expression slowly loses more and more of its harshness as she recites the events.

He listens evenly, all too familiar with the difficulties of being tasked with harsh calls. It was understandable, even if she shouldn't have been forced to do that in the first place. But it sat wrong with him, it was no less horrifying. Making sacrifices was never fair. And it was worse that she was among the younger members of their crew choosing to take it on. ]

No. You explained it well enough.

[ He isn't really interested in asking her for gruesome detail. ]

Jack needs to understand that he can't just throw himself into things with no plan, or this is going to repeat itself.

[ it was the softest way he could express his disappointment with the way events played out. no blame, not really. just frustration with the disorganization of everything. ]

I've already spoken with him about preventing situations like this from happening in the future. He is in no way responsible for the actual injury, just the situation.

[It was a private conversation so Miguel's not going to get anything else right now.

Elle pivots topics, silently closing that line of conversation.]

Alright, you said you want a scan? What exactly are you going to scan me for, and what are you going to do with it?

[Informed consent is important!]

Right...

[ he pivots to his wrist-gadget, bringing up a small holoscreen projection of what looks to be an elaborate, tree-like diagram of dots. The spider section of it was in there somewhere, but it was too zoomed out to see. ]

It would be for registering your dimensional signature on my map. The scan was for detecting anomalies, so it registers a snapshot of your vitals, molecular stability, and a few other signs of glitching.

[ the data he mentioned earlier. ]

It's used as an access key back at HQ, as well. If I can find a way to make a lock tied to our signatures, that should cover security for the database.

[She cocks her head as she listens and processes to what Miguel says.]

Okay. That all sounds alright with me. I'd like to know if you come up with something else to do with it, if it's possible.

[A pause.]

Should I... stand in a certain way?

You're free to strike a pose if you want.

[ a very dry joke...

He lifts up the gadget so that the cone of orange light flashes over her from the goober - the scan only needs a few seconds of blinking before a holoscreen pops up red in contrast to the cozy night-reader orange.*- Anomaly Detected -* ]

That's normal. We're technically all in the wrong universe...

[ he swipes past it, glancing over the readings unperturbed. given that elle seemed to have some extra questions, he decides to talk through it. miguel has overseen a clinical trial or two in his past life, and talking tended to make being analyzed a little less unnerving. ]

Vitals look good, despite your injury. Molecules are stable. You have traces of other dimensions on you, but messy travel in the multiverse seems to be a common sticking point here.

[ he continues to scroll down up until one particular matrix of numbers seems to catch his attention. ]

...Huh.

[Elle absolutely takes that as an invitation.

She grins, kicks up her right foot, puts up a peace sign, and winks like she's trying to get likes on Instagram.

She settles into standing properly as Miguel lists his readings.]

'Huh'? Is that a good 'huh', or a bad 'huh'? Or perhaps the elusive neutral 'huh'?

[Elle isn't actually that worried. Let her inject some drama into her life!]

I’m not sure.

[ he keeps scrolling, reading through a fairly incomprehensible brick of numbers and overly long technical phrases. ]

I need to investigate first.

[ he leaves out the detail that it seemed temporal in nature. Something was definitely extra odd about her timeflow, and he didn’t want to broach that just yet. ]

[She raises an eyebrow, unimpressed with the lack of explanation.]

What, your science-machine doesn't tell you anything about what's weird with me? Who knows, maybe I can tell you why it's weird. I've been involved with all sorts of magical bullshit that could be setting off alarms.

[Come on, Miguel, she wants to know!]

This isn’t debate club, raw data like this can take time to draw the right conclusion from.

[ Don’t rush him!! His eyes flick up to her. ]

You’ll get a faster answer if you share relevant context. [ beat ]

So, care to elaborate on “magic bullshit”?

[ he remembered the stupid question rule. ]

[The eyebrow of judgement gets raised higher.]

You want to start with "the moon gives me supernatural Rage" and go from there?

[Ask stupid questions, etc.]

We should do an overview of powers at some point, for joint exercises.

[ said as a matter of fact, because obviously it makes sense for them to practice when they won't have the intuitive sync that spiders do. But he gets the point... ]

Well, this is all preliminary - [ he's careful to emphasize that. ]

Each dimension has a unique current of time tied to the way its fabric is built. Spacetime, and all that. But your readings are off. It's like finding oil that loves water, or - I don't know, a rock that falls up. It's not behaving like it's supposed to.

[ he's not sure if he should be annoyed at this, or if it's just a product of something in within Elle's dimension. his inclination is to dislike disruptions to his neat models and order of things. but it's inconclusive. ]

[Miguel's creeping out of "I'm offering to organize a database to make things easier" territory and into "I'm organizing everything for everyone", but he's only musing so Elle lets it go. For now.

She bobs her head and bites her lip as she takes a moment to fully process and understand what he's saying about spacetime.]

Okay. I'm going to paraphrase what you said, just to make sure I got it:

There's something about me that's fundamentally contradictory to the way my universe is supposed to flow. I'm going to assume that it's something that didn't show up for Stacia, so it's unlikely to be something inherent to our universe.

[Her brow furrows as she follows the thread of logic.]

I imagine she would also have at least a little bit of a fucked up timeline. If you're basing your readings off of the physical plane of our dimension, you may not be picking up stuff from the Spirit World. Some parts of that place experience something similar to time dilation, so there's a possibility for some discrepancies in both of our personal linear timelines compared to the material world's.

Could it be that?

[She has a feeling it isn't, but it's always good to start from the most basic of possibilities.]

Spirit worlds generally aren’t covered by this, no, but this is different from the hiccups in Stacia’s reading.

[ he says the words before mulling over the implications entirely, and then stops.

It felt cruel to tell her that it was like being a walking paradox that shouldn’t exist. Even with Miles, he had to be possessed by a particular vicious rage to tell him the way he did. ]

Like I said, it’s preliminary. It’s inconclusive. I can’t make assumptions about how your dimension works based off two readings - one I haven’t even looked at properly.

[ that part was true. he can couch it in simply wanting to do some due diligence. ]

[If that's the case, there's a few things it could be, or the combination of them.

The fact that he can even read it on his science-doohickey makes her feel- something. She'll have to figure out exactly what later.]

Well, considering this is my second time getting whisked away, and none of the dimensions I've been in have collapsed, I can't be all that dangerous.

[She rocks back and forth from toe to heel, channeling out some of her impatience physically so she doesn't become her most annoying self.]

How long do you think analyzation will take? Is there anything I can do to help?

Being frank here, Elle: I have about a dozen other things with higher priority that need my attention. I can't give you a deadline.

[ he closes the holoscreen. it's rude, but he was often rude to his own bosses. ]

You're fine. If you haven't experienced any signs of glitching, or haven't seen it out in the wild at all, then it's nothing you need to worry about.

Let's do this One Last Time [video]

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cw: mention of self-injury, cannibalism

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wrap?

wrap!