un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ Since Five spoke to the Merchant, he's had a change in perspective. At first, the castle mystery seemed to be irresistible. (Not in any small part because it literally is. He's still compelled to dinner, despite since being smart enough to avoid the ballroom and gardens.) He won't say he loves mysteries, but it bothers him when he doesn't have a proper explanation for something; his ego is still alive and well and tells him he could absolutely solve it if he cares to. But once he found out Anurr mislead him (weirdly shocking) and has been amassing his power east, and that they're apparently actively hunting Matthias once they leave here, he's come to the conclusion that he needs to spend his energies on what's ahead of them in what little time they have.

He sticks inside the room he's been given, which is large enough for him to take stock of his inventory and blissfully gives him the freedom to properly pace as he works relentlessly into the night. Anurr's finger (still on the string it was given to him on) gets placed near where he's currently writing on the walls. He has half a mind to call him just to chew him out, but he hasn't been drinking enough for that. Apparently he has been drinking enough that he dragged one of the statues that kept turning towards him into the room. He's made friends with it, and asks its opinion on occasion, halfway appreciating the silence and halfway wishing it would point out something he's overlooking. Because there must be something.

Almost immediately after he starts writing probability equations, he gets sidetracked when he starts to work on how to save his brother's life. Their moment at the staircase made him aware of how fragile this second chance is, and he has no good answer for what to do if they reach the beacons and Allison insists on returning to an uncertain future where her daughter may or may not (but definitely not — how would she?) exist and Ben is stuck here. He should be using every waking moment with his family and take this as the only time he might have left with them, but instead he's still selfishly trying to figure out how to have it all. His family alive with no apocalypses or threat of the undead. There has to be a way.

For good measure, he writes some notes on the side, something to get back to, about Kamala's problem. The idea that it'll only take a few days to solve how to break apart universes, time, life and death itself is... ambitious. He's tried before. Notebooks upon notebooks of equations, some that might lead him back to moments when he could retrieve the siblings who were here and are gone, more that need to be worked out. Some that are utter nonsense that he wrote while half (or fully) out of his mind. He's tried so hard. Halfway through the space on the expansive wall he reaches another dead end and a breaking point.

It's been a while since he completely wrecked one of his rooms out of sheer frustration, and longer since he's had one so lavishly furnished to tear apart. Doing it here where no one can see is intentional, even if the explosive bout of anger isn't, and up until the last crash it feels fantastic to see the destruction and release some of his frustration.

Then he hears something scream and remembers. The things in this castle are alive.

Oh. Oh, that's... not good. His thoughts are immediately derailed by that horrible realization. He can't tell from the mess he made which thing made the noise. Did he just kill the vase or the dresser? Or is the curse going to put them back together? ...Shit. ]

[ Five clears his throat as he turns to the network. How to put this without admitting that he threw a tantrum and might have broken someone... possibly more than someone... several horrifically-cursed-people into pieces. For someone who can be fairly blasé when it comes to murder, this seems a little too much like insult to injury. ]

You're all pretty handy, aren't you? [ God, starting with a compliment. They have to know something is wrong, but he doesn't know how else to handle this weird problem. Maybe he should have written this down to not give himself away, but he's already started now. ] We have any carpenters, or... maybe some metal workers? I need something repaired.

A few somethings. I'm sure you can take a break from the mystery to do a mundane task. Call it a favor. [ Something crunches under his foot and he winces. That one may be a lost cause. ] ...Thanks.

[ And if anyone happens by his room (or heard the ruckus and went to investigate), he's at least trying to sort out the mess he made, and trying his best not to notice the statue looking much more accusingly in his direction. What's worse is he can't get a broom without worrying it'll snitch on him. Fucking magic castles... ]

Comments

[captain_marvel]

Nope.

[It's very much a real thing.]

Singing is their language. Unless they're bilingual, they don't understand you if you're not singing.

[somebadnews]

[ Well that's ridiculous. Or this world has made him so gullible that he'll believe anything people tell him after what he's seen. ]

Does that give you an affinity for singing furniture?

[captain_marvel]

It gives me a tolerance for it?

[If things don't seem that weird, people tend to be a little more approachable and a little less skeptical.]

I don't automatically balk at it. I mean, my cat is a tentacle alien in disguise. We all have our things.

[somebadnews]

[ ...Now he's more distracted by wondering how Ben would take that. Not that he knows she brought it along and there's a big possibility he'll find out. ]

Things that continue to intersect into new and weird combinations.

[captain_marvel]

You have to deal with a lot of tentacle creatures around here?

[Maybe Goose can make some friends.]

[somebadnews]

You could say that. [ Not as much as some of the other monsters they've faced, but it comes up more often than he'd expect. ]

Also my brother. He's not a creature, but he can release them.

[captain_marvel]

Huh. Maybe he and Goose should be friends. Is he here?

[Carol thinks that Goose could use more tentacle friends to bond with, but that's just her opinion. Another important question:]

And does he like cats?

[somebadnews]

He's here. I don't know how he'd feel about a cat with his powers, but he is going through a phase where he's just happy to be here so maybe.

[ Then: a more serious thought. ]

I don't know how the tentacles would react to each other though.

[captain_marvel]

Well, if Goose eats him trying to defend herself, I'll make sure she spits him back out again.

[.... Because yes, Carol, that's comforting.]

[somebadnews]

[ Being weirdly defensive of his brother's powers in a face off against a cat: more likely than you'd think. ]

I can't make the same promise with Ben's tentacles. They don't always listen.

[captain_marvel]

I'll make sure that Goose doesn't take it personally.

[She usually is pretty chill, so Carol's not anticipating this being an issue.]

[somebadnews]

Accidents happen. [ And since he's wondered this since the first time he heard about it, he'll ask: ] Not exactly what I'd think to name an alien-tentacle cat. Why Goose?

[captain_marvel]

Well, I didn't name her.

[That was Mar-Vell, but Carol does know the reason why.]

But have you seen the movie Top Gun?

[somebadnews]

[ …Doesn’t ring a bell. Reggie wasn’t all that interested in their education of pop culture even before Five was removed from society, but hey, at least he knows what a movie is.

He can ask Allison later. ]

I haven’t. [ Not like he’s any stranger to nonsensical nicknames. His was always less creative. ] You get movies in space?

[captain_marvel]

I grew up on Earth.

[She's much older than she looks.]

Top Gun was a movie from the nineties. Tom Cruise plays a naval aviator, and his copilot's name is Goose. They're not as cool as the Air Force, but I'm biased.

[somebadnews]

[ Her frame of reference means nothing to Five; they're all young to him. But he is suddenly getting an idea how she got to space. ]

What were you, some kind of super-soldier?

[captain_marvel]

No. Well ... no, I'm not like engineered in a lab. I'm just a soldier that happened to become super.

[She pauses because how to explain this.]

It's a long story, but the short of it is: I was flying planes for the Air Force, and I was part of this project where I was helping test planes for space flight. On one of the test runs we were shot down by a Kree operative trying to get to information from the head of the project. In order to keep him from getting it I blew up the engine of the plane we crashed in and when I woke up I had superpowers.

[somebadnews]

[ That long story could be longer. Excuse his ignorance for being born with superpowers, but what? ]

...And the Kree are... some kind of alien?

[captain_marvel]

[She did say it was the short version.]

Yeah. They're from a planet called Hala. The woman that I was working for was also Kree, but no one knew that at the time.

[somebadnews]

[ It's interesting, if only because aliens are a lot more mentally digestible than magic. For some reason. ]

And they have powers. [ Not a question, because how else would it happen? ] Makes sense.

[captain_marvel]

... No. Mostly they just have more advanced technology that can look like powers. And occasionally they're blue. Their entire society also used to be run by a malevolent AI.

[Hala was a weird place.]

The engine I blew up was run by something called an Infinity Stone. That's what gave me my powers.

[somebadnews]

[ He stands corrected. ]

That was lucky. [ Whatever an Infinity Stone is, he's taking it with a grain of salt. ] They must have been thrilled they already had you on board.

[captain_marvel]

The Kree or the Air Force? Because sadly the Air Force never got to benefit from my skills. The Kree operative who shot us down kidnapped me and took me to Hala. And then I woke up with amnesia which they may or may not have induced. It took me six years to find my way back home again.

[Which honestly is not very long, now that she thinks about it.]

I know it doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but ... I'm never going to get that time back. And I still don't have most of my pre-Hala memories back.

[somebadnews]

[ Memory problems and lost time are easy ways to getting sympathy from him, even if he doesn't have anything encouraging to say about it. His own memories were taken intentionally, but not to control him the way she's describing.

She's doing a stellar job of distracting him from the mess he's halfheartedly gathering onto a blanket. ]

So you finally got home, with most of your memories gone, and decided to head back to space?

[captain_marvel]

So the Kree woman I worked for, Mar-Vell, was helping these people called the Skrulls. The Kree tried to colonize the Skrull planet, and when they refused to join the collective, the Kree destroyed their planet and started hunting them throughout the galaxy. They had shapeshifter powers so they were easy to villainize, turning them into spies and infiltrators.

[The Kree PR machine was in full force.]

Anyway, Mar-Vell realized she was on the wrong side of the war, and the project she was managing on Earth was intended to build them faster-than-light transportation to help them stay ahead of the Kree and find a planet of their own. I wanted to see that work completed so I left to try and help them find somewhere to go. It ... took a lot longer than I thought it would.