[GP/EP] THE FLOOR IS LAVA

[st_ratagem]

It was arrival day, and therefore it was possible that there would be new inmates arriving at any time. Someone else might have delayed this until some other day, but for Loki the prospect of new people was simply a bonus. New arrivals tended to be confused and upset already, any consideration from him was unlikely to change that, so he didn't plan on displaying any. He'd already raided empty rooms and moved much of their furniture into the hallways, that was enough general consideration for one day.

Instead, he took a seat on the front desk (ignoring Darryl, who also ignored him) and wove a spell that would let him be heard by everyone in the Inn. "Good morning, fellow residents. It's been a quiet few weeks, hasn't it?" All the weeks, barring undead invasion, tended to be quiet here. It wasn't exactly maddening, but Loki had spent two months being quiet and exceptionally well-behaved, for him.

"To break the monotony, I give to all of you a rousing game of The Floor Is Lava. For those of you who may not know it, it's a descriptive name. When I call time, the floor will become lava. If you touch it, you will die. Metaphorically, at least, so take this seriously." Those who sincerely wished not to play would have no difficulty; the lava was an illusion, and any 'reality' to it depended on belief or buy-in. For those who sincerely didn't want to play, the floor would simply look odd. This was fun mischief, not viciousness. "Also, because I know some people need encouragement in order to engage with fun, the spell creating the lava has been broken and invested into several individual runes and hidden around the Inn, discoverable only by those playing the game. The lava ends when all of those runes are disrupted - you win - or when no one is left alive to disrupt them and I win." That was only sensible. There was no reason to continue playing a game when no one else was playing it.

"Furniture only, staircase railings are fine. No books, no bags, no cloth, the dead can't speak but if they wish to continue playing they may come back as a lava monster under my dominion." Even in games, there were fates worse than death. "Lava monsters may do as they please, including trying to pull the 'living' into the lava. Should there be a clear non-me winner somehow, I'll owe that person a favor of their choice, at some point in the future."

Did that cover everything? It seemed like it, but he could always make another announcement if he had to. "The floor becomes lava in ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two...." He spaced out the countdown enough to make sure that everyone who wanted to scramble for furniture high ground was easily able to do so.

"...One." Loki released the spell and the floors everywhere in the Inn (for those who believed it or at least bought in to the game) turned to churning hot lava.

Comments

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

"Yeah," He said with a nod. "Honestly? Not really sure how we survived. We were pretty sure we were both going to die, but I guess whatever we did worked."

Tyrone still didn't understand what really happened that night, but he was glad that the sacrifice of a life didn't have to take place.

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

"If we weren't so far away from one another, I'd offer to help," he says. "I don't usually get to do much traveling, and never far from home."

He smiles.

"Apparently, I do get to go on a spaceship in the future, though," Peter says cheerily. "I'm really excited about it!"

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

"A space ship?" he asked.

He knew it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities now with everything that happened on Earth.

"Does that mean the Earth gets attacked again like what happened back in New York?" He asked

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

"Something like that," Peter says. Despite the imminent threat against Earth, there's a hint of excitement in his voice. "There's this bad guy named Thanos that's apparently gathering these things called Infinity Stones. Mr. Stark and a man called Dr. Strange go into space to stop him. We're going to meet up with this other team, like the Avengers, called the Guardians of the Galaxy."

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

Tyrone didn't feel the same urge to do dangerous stuff like Peter seemed to feel. He had his own problems, like being on the run from the police.

"So, you're saying sometime in our future the Earth's in danger again?" He asked. "That's... crazy. Do we ever get a break?"

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, sounds like another alien attack," he says. "I guess as long as there's bad guys, there's never really going to be a break."

Peter'd like to think someday there'd be peace, but... people didn't always get along. And a lot of those people who didn't get along with people also had powers.

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

"No offense, but I'm kind of glad it seems to happen a lot on the East Coast." He said, then subtly smiled. "That's just me being selfish though."

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, I mean... it's been crazy. I grew up in Queens so we were near everything that happened in Manhattan eight years ago."

At least eight years ago for him.

"You have a much higher chance of running into the Avengers there, though."

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

"Yeah... though, to be honest, experiencing some of the crazy stuff first hand, I'm not really too concerned about celebrities sightings anymore. Being the only person to stop the crazy..." He said, shaking his head. "Not something I'd ask for willingly, if I'm honest. Kind of makes everything else in my life harder and it wasn't easy to begin with."

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

Peter nods. Being Spider-Man and Peter Parker hadn't been easy. High school had been difficult enough without being bitten by a spider and given powers. But really, even if Peter could go back and time and stop it...

...he wouldn't.

"You have your partner, too, right?" he asks. "I think it'd be great to have someone else to work with."

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

Tyrone cracked a smile at that.

"Maybe," He said almost laughing. "Except Tandy.... well, she can be a handful and we don't usually agree or see eye to eye... but I think things might be better now between us. Of course, now I'm here, so -"

He shrugged.

"She'd probably like this place." he added. A place she could pretend to be someone else and ignore her problems.

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

Tandy. Peter commits the name to memory.

"What's Tandy like?" he asks. Peter wonders if their clashes were anything like the ones he and Mr. Stark had. Have. They still have them sometimes, even though it's a lot less frequent than it used to be.

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

He laughed.

"Tandy?" He replied. "She, uh... well, she's stubborn and driven, but really smart.... probably too cynical for her own good."

He looked at Peter and sobered.

"She didn't exactly have a great life." He said. "So it kind of took her toll on the way she looks at the world."

Not that I'm one to talk.

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

Peter nods. He kinda gets that.

"What about you?" he asks. "What's life like for you?" Peter can't help but be curious. Ty's about his age, and he's the only superpowered person he's known that is.

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

Tyrone didn't think a white boy would understand a lot of his life, but he didn't say so. He shrugged like a typical teenager at such a question.

"Up until a month ago... it was sort of normal." he said. "I was on the basketball team, got good grades, you know. Then when this weird stuff happening, things sort of got... complicated. I haven't told my folks yet, but right now they have bigger problems. I was framed for the murder of this cop. He was a good cop, too. Tried to uncover corruption in the force and ended up dead himself."

Tyrone blamed himself, but he didn't think Peter wanted to hear that particular sob story.

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

Peter listens quietly as Tyrone talks. It's not until he's done that Peter opens his mouth to speak.

"How'd you get framed?" Peter asks. Then: "Do people still think you killed him?"

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

Tyrone visibly hesitated. Then he looked around where they were and noticed they were alone. He considered the answer for a few more minutes while he stood there and stared upwards.

"There's this cop back home... when I was younger, he killed my older brother Billy." he replied. "He set it up like he didn't do it, even though I saw it and I was there. I didn't know who the police officer was, so I couldn't pin it on anyone. it was a big cover up."

He paused and took a deep breath. Even talking about it now it angered him.

"Fast forward to a month ago and I run into this guy again. It's the same cop and he's dealing drugs on the side. The good cop? He helped me get a confession out of him. Got Connors to admit to killing my brother." he said. "And I guess Connors knows a lot of people."

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

"That's..."

How do you even describe something like that.

"...really messed up," he finishes, because it is. "Were you able to stop him?"

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

"Connors?" He replied. "...Yeah, sort of. I don't actually know what happen, if I'm honest. Tandy and I were trying to stop all the crazy angry zombie-like people and he showed up with a gun. In the end, the darkness that helps me teleport, it sort of just... I don't know. Ate him, or something. I wasn't even controlling it. I have no idea where he went or what."

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

"That's... also really weird," Peter says. But that reminds him of a question he meant to ask earlier:

"Do you and Tandy have superhero names?"

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

"Names?" He said. "Uh... I don't think so. But... we're not really superheroes either, I guess. I mean, yeah, we stopped that one thing, one time, but only because we had to. We're not..."

Tyrone thought of some of the things that Tandy had done with her powers. He knew those were not things superheroes did. He also knew he had done some things as well that were very superhero-like.

"Not sure we should be lumped in with people like you or Iron Man," He said truthfully. "You guys are the real deal."

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

"Because you don't have a costume or a name?" Peter asks, perplexed, because this can be the only reason why Tyrone wouldn't consider himself one. "If you're trying to good, that makes you a superhero."

Name and costume or no name and costume.

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

"I don't know... I mean, yeah, we stopped the bad thing from happening because it was the right thing to do," He replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "But, I mean... for the most part I've been using it to try and get justice for my brother, you know? And I phrase it like that cause it sounds nice, but other people would probably call it revenge. I don't know if revenge is a very superhero quality."

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_arkintern]

"Well, they are called the Avengers," Peter points out.

Re: Ty | Peter

[st_eepedindarkness]

He looked to Peter.

"I guess you have a point," He admitted, lowering his hand. "I guess I just never thought of myself like that, if that makes sense. I'm just sort of... doing my own thing."