capeandcowl | 009 [ Voice ]

Entry tags:

julian keller | hellion

009 [ Voice ]

[ So Julian's been gone somewhere close to a week. He finds that out from a newspaper stand. For him it's been a hell of a lot longer than a week, and his head is spinning now. Memories he hadn't known were there are rising to the surface, fitting back into place. Friends, enemies, people from other worlds. Events he'd thought he'd never forget. Skrulls, Vulcanus.

God, this is weird.

And last time he'd been here, he hadn't looked like this.

He's walking through the City, metal hands concealed in his pockets. Every part of this is a mess. His powers are holding the phone to his ear, and there's no video.

He sounds like he's bored. ]

This place has good timing. I was almost in math class.

So I'm back. You can all stop missing me now. Since nothing's in pieces I'm gonna guess no one tried to destroy the place this week. Did I miss anything worth telling?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wait a second, is that the asshole who's in the City and talked like he was gonna take shit over? He sounded like a two-bit mafioso wannabe, told people he was called Spades Slick. But the comms called him Jack Noir. He sounded like an idiot, I didn't take him serious.

Um... well okay, I actually simplified that a little for you, because you seemed like you were getting lost. The Jack from our session was... not actually against us? And it was the black king and queen we had to fight. Is he really here?

If it's the same guy. I don't know, your world confuses the hell out of me, and you already said there were two of him. I don't know which one this is, unless only one of them wants to be a mobster.

There's more than one game session. If I buy a game and play it on my husktop, and you buy the same one and play it, the games are going to be different, even though the characters are basically the same!

But that means there could be more than one of you, too.

There is! Well, I mean-- okay, it's like a game where you can create your own character. And your character is you! But the enemies and conditions for winning are the same in every game. As for multiple versions....

[ she thinks for a moment, then stands up to kneel on the ground, brushing some loose dirt over the sidewalk ]

You start here. [ she makes a dot with her finger, then draws a long line ] And you make your journey to the end of the game. But you don't always get it right the first time, right? [ she looks up, making sure he understands ]

[ Leaning over to watch this drawing. ]

Yeah? So you load from an earlier save.

Or I guess you time travel, cause you can do that. But everyone can't do that, they can't just fix things that go wrong.

...Unless they can, like. I don't know, go back outside the game and go in again at an earlier point...that sounds crazy when you're talking about life.

The role of a time player is generally to fix things that go wrong. [ she draws a small offshoot of the main line ] When things started veering off from the path they needed to travel, I was able to travel back in time and alter the course in the necessary way. [ she caps off the short line with an X ] This creates a doomed timeline. It fixes things for everyone, not just me-- I'm just the one taking care of it.

[ uh-huh... ]

Right, I get that. But you said it was like everyone had their own game to play. So how can you fix...someone else's session? [ is that even the right word, what is he even saying here? ]

Oh, no. There are different sessions that are totally separate, but each session is a multiplayer game! It's actually impossible to play with only one person. So I can't touch the session that Dave and John were playing, but Kanaya was part of my session.

But you knew Dave. Or I thought you did. That's the kid you were dating or something, right?

I'm not dating Dave! Why does everyone think I'm dating Dave? We met outside our game sessions.

So many reasons. [ Julian smirks and rolls his eyes at her, even though the main reason for him saying that is because he remembers that it bugs her. ]

What do you mean outside, like in the real world?

Everything was the real world. You're going to have to accept that at some point! [ she rubs out the line she drew, and instead draws a circle ] Pretend this circle is my game session. [ and another of the same size next to it ] And this is Dave's game session. [ a couple more circles for good measure, and then she draws a large circle around them all ] And this big circle contains the furthest ring, the Green Sun, and everything else that is part of the game's function but not attached to any particular session. It's where you exist when you die or sleep, and although it's difficult-- nearly impossible, under normal circumstances-- you can travel from session to session sometimes.

When you die or sleep. [ He repeats it and stares at her, because that's kind of freaky. ]

So what, it's like...your soul can move through there? [ He stops himself, because what. What. ] That's crazy.

I... guess so? I try not to clarify it that much. It makes it easier.

Right. Because the part with the frog and the robot body, those make total sense.

Well, that happened, so you're just going to have to learn to live with it!

Whatever.

I'm okay with this version anyway. [ That's about as close as he's getting to saying he likes you, Aradia. ]

You have a funny way of showing it! [ but she laughs and turns a little red gOD THIS IS STUPID you're stupid julian you have a stupid face. AHEM ]

Where was I... Oh, beating the final boss, and timelines, right? Okay, there were basically a ton of alternate Aradiabots in all the different timelines they had to fix. Does that make enough sense for now?

[ wow why is she going red?

it's probably nothing. ]

Uh. Yeah. [ no. ] You were like Multiple Troll in robot form.

The weirdest part is how this is all normal to you. I know people from other dimensions, I know there's alternate forms of people I know. Some of them are here, I get that part. But you know your alternates and what they're doing, it's...crazy.

[ the longest...pause. ] Did you hate it? The robo thing.

I was kind of a special case, even on my world. [ she draws her knees up and rests her chin on them for a moment, cocking her head ] I hated a lot of things. I was angry at a lot of things, too. So I was really sullen and grumpy basically all the time, and dragged my feet a whole bunch, and beat someone to death. But it wasn't being a robot that really got to me, it was the rest of it. I really, really hated having to follow orders and do what I was supposed to all the time!

[ …holy crap, is she serious? To say he could relate to that is putting it mildly. He looks genuinely surprised, and isn’t even covering it with a smirk. Or with a glare. He hadn’t been expecting this. ]

Yeah, I can get that, believe me. [ He glances down at his hands. ]

You killed some guy? You?

[ That surprises her in turn, and she lifts her chin up ] I killed the girl who killed me. I thought you knew what trolls were like by now. [ humans are just so picky about age and gender. As a troll, to make it to six sweeps already means you've fought your way to where you are ]

[ He scowls at her, automatically defensive. ]

That’s not what I mean. I know Kanaya’s insane and cuts people with chainsaws and whatever the hell, but you didn’t seem like that.

You’re nice, you’re happy. [ People who kill people aren’t happy… ] Annoyingly so. You don’t seem like a killer.

009 [ Voice ]

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[ action!! ] oops got that wrong im dumb justifies it

[ action!! ] lmao jules is an idiot is always the justification

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