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Date: November 1st
Location: The Observatory.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Observatory after their initial briefings. The zombie plot will not spill over into this area, this area is safe and unaffected! To face zombies, characters must leave the area, and please move to the event log with those threads.
Warnings: None.

Your arrival here has been very unceremonious. One second you were somewhere else, and now, very suddenly, your feet hit the glowing white of the Transporter pad, and you're here. You aren't alone, either. There's a crowd of others around you, each seeming just as bewildered, angry, or confused as you might feel. At the head of the group is a woman in purple robes, solemn and taciturn. She hurries over a quick overview of your intended purpose here, and gives direct answers when asked for them, but to most things she simply shows you how to access the tablet you've just been given, or tells you that the DITR's greeters will explain everything. On the tablet, you can find the history of this place and a record of what your new cohorts have experienced — although it won't have Network access for another 8 hours. Someone stands on hand to give you a weapon, and though the armory is now greatly reduced, you should be able to find something to suit you.

You're shepherded down a walkway tunnel and into the Observatory, where you will find screens mounted on three sides of the wide room. It's night outside the great wide windows, and the lunar landscape isn't much to look at right now; the only lighting comes from dull red emergency lights, but there are… noises. Listen carefully. Over the voices of your fellow Transports, now and then you might catch the sound of a scrape, or a low and muffled cry. It doesn't sound human. Are there animals up here?

You're free to explore the base, visit and use any of the VR rooms, or discover your new room and roommates, but try not to step out of any airlocks if oxygen is a requirement for your system.

Welcome to the moon base, and to the remains of Exsilium.

[[ ooc; As a note for players of current characters: please keep your root comments confined to the various groups and organizations that set up root comments to greet new characters! We highly encourage tagging around here, but since it's a log meant for new characters specifically, we ask that they be the ones to set up root threads to the entry. Thank you, and happy playing! ]]

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[Sue, scanning the Observatory for people she knows, does a double-take. He hasn't been that young in years, but that's her friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, wandering around in rumpled civilian clothes.

Because of course Peter would be pulled through space and time in his pajamas.

At that age, he'd been even jumpier about his identity than he is now--well, "now" relative to Sue, anyway. Time travel is confusing and she prefers to leave it to the supergeniuses in the family and provide backup so none of them get eaten by dinosaurs while lost in thought.

Dinosaurs not being an immediate concern, Sue decides to let Peter recognize her first and follow his lead until she can get him somewhere private for a more honest talk. The Fantastic Four's public identities have often caused headaches, but at least there's no messing around with masks and that "can you get in touch with the Invisible Woman, Mrs. Richards?" nonsense.]

You look a little out of place, young man.

[You know, on account of the pajamas.

So apparently while Peter wasn't paying attention, Sue Storm started wearing white and aged a decade.]

[Truthfully, Peter's first reaction to seeing Sue isn't that she's older, but: How long have I been dead? The thought practically reads all over his features in a mixture of confusion and uncertainty as he looks at her (and that tiny, incessant bit of sadness). His mouth opens and closes, and he struggles for words.

But Peter Parker only has difficulty with finding words for so long.]

Don't they have rules about wearing white after Labor Day? [He manages a stupid smile. It's Sue, and even if she's older and his own mortality is there, dangling on a string, it means that she got older. That's a good thing! That's definitely a good thing.] Or what about "don't be a superhero and wear white"? Though maybe those are stain resistant somehow.

[He trots closer to her after that, and asks a final question:] This is weird for you, isn't it? [Because it's weird for him, but probably not in the "you've been dead for ten years" way.]

[Unstable molecules don't stain, Peter.

Unlike practically everyone else in either of their universes, Sue's perceptive about other people, and Peter...well, melancholy just isn't like him. She files it away for later, more pressing concerns on her mind.]

The space travel or the time travel?

[Her voice and half-smile are wry, since no, neither of those is particularly weird for her, and her Peter Parker is still alive and still managing to stick his feet in his mouth on a regular basis.]

You get used to it.

The time travel. [Because in some universes, people don't break the time-space continuum by time traveling too much! Oh, the things Peter never experienced by dying too soon.] The other one—that's kind of second nature for you guys. Unless you got bored of it. [There's a moment as he processes his own words.]—Please tell me you never got bored of it. That'd have to be the worst thing to come out of this whole ... superhero gig.

[Aside from the whole It's a Wonderful Life crossed with All My Children feeling that I'm having right now.]

Reed's the one who's an explorer at heart. I just make sure he doesn't forget to eat.

[Sue's always been fairly blase about the Fantastic Four's shenanigans. Which is hardly to say she minds going where no one has gone before, just that it's always been Reed's agenda with the rest of them along for the ride.]

...With varying levels of success.

[Her husband is impossible.]

[Reed? Peter looks visibly dubious the moment she says the name.

What's the protocol here? What's the right thing to say? I bet she can already tell what I'm thinking. She's Sue Storm! She's a genius.]

—Glad to hear that he got better. [Or that everyone's a little too forgiving. Blegh. Still too fresh for me. Waaaay too fresh.]

[Sue will be the first to admit that a lot of people have a lot of reasons to be exasperated with Reed, but something's off about this. Peter has the air of someone who can't think of anything nice to say, and a high-school age Peter shouldn't be seriously upset with Reed.

However, the last thing she dealt with back home was an entire council of unpleasant-to-outright-evil versions of her husband, so she has a pretty good idea of what's going on here, if not the specifics of whatever the parallel universe Reed did to give Peter such a low opinion of him. Probably something spectacular. Reed screws up on the same scale he does everything else.

Sue sighs and folds her arms.]

What did your Reed do?

[Seriously, is she married to the only worthwhile one, or what?]

[There are a lot of theoretical implications over what she said, but he manages to line them up quickly. He knows about Reed's experiments in viewing the other possibilities and the other worlds. In fact, they ended up having to go to one of them because of Reed's problems. He got in trouble, and after everything went to crap, it ended up sending him down that really disastrous path. Reed always felt like he knew better, apparently; it was easy for Peter to actually understand some of it. Being bullied, finding out how well you know about the world and how problematic it is, and wanting to change it—those are all things he can hypothetically connect with, at least on a base level.

He's just never felt the urge, and it was weird for him to realize that Reed was after him. That he was another genius that needed to be taken out. It was also a betrayal of trust and of his science geekery, but those are things that he doesn't really feel like he has a lot of room to talk about, not when it meant that he nearly killed Sue and destroyed everyone else's trust. That's the trust that really mattered.

But he immediately catches on that if they can pull people from different worlds they can pull them from the different versions of those worlds. This is a Sue that recognizes him, but she knows a different him. She also is older than his, which brings up about fifty billion other questions. He's sharp enough to know that "What did your Reed do?" doesn't need a smart ass remark. He'll go with it if it's necessary, but not right now.]

Oh, that common? [That's the closest he'll get, anyway. The way she asks it seems like she isn't surprised, anyway.] He decided to take out the competing geniuses in the world so that he could do something ... improve things. Be better. I didn't catch all of it before we kicked his butt and left him in the Negative Zone for good.

[Suspicion confirmed. That's such a Reed thing to do. Sue pinches the bridge of her nose.]

Yes. When Reed--any Reed--goes bad, he does it very thoroughly. And always with the best of intentions.

[The Superhuman Registration Act is still a sore subject in the Baxter Building.]

The Negative Zone won't hold him, but it should buy you some time.

[It's not strictly her problem, she knows, but her family is a bunch of interdimensional do-gooders, so maybe when this United Earth business is all resolved, they can see about lending a hand.]

Well, I think everyone was counting on him being dead. [Of course, there was no body, so who was to say that was actually the case? Peter knows that saying that anyone's counting on anyone being dead is a bad thing, and there's something in his face that says that he really isn't cool with the whole "kill the bad guy" thing. It just isn't his style.]

I'll be sure to relay the message, y'know, just in case. [Once he figures out how to get back there alive, he'll do just that.]

But you know me? Like, a me, not me-me, because I have a feeling that if Reed wasn't evil for you, or very evil, then things are probably different otherwise. [Hypothetically, anyway.] Was I ... big? [There's a twinge of hope as he raises his hand up to indicate himself being taller. He raises it up pretty high, but hey, he'll reach for the stars if it means he's not so shrimpy!]

He's not evil, just frustrating.

[Reed has a bad, bad case of how-can-someone-so-smart-be-so-dumb-itis.

She chuckles at Peter's teenage optimism.]

Well, you're not going to be competing with Thor, but my Peter is several inches taller than I am. Johnny's height.

[Sue's 5'6" and Peter and Johnny are both 5'10". Thank you Marvel fan wiki.]

Frustrating is better, trust me. I'd take frustrating over all of that.

[Which is an understatement, but that's in part because of all the people who died. Peter isn't exactly going to hold on to talking about that, so he figures they've covered their bases there.]

And that's about as tall as my Johnny is. I'm glad I'm at least the same height as him. Eventually. It's not much of a goal to stand for, but I've gotta have something.

[Apparently Peter and Johnny have the same mature and professional relationship in this other universe as they do in hers.]

Peter, there are better things to do than compare yourself to my brother.

[Sue loves Johnny dearly...but she also knows he's tremendously annoying, since he's been practicing on her longer than anyone else.]

Oh, and trust me, I'm usually doing them. Running away, learning new techniques when he goes on about how handsome he is, avoiding awkward questions about whether or not his roots are showing ...

[Peter has a feeling that none of this is going to make any sense to her, so he decides to supply the explanation.]

He's living with me. He's my ... "cousin." Him and Bobby Drake. Johnny Parker and Bobby Parker in May Parker's home for wayward youths who might be superheroes. [And Gwen, he adds to himself.]

...I would not wish Johnny on your Aunt May.

[She likes May Parker. Though May stands a reasonably good chance of getting Johnny to behave, which is more than most people can claim.]

Do I dare ask why you've got my brother and an X-Man living incognito at your house?

[And were they selected on the basis of who was most likely to destroy the place accidentally during a food fight that escalates into using powers?]

Uhh, it's kind of a long story. [Which is also code for: something terrible happened and I don't want to tell you. Something terrible happened and Peter doesn't want to tell her. If she doesn't know about it, if there isn't a parallel to it in her world, she doesn't need to know. That isn't to say that he doesn't think she can handle it, but this is already weird enough.]

But Johnny and Bobby wanted a normal life. Only they kinda suck at it, go figure.

[That doesn't sound anything like Johnny. (Well, except for the sucking at normality part.) He's the only one of them who's loved having his powers right from the start.]

Hiding powers isn't easy.

[Peter's obviously hiding something, but she knows not to pry, at least not right away. It'll probably come out accidentally in a week, anyway. This is Peter Parker she's talking to.]

No, it isn't—especially when you're a guy who sets himself on fire.

[There were a lot of bouts with that failing. The thing with Rick and the thing with Lily Allen seemed to be cases in which it definitely failed. They were trying to help, but there was a lot of failure involved there. That didn't even include superhero stuff for the most part (except when Aunt May enlisted them to help).]

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