MISSION 002

[etrayamods]

WHO: Everyone!
WHEN: May 3rd-28th
WHERE: Within the Labyrinth
WHAT: The second Mission
NOTES\WARNINGS: Potential death, violence, injury. Please add additional warnings as needed within threads.

⏵ into the labyrinth ⏴ Aurora's announced time for the mission was correct: four days after, as she had promised, the door to the Labyrinth opens, connected to Etraya's atmospheric bubble by its entrance point. Characters are directed to come to the entrance on May 3rd, and warned that they may want to bring medical supplies, weaponry, and any important artifacts along with them. She warns that large vehicles will not fit within the limited space available, and smaller ones may be difficult to remove, thus advises those to stay behind. Aurora also offers to watch over any companion animals and keep them safe while competitors complete the Labyrinth. They are given a short amount of time outside of the entrance to speak with one another, to plan and organize themselves, before they are ushered into it in groups of two to four. Once passed the entrance, they'll find that they are unable to turn around and exit out of it: a barrier keeps them from going back into the city proper, and as soon as they are far enough forward, the walls around them shift, closing them in, moving in complex patterns meant to separate them and bring them together. Characters with extraordinary abilities may find some of them inaccessible: super strength may be downgraded to closer to ordinary strength, magic may prove to be less predictable than it should be, and regardless of how strong, fast, or clever characters are: passing over the Labyrinth walls or destroying them proves to be impossible. While one may be able to run through the pathways at superhuman speeds, the pathways compensate for it by running them in circles, refusing to allow them to make any progress on their own. ⏵ pathways collide ⏴ Junctures of the Labyrinth often present competitors with choices, some that may have consequences: a left turn down a darker path may prove to be harmless, whereas the well-lit path may be full of traps intent on slowing them down: a trip wire that activates a swinging massive axe, or arrows that shoot straight out of the wall as soon as one gets close enough. Other junctures may present characters with choices that have consequences: they can choose the shortest pathway, but at great personal risk to themselves or their partner (ie, you can go this way, but your arm isn’t going with you) or they can choose the lengthy pathway full of traps and trials they’ll have to surpass to get to the end. ⏵ balancing act ⏴ The pathway opens up into a massive space, but it's not one with an easy path out: instead, competitors will find an obstacle course that will not let them continue forward until they complete it. Many of the tasks involve things that one cannot do on their own: they must walk across multiple wooden boards balanced precariously on a tall beam, but to ensure it's balanced, there must be one person on both sides of the boards and make sure that they're walking on the board in just the right space to ensure their weight doesn't cause it to sink too far on the opposite side. If a smaller child is on one end, they may want to stand significantly further away from the beam than the larger person on the other half. ⏵ help! i'm bleeding! ⏴ A large garden area spawns off of a pathway. The peaceful chirping of birds can be heard among blooming cherry blossom trees, and it all seems utterly peaceful and calm. An area one might wish to take a breather in, enjoy the sunshine reflecting from above, and get a good nap in. Or would, except a companion bot whose abdomen is covered in ketchup appears to be struggling across the ground, crying out for help. They state they are bleeding profusely and require immediate medical attention, otherwise, they will die. The companion bot also carries a bag of medical supplies and MREs, which player characters are welcome to utilize. The pathway out of this open space will not open until after the companion bot no longer states they are dying. Whether it's because they're "dead", or because those who came across them offered "medical attention" and patched them up until they've stated they're good and no longer need assistance - well, both will technically suffice. ⏵ choice is an illusion ⏴ After walking down an additional pathway, characters will find themselves trapped within a glass box. In front of them is a pedestal with two buttons: one red, and one green, as well as a tablet above it displaying the image of another group of characters. The tablet states hindering them will help you. You may either choose to make the second group's time through the maze more difficult, or hinder your progress by pressing the green button and helping the other group forward. Characters are given two minutes to decide which path to take; the timer, on the tablet, counts down regardless of any attempt to break or hack it. Pressing the green button will drop several squishmallows into the glass box. Inside one of them is a key that unlocks the roof of the glass box. Pressing the red button, while it promises to hinder the other group, actually. . . causes a toxic yellow gas to flood the glass box. The gas will burn the lungs of those who breathe it in, but it also begins slowly melting the glass box. This gas will make breathing difficult for the next 24 hours, but will not kill those who inhale it. Healing factors will not offset the gas. ⏵ who deserves the knife? ⏴ A group of two characters will walk through one corridor and find themselves strapped to two chairs, the backs of which are leaning against each other. In front of the both of them are drills, slowly approaching their chests. They cannot go sideways but can push forward and backward. They can push backward and get themselves further away from the threat of injury - forcing the person behind them to suffer but allowing themselves to escape - or they can push into the drill and free the person they're with. Alternatively, they can choose not to push either way, potentially sacrificing them both. Three options, but they are left with minimal time to decide as the drill continues to press closer. If they choose to go out together, they'll find that as the drills press against their chest - they simply stop. Minimal blood will be spilled, and they will have all the time they need to figure out how to squirm out of their bindings. ⏵ the Siren waits for thee ⏴ A seemingly harmless pathway turns into much more trouble than it's worth. A few steps through a corridor, and suddenly competitors will find the floor falling out from under them, revealing a body of water and - no solid ground on either side of it. There are the walls, but they lack any good climbing holds. Within the water are numerous Sirens - beautiful androgynous creatures that sing soft songs meant to entice others into following them deep into the water. While they may look beautiful, their mouths are full of razor-sharp teeth, and their intentions certainly aren't innocent. However, the Sirens can only touch competitors once they have initiated touch first. They will do their best to encourage this: holding out their hands, crying out for help, pretending to drown, or trying to coax them into coming in close enough for a kiss. As long as they remain on the path, they're harmless. But the moment they reach out for the Sirens... getting away from them will not be easy. Their tails are powerful, built for moving swiftly throughout the water and dragging others along with them. They bite hard and will dig their teeth deep into flesh to discourage struggling. If one gets captured by them? They're lunch. Or worse yet: if they get bitten but manage to escape, they may find themselves becoming a bit.. scaley around the neck, eyes shifting color to a too-soft green, and an almost impossible-to-resist urge to take a bite out of their friends. This effect will continue until May 28th regardless of when the character reaches the end of the Labyrinth. After May 28th, they will find that their scales slowly begin to shed, their eyes begin to turn back to their normal shade, and any other new features slowly turn back to how they were before they were infected. ⏵ don't forget your ball of twine ⏴ The Labyrinth is large, and there are many challenges around each corner. There may be space for breaks in between monsters, challenges, riddles, places to sit and recuperate between battles and mind games. It's not all chaos and challenges meant to test one's strength of will. ⏵ NOTES ⏴ May's mission is completing a massive Labyrinth. All characters must enter the Labyrinth; whether or not they participate once they're inside is up to them, but no one will be permitted to stay behind in the city. The duo who completes the Labyrinth first will be allowed to assist in choosing the next mission. Sign-ups for this are here. We will contact the chosen characters on May 13th. This mission will cover the time between May 3rd and May 28th. After May 28th, any characters who have not yet exited the Labyrinth will be gathered by the companion bots and brought back into the city. The companion bots will be aiming for nonviolent intervention. If more is needed, please let us know here. The first to exit will be returning to the city on May 15th. There will be powercapping during this mission, but the extent of which is fully up to players. We want the Labyrinth to be challenging but don't want to hinder gameplay too much. If you have any questions relating to this or want assistance coming up with ways to powercap your character, please feel free to ask us here. We will be largely leaving this up to player discretion. Food is scarce within the Labyrinth, but not impossible to find. There are chests (or maybe they're mimics?) strewn throughout with various useful items. One might have a sword, another might have a fresh chicken nugget Happy Meal from McDonalds. Or an entire birthday cake, candles included. Large vehicles will not fit in the Labyrinth and must be left behind in the city. Numerous challenges are throughout the Labyrinth. You are welcome to make your own, but we will also provide several you may utilize! Please feel free to throw down wildcards, or your own challenges into your prompts! The limitation is that characters must remain themselves throughout the challenges. There are no mirror replicas, nothing within the Labyrinth will affect their personalities or core values. It’s meant to challenge, not change them. Deaths that occur within the Labyrinth will last 24 hours. Please report these on our Death Tracker. All new locations will appear after player characters have returned to the city. Feel free to note the differences from the May 3rd map, versus what characters will be returning to on May 15th.

Comments

hunker down

[equivo]

[ Krouse hadn't shown up for the movie.

After he'd figured out who he'd been talking to on the network, he hadn't been able to bring himself to do it. It hadn't been a calculated choice. He'd just shut down before he could get himself to his front door, the prospect of navigating any of the conversations that could have come out of heading down not unlike the prospect of sticking his hand flat on a glowing stove burner.

A stupid, more than vaguely pathetic call, because there's no way he could avoid it forever. This place just isn't that big. Sooner or later, he was going to have to deal with it.

Apparently, sooner.

Krouse is one of the people looking worse for wear. His left jacket sleeve is shredded in several places, clumsily stitched up, and stained dark with blood from above the elbow down to the wrist. Smears of dirt cover the rest of his clothes, and his hair lies lank over his forehead above deeply sunken dark eyes staring at Wade with resignation.

It's dark. He's tired. There's a campfire, an open invitation, and the possibility of food. This might as well happen now. ]

Hey.

[ He jerks his head in a small nod, venturing a step closer. ]

Looks like Boy Scout practice is coming in clutch.

[fourthwalled]

[Ah, right. This guy. Wade meanwhile had no idea that he'd been speaking to his dream visitor on the network. But he absolutely recognizes him now. He's still going to act like he'd not a care in the world, and this man hadn't had to witness some of Wade's darkest moments. It's fiiine.

He slides the cake closer toward him. It's partially eaten, but one side hasn't been touched. The cake hadn't come with utensils, so he'd had to resort to using his hands.] Damn straight! And my compulsive need to open every chest I can find. One of them tried to eat me, but I managed to find one with cake! So definitely worth it.

[equivo]

[ Krouse can't tell if he's recognized or not. He's been inside of this guy's head, and what he took away from it is that Wade's mind works at a perpendicular angle to most.

So maybe he does know who Krouse is, and still thinks he deserves cake. Maybe he doesn't remember. Or maybe he's superimposing a felt ostrich over Krouse in his mind's eye as he speaks. ]

That's a mimic.

[ He closes the distance to the campfire on light, careful feet, scanning the area one more time on the approach. Once there, he sinks down into a cross-legged seat and slides his backpack off his shoulders to bring it into his lap. ]

Or that's what they're called in this game I used to play, anyway.

[ He's just talking to fill space as he retrieves a plastic fork from a pouch. Buying time to figure out what he actually should say, or what he wants to say. Because how do you start with sorry about your dead girlfriend over birthday cake? ]

Great to know the furniture is also trying to kill us. I was just thinking to myself that I was getting too complacent about attacks from inanimate objects.

[fourthwalled]

Dungeons & Dragons? And now I know you're a big nerd. [Like he has any room to talk, seeing as he'd known exactly what came he'd been talking about. Speaking of-] May the great Gary Gygax rest in peace.

[Okay, so it's possible Wade may be even more of one. Maybe.]

Everything here is trying to kill us, so why not the inanimate objects? I do wonder what this is meant to prove... seems like Echo is just having a good laugh at our expense. Which, if that's the case, she got us good! That mimic ripped off my arm!

[An arm that he still seems to have and seems functional, oddly. But Krouse may notice that his sleeve at the shoulder is taped together by duct tape.]

[equivo]

Says the guy namedropping Gygax.

[ Krouse murmurs, before he can have a second thought about bantering with the unhinged, unkillable sword wielding guy.

Maybe the thing is that for all the ways Krouse can think of him being a threat, he hasn't actually done anything threatening. In fact, he's been more friendly than most, in his own weird way. Which mostly serves to make him feel that much worse even while he scoops up a forkful of cake and sticks it in his mouth, too tired and hungry to let himself think too hard about where it's been.

The fluffy sugar is like a tiny bomb going off in his mouth after days of lukewarm jerky, dry granola, and scavenged MREs. Krouse closes his eyes as he swallows, savouring the taste and the calories that come with it. ]

Your indestructibility really doesn't fuck around, does it? [ His dark eyes flick back open, eyeing the duct tape on Wade's shoulder. ] That's handy.

[ Then he winces, because he did not mean to run up adjacent to a pun. ]

Anyway, [ he spears another forkful of cake ] I think that is the whole point. Throwing us off, putting us under pressure, seeing what choices we make when we're pushed to the limit, etcetera, so on, insert mad scientist laugh here. Probably something like - if you can't trust your environment, can you trust the person standing next to you?

Or maybe it is just a joke.

[fourthwalled]

[Wade shrugs at the callout.] I never said I wasn't a nerd, too.

[He's had no reason to be anything less than friendly to Krouse. Now, if he had a reason? He could be fucking terrifying. But as they stand now, they're all in this shit together, even if he does want to win this stupid competition.] Very handy. [Heh.] At least I got something out of all that horrible torture, right?

[If Krouse needs any confirmation that Wade knows exactly who he is and what he'd seen, he's got it now.]

Could be you're onto something. The threat of death can make people do crazy things. [And then there's Wade going into this Labyrinth like it's the best day of his life. But he's already been pushed to his limit a couple of times over, so perhaps there's not much left to snap...]

[equivo]

[ Krouse stops, fork still in his mouth, a look of furtive guilt skittering across his face. He drops his gaze as he swallows cake he can't taste, drawing back slightly to rest his hand on his knee as he examines one of the flickering shadows cast by the campfire. ]

Yeah.

[ To being a nerd, to the motivating power of the threat of death, to getting something out of horrible torture. Wade can take his pick. Krouse rubs his palm over the scuffed denim of his jeans, flipping his plastic fork over in his fingers with thoughtless deftness. ]

I wasn't sure if you remembered that.

[ The dream, not the torture. Or everything else. Things like that don't tend to slip people's minds. ]

I - [ his mouth twists unhappily ] - they really did a number on you, huh?

[ But that's not really the part that matters. As bad as it was, even in those tiny snippets, that's something you can deal with, move on from. It's just bad shit that happened. However fucked up Wade's coping mechanisms are, he's coping. Krouse gets that. ]

I'm sorry. About what happened to her.

[ He feels like a fucking idiot as soon as the words tumble lamely out of his mouth. Useless and pointless. Sorry really doesn't fucking cut it. ]

[fourthwalled]

I remember. I sometimes forget things, but not usually the things I want to.

[Not that he's embarrassed for Krouse having seen all that. Not really. Still, it's not an experience he'd wanted anyone else to endure too, even in a dream.]

They did. Francis got what was coming to him, though. [The asshole who'd tortured him.] I made sure of that.

[He stills as Krouse continues, staring at him across the fire, uncharacteristically quiet for a bit too long as the logs and debris burn. The jovial nature of his tone takes a turn when he finally does speak. It's dull and pained.] Not as sorry as I am. I got careless because I can't die, but-- [She definitely could. Just one bullet. One measly fucking bullet that he'd have shrugged off in moments.] I'm not good for the people around me. I know that.

[Wade knows it, yet still lets himself get close. Because he's a self-fuck.]

[equivo]

[ Hearing his first name takes Krouse off guard, his eyes flicking up briefly in surprise before he can catch up to the context. A different Francis, which might say something about the kind of guy who ends up saddled with that name.

It's not important. Not next to how tight his chest gets as Wade keeps talking, the flippancy drained out of his voice to leave behind only the hurt that underpins it. Of all the things Krouse wants to get, this ranks at the bottom. But here they are anyway, because life's a fucking kick in the teeth like that.

If he lets himself, he can hear the toaster oven chiming again, going off forever over Wade's sobs. It sounds almost like the shrill beep of an alarm repeating itself in the dark, boring into his skull.

There are things people are supposed to say in these situations. It wasn't your fault, or you didn't want it to happen. Nice, neat lies to plaster over ugly truths, or at least tell someone you want them to feel better. Krouse is a good liar. He could say them convincingly in his sleep.

But he didn't then, and he's not now. ]

Yeah. Well. [ Quietly, his gaze trained now on one of the cake's remaining rosettes of pastel icing. ] It comes with the territory, doesn't it? The whole cape lifestyle. People die.

[ Krouse pulls his legs in a little tighter, the curve of his back deepening, until he's a third of the way to curling up on himself without really realizing that's what he's doing. ]

Just not the ones who fucking deserve it.

cw: suicidal ideation

[fourthwalled]

[Wade doesn't notice the way Krouse looks at him when he says the name Francis. Maybe it's for the best, considering how much Deadpool hates the Francis he knew. For his part, Wade hears that damn toaster sound over and over and over again nearly every night. So much so that he's not used a fucking toaster since. Just boring ass bread for him all the way down, thank you very much!

If Krouse had told him one of those platitudes, it's entirely possible that Wade might have tried to stab him with the fork the guy's got in his hand for saying some stupid shit like that. It's entirely his fault. Maybe he didn't pull the trigger, but if he hadn't been around, Vanessa would have been safe.]

I know they don't. Seeing as I'm still around. [The self-loathing is strong in this one.] I'm not actually a super-hero, you know. I have the powers. But... I'm not a good guy. I kill people, and I'm fucking good at it. I'm a mercenary. I've tried to be a hero, but it's just not who I am. The guy who shot her? I leaped out a window and found him. I took him in my arms and threw us both in front of a truck.

cw: suicidal ideation

[equivo]

[ Krouse listens with fixed intensity, studying every whorl on the little crest of icing like there's going to be a test on it later. He can make out how sugar has dried and cracked into almost invisible flakes on the outside, jagged crystals of sweetness that crunch between your teeth if left for much longer.

As soon as he looks away, he'll forget it. But he'll carry what Wade is saying with him all the way out of this maze and back into his room, where he can let it repeat to the beat of that unfaded electronic alert. ]

Did it help?

[ He asks the question after a silence that feels like it stretched out for minutes, but could have only been a few long seconds. He tries to make it sound calm, but there's a tightness in his throat that won't let him. ]

Killing him. [ Jumping in front of a truck. ] Did it change anything?

cw: suicidal ideation

[fourthwalled]

Fuck, no. But he got what he deserved. [He'd didn't regret killing that man for one second. Only that he'd not been able to do it sooner. Wade's shoulders slump, gaze focused on the flames.]

I tried to punish myself too. But... like I said, I'm hard to kill. No matter what I tried, I stuck around like a locked in grease stain. Even blowing myself apart didn't work. Eventually, I found something else to live for while I was trying to kill myself. I found a kid who needed my help. Doesn't mean that I'll ever forgive myself.

[He'd do damn near anything to get Ness alive again, even now. He'd had a plan too before he got dragged here.]

cw: suicidal ideation, suicide

[equivo]

[ I've tried, another voice says, softly empty, I can't. Nothing works.

Krouse shakes his head, leaning forward to plunge his plastic fork into the cake for safekeeping. He produces a crumpled packet of cigarettes from his pocket and flips it open with a sharp flick of his thumb. ]

Fuck 'forgiving yourself'.

[ Quiet, hard, and flat. He goes through the motions of retrieving lighter and cigarette, practised and automatic. ]

Anyone who says that shit either never really hurt anyone, or they never hurt anyone they gave a fuck about.

[ He ignites a flame inside the shelter of his cupped palm and touches it to the end of the cigarette, then inhales deeply, tamping down on the skitter of raw nerves in the pit of his stomach. He knows he's talking to himself as much as he's talking to Wade. A lack of self-awareness on this particular subject isn't one of his problems. ]

It doesn't count for anything. [ The icy edge to his tone slips away, replaced by bruised resignation. ] Letting yourself off the hook. Not that I'm advocating for the alternative.

Helping a kid, though. That's something. [ He taps the pack of cigarettes against his knee, weighing a call, and decides - ] You smoke?

[ It's about as helpful as I'm sorry, except with a hit of nicotine to make it slightly more worthwhile. ]

[fourthwalled]

Not regularly. But sometimes. Not like it'll kill me. [He's already got the cancer anyway, so it's not like this would make it worse. Wade reaches out to take one.] Normally I'm more of a cocaine kinda guy.

[He might be joking. With him, it is sometimes hard to tell. Wade puts the cigarette in his mouth and leans dangerously close to his made fire to light it.] It was something. Stopped him from doing something he'd regret, too. It felt... good.

[Made the whole hero-ing thing actually make sense to him. Even if he'll never been good at most of it.]

So... you've hurt someone you cared about? [That is the implication, and Wade hadn't missed it.]

cw: self harm, drug use discussion

[equivo]

[ Watching Wade lean in so close to the fire makes Krouse almost flinch for him, a sliver of recognition slipping right between his eyes. It reminds him too much of someone else, that casual indifference to the possibility of getting hurt.

Krouse kind of believes the cocaine thing. He'd probably believe Wade if he said he drank bleach for kicks or skydived without a parachute. He's been pretty forthcoming about his self-destructive impulses, and those don't actually get better when you can't keep yourself destroyed. It just cuts the brakes.

He takes another drag off his cigarette, holding the smoke in his lungs until it almost starts to burn. ]

And here I am, fresh out of cocaine. Maybe next time.

[ He is joking, in a dry, listless way. It buys him a couple more seconds of not answering the question. He glances down at the ground as he steels himself, tapping ash off the tip of his cigarette. ]

And I did.

[ It's a quiet, tense admission, his shoulders curving even further in. In the flickering firelight, his face threatens to crumple, peeling back a handful of years from how old he looks. He tightens his jaw and shakes his head, dragging them back into place. ]

A couple someones, actually. I'm not great for people to be around either. So I guess that's good news for us here, right? Maybe we'll cancel each other out.

[ Another evasive almost-joke, brittle at the edges. ]

What did you stop him from doing? This kis of yours.

cw: self harm, drug use discussion, child-abuse

[fourthwalled]

[When your power is an inability to die, and you hate yourself at the same time... it's not a great recipe for self-care. He pulls in a long drag, before letting out a puff of smoke as he sighs. He keeps his attention on the cigarette, but is his paying attention. Wade is far more observant than he sometimes lets on.]

Could be. Or we'll just drag each other down deeper. [Wade's aware that he needs people around to tell him no and to not feed his darker impulses. If he doesn't have that, there's no telling what he might do. To himself. To others.]

I stopped him from burning down the orphanage he grew up in and inadvertently murdering all the kids there. The Headmaster had been torturing him. That fuck deserved to die, but I didn't want Russell to end up like me. Worse than me, even.

cw: child abuse

[equivo]

[ Krouse half-laughs at the idea of them dragging each other deeper, a soft sound absent any real humour. Any sharp, semi-clever follow up he might have on it doesn't make it past that short, vivid story.

If there's one thing Krouse can say about Wade so far, besides the fact that he has the rough equivalent of fifteen especially troubled people's problems shoved into his spandex suit, it's that he hasn't ceased to surprise. ]

...I guess you really aren't a superhero. [ It's a compliment, in a quiet, sideways fashion. ] I mean, assuming you didn't arrest him.

[ He thinks it's a fair assumption. He has a hard time seeing Wade being a particular believer in the redeeming powers of youth incarceration. ]

What happened to him? After. Him and the other kids.

[ He asks with the deliberate indifference of someone trying not to sound like they care too much about the answer, his attention drifting back to the campfire. If there's a parallel he could draw, he's not going to. He's not a kid, and he wasn't then either, whenever his birthday happened to fall. ]

cw: child abuse

[fourthwalled]

No. I keep trying though, fuck knows why. It's just my thing, I guess. [He wants to be better, is why. It's just he never seems to be able to actually be better.] And no, I didn't arrest Russell.

He went to Xavier's school for mutants. I'm not sure about the rest of the kids. [Wade doesn't always pay attention to things he should if they aren't in his immediate purview. It made it easier sometimes with how often he killed or got people killed R.I.P. X-Force!] They probably went there too, maybe? [Let's go with that, and that they weren't just abandoned to their own devices. They're fiiine.] They were all kids with mutant powers, after all.

[Colossus would have definitely made sure they landed somewhere good, at least. He's the type to do that kind of thing.]

cw: drug use discussion, child abuse

[equivo]

[ The cynic in Krouse questions if that's any better. He's never heard of a places that scoops up kids with powers for their well-being. Maybe they got out from under one piece of work, but that's the long run look like?

But something even more tired and worn out in him than his cynicism almost wants to believe it's a happy ending. In all the infinite universes, there could be one where someone gives a shit. Or at least might be smart enough to think twice before exploiting kids who have an unkillable murder machine on speed dial. ]

Wouldn't make sense to just take one.

[ He tries to conjure an image to match the story. A crowd of sad-eyed orphans in shitty hand-me-downs turning up on some well-lit doorstep and being ushered inside, like the end of one of those feel good movies he's always found unbearably corny. Cut to credits. ]

Have you considered changing career goals? You might not be the worst social worker in the world. [ He ekes out a small smile, glancing back at Wade. ] Put a tie over the costume, pick up a clipboard. Hit people with the clipboard, presumably. Keep kids off drugs by doing them first, come up with some educational sing-a-long puppet shows about how not being a fucking piece of shit keeps your head attached to your body. I can see it.

cw:child abuse

[fourthwalled]

Yeah, but they were extras. Not even a single speaking line in the bunch... [Wade shrugs, as though he doesn't care about them. He does, but it's easier to pretend he doesn't than spend a lot of time worrying.] But you're probably right. They're fiiiine.

[They just might now be training to be X-men and put into potential life or death situations by the time they were teenagers. Nothing to worry about!]

It's an idea. But... social services might have a problem if I started murdering abusive parents. [Which he wouldn't be able to stop himself from doing.]

cw: child abuse

[equivo]

[ He gives that a small, unhappy laugh, partially uncurling out of his hunch to run his free hand through his lank bangs. ]

Vigilante social worker, then.

[ The irreverent, fucked up, frankly disconnected from reality comments Wade makes are less jarring now that he's getting a sense of what their point is. He knows a couple things about deflection via inappropriate humour. Wade's on the far, far end of a spectrum, but he thinks he gets it, a little. ]

All I'm saying is it wasn't a superhero who got those kids out. It was you.

[ A moment stretches out. Krouse flicks an invisible speck of non-existent something off of his knee. He's quieter when he speaks again. ]

Whatever else you've done, you did that too.

[fourthwalled]

[Wade blinks under his mask. He didn't expect to get this kind of praise ever, especially from a relative stranger. He's not crying. He's fine. It's fine. He sniffs. Looking down at the fire.]

I guess I did do that, huh.

[Maybe he's not as big a piece of shit as he sometimes feels.] Thanks, man.

[equivo]

[ Krouse glances inconspicuously off into the dark while Wade definitely doesn't make any noise. If one guy gives another a fumbling attempt at a compliment in the middle of a death maze, it doesn't have to make a sound as long as everyone's cool about it. ]

You don't have to thank me. I'm just insufferably pedantic.

[ There's a little flippancy of his own. ]

You can't go around telling people you're a huge asshole who fucks everything up and a saviour of orphans. You're going to give people the impression you're anti-orphan saving. That's just fucked up, man. [ He sneaks a glance back to Wade, a smile creeping back over his face. ] They've got a hard knock life as it is.

[fourthwalled]

Just call me broke Daddy Warbucks. [Finger guns. Wade grins as he reaches for more cake.] I always wanted to be in a musical. I have a great singing voice! And I can dance! I can show you sometime?

Or maybe right now? I'm hopped up on enough sugar, I'm sure I could hit some super high octaves.

[equivo]

[ Krouse snorts, hiding most of his smile behind his cigarette as he brings it back up for another drag. ]

Maybe when we're out of here. I'd hate for you to have to perform under these conditions.

[ He's not sure that's going to stop Wade for the time being, but it's worth a shot. He's probably signed his own musical death warrant at some point in the future, but he thinks he's okay with that. ]

I was actually going to ask if it'd be all right if I took half an hour here. Not too many hotels around the labyrinth, if you can believe it.

[ He does need the sleep. He pretty much always needs the sleep. But it's not-not a gesture at a little bit of nascent trust, either. ]