trans_9 | Fixer-Upper [Open]

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Fixer-Upper [Open]

Tony needed some time, from time to time (haha) and today, in order to take his mind off of the impending doom of the Nightmare King and the rather vivid nightmares he'd been having, he decided to do some simple work in the Sensoriums. He'd conjured up a garage and the old beater he'd occasionally driven around in - the paint was chipped and coming away in places, the car ran like shit, it had way too many miles on it and the muffler was probably broken, but it had been his for the very brief time he'd ridden around in it.

So, he was up to his arms in the guts of the simulated car. His t-shirt and jeans were covered with (simulated) grease and oil stains and his hands were dirty, but the work helped him think. It gave him something to do. It was a good distraction. He didn't glance up from the engine as he heard someone come in.

"Hey, man. Feel free to come on in."

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"Last I checked, I don't have the right equipment to be called that. Like you know," Kate smirked at him, as she stood nearby, her hands on her hips.

"Enjoying yourself there?"

Tony looked up, startled out of his reverie. His expression melted into a smile and he straightened up, wiping oil and grease off of his hands with a rag. "Well, yeah. I sorta guessed that much, Kate. Unless you have something you wanna tell me."

He chuckled, leaning against the car, "Yeah, I guess so. Just tryin' to get my mind off of everything and straighten myself out."

Kate grinned as she stepped closer, "Nope, still a girl."

She then nodded, "I know, everybody seems on edge and a lot of people are having trouble sleeping. Thought maybe it was just people still adjusting to how we are now, but this feels a lot bigger."

"That's a relief," Plays joked as he stuck the rag back into his pocket, "I was afraid the ship was screwin' with us for a minute there."

He nodded, "...yeah, I know what you mean. This Nightmare King stuff is startin' to freak me out. Dreams have been... insane."

He ran a hand through his hair, remembering the last one, where he'd encountered Rhiow. Not to mention the reappearing Black Spirals.

"I think I'm holdin' up OK, though."

"What's the deal with this guy anyway? I only caught some of the recent comms about him."

Kate thought about the one with running into Spidey, "I bet, been stepping up my practices. Figuring if I'm that worn out I won't dream as much."

She came closer to gently stroke his cheek.

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"All I know is that he's a creepy, supernatural gribbly who lives on our fear. So, that's why he has the whole Nightmare King thing goin'..."

As she stepped closer, he wrapped an arm around her in a hug, "...just... dreams. About home. About shit that never happened, but I guess I've always been scared of happenin'."

She hugged him back, and remarked, "That's probably what he's going for if he's trying to make us afraid. Especially if you have any bad memories, or just fears and suspicions."

Kate then quietly asked, "What was it?"

"Probably. He's gettin' more powerful too, from what I'm hearin'. Could be bad..." He trailed off with a laugh. "Really though, how much worse could it be then what we've already had t'deal with, you know?"

Her question gave him pause and he had to think for a moment. Kate would listen to him. Kate would understand. Probably. He took a deep breath, hunching his shoulders a bit.

"It's... kind of complicated. You gotta understand that... well, back on my world, there was us - the Garou, the werewolves, whatever you wanna call us. And we were fightin' the Wyrm. Think I told you that much already. Anyway, point is that one tribe fall to the Wyrm way back when. They're called the Black Spiral Dancers these days, 'cause the Wyrm tricked 'em into dancing the Black Spiral, which pretty much fucked 'em over. Made 'em Wyrm-tainted. Corrupt. Evil. That kinda thing..."

Tony paused again and glanced down at her, pressing his forehead against her's. "And they breed, which is technically a breach of th' litany and the result of two Garou doin' the nasty and getting pregnant is a kinda monstrosity, which couldn't have kids even if it wanted to. We call 'em metis and we tolerate 'em when they show up in our society, but... yeah. They're not looked on kindly. But the other way the Spirals keep their numbers up is by takin' lost cubs. Garou who don't know they're Garou yet. Or by tricking or capturing or bringing a Garou to dance the Spiral. Like they did. And in these dreams I've been having lately..."

He sighed softly, "...this pack of Spirals is followin' me. They're talkin' to me, they're dragging me down to dance the Spiral with them and I can't stop it. I can't..." He paused to steady the slight tremble in his voice. "I can't And last time they were makin' me... eat people..."

He decided to leave off that the person they were making him eat was his own mother.

It made her think of her friends Billy and Tommy, and the demonic nature of their origin. Also how they were fighting it and doing good.

"Shhh... that hasn't happened, and it can't. For all you know, their kind disappeared when the Ohm took it. It's not you. You're stronger than that." She reached out to stroke his hair as she spoke soothingly.

"I know..." He reached up to cup her cheek for a moment. "I know that. It... it's kinda irrational, I guess. But it's something I've thought about... I mean, I killed... during my first change, I killed some humans. They were beating the shit out of me, but I went all big and hairy and... yeah. We're supposed to protect humans not tear them to pieces, you know?"

He shrugged and gave her a tight hug, "...I'll be OK, but... thanks. Thanks for bein' here."

Tony paused, "How've you been doing?"

She frowned at that, because of her own beliefs in not killing.

Kate then said, "But that was an accident right? You didn't have the control you do now."

She nodded, and hugged him back before giving a sigh.

"All right, a few about when that Yeerk had possessed me. Lately though, and I've been better with this. Moved on from it, and try to keep people safe."

She then added, "Actually come to think of it, he's probably dead with the rest of my world, and I... I want to feel glad he is. Or annoyed it was probably quick. Not very heroic is that?"

"It was... but, listen, if I ever frenzy and I'm not in control of myself? You just need to get away from me. Because when we're like that... it... it doesn't matter. Everything's red and everything movin' is a target."

That said he nodded, listening quietly.

"...heroic or not, it's natural. We might be heroes or we're supposed to be, but we still feel emotions. Know I sure as hell do. Besides... sometimes you gotta kill. A lot of the time..."

At least, he did.

"All right," She agreed, and then considered something, "Can tranquilizers have any effect when you're like that? I still have some arrows that could fall giant people."

Kate then said, "The kind of hero I am? We're not supposed to. You stop the bad guy anyway you can, but not kill. Yet this one.... Well, I'm glad he could never hurt anybody else like that again. Never ruin another girl's life or change it."

"...maybe. When we get like that though, it takes a lot to finally put us down."

He sighed and then noddded, "I just don't want you getting hurt, OK? At least not because of me."

He shrugged, "...I get that. But, well, I guess back home we play for keeps. You don't kill the other guy he's gonna kill you."

"Don't worry, I can take care of myself now. If it gets bad, I'll go." Eventually. She'd try to get him to stop if at possible first.

"I've had people try to kill me too, would just find another way to stop them. Or do they just keep coming after you where you come from?"

"I know you can," he grinned and then slowly shook his head, "...back home, you don't have a choice. These fuckers are out to gut you. They wanted us dead. All of us. Or insane and corrupted. The Wyrm went insane nad it's tryin' to destroy the world. We don't have the police or jail or anything... it's a war."

"Sounds more like when the Skrull were invading back home. They didn't care who they killed. I was pulled before it really went far, but heard about it from my friends."

Kate added, "They shapeshift so they're harder to take down, and don't die easily. Rules got... relaxed with them I think."

"Well, the shape-shifting bit sounds familiar," he responded, quirking a brow, "And, yeah. You really can only deal with fucks like that one way."

That way being ripping their throat out with your teeth.

"Well the bad Skrull anyway. My friend Teddy's half Skrull but he's always been good."

"A half-Skrull, huh? Good to know. If I... uh... knew what a Skrull was."

Tony scratched his head, "...so, they're shape-shifters who do nasty stuff?"

"Half Skrull, half Kree. And well, this group of Skrull were. They're shapeshifting aliens who can look like anybody, and can even shapeshift part of themselves into different elements like fire or stone."

Tony raised a brow, "...that sounds pretty damn impressive, actually. Really impressive. Too bad they're dicks."

"Some are... ok a lot of them are with a few exceptions because some of them tried to kidnap my friend and take him back to their planet. His planet, but he grew up on Earth so that's the only home he knows. He didn't even know he wasn't a mutant until they told him."

"That's pretty bad... At least you guys beat 'em, right?"

Well, for all the good that probably did when the Ohm showed up.

"We did, ok we had some help, and it was the Skrull AND the Kree."

"Whoa, whoa," Plays teased, "Back up. Who are the Kree?"

"Another alien race, very militaristic, super soldier types and they wanted my friend too for the same reason as the Skrull. Only his dad was their leader instead of his mom in this case."

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