(open) new york, i love you but you're bringing me down

[saved]

Who: Peter Parker (and open)
Where: Directly in front of the mansion or the Library
When: February 22nd, afternoon
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Peter Parker arrives and gets a bunch of eggs to the face. Then he makes a mess in the library with books because what is coordination when you have not slept?

note: I totally love both prose or action spam so feel free to send me your preference!


Option A: Arrival in front of mansion

Here's a thing Peter Parker has just discovered: eggs are painful when they slip into giant cuts on your face.

Also, it is really hard to see through the waves of egg on his face. The carton sticks to his hand. All the eggs have fallen out of the carton and landed on his face and around the ground underneath him. Yep. This is great.

Captain Stacy is dead. Dr. Connors is behind bars. Peter Parker gets to walk away from it all and go home like he didn't get into a huge battle with a giant lizard on top of a skyscraper, like he didn't get Gwen's dad killed in the process. All Peter wanted to do was get his Aunt May the eggs she kept asking for before heading back to her with more blood and scrapes and no answers. He bought the eggs and climbed a wall, and then all of a sudden, he's landed smack dab on his back with the entire egg carton shoved into his own face.

"This day... cannot get any worse."

He rubs at his face which also hurts and then sits up abruptly. The world spins because of it. He has a bullet wound in his leg. His face and chest are covered in scratches and bruises. The spandex is still on under his clothes. Peter blinks as his vision finally clears, and he abruptly realizes he is... not in New York City. It's too green for the area of New York City he had been in, and even if it was Central Park, he can't hear the cars. Where are all the cars? ...and why is there a... mansion? Kinda? Does he have a concussion? It's hard to focus.

It's with an abruptness he realizes he is not in New York City at all, but in... some place else with eggs on his bloody face.

He lets out a sudden huff of air, almost too exhausted to be as shocked as he could be.

"...just kidding."

This day just got so much worse.

Option B: Library

Once he has cleaned himself up but failed to like sleep so he's a little wired by lack of it after such a long battle, Peter Parker has decided the best place to go for information is always the library except he can't quite find what he needs here. His hair sticks up every which way. He has piled the books up so high that he has to narrowly dodge to avoid running into someone coming the other way.

Remarkably, only one book falls from the very top, and he manages to grab hold of it before it hits the floor... but then the rest of the books piled in his other arm topple over and land all around him.

He's not at his best spider-ness since arriving, still out of sorts. He presses his hand to his face. "...please tell me nobody saw that."

Comments

[saved]

[Peter takes the offered book, noting the name of the librarian. Important person to know. Harder to approach important people with words and stuff, but he is getting better at it. Sorta.] Yeah? You seem like you know a thing or two or- y'know a hundred things about living here.

How long have you been here?

[krmvgivv]

[Dipper grins at the compliment. He does know a hundred things about living here, but it's not often that people recognize it, especially older teenage people. The whole preteen thing sort of works against him.]

Almost a year. And yeah, I do know a lot. I've read everything I could get my hands on about Wonderland and taken a bunch of my own notes too. Pretty much an expert by now.

[saved]

[Peter smiles back at him at the sight of his grin. He leans forward on his feet a bit, looking down at him as he shoves his hands into his pockets. The books are all stacked nearby.] So I basically lucked out running into you. Uh, literally running into you. Anything important a total newbie should know right off the bat? Other than the fact it is Wonderland, and there's no getting back.

Also, I'd love to see your notes some time.

[krmvgivv]

[The praise is super effective. Dipper preens a little then ]

You've got a creepy doppleganger living on the other side of the mirrors and they can see us and hear us whenever they want but the connection only goes one way.

[....that seems like an important one.]

Oh! But did anyone tell you about the closets yet?

[saved]

................................................uh. [No, wait, he can totally process this. Yeah, this is definitely something that he can totally deal with. Being watched by a creepy doppleganger on the other side of the mirrors. This is great! This is totally information he can live with. Totally.] Yeah, that's about the creepiest thing I have ever heard.

[He is also really happy for the change of subject at the moment.]

No, not yet. What can you tell me about them?

[krmvgivv]

Breaking them works, but they reform. I keep mine covered and play music constantly. Or go to the caves or outside if I want to be sure I'm not overheard.

[Dipper had enough paranoia about constantly being watched before he came here.]

You can get pretty much anything from them. They're magic.

[saved]

Yeah, over all that sounds like a good plan for not being stalked by creepy doppleganger on the mirror side. I'll have to do it too. Thanks for the tip.

[Peter makes a slight face at the thought. The rest? It is kind of amazing]

Seriously? Anything? But that- [He releases a breath out of his mouth slowly] I'm... still getting used to magic. It didn't exist where I'm from. Have you experimented with the whole limits of the closet? [Because that is something that he would/will probably do to see what it can give him and what it can't and how big the item might be]

[krmvgivv]

To the best of your knowledge, it didn't exist. Most people think it doesn't exist where I'm from too. They're just... really wrong.

[A subtle point, but Dipper believed in the supernatural long before he had proof. He's sure if one of the kids from school showed up, or anyone from Piedmont at all, they'd say they're from a world without magic too.]

But yeah, it's got limits. Anything too big or complicated, you gotta go to the Vendors out back and swap a memory for, if you think it's worth it. And nothing'll bring you people you know or even specific pets. Or anything that could bust us out of here.

[saved]

Right. To the best of my knowledge. I mean, there was a giant lizard man but that was due to science.

[He would like to think if there was magic in his world some of that magic would have showed up to help him defeat the giant ass lizard, but. He is really new to learning about it. His stomach does a twist then abruptly.]

Wait. Vendors use memories as some kind of currency? Do people actually go for that?

[krmvgivv]

Giant lizard man? Cool. Mostly science has just given us giant robots. And time travel. And I guess dinosaurs are more science-y than magic-y.

[...it's been a pretty interesting summer.]

Depends how desperate you are. [Dipper hasn't used the vendors, but he knows what would motivate him to do it. He just hopes it never comes to that. He's already forgotten his parents' names, he doesn't want to lose more than that.]

[saved]

Wait, science gave you time travel? That's awesome. Also, I'm jealous. Kinda. Time travel in fictional stories can get dangerous, but I don't know how accurate that is.

[really, really quickly though maybe he is wrong. it is not like he has ever done time travel. he's just read fictional books about it which aren't always accurate to their dangers.]

...I feel like that would be scary, losing a memory. Can't say I might never get that desperate but- [he bites down on his lip and shakes his head]

[krmvgivv]

Future science! It's... a long story. Two long stories, I guess. We've had time travel adventures twice. And yeah, it can get dangerous. But also really cool.

[He shrugs, flashing a grin that fades a little at the mention of losing memories.]

...well, it's gonna happen either way if you're here long enough. Mostly it's just one word at a time but not always.

[saved]

...okay, I hope you know someday I am going to need to hear both of these two long stories. I mean, you time traveled. You had time travelling adventures. That's awesome. You had time traveling adventures with... someone else?

[Peter caught that 'we', which is good that there is one. He doesn't think it because of Dipper's age. He just knows how... difficult it has been being Spider-man alone. Peter has always been a loner, but he had no one to confide in about anything until he finally admitted the truth to Gwen and now he realizes he can't do that anymore. Because it will put her in danger, it sucks.]

Damn. Do you at least have a way of knowing you've forgotten something? I mean if you forget enough, you might... not even realize there's something missing. Guess it freaks me out.

[krmvgivv]

Oh, yeah, my twin sister. Mabel. [Right, there's no way... a total stranger would know that without him saying it.] We do pretty much everything together.

[He doesn't know what he'd do if she wasn't in Wonderland with her. Wait, yes he does. Go crazy like he did that one week she vanished.]

When there's an Event from your world you can guess there's a word gone. As for what it is... that's harder.

[He flips through his notebook to a page that he squints at for a few seconds, then shakes his head and turns it around. There are two names, a man's and a woman's, written in a blocky handwriting and the word tourist written in another hand. Neither of them match any of the other handwriting on the page.]

These are the words I've forgotten. I can't... I can't really read them. And any time someone says them, I just... sort of don't hear them. I don't know, it's weird.

[saved]

She's here too? That's good. [Peter smiles then because he imagines Dipper would sound much more sad about it otherwise. He has been here a long time, and it would be a really long time to go without his twin especially if they do everything together.]

An... Event? What's an Event?

[He leans over to look at the words there. Peter shakes his head.]

So it goes way deeper than just forgetting, it's like it's taken from you permanently. Normally, if someone forgets how to do something, they can relearn it unless something happened in their brain to prevent new memories from being able to be formed.

...but this is different. It's magic. [God, the-] You forgot names too. [And a word. Peter won't say any of it out loud, because Peter believes him and he feels it'd just be disconcerting for him. To know there's something he is no longer able to know, to not even be allowed to hear it.]

[krmvgivv]

Not names I used much. [He just called them Mom and Dad. It's why it took him a while to even realize that's what had been taken.] And it's not usually names. That was a... special case.

[saved]

But important names. [It had to be important or what was the- the cost in losing them? Peter doesn't want to ask more than Dipper is comfortable with sharing, but at the same time, he can't help but ask-] Special how?

[krmvgivv]

We looked in the Core. [He snaps the notebook shut and stuffs it back into the inside pocket of his vest.] When you do that you get sick and lose a memory, but we had to try.

[saved]

...do you at least remember what you saw when you looked in the Core? [It'd be shit if they made that sacrifice only to have the memory stolen from them too]

[krmvgivv]

Sure, but it wasn't anything useful. Just a lot of bright light.

[saved]

...what the hell. [They lost something huge so they could just see some really bright light. That sucks.] Seriously?

[krmvgivv]

It's fine. I knew the risks. I still had to try.

[saved]

It's not fine. I mean, I appreciate you doing it even knowing it was such a big risk, but it's not okay that it happened. [It's not said out of pity. More just acknowledgement.] It's shit. This place is shitty for doing that.

[krmvgivv]

It's shit.

[The word bubbles out, almost surprising him. Dipper isn't a big swearer. Back home, he never said anything stronger than heck. Here, he's said ass a few times, and it was... weird.

It's the first time he's ever said shit out loud, and it... feels good. What the fuck does it matter if he swears? Nothing he does here matters. It'll all be wiped away when he goes home (it has to be when not if), and he's never gonna make it to old enough to swear. May as well start now. He lets out a strangled half laugh.]

Know what else is shit? Time doesn't move here. Which means you don't age at all. This place is all around shitty.

[saved]

[Peter doesn't know it's the first time he has said the word out loud. Maybe he would feel bad about being a bad influence otherwise, but it's just curse words. Peter doesn't use them a whole lot either in general, but if any place deserves it, it seems to be Wonderland.

He slides his hands into his pockets as he looks at Dipper carefully, hearing that strangled half laugh. It's concerning. All the shit that happens here could seriously affect anyone trapped in it.]

So even though you've been here almost a year, you're still physically the same age you were when you showed up. [Yeah, that's-- that's bad, concerning.] So how... do you deal with all the shit?