video.

[enactors]

( marc still isn't entirely sure where he falls on the 'is this actually real?' question he's asked himself more than a handful of times since finding himself here, since finding the parchment with his crime(s).

still: it feels real enough, and for now that's enough.

he's dressed in a suit — it's white in its entirety, with small crescent moons serving as buttons and cufflinks. it's — fine. it's an outfit that says he — before here, at least — probably spent a small fortune on dry cleaning, and begs the question of how long it's going to stay looking Like That (answer: not long).

with one leg crossed over the other, there's a breath of a pause before he speaks. this isn't how he normally does this, but then, this isn't normal by any — even his — definition of the word. )

My name is Mr. Knight. ( is it? of course not, but there's nothing to marc's demeanour that says otherwise; and for those familiar, his accent says 'chicago!' ) I'm a priest. ( certainly, by A Definition, and by that, we mean 'by marc spector's definition and no-one else's, except (maybe) an ancient egyptian moon god's'. )

At home, I ran a mission — the Midnight Mission — through which I protected my community and my people. Travellers of the night. ( a breath of a pause and he holds up a hand (gloved, white, because of course) and gestures vaguely at his surroundings. ) A change in circumstances doesn't change my duty. If there's anyone that requires help or assistance with, ( at night, because marc is Dedicated, ), no matter how strange or unusual, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Comments

video

[starguy]

[ Well, if it isn't a familiar face! Of sorts. ]

You know, I actually meant to ask you if the name Mr. Knight thing was like, because your last name was Knight, or if it was a whole thing, but I can kinda see it now...

[ He's definitely a superhero. That is so cool, Peter isn't even going to call him out. Just look at that self-restraint! ]

Warrior priest with a night theme has a cool ring to it. What kind of stuff do you do? [ He pauses. ] Oh, my god. Do you fight vampires? Have you fought vampires? Werewolves?

[ He's not even be facetious, he's 100% fanboying a bit. I'm so sorry. ]

[enactors]

( oh, 'sup peter. )

It's my name. ( punctuated by a pause, then he adds: ) Nominative determinism. ( is he being serious? is he joking? the world may never know. )

—My receptionist is a vampire. ( beat. ) But yes, I've fought vampires. And werewolves.

[starguy]

[ Bro, you are blowing his mind. He also doesn't know what nominative determinism is, but if he did, he would approve. ]

That is so. COOL!

[ Unfortunately he's on video so you get to see how insanely excited he is by this news. It's like you told him Christmas came early, and Santa is real. ]

Vampires and werewolves?! Holy flark, how come Earth gets all the cool stuff??

[enactors]

( based on their previous interaction, marc can't say he's surprised by the grand reaction his reply earns, but there's a (large) part of him that wonders what's going on in space if vampires and werewolves are the definition of cool.

his eyebrows knit together in a flicker of a frown — it's an expression exceptionally common to marc — and the corners of his mouth dip down, just for a second. then, he shrugs. )

New York. ( he says, like that's an answer. )

[starguy]

[ Peter nods, like this does in fact explain everything. He's never been, but his mom sure made it sound like some weird den of sin, which means it must be very, very cool nowadays. ]

Guess that explains it. I'm from Missouri.

[ Surely that's the only reason he's never met a vampire before. It just sounds a lot cooler than fighting aliens who drain faith energy and can enslave most of the galaxy. ]

[enactors]

Huh. ( mildly, thoughtfully, like he's not really sure what he thinks of the response because he's fairly certain peter had spoken about earth in a way that had indicated some familiarity, but not the familiarity of someone that was from

missouri. ) When?

[starguy]

[ Peter out here sharing his multitudes. Dude is not shy, that's for sure. Plus, I mean, he's talking to a superhero. And not the boring spandex-wearing kind. It's chill. ]

When did I leave? It was like... 88? 89?

[ "Leave" is a funny way of putting it. ]

[enactors]

( marc isn't really sure what answer he'd been expecting with the question, but in terms of sheer aesthetics, late-eighties makes sense. his mind doesn't immediately jump to 'and peter was a child' because that's weird even in a way that marc is not, instead he decides that outside of the 'alternate universes' thing they've more than likely got going on (probably), there must be something going on with time — which, again, weird and absolutely not marc's favourite thing (not by a long shot), but it wouldn't be the first time.

assuming this isn't, say, a dream or a hallucination or a reality concocted by someone like morpheus.

marc had been a small child at the end of the eighties, and he definitely wouldn't put peter as older than him. ) For space? ( just. confirming. )

[starguy]

[ No one wants to admit they were kidnapped by aliens on their 13th birthday, least of all Peter. ]

Yep! Haven't been back since.

[ Is this... could it be? The Cortex showed them moments out of time... could he be in an honest to God Back to the Future scenario? (Minus the part about his mom or dad, ew.) ]

What year is it for you?

[enactors]

( 'not been back since', that could be varying levels of 'huh' depending on what year it is for peter, meaning that part of peter's response doesn't get much more than a sharp glance. ) It's 2022.

[starguy]

[ Peter's eyes go wide, but he seems more excited than surprised. ]

That's so cool. You must be from the future!

[ He takes a second to do some mental math, before deciding to give up. Whatever, math. ]

I use the standard galactic calendar now, so I have no idea what year it would be back home. But there's no way it's been that long, I'd be super old.

[enactors]

( this seems to be a running them with peter... )

I don't know much about temporal mechanics, but I think it's relative.

[starguy]

Yeah, I hear that. Especially in space, planetary rotations can change wildly. Relativity is weird.

[ Wow, that almost sounded smart. But it's a common enough problem in his neck of the woods... it's too bad that Peter's curiosity is taking over again. ]

So you work at night, huh? What if you're on a planet with really long days? Would that be like, an easy post for you?

[enactors]

I don't tend to leave Earth. ( the easy answer to that question is 'no' because marc consistently makes his life harder than it needs to be. ) I work best at night but that doesn't mean my activities are limited to night.

[starguy]

Makes sense...

[ He did mention that the run in with Gamora was more of a one time thing. ]

Don't you stand out a little in your suit at night, though? Not that it isn't cool or anything.

[enactors]

Yes. ( beat. ) That's the point. I want them to see me coming.

( because obviously. )

[starguy]

[ Obviously. ]

Dude. That's so metal.

[ Peter is so here for it. ]

Has there been any trouble or anything here? Kinda seems like we're all pretty chill, for a bunch of accused or confirmed criminals.

[enactors]

( metal, or: moronic. )

No. It's been quiet. ( which is weird and marc neither likes it nor trusts it. ) Makes you wonder what's being built up to.

[starguy]

[ Same difference, just look at Peter. ]

Yeah, I'm not usually one for waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it seriously feels like we're waiting for the shoe to drop. I mean... so-called criminals get dropped on a weird town and the worst that happens is our tech getting a little fritzy? Town festivals and scut? There's no way this is all there is to this.

[ You know it's bad when Peter's being sensible. ]

[enactors]

( given peter's attitude and responses to date, it's a surprisingly measured response and for (almost) the first time, marc thinks that there's probably more than immediately meets the eye to peter.

he thinks of his first conversation with the doctor. has his opinion changed since then? not really. )

I've wondered if it's a test of character and our reactions.

[starguy]

[ Indeed, even Peter knows there's something fishy going on. He hopes this won't lead to them all dying or something terrible, but he's seen bad stuff and knows there are some messed up people out there. Some that might even find the idea of 'testing criminals' to be an illuminating experience.

God, he hopes the Collector isn't behind all this. ]

Yeah, that's not too out there. You'd have to be some kind of messed up to grab people from different universes and strand them on a backwater planet... but there's a lot of rich weirdos in the galaxy, so.

[ He shrugs. At least whatever rich weirdo is behind this isn't someone like Lady Hellbender, who'd probably make them fight monsters just to prove that she can. ]

You think they're watching, trying to see if we repeat our mistakes or something? And they'll send home whoever gets perfect marks?

[enactors]

Repeat our mistakes? No. ( marc's quite confident, if only because his crime is firmly in the past, linked to a time of his life that he's pointedly left behind. ) But maybe to see how we react. Of their measure of us is correct — my list wasn't just a crime, it was a profile.

[starguy]

[ Peter nods. I mean, he doesn't think his crime was a mistake either, so he hopes he really isn't put in a place to betray someone again. ]

Damn, you got a whole profile? Nice.

[ He's a superhero, probably does lots of illegal shit. Which, again, metal. Meanwhile, Peter's rap sheet was the wimpiest of his friends... and he maybe has the wrong reaction to hearing about cool guys with long lists of crimes. ]

But yeah, maybe they're waiting to see what we do... or how long it takes for 'something' to happen. Could be for anything, at this rate. Guess all we can do is kill time in the meantime. Or fight crime, in your case -- which is, again, very cool.

[enactors]

( marc does have a long list of crimes, but his parchment was fairly succinct on that front. what it had contained was a fairly detailed write-up on him — physical characteristics, observations, comments on his personality (and jake, and steven).

his gaze flits over what he can see of peter in the video, eyebrows pulling together in a momentary frown. )

You mean, how long it takes for us to revert to type? ( as peter had said: it's been remarkably, surprisingly peaceful so far. and, speaking of— ) —I haven't noticed much crime. Like you said, for a bunch of criminals, everyone seems very law-abiding.

( he's probably going to have to earn his keep by dealing with monsters or animals or something, ugh. )

It doesn't make any sense.

[starguy]

[ Peter's so used to seeing his info that he doesn't find it weird. But then Peter's background doesn't hold a candle to Marc's can of worms, so that does explain why it doesn't bother him in the least.

Really, Peter's exceedingly relaxed for a guy who might be stuck here with a bunch of criminals. But he's used to criminals -- he'd probably be more worried if there were those among them who hadn't committed some form of crime. Those are the types that would have a field day here. ]

Pretty much. [ He shrugs. He's the kind of guy who speaks with his hands, so half of that isn't getting caught on video. ] I mean, most criminals I know don't steal for fun, more out of necessity. So it's not too weird that nobody's caused problems yet. But not everybody's a team player, and not everybody knows how to do 'polite society' so there's gotta be a point where somebody does something. Unless they managed to grab the nicest criminals in the multiverse.

[ Which makes him grin in irony. Hey, if you ever wanna do the monster-hunting thing and need a +1, Peter's ready. ]

It really doesn't make any sense. My best guess is they're trying to lull us into a false sense of security or whatever... But the end result'll be the same either way -- all we can do is stay on our toes and wait for something to change.

[ Wow, Peter, you mean all the wandering around and time-wasting you've been doing has been on purpose? Sure. ]