El!
El has been with the site for nearly two years now and has continued to prove her value. Currently, she is heading up our site event, Battle for Liberterram, on top of keeping up with her own personal plots.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peggy Carter!
Lux's posts are all wonderful to read. She has done a wonderful job of grasping the new universe and incorporating Peggy into it.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peter Parker!
It's good to see Spidey back on the site. Watching him deal with the universe shift in his own snarky way has been nothing short of entertaining.
THREAD
SPOTLIGHT
Eight O'Clock on the Dot!
El and Lux are making magic in this thread. Straight up fireworks, and the way they've played with drawing out the reveal is top class.
It was somewhat appropriate that Jay found his refuge in a slightly broken church; to try and find the calm from DC had been nearly impossible, since things moved really fast. Today was a break in the attack from the Chitauri. Jay knew that everyone he cared about was safe, so now it was finally time to take some time for himself. He even found some cigarettes from a store, not that they helped.
Nothing really did, anymore. Normally he wouldn’t smoke (or even drink in church) but since he was the only one attending, he was sure God would understand. If only he’d been faster, better he could’ve saved more people. He wasn’t really cut out for hero work; his powers didn’t really lend themselves to that sort of thing. How could he even call himself a hero when DC had been the first instance of it? He wasn’t really cut out for that sort of thing, but could he really feel bad about the Chitauri dying? They weren’t exactly coming here out of the goodness of their hearts. Like the first time they’d come here, they didn’t seem to care what the heck happened around them as long as it was death and destruction.
He should’ve been better. He should’ve gone to the X-men institute, but then who would’ve helped his family out? It wasn’t exactly like the good professor seemed to think about how the mutants family who attended his school did. Jay had let his wings out in the abandoned church, and didn’t like to think about how it was getting harder and harder to pull them back in. He was sure they day was coming soon where that wouldn’t be an option. Pulling out a lighter, lighting up a cigarette. “Ah gotta say, God, Ah dunno what this all means.” Jay said, after taking a drag on his cigarette.
The only way he could sit comfortably with his wingspan out in full was on the floor, lying against the pillar. It would be nice if there was a priest or someone he could talk to. Jay had come up here with Ali after all, once DC had been secured. Seemed like SHIELD needed the help, specifically from the insane amount of firepower that Ali could generate just by being on a battlefield.
Usually it was the drink he indulged in, but he might as well try and see if anything could get past his body’s self-repair function. Jay didn’t really notice if there was anyone else in or around the building, a sign of things going bad. It was a trait that Jay possessed that one would call the most irksome, or a fatal flaw. The overly critical nature he had in regards to himself tended to lend itself to leading him to downward spirals.
If there was another lost soul in the church, Jay wasn’t looking for it.
Churches had good rafters - Jackson knew that for a fact, if only because of one time when a drug ring was operating out of a run-down church. Good for sneaking, not that he had cared at the time - he rushed in, fought some guys, and had his ass pulled out of the fire by Hana. Usually his methods worked fine, but stealth definitely had its place as far as strategy went - shame he'd decided to leave Japan before he really learned when that time was. But now, the sky was falling, and hiding in the shadows wasn't going to do anything to stop it; he had to fight, and fight hard. But how hard was he supposed to fight against a threat this massive?
Jackson had locked his gaze on his sword for the past half-hour, but finally tore it away to look towards one of those statues of Jesus on the cross, hanging from one of the still-standing walls of the Church. Jackson didn't really believe in all of that, but who could blame him? The way he grew up, he was taught to believe in his own skill, not rely on some sort of divine intervention to save him when he was in a tough spot. So every near-death experience he'd had, every close call, he had himself or Hana to thank for getting through it. Not God, not Jesus, not Allah or Vishnu or whatever else anyone believed in - his hand had caught the ledge because he reached for it, not because some creator moved him closer to it.
Maybe he would go to Hell for that kind of thinking, or maybe he would go to Hell because of all the Chitauri he'd probably killed yesterday. Maybe that's why living life was so important to him: some small part of him really did believe all the stuff that people wrote to get others to respect them, or to think they were special, and he worried about what the truth behind the words would mean for him. But his own doubts could come when the world wasn't probably on the brink of another attack, given the work to set up more defenses outside. Besides, Jackson was apparently not alone in the Church, though the other guest didn't know he was there.
Whoever this guy was, his thoughts meshed with Jackson's a bit - he wasn't sure what this meant, but probably for entirely different reasons. Maybe this meant it was time to hang up the costume and focus on his career as a performer, or maybe it meant he needed to take a different approach to his crime fighting. But God wasn't going to answer that question - unfortunately, Jackson was going to have to think long and hard about it himself. If he were anyone else, he would've remained silent and left it at that - but he wasn't anyone else, and the silence was giving him too much to think about. "What could it possibly mean? My first guess is that aliens really hate Earth. Second is... That we have a lot more gold or diamonds than we realize, I dunno."
He turned to roll off the rafter, kicking off of its support from the column it was attached to and rolling when he hit the ground. Those superhero landings in movies would mess his back up, and he wanted to be able to do this for a while, if he decided he'd keep going after all this was said and done. The sword slipped back into its sheathe, but Jackson didn't bother to put his hood back up, or to hide his face again. Somehow it didn't feel important at that moment in time... Which was weird, because he was usually really careful about that. He looked towards where the voice was coming from, and saw... Wings, first of all. A brow rose as he looked over Jay - a Mutant, huh? Of all the people in the entirety of the city during one of the worst invasions since the battle of New York, who would be in this specific church, Jackson met a mutant. Wow. "You have a name? Given or chosen, I know a lot of mutants like to pick their own. Some are... Super passionate about that being their real name, so whatever works for you, pal."
Jay was a bit surprised at the voice that echoed from nowhere, and there was the initial reaction of ‘danger! Fdanger! You’re out and about as a mutant!’ But...in his current state of mind, he couldn’t bring himself to care. He supposed he hadn’t be as observant as he thought. He just was used to being alone in churches most of the time; his area of the South had been predominantly Baptist, and the Evangelical type of Baptist. The closest large Catholic Church had been three towns over, and they only ever attended mass five times a year at most. Or at least full mass and communion.
While Jay believed in god and certainly had his faith, he often kept it to himself. He also didn’t reject science and intelligence, like most people seemed to do. You couldn’t just cherry pick what you wanted from the bible; you had to take its meanings with a grain of salt. Jay was aware that several of his siblings had either turned away from their faith or found a different path, but then their mother had always been more concerned that her children turn out as good people, rather than people that believed in god or not. Besides, while Jay worshipped in a Catholic way, he was more of a pantheist than anything else.
That would certainly explain a lot of horrible things in the world.
There was a small place of worship in town, but the Catholics that were around aside from Jay’s family had simply been three other families. As such, the Church environment Jay had grown up in had been small at best. He gave a slight snort through his nostrils at that comment. “Ah kinda think ‘s a little bigger than that.” Jay responded, sounding more melancholy than most. Taking another drag on a cigarette that did literally nothing for him, he remained where he was for the moment. He couldn’t see where the other voice was coming from, but he had a pretty good idea of where the speaker was located.
Sure enough, the minute he turned his eyes to the rafters, a young kid fell, well rather leaped out of them and on to the ground floor. His face was uncovered as well, though the outfit was a dead giveaway. The thought was...slightly absurd, but then there was Spider Man, a man flying around in a super suit and several other mutants with silly code names so, sure. Ninjas fighting aliens.
Surprisingly not so silly anymore. “Ha, really? Ah haven’t met any like that.” Jay stated. “Yah kin call me Icarus fer tha moment.” Jay said. Was it really a surprise he picked a depressing name when he got like this? To the outside world, namely his siblings, it definitely wasn’t.
“So, do yah have a preference?” Jay asked, indicating the alcohol or the cigarettes. Even if Jackson was underage, the world was going to hell in a handbasket. What did it matter. “An’ ah gotta ask, what is a Ninja doin’ in a Church anyway?” Jay asked, slightly curious about the other man’s presence.
Jackson wasn't sure why the aliens were here, but he knew people well enough. Aliens were just people who happened to look different, weren't they? There was no bigger picture he could really see - aliens probably attacked the Earth for some kind of resource, or because they had a grudge against the Avengers because of the last invasion. Honestly, the whole thing was starting to wear on Jackson. Whatever the reasoning the Aliens had for coming to Earth again, Jackson just wanted them gone. People were getting hurt, killed even - Jackson was supposed to be able to stop that, but even with every superhuman in the city fighting back with him, they were taking casualties. Jackson was being pushed somewhere he didn't like - he'd killed a few of the aliens, probably. It wasn't against his clan's principles, exactly, but it went against his own, even in the middle of a war.
Jackson was surprised when the mutant in front of him seemed to not know about the ones that were so adamant about their chosen names. The subject brought up a few good memories from Jackson's past as a vigilante - memories that were usually involving Hana, or her grandfather, or... Well, anyone from the academy, really. "You'd be surprised... I fought this one guy a few times when I started out - didn't like being called anything but 'Discharge.' Guy shot electricity out of his hands, it was a... Painful gimmick."
An assassin with mutant powers wasn't exactly an easy thing to deal with - it helped that Jackson had had an extra set of hands back when they fought. He was good at being a distraction, and Hana had always been good at moving in the shadows, so it made sense that he would fight Discharge head-on while she set up something to take him down for good. Maybe when this was all over, a trip to Tokyo would be in order - he needed to practice with someone to get better at acting on his own.
But his attention snapped back to the mutant - Icarus, he'd said his name was. Good name, all things considered, but probably a bad person to draw inspiration from in the long run. Jackson shrugged when asked about his own preference - honestly, it wasn't like these two would see each other after this, not in a city as big as New York. Who knew if the mutant was even here regularly? "Jackson. And... Well, a ninja's in a church because a church is a nice, quiet place to be when you need to think, most of the time. I had a lot of thinking to do, so I came here. Plus, I'm more comfortable high up - so a church is a nice, quiet place with some rafters for me to get comfortable on to think. What about you? Comfort of religion?"
He'd heard Icarus talking about - or talking to - God before, so that didn't seem like a huge assumption on his part.
