text; un: e. lehnsherr

[spalt]

[Erik cares little for the voting process or who was chosen to lead. What he does care about is how that decision will effect him. The environment. The natives, people who he feels an odd and detached sort of likeness to. He understands all too well what it’s like to be crowded into a small space and forced to live in fear for being ‘different’.]

Congratulations to our new leader.
I’m sure he’ll treat everyone fairly and equally.

I understand the need to feel separate from this world but there can’t be an us and them, the natives. It’s us and them, the monsters who feed on sound.

Many of us have abilities. Powers that are useful. There are natives that do as well. If we band together, we can keep ourselves safe. All of us.

[He wants to make his motives clear. He wants to survive. To get back home where he has unfinished business.]

I’m compiling all the information gathered here and there will be three different sections. Public, private, and what you can help with rather than abilities.

Do not respond to this post if you do not have anything useful to add. If you do not want to take the risk of others in the community knowing your skills, don't add them or make them private.

[ooc: Please comment Here. This post has been edited to make more sense. The mods have given me permission to make it so that when the final post is ready and I put it up, characters can only access it if they've asked for and been given permission; even the public part of the post.]

Comments

[waystation]

_{["Only half-shit" is better than what Erik was averaging, he'll take it.]}

And I'd do the same for you. That's what friends do. I'll be careful, I promise.

But he's right, too. We have to work together. If he has powers, too, and he and others are willing to use them and help even a little bit, that's good for all of us.

_{[Being short with people might just be the least worrying thing about the Erik Lehnsherrs of the multiverse, all things considered...]}

Anything I can do?

[clussy]

(Annnnd that defense route throws the softness back out the window. Eddie can feel himself bristling. Adults were such a sensitive topic for this kid, seriously.)

right. thats what friends do. which is why you're defending him to me.

(Instead of the other way around. Real solidarity there. Maybe it was childish, certainly, but it also felt bad feeling like Jake was going out of his way to defend Erik, but doing nothing to defend Eddie. He mostly just felt chastised.)

no.

[waystation]

I'm thinking about how we defend ourselves against the Sound Eaters. We're on the same side.

_{[So says Switzerland.]}

What's really eating you?

[clussy]

yeah. that's a nice idea. sorry but i don't trust adults the same way you do. there's people here who don't care about the sound eaters and want to hurt other people. it's already happened. i know too many adults like this and what they're usually capable of. so yeah. i'll stay cautious.

i hope for your sake and everyone else's he's a good man with a shitty personality but good intentions.

it doesn't matter.

[waystation]

_{[You can be cautious without starting squabbles with super-powered mutants on the network, Eddie, and you know it.]}

I didn't say I trusted him, just that I didn't think what he said was a threat the same way. That's all. I wasn't trying to gang up on you.

Come on, tell me.

_{[He could always pull it out of Eddie's head himself, but he'd rather Eddie told him once he's calmed down some.]}

[clussy]

(Yeah, he could, but sometimes it was worth speaking up. Besides, the guy fixing his post to clarify meant that clearly it wasn't totally right at first either. And it was people pointing that out that made it better.)

okay.

i dont want to tell you right now.

(Not when he was feeling rather sour.)

[waystation]

_{[This concern thing works both ways, he just really doesn't want you to get squished under a support beam one day because you ticked off the guy with metal floaty powers.]}

Okay. Are we okay?

Later, then.

_{[And you better believe he'll be following up when they're back at the house together. He knows where you sleep.]}

[clussy]

(Jake don't you think it's kinda questionable you're defending a guy you can conceivably imagine hurting Eddie. HM.)

No. You made me feel stupid for defending you and like I did something bad or overreacted. Like what. You think I need to be told we need to work together?? Jeez. I'm not an idiot.

all I'm saying is it's sketchy to trust a singular guy. even if that guy is SUPER NICE with GREAT INTENTIONS. Listen. I know people who can make people do anything they want. What happens if, because this moron publicly made it clear who he is and what he's doing, some asshole with that ability came and used this guy to find out all the people who have powers INCLUDING the private ones? and don't call me paranoid. im not paranoid. i know a man exists like that here.

I dont have powers Jake. I can't protect you from anything. I can't even fucking throw a punch for Christs sake

(At least Eddie...doesn't lie.

UH YEAH HE CAN BLOCK THE DOOR.)

[waystation]

_{[He can defend everyone at the same time when a Sound Eater could just as easily come along and rip Erik's face off, he's talented like that.]}

No, you're not an idiot. Just hot-tempered when you have something on your mind.

_{[Hint, hint.]}

I'm sorry if I made you feel like I didn't want you sticking up for me--it's not that. I like that you care so much. It's one of the things I like best about you. But people have been talking over each other on the network for days and I didn't want you to get sucked into it, too.

You're talking about that Kilgrave guy. Yeah, I heard about him. But the way I see it, the contacts will have be to passed around either way so people will know where to look for the list. That's the risk people who put themselves out there will have to take. If it comes down to being afraid a couple of us are going to screw things up or believing it could work, I'd rather take the chance and try, you know?

I've been afraid of seeing monsters everywhere I go and I hate that feeling. I just don't want us to get so paranoid of each other we miss chances to build on ideas like this. We're all we've got.

And that means you, too. You're important. You're the best friend I've made here. Let's not fight, okay?

_{[Please don't make him learn telekinesis just to unblock your door.]}

[clussy]

(I like that you care so much. It's one of the things I like best about you. Those words bleed out over all the rest of them and Eddie completely forgets what he was so mad about in the first place, why he had been hurt. He just stares at his device instead, feeling his face steadily burning brighter and brighter. Eventually, he puts his head down and crushes the device against his chest.

Eddie knows he has to respond, so he neatly but hastily scraps himself back together into an oriented state of mind. God. No one ever...Eddie was far too used to being told his emotions were too much all of the time. That boys shouldn't be like that, that he needed to calm down. Which sometimes he definitely did. But sometimes he was only worked up because he was genuinely upset about something, and no one liked their genuine upset to be dismissed.

And Eddie didn't really feel dismissed at all. Before he had, certainly, but with this reply? No.

The funny thing was he had never once stopped to think that Jake was afraid of monsters too. Jake just seemed so much bigger and braver than Eddie himself. Jake gets nightmares too. He knew Jake had fears himself, but to think that the Sound Eaters had been haunting him... Eddie felt like IT was such an immense fear in his life, so dominating that he didn't really feel as scared of other monsters...There was a lot to address.)

A lot happened all at once. When you have people getting into places of power and then people asking that people come forward to register it's gonna work up a lot of people. I don't think anyone can be that surprised.

I'm sorry, Jake. I swear it's not that I don't agree with you. It's not as simple for me as it is for you. You make my fear of that seem small and silly in comparison, but I'm

Adults are the worst monsters I've ever known. Worse than IT. Worse than Sound Eaters. It's a lot harder for me to casually accept that kind of thing. I'm used to relying on myself and my friends. We've talked about a lot of things but I guess we've never really talked about that. So that's not your fault.

But I like that a lot about you. I know I'm scared...but I like that you want to try and help other people even if there are risks. You're so good.

I'm sorry though. I never thought you'd be scared of them and I don't know why. If it makes you feel safer to do this, then I understand. I'm not sorry I yelled at this guy for your sake, but I'm sorry I didn't consider your feelings more.

You're important too. Really important, and you're one of my best friends ever too.

We're okay. I'm not mad anymore.

(Yeah no blockade to worry about anymore. Moment Jake's home he's gonna get an armful of Eddie Kaspbrak thrown on him. It's gonna be a sleepover night, buddy.)

[waystation]

<sub>[It's not just the Sound Eaters--it's that breathless panic of walking to the convenience store and spotting a loose flap of skin, praying the animal eyes beneath the disguise don't see him back. It's knowing there are people like the man in black out there who look human, but are worse than any monster. It's seeing neglect and malevolence snap the Beams of the Tower again and again.

There are threats everywhere. If he approached everyone and everything with that fear riding shotgun, he'd never get out of bed again.

Granted, some mornings are more tempting than others. He's still only eleven, no matter how desperate he is to deserve what Roland had bestowed on him. Gunslinger.]</sub>

I think he knows that better than anyone.

I get it. You grew up seeing the worst sides of people. It's easy to stop trying after a while But you're not in that place anymore. You can trust your friends and still want to think giving someone a chance won't go badly every time. You met Clara, didn't you? And I met Roland. Majima looks like he walked out of a gangster movie, but he seems all right. We have an actual Supergirl who flies around. There's a woman building a safe house just for the kids. We've met some cool people, haven't we?

_{[Good or not, but he knows he'd like to help Eddie figure out a way to trust people again, too.]}

You don't have to apologize to me.

I'll see you later, then?