a broken heart

[arachnerina]

Who: Gwen and YOU
Where: around Aldrip
What: Peter's disappeared, and Gwen's upset -- catch all for depression threads, including OPEN network post (closed prompts to be added later)
Warnings: discussions of death and grief, will update if anything else comes up



i: missing persons alert

[Gwen's been awake for a few hours, and her anxiety is not getting better. One Peter was accounted for, but the one she was dating? The one she had been so anxious about losing with the reboot? Yeah, he's nowhere to be found, and she's unable to contact him through either network.]

text; un: gwenstacy

hey so
has anyone seen a brown haired dork in a spider suit anywhere??
about 5'8"
usually looks lost

i woke up back home after the reset with our roommate but he isn't here
i can't pull him up on the network either
does that mean

[the message stops there because she knows exactly what it means and she's currently trying not to have a panic attack.]

ii: denial

[Peter can't be gone. This can't be happening. No, no, no. It was too soon. They knew they didn't have forever, but it wasn't supposed to end like this. She wasn't ready to lose him too. It wasn't fair.

But she also couldn't accept. He couldn't just be gone. Maybe he just got glitched before the system reset?? Maybe he was just safe in the backups?? Any chance that the backups meant Peter would be safe and sound meant she was going to guard the suit it was downloaded into with her life. Until they could figure out how to retrieve it, no one was allowed near it without her explicit permission, not to mention it was hidden in a place only a spider-person could even get close to it.

This level of denial over the first few days of October meant she wasn't going to stop looking for him. Gwen already spent a large amount of time patrolling and doing her civic duty as a friendly neighborhood spider, but she tripled her time out, searching every nook and cranny for any signs of Peter, refusing to go home when it felt so empty without him, let alone let herself rest when the constant worry about his safety weighed on her.

She even left Aldrip and went back to Ketsora, just because she had to go there and look around again herself. She just needed to see it again, to see if he just was the unlucky one to get left behind. Unfortunately, seeing that he wasn't there didn't make her feel any better.]

iii: wildcard

[Feel free to wildcard, or hit me up at crystallium or crystallium @ discord to plot something out! Anyone can find Gwen around town or at the Ketsoran wall during these first few days of the month. Once it really starts to hit her that he's really gone, she'll turn more isolating and rarely leave her house, unless someone drags her out. Stem club is about the only other place she would visit semi-regularly, and even that's going to be scarce.]

Comments

ii

[southernchere]

[ let's say this was after her stupid drunk log, and she managed to find some kind of clothing by the time she sees gwen speedily swinging by. rogue halts in her own hovering when she spots the teenager, and she decides to trace on behind her. ]

Woah, where's the fire, Sugah? — What's gotten you in a tizzy?

[arachnerina]

[She's had six months in Aldrip to get used to the idea of all these other heroes, but sometimes, it still blows her mind. Especially when it seems like a bunch of these heroes are from universes with Peter Parkers, too.

She doesn't want to stop when Rogue catches up to her, but she makes herself pause, landing on a rooftop and crossing her arms. Thankfully her mask hides the worried expression all over her face, but her body language sure doesn't. She's on her toes, fidgeting, and doing everything she can to keep herself from pacing out of anxiety.]

I can't find Peter-- Spider-Man. The shorter one. He didn't show up back home after the reset.

ii.

[nightwild]

[In the city, she's not the only one prowling on patrol. Fauna prefers to patrol in her owl form's mobility, but for now, she wants the extra firepower of her primary form, just in case.

... A mysterious masked figure looking for something. The emblem of a spider- Spider demons are almost always evil, after all. There's gotta be something suspicious here.

So as Gwen investigates a back alley, a figure in red armor and a fox mask suddenly steps out, standing between her and the way back out.]

What are you looking for?

[arachnerina]

[Thankfully, it isn't easy to sneak up on a spider-person. Gwen can sense someone approaching, but there's a part of her that doesn't even care. She's so hyperfocused on finding Peter right now that her own safety isn't her primary concern.

She only turns around when she's completely sure he isn't in this random alley she was checking out, and her body language is practically screaming in anxiety. She's bouncing on her toes and wraps her arms around herself as she steps towards the new stranger-- another superhero? This place really was filled to the brim with them.]

My, uh-- My boyfriend. He's missing. He didn't reappear after the reset.

II

[digthefuzz]

[Kurt himself is still new to this and how to figure out if someone's really left or not. He didn't have much to contribute to Gwen's original query, but it did get him worried about Peter. He was still getting to know the guy and would miss him if he was gone. But also, knowing that he and Gwen were together, he felt extra worried about how she might feel being separated from him like this.

He has been patrolling some nights to play superhero, though most of the time it just ends up being some extra night-time teleportation practice. And on this particular night, he manages to spot her after teleporting onto a random rooftop. And he tries to get her attention.]

Hey!

[arachnerina]

[It's one thing talking about her worries over the network, but it's another when coming face to face with one of her friends here. Kurt knows them both by now, so he knows what Peter means to her, too, even if just on a superficial level. It's enough that when she sees Kurt in the distance, waving to get her attention and a knot forms in her throat.

How is she supposed to talk about this with someone that knows him too?

But she can't avoid Kurt forever, or avoid the conversation that's inevitably about to happen. So she swings around, landing on a ledge not far from him on the same rooftop.]

Kurt... hey. Out patrolling too?

[Just. Going to avoid the Thing for the moment.]

i. un: mrmurasaki

[depressionnap]

cant message him either

reboot might have messed with phones

[says the guy who gets a little uncomfortable about cd players, but either way he is trying to say optimistic]

i'll help you look

[arachnerina]

yeah!
i wondered that too
or maybe it's another glitch

[she's in so much denial right now, can you tell?]

thanks
i'm wondering if maybe he just got stuck at ketsora
i might go check it out and look for him

i.

[incorrigibles]

wait, peter's gone?

shit. did you guys not go together to one of the terminals? i thought i was the only one who got split from you

[arachnerina]

we were at first
he stayed behind to hold off some guards while me and the other peter went through
he was supposed to catch up with us but
he never did
i was going to go find him once the reset was done but then we woke up at home and he didn't

text; un: shades

[laserguy]

[His stomach drops reading Gwen's message. If his name isn't on the network anymore... that usually means only one thing. Maybe it's different, after the reset, but it's hard to say. All of his friends are still here. Why would Peter be singled out?]

i'll keep an eye out for him.

so he was with you until the reset happened? and didn't wake up with you?

text;

[arachnerina]

[She still can't believe this was really happening. She had had a bad feeling going into this whole reset business, but Peter had insisted! He wanted to help the AI so bad.]

thanks

we got separated a little before
ketsora wasn't a terminal, it was a portal
there were too many guards so he sent us ahead
me and the other peter, i mean
but he never caught up with us

closed to peter 2

[arachnerina]

[They did it! They really reset the AI and successfully downloaded it into Peter's suit. Gwen had been cautiously skeptical, for good reason, but it actually worked. Sometimes things actually did work out for them.

She had barely been able to process the relief when she blinked, and found herself back in their bedroom. She sat up, blinking a few times with confusion as her mind cleared.

Right. The AI. Ketsora, then the Tower. Her and Peter 2 had done it. But then-- how'd she get home? Did the reset send her here? She scanned the room, and the strangely cold spot beside her, but there was no sign of her boyfriend. He hadn't made it to the terminal with them, so maybe he just hadn't made it back yet? How long had it even been?

She slipped out of the lower bunk, crossing the room and listening closely for signs of life.]

Peter? [It didn't matter which Peter answered, she just needed to know if they made it back here, too. The living area was clear, so she beelined to Peter 2's door, where she knocked hurriedly. She knew he was there. She could hear his lifesigns with no issue, so maybe it really was because they were in the terminal at the time of the reset??]

[spideyguy]

[ Resetting the AI was not as easy as it sounded.

To be fair, no one had said it would be easy, exactly, but damn. The journey out to Ketsora, the chaos of their plan and improvising on the fly, Jinx and Bakugo coming out of nowhere to save them - then getting through the portal they'd found, not to mention dealing with all the personalities in play at the terminal itself -

It's not a surprise that Peter wakes to a lingering ache in his back (the injury was already on it's way to mostly-healed after playing look at me I'm a target with the guards), inhaling sharply as he comes to - in his room? He stares up at the ceiling for a moment, taking stock of everything and trying to remember how he got here. How did they get back from the strange tower they'd found? Where even was it?

Yeah, he's mostly just been rolling with the punches here.

There's a noise in the other room, muffled through the wall, someone else stirring. There wasn't much that went on in this place that the three of them couldn't hear. Peter sits up, shaking his head to clear it before he plants his feet on the floor. The knocking starts a moment later, and Peter levers himself up to answer, swinging it open for her. He's still dressed in his torn, half-burnt suit, mask - somewhere, not currently on his head. ] Gwen?

Did we - we did it, right? How did we - [ Peter shakes his head again, trying to knock the memories loose. ] How are we back here?

closed to jim

[arachnerina]

[Peter had to be stuck in Ketsora. That was the only explanation she would accept. He hadn't been at the terminal, so that was why he didn't get reset back to Aldrip, which meant he had to be stuck and needed her help!

Maybe it was stupid and foolish and all kinds of levels of denial, but it was the last option before accepting he was gone, and she didn't know if she could. Accepting it would mean letting him go, and she had already lost too many people.

No. No, Peter was fine. He would be fine, he would be.

It wasn't exactly a split decision that she made to travel there again, but she certainly didn't tell anyone she was going. She rented a chocobo like before, and made the long trek, not stopping until she made it to the same place they camped before. Any signs that they had been there prior was gone, making her stomach drop.

But that didn't mean anything. She still had to get to the wall, and get past the guards again before she would listen to any alternative. Peter had to be there. He had to be.]

this ran away from me screaming i am so sorry

[finalfrontiersman]

[ The terminal reset didn't quite go as planned. Nothing ever did, especially in Aldrip, but Jim had thought - maybe this time. Maybe just this once. No. It turned out that the euphoria Jim and Spock had found, waking up in their own bed, in one piece, was not the same across the board. People had died. People had disappeared.

Peter was one of them.

It was unclear what exactly had happened. No one Jim had been able to wrangle for an after action report could recall where exactly the spiderteen was when the stars went out. The other Peter and Gwen had gone through the portal first, and arrived at the terminal without incident. Charles had gone through and ended up in another location entirely. Peter and Shinji - Jim wasn't sure if they'd made it to the portal. If they had, they hadn't ended up anywhere they could be tracked. If they hadn't...they also hadn't reset with the rest of the Chosen when the world rebooted.

Gwen, to no one's surprise, isn't taking it well.

Jim knows she's in deep denial. He can't blame her, either, knowing that none of the options point to Peter being alive and well. He's either stuck somewhere in the code of the world they're inhabiting, or he made it out - and if the latter is the case, then ostensibly, he went home. Went home to his own demise.

Yeah, like he said, he gets why she's in denial. It's not a pleasant thought, and as much as Jim desperately wishes it weren't the case - all signs are pointing to one conclusion or the other. Regardless, it doesn't really matter. Contemplating the unknowable isn't going to help anyone, least of all Gwen, who's still stuck here, for better or for worse. Peter's not here, and that in and of itself is problem enough.

Jim puts a low grade track on Gwen's comm, just in case, and the alert comes shortly after breakfast: that she's more than fifteen miles outside the city limits. Jim only has to watch her path continue to blink for another ten (as he's grabbing his shit and packing a bag) before he knows where it is she's going.

He gets this, too, even if he knows it's pointless. Wanting to be sure, needing to be sure. Searching for answers in the only place she might be able to get them, even if they all know it won't turn anything up. Jim can't rightly say he would be any better, if it had happened to his person. He even understands why she went it alone, not even taking the other Peter with her - probably not wanting to hear any nay-saying, whatsoever. That's the only part of this whole thing Jim actually has a problem with, though - going it alone.

...yeah, he knows he's a hypocrite. He's learning, okay? Do as he says, not as he does, or whatever.

Jim steps out of the brush behind her, intentionally shifting his weight from the balls of his feet to the middle, telegraphing his approach. He caught up to her about an hour ago, but he's been keeping his distance, up until they came to the wall. He's been hauling ass, actually, to catch up, and Jim raises his hands in a 'don't shoot' motion, pack strapped high on his shoulders. ]

Mind telling me what a gal like you is doing in a place like this, on your own?

text

[garbagecanned]

[uh....................................]

usually that means they left
but you said you haven't seen him since the reset?

text

[arachnerina]

no
he couldn't have left
we were together just before the reset but we got separated
it's got to be the reset right?

[sorry, she's in heavy denial mode right now.]

text; un: goo

[mightymorphin]

really? he's just gone? ...

was he in the spider suit the last time you saw him? I can take to the air and keep an eye out that way.

text;

[arachnerina]

yeah
he was in the iron spider one
the one with all the pincers
it may have gone dead on him??
it tends to run out of power without warning
so he might be stranded somewhere

text | private | un: user010102

[computation]

I'll set up an alert so we know if anyone logs into his account. I'm sorry for your loss.

[ That's really all she can do. It's not that Root doesn't care, it's just that, more importantly... ]

Do you still have the suit? Is she safe?

text | private

[arachnerina]

[The "sorry for you loss" stings, big time. It throws her right back into the time after her mom died, and again, after the Peter of her dimension died. She is not eager to be reliving that feeling of loss again.]

thanks

and yeah
i had the suit
i did the upload
it's safe

do you think
i mean
could he be safe in the backup?

i; text; un: ushiromiya

[entreats]

[ .. well, talk about an alarming as hell message to receive. Ange has to look away from her tablet for a moment after seeing it, because something about it makes her thoughts absolutely spin in a way that makes her dizzy.

She sits down, breathes, and then quickly texts back. ]

Where are you right now?

text;

[arachnerina]

[Gwen hesitates replying. She's torn, because she really doesn't want to deal with seeing anyone face to face, but she also knows Ange was someone Peter really liked. She hadn't interacted with her much outside of Peter, but still.

As much as she was hurting by the news, she knew others would be upset too, and from what Peter told her, Ange wasn't exactly the most social of people, either. She could...probably use a friend right about now, too.]

the roof of the library

i.

[querulus]

wait baby spidey is gone? damn i was just starting to like the little shit.

[Okay, probably not helpful. Take it down a few notches, Quire.]

sometimes people come back, though. like me. [Without any of his memories, buuuut that's not important right now.] if he comes back, i'll sense him. put a psychic alarm up or something.

[Can he do that? Pretty sure Xavier has done something like that. Somehow. So that means Quentin can! Right? Eh, he'll figure it out! How hard could it be?]

[arachnerina]

[really not helping!!! because she also really likes that little shit, a lot.]

but he wouldn't remember anything, would he?
people that come back don't remember being here
that's what i've heard
it's true, isn't it?

[she's not sure if that's better or worse. if he comes back, she doesn't want him to have forgotten everything they've been through together. she doesn't want him to forget how they feel about each other.]