phantoms-rps

[phantoms-rps]

For the crossover roulette: 42 What does the answer to the universe give us?

Back to Tempo Trio we go!

Lewis was exhausted. They all were, to be honest. Evil Arthur doppleganger had shown up again and while the good news was that his outside was starting to match his insides in terms of sheer ugliness (thus making him unable to pass for Arthur ever again), the bad news was he'd come out of nowhere, killed CEO Norman Osborn, and then vanished in the night.

None of them had been able to find him again, not even Vivi's squirrels. Mystery said he was almost impossible to trace magically due to how quickly he was degrading physically and spiritually. So the past few days had been combing Tempo City trying to find a trace from him.

And he couldn't even explain to his parents why he was so exhausted all the time. Maybe if he'd been like Spiderman he could, but he'd chosen to be defined by his anger. He'd never be able to let Mama and Papa know he was the wrathful Ghost who'd been more than willing to make his solutions to crime permanent ones.

So he was more than a little put out to be waken up early on a Sunday. But any annoyance melted into concern with the look on his mother's face. "Lewis, there's a lawyer here to see you."

A lawyer? A social worker, maybe, they still checked in everyone in a while. A cop if his secret identity had been discovered. But a lawyer? What would a lawyer want with him?

Lewis's trepidation only rose when he saw the lawyer. The was a man who worked for money. He sat down, with his parents flanking him on either side. It took a little of a little of the edge that had his nerves jangling. "Mr. Pepper," The lawyer inclined his head to show he was speaking to Lewis and not his father. "I am here to represent your biological father." The floor fell out from under Lewis. How did he even respond to that His parents stood a little bit closer, showing they were willing to fight for him if need be. "He was not aware of your existence until recently. And as you had already had a good and loving home, one he was not sure he could provide, he opted not to pursue custody. It seemed he was interested in getting to know you, but." The lawyer smiled fondly. "He was the sort of man who never moved forward without a plan. And he hadn't found a plan he was happy with before...he ran out of time." The lawyers smiled turned sad, and Lewis....Lewis didn't know how to feel. He'd known his mother had died shortly after his birth, and had assumed his biological father was dead or didn't care. And now he'd known the man had wanted to get to know him, but it was too late and he hadn't cared about his first father for his whole life and now he was a real person to Lewis just in time for him to be dead and- "Sadly your father had no other family or really any close friends, so everything he had was left you too. Unfortunately that includes some responsibilities...I mean no disrespect to you capabilities but it's a lot for someone who hasn't been trained to handle these things. I know this is a lot to process, but at some point in the near future I'd let to set up meeting to discuss how to handle things till you come of age." "Mr. Monroe," His mother cut in, "just who exactly is Lewis's biological father?" "Norman Osborn." Lewis's blood pounded in his ears. He'd met the man. He'd helped Arthur after the spider bite. He'd called him son. Had he known then? Was he testing the waters? Or was it just the throwaway term for a young man he'd only assumed it had been? Had he found out later? Was his companies negligence almost killing Arthur the reason he'd been hesitant to approach?

"I need air." He muttered as he stood and stumbled from the room.

~

Not for the first time Lewis was grateful for Arthur and Vivi who'd held him as he'd sobbed and screamed his emotions out. Now he felt more hollow than anything but at least he could think. "I don't know what to do." he admitted. "If that lawyer meant what I think he meant, then I'm in charge if a multinational company. There's people who will be depending on me to survive. I don't know how to do any of that!" "it'll be okay," Vivi assured him, wrapping her tail around him snuggly. "We'll figure it out." "More importantly, we need to figure out who else knew you were his son before now." Arthur said with a grim determination. "Is that really important now?" Vivi chided, gesturing to Lewis as if reminding Arthur he had enough on his plate. "It is Vi. It never made sense. I mean, a lot of things at the time didn't make sense, so i put a pin in it, but who would bother making a clone of me to kill Lewis? If I was the target, it was someone trying to get revenge on me for a Spiderman thing, why did they never go after Vivi or Uncle Lance? Uncle Lance is literally helpless. Lewis, random recently adopted orphan made even less sense as a main target. But Lewis, secret son of Norman Osborn? That makes sense." "And cloneface resurfaced exclusively to kill Osborn." Vivi suddenly seeing what Arthur saw. "Norman Osborn was always his target." "Clone his secrets son's best friend to get close enough to kill him. Didn't count on Nemesis intervening. Clone tries to take me out, possibly to take my place, possibly to deny me an alibi, but realizes after fighting three supers he can't get close again. Clone starts to deteriorate because spider mutation probably wasn't a factor taken into account and clone goes on a kamikaze mission to take out the original target." Arthur summarized. "Which means whoever made cloneface knew your relation to Osborn." Flames of anger and vengeance curled around his heart, in a way comfortingly familiar. Lewis didn't know how to run a company or deal with the emotions surrounding Norman Osborn. But catching bad guys. That he was good at. "We're going to be with you every step of the way." Vivi promised. "Together." Together. As long as they were together, he could do this.

[phantoms-rps]

For the crossover roulette: 42 What does the answer to the universe give us?

Back to Tempo Trio we go!

Lewis was exhausted. They all were, to be honest. Evil Arthur doppleganger had shown up again and while the good news was that his outside was starting to match his insides in terms of sheer ugliness (thus making him unable to pass for Arthur ever again), the bad news was he'd come out of nowhere, killed CEO Norman Osborn, and then vanished in the night.

None of them had been able to find him again, not even Vivi's squirrels. Mystery said he was almost impossible to trace magically due to how quickly he was degrading physically and spiritually. So the past few days had been combing Tempo City trying to find a trace from him.

And he couldn't even explain to his parents why he was so exhausted all the time. Maybe if he'd been like Spiderman he could, but he'd chosen to be defined by his anger. He'd never be able to let Mama and Papa know he was the wrathful Ghost who'd been more than willing to make his solutions to crime permanent ones.

So he was more than a little put out to be waken up early on a Sunday. But any annoyance melted into concern with the look on his mother's face. "Lewis, there's a lawyer here to see you."

A lawyer? A social worker, maybe, they still checked in everyone in a while. A cop if his secret identity had been discovered. But a lawyer? What would a lawyer want with him?

Lewis's trepidation only rose when he saw the lawyer. The was a man who worked for money. He sat down, with his parents flanking him on either side. It took a little of a little of the edge that had his nerves jangling. "Mr. Pepper," The lawyer inclined his head to show he was speaking to Lewis and not his father. "I am here to represent your biological father." The floor fell out from under Lewis. How did he even respond to that His parents stood a little bit closer, showing they were willing to fight for him if need be. "He was not aware of your existence until recently. And as you had already had a good and loving home, one he was not sure he could provide, he opted not to pursue custody. It seemed he was interested in getting to know you, but." The lawyer smiled fondly. "He was the sort of man who never moved forward without a plan. And he hadn't found a plan he was happy with before...he ran out of time." The lawyers smiled turned sad, and Lewis....Lewis didn't know how to feel. He'd known his mother had died shortly after his birth, and had assumed his biological father was dead or didn't care. And now he'd known the man had wanted to get to know him, but it was too late and he hadn't cared about his first father for his whole life and now he was a real person to Lewis just in time for him to be dead and- "Sadly your father had no other family or really any close friends, so everything he had was left you too. Unfortunately that includes some responsibilities...I mean no disrespect to you capabilities but it's a lot for someone who hasn't been trained to handle these things. I know this is a lot to process, but at some point in the near future I'd let to set up meeting to discuss how to handle things till you come of age." "Mr. Monroe," His mother cut in, "just who exactly is Lewis's biological father?" "Norman Osborn." Lewis's blood pounded in his ears. He'd met the man. He'd helped Arthur after the spider bite. He'd called him son. Had he known then? Was he testing the waters? Or was it just the throwaway term for a young man he'd only assumed it had been? Had he found out later? Was his companies negligence almost killing Arthur the reason he'd been hesitant to approach?

"I need air." He muttered as he stood and stumbled from the room.

~

Not for the first time Lewis was grateful for Arthur and Vivi who'd held him as he'd sobbed and screamed his emotions out. Now he felt more hollow than anything but at least he could think. "I don't know what to do." he admitted. "If that lawyer meant what I think he meant, then I'm in charge if a multinational company. There's people who will be depending on me to survive. I don't know how to do any of that!" "it'll be okay," Vivi assured him, wrapping her tail around him snuggly. "We'll figure it out." "More importantly, we need to figure out who else knew you were his son before now." Arthur said with a grim determination. "Is that really important now?" Vivi chided, gesturing to Lewis as if reminding Arthur he had enough on his plate. "It is Vi. It never made sense. I mean, a lot of things at the time didn't make sense, so i put a pin in it, but who would bother making a clone of me to kill Lewis? If I was the target, it was someone trying to get revenge on me for a Spiderman thing, why did they never go after Vivi or Uncle Lance? Uncle Lance is literally helpless. Lewis, random recently adopted orphan made even less sense as a main target. But Lewis, secret son of Norman Osborn? That makes sense." "And cloneface resurfaced exclusively to kill Osborn." Vivi suddenly seeing what Arthur saw. "Norman Osborn was always his target." "Clone his secrets son's best friend to get close enough to kill him. Didn't count on Nemesis intervening. Clone tries to take me out, possibly to take my place, possibly to deny me an alibi, but realizes after fighting three supers he can't get close again. Clone starts to deteriorate because spider mutation probably wasn't a factor taken into account and clone goes on a kamikaze mission to take out the original target." Arthur summarized. "Which means whoever made cloneface knew your relation to Osborn." Flames of anger and vengeance curled around his heart, in a way comfortingly familiar. Lewis didn't know how to run a company or deal with the emotions surrounding Norman Osborn. But catching bad guys. That he was good at. "We're going to be with you every step of the way." Vivi promised. "Together." Together. As long as they were together, he could do this.

[phantoms-rps]

“Scuzzy’s the best kitty,” Ren said sagely. “I’m gonna go look for some stuff, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She gave Puppet a hug before disappearing back in the vent.

The truth was she didn’t know what she was looking for, but she hoped she’d know it when she found it. Puppet needed help and she had to at least try. He’d been so nice and helped her so much. He deserved to be healthy.

~

“Take as much time as you need.” Rob said with a tired grin. “You’re doing me a favor after all.” It wasn’t like they could do anything until the lawyer situation got figured out. And of course she wanted to check in on her brother after nearly losing him.  “I promise Rob won’t go to the interrogation room without you,” Dory said with a smile that hid her understanding of the situation. Leaving Rob alone with the Cartwright’s wouldn’t end well for the Cartwrights or the case and they were all aware of it.

Freaking Out [Open M!A RP]

[phantoms-rps]

Ren thought a minute. She couldn’t argue being professional, as she didn’t really understand it. “Well, you ‘cover’ other people’s shifts when they can’t work them, right? Can someone cover yours?”

@phantoms-lair

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mike lied through his teeth. “I feel perfectly fine. I’m used to running on >4 hours of sleep.”

[phantoms-rps]

Ren put her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you just sleep at work? You know the animaltronics can look after things. And they can warn you if someone’s coming.”

@phantoms-lair

“I don’t know what you���re talking about.” Mike lied through his teeth. “I feel perfectly fine. I’m used to running on >4 hours of sleep.”

[phantoms-rps]

fazbear-security

“……”  Mike’s resolve started to crumble. Ren would actually tell Jodie, and then he’d be faced with a lot of awkward questions that he really, really didn’t want to answer.

“….please don’t tell Mom.” Mike lowered his voice a little, as if worried someone else might be listening. “It’s not a big deal. I just haven’t been sleeping well, lately. That’s it.”

“That IS a big deal!” Ren insisted. “You look like you’re sick, and you might have to go to the hospital, and the last time you did it was bad cause everyone thought you died and became Sam, so you shouldn’t do things that make you sick.”

@phantoms-lair

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mike lied through his teeth. “I feel perfectly fine. I’m used to running on >4 hours of sleep.”

[phantoms-rps]

“Why wouldn’t I?” She could see no downside to this. Momma Jodie would make sure Mike was okay.

@phantoms-lair

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mike lied through his teeth. “I feel perfectly fine. I’m used to running on >4 hours of sleep.”

[phantoms-rps]

Ren was levitating so she could look her brother in the eye. He arms were crossed and she was giving him a look that clearly said ‘I don’t believe you’. “So if I tell Mama Jodie, she’ll say it’s fine.”

@phantoms-lair

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mike lied through his teeth. “I feel perfectly fine. I’m used to running on >4 hours of sleep.”

[phantoms-rps]

Arthur thought a moment. “Enlightened self interest. It behaves and I have a crapton of memories I can feed it. And I bet that secret organization masquerading as a talent agency Lewis works for would love for there to be a safe way for people to forget things when members want to retire or something. It plays nice, it gets fed for a good long while.”

“Alternatively, it doesn’t play nice. Then it has to contend with you, a powerful ghost. Lewis, who wields otherworldly power and works for a secret organization of people who do the same. Vivi, the keeper of veil between human and youkai, who also has several youkai at her beck and call. And Mystery, who’s a kitsune well over nine hundred years. Anything I could do would pale in comparison, so given it has self preservation instinct, that’s really it’s best choice.”

“You sure this book isn’t cursed or something?”

“This illustration here is giving me an awful lot of side-eye…”

[phantoms-rps]

��Memories?” Arthur guessed. That would make sense that ghosts would be included, as they were memories of people. An idea occurred to him that was probably a bad one, but once he thought it, he couldn’t resist it.

“Can you take specific memories? Like if there was something I wanted to forget?”

“You sure this book isn’t cursed or something?”

“This illustration here is giving me an awful lot of side-eye…”

[phantoms-rps]

“Okay, do you eat ghosts or thoughts?” Arthur tried to verify, though neither would good. Not to say there weren’t so ethereal being he wouldn’t mind feeding to a book, demons mostly thought he’d met the occasional asshole angel during the time that never happened, but it was still a bad precedent.

Still if this thing wanted to much on his brother, they were going to have words. Violent words.

“You sure this book isn’t cursed or something?”

“This illustration here is giving me an awful lot of side-eye…”

[phantoms-rps]

solitaria-fantasma

In response, the book rustled a little, and the crinkled edges of its pages autonomously straightened themselves, as if to convey obedience. Gawain let out a short bark of laughter.

“Blimey, bro.” The ghost cackled. “You scared it straight!”

“Literally,” said Arthur, keeping his tone light, even though he wanted to frown. On one hand he was taking no chances with the continued safety of his loved ones. On the other he didn’t like how quickly he was now reverting to threats and show of force.

“Okay book, I’ll understand if you can’t answer, but can you tell us what want or are trying to accomplish?”

“You sure this book isn’t cursed or something?”

“This illustration here is giving me an awful lot of side-eye...”

[phantoms-rps]

“I don’t know but I kind of want to find out just so I can avoid it.” Arthur poked the cover, then charged a zionga, his hand cracking with electricity and his markings glowing slightly under the concealer.

“Okay book, I don’t know what your deal is but know if you try anything I have zero qualms about frying you.”

“You sure this book isn’t cursed or something?”

“This illustration here is giving me an awful lot of side-eye…”

[phantoms-rps]

“I’m not sure of of anything anymore.” Arthur admitted, absently fiddling with his hood to make sure the horn on his neck was hidden. “We can always try a few drops of holy water on the cover to see if there’s a reaction.

Then he thought about his brother being a restless spirit and himself a 'demi-fiend. “Correction, We get someone else to put a few drops of holy water on it.”

“You sure this book isn’t cursed or something?”

“This illustration here is giving me an awful lot of side-eye…”

[phantoms-rps]

“But...but...what if he does something bad to Sasha before that? Or someone else. If we wait until after he does something, someone could get hurt!” Ren resisted the urge to stamp her foot. “Let’s call Tara, maybe she has an idea!”

Ren looked at Mike with her best 'serious' face. "Why were you so upset about the guy talking to Sasha at work? Is he bad? If he's bad, how do we stop him!"

Confront my muse about a toxic relationship they have.

“Uh...” Mike resisted the urge to hide behind the pillow he’d been leaning on. Of all the people he’d once worried about having this conversation with, Ren had never made the list, and he had no answer prepared.

“Well...Sasha isn’t old enough to be talking to guys like him.” The young man explained at length, trying to ignore Ren’s second question. It wasn’t the full truth by a long shot - but how was he supposed to tell a little girl about the abusive ex not even his mother had known about? “That guy is older than me, too, so he knows he shouldn’t be talking the way he was to someone Sasha’s age.”

Not that this had ever stopped Chad...an apology here, a seemingly heartfelt promise there, and no-one ever thought twice.

[phantoms-rps]

This was probably one of those societal conventions she didn’t understand. Still if this knew he was doing a bad thing and did it anyway, he was definitely a bad guy. But how to stop him.

“Maybe we can ask your sister, since she’s supposed to stop bad people. Oh, and the animaltronics! I bet they could keep him away form Sasha!”

Ren looked at Mike with her best 'serious' face. "Why were you so upset about the guy talking to Sasha at work? Is he bad? If he's bad, how do we stop him!"

Confront my muse about a toxic relationship they have.

“Uh...” Mike resisted the urge to hide behind the pillow he’d been leaning on. Of all the people he’d once worried about having this conversation with, Ren had never made the list, and he had no answer prepared.

“Well...Sasha isn’t old enough to be talking to guys like him.” The young man explained at length, trying to ignore Ren’s second question. It wasn’t the full truth by a long shot - but how was he supposed to tell a little girl about the abusive ex not even his mother had known about? “That guy is older than me, too, so he knows he shouldn’t be talking the way he was to someone Sasha’s age.”

Not that this had ever stopped Chad...an apology here, a seemingly heartfelt promise there, and no-one ever thought twice.

[phantoms-rps]

“How?” Ren asked plaintively.  “There’s the kicking and punch stuff like on TV, but that doesn’t work against a gun.” She hugged him again. “I just got a new family and I din’t want to lose any of you again!”

Losing her mother felt like being shattered. She didn’t want to go through that again, didn’t know if she could. And it wouldn’t be just her, ti would be everyone there. She had to do whatever she could to keep her new big brother safe!

(x)

Mike let his pencil roll away across the table, and returned the hug in kind before resting his chin on his sister’s head with a small sigh. He knew that by “bad people”, Ren meant his former managers who’d tried to dispose of his not-so-dead body, and he pulled back to look down at his sister before his thoughts could stray to anyone else.

“I can protect myself without magic, too, you know.” Mike tried to force a smile into his voice, if not onto his face. Magic was something important to Ren, and he wanted to make her happy - he really did! - but he just…didn’t get it. Not the way he got mathematics or coding, at least. The failure left a bitter taste in his mouth…