Everybody Passed Me By

The Estate's meticulously kept gardens, including a hedgemaze that students have occasionally described as "sadistic" and a sizable rose garden. Benches in shaded spots are plentiful, and the gardens are popular to study in on pleasant days. The nearby stables are still maintained with a number of well-heeled equines.

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 5:55 pm

"Well, we have that in common, at least.

Because of my actions in Hollydale, I'll never be able to go home again, either. At least you lost your home doing something noble and true."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 5:58 pm

"That doesn't make it sting any less. How did you end up here in the first place?"
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:10 pm

"How does anything happen? X-Men stuff," He smiled.

"Some third-rate, two-bit villain. Tech guy. Dr....destruction, or something, some really bad name that made him sound more impressive than he actually was, you know? All kind of 'now you shall bow before my might!' and all that. A joke, really.

He had invented -- or stolen, or forced someone else to build -- a gun that basically created a black hole. He was going to destroy London's East End unless they paid him a ransom of a hojillion dollars. Instead, they called Sam and the X-Teams, and I led the squad out to deal with him.

I went in alone. I'm resilient, and the thought was, if he had something deadly and powerful, I would be the most likely to survive it. I didn't want to put my team in unnecessary danger until I scoped out the situation. There was a scuffle, we both reached for the gun, everything sort of....attenuated for a bit...


And then I don't remember much. Bits and pieces of floating through space, and then waking up, not knowing who I was or what I was doing, in a secret base in Antarctica.


I don't know what happened to London. My London. I don't know if I was successful or not. The gun went off in some way, but maybe it jammed or backfired or otherwise didn't work 'properly', and the day was saved. Or maybe millions are dead, including my team. I don't know. It hasn't, technically, happened yet."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:19 pm

"But it sounds like you were still doing the right thing. You may not be able to go home, but you were doing something noble and true that got you here."
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:23 pm

"Yes. But.

The Morrigan would have found me. No matter how far I strayed, no matter where I was sent too, as long as I had faith in the Morrigan, she would have found me and brought me home. That's how this works. If that was still the status quo, then I'd be fine. I can wait; I'm patient.


But in Hollydale...no. I stopped believing. I lost that faith and betrayed two Morrigans at the same time. And there's no way to make that right; at least, not with mine. That connection, that lifeline? I severed it, in favor of some very temporary happiness.

I fucked up, big time."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:40 pm

"If that is true, then your Morrigan is not worth having. Great and terrible she may be, but if she cuts you off for being... well... mortal, then she is a fool and I would say so to her face. But you assume her reaction. You are assuming her negative response based on your own lack of faith. You are holding *her* to *your* rules. You are preemptively forcing her to make a sacrifice of something of hers to suit your plans."
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Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:58 pm

"Be careful of how you speak of my goddess and my wife, or we shall test to see how your fae immortality holds on this side of the veil.

It's not a....conscious decision. I'm not saying that the punishment for my actions would be banishment. I've slipped up before and endured the penalties with good grace and humor, I'd like to think. It's part of the measure of a man how they deal with their failings, I suppose.

It's just...I'm a long, long way from home. And the Morrigan may be great and terrible, but she's neither omnipotent nor all-powerful. Without something to home in on, without a beacon, there's nothing for her to find. The universe is vast, the timeline vaster, and the multiverse the vastest of all. A needle in a haystack, she may be able to find. I am far smaller and less significant than that, though.

I chose to stop believing in Her. I chose to settle down, live out the rest of my life in a fake world with fake wives. I tried my hardest to entrap your Morrigan in the fantasy world. I tried to steal Sam from Tereza. I, willingly and with knowledge aforethought, let down Sara and Sam and Robin and my family, passing them aside for something fake. And I can't blame Conduit or the altered reality; I saw through it. I made a conscious choice, and whatever it was in me that made me potentially special or detectable? I squelched it, and I hid inside a fantasyland."

He put up a hand. "And I know what you're going to say next, that the Morrigan could forgive something so petty and have faith and so on and so forth. And you're right.

But the problem is...you'd have to believe to have faith. You'd have to feel what you did was wrong to get forgiveness. And I...

I'd do it again. If Hollydale were here again, I think I'd do it again," he finished, quietly.
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 7:11 pm

"So are you just grieving the loss or flogging yourself for misbehavior?"
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Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 7:12 pm

"Hey, someone's gotta do the flogging," Will weakly joked. "It can be very therapeutic."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 7:16 pm

"Grieving the loss I would understand, but you mortals and your fascination with punishing yourselves to the end of time for your 'sins'. It was silly when the monks locked themselves away to do it."
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 7:20 pm

"I hear you, and I get you, but I refer you back to my 'trying not to care what other people think' answer from earlier.

When something is broken, you mend it. If something's dirty, you clean it. If it's your soul that's stained, you take steps to wash it. Asking forgiveness is difficult when they're on the other side of a multidimensional rift, so sometimes, you need to take matters into your own hands.

And of course I'm grieving the loss. I've been grieving ever since I became aware there was something I had left behind; when Miriam and Sam unlocked those memories. The loss of my friends, the loss of my family, the loss of my role and my place in life. I used to console myself with the fact that, if I waited long enough, I"d get all those back. I can wait, I'm patient. But now that that chance is gone, well, yes. Grieving.

And it's my fault."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 7:45 pm

"Since you don't care what I think, I'll just say that at some point, the flogging and the grieving has to stop. Will I miss my home? Always. But at some point, I have to stop grieving for it or I'll only know grief and miss out on the good things that I have here. I hope you come to the same realization."
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 7:50 pm

"Hey, never say never, right? It looks like I'm not going anywhere for a very, very long time. Maybe one day I will forget what I've lost. I did it before, after all.

But I need to stop treating people here like replacements. It's not fair to them, and it's certainly not fair to me."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:11 pm

"Do treat them as something though. Sam worries about you."
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:19 pm

"What should I treat her as, Gemma?" Will sighed. "What is fair to her and to me? I don't know where I stand with her, and I've been filling in the blanks with things that just aren't fair to her; expecting her to live up to someone she isn't and, frankly, never will be.

This whole...'pack' situation makes it even tougher on top of everything else. She's got this whole royal court thing going on, whether she means to or not, and I'm not used to not being at the top of that particular food chain. Instead, here, I'm so low that Tereza basically didn't care that I even attempted to steal Sam away from her; I'm so insignificant and out of her orbit of caring that my feeble attempts aren't even worth getting mad over. That was a real slap in the face, let me tell you. And even you have taken some of the role that I'm 'used' to. I don't know where I stand."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:59 pm

"Have you asked her? Have you talked to her about it?"
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 10:02 pm

Silence.

"I don't need to talk to her about it; her actions speak loudly enough. She hid me from her family; she has turned me down on multiple occasions, she has kept me from her band...I'm a decent friend, but nothing more," he hemmed, weakly.
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 10:18 pm

"Then the answer to my questions is no. You haven't talked to her about it. You're assuming things about her responses. You're taking things out of context because it suits this self-punishment mood you've put yourself into."
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 10:30 pm

"Well, if someone else would hold me accountable for my actions, I wouldn't have to do so myself," he finally snapped.

"And you don't question a Goddess, much less one that's still trying to find her place in the world. I don't want to...confuse her, or make things harder on her than they already are. That's not fair to her."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:11 pm

"You may not question a goddess, but I certainly will. And if you don't go talk to her, I will."
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:13 pm

"And what would you say to her, Gemma?"
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:24 pm

"I'll tell her that you've decided to be a deserter. That you've decided your 'sins' outweigh her ability to judge or forgive. You want someone to hold you to task for your mistakes? I can certainly oblige."
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:36 pm

Will frowned.

"I mean, it's harsh, but I suppose it's not untrue.

If you think that's the best thing to do..."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:40 pm

"I don't think it is, but you refuse to do the best thing. I could mystically force you, but that would make me no better than the Grey Lords."
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:42 pm

Will sighed, resting his head in his hands.

"...Alright. Fine. I do owe you one, and it's been tickling the back of my brain ever since.

Lead me to the firing squad, Gemma, and be prepared to clean up the pieces."
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Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Gemmalara » Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:51 pm

"We'll see. I do have experience cleaning up," she says, standing, motioning for him to precede her. "She's probably in her room."
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Gemmalara
 

Re: Everybody Passed Me By

Postby Will Stanton » Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:52 pm

"Mmm," Will frowned, with the countenance of a man being marched to the electric chair. "Well, I suppose we'll find out..."
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User avatar
Will Stanton
Student
 
High Concept: Pillsbury Clayboy
Aspect: Needs to be Useful/Used
Aspect: Out of Place, Out of Time
Aspect: Unique Worldview
Aspect: Big Ball of Trauma
Aspect: Open-Hearted

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