[IC CONTACT]

[photophobic]

You should know where to find me.
But if you leave a message here, I will see it.

Comments

[made_up_names]

[ Jedi and/or Sith-adjacent, right. No hiding in that case. And ... well, the other thing. ]

yeah
me too
not the "time travelers are here" thing but like
there was another version version of me and another version of one of the people i was closest to back home
which is a long way of saying i think i get it

[photophobic]

Was he here for long? Your alternate self.
Mine doesn't appear to have left much of an impact.

[made_up_names]

years, apparently
there's a ton of posts on the comm
ditto for my mentor

[ And one post in particular with a video of his mentor trying to kill him. Which is. Awesome. ]

[photophobic]

Unpleasant. To find yourself with such an easily accessible comparison.

[made_up_names]

yeah it’s one of the weirder things that’s happened to me
and that’s saying a lot

[photophobic]

Really.

[Just how many sticky situations could a boy only recently having acquired powers have found himself in anyway.
If Peter's still peddling that particularly unlikely story.]

[made_up_names]

[ Oops. He realizes his mistake only after Kylo’s response comes back. But - okay Peter, play it cool. Weird things were happening even before he got bit. ]

oh yeah
when I was seven iron man rescued me from a killer robot
and when I was like nine aliens squished my house
my aunt and uncle and I were homeless for like two weeks

[photophobic]

Just wait for the week where we wake up in each other's bodies.

[made_up_names]

ummmmmmmmm
what

[photophobic]

Exactly that. It hasn't happened yet, but I imagine it's only a matter of time.

[made_up_names]

gross
uh not you specifically, just hte thought in general

[photophobic]

Would you rather find yourself with memories that don't belong to you, perhaps, or temporarily lose them all. Or wake to find yourself repeating the same day, over and over. Or come to the realisation that you are slowly being transformed into someone or something other than what you are, and that you lack the ability to stop the process.

[made_up_names]

........
those are weirdly specific
im concerned now
do you need someone to talk to

[photophobic]

Why would you be concerned for me? I've already survived these things.

You, on the other hand, should be prepared for the future. This place is inherently unstable. Existing here will come with the price of accepting the inevitability of chaos.

[made_up_names]

because surviving something doesnt mean youre okay afterwards
it just means you lived

but i appreciate the warning, seriously

[photophobic]

[There's a significant delay. Kylo doesn't really know what to do with how Peter's message makes him feel, or indeed know how to identify what it is he's feeling.

Usually, of course, confusing things just make him angry. But he can't find anything in Peter's words to summon up that particular protective monster. So he stares, and after a while types back:]

What is "being okay".

[No. Too vulnerable. He adds:]

To you.

[made_up_names]

[ Oof. That was a loaded question even before Kylo turned it back on Peter. He's not sure how to answer either. ]

i dunno
feeling normal?
not worrying about things that i can't help?
feeling safe?

[photophobic]

[But you aren't, he wants to hurl back immediately, you aren't safe— and maybe he would have, without the buffer of his fingers stabbing letters onto the screen.]

Maybe you don't know what it is because it doesn't really exist.

[made_up_names]

maybe
but i felt different before

[ Or at least he feels different in retrospect, knowing how everything ends. ]

[photophobic]

So "being okay" would be going back. To being what you were before you were rescued from a killer robot or aliens squished your house and left you homeless.

[Sounds pretty much impossible, to Kylo.]

[made_up_names]

not that far i guess
but like a couple years maybe?

[photophobic]

[There's a rather glaring hole in Peter's timeline, now, an Event made clearer and clearer by all the ways he bends around it, the half-truths, evasions, diversions... and yet, this. The hidden truth exposed by its gravitational pull.

Kylo could reach for it. And he would, if he didn't already know what he'd find there. The specifics are unimportant— whatever its shape, the hole is a wound that Peter isn't ready to let close up and form a scar, yet.

And Kylo knows wounds.]

You know that isn't possible. You know it.

We can't go back.

[made_up_names]

[ He's not the best liar to begin with. Even less so in a situation like this, where he has to explain things like the Blip and the Battle of New York. At home he can imply and not trip himself up in his own lies. ]

i know
trust me, i know
so its nice when i get to feel like that for a minute

[photophobic]

[Ironically, this is what it looks like when Kylo is trying to be gentle— not that he'd recognise the urge by that word. This is his attempt to push out a warning, when he only barely understands the mechanism of the trap himself.]

If "being okay" is when you can make it feel like it isn't a part of you. What happened. It won't last.

[made_up_names]

is it bad to pretend anyway?