nexus_crossings | Icy Mirrors and Mistaken Identities

Icy Mirrors and Mistaken Identities

Unlike the sudden freeze of last Winter, this year there has been a subtle chill, a gradual progression of frost across grass and stone. It nips at your skin should you forget to wrap up, but is otherwise harmless. That is, apart from one section of the Nexus.

It seems to wander in the blink of an eye. Here one moment, gone the next. Sometimes slyly, sometimes by placing itself directly in a traveller's path. Either way the area is shrouded in a thick fog that is staggeringly luminous, suggesting a strong, obscured sun is trying to get through but only succeeding in illuminating the air itself. Even the most frequent Nexus visitors soon find themselves lost. It's eerily still, there is only the sound of your breathing, of your footsteps crunching frost and thin ice.

As you venture further you spot silhouettes standing in the distance. Drawing closer you find tall slabs of ice are scattered throughout the misty landscape. They all tower over you, and the perfectly cut surfaces all shine like mirrors back at you. The more you walk, the more of them seem to have erupted from the earth, until you catch yourself moving in the corner of your eye. At least, you thought it was yourself. You soon find yourself wondering: Are you alone?

((Winter Event! Hurrah! This event allows you to bring out a doppelgänger for your character to cause chaos or try out a different side of them! Details can be found here. Or for questions and plotting, the OOC post is here. Threadhopping and mixing up characters and doppelgängers is definitely encouraged. Feel free to ask me anything and, most importantly, have fun!))

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"Friend? He's joking right?"

Garbled words emit from the mask, almost as though someone's using an audio distorter. The man doesn't let go of Josh, nor does he make a move to look anywhere else. He laughs as the color drains from Joshua's face and recognition sets in. Miles' shove sends the masked figure crashing backwards into the ice mirror, shattering it into a million pieces. He may have stepped out of the mirror, but he certainly isn't going back in that way.

"...Y..You're not real..This can't be...."

Josh is still staring down at his arm, free hand wrapped around himself in a desperate attempt to calm himself down. how could it touch him like this? How could Miles see it, let alone touch...He knows that mask. Knows that outfit. And Joshua knows who's underneath it. Which is why nothing makes sense.

"Not real, he says. Oh buddy boy.." There's a rasping lisp to its voice that has nothing to do with whatever voice alteration is going on. "I'm so real you're gonna wish you weren't..."

Young Miles hasn't been faced with a lot of situations where he's needed to be protective in his everyday clothes. It makes him wish he was back home - where he knows all the places that he could sneak off and shoot a stray spider-web without being seen - or quickly change to Spider-man.

Either way, the teen is in full hero mode. His posture settling into a slight crouch, like he was a coiled spring ready to bounce in any direction at a given time. It hasn't quite registered how freaked out Josh is, but he does realize the two of them are talking like they know each other ...

"Josh? Should we run?"

It's at least a comfort that he can spider-smash though these ice walls if they wanted to just book it.

"Run like mice? Like insects. Are you gonna run Joshua?"

The man's already picking himself up and there's something not right about him when he stands straight. He's taller than Joshua is and the clothes he's wearing hang off him as though they're far too big. but he'd felt solid when Miles had shoved him--as though he were a steel beam. Not thick but definitely strong.

"Leave me alone!" Josh's voice breaks when he screams the command, swinging at the masked man with all of his lithe bodyweight. All it earns him is an amused laugh before the masked man is picking Josh up by his neck and pale white nails that are so long they've pierced the fingertips of the gloves are closing around his throat.

"You wanna see? You know, don't you? I'll show ya--" The free hand lifts up the bottom of the mask up and over his nose. Enough to show off deathly pale skin and the most grotesque set of fangs sticking out of an utterly ruined mouth. "Guess what comes next...??"

Lunch time, if the way he's pulling Josh toward that face is any indication.

Miles handles being mocked as well as any other kid in high school does. He doesn't like it, but he's used to a certain amount of it. Something about the way this ... creature does it, though. It immediately gets under the young man's skin.

"I said hands off."

The spry, but skinny black teenager launches into a flying sidekick. It lands squarely in the wendigo's floating ribs, which is a weakpoint for most vertebrates, but Miles has never fought a Canadian humanoid snow-beast before so. He's kind of making this up as he goes along.

He puts one hand over top of the other and swings his combined fists at that same point in the ribs - if the kick hadn't broken them, this follow-up move must have.

The creature--because there's no way that's a man no matter what it's dressed like--gives a glass shattering and ear piercing shriek at the blow that immediately has Josh on his knees with his hands over his ears shaking even while he gasps for air that had been denied when the Wendigo had lifted him.

He doesn't need to see this. He can't see this. It can't be real. So of course he looks up, green eyes wide when the creature gets back to its feet and chucks the mask aside.

It's himself.

Somehow, Joshua knew it would be. But seeing that one eye a milky white. Seeing half of his face a taut tear with fangs hanging out. The grotesque body horror of his shape...Josh gags and chokes back a sob.

"You know how close you were to this?!" It's voice is deteriorating into hisses and shrieks as it tries to talk around that ruined mouth. "You could have been with your sisters again. Could have made things right!"

Joshua wouldn't be going anywhere. The wendigo rounds onto Miles instead and screams at his face with as much force as it can muster. It's eyes are wide and it hunches forward to settle its hands on the ground. Josh is still--uninteresting. But this one. This one moves. Prey.

Hunt. Kill. Devour. Hungry hungry so hungryhungryhungrykill!

It leaps up and grips onto the top of one of the ice mirrors the next time Miles moves before launching itself at him claws first.

Miles doesn't have to know what this thing is talking about to know that it's trying to upset Josh. Or that it's working. For a moment he wonders if his friend has seen a less ... tangible version of this thing in his head before and the thought of it strikes an almost painful stab of empathy in his chest.

No wonder Josh is confused and on edge sometimes. How can anyone relax when you turn around and might see one of these in the corner of your eye?

The lunge of powerful jaws is nothing new for Spider-man to deal with - you can pull up clips on youtube of previous battle with Venom and Lizard for proof of that. The skinny kid sidesteps late -whats the deal with his spider sense right now?- and has to hold the wedigo back by the throat with his scrawny arms.

Suprisingly to everyone, but Miles, he has no trouble holding this thing back. He throws a hard knee in the spot on it's ribs Miles was picking on earlier and if the thing flinches even a little bit, Miles will move to take it's back.

Edited 2017-01-23 13:08 (UTC)

The shriek it gives is painful enough. Josh whimpers from the ground and covers his ears more. He's ignoring the snow on the ground and the cold as he holds as still as can be. Still murmuring to himself unimportant and frankly-- unintelligible things. Joshua Washington may as well be on another plane right now because he's so far gone.

It's for the best really, considering the young Spider-Man has more than enough to worry about without Joshua questioning the fact that he's fending off a spindly human nomming monster with his bare hands.

It's got more reach than Miles does with those twisted arms and sorry bro but its claws are sharp enough to behead someone without any resistance. And it is tearing at Miles' shoulders and head--anywhere it can reach with ever increasingly ear shattering shrieks. It's unable to grab him or dismember him, but it's not for a lack of trying. The blow does make it stumble, clearly confused by the force this kid is exerting.

The one thing Miles is worried about - since he's almost positive that this thing is some manifestation of Josh's personal darkness or his ... fears - is the concern that their bodies might be physically linked somehow. Like he could wail on this thing with all the strength in his spiderfied body and it would somehow hurt his friend.

He's thrown some hard knees at the wendigo, though. His pal seems to be horrified, but not in pain - at least not that he can sense while he'd wrestling with this thing.

He can't get around to the creatures back. Miles tries and almost lost half of his face from a claw swipe. He gets it off balance. One of the next best things. The young spiderling goes low and throws a sweeping kick at its legs and then instantly springs backward with a shocking agility.

The Wendigo Joshua goes down hard with a much more pained shriek than the others it has given so far. A plume of snow is thrown up into the air and more gets whipped up as it thrashes on the ground.

It's dragging itself upright after only a few seconds--it's putrid breath coming out in heavy puffs of air. Cocking it's head left and right trying to track down its prey.

"Okay Josh."

Miles huffs because as effortless as he makes bouncing off the walls look, it simply isn't. That thing was taking some good shots and he knows that the Wendigo thing isn't gonna stay down. If his friend isn't trying to stand, the young man is going to jerk him up to his feet by his shoulder or maybe his shirt - whatever he can grab.

"This is the part where we run."

Josh had been quite content hiding in the snow pretending he doesn't exist, and he flinches when miles jerks him upright. He's shivering uncontrollably and only partially due to fear.

"Run...okay run. But if it comes after us we have to hide..!"

He scrambles past the first few mirrors, unsure where exactly he should be going but doing his best to cut off direct line of sight between them and the wendigo as quickly as possible.

Adrenaline is his friend right now, punching through the heaviness he had felt in his limbs as a combination of fear and cold. He won't be nearly as fast as Miles, but he runs pretty damn quick for a normal. Someone's had to do this before.

Edited 2017-02-06 16:51 (UTC)

"You're the ..." Miles pants a breath. "... expert."

He'll save the thought that this is an awfully crappy thing to be an expert on for when they aren't running for the sake of their lives and limbs.

Miles is on the same lines as Josh is thinking - if they break way from the things vision and then, put as much distance between themselves and the wendigo as possible ... then it's probably their best bet. Hope for a gust of winter wind to hide their tracks.

"I think I see a shed up ahead. Do you see it too?"

Another ear splitting screech punches through the fog like a bullet and Josh stumbles and nearly goes into the snow. He regains his footing and pushes himself even faster. Josh knows that shed and he knows the only functional window is tarped up so no one can see inside.

"Hurry! We gotta get in there..!"

The fog won't buy them much more time. But luckily, while the shed is locked Josh has a key for it on him. Why he does will be explained when they're not hurrying inside and pulling the door shut after them.

"Okay no matter what, do not move. Don't scream, don't even breathe if that thing tears open the window." Josh hisses the instructions while he carefully scoots along the wall and gets down on his knees again to use the speeder that is taking up most of this small shack as something to hide behind.

Another screech, much closer now.

"It's vision is based on movement."

He's hurrying. As much as he can without worrying that he's going to get too far ahead of Josh, anyhow. It's not like he can run like Quicksiver, but daily crime-fighting has a way about keeping you in shape.

There's a look he shoots the other young man as they get into their hiding spot in the shed. One that says, 'I see that Jurassic Park reference you just made there', but he doesn't say it aloud. The wendigo's vision might be based on movement, but that doesn't mean that thing is deaf.

Miles points at the ... whatever this bike thing is they're crouching against and he mouths the following phrase.

"Does it work?"

Another time, another day, Josh would be thrilled that his movie references did not go to waste. Right here and right now however he's busy shutting his eyes and gritting his teeth as scraping nails on wood echo in the shack. They're under partial cover, and ideally still, so when nails pierce the tarp covering the window and rip it away like it was nothing more than cling wrap on a plate of leftovers there's no prey immediately apparent when the facsimile of Joshua cranes his sharp pokey face inside to peer around.

"Y...yeh chhhant hhhhide...f..from mee....!" The last word breaks off into another shriek that rattles the boards. Josh doesn't take the bait the wendigo is laying out. He keeps still and keeps his eyes shut. It isn't until he can hear the creature muttering to itself over the sound of the wind blowing into the shack that Josh heaves an exhale, trembling from head to toe.

"Shit..ffffuuck. Y..you ok?" He looks back at Miles, half whispering and half crying. Stops when Miles points at the speeder. What about i----snow shouldn't affect it since it doesn't run on the ground. Miles? Might just be a genius.

"I..yeah. I can..drive it."

Miles finds himself running from things that want to turn him into pulpy bits far more often than anyone should have to - for the record, once is probably more than anyone should have to - but increasingly he's noticed that it's not a well placed super punch that usually saves the day. It's quick thinking. That outside the box idea that someone figures out when things are looking down.

Not knowing much about that vehicle, Miles has a lot of questions racing through his mind. Does it need time to get started? Does he need to grab keys? There must be something more to getting it going than just sitting on it, right?

So the lean black teenager has decided that he's going to play the role of distractor for Josh. He takes off without a warning ...

out of the shed and toward the sound of wedigo noise.

"Hey ugly." He shouts. "If you're looking for a snack you're gonna have to catch me."

Josh is left gaping like a fish out of water for precious seconds after Miles has bolted out of the shed. He nearly screams for the other to come back but survival instinct kicks in and he makes a wheezing breath before he can kick his brain in order and move to uncover the speeder.

He can't lose someone else again.

Why didn't you save us, Josh? Why did you want us to die?! Why do you hate us? We could have been together Josh!

Trembling fingers fly over the gauges and work the clutch to try to coax a cold engine to spring into life. Not again. He won't fail again. He doesn't have time to look at them now. To argue with them. There might still be time to save Miles and that's what's most important here.

Easy, kid. You'll stall the engine. This first. Remember the steps. Just like I taught you.

Josh's panicked breathing steadies. He knows there's no one's hand on his shoulder, but he appreciates the phantom sensation all the same. Han and Joshua rebuilt this goddamn thing from the ground up. He knows how to do this. In the tiny shack the hum of the power source lifting the speeder a few inches off the ground is deafening. It washes away his sisters voices. Washes away Han's. Leaves Josh alone and twisting the right handle as he eases the speeder out of the doorway before giving it the beans and startling himself with the power at which the machine kicks up the snow around them and lurches into the turn Josh pulled it into as he hurries to catch up with his friend.

Before the Wendigo does.

The wendigo, with its milky eyes and long freakish limbs, seems to shriek with delight that Miles has revealed himself. It digs it's feet into the ground and gives the young man the chase he's intent to have.

Snow flies from under both of sets of feet. The human teenager is fast, but he isn't super fast. Nor does he seem to be as well equipped for the winter as this distorted and deformed version of Joshua is. It doesn't take long for him to close in on Miles, who, is beginning to feel tired from all the energy expended from running and fighting with this thing.

Leaping after the plain clothes Spider-man it attempts to pull the young man down by the shoulders and begin chewing on his head. It's a sharp elbow meeting the windpipe of the beast that keeps it from being successful. It's stunned for a second. Taking the time to cough and spit black ichor our from around it's sharp teeth, but it's back to chasing him again all too soon.

The long limbs of wendigo Josh closes the distance in only a couple of strides ...

Josh is wishing he'd grabbed the goggles back in the shed as he tries to blink the snow from his eyes while he bolts across the snow covered clearing through the fog and toward the Wendigo's shrieking.

He's going faster than he probably should in these conditions, but there's not a whole lot of options if Joshua wants to catch up with Miles.

"Come on...come on..MILES!"

Josh risks the noise he makes while he swerves around a few trees and slows so he's right next to his friend. Josh leans over and holds out an arm for Miles.

"Hurry! Get on!" The snow that he's kicked up isn't going to provide them cover for long at all.

All things considered, he can be forgiven for not observing all the proper safety precautions and going a little fast. A chance of an eye injury beats getting mashed into a pulp every time.

This thing - whatever it is, wherever it came from ... It's loud, unstable looking and a little bit dangerous - but Miles is glad it was in that shed. He won't waste any time sprinting towards the speeder as fast as he can. Only barely keeping in front of the wendigo.

A super-human, spider-powered leap gets Miles onto the back of the speeder.

"Go!" He yells, unable to hold back the volume with all the adrenaline running through him. He clings to Josh's back. "Go now."

Josh doesn't need to be told twice.

He hits the throttle and sends them speeding away from the pissed off Wendigo-Josh and back through the Nexus. The fog is lifting the closer they get to the main drag of the Plaza but Josh doesn't slow down until they're on a street he recognizes. There's a food stall up the way Han likes to take him to now and again but it's much too early for it to be open. Josh parks the speeder and lets out a breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding. The world still feels fragile, like anything he reaches out to touch may shatter like the mirrors had. Bring out more monsters.

But Miles is alive. Josh had felt his heartbeat against his back. Felt the teen's nails dig into him to hold on.

He turns around and looks at the younger man. He's alive. Josh reaches out and places his hand on Miles' shoulder. It stays. He's Real.

"Couldn't just...leave a Bro hanging."

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Icy Mirrors and Mistaken Identities

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