羽根を焦がす無数の鳥が (open!)

[grice]

Who: falco grice & you!
When: march & april!
Where: gestures
What: post-surgical trauma, regains, flying (and crashing), snooping, and just general prompts to keep busy with during our pause! i’ll be adding more investigation oriented prompts later as well! absolutely free to tag in super late or backtag forever until may! hmu at liberos if you’d like to plot something specific and i’d adore to write a fresh starter for us!
Warnings: body horror, traumatic surgical descriptions, torture, aot spoilers, mentions of war imagery, will update as things happen!


top levels in the comments!

🐤 MARCH 1 - 4: general prompts with falco still carrying the worst of his living island mutilation; locations include library, diners, groceries or honeybees!
🐤 MARCH 5: open to housemates, neighbors or passerbys; falco gets his jaw implants removed and seems pretty normal. maybe just a little tense about the how.
🐤 MARCH 6: open for sightings or interactions! falco uses his titan form to survey the city and check his limits.
🐤 MARCH 10 - FORWARD: includes prompts for spring cleaning and topsy turvy, as seen on the tdm! 

Comments

[grice]

[ peter isn't running along with him, isn't running fast enough and he could feel the weight his legs couldn't carry this way. i need something, he thinks, and the boy quickly scans the street floors for something shiny, metal, it usually meant sharp but santa rosita's streets were almost perfectly spotless. his pockets? did he have anything in his pockets? only a pen and a bouncy ball at this point and he really needed to change that, opting for grabbing the pen and thinking if he smashed the tip hard enough into his palm he could penetrate skin—

he looks as dangerous as a school boy could get holding a fountain pen like a knife, about ready to hurt himself and let go of peter if it meant toget them out of here (without being seen? hard). luckily, the older boy is the one to bring aid to the table first, and it takes little time for falco to trust him on that. ]

—Ok.

[ he doesn't question certainty; falco pockets his pen and scrambles for peter's back like he would on colt's. ]

[webdesigned]

( it's a little painful, to have a little kid climb you in a panic, but he's definitely had worse. and his own panic it doesn't even hurt as much as it could. Falco is only about half about his shoulders before Peter has to start running, because otherwise the snarling grey children will catch up.

he readjusts short arms around his shoulders and repeats, ) Hold on. ( he doesn't really have much in the way of super strength anymore, and besides, his arms are going to be preoccupied. Falco will have to keep himself from falling during this daring escape.

which Peter does not have time to explain before it happens, jumping headfirst at a wall must seem like a pretty dumb escape maneuver at first. he scrambles a little bit to properly wall crawl upwards, and one of the creepy zombie kids tears off his shoe in attempt to grab his leg and drag them back down. honestly Peter is just grateful it takes his shoe and he doesn't have to kick an undead child to get away.

but as they crawl higher, the zombie children clutter at the foundation and claw uselessly at air, snarling and shouting but too far away to be much of a threat anymore. that said, by the time he gets to the top of the building, Peter is extremely missing his super strength. it's hard enough to haul himself around with his sticky fingers these days — adding even someone Falco's size was shockingly exhausting. Peter clings to the edge of the building, nodding his head in the direction of the relative safety of a rooftop. ) Can you climb over? ( that seems easier than trying to haul both of them over the edge. )

[grice]

[ that was such a close one that falco nearly prepares to swing his leg between them when one decaying child had gotten too close. not to kick, but to shield (and maybe it would've been a better idea to kick, an i'm sorry ringing loud in his ears, as hard as his heart was beating). his breath catches in his throat with a short squeal, and he holds around peter's neck for dear life when it feels like they begin to move. at least peter's body is moving, in an upwards crawl, and to keep his legs from dangling and providing more gravitational weight it it swung behind them, falco did his best to cross his legs around the elder boy's waist, squeezing to keep him pinned where he was.

he was still weight, though, and once the blond felt like he could look out of the crook he'd created in his arms, he peers down, the sound of snarling children farther and farther away. they're climbing. that, and they're stuck to the wall, climbing up. exhaustion rattles peter's frame and falco remains tense but hopeful, reaching for the ledge to remove some weight once its close enough. he could ask questions later and instead, immediately, he responds with both words and action: ]

I've got it!

[ and just like the tree, although this tim he doesn't wait to take peter's hand, he curls his small hands under the other's arms, anchors his heels and hoists up to bring him with. definitely not as strong as he could be in a few years when puberty hits its worst, but it's enough to ease the weight that steeped peter. ]

[webdesigned]

( it is at least slightly embarrassing from the former superhero angle that he probably needs Falco's help to drag himself over the edge of the building. Peter is used to picking up cars, it feels disorienting to be so very normal. he accepts the help and manages to drag himself the rest of the way, landing in a gangly heap on the roof once he's properly on top of it to catch his breath.

Peter is at least slightly uncomfortable to stare Falco down after definitely showing his superpowered hand, but, considering the circumstances, what other option was there? he doesn't have a suit here, and Peter isn't willing to risk a kid's life for his secrets. he's done it before and he'd do it again. ultimately hiding his powers isn't worth someone getting hurt. especially not a kid. )

That... that was a close one. ( Peter is winded, and a little annoyed at himself about it. ) You okay? They didn't claw you up, did they? Of course this place has creepy zombie kids. Of course it does. ( the last bit isn't very relevant to the first two questions, it all just ended up coming out in a ramble. )

[grice]

[ once he’s up, falco can finally breathe, too, easily stooping to his knees to join peter with puffing breaths (out of the fright and the earlier running, but peter really did do the rest of the heavy lifting). one glimpse down from the ledge was necessary, and ah went the boy’s voice, staggering back to sit himself down. ]

So that’s a zombie . . . [ tiny titans. he gives the loop of his pants leg a look, and all seems well, so said in between air, ] M’fine, it’s thanks to you. [ grateful. ]

You climbed it all with your hands . . . Wow.

[ he really means that, the same way he’d look at a tape player today and easily show childlike awe. he’s seen a lot, but it’s hard to remove wonder from what he either hasn’t seen, or if something is truly, truly amazing. ]

[webdesigned]

I've never met one, but, based on my memory of Shawn of the Dead, yup. ( it should feel more weird than it does, to have snarling undead children scattered on the sidewalk two stories below. honestly, with everything that is going on here in Santa Rosita, zombie children seems par for the course.

that mild wonder was bound to come up after scaling the walls barehanded, huh? Peter is not used to having his powers tied to his person, usually using them comfortably from behind an expressionless mask. and yes, he's shown his face to put a kid at ease in a life-or-death situation before, but it wasn't a kid he knew already, or had much of a chance of meeting again on the streets of a city of 8 million. Peter rubs a weary hand through his hair, before he gives Falco a smile that is a mix of nervous and tired. )

Yeah. Fun party trick, huh? ( a party trick that Peter never uses where anyone can see it, which makes it much less impressive, actually. ) It's... just something I can do. I used to be able to do more, but being here is weird. ( Peter is noting his powers slowly trickling back to him, though not at a rate that makes them particularly easy to rely on. ) It was kind of a secret, back home, so...

( please, lil buddy. don't squeal about his super powers to people he doesn't know. okay?? )

[grice]

Oh— [ a secret? for whatever reason it was, secrets were usually meant for protection. falco couldn’t imagine the home peter came from, but he could use his own as a base (and does). they’re quite merciless, archaic, even. potentially threatening secrets led to a trip to “paradise”, all woven around fear. humans weren’t that different, in fearing or bombarding something they didn’t know. falco didn’t want that for anyone, much less peter. he holds his hand up for emphasis, ] I won’t tell anyone. That’s a promise.

[ falco is genuine enough of a child to keep his promises, at least. his tongue isn’t floppy or prone to slipping, not even on accident. but, since they have to stay here until the children disappear (or, not, but he’ll try something if it’s taking too long), falco crosses his legs to sit and allow peter to rest. ]

People wouldn’t understand if they knew? Back home?

[webdesigned]

Thanks.

( Peter feels a little guilty to even ask. it's a heavy enough secret for him to carry, and it's his secret. putting that burden on someone else feels bad, especially when he can painfully recollect what happened to the last person he told. there aren't supervillains here, maybe, but it hasn't even been a year since Harry threw Gwen to her death. technically one could argue what happened with Harry had been because of the secrets, but... it's also easy to argue what happened with Harry happened because of his secret identity and a willingness to hurt others to hurt him. two sides of the same ugly coin.

how to explain why he kept a secret vigilante identity to a 12 year old? Peter sighs, head dropping and hands splaying across the back of his neck as he takes a steadying breath. )

Maybe some of them would. But not everybody. And those were the ones I was worried about. ( the people that would lash out at his loved ones. the people that would see what he could do as an opportunity to hurt others instead of help them. ) It keeps people safer when they don't know who I am. Back home I wore a mask when I... ( what word to even use??? superheroed sounds so pretentious. vigilanted sounds way scarier than it actually was. ) When I used my powers.

[grice]

[ and no one took it off, he wondered? maybe peter was too fast to get caught, he could imagine what else was possible when he could scale walls. the boy muses, quietly, and nods his head in agreement. ]

It really does sound like the safest thing to do. [ he wonders what it could’ve been like if all the titans were kept in hiding to their own accord— maybe some good would happen, but most of it would’ve been used for the horrid, the same way it always had been when a high power had it wrapped around their fingers. when falco imagines himself in peter’s shoes, at least, wanting to do good with it, ] They can’t threaten your family.

[ which he, for as young as he was for too many things, had felt that reality raw on his skin like cattle getting marks burned into them to know where they belonged to. ]