revivalproject | Curious...

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Curious...

CW: gaslighting and emotional abuse

Some may have noticed that Tony Stark has been absent since the moon stopped screaming, but once the network was restored he was curiously still on the he-row database. So that meant he was probably still around, right?

But now, he's no where to be found, seemingly scrubbed from the network. Those with the comms datapoint maybe be able to see that this was NOT the same as when others have suddenly gone home. Tony's information is still there, but locked away behind layers of code. Does that mean he's still out there somewhere? Can communication be restored before it's too late? And who would want to do such a thing in the first place?

Curiouser still, a certain exo (Felwinter) may have seen one Quintin Beck come to the security tower to switch datapoints not long before it happened. Not that it was uncommon for Beck to do so, but the timing...it sure is interesting.

(For anyone who some how got here without knowing what's going on this post will explain, post any questions there and I'll be happy to answer them.

Feel free to use this post as a place to thread reactions to the discovery, or feel welcome to have this knowledge in any future threads)

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[Naturally after the storm seems to break- as told by the return of the Light sans screaming moons and threat of going nuclear ~~again~~, the Hunter Vanguard makes his rounds to check on his favorite people. He leaves his Ghost to scour the network while he goes hopping from haunt to haunt, the pair multitasking in this way. While the reports are positive, finding an empty forge once he gets to it does strike him as strange, if not a little concerning.]

Data-buddy? You seen dad?

[The forge is a disaster.

None of the suits of armor that had loomed over the dark floor are intact anymore, scattered through the space like they had been torn apart, or burst from the inside. The workbench itself is knocked askew, holes torn through its scaffolding and tools, projects and salvage all flung in the violence of it. The fire itself looks like it had erupted, charcoal spread across the floor before it in blackened scorch stains, the embers long since gone cold.

The last image that the D.A.T.A. unit has stored is of Tony leaning over him, reworking some new connections with a shiny new shell ready to replace his cracked chassis. When he rebooted again, he was on the ground, a crinkled sheet of paper over his lens, still incomplete, new shell gone, and clearly alone. Tony would come back for him eventually. He would wait.

He doesn't even have to wait long, though that is not Tony's voice. He still doesn't have one of his own, so he waves his one working leg, and tries to pull the page blanketing him.]

[Whether Tony had a meltdown of some kind or a surprise homewrecker, neither scenario is a great one to imagine as Cayde looks around. He steps more carefully, keeping an eye out for signs of a struggle, traces of a mysterious malefactor, falling instinctively into hunting mode, half fearful for what he might find.

Poor D.A.T.A. The movement draws him to the little robot in a heartbeat, the Exo carefully picking up whatever's left of him and the paper that had been covering him.]

Sundance? [His Ghost coalesces beside him in a shimmer.] Think you might have a better time talking with him.

[There isn't anything else moving in the forge, not even a shiver from the catwalk above, where part of it has been dislodged from the wall to droop precariously over the scattered heap that used to be Tony's bed. The armor that had hung there slouched now against the all, looking dented and fragile.

D.A.T.A. appears appreciative of the attention, stretching his leg in greeting toward Cayde. The paper is a familiar map, knocked from where it had been pinned to the workbench and slightly scorched at the edge. The robot doesn't have much to tell Sundance, though; Tony was there, working, and then he was gone, and D.A.T.A. was no more complete and on the floor. The other cameras that D.A.T.A. could see did not have much to show either, only empty streets, cleared of the fog, quiet like they had been when the network went dark.]

[The more he takes in, the less Cayde likes. It doesn't make any sense, even less so for how normal things appeared to have been before...whenever this all happened. But then there was a lot of whenever.

Cayde carefully sets the map on the workbench, picking D.A.T.A. up, whatever's left of him. He'd rather not leave the little guy here, especially not if someone was behind this mess and thought to come back.]

Come on, buddy. We're going to get to the bottom of this. Sundance, lock things up.

[The reason Felwinter has chosen to dwell in the topmost floor of the security tower is because it offers an excellent view of everything. ~~Not to mention it's nicely secluded for the broken elevator.~~ Including, in this instance, suspicious people. Perhaps not really suspicious, but really, what need is there for anyone to be swapping data points so soon after the calm of what he assumes must have been a storm. Untrusting a creature as he is, the warlord makes note with interest.

Funny that it isn't the abrupt lack of one Tony Stark that draws his attention rather than the sudden appearance of new encryptions. He delves into it like a puzzle, code practically a second- or is it rather his first?- language as he and Felspring start to pick their way through, unraveling a knot of thread to see where its ends may lead.

Finding that Tony Stark seems to be a target for this will prompt him to access the man's private camera network. Something fishy is going on. He lets his Ghost handle that end of things while he continues to work on encryptions. It just works better that way.]

Peter told Cayde he'd go look for Tony but that was only before he'd found out about the fact someone had tried to scrub him entirely from the network. In truth, he might not have suspected anything if not for that little detail.

Peter knows better than most that the dead and the missing leave things behind. His dad still has a social media account somewhere, Ben still has a Facebook that will never be updated again. People don't get scrubbed from records unless someone does it deliberately and he has a pretty good idea of who it was just based on the time alone.

He may not have the communication Data point but he doesn't need it to know that shortly after Tony Stark warned him not to trust Beck did Mr Stark go missing. So excuse him if he's a little angry when he storms home (he's going to need to move out immediately), throwing the door open and maybe breaking it just a little as it slams against the wall.

"Hey!" He demands, his voice no where near the cheerful awkward tone it was. "What did you do to Mr Stark!?" He demands.

Beck started, surprised to see the kid show off his strength like that, and even more surprised to see that anger directed at him. He managed to look impressively bewildered by the question, head tilting in confusion.

"What are you talking about? Peter, what's going on? Something happened to Stark?"

Peter can only ever being this angry once before in his entire life and that was the night Ben had died. Just like he did then, he can feel his anger coursing through him, egging him to step closer to do something because this bastard deserved it.

He bites his bottom lip and clenches his fists to stop himself from giving into that temptation. It's just a strong suspicions and Peter has no proof although the circumstantial is pretty damn strong.

"Kind of a weird coincidence isn't it? That shortly after Tony told me I shouldn't trust you that he goes missing?" He asks, his tone clipped and extremely pointed. "What did you do to him, Beck?"

"What are you-? Peter, calm down. You're smarter than this. Why would I do anything to Stark? I barely know him."

He kept his cool, brows twisted, hoping to impose doubt in Peter to help defuse that anger.

"Or so you say." Funnily enough, the rational part of his mind wants to listen because it's a valid enough point and Peter knows he'll never forgive himself or ever stop apologizing of he's wrong about this.

But he's not wrong and he can feel that it's not wrong.

"But I only have your word to take for it." He points out. "And right now I'm really feeling like I should doubt it."

"..." Beck frowned, and it took a moment before he could manage to get a hurt look to shine through.

"...And why is that?" he asked calmly, "Because they say I'm a villain in Stark's world? It's you they think I'm dangerous around. And you're smart enough to see how differently things play out across the multiverse. I'm not whatever they've told you I am."

Peter stops dead in his tracks. Mr Beck is right, the multiverse is vast and infinite from what he knows of it so it's entirely possible that while in one universe Quentin Beck and Peter Parker got along, there was another where they were bitter enemies.

Wait second.

A red flag shoots up in his mind and he looks at Beck with renewed suspicion. He hesitates to speak at first in fear he's looking too into things but the more the thinks about it the more he knows he's right.

"...Mr Stark never said you were a villain in his universe." He points out. "I only said he told me not to trust you. So if you haven't been lying to me this whole time, how did you know that?"

"..." For half a moment Beck almost faltered, but it was easy enough to cover. "Tommy's from the same universe as Stark and wouldn't drop it for months after I arrived. I assumed he gave the you same warning. Are you really accusing me of doing something to Stark? People leave here all the time, Peter. I know you haven't had much of a chance to lose someone here you care about, but if they've sent him home, that's a good thing."

He hates this because once again he's left with just Beck's word to go on and even if it's true that Tommy did pester him about that it still doesn't clear Beck's name and they both know it.

"No, he didn't leave." Peter says insistently. "He was erased off the network. I was told that doesn't happen when someone leaves-everything they've done stays. So, that means that someone had to have gone in and wiped the records themselves." Why anyone would that is something to consider but he'll worry about that later.

"And if you're not a danger to me, then why is my Spider-sense telling me that you are?"

"...Spider-sense?" Beck repeated, and he felt a twinge of genuine fear run through him presented with something he had not accounted for.

"I don't know what that-...look, Peter, you're obviously very emotional right now-"

"Yeah, it's another little trick I picked up from that spider-bite. It warns me when I'm in danger." Sort of. Sometimes. It can be a little faulty especially when he's emotional but he's not telling Beck that!

He jerks back, ready for a fight at those words just incase Beck tries to do something like reach out for him.

"Something isn't adding up and something is telling me that it has to do with you. So I'll ask again what did you do to Mr Stark?" He really doesn't want to hurt anyone but he's not above bluffing if he has to, he just needs to make it convincing.

That...explained a lot. Beck frowned faintly, but squared his shoulders against the question.

"I didn't do anything, Peter," he repeated firmly.

Beck isn't budging in his feigned confusion and honestly it's only serving to make the teenager that much more angry. Still though, he felt like he was about to cross a line he wanted to keep away from.

Before he can think to stop himself he's closing the distance between himself and the man and pinning him to the wall. It's not rough and he's taking great care to not actually hurt the man but it's not exactly gentle either.

"Stop lying, Beck." He growls angrily.

"Nnn-" Beck's face twisted, but he pointedly didn't resist, palms raised against his chest.

"Peter- I know you're upset right now-"

Up close like this, Peter tries to determine if there's any tells-what do his eyes say? The fact that Beck isn't resisting has Peter hesitating which is possibly the worst thing he can do in a time like this. Mr Davis had said he had to get better at this part-was this what he meant?

"I want the truth." He says determinedly. "Who are you to me?"

"I told you truth. We worked together. To stop the Elementals. Fury brought you on. You're a good kid, Peter. A kid who wants a normal life. And I want that for you too."

Oddly, he doesn't get the feeling that Beck is lying right now and he's tempted, oh so very tempted to believe him but one thing is really bothering him. Tony would never let that happen. Mr Stark was bound and determined to keep Peter on the little neighborhood problem it's really hard to imagine that in just a year he would have started to allow Peter take on something SHEILD got involved with.

He wants to ask but he's also afraid he won't like the answer. "...I think normal flew out the window when I got bit by that spider." He states before finally relaxing and freeing Beck from where he's pinned.

No, he must have gotten it wrong again and guilt is starting to pour in as the doubt takes hold. Beck's not doing anything to defend himself - not even lashing out. And really, it could just be a weird, unfortunate coincidence of timing. Unfortunate coincidences were kind of a theme in his life.

"I... I'm really sorry I... jumped to conclusions."

Stark hadn't been there to shelter Parker, not that he'd been able to for long before his death either. He hadn't protected Peter from the snap. But this Peter wasn't aware of how much worse things were going to get for him in his future.

"...I know, Peter. I understand. You were upset," he comforted, "You made a mistake. You're just worried about Stark. I promise, I'll try to help you find out what happened."

"I'm so sorry." he back tracks even further. "I thought-I mean Mr Stark told me he was a little concerned with the fact I was staying with you and that we don't get along in his universe and-I don't know... I guess I thought you found about about it and...."

He pauses to let out a breath. "It was just really, really bad timing." But if it wasn't Beck that went after Tony then who was it? And Why? He knew Tony Stark had enemies because Mr Toomes wasn't exactly a fan but that was on Earth so how could he have enemies here?

"And what- killed him?" Beck finished, giving Peter a look as though that was a shocking conclusion to come to. "Even if I were upset with him, I'd like to think you thought better of me than that, Peter. I'm not going to kill someone over some kind of misunderstanding."

Yeah, when he says it like that id does sound crazy and Peter winces horribly as the guilt consumes him all over him. "I-I know! I-I'm-it's been such a weird week and if I'd stopped to think about it I-I don't know.." He stammers out.

"My spider-sense has been acting up a lot lately and I thought you were setting it off some how? That's actually why I was on the ceiling the other day-but it's just been off ever since I got my powers back and-and-" He takes a breath.

"I'm so-shouldn't-oh my god, this is really bad." He clutches his face in his hands, how could he have thought Mr Beck would kill Tony over something so small? He'd said himself he barely knew him. That would just be insane. "I can't believe I actually thought-I'm so sorry..."

"Hey- hey-...come on-" Beck's features softened, and he motioned Peter closer to pull him into a hug. He sighed in a parental way, and rubbed Peter's back.

"I know you are," he soothed, "You didn't mean it."

Peter moves into accept the hug. He feels like he wants to crawl out of his own skin but is that from his danger sense or because of the guilt? Everything just feels... wrong.

"I'm so sorry." He repeats. "I just-I think I'm tired-that's no excuse but... may-maybe I should lay down for awhile." He decides, thinking that maybe a nice long nap might help get his head straight.

"We all say things we don't mean when we're upset. I know you didn't mean it, Peter," he hushed, "Go lay down. You're right. That will help you think straight. We'll talk again when you're feeling calmer."

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Curious...

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For Beck | after his chat with Cayde

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this is the best icon I have for this.

<3

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CW: Sooooo much gaslighting and emotional abuse

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