[network] @PetertheGreat, Audio; Night 259 [Open] *Actual audio

[zunesareawesome]

DJ Star-Lord here, bringing you the stylings of my awesome collection of music. Apparently you guys are super-deprived, and I need to record my songs in case I can't get power to my Zune, so I'll be doing this probably from time to time.

But these are my songs, and I'm not parting with all of them just cause I feel sorry for you guys. If you want more, it's gonna cost you. Favors, actual stuff, money. I need food, a weapon, and most of all--a battery or a power source or something to recharge my Zune with. If there's a way to message privately on this thing, I can give you a song exclusively if you want. Then you can do whatever with it.

I haven't finished typing up my list of songs because it's stupid cold and my fingers are like icicles...I have a text file I can send with what I do have, or if you got a mood or somethin' in mind, I'm your DJ.

Anyway. Time to sit down, shut up, and listen.

[He plays the following songs, cutting the 'broadcast' off for a couple seconds before and after so that each song becomes its own individual audio file. The quality could be better, it sounds exactly like something played at full volume through earbuds held right up to a tablet, but it's better than nothing.]

Come and Get Your Love, Redbone
Hooked on a Feeling, Blue Swede
Fooled Around and Fell in Love, Elvin Bishop
Hotel California, Eagles
Respect, Aretha Franklin

Comments

[sleight_of_fate]

Yeah, though you could record CDs to the new players, through a computer. I wasn't good at it, but I had friends who would do it for me.

I tend to have a problem with computers, uh, catching fire around me. I'm really not good with them. [He laughs, though. What's a few cell phones, right?]

"Earth", huh? That sounds like you travel. Like, really travel.

[zunesareawesome]

Oh cool, so you can still create mixtapes? Or mix-CDs.

Either you're joking or you're meaning computers literally catch fire around you. The second one sounds cooler. It probably annoying.

Yep, through the galaxy and all that. It's pretty awesome.

[sleight_of_fate]

Literally fire. It's a magic thing, I think I've played too much with fate and probability magic and now, well. The bad luck's gotta go somewhere.

[That might also be why he's here. Who knows.]

That is pretty cool. We haven't even gotten to Mars yet. So there's actually life out there, huh?

[zunesareawesome]

Magic?! Like--magic, magic? Actual magic?

Oh yeah. Lots of life. Tons of it. [A pause.] I'm one. Well, half, at least.

[sleight_of_fate]

Like, magic-magic. Actual magic. I'd demonstrate, but it's not really a thing I can do here, apparently.

[He'd be a lot more comfortable if he could, unfortunately.

The next comment piques his interest even more, though.]

Half? Really?

[zunesareawesome]

That's too bad, it'd be cool to see.

[It really wasn't too much of a stretch with all the crazy things he's seen already, and besides, Stephen already mentioned magic.]

Uh-huh. My dad's a planet.

[sleight_of_fate]

[Every world seems to have their own flavor of crazy. And somewhere in there, there's probably even a bit of intersection. Rhys probably would find the alien species of Peter's worlds a bit strange, but no weirder than naga and were-lynxes and Faerie from his own world.

However...]

Wait, a planet? What?

[zunesareawesome]

Yeah, it's weird.

[He sounds a little embarrassed, but not enough to stop.]

He's a Celestial which is like, this ancient species of energy beings or something like that. He built a planet up around himself over millions of years. It was a pretty nice place until we realized he was nuts and tried to take over the galaxy."

[sleight_of_fate]

[Rhys tilts his head thoughtfully, processing that.]

Okay, you know, that actually makes sense according to my world's rules, too, when you put it like that.

Go figure. We have...Celestials isn't a bad way to put it, but Powers, Gods, whatever you wanna call them. Giant Things You Don't Fuck With, basically.

[He goes quiet for a second, then adds what he hopes sounds a lot more sympathetic.]

Sorry it was a mess, though. I get the dads-not-working-out thing. Never knew my real dad and my "adopted" dad was an ass.

[zunesareawesome]

[A shrug, but it's clear he was affected by all that had went down recently, for him.]

It was one of those things that was too good to be true, y'know? He was was so into like, suddenly being there for me, when all he really wanted to do was take over the galaxy. And he tried to use me as a battery for like a thousand years, which was so not cool.

[A half-laugh, he preferred humor over the horrible reality that his mom was dead because of him.]

Sorry yours sucked too. On the bright side, knowing what actually happened to them might not be such a good thing. I found out he's the one who killed my mom.

[sleight_of_fate]

[Wow. Hell. Rhys lets his breath out.]

Wow. Yeah. I...everything that happened, at least no one got hurt, really. No one but me. And I could take it, so that was what mattered.

Some things are better just...out of your life. End it, move on. Start to try to heal.

[It's not an easy question to ask, how Peter's story resolves. The offer is there for him to finish it, or to drop it if he doesn't feel like sharing.]

[zunesareawesome]

Sorry it had to happen to you, man. But that's... that's a good way of thinking about it.

[He's not particularly prone to down moods, but before he'd come here he'd spent a few long nights just quietly listening to music and mulling over regrets.]

Yeah, uh...apparently he actually cared about her so much he killed her so he wouldn't have to come back to her. [He's angry--his voice gets clipped.]

[sleight_of_fate]

[Well fuck. And that's a trigger that Rhys knows entirely too well, because a surge of sympathetic rage boils up, twists his stomach, even though his voice only raises slightly.]

..I lost my closest friend that way, too. Just a few years ago.

Not exactly the same, but. Couldn't stand that it was over. So he killed her.

[He goes quiet again. Best friend doesn't cover what Sunny was to him. But it's enough to get it across that it was an agonizing loss. He understands what Peter means.]

... Anything happen to him for it?

[zunesareawesome]

That sucks, bro. [He sounds genuinely sorry.] I know nothing I say can make it better, really, but that sucks big time.

...yeah, me and my friends killed him. To be fair, I tried to blast him apart as soon as I found out he killed her, but it wasn't enough.

[Peter's not a wanton killer, and he'd rather talk through a fight, but when it came to something like this, he wasn't shy about talking about it at all.]

[sleight_of_fate]

[Rhys is quiet for a second, as he thinks about that.]

I'm glad. Sometimes, it just...needs to be taken care of.

[He's not in any place to disapprove, even if he can't quite bring him to confess his own vindictive acts.]

Moving on is hard, but hope you made some peace.

[zunesareawesome]

...and that it does. For everyone's sake.

[He pauses.]

I think I have. And then some days, I think about what I could have done different, I could have saved...well, anyway. I was stupid enough to be tricked by Ego in the first place.

[sleight_of_fate]

[Rhys shakes his head quietly.]

Always easy to think that, but people...creatures like that? They base their entire existence on deception, and escaping notice. That's where all their energy goes, on finding people better than they are and taking advantage of that to get away with the horrible shit they pull.

It's good that you were the one that finally stood up to him, stopped him. You're always gonna wish something had been different, yeah, but at least you did change things. That's something to take comfort in, be proud of.

[zunesareawesome]

...that's true. That's what he did.

[Peter sounded disgusted. Maybe he did love his mom in some twisted sociopathic way, but he still killed her.]

I guess. It wasn't like we had a choice, and I almost didn't stand up to him. [Peter trails off, it's still too fresh. His voice hitches. Mr. denial wanted to push all those awful feelings away where he didn't have to deal with them.]

[sleight_of_fate]

[Rhys isn't going to push Peter to talk about this: it's a shitty thing and there's no reason to drag it up, unless it makes Peter feel better to.]

Yeah. Things happen, it's fucked up, and afterward, you just deal with it the best you can. It's never easy, but you deal with it until one day you wake up and it's a little better.

[He's silent for a long few moments. Sunny's death still aches like a phantom limb, but at least he wakes up in the morning. At least he gets through the day. It's better than the screaming, the rage, the feeling like he's going to tear himself apart. It has healed...however slowly.]

[zunesareawesome]

...that's a really good attitude.

[One that he should do better at remembering to have.]

Sounds like you dealt with that too. Does it get better?

[sleight_of_fate]

It took me a long time and a lot of mistakes to get there. Kinda nice if someone else can benefit from it, you know?

My best friend was murdered about five years ago, by a jealous ex-boyfriend. She was pretty much the most important person I ever had in my life, and it nearly destroyed me.

[Deep breath.]

It still hurts. Some nights, it will just hit me out of nowhere and it hurts like a heart attack. But it's better now, too. I think of the times she made me happy, the things that she liked, the things that I like now because she gave them to me. And I know one day, if everything works out, maybe I'll see her again, but the time that I did have her, I was incredibly lucky and those years were so important to me. And...that's what I hang onto. How she made my life better, not what it cost when she was taken away.

That was the kind of person she was. That's what she would have wanted.