fluxscape | Open DITL post for Gwen Stacy

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Open DITL post for Gwen Stacy

What: Gwen Stacy and YOU!
Where: Starkbucks, The Caldera, The SuperWaiter Offices, generally around town
When: 05/10 - All day
Warnings: Will update as needed.

It's been roughly two weeks since the setting changed and Gwen still thinks this place sucks. It's just always going to be too hot for her. The people are still rude, if calming down just a bit. But not enough to get Gwen's spider-senses to settle down. She constantly felt just a little bit on edge, and without her old routine of school-work-time with friends-home? She was feeling pretty listless.

Gwen didn't do too well with too much time on her hands. She liked being active, she enjoyed having projects or things to work on. So she decided to try to figure out what was wrong with Haven and why the people here were so against newcomers.

Her first stop of the day:

Starkbucks:

An opening shift, which meant Gwen was out of bed early and getting things moving at the store before they opened at 7 Am. Sadly, there were no pastries today. The baker never seemed to have any to spare, all while selling pastries to residents of Haven, so Gwen chalked that up to still being new and therefor untrustworthy. But there's hot coffee and hot tea. Nothing too fancy, since their espresso machine is very much so gone. And very rarely does the ice maker work, so at best, people might be able to get a luke-warm coffee, instead of iced.

But the roaster in back sure does a great job of perfuming the air with some of the best coffee Gwen's ever smelled. So, there's that. And people can buy it by the pound.

Today, while the baristas are out front helping customers, Gwen's repairing the ice machine. Again. She's gotten pretty good at this, but even with her fix, it just breaks down again eventually and the parts they need haven't been found yet. This is the best she has.

Stepping out into the main room of the coffee shop, Gwen spots someone waiting to order and heads over with a small smile. "What'll it be? Just a heads up; the ice machine is malfunctioning. We won't have ice for a couple hours."

Surprisingly, she actually is sorry about that.

The Music Store:

Listen, there's no school and Gwen doesn't hold still very well. After a two hour gap between jobs, Gwen has reported for duty. While most of the grown ups don't seem to like the newcomers, their kids still insist on ballet classes and drumming lessons and that's what Gwen is here for. While she's not teaching either, she's taking the time to work on her own moves in front of the big, broken mirror in the back. Or she's sitting at the drums, headphones in, as she plays along to something playing from her iPod.

It's very clear she's been doing both for quite some time, and really enjoys what she does.

When the bell rings over the door, somehow she hears it and she stops what she's doing to get a look at who just came in.

The Caldera:

Gwen's gotten the hang of skateboarding. So much so, that she actually visits the Caldera regularly. And true to her natural instinct to big sister people younger than her, she's busy teaching one of the smaller kids how to balance on the board.

When she's not doing that, she's skateboarding, herself. And doing her best to look like she's new at this. She still has a bunch of people believing she's a normal teen, and would like to continue that trend please and thank you.

So while she's steady, there's the occasional moment where she lets a rough patch in the concrete snag her board out from under her, or she takes a fall and frowns about it.

So at some point, there are scrapes and bruises on Gwen, much like some of the other teens at the Caldera. And just like them, she's going to keep skateboarding.

The Metroplex - Most locations open, one closed to Hawk:

Gwen's here for a variety of reasons. One of them is she has karate lessons with one of the senseis. She's been doing this for years, so the only thing she's keeping in check is her strength and sticking. Other than that, Gwen's keeping up with the others in her class, and gladly taking pointers from the instructors.

This is something she enjoys and she's here three times a week for classes, so feel free to come over and say hi. She'll talk to anyone.

[For Hawk: ]

After her class and a super-quick shower in the locker room, Gwen has a very important stop to make. She doesn't really visit the rock climbing section to do any climbing of her own. It's far, far too easy for her to forget she's supposed to keep her abilities in check while she's scurrying up the walls.

But, it's almost time for Hawk's break, and she'd like a few minutes with her boyfriend.

So she heads over and watches him help a student out of the harness, waiting for him to notice her. The student he's helping points Gwen out and Gwen grins, waiting to see how Hawk's going to react.

[SuperWaiter Offices/Deliveries: ]

The SuperWaiter offices aren't that crowded today, but that was because it wasn't that busy. That was fine. This was a side-gig job Gwen could grab whenever and, as Hawk still had a couple hours at work, this was where Gwen was. Waiting for orders and talking to a couple of her coworkers.

At some point, she ventures out long enough to get a few of the noodle dishes for everyone, but for the most part, Gwen's at the office, trying to decide if she's going to clock out early or wait for a delivery order to come through.

When she is on a delivery, she's out and about on her SuperWaiter motorbike. Are you one of her stops? If so, the food is hot and delivered in quick time. So please tip well. She's saving for a motorbike of her own.

[Wildcard: ]

If you'd like to put up a starter that isn't at the locations above, just LMK! I'll be happy with whatever.

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[ Satoru doesn't have much money here, he hasn't been here too long and hasn't worked enough to have gained much bank. But he's used to living as if he has wealth. So he's spending like he does. He doesn't know how to budget at all.

So he ordered several noodle dishes and plans to tip very well. It's going to take most his money, but he hasn't realized this. Not yet.

So, since he hasn't realized this, it's with a grin he opens the door to his apartment. ]

You've got it?

[ He sounds excited. ]

I do!

[ Gwen might be holding several bags, but it doesn't look like it's bugging her much. She sets one set down and pulls out her phone, checking the app for the name and then looks up in recognition. ]

Hey. You're the guy that posted about the party, right? I'm Gwen.

I am! I remember you.

[ He points at her, as if to accentuate his statement. ]

You want to stay and eat one of these? I'm capable of sharing.

[ Most people think he can't. It's stupid. ]

Sam's never had to wait this long for a delivery order to come through. No matter where he went, there was always a delivery waiting for him at the terminal. But here? Not the case.

He's without his gear suit for once, and therefor without Lou. It's way too hot for the suit, and Lou is fine for a few hours, nestled against his pillow in his apartment. So he's in his tanktop and pants, the handprints that pattern his shoulders and arms on full display as he leans against the counter.

"Is it usually this slow?"

"I think the local are still getting used to us," Gwen states from one of the tables, scrolling on her tablet through old videos from school. She might be that super rare teenager that really misses actually getting an education.

And the videos just aren't doing it for her. She's watched this chemistry one a thousand times and isn't getting anything new, so she shuts it down and looks at Sam with a half-smile.

"The last few locations we were in, the locals really seemed to be glad we were there. In Beachville, a huge vacation resort town, people really loved us. Wechester City, people mighta been grumpy, but that's big cities. People have places they need to be, everything's a rush. Driftcrest it was a remote mountain town and people were going through a rough spot with monsters that turned people into ice statues."

And Gwen has had experience with said monsters. There are blue scars that curve up the side of her neck, and matching bite marks on her right calf muscle.

"Here, though...I don't know what's going on, or why people seem to dislike us on sight. That might be prompting people to go get the food themselves."

"Driftcrest sounds a lot like a part of the country I spent a lot of time in. No ice monsters, though. Just a lot of doomsday preppers that didn't trust most people. Can't really blame them. The country sort of broke apart after -- " He rubs the back of his neck, trying to think of the best way to describe it.

"Two realities crashed into each other. Caused a big explosion. Cratered half the country."

Gwen rests an elbow on the table and her chin in her hands, listening to Sam with a small frown.

"I've seen something like that," she admits with a small sigh. "It was a weird merging of several universes that could have killed everyone. It was stopped, but for the people that found themselves in the wrong universe, it really sucked."

Time for a better topic. "How are you and the kiddo settling in?"

That gets a small but warm smile. "Kiddo's doing great. She sleeps most of the time, which is fine. I set her pod up nice and cozy in my bed.

I'm settling in okay. I was a porter -- a delivery person back home. So this is good for me. Had a bike not too different from the ones they let us use here.

Have you been here long?"

"Good to hear it. She's adorable, and if you ever want anyone to keep an eye on her, please get ahold of me. I'd love to help out."

She's missing her siblings so bad, Sam. So bad. It's awful.

"Nine months? A while. A good, long while. I kinda like it sometimes."

"I appreciate that a lot, thank you." It's an offer, not a demand, which is a first for him. He's more used to Deadman saying he needs to take her away for repairs, and then missing her whenever she's gone. But with someone looking after her, he gets to decide when he gets to see her again.

Nine months, though, blows his mind. "I can't remember the last time I stayed anywhere for nine months. Porters use waystations to get a night's sleep before they pick up the next order and keep moving."

"Real-talk? I'm being a bit selfish with that offer. I have three younger brothers that I haven't seen in a year." Gwen grins at him, though, showing she's in fact not being greedy. She's being kind. It's just Gwens way.

"That sounds a little rough. I mean, I like travel as much as the next person, but I also like to know I have somewhere that's mine to go to at the end of a trip."

The best she has here is home with her boyfriend and best friends. It's not her home in New York, but it's home enough.

"Oh wow, I can't imagine." He can, but -- his relationship with his sister was complicated. To say the least. But it's not worth getting into, right now. Not when he barely knows Gwen.

"The waystations were nice. They had decent food, whatever supplies you needed to stock up on. They got Monster energy drinks where you come from?"

"Monster. Red Bull. Bang. A whole slew of them. Which...not the biggest fan. To each their own, though."

They really don't do anything for the superhero teen with the stupid metabolism. Or at least, not for long.

"I think I saw some at Delmars? In case you were looking."

"I'll have to check that out. I'm still getting used to having physical money. Everything's virtual, where I come from."

"We had Apple Pay back in my world. You enter your credit card info into your phone and when it came time to pay for things, you just opened up the app, waved it over the device and it was paid."

It was pretty cool. Easy to overspend, though.

"Oh! Speaking of things people bought. I have something for Lou."

Give her one second, Sam. She stands and heads to her locker, opening it up and digging around for a moment in her backpack. Soon enough, she has a box in her hand and is heading back. Inside the box is the finished and framed picture of the Aurora.

"I figured, since she seemed happy looking at it, she could have it."

"This is..." He shakes his head with a smile, a little in awe. He can't remember the last time anyone gave him anything as a gift. Well no, that's not true. Some of his customers had given him thank you presents now and again.

But this? This is special. "I'll put it right near where she sleeps, so she can see it first thing when she wakes up."

Tess doesn't look impressed with the way things look. It's small, it's in need of repair, if the girl fixing the ice machine is any indication, and there isn't much selling.

"I was expecting a little more to this place."

"In the last setting, this place was a huge coffee shop. We had all of the flavors and all of the drinks and everything worked. When we changed over to Haven, it seems as though Starkbucks changed to match."

Ah, well.

"But the coffee's good. Very rich, low acidity. And roasted fresh, daily."

A rattling sound from nearby and the sound of something falling and Gwen smiles. "Ice is working. If you give us fifteen minutes, we can make you an iced coffee."

Edited 2021-05-11 00:48 (UTC)

"I have the time." An iced coffee is exactly what she needs in all this heat. She leans against the counter as she waits. "What's the traffic like here on a usual day?"

"Well since I'm an outsider?"

The coffee shop is currently dead, affording Gwen the time to get the ice machine up and running. She turns and starts a fresh pot of coffee brewing, making sure the beans are ground just right and setting it up to brew a bit stronger than usual. That way, when it's poured over ice, it won't weaken.

"Not many people coming in. When they do, I don't think it's the lack of caffeine making them pissy."

She looks around for a moment, an eyebrow rising at the lack of customers.

"Mmm. They do seem to be on edge all on their own." Her gaze goes back to Gwen. "You're in charge here?"

"Not so much in charge, as I'm in charge for now. Shift supervisor. The owner is one Tony Stark. I don't think he's in today."

She sets about prepping ice for coffee as she talks, the ice being the really good small chunks that still allow a lot of room for coffee, and not the big ones that take up a ton of space.

"You appear to be rather competent." Which is more of a musing than an actual compliment. "Have you been here long. In whatever this place is?"

"Thanks." She's taking it as a compliment, checking on the coffee and then pouring it over the ice for the woman.

"We have half-and-half and sugar, if you'd like either of those. I'm afraid supplies are limited. I've been in this universe for a few months. Nine, I believe? I'd have to check the calendar."

"I'll take it as is." She bumps herself off the counter to take her drink. "So you've been around a while. Have you learned anything interesting?"

"The multiverse is a lot bigger than I thought, and I already have experience with how big it is. The locals here never notice when the settings change, but the people that fluxed in are very aware. Each place we've been to had locations that moved around but, again, the locals had no clue. The last place we were in, they were being plagued by monsters called the Unseen. They were intangible unless they were attacking, and they attacked pretty hard." There are bright blue scars, slash marks, running up from Gwen's back to somewhat around the side of her neck.

"When they were gotten rid of, Driftcrest went from ski town to mountain village in the summer, so I think the Unseen were somehow keeping it winter. And then we found ourselves here."

She has more, but a customer has come in and are grumbling about a black coffee that they want right away.

So Gwen gets them their coffee, takes their money, gives them their change and is pleasantly surprised when it's dropped into the tip jar.

"Thank you very much!"

That's quite a bit of information and Tess is happy enough to hear it. She wants to know all about the place she now finds herself in. Universe. Whatever it wants to be called.

She watches the interaction between Gwen and the local with interest. More on the local. Grumpy, yes, but still managed to tip. Perhaps Gwen is growing on them.

"So the desert landscape is new. Since the train?"

"Yep!" Cleaning up her mess and giving the woman her coffee, Gwen shrugs a bit.

"Not the worst way I've traveled the multiverse."

"What is the worst way?" Tess may seem a little too interested in this.

"Wormholes. And the molecular instability that follows."

See? It's not good.

"Wormholes?" That's interesting. And something she could press Gwen about all day, but now is perhaps not the time. "Yes, that must have been distressing. Have you ever found a version of yourself in another world?"

"Nope." Honestly, that's fine by her. She wouldn't know what to even do with other versions of herself, so keeping them and her separate is probably a good idea.

"Other versions of yourself and your friends can be a bit of a mess. You're lucky to have not dealt with it." Not that Tess met herself. But she knows there's at least one out there. The other version of Clark? Now that was a disaster.

There were probably more important things for Jean to be focusing on right now than trying to get an iced coffee from a Starbucks. Especially when it's taken into account that it's a Starkbucks, which really sounded like some horrific knockoff of Starbucks. The thing is, despite how much she might try to deny it, she was a Starbucks girl at heart. Could she really be faulted for it though with heat like this. Even something slightly similar would be an upturn for her current luck and mood. Who knows, maybe it was close enough. Or maybe it was going to turn out to be like the Walmart version of brand name products. Either way, a nice ice coffee would be pretty great.

"My luck is actually terrible," Jean said as her shoulders slumped with disappointment at the announcement about the ice. "Guess that kinda takes iced coffee off the menu, huh? I thought this place having a something like a Starbucks was too good to be true." Stark being in the name should have been a clue.

Edited (i fail at life) 2021-05-11 12:14 (UTC)

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it. I've tried Starbucks. I like Starkbucks better."

And she's not even saying that because of loyalty or what-have-you.

"I do want to apologize, though. The last setting we were in, we had everything that you could find on a Starbucks menu. Frappuccinos, lattes, all that. Now, however, we're limited to teas and coffees."

"That's a pretty big claim. Maybe I'll have to try something hot now," she flashed a quick smile.

"I doubt the situation is your fault. Unless you're secretly the reality bending mastermind here." Appearances were deceiving sometimes. "Last setting?" Information about this place was kinda the last thing she'd expected she'd get, but she'd definitely take it. "Sounds like a bummer of a downgrade. What exactly happened?"

"If you give me ten minutes, the ice should be dropping soon." She's going to have a day where her fixes don't count for shit. Today is not that day.

And no, she's an average teenager whose thoughts run from her mohawked boyfriend, to her new pet pig and how he's interacting with her cat, to her best friend, to the occasional flashback to running through her version of New York as Ghost-Spider.

"This place shifts realities from time to time. The last place we were in, when we got there it was a ski resort mountain town. Covered in snow. There was a curfew because these monsters called the Unseen were terrorizing people at night. I was unfortunate enough to be attacked once, and then turned into an ice statue a few days later. When the Unseen were destroyed, all of the snow in Driftcrest melted. Apparently, it was supposed to be summer."

That's before they ended up here. "I'm starting to notice that when we change realities, everything around us changes to match. Haven, for whatever reason, is low on resources. It wouldn't make a lot of sense to have all of the stuff we used to. Or look like we used to. We weren't always in a shipping container."

"Ten minutes isn't that bad." It wasn't like she really had anything super pressing to get to right now either. Besides, it'd give her some time to talk about the changes.

"So it's the place itself shifting not someone doing it?" Her first thought was that the last place kinda sounded a lot better, minus the monsters terrorizing people at night. "How long were you an ice statue?" That part also seemed pretty bad. "The change was pretty recent then? Was there anything before the snowplace?" She rubbed the back of her neck and bit down on her lip. "Sorry, that's probably a lot of questions. This is all just kinda weird even for my weird life."

"I think it's the place itself." Gwen steps away for a second to set up hot tea for a customer, returning a moment later after they paid. "A little over a week? I remembered hearing my friends outside calling for help, and I can't sit back when people are in danger. So I went to help. Woke up in the hospital a while later. It was...hmm...I don't like having that gap in time? But there's really nothing that can be done for it."

Gwen's thoughts return to that moment of hearing Miles outside, yelling in a panic. But it hadn't really been Miles. It had been the Unseen. And she remembers it getting so cold so fast that she didn't have time to react and then...nothing. Looking at Jean again, she smiles just a bit.

"The first place I arrived in, it was a beach town. Everyone was smiling. They were happy. There'd been a food truck festival which had been an absolute blast. And it was pretty relaxed there. Then we had a hurricane and when that was over, we woke up in a city. Wechester Ciy. That place, things started to get a little weirder. I mean, things had already been weird? And still are? The garbage trucks there didn't have an actual dump they took things to. People tried following them, only for the trucks to just vanish from sight entirely. That's been a constant in each location. Even some of the stores swap places. After Wechester, it was Driftcrest and now we're all here."

"That's weird to think about." It made a lot of questions run through her mind at least, but asking a billion questions to someone while they worked didn't seem like the most polite thing to do. She already felt kinda bad for asking about the frozen thing. "I'm sorry, probably shouldn't have asked," she offered her own smile. "I can understand that though, memory things are always messy to deal with. Sometimes it's easier when you just don't realize there was time messing." Which required more memory manipulation and most people weren't too thrilled to get that done.

"So....four places total? With vanishing garbage trucks...?" That might have been one of the weirdest parts of the entire story. "Guess the place likes to be trash free." Was that a good attempt at a joke? Probably not, but she tried. "What's the point of it all though?" There had to be a point, right? Someone or something had to want something from them or maybe wanted them to do something. Or they were just toys to something, but that wasn't a thought she wanted to have.

Having a lot of free time to kill got kind of boring after a while, so Miles was always constantly looking for something to do. He hadn't really planned to drop by the music store, but he had been close by so he thought why now.

As he stepped inside, he paused a moment when he saw Gwen at the drums, though she stopped when he entered. With a smile, he waved and walked over.

"Hey, what's up?" he said.

"I'm okay," Gwen says, grinning a bit at Miles. "Feeling a little listless. Really, truly hating the heat."

Miles, she could go off with how much she wants to complain. But a lot of her whining has to do with Spider-life, and there's only four people in the house that know about that. Miles being one of them. But she still wants to keep that from customers.

"How about you?"

Considering how people look at them just for being there? Probably better not to talk about their lives as super-powered beings dressed up in masks.

"Ugh, right? The heat is the worst. O'Malley won't come out with me as often because of how hot it is."

His cat has discovered the joys of laying around the air conditioned house all day, and Miles missed the company.

"Thought I'd drop by to see if there was any new music, but uh..." He glanced around the significantly smaller shop. "I'm gonna hazard a guess and say not so much."

"Miles Purrales doesn't like being anywhere near windows, and napping in sun spots was his favorite thing in Driftcrest. Now he hides in the cat tower in my room, right by the AC."

Their poor, fuzzy children, Miles.

"And I'm deeply considering setting up a wading pool filled with dirt so that when I turn it to mud, he has a cool place to flop around in."

Gwen looks around for a moment and sighs, shaking her head a bit. "Not really, no. But I might have an idea? It involves a warped variation of most teenagers favorite timesuck. There are a couple music stores in the mall that I want to poke around in. See if maybe there are some old records or something there. Because I've seen a couple people with record players in their shops."

"Yeah, I've noticed. I haven't seen much of him lately."

It was the worst.

"That might be a good idea, though I feel like you'd have to keep the water going constantly. Otherwise it'll dry out pretty fast."

Why are there two suns.

"I'd be down to take a look. Not like there's too much else to do around here."

Edited 2021-05-15 11:53 (UTC)

Right in the middle of her drumming, Gwen will be treated to the sight of a little black puppy appearing just a couple of feet right in front of her with a ballet slipper in its mouth. It makes a muffled yip before suddenly blipping out of sight just as Tandy bursts into the room with an exasperated look on her face and a ballet slipper in her right hand.

"Zorro!" She calls out, looking around the room before heaving a heavy sigh and rolling her eyes towards the ceiling. Then she focuses on Gwen, striding over with a little motion of her hands as she waits for the other blonde to take her headphones off. "Hey! Have you seen a little black puppy teleporting around?"

Gwen has met cartoon pigs who talk and shake hands and have weird hammer-space pockets in their pants. But she's never seen a teleporting puppy, so Zorro actually makes Gwen miss a beat. When Tandy waves to get her attention, she kinda points at where Zorro was.

"He's cute. Uh...I think he's in storage." Which, there's very much so some audible barking coming from that direction.

"Be right back!" Tandy huffs, quickly backtracking out of the room to head to storage where she can hear a bit of excited barking.

When she comes back a couple of minutes later, she is holding the puppy in her arms where he seems content now that the little game of chase is over. "Sorry about that, didn't mean to interrupt."

"What were you playing?"

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Open DITL post for Gwen Stacy

Deliveries

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SuperWaiter Offices

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Starkbucks

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Starkbucks

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The Music Store

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The Music Store

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