they built paradise

[goldtoxicity]

WHO: Joshua Foley and YOU!
WHERE: Krakoa
WHEN: ~2019 and back
WHAT: Backdated events! Before his kidnapping.
WARNINGS: nsfw here and there!

OPEN PROMPTS.

a diplomatic visit. ~ two years ago

[ this is a necessary evil. if they want to maintain their independence then they need to be non-threatening, or at least enough of an asset that allies are willing to let them be in exchange for a few favors.

no wonder scott summers lost his mind. his life is nothing but moving parts now. so little is stable and nothing feels certain - this empire is built on sand and the slightest rumble will make it fall. all of this has given him newfound respect for the mutants who had come before him, understanding them in a way he never could have back home... but still with the determination not to repeat their mistakes. if sacrifices are to be made, he intends for them to be his.

and it doesn't leave a lot of time for himself - not when he feels like he's promising parts of his soul to people, and sacrificing what's left to maintain the balance. he's tired twenty-four seven.

and it only worsens when someone docks at their harbor. he could leave this to the rest of the council, but he's always found it better to be the first one to greet a new arrival. lest they decide to try to turn the five into a four. ]

So glad you could make it, [ he says, hoping it sounds genuine. golden hands clasp the outstretched hand, his lips curved into a smile. ] Krakoa welcomes you.

beach day. ~ a year and a half ago

[ keeping krakoa running is a full time job. most of the population is too young to really care for themselves. joshua foley has gone from a largely irresponsible mess to - well, still a mess, but a mess with a ton of responsibilities. david's technology keeps him tapped into almost the entire population of the island and their health.

but sometimes? sometimes he needs none of that. he needs quiet.

the beaches are quiet during school hours. josh is sprawled out on the sand in a pair of black swim trunks, one arm folded behind his head, his eyes shut behind a pair of stylish sunglasses. when the shadow falls across his face he groans low and turns away. ]

Oh come on. I know nobody is dead or dying. [ he pushes the glasses up his face. ] Today is me time. Did we not establish this was me time?

stress. ~ a year ago

[ he doesn't remember what set him off. an article, maybe. something small to feed into growing paranoia. realizing that there's yet another person now on krakoa that shouldn't be. something small, something that he can't catch, and he knows there's no point in having that fight because they've had that fight and he can't justify it.

and so his office is in shambles. his fingers tangled in his hair, eyes clenched shut as he breathes hard. ]

Fuck!

[ he sinks slowly down the wall, gritting his teeth. he hears the door open. ]

Not the time!

WILDCARD.

[ hit me up at minimoffs @ plurk or shoot me a dm if you'd like to plan something specific or something off krakoa! ]

Comments

[numberthree]

[ The thing is they don't get breaks, and they don't get off days, and they don't get to pretend. Even when the rest of the island is cheering, laughing, dancing into the night. They know the exact count of the sticks and stones, bricks and bones, and pools of blood all this world is precariously balanced on. Networks of words, and threats, and lies, and half-promise threaded with fear, more fragile than spider silk.

It means they don't get to fall apart, and they don't get to leave each other alone when they start falling apart anyway. Because they're all human, for as much as that word means what it doesn't (because some of them aren't). They're all fallible. They all break, too. Even five people isn't enough to truly carry the weight of an entire world.

Especially when one of them keeps taking far more on himself than he should. ]

Yeah, it is.

It is the time, until you stop being a dick.

[ That's Allison at the door, looking at the vast destruction of the room, and Josh curled into a wall, maybe the only one who wouldn't try to defuse Josh with soft words, with the promise things are fine, will be fine. That he needs to calm the fuck down and let someone hug him. Like that solves anything more for them either. She has two people for that, and on the worst nights, her worst nights, it doesn't make it better.

It just bleeds you drier on the nearness of what you have to lose even more.
Sometimes it takes more than compassion to just get it out of your head again. ]

[goldtoxicity]

Allison, just - fuck off right now, would you? For once leave something alone.

[ he doesn't mean to say it so bitterly. he doesn't mean to take it out on her but there's a small, angry part of his soul that lays the blame for this at her feet. this was her idea. her and david's.

they put him in an impossible position. each new person here is another way his power and attention has to be split. the amplifier tied to the barrier was straining before they decided to add to the population, now its mind numbing. the fatigue is bone deep, yet still doesn't come anywhere near the terror and fury at knowing what this looks like to their supposed allies.

despite his dismal grades in school, he's not fucking stupid.

but he's starting to think they are. ]

[numberthree]

[ It probably is noted somewhere. Somewhere between the history of a pack of snapping boys that she was the only girl in a sea of, and the edge of her powers from this place to tells her the amorphous varying degrees of much something spoken is and isn't true.

It's angry, and it is true,
but not a scalding blinding note of it. ]

No. That's not how any of this works.

[goldtoxicity]

I said leave me alone!

[ there's a flare of the wrong side of his powers. the room gets darker, orbs of blacklight bursting into existence around him and vanishing just as quickly.

he clutches his head, closes his eyes. he takes in a ragged breath that sounds like it might give way to a sob. ]

Just go.

[numberthree]

[ It's worse when he does that. Not the darkness of the room and bursting blackness. She grew up in a building full of people using their powers both on emotional impulse and as a warning. It's the part after. It's the way he's holding his head, it's the sob that catches in his words even after he screams.

It makes him look younger. (It reminds her of Klaus curled in on himself.)
It makes her bite her tongue, and then let out a sigh. ]

Josh.

[goldtoxicity]

[ for so long allison had been a big sister. luther, deigo and five had served as replacements for the brothers who had wanted nothing to do with him after his mutation. he trusted all of their judgement without question.

now look. look where being a stupid, simple follower got him.

there's a sniffle. josh bites the inside of his cheek. ]

[numberthree]

[ He's failing fighting it even as he tries.

And he does try. So hard. Day in, day out. He's so young, especially for the job he's taken on, refuses to really relinquish all of up into anyone else at any point, and yet at the same time he's not. Young. Even if he didn't start at birth, like she did, but there's so much more to the global scale horror he's had visited upon him in his fewer years before here, too.

She knows she's not going to win fighting it, so she doesn't try.
She walks over, and slides down the wall to sit next to him. ]

[goldtoxicity]

[ there is always an island. there is always a dream.

it always seems to end the same way. why did he think this time would be different? was he really that egotistical? that stupid to think that he could steer this ship anywhere but into the rocks?

josh lets out a shuddering breath and clenches his teeth, scrubbing at his eyes with the heels of his hands. ]

This was a stupid gamble.

[ whether he means krakoa itself or allisons plans he can't really be sure. ]