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

[goldtoxicity]

You can't save everyone.

[ he stares into david's eyes. there's something colder there. less the joshua foley who cheated off of him in history class and kept him awake all night, more the joshua foley who died and came back something vicious and broken. ]

What you've been doing was full of good intentions... but it was naive. It's not just the White Tower who will come for us now and you know it. You took one enemy and turned it into thirteen.

[helpdesk_hero]

I don't think we did, Josh.

[Dammit, do they have to have this fight now?]

Fuck, Josh, people leave factions all the time. We aren't stealing people. We aren't declaring war. But those children aren't slaves. They aren't a commodity.

[goldtoxicity]

[ he bristles. too weak to really do anything, to shove him back like he wants to. but his fingers slowly let go of his shirt. ]

[helpdesk_hero]

[He knows a dismissal when he sees it. And David doesn’t think he needs to say how it hurts. If there is anything in Josh aware of his biology he would be able to feel the way it affects David’s brain. And experience would show the reaction in David’s carefully guarded expression.]

Do you want me to leave?

cw graphic descriptions of torture

[goldtoxicity]

I was kept in a dark room.

[ he says by way of answer. ]

I went -- I went months without seeing another person. And when - when I did was when they came in to beat me for information I didn't have. They cut me open and left the wounds to bleed until the only thing keeping me alive was my powers. They brought live animals into the room to chew at the open wounds. Then when my abilities started to fail, they'd patch me up and force feed me just enough to keep me alive, because if I died that'd be freedom.

[ he draws back. ]

And you - you can't even admit you made the wrong call.

Re: cw graphic descriptions of torture

[helpdesk_hero]

[Of course he made the wrong call. He had spent his life looking up to Scott Summers. He had never even been in the running for the right call.

David cringes back at the descriptions. The tiny part of him that had become a political animal wanted to turn it all back on White Tower. To see them burn in the eyes of the other factions. The rest of him...]

I don’t think saving innocent children is ever the wrong call, Josh. And yet not a week ago I told Allison I needed her to Rumor me. That I might well watch Krakoa burn if doing so saved you.

I’m not... I’m not a good person. I stood with The others on this. And I’m every single way I have failed you and Krakoa. I know that. I will always know that.

[But... this isn’t something that can be fixed. Not by any method he can see. Except... Except something Judd had suggested to David for another problem.]

Stark will calm down if you show him that Krakoa will fall in line. Like he wants. Give him a scape goat. Someone who could believably have gone behind your back. Who you have been known to have a falling out with.

[David. Give them David’s head on a silver platter. Maybe it can by the others time to figure out a longer term answer.]

[goldtoxicity]

Don't be so stupid!

[ the color change in instantaneous. gold to lead, but without the strength of his killing touch. ]

I did not spend a year in hell just for you to squirm around and try to play martyr! This isn't about your guilt, or your grief, this is about how you're failing the people you have because you don't recognize the game you're playing.

[helpdesk_hero]

I know the game, Josh.

[Knows it well enough to know they need a distraction for Stark. And that they don’t have many plays here. This isn’t about being a martyr. This is about giving Krakoa a chance.]

They were never going to let us have this. To have peace. To have distance. The world they created won’t let them have that.

But if you have an answer then give it to me. I’ll agree to whatever you want, because I’m all out of will to fight anymore.

[goldtoxicity]

No, you clearly don't.

[ he brings a hand up to his face. the monitors are giving angry protests, he shouldn't be yelling this much. he shouldn't be getting this worked up. he feels the room spin. ]

I just... I....

[helpdesk_hero]

[Says the man who was sleeping with Joseph Kavinsky, Stark’s right hand man. The one who had denied Josh and Krakoa once before for the allure of power and influence. There were many ways to play the game. Sleeping with the enemy was never one.

And not one that David would readily point out as a source of Josh’s suffering. Maybe not all of it, but part.]

You should be resting. Healing. Which, as your doctor, I have to say your current company is not helping with. Let me find someone else to sit with you. Laurie or Rimuru or... well, whoever you would like.

[Someone who belonged at his side. Who wouldn’t put Josh in danger, through word or through action.]

[goldtoxicity]

No, please.

[ he's back to holding on, the lead giving way to gold again. ]

I-I'm... sorry. I'm still not myself.

[helpdesk_hero]

[No, the problem is that he is himself. He’s the broken, tortured man that the other four condemned him to become. Josh is the martyr for their sins.

All David can do is wrap Josh up in his arms as gently as possible and struggle not to cry.]

We’ll figure something out. I’m sorry. Josh I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.

[goldtoxicity]

I know.

[ he knows. he knows. david never meant to hurt him. none of them did. they did what they did with the best of intentions.

he lets out a shaky sigh, burying his face in david's shoulder. ]

I know, I know...

[helpdesk_hero]

[The road to hell was paved with the best intentions. Sometimes literally. David and josh and the others had only ended up in Limbo because of Pietro Maximoff’s ‘best intention’ to save his sister through a supposed bliss offered to the people she loved. And David had suffered the consequences of that several times over.]

I...

[They can’t keep talking in the same circles. He can’t do that. It won’t help them at all.]

Do... you wanna hear all the stupid gossip around the island?

[Small, mindless details to soothe Josh back into a calm. David could offer them endlessly. Or he could just shut up and lie there. He doesn’t care. He just doesn’t know how to fix this pain. Josh Foley always had a way of recovering on his own terms and at his own pace.]

[goldtoxicity]

Sure.

[ a distraction. something to move away from. ]

[helpdesk_hero]

[Well then, story time. David pitches his voice lower, softer, and as his spoke his fingers varied between stroking through Josh’s hair and gently down his back. He talks and talks and talks. About birthdays and parties. About who arrived straight from the porter and who had been here before, but never the new ones brought through the underground. Talks about puppy loves and friendships and families formed. Talks about mead laid in and new fashions and how some of the teens found their quiet little cove and now had to be driven from there regularly.

He paints a picture of the joy and love and home Krakoa is and remained. And hopefully it was a comfort for Josh, while awake and through any sleep he might drop into. For David, it was just a reminder of all they had to lose.]

[goldtoxicity]

[ he drops into a fitful sleep before long. his head tucks neatly under david's chin, temperature radiating off of him as his powers struggle to reactivate and mend the damage.

he wakes up coughing, his whole body shaking with the force of it, he curls up, clutching david's shirt and gasping. ]

[helpdesk_hero]

[He spends the whole time holding his former lover, and the second he awakens coughing, David’s patting his back. Fuck, he wishes he had some of those constantly around droids that Tony always had. But Krakoa wasn’t about being a tech paradise. But he needed the damn cough medicine.]

Let me go, love. I’ll get some medicine for you.