Danger Zone

[lastexit]

WHO: Maya, some open, some closed
WHAT: A collection of things for the latter half of February
WHEN: Let's not focus on details like that
WHERE: All over
NOTES: Various things will probably be tagged with specific content warnings as they come up. The usual Maya stuff. Also her permission post as is standard.

(Open) A. Learning Lessons

After the dance Maya's more than a little... aware, of her shortcomings. And if she plans to help put this final countdown on hold, she'll need to step up all the skills she uses. She isn't a fighter because learning to fight has never been one of the things she was good at, she's the band nerd sister. If Katie had powers, she could beat up anyone she wanted. But here she was.

So Maya can be found making a pest of herself in the Legionnaire Quarters, working out and trying to keep in shape. She's also skulking around the Mythril Cage watching other people spar and practice, she might be impossible to hear coming but she's very visible if you look at her. And asking all sorts of questions about what can be made when she's around the Anvil of Hadur.

All her activities run toward the same idea: what sort of tools can be made to fight with, that are easy to learn, and can be minimally loud magically speaking. That last one propbably takes more explaining than Maya directly offers.

(Open) B. Practice makes Perfect

Maya's taken over one of the band practice spaces and set up several speakers and music playing devices she's found in storage. Record players, a boombox from the 70s, her computer, her phone, each one playing a different 'thing' for her to practice on. Mix tapes, Best of Queen discs, youtube covers, a few TED talks.

A bunch of things that shouldn't be playing at once. And fortunately for those that pass her door... only one thing is making noise at a time as Maya practices muting the various objects around her. Controlling the sound so that only one thing can be heard and all the other objects in the circle around her are quiet.

...Of course sometimes trying to balance so many things at once gets too much and she gets frustrated, turning off the sound of everything in the building for a few seconds. But- what can you do, you have to practice right?

(Open) C. Overcoming Obstacles

Maya had a half-dozen objects made, tiny things the size of baseballs to be hidden around the school for her to go and find. She enlisted her friends to help her on this. Each one had a magical camouflage to them, that once set would make them invisible. But as it's magic, it meant it created a specific noise that Maya could follow.

They were meant to do two things, first is she had to hear past the chaos of the campus to find them, helping to control how overwhelmed her senses were. The second was to work on hearing things further away, focusing her mind to better track a noise.

No point in learning to fight, while letting her natural gifts degrade to being useless in the process.

So Maya's moving around campus trying to grab things from trees, under bushes, and in the various buildings. Invisible things. Naturally this looks weird to anyone who doesn't know her.

W.Wildcard

Comments

[lastexit]

"Not planning on just throwing away my life," Maya doesn't add how the universe seems intent on her living. That's a bit mean, and makes it seem like she's still seeking that out, which she isn't. But she has very definitely nearly died three times, and she's still here. "I plan to find some very clever mostly safe ways to do good and help others."

"I don't dig out secrets, I walk around and secrets fall on me." It's totally different, she didn't want to know half the things that just ended up there for her to hear. "I can hear the edges of the illusion hiding you, and I can't hear you breathing. You and everyone else hiding things from the world have your reasons. I'm just lucky nobody can hear my secrets."

Maybe Peter is right and what she's doing is cheating.

[unpocoloco]

That manages to pull a quirking of a smile from him. Very clever and mostly safe. Easier said than done but the intent absolutely made a difference.

"Good plan," He mutters.

He wants to point out that she didn't have to seek him out in the night to ask about De La Cruz, or insist so much on helping him, but he can already imagine those rebuttals.

Instead he says, "It's not really an illusion. This is my body and I would still feel it if it was damaged. The magic I imagine you're hearing just keeps it from rotting on the spot so much. It's easier to just be bones, but obviously that's not an option back with the living."

There's a pause before he adds, ruefully, "I actually forget I don't need to breathe most of the time. You kind of caught me off guard there, asking about my daughter at a funeral."

[lastexit]

"Whatever it is, it's kept the sound of your true nature mostly hidden. I had to look for it to find it." Even if it wasn't an illusion or a glamour, it was in that ballpark. It was hiding something under it, and well enough she couldn't just tell. Like with Kano.

"I didn't know there would actually be one, that sort of thing only happens to me." And maybe everyone else at this school, but that just seemed horrible to even consider. "Although, to be completely honest, I've never been to a funeral. Just- things always kept me away."

Cam's body was sent home, and even if Maya was up for the funeral she couldn't get there. Adam was already buried by the time she was home from Paris. Just- the world had a strange way of keeping her from funerals. Probably for the best.

[unpocoloco]

He bobs his head. That made sense enough. Kind of nice to think it's less obvious than he thought.

But then he's blowing a breath through teeth. "Well, to be honest, there wasn't one. My grave was unmarked. And I mean, it was for the better considering that otherwise he'd have had to deal with that and-- did you know you can't send a corpse over the Atlantic without cremation? The laws are really strict about it." A bad option indeed. He shakes his head. Off topic.

"But, ah, Ernesto didn't tell anyone. At all. I didn't realize until the semester started and Imelda showed up furious." He's silent a moment before adding, "It's been a bad few months. In any case, my Coco's been without a papá. I go back and forth being relieved I didn't hurt her like that afterall and thinking I maybe hurt her worse, growing up thinking I didn't truly love her. If I could just be sure she knew I loved her... I'd far prefer it to any burial."

[lastexit]

"Yeah, I can see how that wouldn't be a good option," which leaves, what? Private jet or boat. Those don't have the same rules as planes and cruise liners. Maybe? How were they at a magic school that had zero way to get a father home to his kid!?

Maya made a face at that, she could get how that'd be upsetting for Ms. Rivera, but all the rest of it. And the stuff from earlier, it just- didn't add up, "You know that's weird right? Your best friend just omitting your death? Like- you'd think it'd come up when he has your guitar. And your songs. That he could at least inform your widow. And if it was because he knew you were undead, then he could have done something about you being in the Outlands."

[unpocoloco]

He's definitely tried the boat thing. That had been a disaster, one so weird it felt like a fever dream-- and he didn't dream.

When Maya brings up weirdness, he frowns, watching her face as she speaks. Only to laugh, bitterly.

"That's not weird. That's Ernesto being a coward towards Imelda and being a selfish jerk with the convenience of my death. He was always convinced it was my songs that would make us big." He rolls his eyes and waves a hand. "Guess he was half right. But he definitely doesn't know I'm undead. The man was long gone by the time I crawled back out of the dirt."

[lastexit]

"Right, I wouldn't want to face Ms. Rivera." Something still felt off, what sort of friend just couldn't put on their big boy pants and just inform your best friend's wife about their death.

The rest of it seemed a little more sinister, but that was probably just Maya's paranoia acting up. "Well, finding a way to get you to see your daughter again. What could be more important?"

[unpocoloco]

"They never did get along, no matter what I tried."

His best friend was a jerk. It was a fact he'd come to accept with life, and even more recently in his death. It hurt, but so had Imelda's assumptions about him. Sometimes you have to wonder if it's just you.

He is more than happy to move along from that line of thought and back to his daughter. He smiles and says, "Not a thing in the world." His eyes go distant. "She is my world. Mi niñita. She's who I've been playing for, all these years. That song that was just ours."

[lastexit]

At first Maya thinks this makes sense, she's met Ms. Rivera and even at best they simply do not hate each other. But then Maya remembers that, at some point. She wasn't a woman whose husband disappeared for a decade without explanation. At one point that song wasn't pain and bitterness directed at oneself. So- no, not making sense. But also not something she can do much about. Not right now.

"So you understand why I want to help, and there's really nothing you can do to stop me from wanting to help." Maybe Hector forgot they'd been arguing most of the evening, but Maya's taking the opportunity to win.

[unpocoloco]

He is immediately jolted out of fond memory.

"Wait, wait, wait! Wait a minute!" He throws his hands up, one still holding his cane. "That is not how that works! You distracted me! This is important for me, not you. In fact this would put you directly into conflict between Imelda and I which you promised not to do. And finally! Since you know I am dead man, then you should know better than to go against my wishes!"

His arms fold and he gives a firm, decisive nod.

[lastexit]

"You can't really use the dead thing, the last dead person who had a firm belief over something wanted me dead," she'll focus on that because she has less firm arguments on the top of her head for the conflict with Ms. Rivera concern. She was staying out of it, but now that she knew how things mattered, how could she be against it.

"And caring about people is just the right thing. If I can cleverly help, I'll make it work." Maya's a stubborn one.

[unpocoloco]

"Ah, ah, ah!" He waves a hand. "Nice try! But that doesn't count! That monster stuff is messing with their heads! The respect the will of the dead clause is negated if that dead person is not in full control of mental faculties." He sounds smug, reciting this all as though this is some actual written rule. Who knows, maybe it is somewhere, he was in the outlands not the afterlife.

"And on that note, you can care by not spooking me like you did. Those things really like to go after dead people, you know? I'm like the second favorite snack on the menu after dearest loved ones, I can't deal with being snuck up on right now."

[lastexit]

"I don't exactly have much choice on that, would you rather me get closer and tap you on the shoulder?" Maya's used to doing that to everyone. She was more than used to this than she'd like, and if she had to guess she'd probably startled more people than Hector did.

And Hector is secretly a skeleton.

"If it helps nothing is around?"

[unpocoloco]

"Can you come at me from the front? Whistle? Call from a little farther away...? Wear a bell..." He's just throwing options out there.

But she was right about that. His scares were fewer if a little more... unfortunate.

He glances around them. "...That does help to hear though."

[lastexit]

"It's hilarious when I wear bells, they don't make noise." Arms crossed, she's tried a lot of ways to make noise passively but they just don't work. "I can't keep my phone on ring if it's in my pocket."

"I'll try to not end up behind you, but there's only so much I can do."

[unpocoloco]

"Oh. Well, I guess your power's your power, you can't control it any more than I can-- wait." He frowns, confused. " How do you play music then? I've heard you play. It's beautiful."

He's kind of regretful that all these attacks have kept them from playing together since. Maybe someday...

[lastexit]

"I talk too. And sing. Those are actions." Maya claps her hands and no sound happens. Then she pauses, closes her eyes, and tries again. This time the clap is heard loud and clear. It's clear that the second time she was being more deliberate, slower, measured.

"There's a- I have to will sound to happen? Otherwise my powers just kinda step in. I have no idea how to get that under control."

[unpocoloco]

It's kind of fascinating watching the difference of that muted clap and the one to follow. She explains and he gives a thoughtful hum, head bobbing.

"I'd offer to help but, ah, it's a bit of a risk with candle radiance as it is for me." He smiles apologetically. "I can only help blighted kids with this stuff for the most part."