exsilium | text / anonymous / encrypted

[There are some things you can't run from. For Peter, he's been trying to run, but things keep coming up, keep reminding him. He went a good month of pretending that he was just a normal guy who made it out of his world alive. It was a good lie. Even for those people who knew him as Spider-Man, no one needed to know that his final moments in his life were spent saving Aunt May. They didn't need to know that he had given his all and that he was actually happy with what he managed.

But there's dying. And then there's finding out you aren't dead. There's finding out that you have a whole new life, and that somewhere, in another dimension, a "you" managed to grow up. Sue knew him. Bucky knew him. Even that grumpy Nathan guy knew a Spider-Man. And for all that, he's been trying to make it less obvious that he's surprised that he grew up. It's been hard, and he knows it'll continue.

It has to, after all. With great power and all that, and this world has bigger problems than his.

But still, he sets out to ask this question, because he knows it's better to ask now than later. He had to be careful about what thing he said to Charlie that one day. When he phrases his question, he rereads it a couple times, taking out anything that sounds too much like him. The last thing Peter needs is someone tracing it back to him.

He's not ready for those conversations.]

I've got a question, but first, please don't try to trace this back to me. If you've already done that and broken my encryption, let's just pretend you didn't. [Also, you're a jerk, but he had to cut that part out. Too ... him.]

What happens if you died before you came here? What's left for me after this all ends? Before you ask, yeah, I definitely died.

I just thought I'd ask.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I would think either you get returned to your world, alive, as a ... I suppose, a reward, for what you've done in this world. It doesn't happen all the time, but it can.

Or else I think you'd be given the chance to live in another world. It only seems fair.

And of course, while this isn't our own world, we do have the chance to build a life here, and do good things, while we are here.

Yeah, the kind of sad part is that after making a life here, and once I finally know people, most people are probably headed home. That's what makes sense, right?

It is sad, yes. I have the same worries, I admit. If we build a life here, and then have to leave it behind, it will be very difficult.

But I have to think, with all the time changing things that are possible here, that it must be possible to send you back to your own world, whether you've died or not.

Sometimes people can come back from the dead. You might have a chance.

I don't think I've got one of those worlds. There's no reason why I'd come back and no one else has. I just doubt it.

[Caspian stares at the words on the screen, and realizes that anything he says will sound unhelpful at best and ridiculous at worst.]

I'm sorry. I wish there was a way you could go back.

I know it sounds defeatist, but it's better to be realistic than not.

Still, knowing something is true and accepting it, doesn't make it easier all the time.

Yeah, and I mean—I asked for a reason.

I'm sorry. I wish you had a better result.

[He really is sorry. It seems a terrible thing to realize.]

It's ... I'll live with what I've got.

But thank you.

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