Logs:Vignette - The Littlest Avenger

Vignette - The Littlest Avenger
Dramatis Personae Bryce
In Absentia Dallen, Leonidas, AJ, Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Rocket, Lucien	2024-05-20 A Bug's Life (set just after a disaster in the park, during the Brood invasion.)
Location Heaven?!?
Hope displaces despair hope displaces despair hope displaces despair. Maybe if Bryce repeats it enough it will become true. Right now, he's upside down, blood trickling down his leg and this THING this MONSTER -- okay, maybe it's one of God's creatures too but it's not anywhere near as good a one as Moab -- anyway with this Bug hauling him away by the leg he's having a hard time with hope. He needs to find it quick, though, because as the monster moves behind the tree his friends are disappearing from sight and he's going to die here forgotten and alone. This is the end this has to be the end, and if he dies while despairing, well, after everything Jesus went through, that would be extremely rude. We live to die and we die to live—in another realm. Does it help to remember that? He's trying, trying to tell himself death is just a temporary separation, but it'll be the longest he's been apart from Dallen since ever and that'll really suck. Hopefully whenever Dallen went there's less -- oh no oh no the TEETH. There are so many teeth, sharp and slavering. Bryce is trying to kick at the Bug, trying to grab onto the nearby tree to jerk himself from its horrible grasp, but he shifts his grip to avoid squishing a beetle, the last thing he does in this life will not be murder. He doesn't keep hold of the tree and the Bug is dragging him towards its horrible mouth. So much teeth, so much -- -- khaki? Everything was teeth but now everything is very khaki. There's folds of it blanketing him, under and over and all around. The world had been loud and now it's just weird, thrumming with noises he's struggling to identify. Is that screaming? He must be dead, Bryce decides. The alien ate him -- thankfully it was quick, after that first strike to his leg, first snatch, he didn't really feel a thing. Heavenly Father looking out for me, he tells himself, firmly, although he's hoping just as firmly that if Heavenly Father is looking out for Dallen as well, He sees fit to simply not let him get eaten in the first place. Not that he's criticizing. He's very quick to think that even as he's trying to get his bearings. The Church never mentioned quite this much khaki in heaven, but then again maybe it did and he just wasn't paying attention. Dallen was always the one paying attention but, he can't ask Dallen now, what's he supposed to do with all of this. It's been hard to move, he's been struggling to remember where his arms are, where his legs are, but that's probably just the shock of dying. After what feels like a thousand years he does manage to get himself going. At first it's still just endless khaki. He's just about resigned himself to Afterlife Of Cotton when, abruptly, the world explodes. Not literally, thankfully, if he dies twice today he's not sure he can handle it -- but there's way more light and way more thrumming and some of it kind of sounds like screaming but he doesn't know why anyone would be screaming in heaven. He's in a forest, maybe, which does seem more in keeping with the kind of thing that should be in heaven, though these trees are just huge and tall and green and not barklike at all. That's fine except he can't see past it all, until eventually he realizes his brand-new perfected heavenly-body can just go up! It's a little exhilarating, he's a pretty good climber, he got his climbing merit badge ages ago, but in his earthly body he certainly couldn't have just shimmied straight up like this. Though, once he gets to the top of the tree he's almost-kinda-regretting it, the world is even brighter than when he was in the shade and even more -- wait, is that Leonidas? Did Leonidas also die? Did Leonidas grow in heaven, he's always been huge but now he's just terrifyingly immensely -- oh, no, AJ is still naked. Are you allowed to be naked in heaven? It already seemed disrespectful to be naked in the park but in heaven, he thinks, it's double disrespectful. There's a shame and a confusion burning uncomfortably inside Bryce and when he attempts to avert his eyes, his whole body topples and he falls from the tree, and promptly dies again. --- No. Okay, he's not dead, he's just gotten a little buried in earth, probably anyone could make that mistake. He doesn't know how long it's been, but he's slowly unearthing himself and making his way through the endless mountainous dirt and craggy fallen trees and -- oh, no, the horrifying Bugs are in heaven, too? Right. Right, all God's creatures -- Bryce is telling himself this, again, fierce, but -- the things they're doing, that girl is screaming and the Bug isn't stopping and if being naked in heaven is bad then it's probably almost just as bad to be tearing off people's limbs in heaven. He's praying that the things don't see him, praying for some escape and then, suddenly, wooooooah. The world is shaking, the dirt is shifting, is this an earthquake? No, wait, something's fallen, huge and green and -- a foot? It's made the earthquake, upturning the dirt all around it as it skids back, and Bryce is carried with the spill of dirt to land atop the immense green foot. Why did everyone else get Big Heaven Bodies, if he meets the Man in Charge he might (politely!) see about an upgrade. Still, this climbing thing is pretty cool, and he's working his way up, up, up, for a better perch. From here it's like flying -- terrifying, exhilarating, but fun, like when you let your grip out rappelling and go whoooooosh down the rope real fast. The Bugs don't even seem that scary, from his enormous green shelter, Huge Green Fists swatting them like -- well. --- Eventually, though, one immense landing jars him off his perch and instead of his breakneck joyride he's looking at the world upside down from a pile of rubble. One day he will get the hang of setting himself right but is that day today? It doesn't really seem like it. He's kind of started to resign himself to The Upside-Down-Life when the world goes dark. This time, he doesn't panic about being dead again. Well, okay, he doesn't panic about it for long, the thought does cross his mind but he's pretty sure there's a finite number of times you can die in one day, so he tries to adjust his eyes and realizes the world isn't blotted out it's just turned weirdly -- shiny? The sky is now a huge silver dome and, also, it's very very close, but that's okay. He's survived many deaths, he can survive the sky falling a little bit. Plus, he's walking on the sky now, making his way across the concave surface until he's reached -- the end? His mental map of this world is becoming exceedingly bizarre, but he's also got his orienteering badge and he's making careful notes so he can keep track. Plus, it's comforting when he turns the corner of the sky and finds that the flip side of Heaven's Dome is red, white, and blue, a bold star in the center reassuring him that at least some things are right with the world. He makes his way to the center of the star, which seems to him right now to be the most heavenly place he's found so far, and, while the world spins and shakes and whirls below him, he's thinking strongly about taking a big nap. --- It doesn't last very long. Maybe this wasn't the best napping place, after all. He's trying hard to keep his footing but the spangly hard floor is shaking and shaking and shaking and eventually, it jars him loose. He can't tell quite what he's landed on when he falls, weird and long and gross and there's a river of weird slime nearby that he's trying to avoid. His news segment of World is tumbling-falling through the air and he falls off it, pretty glad, honestly, to be free of that particularly repugnant bit of Whatever. When he lands the world is bright again. Very, a brilliant crimson and gold expanse all around him. This part is fun, again, whirling and whizzing and it's even better than the last ride, but, really, he is tired. He's clambering up higher until he's found a nice and semi-sheltered nook to crouch in. It's not as good visibility from here, but he can still see the Bugs, sometimes. Still see the world whoooooshing around him, sometimes. Still feel the perpetual chaotic thrum. And then -- it's very, very, very quiet. He's a little worried that he's messed up and found yet another way to die, but when peeks out from his nook what he first sees around him is stars -- a million million stars, more stars than he's ever seen before. There are creatures among the stars -- enormous and beautiful, they could be whales or could be something else entirely, and he's transfixed. This isn't what he imagined, it's wildly beyond, but it still in its majesty seems more like heaven. It's gone again soon enough, lost in a blaze that nearly blinds him with its intensity, and he's falling once more, rapid, but after that sight it doesn't seem so terrible, this time. The stars fill up his imagination, bright with splendor, as he tumbles back to earth. --- It's soft where he's landed, at least, a thick carpet that cozily reminds him of squishing his fingers into his old dog's fur back home. Possibly he should explore this perch for safety a little more, but it's been a very long day. It's kind of a relief, almost, when the world once again goes dark, and even if his current perch is way more jerky than he'd like, at least he's not doing any more falling. Eventually the world settles down. Bryce is moving towards the light and as he emerges finally, Heaven is a lot more like what he'd always imagined it could be. The biggest slice of pizza he's ever seen in his entire life is sprawling out in front of him, his own gooey melty Eden, and he's racing towards it as fast as he can manage. Flick. A large hand comes down, and gently brushes at him. The pizza is gone, tumbling away from view atop a table as high as a mountain. If he could remember how to sigh, he would. Okay. Just have to remind himself, God will -- somehow -- eventually -- provide. Probably just after he figures out, again, which way his legs went.