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[toldyouso]

[It's a new guy who some people might recognize from the Cancerverse field trip, except he's now clean-shaven and doesn't look like he's just come from spending years wandering around a hell dimension.]

Very serious question: what's the best bar around here?

[Pete doesn't need a drink. He just wants a drink.]

[private to Rich]

Pick up the phone, man.

Comments

[toldyouso]

[Pete's frowning at the camera, but in the manner of a man who's thinking, not angry.]

Do I know you from somewhere?

[sir_vancelot]

[And Vance knows the difference between those kinds of frowns. Though there's a certain tilt to his mouth that means he knows something.]

[Maybe how this is going to be taken.]

Kind of. I'm a friend of Rich's from Earth, one of the New Warriors.

Vance Astrovik.

[toldyouso]

Oh.

[Yep, this is his life.]

"Kind of" is right, but not through Rich. You ever heard of a guy who goes by Major Victory?

[It doesn't even occur to him that "I know AU future you" might be something you want to ease into.]

[sir_vancelot]

[Yep. This is Pete's life. It's also Vance's life.]

The Major and I have met off and on over the years. And yeah, I know he's been running around in space, sometimes as part of the Guardians and sometimes doing other things. I haven't actually heard from him in a while, though.

[toldyouso]

...I might have semi-accidentally picked him up and brought him back with me during a whirlwind tour of multiple terrible alternate futures sponsored by Kang the Conqueror.

["Might have."]

Glad he did okay after the big finale, at least.

[sir_vancelot]

[There's a moment where Vance just blinks. Because that's...weird.]

It might be a different version of him, then. I met the Major when I was about ten. He shouldn't have because crossing time streams does weird things. In this case, it kicked my mutant abilities into gear.

[He frowns. A thoughtful one.] Which may explain why I haven't heard anything from him in a while. If the one in our universe was brought back from an alternate future, it might not be the same one that I know.

[And that's...is it weird to mourn yourself? It probably is.]

[toldyouso]

[And it still didn't do any good because the Magus pulled one over on them.

Pete purses his lips in thought, but he's not the best person to comment authoritatively on the ins and outs of time travel.]

After what went down around when the Cancerverse broke through, the future is even more ☠☠☠☠☠☠ than it was before.

[They curse a lot in space.]

There's a good chance the timeline you're thinking of is either gone entirely or altered so much it might as well be.

[It was bad. Very, very bad.]

[sir_vancelot]

[The cursing gets a raised eyebrow. Which...yes, is probably similar enough to Major Victory's that it only reinforces the similarities.]

[Still, he sighs and rubs at his eyes.]

Great. That's just what everybody needed. Though there's obviously a close enough world to the one I met came from if he's still Major Victory and used to be an astronaut. [A moment.] He was an astronaut, right?

[toldyouso]

How should I know? He was at least a thousand years old and traveling in space is totally normal for most societies.

[Pete has thoroughly shaken off his Earth roots. Mentioning that someone goes into space is like talking about how they ride in cars.]

[sir_vancelot]

Probably an astronaut, then. At least, that's how the version I knew ended up being a thousand years old.

[There's a joke there about how Vance is always the old man in his friends groups, but probably not the right time for it.]

That's actually why he looked me up when he was on Earth at the right time. To stop me from following that same path. Instead of being an astronaut, I ended up a superhero.

[toldyouso]

I've been an astronaut and I've been a superhero and trust me, you shoulda stuck with "astronaut."

[He's such a ray of sunshine.]

[sir_vancelot]

[That gets a sardonic smile off of Vance.]

Sometimes, I agree. Especially when I was younger. These days? Well, I've been lucky, I guess. The people I know because of it outweighs the made most of the time.

[toldyouso]

Are all of Rich's Earth friends like this?

[Because most of his space friends are asses like Pete.]

[sir_vancelot]

[There's a clear moment of thought going on there as Vance scratches the back of his neck.]

Well. Not all of us?

[True, the main one he's thinking about is dead, but still.]

[toldyouso]

So most of you, then?

[sir_vancelot]

I can't claim that I know ALL of Rich's friends but...yeah. Probably.

[toldyouso]

That explains so much.

[sir_vancelot]

[It's...difficult to know how to take that.]

Rich is a good guy. He tends to draw good people to him.

[toldyouso]

[Take it as indirectly giving Rich shit for being a Boy Scout, because Pete's relaxed and smirking.]

Look, if I say something nice about Richie where he can see it, I'll never live it down.

[sir_vancelot]

Ah.

[It's not like he can't figure out what's happening. People deflect. But Vance still smirks.]

I can say it as much as I want because I have blackmail.

[toldyouso]

Man, the only thing I've got on him is that Nova Corps uniform.

[This is unfair.

But seriously, the helmet is a disaster.]

Plus his tendency to run off solo and try to die heroically, but he's proud of that one.

[It's fine, Pete usually finds a way to tag along.]

[sir_vancelot]

Believe it or not, the uniform used to be worse at one point. I mean, at least the Nova uniform has the excuse of being an actual uniform. If he has to make his own choices? It's kinda terrible.

[There's a grimace that crosses Vance's face at the rest of it.]

I kinda wish that he wouldn't do that, but...well. We call him Buckethead for a reason.