dear_mun | (no subject)

Look, I know you want to get a nice little cadre of people to play with and don't get me wrong, with this worlds colliding thing, we need people. We are very far up a creek without a paddle. Or even, like, a boat. (And let's face it, it's probably also the wrong creek.)

Yes, it'd be great to have Batman. Or Superman. Or Robin. Or lots of people. It's nice enough you're all having them on as npcs or whatever. And it'd be really great to have a Ted Kord. But the thing with doing this as a casual little PSL with your friends is that means that finding people to join in won't be as easy as if it was a game, okay?

Honestly, who in their right minds would want to join in on this little adventure anyway? How am I supposed to sell that to people?

"Hey, you, other superhero, come with me to a magical land where two superhero universes combined in a big crisis thing and now we have twice the villains and twice the crises and twice the population on Earth, only not all the heroes are back from the one Crisis yet due to a time thingy, and Luthor's president and Norman Osborn is in charge of national security, doesn't that sound fun? And everybody has to work with superheroes they don't know and everyone will disagree with each other on basically everything, all the time, forever. It'll be good times, why don't you drop what you're doing and join in?"

That sounds so appealing. It sounds like a perfect setup for you people to ruin lives. Because that's what you people are at heart: life ruiners.

Look at what you've already done to me. Made me quit high school to just superhero because the world's a mess, made me almost get murdered by my mom for quitting high school - oh yeah, and you made me put up with a dementia-riddled Tony Stark hiding at my house for weeks while he got those secret IDs erased from his brain. Tony Stark. Tony Stark, who didn't know how to work a dishwasher because he "has people for that." That Tony Stark.

And he just. Never. Stopped. His mouth. He's a chronic banterer. Man's got a problem. I got quiplash. I'm still considering suing him for damages, he's good for it. My Defenders stipend is pretty nice but that's Milagro's college right there.

It's not an easy sell. So get used to it, because people aren't going to line up for the superhero version of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, whether we're making the world a better place and bringing hope back again or not. And they're definitely not going to do it if I ask them because I'm not Superman or Captain America, I can't do that thing where people listen to me no matter what I say.

I'm not your guy. Get back to me if you need an alien invasion taken out by someone not wearing pants. That, I'm good for.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Aw come on dude, pretend for even a moment that "Superheroes" are totally sane to begin with.

Most of us come running towards the sound of explosions and danger.

This is true.

Except most don't come running when you're like "hey, who wants to come and experience outrageous Lex Luthor and Norman Osborn style superhero bureacracy?"

For the younger team, I'm one of the Council representatives to the government liaisons for the teams. Do you know how much paper work I have to fill out on a regular basis? Scarab keeps trying to develop some kind of special special laser that can cut through red tape.

[Snickers]

Why do you think I opted out? I mean I'm still gonna be around to help the younger generation but paperwork? Not my thing. Have you seen my handwriting? Chicken scratch doesn't even begin to cut it.

If you make a joke about literally being a chicken while writing, I swear to god...

Don't be silly, chickens can't hold pens.

I turn into an octopus and sign eight things at once.

Of course you do.

...Maybe you should be doing the paper work. You'd be much more efficient with eight arms.

You'd think that wouldn't you? But sadly nope! Efficiency isn't really my style either.

...then again given how many writers we go through It's amazing we have a definable style to begin with.

Sounds like you're in for a rough ride though. Just know if you ever need to goof off for a bit I'm there for you dude. Some video games, maybe a movie. Everyone needs a break from the drama lamas now and then.

[Turns into a Lama because Lama]

Freaky alternate reality where everything sucks and we're all doomed? Avengers and related multiuniversal superheroes assemble?

Sign me up! I could do with some actual action.

What, seriously? You're willing to jump head first into it? Just like that?

[A pause.]

Why am I questioning this? When someone says they want to help I am not going to question anything. Ever.

Um, so far you've been around as like our team's financier because you had all of Hercules' money while he was temporarily dead but you wouldn't have to go with that if you joined in. The crisis does this thing where sometimes it yanks people back into the giant ball of timey-wimey weirdness and they forget they were ever back and whoosh, they get dumped back on Earth again wondering what's going on and not remembering they were back for a while.

Man, I hate blending timelines. Sounds about right, I mean--running a company will kinda do that.

But I really haven't been doin' any kinda fighting at all? Really? Not even any mastermind team stuff?

[excuse me pardon me Amadeus Cho's ego, comin through]

Apparently taking over Tony Starking is a full-time job. Given the level of schmoozing he somehow manages in casual conversations I am not surprised. He had to have developed it as a reflex just to get through every day life doing his rich-guy-dealing-with-money thing and that means that's the level of schmooze anyone financing us - ie you - would have had to do.

You did help us more on the hero front when we first started out and needed Oracle and didn't have her. But otherwise, in the beginning, we had you around but didn't have you, if you catch my drift.

[He was around as an npc, Oracle-ing and enabling things, but not as a character. They could really, really use him around on a full time basis.]

But the team's firmly established now. There's a charitable trust you set up named after your parents, the team will be funded like to, basically, eternity...

Depending on how you wanna go, it can either be you disappear and pop back in with your memory of doing that gone - clean slate - or now that you have people for that ("That" being...everything I guess?) this could be you jumping back into practical heroing again after washing your hands of the rubbing elbows.

Up to you. It's all very flexible.

[He snorts at the Tony Stark ribbing. All Stark bashing is accepted and welcome in Cho land]

So I wasn't a playable character, gotcha. [He knows his vidya games, son]

Hm. Y'know, I'd rather gain memories--from my perspective anyway--than lose them and go in fresh. Slidin' right in there and getting out of the more schmoozey stuff would be awesome. As good at it as I am, it gets kinda boring after a while.

And getting compared to Tony friggin' Stark is seriously making me rethink my life choices.

[And as it so happens, that's what his mun would like, too]

[Does he look delighted? Because he's delighted. A supergenius superhero taking on a more active role in his world? Definitely a good thing.]

Just keep in mind there is no way in hell you're the seventh smartest person in the world anymore. You're going to have to get used to that. I think there are plans in the works for three or four Brainiacs to show up at once at some point.

That should be fun times for you.

Edited 2015-03-01 07:21 (UTC)

[everyone should be delighted to have Amadeus on their team. Which actually brings us to--]

C'mon man, whaddaya take me for? Once Hank Pym got back Earth-side, I got bumped down to eighth. And I'm okay with that, I can do eight.

And that's totally what I'm tellin' people, until proven otherwise.

Four others, though . . . [He grins, which can only mean trouble] I haven't had a good chess game since Vision. Guess I'll just have ta scope out my competition, huh?

[but it's all in good fun. He's not so into the brain cock strutting anymore. Usually]

Brainiacs are superintelligent aliens from a planet of aliens that are all superintelligent so they're basically like the superest nerds of an entire species of supernerds.

Luckily, I think at least one of them's a good guy and the other's...

[He does a fifty-fifty gesture. Not all heroes - or villains - are black and white with the morality thing.]

But yeah, you are going to have lots of fun with that one, trust me.

In the meantime, let's get your big brain on saving the world. We're up against the scheming of both Lex Luthor and Norman Osborn.

Superest nerds of an entire species of supernerds. Now that is a sentence that needs to go down in history.

[a DC thing huh? learning DC things would be an adventure if he "lost" his memories. That'd include a LOT of hacking and late night reading. That doesn't sound so fun (not including the hacking), so he makes a bit of a face]

Oh, I fully expect saving the world to be one big happy party too, believe me. Getting the two biggest human superbads together-- Great, just great.

Knowin' Osborne and how his grubby little tentacles get international--let's focus on one country at a time. The world'll come later.