dear_mun | (no subject)

Some places give people powers or let them keep the ones they've got, others just flat out take everything away, if there's anything to take. It really depends.

And I feel you on the whole being alone thing, but you can always make new friends wherever you end up, right? Make the best of a new situation?

Edited 2013-07-07 07:12 (UTC)

If I have to go somewhere, I'd hope for one of the ones that gives you powers. I don't have any of my own other than making my costume appear and everyone in my family can do that. I just don't want to be the guy that can't do anything when the monsters and disasters start happening.

I know I'll try to make new friends.

Well, at the risk of sounding like a walking advertisement for the game my mun stuck me in, it's a place where pretty much anyone can get powers if they want them enough. Has to do with being able to bend reality with enough will and focus.

It does take some time to learn and it's one of those situations where the longer you're there the stronger you'll get, but hey, it's something. Which is definitely helpful when a reality storm dumps in an army of monsters or some new threat to the multiverse suddenly comes knocking at our door.

Really? Just by wanting it hard enough? It sounds kind of like an Green Lantern ring but way better.

Reality storms sound bad enough on their own without monsters. Where does all this happen?

Yeah, kinda, but even goes even further than just being able to bend constructs or even complete objects into existence. You can eventually learn how to bend yourself. Like if one day you decided you wanted to be a ten foot tall robot or a dragon or something. Definitely not easy, but totally possible.

As for the storms? Some of them are worse than others. Some are even kinda fun, stupid and harmless. It just depends on if and how the city changes, if us residents get changed or even both.

The game comm's

thewake.

Wait, you can change yourself there? So I could like...be Superman? I'd just have to want to have his powers?

How can something called a Reality Storm be fun? It sounds like one of those universally bad things.

You'd have to develop those powers one at a time and get used to using them and the bending power it takes to maintain them, but yeah. Pretty much.

The time the city got invaded by zombies? Yeah, definitely bad. No argument there. The Shadow Storm? Almost as terrible. But a few storms have just been kinda weird and goofy. Like there was one where people had the urge to randomly burst into song and do dance numbers in the streets.

One at a time? Oh man...I don't know how I'd pick which one to go with.

Wait, the whole city burst into song and dance? Like some kind of weird musical? How does that even happen?

I'd say go with whichever one you think is easiest first and work your way up. Build up your bending endurance.

Well, not the WHOLE city, but still a large part of it.

Storms happen because of Chaos flow backlash, and that happens because of how many different people from different worlds are in Nautilus. Us being there plus the things we do cause Chaos to gather. And when it builds enough, it's like a dam breaking when it gets out. All those possibilities get let loose and a storm happens.

I guess I'd probably go with flight then.

So people being there is what causes all this chaotic stuff? Is that the same reason people keep showing up or is someone or something dragging people in on purpose?

Chaos is a natural occurrence, but yeah, we're what triggers it to work in certain ways. It's not the reason people Wake, though... That happens because the city himself Calls out to the various worlds and anyone who answers gets a free trip to the City of Change.

Being in between worlds kinda puts us on like, a higher plane of existence. The idea is for us to replace the long gone population of people who used to maintain the multiverse. See, a war made most of the previous keepers perma-dead, so anyone who Wakes is free to try to step up to the plate and eventually earn that job.

The city is sentient?

And no offense but that all sounds kind of like sort of supervillain scheme to manipulate people. At least I'm pretty sure I read a comic or two like that.

You know, I'd actually kinda agree with you on how it all sounds, except that people are free to leave and go home anytime they want. I mean, you have to fully go back to Sleep and forget Nautilus and all your time there if you wanna return to your life as it was before Waking, but yeah. The option's there, at least.

[He shrugs a little.]

I've been there more than three years, now. Also I've Ascended twice in ranking, so that means I'm one of those guys who not only got picked to help replace those lost maintainers, but I accepted the responsibility, too.

This place actually let's you leave when you want to? Wow, that's the first time I've ever heard of that happening. Every other place I've heard of has people stuck until their muns decide to pull them out.

So you're a big important guy there?

Yeah, seriously, I think most places really are like that. My mun dropped me into two other games for a few months at a time, just to give them a try, and there was no way to get out of either place and go home. Not even for a visit to see what was going on.

The gates out of Nautilus are almost always open, though. Go home for good or just for a visit, either way. The tough thing about visiting is that you can't do anything to change your destiny in your canon, so it's sorta like sitting in your own head and watching your body go through pre-set motions and dialog, if that makes any sense? Sometimes it's hard to just watch everything go by, but a lot of the muns like it because it makes canon updates super easy.

[He can't help but smirk a bit at the "big, important guy" question.]

I'm definitely one of the stronger guys there. Rankings go Wakened, Angelii, Ashura, Deva and then Aeon. Deva and Aeon are waaaay out there. Like they take a seriously long time to achieve, but me and some others have managed to get to Angelii and Ashura...which, you might be interested to know, are rankings that come with added powers.

So you can go home and sort of watch yourself do things? Isn't that...not really going home? It sounds more like flipping to your own personal TV channel and watching through some kind of high tech headset. [He gives a wry little smile at the mention of canon updates.] I don't think I'll ever have to worry about canon updates. Especially considering that I don't even exist in my universe anymore.

Wow. What kind of powers do you have?

[He pauses.]

Oh yeah, I'm Joel. Or Houston.

It's still home, though, and even in just going though the motions it's possible to be affected both physically and mentally by what you "live" throu--

[And that bit about not existing anymore gives him sudden pause. An answer to that question about powers is going to have to wait.]

Wait, how did you ceasing to exist happen? You didn't get completely wiped from reality, did you?

[There's a brief pause as he realizes that they've been talking all this time without knowing one another's names.]

And oh right. Introductions, uh... Houston? [A nod.] I'm Rex, by the way.

[He takes a deep breath before explaining this one. Or trying to anyway.]

Well, my entire universe was 'rebooted' into some new and horrible version of it. And me and a lot of others got erased entirely. And it doesn't look like we'll be coming back either.

Nice to meet you, Rex. Houston's sort of my codename. It's a superhero thing.

[Rex is silent for a couple of seconds, processing that. Aside from the fact that the word "reboot" automatically meant bad things for him on a personal level for a while, what he's hearing is hitting home because of what he's become.]

...that...sounds like the kind of thing we Ascended are supposed to be preventing.

What the even caused that?

According to my mun, the people in charge of my universe became all kinds of stupid. They started changing and messing with things until the universe broke and they rebuilt it as what it is now. And they're sitting around insisting it's better than the old one.

...so your canon really did get literally broken.

Man...

[Even as an Ascended, he's having trouble fathoming that big of a mess. Then again, it's not like he's been at his current rank all that long.]

At least it sounds like your mun wants to give you another chance somewhere? I mean, muns can be a lot of trouble just by themselves and all, but that's still something.

Yeah...that's what my mun says.

He says he wants to send me some place new but he says that about a bunch of the guys up here in the headspace. I'm just hoping that if he really does give me another chance, it's somewhere that isn't completely horrible.

For what it's worth, I'll hope the same thing for you.

And since you did ask and I got distracted before and didn't answer... My usual powers are all machine based, but the ones I have as an Ashura are teleportation and shielding, and I'm still working on getting better with stabilizing Chaosflow and fixing errors in reality.

Machine based ones? What kind of stuff could you do? Like controlling robots?

Yep, communicating with machines through touch is one of my powers. I can also do stuff like this...

[He holds his right arm out to the side, neon blue tech lines lighting up the length of it from the elbow down. Over the short course of just a couple of seconds, metal "scales" form up over his lower arm and build out into a giant broadsword with an audible *CLANG*.]

[Joel just stares.]

Dude! That is awesome! Are you some kind of cyborg?

[Rex hefts the sword up over one shoulder, definitely not lacking the strength to wield the weapon even though it's probably about six feet long.]

The technical term where I'm from is "EVO", actually. Stands for "Exponentially Variegated Organism." Almost every living thing on my version of Earth is infected with nanites and when they turn on, they cause mutations.

Just happens to be that I don't show signs of what I am until I use my powers. Most other people aren't so lucky.

Wow, so everyone on your world has the potential to just...suddenly manifest super-powers?

That is pretty awesome. Even if it is a little weird that all the powers come from just one thing.

Here's the thing, though...

[Demo over, Rex sheds his weapon, nanites breaking the metal down until only his normal right arm remains.]

The potential? Totally there. The problem is that all those nanites contaminating everything are unfinished. Their programming was never completed and fully tested. So while occasionally you do get people who turn EVO and get cool powers without a lot of bad side effects or nasty changes, it's waaaay more like you'll end up with out of control mutants.

Same goes with plants and animals. It's how we end up with things like giant, six legged rabbits with fangs in lower Manhattan, plowing through buildings and chewing on cars.

[Joel's just going to watch that metal breaking down, fascinated by the powers.]

Oh man...

[And that kills the cool factor for the EVO for Joel.]

Is there a way to change people back? Or are they stuck out of control?

Some EVOs are incurable. I don't know all the sciency stuff behind why, exactly. Something to do with how active nanites bond to DNA.

For the ones that can be changed back...

[Rex jabs a thumb toward his own chest.]

You're looking at the only known cure.

Man...you are like seven different kinds of cool, Rex.

If you think so, I'm not gonna argue that.

[Brief smirk goes here.]

Though I'd be lying if I said I didn't have my share of nanite related issues. Just about every EVO does, though. Comes with the territory.

[Joel resists for a few moments before giving into curiosity.]

What kind of issues?

I guess all powers come with issues. My family all had their own power-related problems.

In my case, we'll just say it involves my nanites going crazy when I'm close to death. On the whole, though, just having active nanites and being an EVO causes problems. We're not "normal" and the ones that rampage spread a bad rep, so cue problems with some humans hating our guts.

[Having gotten in some talk time about himself, Rex has to admit he's curious about Joel's relatives.]

Yeah? So what kind of problems did they run into?

Oh man...I hope you don't get in that situation often.

[He takes a deep breath.]

Well, my sister tends to fry all the fuses and electrical devices around here if she gets mad. My one brother's moods effect his powers and sometimes he'll just fade out of sight entirely, my younger brother can't be away from other people for too long or his body starts to shut down, and our next door neighbor who's pretty much an older sister to us has a crazy greek god trying to force her to marry him and the nature of her powers makes it so that she sometimes has no idea if people like her for her or just because her powers are making them like her.

[Rex blinks at all that.]

...wow. Your family is like a set of textbook examples on how having powers can be rough.

I can kinda guess at what three out of those four are, like what their powers do, but the one your younger brother has? The thing with his body shutting down if he's away from people. What kind of power is that related to?

Well, he's sort of an alien. One that can copy the powers and skills of others and his err...original form [A pause for an awkward shrug] is kind of uh...not humanoid at all. If he's not around people, his body will try to revert back.

So he's...oh. Oh. Right. Okay, I get it.

Huh.

[Not going to ask how it is that Joel's brother is an alien. Given Rex only has one blood related brother, himself, and adopts close friends as family, he'll just assume that's kind of what's going on here.]

So were you guys like the local crime fighting team where you lived? Did you have a cool team name? I mean, you know, before the whole universe breaking...thing...happened.

[That's pretty close to what happened.]

Not exactly...

I always wanted to be a hero but the others weren't too into it. But the out parents died and I kind of...well...it was dumb but I led my family on some insane trip across the country to be heroes. We ended up chased by supervillains and government agencies and then saving the world from alien invaders but we didn't really do anything after that other than help out another team one time. And we didn't have a cool name...the news just called us 'The Weinbergs' which was a really bad name for a superhero group even if it is the family name.

Dude...that sounds like the best road trip ever.

[Rex stop. Your idea of fun is jumping out of an airborne transport and plowing fists first into a rampaging mutant.]

Even if it just was a one time deal, that still sounds really cool. Too bad you didn't have an awesome team name to go with that epic adventure, though. But eh, details!

It...well it would have been better if the whole trip wasn't just because I couldn't deal with the fact that my parents died.

I still feel kind of bad I put everyone in danger like that but things did turn out better in the end.

[Rex's expression sobers somewhat and, after a moment, he rests one gloved hand on Joel's shoulder.]

Everyone copes with situations like that differently, and like you said, everything worked out fine.

I probably would've done something similar in your shoes, too.

[There's a brief pause...and he smirks a bit.]

Well, actually I did, sorta. Except it was less about coping and probably more about just being REALLY lost.

[Joel smiles.]

Thanks.

And I'm glad things worked out for you too.

[Taking his hand from Joel's shoulder, Rex smiles in turn.]

Oh, and one other thing...

I know it's not a sure thing your mun will put you anywhere, but if by some crazy chance you ever end up in Nautilus, I'll make sure my mun gets me talking to you again. You'd be welcome to stay with my brother and I at our place in the city's Northern District, too.

((OOC: And no pressure meant by that. Rex is just a friendly kid who wants all the friends and adopted family ever. XD; Though I do wanna say that thanks to you, I'm now trying to get my hands on the Relative Heroes mini series issues. THANKS FOR THAT. LOL))

That sounds like it'd be great. Hopefully my mun does send me around. It's good to know I've got some friends to look forward to if I get dropped into some strange new place.

((OOC: It all sounds good to me. And you're welcome. Thankfully it isn't a huge series to find. Just six issues and one appearance in a Batman Chronicles book. The team's last appearance was near the end of Young Justice but they just appeared in the background, didn't really have lines, and were mostly colored wrong so it wasn't easy to tell it was them.))

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