[video] Show Me Your Moves

[whyarewehere]

[The camera bobs and judders as someone sets it up, catching flashes of a scruffy, unkempt face and pale arms and the sky for a moment.]

Okay so I've been thinking, we've got super powers here, right?

[The picture steadies pointing out at what appears to be a beach, but is more likely to just be a simulated section of beach on the Legion World. It falls over, and Grif swears as he rights it again.]

...Anyway. By super powers I mean amazing things you couldn't do before, because otherwise you're just from some world where you can do cool stuff most of us can't and that's not superpowers, that's just life being unfair to the rest of us.

[Satisfied that the comm is stable, Grif steps out in front of it as he continues.]

So, I want to see what you guys can do. And because I am all about being fair, I'm going first.

[He swings his arms a little, takes a couple breaths, then bolts to the waterline. He's nothing but a speed blur followed by a trail of thrashed sand. He stops at the surf and charges back just as quickly. At the end he's doubled over in front of the camera, hands on his knees, huffing and wheezing.]

Whoo!

[He laughs as he catches his breath, which makes it somewhat harder, and is grinning despite how much that tiny display of super speed seems to have taken out of him. In good shape, this guy is not.]

It's like... it feels like everything's normal speed to me when I do it and everything's all slowed down. It's crazy shit, man.

[Grif plunks down heavily in the sand and picks up the comm again, still visibly panting.]

So. That's me. Show me what you got.

((OOC: Feel free to threadhop each other and talk about powers if you like! Grif is encouraging sharing.))

Comments

[nomoresparkle]

But... I did have superpowers at home. Just... slightly different ones than I have here.

[whyarewehere]

What were those like? It's officially cool details sharing time.

[nomoresparkle]

[Her whole face colors a faint purplish red that is in no way natural looking]

I was a photon manipulator. [There's a pause, like that should explain everything, but then she realizes that maybe it doesn't]

I could manipulate light to form weapons and blast people and stuff. And I could fly.

[whyarewehere]

And what about now?

[He squints as her face changes.]

And why is your face turning all purple? You okay over there?

[iamresponding]

[Rich gets what she's doing immediately, but he's from a universe with all kinds of powers and there are plenty of illusionists there, capable of playing with light, both heroic and villainous.]

She's saying she can manipulate light, dumbass. She's using it to change the color of her face.

[Duh.]

[nomoresparkle]

[The purple color deepens]

Well, not intentionally at the moment. My powers have always sort of done this sort of thing when I'm... not concentrating. [There's a pause, and her skin tone returns to mostly normal] I think it's gotten worse since I've been here. Everything's all messed up with my powers. I can't fly, I can't shoot blasts or anything.

I can make illusions though. Not sure where the limits are on that yet.

[whyarewehere]

So.

[Grif counts things off on his fingers.]

We've got people like me getting new powers. Then we've got people like Superman there losing some.

[Sorry Rich, you have a nickname now.]

Then we've got people like you who are getting things all mixed up.

I'm glad people way nerdier than me are taking notes and trying to figure this out, because I've sure got nothing.

[nomoresparkle]

Do superpowers have to make sense? [She's asking honestly]

I mean, in my dimension there's certain guidelines, but at the same time there's always new weird things popping up.

[whyarewehere]

I think it would be better if they made sense.

But things don't usually do what I want them to anyway, so I'm used to disappointment.

[nomoresparkle]

The multiverse rarely seems to care about making sense. Sometimes I think it's actually morally opposed to the idea.

There are probably rules though. It's just a matter of figuring them out.

[whyarewehere]

Like I said? Super glad we have nerds on our side. Nerds are good at that kind of thing.

I kind of hope this wasn't random, but when we find out whose fault it is I'm still not sure if I want to punch him yet.

[nomoresparkle]

Do we have anyone with superintelligence? At home if something major like this happened, I'm sure they'd have put one of the gadgeters or something like that on it.

Why aren't you sure? I mean, I'm not totally unhappy about being here, but I still don't exactly like having been pulled into another world.

[iamresponding]

[The Superman reference is amusing, especially since, well, the Legion is the Legion. Rich has been quietly sitting on the fact that he recognizes them, because last thing he wants to do is send anyone into any existential crises with "hey, you were comic books in my world." He's not sure they'd take it as well as himself finding out it's apparently the same with Donnie.]

That's the guy from the past the Legion's whole ideology is based on, right? Saw some history links on him when I was poking around. [Yeah, he'll go with that rather than letting on that he was in comics back home.] I'm gonna hate your guts if you make that nickname stick. Last thing I need is people in this world thinking I'm his second coming or something. My uniform's even blue.

[whyarewehere]

Wait, you're not serious.

Superman isn't real. He's Superman. That's why this joke is funny.

[Grif? Pay attention to anything, especially something as boring as learning about the history of a new world he's found himself in? He'll die first.]

obviously, Grif can canon puncture if you like

[iamresponding]

[Rich resists the urge to facepalm. GJ Grif. He sure hopes the Legionnaires aren't thrown by this.]

Look, everything is real somewhere. Many-Worlds Theory, right? That means that there are universes where fictional people are real and universes where writers coincidentally wrote fiction that matched real people's lives in other universes.

Me and Donnie already figured out I was fiction in his universe. On account of me mentioning Spider-Man was my friend and everything.

This must be a world where something that's fiction in your world is real. Just like I'm fiction in Donnie's world and real in mine. [A pause.] And also real here.

[whyarewehere]

That sounds made up.
Or from a bad movie.
Or both.

[Disregarding that the first is a requirement for the second, of course.]

[iamresponding]

You too? Mine changed.

Well, it's more like I lost some but it seems like some of us that had 'em didn't come through with the same ones.

[nomoresparkle]

Well, yea, I sort of lost some. But I think I got some new ones. And one of them is just sort of an... improvement of something that was kinda something I could do already.

[iamresponding]

It really is weird how some of us are being altered. We've got people with no powers getting powers, people with lots of power like me losing powers, and people like you that seem to be just getting them tweaked and changed around.

[nomoresparkle]

You still have some powers though, right?

[iamresponding]

Yeah. Still got the energy based powers I had. Dialed down some but still there.

[He switches hands to hold his omnicom with his prosthetic arm and cups his flesh and blood hand, creating a small ball of yellow energy that he holds up. Spiraling shapes run through it, from the gravimetrics twisting it, that make it clear it's not entirely thermal-based. His eyes briefly glow blue.]

I lost the superstrength, invulnerability, and other perks I had, though.

[He snuffs the Nova Force in his hand out and his eyes go back to normal.]

[nomoresparkle]

I used to be able to do something like that. But my eyes didn't glow unless I wanted them to. But that's one of the things I can't do anymore.

But yea, losing that other stuff would kind of suck. I lost my ability to fly, but at least they have those neat rings here.

[iamresponding]

Same. I'm glad for the flight rings 'cause I use flight to get around more than walking anymore.

It seems like it's all a pattern. If it was random, we'd all get new powers, or all lose powers, or something.

It's like something is picking and choosing.

[nomoresparkle]

The rings are good, but they're ever so slightly different. I just know I'm going to end up running into something or someone one of these days.

I'm sure there's science-y sorts doing all the data crunching. Though it makes me wish Uncertainty was here, even if he is really odd. I'm sure he'd be able to figure it out.

[iamresponding]

I've had to fly an obstacle course in the Sim Room just to get to where I can avoid flying into walls. The rings definitely handle different from innate flight.

But I used to have way more maneuverability and body awareness with my powers in general. I'm even tripping over my own feet with having my powers dialed down this much.