[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

[iamresponding]

[He thinks about it a little.]

It did mean something. And I can't say that I wasn't glad I could do something worthwhile. I've always felt that way about the superhero thing. Who can say they've saved the world more than once? Or the galaxy? Or the universe? Not bad for a normal guy from Long Island, y'know?

Hell, I was a nobody growing up. A high school dropout. Then I got my GED and flunked out of college, too. And even as a superhero, I was just another face in the crowd.

[A pause.]

But then the Annihilation War happened, and I was the only Nova to survive when Xandar fell, and I took on the whole Nova Force and a lot of people needed my help.

Thing is, though, when you do those things, sometimes you're the only thing people have. After the war, I had eight-by-eight planetary distress calls in the tens of thousands and when you're just one guy, you can only get to so many in time to save people. There were so many that I got there just...just a little too late.

[He looks away from the screen, lost in that for a moment.]

That's the price. When you make can a difference. You gotta live with all the times you couldn't.

And sometimes you...well, you don't get to live. I died. I don't even know how I'm here right now. I wasn't the only one who did, in all the craziness. I knew a lot of good people that didn't make it through the Annihilation War or through some of the conflicts after and unlike me, they didn't come back.

[He's making it all sound so negative, though.]

But was it worth it? Yeah. Hell yeah.

[He'd give his life again, to stop the bad guys and save his friends. He probably will, at some point.]

You can do that, too. If you want. Sounds to me like there's a lot of people that need help in this universe, regardless of how we really got here, regardless of who or what brought us. Now's your chance. And there's a lot of people here that could show you the ropes.

[whyarewehere]

[Grif is uncharacteristically quiet for a second or two. This is all much heavier than anything he's used to talking about with anyone, especially with this level of sincerity. Grif doesn't do sincerity. Nobody in Blood Gulch really did.]

Whoah whoah whoah there, Superman. I'm not jumping at the chance to die for this. I'll help out. I don't exactly have a work history lined up to go put out space resumes, and I definitely don't think they've got a GI bill for people from other universes.

[He fidgets a little, uncomfortable.]

Sure people need help. But I'm people, and first things first I gotta make sure I'm okay. Cause who's gonna take care of me if not me, right?

[iamresponding]

[Grif is pulling the Han Solo "I only look out for number one" act so well that Rich almost wants to make disapproving Wookiee noises at him. Instead he just rolls his eyes slightly, a nonverbal 'yeah yeah.']

There's people here that can show you the ropes on how to do that better, too.

[whyarewehere]

...Depends on how much work it is.

[He's not sure where this might lead, and he has valuable naptime and a reputation to think of. For shame.]

[iamresponding]

Lots.

But it also depends on how much you wanna survive a hostile universe that has bad things that happen that can disappear a whole superteam.

[whyarewehere]

...I hate it when people have good points.

[iamresponding]

I outlived more things than most people have thrown at them in a lifetime and it took an invasion by eldritch abominations from outside of time and space to finally take me down. And I don't think we'll quite run against those odds here.

I can show you a thing or two. But it'll take hard work.

[whyarewehere]

I'm already doing lots of hard work!

[Like arguing with strangers on the space internet.]

But in the unlikely event I need more, I will let you know.

[iamresponding]

Oh yeah, that little jog there looked downright taxing.

Anyway, I'll be around.

[whyarewehere]

Yeah, I'm sure I'll know who to look for.

[Taxing. It was definitely not taxing! He doesn't need anyone's help he'll show you, universe!]