[video] fish out of water

[katsudork]

[If the young man that appears on the screen, sitting in his Medbay bed, looks like he's slightly in shock, it's because he is. Yes, the Medbay staff, Officer Erin, and RJ Brande explained it all, but that doesn't mean it was easy to accept as reality. The staff, worried about how he was dealing with it all (which was with a lot of yelling) had even called in a tiny little alien psychiatrist to speak to him.]

[She'd actually helped a lot (even if her sheer existence only added to how unreal everything felt) but that doesn't mean Yuuri is adjusting well. There's a part of him that's still not sure any of this is real, and even if it is, he's not sure what he's supposed to be doing.]

[He feels disconnected from everything. It's like his brain is watching a movie projected on the back of his eyes, and his body feels strange and heavy, like it's not his own, just dead weight he's tethered to. His brain is still swimming with everything they told him, with words like "end of existence," "you'll find that you have superpowers" and "could use your help" floating in and out of focus. He'd nodded in agreement to it all but his brain hadn't put it all together in a complete picture yet.]

Um. Mm.

[He makes some wordless muttering noises, looking for words. They told him there were other people here, that he could talk to, other people like him that had come from other worlds, but talking to new people is something he finds difficult on the best of days and this is probably one of the worst.]

My name's Yuuri Katsuki. I'm -- [He should say who he is, right? Say something about himself. Except it feels almost silly to say what he is. He's in a sci fi novel now, or a comic book, or something, so what does being an athlete matter in all this?]

[So he breaks off into another weird mumbly noise.]

I have ice powers. I don't have a superhero name yet. They said I have to have one, but I haven't really thought up a good one yet so if anyone has any suggestions, that would be... [He trails off.]

[His brows furrow and he reaches a shaking hand up to push his hair back.]

This is real, right? This is all actually real?

Comments

text

[turntex]

are you serious thats the third ice guy this week
is this an omen of some space ice age or something jesus
anyway
yeah its real

text

[katsudork]

[Text is a little easier. He doesn't have to keep his face composed when it makes overwhelmed and horrified expressions.]

ok

[Sounds fake, but ok.]

i didn't really have a choice or anything but they said that something specific brought us here so maybe it was trying to be funny when it picked my powers.

[It's not funny but...maybe it was just trying to be.]

[turntex]

why is that funny
are you also a winter spirit
oh or maybe youre just frigid
get it
though if thats the case then you arent getting it thats the whole point

[icysmile]

Maybe I ought to look into trademarking things if ice powers are going to be this common.

[bachido]

[That does not look like a happy person prepared for strange adventures.]

Are you all right?

[katsudork]

[Yuri nods.]

[Then he pauses.]

[Then he shrugs.]

[Then he pauses again.]

[Then he shakes his head frantically.]

I think whatever brought me here made a mistake.

[Video]

[icysmile]

Wow, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't they?

[She considers him from the camera for a moment, waiting for him to cool off a little. When that doesn't seem to be forthcoming, she clears her throat.]

Take a deep breath and just hold it for a few seconds. It might help.

video

[katsudork]

[He doesn't need to hold his breath purposefully because her saying the thing about scraping the bottom of the barrel has him sucking in and holding a breath.]

[Then glaring.]

[He may be shy sometimes, yes, but 'bottom of the barrel' is totally out of line.]

Okay, I'll admit than I'm probably not superhero material. But 'bottom of the barrel is a little --

[There's no other word for it.]

Insulting.

[He frowns and climbs out of bed, setting up his omnicom on the tray next to his Medbay bed.]

Considering that not everyone can do this.

[He stands on one foot, arching his back and touching his other foot to the back of his head, a move that only someone as flexible as a ballerina or gymnast could pull off. When you factor in how he's still dizzy from inhaling poison gas, it's even more significant.]

[It's as much a 'fuck you' as a physical gesture that isn't sticking up a middle finger can be.]

[And then it's even more of one, because he just stands there like that, like it's absolutely nothing, while still talking to her.]

Physically, I could probably do whatever being a superhero needs. It's just that all of this -- superpowers, space travel -- that's just fiction in my world. I don't really know how to...

[He finally stands normally again and the moment of his professional pride being offended passes and he goes back to almost mumbling.]

It's like someone suddenly telling you that you have to be a police officer or a soldier when you've never even thought about it before.

[A pause.]

In space.

[walkingballpit]

[ That's not a good look. Robbie's seen that one in the mirror a few mornings, when his sleepy, fuzzy brain tried to impose an old reality on the reflection. He knows the confusion when you can't make sense of how you got where you are.

Clearly, the solution is to add to the surrealism until it's funny. ]

Welcome to Spaceship Superhero: The Adventure Experience. We're hoping to make a Broadway show out of it.

[ See, isn't that better? ]

This is real. You're not going to look down and find yourself pantsless.

[ It's softer, and the humor fades away. Robbie's reading a lot of insecurity in that mumbling. Yuuri doesn't have the overwhelming air of confidence that heroes usually have. There's no puffed-up ego - the guy doesn't even have a name yet. ]

You should try and pick your own name, by the way. It oughta be something you feel connected to - that you're proud of.

[katsudork]

["Pork cutlet bowl" his brain supplies unhelpfully, before it dismisses it just as quickly. It doesn't make sense here and never will. Even if it has meaning back home, it sounds ridiculous there too.]

[The joking around at least does put him more at ease but it's going to take a lot of getting to know people and a long time before Yuuri gets used to this -- if he ever does at all. And even if it does make him less anxious, he doesn't laugh. He's a little too keyed up, his stomach still working itself into knots.]

[He considers what Robbie says about choosing his own name -- it reminds him a bit of how he never chose his own music during his routines, until Victor pushed him to, always caving into what his old coach Celestino suggested.]

[But it's not really the same thing. He'd been able to start choosing his own music because he'd started to feel more confident in his ability. He has nothing to hold onto here, nothing that he can be proud of, and he has no idea what he's doing.]

Mmm, I don't really have any ideas, so going with something someone else thinks up is fine.

[The hand not holding his omnicom picks at the blanket, clearly showing his anxiety.]

video;

[fuckaccuracy]

Oh my god, you're so totally boned.

video

[katsudork]

Um...what?

[How do you -- how do you respond to that?]

[the_civilian]

You know, I asked the same question when I got here.

[For hopefully different reasons. Tadashi isn't a fan of his own "origin story by near-death experience" and wouldn't want anyone else do have to go through something similar.]

Nobody where I'm from has super powers or anything like this either, so waking up here totally blew my mind. If it helps, you do mostly get used to it, and there's a lot of cool stuff here in addition to all the weird stuff.

[He smiles wryly.]

I'd offer to help with the superhero name thing, but I kind of panicked and went with 'Sunfire', so my advice isn't all that useful.

[katsudork]

Panicked?

[He wonders why that's a panic-fueled name. It sounds okay. Superhero-ish.]

[Yuuri holds a hand to his chest, curled there.]

It doesn't seem...that bad, really. It's a lot to take in but I guess I could get used to it.

[Maybe. With enough time.]

It's more that I don't know how this is supposed to work. Does anyone even have an idea when we might be able to go home?

[Please tell him this is something they can probably fix in a few weeks or months. They told him that he'd go back to the moment he left, probably, but what matters just as much is how long he has to be here. There's a ticking clock hanging over his head.]

There's someone -- ['Someone' slips out. He meant 'somewhere.'] Somewhere I'm supposed to be.

[frostedoverland]

Yeah, it's pretty real. You want any help learning your powers?

[Poor guy, but Jack is pretty stoked to find another person with ice powers. Maybe he can get him to help with the winter wonderland?

Priorities, Jack has them.]

Ice is a pretty fun power.

[katsudork]

Um, suuure.

[He drags the word out a little but it's not sarcasm, it's out of an attempt to sound more sure than he actually is.]

You have ice powers, too?

[The guys looks like someone who would, with that white hair. It makes him look strangely ethereal, kind of like --]

[He shuts that thought down because if he doesn't, he'll start worrying again, over whether or not that whole thing on that alien planet had just been a dream.]

Video

[wherenoonegoes]

Hey Yuuri. I'm Hiccup.

I'd suggest Jötunn, but it doesn't look like you're tall enough for that to apply.

[There is something big, black, and scaly moving behind Hiccup.]

[katsudork]

[His eyes go wide.]

There's something behi-- [He frowns.] What am I even saying? You probably know there's something behind you. You probably don't care that there's something behind you.

[headinjuries]

Glacier. Snowman. Hypothermia. Killer Frost, actually, scratch that, might be a little too intentional-violence for this crowd. Coldfront. Hoth. [ sam u nerd ] Absolute Zero.

[ He's helping! ]

[katsudork]

[Someone actually helped!]

Those are good. I'm writing them all down.

[Beepboop. He types them all onto a note-taking program on his omnicom.]

Mmm. Snowman sounds kind of... [Lame.] I think I like Coldfront, though.

[rushing_by]

Killer Frost is taken, anyways. And in her case, intentional violence is sort of understating things.

[whyarewehere]

[ Grif scratches his chin, squints at the screen for a moment, then brightens. ]

The Great Zamboni.

[ He says it with all the gravity of a grand, ancient master of a forgotten art bequeathing his wisdom to the first student to scale his mountain in decades. ]

And it's real, dude. Better get used to being cold all the time or whatever other inconvenient bullshit you got in the package deal.

[katsudork]

I already made a Zamboni joke.

[Keep up, Grif.]

[rushing_by]

...If my friend Cisco was here, he'd probably have already stuck you with the perfect codename. But I can at least try to help. Any idea what kind of image to want to present with it?

I'm Barry, by the way. Explaining what I can do can wait until you're coping better.

[katsudork]

Something...with ice.

[Super descriptive. Yeah, that sounded dumb]

Er. [He thinks about it, and suddenly perks up.] You can't choose your own image anyway.

[Victor had said that once.]

So I just want something that's easy for teammates to say and doesn't sound stupid.

[He almost asks "what can you do?" but if Barry thinks it should wait until he's coping better, maybe he's right.]