DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Alternate Reality PHX: Phoenix Reform Academy Boys common room

OOC: Agreed.

Ayup. You can meet in the parlor thread when you want. Post into that. I will be along at some point. Once a combination of getting people in there and work allows.

(After the orientation meeting)

Lamar

He returned to the communal area, musing on what he had learnt. Enough to get on with, certainly. He took a seat, mind roving, thoughts churning.

A couple of the others seemed to have headed elsewhere in the building, but ‘Snarker’ Norton walks through the door and keeps walking past towards the rooms.

Lamar

There was an interesting case. A unique attitude, and unique actions. His unbroken voice piped up,

"Norton, isn't it? Mind if we trade a few words? Bit concerned over your safety and wellbeing."

Norton:

“Yeah, Kid? What’s it to you? I’m here. Wellbeing is zip, out the door. What the eff are you talkin about?”

Lamar

"You did one of the bravest things I've ever seen, and I'm wondering how well set up you were for the repercussions, basically." answered the smaller boy, calmly.

Norton:

“You mean giving Glitch a hard time? Glitch is Bambi. Fast legs, not all there up here.”

Taps his head.

“Glitch isn’t frightening.”

Lamar

"Not all there up there? Someone unpredictable, capable of snapping? Even braver than I thought. How quickly can you go from fully asleep to fully awake, I wonder?"

Norton:

“Glitch barely moves from her chair. Fast body, slow brain. Be afraid of a Retriever puppy before Glitch. Look, kid. I get you are smart, but stop playing games.”

Lamar

"Playing games helps keep me on an even keel. I hope nothing here during my stay switches me over to playing for keeps. But fair enough, I'll stop dancing around the point and cut straight to it. If Dash isn't a threat, if she's Bambi, if she's slow, if you're just as unbothered by the friends she seems to have made back there with other unpredictable powered folk, then what's your angle? What's in it for you?"

Norton:

“Lamar, is it? Riddle about life. Everyone makes constant attempts to fond something in common with other people, to fit in. ‘Hey look, we both have ten fingers and toes, let’s be friends and go after the nine fingered boy.’ Answer - we’re all of us, especially here, freaks, mutants, the other, parties of one. Sooner that realization is reached the better.”

Lamar

“No argument on that front.” He looked at his hand, which momentarily had six fingers, then four fingers, before returning to five.

“But the difference is power and agency. The thing that makes us unique, makes us other, makes us the closest thing the world has to the gods of old, is that we can shape the world itself, tell the limitations that apply to others to shut up and sit down. Every party of one here is here because they are dangerous, you included, me included, Dash included. The danger may not be immediately apparent, but to dismiss it is to be weak to it. Every person is a nation unto themselves, and that means the potential for war is there, for alliances, for mutual self-interest.

It wasn’t you against Dash in there, it was you against The entire female half of the student body, each of them, as individuals, as parties of one, as sources of threat, making common cause because they can’t tell if nine-fingers is being attacked for that characteristic or another characteristic which they all share in, which in turn means any of them could be next. By going on the offensive first, you paint yourself as a convenient target, one that they each, in their individual self-interest, have in common.”

Norton:

“And if that happens - if that happens little Lamar, then perhaps I can exit stage left and get really lucky. Gods of old? Why that’s positively Nyxian. You are coming at this from a standpoint of presuming that I do or should care. I don’t see a reason to.”

Lamar

"How deliciously nihilistic of you. It amuses me how quickly you went from wanting people to realise everyone was on their own to just not caring. See... if you didn't care, you wouldn't make an effort to stick your head over the parapet. You wouldn't be taking potshots at powers. To be uncaring is to take the path of least resistance, least interaction, not to go full steam against the current, guns blazing. You do care, and you're trying to blaze your trail as best you see it, and I'm coming from this standpoint because I've seen how you act and I've heard what you've said. What you do is a much better indicator than what you claim. If I wanted to, I could incentivise you. Take your face, do a few things here and there. Stir up a war, or quell it. Maybe just wandering around being nice to people, making them greet you with a smile and communal acceptance. Would you care about any of that, or can I impersonate you with impunity, safe in the knowledge that it wouldn't upset you, uncaring as you are?"

Norton:

“You could try. But if you think about it, you will have hefty trouble imitating any of us if we don’t want to be. Can’t move like glitch girl. Can’t do what I do. And so on. Anyway, why do you effing care? You are just another animal at the zoo.”

Lamar

“Please. When was the last time you demonstrated your power here? That’s not an impediment to social interaction and you know it. As to why I care? Let’s say it does come to a head. Let’s say Dash snaps and gives you a physics lesson, or whatever Peri said that spooked you, or the destroyer of worlds destroys yours. Do you think this place would be allowed to continue? If the zoo burns, they’re going to euthanise the dangerous animals. I’m probably one of the very best situated to get away and be a fugitive, but I wouldn’t rate even my chances highly.”

Norton

He smiles just slightly.

“I see that you aren’t worried about my snapping.”

He chuckles slightly.

“Basic psychology. Think about it. I’m not going to provoke that war. Cadence there doesn’t want to touch whatever she does with a ten foot pole. Anne seems much the same. Peri ... that one has a bit of freak inside, I gotta admit. I don’t think she is about to explode however. Dash? She isn’t going to do anything. She never does. There’s Blake, if we ever see her ... which we don’t, pretty much ...”

Lamar

A slight nod, smirking.

"Game recognise game. Poking Dash is extremely ill-advised, but it does mean you're not bottling stuff up. No tension, no snap. Can't say the same for the quiet ones, definitely don't want to try and predict Peri, and Dash is a human being, which means relying on her to have infinite patience and constant rationality is not the smartest stance to take. Blake... Don't think I saw Blake. What did I miss?"

Norton

“You never see Blake. She’s another of the rejects from Enkidu’s lab experiments. Can’t see her pretty much unless she concentrates on letting you. Her I wouldn’t mess with. She can be pretty funny, if you can get her to talk to you that is.”

Lamar

"Not messing with powered folks is pretty much my baseline, present company aside. 'Another', you say. How many of Enkidu's creations does that make here, that you're aware of?"

Norton:

“Glitch of course. Right now, I think it’s just the two of them. At least that I know of.”

Lamar

"Good to know. I'm very familiar with some of his work outside, including some that could make you think they're completely harmless right up until you realise, a while after the fact, just how thoroughly they ruined you."

Norton:

“Ever considered what unchecked healing brings?”

He says mildly.

“Nice try on a threat there though.”

Lamar

“Oddly enough, yes. I was raised by someone who is a big believer in getting the most out of one’s powers, and there was a thought exercise we’d do sometimes, taking a random set of powers and thinking up edge cases and unforeseen uses. Plus, it’s close enough to what I have to merit extra consideration. Defensively, being difficult to kill, primarily. Being able to exceed limits and patch the limit breaks as you go. Offensively, perhaps suppress, override or reverse the healing process in others, or if you wanted to get really nasty, cancers, autoimmune diseases, hormonal immunities, strengthening and intensifying stuff to lethal levels, or levels where they’re begging for a death you’ve rendered impossible.”

He gave Norton a long, appraising look.

“I suspect you haven’t tried half that stuff yet, at least not to such a degree. Any duel between us would be pointless, painful and protracted, the sheer damage I can bring healed as a matter of course, with ill-health sloughing off of me as fast as I can change form. But the Enkidu-spawn I know? If they wanted to inflict some harm, I wouldn’t see it coming, my defenses would be useless, and they’d be long gone before I or anyone around me realised what was going down. I wasn’t offering a threat, I was highlighting a need for caution.”