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#999665 Wed 16/09/20 16:34 UTC
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A rather plain but large basement room, the walls obviously thick and reinforced. They arrive here by going down an elevator shaft. The walls show signs of soot scars and other markings.

Present are Kemp, Grey and Carver

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Lamar

The boy looked around the chamber, smirking slightly.

“I‘ve been careful not to do anything but human up there, but you’ve seen the footage or read the reports. I’m serious about cooperating, so how far do we want to go with this? Is this intended as adversarial or purely a peaceful study?”

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Grey:

“Fascinating, Lamar. Do you truly think that you are here for a competition?”

She says mildly.

Carver:

“What we need to see is what the power is. What it does. Classify it. Record it.”

Kemp:

“We have seen some of what it can do. Grey has reports of quite a bit more. Eric has set up various device that record energy emanations and other data.”

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Lamar

A short exhalation of amusement at Grey’s comment. “No. Not in the slightest. But there’s a difference between, say, standing here and changing forms while stationary, and showing how that power can be applied in more of a crisis setting. I can see the advantage to keeping things clinical. So, since this is on the record, let’s start small and work our way up.”

With that, he disappeared from easy view in an eyeblink.

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There is a brief smile from Grey, who looks over, and leans down to the floor. looking right where he is, then taps her head.

“Interesting, but I suspect it won’t last long.”

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Lamar

Indeed it doesn’t. A flea leaps, exploding into a bird-of-paradise maintaining the upward momentum of the jump, plumage shimmering. Spiralling in flight as it curves in an arc towards the ceiling, becoming a peregrine falcon and executing a high velocity dive, swooping in to a ground effect landing, shifting as it did so into a substantially larger, prehistoric bird-ancestor, towering back up to the ceiling before collapsing back into an elephantine form, which in turn reared up and became, in short order, each of the instructors present, flowing from one to the other almost imperceptibly fast, clothes included.

This then shrank back into the form of the boy that had been there at the start. He began flickering through other changes working from his baseline, adding and subtracting years, flipping gender, bulking up with muscle, time or fat. Proceeding into more monstrous changes, altering his face with an array of different sensory organs from across the animal kingdom. Reverting once again to baseline, he cycled through various outfits, shifting into costumes and then taking on the likeness of various heroes and villains, finishing up with Black and Blue and Amp in their prime, before collapsing back into baseline.

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Kemp:

“I’ll bet that display made you tired and hungry. Would I be right?”

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Lamar

“I took precautions. Shaped some efficient energy stores, stocked up heavily at each opportunity for food. Does it take a lot out? It can, but it’s been doing so the entirety of my life, thus I have put no end of effort into learning how to adapt, cope, be efficient and maximise my returns. I’m not going to blow everything I have on just the one demonstration.”

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Kemp:

He pauses a bit.

“I warn you, from personal experience, that your body can surprise you. Yes you may not have the same ability - but do not be surprised if some of nature’s laws kick like a mule at inopportune times.”

Grey:

“I was monitoring your mind, surface only - there do appear to be mental changes involved, especially with the smaller size changes.”

Carver was largely watching and stroking his chin.

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Lamar

He paused at Kemp's words.

"Okay, now I'm curious. What happens when someone whose powers are being able to survive anything that gets thrown at them, right down to the entropy of continued existence, gets trounced by nature asserting itself? Wouldn't suddenly no longer being able to survive at an inopportune time be terminal?"

With a nod to Grey,

"Yeah, streamlined cognition. At that scale you're not working with much, so you lean into the tools at your disposal, threat assessment, goal orientation, environmental awareness. Overlay a few objectives, ensure an upscale at the end. Difficult to describe with precision to someone not experiencing it, but I imagine you're getting a better perspective than most. I'm willing to consent if you want to observe the process in greater detail and share your findings."

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Kemp:

“What happens, Lamar? It hurts like nothing you have ever experienced, nor would you ever wish to. If you are lucky, you never will.”

Grey:
M”Tricky. The legality would still be in question - you are, by law, a minor. Consent in those situations is a tricky legal business.”

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Lamar

“Stands to reason, I suppose. I’m not overly fond of turning off sensory input in forms that feel pain, but I’ll make sure to keep it in mind if I sense a threshold. Thank you.”

Then to Grey,

“You do know where my mother is, though I wouldn’t predict if she’d be in favour. Technically there’s my father, but he generally doesn’t get involved and if you haven’t guessed, deduced or realised his identity I’d prefer to keep his secret.”

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Kemp nods, and pauses before continuing.

“I imagine that, when you change forms you do not truly heal, but put off the damage. The piper, at some point, will be paid. I am not, of course, going to injure you to figure this out. Do you know your actual age? To some degree, it seems that your baseline must age, at least to a point.”

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Lamar

"If a part of my mass is vaporised, severed or the like, then yeah, that does cause problems. Otherwise, it's a matter of focus, forming a healthy limb, collapsing a broken one. Reduced function doesn't directly correlate when form is a matter of will. Pain is a distraction, but sensory inputs can be altered. Disruption of my physical form is what I need to look out for in that regard. As for my age, I wasn't lying when I said I wasn't certain. My mother could doubtless tell you, my father could probably figure it out from first principles, but difficult to establish otherwise. I never got a straight answer from my Mother. My baseline does age, but my ability tends to override my physiology. I suppose I could remain in constant baseline for a few months and regulate my hormonal processes, but it would be somewhat torturous. Taking the slow road when..."

He grew in an eyeblink, himself but on the cusp of adulthood, well-built and perhaps a little too alike his father,

"...This is available at a moment's thought."

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Kemp

"Be very careful in that, Lamar. There is danger in not having stability, a core."

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Lamar

"Something of a family trait. I'd say formlessness is a strength in our lineage, my mother certainly makes it work well."

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Kemp:
“I will repeat, be very careful, Lamar. I have seen something like this go badly before. You are not the first ever similar to your ability set, although I will admit you and your mother are both a stronger manifestation of it. I will just say I have seen it end badly before.”

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Lamar

"Very few powered individuals can entirely avoid the risk of a bad end. My core is my will, my psyche, that which remains truly me regardless of the exterior. That which remains largely unchanging amidst the mutability, streamlining aside. It would be a mischaracterisation to think of me as lacking a core, lacking that focal point that keeps me myself, but it would equally be inaccurate to pin it to the realm of the purely physical. It's easier to understand watching my Mother in full flow, because no matter what she is or how rapidly she alters, she is herself to her core, and her strength of personality is fearsome."

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Kemp

“Nonetheless, Lamar. Grant me that in 120 years on this earth I may have learned a thing or two and take the risks into consideration. They are real.”

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Lamar

"All right, I'm listening, and you have my full attention. What exactly happened, to whom, and why? What was the context and surrounding circumstance?"

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Kemp

“Let’s just say that I will be giving you some material to study, on the subject of a specific hero that went by “Harlequin.” Before your time. Easier to let you read up than to try to include a story In the present.”

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Lamar

He nodded acceptance, mollified.

“Thank you, I’ll look into that in depth, see how applicable it is, learn all I can from it.”

Almost as an afterthought, he shifted the entire surface of his back into a mat of green, animate fronds, which oriented on the room’s light source.

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Kemp:
he looks over to grey, who nods.

“I think we can get you registered, Lamar. We will submit the necessary forms. Do you have any questions about the process, or the ramifications, about it’s implementation?”

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Lamar

“Plenty. Are there any currently extant unregistered heroes? For what purposes will this information be used? Is it subject to freedom of information checks? Will I have access to the full text of my registration, and if so, how easily? Who will be held responsible for any inaccuracies? Am I in any way beholden to keep it updated? Can it be used against me, and if so, in what ways?”

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Kemp:

“Even Golem, Lamar, is registered.”

Grey:
”Not everyone can access - mainly other powered individuals who are employed in enforcement actions and policing of the powered community, and other legitimate government officials. You, on the other hand, can access it whenever you wish. Inaccuracies are on the part of the people doing the registration - in this case, me. So you are under my parole. I will hope you are being forthright with me. You generally do periodic updates, more or less like renewing a driver’s license, or perhaps a firearm license. That text is available to you. Whether it can be used against you? That all depends on your actions. If you are a citizen that isn’t interacting with the world in an illegal way involving superpowers it almost certainly won’t come up.”

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