tushanshu | [Video]

Entry tags:

[Video]

[Frankly, considering how used to playing punching bag he is back home, Pete's been able to largely ignore the still worsening view of him and the other outsiders on the turtle. That, and he figures it'll change again once resources aren't so scarce. But one thing he's not over is something he'd been noticing after several days in Atam.]

Does anybody else want to get as far away from this place as possible? I don't mean the turtle, either. Something about the mainland feels...wrong. Like, creepy Orwellian kind of wrong.

[Someone may or may not have asked about that central stockade. And noticed how nobody his age or younger was running around the city. It was hard to say which one creeped him out more, really...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ava presses her chin into her fist, leaning forward towards the console.] How creepy?

Do you know of any major city back home where there's no crime? I stayed there for days, and didn't even hear about so much as a purse snatching.

[Though he's hoping Ava can piece together that Pete wasn't running entirely on hear-say. He'd been doing his best to patrol despite the power nerfing, and still couldn't find anything.]

Creepy super dictators in other cities aren't our problem. [Unfortunately, in her mind.]

Yeah, I know. Much as I hate to admit it.

[And he does. A lot.]

I caught a few glimpses of weird from up above.

[Not going into detail as to how closely up above because, well, she'd fufilled her 'grounding' quota for the month already. And she did like eating.]

How bad was it at ground-level?

Very Big Brother. And not just in the "That's the Emperor's Business" way we're used to, they seemed scared. And that was just from me asking about the crime rate.

You should have seen what asking about that setup in the center of town did...

Well, obviously, I didn't, so you're just going to have to tell me about it.

[Come on, Peter, cough up the info. Don't leave her hanging.]

Paranoid doesn't begin to describe it. The way they reacted, you'd think somebody was waiting to put them in there if they said too much. Or anything, really.

Considering all the stuff they had in there though, I can't say I blame them. Most places at least try to hide where they do their executions...among other things...

[He's not sure what a lot of the other stuff was, but it was probably more suited to maiming than executions or public humiliation]

[A wince. Suddenly, she didn't mind not having gotten a good look at those village squares so much.]

They're being ruled by fear.

But by who?

As much as I hate looking the other way, I don't know. Or want to find out. Whatever's in place there, it's not something any of us are going to be able to fix.

[And he really, really hated looking the other way. Even if she couldn't see it on his face, Zatanna would definitely be able to hear it in his voice. But as much as he wanted to do something about it, even largely de-powered, he couldn't solve it all himself. Especially if he got left behind, since it wasn't likely they were going to stay docked forever.]

[She did hear it. Unfortunately, his words took precedent over whatever sentiment may be lingering below.]

You're giving up awful easily, you know.

Even if we threw everyone on the turtle at this, it'd still take too much time. We won't stay docked forever, and once it's too far away, we'd get magically dragged back again.

[He's deliberately avoiding the "weakened powers" part. Mostly because he can't come up with a way to explain how he knew about it.]

Sometimes you just can't help people. If we got here a lot earlier, or the Emperor said that's why we came here, maybe, but...not this way.

Well, yeah. Maybe. Doesn't mean you have to put it so...definitively.

[Knowing deep down that there wasn't much they could do was one thing, but it was another to openly acknowledge it. Especially in such a public venue.]

We can here for a reason, right? Even if we...don't necessarily know exactly what that reason is yet.

I'm just saying, wait a little before deciding something like that.

That's what the kedan said, yeah. But the fact the Emperor went ashore instead of staying on the Turtle means it probably wasn't for us to help them start a revolt.

[He hadn't seen her there himself, but word tended to get around.]

If that was the case, she'd have probably stayed here. Plus, I doubt it's anything we'd take our time doing, considering everything going on.

[Hopefully, anyway. The Emperor biding her time before launching an attack while the people on the Turtle were running low on food didn't sound like a great plan.]

[Oh, great. She was sounding like the kedan. If there was ever a time she hated being out of the loop, it was now.]

I'm not talking about the Emperor, Peter. I'm talking about us.

See, where I come from, we have this thing where we try to help people whenever we can, however we can. Just like--

[--she's been doing on the Turtle at night, is what she wanted to say. But not here, over the Network. She was already in enough trouble with the rations people.]

...just like...what my dad used to do.

Do you think I like not doing whatever I can to help? It's bad enough I got brushed off when I tried helping out here.

[That...probably had a little more aggression to it than there needed to be, but Pete was definitely frustrated by the whole affair.]

But you can't fix every problem that comes up, and you can't help everyone. You just have to help as many as you can. And frankly, we've got a much better chance of figuring out what's wrong with the Turtle and avoiding everyone starving than we do pulling off a revolution in a place we don't know anything about.

Who said anything about a revolution?

[Calm down, Peter. Then again...the fact that you're getting riled up about it at all is better than total apathy.]

We all get brushed off. I got fired. I tried to save a kedan girl in an alleyway from getting beaten by her boyfriend for sympathizing with us, and you know what she did? She slapped me.

You think I should stop just because we're not getting praised for what we do?

Do you have any other plans for dealing with a city ruled the way that one is? I mean, I really doubt it's just a case of a few supervillains hiding in the shadows and terrorizing the populace when we aren't looking.

[Plus, if their emperor is any indication of how interested in the public welfare the average ruling class is in this world...]

I don't mean by the kedan, I meant by us. Other outsiders. Honestly? Getting fired from my job's been pretty tolerable in comparison.

[Yup, he's still got a pretty big chip on his shoulder, Wayne B|]

And I'm not saying you should stop helping, I'm saying you should focus on helping out here, not on the mainland. At least here you've got a better chance of doing some good.

Well, no worries there, seeing as how I never made it past the blood tests.

...wait, who else's been giving you a hard time?

Not really a hard time, just the brush off. And it was Wayne. I'm hoping Stark will at least give me a chance to help out around his labs while we try to figure this out.

[Which is something he never thought he'd say out loud, ever.]

I got the 'there's liability issues' line when I tried getting permission to help out in Wayne Enterprise's labs while they go over some water samples. I'd think the risk we could all run out of food, or that whatever's infecting the turtle might manage to mutate into a strain capable of infecting us would be a more serious risk than workplace liability, but I guess not everybody agrees.

[Her mouth opens to comment, remains open in faint surprise, then closes again.]

Wayne. As in...Bruce Wayne.

[Not really the name she had been expecting. Then again, with his reputation--or, at least, the reputation she knew of from her world--she can't say she's all that surprised he would turn away a teenager.]

[She wouldn't say as much aloud, of course, because that would just piss Peter off even further. The conversation was already going so well, after all.]

If it's research you want to do, I might know a few other people you could ask.

Yeah. The first one, assuming the other version's still around.

[Because hooray for alternate universes.]

And I'm open to suggestions. I've already had a few months experience interning at ESU's genetics lab under Dr. Connors, if it helps. So I'm more than familiar with how important safety is.

[Because seriously, four words: genetically modified electric eels. As a power source.]

I only ever met the one. His son, Dick, is one of my suitemates.

[Speaking of Alternate Universes....]

Well, I don't know much about that sort of thing, but I do have a few people who're into the whole science scene. There's Wally, for one. He's from my world. And I know Kara's been doing a lot of research on her own, too. Kara's my...um...

["Friend who may or may not actually be from my world, except she's also an alternate universe version"]

...it's a long story.

[Interpret that one at will.]

I've already met Wally. Well, before, anyway. I don't know if the one that's here now is the same one or not, since when he came back he didn't seem to remember he'd been here before.

[Pete had actually avoided talking to him for that very reason. He just wasn't really sure where to pick up, because he doubted this Wally remembered him. Which actually makes its way into his first guess at why Zee's having trouble explaining who Kara is.]

Does the story involve alternate universes? Because there's a lot of that going around.

Something like that, yeah.

And it's the same Wally. His memories are a little...not there...but it's him. I'll vouch, if you need it.

It felt really enclosed. And I'm not really talking about the wall around the city. [The whole place just had a weird claustrophobic feel to it.]

How so? Just uncomfortable to be in, or...?

[Though he's got some ideas, he's not ready to just assume he knows what she's talking about.]

Well, there was the wall, for one. Which was weird enough. But yeah, it was generally uncomfortable. No kids, the stockade... [It's not a place she wants to go back to at all.]

And don't forget how nobody seemed willing to explain either of those things.

[Then again, he hadn't asked about the kids part. That one seemed a little too...intrusive...]

It feels like no matter where you go in this universe, nobody's willing to say anything.

You went to the mainland?

[Legit curiosity is legit. Mavis is so staying sequestered away for the most part, what can she say.]

Yeah, I was hoping it might be a good escape from all the problems here.

I'm not sure it was actually an improvement, though.

What happened?

[Because his lack of projected excitement is worrying.]

Not so much what happened as what didn't happen.

[And at that point, Pete remembers just how unusually oblivious Mavis was to the human world. So, she'd probably need more of an explanation than most.]

Usually, it's a given that a city's going to have crime. And bigger cities tend to have more than smaller ones, even in universes where supervillains aren't involved. But this place had none. And when I started asking about it, people got really nervous and refused to give me a straight answer. The whole city just felt wrong.

And the big stockade in the middle of town nobody wanted to talk about wasn't making things any better. Things might be bad here, but at least the kedan answer some of the questions. Not to mention I have yet to see any of them act like someone's always watching them.

[It's much appreciated, Pete. Mavis is getting better about her understanding, but we're working against almost twelve decades of seclusion and misconception here.]

That's a good thing, isn't it? I mean, if no one committed crimes, we'd all be better off.

We would, but it's also not natural.

[TRUST HIS ~~SUPERHERO~~ NEW YORKER INSTINCT ON THIS]

There's always going to be some crime, it's just a question of how severe and how much of it. No crime at all's just...wrong. Something else has to be happening to make that the case, and it's not likely to be anything good.

[Pete, that is a super negative attitude to have, just sayin'.]

Okay, if that's true -- [Which she's not necessarily saying it is, since monsters don't really commit crimes and all.] -- then how do you figure out why they're like that?

Yeah, we can leave anytime.

[ Jack is flopped out in front of the console, looking exhausted and vaguely damp. ]

[He notices that much.]

So, you chose to swim back?

[Nothing gets answers like constant ribbing. In theory, anyway.]

[ annoyed ]

Gosh yes, I just couldn't leave without a swim.

Really though, why do you look like I did back home whenever Flash figured out how to fill up a water balloon?

[ Jack groans, dropping his head back onto the desk. ]

Nghhh. Overheated flying back to the turtle.

That's...some overheating. You have enough water to drink?

I have some ice to chew on, that's better than the water.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video;

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video;

video

Re: video

video

Re: video

video

Re: video