[video]

[littlecousin]

[Nita is looking perkier than she has since the Malicant mess started. She's also looking moist, since, with the return of her gills, she's been spending most of her time underwater, and only came up now to make a network post. And, last of all, she's looking concerned, because there's something that's been bothering her, and she just can't figure it out.]

I'm not even close to a magical theorist or anything, and there's gotta be someone who knows more about this stuff than I do... I have a question.

How did some of us lose things we always had? Like, I understand, sort of, how Captain America--sorry, Cap, I'm gonna use you as an example--could lose his powers, 'cause he got them from an experiment. I even kind of get how mutant powers like my ankle wings could go away, because they're genetic but they're not really normal. But my gills--and the other Atlanteans' gills--closed up! That's not special! Every member of our species has those!

What's going on with this place that it can take away ordinary things?

Comments

video;

[shorttempered]

I'm going to fully admit I only have this idea because I saw something like it on a TV show back home--of the fictional variety, I mean--but... what if whatever it was was working off some sort of template? Most of us are human here, right? So... What if the template was a regular human? It didn't know what to do with anything else. [Yes he knows how dumb that sounds.]

video;

[littlecousin]

[THAT'S RACIST.]

If that's it, shouldn't the template have been kedan?

video; I HOPE A THREADJACK IS COOL

[traumatizing]

[he doesn't often trawl the responses to something, unless he wants to check no one's said the same thing as him beforehand, but he's sort of curious about what Nita asked so.]

I'm not sure the Kedan are actually from here. [pause, er.] Or, if they are they might not be the majority species here.

video; FINE BY ME

[littlecousin]

Yeah, people at that sucky city were basically human, right?

[She'd noticed it at the time, sort of, but Nita doesn't really pay attention to non-immediate stuff, and putting it into context usually requires someone to prime the pump for her.]

But there are like a dozen sentient species on Earth, so that's not saying much.

[Video]

[superoverachiever]

I think... what other people have found, it makes sense that if this is the life plane and the problem was from the death plane then I think it was killing all of us slowly, not just the big guy. My -- [Oops, unsecure network, avoid discussion of slowly-returning power sources. Do not avoid wild speculation though. Ava's actually pretty firmly convinced no one here knows what they're talking about, so if they're gonna pull words out of their butt then so will she] even objects with inherent power stopped working during the crisis. Even our tech stopped working. I dunno why it stopped your gills FIRST, but if I had to guess I bet it would have stopped all of our hearts and lungs and everything if we'd given it more time.

[Video]

[littlecousin]

Ugh, I just don't want to have to deal with that life/death abstract conflict stuff again.

[It got millions, maybe trillions killed, including her boyfriend.]

[Video]

[superoverachiever]

Again?

Also, I don't think you get a choice.

Video; 30% Encryption

[alphatar]

We're all spiritually connected to Tu Vishan. If he suffers too much, so do we. [Korra's totally having a bowl of noodles and waves at Nita with her hand holding her chopsticks.]

Video; 30% Encryption

[littlecousin]

[Nita waves back with a ripple of her fingers.]

What, seriously? I didn't sign up for that.

Video; 30% Encryption

[alphatar]

Well I didn't sign up for the turtle special either, but here we are. Since our powers, and bending, are a part of us and our spirits are now tied to Asti. I'd say we kind of live off each other, but really we're just living off his life force. Off his chi.

[No, she has no idea what word would work best there because chi is the most accurate she can think of.]

Have you ever talked to him?

video;

[amonfire]

[ Even Amon balked at how indiscriminate the dampening at been, and the control it had over physiology. ]

I've suspected they had more control over us beyond their complicated abduction scheme when it became apparent something was done to us to understand each other's spoken languages. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist: I don't think we have much control over ourselves as a price for being involuntarily recruited as Tu Vishan's last line of defense.

video;

[littlecousin]

I just assumed the language thing was a spell.

[Magic. Ain't no thing.]

And oh my god, if they'd asked, I would have agreed to help! Loads of people from my universe would have!

video;

[amonfire]

After becoming unexpectedly intimate with magic myself, I am no longer confident it's that simple.

[ That and crazy turtle dreams left him at a loss. ]

Asti strong-arming a small and growing population into defending it left me wondering if it deserves it in the first, but we're stuck with our roles now. Hopefully it will come out all the more grateful for its astonishingly underhanded tactics. However 'magical' they might be.

video.

[langsyne]

You know that there are these people called burglars, right? That steal ordinary things all the time?

[In fact, he used to be one of those self-same burglars. Not that he'd ever admit that out loud. And okay, that's not quite what she'd been asking but it's not like he knows better than anyone else what's been going on so he'd just kind of sort of defaulted to making something up.

MORE IMPORTANTLY THOUGH she'd mentioned Captain America and Atlanteans so. Time for a subject change.]

You know Cap?

[Said casually, calmly. He's totally not prying for information or anything.]

video. (is he wearing his costume?)

[littlecousin]

[She's about to roll her eyes at his obvious dumb joke, but then he mentions Cap.]

Old friend of the family, dude.

video. (uhhh LET'S GO WITH YES)

[langsyne]

[Interesting. Then again, Steve's either friends or on good terms with just about everyone so it's not that surprising.]

Atlantean family?

[She'd mentioned the ankle wings.]

video;

[definingfuture]

To be fair, apparently the kedan were having the same problems.

[He is so helpful.]

video;

[littlecousin]

What, they were turning into humans, too?

[Nita spent most of the event being pretty self-absorbed and/or moping with the other Atlanteans.]

video;

[definingfuture]

Well, no, but that's because no one really looked all that different. As far as complete physical changes go.

[And he's his usual casual self about this. He's got selective sympathy.]

But they did lose natural abilities too. I don't think the energy was distinguishing between benefits much. But you're back to normal now?

video;

[candystriped]

I was thinking the same thing! I mean, for fuck sakes if they're going to change all of us, why'd it have to be down to the bottom of the sapiens food chain?

video;

[littlecousin]

[Well, that's mean...even if Nita sort of understands the sentiment.]

There's nothing wrong with humans, but I still don't get it. They aren't the default!

[OMG SO SPECIESIST.]

Re: video;

[candystriped]

There's plenty wrong with humans but I don't imagine they'd be any happier being turned into chimps or something. Devolving? Totally fucked up.

[Video]

[tactile_telekinesis]

Nita, babe so glad to see you! Glad you're okay as well. Y'know, besides the crappy gill thing.

[Kon is smiling and gives a slight wave which is more a jerk of his hand than anything.]

I don't even know what's going on, I mean I think everyone was hit regardless of what was normal or not.

Forget that, we need to hang out or something before the next crazy adventure begins.

[Video]

[littlecousin]

Kon, hey!

You gotta come to me. I can't fly right now.

[She holds up a foot to the screen and waggles it around to demonstrate the lack of ankle wings.]

[Video]

[tactile_telekinesis]

[He winces seeing he ankles being wingless and he knows how much it's gotta suck cause that's part of her power too and it's still not back. But hey, at least the gills are back.]

No worries, I'll be there in a few.

Want me to bring anythin'?