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[doubled_speed]

[Enjoy the screen coming alive with Tommy, local fast person. The world beyond him is a blur of sparkles. With the way his hair is going in the wind, he clearly was running somewhere.]

Okay, two things on the current state of the world.

I've repeated my test to try and and get to the new blinking light. Like Cayde said, someone's fucking with us. It doesn't matter how long or how fast I run at the thing. It's always the same distance away. Which, you know, wouldn't be so bad if it was reality warping, or like world maps in old school video games where you're actually just circling the world in an impossible loop or something.

No, the amount of distance you walk toward the thing is how far you need to come back. So at the moment, I'd seriously discourage expeditions, guys, gals, and all other designations. If that thing is just as far away when I've gone fifty miles, it's not something we can get to by traditional means.

[The colors behind him blurring on the screen now take on a decidedly pink tinge. Yes! He's getting into a fucking zone of hearts.]

In other news. No. I am NOT responsible for the glitter. But FUCK it makes me look amazing I bet. If you see a cloud of sparkles in the distance, that's me. Or is about to be me by you. Can any of you communications people set up, like, a network thing? That pings my phone off yours, like a GPS? So I don't accidentally go blazing past someone and leave them covered in a cloud of my sparkling dust?

Not that some of you wouldn't look amazing in rainbows and hearts and stars. You know, in my flawless opinion.

Comments

[kyley_b]

Oh, well, shit, yeah, no problem. Whenever you want me you got me. I'm not some fucking slacker, dude, I'll do whatever needs doing around here. [And spend the whole time trying to figure out how to do it more efficiently to boot.]

[doubled_speed]

[Kyle, you keep saying things that make it sound like you're flirting. What is up with that? Are you a young Tony Stark?]

Huh, nice attitude. We'll make use of that.

[kyley_b]

[No, he's just oblivious.]

I'm not great at a lot of practical shit, but I'm really smart. So, I can learn most things.

[doubled_speed]

Man, if you're willing to try, then you're good enough for my books.

[He considers for a moment.]

You know where Cayde's is?

[kyley_b]

Alright.

Uhm, no, I'm still figuring it all out. But I bet I can find it.

[doubled_speed]

Get there and we’ll talk. Got it?

[kyley_b]

Alright, on my way.

At human speed.

[doubled_speed]

I don’t judge you for being a snail.

[kyley_b]

[There's a map on the communicator, which is helpful. Cayde's seems to be the bar, The Deep End. He still has to walk there, which he doesn't rush to do because getting the layout of the city is still something he'd trying to do.

It's creepy. Things seem just familiar enough to make the whole place remind him of a dozen movies set in zombie apocalypses.

It's better indoors, even if the lower levels are all flooded out. He moves up to the mid levels of the Towers, finally peeking into the tavern.]

[doubled_speed]

[Tommy's of course already there by the time Kyle arrives. He's busy with some large, soft-tipped sticks tied into a bundle. It's a lot like the scented brooms stores sell in the fall to make places smell too much like cinnamon. These don't smell like that, but they are helping him brush up the glitter some.]

So, Red, welcome to Cayde's shop. I think I know where he keeps some red-fruit.

[kyley_b]

[Sigh.]

It's Kyle, not Red.

Jesus, that is a hell of a lot of glitter.

[doubled_speed]

It seems to be falling at a steady rate, so yea. A lot.

[Tommy turns his attention Kyle and looks him up and down. What he finds there is his own business, but it does get an interested raising of an eyebrow.]

You're taller than I expected. By a lot.

[kyley_b]

[Oh, he hates that appraising look. It just gives him flashbacks to failed Tinder dates, for one thing. He knows goddamn well he's not attractive, and now here's this good-bone-structure-having motherfucker who also appears to have the body of a professional athlete on top of it. Great. Awesome. Kyle's just really glad he has his hat on, at least. It hides the extent of how terrible his hair is.]

What, do I sound short?

[doubled_speed]

[Definitely the body of a professional athlete. Tommy? He smiles.]

Nah, man. Lean features. I tend to take that as shorter. On me, not you.

[kyley_b]

What, there's no tall skinny people where you're from? Anyway, you're not that short, you look pretty average to me.

[Zing! Take that! One minor victory against someone with actual superpowers. Sort of. Okay, not really.

Kyle looks around, taking everything in.]

Huh. Kinda cool. I guess people live in these buildings?

[doubled_speed]

I mean, there are, but it's not what I assume anyway.

[And he's definitely average in height.]

People live in a lot of places. My brother, his fiance, and I converted an old strip mall like store for ourselves.

[kyley_b]

Well. Here I am in all my glory, or whatever.

Seriously? That's actually kinda cool. And nice that you can stick by your family. Which, uh, you said he's from... another time or something? That's. Different.

[doubled_speed]

[Yeah, it's pretty cool. Or as cool as he's gonna get. But he guessed he should stop harassing Kyle on what he looks like.]

It's more like we're all from different times. Billy's the furthest back. Teddy's ahead of them. I'm further still.

[Tommy puts his broom aside and heads for the counter.]

[kyley_b]

Teddy's his partner? [People keep throwing names at him and he's really not sure how he's going to keep track.]

So now you're older than your twin. That's weird. And you only just met him as a teenager, and you're... what, like, twenty now? So you don't even know each other too well. That sucks.

[doubled_speed]

[Get a notebook, man. There are a lot of names.]

His future husband, emperor of a lot of space, and wearer of Capes even though I KNOW he's probably got that whole Edna Mode rant about no capes memorized.

[Well, Kyle, he was ALREADY older than his twin. Twins can't be PERFECTLY the same age. Geez.]

I'm in my twenties. He's not yet. And we... know each other well enough I guess. But I'm used to it. His family is pretty cool, and they raised a good enough guy. But he's like just about everyone else in our family: casts a mighty long shadow.

[kyley_b]

Whoa, whoa, emperor? Oh, shit, does he have this super jacked, super nice bodyguard? Lauri?
Also capes are pretty stupid but they do look kinda cool.

[Kyle thinks about that as he takes a seat.] I can understand that, a little bit. My little brother is a genius. Like, literally. But your whole family is like that?

[doubled_speed]

[Oops.]

First, don't talk about it to Teddy or Billy. They know I was there for it, but it's weird, to talk about them as they aren't yet, right? And yeah, Huge-Arms McKree is totally playing watch dog. Saw her at the whole thing.

[Tommy continues his foraging under the shelf until he pulls out a nice container with some of the items he wants.]

Not... geniuses. So there's Billy. Magic, reality warping, all of that. There's my soul-mom, who is sorta special in how she interfaces with magic and that let her sorta... make me and Billy out of fragments of the shattered soul of a great demon lord, before we died the first time. Jury's still out on whether Mags is our grandfather or not, but he's a mutant who can manipulate magnetism and I'm pretty sure he could change hte poles of the planet. Cousin Luna can manipulate, soothe, kindle, or completely suppress emotions, and she's a Princess, hell, even my Uncle once ran so fast that he was technically outside of the flow of time.

[And then there's Tommy.]

And that's before we discuss my dad's side of the family.

[kyley_b]

I like her, she's really nice.

[A curl has escaped Kyle's hat and he blows it out of his face.] Okay, I didn't mean they were super smart, I was trying to, you know, relate to you? Like 'hey I get it, my brother seems more impressive, too.'

[And more names, now, and very confusing statements.]

Okay, I'm doing my best to keep this all straight but try to remember that while you're an awesome superhero? I'm a university student, dude. Nobody is my family can bend metal spoons or whatever.

[doubled_speed]

[Oooh, a curl. Tommy leans forward to tweak it. Nice, springy. Good hair.]

If you want to relate to me, better not to talk about my brother the god, right? And at least you got to go to college.

[He then opens the container and offers a red fruit out to Kyle.]

Here. Eat it slowly. The flesh is intoxicating.

[kyley_b]

[The utter SHOCK on his face at the fact that Tommy just did that is downright comical. He swats at Tommy's hand but of course he's far, far too slow.]

Dude! Yeah, okay, no brother talk, got it. Did you want to go to school?

Thanks. [He takes the fruit and studies it very carefully before taking a bite.] Sounds like the tagline for a Cronenberg movie when you say that.