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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]

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.

[doubled_speed]

[The swatting has him pulling his hand back. Yeah, that's fair.]

I don't know. I never got the chance. Blew my school up by accident once, so no where would take me.

[A tagline? Tommy smiled and shook his head.]

I wish it was. We discovered this stuff makes us drunk.

[kyley_b]

[It's hair, no touchy!]

You're kidding me. I mean... it was an accident. I understand how that is concerning but, come on.

By accident, I assume. But come on, 'The flesh is intoxicating'? Super creepy sounding in the cool way. Like Videodrome, you know?"

[doubled_speed]

[Awwww, but it's cute hair. let him touchy.]

Well, I wasn't heading for creepy, but I am cooll, so I guess it balances out. And people don't care if it's an accident when it's mutants.

[kyley_b]

You really are a little full of yourself, aren't you?

What do you mean people don't care? I can imagine you'd be held culpable for damages but kicked out of every school around? I don't think that's legal.

[doubled_speed]

Well, who else would I be full of?

[He smiles and laughs. Oh Kyle.]

Racism, man. It's a thing.

cw: racism (discussion)

[kyley_b]

...I'm not touching that.

[Kyle swallows another bite of the fruit and stares at Tommy, frowning.] Every single morning for like fifteen years I'd be greeted with, "Jew." Yeah, I'm aware racism is a thing.

Is there absolutely no discrimination laws where you're from?

[doubled_speed]

[Tommy laughs, shaking his head. No, that was a good response. He approved.]

Yeah, I get you there. Never had that experience myself. My grandfather, he was in one of the camps. racism, man, it happens. And that's the worse sentence to be able to say and just know it's an inherent truth. But I get it for being a mutant. No one cares about discrimination laws and all that.

[It would be policing thoughts and actions and the assholes in government didn't approve.]

[kyley_b]

Holy shit. My family is Polish, so that didn't go very well for them, as you can imagine, but I never knew any of them. Like great uncles and aunts and stuff. Did your grandpa actually make it out?

Okay, you're a mutant. That's still not something you have control over. It's because you have superpowers, right? That's the excuse? You could hurt somebody. That's fucking bullshit, I bet more people get killed by guns than mutants. I just fucking bet. [He smacks the bar with one hand and points at Tommy.]

For every mutant who is 'dangerous' I bet I could find ten angry white dudes with AK-47s. Absolute bullshit. Your version of earth oughtta be ashamed. That's treating a person as guilty before they've done anything.

[doubled_speed]

Yeah. While he was in the camps he manifested his mutant power, which was magnetism. Used that to get out, while escaping with my grandmother, a Roma woman.

[So, yeah, it came from both sides of the Maximoff line.]

Tons more people killed by guns than mutants, though mutants do kill some. By accident, and on purpose. But you're probably not wrong. This is just how it is, back home. How it was before I was born.

[kyley_b]

Holy fucking shit. He must have just been young, too. That's so fucking terrifying. [Kyle's eyes are very wide, his tone a little awed.]

That's fucking awful. I guess at least that doesn't happen here. I mean, you stil can't go to school but it seems like most people here are cool aliens and shit.

Uh. What would you have wanted to go to school for?

[doubled_speed]

Little more than a kid. Way I understand it, he was the only member of his family to survive.

[Magneto didn't talk about it much. Still, he doesn't know what to say.]

Don't know. Blew it up as my powers manifested. I don't even know what I would have been good at. Working with Dr. Stark now, to learn stuff. Mostly machine shit. It's nice.

[kyley_b]

Jesus. [He eats more fruit and hugs himself a little.]

Machine shit is good. Useful, even, especially here. I mean, you'll have a skill AND be fast as fuck. That's kinda awesome.

I'm real sorry that shit happened to you, dude. It's not fair.

[doubled_speed]

Nah, Tony's the one with the skill. Me? I just watch and try and learn and then go back to growing things.

[He agrees, it's not fair. And it's pointless to say it, because it only makes Tommy stressed to think about it.]

[kyley_b]

You'll learn stuff from working with him, though. And growing stuff is important too. Obviously. Or we'd all be dead. So. You're an integral part of this society. You matter a lot.

...okay this fruit does make you drunk.