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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]

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.

[doubled_speed]

[Huh. Tommy starts to smile.]

You? You I like.

[He snickers and pours Kyle some water and slides it over the bar.

[kyley_b]

You do? Oh. I mean, thanks. Really? [He sound genuinely surprised, but not unpleasantly so.

He takes the water and sips it gratefully.]

I'll help you, you know. If you need help. Or someone told me, there's uhm, more of those orbs? That teach you stuff? I bet we need more medical staff. I never liked hospitals but if we need that sort of thing, I could probably do it.

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, there's a number of datapoints, and we are a bit short on the medics. I could take you to it. The thing doesn't tell you as much about human biology, just how to use the Agrii stuff.

[kyley_b]

I did really good in biology. Been a few years, but I think I can remember human anatomy just fine. Which is... not the same thing as being a surgeon. Great, now I'm really wish I'd gone for med school instead of law. Fuck. Oh well.

I'm sorry, is you hair natural? [Because what is linear thinking?]

[doubled_speed]

You might make an okay doctor then.

[He smiles at Kyle and tries not to laugh. Yeah, the guy is definitely amusing.]

I was born with black hair. When my powers came in, my hair went this color.

[kyley_b]

My mother would be so proud.

[Tommy has a really nice smile.]

And that happens in adolescence. Jeez. That must have been a shock. Same with your twin?

[doubled_speed]

[Of course he does. He's made to exude confidence, because if he did anything else he'd think too much and just remember that he hated himself a bit.]

Oh it was a hell of a shock. A lot of things happened at once. And you'd have to ask Billy. I wasn't around when he manifested.

[kyley_b]

[It has the side effect of making Kyle wonder if he'd needed braces as a kid.]

Well, is his hair white?

[doubled_speed]

[Dude, mutations really help for a superior bodily form.]

Nope. Black.

[kyley_b]

So however it happened the physical changes were different. Which since you don't have the same powers makes sense. Guess that makes you fraternal and not identical.

Well, the white is nice. Very fashion forward or something. [Kyle, look at your hat. You don't know what fashion is.]

[doubled_speed]

My uncle has white hair. And my grandfather. Him it's probably coincidental. Pietro might be because of his powers.

[Tommy laughs.]

Yeah, here's the thing though. Beyond hair and eyes, and the fact that my body is runner fit, we're identical. Give me black hair and contacts, and you wouldn't be able to tell us apart. Magic.

[Fashion forward, huh? Nice.]

You don't know fashion. I think.

[kyley_b]

So this was all blood family you never knew? Wow. My little brother is adopted but he doesn't talk to his birth parents.

[Yeah, it's runner fit alright.] Dude, that's fucking bizarre! Contacts, too? Did your eyes change?

...okay, no. What gave me away? The fact that I look dressed to go hunting?

[doubled_speed]

Oh man...

[Tommy sighs. The guy is probably drunk enough for this now.]

They both are and aren't my blood family. And no, my eyes were always green. But the first time we were born it was with auburn hair and our eyes matched. Go on, ask the question. 'First time'?

[kyley_b]

Okay, I will: first time?

...so you were a ginger?