[text/video] i'm too hungry to come up with a witty subject line right now

[swissarmyjesus]

[He's been holding off on making a post here for a while now. He's mainly lurked since he first connected in January and saw people plotting Blood Key murders, but after Wise Snake he has too many questions and not enough people to talk to about this stuff.]

I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say you guys weren't the ones who unleashed that giant snake thing on the city. It doesn't look like it based on what you're all saying on the news, anyway. (Nice costumes, by the way.) I guess I should just feel lucky my house is still standing, even though there are rescue teams camping out here and shutting down half the roads.

Just two questions: Anyone got any idea what caused all this in the first place? There's no way some giant snake monster went all Godzilla on everything out of nowhere.

Second, I know we're all getting these 'echoes' that are dropping giant robots on people left and right, but this is different. This isn't something I own, this is something I can do.

[to better illustrate his point, he switches to video. He makes sure his face is out of frame first (he doesn't trust you THAT much, guys) and backs up several steps, so that only his arm is in view against the wall behind him. Then, with a whining noise, metal erupts out of his arm to form one of these. After flexing the fingers for a few seconds, the machine folds back into his perfectly fleshy, human arm. He walks back over to the screen and shuts off the video.]

Is this all still normal 'echo' stuff or should I be getting checked out at the magical superpower hospital?

Comments

[swissarmyjesus]

Trust me, as long as I can keep passing for normal, it's going to stay that way. I do NOT want all these news crews and cops crowding into my house next.

[dead_black_eyes]

No, of course not.

Maybe you're lucky and this is as far as your mutations go. It's up to that sort of person to look out for the ones who have no hope of blending in, I think.

[swissarmyjesus]

[noooo don't make him feel responsible for other network people! he doesn't even know how much he can trust them 8C]

Yeah? How? If I just bust out these fists trying to help them, I'll just end up screwing them and myself over.

[Audio]

[dead_black_eyes]

It's possible to help without doing any such thing. If mundane people like me can do it, so can you.

[swissarmyjesus]

I don't think you can count as "mundane" if you're on a hidden secret network.

[dead_black_eyes]

Work with me. I mean it in the sense that don't have wings or rocket feet and I can't shoot lasers out of my eyes.

[swissarmyjesus]

Really? I thought everyone on here got superpowers.

[dead_black_eyes]

Not everyone. The only advantage to it seems to be the ability to blend in fairly seamlessly.

[swissarmyjesus]

Looks like I can still manage that one too, at least.

[dead_black_eyes]

What is your name? Or the proxy you use on the network, at least?

[swissarmyjesus]

Let's just go with JCR for now.

[dead_black_eyes]

JCR? That's more than acceptable. Thank you; I understand that even though it's a reasonable assumption to think that most people on the network would rather help than hurt other numbered people, one can't really be too careful.

[swissarmyjesus]

[nooooo stop being reasonable 8C HE DOESN'T WANT TO HAVE ANY REASON TO LIKE YOU PEOPLE]

Why are you thanking me? All I did was give you some pseudonym I just made up.

[dead_black_eyes]

That's also great to know.

A lot of people use pseudonyms they just made up. I actually applaud the practice because we can all afford to be a little more cautious. Let's value our lives, right?

[swissarmyjesus]

I don't think that counts when I jumped into a giant snake fight, giant fists swinging and all.

[dead_black_eyes]

[He has to pause a beat, because he's just had a pulse and it's always jarring when that happens mid-conversation.]

Taking risks when you're equipped to handle them isn't as bad, though.

[He feels it sounds lame, but he's just come to a realization that his other self didn't limit pseudonyms to any sort of network; he didn't give his real name to anyone.]

[swissarmyjesus]

I guess not, but I didn't exactly know I could do any of that until I was already pretty much surrounded.

[dead_black_eyes]

It doesn't even count as taking a risk if you didn't mean to in the first place. But if you did now, you'd be well-equipped, no?

[swissarmyjesus]

Probably. I handled the fight just fine then, I could probably handle it fine now.

Although I'm hoping nothing like that happens again in the first place.

[dead_black_eyes]

All of us hope so, but not all of us are well-equipped to handle it when things do inevitably go wrong.

[swissarmyjesus]

So what do you do when this stuff hits?

[dead_black_eyes]

Personally? I duck in cover, because honestly I'm probably worse-equipped for it than the average non-numbered person.

[swissarmyjesus]

How are you worse equipped?

[dead_black_eyes]

As much as I hate to say, I'm handicapped. Which makes it worse.

[swissarmyjesus]

[hahaha shit, what do you even say to that without sounding like an asshole]

Oh.

Sorry, I guess?

[well. he tried.]