video.

[goldtoxicity]

Look, uh...

[ he's in his office at work, because when he doesn't know what to do he does one of two things - parties, or throws himself into whatever he can to distract himself. he scratches the side of his head with his pencil, frowning. ]

I've been thinkin' about this all week, and its gonna eat at me if I don't ask. Just for my own peace of mind.

So, like, the world I come from isn't too different from this one. It's - actually worse, in like, pretty much every way. And there was this thing that happened - kind of pretty much exactly what people are tellin' me went down in the month most of us can't remember. Alternate universe, everybody's kinda their worst self. Only at the end of that... When things got put back to normal, they were ten times worse.

[ he taps the pencil against his desk instead of going on. he doesn't want to say "no more imports" in case somethings still weird enough in the air to make it true. ]

I guess there's no easy way to ask this, so I'm just gonna ask... did anybody lose their powers? O-Or come back looking or feeling, like, different. Or, just...

[ he flounders for words, then sighs. the pencil stops tapping against the desk. ]

Just quite whole, I guess. I know we're missing the tattoos and some of the lingo changed, but uh... if everybody wants to go run a test on their abilities to make sure all that's still there, that'd make me feel a lot better.

Comments

[irondad]

( Tony looks remarkably refreshed, but who can blame him, with a backdrop like that? )

I came back with an added power, but everything else is still here.

[goldtoxicity]

[ oh. yes. this seems remarkably on brand. he's honestly a little jealous!

god he misses living in the mountains. ]

Did you get sent back home too? Or like, was it just a temp port-out?

audio;

[dragony]

The me of the other world looked different, and she had different powers than I've ever had. When I came back, I came back to the body and the powers that I'm used to. I could tell right away.

I can't speak for anyone else, but, I'm confident that I'm the same as I've been. At least, as far as those things are concerned.

audio;

[goldtoxicity]

That's crazy.

[ not in a fake way, but in a way that's clearly got him a little unsettled. ]

So was it like a purely psychic experience?

text;

[pillz]

ain't all you gotta do is take off your pants and make sure the sunshine still ricochets off your golden ass

[isn't that your power, josh?]

text;

[goldtoxicity]

haha you're so funny
My powers are fine but my powers always seem to be fine when junk like this happens

[eyediot]

Are you worried you've lost some of your abilities?

[goldtoxicity]

nah historically ive been spared from things like this
but other people arent so lucky

[rimuru]

I gained a power, instead of losing it. I had it back in my world, though. [ so it wasn't that strange ]

[goldtoxicity]

So like, a normalish port-out then?

[ except. ]

Did you show up with the newbies or just, like, wake up?

[measuringdicks]

Everything's fine! I mean—I feel a little weird, [because he's pretty sure he was about to get married in that other world and he has not fucking dealt with that at all] but I think it's just 'cause I grew up in that world and I'm not here.

[Pause.]

Honestly, I'm a little more freaked out that everything's fine. I thought if I was gone a month I'd be fucked, job-wise, but apparently I never left?

[goldtoxicity]

[ oh, shit. that's got to suck. ]

Yeah, same here. Nobody even noticed I was gone. So like, either I was on some crazy kind of autopilot, or something rewrote their memories. Or... something warped reality, and its true, but we don't remember because...

[ he shakes his head. ]

I got nothin'.

voice;

[detail]

Nothing changed for me as far as I'm aware.

What exactly...changed for you?

voice;

[goldtoxicity]

Nothing, other than, like, blacking out for a month I guess.

[ he absently twirls his pencil around his fingers. ]

But the last time I experienced something like this, I just... like... woke up like any other day. It was everybody else who was suffering.

audio

[justbeingknife]

Uh... what? An alternative universe? I thought this was the alternate universe, now I gotta worry about wakin' up in another one?!

And whattaya mean about the missing ink?

[goldtoxicity]

Oh, dude. Are you new? [ that sounds so rude, he doesn't mean it to be. ] Uh, so, crash course - there's kind of a multiverse and infinite possibilities and infinite worlds. This one just... kind of grabs people from other ones.

We had these digital tattoos that said our registration status up until... uhhh... Well it was still there in early September.

[numberthree]

[ Look at that. Allison Hargreeves actually flipping on her video-audio like it's nothing for the first time in pretty much something a few months short of two years. Like she hadn't avoided this very thing for some very big reasons. ]

I lost some, but they were really dumb ones this place gave me, and not my real ones, so I wasn't sad to see them go?

[goldtoxicity]

Did it give you anything else? Like... did losing them make you stronger?

[ honestly he can't really parse the rhyme or reason behind any of this. ]

[divaricate]

Hm, nope, all normal here powers-wise. Are yours intact?

[goldtoxicity]

[ don't mind the awkward 'i might have just assumed you were behind this' shift. ]

Yeah, everything seems accounted for.

Video

[drivesadesk]

Nope. Everything's the same with me.

Video

[goldtoxicity]

Good. Good to know.

Video;

[fridgeflower]

I haven't tried my powers since we got back. I don't think they're gone, but... I might want a guinea pig for confirmation, if you or David are up for it.

If this is like M-Day, I hope I make out a little better this time.

Video;

[goldtoxicity]

I'm down.

[ ... ]

It's not going to go down like that again. I promise. I won't let it.

video

[khajidont]

Mine are still here.

...what made your brain jump to us having our powers messed up to begin with? Is everything okay?

video

[goldtoxicity]

Uh...

[ well. jaime already knows so much. josh glances away for a minute, lips pressed to a thin gold line before he looks back. ]

It's just... bringing up a lotta memories of the thing that reduced mutants to an endangered species.