voice 01

[pyrolock]

Um...hi.

...No, wait, hold on a second. This is so awkward. Hello, um, imPorts. My name is Olive. Olive Silverlock. ...And I feel like I'm introducing myself as the new kid in front of my whole class, so this is about as much fun for me as it is for you.

[She pauses, what sounds like a breath being taken slightly audible from the recording.]

So! Yeah. New kid in town. In the world. You know I feel like I heard stories about this kind of thing happening, but it only really happened to the "superheroes" from where I live. Honestly it's so weird and I feel a little bit...guilty, I guess.

Not that this place doesn't seem great, but I'm not...interested in this hero stuff. Seems like such a big deal around here and it just weirds me out. [She pauses again, contemplating for a moment what more to say. Then she remembers something.] My friend though - Maps - would be in love with this place. If she was here I mean. If she was then she'd probably be screaming in my ear right now about getting to be a real life superhero, and going on team missions and stuff like that. I bet she'd get powers that would help her...I dunno, raid dungeons or solve puzzles? She plays a lot of roleplaying games like that sort.

[Are dungeons even a thing here? She has no clue. The town she got placed in seems like a rough area in particular, but no more rough than what she's used to seeing in Gotham City.]

...Well, okay, this is a disaster so I'm going to stop talking now and try to be a normal person.

[Hah. Normal. She wishes to be more normal.]

Comments

[ voice ]

[disorder_heaven]

You sound about as delighted to be here as I feel.

[pyrolock]

So "not at all", right? [She huffs a little.] This place isn't terrible for a different world, but I'm not a fan yet.

video

[glitterateur]

You don't have to do hero stuff if you don't want to! You can just go to work or school.

video

[pyrolock]

Yeah, that's really great I think. Glad it's not a requirement. [She doesn't think she'd be that useful a hero if all she can do is set things on fire.] Is that what you do?

[Voice]

[shovelrous]

Hmmm. If I may- Not everyone can easily answer the calling of heroism and bear its weight, but it doesn't mean they matter any less than others.

Your feelings on the matter are quite normal.

[Voice]

[pyrolock]

Yeah - I'm not beating myself up about it. It's not that I'm afraid, it's just not what I want. My friend would immediately love it though and I bet a lot of other people are the same.

It's just a little...weird, I guess, how crazy the people who live here are about heroes. Not even home was like this.

[Well, not unless you were a super big name hero.]

video

[performance]

Hi Olive! I'm Dick. Dick Grayson.

[ Just to add to the new kid class intro feel. ]

I know the whole thing sounds totally weird, but you don't actually have to do hero stuff if you don't want to. For one thing, I can honestly say I've never had to raid a dungeon here. Or... ever.

[pyrolock]

Yeah I'm not gonna do it. I wouldn't be very good at it anyway. [Her power sucks and she kind of hates it, considering certain things that she is starting to learn about her family history.] Too bad about the dungeon thing. That would actually be kind of cool to see.

Video

[bindsthedead]

You don't have to be a hero. But being normal here is...

Well, it can be tricky.

Video

[pyrolock]

[Ah, the woman from the cafe.]

Trickier than it usually is? [Because being normal is something she's been trying to feel for a long time.] I mean, as long as I go to school and my job, no one should hassle me right?

voice

[pobrecisco]

So you're from a world with superheroes, too?

And hey, don't sweat not wanting to be a big action hero all of a sudden just because you got powers you never asked for. Nothing to feel guilty about, as long as you don't go the using-them-for-evil route.

[pyrolock]

Yeah, I am. Of course I don't know any of them, but it's hard to miss the stories on the news and online.

[She tries to block out as much as she can about it. School computer filters help with that.]

I'm not going to hurt anyone, but I bet that's not how other people are like around here. People get powers and they suddenly think they're invincible and above consequences. Or get inflated sense of self-worth because they wear a costume.

["I'm not bitter," I say with a bitter expression.]

video

[huntergames]

Mm, like the others said you don't have to be a superhero if you don't want to.

... your friend raided dungeons?

[pyrolock]

Well, not a dungeon. There are underground areas of my school because of how old it is - my friends and I explored them a little. It was pretty dungeon-like.

voice

[melavasomniar]

Creators, a dungeon raiding power sounds amazing. What do you suppose it would do?

voice

[pyrolock]

Oh - well...I guess it would help you solve puzzles, unlock doors, find secrets. Maybe get rid of any traps that dungeons would have.

Text; ID is Scarecrow

[restingstitchface]

Normal.

What is normal? We're all born mad, you know. Yet we label those who remain so abnormal. The human mind is a fascinating thing, isn't it? Frightening, dark and frozen; and yet our thoughts are a lake of fire.

Now, are you normal, child?

text;

[pyrolock]

[The message weirds her out and at first she's inclined not to comment back. But then she sees the ID and pauses. "Scarecrow." It couldn't possibly be the same guy from Gotham, right? She's heard a couple stories about him and now she can't help but be curious.]

I think I'm pretty normal. Maybe not to what most people think is normal, but I don't feel "abnormal" personally.

[Maybe she's wrong, but she doesn't want to consider that. She doesn't want to be anything but normal.]

video;

[helpline]

Normal's for losers. [ said with a small smile on his face. ]

video;

[pyrolock]

[She smirks a little, holding back a laugh.]

That's pretty bold of you to say. Some people like being totally normal.

voice;

[enigmaestro]

I rather feel like accumulating a power to solve puzzles is cheating. Preemptive note to your friend, should ever she arrive.

voice;

[pyrolock]

Preemptive note noted. [And will not be sent.] I doubt she would use her power unless she absolutely had to though. Not that it would be cheating, but it wouldn't be any fun.

voice;

[matadorable]

It's okay if you don't want to do the hero thing! I didn't even register, and no one's really bothered me about it.

voice;

[pyrolock]

I'm sure no imPorts really care that much, but people who actually come from this world might. The government agents that talked to me were pretty pushy about "encouraging" me to register.

[And that makes her want to register even less.]

AUDIO

[burnmetwice]

I'm glad someone else is pointing out that this is a fucking horrible way to communicate. Who calls dozens of people at the same time? Er—

[Yeah Kazu why don't you run your loud street punk mouth off a little louder at this nice sounding girl]

A-anyway, about the most heroic thing I've done here is keep my shitty skating rink job, so if you can manage to avoid whatever villain-of-the-month plot going on, you should be fine not to hero much.

[pyrolock]

I'm all for avoiding the villain-of-the-month predicaments as best as I can. I'm not gonna put on spandex or tights and start running around saving the day any time soon. Job at the skating rink sounds like a lot more fun to me.

[Not that artisanal glassblower is a bad job, but she's more of a writer than a sculptor.]

And don't worry - you're completely right about the way this social network works. It's just gonna be something to live with.

[voice]

[puppydoctor]

Huh, I feel like I would have had a lot in common with your friend at one point. Roleplaying games were kind of my thing in high school. But the reality here's a lot different. I just spend most of my time at work, or with friends. It's as ordinary of a life as you want to make it.

[voice]

[pyrolock]

I'm not a huge fan of them myself, but it's about being with friends and less so the game for me. [And really she's done crazier things with her friends in one crazy week than play games.] Ordinary is good. Not that I don't want to have fun, but most people think I have boring hobbies. Before I became here I was going to boarding school and that was basically it.

["Basically" being a complete lie.]

[beneathbluerafters]

I don't think we have any dungeons here. Even the sewers and subway tunnels in New York were a disappointment.

[pyrolock]

You went all the way down there? What were you looking for?

video.

[glowsferatu]

Well, "normal" is a word that's subjective enough to the point of meaninglessness, in my experience. [ Yeah, that's easy for the grey alien, her frowned framed by two vampire fangs, to say. ] We keep to it as well as we can, but someone is always bound to disagree with our definition.

video.

[pyrolock]

[So...is this one of the aliens that was mentioned? She doesn't seem all that bad looking compared to the image Olive made up in her head.]

Yeah, I guess none of us are really normal here. We have superpowers and come from completely different worlds. My worrying must seem silly to people who've been around longer.