Text; Pull Point Plot (Aged-Down Barnaby)

[prepairing]

[The attached ID reads Barnaby Brooks Jr. As a spokesman for a prominent energy drink brand, his name and face are splashed on all sorts of magazines and advertisements, and anyone who's been here for even a short amount of time might know him as a hero who's very public about his crime-fighting activities.

Generally speaking, it's rare for him to use text over the network. Of course, the message that follows doesn't exactly mesh with his usual image, either.]

I've got three questions. If you've got an answer for any of these, I want to hear from you.

#1: What do you know about this symbol?

#2: Who the hell is this?

#3: Do your numbers reflect the market's ACTUAL demand for heroes, or are you all just calling yourselves heroes because it's become the popular thing to do? At this rate, your characters are just going to overlap. Unless you've got a good hook, your odds of standing out or building a solid fanbase are pretty abysmal.

[You shouldn't need a 15-year-old kid telling you this, he irritably thinks to himself. And yet here we are.]

Comments

[prepairing]

So why do people do it?

[mightthinkthat]

[ He'd tell him to go ask a shrink, if they weren't all barking. When Francis genuinely worries about your sanity, you probably don't have much of it. ] It's reassuring to have someone flawless in your life. The fact that there's no such thing means it's all up to the imagination. So imagine they do.

[prepairing]

[That's more or less the answer he expected to hear.]

I guess that's what people mean when they say "ignorance is bliss".

[That phrase applies to him more than Barnaby even realizes, but he won't figure that out for a long time.]

It's easier to sleep in a world that feels safe to you, than it is to keep one eye open all night because you know how terrible it is.

[mightthinkthat]

We all cope with life in different ways. It's not as if we ever get out of it alive, regardless of how we face it.

[ Ok, you could make the argument that that is exactly what Francis has done, but he doesn't expect the second chance he's gotten here to last forever either.

Also, Francis has an almost allergic reaction to the false superiority that comes with the nihilism here. It strikes him as ego - the vast majority of people don't care if you live or die, so 'one eye open' is a bit of extreme reaction. ]

[prepairing]

That’s true, I guess. People want to get by, and for some, living in their own world is the only way. I still don’t like or agree with it, but I understand it a little better when you word it that way…

[Barnaby is too distrustful, sometimes bordering on paranoid, for him to grow truly comfortable around other people. When you watch someone burn your whole life to the ground without any warning whatsoever, it’s impossible to imagine a world that’s safe enough to let your guard down for even a moment. By now he understands he’ll need to start at least appearing well-adjusted if he wants to get anywhere in life, but the fact is Barnaby tends to either run very hot or very cold – extreme, no matter the direction.]

[mightthinkthat]

Understanding is certainly a beginning. It doesn't especially bother me, one way or another.

[prepairing]

[His viewpoint will shift a little once he finds someone he trusts implicitly, and he drops some of the bitterness he's been carrying around all these years. For now, though, he's 15 and not particularly charitable, but he's still young and therefore malleable.]

That's probably not a bad way to live. I won't have time to worry about things that don't relate to me anyway.

[mightthinkthat]

Very few of us do.

[ Anyone who have any use, anyway. ]