maskormenace | Text; Pull Point Plot (Aged-Down Barnaby)

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Text; Pull Point Plot (Aged-Down Barnaby)

[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.]

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3. We're called by others 'heroes' and only a few of us have gimmicks. I'm in my sixties. No one wishes to see me in spandex. Possibly a cape, but that is a fashion that does flatter.

So "hero" is a title other people foist on you, not the other way around. Is that what you're saying?

And spandex needs to go out of style already. Robotics is a much better alternative.

I wouldn't use the term 'foist' myself, though I don't doubt others would. It's not exactly an insult. But essentially, yes.

I'm sure. You'll pardon me if I count myself out of the field, I'm quite happy in a good old fashioned suit.

It may not be an insult, but it's still a burden you didn't ask for.

You're definitely doing yourself a favor. Most of the heroes I know of retire by the time they hit middle age.

Most who go about heroing generally want to do that and the rest of us don't bother.

We're more concerned about being taken from our homes and being given these tattoos. I don't often hear about people feeling burdened with being called heroes.

I can imagine.

Well, if you have a different job, it's not like you have any reason to become a hero anyway.

Those things seems to go hand-in-hand with being called heroes, though. So they're at least related, right?

I'm not sure that follows, but all right. [ People become heroes for a variety of reasons, he's not sure 'unemployment' is ever one of them. ]

We all take on burdens. We're all expected, at the very least, to obey the laws, to come to aid of those who are in difficulty that we can solve. We have a target on our backs because of our powers, not necessarily because some people have elected to call us heroes.

Why wouldn't it? Where I'm from, hero work is just like any other job.

Obeying the law like any normal citizen and being expected to fight against terrorists are two completely different burdens. It's true that it all comes down to people's powers, though. If those didn't exist, then the hero business wouldn't either.

Costumed Heroes of that kind aren't a staple of my own, but heroism itself is another job too. But it generally isn't paid well enough or an easy enough of a job to attract people who do it for the sake of having a job. It's more of a vocation.

That is not automatically a requirement. You take on as much as you're able. Some people fight against terrorists, others organise charities.

Yes, as my world doesn't have powers, that would seem to confirm that.

It pays pretty well where I'm from. As long as you're any good at it, anyway. You're right that it isn't easy, though. You've got to be committed no matter your reasons, or else you won't make the cut.

I get why we have laws, but I can't say I totally understand devoting yourself to hero or charity work just for the sake of it. Most people who do stuff like that are still getting something out of the deal.

Nothing wrong with that.

( There is definitely something afoot here. )

Seriously, you too?

True.

It just makes the way people put heroes up on pedestals more ridiculous.

Edited 2016-03-29 22:12 (UTC)

[He debates sticking to text, but there's something oddly familiar about that voice, like someone he's heard before in a far-off dream.

Which sounds way more sentimental than it actually is. As things are, Barnaby just flatly asks:]

...Me too what.

Edited 2016-03-29 22:18 (UTC)

1. i don't know
2. i don't know
3. i don't know? what does this have to do with 1 and 2

Edited 2016-03-30 00:17 (UTC)

[.... Okay, it sounds like Barnaby is also having some trouble. Great. Okay...]

Back home I was a hero before I came here. When we were brought here, a lot of us gained special powers we didn't have before, but apparently in this world you are only a hero if you have special abilities. Makes sense, I guess.

Everyone who is brought here from a different world has been given powers, whether they want them or not, so it's not just a cry for popularity. But it's pretty easy to get popular. The locals generally seem to like outgoing heroes.

1. Okay.

2. Fair enough.

3. Who said this question was related to the other two things? I wanted to understand more about the local hero industry, so I asked.

[Actually, that last answer is a bit misleading. It has every bit to do with item #1, but he’s not about to admit that over the network.]

I never asked for my powers either, at home or here. Hardly anyone does. Welcome to the club.

So there's still a really big demand in the market for heroes even though there's so many of you. Is that what you're saying?

Right. Not a voluntary things for most people...

Basically. Supposedly the Porter cannot be controlled, so it sometimes ports in people who are Not Very Nice, to put it mildly. That means they also get powers, if they didn't have them already, and it requires more of us who are good to take them down should a dire situation arise. I'm not exactly sure how it was where you were from, but I know back at my home heroes were always appreciated.

Heroes don’t actually exist. Heroes are an idea the world sells you so that everybody can sleep better at night, and people eat it up like the product it actually is. At the same time, NEXTs like you and me aren’t as scary to the public anymore, and criminal NEXTs are thrown behind bars.

It’s a system that helps everyone, me included, so I’m not going to criticize it. But I know enough to understand the market doesn’t rely on how much heroes are appreciated. It relies on how much people without powers (aka the ones who hold the ACTUAL power in society) are actually benefitting from it.

... The hell are you talking about, Barnaby? Heroes are real! They may not always be imPorts, someone as simply as someone's mother or father could be a hero. It's not something to get all cynical over just because there are good imPorts and bad imPorts.

I guess I can't say you're wrong about that. The government here cares more about protecting its own than protecting us, though we're still pretty high on the list as we're... somewhat considered weapons for them. But I mean, we aren't really marketed so much as used for propaganda, which... I guess that is a type of marketing, but not generally to make money so much as garner support and raise moral.

That's Kotetsuo-san

[he doesn't notice his typo. sorry Kotetsu. Sorry Tetsuo.]

alright kid jesus
i'm onot a superhero so i don't know
can't take care of my job let alone a city or whatever

how's that for an answer.

People are in love with the idea of heroes because it makes them feel better. The people they think of as heroes are just normal people. It's not cynicism, that's just the reality of things.

[No, Barnaby, that's cynicism.....]

If it helps keep them in power, they're still benefiting from hero work.]

[Finally, someone who's actually helpful...]

Who is that? Another imPort?

My phone is filled with pictures of him, and I don't know why. It's creepy.

Edited 2016-03-30 03:59 (UTC)

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Text; Pull Point Plot (Aged-Down Barnaby)

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wtf bbj

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