maskormenace | VIDEO | ID says Blue Beetle

[Hello, everyone, and welcome to what may well be the Blue Beetle's first - and possibly last - ever video post! He's clearly in uniform, and frankly looks a little inhuman; his red-yellow lenses glow faintly, even though he's posting from a rooftop out in the sunshine, he's conspicuously noseless, and he's covered from head to toe in a blue and black carapace armour. When he speaks, his voice is calm and measured; he's clearly been thinking about this for a long time, and it's something he wants to get out right, even if his speech is a little marred by the fact that he's speaking through a faintly robotic filter.]

Hi, everyone. Um, some of you might know me, even if I don't talk here a whole lot, but just in case -- I'm the Blue Beetle. Not my real name, for the record, but plenty of us superheroes still do the codename thing, even here. But that's not what I'm here to talk about! I wanna talk about powers.

See, as far as I can tell, we all get powers when we get here, unless we already had some back home, and now? Even the people who were born here have them. It's especially hard for people who got dangerous powers. Some people try and use them for good, and other people just try to ignore them, and others try to master them by themselves, but this kind of thing isn't something you should have to tackle by yourself.

Where I'm from, there are a lot of people with powers. We call them metahumans. And sometimes when they try to tackle these things by themselves, it works out just fine! A lot of the time, though? It doesn't. Especially when they go out and use them to try and do a lot of good, and I know that's what people here are doing too. Maybe it seems like it's not a big deal from the outside, but it is. That's how a lot of people wind up dead. [He pauses, just for a moment, and inhales quickly before continuing.] It's how a lot of people I know wound up dead. It's not something to take lightly. I know I didn't have a lot of help - I didn't ask for a lot of help - when I started out, and if I did? Things would have gone a lot smoother.

But I'm not trying to lecture anyone! I know a lot of people here have been doing this for a lot longer than me, [he admits, flashing a quick smile at the screen, teeth white and human behind his mask.] This is just me making an offer. If you're trying to break into what people like me do, or if you're trying to figure out your powers, don't do it alone. If you're not worried about yourself, at least think of other people -- if you've got some strong powers going on, without training, it's really, really easy to hurt other people accidentally. If you guys want help, I'll do that, the best I can. And if I can't, I have a feeling there's a lot of others who'd be willing to help too.

So, um... yeah. I guess that's it! Didn't... really think about how I was going to end this.

[He blinks at the communicator, suddenly awkward before clearing his throat and saying:] Bye!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

To me? Yeah. But you gotta remember, I'm still a rookie back home. I'm pretty sure the guy who called him in the first place knows who he is.

[Maybe.]

It's not that weird when you remember that all of us keep our IDs secret too. And, um, most of us don't seem to have that much money to help out in that way ourselves. I sure don't.

No, that just makes it weirder. Honestly. Just this whole society of people, all of them running around, hiding their identities from one another. It's all awfully strange.

And so is your world, to people who've never been there, or heard of anything like it. What's weird to you is normal to me. I've grown up with this system, and so have a lot of other people.

Oh, don't get huffy. I'm not being judgmental. But you really must admit that it's a little bit mad. I admit that my world is mad, you know.

Edited 2016-10-15 17:14 (UTC)

Sure. And parts of my world are crazy. A lot of stuff I've seen and do is crazy.

But it's like I said, superheroes are normal for me. I actually find it weirder that there are worlds with people with powers in them that don't have people like us around.

[ A quiet half-laugh through her nose. ]

Really? It's a bloody lot easier to use power for wicked purposes than it is to use power for good ones.

I mean, if you're a thrillseeker in the first place, maybe. But if you're a good person when you get powers, you're not suddenly going to go bad once you have them, right? So doesn't it make sense that at least some people would get them and figure that the best thing they can do with them is help other people?

As much as people with powers might try and run away from the fact, it gets, um, pretty obvious once bad things start to happen that you have a choice to make.

[ She waves her hand, clearly challenging his fundamental premise: ]

If you're a good person when you get powers. I mean, that's assuming that there is such a thing as a good person and a bad person. I prefer to think of it as...mm, as the fact that every person in the world has goals, needs. And most people in most worlds have been taught that their goals should be self-focused goals. Compete and succeed. Which doesn't tend to lend itself to going after selfless things the moment you've got the ability to do so.

I dunno. Most of the people I work with could use their powers for things that they need. Most of us could do with a lot more money than we get, which is nothing. I, uh, really needed the cash.

[His Dad's business was gone, and his student loans, spent on trying to get it back... but only after they mortgaged his best friend's car. Money was tight, tighter still when Jaime got back and they had another mouth to feed.]

I'm not saying people who don't use their powers for good are bad, or even that people who use them to get what they need are bad. But some people, people who have things worse off than me, will do whatever they can do to help. I admire them.

And I'm not saying I doubt you or anything. I just wish I knew what mad alchemy was going on in your world to make people like that.

I think... it might be precedent. I mean, the only reason anyone does it is because it's something that's always been done. Once one person starts, it seems a lot easier to try it out, right?

Hm. True. And you all have a tendency to - oh - team up with one another, right?

Yeah! That's how it all began. The Justice Society. All of the first guys thought that they would work better together -- and that they could hold each other accountable too.

And that's the way it's been ever since. So if you decide to suit up, at least you know that eventually, you won't be on your own. [He pauses.] Also, if there weren't a bunch of other dudes in funny suits, I'd be scared I'd get made fun of too.

[JAIME, PRIORITIES]

Hold on - don't tell me that you haven't had people making fun of you.

[ kitty, priorities...... ]

...well. Usually not for being a superhero. For being short, maybe. Or being bad in front of the camera. Or for --

Look, it has nothing to do with the job!

[HE'S INHERENTLY TEASEABLE]

Well, I ought to start, then.

Yeah? You're going to make fun of my dashing good looks now?

[HE LOOKS LIKE A TERRIBLE ALIEN]

Hah. Yeah, of course. You're completely irresistible to blueberries everywhere.

You mean ladies. Ladies love me!

[Geriatric ladies and little girls love him, but shhh.]

Right - and which ladies would those be, exactly...?

Lots of them! I get free hot chocolate for days.

[There's your answer.]

VIDEO | ID says Blue Beetle

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