maskormenace | 01 // Video

[Brendan took the explanation he got when he arrived about as well as could be expected, all things considered. It wasn’t the Promised Land, but it was a step up from home – not a big accomplishment, there – and much as he wasn’t keen on playing social butterfly, it was best to get the lay of the land when it came to the people. And hey, at least the powers that be were nice enough to patch up his glasses. Other than looking tired and deadpan, he’s practically good as new; at the very least, he’s composed as he looks into the camera and sets it up, though it takes him a moment to get the angle right.]

Sorry ‘bout the lack of technical skills. Not used to these things just yet. My name’s Brendan Frye. I’m a sophomore, though I somehow lucked my way into some AP classes, back home at least. I don’t bring a lot of skills to the table, here. Thought I was done with other people’s home-brewed chaos and frankly I don’t see myself getting too involved if I can’t figure out a way to not be one more burden for the people with real powers. All I got’s some healing and just enough strength to be useful, maybe.

I know nobody here owes me answers and I’m not looking to get in with anyone’s cliques; got no need to make waves and zero interest in that. Basically I’ve got some questions about school here, I wanna know what laws are different from back in California and if the cops around here are worth a damn – ‘cause they were crooks back in San Clemente – and if anyone can offer any bits of advice, that's all I'm after.

[With very little fanfare and no goodbye, he snaps the camera feed off. Whatever his feelings are on this superhero business, and he himself isn’t a hundred percent sure on what he feels, he’s playing it close to his chest for now.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If people seriously believe in a haunted grocery store, they have bigger issues. [He shrugs, lightly.] Hey, I'm not complaining. A step up from garbage might not be much but it's still a step.

You can use your power and the extra year o' high school to kick ass in the Drama Club, if they got one. Othello could really get interesting that way. [He briefly pictures her as Iago and wonders if the play gets more or less messed up by making that role female. Eh, all Shakespeare's stuffed with weird implications, it wouldn't make a difference.] It was 2006 for me. Never was great with tech, couldn't afford it and didn't try for it, but I figure if it was possible for people to invent, it's possible to learn, right?

Honestly, I'm more into Hamlet than Othello. [A pause, then:] And the comedies more than the tragedies these days.

[There's been enough death in her actual life, after all.]

Then I don't think it's changed very much from 2006. And the slop they serve in the cafeteria has definitely stayed the same through almost thirty years.

Most of the time the real tragedy and comedy are both found in watching people botch their lines, least at the high school level, anyway. [Another shrug.] Not much in the way of comedy in my life, so I don't have much use for those.

[He's always been a bit grim, a touch depressed, and laughter just made him more aware of how far apart he was, it seemed, from the rest of the human race. Happiness is something he doesn't know what to do with. Better to stick to back alleys and grimy drain pipes and bodies cooling in the shade where they fell. That's the kind of thing he actually knows how to fix.]

I've brownbagged my lunch since I was old enough to make it. There are drugs less likely to kill you than that slop.

I think we've found two universal constants: the tragicomedy of high school Shakespeare, and the cafeteria's lethal slop. [She makes a face.] Which is just horrifying, now that I think about it.

I kinda had hoped that if universes were going to find common ground, it'd be over something positive. Can't think of what exactly I was expecting, but this was not what I expected - but somehow I'm not surprised, either. [He'd be willing to bet on underage drinking and bad high school parties also being two universal constants, but he's not going to ask in case the answer is 'yes' to either or both of those.]

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