maskormenace

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It's weird to think that maybe this Earth could turn out like the one from my universe. Or timeline. Or however it works...
(I'm not really smart about all this, I'm sorry...)

But there's a lot that's similar. Even on the planet I lived on, and all the ones in the galaxy, we all use the same clock system, even though some days are longer or shorter depending on which planet you landed on. Same 24 hour clock. And this Earth uses one, too. And there's baseball and hovercars and the moon landing was about the same time (I think)...

So I wonder how long it will take for this Earth to leave the planet, if it will. Or maybe it won't because it won't make the same mistakes the Earth in my history did. Or maybe they WILL but they'll decide to do something differently. Maybe because people like us are here it's already changed how things will go. Maybe because I'm here the railways from my world can show, and maybe because someone else is here, something from their history will happen? IS that already happening?

It's also weird that I can think about all this without trying when I'm TRYING to study something else...

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I don't know...That's not the first time bug-themed craziness caught fire across a city.
I'm glad it seemed to get snuffed pretty fast, though.

never assume malice where stupidity would be an equally valid explanation.

everyone split and the people with useful powers got into fights with the things. got stomped out pretty quickly, all things considered. definitely coulda been worse.

Haha that's a good way of putting it...
Well I'm relieved. Things could've gone way worse than they did.

don't take this the wrong way but i'm glad you weren't there. someone would've hit you for sure and i don't know if i could've gotten you out alright. turns out i'm not great at that aspect of superhero-ism considering i barely hauled anybody out. i need a class on this stuff or something.

Haha well I appreciate that I guess...But I'd have rather been there than you, just based on my past experience. Licks aside, I'm at least trained for disasters.
But I'm glad you were there to help too. It means it was just a little bit less dangerous for those barely anybodys you did help right?

you're sweet as sugar, you know that? but i'd hate to think of you getting trampled by that crowd. people were acting crazy, and, well, i kinda went through a similar riotous place once back home.

i definitely need to learn not to suck so much at my power, though. basically i just threw butterflies into each other to give everybody more time to run.

Sounds like you're going to need to find someone to train with, huh. What kind of power you working with besides healing?

just some super strength. not a ton, though. enough to be mildly useful.

Something that lots of other people have experience with, probably. I could ask around some people I know to see if there's anybody who does training if you like. I bet Jacob or Kaidan would know.

i dunno. i'm not sure if this isn't something i can't figure out on my own. but i'll keep that in mind. thnks.

Sure. I mean who knows when...giant caterpillars or something come to town.

so long as it's not a giant flood, i'm good. aquaphobia is a bitch.

[nnnnnnoted...]

If it makes you feel any better, I never learned to swim. Not a lot of water back on Tobito.

never had a chance to learn. california is a series of deserts punctuated by towns. but if there IS a flood here, i'll be useless in any rescue efforts...

It's OK. I don't think anybody expects you to be able to respond to every emergency. You're a 16 year old lit student, right?
But if you DO want to be able to help, you know how to find ways to learn.

being young doesn't mean i don't want to help. i don't care what other people expect of me.

you're right, i just. i need time when it comes to swimming. training with the super strength, fine, i'll cross that bridge if i have to, but i can't deal with water. and it's got a lot more to do with having found someone i love face down in it than it does not being able to swim. hell, with super strength i could tread water, probably. but...

[But while Brendan hasn't read a lot of psychology books, he knows that's not the root of the problem.]

[after a delay:] That's horrible...
I'm really sorry Brendan...

[After a slight pause:]

it's okay. i mean, it's not, but i got the murderer locked up and that's. that's all i can really do. crying doesn't raise the dead.

i'll be okay. it just takes time, right? and then i'll get over it.

It's easier to walk with as time goes on, but...you don't get over it. It's not going to leave you, because it can't. When it's someone important...
But it will be easier.

[He considers putting the phone down and going and getting profoundly drunk. But for the first time in his life, he's living with an adult that frowns on that sort of thing, and he's on thin ice with that sort of thing already. He considers texting back something worthless like 'i guess so' and letting it be.

But Manabu is an upstanding guy, and Brendan's had so little of that and no one to talk to, so he can't help doing the text equivalent of blurting out everything.]

she was my girlfriend. we were in a rough patch but still, we were working it out. we had to; she was pregnant.

and then i found her body in a drainpipe.

i can't see it getting easier because i can't see that far ahead. all i can see is what could've been and what was. am i making sense? i'm probably not. shit. sorry.

[this is killing him more because he can't just reach through a screen to hug the guy and empathize than anything.

so he talks out the words he types, kind of trying to magically impose his sincerity:]

It makes sense.
Thinking about what you could've done differently, or maybe changing one thing about it. Maybe a dozen things... Realizing some stupid mistake if you hadn't done or did something, or if you had been somewhere else...
I know.
I'm so sorry. I wish you didn't have to go through something like that. It's not fair...

[Brendan would take a hug right now. That's how low his emotional state is, which is fairly rare - or it was, until Emily died. Then the world simply quit making sense.]

i don't know how to deal with things. i talk tough and maybe i am, in some aspects, but i've got no clue how to live my life anymore.

can i come over? or can you come over? last time i was alone and thought about this i raided my housemate's alcohol and that didn't make things better. it just made everything worse.

im on my way

[may as well have told him a house full of kittens was on fire for as fast as he books it out of his home.

see, Manabu doesn't have to know someone long or even well enough to drop everything to help. that's part of who he is. but part of who he is hurts the same way Brendan does, and he knows. he knows there's things there that, even with all the good intentions in the world, he can't fix. no one can.

but that doesn't mean someone gets left alone to hurt when the feelings get raw.

it's why he doesn't even feel the exhaustion and burn when he's made his last heavy steps up to the door, not even taking time to be amazed he remembers the addressed. his fist hits heavily a few times before dropping to rest on his knee like the other one, supporting his weight while he pants loudly for breath.

he hasn't run that fast in a while.]

[Brendan wasn't expecting that answer. The real struggle then becomes not giving into the temptation to dive on the booze in the meantime; he paces, he flips on the radio to fill the silence, he tries to identify what he's feeling at someone actually giving enough of a shit to come over. There's surprise, sure, but there's something else, something more, unfamiliar and not unpleasant.

He opens the door after jumping at the initial knock, taking in the sight on Manabu out of breath. Brendan's without his usual jacket, at the moment - as much as he clings to it, it being the only thing Emily gave him he has here, it does in fact need to be watched. The effect, combined with his curly hair acting up in the humidity, makes him look extra young and extra disheveled.

Manabu, though, looks sort of like a miracle. People on TV have friends who bolt over for them. People like Brendan don't. That's just how life is. So after an awkward pause, he just sort of mumbles,] Hey. I - I didn't think you'd be over so fast.

[He steps back to let him in, not sure what to do now that he's actually here. He actually came over. He's here. Brendan has no idea what people typically do at this point or what to say, but he feels little less hollowed out by everything just having him present.

Is this what having normal friends is like? He doesn't ask. On impulse, he starts to reach for Manabu to direct him to the living room, so he can sit down and catch his breath. Then he remembers the 'superpower' and stops himself.]

...thanks. For, um, for coming. And letting me talk. I don't - I didn't, get that a lot. Back home.

Ha...ha, heh... [he lifts his head up and smiles from behind a bunch of frazzled, messy bangs. thank goodness, he thinks, a thought radiating in his expression. he made good time.

he sees the arm not as a threat but an offer, and while Brendan mumbles, Manabu reaches for and pulls the arm over. he's then got the boy in a mix of crutch and hug, his arm slung over Brendan's shoulders, slumping for a moment until he can get a step forward in for balance. even then, he leans. ]

I think... I think I'm going to see about getting a drivers license...

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