[ video ]

[ricin]

[ So here's Jesse and Collette, grinning stupidly at the camera and looking like they've got a plan up their sleeves. Jesse's the first to speak, rubbing his hands together excitedly: ]

Okay, so like... I heard there's superheroes here. Like real, bona fide superheroes. Costumes and everything. And, like, where I come from, you know, we don’t really got superheroes except in stories. So we were thinking it'd be real cool...

[ Collette glances at Jesse, then to the camera. She blurts out something that surely will never ever cause immense embarrassment once she learns the extent of the super heroes she's been around (discounting Barnaby and Kotetsu, who are weird anyway): ]

... If we could meet a few of you in person, and maybe even get an autograph!

Comments

[whatsupcroc]

You bet you can! If you like dealing with the rain and the mud and the horror of finding wood for a fire and the mutated animals who get angry if you're in their territory sometimes and actually you know before I ever went camping I thought camping would be really fun discounting certain difficult parts and now I've

totally

done camping



and I love actual beds I'm not afraid to admit it anymore!

But I'm still going to go camping again so I'm not sure what I'm really saying anymore!

[nyktelios]

wait why are you going camping again if you don't like it?

because camping sounds awful

[whatsupcroc]

There are some things you've just gotta camp through! Like adventures and the Wild West when you've not got that much money and the coast when you're mapping things. Or if you have to be trekking across the wilderness!

[nyktelios]

you're mapping the coast? that sounds like a really good idea, how come no one's done it yet?

[whatsupcroc]

Me and Caesar are, sure! It's not like the Initiative doesn't have maps, but there's something about knowing it and knowing it's accurate that's really important. Plus, it turns out Caesar's a master cartographer. Who knew?

( Certainly wasn't why she'd bugged him into going on that trip in the first place. )

[nyktelios]

not that i know who caesar is, but i think that's totally a good plan. this place seems like the sort of place where stuff would change really quickly and a lot. but also like it would be a really hard place to camp? how are you guys going to stay safe?

[whatsupcroc]

We were out camping the time when zombies basically attacked the Hold, I think we got the better end of that deal! But yeah, things do change around here. Keeping track of how is important! At least that's what I think.

But keeping safe is about keeping watch and being prepared! Plus camping near somewhere Caesar can climb up if any wildlife comes visiting when I'm not by.

You should totally say hi! When he's back to normal, though. Caesar Silverberg, he lives on the fourth floor of the apartment building. He's kind of on the real young side right now.

[nyktelios]

[ Collette you can't just say things like that. zombies what. ]

whoa wtf zombies? is that to do with the dead guy you said was the only supervillain?

you can handle the wildlife?

i'll remember that, maybe i'll drop by

[whatsupcroc]

Do! Ruffle his feathers, he needs more stimulation than he gets.

Oh, yeah, I'm really good with animals in a manner of speaking. As for the zombies, I think so? We could ask Koltira for a better explanation, he'd know.

[nyktelios]

i can't actually tell if you mean feathers literally or not it's hard to tell around here

in a manner of speaking?

who's koltira?

[whatsupcroc]

Hahaha not literal! We've got a few Robins around, but they're also not literal birds. Caesar doesn't even have a costume, he just has an amazing case of perpetual bed-head and a tendency to be a lazy thinker.

Well, my thing with animals is pretty literal. I'm more good at being animals?

Koltira is a big dead elf! He likes alcohol and killing things on battlefields. Oh and uh defending his friends he's really big on keeping people safe?

[nyktelios]

oh okay that makes more sense. sort of. and maybe you shouldn't be a character reference for caesar.

wait so you're a shapeshifter?

that is a weird assortment of interests. how is he dead?

[whatsupcroc]

I'd be the best! Also honest. Though if you want me to sell you his good points, I can do that real easy!

Kind of like one! I'm a morpher.

He's dead the normal way I guess? I don't know, we haven't discussed the details.

[nyktelios]

a very honest good points might be the way to go for character references

what's a morpher? i don't think i've ever heard of that.

but you've talked to him so he's not. dead dead.

[whatsupcroc]

I'll keep that in mind for the future. Sell the best points first!

A morpher is a person who morphs into different animals and stuff. So kind of like a shapeshifter, but different in origin and stuff!

He's dead, but well animated. I think that makes him the animated dead? Or the living dead. Or the un-dead. Or, you know, a zombie.

[nyktelios]

detract as little as possible while still making it sound like you're explaining all his faults thoroughly. it takes effort.

so what's your origin then?

huh that is kind of weird. a nice guy zombie. you find new things every day.

[whatsupcroc]

My origin? Oh, right, it's totally alien in nature. Not me, but the morphing. I'm 100% Terra Firma, the technology is 100% Andalite, but bring the two together for sufficient reason and then Terra Firma gets another flavor of what else is out there in the galaxy. Which is a fancy way of saying it's a kind of -- pointed gift!

You do, you really do. But boy do you not ever want to see him mad.

[nyktelios]

that actually doesn't make it sound like it was a good thing. the pointed gift part. generally when you have to add qualifiers to 'gift' it's a bad thing.

why does the zombie thing give him super powers? or just make him really really hard to beat?

[whatsupcroc]

Gifts usually have a purpose! It doesn't need to be a bad thing. This one was in return for help saving the world. Are you really going to say no to something like that?

Okay, so maybe, but when you think long enough, can you?

I think it's probably both! I haven't had a heart to heart to ask if what he can do now is because he's dead or if dying is the only weird thing and makes him harder to kill again-again.

[nyktelios]

well not really, but sometimes saving the world sucks

apparently

that seems like a really weird mess, seriously. and like something that would be a touchy subject.

[whatsupcroc]

Yeah, sometimes it does!

You know it probably is, but it doesn't mean it's something he won't talk about, or won't want to. People are like that!

[nyktelios]

what were you saving the world from?

sometimes they are. people can be really predictable sometimes and then really weird others.

[whatsupcroc]

Aliens! Gross little slug jerk aliens.

[nyktelios]

doesn't that make you sort of a superhero too?

[whatsupcroc]

Nope! Not at all. It makes me a fighter though! A sort of soldier.