audience: nico di angelo

[becomemod]

Comments

[resumed]

Places always need help, and there will always be heroes. [ ... ] Were you doing anything similar to this before you came to Oceanside?

[ let's not talk about dead friends anymore rn. ]

[becomemod]

[ They seem grateful for the out. ]

Not even a little bit. It was an adjustment getting used to everything.

[resumed]

Sounds pretty rough. [ there is a tinge of sympathy to that. ] At least some of us are used to fighting, but the adjustment period's always a little harder. Especially if you've never had powers before or anything.

[becomemod]

No powers and no real fighting at home either. I know some guys who are used to it, but this isn't the same thing as a street brawl.

[resumed]

[ yeah that's not quite the same thing as suddenly being thrown into whatever this is, so oof x2. ]

Besides the street fights then...it sounds like you were from somewhere that was mostly peaceful. Throwing a few punches isn't really the same.

[becomemod]

Yeah. It's really peaceful back home.

[resumed]

...similar to this? Location, I mean. [ a city with technology and the like. ]

[becomemod]

Kinda? I mean, it is a city. But not nearly as much of everything else.

[resumed]

Sounds more like a small town then instead.

[becomemod]

I meant less crime and powers. That's the kinda thing you'd see on TV or stage somewhere.

[resumed]

[ hm. he mentally assigns goat as a normie mortal and leaves it alone. ]

You're not wrong. There's a reason the whole hero genre is really popular on Earth, I think. Most people have never experienced anything like that, so it looks much cooler than it would be to really experience it first-hand.

[becomemod]

I get it in terms of story structure and plot, but actually living through it is a completely different thing. I'm doing the best I can with what I've got here.

[resumed]

[ he holds up his hands like "no offense." ]

Hey, I'm not judging. When I first realized things were different at home--[ ...well. no, actually, when he first realized monsters were real his response really was "COOL!" but he was ten and impressionable.

now, of course, when he thinks about it he can see why people would be out of their depth in those situations. ]

...well. You've been here for six months and figuring stuff out. I'd say that's still pretty decent.

[becomemod]

[ Okay when you're ten everything is cool and awesome because you haven't realized the trauma . ]

We did manage to save the city from total destruction. It's amazing what teamwork can do.

[resumed]

[ yeah! the trauma comes later! ]

And it's starting to come back together again. That counts, too. I...it took me some time to really get the hang of teamwork, but it can be amazing as long as people know what they're doing.

[ which leads him to another question. ]

What do you think about this competition then?

[becomemod]

It can take a while before people really get used to each other. And sometimes it takes a lot of work, depending on the people.

I'll work hard with my team, but I really don't get why it has to be a competition to begin with. We're all trying to get home.

[resumed]

I think we're all asking the same question. If everyone's trying to leave, and nobody really knows who started this competition, what purpose is there? You guys don't even know how we ended up on these teams to begin with, right?

[becomemod]

Yeah. There wasn't a competition when we first got here. So something must've changed between then and now.

[resumed]

...has anything unusual happened since a month ago until now? Besides us showing up, I mean.

[becomemod]

Besides the moon falling and the loses? ... We were pretty busy rebuilding the city.

[resumed]

Yeah, a guy in the trash told me about the moon. [ what a sentence. ] ...I hate hearing this, and I hate saying it even more, but it really does feel like we have to wait and see. Phoenix gave me some ideas of where to start looking for information.

Do you believe it's true? That the losing teams will lose their worlds.

[becomemod]

[ That's definitely a sentence and Emerald Goat looks confused. ] A guy in the trash...?

Man, I don't want to believe it, because it sounds crazy and impossible. Except everything is already crazy enough that I really have to.

[resumed]

Yeah. I gave him a sandwich. [ why. anyway. like. he sort of flails his hands wildly for a second. ]

That's just it! It's not like this is the first time we've had our world threatened but at least we knew what we were supposed to be fighting. But a competition? It's a different kind of crazy because we can't even predict how it's going to go.

[becomemod]

It's all seriously crazy. This is the first time my entire world's been threatened at all.

[resumed]

[ ... ]

I'm glad this is the first time. But I'm sorry you've had to experience it at all.