Some puns should stay unspoken.

[the_hit_list]

[ A few minutes after this.

Tim appears on the mirrors, looking uncomfortable, but that’s not as noticeable as the fact that he is currently glowing like a Tim-shaped nightlight - or Timkerbell, if you’re feeling unkind. He considered staying offscreen (off glass?), but at least three people, if not more, have already seen it. It’s hardly a secret, and he wants to get to the bottom of this now. ]

It’s stating the obvious, but something is affecting me, because I don’t have metahuman abilities.

[ And he doesn’t want or need them. Tim would like to go home and not get runout of Gotham. Sparkling is not an option. ]

If anyone else is glowing, feel free to chime in. If this is your doing, please stop if you can. It doesn’t hurt, and I’m not mad, but let me know if you can’t make it stop?

[ He rubs the back of his hand, but it doesn’t dim the light. Tim starts putting his gloves back on. ]

I’d feel better if I knew this was someone in the camp.

[ He’ll continue to glow for another minute or two before it fades. As for Tim, he’s staying on the outskirts of the encampment until he feels confident that he knows what’s going on. He’s been told it has a healing effect - but he knows healers who also have heavy-hitting attacks. ]

Comments

[ferengineer]

It's possible it might actually be you.

I didn't have a crossbow that both shoots energy bolt and ends up in reaching distance no matter where I leave it before I came here. I also didn't know how to use one, and apparently now I'm an expert.

Have you tried controlling it at all?

[the_hit_list]

I don’t know what started it, if it is me. Wishing that it would stop doesn’t seem to be working, and I’m concentrating.

[ Obsessing might be a more accurate depiction. ]

And you’re okay with a powered crossbow following you around?

[ferengineer]

It could be activated by stress. In which case concentrating might actually make it harder to turn off.

And considering having the crossbow saved my life more than once back at the faire, I'm more than okay with it.

[the_hit_list]

I’m… arguably on another planet, definitely elsewhere, and something’s making me glow. I think I’m staying calm, all things considered.

[ Calm and unstressed aren’t the same. When this started, Tim was worried about the yellow-eyed man’s injuries. It might be related, but Tim doesn’t have ‘unwind’ on his mental dance card tonight. ]

Does the crossbow do what you want it to?

[liesdontfindyou]

I’ve discovered that I’ve apparently been granted some kind of magic, since I got here. I can make duplicates of myself, like— holograms, but not? I used to be able to do the same through technology, but I don’t have that here.

[ But it might’ve taken her longer to figure out, if she didn’t have the instinct to use her holograms already in her. ]

So it might just be the same kind of thing happening to you.

[the_hit_list]

I don’t have any tech that makes glow, though. Does the blue light of my computer monitor count?

[ It’s a faint-hearted attempt to make light of the situation. Tim hates unpredictability, and having powers spontaneously manifest makes him feel like his own skin is Wrong. ]

You think that magic tunnel gave you powers from your tech?

[ It did muck with Tim’s clothes. And he was connected to who knows what via the Unternet before he fell here. ]

[liesdontfindyou]

I didn't have the armour and unit on me when I was pulled in, but I figure it might have gotten inspired by it in my memories or something of the sort.

Does the glow— do? Anything? If so, the function might be more of a clue to any inspiration than the actual glowing itself.

[ She hates unpredictability, too—give her routine, stuff she's used to, and a clear objective thanks—but she's sort of come to expect it after her last several months or even longer, really. Plus, she knows worlds like this can imbue powers, even if this is her first experience with it herself. So she just tries to sound reasonable. ]

[the_hit_list]

Did you feel that pull to the faire? Whatever’s done all this, it’s already in our heads, so you’re probably right about it being able to get at your memories.

[ Which is not making him feel less violated.

Please, some blessed routine. Patrols, objectives, training, sense. Gotham might not be orderly, but Tim at least understands the chaos there. ]

The guy with the yellow eyes - he said it felt like it healed. I got away from everyone fast - I don’t want to experiment on people when I don’t know what it does.

[millenyal_pink]

I mean, this might just be... Magic.

This is a place where magic exists. I don't know if that's the case where you come from, but I'm pretty sure I've seen some people trying to figure out the sudden abilities they have.

It might be you, dude. Yer a wizard, and all that.

[the_hit_list]

Some people have abilities where I’m from, but… they’re superheroes, or sometimes they’re bad guys. I think they all have reasons to have “abilities” or maybe it’s just technology. I don’t know. I’m okay with being just a person, and saving Tim the Enchanter for when I’m playing a blue deck.

[ Tim holds up a hand for inspection. ]

I think it’s getting dimmer.

[millenyal_pink]

[Was that... a Monty Python reference and a Magic: the Gathering reference in one?

Elle is almost impressed.]

Where I come there's magic and stuff. Some of it has a specific source ,some of it just exists.

I'm just saying. We're playing with a whole new metagame and we don't even know the rules yet.

[Thank you, Isaac, for all those Magic tournaments he dragged Elle to.]

[the_hit_list]

[ Yes, it was. Tim is a huge geek, or used to be when he had free time. He doesn’t have much time for it nowadays. ]

I know. I just didn’t expect to be a part of the meta game.

[ He says it like it’s two words, because in his head, it could be. The metahuman game. ]

I don’t want to play when I don’t know the rules. It sounds like a good way to accidentally hurt someone.

[ What if he’s the next Dr. Light? What if he can mentally repulse photons and plunge the whole camp into total darkness? ]

[konman]

[Kon looks concerned because a) he doesn't like the idea someone messed with his friend, and b) Tim is clearly a little distressed over it.]

I don't know, Timbo, this place has messed with other people's powers.

Took mine away, some others have said they have new ones they never had before.

It's worth being worried about because nobody should've done it without asking, but since other people have lost or gained powers immediately upon coming in, whoever brought us here might be the ones to blame.

[the_hit_list]

[ Other people have powers, and that’s great. But Tim’s human, past the age of mutant manifestations, and hasn’t willingly been involved with any science experiments, so this is something akin to waking up and finding he has palmates instead of feet, but the palmates may or may not be a bomb.

Tim just listens. He doesn’t interrupt to say that other people are used to having powers, occasionally temporarily losing powers, getting upset when all the powers in the world aren’t enough. That’s not the point. ]

I know. I haven’t been trying to minimize what y- what anyone’s been going through. It’s been intense, and everyone’s handling it as best they can.

[ Including Tim, who doesn’t want Kon to think he’s whining about being given what’s been stolen from Kon. If the glow isn’t due to someone in the camp, then they’ve both been tampered with. ]

I think it’s dimming. Maybe I’m getting out of range.

[konman]

Or it might be timed. Some people can use certain powers but eventually run out of juice.

[A pause.]

Listen, I know what it's like to have new ones crop up. Remember when I started getting the full superstrength instead of just my TTK?

[He'd broken a few things during the adjustment period because there'd definitely been some extra oomph.]

You just have to try to work out what you have and what it does and then practice with it.

I can help you out if you want to practice. We can find somewhere in the woods.

[the_hit_list]

[ Kon would be ideal, if his own powers weren’t malfunctioning. Tim wouldn’t have even posted this; he would’ve run straight to Kon. The chances of being suddenly strong enough to hurt Superboy in any real way are slim (but he’s not so super now). ]

No, it’s fine.

[ It’s not; it’s crushing him to turn down the help. Tim’s promised to not do exactly this sort of thing, refusing the help of friends, not giving them enough information to help, and he’s pretty much traded demands of “you need to come to us with things like this” with Kon.

But this is the right choice. ]

I’m going to keep to myself until we’re sure that nothing else will manifest.

[ It’s a choice between guilt over feeling like he’s let down his end of the bargain, or never forgiving himself if it went wrong. He’d rather tell Elle he changed his mind. ]

[unsealthecatbox]

Ah, looks like you have been granted something as well.

[Or at least that's what everyone else is saying, yes. Still, she has to wonder...]

Are there no...instinctive feelings telling you how to handle it? Or any information in your head that wasn't there before?

[Ange is asking this pretty much because she's trying to figure out her own new magical abilities. Just how others are handling theirs? Perhaps she can borrow from their experiences? Who knows]

[the_hit_list]

I want to say no, but I started using them somehow.

[ He is reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that this is likely his own doing, rather than the effect of someone else’s abilities on him. ]

I wasn’t cognizant of it when it happened. It just… happened.

[ There’s a tepid connection between wanting to assist Crowley in treating his wounds and his powers, but Tim thinks it’s weak. Sometimes, he wants a snack, but that doesn’t turn him into a neon donut sign.

Her questions and the ‘as well’ form an assumption. ]

Did you get instinctual knowledge with yours?

[unsealthecatbox]

[Ange is silent for a moment, looking at him carefully like just from staring at him she's going to get the knowledge of...how to glow like a nightlight. Any place is good to start, she supposes]

Something like that. Enough to know I have magic and that I should learn to use it, not enough to know where to even begin. Clearly the spirits who bestowed these abilities don't believe in good communication.

[It's sink or swim, pretty much. Kind of counterproductive if they expect them to learn how to harness these powers, if you ask her!]

[cachedout]

If this keeps up, we can stick you on a post and light the camp that way. Any of you guys got other world holidays where guy-shaped lights are festive?

[ He is kidding. Almost certainly. Almost. ]

[the_hit_list]

I am not a Guy Fawkes effigy.

[ Cayde, this is serious. ]

[cachedout]

[ Alright. He can to serious. A little. If asked. ]

Okay. We can figure this out. I don't know if it's me, but:

No pain?

No pain to anybody else around you?

[Action]

[circusbat]

[Yeah, this is definitely a conversation they are not having on the mirrors. There's too much that needs to be said that can't be said when they're both hiding things from most everybody else.]

[Dick pulls the cape around him as much as possible, approaching with enough sound that Tim won't be surprised by him, hopefully.]

What's the glowing do?

[the_hit_list]

[ Tim’s head snaps up when he hears someone coming. Obviously, Dick would check on him, after a message like that, so it’s not unexpected. Yet Tim stares right through him into middle distance.

Dick isn’t Bruce. Dick let Bart and Kon in the manor. He cuts to the heart of it the same way, though. No small talk. ]

I don’t know.

[ And that’s the worst part, right? That’s why Tim is barely keeping the trepidation in check. If he’s keeping it in check. Being fine is so much easier when Dick isn't around. Dick notices. ]

The yellow-eyed man, the one they were trying to banish - he said it felt like it was healing him. It’s not definitive.

[ “Healing” could be a tingling, warming, or cooling sensation - or a placebo effect. Tim might have been frying his nerve endings. ]

[circusbat]

[It's surprising how Dick can manage to run around in boots, an undershirt, Superman boxer briefs and a woollen cape and still manage to look serious about this.]

[More because it's an issue for Tim than for him. He's been friends with far too many metas for this to be a problem.]

All right. Well, healing is pretty useful.

[He's not coming closer, though. More because Tim is putting off definite vibes of not wanting anybody close.]