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

[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? ]

[millenyal_pink]

[Elle shrugs.]

Then you test with someone who can't easily be hurt. I don't think opting out is an option. Your best bet is probably careful experimentation. The only way to learn the rules out here is to play.

I have super-healing, and a few other tricks up my sleeve. If there's someone who's willing to play referee to supervise and make sure nothing goes too far, let's test this out. Better to know now, right?

[It's not like Elle loves the idea of being a guinea pig for some dude's new superpowers, it's that there are only a few people in the camp that are. likely to be okay if something goes wrong, and she's one of them.]

[the_hit_list]

I don’t know how to feel about that.

[ It sounds exactly like what he would tell anyone else. Pick as safe a partner as possible and throw everything at them. And have them throw everything at you, because the only thing worse than a dangerous, uncontrolled metahuman ability is an unknown, dangerous, uncontrolled metahuman ability.

But she’s not a safe partner. In Tim’s definition of that phrase, a safe partner is one that he knows can handle themselves in a fight with a powered individual, not someone he’s been thrown in with and has to trust. And who won’t be surprised that he can do the same, despite his claims at being ordinary. ]

I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want you to get hurt, even if you can heal quickly. And we can’t say that won’t happen, because we don’t know what I do besides light up a room.

[millenyal_pink]

Would you rather find out now with a calculated risk, or in a crisis with variables you can't control, where more people could be hurt? I'm a consenting adult.

[Well, adult by shifter standards. Less than a month from being a legal adult, at least.]

I'm not trying to push you. If it's you really don't want to, you don't have to. But you have to fully think through this decision.

[Elle tries to think up a way to make it potentially safer.]

Maybe we get someone who can take you down to watch, just in case? If something gets out of control, we could have backup.

[the_hit_list]

[ Stop talking sense. He doesn’t want his own logic thrown at him and definitely doesn’t want to embrace or fully acknowledge what’s been done to him. ]

Did you always heal, or is that new too?

[ Because if she’s new to her abilities as well, absolutely not. No. She better have had super healing for at least a year if he’s going to have to accept her word that Elle can keep herself safe.

If he doesn’t figure out what he can do… then he’s really going this alone again. ]

Because there are people here that I trust, but they don’t heal.

[millenyal_pink]

I was able to heal way before I got here. It's also pretty hard to do any lasting damage to me.

[He clearly knows what his best option is, he just needs to work through his hesitations and fears. Elle can help him do that.]

I know that this whole thing sucks. Waking up with a bunch of abilities you never had before is scary as hell-- believe me, I know. But you can explore them relatively safely and cautiously. Not a lot of people get that chance.

[the_hit_list]

So you were a healing, sometimes raging cat monster before you arrived.

[ Yes, Tim remembers the rest of what she said she could do; he’s reminding himself aloud rather than being accusatory anything. She’ll be fine; he’ll be careful. She’s a better choice than Kon, debatably more appropriate than Dick.

But how much of that is because he doesn’t know her? … too much for him to feel good about the choice. ]

Give me a few minutes. I’m going to see what my brother thinks and get back to you.

[ He’s getting Dick’s opinion before he goes sparing with unknown metahumans based on biased reasons. ]

[millenyal_pink]

I can provide more context if you need it.

[Because that's an almost insulting oversimplification.]

[the_hit_list]

Context isn’t really going to make me feel any better about being - something other than what I was fifteen minutes.

I just need a minute.

[millenyal_pink]

[Elle looks at him sympathetically. She knows what that's like. She remembers the aftermath of er first change vividly. It was terrifying and world shattering. She can give Tim some time.]