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?

[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.

[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 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]

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?

[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.

[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]

[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.]

[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.

[liesdontfindyou]

I did. I can't say I'm surprised that whatever forces are at play here have that kind of access, this isn't my first new world. The last one I was in had very... direct access.

[ Needlessly cryptic, that's a habit she hasn't quite broken. It was a simulation, they were at least partially code; getting at their memories and using them for various things was, unfortunately, easy. ]

Do you ever help heal people the old fashioned way, where you come from? Even just basic first aid training or something? It might be as simple as that.

[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]

[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]

It’s not still active, right? Whatever was affecting you?

[ Cryptic, yes, but Tim can imagine the sorts of things that more direct access can entail: telepaths, serums, sprays, external mind control devices, internal mind control devices - his universe has it all, and he hates it all.

He gives her question a slight nod, and then another firmer one. ]

Gotham City has a lot of violent crime, and… after some stuff happened, I started carrying around a first aid kit.

[ In his batbelt, but she’s getting the filtered version. ]

I’ve had to use it, too. If it’s based on what we’re used to doing… yeah. But it doesn’t explain the light show.

[ He works almost exclusively at night. ]

[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]

[ 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. ]

[konman]

[Kon just gives him a skeptical look.]

It's not just going to magically go away.

And if you're worried you have something destructive, I can keep my distance.

[the_hit_list]

It magically appeared, didn’t it?

[ There has to be some examples of superhuman abilities fading through disuse, like any skill.

After a long moment, he nods. ]

If you keep your distance.

[ That’s not an unreasonable request. It’s not as if he’s banishing himself to Smallville. ]

[konman]

Why don't we find a good, big space, like a meadow in the woods or something?

And you can try to figure out what it is, and I'll stay real far away and we can just use our outside voices to talk.

Or the mirrors.