keeping this simple

[staystraught]

feel free to change to first lol

As bored as he got, at least the arrivals arrived like clockwork. The holographic "FREE HUGS TO START YOUR STAY OFF RIGHT" spun lazily above his head, and he was seated underneath it, polishing birdarangs.

Couldn't really risk target practice, after all.

Comments

[staystraught]

"But it got your attention," he answers. "But I guess, so would a stone and chisel."

He stands, shaking out his cape and brushing off any dirt.

"Before we continue, do you have superpowers?"

[darlingmonster]

"No."

Yes. Maybe. What exactly constitutes superpowers, in your definition of the term? Julian's abilities are perfectly average--for his kind, which happens to be genetically-enhanced human.

"Why, do you?"

[staystraught]

"No, just a lot of specialized training," he says, but he flares up the hologram sign and its offer.

"But this place punishes you for not donating to their energy efforts. And having powers complicates that."

[darlingmonster]

That admission is enough to pique his curiosity--after all, the compound had been designed for nearly exactly that, aside from creating them in the first place. Training them to be soldiers.

"And what exactly are we expected to do to 'donate'?"

After a moment of consideration, he also asks:

"And what complications would those be, out of curiosity?"

[staystraught]

"Preface: this doesn't make sense," he warned, "but apparently you just have to touch people. Touch. You don't have to, like, generate any kind of kinetic energy. Just the act of touch is the answer to their prayers or something, it's simple and I can't figure it out and I don't like that."

He can't help throwing his hands in the air to illustrate the frustration. It is a pain.

"And your powers go haywire if you don't, on top of the sickness that normal people like me get."

[darlingmonster]

He was right--that made no kind of sense. It was ridiculous, and his face said exactly what he thought about it without him needing to. But he did anyway.

"...you're right. That doesn't make sense at all."

He would need to outline, exactly, what constituted 'powers.' And if his natural skill--granted to him as it was by unnatural means, but part of his genetic code nonetheless--counted.

"Wonderful."

[staystraught]

"Isn't it, though?" Granted, Dick had no powers. He got the sickness, when he didn't touch anyone in time, but M'gann was such a hugger, he rarely fell into that trap.

"What gets me is how they harvest the energy. I mean, it is transferable, but if it's, say, heat, it's just transferring between the two people. What harvests it? This should be a measurable phenomenon."