And I Feel Fine

[beetlebutt]

[Jaime has kept himself suited up, largely because he's not sure if he'll be able to power up again after powering down. The suit is still visibly damaged. Something about this place has messed with both scarab's ability to repair itself and his ability to repair Jaime. Which means he probably won't last long in this place without help.]

[The help he's gotten is...unnerving. But considering how much the scarab has tripped off the senses of other people in this world, how much it's registered as dangerous, he can't judge them. Vampire, alien killing machine, it all kind of pans out equally, doesn't it? He gets why he registers as dangerous to them, too.]

[Which is why he's grateful one of them was willing to help him get to the point of thinned reality the scarab thinks he can use to open a portal back to Jaime's world. So far Kevin has proven himself helpful and trustworthy and how nice he is definitely is disarming.]

[And at least the scenery isn't as scary as it could've been. For a world post-apocalypse, he wasn't expecting to be chilling in a forest.]

I still haven't thanked you for doing this. So, uh. Thanks.

I'm sure other superheroes are used to getting trapped in other dimensions or whatever, but I'm kind of new at this.

Comments

[beetlebutt]

[It's the right stranger to unload onto. For a second, he almost gets stuck on the Dracula thing, but then the rest comes out.]

I'm sorry. That sounds hard.

And I get it. At least a little. I won't pretend I get it entirely - that's not fair, when you're the one living with it.

But...

[He holds a hand to his chest.]

I accidentally killed someone once. I didn't mean to. I just hit him with an energy blast but I guess it was too strong and he...

His powers overloaded somehow. If it wasn't for two other heroes, everyone - the other heroes, the villains we were fighting - they'd all have died.

[It's not something he'd normally confess to a stranger, but there's so much sincerity here, something so familiar it almost aches. And it's different confessing this to someone that isn't all stern like Batman. This is confessing to someone like him.]

But the fact they were saved doesn't matter, and it will especially never change what happened to the guy that couldn't be. And the scary part is even if I try super hard, there's still a non-zero chance it'll happen again.

I could just stay home and never use my powers again, like Batman wanted. But that'd just make it so I let people die that I could save. Passively. I don't think there's any difference.

[likeits1999]

[ Kevin nods his head. He takes it seriously when someone hands him a story like that. If things were more normal and he weren't a monster and his weird new friend didn't have a danger-sense-addling hitchhiker on board, Kevin might even have touched his shoulder. The instinct is there. ]

Aww, dude, I'm sorry. That sounds hard too. It's kind of crazy how much of this I get, considering what I got is a weird blood curse and not a space bug?

[ He only narrowly manages not to start wondering aloud about if Cockroach counts in the bug department. He's not sure how much attention the great spirit is even paying to him anymore, now that there are werewolves again. ]

I've thought about that a lot too. I don't throw energy blasts but like, bro, I'm way fast. I'm strong. I can do stuff normal people can't do cause of this.

But I'm like... I'm nobody, man.

I spent a lotta years basically being told I didn't know shit about shit, and so I didn't do anything cause maybe I'm too dumb to do right things. But now if I do the wrong thing, maybe people die. But if I do nothing that's also for sure a wrong thing.

[ He hops down the side of a gully that's running across their path without even really thinking about it. ]

So you just do... anything, I guess. Because anything's something and God didn't put the answers in the back of the book for this chapter.

[ He eyes Jaime. ]

You good to cross? I know you're kinda banged up. We can maybe go around if we gotta?

[ It's an offer. ]

[beetlebutt]

We're good.

[Sometimes it's a "we," especially if it involves the suit.]

[He makes the jump easily, landing in a spider-like crouch. His movements in the suit are definitely not human at times. ]

[When he stands he looks at Kevin thoughtfully.]

The universe is super weird, you know? It only took getting blasted to an alternate universe to meet someone who, like, gets it.

And right when I do, I've got to find a way back.

[likeits1999]

Alright, good.

[ At least this guy's not alone, and has a helpful super suit for a friend. There are much worse off ways to be. Back to the walk. ]

The universe works in weird ways, I guess. Maybe it knows you needed to talk to somebody else who's got fucked up problems?

[ It's something Kevin's genuinely wondering, considering that it was a force beyond mortal ken that put him on his own path. ]

I think you got your head on straight, man. For whatever my opinion counts for. It just sounds like the whole rest of everything's upside-down and it's hard to tell.

[beetlebutt]

Kind of sounds the same for you, bro.

I mean, world ends and you're still trying to do what good you can? If my world ever goes that far - and it might, one of these days - I hope I have it in me to do the same.

[He's not sure how his spirit could still be in it.]

[likeits1999]

I hope you guys can get back to things being less of a shitshow without this kind of thing coming up.

But like... if it does and it's too much for a while, don't kick your own ass too hard for it, dude. I think that is a big normal reaction to super traumatizing shit.

[ He can't help Jaime fix it in a real way, but maybe giving him some of the things Kevin thinks he might have learned by now can help him in a weird brainfake way. It's worth a shot. ]

[beetlebutt]

I'll try to keep that in mind, 'cause I can see myself falling into the "you could've stopped it" hole for years.

[He climbs up over a fallen tree.]

Scarab says we're almost there.

[likeits1999]

I guess like, you can't help anybody from there. Is a way to think about it.

[ Kevin clears the tree with an uncanny, effortless jump. ]

Cool.

[ He smiles, a little selfconsciously. ]

I feel like I am giving you some kind of pep talk or something.