firstofitskind | MHA #6 to the Beach Near Chimera Court, Wednesday Morning

MHA #6 to the Beach Near Chimera Court, Wednesday Morning

Liam's day had started when he got out of bed and tripped over a valise labelled 'Destiny' and nearly faceplanted into a steamer trunk labelled 'Survivor's Guilt'.

It really didn't take him long to figure out what was going on. Once again, Fandom had taken a metaphor and gone the distressingly literal route, it seemed. And sure, most people would've taken this as a hint to stay hidden inside their apartments, but most people didn't live with a colony of pathologically religious mice who remembered everything. His trauma was already manifesting in literal form here, he didn't need the creation of a religious ritual to mark the occasion as well.

So, out for a run it was, and then stopping to sit for a while at his favorite spot near his old place and ~~sulk~~ ~~brood~~ just be alone with his thoughts for a while. Well, alone with his thoughts and his damned emotional baggage.

[ooc: expecting one but could also be open if you want to catch him beforehand!]

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He could still die! Had, in fact, though he’d gotten better. But all signs pointed to him being long-lived enough (in corporeal form anyway) that, yeah, compared to your average human? Functionally immortal.

“Well,” he said slowly. “I suppose that depends how you define ‘perks’. The Kimera were energy-based, so I’m not always- entirely corporeal? And I have this,” he held out one hand, palm up so Annie could see the reddish, triangular mark there. After a moment, a pinkish-purple swirl of light and energy appeared.

Annie let out a little gasp of surprise, though it transformed into pleased surprise pretty quickly. "We're glowing buddies," she said with a smile, slanting a look over at him. "And you've been holding out!"

She was teasing, yes, but seriously -- how many people on this island secretly glowed? "What's it do?"

It didn't look like what she could do, so she figured it was probably a little different.

Liam couldn’t help a pleased little smile of his own in response, because that sort of reaction was... still pretty novel to him.

“It’s called shaqarava, in the Kimera language,” he told her. “It, uh. Can be used as a weapon. Or to heal.”

"Those are fairly opposite things," Annie noted a little wryly. "So -- can you blast things with it, like what I do? Kinda jealous on the healing."

Annie's powers were pure offense; she'd always kind of wished she had something more useful for healing than the ability to cauterize a gaping wound.

Liam nodded. “It’s all energy, just focused in different ways. But yes, I can blast things, or use it as a sort of... shield to deflect things being blasted at me.” He could also use it to share his emotions and energy with others, but that was a little personal. And then there was that whole ‘ability to reshape flesh’ thing, which he would not be getting in to ~~unless it was ever convenient to work it into a plot.~~

"So like you can deflect things, or use it offensively," Annie followed, "but how's the...healing work? Or is that just, like, what you mean when you say it's all energy?"

Because it didn't make sense to her that the same energy could hurt someone and then turn right around and make them feel better, but she also was working from the reference point of her own powers.

Liam nodded. "The shaqarava is the focus," he said. He closed his palm into a fist, letting the light dissipate. "It's hard to explain, beyond the fact that it's just a matter of intent determining how I use my core energy." A lot of what he'd figured out how to do had been instinctive reactions rather than any sort of deliberate experimentation.

"No, I actually kind of get that," Annie said slowly. "I know a few people whose powers have a lot to do with their intention when they use them -- like, me, I just can dial it up or down, basically, but I have friends who have to, um, focus more. That makes sense. But man, Liam, that is very handy."

Like, good perk. Annie approved.

Which was nice, honestly. That approval. Hence the shy grin that broke across his face as she spoke.

"You think so?"

Three and a half years in Fandom and he still wasn't quite used to the non-freakout reaction.

"Of course I think so!" How could that even be a question? "Liam, that is so cool. And versatile! Like, I wish I could heal people -- the most I can do is cauterize a wound if I have to -- but, like, that's amazing. And honestly, it's nice to know there's another glowy person on the island."

She kind of wondered if he also knew about Stark. It hadn't exactly seemed like a secret -- the man walked around with a big metal mask covering half his face, like, obviously something was up -- but it still wasn't her thing to tell, if he didn't.

"'Another glowy person', huh?" he echoed. "You make it sound like we should start a club or something." He did, in fact, know about Stark, for the record!

"I have one friend back home who can sort of glow a little like me, but it's still pretty different," Annie offered, "and there's a really famous hero whose eyes light up -- though his are lasers, mine just glow and that's it -- but yeah, I don't actually know too many other glowing people. Are there enough of us to start a club? I know one other."

See, that was discreet. Your secret was safe, Stark!

"I know two," Liam offered. "So that's- at least four? Maybe even five, if we're not both talking about the same person without realizing it?"

Annie slanted a look over at him curiously. "The person I know is, like, made out of energy and didn't seem to mind telling me about it," she said slowly. "And he has to, like, keep it...contained."

There. Maybe that would be enough to signal whether Liam knew Stark's reason for wearing his mask or not.

“I’m sure Stark appreciates your discretion,” Liam said.

“The other person I know is Karolina,” he offered. “She can fly, and turn rainbow colors. Which she’s done the years we’ve had Pride parades on the island so I think I can be reasonably certain she doesn’t mind people knowing.”

"She can turn rainbow colors?" Annie asked, not without a note of jealousy. "She's my teaching buddy. Like, not that I expected her to mention that, but that's really cool."

She considered it for a second, and then shook her head. "Unless you count, like, people's glowing weapons, or incidental glowing because of magic -- " because Annie did not understand magic, but she'd seen both Nina and Illyana use it at this point and there'd been light a couple times, "that might be it. But wow. I had no idea there were so many of us."

“At least enough to form a band,” Liam said. “If not a club. ‘Annie and the Aliens’.”

Not the best or most clever joke, but look, joking about this at all was kind of a big step for Liam.

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MHA #6 to the Beach Near Chimera Court, Wednesday Morning

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