trans_9 | I reject your reality... [OPEN]

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I reject your reality... [OPEN]

Eddie sits at the edge of the roof of Titans Tower and watches the sun set, as he had done before in his universe. Only it's a simulated tower, above a simulated ocean reflecting simulated sunlight.

Eddie breathes a heavy sigh, smoke pouring from his mouth. Ever since the big reveal about his universe not existing, he'd been spending a lot more time in the sensoriums. At first he just played around, recreating the missions he had once done as a Titan and recreating battles he had lost so he could be victorious. Sometimes he would recreate his favorite movies to star in, and sometimes make up his own. Eddie usually made sure to lock the door so no one would disturb his fantasies.

Now all he wanted to do was watch the sunset. The more time he spent in the sensoriums, the more he missed. There were so many things happening, and so many more people were emerging from the pods that he didn't know. It was even worse when he did know them, because it meant he had missed out on seeing his old friends. Eddie was afraid to leave the sensoriums though. He just couldn't handle all that was happening now, and all he knew to do was run away, to create some fantasy world to escape to, like the movies his Aunt Marla used to direct. Here he could make whatever reality he wanted, but deep down he knew it was all fake.

Eddie wondered if there was a more permanent solution. If he emerged from the pod, perhaps he could go back in, go back into a deep sleep where he could dream and just be rid of all his problems...

He rubs his head and groans. "No, I can't think that way. There's still a chance I can make it work." It wouldn't have been the first time Eddie had chosen the easy way over the right way though.

There was a slim chance of hope though. Eddie had taken a chance to go to engineering, met some new people, socialized, and made something real again. Not a simulation. If he was to get out of this depression, he needed to stop shutting himself away. If he failed, there would be only only one choice left.

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Part of her knew that getting to a place where she could help the crew was important, but part of her want to feel too, and that meant remembering the nightmare. She tried letting it out in increments, but that led to quiet sobs, so she had to hold back a little. These images were heavy and had hit hard, and though Katara knew that they were being used against her on purpose, they had made her weak at that moment, and all the scars of that day just come flooding back. It had taken everything not to crack, but she had made herself stronger. Now she just wanted to wander around awhile, have some time to cool her head.

But when she reached the Sensorium, she saw someone she hadn't in awhile: it was Eddie, the one who had called himself Red Devil. She'd spoken with him briefly, and Static had mentioned him as one of his friends he wished he could help. Right now she could see that he wasn't in the greatest mood, and that wasn't a surprise: it happened with the crew sometimes.

"Hey," Katara said, offering him a smile. "It's me Eddie, Katara. We haven't spoken in awhile. How have you been?"

Eddie jumps when he hears Katara, spinning around to look at her with surprise. He should have been used to finding him here, simulation or not. Eddie quickly calms back down and gives a small smile.

"Oh, hey Katara. I guess it has been a while, heh." He scratches the back of his head as his tail swishes back and forth nervously. "I've been...okay. How about you?"

Katara is a little startled by how quickly Eddie jumped, but she also remembered that with Sheeana's training, she had actually gotten much lighter on her feet. That would definitely come in handy in a later mission, but didn't do her much good while she was still fighting someone who made nightmares.

"I've been better," Katara answered honestly. "I have to start helping to rally the people on this ship. There's this Nightmare King that's going into dreams and making people live out their worse fears. I just came back from seeing my mother, who I haven't seen since the day she was murdered. It was a pretty sobering experience."

Never mind she had to encase her in ice.

"Yeah, the nightmares, those haven't been good..." Eddie's recent one (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/250360.html?thread=19664888#t19664888) was still fresh in his mind. "Mine was really unpleasant too." He rubs his face with his hand. "It was like, all of my friends turned on me, even my Aunt Marla, the closest thing I even had to a parent. They all said they hated me, and called me a failure. And then they beat me up..." Eddie sighs and shakes his head.

"But at least it's over for now." Eddie gazes over the sunset for a moment. "Do you ever just feel like leaving it all? Like, just trying to get away from all the bad stuff in life?"

Edited 2010-01-19 23:57 (UTC)

Katara shook her head. "No, they haven't. They're probably going to get worse too, if the Night,mare King has his way. I know something for sure though: its getting to the point where I think that you will be able to get hurt in your dreams. I actually had to heal a friend of mine in one nightmare. It isn't any fun, especially when he has a girlfriend already worrying about him."

Katara's response to the last sentence took some time for her. "I don't think you're normal if you don't consider it every once and awhile. But bad stuff will always follow you, wherever you go. There's no way to escape it without completely detaching yourself from everything. It's one way to live, but a pretty lousy one if you have friends that care about you, in my opinion."

"That would seriously be bad." Eddie says, placing a hand on his chin. "Starting to sound like Nightmare on Elm Street, which was scary enough just watching it." Eddie wonders if the Nightmare King isn't really Freddy Krueger before getting back to the other topic.

"I guess you're right about that. But I mean, I bet there are a lot of people here who just can't handle everything that's happening. Maybe they weren't ready, or they never will be. There's so much going on, and there's nothing they can do about it. They feel useless. I know why we're all on this ship, but I wonder if anyone's ever thought of just going back into their pod, if that's possible, and letting it all blow over."

"Nightmare on Elm street? What is...never mind, I'll just have to look that up in the media library later." She sighed. People had so many references, and the only way she could understand what they meant.

"Well yeah, my brother was probably thinking that when he got here too...I was able to adapt better than he was. No one has a manual to getting ready for losing their worlds and living on a ship with people from different dimensions. But I've also made a lot of good friends on this ship who lost their homes. Knowing their pain and my own, I'm not going to let anyone else in another world suffer as we have."

"Don't watch it if you don't want to be really scared." Eddie adds. He seriously considers what Katara said, and begins to realize that he really isn't as alone as he thought. There probably were plenty of others who felt the same way he did. If Eddie wanted to be the hero he dreamed of becoming, then he needed to stay and help, in whatever small way he could.

"That's a good reason to stay." Eddie says after a few moments. "Thanks Katara."

"I've seen some pretty scary things," Katara said, remembering Hama and the Spirit monster that kidnapped Sokka, which would turn out to be Haibei. In any case, it bothered her to see Eddie like this, but she could see she was having an effect on him.

"Surviving comes down to all of us Eddie. It's never easy all the time, and it gets more and more difficult, but I think we're here because we're strong, and we have what it takes to try and save these worlds. We have each other, don't we?"

"Yeah," Eddie nods and stands up, stretching his arms. "From what I can see, almost everyone here is or a was a hero in their universe. And I'm going to be even half the hero I want to be, I've got to get with it and see things through." Eddie smiles, then realizes that he's given himself away. Not like Katara couldn't tell anyway.

No, Katara could definitely tell: paying attention to key details was pretty much a requirement as a Bene Gesserit, although it was usually not something that went unnoticed.

"Helping people is what I do," Katara said, "But I can see that in your world, there's a specific name for the kind of people like you that do that. I can respect that: on this ship, I've seen a lot of heroes, both with and without powers."

"I've wanted to be a hero for as long as I can remember." Eddie admits to Katara. "It comes a lot easier to some than others. But there's all kinds of heroes."

"Well you still can," Katara said, "But I find its a lot easier to not think of yourself as a hero anyway. I've never thought of myself as a hero, just another person with the ability to help people who don't have the power I do. In that way, you always remember you're the same as them, and you'll always do everything you can. That makes people REAL heroes."

Eddie nods silently and stares back at the sunset. "That's probably a better way of looking at it. Not as egotistical."

"I don't think its egotistical so much as it can be a dangerous thing for someone who wants to be a hero. It makes them forget that they can be a victim at any time too, so the important thing is really the people that feel helpless. If you have a strength that can help others, you just do it because its the right thing to do."

Katara sighed. "Though sometimes the right thing is not as clear as it used to be."

Eddie wasn't the only one who spent a lot of time in the sensoriums. Terry had been avoiding everyone, as well. It wasn't the smartest thing to do, but he was pretty much alone here on the ship. Sure, some of the bat family was here, too, but they weren't the people he knew. And as much as he liked them all, he knew what they would become. Whenever he looked at Bruce, all he saw was a lonely old man, shut up in his mansion. And when he looked at Tim... well, that was the stuff of nightmares.

So he kept to the sensoriums. He didn't recreate his family or friends, because he knew it would be stupid to cling to people he could never be with again. He was still alone in the fantasy world he created, but it was real solitude, not the feeling of being alone while surrounded by people.

He hadn't really meant to wander in on someone else's simulation. But he was there already, and maybe seeing something else besides an empty Gotham would be healthy. He didn't really know the building. He thought maybe he'd seen it in a photo somewhere, or on the news, a long time ago, but he wasn't sure. It was old by his standards - the technology wasn't up to the level of his time. Eventually he noticed someone sitting on the edge of the roof. He almost thought the person was a splicer, but he'd met enough people that looked strange without splicing since he'd woken up that he decided not to jump to conclusions. He wasn't really sure what do - to say anything or just leave. So he wound up just standing there, a ways behind the guy, just watching the sky.

After a while, Eddie starts to feel someone's presence. He turns around to see Terry standing there. Eddie stares at him for a moment before lifting a hand and waving to the new comer.

"Uuhhhh...hey." Eddie greets him. "How's it going? Did you need to use this sensorium?"

"No, I uh, just wandered in. Sorry." He said, shrugging a bit. He really hadn't, too. Still, it was a little awkward walking in on someone else's simulation.

"Don't think we've met," he said, trying to ease the awkwardness a bit. "I'm Terry. Terry McGinnis."

"I'm Eddie, Eddie Bloomberg." Eddie replies as he stands up and walks over to Terry, offering his hand to shake. "I also go by Red Devil, but you can just call me Eddie."

Red Devil... well, that was a fitting name. "I go by Batman, myself" Terry said, shaking Eddie's hand. "But Terry's fine." If anything, he felt a bit weird going as Batman while he knew the original was around. He didn't have an problems with it back in his own time period, but here, it felt like the first few times he'd actually used the name. Like he was intruding on something, and that it wasn't really his.

"Oh, you're the Batman Static was telling me about!" Eddie says with a grin, his gloomy mood dispelling a bit. "Static's a friend of mine, from a future of mine...apparently."

Well, hey, someone who'd heard of him. Even if it wasn't in the way Terry would have liked, it was still better then some of the disbelief he'd gotten in response to his identity so far.

"Yeah, I know him. Or... I know of a version of him from my time, and a past version of him that... isn't the same guy around here." Yeah, time travel was confusing.

"Hmm. The Static I know--will know was a member of the Titans with me. In the near future of my universe...which doesn't exist." It truly was confusing and starting to hurt Eddie's brain.

"Never mind. I'm guessing your not from the same universe I am, but then that would mean a whole other parallel universe like mine. I wonder if there's a Red Devil there too...is there?"

This wasn't a city she recognized, but open skies were open skies, and Nanoha was happy to fly through them anyway. It was strange, she marveled, thinking about how in actuality they were in a (comparatively) small room on the ship... despite being less than fifty feet from whomever had created the room, they could have been miles apart in this city.

She soared through the air, leaving a trail of magenta light in her wake, idly wondering whose fantasy she'd intruded on this time (but hoping she'd be flying far enough away that it wouldn't bother them.)

Eddie looks up and notices the trail in the sky, then follows it to see a young girl flying through the air. For a moment he thought it could be Miss Martian or Starfire, but quickly discarded those thoughts. No need to get his hopes up. Eddie stands up and waves his arms to get get the girl's attention.

"Hey! Down here!" He calls out to her. "On top of the giant T shaped building!"

"Huh?" Nanoha looked down, seeing the red-skinned figure waving his arms and calling out to her - did he need help? No, that couldn't be it, not here in the Sensoriums... - and blinking in surprise. Still, she angled down sharply, feeling the cold rush of the wind through her hair and on her face as she neared the building, floating in the air just off the rooftop.

She smiled, canting her head to the side. "Hi! I hope I'm not bothering you or intruding on anything or something like that."

"Ah, well, no, not exactly." Eddie says sheepishly. "Just wondering who else was in here. I thought you looked like someone I knew. I don't think I know you, do I?"

The smile looks a bit more sheepish now (to match his expression, of course). "Er, I don't think so. At least, I don't think we've ever met - but there's a first time for everybody! I'm Nanoha Takamachi!"

"I'm Eddie Bloomberg." Eddie replies with a smile. He took note; a flying girl with a Japanese name with blue eyes and light brown hair. She reminded him of an anime character, which certainly wasn't a bad thing.

"Soooo, you can fly? I know a few flying people."

Oh, Eddie. Just wait until you see her transform into her magical girl outfit. Still, she beamed warmly. "It's nice to meet you, Eddie!"

At his question, the girl nodded. "Yeah, I've been flying since I was 9 or so, when I learned how to use magic. It's something that I've... really loved ever since then, I guess."

"Oh, you know magic too? One of my friends knows magic, both the real and the performance kind." Eddie says and grins. He perches on the roof's railing. "What else can you do besides flying?"

She nodded again. "Yep! I've been using it since I was a girl! Actually, I'm the head of the Magical and Mystical Department here on the ship, but that was kind of more of a 'right idea, right time' thing than anything else.'"

Nanoha floated over to the rooftop, the shimmering magenta wings on her ankles fading from view. "Well, I focus mainly on mid-to-long-range attack magic of the Mid-Childan school, but I've got some other tricks up my sleeve, too. Honestly, not much of a variety, I'm afraid."

"Sounds pretty sweet." Eddie's tail swishes back and forth slowly. "Can I see those tricks? You've got me curious now."

"Well..." Nanoha began, canting her head to the side, scratching at her hair. "To be honest, they're mostly combat spells. Shields, binds, movement spells and the like. It's mainly practical magic, you know? But if you still want to see, I could show you, sure."

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I reject your reality... [OPEN]

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