"to be honest I don't know I've never been to a school belore so don't know what to expect. My sponsor said I need to be around people of my own age to learn, develop and grow......"

He looked round the room "I might as well put all the names in a hat and pick one out for all the good it will do me"

"Your sponsor... Dr. Strange?  Did he have any advice about choosing schools?"

"What kinds of things are important to you?  Do you want to 'learn, develop, and grow'?  What motivates you, inspires you, drives you?  What would make you want to get out of bed and go to class?"

Rendal leaned forward so others didn't over hear "I'm not really 14 I only look it. 150 days ago I didn't exist. I was crested Dr Strange says I'm like a spung just waiting to soak up things. He said I need to be in a school that could expose me to the world so I can learn and find out who Rendal is."

He sighed" I thought the avengers as they are alrounders and I might get a broad exposure where as the fantastic four is too super science and focused, the x men too chaotic and shield to military in nature"

He shouldn’t be here.  The thought passed his mind not for the first time and likely not for the last time. A series of deep breaths filled his lungs. Somehow he hoped to breath out the situation and be back home getting ready for class. Only a few months ago he had a normal life, he had friends and he had a future that did not involve costumes and freaks. He had liked being a mutant then, it was something to make guys stare in awe and the girls take notice. Even now he felt the old tricks when electricity played across his fingertips. Blue arcs danced between his digits. Callum shook his hand so that the blue bolts of energy dissipated.

“Cal what did I tell you about that?”

Mr Ross’s voice was a deep one, some might even say melodic. Cal knew better, he could hear the tension in his father’s voice. The man who had seemed a hero to him all his life now seemed somehow smaller and weaker here. Maybe the old man knew it too and wanted to exit as soon as possible.

“Sorry Dad.”

“Be sorry some time else Cal, right now just behave. The X-Men are already interested in you and it’s for the best you go there.”

Nervous fingers adjusted the knot at Cal’s throat, slender fingers that belonged to a woman wearing her finest clothes. At fifteen there were some that might call Callum a handsome boy. Blonde hair that was purposefully unkept decorated his head with a pair of blue eyes that now flashed with dangerous energy. He had a winning smile that even now flashed with ease despite his discomfort in being here. Smile and the world smile’s with you the saying had gone and that resonated with him when he stepped out into the room.

Abigail came back from attempting to get her parents attention and looked at the person retreating away from her.

She has a chaperone too, and I'm supposed to be looking at the stands.

"Wait! Can I go round with you?" The arrival of a huge shadow and then her new friend's disregard of it, gave her both panic and comfort in equal measure.

At Abigail's response, Ricochet stopped and turned to face her again.

"Sure thing! I was thinking about checking out the Avengers. World's Mightiest Heroes sounds like a cool gig to get into. Do you wanna take a look too, or should we look around elsewhere first? We've got all day, so I don't mind looping around the place with you." Her adult shook off his shock over the fake robot monster and went to Abigail's parents.

"Hi, I'm Roger. Seems my kid's taken a shine to yours. I hope we're not causin' any trouble. Ricochet's always lookin' out for the younger ones, makin' sure they don't get stepped on in this big world and all that." His chattering could have been nervous, but his demeanor gave the impression he talked a lot as a matter of course.

Gwen turns to look at the hologram.  "It's kind nice when that sort of thing doesn't involve explosions.  I wonder if that's a robot or a kid in a suit."

She turns back to the conversation.

"The history is kinda complicated.  There were a bunch of clones of Spider-Man, and there was a Spider-Man from the future who I think went back home and I guess there was a Spider-Woman before this one.  Spider-Woman is with the Avengers and sometimes SHIELD, I think she's around this party somewhere.

And Spider-Man of course.  He says he met dozens of Spider-people from other dimensions but I can't tell if he's just messing with me."

"Webs are the best way to get around New York.  Way faster than the train and nobody gets in your way." (unless they're trying to kill you)

Abigail's dad barely gave Roger a glance. "Nathan, and this is Camilla. If Abi wants to, then it's fine. Sweetie, we'll meet you here for lunch."

Abigail nodded. "Alright, Avengers first then. "Although, a mighty hero isn't really.." she checked her parents were otherwise engaged. "..my ..umm it sounds like a lot of trouble."

Xié Zhèn leans forward as well, listening thoughtfully as Rendal confides in her, and nods meaningfully.

"I know."

Interestingly, she looks utterly unsurprised by his revelation, though appreciative of his trust in her.

She ponders for a moment.

"So what have you learned so far?  As of now... who is Rendal?"

"well I've learned Rendal is nervous, clumsy and embarrasses easily" he said blushing "oh and being 14 is a pain..... Why couldn't I have been made as an adult.... Dr strange said it was something to do with the power I was to contain... An adult would have burned out where as a child was more pliable" he added

The girl ponders these words thoughtfully.

"'Why' is a very interesting word.  But the answer is... multi-layered."

She regards him with an interesting mix of curiosity and wariness.

"You seek to learn.  How much do you really want to learn about 'why'?"

Rendal looked a little Confused "I want to learn everything I can. But I know that will take a lifetime"

He decided to change the subject a bit as his new friend was focusing on him

"where do you come from? Tell me a bit about you I have no history but you do. Where do you live? When did your powers appear?"

"Oh, that's not too complicated" Jubilee said, trying to sound more experienced than she actually was. Actually, it made her head spin, but she didn't want to break the tough-girl image she was going for. "We've got a couple of people from the future... one of them told me I was going to be The Last X-Man, which is cool. And kinda worrying."

"The web-slinging is totally awesome! Talk about getting around in style. Do all the Spider-people do that?"

"Mutants have a bad history with giant robots. I don't mind seeing them explode, it's when they don't explode they cause trouble." she said. "Well, if you want to know if he's man or machine, why don't we go ask him? This is supposed to be a party.

The young man at the Fantastic Four booth was idly looking over a brochure while talking to the attendant.

"As a future Future Foundation member, I'm quite sure you won't have any trouble understanding my interest in the Fantastic Four's offerings. You may have heard of me. Doctor Otto Octavius? Yes, I am fourteen years old, and yes, I have a doctorate in nuclear engineering, and no, the sun thing was not a standard by which to judge my work. The demonstration simply had a miscalculation, and it won't happen again. Now--"

The giant robot that got everyone's attention certainly got Otto's, and after it shrank back down, he shot a quick glance to the booth attendant.

"Please excuse me, I'll be back shortly." And Otto started on his way over towards the kid genius and his misbehaved mech.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:03, Mon 14 June 2021.

When the giant Doom Vader hologram appeared, Max took a step back, crouching slightly into a ready stance. When it shrunk, and the kid responsible spoke up, he relaxed as he shook his head, "Really, Steel Ninja? What the hell kinda name is that? I mean, if you're gonna come up with a superhero name, wouldn't you spend a little more time thinkin' somethin' better up?"

He rolled his eyes as he turned back to Svetlana, "That's not exactly normal here either. But then, a gathering like this is sure to bring out the crazies, right? Anyway, Avengers? You must be pretty damn cool then, huh? But yeah, anyone showing that much interest in ya is probably not someone you want to sign up with. Too much baggage there. At least that's what I'm thinkin'."

"Sure, if you don't need to work the booth.  You're really not selling it very much anyway with the last X-man thing - going to make recruits think they're doomed.  Or maybe it doesn't count if you're not a mutant?  I'm pretty sure I'm not a mutant." 

Gwen starts heading over to the robot with Jubilee.  As she walks she says

"Spider-woman doesn't use webs, she's got this gliding thing she does that's pretty fast but she gets mad if you call it flying.  I think the common thing is sticking to walls."

“Who would put the mass maximizer button where the presence thruster should be?” Grey complained. “You Eartheners have a unique perspective on technology.” “We call ourselves Earthlings, Grey.” Cam admonished. “And unless you want to advertise that you are from elsewhere, you probably should just say people. Oh great, we’ve drawn a crowd. Some tech specialist I am going to look like. I will be lucky if I get a position with the janitorial staff.”

Cam looked around and decided that he probably should say something else before things got worse. “ I didn’t build this midget mech, I just pilot him. Have robot, will travel. But I might rebuild him if he doesn’t follow instructions. I am a robotics engineer, but together we can bring the power of a small tank.”

Cam wondered if anybody was buying his spiel. Future Foundation/Fantastic Four? Probably no chance. Avengers? Probably not even for a west coast team. SHIELD probably wanted to dismantle them already, robot and kid both. Maybe Damage Control had a school.

Jubilee frowned when Ghost-Spider told her she wasn't selling it very well, a little stung. "The future isn't like that, ya know? Just the fact that those future-folks are here and not there now changes the future.  We'll be fine."

"Not a mutant, huh. How'd ya get your powers?" she asked curiously. "Spiders aren't exactly know for their gliding. But I guess Flying Squirrel Woman wouldn't have sounded good."

"Hey, Gundam pilot! Nice suit, whose the tailor?" she called up to Steel Ninja.

“Right,” Svetlana nodded affirmatively to Max, then looked off to the side again in slight embarrassment. Hopefully it was not too apparent under the filter, but she really didn’t know how to take a compliment from a stranger – even if it was just about who she knew. Was that why she told him that? To impress him? Like she was just some ordinary teenager that wanted to be liked, not a person with a mission...

It was a weakness, but it felt nice to get along with someone for once. At least until she ruined it somehow. “...Although there might be some baggage with any of them,” the tall girl added, cryptically, eyeing some of the other booths and kicking herself mentally for being unable to resist. “Anyway, about that uniform,” she managed to look at the boy directly again, feeling inspired. “Do not think of it as clothes. Think of it as a pile of unstable molecules. You can easily reshape them into anything you want if they let you... or if you have the right tools.”

The girl nods slowly.

"'Where do I come from' is another interesting question... and it is actually related to your previous question of 'why'... but... it's complicated."

She takes a deep breath.

"A world-famous writer named William Shakespeare once wrote: 'All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players...' "

"One hobby of mine is writing collaborative fiction.  So once upon a time, I was writing a story about a girl in a superhero universe, and discovered the power to actually enter that universe as the character I was writing about."

"And that universe... is this universe."

"From the perspective of everyone living in this universe, this is their reality.  But this reality is actually embedded in a meta-reality, formed by those writing about the events here."

"So when you ask 'why did something happen or not happen', it is literally because it was written that way."

"Interestingly enough, the same applies to that meta-reality as well.  There are writers dwelling in a strange realm called RPoL, with strange names such as 'RPO SteamDragon' and 'OakMaster' and 'jamat'.  They shape this universe, yet there are writers shaping them from a 'real' world once-removed from the realm of RPoL.  And so it goes..."

"And there is yet an ultimate reality, written by an Ultimate Writer, that every level of meta-reality is embedded in."

"So I am an Empath, because I was written to be so, and because my writer is invested enough to care about this universe and those within it."

"And I can perceive things that others cannot, because I am from a meta-reality that sees beyond this one."

She takes another deep breath.

"Even though you want to learn, I know that was a long and complicated answer to a simple question.  You are kind to listen to it, for I do not share it with many.  I hope I didn't bore you too much..."

"not boring at all, strange but not boring but then I've seen my fare share of strange in my short time in existence and you don't even top the 10 most strange I've seen" he said with a shy smile not wanting her to think he was being rude about her.

Paul strode carefully over to the Avengers booth, lost in his own thoughts.  There were some wild things going on here tonight and he was honestly overwhelmed at everything he'd seen.  Like the kid who had dropped down in the giant robot thing, now that had been unexpected, and also kind of cool.  It was way more interesting than listening to his parents talking to recruiters, planning his future without ever asking him what he wanted.  About the only time he was ever involved was if his Father needed something translated.  Why did they even bother to drag him along?

He glanced over and noted that his Mother and Father were quietly talking to one another, waiting their turn to talk to yet another representative.

Well, if they don't need me, maybe I'll check things out my way.  Why not?  All these pamphlets and people telling you what you want to hear are about as exciting as watching seaweed dry.

So he spoke up for the first time in almost an hour since they'd had their 'talk' earlier.  He cleared his throat to get his Mother's attention. He refused to even try and talk to his Father since he'd made his feelings about his son very clear earlier.

"Mother, I think I'm going to go and find the little hero's room.  I'll be right back."

He didn't hesitate once she'd acknowledged him with a silent nod.  It was a relief to make a getaway from the tension.  Yeah she was still mad at him too.  She was just better at dealing with it than his Father.  Having turned away from her so quickly, Paul missed the sadness in his Mother's eyes as she watched him go...

Finally free to reconnoiter the place, Paul wandered about the surprisingly busy hall, taking it all in.  So much was going on, crazy stuff the likes of which he'd never have seen hanging around Nunavut.  It was honestly a thrill for him to realize he just might not be the weirdest person here tonight.  Back home, he stuck out, he was a pariah and everyone knew who the monstrous stone statue was.  No he really didn't belong there anymore but here, in this place, he almost blended in.

Lost in his thoughts he'd wandered to exactly where he knew he'd meant to go from the start.  He stood back a little, not wanting to bother anyone, and gazed in amazement at the giant robot, Steel Ninja.

"Now that is cool..," he said to no one in particular.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:26, Fri 14 May 2021.

"Squirrels aren't venomous either - I'm kinda jealous of that power.  Anyway, both of them tell me that Jess (Spider-woman's identity isn't secret) is definitely a 'Spider-totem'" airquotes "but Black Widow doesn't count."  She shrugs.

"For my powers, my band played in this abandoned warehouse and I got bit by a weird spider that was radioactive or alien or something, and then... superpowers.  I'm kinda surprised that it's not half the city with powers by now."

When they get to the mecha (not robot, don't say robot) Gwen says "Aren't ninjas supposed to be stealthy?"

She waves to Otto.  They'd been classmates at her old normal school, and Otto had been crucial in helping to duplicate Spider-Man's webshooters.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:54, Fri 14 May 2021.

The girl returns the smile shyly, and relaxes a bit.

"Thank you for not only listening, but for not immediately assuming that I am either kidding, lying, or deluded."

"When one person has a view of reality different from everyone else, those possibilities are likelier than the unique view being the accurate one..."

She looks away for a moment to scan the room, and back to her companion.

"Do you want to go visit any of the booths, or are you more comfortable waiting awhile?"

" I sure you are none of those after all I've only been alive 150 days, I was pulled together from raw magic in a dimension called Limbo and moulded to be the vessel of a great power that would bring chaos to the world."

" I have someone elses soul inside me, I am hunted by cultists and my guardian is none other than Dr Strange so if someone was to tell me the sky is pink and the see if yellow I'm inclined to believe them" again he smiled.

"I suppose I need to at least get some bags so I can show Dr Strange I was trying to join a school. I think I'll start at the Avengers table."

Her looked down at his feet then at Resonance through his unruly fringe " I'd like it if you want to come with me... I feel more confident if I'm not on my own" there was a grunt and a chitter from inside his jacket " ok not completely alone but you know what I mean"