etraya | un: theball

Hey. Hope everyone's recovering from that stupid maze okay.

I'll just get right down to my point of inquiry. For a place that claims that we're meant to save the universe, I've noticed a pretty dramatic human-bias around here that strikes me as kind of odd, considering how diverse the universe actually is.

So I'd like to get a show of hands. Who here is from a world where humans are the only sentient species around, and who here is from a world with more than just humans kicking around? What other sorts of species are around? I'd like to know how much of it is selection-bias based on who's running this place and how much of it is them drawing from places that just don't have any non-human populations. I wouldn't mind hearing about what sorts of non-humans you have around either, but that's probably less important, statistically speaking.

Lastly... what do you see when you look at this picture?

[ Inserted is a photograph of a suave looking goblin man in a tuxedo with a pencil-thin moustache. He's holding a champagne flute towards the camera with his arm around -- something. If you've been infected by the curse, you'll see the goblin man's arm is around a black tabaxi woman, but if not, his arm looks as though it's simply hanging in mid-air. ]

[ OOC NOTE: due to the extremely low likelihood we'll ever get kalina in-game, the picture is just for flavour! if you'd like your character to be infected by the shadowcat and thus able to see her image in the photo, it would be due to any circumstance in which any of riz's bodily fluids were absorbed into their own body in some way, i.e. blood or saliva. feel free to handwave a circumstance in which that could happen, even if it's riz's blood lingering on one of the labyrinth's traps that then got into an open cut of theirs, a glass in the labyrinth he drank from that they then used, etc., etc.! Please see this comment for more information! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ah, someone i know has an invisibility quirk too. it's working really well, i couldn't tell there was anyone there at all.

[ Wait... is the person technically naked??? Hagakure only does that when she needs maximum stealth. Or maybe the person in the photo has found a way to include their clothes in the invisibility field... ]

That's not quite what's going on here, but that's okay. Just call it a little academic test of mine.

But I was curious what you were talking about, when you mentioned quirks. I don't think we have anything like that where I'm from. It's some sort of genetic mutation in humans? That also give you guys powers?

we're not entirely sure how they came about, and the nature of quirk factors is still being studied, but they are genetic.

some give us powers, some can change our appearance from how humans all used to look, and some have effects that are only seen when they're passed on.
some are similar to each other, but each person's quirk is unique to them.

imagine how much variety there is when you take into account about 80% of the world has one.
it's rare to encounter someone in my generation who doesn't.

[ That used to be him. ]

Sucks for the 20%.

[ Sorry, Deku. He has no idea how close to home that will hit. ]

Weird that it would just come about all of a sudden. Almost like there's some sort of cosmic reasoning behind it. Especially being that each one is unique. If they're genetically linked, wouldn't parents pass down their own Quirks to their kids?

I've talked to some other people with mutations who categorize themselves as non-human. But I'm guessing that since it's 80% of the world, you guys still stick with the whole human thing.

[ Thanks, total stranger!! Izuku takes it in stride. After all, his cover story is saying that his Quirk "appeared" like some medical miracle at 15. Everyone else's Quirk manifests by the age of 4. Izuku has to pretend to be a natural-born Quirk user. ]

quirks are definitely passed down, but as with other genetic traits, they do change and mutate over time.

where i'm from, to call someone not human is to call them not a person, and that would be an awful thing to say back home.
but apparently the situation here is entirely different. this is also like something out of a comic book...

wait, then what do you call yourself?

That was my first thought too. The un-person thing, I mean. But I figure it's best to let people define themselves, and I can just call them whatever they'd like to be called. Which means I'll be sure to call you human, even if you do have the same kind of genetic mutation. What's your Quirk, then?

I'm a Goblin. We've got different physiology from humans, so that makes the whole self-definition thing a lot simpler.

it's nice to meet you.
goblin is a word in my language, but they're only stories where i'm from. if i was still back home and someone on the internet told me they were a goblin, i'd just think they were trying to troll me.
uh
hm

[ Oops. ]

do trolls exist in your world as well??

my quirk is registered as super strength. everyone has to do it with their city hall, since some quirks can be dangerous or affect us in an emergency.

[ It's not a lie, per se. He does have his Quirk registered as that. It's just not the whole truth. ]

Yeah, Trolls exist. And probably wouldn't be happy that their name is synonymous with tricking people for fun in other worlds. But in that case, I'm guessing your guys' impression of Goblins isn't so great either.

But hey, as far as superpowers go, super-strength is a pretty sweet one. You kind of hit the jackpot, huh?

yeah it's not flattering...
it's really weird that we have these words in common. almost like our stories came to life.
hey, do you have any weird stories about humans? i don't care if they're bad.

well my quirk has its drawbacks but i won't say them here. call it a trade secret?

I can guess a few of the drawbacks. But I won't. I can respect wanting to keep some things close to the chest.

Calling us stories come to life feels kind of weird, honestly. I'm more likely to believe that there was some sort of planar bleed between our worlds where some of your people somehow managed to see ours? But that's going down the kind of speculation I'm not really qualified to get. [ He's a traditional mystery guy, not a cosmic mystery guy. ] All the weird stories I have about Humans are just because Humans can be weird. We've got Humans where I'm from too -- one of my best friends is a Human. We just have a lot of other kinds of people too.

[ Izuku sweats a little. What does this guy know about the drawbacks of super strength? Does super strength exist in his world? Even by the standards of Izuku's world, his so-called super strength is unusual. For one, his Quirk hurts him if not precisely controlled. Most other people have years and years to grow into theirs and don't have the same setback. ]

oh like... another world! go into a cave or get hit by a truck and accidentally end up there, that kind of thing. uh, none of that is based in science though. as far as i know none of that happens.

honestly your world sounds really interesting. and i do agree that humans are pretty weird.
do you miss your friend?

As far as I know, the only way you Planar Shift when you die is going to Heaven. Or Hell. Depending on how things have gone for you so far. But different planes can have an impact on each other even if we don't meet. So maybe something like that?

And yeah, of course I miss my friend! I miss all of my friends. They're great. But I got lucky and two of my friends were brought here too, so it would probably be greedy to complain too much about it. I don't think I'd really want them trapped here anyway.

i'd say the same thing, even if i have been very alone. i'd rather get out of here than have my friends trapped.

[ Little does he know he's about to meet one very shorty. Combined with the emotional weight of not knowing if he'd see anyone he knew again, it was overwhelming. ]

did i answer your question well enough?

Sorry about that. That sucks. Even if I'd rather they not be trapped here, I feel pretty lucky that my friends are here too.

You did, yeah. Thanks for that. I've got a lot to think about.

un: theball | text

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject