metaheroes | Our Powers | Video

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[The message is public. He has too many people to send it to that he doesn't want to have to filter or tag individually. He's clearly up on a roof somewhere, bundled for the weather.]

I've put it off for as long as I can. I gave the social worker a story about wanting some time with study outside of school before interacting with my peers, due to an unfamiliarity with Earth, and they had me do a school online? For a little while.

But I've run out of time. I've run out of excuses and they want me to go to the meta school, but they said the teachers are Guild-Affiliated.

I'm not going to a school that'd encourage their students to join the guilds.

And I'm not staying with a fake family that hasn't earned my trust.

I'm only putting this message up so people know not to look for me. I have a plan and I've prepared for it. I'll be in touch. And reach out if I need help.

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[Someone's attempting to do a private video call with Hunter]

[He knows people are going to do one or both of two things, either try to talk him out of it, try to help him somehow. Or both.]

[He'll just have to deal with it. So he answers.]

Hey.

Hey. Do you have enough warm clothes and food?

[Jason recognizes the runaway mentality from himself and his own time being a homeless kid. So he knows trying to get Hunter to tell him where he is is a fool's errand. Instead, he's going to calmly let Hunter know he still has people he can turn to]

I have warm clothes, I have stockpiles of supplies, water, and non perishable food, weather and vermin-proofed hidden in places around the city. Up high where you'd have to fly to reach them. I have multiple tents in them and staked out places to shelter that aren't easy to reach by other people.

I figured out how to merge the flame and light glyphs into an orb to keep warm that lasts for hours, am talking on a - it's called a burner phone? So the guilds can't track me. It took forever for me to find out where to buy one.

And I bought something called a power...bank? To recharge my phone. That I can bring to a friend to recharge sometimes.

I did my research.

[Clearly.]

[Well, those preparations sound better than Jason expected at least. It's still not enough for him to relax over Hunter's wellbeing though]

The real test is if you got a shelter that can ride through a storm. Don't know if you've been told yet but I got a safehouse you're free to use above my bar too. Dylan and some of the others are allowed to use it too.

I know about it.

If you don't mind, I might shower and do laundry there.

[But not stay.]

[Jason has been very kind. Jason also doesn't seem that much older. But he's old enough to not slot into "peer" in Hunter's head. He owns a bar, even.]

[It's hard not knowing how to prove someone is trustworthy or not. Back home, he'd had proof about a few older people.]

That's fine. You're free to drop by there anytime. I got first aid supplies too. Hopefully you don't get hurt but if you do, you got a place for quick emergencies at least.

[Jason's trying to be careful and not overpromise anything. If there's a medical emergency, it might be difficult to take him to a clinic or a hospital that won't get a guild's attention. It's hard to know which ones will really respect patient confidentiality]

Thank you for just trying to help and not trying to talk me out of this.

[It wouldn't work and he'd be more likely to avoid Jason's help if he needs it.]

You're welcome. I've run away and lived in the streets before so I get not trusting most people. Those times were the hardest in my life but I felt it was better than what the system could give me. I just want you to be okay.

[His heart aches from seeing other homeless kids and knowing full well why they're on the streets. Traumas and hardships that were beyond their control can be like bombs onto a person's life]

I just can't trust the guilds.

They're too much like the covens that Belos put in place.

I made the mistake of trusting a system like that once. [He lifts his arm and holds up his wrist with the coven mark, lowers it again.]

I can't help but worry that this is somehow someone's way of trying to suck the life out of me a second time.

Edited 2022-12-25 15:48 (UTC)

[There's a brief twitch of anger in Jason when he sees the mark and Hunter talks about what Belos did. He keeps his facial expression calm though]

Yeah, I get it. Why risk yourself being in that position again? I just want you to be safe.

[He squirms. Slightly uncomfortably. But it's like having an ill-fitting shirt you might eventually grow into.]

I'm still getting used to that.

[Jason remains calm and patient]

Getting used to what?

People wanting me to be safe.

[Belos had not cared. At all. Even before he found out the truth, how disposable he was, Belos had always been fine with threats like witch's duels and him being put on the Knee and having to survive his way down.]

[He'd been one of the last to get there, leaves and pine needles stuffed in his clothes, mildly frostbitten, dehydrated because of the effort of thawing snow, shivering, hungry, and injured. But alive.]

[Belos hadn't been proud. He'd criticized him for taking so long and how everyone expected more of him for being his nephew.]

The only people that cared were the scouts and it was only because they were afraid of what Belos would do to them if something happened to his "nephew" on their watch.

Edited 2022-12-25 16:56 (UTC)

[Jason just barely stops himself from wincing at that response and what it means about Hunter's life before he got to this version of Earth]

It's different here. You got people who care about you because of you, not because of your status.

It's great you got friends here like Dylan.

I know. And it helps a lot with missing the friends I have back home who care, too.

[Although at this point, he's now been friends with his friends here longer.]

[He blushes when he thinks about Dylan.]

Dylan's definitely a good friend. He gave me a gift for this...Crustmas? Holiday. And he didn't even care that I hadn't known to get a gift for him.

Yeah. Christmas is meant to be a holiday to do something kind for someone, regardless if you get something in return. I got something for you too. You can set up when and where to meet.

Why did no one warn me about this?!

I didn't get anything for anyone.

[He's failing at friendship so hard.]

That's fine. I doubt anyone's gonna begrudge you for it, especially when you don't have a holiday like that back in your world and didn't know about this one.

You're technically not obligated to do anything.

Did that work?

They sent a truancy officer after me when I tried to not go.

I may have pretended I was deeply traumatized and needed time to be eased into it.

["Pretended," like he isn't. But at least in this he was faking it pretty hard in a way that was meant to get them to be lenient.]

[Being traumatized just manifests in different ways for him when he isn't faking it. Like running away to avoid being in anything resembling the covens.]

I maybe possibly even fake cried?

[He squints, and then says it like someone who's done some kind of dark deed:]

I did what I had to do. I'm not proud of myself.

Edited 2022-12-25 18:27 (UTC)

That worked?

[ Crying doesn't get kids out of what they have to do in his world. Most of the bad stuff is prophesied, so nothing gets them out of it. ]

Do you think it would still work if I've been going for 4 months?

Probably not but maybe you could fake some kind of emotional breakdown?

From what I've learned from my foster family, that seems to be a thing human school just does to people.

It sounds like it's probably trying to weed out the weak or force them to be stronger through emotional torture.

Is that what the meta school is like?

No, they’re not that smart.

[ That is, after all, how Camp Jupiter works by testing the kids upon arrival. It wouldn’t bother Nico so much if it ran like a demigod camp, even the militant Roman one. ]

They want to indoctrinate you, so it’s a school. And if they can’t do that, they’ve been making you practice your powers with them so they know what you can do. And they don’t believe you about your limits until they see them.

School back home is different. Well, Hexside is, at least. I don't know about the other magic schools.

The teachers and Principal Bump stopped caring about about teaching what was approved by the Emperor and let students study in as many magic tracks as they wanted. They get to choose all their classes and study any magic they want.

And they protected them when coven officials tried to forcibly brand them with coven brands and lock away most of their magic. They were willing to defy the Emperor for their students, and then hid them after finding out Belos was going to kill everyone with brands.

I don't want to go to school here. If I ever went to school I'd want it to be Hexside.

[If. As in, he's never gone to school.]

[ Nico is reminded that his world is not like Hunter’s world is not like this world. ]

I don’t understand- do you mean brand like Kool-Aid and Nutella or what you do to a cow?

Cows?

[He's seen them but he doesn't know it because he doesn't remember the name. He's seen a lot of pictures and read a lot of articles about animals since he got here. But Earth has a lot of animals.]

[The only animal he'd been familiar with coming in had been giraffes and that's only because in his section of the multiverse those absolute freaks were exiled to Luz's Earth by the witches and demons of the Boiling Isles. (The weirdos.)]

[Wolves, on the other hand...wolves are cool.]

Your coven mark...it's a permanent mark. Put into your skin.

There are a few different types of magic witches can do. The Emperor told everyone he could hear the will of the Titan. That even though its body was dead, its mind was awake, and that people using wild magic - unrestrained magic - made it sad.

He said it wanted people to choose only one type of magic. And then he figured out how to brand them with a coven mark that blocked out everything but that type of magic. It doesn't hurt but it locks most of a witch's magic away. Irreversibly.

I don't have magic but I still had to get one when I survived my trials to join the Emperor's Coven. [He holds up the mark on his right wrist, that his friends likely have seen many times now, and possibly just mistaken for a rad tattoo.] An illusion witch would be locked to mostly illusion magic if they joined the illusion coven, plant magic for the plant coven, and so on.

The marks were what he was planning to use to kill everyone, so he was trying to force the students at Hexside to get marked before the day he'd set off his trap.

[You know, dude was just over there trying to to magically castrate teenagers against their will to drain their lives in a mass murder ritual with the adults.]

They almost marked my friend Gus by force. With abomination magic, when he's one of the best illusionists in a generation. He loves illusion magic.

[He looks at his own mark, thinks about the lifesucking curse that had clawed its way up his arm in that final fight until he couldn't do anything but grit his teeth and shake on the ground.]

Edited 2022-12-28 00:21 (UTC)

[ Nico listens and does his best to follow. He still can't equate experiences fully, but - he gets it a little. Greek demigods don't get a brand, but the symbol of their parent glows over their head when their godly parent finally claims them. And that one mark defines so many things: who their parents are, who they'll call siblings, where their bunk is going to be from now on, how other people see and treat them, even their powers. They're stronger after that.

It's not like they can choose who their parents are, even if it would be easier to be someone different.

Maybe he does understand. ]

Your friend got away? Good.

[ He's escaped a school in epic fashion, too, but without any lasting damage. It's... a lot to consider, and without any clear way to help. ]

Have you asked any healers your wrist?

[Honestly, this scares Huvrye more than he'd like to admit. He hasn't been here long, but it's been long enough for him to know this city and this world can be dangerous, and as capable as Hunter is, he's still a kid - a kid out on his own now. He knows how many ways someone can be injured that would leave them unable to call for help...]

[He can't quite get the worry off his face before he replies, but at least he's tried.]

If you need a place to stay, let me know, and if you need anything, I can be there fast.

I...I don't think I'll stay with any adults here until I know them better.

[Any. It isn't just Huvrye he's hesitant to do it with. Even Jason hasn't quite earned enough trust for him to embrace essentially being cared for like a guardian.]

But I'll call if I need help. I'll make sure to leave my phone charged.

That's why I made this post. I don't want anyone to worry I've been kidnapped or something.

That's fair. If you run out of other options, my door's open.

[He's trying not to push. He's trying not to let the fear do the talking.]

Even if you don't need help, just let us know you're okay every once in a while, alright?

I'll check in twice a day. With a mass text. In the morning, so you know I'm up and alert, at night so you know I'm staying somewhere relatively safe and sheltered.

[The concern has been genuinely touching.]

Okay.

...be safe out there.

[Hunter may not trust him yet - not enough to stay with him - but that doesn't go both ways. Huvrye is still willing to take a bullet for this kid; barring being able to actually protect him, he can at least keep tabs on him and try to make sure he's okay.]

[(There's an element of helplessness here that's eating at him - like he should be doing more - but aside from checking in, which he's doing, or trying to make Hunter's choices for him, which he's not, what else is he supposed to do?)]

I will. Don't worry, I know how to take care of myself.

[He does.]

[But it won't be enough.]

If you need anything you can come to me, ok?

You can also come to Sleeper. They're younger than I am, and also a cat.

I know.

[And he does. He believes it as much as if Gus or Willow or Amity or Luz were to say it. Maybe even more - he's now known Dylan longer.]

I promise I will. Especially if I'm in trouble

[And he means it.]

Edited 2022-12-26 03:48 (UTC)

prolly not a bad idea to avoid the school. its getting worse about guild stuff. ive considered dropping out

If you do, just make sure you're ready. I used my guild credit card to prepare. Buy supplies. I did a lot of research and planning.

And if you have any unaligned adult you trust, that might take you in, that'll be safer than what I'm doing. For me, it's just that there are a few adults that I'm starting to trust but it's - it's not there yet. So I'd rather be on my own.

If you decide to run, too, like I'm doing? Let me know. I'll help you. We'd probably be safer together.

Edited 2022-12-26 09:01 (UTC)

dont worry about me. im 18 now, legally old enough to drop out

I understand your reasons, but please do reach out if you need anything.
Is there anywhere we can send you funds?

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Our Powers | Video | Open

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