Homplot Wake Up Post

[thethirdwonder]

Normally, Cassie wasn't one to spend a lot of time in bed. But lately, or really the last two days, it had taken everything she had to get out of bed in the morning. Someone people might have been excited to find out the king of the Greek gods was their father but for Cassie, it just made her miserable. The powers she'd felt she'd earned for her bravery now felt cheapened. It just...it just wasn't fair.

And because she'd spent more time in bed, she knew instantly when she woke up that she wasn't on the island. After the events in the Fire Nation the month before, Cassie woke up quickly and sat up at the ready, wanting to be prepared for wherever she'd found herself. It was with a small sigh of relief when she realized that she was asleep on the couch of Young Justice headquarters. She took a deep breath and made herself float for the first time in years. Even through her depression, she couldn't help a small smile.

Comments

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

After the surprise of waking up in a completely different universe, and the annoyance of being greeted by people I've ticked off, I find myself the unwelcome and forced guest of a bunch of super teenagers. Greeeeeat. I'm getting the feeling nobody is going to ever get over that incident with me sticking Backbiter through that comic. And Cissie knows that back home I was able to raise an army capable of overthrowing the Olympian gods, so I'm not really all that surprised they want to 'keep an eye on me.' They're a bit limited with what they can do to me though, because I really haven't done anything that could be considered a crime since I left my own world. It's not like I'm going to fight them or they can lock me in prison. So now it's devolved into a case of reverse babysitting.

I want a distraction from the situation, so I go back to the room I woke up in with all the computers and video games. I was never really into video games before, but I've taken it up since all that equipment showed up in my hut on the island. I load up Call of Duty and start playing the beginning levels. I've gotten better, so I'm breezing through the easy stuff. The plus side of having imposed hospitality is that I get free food, shelter, and even some entertainment. Maybe we'll even order pizza later. Could be worse. I'm leaning forward on the seat with a controller in my hand and Backbiter sitting next to me as someone enters the room.

"Hey there."

My eyes are still on the screen, but I still notice and acknowledge whoever it is. Maybe somebody new is feeling the need to 'tell off the bad guy.'

[OOC: Luke's top-level for all]

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

Once Sam had calmed down and learned what had happened, he was only slightly less freaked out than when he had no clue what was going on. Apparently Cassie had disappeared to take care of who knows what so Sam was pretty much on his own for the moment.

First things first, Sam had checked to see if he or his family existed at all in this reality. It hadn't taken him very long to find out that they didn't. After that he had raided the fridge for all the things he couldn't get on the island and then set out to find where the video games were. Cassie had mentioned them enough times that he knew they had to be around.

With a soda in one hand an a stash of beef jerky, Doritos, and red vines in the other he poked his head in one of the rooms and smiled when he realized it was the right one. Someone was already in there, some guy with a sword, Sam thought he had seen him around the island before, playing.

"Hey, you mind if I jump in on this?"

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

I take a moment to crane my head and look at the guy before returning my gaze to the enemies I'm eliminating.

"No problem, jump right in. You're from the island, aren't you?"

I'm fairly certain of that. I've seen him around.

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

Sam sat down next to the other guy and set his stash of snacks on the floor. This was what he should be doing right now, back in his world. He should be crashing on someone's dorm couch playing video games and eating crap food. Instead he was in another universe, crashing on a couch in a superheroes headquarters worrying about Cassie and when she was going to be back.

"Yeah, I am," he said, picking up a controller. "Sam Witwicky. I've been there for just over a month."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

I pause the game and turn to face Sam.

"I'm Luke," I say, not bothering with a last name like usual.

"Are you one of the superhero-type people from here?"

I, sure as Hades, am not. I've got no idea if Sam is just here to play video games or 'keep an eye on me.'

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"Uh, no. No costumes or uniforms or powers for me," Sam said. He wasn't exactly a completely normal guy, or at least he had some abnormal friends in the Autobots, but he wasn't going to share his whole life story with someone at the moment.

"I have no idea why I'm here. Put they have junk food and video games so for the moment, I'm going to just roll with it."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

"Good enough for me," I reply. "In fact, that's my plan for now."

I save my game and exit completely. I'll just assume Sam is a relatively normal guy who's got no idea how unpopular I've just become with the local crowd here. It might be good to have someone around here not hate me yet. So, I guess we'll just hang out.

"Go ahead and pick something. I'm not real good at video games yet, but I pick it up quick."

I'd say I've got pretty good reflexes and can think on my feet. It's not just good for live combat.

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"Well, let's see what they've got then," Sam said, standing up to flip through the stack of games that was by the TV. He wondered if there were any that were unique to this world, it might be cool to try out a few of them.

"Alright, how about Left for Dead 2? That way if we don't pick it up quickly we'll both die horrible, zombiefied deaths. So let's hope we rock the learning curve."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

"Horrible, zombified deaths it is," I say casually.

I reach for a handful of Doritos, then load up the game. The figures on the screen make me think of the skeletal warriors we summoned to attack Percy. They were much more bad-ass than the things depicted on the screen.

It's kind of strange how all of the sudden I'm hanging out with this guy I don't really know. But not too bad. Maybe I should do this type of thing more often on the island.

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"So what kind of world do you come from?" Sam asked as the game started up. It was the version of the "How 'bout this weather?" question on the island, especially since the weather on the island didn't change all that much from what Sam had seen.

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

"Came to the island from California, Earth, early 21st century. Except superheroes like Superman and Batman are just comic books to me."

I stop there. I'm not sure I want the discussion to go too much further down that path. Saying 'by the way, I'm a demigod who's putting Western civilization to an end' doesn't often score me a lot of points.

"You?"

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"I spent two days at Princeton before coming here," Sam said. Technically he had spent some time in Egypt just before coming here too, but he didn't think that was necessary to mention to everyone.

"Before that, it was in a place called Tranquility. And I didn't have any superheroes, ninjas, cyborgs, wizards, or time travelers outside of fiction."

He did have giant, alien robots, but he never said he didn't have those. Sam wasn't exactly hiding that fact from people, just from Cassie, and since Cassie was in this world right now, he was trying to keep that information to a minimum.

"Well, except time travelers in the way that everyone is a time traveler because we move forward in time. That usually doesn't count though."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

"So, do you know what's going on here? I saw people on the island sleep for a few days having dreams they were somewhere else. Are we really still back on the island sleeping?"

Even though I've had a couple encounters with the magic of Tabula Rasa, I don't claim to understand it much. Maybe Sam knows what the others are thinking.

[slowspeedster.livejournal.com]

So he'd probably gotten a little carried away with eating, but eventually, he ended up looking for an X-Box break. He hadn't really had one in a while. Unfortunately, the system looked to be occupied. By someone who seemed to really enjoy the make-believe violence.

"I'd almost forgotten I'd left those here collecting dust." It hadn't been anything he would have wanted to play after getting shot.

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

"This yours?"

Right at that moment I take another guy out. Shot cold dead with a bullet to the brain. And I even get points for this!

"It's nice. I'm getting better, I think."

I would've liked to say I played stuff like this when growing up, but Camp Half-Blood doesn't let campers have much of anything they didn't have back in ancient Greece.

[slowspeedster.livejournal.com]

"I lost interest after I got shot," Bart said, simply. "It put a lot of things in perspective."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

I don't answer right away, but, no, I don't stop the shooting game. If he asks to play some other game, fine, but I'm not going to shut it off just to pamper the guy.

"Tough break, I guess."

I shoot a few more enemy soldiers. Why? They're enemies, and I'm on a mission. Maybe the game's a good life lesson.

[slowspeedster.livejournal.com]

"It changes the view of things. Even more than that time I was catching machine gun bullets and the one I missed grazed a friend," Bart said, not really looking at the game. "But I never really liked guns in the first place. The only reason exist is to kill people. Like swords."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

I'm listening to him and I really like that end part. Like swords. Nice. Now I know his angle here.

"You must be Bart or Kon. Look, I haven't done anything to anyone since I came to Tabula Rasa. I'm not out to hurt people just for an evil chuckle. If you don't give me a problem, I won't give you any. I'd even leave you guys alone in your headquarters here and live off the streets, but Cassie told me to stay here."

[slowspeedster.livejournal.com]

"I'm Bart," he said, looking at him. "And to be honest, I don't really know the whole of what happened between you and the girls. But Cassie's in charge of this team in this time, and she's always been a firebrand."

He shrugged a little, running his hand through his hair. "Things seemed so much more black and white, when we were just Young Justice. The good guys just were. But it's never that simple."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

Firebrand? I'd agree with that. I've already paused my game to talk to Bart without messing up my mission.

"No, it's not. Good? Evil? Whatever."

I don't even think I know the difference anymore.

"So, what's this Young Justice thing all about? You guys have super powers, right?"

[slowspeedster.livejournal.com]

"Most of us, yeah. It doesn't take powers to be a hero, I mean, look at Batman, right?" Bart said, deciding not to broach the part about good and evil. His own views had changed a lot with the black ring.

"It was a place where we could be ourselves. Where the grown-ups didn't interfere, didn't judge every decision we made. We were all viewed as junior versions. My cousin, the Flash? He's a total hypocrite. Doing the exact same things he talks about hating when he was Kid Flash.

"But for me, this ended years ago. So I don't see it the same way Cassie does. She still can't imagine any other team. I remember that, I even remember exactly how it felt to be here back then, but it isn't who I am now."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

I never really considered the fact that Batman actually didn't have powers. Now that Bart mentioned it, though, he just seems to be a really skilled guy. I had the standard share of comics and cartoons when I was a kid, but I've been living in very different worlds and never thought about that kind of stuff since. But this shows I could cut it here if this wasn't just some dream. I don't think of things I can do as 'comic-book' powers, but I think I can hold my own with them if it came to it.

And, Bart is Kid Flash, huh? The Flash is the super-fast guy in red tights. So that's what he meant about catching bullets. He meant literally picking them out of the air. Pretty good.

"So, this Young Justice group is just a bunch of young heroes doing what they want to? There's nobody lording over you, controlling or directing you? That actually sounds pretty good."

I nod my head as I think about it. Much better than Camp Half-Blood. In some ways that place is like a concentration camp.

[slowspeedster.livejournal.com]

"Well, Red Tornado's our adult supervision. He always tries to keep things from getting too far out of hand, and the League sometimes steps in. We even had a parent/mentor night once. I understand Cissie's and Cassie's moms got into some sort of fight," Bart said, trying to think how to explain things.

"The thing is that we needed a place to make mistakes. Do the things we thought were right at the time and turned out to be really stupid. The older heroes treat us like kids, which means they try to shelter us a lot. I'm not really sure how to explain it. I've never had any other life."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

"So, Bart, where do I crash later tonight? Do you guys keep a spare bed around here?"

Might as well get that out of the way so I know what I can expect. I'm not going to go knocking door to door looking for an empty room. If I don't wake up in Tabula Rasa, I might as well enjoy the few nights' sleep I get here. Sleeping in the streets isn't so comfortable.