What's the difference between self discovery and self destruction

[iamtetsuo]

WHO: Tetsuo Shima and YOU
WHERE: Any city; just place it in the subject line or mention it in a thread. He'll be doing a lot of roaming around.
WHEN: Month of September
WHAT: Catchall open log for chaos or general activities - Tetsuo's been unleashed on America and intends to play garrys mod with it. If you wanted an excuse to fight an out of control psychokinetic, here it is
WARNINGS: General villainy (property damage, violence, possible drug use mentions, theft...) and potentially interrupting Kanedas at the end of threads

[It's a brand new month, and a brand new start; and with it comes so many brand new ways to find trouble.

You can expect to find Tetsuo engaged in normal shenanigans, like any ordinary sixteen year old. Things like threatening natives! Causing accidents or generally ignoring all traffic laws! Raiding drug stores! Hanging around on park benches or generally wandering aimlessly! Suffering from extreme migraines! All this and more in your hometown!

He's taken his motorcycle and psychic powers and hit the streets of America on a quest for ... you know what, we just don't know. The good news is, beyond checking churches for Crane, and making sure that his (glove-covered) wrist could say CRIMINAL from here until forever, he doesn't seem to have any set goals in mind on what to do. All that's clear is he can do what he wants, and he's not taking no for an answer to anything.

Feel free to fight him, talk to him, join in, what have you -- you're free to stop him but he's going to either run at the end if it's clear he can't win, or get you out of the way somehow. If you'd like to change this, talk with me and we can work something out.

I'll throw starters out on request, but please feel free to make your own. If you'd like to fight, check out his permissions first, but this is a general invitation to fight without any preamble or excuses.]

Comments

[superposition]

[But lectures and technobabble are his default modes of communication D: No you're right, though. He shouldn't drag this out.]

What it does is cut down on the pain.

[iamtetsuo]

By inhibiting my power or some shit... right?

[Because if it does that, this conversation's over. It hurts to talk already.]

[superposition]

No. [Probably not. At least not significantly.] I could explain to you how it works, but that's a whole other lecture, and you're not here for one of those.

[His powers light up again, and his eyes along with them, as he warps the scraps he picked up into something not unlike a wristwatch, albeit without a face, and with a blocky, function-over-form aesthetic that actually wouldn't look too out of place in Akiraverse. The surface is plastic, matte silver. This only takes him a second or two, and he holds the finished product up for Tetsuo to have a look at. It's still inactive, so if you were to put it on as-is it wouldn't do anything yet, but this is all there is to it.]

There. See? Nothing fancy.

[iamtetsuo]

[The most skeptical stare ever. Whatever that does, he doesn't remotely begin to trust it. There's a few ways to test what it MIGHT or might not do...]

Go on, then... Try it on.

[superposition]

[He's... mildly surprised at being asked to do that, but.] Very well.

[He snaps the device onto his free wrist, and turns it on while he's at it, since evidently that's what the kid's concerned about. He can sort of feel an effect from it, like a dim, barely perceptible buzzing at the back of his skull, as the device tries to correct for a resonance that isn't present. But it's harmless, he knows. He gives it a few seconds, enough to show that he's not dropping dead or anything, then shrugs with a nonchalant frown, as if to say What did you expect?]

[iamtetsuo]

[He doesn't know what he expected; that's exactly why he's making someone else test it out first. Just to make sure it doesn't do anything. The fact that he's willing to demonstrate on himself goes a long way - it means it just might not be that dangerous.

Shit, his head's killing him... and it's only getting worse, enough to make his vision swim now. He's trying to keep focused on a conversation, but it's slipping away from him pretty quickly here. Tetsuo breaks eye contact to squeeze his eyes shut, sweat beading on his forehead.

He doesn't trust this whatsoever. But he can't stand the pain, and he's got no alternatives... except this.

What should he do? Honestly, he doesn't even know. There's got to be a catch, some reason this guy's doing this. Something that thing does he doesn't know about.]


What's the...catch...

[superposition]

[Qubit shakes his head. He could have added ulterior functions to it, but what for? There's no point sabotaging the tenuous cease-fire with anything less than full disclosure.]

No catch. Call it a show of good faith. Although I won't say I'm being entirely selfless. Ideally I'd rather not go the way of that truck just this minute, so I'd say this benefits us both.

[iamtetsuo]

[Self-preservation... THAT'S a motive he can understand.

Fine. He'll play.]

If you're lying... you're a dead man.

[superposition]

Of course. [His voice is still calm, but firm, measured. Though he's justifiably cautious - they both know Tetsuo's perfectly capable of making good on that threat, after all - he's not really afraid, per se. This isn't by far the most powerful, unstable, or menacing person Qubit's ever attempted to bargain with. Must be Tuesday.]

[Anyway, he powers down the resonator, takes it off, and tosses it underhand to him.] Just hit the green button when you're ready. Shouldn't need too much tweaking.

[iamtetsuo]

[The resonator halts in midair, drifting steadily towards Tetsuo's outstretched palm. He turns it over, inspecting it, then stares defiantly straight into the guy's eyes as he puts it on his left hand, or tries to; his hand's too unsteady to get it the first couple tries until he holds it down with his mind and forces it to stay still. Eventually he has to break eye contact, but gets the stupid thing on his wrist.

He feels like he missed something here, but he can't think of what else to check on it. And he can't really think straight enough to care beyond that, anyway. If it'll get rid of pain that's what he really, really wants. Enough that he'll take the risk.

Tetsuo raises his eyes back up to the guy - whatever his name is, it really doesn't matter - and pushes the button.]

[superposition]

[The device boots up again without ceremony, the button lighting up dimly as the only external sign it's running. It takes a few seconds to ramp up to full effect, but the difference should be dramatic. The pain won't disappear completely, but it will diminish significantly, i.e. if it was a 12 it should go down to something like a 5 or 6.

Qubit watches silently, though he's ready to port himself away at a moment's notice, just in case. The resonator should work. Of course it'll work. Sure, the reasoning that led him to this solution was a series of educated guesses more than actual evidence, and if he guessed wrong he might be seriously injured or worse, but... his intuition's pretty reliable, yeah? It'll work. It had better bloody work.

He's got a hell of a poker face, though, and he keeps any hint of his internal second-guessing off of it. What Tetsuo gets is unflinching eye contact.]

[iamtetsuo]

[Tetsuo's face is confirmation enough - the device does something at least. He slowly manages to straighten, arms dropping to his sides, waiting for a bit.

Then whirls partly to the side to pick up part of the truck and hurl it at nothing in particular - he seems to be testing to make sure he still can. When it does what he wants it to, his face slides into a grin.]

[superposition]

[So far, so good. Qubit allows himself a wry smile. Of course it worked. See? Nothing to worry about. He goes ahead and deactivates his force field (finally), deciding to trust for the moment that the kid will be a little less hostile to him after that. (Not like he can't turn it back on again if he's wrong, anyway.)]

How is it?

[iamtetsuo]

Man... this works much better than that other shit.

[And considering it doesn't fully get rid of it, that's kinda sad.]

[superposition]

[Other- oh, the drugs. Of course. Makes sense that he'd be self-medicating, if it was that bad.]

Good. Given some time, I may be able to fine-tune it further, but for now...

[for now, they can wait till his system's clear of other variables. He'd like to get an idea of the kid's baseline personality, too, while he's at it. Plenty of people will lash out when they're hurt and cornered.]

You have a name?

[iamtetsuo]

Yeah.

[So is he gonna give it, or-]

Tetsuo.

[He'd ask for the guy's name, but that'd imply he cares enough to have it.]

[superposition]

Tetsuo. [He'd say nice to meet you, but you did kind of attack him. Out of curiosity -] Japanese?

[iamtetsuo]

[stands a little straighter at that, actually lifts his head some - yep, and proud of it.]

I'm sure as hell not American.

[superposition]

Heh. [Okay, he likes that enthusiasm.] I've been lucky enough to get to visit now and then. Marvelous country. [Granted he says that about a lot of places for one reason or another, and of course he's referring to the Japan in his own world, but still.] As for me, I'm Qubit.

[iamtetsuo]

Visit?! No one 'visits' Japan. Not from America.

[It's hard to remember how different his Japan must be sometimes]

[superposition]

You'd be surprised. At least in my world, it's quite a popular destination.

[iamtetsuo]

[The most incredulous stare. He WOULD be surprised. But.. this might be a chance to potentially get some information on something that's been bothering him. Some things just don't match up... and people come from different timelines, but he's always willing to interrogate.]

America not done with it or something?

[Plus... with the buzz in his head faded, he's actually in what counts as a good mood for him these days. Enough to want to talk.]

[superposition]

[Qubit frowns, puzzled. The two countries are on good terms where - and when - he's from, but in other worlds, other times...]

It's not like that. [beat] What year was it when you left?

[iamtetsuo]

2019.

[superposition]

[So not World War 2, anyway.]

Ah. That's a few years ahead of me. To the best of my knowledge, Japan and the U.S. were still on friendly terms in '09. Did that change?