《Charlotte Powers: Diary of a Would-Be Superhero》xx48.11.10 / 15:39 / Thursday
Advertisement
xx48.11.10 / 15:39 / Thursday
FINALLY caught up with Other Charlotte. I didn't see her all day (I didn't see Veronica either, thankfully) but then after school finished I spotted her on the other side of the grounds, I was really puffed out by the time I caught her at the gates. I think maybe super-agility also carries with it a secondary power of, I don't know what to call it, enhanced respiration? Super breathing? Not-getting-puffed-while-you-run? Anyway, what I'm saying is that my breathing's gotten heavy after exercising before, or after going through training courses, but I've never had to spend a few seconds just bent over trying to get my breath back. I mean, I DID run as fast as I could and it's not like I'm unfit, I mean even without super-agility I'm pretty quick and I got a lot of stares as I ran, but it's a long way from my apartment to the school gates (I was actually at my door when I saw her). Maybe I should start doing running practice. Anyway, she waited patiently for me to get my breath back enough to talk, then I started things off with:
"I have no idea if I should apologise to you again or not, so could you please tell me if I should?"
To my surprise this actually worked really well! She perked up straight away and even smiled, and she said:
"No, you don't need to apologise to me. Thank you for asking."
Well, that made my day, as you can probably guess. She's not mad at me!
"Okay," I said. "Wow, good. I'm so relieved. I thought you were avoiding me or something."
"I thought that perhaps you wanted me to avoid you," she said. That really threw me!
Advertisement
"What?" I said. "Why would I want you to avoid me?"
"I don't know," she said. "I thought that the possibility existed and without further information it was safer to assume you didn't want further contact with me, and I acted according to that assumption. I now see that this assumption was incorrect, so from now on I won't avoid you. Is that okay?"
"Yes, of course," I said. "Um, you might have noticed, I'm new here."
"Yes, I did notice," she said.
"Um, so," I said, "actually I wanted to ask if you wanted to do something together."
"With you?" she said.
"Um, yes," I said. "With me. Who else would I be speaking for?"
"I don't know," she said. "But I thought I should check. I'm sorry if it was strange to do so."
"Sorry to ask this," I said, because I really thought I had to, "but you're not a robot, are you?"
"No," she said. "I don't think I am."
"Okay," I said, "just checking. Um. So, what do people normally do around here?"
"Study and work," she said.
"Oh," I said. "Um. What do YOU normally do?"
"Study."
"But aside from that?"
Other Charlotte thought for a moment about that, staring down at a patch of grass.
"Regular biological functions?" she said, as if asking approval from me. "What do you normally do, aside from studying?"
"Oh, well ... not much at the moment." I had to be careful then. I want to get to know Other Charlotte more but at the same time I don't want to just blab out everything about me. If she asked me directly 'are you a superhero?' then ... well, actually I guess I COULD say 'no', it's not like I have any powers now and I haven't felt very heroic lately. Huh. Maybe not having powers is actually GOOD for creating a Public Identity, it means I won't accidentally be forced to reveal anything. Then again I've barely even thought about that in days—losing my powers I mean—because there have definitely been more pressing issues. Anyway, back to Other Charlotte:
Advertisement
"Are you finished talking to me?" she asked. I guess I must have been quiet for a while. "I should go home."
"Oh. Um. Okay, yes, I guess you should. Me too, I have to ... eat, I guess."
For a while Other Charlotte just stared not-quite-at me, then she said something that made me feel better than anything anyone has ever said to me before:
"Do you want to eat with me?"
So now I'm on a bus, sitting beside her, writing this out as we go to her house. She lives on the edge of town, apparently. I'm going to meet her parents! It's weird but I didn't think of her as having a family, I kind of thought she was like me—you know, utterly alone—but it turns out she grew up here. I have to admit I'm half-dreading meeting her parents, if they're like her then it might be an awkward evening. Don't get me wrong, I kind of like how she is, at least it's interesting and she's not weird like the other students ... um, well, I mean, she IS 'weird', but in a different way to everyone else. Weird in her own personal way, instead of weird in a general kind of way. I don't even know what I'm writing now, I'm doing the journal equivalent of babbling so I'm just going to stop. I think we're close to her house anyway, she's getting a bit fidgety like she doesn't want to miss her stop, so I'll write again later.
Advertisement
- In Serial21 Chapters
A Castle in a Teacup
One might say that to anger forces beyond the ken of fragile breakable mortals is a bad idea, others might say that meddling in dark forces with little chance of gain is also a bad idea, they would both be right by on all counts but they forget to mention also how incredibly stupid combining both of those things are. Stupid people don’t last so long on the mystic side of things, normal folks who wander over to the other side have a tendency to do one of two things, either A. figure out that the best thing to do is keep their head down and not draw attention from any entity that refers to humanity as “you mortals” , or B. something horrifying happens to them. As you may have guessed I fell into the second category, mostly because I thought there was a third option. See I though there must be an option C, an option where I got to end up not as some shitty back ally wizard cowering at the chance of discovery, praying that one of my wards or spells wouldn’t be noticed by something that goes bump in the night. No I would be the one who rose above all that. I would never have to be afraid. Well I made a good attempt at it that’s for damn sure, but unfortunately for me it turns out there is not an option C. At least not for me…
8 92 - In Serial24 Chapters
The Dragon’s Kin
What would you think if you suddenly woke up in a dark place without a light? What if you found out that you are no longer human? When your memories as human slowly fade? What should this little dragon do!?
8 220 - In Serial13 Chapters
Shadow Reborn
Kinkaru is your average everyday twenty something. On a normal day he is pulled over by the police where he is racialy profiled and killed. He is given a second chance in a new magical world. His only request is that he be average. He will quickly learn that this new life is bound to be complicated. Follow him on his journey into a world filled with darkness and destruction.
8 136 - In Serial24 Chapters
The Choices We Make
The Moldy Donut is a derelict gateway through space that links two distance solar systems. It has been made obsolte by cheaper jump drive technology and is mostly abandoned. But a change in resource availability has made ring gates such as the Moldy Donut relevant again. A crew of technicians must battle the Donut's risks in order to bring just one of her segments back online.
8 80 - In Serial64 Chapters
Tales from the Triverse
Tales from the Triverse is part detective drama, part fantasy adventure and part space opera. I’m influenced by the likes of Iain M Banks, Isaac Asimov and ND Stevenson and work including The Wire and Gotham Central. It begins with an incident two hundred years ago which crashed three parallel universes together. Portals open up in 18th century London, sending England down a very different path. We pick up events in the 1970s, with the Metropolitan Police having established a new department to handle portal-related criminal activity. The story is about intolerance, immigration, multiculturalism and power. It’s about what happens when incompatible viewpoints are weaponised to seed discontent, and the efforts of some to create a fairer world. In the tradition of the best science fiction, fantasy and crime fiction, I’m using the setting to examine themes that matter to me in the real world. Who is it for?If you like science fiction or fantasy, or a mix of both, this is for you. It’s my first foray into crime fiction, but I hope if you’re a fan that you’ll enjoy yourself - especially if you’re looking for something a bit different. I write fiction that is optimistic, progressive and empathetic. Bad things can happen to good people in the stories, but the overall arc tends to be hopeful. Note that if it were a movie, Tales from the Triverse would be a 15 certificate in the UK.
8 125 - In Serial72 Chapters
The Girl Who Wanted To Marry Me (editing)
Maiinlove sa lalakeng, nagsimula sa sex. At papakasalan ito, ngunit iba ang kanyang dahilan.
8 167