Curious Things and Curious People

Angelo was a nerd. He accepted it. Embraced it. The library was a second home to him, a place he could relax. Nothing dangerous ever happened at the library. People looking for trouble or trying to be dramatic stayed about as far away from the library as they could.

So it was quiet. Maybe not dead quiet, but quiet.

He was in the process of flipping through a few books on space travel--specifically, how to survive in an environment with no atmosphere--when someone made a comment that was probably directed at him. It wasn't like he was the only person with a weird arm on the island (or even in the library), but...

Well, the odds were pretty good.

The speaker was a bit younger than him, sitting on air and obviously checking out his arm. Angelo paused, then shifted his arm out a bit to give him a better view, reaching down to hike up the sleeve. He hadn't asked, but it felt polite anyway, and Angelo didn't mind showing off his arm. It was good work, after all, even if it wasn't his work.

"Thanks," Angelo said. "Angelo Genovese. You new to the island?"

Maybe, but not necessarily. Lots of people were new, but it wasn't as if they were likely in the same grade.

"It does, yeah," Angelo said, flexing his fingers as a not-really demonstration. "Upgraded for that." He hadn't had it before, but he immediately shook his head when asked if he made it.

"Oh no, not at all. Way too technical for me. This is some high end stuff, so I went with a friend who has experience." He couldn't even imagine having to make it himself. He'd be lucky if he had a glorified stick.

But it was the mention of being from another dimension that most heavily drew Angelo's interest, and he re-shelved the book in his hand before turning his attention to Blair fully.

"You're from another dimension too?"

"Not quite a hopper," Angelo said. "Just the one. But the world I was from was, uh, damaged, so we evacuated here. You might have heard of it in the news if you've been here long." He wasn't going to go into further detail on that. Plenty of people had heard, and it seemed like their situations weren't all that similar. He was more curious in Blair's home, so he opted to simply ask.

Back in the narrow reality (or Halcyon City, for that matter), people weren't so forthcoming. But on Manta Carlos there was so much unevenness, such a distinct lack of shared experience. So people were, more often than not, willing to answer when you asked.

"What was your home like? Your original, I mean."

Angelo took a long moment to consider how he'd described it, trying not to look too surprised at the mom's a succubus. That was normal here, he had to remind himself. Even if it felt strange to just mention by the way my mom hooks up with dudes as a magic talent.

Maybe he didn't quite mean it that way.

"Kind of the opposite of mine. Magic wasn't hidden there either, but we didn't have supernatural stuff. No demons or anything, just powers."

"Not even close," Angelo said, leaning back almost imperceptibly. "Maybe ten percent had powers. Everyone else was just humans with... humanness. So we were pretty much like the narrow reality, for the most part."

He'd been one of them. No powers and desperate for them.

What a pain that had been.

"We weren't like that," he said after a moment. "Not officially, anyway. There was definitely a level of... 'oh this is cool' when someone had a power, but there were lots of powerless people in powerful positions. When people with powers started doing bad things, people with powers started fighting back. You seen any super hero stuff? MCU? DC? Anything like that? Ours were pretty similar, basically."