Super what now?

[bestdadinamestris]

There's nothing Hughes loves more than his family.

There's nothing Hughes loves more than anything other than his family than information.

The Nexus was a strange cross-section of a universe that the Intelligence officer simply didn't understand. He was doing his best to accommodate all of the strange goings on in his mind by learning about and understanding them a little at a time.

The fact that there was a portal to and from the Nexus in his world was growing on him. The grand scale of technology beyond what was available in his world was daunting, but didn't come up as much since he avoided most of the shops in the Forum. And some of the characters that had appeared in the Nexus? Well, if they were human, it was understandable. Weird, but understandable. Everything else? Well... he was just going to have to take some more time for everything else.

He liked being in the Forum, picking up bits and pieces as he simply listened. That's how he got onto this whole thing about some people being "better" than others, in some rather unscientific sounding ways. He'd spent a while trying to glean more information about it and failed quite spectacularly. People simply accepted that's the way things were. Not Maes Hughes. He needs to know, and if listening isn't enough, then, well... Sometimes, it's just easier to reach out and gather information the old fashioned way - by asking.

"There's been a lot of talk in the forum lately about super heroes and people doing super human things. It's all a little too vague for my taste. If I don't know how to define something, I can't know it when I see it. So, my question to you is this: How do you define the term 'super hero?' Or, rather, what makes a person a 'super hero?'"

Comments

[smartass_captain]

"Any man that chucks an arrow by hand off a building and skewers a thug is a hero to me." Jim's looking a lot better today, reclining against a wall tossing some idle object he'd found from hand to hand while he replies.

I warned you :P

[brave_heart_verity]

Well, this whole subject gets a sigh from Verity. It's a particularly nasty socio-political debate where she comes from, the sort of thing she brings up when she's ready for Thanksgiving dinner to just be over and is ready to piss people off. (This is probably not long after they've run out of wine.)

"They're people with super-human abilities. Either through training or magic or science or accident. Radiation comes up a lot. Usually they're not the ones starting the fights. When we're lucky, they're the ones ending them. You know we have one here. You should talk to Clint."

[aw_hawkguy]

Here, Colonel Hughes, have a vintage Avenger, slightly damaged. He's even got his bow, today, and a few bundles of arrows, which he's shooting one at a time at a target he chose at random some distance away. It's a really bad day to be that street sign.

"We've got super heroes where I'm from. Mostly, it comes down to two things: you can do something most folks can't, and you help people with it." Twang.

His shot grouping is ridiculously tight for two hundred yards. He hasn't had one fall outside the "O" of "LOITERING" yet.

[notalldead]

"Hey, Hughes. Long time no see! Yer lookin' as hearty as a buck." The zombie gives a friendly wave before cramming his hands back into his jeans pockets. He hunches his shoulders in a shrug after considering the question for a second.

"Weeeellll, there's the fellas in the comic books who can fly and dodge bullets and whatnot, but that stuff's all made up. If I were to call someone real a superhero, those'd be the type who are real selfless. Real clever 'n strong, ain't afraid to pick a fight and finish it. Stickin' up for others, 'specially ones what can't do it for themselves. Brave to a damn fault. That's what I'd say."

[loose_cannon]

"If you figure it out, let me know. I hear that term thrown around like it's some thing I should know about."

He gives the question more thought. "Where I come from, some people are uh, exceptional in different ways. Some folks are demihumans, some have nanomachines, some tap into the ether better? I guess that would be my definition if I were to guess. Granted, heroism doesn't always come with that stuff."

He shrugs. "Sorry if that's just more jargon for you."