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Bronze Mettle (MCU/DC SI)

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(First thing's first. I'm a tulpa.
If you don't know what that is, there's a...
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Arrival: Puente Antiguo
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    • Xavier Bronze

    Xavier Bronze

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    (First thing's first. I'm a tulpa.
    If you don't know what that is, there's a brief summary and a few deeper research links on my profile.
    If you don't feel like researching shit, shit isn't gonna make much sense to you until you figure it out.
    Just an FYI.)    ​



    Urgh… What on earth did I drink last night?

    I feel sand between my fingers.

    That better not be catsand. I'm still in charge of the body, which is pretty cool.

    I open my eyes and where the fuck are we. The desert. We're in the fucking desert. Well shit. Where's the nearest desert to PA?

    I notice something very wrong when I start to sit up and my boobs shift.

    Since when did we have boobs? Not that I'm complaining. Is this some Freaky Friday shit we've walked into? Alex?

    I start to panic and fall back to the ground.

    Where the fuck is my headmate. I can barely walk without him! I can't live in a body all on my own! The fuck is going on.

    I close my eyes again and take a deep breath of dry air.

    Okay. Calm down. What do you know? Point 1: I just woke up in the desert, probably dozens of miles at least from where I was a few hours ago. Fact B: I just woke up in a female body exactly like the one I've always imagined for myself. And finally: I just woke up somehow in a brain all on my own, without Alex.

    I open my eyes again and watch the constellations change.

    Not thinking about that right now.

    I stand up and dust off my red flannel shirt. My head is still throbbing and my eyes are blurry from waking up. I look around and notice the weird drawings in the sand around me.

    Was this some kind of ritual site? Looks like some Scandinavian Lovecraft shit.

    I hear screeching tires and something hits me in the back of the head like a truck. I fall forward on my face.

    Ow.

    I start to get up again.

    Oh. It actually was a truck.

    Frikkin' Queen Amidala runs up to me and helps me stand up. What was her name again? Natalie Portman? Or was that the other one?

    She says something to me that I process only a second or two after the fact, "I'm so sorry! Are you ok? Where did you come from?"

    I accept her help standing. I think I'm still dizzy from    … something. Is this a hangover? "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks. Just, not sure how I got here. I think maybe I got a little too drunk last night."

    Well that's not true. I remember last night perfectly. There was that concert Alex went to. What was it again? Termerick Truck? Whatever. Maybe he took the wrong train home or something. Except we're in the wrong body. And he's not here. The fuck happened here again?

    "Oh my god, Erik! Look at this! We have to move quickly before this all changes."

    She's looking at the weird lines around where I woke up. Don't get what the big deal is. Someone got bored and doodled a bunch of squiggly lines around an unconscious person. In the middle of the desert. Ok, maybe that is weird. I think my weirdness censor overloaded back when the stars changed.

    An older man, must be Erik, responds to her, "Jane, you ran into her. We need to take her to a hospital."

    Padme waves him off "She said she'd be fine. Look! She's fine!"

    Erik looks unconvinced, so I nod while I walk out of the sand circle, "Hey, ah, so Where am I exactly? Don't know if I took the wrong train or what but I don't live near any deserts."

    Erik gives that old people smile with the laughing eyes, "Must have been quite the night. You're just outside Puente Antiguo, New Mexico. Where are you from? Wichita? Denver?"

    I look back over at Padme, scrambling to record the weird lines, and see a third person. A brown haired girl with buck teeth and a hat. "Philadelphia. But I was in Atlantic City last night, on the boardwalk. So who the fuck knows how I got here."

    The other girl speaks up, "Are you sure you're ok? You don't have memory loss or anything?"

    I laugh and rub my aching head, "I remember waking up right before you hit me just fine, so I doubt it. I'll be fine. I just need to get home and get a drink."

    Erik kneels and joins Padme working on the markings, "That might be difficult. There's no airport in Puente Antiguo and the trains don't travel north often. We can see about giving you a ride to the nearest town with a bus stop, but it's a long way to Philadelphia from here."

    Well isn't that just perfect    . "Well isn't that just perfect."

    Erik shrugs, "I'm sorry I don't have better news."

    They finish sketching the circle and start to climb back into their van. It's like a reinforced RV or something, with a bunch of bright lights tacked on to the top for some reason. Didn't Alex see something like that in an ad for Storm Chasers at one point?

    Erik waves me over, "Come on in. We'll give you a ride back to town."

    I follow them and climb into the back of the van. There's a bunch of equipment that looks like it came off a hollywood set, with too many loose wires and dials than could possibly be functional. A whole wall is covered by one of those stereotypical maps with the pushpins and marker circles and crap that makes it impossible to read for anyone who didn't build the damn thing. The other girl with the hat and glasses climbs into the back with me and closes up before we start moving.

    I raise my voice to be heard over the sound of tires on gravel, "So what do I call the other two, Erik?"

    He leans around to look back and gestures toward the driver. The driver who hit me. "I'm professor Erik Selvig. This is doctor Jane Foster. The lady in the back with you is Darcy, our intern."

    Darcy asks, "And what about you?"

    "Xavier. Xavier Bronze."

    I guess a fake name might have been smart, but whatever. These seem like good people. Even if they did hit me with a car.

    "Isn't that a guy's name?"

    I look at Darcy, "Yeah. You're one to talk."

    She narrows her eyes, "Touche."

    I turn back to the two up front, "So are you guys some kind of UFO chasers or something? Why are you out here?"

    Jane leans back from the driver's seat… looking away from the road in the process. How did this woman get a license? "We're astrophysicists. I've been tracking unusual weather phenomena all over this region for the past few weeks. I've been able to predict the last seventeen events down to the second, but this? These lines, the bizarre storm. This is unprecedented."

    I turn to Erik, "And that means    ...?"

    He rolls his eyes, "She's an astrophysicist moonlighting as some kind of storm chaser. She's brilliant, but this isn't her field."

    Jane gets set off by that, "There has to be a scientific explanation behind these anomalies. They can't just be random! What did I tell you?"

    He nods and mouths along with what she's saying for the next two sentences.

    "I told you the next one would be here. I told you it would be the biggest we've seen. Now not only was I right, but we witnessed a spontaneous formation of unusual ground patterning with no probable source."

    I look back at the map on the wall with probably weeks worth of data on it. I lean back in my seat as the nerds argue about what the fuck astrophysics has to do with the weather. I need a minute to rest.

    So, I'm stranded in Shitsville, New Mexico. I have no idea how I got here, although the crop circle might have something to do with that. I have my own body. Alex is missing. An astrophysicist who looks just like Natalie Portman hit me with a truck.

    Jane Foster. Why does that name sound so familiar?
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Welp, honestly the whole headmate situation would make me think I had schizophrenia and make me freak out. I don't think I could ever 'share' my body.
     
    XkaliburRage said:
    Welp, honestly the whole headmate situation would make me think I had schizophrenia and make me freak out.
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    Alex did think he was crazy for a few years. He ignored me, suppressed me, tried to cut me off however he could. It was actually only a few months ago when he found the /r/tulpas subreddit that he started to accept me as a real person. We've gotten along pretty well since then, and honestly, it'd suck to be on my own. I'd miss his idiotic ramblings. It would be way too quiet upstairs.

    XkaliburRage said:
    I don't think I could ever 'share' my body.
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    Neither did Alex. The problem is there's nowhere else for me to go. It was either lemme at it or basically murder. Neither of us wants either of us to die, and life stuck in the skull with only one person to talk to is boring as fuck. So the only moral way to go is to share. And if he'd opted for the immoral, he would've been stuck with me complaining at him forever. No privacy, no escape.

    Basically social MAD. If we don't get along, we'll drive each other up the wall. So we get along.
     
    Surprised the characters didn't look oddly at you when you have your name. Wasn't Xavier only given to boys?

    Will be curious if the headmate shows up in the tale with his own body, honestly. Or, more accurately, your current one @Xavier Bronze.

    Always neat how many people of unique status SV and SB seem to attract. I know a number of fellow Aspergers folk are on SV alongside me, for example, and I'm sure others have been mentioned in the past with other little quirks from the average person.
     
    Mizu said:
    Always neat how many people of unique status SV and SB seem to attract. I know a number of fellow Aspergers folk are on SV alongside me, for example, and I'm sure others have been mentioned in the past with other little quirks from the average person.
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    We're all weird, crazy, and fucked up. The internet is just the easiest place to show it without people getting us committed or shoving chemicals down our throat to "fix" us. Freakin' psychonormativity is what it is, forcing us all back here if we wanna be ourselves.

    Mizu said:
    Surprised the characters didn't look oddly at you when you have your name. Wasn't Xavier only given to boys?
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    You think that's the weirdest thing going on at that point? I'm aware of my name. But if the raving drunk/high super muscular psychotic homeless behemoth that is Mr. Hemsworth doesn't stop her from collecting her data first thing after running him over, I seriously doubt she's gonna go "Oh crap! A guy's name!" and make it a priority.

    But the real answer is I originally wrote that as a chapter break and never bothered to go back and make sure it read well. Maybe it's worth an edit, or maybe I'll just bring it up in one of the next chapters. But like I said, far from the weirdest thing going on. Fuckin' "they took my iPod" Darcy'll probably be the one to ask about it.

    EDIT: Went ahead and added an exchange in.

    Mizu said:
    Will be curious if the headmate shows up in the tale with his own body, honestly. Or, more accurately, your current one.
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    I've thought about it. Haven't decided on anything yet. He's reluctant to come onboard full-time because he's worried about taking it over, and he's got so many unfinished fics himself that none of them have updated in months. He also wants me to have my own thing, even though he already did the lion's share of the worldbuilding on the fusionverse this SI got dropped in. But whatever. I'm used to him not making sense.

    Short of it is: Maybe, but who the fuck knows.
     
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    Well, it's well written and has potential. I suppose the real question is: Are you worthy?
     
    Morning After
  • Threadmarks
    • So they took me back to town, dropped me off at the hospital, and ran off again. The nurse told me to stay overnight so they could make sure I wasn't gonna go braindead, which is free bed and shit breakfast. So that's cool.

    Right as they're kicking me out the next morning, look who comes storming back in the double doors but Padme, Senator Bubble, and Decoy the intern.

    Jane walks up to me dramatically and pokes a finger annoyingly close to my face, "You. Xavier. I'm buying you lunch, and you'r    e telling me what you remember about how you got here."

    I lean back and grab her finger, moving i    t farther away, "I already told you I know jack shit. I fell asleep on the train out from Atlantic City and I woke in the middle of the desert. And then you hit me in your car. Thanks for that, by the way. They let me stay here for free. Way better than a hotel. Cheaper too."

    Do I have money? It's worth checking. I never bothered to give the hospital any ID except my name, which is useless because I had a different body yesterday anyway. I pat my jean pockets and feel a wallet in the same place Alex usually keeps it. Interesting... I pull it out. Same dorky Star Wars design he had.

    Jane starts walking and I follow her. Even if I do have money, free food never hurt anyone. "Do you know what that storm was that you fell out of? It was an Einstein-Rosen Bridge! This could revolutionize meteorology as we know it, and you're right in the middle of it."

    I nod along, only half paying attention to what sounds like tv technobabble. Meanwhile, I'm frakking rich. One hundred, two hundred, three hundred,     four hundred… Twenty thousand dollars cash by the time I'm climbing back into her truck. I hope I don't get mugged...

    "If these bridges are a natural phenomenon, we might be able to harness them. Controllable, instant transportation from anywhere in the world to anywhere else. Can you imagine the number of potential uses for something like that?"

    Also, I have what looks like a genuine ID for Xavier Bronze. I'm gonna guess that the picture is what my new body looks like. It says I was born in '91, which is kind of weird. And it looks like it expired a few months ago. Lame. Why would someone make me a new ID for my new body that's already expired?

    "Hello? Xavier? Are you listening?"

    Crap. I totally wasn't. "Not even a little. I just noticed my ID is expired. I don't even think I know how to replace an ID."

    The car stops in front of a cheesy diner. We all get out and head inside. Smells like meat. Oo    h, that's a perk. I don't have the vegan in my head to stop me from killing some things with my order.

    Jane grabs my wallet out of my hand and shoves some thermal imaging pictures at me, "Will you stop it with the wallet! Look. Look at that outline. Do you see that dark spot? That's you, falling out of a wormhole in the sky. You fell asleep on a train in Atlantic City and fell out of the sky in the desert of New Mexico the next day. Aren't you in the least bit curious about how that happened?"

    Before we sit down I set the pictures of clouds on the table and she passes me back my wallet, which I pocket. I sigh, and sag back into my chair, "Look, I'm totally overwhelmed here. Yeah, I want to know. Of course I want to fucking know how I got here, and why, and what the fuck happened to Alex. I'd love to know all that. But right now, I have no way of figuring that out, and it doesn't seem like you do either. So you can shut the fuck up and buy me breakfast, and we can talk about it later once I've had some time to deal, or you can turn around and just fuck off and leave me alone, because I'm not in the mood for an interrogation right now."

    For the first time since I've met her, Jane is speechless. All three of the others awkwardly stare at me as I look at the menu.

    "Who's Alex?"

    I look up at Darcy. She's leaning forward, with captured attention. I swallow and take a deep breath, "He's a    ... friend of mine. Friend, brother, father figure, whatever. He was on the train with me yesterday. He's basically been by my side my whole fucking life, and I'm way out of my depth, and for the first time he isn't here to help. It's bullshit. I want him back."

    The waitress comes by and I order a large hamburger and a coffee.

    Erik is the first to break the ice, "I once knew a brilliant up-and-coming physicist, Martin Stein. We used to bounce ideas off one another. Gave us both fresh eyes on whatever we were working on. After a few years, I got so used to having his input that when he joined a new, confidential project, I was paralyzed. For months, I couldn't write or publish anything.     ...It's never easy. But I grew past it. We still see each other now and again. I'm sure Alex is fine. He's probably back in Pennsylvania worrying about you as we speak."

    Jane offers, "Do you want to use my phone? You could try and call him."

    I shake my head, "Nah. He's fine. He's not gone... He's just not here right now."

    A few minutes of silence pass.

    I'm about halfway through my burger when I look up at Jane, "So Jane. Why do you look exactly like Natalie Portman?"

    Jane smiles and tilts her head, "Who?"

    I stop chewing, "Get out! Fuck you don't know who Natalie Portman is, have you ever seen a movie? She was in fucking Star Wars!"

    Jane continues to look amused and confused in equal order.

    "She played what's-her-name in V. She was in that art movie about birds no-one watched except the Academy. She played the obligatory romantic interest in the-"

    Wait. No. Stop. Nonononono. Jane Foster. I landed in the desert surrounded by weird markings and then Jane Foster hit me in her van. What was it she said? Einstein-Rosen Bridge the fuck is wrong with me I'm in the MCU. Shit. Am I taking Thor's place? He fell out of the sky after Heimdal banished him. He got hit by a car, went to the hospital, got breakfast at a cheesy diner, and then heard about his hammer from some trucker dudes and went after it.

    Jane looks at me funny, "Do you mean Keira Knightly?     ...Are you sure you're okay? You seem a little out of it."

    I look over at the two dudes sitting at the counter. This is it. If they say what I think they're gonna, this is for real.

    "You missed all the excitement out at the crater."

    "They're saying some kind of satellite landed out in the desert."

    "Yeah, well we were having a good time with it    , until the feds showed up."

    "...Ohh    w FUCK ME."
     
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    • Retsof said:
    Not bad, but all the format changes are rather distracting.
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    I was kinda worried about that, yeah. Maybe I'll edit some of it out. The words were just looking a bit barebones on their own there. Weightless, I guess. IDK. But maybe you and Alex are right and it's a stupid gimmick.

    EDIT: Removed a bunch of it from the latest update. Not all of it. I'll be more moderate with the formatting later.
     
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    Determind said:
    I believe I have come to an understanding of just what a tulpa is...
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    After a search-by-image, I've never even heard of Ronin Warriors, and have no clue who that character is or if they would qualify in any way. But if you didn't check my profile, please, don't presume to know anything about me. Tulpas come in many forms. Even if you had one yourself it wouldn't be safe to assume any similarities between us. If you want to know something about me, don't ask Google. Ask me.

    Even if you're just researching the phenomenon itself, fiction really isn't a reliable source for information. Most "tulpas" by that name in media use the outdated meaning of the term related to the concept of a Tibetan thoughtform, which is just wrong in so many ways. We're not controlled or changed by expectation, even by our hosts. And most importantly, we're almost never evil. We're just people. We're just as much people as humans are.
     
    Xavier Bronze said:
    After a search-by-image, I've never even heard of Ronin Warriors, and have no clue who that character is or if they would qualify in any way. But if you didn't check my profile, please, don't presume to know anything about me. Tulpas come in many forms. Even if you had one yourself it wouldn't be safe to assume any similarities between us. If you want to know something about me, don't ask Google. Ask me.

    Even if you're just researching the phenomenon itself, fiction really isn't a reliable source for information. Most "tulpas" by that name in media use the outdated meaning of the term related to the concept of a Tibetan thoughtform, which is just wrong in so many ways. We're not controlled or changed by expectation, even by our hosts. And most importantly, we're almost never evil. We're just people. We're just as much people as humans are.
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    I checked reddit and it basically says "intelligent companion(s) imagined into existence." First time I heard about Tulpa...:o

    So you're not the "host" ?
     
    Determind said:
    So you have no plans for invading the mortal realms then?
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    I'm already in the "mortal realm". And I sure as hell don't want to rule it.

    Climhazzard said:
    I checked reddit and it basically says "intelligent companion(s) imagined into existence." First time I heard about Tulpa...:o
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    We're basically just people, piggybacking on someone else's brain. The reddit definition isn't bad, but it isn't completely accurate either. We're not all intelligent. We're not all companionable, and we're created in all bunches of different ways. Basically, just people. People in the same brain as other people.

    Climhazzard said:
    So you're not the "host" ?
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    "Host" is basically just a word for whoever got there first. If you meet enough tulpas you'll know that some of us are a lot more active than our creators. With me and Alex, we use the word headmate because it comes with fewer parasitic connotations. But I am the tulpa. He was here first.
     
    Yeah, please don't do the random format changes. They add nothing of value and make me want to read less of this...
     
    Agreeing with everyone else on the randomly changing font size and type. While it can be useful in some scenario to emphasize a character's feelings on something, for example making it three sizes bigger when objecting heavily to something horrific to the protag, it overall becomes a pain to read if used often. And...come to think of it, I might be wrong on the usefulness of it, and I don't believe I've ever encountered it in published fiction before.

    Other than that, the chapter was fine enough. Set up the scenes some more, had the protag click on where she was, gave her lots of money as a resource versus Thor's innate super-strength and toughness from canon, etc. We even learned a bit about what life was like before this event for you and Alex, in that Xaviar likes meat but Alex's vegan status prevents her having any.
     
    Retsof said:
    All the format changes are rather distracting.
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    XkaliburRage said:
    They add nothing of value and make me want to read less of this...
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    Mizu said:
    It becomes a pain to read if used often.
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    Alright, I'll take the hint. Serves me right for trying to put some inflection into my writing. I'll edit both previous chapters again as soon as I can get a few hours to focus.

    I'm not annoyed at any of you. Feedback is good, and important, and I want to hear it. I'm just annoyed at how much time I've been spending editing. I'm starting to understand why Alex keeps so much backlog.
     
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