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Literature Text
Derek: "So are you sure we're ready for this?"
Lauren: "No. Jeff said he was tired of procrastinating, so now we're out here with a pile of flash cards we just got ten minutes ago and no script."
Derek: "Great. So how do we- Uh... Camera's rolling."
Lauren: "Oh. Right. Ahem. Hi there. I'm Lauren Carter from Powers TG, and that's Derek Parker from the same. And...this is the Q&A that Zorua's been planning for the last four chapters."
...
Lauren: *whispered* "Derek, say something."
Derek: "R-right. So, uh, we're gonna answer some questions that you guys asked before."
*enter Olivia, carrying Kate*
Olivia: "I got one. How come we're doing this in script format and not prose? Oh, and thanks for the intro, by the way." *takes a seat*
Lauren: "Oh, uh, that's Olivia and Kate from, well, Olivia and Kate. Um, to answer your question, it's because it's easier for this format."
Kate: "...and that makes sense...how?"
Derek: "I think... The background doesn't change, we're not doing anything interesting, and there's more than two of us, so-"
Olivia: "You mean the setting doesn't change? Or the scene."
Derek: "Yeah, that. And there's four of us, so we can't do disembodied dialogue like what happens sometimes in our stories. Dialogue tags and stuff."
Lauren: "Okay. Maybe we should get to the questions. I had this one set aside, and it kinda ties into what we're talking about. It's from... J...mu... Jay-mook-ch... How the heck does this guy pronounce it?"
Olivia: "This is in text format. Forget pronouncing it."
Lauren: "Text for the readers, but we can hear everything. I can't figure out how to pronounce this guy's name. J-whatever it is. Anyway, he says:"
Kate: "He's got a point. This seems like a pointless interlude."
Derek: "I guess there's a few good reasons. I think part of it is to use as a writing exercise."
Olivia: "I thought it was the publicity. He's not too big on advertising, so he uses this to drum up interest."
Kate: "That's a good point. He doesn't have a lot of followers."
Olivia: "Watchers, Kate. Watchers. This isn't Twitter."
Kate: "It would be if he got a Twitter."
Lauren: "Can we get back on topic here? I think one of the main reasons he's still doing this is because he promised back in the author's comments for chapter 7, and he doesn't wanna go back on it."
Derek: "There was also what he said in that fake trailer he made after chapter 5. That he'd do something special every five chapters."
Olivia: "A little bonus story thing? Yeah, I can see that."
Lauren: "Okay. Now that that one's out of the way... Next question is from... A-A-A-ninety-eight."
Derek: "Well... I guess I could, but there's a few problems with that. Sure, I know what some of them look like, but it's the powers that I can't really test. Like when I used the Fire form, I couldn't do anything because I was indoors."
Lauren: "You could describe a few of them, at least. Maybe some of them can figure out what they do."
Olivia: "That knowledge isn't gonna go in canon."
Kate: "Are you gonna do nothing but poke holes in everything?"
Lauren: "Actually, that's one of the questions. Also by triple-A-98. Lemme find it in here... Ah."
Derek: "That I can do. I... I got this one I think is an Earthbender."
Lauren: "Is that the one with the overalls?"
Derek: "Yeah...?"
Lauren: "Well that one was already described in the chapters. Meanwhile you've used two forms but haven't described 'em. The strength one and the senses one."
Derek: "I don't like the senses one."
Lauren: "You don't have to use the powers. You don't even have to transform. Just describe what that one looks like."
Derek: "Well... Alright, sure. So... The one with super strength. Um... Well that one has blonde hair that's kinda pulled into a bun, I think. Also close to 7 feet tall, more or less. I'm not sure-"
Olivia: "Seven foot one."
Derek: "...How do you know? I don't even know."
Olivia: "I'm reading his cheat sheet. Got all the details here. Height, hair, clothes, powers..."
Kate: "Bust size..."
Derek: *embarrassed blush* "A-anyway, um... Military type jumpsuit thing, um... well not a jumpsuit. Camo pants and jacket."
Kate: "Sort of a light camo. Light greens and whites. Not the dark browns and greens you see on Marines."
Olivia: "Rhyme count: 1."
Derek: "Boots. Brown combat boots. Fingerless gloves for some reason."
Olivia: "Probably to protect your knuckles if you punch something."
Derek: "Yeah."
Kate: "F-cup breasts, bound tightly and concealed behind the no-nonsense clothes."
Lauren: "F-cups!?"
Kate: "Yeah, 's what it says."
Derek: "I knew it was something big, but jeez."
Olivia: "But the whole form is a serious no-nonsense type thing. I mean you don't see actual soldiers going around with Grand Canyon cleavage. Same for this one."
Lauren: "As much as we all apparently love talking about Derek's breasts..."
Derek: *embarrassed blush again*
Lauren: "...we really do need to get back to these questions."
Kate: "What about describing more of the forms? We got only one of those forms out of, what'd you say?"
Derek: "22."
Olivia: "Minus the five that have been used and described in canon gets us 17. Minus strength and earth, we get 15 undescribed. That's a lot of ground to cover here."
Lauren: "Yeah, but we still have maybe 20 questions left to answer, so let's see. Here's one from Dry Ice."
Olivia: "That seems like such a random question."
Derek: "I haven't really seen any pattern to these forms, really. But states of matter?"
Olivia: "Well, I guess the standard Four Elements package--which you already confirmed half of and speculate a third so we might as well say you have it. Air, Water, Earth, and Fire all fit the states of matter in that order; gas, liquid, solid, plasma. But that's not really unique to you, and the Four Elements were around way longer than we knew about plasma. They only made the connection because people looked at one, looked at the other and said 'Hey!'"
Derek: "I guess that makes sense. But... I don't know if I have air powers."
Lauren: "22 forms with three out of four elements confirmed? I'd say one of the others is Air."
Derek: "But I can fly, too. Doesn't that count for something?"
Kate: "Uh, can we get another question?"
Derek: "And I didn't even confirm Earth yet."
Kate: "Guys?"
Lauren: "But it's a good guess. Still, you're right about the flying thing. How does that figure against the wind element?"
Kate: "Guys!"
Lauren: "Yeah?"
Kate: *duh voice* "Questions?"
Lauren: "...right. Okay, here's...another one from Mr. J-whatever."
Kate: "Does that count as two questions?"
Derek: "Well, it's usually dark blue-"
Olivia: "That's what the profile says, at least."
Derek: "Right. But does it vary? I... I hope not. That would mean my tastes change with me, and I'm not comfortable with the idea of things messing with my mind."
Lauren: "If we have to give a definite answer, then it's a no; Derek's favorite color is the same in all his forms."
Derek: "Are you sure?"
Lauren: "I'm reading the card, which Jeff wrote the answer on. You're good."
Derek: *sigh of relief* "Oh thank goodness."
Lauren: "Though he did write a warning on here about association or something. Do something in one form but not in any others and it might cause you to associate that thing with that form."
Olivia: "I get it. Psychology stuff, right?"
Lauren: "Yeah."
Olivia: "So if, say, he were to only do something like, say, cooking in a girl form and never in a boy form, he might end up associating that girl form with cooking, and would be better cooking in that form than as a boy?"
Kate: "Only if he makes it a habit. If it's just a one-time thing, it's not gonna make any association. But I guess if he starts behaving differently as Amelia then there'd be some difference between 'actor' and 'role'."
Derek: "I don't really plan on developing a split personality."
Kate: "No, not that. I mean if you do things as Amelia that you wouldn't as Derek, just things like maybe having more confidence or bravery because you're a superhero like that, you might end up acting different as Amelia than as you."
Lauren: "Still sounds like split personality."
Kate: "Not really. You're not two different identities. It's more like something to do with you can act different when you're playing a role, because people either expect you to fill that role or don't connect you to the role you're playing. Anonymity or something. And then it kinda sticks that when you're playing the role, you act in this way, but while you're 'out of character', so to speak, you act differently."
Olivia: "This feels wildly off-topic."
Kate: "No, it's relevant to how Derek could end up with different likes and interests across different forms."
Derek: "Which I don't plan on happening."
Olivia: "Since when were you into psychology?"
Kate: "It was... kinda my backup interest, if tennis didn't work out."
Olivia: "You didn't tell me in the chapter."
Kate: "The chapter's not even finished! We're stuck on that one part where-"
Lauren: "Okay, let's not get into spoilers here. New question, from... From J again."
Olivia: "You're not gonna continue to try and pronounce this guys name?"
Lauren: "Nope. Jay it is."
Derek: "Looks like that scene caused a little confusion. Not just him either."
Lauren: "We should probably bring in an expert, then."
...
Lauren: "I said, we should probably bring in an expert then."
...
Lauren: "Where's Mr. Swanson?"
Olivia: "You had ten minutes to plan and you already have cue cards?"
Kate: "Did he even show up?"
Derek: "He's probably running late. Let's come back to that one."
Lauren: "Alright, Jay. You'll have to wait for a minute. So, next is from... Triple-A-98. It's... Hey, it's one for Kate."
Kate: "Really? Lemme see."
Kate: "A TV, I think. But then that was before I changed like this. After, well I lift one end of a wooden dowel in chapter 2. Doesn't sound like much, but remember it's a log to me."
Olivia: "Hardly the weight of a TV, even to scale."
Kate: "Well it was still heavy. Sorta."
Derek: "Well that was easy. Who's next?"
Lauren: "Uh... Pie Master three-one-four-one-four-five- Wait, if he’s trying to write ‘pi’, he got it wrong. I’m no math expert but even I know it’s 3.1415, not 3.14145."
Olivia: "NNEEEEEERRRRD!"
Lauren: "Says the girl who built a supercomputer from scratch."
Olivia: "Touché."
Kate: "Maybe the correct number was taken? Or his finger slipped and he didn't notice until it was too late?"
Lauren: "Maybe, but we still have to answer his question."
Derek: "Ah, there's a problem question. If I were real-real, there'd be no problem, but I'm not, so he has to find an artist. And he knows a few artists, but he's picky about who he wants to draw the first ever pictures from our story."
Lauren: "I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. Even with safe-search off, the only works with us in them are our official stories. Not even fan-art."
Kate: *amused* "You search things with safe-search off?"
Lauren: "Next question! This one's from Aspm. Well that's easy to pronounce."
Lauren: "Well that was offscreen, so I guess we can explain the details."
Olivia: "Why not just show the scene? Show, Don't Tell."
...
Derek: "Well, Jay did want prose format."
Lauren: "Alright, sure."
Olivia: "Cue flashback!"
Derek: "...and I didn't even know what that meant at the time, so when I found out- Oh, uh, we're back."
Lauren: "Ah, right. So, that's what happened at home. Jay, you got your prose thing."
Derek: "Alright, next question. This is from... Arachnid Ninety-Eight, over on the template for the superhero bio."
Lauren: "Actually, that's not even a question. According to the card, Jeff just took a question out of Arachnid's response because it seemed like a question that would come up. So really Jeff sent this one in himself."
Derek: "Isn't that cheating?"
Lauren: "I dunno. There's like five Jeff questions in here."
Olivia: "Are we supposed to be concerned about using Zorua's real name?"
Lauren: "Considering he left it during that Sister story, I don't think he cares."
Olivia: "You two of all people should care about identity-concealment."
Derek: "Aren't we supposed to answer a question?"
Lauren: "Right. So the question is..."
Derek: "I'd prefer male pronouns, really."
Lauren: "Yeah, you tend to use 'he' and stuff even when you're a girl. I'm pretty sure there's a thousand readers out there who were really confused."
Olivia: "But you used 'she' to refer to yourself a number of times. Like when you were at Lauren's the first time, or Fluke's office."
Derek: "No. The narration used 'she' those times."
Olivia: "But it's Third-Person Limited. Narration uses you as its focus, as if you were narrating things third-person."
Lauren: "It's not a hard-and-fast rule. And I think it's what Kate said about playing a role. Derek's a good actor, to be honest."
Derek: "Am not."
Lauren: "You are too."
Derek: "Not."
Olivia: "Ahem. As a neutral third party, I have to say... Yeah, you totally are."
Derek: *grumble grumble*
Olivia: "But that still doesn't completely answer the question. When do we use what pronouns for you?"
Derek: "Preferably male."
Olivia: "What about when you're Amelia?"
Derek: "Well she's me, right?"
Olivia: "But she's a girl. And you yourself just called her a she."
Kate: "Wait wait wait, I got it. Derek is a 'he', even as Amelia, except when he has to pretend to be a real girl."
Lauren: "That's not exactly the answer Arachnid got, though."
Kate: "Why? What'd he get?"
Derek: "Zorua basically told him that there's a bigger separation between me and Amelia. That anything to do with Amelia's superpowers are strictly hers, using that pronoun, while the rest is all me."
Kate: "Sounds like the pronoun separation isn't exactly set in stone, but it leans towards what I said."
Lauren: "Okay, so there's that. Should we move on or keep talking?"
Olivia: "I get the feeling Zorua wants to wrap things up."
Lauren: "But we still have a bunch of questions left."
Derek: "Here."
Derek: "Actually, I think this can be answered by flashback too."
Lauren: *softly* "But we were talking."
Olivia: "Wait, we don't need a flashback. I read that part. Your parents could hear your conversation with The Entity after a certain point. They said as much. You were just as confused then when they commented on what you thought was a dream. I looked it over carefully, and you can actually tell exactly when it stops being a dream."
Derek: "How?"
Olivia: "Okay, you know how The Entity mentioned italics? Well in The Entity's very next line, the italics just stop. The Entity called attention to the fact that italics are used for dream sequences, immediately before the dream sequence ends."
Lauren: "Pointing out the medium the story was written in, to convey a minor plot point detail. Clever."
Derek: "Huh."
Kate: "The Entity?"
Olivia: "Yeah, the thing that gave Derek his powers. The author *officially* named it as such in Derek's bio."
Kate: "Hmm... I wonder if it gave Elizabeth her powers too."
Olivia: "I doubt it. We're not even the same story."
Derek: "But didn't Zorua say-"
Olivia: "NOT EVEN THE SAME STORY. Next question, please."
Mr. Swanson: *enters* "Sorry I'm late. A new case landed on my desk."
Derek: "Hey, Mr. Swanson."
Mr. Swanson: "Hello. How are you all doing?"
Derek: "Alright."
Olivia: "Okay."
Lauren: "Good."
Mr. Swanson: "Good. Now, you were having a question and answer session?"
Lauren: "Yeah. You got a question aimed at you a little while ago, but you weren't here so we skipped it."
Mr. Swanson: "Well let's take a look, then."
Mr. Swanson: "Ah. Well that's fairly simple. Mr. Fluke did watch the interview as scheduled, and was pulling me aside after the fact to review the recording of it. Performance reviews. Fluke's question was about why he wasn't told beforehand about Amelia's shapeshifting abilities, especially since it was my job to report everything I know about my assignment to him. Any piece of information in any investigation could be crucial, especially with something brand new that hasn't yet been determined if it's considered a threat to national security. The fact that I withheld important information was what he jumped down my throat about."
Olivia: "I hope that explains things. Jay was still confused even after the author tried to clear things up in the comments. ...Come to think of it, a bunch of these had answers in the comments. Why are they being repeated here?"
Lauren: "Thoroughness?"
Mr. Swanson: "Well, if that's all you need me for, I have a new case to work out."
Kate: "Really? What's it about?"
Mr. Swanson: "That's classified. I might be an open book to you guys about Derek's case, but everything else is need-to-know."
Lauren: "Could you send Mike in while you're at it?"
Mr. Swanson: "Who?"
Derek: "Why Mike?"
Lauren: "Mike Parker. He's actually the subject of the next question."
*exit Mr. Swanson*
Derek: "Well while we wait, I guess we can describe another form. Um..."
Lauren: "The one with the lab coat seems popular."
Derek: "Yeah, but that's mainly why I'm not describing her, since she's in the chapter."
Olivia: "Are you guys supposed to be talking about the results of that vote thing?"
Lauren: "Probably not."
Derek: "It's probably safe to describe this other one. It was on the ballot as 'Lavender Dress'. That's about right for the general look. Kind of a long sleeveless dress with a long-sleeved shirt under it. Weird high-collar shirt."
Olivia: "Also one of those under-skirts that adds ruffle and bulk."
3
Derek: "Yeah, that. There's a lot of frills to this one, mainly on the front of the dress, on the chest mainly, the cuffs of the shirt, the bottom of the skirt part... Actually, that's about all there is to where the frills are. High socks too, I think top of the knee."
Kate: "Kinky..."
Derek: *sternly* "Stop it. Anyway, the shoes are kinda weird. They-"
Kate: "They match the dress."
Derek: "...besides that. There's that buckle over the top of the foot. I don't know what that's all about. Girls wear shoes without that, right?"
Lauren: "Yeah, but it's still an option. That one has kind of an old-timey look, like... Victorian-era style, sort of."
Lauren: "Doesn't that one have ridiculously long hair? Like, ankle-length?"
Kate: "Knee-length, according to the cheat-sheet. The author's still undecided as to make it a light-brown-almost-blonde color or to do something else."
Derek: "You know what's weird, though? I have purple eyes in that form. Only one of my forms that has purple eyes."
Olivia: "Except for that-"
Derek: "MOVING ON!"
Olivia: "Well we're doing a Q&A with Derek and Lauren, obviously."
Kate: "From a story standpoint, we're still working on my first full day at Olivia's house. It's kind of a rocky start."
Olivia: "Chapter ends before noon, is the plan. And yeah, things are kinda rough, but it works out."
Lauren: "Isn't that a spoiler?"
Kate: "Well I'm here talking now, aren't I? Things work out. I'm good."
Derek: "Well that's a vague but helpful answer, I guess."
Kate: "Yeah. What else? Is it another Jay question?"
Derek: "Yep."
...
Derek: "Are we gonna have to wait ag-"
Mike: *enters* "What do you want? I was in the middle of something."
Mr. Swanson: "He was in the bathroom. I don't know what he was doing, nor do I want to."
*everyone shudders*
Mike: "What's this, a doll?" *reaches for Kate*
Kate: *ducks in panic* "NOOO!"
Olivia: *shelters Kate, cautiously picking her up, glaring at Mike the whole time*
Mike: "Okay, okay."
Lauren: *concerned* "Is she alright?"
Olivia: *holding Kate close to her body* "She just doesn't like being grabbed. Anyway, there's a question for you, Mike."
Mike: "Alright, fine, what is it?"
Derek: "This one guy we're calling Jay asked you how it feels to be Lois Lane."
Mike: "Who the fuck is Lois Lane?"
Derek: "Seriously?"
Lauren: "She's Superman's love interest, but she doesn't love Superman's alter-ego Clark Kent because she doesn't know Superman and Clark are the same person."
Mike: "Well she's an idiot, and that Jay guy's delusional."
Lauren: "Jay meant in context of you liking Amelia, not knowing she's... well, not connecting her real identity to her hero identity."
Mike: *eyebrow* "And you know who she is?"
Derek: "This is a Q&A for the main characters. Of course we know who Amelia is."
Mike: "Alright, so what's this guy want?"
Lauren: "He asked how it feels to be Lois Lane, and what you find most appealing in Amelia besides her superpowers."
Mike: "Psh. She's a flying girl. Why would I care about anything else?"
Lauren: "Really? That's it?"
Mike: "She looks like she was pulled right out of the Forties. She's not good at being a hero. She's not really trying to help people. I watch TV. And she's not my type. The only thing good about her is she has powers."
Derek: "Then why are you interested in her?"
Mike: "Because she has fuckin' superpowers! Isn't that reason enough?"
Lauren: "Okay, thank you for your help. You're free to go."
Mike: "What, really? That's it?"
Lauren: "Yep. You only had the one question aimed at you, so you're free to go."
Mike: "Thanks, but now I gotta know, what's with the tiny person?"
Kate: "Long story. Very long."
Olivia: "Not that long."
Mike: "Whatever. I'm outta here." *leaves*
Derek: "Thank God."
Lauren: "That question seemed more aimed towards Jason anyway."
Derek: "Mm hmm. Yeah. I wonder if Jay got the names mixed up, or if he actually meant Mike."
Lauren: "Any idea what he actually wanted to do once he tracked Amelia down?"
Derek: "I'm not trying to think about it. I think the author just made Mike figure things out to show he's the smartest of those three. Out of him, Ben, and Lucas, yeah."
Lauren: "It's not really that hard to be smarter than Ben or Lucas. Especially Ben."
Derek: "No kidding."
Lauren: "Alright, the next one is from... Kay-one-one-one-zero-en."
Derek: "Bunch of numbers."
Lauren: "Yeah, but at least it's pronounceable. Jay."
Derek: "Honestly, I don't really see much of a pattern. There's some of the obvious ones--flight, strength, some of the four elements, invisibility--but I'm not making much of a connection to any series as far as I can tell."
Olivia: "I dunno. I can pick almost all your powers off of the Stock Superpowers list on TV Tropes."
Lauren: "Didn't the author mention Ben 10 at one point? Chapter 1's commentary he described you as somewhat of a mix between Elliot Dunkel--whoever that is--and Ben Tennyson."
Olivia: "I'm pretty sure whatever wasn't obvious was taken from that list."
Lauren: "What's so special about this list?"
Olivia: "Only that it has pretty much every superpower that's ever shown up in fiction, ever."
Lauren: "Doesn't sound like it narrows anything down at all."
Olivia: "It's a good reference point, though."
Derek: "You know what I noticed? Kate's been quiet for most of this."
Kate: "...well, I haven't really had much to say. I mean most of this is about superpowers and comic books. I never really liked that sort of thing."
Lauren: "That's no reason not to enjoy the conversation. We're just friends talking about stuff. It's just we have pre-written topics to talk about."
Kate: "And those topics are ones I'm not really interested in."
Derek: "You were interested earlier about the psychology thing."
Kate: "Which we're not talking about right now. There's nothing in this conversation that I really like. Nothing for me to say."
Olivia: "Maybe that's our cue to head out."
Lauren: "Aw..."
Kate: "No no, we can stay."
Olivia: "Look, if you're bored, we can find something else to do. Maybe build you a new toy."
Kate: "...I do like those toys you build."
Derek: "Another sportscar?"
Olivia: "Nah. I was thinking airplane."
Lauren: "Aren't you guys spoiling things? I mean, in-story Kate hasn't even gotten settled yet, and here you are talking about building vehicles for her, which doesn't even happen for at least a month in-story."
Olivia: "We mentioned a helicopter in one of the journals. I think we're safe."
Kate: "Hey, build me a boat and I can reenact Stuart Little."
Olivia: "Stuart what?"
Kate: "Stuart Little? The movie about the mouse living with humans?"
Olivia: ...
Kate: "There's a movie you haven't seen that I have? Wow. Come on, we gotta watch it. You have Netflix, right?"
Olivia: *amused* "Just who do you think you're talking to?"
Kate: "Then let's go!"
Derek: "Maybe you should watch The Borrowers Arietty while you're at it. It hasn't been dubbed yet, but it's pretty good."
Olivia: "Wait, I thought Disney dubbed that one."
Derek: "In 2012. It's 2011 in our stories, so we don't have it."
Kate: "What's it about?"
Derek: "One of a race of miniature humans befriends a regular human. There's more to it than that, but you'd probably like it."
Kate: "Sounds interesting. We'll have to take a look."
Olivia: "I could probably look up other shrinking-oriented stories online."
Lauren: "Careful. There's a lot of garbage online."
Olivia: "I know. Sturgeon's Law and all that."
Lauren: "Might I suggest looking up Ant-Man or The Atom? Or maybe Bumblebee?"
Derek: "More comic book superheroes I've never heard of? ...well Bumblebee was on Teen Titans..."
Olivia: "Alright, any questions for us before we head out?"
Lauren: "Uh... Another Zorua question for Kate."
Kate: "Five and five-twelfths inches. I was five-foot-five-inches before I shrunk."
Olivia: "One-twelfths scale."
Kate: "For a reason... I dunno. It's just convenient? Easy conversion from feet to inches?"
Derek: "Makes sense."
Olivia: "Alright, we're gonna go check Netflix. See you guys later."
Lauren: "Bye. Thanks for coming out."
Kate: "See ya."
Derek: "Bye."
*exit Olivia, carrying Kate*
Lauren: "Well that was fun."
Derek: "Still wish Kate would've talked more. She's kinda fun."
Lauren: "Yeah. Too bad. Anyway, back to questions. Here's one from... Unkown-zero-zero-ze- bunch of zeroes."
Derek: "Unkown? Not 'Unknown'?"
Lauren: "That's how it's spelled."
Lauren: "This one's more towards the author than us."
Derek: "So? We've seen a handful of rewrites, haven't we? Plots planned out that won't happen because it doesn't fit the story anymore. The author has a handful of ideas that he thinks are going into the story, but then his ideas change as he gets new ones and throws out the old. Introduces new characters and such."
Lauren: "I know what you mean. I can think of one draft plot that I hope doesn't make the final cut."
Derek: "You never know. I can think of one that definitely didn't make the final cut, now that Jason's been finalized. And another that he's still wondering if he'll put it in at all. The deciding factor is how he writes us. That's the part he makes up as he goes. He just lets us talk and act and writes down what happens."
Lauren: "You make it sound like we're real people he's watching."
Derek: "Well, that's just how he writes dialogue. And sometimes we end up doing things he didn't expect. Didn't he already say that Carol leaving the table was one of those things?"
Lauren: "Yeah. I think one of his problems is he thinks up a scene to himself and doesn't write it down right away, though. Or he thinks one up that's months down the road. I know of three plots in the works."
Derek: "Uh huh. I'm looking forward to one of those, provided he doesn't go a different direction."
Lauren: "No, this one he's sticking with. No question. And to us, it's already happened, even if we haven't canonically gotten to that point yet."
Derek: "Yep. So, sounds like this question's dying down. Next?"
Lauren: "Next. From Aspm again."
Lauren: "I was hoping we'd get to this one. Warp proves that Derek wasn't alone in this. However, we can probably look to this bit of foreshadowing in the City Council meeting:
Lauren: "Amelia obviously isn't the only one with superpowers. But why should the supers be limited to one city?"
Derek: "And that's all we're saying on that. Next question."
Lauren: "From Aspm. How many questions did he send in?"
Derek: "Uh... I count three."
Lauren: "Huh. Thought it was more."
Derek: "Well Jay only sent in six."
Lauren: "Fair enough. Anyway, the question."
Derek: "The alternative was pretending to be just the Flight form Amelia, and then having to make up fake identities for all the other forms. Either I pretend to be a shapeshifter, or I juggle twenty-some-odd secret identities at once and hope I can keep track."
Lauren: "This one was another question answered in the comments and in the chapters, but it's still a valid question left up here. If you hadn't admitted to being a shapeshifter, what kind of names would you have picked?"
Derek: "That wasn't asked in the comments."
Lauren: "What? Oh, no. My question was entirely mine, not from the other people. I guess my line there's kinda confusing."
Derek: "No, it's okay. I don't really know what hero names I would've picked for my other forms. Part of the reason for admitting shapeshifting was to not have to do that. But... I guess something simple? Maybe just Ghost or something for the ghost girl one?"
Lauren: "Except DC already has copyrights to a fire-powered superheroine named Fire."
Derek: "What? No way."
Lauren: "It's true. She existed since 1979 and was part of DC since '86. Same as Ice, since '88."
Derek: "Well that ruins things. And Static's already taken. But then Warp's taken too, and he doesn't seem to care."
Lauren: "...wait, we mentioned Ice and Static. Does that count as foreshadowing?"
Derek: "Ice was obvious from the poll, but yeah, I guess so. Actually, there's a question about that, isn't there?"
Lauren: "Doesn't exactly look like a question."
Derek: "He was encouraged to guess, and he guessed invisibility, super strength, and mind-reading. Since then we've had inv- no, conforme- confirmed, bleh, invisibility and super strength in that order."
Lauren: "So if the trend continues... Invisibility confirmed in Chapter 3, strength in Chapter 7, then next we're gonna have... Except if it doesn't make it in the poll, then no."
Derek: "Now that's a spoiler."
Lauren: "Right. Anything else?"
Derek: "Well the obvious wind and earth powers."
Lauren: "Are you sure Flight counts as wind? And I meant questions."
Derek: "No. And here. Another Zorua one."
...
Derek: "Is this a joke question?"
Lauren: "Probably. But no."
Derek: "No. Next."
Derek: "Pretty sure no technopath stuff or animorphing."
...
Lauren: "And the melting?"
Derek: "It's on the list of 'plausibles'."
Lauren: "But I thought he finalized your powers. All of them."
Derek: "Well, yeah. He actually has a Sky High reference in one of mine. Something one of the characters can do."
Lauren: "Sonic shouts?"
Derek: "While that would be an amusing literal shout out, no. But keep an ear out for something on those lines too. And I think we're done spoilering my powers. What else we got?"
Derek: "I'm not sure 'overwhelmed' is the right word."
Lauren: "Just 'whelmed' fits better."
Derek: "That show hasn't even been released yet. Not in-universe, at least. Anyway, most of my problems with having powers have to do with the government controlling when I can and can't use them. So I guess 'pressured' is a better word. Or 'restricted' or something. Anyway, but I guess what I call my big accomplishment would be that water rescue at Galveston."
Lauren: "Not the actual superhero fight you were in?"
Derek: "Well the critics have a point. I didn't actually catch Warp, and he stayed ahead of me for the whole conflict and got away with the stolen money. At the beach, I actually did something. I helped save someone's life. That feels like way more of an accomplishment than playing keep-away and losing."
Lauren: "Is that your final answer?"
Derek: "Pretty much. Better save someone's life than run around like an idiot. ...why did the first bad guy have to..."
Lauren: "Pardon?"
Derek: "Oh, nothing. Just comparing Warp to some of the jerks I've run into at school. Next question."
Derek: "Wh- What?"
Lauren: "Not me. Lucas, formerly, but that was before I realized that the real-world people who have the superhero build are meat-headed jerks."
Derek: "Not all of them. You and I just got unlucky enough to meet the bad ones first."
Lauren: "Yeah, true."
Derek: "...well my parents, for one. They might argue sometimes...never as bad as that time in Chapter 9, though...but they're still pretty crazy for each other."
Lauren: "Speaking of your parents, it's annoying that they think we're together."
Derek: "Ugh. I know. It's the twenty-first century. Boys and girls can be just friends."
Lauren: "Uh huh."
Derek: "...and there was this one girl I had a crush on in 6th grade. She was an 8th-grader, and she didn't go to Creek, so I don't really know."
Lauren: "She'd be a senior now, right?"
Derek: "Unless she skipped or got held back, but that's not likely. You know her? Amber Williams, I think."
Lauren: "Nope, doesn't sound familiar."
Derek: "Darn."
Lauren: "Maybe she'll show up in a later chapter."
Derek: "Maybe. Considering she didn't even exist until this Q&A, probably not."
Lauren: "Yeah. Introduced solely for world-building."
Derek: "Like Eve Lebsock?"
Lauren: "Who?"
Derek: *shrug* "Some girl Jason mentioned once."
...
Lauren: "So, who's next?"
Derek: "Two questions asking about little details for our powers, and one about oral proofreading in a silly accent, and another about the sensory overload, also in a silly accent. I think we can get those done pretty quick."
Lauren: "We're not gonna drag it out?"
Derek: "You're not facing the clock. It's getting kinda late here."
Lauren: *looks* "Wow, you're right. How's Olivia and Kate gonna get home? They live in Oregon. That's a five-hour flight or something."
Derek: "Not sure if that's exactly right, but maybe the plane runs on plotroleum."
Lauren: *snrk* "I see what you did there. Alright, yeah, let's do these."
Lauren: "That was a weird accent."
Derek: *holding back his amusement*
Lauren: *glare*
Derek: *looks at the wall*
Lauren: "So, oral proofreading. Reading the story outloud while writing it."
Derek: "He does sometimes whisper our dialogue to himself."
Lauren: "Yeah. Problem is, he doesn't write it down then and there. It's pretty annoying that he gets a good scene in his head and even talks it out, but doesn't get it on paper until after it's faded out of his brain."
Derek: "Yeah. And when he actually does write us down, we end up with this...scripted perfect dialogue that doesn’t sound realistic at all."
Lauren: "He made an effort up there with the part with you stumbling over the word 'confirmed'."
Derek: "True. Doesn't exactly happen a lot in the real story, though."
Lauren: "No, not really. I guess he has to balance description with dialogue. Writing's tougher than it looks, isn't it?"
Derek: "How should I know? You get better grades in English than I do."
Lauren: "I get Cs. You get Bs. You're better than me there."
Derek: "Right. Forgot."
Lauren: "Anyway, Zorua doesn't do a lot of oral proofreading. He doesn’t usually give anyone accents to go with it, though, to make it a necessity. So not much for reading his own stuff outloud."
Derek: "He's pretty quiet, though, right?"
Lauren: "Yeah. So, what's the other one with the accent? And I'm not reading it this time."
Derek: "Fine."
Derek: "Well that wasn't so bad."
Lauren: "That depends. I saw one where the person who sent it in used a Transformers cartoon clip to demonstrate. Which one did he--she? Can't tell-"
Derek: "Profile says it's a she. Would've been my first guess. And I thumbed through the comments and didn't find any video in any of hers, let alone one about sensory overload.
"Anyway, those last two."
Derek: "I'm... I'm not exactly sure. Could you give us five minutes?"
Derek: *sits* "Okay, we tested it, and no. No to both."
Lauren: "Tricky part was finding a liquid that didn't have water in it, really. Luckily we read the rest of the cards during that big flashback and I got some things."
Derek: "Yeah. Anyway the clothing one didn't work in Chapter 3, even though nobody was wearing it. I as Amelia took the coat off, went to a different room, changed back, and the coat disappeared. Wouldn't have mattered if Lauren or anyone was wearing it or not. Though with the whole 'supers aren't limited to Houston' thing, it might not be completely thrown away just yet."
Lauren: "Probably just a bit character. Doesn't seem like that would fit as a decent superpower if you ask me. ...though I've seen a number of superheroes with 'bit' superpowers that turned out to be pretty useful. Powerful even. Ever hear of Aquaman?"
Derek: "He...talks to fish, right?"
Lauren: "That and swimming underwater was pretty much his original power. But then the writers got smart. Can command sea life: sharks, giant squids, mythical sea monsters, and even guppies can be powerful if there's fifty million of them at once. Survive at the bottom of the ocean: if he can muscle through pressures like that, imagine how strong he is on land. And they gave him water-controlling powers too, and considering how much water there is everywhere... So yeah, characters with lame powers can turn out to be more powerful than you could possibly imagine if you use 'em right."
Derek: "Wow. Never thought Aquaman could be scary. I mostly heard he was a joke."
Lauren: "He was, but then the writers got smart, like I said."
Derek: "Okay, we have time for one final question."
Lauren: "What? I thought we were done."
Derek: "Yeah, but the author was doing some last-minute digging. The single most asked question is:"
Lauren: "I don't think this actually counts. Everyone asks for a continuation for everything anyway."
Derek: "Yeah, but there's a point here. Sister is coming up on its 1-year submission-iversary or whatever, and a continuation is in the works. Zorua's current goal is to finish Sister, Day 2 by October 23, but he's not making promises."
Lauren: "No kidding. How long have we been waiting between updates? Leslie was waiting a whole year from her creation to when her story was put up. Zorua has a problem with Writer's Block. And prograstination."
Derek: "Yep. So anyway, that's it."
...
Lauren: "That's it?"
Derek: "Yeah, we're out of questions."
Lauren: "Oh. Okay, so... Wait, what about the poll?"
Derek: "I... I guess we can talk about the results."
Lauren: "Alright. The poll is officially closed. No use changing the results while he's writing the thing."
Derek: "Yep. And the one with the second amount of votes is... The heavy coat."
Lauren: "Everyone thinks that one has Ice powers. Should we tell 'em?"
Derek: "Nah. Leave 'em guessing. That one's not too bad, really. And I suppose we can continue that question about describing forms better. A heavy cot, mai- coat, sorry. Mainly pink in color with white on the edges. Not to thrilled about pink, but I didn't pick it, so nothing I can do. And jeans and fur-ish boots kinda like the ones I have in the Flight form."
Lauren: "That's fleece, right? The white parts on the edges?"
Derek: "Think so. The coat has a hood, by the way."
Lauren: "Hair's kinda interesting. It's braided in something like a wreath or something, going around the top and sides of the head before tying together at the back. And it's light brown with traces of red. Think the author was trying for a realistic pink hair there, and went as close as possible."
Derek: "Yep. That doesn’t really help my case, though. The body's fine; nothing like the Fire or Strength forms, and the clothes are okay in style, I guess. It's just the color that bugs me."
Lauren: "I think a lot of things are gonna bug you. It's just how the story works."
Derek: "Yeah. Okay, so that's the one whose powers I don't use. The one I do use, the winner of the poll is... Lab Coat." *sigh* "I guess that one's okay too. Not a girly form. I just wish that one wasn't so...jiggly."
Lauren: "You're not fat like that."
Derek: "We both agree that yes, that form is a little fat. At least she has a reason. She's not obese or crazy overweight; just a little plump."
Lauren: "Fairly decent figure otherwise. Heck, even with, that one's not that bad."
Derek: "Can we get to the rest of things? White lab coat, that's important. Kinda longer than knee length thing with some pockets on the front. Then there's tennis shoes, jeans (why are those so common?), and just a basic gray shirt. Light-gray. I dunno why. And this one's kind of a brownish-blonde with a short ponytail or something."
Lauren: "I dunno. I guess going for the 'cute scientist' look, maybe."
Derek: "I guess. Anyway, that's the winning entry. Still think electromagnetism or intelligence? Probab- Possibly. Sorry. He keeps trying for realistic dialogue and it messes me up. I think that part he's gonna have to keep the stutters and backpetals off. (did I misspell that?)"
Lauren: "(yes, you did). And with that, we're out of time. Sorry everyone."
Derek: "Yeah. Tune in next five chapters for the big...whatever it is. ...what do you think'll happen next?"
Lauren: "Hopefully not another trailer or Q&A. Honestly, it seemed like he had more fun with the voting thing than the questions."
Derek: "Yeah, true. That's hindsight. And if he'd done that instead of promising something this so early, he might have chapter 11 out already."
Lauren: "Yeah, maybe. ...why do we say 'yeah' all the time?"
Derek: "I dunno. Generic agreement?"
Lauren: "Maybe."
...
Derek: "So...how do we wrap this up?"
Lauren: "Um... Cut to black and show the end credits?"
Derek: "It doesn't work like that. Um... Bye, everyone. This was fun. Sort-of."
Lauren: "Yeah. Thanks for all your questions. I hope we answered them to the best of our ability."
Derek: "We'll see you next time."
Lauren: "Bye."
...
...
Derek: "So, how do you think we did?"
Lauren: "I thought we did okay. Can't believe we let it get this late, though."
Derek: "Yeah, we let time get away from us. Anyway, we should probably pack up and stuff."
Lauren: "Yeah. I got a test in the morning. Don't wanna miss it."
Derek: "Speak for yourself."
*packing up*
Lauren: "Why is the camera still rolling?"
Derek: "What? Oh, I dunno." *taps lens* "Hey, you can turn this off now, alright? We're done."
...
Lauren: "The light's still on."
Derek: "I know. Is anyone even listening? Or did they go to sleep already?"
Lauren: "No idea. Maybe we should just unplug it?"
Derek: "What if that deletes the whole recording? Then we'd have to do this all over again tomorrow."
Lauren: "Yeah, true. Don't wanna repeat everything. Let's ju-"
Lauren: "No. Jeff said he was tired of procrastinating, so now we're out here with a pile of flash cards we just got ten minutes ago and no script."
Derek: "Great. So how do we- Uh... Camera's rolling."
Lauren: "Oh. Right. Ahem. Hi there. I'm Lauren Carter from Powers TG, and that's Derek Parker from the same. And...this is the Q&A that Zorua's been planning for the last four chapters."
...
Lauren: *whispered* "Derek, say something."
Derek: "R-right. So, uh, we're gonna answer some questions that you guys asked before."
*enter Olivia, carrying Kate*
Olivia: "I got one. How come we're doing this in script format and not prose? Oh, and thanks for the intro, by the way." *takes a seat*
Lauren: "Oh, uh, that's Olivia and Kate from, well, Olivia and Kate. Um, to answer your question, it's because it's easier for this format."
Kate: "...and that makes sense...how?"
Derek: "I think... The background doesn't change, we're not doing anything interesting, and there's more than two of us, so-"
Olivia: "You mean the setting doesn't change? Or the scene."
Derek: "Yeah, that. And there's four of us, so we can't do disembodied dialogue like what happens sometimes in our stories. Dialogue tags and stuff."
Lauren: "Okay. Maybe we should get to the questions. I had this one set aside, and it kinda ties into what we're talking about. It's from... J...mu... Jay-mook-ch... How the heck does this guy pronounce it?"
Olivia: "This is in text format. Forget pronouncing it."
Lauren: "Text for the readers, but we can hear everything. I can't figure out how to pronounce this guy's name. J-whatever it is. Anyway, he says:"
jmucchiello
Why are you so focused on in character Q&As? I'd rather read the story in novel format than these Q&A things.
Kate: "He's got a point. This seems like a pointless interlude."
Derek: "I guess there's a few good reasons. I think part of it is to use as a writing exercise."
Olivia: "I thought it was the publicity. He's not too big on advertising, so he uses this to drum up interest."
Kate: "That's a good point. He doesn't have a lot of followers."
Olivia: "Watchers, Kate. Watchers. This isn't Twitter."
Kate: "It would be if he got a Twitter."
Lauren: "Can we get back on topic here? I think one of the main reasons he's still doing this is because he promised back in the author's comments for chapter 7, and he doesn't wanna go back on it."
Derek: "There was also what he said in that fake trailer he made after chapter 5. That he'd do something special every five chapters."
Olivia: "A little bonus story thing? Yeah, I can see that."
Lauren: "Okay. Now that that one's out of the way... Next question is from... A-A-A-ninety-eight."
AAA98
Can you make Derek explore his different forms more?
Derek: "Well... I guess I could, but there's a few problems with that. Sure, I know what some of them look like, but it's the powers that I can't really test. Like when I used the Fire form, I couldn't do anything because I was indoors."
Lauren: "You could describe a few of them, at least. Maybe some of them can figure out what they do."
Olivia: "That knowledge isn't gonna go in canon."
Kate: "Are you gonna do nothing but poke holes in everything?"
Lauren: "Actually, that's one of the questions. Also by triple-A-98. Lemme find it in here... Ah."
AAA98
Dear Derek, can you describe some of the other girls from your dream?
Derek: "That I can do. I... I got this one I think is an Earthbender."
Lauren: "Is that the one with the overalls?"
Derek: "Yeah...?"
Lauren: "Well that one was already described in the chapters. Meanwhile you've used two forms but haven't described 'em. The strength one and the senses one."
Derek: "I don't like the senses one."
Lauren: "You don't have to use the powers. You don't even have to transform. Just describe what that one looks like."
Derek: "Well... Alright, sure. So... The one with super strength. Um... Well that one has blonde hair that's kinda pulled into a bun, I think. Also close to 7 feet tall, more or less. I'm not sure-"
Olivia: "Seven foot one."
Derek: "...How do you know? I don't even know."
Olivia: "I'm reading his cheat sheet. Got all the details here. Height, hair, clothes, powers..."
Kate: "Bust size..."
Derek: *embarrassed blush* "A-anyway, um... Military type jumpsuit thing, um... well not a jumpsuit. Camo pants and jacket."
Kate: "Sort of a light camo. Light greens and whites. Not the dark browns and greens you see on Marines."
Olivia: "Rhyme count: 1."
Derek: "Boots. Brown combat boots. Fingerless gloves for some reason."
Olivia: "Probably to protect your knuckles if you punch something."
Derek: "Yeah."
Kate: "F-cup breasts, bound tightly and concealed behind the no-nonsense clothes."
Lauren: "F-cups!?"
Kate: "Yeah, 's what it says."
Derek: "I knew it was something big, but jeez."
Olivia: "But the whole form is a serious no-nonsense type thing. I mean you don't see actual soldiers going around with Grand Canyon cleavage. Same for this one."
Lauren: "As much as we all apparently love talking about Derek's breasts..."
Derek: *embarrassed blush again*
Lauren: "...we really do need to get back to these questions."
Kate: "What about describing more of the forms? We got only one of those forms out of, what'd you say?"
Derek: "22."
Olivia: "Minus the five that have been used and described in canon gets us 17. Minus strength and earth, we get 15 undescribed. That's a lot of ground to cover here."
Lauren: "Yeah, but we still have maybe 20 questions left to answer, so let's see. Here's one from Dry Ice."
Drylce
Are some of Amelia's powers based on states of matter? Such as gasses, liquids, solids, and plasma?
Olivia: "That seems like such a random question."
Derek: "I haven't really seen any pattern to these forms, really. But states of matter?"
Olivia: "Well, I guess the standard Four Elements package--which you already confirmed half of and speculate a third so we might as well say you have it. Air, Water, Earth, and Fire all fit the states of matter in that order; gas, liquid, solid, plasma. But that's not really unique to you, and the Four Elements were around way longer than we knew about plasma. They only made the connection because people looked at one, looked at the other and said 'Hey!'"
Derek: "I guess that makes sense. But... I don't know if I have air powers."
Lauren: "22 forms with three out of four elements confirmed? I'd say one of the others is Air."
Derek: "But I can fly, too. Doesn't that count for something?"
Kate: "Uh, can we get another question?"
Derek: "And I didn't even confirm Earth yet."
Kate: "Guys?"
Lauren: "But it's a good guess. Still, you're right about the flying thing. How does that figure against the wind element?"
Kate: "Guys!"
Lauren: "Yeah?"
Kate: *duh voice* "Questions?"
Lauren: "...right. Okay, here's...another one from Mr. J-whatever."
jmucchiello
Derek, what's your favorite color? Does it vary by hero form?
Kate: "Does that count as two questions?"
Derek: "Well, it's usually dark blue-"
Olivia: "That's what the profile says, at least."
Derek: "Right. But does it vary? I... I hope not. That would mean my tastes change with me, and I'm not comfortable with the idea of things messing with my mind."
Lauren: "If we have to give a definite answer, then it's a no; Derek's favorite color is the same in all his forms."
Derek: "Are you sure?"
Lauren: "I'm reading the card, which Jeff wrote the answer on. You're good."
Derek: *sigh of relief* "Oh thank goodness."
Lauren: "Though he did write a warning on here about association or something. Do something in one form but not in any others and it might cause you to associate that thing with that form."
Olivia: "I get it. Psychology stuff, right?"
Lauren: "Yeah."
Olivia: "So if, say, he were to only do something like, say, cooking in a girl form and never in a boy form, he might end up associating that girl form with cooking, and would be better cooking in that form than as a boy?"
Kate: "Only if he makes it a habit. If it's just a one-time thing, it's not gonna make any association. But I guess if he starts behaving differently as Amelia then there'd be some difference between 'actor' and 'role'."
Derek: "I don't really plan on developing a split personality."
Kate: "No, not that. I mean if you do things as Amelia that you wouldn't as Derek, just things like maybe having more confidence or bravery because you're a superhero like that, you might end up acting different as Amelia than as you."
Lauren: "Still sounds like split personality."
Kate: "Not really. You're not two different identities. It's more like something to do with you can act different when you're playing a role, because people either expect you to fill that role or don't connect you to the role you're playing. Anonymity or something. And then it kinda sticks that when you're playing the role, you act in this way, but while you're 'out of character', so to speak, you act differently."
Olivia: "This feels wildly off-topic."
Kate: "No, it's relevant to how Derek could end up with different likes and interests across different forms."
Derek: "Which I don't plan on happening."
Olivia: "Since when were you into psychology?"
Kate: "It was... kinda my backup interest, if tennis didn't work out."
Olivia: "You didn't tell me in the chapter."
Kate: "The chapter's not even finished! We're stuck on that one part where-"
Lauren: "Okay, let's not get into spoilers here. New question, from... From J again."
Olivia: "You're not gonna continue to try and pronounce this guys name?"
Lauren: "Nope. Jay it is."
jmucchiello
I don't understand Fluke and Swanson's exchange from here: "And why wasn't I informed of this fact?" This implies Fluke didn't watch the interview for himself. The level of interest he's shown before and somehow he didn't watch the interview? I find that odd. Or I'm missing something.
Derek: "Looks like that scene caused a little confusion. Not just him either."
Lauren: "We should probably bring in an expert, then."
...
Lauren: "I said, we should probably bring in an expert then."
...
Lauren: "Where's Mr. Swanson?"
Olivia: "You had ten minutes to plan and you already have cue cards?"
Kate: "Did he even show up?"
Derek: "He's probably running late. Let's come back to that one."
Lauren: "Alright, Jay. You'll have to wait for a minute. So, next is from... Triple-A-98. It's... Hey, it's one for Kate."
Kate: "Really? Lemme see."
AAA98
Dear Kate, What is the heaviest thing you've managed to lift?
Kate: "A TV, I think. But then that was before I changed like this. After, well I lift one end of a wooden dowel in chapter 2. Doesn't sound like much, but remember it's a log to me."
Olivia: "Hardly the weight of a TV, even to scale."
Kate: "Well it was still heavy. Sorta."
Derek: "Well that was easy. Who's next?"
Lauren: "Uh... Pie Master three-one-four-one-four-five- Wait, if he’s trying to write ‘pi’, he got it wrong. I’m no math expert but even I know it’s 3.1415, not 3.14145."
Olivia: "NNEEEEEERRRRD!"
Lauren: "Says the girl who built a supercomputer from scratch."
Olivia: "Touché."
Kate: "Maybe the correct number was taken? Or his finger slipped and he didn't notice until it was too late?"
Lauren: "Maybe, but we still have to answer his question."
piemaster314145926
Perhaps, you could get someone to draw the forms?
Derek: "Ah, there's a problem question. If I were real-real, there'd be no problem, but I'm not, so he has to find an artist. And he knows a few artists, but he's picky about who he wants to draw the first ever pictures from our story."
Lauren: "I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. Even with safe-search off, the only works with us in them are our official stories. Not even fan-art."
Kate: *amused* "You search things with safe-search off?"
Lauren: "Next question! This one's from Aspm. Well that's easy to pronounce."
apsm
So...what are they going to do with Lauren's father?
Lauren: "Well that was offscreen, so I guess we can explain the details."
Olivia: "Why not just show the scene? Show, Don't Tell."
...
Derek: "Well, Jay did want prose format."
Lauren: "Alright, sure."
Olivia: "Cue flashback!"
Amelia followed Lauren into her house. Just like we planned, she thought, trying to calm herself down. Just do it. It's not like you haven't talked to him before like this. Just... You can do this.
She felt a little silly feeling anxious over talking to someone, when previously she'd chased down a thief and saved a drowning person without any trouble. But then, she was nervous when she met Mr. Fluke the first time (but he was huge! Even to her normal form!). And at the interview (but national television!).
"Dad, I'm home," said Lauren.
"Lauren?" said Lauren's father, turning around from the kitchen. "And... Amelia. That's a pleasant surprise."
"Yeah, Dad. Um..."
Amelia took a deep breath. "Lauren told me you...figured it out."
Lauren's father's face shifted through emotions for a bit, starting out a little surprised, then with a flash of triumph at being correct, and then to worried. "Uh, Lauren, how about you go entertain John for a bit."
"Sure," she said, heading down the hallway.
Amelia took the time to sit down in a reclining chair in the living room. Mr. Carter took the couch.
"So," said Mr. Carter. "Lauren said something about confidentiality agreements."
"Yes," said Amelia.
"I'm not in trouble because I found out on my own, am I?"
"Well... Okay, I don't think you're in trouble. We talked it over with this government guy we're in contact with."
"That Joe Swanson guy from the interview?"
Elsewhere, Mr. Swanson became irritated but didn't know why.
Amelia nodded. "He said it was mainly a contract to keep everyone who already knew from talking. But... Lauren was kept off so people wouldn't investigate her."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Something about Lauren 'officially' doesn't know, and they didn't want people to think she did."
He leaned back, sighing. "And... that's why you can tell me, because I'm 'off the books' too?"
"Pretty much."
There was hesitation on both parts.
"So," said Mr. Carter, "what's it like to have powers?"
"Well, it's... pretty cool, really. It's just..."
"Just...what?"
Amelia's "just" was that she still wasn't overly thrilled at being a girl when she used her powers, regardless of the fact that flying in of itself more than made up for the gender change. It was when she wasn't flying while in a girl form that she had problems with. Such as right then.
But she wasn't gonna tell him that. "Just... I still don't really like the attention. I've tried to hide it before, but now that the government knows, I have to do things. And I...don't know what'll happen if people find out too much." She gestured to the man. "You already proved that my identity can be figured out."
"Mm hmm. Well, that comes with the territory, I suppose."
"Yeah. Just... keep things quiet, I guess. I don't want anyone else to get mixed up in the government stuff. Them bothering just me bothers me." It bothered her even more just to let the implications of him being hounded by scary men in dark suits sink in. He'd done nothing but recognize someone, and he could get in trouble.
...though Mike getting in trouble for the same observation was something she could get behind.
"Anyway," she resumed, "I gotta go. I wasn't really planning on staying too long; just dropping Lauren off."
"Oh, you have a ride? Or are you flying?"
"No, my foster mom's giving me a ride back. There was a lot of circumstance and stuff."
Derek: "...and I didn't even know what that meant at the time, so when I found out- Oh, uh, we're back."
Lauren: "Ah, right. So, that's what happened at home. Jay, you got your prose thing."
Derek: "Alright, next question. This is from... Arachnid Ninety-Eight, over on the template for the superhero bio."
Lauren: "Actually, that's not even a question. According to the card, Jeff just took a question out of Arachnid's response because it seemed like a question that would come up. So really Jeff sent this one in himself."
Derek: "Isn't that cheating?"
Lauren: "I dunno. There's like five Jeff questions in here."
Olivia: "Are we supposed to be concerned about using Zorua's real name?"
Lauren: "Considering he left it during that Sister story, I don't think he cares."
Olivia: "You two of all people should care about identity-concealment."
Derek: "Aren't we supposed to answer a question?"
Lauren: "Right. So the question is..."
Zorua076
What pronouns should we use for Derek and Amelia?
Derek: "I'd prefer male pronouns, really."
Lauren: "Yeah, you tend to use 'he' and stuff even when you're a girl. I'm pretty sure there's a thousand readers out there who were really confused."
Olivia: "But you used 'she' to refer to yourself a number of times. Like when you were at Lauren's the first time, or Fluke's office."
Derek: "No. The narration used 'she' those times."
Olivia: "But it's Third-Person Limited. Narration uses you as its focus, as if you were narrating things third-person."
Lauren: "It's not a hard-and-fast rule. And I think it's what Kate said about playing a role. Derek's a good actor, to be honest."
Derek: "Am not."
Lauren: "You are too."
Derek: "Not."
Olivia: "Ahem. As a neutral third party, I have to say... Yeah, you totally are."
Derek: *grumble grumble*
Olivia: "But that still doesn't completely answer the question. When do we use what pronouns for you?"
Derek: "Preferably male."
Olivia: "What about when you're Amelia?"
Derek: "Well she's me, right?"
Olivia: "But she's a girl. And you yourself just called her a she."
Kate: "Wait wait wait, I got it. Derek is a 'he', even as Amelia, except when he has to pretend to be a real girl."
Lauren: "That's not exactly the answer Arachnid got, though."
Kate: "Why? What'd he get?"
Derek: "Zorua basically told him that there's a bigger separation between me and Amelia. That anything to do with Amelia's superpowers are strictly hers, using that pronoun, while the rest is all me."
Kate: "Sounds like the pronoun separation isn't exactly set in stone, but it leans towards what I said."
Lauren: "Okay, so there's that. Should we move on or keep talking?"
Olivia: "I get the feeling Zorua wants to wrap things up."
Lauren: "But we still have a bunch of questions left."
Derek: "Here."
Bluecraters
If the powers stop working after he/she falls asleep, how can he then woken up floating in chapter 1?
Derek: "Actually, I think this can be answered by flashback too."
Lauren: *softly* "But we were talking."
"I'm just thinking. The floating part definitely-"
Olivia: "Wait, we don't need a flashback. I read that part. Your parents could hear your conversation with The Entity after a certain point. They said as much. You were just as confused then when they commented on what you thought was a dream. I looked it over carefully, and you can actually tell exactly when it stops being a dream."
Derek: "How?"
Olivia: "Okay, you know how The Entity mentioned italics? Well in The Entity's very next line, the italics just stop. The Entity called attention to the fact that italics are used for dream sequences, immediately before the dream sequence ends."
Lauren: "Pointing out the medium the story was written in, to convey a minor plot point detail. Clever."
Derek: "Huh."
Kate: "The Entity?"
Olivia: "Yeah, the thing that gave Derek his powers. The author *officially* named it as such in Derek's bio."
Kate: "Hmm... I wonder if it gave Elizabeth her powers too."
Olivia: "I doubt it. We're not even the same story."
Derek: "But didn't Zorua say-"
Olivia: "NOT EVEN THE SAME STORY. Next question, please."
Mr. Swanson: *enters* "Sorry I'm late. A new case landed on my desk."
Derek: "Hey, Mr. Swanson."
Mr. Swanson: "Hello. How are you all doing?"
Derek: "Alright."
Olivia: "Okay."
Lauren: "Good."
Mr. Swanson: "Good. Now, you were having a question and answer session?"
Lauren: "Yeah. You got a question aimed at you a little while ago, but you weren't here so we skipped it."
Mr. Swanson: "Well let's take a look, then."
jmucchiello
I don't understand Fluke and Swanson's exchange from here: "And why wasn't I informed of this fact?" This implies Fluke didn't watch the interview for himself. The level of interest he's shown before and somehow he didn't watch the interview? I find that odd. Or I'm missing something.
Mr. Swanson: "Ah. Well that's fairly simple. Mr. Fluke did watch the interview as scheduled, and was pulling me aside after the fact to review the recording of it. Performance reviews. Fluke's question was about why he wasn't told beforehand about Amelia's shapeshifting abilities, especially since it was my job to report everything I know about my assignment to him. Any piece of information in any investigation could be crucial, especially with something brand new that hasn't yet been determined if it's considered a threat to national security. The fact that I withheld important information was what he jumped down my throat about."
Olivia: "I hope that explains things. Jay was still confused even after the author tried to clear things up in the comments. ...Come to think of it, a bunch of these had answers in the comments. Why are they being repeated here?"
Lauren: "Thoroughness?"
Mr. Swanson: "Well, if that's all you need me for, I have a new case to work out."
Kate: "Really? What's it about?"
Mr. Swanson: "That's classified. I might be an open book to you guys about Derek's case, but everything else is need-to-know."
Lauren: "Could you send Mike in while you're at it?"
Mr. Swanson: "Who?"
Derek: "Why Mike?"
Lauren: "Mike Parker. He's actually the subject of the next question."
*exit Mr. Swanson*
Derek: "Well while we wait, I guess we can describe another form. Um..."
Lauren: "The one with the lab coat seems popular."
Derek: "Yeah, but that's mainly why I'm not describing her, since she's in the chapter."
Olivia: "Are you guys supposed to be talking about the results of that vote thing?"
Lauren: "Probably not."
Derek: "It's probably safe to describe this other one. It was on the ballot as 'Lavender Dress'. That's about right for the general look. Kind of a long sleeveless dress with a long-sleeved shirt under it. Weird high-collar shirt."
Olivia: "Also one of those under-skirts that adds ruffle and bulk."
3
Derek: "Yeah, that. There's a lot of frills to this one, mainly on the front of the dress, on the chest mainly, the cuffs of the shirt, the bottom of the skirt part... Actually, that's about all there is to where the frills are. High socks too, I think top of the knee."
Kate: "Kinky..."
Derek: *sternly* "Stop it. Anyway, the shoes are kinda weird. They-"
Kate: "They match the dress."
Derek: "...besides that. There's that buckle over the top of the foot. I don't know what that's all about. Girls wear shoes without that, right?"
Lauren: "Yeah, but it's still an option. That one has kind of an old-timey look, like... Victorian-era style, sort of."
Lauren: "Doesn't that one have ridiculously long hair? Like, ankle-length?"
Kate: "Knee-length, according to the cheat-sheet. The author's still undecided as to make it a light-brown-almost-blonde color or to do something else."
Derek: "You know what's weird, though? I have purple eyes in that form. Only one of my forms that has purple eyes."
Olivia: "Except for that-"
Derek: "MOVING ON!"
AAA98
So what's happening with Olivia and Kate?
Olivia: "Well we're doing a Q&A with Derek and Lauren, obviously."
Kate: "From a story standpoint, we're still working on my first full day at Olivia's house. It's kind of a rocky start."
Olivia: "Chapter ends before noon, is the plan. And yeah, things are kinda rough, but it works out."
Lauren: "Isn't that a spoiler?"
Kate: "Well I'm here talking now, aren't I? Things work out. I'm good."
Derek: "Well that's a vague but helpful answer, I guess."
Kate: "Yeah. What else? Is it another Jay question?"
Derek: "Yep."
jmucchiello
Mike, how does it feel to be Lois Lane? Or since he doesn't know he's Lois Lane, yet... what do you find most appealing about Amelia Powers, aside from her being super powered?
...
Derek: "Are we gonna have to wait ag-"
Mike: *enters* "What do you want? I was in the middle of something."
Mr. Swanson: "He was in the bathroom. I don't know what he was doing, nor do I want to."
*everyone shudders*
Mike: "What's this, a doll?" *reaches for Kate*
Kate: *ducks in panic* "NOOO!"
Olivia: *shelters Kate, cautiously picking her up, glaring at Mike the whole time*
Mike: "Okay, okay."
Lauren: *concerned* "Is she alright?"
Olivia: *holding Kate close to her body* "She just doesn't like being grabbed. Anyway, there's a question for you, Mike."
Mike: "Alright, fine, what is it?"
Derek: "This one guy we're calling Jay asked you how it feels to be Lois Lane."
Mike: "Who the fuck is Lois Lane?"
Derek: "Seriously?"
Lauren: "She's Superman's love interest, but she doesn't love Superman's alter-ego Clark Kent because she doesn't know Superman and Clark are the same person."
Mike: "Well she's an idiot, and that Jay guy's delusional."
Lauren: "Jay meant in context of you liking Amelia, not knowing she's... well, not connecting her real identity to her hero identity."
Mike: *eyebrow* "And you know who she is?"
Derek: "This is a Q&A for the main characters. Of course we know who Amelia is."
Mike: "Alright, so what's this guy want?"
Lauren: "He asked how it feels to be Lois Lane, and what you find most appealing in Amelia besides her superpowers."
Mike: "Psh. She's a flying girl. Why would I care about anything else?"
Lauren: "Really? That's it?"
Mike: "She looks like she was pulled right out of the Forties. She's not good at being a hero. She's not really trying to help people. I watch TV. And she's not my type. The only thing good about her is she has powers."
Derek: "Then why are you interested in her?"
Mike: "Because she has fuckin' superpowers! Isn't that reason enough?"
Lauren: "Okay, thank you for your help. You're free to go."
Mike: "What, really? That's it?"
Lauren: "Yep. You only had the one question aimed at you, so you're free to go."
Mike: "Thanks, but now I gotta know, what's with the tiny person?"
Kate: "Long story. Very long."
Olivia: "Not that long."
Mike: "Whatever. I'm outta here." *leaves*
Derek: "Thank God."
Lauren: "That question seemed more aimed towards Jason anyway."
Derek: "Mm hmm. Yeah. I wonder if Jay got the names mixed up, or if he actually meant Mike."
Lauren: "Any idea what he actually wanted to do once he tracked Amelia down?"
Derek: "I'm not trying to think about it. I think the author just made Mike figure things out to show he's the smartest of those three. Out of him, Ben, and Lucas, yeah."
Lauren: "It's not really that hard to be smarter than Ben or Lucas. Especially Ben."
Derek: "No kidding."
Lauren: "Alright, the next one is from... Kay-one-one-one-zero-en."
Derek: "Bunch of numbers."
Lauren: "Yeah, but at least it's pronounceable. Jay."
K1110n
Just out of curiosity, do you plan on adding combining Marvel comic powers or any comic/movie powers, or stick to one style of powers like Avatar?
Derek: "Honestly, I don't really see much of a pattern. There's some of the obvious ones--flight, strength, some of the four elements, invisibility--but I'm not making much of a connection to any series as far as I can tell."
Olivia: "I dunno. I can pick almost all your powers off of the Stock Superpowers list on TV Tropes."
Lauren: "Didn't the author mention Ben 10 at one point? Chapter 1's commentary he described you as somewhat of a mix between Elliot Dunkel--whoever that is--and Ben Tennyson."
Olivia: "I'm pretty sure whatever wasn't obvious was taken from that list."
Lauren: "What's so special about this list?"
Olivia: "Only that it has pretty much every superpower that's ever shown up in fiction, ever."
Lauren: "Doesn't sound like it narrows anything down at all."
Olivia: "It's a good reference point, though."
Derek: "You know what I noticed? Kate's been quiet for most of this."
Kate: "...well, I haven't really had much to say. I mean most of this is about superpowers and comic books. I never really liked that sort of thing."
Lauren: "That's no reason not to enjoy the conversation. We're just friends talking about stuff. It's just we have pre-written topics to talk about."
Kate: "And those topics are ones I'm not really interested in."
Derek: "You were interested earlier about the psychology thing."
Kate: "Which we're not talking about right now. There's nothing in this conversation that I really like. Nothing for me to say."
Olivia: "Maybe that's our cue to head out."
Lauren: "Aw..."
Kate: "No no, we can stay."
Olivia: "Look, if you're bored, we can find something else to do. Maybe build you a new toy."
Kate: "...I do like those toys you build."
Derek: "Another sportscar?"
Olivia: "Nah. I was thinking airplane."
Lauren: "Aren't you guys spoiling things? I mean, in-story Kate hasn't even gotten settled yet, and here you are talking about building vehicles for her, which doesn't even happen for at least a month in-story."
Olivia: "We mentioned a helicopter in one of the journals. I think we're safe."
Kate: "Hey, build me a boat and I can reenact Stuart Little."
Olivia: "Stuart what?"
Kate: "Stuart Little? The movie about the mouse living with humans?"
Olivia: ...
Kate: "There's a movie you haven't seen that I have? Wow. Come on, we gotta watch it. You have Netflix, right?"
Olivia: *amused* "Just who do you think you're talking to?"
Kate: "Then let's go!"
Derek: "Maybe you should watch The Borrowers Arietty while you're at it. It hasn't been dubbed yet, but it's pretty good."
Olivia: "Wait, I thought Disney dubbed that one."
Derek: "In 2012. It's 2011 in our stories, so we don't have it."
Kate: "What's it about?"
Derek: "One of a race of miniature humans befriends a regular human. There's more to it than that, but you'd probably like it."
Kate: "Sounds interesting. We'll have to take a look."
Olivia: "I could probably look up other shrinking-oriented stories online."
Lauren: "Careful. There's a lot of garbage online."
Olivia: "I know. Sturgeon's Law and all that."
Lauren: "Might I suggest looking up Ant-Man or The Atom? Or maybe Bumblebee?"
Derek: "More comic book superheroes I've never heard of? ...well Bumblebee was on Teen Titans..."
Olivia: "Alright, any questions for us before we head out?"
Lauren: "Uh... Another Zorua question for Kate."
Zorua076
How tall is Kate? Is there any particular reason for that height?
Kate: "Five and five-twelfths inches. I was five-foot-five-inches before I shrunk."
Olivia: "One-twelfths scale."
Kate: "For a reason... I dunno. It's just convenient? Easy conversion from feet to inches?"
Derek: "Makes sense."
Olivia: "Alright, we're gonna go check Netflix. See you guys later."
Lauren: "Bye. Thanks for coming out."
Kate: "See ya."
Derek: "Bye."
*exit Olivia, carrying Kate*
Lauren: "Well that was fun."
Derek: "Still wish Kate would've talked more. She's kinda fun."
Lauren: "Yeah. Too bad. Anyway, back to questions. Here's one from... Unkown-zero-zero-ze- bunch of zeroes."
Derek: "Unkown? Not 'Unknown'?"
Lauren: "That's how it's spelled."
Unkown000000
Do you plan everything out, or just make it up as you go along?"
Lauren: "This one's more towards the author than us."
Derek: "So? We've seen a handful of rewrites, haven't we? Plots planned out that won't happen because it doesn't fit the story anymore. The author has a handful of ideas that he thinks are going into the story, but then his ideas change as he gets new ones and throws out the old. Introduces new characters and such."
Lauren: "I know what you mean. I can think of one draft plot that I hope doesn't make the final cut."
Derek: "You never know. I can think of one that definitely didn't make the final cut, now that Jason's been finalized. And another that he's still wondering if he'll put it in at all. The deciding factor is how he writes us. That's the part he makes up as he goes. He just lets us talk and act and writes down what happens."
Lauren: "You make it sound like we're real people he's watching."
Derek: "Well, that's just how he writes dialogue. And sometimes we end up doing things he didn't expect. Didn't he already say that Carol leaving the table was one of those things?"
Lauren: "Yeah. I think one of his problems is he thinks up a scene to himself and doesn't write it down right away, though. Or he thinks one up that's months down the road. I know of three plots in the works."
Derek: "Uh huh. I'm looking forward to one of those, provided he doesn't go a different direction."
Lauren: "No, this one he's sticking with. No question. And to us, it's already happened, even if we haven't canonically gotten to that point yet."
Derek: "Yep. So, sounds like this question's dying down. Next?"
Lauren: "Next. From Aspm again."
apsm
So Derek WASN'T the only one who was give superpowers by that weird force? Kay...
Lauren: "I was hoping we'd get to this one. Warp proves that Derek wasn't alone in this. However, we can probably look to this bit of foreshadowing in the City Council meeting:
Mr. Thompson: "How long before we get reports of superpowers in New York? Or LA? Or Chicago?"
Roxanne: "Or London, Hong Kong, or Rio de Janeiro, for that matter. Superpowers could indeed crop up anywhere in the world."
Lauren: "Amelia obviously isn't the only one with superpowers. But why should the supers be limited to one city?"
Derek: "And that's all we're saying on that. Next question."
Lauren: "From Aspm. How many questions did he send in?"
Derek: "Uh... I count three."
Lauren: "Huh. Thought it was more."
Derek: "Well Jay only sent in six."
Lauren: "Fair enough. Anyway, the question."
apsm
Amelia deciding to reveal she CAN shapeshift? Not sure what she was thinking there...
Derek: "The alternative was pretending to be just the Flight form Amelia, and then having to make up fake identities for all the other forms. Either I pretend to be a shapeshifter, or I juggle twenty-some-odd secret identities at once and hope I can keep track."
Lauren: "This one was another question answered in the comments and in the chapters, but it's still a valid question left up here. If you hadn't admitted to being a shapeshifter, what kind of names would you have picked?"
Derek: "That wasn't asked in the comments."
Lauren: "What? Oh, no. My question was entirely mine, not from the other people. I guess my line there's kinda confusing."
Derek: "No, it's okay. I don't really know what hero names I would've picked for my other forms. Part of the reason for admitting shapeshifting was to not have to do that. But... I guess something simple? Maybe just Ghost or something for the ghost girl one?"
Lauren: "Except DC already has copyrights to a fire-powered superheroine named Fire."
Derek: "What? No way."
Lauren: "It's true. She existed since 1979 and was part of DC since '86. Same as Ice, since '88."
Derek: "Well that ruins things. And Static's already taken. But then Warp's taken too, and he doesn't seem to care."
Lauren: "...wait, we mentioned Ice and Static. Does that count as foreshadowing?"
Derek: "Ice was obvious from the poll, but yeah, I guess so. Actually, there's a question about that, isn't there?"
Potsticker13
I wonder what powers the other girl forms will give him.
Lauren: "Doesn't exactly look like a question."
Derek: "He was encouraged to guess, and he guessed invisibility, super strength, and mind-reading. Since then we've had inv- no, conforme- confirmed, bleh, invisibility and super strength in that order."
Lauren: "So if the trend continues... Invisibility confirmed in Chapter 3, strength in Chapter 7, then next we're gonna have... Except if it doesn't make it in the poll, then no."
Derek: "Now that's a spoiler."
Lauren: "Right. Anything else?"
Derek: "Well the obvious wind and earth powers."
Lauren: "Are you sure Flight counts as wind? And I meant questions."
Derek: "No. And here. Another Zorua one."
Zorua076
Do you drink milk straight from the carton?
...
Derek: "Is this a joke question?"
Lauren: "Probably. But no."
Derek: "No. Next."
K1110n
I get this "Sky High" vibe, assuming you've seen the movie. If you have seen the movie do you plan on adding any power close to anyone of the powers in Sky High such as a techno path, melting into ooze or transforming into animals?
Derek: "Pretty sure no technopath stuff or animorphing."
...
Lauren: "And the melting?"
Derek: "It's on the list of 'plausibles'."
Lauren: "But I thought he finalized your powers. All of them."
Derek: "Well, yeah. He actually has a Sky High reference in one of mine. Something one of the characters can do."
Lauren: "Sonic shouts?"
Derek: "While that would be an amusing literal shout out, no. But keep an ear out for something on those lines too. And I think we're done spoilering my powers. What else we got?"
jmucchiello
It seems like sometimes you are overwhelmed by your powers but thinking about what you have accomplished as a hero, what was your shining moment in your mind?
Derek: "I'm not sure 'overwhelmed' is the right word."
Lauren: "Just 'whelmed' fits better."
Derek: "That show hasn't even been released yet. Not in-universe, at least. Anyway, most of my problems with having powers have to do with the government controlling when I can and can't use them. So I guess 'pressured' is a better word. Or 'restricted' or something. Anyway, but I guess what I call my big accomplishment would be that water rescue at Galveston."
Lauren: "Not the actual superhero fight you were in?"
Derek: "Well the critics have a point. I didn't actually catch Warp, and he stayed ahead of me for the whole conflict and got away with the stolen money. At the beach, I actually did something. I helped save someone's life. That feels like way more of an accomplishment than playing keep-away and losing."
Lauren: "Is that your final answer?"
Derek: "Pretty much. Better save someone's life than run around like an idiot. ...why did the first bad guy have to..."
Lauren: "Pardon?"
Derek: "Oh, nothing. Just comparing Warp to some of the jerks I've run into at school. Next question."
Zorua076
(this is for the shippers) Any characters have love interests?
Derek: "Wh- What?"
Lauren: "Not me. Lucas, formerly, but that was before I realized that the real-world people who have the superhero build are meat-headed jerks."
Derek: "Not all of them. You and I just got unlucky enough to meet the bad ones first."
Lauren: "Yeah, true."
Derek: "...well my parents, for one. They might argue sometimes...never as bad as that time in Chapter 9, though...but they're still pretty crazy for each other."
Lauren: "Speaking of your parents, it's annoying that they think we're together."
Derek: "Ugh. I know. It's the twenty-first century. Boys and girls can be just friends."
Lauren: "Uh huh."
Derek: "...and there was this one girl I had a crush on in 6th grade. She was an 8th-grader, and she didn't go to Creek, so I don't really know."
Lauren: "She'd be a senior now, right?"
Derek: "Unless she skipped or got held back, but that's not likely. You know her? Amber Williams, I think."
Lauren: "Nope, doesn't sound familiar."
Derek: "Darn."
Lauren: "Maybe she'll show up in a later chapter."
Derek: "Maybe. Considering she didn't even exist until this Q&A, probably not."
Lauren: "Yeah. Introduced solely for world-building."
Derek: "Like Eve Lebsock?"
Lauren: "Who?"
Derek: *shrug* "Some girl Jason mentioned once."
...
Lauren: "So, who's next?"
Derek: "Two questions asking about little details for our powers, and one about oral proofreading in a silly accent, and another about the sensory overload, also in a silly accent. I think we can get those done pretty quick."
Lauren: "We're not gonna drag it out?"
Derek: "You're not facing the clock. It's getting kinda late here."
Lauren: *looks* "Wow, you're right. How's Olivia and Kate gonna get home? They live in Oregon. That's a five-hour flight or something."
Derek: "Not sure if that's exactly right, but maybe the plane runs on plotroleum."
Lauren: *snrk* "I see what you did there. Alright, yeah, let's do these."
Unkown000000
Did nyu do any oral proofreading in with this piece? In-nyaddition to helping with overall errors, it's extremely helpful with nyaccents and stammering-nya.
Lauren: "That was a weird accent."
Derek: *holding back his amusement*
Lauren: *glare*
Derek: *looks at the wall*
Lauren: "So, oral proofreading. Reading the story outloud while writing it."
Derek: "He does sometimes whisper our dialogue to himself."
Lauren: "Yeah. Problem is, he doesn't write it down then and there. It's pretty annoying that he gets a good scene in his head and even talks it out, but doesn't get it on paper until after it's faded out of his brain."
Derek: "Yeah. And when he actually does write us down, we end up with this...scripted perfect dialogue that doesn’t sound realistic at all."
Lauren: "He made an effort up there with the part with you stumbling over the word 'confirmed'."
Derek: "True. Doesn't exactly happen a lot in the real story, though."
Lauren: "No, not really. I guess he has to balance description with dialogue. Writing's tougher than it looks, isn't it?"
Derek: "How should I know? You get better grades in English than I do."
Lauren: "I get Cs. You get Bs. You're better than me there."
Derek: "Right. Forgot."
Lauren: "Anyway, Zorua doesn't do a lot of oral proofreading. He doesn’t usually give anyone accents to go with it, though, to make it a necessity. So not much for reading his own stuff outloud."
Derek: "He's pretty quiet, though, right?"
Lauren: "Yeah. So, what's the other one with the accent? And I'm not reading it this time."
Derek: "Fine."
Unkown000000
Was the sensory overload video in the story the one I mentioned-nya?
Derek: "Well that wasn't so bad."
Lauren: "That depends. I saw one where the person who sent it in used a Transformers cartoon clip to demonstrate. Which one did he--she? Can't tell-"
Derek: "Profile says it's a she. Would've been my first guess. And I thumbed through the comments and didn't find any video in any of hers, let alone one about sensory overload.
"Anyway, those last two."
Drylce
Can the "waterbender" form control something like bleach, or simply liquid variants of water?
AAA98
1 last question... For now. Dear Derek, if you turned into Amelia and gave your boots to Lauren and then turned back into Derek, would the shoes disappear from Lauren's feet? If not, and you turn back into Amelia, would there be two pairs of the shoes in existence at the same time?
Derek: "I'm... I'm not exactly sure. Could you give us five minutes?"
Six minutes later
Derek: *sits* "Okay, we tested it, and no. No to both."
Lauren: "Tricky part was finding a liquid that didn't have water in it, really. Luckily we read the rest of the cards during that big flashback and I got some things."
Derek: "Yeah. Anyway the clothing one didn't work in Chapter 3, even though nobody was wearing it. I as Amelia took the coat off, went to a different room, changed back, and the coat disappeared. Wouldn't have mattered if Lauren or anyone was wearing it or not. Though with the whole 'supers aren't limited to Houston' thing, it might not be completely thrown away just yet."
Lauren: "Probably just a bit character. Doesn't seem like that would fit as a decent superpower if you ask me. ...though I've seen a number of superheroes with 'bit' superpowers that turned out to be pretty useful. Powerful even. Ever hear of Aquaman?"
Derek: "He...talks to fish, right?"
Lauren: "That and swimming underwater was pretty much his original power. But then the writers got smart. Can command sea life: sharks, giant squids, mythical sea monsters, and even guppies can be powerful if there's fifty million of them at once. Survive at the bottom of the ocean: if he can muscle through pressures like that, imagine how strong he is on land. And they gave him water-controlling powers too, and considering how much water there is everywhere... So yeah, characters with lame powers can turn out to be more powerful than you could possibly imagine if you use 'em right."
Derek: "Wow. Never thought Aquaman could be scary. I mostly heard he was a joke."
Lauren: "He was, but then the writers got smart, like I said."
Derek: "Okay, we have time for one final question."
Lauren: "What? I thought we were done."
Derek: "Yeah, but the author was doing some last-minute digging. The single most asked question is:"
a bunch of people
Are you going to continue <story>?
Lauren: "I don't think this actually counts. Everyone asks for a continuation for everything anyway."
Derek: "Yeah, but there's a point here. Sister is coming up on its 1-year submission-iversary or whatever, and a continuation is in the works. Zorua's current goal is to finish Sister, Day 2 by October 23, but he's not making promises."
Lauren: "No kidding. How long have we been waiting between updates? Leslie was waiting a whole year from her creation to when her story was put up. Zorua has a problem with Writer's Block. And prograstination."
Derek: "Yep. So anyway, that's it."
...
Lauren: "That's it?"
Derek: "Yeah, we're out of questions."
Lauren: "Oh. Okay, so... Wait, what about the poll?"
Derek: "I... I guess we can talk about the results."
Lauren: "Alright. The poll is officially closed. No use changing the results while he's writing the thing."
Derek: "Yep. And the one with the second amount of votes is... The heavy coat."
Lauren: "Everyone thinks that one has Ice powers. Should we tell 'em?"
Derek: "Nah. Leave 'em guessing. That one's not too bad, really. And I suppose we can continue that question about describing forms better. A heavy cot, mai- coat, sorry. Mainly pink in color with white on the edges. Not to thrilled about pink, but I didn't pick it, so nothing I can do. And jeans and fur-ish boots kinda like the ones I have in the Flight form."
Lauren: "That's fleece, right? The white parts on the edges?"
Derek: "Think so. The coat has a hood, by the way."
Lauren: "Hair's kinda interesting. It's braided in something like a wreath or something, going around the top and sides of the head before tying together at the back. And it's light brown with traces of red. Think the author was trying for a realistic pink hair there, and went as close as possible."
Derek: "Yep. That doesn’t really help my case, though. The body's fine; nothing like the Fire or Strength forms, and the clothes are okay in style, I guess. It's just the color that bugs me."
Lauren: "I think a lot of things are gonna bug you. It's just how the story works."
Derek: "Yeah. Okay, so that's the one whose powers I don't use. The one I do use, the winner of the poll is... Lab Coat." *sigh* "I guess that one's okay too. Not a girly form. I just wish that one wasn't so...jiggly."
Lauren: "You're not fat like that."
Derek: "We both agree that yes, that form is a little fat. At least she has a reason. She's not obese or crazy overweight; just a little plump."
Lauren: "Fairly decent figure otherwise. Heck, even with, that one's not that bad."
Derek: "Can we get to the rest of things? White lab coat, that's important. Kinda longer than knee length thing with some pockets on the front. Then there's tennis shoes, jeans (why are those so common?), and just a basic gray shirt. Light-gray. I dunno why. And this one's kind of a brownish-blonde with a short ponytail or something."
Lauren: "I dunno. I guess going for the 'cute scientist' look, maybe."
Derek: "I guess. Anyway, that's the winning entry. Still think electromagnetism or intelligence? Probab- Possibly. Sorry. He keeps trying for realistic dialogue and it messes me up. I think that part he's gonna have to keep the stutters and backpetals off. (did I misspell that?)"
Lauren: "(yes, you did). And with that, we're out of time. Sorry everyone."
Derek: "Yeah. Tune in next five chapters for the big...whatever it is. ...what do you think'll happen next?"
Lauren: "Hopefully not another trailer or Q&A. Honestly, it seemed like he had more fun with the voting thing than the questions."
Derek: "Yeah, true. That's hindsight. And if he'd done that instead of promising something this so early, he might have chapter 11 out already."
Lauren: "Yeah, maybe. ...why do we say 'yeah' all the time?"
Derek: "I dunno. Generic agreement?"
Lauren: "Maybe."
...
Derek: "So...how do we wrap this up?"
Lauren: "Um... Cut to black and show the end credits?"
Derek: "It doesn't work like that. Um... Bye, everyone. This was fun. Sort-of."
Lauren: "Yeah. Thanks for all your questions. I hope we answered them to the best of our ability."
Derek: "We'll see you next time."
Lauren: "Bye."
...
...
Derek: "So, how do you think we did?"
Lauren: "I thought we did okay. Can't believe we let it get this late, though."
Derek: "Yeah, we let time get away from us. Anyway, we should probably pack up and stuff."
Lauren: "Yeah. I got a test in the morning. Don't wanna miss it."
Derek: "Speak for yourself."
*packing up*
Lauren: "Why is the camera still rolling?"
Derek: "What? Oh, I dunno." *taps lens* "Hey, you can turn this off now, alright? We're done."
...
Lauren: "The light's still on."
Derek: "I know. Is anyone even listening? Or did they go to sleep already?"
Lauren: "No idea. Maybe we should just unplug it?"
Derek: "What if that deletes the whole recording? Then we'd have to do this all over again tomorrow."
Lauren: "Yeah, true. Don't wanna repeat everything. Let's ju-"
Suggested Collections
And with that, the Q&A is finally done. A big thank you 
(and a lollipop for some reason 
) to everyone who sent in their own questions or inspired ones of my own.
-potsticker13
--I wonder what powers the other girl forms will give him.
-K1110n
--Sky High vibe
-apsm ([edit 11/21/2013]: I just realized I misspelled your username. Sorry! I'm an idiot.)
--not the only one
--Lauren's dad, shapeshift reveal
-Drylce ([edit 11/21/2013]: That's supposed to be a lowercase L? It looks like an I. Stupid font.)
--states of matter, non-water waterbending
-Unkown000000
--planned out or no?
--overload video (the convo in question, for the record)
--oral proofreading
-jmucchiello (seriously, how do you pronounce that?)
--Fluke's interest
--Kate's height
--why do this?, favorite color, accomplishment, Lois Lane
-AAA98
--explore the forms
--Olivia and Kate
--more description for Derek
--lifting capacity
--clothing morph nitpick
-piemaster314145926 (you have an extra 4 in there. seriously)
--artist wanted
-bluecraters
--floating inconsistency
-arachnid98
--pronoun trouble
If I missed anyone, I'm sorry. And I'm not linking to every "Can you continue this?" comment, or we'll be here all day.
I've certainly learned my lesson, though. Never promise something four chapters in advance. I know I won't go back on it if it happens again, but I did start to lose interest in the Q&A over time. Taught By Experience and all that.
As for the poll, the results are in. Winner is the Lab Coat with 4 votes, second place the Heavy Coat with 3. More on that in the journal, because I'm tired and wanna go back to sleep, even though it's noon.
I hope this answered all of your questions. If you're still confused about some of them, well... I dunno. Too tired to think of a way to finish that sentence. 'night. Or 'morning, I guess. Or 'whenever-you-read-this.
Powers TG and Olivia and Kate © Zorua076.deviantART.com (me)
(and a lollipop for some reason ) to everyone who sent in their own questions or inspired ones of my own.-potsticker13
--I wonder what powers the other girl forms will give him.
-K1110n
--Sky High vibe
-apsm ([edit 11/21/2013]: I just realized I misspelled your username. Sorry! I'm an idiot.)
--not the only one
--Lauren's dad, shapeshift reveal
-Drylce ([edit 11/21/2013]: That's supposed to be a lowercase L? It looks like an I. Stupid font.)
--states of matter, non-water waterbending
-Unkown000000
--planned out or no?
--overload video (the convo in question, for the record)
--oral proofreading
-jmucchiello (seriously, how do you pronounce that?)
--Fluke's interest
--Kate's height
--why do this?, favorite color, accomplishment, Lois Lane
-AAA98
--explore the forms
--Olivia and Kate
--more description for Derek
--lifting capacity
--clothing morph nitpick
-piemaster314145926 (you have an extra 4 in there. seriously)
--artist wanted
-bluecraters
--floating inconsistency
-arachnid98
--pronoun trouble
If I missed anyone, I'm sorry. And I'm not linking to every "Can you continue this?" comment, or we'll be here all day.
I've certainly learned my lesson, though. Never promise something four chapters in advance. I know I won't go back on it if it happens again, but I did start to lose interest in the Q&A over time. Taught By Experience and all that.
As for the poll, the results are in. Winner is the Lab Coat with 4 votes, second place the Heavy Coat with 3. More on that in the journal, because I'm tired and wanna go back to sleep, even though it's noon.
I hope this answered all of your questions. If you're still confused about some of them, well... I dunno. Too tired to think of a way to finish that sentence. 'night. Or 'morning, I guess. Or 'whenever-you-read-this.
Powers TG and Olivia and Kate © Zorua076.deviantART.com (me)
© 2013 - 2024 Zorua076
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Are Oliver and Kate and Derek going to meet each other in one story?