OverconfidentMagi
Laugh Like You've Won Always
The Masquerade TroupeAct 3
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prologue 1 - the Invitation -
Hello. If you're reading this, it must have worked. Seeing this message is more important then you might think, and was very difficult to manage. I can assure you, it's worth your consideration
You must be wondering, who am I? A random message, doesn't just come out of thin air right? A sender behind it is guaranteed. Telling you who I am, at least my real name, serves no purpose unless you accept. So for now, you may call me 'Bird'. It's the title I go by here, so that's what you may refer to me as. But who is, 'Bird'? That's a question asked quite often, but there's almost no answers. Of course I know who I am, but not many others do. But...here's what you should know.
I am a man of high standards, looking for thrill of the utmost severity. To put it simply, I'm a 'super villain'. A roamer. Or at least, those are the titles my world attaches to people such as myself. Without meaning to brag, I'm actually quite skilled in what I do. I go around the world, taking jobs that are of 'high risk, and high reward'. I've never once failed any job I've undertaken, if that means anything to you. So far in my career, I've run solo. Haven't had a need to do otherwise...till now.
Being of such skill, I haven't gone unnoticed. More and more people are looking out for me, watching for the next time I strike so they might catch me. They never will, I assure you. However, such security has made it harder to pull off my jobs...so having someone to help will be required before long. That's where you come in. If any of the things I've said thus far make little to no sense, don't be concerned. The reason why, is because this letter is coming from a different world then yours. I get that might seem...ludicrous. Impossible. Some sort of gag made for a prank...but it's not. I never lie.
In my world, I'm called a Legend. No, I don't mean it in the normal sense. It's what my species is called, because it seems like we were born from legends of old. We live alongside humans, much like yourself. The only difference, is we have powers. Super powers, as you may call it in your world. Abilities. That's what I am, and its what's allowing me to write this letter to you now.
If you see past your own disbelief, and accept my invitation...I can promise you many things. Wealth beyond what you could ever hope to acquire. You would be famous, but not necessarily in a good way. Plus, I'm certain that if you came here, you would have powers. I can't promise that last one, but if what I've heard is true...you will become a Legend. All you have to do is press on the seal of this letter, and hold it against your heart. Utter the words, 'I accept', and my powers will do the rest for you. I hope to see you soon
-Bird
Aaron reread the letter he'd first read three years ago, in another time and another world, and tears rolled down his face onto the paper. His cold glacier blue eyes reflected the orange twilight beams coming from the window. He was alone in the darkening room, but still he felt shame even as he cried. He'd been trying so hard to keep his emotions under control, constantly, for six months now. Six months since Bird had disappeared. He erased Shame and wept openly. Colors in the room ran as if done in watercolor, blending into an uncertain grey until he felt Pain stirring from deeper within. That he couldn't let out, so he covered up Sorrow for now.
"Bird, where are you? You never finished teaching me how to keep myself together. I can't do it alone."
Fear rushed to fill his mind. Aaron clutched the letter to his chest as he struggled to stay in control of himself. The light streaming in through the window split around him, spraying broken up splashes of all different colors across the walls, a prismatic murder scene that matched the chaos inside Aaron right then. "I accept," he said for the second time. Those two words had saved him once. The light faded as his body seemed to deflate. His pale grey-green eyes just looked exhausted as he set the letter down on the table and walked to the bedroom. He was tired, not physically but mentally.
He set his hand on the doorknob and for no particular reason he could have explained, turned back to look at the letter. So he just happened to see a tear in reality open up and the letter disappear into it. He stood there dumb for a long time, and once his mind was working again, he rushed to find the rest of the letters Bird had never sent out. Aaron wasn't entirely sure what he hoped to accomplish, but it was something Bird had done once, and he'd been copying the person he'd become obsessed with for so long that it just felt right. As if by doing so he was taking a single step closer to wherever Bird was.
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prologue 2 - the Greeting -
Welcome
Aaron stared at the one word he'd written down an hour ago. He hadn't been reading it this whole time. No, it was just where his eyes had fallen as his mind had drifted off to other things. How should he greet whoever showed up? Would anyone show up? He really had no idea how Bird's powers worked, and even less understanding of what the super villain had done to pull people from another world to this one. Just because the letters had disappeared was no guarantee that they'd actually appeared in the other world. Or if they had, who was to say the people that accepted would arrive in the same place? They could be thrown anywhere in the world, anywhere in any world. The letters might not even find people from the same world he'd come from. There were so many unknowns. He was used to that by now, but he still hated it. People's minds, this world, it was too chaotic, impossible to predict. That was what made it so exciting.
He was smiling as his white-gold eyes refocused on the paper lying in front of him.
Welcome, one and all, to my world. It's a pleasure, honestly.
The exact words Bird had used to greet him, Ryan, Angela... and Sophia. His eyes darkened as regret tinged his smile. He would never say it, but he missed them, all of them. He would probably never be given a chance to say it. He deserved that. He banished the sadness he'd begun to feel and reread his words, Bird's words. He lifted the pen. No, he couldn't just reuse Bird's words this time. This wasn't even his world after all. He crumpled the paper and pulled out a new one. Now that he'd made the decision to not copy Bird he found he couldn't even think of one word to start. The pen moved on its own in his hand.
Welcome
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the Arrival -
When Aaron and the others had first arrived in this world, they had appeared inside the entryway of some big fancy mansion. Bird had been there waiting for them. He'd known where and when they would appear. Aaron had neither of those advantages. He could very well be scattering people all across a world they did not belong in and knew nothing about. That was a very real possibility.
Without Bird to ask, Aaron could only use what little he did remember about his own arrival. The timeline. Bird had once said it had been two months between sending out the invitations and them arriving. Aaron had wasted half of that searching for his second clue: the mansion. In truth, what little he did know about the place he'd first arrived in had bothered him more than all of the unknowns about inter-dimensional travel and it somehow granting super powers. The mansion had been huge. He'd only stood in the entryway and seen the lounge/bar, but what he'd seen pointed towards it being owned by someone who didn't care at all about money. It had been clean, certainly not abandoned, and the bar had even been fully stocked, seemingly quite recently from what he could remember. More concerning, Bird had claimed to both not own the property and not know who did. Most concerning, he had shot down any ideas of investigating whomever the place did belong to.
He sighed and placed another cookie in his mouth. Just another secret, just another reminder of the distance that existed between Bird and his flock. He took a gulp from the glass of red wine sitting on the step beneath him. Aaron Massimo, the last of Bird's old flock, sat on the top step of the opulent staircase in the entryway of the mansion where he'd first arrived in this world just over three years ago. He'd finally managed to find the right place. It hadn't been an easy feat, not even close. He now suspected some power was at work in keeping the place hidden, but he'd gotten lucky. He'd come to strongly hate that word since being in this world, but he was forced to admit he'd relied on it. He wished he hadn't.
The mansion was not exactly how he remembered it. The structure was still massive and opulent, but it had begun to show signs of disrepair. In all likelihood, the place had been vacant and unmaintained since that night three years ago. The place had only existed to serve one purpose, and its owners had left it to rot since. Dust and cobwebs filled the place. Aaron had cleaned out one bedroom for himself while he wasted away the days waiting for his flock to arrive, but otherwise couldn't be bothered to clean up such an unreasonably large place. So he'd let Apathy take over. Day after day he'd sat on the stairs, just waiting. Sometimes he had food, sometimes a book, sometimes he'd just sit playing games on his phone, though the signal here was disappointing. Today he had a box of Girl Scout cookies and wine. Truly this must be the life of a king, no? This was what he'd imagined when he'd accepted the offer to become a super villain. Spending weeks sitting in a spider-infested old house waiting for something to happen.
On cue, a spider climbing the railing towards his head caught Aaron's eye. Small, black, thin legs. Could very well be a black widow. "You don't want to," he warned the creature. It crawled closer. He blew at it to convince it to turn around. It stopped but then continued closer. "Fine. I did warn you." Aaron's grey-green eyes darkened and shifted more towards blue. His power was meant for people, but it did work on animals as well. It was easier if the animal was intelligent, so to get any response from something as inhuman as a bug he had to push, hard. The light around Aaron's body blurred and edges became hyper-sharp as if the world was being seen through a lens having trouble focusing on any one thing. The spider froze. That would be terror. The spider moved its leg forward, slowly continuing its exploration of the railing. Aaron sighed again. Well, that wasn't what his power was for anyway. "You win this time," he conceded to the spider as he stood to move his body out of the spider's path.
That was when they arrived. At the bottom of the stairs appeared things that Aaron would have trouble accurately describing. Swirls of light, every color and then some all mixing together and almost instantly becoming too bright to look at. He kicked his box of cookies away behind him and lifted his glass of wine, a white-gloved hand covering his eyes until the light show ended. And suddenly it was. The space seemed too dark by comparison now, but there was nothing he could do to fix that now. Aaron stood atop the stairs, staring down at the fresh faces deposited by the unnatural inverted black holes.
Bird had greeted his flock in full costume, masquerade mask covering his face and radiating the colors of the universe. He'd shown off his power to add validity of some of the claims in his invitation. Aaron was not Bird. Not nearly. So he greeted his flock more plainly.
He was dressed well - he made a point of always being presentable - but not as the Jester, his super villain persona, just as Aaron. Average height, homebody-pale skin, pushed back light blonde hair, eyes that were still shifting back to green from blue as Fear receded into the background then towards a lighter green as Kindness pushed forward. A black leather jacket over a plain dress shirt, a loose tie, white gloves, jeans, semi-formal black shoes. He looked distressingly plain for a super villain. He looked down at them for a moment more, look another deep gulp of wine, and took his first step down the stairs.
"Welcome," he said, eyes and smile and arms all spread wide and open, "to a whole new world."