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[takeyouapart]

Who else here comes from a world where people can use magic? Or - not just that, but people able to do things that most other people can't, things most people would think of as...supernatural.

[A pause.]

I suppose what I'm actually asking is, how do your worlds treat those kinds of people? Do they have to live in secret, or does everyone else know

Comments

[feels_no_love]

Supernatural beings are not...common...in my world, largely because several groups have been methodically hunted to extinction by the Church. Its hunters are hostile to all supernatural beings, regardless of their origins, their ethics or what they have or have not done. It is, in short, a perpetual war.

[takeyouapart]

That sounds familiar.

Why did it start?

[feels_no_love]

I can only give you the story of how the war on my own people started. It started when my murder was ordered by the church.

[takeyouapart]

Why was that?

[captain_jtkirk]

No magic. Just aliens.

[takeyouapart]

...

Although, if you don't have magic yourself, you can't know for certain it doesn't exist. It might just be that everyone who does it is really good at keeping it a secret.

[captain_jtkirk]

I've seen a lot of weird things, that a lot of people call magic but it's not. Strange physics, yes, and every planet is different but no magic.

[takeyouapart]

[Kirk, you have beautiful golden hair and you're very sure of yourself so of course Merlin's going to argue with you for the sake of arguing.]

That doesn't make what I said any less true.

[notiaraincluded]

It depends on who you ask where I'm from. There's magic and people who can harness it. There's also people who are just genetically different. They're known as mutants. There are guys like me who just kinda had fate smile on them.

As a whole, we're referred to at meta-humans. Most of us are well known to the public, though lots of us have secret identities. Little guys, like me, don't really have need for those.

There are also some groups who distrust or fear us, especially towards mutants. Just like any issue, there's wackos on both sides.

[takeyouapart]

...

Secret identities? How do you mean?

[Sorry Luke, it falls to you to explain superheroes.]

[notiaraincluded]

[Well...damn.]

Like, you got heroes...I guess vigilantes would be what they are technically...who fight criminals. Because they're not as restricted by rules like cops are, they can go a lot more places and do a lot more things, allowing them to get the badguys.

Things is, sometimes doing those extra things sorta rubs the cops the wrong way, or sometimes the guy's means ain't exactly legal. Or, they got a family and kids they don't want to get targeted. So, they wear a mask, sometimes a whole costume, and go by a different name. A whole new persona.

Follow me? [It makes perfect sense to him.]

[takeyouapart]

Yes, I think so. So...people who want to use their abilities can do that, and they're not doing it in secret exactly, they're just hiding who they are so that the rest of the time they can live with everyone else?

[future_games]

Where I'm from, people who can do things that aren't normal hide it because they're frightened as to what could happen. I have a feeling it may have gotten worse after I died. You can only hide something like that for so long.

[takeyouapart]

[Man, do you have superpowers over there, not!Lancelot?]

Yeah. I think most people in my world with....not-normal abilities would rather nobody ever found out about them. It's safer that way.

[future_games]

[Not really anything he'd consider especially super, Merlin. He is the Aquaman of the Heroes universe. Lancelot is more badass than he is.]

I've tried to tell people. In my world, you need concrete proof for anyone to even consider believing you. It helps when you need to hide what you can do, but if you don't want to be so...alone, it gets in the way. [Speaking from experience much, not!Lancelot?]

Private

[takeyouapart]

Yes. It does.

It's lonely no matter why other people don't know.

...

Is there something that you can do?

[tis_disapproval]

Shackled by regulations. Imprisoned in their communal tower.

Some of us choose differently.

[takeyouapart]

What did you choose?

[tis_disapproval]

Freedom.