Metaheroes Inbox

[helpdesk_hero]

This is David Alleyne, I'm not available at the moment.
Please leave your name, contact information, and what this is regarding after the beep.

Comments

[helpdesk_hero]

You've proven you've come past that.

[doctopoda]

Well, still. I understand where people are coming from. All the other versions of me I've heard of sound like pieces of work.
Maybe in a perfect world we wouldn't judge people based on their alternate selves, but under the circumstances I think it makes sense to be cautious.

[helpdesk_hero]

I got to meet the alternate version of one of my teachers recently. It is not easy, at all.

[doctopoda]

It didn't go well? I'm sorry.

[helpdesk_hero]

No, it's more that it's awkward. He has family in my world and I don't know if he does there so it's awkward.

[doctopoda]

Oh. Yes, I can see that being strange.

[Forgetting the usual alternate-Otto problems - it'd be very unsettling to meet a version of himself, one more like him than Jumpsuit Otto, who had never married.]

[helpdesk_hero]

I basically owe his son my life. And his young clone. And him for teaching me. It's all a mess. You're easier to balance since I didn't know Doc Oc personally.

[doctopoda]

Oh, I see.
Did he recognize you?

[helpdesk_hero]

No, it seems I don't exist in his world?

[doctopoda]

[Yikes!!!]

That must have been rough.

You could still exist there, and he just hasn't met you yet.

[helpdesk_hero]

Entirely possible. But he's buttoned up damn tight.

[doctopoda]

Give it time. I'm sure he'll come around to you.

[helpdesk_hero]

I doubt that. It's not his style.

[doctopoda]

What, getting to know you?

[helpdesk_hero]

Coming around to people.

[doctopoda]

He doesn't know you, that's all. It could still get better.

[helpdesk_hero]

I won't hold my breath. Unlike him, I can't do it long.

[doctopoda]

I'm sorry.

[That sucks! And kinda makes Otto take an instant dislike to the guy tbh!]

[helpdesk_hero]

Don't apologize. I've learned to adapt to people who aren't quite my people.

[doctopoda]

Still.

[It has to be hard! Otto's hardly really dealt with that - there's been different Peters, to be sure, but at the end of the day he's spent a lot more time with them now than he ever did with his own world's version.]

[helpdesk_hero]

[Not everyone is friendly like they are. It's okay too.]

He's a very prickly man.