(This is Marvel based but all are welcome to join.)
“The Blip. I had been unfortunately not dusted like half of the universal population. It pisses me off still. Hell, I would’ve loved to check the fuck out for five years.”
She pauses to take a drink from a crackly, flimsy water bottle beside her. Alexa’s always had a problem with hydration. She often has to remind herself to drink something… or rather they have to remind her. The occasional voice in her head. Her babysitter who never leaves. The entity. Alexa isn’t quite sure what else to call them as they never gave her a name. They don’t literally speak in her head, it’s more like showing her images in her mind’s eye. There’s no individual names in the alien’s language. They were all about that ‘we’re all one,’ woo-woo shit. Everybody was a collective. I guess I could get behind that. Individualism is a poison and human society is evidence of it. Look how miserable and alone we all are…
A flash of colors in her head. Pay attention, the babysitter says. The young woman clears her throat and sits up straighter in her seat.
“Sorry, champ. Was I zoning out again?” To any onlooker it would look like she’s talking to herself. That wouldn’t be the weirdest thing about her. Not by far. Alexa looks balefully at the camera of her smartphone. She’s been trying to record a video for YouTube but she has been doing really badly. She’s been watching a lot of story time videos in her down time and it turns out that she finds other people’s tales to be amusing. How could she tell her own life story without redacting a lot of it? Well, she couldn’t. She can’t have a social media presence (or a presence anywhere) without using fake names, morphing her looks and changing her voice too. If anyone recognized her from the old days that would literally cost her freedom. Or worse.
Alexa scrunches up her face slightly, a nervous feature. “I’m not schizophrenic if you’re wondering. You probably are. I’m not talking to a person or to an animal off screen, I swear.” She plays with the water bottle cap between her fingers. Another nervous tell. Sonder likes to have something to fidget with. Evidently neurodivergent people do that, she’s learned recently. Of course her brain would be a bit special. “There’s a lot I can’t tell you, potential viewer. Sorry. But there is so much I do want to tell you.” That nervous, furrowed brow look fades into one of genuine warmth. As she smiles her teeth are a little too white, a little too even. The perks of being a shape-shifter: you’ll never look half bad. “So let’s begin, yeah? I’d say I’ve got some pretty cool stuff to talk about.”