Chapter 5 : Results and animation

Author note : Sorry about the delay. Here's the next chapter !

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I open the letter nonchalantly. I just received the results for this year's exams and I'm pretty sure I aced them. In any case, ever since I discovered the true uses of my power, I felt like school didn't really matter. I mean, the diplomas are useful I guess… But I can't learn anything about how to use my powers there. In fact, I doubt I can even use them. Unless I want to get found out, maybe.

I stop my movement and smack my forehead. Of course, there are things which can be useful ! Computer science for one ! Although, computer code is different from what I use in my programming, I can still study it in order to understand how to write programs. As it is, I'm mostly driving my ink with instructions. A program on the other hand requires minimal input for it to run. Hell, AIs, although theoretical (unless Stark or some other genius already built one), are basically self-writing program able to learn.

I then think about codes and how I could define symbols to perform certain tasks. Why not create some to facilitate and shorten my writing and therefore, help in my programming ?

In addition to computer science, they are other things I'm interested to learn, I notice. Drawing, writing, ink painting, maybe tattooing… Oh ! And I want to earn money too. Maybe not become a billionaire or anything, but enough to afford paraphernalia and live comfortably. I mean… Paper is costly. Maybe not costly, but it has a cost, and it's something that I basically need to use for my power. Huh… I'm a tree killer. Maybe I should really learn tattooing…

I look at the results and without surprise, I find that I indeed got good grades for all of them. Now, there's only the summer break left before I start high school… Ugh ! I don't want to ! High school in the U.S seems like such a pain from all the comics I read and the TV shows I watched… Filled with hormonal morons and queen bees, a perpetual popularity contest with children trying to behave like adults. Besides, with my bald head and my relatively small build, I'm bound to be picked on ! The bullies here are way worse compared to my high school days in France… I think.

I think about it some more and say to myself :

« Ok, maybe I shouldn't judge school with how it's portrayed in pop culture… »

After I put away the papers in my hand and threw the envelop, I resume thinking about my mutant power. Mainly two things… First, the duration in which the enhancement on my body lasts. Not very long, for now. Although ever since I've started working on my calligraphy, the effects seem stronger, my symbols and the ink they're drawn in disappear after an hour top. That's why I'm interested in learning tattooing. I wonder if it'll last longer or better yet, remain permanently with this.

The second is my animate thingy of my power. I've mostly figured it out… With the example of the stick figure and the uses of defined code-words, so to speak, I've been able to make him walk, wave and jump. It's much like a cartoon works in fact… I draw the images one by one and side by side from 1 to as many as needed. For example : walking. From the resting pose of the figure, I then draw the figure move a leg forward, landing it on the ground, lean on it and bringing the other… Same thing with the other leg. Well… Since it's a stick figure, you can't really differentiate the legs so I discarded one part of it.

All the drawings are under the label walk with a special police of mine that I defined and associated with the stickman. And it works, too ! Though it still looks a bit strange and choppy, like some kind of old Game & Watch when I animate it.

Now that I know how it works, I'm working on more elaborate characters and drawings, sometimes inspired from my own fictions. I still need to improve my art though… Ink painting is rather complicated and for anyone else, would leave little room for error. That's why people first start with pencils before starting to add ink, paint or color. I don't want to do that, however, since I wouldn't be able to manipulate a pencil drawing. Besides, I can just make the ink disappear.

The novel I'm currently working on is set in a contemporary time in an alternate reality to my former one. Since I mostly learned of French History, that's where the main plot happens. Unlike my former world where magic either didn't exist or was so rare as to be non-existent, this world relies on a few forms of mystical energies… Thinking of this, I realize that I've most probably been influenced by my parents training and teachings when I started to write it.

Anyways… In this world, the constitutional monarchy persisted until the second world war when the Regime of Vichy was put in place and the military started hunting and killing Royals. The Royals then either went into hiding or joined a resistance movement to fight against the new regime.

The reason I'm thinking about it now is because of something my dad told me about extra-dimensional energies as well as the dimensions that existed. Basically, according to him there are an infinite number of dimensions from where a sorcerer could draw power from. For this, they could strike a deal with the entities in said dimension, or find an empty one to appropriate. The energies of these dimensions were as diverse as their numbers which meant that… Perhaps, I could find one with similar properties to the powers of my ink. One to bring my creations to life !

The idea was still fuzzy in my head right now but it stayed ever since I heard the explanation from my father. It will be a long term project however, as I was nowhere near the level required for something like this… I needed to be a master at least !

« How did you do in your exams, dear ? »

I hear my mom from behind me, surprising me and making me jump a little. I put a hand to my chest, as if that would calm my racing heart :

« Geez, mom ! You scared me ! »

With a smile, she said :

« Sorry, honey ! So… How did you do ? »

Without a word, I retrieve the papers from my desk and give them to her. For a minute, she just looks at them seriously before the smile returned to her lips.

« Very good, son ! I'm so proud of you ! » After hugging me from behind she asks : « Have you thought about where you want to go to school ? »

The reason she asks that is because I don't want to go to the school I would normally have gone. Too many people would know of me and with my new appearance they'd draw conclusion and treat me differently. Either they would pity me thinking I had/have cancer, or they would pick on me for an apparent weakness they perceive. So I decided that I'd rather go somewhere nobody knows me. Like a school in a different district.

Another reason why I want to go somewhere else is… because I wish to meet some of the future super-heroes or super-villains. I thought about Midtown high, with Peter Parker and Cindy Moon and a slew of other characters gravitating around Spider-Man. The problem is… I'm not even sure they'd be there.

We're in the year 2000 and I'm not really sure when or even where the important characters would pop out. My own existence proves that this reality isn't the one I know of and that's both good and bad. In Marvel, there are thousands of Earths with differences as small as a different choice made by some important people, to being in a completely different time (past, future…) or even worlds that have developed radically different because some important figures were never born or did things differently.

For now, the heroes haven't really made an appearance. Mutants have however, with a Magneto who, some 30 years ago, attacked Washington and was thwarted by Mystique before he managed to kill the president and Bolivar Trask. Then, a few years ago, Magneto, along with the X-men fought against an entity who wanted to basically destroy the world and rebuild it for mutants. I think it was Apocalypse… But from what I remembered, it was supposed to have happened earlier. Moreover, from the images in the archives, Magneto during his first attack looked like a teenager. The weird thing is… Mutants were also involved in the Cuba Missile Crisis of 62 and although they weren't any archive footage, there seem to have been a metal bender present… Was he a child at this point ? And let's not forget that Erik Lehnsherr was also a survivor of the holocaust… It was just impossible for him to be so young !

This has me really confused… Add to that the fact that the Brotherhood of Mutants doesn't exist, or at least, it's not on anyone's radar as the terrorist organization reviled around the world, and that Magneto was pardoned by President Clinton in 98… Really, this world was so weird !

Something familiar however… SHIELD doesn't appear to exist. My guess is they haven't revealed themselves yet. No idea if it was the snake (or rather Hydra) infested cesspit from the movies. But, well… Operation Paperclip did happen in this world too, so… Chances are, it is !

I'm drawn from my thoughts by a hand waving in front of me :

« Nathan ! You hear me ? » My mom asks.

« Sorry ! Hm… I haven't chosen a school yet. I'll start to look for one, right away, okay ? »

« Okay. But make it quick ! There's a lot of work involved in choosing a school and registering you for it ! »

I nod and get up to head for my dad's study. I need the computer for the Internet. I sigh, thinking how easy it was with smartphones…You could get on the Internet anywhere, anytime. It wouldn't happen for a few more years, unfortunately…