Don't get me wrong I love being a nova, but does everyone else who is one do so?

I'm alot more popular now, and I command more respect (because I'd rather think people don't fear me) but there are times where i look in the mirror and don't really notice any change.

I was just wondering if anyone else was having to deal with all new issues that crop up because they're a nova now.

(yeah I know it's a crappy and certainly well-used thread starter, so, my apologies.)

Which issues do you mean, Hideyoshi-san?

Yeah, could you be more specific please?

I think I'm saddest to say that I don't have many more issues. Talk all you want about how wealth and power carry their own set of problems, but I gotta tell you, brother, sometimes those are the kind of problems I'd like to have. Probably the most remarkable change in my life post-eruption has involved my appetite, and let me tell you, since I haven't joined a lot of other novas in seeking some form of post-eruption employment of the Fat Stacks of Cash variety, my food budget is suffering under the strain of my old salary. I've basically cut out all creature comforts just to keep myself fed. I could probably find a job doing something menial and exploitative, but really, I'd rather be in the trenches helping people. I just wish they'd give me a cafeteria tab.

I might have to take some kind of nova job just to keep up with the groceries too. That aside, once the eruption migranes and nausea went away, it's been awesome.

I owe my life to my eruption. It is because of it, that I can contiune with my profession. Had I died, a sick child might have died too. Instead, I can now continue healing.

As for new issues. I have found that I can help parents of children who have died with my new powers. Their sadness and grief is profoundly painful, so I do what I can to help them.

My eruption was not a life-changing experience, per se, though my life has changed as a result. The migraines, nausea, and dizziness, given my condition, seemed indicative of a serious medical problem. You can imagine my relief, and that of my family, when we learned that it was a developing Mazarin-Rashoud node, and not a tumor or other malignant growth.

Naturally, simply carrying on as if nothing had happened proves very difficult, but I believe that it is important for me to maintain some semblance of... normalcy, for lack of a better term, if such a state can be said to exist.

I'm a unicorn. I'm sure you can imagine the problems this engenders.

You dorm down, right?

Right?

Yes. I don't think it'd be possible to live anything even close to a dream of the illusion of a normal life without dorming almost all the time. Situations inevitably arise, however, where I'm forced to go nova. And I admit I enjoy the benefits, one of which is an increased clarity of thought.

I like the abilities that come with being powered-up, but the visual side effects are really obnoxious. I just don't know how I'm going to balance this out, going forward. I guess I just don't yet feel like I really earned this, and that I'm kind of a faker. Fortunately the Mox that they prescribed for me is keeping everything in balance.

I'll probably have to dorm at school just so I don't cause a scene. (I go back tomorrow.)

So, yer hung like a horse, right?

Welcome to the club!

I've graduated already, thank the gods.




I get that a lot. And yes, I am.

I don't know how I would handle the powers I manifested, were I young. There is so much responsibility involved.

However, there are times I find difficulties in adjusting. I see things so differently than I did before. Being young might make the adjustments easier.

I don't see why you're all complaining. You've all been shoved into a higher status than you had before. Fame and wealth are far easier for you to obtain than they were before your brain 'burst'. Even an EMT in NYC can be famous, as Mr. Will has shown us. Some of you would have died unknown and hovering on the edge of poverty, and now you can't. What is wrong with that?

So says the girl who has never wanted for anything in her life. From my point of view growing up poor, the rich are just as far out of my reach as novas are. Both groups are like another species to me, utterly inexplicable, living lives that I can't even imagine.

That's what I bring to being a nova. I'm shaped by how I grew up.

Already had both when my brain 'burst'. My 'statement' was that adjusting can seem difficult at times. That is hardly a complaint. It is reality that many face.

Alexis. You may think that having fame and wealth makes us all happy. I disagree. There are things in this world that shake us to our foundation and that we need to complain about. If you don't know what they are, come make my rounds with me on any given day.

Well said, Doctor White.

I said nothing about being happy, Doctor. Fame and wealth make life more interesting and more enjoyable, but they won't bring joy. That's something you do for yourself.

My best moments are spent with my brother, just talking. Money, no matter how I may joke and tease him about it, will not subsititute for him, nor will my hanger-ons.

My post was a response to the complaining about what is a gift. And honestly, if you were that famous before your eruption, I would have heard about you.

I don't think you two move in the same circles.

Perhaps, but I know everyone worth knowing, Flicker. That includes you and the other novas, naturally, as well as some other non-nova dignitaries. If he was not in my circle, then he wasn't in the right one.

I feel sorry for you Alexis. You have never had a child, sibling, or younger relative who was dying of terminal illness. it is something I deal with on a daily basis. What I do has meaning and purpose.

BTW, have you had dinner at the White House? Have you been nominated for a Nobel Prize in Medicine? Is your named spoken in reverence by parents with sick children? Do universities and medical schools send you invites to be a guest speaker?

Oh, wait. You play amongst the clueless and vacuuous set. Flicker is right, we don't move in the same circles. My circle of associates actually benefit mankind.

Quite a list - I assume these are things you have had happen to you? Very nice accomplishments - were you looking for donations? My father donates regularly to needy causes all the time. His friends give money; my soriety just had a fund raiser for children with Leukemia. When I have my own money, I'll do the same as my father - it's important to give back to those who have less than you. It's people like my father and myself who pay for the laboratories you research in, for the scholarships that got you though school, for the donated medicines that you give you patients and your exorbitant salaries so that you can have wealth and live a luxurious life while saving children.

Both of our circles benefit mankind, Doctor - mine just looks fabulous doing it.

I'm sorry, but I'm not famous, and I don't want to be. I like my anonymity, I like my normal life. I'm not complaining about having erupted, but "no, thanks" on the trappings of the typical nova life.



You really think that eruption is an automatic fix for poverty and unhappiness?



Very well said, young lady. That's an impressive attitude, and one a lot of people don't come to until they're much older, if ever. It's also one I share.

Thank you. I had to learn it the hard way. Mom's been working two jobs just to keep a roof over our heads for as long as I can remember. Dad left when I was a baby. I've been taking care of all the at-home chores since I was old enough to do dishes and push a vacuum, and I pay for my own extra-curricular activities (good running shoes, for example, are not cheap) with a part-time job.

I've been trying to figure out how I can cash in on my new ability without selling out. It's the least I can do to help out. I'd love to make enough money that I could pay my mom to retire and finally start enjoying her life more.

I don't want to be an elite, but maybe I could be a part-time courier, or travel agent. I can carry a lot with me when I teleport, like another person, or maybe some donor organs for transplant. Hmm. . .

Eruption is an interesting thing, isn't it? For some of us, it opens up whole worlds to explore that we never imagined. Like you, Miss Madigan. You have the chance to travel in ways you probably never imagined, and you will find some way to enhance your career prospects with it in spite of the... misfortune of your visual side effects.

For some, it changes little. William, for instance, seems to be doing more or less the same things he did before his eruption, albeit perhaps slightly better.

And for some of its, it moves from being an annoyance to a genuine problem. Not to indulge in self-pity, because I've found all sorts of ways to enjoy my new abilities, but my eruption resulted in me being barred from the practice of the thing I practically devoted my life to from the moment I left high school: the law. Because my persuasive abilities test above human norm, my ability to practice law in courtrooms is presently... under litigation.

So, all in all, a very mixed blessing indeed.

Amen, sister.

The headaches and migraines and nausea were pretty rough to put it mildly. That's one of the issues I dealt with, another and more ongoing one is the food issue Will described. In a family of six with two novas, getting enough to feed everyone can be a royal pain. It isn't so much the money involved, or the time involved in preparation, just things that used to seem trivial are now actual issues.

Part of it is how my peers here at the Academy act towards me. I come from an influential family, but I wasn't popular or anything before my erruption, and now I am. I tend to draw attention when I'm not dormed, so much so, that at times it is a bit overwhelming. I just haven't gotten used to that.

While I don't become a unicorn when I cease being dormed, I do at times simply feel different around normal people. Maybe I'm just letting life get to me..

Not sure you can avoid that. You are a nova, they are more revered than movie stars. Tabloids are watching you; nova-watchers will camp for hours for that photo op that will make them millions. It's a part of life for a publicly-known nova.


Is nobody reading what I said above? Please come to the table fully prepared next time:


Even Flicker, whom you complimented on her wisdom above, states that her cash can help out her family:


Being rich will make it easier to be happy, but it is not the only factor. I know several miserable social peers. Wealthy, famous... and completely miserable.

You make you own joy in life with your decisions and your attitudes. I cannot say that enough.

Buncha bitchin about the headaches and shit. What's up people? Ain't you ever been well and truly hung-over? Gotten hit over the head with a pool cue?


Buncha pussies.

The good news is that while I needed to eat like a hog after growing my wings, my appetites since then haven't been as ridiculous as the reports I've heard of novas scarfing down entire motor vehicles.

However, let me tell you: the world's not built for people with wings. As an example, part of the seed money I've gotten from my investors has gone towards a house (and house prices in my country are unreal) because I can't rent an apartment with a big enough bathroom. It'll be interesting to see how I solve that problem once I'm out and about.

Fitting in a motorcar is an adventure, of course. But worst of all is that feeling that I'll never really blend into a room again. I'll always be "Miranda, you know, the girl with the wings?" And yes, I've heard of dorming, but it's a trick I haven't mastered, and may never.

Now: flying is wonderful. However, I'm not the type of nova who can just zip off into the ionosphere when the fancy strikes me. I need a jacket because it's bloody cold, and goggles so I don't get as many flies in my eyes as I do in my teeth. Flying for me is a bit more complex than walking. And that's pretty much all I can do.

So I'll take the money and the fame, to be sure. I'd have never been able to afford a house without my investors, for example. But being a nova's seemed to make like far more complex - solved some problems, but created a number of new ones. That's part of the motivation for OiaM, earnestly: to find out how other novas deal with what life's given them.

Would a massive stroke qualify? Or does my pain have to be self-induced/caused by someone else?

Dunno. Does a stroke hurt?

It felt like my skull was torn in half and my brains twirled with an egg-beater. Then I lost consciousnes.