Alexis,

You must be Eric and Beth's daughter. I am pleased to finally make your acquaintance.

I spoke with your parents, and told them that you are proud of what they do, and of your aspiration to continue the charitable giving. I have a great appreciation for all they do to help the kids.

I also mentioned a summer internship program for you, working with sick children. How did your dad put it? "If she is going to give money to something, she needs to put a face to those she wishes to help." Your parents seem to love the idea.

I'll give them another call tomorrow and set the whole thing up.

Don't bother, I am in the process of arranging a summer learning opportunity related to my major; I just hadn't told my parents about it yet. But thank you for thinking of me.

I know many pre-med students at Harvard who would be far more qualified than I for such an opportunity. You should get someone who isn't going to do more damage than good. My brother, Davian, for example, is pre-med and far more qualified than I.

I am afraid you don't understand Alexis. It is already a done deal.

The only thing we haven't discussed, is whether you will work 8 hours a day or 6 hours a day. We also need to discuss when your semester ends, so we can get you started with your internship as soon as possible.

I suggest you drop your summer plans. You have been 'drafted'.

And I suggest you realize that I'm not doing it. Period.

What I'm really getting at, Odysseus, is that when a nova complains about problems that arise post-eruption, it sounds awfully similar to a lottery-winner complaining about being wealthy to the ears of the poor.

I'm sorry that you prefer your old life to the one you currently have. Since you said you aren't raw about it, I hope it does bring you some degree of happiness, at least.

That's right, Beautiful, you tell him where to stick it!!

Forgive me, please, for responding to a statement not directed at me, but I feel compelled to do so.

It is not easy for all of us, this adjustment to a new life , and it does bring with it countless problems that the new eruptee must quickly adapt to and resolve, or come to accept. I understand that you chose your path willingly and mindfully, but not all of us share in your good fortune in that respect. There is nothing wrong with those who are experiencing difficulties seeking the assistance and counsel of their peers, or even merely asking for a sympathetic ear from another who's shared in their frustration. It speaks well of you, Ms. McClendon, that you do not require such aid, but it seems a trifle unfair to deride those who desire to either air their grievances or ask for help. We all have our own problems, complaints, and triumphs to share; to whom should we turn, if not each other?

At the risk of sounding elitist, Emma, that's why many of the novas in the world are nothing more than accidents. They weren't prepared, they didn't want, and now don't appreciate.



I'm more than willing to help out a new nova, regardless of how they came to erupt. I'm willing to listen a new nova voice their frustrations about making the transition.

I'm not, however, willing to listen to a nova bitch about post-transition life while reaping the rewards, both material and quantum-based, of being a member of Club Novus. I have a bit of sympathy for anyone who's life became worse when they didn't ask to be a nova, but I think that's a minute percentage of our total population.

I know that sounds cold, especially given the length of time I have been a nova compared to some of us here. But it hasn't been long enough that I've forgotten what it was like to look upon novas before my eruption and long to be one.

You are right, Ms. McClendon. It does sound elitist, and it does sound cold. You are entitled to your opinion, but so is everyone else. It isn't quite the same as winning the lottery, either. Many of our abilities are inherently dangerous to our friends, our families, and, in the broader sense, to the stability of world governments and economies. Coping with a large bank account is rather different, I should think, than coping with the newly-acquired ability to, for example, radiate an aura of energy which could disintegrate organic matter or snapping your fingers and forcing someone to bend to your will. Perhaps it is my own senstivity to the subject, but it seems as if you trivialize the trials of others in this regard and the personal and moral quandries they face.

You call most of us "Accidents," a term which seems derogatory, even if not intentionally so, and while you may be correct, I daresay that we are in much better stead than those poor fools who continue to snuff out their own lives and destroy their own sanity in a desperate quest to become that which we now are. I would also posit that the "Accidents" comprise the majority of eruptees by a wide margin.

As has been previously stated, those novas in the public eye are admired and worshipped (at the very root of things) for nothing more than a lump of flesh in the forefront of their brain. Advocating the attempt to "self-erupt" for these admirers is all but asking them to die to become what you are, to follow in your statistically improbable footsteps, which is a terrible and frightening concept to me.

I don't know. I turn into a bright, shining, burning ball of flame. That took some getting used to, and was a bit dangerous for a while.

I'm not trying to trivialize the dilemmas of those who are far more dangerous than I am regardless of the medium. I used the example of a lottery winner not in comparison to what we are capable and the choices we have to live with, but how we are viewed as having something by those who don't have it.



It's easy to say that having gained what you have without having to risk or sacrifice to get it. The majority of people who die trying to erupt aren't "latent." I hate to make that distinction, because it means what you've just said is that you're better off having accidentally gained your novahood without desiring it, than wanting it so badly you'd be willing to risk everything you are to get it and can never achieve it regardless of what you do. To use another loose comparison, this is akin to royalty telling the serfs that they can never aspire to anything more than serfdom, so don't bother trying.



Yes, this is true. By more than a wide margin. A number of factors are responsible, of course. Those who are latent don't know and therefore don't try to erupt; the percentages are bound to be in the favor of those who are latent and accidentally manage to do it since the people who aren't trying to erupt outweigh those that are by a degree of millions, if not billions. Mathematically speaking the accidents will outnumber the deliberates until latency testing is both affordable and widespread, and until the science of triggering eruption is better understood.



More accurately, they are admired and worshiped for what that little lump of flesh allows them to do. True, it is the Node and its Farahcytes which are ultimately the root, but what they want to do is fly, teleport, lift semi-trucks, create weather, walk in lava, survive bullets, and cause orgasms with the merest of glances.

What I'm advocating is the right of those latent to not only know they have the potential, and have the freedom (if not the means), to have that potential realized. Understandably, until September of 2007 we didn't know that the genetic sequencing for eruption even existed, so everyone believed that they could erupt given the right circumstances and that resulted in many people who never had a chance of erupting becoming injured, or dying. Now that it is known, that should temper some of those who might have otherwise made the attempt.

Of course, with this knowledge, the non-latents among the world have to come to grips with the fact that they cannot join us. That's pretty difficult to do; I refused to accept it and I did in fact have the potential.

I'd honestly like to think that as the science becomes more refined and we understand nova and latent biology more thoroughly, that eruption can be something deliberately triggered without requiring one to douse herself in gasoline and ignite it. I'd very much like to believe it could even become a rite of passage into adolescence or adulthood - a planned event in the life of a nova that could be celebrated and anticipated.

But until then, having the royals tell the serfs they are better off remaining in thatched-roof cottages than trying to erect castles isn't going to deter them. For some, it will only incense and encourage them.

Man, y'all talk up a storm. But c'mon! We're fucking NOVAS now. Life rules!! Life is cherries and chocolate cake. Man I love cherries.

Me, I'm the happiest motherfucker alive. It was worth the beating it took to become as cool as I am. I think anyone's and everyone's life would be better with a node, if they'd let it. I'm talking to you Odyssey.

Three cheers for that little hunk of brainlove!

A carefully considered response, Ms. McClendon, and I do appreciate the clarification you've provided with respect to your goals.

These things (latency tests and the like) are currently not affordable and not reliable, and yet you still do not seem to understand the dangerous position you advocate.







You, personally, refused to accept the notion that you might not possess latency, and all but committed suicide in an attempt to force your eruption. (Emphasis mine, as you had no way of knowing that it would be successful at the time.) Now you advocate that others carry on after your example. Whether backed by scientific evidence or not, do you sincerely believe that the general populace- the "serfs," to continue the reference- will make the distinction between latents and non-latents and "come to grips" with the fact that they will never be novas? Do you believe they will care? Or is it more likely that they will look at you and those like you, and ignoring rational thought and instinct as you did, hurl themselves off a proverbial cliff?

I mean no offense, Ms. McClendon, truly, but your position is, frankly, utterly incomprehensible to me. To say that I imply that the "royals" are telling the "serfs" they needn't bother aspiring to become what we are, and then stating later that once proven to be nothing more than "serfs," they will simply have to accept that they can never join the ranks of the gifted is... confusing. Do you mean that they should only be deterred after the results of their latency test (theoretically, of course, since they're implausibly expensive) return a negative? Would that have been sufficient for you?

I suspect, of course, that I know the answer to that question, but I don't wish to speak for you.

My problem with your philosophy- barring what I believe is important work with regard to improved and more widely-available testing- is this:

If you ignored the warnings, the existing scientific research, and the part of your brain designed to steer you away from anything that might result in harm to yourself just for an infinitesimally small chance of becoming a nova... And you now impress upon others that this is a good idea... What makes you believe that they, inspired by your example, will not do the same and meet a much more tragic end?

Of course I don't expect to change your mind, Ms. McClendon, and I'm beginning to feel that we must simply agree to disagree.




Again, I'm afraid I must disagree. I suspect that there are quite a few people whose quantum expressions are in no way beneficial and may be quite the opposite. We do not all become more beautiful, more intelligent, or more skilled, after all, and I shudder to think of what some eruptions might have forged.

I ain't prettier, I ain't smarter and the only skillz I got now that I didn't have before are because I been getting the training at Devries. I got eyes, gums and a tonge that look like they've been dipped in blackest night and coated with oil out of a 56 Chevy after a cross-country trip in August. And my life fucking rules. Boo-hoo for the pissed off 2%. I bet you they weren't no great shakes as humans either.

Thank you for your reply, Emma. I shall address your points as best as I am able.



This part is true. It is not affordable or available to the masses yet. One of the NQA Initiative's goals is making both a reality.



I will debate you on the position of reliable. The original testing as done with a sample group of five million people, and in that group only six were novas, and it correctly identified only those individuals. According to the published finding, this method is 99.998% accurate.



No. In 2001, the idea of genetic latency wasn't out there. We were told that the Galatea radiation was causing people to erupt and become novas, and most people believed that anyone could erupt given sufficient stressful or life-threatening circumstances. The specifics on why certain people actually managed to erupt hadn't been nailed down, so it was possible to approach the idea that you could erupt with a bit more bravado. Knowing what I know now, of course, I understand that I was exceptionally lucky to have both the determination to do it and the genetic latency to succeed, but back then, most of the people trying to force their own eruption assumed you only needed the first.



Would it have been sufficient to deter me? Yes, it would have. The question then becomes, given my current state of mind, would I have taken my own life rather than continued living as a baseline. I can't summon up my seventeen year old self and answer that, but I feel that I probably would have committed suicide.

The people who are willing to risk death to erupt are the ones who find living as a baseline in a world where being a nova is possible unacceptable, Emma. That's why we are driven to do the things we do.

I think negative latency testing would sufficiently deter those who would otherwise take that risk. From that point on, if they still feel that being a baseline is unacceptable, counseling can be provided.

For those, however, that test positive, yes, I do feel that they should be encouraged to find a way to erupt if that's honestly what they want to do. The other prime goal of the NQA Initiative is to discover what triggers eruption, so that these latents might be able to erupt without resorting to methods that I, and the other determined self-eruptees, used.

Until that happens, though, I feel that everyone is responsible to themselves, and if you are latent AND willing to risk your own life to try and seize your quantum potential, I am not going to deter you from making the attempt. It is up to that individual to weigh the risks and the consequences of he or she intends to do and act accordingly. Some may chose to wait until eruption is better understood, or hope for, as Jael put it, a "Fortunate Eruption" to occur. Others may not.



Now that the genetic latency is understood, I don't encourage everyone to follow my example, nor did I between my eruption and the publication of the Triton/G.I.T. findings last September.

I have certainly drawn distinctions between purposeful and accidental eruptions, and I know I have many admirers for accomplishing what I did. I might be guilty of leading by example and by glamorizing my success. But I've never told a child, or an adult for that matter, to set himself on fire and leap off a mountain.

Of course, I can't say that positive latency testing wouldn't result in that happening. In that example, however, I'd feel no guilt. Everyone has to weigh the options and their methods before acting on them.



Nor do I expect to change yours. That is fine, of course. My point-of-view on this has never been popular with the erupted crowd, especially the fortunate accidental novas.

I would like to thank you, Emma, for being respectful and civil while still disagreeing with me.

Fuckin' a, Bill, don't I wish. I've got enough node juice in me to clean the house like greased lightning or triage some idiot before he can bleed out in my arms, but that minor coolness aside, my node seems to be the special ed student of the group. Believe it, my man, if I could harmlessly incinerate the clothes off womens' bodies or play softball with Volkswagons, I would. That shit's just outside the compass of what I can do.



Not to cut in to your discussion, but this is something I still do not understand. I've seen nodes on CT scans and even MRI. You'd think that even latently, a superfluous chunk of forebrain would be visible. As infrequent as novas are, sure, it might just as easily be cancer as a node, but it's not like brain biopsies aren't performed every fucking day.



Living in New York, you see some of those types first-hand. I was one of the duty EMTs on site when Sloppy Joe hijacked that subway car, and I attended to the victims. Those were not good times, and being there, I really had to wonder how much of that was the man, and how much was the node. Some of the shit some of us go through during and after our eruption, that's got to drive some of us over the edge.

You have no idea.

I envy those whose transition from the human life to the nova life is/was a peaceful one.

I realize that at the beginning of this thread I came off as actually whining about having become a nova, and the cost I paod for it, which were relatively dirt cheap compared to what some have had to sacrifice.

It took a good friend laying it all out for me to understand how big of an idiot I've been about this.

So no more whining about the costs and what I can't do, now I just plan to revel in what I can do.

I realize how lucky I am every day. I work with novas with real problems fitting in, recovering, or dealing with the reality that they will never have their old lives back every day. Most of us have families that care about us, lives approaching normal, and live in societies that aren't trying to kill us/turn us into Gods.

Two things:

1) Miranda wrote: "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."

I had this vision of Miranda flying over some guys newly washed Mercedes and taking a big old pigeon like dump and nearly spewed soda all over my monitor. That was a good laugh, thanks.

2) If I were old enough to buy booze, I'd be working on getting drunk on the Dr. White drinking game that someone mentioned in another thread...

As for the original question, I really like being a nova, but I'm happy to keep it a secret for a little while longer. The only thing that has really changed about me is my appetite, but then people always expect young guys to eat like a horse so it's not too hard to hide.

I'm going to guess, since you are blending in the with the normals, that you don't actually have paws and fuzzy ears and a tail like your avatar.

Right?

Right?

Right. I'm just a normal teen. I just picked this avvie because of my last name. I guess I should pick a new one eh? I'm still kinda new at this whole thing. My parents were kinda strict and wouldn't even let me surf the net until I got into high school.

O.o

Don't worry, I'm doing my best to make up for lost time.

Lucky man.

You do? Whoa.

And some of us don't. Thank you so much for reminding, and rubbing it in so much.

I doubt he was trying to be confrontational, but, damn. Every post I've seen with your screen name attached is like reading a prologue to a suicide note.

I do. Well, not 'paws' but I do have little stubby claws. Good for back scratching and not much else.

Tails and fuzzy ears, yep. Got those. I tell myself that I had to get hair growing out of my ears eventually. It sorta helps.

I'd rather not take over two threads, though, so if people have questions I'll stick to the intro thread.

Not all of them. I just can't stand people who have to sit there and rub in how wonderful their life is. Some of our lives suck, and some of us don't even have life any more.

If it's so flippin' wonderful why's he smacking keys on the OpNet and not spending time with them?

I love my family and friends and I can't spend every minute with them. I'd go nuts!