Hello everyone. I am Thierry Maroudas. I'm starting this thread becasue I have questions that the good people at the Las Vegas Rashoud facility don't seem capable of answering and I thought I might find satisfaction among you, my peers.

So in that vein I've stared this thread to have a frank and open discussion about the abilities our eruptions have gifted us with. Seeing as I am starting this discussion it is only natural and polite of me to reveal my own gifts so here goes. I can teleport, I can turn invisible, I can increase and decrease my size and most oddly I can generate exact copies of myself. On a physical level I have 2 extra arms and I have the ability to walk on walls and cealings as if I were walking along the floor.

I will be honest and say I have been perturbed by my own powers due to their seemingly random nature but I've become even more distressed by discovering their common thread. As explained by the Doctors here I manipulate space/time in a very localized way. Specifically I can manipulate the way in which I relate to local space. They say my extra arms are exact duplicates of my original arms and that I didn't growth them so much as replicate them by twisting and remolding space. A terrifying implication.

I am curious about the rest of you. How has contol of the fundamental forces of the universe manifested in you? How has it changed you?

Welcome to the boards Thierry.

Sounds like you picked some good cards.

Tough. Maybe eruption is purely random. Maybe it isn't. But it is what it is. Deal with it. I didn’t ask to lose 60 years worth of memories, or to become a living freight train… but I’d much rather enjoy my current life than mourn what was before.

Terrifying? More like un-understandable. I get exactly that kind of ‘techno-babble’ when I talk to the Docs.

My conclusion? They don’t really understand what’s going on. No clue. So they make up things as they go along and hope they are close enough so that when (if) someone really figures it out they can claim they were right all the time. And if they were wrong, they can *still* claim they were right but we just didn’t fully understand their theory. These kinds of theories aren’t there to explain the truth, they are there to avoid embarrassment and hide ignorance.

My personal suspicions are that we’ve finally found the hand of God (capital “G”). Eruption is a miracle of some kind… and more than that will have to come from someone who erupts with wisdom and not brute force.

First, I think I died right before my eruption so this was definitely a change for the better. I gather eruption carved 60 years off my hide, which is a good thing. I’m also much better looking and get laid a whole lot more this time around (which is a very good thing). Other than that, I’m a living, flying bullet train.

Now one thing I have noticed, my powers just seem to ‘fit’ my personality and lifestyle. For example I like running into things, and now the slight injuries I pick up doing that heal, like instantly. Beats me if ‘fitting’ is a cause, or result, or chance, or me making the best of things, but accept who you are and everything else should just fall into place.

It's hard to accept who you are when you have no memory of that person Mr. Brickman. You've lost 60 years worth of memories but still retain your identity. In essence you know who you are.

I am not so lucky. I have no personal memory beyond the 7 days I've been awake. I'm in the process of rediscovering myself. I do not even know if 'Thierry Maroudas' is really my name or not. So asking these questions is necessary for my recovery.

Greetings Msrs Maroudas and Brickman. I am new here as well. I was release from the London Rashoud clinic this week. It was also very odd the way the doctors described my powers. The irony, for me at least, is that I understood more about what had happened than they did.

My name is very appropriate to what I can do (and become). I was exposed to an inhospitable and toxic environment at the instant in time I erupted. My body, in response to the stresses placed upon it, morphed to become the substance. Not just the substance in composition, but also in shape. Because of the peculiarity of my eruption circumstances, my powers are linked together. I suspect it has a mental component, but I need to study it further.

A curious side effect of the transformation, and I postulate it is my body's reaction to the circumstances surrounding my initial exposure to quantum energy, is that I have become slightly toxic to life around me. I also took on the color of the crude oil I was immersed in. They call them aberrations...

So here I am, the Changeling. I can become anything in form and in substance. Ironic, considering I am an engineer by trade.

Um, well... Sometimes, I accidentally make things real that aren't, but then they're not real again later, and some other stuff probably...

But I think I can't remember why.

I have to say that wile I only have one ability I think it is odd. I can change into anything I touch. i can be air, or rock.. I can become water, ice or steam. It may seem simple but I have thinking of what it means to be a gas and still have a mind, or even a rock that moves...

I hope you can understand your abilties. I would gladly talk you and see if we can help each other. I do not know if that would work, but I do not think it could hurt either.

My powers, like these things tend to be, seem really cool at first glance, but look at them close enough and you realize they're rather disturbing. I'm mainly a telepath (I've got minor telekinetic powers, but I hardly ever use them anyway), I can read minds. People know when I'm reading them, though, which was really awkward the first time I found out, but beside that point, you don't really want to know what people think. You know, all those times when you think to yourself "I'd give anything to know what he's thinking right now". Seriously, you don't want to know, you don't want to be disappointed or, even worse, confirm your hopes and then act stupid because of it.

Now that's the active telepathy, which is freaky, but not too freaky. The disturbing part is my "passive telepathy", as the doctors called it. My subconscious connects to the subconscious of other people around me, and takes in information. Which means I have this uncanny ability to say the right thing at the right moment. I can easily convince most people of just about anything, or at least make them think of me as a good friend in half an hour. Disturbing enough as that is, especially combined with the quantum-powered physical appearance that comes with it, I can turn on "another level", as it were. I can push a mental button, concentrate on someone, and I will look and act exactly like that person's ideal sexual fantasy. It's powerful. In fact, the few times I've used it, it's proved to be irresistible. It's deeply disturbing, and probably morally dubious. It's kind of inverted mind control, almost.

I keep my powers turned off these days, just in case.

Catalyst,

We should compare notes. I can also become anything I touch. I have an extra quirk to mine. While I can become rock, I also change form along with it. While at the clinic, I became a wooden table. Another time I changed into a giant amoeba after touching water. Still another time I became a stone bird and tried to fly. I found out, in a painfull manner, that stone is not good for flight. I should have known better.

After a long time at the clinic, I was finally able to control which shape I became, when taking a substance's properties. I guess I could be considered an elemental/matter shapeshifter; for lack of a better term.

Boyo, there's one sameness and one difference between us. The sameness is we've both lost everything we know.

The difference is you might get better. Thierry, you might find a lover/wife/son/father/mother/boss who cares for you.

EVERYONE I see in my dreams is long dead. EVERYTHING I vaguely remember is long gone. My world is dead, but you might find yours.

Make that two differences, I refuse to mourn mine. Pass me another beer and I'll make a pass at a blond. Life goes on.
Disturbing? Good god boy, that's maybe the most useful power I've ever heard of!

Is it like rain on your wedding day?

Neat question! It seems that I just visited the quantum buffet table and got a little bit of everything. My Seattle Rashoud Clinic report has identified me as being able to fly (no kidding? ) and break stuff with my bare hands by manipulating kinetic fields. According to them, I also give off super-potent pheremones that really increase my overall likability. There really doesn't seem to be any uniting force among my powers, according to them, although I prefer to think that my only real power is charm; I'm just so good that I can charm objects into breaking and the wind into carrying me.



Percivald, I want you to know that I really, really admire that kind of restraint. That's a very moral and decent deicision for you to have made, and for what little it's worth, I want you to know that I'm proud of you, and I think you're a wonderful man for choosing not to exploit people when you know it would be the easiest thing in the world for you. Big, big hugs, you sweetheart. <3<3<3

Well hey, it seems I can be just as charming without the mojo.

(I kid, I kid)

Seriously, I'm glad someone understands my reasoning, and it's both ironic and heartening that it's the person with the most liberal views on the subject matter around. Apart from the fact that all the guys telling me how stupid I am for not taking advantage of my powers get rather tiresome, knowing what you stand for makes me respect your opinions. So yeah, it means something to me. Thanks.

Stupid? Like most lifestyle and style choices, it's not stupid. "Mysterious" would be a better word (had to hunt in a dictionary to find just the right one).

A better question is why are you making this choice of yours? In love with someone specific? Don't want to trample on other people's feelings? Something like that? Those would be what I call a positive reason. If you're doing that then you're controling your power.

Another posibility however is you're afraid of your powers. That's what I'd call a negative reason. If you're doing that then you're letting your power control you.

I erupted during intense despression and a personal crisis, thereby gaining the ability to fix the source of the depression (a rather nasty eight-year drought) and the crisis (burning crops in storage).

My powers are (mostly) connected to the weather. I can manipulate it, fly on air currents and even transfer myself along winds.

I also gained the ability to soothe others within a certain radius. Perhaps because I couldn't ease my own problems, I gained the ability to do so for others?

At least that's what the Rashoud folks have told me.

Well. Since others are chiming in about what they can do, I guess it is my turn.

My eruption was detailed in the San Francisco Chronicle in late August. If you want the details of how it happened, you can look it up.

As for the powers I gained, they seem to evolve around Kinetic Energy, and the physics associated with it. I can increase my strength and mass several fold. How does that relate to Kinetic Energy? Apparently Kinetic Energy is related to mass and velocity.

Which brings me to the other things I have. I have become very fast, quick and agile. With very little effort, I can increase my speed further. Probably an offshoot of this is that I instantly, and without thinking, react to incoming attacks.

It seems that because I am fast and have mass, that my body stores up that energy. They docs tell me I don't store it, but channel it. Who am I to say, I'm not a doctor. Anyways, I can charge something with this Kinetic Energy, making it a lethal object. Don't ask me to play to play catch with your kid, I don't want to have a guilty conscience.

Wow. If I gave a darn I'd really think I got hosed. But I don't. I'm just happy being me. And being me means being able to make more me's. But they're dead.

Oh, and darn howdy but I can cook up a storm now. Well, I was pretty damn good before, but now I completely rock.

My "gifts" if you wish to call them that, are mostly combative in nature. I can kill people by pointing at them and a "bullet" of kinetic energy will come out and do enough damage that I don't want to think about it right now. One other thing I can do is teleport, very quickly. And I'm now much tougher than I was before. I'm also a little bit faster, and a good deal more accurate with almost anything I can hit a target with.

Yes, well all that is fine and dandy but it's absolutely mediocre compared to my abilities. I’m a full-fledged member of Team Tomorrow, yes, not only a full member, but the youngest ever to be accepted. With my skills and talents I do not see why T2M has to waste time on poor manic-depressive rainmakers.

Oh well, I don't run the show, but I'm sure it has something to do with wanting to help the underprivileged and mentally deficient, like certain previously mentioned rainmakers, or something like that. Its charity work like that, both inside and out of the project that makes T2M such a fabulous job just as long as the dirty Australians don't get anything on me. Eww.

As far as powers I possess the ability to become living fire, still 'flesh' so speak, you just can't get close due to the heat. When I try I can direct a pure wave of fiery heat that can melt tank armor. Flame Thrower! FWOOOOOSH!

I also become living Ice, while I'm in that form I no longer suffer from muscle fatigue and my strength increases a whole lot! I blast out a cone of pure cold capable flash freezing anything it touches. I shattered brick with it the other day!

I fly, but usually only while in one of those two forms, oh and anytime I choose I can generate fire or freeze stuff.

Face it you all suck in comparison.

You're not stupid at all. Relationships and sex should make people happy, and exploiting people to get them into bed is one of the most rotten things nearly everybody does. A lot of people get taken advantage of by people who deceive them and don't have anybody's interests at heart but their own selfish ones. A lot of otherwise innocent or naive people get really screwed up and hurt because of this, which is the total opposite of what sex is all about to me.

For novas, this whole scenario becomes especially easy and especially odious, because some of us can get people into bed with abilities that if they were any less subtle they could very well be termed an elaborate form of rape. I, for one, don't want anybody to ever regret or feel bad about what they've done with me, so I take special care to be just as careful with people's hearts as I am with their bodies. The fact that you are so forward-thinking and noble really puts a huge smile on my face. And I want you to know that I think you're great for being such a nice guy. You can impose on me for a blowjob anytime, Percy.

You fail at the T2M Code of Honor. Remember T.O.M.O.R.R.O.W.? I'll just hit the sections you failed in this post alone.

Thinking only of courtesy, kindness, and respect for others, I will consitently endeavor to conduct myself as honorably and compassionately as possible, most especially when circumstances make it difficult to do so.

You know what, it'd take me too long to type the rest of it out. Screw it. Enjoy your job while you have it. The next time your mobile rings, it'll probably be Pax busting your balls or Devries looking for another ex-Tomorrowite for their ranks.

Let her revel in her powers. I certainly do. Reading these posts has left me with the distinct impression that some or several of you view these changes as a curse or hindrance, an unwanted alteration to your previously mundane lives. ...What a waste.

To those of you who are actually enjoying and making use of your gifts, kudos.

Solstice, I would like to congratulate you on being accepted into Team Tomorrow, and I look forward to working with you. I'm sure Caestus Pax had an excellent reason for bringing you onto the team so young.

I do concede that I am only a trainee, and still in need of training to use both my quantum talents and my more mundane abilities to the fullest.

But as my mentor Splash says, it takes all types to make a team - so welcome!

I can freeze things, that's my power. Thing is, I can't freeze just one thing, I can't control it like that. I can either almost make air liquid in a 100-foot radius or nothing. I'm not even sure how much use that could be.

And, as a trade off, I can't breathe normal air properly.

I'd just love to know how I'm supposed to enjoy this "gift".

It's okay Balm. It goes back to the "Quality over quantity." Sometimes, they just need to up their numbers quickly, so standards drop. You just take your time and master your abilities. I am sure they are more than a handfull. When you're ready, I am sure you will be a much valued member of T2M.

For starters, you say that you don't breathe normally. I'd say that's fairly incredible if you mean to say that you need not breathe at all, and rather handy, unless there are other requirements? If so, I'd be interested to hear precisely how you do breathe.

So far as usefulness... Have you considered crowd control in riots? Emergency dams or barricades for flash floods, landslides, avalanches, etc.? Perhaps something in the medical field, such as the ability to instantly freeze bodies for later use with organ transplants, university cadavers, or inhibiting the spread of excessively contagious diseases in inhospitable climes. In a similar vein, have you considered assisting those unfortunate creatures in arid climates suffering from lack of water? One need only use a bit of creativity to find a multitude of applications for the abilities they manifest.

Umm, okay, yeah. I'm up here, your down there. Try wasting my time once your training wheels are off. Not that it'll be an issue, it takes talent to be on The Team so I hightly doubt you'll be around in a few more months or so.

Say 'hi' to Obsidian for me.

I did. He asked who you were.

He'll know soon enough.

Sucks to be you. Can I offer you some cheese to ge with your whine?

Solstice,

I have a really great etiquette and socialisation teacher here in Addis Ababa. She helped me after my little dust-up with Gabriel Law; would you like to meet her?

My popularity rating's already gone up two percent since I started getting lessons from her; on her advice, I went to the Bath House recently in Miami and changed my look.

I think you should really meet her.

Dust up, with lil ol' me? Man, they didn't make you go see some lady because we didn't get along did they?

Seriously, sorry bout that, I hope it hasn't caused you any undue stress.

Congrats on you popularity increase!

I looked into T2M, and their offer was enticing. However, they were a little to strict about maintaining a good public persona. It's not me. I don't want to present myself as someone who I am not.

Summer: You speak of others as if they are your inferior, and that none of us have anything on you. I have an invitation for you to join me and my friends at Peahi in Oahu, next week. If you don't have a surfboard, I'll loan you one of mine.

Usually a place like Peahi, which is also known as Jaws, is only for tow-in surf. No-one can generate the speed necesary to make the 4 story drop, so they are dragged into the wave by jet-ski. Since I erupted, I have been attempting to catch and ride all the monster surf breaks without the aid of a watercraft.

If you say that you are that much more superior, then I issue a challenge. If you can catch and ride 1 60+ foot wave without wiping out, then I will think about giving you some props. Until then, you will be a teenager with an over-inflated