"Well, Viltrumites look human, as far as I know. Dad looks completely human. So, this," he gestures to the image, "is what I look like normally, and that's what my uniform normally looks like. I guess the digitizer picked up on the differences in genetics and made them more obvious."
"I don't feel any different, really," he adds. "Just a little like having a cold."
"Uh... well, your head feels stuffed up and you have no sense of smell. Pretty much." Mark reminds himself that sprites, despite the general human appearance, do not have biology, and their interactions with viruses do not result in a fever and the sniffles.
"If it's bad enough, yeah," says Mark. "Though, personally, I've never been sick enough to have it that bad."
(Over his nineteen years of life, Mark's half-Viltrumite immune system has successfully protected him from a half-dozen attacks of strep throat, a case of the measles, countless flu strains, and one nasty strain of E. coli that had taken up residence in a batch of street tacos from a Venice Beach vendor. All without him knowing it. "Getting sick" pretty much happens to other people.)
"Protective code...? Mark wonders. "Oh. Kinda. Everyone has an immune system. Kids are taught to exercise and eat the right foods to help the immune system stay strong, so they don't get sick."
"I guess mine's stronger than the average person's, given my powers. I've never been truly sick, just to the point like I said before."
(That was the E. coli. It was a bad one... for anyone who wasn't half-Viltrumite.)
"Supercriminals, mostly," answers Mark. "Sometimes monsters. And I helped my father fight off an invading army of extradimensional aliens, called the Flaxans. They were tough. I also try to help with any accidents that I know about, like shipwrecks or damage from earthquakes. Being able to lift parts of a collapsed building or clear a highway makes you popular in California." He pauses, then clarifies, "There's lots of earthquakes in California." He's not sure how familiar the sprites are with the meatspace geography.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Someone else points at the photo of Mark's natural form serving as the stage backdrop: "You look human. Is that normal for aliens?"
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"I don't feel any different, really," he adds. "Just a little like having a cold."
(That'd be the total lack of sinuses, Mark.)
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Hey, it hasn't come up yet!
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(Over his nineteen years of life, Mark's half-Viltrumite immune system has successfully protected him from a half-dozen attacks of strep throat, a case of the measles, countless flu strains, and one nasty strain of E. coli that had taken up residence in a batch of street tacos from a Venice Beach vendor. All without him knowing it. "Getting sick" pretty much happens to other people.)
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Pretty much what the narrative just said in parentheses.
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"I guess mine's stronger than the average person's, given my powers. I've never been truly sick, just to the point like I said before."
(That was the E. coli. It was a bad one... for anyone who wasn't half-Viltrumite.)
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There are murmurs from the audience, in which can be heard 'blood' and 'the white parts.' Sounds like some people have been reading Enzo's reports.
"What kinds of things do you fight?" calls a cadet. Enzo's brought superheroes before, but it's become clear there's some variation.
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"Next question?" he asks the room.