Disclaimer: I do not own Worm. Wilbow owns Worm. This is good, because he did a better job than I ever could.

Disclaimer #2: I do not own Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast, and by extension Hasbro, owns Dungeons & Dragons. This is good, because they did a better job than I ever could.

Disclaimer #3: This is my first attempt at fanficiton. Please be nice! Also, please feel free to give me any feedback you have, but try to keep it constructive. Thanks again!

I sat in front of the computer at the library, the one I normally use. The hard chair wasn't comfortable, but it was familiar. I spent most of my free time in the library. The time I didn't spend at the library, I spent at home reading a book I got from there. The library was one of the few places I felt nominally safe. As a result, the librarians all knew me by name, and I generally had first dibs on new books. Also, I almost always got the same computer, which was a small comfort. I'd take what I could get.

I hit the refresh button again. It felt like my life had been reduced to pushing this single button. Tap. Wait. No change. Tap. Wait. No change. If I wasn't already pretty sure I was crazy, doing this was going to drive me over the edge. I hit the refresh button for what must be the billionth time in the last 5 minutes, when I saw something I never expected to see. I didn't get a single new response once in the past week, but I just got one from some person named MisterM. And I can read it.

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Topic: Does this make sense to anyone?

In: Boards ► General ► Cape FAQs ► Questions

CuriousCurls (Original Poster)

Posted on January 13, 2011:

petranas charric ve sjek wux kampiun nomeno. si mi tesantamaso vur tir ti kampiun. si charis si mi ti repaiup. petranas letoclo.

(Showing Page 1 of 1)

► MisterM

Replied on January 20, 2011:

svaklar tira wux yor nomeno xanalre? svaust re wux?

► CuriousCurls (Original Poster)

Replied on January 20, 2011:

vorqic hefoc creolna understands. sjek wux nafl shilta urcaxa nomeno, spol ve vi urgthumnum charric.

End of Page. 1

My original message was simple. I was just asking if anyone could understand the writing, which was a rough translation of the sounds and symbols in my head into English. After spending an extra week in the hospital for saying there was a rushing sound and my head felt fuzzy, I wasn't willing to take another trip to the psych ward for thinking I made up a new language that didn't exist. As strange as it all was, I felt like there was a power behind both the words and the in feeling of waves crashing against each other in the middle of the ocean that I was constantly aware of. I didn't really believe it, but I was hoping that all this stuff meant I was a cape. That was a much better alternative to being crazy.

Originally, a mod had messaged me, telling me not to post spam, but when I said it was an experiment, and might have to do with a new cape's powers, they gave me a week before they shut down the thread. Today was the one week deadline. I had been getting pretty nervous, but I lucked out! This MisterM person had responded, and asked where I had learned this language. At first, only one thought filled my mind: I'm not crazy.

But I had to be sure. So I responded again, to be absolutely positive it wasn't a fluke. I asked him to send me a private message. I crossed my fingers and went back to my routine of refreshing. Less than ten minutes later, and I felt my breath catch in my throat as I saw that I had a new message.

Private message from MisterM:

MisterM: Where did you learn this language? I'm incredibly impressed. Please don't be worried, I promise you it's a real language. It's just very old, and hasn't been used in a long time.

CuriousCurls: It just came to me, recently. Just started popping up in my head. I know it isn't any language I've ever heard of. Truthfully? I'm really hopeful it turns out that this means I'm a cape... Do you think it's possible? Because it's either that, or I admit I'm crazy...

MisterM: You aren't a cape. You're a wizard.

CuriousCurls: You aren't really helping convince me that I'm not crazy.

I couldn't believe it. I had finally found someone that could possibly help explain all this absurdity, and they thought it was magic. I knew Myrddin was a pretty awesome cape, and that he wasn't the only one who thought his powers were actually magic. But it was more or less agreed upon by everyone else that it was just an eccentricity of his. People let him believe whatever he wanted because he was effective. He wasn't actually doing magic. He just had a few screws loose.

I looked up at the screen to reread the messages, ignoring the wetness near my eyes that were definitely not tears, when I noticed I had another, new private message. I opened it up, and almost fainted.

Private message from Myrddin:

Myrddin *New Message*: Hello. Sorry for the confusion, but I didn't want to out myself until I was sure you could speak the language, so I made a fake account. I get a lot of non-believers pretending to believe, and playing jokes, you see. You may be a non-believer, but you definitely aren't playing a joke. I am MisterM. I'm saddened to hear you don't believe me, but maybe if we could speak I could convince you, or at least test your powers? Because one way or another, I'd be willing to bet you DO have powers. At the very least, if your story is true, I might be able to learn something from you, even if you aren't a wizard as I believe you to be. How close do you live to your local Protectorate? I would love to schedule a meeting with you.

Myrddin wanted to meet with me. Myrddin. Wanted. To meet. With me. Taylor Hebert. I don't care if he's in denial, I thought to myself, and I don't care if he isn't the most famous hero ever. This is unbelievably, absurdly cool. I responded to say that I lived in Brockton Bay, and getting to the Protectorate HQ would be a day trip for me, if he was really interested. I also messaged at least three moderators, confirming that the Myrddin that messaged me was verified, and were they sure, and were they really, really sure? They were sure. I almost fainted again.

Myrddin set up a meeting with me for two days from now, Saturday, tentatively at 3pm. He told me to tell the receptionist I was there to pick up my lost stuff, and to tell them I saw a cape named Gwydion. It just made the whole thing even more surreal. I had a momentary flash of concern, that this might somehow be another cruel prank from the Trio, but I hadn't seen them since I left the hospital. There's no way they could possibly know about this. I made this account a week ago on PHO! I tried to console myself, convince myself I was being paranoid. It worked slightly, calming me down enough to believe this might be real.

Myrddin then cautioned me not to try to use my powers on my own, at least until I could do power testing with the PRT, and he could be there for it. I sent a message with a promise I would wait, and told him I couldn't wait to meet him. Then I logged off PHO, and said goodbye to the librarian on duty today. The look on her face belied her surprise at seeing me smile so wide. It was like I was clamping down all my emotions, and trying to shove them all into my smile so they didn't go crazy.

I had trouble keeping all my emotions in check on the way home, but as soon as I had closed the door and was behind safe walls, I couldn't keep it in anymore. I locked the door behind me, and sagged against it. Today had just been too much. An emotional roller coaster of crazy, not crazy, crazy again, and then going right off the rails. I couldn't decide if I wanted to smile, cry, laugh, or do all three. In the end, I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and walked the rest of the way inside the house.

Putting all of this out of my mind, in a feeble attempt to get some semblance of normalcy back, I went to make dinner. Dad would be home soon, and while I was staying home from school, I liked to have dinner ready for him. It wasn't anything fancy, just some pasta with sauce, and a salad, but every little thing I could do to make his life easier was something I'd be happy to do.

We hadn't had a good relationship for a long while. I was tempted to let things go back to the way they were, but I had decided this would be my wake up call. I had seen the look in his eyes while I lay in that hospital bed. The same look he had when he told me about Mom. I had spent a lot of time regretting, in the hospital bed. Regret over all the things I never told him. Regret over all the opportunities we missed out on. I had determined to rectify that. I was going to tell him about the bullying, about why I had closed up. It wasn't going to be easy, but it would be worth it.

Dad, I suddenly realized, what the hell am I going to tell him? Could I tell him I was a cape? Should I tell him I was a cape? I definitely wasn't going to tell him I was a wizard, of all things. I scoffed at the idea. I considered, very briefly, that I would be a witch, not a wizard, but I didn't like the sound of that either. Then I put myself back on track. Dad. I still hadn't decided what to tell him, or how to do so, when suddenly the door opened.

"Taylor!" I heard my Dad call out from the front door. "I'm home!" Yep. Still had no idea how to do this. Going in blind probably wasn't smart, but it would have to work.