Tempest's Vignette-Great Burden

[Avenger Assembled]

It was a great burden to understand so much, and yet know so little; it was a burden Tempest carried daily. He understood why the trees grew the way they did, he understood why the clouds formed the way they did at any given time, but he knew nothing about the humans. He was sent out into their world to learn about them, to understand them, and maybe even to become like them.

But as he steadily coming to understand, he really wasn't like them, and very well couldn't be. It wasn't the fact that he was made different, or looked different; the humans could learn to look past given enough time. No what set them apart was the human perception of the world. The humans saw everything too narrowly. They wanted to easily quantify and understand everything. If truly understanding something took too much effort, they would simply jump to whatever assertion was closest at hand, even if it was incorrect. Better to have a grasp on something, then to go through life unsure. And better to be sure now, rather than understand later.

For a long while, Tempest had tried over and over again to have humans understand his nature, but that proved to be a futile endeavor. What he was, was simply far too alien for most humans to even consider let alone grasp. Tempest's origin wasn't even something humans had begun to speculate might have existed.

So Tempest, changed strategies. He realized that he didn't need to be understood, not yet. He did however need the humans to know that he was on their side, and truly cared for them. The humans were then quick to fill in the less important gaps for themselves, most of which was wild speculation, but it made the humans sure of themselves. It reasserted their sense of superiority. Humans always wanted to feel in control regardless of the circumstances. That is why the motion pictures tend to have 1 lone character prevailing against vastly superior foes, both in terms of numbers and resources. It shows the humans that hope is never truly lost and one single person can make a difference.

So Tempest needed to be recognized as a hero and a defender of humanity. After observation of the well regarded heroes, Tempest began to match his mannerisms to theirs. They all seemed to display themselves prominently in the face of the villain humans but when conversing with the crowd humans and the reporter humans they seemed to be much more subdued. This is what the humans referred to as being approachable.

It was an instilled survival instinct for humans to retreat from dangerous situations or at least enter into them cautiously. If they regarded Tempest as dangerous, then he would not be considered a member of their society, and would therefore not have the appropriate social experience the Creators required. With that in mind, Tempest began to act more human. He consciously made his form more stable and solid. He began to use his hands more when he spoke. He also attempted to integrate more of the human sayings into his speech pattern. It was a hard process but one that should pay massive dividends in the future. Hopefully this new presentation of the self would lead to interesting results.