[h1][b][i][color=A2797E][center]Sabine Bassard[/center][/color][/i][/b][/h1] [h3][center]and[/center][/h3] [center][h1][b][color=97aaad]Phan Le Chi Mai[/color][/b][/h1][/center][center][img]https://media.tenor.com/72wuGTZtTm8AAAAC/ester-exposito-ester.gif[/img][img]https://media3.giphy.com/media/Z1ENXTzr1L9SbYKr5i/giphy.gif?cid=790b7611698e917f12877a3dc4dcf63e937ea43745920e4a&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g[/img][/center][center][/center][hr][center][color=A2797E][b]Location[/b][/color]: Outside Agatha's Tent -> Mailroom
[color=97aaad][b]Skills[/b][/color]: N/A
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Sabine allowed Dorian his moment. It was the least she could do after seeing him stick it to the flaming freshman. Everyone appeared to be heading to the ship. Sabine did not want to go to the ship. Thankfully, as if God herself was looking down on her and said 'girl same', Sabine got a ping to her email. After checking it, she saw that a package arrived for her. It was probably her father sending her something after today's breakfast spectacle.

She took this moment to get out of seeing some dumb spaceship. [color=A2797E]"Hey, I just got a package sent to me. Any of you want to come check it out with me?"[/color] She directed this mainly to the peeps whose opinions she actually gave a fuck about. If any of the losers wanted to come, she'd let them, she supposed, but maybe she could also run and lose them in the crowd.

[color=97aaad]"We out here checking packages?"[/color] Chi Mai mused tilting her head towards Sabine. [color=97aaad]"Shit, I'm down, bebe."[/color] she continued, lacing her hands behind her head and gravitating over towards Sabine's orbit. To say that she was thankful for the out would be putting it mildly. She had love for D&D (fuck, she had love for everyone in her little way), but she was not remotely high enough to go check out a hunk of space junk and call it fun. [i]Yet.[/i]

Besides...it gave her a reason to dodge the [b]selection.[/b] Danni had brought up that they only had room for about four people at the birthday dinner, and like a sleeper who had just heard the codewords, she was activated - Operation Ghost was a go. She'd take herself out of sight, and hopefully, out of mind. It's a lot easier to cut somebody when they're not there. For as much as she loved to be around people, she loathed that aspect of social gatherings. It was simple logic that there wouldn't always be room for everybody, that some people wouldn't make the cut, but that didn't mean that she was happy about it. No matter how kindly it was put, somebody would get hurt. Somebody would be excluded. Somebody would be [i]alone.[/i] If she didn't participate, then she didn't have to deal with the guilt of taking somebody else's spot - or even worse, not being selected for one in the first place.

She'd be fine. If anybody could find some sort of shit to get up to alone, it was Chi Mai. She had her weed, she had her guitar, she'd be fine. She'd be fine...

[color=97aaad]"What'd you order?"[/color] she asked as she approached.

As the two of them ventured away from the ship, Sabine merely shrugged. [color=A2797E]"Beats me. Probably from my father as a means of apologizing for how horrendous his new wife is or how annoying his new children are. He usually does buy me something whenever my horror of a step-mom does or says anything that pisses me off."[/color]

Though it was odd that he would send it to the mail room. Usually she got it the next time she saw them. Still, maybe he felt really bad at this moment in time.

They would arrive at the mail room relatively quickly. It was open. Sabine stepped inside, allowing the coolness of the building to wash over her. She hated the heat, even if it was mild. The kind-looking clerk glanced up at them as they approached. [color=A2797E]"Sabine Bassard. I believe I have a package."[/color] The clerk nodded and went to go retrieve it, leave them there for the moment.

[color=A2797E]"I am really sorry about your fortune Mai. Want me to alter her memory to make her think she's a chicken? That's always fun."[/color] Though she doubt she could. Agatha was powerful, to be sure. But if it put a smile on her friend's face, she would damn well try.

Mai chuckled at the offer, but didn't answer one way or the other, not at first. She threw her head back, basking in the cool, refreshing bliss that was air conditioning. [color=97aaad]"Fuuuuucccckkkk..."[/color] she groaned, seemingly at the relief of the temperature. In truth, she didn't want to think about Agatha and her fucking readings anymore but the old hag's words were playing on loop in her head and Sabine's reassurance had made her aware of it again. 

[i]The deceptions must cease to be - or you will.[/i]

She didn't want to worry Sabine - to worry anyone - but didn't the fact that her first instinct was to hide the fucking doom prophecy sort of prove the witch bitch's point? It was [i]agonizing[/i] but...

[color=97aaad]"So...uhh..."[/color] she started before she was even aware that she had decided to confide. [color=97aaad]"Apparently I'm uhm...making promises I can't keep or whatever the fuck that means, because I'm going to die."[/color] Chi Mai confessed nervously with a chuckle. [color=97aaad]"She said 'your current path will lead to your untimely death.' and I uh...I mean, she's like...she's just fucking with me, I know, but..."[/color] she trailed off, looking away, focusing on a poster taped to the wall. Her words had escaped her. Whatever else she had wanted to say was lost as she fought against tears. She was not about to cry in front of Beanie. That wasn't fucking happening. She could hold it together. Barely, but as long as a tear didn't escape, that was a win.

Agatha had to be mental to tell a teenager that. Sabine knew (from movies and tv and the internet) that the Death tarot card did not mean actual death, but a symbolic death. 

Sabine got the sense Mai wanted to unleash all the emotions she was feeling, but was hold it back. For both of their sakes. so Sabine decided, she would tell hers. [color=A2797E]"I'm basically going to have to face my past and change or my future looks bleak. I think she's off her rocker. No wonder she's retiring."[/color] She looked at Mai who was looking everywhere else but at her. [color=A2797E]"You are not going to die Mai. I'll burn the entire world before I let that happen."[/color]

Thankfully, the clerk returned, holding a rod-shaped package. Questionable look aside, the clerk glanced at them, one on the verge of tears and one looking pissed all-the-way-the-fuck-off, and left to the back room to give them space.

Sabine glanced at the package. A note was attached to it. Another oddity. Her father never added notes or wrote cards. He didn't need to. Sabine picked up the note and opened it. There was nothing written on it. Though she got the sense someone had tried. There were little indents on it. she turned it over and back again. [color=A2797E]"The hell? Who would send me a package and not sign it. There's noth-.."[/color]

Sabine saw something at the bottom. She read it. Read it again.

No, there was no fucking way. At the bottom of the note was one word, but the word sent a cold shiver up her spine. It had to be a cruel joke. If it was her father, he was fucked up. If it was her step-mother, she was dead.

[I]Maman[/i]

Mom.

[color=97aaad]"...what's up, Beanie-baby?"[/color] Chi Mai asked, rubbing a totally dry eye because there was dust - definitely not tears - in it. In the silence that had fallen upon the two while they waited for the package, Chi Mai covered her face and totally did not cry. That would be their story. Even if Chi Mai had - which she fucking didn't - after Sabine's proclamation, who could have blamed her? Chi Mai didn't do [i]this.[/i] She didn't open to up to people. Not really. It was fucking terrifying. Every insecurity in her had protested the act and yet she had done it anyway. And in her most raw, vulnerable state, there was reassurance. Though Sabine might not have thought much of it at the time, it had rocked Chi Mai's world. She had been expecting to be told that she was overreacting, that she was being too much again, that perhaps Sabine would need a 'break' from her, any number of things she had heard from friends in the past, but this was...new. Even with her own family, although loving in their own way, there was very much an expectation to be strong, to not be a burden to others. To cry - which she still wasn't, fuck off - in front of them was to be told to get one's shit together, although in more polite terms. It was weakness and that would not be accepted. 

Was this what actual friends were like? What the fuck...?

Finally turning her red, puffy eyes to Sabine, she noticed the expression on the other girl's face and it sunk her own heart. [color=97aaad]"Beanie...?"[/color] she called, unsure how to reassure her obviously distressed [s]acquaintance[/s]- no, [i]friend?[/i]

Sabine wanted to scream. But she bit her tongue. Now was not the time and place to freak out. Mai was in a delicate state. This would only add to the pressure.

But seriously, what the fuck.

Sabine took the note and crumpled it and put it in her pocket. [color=A2797E]"Sorry, just rocked me for a moment. Seems I was right. It was sent by my family."[/color] Technically, not a lie. Though the reality was.....what was reality anymore? Her mom was dead. She went to her funeral. She watched them bury her.

Sabine shook it off. She would freak out later. She grabbed the package and started ripping it open. She didn't know what to expect from someone from beyond the grave. She got it free and looked inside.

This had to be a joke, right?

Sabine looked at Mai and then back at the gift before reaching in. Mai would see, being pulled out as if it were the story of King Arthur, a [url=https://i.etsystatic.com/6270710/r/il/108388/2486780964/il_570xN.2486780964_ph9c.jpg]sword[/url]. It felt like a real sword. It looked like a real sword. But surely she wouldn't have been gifted a real sword? Who did that? And how did it get past security?

Even at a school for superheroes, this had to cross a line right? [color=A2797E]"I just got a fucking sword..."[/color]