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Tuesday
Back to SDN 
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[center][color=gray]((ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ: [@SonnetNSunbeam] | ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴꜱ: n/a ))[/color][/center]

[quote][color=mediumpurple]“I’m good if you are, I’m trying to stay on James’ good side, I may have been part of the reason the team had a drug seminar yesterday. Some older knitting ladies on a mission yesterday might have given me a few puffs of their reefer.”[/color][/quote]
[b][color=gray]"What?"[/color][/b] She scoffed in amusement, totally not staring at him out of the corner of her eyes -- which, luckily for her, were hidden still -- as he took the lower half of his own mask off. [i]Freckles.[/i] 

[quote][color=mediumpurple]“I still don’t know how he figured out that I did.”[/color][/quote] 
Blackstar grinned again at the grumble, offering her hand when he was ready and moving them smoothly in to the air once more. [b][color=gray]"Well, maybe next time remember 'hugs not drugs' before they have to give you a powerpoint on it."[/color][/b]

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Break Room 
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[center][color=gray]((ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ: [@FourtyTwo] [@Auragreedia] | ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴꜱ: n/a ))[/color][/center]

Blackstar had herself and Asteroid back at SDN in a few moments, right on time to join the others in the breakroom. She was still in a good mood but she definitely got much quieter once everyone was around, simply going to find the water bottle she hadn't finished earlier and treating that as her lunch. She'd never been the type to like eating while at work, much to her mom's dismay. 

She would've returned to the corner she'd occupied that morning but the armored guy had stolen it. Figuring it'd be better not to protest, she left him to it. There were a couple of heroes present she hadn't officially met that morning, armored-shadow-tendril-guy included, and she noted them quietly while keeping a side-eye on Not-Phenomaman. ...And the bug-guy. Madcap, was it? Who seemed to be posing in front of the window. 

While she'd been pretty invested in her own dispatch with Asteroid, she quickly caught up on the others' dispatch successes and failures while listening in on the chatter. Of all of them, she was most surprised to hear Lightning Girl's mission hadn't gone very well. She supposed they all had rough days, but... well. She wouldn't have expected a single door to be the other woman's weakness. 

Lightning Girl seemed to be putting on a chipper face about it, at least until their dispatcher informed her that door had been worth 4k. As James left, her defense felt a bit weak.

[quote][color=lightblue]"I promise, that door was made of like titanium or something."[/color][/quote]
Blackstar, who had casually sidled around to Lightning Girl's side of the room, grinned a little and shrugged. [b][color=gray]"Must've been, for four grand."[/color][/b]

It was a lighthearted comment, not a jab. Her opinion of the human lightning bolt was still extremely high, and some silly goof-up with a door and some frog-guy wouldn't be enough to tarnish it. Besides, from what she'd heard, seemed like SDN was being quick about covering it up -- she doubted it'd tarnish Lightning Girl's reputation much. Madcap spoke up before she could offer any other lighthearted encouragement.

[quote][color=dodgerblue]"Heroes never give up! Not even against Brick throwing frogs and expensive locked doors! They always get back up and try again!"[/color][/quote] 
...Okay. Encouraging, kind of?

[quote][color=dodgerblue]"Oops, I said that out loud! But it's totally true! Just keep your head up, and bust down every door you can find!"[/color][/quote]
She was trying to be more mindful of her facial expressions now that she was no longer wearing the lower half of her mask, but the corners of her lips quirked up at that. Must be nice, having that kind of enthusiasm. Social anxiety hated to see him coming.

Jumping a bit when his hand found her and Asteroid's shoulders, she managed a quick grin and a [i][color=gray]"ha, yeah, thanks-"[/color][/i] before he was off to the next, leaving her to shake her head a little and finish off her water in an attempt to keep from chuckling at his other "encouragements".

One by one, the team was called to those meetings James had mentioned. Alaine was sure it'd be some kind of light performance review or something -- maybe just a check-in for her, since it was her first day on the job. Her success with her very first dispatch had her feeling good, so she hardly gave it a second thought.

Eventually her own name was called and she hopped up from the chair she'd eventually sunken into near Asteroid, heading for the door after Eclipse came back into the room. She saw the shadowy tendril creeping into the vending machine and wondered if he was allowed to do that -- so when she realized he was stepping towards her, her first thought was that there [i]was[/i] a mind-reader amongst them and it was him, come to tell her to mind her own business. Instead-

[quote][color=gray]"Beautiful suit. Dark..."[/color][/quote] 
Her eyes narrowed under her mask. He was going to say [i]"like my soul"[/i], wasn't he?

[quote][color=gray]"Like the night."[/color][/quote]
She could've sworn he'd just held down a laugh. Oh god. Was he [i]actually[/i] a mind reader?

Thrown a little off guard, she chirped out an embarrassed, [b][color=gray]"Oh -- thanks. Thank you."[/color][/b] She cleared her throat lightly. [b][color=gray]"I like the armor. Very cool. I wanted armor but it would probably slow down my flying. Although a spartan-style helmet would be cool still. Like that guy from Dark Souls 2--"[/color][/b]

Okay, yeah, that was probably enough. Blackstar cleared her throat and gave him a smile, trying to act like her mind wasn't screaming [b][i]dork alert!![/i][/b] at her. 

[b][color=gray]"Uh. Anyway -- 'scuse me, I gotta..."[/color][/b] Aaaaand off she went to that one on one, walking a little faster than before.

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One on One 
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[center][color=gray]((ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ: [@FourtyTwo] | ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴꜱ: [@SonnetNSunbeam] ))[/color][/center]

It was pretty much what she expected -- the last bit of her onboarding paperwork, KPI stuff. Blackstar answered easily and signed what she needed to, thinking she'd be out of there in a minute or two. 

[quote][color=lightblue]"First day on the job, Blackstar, and not bad at all so far. Are you feeling okay with it all? I know it's a mixed bunch, heroes, ex-villains. Claremont is a real mixed bag. Normally, you'd have an SDN dispatcher, but you have me for now. But, I'm a Hero Development Consultant, so my job is to make sure you can be the best version of you. So, I'll help you where I can to get you up to the best version of what you can do."[/color][/quote]
Uh-huh, uh-huh. She was nodding along absently. [b][color=gray]"Feeling fine, yeah..."[/color][/b] That was it, right? She was casually getting ready to stand before she saw him opening up some new file on his laptop. Maybe some kind of "Rate My Dispatching" survey? Hopefully. She was fine with all the surface-level-employment stuff, but if he was going to start asking other questions...

[quote][color=lightblue]"Only question I guess I had was, given we do a lot of outreach, can I ask why you were so careful about the face behind the mask? I know, heroes cover their identity, makes sense. But you're particularly protective, and a full face cowl is rare for non-Phoenixes. From what I've seen, it's usually not ideal fighting people. I'm no hero so you tell me otherwise, but anyway. Just saw it from the clips is all."[/color][/quote]
He followed it up by leaning forward. Blackstar casually pressed her spine against the back of her chair.

[quote][color=lightblue]"So I guess, who might be watching your step? If it's anyone here, are you comfortable saying, and if it isn't, do I need to make any adjustments? Anything to put onto the system with any old foes? Because based on what I can see, I assume it isn't scarring, I'm sure..."[/color][/quote]
She wasn't listening anymore. Her head was somewhere else.

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[i]She was somewhere above a long, dark road into the desert. It was night. They didn't see her coming.

She could still feel the impact in her bones from when she slammed herself into the side of that van with everything she had. Lots of screaming, yelling, flailing around.

Not her. She was dead silent, each movement a decision made without thinking, each flash a blur. The energy coursing through her veins wasn't pretty or sparkling or bright -- it was the rage of a solar flare. The violence of a supernova.

One after another, the screams stopped. The flailing disappeared. The only sound left was the still-spinning back wheel of the overturned, crumpled-up van and one man dragging himself through the dust with labored breaths, trying uselessly to get away.

Her steps were slow and measured as she strode along in his drag path, catching up to slam a booted foot down on his ankle with an extremely unpleasant crunch. She pulled a fist back as he shrieked in pain, a blade of dark, cosmic energy crackling by her head as he threw his arms out in a vain attempt to protect himself -- but his cries had words, and she paused.

"Please! Look, I don't know anything! I don't know who you are, okay?! Please! Please, I've got kids!"

Her tunnel-vision faltered. Was he just doing the same thing she was doing? Trying to protect his family in the only way he could? Did these thugs have dirt on him too?

"I won't tell anyone-- God, please, my kids-- I told them I'd--"

Alaine slammed her fist down. His yell turned into a gurgle that fell into an eerie silence as she took a step back, overwhelmed by the sudden, deafening quiet of the desert.[/i]

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[quote][color=lightblue]"...Not yet at least."[/color][/quote]
Alaine blinked. Behind the black lenses her eyes came back into focus.

She should've known the high from her dispatch wouldn't last forever. Now she wanted to claw off her own skin.

And still, she could feel the same, unsettling calm in her stomach kicking in as she answered, evenly, [b][color=gray]"No one's watching my step."[/color][/b] Aside from John, though he'd promised her he'd protect her family like they were his own.

She'd still kill him without hesitation.

Alaine casually let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, some of the feeling returning to her hands. [b][color=gray]"I just like my privacy. I'll definitely let you know if something comes up, though."[/color][/b]

An easy-going smile curled her lips briefly as she shrugged, heart pounding against her ribs. There were stars at the edge of her vision. She swore she could hear herself screaming in the back of her mind.

[b][color=gray]"Thanks for the attention to detail. And, for what it's worth, which I know isn't much since you've only dispatched me once -- I think you're doing great at it."[/color][/b]

She felt like she was going to throw up.

Alaine stood, smiled again, and excused herself so he could get on with the next heart-to-heart, which happened to be Asteroid. She gave him a smile as well as he headed for the office... then casually slipped herself out of the breakroom.