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1 mo ago
Current I keep forgetting you were ever here
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1 mo ago
@Zeroth Make the cool thing your PC did fundamentally impossible without someone else's PCs. Like someone with super strength throwing your pc at a giant monster to fuck it up at point blank range.
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2 mos ago
Mahz has a desk?
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3 mos ago
no
3 mos ago
What the fuck are you people talking about

Bio



I invented necromancy and the windmill. I beat the sun in a poker match during the summer of 1273 and God hasn't felt the same since.


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Mourningdove Lane




”What the fuck is this place?”

Mason stood in the lawn of the mansion, staring at all the windows and noting how many people were inside. He’d received a letter somehow, conveniently found on a nightstand when mom was out, outlining the fact that magic existed. Come here at midnight. It didn’t sound like the safest thing in the world, but the last week had been rough. Between his keys vanishing three days ago, and the fact that he’d lost count of how many times he had accidentally soaked himself trying to drink something in a cup that suddenly didn’t exist, this so-called “magic” was getting on his nerves.

And the longer Mason thought about it, the more it sounded like there was a bit of truth to it. Did he just get blessed with some weird superpower to delete things from the universe? It was he broken somehow? He really didn’t know, but if this weird house and the people inside it had something to offer him that could fix this? Then fuck it, he’d walk right into a fancy house at midnight.

Mason wasn’t exactly dressed for a rich neighborhood. He threw on some faded jeans and an old jacket, plus a tank top underneath. Compared to some of the houses on this street, he looked like someone’s drug dealer that laced all the products with nicotine to keep them coming back for more. Granted, nobody was even out here at an hour like this. Not that he’d be any less shady-looking, here in a fancy neighborhood at this hour looking like God’s gift to the crackheads. He stared down at the letter again while walking forward, to make sure he had the right address.


Mason, I hope this letter finds you well enough, before you accidentally destroy it.

One does not create without destruction. And for the past week, you’ve found yourself quite acquainted with the latter half of that fact. You have the potential to wield magic, the likes of which has not been seen in centuries. You’ve taken your first steps in working to control it, and I can help you prosper in that.

Come to 13 Mourningdove Lane. Midnight.

~The Archivist


He really, really didn’t like that someone was stalking him. Mason had tried to keep this under wraps as best he could, making sure not to touch things around other people and making sure he didn’t lose track of what he was doing. Someone was going to have some explaining to do. He walked up to the door, grabbed the doorknob without knocking, and the doorknob flickered out of existence.

Mason stared down at where it was for a second.

"...Yeah, I'm not paying fo-" The door swung open, without him touching it.

Yeah, that was weird.

This was going to be a long night.

"Anybody home?" He asked, walking in.
Johnny didn’t even get his damn food, and there were gunshots ringing out.

”God fuckin’- Aaaalright, kids…” That couldn’t have actually been Striders, he’d just rode in with them. What, did they drop him off and circle around? Wait for him to be in the thick of things and fucking shoot him along with everyone else? What the hell kind of fucking plan is that? ”Damn well better not be no fuckin’ Striders,” Johnny groaned. He grabbed his chips and swung his leg away from the stool he sat on. ”Can’t no man eat in peace like this.” He just wanted a quiet day. An hour at most to take a break but no. Same shit, different day.

Johnny unslung his rifle from his shoulder and clicked the safety off.

”Keep yer heads down, unless you got a gun and know how to use it. Sons’a bitches…” From the sounds of it, there were a lot of them outside, slowly closing in like a predator around Sully’s rest. Which meant standing behind walls was the safest bet, so Johnny opened a window at an empty seat and used the table to steady his rifle. He loaded in a metal slug and took aim for the closed gate, daring those raiders to come through it.

”Can’t get a damn minute to eat these days. Can’t have shit,” he mumbled. ”Come on, fuckers. Open up.”


Extra Stuff: 🎵Ghost Towns🎵


Index


Skyrose








Cora wasn’t terribly happy lately, with everything that happened on that last mission. Everyone seemed to be looking for some excuse to tear each other apart as if it was really anyone’s fault that Metamorph did what he did. In her opinion, the only good thing to do was to let it go and fix it when they had a chance. Still, it did suck seeing everyone feeling down.

But she didn’t have time to think about that. She slowly grabbed her gear and a few things from the lab, feeling somewhat better after cooking herself like a crab in a pressure cooker. Cora wasn’t terribly sure how long she’d be gone, but she was sure it’d be at least the whole day filled out. She walked down to the Zeta Tube and told Red Tornado she was ready to go. A quick jump through, and she was somewhere far away.

”I’m here.”

Where she exited seemed to be a HQ of sorts, not too dissimilar from the tech lab on Mt. Justice. The walls and floor were lined with lights that gave the space a slight bluish hue. At her left side, the room seemed to be dedicated to gadgetry; such as staves, metal spheres that appeared to be for throwing, a suspiciously large metal disk, and…some kind of high-tech roller-blades? The center of the large room had a large rectangular island with a metal top. On it were tools and varying robotic body parts for what appeared to be a dinosaur— A velociraptor to be exact.

On the far side of the room from her were varying monitors connected to a super-computer, showing differing areas of a city. To her right was a corridor that led to a closed door. Encased on the walls at the sides were varying costumes displaying a familiar lightning emblem on the chest. Just when it seemed that she might be alone in this space though, the door at the end of the hall opened. Coming through it was a figure clad in a costume that was an interesting amalgamation of what were clearly previous designs.

Upon noticing her, the figure waved.

”Looks like you’re one of the League’s new young talents that Black Lightning told me about.” He called as he approached. As he got nearer, she was met with an ebony man with short dreadlocks that couldn’t have been too much older than she was. He smiled.

”I go by Static, but you’re clearly in on the whole superhero thing. So, if you want, you can call me V.”

”Cora. I go by Stormcaller…” She could not take her eyes off all the shit that was in here. Weapons, a fucking robot dinosaur, were those roller blades motorized?! ”How come Black Lightning never brought me here? I would’ve had a field day poking at all this stuff. Wait- Is that dinosaur thing shielded against interference?”

”Nice to meet ya, Cora, and yeah. Really, everything in here kind of is. Would’ve helped a lot if I had it when I first started doing all this but it is what it is. This is my lil setup, so that’s probably why Black Lightning didn’t just, uh…drop you off here.” V chuckled but gestured further in the room.

”Feel free to look around. I’ll admit, I was kinda surprised when I got the call for some kind of ‘mentor-swap’ thing, but Jeff said it’d be good for us to work together.”

Like a dog off its leash, Cora did, in fact, start looking around. She walked up to the edge of glass cases and peered in like the sun on a cool summer morning. ”Yeah. I haven’t had a chance to pester him about things yet, I think he’s just busy… He did say something about you being a better match for my powers than his, though.”

The elder electrician paced across from her with his hands in his pockets. ”Right, right, he mentioned that you’re actually having some issues with yours. I’m guessing that’s why I’m sensing a bit of feedback radiating from you. Has it always been like this…?”

”Since I got turned into a metahuman, yeah.” She paced around the room and gawked at some of the stuff on the other end of the room. The most she’d gotten up to so far was making that force glove work off her powers… And a gun. ”Ever since, it’s been that way. Black Lightning and I talked about it some, but just a bit. It’s like… It’s just static electricity, basically. Nothin’ life threatening if you hang around me, but phones or TVs or other stuff gets screwed with. I can reel it in, but only when I’m thinking about it, and even then, it’s not perfect. And that’s not even the bad part.”

Static’s head tipped to the side, causing some of the looser dreads to drift over his ear.

”Turned into one, huh…? That seemed to make him reflect, then he thought aloud. ”Somethin’ similar happened to me too. We call ‘em ‘Bang-babies’ around these parts, since our conditions were caused by an explosion of quantum vapor…Hold up, so what’s the bad part?”

”The bad part…” Cora held up two fingers and made an arc of neon blue lightning between them. ”Is that every time I push my luck with this, it slowly kills me. You ever seen someone develop hemolysis before they’re even eighteen? Or fry their nervous system so bad using their superpowers they can’t walk?” She asked. ”Haven’t really told the rest of my team this yet, but they can probably tell it’s doing a number on me with all the stuff I do to work around it.”

His expression took on a more empathetic sort of tone through a corner of his lip raising. Momentarily his eyes scanned the dinosaur, seemingly more so in thought than anything he’d been building.

”I’ve seen a lot of horrible things happen to teens with powers around Dakota. It never gets any easier to hear, but I tried to help them as much as I could. You can bet I’ll do my best to help you out too.” Static promised on looking back up at Stormcaller.

”So, you mentioned that it actually harms you every time you ‘push your luck.’ So is it that your powers overwhelm you really fast? And does electricity from external sources hurt you as well?”

She shrugged. ”You could hook me into an electric chair, and I won’t even feel it. But there’s a point where I don't feel my own powers, and then a point where I feel them a lot. It’s like… If you run for a while, you’re fine. Until you push your luck and your heart collapses.”

”I see…” V took a more contemplative tone and he walked around the table. He raised his hand for the disk that was on the wall to fly to it.

”What that kind of sounds like to me is that there’s a miscommunication between your brain and your pain receptors. There’s a kind of phenomenon that happens in the human body where your brain instinctively limits what you feel like you can do.

It’s a safeguard to keep from hurting yourself by accident. Like with your running analogy right? Your body gets fatigued so you can give your body time to recover so your heart doesn’t collapse. What I think happened is whatever incident that caused your meta-ability, also caused your body’s communication to go out of whack.

The fact that there is a threshold though that you don’t feel pain, tells me that maybe you could retrain it…”
He paused, taking a few steps away from the table with the disk in hand. When he was a little bit away, he raised it up.

”To get some specifics, though, I’d like to sense it in action to test something. That is, if you’re comfortable with that? If not, I totally understand.”

”Sure. I brought gear with me in case you wanted to test stuff.” She unzipped a pack hanging on her shoulder and pulled out a modified repulsor glove, something she’d rigged up after she looted it from the bank mission.

”The worst it’s ever been, I spent something like eight hours unable to walk. I damn near overdosed on ibuprofen just to be able to sleep, and I blacked out for a few minutes. You want me to go that far?” That was probably a joke. Probably.

”Let’s try and hold off on any shocking injuries if we can. V chuckled, deciding to play along with the dark humor.

”Nah, I just want you to blast this for just long enough for you to start to feel stinging. As soon as it starts to hurt, cut the circuit. What I’m trying to learn from this is if I can get a feeling of the exact voltage that may start the range for your limit. Simple right?”

Cora nodded. ”Yeah, okay. You might wanna get some eye protection, though. Because this will give you cataracts if you’re not careful.” She held up her hands, and bright sparks started forming between her fingers.

Static smirked and tugged down his goggles with his free hand; raising his thumb. ”Ready when you are.”

The room was flooded with blinding light. The very heavens spilled open, the 90s returned from yesteryear. It was impossible to even see if Cora was hitting the damn disc, but she was.

She elected to simply unload into that disc with every last ounce of power she could pull out, to give Virgil enough to work with. And after roughly twenty seconds, she felt her hand begin to cramp up, so she stopped.

”Ouch. That’s the best I can do, full blast and everything. A little under half a minute, and it’s a lot longer when I’m not doing that nonstop.”

”Good, good… He nodded, holding the saucer down as he processed and calculated in his head. ”Can definitely see why you warned about the eye covering, you could give Venus a run for its money. While you were going, I had to keep some bolts from straying away which may confirm my theory about you letting off a little more energy than you intend to.

It’s still early, but I have some ideas for how you could maybe use the energy you have more efficiently. I could work with you for some tech upgrades to help you limit it while maximizing your versatility.”


At the mention of a planet, she couldn’t help but grin. ”Named myself after a moon for a while. Nobody got it. If you’ve got ideas for tricks I can learn, I’m up for it. I have one where I can just magnetize my skeleton to fly, I’m trying to work on ball lightning, too.”

Virgil smiled more genuinely.

”I’ve got a few moves I can share with ya, ball lightning’s for sure one of them. Have you ever tried manipulating electricity or magnetism outside of yourself? Actually, wait a second; Named after a moon? As blinding as that blast was, it’s totally gotta be Enceladus. Highest reflectivity in the whole solar system.”

”…Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had to explain that to people?”
BANG.

POW.

CRACK.

Leah rained holy hell down on an adamantium-lined punching bag, indifferent to the world around her thanks to the thunderous roll of her playlist. Things have been a load of shit lately, between Arcade, April and fucking Vicky going to a psych ward, and her “mother” bending over backwards to get blood from a stone. For the last few days, She Hulk had been trying to get along with Leah and demanded to know every little thing about her. So how did you get into boxing? How’d you and Sabine get together? Who taught you Spanish? So many little tests of boundaries that a woman as intelligent as her should have known were present. It didn’t even make Leah angry, just uncomfortable. Unlike her dad, Leah actually gave more than a microscopic fuck about her mother, before she died.

And she just wanted to unwind, let her problems stop bothering her, and blow off some steam.

But today was not the day she’d get to.

“You have a nice right hook.”

She-Hulk stepped into view, sporting her natural green appearance, her hair tied back into a ponytail. She had on her hero suit, and in her hand was a gym bag, containing her change of clothes for when she’d need to head into court later that day. This, however, was more important. She knew that Leah didn’t have to like her - that she didn’t have to care - but she wanted to do her best by this kid. “Wanna spar?” she offered.

”You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Leah would’ve been lying if she said this surprised her. She had been ignoring She Hulk. A lot. And she hadn’t even considered using that access card to the fancy ass mansion, either.

”What are you doing here?” she asked. ”Shouldn’t you be in a courthouse or something?”

“Can’t a gal want to get some exercise in without an inquisition?” She-Hulk asked, laughing slightly. “I don’t have any cases until this afternoon - and even then, odds are it’ll be postponed again. I thought it would be nice to get to know you more. You can tell me to fuck off and leave, that’s fine, but if not… I imagine it’s not often you can spar with someone who can take one of your punches.”

That was true. Vicky was in crazy jail and Teddy was off doing who-knows-what.

”Whatever. Fine. Let’s go.” She reached into her bag at her feet and swiftly wrapped them up. She didn’t need to, since her fists were pretty tough, but it prevented her from dislocating a finger just like anyone else.

She mostly went along with this so She Hulk would piss off for a while.

She-Hulk grinned, wrapping her own hands as well - in purple, of course, to match her fit. “Alright, kid. Show me what you got!”

”Fine.”

Leah stepped forward, falling into a stance. She Hulk had enough reach that she couldn’t lean on that too much, so Leah started circling her and pondering how this woman was going to fight. Fast, slow, maybe both, she was more experienced in terms of years.

Then she snapped forward like a bat out of hell, swinging one fist at She Hulk’s side to test the waters while keeping the other up.

She-Hulk snapped her left arm to the side, knocking Leah’s punch aside in a block. “Is that all you’ve got?” she teased. She-Hulk knew there was more in Leah’s character sheet than just a cautious punch. “C’mon, kid. Put those stats to good use!”

Leah didn’t react. She was a tactician, she didn’t fight mindlessly. She brought her hand back around and swung it low, bringing it up high in an uppercut that meant she had to step close enough that She Hulk could elbow her.

This one, Leah got in - She-Hulk took the uppercut like a champ, stumbling backwards for only a moment. “Good, you hit… slightly harder than Spidey does, I’d say,” she assessed. “How are your reflexes?” she then asked, before bringing her hands together for a thunderous clap, the shockwave of which would hit Leah dead on.

Leah dropped all her weight onto her back foot, not answering the woman’s question. She got the feeling that She Hulk wasn’t taking this seriously. Which was weird since Leah was. Her back foot became her front foot, as she steadied herself.

She swung downwards, aiming a shot at She Hulk’s kidney, or wherever the hell seven foot tall lettuce-skinned women had under their ribcage.

She-Hulk rotated her arm, blocking low this time and knocking Leah down to the ground from the sheer force. “You’re not much of a conversationalist, are you? You should try it. Throws your opponent off their game - and encourages healthy breath work.”

Leah flung her arms upwards, and tumbled feet-over-head to control her fall. She landed on one knee, hands up and ready to fend something off. Like a damn animal that rolled over on its back as part of its defense mechanism.

”We’re fighting. Not having a conversation, She Hulk, fighting. What’s the point?”

“Fighting is a conversation,” She-Hulk argued. “Maybe you aren’t speaking with words, but you are communicating with actions. Just like how when you chat with a friend, it’s very different than when you’re arguing with an enemy. Your energy and intentions are different, and it shows up in every move that you decide to make.”

She stepped forward, holding out a hand to Leah. “Like this, right now? I’m trying to get to know you - I’m not trying to hurt you.”

”Then you’re doing something wrong.”

Seeing a moment where the woman might’ve let her guard down, Leah planted a hand on the ground, and swung her other leg across the ground to strike at She Hulk’s legs in a wide arc.

She-Hulk was forced to jump back, ceding ground to avoid Leah’s attack. She laughed, seeing Leah’s comment as humorous rather than a threat. There was something to this kid, something special. But she wasn’t going to press Leah, it would all be in her own time. “Oh yeah?”

She rushed forward to close the distance between them again, feinting with her left before swinging with her right.

Leah blocked the punch by grabbing it out of the air with her right fist, and pulled She Hulk closer to drive her elbow straight into the woman’s face with as much force as she could manage. She Hulk’s definition of a spar didn’t involve actually hurting someone, and Leah did not understand that. If people weren’t getting hurt, it wasn’t a real fight.

”Yeah. That’s not how a fight fucking works.”

“This isn’t a fight, Leah - we’re sparring,” She-Hulk clarified, even as she stumbled back, her face stinging from Leah’s elbow.

”There’s no difference, where the hell’d you learn to fight if you don’t know how that works?” She asked, as if she wasn’t literally seventeen and attacking a grown ass woman who was probably pushing forty.

Hearing that broke She-Hulk’s heart. Who had hurt this child? “Leah, Leah, let’s stop for a moment, okay? I want you to listen to me. Sparring and fighting are different. When you spar, your goal isn’t to hurt the other person - it’s to learn and improve together. You pull your punches a bit, you don’t go for the kill. When you fight, you need to know why you’re fighting - what you’re fighting for - and sometimes that is a fight to kill… But not every fight can be that.”

Leah lowered her fists, not completely but only somewhat. ”Who said anything about killing anybody?” Asked the child who once did, in fact, try to kill a guy. ”If you can’t hurt someone when you get into a fight with them, you’ve got a pretty bad chance of walking away yourself. If you’re used to pulling your punches, you’re not used to taking it seriously. I don’t understand what the problem is, here.”

She-Hulk bit her lip. She knew there was a lot of trauma in Leah’s character sheet, yes, but that didn’t make this any easier. “Leah… Who taught you that?” she ventured, hoping that maybe this would be an easier angle.

Oh. Shit.

Leah leaned back, wondering for a second if She Hulk was going to swipe at her the same way she’d just tried a moment ago. And when she didn’t, Leah just scrunched up her face.

”My dad. And before you even think about asking where he is or how to find him, dont.” Leah didn’t technically lie to her that night when Arcade went villain on them, about how she was alone. It just wasn’t the whole truth. ”Just don’t.”

She-Hulk paused for a moment, taking this information in. There was a lot of trauma here. And she didn’t want to press, she didn’t want to push too hard. Leah could tell her when she was ready, in her own time. And when she was ready… Jen would be there for her. She-Hulk raised her hands up in front of her, trying to make it clear that she was letting it go. “I won’t. But when - if you’re ready… But Leah… Did he hurt you?”

”Pretty damn hard to hurt somebody like me,” she noted. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the truth, either. Of course he did. ”...He’s a supervillain. Use your imagination, why would you ask me that?”

“I have a pretty vivid imagination,” She-Hulk admitted. “But… I would rather hear it from you. Leah… I’m so sorry no one was there to help you then. But I want you to know, I will always be there for you. Whatever happened, you don’t have to face it alone.”

Some part of that got under Leah’s skin. And it got under her skin badly.

”I don’t fucking want you to be sorry for me…”

She was getting tired of this. ”You’re not my mom, She Hulk. You think you are, but you’re just a lawyer who signed papers that don’t mean anything to me. It- Letting me stay at your place was nice, but that was a temporary thing. I don’t understand why you keep this up.”

The Avenger sighed, running a hand through her hair. She didn’t know how to get through to Leah - how to help her begin to help herself. And she wanted to, she really did. The world was cruel and harsh, especially for a young girl with the power to break a bus with her bare hands. There hadn’t been anyone there for her, no real examples to look up to - and she wanted to be there now for Leah.

“I know I’m not your mother, Leah. And I’m not trying to be,” She-Hulk sighed. “All I want to do is help you, because you deserve to be safe, to be happy.”

”But those things aren’t your responsibility,” Leah argued. ”They’re mine. They’ve been mine, and they’re going to stay mine. I’m not asking you to do this.”

“A friend of mine once told me - with great power comes great responsibility,” She-Hulk quoted with a grin. “You don’t have to ask me to do this, Leah. Just like no one has to ask to be saved from a burning building, or a car crash, or an alien invasion. I’m doing it because I can - and because I want to.”

It didn’t feel right. Hearing that didn’t feel close to right.

Leah didn’t trust She Hulk. She was just another Avenger to her. An Avenger that went out of her way to do something the rest didn’t, sure, but that’s all she was to Leah. And in some roundabout way that really only made sense to her, but nobody else, that meant She Hulk would make things worse.

But, still, today and the days before were awful. Leah was at the end of her rope with this woman. She didn’t have the patience to keep pushing back right now.

”...Okay. Sure. I guess. Is that what I’m supposed to say here?” She asked.

Jenn chuckled slightly. “There’s no right or wrong response, kid,” she then leaned back into a fighting stance, before adding with a wink, “besides, I’m sure I’ll get to say it to you at least a few more times before it sinks in.”

Even hearing that, She Hulk just accepting what amounted to indifference, it didn’t make a lot of sense. It just didn’t sit right with Leah, it made her throat close up.

But she bent down into a rather unusual stance for a boxer to use, and got ready to go again.

”I’ll… I’ll try not to hurt you too badly.” It sounded like she was being cocky. She wasn’t.

She-Hulk nodded, her smile shifting into a playful smirk. “Same.”
It was April’s third day in CAGE, and she was slowly getting used to the routine of it all. Danni and Dorian had brought her lots of books and pictures the day before, and she had been getting more comfortable around one of the other patients, August, who had become her self-appointed tour guide as to life in the facility. Mercifully, she had also managed to avoid Vicky so far - the last time April had seen her, Vicky had insulted her out of nowhere, and it had sent her spiraling. She didn’t doubt that that would be the case again here.

So it wasn’t the facility itself or her circumstances that were causing her stomach to slosh with nervousness as she waited in the visitor’s lounge, having been informed that there were some people here to see her. Not Danni and Dorian - they’d be coming by later, she knew. Zelda hadn’t tried to show, which was typical - they were sisters only by blood, blood that seemed to be running thinner and thinner by the day. And while her parents had tried, April had refused to see them - a decision she was only just beginning to fully grasp why she had made, days after the fact. No, it was her girlfriends here to see her - Sabine and Leah - and as much as she was happy to see them, it also filled her with dread.

Leah shoved the doors to the lounge open and stormed in. Her eyes swiveled around and looked at everything like this place was ready to be destroyed by a bomb. She did not look happy.

”I already don’t like this place,” she decided. ”Looks like a prison in here.”

Sabine hated that she had to hear from Danni and Dorian about April being committed to some psych ward. She knew April would not likely be able to speak to them about it, but it still burned her that Dorian and Danni got to see her first. Sabine bit her tongue though. It would not do her to cause trouble and they needed to be there for April in this moment.

Sabine could also tell Leah was less than thrilled about all of this, even before she opened her mouth. ”Right, because prisons famously have colorful wallpaper, a nice patio, and other amenities. She’s not locked up, she’s being treated. Behave yourself.” Sabine was mainly joking, though she fully expected Leah to make a scene at some point.
Sabine walked up to the front desk to sign in. April should be waiting for them.

”I’m behaving, your majesty,” Leah joked. And it was a joke. She was totally behaving. ”But come on, who names a place like this Cage?”

April was waiting in the visitor’s lounge, doing her best to fix her hair as much as she could. Her friend August had helped her out with some of the tangles that had formed yesterday, but she still couldn’t help but feel self-conscious about it. It felt way too frizzy, and the more she tried to smooth it down, the more it seemed to rebel against her. And the only good alternative to fussing over her hair was to pick at her nails, trying to not let the anxiety overwhelm her as she waited. They’d have to be here soon, right?

”I mean. Yeah, sure, let’s put the people who need help in a cage. When did that ever go wrong?” Sabine’s sass was rubbing off on Leah… Sadly.

Sabine ignored the comment with a lighthearted eye roll before they were given directions to the visitor’s lounge. Sabine led the way and as they entered the room Sabine looked around. It looked like an average living room, just with more seats to fit more people. And there, sitting, waiting, was April.

Sabine fought the urge to run up to her for fear she would be tackled by security. Even though Sabine hadn’t clocked any guards she was sure they were being monitored. The power dampeners could be felt. Sabine walked up and smiled. ”Hey April. How are you doing?”

Leah walked up slowly, keeping an eye on the people around them out of habit. ”Everything okay? I’m guessing they didn’t let you text anybody that you’d come here.” She really wanted to sit down and hug April. Badly.

April’s heartbeat went into double time as Sabine and Leah walked into the room, looking as gorgeous as ever. There was an undercurrent of nervousness in her every action though, as she couldn’t help but wonder what they thought - Danni and Dori had told her that no one in their circle had judged her or thought worse of her for this, but what if they had been lying? What if Sabine and Leah were just weirded out by this entire situation and sick of her? And as Sabine and Leah asked April how she was doing, the same impulse to immediately say she was fine and brush over the entire situation came to her - it would have been so much easier to just pretend nothing was happening.

But that was what had landed her in here. She bit her lip. ”Um… If you mean right now in this minute, I’m okay. This place isn’t too bad. It’s - it’s not as scary as I thought it was going to be. I mean it can definitely be scary, but like - it’s not like in the movies. Um.”

She paused again, trying to force herself to be brave - brave enough to just be honest here. ”If… If you mean in general, then… Things have gotten pretty bad,” she glanced down at her hands.

Leah took a deep breath. ”…If I hugged you, would someone shoot me?” She was trying to be funny. It wasn’t working. ”Are they treating you alright? They- What’s going on? Whatever it is, we’re not going to look at you different. Promise.”

Sabine had been silent about a lot of things. But looking around the facility had reminded her, or rather continued to remind her, of her past. What she had went through, albeit briefly. ”Yeah, more the general one. I imagine they don’t have people in here if everything is going great.” Sabine felt…what was the word for it? Lost? Unsure? She felt like she was floating but she was definitely grounded.

”April, I am so sorry. If I knew how you have been feeling I would have…I wouldn’t have…I would have been better. I’m sorry..”

April shook her head, uncertain as to where to really start. So much of this was things she was really just beginning to understand too. The sessions with Dr. Whitehall had been really helpful, but at the same time overwhelming. Even April hadn’t really realized how bad things had become - she had been so used to just denying it all and pretending it hadn’t happened, and now that she was starting to do the painful work of acknowledging that it had, it felt like trying to scale a mountain. How could she explain to someone else what she still didn’t even understand herself?

”It’s - it’s not your fault. Please don’t think it’s your fault. I - I got really good at lying to other people, and to myself,” April admitted. She bit her lip again, her eyes darting back down from her girlfriends to her hands. It was easier to not look at people. ”Um. So they told me yesterday, after Danni and Dori left that I’m… that I’m bipolar.” She then froze, bracing herself for a reaction.

The reaction she got from Leah was bewilderment. Leah looked off into the middle distance for a moment, wondering something. ”Okay. That doesn’t sound good, but why’d they put you in here for that?” She asked. ”That’s not something they can just give you medicine for, is it?”

April swallowed, having known this conversation was coming, but it wasn’t any easier. ”They…. they put me here because I was going to try to kill myself,” she winced. Her body started shaking, but she forced herself to continue. ”They can give me medicine, but it’s also not just medicine - I… I have a lot of work I need to do. Lot of bad habits to stop. Um. It’s going to be difficult. But… at least I know what’s wrong with me now.”

Sabine heard the words, but couldn’t quite process them. Not yet. Bipolar was such a heightened word. The thing itself brought up scary images, though she knew better that it wasn’t some term to be thrown about loosely. And to hear April had wanted to kill herself? Sabine’s hand flew right to her wrist before she could stop it.

”Share damn it! This is what Dr. Whitehall suggested.”

It wasn’t that easy though. She had opened up in therapy but doing so to her girlfriends was another beast. ”I’m glad you’re getting the help you need April, though I wish you would have told us how much you were hurting. And that’s me being a big hypocrite.”
Sabine paused. Now or never.

”I self-harmed when I was younger. Started with my food intake and formed into cutting myself. And therapy didn’t help me then. But I wish I had someone to talk to about it. My mom was that person but she died when I needed her the most.”

To Leah, it was like hearing words from the other end of a long tunnel. She felt ice cold hearing April say that. Her throat closed up, and for a moment, all she could think about was how she should’ve done something about this. ”Fuck, April- I- You could’ve-” You could’ve told us how you felt. ”I guess the three of us all suck at talking about heavy things, don’t we? I- I don’t know how this feels. If you’re… If you’re getting help, that’s great. Is there anything we can do?”

April didn’t know what to say.

She felt terrible, hearing Leah and Sabine say that they wished she would have told them. Somehow that made April feel more ashamed than the near-attempt had. She hadn’t told them because she hadn’t been able to even admit it to herself - to be honest about how much she was struggling, that the episodes weren’t just one-offs, that it was a recurring issue that had only been getting worse. There was still so much about herself that she still didn’t understand - so much she had pushed deep down to avoid it.

And to hear that Sabine had gone through that pain… April would have never imagined someone so strong and confident ever would have felt that way. ”I… I’m so sorry. I - I should have told you both. I… I didn’t tell anyone, because I didn’t want to admit it was happening,” April began, glancing at the two of them, before looking away again. ”I’m - Sabine, I’m so sorry to hear that - I - you always seem so brave, and put together, and…” April paused for a moment, wiping the tears that were starting to form away. She knew what she needed to say - could feel that it was time - but how was she supposed to say what she needed, when Sabine had just confessed that to them? It felt cruel.

”I didn’t admit that to make either of you feel bad. I know what it’s like and that is why I show confidence, because it’s scary to admit there’s something wrong. So please, if you need something April, tell us.”

”Yeah. We’re here, okay? You’re cared for, you’re still April. Whatever you need, ask us. We want to be here for you.”

”I….” April faltered again, as the tears started gushing out. ”I think I need to break-up with you both. I - I’m so sorry. I - I just… There’s so much stuff that I hid from even myself and I - I don’t think I have it in me to be the girlfriend you both deserve right now. I’ve had so much fun dating you both, a-a-and it isn’t you, it is me - like it really is just me. I… I’m so sorry. Please don’t be mad at me.”

If you listened closely, you could hear the sound of a pin dropping in another state.

”April… Why would we be mad at you for that?”

Sabine nearly gripped the table. But she unclenched. Leah sounded…calm?

”I mean…of course. That makes perfect sense. You can’t reasonably be a good partner for someone if you don’t take care of yourself.” Her words did not fully match her eyes. Sabine blinked back tears. She would not do this in front of April, who had it worse than she did.

Sabine looked around the room, anything to avoid eye contact.

”I… I really don’t want to hurt either of you,” April said, forcing herself to look up. She took a breath, wiping her eyes dry on her sleeve. She hated how much she had been crying lately. ”I-I-I just… I just don’t think I can do this a-and do school and focus on t-trying to get better and everything - l-like you don’t deserve anything less than my best, b-because you’re both so incredible and… and yeah.”

”Hey. Stop.” Leah put a hand out and sat it over April’s. ”The best you can do, right now, is help yourself. You- April, when you’re fucking drowning, you can’t do anything more than save yourself. I’m- It really, really worries me that you’re in a place like this. It worries me that you had to come here, and I wish I could make it better so you didn’t have to be here.”

She looked down at the table. ”But I don’t know how to give you that. So… If this is what you need, then I want you to do what’s best for yourself. Okay?”

Sabine hated this. Every moment. On the one hand this felt like giving up. Isn’t that what couples did? When one was struggling the others helped, was there for them, supported them and didn’t run. This felt like running.

But on the other hand, could she say she wouldn’t be in the same boat? Their whole relationship started weird and Sabine hated to admit that.

”What Leah said. If this is what you need then I support it. It’s not like we won’t see each other anyway. We’ll still be friends.” Sabine caught herself trip at the last word, nearly gagging trying to hold down her sobs. She clenched her fists underneath the table. She wanted to break something.

They were both being so nice about this. It almost made it hurt more. ”Yeah, we’ll be friends,” April choked out, doing her best to try to keep the tears to a minimum - to keep them from shaking her body with sorrow. ”I’m - I’m going to be okay. I’m not right now, but I’m going to be okay. You don’t need to worry about me, I promise. I - they have a plan and anything, it’s very thorough. And the doctor here is really nice, Dr. Whitehall. She’s funny, too, you’d like her a lot.”

”We can come see you more. We have a lot less to do after Coulson basically passed us for the year. And the contest isn’t that bad,” Leah said. Her face was showing some sadness, more than she usually let people see. ”You’re still… I know people think people are weird or dangerous and scary when they’re mentally unstable or ill or whatever. But that’s not you. You’re still the person we know, even if you’re- Fuck, I’m not good at this. This- We’re not mad.”

”Mental illness doesn’t make someone a bad person. It’s just something they need to work through. That’s all. And we will get through this. We have a contest to win!” Again, her words didn’t quite meet her eyes. Her mind was swimming. She was tempted to peer into April’s and Leah’s, but she couldn’t even if she was able to, for multiple reasons. ”Dr. Whitehall is cool. I will probably talk to her again.”

”I got a really bad vibe from her, honestly.” It was like this girl had no idea where she was. ”Too nice to somebody she just met. I’m not going back there.”

April sniffled a bit, as Leah said that she was still April - still the person they knew. That meant a lot. She gave Leah’s hand a squeeze, and vowed that she was going to remember that - that she’d remind herself each day she was still April. And Sabine too - she was so grateful that they said that. It was terrible of her, but April had really bought into all the dialogue on mental illnesses - had really accepted that they made people dangerous, violent, wicked. It had made it so much harder to accept what was going on with her - to even admit to herself that she needed help. ”Really? She’s, like, funny - and really nice - when they brought me here my first night, she helped me a lot - got me out of an anxiety attack - and then she screamed fuck you at the cameras to be silly, ‘cause I had asked her if we could swear. You think she’s… you think she’s bad? Like Arcade bad? Or just bad?”

”I don’t know. She just creeps me the fuck out. She could come out and say some crazy shit, like she’s secretly a domestic terrorist giving information to people that kill mutants, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

Sabine shook her head, but bit her tongue. Of course Leah would see enemies where none were. ”Regardless, if she’s helping April maybe give her the benefit of the doubt. I don’t fully trust her, but I am willing to see where it goes.” Sabine felt jittery in a way she never felt before. ”So what is it like in here, really? Nice rooms? Is the rest of the staff treating you well? Say the word and I’ll go full Karen on someone!”

April’s heart skipped a beat as Leah proposed that maybe, just maybe, Dr. Whitehall was secretly anti-mutant. She bit her lip, trying to shake that idea out of her head. That was one of the things that had really scared her about this place, when they first brought her here - April wasn’t as intense about her mutant identity as Danni and Dorian, but she was a mutant. And she knew enough about what it was like to be a mutant to know that places and people like Leah had described were incredibly possible. ”Um, I… I really hope she isn’t, because I do not want to be murdered,” April squeaked out, nervously rubbing her hands together. ”Th-the rooms are nice, yeah - all have their own bathrooms, so you don’t have to go down the hall like at school. Staff is good, the lady that distributes meds in the morning is a bit cranky, but I think I’m getting used to her? I dunno. It’s kinda exactly what you’d expect but also nothing at all like that? There’s a boy here who, like, kinda decided we were going to be friends so I’ll play games and stuff with him, or read books - Danni and Dori brought me some yesterday - and then there’s like group sessions and individual sessions and stuff. I thought I’d miss my phone more than I do. It’s mostly just super chill here?”

”They took away your phone? Why?”

”Why would she keep her phone? Outside contact is probably not allowed unless vetted. I mean hell, we had to sign in and I guarantee we are being monitored here.” Sabine was happy to hear the place seemed nice, and that April was making friends.

”Also cool it with the anti-mutant shit. If they are like that saying it out loud would probably get us flagged!” Sabine chided Leah with a whisper. Sabine didn’t believe the place was anti-mutant but who knew anymore? She was safe, somewhat, being inhuman, but she figured people didn’t discriminate if they really wanted to hate someone.

That didn’t do much to convince Leah this place wasn’t rancid in ten different ways. ”Yeah, okay. As long as you’re getting the help you need, April, I’m not going to level this place.” That was a joke. She was trying to be humorous and lighthearted, somewhat.

”Y-yeah I think it’s… I think it’s normal, to not have it,” April said uncertainly. ”If it’s not, it might be because I’m technically not here voluntarily? Like… like I’m okay now with being here but when they brought me, it was, like, in an ambulance and everything…”

”...Yeah, I guess that makes sense, actually,” Leah admitted. She could tell Sabine was about to blow the fuck up. ”I don’t really know how places like this usually do things… How long are we allowed to be here for?” She asked.

Sabine shrugged. ”As long as we can, but I imagine there’s sessions and other important things she needs to do.” Sabine felt the walls shift a bit. Was that her imagination? ”Well, hopefully you’ll be out soon, but do you want us to bring you anything else in the meantime? Or do you want us to let anyone else at school know you’re here?”

April paused for a moment. And then she shook her head. Everyone that she wanted to know already knew. She knew Zelda had to know, despite her sister not making a single attempt to come and visit. Mads knew already. As did her boys, and her girls. ”I - I don’t think so. But um. If you see Danni and Dori before I do, you can tell them the diagnosis, I don’t - I don’t want to tell anyone else what it is.” She then paused for a moment. ”I think right now they need to see, like, how I’m responding and stuff but I think I should be able to go back in a few days? Maybe? I’m - I’m not super sure how it all works. Think they need to sign off on some stuff saying I’m not - I’m not a danger to myself anymore?”

Sabine glanced over to Leah, wondering if she was going to open mouth, insert foot again. When she didn’t say anything, Sabine continued. ”Of course, we can let them know. And please have Dr. Whitehall or whoever reach out if you need to see us again. And take care of yourself. Obviously.”

”I - I’d like to see you both again, if that’s - if that’s not too weird or anything,” April admitted. She’d never broken up with anyone before - and definitely not in the psych ward. She wouldn’t blame them if it would be too weird or painful to come and visit her again - but she did really hope that they could stay friends.

[coor=ff9a4f]”Why would that be weird?”[/color]

”Of course we’ll come back to see you, you are our friend first and foremost.” Sabine looked over to Leah, hoping she wouldn’t say anything to worry April further. Sabine had to check herself too, lest she say something she would regret.

April was incredibly grateful for Sabine - she did really enjoy spending time with Leah, but right now, every other sentence that came out of Leah’s mouth just gave her a newfound wave of anxiety. ”Um, it might be weird because… because we just broke up?” April said tentatively.

”Nah. That doesn’t make it weird. We’ll be back, promise,” Leah assured her.

”On that note, we should let you rest. But please let us know if you need anything else. And…take care of yourself.” Sabine bit the inside of her cheek. So many words she wanted to say. So many emotions. She hated herself a tiny bit for letting April go, but it was for the best. It had to be.

April nodded. ”I will - I promise,” she said. ”I’m not okay but… but I think I will be.”

”That’s good. It’s okay if you’re not okay now. Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t.” Leah wanted to punch a wall right now. Or something metal, or something alive, she didn’t know. She really hated that she sucked at this sort of thing.

”We’ll… We’ll be back soon.”

Sabine stayed silent but reached over to hold April’s hand, just for a bit. Then she stood up and waited for Leah to join her before she waved goodbye and made her way out of the room. She wondered if she screamed really loud if they would admit her then and there.

It took Leah another fifteen seconds of sitting there, looking at April as if they’d never see each other again, before she got up and hurried out past Sabine.
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