Morose

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin sighed slightly as Lance bandaged up her wrists, even though she knew that the scratching wasn't helping her emotionally, mentally, or physically. Nothing really was helping - her eyes flickered back over towards the bottle of spiced rum she had finally found - though she did know something that potentially could. She knew that it wouldn't solve her problems, but if it made them a little easier to bear, even just for a little while...She couldn't help but think, deep down, that might just be worth it. "Did you just ask me out on a date?" Guin asked, raising an eyebrow.

He wasn't wrong, though - their parents probably wouldn't have noticed what was going on with Hammer Industries until later on, if they hadn't done anything about it themselves. She glanced down at her wrist, looking for her watch before she realized she left it in medical. If it hadn't been for P.H.I.L., they probably would have still been under Kilgrave's control. "But alright, give me a few minutes," she told Lance quietly, drying her eyes again as she went off to her bedroom.

Guin got herself cleaned up quickly, returning to where Lance was a few moments later. Her eyes were still red and puffy, but otherwise, she looked a lot more like herself. She had black skinny jeans and a Stark Industries hoodie on that was way too big for her, but she preferred it that way. It was about comfort. "Where are we going?"

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin sighed for a moment, before unlocking the door and pushing it open. Her eyes were a bit red and puffy from crying, and her wrists were bleeding. The bandages Tony had put on them were ceremoniously thrown on the floor a few feet away. Her dress from the evening's events looked, in a word, horrible. It had bits of blood and grime on it, as well as a bit of vomit from right after they had driven Kilgrave out of Lance and her's heads. Her hair looked terrible as well, as if she had been doing an experiment on static cling with it.

"I don't need your help," she mumbled, scratching at her wrists again. "And of course you should have told me about that creepy little fucko trying to seduce you to the dark side - and not even the fun dark side," Guin added. She stepped out of the bathroom, not really wanting to have this conversation with Lance inside of a restroom, before she headed to the lounge. Her eyes flickered over towards the bar and she headed on over, looking for the Captain Morgan's spiced rum bottle. Her dad and Banner had already headed out to try and find Daredevil.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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While Tony and Banner were off attempting to find the devil of Hell's Kitchen, Guin was sitting on the bathroom floor, leaning against the wall as she cried softly. Lance would be able to hear her sobbing lightly. Calling Ginger hadn't helped like she thought it would - there was still a lot about that day with the Brotherhood that she had left to process. She hadn't talked to a therapist about the parts that bothered her the most and she doubted she ever would, as they'd likely brand her as crazy. She had hoped that Ginger might understand, but from what Ginger had said, she didn't. It all reminded her of DJ in the Last Jedi.

Good guys, bad guys, made-up words. Let's see who formerly owned this gorgeous hunk-uh. Ah, this guy was an arms dealer. Made his bank selling weapons to the bad guys. Oh… And the good.

The kids fighting for the Brotherhood - Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch...She wasn't sure, even now over a year later, if she could really call them bad guys. It used to bother her quite a lot, as the more she thought about it, the more she couldn't just write them off as evil and move on with her life. They weren't that different from Ginger, were they? Just kids following an ideology that someone else told them was the right way. Her Aunt Nat had been arguably the world's best assassin, getting red in her ledger that could never be wiped out...but Guin knew that Aunt Nat was a good person, just a victim of circumstance.

That was what she would never tell the therapists - that she thought it was possible that her captor might have been a good person.

Of course, that wasn't what bothered her right then and there. As much as she wanted to live an extraordinary life, to do amazing things just like her dad (she'd never tell him this, but he had always been her hero even before he put on the suit)...she was scared. Kilgrave had scooped Guin and Lance out of their minds, only to put something else back inside. Hammer wanted them to help him build Ultron - which Guin doubted would end in anything but disaster. And of course, she just had to fly an Iron Man suit into a collapsing building with the Hulk in order to save her best friend.

"Go away, Lance," Guin mumbled, drying her eyes on her arm.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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"Lance, buddy, get some rest okay?" Banner told him quietly. It was almost midnight. He and Tony could pour over records and resources for the rest of the night, in order to get a location on Daredevil. He knew that the superhero was active during the night rather than the day, so if they were lucky, they'd manage to catch him in time. Lance wouldn't be in any real danger from Hammer and Kilgrave until the next day. He gave Lance a bit of a smile, before heading out into the lab to go work on the problem with Tony.

"Yeah, thanks," Guin said briefly, after listening to Mary's advice. She truthfully didn't feel any better, but she also didn't have the energy to explain the exact situation to Ginger. "I'm gonna go," she then said abruptly, hanging up the phone. She set the phone down after putting on the next song she wanted to listen to, crying softly in the bathroom as her wrists bled. There wasn't an easy solution to her problems. There wasn't even a moderately challenging one - it was just complex and difficult. Part of her wanted her dad to come in and check on her, that way she could just cry as someone hugged her. But another part of her just wanted to bleed in there alone.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin sniffled slightly, mentally relabeling Ginger as Mary, since Marygold was way too long a name to say. It was a bit ridiculous and reminded her of her own real name. She always wondered why her father had let Maddie name her, rather than naming her himself since he was the one that ended up raising her. Maddie hardly ever did anything for Guin, unless there was a camera around to catch it on film. It disgusted her that Maddie was her mother. She always wished that Pepper would one day explain that she was Guin's real mother.

Guin slowly took off the bandages on her wrists, letting them bleed again. "Got it. Mary then. Um, well...I know that you do the entire superhero thing but uh - what do you do when you get scared?" Guin asked her quietly. "Something happened and I'm freaking out and I may or may not be having flashbacks to when the Brotherhood came to my school...meant to call you sooner and thank you for saving my life..."

"Yeah, locked up forever sounds a bit right...Guessing we might want to go pay Daredevil a visit and talk to him?" Banner suggested. If Daredevil had caught Kilgrave once before, Banner didn't see any reason why he couldn't do it again. It was either that or Tony would need to make everyone completely plastic suits, that way Kilgrave's pheromones wouldn't work during the fight. And there'd need to be some sort of plastic coffin made for Kilgrave, to keep him from escaping as he was brought back to the Raft.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin was slightly surprised that Ginger answered the phone, given that it was almost midnight. Of course, she also wasn't very good at talking about her feelings. Had Lance not been lying in medical, she might have broken down in front of him. Her breakdowns had normally been private affairs, punctuated with substance abuse of some kind. "H-hey Ginger - it's Guin Stark," Guin greeted, though it was clear from her voice that she had been crying. "I know it's late and you probably have to join the EPA and save the world or something, but I was kinda hoping I could talk to you..." Guin mumbled. She contemplated pulling off her bandages as she cried softly. She knew it wasn't the case, but she felt so incredibly alone.

"Guess we could see about getting into Hammer's security system, see what surveillance has picked up," Banner suggested. It was illegal, but he didn't care if he had to break the law for Lance's sake. He'd broken the law plenty of times before when he had been on the run himself. "As for stopping them...I think we might want to talk to whoever brought Kilgrave in the first time, see exactly how they did it, as I don't think Hammer will be nearly as hard to bring in."

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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"I'm gonna go to the restroom," Guin mumbled once Tony had finished bandaging her wrists. She wasn't able to calm down. Part of it was from the withdrawal symptoms, but it also had a lot to do with fear. Someone who could control minds had gone after her and her best friend that night. She used to have nightmares of the encounter with the Brotherhood, but at least then, she had been safe inside her own head. Guin got up and glanced at Tony for a moment, before heading into the women's bathroom and locking the door.

She bit her lip for a moment, before sitting on the ground and hugging her knees to her chest. She then pulled out her phone and pulled up a contact she had saved as Ginger. She had always meant to call the girl and thank her for what she had done for her, but she never had gotten around to it. But right now, she figured the youngest member of the X-Men might be able to help her feel a little less terrified. No one else could understand what had happened at the boarding school either. Guin pressed dial and held the phone up to her ear, hoping Ginger would answer.

Meanwhile, Banner hesitated and looked over at Tony, before nodding at Lance. "Alright..." he said softly, before heading over to his fellow Avenger. They needed to figure out some sort of plan to put Kilgrave and Hammer behind bars for what they had done to their kids - and what they were planning to do.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Banner sighed, sitting down on a chair next to Lance's bed. There wasn't really much he could say to his son anyways. His injuries had been his fault, given that he let the Hulk out. And it wasn't like he could wave a magic wand and suddenly heal Lance in a matter of seconds. Sure, there were whispers of some mutants and inhumans out there who could do stuff like that, but none of them had been credible as far as he was aware. "Let me know if you need anything to eat or something, buddy," Banner then said softly.

"It's the only alternative I have at the moment," Guin muttered, scratching at her wrists even faster. Her mind was practically screaming out for some sort of stimulant and she didn't want to relapse. Tony had raided her stash anyways, so the best she could do would be to steal some of the painkillers from the medical ward. Of course, she doubted her dad was going to let her out of his sight again. She'd be lucky if he didn't send her back to rehab for a few weeks and the threat of Kilgrave was probably the only thing stopping that. But even as she scratched, she didn't find any sort of relief. Her wrists had begun to bleed lightly.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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"Try not to run off again for a while, buddy," Banner said, as he gave Lance some painkillers to help with the partially crushed ribs. "This isn't going to be a fun healing process...So don't do anything that will aggravate it," he then added. He really didn't want to have to treat Lance for any complications that could have arisen. He was doing a pretty good job of ignoring Guin, not really wanting to deal with her at the moment, as he blamed her for whatever ideas Lance had gotten in his head. He doubted that they had gone to the event and this happened to them by chance.

Guin was sitting on one of the chairs in medical, her fingers twitching more and more. Kilgrave's pheromones in her system had set her sobriety back a few days and she looked a little bit pale. To make matters worse, she kept having little flashbacks to the incident at her boarding school with the Brotherhood - of Ginger looking so battered and bruised, of that irritating speedster trying to pull her out of the tree. And then her mind drifted to the aftermath of the events there. She thought about the first time she ever used and she started to scratch at her wrist.

Hooked on a Feeling

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Guinevere Stark

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Banner gave Tony a look, as if to say et tu, Tony? He didn't like the idea of leaving his son out in the open, especially with Hammer and Kilgrave attempting to warp Lance's mind. He'd be a terrible parent if he allowed that to happen. And sure, Banner already knew he wasn't a fantastic parent by any standards - Tony Stark seemed to have a better job at parenting than he did. "Tony and I will handle this. Lance Gabriel Calrissian, you are not going anywhere near these people or so help me, I will drag you to a facility in Antartica and your classmates will be penguins."

"So I'd be his classmate?" Guin interrupted, only to get a look from Banner. "Sorry, Dr. Banner..." Guin then mumbled. "Please don't turn green and beat me into a pulp. I'm really not ready to die yet." Banner gave her more of a look, letting out a frustrated sigh. Once they were back at the tower, he managed to get Lance patched up. The recovery would take a few weeks, unfortunately. Guin was sitting in medical with the others, her fingers twitching as her withdrawal symptoms appeared again.