It is early morning, the sun has perhaps only just started filtering through the windows. There is only one occupant sitting in a chair. A somewhat odd girl, dressed in pajamas, sitting with her knees tucked under her chin watching a cooking show with the sound turned off. Or at least aiming her eyes at the screen where the show was.
She was lanky, and somehow ever perfectly still looked a bit awkward in undefinable ways. And the there was the glitch. One you looked at her long enough, she flickered, like a TV set gone bad. Like static moving across an image.
She slept fitfully, waking up constantly in the night - staring at the wall or the ceiling or the back of her eyelids, trying not to think even though her mind was full to the overflowing point of thoughts and feelings and worries.
But eventually the night passed. The night passed, and it was the morning.
She threw on the same clothes she had worn the night before. She didn’t have anything else.
The girl looks up, and it’s almost again like a wave of static crosses over her.
“H... h... ——- Morning. I’m H... H... ‘m Dash”
It was disconcerting- she seemed to often change her pose without you being able to see the intervening steps between poses, more like a flicker.
Then almost like an afterthought pasted to her face she essays a smile, as if it’s something someone told her was supposed to be done in these situations.
She had a hard time falling asleep but that didn't last all that long. Before even an hour had passed her system settled and she fell asleep. It was fitful, every time she moved a new pain poked her. She moaned slightly and rolled over to try again.
When she awoke in the morning, the sun hadn't quite come up. That was odd because she normally slept beyond the dawn. Her family life kept her on a different schedule. Usually she was up late at night, darkness was a friend.
She put on the same clothes she had worn when they brought her in. Complete with the dirt and soot stains from the battle. Her face and hands were clean t least. Some places her skin had a sickly tint of greenish yellow from the bruises that were slightly healed last night. She frowned at them, a lingering pain wasn't something she was used to. Shaking her head she figured she would have to get used to it.
Walking out into the girl's common room she looked at the pair. She offered smile. It was small and hesitant, but it was an attempt.
She didn't initiate any conversation, but she didn't look like she would turn any chance of interaction away either.
The girl was scrawny. She didn’t look much older than 12, and was a grand total of five-foot-nothing tall. She was skinny, though it was hard to tell how much as the clothes she was wearing were several sizes too big, and obviously at least second-hand - a pair of skinny jeans that hung loose on her, only staying up because of a cracked turquoise patent leather belt. She wore a faded blue t-shirt bearing the name and logo of a diner that was razed in a super powered battle seven years ago, tucked into the waist of her jeans on one side.
She had pale skin, tangled chin-length strawberry blonde hair that had clearly been cut at home, and greenish grey eyes with dark circles beneath them. Her nails were ragged, probably chewed, and there were scabs and raw areas next to her nails where the skin had been picked.
On the whole, she just didn’t look like much. She set about making herself a cup of tea, briefly glancing over to Anne and Dash.
"Any green tea?" She inquired. "I could kill for a cup of..." She tried to smile, but it fell short. "I guess I shouldn't say that. Even if it is a euphemism."
"Anne," she offers. She is dressed in dirty clothing, which is clearly well tailored and of the finest fabrics. Even the edging on the pants had a tint of some sort of golden thread which was metallic, as if made from real gold. She wore no jewelry at the moment. The softness of her hands bespoke a life that had not done any hard physical labor. She appeared to be in her mid teens with soft brown eyes, straight brown hair below her shoulder blades.
Sticking out of a pocket are some truly unflattering rubber gloves. They look like something that one might wear to wash dishes.
Last edited by Pandemonium; Sun 16/08/2022:10 UTC.
"Thank you," she says as she takes the cup. She puts her fingers against the sides of the mug warming them and consequently her heart. She brings the cup in close and deeply inhales. A smile of satisfaction crosses her face.
"Mmmh," softly escapes as she takes a sip of the warm liquid. "What brings you to this ... um place?" She didn't direct the question to any particular person, just to the open air so it can be answered. More curiosity than anything else. Yet she was clearly interested.
Blonde, disheveled hair... bed head. Weary, tired blue eyes... probably didn't sleep much last night. Imagine that, right?
Cadence wore a oversized hoodie sweatshirt that looked brand new. The hood was thrown back and half her hair was inside the neckline, the rest fell wherever it wanted about her face. A pair of blue gym shorts and black ankle socks... but it was that other feature she was wearing about her ankle that made her the envy of the couture accessory season. A a 4 inch white cuff was attached to her left leg just above her ankle. It appeared to have some kind of pad lining but looked sng. It was obviously electronic in nature and probably not her own portable wifi router. It was clear that she wasn't comfortable wearing because of the way it affected her gait.
She haltingly made her way toward the kitchen, more specifically the refrigerator. She ignored the other girls thus far.
“I’m here by mistake. They think I have powers. I’m only here until they wise up and yeet me into the foster care system,” she said, as she settled into one of the chairs - drawing her knees up to her chest and perching her heels on the edge of the seat cushion. She took a sip of her tea before continuing.
“Until then I’m going to enjoy the whole warm bed and regular meals thing.”
Cadence opened the refrigerator, or 'fridge' as her mother called it. Granny called it the Ice-Box. Cadence took a breath and dismissed the small flash of memory with a shrug. That was all gone now. She looked over the contents on the interior shelves and then shifted her stance to survey the door racks as well.
A half gallon jug of milk, already opened, not missing much, but looking pretty new. She pulled it out and closed the door again with her other hand. Slowly, as though shuffling her feet was the best she could do this early in the morning. It was morning right? Maybe not? Bleary-eyes as it was, she swept some of the hair from her face to look across the common room to a window. That didn't tell her much. It was daytime... close enough. It was morning somewhere, right?
Absently she put the milk container on the counter and started to open and close overhead cabinets until she found a cup or a glass, if they were even allowed to have glass... glasses... such a weird word... glass was one thing and well, it was also the same word for the drinking container made of glass... Whatever. She shook her head to dismiss the errant thoughts. Right now, the only thing of importance was finding something to pout her milk into...
Wait... Cadence stopped and took the two steps back to the half gallon container on the counter. She picked it up again and looked at the date with narrowed eyes and a furrowed brow. Apprehension was mixing with hopefulness. There were rules to drinking milk. Good ! There were still five days left on the 'Best By' date. But now came the more critical test as she opened the cap and selled herself for... You know, the gag thing... that moment when you smell soured milk un close and confined. But it was important because smelling soured milk was nothing compared to drinking soured milk. Clode your eyes, deep breath, exhale slowly and.... sniff.
"Thank you Jesus," she muttered and sighed in relief. It smelled good. So then the hunt was back on for a glass but now she carried the milk with her as though it were a prized possession she had won at the State Fair midway games. And so, finding the cabinet with the plastic tumblers wasn't hard, there weren't that many cabinets. But the cup had to go through a sniff test as well. Who knows, right? Yeah, sure appeared a little anal retentive and OCD but it was the first morning in paradise. The process for the future would be a whole lot smoother and simpler once she had some trust, especially if the people here understood how to avoid 'Crimes Against Milk'.
With her milk poured, she returned the jug to the fridge, then closed the door and stood right there with her back to the other girls in the living area of the common room as she drank a huge swallow of it and her shoulders relaxed as she sighed with as much contentment as could be mustered in her new home. Tumbler in one hand, she shuffled across the floor toward the shared bathroom, raking her other hand through the wild man of tangled hair.
“If I could will reality to be what I wanted it to be, do you really think what I’d choose was being in the foster care system until I aged out and was kicked out onto the streets? Getting punted from family to family and having to carry my belongings with me in a garbage bag? I don’t want that life. I don’t want the life I left behind either.”
She gestured to the room at large.
“This place? This place is the dream. Hot water that comes out of the faucet rather than having to be heated on the one stove burner that still works. Sheets on the beds. Actual pillows rather than couch cushions scavenged from a dumpster. No bedbugs. Windows that aren’t broken or boarded over. A roof that doesn’t leak. Actual good food, enough food that the hunger pains go away. No responsibilities.”
She took another sip of her tea.
“If I sound like I don’t believe that all of this is real, it’s not because I want it to not be real. It’s because people like me don’t get to live in places like this. People like me don’t get to be warm, and safe, and extraordinary. The other shoe is going to drop. It’s all going to be ripped away. Because that’s what always happens. That’s reality.”
Too early in the day. Hell, even if it was afternoon already, that was still too early for deep soulful conversations about dumpster cushions and leaky roofs.
Cadence raised her tumbler up above her head, as a toast it seemed. "Here's to living the dream," she announced as she passed the living area by on her way to the bathroom. And just before she got to the door to the bathroom she spoke again. Her tone wasn't condescending and it wasn't dismissive. It wasn't anything at all like ridicule either. Cadence just sounded tired and matter of fact in her tone.
"Not to ruin the moment," she said with her free hand on the door knob, "But they have tech that scans people... if they say you have powers... You have powers..."
She walked into the bathroom, the door closing behind her.
“Right you know. They tell you powers, you got powers. Might not know what you got, but you got. I got, that girl got. That girl too. All. You maybe not broke too, but power? Yah. Have. Not here other.”
She continued to sip the tea. She watched and listened. Having money and a non leaky roof had other problems too. She kept that to herself though. She didn't want people thinking she was a chip off of the old block.
When she was asked she pointed to the gloves. "Let's just say that we don't want to do any involuntary touching. For the most part I can control it. But it can do nasty things to your lifespan." She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.
“Living the dream,” she replied to Cadence, raising her cup of tea.
She nodded slightly as Anne said that touching her was bad news - she’d gathered that it was something touch-related based on the gloves.
“We need to get you better gloves, so your hands don’t end up marinating in those.”
And finally to Dash, “Sorry for being harsh there. You didn’t say anything wrong. Everything’s just so weird. It’s like I’m trying to learn to walk with my arms. But my arms are where my ears should be. And they’re on the wrong sides.”
The milk girl with gadget on her leg wasn't long in the bathroom. As she came out, still shuffling as though she was a casting extra in a 60s zombie movie, she finished the tumbler of milk and sighed. She walked her way back to the kitchen.
"Are we it? Or, are there more Broken Dolls on the Island of Misfit Toys?"
She rinsed her cup out and looked around for what she should do with it next. Were the girls responsible for their own cleanup? What was the deal? Sure, there would probably be some official event where the rules of the place were explained and all, but for now she put the cup in the efficiency sink.
“Well. Think about all th’ girls I know of. Are s... are more boys. Think at least three, an’ two more came in late night. ‘Course there no timetable for new here, people aren’t captured on time, right?”
She looks at the gloves. "They were a spur of the moment kind of a thing. Not like I get to make much of a fashion statement in here." She purposefully didn't look at her own dirty clothing, nor at the ankle adornment on Candace. In fact she was mostly looking into her tea, with an occasional look up. It was clear she was listening though.
Last edited by Pandemonium; Wed 19/08/2000:29 UTC.
“Was just thinking that they didn’t look very comfortable or easy to move your fingers in. I’m in no place to give fashion advice. After all, I’m the loser who didn’t even bring shoes with her.”
Great. Her first day and already she’s managed to snap at the shy girl, depress the stand-offish one, and insult the fashion sense of the friendly one. Got to be a new record for alienating people...
She headed towards the kitchen area. ”Anyone hungry? I’m not a great cook, but I’m happy to grab cereal, make scrambled eggs and toast, or nuke some oatmeal.”
Cadence shook her head for the girl who was offering to cook something. "No thanks."
Cadence walked from the kitchen area to the living area- a pretty short distance, around the sofa, and casually picked up the remote from the arm of the chair and turned it off. She really didn't need to see 'Breaking News' reports today. She was there, she knew what happened. She fell into an open seat with a *whoomf* sound as the chair absorbed her fall. Maybe it was a test of the comfort level.
With a look to the girl who was like a metaphor for 'Can't keep still' she asked 2nd question, "Does that hurt?" Obviously she was speaking to Dash, sitting across from her. Cadence drew her feet up onto the chair in a clutch position. "I mean, like, does the dampener cause you discomfort," she added with a circling gesture in the air.
"Yeah, that's gotta suck," she replied to Dash. It was true. Whatever the girl's gig was, either she wasn't right to begin with or the dampener was messing with her. Maybe both. "Whenever they pass out the comment and review cards for this hotel... maybe ask 'em to maybe try to tune the dampener field... maybe that'll help... But whatta' I know, right?"
What did she know? What did they know? She hadn't even told them her name yet. Which name was real? Did she even know anymore?
She then looked back over her shoulder to Anne and Peri. First to Anne, "On our next field trip to Nordstrom's... ask for Driving Gloves. Leather, breathable... I mean, rubber dish gloves certainly sends a message... no touchy... but it will ruin your skin, Sweetie."
It was clear, now that Cadence had spoken more than a couple words, that she had a twang in her voice, She wasn't from Halcyon City. She was from the South, maybe even a little west as well. She slipped a hand to the ankle cuff, absently trying to adjust the fit of it as though there was an itch that couldn't be scratched.
Her eyes drifted to Perri, "Bless your heart... I know every one of us has something worth cryin' ourselves to sleep at night... We wouldn't be as twisted up in a wad if we didn't have it rough."
"She's still wearing last night's clothes," Cadence said with a gesture toward Anne. "Sweet style though," she quickly offered to Anne. And then back to Perri, "I have no clothes either... Not a stitch. But that's just a thing, right? Here we are. You seem like you're decent people, so this place'll probably be good for you.... If you let it... right?"
Cadence did seem to have philosophical bent to her. One day she might make a great super-villain. She already had the monologue thing down.
She is surprised by the commentary but offers a smile. "There was no talk of going to get clothes. The only question was to The Hole or here. They elected here and I can't complain. It is better than home." She shrugged.
"I think most people will be safe around me especially when I am healed. Right now I just don't want to take a chance. The old guy that helped me from the rubble would have been in trouble if his body didn't protect him so well."
She nodded that nicer gloves would be appreciated. She continued to sip her tea.
Last edited by Pandemonium; Wed 19/08/2017:03 UTC.
"I am sure they will arrange for my clothing to be brought here at some point. They will get tired of me in one outfit over and over again, I am sure. I don't think this is an orange jumpsuit kind of a place."
"Misewell get the lay of the land, and the rules that go along with it," she agrees. She drinks the last of her tea and goes over to wash her cup. She sets it on the side to drain so it is clean for the next person. It was an odd experience. She had servants do it for years but this wasn't that kind of a place, at least not at the moment. She wondered in her own mind how much service they would be entitled to. Probably not much, teaching sel reliance and such, she guessed.
She didn't have anything else to put on, so she just adjusted her top a bit which had shifted while she sat, and appeared read to go to whereever this parlor room was.
Cadence didn't even know these girls names. She hadn't said her own either. Did she miss the name sharing part of the jamboree? Probably both good and bad. Knowing their names made her connection to other people real... more real... whatever. Sharing her name opened her up to other questions, invariably 'What do you do?' being at the top of the list. She had turned off the TV because sooner or later the news would run the breaking story thing about the cloaked person that attacked Alchemy and killed innocents. They wouldn't know that was her, not yet anyway, but she would hen have to listen and absorb their commentary on what they were watching and she was sure she wouldn't like it. Hell, she didn't like it herself.
So, it was a pickle... A part of her didn't want the connections and another part needed them. She didn't know how to sort it out so she did nothing.
Then the girl with the glitch 'suddenly' remembered the group had a meeting to go to, like now... or real soon... hard to tell with her. But what was important was watching the purple-black effects in the fringes of her... glitch. She had seen that before, and she was beginning to understand what that meant.
"Okay then," Candace said with an facial expression that she had just been spun in a whirlwind, "If you're going to be in charge of our social event planning... then you need to ask them for calendar."
Even as she finished her reply her eyes were drawn to watching Perri grab food to take to her room. She let out a sigh. It was not something she could truly understand or even relate to. What could she say to that girl that would make her feel comfortable that there would still be food here when they got back from the meeting.
Her eyes were drawn to the girl in the dirtied up clothing, the expensive designer rags at that. She had already commented on the clothes but now it was her face. Familiar. And that wasn't good. She looked away and kicked her legs off the edge of the sofa and stood with a litle hop at the end as though she stuck the landing. And the cuff was there, just tight enough to remind her that it would always be there.
She grabbed an apple. It occurred to her that she hadn't eaten for anything other than pleasure for a very long time. What did that say about her? She didn't know what that meant, and didn't know what she should think about it. Evidently mom and rubbed off on her in that sense. Utility over other things for food. Yet other things, only the best of the best. Life was just strange and it was only getting stranger.
Look at who she had come to meet. She hadn't really made friends when she was younger, more of a project for mom than actually just going to school kind of a kid. Yet a contrast with Peri who seemed to be suffering from moment to moment. Dash, she didn't know what to think. And the other girl seemed less forthcoming than some could be. That made Anne wonder just a bit. Given the ankle monitor she obviously had something in her past that the new controllers were watching her for. Anne thought about that, how close she came to that moment herself. Well she assumed the reason for the ankle unit. Mom certainly had tried to get her to kill time and time again. That might have been enough to take her to the other place, not here.
She shook her head. Things would be learned in their own time. For now, keep her hands in her pockets and relax.
"Where is this parlor room?" Almost as an after thought she rescued her cup out of the sink and made a second cup of tea, allowing it to start steeping before she went to the meeting place. A drink to sip might allow her to distract herself which seemed like a good idea for the moment.
And now that she’d managed to store away the food, she offered Cadence a little smile.
“Thank you. Yeah, I hope it will be a good thing for all of us. Change can be good, right?”
Optimism was a bit of a novel experience, really. Normally when things changed, it meant that they were getting worse. Still, she wondered where her father was - what he was doing. In lockup he wouldn’t be drinking.
He probably has a killer hangover this morning. Heh. Killer.
With no hair of the dog to take the edge off, the mixed up stomach would be kicking in soon, and the sweats. After that, well, after that it would get ugly. She’d seen her father go through the DTs a couple of times, when he was either making a brief attempt at sobriety or was too broke for booze. He wasn’t a pretty sight, sitting on the floor in the kitchen with the fridge door open to cool himself off, scratching away at the worms that were crawling through his skin and yelling at ghosts only he could see.
Not my job anymore.
She grabbed herself a banana and a muffin, taking them into the parlor with her.
“ oh, down the s... down on the next floor. Not h... Easy to get to. S... s... apology for remembering late, difficult to think at times. One thought in front of the wrong thought and behind the next. Not best of thinker.”
She frowns, looks down for a moment before standing up.
“I might own some extra s...”
She pauses a long time.
“Blouses that might fit you, bit large on me, and that one” she indicates Peri. “Is about my s... build if you want clean.”
Last edited by Art in the Blood; Thu 20/08/2023:11 UTC.
She looks over at the other two on the clothing offer.
“Well, s..”. Another long pause. “Well, the boys aren’t too nice with me, but I think that won’t be a problem with you. Don’t think Mr. kemp going to make it formal. Told me it was just tell and take questions. Gave me that week ago when I got h... when I arrived.”
Last edited by Art in the Blood; Fri 21/08/2012:34 UTC.
Once the girls were gathered again, it seemed they were ready to head to this parlor room. Cadence fell in behind 'Girl with the Glitch' since she knew where she was going. Hoody sweatshirt, knee length gym shorts, and ankle socks. Her was hair still a bit of a mess but she seemed unconcerned with that.
There was nothing she could say about the clothing that would explain her reasoning. It wasn't personal and maybe that was all she needed to say, but telling someone something was personal usually wanted to know why things were personal. Cadence spent the last 8 months wearing clothes that weren't hers, bought for her yes, made for her yes, but not hers. She didn't choose them.
"Boys are jerks until you put them in their place... Any of them say anything, you just give'em the finger... I got your back."
She was quiet and waited. She seemed to be thinking a lot to herself, though it wasn't clear what she felt about what she was considering. In her own mind she just wanted to get on with whatever was going to happen. She didn't know what to think, and really it didn't matter what she thought. Being with her mother she had learned to just accept the mercurial changes that happened from moment to moment. Easier than trying to plan for the sudden explosion.
Dash seems to have already made her way back in, and is again sitting, fidgeting. Looking oddly like she is flitting around while sitting still, almost vibrating.
Of course was the first one back in their common room. But every time she used her power, and every time it used her, there was some kind of discomfort or pain. She was out of balance. Cadence could sense it well enough just watching her. Maybe there was something passive about it. That particular power. There was no way she was born with this gift, somebody did something to her to make her this way, or alter her.
"Are the Pads here, or will they be delivered later?"
Cadence issued a soundless chuckle. She shook her head, "Maybe I am... clever," she said as she flopped down beside Dash. "But you are too... like, how you use other words when you can't say the first one in your thoughts. Whatever was done to you... Well, that's why you can't keep focused. You weren't born with this," she asked with a gesture at the moment a glitch swept through Hadadsha. "Did you have speed before? And then someone changed you?"
“‘Kidu ... made it more. Only I’m broken so it didn’t all the way work. Bad effort, wanted to make gods, not me. Let me be carrier. Take things from one to other. Get food, cot. Better than being wanted. Being wanted, would get more of attention, more needles, more hands, more burning. Fire in the brain. Being broken enough that st... that didn’t try to fix me anymore, good. Fixing hurts.”
Peri and Anne would be here soon enough, if they didn't get sidetracked exploring the place. Cadence set the pad in her lap. There would be time enough to figure that thing out later.
"Yeah... I bet this Kidu guy did make you faster... like lightspeed fast... but that part's not really running is it? No. It's in that 'glitch', as you call it, that you can go from one place to another. But you can't stay there in that... zone... you can't control it. The more he did to 'fix' you, the more it hurt... the more he... unbalanced you."
Cadence remembered how Alchemy and Nyx tortured her to get her to 'erupt' as a mutant. Not only was the torture bad, and so calcultated with the will-breaking efforts, but the actual 'evolution' into becoming a Deity was like being on fire, inside and out, until she found a balance. Screaming until she couldn't hear herself and her own screams sounded as if they came from someone else, somewhere else. Yeah, Nyx was a complete whackjob. But her... her mother... was pure unadulterated sociopathic evil.
Her eyes unfocus for a second and another glitch runs across her.
"When I move extra quick here to there, like that, world around is grey and purple, and cold and hot together. Burning ice. Don't like it much."
She tugs at her hair, winding a long strand around her fingers.
"Oh, I'm only one of 'Kidu's broken parts. Are lotta them. Even 'nother one in this place too. Only you won't put eyes on Blake usually, if she doesn't try to be visible. Usually doesn't want to be. Grew up quicker'n Blake too. Blake is about your h... your tall, I think. I was, oh, little kid 'bout this big"
She holds her hand maybe a bit over three feet off the floor.
".. when she was 'bout this big."
She held her hand up perhaps a little bit less than five feet off the ground.
"Am 'Bout as big as her now. Was awkward. Leastways where I am now most others don't know I'm bigger'n I should be. Not as odd."
Last edited by Art in the Blood; Wed 09/09/2017:18 UTC.
She re-entered the room, and immediately set to making a pot of tea.
“I like you exactly as you are, broken bits and all. Think everyone here’s broken in one way or another, counting the staff. Least that’s the impression I get, and I’m a pretty good judge of character...” she trailed off a bit, considering the case of her father before adding a hesitant, “mostly.”
Growing up dirt poor, as essentially her father’s full-time caregiver, she’d had to find a way to survive and navigate a world full of bullies, gossips, busybodies, and people looking to take advantage. It was a crash course in learning to be hyper-aware of everyone’s moods, reading them, identifying threats, working out how to avoid conflict.
“We’re all broken, specially the ones that think they aren’t.”
Cadence shifted her attention the Peri when the door opened. She watched her head for the kitchen to make more tea. Cadence fidgeted with the pad in her lap while Peri spoke some reassurance to Dash. Odd group to be sure, and damaged was probably true. Weird dynamic layered on top, each of them able to lend support at different times, and then receive it at others.
In a way, it reminded her of the Youth Group Afterglows right after the Pastor's altar call. Confess your brokenness and cry out for help, and ultimately find community in just how broken everyone around you is, and know you aren't alone. In a way... this wasn't Salvation in Jesus Christ by any stretch of the imagination. Cadence didn't really know what it was... yet.
Cadence looked between the two. She thought that a smile might be good, but there were so many competing thoughts. Dask was right in that regard, she was a thinker. Dash hinted at being bigger than she should be and that was potential problem that simply added to Cadence's concerns for the Girl with the Glitch.
“Well, Blake is one more than fifteen I think. And ... I think I’m five younger? They gave me a ten year exam to tell if I was st... yet broken. Gave Blake a fifteen as well together, I got picked up not long after. Ten? Eleven? Don’t know my birthday, never told me. Not great with math.”
Cadence closed her eyes. She wished she couldn't care. She wanted to keep the walls up between herself and everyone else. With eyes closed, head bowed a little, Cadence sighed. The kid was 10 or 11, in the body of a 15 year old. She was living a life in a state of pain, at some varying level, every second of the day. Being Evil wasn't enough of an excuse to do this to a kid. Why was he doing it? But another question was... How? She had already picked up on what was causing do much of Dash's troubles and it wasn't something you could just experiment with unless you had help from someone who could touch it. Dash had no chance of making it through that experiment. She was broken from the moment they started on her.
"Come here," she said as she offered a hug. Hadasha could be one of the kids in her youth group. She could be one of the girls that Cadence used to baby-sit for. "I'm sorry ya'll have to go through this... Are the doctors here helping you? What are they saying?"
“Doubt ‘Kidu cared a lot about a normal education, and you had to think of survival rather than homework. Then your body skipped a few years, so people expect you to be further along than you are. You’re climbing a mountain, but you haven’t been given any tools or training, and you have the weight of all those expectations on your back. But you’re still climbing, and you haven’t fallen yet. Know what that says to me? It says you’re smart, and got good instincts. You’re strong. You’re a survivor.”
“Well. Mariel think she knows what make the glitch but is trying to figure out how to make it go away, she told me. Can’t find ... piece of puzzle. Trying to find way to make me grow less.”
She leans up and looks over at Peri.
“No, no teachers. Blake, some teachers. Others, many teachers. Blake is good. Doesn’t like people much tho. Her words ... ‘People usually aren’t worth much...”
She didn't plan on caring. Not about this place, or her future, or even for herself. And certainly not for anyone else around her. She had surrendered because she had done a terrible thing to stop a terrible thing. And she had done the kind of amoral math that her Mother... her biological mother... was so fixated upon. That made her a villain, right? That made her a killer for sure. Cadence didn't even know how many people died because of her decision, her choice. She didn't know the fullness of Alchemy's plans. She knew her part and she knew enough about the trap Alchemy was setting at the building with those hostages. She never understood why or for what purpose. But she knew enough, probably more than these heroes knew. She didn't know much, but they obviously knew next to nothing about what was really happening last night.
She didn't want to care... She wanted to be put out of her misery. She was the monster and hated the monster. Two separate people who were the same. Her decision proved to herself that she was this person and that she was capable of doing things, terrible things, to chase after some better solution.
Always plans within plans. And what if Alchemy planned for a betrayal? What if she calculated that it might happen, could happen, would happen?
None of this should have ever included her. She was a happy teenage cheerleader from West Texas. This was going to be her senior year. Homecoming, Captain of the varsity Cheer Squad. Finish off this year with that 4.0 and get her scholarship to UT, Hook'em Horns. The dances that led to Prom and then graduation.
All of it gone. Yeah, whatever. Poor little girl. Holding Hadasha in her arms she felt the weight of her own troubles bearing down on her and then imagined how much heavier Hadasha's problems were and she was only 11. Cadence hid her face in the sofa until she could get control of her emotions again.
It all sucked. None of them asked for their lives to be torn apart like this. Several deep breaths. Compartment the emotions. What does Elsa say? Conceal, don't feel.
There was the sound of someone walking through the room without any accompanying visual. The fridge opens, a jug of milk seemingly floats over to a glass, opens then pours, closes itself and floats back Into the fridge.
To be honest, she didn’t really know what to do with herself. Between school - well, as much school as he could manage to go to - and keeping her dad alive, and the string of short-lived part time jobs and odd jobs to bring in money for the bills, the household chores, and making some attempt at doing homework in the few odd moments she could squeeze in, spare time wasn’t something she’d ever had.
She wasn’t sure she liked it. Too much space to think. So rather than sit there and marinate in her own ruminations, she got up and started tidying.
It wasn't until Dash acknowledged the presence of whoever it was that came through the door. Cadence hadn't been looking that way, instead focusing on Dash's vulnerability and staving off the realization of her own. The Blonde cheerleader swiveled around in the sofa to look toward the kitchenette to see no one. Oh, someone was there alright. There had to be someone because Cadence didn't believe Ghosts were real and a floating glass and pouring milk didn't happen without reason and purpose. Dash obviously knew her, and Peri greeted her; but Cadence was going to wait a bit to hear or 'see' more.
A face fades into view bit by bit, doing a reverse Cheshire, starting with the teeth and eyes and nose, then the rest swimming into view until there was, in essence, a floating disembodied head, which proceeds to drink from the glass..
“Hey little D.”
She looks over at the other two.
“Heyas there, gals. Name’s Blake. I’d let you see the rest of me, But then I’d have to kill ya. Nah. Actually, it would take enough concentration that it would be hard for me to hold a conversation, ya know.”
The door opened and she walked in slowly as if each step were effort. She didn't look any worse than she had earlier in the parlor room, but something was different.
Anne entered and Cadence watched her gait but didn't understand what it was she was seeing. She leaned to Hadasha as her attention returned to Blake, "Maybe introduce us all?"
She stops mid stride and almost falls over. She looks at the head and it takes her a moment before her mouth closes. Finally she says "hi," again. "I don't believe I have seen you before. Following Cadence's suggestion she offers "Anne," though she doesn't say much else. She seems mesmerized by the floating head.
“Blake, no last name. Picked up when I was picked up. From Enkidu. As you can ... tell, she turns invisible. Um. Rather, she is invisible and can kinda go visible. Um. She is the other older girl I was talking abut. Blake this is Cadence, Anne and Peri.”
Blake “I can go visible, but it’s a strain, makes me tired and gives me a headache. So I try to keep it at a minimum. On the plus side, I could walk around all day in my underwear and no one would even know. On the minus side, well, someone might sit on me.”
“Nice to meet you. I don’t actually know what I can do. Turns out my dad can block people’s powers, and I guess he was doing it with mine, not sure if on purpose or on accident. Turned 16 last month.”
Cadence simply nodded when Dash said her name. This whole 'getting to know you' thing was mentally tiring. It felt like there was some overt effort to normalization the 'Guests' of this facility when only just the night before...
Cadence dismissed the thought. The idea of it was good but it just felt forced. Throw the supervillain kids everyone together, see what happens, watch the kabuki theater as they all act out their best impressions of being civilized... or at least trying not to act feral.
Last edited by Phoenix Prime; Tue 15/09/2022:46 UTC. Reason: 403 to go
"I can't say you didn't surprise me. For whatever reason in this place of anything goes, I just didn't expect an invisible woman. Really need to make sure your last name is Griffin though," she said with her lips quirked up at the edges of her mouth."
“No last name. At any rate, welcome to the Bates motel. They say breakfast will be available until ten, they’re going to want to start processing some of you and get ya figured out. You might not have noticed them, but each of you has an alarm. Figure you new guys are gonna get the short end first. Questions ask me or little d. I don’t think you look like psychos. No more than I do anyways.”
"Alarm? You mean we are bugged so that if we use our powers they will know? I haven't tried, but..." her voice trailed off as she considered the ramifications of the new information.
Ultimately she decided it didn't matter. It wasn't like the house wouldn't have protections, and she could have gone straight to The Hole.
The mention of an alrm shifted Cadence's attention. Truth be told, when Anne connected the word alarm to the idea that they were all monitored and locked into the house's security and surveillance, cadence easily accepted that as true. She had been told the house had a dampening system(probably along the lines of the massive system used at the Black Hole) but the idea of being 'bugged' was disconcerting and easily believable to her in this state of mental off-balance she felt.
But Blake corrected her and Cadence's exhale was audible, and that was followed by a chuckle that only accentuated the laugh.
"Alarm clock... good one Blake..."
"Anne, ya'll had me going there... I mean... it sounds real an' all. So you're not alone there... but sheesh, I jes' figure we're all jumpy an' on edge, right?"
But the mirth faded quickly as Cadence's expression lost that essence of the part of her that was 'Cadence Before' and the more reserved and dour 'Cadence After' returned.
She raised her leg and pointed to the cuff that was snugly wrapped about her ankle, "I figured this was supposed to be security enough... not cameras and surveillance and whatever else too... But who knows."
“Oh I’m sure they’re monitoring ‘Invisigirl’ - me - somehow. Otherwise I could just walk right outta here. They have Rich Boy cuffed up too. That telepath of theirs could probably tell if we just decided to up and leave and our brain was no longer around here.”
“Nah. I’m just Blake. Never called much else before coming here, and I was lucky if I was called that rather than ‘hey you get over here’. I don’t think I’m likely to be a cape and tights sort, no? Nicknames are a weakness of mine, I use ‘em on everyone, myself included.
Cadence changed the topic before Blake told her the nickname she had chosen for her. She didn't need any more names right now.
"I saw the one on Ben," Cadence mumbled as she looked at her anklet. "I think he was the only other one besides me. On his wrist though, like a bracelet actually..." Her voice regained some clarity and volume. "...maybe more specific than mine."
Her eyes wandered to the ankle unit. It was clear she had an interest in it, but she said nothing. Really what was there to say? She had to let go of that. She had been used to doing what she had to do to survive. There was more here, how much more, or what more? She wasn't sure. But there was more. The iron hand of her mother wasn't pressing her down all the time, or making her do things that frankly Anne wasn't comfortable doing. There was more to life, than death.
Last edited by Pandemonium; Thu 01/10/2021:54 UTC.
“Doubt it’s simple as that. Never is, you know. Even me, it took me forever to have my clothes come with me. Saves a bit of embarrassment, that does. It’s been a somewhat borin’ day.”
Her face swims into view sans the rest of her head,
“Bet you... “
She pauses.
“Well, darnit. Not much I can bet you, Hoover. On account of me having no real property but the clothes I’m wearing. Bet you me being right That it’s less easy than that anyway. Betcha.”
She shrugged. "I suppose your right, life is never as simple as we might like." She went to set up another cup for tea. It may be as much as a way to keep calm as actually something she wanted to drink.
"This is just all so weird," she finally admitted.
“Weird. Good’n, that. Well, yes. But you sayin’ your life wasn’t weird before? Know mine was. Mother was who knows, father is who cares, midwife was the hands of a man who calls himself somethin’ mythy. Chore to see myself in the mirror each morn, if I even bother. Can’t ‘magine yours was any more normal. Things are jus’ whatever is in front of you right now.”
She was silent for a moment while the tea water did its thing in the microwave. Still quiet while she put the green tea bag into the now hot water.
"Life was weird, I grant you. I can't even begin to explain my mother. As far as a father? I have no idea. I could have been brought by the stork for all I know.
"Your right though, at this point I am on a whole new path. One foot in front of the other." She threw away the tea bag which had steeped for two minutes. She took her creation and went back to her lone straight backed chair she had sat on earlier.
However long it takes for each testing of the new arrivals, and however long conversations take in a girls dormitory common room, that was about the length of time it took for Cadence to return. She was the last of the new girls to report for the testing. She entered the common room with an obvious sour expression on her face. It was also clear that she had battled some emotions along the way. Whether or not she won the battle was not as clear.
Straight to the refrigerator, with a nod and a subdued "Hey" for Blake. She took a bottle of water, holding it tightly in two hands, and then offered a nod for Anne... her cousin, it seemed... as she headed for her own room.
She said to Cadence. She seemed to get that her particular nickname might not be the best one to use at this time.
She looks back to Anne.
“Yeah? Myself, I guess it’s a new direction. Dunno. Guess I’m not hiding from everyone and trying to spy on people and hoping I’m not asked to kill anyone. That’s a plus, yah?”
"Not having to kill is certainly a plus," she agreed. She nodded to Cadence as she breezed through. She didn't know what to say. They were undoubtedly associated, potentially related by all accounts. So much going on, it was almost too much to think about.
The blonde cheerleader turned 'monster' didn't know what to expect. They didn't make her use her power, and that was a postive since she never wanted to use it again. Miss Mariel seemed genuinely concerned, but to the others... she was just a puzzle to solve. No longer a human being. Truthfully she had taken some of those steps in that direction herself, and admitted as much in the hopes the 'Heroes' would end her nightmare permanently. Grey made it sound like she was taking a stand to advocate for her, but whoever or whatever this Eidolon was... well, to them she was just a risk assessment equation. They had the power to dictate her fate and do it without her consent and that made them no better than Alchemy and Nyx.
Cadence continued to her room where she could rage her anger away and maybe cry herself to sleep and just wish the day away, wish that night outside the prison away, wish the last nine months away... Wish her whole life away at this point.
"Yes, a new world." She agreed. She said "Hi," to Dash. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to be so out of sync with things, yet she was out of sync in her own way.
One ‘Dash’ sat in the room, hugging her knees, flipping through channels, and every now and again flickering as if the channel being changed were her. Blake had just left the room, and everyone else seemed occupied, so she was by herself. She liked watching tv. She could try to absorb herself in the plot and slow her brain to match. Well. At least sometimes.
Cadence entered to girl's common room with her head down. She carried the weight of her emotions, tangled and twisted as they were, on her shoulders like the proverbial albatross. A curse she had to bear, one she seemed inclined to manifest upon herself as some form of penance. But hers was a crime for which she wasn't sure she could ever find forgiveness, not even to forgive herself.
And yet this self imposed pity party was convenient and self indulgent. She knew that too. Somewhere she realized she possessed many traits of the woman who was her biological mother. It all came down to choices though. That's what she was told. Inherently she was brilliant but never applied herself in that way. She had read and absorbed every book and youtube video, and intellectual paper she could find concerning the nature of her abilities. And yet, she didn't want to be the brain type. Sure, she had a 4.0gpa without trying that hard. But she was just a girl. She loved being a cheerleader. Of course she was the captain of the squad... and that too was a trait she realized came from her mother as well. She liked to be the center of attention. She enjoyed being the captain, being in charge of the squad.
She drifted into the room and sat in a chair that also faced the TV, near to Dash.
"That was a lot of heavy," she admitted aloud, referring to the meeting she had. "I got Carver... I guess that's better than Sanderson though."
“Carver. S-s-s… weighty. Thoughtful? Odd. Anything h … aid? Eric not bad. I know Eric … many long nights trying to figure me out. Ask questions, up all night, ask more next day. Can’t get people. Not at all.”
She pauses a long bit.
“Never mind. Can’t get out thought. Not important one.”
Cadence shifted in the chair, tucking her legs underneath her as she now faced Hadasha.
"Hey... don't say that. Your thoughts are important to ME. And yes< Carver was heavy... But I felt like he was trying to help me... make me see who I was and who I wanted to be. Sanderson? I feel like a science experiment to him, one that maybe disturbs him... Judging me on some level. I get enough judging from myself. I don't know what to think. Carver made sense to me, like he figured out my wavelength and tuned in..."
Cadence moved from her seat to to sit next to Dash.
"What if...."
She reached out to touch the girl next to her, as she watched Dash rubbing her temples. She hesitated though. It would be rude, right?
“My … mind can’t make from in to out. Trip over my own mind on way to mouth.”
She paused, almost as if trying to construct a sentence from scattered word-legos.
“My brain … crooked. Bent. Not in order. H … what way fix it. M’ broken.”
Taps head.
“Eric says ‘m very bright, and need to get me s-s-s … “
She closes her eyes again.
“Moving not ahead of my thoughts. Says ‘not broken, misaligned, ‘just ‘cause you break doesn’t make you broken.’ Don’t know ‘bout that, feel broken. If things don’t function what YOU call it?”
She twitches and glitches.
“You … can you? Fix,I mean?”
Last edited by Art in the Blood; Sun 26/09/2101:30 UTC.
Cadence sat quietly for several slow breaths after Hadasha asked if she could fix the 'glitching' girl.
It wasn't what Cadence had offered, but maybe it was what Dash had heard. Maybe it was what Dash wanted to hear.
"I don't know Dash," she replied quietly. "I think I can help you. I don't know if I can fix you."
There was another pause as Cadence drew her knees up to her chest and she wrapped her arms around them, huddling in the chair. Looking at the other girl from behind her knees she continued, "" Nine months ago I didn't know I had any abilities or powers or whatever... I was just a girl in Texas, going to school and being a captain on my school's cheer squad. I was starting to think about college. I was... thinking about Prom... and I was thinking about my boyfriend... "
She shrugged, "Then everything changed. Nine months... that's all it took to turn me into a monster... to turn me into Forsaken. Breaking me down and stripping away the limits of what I am willing to do. I would have done anything she wanted... anything both of them wanted to make it stop... Everything I knew about my abilities had been beaten into me so that I could destroy things and kill people. But I learned things... self taught... I taught myself more than they wanted me to know... I read science stuff online whenever they weren't watching me, training me, breaking me, and I practiced and practiced. I started to understand what I was reading. I hated science in school, but I needed it now. I needed to learn it and understand it if there was any hope that I might not become just a weapon. Any hope that I might be able to find just a sliver of control over my own life. But, I was just a weapon to them, and... even to myself. No matter how much I learned I was created for one purpose to them..."
"I am Forsaken... Grey and Mariel and Carver keep trying to tell me I can be something different. But I can't. I need forsaken to stay sane. BUT... maybe I can change what it means to be Forsaken. Maybe that's the control I can find. The path I can walk to be better and do better... and help someone else."
Cadence uncurled herself.
"I don't know why I work and you don't... But this Inky-do guy built me with an incredible amount of power. Maybe he didn't realize it. I can only see it from being me, from inside me... Maybe he experiments and doesn't fully understand what will happen, but he learns more each time he changes one of us. He's been doing it a long time. OR, maybe he knows exactly what he did to me and why. I fear that becoming the truth and so I need to take control."
"I don't want to ever use my powers again. I caused so much pain. I knew I was doing it when I did it. I made the choice knowing innocent people would die. I don't see how that's forgivable. I wanted them, Carver and Grey and Kemp and Mariel... and yes, especially Sanderson... I wanted them to Kill me. I wanted to die. I still struggle with that. Maybe I always will.... Maybe I have to for the rest of my life... for as long as I am alive. Maybe I can't kill myself because I want to be punished."
She moved from her chair to sit on a corner of the chair that Dash occupied.
"But maybe I can try to change what it means to be Forsaken. Maybe I can start with a single step with someone who deserves not to feel pain all the time... I can see it. Every time you... glitch... I can almost feel it too... because I can see what's happening to you. I can't NOT see it. My powers are always on at some level and I have to work to ignore them and hide them... I see you, all of you. I think I can help you. I don't know if I can fix you."
Cadence opened her arms to offer a hug. Her hands were shaking. It would be the first time she reached out for human contact in nine months. It was the first time she wanted to be a part of someone else's life. It was the bridge from her own fears to a place were were vulnerability wouldn't be used against her, at least she hoped so. The fear that no one would ever trust her again was strong. The sense of isolation that she imposed upon herself was a punsihment but it was also a sanctuary of self preservation. that fear was called rejection.
“Can never make dif’rent yesterday, only today. Run one place looking other place, run into wall. Bonk. Ouch.”
She does lean in with a hug, putting her head on Cadence’s shoulder. She is surprisingly warm, and to Cadence she almost gives a bit of the feeling you get when you touch a battery to your tongue. A sour feel and tingle, like citrus and a nine volt battery.
Last edited by Art in the Blood; Mon 04/10/2101:47 UTC.
Maybe the sensations meant something important, but for right now Cadence just wanted to experience the connection of two people as though she were a normal human being again. It had been a long nine months and she still felt like an outsider to the world around her. She was a freak, someone who could channel energy and matter and dark energy and... whatever... freak was faster.
"I will try to help. I hope I don't make it worse and hurt you."
The anger and self-loathing fought against a deeper, broken and beaten, sense of self. Cadence was once a happy, cheerful teeenager living a happy and cheerful life. Literally, she was a cheerleader. She was a beacon of school spirit, even beyond, what her peers would consider normal. She was like some kind of super hero of friendly and happy. Ever the optimist as well. She dragged the pop kids clique along with her to include others whose backgrounds lent them to being ostracized. She tried to befriend anyone and everyone, finding ways to include people in her circle.
Not anymore. That changed and the person she had been was submerged and drowning for so long that she wasn't sure that those memories were even real, or her own. Anger and distrust was the central theme of her personality now. Or, at the least, it was the costume she felt most comfortable inas it helped protect the vestiges of the person she could only remember as if she were watching her own memories through a dusty pane of glass.
Cadence nodded. She turned her attention to the TV now. She said what needed to be said. She even offered a hug that felt awkward for her now, but was once an important thing for her when she was a different person. Another weird memory that came to her in a moment that it was needed. "What are we watching?"
She hadn't seen any TV in nine months and even before the abduction by Alchemy, she seldom watched it at home.
But, in her own head, she was trying to build the courage to take the next steps and that was bringing her idea to Mariel and maybe gray. She didn't know the older guy and he hadn't taken any time to really talk to her except for the initial interview that decided whether or not she came to this place or to prison place. But Mariel and... or.. Grey were just the stepping stones to approaching Sanderson with her idea to help Hadasha. She needed allies, maybe even voices of reason to help her think it through. She had so much power and the ability to use it without moral ambiguity that maybe she was not seeing something in the idea that could be dangerous. She didn';t want to use her power, she really didn't want to ever touch it again. But it was always touching her. Without focus, she could always see the blending of the two dimensions of normal matter and dark matter. That was a secret she kept close to her heart. Although she pretty much gave carver enough information to figure that bit out on his own.
For now, she just wanted to think of mindless nothings on TV.
She settled back into the seat. She breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly, and then a few more times, slower each time. Just something she had learned from fighting the jitters and anxiety before cheerleading competitions. Relax. Calm....
Cadence entered the room, eyes shifting to locate dash. Of course the obvious place to find Her would be in front of the TV. Maybe it was something about the flickering images that held her attention. But Cadence then saw a girl she had not met before. As she walked toward the sofa and Hadasha, she met the new girl's inquisitive look with her own and allowed for a small smile.
"Hey there," she said to the girl, quietly, just before dropping heavily into the sofa next to Dash.
Cadence's eyes widened a little as she tried to place the origin of the voice, and the implications of Ki's power. Was it something that she actually heard of was it in her head? But Hadasha's touch brought Cadence back to reality. She let the book rest in her lap, and nodded to Dash. "Yeah, I'm good."
"I gave them what they wanted. And let them know I'm not going to try to cut and run..."
While still speaking to Dash, she made a gesture for Ki to sit with them or in one of the nearby chairs. Trying to be welcoming.
Cadence tapped the book. "Mariel let me borrow this... Maybe it will help me get better control... learn something about my powers besides how to destroy things... Maybe let me find a way to help you."
AS Ki came closer, Cadence shifted a bit to make room.
"It's all good. I'm Alchemy's daughter so, I guess creeping people out is probably my lot in life too... Besides, I just spent... Actually I don't know how long it was... But I had Grey in my head, talking to me... so, You don't freak me out. We're all, whatever we are. Freaks? If we own it, then the word can hurt us."
Cadence heard the hum and immediately shifted her senses to take in all 4 states at once, just like slipping on a glove. "I don't know, I'm looking."
(Cadence will try to determine if there was energy or matter in motion, same with the dark side of things. Sound waves to make a hum had to be generated from somewhere, and that created ripples.)
She definitely seems to be making something move, the air around her vibrates with energy, and if she had to make a wild guess, it seems like she is tuning it somehow. There are gauge purplish motes flicking in and out when she does it, not extreme but there.
Dash leans her head on cadence’s shoulder and loops her arms over her neck, somewhat unconsciously.
Ki ‘speaks’.
“Well, Enkidu made sure I was one. Made sure I couldn’t talk normally so I’d have to use my stuff. Still. Won. Didn’t know I can do more than ventriloquism tricks. If he did, he’d have made me do it. Can’t complain. Had it easier than some.”
Cadence hadn't been comfortable with physical contact in months. Nyx had a cruel defintion of what 'physical' contact should feel like. She resisted the urge to withdraw from Dash's overture, but there was a moment where she shivered a little and took a deep breath. It's okay! she thought to herself hoping it would actually become real.
"Whatcha got Ki? Show me a little something."
Having them work their talents or curses might help Cadence help them. For some reason, their powers were troublesome, and glitchy in Dash's case. These girls were considered failed experiments. But Cadence was not a failed project, at least not that she could tell. Her powers were frighteningly steady and used as she had been taught, were also devastating. But Cadence wanted them to be less of that and more of something useful and helpful. Taking control of her situation and owning her reality was the only way to make something of this crapshow her life had become.
What Alchemy had 'Inky-doo' turn Cadence into happened when when she was a baby. Was there a timeline here? Was there some master plan to create something, someone? Was Cadence a success after so many failures or just another step on a Madman's path to a greater monstrosity?
The girl paused a long moment' looked over at a plastic cup sitting on an end table, there was a high pitched whine … and it puffed into dust. An odd thrumming in the air, and she floated off the ground before setting back down.
At each of the above she distorts slightly, like she was blurring and going just a bit out of focus, before finally forming up, like she was briefly a vibrating creature of sparkly vaguely purple sand before reforming.
“I don’t want to do other things, as they hurt. Hurt other people. But …”
She squints and violin music starts playing from thin air.
“If you say so. I know if I do it too much I feel fuzzy. Talking is good. Got to be careful with other stuff. But see? Told you I creep people out. I escaped from one of Enkidu’s stockyards. I guess he thought there was something in me that could be used later.”
She shrugs.
“Fine balance being interesting but not too interesting.”
Cadence was considering her next question to Ki about what she had witnessed and how Ki explained it but she stopped short, almost choking on the breath she took in,
"What?" Her tone was incredulous "Stockyard... what does that mean... No, I know what a stockyard is, I'm from Texas. Like, he just..." Cadence had no way to put the image she was thinking into words. That visualization was appalling, horrifying, and made her feel a sudden wave of nausea.
"He just experimented on children, just to... to see if he could get some effect and... if you weren't what he wanted he just threw you away or kept you prisoner to dissect later?" Her words were rhetorical, as though she needed to hear her thoughts out loud because she couldn't keep them in her head. There was already too much darkness in there. And, then the gag reflex that followed was almost impossible to avoid.
"I can't even... Oh my (bleep)ing God. How many had to suffer so he could make me? And others who might actually be stable?" Anger was increasing and with anger came the rise in her energy states, power folding in on her, building, blending, enveloping her in the sparkling purple miasma.If her anklet was truly able to inhibit her, then it would activate very soon, but she wasn't even thinking about that right now.
"How many died so he could build a weapon for Alchemy?"
“Well. It’s what we call it anyway. See, you’ve got some different ones, you’ve got the discards, like Dash here, Blake, that sort. Ones that just sort of hang around on the edges trying to get scraps. Of course, Dash there kept getting scooped back up and tinkered with. Some do. Ones that are messed with lots are the lab rats. Then you’ve got the commissions, the ones that are paid for by someone else. Then you’ve got the minions, ones who voluntarily work for him, do what he wants and get privileges. You got the independents, the people who are strong enough that there is no controlling them. Make their own way. I think some of those are pretty old. Then the stockyards. People who aren’t useful but are interesting enough that something might be squeezed out of them. I honestly think that the dead ones are often luckier. As for how many, no idea.”
Ki kept speaking as though it was all so matter-of-fact. As though there was an acceptance of the ruination of their lives and bodies. As though the person that each of them was didn't matter to them any more, never realizing that the acceptance was for the person that they had been made into, and thus become. Cadence's own self hatred for what she had become, and what her once idyllic and peaceful cheerleader life had been turned into because of sociopaths who viewed people as cattle to be held in 'stockyards' in order to perfect stable powers and inhuman abilities at the whims of other sociopaths, was like a crushing weight upon her soul and heart. In order for her to have been turned into this weapon for Alchemy, Inky-do had to hurt a lot of people. Her pulse was racing, pounding in her ears. Her breaths were short and shallow.
"I'm so sorry," she said in a raspy voice as she had to stand and walk around the sofas to keep from freaking out.
Cadence couldn't hope to understand the pain and anguish any of these girls had to endure. Broken over and over, experimented on, tortured, some left to die, others having their essence reused as though the people themselves didn't matter at all. Her own circumstances seemed to pale in comparison save for the fact that she was built with the ability to channel and harness power, converting from one state to another, to exist in any state or all of them AND the emotional restraint of a teenager. She felt like her heart would explode and she felt light-headed.
"I'm so sorry, she repeated as she started to feel like she would hyperventilate. She put her hands behind her head, trying to slow things down. It wasn't working. All she could think aboput were faces of children she had never really met, trapped in cages, wires and tubes, some being dissected while still awake, feeling the pain and projecting her own emotions upon these mental images and feeling them all over again.
Her emotions continued to roil within her, making the the energy begin to cavitate. She could feel the vibrations building within her but didn't understand what was happening. She didn't know how to get control of the power or her emotions. Breathe. Breathe. Just breathe.
Dash just makes herself more comfortable. Ki tilts her head before speaking.
“Sorry? Sorry for what? People should only be sorry for the things they do. I’m pretty sure you weren’t there. I’d remember you. I blame Enkidu for the things he does. Everybody has enough to be sorry about for things they have done without being sorry for things other people did. Whatever you think you did if you’re this sorry about it you aren’t guilty of it.”
Cadence lifted her hands, as though she were gesturing to the whole of herself, and continued," What I did with ... whatever this is, whatever I am... It was terrible. I am sorry for letting my anger and rage blind me, I'm sorry that I made a choice and...." I am sorry for letting my anger and rage blind me, I'm sorry that I made a choice and...."
"I can't undo it. But I was never angry all the time. It's More than just how Alchemy and Nyx... I don't know... trained me... manipulated me... whatever.... It's like this power in me is something I have to fight as well. It surges with my emotions and it feels like it fuels them and they fuel the power too. No excuses. I did it. I made the choice. I knew it was wrong... I did it anyway and I failed... Now I need to figure out if I can be something more than a weapon."
She shrugged and sighed, "But, I AM also sorry that so much harm was done to so many of you by Inky-doo. Sorry in the way that it hurts my heart to know people suffered at his hands. I am saddened and sorry that so many were hurt and abused in the past so that F***** could make me into something Alchemy could use to..."
“Eh. He did what he did and was doing it before you even existed. You are as much a victim as any of us are. If he did what he does to you. Get mad at him, not yourself.”
A lightbulb flickers, there is slight pop and smell of ozone, then a glint in a mirror. And a face.
Cadence was about to say that she needed to get some air, when a pop sound was heard, and there was a change to a mirror. Cadence was defensive inn a heightened state and she wheeled around to figure what fresh hell was happening now.
Cadence moved to join the others. She kept her attention on new intrusion. The fact that the others were surprised by the girl's appearance was equally alarming and comforting to Cadence. At least she wasn't the only one caught off-guard.
"No reason the play Cheshire Cat... We're all mad here, right?"
The tv’s speaker springs to life and a voice starts coming out of it.
“Um, sorry to startle you. Just. Um. Had to at least try to meet you. I mean, having a … half cousin? Around and never seeing them, well. Curiosity kills cats and Carmen. And, well, it can get a bit lonely in this house with a bunch of kids my age and no contact. I mean, mom might not entirely want me to do this but well, I mean, I am her daughter right? She can’t expect me to be good at following rules any more than she is and …”
She finally takes a breath in her stream of consciousness babble.
Carmen: The others are mainly looking back with a ‘I don’t know’ shrug
“Well. By my reckoning my mother is your mother’s half sister, so if I’m the daughter of your half-aunt I’m a half first cousin? Not sure what you call it. Genetics makes my head explode. Anyway, thought I’d zap in here and at least get a solid look at you. I mean, I’ve spent so long with only mom that I’m a bit curious about other relations.”
"Cousins... No need to make it any harder than it already is."
Cadence nodded to the others to relax.
"Mariel's daughter right? And just so we're on the same page... Alchemy is the woman who gave birth to me, she killed my mother, the woman who raised me. My father too... In fact she killed half the town I grew up in. She's not my mother. That word means love. I have none for her and she's incapable of it."
“Yeah. I get that. Never any wish to meet her, or Nyx. After all, she’s the reason I have just mom but no dad. So she can go straight to hell.”
Her tone never changes while saying it.
“But I figure you’re as much her victim as anyone, more than that after hearing about your parents. I’m not violent, but I’d gladly ride the lightning if it meant frying her.”
Cadence looked at Carmen for a long moment. She understood the intent and idea of Carmen's words. But killing someone else, seeing them die, knowing you did it... Finally Cadence shook her head.
"I hope to God you never have to find out what that really means," she whispered in the quiet between them. "It's a lot to carry."
“She always says that I shouldn’t be in a hurry to take on adult issues, and innocence is something to be cherished. And that once you’ve lost it there is no going back.”
"I guess being who ya'll are, and who your mother is, and all that goes along with that... and this place... knowing that all us Broken Toys are here... well, that's gotta be hard. But... Mariel's right. I wish I could take it all back."
Cadence looked at the others nodding that she felt everything was okay. All of them had been here longer than she had, but maybe being the captain of her high school's cheer squad made her more direct and protective.
"I'm Cadence. So, you joining us... like, come out of the TV and really join us?"
In a flash of what was - to cadence - really bright purple, she appeared, the purple dissipating as she solidified while simultaneously the lights dimmed then brightened again. There was a bit of a popping noise and the room warmed slightly.
“Erm. Sorry. I’ve tried to make going back physical from purple less dramatic but there appears to be some leakage whatever I do. I think internalizing all of it would probably be bad. Have to … erm … makes sure the same amount of…”
She pauses and waves her hands around a bit.
“… purple and stuff and zap goes everywhere.”
Dash is merely blinking and holding on to Cadence.
Ki is meanwhile looking back and forth between the two as if looking for a resemblance l
Cadence watched Carmen manipulate energy and matter and the transition in-between. It was like watching new ways to use her own powers. There was a similarity to Alchemy in that Carmen could shift herself in and out of an energy state and move cohesively along conductive pathways. She wondered if Carmen could also move like lightning. across open spaces as Alchemy could?
Cadence slipped her arm around dash to side-hug her a little closer.
"You're safe," she whispered. And Cadence then caught Ki's looks back and forth between Carmen and herself. Carmen was brunette(if the eyebrows were any indication) and Cadence was a blonde, but maybe there was some similarities.Was the blue hair thing real, natural, or something she chose? She shrugged before turning her attention back to Carmen. She regarded her a moment, imagining how she might be able to help carmen achieve her transistions with... hmmm...
"Apparently I was made to be an expert on purple and stuff and zap."
“Sorry, I don’t have the vocabulary to describe things better. It’s weird. And sometimes feels a bit like I’m about to ride a bucking bull. Mother would probably rather I use it less. Still, I have a feeling that if I don’t use it , it’s gonna use me. And it would be a bit like not breathing. It’s a part of what I am.”
"I actually like the phrase... purple and stuff and zap. It's better than any sciency words written by people who have no idea what is actually going on."
She shrugged, "So, yeah... I like it. Anyway, your mother is right... and wrong... The more you use it, the more you'll want to use it, but if you don't figure it out and control it... then it will use you... no doubt. Or, someone else might come along and make you use it for what they want if you can't stop them."
“Just look at her. I mean, it’s mixed. The hose is turned on full throttle whatever she does, even if sometimes she tries to pinch the hose and slow it down. She’s sitting still and I can see it vibrating her. It’s like a live wire, no ground. I don’t think I’m like that, but I can kinda … feel a charge running through my skin like static. Like I was a nine volt battery and if you touched your tongue to the leads you would get that tingly sensation. It’s sitting there, itching to go at the starting block. When I do something with it, the itching relieves. When I don’t, the tingle grows more annoying. If I can make anything of that than … I’m sorry.”
She looks at Hadassha.
“You got dealt a card I wish I couldn’t begin to imagine.”
She looks back to Cadence.
“With mother, she seems to have pretty good control of the flow, can turn it on or off. You -“
She thinks for a while, squints her eyes.
“I mean, I can kinda see things sitting there as potential, and it’s a wide hose, but it doesn’t seem to be bursting at the seams, you know? And here again my analogies jump off the deep end. I’m not good at analogies.”
She wrinkles her nose.
“I guess I’m saying that if I bleed it off a little at a time, the pressure relieves harmlessly. If I let it go a long time and build? Don’t know. I don’t do that. Find little ways to siphon things off.”
"Carmen... You aren't wrong, I guess. But it isn't your words that are lacking. What I think is missing for you is perspective. You don't see what I see, what I really am... What I was made to be. Every second of every day I exist in four states of 'purple and stuff and zap'. I have to focus to limit myself, where others have to focus to see the purple and stuff, just like you did with Dash and me."
"I can't turn it off. I can limit it, narrow it down, in order to keep sane, but once Alchemy awakened my powers and made me connect with them, I became a conduit, a meeting place of matter and energy, the real and the dark, the purple. I can channel and manipulate energy and matter, converting them from one to another. I can gather massive amounts of energy and unleash it across the sky, like deadly purple lightning for the world to see." That last was a thinly veiled reference to the deadly battle near the blackgate prison where she hung in the sky as Forsaken, doing her Mother's bidding in the battle against other supers, a pawn to a deeper plan her mother was unveiling that night.
"Each of you are specialist in a way, your powers work in a way that mine doesn't... not yet. Maybe not ever, or maybe when I figure out how it is your powers work, and how her powers work. You see, you can bridge the divides and the order of flow between them in a specific way, energy to matter and back the other way, using dark energy and dark matter as a bridge... My analogy sucks too."
"Anyway, I can learn those things and do them, I think, but right now I have certain 'rules' that keep things from glitching. You and Dash and others... You break those rules that I see in front of me as plain as we see each other. Dash let me look at her deeper and I know she's out of phase with the Dark Energy she's using to to change matter to energy. You see that as vibrating. Glitching.
I don't glitch. I think that's because my mother chose someone to be my father that solved a problem this inky-do guy hasn't been able to figure out. But it locks me into a set order of moving things. Like I said, I might be able to work around that as I learn more about everyone here. For now I wear an anklet that may or may not work on me... I promised not to test it."
"I'm not sure I'm making a lot of sense right now though."
“So … does that mean we can’t figure some things out? I would think each person would be a piece of your puzzle. How we break those ‘rules’ means something, right? I mean, if we break a rule, then it isn’t a rule, not really. Or at least it means there is more to the rule than you know. Each of us is a puzzle piece for your puzzle.”
"It's not my puzzle. It's not about me. I was built for a specific reason. A specific plan. Maybe. I don't know. Whatever was done to me worked out. I became what they wanted. Maybe ya'll didn't. Some of ya'll were tossed aside. But cruel F***s don't care. Sociopaths don't feel anything for anyone. Not everything works for ya'll. Maybe I'm not the puzzle. Each of you is might be like a messed up code... and maybe I can be the cypher."
Cadence looked at them all, and then at Hadasha. "I think I can help you... maybe just a little. Help you find some balance and maybe some control. But..."
She hefted the book that Mariel had given her. "I have read everything I can find about this kind of science but it was all written by people who can't see what I see or do what we do. This book... this book is different. And I have to learn it... fast."
She hefted the book again. "...gotta read this first. But... Maybe just hang out with us when you can. You know, watch TV, talk... whatever. I haven't felt human, like a real person... I don't know, in a long time it seems. Your Mom's decent to me... The others watch me like they think they might have put me down like a rabid dog or something. Don't blame 'em. Even before that night, I wanted someone to put me down."
“Way I see it, you’re as human as me. You aren’t … them … because you care if you are them. If that makes sense. Mom can’t really contain me if I don’t want to be contained. I mean, she says she's going to have to start teaching me to really let loose at some point, or I’m going to just figure it out on my own.”
"Your mother ain't Alchemy... or Nyx, so there's that. The family tree might have some bad branches, but the whole thing doesn't need to be cut down. Be good to her. I bet she knows you want to learn more and do more," Cadence intoned. "But, she also knows the horrors what can happen. If she's making mistakes, it's because she loves you and she knows what it looks like when it goes wrong... first hand."
Cadence shrugged.
"But keep 'reminding' her that you need to learn more and that you're ready to help her. She needs to feel that, and not just hear it."
"Of course I mean them," she replied with a shrug and grin. "We all have some kind of leash, I guess." Cadence glanced at her ankle monitor then back to Carmen.
“I’m really sorry you … lost what you lost. I mean, if I actually understand what you lost. I only lost the one. Do wish I’d known him better. But … maybe we can give you at least something back?”
Cadence shrugged. Carmen's words brought her mother and father back to the forefront of her mind. It was a wash of memory and emotion. A happy teenage life washed out in the moment that Alchemy killed her parents in front of her. It sent a shiver through but she pushed everything back down again.
"What I lost and what I gained that day... All part of the rage and sadness. I'm here... I could have been sent to the blackhole prison place with her and Nyx, I guess. So there's that. Nothing will bring my family back, but I can try to be the person they raised me to be again... Not the monster I let myself become..."
Cadence shrugged.
"Come on, let's watch the TV and we can talk ... whatever...if ya'll want." Looking sidelong back to Carmen, "Make your mother come looking for you... up to you?"
Cadence rolled over in her bed, mouth dry, dishevelled hair. She tried to roll her self over to the edge so she could get up, but only suceeded in twisting herself in her covers and falling out of the bed onto the floor.
"I'm up... I'm up," Cadence grumbled as she twisted around on the floor to untangle herself from her 'murderous' bed sheet. She haltingly made her way toward the door and opened it. Of course there wasn't going to be anyone to see. Cadence closed her eyes for a moment and allowed herself to settle in the 'middle'. She might not see Blake, but she might see the disturbance around the space she occupied.
She can … and in many ways Blake looked similar to Dash in this view. The way energies were rippling through her. She could see the outline of her body, almost as if she were Neo looking at the agents through the eyes of the Matrix, save she was outlined in jagged lines of purple, almost like a wire cage around her form. She was rail thin, not emaciated, but definitely coltish. Every so often the lines pulsed. Something about it just looked uncomfortable, as if her whole body were being squeezed by the cage.
“You alright Chika? Here. I’ll let you see me.”
She sees the lines around Blake’s head pulse brighter and almost strain.
Looking at her the way she was, Cadence could match the strain in Blake’s voice to what she was ‘seeing. When Blake said it was an effort to be visible she was apparently not lying - Enkidu’s broken things were indeed quite broken.
Last edited by Art in the Blood; Fri 05/04/2402:15 UTC.
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