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[girlcorrupted]

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[girlcorrupted]

It was a joke. Well, mostly.

[ She doesn't know much about mers so. You never know!

At his question she just shakes her head, making her way properly into the kitchen to grab a glass for herself. ]

I've never been good at sleeping, not since-

[ No point in dancing entirely around it now, now that Steve knows so much. ]

Since I was really little, before Jack secluded me. Tonight is just particularly bad.

i'm so sorry this notif got lost

[hairday]

[ Changing the look on his face out for a more serious one, Steve sets the pitcher on the counter so she can help herself to the contents, keeping a concerned eye on her as she heads for the cabinet he keeps all the glassware in. ]

Do you want some company?

[ He can't not offer, now that she's said that. ]

I could probably swing an all-nighter. It'd even save me from having yet another creepy ocean dream, more than likely.

Re: i'm so sorry this notif got lost

[girlcorrupted]

[ She averts her eyes from him when he gives her that look. It's weird, to have someone know, and it's weirder still to have their pity and concern about it.

She wants to tell him that she doesn't want that, that it's unnecessary, but ever since her changes even white lies or avoidance of the truth has come with a wave of nausea. ]

I-- Yes, thank you. I would appreciate that.

[hairday]

[ Well, it's good that he didn't have to insist too much, because the fact is that he would've. Steve gives the pitcher an additional nudge toward Angel—just a little one, then tilts his head in a way he hopes say "I'm here to listen." ]

What do you normally do when you have a bad spell?

[girlcorrupted]

[ She takes the invitation, pouring a glass for herself. ]

Um...Usually I just recite pi as far as I can? It's. not a particularly good method.

[ And not one she really wants to do in front of Steve, he'll definitely fall asleep before she even gets to the big numbers. ]

[hairday]

The calculus thing?

[ Steve, no. ]

That's it? [ Shaking his head, he holds his own glass out toward Angel. ] Here, take this out to the balcony. I'll join you in a sec.

[girlcorrupted]

No it's-

[ Nevermind. Even explaining pi alone will probably put him to sleep (she can't help but be a little jealous of that) so she just accepts the glass he hands her and gives him the barest of raised brow before turning to head to the balcony.

It's a nice evening, the heat of the day lingering just enough to make it so a light jacket or longsleeve is unnecessary. Clear sky. You'd think that at the year mark Angel would be used to seeing it by now, but on nights like these she's still impressed with how vast space feels when you're right below it. ]

[hairday]

[ There's a smattering of patio furniture outside, including a glass table that's easy to clean when the pigeons flocking overhead do their bird business. This will become important imminently, as Steve emerges from the apartment carrying a stack of colorful boxes. ]

I stocked up on these when it just kept on raining and raining.

[ Rain is a very loose way of referring to the flurries of offal sludge that plagued most of the month. ]

There's bound to be something here that'll work with only two players.

[ That's right; it's a bunch of board games. It's possible that Steve may not understand how a body actually winds down for sleep, and why doing something repetitive like counting is generally more helpful for that, but he seems quite proud of the solution he thinks he's come up with, all smiles as he takes a seat and sets the games down for her perusal.

The box art illustrating what each game is about is all incredibly outdated, as is to be expected. ]

[girlcorrupted]

[ She lets out a surprised laugh as Steve sets the games down, previously lost in mapping this worlds star patterns as she'd waited for him.

And yeah, engaging with a board game is definitely not going to put either of them in a sleepy mindset, but Angel welcomes the distraction none the less. The chances of her sleeping in the first place were next to none anyways, she's used to it.

She turns to shuffle through the boxes, examine their covers and take a peek at each ones contents. ]

...Promise not to laugh, but I've never played any of these. Not physical versions anyways.

[ When she had rare lulls in the core sometimes she'd bring up Classics like solitaire or chess on her holoscreen, but they kind of lost their challenge when she knew she could cheat the code at any moment. ]

[hairday]

Only if you promise to be gentle. Anything involving strategy's gonna be your win for sure.

[ He dons an amused smile, chin falling into the support of one hand as he watches her sort through them. Admittedly, it's a little funny that she's worried about her knowhow involving some cardboard from the (from her perspective, at least) incredibly distant past being lacking. What is there to be embarrassed about, really? Not being familiar with the entirety of human history?

He shrugs. ]

Besides, there's probably been like a billion games invented since these came out, so it really isn't that surprising that you haven't.

[girlcorrupted]

[ Just another thing on the list she has no real experience, no normalcy to fall back on. That's where the sheepishness comes from.

His encouragement to not let her be down about it helps though, as always, and she smiles as she sorts. ]

Alright, no strategy.

[ With that rule in mind she sets aside a few of the boxes that look like they'd require that sort of skill, opening up the next in the pile to see what its about. ]

Oh! This one has dice, so there's an element of pure luck.

[ She closes it, holds up the box for him to see the colourful cover with the word SORRY in big bold letters plastered across it. ]

[hairday]

[ It'll be easier to shoot the breeze, too, if all the game involves is rolling some dice, moving a piece down a track, drawing a card, and so on and so on. Clearing everything else off the table, he begins to assist with the minimal setup process--which is very straightforward, meaning he can get a headstart on said breeze shooting right away. ]

"Not the physical versions" you said, because you used to do everything using a screen... ?

[ Steve poses the question as casually as possible, wordlessly presenting all of the little antenna shaped game pieces to Angel in a palm so she can pick out a color. ]

Sorry... if that's forward. I may have noticed a few things about the places we saw together. [ He doesn't specify that he means the futuristic city or the laboratory, assuming it's obvious enough. ] I've never seen anything like them, so I know it wasn't my head that stuff got pulled from.

[girlcorrupted]

[ Angel begins to assist in the set up, it seems easy enough even before she takes out the instructions, but her hands still at Steve's comments.

Becoming Fae has come with one, significant drawback; and that's her ability to skirt the truth. Her biggest crutch, something she's been doing for so long she's almost all but forgotten how to just...be completely honest with someone.

She doesn't have much choice now, with the way she begins to feel ill at even the smallest white lie. He saw it all...it'll be okay, right? ]

Um, correct. That place is- was, where I used to live. I rarely had visitors, so playing games physically wasn't really an option.

[ She hopes her explanation is enough of an "its okay" to his apology, she owes him that much. She owes him a lot, honestly. ]

[hairday]

[ His lips flatten out the way they always do when he's deciding whether or not it's a good idea to say what he's thinking. In the meantime, he selects the green token for himself and places it in the starting zone.

He's never been able to decide between blue and green when asked what his favorite color is, but lately he's been feeling like it's green. ]

Could he not have gotten you some cozier furniture?

[ That whole sequence with her father forcing her to sit down in that weird looking chair seemed significant—as furious as it had made him while he was there in the dream-flesh, replaying it in his head gives him a strange feeling, like he's spying on something that he wasn't meant to witness. ]

"That place" looked like something straight out of a nightmare, but... it wasn't, was it? That used to be real.

[girlcorrupted]

[ It's good that Steve chose green because Angel goes right for the blue, placing the piece at the starting place on the board.

She makes a small noise at the back of her throat in acknowledgement of his joke- and she knows, knows him well enough at this point that he is easing the mood. She'll take it. ]


I don't think comfort was at the top of his priority list at the time.


[ Still, it takes her another long moment to answer his next question. Eventually she nods.

Minus the foliage, yes. It was my home, for the better part of my life. The control core. ]

[hairday]

[ Steve just shakes his head. Unless the explanation is that Jack is some kind of crazy, he doesn't understand. To shut your own kid away in a place like that? In his mind, there's nothing else that makes the least bit of sense.

It's just evil. ]

How could he do that to you?

[ Even if a mystery illness is still a part of the story—even if she was contagious, that room was the equivalent of a metal cage you wouldn't keep the worst behaved dog in if you had half a heart. And he wasn't some random scientist, he was her father. ]

[girlcorrupted]

[ Unfortunately that is a part of the explanation. She most abridged version. But he deserves more than that, more from her. She thinks about a conversation from a long time ago with Harley, about how if those she considered close truly knew the details of her past, they would offer comfort.

Steve has been such a steady rock so far, despite everything he just...hadn't given up on her, gone so far as to open his home to her. She hopes this isn't one thing to many, but won't blame him if it is. ]

I was dangerous. You saw some of it, the power I wielded in the dream, but in reality I lacked that amount of control.

[ Instinctively she brings a hand up to her left arm, giving her bicep a squeeze. ]

....I ended up killing someone important. And while the situation evolved far past them, Jack's initial intentions were to keep people safe from me and visa versa.

[ Her whole face is tense, eyebrows knit and jaw set, her mouth in a fine line. ]

Sorry, I'm kind of killing the board game night mood, aren't I?

[hairday]

That really doesn't matter right now, Ange.

[ "Initial intentions" his ass.

If he gave a shit about people, then he wouldn't have locked the person he was supposed to love more than anything in the world inside a room with a metal ceiling, metal walls, metal floor, metal everything, completely tossing out the idea of comfort. And he could have looked for a way to help her control her ability instead of leaving her there for her entire life.

He wouldn't have dragged her around screaming, because if there was truth to the rest of the dream then there must have been some truth to that, too.

Steve is shaking his head, appalled.]

You don't actually think you deserved any of that, do you?

[ It just sounds like there was an accident... and she got the short end of the stick. ]

[girlcorrupted]

[ That's a question that's plagued Angel since she first entered the core. It took some grinding down on Jack's part, but for a long time she believed it was what was best for her, that it was deserved. Jack would be quick to bring up the accident at any sign of protest and she'd be hit with a fresh wave of guilt and responsibility each time until she stopped protesting all together.

But then she'd made connections, gotten a taste of something new and exciting and...when he'd stripped even that away from her she was left feeling indignant for the first time in years. When she finally remembered her final months of life, the anger she felt about it all had been scorching, she felt like she could finally see again and all around her was the destruction she'd been forced to do at Jack's bidding.

But even after all that, after all her time here, when that heat cooled she was still left with all the guilt that had stacked up over the years. ]


I don't know anymore. For a long time I thought I did, even at my angriest some of his decisions seemed justified.

[ Her face pinches even further, like she's trying really hard to hold herself together. ]

But then I met Elsa and Riley and you and- you mean so much to me, I didn't want to believe I deserved less than this anymore. Maybe that's selfish of me.