The familiar squeak of my rains-soaked boots against brickwork path was enough to snap me out of my head. I was approaching home, for lack of a better term. It was a lusterless, low rise apartment building that was so shabby it was almost charming. These days if you weren't a hero, this is what you could afford. Despite that, I managed to gather the few things I needed to make it feel more my own.
My feet moved through the quicksand of my feelings - lethargic and heavy with the penetrating numbness I took from my last client of the day, swapped for the excitement from them bringing me my favourite treat just to trigger a happy enough response needed for the swap.
Some might say I was lucky to have a quirk at all, but for someone with an Emotion Manipulation quirk, let alone Emotion Swapping like mine, they could never know how exhausting it really is. With a simple brush of the fingers I can swap emotions with whoever I touch. This brought broken souls to the couch of my cushy councillor job, paying me under the table to take on their burdens in exchange for some good feelings. At first I felt like a hero in my own right; making the masses happier, even if just for a little while.
This, however, could only go on for so long.
I could only swap for an emotion I truly had, fake happy wouldn't cut it. There were some things I wish I could forget, but the memories of the things I did to stay happy, artificial and otherwise, haunted me.
I physically cringed from the memory as I pulled my keys out of my long cream raincoat, water dripping from my hair, a shaggy calico coloured mess now matted down from this Tuesday night downpour. This cost me as my keys slipped from my fingers into a puddle by my door.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." I groaned through clenched teeth, throwing my hair back as I looked into the sky, allowing raindrops to fall on my face for a moment. The pathetic fallacy of this night was ironic - and incredibly annoying .
It was only a matter of time before my boss found out, what small time therapy clinic would want their young new hire running a bootleg emotion dealing service out of their smallest office? I don't blame them for letting me go, but the genuine devastation layered on top of the taken numbness and the added key-related microaggressions were leading this night to my top 3 worst nights.
I shook my head, as if the thought would fall out of my head like the rain from my hair. I finally bent down to get my keys, reminding myself that the past never dies, and to not give it the power to kill me first.
As I rose from retrieving my puddle soaked keys, I noticed a figure out of the corner of my eye. Not uncommon here, as neighbors lurked every once in a while but, I had never seen this person before. They seemed tall, shaggy black hair and a black trench coat to match. Before I could get a good look at them, they smirked, chuckled and have me a two finger salute before disappearing around the corner.
Perfect. A stranger watched the key fumble as well. What else could add on to this night?
Not wanting to discover what that would be, I slipped into my apartment to sleep off my stolen emotions, the one perk of this quirk.
Not like tomorrow could get any worse, right?
Authors Notes!
Hello friends! I know this chapter was just setting things up a little bit, getting to know our little protag, Ko! I would love to know your thoughts about her quirk and how the story is starting so far, I figured it was a risk to have an OC focused start!