After the third bus driver refused to change a 20, I decide, fuck it, I've got better things to do than wait for a driver with enough change.
Stepping into the corner of the shelter at the bus stop, I lean against the walls and easily enter my inner world. Once there, I begin the slow and painful process of lowering my magic beyond a bad New England winter.
Over the next five minutes the sound of the ocean against the rocks changes from the gentle whoosh, whoosh I'm used to, to a sound like crackling glass, before it stops completely as it turns into a sea of glittering white and blue ice. But still I push it down until the ice rises up the cliff to sit almost level with the top.
"I know it's uncomfortable Taylor, but remember Selene said this is still a safe level for your magic to reach."
After verbally reminding myself of the fact that I'm not dying, I turn away from the coast and push my way through the snow into the deepest parts of my forest, and the place where most of my magic is used from. Once I arrive I carefully lift the whole area up into spring, with the exception of one tree. That one I raise to the level of a bad winter, as this is the center of my magic, and the part that controls how deep in the dream I go, like the swim bladder that fish have.
I blink as that comparison crosses my mind. Maybe it will be a good way of explaining what's happening for Catlin and Lacey. I'll have to check with Selene later and see what she thinks.
When I leave my inner world there's someone else standing under the shelter with me, though they're not looking in my direction.
Experimentally, I say, "Hi."
When the person doesn't even glance towards me, I smile and focus on my memory of the library steps, before I teleport there.
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It's weird walking into the library like this, as everyone else seems to just ignore and avoid me. I don't mean in a 'they can't see me' way, because several people just walk around me while I'm trying to decide where to go.
Eventually I decide to head to the computers, as I don't have my bag or notebook with me. I'm lucky enough to find one that's beside the wall, so I lean my staff in the corner and slowly allow my magic to return to normal while I log onto the computer.
While I'm thinking about what I can do that is tangentially related to school work, and also useful, I log onto PHO for the first time since I dropped out of school. Has it really been only a week? It feels like it was longer. Though I suppose in a way it has been longer, but that's there, not here.
I grimace as I notice a new thread about explosions in the Docks. When I open it, I let out an audible sigh of relief. Apparently, the explosions were in the old docks up by the train yard a day or so ago. Nowhere close to the working docks. Though I think that some of the container yards are still in use around there, but dad would know better than me.
When I return to the Brockton Bay board, I quickly change the sort options to look at creation date rather than last updated date. I breathe another sigh of relief when I can't see anything about trouble near the union building even while I click on a thread titled, 'Oni Lee has new grenades?'. Apparently there was a clash between the ABB and the E88 half way between Downtown and The Boardwalk, and some idiot filmed the fight.
Eventually, I remember that Selene said she made those panels so that we could build houses on the other two worlds. So I start searching for how to build without nails, and for the next few hours I dive down the rabbit hole that is traditional Japanese house construction. I end up e-mailing myself a ton of links to look at later, and scribbling on the back of my hand the name of a book that keeps cropping up in different places.
I think it's amazing that the sinking of Kyushu prompted all of these old woodworkers to start recording their craft in print and video. I think it's a tiny but important positive thing to come out of something that was a complete disaster.
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Once the library starts to empty out for lunch I leave and walk down the road, past the bank, to my favorite bookshop. As I'm passing I idly note that there is a massive line snaking out the doors. Through the door I can see a single teller standing behind a Plexiglass screen at a temporary desk while there is a large screen across the Lobby. As I watch, another bank employee walks out of a door in the screen carrying a handful of cash in a plastic bag.
Shaking my head, I carry on to the bookshop and manage to buy the book I wrote on my hand, a cheap notebook and pen, and a cheap "embroider your own bookmark" kit they had at the till. That leaves me with $5 to buy some lunch. Looking at the prices around here, that's not a lot of money.
As I'm walking down the road, I spot a little specialty tea shop that mum used to take me to. With a smile I turn down the street next to it and walk a few blocks until I come to a row of shops that predate the first mall that was built in Brockton Bay. My smile widens when I see the little coffee shop she used to bring me to after we'd done our shopping. As I stop outside the door, I look down the street to the edge of the college campus nearly half a mile away.
Taking a deep breath I walk inside and stop for a moment as the layout hasn't changed at all.
Despite the fact there's no one at the counter, I place my shopping and staff on the only table that's free, a circular corner booth by the window, before ordering a sandwich and a pot of Earl Grey tea, just like mum used to order. For a moment I'm tempted to buy a slice of their chocolate fudge cake, but then I realize that I can either have a second pot of tea, or a slice of cake. After that, the decision is easy, and I pay for my sandwich and tea and take my little number card back to my booth. Once there, I do the same as so many of their other customers, and open my book and start to read while taking notes.
Unlike the other customers though, I'm levitating my book at the same time I start embroidering my bookmark with my powers.
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I've just started on my second pot of tea when an anorexic blond woman, with disheveled hair, and wearing a baggy hoodie that does nothing to disguise her wrists says, "Hey, all the other tables are full, do you mind if I sit here?"
I absently glance up from a section on the best way to cut logs for different purposes, and whether to include the core wood or not, "Sure, go ahead."
I look back to my book as she shuffles around in the booth before pulling her own book out of her bag.
A few minutes later the server brings over a large coffee, a sandwich, and half the fudge cake. I can't help it, but I snark, "Are you torturing yourself deliberately?"
The woman snorts, "No! I've been told I need to put on weight."
I laugh, "Oh please. Bulimia is just as bad as not eating enough."
"Oh yeah, and what would you know about it?"
I properly look up from my book and take in the woman's sunken cheekbones, "My ex best friend wanted to be a model and decided that she needed to be skinny to do so. When my mum found out she bought several books on the subject, and spent the next six weekends reading through them with both of us. In detail, along with the photos. So, rather more than I'd like quite frankly. If you manage to choke that down, it will just make you sick."
The woman looks down at her hands, "Oh. Well, I'm not anorexic or that other one. I just had a life threatening condition recently, and Panacea healed me up, but she had to use all of my body's spare resources."
I wince, "Sorry, I just assumed. I remember the books covered how best to increase weight, but we didn't spend much time on that so I don't remember how, just that stuffing yourself wasn't the way to do it."
The woman looks at the cake with something that looks like relief, "Oh thank god. Anyway, I'm Victoria. Most people call me Vicky, but I'm incognito at the moment."
I give Victoria a tentative smile, "Taylor."
We both sit quietly while Victoria eats her sandwich and I sip my tea as I read, make notes, and sew. After a while, she says, "Did you know that you're book's not touching the table?"
I grunt a "Uh huh."
"Alexandria just flew passed the window."
"Uh huh."
"Would you like some fudge cake?"
"Uh huh."
I look up in confusion as a slice of cake is placed on top of my notebook, "Huh, what was that for?"
Victoria smiles, "I asked if you wanted some fudge cake, and you said yes."
I blink, "I did?"
Victoria nods, "Uh huh, that was after I pointed out that your book isn't touching the table, and saying that Alexandria flew passed the window."
I glance back at the book where it's talking about how the writer of this section accidentally used the wrong joint to hold up a roof as an apprentice, and the whole thing broke in the first storm. There is indeed a clear gap between the book and the table.
Shrugging, I levitate one of the two forks the server left and stab it into my cake as I turn back to Victoria, "So it is."
Victoria frowns, "Aren't you worried about someone outing you?"
I shrug, "Not really, about the only gang that doesn't know what I look like now is the 88. After this morning I decided, why bother? I need to practice my control and precision all the time otherwise I might kill someone accidentally."
"Wait, how did that happen?"
I think for a moment, "Well, there was Lung on the 8th, the undersiders on the 13th, and Skidmark today."
Victoria looks absolutely shocked, "Wait, that was you?"
I stare at Victoria, "What was me?"
"In the bank, you're the one that stood up to help Amy. I'm really sorry I punched you, I thought you were with the bad guys."
I frown as I try to remember the last time someone apologized to me for hurting me.
Victoria seems to take my silence for condemnation as she starts to pack up while she says, "Hi, I suppose I should introduce myself properly. I'm Victoria Dallon, aka Glory Girl. I'm sorry for punching you, but if it's any consolation, you also killed me too. You can finish the cake."
I reach out to grab her wrist, "No, wait, it's fine. Well, no, it's not fine, but it was a mistake and you apologized. It's just, I don't remember the last time someone apologized for hurting me. Anyway, I'm Taylor Hebert. So, are you ok now?"
Victoria gestures to the cake, "Amy patched me up but she was keeping me alive at the same time she was removing those quills. Hence trying to put on weight again. What about you?"
I shrug, "It feels like it's been weeks since then, so I'm fine."
"When are you going to announce yourself as a cape?"
I shake my head, "I'm not."
Victoria touches the back of my hand, "Taylor, you really should."
I shake my head, "I don't want to be a cape, and I need to practice this so that if something happens I don't kill anyone accidentally. Besides, aren't the rules supposed to stop people going after civilian identities?"
Victoria nods, "They are, but that only applies if you have a civilian identity. At the moment, you don't. You just have an identity."
As my fork chinks on nothing I look down at my plate, "Well the PRT called me Ice Queen."
Victoria exclaims, "Wait, that was you!?" At the angry glares from the rest of the customers she sheepishly says, "Sorry!" and sits back down. Sitting back down she says, "And suddenly I'm thankful that you only almost killed me. You should probably come up with a different name though, as Ice Queen isn't exactly the name of a hero."
I look back up, "Oh?"
"Well, you could have buried me in ice."
I shake my head, "No, I mean not being the name of a hero."
Victoria looks across the coffee shop for a moment before saying, "Well, there's no hard and fast rules, but in general words associated with power or authority tend to be viewed as desiring those qualities. So Queen, King, Prince, Lord, Judge, Chief, and their translations like Kaiser, will be viewed as villainous by most people. Weirdly, Lady and Princess are both more heroic, and Prince can go either way depending on the name associated with it and the costume."
"How do you know that?"
Victoria picks up her book, "I'm taking AP parahuman psychology. That's actually why I'm here today rather than on Main Street. School was hell yesterday, and the news went national this morning. In fact we had a van full of mail turn up just before I left for school this morning. It sucks, first I got shouted at by mum, then I got shouted at by the PRT and I got an official Warning, and then I got shouted at by all of my friends. I mean, I get it, I screwed up. I mean, I get it, I often don't know my own strength, do they really have to shove it in my face all the time?"
Pointedly, I lift up my sewing so that it's not below the table, "Not exactly sympathetic here."
Victoria actually laughs, "No, I don't suppose you would be, would you. But what can I do?"
"Lego."
Victoria looks at me blankly, "What?"
"Little plastic bricks that you make things out of."
"Yes, I know that. But how does that relate to what we were talking about?"
I sigh, "Lego pieces are fairly durable, but the things you make with them are fairly fragile. Build hollow stuff out of Lego and carry it around with you."
Victoria sighs, "Well, that might help with doorhandles, but it won't help with punching villains."
I shake my head, "Well don't punch them then. Use a lasso or something."
"That sounds like a lot of work."
I shrug, "It's better than killing people."
"I suppose it is." Victoria glances up at the clock, "Oh, hey, I've got a free afternoon because I'm grounded. Literally grounded, not parental grounding. Though I am that too, but that's just for independent patrols. I've got to patrol with the protectorate for three months."
I'm not sure I want to know the answer, but I ask anyway, "Victoria, why are you grounded?"
"I fainted in class yesterday, one moment I'm fine, the next I'm on the floor. They pulled Amy out of my class to check me over, and my blood sugar crashed because I'm so underweight. So I'm no longer allowed to fly above 10 foot until I'm a healthy weight. That also means I'm not allowed to take Amy to the hospital either. Listen, you said your mum bought books on regaining weight."
I shake my head, "No, I said she bought books on Anorexia. They include instructions on how to get someone back up to a healthy weight."
Victoria waves her hand in the air, "Tomato, Tomato, what I was going to ask, before we got side tracked about my being grounded, was would you mind if I had a look at those books."
While I'm thinking about my answer, I take a sip of my tea, only to find that my cup and pot are both empty. After a few more seconds I say, "Well, it seems like I was going home anyway, so I might as well have some company."
Victoria seems so happy when she says, "Great! I'll just get them to put the rest of the cake in a box."
Then she grabs the stand with the cake on it and flies out of her seat and it's only my telekinesis that stops everything else from going flying. Before she can take the table with her, I grab her with my telekinesis and drag her back to the seat before I hiss, "Victoria, be careful of the table."
Victoria looks at me with a mixture of what I think is surprise and shock, before she looks back down at my sewing and blanches. Then she shuffles out of the booth and says, "Sorry, I forgot."
I just roll my eyes and pack my stuff back into carrier bag the bookstore gave me, with the exception of the sewing. Then I shuffle out of the booth and grab my staff. As an after thought, I pack up all of Victoria's stuff too, so that she doesn't have to lean over the table, and possibly destroy it.
Once she comes back with a white cardboard box and grabs her stuff, I start concentrating on teleporting as I lead us out of the shop and down a nearby alleyway.
Once we're out of sight of the street I teleport the two of us to our lounge, though it's like trying to run along a beach dragging a full sandbag that's tied to your waist (don't ask me how I know what that feels like).
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When I turn back around to face Victoria she looks at me and says, "When they were giving out powers, did you go back for seconds?"
I open my mouth and think for a second before saying, "I'd rather not talk about it."
Victoria nods, "Yeah, I get it. I didn't want to talk about mine for a couple of years either."
As I'm closing the doors to the kitchen, so that I can get to both bookcases, I also fill up the kettle and put it on the stove. "Would you like some tea, or instant coffee?"
"Coffee please. Do you do that for everything? Use your powers I mean."
I pointedly wave the door that I'm holding in one hand, "No, not everything."
Victoria hums and looks around the lounge as I start scanning the back of the books on this bookshelf for weird sounding titles. "How comes you weren't in school?"
"I'm being home-schooled because of Lung."
"That's a new one, how do you figure that?"
"He tried to kill me, I objected and managed to escape and Winslow is basically a recruiting ground for the gangs."
"Right, and Lung is one of those capes that only pays lip service to the rules."
I switch over to the other bookcase, "I didn't know that."
"So, you can teleport, how far?"
I shrug, "Anywhere I've been before."
"How about where you can see?"
"I dunno, I've never tried it. What about you? I know you're supposed to be a brute and you can fly. Anything else?"
"Yeah, I've also got an aura that makes people like me or fear me. I need to consciously keep it suppressed though, and it gets worse when I'm excited."
I nod, "That must suck."
"It does, it makes it hard to tell who's my friend and who only likes me because of my power."
I look up at Victoria, "Well they're not here. Let me turn off the kettle and we can check out the loft."
Victoria nods pensively.
While I'm lifting the panel to the loft out of the way, Victoria says, "I love this picture of the moon, who made it?"
I cough as a shower of dust falls down out of the hole, and then say, "Selene did. Um, I didn't grab the ladder, do you think you could give me a leg up?"
Victoria laughs as she grabs me round the waist and flies the two of us into the loft. Once we're standing on the chipboard that covers the joists, I reach down and flick the light switch by the hole. Fortunately, the bulb wasn't destroyed when I killed the electricity last week so we're able to start looking through the boxes.
After I pull all of the books out of the first box and shuffle through them three at a time before putting them all back in the box, Victoria just sits down by the hatch and we just chat.
I've looked through around 2/3rds of the boxes before I finally find three massive tomes. One medical dictionary, one book on eating disorders and a copy of Grey's Anatomy.
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The two of us are sat at the kitchen table with our respective drinks as we look through the book on eating disorders, specifically the chapters on recovery. We're almost at the end when we reach as section titled 'Refeeding Disorders'.
As we keep reading my heart steadily drops as the symptoms go from alarming to deadly. We haven't even got to the end of the section before I'm concentrating on the hospital I woke up in after the locker.
Just before I teleport, Victoria says, "Amy…"
I interrupt her, "Isn't a doctor. I'd trust her to put you back together, but you need to be alive for that to happen."
As we appear outside the hospital Victoria belatedly says, "I was going to say, can't do brains."
I start walking into the emergency room, and when Victoria resists I feel my magic run through my body as I tug just that bit harder until she's forced to walk with me or be dragged along.
When we reach the reception I smile sweetly at the man behind the counter, "Hi, I'm sorry to be a pain, but this is my friend Tina. She was in a car crash a couple of weeks ago and Panacea healed her. Only I found out she left AMA without listening to anything beyond she needs to put on weight." I live up Victoria's hand to show her wrist, "She was trying to stuff her face with a whole triple fudge cake."
The man finishes typing and drawls, "Date of birth?"
Victoria shakes her head for a second, before she says, "14th August, 1993"
"Name?"
"Victoria Dallon."
The man takes a yellow card from behind the desk and hands it over, "Take a seat and you'll be called shortly."
I look around at the nearly empty emergency room, "Where is everyone else?"
The man looks at me like I'm an idiot, "School's just let out, everyone with any sense has gone to Brockton General in the hope that Panacea will see them."
Victoria frowns, "We're not at Brockton General, where are we then?"
I say, "South Memorial Hospital."
Victoria looks down and pulls out her phone, "Oh, I should text mum. Shit, my phone's dead."
I wince, as I sit down, "Sorry, that's my fault. My powers do that if I'm not controlling them."