fourteen : taken away to the dark side [video]

[everylittlegirl]

[The room is dark and Hayley's face is only vaguely visible, lit only by the glow of the console's screen. She sounds tired, posting in the middle of the night. Someone paying really, really close attention might notice the Flash pajama bottoms she's wearing or the Superman cape, courtesy of Jor-El, strung about her shoulders like a blanket.]

I don't know if someone else already said this, but in case they didn't? Bart Allen and Kon-El are both gone. Back home, not missing.

[A beat.] Will someone bring me some food? I haven't really eaten for awhile.


[ooc: Assume Hayley's been angsting avoiding everyone for a few weeks. Feel free to assume check-ins or other interactions. I was hiatused a lot and am still slow, sorry!]

Comments

cw: mention of abuse of a child

[everylittlegirl]

[His words and thoughts continue to be genuinely interesting and she takes a moment to consider them again. Complacency. Wasn't that a tool she had used herself in the past? It gave her a quick chill to think about it being used against them, that everything they had overcome was just to keep them self-satisfied. As if murder and betrayal and all those other horrors they endured were just to keep them occupied. It was a sickening thought, but she knew it would work all too well.]

Huh? [She replies immediately, his question snapping her from her reverie. Before he has a chance to repeat himself, though, she realizes what he was asking and nods.] Oh, yeah. I mean, not exactly? But the turtle was sick. Something about the magic being tainted and there not being enough hope or something like that? A bunch of people did a bunch of things to try to help it and Annabeth and Bruce made the garden to have fresh food and eventually things got better.

[Hayley gives a small shrug, though her face darkens as she continues.] I think that was when we were going around, disrupting the blood magic that it's followers were using. We freed some kid who'd been locked in a closet, starving and cut up and everything.. That was our group. But there were others too, doing stuff like that.

[skeletonenigma]

[Asti being sick causes famines? Skulduggery has to wonder if that's commonplace among continent-turtles, or if that's purely a result of Malicant's influence. Or, as Hayley's implying, if that particular sickness and famine was caused by disrupting enough of Malicant's influence in enough places that Malicant lashed out in the only way he knows how. Interesting. Malicant himself has, so far, been passive; he works through others. There's a connection there, but Skulduggery doesn't believe he has the knowledge to put it together. Maybe he can ask Quintus for more details, but he doesn't expect that to lead anywhere - unless Quintus has been talking to other long-lived Foreigners.]

Tell me, Hayley, is there usually at least a month of peace in between these events? Or are some periods longer than others?

[everylittlegirl]

[She thinks on the subject, giving each of his questions considerable thought between sips of coffee and bites of brownie. After awhile, she lightly shakes her head.]

I haven't been keeping track or anything? But it seems like it varies. Like, all the really bad stuff seems to happen months apart, but little things are happening all the time. And, I mean, the famine lasted for like.. six months, I think? And bad stuff happened during it too, so.. I guess it depends on how you define 'peace.'

[skeletonenigma]

Little things like what? Gang attacks, or people going missing? The sorts of things people might generally overlook?

[everylittlegirl]

That, and things like stopping places and people getting killed or wandering into bad portals or whatever. I don't know. I never thought to look for a pattern. I.. didn't really think I'd be here that long.

[She gives a childish little shrug and then shoves more brownie into her mouth, trying to swallow her pain with the chocolate.]

[skeletonenigma]

[That brings up another point which Skulduggery debates saying out loud. There may not be any rhyme or reason to the people who vanish, but there is a possibility Hayley's hoping it will happen to her. She's certainly going about it the right way - if a soldier stops being useful, then you stop using that soldier. The problem is that they don't know what happens to a person when they vanish. They might end up back home, or they might simply disappear into the ethos. The only sure way of ending up back home is winning this war and asking Eva to reverse her magic.]

How long have you been here?

[everylittlegirl]

[She thinks on that for a moment, then takes another bite of her brownie. The realization of just how long its been surprises her slightly, but it's not entirely unexpected. It seems like forever, but Kon was here even longer.]

Like.. a year and a half, almost. In a couple months, I mean. It's kind of weird.. being sixteen without school or a driver's license or any of it. Doesn't really feel like growing up when I know it'll all go back to normal.

[skeletonenigma]

[Skulduggery nods.] If I understand correctly, time doesn't pass normally here, either. If you want to grow up, you'll need to find a way home. And finding a way home isn't as simple as giving up and hoping the magic will eventually overlook you.

[everylittlegirl]

Time passes.. mostly normally here. [She counters, frowning over at him. Suddenly, his seeming willingness to listen to her has been replaced by judgment and condescension. She knows even better than he does how this place works and what they need to do to get home. Hayley stiffens as she picks up her coffee, demeanor cooling.] Not that it's any of your business? But I don't want to go home. And even if I did, I'm well aware of what I'd need to do.

[skeletonenigma]

That's good. You're not acting like it.

[A little blunt, perhaps, but maybe that's what Hayley needs right now.]

[everylittlegirl]

[Surprise splashes across her face, genuinely caught off guard.]

Excuse me? [She straightens and sets the drink down, staring at him.] I'm going to assume you're being an asshole because you're new enough not to know how this place works? But stop being an asshole.

[skeletonenigma]

[Skulduggery folds his arms.] Alright. Tell me how this place works.

[everylittlegirl]

We fight. We invent things and we discover things. We get into trouble and do things that upset It. We explore every new place we come across and try to make allies or friends or whatever. We work with all the government people and we work against them and we do everything we can think of to progress and make things better here. People here have fought zombies and cured plague and managed rations and a hundred other things that no one here even knows about anymore.

But newsflash? It's exhausting. You can't try your hardest or your best all day every day for months and months on end. It's impossible. Sometimes you need to take a break. Then add in all these people coming and going, some of which are fucking murderers and monsters. Not everyone here is helping.

[Hayley rubs her palms on the denim on her legs, frustrated.]

And I get that it's all shiny and new for you and everything still seems possible. I was like that too for the first few months. Only then I was murdered, and a clone, and attacked by one of the only people I trusted.. [She ctus off and starts on a new path.] I've learned two kinds of magic and the basics of how to fight. I have safe houses and weapons and I work four jobs all at businesses that are actively trying to change this place and fight it so that we can go home.

And yeah, maybe- maybe some weeks I don't try as hard? But that doesn't mean I don't care or that I'm not trying.. and given that I've been here for- [She thinks for a second] -about 80 weeks, developing drugs and growing food and just dealing with living in this place? I think I've earned some time off.

[skeletonenigma]

No. You haven't.

[It's said simply, but firmly.]

I've fought a war against a sorcerer just as bad, if not worse, than this one. The war lasted for three centuries. We were beaten back more times than I can count, reduced to small scattered groups more mistrustful of each other than anything I've experienced here. I was tortured, killed, uprooted, and betrayed, each more than once. I worked with people who dealt with worse than that. If any of us decided, for even a single day during those three centuries, that we had earned some time off, we wouldn't have won the war.

[It's all said just as simply as the first comment, almost as if Skulduggery's quoting something. You can only hear the slight edge to the words if you're listening for it.]

Unless you can give me a definitive answer about who disappears and who doesn't, I'm going to assume availability is one of the deciding factors. I don't want to see you disappear. If there's anything I can do to help you restore some of your morale, please let me know.

[everylittlegirl]

It has nothing to do with availability. [She snaps.] Unless you just mean existing, in which case what I do or don't do doesn't really matter. So excuse me for not being some super skeleton freak who can battle for centuries, but I'm not. I'm a teenage girl from a normal world without magic or powers or superheroes or any of this.. shit that's everywhere here.

[Hayley tenses at his comment about morale and, by the end of her reply, can't deal with his condescension anymore.] Get out. I don't need "morale" and I sure as hell don't need you to help me.

[skeletonenigma]

[He could have said that by virtue of being here, Hayley was capable of the same level of achievement she was currently scoffing at. He could have said someone obviously believed she had valuable things to offer, and that value had nothing to do with magic. There were many, many things Skulduggery could have said, but he didn't, and not just because he'd been told to get out. He'd never been very good at these sorts of conversations. Maybe that was why he'd taken to Valkyrie so quickly - when she lost confidence, it was usually only a matter of confidence, and those sorts of personality quirks were easy to fix.]

Alright.

[And he's gone.]