savetheearth | nine sick, disgusting thoughts

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nine sick, disgusting thoughts | text

Holy crap, this month has been busy. I don't even have any poorly tasting mortician jokes to throw at you, numbers club. That's how you know it's been rough.

I guess we're not so secret anymore? I don't even know. I'm trying to keep my status as a member of this thing secret since I still work for the city and all. Not like it's been easy with all these FBI agents swarming around. I'm lucky nobody's tried running me through one of those full-body scans, huh? That'd be a huge red light.

Speaking of huge lights, if you're new to the numbers club, hi! My name's Brooke. I'm a mortician. Most of my work is on the up-and-up, but if past you was undead or anything like that, I can definitely try to help. Things keep going this way and it might be all I do. Anyway, look, sorry I've been gone for so long and sorry I couldn't help much in that big fight. I'm just... glad that I didn't recognize any of the decedents.

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It's not anything terrible. Probably. We're fine, unless there's something you wanna say. Just two things, really.

[she sighs, feeling an itch in her right hand. god, she needs a smoke.]

First one... Something happened when we were fighting the snake. I lost control of myself, and it wasn't... [she groans.]

This will be easier if I could show you. Just promise you won't freak out?

Rae, I am about a million percent satisfied with this relationship.

[that seems like the more important thing to clear up, at least right now. she tries looking confident but only gets as far as looking Rachel in the eyes.]

I promise. There's nothing you could do that would make me freak out.

[You say that now...

not gonna voice it, but that's definitely the thought. she closes her eyes, taking in a deep breath. Rachel grows, subtly, only enough to be about an inch higher than Brooke. She reopens her eyes, but it isn't normal. Where her eyebrows were, a second opened pair of eyes seamlessly took their place - and all four were blazing solid red.]

[and, okay, Brooke wasn't going to freak out, but seeing those four eyes glowing red triggers a lurching feeling in her gut and a sharp, sudden memory: The person who she had to guess was Raven, four eyes blazing, being dragged down into the earth by very meticulously crafted hands made of mud. there was really only one conclusion she could draw from that.]

[she gasps, and suddenly feels another lurch, this time one of those rare power flare-ups that she'd tried so hard to suppress. she hears a ceramic mug in the cupboard thud against the cabinet door, slam it open, and crash on the floor all of its own accord. hopefully Rachel would come to a different conclusion for that.]

[That reaction is all that Rachel needs to snap herself back to her normal appearance. With a little mental effort, she sets a broom and dustpan to work.]

Fuck, Brooke, are you okay? [what just happened.]

[Brooke takes a few uncontrolled breaths. that is a lot for her to try to explain in very little time. she puts her rocky hand on her chest and tries to calm herself down by grabbing for Rachel's hand with her flesh-and-bone one.]

I think I tried to kill you. [she stumbles over her words.] I mean, Terra. I think she tried to kill Raven.

[She takes Brooke's hand when she reaches out, but after she speaks there's the pounding sensation of an Echo. Rachel stumbles backwards, placing a hand back against the counter to steady herself as she gasps. Fighting to the death with Terra, exchanging insults and taunts, being so furious and not being able to contain it anymore...

So that's how it was. That's why Kara didn't remember a sixth. Terra was never really one of them, was she?

Rachel finally looks up, eyes almost wary.]

[is this really happening? more echoes? Brooke's too caught up in her own hyperventilation to immediately notice, but she figures it out as soon as Rachel's gasp registers. she works as hard as she can to calm herself down on her own and, eventually, meets Rachel's eyes. her two eyes. only two, because Rachel isn't Raven. and Brooke isn't Terra.]

[her mouth is hanging open slightly. her eyes show fear.]

Rae? Rachel?

[after a moment, she finally manages to get a hold of herself. no. Brooke wasn't Terra.

but maybe that's why it was better if Brooke didn't know the whole story. if she didn't.]

Yeah. I'm fine, Brooke.

No, you're... [but the words fall off into nothing. she shouldn't be making assumptions. she's not really in that kind of position. when her voice comes back to her, it's quiet. it's, hopefully, the kind of voice that a murderer would never use.]

Did she? Was I right?

[... Brooke really doesn't have any context, does she? It's obvious, if she actually has to ask then she must have only gotten a flash of it...]

Raven wasn't exactly someone you'd want to keep around. I'm pretty sure she at least tried to end the world once.

Okay. [her voice gets stronger, but not angrier. there's no reason to be angry about this. besides, she's already screwed up once tonight with her powers.]

Killing one person usually isn't the same thing as the end of the world. But it depends on the person. [god, who let her get so sappy. she grabs one arm, crossing the other over her chest.] If I'm right, I think Raven and Terra are on even ground. So can you please just... tell me?

[... damn it, Brooke. she sighs, covering her eyes and the bridge of her nose lightly with one hand and looking up at the ceiling.]

Terra was working against the Titans. [a beat.] Metal bodysuit with an orange "S" emblem on it. Hear a bell?

[nothing. not yet, anyway. of all the times for echoes not to trigger? come on. context would be incredibly helpful here, but Brooke learned long ago never to trust the universe for anything convenient. instead, she stands there, trying to process it. her arms drop to her sides, and slowly, like she's scared to find out, she rolls up her right sleeve to just below the elbow.]

And the Titans had to stop her. She died like this, didn't she?

[she shakes her head. it'd make sense, but...]

I don't know. I really don't, I'm sorry.

[she leaves her sleeve the way it is and sighs. words are difficult to come by right now, but somehow she manages.]

We aren't them. That's the important thing. We're just... two people trying to make it in this world. With some speed bumps along the way. Just like everyone else.

[for the first time it what seems like forever, she looks directly at Rachel. it takes a lot of courage, but seeing Rachel like this, being able to see her like this every day, it makes it so much easier to remember that she and Raven are different people.]

I'm not going to betray you. I promise. We're going to get through this together.

[she looks at her and she's plainly still scared. Rachel, at the best of times, doesn't generally have her shit together. This relationship was something she was reasonably secure in, but being her she had her share of irrational doubts about it.

This threw a wrench in things. She tries to take in what Brooke is saying to her, but it hits a mental wall as she brings her hands up in front of her face, trying to carry herself so as to appear small. This is a mess, and she genuinely doesn't know what to do. She'd tried to keep herself under control through this conversation, she didn't want to discuss this either, but for some reason that optimism wasn't what she needed to hear. At all.

Her breathing quickens, and she moves backwards away from her girlfriend. It isn't Brooke's fault, she knows this, on the rational levels that are still operating under the anxiety and panic, but this was one last thing on top of an already impressive pile...

There's a rush of air, and the glass of a few nearby pictures on the walls all cracks simultaneously, like it'd taken a hit with a framing hammer.]

Edited (okay i think i'm actually done now THIS TIME FOR REAL JFC GOMEN) 2014-05-11 03:28 (UTC)

[Brooke wants to reach out and comfort Rachel, but she's already out of range, and from the terror on her face it's clear that she doesn't want any kind of contact either. not from Brooke, at any rate, because why would she, who would ever want somebody this fucked up, can't even control her own stupid powers. wait, no, where did that come from? that wasn't Brooke. that was...]

[she tries to say something but the words escape her when the paintings crack. her head whips around at the room. oh god, this is how she died, isn't it? not the petrification. it was at Raven's hands. this was it. but... wait. no echo. no lurch, nothing. so the feeling in her stomach is just terror of her own. great. she reels back at that realization and hears another cup break. no, girl, no. breathe. keep breathing. you've GOT this. you don't need to lose control.]

[her breathing starts frantic and eventually dies down, and the entire time she never takes her eyes off Rav—Rae. they aren't the same. they aren't. she'll fight and die on that hill if she has to, and she'll never give up, not even when her vision gets blurry.]

[After a long pause and Brooke's reactions, Rachel just shakes her head, moving further back away from her. This was too much, she couldn't handle this. Once her shadow reaches one cast by a nearby chair, she quickly looks down. Her shape goes dark before she dissipates down into it, like smoke being pulled through a fan.

She reconstitutes herself one floor up and a few doors away, folded up in one of the library chairs. Her breathing is still rapid, still shallow and panicked, even now. Removing herself was only going to do so much. Rachel mutters a curse, rifling through her pockets for her smokes. She brings one up to her lips, fingers shaking as she lights it and takes a long drag.]

[AND THEN THEY BOTH HAD A GOOD BREAKDOWN AND WERE GAL PALS FOREVER]

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nine sick, disgusting thoughts | text

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