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wildestlogs2022-02-14 01:51 am
wildestmods) wrote in wildestlogs2022-02-14 01:51 am
IMLADRIS
IMLADRIS
The group is told to take a week of rest in the Last Homely House as the injured and sick among them heal. The Elves promise them that after the injured are healed, there will be a great Council, with representatives of several peoples in attendance. There Lord Elrond will meet and assist them with speaking with the Green.
Until then, they can wander the peaceful halls of Rivendell, which are filled with travelers from all over the Wilderlands who are making a rest stop while they travel through the lands of Middle-Earth.
There are many halls in Rivendell, but the most notable part of Rivendell is the Hall of Fire, a great feast hall where people can eat, drink, and be merry. Alongside chairs, cushions line the floors in much of the hall. This is the great social hall of Rivendell, where the Elves and their visitors share news of lands far beyond, tell stories, or perform music. The music here almost sounds divine, especially when the Elves sing and play instruments, but they're just as eager to hear songs from other lands, so if any of the squad decide to share, they'll be glad to listen.
Some of the hall's guests are a touch more lively than the others, like a party of dwarves staying at Rivendell. Their stories are a mite more adventurous and if you get in their good graces, they might be willing to share some of the beer they brought with them. Listening to their stories or their talk about their craftmanship is a way to get into their good graces. They have news of the lands beyond.
The Elves love learning, so there are libraries the group is allowed to browse, though they mostly only contain tales of Middle-Earth (for now), though the Elves seem to be collecting what books about other lands they can. These libraries often have viewing stations with telescopes pointing at the sky. Though concerned about what it portents, Elves have been almost delighted by the changing skies, enjoying the challenge of trying to understand how the sky has been knitting itself together with the addition of new worlds.
There are also beautiful balconies here, overlooking the gorge and the waters below, and terraced gardens filled with flowers, bushes, and flowering trees. Their rooms are open to the outdoors and have beds that seem grown into the shape of bed-frames instead of carved. The bathrooms actually have running water. The Elves have figured out how to direct the clean running waters of the gorge in primitive indoor plumbing. Water for hot baths has to be heated first in brass cauldrons over coal braziers before getting dumped into the bath, but are at least located right next to the tubs.
Different flowing slides and fountains can also be used as waterslides for the adventurous, though this will make the Elves tut in disapproval. (X cw: warning for mild nudity from a distance.)
It's time for the squad to rest, eat, and regroup. If a great Council is going to be called involving them, it might be a good idea to make sure they go into it as a united front, because the Green is clearly fine with trying to make decisions for them.
❧ Cursed Weapons/Powers: So they know about how they'll be treated: those with cursed weapons and dark powers will be tolerated by the Elves after entry. While they'll get the same general treatment, the Elves around them may at times seem uncomfortable. Those with cursed weapons will only be distrusted a little, as the weapons themselves will seem more suspicious than their bearers. Those with dark powers or some kind of dark nature (such as being a vampire, Necromancer mage, werewolf, etc.) will be treated with the greatest distrust. But they'll be allowed to wander freely.
❧ Communication: The Elves will make it clear a Council will be called when the injured have time enough to heal and that the group can stay in Rivendell until they're all healed and refreshed. They'll be told they'll be equipped with weapons, clothes, and supplies when they eventually leave. The characters can move freely and characters can stay at the bedside of injured friends.
❧ Injuries: Characters with morgul-blade wounds will be find that any areas or limbs where the shard was will no longer hurt but will be numb at first, with feeling returning over several days. They'll be physically weak for several days at well, winded when walking a short distance. Within a week or two, depending on their constitution and the severity of where the wound was, they'll be able to walk on their own and start to rebuild stamina. Other non-Morgul-blade injuries will heal fully within a few days of treatment.
❧ Clothes: The group will not yet be fully equipped for their travels (that will happen upon leaving) but everyone will at least be given new clothes in Elven styles since theirs are dirty or torn. These are in many different colors but most commonly colors found in nature, like green and blue. Characters without appropriate footwear will also be given light and sturdy boots that will somehow be in their size without their size being asked. They'll also be given basic toiletries like scissors that can be used to cut hair and beards. There are no razors, however, because the Elves don't need to shave so they don't keep them on hand.
❧ Food: Food and drink are plentiful. The food leans towards fruits and veggies but there's enough game for any meat-eaters, cooked well in unknown spices. Wine is abundant, some vintages more inebriating than others. The restorative cordial miruvor is available to help weary travelers get their energy up and revive their strength. It doesn't get characters drunk but helps them revive their strength. It has a light, pleasant floral taste and smell. Beer can also be provided, though that of the traveling dwarves is superior to what Rivendell has to offer.
❧ Weather/Atmosphere: Rivendell is open to the outside air but the temperature is always perfectly temperate and pleasant. The sun shines frequently and is only lost behind shimmering mist. Sunsets and sunrises paint the sky in sections of the valley in every color imaginable. The valley is safe to travel in as long as they don't go back past the Ford of Bruinen or through the gap in the mountains past Rivendell on the valley's opposite end. The air is filled with the smell of green things and delicate perfume of flowers.
❧ Archivist Spells: Around the valley, Archivists can bank up to (4) iterations of a water spells that blasts a brief torrent at an enemy, with the force of a fire hose.
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He lets his voice slide up on the last word and his eyebrow goes with it. Bathrooms, Elle. There’s plenty of time for a head start when they’re enjoying the miracle of indoor plumbing.
“Of course I’m a fan of elves. They saved my life.” Yes, he’s read Tolkien, and it’s a complete mind trip to be ‘here’.
(If they’re here. Tim still thinks their arrival took a page from Lewis Carroll. Part of him still clings to the idea that this is all a hallucination. A diminishing part; it’s gone on so long.)
It doesn’t bother him to consider that they might be real, though. The multiverse is… intense like that, but Tim prefers colliding with Middle Earth over Earth Prime.
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She snorts at Tim talking around the lack of bathroom and immediately covers her mouth with a hand in embarrassment.
"Yeah, I'm warming up to them too. We didn't get the warmest welcome, but I can't really blame them for that. Everything's kind of fucked. They could've turned us away and left us for dead."
They wouldn't have been right to do so, but it would've been understandable. To Elle, at least.
"Any after effects from that shit you absorbed? The... anger stuff?"
Now that he isn't on death's door, that, more than anything, has been Elle's worry.
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“They could’ve, but that would’ve been borderline cruel. I don’t think it fits into their psychology to sentence people to death unnecessarily.” He missed the debate about who could enter and who couldn’t, barely remembers being taken away from the group. Tim has a much more removed view on the Elves assistance. The people that lost Gollum due to kindness wouldn’t turn away a party of injured - not when so many of the injured were young and not known enemies.
As for the rest… “I’m fine. I haven’t tried to take anyone on or growl at them in days.”
He hasn’t had an opportunity to, either, but Tim thinks the anger resolved within a few minutes if… whatever that was. “Don’t worry. I’m not doing that again.”
Powers are for metas. The healing light was tempting, but it went wrong when he tried it on Kon again - and he did something else in Agrabah. He just needs to police his thoughts and avoid the triggers.
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Time deserves to know what went down while he was unconscious. Elle would definitely want to know, if she were him.
Elle laughs at the growling comment. "Can't say the same for myself," she jokes.
She looks down, remembering the way he focused on her when he wasn't in his right mind.
"I'm glad you're okay. Or at least, getting there."
If he's paying attention (he's Tim, of course he is) he'll notice Elle is much more subdued than when the group was traveling. Her intensity has gone down and she isn't carefully measuring every single word she speaks. She also looks tired as hell.
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(Especially not considering that there had been an in-camp argument about Crowley’s continued existence. As Tim had been one of the more adamantly tolerant, that team would’ve been lacking.)
(And frankly, Tim would trade temporarily incarcerating one party member to save lives. That’s just prudent.)
“Is Crowley being treated well?” That’s the determinant. If he is, Tim’s reluctantly fine with the trade, but will start pushing for the group to move on as soon as he can pass muster. If he’s not or if it’s unclear, then they need to leave as soon as the injured are out of the literal woods, if not the actual woods.
He has noticed that she’s dialled it back and that the conversation has a more natural, unguarded patter. Tim had tried to steer her towards just approaching him for a talk, rather than for an interrogation target. To him, it seems like she’s taken that advice. He won’t embarrass her by calling attention to it.
That she looks tired, however, that isn’t necessarily related. Disregarding Tim’s rolling around in sleep the past few days like Dan in a cocaine well, Dick and Kon look more rested, not less. The beds are good, the rooms and blankets combine to the perfect temperature despite being open to outside, they’re being well fed. Nobody should look worse than they did at camp. “For that matter, are you being treated well? Is Crowley the only one in different circumstances?”
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Elle would also trade a single member being incarcerated, but it still sucks. Everyone should like Crowley, he's great.
Oof, that's a loaded question.
"I mean, they're tripping over themselves to cater to Aziraphale's every whim like he's got sunshine coming out of his ass," she jokes.
"Those of us who are... tainted, they're not huge fans of. But no one's getting harassed or neglected."
Honestly it isn't all that different from how she's used to Garou reacting to her. It's familiar, in a fucked up way.
"It's been a rough week. I had a bit of a moment yesterday that I'm bouncing back from," she waves her hand to dismiss it, which means that it was way more than a bit of a moment. "And some shit has gone down between people and it's just. A lot."
It's exhausting, is what it is. But she's able to relax, even if just a little, now that she's gotten some emotional release. She's allowing herself a bit of a break since everyone seems to be safe, here.
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Tim says this very, very quietly. Little more than a whisper. Elf ears are notoriously good, and the optics of this human casually talking about the godly hierarchy might not play so well.
But his head snaps up and the volume returns to normal quickly. “You aren’t tainted. Don’t let them get in your head.”
She might not be his favourite person, but tainted? That’s way too far. “So let stuff go down between people. The nice thing about having no set leadership is that no one has to hold court over the interpersonal issues or decide who has custody of the remote. Unless you were one of the people, it doesn’t really answer a question about you.”
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She's taken aback by his reaction, so it takes her a moment to figure out how to respond.
"You're right, I'm not Tainted. But I do carry Selene's gift of Rage, and to those unfamiliar with it, it can feel like Taint."
There is no Asura here, but that doesn't mean she can't be corrupted. She wonders if she can even Thrall, or if a Rite of Cleansing would even work...
These are questions for another time.
"You're not wrong, I'm just very, very bad at following that particular piece of advice. I wasn't one of the main people, but I was certainly involved. It's a somewhat delicate situation," in that the wrong move could potentially send someone's mental health spiraling to the point where he hurts himself or others, so he needs to be dealt with very carefully, and Elle is one of the few people able and willing to give him their time and patience.
She runs a hand through her hair.
"The Elves are treating me fine. Like I said: I had a moment and I'm still recovering."
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Tim looks up at her, confused at the emphasis on Taint - like it’s a known, defined thing instead of a way of describing a number of the group that were held in suspicion. But she doesn’t explain it - doesn’t explain anything fully that she herself is bringing up. “I’ve been out of it since we got here. If you don’t want to talk about things, that’s fine, but if you’re trying to make some point about me not being an open book, I also don’t go around saying that there have been moments and delicate situations with no context.”
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"I'm not trying to make any point, I just keep forgetting that people don't have knowledge of where I come from.
"In my world, Taint is the symptom of corruption by... primal forces, I guess? Objects, places, and beings can all be Tainted. It's basically a stain on your soul that says 'bad vibes' until it gets cleansed. It's, like, a pretty serious thing that can infect people and corrupt them, not dissimilar to what the Elves described as 'fell air'. Bringing Taint to sacred places can get you killed."
She isn't sure whether Tim was looking for an explanation or not, but she tends to ramble when she isn't paying attention and she's still not 100% with it.
As for the lack of context... Stacia has already gone around to warn people about Price. It's only fair that Tim knows too.
"As for the situation... there's a guy, Price. I don't know if you've met him, but he was back on the Rig with some of the group. According to multiple people, some of which are no longer here, back in his world he was a psychologist that helped oversee some big, secret military project. Both as part of that project and outside of it, he used his position of power to abuse the soldiers under him. Some of what I've been told is in confidence, so I don't want to go into detail, but... it's bad. Some of the stuff he did was inhumane and can definitely be considered psychological torture.
"Unfortunately, we're now stuck with him. Apparently he was pretty quiet back on the Rig, but ever since we got here he's been having extreme emotional outbursts. He pushed Dan into a freezing river on our way here, then threatened Bunny with a knife. Then he fainted."
It's a lot. Elle knows it's a lot. "I walked in on that whole situation right as he pushed Dan, so I luckily I was able to help him out of the river. I was also there when he fainted. I've been putting some plans together to try and help him stabilize his behavior. Obviously professional treatment would be ideal, but he's stuck here with us. It's... a bad situation."
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There could be, but then it becomes a discussion of whether fell air or "evil" is automatically the same thing. Is all evil in Middle Earth the work of Morgoth or Sauron, or can people be evil without being influenced? (The latter. Definitely the latter).
The explanation about Price though... by the second sentence, Tim's making an active effort to dial in and focus on what he's being told. He wants to remember this and go over it again later, repeatedly. There's no need to identify people's past employment here, unless it conveys a certain skill that the group could use. To identify someone as a psychologist - either someone needs therapy, or there's about to be some sort of irony revealed. Couple it with 'secret military project', and that entire sentence is just a flashing warning sign.
He keeps his expression mildly interested. It's gossip. Tim's allowed to show interest and a growing sense of concern. Elle doesn't need to know that crazy and/or corrupt mental health professionals are a recurring feature in his life, or how often secret government projects go wrong.
(Kon is the posterboy of the exception to the rule).
"The people involved with it can't keep forcing everyone to keep it in confidence. If what you're saying is true, they're putting the rest of the group at risk by leaving them ignorant," Tim points out gently. He doesn't want to sound too blunt or sharp; for all he knows, Elle's moment was a bad interaction with Price. "I haven't really spoken to Price, but if I had, I wouldn't have any sense of self-preservation."
(That is patently false, but he wouldn't have any heightened alertness.)
"And he's attacked or threatened two members of the group. We might be stuck with him because we can't separate him from the group, but everyone needs to know. Get Caroline to dig out the talking pillow. There needs to be an actual meeting, not just one girl trying to figure out how to stabilize a grown man's behavior."
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"Apparently he literally confessed to it all in a public setting back on the Rig, so there are witnesses to what he says he's done that can be confirmed by those he's hurt. Stacia was there and is going around one-on-one and telling those of us who weren't on the Rig about him. I don't know how many people she has left, but clearly she hasn't gotten to everybody yet."
Elle knows Tim's not wrong, but not getting the entire group involved would make things so much fucking easier.
She sighs. "Yeah, I know. I'm just really worried about the effect a meeting like that would have on him. Like, he already feels outcast and other-ed from the group based on the people who were with him before and that will only get worse. People have a right to know what happened, but I don't want it to push him over the edge.
"And, the fact of the matter is that he needs help, the kind of help that comes out of caring. I know I'm willing and capable. Dan's onboard with helping me. But, considering his history of abusive behavior, I can't in good conscience expect anyone else to try and help him the way I'm want to. I wouldn't blame anyone for getting upset with him, but I'm really worried about whether he's capable of dealing with that right now."
She takes in a deep breath.
"Any change in the group dynamic in relation to Price could set him off, but people deserve to know for their safety, but setting him off could also be a threat to his safety. Like I said, it's a delicate situation."
Even if there is a right way to approach it, which there is, it doesn't make the potential risks any less concerning.
"I don't think he's completely irredeemable, but no one here owes him the work it'll take to help him."
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"You know they're already doing that every time they look at him. Reliving it.” He's not going to be lectured about trauma and PTSD. Yes, he knows they can't - and shouldn't - be forced to disclose what happened, but he’s not going to pretend that this is a healthy way to handle it. “You’re going to make it worse for everyone. You’re telling me a story from a world that neither of us were on, that you yourself were told by someone who wasn’t directly involved in it. ‘What happened on the rig’ is hearsay.”
He’s wondered what would happen if someone like the Joker appeared in their camp. Tim thinks no one would believe them. (Best case scenario seems to be one of the soldier-types decapitates him with a sword after he injures a camper, but most of the scenarios involve multiple dead). Now he finds out that there’s (maybe) someone with a predilection for torture already here, and no way to bring them to justice or leave them behind.
“As far as what’s happened here and possibly more verifiable, I don’t know where you consider the edge to be, Elle, but you need to start treating this like he’s already there. If what you say about Dan and Bunny is true, where’s your edge? Do you need actual blood spilled?” That’s a huge risk, if that’s what she considers over the edge. If he’s military, he might not just injure. A kill shot doesn’t take more effort. “And you need to stop lying to yourself. What you and Stacia are doing is already changing the dynamic around him. The group needs facts in the plainest, most direct way possible. Not a prolonged game of multiversal telephone.”
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And fuck no, does she need blood to be spilled. She's worried he's going off himself more than anyone else.
She swallows down her reactive "fuck you" at some of the things Tim's implying. She hates it when people act like she hasn't thought about things like this; she has. Tim isn't telling her anything she doesn't already know and saying it like she's being naive or foolish doesn't fucking help. She isn't fucking lying to herself. She's perfectly aware of the situation as it stands and she doesn't appreciate him saying otherwise.
"I didn't say that that wasn't the case," she grits out. Her words are deliberate, measured, and said with a very calm voice. "I just said that I'm thinking about other things, as well. I'm not hiding this. I'm sorry you only found out now, but people were dying and Price has been self-isolating since the incident. I've been keeping an eye on him. Now that people are beginning to get their feet back under them, we can have a conversation as a group."
She looks up at the sky. "I'm telling you what I've been thinking about, not what is actually going to be done about any of it. I said I'm concerned about the possibility, not that that concern is enough to make me try to keep everything to myself."
It's times like this that Elle's grateful she has such a tight hold on her Rage.
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Tim looks up at her, expectant, and he’s not going to address anything else she’s said without a response to that.
(The rest of what she said was all placating nonsense because Elle puts too much weight on the appearance and reinforcement of a ‘healthy’ group dynamic than she does reality or necessity.)
(‘I’m telling you what I’m thinking about’, as if she isn’t going to advocate her thought process in whatever meeting happens. Sure, it may not end up taking effect, but there’s already a number of people involved and it doesn’t take that many votes to commit the group to the stupidest plan.)
(The smartest plan is finding out if it’s true and, if so, considering standing back and letting someone drop him off a cliff, but Tim would probably have to object to that one on principle. Fuck.)
And is she really blaming their inaction on the injured?
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"He's been on that balcony for half an hour watching the clouds," she points to a balcony several floors above where they sit in the gardens. Neither of them can see him from their current vantage point, but Elle's been tracking his noise and scent.
"He ate breakfast in his room this morning. He spends most of his day either in his room or wandering around and trying to avoid people. Sometimes he talks to Jennifer or Filbo. Yesterday he had a brief conversation with one of the Dwarves because he saw them whittling," her tone is flat and emotionless like she's giving a report.
"Despite what you may assume, I do know what I'm doing, Tim."
There's no bitterness in her voice because she is working very fucking hard to keep it out. It's not Tim's fault that he stepped on one of Elle's hot buttons (but if he would give her some goddamn credit, that would be really fucking nice. She's not an idiot playing spy, or whatever. This is her fucking job.)
(It's interesting that he thinks what she's saying is placating nonsense when it's very much genuine, just said while she's biting back the urge to bite something.)
(She actually isn't planning on giving her whole entire thought process in whatever meeting they have. Her thought process is convoluted and messy and takes account for too many factors to be presented in an understandable manner. She's still refining what she does or doesn't want to say.)
(And yeah. It would be fucking nice to be able to just "get rid" of the problem, but that's not a fucking option, is it Tim? She's trying to deal with the reality of the situation.)
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If Elle wants credit for tracking with smell and hearing, then she’s going to have to give Tim a full explanation of her powers, including range. Sorry, but he prefers to not rely on unknown metahuman abilities.
The report’s interesting. Jennifer. Filbo. Some of the campers you’d think of as nice. Maybe even a little naive. He likes how she presents it to - no colour commentary. Tim knows she has some, but you have to let people form their own opinions first. Save the opinions for the assessment and predictions.
Too bad he’s never going to get a clean first impression of Price now. That would’ve been a nice baseline.
“Thanks, Elle.” Tim gets up and starts to head back in the direction of his room. (Or is he heading to the balcony Price is on? Funny how they’re in the same direction.) She’s not getting any more praise than that from him, whether she provides the thought process or just the tailored output, because he’s still convinced she’ll edit either to get things painted as likes them.
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Elle says "I know what I'm doing" and Tim just... fucking walks away? She doesn't even know how to react to that. Does she just let him walk away? Does she call him out? She hasn't made a conscious decision when she speaks, seemingly without her own permission.
"I don't know what your problem is, dude. Every time we talk it feels like you've already written me off before I speak and that's not fucking fair. I'm not asking for trust, I'm asking for basic fucking respect."
Her carefully measured tone is leaving and emotion seeps in. She's just so frustrated and she doesn't know what to do. She's fucking trying. She's trying to avoid the things that Tim asked for, but she's getting absolutely nothing in return.
Elle knows he's got some superhero shit he's hiding, but he hasn't offered his qualifications to anyone. He just acts like they should take his input as law without giving them any real reason to do so. Elle respects him and his opinions but that doesn't mean he inherently knows better than she does.
They clearly both have experience in information gathering. Just because her methods are different doesn't mean that they aren't just as viable as what Tim does for the result she's trying to get. She's sitting here trying to respect his background (that he hasn't even told her about) while he invalidates all of her skill and experience just because it's different from his. That's bullshit.
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She doesn’t want to be his friend. He doesn’t know what she wants, but it’s not to talk about a shared love of Enya.
“You don’t like it when you feel dismissed.” It’s not quite a statement. There’s a gentle rise to it that just barely invites a confirmation, but Tim doesn’t wait for it. “I don’t either. You want to feel like you and your opinion matter. I know you’re capable of standing up in a crowd and making sure of that.”
He’s seen her make sure her opinion was the only one that mattered. “You’re a person; ergo, you matter and are respected as much as any other stranger. But I don’t know you, and I don’t have to validate you beyond that. I said thank you. I don’t know what more you expect. You wrote me - and Kon, and Dick - off entirely after the leadership debate and pretended there was no dissenting opinions. Okay, you apologized, but you can’t really be shocked that what you do has consequences. You’re too smart for that.”
She had to be aware that it wasn’t going to ingratiate herself with him. They have to take everyone’s qualifications and motivations on faith, but that only extends to what happened before they got there. It doesn’t mean he has to forget what he also considers unfair.
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Fuck this. She may have stepped over people's feelings, and that was shitty of her (she still stands by that choice for the most part). She apologized and adjusted her behavior accordingly because she knows she did a shitty thing. She wouldn't be talking to Tim if she wrote him off. She didn't write anyone off.
And this didn't start with the leadership meeting. He was coming at her with a weird hostility from their first interaction over the mirrors.
Then it hits her.
The Rage fades and her body loses its tightly wound tension.
This isn't an Elle problem, this is a Tim problem. It doesn't matter what she does, he's going to spin it in his head to fit whatever narrative he's come up with.
(What did he say before? 'The only narrative he's accepting is his own?' What bullshit. You collect enough narratives, weigh them, factor in your own, and the truth is likely to be somewhere in the middle. Elle knows she has her blind spots, but at least she's willing to work other perspectives into her worldview. She's able to admit when she's wrong.)
This isn't really about her at all, and that makes the situation much easier to deal with.
What should she do? Probably what Stacia would do, which is say something petty or bitchy. Or both. Elle isn't very good at petty or bitchy, but she is a cat. She has been trying so hard to be a person while around these people that she's managed to suppress a lot of her instincts, which is probably unhealthy and part of the reason she's a huge mess.
Okay. It's time to be a Cat.
"You're being a dick and if you're not careful I'm gonna piss on your stuff when you least expect it."
With that, she leans off the structure she was sitting on and lets herself fall backward. Tim can't see it, but she shifts to Feline mid-air and lands on her paws. She then saunters around the structure, past Tim and into the building. Anything he tries to say is ignored with a swish of her tail.
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He can read the change; even if he’s not fluent in werecat, he’s certainly fluent in pissed. Maybe he went too far. He needs to be more mindful because injuries don’t excuse making a situation worse. Elle’s not a wildcard like Price, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about the group dynamic.
But he doesn’t know her well enough to repair the damage. She’s so prickly and more ; a standard apology and slightly embarrassed excuse wouldn’t work on her. The threat’s minor, at any rate. He doesn’t want literal piss on his stuff, but he has to believe that she doesn’t actually want to pee on his shoes.
When she leans and drops over the edge, Tim … changes. He’s been babying his side. Being Superboy’s best buddy Timmy gives him the space to hurt and limp. Elle drops out of site and the immediate instinct is rush forward, to make sure she’s okay, and push through any protest that his body makes.
He’s much closer to the structure than he was, when the big cat comes around the corner. Tim stops on a dime, and he’s focusing on controlled, even breaths to hide that he was running when she just casually swishes by him. He half expects her tail to flick in his face like a finger snap.
Of course, she’s a cat. She lands on her feet. The most infuriating ones are always cats. Catwoman. Lynx. Cat-Man. No, thank you.
But he’s relieved, and amused despite the annoyance (or, you know, because of it), and, oh, he kinda hates her right now, very much ‘Got me again, Flash!’
He lets her pass with an eye roll and a mutter with no heat in it. “Dick’s my brother. Learn to tell us apart.”