momchester finally made a bb account

[minifridge]

You know they're just icons, right? [Mary brushes her hair out of her eyes and stares unimpressed into the... wherever it is she's looking.] There's really no need to obsess.

[She rolls her eyes and scoffs in an... incredibly teenage way.]

I don't even know why you made this account. It's not like there's a point. [squaring her shoulders determinedly, self-consciously aware that she looks a little silly.] My life will be way too boring for you to write anything about and that's just fine with me. Got it?

Comments

[minifridge]

What?

[fridgetothefire]

They're not actually better than the rest of you, you know.

[minifridge]

[Not bothering to defend the police's honor (because lol fuck that), but taking issue with something else.]

We're not all the same.

[fridgetothefire]

I want to believe that.

[It's true. She wants to, wants her Dad to be wrong about the world, about her. But she doesn't think he's wrong about Mary.]

[minifridge]

[Something in the Anya's tone snaps Mary out of her little self-absorbed whatever and she looks at the other girl, sympathetic and concerned.]

I can't imagine what's happened to you that you think that way.

[fridgetothefire]

[She looks at Mary fiercely, as if it's a dare. Then, fast and rough like ripping a bandage off, she pulls her shirt over her head. Thick, ridged, shiny pink burn scars curl around her upper arms and plaster over her back. She holds the shirt against her front, blushing a little as she stands in her plain white cotton bra, staring at the floor.]

I was four. People set our building on fire just because. Because Poppa wasn't like them. The whole town watched. People tried to hold him down so he couldn't save me.

[keyword: tried]

[minifridge]

[As surprised as Mary is to see Anya suddenly instigating Naked Time, it's nothing to the scars or the story that follows. Her jaw hits the floor, eyes full of bald horror that she always feels when she hears about human cruelty. It never fails to boggle her, just how horrible people can be. Normal, full-blood humans being just as cruel as any vampire or spirit ever was.

She opens her mouth and closes it again. Takes a deep breath, tries again.]

Because... because he has powers?

[fridgetothefire]

[It's not the reaction she was expecting, and she meets Mary's eyes a little more openly, a little less sure Mary has to be an enemy. She nods.]

[minifridge]

That's disgusting.

[fridgetothefire]

[She shrugs again, less apathetic this time, simply sad, resigned.]

We were already outsiders. It's just what people do.

[minifridge]

I wish you could be from my time. [She leans against the wall, wrapping her arms around herself.] People are changing the world.

[fridgetothefire]

What time is that?

[She tugs her shirt back on, looking away again.]

[minifridge]

1973.

[fridgetothefire]

I'm from 1968.

[Yeah, she doesn't hold out of a lot of hope for human nature changing in five years.]

[minifridge]

[Damn.]

Where?

[fridgetothefire]

[She shakes her head.]

It doesn't matter.

[minifridge]

Then maybe I'm wishing for the wrong thing. I wish you could live where I do. Even the mean or judgmental people are too polite and law-abiding to do anything like that.

[fridgetothefire]

Only because they're complacent.

If they were afraid, they would.

[minifridge]

When they're afraid, they run to the police, as if that would solve all their problems. They're just small town cops, though. They don't even bust kids for smoking pot behind the precinct.

[fridgetothefire]

That's not fear.

[Not real fear, not the kind that curdles and twists into hate. But everybody's capable of it.]

[minifridge]

...I know. I've seen real fear, I know what it can do.

If I was stronger, I'd stop hunting and get into something better. Hunters sometimes protect people in danger- sometimes people a little like you, but it's not really what people focus on.

[fridgetothefire]

What's stopping you?

[minifridge]

If I find my own niche in the hunting world now, I'll never get out. I can't raise my kids into this.

[She looks at the floor, biting her lip and trying hard to stay cool and not overshare with a total stranger.

Failing. Her voice is wavering, lip trembling.]

I want them to know what it's like grow up without being afraid. For when their daddy tells them he can beat up the monsters under the bed, they believe him and can sleep at night.

[fridgetothefire]

I asked you why not, but you told me why instead.

[It's a quiet observation. Anya doesn't have to say how much that means.]

[minifridge]

...What?

[Sorry, she's not following. To her it makes total sense. She's not getting into the business of protecting people because if she does, she'll like it and if she likes it, she'll stay. She can't stay. That's what's stopping her.]