“I was destined to be a super villain.” 

“Oh, super villains are just the worst though. Have you ever actually met a super villain? They’re … just, yack yack yack about their plans to blow up New York, which like … why? What does that do? How does blowing up New York benefit Norman Osborne at all? You know the reason almost all super villains are men… it’s because being a super villain requires you be dull, and mean. I mean could I hurt someone who hurt me or someone I loved? Yeah. Would I then take it out on eight million other people? No. I’ve got standards.” 

“I don’t crash parties,” Felicia said, the smile on her lips warm enough to heat a room. “I usually find out when I show up there, I was welcome the whole time.” The cat goes where she pleases. Her grace and charm is her passport. A cat didn’t crash a party, a cat simply arrived to them. “Seems no matter where I turn up, the host always thinks their party that much more interesting for having had a mask among the guests,” Felicia glanced around the room, “but if you’d rather I leave? You could just tell people the Invisible Woman is here.” 

do you have a girl over…! for some reason there’s this flood of warmth on alana’s face and mostly it’s because she’s turned a shade of pink and she can’t fathom the reason. apart from the accusation— like some absolute teenager— that she had a girl over. it’s ridiculous and for some reason it feels like getting caught except that there’s never been caught. daph knows better than anyone that when they’d been young enough for things like that to matter neither of their parents gave shit enough to catch them in anything. all of it is just a bunch of hot air and nothing else.

daphne’s smile, though, takes all the air out of her lungs and deflates the embarrassment too. “oh— you’re kidding.” a joke. it has to be a joke. that’s a good one! maybe. you’re not sure. your brow furrows. and you keep pressing down and around blinky, reminders and reminders and reminders. “umm. no. nothing new. i’ve just been submerged in research.” working hard to try to save a life she isn’t sure she deserves. daphne tells her otherwise but she seldom believes it ever.

“I’m kidding.” She confirms, because Alana needs it and there’s no reason not to. The joke is funnier if the person you’re joking with knows it’s a joke. As endearing as the blush might have been the goal isn’t embarrassment. It never is. If she has rules (and she does) that’s one. She’d destroy a person for making fun of Alana. (She has).

she doesn’t freeze or move or do anything but– there’s that light shudder, still, a little shiver. it hurts lately, sometimes, when the day runs long, and any kind of permanent fabric cling to blinky feels so painful. knowing daph’s the only one showing up? well, she knows daph stomachs the look of her, gnarled and scarred as she is. new, awful things, she wonders how daph still even touches her. it’s a wonder how much is prosthetic– still perfecting the nanobot technology will be awhile, but for now her molding skills are up to par. uncannily artful for a mechanized left arm, a spine tinkered, tampered, toyed with, fused back together. hip. what else…? god only knows. she’s a casualty of life itself, and willingly.

“i don’t meow,” she says calmly, but she’s moved and she grins softly, delighted to see daphne. always delighted. even if she can’t believe she has to deal with the fucking front zip. “you do, however. you absolutely meow. one could say you even mewl.” she doesn’t move over just yet, because she’s trying to take it all in. these days, there’s small comforts. like this. “what brings you to my mad scientist lair so late?”

“I don’t. But you can try and make me.” There’s the vivid image of her leg hooked over Alana’s shoulder, knife heel digging into her back. She loves these things. So does Alana, however impractical they might seem, they’re not. She has others too. Stun baton in one pair. God she loves a boy genius. But she won’t do that to Alana’s shoulder. Hip. Knees. Pick a body part. (If Alana wanted to do it to herself Daphne wasn’t entirely sure she was a big enough person to try and talk her out of it. They could mitigate it with a chair. She thinks of these things now. Even if Alana won’t comply unless she makes her. Masochist).