we did start the fire

            * SOLDIER   BOY?         anxious frame had grown out it’s thorns now, hadn’t it?   no longer soft foliage of pastel variety that needs a gentle tending to         (   he had ripped you from your roots and your head hangs like a wilting white carnation,         desperate for some grounding, some earthly comfort   )         --         but still he shakes in this eternal wind and flinches in reaction to this new revelation ;    new soil, dry and jagged and unyielding.         he has to find a new home in this mess,         to regain his footing again before they trek off to kill another supe, just another day, just to breathe, just to prepare -

              “    ...did  you,  did  you  say  soldier  boy?    ”           there’s a lump in his throat, right where his pride and rage should be, with purple knuckles to match.   but he doesn’t find that fire.   ire snuffed out as he asks, mellow,        but heart beat like          a  rabbit,                skipping so rapidly he’s near enough fainting.           “   we’re  not  going  after  him,  are  we?    we’ve  got  annie  in  vought    -    she  can  keep  an  eye  on  him  if  he  returns.    besides,  i  thought,  he  was  dead?    are  you  telling  me  none  of  the  top  supes  actually  die  and  vought  just    -    keeps  them  on  a,             i  don’t  know,             private  island  until  they  want  to  do  a  fucking  game  of  swapsies?    ”

               * @iravide​​