you've been hacked

Cocking one of their eyebrows, Zelda just looked at the other and then at the letter in her hands. “Is something wrong?” they asked. Yes sure, they weren’t the best at actually showing emotion or that they cared for other people. But they tried, if that was so wrong then sue them.

“Not any more,” Piper replies, as the envelope and card disappear into the flames. She looks to the other girl and shrugs. “It’s almost the New Year. New starts, right?”

Selene had never been very close to her parents, mostly of her own free will. She’d never made much of an effort not with her parents (and not with many other people for that matter.). She shrugged. “Could be worse. Whoever it is could’ve actually shown up.”

“Are you going to read it?” Axel asks curiously as his gaze looks over at the card. He can see based off the look on Piper’s face that they already made up their mind. “Now that’s a beautiful sight isn’t it? Watching it burn?”

“You don’t want to see what she has to say?” Salem replied, unsure if he should be trying to comfort Piper right now or not.

Arabella perked up at her sister once she started speaking, yet the tone of it wasn’t cheerful. “How?” She wasn’t going to question it, but Arabella gave a glance at the letter and back to Piper. “Serious, Pip. Just…. see if there’s a check or something. You don’t need to read to read something you don’t want to.”

Piper shakes her head. “No idea. Maybe she’s a mutant too or some shit.” At the suggestion of a cheque, Piper snorts. “I’ve looked every year, there’s never anything like that. Besides, I don’t need her money.” She tries to hide it, to bury it so deep she doesn’t feel it, but every year she was reminded of the hurt she tried to forget.

at the words, ‘ found me ‘ skylar twitched, a purely visceral response she could not help. it provoked in her a reminder of her own thoughts, latent and from the night. ❝ yeah, ❞ said sky with a shrug and a grin. it wasn’t her place to judge, though the side of her that was always there thinks of her own father and feels sad for piper. ❝ fuck that bitch ! let it burn ! ❞

“What? No, of course not. I mean, I was ballparking.” He sputters, suddenly flustered. “Anyway. We should get food? Soon, because I’m gonna start getting hangry, just like my old neopet.”

          * here she goes, again and again / setting herself up for failure ; rejection.    melody always had a problem with people saying no to her, or more accurately, rejecting to give her the validation she required from every person that ever glanced at her.        her smile faltered to a grimace, and the sparkle on her eye suggested that tears may erupt if provoked too far.               ‘ oh,     the – uh vending machine accidentally gave me two instead of one and i – ‘    she’s already held out the offering of food ( it’s the way to melody’s heart, so she assumes it’s the same for absolutely everyone else. )  ‘ i know it’s your favourite. ‘ she also doesn’t know this, but hopes for the best,  ‘ – i really shouldn’t eat both of them, and i probably don’t have the self restraint to not do that so … .’ her rambling finished, during which, her eyes had drifted off to the side, snapping back to piper she finished her sentence with a new founded confidence, ‘ so i was wondering if you wanted it !!! ‘  

Piper can see the sparkle in Melody’s eyes and maybe that should make her feel bad and react softer, but it doesn’t. If anything, it makes her defensive, makes her want to roll her eyes. Why did the other seem to need her approval? Piper wasn’t likely to give it.

Melody Storm-Moon, for example ( @onelcved ). A ray of sunshine that Piper didn’t understand. Especially when she seemed to keep coming back, like a glutton for punishment.

“Don’t you have something better to do than keep finding me? Seriously?” she asks with a roll of her eyes.

Sitting down close to the young girl, yet not close enough to be considered invasive, Pepper started to talk, a twinkle in her eye as she discovered the events that happened. “ So in the end, we were able to fire everyone that we could and should. I was able to promote more people into jobs they deserve and HR is only giving me a small cold shoulder. Most of the people now though want to know who I got to do the job, thinking it was a person already hired into the company.” Smiling a little more warmly, Pepper took a sip of her coffee before continuing “I would like to tell them it’s someone who’s going into Orientation next week for an intern position, but I could always just tell them an outside source as well.” 

Piper hadn’t expected Pepper to take much of an interest in her after the job was done and Piper had been paid. It had been fun to watch the chaos happen, but she’d assumed that’d be the end of Pepper talking to her. Piper’s usefullness was done. Instead, Pepper was offering her a job. “You want me to do an internship with your company?” Piper was suspicious; Pepper was smart enough to do her background reading and Piper wasn’t exactly a prime candidate. Dropped out of school, caught shoplifting, labelled a ‘troubled kid’ in foster care. Even just at Paragon, she wasn’t exactly known for being good with authority. So she hesitates at the offer, trying to find the hidden loophole. There had to be one. One aside from the major drawback for Piper--the association with heroes--that is. 

❝ hey, ❞ he glanced up at her, met her eyes, looked very serious. ❝ i’m not an example to follow. like, ever. ❞ percy wasn’t going to deny that he was a grade-a fuck-up. ❝ nothing’s stupid that gets you that mad. ❞ 

andromeda purposefully aimed her sketchpad in the other direction, just so piper wouldn’t be able to look. suddenly, she let out a laugh, gleeful, and rolling towards piper, placing the sketchpad in front of her. ❝ it’s you, silly ! ❞