dialogue prompts from these violent delights by micah nemerever.

i never told you my name.

who puts those awful ideas in your head?

you're forever assuming the worst.

what's that face? you look like you're going to cry.

you're one of those people who worry all the time, aren't you?

i don't worry, i ruminate. they're distinct actions.

nothing made you. you just are.

beautiful things are supposed to hurt.

people tell you you're shy all the time, don't they?

i don't know how i ever got on without you.

a little trouble is a good thing for a young person.

i wasn't born yesterday. i know what kids get up to.

it's good to have guns to stick to.

you could do anything to me and i'd let you.

i'm not ready to be seen. not yet.

i don't need you to treat me respectfully. i'm not made of glass.

tell me you love me, at least. please. i need to know somebody does.

do i look normal? i can't tell if i look normal.

you can get away with anything, as long as you act like an authority on the truth.

don't tell me what i want.

you know you're just about the worst liar i've ever met.

i don't think you've ever felt anything that didn't hurt you.

you're so square, you're a cube.

i just want you to believe me when i tell you you're worth something.

there are limits to what you can expect people to understand, without living it.

you can't fight everybody all the time. you still have to live with them.

i forget how blue the sky can be outside the city.

i'm going to push you off a cliff, you fucking boy scout.

thank you for trusting me with this.

be a kid while you still can.

please believe in the things i try to tell you, instead of the things you think you deserve to be told.

if the sun touched you for even a moment, you'd go up in flames. like a vampire.

your voice changes when you're angry.

what a lonely, dreary thing it is to know the truth.

you never look away, even when your eyes are closed, but i'm never certain you can see what's really there.

tell me you need me. in those words.

can i tell you something? that i'm all but certain you won't believe?

i never lie to you. but sometimes, i wish i could.

you never let me pretend the truth is alright when it isn't.

you have a profound, elusive sadness about you.

you didn't. please tell me you didn't.

you and your awful little games.

why would i bother to grow my own conscience when you're always around to pester me?

you're going to help me escape.

this house is a shadowbox, never meant for human things.

you have no right to stop me, and you're not going to try.

you're sweet, when you want to be.

do you want me to kill ____? i mean it.

it might do you good to be an orphan.

you're just so sincerely creepy.

wealthy people pay handsomely for the privilege of ignoring cries for help.

i've never seen you like that before. not once.

i've decided to learn to be impulsive.

the worst damage humans do isn't rooted in malice, but in thoughtlessness.

there's such a thing as right and wrong. anyone can figure out the difference if they're willing to think for themselves.

there's no part of you i can't see.

i don't want to hurt you. please don't let me.

you're ridiculous, sometimes. but that's alright.

i don't want you right now. go home.

i'm not like you. i don't even have a shape of my own to hold anything else in place.

i'll never matter the way you do, and you know it.

say what you need to say.

if you say the word 'deserve' one more time, i'm driving us off a bridge.

i've been meaning to talk to you about ____.

i'm worried about what you're getting into.

you don't see me. you can't. you never could.

it's your life. you're entitled to make your own mistakes.

i want you to know you deserve better. you don't have to put up with ____.

you scare the hell out of me. you really do.

you look the same way you always have.

i was worried i'd lost you.

i'll take care of you. i don't need you to be brave.

all i want to do is make you happy, and you're the unhappiest person i've ever met.

i would rather be cruel than weak.

i want you to let me be nice to you today. i don't care if you think you deserve it.

this place looks like somewhere in a jigsaw puzzle.

it's always been real for me. every second.

please don't say anything to my mother.

we can't fix it if you don't tell me what happened.

i'll call you when i can stand the sight of you. don't hold your breath.

hiding the truth is still lying.

i thought you'd finally trust me if you knew i'd kill for you.

i'm just as much of a monster as you are.

i was missing part of myself my whole life, until i met you.

righteous fury leaves no space for fear.

you can always talk to me. about anything, okay? i love you no matter what.

you played [game] in school, didn't you?

no one tolerates boredom worse than the idle rich.

someone needs to be looking after you.

you know you can't actually stop me, right?

i want to be able to look at you.

when you need to, you will understand.

i'm only ever early when i'm afraid.

people talk themselves into the strangest things when they want to look impressive.

¹ TELEPATHY. described as earth's third best telepath 🥉 and a quote-unquote "burgeoning omega-level telepath". the use of her telepathy is usually accompanied by a butterfly-like image, either around her face or through her psi-avatar.

precognition / precognitive dreams. betsy's origins as a telepath are in precognition, ordinarily manifested through dreams (captain britain 1976, #34) though via training with s.t.r.i.k.e able to be accessed and utilized in her waking moments. what initially tipped her off that the reavers would kill the x-men in the outback, prompting her to deceive them through the siege perilous.

daredevils (1983) #3-4, captain britain (1976) #34, uncanny x-men (1963) #250.

psychic knife. the focused totality of her psychic powers. manifests as a psychic blade around her fist and when plunged into the mind of another leaves no physical trace. causes immense disruption, a hard reset of the psyche, and potentially lethal. skill honed during the hand's training and notably 'betsy's move' amongst other telepaths.

uncanny x-men (1963) #257.

psychic blasts. psychic force bolts which are capable of inflicting pain, disorientation, unconsciousness, or death.

captain britain (1985) #6, excalibur (2019) #25, astonishing x-men (2017) #1.

astral projection. the ability to project her consciousness from her body. can traverse astral planes and the physical world. o the astral plane, she can create psychic objects and manipulate her environment. previously undetectable when under the influence of the crimson dawn.

uncanny x-men (1963) #212, new mutants annual #2, uncanny x-force (2010) #8.

telepathic shadow. may telepathically suggest being ignored by others, making her capable of masking her presence. effect can be expanded to others. even by powerful telepaths, her abilities can go undetected or be very difficult to track.

uncanny x-force (2010) #31.

illusions. able to mentally fabricate illusory sensations, experiences, events, and memories that have no factual correlation in the affected mind. she's particularly fond of this one.

uncanny x-men (1963) #239 + #512, uncanny x-force #18 + #31.

mind control / paralysis / memory erasure. mentally imposes her will over the mind of others, capable of control, temporary mental and physical paralysis, and of erasing any awareness of particular memories to the upper extent of total amnesia. she is able to render even herself amnesiac and then piece herself back together.

uncanny x-men (1963) #217 + #219, uncanny x-force (2010) #3.

detection. can track other sentient beings in her vicinity by their psychic emanations, hyper-aware of threats. can scan large areas, such as cities and is capable of ascertaining the location and conditions of individual psyches within dense spaces.

daredevils (1983) #10, uncanny x-men (1963) #218 + #229.

telepathic immunity. after her resurrection by jamie, betsy has attained immunity to certain psychic abilities such as mind reading and illusions. against telepaths of certain talents and strengths, this has proved to be more resistance than immunity, but on average she is unaffected.

uncanny x-men (1963) #455 + #458 & 459.

² TELEKINESIS. capable of physically manipulating and controlling the physical aspects of matter, allowing the levitation of objects and living beings. although she is capable of doing this from a range and of flight, it is not her inclination to do so in combat (though she's particularly fond of the flight outside of it). her telekinesis is more robust than, usually used to form weapons from psychic energy. *attained via a power swap with jean grey (black sun: colossus and nightcrawler #1)

telekinetic weapons. psychic weapons which can harm a target physically, mentally, or both. they produce visible radiance in the physical world and can act as a light source. their function is to disrupt neural pathways or cut with precision. manifested often as, depending on the era, either a katana (psylocke) or as a european knight's sword (disassembled + captain britain). has also manifested a crossbow/bow, giving her telekinetic weapons the potential for ranged versatility. though she can construct these at will, she often will have a physical blade which she charges with telekinetic energy.

force fields. psychic shields which are meant to deflect or slow incoming attacks, able to alter their sizes and strengths to her will. manifesting most recently as a medieval knight's shield, though the can be any shape or formed around an object ( ? held a whole space ship together as it crashed back into the atmosphere via this ability b4 she even had proper control of the telekinesis ?)

x-men (1991) #105, uncanny x-men (1963) #471.

telekinetic blasts. bursts made of telekinetic force which can stun targets but on the highest level has destroyed entire mountains.

x-men (1991) #103, uncanny x-men (1963) #455.

enhanced condition. able to be used to bolster her speed, strength, agility, etc. to levels above the human standard.

telekinetic invisibility. using her powers to skew light around her body, betsy can render herself invisible.

exiles (2001) #92 & #93.

³ NON-MUTANT ABILITIES.

otherworlder. betsy is half-otherworlder, capable of manifesting additional abilities unusual to either mutant or humans. though hardly among her most polished skills, she has an innate sense for magic, is capable of creating shielding wards, and the otherworld magic in her resists the pull of other magics meant to harm or otherwise affect her.

captain britain specifics. captain britain's uniform bolsters what is already inherent to the braddocks via their otherworld lineage, but most of the powerset it comes with is already covered by her mutation. the armor itself emits a force field over her body and gives her a matter of superhuman physical strength that she used to only be capable of accomplishing with her mind.

portals. in her current mantle as captain britain, betsy is able to open a portal from where she is to otherworld. locations in otherworld coincide with locations on earth and as such she can use this ability to traverse locations in both with some amount of speed that otherwise would not be found via traditional travel.

SOME PART OF HIM WISHES HE HAD NEVER LEFT THE BLANDINGS. another part of him knows that no part of him would have survived faking it for so long, so the death of his sense of self as an x-man was far preferable to the death of his sense of self pretending to be todd blanding reincarnated into a poor, lost orphan. it's the tragedy of tragedies: being born as he was, he was doomed to metaphorical deaths times a thousand, be it through the siege perilous, through the falsehood of his childhood, or the many times he lost himself to mind control, to other people's designs that superseded his right to self-determination.

when alexander tells betsy that their lives can't be only this, this struggle, this horror, he already knows the answer that will come: this is their lot in life. it has been assigned to them by fate, it seems, and no amount of power or desire for change can seem to scratch at the surface of their toil and troubles.

betsy braddock knows it perhaps better than he does. he has tried to fool himself, pretend the tides taking them were borne from different, less bitter waters, but something tells him that she has never pretended. not to herself, not the same way he did, even if they have all faked it at some point, for the sake of survival.

he wonders if the lack of pretense is a gift or a curse. he won't know, not when the main way he copes is through denial. even when he became a genoshan magistrate, denial had still been ingrained in his bones. his only comfort is knowing this version of himself is not the worst he can be, but is that any comfort at all, considering everything he's seen?

no. it's not. he knows. if anything, it only haunts him worse when his brain decides to play tricks on him.

"i've beaten death before, and it meant nothing long-term, bets." he lets out a sigh, the emotional exhaustion wrought on his face clear as day. "retirement? that's never sticking." he wishes, really. he's tried to quit, time and time again, he's flipped off his brother a few times more than he's proud to admit to, but it always came back to bite him in the ass.

❝ why not take a slice of it, rewet your palette? perhaps it will remind you to remain wanting in spite of life's best efforts. ❞ she folds her leg, one over the other, leans back onto her palms. it is a sort of casual release of tension that does not fit her upbringing, but instead suits the first flames of acceptance which had ignited beneath her breast, those days a hearth she ever yearns to return to. builds a shrine to it in her mind, even. what was all that about dwelling, again? it strikes her it might be nice, ❝ you know, i do, on occasion, tire of britain's dreary greyness — ❞ she shoots him something coy, conspiratory, ❝ just don't go telling the press. they'll find some way of spinning it against me. ❞ some drab something about captain britain holding no love for her homeland, her true allegiances, a secret agenda — she rolls her eyes at the mere thought. they would.

You're burning up. Don't argue with me. Get back in bed.

I made soup. It's not great. Eat it anyway.

You should have called me the moment you started feeling like this.

Stop trying to get up. There is nothing on this earth that needs you upright right now.

I found three blankets and a hot water bottle. Pick your combination.

You look terrible. I mean that with so much love.

Let me take your temperature. Stop being difficult about the thermometer.

I cancelled everything. Don't apologize. I wanted to be here.

You fell asleep mid-sentence. I stayed anyway. I hope that's okay.

Drink the tea. Yes, all of it. I'll make more.

I've been checking on you every hour. You keep telling me to go home. I keep not going.

Your voice sounds awful. Rest it. We can talk tomorrow.

I'm not going anywhere. Stop thanking me for staying.

You hate being taken care of. I know. Do it for me anyway.

The fever broke. I don't think you know how relieved I am right now.

Sleep. I'll be right here. I'll wake you up if anything changes.

I brought your favourite thing from the place on the corner. Don't cry. Please don't cry.

You're a terrible patient and somehow I still want to be the one doing this.

I know you think you're being a burden. You are not a burden.

Let me sit with you. I don't need to talk. I just don't want you to be alone.

You tried to make your own tea and you could barely stand up. Sit down. I've got it.

I've seen you strong. This doesn't make you weak. It just makes you human.

You smell like fever and you still somehow look like everything to me.

Lay your head here. Right here. I've got nowhere I need to be.

I brought every movie you've ever mentioned. We have time.

You're mumbling in your sleep. I'm not going to tell you what you said.

I changed the sheets while you were in the shower. Don't make it weird.

You need to eat something real. I know you don't want to. Eat something real.

I've been sitting in this chair for four hours. I'd do it four more.

Stop apologizing for being sick. People get sick. Let me help you.

Your hands are cold. Give them here. I'll warm them up.

I found the medicine in the back of the cabinet. Take it. All of it. Don't negotiate.

You're not inconveniencing me. Taking care of you is exactly where I want to be.

I didn't know you got like this when you were sick. Softer. I like knowing this about you.

You asked for me. Out of everyone, you asked for me. I haven't stopped thinking about that.

The heating pad is on the lowest setting. Tell me if you need it warmer.

I'm not leaving until your temperature is normal. Make your peace with that.

You cried a little when the soup was too hot to eat yet. I pretended not to notice.

I've never seen you let anyone take care of you before. I'm honoured. I mean that.

Your hair is a mess. Can I? Is that okay? Let me just — there.

You keep saying you're fine every time I check and you are so obviously not fine.

This is the third night in a row. I'm not going anywhere. Stop looking at me like that.

You're delirious and still trying to be funny. It's working. Please stop, I'm worried about you.

I learned how to make your mother's recipe. It took three attempts. Don't tell her.

There's nowhere I'd rather be than right here, even like this. Especially like this.

You always take care of everyone else. Just this once, let someone take care of you.

I left the light on in the hall in case you woke up scared. I remember you mentioned that once.