#heraprostarter

Betsy had long since given up being Psylocke, but that didn’t mean she could just shut her abilities off. She often found herself latently reading the minds of people around her, if only because their minds were so soft and open. Her thoughts had been hardened by years of war. Was it war? It sure felt like it had been, though she wasn’t quite certain if it counted anymore. Fractured memories swirled around her thoughts—sometimes, she wondered how many of them were really hers. “I’m sorry?” she said, turning towards the person next to her, realizing too late that she wasn’t sure if they had spoken or not. She could have easily just been reading their mind.

Emma sat back in her chair behind her desk before she spoke. “The mansion is a safe haven and a place of learning. Not for house guests. Care to explain?” She asked to her present company, her form exuding confidence.

“You know, I was kind of hoping for a break when I got back.” Lois was absently scrolling through emails on her phone—she always had too many of them for her liking, leading to her obsessively checking her mail and clearing out her inbox in case anything important came through. “I thought I’d come back from a country where a civil war is taking place and have a nice, peaceful time back stateside, but it looks like I came back just in time for things to go crazy again.” She finally looked up, picking at her nail without thinking about it. “Almost feels like a sign or something. I thought I’d take easier stories when I came back, but all of this with Ross...it’s too tantalizing for me not to go after it.”

It had been days since the shooting, but Isabella hadn’t left her apartment. Harley hadn’t forbidden it, but it was pretty clear from context clues that she wanted Isabella to stay indoors. Away from Edward. And Isabella hadn’t argued. She’d filled her time with reading, of course, and never let her phone out of her sight, texting Eddie to see how he was at various intervals. She checked up on her friends too, but her phone was her only form of communication with him, so she always made him the priority.

Entering the ball on the arm of the Penguin had been a little nerve wrecking if he was being honest with himself. Knowing that his choice of outfit was well… extremely reminiscent of his shiny new boyfriend. It was hard to miss that they were now a couple and if that wasn’t going to spark up controversy or teasing, he didn’t know what would. He had some time alone when Oswald alerted him that he had to speak with someone. Clearly he wasn’t invited so he parted ways with him and went instead to the the punch bowl to get himself a drink. When someone was near enough, Ed addressed them. “You know, this reminds me of a riddle. Do you think you could solve it?” He asked, pouring himself some and turning to actually look at the other.

There was something cathartic about unplugging from everything. At least, she was sure that was how it would feel for other people, but for Barbara, disconnecting just made her feel jittery and anxious. She tapped her fingers lightly against the table in front of her, wanting to just get back to her work space and back into her current project, but she knew that she’d drive herself crazy if she spent too long sitting there and staring at a problem that she wasn’t getting any closer to solving. Working her brain in another way might help, but so far, all it seemed to do was put the puzzle on her mind at the forefront of her brain, casting into sharp relief the utter lack of diversity in her thoughts lately. I should get out more, she thought absently, knowing that it wouldn’t happen. 

“Yeah, you guys can all go out and fight your aliens. I’ll just . . .stay here if that’s okay.”