#zonem!marley

[text] Oh my gosh, Sugar, it doesn’t work like that![text] If we want to get there in time for the lockout, you needed to be here like 10 minutes ago.[text] So not going to be impressed if you have to use your powers to turn off the electric locks and get us into the gym late.

Marley looked around at the small circle of people she’d gathered for this intervention -- just her, Sam, and Mike, but apparently that seemed to be enough. She stood up and wrapped her arms around Tina, entirely too excited about her promise to stay out of trouble and turn over a new leaf.

A part of Marley had nearly given up on Tina when she’d found out she was in the Uprising, but that wasn’t her style. Especially when Tina had finally forgiven her for dating Mike, she just hadn’t been in a hurry to throw away that friendship again. She’d already lost Ryder over it -- even if that was mostly him being an idiot for not trying to stop Jake -- and she didn’t want to lose Tina to it, too.

Giving up would have made her a hypocrite, and a coward, and that just wasn’t something she wanted to be. Marley Rose was the type of girl who persevered, who tried to make things better. And this time... this time it had worked.

“We all love you, Tee. We’ll make sure things are okay, and that you always have a place where you feel welcome.” Marley smiled as she let go of Tina and let Sam move on to hug her instead, trying to stifle a giggle when she heard Tina’s boyfriend murmur into her ear “We’re way cooler than a buncha terrorists anyway.”

Marley made a face at Sugar, clearly unimpressed with the fact that she and Tina and Kitty had blindfolded her and seemed to be steering her into some strange dark hallway, all while she felt as helpless as a bat or a baby or something that couldn’t see and take care of itself. Her heart was racing in her chest as she fumbled along, but at least finally Sugar had the decency to reach out and actually lead her instead of letting her stumble. “I would like it better if you guys were holding my hands somewhere where it was light outside and I didn’t feel like we were about to get into big trouble,” she whispered, squeezing Sugar a little bit harder than necessary to keep from jumping at the tiniest of sounds. 

“No,” Marley told her, defiance in her voice. She’d been leaving Tina alone, and things weren’t getting any better this way. Marley’s life just felt worse and worse without her every day, and even if it meant yelling and screaming and fighting, she wasn’t going to give up on this friendship. Not now, not ever. She’d given Tina the space she needed, and she wasn’t going home until her friend talked to her. “I’m never going to leave you alone, don’t you get that yet? Don’t you get that no matter how hard you try to push me away, I’m going to keep coming back because I care about you?”

"Please don’t make me do this, Quinn,” Marley whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. She’d known there were people that didn’t like the mutant equality movement, but they’d been at a peace rally -- yet here Quinn and Marley were, cornered by people that wanted to hurt them just for things they were born with and the M’s on their hands that branded them as different.

Wouldn’t it be better to just freeze their feet in place, or make them slip on ice? Marley knew she could get rid of them all in one blow if she needed to, but her powers still just felt so... violent, sometimes. And just because Mike had helped her get control didn’t mean she was perfect at getting things right.

Marley turned to look at Quinn, opening her eyes and trying to swallow back the panic when she saw that there was a group of mutant children behind Quinn, completely defenseless. Maybe her friend was right... maybe Marley should just let Quinn get the kids out of here while she took care of the rioters herself.

“Go!” Marley finally called out, fear making her heart hammer against her chest as they disappeared in the direction of safety. Closing her eyes, she focused on everything she’d practiced, turned towards the angry mob, and, left with seemingly no other choice, willed herself to release her powers in their direction.

“You’re right, it is important, and that’s why -- I wanted to talk to you first before anything happened, okay? That’s why I’m here now, because it’s the right thing to do, even if I’m scared of what you’re going to say. But...you know how when I asked Mike to prom you asked me if it was a real date? And then you were kind of way too glad that it was just a friend’s thing? Um...it kind of ended up being more than a friends thing. Please don’t hate me, but -- but I kissed him, Tina. I really like him, and I don’t even know how it happened, but I know that I’m scared of losing you. If you asked us not to do anything about it, then we wouldn’t, but -- please? Please don’t ask us to choose that, because you’re my best friend and you’re his best friend but I haven’t felt this way in a long time. I don’t even know if I’ve ever really felt this way about someone. It’s so different than how things were with Ryder, but it’s better. He understands me and he likes a lot of the things I like and...I really want to see if this could go somewhere, Tina, but I need your blessing before I do.”

[MSG] But Mike, Santana said that she can keep the fire going without me getting hurt! She’s been practicing and everything.[MSG]: You really don’t want to let me go as the ‘Girl on Fire’ version of Katniss this Halloween? Everyone’s getting sick of me being plain bow-and-arrow Katniss![MSG]: If I pout at you enough will you change your mind?