my past is my own

         ah.  one  who  had  yet  to  accept  death  having  claimed  her  —  a  rarity,  albeit  confirmation  that  she  did  not  belong  in  hel.  and  yet  —  why  had  mephisto  not  sent  a  devil  for  her,  to  drag  the  soul  kicking  and  screaming  into  an  afterlife  of   pain?  did  the  dead  not  earn  sleep,  respite?  mayhaps  not  a  golden  feast  with  gods  but  did  their  suffering  need  continue?  ❝  i   cannot.  ❞  minikin  mouth  twists  as  leah  takes  but  a  step   away.  come  not  closer;  i  will  not  claim  your  soul  my  charge. 

         ❝  i  am  leah,  handmaiden  to  queen  hela,  and  thus,  the  keeper  of  the  dead;  your home  is  either  one  of  the  hells  you  straddle,  for  midgard  will  not  accept  another  apparition.  in  the  end,  all  that  lives  dies.  you  have;  i  shall.  it  is  the  natural  order  for  nothing  can  live  forever  and  be  remembered.  ❞

“Then...where am I supposed to go?” her voice was soft and nearly died lost in her throat. She looked around and saw nothing, no path before her and not even a bright light to follow like she’d always heard of growing up. Her family wasn’t religious or anything, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t grown up hearing stories about fluffy clouds and people with wings and halos and stuff. Good people ended up there and bad people ended up in the other place, and all that. And Cassie had tried so hard to be nothing but good. 

replied to your

post

:

my activity is broken? i have seen a couple ppl...

my notifications have been wonky all day too :(

         ❝  uh-huh.  you  know  they’re  purifiers,  right?  they  won’t  hurt  you  unless  you’re  a  mutant  or  directly  associating  with  one.  ❞  barely  given  the  girl  a  half  glance,  arnetta  rolls  her  shoulders  back,  heels  clicking  as  she  walks  further  from  the  fleeing  civilians.   ❝  really,  it’s  tiresome.  ❞  eyes  glowing  ivory,  known  and  unknown  power  coursing  through  her  veins,  feet  lifted  from  the  ground  as  it  grows,  budding  into  telekinetic.  ❝  do  you  do  anything  helpful  or  do  you  want  to  join  the  others?  ❞

“Don’t you think that’s still reason enough to get out of here?” Cassie can’t help but shout back exasperated. Okay, so glowing eyes kind of clued her in on what was going on, but still she couldn’t just stand around and let them hurt innocent people, mutant or otherwise. It went against everything she lived by. 

The girl beginning to lift from the ground was enough to give her pause, but if anything only steeled her resolve. Quickly, she ducked around a corner and behind an obstruction (really? changing into a superhero costume in an alley? could it get any more cliche?) and shed her street clothes. After making sure they were safely stowed out of sight, Cassie shrank down and flew back out where the destruction was still going on and tried to see if she could find the girl again. 

          it  is  not  unlike  her  to  find  souls,  wandering,,  caught  between  aether  and  hel,  living  and  dead.  soft  leather  soles  of  her  slippers  lead  her  towards  the  spirit,  caught  on  the  edges  of  hel  and  hell.  it  is,  however,  a  curiosity  to  find  one  who  sees  her  ——  only  the  honorable  dead  could,  as  she  escorted  them  from  midgard  to  helheim.  leah  dare  not  touch  her,  lest  she  end  up  claiming  the  soul  against  hela’s  wishes,  an  oddity  for  she  seemed  naught  a  worshipper  nor  god.

          ❝  dead  —  you  live  half-dead  along  the  border  of  hel  and  hell,  and  thus,  belong  to  neither  mephisto  nor  my  mistress.  in  midgard,  you  would  be  a  ghost.  ❞  

“Dead?” if there were any breath left in her lungs, or physical lungs to have held breath, it would have left her in that instant. She felt as if she had taken an invisible blow that left her winded and even more disoriented and confused. The girl looked at her hands, they trembled faintly in their reinforced gloves but they still seemed solid and not the least bit ghostly to her.

“Excuse me” her voice fails to carry, falling to nothing under its own weight. Cassie has never felt so lost before, and even though she felt as if she’d been wandering for eons she still had no idea where she was. It was hard to think, she found that no matter what she tried, she could not seem to remember more than a few minutes at a time. 

       HE ZIPPED THROUGH  the streets in little more than a blur,  used to being unseen unless he chose to be.  There were a few special people who could catch the subtle breeze he brought with him or his presence.  He hadn’t expected the Lang girl to be one of them.  

Coming to a stand still a few feet away from her,  he tries to hide his disdain at being compared to his nephew.  “  Yes,  I would be the faster,  better version of Thomas.  ”  Despite his begrudging respect for the young Avengers,  he still hated to be compared to Speed.  “  Sorry to disappoint.  I was hoping to find him here.  ” 

Cassie rolled her eyes and snorted a laugh. Well, at least some people never seemed to change. Whether that was a good thing or not, the jury was still out on.

“Sorry, didn’t get a long enough look. Kinda hard to pin down who I’m looking at when they’re going too fast to see. Also last time I checked, didn’t he clock in as just faster than you?” she couldn’t help herself, ruffling the man’s feathers was too easy and it would be a shame to let such an opportunity pass by.

It had been ages since she had seen any of her speedster acquaintances, yet still her eye managed to catch the telltale blur of one slowing near her. The flash of white hair made her heart skip a beat and she found herself taking a step forward.

“Tommy” her voice ventured, soft in her hesitation. When the form stilled enough for her to focus on, she realized it was not her friend, but his older....well not counterpart because they would both hate that, despite their similarities.

Why was it that things always went wrong in the most public of places? Of course it made sense that bad guys would choose a place full of civilians which also meant she couldn’t sneak away and change into her costume and maybe do ‘something about said bad guys which may or may not be coming closer.

FOCUS INSTEAD, CHILD, ON THE PRESENT MOMENT.

“I’ve been told I’m not allowed to sleep. So I’m bored. Beyond that I’m fine.” He shrugged, wincing when it made his head throb. “What am I even doing in here anyway? This isn’t juvie.”

He leaned back into the couch. “Kate was the other girl then?

“.....Yeah, that was Kate.” Cassie looked at him, slight confusion on her face. She pulls up a seat and drops into it, still looking at him. “Wait a minute, what? I...Did they not like...explain anything I guess?”