“Okay,” Vista spoke, pulling herself to her feet. “Guess I’m manning the console.”

Heh, nice.

Feeling strangely calm despite the pain that radiated through the back of her head, where it had struck the ground, Vista spoke, “Weld said it takes a kind of strength to face your emotions.  Are you really that scared, Sophia, that you’d attack me instead of talk to me?”

I really think Vista might be one of the most mature people on the team.

Certainly more mature than Shadow Stalker, at least.

Sophia raised a clenched fist.  Vista screwed one eye shut, anticipating the hit.  It would almost be worth it if she hit me and violate the conditions of her membership on the team, to have her gone.  But we need all the help we can get, right now.

I suppose that’s true.

“The security cameras are watching us right now.”

Sophia dropped her hand, stood, and stalked over to the far side of the room.  She gathered her costume in her arms.  “I’m going on patrol.”

What, so you can run away and take out your aggression on some crooks that the PRT doesn’t mind you punching?

“It’s not your shift,” Vista spoke, sitting up.

“Don’t fucking care.  If Weld asks, I’m doing a double shift.”

…alrighty then.

And then Sophia was gone, having used her shadow state to disappear through the elevator door.

Bye.

“Drop the fucking subject.  You’re irritating me.”

Vista sighed.  Feeling the traces of anger and the hurt from Sophia’s words, she still tried to soften her parting words as she turned to go back to her room, “If you ever do want to talk about it, I’m willing to listen.”

Gallant would be proud. Weld too.

“I’m not about to talk about it with you.  Fix your own shit before you start worrying about me, crybaby.”

Yeah, yeah…

Frustrated, disappointed in herself for failing in her first genuine effort at taking Weld’s advice, trying to reach out to a team member that needed it, Vista shook her head, muttered, “I pity you.”

Interesting choice of words… Wanna elaborate?

Also I have a feeling pity is the last thing Sophia wants.

The sound of a laptop crashing to the ground made Vista turn.  She saw Sophia in her shadow state, wispy, her skeleton visible beneath her skin, warped.  The girl’s eyes were too reflective, her entire body seemed to bend and distort, not completely solid as she leaped towards Vista.

Oh jeez, she really didn’t like that.

Sophia dropped out of her shadow state in time to push Vista flat onto her back, hard, one fist gripping the collar of the younger girl’s t-shirt.  She shook her.  “Pity?”

I think you might’ve found Sophia’s weak spot.

Sophia looked over her shoulder.  “You’re still here?”

“What kind of situation led to you becoming like this?  So casually cruel, so lacking in basic human decency?”

Hella good question.

“My advice is for your own benefit, little tyke.  I’m not the bad guy.”

Supposedly.

“You’re the only one who doesn’t have any friends on the team, you keep yourself at a distance, you talk only with your friend or friends from your civilian life.  Even there, you’re always in trouble.  Getting suspended, picking fights.  It’s like you want to break your probation and go to some juvenile detention facility for the next few years.”

I still don’t know how she hasn’t already.

At least this seems to confirm that her school suspension had an impact on her Ward activities too, in some way. Otherwise, why would Vista even know about it?

“Not your business.”

“Out in costume, you’re scary.  You hurt people like you’re hungry for it.  I just want to know why.  Where did you come from?  What situation led to you being like this?”

It’s too soon for another Cotton Eye Joe joke, right?

Vista turned to look at the older girl.

Sophia was reclining in her chair.  She smiled a little, “I know it sucks to hear now, but it’s better to hear it straight than to look back and realize how horribly stupid you sounded, five or ten years down the road.”

Yeah right.

Hey, if there’s any time for that mantra of yours, Vista…

“I am not going to feel stupid for how I feel now.”

I mean, hopefully not, but if you will… does that matter?

Sophia shrugged, “Kids.”  She turned her attention to Facebook.

Of course she tries to have the last word and have that last word be something she knows will sting.

Vista unclenched her fist.  She could tip Sophia out of her chair, bend the computer screen, carry out any number of petty revenges.  But Weld’s advice stuck in her head.

“What happened to you, Sophia?”

Ohh shit. This suddenly got more interesting.

Maybe Wildbow still doesn’t want to do a chapter from Sophia’s POV and is making this chapter give us some insight into Sophia as well as Vista, instead. Or maybe in addition to whatever happens next chapter?

Or maybe the chapter is about to end. That scrollbar is getting quite the way down now and it’s getting late.

Like half past three AM late. What’s a sleep schedule?

Vista clenched her fists.

Sophia went on, “Think about it, every time you got just a little turned on while you looked at him?  Every time you crushed on him?  He felt it, forced himself to smile and play nice even as you totally repulsed him, because he was that kind of guy.

You know he was that kind of guy.”

Uurgh.

“I loved him,” Vista spoke.  The first time she’d spoken the words aloud.  Why did it have to be to Sophia?  Why couldn’t she have said it to Gallant, before he passed?  “There’s nothing gross about love.” 

It really does sound like it was closer to that than the sexual “prepubescent lust” Sophia is talking about.

I mean, “lovesick infatuation” I can admit seems fitting, but this really doesn’t seem to have been about lust.

“You don’t know what love is, little one,” Sophia’s condescending tone rang across the room, “It was a first crush, a little infatuation.  Real love is what he had with Glory Girl… that long-term bond that survived through a dozen really nasty fights, and brought them back together again and again.

Perhaps… though why did they even have that many fights in the first place, anyway?

A schoolgirl crush is easy.  Real love is hard, something tempered and enduring.”

…I hate that I can’t argue with her here.

She thought she spoke quietly enough that Sophia didn’t hear, but the girl did, because she had a response.  “You annoyed him, you know.”

Oh fuck you back into the hole you crawled out of

whichever one that may have been

Vista stopped in her tracks, stayed where she was, her back to Sophia.  She replied without turning around “Weld?  You don’t know-”

“Gallant.

Yeah, I figured that was who she was talking about.

Twelve year old following him around all the time, brimming with prepubescent lust and lovesick infatuation?  And he can feel all of her emotions?  You know how gross that would be?  How disturbing and awkward?”

Oh right, I forgot about his ability to sense emotions.

This reminds me of a conversation from Homestuck (this page and the next; contains spoilers since it’s more than halfway through the story) between an empath and a guy who is attracted to her. The empath has a very different view on emotions than others because she can sense the emotions that others keep hidden, and expands on that to convince the guy that it’s okay.

But yeah, if he actually felt the emotions rather than just sensed them, then that could get a bit awkward. That said, you really should trust Clockblocker over Shadow Stalker.

A seed of doubt is all it takes for a tree to grow, though.