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.

She made her way back to the elevator, noting the lights were on in Kid Win’s workshop.  Heading back down to the base, she walked toward her cubicle-room.

I guess Kid’s still working on those pear guns from before. Nice.

“Holy crap, you’ve been crying again?  I thought you were over that.”  Sophia commented from the console.

Not helping, you harpy.

She was on her laptop, sitting just to the right of the main console.  Nobody else was present in the headquarters.  Again, the two of them were alone.  Was Sophia’s nice act only for when others were around?

She has a nice act?

I mean, true, she has been acting a little less venomously than expected when we’ve seen her over the course of the Arc.

Vista turned, irritated.  “I was venting a little with Weld, what’s your issue?”

“I just really hate crybabies,” Sophia turned back to the computer.

Yeah, just… fuck you, okay?

I guess someone had to pick up the slack in “fuck you” attraction after Kaiser died.

When she pulled away, a few minutes later, his shirt was damp.  She sniffled, taking the offered tissue to wipe at her eyes and nose, Weld spoke, gently, “I’m always here to talk, and the therapist will be there too.”

Sounds good. You really do seem to know what your teammates need. 🙂

Vista nodded.

“If you need a break from the team, just say the word.  I’ll talk to Piggot.”

She shook her head, “No.  I want to work.  I want to help.”

Yeah… she may be taking Weld’s suggestion to let the others take some of the responsibility, but she doesn’t want to dump it all on them. She wants to uphold Aegis and Gallant’s legacy.

“Okay.  Then we’ve got patrol in… two hours and fifteen minutes.  Go relax, watch some TV, maybe take a nap.”

“Alright.  Don’t you dare let me sleep through patrol.”

“I wouldn’t.”

😀

The tears were rolling down her cheeks, now.  She let her head hang, her damp hair a curtain between her and her team leader.  He stood, pulled her into a hug.  She pressed her face against his shirt.  It was soft, but the body beneath was hard, unyielding.  It was still very gentle.

I really,

really,

really like these two.

Y’know, in general, this Arc has so far done a much better job than Interlude 3 at letting me get to know the Wards, probably mainly due to the expanded format and ability for Wildbow to focus on each character in more detail. I find that I quite like all of them except Sophia.

And hey, chances are next chapter is about Sophia. Who knows what’ll happen over the course of that. I don’t think I’ll outright like her, but Wildbow could be pulling out some empathetic traits. Or he could be going the opposite way, to reinforce the sense of “why does a person like this get to be a Ward”. Either way, I’m getting ahead of myself – this is stuff I should be speculating on in the end-of-chapter post.

Just the mention of crying made her eyes water again.  Vista wiped it away once more, “I’ve cried enough.”

“If your body wants to cry, then you should listen to it.  It doesn’t make you any weaker if you let it happen.  You think I’ve never cried?

I wonder if Weld ever gets rusty cheeks.

Or other parts of his body, when left underwater for too long… Other people get wrinkly skin, Weld gets rusty.

Looking like I do, facing the disappointments and frustrations I have?  Maybe it’s self-serving to think so, but I think it takes a kind of strength to let yourself face your emotions like that.”

Everyone has it tough from time to time. It’s important to let those emotions out somehow.

It seems Weld is better at understanding other people’s emotions (and psychology) than I gave him credit for back in 9.1.