Edward
A late afternoon sunset painted across the sky. It looked warm, and if one were to view the horizon alone, perhaps they'd picture a warm day – but the surface was still covered in a sheet of snow. It wasn't as cold as it could be – hovering around freezing temperature – but most still opted to stay indoors to wait until the fiendish temperatures finally relented. Jolie thought often of what she would rather be doing if she were back home, where temperatures like these could probably kill a few people on infrastructure instability alone. She wondered what her town would look like covered in snow.

That is what brought Jolie out into the cold this time; cloaked in several more layers now than the last time she went out walking, she went searching for the quietest place closest to the facility. She wore a baggy white Pepsi brand t-shirt tucked into high-waisted light blue jeans – with a layer of leggings underneath – and a dark beige trench coat with big white fur cuffs. The coat in particular was eye-catching, not in its extravagance, for it seemed well worn at best, but in the way it sat on her body. It was very large and loose; this garment was not hers. She wore a slouchy beanie that matched her coat and worked well to conceal the ethereal behavior of her hair.

Eventually, she would reach her destination – she'd walked out the back of the facility and walked from the path to the sports field, leaving a diverging trail off into the small field of tall grass. There she stood before it, her hands in her pockets, heavy gray work boots sunk slightly into the snow; she dipped her head and closed her eyes.

She thought of the wide roads and the small buildings, the big lakes and the long fields. She remembered all the movies she watched as a kid with snowy cities – wondered why it was always some city in England – and opened her eyes. The long road of her hometown covered in snow unraveled before her, and as the wind swirled past her face, in one ear and out the other, she felt herself enter this imagination, stepping forwards and leaving her body behind. 

Under the sunset, Jolie stood there quietly, head still dipped as the snow around her kicked up; it didn't appear to be a singular gust of wind that guided the snow particles, but instead the wind in the area around her seemed to move as one; the snowflakes jutted to the left and paused, falling for a few seconds, before moving again to the right. It seemed almost like a fragile dance.
Anna
◇ Late afternoon. Perfect time for a stroll.

□ Admittedly, she was not dressed as heavily as she'd have liked for even a short stroll out in the cool late afternoon air. Her beloved camo jacket had suffered yet another burn hole, and she'd taken the excuse to finally get all its holes seen to with needle and thread. In the meantime, though, she was stuck with only an old red windbreaker from some notable brand for warmth. Stepping out from the residence she sucked air through her teeth like a flinch reaction to the cool and she rubbed her hands together lightly before jamming them in her pockets.

□ Strolling down several concrete paths, she'd decided to take a little stroll into the woods, to a little clearing she'd used as a hideout once or twice while evading trouble back at the Cradle. It had even become *Part* Of her troublemaking, and as she thought about the times she'd ran there and hid in the various trees and bushes a light smile spread across her face. Hands in her pockets and eyes in the trees she lumbered onwards slow and steady, eventually reaching the sports shed and noticing something weird: footprints.

▪︎ Very fresh, too. She could still see wisps of powder snow being blown away by the wind. She was curious.

□ So down the trail she went. One step after another, her heavy combat boots stomped out bigfoots with every step – mostly directed into the already-broken footsteps of whoever had came here before her. After about a minute she came across the clearing, but it wasn't just the clearing. It was also a girl, in an oversized coat, with her eyes closed and the wind itself forming little vortices she caught onto with her left eye like it was nothing. Infrared was a powerful tool, and as she approached this stranger she could be seen strapping an eyepatch on, leaving only her left eye exposed.

▪︎ That bizarre, almost horrifying left eye, with its four pupils and four irises and strange rings, peered right at the other girl from about fifteen feet away, which was when she made her presence known with a loud clap.

◆ "Awful chilly place to practice aerokinesis." She broke the ice, her heavily accented voice cutting through the quaint silence of the clearing like scissors through paper. "But fuck it. Whatever works, huh?"
Edward
The town before her was just as she remembered it. *Of course it was,* She thought, *It's only my memory.* She walked down the middle of the road with snow shoveled to the curbs. In the time she'd been going to the town, it had never snowed once. This was more of an approximation; the construction of this vision wasn't consciously built by herself, though. However these visions worked, she knew that they accessed a wide amount of her mind – subconscious included. She didn't realize these "Visions" Of hers were paranormal until they were deemed as such in the cradle. A part of her wished she never knew.

Her slow walk was interrupted when a loud noise cascaded over the town, echoing down the alleys and shaking the lampposts, their lights flickering in electric whimpers. Jolie had been doing this long enough to know what it meant; she dipped her head and closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was looking down at the snowy mounds of grass ahead.

She brought her hand to her neck to check for the hairband. Confirming its presence, she turned around to face the other girl.

"Fresh air and all," She remarked, an eyebrow raising as she observed the eye looking back at her. It was nowhere near as alarming as the phenomenon she witnessed before – that much was comforting. When she came to, the blowing winds seemed to cease in Jolie's vicinity, put into stasis to conserve warmth.

"It's different out in the open. You can really cut loose." She spoke as if controlling the wind was some sort of relatable touchpoint. It was difficult for her to realize that she could do something that others could not; subconscious efforts to wash herself of any personal responsibility or penance of her parahumanity.
Anna
◆ "Right." Margo replied in turn, noting how the little snowy vortices the other girl had been generating disappeared. Ephemeral. Short-lived; *Dust to dust.* "If your shtick is wind then that makes sense. Hard to wind bend indoors. Funny thing about this clearing though is that, well..."

□ Trailing off, Margo lurched back into motion, strolling closer to the other girl with her hands stuffed in her pockets. It was a slightly weird gait, but she made it work, the broad soles of her combat boots stomping holes into the snowy crust that had formed over the course of the winter. "I've been using this clearing to hide shit since I got here pretty much." She spoke as she skirted around the other gal. "Can't really get at it easy right now but there's something like... What, four bottles of gin under that log there?" She pointed with two fingers and an upturned thumb. "Which is basically a place the staff never looks. Makes it a good hiding spot, but that's neither here nor there; just got reminded of it."

▪︎ She walked over to the log she'd just pointed out and took a seat.

◆ "You must be new. Haven't seen you around yet." She spoke once she'd finished sitting down. "Margo Killjoy, professional girl kisser and reptile mom. You?"
Edward
As the other girl approached, Jolie's head dipped; there was a particular look in her slightly wide-set eyes that followed the girl's movement intensely – no, precisely. A skeptical fawn in those big, bright lights her mother warned her about. *If I can't trust mom,* She thought, *Then I have to trust the lights.* Her eyebrows slowly raised as if to ensure she was observing as much as possible in the moment. 

Jolie didn't move as she passed her by, but she did remove her right hand from her pocket, which was quickly swallowed by the large fur cuff. There was a relief that came over her when the stranger simply walked around her. It verged on rejuvenating – she felt stable, locked in place where she stood.

She eventually turned to face the other girl as she pointed to her hidden stash. Upon the mention of gin, a wash of memories hit her countenance; the manner of which would be as difficult to determine to the stranger as it was to herself. It was clear enough that she was impressed, and that some part of her wanted a glass.

"Jolie Stone. All I've really done so far is fall out of a tree," She said blankly, almost disinterestedly – she was far more inclined to speak of the next bit. "You're a real bootlegger. I can help you get to it," She offered with barely disguised expectancy. She was never more amicable to the world when alcohol was involved; Jolie only ever drank when she was free, dancing with Lancaster in some place they would never be found.

She should've been used to being thrown in fish bowls at this point, but she wasn't. If there was ever a key to living comfortably in this life, it was somewhere under that log – she was sure of it. Maybe it'll jog her memory, jostle something free in her mind, or wake her up from this Nickelodeon nightmare she found herself in. Snap out of it.
Anna
◆ "Least you're livin'." Margo remarked, squaring her knees off and leaning into the gap slightly. "Not the first, not the last. I know Owen – you'll meet 'em eventually. Long ginger hair, metalhead, dating one of my close friends – falls out of trees sometimes. It happens, I guess."

□ Clearly there was no real point to the little anecdote she reeled off with a casual air about her, or at least no big point. If she had any point it was lost by the time she shut her trap and fixed her attention on Jolie, who was now in the midst of offering to help her with her hidden booze. "Don't really need at it right now, honestly, but I'll keep the offer in my wallet." She casually spoke, blowing a few strands of dyed red hair out of her face. She pulled her eyepatch off with a hum. "That's a sayin'. It's like a business card, y'know? Something my uncle used to say. Maybe that's just my upbringing talking though."

▪︎ She let the air hang stagnant for a few moments.

◆ "But. I can read people pretty well, and I can tell you want what's under the log." She turned her gaze onto Jolie again, equal parts intense and affable. "I'd offer ya a bottle, but... How do I know you ain't gonna rat me out, right? Don't really know you yet, but that's always some shit to be remedied, so. Take a seat. Let's chat. It's nice out and I doubt either of us got shit to do, so."

▪︎ She tapped the log beside her expectantly. Maybe she'd take no for an answer, but it didn't *Seem* That way in the moment.
Edward
There was visible disappointment in Jolie's face when her offer was dismissed. Either she was terrible at concealing her emotions or was so enlightened at the prospect of alcohol that it all went out the window, but her disposition brightened again when the possibility reemerged. 

This Margo Killjoy – wait, Killjoy? – had a mysterious accent she couldn't place. Jolie was no dialect coach, but she knew the basics of plenty of accents, and her's didn't fall under the ones she was familiar with. It didn't unnerve her as much as the idea that they were going to sit side by side in this quiet clearing for the express purpose of talking. She found discussion was much easier with the distraction of classwork, a warm fire, or lunch; people rarely offered the concept of 'getting to know one another.' Yet she couldn't just walk away now.

She sheepishly walked to the log, looking both ways as if she were crossing a street – anything was more tolerable than direct eye contact. When she approached the log, she waved a hand that was consumed within the sleeve and a gust of wind blew off whatever snow had collected, taking a seat with a mathematically comfortable and considerate distance between the two. She readjusted the hairband around her neck and placed her hands beside her, shoulders hitched inwards.

"I'm not a snitch or anything." Jolie looked over to Margo and slid the beanie off her head. She felt it looked stupid on her, and her hair somewhat matched the coat, even if it swayed upwards like an open flame. "Where did you even get four bottles of that stuff?" Her voice had a slight rasp to it. She never spoke much in a day – it was underutilized, a throat of cobwebs.
Anna
◆ "Maybe not." Margo plainly spoke. "But I'd rather not have to pay for another fake. Shit's priced like gold over here, honestly, and my allowance isn't that high anymore."

□ Casually talking, Margo rubbed her hands together briskly in what seemed a bid to keep her hands warm. She rubbed her hands together and looked up into the trees, curiously searching for something. What that something was, though, was anyone's guess. Whatever the case she had her attention drawn back to the earth once she felt Jolie sit down, and loath as she would be to admit it the rasp in her voice tickled her brain and her spine in all the right ways.

▪︎ Jolie might've been able to notice from the way Margo's expression changed in the moment or two after she'd been asked where she got it. 

◆ "Anyways, I got it at the liquor store down town. I managed to get a fake pretty early on and so far so good. Mostly just use it for smokes though. Speaking of which." Reaching into her windbreaker she produced a crumpled up pack of Marlboro Silvers, quickly knocking the pack open with her chin and yoinking one with her teeth. "Originally came out for one of these but then I got, like. Fuckin' bewitched by the beautiful weather. It's nice out, if a little chilly. Speaking of which, you smoke? No pressure."

▪︎ She held the open pack out, mostly out of a weirdly placed sense of politeness. It was an offering; would this goddess of wind claim it for herself?
Edward
There was something compelling about Margo that she couldn't name. Some of it was the accent, definitely, but she was getting the sense that she'd been here for a long time – perhaps longer than she'd like. It was hard for her to imagine that people embraced this place, making it their home of sorts. Jolie had forgotten what it was like to be truly lost. No matter how bad it got back home, she knew exactly where to go for everything she needed, regardless of what it was. Here, she felt everyone was searching for what they needed in a big maze of clinical concrete. That was it – to her, it didn't seem like Margo was searching, and if she was, there was no urgency.

Jolie lifted the coattails and let them fall over the log. She brought one leg up, pressed it against herself, and turned to face Margo a little more. It was difficult to tell if she was comfortable; her small frame sat spindly and odd upon the log. She didn't like being viewed from the side – she felt her nose was like a wall that ought to be viewed from head on.

The last time Jolie had a cigarette, she didn't like it. It didn't deter her from sliding one from the pack when it was offered. "Fakes, liquor, cigarettes," She recounted aloud, "Where are *You* From?" In truth, it was feeling more like home by the second. Alcohol and cigarettes were never far from the places she found herself in, from her own household to busted up trailers and abandoned buildings.

On closer inspection, the bare amount of makeup on her face seemed a little smudged, or at least shifted. Jolie was never too far from crying in the day, and from the slightly reddened eyes, nose, and messy black eyeliner, it seemed she wasn't too long from a bout of tears. Her voice, however, had no trace of quivering or wavering.
Anna
◆ "New York." She plainly replied. "Brooklyn if we're bein' specific, and Glasgow if we're tracin' my roots. Born there, lived until I was four, family home burnt to a crisp while we were away, Father packed us up and shipped us to Brooklyn so he could be closer to his Wall Street cronies. Fucker."

□ Digging into her pocket she produced a hefty Zippo. Flipping it open she quickly sparked it and lit her cigarette, dragging for a solid three seconds before exhaling a thick yet ephemeral cloud of white smoke. "I spent a lot of time in the Orkneys growing up though. Grandma lived and worked up there on the boats; good times. Learned a lot about fishing and living working those boats as a kid." She fondly spoke, almost as if recounting the tale allowed her to relive it, if just for a second. She pocketed her pack of smokes once Jolie had taken one, and she held out her lighter expectantly.

▪︎ Seemed unlikely she could have willed a flame into existence. That, and she couldn't get a bead on whether Jolie was the kind of person to carry a lighter or not.

◆ "But, yeah. I miss the city in some ways, but this place is home now, I guess. I have a job, a girlfriend, friends, a reliable fake... It's not so bad being here. Enough about me, though. Where are ya from? And what'd ya do to get sent here?"

▪︎ Better to keep it brief, she decided. Jolie didn't quite seem keen on divulging details about herself; she *Hoped* This wouldn't be another Amelie situation.
Edward
If she was being honest, she couldn't remember where Glasgow was, and had no idea what the 'Orkneys' were, but felt it was inappropriate to ask. It was nice to hear someone reminiscing about their past, but based on how she spoke of her father and how long she took that cigarette, she felt it was a mixed bag.

Jolie placed a hand behind her on the log and leaned forward, lighting the cigarette on the lighter. She was half expecting to cough her lungs out when she smoked, but she hardly felt any resistance – she kept forgetting her lungs were paranormal. When she was asked where she was from and how she was sent here, her gaze broke from the girl and off into the grass she was staring at before. A gentle breeze came from where she was looking – not enough to blow out their cigarettes, but enough to bevel her flowing hair.

"I'm from Alabama. Small town, rural, everyone-knows-everything kinda place." She looked at the cigarette between her fingers and thought of her next words in a momentary quiet. "I miss it. I-I feel like I'm not supposed to, but..." She trailed off, an upset mound welling in her chest. She took the cigarette to her lips, and it helped – if only to take a deep breath.

"Anyway. Mom and I were fighting, she threw something, woosh," She flicked her wrist off into the empty space in front of them and the wind kicked up some snow, "Hilarity ensued. I almost ran away with some boy, but you can't really run from something like this." Jolie thought of the last time she saw her mother, sitting at the dinner table with a cigar, refusing to even look at her. She didn't know her mother smoked. Maybe she didn't, and she dug up some old cigar for the drama – she wouldn't put it past her.

"I figured this place could protect me more than Jonny Lancaster from varsity badminton ever could." Either Jolie thought he was foolish for ever believing in her, or the joke was on her for feeling warm and safe when he vowed to protect her. There was never any shelter for her.
Anna
◆ *"Fuck,"* Margo winced lightly with a laugh. "Talk about a shitty place to grow up. No offense, obviously. Alabama is just... I passed through once. I had to piss behind every gas station we stopped at because of, well... I'd guess you know how bigoted Southerners can be when they see someone who isn't neatly and devoutly cishet. But it's fine to miss home, man, even if home's kind of hell. Know the feeling all too well, really. I miss home but I refuse to step under my father's roof again."

□ She trailed off for a moment, letting the facts settle into her brain. Jolie was from small-town Alabama, had an apparent dysfunctional relationship with her mom, and had apparently considered running away with some boy whose name struck a very discomforting chord in her chest. Her expression soured for a second in response. "So you caught the vase she pitched at you and she went into hysterics? Sounds... Familiar, actually." She hesitantly spoke. "But this place *Is* Better than some badminton player. There's the occasional incident, yeah – right now it's Levi and Basil and before it was a murderous group of vigilante angels out in the industrial park."

▪︎ Her expression lit up slightly.

◆ "I beat the shit out of two angels while I was there, actually. It was... Kind of fun, even though the aftermath was emotional hell. I dunno. I guess my point is that even with all the paranormal bullshit you'll be safer here than anywhere in Alabama. The Cradle's honestly pretty good outside of the cafeteria food... They could do with a Michelin-starred chef in that kitchen."
Edward
Jolie let her talk in full with her passive gaze fixed on her. She looked away only to take a drag, though it seemed her attention was caught primarily when Margo mentioned not being 'devoutly cishet.' She knew she wasn't *Het,* But *Cis?* The thought of potentially sitting next to the only other trans person she's ever met made her dizzy; her form shriveled and her posture worsened, and she felt the strong urge to hop away with the wind like a rabbit.

In the past, she'd theorized what she would do if she met another trans person in her small town. She thought of grand plans, adventures, rebellion, triumph, camaraderie, comfort – safety. The last thing Jolie Stone thought she would feel in this moment was fear. What was there to fear? It was as this girl clearly said: she is safer here than anywhere back home. Why was everything inside of her telling her to run? 

Then, as Margo finished speaking about something to do with angels that she wasn't entirely listening to, it was made clear to her. The urge to run was as strong as the urge to come out to her – right here, right now. They were inseparable, like a first and last name. 

There was a thorny silence as her head dipped, as if compressing her vocal cords would squeeze the words from her throat. She didn't like vocalizing *It,* Or anything to do with *It.* Everyone always knew about her, and if they were asking to hear it from her mouth, it was from contemptuous disbelief. It was like approaching the cave of a bear that hadn't been seen around – perhaps it was gone, or perhaps it was hibernating.

"Are-... Are you trans?" Whatever safety she was holding onto began to slip away. Jolie appeared as a gazelle with shimmering eyes, looking to discern whether Margo was a piece of log in the water or a crocodile lying in wait. She had set herself up for a decision: either she is honest to this girl, or she chooses to perpetuate the lie. There was no longer a passive excuse – this was a conscious choice.
Anna
★ ``"Are-... Are you trans?"``

□ The hesitancy in Jolie's voice told Margo most of what she needed to know. Growing up in New York City she'd always relished in the relative anonymity – save for her father's name – she'd had, free to be herself and do whatever she wanted safe in the knowledge that nobody – aside from her friends, perhaps – would even remember her once the train came into the station. It was a big city privilege, and clearly it hadn't been extend to Jolie, who'd been unlucky enough to grow up in small-town Alabama – a place that likely still held pockets of all the worst extremists in contemporary America.

▪︎ In that context she couldn't blame Jolie for being so nervous about being truthful. It was only natural.

◆ "Yup. Sure am." Margo confirmed, clasping her hands together lightly and making sure to not bend any crinks into her cigarette. "Been this way since I was a kid. Think it made it easier since when I came out I knew I wasn't backing down from bein' myself." She continued. "But... The way you say that tells me a lot about you already. If you're trans then Jesus it must have sucked growing up in Alabama. Like I said, I had to piss behind gas stations when I passed through, and I was already a year and a half on E, so."
Edward
A silence fell upon Jolie. Her hair's ephemeral sway died, and it laid flat and frizzy on her shoulders for the first time in a long while. There were thoughts to be thought and feelings to be felt, certainly – yet the air only grew quieter, and all that could be heard was the burning cigarettes. There was a blank expression on her face as she looked down at the cigarette, perhaps slightly uncomfortable, as if she could feel her mind twisting and cramping behind her eyes.

The pain was excruciating, but she chose to feel it – to numb it was oblivion, yet to feel was to be in pain. There was a familiar exhaustion that permeated in her chest; the feeling of the end of the rope, where one must climb or hold for as long as they can. As the boy before her trusted Jolie, she knew now that she must trust Margo.

"Yeah," She brought her legs together and a gust of wind extinguished her cigarette, "It did." Her voice finally wavered and her arms crossed against her stomach, as if something deep within her gut was stirring. It seemed now that her composure was finally breaking despite her best efforts. She could no longer bring herself to look at the other girl, eyes affixed to some point in the snow, but she was still vaguely turned towards her. 

"I-I guess all I've ever been good at is breaking the rules, even when I really don't want to," She remarked with a stifled laugh, raising a hand to wipe a tear away. She leaned forward over her lap, perhaps to conceal her face with her unkempt hair as she slowly became a collection of sniffles and unsteady breaths.

There were a thousand things she wanted to say and ten thousand different ways she could say them. It petrified her into an ineloquent mess. She felt the nerves in her body rise to the places she was struck the most. It was the worst feeling.
Anna
◇ All she could do was shake her head and click her tongue lightly.

■ "That's the trans experience, I guess." Margo replied, hesitancy in her view hinting at how uncertain she felt. "We go against the grain and it makes us tougher and kinder and more wise to the world than any transphobe could ever hope to be. But... That's probably cold comfort, huh?"

□ Every other trans person she'd befriended throughout her life was open about it. It was celebrated, brought up often in prideful displays or the recountings of past trans-specific traumas. 

▪︎ Jolie, however, was a little different.

□ Dishevelled, her hair hung in her face and her body – itself postured so small, so frightful, that Margo couldn't help but feel a pang of empathy. Unsure of how to comfort Jolie she eventually settled on a hand on her shoulder, the strong yet soft skin of her hands gently rubbing the other girl's back in a bid to comfort her.

◆ "I... Know a lot about rule breaking. N-not that it exactly *Matters,* Yeah, but. Y'know." She fell silent for a few moments, rummaging through the files of her brain until... *Aha.* "There's something my therapist would say here... Some shit about letting yourself be vulnerable? Letting yourself be... I dunno, seen as scared or sad or whatever? She's, uh. She's told me that before in our sessions. Helps me a lot. Might help you. Anyways."

▪︎ Wow, she was *Not* Good at this. She mentally wheezed.
Edward
Insecurity coursed through her veins, even now. Her shoulders – broad, boney, *Manly,* – felt smaller beneath Margo's hand. It was grounding; she felt the searing curse of observation, and every muscle in her body ached to disappear, but the other girl's grasp comforted her quietly: she belonged there upon the log for now.

Jolie listened intently, eventually tucking some frizzy hair behind her ear to view the girl again, her face dewey and reddened. It was captivating to hear the way she spoke of trans people. She thought it was almost evangelical – 'worldlier than thou.' She'd never heard it put so congratulatory. 

"Your therapist sounds nice," She spoke meekly, uncoiling her arms from her waist to be propped loosely on her lap. "Uhm... I guess I'm scared right now, a-and I definitely *Feel* Vulnerable, in, like, a different way. I thought a lot about what I would say if I met someone like you – or someone like me, I guess – but, uh, I can't remember any of it now, so... Sorry."

She nervously fidgeted with her own digits before slightly jerking upwards upon a sudden realization. "I-I'm not scared of you or anything," She frantically clarified, "I can't say I'm not scared of this whole place, but, uh... I think I'm mostly scared of not having a reason to hide. I-It's like, I've been trying to survive this whole time, what if I turn around and there's just... Nothing left?" Her voice broke near the end of her sentence as a bout of tears welled upwards.

Now that there was a clear view of her face, it appeared that Jolie was actively fighting the tears. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she almost appeared angry or wounded. "I don't want to turn-..." Her tone was weak and shrill, "Fuck. I-I'm sorry, I don't know why..."

She finally gave into a quiet sob. A hand covered her crying eyes as her words dissolved.
Anna
◆ "Huh. Maybe that's – wait. Hold on." The hand that had been steadily kneading little biscuits into Jolie's shoulder came to an abrupt stop. "You've *Never* Met other trans people? You were the only one you knew of in your town? That's... Fuck, man. My big city brain can't wrap its head around that. Knew Alabama wasn't exactly *Queer,* But..."

□ Not much else needed to be said, she hoped. Her piece stuttered out somewhat awkwardly she fell quiet, listening to Jolie as things began to spill out from her mouth. She was vulnerable, a little scared, and very uncertain sounding. Margo occasionally nodded.

□ Once the dam broke and the first quiet sob creaked out of her Margo once again felt uncertain herself. How far could she go with the comfort? Would Jolie even want the kinds of comfort that she knew how to give? Comfort was never her strong suit. It wasn't her strong suit but she felt she had to do something anyways, so she did something.

▪︎ That something was wrapping an arm around Jolie and – with some effort – blowing her mouthful of smoke away from the crying girl next to her.

◆ "Don't gotta apologize." Margo replied, doing her best to hide how unsure she felt about what was currently happening next to her. "I... I getcha, actually. I understand always having to fight and struggle and rely on yourself. Not gonna get into the details." She nervously tugged the collar of her windbreaker lightly two or three times, phantoms of abuse still alive in her soul across an ocean and several sovereign states. 

■ "But the thing is, once you're done fightin', that's when you get to actually live, I'd say. You finally get to stop and smell the roses, so to speak. It's what I had to learn on my own when I got here, which is to say you're already doin' better than I was." She continued, her voice faltering into a throaty chuckle. "Not to make light of your problems; quite the opposite. Just trying to relate. I'm... Not great with comforting people. Sorry." She rubbed the back of her head with her free hand, accidentally ashing her cigarette into her hair in the process. "You'll be fine, mate. Promise. Might not seem like it right now, but..."

▪︎ She fell silent again, but she kept Jolie in her strong yet gentle grasp, rubbing her arm and trying her best to be comforting.
Edward
Though she didn't appear to entirely embrace this closer hold, she'd slightly turned in her direction, and her head veered towards her as well. Overall, Jolie seemed rigid and frightened, but not of Margo. Her sobs were quiet – almost silent. She was ashamed of losing her composure so wholly in front of this girl she'd never met, and had managed to subdue her sobs to sharp breaths and sniffles; she couldn't, however, conceal the way her shoulders trembled, nor the softest whine drawing in the back of her throat.

As she listened in full, it appeared that the worst of her emotions had subsided – if only a marginal difference – and she regained relative use of her voice.

A faint smile spread across her dewy face. "I never saw myself as anything much. I love being a girl, but..." The smile faded. "I don't like being trans." She looked into Margo's eyes with a mixed expression of expectancy and worry. "Does that ever change? A-And be honest. I can tell when people are lying." 

Jolie, in fact, could not tell when people were lying – at least, not in any special paranormal way. Her delivery wasn't all that convincing regardless. From where she stood, Margo lived in truth in a way that Jolie couldn't. She embraced her truth, certainly, but she did not own it. Jolie was governed by truth, but Margo governed *It.* Now was her chance to seek wisdom from this girl, who clearly knew how to live this life properly; this was where she would look back, rearrange some wires, and live the way she was supposed to be living all this time. 

...However, she had spent far too much time thinking alone in the dark to entertain the idea that this random girl would hold the skeleton key to living freely. As much as she enjoyed the wellspring of whimsical hope, it eventually wilted into her familiar jagged stagnation. She didn't know what Margo would say, but all she wanted was the truth – or, a truth. One that hadn't crossed her mind before.
Anna
◆ "Hm."

□ Now there was a doozy of a question. *Was she ever going to like being trans?* Margo, perhaps unsurprisingly, had no clear answer for Jolie. Not out of a genuine unawareness of the virtues of being trans – quite the opposite, in fact, but out of something else. She chewed on it as she thought, softly gnawing the filtered tip of her cigarette and rubbing Jolie's arm until it was clear she was crying no more, and once she'd stopped she'd give the girl some space to herself, going right back to where she'd been on the log before.

▪︎ She stopped humming after a few moments.

◆ "Not sure. I'll, uh... I'll be honest, mate. Being trans has never been something I've hated. It's been tough, yeah. I've been sucker punched in the mouth so hard it's knocked out teeth. I've been called slurs I don't think any sane human has ever heard nor conjured. I've been expelled from three private academies for putting transphobic bastards in hospitals. But, like... Nowhere in there did I *Hate* Being trans. I hated the people who hated me and that was it. Hate for hate; eye for an eye. Honestly kind of business-like."

▪︎ She took a drag.

◆ "But will *You* Ever not hate being trans...? I'd say once you've got a supportive network of, like, friends and found family and maybe a therapist – I can give you Lena's number. She's my therapist and she's swell. Then once you've got that support and your transness is something more than a shameful secret that gets books and slurs thrown at you you might start to see it differently. I dunno, though. Like I said, I've only ever hated being trans in brief moments of weakness. Not like I chose to be this way. I simply am and so I live this truth no matter what. Then again it's easier to live that way in Brooklyn than it is small-town Alabama, so..."
Edward
"I'm sorry you went through all that. It, uh... Sounds familiar, besides the hospital part," She admitted quietly, compressing an arm across her stomach as her other fiddled with the collar of her slouchy coat. Jolie recalled the days she spent huddled against the old classroom window to catch the feeble, whistling gusts she needed to enter the worlds inside her head, hearing her tormenting peers in the distant playground. She knew now her visions were paranormal, but she never told a soul; though she imagined even if she did, it would've been quickly forgotten when she came out.

"I-I don't think it's because I *Hate* It. I guess... A lot of things happened when I came out. Things that wouldn't have happened if I'd just stayed quiet." She wiped a tear from her face, her gaze lost in the snow between them. "I was in a lot of pain before I transitioned, but I still had the whole world ahead of me. Now I can't go anywhere, and I went through so much to make myself happy, and I'm just not. All that's ahead of me now is an older hypothetical me that's *Supposed* To be happier, *Supposed* To be smarter. Prettier. And all I can do is wait." 

She gave a shaky sigh. "There was a time in my life where if I could somehow take it all back, I would, and it would've been the easiest decision I'd ever made – but all I got are wind powers," She scoffed. "I used to like being all quaint and dotty. It's like, you're so disconnected from yourself and from the world, so you spend most of your time in fantasies and daydreams. Then your fantasy becomes reality. I-It's like those people up in space stations where the zero gravity fucks up their organs and they start moving around in there and it gets all smushed." She prodded at her own stomach as a sort of rudimentary demonstration.

"And, uhm... I appreciate the offer, but I don't think I'm ready for therapy. Yet. Or ever, I don't really know," She mumbled, snaking her arms through her sleeves and rubbing her own elbows. The prospect of sitting across another person that is being paid to 'fix' you was alarming to Jolie, even if she was almost certain it was more intricate than that.

"A-Anyway. I've given you a horrifying amount of information about myself and I'd like some gin, now." There was a veil of nervousness that seemed to evaporate from her countenance – she embraced a sort of tear stained sarcasm.
Anna
◆ "Yeah, I getcha." Margo calmly spoke, cigarette idly dancing between her fingers. "You gave up so much and fought so much and you're barely two steps ahead. Feels terrible and it also... It kinda leaves ya lost, I'd presume." A moment of silence. "Lost and somewhere between the land and the clouds, between the cogs and gears of society, all that shit. Hm."

□ Naturally, Margo needed to chew on what she had heard for a second. It was a lot, a dense confession of anguish and the elusive nature of happiness, and she couldn't help but feel a bit of pity. Her head was nothing but pity, the faint buzzing of nicotine flies in her skull, and a brief stint of self-doubt. Realistically it was stupid to be worrying over her own trans experience and its validity compared to Jolie's, but the doubts were still there.

▪︎ They were there, and they *Weren't* Helping.

◆ "Aye, yeah, I-I guess I do owe you." She hummed, leaning to one side and thrusting her hand into the snow. With little effort she broke through the icy shell up top, and after about ten seconds of digging around and the muffled noise of glass bottles clinking against each other she produced a bottle of gin. At first glance though it might've looked more like a vessel of ink, or a potion in an apothecary's shop, with dark violet glass and a large cork and a beautiful yellow-white striped ribbon around the neck. 

◆ "I was fucking with you the whole time, actually." She chuckled. "I just didn't want to show where it was hidden because, y'know. It's technically contraband. I've seen people get their IDs seized here because of loose lips and I refuse to be the same." She continued, holding up the bottle for Jolie to look at. "Not saying you're a rat. Just. Y'know? Anyways this is some gin from across the sea – the North, not the Atlantic. The Brits **Love** Their gin, and i'm inclined to agree." She casually spoke as she uncorked the bottle and took a couple of swigs with only the curling of her lips showing any reaction to the fact she was drinking straight liquor. "Here. No, I don't have chasers on me. You'll just have to sip it straight, mate. Enjoy."

▪︎ She handed the bottle over.
Edward
There was a sentimental relief that washed over her when Margo echoed what she said – as unkempt and desperate as Jolie felt she was – she seemed to understand. *Between the land and the clouds.* That's how it felt. She'd even decided that it was how it's always felt. Traversing the air between rock bottom and the stratosphere. She couldn't help but conjure images of *Flappy Bird.* At any other time she would've made herself laugh, but whether it was the sudden release of emotions or the stirring of nicotine in her brain, she gave the comparison a little too much significance. *I'm fuckin' Flappy Bird, man.*

When Margo surged the bottle of gin from the snow below and confessed to her own subterfuge, Jolie gave a chuckle. "Fuck. I was getting ready to flip this whole log over," She remarked, grabbing the bottle when it was offered. She examined it closely for no particular reason besides observing the way the snow and ice sat on the glass.

"Well, I don't care much for the British," She raised the bottle, "But I'm sure they love drinking." Jolie took a cautious swig, and though she didn't combust on the spot, it sent shivers through her body. "Jesus. I don't know how much of that I should drink," She wiped her mouth with the forearm of her coat. It was certainly stronger than anything she'd drank before – almost tasting like pure gasoline to her. Perhaps it would've been bearable with a chaser. Oh well.

She held the drink on her lap, prepared to hand it to her if she gestured to it. "Thanks. For the drink, and for the, uh... Talk." Her gaze affixed to the ground between them again. "It felt nice, I guess. But I'm done talking about myself." Jolie looked at Margo. "What's your deal? I don't have any drugs to offer in exchange, so... You can say whatever. Or nothing." 

Her body language seemed to finally relax, or in some ways revert to how it was before she began speaking of her past, bringing a leg up to rest on the log, her shoulders hunched in terrible posture.
Anna
◆ "Aye, I can drink to that." Margo chuckled as Jolie took a swig and handed the bottle back. "The British can fuckin' suck it. It's in my blood to hate 'em; not racist, just Scottish."

□ Speaking with a light chuckle underlying her voice, Margo grabbed the bottle when it was handed back to her and took another swig. The corners of her lips curled up once again, but otherwise she handled the mouthful of liquor like a champ, and once she'd swallowed she set the bottle down beside her against the log.

□ Jolie had asked her what her deal was. It was an innocuous question, a natural follow-up to breaking down and telling a stranger entirely too much. She hummed and began to gather her thoughts, but initially her mind was scattered and hesitant. She took one last drag off her cigarette and flicked it away thoughtlessly.

◆ "No worries, man. Not the best at helping people with their problems, but... Here we are." Margo casually spoke. "But my deal...? I dunno. Confession: it always feels weird to just simplify myself like that." She shrugged. "But. I love jazz. Reptiles. Dead languages. Old kung-fu movies. I go fishing during the warmer months. Have a girlfriend. Love her dearly, in fact." She spoke with just a little awkward hesitation, chaining words together the best she could. "She's wonderful and I still think it's insane that I managed to rizz her, for lack of betters words. Like."

▪︎ She leaned forward, clapping her hands together.

◆ "She'd literally just broken up with her ex and I showed up to check up on her, like friends do." She began, her gaze suddenly shifting from intent and recollective to vacant – or perhaps not there at all. "I show up and I knock, right, and we get to talking after she opens the door. We weren't even that close at the time, but, like... We were talking about the breakup and I decided to flirt with her a little without thinking about it much. She reciprocated that shit! And it took me a solid minute to collect myself afterwards. We kissed before we even went on a date, man; felt kinda weird. I kinda felt like a two cent whore, y'know?"

▪︎ Irony dripped from her voice. Clearly it wasn't that serious that she'd kissed first and asked questions later.
Edward
As she listened to Margo – and as the liquor went straight through her like an asteroid through the atmosphere – Jolie came to a realization. Upon the log sat two women. They were different, similar, and different again. Margo had built a life here in a way that Jolie had barely even dreamed of back home. Was it possible for her, too, to go fishing in the summer? Not entirely; she remembered the first time she held a freshly caught fish and she compulsively ejected it from her arms, as if she was the one squirming to break free – suffocating.

"Damn. You have, like, a whole thing here." Her tone was congratulatory despite her reaching for the bottle, holding it in her lap. Questions and statements permeated through her mind; some observations burned a hole through her forehead, some pleas for guidance dripped from the tip of her tongue, yet her lips stayed shut. She had been tender enough. This was enough danger.

Jolie bookended this momentary scramble for words with a swig of the gin, squeezing her knees as it scorched down her throat. "I don't know if I could ever really commit that much to this place." She placed the bottle in between them, her gaze roving across the snow. "It's all so medical and dehumanizing. We're *Para* Humans. *Para* Normal.*" She looked at Margo with a troubled expression, eventually sighing and turning to the snow again.

"I-I guess, uhm... How are we supposed to act normal when we aren't?" There was a pang of guilt that resonated in her conscience. She didn't wish to undermine or question Margo's life in the facility, but Jolie couldn't question her own future here without questioning Margo's present. 

When she felt the rebellious spite in her spirit die, the question of her identity being a choice weighed heavier than ever. She suffered for her actions regardless of the answer. The desire to be scrubbed clean of her powers and her gender came from the same place; to avoid suffocation, to throw the squirming trout.
Anna
◇ Margo chuckled at the mention of her roots being settled in.

■ "Guess you can say that." She spoke with roughly the same inflection as an actual shrug. "But I've been here a while. Next month it'll be a year... Yeah, the 13th actually. Rolled in on the 13th of April last year. *Fuck,* Where'd the time go...?" Her voice trailed off, her gaze going distant. A year's worth of memories flashed through her skull as she looked off into the trees, the mouthfuls of gin she'd drank already beginning to drive a stake between her body and her brain. She swayed lightly in place, and only occasionally nodded as Jolie spoke.

◆ "But yeah, I get you. I felt that way when I got here, actually." She reached out for the bottle and took one last swig, wincing a little more on the third sip than the previous two. She coughed lightly and cursed being a lightweight under her breath. "I was super uncertain, and I was on the defensive all the time since I didn't know a damn thing about here, nor the people. I nearly laid my roommate out on the first day. It sucked ass, honestly, and once I accepted that I was stuck here life started to get a lot easier. It's honestly not that bad here, but trust me, I know it seems tantamount to a death sentence when you first get here."

◆ "But, I think the best way to live here is to simply live, y'know? Everyone here is parahuman; *Everyone.*" She placed extra emphasis right at the end. "We're all weird and crooked and superpowered and saddled with heavy crowns, but we all keep on living. The Cradle's basically just a glorified microcosm of a comic book world, and... And I guess we all find ourselves in who we are instead of *What* We are. That's kind of the point of the Cradle; learning to live with the magic in our blood."

▪︎ She trailed off for a minute, and silence filled in the gaps.
Edward
A stillness overcame Jolie as Margo offered her thoughts. She didn't move, blink, breathe; all of her attention was glued to the words emanating across the log, transcending her own physical senses, her voice carried by the tides of wind between them and washed into the invisible source of Jolie. The spiritual sensation was overwhelming, yet there were no more emotions to be spared. Her gaze sat still in the snow in the extended silence.

"Magic," She repeated, "*Magic.*" She lifted a leg over the log and faced her wholly, her hair flowing in its supernatural stagnation once again and covering her face. Jolie took the hairband around her neck and placed it on her head, subduing the ghostlike bob. 

Jolie took a microscopic sip of the gin. "We had a cat growing up. Her name was Nancy – we called her Nancycat." She closed her eyes and dipped her head, the severity of her smudged eyeliner revealing itself in full as a comforted smile spread across her face. "She was a big calico cat. Bright green eyes. She died when I was six. I was devastated, like, you couldn't really take me anywhere. Mom thought it'd be a good idea to pray for her in church." As she spoke, it was as if her voice seemed clearer; it was being strained in a way that it wasn't anymore, her tone flattened and almost deepened.

"My mom told me she looked over and saw the warmest smile she'd ever seen, like I'd never cry over Nancycat again. But I was smiling because when I closed my eyes, I saw Nancy right in front of me. Like I was looking straight through my eyelids." She opened her eyes. "I thought my dead cat was God for a wildly inappropriate amount of time. I know now that it was just because my powers can make us see things, but..."

Jolie's eyes traveled to the bottle in her hands but she decided against it. "What if my cat *Is* God? What would that even change? Nothing. It made me happier when I thought my cat was God and yet I was sure that I'd get yelled at for ever saying anything about it. I *Transitioned* Before telling a single soul about Nancy, like somehow *That* Was the darkest secret I'd ever had."

The headband on her hair began to itch; she took it off and threw it to the side. "I guess I won't really know the truth in this lifetime. Some things you do know, and some things you don't, and all I really am are the things I know and the things that I don't." Jolie was almost certain that this closing takeaway emerged from the fog of inebriation. She simply wanted Margo to know of her childhood cat.
Anna
◆ "Might as well be that." Margo replied in turn, noting how Jolie seemed to repeat the word over and over, as if it had a luscious texture on the tongue. She knew the feeling; echolalia was quietly familiar. "Used to think magic was in the blood, but now...? I dunno. Really don't."

□ Reaching out for the bottle, she could already feel the alcohol creeping up into her system. Alcohol on its own tended to flatten the otherwise hardened gal, shaking her legs with every step and slowing her thoughts by a factor or three or four depending on whether it was gin or cognac. Combined with the cold she wasn't entirely certain how steady the walk back to the Cradle would be, so she took another swig for the road and fished the cork out of her pocket.

▪︎ She left the bottle between her and Jolie, the cork propped against the inside lip of the bowl lightly – metaphorical last call.

□ Of course, though, she hadn't been ignoring Jolie. Quite the opposite, in fact. Nodding appropriately as she took her last swig and dropped the violet bottle between the pair, she took silent note of what Jolie was saying. *God as a cat* Seemed a simultaneously blasphemous and reasonable idea, faith pitted against reason in a somewhat pointless contest with a victory prize of determing where her soul would be going afterwards. 

◆ "Hm. Well put." Margo nodded, the ghost of a smile spread across her stone-chiselled features. "Though the things you don't know are what really makes ya, I'd say. The things you know are, like... Identity. It's your gender, your name, your hobbies, all that shit. But what makes us *Us* Is the shit we don't know. I dunno. I'm a severe lightweight and I'm already halfway to drunkenly rewatching every Lumity episode again, so." Laughter peeked out through the spaces in her words, and it was clear to her from this that it was nearing the time to head back. She shivered quietly in her windbreaker, itself woefully underinsulated for the Swedish cold. 

◆ "But that's cool, man. Honestly. Stray cats don't exactly live long so you likely made her life a lot better." She spoke. "Think you would've liked it in Brooklyn, actually. Cats *Everywhere.* Looks like Aoshima or Istanbul or some shit sometimes. But... I know the feeling. I had a childhood pet – still do, thank God," She sounded just a little *Too* Enthusiastic, "His name is Cosmo and he's my beardie. Basically a two foot long bundle of love and absolutely no thoughts. I got him when I was eleven, and honestly... It sparked something in me. Big fan of reptiles now; have three of them in my room, and the shop pet where I work is a gecko, so I count her too. I guess childhood pets really just... Have an impact, don't they?"
Edward
Though she looked to the nonverbal gesture of one last sip, given that she had just woefully confessed to believing her childhood cat was the Christian God and spiraled into an existential bout for the meaning of her identity, Jolie decided against any more alcohol for the night – or week. 

"I've thought about visiting the big city before. The way you describe it, doesn't sound too bad," She looked to her then up at the sky, her hair floating like a jellyfish in water. "And, I don't really know what *Lumity* Is, but I think I'm gonna play-... No, I could fall asleep, like, whenever I want to right now." The slouchy coat had finally begun to retreat her form, slipping from her right shoulder and pooling at her elbow, but she didn't seem intent on correcting it.

"Nancy was my first best friend, dude. I told her everything and she just sat around and tried to sleep on me, even though she was fucking huge. Your lizard sounds sick – like a smaller, scalier Nancy. Nancy-lizard." In reality, Jolie didn't have much love for reptiles. Her perspective of snakes was forever altered when black mambas entered the picture. 

The shock of how much she'd just revealed was finally catching up with her. The alcohol kept it from eating her alive, but she heard the barking and scratching of anxiety at her door. As much as she enjoyed their conversation, she didn't know how much longer she could continue being outside of her room.

"But, uh... Yeah, we should probably get going." She finally fixed her coat, which wasn't as effective at repelling the cold as she thought it'd be – at least, not with only her normal t-shirt underneath. "This was nice, though. I mean, the weather sucks, and I didn't really know what I'd do today, but this kinda made my day. And not just because of the gin."
Anna
◆ "I'd recommend it." Margo calmly spoke, pocketing the bottle and reaching for her pack of cigarettes. "It'd give you a different perspective. Small-town Alabama is nothing compared to, say, Times Square. I'm still not convinced it's safe for humans to be exposed to so many lights and so many goddamn advertisers at once. Numbs the brain, I dunno. Like this cold; *Fuck...*"

□ Trailing off into a string of barely audible complaints Margo flipped her pack open, produced another one, and popped it between her lips with Jolie's various thoughts and confessions to chew on. In many ways they differed, yet in just as many ways they were the same. Unsteady households, abusive heads, childhood pets that might as well have been household aspects of God Almighty. Trans kids figuring their ways out through life all on their own. 

▪︎ She hoped she'd see Jolie again. Maybe befriend her, even; she found a lot of herself in the other.

◆ "Yeah, I getcha, man. I'm sure Nancycat was a shining example of the platonic ideal of a cat. I'm... This is gonna sound odd, but it's good you had her, methinks." She offered up a genuine bit of thought as she rose to her feet and adjusted her coat. "Growing up in Alabama – or, well, anywhere – is tough without friends or some sort. Animals make the best friends. They don't judge and they don't hold biases. It's pure neutrality, like an egg sliding off a car door."

▪︎ She peered up at the sky, her eyes upturned, and she smiled as Jolie mirrored how she was feeling.

◆ "Yeah, honestly. I just came out for a smoke and I-I think I made a friend, no? Or are we just acquaintancs for now? Actually doesn't matter, hold onto that thought. You can decide that later. Ready to go whenever you are."