<div align="center"><span class="bbc_u"><strong>Thursday, January 9th - 3:08 AM</strong></span><br/><em>Garage &gt; Tree Swing</em></div><hr/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/14/be/44/14be4445184d65863579f9e31ce34df1.jpg)</div><strong>WHO:</strong>Marley Ann (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=316749.msg15283294#msg15283294)<br/><strong>WEARING:</strong>Yellow raincoat (pictured), grey sweatpants, white sneakers<br/><strong>DOING:</strong>Obliging a late night request<br/><strong>NOTE:</strong>--<br/><strong>TAGGING:</strong>Kaine<br/><hr/><br/>He looked like he had been working for a while.<em>Shit.</em>Marley shoved her lukewarm hands in the big, yellow, front pockets of her raincoat. She watching him, carefully, as he cleaned sand of out Betty at 3am in the fucking morning. He probably wasn’t going to drive Betty for a while, or at least not later<em>today</em>. Was he running out of excuses already? “I’m not concerned about the<em>effectiveness</em>of your signal, Kaine,” Marley corrected. Whatever state Kaine was in, she still wasn’t about to let him push her around.<em>She didn’t want him to ruin snow for her.</em>She watched as he walked over to a bin full of boiling water that Tristyn reserved for cleaning certain equipment. She could see the steam rising off of it. Kaine stuck his arms in like it was nothing. Marley winced. It was a misconception that she couldn’t feel pain.<em>She just got over it quicker than most.</em><br/><br/>Kaine came back and extended a hand to her.<em>Had he been taking his sleep medication?</em>To her dismay, he lead her back outside, to the lone tree swing she often forgot existed.<em>She</em>couldn’t stay outside for very long, not in the freezing snow. She wasn’t even wearing a sweater under her raincoat.<em>Couldn’t they go back inside, even back to the warm garage?</em>She really didn’t want to get more fucking frostbite. Then he broke. Marley eyed him, but stayed standing next to the swing he had collapsed on. It wasn’t just the<em>student’s</em>nightmares she wanted to keep away. “They call it survivor’s guilt but that’s a real fucking misnomer.” Marley breathed after a few silent moments, watching her air cloud in front of her face in the cold. She hadn’t volunteered for the Eclipse but she had certainly survived other events, due to her powers. “Some days it’s guilt. Other days, you feel pride. Other days, you feel gratitude.” She<em>had</em>watched people die, unable to do anything else, long before the Cathedral existed. Long before she knew Kaine, or any of the other founders who she now considered her family. She had been able to heal herself, from any injury, since she was born. “Some days it’s anger, then the next it's fear, mostly of yourself.” She bent down, and scoped up a large handful of snow in her bare hands. She stepped in front of him, the snowflakes falling on her eyelashes. “But most days, Kaine, I find it’s just unbelievably lonely.” She paused for a moment, looking at him. She was sorry the war had been<em>his</em>first time with death.<em>Her feet were fucking numb.</em>Then she threw the snowball at his chest.<br/><br/>Kaine was an entire foot taller than her, making him quite the easy target. “Now,” Marley began, immediately scooping up more snow. She would worry about his nightmares<em>after</em>she fixed his lack of tiredness. “I know you couldn’t feel how cold that was because your strength is still cranked up way too high,” she clasped the snow between her freezing fingers. Years ago, she had tried to do conceptualize Kaine’s abilities. Essentially, he could push his human body to its limits -- strength, agility, stamina and senses. Doing so enabled him to increase his durability and his adaptability, though he couldn’t see through walls, or go invisible, and Barry could out speed him every time. Clearly, he had already toned down his senses and his agility, but he was holding onto his inhuman strength and his stamina if he had been up for fucking<em>days</em>. “You’re tired, Kaine,” she molded the snow into a second snowball, “you are. You’re just too afraid to let your powers down and feel it.” She wasn’t blaming him for being afraid. She was afraid too, and she<em>hadn’t</em>been on the front lines of the war. “So this time, I want you to try and feel how cold this is,” she threw the second snowball at his face, instantly creating a third. She would create as many snowballs as it took for him to feel human again.