electrocynic | Guidance Counselor's Office, Thursday

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Guidance Counselor's Office, Thursday

And so another school term was drawing to a close. Normally, Electroclash would've been pretty thrilled about that, mostly because it meant they were all about to have a week off. Buuuut it was also her birthday in two days. And there was no one to take her on a bar crawl to start all the fights, this year. Well, no one with ginger hair and a poor attitude, anyway. Same thing really.

So, while some new counseling check-up emails had gone out, it was possible the counselor herself was going to be a bit... okay, even more unhelpful than usual. Unless you had something amusing to distract her with.

Fair warning.

[open office hours, mod yer emails, old and new.]

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Evan had gotten The E-Mail this week, and so he figured he probably ought to stop in to the counselor's office between his class and his library shift. He really wasn't going to get the opportunity otherwise, after all.

He was looking maybe a tiny bit tentative as he knocked on the door.

"Um, excuse me...? You're not busy, are you?"

If she was, he was totally ready to bolt. And he looked it, too.

"Nah," Electroclash said, looking up from... the paper she'd been doodling rude things on. "And I'm not gonna bite you, either. For one thing, you look like it might not be too bloody healthy for me."

She could've sounded more reassuring, sure, but she also could've sounded worse. She just didn't have a need to intimidate people who already looked intimidated. Even when in a bad mood.

"Come on in."

The 'not healthy' comment earned a bit of a wrinkled nose from Evan, and he spent a moment trying to puzzle out if she meant that about kids in general, or if it was the way he looked, specifically. Still, he eased his way into the room all the same, and closed the door... most of the way behind himself, at least.

"I got an e-mail," he explained, in case she needed an explanation for why he was there. And, in case she needed something to back up the fact that he'd gotten an e-mail, he had a printout of it, too, which he was holding out toward her. "Saying that I should stop by here to talk to the counselor before the end of the semester. So, um... here I am?"

Hi!

"You printed it out?"

That was new, judging by Electroclash's raised eyebrow. She was getting the feeling this kid might be one of those sensible types. Just a hunch.

"Well. Have a seat, then."

Evan nodded a little, blinking down at his printout before inching over to take a seat. Sensible? Him? Absolutely.

"I printed it out," he confirmed. "Um... shouldn't I have?"

He couldn't exactly un-print it, now that he had, but he could keep it so that she wouldn't have to deal with it, at least.

"It doesn't say why I was supposed to come here, though. I've read it over a few times to be sure."

"Usually you brats don't print 'em out," Electroclash rasped. Because that was a little too much proof for something no one in their right mind would fake in the first place, as far as she could tell.

But, she shrugged and leaned back in her chair. "It's a random check-up email," she explained. "With the island being up to some kind of bollocks or another all the time, the administration feels you lot need to be called in every once in a while. To see if any of you've cracked yet."

"Oh." And there was some tension, visibly easing from Evan's shoulders. "I don't think I've cracked yet. I kind of know what my cracking point is, and Fandom... hasn't totally dragged me there just yet."

Granted, he hadn't completely recovered from the time that he had cracked, either.

"I don't think so, anyway."

Hiding for two weeks didn't count as having cracked, did it?

Electroclash shrugged again. "Well, you're talking in complete sentences," she said, "so you've definitely not gone entirely off the deep end yet. But this place has been giving it its all lately."

Evan ducked his head a little and looked toward the top of the desk.

"Yeah," he murmured. "It's certainly been doing that. I wasn't really a big fan of the whole... being kidnapped by the villain with the maze... thing."

Who was a fan of that, though?

"I don't like being helpless like that."

"Well, who the fuck does?"

Which was not to say she didn't sympathize. Contrary to popular belief she wasn't heartless.

"Got out, though, didn't you? That's a victory right there."

Evan glanced up at the curse-word and blinked. He hadn't heard someone swear so casually since the last time he'd seen Wade.

"I guess it kind of is," he allowed, "even if someone else did all the work to get me out. I mean... everyone got out, but some did more than others to accomplish that. I mostly just kind of..."

He waved a hand, as if that actually meant something in some language somewhere.

"Huddled. A bit. Which doesn't help anyone, anywhere. I can do better than that."

Funnily enough, there were pencils stuck to the ceiling of this office because of Wade. So, there were quite a few connections.

She waved her own hand, in a different sort of gesture that was supposed to convey... something. "Can't be the hero in all situations, mate. Sometimes that's just how it goes. Annoying, sure, but it happens."

"But I have to be the hero," Evan replied, his posture straightening, even while the tone of his voice edged into something a little desperate. "I have to. I need to prove to everyone that I'm better than... than..."

And then his expression fell again.

"I mean... I can't let people think that I'm not one of the good guys."

Well, that was intriguing. A bit.

Electroclash had met a lot of compulsive heroes in her time.

"Why not?" she asked, then reconsidered. "Nah, actually, why would they even think that in the first place? Apart from how most people are pricks."

So much for that good posture. Evan bunched up a little in the shoulders, eyes turned down toward his knees, and he fidgeted a little with the printout he'd brought in.

"It's kind of a long story. I... It's got something to do with who I look like, though. And where I came from."

Kansas?

"Which is...?"

What, like she wasn't going to prod?

Prod away, Electroclash!

"If you asked me a year ago, I would've said I grew up in Kansas," Evan murmured, scuffing his toe against the floor. "But I guess I've never been to Kansas. I'm a clone."

Those words were so weird to say, heavy as lead on his tongue. Flat. They probably meant something to other people. He'd been saying them to himself so many times for the past little while they they were just syllables stuck together, now.

It was easier that way.

"So?"

Don't get her wrong, she was getting that this was a big deal to him. She just had trouble with what for. Electroclash had met clones before, so she knew that alone wasn't why he was being so awkward about it.

"How the fuck's that supposed to make you a bad guy?"

"The guy I was cloned from... is kind of... a self-proclaimed mutant god who would like nothing more than to exterminate or enslave baseline humanity so that people with an X-gene can take over the world."

Which was kind of a big deal, at least back home.

Electroclash raised her eyebrows. A bit. "Huh." Yeah, she wasn't going to have an extravagant reaction to that. "But that's not you. And you really shouldn't give a toss what anyone else thinks."

"It was enough to get me kidnapped once," Evan replied, still speaking in a bare murmur. "People died because of my face."

Family. But then, Uncle Cluster wasn't really very good family after all, was he?

Electroclash shrugged her shoulders, maybe a tad less sure of herself now, but not terribly. "People are arseholes. And yes, they're probably expecting shit from you. Regardless, it's no reason to beating yourself up about what you did or didn't do when the island was throwing dungeon bullshit."

"Even if the person who got hurt down there was relying on me to keep her safe...?"

Okay, so she'd wandered off without him, and he couldn't keep everyone safe at all times, especially if he wasn't anywhere near them and didn't have his powers.

Still. Sholeh had trusted him to protect her, and he hadn't.

"Did you hurt her?"

No, that was not an accusation. It was part of a larger Electroclash logic point.

"Of course not," Evan replied, shaking his head a tiny bit. "I would never hurt her. She's... She's pretty much all I have."

Which was kind of a big deal, after suddenly learning that everyone he'd ever loved had been a lie, or a liar.

Electroclash leaned back in her chair again.

"Then I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say her getting hurt wasn't your fault, mate."

Well. Evan was silent for a moment at that, scuffing his toe against the floor while he mulled it over.

"I still feel like there might have been more I could have done, though. Maybe...?"

No, Evan. Not really.

Electroclash rolled her eyes. "From what I've heard? That place was a shithole that was out to get the lot of you. No offence to you, kidlet, but I'm going to guess you did all you could."

He seemed the type.

"Then I need to find a way to do more next time."

Evan. Evan, sweetheart, settle down.

"No," said the voice of reason. Even if she so rarely was one. "Nope. What you need to do is accept that people get hurt. No matter how great a cape you are, that's still gonna happen. And if you don't accept where your own limits are, it's you who's gonna get hurt."

She shrugged.

"And what fucking good is that to you? Or anyone."

"But I don't know where my limits are," Evan protested. "The person I was-- I mean... He didn't have limits. There's a reason he could get away with calling himself a god, and... and I never learned how to do half the things he could. Maybe I can do a lot more than I ever thought I could and people have been getting hurt for nothing!"

He fell silent for a moment, ducking his head again, his cheeks coloring pink a little as he realized he'd been edging toward yelling.

"If I can do those things, I have to. I can't be so much Apocalypse and then not do everything in my power to be better."

Electroclash was unperturbed by loudness. Come on, a third of her communication was yelling at people. "And under pressure in a bloody dungeon is a great place to learn, is it?"

Hint: she didn't think so.

"I'm not saying you shouldn't learn about your powers. Please, I'm all for people figuring out their powers. And using them for fun! But not in a situation like that."

And now Evan was going to just kind of look at her, confused.

"... For fun?"

He definitely hadn't been thinking about how much fun it would be to master all the powers of Apocalypse. How could that sort of thing be used for fun?

... Evan was possibly not the most imaginative shapeshifter in the world.

Electroclash used her powers for stealing cigarettes and annoying strangers. She might not have been the best person to talk about the fun in having powers.

And yet.

"Yeah, fun. It's not all heroics, you know." A beat. "Oh, I suppose you might not."

"... Not really." Evan? Still looking confused. Wonder of wonders. "I was taught to be responsible with my powers, and to use them to help people. Which... I guess can be fun?"

He didn't imagine that's what she was getting at.

No, not really.

"Well, maybe it's not something you need to worry your wee little head about yet," she allowed. "Might wanna get more in touch with your powers first."

"I... guess I might," Evan allowed, though now he was going to be stuck wondering. "I have a lot more to learn than I thought I did. And I wouldn't want to do anything that might accidentally hurt someone in the name of fun."

"Eh, sometimes people deserve to get hurt a bit in the name of fun," Electroclash said, because she was a terrible person. "But that's mostly idiot ex-boyfriends. You'll learn, though."

Evan really didn't have much in the way of idiot ex-anything, so he was pretty sure she was right, there. He had a lot to learn.

"I'll have to," he decided, rubbing idly at the back of his head. "There are a lot of things I've missed out on that I'm going to have to learn. Apparently how to have fun is one of them."

"You'd be surprised by how many people are completely rubbish at fun," Electroclash said, like that was supposed to be reassuring. "I wouldn't worry about that too much."

"With all of the other things I've been worrying about, I probably wouldn't have the energy to worry about that anyhow," Evan sighed. "One thing at a time, right?"

"I hear that's how it goes."

Personally she preferred to just yell until things straightened themselves out, but that wasn't for everyone. Especially not him.

"You'll probably be fine, kid."

The last time Evan had actually yelled, he kind of blew up a building in the process, yeah.

"It's the probably I'm afraid of," he noted, "but I guess if you think so..."

He attempted a smile.

"Thanks."

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Guidance Counselor's Office, Thursday

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