Room 229, Wednesday Evening

[arsenicmauls]

Having the internet back after weeks of not having it meant that Gert was becoming reacquainted with how very useful it was at a lot of things. Google helped her do research for class, it helped her occasionally conjugate Latin verbs and impress random strangers, and lots of other things. Unfortunately, one thing it was not very helpful with was giving her advice on how to stop a dinosaur from getting a cold.

That was the research project of choice for the night, yes. And she was working hard on it, while Old Lace sniffled beside her as if trying to provide extra motivation.

"I know, girl," Gert sighed, clicking on the next page of search results.

[[open door and post!]]

Comments

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"And if anything happened here, they'd probably be the first ones doing anything about it," Maddie pointed out, because even if she'd sucked at it she wished she didn't.

[arsenicmauls]

"Yeah, we'll see who can do more damage, Old Lace or Captain America." It was Captain America, Gert. Obviously. "Anyway, I know enough about the guy to be pretty sure that if he thought it was even the slightest bit interesting in this town, he'd probably kick all the kids out of here for our own 'safety.'"

The air-quotes around 'safety' were totally audible.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

...Maddie didn't think she could totally dispute that, no.

"Maybe if you've got the skills to help, you get to," she said, striving for casual because, well, breeding ground for superheroes and all. And because she'd go ahead and help anyway.

[arsenicmauls]

"Look," Gert said, figuring it would help her prove her point, and anyway, it was only fair after Maddie had shared some of her story, "I'm here because he decided that me and my friends, including a mutant, an alien, and a witch, couldn't be trusted to go around LA helping people anymore." And Chase, but he didn't sound impressive. "The guy is totally ageist, and probably whoever runs this school is too."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"And I went to a school where I did dangerous stuff all the time-" Not always school-sanctioned, by the way. "-and he didn't stop any of it."

[arsenicmauls]

...Wait, what?

"You're sure you're talking about Captain America here?" Gert checked. "Blue spangly outfit, big shield he carries around all the time?"

Yep, same guy.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," she said, still a little unsure about admitting it. "I mean, he wasn't going by the name there, but it's the same guy."

[arsenicmauls]

"Then maybe LA just puts him in a foul mood or something," Gert conceded, crossing her arms over her chest. "Or he just hates my team."

Neither of those options really made her all that thrilled, to tell the truth.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"You have a team?" Maddie asked, definitely interested.

[arsenicmauls]

"Friends," Gert amended quickly. "Originally, family friends. Now it's pick-whatever-name-you-want-for-a-bunch-of-kids-who-saved-each-others'-asses."

And occasionally put said asses in jeopardy. Alex.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"What kind of stuff did you do?"

Shh, she was a little homesick and now she was wondering if she had a roommate who'd totally get that.

[arsenicmauls]

Gert quirked an eyebrow at the question, but she didn't care enough about keeping it private to be bothered not answering. "A lot of failed attempts at making the city safer," she answered, specifically not using the s- word that might come to mind from that description. You know, that thing that Captain America was but she personally refused to be? "Stopped some robberies. Fought off a bunch of murderers. Probably all stuff they teach you to do at your old school," she admitted.

Except voluntary, and sans adult supervision. To Gert, that meant something.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"That's pretty cool," Maddie said honestly, and okay, she felt a little bit more like she should have been able to hack it if other kids could do it on their own like that. "I mean, someone's gotta do it, right?"

[arsenicmauls]

"Thanks," Gert said, feeling weirdly self-conscious all of a sudden. She took a sip from her coffee to make up for it. "We screwed up a lot, too, which I guess was Cap's problem. But yeah."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Everyone screws up a lot," Maddie said dryly, since she seemed to be the queen of it.

There were like eight thousand things she'd rather be queen of.

[arsenicmauls]

"Even professionally-trained powered people?" Gert asked dryly. Because it seemed like roommate-to-roommate storytime. Or something.

Old Lace was attentive, at least.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"A lot, even," Maddie frowned. "I don't think I was very good at being professionally-trained."

[arsenicmauls]

"The good news is that very few smart people are," Gert offered. "What'd you do wrong?"

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Some of it probably wasn't legal?" she said slowly, thinking of the tape. "Otherwise it was stuff like setting a murderous demigod loose and almost setting off a prison break."

Was it embarrassing now? Yes. Yes, it was.

[arsenicmauls]

Oooh. Yeah. That was... something.

"My friends and I accidentally brought home a murderous vampire once," Gert offered, in case that was any consolation. "You definitely have us beat with the almost-prison break, though. How'd that happen?"

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

Maddie paused for a moment, debating how much to say about why exactly it all happened in the first place.

"We went to the Raft on sort of like a scared straight field trip. There was one person there a couple friends and I had to talk to, so we snuck off, and... I think one of those friends did something to the lights or security system? I didn't know that part was going to happen." All true. Vague, but true.

[arsenicmauls]

Detailed enough for Gert, anyway. "Sounds like the scared-straight agenda didn't really work," she observed. "Which is such a shocker, given how well it totally doesn't work on TV."

She paused, then added, "Doesn't sound like it was your fault, at least."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"I guess it was kind of stupid to go along in the first place," she said, though she didn't really like admitting it. "Or at least I should have found out what the plan really was. I guess I know in case there's ever a next time."

Haaaaa. Like she learned.

[arsenicmauls]

"That's the thing about working with a school group, I guess," Gert said. "You can't pick and choose people to work with that you trust."

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

Maddie considered this. "I don't know that I'd pick anyone else but them, though. We went through a lot together before we were even on a team. We just..." Were all potential supervillains and some had more of an agenda than others. "I think we had some trust issues to work out at first."

[arsenicmauls]

"Like someone deciding to set off a prison break out of nowhere without talking to everyone else. Makes sense." You know, in the way that it totally didn't. "You know one class every school for kids whose lives aren't normal needs? How to spot a traitor."

She might have been projecting just a bit there.

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

And the thing was, Maddie was pretty sure more than a couple people considered her the traitor. Was it possible to project back onto projection?

"She wasn't that bad," Maddie said. "She had all the reason in the world to be mad, and it... didn't go like she thought."

[arsenicmauls]

Projectionception?

"I don't know the whole story or who she was trying to free or whatever," Gert granted, "but you don't just screw over your friends like that. I mean, team." Either one, really. "Changing the plan is one thing; shaking everyone else up like that is something else."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "What happened after that?"

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

"Not much. They got the place back on lockdown, we got shuttled back to the mansion immediately and yelled at," Maddie said, though she wasn't really looking at her because again, embarrassment. "We got to talk to the guy we went to talk to, but nothing really came of it, so. On to the next crisis, I guess."

[arsenicmauls]

"Congrats on surviving it, I guess," Gert shrugged. "Can't be that big of a screw-up if there wasn't any permanent damage."

Super encouraging, right?