{ 𝕒 } comorbidity

[theminotaur]

WHO: Abigail Hobbs + people
WHERE: In and around the Graham-Ludgate home; later Hook, Line & Tinker
WHEN: June 3rd and onward
WHAT: Prodigal daughter returns
WARNINGS: None

-

[ when abigail awakes in cape canaveral, she isn't incredibly upset. she's not home and home, bleeding out on the floor, would be deeply upsetting. she listens to the briefing this time, nodding and attempting to tuck her file in her back pocket before she realizes she was ported out and back in her pajamas. again. sigh. shoved outside into the real world, she smooths her hair down, tucking it behind her ear and adjusts her shorts and tee shirt. as much as she doesn't want to take public transportation when she is barefoot, she also doesn't want to walk so she catches the shuttle from the base to heropa.

if anyone stares at the pajama clad teenager on the bus, she doesn't notice, flipping through her communicator and sighing in relief and a little upset as she finds people she recognizes. will, april, mary, kate. dr chilton and john. teresa, grey. no freddie, which reminds abigail in a rush of one of her last memories, but no hannibal, no dr gideon. maybe that's her price.

she walks the rest of the way to the house, navigating mostly on muscle memory, before she pushes the door open without knocking, reaching up to pet the first raccoon who dangles down from his catwalk and tries to eat her hair. ]

Will? April? It's me.

[ baby's home.

later and the next day (and the day after, and the day after, and the day after, you see the pattern), a new feature can be found in the front yard of will and april's house, followed around by a fluffy cat and a couple of raccoons as she digs in the yard to finish the planting she promised to do months and months ago.

later still she winds up at the bait shop, nose wrinkled with how stuff has been moved around and sets about moving it back to where she had it. ]

Comments

[sizetwelve]

[ The reminder is unfortunate, as she and Bradbury's porting out had been one of the many reasons they'd decided to have the wedding early. Will hadn't been in attendance, either... Only April, Grey, and Sherlock had, and they aren't quick to gossip about it, are they?

It wouldn't have mattered. Abigail wouldn't have been around for the planned date, either. ]

Just about everyone did. Wasn't going to be the same without my maid-of-honor, so we...improvised.

[ Which meant no stag or hen parties, but ah well, her entire life is a morbid party, isn't it? ]

We can make up for it and find you some good trouble soon. No questions asked.

[ Supervised trouble is okay trouble, right? Not the killing kind. The obscene-poster-sharing kind. ]

[theminotaur]

Okay.

[ "don't let your affection give you an infection!" good time.

abigail drifts off in a forlorn silence. she misses everything -- she's either comatose or "dead" or ported out. she knows mary and april's weddings weren't about her, but they were nice things and she missed both of the nice things. all she gets are bad things, she was ported in right before a bad thing, so she's starting to think that maybe that's all she's going to get.

someone's going to get pregnant and she'll get ported out the month before they're due and ported back in when the kid is fourteen. ]

[sizetwelve]

[ There isn't a whole lot to say to really change what Abigail's missed, so her telling silence is allowed to drag for a bit. Showing her pictures might only worsen the feeling. It's one Mary might relate to on some level, but it would be distant. Like an old acquaintance that one has forgotten still hangs about. It has been a very long time since Mary has had her hand involved in anything purely beautiful. What good is mourning?

But it's a necessary process, and so long as it doesn't linger, Mary is one to nurture that human sadness in order to prevent too much desensitization. She can recommend denial some days, and acceptance on others. Smiles are only useful until they hurt. ]

It's an isolating feeling, isn't it? Thinking you never have control?

[theminotaur]

Yes. [ there's so much vehemence in the word. she hates it. and since she never seems to have control, wresting it to herself in tiny pieces, she feels that way all the time. ]

I never would have missed your wedding otherwise, you know that, right?

[sizetwelve]

I know.

[ That's also likely the only reason Will missed it, but would news like that comfort or torment Abigail? It isn't relevant, not to the heart of the matter. Life doesn't offer solutions, only opportunities. ]

I didn't have a hen party because of how swiftly we eloped, so you didn't miss that.

[ Tiny comforts, perhaps, that Mary hadn't replaced Abigail? Thus, all maid-of-honor duties were ignored. ]

We can find something else to do. Something special that can't be shared.

[theminotaur]

[ murder? well, no, hannibal proved that can be shared. abigail, don't be such a fatalist. roll back that reasonably priced internal sass, child. ]

Like what? Basket weaving?

[sizetwelve]

John suggested getting a tattoo. [ He surely did not, but now all the blame is at his feet! Her grin ought to show how clearly she is joking, though. Obviously. ] Will mentioned cupcakes.

[ Which are also fantastic, but maybe another time. ]

Perhaps something more exciting than cupcakes but not as permanent as a tattoo. I know you're only just returned, but is there somewhere you might like to go? Something you might like to see that isn't in a Porter city? Let's pretend that distance and time isn't the issue it might normally be.

[theminotaur]

I always want to go home. [ she doesn't mean home, something she assumes mary will realize considering abigail's ending in that home, but minnesota. she misses the snow, the actual seasons, the hockey teams, the soft, clipped accents that sound like her own. maybe it's chasing ghosts, but she feels comfortable in minnesota. ]

Maybe we could go sometime. I could show you where I grew up. [ a beat. ] Well, where I was raised. [ she's a teenager and not one deluded enough to think she's grown up. ]

[sizetwelve]

[ It surprises her, and then it very suddenly doesn't. Minnesota houses so much trauma for Abigail, but it's the most natural thing to still cling to what's familiar and comfortable when control is nowhere to be found in life. It also seems the unhealthy thing, but she isn't the one to preach that.

Mary has seen Minnesota already through Abigail's eyes. To go there with her and still not say anything, would that be inviting a wedge as Will suggested? Or would even tempting the subject make it that much more tainted? Should they go, it wouldn't be something special for the two of them. Hannibal Lecter's ghost would be there, staring at Mary through Abigail's memory. She has to share enough with that man despite him being nowhere around. ]

Suppose we could pop over to Maurtia Falls and fly out from there sometime... But even with a dragon's speed, it would probably take a couple of hours. Might make a mess of your hair and numb your face... Better just to catch a plane.

[ So much kidding. Make less sense to the poor girl, Mary. What a segue. ]

[theminotaur]

[ abigail does not miss the big part of that. she nods her affirmation that that plan sounds great, but she does not let the strange part of the equation go. that didn't slip away. ]

..Dragon?

[sizetwelve]

Oh, I thought Will might have mentioned it.

[ No, she didn't. He confirmed that he wouldn't, but it's a simple way of confirming to Abigail that he already knows. Right now the main focus is keeping her interested to the point that it overrides fear or concern.

Mary pretends to consider while lowering her arm, as if this isn't something she had already considered and decided long before arriving by the dogwood tree. ]

But then, it's information best kept from Doctor Chilton. I can't trust him.

[ Can I trust you? seems to be the question poised. If the concern is that Doctor Chilton will talk, then the reasoning must be that Abigail can't tell anyone else, either. Mentioning his name covers both points, and she observes Abigail's reaction with a gentle care. ]

[theminotaur]

[ she makes SUCh A FUCKING FACE when she mary mentions chilton. ]

That's because Chilton can't keep his mouth shut to save his life. [ ahaha makes jokes about chilton getting shot in the face because of his big mouth (and voice) because she is literally a tiny monster.

a tiny, bitter monster. ]

[sizetwelve]

[ Excellent. She doesn't ask in particular what Abigail might be referring to... She can easily recall the things Frederick said regarding Abigail's death when she wore the skin of Freddie Lounds. For such bitterness, the reward is Mary cutting to the chase for...two seconds. ]

Few here can, depending on who they're talking to. It's something that's far more noticeable with my imPort ability. Have you heard of shapeshifting?

[theminotaur]

[ she glances over, smirking ever so slightly. ]

You know I'm a teenager, right? [ therefore knows so much about superpowers somehow without even trying. x-men osmosis. also stiles was her bestie for a few months and boy can that kid talk. ] You're a shapeshifter?

[sizetwelve]

[ These kids today and their MUTANT culture. ]

Simply put, yes.

[ Does one need to get into the other power? It can disturb most folks... And rightfully so. ]

[theminotaur]

[ BUT THAT IS SUPER COOL? she can making bacon and eggs on command and will can fix many many cups and april can summon tiny baby raccoons, but mary... that's the coolest tbh. and way better than abigail's other abilities. luring, yes, a++, still thinks it's the rudest shit on the planet. her mouth falls open in a touch of surprise before a smile spreads across her lips. ]

Cool.

[sizetwelve]

[ That has to be the kindest reaction Mary's received from others, and the plainness of it seems to take her back a bit. For a moment her smile is less certain, in that most curious of ways, while considering Abigail in a better light. Then again, she hasn't used the shapeshifting to hurt Abigail. Always helps.

Perhaps it's merely because of all the strife it's caused with others, but the simplicity of Abigail's acceptance allows Mary to feel a pride in her abilities that she hasn't really been allowed in recent months; Not around others. Of course, shapeshifting is an ability that was handed to her. The other skills that are truly hers...don't need to be mentioned here. They're unnecessary, and this is more than enough.

There's a twinkle in her eye as she lifts her arm to pull Abigail close again, unable to resist the urge to press a kiss to the top of her head. ]

Oh, bless you... Cool, am I? I'll carry that around until the end of days now.

[ And thus promptly make herself uncool. But nobody can ever take away a teenager calling an adult cool! Nobody. ]

Can't change into just anything, though. Need to have touched the person or animal.

[ So yeah she touched a dragon. Ouchie. ]

[theminotaur]

[ she's going to comment on mary acting distinctly uncool about being cool, but then she's distracted by something else. and it's not even the dragon. ]

...so you could turn into me.

[ with no scars, both ears? whole abigail. she knows she shouldn't go down that train of thought, but it's irresistible. always has been. what she could have been if her dad wasn't her dad. ]

[sizetwelve]

[ It's an innocent enough question on it's own, but Abigail's curiosity is as dangerous a thing as Mary's, it seems. She has the decency to hesitate before nodding, her grip loosening. Yes, of course. She can turn into a good few from Baltimore, really. Their current forms, their true forms... It's the knowing of their pure biology that seems to make it possible, though so much of the complexities must be forced into the recesses of her mind, lest she lose it. ]

Yes.

[ In fact, she has. Poor Jesse Pinkman was so confused. But here is where she needs to be more careful than ever with her phrasing. Will has suggested that turning into Abigail is a poor choice, but in this case, whose choice is it? She asked Will for his opinion, but she's disinclined to truly turn down a request of the girl's. Mary can at least do the decent thing and offer a slight detour to distract. ]

Probably anyone you can think of that I've met.

[theminotaur]

I doubt my self-esteem could handle you turning into me. [ she's self-aware enough to know that two ears would destroy her self-confidence, which is tenuous as best, and only serve to hate herself more. which may or may not be actually possible, it's hard to say.

and really the only person she wants to see is someone mary has never met. ]

And apparently dragons. [ she's getting back to that. ]

[sizetwelve]

[ Hearing Abigail apply such reason to her own situation is comforting to Mary, and further strengthens her belief that it's an all right thing to share this secret with her. But what about the other secrets? Whose self esteem has she torn to pieces from her shapeshifting? From her murder?

Lips part, but a chuckle escapes instead of a sigh, and she nods in acknowledgment (of the former or the latter?) ]

Only one. She's gone now.

[ So does that make Mary the only dragon around? When Godzilla attacks, who ya gonna call? ]

Perhaps we ought to take a trip to a rain forest or savanna and find the most ridiculous animals about for me to touch. Now that's true camping.

[theminotaur]

I feel like a Lake Placid reenactment is coming. [ but a prompts a grin, imagining the possibilities. ]

Can you turn into... [ she trails off, lost in thought, fingers drumming absently against her thigh. she'd thought nothing of it at the time, but new knowledge is forcing her to go over everything again, habit. ] Remember when I asked you about the cat I saw around your house? Probably a stray?

[ her eyebrows lift up like do you have anything to tell me mom #2 because you might have something to tell me. WERE YOU A CAT THAT ONE TIME??? ]

[sizetwelve]

[ No doubt Mary's expression says it all, because she's not even attempting to hide her grin, and yet lips purse in the most childish of attempts not to outright smirk. Not because she'd pulled one over on Abigail, but because the girl's so quick to realize that. Less than a minute.

More than one time, babydoodle. ]

Well, there are strays about my house... But much of that is no doubt due to me turning into one of them at times.

[ She clucks her tongue, hoping to soothe with a raised eyebrow. ]

I've never spied on you that way, if that's what you're thinking. Doesn't count if you're the one helping yourself into the kitchen while I'm on my way out.

[theminotaur]

[ she shrugs, seemingly unconcerned. ] I wouldn't have minded. I know Will spies on me all the time, so it's not like it's new. At least you guys don't keep me locked in the basement.

[ there's a reason she doesn't mind that will stalks her on the network, he's not taking any of the freedom she has in heropa away while he does it and he still allows her to make her own choices, even if they suck. ]

And some of the raccoons hang out in my room at night with Ziggy.

[ ain't no thang. ]

[sizetwelve]

[ That's come up before with others, how Hannibal locked Abigail away for so long. No need to ask what it was like, really, as Abigail's many displays help paint the picture. She can see the brushstrokes guided by Garrett Jacob Hobbs, and the bleeding pigments muddied by Hannibal Lecter. Too, she can watch and witness the coat of paint cured with a timid endurance by Will Graham.

There will still be many more coats of paint, Mary thinks. At least while Abigail is alive here, that can be ensured. Perhaps soon she'll gain some lighter shades, so long as she never abandons the variety necessary to paint a discernible picture. It isn't good to hide so fiercely, or people will look at you that much harder. ]

You're always free to come and go as you like, love. I can even get you a key made unless I'd be wasting my time.

[ If Abigail knows how to pick locks, power to her. ]

John's already stocked up on Cheez-Its. ...But that's not the type of prize I was thinking on.