Heather Collins (loveontherocks) wrote in dc_nextgen,
@ 2012-01-06 21:25:00

Entry tags:

How long can you keep up the walls?
The New Guardians' home was big enough that Heather had been afforded a room to use for her art projects, something that she threw herself into whenever possible in order to distract herself from the mess that her life had become.

She liked her new friends, certainly. She hadn't had many before, being too introverted for her own good. And they were good people, but none of them had changed as drastically as she had. As supportive as they had been, they couldn't understand, not really.

The little moments that filled up a person's day, things like eating, brushing their teeth, using the toilet... She didn't do any of those little things anymore. Her sense of smell and taste was gone, or nearly so. Her sense of touch diminished, different. Everything that had been flesh replaced by sapphire crystal. Even her hair wasn't really hair, but some kind of finely spun crystal too. No internal organs, not if it had been believed when she'd been blasted on the Manhunter world. Crystal has slowly regrown itself, repairing what damage had been done. She didn't even breathe, though she somehow was able to still talk (how, she had no idea. She was an art major, no a biologist. Though what she probably really needed to be right now was a mineralogist.).

But the one thing she did enjoy... was her ability to spin crystal. She'd always poured her heart and soul into her art, made love to the clay, as they said, but now... now it was the purest extension of herself that it could possibly be. Every thought made into violet crystal, crystal which moved and responded to her very thoughts.

She moved her fingers slightly as she willed the crystal into being, one of a series of sculptures. The last of seven. A bull, a snake, a bug, a whale, a bird, a cephalopod, and now, some kind of predatory animal rounding out the set, each intertwined with a human figure in some fashion. A barbarian slaughtering the bull, a fat man grasping the snake, a skeleton with the bug on its head, a man like a green statue with the whale obscuring his manhood, a nun bowed in prayer under the bird's wingspan, a tribal looking woman cradling the cephalopod, and an amazonian woman fearful in the beast's grasp.

"...Face it, Heather," she said to herself, "you put these in that show Cindy's getting you, and people will call you one of those mad artists."

(Post a new comment)

	hope_on_wheels 2012-01-07 02:15 am UTC (link)
	"Madness is often a matter of perspective," Lenny replied, wheeling by. "I'm sorry. I was going by and I heard you talking." (Reply to this)(Thread)

	in_reserve 2012-01-07 02:20 am UTC (link)
	Harry had just dropped by the HQ to see if anyone was free when he catches a glimpse of Lenny and follows his teammate wondering if he'd be free to hang out. He comes up behind him and, realizing where they were, peeks into Heather's art room. "Those are really well done Heather." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	loveontherocks 2012-01-07 02:24 am UTC (link)
	"Oh, hey guys," Heather said, looking in their direction. If she'd still been flesh, she'd probably have blushed from embarrassment. "Thanks," Harry," she added. She looked back at the crystal statures. "Just... kinda had the Entities on my mind, I guess." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hope_on_wheels 2012-01-07 02:28 am UTC (link)
	"All things considered, how can you not?" Lenny asked rhetorically. He glances at the statues. "Harry's right, these are well done. Though they may be misinterpreted if one isn't aware of where you're coming from," he informs, turning his head sideways to see the statues from another angle. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	in_reserve 2012-01-07 02:32 am UTC (link)
	"It's hard to get them off your mind," Harry mumbles, more to himself than the other two, as he leans over the examine the cephalopod statue. "You got the compassionate octopus-like one down well. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	loveontherocks 2012-01-07 02:45 am UTC (link)
	"Considering what passes for modern art these days," she mused, "people will see what they want in them, Lenny." She nodded slightly. "Ganthet's teachings about them have painted pretty vivid pictures. And I've always had a good memory. So weird though..." She moved over to it, her fingers lingering on the Predator statue. "Why is the Love Entity a 'Predator'?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hope_on_wheels 2012-01-07 02:49 am UTC (link)
	"Is this the part where I make a joke regarding the dating scene?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	in_reserve 2012-01-07 02:54 am UTC (link)
	There's a light laugh at Lenny and Harry smiles, "Or the term maneater. But really I don't get the Entities' forms at all." Especially how anything remotely resembling a giant squid could be considered 'compassionate'. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	loveontherocks 2012-01-07 03:08 am UTC (link)
	"That... definitely didn't apply much to me," Heather admitted. "Either one." She looked at the others. "The Butcher almost makes since, and if Adara were a dove, it kinda might... But the rest... not so much." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hope_on_wheels 2012-01-07 03:59 am UTC (link)
	"She's definitely not a dove, she's.." Lenny stops the complaint in mid-sentence. In front of Heather, all gripes seem minor. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	in_reserve 2012-01-07 04:15 am UTC (link)
	To cover any awkwardness Harry tries to change the subject a bit. "Do you know when the show's going to be?" He'd ask if they could come but figures she might not want her first show associated with a superhero team if she can help it. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	loveontherocks 2012-01-08 12:08 am UTC (link)
	"Second week of February," Heather explained. "But, ah, I'm not exactly sure I'm going myself. Might be better just to keep up the mystique." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hope_on_wheels 2012-01-08 02:07 am UTC (link)
	"In the end it's up to you, but..it could be a way to connect with people." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	in_reserve 2012-01-08 02:46 am UTC (link)
	"Lenny's right. It's up to you but it'd be a shame to miss your big show. I'm sure there's some way you can see it." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	loveontherocks 2012-01-08 03:01 am UTC (link)
	Heather's lips twitched slightly upward. "Maybe if I stand really still...?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hope_on_wheels 2012-01-08 03:07 am UTC (link)
	Lenny raises an eyebrow. "Are you serious? I doubt most people would appreciate the joke." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	in_reserve 2012-01-08 03:13 am UTC (link)
	Harry can't help but smile. "You'd get an up close and personal view of the show." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	loveontherocks 2012-01-08 03:20 am UTC (link)
	"Relax, Lenny," Heather said. "I'm joking. Probably." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hope_on_wheels 2012-01-08 06:13 pm UTC (link)
	"Ah, my bad." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	in_reserve 2012-01-08 06:59 pm UTC (link)
	"If you really weren't going to go we could go and take a video of it for you. Of course it'd be better if you saw it yourself but at least you wouldn't miss everything." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	loveontherocks 2012-01-08 11:40 pm UTC (link)
	"I'll... think about it, okay?" Heather asked. "...And now I'm just hoping this doesn't make anything beyond local news, because I really don't want my parents finding out." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hope_on_wheels 2012-01-09 03:33 am UTC (link)
	"I know how you feel. My parents were beyond upset when they learned all the details." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	in_reserve 2012-01-09 03:43 am UTC (link)
	"I get it, I haven't told my mom yet either Heather." And he honestly didn't want her to find out if he could help it. "I don't think anyone would believe me to be honest." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	greenwillpower 2012-01-09 03:47 am UTC (link)
	"....Am I the only one aside from Lenny who fully disclosed everythin' to their folks," Jess asks in surprise. Yeah she'd come in late but she got the idea. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	loveontherocks 2012-01-09 03:54 am UTC (link)
	"...Maybe?" Heather asked. "Cindy probably did. But I didn't even change until maybe five minutes before the killer robots showed up. Been a lot to process." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hope_on_wheels 2012-01-09 12:01 pm UTC (link)
	"Hi, Jess," Lenny gave Jess a wave. He shrugs. "Honestly I had to tell them. We were missing a good while and they were people who saw me get grabbed up by those robots. Full disclosure was demanded." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

in_reserve
2012-01-09 01:34 pm UTC (link)

Harry brightens up and smiles, "Hey Jess!". He's realizing how lucky he is, living alone and only having contact with his mom on holidays, changes that were easily hidden, plus the fact that he'd been grabbed in the midst of a superhero fight that evacuated the area meant he really had nobody that he needed to explain things too. Work and friends had assumed he'd been sick. He could potentially never have his mother find out, which is how it would be if he could help it. "I guess it depends on your family," he says quietly.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	greenwillpower 2012-01-09 11:06 pm UTC (link)
	"I've been like this since right after Blackest Night," Jess says slowly. It's been much longer for her it seems. "I only came into the powers when the Manhunters attacked. I've had time ta get used to this. I keep forgettin' it ain't the same for you guys." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	loveontherocks 2012-01-09 11:54 pm UTC (link)
	"Do have to say," Heather told Jess, "you seem to be handling being green pretty well." (Reply to this)(Parent)

scribbld is part of the horse.13 network