Report #012 - Video - Forward Dated to Thursday Morning.

[pluckyreporter]

[The camera comes to focus on Roxanne Ritchi's home office- in the distance, obscured, her cork board covered with papers and notes, photographs and lines, but the background is in soft focus, so none of it's legible. Roxanne herself -- cup of morning coffee, dressed and prepped for a day of work.]

[Conspicuously absent? Brainbots.]Good Morning,

Comments

video;

[incywincyhero]

I keep resolving to watch every episode of Golden Girls in order, but somehow it just never happens.

[Encrypted.]

How're you holding up? It must be rough, having the big M back and, uh ... heroically challenged.

video; encrypted

[pluckyreporter]

Could be worse. He could have been ported in from the moment that I found out he'd been lying to me for months and I'd been dating his illusion of an alter ego and dumped him. In the rain.

Oh wait.

It's that bad.

[She sets her coffee aside, and drops the public persona.]

It's -- well. I don't know. We talked on Christmas. He's scared, confused, and hurt, and I -- don't even know how to handle this. I can't ell him everything because it feels like I'm telling him to be that guy, but if I tell him nothing--

[She probably loses him.]

video; encrypted

[incywincyhero]

[He cringes on reflex. Wow that hits a little close to home.]

... Okay, that's just ... wow. You completely, absolutely, one hundred percent made the right decision, but still ... ouch.

[Nodding as she continues:]

You don't want to control him or push him into something he's not ready for, but you don't want to lose what you had -- will have? nevermind, whichever -- with him.

video; encrypted

[pluckyreporter]

I know. At the time-- I thought he'd killed my best friend, and he HAD taken over the City and was running it into the ground, full evil-overlord style. I didn't ... put together the signs.

In retrospect, I feel pretty dumb for not putting together that the cute intellectual librarian from the museum with a few social oddities was the evil overlord known for his social oddities. I had... a lot of things on my mind and he was... really nice.

[sigh.]

And here we are. Can't tell him who he was, can't stand to watch him... backslide. It's not like villainy honestly makes him happy. He just does what he knows. What he's been told he has to be.

Telling him NOT to be it, though and... [She shakes her head again] he resists.

So much for 'being normal'.

video; encrypted

[incywincyhero]

Normal ain't what it's cracked up to be.

[Beat.]

Well, it is, but darned if I know how to get there.

video; encrypted

[pluckyreporter]

No dates in ten years, and the first time I take a shot-- he's evil. Sort of.

[She shrugs once.]

Yeah, neither do I. And I don't-- didn't start out with superpowers, either.

video; encrypted

[incywincyhero]

Neither did I. Hey, I remember being normal -- it was frequently embarrassing and occasionally painful, but peaceful for all that.

video; encrypted

[pluckyreporter]

[She laughs a little, thinking back to her life before superheroes.]

At least I made it to college before the 'weird' really kicked in for me.