unsever | Deerington Inbox

[ She texts back after she gets off the phone with Steve, leaning against her desk as she prepares to reinforce the wards around her office to almost create a safe room within the library. ]

Friend and close coworker was murdered on the network by a blonde girl. Sorry. I wasn't ready for that.

Are you ok? None of the people in white have tried to throw you off of a roof or anything?

( is this a bad time to mention she's spent most of the last week in bed with Alice
yeah, no, she's not going to do that )

This isn't shit you have to apologise for.

I'm fine. Do you need anything? Want company to get home from work, or something?

Steve is coming to get me, but thank you for the offer. [ Spending some time with Captain America is about as safe as she can be. ] Apparently, my new red string is as much of a panic button as the gold ones.

[ Yeeeeeeeah, she didn't have that before 3/10. This has all just been very new and very weird. ]

Just promise me you're not going to go after any of the people in white and just. Don't look at the network. It's brutal. It's all just so fucking brutal.

[ She's upset again, another wave of sadness washing down the gold string. ]

You have your new place warded, right?

Red string, huh? And here I thought I just needed to turn a cold hose on you guys.

( how to cope with despair via humour, a guide that will never be written by kady orloff-diaz. )

I can't promise you that I won't fuck their shit up if they hurt any of my friends. I won't take any stupid risks, though. Does that work?

( She means it, and Kady takes a moment to try and meditate, sitting down and closing her eyes. It comes surprisingly easily to her, centring herself for the sake of battle magic usually being the cause. This time is reaching for that sense of calm so that she can push that feeling through the golden thread to her friend, to sooth and settle her in some small way. )

[ She manages a hint of a smile, grateful for the distraction. It felt like she was overreacting, but the heightened emotions from the strings and how brutal that network post had been... She just wasn't ready. And the surge of grief had felt like a crescendo to the building storm inside of her from the last week. ]

He's very kind and incredible and better than I deserve, honestly. If this does actually become a formal thing. I think you'd really like him once you get to know him.

[ Gods, he'd held her in the kitchen after telling her she was enough and everything else he said had struck a nerve. And he'd had no idea how close to home that had hit. ]

I feel safe with him. [ And that's... Huge. Kady should know that's huge. ] If it's in self-defense, that's fine. Please just don't go seeking out the people with the mallets. They--

[ The text halts, interrupted as she takes a shaky breath. ]

They threw her off the roof like it was nothing. And then the mallets [ The sentence stops, a loud 'fuck' echoing in her office as she moves around - trying to shake off the nerves. ] I know we have more protections than she did, but I'm scared. [ Those two words are hard enough to type, there was no fucking way she could say it out loud right now. ]

No one could be better than you deserve, Jules.

( But she feels safe with him. That resonates, a kind of aching understanding. It came with the realisation that she has someone she feels safe with, too. Ironically enough, that knowledge is terrifying. What if Julia’s making herself vulnerable to someone with a very convincing mask? What if she’s making the same mistake?

The device shows that Kady is typing for a long time with no message forthcoming, because she can’t settle on what to say or how to say it. Talking about Alice seems like it’s be making some shit about her that, frankly, isn’t about her at all.

She settles on something concrete, despite all the fucked up shit that’s gone on: )

I trust you. If you say he’d okay, I’ll tone down the scary friend speech.

I’m sorry. About all of this.

( She’s seen too many friends die, without this place adding to it. That one day—
And there’s the other stuff Kady’s apologising about, too. The stuff at home, the stuff here. )

[ If she were in a saucier mood, or even just more playful, she'd throw out there that he's literally Captain America. And while they may not hold the weight in their world as it does his, he'd proven himself to be kind and incredibly supportive and protective.

The fact that she'd called him and he was apologizing for her having to wait for 10 minutes was enough of sign for her that her gut was right about him. Sure, the red string might be influencing that decision, but she didn't care. The red string, in her eyes, was only calling attention to things she'd already noticed. ]

It's okay. You didn't ask for a cult to move in this month and throw people off of rooftops. And please. I get where you're coming from and I know I probably won't be able to talk you out of it, but this is really new for me and we're taking it slow. [ Not that she thinks Kady will scare him off, but she hasn't felt this nervous about anything in awhile. She almost fesses up that he'd sketched her and it had stunned her in the best way. But, that felt almost too personal. Too intimate. ]

He should be here soon and I need to make sure everything is covered since Waverly won't revive for a few days and probably will need some time before coming back. [ And while Julia didn't have her energy, she wanted to make sure her projects continued as best they could. Forgive her for ordering cookies instead of baking them, though. ]

We'll talk later. I promise. I just need to not be here right now. And just promise me you won't watch the video on the network. It's horrific.

Think of more like an intense "hello."

( She'll be practically nice. No deliberate move to scare him off, or anything. Besides, if he was scared off by a concerned friend, she figures Julia's better of without him.

She's not really sure what to say to the rest. It's a lot, and what do you even say to loss in the best of circumstances, let alone something like this? )

Take all the time you need. Just let me know when you want to talk, okay?
I promise. Just keep safe.

not too intense, promise.

[ It's not a request, hence the lack of question mark. ]

Thanks. I'll be okay.
You stay safe, too.

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