The beach, late Monday

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Travis had said it wouldn't work, but he hadn't yet said it was dangerous, either, and Jon knew people sometimes did bonfires on the beach, so...here he was, on the beach. With an ever-growing pile of luggage, matches, and quite a bit of accelerant.

He'd let Summer know about what he was doing, and he'd planned it with Irene, after all, so he had no doubt word would get out.

Self-loathing was absolutely going to be the basis of this fire. The more it came back, the more tinder it could be.


[Baggage fire! All invited!]

Comments

[flamesburned]

“Tired,” Liz admitted, “it’s been hard to sleep lately,” she paused, “it’s … I have anniversaries coming up with …my … with everything,” she indicated to the new trunk. “It will be one year since Pittsburgh on Friday,” she added softly.

She figured it wouldn’t hurt to let Travis know, even though she had no way of knowing just how difficult Friday was going to be for her in general.

[designateddadfriend]

Friday was going to be . . . a lot, yes.

"Ooof," Travis said. "Anniversaries are always rough."

[flamesburned]

“I … and …the anniversary of my family’s deaths’ is the following Tuesday,” Liz said quietly, “it’s … it’s not a good time of year for me … especially with…” she placed a hand on her stomach … it was starting to get a bit bigger but there wasn’t a full bump there yet, “I’m … I don’t know how I’m going to be on the actual days,”

Then there was a new bag with 'can't control powers' as if she needed that particular reminder right then.

[designateddadfriend]

"Is there . . . any place you can go? Maybe something like that room they have up at the school with the holograms? Where you can let yourself loose without hurting anything or anyone?"

[flamesburned]

“The only people I know here on the island who are fireproof are Steven and Marc,” Liz said softly, “well they’re not fire proof themselves, they have a special suit that is,” she said, remembering the training session that they’d had all those months ago and everything that had followed since then.

Then she winced when a suitcase with ‘emotionally cheated’ decided to appear right then, along with a duffel bag labelled 'terrible friend'.

“I … I think there is a holosuite in town?” she said softly, “I think Dr. Lecter mentioned something about it?”

[designateddadfriend]

"Yeah? Maybe we should go check it out. I've been thinking it might be good for keeping in shape around here."

[flamesburned]

“I’d - I’d like that,” Liz said softly, “I’ve been using my powers to help make my crib at the forge but I haven’t done a proper training session with them since I found out I was pregnant, I’ve been trying to focus more on staying calm,” she admitted.

[designateddadfriend]

"That's important," Travis agreed. "And figuring out how to calm back down when you're in a situation." He tilted his head, looking her over. "And having an outlet later. No one's calm all the time."

Please ignore the various "ignore problems and hope they go away" type bags Travis had, Liz.

[flamesburned]

That was when a backpack with the label ‘rocks’ appeared and Liz jumped slightly when it landed, a hand self consciously going to her forehead where the faint scar was.

“I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if I’d known fourteen years ago how to do that,” she said softly, most of the time she didn’t try to indulge in the what ifs but it had been hard on a day like today with all the reminders.

[designateddadfriend]

Travis leaned back a little as well, and like he had so many times today, chose not to ask.

“I wonder stuff like that a lot, too. But . . . I’m the end we just have to keep going, right?”

[flamesburned]

Liz bit her lip and nodded, “it’s hard sometimes, but now I ...it's not just me I have to think about, I have to keep going for my daughter," she trembled, "and then I feel guilty, when I think about ...how many lives I ruined with my powers,"

And that was when a heavy trunk with 'doesn't deserve to be happy' chose to appear.

[designateddadfriend]

Travis's eyes flicked to that trunk, then back to her. "You know this isn't your fault, Liz. You didn't ask for any of this."

[flamesburned]

“It - it feels like it is,” Liz said quietly, biting her lip as she stared back at the trunk, “I - I was told that I had upset God, that I was being punished when I was younger and that’s why I had my powers,”

There was another large trunk with ‘catholic guilt’ that appeared right then. Liz trembled when it appeared, closing her eyes and took several deep breaths before she opened them again.

[designateddadfriend]

Oh yes, Travis was quite familiar with that one.

“Yeah. I know that feeling. But that doesn’t mean its true. If God made you this way, then he did it for a reason. A good one. Not a punishment.”

[flamesburned]

Liz could only nod, a hand going to the crucifix that she wore around her neck, “it … I guess I’m so used to thinking that I’d done something wrong as a child … that I didn’t pray hard enough …” she was silent, “those first couple of months after my family died … I …I kept thinking that it was God’s way of punishing me,” she hesitated, “I was so afraid, especially when I first met Hellboy,"