Plum Whine/Story Arcs
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
A continuation of the tale of the magical girl known as Plum Whine (conveniently separated into story arcs)
Contents |
Young Watchers
It wasn't too much after her arrival that Plum found herself stuck in a rut. Again. She'd been late on rent too many times (she spent most of her paycheck on manga and food) and was quite promptly evicted. She found herself homeless with her few belongings in a box, sitting on the steps of Atlas Park. What a pathetic way to end up when she'd finally found a new life for herself, right?
Well thankfully for her, she encountered Albert "Nigredo Fist" who told her about the Young Watchers, a place for young heroes who have no place to go or just need a helping hand. She was pretty in need of both at the time. She still hadn't gotten control of her powers and she really didn't have anywhere to go. She'd lost her apartment (even if it was in her own doing) and there was no way she'd return to New Hampshire.
So Plum eagerly accepted Al's offer. She confessed some of the problems she'd been having between her family and losing her new apartment. After all, she did need to give a good reason why the place was perfect for her. She soon learned that she wasn't the only one who'd joined the group. Eli, Sky, and Jayden also belonged to it as well as Alex "Glamour-shot", who was quite an eccentric underwear model, and Xan, a small and scantily clad girl. She really didn't know much about why any of them had joined the group, but at the same time, asking would leave herself open to speak about her own problems which she chose to hide.
The group soon expanded to include other members, including a hulky friend of Alex, Stu, and a rather aggressive man from Bronx, Vincent "Vinny" Irons. Jesse's appearance caused a great controversy among several of the members, particularly the ones Plum was closest to. First, Jesse's a troll. Second, who'd ever heard of a good troll? Third, what troll didn't want to throw a rock at her face? Plum found herself a bit wary of him but quickly warmed up to him when she learned there was a really good guy under all that trollness. The guy was definitely ambitious, wanting to join the PPD to help out. He also had an incredibly good sense of humor. Before she realized it, she'd become attached to him.
This stirred up some anger with Sky, for some reason untold that happened to him in his past. When he found out, it seemed like he was about to leave the Young Watchers. Plum followed him and begged him not to go. Sky was one of the first heroes she'd met when she moved to Paragon and didn't want to lose him because of this. She didn't understand why he was so upset, but prying into someone's past wasn't exactly something she was going to do. (she didn't want to talk about her past herself, after all).
But Sky didn't leave the Watchers. He just left the room (which happened almost every time Jesse showed up). This action also caused Sky and Jayden to fight. Plum tried her best to stop the fighting, which probably only made it worse. She didn't want the Young Watchers to end up like the Smiths: a fighting, squabbling mess. She later confessed to Sky that he was like family to her and she didn't like seeing family fight.
On a more positive note, Plum had grown closer to Eli. Granted she'd had a large crush on him that only Jayden seemed to notice, but it was Carter and Jayden forcing the two to go out on a date that actually got them talking. Carter set them up with a meal at Bianco's where he worked and he and Jayden forced them out the door. It was awkward at first but they soon started talking. The two made a deal to keep each others' secrets, one at a time, a strange sign of friendship that Plum kind of liked (she never had anyone to do that with before). Their first secret was each others' last names. Eli kept his secret, and with he secret civilian identity, Plum had never told anyone hers either. She left him with the idea that maybe one day, she'd tell him her first name too.
Identity Crisis
What would any of her friends think too? Jayden's recent teasing her about cake and being heavy had gotten her thinking. Jayden was close to Plum. He took her shopping, they checked out boys together, adventured, and spied on Xan's dates. But the question was, could he see through the magic used to create the Plum appearance?
While there was a lot of squabbling among her friends, she found herself at odds with herself. Her civilian self. She felt a bit crazy because of it, but maybe this was normal for heroes with secret identities? She wasn't exactly able to talk to anyone about it. Sky was really the only one she knew had a definite secret identity, but he was busy with other issues right now. Eli's identity wasn't entirely secret, though he'd probably listen to her ramble on about it regardless.
So suddenly Jane showed up in Pocket D one day. She sat at the bar coincidentally right next to Carter. She didn't say anything at first but when the bartender asked her what she wanted, Carter kept looking at her strangely. When Xan and Klein showed up, she took the opportunity to slip away and return as Plum, pretending she hadn't been there 5 minutes prior. It wasn't an easy feat, but she vowed to speak to them one day, maybe when all the fighting simmered down.
What made matters worse was that her power was beginning to surge. As Plum grew stronger, she acquired more skills and powers, but with the strength came the need for control, something a she never really had in the first place. She found herself overwhelmed by an ambush in Founder's Falls. Suddenly she let out this incredibly loud, dreadful wail. It was uncontrollable and overwhelming. And it was incredibly effective. She'd defeated the ambush but found herself exhausted and unable to see straight, collapsing to the ground and waking up in the hospital sometime later. She'd kept the incident to herself for days until Jayden began harassing her for how loud her powers were when speaking with Roger (Lifespike). She confessed to something of the incident but didn't speak of the severity of it.
The situation only seemed to grow worse with Jesse OD'ing on Superadine. It was a pretty bad situation, but to Plum's surprise, Sky was there to help out. It was nice to see them finally talking and everything seemed calm, but only for one night. The next day, Sky had water forming on his body uncontrollably. And on top of that, Sky, Plum, and Eli entered the base to find that Jayden had been overtaken by some Boogieman, who (she later found out) had turned all his fears into anger and hatred. In bouts of consciousness, Jayden sent Plum to his house for an amulet, which brought him back into control. The possession had driven a larger spike into Jayden and Sky's relationship, sending Jayden off to walk home by himself while Sky remained behind.
Plum followed Jayden and had a long heart to heart with him. She learned he could always see through her magic and discovered he hadn't judged her because of her appearance. She also learned more about Jayden and why he and Sky were fighting, and grew a lot closer to him than she'd been before. Jayden agreed to keep her secret and Plum agreed to help out Jayden any way she could with magical stuff. She sought out items for spells to help seal magic and keep the boogieman away. This included hunting down Rikti scales and other bizarre ingredients.
The fighting soon widdled off after Sky and Jayden had a talk (at least that was Plum's guess) and soon Jayden was in control of his mind again (mostly, at least) after he sealed his power away one weekend in the base with magical wards.
Not too long after, Plum worked up the courage to speak about her civilian identity but was quickly interrupted by more pressing matters involving her friends and she quickly left the subject alone again, still not telling everyone. Sky's mutation continued to rocket out of control, sending him to the hospital. Shortly thereafter, Sky disappeared from the hospital one day and was kidnapped by a group of strong trolls. Albert had learned of his whereabouts and lead a small team to rescue him, Plum included. Sky was safely returned to the hospital but not for long. Sky suddenly left.
After Sky's sudden and unexplained departure, Plum pretty much hit rock bottom. Plum was incredibly close to Sky and seeing him leave was just devastating. After this incredibly depressing entry, Albert called her into his office where she at first reluctantly poured out her fear that she'd lose everyone and her identity crisis issues. Al became the first to know her civilian name and see what she truly looked like. Eli soon became second.
Chasing Phantoms
Xan's sudden and silent departure didn't make the situation any easier. It left Plum alone in their room and down one more friend. She became more and more worried that the new family she found would disappear one by one, leaving her alone again. She tried to shake the feeling and cover it up with her usual whimsical ways, but it was becoming more and more apparent something was wrong. So she did what any friend would do: search for them. Unfortunately, Plum really had nothing to go by.
She spoke to the others about what she'd encountered and they simply claimed that the Cimeroran was probably Sky. Plum was rather adamant that Sky didn't speak "Cimeroranese" and decided to hunt him down in Cimerora where the Midnighter magic would let them understand each other. It was Sky, after all. They spoke, Sky giving his reasons for coming to Cimerora to become stronger, working for Imperious. Plum could understand his reasons but still told him she wanted him to come home. She visited him several times in Cimerora, making sure he was doing alright.
Back in the present, Plum still hadn't found Xan. When Plum finally did in Atlas Park, she also found Serena and Riley, two relatively new members of the Watchers. She noticed across the courtyard Vinny and Jayden talking then the two split suddenly, both going off in opposite directions. Plum hadn't seen Vinny in ages and shouted at him, but he didn't stop. Vinny eventually told Plum that he was leaving because he didn't want to hurt Jayden. Plum smacked him and told him not to be an idiot and be true to his heart. Surprisingly enough, Riley (who also had a crush on Jayden) jumped in, agreeing with Plum. Vinny and Riley butted heads, sending them both off in separate directions, and Plum followed Vinny, eventually getting him to speak truly about how he felt and he confessed his feelings for Jayden over the comm. Then she finally got a chance to speak with Xan, telling her that she should come back to the Manor.
The event had horrible backlash. While finally Jayden and Vinny were together, the confession ended up hurting other people, namely Riley and Sky. Riley had stormed off somewhere that night, but the next day when Plum ran into him again, he'd completely forgotten everything. She told Albert, Mario, and Serena, incredibly worried about him. Serena learned that Xander had wiped Riley's mind and informed the other two. There wasn't anything Plum could do, unfortunately, as every time she saw Riley, he wouldn't talk to her.
Next to patch up some of the other issues which had arisen. Plum apologized to Jayden for making such a mess, and he simply told her it wasn't her fault. She next went to find Sky, which wasn't hard to do since there was only one sky blue Cimeroran. The two spoke on the bridge, Plum apologized profusely for making him upset because of Vinny's confession over the comms. Eventually the conversation lead to Plum revealing herself as Jane, something she'd wanted to tell him since before he'd disappeared to Cimerora, and in return, Sky revealed himself to be her long friend Carter. Jayden arrived sometime after and Plum left the two of them to talk.
Meanwhile, Plum had managed to fail Biology class, so summer school was inevitable. On top of that, she was beginning a new job at Fresca Inc. After a rather bizarre interview with Ryan Fresca (who just happened to be Eli's father), she found herself in a job she was hardly qualified for, which caused a lot of yelling in the office and Plum hiding under the desk. Eli protected her and she somehow managed to keep her job and somehow take biology class at the same time. Plum found herself stressed, attempting to find a way to balance out school, work, heroing, being a teenager, and that ever-plaguing identity crisis that nagged at her from the back of her mind constantly. Not to mention she had to pass class else Rey would get angry at her (he wanted her to pass, but she was afraid that if she didn't, Rey would start throwing the Manor's plants). And the constant mandatory overtime at work.
Stress was getting to her. And so was everything else. Everything around her either involved throwing things, yelling, or people throwing themselves off buildings for some reason. It was becoming miserable, so Plum decided there should be an impromptu party for July 4th and a general get-together at Spanky's Boardwalk in Talos. The party started out slow and was interrupted by two party crashers, Joe and Chance, but soon escalated as more people showed up to just have a fun afternoon out. Joe ended up joining the Watchers that night. Joe's twin brother, Guy, joined a few days later, causing a lot of confusion about which was which at first.
Next came another new appearance. A guy who appeared about Plum's age, covered in tattoos with baggy clothing and a backwards hat. He refused to tell anyone his name or join the group to eat dinner, but Plum was determined to make him feel welcome, babbling at him in her usual friendly manner. It wasn't until the next day that Xan had returned to the Manor and pointed the guy out as Eddie, the hooded jerk from the D. Plum was a bit surprised at first, as Eddie had seemed to simply be stand-offish instead of such a jerk as she'd seen him before. Regardless, Plum still was determined to make friends with him, inviting him to sit over and waving at him when they crossed paths, just as she did with everyone else. And sure enough, it worked. The two started to get along pretty well and it started feeling like Eddie'd been with the group for months instead of a week.
Albert soon received a call, needing help with the Terra Volta reactor. Sky Raiders were trying to take it down or destroy it or something (Plum wasn't quite sure which, though in the end it didn't really matter anyway). Plum volunteered to help and the team successfully hindered and pushed back the Sky Raiders. Plum returned from the trip feeling different, somewhat stronger, or perhaps just irradiated from standing in that bubble in the reactor. Whatever the case, she felt different. It was the day after returning that she vowed to start telling the Watchers she felt closest to her identity. She'd stopped after 4 the first time around, but keeping the secret still bothered her.
While many of her attempts were interrupted or hindered, she did successfully pull Teddy away from the manor to speak to him. While at first she felt incredibly distant from him, Teddy had become a brother to her. She confessed her real name and appearance to him in Steel Canyon. Teddy could see the struggle she was feeling as he'd gone through the same sort of thing himself. It was comforting to have someone understand. She learned that, like herself, he didn't have any friends in his school, and with secrets out of the way, Plum decided to ask a huge favor of Albert: see if he could get her transferred to Teddy's school. She didn't have any parents to speak of, so Albert was the closest person she had to a legal guardian.
Finding Albert was always a challenge, but she set up a meeting with him on Saturday, the day after the Rockband party (which turned out wonderfully!). She was waiting for him to arrive at the manor when Susan offered the pizza she got from some meet-and-greet at the college. As Plum went for a slice, she suddenly disappeared.
Looping Time
Plum wasn't the only one who disappeared that day. There were three others: Jayden, Teddie, and Eddie. One by one, they all disappeared suddenly. The group in the kitchen started pointing fingers at each other in a panic only to find the few members with teleporting abilities just weren't there or weren't responsible. The group soon explained the situation to Albert and Rey, when they arrived after hearing the commotion over the communicator. They explained that people started disappearing and started panicking that they would too. After some investigation, Rey explained that the four had been teleported to Ouroboros by Mender Silos to prevent a time paradox, the reasons unknown at the time. The Watchers simply had to wait and see what happened. This put everyone on end.
Sunday proved interesting. While sitting in Talos, Lacey saw something she almost didn't believe. A man resembling Teddy approached her, introducing himself as Teddy Lucas, an agent with S.A.M., who had come from the future to fix the past. It would've been hard to believe if this hadn't been Paragon City, so she simply announced she'd found a possible lead by meeting a older version of Teddy. This spiked a lot of interest among the Watchers listening at the time. As Lacey left to investigate further, a future Jayden appeared as well, only to be encountered by Guy. A future Plum soon arrived as well. Guy stared at her, as she still did look like the version Guy knew, though Jayden, quick-witted and by-the-books, simply said her name was Jane and her nickname was plum because she wore purple. They didn't want to screw up time and create some sort of paradox make the situation worse. The lie only worked for a moment. As other present Watchers arrived, so did a future Eddie. They hid under Jayden's cloaking ability for some time before proceeding to speak with the present Watchers.
With the Watchers, present and future, nothing ever went quite as smoothly as planned. Exedin managed to slip under the radar, remaining hidden. There were no clues as to when the bombs would go off, only where. There were S.A.M. agents posted at both the War Zone and the Terra Volta Reactor to monitor the activity, but with Exedin's ability to teleport, he could simply slip in as he pleased. Not only that, members of the future team began to mingle with the present Watchers. Eddie with Xan, Teddy with Guy, and Plum with most of the members. They were breaking the rules of time easily. Rey began to slap Ouroboros locator stickers on the members as he saw them to keep track of their movements and keep them out of Ouroboros. Those stickers would find their use soon.
Wednesday. Many of the Watchers, both present and future, gather on the roof of City Hall. Clues and paths had turned up nothing and the entire situation was becoming a mess. Plum had been following the present Watchers to make sure they weren't a target for Exedin. Teddy had been off with S.A.M. Jayden and Eddie both had been off investigating separately. Still nothing. The search for Lena, the only member of the Watchers capable of creating devices to sniff out Exedin's bombs, had turned up blank. But suddenly, Plum heard something in her mind that drew her away from the group. She was suddenly pulled into a portal by a future version of Lena, one which was actually working with Exedin instead of against. In the future timeline, Lena had gone missing 4 years prior. No one had known where she was. This appearance quickly explained her situation.
Plum's whereabouts where wholly unknown. As the remaining members of the group quickly gathered at the manor, elsewhere Lena was working her tech magic. With a memory-reversing device, she flipped Plum's memories upside down, causing her to believe every good thing the Watchers ever said to her where complete lies and were incredibly bad. Compliments turned into insults, love into hate. The reverse also worked as well, and she soon believed Exedin was her ally and the Watchers were disgusting enemies that hated her very existence.
Thursday. Teddy found a lead, tracking movements to a base in Steel Canyon. They all hoped for a lead and hacked into the base computers, learning of a rendezvous point and that the bombs were being planted at both locations currently. The team split. Teddy with S.A.M. agents at the war zone, the Watchers at Terra Volta. There the Watchers encountered Jayden, who had already found his way there through his own means. The team began carefully disarming bombs and defeated one of Exedin's lackeys only to meet up with their worst scenario: Plum fighting against them. Future Plum had long since learned to control her sonic abilities, pushing them to their limits to make them stronger. Even worse now, the memory-reversed Plum loathed the Watchers and was out to kill them. Releasing her ultimate abilities, she wounded Eddie badly but was soon taken down by Guy and knocked unconscious as she reached out towards her teammates, asking for help.
The situation seemed grim. Guy spoke up, still unhappy with the idea of killing Exedin. True, Exedin needed to be taken out but killing him didn't seem like the right answer. Jayden, Albert, and Rey all explained there was simply nothing that could hold someone like Exedin and he would simply escape and murder millions. Guy soon resolved he would be the one to do it but Jayden objected, saying he would be the one to end Exedin's life. That way no one in the present would be responsible. Jayden also added that in doing killing Exedin, they would destroy their past and cease to exist. This hardly sat well with many of the Watchers.
On returning to the rendezvous point with Teddy, the team learned that the bombs placed near the Rikti ship had been unsuccessful due to Exedin not knowing about the Rikti force fields (as in their time, the Rikti had been completely wiped out by a virus). This only angered the Rikti, causing them to unleash their strength on both Exedin and Lena, as well as Teddy and his team of agents. Both teams fled the Rikti in different directions, leaving the team once again with no leads.
After much work, Jayden managed to reverse the damage done to Plum's memories, returning her to her normal self. She and Jayden continued off elsewhere while Teddy and Eddie, along with several of the present Watchers, pursued and apprehended Lena. Unfortunately interrogating her lead nowhere fast and Rey simply turned her over to Ouroboros where they sent her back to her own time.
Fortunately a lead soon appeared. Exedin had gotten greedy and attempted to take over a world discovered by Portal Corp. and found himself stuck there. The Watchers, both future and present, banded together to lay a strong assault on Exedin and his forces. The world they traveled to was bleak and destroyed, closely resembling the world the future Watchers had come from. Regardless of the location, the Watchers successfully assaulted and killed Exedin, breaking the time loop. One by one, the future Watchers disappeared back through Ouroboros to their own time knowing they'd been successful in destroying their own past and made the future much brighter for their past (the present) selves.
Lost and Found
Plum, Eddie, Teddy, and Jayden awoke in Ouroboros, completely confused. Last any of them remembered was having pizza in the base so that's where they returned. The place was somewhat empty. Xan greeted them but quickly split when Lena (the present) arrived at the base. The five were left completely confused. Belongings had moved, more rooms were in the base, and everything felt different. And after much confusion and shouting, they all realized they hadn't been gone for a half hour, they had been gone for three weeks. Panic struck, no questions were answered, leaving the five to attempt to patch up what they had left behind.
Plum found herself at odds. She'd lost her job. Her good grade in summer school quickly plummeted as she had no way to explain where she had been for the last three weeks (not that she actually knew anyway). Her roommate had moved out. And no one would answer what had gone on or why they had been stuck in Ouroboros anyway. She felt like she'd been back at square one, alone and lost, but at least this time, she had four other people with her. It wasn't so bad, right?
Albert explained the situation to Plum sometime later, much to her own confusion. It sounded more like an episode of Sailor Moon than reality, but it fit. She did wake up in Ouroboros after all. She just rubbed her face in confusion and added it to her book of Paragon weirdness. Besides, she had more important things to worry about, like school. That horrible dark cloud which followed her around wherever she went. Albert could do nothing legally to transfer her to school, but instead gave her a different option: declare herself legally independent. He introduced her to a lawyer friend of his who helped her through the process. She returned to New Hampshire for court, which was surprisingly easy thanks to her no-good parents, then returned to Paragon City fully and legally independent. Albert rushed the transfer papers through city hall and first day of school, Plum had transferred to the same school as Teddy.
Over the next few months, the Watchers grew apart. The place felt more and more empty.
OMG
With the Watchers essentially broken apart, Plum found herself lost again until Jayden came along. He had formed a group, called the Occult Magician's Guild, otherwise known as OMG, for people with magic powers, a place to call home and with one of her closest friends, no less. While she missed the others, it was still nice to have a place to call home again. She still saw Teddy at school, and she saw Albert on occasion. Mario was second in command of OMG, so she got to see him, as well.
Plum felt out of place almost immediately with two of the new members. While fighting CoT and Nemesis in Peregrine, she met two of the new members - Pyremance and White Mender, neither of which she knew their names. She had no trouble with White Mender (though she had to resist the urge to call him White Mage, a resistance which would most likely prove futile in the future). He seemed like a nice guy, high ranked somewhere as Pyremance repeatedly called him "your grace".
It was instead Pyremance who made her feel completely uncomfortable and misplaced. He called her a power leech and a shrub mage. He could immediately tell the magic she used was not originally her own, and she feared he could probably also see right through it to Jane, her real self which she hid from the world. Fortunately Jayden jumped in, filling in the blanks for Pyremance, telling him she received the power and it was actually hers. How Jayden knew, Plum wasn't sure, but he had a certain intuition in matters of magic, so she simply didn't question it. Regardless of the explanation, Pyremance continued to call her leech. Needless to say, she felt incredibly out of place and lonely.
Well, gee
Plum soon received a message from Mender Ramiel (otherwise known as that Mender guy with the weird glasses). She hadn't been back to Ouroboros since the time fiasco. She wasn't even sure that she was allowed after that, but it seemed like they'd made an exception. She went alone and saw Mender Ramiel's future vision. There was no way she could be like that, powerful and in control. It just wasn't possible, she thought, but Plum went along with it anyway, meeting with all sorts of people trying to find the Well, and in the end, when Ramiel said the Well must've moved, she found the pile of dirt and thought it was just some dirt. Ramiel's vision was probably some alternate future, like those future people from months earlier, which just wasn't going to happen since there was no way she'd end up powerful and awesome like that. It just wasn't Plum. She was just the dumb younger sister.
And to make things worse, something weird started to happen. Very weird. After helping out in Praetoria to stop an insidious plot by Nightstar and Siege, Plum suddenly created a large purple fireball. Yeah, that was weird. She freaked out and simply pretended it didn't happen until it happened again. Giant purple fireball. And then two wispy seers began following her around. So much for a normal spring break.
The rest of the school year actually went well. She drew closer to White Mender, learning his name was actually Casey. She drove him nuts at first. He was an empath and could feel that Plum was hungry all the time. She had spent all her money on graduation fees and comic books, so nothing was left for food. She did graduate, surprisingly well actually, much to her surprise.
For celebration, it was bowling time. There she met Cid and Vicktor, and bumped into Jace once again (and also Doug Wassonasong, much to her annoyance).
I'm not a bad person, right?
Plum continued to bump into Cid, Vicktor, and Jace at the D, getting to know them quite well. She also met a time-traveling demigod named Ravelin who had a fascination for technology. Plum really didn't know anything about Greek Mythology or anything like that, but she thought Rav was a pretty good guy.
Shortly thereafter, Plum received a text from long-time friend Teddy. He said he was leaving to try to understand the mutations he was undergoing. He also said not to worry. Right. She worried about all her friends. She was beginning to think there was something wrong with her, as her close friends had a bad tendency to just disappear off the face of the earth. Teddy might be the next on that list of disappeared friends. She covered up her feelings once again and continued on.
The next week wasn't much better. Some large troll woman began attacking her friends, insulting gay people. For once she jumped in to defend her friends, only to be attacked herself, being called a transexual with a bad nose job and just generally a bad person. Her friends were quick to come to her side, but the damage was done. To make things worse, her potential boyfriend (or something, no one was really sure), had also disappeared without a word, just like anyone she'd crushed on previously.
But it didn't stop there. She overheard a conversation of Kalius and Rav, Kalius talking about how modern magic was bad and that anyone who learned magic from a book wasn't a real mage. (Plum's learning magic from a book had been a secret but since the formation of OMG, she'd been more open about it. She still held the secret about her real name and identity, but the origins of her magic was a more public subject. It wasn't that unusual to learn magic that way, after all.) Cid and Jayden had also overheard it which caused a horrible mess, both taking the words personally.
The next day, Kalius attempted to apologize to Plum in a rather unapologetic way ("I'm sorry you took it that way" didn't exactly count as an apology). The emotions inside of her bubbled up and overflowed, leaving her a sobbing mess, shouting "I'm not a bad person because I practice modern magic! I'm not a bad person, right?" Even with Rav and Jace comforting her, she still felt horrible. It left a sourness in her mind which just wouldn't go away. She kept the remaining pain to herself. After all Jayden still hurt from it (no doubt Cid did too), and she didn't want to make it all worse.
She'd managed to seem to repair her broken emotions, putting on her usual happy front while keeping the true emotions buried underneath. Several days later, more bad news came. Casey had texted her to talk. He'd done that before and they talked about Jayden. This one started the same way, but it didn't end that way. Instead it ended with Casey giving her his communication card for OMG as he told her he was leaving to understand what was going on with his magic. He said it wasn't her fault and he wasn't going to disappear. He still was in Croatoa, where he lived. That didn't make her feel any better, however, leaving her to shout at Jayden that Casey'd left and she didn't want him to disappear too. She was afraid of losing him too.
