[locked to new hires] post-babadon't

[princesspower]

[ Adora fidgets with her communicator, staring at the screen, her brow furrowed as the video feed starts up. She's in a bed in the infirmary, with some bandaging on her head where she's was previously bleeding from the scalp. She looks tired, mostly. ]

Hey everybody. I just - I guess I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let myself get taken out like that. Everyone had to deal with that because of me. I screwed up. I won't let it happen again. Uh - I guess that's about it.

Comments

[credit_not_blame]

Yeah, I'm going to need you to break it down further, because I'm still not following.

[princesspower]

Kind of. It's a little bit of both, I guess?

[ She lets her shoulders slump. ]

Everyone keeps yelling at me.

[princesspower]

No. I don't - I don't want to deal with this.

[ Adora's voice is also a bit shaky. ]

You don't get to walk in here and hit me-!

[princesspower]

I'm turning off my communicator.

[ Click. ]

[princesspower]

"Everything," Adora says and then reaches up to untie the blindfold.

"...this was a bad idea. I'm going to - I just need to go."

[fromfryingpantofire]

[Adora may be more aggravating than Dean, which is saying a lot. But it's why she ends up on the receiving end of one of Sam's 'bitch faces'.]

[It relaxes after a moment as he takes a deep breath and lets it out again.]

Okay. We're not going to get past the 'blaming myself for things that could have happened to anybody', so let's stop going round and round about it.

What do you need to know so that it doesn't happen again?

[alderaani]

I see.

[ Leia nodded. ]

I've seem some of their reactions.

[She cocked her head and took a deep breath. ]

But none of that is going to change how you feel about what happened. Because you feel like you should have, could have done more. Is that it?

[princesspower]

I don't know yet.

[ Adora sounds tired. ]

[passifloraincarnata]

I was afraid, Adora!

[Setsuna grabs at her chest with both hands like it hurts, because it does, gripping the fabric of her shirt and bunching it up in her fists.]

I was afraid of the things you were trying to do! I was afraid for you! I was afraid! ... I was afraid of what you were going to do to Catra, again. I'm sorry. I'm - sorry, I shouldn't have - I should have tried to talk, first, and -

[She swallows and looks up, eyes hard.]

But - no. I'm not leaving you. Especially not like this. You will have to make me.

[princesspower]

[ Adora tries to disentangle herself from Setsuna, starting to push to her feet. ]

Then I'm leaving. I'm not in the mood to talk about this-!

[princesspower]

Well... yeah.

[ Adora heaves a sigh. ]

...I'm kind of tired of talking about it.

[alderaani]

Ok. What would you rather talk about?

[princesspower]

I don't know. I'm just - everything feels really overwhelming, right now.

[passifloraincarnata]

[Setsuna tries to grab her by the shoulders and push her back onto the bed. Her hands ball into fists, shaking in panic.]

When will you be in the mood, Adora? When you're -

[Her voice catches and cracks in her throat like an eggshell, and she struggles to get the next words out in a pained, whispery croak.]

When you're dead?!

[wheyoftheadept]

"Hey, now." Saturday reaches out, not exactly stopping her, but offering an alternative to bolting. "It's not a bad idea. Everyone struggles with this at first, it's not a big deal. What's the problem?"

[alderaani]

I can understand that, things feel too big and to much to be able to carry and it doesn't matter where you go because it's just part of who you are.

That's my life back home too.

[fromfryingpantofire]

I can tell you what you do need to do right now.

[Sam leans forward.]

You need to rest, and you need to let yourself heal. You need to listen to your friends, who love and care about you. They only care about the fact that you're alive and safe.

You also need to accept that the people here aren't like the people back home. We're able to take care of ourselves. We don't need protecting in the same way. And it's difficult to protect people when you don't have the information to do it. What happened to anybody outside the dorms isn't on you or any of us. Assuming anything happened at all. That's all on the suits. You're as human as the rest of us, Adora. You need information in order to be able to do something, to know who to protect and when.

When you're on your feet again, I can teach you some ways to get out of being held by somebody bigger than you. I used to help out with a self-defense class back in college. I think I still remember what they taught.

[princesspower]

"Everything," Adora replies, sounding tired, "I don't know how to deal with anyone right now. I just... I can't. And I should be stronger. I should be better. But everyone - everyone seems to think that I'm trying to burn myself out and they're all upset."

[princesspower]

[ Adora doesn't budge. ]

Are you serious?

[ She's confused and angry and upset and stressed. ]

Just - leave me alone-!

[princesspower]

I - yeah. And you feel like you're the only one who can.

[ Someone who kinda gets it. ]

[princesspower]

I can't listen to people when they're all yelling at me.

[ Adora sounds... just a little bit frustrated. She shakes her head and drags a hand down her face. ]

I'm going to just - I'm going to go. And thanks, really, but I don't need more self-defense classes. I've been training and fighting my whole life...

[ Deep breath, Adora. ]

Thanks.

[passifloraincarnata]

No!

[That makes two of them, which puts them at a bit of an impasse, perhaps.]

Of course I'm serious, Adora! You remind me too much of myself for me not to be!

If - if the only way to make you understand how you make your friends feel about this is to fight you about it then yes, that's what I'll do!

[fromfryingpantofire]

As somebody who has been yelled at more times than I can remember about doing something dumb? Believe me, I get it.

Take care of yourself, Adora.

text

[turntex]

whoa ok hold up
so like
for the sake of clarity
would you be giving me a hard time if i was the one that got jumped

[princesspower]

I'm not going to fight you! I just want you to give me space!

[ Adora's yelling now and still trying to disentangle herself and walk away. ]