[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

video;

[bothbarrels]

Listen, I know we don't know each other well, but I was the one who tracked down the monster and I helped fight it off. And I can tell you, nobody blames you for what happened. Least of all those of us who took care of it.

[princesspower]

If I'd been more alert or stronger or faster, then it would never have been able to imitate me in the first place!

[heterochrocatic]

It's not your fault! If anyone says that it is, they're wrong.

[princesspower]

Catra, I could've done something! Instead I was just locked in a file cabinet!

[bothbarrels]

You know...I don't like to victim-blame, but I especially try not to do that when it's me I'm blaming. There's no way to know what you could have done differently because it's all in the past, and that's not what happened. You know?

[princesspower]

But I could have done something differently! And I can't let it happen again!

[bothbarrels]

We're going to end up in a loop if you keep saying that. Because what I'm saying is that doesn't matter.

You'll know better next time. You'll try better next time.

That doesn't fix the last time.

[fromfryingpantofire]

[He doesn't know Adora well, but he knows that look on her face. Seen it a few too many times in the mirror himself.]

Adora, no. You didn't screw up. You were taken before we even knew there was a threat. Had you known to even be on the look out, I'm certain that you wouldn't have been taken.

You also must have fought in order for that chunk of hair to be lost the way it was. And that gave us clue enough for things to get rolling. Just enough to get the jump on the creature, to keep it from attacking anybody else.

I know it doesn't feel like it right now. And maybe it never will. But you're okay. Nobody blames you for what happened. This is on Jorgmund for, once again, hiding information until they had no choice but to tell us.

[71lines]

And if it hadn't been you, it would've been someone else. Maybe someone who wouldn't've recovered as fast.

[text]

[takenalive]

It happens like this sometimes. Even if you did misjudge or fail, it is not in proportion. You deserve far less of the blame than the creature does.

Be glad that it was caught and dealt with.

[princesspower]

And what if someone ends up dead because of me next time?

I need to try harder.

[princesspower]

But it wasn't someone else. It was me.

[princesspower]

I still shouldn't have been an easy target for it.

There should've been something more. I'm better than that! Or... I should be.

text;

[princesspower]

I still have to take responsibility for my own failure.

[71lines]

And because it was you, it wasn't Setsuna again. Or Catra. Or Stacia.

Video

[prairietroubador]

You got blindsided. It happens to the best of us, no matter how much we try not to let it happen. Don't be so down on yourself about it.

Especially considerin' it was a shapeshifter you had no warnin' about. I can think of a few folks who maybe might've been prepared for somethin' like that? But that's a very, very big maybe. Even with them bein' some of the most paranoid people I ever met.

[fromfryingpantofire]

I've seen Hunters who have been doing this longer than you've been alive taken by one, when we know there's one around already and how to fight it to begin with.

But let me ask a question, Adora. If it had been anybody else, any of the other people here that are as capable as you? If it had been Catra, whose training you know? Would you stand for them blaming themselves for what happened?

[heterochrocatic]

Yeah? So what? It could happen to anyone, you idiot.

video

[credit_not_blame]

Stay there, I'm gonna come smack you upside the head.

[Stacia doesn't sound angry. Maybe irritated if someone were looking for it, but mostly conversational.]

[text]

[wheyoftheadept]

if you want to do something practical about it i can put you through some exercises for increasing spatial awareness. might be an edge against a future ambush

everyone else has the emotional stuff on lock so thats my two cents

[fuckingaqua]

Pff, please. It's an insult to real fuckups to try to qualify for membership with "getting taken out by a murder xerox that only went down when ten people hit it at once." Application denied.

If anyone's giving you shit about it, you've got a right to beat them up. I'm not a lawyer, but I assume that's the law.

[text]

[runes_brand]

Cosigning this. Don't be sorry, be better.

[That was the advice Brand had gotten when his life had gotten fucked up at fifteen.]

[princesspower]

It wouldn't have been anyone if I'd been able to handle it.

[princesspower]

But it didn't.

[princesspower]

That's different.