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[attr="class","skullbody"]"It eventually comes around." She said, realizing she was too close for her own comfort. She backed away slightly so as to not give off the impression they were somehow becoming friends. She wasn't bout to let that happen.[break][break]

"At least half," Thea considered her answer along a separate train of thought. She couldn't just tell Miroru that touching a teacher was about the same as going to class for her. Studying was a waste too. Academics as a whole was a waste of time, and she acted appropriately to that belief. "I mean, like, the academics and shit. We're not here for that. Half of hero law will be out of date before we even leave, and don't get me started on ethics. Not only is it an elective, but the teacher is shit."[break][break]
She was honestly displayed by the course selection, though she did come from a place of privilege when it came to how she perceived education. She didn't want the pre-chewed and tasteless tidbits of knowledge that could be found anywhere in the world. This was UAU! She wanted something new and exciting, something she couldn't just take from any passerby on the road. She was tired of being spoon-fed baby food at school when she hungered for steak.[break][break]

"Yeah, that would work too. The campus isn't all that big if you have the schmovment. And yeah, spike boy's been doing that on purpose." She got up from her seat.[break][break]

"I know just the place then," she offered her arm as opposed to her hand. A gesture of kindness despite it being an awkward one. "I can get us in, but we gotta go now. Just ah, don't tell no one." [break][break]
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[attr="class","skullbody"]The sensation was overwhelming. Memories poured into her as new sights and sounds flooded her senses. Taking the memories was always an experience she had to navigate carefully. Powerful emotions tended to blur the lines between who she really was and all the imagined selves that existed in the edges of her mind. Even still, she was greedy and tightened her grasp on Jun to prolong the contact, if only for a moment.[break][break]

She struggled to fill the gaps. Whatever had happened was broken and fragmented. Memories in places they shouldn't be, the telltale signs of trauma. A singular face peered through the memory, the most precise detail she could pull from the wreckage of thought and emotion. [break][break]

The connection slipped. Before she knew it, the mentat found her hands empty. She peered at Jun who was clearly aware of what had just transpired. [break][break]

"So I take it now, you understand." She spoke plainly, without emotion as she processed what she'd just taken in, "Is that why you're here?" [break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]Her heart skipped a beat. Farrin's world felt like a blow to the head. Like she was sent spinning through the air. She'd heard those words. She'd heard that version of him before, yet she hadn't. She knew she couldn't. The fragments of memories snapped together for a mere moment, but something was wrong; everything was wrong. Her heart felt stuck in her throat, and then, nothing. it all slipped away into the past. Into an endless reserve of memories she could not access. She could barely recall what had just happened as if she wasn't there.[break][break]

"How the fuck do you..." She paused. It wasn't impossible for the boy to know about such a niche thing as Tire machèt. Maybe he knew a practitioner, or perhaps a friend told him about it. She couldn't shake the feeling there was more to this. More to him and this stupid place that seemed to be the source of these broken memories. [break][break]

"I'm just here cuz..." She really never thought of it. It always seemed like the next logical choice. She considered going underground and doing precisely what Farrin suggested. Honestly, the only bad thing about it would be the amount of negative memories she'd have to take to blackmail her way to the top. [break][break]

"I just seemed like something I'd be good at. Not like the school can really say no to me." She looked at the palm of her hand. It was hard to convey the nuance of how she felt. She felt as though she belonged here even if she didn't deserve to. She felt that she'd lose herself in the darkness of a thousand souls unless she turned into a hero. She wasn't here to rescue other people, she was here to save herself.[break][break]

"Things went awry," she chuckled, "So what? Do you have a rap sheet?" She was genuinely curious. In a school full of goody two shoes, it seemed she was always drawn to the misfits. If the time turner had a stain on his soul too, she might find some comfort in his offer.[break][break]

"Ya don't have to answer that. But I'd wager in this world, pedigree is worth more than action. If heroics is in your blood, you'll fit right in" She couldn't help but feel a rift between them. It wasn't truly there, but its echo lingered. [break][break]

"I bet your the kind that's aiming for the top," she said meekly, feeling the hurt of a lifetime not her own. Hearing the rolling of a coin that was fated to stay on edge.[break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]"Close, that's what we'll go with." Thea suppressed her surprise. It wasn't often that someone put it together and didn't immediately push her away. She dropped any pretense of pretending to watch the show on stage. Whatever was going on there could wait till later, or maybe even never, if the performances were as bad as the social suicide happening on stage.[break][break]

The memories replayed in her mind. She lived them a few times. Not because she wanted to but because this was the fastest way for the enco of Miroru in the mentat's mind to dissipate. She had to strip down the memory into its barest elements and file it away. It was dehumanizing in a way; she had to rationalize away everything she took in, no matter how much it contained.[break][break]

"There are some rumors but none that compare to the truth. Turn out your PR is pretty airtight, Ma-" The word turned to ash in her mouth, the same taste she got when saying her own but more potent somehow. It was the price she paid for trying to twist a knife she had no business knowing. "Ma'am" she added at the end to cover the mistake. Her heart sank for a moment, a feeling not her own. "She sure has feelings. Damn it, go away." [break][break]

Thea let the fox speak, words being such a poor communication medium that she grew bored part way through despite her interest. It wasn't anyone's fault. The more she had to absorb, the more her mind throttled time until she'd done so. Voice, especially under emotion, was writhe with information. Memories, writhe with context.[break][break]

"He was a piece of shit. Probably thinks he's right and doing all of it for your own good. Monsters always justify themselves." She spoke from experience, both stolen and lived. [break][break]

"You're gonna outshine him in misery? That's fucking stupid." She scoffed at the idea. "I'll be fucked before I let the shadow of my family do that to me." She'd gone no contact with them years ago, if you count mind erasure as a form of no contact.[break][break]

"Besides, no one's really too busy. Shit, you could be at a party right now if ya wanted to. All work and no play, as they say." She leaned toward the fox, an uncharacteristic mannerism seeping through the cracks as she folded the last bits of memory into herself. "What do ya say?"[break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]It was almost unreal the lengths some of UAU's staff would go to prove a point. In a rare moment of surprise Thea could practically feel her jaw drop as the teacher unveiled a practical version of the imagined situation. The mentat looked at the screen for a moment. Her hollow eyes gazed past the now and into the countless thens she held in her mind. [break][break]

Familiarity was a powerful tool. One she held dominion over. From a dozen times and a dozen more angles. Pieces of building and fragments of reflection were all absorbed by the mentat's mind until the track's location was so obvious it had been like she was there when it happened.[break][break]

"She doesn't know," her eyes never looked away from the screen. "She's at least smart enough to not risk us taking the answer." Her hand flexed reflexively. She was considering doing just that. Though she knew physical action was not part of the curriculum, if she did it right, that wouldn't matter.[break][break]

"It's not too far. Half mile that way, " she pointed out, "by the Food Donkey." It wasn't odd to her that she'd mentioned a store so old that it was closed down and long since replaced by Snack Falcon. [break][break]

"I can't fly, so, like, You'll need to get there first." Her head turned towards her compatriot, neck bent slightly as if the muscles were giving out. Glassy orbs looked Robin in the eye, but they did not see her. Instead, the edges of her consciousness pulled together fragments of memory from a place that no longer existed. She didn't fight it. Unlike with Farrin or Leo, these paradoxical memories were only ever small changes, different guns, different wings, and always the same face. This time the only thing that changed was her wristwatch, counting down in reverse.[break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]Even the air between them seemed to draw a dividing line. Thea was chaos, barely contained, on the verge of collapsing in on herself like a black hole. Marlene, prim and proper, a literal machine, order brought to life. Fate could produce two individuals any more distinct.[break][break]

Somehow, in the back of her mind, Thea knew she'd been here before. Faint whispers of jeering and snickering played at the edges of her consciousness. “You can't taste that, can you?” The words came from her mouth though she wasn't sure she'd been the one actually to say it. Immediately she played back the memory in her mind, struggling to match sensations. The voice was defiantly hers, her mouth certainly moved, but the action was not her own. “Fuck, this is it. I'm losing it.”[break][break]










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Hollow eyes locked with lifeless ones. The wheel of fate turned once more, and like a rat in a maze, she turned the same corner again. How many times has she been here? How many times had this happened? She extended a hand; fingers spread wide as her palm ached with a hunger food could not sate. She would take the truth from this Marlene. She would dig deep and find every secret that could solve the puzzle of memory she'd felt since arriving in this place. The fragments of a time and space no longer here.[break][break]

"Nice to meet you, I'm M-," she paused, her name failing to form in her mouth. "Thea. My name is Thea. First-year heroics student." Her hand floated between them as she awaited the girl's response. [break][break]

"My memory is a more perfect world than the universe. How could I forget something?"

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[attr="class","skullinfo"]Marlene Lovechild

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[attr="class","skullbody"]She barely ate. Food was somehow always the last thing on her mind. It's not that she didn't enjoy eating, in many ways she enjoyed it too much but what point was there in eating gruel and fast food from the local store when she could have steak tartar and Foie gras at the drop of a hat? Despite her down-to-earth appearance and rough demeanor, Thea's taste was that of a queen. Refined, decadent, and most of all, expensive.[break][break]

The cafeteria was a mess of sensations, sights, sounds, noises, and smells that for anyone else would blend together into an unintelligible mess of sensation. Not for the Mentat. Her mind expanded and time warped as she processed the myriad conversations from across the hall. Gossip filled her mind as did the scents a a dozen different dishes. each and every clink of utensils marked its permanent spot in her memory. The worst part of it all, she couldn't shut it off. She couldn't dive into memory and blur it all away. [break][break]

Like a shuffled deck, the pattern of sensations was unique in ways that could never be repeated. Yet meaningless all the same. Like always, she dragged herself to the far corner of the cafeteria. Tray in hand filled with the one dish that this place offered worth even considering. Tonkatsu ramen. [break][break]

Someone had taken space at Thea's favorite table. The Mentats eye's struggled to focus on the figure in the same way they struggled to see Farrin or Zenkai. A hand raised to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Ugh, not this shit again." The sensation haunted her, just another thing she couldn't control as fragmented memory forced itself to the forefront of her mind. No matter how hard she tried to piece it all together, she could never truly grasp the images, the faint whispers of thought and emotions from a life she never lived, from memories that never existed. [break][break]

"Don't think I've ever seen you before," she lied. She always lied. Part of her struggled to understand why she could never bring herself to ask simple questions. It's not like it would hurt anyone, but she knew that even if she asked, she'd still take the truth from them. The nuance of language was something other than what she was amenable to. [break][break]

Her tray clattered as it fell onto the table, drops of ramen splattering from the bowl. Unceremoniously she pulled back a chair and crashed into it with all the grace of a dying animal. Immediately she took the chopsticks to the bowl and began plowing the contents into her now gaping maw. All the while staring down the machine sitting across from her. Her glassy eyes betrayed no emotion, barely communicating the fact that she was there in the first place. [break][break]

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[attr="class","skullinfo"]Marlene Lovechild