Lunamor

That’s the opposite of smart! New word: Simple

He seemed surprised. Jenny would need to be more careful to act nicely. That was much harder than anticipated. He said he wouldn’t leave… he promised… he almost swore on the River Styx… said it was because he loved me… he must not love me anymore… … … … …Kit-ty, kit-ty, kit-ty…

“I wouldn’t do that up here. It’d be pretty bad if you accidentally teleported outside of the window.” While such an event would be a very convenient way to get rid of this nuisance, pretending to be sad about it would be annoying. That boy always just stared. Jenny didn’t appreciate him scrutinizing her so much. She frowned back.

Jenny chuckled slightly despite herself. Cool, heh. The ice trick seemed to be an effective distraction. Hopefully the novelty wouldn’t wear off in the event she needed to use it again. Jenny waved. That would probably drive off that pest. Her attempts to win him over were obviously futile, but Jenny wasn’t strong enough to admit it. Kittykittykittykittykittykitty… Shut. Up. ~~~~~~~~~~ The pain hurt, but it was something. Nothing at all would probably be worse. It was easy for your mind to become nothing if everything else was nothing, too.

Jenny suddenly clenched her fist, and the ice melted away into nothing. Caaaaaaaaat… ~~~~~~~~~~ Jenny, the real Jenny, was starting to act rather strangely. No longer fully tethered to anything apart from a dark corner of her mind, she began to have trouble focusing on reality. Her window through her eyes was fogging up. It had taken far less time than she’d assumed to lose it. She did know that whatever had trapped her in this dark place was very bad, however. She needed to do something to fight this voice, something that she didn’t need to invest too much thought into. So she decided to be really, really annoying. CaAaAaAaAat…

Jenny made the frost slowly spread, first covering her hand, then reaching all the way up to her elbow. It was a pity this ability was good for little more than show. Frost didn’t have much use in combat. The temperature around her lowered to a biting cold. She didn’t particularly care.

“Yep! Being a Hades kid can be fun.” Grasshoppers, birdies, rats… Ugh. Worms, squirrels, cats, cats, cat… Jenny finally let go of Sword, deciding that Elsie wasn’t a threat. She held up her hand and made frost form on her fingertips. She smiled, but it wasn’t the usual excited Jenny smile. It was closer to one of satisfaction.

Jenny shrugged. ”Demigods can have multiple different powers. I’ve got the ability to open cracks in the earth, put people to sleep, and mess with shadows. I also have necromancy and some minor temperature manipulation. There’s some other stuff, but I haven’t really mastered it yet.” Hopefully Jenny could find an excuse to exercise her powers. In the right hands, they could accomplish quite a bit. The girl was too much of a coward to realize her full potential.

Jenny relaxed her stance, but didn’t remove her hand from Sword. Elsie could be feigning the confusion in order to get her to let her guard down. ”I think that was you.” The girl could become a liability if she didn’t learn to control her powers soon. Unfortunately, Jenny wasn’t the sort of person to ditch a young girl, regardless of how beneficial it was.

Jenny noticed the girl vanish and glanced about. After a few moments, she found Elsie. She was right behind her. Jenny immediately whipped around and took a step back, placing her hand on Sword’s hilt. Were they trying to sneak up on her? Incapacitate her while she was distracted? Jenny was vulnerable so high up, not having access to some of her underworld powers. This was the perfect opportunity for an ambush. @Wierdo @Weaver of Lies

Please let me through, I can sell this for you. ...fine. ”He’s really scaring me, Lucid. Don’t let him be alone, ok? He tried to eat a death flower, this is the worst I’ve seen him.” And who gave him that flower? ”I can’t help him anymore. I just make things harder for him. Oh gosh, this is all my fault, he feels bad because he thinks he’s hurting me…” Jenny tried to turn her head to look at Ed, but found that it was locked in place. You know I can’t allow that, Jenny.

Jenny nodded, giving a sad, grateful smile. She made a show of wiping away her tears, sniffling. ”I really appreciate it.” No, no, no, no, no…

“I don’t understand why he hates himself. He thinks he’s bad at fighting, although that’s not really true. He kept saying that he was gonna hurt me if he stayed, but I don’t know what that means.” Jenny had quit crying, but tears still brimmed in her eyes. ”This all makes me feel trapped. Stuck. I need to get out.” How cryptic. She winced slightly.

Jenny nodded, eyes still watering. It was hard to feign sadness about Edgar’s decision, so the girl was allowed to bleed through slightly to sell the illusion. This finally sent tears running down her cheeks. Despite literally being trapped inside of her own mind, she somehow still worried about that boy. Jenny was weak. “I wish I could help him. Help. Help is needed. H-“ She choked up, no longer able to speak.

“He said I’d be better off without him. I’m not really sure if that’s actually why he broke up with me, but he just hates himself so much, and I don’t know how to help him, and now I might’ve lost him forever, and-“ Jenny cut off. Tears sprang to her eyes unprompted. It’s too late. ”I’m sorry, you probably don’t want to hear about that.”

“He, um…” Jenny trailed off and paused for a moment. It was a rather long moment, her face blank the entire time. Shut up. ”He broke up with me.” She looked absolutely devastated. The breakup was a very convenient excuse for acting strangely.

An easy question. It had taken quite a bit of insisting to get her to acknowledge the true answer, so the name was familiar. Jenny attempted to look wistful, staring off into the distance with a sad smile. "His name was Johnathan. He was really old and mangy, but was also the sweetest thing. He was a really good cat, I miss him a lot."

Jenny immediately pulled away from his touch, then realized how suspicious that looked. She grit her teeth and let out a hiss of air, pretending that Lucid had touched one of her bruises. It wasn't hard to make that believable- they genuinely stung. It was a wonder nothing had been broken. "Ow."

"Oh, well, I just wanted to see if you were having fun..." Guilt-tripping was always an effective strategy. Jenny made sure to sadden her expression and wilt slightly. The girl was never as good at ignoring hurtful things as she had claimed, particularly when she had gotten her hopes up. She could be easy to pity.

"We really do need to get going." She glanced at Aaron anxiously. "I'm not sure what to do in the meantime..." Jenny's love of asking person questions was rather frustrating. Wait. Books. Lucid loved books. That was a good topic of conversation. "How's your book?"

"Same! The double decker ones are pretty great." That was a guess; burger preferences weren't exactly worth paying attention to. Lucid hardly knew Jenny, though. There was little chance he'd notice mistakes like that.

Jenny couldn't see where Gift had gone. The thing hiding wasn't a good sign. She masked that concern by maintaining her smile. "What's your favorite kind of burger?" A very in-character question. The delivery was a bit off, her voice slightly higher pitched than normal, but it was sufficient. Variances in someone's vocal range weren't uncommon.

Jenny cheerfully waved at Lucid with a smile. That seemed like something she would do. She needed to avoid as much suspicion as possible, and that meant acting like herself. Even if it felt… degrading. Putting up with the girl’s behavior was one thing, but actually acting like her was something entirely different.

Beautiful yellow piranhas swim.