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Coolname Galvanic would not consider itself “good with kids”. Like, really? Really?
And even if it was kind of okay with kids, which it’s not particularly interested in being (that’s other people’s problem), it’d probably still be avoiding the kid who, just yesterday, popped out of the Lift’s new sound system.
Because, well, uh… Well. Because she looks, sounds, is a lot like, uh, someone the umpires feared. The umpires, which Coolname is not, by the way, just for the record.
Still, it keeps a close eye on those umpires during the next few games. It has a really bad feeling about this, a sneaking suspicion that there’s no way this ends well for the kid. (Jasmine, was the name she’d picked for herself. Either that or Masone. Names are important.)
The umpires seem to be preoccupied with something, but it isn’t Jas. Coolname watches them carefully, and it’s pretty sure it can see them getting less afraid of Jasmine with each game that goes on.
It is five days later when it finds out what the umpires were preoccupied with hoping goes right. Jasmine suddenly goes very quiet, mid-game. The half-inning changes, and she takes a very long time to get out to field. The umpires, on the other hand, look positively thrilled (to Coolname’s attentive eye). After the game is when the news properly reaches the team: two of the other Wyatts just… turned into static. One of them echoed the other and suddenly they were both gone.
As much as Coolname doesn’t want to be callous, it’s not surprising that the Wyatts weren’t built to last. But it is still awful.
And that, and the way that the umps seemed to know about it in advance, sounds a lot like this was some sort of setup. Like they tried and (yeowch) failed before, and now someone is trying again.
As far as Coolname can tell, though, this never would have been in its control. As far as it can tell isn’t as far as it would like to be able to tell, and that itches at the back of its brain.
Jas seems, from beyond the wide berth Coolname is giving her, to be handling the situation not too well, worrying about her… whatever the other Wyatts are, stressing over them, contacting them repeatedly with a tone analogous to a concerned big sister. Another pair is gone the next day.
The day after that, there’s no feedback, but they’re playing the Sunbeams in reverb weather. Which is to say, the day after that, things get worse.
Suddenly, Quitter’s an Echo, and is trying their best to avoid Jasmine. Suddenly, there’s been collateral damage.
Maybe Coolname needs to stop avoiding Jasmine so heavily. Or to avoid her even more. She has others to talk to-- Aly, Silvaire-- and Coolname is, well, definitely not a reminder of any of the forces that are out to get her… but the umpires aren’t even out to get her directly. And like, Coolname knows a thing or two about the umps, and about the umps giving you the stink eye all the time, and about having once been a part of something no longer yourself, and about-- well, “being a danger to those around you” is a very ungenerous phrasing of both of their situations, past and present. But still.
Time is very much running out. Coolname approaches Jas between games, carefully giving her the space to leave if she wants to, and lifts its leg as high up as it can, which is nearly vertical against the locker. That is a casual and unsuspicious position for casual conversation. “Sup.”
Jasmine looks up cautiously, then sees Coolname’s totally normal pose and snort-laughs. “Pffft- Hi.”
Both of them wait for the other to talk first for a moment.
Jas breaks the silence. “Are you here to worry about tomorrow?” She sounds… oh, definitely worried. Probably about tomorrow.
“Uh… maybe,” Coolname says. “I’m here for emotional support.” What do teens like to do to experience emotional support? And is Coolname actually ready to have this conversation? Okay, new plan. “And also uhhhhhh there’s this smoothie place I like if you wanted to look at some smoothies.”
“To look at some smoothies.” Jas sounds curious but deadpan about that phrasing.
“Or eat some smoothies I guess,” Coolname says. “I don’t know. I’m figuring things out as I go along.” Oh, that is sort of the thesis statement of this whole conversation, isn’t it. Coolname has already figured out a bunch of the things that it thinks Jas is still dealing with, and that’s why it’s talking to her now. “I’m figuring things out as I go along so I guess that means other people probably shouldn’t have to figure the same things out after me. But it’s not really my business if they do. But maybe I can do that sometimes.”
“Right,” Jas says skeptically, but nods very quickly like she probably gets it. "Yeah, smoothies sound nice right now."
As it turns out, smoothies are nice right now. Coolname definitely isn’t ready for the conversations that maybe need to happen, though. Maybe it’ll never be ready. It did say that it wasn’t good with kids, didn’t it?
It wants to tell her that it understands what it’s like, becoming your own thing. Not being a part of something so much larger than you anymore. But it doesn’t know how to say that.
So, smoothies. Smoothies and talking about other stuff, like which new swear words Jasmine had learned (and which ones she already knew but had been too polite to tell Val she already knew), or plants, or their opinions on chocolate (Coolname always loves an opportunity to go on the chocolate rant).
Maybe that’s part of being your own person and providing emotional support and all those other cool things. Or maybe it’s not. Coolname isn’t sure.
It probably does just make the next day hurt more, though. The next day, when Coolname doesn’t look at Quitter as they glower in the outfield and doesn’t look at Jasmine as she stands as close to the batter as she can and doesn’t look at Wya77 as it steps up to the plate and-
Coolname just glares at the umpire that stands behind the fading buzz of static at home plate. It doesn’t know if either of them could have changed this, could have chosen this or made it go less smoothly for whatever is taking the Wyatts apart, but it knows who it doesn’t forgive here.
Yeah, it probably just made this day hurt more.