sup

they want u on the carnapper team

the core team I mean

whos they

the drt

  big bucks on this one

not compared to a menagerie monster tho

She stares at her phone, for long seconds.

i got all the money i need nat

if the sale goes off

it should, everything looks legit so far

red tape tho

they still want u, u in or nah

She's so close.

She's so fucking close, is the thing.  Menagerie's dead.  If she can trust Nat, and she really does think she can trust Nat, today can be the last day she ever has to give a shit about anything.  She and Lucky could be flying out of here in a week.  They could live in New York.  They could live in fucking Italy and Lucky could eat fancy pizza every meal of every day.  She's already almost died, she's already almost thrown it all the fuck away, she knows how lucky she got and she knows more than she ever has in her life how stupid her stupid ideas are.  She's playing for real stakes, now, Lucky's entire future, and she's going to throw that away to chase cars because some suit - 

im out

i have to think about lucky

sorry

they do have a danger precog

heres the racehorse link, shes pretty good

but if you say no ill respect that theyll figure it out

She already said she's out.  She can just - 

She reads the link, obviously.

how come they want me

bc ur turbofuckingfast

the whole dungeon is NASCAR bumper cars and a sensor thinks the core is in one of the cars

but the cars all blew up or crashed out and the dungeon is still here

so they want u to smash the core and gtfo

theres gotta be someone else who can do that

Which is basically what Nat already said a second ago so she doesn't know who she's trying to convince, here.

theyll deal yeah

ok. im out. sorry

ok look i cant work nder these conditions

u cant say sorry about refusing a dungeon

if u dont want to do a dungeon u can just say no

ok?

And who the fuck is she even apologizing to anyway.

ok. i cant do it, im out. no

yeah ik

told em no

thanks nat

np

She sets the phone down on the end table.  She's lying sprawled in bed, because she's so, so fucking sick of walking.

But suddenly she's restless.

She turns over in bed and grabs her phone and types "let me know who they get for carnapper," and doesn't hit send.  She stares at it for a moment, and then rapidly backspaces it, because it'd probably be a stupid thing to say.

She scrolls through texts.  Nothing from Lucky.  Nothing from Charlie.  Nothing from Watershed or Mandragora or Kuroko.  Mrrr.

She doesn't want to get up out of bed and walk around, her feet still hurt from walking, she's so fucking sick of walking, but she doesn't want to lie in bed and do nothing.

...She could float around instead but that'd be stupid even for Parry Thompson.  Unless she managed to get less sick of walking by the time backlash caught up with her.  Ugh.

At some point she's gonna have to say the words "nine million dollars" in front of Lucky.  She doesn't really want to do that before she for sure has the money, not even now that Menagerie's dead, but it feels kind of gross to keep it under wraps too.

Mrrrrrr.  Is there any sort of special espers-only page on the IDA where she can look up who they're getting for carnapper instead of her or would she in fact have to ask her agent if she wanted to stick her nose into it.  (WHY THE FUCK DOES SHE CARE.)

There probably is.  Somewhere.

Sufficient fiddling will, in fact, reveal that they have a record of who's accepted the assignment.  It looks like they have three espers: Sinkhole, Juggernaut, and Graviton.

Ha.  Hi again, Sinkhole.  Probably wouldn't be a good team for her to be on.  Another good reason not to do it.

She texts Lucky:

come hang out? we got to talk

He's over in a minute.  "Everything okay?"

"Yeah.  'S good news," she says.

He sits in one of the squashy hotel chairs.  "What's up?"

She looks at the ceiling.  "You know Menagerie's dead," she says.  "That means the critters are as expensive as we thought they were gonna be.  And Nat says the deal's gonna go through, they're just takin' care of all the bureaucratic shit.  We're gonna get our money.  Probably."

"Aaand you haven't told me how much it is yet," he says, "which means it's probably a whole lot and you didn't want to get my hopes up about it?"

Snicker.

"...So?"

"One million dollars per critter," she says.  "Maybe more."

" - a million?" he blurts.

She smiles a little.  For some reason it feels like it's in spite of herself.  "Nine million total.  We're pretty much set for life if we don't blow it all.  Maybe on the low end of set for life.  But Nat's gonna find us a custody lawyer, a good one, and get you away from Mom and Dad, and - then we just gotta figure out where we wanna live..."

"An' then what?" Lucky asks.  "Are you gonna keep doing superhero stuff?"

"No need," she says.  "Not if we're careful with our money.  We've got everything we need, we can just get out."

"Yeah, but, like, your hero complex?"

She's quiet, for a moment, and shuts her eyes.

"...Parry?"

"...I gotta think about you, kid," she says.  "You can't get emancipated for a couple of years, and if something happens to me before then you go back to our parents."

"But after that?"

Silence, again.

"I mean," she says.  "It's not like I go looking for - "

" - I don't - shit just happens around me," she says.  "Joan's car wasn't - I wasn't out looking for runaway cars.  I didn't want to - "

"But like, what am I gonna do, not try to - and, you know, Charlie, was I gonna - but that doesn't mean - "

"...sorry."

" - no, buddy, you're fine," she says.  "I'm just - "

She takes a deep breath.

"It's fine, you're fine," she says.  "I've just had a long couple days."

"...mkay," he says.

"I don't really know what I'm gonna do, once we're set," she says.  "I - feel like we could both use the rest of our lives off, you know?"

"Maybe."  He shrugs one shoulder.