Her inspiration for pumpkin man put a smile on his face while he stared at his hollowed out canvas.

What to do, what to do?

An Image he saw on Elke's facebrook, which he'd found the password for, came to mind suddenly. First, he cackled cruelly to himself, and then he did the best he could to carve the WWRF nintendo custom character by the name of Shelby.

She would have no idea what was going on, but he thought it was hilarious. Elke had gotten double grounded for it, of course, but that didn't make it any less funny.


"Wachu think?" It was surprisingly close to the source material, to his credit. Probably his best art ever. He smiled widely, gazing upon his creation.

Shelby squinted at his creation for a bit, tilted her head to look at it from a different angle, then stepped back and tapped her chin with a finger.

"That.... is totally a poorly carved copy of that horrible caricature Elke made of me, isn't it?"

She crossed her arms, scowling at the X-man. "I'm friends with her on facebrook."

One short scolding later about how he shouldn't be a hypocrite by grounding her for it, when he obviously thought it was funny and was spreading it around himself, she was stabbing the crooked arms in and tucking a battery operated candle into the face.

"Wanna put this one out with the rest?" She paused for a moment, considering. "Or should we stick it in Cs' room?"

Saph's eyes widened when she caught him in his secret jest. He turned to her, with a look of disbelief. "She's got YOU on facebrook? The hell? She doesn't even have Me on it." He grumpfaced immediately, crossing his arms, and leaning against the table.

He pointed out that he was simply standing up to her, and that someone had to each Elke that it wasn't okay to mock people, even if it was funny, or knowing her, she'd do something hilarious and get herself put in jail.

"Meh, knowing Sam he'd just get drunk and wake up with it in his bed tomorrow."

They carried out their creations in order to display them next to the other ones.

"She's got YOU on facebrook? The hell? She doesn't even have Me on it."

She half rolled her eyes. "No self respecting teen adds their parents on facebrook."

"Meh, knowing Sam he'd just get drunk and wake up with it in his bed tomorrow."

Shelby snickered, following him out as he carried the heavier pumpkins and she struggled out with the pumpkinman. "There are so many jokes for that, I don't even know where to start."

A few minutes later they had the pumpkins situated, and she snapped a few pictures of them for her album. Then she snapped a picture of the both of them (another one). They were officially done, with nothing left to do but clean up the kitchen and bake the pumpkin seeds.

Smiling as she reviewed all of the pictures from their date, she glanced at Saph. "Thanks.... Saph. I had a lt of fun today."

That date had ended with a smile. It had left him with a strong sense that everything was going to be just fine.

Days later, it wasn't.

Her childhood best friend had been killed with a crowd of people onlooking. Saph had killed the man responsible, but there were still so many questions. Obviously, she was upset. He was still a bit thrown off by it all. He hadn't expected that night to be a good time, but the very people he's suspected would start the trouble had been the ones attacked.

Saph sat in their room, fidgeting a bit nervously as he waited for her to enter. They hadn't had a chance to talk about it all.

He knew that she was off. He knew someone had called her, and that the detectives involved weren't allowed to give him details on the case, as he was 'emotionally conflicted'. He figured he could help more than he could hurt in that regard, but the NYPD had it's prerogatives.

The X-Man's head perked up when he heard the door to the room open. He looked tired, a bit worried. He'd killed a man less than 12 hours ago, and the rest of the time had been consumed by questionings and reports.

The last 12 hours had been rough on Shelby, and to be honest she wasn't handling it well at all. She'd spent the majority of her time avoiding any and all human contact, mostly by "sleeping" as much as she could get away with. When it became too obvious that she wasn't actually attempting to get any rest, she decided to switch tactics and got in touch with one of the officers who had been working on her case. She'd spent the last handful of hours with aforementioned officer, giving a statement on the recent murder of Derrick.

Suffice it to say that when she arrived back at the school and rested her hand on the doorknob to her room, she was thoroughly, properly exhausted. A small part of her was proud that she'd managed to go the whole time without fully breaking down again.... while another part of her was sort of disgusted that she even cared about such a thing with everything going on. She... she just felt like she needed to try and stay strong, or at least as strong as she could be. Especially with how Olivia was taking it.

When she finally pushed the door open and took a step inside, she'd already prepped herself with a deep, calming breath, and schooled her expression into calm indifference. When she spotted Saph perched on the edge of the bed, though... she stopped in her tracks. There, standing smack in the middle of the open doorway, hand still on the knob, she completely blanked on what to do. What to say. How to function.

A beat later she forced herself to move. With a sigh she closed the door, shifted her weight from foot to foot uncertainly, before turning and treading over to plop down on rge edge of the bed beside him. Then, leaning over, she embraced him in a gentle hug.

"I'm so sorry."

She'd heard bits and pieces about what had happened off camera at the scene... broken chunks of a complete story she wasn't privy to know the complete version of. "How are you doing?" She wanted him to know that, even with everything else going on, he still mattered. How he felt still mattered.

He didn't know what to say when she opened the door. Her friend was dead. Her best friend. He'd failed to defend him, because he was too busy trying to protect others from him. He'd failed her.

And when she spoke, she said SHE was sorry. His heart beat heavily in his chest as she embraced him, and he remained frozen in shock for a moment. After that moment, he embraced her as well, shaking his head as she asked how he was doing. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back gently to look at her.

"I-I'll be fine... Shelby... Are you okay?"

He would be. But how could she be? She looked even kilter, but he knew her. He'd experienced her at the height of joy, and the edge of sanity. She was not okay.

"Shelby... I'm here for you. It's okay." He moved to wrap her up in an encapsulating embrace. He wanted her to be able to grieve for this. If she closed herself off and internalized this stuff, it wouldn't help anyone. It wouldn't help her.

It didn't matter that he'd killed a man. She'd lost someone dear to her. Again.

She nodded slightly, letting her head rest against him. "Currently, right now at this very moment I am... adequate." She breathed out slowly, and eventually returned the hug. "I'm sorry I've been avoiding you. I just don't-" She struggled to figure out what she wanted to say for a moment, before ultimately giving up. "-words. Too hard. Ugh."

After a moment she pulled back so she could turned and squirrel under the ruffled blankets on the bed, flopping around so she could still look at him while also fully enveloping herself in fluff.

"My brain hurts." She frowned, reaching up to remove her glasses and knead at her temples. A beat passed and she angled her frown at him, dropping her hand onto the bed lazily.

"Will you cuddle with me?"

Adequate. He was pretty sure he knew what that meant. Anyway, adequate meant alright, right, and if that was what she wanted to say about how she felt right now, that was okay with him. He could still give her what she needed.


"I'm sorry I've been avoiding you. I just don't...words. Too hard. Ugh."

"Yeah, I feel ya..." He patted that back of her head lightly, and nodded at her request to cuddle.

He gently shifted to join her under the sheets, laying quietly with her. The extended time without sleep caught up to him within minutes as he tried to pet her hair to comfort her.

Slowly, but surely, his eyes closed.

She'd turned into him when he'd crawled in with her, and while he attempted to comfort her she simply closed her eyes and let herself rest in the comfort of his warmth and silence.

As soon as he stilled though, her eyes cracked back open. She watched him as sleep won, and watched him a while still after that. He looked tired... she could see the strain of it in his face. Gently she reached up to claim his hand, pressing her cheek into it. This was hard for her. Everything was hard. Breathing... eating... thinking. Functioning on even the most basic level. Every time she ran out of things to occupy her mind, every time she closed her eyes, she was brought right back to that moment.

As he slept, she wept quietly... curled into him.

They woke up the next morning. The day went by. They slept that night.

That same cycle repeated itself a few times, and before they knew it, a week had passed. Shelby had spoken to investigators about her conversation over the phone, but little had come of it. They had no evidence. The man Saphirus had killed was a noted anti-mutant supremacist; he'd brought his own weapon, and had left a blog post about something big he wanted his supporters to look out for.

In the eyes of the investigators, none of her story made any sense; it wasn't that they didn't believe her, they just couldn't really find any evidence to support the theory that he was involved.

It sucked. It went nowhere. Life went on as best it could, and the shock started to wear off.

Saph found himself standing in the room, getting dressed in his trademark spandex, talking to Shelby as he made sure he was ready and equipped his commitment. This particular one was as a panelist at hero-con. He'd made this commitment months ago; it was an AMA on being an actual legal super hero. He was hoping to drag Shelby along.

"So yeah... We hit the 163, and then catch the blue line and we'll be right next to the convention center... You should coat up. I'll be wearing my coat over this... S'freakin cold outside." He threw on his coat, and then selected his classic crowbar from the collection; it had seen better days, but it was reliable.

She was not happy that she'd caved and let him convince her to go to the convention. Both because she still wasn't at her best, and because she really loved nerdy conventions, and didn't want her sour mood to impact it at all. Especially not when it was important to Saph on some level.

She also hadn't had time to plan a costume, or even plan an outfit for that matter... so she'd thrown something random together as quickly as she could. By the grace of ridiculously speedy overnight deliveries, she had something to wear the next day. A simple black hoodie with 'This is my costume' plastered in white text on the front. Plain jeans and boots finished the outfit off. She was piling her hair into a messy bun as Saph explained their course. She simply nodded at him, affirmation that she had heard and had no complaints.

--

A while later she was slumping along beside Saph, her hands stuffed into her kangaroo pocket, while watching her breath fog up in front of her. She seemed lost in thought, and she partially was. She was anxious about being out... Anxious about conversing with other people... about the slim but real possibility that people would be talking about what happened and that she would have to suffer silently through it. Lord knows she wasn't about to out herself as being connected to it. She cringed slightly and glanced at her boyfriend.

"So how does this work again? How long goes that Q n' A go?"

He was going to be up with a few other well known faces up on a stage, with an open mic kind of question and answer thing going on for a while. She would be in the audience, or off to the side somewhere... waiting.

Her attention was captured by people around them as they grew closer to the event site. People were starting to appear in costumes galore.

"So how does this work again? How long goes that Q n' A go?"

"Eh, Thirty or so minutes. Guess it depends on how passionate people get. People get pretty into this stuff, Shelby... Honestly, it's calmed since back in the day. You shoulda seen them when the real crazy vigilante were running around." He chuckled as he watched four dudes dressed as Cold Steel walk past in costumes of varying quality. "You should see how many people dress as a Cafas/Sam romance couple. It's weird when you know the guys. Sam definitely ain't Cafas' type."

They were nearing the crowd outside of the convention. He would have to pick up his badge just inside, and he could get his plus one for her.

Oh, was that a Meld cosplay? Jees,what a blast from the past! He smiled a bit. "You know this ain't my jam, right? Figure, though, people like having something to look at and say 'hey look, a good guy! They do exist." She shrugged as he ran a hand over his mouth, feeling his lips begin to chap in the dry weather." If sitting in a room an answering a few questions make some kid or grown ass man with a neck beard's day better, good sh**." They made it inside, and he let out a thankful sigh as he steered them to a less active spot, and warmed his hands, grabbing hers as well.

"Let's get our badges, eh?"

He turned to head toward the sign in table for volunteers, just to the side of the insanely long con-goer line, and looked up when he heard someone call his name. Well, not his name. His code name. Well, he supposed he should expect this kind of stuff, right?

She nodded at him, only half paying attention. She couldn't help it, though... she was torn between listening and assessing and criticizing all of the various costumes around them. She loved seeing what other people could make, and loved giving any constructive criticism she could muster whenever she was able. The Meld cosplay that walked past, for example, could improve if it's creator replaced a few of the plastic elements with flexible metal.

"You know this ain't my jam, right? Figure, though, people like having something to look at and say 'hey look, a good guy! They do exist. If sitting in a room an answering a few questions make some kid or grown ass man with a neck beard's day better, good sh**."

She frowned at him slightly, staring for a moment as she mulled over what he had just said. "Well that's a really condensed, generalized view... I think it's more than that." She started, looking around them as they drew closer to the entrance. "Yes, there is certainly a percentage of people who hero worship, and yes there is definitely a cult of children out there who would literally pee themselves in excitement at the opportunity to talk to a real life x-man... but I think you are more than that so so many other people."

"You all represent so much more than just 'hey look, a good guy." She pointed a hand at a few of the more obvious mutants among the crowd. "For example, for the more apparent x-gene carriers you represent opportunity, stability, safety.... Our culture, in most cases, accepts you. Celebrates you. incorporates you into city life. There is a very large percentage of mutants who have never felt any of those things, and maybe when they look at you, or one of the other X-men, they see hope for their own future."

She huffed, blowing her bangs from her eyes as she stuffed her frozen hands back into her pocket. "Some in your position get blinded by the numbers, like a celebrity. They start to blur all the individual faces together into one, and they label it all 'FAME'. Meanwhile, each one of us on the outside has our own individual reason for being drawn here. Each face looking up at you has it's own story."

.... Oh god, where had she been going with this? She was off on a tirade again, wasn't she? Shelby flushed slightly and hunched over a little.

"...Anyway..." He grabbed her hand and she followed along quietly.

"Mr. Masochist."

Shelby turned to the voice. A man, clearly a geek and with glowing eyes, was standing off to the side of them. His gaze was fixed on Saph. Shebly glanced from her boyfriend to the man, then back again.

"I'm Mark... we met at a previous convention a few years ago..." The man held out two badges on lanyards. "Nice to see you back."

Saph stared at Shelby with a slightly dumbfounded expression as she kinda sorta laid into him. He blinked a few times, and scratched the back of his head after she finished awkwardly.

"Y'know, sometimes I forget you're smarter than me. I dunno, though... I kinda just feel like a normal guy who does stuff that ain't normal... I ain't really in to the hero worship thing, I guess. You want something done, you get it done... Least that's how I work." He shrugged a bit. "I mean, I get it... I just never felt it, is all."

He perked up a bit as someone he recognized from that convention a while back was handing out the ID cards. "Hey, buddy! Good to be back. How's the card collection coming?" He grinned, taking his badge, and signing in. Once he was done, he handed Shelby his pen.

"This here is Shelby. Friend of mine. Anything interesting to catch this year?" He hadn't had a chance to really look at this year's itinerary, but the last time around he'd run into some pretty useful workshops, actually. After they finally found his stolen armor, that was.

No talk about that, though. That there was Judge talk, and Judge talk didn't happen. He looked down at his watch... He had a bout 20 minutes until he had to be anywhere; they'd made good time.