Issue 1 Downtime

Elise was in her room, huddled on her bed with her sketch pad. She made careful, delicate marks on the drawing, concentrated fully on the image she was trying to place on paper. There was lots on her mind, but when she drew, it all just went away.

There's a faint 'thunk' at the door as a big beetle bumps into the window pane.

Elise looks up from her drawing to her door, then the window. Unsure if she was just hearing things at her door, she gets up to the window and opens it, looking curiously at the beetle. "You're pretty big. I'm surprised you didn't break the glass," she says offhandedly. "Ohhhh, you'd be fun to draw." With that, she whips out her phone to take a quick picture for later. "You should be careful, though. I've seen videos where things die from smacking so hard into windows and stuff." She knew that the beetle wouldn't really hear her, but it was less lonely for her to talk to *something* at least. As time had gone on, Wiggles was fading and was getting harder and harder to manifest. And Frankie, well, she had kind of told to bug off.

The beetle lands on the windowsill while a small cloud of what appears to be dragonflies forms, flitting back and forth but towards the general direction of the window. They all seem to be carrying small berries from (presumably) the woods beyond the school grounds, dropping them on the windowsill while the beetle skitters around, making sure they don't roll away. Once they deliver their payload they land on the glass of the window,arranging themselves into letters with the help of some flies and bugs. It reads: 'cafeteria out of yogurt'

The look on her face is mixed. She doesn't know whether to cry or to hug the bugs. It was one of the nicest things anyone had done for her. As simple as a gesture it was, it meant a lot. She reached out, gathering the berries to help the beetle in it's efforts of keeping them from falling. Once finished, she turned back to the beetle with a smile and did her best to pet it. It's possible to pet beetles, right? "Thank you. I don't know what to say."

The insects skitter around and reform into 'apology'.

"Aw, no I was the one being a butt. I'm the one that should be sorry. Things are just crazy and confusing and... Hey I didn't even get your name or anything. Do you want to come in?" she offered, stepping to the side of the window to give room as she slipped a berry into her mouth. Fresh berries are the best, after all.

A swarm of locust audibly takes flight from the roof and for a moment they bloat out most of the light from the open window as they enter the room. Then they collapse into Teri again, Frankie still sitting on her head. The spider must have gotten carried along in the swarm. "Teri." she smiles.

"Aw, that's a pretty name. I'm Elise. My friends call me El for short. I um...I'm sorry for earlier. I really am," she said, picking at one of the berries sheepishly. "And I'm sorry to you too, Frankie."

"Emotions run high when the truth is spoken. Apology accepted. And...", Frankie paused a moment as if the next words pained her to say. "I'm sorry for being so hard on you. But Teri here may be on to something. You should really listen to what she has to say. She understands more than I think you realize."

"It's alright. Things are crazy and confusing sometimes."

"How did you ever manage it? I mean, I know they always say 'you'll get better' and 'things come with time', but really...how does it work?"

"Hard work, admitting that things might not be just the way you see them. You have the advantage of having another perspective that's part of you."

"I'm still having a hard time with the whole 'part of you' thing. I mean, Wiggles is fun and happy. Frankie...I have a hard time believing Frankie is a part of me. No offense, Frankie."

"None taken. I know I can be a bitch."

"It's... like a song. There are lots and lots of things going on, right? But if you take one bit of it, like maybe a high-pitched note and play nothing else then it might seem jarring. That's what Frankie is."

"I...I never thought of it that way," she admitted, plopping back down on her bed and moving her sketch to the side. Teri may notice the drawing is nothing too elaborate, but she's definitely taken some time on it. "So...does that mean I need more notes?"

"More might help or they might hurt. We think it might be better if you tried to understand how to handle the ones you have. How to listen to them in a way that's less upsetting..."

"I guess that's where I'm failing, huh. I don't know how to handle it all to begin with," she said, sounding discouraged.

"You're doing just fine." she says, sitting down on the windowsill in kind of a crouch. "When our power manifested we fled into the wilds and it took us years to get where we are now. It's a lot to deal with."

"To be honest, I thought I was just hallucinating. And I accepted it. Told myself I was crazy and that was that," she said with a giggle.

"See? You've already made progress." she chuckles.

"Why did you run?" She asked curiously.

Teri makes bit of a face. "People were freaked out. We were freaked out. Our thoughts were all over the place and there may have been a fire..."

Elise winces. "Ouch...that had to have been really tough. Was everyone okay?"

"Despite their best efforts." she says, the usual chipper exterior briefly shifting to something else, though she's quick to recover it.

Elise takes note of the brief lax in chipperness, trying to make thing happy again. "Well things are okay now. If you used to be all alone and stuff, you've really come a long way, I think. I mean look at you, you're nice, you try to help me, which makes me think you help other people too. You're a good person," she said with a nod-nod and a bright smile. "I hope I can get to the point you are one day."

"We try to help. Hopefully it's doing some good!" she says cheerfully. "And don't sell yourself short, you're doing okay."

"She could certainly do better..." Frankie chimed in. Elise took a look at Frankie, then back to Teri. "She's right. I know I can do better. I get so caught up in so many things I don't really take the chance to work on things."

"Maybe you should take people's advice and speak to the Headmistress..." With that, Elise looked a bit uncomfortable, if not intimidated. "I uh...well I mean...she's like...the head honcho, isn't she? She's probably got tons to do." In truth, Elise was just nervous about going to the 'top dog' about things.

"She's really nice. And she's an expert on this kind of thing. She has lots of voices in her head too. We wouldn't be where we are if it wasn't for her help."

"Really?" That seemed to ease her conscience a bit. "Do I just...go to her office? Or do I need to make an appointment? How does this work?" Awkward Elise is awkward.

"You can send her an email. Or we can ask her during our next session. Or maybe you can come along and see what it's like if you want."

"I wouldn't want to butt in on your own things...but...I think that would be cool."

"You are not butting in at all." she smiles.

"I would really love to, to be honest. You sure you don't mind?"

"Some of us do, but they're in the minority."

"When do you normally do them?"

"Wednesday after our classes. 3pm." she adds, remembering that El's classes are obviously different.

"Ohhh, I should be able to make that! My class ends at two thirty. Should I just meet you at her office?"

"Sure. You know where it is?"

"No but I'm -" "I do." Frankie chimed in. Elise raised an eyebrow at her. "... What, you think I just sit around all day? I like to explore."

"How far is your range?" she asks the two of them. "Frankie never disappeared and that was halfway to the lighthouse from here."