Issue 1 Downtime

Theresa was strolling through the Danger Room, her hands and forearms coated in dark, angry clouds. The room flipped up a target in front of her and she leveled her arms at it, lightning lancing from the clouds to strike the target. The immediate thunderclap reverberated around the room. This process continued for a bit until the room indicated it was time for a break and the simulation stopped. Theresa looked a little irritated that she had to stop, but she didn't have the clearance to override the room.

((Open))

"If you promise not to fry me, or yourself, and also promise I won't have to take your unconscious form to the med bay, I can put in an override for you," a voice called out from the observation deck.

"I haven't fried myself yet and I don't know that unconsciousness is a possibility at the moment," she said, pulling the ponytail out of her hair and redoing it.

"Deal," Steph said, punching in her teaching overrides. The room chimed in acknowledgement, signaling Theresa could resume.

"Mind company?"

"So long as you keep your distance," Theresa said, launching lightning into a target that appeared.

"Thunder hurts my ears up here. Don't worry about that," she smirked, grabbing a pair of ear plugs before descending into the room.

"Just got a lot of stuff going through my head right now and my wolf gets antsy around all of you, so just trying to keep it quiet."

"...oh? Thought we had settled that?" she asked, frowning.

"I'm not about to punch you, if that's what you're worried about," Theresa said, not looking at her. She shoved her hands out towards the next target, the jagged lightning striking it slightly off center. "I just feel like running."

"Not here to fight," she said calmly. "Let's just be college girls and ignore the wild beasts inside us for now, eh?"

"I would think you would know that's not possible, but I'm keeping it on a leash right now." She glanced at Stephanie, avoiding eye contact.

Steph sighed, caught in her fib. "Would be nice if we could..."

She didn't make any special effort to avert her gaze but she didn't try to stare the obviously unsettled packmate down either.

"Didn't think this would be so difficult."

"I think we've all been a bit naive at times," Theresa said, launching lightning from one arm instead of both. The target scorched but didn't take quite the damage the previous target had.

"...yeah. It's...different. Harder to control my other side now. But at the same time...sort of don't want to on some level."

"Hence Vertie. Even though she can be irritating sometimes."

"...yeah," she said. "maybe I should work with her some more."

"Her heart's in the right place at least."

"What about you?"

She pointedly didn't look at Stephanie. "What about me?"

"I don't need to be a telepath or an empath to get a sense something's up."

Theresa shrugged, "Not really sure how to explain it. This pack thing just hasn't been what I thought it'd be. I hate hating my friends, expecting them to jump me."

"...I know what you mean," she sighed. "I...I don't know. I guess I thought our human sides might be a bit more in control, and we'd just have some shared experiences and emotions and urges to cement us together, you know?"

"So we get back to the naive thing again. I'm just shot to shit. I feel like Murphy's the only thing holding me together right now."

"How much has this affected your control?" she asked, nodding at the scorched targets around the room.

"Hitting things with lightning or the pack shit? And which control are we talking about?"

"Well...I guess both...but I more meant...How much has having to deal with werewolf baggage hurt your control over weather? I know the weather is a pretty difficult thing to influence on a good day."

"I'm managing to keep it under control, but if I wasn't going out to the woods to reconnect away from everyone else, I'd probably be fighting off errant clouds."

"Has your furry side made any unexpected appearances lately?"

"No, but not for lack of trying." She seemed to consider how to explain it, "She's... scared. I think it's because she's in the pack's territory and she knows she doesn't belong there."

Steph frowned, "Really feel that way? That you don't belong at all?"

She thought for a bit, "Yeah, at least not with the pack. Not anymore. That little dust up in the cafeteria showed me that."

Steph's frown deepened. "Damnit...this...this Just keeps getting more disappointing by the day."

"You've still got your sisters and I've got my girlfriend. It'll even out at some point."

"I...yeah I suppose you're right," she sighed. "Things are still okay with Murphy though? You two are too adorable to break up."

"We're still figuring some things out, but yeah, things are okay. I've been trying not to bother her lately though. She seems to have a lot on her mind."

"I'm still a bit concerned about the night she ate *an entire campfire* and her sister attacked her...I'm sure it's on her mind as well."

"Yeah, I haven't exactly forgotten that," she said with a heavy frown, leveling her hands at a target and blowing it apart.