The blank sheet truly illustrated how lost the girls were, Jackie thought to herself.

She was hunched over, tapping on the glass coffee table with her pen. She could’ve used her phone’s notepad, but she liked the feeling of physically writing. Forcing and testing her brain to manifest the thoughts into words, making doubly sure that they’re the right call after it’s all done.

But it was hard to even think. To come up with the thoughts in general, never mind the words. Finally having a moment to breathe, to find their way out of the mire… And nothing’s coming to mind. Not without a lack of trying, but rising from that muck, realizing that the nature of this swamp is terrible. Dark. No visible path out.

Didn’t really help that she wasn’t in her home, going through the motions of alienation of moving in the first time.

Jackie looked around, possibly for the tenth time, to take in her new home away from home.

The living room, which she was in, was accessible right from the entrance. The red, leather couch she was sitting in was against the wall, the front door being a few feet away. The stairs to the upper levels was a few feet before it, creating this very tight, but cozy room that they were slowly filling with things.

Madison, despite everything wrong with her mouth, knows a lot of people. People who are apparently on good terms with her, and often asks for free things from them. Or at least, stockpiles favors and information for each one, so she can always gain a cavalcade of things.

Some of these items were supposed to be going to her room, in her words, “they hear how much of a shit hole it is and keep offering pity passes [to her]”. As much as Jackie wanted to pry into that alone, she really needed to break away and figure out what they’re doing.

River also offered some things, stuff that she said that she barely used in her room anyways, as Jackie glanced over to the front door opening, River and Aiko lugging in a small, wide TV into the center of the room.

Gaining access to one of the Allies’ Homes proved to be an unexpected morale booster. Jackie chalked it up to them all being 17, the idea of having a house now sparking off a load of possibilities—which she admits felt awesome. Considering siVictims often become homeless due to their own homes feeling empty—their problems attached to going back to them, and the fact that Trends like N’atural literally sleep in dank dungeons… It was pretty assuring that they all have a plan to just go to. And it just being this normal, suburban home adds to the safety.

Well. “Normal”, owners-have-to-operate-it-on-their-lonesome, a home can be.

That, and the fact that there’s trances of the Near-Terminsys incident lingering—one wrong step and they’re suddenly teleported in some place in the city… Which Jackie hoped will go away after a time.

“Well, that’s all we have—” River announced, dusting off her hands.

“Really--?” Jackie looked up at them. “That’s everything--?”

“Pretty much!” Aiko chirped, hands on her hips.

“So you’re telling me that that I sat here for two whole hours, not doing anything--?”

Maddie swaggered down the stairs, only to stop shy three steps near the end, leaning on the wall. “Hey, helps my theory that you barely think about these things, Jackson—”

Jackie only met her with a measured glare. Playful, or at least trying to be.

Tracy entered into the room, from the entry way of the kitchen. “I always wonder if you feed from this… Making fun of people.”

“I’m not some ghoul or whatever—” Maddie defended herself.

“You could’ve fooled us, considering how far you go…”

“Well,” Maddie crossed her arms, still leaning against the wall. It oddly took a while for her to speak again. “You are the type that puts away too much stock into fairytales… Ariel.”

Tracy made the most nonplussed face Jackie seen her form.

“Wow. Yeah. How original, never heard or was in talks to play her before—”

“Yeah I know—” Maddie pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m fucking out of it today. It didn’t help that I forgot the chick’s name.”

“… The ubiquity of Media Ghost Overlord Disney and you forgot Ariel’s name?” River questioned.

“Look, my head’s splitting apart, I feel gross, and I didn’t even watch any of the movies as a kid—That can actually happen, you sheep!” Maddie waved her arms, looking comical which made Jackie cover her mouth with her hand. A marked hand, that also belonged to an arm that was getting way better than she hoped.

“…” River looked over to Tracy. “I think that honestly explains everything we ever needed to know.”

Tracy giggled, “It does, doesn’t it?”

“—Oh, I zoned out complete—” Aiko barged in vocally. “Jackie, are we going to the Convention thing or not? Have you already said--?”

“Of course,” Jackie answered. “The problem is that I have no idea what to do once we get there. Everything’s been quiet on the siVis side of things, so they’re going to show up, 100%. We need to be prepared but…”

“Shouldn’t there be some specs or floor plans of the Grounder for you to look at…?” Tracy brought up.

“There’s one for the old layout, but everything’s been redesigned post-N’atural Mayhem, remember? And is it at the Grounder in the first place...?” River informed.

“w-well no, I don’t have my ear to the ground like you, darling-“

“River’s right, that was the first roadblock…” Jackie sighed.

“I disagree with that,” Tracy raised her hand. “That can’t be the first roadblock. We still have no idea what we’re wearing—”

“Oh,” Jackie scrunched her lips into a pucker.

“I thought we were gonna High School event it—” Maddie answered, sniffled after. “Try, but it’s like—you’re getting dressed up to go eat some pizza or something, so it’s not like a wedding or something—”

River scratched her head. “I only have the one ‘special occasion’ dress, so.”

Jackie rubbed her chin. “I guess I’ll bust out of my 18th century suit, cut the frills…”

Aiko just frowned, and then rolled her eyes. “IIIIII’ll go back to my home and see if I have my old dress as well…”

“It’s going to be so fucking weird seeing both of you dressed up…” Maddie pointed to Aiko and Jackie. “I can see Jackson doing it for a job interview—and of course she wears a suit—but Kobayashi-fucking-Maru--?”

“Every time you reference that, I often wonder if it was alright showing you guys Stark Trek II or not,” River flatly admitted.

“Not my fault that it fits like a glove—” Maddie retorted. “She’s a breathing no-win-scenario, it’s a surprise that she’s gonna wear a dress—”

“It’s in the hopes that it’ll hopefully be destroyed in the fighting…” Aiko quipped.

Jackie felt a ringing in her pocket, pulling out her still battered phone.

“… Don’t recognize this number.”

The rest stopped their bantering, looking at each other slowly.

Jackie couldn’t blame them. They were trained to detect weird at this point, they better have after everything catching them off guard.

She answered, the default phone caller symbol hovered for a bit.

“—so it should be working now—I think it is, it is working! Hey guys! I finally found you again!”

The nasally, oddly paced voice couldn’t be mistaken.

“…S-stark…?” Jackie tilted her head.

The image turned into her. A still of a very small, black teen—possibly the same age as the rest of them? She was wearing a multi-colored, multi-ringed sweater, which was baggy and large enough to cover up her rather long arms, covering even her hands. Her jeans were equally baggy, and equally as if she was wearing something from a theft store. What topped it all off, was her wild hair—auburn, puffy, bangs covering her eyes completely. And yet she could still see.

“It’s the same me,” Stark answered in her Stark-y way. “I’m hoping it’s the same you! Cells dying and being replaced aside—and that’s not remotely siVis-y—”

And the one detail that one couldn't ignore was her smile. Jackie felt that she... For all of her weird faults, is a genuine person, through and through. But her smile always seems like she's taking so much effort to do.

And despite all that, it's uneven.

“Uh—” Jackie was always at a loss to speak, to deal with her. And she only met her once. “We’re… Alive, so far. Um, how did you get this number--?”

“My Dad’s here, he has a way of getting things from people,” Stark bluntly answered. “Anyways! You should go to the Conference! It’s sort-of… Well, I can’t say that world, but I guess the other term’s—a shell of it’s former self, but State of Existence used to help people like you and me! Think about it, I’m here talking to you, because I went to go talk with them! Annual! Well, until now—”

“Stark, you just can’t speed past that—” Maddie tried to shout over, but had to cough a bit.

“Was that Maddie--?” the image of Stark was still static. “Maddie! If that is you, maybe take a rain-check? And also don’t go, you sound a bit congested--!”

“But you said ‘rain check’ already, Stark…” Tracy said.

“…Yeah,” Stark responded. “Check for rain… Because it’d be bad for her to get caught in it when she’s already sick. It means something—something dirty, huh--?”

“No no no—” Jackie then sighed. “Uh, yeah, we’re going, Stark. Don’t worry—”

“Then we can meet up!”

That caused everyone to look at each other with a mounting sense of dread.

The idea of Stark Terri dressing up and getting into a public place…

“We’ll just meet up with you!” Jackie expertly hid her tone from the strange girl. “You have my phone now, so I’ll text you when we get in! And hey, we’ll find each other if I can’t!”

“Sounds great!” Stark shouted. “We’ll compare our notes… And uh. I’ll continue to not guide you or give away stuff because the last thing the world wants is more Me. Me’s? Me-ies...? I’ll think about it, along with what I’m wearing! See you! Have a great rest of the day!”

The phone shut off, the weight of it causing Jackie’s arm to flop to her side.

“Girls, we evaded having our +1 being a Trend—”

“Y-yeah, uh, that would’ve been messy,” River agreed.

“Well Iunno—” Aiko pipped up. “She could’ve been a nice shield for us, we still haven’t seen her reportedly crazy ability and I wanna get the front row seats—”

“Sure,” Jackie said. “But that doesn’t… Get to our problem…”

Jackie got up, Maddie going “oh here we go…” in the background.

“We tried to get into the… Heart of the conflict. Hell, we couldn’t get into the conflict. We tried finding some angle, trying somehow to fit into things when we can’t… And we did all of this without a plan to begin with. Well—less a plan, plans don’t survive contact with the enemy anyways. What we lack… Is stability. Foundation? Direction...? Establishment. Something beyond survive and make a difference.”

Jackie sighed again, rubbing the back of her neck. “And I guess I’m gonna be the one up at night trying to figure that and the plan out. While the rest of you guys get your things ready.”

“Roger that, fearless leader,” Maddie started to step down the stairs finally.

Jackie turned to the rest. “We meet back here prim and pretty. And most importantly, ready.”