Log:Her Last, Best Friend

2021/02/21 Summer Travis 1

The other day, most of Code Dark and some of the CHHS teens got mentally pulled out of their bodies and into the dream of some weird girl self-styled as Maleficent who was very confused as to why they were there. In the end, the teens escaped, and Travis has been...off. Not just in behavior. He's been off the brain wave, leaving all of Code Dark disconnected. School is tomorrow, but Travis has been isolated in his room since the incident.

"Travis?"

Summer bonks her forehead against Travis' door in an irregular rhythm with just enough force to make it an annoying noise. Every so often she hits something metallic against the door knob too. You know, just to make sure that Travis can't just ignore her. Not that a door really stands much chance against Summer Blockbuster Hollywood, but it's the principle of the thing.

"Traaaaaaaaaaaaaviiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssss?"

It's hard to meditate or sleep with all that noise. Eventually Travis voice cuts through the door. "Summer, c'mon...cut it out."

"Gotta let me in first," sing-songs Summer. This is promptly followed by another bonk of her head against the door.

There's a suffering grumble. Eventually a sigh of surrender as she keeps bonking. With a rustling, the door finally unlocks and Travis opens the door part-way. He's dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants, barefoot. His hair isn't styled with any product and is a bit tussled. "What is it, Summer?" he asks, eyes unfocused.

Helpfully, Summer boops Travis on the nose before he's finished speaking.

"Are you okay? You haven't, like, been all up in anyone's psychic jim-jams in days."

Travis rubs his face with one hand as he closes his eyes. "I'm...not. And I don't want to be in anyone's head anytime soon. Not after...ugh." He sighs, just sounding sad now.

"But how are Tessa, Evan, and I supposed to share naughty pictures of your butt if we can't, like, connect to one another's brains through your own?" inquires Summer. She steps in close and wraps her arms around Travis, hugging him tight against her body. One hand cradles the back of his head, trying not to get either of the spoons in her hand in contact with his hair. "I'm sorry, Travis. I wish I could do something, like, More for you. Like... I'm supposed to be the one taking hits for you guys, but you always seem to be the one getting hurt. I'm sorry."

That catches Travis off guard. "My...wait, what?" he asks as he gets caught by the tight hug. He's shocked by Summer being the one to apologize. With a sighs, he gives her a brotherly hug. "It's not your fault. This wasn't a hit you could take, Sum. I just...I think...we were on the side of the bad guys this time."

"People in this dimension are very strange," replies Summer, keeping Travis restrained by her hug. She eventually moves her hand with the spoons away from the back of his head. "My job on this team is to keep you guys from getting, like, hurt. You keep getting hurt. I know I can't take every hit, but I'm still sorry that I can't, like, do more for you, Trav."

Pausing a moment, Summer tilts her head as she looks at Travis' face. Inspecting him seriously for several moments before she returns to hugging Travis tight.

"Were you a bad guy?"

"I...I dunno. I couldn't stop what happened." Travis sighs again. "We got sucked into some girl's crazy dream world. They didn't seem to know why we were there. Some of the other teen metas...they tried to attack her and threaten her even after I warned them I sensed some sort of trauma in her brain. They tried bullying her into letting us go when she wasn't even clear on what was happening. She just knew some of the normals she that were also pulled into the dream had 'done this' to her. In the end...I think...I think she died, and we all popped back into the real world. Then some nups at a table were panicking that their son had vanished."

Travis clenches his eyes shut. "I didn't pull all the pieces together until it was too late. Unraveled the story. There was a boy who was beaten up so bad for being different that he was left in a wheelchair and disconnected from the waking world. He was dreaming of being the girl he really identified as being. Part of why he was beaten up by school bullies. Some people with PSI came to 'help' the parents and gave the kid something that boosted their latent powers and it brought us all into their dream. It was too much and the kid went 'Omega'...meaning they were getting burned up by their own powers. We never got to help her...she just...and we...we were the bullies..."

Summer bites her lip as she listens to Travis' tale. Gently, she strokes his back and closes her eyes too while holding him tight.

"Did you give her the psychic power booster drugs?"

"No! Of course not..." Travis answers, starting to relax a bit rather than resist her hugs.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! YOUR PAIN WILL BE SUBSUMED INTO SUMMER'S HUGS!

"Did you beat her up? Did you put her in a wheelchair?"

Summer holds Travis tight and safe against her body, hugging him while she questions him.

"No..." Travis answers, seeing where she's going with this. Sort of. Though one can never be sure with Summer.

Summer hugs on Travis some more, stroking his back gently.

"Were you trying to bully her into letting you go?"

Travis sighs softly and bows his head. "I wasn't. No. But I was with those who were."

Summer tips her head, bonking her forehead against his as she holds him fast.

"Could you have overpowered all of the pups that were bullying her? Could you have fought them all to a standstill all by yourself?"

"I...could've maybe mentally forced them, but...okay. I get it," Travis relents.

"You really don't, Travis, but that's okay," replies Summer as she keeps him held tight in her arms.

"Guilt by association is, like, a thing for arm chair quarterbacks and lawyers to throw around. It's a thing for, like, people that weren't there to use against people who were there. You're not allowed to use guilt by association against, like, yourself. You were there, sure, but you were trying to, like, get everyone out of a bad situation safely."

Summer kisses Travis on the forehead. Her hands gently stroke his back as she hugs on her friend.

"You fought for her. You learned what happened. You care about what happened to her. You care about her life. That's important, Trav. That's more than PSI and her parents managed. You're her last, best friend. Don't you ever, like, lump yourself in with those other pups. They were the bullies, not you."

Travis hardly feels like a friend to Mal, but he can't really argue with Summer's other points. "Okay, Summer. Thanks," he finally manages a half-smile for her sake. "I'll keep that all in mind." A pause. "Umm. Why are you holding spoons?" he asks.

"So we can eat the quart of ice cream I've got in my other hand," replies Summer. Promptly Travis gets booped on the nose with the edge of an ice cream container. She steps past Travis and goes to sit down on the floor in front of his bed, holding up her spoon hand toward Travis. "You're going to remember her, Travis. You're going to remember her the way she would have wanted to be remembered. That's important."

Travis's head jerks back after the boop he didn't see coming. He rubs his nose to warm it again as he close the door. "I guess there's that. It'll be hard to forget. And I don't want to." He walks over to Summer and reaches for the spoon, taking it as he sits across from her. "Thanks. And not just for this," he says as he waggles the spoon briefly. "For the talk."

As Travis finishes his thoughts on remembering Mal, Summer smiles and points emphatically at him with the spoons.

"And that's why you're her last, best friend."

The lid of the ice cream container gets pried off while Travis is making his way over and taking a spoon. Summer smiles at Travis and swirls her own spoon in the air as she regards him.

"Like. What else am I gonna do? You keep getting hurt when I can't protect you. Least I can, like, do is try to help you heal."

Travis shrugs at her question. "Like I said, I don't think you could've protected me or any of us from that. But you're the best at helping us pull ourselves back together," he smiles.

"Nuh-uh," replies Summer, "You're the best at pulling us back together."

Summer taps at her temple with two fingers and smiles at Travis while she illustrates her point. To the blind guy.

Travis smiles a bit at that. "Okay...but that's different." Though now that he's feeling a bit better, he finally reopens the Brainwave, starting with Summer.

Summer gives Travis an immediate warm fuzzy via the Brainwave. It feels a little different from the usual warm fuzzies from Summer. This warm fuzzy is full of Summer being proud of Travis.

Travis smiles at the warm fuzzies, and returns some of his own, laced with gratitude. Especially as he spoons up some ice cream and takes a bite.