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gay-otlc · 2 years ago

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Straight A Supervillain- 14

Shit starts going down.

Content warnings: Politics (fake but based on reality), bigotry (fake because it's anti-superpowers, but based on reality), description of a panic attack and trichotillomania.

Enjoy!

When Cameron first interrupted eir pitiful attempt at writing an essay on henchperson qualifications, Naomi was grateful. This gratitude quickly went away when ey looked up and noticed the look on her face. “Cameron? You look okay? You look like someone just called you cishet,” ey said.

Cameron didn’t even crack a smile at what Naomi thought was a very funny comparison, if ey said so emself. Silently, he handed her computer over, setting it between em and Lani (who were holding hands as they worked, not that it was anyone’s business). “Ugh, is this tumblr? I had to delete my account last year because some discourse bullshit made me set my computer on fire,” ey explained, shuddering at the memory.

Noel gave em a concerned look. “Please don’t set this computer on fire,” he said as he leaned over Lani’s shoulder to look. “Your username is ‘frog earrings my beloved?’”

“I like frog earrings, okay? Just read the post. Naomi, no arson.”

“Dammit, Cameron.”

Before ey could further argue the arson case, Lani scrolled down and began reading off the screen. “IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ! Senate majority leader Laura Smith introduced a new bill on November 5th, parenthesis, and tumblr paid more attention to Destiel smh, end parenthesis, called the Superpower Restriction Bill. Creative name, Smith. This is really bad news for anyone in the country with superpowers, especially for villains which I’d imagine are more popular on this hellsite. This bill orders the draining of power from every supervillain and supervillain in training, people with powers who don’t plan to become supers, and even heroes with destructive powers like fire or super strength. For a complete list of powers that even superheroes can’t have, look at senatorlaurasmith.gov. I know yall get all your news from tumblr dot hellsite even though you shouldn’t, but here’s an Eyver Times article with all this information and I’d encourage you to read that. Stay safe yall, blue heart emoji.”

She left the rest of the group in stunned silence.

“What the everloving fuck,” Noel said, finally.

Cameron nodded. “So, we’re fucked.”

“I mean, the law hasn’t passed yet,” Lani offered. “Smith could be alone in thinking this is a good idea, and people can petition or protest or whatever.”

“Or we could assassinate her.”

“Naomi?”

Ey rolled eir eyes. “I’m kidding, Noel. On the bright side, if this law does get passed, my dad will lose his powers and probably my mom too, they’ll be so pissed and it’ll be hilarious.” It felt strange to mention eir parents so casually when ey spent so long trying to keep that hidden, but definitely good, to bitch about Blaze and Thunderclap out loud. Bitching was always better when people could listen.

Cameron shrugged. “That sounds satisfying, but I would prefer for no one to lose their powers, actually.”

“No, I agree, but that would be a silver lining.”

“This sucks,” Noel mumbled, slumping his head onto his hands.

“It sure does,” Lani agreed. “Should we take a look at the article? Make sure…” she glanced at the poster’s username. “Liveslugsboyfriend-official was telling the truth and we’re not freaking out over nothing?”

Noel nodded. “Seems reasonable.” They all stared at the computer. Naomi definitely didn’t want to be the one to click for confirmation, and by the look of it, the rest of the gang didn’t want to either. Noel was the first to cave, with a muttered “Fuck it.”

The link led to eyvercitytimes.gov, so it was probably real. Shit. The headline read “Superpower Restriction Bill.” Once again, shit.

Lani cleared her throat and read. “Majority leader Laura Smith introduced the Superpower Restriction Bill to the rest of the senate late the night of November fifth. This bill, intended to minimize the damage done by superheroes and villains alike, outlined an ambitious plan to entirely remove superpowers from all who possess them, save for some heroes with less destructive powers. Smith states that she has been apprehensive at the potential for destruction these individuals hold for years, and has wanted to do something about it for a long time. What pushed her to assemble a team of scientists to investigate the cause of superpowers- and how to use that to take them away- was when the daughter of Ben and Alana Rothstein, more commonly known as the heroes Blaze and Thunderclap, endangered her- eir- school when first developing fire powers. ‘This is far too much power for anyone to have, let alone a child,’ Smith said after the incident occured, and she has been hard at work ever sin- Naomi, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Naomi mumbled, intstinctively. Ey could barely hear Lani. Barely hear anything. All the shit that was going on- this stupid senator trying to take away the powers that meant so much to em and all of eir friends and Lani and everyone at this school- it was because of em, because of when ey lost control three years ago and been haunted by it ever since. That day hadn’t just pushed em away from eir parents and solidified their disappointment in em. It hurt every other villain, everyone else with superpowers. My fault, my fault, my fault. If eir friends hadn’t hated em for being related to heroes, and that was a miracle in itself, they would definitely hate em now. Who wouldn’t? Ey hated emself.

“Naomi. Breathe.” The command- eir head was swimming too much to gather where it had come from- brought eir attention to the fact that ey wasn’t, in fact, breathing. Ey made no attempt to fix this. It was too much effort to breathe right now, and that wasn’t a luxury ey deserved, was it, not after hurting so many people.

“I’m- I’m sorry,” ey gasped. The room closed in around em. Was there something on eir chest? It was so heavy, ey was trapped, ey couldn’t fucking breathe-

“Shh. Naomi. Deep breaths.” Something cold touched eir hand. “Please don’t pull any hair out.”

Whoever was holding eir hand didn’t get it. Ey needed to pull hair out, that was the only thing that could possibly bring relief from the anxiety storming all around. I’m having a panic attack, ey noticed distantly. The thought did nothing. Ey still wanted to pull. Ey still couldn’t breathe.

“It is not your fault,” another voice said. Soft, almost lyrical. Ey wanted to wrap the voice around em like a blanket. Lani? Only Lani could make em think such a stupidly sappy thought, so it must have been her. Her voice was nice. Naomi tried to focus on it, tried to take eir spiralling thoughts and draw them all to this one point, concentrate on listening ot her speak. “It’s not your fault Laura’s a bitch and afraid of what she doesn’t understand, or that her only response to something that can be harmful is to eradicate it completely. She’s an adult and you were eleven. Your actions then are not responsible for her terrible reaction, okay?”

It made sense. Lani had a good point. Of course Lani had a good point. But regardless of most of the blame lying with Laura, VHS would be a hell of a lot safer if Naomi hadn’t been there to ruin everything.

“Keep breathing,” said a different voice. “Breathing is important.”

Breathing is important, ey tried to respond in a high, mocking tone. Eir mouth wouldn’t cooperate, but it was nice to see eir internal monologue had resumed being a bitch. Good sign. Ey took a slow breath in eir nose, and out eir mouth. Then repeated the action. And again, and again, until the spiral slowed and eir thoughts sorted themselves into something coherent.

“Fuck,” ey said simply.

“Fuck,” Noel agreed. He was the one keeping eir hand away from eir hair.

Cameron took his computer and shut it gently. “I think we’ve had enough of politics,” she mumbled. “Let’s go… I don’t know. School library? Get some books for you nerds?”

“You’re also a nerd,” ey said. Four whole words. Progress.

“Can’t argue with that. Come on.” He helped em up, and Lani put an arm around eir shoulders as they walked out the room and to the library. Naomi had hoped looking for some nice gay books would serve as a distraction, but unfortunately, everyone around them was hell bent on talking about the new bill. Panic bounced around the hallways and between students. What would they think if they knew I was the kid who inspired the bill? No way in hell would I be lucky enough for them to be as forgiving as the arson gang.

“Naomi. Keep doing the breathing thing. It would be bad if you stopped,” Lani reminded em.

Ey stuck eir tongue out, but obeyed. All ey could really do was breathe and fight a panic attack off with a stick as ey stumbled through the day, badly finishing homework and trying to enjoy the gay books. When it was time to eat eir stupid vegetarian alternative because stupid VHS decided to serve stupid nonkosher lobster, ey barely picked at it. Naomi supposed it was a good thing the food was terrible, because eir stomach was swirling way too badly to eat much of anything, and ey wouldn’t want to miss out on something good.

Dr. Plague got to the stage and cleared his throat into the microphone. It took him several tries to speak through the frantic, anxious chatter echoing around the room. “Ladies, gentlemen, and villains,” he said finally, and the opening usually made em crack a smile and Cameron declare themself all three, but no one in the arson gang said anything. “Given the rumors I’ve heard circulating the school, it seems as though a majority of you have heard of the Superpower Reduction Bill. I’d like to, pardon my expression, set everyone straight on this; the state senate leader introduced this bill that would take away the powers of everyone in this room, and everyone else except for a few of her favorite heroes. This has not passed, and villains around the state are prepared to protest using every tool at our disposal, legal or otherwise. Villains will triumph over policticians.”

Two weeks passed in a flurry of stress, homework, fighting panic attacks off with a stick, and sending letters to state senators encouraging them to vote against the bill. It seemed rather useless, but ey wasn’t sure what else to do. Some students had organized a protest, but Naomi was worried ey would be recognized by Laura Smith as the pyromaniac who started this. Or worse, that eir parents would be there and recognize em. Ey resigned emself to writing letters and letting Lani help em edit out the profanity.

Naomi had almost forgotten about it, but towards the end of November, another reason to be stressed- as if ey didn’t have enough- came along. Time for the next elimination.

It was a little funny how anxious ey had been the last time. It was still a struggle to not go mad with worry, of course, but the focus on grades seemed mildly trivial compared to the very real threat of losing eir superpowers for good. And this time, Naomi felt fairly confident in eir grades. Throwing oneself into work to avoid panicking had its benefits.

Eir last assignment for Villain Monologues before the elimination was one of the few to give em real trouble. “In light of the recent threat to your powers, what does being a supervillain mean to you?” The question kept Naomi at eir desk, tapping eir pencil and groaning, for far longer than Lani would have encouraged em to be awake.

Being a supervillain means a last ditch attempt to help my community to make amends for hurting them beyond repair three years ago.

Being a supervillain means showing everyone that they were right to believe me dangerous, and make them regret being right.

Being a supervillain means continuing to fight the system that tries to hurt me, because it would be cowardly to work as a hero and serve the people who want me gone.

Finally at least half satisfied, ey threw eir pencil down and slept badly.

The next morning, the arson gang silently got ready and sat at breakfast, ready for the announcement that could ruin their cobbled together lives.

Cameron Delos.

Noel Garner.

Lani Hale.

Ey squeezed eir maybe-girlfriend’s hand, holding eir breath as ey hoped to complete their group moving on.

Naomi Lebowski.

“We made it,” ey sighed, leaning eir head on Lani’s shoulder. “Not that I was worried. I wasn’t worried.”

Whatever was coming next, with the Superpower Reduction Bill, at least they would be facing it together.

#straight a supervillain #do you like my descriptions of tumblr in this universe #do you like how i named the antagonist laura #s's writing

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