#what happened to the table?

[perpetualproductions]

Never Be The Same- Chapter 4:

Life in the City

- Marie tells Jordan about the crash. They discuss their futures. Jordan makes a call. Also, what happened to the table?

(Title song: Life in the City by The Lumineers)

CW: this one's pretty chill again.

3k words

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Marie’s keys jingle as she fishes them out of her purse and goes to unlock the front door to her apartment. The moment she begins to push the door open, the handle suddenly yanks out of her hand as Emma appears before her. She gives Marie a quick welcome as she hastily pulls Marie into the apartment. “Hey Marie! Welcome home! I gotta go, don't want to be late! Byeeee!” She closes the door as soon as she's out in the hall. 

Marie is left standing there, very confused by her friend's behavior. I mean, she knew Emma was taking the late shift today, but she still had plenty of time to walk to the diner. Marie was a little late getting home because of the whole car accident, but still… strange. She turns away from the door, shaking off the confusion and is met with Jordan sitting on the couch in their fem form. They seem to have changed their clothes from earlier this morning, now sporting a plain white t-shirt and gray sweats. They are also holding a mug, taking gentle sips as they watch what looks to be Office reruns. Marie puts her purse down and hangs up her coat near the door, then slowly makes her way over to the back of the couch. 

Jordan jolts a little when they feel hands rest on their shoulders, but immediately relaxes when they realize they're Marie's. They look up and see Marie smiling down at them, the same smile finding its way into their own face. “Hello there.”

“Hi,” Marie replies sweetly, running her hands down Jordan's arms and lowering her head to give them a gentle kiss.

Jordan hums as Marie pulls away, a smile still stuck to their face. “Good day?”

“Guess you could say that.” Marie makes her way around the couch, sliding in right next to Jordan. She kisses them one more time before continuing. “I sort of saved a man's life today.”

“Wait, really?” Marie nods and Jordan puts their mug down on the coffee table, pausing the TV before fully turning to face Marie. “What- that's awesome! What happened?” Jordan says, genuinely excited for Marie. They know how hard it is for Marie to accept that she's a real hero sometimes, and especially hard to see that her powers aren't only meant for hurting people (or herself). They've seen her use her abilities to heal before. Hell, the first time they saw her powers was when she healed that girl at the club their first night out. They never doubted her hero potential since then. 

“There was a car crash when I was making my way home. I saw it happen right down the street from me, and without thinking I started running towards the two cars. In one car, there was a guy, who turned out to be a doctor by the way, and I healed a large gash on his head. He also had a broken leg, bone sticking out and all, super gross. But yeah, I couldn't really heal that but I stopped the bleeding.” Marie explained the whole scene, gesturing about, and Jordan was super invested in every word she said, smiling as Marie explained her great feats of the evening. “So yeah, he said he'd be fine, and he's a doctor so I trusted that he would be, so I made my way over to the other car. There was a man in the driver's seat, completely passed out, and I realized immediately that his heart wasn't beating,” 

“He had a heart attack behind the wheel?” Jordan interjected, eye brows shooting up in surprise.

“Yup. I mean, that's definitely a scary time to have a heart attack, right when you're driving. But luckily it was only the two of them that were hurt. I was able to use my powers to get his blood flowing again and his heart beating. Then paramedics got there so I backed off and came home.”

“Wow. Marie, that's amazing! Your powers are so cool. You're so cool.” Jordan exclaims, squeezing Marie's arms and looking at her with pure adoration. 

Marie smiles back at Jordan, loving their enthusiasm. But of course, she just shrugs it off. “It's not that big a deal-”

“No, Marie. We're not doing this minimizing bullshit. It is a big deal! You saved a dudes life, Marie! That's fucking awesome!” Jordan bounces up and down a bit, still grabbing onto Marie's arms and causing her to giggle at the situation. “Nobody else can do what you do, Marie. I'm pretty sure that doctor couldn't've saved that man's life as fast as you did.”

“Don't think he could've done much with a broken leg.” Marie added, getting a look from Jordan in response.

“You know what I mean. Just accept it, you're a hero. And I'll remind you everyday if that's what it takes for you to believe it too.” Jordan says with a tone that makes Marie think they might actually be serious about that.

“I appreciate the compliment but please don't actually do that.”

“Then say it.” Jordan says, leaning back and crossing their arms.

“Say what?”

“You're a hero.” 

Jordan and Marie sit there looking at each other for a good few seconds. Jordan raises an eyebrow trying to get them to go on and repeat the phrase. Marie exhales, giving in as she repeats in defeat. “Fine… I'm a hero.”

A smile stretches on Jordan's face at their success. “It'd be better if you actually believed it, but I'll take it.”

Marie mirrors their smile back, relaxing in their presence. It's not like she doesn't want to believe it, she just can't see herself as a hero. Not after everything that she has done, all the people she's hurt. She knows it's ridiculous and that all that stuff wasn't actually her fault, but it's just hard to break out of an image that you've seen yourself in for so long. Jordan and Emma both try to remind her every day how good of a person she is, so maybe one day she will believe it as much as they do. She pulls herself closer to them, moving to hold Jordan's hands in hers. “If it makes you feel any better, I do believe that you believe I'm a hero.”

Jordan breathes out a small laugh, “I can believe for the both of us in the meantime. I know you'll see it too one day. It's inevitable.”

“Inevitable?” Marie repeats, raising an eyebrow at the choice word. 

“Oh yeah, there isn't a future I can think of where you're not saving people for a living.” They say matter of factly, a bit of playfulness in their voice.

“Oh really? You've been thinking about my future?” Marie teases, enjoying the blush in Jordan's cheeks.

“Maybe?... just a little.” Jordan lifts their hand as they hold their pointer and thumb close together and squint their eyes. “But am I wrong?”

“I mean, no. Of course I want to help people. Save people however I can. But I don't know how I can do that for a living. There’s vigilantism, but that's kinda illegal without a license from fucking Vought. Which is 100% a no go.”

“Right…” Jordan nods along, understandably. “But, there are other ways to help people. Just think of how non-supes help people. Police, firefighters, doctors.” Jordan pauses thinking for a moment. “Wait a second. You'd be a great doctor! I mean, you can control blood. You know, the very thing that keeps us alive? Just think of all the people you could help. You can sense their heart rates, see if they're bleeding - internally or externally- or detect things in their blood. Holy shit, you could 100% be a doctor.”

Marie thinks for a moment, genuinely thinking over everything Jordan has said. They're right, they could do all of those things and more fairly easily with her abilities. She hadn't really thought about it before, all the benefits of what her powers could do in terms of people's health. I mean, she's healed people before, sure. Stopped bleeding, healed wounds, restarted hearts. She thinks back to the doctor she healed earlier today, what he had said to her about her powers and how useful they could be. Really thinking about it, it almost seems ridiculous that she hasn't thought about this before. She's been back and forth for a while on what she actually wanted to do with her life, what major she’d pick when she went back to college. What she could have a career in that didn't involve being a Vought puppet. She considered the force, maybe a PI, but a doctor… 

“I could be a doctor…”  she repeats slowly, looking back at Jordan, staring at them as she processes her thoughts. Suddenly, she pulls them back in for a hug, “Oh my god, Jordan! You're a fucking genius!” She pulls away and gives them a hard kiss on the lips, before getting up off the couch. 

“Uh, you're welcome.” Jordan looks up at Marie, smiling at the sudden outburst of affection. “I'm assuming you like the idea?”

“Yes! Fuck. I have to start applying to med schools. What are the best med schools in the country?” She looks around the room for a moment, searching for the laptop that they've all been sharing, courtesy of Andre of course. 

“Laptop’s over here.” Jordan says, pulling the laptop off the side table and onto their lap. They open it up and begin typing. Marie goes back over and sits back down, leaning against Jordan as they search away. 

—

The two spend the next couple hours doing what they've been doing for the past few days; applying to colleges and scholarships and doing research on which schools had what they were both looking for. Both of course applied to most of the Ivy league schools and other prestigious schools in the area. They didn't want to venture far from their immediate vicinity, opting to at least stay in the north east side of the country. Except this time, Marie actually knew what she wanted to do, taking her time to look through the best med schools and programs in the country, genuinely excited by the thought of being able to help people and save lives for a living, using her powers in a way she couldn't've imagined a year ago. In a way that Annabeth could be proud of.

Jordan on the other hand, wasn't so sure what they wanted to major in. They had enough credits from Godolkin to at least cover the general education requirement, leaving them the next two years to focus on a major. They debated on going back to crime fighting, but really hated the prospect of working for Vought. Maybe criminology? They always enjoyed their forensics class, but they weren't sure they wanted to spend all day in a lab for the rest of their life. They weren't too bad with technology either, so maybe computer science or cyber security. They even thought about taking the doctor route with Marie, but it just didn't seem as appealing to them as it did for her, and they wanted to let her have her own thing. 

There wasn't much that they could use their powers for. They were more made for physical combat situations. Brink had literally described them as ‘the perfect weapon’ before, which they were. Both quick and steady, hard to hit and able to take a hit. Offense and defense in one being. So they debated law enforcement, which would be like crime fighting without the supe part. They could help people, protect them, catch bad guys, and it wouldn't be under Vought. But… Vought was still the fucking problem. Since Vought exists, police aren't really needed as much, more there to patrol the public and if something did happen, they would call Vought to bring in the closest supe to deal with whatever crime was being committed. Jordan didn't want to be on crowd control while fucking homelander ‘saved the day’. So yeah, no point in that. 

Jordan started to truly despise their situation. Sure, they were very grateful for their powers, mostly the whole gender switching part. But if it weren't for compound V and all the other abilities that came with it, they wouldn't feel so restricted with what they could do with their life. There were only so many paths a supe could take. Become a crime fighting supe for Vought, a famous Supe actor for Vought, or be detained and possibly experimented on by Vought. Or you could try to be a normal nobody who keeps their head down and doesn't use their powers in public too often, in fear of Vought. So yeah, Jordan really hates the fucking world right now, mostly because Vought is in it. But over the last few months (especially after being around Marie Moreau more often), they realized that there are other ways to do things, they just had to discover them. How Marie just did with the whole doctor thing. But they were lagging behind, which just made them more frustrated. A phone call from their parents did not help at all…

It started off as a simple check-in. Jordan was very aware that they've been avoiding their family, but they were really just avoiding their parents (mainly their dad). Regardless, they did want to check in and see how their siblings were doing. They felt a bit bad leaving them with their ever bickering parents, but were happy that they finally didn't have to deal with it themselves. It's not like they could do much about it, their sister was 16 and their brother was only 12. It's not like Jordan could take them with them, and it's not like they wanted to or had to either. Their parents were annoying, but they weren't abusive. Jordan had their own thing going on between them and their parents, but their siblings were fine. They weren't supes and, as far as Jordan knew, they didn't have any gender fuckery going on. 

So yeah, Jordan called, talked with mom, talked about Claire and Matthew (sister and brother, respectively), talked about dad, then talked with dad. By the end they were having an argument with both their parents (as fucking expected), all about college and Jordan's future and whatnot. Jordan once again insisted that their living situation was fine, that they have a job, and are in the process of applying to schools. What their parents didn't take so well was Jordan's intention of no longer majoring in crime fighting and going to the seven. After about an hour or two of going back and forth (hanging up at least twice, just to be called back), their parents eventually relented and gave Jordan a deal. Basically, as long as Jordan majors in something with good future prospects that will lead them to a successful career, they would pay for their tuition. But they would have to pick from one of the options their parents gave them and stick with it. Jordan hated the idea at first, but one of their options was cybersecurity, and they had to make up their mind at some point, so they agreed. They gladly hung up for the last time that night, not before their father told them how disappointed he was in them for their life decisions, but that just solidified the fact that they wouldn't be calling them again for a while. 

A few hours rolled by and Jordan and Marie were done with applying for the day. It was getting late and Emma wouldn't be home for another hour, so they decided to pick up and head to bed early tonight. As they were about to make their way to the bedroom, Marie stopped and turned around. She had been getting the feeling that something was different with the space ever since she got home from work, and it hadn't clicked till now, exactly what was missing. “Jordan…”

Jordan stopped walking and turned around to face Marie, who was still standing in the middle of the living room, looking towards the kitchen. “Yeah?” They responded slowly, a bit of worry laced in their voice. 

Marie turns around to face Jordan, a confused and questioning look on her face. “Where did the table go?” 

Jordan moves to look behind Marie, looking at the empty space where the kitchen table used to be. “Table?... What table?” 

Marie's eyes narrow as she steps closer to Jordan. “You know, the kitchen table. The one we had breakfast at this morning, before I had to run to work?”

Jordan's eyes are wide as they try to come up with the best way to go about this conversation, and not really finding it. “Right… that table. Umm… I don't know. Maybe Emma did something with it.” They shrug their shoulders, avoiding eye contact with Marie.

“Is that why she was in such a rush earlier? What did you two do with the table?” She's just straight up asking now. 

“It's nothing bad.” They try to reassure her. 

“Nothing bad? Well that makes me feel better.” Marie replied sarcastically.

“It's really nothing to worry about… we're going to IKEA tomorrow, by the way.” Jordan adds.

Marie pauses for a second. “Do I even want to know?” 

“No. You don't. It's really not worth it.” Jordan says with 100% surety. They switch to their male form, their big brown doe eyes on display. “Can we just go to bed and talk about it in the morning? Please?” They plead with Marie. 

“... Fine. You're lucky I'm exhausted right now.” She says, resuming her walk towards the bedroom, Jordan following after her.

“I love you.” Jordan says as they enter the room.

“Yeah yeah, just get over her and let me cuddle you.” Marie says tiredly as she pulls her pants off and crawls into bed. 

“Yes ma'am.” Jordan says with a makeshift salute as they follow suit.

They both get into bed, Marie opting to be the big spoon, despite Jordan being in their larger form, but they don't mind it at all. The two cuddle together tightly before drifting off to sleep, Marie secretly dreaming of what could have possibly happened to that table, all scenarios sitcom worthy.

--

I'd say you have around a chapter or two till things start picking up. Anyways, thank you so much for reading this far! I appreciate it very much. Please feel free to leave comments on your thoughts or where you think this story might go. It's a little early to tell, but I'd like to see what you think so far. Thanks again to Venus (@paperdoll201 💜) for putting up with my long Limoreau rambles. Appreciate it.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Have a nice day!

Much love, 😎👍❤️

-PB

(what happened to the table???)

[fantasticgothicpeachsludge]

Bernard: i lied. i don’t like sex. put your clothes back on babe and watch my power point presentation about What The Fuck Is Going On Between Batman And Twoface

Tim: …

[inkskinned]

so one of the things that's so horrifying about birth control is that you have to, like, navigate this incredibly personal choice about your body and yet also face the epitome of misogyny. like, someone in the comments will say it wasn't that bad for me, and you'll be utterly silenced. like, everyone treats birth control like something that's super dirty. like, you have no fucking information or control over this thing because certain powerful people find it icky.

first it was the oral contraceptives. you went on those young, mostly for reasons unrelated to birth control - even your dermatologist suggested them to control your acne. the list of side effects was longer than your arm, and you just stared at it, horrified.

it made you so mentally ill, but you just heard that this was adulthood. that, yes, there are of course side effects, what did you expect. one day you looked up yasmin makes me depressed because surely this was far too intense, and you discovered that over 12,000 lawsuits had been successfully filed against the brand. it remains commonly prescribed on the open market. you switched brands a few times before oral contraceptives stopped being in any way effective. your doctor just, like, shrugged and said you could try a different brand again.

and the thing is that you're a feminist. you know from your own experience that birth control can be lifesaving, and that even when used for birth control - it is necessary healthcare. you have seen it save so many people from such bad situations, yourself included. it is critical that any person has access to birth control, and you would never suggest that we just get rid of all of it.

you were a little skeeved out by the implant (heard too many bad stories about it) and figured - okay, iud. it was some of the worst pain you've ever fucking experienced, and you did it with a small number of tylenol in your system (3), like you were getting your bikini line waxed instead of something practically sewn into your body.

and what's wild is that because sometimes it isn't a painful insertion process, it is vanishingly rare to find a doctor that will actually numb the area. while your doctor was talking to you about which brand to choose, you were thinking about the other ways you've been injured in your life. you thought about how you had a suspicious mole frozen off - something so small and easy - and how they'd numbed a huge area. you thought about when you broke your wrist and didn't actually notice, because you'd thought it was a sprain.

your understanding of pain is that how the human body responds to injury doesn't always relate to the actual pain tolerance of the person - it's more about how lucky that person is physically. maybe they broke it in a perfect way. maybe they happened to get hurt in a place without a lot of nerve endings. some people can handle a broken femur but crumble under a sore tooth. there's no true way to predict how "much" something actually hurts.

in no other situation would it be appropriate for doctors to ignore pain. just because someone can break their wrist and not feel it doesn't mean no one should receive pain meds for a broken wrist. it just means that particular person was lucky about it. it should not define treatment.

in the comments of videos about IUDs, literally thousands of people report agony. blinding, nauseating, soul-crushing agony. they say things like i had 2 kids and this was the worst thing i ever experienced or i literally have a tattoo on my ribs and it felt like a tickle. this thing almost killed me or would rather run into traffic than ever feel that again.

so it's either true that every single person who reports severe pain is exaggerating. or it's true that it's far more likely you will experience pain, rather than "just a pinch." and yet - there's nothing fucking been done about it. it kind of feels like a shrug is layered on top of everything - since technically it's elective, isn't it kind of your fault for agreeing to select it? stop being fearmongering. stop being defensive.

you fucking needed yours. you are almost weirdly protective of it. yours was so important for your physical and mental health. it helped you off hormonal birth control and even started helping some of your symptoms. it still fucking hurt for no fucking reason.

once while recovering from surgery, they offered you like 15 days of vicodin. you only took 2 of them. you've been offered oxy for tonsillitis. you turned down opioids while recovering from your wisdom tooth extraction. everything else has the option. you fucking drove yourself home after it, shocked and quietly weeping, feeling like something very bad had just happened. the nurse that held your hand during the experience looked down at you, tears in her eyes, and said - i know. this is cruelty in action.

and it's fucked up because the conversation is never just "hey, so the way we are doing this is fucking barbaric and doctors should be required to offer serious pain meds" - it's usually something around the lines of "well, it didn't kill you, did it?"

you just found out that removing that little bitch will hurt just as bad. a little pinch like how oral contraceptives have "some" serious symptoms. like your life and pain are expendable or not really important. like maybe we are all hysterical about it?

hysteria comes from the latin word for uterus, which is great!

you stand here at a crossroads. like - this thing is so important. did they really have to make it so fucking dangerous. and why is it that if you make a complaint, you're told - i didn't even want you to have this in the first place. we're told be careful what you wish for. we're told that it's our fault for wanting something so illict; we could simply choose not to need medication. that maybe if we don't like the scraps, we should get ready to starve.

we have been saying for so long - "i'm not asking you to remove the option, i'm asking you to reconsider the risk." this entire time we hear: well, this is what you wanted, isn't it?

[iaminsideyourwalls]

food for all you scout haters out there in the audience tonight i guess?

[justaz]

stumbled across that deleted scene of merlin complimenting the knights and forcing arthur into jealous sparring to impress merlin and i just. god. they are so gay. that scene was straight out of a fanfic. since we treat the sigil scene as canon despite it being deleted, i move to motion that we address that scene as canon as well. all in favor, read this post. oh look at that, its unanimous.

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

I ain't gonna lie, I do noooot think radblr is gonna come out of this Imane Khelif thing unscathed. Like, y'all, I'm sorry, but there is not enough evidence for some of y'all to confidently call this person male and say some of the stuff you've been saying. At the very least you have to acknowledge that Khelif did not compete against women with malicious intent.

[frootertooter]

What I saw in my head during this scene (timestamp 9:10)

[shotmrmiller]

lol at ghoap breaking down your door because there are men with guns and no one in this building is safe, get what you can and hop out the back window i'll catch you but now you've been sitting in a "safe house" that seems a little too furnished. it's even got internet and cable. so when you ask how the situation back home is looking-

soaps just like ??? not sure what yer talkin bout, hen, but eat your breakfast it's gettin' cold.

asking ghost that what about the strange men? with the guns? did you find out who they were or who they worked for? and he's just, "what men? are you in danger? seen anyone suspicious? soap watch 'em," now he's grabbing a gun and heading out to check the perimeter

[agendratum]

[uncomfortable]

[achillesuwu]

I think it would be so neat if merlin, arthur and the knight in legalized magic (I nearly wrote marriage lmao yeah legal same sex marriage = legal magic what are you gonna do about it ANYWAY) post canonish need to go undercover to a kingdom where it isn’t legal yet and it’s just Merlin just saying shit he said in Camelot and having the same attitude that he used to have. Like (crack no really too much angst) just Merlin saying thing like ‘Oh, no, I’m the farthest thing from an ordinary man :)’, merlin walking right after a wall crumbled down like ‘oh, idk what happened anyway let’s go’, Merlin walking around with barely hidden magical object etc and you have just Arthur and the knight sweating bucket in the background and having a heart attack every 2 hours because ‘oh my god he is so reckless how did I never notice all of this shit shit shit SHIT there is no way’

Bonus point if Lancelot is the only one being chill about the whole thing

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Sally is the real neighborhood Rizzler... you all know i'm right...

[mobius-m-mobius]

smitten, I believe

[lastcellontheleft]

We didn’t get a S4 announcement, but you know what the absolute best thing about today’s C2E2 Hannibal panel truly was? 

For almost the first time since the show ended, Fannibals showed how profitable Hannibal can still be. 

C2E2 sold out of their remaining VIP ticket packages with guaranteed panel seating within 48 hours of the reunion announcement. Paid PopVerse subscriptions to stream the panel spiked with previously untapped demos (if socials are anything to go by). The largest event hall at C2E2 was overcapacity 45 minutes before the panel; while that’s normal for cons like SDCC and NYCC, in my experience that’s less common at C2E2.

Not to mention Mads and Hugh making bank with autograph and photo-op sales; a huge component of drawing in good talent to table at cons as well, making sure they make enough over the weekend to justify their presence beyond panel appearances. From a talent booking/event management perspective, this is the absolute dream scenario.

So, here’s the super fun part: ReedPop, the company that owns C2E2, also owns/operates New York Comic Con (NYCC), one of the highest-profile US entertainment conventions after San Diego Comic-Con. Now that ReedPop is aware of the viability of Hannibal programming, it would be extremely surprising if RP didn’t attempt a run at a larger, proper reunion panel at NYCC.

Honestly, great job, team. 2024 could very well be the year we get real buzz going again!

[cinamun]

You should have led with that | Next

[utilitycaster]

I feel like every condemnation of the gods of Exandria, in-world or out, comes from someone who, when posed with the Trolley Problem, was like "well I would simply ensure I was not in that situation" and just generally I think the first time you say that in your life someone must give you a patient, gentle, and throrough explanation of the concept of a thought experiment. they should also give you a healthy snack. every time after that though it's purge rules.

[unnonexistence]

hermann thoughts: if i discredit newton and his approach enough, the martial won't give him the equipment for his kaiju drift, and i can protect him from himself. if he despises me for it, so be it. there is little i wouldn't sacrifice to see him safe.

newt thoughts: this is a Best Science competition and i have to Win