20379/The Ones You Couldn't Save

The Ones You Couldn't Save
Date of Scene:	05 April 2025
Location:	145 Central Park Penthouse
Synopsis:	America gives Mary a good pep talk and helps her work out some things, and the two have some ghost pepper chili with ice cream for dessert!
Cast of Characters:	Mary Bromfield, America Chavez

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Mary Bromfield has posed:
Saturday nights were not normally a book night for Mary, despite what her occasional roommate would think. Typically she'd either be streaming as ContraryMary, or out doing some superheroing as Thunderbolt. But tonight...

It was the Tower. Being at Titans Tower when America came back brought back a lot of things. Mostly involving Vega. And Tamaran.

And Galactus.

So she spent her day trying to dive into Middle Earth, on a well-deserved re-read of the Lord of the Rings. Something to get her mind off of the millions of people. People she couldn't save. The Wisdom of Athena was good at telling her that there was nothing she could do.

But the Guilt of Mary couldn't let it go.

America Chavez has posed:
    Knock. Knock. Knock. Three times, at Mary's door. America is dressed in comfortable wear, her usual fare. A half-jacket, a t-shirt, a pair of tight-fitting shorts, and some tennis shoes. And in her hand? Well. A grocery bag.

"Hey, Mary," she calls through the door. "It's America. I brought ice cream. So hopefully you're home, or this is all going to melt. On your doorstep." There is a measure of humor to her words. "Hope it's a good time."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary blinks, then sits up, "Oh, um, sure! Hold on!" Mary marks her place in the book with a bookmark, not being a barbarian about these things, setting down the hardback and getting up.

She's currently wearing a forest-green T-shirt with the logo 'Emerald Grove Owlbears' and a rampant Owlbear on the front of the shirt, along with tight blue jeans.

And she opens the door, "Hey America, wasn't expecting you... but you're always welcome, with or without ice cream." She smiles warmly, though her eyes reflect a decided lack of sleep that doesn't always show when she's running around as Thunderbolt. "Come on in!"

America Chavez has posed:
    America steps in, cheerfully and one-arm hugs Mary. The other hand, of course, holds the ice cream. "Mint Chocolate Chip, and Double Fudge. They both looked good," she pronounces because knowing what ice cream has been brought over is just as important as knowing that ice cream has been brought over.

    "Cute shirt," she declares, next. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" She steps in, looks around with an easy smile on her face, nodding and grinning to the open invitation thrown her way. "I'll remember that. It's been weird, getting back into the swing of things here. Just got settled in my room at the Tower, finally."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary smiles, "Yeah, I don't think you ever saw the place here... after Marie went back to France, well, I kinda just ended up here myself. Though Jennifer occasionally stays here when she needs a place to crash." She gestures, "Let's put the ice cream away and I'll give you the two dollar tour."

She makes a bit of a shrug at the mention of interrupting, "Ah, honestly, I haven't been doing much today... just some reading. Re-reading, really. Going through Lord of the Rings. Just got to the point where they're at Rivendell." She smiles back at America, "Guess I just needed to go back to the classics."

America Chavez has posed:
    America rolls her eyes good naturedly, "Nerd," she teases. But, as the gesture is made America heads over to the kitchen and opens the bag after setting it onto the counter and places the two containers of ice cream into the freezer. Then she does the nice guest thing and folds the bag up and sets it off to the side.

    There's an easy, carefree smile to her expression as she nods, "Alright. Tour away," she invites. A mental note is made of the roomates, "Well, at least you have occasional company. I'd already forgotten how rowdy the Tower can be. Still, it isn't all too crazy. Sometimes it's weirdly comforting." She shrugs some and smiles, helplessly.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary smiles a little, "Yeah... guess I just like being a bit closer to the foster family. I should be over at the Tower more, but..." She trails off a bit, hand resting against the window looking out over Central Park. And it is a hell of a view, for sure.

"Ever since what happened to Tamaran, I don't know how I could look at her. Or tell her what happened. I'm sure she's heard by now, but..." Not like there's a whole lot of Tamaraneans on the team that she /could/ be talking about, honestly.

America Chavez has posed:
    America nods slowly, frowning, thoughtfully. She runs her tongue over her lips, crosses her arms, uncrosses them and then finally ends up stepping forward to place a hand on Mary's shoulder, gentle, unobstrusive and easily shrugged off or away, but there as invitation and for comfort.
    "There aren't a whole lot of people who've seen a world destroyed, and then had to live on after it." She's quiet a few moments longer, letting silence linger between them before she picks up again.
    "Want to know a secret? It's not the only reason I leave. Go elsewhere. But it's a big part of it. The desire to do more. To help. To - not have what happened to Utopia happen to anyone else. Anywhere else. Ever again."
    "It's hard," she admits.
    There is another pause, another few moments of silence. "So let me ask you, Mary. Was there a single moment in that fight for Tamaran where you said 'I give up', and didn't try your hardest?"

    The hand then grips Mary's shoulder, and she pulls her friend away from the window so she can look Mary in the eye. There's no accusation there, no harshness to her tone. She is merely ... questing. Seeking. Searching. "Not asking you to go back and review every little detail. I'm asking you to look into your heart. Yes or no. Your heart knows, Mary. So do you. Yeah?"

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary looks at America, listening to her, and is pulled around to look her in the eyes. Then she considers the question, and there's no hesitation, "No, I never gave up. I literally used up everything I had to save as many people as I could, in a way I didn't even think I could. In the end, I passed out from it all. Captain Marvel... Carol, had to carry me off planet. And it took me a week before I could even call the Lightning again."

She takes a deep breath, "I know you're right, America. I know I did everything I could. More than everything, really. But that doesn't change what happened." She leans into America slightly at that, placing her hands on America's shoulders.

America Chavez has posed:
    "Okay." America nods with the certainty she had already known the answer to the question. But these -are- important questions, even if Mary had internally already asked herself some of them. She welcomes Mary's touch, and holds her close.
    The next question will be far more hard than the first. But it's also one that needs to be asked.
    "If you know you gave it your all, then why are you only thinking of yourself, and not Kori?" The question is a harsh one, but it's said in far more gentle tones without accusation, framed by pitch and volume to make Mary think, rather than to accuse.
    Again, she lets a few moments of quiet pervade before continuing, "You wonder how you can look her in the eyes. Or talk to her. When it's now that she needs you, and all her other friends the most, Mary. Do you -really- think she'll blame you, or think you didn't give your all when it's clear to everyone you did? When she knows your heart as well as I do? And you do?"
    America adds, in a quieter tone, "When I lost Utopia, my moms, ... I had to forge my own way, myself. I found my way here, eventually. It was -hard-. Kori is just as strong, if not stronger than me. But we all need friends, Mary. -Especially- ones that nearly died, trying to save our home. Not just for us. But because it was the right thing to do."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary looks a bit stung at that, but it's only for a second... and then she sighs, deeper this time. "You're right. It's not been fair, to her. She deserves to hear it from me. I was there. Even though she knows it already, I'm sure." She takes a deep breath.

Mary then gives America a wry look, "Why'd you have to vanish off, America? I could have used this pep talk a while ago. To say nothing of the ice cream." Her lips quirk into an actual smile this time, as her eyes meet America's.

America Chavez has posed:
    America smiles back, and she shrugs. "I felt - a pull. A shift, in things. I had to go investigate. And turns out? It's a good thing I did. I helped prevent an interdementional war. But, that's a story for another day. Sorry I couldn't be here for you, though. Or for Tamaran. Sometimes? I guess we don't get to pick the battles we fight. We just have to fight the ones that are in front of us."
    She gives a sheepish smile back, and shrugs her shoulders a bit helplessly. "And there's only one of me. It's not like I'm some kind of Spider and there's like twenty different people with the ability to punch dimensional holes around from Utopia," she jokes back wryly.
    There's a pause, and she considers, "Scratch that. I think that'd be a really bad idea," she laughs. "I like there being only one of me."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary makes a face, "Apparently there's at least an evil other-dimensional version of me out there somewhere that's serving some Elder Gods or something. So yeah, I really do wish there was just the one of me." She grins, "But I'm just glad that there's one of you right here and now." She pauses, "I mean, who else can I feed my ghost pepper chili too? Rachel would probably explode if I gave it to her..."

America Chavez has posed:
    "You've got ghost pepper chili? Hell yeah. That sounds great. Ghost pepper chili, and ice cream for dessert? I am -in-," America claims with the eagerness of a very hungry girl who also knows good food when she hears about it.
    "I'll keep an ear out. If I hear about an evil-you in one of the other dimensions, we'll go punch her in the face together. Her, and her Elder Gods. It's a promise." America holds out her pinky then, with a quick grin.
    It's a gesture in fun, and warmth to help Mary get over her current mood and begin to heal. But it's also in full earnestness. A true, honest-to-goodness promise of conviction.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary brightens at the response, "Oh heck yeah I do, America! My foster Mom taught me that and a lot of other things." She grins and squeezes America's shoulders again, then takes America's pinky with hers, "And yeah, any evil duplicates are gonna get clobbered. Pinky swear." She winks at America, then goes back towards the kitchen.

"Tour can wait after the chili gets simmering. Shouldn't take too long to get going, I've got most of the stuff ready here. And honestly, it's nice that I have someone here that I don't have to depower it for." Apparently little Mary has Quite The Spice Tolerance. Who knew?

America Chavez has posed:
    America follows her friend into the kitchen and then hops up onto an empty space on the counter comfortably. "You go light on the spice, and I'll never forgive you," she swears, sounding very threatening as she does so and even going so far as to crossing her arms. It's not like she means it, though. And Mary can certainly tell.

    "It's nice just to hang out with friends, to be truthful. And for once, to not punch things. As weird as it might be for me to say that. Need a week or three of just, chilling out. Vibing. Though I am going to check in with Rachel, make sure everything is okay with her book thing. And whatever she was talking about escaping. I feel a little responsible for that." She half-grins, shrugs again.

    "But, I was worried about you. So wanted to check in. Glad I did. I mean, who turns down free chili?"

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary nods, "So what's going on with Rachel and her book thing? Maybe I can help?" She grins over at America, "I mean, I'm much more a punching-mystical type than a chanting-nonsense type, but I have some game." Her head tilts as she works on cooking things up, and she does take care to make sure not to get too careless with the peppers.

I mean, those things can rival the xenomorphs from the Alien movies in regards to how they eat through things!

She glances over at America, "Besides, if I went easy on the chili with you, Momma Vasquez would never forgive me. I can maybe survive your wrath, but there's no way I'd survive HERS." She laughs a bit, working on getting the ingredients together so they can get cooking.

America Chavez has posed:
    Mary's statement of her adoptive mother makes America laugh, warmly. "Good." She smiles, wistfully, a bit and is quiet for a few more moments but this time whatever thoughts were in her head she doens't outright share but it's not a hard guess to surmise she was probably thinking of her own moms. Instead, she goes back to the conversation on Rachel.

    "I'm not sure. She said something that wasn't supposed to be here slipped out of the book. And, she had to catch it before it fully materialized in this dimension. She wasn't, at least as far as I could tell, -too- concerned about it. But, ... she can be hard to read sometimes, as you know."
    A pause, "And I should probably drop by GIRL and see what nerdy stuff Vivian and her friends have been up to. They do the weirdest stuff there."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary hmms, "I've talked to Viv about some nerdy stuff before, but never really anything about GIRL... honestly, the science stuff never clicked much with me. I mean, I don't exactly have Hypatia rattling around with the Goddesses and Heroes in my head, much as I wish it otherwise." She grins and gets the chili assembled and prepared, and sets the lid on the pot.

"There, now to let it slow cook. Which gives me time to give you the tour I promised you. And before you ask, Emma Frost paid for the place and gifted it to Marie and I before Marie went back to France. Apparently Miss Frost hasn't decided to yoink it since Marie isn't living here any longer, and I'm not complaining about that..." Since, well, it IS a hell of a view...