Pre-Morphism and Glasses [Jesse Faden & Polaris]
Door rings; people get in. Go out. Sometimes it’s a person in a suit. They don’t look at her. They only look because she is looking. She turns away.
Tremors spread through Jesse’s entire body as she tries to drink a cup of orange juice. In order to get in line, she does everything brute or nothing at all. Infinite thirst turns her rude while sipping large gulps of juice, but rolling shivers morph her normal behavior into that of a scared and untamed animal.
Door rings; people get in. Two strangers who catch her gaze and give a frowned look.
Jesse swallows the shame in this situation, pulling up the stolen sweater and feeling the blinking—the itch, the searing-hot skin, and the impossible urge to shred this form hard to control—erupting inside herself. Her mouth hurts, her teeth change. She wants to come out, alive, howling in relief and unafraid. Polaris swarms her eyes at the dream and Jesse holds herself back.
Door rings; people get in. A single man in glasses who sits right beside her but without looking.
He is spotlighted by Polaris’ judgment, shivering down Jesse’s fibrillating body. She forces more sips of the juice—eggs and pancakes are unbearable and she only wants to go.
“Feeling sick?” The man asks with a first glance.
“Y-yeah,” she refrains her thoughts from becoming true, “just a cold.”
“Hm. I know how that feels.” He tilts his head to broaden the glance, getting a nice and precise sight of Jesse. It almost feels fatherly if she cared for it. “I had one of these, before.”
Jesse exhales, incapable of continuing this conversation. It’s not safe here. For them, for herself.
Door rings; people get in. A single guy younger than Jesse, with the same stare as hers.
A jab gets her arm, and she gasps in terror at the man sitting beside, looking too calm to be someone normal. She should’ve heard Polaris; but she is being drawn back from consciousness. “You—What did you…”
The man holds her and keeps discretion—or else. “You’ll see a doctor, that’s it.”
Door rings; she exits, accompanied.