Episode: 7.7

--- Trish ---

She couldn’t help the groan of relief that escaped her as she stepped through her front door.

While she’d physically had a fairly easy day since the clinic had been slow and Ozzy (the little saint) had handled cleaning everything, that had just meant that there was more time for Maggie and their boss Kenneth to get onto her for taking in another stray.

(When are those two going to realize I’m a big girl and no what I’m doing? I mean seriously, even if Ozzy does go feral, I have like five different ways to perma-kill a Deadman in this house.)

Not that she’d actually use any of them knowing exactly how they killed a Deadman.

(Green bile spilled from the corner of the shaking corpse’s mouth as-)

She shook her head, pushing her thoughts away from that extremely dark memory.

As a force of habit more than any actual desire to do so, she swiped her remote off of her coffee table and turned the TV on in an attempt to push back the creeping (silence) before collapsing on her couch.

After a few moments she felt a weight shift the cushion next to her and glanced to see Ozzy, who while sitting on the couch with her still seemed fairly closed off.

(Which is expected considering its only been a couple days now…)

While the young runaway had begun opening up to her a little bit while he was helping clean the clinic, he was still fairly shut off and clearly uncomfortable staying with her if the way he felt he had to help out at the clinic was any indication.

(So that means I have to figure out a way to get him more used to me…)

She pawed at her eyes for a moment, trying to figure out a way to get him comfortable opening up a little bit more.

(Meaning I need an actual bonding activity rather than just sitting here watching TV…) Which she was fairly sick of given her usual day to day.

Taking a second to think, she tried running through the various things they could do together around the house.

(I could try getting him to help me with dinner…) She remembered the last time Cassandra helped her cook. (Nope.)

(Maybe throwing knives?) She considered with a glance towards the cheap painting of a vase that was covering a very large number of holes in her wall. (No, the Rhodes twins were the two with knife fetishes… and I’m out of practice anyway.)

(Right, what else is there?)

Her foot began tapping out her frustrations on the empty air as she tried to think of (anything) that could get the kid sitting next to her to open up a bit more rather than just sitting here in (silence.)

Her eyes drifted around the room a bit before falling on a set of boxes on top of one of her bookshelves reading ‘Deviant’s Masquerade TCG’

(There’s an idea.)

It’d been a while since she’d played, but it was fairly popular in one way or another with anyone who liked card games. Though that might’ve been because the Hero’s Guild got a cut of every card sold, (and everyone wants their favorite hero’s trading card…)

She shook her head and frowned at herself.

(That was a cynical thought. We’re supposed to avoid those.)

Sighing to herself, she still considered the idea before nodding to herself.

(Eh, it’s better than nothing.)

“Hey, Ozzy.” She eventually started, wanting to drag the teenager’s attention away from the TV.

“Yeah?”

“You ever play Deviant’s Masquerade?” She asked in a mildly bored tone, hoping he wouldn’t realize just how desperate she was to do something other than sit here watching TV like she did every other night she was (stuck all alone.)

Ozzy blinked. “Uh, the card game or the RPG?”

(Ooh, he knows the RPG too?!)

That gave her options for later, especially since she knew Kenneth used to play the RPG in college and if she had to, she could guilt trip Maggie into playing with them to have a full party.

“The card game.” She answered, already planning the best way to blackma- (convince) her friends into having a game night.

“Um, I’ve played it a few times.” Ozzy admitted a little unsurely. “Though it was always more of my sister’s game than mine.”

(You have a sister?) She bit the inside of her lip to keep herself from asking that, more than aware of how big of a trigger button ‘family’ could be for a runaway teen after dealing with Jacob and twins both.

“What factions do you usually play?” She managed to ask instead when he didn’t continue, recognizing the look of someone about to get lost in their thoughts on the dead teen’s face.

Ozzy blinked before running hand down his face. “Um, I usually played Aurora with a pair of Bio and Tech M.A.D.s.”

“Aurora…” She repeated, trying to job her memory of which Mask that was. “She’s… that one Arcane who uses all that light magic?”

“Yeah.” The teenager nodded with a touch of excitement. “She mostly uses her magic to make hard light constructs, but she’s also got a few healing spells and this whole aura of calm thing going.”

“Huh.” She began, her teasing nature beginning to pull through. “You, uh, sound like a bit of a fan.”

Ozzy chuckled a little sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, she passed through Amityville a few years back, when this one Deadman messed up the neighborhood, I grew up in. And the way she saved everyone with all of the lights and colors was just… amazing…”

“Yeah, I had a crush like that too.” She nodded with a smile. “Back when I lived in New Haven, the Iron Guardian saved my school from this one M.A.D. that went nuts. And I know he wears that suit of armor, but I couldn’t help but think of the muscles he must’ve had underneath all that metal.” She still couldn’t.

Ozzy gaped at her a greenish blush to his cheeks. “Wh-who said anything about a crush?!” The embarrassed teenager cried.

“Well, I mean you are her fan, aren’t you?” She asked in a teasing tone she’d picked up from Jacob.

“Th-that’s not what I meant, and you know it!”

“Yeah, I do.” She admitted patting his knee as she stood up. “And while I don’t think I have Aurora, I do have a few of the other card sets if you want to try putting a deck together.”

“I didn’t agree to play!” He reminded her.

“You didn’t say you wouldn’t.” She reminded him.