WELCOME TO DREAMWIDTH, HERO...

[ at even intervals, there's alternating sounds of a reloading click and single shots of gunfire, echoing off the walls of what appears to be a shooting range. from the camera angle, abby is visible, though maybe hard to recognize at first, with her hair tied back severely from her face, her eyes shielded by protective glasses, and the large earmuffs covering her head.

she's also unusually calm, with something hard and focused in her expression. it's the first time she's been out of her home in a week. ]

Sometimes, I think it helps a little to cry when you're upset.

[ she squeezes off a few more rounds before setting her rifle down, pulling her muffs off her head to hang around her neck before she reels her paper target in. there's close clusters of shots in the center of the chest and head. she's still visibly wearing that band on her ring finger. ]

But sometimes I think you just have to shoot something.

It makes you feel better. If you imagine it's your problems, or someone that hurt your feelings. It makes you feel less helpless and weak.

-- swear I heard something.

[ The video comes on a bit too zoomed in, pointing at the shoulder of someone's bright pink hoodie before the feed finally gets adjusted, and you can see Abby's anxious face. She's talking to someone not visible to the camera yet, but behind her, you can see what looks to be a pretty rickety, dingy, cobwebby apartment that looks like it may or may not have been built in a previous century. ]

I'm not crazy, okay! I heard it. Honest.

I've checked like five times, Abby, come on.

[From off-screen, Tommy sounds just as anxious, even as he tries to be reassuring. The sound of cupboards opening and closing can be heard in between words.]

It's not like there was a real reason why no one wanted this place, besides it being -

[There's a deep groaning sound, like one would hear from old stairs. Tommy freezes behind Abby.]

... That wasn't me.

Oh my God. This is like, so-- so Excorcist-y.

[ Abby pulls at her face before turning to the camera. ]

Guys, I think we need a freaking priest over here.

We are so going to die if we sleep.

Y'know...

[ it sounds like somebody is talking with their mouth partially full. that's because someone is. that someone is abigail boylen, and her mouth is full of ben and jerry's. she's masterfully alternating between talking and destroying ice cream-- but then again, the girl has a lot of practice. ]

Being ported back in and out like this all the time is really stressful, okay? I-I mean, sometimes you're gone for a week and sometimes you're gone for a year and-- and what if some day I come back and all my friends are like middle-aged and have kids and stuff?

[ her spoons scrapes the bottom of the carton. she looks pretty forlorn about that. at length, she flops over onto her side, laying on the terry and tommy's couch that way. ]

Plus, this whole time-universe travel thing makes it really hard to maintain a relationship. I'm just saying.

[ a beat, then dejectedly: ]

Anybody wanna come over and play video games? 'Cause if nobody comes and rescues me from Ben and Jerry's soon, I'm never gonna fit into my spandex uniform ever again.

[ there's the sound of air rushing by, distorting the audio a little bit. if the girl whose voice comes on seems down, it's because this went down, and the uncertainty she feels bleeds into her words. ]

I-I don't know if anybody remembers me. But. It's Abby. And-- I remember you. This place, I mean.

[ a long pause, before she adds, mostly out of habit, with both the formality and slight hesitation of a young solider: ]

If there's any Avengers or Initiative members here, this is, um. Cloud 9. Of the Montana Freedom Force, reporting in. Standing by, I guess.

[ it seems she might be finished them. but at length, she goes on. quiet, but with more certainty than anything else she's said, as if this were what was really on her mind, what she really wanted to say. she doesn't even stutter. ]

And... Whoever's responsible for what happened to Jaime?

You're lucky I don't put an adamantium bullet right between your eyes.