Power training had always been a big worry for Dove, and lately she’d been almost looking forward to the training. Shifting handlers was a little awkward, but Russell had explained to her that working with Holly would afford her a better chance at properly learning hand-to-hand for her own class size in a manner he wouldn’t properly be able to train her, she understood it wasn’t a punishment, but just a way of making the program work better for her.
Besides, she was closer to rooming with Raven now. And Holly’s team were just as nice as hers, and she knew she could still hang out with Juniper no problem.
And still training with Mason, that was a big part of it too.
They’d used a program this time, a city that they could play hide and seek in, and while Dove had felt her concussive blast build up a few times, she’d been able to funnel it into a smaller wave that just damaged some pretend property and not risk Mason getting hurt. And it was invigorating, getting to use her powers, even just for an hour or so, running around a pretend city trying to tag Mason. And she knew that his parkour was definitely cheating, her small attempt at it made her giggle so much she hiccuped and took out a water fountain, but it was fun.
The shower afterwards was bliss, although Dove knew not to loiter too long, because they were going to grab some food and hang out, and she didn’t want to put that off, because hanging out with Mason was just as fun as training.
With her hair up in a tight ponytail, a little bit damp and curling at the tips, she hopped her way out of the locker rooms to wait for Mason, trying to remember what the specials for lunch were that day.
Mason was dead proud of how far Dove had come, even if she had to work on her parkour skills significantly more before she’d be able to effectively use them. However, he was pretty sure she’d be willing to learn and he was more than happy to teach. He’d finished earlier than she had, but he was a boy and they took less time to shower and get ready anyway. His own towel-dried hair was still damp and kind of curling and he when he heard the sound of footsteps, he got up and grinned at Dove when he saw her.
“Hey, you,” he greeted softly, stuffing his hands in his pockets and scuffing the toe of his converse against the floor. “You ready for food? I’m fucking starving.”
Dove was starting to get used to Mason’s freedom with language. She wouldn’t say she was prudish or anything, it was just that she rarely used expletives herself. “I’m definitely ready for food!” With how much work they’d done, running around and the exertion, she could’ve kept going if her powers were left on. But when they were switched off, her hunger hit her pretty quickly.
“You think they have pizza?” She was feeling a hankering for pizza right then. “I could eat a whole pizza to myself.”
Mason felt his stomach rumble a little when she mentioned pizza. He could go for pizza. He chuckled and caught her arm briefly to start them both moving, letting go once it was clear that she was falling into step with him and sticking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He was trying not to fold his arms so much; the defensive posture wasn’t always necessary and even though it was his default way of standing, he was making an effort around Aidan and Dove to be more… approachable?
What the fuck ever he was trying, okay? He liked them and wanted to make sure he kept them around. That was what counted.
“I could eat pizza,” he agreed. “Though Mira still hasn’t put any energy drinks in the caf. So I’m gonna have to get some from the shoppette when we’re done eating.” He hadn’t assumed Dove would want to hang out with him after they’d eaten, but just in case she did he wanted her to be sure that was where he was going. Even after using his powers and having fun the way they had, the tiredness was tugging at him a little. He still wasn’t sleeping, and even when he grabbed an hour or two here and there it wasn’t enough for him to feel rested.
He smothered a yawn and kicked at a stone. “You’re getting better, you know.”
It wasn’t really that Dove didn’t notice things like posture or appearance, she did. She knew that some people were a lot more withdrawn than others, and while she was an open and engaging person not everyone started out like that. Mason never really closed up around her though, and she felt like that was a sign that he didn’t mean to come across as closed off if that happened. She just tried to be more aware of boundaries -things she never really had with Raven.
“Pizza with extra cheese and hot sauce.” Dove was close to groaning at the thought of it. Definitely ready to stuff her face, “Do you wanna go grab one before lunch so you have it for that?” She was still a little curious about Mason’s powers, since his illusions and forcefield weren’t the primary ones apparently, and how that affected him.
She wasn’t so keen on the fact that he had to live on energy drinks to stay awake, since they did some bad things to livers and would eventually stop working she was sure. “Well… I mean, it’s fun right? With you. And I think it’s easier, when it’s someone who knows about making the powers work for us.” Handlers had some understanding, since they saw people develop control. But another super, that was a viewpoint that Handlers just couldn’t understand at all.
Mason shrugged, “Nah, I can wait. Drink something else for once,” he winked at her as they turned a corner. The weather was finally taking a turn for the better, which meant that it wasn’t constantly fucking raining, and whilst the weather had made him feel sort of at home for a while it wasn’t all that enjoyable. He squinted up at the sun, lifting a hand to shield his eyes. “Think we’re finally gonna get a spring, now? Weather’s been shocking.”
The pizza she was suggesting didn’t sound quite as appealing, he had to admit. “I- uh, pretty sure I’ll be happy if there’s pepperoni. Fuck, I miss Pizza Hut.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Pretty sure it’s different here, everything is, but fuck, I miss a good pizza from Pizza Hut. Also Spoons. I mean, it’s a shit atmosphere but the pints were cheap.”
When she said she had fun with him he smiled a little, nudging her gently with his shoulder as they walked. “Yeah, it’s fun. Having powers isn’t meant to be all doom and gloom and shit, it’s gotta be fun too. And you powers are amazing. Kinda just glad I get to help.”
He ducked his head a little when he said that, eyes cutting away from Dove to look at a nearby tree, feeling a sort of awkwardness ripple over him though he wasn’t sure why.
“Besides, it’s nice to have my powers on for a bit, too, so it benefits me and all, eh.”
Pizza Hut wasn’t terribly, Dove didn’t mind it that much, but she knew it definitely wasn’t the best place. Still, she at least knew what a Pizza Hut was, she had no idea what this ‘Spoons’ place was at all. “Cheap food doesn’t need to be bad food after all, I mean, everyone seems to like McDonalds, and that’s not really expensive.” Although she guessed that was maybe to do with marketing more than anything else really. “Do you think Washington is always like this? All sad and dreary and then sudden spring/summer mix?” She’d never really been up by Washington state before, so the weather was a little unusual for her.
Rocking gently with his nudge, smiling through the blush of her powers being called amazing, Dove couldn’t help but notice that Mason had a similar reaction to her when given a little bit of praise. “Thanks,” she did like her powers, when she wasn’t tearing down buildings. She felt comfortable with them, even if she wished she could be a little bit less destructive.
Getting inside the main building, even passing the shop, where she really wanted to offer to get him an energy drink if he needed it, Dove could already smell the cafeteria food wafting their way. “Even though it still isn’t letting you rest?” He’d said something about sleep being part of his powers, and how he wasn’t really rested while his powers were off for a majority of the time.
She assumed it had something to do with him having the codename ‘Sandman’, but she never really liked assuming things about people’s powers.
Mason chuckled. “I really fucking love McDonalds.” And he missed that kind of junk food so much. The food here was good, he wouldn’t argue with that but sometimes it was way too fucking fancy; what was wrong with basic stuff? Whenever there was an event, the kitchen staff went utterly overboard on weird shit that he and Aidan just kind of poked at and then went to get crisps from the shop to stuff their faces with until the normal food came back.
Thankfully the conversation drifted away from food and to the weather, the way that he had somehow directed it. God, he was so British. He tilted his head up to squint at the sky and shrugged. “Maybe? I dunno, I only came over at the end of last year to New York to start over, yanno? So fuck if I know the weather. What I do know though is that Demeter has done something seriously bad to piss Persephone off so she ain’t surfacing from Hades’ lair yet.” Greco-Roman mythology was one of the things Mason loved, but kept quiet about.
He shrugged again. “Honestly, if I get to have my powers on for a while I’d rather be hanging out with you in the hologym than taking a nap somewhere. I’d probably not wake up for ages and it’s not like there’s anyone else asleep at this time of the day so it’d be pretty boring for me.”
“I heard that Washington is one of the wettest states. Because it’s next to the Canadian border. So you get periods of the sunshine that California gets, but also sprinklings of drizzle and damp like the inner cities.” She supposed that was better, California was nice, she liked it, but she also thought that it wasn’t really weather when it was constantly sunny and warm. At least here you could tell when the seasons were changing.
Mason touching on the Greek Gods had her grinning a little too; she liked that he wasn’t trying to play dumb around her, that he was just being himself and being honest. “Or maybe Persephone and Hades are in the middle of a particularly good period of their relationship.” Dove wasn’t as up to snuff on Greek Gods and their connections -she did know Zeus had relations with anything that moved, but that wasn’t really a secret. Dove’s knowledge wasn’t too advanced past what most people knew as the basics.
“What um, what are your sleep powers? Like… do you, I mean, you said there’s a reason you’re called Sandman, are you like, you make other people sleep?” It was probably a little more complicated than that, but Dove knew that the Sandman legend was that he sent little kids off to sleep with happy dreams -or sometimes not.
“The weather kinda reminds me of London. Sorta. Except I hear they get actual sunshine here.” Mason rubbed the back of his neck and squinted up at the sky. “Honestly, the weather today would be enough to have most of the blokes in South London running through Kensington Gardens with their shirts off and fucking weird legs out.” No thank you. His shirt stayed on unless he was helping his mum in the garden and he never wore shorts.
He chuckled, “Maybe. Though I imagine living in the same place as the kinda semi-prisoner of the Lord of the Underworld gets pretty grim after a while.” He loved mythology; a secret passion that he kept very well hidden because it would have resulted in him being mocked mercilessly by his mates. He got the feeling Aidan would tease him for it but without being cruel or rude and Dove would just be interested. Still. Old habits die hard and all that.
Hands returning to his pockets as they approached the canteen, Mason looked at Dove out of the corner of his eye and thought about how best to explain his powers. Normally he just went straight for the ‘have you seen Nightmare on Elm Street?’ line of explanation as that was the best way to describe what he had done with his powers but he didn’t really want that to be an impression of him that she had. Besides, everyone that he’d gone after he’d gone after them to protect the people he cared about. Or to take revenge on the fuckers who killed his mum. Justified.
“I don’t dream,” he said finally, looking a little uncomfortable. “When my powers manifested I just… lost the ability to dream for myself.” His shoulders were hitched up a little, too, protectively. “I mean- When I got to sleep and I don’t have this stupid fucking band on, I kinda just wander through other people’s. That’s how I get my REM sleep. Sorta just… borrowing other people’s.” He wet his lower lip and kicked a stone, watching it disappear into the grass. “And then I can also go in and change them. Turn a good dream into a bad one, or a bad one into a good one, y’know?”
“I’m not sure what any of that means.” Dove just chuckled, “Every day is sunny in California, it’s usually always hot, sometimes too hot, and guys don’t wear their shirts half as often as they really should.” Because there was a time and a place, there was always a time and a place, but some boys, and men, she supposed, just thought all day every day was the time and place.
“Sorta, kinda, little bit prisoner, but she totally loves him. He’s just… difficult sometimes.” While Dove didn’t know a lot, she knew the story of Hades and Persephone, and she sort of found it a little more romantic than some of the Greek stories -sure, Hades totally kidnapped Persephone, and sure, there was maybe some stockholm syndrome going on there, but Hades totally grew to love Persephone as more than just an object or belonging, and Persephone totally did with Hades too -even if there were still some things with the stuff and all those kids.
As she listened to Mason describe his powers though, she couldn’t help but wonder why no one had addressed his sleeping habits -if he couldn’t REM sleep without his powers, he would never actually get any rest, the point of REM cycles were to rejuvenate and rest, power napping wasn’t going to cut it. “Wait, so… you’re not sleeping properly at all? And they won’t let you get like, a night with your powers?”
It seemed counter productive to Dove, that they’d train him and make him work on his skills with his other powers, but limit him from getting proper rest to the point of exhaustion. “Well, next time we can nap? Like, if I’m sleeping, and you’re sleeping, you can get your REM from me, right?” She didn’t want him to be exhausted. He was helping her with her powers, if she could help him get some rest, it didn’t seem like a terrible thing. “I think it’d be really great to know that if I started having my usual nightmare -it’s the one where I go for my SAT’s and realise I haven’t studied at all and I only have twenty minutes to do a seven hundred question exam and I don’t have the right colour pen. I mean, knowing that if that cropped up, it could be changed… That’d be nice to not wake up from.”
She knew there were worse dreams. But she really hated thinking she would ever be that disorganised.
Every day being sunny sounded, quite literally, like Mason’s worst nightmare. It was bad enough that when it got too sunny in London he got a bit pink over the bridge of his nose and freckles on his shoulders. He definitely didn’t need that all year round. New York hadn’t been particularly warm either; he’d tromped through a good foot of snow in December when he’d arrived with nothing but the clothes on his back and a duffle bag of belongings that was now carefully stored under the bed here, in Limbo.
When she suggested that next time he had his powers off they take a nap, his steps faltered a little bit. What she was suggesting was something he’d have never asked of her and the fact that she was freely offering for him to wander into her head while they went back to their respective rooms and slept was enough to give his steps pause.
The mention of her nightmares did make him chuckle and he nudged her gently with his shoulder, “Yeah, I could change that for you,” he told her. “I mean, half the time you wouldn’t even know I was there. I can make myself invisible in dreams, y’know? So someone can’t see me.” He tilted his head, “You ever see Inception?” It was a nicer comparison than A Nightmare on Elm Street, that was for sure.
Honestly, Dove wasn’t too surprised that the conversation narrowed almost entirely to powers and Mason’s need for sleep. She wanted to ask about it, had wanted to ask for a while, since he mentioned on the network not really wanting to talk about it too much.
“I saw that movie, yeah. So you can shape the dreams, to be whatever you wanted them to be?” So long as there was a REM cycle, it seemed like that was the main goal, Dove wasn’t too bothered what they might dream about, if it helped Mason out a little, she’d be happy to go for it. “I wouldn’t mind knowing, you know? That you were there, and stuff. We could still hang out that way, but you’d be able to get some rest, because you can’t keep going with just energy drinks and no proper sleep.”
It would be too exhausting, he’d be utterly exhausted and that wasn’t what anyone needed with their teammates. And Dove didn’t like the idea of a friend being so tired all the time.
“Something like that,” Mason said with a chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck and kicking another pebble, watching it skitter away and disappear into the grass. He might have loved having a kickabout with his mates before going to the pub but he’d never been all that good ta footie. It wasn’t aggressive enough as a game for him and honestly he never felt the need to run around a pitch for ninety minutes and working as part of a team. No thank you.
He tilted his head at her, nudged her gently again with his shoulder. “Cheers, love,” he told her. “I’ll think about it.”
The cafeteria was in front of them, not quite as intimidatingly looming as some of the other buildings. “C’mon though, let’s go see if we can get you some pizza. You’ve gotta be starving.”