Chapter Text
Sin still wasn’t used to a lot of things. Noise, cars, people, advertisements everywhere. She’d experienced it all before, but never for so long. Never anything permanent.
But Dinah had promised that Sin could live with her, even after they figured out what was happening.
Sin hadn’t fully followed what she meant by that. She’d been semi-possessed by Megaera but she was still alive. The conflict was passed.
Except Dinah was still on edge.
Sin put it out of her mind and went to get them all groceries with Cass. Her and Barda had agreed to stay and help her through the transition.
“I don’t like crowds either,” Cass said softly as they walked into the grocery store.
Cass grabbed a cart as Sin shook her head. “I can totally handle them, I swear. I just--”
Cass shrugged and winked at her. “It’s just a lot?”
Sin’s shoulders drooped. “Yeah. That’s about right.”
These people should be bowing down in reverence of our power. Megeara told Sin as Cass guided them over to a section of the store helpfully labeled ‘produce’ by a sign with bold letters.
“Absolutely not,” Sin hissed. People who didn’t pay her any mind were bad enough.
Cass eyed her but didn’t push it as she went about selecting bell peppers. Barda was cooking dinner and Dinah had promised to supervise. Egg bites with sausage and bell peppers was going to be a side to the dinner Barda was planning.
But we are more powerful than these pathetic beings.
Sin didn’t think the people around her were pathetic. Sheltered and a bit naive, maybe, but not pathetic.
“You promised me control. I want to not do that, we’re not doing that.”
Megaera hissed but her attempts at convincing Sin died off.
Sin forced a smile as they moved over to the apples. Cass returned it and on her face it looked a lot more natural.
“Honey crisp or cosmic crisp?” Cass asked, examining the apples.
“What’s the difference?” Sin asked, a little lost.
At the same time, Megaera decided to add her two cents. Cosmic crisp. Cosmic implies that it is more powerful. No, wait, I want to try them all.
Cass eyed her for a moment before she started bagging up both varieties. “You’ll learn.”
Sin hesitated a moment, looking at the other apples. “What about the other ones?”
Cass paused. “Barda and I both like crisp apples.” Then she started a third bag with one of every other variety. Sugarbees, pink ladies, fuji, gala, and so forth.
Megaera was particularly interested in the green one. ‘Granny Smith.’
She made sure Sin knew that they were going to taste that one first.
Sin sighed. “Fine, sure, whatever.” It wasn’t like she needed to try one or the other first and it wasn’t something she felt like fighting.
“You speak to her externally?” Cass asked as they drifted in the direction of some bananas.
Sin shrugged. Somewhat embarrassed to hear that Cass apparently knew exactly what was going on. “I-- I guess. I don’t really know how to just-- think at her?”
Cass hummed as she weighed two different bunches in her hands. “I know someone. I’ll ask him.”
“You know someone else who has a god inside them? That sucks.”
Cass shook her head with a smile. “Not just like you. Not a god, but not alone either. It’s… common.”
Sin jerked her head around to stare at Cass where the older girl was putting the bunch she’d decided on in the cart. “This happens to other people?”
Cass shrugged again. “Not just like you, but more people--” she paused, clawing lightly at the air-- “more people shift between other selves than they admit.”
“Wait, wait, wait. How many are we talking?”
Cass pursed her lips. “Don’t know. You could ask him?”
“Who’s him?” Sin asked, jogging so she was walking backwards in front of the cart.
Cass shook her head. “I’ll ask him first.”
Sin pouted, but after a moment of consideration she subsided. She didn’t really want the Birds of Prey going around and telling people about her condition. She supposed this mystery boy felt the same.
“Cabbage,” Cass intoned, gesturing with her hand just in time for Sin to stop walking before she tripped over the edge of the fridge.
Sin reached up and passed Cass the big green cabbage she’d pointed at. Cass took it with a smile and then she grabbed some of the lettuce sitting next to it.
“”Watermelon?” Cass asked as they kept pushing the cart.
Sin’s mouth watered a little. “Yes please.”
Yes, yes, we shall try another thing and I shall get to know the taste of yet another food.
Sin smiled a little. She still didn’t like Megaera, but it was a little hard to be angry about the god’s childlike excitement over the prospect of getting to eat watermelon.
Cass was in the middle of placing a watermelon that she’d said was ‘not too watery’ in the cart when a group of teenage boys approached them.
“Hey, my friend wants your number,” the leader of the group said, gesturing at one of his friends whose hair was dyed blonde. Said boy began spluttering.
Sin glanced at Cass to see that she was on higher alert than she had been, but that she wasn’t the kind of tense that meant she was expecting a fight.
Sin glanced back at the boys. “Sorry, I don’t have a number.” Even if she did, she wouldn’t give it to these boys, but she had enough tact to know saying that was a bad idea.
“Bullshit, common, just give us the number. You’ll never know unless you give him a chance”
Cass had come around the cart so she was standing behind Sin’s right shoulder.
Can I make these ones bow? Megaera asked in response to Sin’s growing unease.
“No.” She said to both Megaera and the boys.
“Fucking bitch.” One of them - his head looked like a potato and what little of his hair wasn’t shaved was also dyed blonde - spat.
The ringleader scowled, turning his back to Sin. “Common guys, the whore isn’t worth it anyways.”
Sin scowled at their retreating backs and before she knew it, a viney thread was reaching out and smacking the one who’d done most of the talking on the back of his head.
“Did you just hit me!?” He demanded, whirling around and taking a step towards Sin. “You dumb fucking bitch, you’re going to regret that.”
Cass stepped forward so she was between Sin and the boys. They all stopped in their tracks.
“We’re not scared of you,” Potato head snapped. He didn't sound sure.
Cass leaned forward as she glared at them, she seemed to loom over them despite all of them being taller than her. “Leave.”
That one word seemed to be enough, because the boys turned on their heels and tried to make a hasty retreat without compromising their imagined masculinity. There were several insults thrown their way.
Sin got the distinct impression that Megaera was sticking her tongue out after the boys.
Cass watched them go and when she was sure they were gone, she led Sin out of the produce section.
“I’m sorry,” Sin whispered.
Cass reached out, slowly, giving Sin enough time to pull back. “They should be sorry.”
“I didn’t control her.”
Cass shook her head. “I will speak with her. After shopping.”
Sin bit her lip but let the topic lie.
They picked up the meat - sausage and beef - and made for the bakery section. Cass seemed intent on picking up a few loaves of bread, but she added a box of cookies to the cart when she noticed Sin staring at them.
“I thought I was being sneaky,” Sin groaned as Cass placed them in the cart with a smirk.
“You were,” Cass assured her. “But I’m better.”
Sin glowered half heartedly at her, but she offered Cass a shy smile at checkout. One that Cass returned with a beam.
They loaded their groceries into the back of Barabra’s car and Sin settled into the passengers seat, buckling in before Cass could prompt her to.
Cass settled into the driver's seat next to Sin, but didn’t put the key in the ignition. “Is it possible to speak with Megaera?”
Sin flinched, staring at her hands. But she focused on the feeling of making herself smaller, pushing backwards inside her own mind. Ceding control.
It was made easier by the eager way Megeara pushed forwards, always keen to have some control over Sin’s body.
…
Megaera smiled as her body solidified around her. Sensations were new and overwhelming and wonderful.
Then she looked over at where Black Bat was staring disapprovingly at her.
Megaera returned the look with a scowl. Who was this child to tell her how to behave?
“Why did you hit him?” Black Bat asked.
“He called me a whore.” Megaera wasn’t ever going to be with someone, but to imply disloyalty? It was an insult.
“What’s wrong with sex workers?” Black Bat asked, matter of fact.
Megaera scowled. “They lack loyalty.”
Black Bat shook her head. “To who?”
“They’re husbands!” Megaera shrieked.
“And if they have no husbands? Or they’re not a woman? Or they’re gay? Or their husbands are okay with it?”
Megaera gapped. “You-- you can’t just--”
Old hag. Cynthia grumbled. For all that she refused to think at Megaera when she had control, she was quite forceful when she didn’t.
“Better a sex worker than a boy like that.”
Megaera deflated. “But-- but--”
Black Bat shook her head again. “We are not the ones to make things physical.”
“I was defending us!” Did this little girl not get it? That kind of insult could mar Cynthia’s reputation, her social standing, her future! And by proxy, Megaera’s.
“You were not. They were leaving.”
“So? They were violent first! Do you think they were right?”
She realized threads were erupting from her skin only when Cynthia demanded enough control to reel them back in.
“It was violence. It was wrong, they are wrong. You made it physical. We do not escalate.”
“What are you, afraid?” Megaera scoffed.
Black Bat leveled her with a withering look. “Not of them. We do not escalate because it is wrong. They were leaving.”
“They deserved retribution!”
“Yes,” Black Bat agreed. “It should not have come from you.”
“Why not?” She demanded, anger snapping under her skin.
“Oracle will handle it next time. Consequences is not the same as revenge. We do not do revenge.” Which was not an answer.
“It is very satisfying,” Megaera countered.
Black Bat pursed her lips. “For a moment. Then all it is… pain to yourself.”
“Maybe for you.”
Black Bat frowned at her. “Do not do it again. Sin may come back now.”
Megaera did not want to let go of this body, but she’d promised and Cynthia was eager to return.
Her body returned to the girl.