Chapter Text
The year is 1998, the day, New Years Eve. A young girl sits in her room playing the new computer game her father brought home yesterday. It was entirely in Japanese, but this was normal for the girl, as the earlier titles drived her to learn the language. "Margatroid... cool name." Though she was only nine years old, the girl was a master at these games. But enough about that... There's a reason why the girl is in her room tonight, and not downstairs with her parents and the guests over for the big, fancy dinner her mother prepared. It's because the guests had their children over tonight. And they were afraid of her.
"Turned your teacher into a spoon?" the girl's mother was conflicted on how to feel at this moment. "...why?" The girl hesitated, then replied, "it was a mistake... I swear, mom... i don't know what happened, I-" Well now what was to be done? The mother didn't want to hurt her girl, no... it would snowball. What if this happened again, and for one reason or another she started liking it? Getting joy and relief from beating her child... repulsive. "The school told me enough, ASHLEY. You got upset at some other kids and ended up taking it out on Ms. Hemmingway, I know the whole story." The girl-Ashley-sunk into her chair. "Now this is the first time something like this has happened, so I don't quite know how to feel about this either..." The mother began, "...but it's needless to say that you won't be going out for the time being. At least until the holidays are over. Then everyone will forget about this and-" Ashley's mother lost herself in her worries, and her train of thought. She spread out across the sofa, and Ashley got up to grab some cereal for her. Dry cereal. That was their comfort snack. "L-look, I need some time to think about all this, so why don't you go up to your room and, I don't know, draw some pictures, play your danmakus, or comb that messy hair of yours?" her mother sighed, 'You won't be doing any harm that way."
And so that was what Ashley did. For the first few days of the winter holidays, barely any words were spoken between her and her mother. After all, how could Ana even look at her child after what she did? By how her friends took it, it's like she's the mother of a serial killer. How could her social status ever recover? Will she ever be accepted by their community again? Why can't Ninten just hurry up and get his pampered ass home so he can deal with his kid?! He's the one that she takes the most after in powers!! "ugh... my head... my heart... they ache." While Ana wallowed in self-deprecation, Ashley took this time to get familiar with her computer's new E-Mail system. Her best friend, Penny (which she'd met last summer) was tech-smart, so she could teach her over the phone. All Ashley could operate was her imported PC-9800, which was ancient by comparison. Over the next few days, they got a few conversations going with each other and Penny filled her in on what she was missing. "Well, for starters, Zack thought that Ben Franklin fought in Vietnam..." Normally, Ashley didn't like small talk; it was meaningless to her. But for some reason, when she was with Penny, it felt good. It felt like someone truly understood her. Which was good for Ashley, since friends were an afterthought for her. And Penny's the only one she's got.
"So as the little creature burrowed his way into my anus..." A door opened. Footsteps came from the stairhead. The guests had no idea who was to grace their presence. Ana was discussing her sex life with Penny's mom-both were piss drunk, so they didn't think anything of it-so she had no idea. Ninten was in the den with his buddies and were bullshitting with each other so they had no idea. And then there she was.
The silent menace showed her face. ...and she faced it smiling. "just getting some water, that's all..." her stuffed rabbit in her arms, Ashley was at her most docile. Was this really the same girl who... did that? Didn't seem like it. This Ashley was sweet and kind. Shy, of course, as Ashley tended to be, but not a force of magical, psychic nature. She got her drink and got back up to her little safe haven. As noise was restored to the house, Ashley thought whether her message had got to them. "maybe now they'll think I'm normal. a little, precious, innocent girl like myself would never do THAT."
That night, when the guests left, Ashley came back downstairs to join the rest of the world. As Ana was handling the leftovers and junk left behind by the guests, she tells her daughter something that made the girl stop.
"You know... maybe we can rethink this whole social outcast thing."