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It's late afternoon in the Fantastic Four residence, and the elevator dings announcing the presence of another into the residence. This particular someone, however, cannot be seen. After she'd had her nap at Heather's, Sue had opted to return home rather than trek out onto whatever adventures she'd been murmuring about pre-nap.
Her invisible steps take her to the couch, that rustles slightly as she lounges on it. Her fingers tap against the couch and she sighs heavily before laying back down on it. She sits up, picks up the receiver for the phone on the table next to her, and dials a too-familiar number. "Hello?" her voice rasps. "I'm looking for the classifieds department. Want to put a personal ad int he paper…"
*
"What does the General think he's doing with these schematics for a new form of aerospace engine? What kind of engineers do they got over there?" Ben murmurs to himself as he walks out of his room, scratching some notes on a large piece of paper. He's dressed in his his meeting clothes, as if he expects to be talking face to face with someone important soon.
It's when he hears that familiar voice that he stops, lowering the paper to seethe phone's receiver seemingly floating in the air. He sighs. "Heya Sue. What're ya up to?"
*
Sue lifts a finger only to roll her eyes, she's invisible. Again. Her throat clears, "…Thank you… I'll hold." She slowly covers the voice receiver receiver and shifts not he couch to face Ben, not that he can tell. "Just. Making a call." Her cheeks flush bright red. "Heather observed that Joon doesn't have fiends his age. And I need to help him. So. I'm going to take a personal ad." For her brother. To find friends. This is such good decision right now.
She presses her free hand to her forehead and yawns lightly. Yeah, she's super sick. Yeah, she should be in bed. Evidently she has important things going on. "Where are you going?" she looks at his clothes. The phone is left to the table for a moment and she treads towards him to adjust his collar.
*
"Sue…you…" Ben's going to have to turn into the mother hen, isn't he? He rolls up the papers in his hand, tucks away the pencil he was using for notes and shakes his head. "Sue, you can't just take out a personal ad for friends." He says softly. "Especially not for another person." He frowns, furrowing his brow. "I know you care about Johnny. I do. But this isn't the way to go about making friends.
When he invisible feet patter over to him and she fixes his coller, he moves his hand to feel her forehead as well. He starts by patting where he thinks the top of her head is, which he finds easily enough, and moves his giant rock hand down to her forehead. "Just as I suspected from the sound of your voice. You're still sick, Sue." He shakes his head. "I'm not going anywhere." Not now. He's got a sick scientist to take care of. The General is just going to have to wait. "I'm getting you to bed and I'm making you soup. The personal ad is just going to have to wait!"
*
"I…" there's a quiet objection that follows the motion. "…I'm concerned," she squeaks softly. "He needs to have something… normal. Our lives aren't normal." She sighs softly. Her still invisible body retreats back towards the couch. Her eyes narrow slightly and she notes, "I…" her voice scratches, "… will be fine. Go see the General. Honest." Her shoulders slump and the phone floats in the air towards her ear again. Evidently she hasn't yet be deterred. Good ideas may only seem good under the influence of fever.
*
"Sue!" Ben shakes his head. "You won't get any arguements from me. But a personal ad for friends is hardly normal either. What are you going to put?" He asks as she walks toward the couch and the phone. "'Young man with fiery personality looking for people of same age to hang out with? Interests include combustion, flying, and saving the world?'" He reaches out for the receiver, careful not to crush it or Sue's hand. Using some force, he hopes he can take it from her and place it down and end the call.
*
Ben can't see her point, but he can hear the snap that accompanies it. "That, is brilliant! Ben, you need to do — " her cheeks flush and she realizes that he's being facetious. She virtually pouts as he tugs the phone away from her, and she sighs softly as the phone is hung up. "It's important for people to have friends," she offers quietly. "He needs them."
*
"You an' Reed ain't the only brains in this apartment building." Ben murmurs softly. "Yes, I agree. Friends are important. And you know who my friend is?" He pauses as if to give her time to think. "You. You is my friend…are my friend. You are my friend. And friends don't let friends Fever Dial." He holds out his hand to her and says, "Let's get you to bed. I'll make you soup, tell you stories, go over complex chemical equations with you. And," He gives her a stern look, "if you still think this is a good idea in the morning, I'll call the paper myself."
*
A much smaller than Ben's rock hand invisible hand reaches out and grasps the rougher one. Slowly she rises to her feet, "Can I… just lay here… please?" There's a quiet pleading to her tone. "It's so boring sitting and doing nothing…" her lips twist to the side. "And… then I think about stuff and what I did to the Latverian embassy and…" she frowns, not that anyone can see it.
*
Concern washes over Ben's face. He can't say no to that voice! Not in the state that it's in. "Of course. But I'm staying by your side until you're better. No ifs, ands, or buts!" He gently pats her invisibly, seemingly tiny hand. "I don't care what appointments I got, they can wait. Our Sue needs to get back to full strength. I tell you, not even Annabelle will be able to tear me away!" He chuckles softly. "Now, let's get you a blanket and a cold cloth for that forehead of yours, huh?"
*
ROLL: Sue +rolls 1d2 for a result of: 1
*
The smile that can't be seen is evident in Sue's voice as she offers back, "Th-thank you. I just… I want company. I'm so bored. And tired. Tired and bored. And I used the microscope to look at the samples of my blood Reed took the other day, and I can't even see anything weird." And then it starts. Her nose tickles. It wrinkles. She tries to hold back the sneeze, causing her eyes to water.
Ah-choo! Ah-choooo! AH-CHOOOOO!
The quick succession of sneezes causes her first to become visible again, and then to emit a strong pang of psionic energy through the living room. The bookshelf she'd knocked over days before tumbles over again. One of the windows cracks. The room rumbles with the invisible force.
The now visible Sue plucks a tissue from the box and blows her nose loudly.
*
"Well, consider me your company! I can be a wealth of entertainment, don't ya know!" Ben is about to go get the blanket and cloth when Sue's three-pronged sneeze occures. While the psionic blast affects the rest of the apartment, he seems rather unphased. "Bless you!" He responds to Sue. "You know what?" He says, looking around. "I'm going to get Johnny to clean up most of this. It's good, character building work!" Except for the cracked window and bookshelf. The window will take some proper fixing, of course, but walking over to the bookshelf, he props it up with one hand, putting it back in place.
Returning shortly with said blanket and cold, wet cloth, he approches Sue. "Got all the sniffles out for now?"
*
"For now," Sue says with, ironically enough, a loud sniffle. Her head shakes, and tries to loose the brain fog that has taken up residence over her mind. She finally lays back on the couch, settling to allow the cloth to rest on her forehead. "I should be doing things. Being sick is… awful." She frowns. "Heather has it too. I think we got it in Canada." Her frown deepens. "I blame the Canadians."
*
"You are doing things. You're getting better!" Ben makes sure the cloth is placed just right before covering Sue with the blanket. "I'll send Heather a little get well basket. It will be full of jams and muffins." Because everyone knows if someone else is sick, you send them a basket with muffins and jams. "Canada?" He rolls his eyes. "Of course it was Canada! It's always so cold and the people so polite! Their politeness was probably them trying to hide the fact that they were getting you sick. We should investigate them when you're better."
*
"That hardly counts as doing things," Sue replies sulkily. She sniffles loudly. "Right? Darned Canadians with their politeness and their… maple syrup. And moose." She sniffles again. "I just. Ugh. I just want to get back to my work. My research needs… I'm defending soon. I need time to review and follow, and… just work. I just need to do work."
*
"Correct me if I'm wrong on this…after all, I'm just a simple engineer and pilot, but when a person's sick, doesn't their body work overtime to get them better? I'd say that's definitely doing things!" Ben nods his head in a matter-of-fact way, as if that settles the argument. "Don't even get me started on their beavers and their geese and their 'Canadian French'! You know, they're definitely hiding something. I can't believe we didn't see it until now!" He lets out a little gruff laugh.
"I know you're defending soon. But you'll be no good at defending if you stress yourself out and make yourself more sick. I mean, what if, in the middle of your defence, you sneeze and destroy half the room? They're not ready for something like that!" Heck, the Fantastic Four are barely ready for something like that. "I promise you, you'll be right as rain in no time, okay?"
*
Seo pouts at the comment. "I guess." Her arms cross over her chest and she just remains laying her spot. "That's assuming my body is pushing whatever it is out. White blood cell count is raised. So. Probably. But it's nothing that… it's boring."
She smirks at the remark about sneezing in her defence. "I've never… I don't… this is new. I've never sneezed and had such trouble." She emits a soft sigh.
*
"There you go!" Ben pulls up a chair and sits himself down next to Sue. "Well, you've probably never been this sick while having the abilities that you have! I mean, let's just hope I never get this sick. I'll probably end up sneezing out boulders and coughing lava or something." He laughs, trying to lighten the mood some more. "Ya know, this reminds me of a story I used to hear growin' up, 'bout a princess. Wanna hear it?"
*
Sue smirks and coughs lightly. "That… would be awful. And ridiculous," mind Seo's current status is equally ridiculous. Her lips hitch up on one side and she nods lightly. "That'd be good. A story would be good."
*
"But it would be a story we'd be telling for years to come!" Ben scratches his forehead where his eyebrows would normally be. "Let me get you a glass of water first. Can't have you coughing up a…well, a storm." He chuckles and gets up, returning quickly with a glass of water, which seems tiny in his hand as well.
"Now, this princess…Princes um…Princess Sue…lvestra. Princess Suelvestra was known throughout the lands as the brightest and kindest and bestest person in all the land." Ben begins. It's pretty evident right from the beginning that he's making it up as he goes. "Princess Suelvestra was known for creating magnificent devices that helped all the people in the land. From proper water irrigation to farming equipment that helped farmers to messaging tubes to send letters all throughout the princessdom!"
*
"Princess Suelvestra?" Seo arches a wry eyebrow. "Just call her Sue. I already know it's about me," her eyes roll emphatically. She smirks and then shakes her head, "Reed does all the really incredible stuff. You know that, right? I do good stuff, I just… the inventors are you three. I'm team science, but not team engineering. That's on you three." She rubs her eyes. "But yes. The princess." Her lips tighten into a near smile.
*
"Hey now, are you telling the story, or am I?" Ben grins and chuckles. "And hey, you do amazing things. Don't underplay yourself!" Clearing his throat, he continues. "Princess…Sue," he nods his head slightly. "One day, she has a mental block! This block, it lasts for months and months and months! Finally her friends, Count Reedem Stretchypants, Lord Firebreath McSteam, and the venerable Rockman, the duke of Bouldertown, come to visit her." He gently holds out the glass water, should Sue want it, while he tells the story.
"'Princess Sue!' They all call out in dismay. 'What is wrong?' And she tells them that she hasn't had an idea in months and that she's worried that the people won't like her any more. Her friends all give her a stern look, as if she's being the silliest person in the world. 'The people won't stop liking you if you can't create more inventions.' They tell her. 'They like you because you cared enough about them in the first place to even wonder if they was anything you could do to make their lives better in the first place! They know that you will come up with more inventions some day!' They say, giving her a giant hug. 'But what's important is that they know that you still care about their wellbeing, and that they still love you. Just like we do.'" Ben smiles softly. "And that, my dear friend, is the story of Princess Suelvestra."
*
Sue accepts the glass of water and her eyebrows lift skeptically at the continued story of Princess Sue and her… strange story. Her head cants to the side and she ponders the story some more. "I… don't know that I understood that story." She frowns slightly. "So. She can't invent stuff, and suddenly her friends tell her she can?" Her eyes squint, "So. Things just get… I don't even know."
*
"The moral of the story is…uh…" Ben scratches his temple as he things. "It's to be grateful for what you have, regardless of what you feel you cannot accomplish. Because no matter what, people love and care about you." Yes. That's the moral. That's what he was trying to express. He didn't just come up with the entire thing off the top of his head, or steal the basics of it from someone he was in the air force with. Not at all!