After the museum Serena managed to hold things together for awhile. She had a purpose, made new friends, and was learning more and more about her powers.

Then she came across the wedding book and it all came crashing down again. She fell back to drink after having a breakdown and hadn't ventured from the house since save to buy more alcohol. Since then she had been on a downward spiral that, were it to continue, would lead to her death.

Sooner rather than later as she currently sat in their bed, drunk, looking at their wedding photos and holding a loaded .45.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:27, Mon 19 Aug 2019.

Maggie approached Serena. "Hello, Serena. You have a call from Antoinette."

Before Serena can object, Antoinette's voice can be heard on the other end, "Hello, Serena. I am sorry to bother you, but I need your help."

"Oh Maggie..." She slurred. "I'm afraid I'm not much help at the moment since I'm very drunk. Drunk and broken, Antoinette. I can't help myself...anyone."

She looked at the cold metal in her hand, felt the weight and began to sing. "Cuz I'm staring down the barrel of a .45..."

Maggie says, "Puppy eyes mode activated." and assumes a submissive pose while whimpering like a puppy, staring up at Serena.

Antoinette says, "I will come by to pick you up, then. In the meantime, can I tell you a story?"

Serena hiccoughed a laugh at Maggie's antics. "I love you, Maggie. Thank you for being here for me. Go ahead and tell me a story. I'd like to hear it."

She kept humming the lyrics to the song as she rested her head against the back of the bed.

Antoinette says, "There was a woman named Eleanor who had an office job at an insurance company. Sandy, the girl who sat in the cubicle next to her, was a nice person and every day, she brought home-made treats for her coworkers; tasty but healthy. Sandy and Eleanor became fast friends and they energized each other, doing more good together than they would have done apart. But Sandy had to move. For Eleanor, the job started to become just a job again. It wasn't an adventure anymore. Even though Sandy stayed in touch and the two exchanged the occasional email, the job was difficult to continue."

Meanwhile, Antoinette had switched to being Lifelight and sped to Serena's home.

Antoinette continues, "It was a downward spiral. As her motivation dropped, so did her performance. Her dropping performance made her even more sad and thus, made her less motivated. Which made her perform even worse. Sandy tried to encourage her, but it was just not the same without Sandy being physically there. Then something happened. Eleanor got a new boss. The new boss wanted to change how things were done in order to save money so he could line his own pockets with more money. Eleanor got angry. Too angry to be sad. She got motivated, this time by her sense of justice and a desire to see the money go to helping those who actually need it."

Lifelight arrived at Serena's house and tapped on the window, hovering there. Should Serena look, Lifelight waved.

"That's good for Eleanor. She had someone there to motivate her but I don't." She looked down at her wedding book and touched one picture-the one that showed her and Ian together, dancing their first dance. "He was taken from me."

She looked up when she heard the tapping at the window and waved back. She looked...bad. She was obviously very drunk, had been crying, and had a fairly large pistol in her hand.

Lifelight continues as she opens the window. If it's locked, unlocking it is a simple matter for her since she has magnetic things for moving parts. Worst case, she can have Maggie open the window. Either way, she steps inside and walks over to Serena.

She reaches to take the gun, apparently expecting Serena to not resist. "There is more to the story."

Serena didn’t react when Antoinette took the gun out of her hand. She was still staring at the wedding photo, singing softly. “Staring at the ashes of another life.”

Antoinette sits next to Serena and puts an arm around her. "She was motivated only for a time. The new boss was stopped. Someone else took his place and things were returned to how they should be. But after that, Eleanor returned to the slump she was in before. And then she received letters from the people who the charity helped, telling her how their lives were changed for the better. Eleanor even started getting personal thanks from her coworkers for fighting for the right thing."

Antoinette pulls out an envelope and offers it to Serena. It simply has Serena's name on it. "I was going to send this in the mail. But I am delivering it in person instead."

Contents of envelope:
Should Serena open the envelope, inside is a card that shows two little girls hugging with the words "friends forever" above. On the back is written: "Thank you for being my friend and for helping stop the alien invasion. I hope we can hang out again soon."

It took Serena a moment to look up from the photo album to the card but when she did she slowly opened it with shaking hands. She read it and her hands dropped, remaining as still as the rest of her before her whole body was wracked with sobs so intense she wasn't able to make noise but she cried and collapsed against Antoinette.

Lifelight holds Serena and pets her slowly. For now, words are not what is needed. She'll worry about talking more later.

However, she IS a healer... and she is in costume. She quietly scans Serena to check that she isn't overly poisoned or if there is much else she can do for Serena while she is there.

Aside from a rather unhealthy amount of alcohol in her bloodstream and some liver damage from heavy drinking over the past year and a half Serena seems to by physically healthy. Her mental state, however...she's a complete and utter mess.

It is an unfortunate thing that Lifelight's tech does not tell her the psychological injuries of those she scans. Thankfully, Lifelight herself is a good tool for such, even if far from professional.

She just holds onto Serena for as long as she needs, petting her and saying nothing. A tear or two roll down her cheeks as she quietly cries for her friend as well as what her friend lost. She is sad she never met Ian and figures she would have liked him just as she likes Serena. But she thinks even mentioning Ian right now is not the right thing to do. Maybe talking about Ian sometime when Serena isn't drunk would be therapeutic, though.

Whenever Serena starts calming down (however long that takes; Lifelight will sit there holding her until then), Lifelight wipes Serena's face with a handkerchief; her own tear-stained eyes of concern meeting with Serena's.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:11, Fri 30 Aug 2019.

At some point Serena pulled Maggie into the hug as she cried - the tears feeling as if the lancing of a deep and particularly painful boil. When she had cried to the point of having no more tears left she disengaged slight bit from Antoinette.

"You barely know me and yet you've taken such good care of me. You are a good and kind person and I am honoured to call you friend. Coming out here for someone you know so little of...I don't know what to say."

Lifelight takes hold of Serena's hands and says in her usual soft tone, "You do not need to say anything. But I do request you stay alive if possible."

Maggie wiggles her legs aimlessly while in the hug until able to nuzzle up to Serena. Then just rests there like a puppy would.

Serena looked down and rested her cheek on Maggie before squeezing Antoinette's hands. She nodded. "I will. I think it's time I reached out for help instead of doing...doing this," she said, looking at the bottles around the room.

"You needed my help. What can I do?"

Lifelight says, "There is a fundraiser to help the local orphanage raise more money for their supplies. I was going to invite you to help me with that fundraiser. It is easy, but more hands makes faster work and the two of us are known public figures. Today we would be able to attend the children's festival while we raise money, so it can be fun too."

Serena nodded and wiped her eyes again. "I'd be happy to help. Honoured, actually. Seraph needs to get back out there so this is a good opportunity to do something worthwhile. Do I have time to clean up some first?"

Lifelight says, "Yes. Let me know if you need anything."

Antoinette isn't nosy, but she will look around Serena's place without touching anything. She also remains sitting on Serena's bed so Serena can easily find her.

The house is meticulously clean save for the bottles scattered around the floor and furniture. There are quite a few pictures of her with a man Antoinette can only assume is Ian. Amongst the pictures is one of her in a school ceremony that shows she was, before his death, in nursing school.

Another group of pictures shows the two of them shot against the backdrop of five different mountains. If Antoinette knows anything about mountain climbing she would know she's looking at five of the Seven Summits.

....OK so Lifelight isn't one to touch people's stuff. But even to her space-cadet mind, scattered bottles on the floor is an obvious "clean me up please". So she picks up any bottles that are on the floor and places them all on the dining room table, but off to the side, just so they are out of the way.

Lifelight doesn't know much about mountain climbing, but she is a trivia nut, so she still recognizes the summits for what they are.

Once she has at least made the house less of a tripping hazard, Lifelight sits back down and waits for Serena.

Serena ran water over her face and scrubbed her eyes before brushing her hair out and tying back into a ponytail. She brushed her teeth and gargled away the taste of her recent drinking binge before changing clothes. She looked and felt better physically and emotionally. Enough that she was ready to take on the Divine Fire and burn the rest of the toxins out of her body and do what needed to be done to help her friend.

She straightened her shoulders and ran her hands down her legs. "I can do this."

She walked out and looked at Antoinette. "I'm ready."

Lifelight smiles at Seraph. "Thank you."

With that, she heads out the front door with Seraph and waits for her before taking off flying towards the Children's Festival!

--> Weston City Park

Serena smiled at Antoinette as they walked out of the house. "No, thank you. Both of you," she said as she looked at Maggie.

When she turned back her eyes were blazing pools of golden fire. Vast wings of flame rose behind her and gone was the slight figure of Serena - standing in her place was the figure of Seraph. Wreathed in fire and bearing terrible weapons she took off after Lifelight.

[To Weston City Park]