the phrase "just a kid" gets thrown around so often those first few months that she considers getting it tattooed on her forehead. just so they know she knows. //terese angelica embers. twenty-one flux
☆. ❝ Unfortunately. ❞ He quips, thinking he’s so smart. He rubs his hands together in sheer nervousness, trying to smile at his sister - it’s been forever. She’s changed a lot. He’s not sure if he has, however ; he’s still an idiot. He’s ALWAYS going to be an idiot. He clears his throat, taking a hesitant step closer and hesitating a tad before he speaks again, ❝ …Nice, uh… nice facepaint. I got that shit too, just… not tonight. I’m actually not doin’ shit tonight. It’s an off day. ❞
she’s changed a lot. she’s not sharing a bathroom with four other girls anymore, not a shaking thirteen year old staring out at him from behind terrified blue eyes. terese angelica embers stands at a measly 5′4″ ( 5′6″ if you count the extra two inches from her boots ) but makes up for the lack of height in measure of attitude. and it’s all on display now, every ounce of venom she can muster, every warning color, down to the cracked but visible ‘f u c k o f f’ painted across her nails in blinding gold.
“ congratulations? ” it’s distinctly a question, lined with malice and frustration and the distinct knowledge that she wants absolutely nothing to do with this right now. nothing to do with him. ( it’s only mostly true--she misses him, a little. or at least worries about him. he’s blood. that’s what you do. even when it’s shitty blood. )
☆. A slightly heeled boot clicks to the ground as Cyrus descends from his perch, the witch seeing a familiar head of dark hair in close distance. Gloved hands contort into nervous fists, the elder of the two siblings keeping an audible pace - not to startle his sister. Even though, of course, she probably wants nothing to do with him right now. He clears his throat, looking up at the sky of the city and then further making his presence known with, ❝ …Hey. ❞ A brain full of wit and snark nearly bursting at the seams - a nightmarish mouth dripping with terrible quips and one-liners - and all he can say is hey.
she thinks it’s a figment of her imagination, at first. they haven’t said more than ten words to each other in eight or more years. and he’s been out of arkham for who knows how long. it’s not like they haven’t kept tabs on each other--she knows he’s kept an eye on her and she’d be lying like all hell if she said she hasn’t kept out feelers for him. she turns slowly, lets the heavy makeup serve as a mask.
an eyebrow inches up slowly towards nico’s hairline, and he scoffs. positively. that’s not precisely his modus operandi. he slips a hand into his back pocket, observes her with his hip cocked a little. “ do i look like i go with the flow ?? ” no. nico looks like someone who absolutely always gets his way or throws a fit about it.
“ you look like a pretentious asshole. but i try not to judge. ” she snorts, giving him a raised eyebrow to match his. he’s got an attitude about him that, honestly, she can’t say wouldn’t be alluring in the right circumstances. which she isn’t. or at least, she’s pretty sure she isn’t. just a guess. “ what’s your plan, then? ”
simon crosses his arms over his chest and listens, quietly for a moment. except she looks twelve, and simon feels at least slightly more qualified to deal with inter-dimensional phenomena “ i’d call it more of a crisis than an opportunity. there’s a lot of big threats to consider. ” he sounds way too serious for his own liking. he misses john, level-headed and composed and efficient. he would know what to do about the devastation done to the green lantern corps.
terese shrugs, looking much more nonchalant than she feels. she’s felt her heartbeat in her throat for days, at the very least. maybe weeks. she tries not to quantify it; that makes her days longer. “ lotta smaller class people looking for their time to shine, though. ” she pauses. “ besides, that’s what the legacies are for, right? stepping up when the big boys are gone? ”
“ you’re thinking about this way more than i am. sometimes, you just have to go with the flow. ” which, y’know. might not be the most applicable sentiment when the particular flow you’re talking about is realizing that there are multiple alternate universes and that they’re not really alternate anymore. but that’s all a matter of details. terese doesn’t want to focus on the details. “ get to know some new people, enjoy the opportunity for what it is. we’re supposed to live positively and all that shit, right? ”
( OC, BEX TAYLOR-KLAUS ) ; supposedly TERESE ANGELICA EMBERS made it through the convergence. SHE is TWENTY-ONE and i hear they sometimes go by FLUX . it seems they tend to be WORLDLY, but DISTANT. rumor has it they used to run with N/A, so they’re staying far away from the hall of justice. mr. oz better keep an eye on this one going forward.
(tw: domestic abuse mention and hospitalization under the cut
she is the youngest of two. more info about her older brother cyrus is right here
long story short, terese and cyrus had a shitty home life. their mother was neglectful at best and abusive at worst, and when they got out, it was a god-send. it wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t something she understood then, but in retrospect, she’s grateful. cyrus got mixed up with some bad people doing bad things and made enemies of someone a whole lot more powerful than he was. what had quickly become the well functioning ship that was the embers siblings sank like the fucking titanic in a matter of hours. and suddenly, at 13 years old, terese was on her own without anyone to give a shit.
turns out, terese was pretty good at being on her own. with her mother deemed unfit to take care of her, she got tossed into gotham’s foster care system and was shuffled from home to home every few months or years. she learned pretty fast that arkham wasn’t going to let cyrus out any time soon. and despite the fact that he’d done his best to take care of her, she was bitter. so his letter got ignored.
like her brother, terese is... gifted. she identifies as a witch, though not as strongly as cyrus. and while he’s pyrokinetic she’s hydrokinetic. fire and water. it’s a funny story that they tell, just being who they are. anyway, terese is hydrokinetic, which basically gives her control over water. it makes her a major badass, and is pretty damn powerful when she does it right, so she’s not complaining.
she’s working on perfecting her skills. it’s rough and kinda hard to control without an actual teacher but she ended up in greece that one time. and got arrested. and stuck in jail for a few days. it was a good time.
pre-convergence, terese was coasting. gotham is a shithole, but it’s her shithole, and even when she travels, she kind of misses it. so she always ends up back there, fighting assholes under the cover of darkness and shadow. flux never stays gone for long. but with the disappearance of... well, damn near everyone who made the world a safer place to be, she’s a little shaken. post-convergence, she’s kicking ass and taking names a little more consistently. she’s still not really a team player, but she’ll try. and she’s... admittedly... a little worried about cyrus. it’s not like she hasn’t kept tabs on the asshole, she just doesn’t want a lot of contact with him. a dramatic shift like this, though... it makes you rethink things.
anyway, this is my little piece of shit. hmu if you have any questions or wanna plot or whatever!! i’ll be here.