Act Natural

                                        

                                              
Their little Council of war was broken up when it was time for the kids to go speak with the Doctor, giving the Councilors a chance to set up for the afternoon. Normally week two involved setting traps and letting the kids learn how to physically disarm or avoid them; pretty smart training for Portentums as there were still far too many Sapiens that would love to eliminate the next branch of human evolution. As the kiddles run amok, Gideon would take one off to the side and have a chit chat with them about whatever was funking their chi up. Dilhil was on the tag end of his physical withdrawals, no longer shaking like a Chihuahua in February, but his emotional roller coaster was just about to start. If she wanted him stable enough to sneak out tonight, he was the one she had to tackle first.
                              
Gideon walked through the woods with Lisa and Xavier close by, distantly aware of her Hell Cat sleeping around a bundle of grumbling, hungry, fuzzy jelly beans called Kittens, setting up harmless traps for her kids all while keeping an eye open for not so harmless traps left by her suitor. “You guys got names for your group already? I damn near forgot about that this year with all that’s been going on.” Gideon suddenly broke the silence, feeling like an idiot for overlooking a Camp tradition.
                              
Xavier gave her an amused look as he set a ground snare. “We’re already into week two Gids, you sure there were no bumps to the head to knock what little sense you have right out?”
                              
Lisa just looked a little concerned. “Seriously, it’s not like you to miss details like that. You ok Gideon?”
                              
It wasn’t time to reveal the not so little secret she was hiding so Gideon deflected with a shrug. “It’s been a long first week for me, and yeah, it kind of has me off my game. Between being ousted as a Fury right away, to the attack by one of my kids, the bloody surprise in the forest and then the Hell Cat, I’ve been kind of a crap Councilor so far. But I can still help these kids, so I’m going to. I know it doesn’t make much sense to you guys why I feel like I have to sneak them off site, but trust me when I say that they need a little dose of regular life right now.”
                              
“You think that seeing what life can be like if they get their heads on straight will help them?” Xavier hazarded a guess.
                              
“No. I think that showing them what regular, old, boring life is like when no one knows you’re broken will help them realize that they are a lot more than just the problems they brought to the Camp. You guys remember what it was like, coming here, knowing that there was something wrong; knowing that when people looked at you that was all that they saw. It sucked. Trust me; it sucks even more when that never stops because no matter how much you reform people refuse to believe.” Gideon had to give out an emotional secret now to help cover up some of the deflection she was doing. It bothered her to have to manipulate her friends like this, but part of it was for their own safety too. The fact that they both tried to cover the stricken looks on their faces at her admission meant that it was working too. “But these kids don’t have to endure that, which isn’t something they’ve learned yet. I’ve got a vamp who thinks he’s all but expendable, an Elf who thinks she’s tainted and needs to be cleansed, a ghoul who just wants to feel like he’s whole and in control, a siren that hasn’t learned anything about her own powers, an angel demon hybrid that is tearing himself apart and a nightmare that wants me to kill her. One night of getting out, sitting at the movies and just pretending to be one of the crowds might make the difference for any of them. And it’s not the kind of thing that the Camp will give them right now. Even the day off is part of the collective Camp whole, everyone else watching us knows we are Other. This though, the night I’ll give them, they are whatever they want to pretend to be.” Oddly enough Gideon did believe that, though that wasn’t her biggest motivation. It should have been, her kids and their rehabilitation should have been her top priority, but circumstances had made it so that she cared more if they survived; broken or not.