A Mockingbird In The Crows Nest

In The Bathroom At A Party

CW: Depictions of hallucinations, panic attacks, and underage drinking (just a bit). Mentions of blood, guns, and gunshots.

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It takes about a startlingly small amount of time for Nautilus- who's now named Conduit, thanks to Lotus's suggestion -to be integrated into the tower. She fills out all her paperwork the same afternoon they get back to the tower after the bank robbery. The next day, she gets a costume started with Warden. Then on that same day; she agrees to be paired with The Captain until she finishes her probation and she becomes a full-fledged hero. All within the span of barely 24 hours.

Tommy is left spiraling. Just watching this now-ex-vigilante settle into a tower full of heroes much better than he ever could.

It seems like she's fully at ease. Like she doesn't have a care in the world. Like she doesn't have anything to hide.

Like she belongs.

He finds it just a little suspicious.

He watches from the sidelines as she does her own thing in the tower. She seems to get along well with The Captain, she and Wilbur talk occasionally, she and Peleus get along pretty well, and she strikes up a friendship with someone named Jack in IT suspiciously quickly.

Tommy assumes they know each other outside of Conduit's mask; but he doesn't think to check. It wouldn't be worth the effort, honestly.

No, instead- Tommy focuses on the fact that the tower is throwing a party.

At first he assumed it was just meant for her, and he was fine with that! More than fine, actually. He didn't think he'd do well in the spotlight right now- not with how his mind spirals and cracks at the mere thought of his job as a villain.

But of course, it's not that simple.

Because apparently, Roulette was the one throwing this party. And he'd specifically said that it was a party meant for Tommy. Because apparently, he was "overdue for some downtime after the News Tower." even though Tommy got 3 whole weeks off.

And doubly bad, was that the public knew about the party.

Which means for the week leading up to said party, Tommy was bombarded with questions every time he set foot outside for a patrol. All the attention was dizzying, and it made it harder and harder for him to keep up his act. He'd slipped a few times and had nearly snapped at a few reporters who got too pushy, and that would not have been good for anybody. But thankfully, it never got to that. Because whenever he was out and he got swarmed; the hero he was with would step in.

Charon would step beside him and guide him away while gently diffusing the situation- saying they had to get back to their patrol. Wilbur would slide up beside him and crack some jokes to get the attention off him. And the one time he was out with Peleus on his own, the man had just wordlessly stepped between him and the reporters with a pointed look.

But every time, Tommy would have an arm wrapped around him and he'd be guided away from the swarm of reporters while tucked against someone.