Dormammu12

On Henry’s second try, the keypad emitted a soft chime and yielded.   The room was not bad. In fact, it was excellent. Henry dragged his luggage in and dumped it beside the kitchen island, then spent the next hour painstakingly colonizing the empty wardrobe in the bedroom. The bathroom had an actual cubicle for bathing, which was a huge improvement. Hell, it even came with body wash and shampoo. (Admittedly, his previous accommodations had had that as well.)   When he was done, he sat down on the low, grey couch outside the bedroom (there was another room, how novel) and switched on the TV. Was it just him, or did it sound more crisp, more sonorous? Henry logged into his account, clicked through a few videos, and stared into space for a while. He felt empty.   It had been four months. What did he have to show for his university exchange in Seoul? Nothing. Zilch. Fuck all. He should’ve signed up for that buddy programme they’d been touting. He hadn’t even left his corner of the

01:09:50:29 SINCE DISPERSAL The treadmill belt ground into motion beneath her slippered feet, and Lindsey started to walk, breathing in great, greedy gusts. Unbuckling her belt, which had begun to bite painfully into her waist, she tossed it to the floor with a dismissive snort. She’d had to use an actual belt, a leather belt, to get presentable for Gilbert – because she’d outgrown her bathrobe. The clothes I ordered had better arrive soon. Or else. Wrapping her fingers around the handrails, Lindsey widened her stride, quickening her pace, and looked up. A puffy parody of herself stared back from the floor-to-ceiling mirror of her home-gym. The two halves of her bathrobe flopped apart, and although she wasn’t completely sure, she was fairly certain that her belly was bouncing as she walked. God, she was so heavy. She could feel her entire body vibrating as she moved. Although she wasn’t feeling terribly optimistic, Lindsey forced herself to admit (grudgingly) that there were some

00:18:12:55 SINCE DISPERSAL “You don’t need us to, like, come in with you, right?” Lindsey scoffed. Her voice was still a little wet, which wasn’t good, but on the whole, she sounded much better. “I’ll be fine, Blair.” Shoving the other girl backwards, she stuck her tongue out and slammed the door shut. Blair waited until she could hear the bath start to run before turning on her heel and stalking back out into the living-room, which opened out onto Lindsey’s immense patio. Isabelle was on the balcony, sprawled out over one of the loungers. She turned as Blair made her way over to her. “Showering?” “Yeah.” Blair settled onto the lounger beside Isabelle’s and exhaled gustily. “So…” “Yeah.” Isabelle held up her phone. “I’ve ordered a bunch of stuff. Kale salad, smoothies, yoghurt, fruits, more salads…” “It’s a start.” “Mm-hmm.” The two girls sat in silence for a moment. “You know, I used to think I was the heaviest.” Isabelle looked up, eyebrows raised. “You’re shorter than

00:13:24:49 SINCE DISPERSAL There was a knock on the door. “Come in.” “Robert?” “Ah.” Robert looked up from his desktop, rising to meet Gilbert as he strolled into his small office/apartment. The lights hummed above, glittering over his thick, dark hair, cropped-short just recently. “When did you get back?” “Ten minutes ago.” Gilbert tossed a small, whirring device at Robert; as he plucked it out of the air, the two men moved to the couch. “Just got this from the freshly-formed Tracking Division. It’s quite, uh, bare-bones. They just jury-rigged this, actually.” “I thought you could track affected individuals?” “That’s only if there’s an available broadcaster to discharge a certain signal. We’ve got access to telecoms within our borders. Outside? Less so.” “I heard that the PM’s already authorized raids overseas.” “Yeah, uh…” Gilbert scratched his jaw. “He has. And you’re going to be using one of these when you go hunting.” He pointed at one of the many finicky little items