Lisa smiled up at him and gave a wide grin. "Hiya Tommy! I'm good! just about to hit the halfpipe before I finish my Algebra homework!" She said as she went to move around him, but he put a hand against the wall in front of her to stop her from leaving. "You know Lisa, I've seen you dancing in your free time. You're REALLY pretty, it's a shame I never got to know you..." He told her with a grin of his own, one that Lisa didn't like.
"Oh... Thanks, Tommy. Maybe we can hang out sometime, later okay?" She asked uncomfortably as she tried to back up, but Tommy boxed her in. "Maybe I want to know you better now." He said as he kissed all over her face. "TOMMY NO! What are you doing?!" She asked as he began reaching under her shirt and pants, painfully squeezing whatever he could touch. "Oooh, you are nice and soft!" He told her as he reached around to squeeze at her buttocks making her scream loudly.
Fearing they'd be caught, Tommy reached through the neck hole of her shirt to put his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming out while she tried to push his head away from her placing her hands over his eyes. The constant struggle and high emotions in Lisa caused her hands to glow before shining a super bright light directly into Tommy's eyes. Tommy let out a blood-curdling scream as Lisa got free. "Tommy! I'm sorry!" She said as she tried to help him, only to see his eyeballs were gone.
"What did you do to me, Lisa?" He asked in an eery calm voice. Making Lisa recoil. "You're a freak, your brother will hate you, no one will love you, your powers are a gift and you hurt everyone you love with what you've done." He continued, causing Lisa to crouch in a fetal position and place her hands over her head. "I didn't mean to." She said while sobbing as the world around her turned black while she rocked heavily, wishing it all would stop.
Lyte's eyes shot open as she gasped and breathed heavily, she noticed her body reeked of sweat and she had thrashed out of her clothes in her sleep. "Just another bad dream..." She told herself as she grabbed a couple of THC-infused edible gummies and an energy drink from her mini fridge. Waiting to process the world around her as her pupils dilated.
She looked around at her room from the house Darkness bought in New York City. Unlike her room at the warehouse in Long Island, this one was much bigger. It had a bunch of posters of various bands she liked, a plethora of video games and consoles scattered on her entertainment center, and a bigger disco ball a with built-in lightbulb attached to the ceiling.
"Back home? Dang that party drained me more than I thought! Oh well, shower time!" She said as she swallowed down her negative thoughts and went to the bathroom. As she cleaned herself off, she began singing to herself and making funny little DJ scratching sounds, not noticing the rainbow color of her Aura flowing off of her. When she was nice and clean, she struck a pose and flashed the peace sign in the mirror. "Highlyte of my day baby!" She said with a wink before getting dressed.
When she went downstairs, she noticed Darkness was sitting at the living room chair while eating a taco and sipping a bottle of beer. Lyte noticed it was a little bit past noon, she had slept past breakfast. "Little early to start your drinking eh bro?" She asked. Darkness just looked at her. "My boss' Daughter made tacos, and you KNOW I love beer with tacos." He said as he smiled at her.
Lyte rolled her eyes and sat down while grabbing a few from the tray she noticed on the table. "Why DO you like tacos? Ever since you got out of the military you eat them a lot more." She asked while munching one. Darkness swallowed the bite he took and took another sip of beer as he looked at his beer bottle. "Back in the day... used to have Taco Tuesday with my buddies... Fuckin Truck and Golem, they used to compete in eating contests with each other... I guess to answer your question, I miss my friends." He said with a sad smile.
Lisa reached over and tried to tickle him gently, causing him to raise a brow. "What on earth are you doing Lisa?"he asked as Lyte looked up at him. "When I was Little, you used to do this to me when I was feeling down, and eventually I'd forget why I was sad!" She said with a wide grin. Darkness just patted the top of her head and hugged her close.
"That doesn't work for me Lisa, I'm not ticklish in the slightest, but thanks for trying, I'll always have this sadness." He told her, causing Lyte to frown. "Nuh-uh! No one can be sad all the time, ya just gotta find something that gets ya happy!" She told him. Darkness pinched the bridge of his nose and grunted. "Lisa.. just like how not everyone can be sad all the time, not everyone can be HAPPY all the time either! The heck did you get a silly idea like that?" He asked.
Lyte just scratched her left arm. "If I'm not happy... I'm alone with my anxiety.... I hate that." She said weakly. Darkness just nodded. "If you want to drop it for now, we can talk about it later... I'm sorry Lisa." He said as he flipped to the news, which was covering Albert Farley's murder. Lyte frowned and shook her head. "How AWFUL! why would someone do such a thing?!" She demanded.
Darkness flinched and cleared his throat. "I mean he was a pedophile who raped and murdered children, someone had their reasons..." He answered. at the mention of rape, Lisa began to tremble and hold herself as her make-up smeared down her eyes. When she felt the tears flowing, she quickly looked away from Darkness so he couldn't see her. "Thanks for lunch Derek, I got some music stuff I need to do, Jam with me later okay?" She said as she grabbed some tacos and a soda before heading back upstairs to her room.
"LYTE WAIT!" He called as he reached out, but it was clear she needed space. He wasn't sure what she wasn't telling him, but it was clear that she needed time to herself, and pushing the issue would only push her away further. "I hope I can one day get you to trust me as much as I do little sister." He said sadly.
Lyte was leaning against her door as she tried to take her mind off her memories. "He didn't know, he CAN'T know!" She said as she looked at her powers. "Never again, I can only use them for GOOD!" She promised herself while looking at her soundboard. "Time for DJ LYTE to STRYKE back baby!" She said as she put on her white kitty cat ear headphones and got to work on her music.
I love how this starts with Lisa aka Lyte in her high school years and the traumatizing event that led up to shape who she is now. I knew right away when he entered that he had ill intentions.
ReplyDeleteThis is a terrifying thing to happen to anyone and you can feel the fear in Lisa as Tommy attempts to rape her. I am glad that she uses her light powers to blind him before he can do anything, though.
It's also sadly very true for abusers to gaslight their victims. Tommy is making it out to have her believe she was in the wrong when he initiated it. He tells her that her brothers and others will hate her, and I can assure her that is not the truth. I can understand why Lisa would believe his bullshit and feel guilt when she was not in the wrong here.
This event has triggered her, and she continues to have nightmares about it. I love how we get a glimpse of her bedroom to see what kind of person she is. She loves video games and music and always wants to be happy. It seems like Lyte just sweeps these issues under the rug (I notice both Darkness and Lyte have rug-sweeping tendencies but handle them differently) and puts on a smile.
Ah, Darkness and his love for tacos. Ah, so this is why he loves tacos. It helps him remember his friends. Darkness strikes me as someone who currently lives in the past and hasn't made peace with his past to move on. That may come as he grows.
I love how she tries to tickle Darkness to no avail. She should have done that to Tristan to get more of an effect. *wink, wink*
While she is right that no one should be sad all the time, Darkness is right that no one should be happy all the time. Lyte strikes me as seeing things in black and white. This is not a criticism of your writing but some people DO see it that way. She deals with her traumatizing event by forcing herself to be happy and it doesn't work.
When the mention of rape is said, she shuts down and doesn't want to talk to Darkness about it. As I said, they're alike but deal with their issues differently. No, Darkness can't force her to discuss what upset her but maybe she doesn't need space now. It's interesting to see how they both deal with their issues.
I enjoyed reading this and this is the case for many sexual assault survivors. Lyte was not in the wrong. I hope to see more chapters like these that shed light on other characters and what shaped them into who they were.
There will be plenty of chapters focused around character development later, I'm wanting to cover backstories before I move onto ALL of the action Lyte's Dream and Gaslighting is a bit different from what actually happened, but as far as her mind is concerned, she feels she's a monster for defending herself.
ReplyDeleteI love how you're spreading out more and shifting your focus to other character's POVs this time! I love how we get a Lyte chapter that dives into her backstory and mindset! This was a heavy chapter, but I felt you handled it well. I feel a topic like this should be treated seriously and carefully as you have here. Not everyone can handle this topic with grace, unlike some people me and Arthur know who made it into a joke.
ReplyDeleteI love how this starts with Lisa back in her highschool days and scene-girl phase. God, this takes me back to that 2000s era when I was in highschool. Ugh, Tommy immediatly gave me the ick and his intentions were clear from the start. He's quick to jump right to the chase, or Lyte's memory is as she replays this traumatising event. That Tommy is afraid of being caught rather than how he is violating Lyte says a lot about this psycho. You did an excellent job describing the scene and her emotions here, and gave enough details to convey what was going on here without giving too many details that aren't needed for a topic like this.
I get the sense that this went further than what she replays here, but she can't bring herself to replay those details because they're too traumatising. Her mind has blanked it out. Her reaction was so extreme to burn his eyes out and shut down at the mere mention of that word later in the chapter. This is realistic of SA-victims and that he gaslights her is all too real and like an allegory for 'reactive abuse'. I love how she burns his eyes out lol. It's so perfectly fitting because now he can't see what he lusts for anymore. I wonder what happened to her after that and dealing with him and his family after she burned his eyes out.
It seems that Lyte's vice to cope with her trauma is THC, whereas Darkness' is alcohol. Both of them really aren't so different after all. I love how personalised her bedroom is and how it tells us a lot about her. I love how something as simple as Darkness' love of tacos has a deeper meaning behind it. It seems he associates tacos with his lost friends and this is his way of honoring and remembering them. It seems he is living in the past and hasn't made peace with it yet. Whereas Lyte is the opposite and wants to forget and get away from her past.
Ah, so Lyte is a tickler ey lol? Interesting. Well, Ashley would have loved that and agreed with her lol. She reminds me of them in some ways with her tendency towards toxic positivity mindsets and being the naive younger sibling... with some buried traumas from their pasts. I'm loving this so far and look forward to seeing you explore her more! I love the dynamic with her and Darkness and how they're both dealing with their traumas in opposite extremes. Hopefully they can help balance each other out!
I love how we get call-backs to earlier events and the news about Albert Farley hits and Lyte's first thought is that it's bad that someone murdered this man without knowing the big picture picture and context here. I love how you showed the downsides of her black and white positive mindset and naivity here. As soon as Darkness mentioned he was a rapist, she shut down and everything went blank around her, which is very telling. It seems she runs away from her problems and feelings as she doesn't want him to see her tears and is in a hurry to leave. I also think she feels guilt and shame that she thinks he'd think badly of HER for what happened, too.
This was a very interesting and enlightening read and explains a lot. Excellent job! This story is off to a really strong start and I look forward to seeing where things develop next!
Thank you so much for your insight! I was really afraid of handling this subject matter once upon a time, and putting it off for so long made my OCs feel like they were slipping away from me! So I'm planning on rehauling how a lot of things unfold... unfortunately this means I'm going to have to do things that hurt our favorite DJ... stay tuned.
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