The glowing, translucent man in the nice suit was kind enough to wait until I healed up from my latest disaster. He sat on the dusty bench in the hallway throughout the entire night, politely refusing any food and drink from Hyperion the entire time. I could hear him from the spare room where I was laid up. “Didn't want to impose on us”, he said every time. Hype wouldn't take no for an answer, though; after six hours, our guest relented and accepted a glass of water and a couple games of cards.

Their gabbing kept me up throughout the night. They were both so incredibly... courteous to one another, with their impeccable conversation manners and quickness to apologize at even the tiniest perceived slight. I wanted to throw up.

It was nearly lunchtime the next day when I finally felt like I wasn't going to shatter into a hundred pieces if I took another step, so I finally climbed out of bed.

First order of business--change into a set of more acceptable clothes and fix a cup of hot chocolate.

I slipped into a nice, neutral-looking tunic and loose pair of pants and headed off to the kitchen. Hype was already flitting about the place, throwing random ingredients into a mixing bowl and igniting the stove.

“Morning,” I muttered.

Hype set her whisk down, reaching for a small bottle of milk. “Oh, good morning Madison! Are you feeling any better?”

“Are we talking about physically, or emotionally,” I said with a shrug. “Because that's the fifth catastrophic failure in the past three weeks.”

“Aww, it'll be okay, Madison.” The briarbane paused her work long enough to take one of my hands. “You'll bounce back!”

“Yeah, sure,” I grumbled as I pried myself from Hype's grasp and wiped off a smear of pancake batter on the side of my pants.

As I gathered stuff for cocoa and put a saucepan on I got to thinking about everything that had happened since I left the Crimson Hand all those months ago. Finding our little hideout in the far reaches of Concordia, losing my soul to the nekojin, and then one after another all these schemes I dreamed up would come crashing down around me. Why now? Why was I being stricken with one failure after another now?

Maybe I needed a break from the lab. Find myself again.

I've done it many times before, what's one more journey of self-discovery and reinvention?