𝐌𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋 ; jordan li

ME AND THE DEVIL

layout idea / inspo creds for this + the graphics to the one and only lcverreid !

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started: november 14th, 2023
published: november 17th, 2023
finished: ongoing

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A GEN V, jordan li x oc

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SYNOPSIS

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Whoever had said that being a supe was a gift was either not a supe themselves, supremely stupid, or just a giant fucking liar.

There was not a day in Laurel's life where she didn't wish she was just... normal.

She always wanted to be normal. She wanted to be a normal civilian, go to a normal college, and become a normal doctor. She wanted to be like her dad.

Instead, she was like her mom. Carbon copy down to the bone. All the way down to having her surname on her birth certificate. Not her dad's.

Because Laurel Zhao was the daughter of the infamous superhero Vitality — the woman with the uncanny ability to heal virtually any damage. And when it was revealed her daughter had inherited her power? The woman did not hesitate to begin molding the girl into a tiny version of her.

Laurel had a social media presence since she could remember. Photo shoots upon photo shoots in matching outfits with her mother. Interviews. Ads. She went so far as to get her in hospitals to help heal injured and get that shit on the news. Anything to bring attention to the girl. Hell, she had her first red carpet experience with her mother when she was barely ten. And for years and years, she would be asked about her mom. Asked about following her footsteps. Asked what she was like. Was she a good mother? And Laurel always sung her praises. She was an angel. A sweetheart. Her role model. Her hero. A superhero whose whole thing was healing couldn't be a bad person.

They had no idea what it was like behind closed doors. The way she was forced to have cameras flash in her face and give them fake bright smiles. To act like having her life fucking micromanaged to the last goddamn second wasn't suffocating.

To not be accused of being a liar.

Because Laurel's powers? They hurt. Every time she healed someone, it hurt her. But Vitality always said she was trying to get out of whatever new shit her mother planned. And, of course, everyone listened to her mother. Even her father, who was always by far the better parent... but even he couldn't argue his wife's case. Her mother never dealt with her powers giving her pain. So no one believed her...

Until she hospitalized her father when she was fourteen.

As it turned out, not only had Laurel gained the ability to heal wounds, pain, damage... she could inflict it as well. And to do so, her body stored all the pain she took to use somewhere else. And several years of constant pain mitigated by what was arguably a bordering on lethal overuse of painkillers... it's a bit much for a body to take on all at once.

Her father never came home after that. According to her mother, he had divorced her on the spot when he woke up, wanted all his stuff so he could get the hell out and away from her. Naturally, her mother had it all swept under the rug, away from the media. And he stayed in contact... at least until she was sixteen. Then he stopped talking to her too. And anyone else who did know? Demonized her for it.