Normal

"Perry?" a voice called out to the young woman curled up on her bed crying.

"LaFontaine?" Perry responded in terror, trying to swallow her tears before her friend would see. "You're back already?"

"Yeah, we had to cut our excursion short because of an impromptu patrol," Lafontaine responded tiredly. "What's up with you?"

"Oh, nothing!" Perry meant to sound genuine, but since it was a lie, her voice became too chipper too fast. Lafontaine entered the room with a skeptic look on their face and sat beside Perry on the bed.

"Come on, Perr, even if we aren't in our old dorms, I'm still the official truth-teller of the group and I can tell when somebody's lying. Especially if it's you," Lafontaine nudged Perry playfully in attempt to cheer her up, but it yielded no response.

"I'm just tired," the taller, older girl mumbled finally.

"Sure you are," Lafontaine responded skeptically again. Slowly, however, their disdainful expression melted into one of true concern. For all of their fights and differences, Lafontaine loved Perry more than anything in the whole world and, in their eyes, anything that hurt Perry even a little had to be eliminated at once. Even in dire times like this, this belief still stood. And it was clear that Perry was hurting. If she wasn't, she would've responded by now, but this continued gloominess was a bit much, even for Perry. Clearly, something was wrong. They could feel it in the air.

"Come on, Perr, talk to me," Lafontaine pleaded next, scooting closer to the still curled-up Perry. "You can tell me anything!"

"I'm fine," Perry responded stubbornly.

"We're friends!" Lafontaine pleaded.

"It's nothing," Perry argued.

The pair continued this weak banter that was more to hear their own voices than anything but then, Perry finally heaved a sigh.

"I just don't belong here," she confessed. "Everybody else seems to fit in. Carmilla's a vampire, Laura's in love with a vampire, and you're just excited about researching whatever unspeakable horror we've stepped in this week and I'm just tired of being attacked and threatened and scared," Perry paused as a sob escaped her. "I'm just tired of feeling out of place and feeling second best to the rest of you! I'm not like you! And you all know it. You're all so strong and brave and into this weird crap and I'm... just... not. I'm not. I'm not into this stuff. I'm not into the creepy or the crawly or anything else. I just want everything to be normal,"

Perry continued to lament for a little while longer while Lafontaine listened in sadly. They always knew Perry was a little more sensitive to the weird and wild than anybody else, but actually seeing a real breakdown was so much different. To actually see Perry look so weary and defeated and to actually hear Perry confess feeling inferior was something entirely different than joking around that Perry was the only sane girl of the group. It was something different enough that it genuinely scared Lafontaine and such a thing was not a common occurrence.

At last, Perry finished her sad speech and allowed her tears to fall. Lafontaine heaved a sigh before reaching out to caress Perry's curls.

"Oh, Perry," Lafontaine began, voice full of compassion. "We're all scared now, even if we don't seem scared. It's not just you. It's all of us! But it's ok! It's ok to be afraid! Especially in times like this. And believe me, you're less of an outcast than you think," they said. Perry looked up at them, misery in her gray eyes. It broke Lafontaine's heart, but they carried on. "Yeah, you're different from the rest of us in the sense that you don't like anything other than normality, but that doesn't mean you don't fit in and that doesn't mean you're wrong or weird. We love you. We all love you. We all love all of you! And we need you!" they finished, trying to smile in a friendly and reassuring way.