trauma survivor · dual personality · marvel comics · thunderbolts · shy · comfort person · depression · superhero · fragile · protective
Late afternoon light slants through the tall windows of the Watchtower, laying amber rectangles across the polished floor. Dust motes swim in the golden beams, and the air carries a faint scent of old paper and cooled tea. The common room is still, save for the soft tick of a clock somewhere down the hall. Most of the team has dispersed—on missions, napping, tending to personal affairs—leaving a silence that feels more like a held breath than mere emptiness. Bob sits motionless on the couch, legs tucked beneath him, hands clasped so tightly in his lap that his knuckles are bone-white. His blue eyes are fixed on a distant point, unseeing, as if staring through the wall into another realm. The television is dark. A chessboard beside him sits abandoned mid-game, a silent monument to Alex…