Dear Diary,
I think we're cooked
-M
Phoenix: They say the Earth is burning. That we're at a dangerous level with no going back. It's been burning. A slow white hot burn. Some of us have known with an illusion of being prepared. But there is no way to prepare for the Phoenix!
Phoenix: I am flesh turned fire, here to rain flames that will wipe away all that stands in my way, and make those in power pay. Together we'll rise out of the ashes into a world made anew.
Miss M: Ya know, I am really loving this whole monologue, it's going so well with the photo session, but with your interview debuting in November, I was thinking the readers might like to know what everyone will be having for Thanksgiving dinner at the X-Mansion?
Phoenix: Oh. Ok.
Wayne Manor. Now.
Bruce: M? I've got great news. Dazzler just called. She confirmed she will be performing at our wedding. So as the kids say, prepare to be dazzled.
Bruce: That's what the kids say right? I thought you'd look a little happier with this news. Everything ok?
Miss M: Eh. I don't know. It feels a little weird to be getting excited for the wedding next month. With everything going on.
Bruce: You mean Lex Luthor winning the election?
Miss M: I mean yeah. Bruce. Like, we're in trouble. This country. The world. Things are not going to go well for the next four years and probably beyond that. He's more emboldened this time. This campaign to deport immigrants, I mean people's lives are going to be altered.
Bruce: I know. And he's using Superman as the face of this plan, turning people against him and so many others in the process.
Miss M: A lot of people are going to get hurt.
Miss M: And I think about our daughter. The world she'll be left with. Women like me. Women period. So many vulnerable communities. Bruce, he's manufacturing fear about people. Creating enemies out of each other. I can't help but feel like we'll be on the list.
Bruce: We won't be on any list. Let Lex and his cabinet of crooks come after us. It won't end well.
Miss M: This is you speaking through your billionaire privilege. But none of that will matter. You aren't bending at the knee with the other rich guys, so he will come after us. And no amount of money, tech gadgets, or Batmobiles are going to make this go away.
Bruce: We'll leave the country then. I'll put us on another damn planet if I have to.
Miss M: Babe. Evil like this is going to follow wherever they can corrupt and destroy.
Bruce: So what? You're just giving up?
Miss M: No. I would never do that. I'm going to stay here. And fight. I don't know exactly what that will look like in the coming years just yet. I guess I'm just sad. Sad that so many people chose this mad man to run the country. That they somehow saw hope and progress through his cruelty and division, and that the alternative was just not worthy enough for them. That somehow a Black woman would be so disastrous. The things people would say about her, and how it was ok and welcomed. It's disgusting Bruce. I see people, when I drop Yvie off at school or I grab some stuff at the store, there is a look in some people's eyes. They are utterly delighted, that they feel vindicated, but under that delight is still this anger and hatred. I don't understand it. They won. They should be at peace now right?
Bruce: You know as well as I do what hatred and bitterness can do to your soul. Their guy may be in office, but they didn't win anything. Lex Luthor is only going to do what will serve Lex and his investors. Everyone else is just a pawn.
Miss M: I want to be thrilled that Dazzler is performing at our wedding. And I know I will. I'm just really sad. And scared.
Bruce: I know. I am too. But, I promise you, I am going to fight for us.
Bruce: There may be dark days ahead, but we will fight for our family and for others too. I want Yvie to be proud of us, and to know what we stood for.
Miss M: I do too. I love you so much.
Bruce: I love you too. Should we postpone the wedding?
Miss M: No. I mean. It's like this monologue that I heard the Phoenix say when I interviewed her earlier this month, like basically the world is burning and I plan on kissing you and vowing our love in front of the flames.
Bruce: Well alright then.
Miss M: Oh, I forgot to tell you. April is coming by to talk. I thought we were going to meet at the office, but said she was in the area and that she'd stop by.
Bruce: Ok. Are you worried?
Miss M: I'm always worried.
Bruce: It's going to be ok.
Miss M: I hope so. So you're being serious? Dazzler is really going to perform?
Bruce: Yes. And I see that lil crack of a smile. We're going to have a memorable wedding day. It'll be ok for us to just bask in our joy for a short time. After everything we've been through, I think we deserve that.
Miss M: You're right.
Bruce: I know I am.
Miss M: Bruuuuuuuuce!
Phoenix: They groaned in disgust, who burnt the mac-n-cheese? It was I, the Phoenix that burned your beloved mac-n-cheese. Why should any of you enjoy the creamy goodness enveloping noodles with a broiled top hardening the outside? Your outsides.
Phoenix: Feel my wrath!
Miss M: This is such an interactive retelling of the X-Men '97 Thanksgiving!
April: M? Anyone here? This is just too much mansion for them.
April: Unbelievable. And she would ruin a classic design with pink flooring.
Miss M: Hi April. I'm in the dining room.
April: Right. What is this?
Miss M: I thought maybe you'd like some cake and tea.
April: (takes a sip) It's burned.
April: That tea has obviously been sitting in a pot for too long. I trust the chocolate cake is 99% cacao?
Miss M: If the tea is too burned for your tastes April I can make you more. The chocolate I trust is actually 100% cacao, from the Chocolate Falls in Candy Land.
April: I wouldn't really know. I prefer my chocolate to be imported. From Belgium.
Miss M: April. Are you ok?
April: I've never been better. I assume you already know.
Miss M: That you're leaving Diary of a Dorkette at the end of the year? Yes. Why didn't you tell me?
April: Because. I don't think you'll quite like the answer.
Miss M: Try me. We've worked together on so many articles for 13 years. We're not just colleagues but best friends. Since grade school. I'm just not understanding.
April: I think I've grown to resent you. My dear dear friend.
Miss M: Me? What did I do?
April: I mean come on. You sit around thinking you have all this creativity, all these ideas to bring in new readers, to grow our numbers. But your writing is nothing but a hack. Ya know I read over that piece you got submitted into the first issue of Taco Bell Quarterly. The essay that was sponsored by Diary of a Dorkette? It was riddled with typos. Typos! In TBQ!? Do you have any idea how tacky that makes you look? And basically me? I'm just tired of this. I am over your attempts at trying to say something with your written word. Look at you. Living this life. Writing is not it. But maybe now you can aim for being a Real Housewife or something?
Miss M: April! I don't understand. This all sounds so cruel.
Miss M: Yeah, maybe my writing is not that great. And you have been at this a long time so I get why you'd be over it, but to sound like this... To be that mean. What is really going on?
April: My father is dying. And knowing this, I couldn't help but get caught up in the fact that you knew he was alive and you kept it from me.
Miss M: But April, we went over this years ago. I thought we were ok. That you understood why I had kept this from you. He didn't want me to tell you for fear he'd let you down for being away all those years. It was the hardest position for me to be in. I thought...
April: You thought what? That there could ever be any excuse to keep that from me?! I grew up grieving his loss, grieving what my life could have looked like had my dad been there and not in Dimension X! And now that he is really dying, I'm not over what you knew and kept from me. I'm not over any of it. I'm mad as hell.
Miss M: April...
April: So screw your writing for the blog. I'm done working with you.
Miss M: Done with me as your friend too?
April: (fights back tears) Now you know everything. Why I'm leaving. All of it.
Miss M: April, wait. You can't just leave! I didn't know your dad was not well. April! Don't leave! There is so much going on, we need each other! I want to be there for you.
April: I don't need you. And I don't want you in my life. No more.
Miss M: No. April. You don't mean that.
Miss M: This can't be. How did this happen? Oh my god, what have I done?
Bruce: M? Everything ok? I heard a lot of shouting. Where's April?
Miss M: Oh Bruce. Bruce. It's terrible.
Miss M: I've messed up everything. This is my fault. April hates me. And she has every right to. I just lost my best friend.
Phoenix: We were a family once. Something that should be given thanks for. Sometimes the flames burn too bright though and we lose sight of what is important. We lose each other.
Phoenix: And there, among the ashes, we struggle, trying to find reflections of who we once were. To find that connection. A yearning for safer times. But there's chaos in those flames. And only one thing remains, the power of the Phoenix!
Up next: Wedding bells ring in December, but will there be a happily ever after?
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