Phenomena [OPEN!]

[CaptainInsaneway]

And I

Am the arrow,

The dew that flies,

Suicidal, at one with the drive

Into the red

Eye, the cauldron of morning.

 

BACKDROP

 

Phenomenon is a polite synonym for abomination; sometimes the world surprises you with things that seem wrong somehow, things that seem out of place, things that aren't meant to be. Things like ghost towns, strange auroras, rippling cries from deep beneath the ocean. There are places that make you feel deeply uncomfortable, as though you aren't supposed to be there. Towns and landmarks that vanish into nothingness seemingly overnight. Creaking churches in the middle of forests, abandoned mineshafts. Places that make you feel unwanted.

 

Ambrosia is exactly that kind of place, a piecemeal town clinging to thickly forested mountainside overlooking the ocean. There's nothing for miles around but dense woodland and the interminable stretch of grey sea. It's pretty enough, if you can ignore the gut-twisting instinctual desire to leave as soon as you arrive. The locals are friendly. There's a good university, housed in a beautiful building that was once a convent. Hell, there's even a quaint, old-timey diner with old-fashioned waitresses who still call their patrons things like “sugar”. Seems pretty standard small-town-America with the exception of the strange chills that consume any traveler within fifty miles of the place and all the crudely painted signs telling you to stay out of the Wood.

 

PLOT

 

Starting university can be pretty life-changing. Starting university with a secret is even harder. You've been studying at Ambrosia University for a year now, and ready to start your second year. It took a while, but you got used to the atmosphere. Regular stops at the Black Bear Diner for various high sugar breakfast foods sure helped make you feel a little more... "welcome" when you first moved to town. However, this year, you've been assigned a new dorm. Who knows who you're gonna have to live with? The idea of sharing your living space with some weird local is kinda off-putting, but them's the breaks. However, that's not really what's on your mind right now. Waking up with a superpower isn't exactly the greatest start to the new school year, especially when you don't know what to do with it. Ambrosia has always been a pretty strange place, but it looks like things are getting stranger. Second morning in your new dorm room, you found a hastily scrawled message had been slipped under your door;

Come down to the beach at sunset after class, I know it happened to you too.

You spend a few moments rereading the note before pocketing it. As hesitant as you are to wander down to the beach to meet a stranger, the desire for answers overpowers any kind of survival instinct. In class that day, you find yourself looking at the clock and periodically glancing out at the sky; the sooner you get the beach and find out exactly what the mysterious notewriter means by "it", the better.

 

You play as a second year student at modern day Ambrosia University, living in the on-campus dorms. One morning, you wake up feeling sick and dizzy and decide to go for a walk to get some fresh air and hopefully get yourself together a little before your first class. However, you find that somehow, your being has changed; your genetic make-up has shifted. There's a strange, coursing power in your veins that makes you feel as though you're lit all through with cold fire. Completely by accident, you discover you possess a strange power. Frightened, you return to your dorm and stay indoors for the rest of the day, researching and trying to find information online, half-praying that you imagined the whole thing in your feverish state. You wake up the next morning to find the note and immediately realize you're not the only one to have had a sleepless night.

Something strange is going on in Ambrosia, and perhaps your new powers are the key to finding out exactly what that something is.

 

CHARACTER

 

- You start as somebody who skipped class on the day you discovered your powers.

 

- I do require relatively well-fleshed out characters, and as a result, I like character sheets with longer, more thought-out answers. Try to avoid single sentence answers or descriptors in your character sheets.

 

- In the case of powers, please be reasonable; nothing too OP. For example, one of my characters has the ability to manipulate time, but cannot travel back any further than an hour. Keep your powers as reasonable as possible. If you send me your character sheet, I can help you tweak any OP powers to make them more game appropriate so don't worry too much. BE AWARE POWERS GET STRONGER AS THE PLOT PROGRESSES.

 

- Please use the character sheet provided and PM all applications, do not post them in the RP thread.

 

Name:

Gender:

Age:

Major:

Appearance:

Personality:

Power:

Backstory:

 

RULES

 

- No more than two characters per player, at least to start off.

- Do not powerplay. I know this is a general rule anyway, but I always find I need to remind people of it. State your action and await a response, don't presume that a character will react a certain way.

- I don't care for drama. If you have issues, PM me and we'll work it out like adults. I'd rather not have arguments going on in brackets above every post.

- All OOC discussion should be limited and posted in brackets ((like this)).

- This RP uses a paragraph based format.

- Each reply must be at least three lines long.

- If you are at a stalemate or have an idea for progression, contact me and we can discuss adding it to the plotline. I am very active and will respond promptly to all contact.

- Message me if you are unsure about anything! I am very willing to help and won't look down on you for being confused or feeling left out or whatever. I'm here to assist you, not to enforce rules and make you cry into your porridge.

- Have fun!

 

EDITED TO ADD

I drew some inspiration from a few sources for this, notably The Returned, Life Is Strange and Misfits. I figured that I should give a proper nod to the sources that provided me with my ideas for this storyline.

Edited September 28, 2015 by CaptainInsaneway

[CaptainInsaneway]

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

 

CaptainInsaneway's characters

 

SHRIKE

Name: Shrike (Her full name is actually Damnhait (pronounced like “dev-nawt”) Shrike but she prefers to be addressed by her surname only.)

Gender: Female

Age: 19

Major: History of Art

Appearance: The most immediately noticeable characteristic about Shrike is her perpetually disinterested expression and her half-shaved eyebrows, which always make her look an odd combination of mischievous and irritated regardless of her expression. Shrike has pale skin that freckles in the sun and green eyes, though her naturally dark hair is regularly dyed (courtesy of her across-the-hall dorm-mate Faith) a silvery lavender colour that clashes with her dark eyebrows and lashes. She keeps her hair cut short, though it's always messy. She has a defined jaw and her straight nose is accented with a small septum piercing. Shrike also has a few small scars dotted about the left side of her face, almost in a circle around her eye, with the largest running vertically through her left eyebrow. Tall and slender, both physically and facially androgynous, Shrike's gender is difficult to ascertain and as a result of this, she experienced a lot of bullying over her gender presentation and sexuality in her younger years. Her figure is very straight up and down, boyish and skinny, though it's usually swamped with too-big clothes in various shades of grey and black. She walks with a lazy confidence, standing taller than most boys, and generally doesn't do well at blending in no matter how much she tries to keep her head down and get on with it.

Personality: Shrike is one of those people; no matter what is happening around her, she will look bored. Even her voice sounds unenthusiastic, regardless of how interested she actually is, which can lead people to assume she's stand-offish and doesn't want to be there. Shrike treats everything like a joke; self-assured and completely unable to take anything seriously, she mostly does what she wants with little respect for social boundaries or authority figures. Any consequences arising as a result of her "devil-may-care" attitude she generally writes off as everybody else being too uptight. Anything Shrike doesn't want to do, including conversations she doesn't want to have, will become a real chore for any other involved parties. However, if you manage to persevere through the ridiculous level of bravado and general lack of interest in anybody but herself to actually make friends with Shrike, you will have a loyal friend for life.

Power: Like the other students in her dorm at Ambrose University, Shrike developed a strange power without explanation. Shrike's power manifested as control over water, which she discovers after walking on water by accident when trying to wade into the sea. At the start of our story, she is able to bring on light rainfall and control small amounts of water, as well as walk on water for a limited time. As her power grows stronger, she discovers she has a more complex and powerful control over water, discovering that she can influence larger bodies of water, bring on more powerful and aggressive storms and even have an effect on the water in the human body. However, her power comes with dangerous side-effects; overuse of her power will exhaust her, leading to nosebleeds, blackouts, and potentially death. A second, alarming result of overuse that only occurs if she were to proceed with use of her power despite the other side-effects, is that the water molecules in her body will double and unable to withstand the increased cellular turgidity and internal water content, she will literally explode.

Backstory: Shrike moved to Ambrose at the age of seventeen where she was homeschooled by her extremely religious mother. Prior to life in Ambrose, she was bullied severely at school for her sexuality and appearance, to the extent where somebody glassed her in the face with a broken bottle. Her family finally moved after homophobic insults were spray-painted on the family car and house, leading to her father committing suicide out of shame. Shrike did not go to her dad's funeral and has never really expressed any emotion either way. Since moving to Ambrose, Shrike has not bothered to make any friends or even show face around town, preferring to lurk in the woods and at the beach.

 

FAITH

Name: Faith Chimezie

Gender: Female

Age: 22

Major: English Lit

Appearance: Due to ongoing issues with an eating disorder, Faith is very, very thin. Always cold, she likes to hide herself under baggy clothes and can generally be found wearing skinny jeans, the biggest hoodie humanly possible, and her favourite grey knitted Ugg boots, even though Shrike laughs at her for wearing them. Faith is dark-skinned with freckles and beautifully curly caramel coloured hair that she wears in a ponytail with straight bangs. She has a naturally pretty face, though being sick has turned her gaunt and tired looking, her hazel eyes always reddened from crying. She has a heart-shaped face and a snub nose. Faith loves dying her own (and other people's) hair and experimenting with new styles. Faith is short and very delicately built, with fine, artistic hands and an easy smile in spite of her often downcast demeanour.

Personality: Faith has a delicate soul; she loves quiet, and can often be found simply enjoying nature or sketching flowers and birds in the various green spots around Ambrosia. However, although she's small and gentle, she has a remarkably quick temper and is incredibly stubborn; it's very difficult to make Faith do anything she doesn't want to. Secretive and guarded, Faith makes friends easily though often winds up being more of a listener than anything else, even those who have known her for years know very little about what goes on in her head. She says herself, if you get somebody talking about their own problems, they'll forget to ask about yours, and that's just the way she likes it. Faith is a clever girl, though easily distracted, and generally does well in her studies. Her presence at Ambrosia is pretty unremarkable; nobody even noticed she'd left the first time she attended university, and now that she's returned she expects the same will happen again. As much as she'd like to make friends, she's quite shy and has a bad habit of waiting for people to approach her rather than doing the same to them.

Power: Faith discovered her power in unusual circumstances; she attempted suicide. After throwing herself off the cliffs overlooking Ambrose and the sea, she accidentally rewound time and found herself standing on top of the cliffs once again moments before she hit the water. Intrigued, she paused in her attempts to end her own life, believing the appearance of her time power to be a sign from God. Initially, she can only rewind time by about an hour, but as the story progresses, she develops the ability to move forward through time for brief flashes, rewind time further, and even take people back or forward in time with her.

Backstory: Born and bred in Ambrose, Faith had a pretty standard upbringing in a wealthy family, getting along well with her parents and siblings. She was raised a practising Catholic. However, after developing depression and an eating disorder, Faith's life grew gradually more dysfunctional, peppered with suicide attempts and inpatient stays at the hospital, eventually resulting in her failing out of her second year at university. During her convalescence, she grew closer to God and has found great comfort in religion during her recovery. This time around at Ambrose, she's trying again, hoping to make up for lost time. With close support from her family and the university, she feels like she has a fighting chance to actually pass this year, especially now she can rewind time to suit her needs. However, at the start of our story, Faith has recently attempted suicide as a result of an emotional breakdown which has left her anxious about her mental health as both she and her family had hoped the combinations of medication and therapy had eliminated much of the intrusive thoughts leading her down that road. With the notion of sickness creeping back up on her again and a strange new power, Faith is panicking.

 

sailing101's characters

 

SIMON

Name: Simon Knapp

Gender: male

Age: 19

Major: Engineering tech

Appearance: Simon stands at 6' 5" and is a bit on the heavy side. His eyes are a subdued blue green. Simon has medium length brown curly hair that he never combs. In humid weather, his hair soaks up moisture and fluffs up. His standard outfit consists of various colored sweatshirts, under a hooded sweatshirt jacket, with a jacket vest on top, complemented by blue jeans and sneakers.

Personality: at first glance, the term 'detached' would best seem to describe Simon. He does not appear pay much attention to anything around him, often leaving his classmates to wonder exactly how he keeps his grades up. He is not one for idle conversation, most people would be lucky to get much more than a "eyup," or a "nope" from him. However, those who get to know him will start to pick up on a few things. While he seems to be mostly oblivious to his soundings, in truth, he is hyperaware of everything around him. Simon was Diagnosed with ADHD and borderline Asperger's, which is why he comes off as being detached. However, if one were to give him a goal to complete, Simon will focus all his attention to completing it. This creates a marked change in behavior, as he becomes more energized and focused on the task at hand. (and perhaps Al little manic) Simon is an avid gamer, and his task-minded state can be seen most often when he is deep into a game.

Power: Simon has the ability to "Blink" What this means is he is capable of medium range teleportation under one condition; he must be completely out of sight. As long as nothing is looking at him, or his destination, he can teleport to anywhere within a 25 meter radius of his current location. Momentum is not preserved when blinking, meaning that he comes out of a blink completely stationary, or at least until gravity resumes. He can take things with him during a blink (thank goodness for his clothes), with one medium sized Person being the rough maximum. His blinks will not cause damage to anything, so he can't blink a leg off a table (or a person). Everything will arrive at it's destination in the same condition it left. The biggest hard counter to his blinking ability is a video camera, because cameras don't blink. Blinking in rapid succession can also leave Simon physically and mentally exhausted, but with practice, he should be able to increase his stamina. He does not dare try to blink when he's tired, just in case.

Backstory: Simon's life can be summarized as, uneventful, but fulfilling. He came from a standard American home, with a standard American family, and lived a standard American life. However when given a choice between a Standard American university, or breaking the monotony, he chose to do something different. He chose the intriguing. He chose, Ambrosia! While other people may have been put off by the odd aura of the town, Simon found something invigorating about it. The prospect of a mystery intrigued him, and so he enrolled in Ambrosia university, and was accepted.

 

Gildraug's characters

 

EMIL

 

Name: Emil Viitala [EE-miil VEE-tala]

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Major: Psychology

Appearance: Thanks to his Nordic heritage, Emil has very light skin with darker, light brown freckles sprinkled all across his face, especially around his cheeks, highlighting his light blue-green eyes. His eyebrows are surprisingly dark, which contrasts with this platinum blond hair and almost white eyelashes, a combination which many have found attractive - he thinks it's a genetic mishap. Emil stands about 6'3" and has an angular face with a strong jawline and sharp cheekbones. His platinum hair is ever so slightly curly, and although kept short, it tends to stick into every direction even though he tries his best to keep it flat. Emil cannot be in direct sunlight for long, for his skin burns extremely easily but doesn't tan. Emil prefers to dress up decently, wearing usually clean, dark jeans with a belt and a collar shirt with the top button left open. He, however, doesn't wear a tie and actually prefers to wear All-Stars as his footwear. During weekends one might find him walking about in college pants and an old band t-shirt. Emil is near-sighted, so he has to wear eyeglasses - rimless eyeglasses with dark blue frames. He is often seen adjusting them as they slide down his nose.

 

Personality: Emil is very outgoing, friendly, and accepting. He wants to make out the most of his life, and prefers to spend his time with people rather than alone. He has a bad habit of hoarding stuff which remind him of people or events, such as festival bracelets. He is an excellent team worker and gets things done without that much of procrastination - although he tries to make working fun, throwing puns and jokes every now and then. Emil likes to spend time with anyone, and is found to be very flexible. Want to just hang out and do homework? Awesome! How about a movie? Works, too! A hike, maybe? Of course!

He doesn't find it hard to adapt to new environments; rather, he welcomes them and embraces the experience. Emil can be seen as one of those people whom it is nearly impossible to hate - he simply charms everyone around him. Although he is a somewhat social butterfly, the boy prefers at times the company of a few and selected, with whom he calms down and becomes an excellent listener.

Emil, however, might have some bad days every now and then, which he does his best to hide. He might become suddenly very closed-up and silent, even cold, but it usually passes within a few days and he apologizes for it. He is also quite sensitive and might snap at people unintentionally during these bad times, again, just to apologize as soon as possible. His greatest weakness is his impatience, which has caused him a lot of trouble.

 

Power: Animancy. The power to utilize magic involving the living, life-force and/or souls. Users can create new forms of life, grant life to the lifeless, animate things, manipulate the life force of the universe and those connected to it.

It was the death of his dorm plant which triggered the powers within Emil. The plant had been unwatered for weeks, partially due to his own carelessness, and it had withered up and died. Upon touching the plant, he wished it were alive again. With a tug in his guts and a warm glow flowing from his hands, the plant became alive before him. It sapped away a lot of his energy, but after a good, long nap and some food, Emil felt as good as ever, and the plant was more alive than it had ever before been.

Using animancy saps away from Emil's own life energy, so he uses it with great, great caution. He regenerates faster than a normal person would, but the more he uses his powers, to more tired he becomes. He cannot bring back the dead nor animate anything bigger than himself. In the beginning, Emil can summon tiny creatures, make small inanimate objects living for brief moments and sense the general life energy all around him. As time goes by, his stamina increases and he can animate and create more things. He can sap the energy around him, e.g. from plants, but doing so he upsets the balance and therefore it is extremely risky for him to do this unless he is in mortal danger or transfers the energy immediately into something else.

 

Backstory: Living with his traveling father has been anything but boring, Emil found out from a very young age. His mother died of cancer when he was very young, so he has no memories of her. His father was a traveling physician and entrepreneur, his work taking him from one place to the other - and he took his son with him as soon as he turned six. Airports were often Emil's homes, with his dad working on his laptop next to him as they waited for their next flight. They rarely had a place to stay in, due to his father's work, and Emil had no other living relatives who could take care of him back in Norway. However, his busy father found the time for two weeks every summer to take him hiking to the mountains and enjoy the peace. On other times, he homeschooled his son, in airplanes and hotels, teaching him various things, mainly those involving physics, maths, and business - as those were his areas of experience. When his father was off to meetings, Emil had a lot of time to read through the present hotel's books, savoring the knowledge they gave and surfing through the internet. What his father hadn't taught, Emil did his best to catch up with, finding psychology extremely fascinating. Upon turning 18, his father urged him to find an university which called for him the most, and live the life he had been unable to have so far - a life without a permanent place to stay, with friends, school, and the like. That is when Emil discovered Ambrosia, as he was browsing through various universities. His enrollment was not easy, as his entirely homeschooled studies did not appeal to the university, but he got in.

His first year was the best so far. Although at first he found it hard to socialize, he soon discovered the tricks to it and made many good friends. Emil was determined he would make the best out of his college years, enjoying friendships and studies equally, absorbing knowledge like a dry sponge.

Now, his second year has started with ease, although the appearance of these powers are most confusing, indeed...

Edited September 28, 2015 by CaptainInsaneway

[CaptainInsaneway]

FAITH

The sea roared thickly, distantly beyond the windowpane, grim grey against an evening sky of violet and vermillion, a laburnum gold line still brightening the horizon as the sky shed its last vestments of daylight into the ocean. Every bellowing swell of wave seemed a sighing shrug in the safety of the classroom, enveloped in a too-big knitted cream cardigan. Faith blew a thin, translucent breath against the glass, aware of the words of her lecturer rolling over her, but too distracted to pay much attention. They seemed to scroll past in grey, cramped handwriting, melting when they touched her.

"I want you to think on that quote for tomorrow, and those of you who have yet to get back to me as to your essay topics, I'm going to need you to have a concrete plan for the end of the week. See y'all tomorrow," the lecturer said in time for Faith's return to reality, dismissing the class with a wave of his hands. Faith slithered silently out of her seat, battered red satchel bouncing against the sharp jut of her hipbone as she walked, very aware that she had not heard the quote she was supposed to be contemplating for the next day, too preoccupied with the knowledge she held time in her quivering grasp. The moments trembled and she fell backward, the world unknitting, the sea roaring in reverse, the yellow of daylight safety crawling back up the sky, the lecturer swallowing his own words instead of spitting them, and then the sudden plastic at the back of her knees as she found herself back in her seat.

“...People can die of mere imagination,” her lecturer was saying slowly, the air trembling back to normal around him. "I want you to think on that quote for tomorrow, and those of you who have yet to get back to me as to your essay topics, I'm going to need you to have a concrete plan for the end of the week. See y'all tomorrow."

And Faith rose from her seat again, and her satchel beat the same rhythm as she walked out of the room, her heart running on an electric high.

If this is truly a gift from God, you ought not use it to cover your ass when you're not listening in class she told herself reprovingly. Anxious at the notion she had misused her newfound power, she increased her pace, her mind wandering to the notes she had slipped under her dorm-mates doors. She knew she had been right to assume she wasn't the only one struck with something strange; she had seen Shrike-from-across-the-hall at the ocean when she had climbed down from the cliffs, walking on water and summoning rain. Not to mention, Faith seemed to have been the only one of her dorm-mates who had attended classes after the sudden arrival of these new... abilities. She had to get to the beach, where she had asked those who had been touched by something in the same way she had to meet her. Faith wasn't sure what she planned to tell them, if anybody showed up, but she was certain that they had all been given a gift for a reason, and that reason might be more apparent if they were to gather. Setting her jaw, she slipped unnoticed out of a back exit and tripped across the grounds and onto the path to the beach. As she approached, she saw nobody else had arrived yet. All there was to do was find a rock to sit on and wait.

Edited September 28, 2015 by CaptainInsaneway

[sailing101]

Simon

 

 

Simon stared blankly at the monitor of his tablet computer, the CAD drawing he was supposed to be working on still half finished. His foot tapped restlessly as he counted the seconds till the end of class. He could sense everything going on around him, his classmates were packing their bags, the professor had already walked out the door, the faint sound of the clock on the wall was like the ever present beating of a drum to him. But that was not what had Simon on edge. Every sensation was normal to him, he had lived with it all his life after all. What held his mind in a vice grip was something different. The fact that HE was different, and not in the usual sense even.

Simon dimly realized he was alone now. Everyone else had already left the room. With haste, Simon gathered his belongings. The computer was set to sleep mode and slid into it's protective case. His I-phone, untouched from when he had gotten it out at the beginning of class, was returned to his jacket pocket. His computer case, books, and calculator were placed back into his bag, which was then slung over his shoulder. It was a routine he had done many times before over the years, no more thought was given to it than if he had been tying his shoe. After all, Simon was still busy thinking about something else.

Should I go to the beach? Simon wondered, Or is this just some joke?

Taking a deep breath, Simon closed his eyes and focused. He felt.... as.... changed into the..... ...................... ............................................

..........................................................................................................

............. . .............................. ... ....ad.. a.. till he felt solid ground beneath his feet once more. Opening his eyes, Simon looked around to get his bearings. Gone was the classroom he had been standing in mere moments before. Now he was outside the building, on the path to the sea.

If what I did was real, this is no joke

 

Holding on to that thought, Simon closed his eyes once more. The feeling of ....... returned and..... ............................................. .. his shoes touched soft sand. Opening his eyes, he saw a girl sitting on a rock, her back turned to him. Unsure weather to speak up or not, Simon opted to take a neutral approach, and walk around to her front.

"Are we expecting anyone else?"

 

 

((The fourth dimension is incomprehensible at best, and causes one to . ... .. ........... at worst.))

Edited September 15, 2015 by sailing101

[CaptainInsaneway]

[i'm using a different computer tonight, and maaaan the title fonts I used look really gross and different on this screen. Weird.]

 

FAITH

 

Faith yelped in fright as the unknown boy spoke to her suddenly, as if from nowhere. Embarrassed, she swallowed the sound, the words reversed, the world twisted and reformed. Air rushed into her lungs. This time, whilst she still jumped slightly the boy's approach, she was able to stifle an audible note of surprise. Still getting to grips with how far back exactly she moved when she used her power, Faith was cautious; visions of reversing into a world where everybody she knew hadn't been born yet swam into her mind. She swallowed them. Refocusing her attention, she blinked dreamily a few times and managed to form and force out a few words.

"Oh, hey, I'm Faith," she said, raising her voice slightly to be heard over the waves. "And I'm not sure. I think everybody else from our dorm skipped class. I thought about it, but then I figured the more I had to do, the easier it'd be to tell myself I can deal with whatever this is later..."

She paused, flushing awkwardly and clearing her throat. She tried to surreptitiously study the boy; he seemed somehow both here and not, listening but at the same in pieces somewhere else. In her head, a casual preamble leaped in circles, smalltalk, gentle conversation leading to the inevitably insane sounding question. She planned a less direct route of conversation, but instead blurted out her ultimate query.

"...So can you rewind time too?" her voice flickered and died like a guttering candle as she ended the sentence. Faith felt at the same time very stupid, and very frightened. If he said yes, then what was she to say to that? And if he said no, she wasn't sure what she'd do either. Mostly, she was afraid he'd say nothing at all. The question hung between them, trembling in the cold sea air.

 

SHRIKE

 

Every breath felt like drowning. Shrike gazed blackly out of her dorm room door, ensuring nobody else was hovering in the hallway, before wrapping an entirely too large woollen scarf about her neck several times. She nestled in it, relishing the comfort and false sense of protection she found in hiding beneath the wool folds, as she tripped casually across the carpeted hallway and out into the world, the sky darkening with the dying sun. As usual, she looked carelessly confident, hands thrust into her pockets, the internal maelstrom well concealed. At first, she had assumed she was hallucinating, but multiple tests had confirmed for her that her theory was incorrect; surely you don't hallucinate the same thing multiple times, right? Being rather practical and naturally unimpressed by most things, Shrike had accepted her new gift with the lackadaisical disinterest of somebody who had just been given an ugly pair of socks for Christmas. So she could make water do stuff now. Cool.

At least, that was what she tried to convince herself; internally, mistrust needled her. She wanted nothing to do with anything she couldn't understand. If there wasn't an explanation, she wanted it as far away from her person as possible. Not to mention the new hyper awareness of every water particle in the air, in every lungful of oxygen, in every cell in her body was simultaneously gross, off-putting and exhausting. Sure she could literally make it rain now, and Shrike loved the opportunity for a joke in that vein, but the laughs she'd had upon that realisation did not make up for the prickling discomfort of feeling the air effervesce around her. She trudged with bitter purpose out of the grounds and onto the path toward the beach, wondering what she'd find there. Shrike prayed for an explanation, a level of understanding, maybe some confirmation she wasn't entirely crazy. She'd seen the weird unexplained stuff that seemed to crop up unnaturally often around Ambrosia, and she didn't like it. People going missing, weird lights in the sky, creepy stuff in the woods, things that are there one day and gone the next. None of it really made her feel particularly comfortable. The entire town had the air of hanging on a precipice about it, and it freaked her out no end. As she contemplated this, she realised there were two figures on the beach, one of them easily identifiable as Faith. Shrike hung back slightly approaching at a quiet pace and sort of lurking nearby, waiting for Faith to acknowledge her. She tried to identify the boy with her, but didn't recognise him. Nor was she surprised; Shrike didn't leave her room much, and if she did, it was to hide in the woods and freak herself out or go to classes. Socialising wasn't her thing.

Edited September 28, 2015 by CaptainInsaneway

[Gildraug]

EMIL

 

"Hey Emil, interested in a game of poker?" Kevin, a student from Emil's dorm, called out, pulling his pack of cards, most of them worn out from the edges from all of the games they had seen. Emil shook his head a little in response, too tired to actually reply. He was quite exhausted, his psychology book in his hand and his back to the wall of the common room, sitting in one of the armchairs. He had his notes open next to him, the lined paper crisscrossed with his messy handwriting, the ink forming loops like a drunken figure skater. Every now and then, the ink was smudged by his highlighters, as he hadn't had the patience to wait for it to dry. Figures dotted the pages, with extra notes or comments with a red pen added here and there, and page numbers for reference.

"As you wish," Kevin shrugged and called out if anyone else wanted to play. A few cheerful "Aye"s echoed in the room as a bunch of second-year students scooted their chairs closer to the table and someone pulled out chips to bet on. The cards were given, the bets were set, and then began the switching of cards. A few agonizing minutes passed as people checked their cards, switched, confirmed their bets, and then revealed their cards. A chorus of moans and cheers followed and Emil couldn't help but grin when he saw one of the girls, who was in advanced mathematics, gathering all the chips which had been laid before them. They played a few more rounds, Emil proceeding with his notes a lot slower than he had earlier, and then stopped when it was time for lunch and the girl was grinning victoriously as she returned the impressive amount of chips she had won.

"Want to join us for lunch, then?" Kevin grinned, but Emil declined again and lifted his notes a bit, flapping the pages.

"Lunch can wait. This not so, I'm afraid. Thank you for the kind offer, though," Emil laughed and made a 'shoo' motion with his hand. Kevin chuckled to that and decided it best to leave his nerdy friend there to study. As soon as Kevin and the rest of the students left the common room, or returned elsewhere, Emil gathered up his stuff and dropped them into his own room.

 

With that, Emil made his way through the hallways, heading towards the beach to where the note had directed him. The appearance of his powers were confusing to him, his thoughts so completely wrapped around it that he had, indeed, dozed off while writing his notes - something he had never done earlier, unless you counted that one time he had been awake for two nights straight and was basically running on caffeine. Nevertheless, he had to get a grip of himself. He wasn't alone with this, apparently.

But it was so hard.

Literally every time he closed his eyes, a skein of lights appeared before him, pulsing softly and radiating energy while moving about. Some lights were bigger and more active, while some were barely visible to him and didn't move at all. The stars were different life forms, Emil had realized soon enough, the smaller ones being things like bugs or plants, while the bigger ones were, obviously, humans. Even with his eyes open he could feel the stars around him, like an entire cosmos was orbiting him, with shooting stars and planets and everything - he could feel the trees outside, the insects which lived under the bark, the squirrels, the birds, the teachers, the students... everything and everyone. But that wasn't the worst. He could actually touch these lights and feel their life energies. It wasn't so bad around humans, save for those few people who had a cold or something, but to feel a bug's life star disappearing as a bird ate it, while he was in touch with the bug, was unsettling to say the least. It felt as if he himself had died a bit.

 

Nevertheless, he decided it to be for the best to go to the beach. Maybe someone had answers for this? Maybe this all would be explained and a solution could be given? Emil hoped and his positive attitude made it a little easier for him to continue his way, exiting the school building and inhaling the cool air, which smelled like wet earth, sea, and rain. The scents reminded him of Norway a bit, although there wasn't a constant gut-wrenching feeling of wanting to leave. Every shadow seemed to breathe slowly, especially close to the Woods, with lidless eyes staring into one's very soul and following them when they weren't watching. Hungering. Of course such things were nonsense, Emil laughed at himself as he found the path which led to the beach, but you still couldn't shake the feeling off, not even after being a year here. He could feel the life around him, so he could safely say no shadow had a mind. His reassurance did not ease the feeling.

The path was easy enough to follow, winding its rocky way down the hill to the beach, which had soft sand but cold water and high waves, so this wasn't a very popular place to be for swimming. Emil himself had tried swimming before going to Norway for the summer a couple of months ago, but as soon as he had set a foot into the salt water his entire being had frozen for a full minute and he hadn't been able to move. After that, he had kept clear from the sea altogether, no matter how much he loved it.

 

Emil felt them long before he saw them - three people, two of them talking and a third further away. He knew their faces alright, but couldn't fit names to them, which saddened him greatly. He approached them calmly, taking his time and trying to not get sand into his shoes. He hated to have sand in his shoes, it was so uncomfortable! The wind ruffled his platinum hair and the crashing of waves drowned out whatever the girl and the guy were talking about. The third, maybe a little sulking person had also remained behind, watching the pair with careful eyes. Emil called out softly, not wishing to scare anyone.

"Ahoy! I assume this is the place where the note directed us to meet?" he continued and gave a friendly smile as he walked closer, his left hand in his pocket and his right on his bag's shoulder strap, entirely comfortable with the situation. Here he would get answers of some sort, of that he was sure. But whether he liked the answers was another question altogether.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Gildraug

[CaptainInsaneway]

[[i'm just gonna reply for Shrike right now, as I need Simon's mun to respond for Faith who wrote the note to be able to reply. Also just a note, when Shrike mutters "weird", she's not talking about Emil haha, she's just noticed they're all from the same dorm.]]

 

SHRIKE

Shrike barely turned to acknowledge him, though motioned for him to come closer, smiling slightly at his cheerful greeting.

"Yeah, I'm hanging back a bit though, seems she's busy with that other guy," Shrike replied quietly. "She wrote the note, by the way. I know her handwriting. And she just asked him if he can control time too; I'm gonna take a wild guess and suggest we're all here because something... not right has happened."

Shrike paused, turning to look at her new companion with a searching expression, muttering something that sounded like 'weird' under her breath. She furrowed her brow, looked back at Faith and the other guy, and back at her new companion again. Eddies of sand rose and fell about them, golden ripples catching in the air currents. The sky was grey. In fact, it had been raining solidly almost all day until sunset. The sea was slightly calmer, the waves breaking the shore a sigh rather than a roar now, seeming to reach up the beach to them. Shrike shuddered. Far out to sea, the water churned and bubbled still, emerald green and grey, foaming waves capped with white.

"White bits on the waves always make me think of The Last Unicorn, y'know the part where they all come out the sea?" Shrike said gently, clearing her throat, suddenly feeling stupid. "Have you noticed we're all from the same dorm? I reckon him and Faith were the only ones to actually show up for class too, when I went for a walk up the woods earlier, nearly everybody else were either in their rooms or sitting about looking weirded out in the common room. Just seems a weird coincidence."

A cold wind picked its way inbetween the threads of her oversized hoodie and bit at her skin, ruffling her silvery hair. When she bit her lip, she tasted salt. The rain clouds massed blacker. She realised she hadn't given her companion much time to speak, or even introduced herself.

"I'm Shrike, by the way. Recognize your face, don't know your name," she said, offering a hand to shake stiffly. "And to save her the hassle of asking, nah, I can't control time. I can do something else. Absolute shot in the dark, any chance you woke up able to do something mental as well?"

Edited September 28, 2015 by CaptainInsaneway

[Gildraug]

EMIL

 

Emil smiled at the girl's fairly warm acknowledge of his presence, motioning him to come closer, and giving a tiny smile. She told that the other girl, the one with dark skin, had been the one to write the note. The boy tilted his head as he inspected the other, lifting his right eyebrow in a polite way of inquiry. She had been the one? How curious.

"Seeing that we are the ones who have arrived, I would assume something... particular has indeed occurred," Emil agreed and nodded as the girl voiced out her suspicions. She seemed to be a lone soul, with lavender purple short hair (or was it silver? Emil couldn't choose which one it was), half-shaved eyebrows, a piercing on her nose, and a look on her face of someone who was at the same time extremely interested about everything and yet nothing was interesting at all. Most curious person, indeed. Emil caught her giving a look to him and muttering 'weird', but there was something about her tone which told him it wasn't his appearance which made her say that - though he wouldn't have been surprised if that were the case, too. Furrowing her brow, she returned her gaze towards the other girl and the boy, and then back at Emil again.

"Is there something on my face?" he asked with a soft chuckle, but his words were probably snatched by a gust of wind or her mind was already elsewhere, for she didn't hear his line. Looking at the sea, dark and gray with an even more foreboding sky above it, she shuddered, watching the waves. She muttered a line of something about The Last Unicorn, so softly he almost missed it.

"I, unfortunately, have never seen that movie. But I've been told it's a wonderful movie," Emil added.

 

The lavender-haired girl, although if Emil only glanced quickly he might've mistaken her for a guy, then mentioned how all of them gathered here were in the same dorm - and how nobody else save for the guy and the girl, who had been named Faith, were the only ones to show up in class. Most curious, Emil had to agree and the gut-wrenching feeling returned and he looked briefly around, extending his consciousness as far as he could. Beetles, bugs, crabs, plants... Nothing out of ordinary, he concluded, but the shadows felt darker than a moment before. The wind howled stronger now, ruffling their hairs and sprinkling salt spray upon them. There was probably a storm approaching, Emil judged as he looked at the horizon, the clouds turning from ominous gray to threatening purple-black.

 

"I'm Shrike, by the way. Recognize your face, don't know your name," she, Shrike, said suddenly, offering a hand to shake stiffly. Emil smiled in response and shook the hand firmly, feeling the cold fingers and then politely letting go. "And to save her the hassle of asking, nah, I can't control time. I can do something else. Absolute shot in the dark, any chance you woke up able to do something mental as well?"

"Emil, a pleasure to meet you," he said and then paused for a moment, considering what to say next. Shrike was speaking openly about the powers, and telling she could also do something, so there was no reason why he shouldn't tell, right? Maybe demonstrate a little? "Well, I don't know if you can consider my power being really mental or physical..." Emil said vaguely and picked up a dried plant from between their feet. It had been a leaf of some tree, maybe a birch leaf, now dry, brown, and brittle. Its star was long gone, cold and dark now. Holding the leaf between his thumb and index finger, he exhaled slowly over it, visualizing his own life energy flowing into the leaf. Within a heartbeat, the leaf turned green, becoming lively and fresh again, as if it was the first leaf of spring. Twisting the leaf around to show Shrike that the leaf was, indeed, alive again, he gave it to her alongside a small laugh. He felt a very slight drop in his energy levels, but one leaf was almost next to nothing to an entire plant with roots and everything.

"I can also feel everything living around me," he added and scratched his chin, feeling the stub beneath his fingers. He really should shave soon, Emil thought absentmindedly. "I cannot really say if it's cool or disturbing - both aspects have their moments."

[CaptainInsaneway]

((No problem, I've been super busy with work lately too. Unfortunately, as Faith is locked in at the moment, I'm going to proceed with her for now until you're able to reply so the other people joining the RP are still able to keep moving As Faith wrote the note, I can't continue anything with Shrike alone because she's just as clueless as everybody else. I'll stick a post up tonight and I'm gonna be reviewing all pending applications about the same time.))

[CaptainInsaneway]

SHRIKE

 

Shrike concealed a smile at his pleasure to meet you remark; wasn't something she heard often, good first impressions were neither her forte nor her concern, though this guy seemed pretty affable. More chill than most of Ambrosia's students in her experience. As he responded, she grinned.

"Nah, not mental like, brain mental. Mental," she qualified, putting stress on the word. "Mental as in crazy, weird."

However, his example rendered her explanation needless anyway; he definitely could do something mental. She watched with almost childish wonder as the leaf seemed to swallow life from his fingertips, turning from taupe to a verdant viridian. It felt almost as though she could see the lifeblood running through the pale green veins that spread across the surface, life unfurling from them. For a moment, she was jealous; what a thing it was to be trusted with the power of life, with something so auspicious and good as to give life where it had been lost. What did she have in comparison to that? For a fleeting moment she was aware she could reduce the leaf to a skeleton once more, to suck the moisture from it and crush it to powder in her fingers, and she felt monstrous, but only for a moment; for as sure as she could kill, water was life in its own way, vital and terrible in equal measure. She did not hold true goodness, but at least it was something. It was in that moment, for the first time, Shrike considered these powers may have come from A Something, as opposed to A Somewhere. She tried to arrange her features into something less furrowed and thoughtful.

"Impressive," she remarked, and for once her tone was not sarcastic. "Just plants or does it work on... bigger stuff as well? Complex organisms, stuff like bugs and animals. Or people?"

She paused and considered his mention of the ability to feel all life around him. She wondered if it was the same way she could feel all the water, quivering and intrinsic, around her at all times.

"Can you feel if something dies then?" she asked, morbidly curious. "Or have you not found out yet?"

She dug at the sand awkwardly with the toe of her sneakers, and suddenly remembered she ought to show him what she could do as he had been so obliging in showing her his power.

"I can do stuff to water," she said conversationally. "I dunno how much yet. I can make it rain a bit, sometimes, I think. Didn't know for sure if that's me or if the weather here is just terrible, but then I made it start raining in my dorm room and it took me hours to make it stop. And I can sort of make water do stuff. I can feel it in the air, it's weird."

To demonstrate, she focused her attention on a small rock pool nearby. The surface of the water rippled uselessly. She raised her arms as though expecting the water to do something, and sure enough, the water rose in a perfect, quavering sphere, glassy and strange. It held in the air, a tiny tempest encased within itself, for a few seconds before splashing back down into the pool and spraying them with seawater.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "Not got a proper handle on it yet. Reckon we should go rescue Faith, she's got that look on her face like she's just said something daft and needs us to diffuse the situation."

Shrike started off down the beach hoping Emil would follow. She tried to act blasé, but internally, her blood raced with a strange combination of relief and dread. Sure, this guy could do something weird. And presumably, so could Faith. It was nice to know she hadn't gone mad, and also that she wasn't the only one who had woken up with a weird power and no idea what to do with it. But on the other hand, that meant these powers came from somewhere, and the entire situation reeked of some kind of reason, like they were all being brought together on purpose. Shrike didn't like it. Not one bit.

 

FAITH

 

Suddenly feeling awkward, Faith wished she hadn't spoken. Who asks somebody outright if they can control time? She panicked, trying to rewind to a time where she hadn't even asked but it wasn't coming to her, wasn't working. Instead, she felt light-headed. Casting about for something, anything to say to cover up her strange query, she noticed Shrike standing further up the beach, looking vaguely amused with a tall boy at her side. Her silvery-lilac hair was ruffled by the breeze, and she looked tired. Faith supposed she hadn't slept; usually up late herself, she generally heard her across-the-hall neighbour trying to sneak out of the dorm quietly long past the time one would expect any sort of activity in the dorm. The guy with her she didn't recognize, though she felt as though she'd seen him around before. She guessed her theory that everybody affected was from the same dorm was right.

"Shrike!" she called out, gesturing wildly for Shrike and her companion to come over and ease her sudden embarrassment. "I guess you guys got my notes!"

[sailing101]

Simon

 

Simon stared blankly for a while, pondering the nature of the question. obviously this means that she can rewind time, if that was the first question she asked. he thought to himself. Unless she actually asked several questions and rewound each time? She could already know so much about me and I would not remember telling her anything. Unless she's less Prince of Persia and more Dr Who that is.

It took Simon a moment to realize that he had been staring off into the distance, and another few seconds to realize he hadn't been blinking.

... then again, I haven't said anything yet, and this is now awkward.

 

Shaking himself out of his momentary stupor, Simon focused on the Girl in front of him. "I can't rewind time." He stated simply. "My".... Superpower? Gift? Ability? I'm not sure what to call it. "the thing I can do is.. it's a bit.."

Simon winced slightly, bringing a hand up to massage his temple. He could feel a familiar headache building up. I just need to stick with three dimensional explanations, and not think about, whatever that whatever it is.

"OK so you know what the weeping angles from Dr. Who are, right?" he began to explain, "I can move around like that, going instantly form one place to another as long as nobody is looking at me." He knew that the explanation was at best, inaccurate, and at worst... well, he wasn't sure what the worst was, much like everything else about what he did.

 

Simon was dimly aware that they had been joined by two others, but right now, he was more focused on trying to not think about his ability, and calm his budding headache. "I don't think that the human brain can really handle the... whatever it is when taking the more direct route between two points that is not a line." He explained, "It's better if I avoid thinking about it too much."

He sat down on the sand and closed his eyes, the less he had to process, the better. Eventually the headache died down, causing him to sigh in relief. Can't say I didn't see it coming really, he mused, Teleporting is the stuff of science fiction. Except it's not anymore.

Edited October 5, 2015 by sailing101

[Gildraug]

EMIL

 

"Impressive," Shrike remarked with an approving tone to her words. "Just plants or does it work on... bigger stuff as well? Complex organisms, stuff like bugs and animals. Or people?"

"I do not know yet, I haven't dared to try," Emil sighed and bit his lip. "When one loses a part of their life energy, they aren't that eager to try on something too big or too complex. But to answer your question, I think I could do things with any living being, since I can sense them, too. I mean, it makes sense, don't you think, that if I can feel every living thing, I can also affect them somehow? Not too far fetched?"

"Can you feel if something dies then?" she asked. "Or have you not found out yet?" Emil didn't answer immediately, but stared out into the ocean and tried to swallow the bile which had risen up into his mouth. Well, it was to be expected something like this would come up.

"Yes. I can feel if something dies. I... share their last moments. That's why I said this power has its good and bad sides," he gave a soft laugh and gave an apologetic smile for his sudden drop in mood, which soon rose up again as Shrike demonstrated her powers with water, laughing genuinely as she told about a rain cloud inside her dorm.

"Don't worry about it," Emil chuckled as he swiped off worst of the sea water which had splashed upon them. "It's been sprinkling the entire day. I have a feeling you might have something to do with this moody weather, hm?" he asked with a playful tone.

 

Following Shrike, the platinum-haired boy gave wide grin as Faith ran upon them, hugging Shrike and asking about the note they had received.

"Yes, we apparently had. Emil, pleased to meet you," he introduced himself with a nod to the girl who had wrapped herself in a scarf way too big for her, and a slightly tired or exhausted look to her. There was something about her life aura which made the hairs on Emil's hand stand up, a ghost of something still turning the light slightly tinted gray. He wasn't sure what it meant exactly, but judging her tiny frame he guessed an illness of some sort had affected her - and still was, although not so strongly.

This power was slightly bothersome at times, Emil thought. He didn't want to start knowing people's medical histories or anything.

Speaking of which, the fourth person was sitting on the sand, his head in his hands as if he had the headache of the century. Even as Emil approached him he seemed to sigh with relief and opened his eyes.

"Yo, you alright here?" Emil asked pleasantly and squatted down, lifting his right palm in greeting. "Emil, pleased to meet you. I unfortunately do not know your name, but Faith was introduced to me by Shrike," he said.

 

[CaptainInsaneway]

SHRIKE

As Emil explained his power, Shrike grew quiet and serious. The idea of using one's own candle to light another's was all very sentimental, but the notion that in doing so one might deplete their life force was less of a good concept. Tentatively, she wondered what would happen if Emil used up his life energy, though she didn't dare put the question forth. She remembered how odd she'd felt when she had kept using her power over and over, and wondered if perhaps each of them were limited; what if these abilities went beyond their biology? No normal human was meant to be able to do this kind of stuff. She shuddered imperceptibly, though laughed at Emil's remark about the weather.

"Maybe this will turn into something useful, like being able to conjure up Snow Days whenever I have essays due," she replied with a grin, though she turned to acknowledge Faith. She cast a questioning glance at the boy in the sand, but Emil was already moving to assist him.

 

FAITH

 

Faith blanched as the boy confessed he couldn't rewind time, worried he'd laugh at her or call her crazy, but from the anxiety writ large across his features, she knew it was safe to assume he too had developed a new talent. She listened carefully to his explanation, and though she didn't get the Doctor Who reference, she understood.

"So like... flickering through time almost. Kind of like jumping through time to a destination identified by intention?" she asked, though he looked pallid and slightly sickly. "Are you okay?"

As he slid down onto the sand, she cast about for some assistance, spotting Shrike and hoping

perhaps things would start making sense.

"Faith, nice to meet you," she echoed in response to Emil, stepping aside to let him address Simon, worried.

"...Simon, does your power hurt?" she asked cautiously.

"Mine makes me feel weird if I use it too much," Shrike added beside her. "I haven't had the chance to push it very far but when I was playing around with it, it started to make me feel... off. Maybe whatever caused this makes you feel sick in high doses?"

"You make it sound like we're superheroes, with powers triggered by radioactivity," Faith laughed. "But I agree, when I... discovered my skill, I experimented a little and it started to make my nose bleed. Maybe it's bad for you to push it. Any weird side effects for you guys?"

She directed her question at the boys, nervous. She was beginning to feel less confident in her internal belief that the power had been bestowed by God for some righteous purpose. Things were feeling more and more... off.