Broken Mirrors - IC

[Buio]

OOC

"Now arriving at Mason Square, Recreational District. Please undo your seat belt and exit the vehicle."

Following the commands of the automated voice, Jason got out of the remote controlled cab, a less-than-pleased scowl on his face as he did so.

"Enjoy your stay in the recreational district. Remember that curfew on Fridays is-" Jason didn't give the cab's voice time to finish its message before shutting the door closed, maybe with a bit more force than was needed. He had just spent a very long day in Black school trying to generate sonar shockwaves to knock down training dummies. Didn't matter how many times he told them that creating sound from nothing was approximately 20 measures of difficulty above taking existing sounds and amplifying them. The rat bastards had still insisted on making him try to generate his shockwaves from scratch. The paranoid part of him of course thought that it was almost like they had purposefully run him harder than usual since he had an important meeting that day. But he quieted his worries and instead just scanned the square, looking to see if everyone was in place. It seemed everyone had remembered the meeting place and time, but were wisely staying separated either solitarily or in groups of twos for now as instructed. Good, he couldn't have them being careless and blowing everything when they were so close to the end now.

He went to a sweets bar and sat down at one of the stools, punching in an order for a strawberry and banana milkshake, keeping his head down and not looking at any of the other patrons. Typically something that some would find to be suspicious behaviour, luckily though Jason was paradoxically well known as that one guy no one knew really well. He of all people was the last anyone would expect, including himself, to be the leader of a resistance movement. He never got loud, never got visibly angry, the most he could manage was becoming apparently upset and verbally shutting down all responses with people who put him into a situation he disliked. But still he was compliant and avoided confrontation, or interaction in general for that matter. For someone like him, he didn't make friends very easily, and those that he did make, he had a tendency to cling onto far too tightly, which resulted in them moving away. Sometimes, Jason really wondered just how he could have survived in Brewster if it wasn't for Jack.

Before letting himself get swept up in his own depressive thoughts though, the young man passed a hand through his snowy hair and took a deep breath, remembering what was important here, what they were doing today. This would be the first official meeting of all the Broken Mirrors, and hopefully one of the last.

As he waited for his order to be processed, he put up his hand to shield his eyes from the early afternoon sun and started whistling out a small musical tone. the tune, however, would be unheard by those around him. By tapping into his power, he contained and redirected the sound across the crowd, making it so that only his group members would hear it, letting them know that the meeting was about to begin.

He noticed that Skylar and Lelou were sitting down at an empty table already, as instructed. The first member would come to him at the bar, strike up a conversation with him, they would then go and join the duo at the table, and then the rest of the members would join in one by one. Good this plan was pretty sound, gatherings of six or seven people were pretty common in the recreational district. He supposed it was an effect of the cutthroat under-culture that permeated through the interactions of the subjects in Brew. As people rose up in ranks, it became more and more apparent that it was unwise to show any of the other subjects any sign of weakness, lest they use it to drag you down and climb up in status by using you as a stepping stool. Being alone was a big weakness, so it wasn't odd for people to stick together in large groups. Even if no one generally trusted their groups of 'friends', they all had a shared benefit of looking stronger by being together in numbers and putting on the portrait of friendship.

It was another sad reality of the gilded cage that was Brewster Juvenile Institute for Mental Correctness and Rehabilitation, another method of invisible control from the administrators, a method he woudl be more than happy to exploit if it means allowing him and his group members to strike back at the admins and unlock the damnable cage.

 

[Apollyon]

The day would start the way most did; soaked in sweat, jaw clenched and his heart beat racing in his chest. This sprang his bio-electricity into life, creating a maelstrom of energy that made his eyes lambent and his muscles stiff. Another day here. He had dreamt of the first night he had come here. He had signed his life away for one prison to another. More often than not, he was deemed unfit for social gatherings, something that had become ironic these last couple years.In prison, he was often heavily medicated, if not out right sedated because he found it incredibly hard to manage his relationships with people. Again, something of irony to be had there. Schizotypal Personality Disorder is what they called it.

Lelou just wanted the guy to get out of his face. Apparently, using a door to break someone's cheek bone makes you unfit for general populace. So, in turn, they sentenced Lelou to another ten years and confined him in solitary. That's where he had the distinct honor of meeting some of Brewster's finest faculty. They offered him something he knew was too good to be true, but also, too good to pass up; release. Not from the prison, oh no--he willingly went there of course. Release from social anxiety that made him so estranged in the eyes of others. He couldn't stand their eyes upon him, he wanted to gouge them out so they'd stop their lingering gazes.

However,the drug they gave him to suppress these homicidal tendencies had so uncanny side effects. Like being able to siphon energy from light sockets. He had to admit, that was a new one for him. He might not have liked people much, but drawing out an electric current with his bare hand was definitely not 'normal'. But then there was the 'dream'. A year after he had been developing this form of electrical psychosis, an intense electrical storm hit the facility. It blacked out several sectors and while the facility would have been fine over all, the lighting seemed too find HIM alluring. That was when Lelou discovered...he could control the blissful anarchy that was lighting itself.

Using himself as a ground, he dispersed the bolt. In all truthfulness, he hadn't don't to protect any one. He'd done it to test himself and abilities. It was not without incident though, his palms had been horribly burned from the super heated air. But in those few seconds, he felt a part of himself 'flowing' like a current. It was like his soul was the bolt itself. People surrounding him watching the display were amazed and he was dubbed "Zeus". Though it wasn't a title he preferred. The administration saw fit to inundate this prestige with a new rank of A.

But much had happened since then. For instance, the little boy that lay curled up next to him sleeping soundly and completely unaware was a new addition. The Administration thought that he could be of use to the boy and maybe even a mentor--but mostly to keep his power in check. The child looked sweet enough. But his power was incredibly dangerous. Gravity defying and could muster gravatons that created miniature black holes of some sort. When the child was upset once because he was scared, he crushed a refrigerator. Yet strangely, he can't seem to do it on command just yet and maybe that was a good thing.

Lelou looked back at the promising child. He wondered if in another life he really could be the kid's brother. Skylar seemed to adopt him as such fairly quickly, though it was no easy task. He did some pretty peculiar things; arranged things certain ways and often color coded. He was an intelligent child, though he had Autsim. But the medication they were giving him were making that less and less apparent, and allowing him to draw upon his power. That could be tricky, considering Skylar might 'fly' away by dampening the gravitation field around him--there was simply no telling. He hadn't even gone through the chaos of puberty.

Lelou slipped from bed, and he drew the blankets up over Skylar leaving him lie nestled as he stepped into the other room to shower which he did fairly quickly, and dressed in an almost formal way, the only exception was he'd loosen his tie and he wouldn't wear a blazer. He was pretty easy to spot in a crowd, rather he wanted to be—that was another question. He began preparing Skylar's breakfast. A simple meal--cinnamon toast. He had to learn how to cook, but what else did he have to do except train?

"Sky, breakfast." Lelou called out but when no pitter patter of feet was heard he decided to investigate.

Lelou rounded the corner and opened his door. The sight before him would stagger anyone else, but being one that had seen and done incredible things—it was very hard for him to be speechless. Skylar was still asleep, but slowly rotating over and over—in the middle of the room.

"Well, that's not as bad as thought but still. You're like a damn astronaut sometimes…" Lelou muttered folding his arms.
When he parted them, he reached out and grabbed Skylar gently. The boy awoke with a whimper. "Shh, it's okay. I got your breakfest ready—it's time to eat." Lelou said holding Sky.

"What is it?" The boy asked, rubbing his aquamarine eyes. If anyone had a more unique set of eyes, it was Sky.

"It's your favorite, cinnamon toast." He set Sky down and nodded the way to the kitchen. "Come on, you gotta eat or else you'll be hungry during practice."
Skylar was very obedient towards Lelou, and it was because he admired Lelou. He could do so much and so many incredible things with his power that Sky simply wanted to emulate that kind of control and it often made him one of the hardest workers in his class. After breakfast, Lelou dropped Sky off at a nearby grade school and continued on his own way to the training grounds. The dark haired, green eyed boy didn't particularly much like being separated from Lelou. There were many other children in this place as well, yet no matter being different themselves they tended to pick on weaker individual, especially whose mannerisms didn't make a lot of sense to them.

Lelou, on the other hand, was not weak individual. The air around him was charismatic, charged not just in the literal sense but the figurative one. He often didn't have to say anything if anyone pissed him off, the static in the air would begin to swarm like piranha in frenzy; crackling and popping. If you were on his bad side, you would no doubt know it. Lelou wasn't a man afraid to speak his mind, or when words failed, resolve the matter by some other means.

"Hello Lelou, do you have your presentation?" The hologram asked.

"Yeah, yeah." He sighed in reluctance. He never did like showing off.

The messy haired young man stepped out onto the field; eyes upon him, watching with keen interest as to what he would do to implore creativity in the use of one's power. Though he lit his cigarette by causing a spark from a charge, and the group began to chuckle it wasn't until he lined several metal rods in vertical columns of two rods per column, with several rods length wise. The effect looked like a fence without the chain links in the middle.

"Ready?" He asked everyone. When they nodded in agreement, he threw the half smoked bud down and ground it with his foot.

Placing a hand on one of the bars, and the other outstretched he started a chain reaction. At first it was miniscule, hardly noticeable but gradually it grew into an electrical current that could kill. The electricity sprawled out over the spans' of rods but as it did it began to take the shape of something. A rabbit. The rabbit was hopping from between one span to the next almost like a flip book. The electrical plexus was a brilliant blue and white cored.

When Lelou released the rod from his hand, the rabbit dissipated and so did the flow of watts coursing through them. The group cheered and clapped, astonished with how well Lelou had control over his power. But in modesty, he lit another cigarette and head his own way before finding out his score for the evening. Lelou knew that

Sky was probably having a hard time adjusting to his life here. He didn't know how, he just…felt it. When he arrived back at the kindergarten, he was immediately attacked but a four foot monster.

"Oh no." Lelou said unenthusiastically. "I've been caught, woe is me." He heard a giggle from Skylar and he ruffled the boy's hair.

"You're funny Lelou." Skylar said looking up at him.

"Oh yeah? Well I could say the same thing. I am pretty funny." Lelou replied slyly. "You wanna race to the shop to get some ice cream?"

The boy's eyes got so big he thought he had said the wrong thing. "Really?! Can we go!? Please!"

Soon enough, he was tugged out the door by an eager little boy with surprising strength when it came to his ice cream. Lelou was being led out the door, walking in the child's shadow. The boy did know Arita had plans for him, he was little aware of the complexity of his own situation. Lelou just wondered if he was doing the right thing. He was luring Skylar without filling the child in on the details—though; part of him firmly believed it would make no difference. He just wanted to protect him. He saw a bit of himself in Skylar.

That's what brought him here. A sweets shop where across from him now, a six year old gorged himself like a starving kid in a third world country. How did put all that a way? He would have to make doubly sure he worked this off and he would brush his teeth for the next six months.

 

[Ravenbelle]

Rue sat on a bench in Mason Square as instructed by Jason. She was reading a book called Charlotte's Web from the limited selection in the library. Not one page on those shelves had a mention of superpowers or teen rebels or even anything remotely gory. It was a tragedy really and just another sign that the holographic wardens of this prison keep way too tight a grip on their inmates. Rue frowned, rubbing at her temple with one hand and holding her book open with the other. She knew it probably wasn't a good idea to read with such a raging headache, but it was the only thing that distracted her well enough to keep from reminding her of her painfully long session in the red school today. The doctors kept comparing how well she saw living things to how well she saw inanimate objects. She personally thought it was equal, but they never take her word for it, so she was stuck in a room she'd never seen before adding meaningless pieces of furniture to her list in order to watch what happened to them. It was tedious and by the time about an hour had passed, Rue knew that the objects in the room moved due to timed machinery and she was only predicting their fates before the timer ticked and the object either flipped, twisted, slid or swung somewhere inside the white room. The doctors took notes all the while, timing how long it took her to concentrate on conjuring a vision and how long until she deciphered from the flashes what exactly would happen in a few moment's time. It was exhausting and annoying and it infuriated the girl to no end. But of course she never showed them her rage in any way, shape or form. They'd probably write that down too . So she bottled her rage and saved it for a better time. Hopefully that time will be when she finally breaks out of this hell hole.

The thought of escape lifted the corner of her mouth just slightly as she waited for the soft tune Jason would whistle to them to begin the meeting of Broken Mirrors. Rue and Jason had talked and became friends before and Rue wouldn't mind admitting that she enjoys his company whenever she has the chance to talk to him. She isn't extremely close to him or anything and though she's sure he'd have noticed the scars on her wrists by now, he didn't mention them. She appreciated that he wouldn't push.

When she heard a soft tune play by her ear, Rue shut her book and put it away in her small, black messenger bag. Then she clenched her teeth and stopped rubbing at her head, running her small fingers through her red hair to make the action look inconspicuous. When she stood off the bench, she wobbled a little, but then regained her balance, tightening her fist around the strap of her bag to keep from showing any other signs of pain on her way to the sweets bar. Rue gulped, hoping the meeting would go well. Jason was one of the few people she kept on her list, but there were too many others attending the meeting for her to get anything decipherable from the future of this gathering.
"Hi Jason." Rue stood beside him at the bar, giving him a small smile to keep his eyes off her white-knuckled hand, clutching the strap of her bag too tight.

 

[Tanzinite]

The first thing she noticed was the heat. Casey truly hated being overly hot, so a place brimming with chatty people wasn't exactly somewhere she wanted to be. Unfortunately for her preferences, her loyalty to Jason wouldn't allow her to miss a meeting, especially not one so important. She'd finally get a chance to meet the others.

Her morning had been spent in a dark room. No objects of any kind around her. She was supposed to project herself across the room, from one end to the other. She could still remember the feeling of the first time. The way her being seemed to unfurl itself from her body, floating up towards the ceiling above her. It was a disappointment to realize that at first she could only go about four feet from her body before she could feel a pain radiating from her chest. Somewhere near her heart. Even though it didn't look like it, she was still tied to the material of her body.

Ever since then, she'd been looking for a way to escape that tie. To go further and further from her physical self. So she'd taken to meditation. It was odd, how the act of meditating properly could feel so much like projecting. But it certainly helped. She progressed quickly, getting to C rank at a pace she certainly hadn't expected. Funnily enough, the feeling of projecting was alarmingly close to the feeling she used to get during a manic episode. A feeling of power beyond what other people could fathom.

The thought disturbed her. Her grip on sanity had been so thin in the last few years that the similarities freaked her out a lot of the time. The fact that projecting felt so much like her old psychosis made her wary. But the determination she felt every time she tapped into her power outweighed it by a lot.

In any case, the session had gone well. Sure, it had been exhausting, but she wouldn't want it any other way. Exhaustion meant she was pushing herself. She'd not only walked to the other side of the room, but she'd circled it four times, before floating up to ceiling height and roaming around. That said, it was only about ten minutes before she collapsed and nearly passed out. Despite that, she knew it was good progress.

 

[Buio]

The order finally finished processing and a small panel to the side of the bar slid open, bringing Jason his milkshake via small treadmill that ran the entire length of the bar. The milkshake stopped right in front of him and he reached over to grab it and bring it closer to him so that he could start sipping on it at his lesiure.

"Thank you for your patronage, enjoy your frozen desert." chimed the automated server system from his monitor watch, the white little watch-like device that had been strapped to his wrist and dictated his schedule since he first came to Brew..

Jason simply gave a thoughtless "mhm" as a response while he started drinking, reacting mostly out of habit as he knew fully well that there wasn't anyone waiting to hear his reply anyways.

At that point he heard a familiar voice address him and smiled.

"Hi Jason."

The young man turned around and gave a friendly smile to Rue. The girl was one of the few he considered as not only a teammate and commrade (which was itsef a pretty strong bond by his standards) but also a friend. He supposed it was partly due to his hero complex, he naturally had a tendency to be kinder to girls, especially the damaged type (though that distinction somewhat lost its importance after coming to brew) and wanted to help them. He remembered how relieved he'd felt when Shine's predictions came true and Rue agreed to be part of the Broken Mirrors, and he was glad to have her as part of his team now that the date of their escape was drawing so close. Not only was her power going to be incredibly useful, from what he knew of the girl he knew that she of all people deserved to get out.

He'd noticed the scars on her wrists of course, even he wasn't that dense, but he;d always been too awkward to actually ask about them, and felt it was probably a touchy subject, so he just pretended he didn't notice. Part of him hopped that he'd eventually get the guts to ask about it all. Not just her, but everyone. So far organizing this movement had been filled with so much secrecy and carefulness that he hadn't really had time to 'socialize' with any of the group members and learn more about them as people, which was ironic considering they were the only people in brew he really trusted. He hoped to remedy all this when they all got out. Before any of that though, they would actually have t make their escape, and that's what this day was all about.

"Oh! Uh, hi there Rue," he said, smiling and getting up. He didn't need to fake any of the awkwardness even as he smiled as it had more or less ingrained itself into his being by this point, "I didn't think you;d be here, ah, not that that's a bad thing of course! I'm glad to see you, just- it-... ah, well..." He trailed off into unintelligible, embarrassed mumbles, almost forgetting that this was all part of a script to begin with. He could almost feel 'jack' rolling his eyes and sighing inside his head. Jason looked around for something to change the subject and went with the first thing his eyes fell on.

"I'm just here getting a milkshake!"

there was an awkward silence.

His face reddened as he realized he had probably said that a bit too loudly and forcefully, and he immediately looked down in embarrassment, feeling as if suddenly everyone in the square was looking his way. He had to give Shine credit, if he wasn't living it himself, he'd never think in a million years that someone as inept as him would be the leader of anything, let alone a resistance movement.

He looked around form something else to change the topic of conversation and his eyes fell on skylar and lelou. Well, this was as good a time as any.

"Oh! uh, look at that! Lelou's here, you know lelou? Oh, yeah, of course you must, pretty much everyone knows him, haha, yeah. I actually talked with him a few times you know? Everyone says he's scary, but he's not that bad a guy! I mean, we just crossed paths a few times since he;s in black school too. I wasn't saying- uhm, that is... ah.."

There was another awkward silence.

Jason knew he woudl never get used to this. Somehow he was getting nervous even though this was a fake conversation that he himself had written up in order to make their meeting seem less conspicuous. Just how was it possible for someone to fail at life so bad that they got legitimately nervous during a fake freaking conversation? he needed to push forward somehow, but a big part of him really just wanted to run away.

Panicking, he grabbed rue's hand and forced a smile "Here, I'll introduce you!"

He dragged Rue behind him, praying to god she didn't start hating him for being so forceful, and brought her with him over to the table where skylar and lelou were sitting.

"H-hey Lelou, hi there Sky, fancy meeting you two here. Well, I guess you two would obviously be here since sky likes sweets so much, and you guys got out of here at the same time as me and I didn't mean to imply that you guys were odd to be here I just though it was an odd coincidence to see but not odd in a bad way just kinda funny like haha funny but i guess not and anyway i came here because i thought it would be fun to chat with you and-"

"Fucking breathe jason!" resonated a voice inside his head interrupting his rambling and forcing the young man to take a deep breath, hold it, and then sigh out slowly, hanging his head down in his perpetual embarasment as he held his hand towards Rue lightly.

"This is my friend Rue..."

 

[Apollyon]

"So, how was your day Sky?" Lelou asked in earnest.

He had his elbows on the table as he he sat next to the child who had insisted that he be on the inside. His hands lightly overlapping each other with no small degree of casualness. His hair messily arranged, but somehow it seemed to work in his favor; many girls found the young man a heart throb and adorable. The fact he took care of Skylar like an over-protective brother wasn't helping him be a recluse either. But he honestly couldn't help it. Since he willingly became a test subject, he had always kept to himself. He even preferred solitary confinement to the outings of the ordinary functionings of his peers. It wasn't that he felt superior in any way, though--truthfully he was a prodigy having earned a healthy respect for his abilities and the many ways of ingeniously using it for various ways it wasn't used otherwise.

He was respected. He was feared. He was liked and some had infatuations. But truthfully, he had no idea what the hell to do with those emotions. A girl could say "I love you" right then and there and all he would be able to do is go "So what?". It wasn't that he was being cruel, though he would certainly come off as such. He could pull of being cold, being an "asshole" or being a "prick" fairly well. They were really just the same face with a different outfit for that day. However, the day that he met Skylar some two years ago, something in him changed. Maybe not even on purpose but a happy mistake.

Skylar was no way near functional as a human being when he came to the institution. He was catatonic and damn near dead both inside and out. He wasn't cheerful, he wasn't loving and he sure as hell didn't talk--at all. This six year old next to him went through a travesty one that reminded Lelou of why he wanted to stay in here. Out there, there were enemies you couldn't see or weren't even aware of until they struck. In here, Lelou knew who he couldn't or shouldn't trust.

That said, when the administrators told him about Skylar and showed him the pitiful soul; broken, scared alone. Lelou saw himself. Maybe in a different scenario, butt he end result was the same. With Skylar, his parents beat him. They often would lock him in a cage meant for an animal or a room filled with ammonia gas that burned him. It was because of these events and more, that Skylar understandably held a high level of anxiety towards adults or generally as those he perceived as "older".

That is, until Lelou befriended him. Became his protector. Two years of progress, and still Skylar responded to quick hand movements with cringes and shout was met with him locking himself in closets or somewhere generally cramped because his fear was telling him to go to his cage but with no cage around he found the next best thing. The medicine might have helped his autism and his other mental deficiencies--butt hey didn't magically delete memories or the pain attached to them.

"Well," Skylar slowed his pace at eating only the chocolate chips of his 'Chocolate chip cookie dough' ice cream. " I...didn't like you not being there Lelou." He truthfully muttered, picking at the ice cream slowly.

"I know. I know you don't Sky. But I got classes just like you do buddy. You don't want me to get in trouble, do you?" Lelou questioned, tilting his head. He knew what the answer was going to be.

"No! Honest!" Skylar blurted out. "I'll be good! Tell them I'll be good!" The boys eyes looked pleadingly up into Lelou's.

Lelou hated that look. How could any one--least of all a damn parent--make their child give that look? It was a glance of terror. Like he was afraid what happened to him, might happen to Lelou if he didn't "behave".

Lelou put a hand on Sky's head and ruffled his hair a bit. "Okay Lammy, Ill tell them." He then patted his lap in which the six year old summarily climbed onto.

"You been practicing?" Lelou asked, looked around for something lightweight. He found an unopened straw--perfect for a a demonstration.

"Yeah! But I haven't quite gotten it yet--How did you get so good with your power? The way you control all those blue and white lines--you're the best!" He asked, looking back at Lelou.

"MM, I don't think I ever looked at in terms of being 'the best'. I just wanted to do it for me, I had this ability and I wanted to see how far I could go with it. Now I can even beat up lightening whenever you get scared of storms." Lelou gave Skylar a grin, the boy's eyes widened in wonder.

"I wanna get that strong! Can you make me that strong Lelou? Pretty please!" Sky begged him, having turned around completely and begun to cling to his button up.

"I don't know if I can 'make' you do anything. First of all, you eat way too much ice cream and secondly your ability might be different than mine." Lelou stated with some degree of "As a matter of fact" kind of tone.

"Oh...Aw man, I can't do your ability?" Skylar seemed genuinely upset as he then looked at Lelou's hand. "What's that straw for Lelou?"

"It's for you silly. Just because you can't do MY ability, doesn't make YOUR ability any less cool or useful. I control electricity--the flow of things called 'particles', especially things called ions and electrons. Do you know what you can do?"
Skylar looked at the straw then blinked and shook his head. "No." He replied.

"You can alternate the gravitational pull of something--making it much heavier or much lighter. You can also summon very rare phenomena. But that's for later. For right now I want you to focus on the straw. Nothing else should matter except my voice and this straw--got it?"

Sky responded with a strong nod. "Got it!"

"Okay, Sky, what I am going to do is hold this straw out in front of you. What you are going to do, is focus on the straw itself. Imagine it being so light it can float. Think you can do that?" Lelou questioned Sky from over his shoulder while extending his arm to an out stretched position.

"I will try my hardest Lelou!" Sky was fired up. His enthusiasm was always infectious.

"Don't worry if you don't get it within the first few tries. Just stay calm, relax and try your best. Focus only on the straw--nothing else." Lelou instructed.

Skylar leaned forwards, his hands on the edge of the table with his eyes locked on the straw. The look of determination was much similar to how a cub might look on its first real hunt, or a chick on its first leap out of the nest; anxious, ready and eager. When a few moments had passed and it came time to really focus, Skylar's attention was so adamant that he forgotten to continue to exhale. His face slowly began to turn into a shade of reddish purple. When Lelou released the straw from betwixt his thumb and fore finger, Skylar saw it falling, and falling but he couldn't hold his breath anymore--he exhaled forcefully blowing the straw woefully off course.

Thankfully, there was an abundance in the form of a straw dispenser.

"Sky, you can't hold your breath like that when you focus. It'll do you no good." Lelou told him.

"Okay, can we do it again?" He asked excitedly.

"Yes, we can do it again." Lelou popped another straw from the dispenser. He then outstretched his arm and held out the straw in front of Sky--this time facing up instead of down.

"Now remember; calm, relaxed--don't forget to breathe. Deep breath in, slow breath out."

"Okay." Skylar focused once again, this time after taking a deep breathe and exhaling slowly.

Lelou had found the best way to help keep Skylar in-line while simultaneously helping him project his psyche ability was to encourage him little by little; building his confidence and self awareness. The straw seemed to 'behave' differently this time. Rather than wait for Lelou to release it as was expected, it began to lift gradually into the air--as was intended. It toppled end over end and spun as though it were in a zero gravity environment. This could or not have been for the lack of refinement, it just wasn't an easy answer with gravity vs telekinesis. Both could lift, pull, slam things. But gravity could devastatingly 'implode' objects.

"Okay, now hold it....hold it...and let it drop!" Lelou said, hitting the timing button on his watch.

The straw clattered to the table with no circumstantial effects. Sky on the other hand, was easily seen as tired as can be. The effect of working a 'muscle' in a taxing manner when before he had no real clue how to use it.

"One minute forty seconds. I think with a little practice we can change that." Lelou said aloud. "What do you think?"

"Yeah!" Sky responded, and like that his energy was restored--for the most part.

"H-hey Lelou, hi there Sky, fancy meeting you two here. Well, I guess you two would obviously be here since Sky likes sweets so much, and you guys got out of here at the same time as me and I didn't mean to imply that you guys were odd to be here I just though it was an odd coincidence to see but not odd in a bad way just kinda funny like haha funny but I guess not and anyway I came here because I thought it would be fun to chat with you and-"

By that point, Lelou was simply staring at Jason. He really had a blank expression on his face, nothing too ominous or heartbreaking really. He simply did not know what to do with the awkward adolescent man. In this regard, he himself was rather awkward. However, Sky had ducked down to Lelou's side nearest to the wall and furthest from Jason and the young girl he was about to introduce.

Lelou had met Jason a number of times beforehand, so this wasn't a time for which he was getting acquainted with the boy. In fact, they were in some of the same classes, granted he was usually at the head of said classes due to his rank. He was usually sociable whenever Jason wanted or needed to talk. Though his indifference to social gatherings of any kind usually painted Lelou as a bad boy figure and one generally not to be trifled with.

Sky however, had met him only once or twice--so his attitude towards Jason was caution given his past history. Sky didn't know the girl behind Jason either and that made him all the more nervous. Nevertheless, Lelou was between him and them so he didn't have too much to be afraid of.

"This is my friend Rue..." Jason said finally after being frustratingly unadept with greetings.

Lelou leaned forwards peering past Jason himself and gesturing a "hello" with Skylar peer over his shoulder like some kind of chocolate faced lemur or something.

Lelou nodded his head backwards. "He's Skylar I usually call him "Lammy" though. Because he's a big fraidy cat. I'm Lelou, obviously."

Lelou the relaxed back in his seat while Sky resumed consuming his melting sundae.

"You and your friend can have a seat if you want Jase, I wont bit I promise. Can't say the same about him though." Lelou glanced over at Sky who was covered in runny chocolate.

"Before we go inside, I'm spraying you down with a hose--I ain't letting you walk in my room like that."

 

[Ravenbelle]

Rue stayed silent all throughout Jason's awkward little monologues. Her head was really bothering her and though she knew he could get nervous, the thought of really organizing this meeting for the Broken Mirrors must have really shaken him up. She smiled at him every so often, but kept holding them back, afraid he'd be offended by the way she found some of his anxious phrases comical. The fist in the strap of her bag tightened and she clenched her jaw when Jason introduced her to Lelou and Sky. She's seen the handsome teen around brew before and she knew what he could do, but not much more than that. Rue knew nothing of Sky except that he seemed very wary of strangers and something inside her made her want to calm him
The short redhead grit her teeth and gave them a small wave and tentative smile, again trying to downplay her migraine. Why won't it just go away?! Ever since she stopped using kaleidoscope, the headaches after using her powers grew both in how often they occurred and how painful they got. She was glad Lelou offered them seats at the booth because sitting would be very welcome at the moment. The bashful girl usually would have waited for Jason to agree and slide in himself since she was a follower and inept with social situations, but..well, when drum pound in your head this loud...
"Thanks. nice to finally meet you, Lelou, Sky." Rue also gave a polite little smile to Jason and slid into the bright colored booth, facing Sky who was eating his sundae.

 

[Tanzinite]

Carefully, Casey studied Jason and the girl with him as they left for the table where a young man and a small child sat. All the while, she tried not to draw too much attention to herself, which made her tendency to stare extremely difficult to handle. It was from under her curtain of hair that she observed the awkward greetings that were exchanged. She couldn't hear them, but from the set of Jason's shoulders and his awkward glances she could infer that he was having a hard time trying to be nonchalant.

As they settled in, she moved to get up. Except she didn't. She'd been so focused on the others that she hadn't even noticed her own dissociation. Dammit! She thought, as her ethereal self drifted away from her body in the direction of the others. It was like swimming, especially when a dissociation came on without her knowledge. So in order to get back to herself, it wasn't just a matter of walking back, it was a matter of kicking her way back against a current dragging her towards her latest fixation. Sometimes her power shocked her. It seemed to take on a life of its own at the most inopportune moments.

Shifting around where she "stood" she finally spotted her own hunched body. The way her head rested on her arms made it look like she was napping. In a way, she supposed that was true. But it was more than just a nap. Dissociating used to be so painful, like having a part of her ripped from her body. When her training had first begun, she would resist so adamantly that she got in trouble several times. The administrators didn't take very kindly to resistance, especially when it was ongoing. Finally, she'd resigned herself to the pain of dissociation and had slowly discovered that it eventually receded.

Now, as her most recent misadventure had proven, she could slip from her body without a single sensation. That scared her more than the pain ever had. What if one day, when she was very powerful, she slipped away long enough for harm to come to her body? What if she didn't notice until her body was in bad shape? Sure, she might notice if she tried talking to someone and they ignored her, but she tended to be reclusive to begin with.

Taking a deep, unnecessary breath, Casey focused on pulling herself back to her body. Her only anchor to life. It was harder than she had expected, even as she focused forcefully. Sometimes, the dissociation had the distinct feel that she associated with her old manic episodes. She was glad her mental illness was about as cured as it could get, but the fact that her power had such a strong resemblance to its symptoms was disturbing.

It was like having cool water poured all over her body, without getting wet. That was the feeling she had when she slipped back into herself and lifted her head. Her eyes would barely open. Perhaps she looked like she was sleeping, but dissociation was much more taxing than that. Instead, it was like running a marathon, without moving a muscle. That was another problem with her spontaneous dissociation, it could seriously hurt her if she drifted far enough from her body that it took a while to get back. She strongly suspected that a long enough separation would lead to death or coma, and that terrified her.

Strongly suspecting that the meditation she'd been doing was at least partially responsible for her new found tendency to project without effort, she wondered if she should give it up. Sure, it had decreased the pain she felt when projecting absolutely nothing, but if it was behind the spontaneous separation, she felt it was too great a risk. Yet all the evidence she had told her that continued meditation would allow for even better control. Supposing it would never be a simple task, she resigned herself to further practice. Not only that, but she promised herself that she would remain alert and engaged for the remainder of the day, to avoid further complications.

With that determination fresh in her mind, Casey rose from her secluded seat and very casually walked up to the four seated at the table she'd been keeping her eye on earlier. They all appeared to be enjoying themselves, if somewhat awkwardly. "Hey guys," she smiled as she approached. To her sadness, the young boy shrunk away from her presence. He did not trust her. Supposing that was prudent, she swallowed her hurt and continued. "Mind if I join you?"

 

[Buio]

Jason sighed as he sat down, grabbing a seat in between Lelou and Rue.

"Thanks," he replied shortly, giving a weary smile. He then realized that in his haste earlier, he has completely forgotten about his milkshake that was still sitting unattended at the bar. He wanted to go get it, but at the same time felt like leaving and coming back with it would only draw more attention to his blunder and embarass him more. He became very quiet (in part from the subconscious activation of his power that came whenever he felt like he wanted to disappear) and became consumed in his internal debate of whether or not to go get it before more people showed up. god how he wished that he had more general telekinesis right now and could just move the glass over to him with his mind without needing to get back u. Maybe that way he could have made sure no one noti-

"Hey guys."

and queue another familiar voice to snap him out of it.

"Mind if I join you?"

Jason looked up and saw Casey standing next to where rue was sitting and gave her a smile as well, meek as it my have been. "Hey there Casey, feel free to grab a seat," he said, motioning towards the spot next to Rue before turning to the group.

"Guys, this is Casey Harris. She's another friend of mine. She's one of the people i invited to hang out with us today."

Jason turned back at the new arrival as she was sitting down and smiled "So, do you know if any of the others are on their way?" He asked, knowing full well that the girl had no way of knowing if any of the other members were nearby, let alone coming to the meeting. As with (mostly) everything else so far, the question was just for appearance's sake.

 

[Valerium Therme]

"The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places."

A darkened room, a sleeping giant with a shadow perched precariously over his face. His blade drawn as he approached, the lethal intent clear as it shone brightly even within the darkness. The beast asleep as he prepared his strike, all the while the doll whispering in his ears of the quest he must finished. "Slay the knight. Pierce his heart. With his blood the kingdom will shine." The blade was lifted, almost as if the arms themselves moved autonomously from the rest. The knight gasped once and as if on command the blade was thrust firmly into his heart. Deafening silence fell in the room as if to signify the catastrophe to follow. A contorted expression of horror spread along the knights face as the shadow faded away and he had realized exactly what he had just done. The dying knight screamed and his voice seemed to quake the very room itself.

"Everything has to come to an end, sometime."

It was the blood the doll never warned him about and it was the blood that the hero would never forget as he fell from the knights chest towards the ground. In his desperate attempt to cling to his fleeting life the knight removed the knife and it was then that the hero saw the blood. Crimson stained the blade and matted the shirt the knight worse, suddenly the knight collapsed and the blood saw fit to stain the ground itself. The quaking intensified as the room seemed on the verge of collapsing on the hero's head. Streaks of blood seemed to slither across the floor towards the hero as a pool of it followed. He tried to crawl away from it but he couldn't escape it as he slipped and fell flat into the never ending pool. As if it was a predator and he was the prey, it wouldn't seem to let him escape it that day. It rose and rose until it was over his head, filling his lungs and eyes with its permanent stain. He tried to scream but found only choked gasps could escape his lips, as the blood rose and rose until only crimson remained.

"Every man has his excuses, and the more vile the man becomes, the more touching the story has to be. What is my story now, I wonder?"

Suddenly Adam's eyes shot open and the crimson was gone. Instead it was replaced with the sight of his dorm room and he found himself looking around to confirm his surroundings. The nightmare was stuck firmly in his mind but it was one that he had gotten accustomed to. It seemed one of the side effects he was going to have from becoming a natural would be the occasional nightmares but in the end the trade off was worth it. Taking the poison that the administrators provided to them would be far worse a torture than a simple nightmare or two. At the very least Adam had found that overtime the dreams became significantly less frequent as he managed to control his powers in much the same way he had when under the effects of the medication. He shook his head as he forced the dream from the forefront of his mind and glanced over to the bed across the room from him. It appeared the inmate he shared his room with was still fast asleep and snoring quite loudly. Adam was glad for that as he would have hated waking him up and having had to deal with the man's inquisition into what he had dreamed about. There were simply some things that Adam felt would be better off left unsaid.

He groaned and scratched his head as he got out of bed. It was really relieving to have days off like this, after all he couldn't say he enjoyed going to the testing centres to throw his voice around until it went hoarse. But it appeared this day wasn't going to be one for downtime as Adam went to the bathroom to shower and get ready. Before having a shower Adam chose to brush his teeth and as he did he could feel an object within his pocket shift against his leg. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the silver ring he had grown so obsessed with in the past year. With the ring in his fingers he seemed mesmerized by it, rotating it across his fingers for a few seconds before dropping it. The ring hit the bathroom floor, making a clang as it did, and a ringing sound seemed to become prevalent in Adam's ears. He reached for it slowly and as he grasped the ring again the ringing stopped. The ring had a weight to it that was unmistakable to Adam, a weight that seemed to Adam to be equivalent to that of the one ring around Frodo's neck as he made his way towards Mordor. His palm closed around it as he turned to face the bathroom mirror and finish what he was doing. It was then that he saw the object in the corner of the mirror. The object spoke with a voice only Adam would ever know.

"Such is the vastness of his genius that he can outwit even himself."

The words rattled within Adam's brain as he stared at the doll that sat within the corner of the mirror. Its smile wide and twisted in a way only a child could ignore. Adam stared intensely at the doll as it seemed to mock him with its very appearance. His body quaked and as he spoke he found himself whispering to the mirror in a shaky voice. "You aren't...real. You aren't...you aren't there." He closed his eyes and focused hard on forcing the figment away. His mouth opened again and this time his voice had more strength to it. "Go away. You're nothing but a figment of my imagination" His eyes slowly opened as he checked to see if the doll was still waiting for him but luckily it had gone. He breathed a sigh of relief as he took a moment to regain his senses and calm his nerves before putting the ring back into the pocket he had pulled it out from. After that he started getting ready again, there was still awhile before the meeting but he didn't want to be late nonetheless.

After finishing getting ready and putting on a pair of pants, a t-shirt, and the sweater he was frequently seen wearing he headed out to the recreational district where the meeting was supposed to take place. His first stop after arriving was the library where he checked himself out a copy of The Name of The Wind and headed to the meeting spot. He took a seat at his own table relatively close by to the sweets bar that the meeting would revolve around and put his feet on the table as he leaned back in his chair, reading the novel he had gotten from the library. He found himself absorbed in it that he wound up losing track of the time and losing his perception of his surroundings enough that he completely missed Jason's whistle to alert them to the start of the meeting. If not for Adam hearing his loud declaration about getting a milkshake he may have completely forgotten about the meeting.

Adam sighed as he looked away from his book and saw that Jason had already met with the new girl and that they were on there way to the meeting spot at that very moment. It appeared he wasn't going to get to finish it this time as he closed the book up and got to his feet. Carrying the book under his arm as he approached the table the group had started speaking around. On his way his eyes darted over to the sweets bar where he noticed Jason had left his milkshake back at the bar when he headed over to the table. Adam had known Jason for quite awhile now and was even one of the longest standing members of their movement out of the ones there today. It struck him that leaving his milkshake lying around like that was something that might end up getting under Jason's skin, though that would really depend on the mood the guy was in. Either way Adam thought he'd do him a favour as he quickly swung by the bar and grabbed his milkshake off the bar counter before approaching them. Arriving at the meeting he offered Jason his milkshake back as he spoke.

"I had a feeling you weren't going to want to let this go to waste."

 

[Apollyon]

The girl Rue, was as awkward mannered as the "mastermind" of this incredulous get together was. Not that he was complaining--for the most part. It was just, Lelou never really opted for social gatherings let alone group events. The last one he was at hadn't fared so well and it wound up landing him in death row. But now he was here. And he was just wonderful.

"Hey Rue." Lelou responded almost seeming forced into it. He really didn't want say hi, but then again, he also didn't want to come off as an asshole. Choices choices.

When the girl gleefully greeted Skylar just the same, Skylar did what Skylar did best--hide--in his shirt--with chocolate ice cream all over his face having been accumulated by wanton destruction of the fudge brownie BEFORE the bananas merciless demise. Oh goody another shirt stained. Bravo!

"Sky, we talked about this.." Lelou's stern voice became ever more clear to the boy, grabbing his attention--willingly or not.

"H-h-i Rue..." Skylar's eyes became those of a puppy's; adorable oh so deceiving. However, with a brief ruffle of his hair--he was calm and relaxed.

That was..until the next girl came. Once again, he hid into Lelou's body; gripping the fringes of his muscled arms wholesome physique in some reminiscent of a Koala bear. This time he was hidden the the back side of Lelou's left armpit--peering out.

By this point,Lelou stopped counting; the stains would multiply exponentially. It was akin to a chocolaty big bang where things came to one focal point as if by magnetic attraction. Only in this case and point it was a well dressed shirt and gooey goodness.

Jason having invited the girls over, would seat one next to him meanwhile Lelou would scoot over allowing Casey to join them. That is, if she wished to risk being covered by a chocolate six year old. But that wasn't the end of the guest list, oh no! Adam was to join the festivities as well.

Oh joy...Lelou could not stifle the excitement oozing from his stoic face. No, he was as happy as could be.

But rather than wait to be asked; Lelou picked up Skylar, scooping him up and planting him on his lap so that he could then scoot even further in and allow Adam to join them as well.

By the way, who was Adam really? Why did he need to know him? Did he have to know him? Why did he have to know Adam? Was it a perquisite or something? Was it mandatory? As Lelou was about to take a gander at this "Adam" in all his glory and perhaps a curiously placed freckle--he came to a startling new revelation.

He would have to look across Casey TO GET to Adam...

Which meant the possibility of starting a conversation there first. Suddenly, he found himself sympathetic to the Nazi's and their reasoning for invading Poland. It was to get to the other side!

"Don't look at her you fool!" He quickly derailed his spanning attention.

"If you look, she'll see you! If she sees you, she'll day hello--or worse, start talking about a topic!"

Lelou then looked across from himself and spotted Rue. "Oh no! Look away! She will DEFINITELY say hello!" Lelou did as he commanded himself to do and averted his gaze before she could take notice.

"I'm trapped! Trapped!People that are going to talk will be talking all around me and they may even pull me into their conversations! What do I do, what do I do?!"

Despite how frantic he may have been on the inside--no one could hardly tell with his face as stoic and indifferent as it generally was.

 

[Kuroh]

The dorm room was dark and more than a little bit cold, and Andrew sat on the floor. Well, to be more exact, he sat with his back up against his bed and his duvet draped around his shoulders, head laid back on his mattress. It was a position he had taken a liking to a few months earlier as the view was entirely different from any other, and he could stretch without actually moving. At the moment, he was staring up at his dark and shadowed ceiling, wondering what it would be like to fly. He cracked a smile at the thought of meeting someone with that power, which in all likelihood he would, seeing as he lived in Brewster. "What freedom!" he exclaimed, crooked smile widening.

Andrew had spent most of his day holed up in the White school, sitting pretty on a chair while people bustled around him, going about their daily business. It had been one of his least busy days, but he had stayed in the building nonetheless. After all, sometimes it was just so fascinating to sit and watch people interact with each other. If he found them exciting enough, he would butt into their conversations without a second thought. If they didn't meet his expectations, he would look away and imagine how they would react if they were in an entirely different situation. Once, he got bored enough that he stuck his foot out and tripped a girl. His laugh had disrupted several other people in the hallway, but Andrew merely waved brazenly whenever people glared. As his laugh echoed off of the walls, he watched the girl's papers flutter through the air like living creatures, each on their own path towards freedom.

Ah, yes. Freedom. It was a word that had been on his mind since the moment he had woken, the feeling of loss stronger than usual. It was freedom, Andrew had determined, that he was missing. After all, what more could someone ever need? All he wanted was to spread his wings and fly away to a place where he would never be bored. The main reason why that particular word (or was it a concept?) was on his mind had to do with the Broken Mirrors. He hadn't met very many members, as far as he knew, and was more than a little excited to go to the meeting today. There would be new people to meet, new powers to understand, and, thought Andrew with a grin, new friends to make for myself. What a novel idea.

At the thought of the meeting, Andrew checked his watch. It was probably time to head out. After all, he didn't want to be late. With that, he stood and turned on the lights, leaving his duvet in a pile on the floor. He grabbed his comb and brushed out his hair, checking his reflection in the mirror and sighing in discontentment. He wasn't near ready to meet new people. Fifteen minutes later, he wore an entirely new outfit after changing three times, but was ready to go (after checking his reflection nervously again).

Not too long after leaving his dorm, Andrew found himself standing just inside the Recreational District, whistling a little tune to himself and smelling the relatively fresh air. He almost missed the sound of a tone in his ear that could only mean one thing, but he noticed it before it was gone and laughed lightly. The time had come. On his way over, he was distracted for a moment by a flash of worry. What if they didn't like him? What if they ignored him? Andrew shuddered, the frown that had passed over his face quickly disappearing as he shook himself. Seconds later, he allowed himself to smile once more, and caught sight of the group of people over at the sweets store. That was where he was headed. It seemed people were still arriving, and there was a great deal of shifting around the table going on. It looked like it was getting cozy, but there was still space for a few more.

"Good afternoon, my friends!" he announced with relish, striding up to the group and grinning. They were almost all new faces, except for Jason, who he had met a few times before, and possibly some of the others. Andrew wasn't terribly good with keeping track of faces, unfortunately. Not that he ever truly tried. Still smiling his crooked smile, he looked for any empty spaces and asked, "Might I sit down?"

 

[Tanzinite]

Casey timidly sat beside Lelou, who looked about as interested in her as dirt. He sure had a way of looking completely detached. "Uh, could you do me a favour?" she asked very gently. "If I look like I'm totally zoned out, tap me. I've already detached from myself once since getting here, I'd hate to do it again." She didn't know if the look he gave her was a confirmation or not, but she hoped so. She'd already had enough of falling out of herself.

If she were to describe the smell coming from the group of them, it would be something along the lines of candy, nervous sweat, and hormonal discomfort. She wasn't sure if the latter could count as a smell, but it sure seemed to permeate the air like crazy. With quite a bit of certainty, Casey wanted to flee. It wasn't so much that these other people intimidated her, but that she liked open spaces where she could move around. It was the feeling of being trapped that spooked her the most.

"I had a feeling you weren't going to want to let this go to waste," another stranger declared, arriving at the already crowded booth. He'd have to squeeze in either beside Casey or the girl across from her. She'd prefer him next to the other girl. It was hot enough to begin with in the Sweets Shop, but add to that the heat she felt from Lelou, and then her own heat and it turned into a total boiling fest.

"Good afternoon, my friends!" Another voice cried. Another guy. Oh god I'm going to have to be in a sandwich! Eh, what the hell? The thoughts were intrusive. Cheeks reddening in embarrassment, Casey ducked her head against the table for a second, supressing uninvited nervous laughter. Oh God! She thought, trying to pull herself together. "Might I sit down?" The new boy asked. Face still burning, Casey looked up and nodded enthusiastically. Too enthusiastically. She was overcompensating.

"Uh, you can sit next to me, or um," she gulped. Jason hadn't introduced her to the other girl. "Uh, or beside, um, her," She pointed across from herself and turned even darker red. All she wanted to do was run. Her finger shook in complete humiliation. "Just sit beside me," she whispered in a tiny, meek voice. "God save me!" it was a quiet statement, but audible nonetheless.

Casey wanted very much to avert her eyes, but then she had to look right at Lelou, and that wouldn't do either. Her only other option was to stare directly at Jason, which she did in the most obvious of fashions. Eyes wide, she silently pleaded for him to save her from her own embarrassment. He looked just as frozen as she felt. Perfect! He's as bad as me! She thought, half desperate. Finally, she moved slightly closer to Lelou and looked down at the table, waiting for someone to crawl in beside. Kill me now!

 

[Lillium]

"That will be all for today, Miss Daniels. Thank you for your cooperation." A woman's voice broke the silence which had blanketed the room for about an hour. Her tone was pleasant and professional, as always. In all her years at the facility, Autumn had never heard any of them speak in a way that was harsh or betrayed even a hint of anger. Their words were always carefully calculated, manipulative and so very convincing. It would be easy to believe that they were just trying to help her, and she almost did. Almost. Her rose tinted glasses having been shattered for quite a while now, the girl's eyes were wide open to the sickening truth. Forcing her train of thought to a crashing stop before they gave her away, she uttered a polite good bye to the hologram, more out of habit than anything else and headed away from the room. These were dangerous thoughts to have, even in the solace of one's own mind.

Autumn forced her feet to walk at a regular pace, holding them back from breaking into a run. She couldn't afford to be reckless and arouse suspicions. After all, today was a very special day. She wanted to escape, to see her family again and leave this accursed place behind forever. After almost a year of teeth grinding, hair pulling and other lovely frustrations, she had been contacted by a boy around her age. He seemed to have an idea, and (dare she hope?) a solution. They were supposed to meet at the sweets bar in the recreational district. As for who 'they' were she had no idea. Fellow inmates, she'd assumed.

A jumble of emotions churned in her stomach, warring with each other. Excitement, nervousness, paranoia and fear all mixed together to create the lovely combination of mild nausea and an impending fit of giggles. Stop it, Autumn. It's all going to be okay. Everything will go according to plan. Whatever the plan is, which I'm assuming Jason knows. She told herself in an attempt to calm down. Don't focus on the fact that you might all be found out and thrown into solitary or some sort of equally horrible punishment. Okay, so that's not really helping. The girl slowed her walk and concentrated on drawing long breaths. Inhale, exhale.

After a few minutes of breathing exercises she felt calmer and somewhat less prone to freaking out. Her graceful fingers shook only slightly as they unbraided her French plait, letting the long red locks free. Running her fingers through the long silky strands helped her relax while bringing forth a pang of nostalgia. The simple action caused memories of home to float up to the surface, of bedtime stories and her mother's soothing voice while she brushed Autumn's hair. She longed to see her family again, missed them so much that it had become a physical ache which only continued to grow with time. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she dropped her hands back to her sides and quickened her pace. Her hair, being one of the few parts of her being that always did whatever she wanted, looked no worse for wear after a quick toss of her head. Determined to keep her thoughts from straying and her nervousness at bay, she decided to create a simple illusion just for herself. Colorful flowers sprung up from the ground wherever her feet touched, scenting the air with sweetness. She paid little attention to the others milling about in the recreational district and headed into a comic book store. Autumn decided to idle around a little instead of making a beeline directly for the sweets bar. She had a little bit of time to kill before the meeting which she spent browsing comic books, unable to concentrate on even a single page. The minutes seemed to drag on for an eternity until finally, it was time.

"Dear God, I hope I don't end up spilling something or doing something equally embarrassing." She muttered under her breath and walked toward the counter. The pleasant smell of sugar and confections hung in the mostly quiet atmosphere. Her blue eyes scanned the occupants and came to rest briefly on the group of teenagers and shot them a quick smile. From the looks of things, they had already gathered and were conversing rather awkwardly. Autumn had seen all of them around at some point but she didn't really know them. She punched in an order for a tropical fruit smoothie which slid to a stop in front of her a few moments later. Picking up her drink, she headed over to the booth which seemed to be mostly full and offered them a shy smile.


"Hi." Brilliant, Autumn. Your conversational skills are outstanding. "Mind if I sit down?" She added after a slight pause. The booth was mostly full and she didn't exactly know anyone well enough to ask them to move a bit.

 

[Buio]

"I had a feeling you weren't going to want to let this go to waste,"

Amidst the confusion of everyone arriving more or less simultaneously, jason looked up to see adam handing him his milkshake and gave him a silent but almost teary eyes look of incredible thankfulness. Not at the fact that he could now drink his milkshake mind you. It was a very nice mikshake, very well made, very tasty, but he could have lived without it. He was just happy that he no longer had to wrack his mind over whether or not to go get it anymore.

He quietly sipped on his milkshake while all the members awkwardly shuffled into teh booth and took their resective places. it got pretty cramped. whose bright idea was it to put botths outside anyways? he didn't knwo, but he DID knwo whose bright idea it was to sit AT a booth outside. He looked over to to lelou, who was looking rather irritated. well, no, that wasn't really aproproate, he didn't 'look' irritated, but he was stonefaced and was purposefully not actually making eyecontact with any of the other members, not focusing on any one object or point in space either. Jason had ennough experience with anti-social behavior (mostly his own) to know what these actions meant, and what feelings of anxiety and annoyaince lelou would be hiding under his detatched expression.

"Well, his fault, we told him to get a table for the meeting. He should have picked a more spacious spot"

Ah, that explained a few things. So far he felt like he was growing less anxious and awkward. Part of him had been under the impression that it was because everyone else here seemed to be more or less as awkward around other people as him, so maybe that had made him feel more confident. Now that he heard that voice resonating in his head though, the one that was his, but at the same time not his at all, he realized that 'jack' was getting ready to take over and that this was the cause of his calming nerves. Well, he supposed now was as good a time as any.

Jason finished his milkshake, placed it down, and suddenly all awkwardness and uncertainty in his movements and posture seemed to disappear, draining out of him as if it were a physical thing.

"Alright everybody, settle down."

His voice was authoritative, but not aggressive, and he made sure to use his power to augment its volume just a touch to make sure that everyone heard it.

"Now that everyone's here, I've put up a 'barrier' around the table. Anyone trying to listen in on us is just going to hear incomprehensible chatter so you don't need to keep talking in code. Just make sure that you don;t become overly expressive when you talk so that we don;t draw any visual attention to ourselves. Act natural."

It was always odd, this 'transformation' of his. Having his entire mentality and personality do a complete 180. He wondered how the others reprieved it. well, one of the few bonuses of living in a mental institution was that most of the people you were interacting with didn't really tend to judge you on your quirks.

"My name is Jason Greeves, though you can call me Jack. I'm 16 years old, a B rank Ichokinetic, Natural. You've all met me before, and because of this I've chosen each and every one of you to be a part of this team. We have one goal, escape, and that goal unifies everyone here, no matter how different you may all feel from one another, or for what different reasons you might have for wanting to get out of here. That being said, our task won't be an easy one, and will require a fair deal of teamwork to pull off, which is why I've gathered you all here today. Today's meeting will focus on the escape plan, but first and foremost it's about all of you getting to know your fellow Broken Mirrors. So before we get down to business, I want you all to take turns introducing yourselves like I have. Name, age, psychic power and rank, psychic type, and then tell us a little about yourself."

He looked to the girl on his right and smiled kindly "Rue, I'd like you to go first. Then we'll continue in the order that we all arrived, finishing with our illustrious Mr Lelou and his charge."

 

[Ravenbelle]

Rue felt almost as awkward as Jason around the group of people who had found their place at the booth. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but being beside Jason gave her slight comfort since he seemed as uncomfortable around large groups as she was. Her red hair created a short curtain around her face as she looked down, still fighting the headache brought on by overuse of her 'gift'.

When Jason put down his finished milkshake though, he brought all eyes to him and he was suddenly very charismatic. Rue, being very observant while silent, noticed the change in him instantly. He commanded the attention of the Broken Mirrors who, in his bubble of privacy, could speak to each other freely. Rue probably wouldn't find it too hard to act 'natural' since she's not very good at expressing herself anyway. She kept her head down, but tried to pay close attention to 'Jack', Jason's alterego of sorts. It was strange to perceive this sudden change in him and Rue worried if it was painful for Jason to switch personalities like that. Which could be considered the 'real' him?

Well whoever he was sure knew what to say to keep from anyone misunderstanding or getting offended. The idea of escape thrilled Rue, but the breaking out part made her very nervous and she could never stand being in the spotlight of any particular number of people. She was optimistic that it would go well, but she just hoped that when the time came, she would get a bit of warning from her power. So even though Jason/Jack smiled kindly and helped her relax a little, Rue still couldn't quite look up at everyone, even if the polite side of her demanded she make some eye contact when speaking to others. Rue gulped, bit her lip and winced at a particularly painful throb against her skull, but spoke quietly to the group, hoping they could hear her.

"Um I'm Rue..Rue Benette, 16 years of age, rank C," the short redhead lifted her red wristband for emphasis and tried to remember the other two things he wanted her to say. The pounding in her head made it a little hard to focus, but she did get her train of thought rolling again with rusty gears. "I uh, have precognition, which means I can see glimpses of the future and thanks to...Jack," Rue looked up at him for a second, turquoise eyes wide and grateful. "I'm a natural." She didn't know what to say about herself. She thought she had said quite enough to the virtual strangers staring at her across the table, but she felt he had to please Jason, even if she didn't really find herself to be very interesting at all. With her eyes between the heads of two other members, Rue hesitated for a second before coming up with something relevant to say. "I also think this place cages and uses all of us rather than helps us, so I want to help get as many people out as I can. No matter what obstacles we face trying to escape." Rue tried her best to look confident about their chances of getting out of Brew for the benefit of all the Broken Mirrors who she hoped would pay attention to someone else now while she pulled one hand up to rub at her right temple under her hair.

 

[Tanzinite]

As Jason took the lead, morphing from the shy boy she had known for only a month or so to the confident man in front of her, Casey's frayed nerves began to calm. Come on! You've always been so naturally social! Setting her jaw in a determined line, she listened intently to the girl she had been unable to name earlier-- Rue-- as she introduced herself. Precognition. Another Esper. Casey was pleased. From what she knew of the other two types, it was unlikely any of them would understand what an espic power was like. It was just so far away from any other power types. Maybe she and Rue could discuss what they experienced sometime.

Smiling with as much confidence as she could muster-- which wound up being much more than she had expected-- she looked in the direction of Rue and began to introduce herself. "I'm Casey. Sixteen years old. Rank C. When I concentrate, I can dissociate my consciousness completely from my body, and go for a fun little jaunt around, until it exhausts me that is." Smirking a bit to herself, Casey continued. "Lots of people know it by the name astral projection. Very few know that the true name is Telespy. I can observe things without being there physically. At the moment, I'm limited to about a one hundred foot circular radius, but it's increasing quickly. I hope to be as useful as I can be, and if that means driving myself to exhaustion, then so be it. I want out, and I want out soon."

"Now, a little about myself," she continued, face growing sorrowful. "While I'll spare you all the gory details, I can say that my life has been pretty shitty. I mean, my childhood was spent in the cage of poverty, one that few ever escape from. I guess you could say a series of tragedies freed me from that life, but the price was far too high. It took me two years to finally realize that. And then it was all taken from me. I don't know how I got here, nor why they chose me. None of the two people left in the world that I trust-- and consider family-- would have given me up to this place. My bipolar disorder was damn bad, sure, but I was making a slow recovery on the Lithium. Or at least I thought I was. I guess someone disagreed. So here I am, stuck in this high end roach motel, and wanting like Hell to get out." Shrugging, she looked into the eyes of everyone around her, despite the shaking of her clammy hands under the cover of the table. "So I guess that's about all I can say about myself. I hope it's enough."

 

[Valerium Therme]

It seemed the craziness was finally about to start as Jason took the milkshake from Adam's hand. Adam offered him a small smile as Jason looked up at him with a small expression of thankfulness gleaming in his eyes. Everyone of the members of this group would have their own quirks and weirdness, the leader wasn't excluded from that, thus Adam would have to learn to get to know them if he wanted to keep himself from stepping on his comrades toes. He took the first available seat to him as he prepared to settle down for the meeting and glanced over the group Jason had gathered. His eyes scanned across the group, from the boy who very obviously was trying to avoid any eye contact to the two new joiners that joined the group just after Adam did. Inside Adam's head there was a sense of detachment from himself and it allowed him to easier analyse those around him as he himself felt a third-party view to the meeting for which his 'physical' self took part in. That said he was no mind reader when it came down to it and he couldn't for the life of him figure out what kind of things were going on inside the heads of the members that gathered here today.

As he watched the others interaction or lack of interaction he found his separation growing more intense until finally his mind was reigned back in by Jason's sudden authoritative command to gain the groups attention. Adam's attention immediately returned to their leader who's mannerism had made its usual 180 degree turn whenever it came down to important business regarding the group. It appeared that Jason had set up the area now around the table to make sure they could finally drop the charade the group had been taking part in when they started the meeting which meant that it would be time to get down to the business at hand. Jason started things off my explaining to them the plan for the meeting and introducing himself to the entire group, though the things he mentioned are things Adam already knew about him after being a member of the group for over a year now. Though it was when Jason asked them to introduce themselves that Adam got worried. He was going to be asked to tell everyone a little about himself, was there even anything to tell? What really singled him out from the rest of the people in here at the end of the day? He hated questions like these because he wasn't really sure what could make him unique. Clearly his power didn't work because he already had to mention it for one of the previous questions but at the same time he wasn't really sure he wanted to tell them about the disorder that brought him here considering he didn't want to seem crazier than he already was for getting locked up here.

The clock seemed to be ticking as he heard the other's who were supposed to go before him one after the other, Adam listening intently to see if he could get any ideas for what to say about himself. Eventually it came time for him to go and his mind still seemed to pull a blank when trying to think of what he could say about himself. He decided to just go through the motions and hope to come up with something in time for him to talk about himself. He kept his voice steady, his eyes focused downwards which allowed him to concentrate more on his thoughts as he spoke which allowed him a chance to show more confidence in his speech than he truly had.

"My name is Adam Carter. I'm 15 years old and a B rank natural here at the institution. My powers a bit difficult to describe but I generally refer to it as the power of persuasion. Essentially I give people a command and they follow it or I tell them a statement and they believe it." He thought a moment and realized he wasn't being 100% truthful about his abilities. "Well it's not exactly that simple, there's some limitations to it and special rules for the ability that would take awhile to dig into." It appeared it was time for him to tell them about himself but it seemed his mind was still as blank as it had been when he started speaking. God did he hate being asked questions like this. His mind worked tirelessly away at trying to figure out something to say about himself when his hand holding the novel he had gotten from the library tightened its grip on the novel. It was then that it struck him what he could tell them about himself. "Uh as for myself I'm a bit of a bookworm. I read a lot and have read all different kinds of novels like fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. Though my favourite kind is definitely fantasy and it's usually what I can be found reading most days." He placed The Name of The Wind novel he had taken out of the library on the table as if to show the group what he had been talking about.

 

[Kuroh]

Andrew was pleased to see one of the young ladies at the table nod enthusiastically that he could sit down. Although, the following nervous ramble made his lips twitch slightly as if he were trying to hold back an amused smile.

"Just sit beside me," she whispered in a tiny, meek voice. "God save me!"

"Thank you," he replied with a grin, his head cocked to the side slightly. Everyone at the table, and he meant everyone, seemed to be incredibly nervous. There was an uncomfortable and awkward air to the group, despite the fresh breeze blowing across the square. It was all quite amusing to Andrew, who was never more comfortable than when he was surrounded by people, old acquaintances or new, friends or enemies. He shook off his grin, not wanting to intimidate anyone with his exuberance, and slid into the seat next to the nervous girl who had spoken to him first. The fact that she had spoken to him at all automatically made her his favourite, though that could change at any moment. After all, there were other people to be heard, and he couldn't help but gaze curiously across the faces, taking a moment to examine each and every one. He finished with the girl beside him, to whom he winked, though he couldn't be sure she had even seen it.

Jason was then putting his milkshake down, and Andrew's inquisitive eyes automatically turned to him. The man's expression had changed drastically, and he seemed almost an entirely different person from the first time Andrew had looked at him. Ooh, this should be good, he thought to himself, bouncing a little in his seat. After all, anything other than the norm was bound to excite the young man, and what was going on now what most certainly never before seen. His face split into another smile as Jason began to talk, explaining why they were all summoned and what the purpose of the meeting was. So, it was to begin today. Andrew couldn't be more pleased.

Then, introductions began, and he tried to lock face with name in his head, nodding expectantly as each member began to speak. He was a avid listener, and it showed. Although, he was a little impatient to introduce himself.

When his time finally came, he sat up straight and cleared his throat, as if to begin a speech; after doing so, he felt a little uncomfortable, he hadn't intended to sound so pompous, but that was the nature of the beast. He shook his head slightly before beginning, letting his smile stick to his face like glue. "Well, my name is Andrew Archer," he began, trying to speak as clearly as possible, "I'm 17 years old, and I'm nearing the end of my second year here at Brewsters. I am a natural and a C-rank telepath with the ability of aisthikinesis, or sensation manipulation. What that means is that I can make people feel things like pain, pleasure, and more through touch. If I really try I can make people feel more complex things, like fear." Andrew pushed his glasses up and glanced about the small group again before continuing. "How I got in here is boring enough, so I won't even bother saying that, but now that I've been here a while I would quite like to leave. I hate how… confining it is. Everything is scheduled, there are rules, and I'm sick of being unable to be free. That was my main motivation behind becoming a natural, and now it is my motivation for helping with the escape." He nodded, adding a note of finality to his last words, and leaned back to survey everyone again. Yes, life was about to get a helluva lot more interesting, and Andrew couldn't keep his excitement in.

 

[Lillium]

The leader of their little band of misfits, Jason , quite suddenly changed his demeanor entirely. This change didn't go unnoticed by the perceptive redhead and she made a mental note to dwell on it some other time. Sky blue eyes rested on each and every member of the group as they began to introduce themselves one by one. All of them except for one appeared to be experiencing varying degrees of awkwardness and nerves. She couldn't really blame them for it as she felt the same way. This whole idea, while it could be miraculous if it worked, posed a plethora of dangers as well. Autumn sipped her drink and listened to her fellow Mirrors, the swarm of butterflies in her stomach growing larger as her turn to speak drew nearer. It appeared that they had a decent enough group with varying powers. Perhaps this wouldn't end in disaster after all.

A few nerve wracking moments later it was finally her turn to speak. The redhead drew in a soft breath through her nose to help calm herself even if a little bit and pushed her drink a bit further away. Praying that she didn't do something to humiliate herself, she offered a tentative smile and began.

"I'm Autumn Daniels." She began, her voice carrying a hint of nervousness. A sudden ridiculous thought that this seemed an awful lot like a therapy group session or something akin to AA popped into her head along with the urge to let out a hysterical giggle which she managed to squelch. "I'm sixteen years old and I've been here for almost three years now. That's quite a long time to go without seeing one's family, in my opinion at least." She found herself pausing for a second as longing and sorrow flitted across her features, barely lasting more than the fraction of a second.

"I'm an A rank telepath, a Hallucinokinetic. Artificial." The last bit was added with a bit of embarrassment tinting her words. "Hallucinokinesis is the fancy way of saying Illusion Manipulation. I can manipulate someone's perception of reality, make them see what I want them to see. Well, I suppose it extends to a bit more than just 'seeing'. 'Live' is a better word, I think. "

Autumn tucked back an errant lock of hair and forced a small smile before continuing. She didn't especially want to reveal her life story but she supposed letting them know a bit of background was necessary to begin the build of trust as a group. "I began to have problems after an incident, and I gradually got worse. My parents tried so hard to help me and they heard of Brewster's after years of ineffective treatments. They just wanted me to get better. " She reached for her drink and took a small sip. "Anyway, that's the short version of 'how Autumn Daniels ended up in purgatory'. As for myself, I can't wait to get away from all this and go home."