WEIRDER STUFF - Rainbow Connection

[Clara Lys Wright]

Clara's eyes widened at Jason's explanation to Marissa. "Uh, she can get expelled for that. That kind of sexual harassment could put her in jail if Jase or the school district decided to press charges." She gave a shrug, her expression clearly stating that she would be for such an outcome.

"Also, when did you add 'Carrie' to list of abilities, Jase? And why do you keep getting all the nifty stuff?" Her questions were asked more quietly, not to carry past the table, and while she was clearly a little jealous she was also grinning at the taciturn fire-starter.

Her eyes slid over to Devin, "And for 'this isn't friendship', you noticed, huh? Shocking that people you've bullied for years aren't lining up to be your best bud the moment you decide you need a social change of pace. Welcome to life. People get upset, people aren't at their best when they're scared and stressed and the world is just being crazy. Go your own way if you want, Devin - and please, for the love of God, take Marissa with you. I'm willing to keep trying to figure this out and actually do something about it. That's why I tried to get everyone working towards some actual goals yesterday, and I basically got told by two people that we should just plink at our abilities and not, y'know, try to find out where the missing classmate is because it might be dangerous. No kidding. If I were missing, I'd hope someone might be willing to take on some bit of dangerous and try to help me. And I don't even like Cody Sikes."

She sighed and looked at Lona, who gave her a shrug in return. "Lona and I actually did try to get some things figured out after Bunnee's last night. At least some of you are probably going to rant and scream at us about it, but frankly I don't care. We did something and while it didn't lead to information on Cody, we do know some new things now. Since I don't feel like being ranted at twice, I'm gonna give the others a little bit longer to get here before going into details. You're certainly free to leave before then, Devin."

[Bannon]

6 hours ago, Coraline Hess said:

"I blew myself up on purpose last night, so if there are ghosts, they're very cooperative ghosts. You?"

7 hours ago, Cassandra Allen said:

"I swear every time I sit down with you guys there's a fight going on."

1 hour ago, Clara Lys Wright said:

Go your own way if you want, Devin - and please, for the love of God, take Marissa with you.

He snapped his long fingers, causing flame to spring to life once more on the end of his thumb, drawing all eyes to the flickering light.  Gazing briefly at each of them, he caused it to leap from thumb to forefinger.

"First order of business:  Well done, Coraline.  I see all your pieces seem to be in the right place, so I imagine there was more of a concussive burst than anything serious."  And the acerbic butthead actually smiled somewhat warmly at the dancer.  "I imagine you were quite worked up.  You got angry, perhaps lashed out at something safe to lash out at.  You pushed your limits somewhat, and discovered something.  And the fact you are back here now speaks volumes for your resolve.  We shall have to work together to help each other discover more of our gifts."  He inclined his head, his pale eyes appraising her as the flame caused fireflies to dance in the depths of his gaze as it flickered to his index finger.  He turned his gaze on Cassandra.

"Second.  You didn't walk in on a fight, Cassandra.  There was just some discussion going on - because if we were fighting, I'd have already walked off."  he stated flatly.  "Devin was expressing doubts as to the team mentality, which he is semi-justified in doing given our performance so far.  We need to organise better - such as setting up that pin-board you mentioned, and assigning task leaders to those best suited, everyone else helping them as asked.  Try to avoid any more 'rogue operations', as I believe the intelligence community call it."  He was calm and non-recriminatory as he looked at Lona and Clara.  "What is done is done - people might be upset at Clara and Lona for last night's work, but what is certain is that they learned something solid, and may learn more today.  I strongly urge people to keep their outrage to a minimum and look forward rather than backwards.  Sometimes mishaps can bear fruit."  He kept his gaze on Clara.

"Thirdly..."  and the flame danced to his ring finger.  "Enough of that.  Just... enough.  Everyone.  If I have agreed to moderate my tongue, then the rest of you better fucking well do so."  The flame swelled ominously.  "No-one gets driven away.  No-one gets left to the MiBs or the Dark to pick up.  I spent last night in the middle of nowhere waiting for the sound of black helicopters.  I just discovered that my talent for motion applies to thermal excitement and subtraction.  I had my cock inspected - and apparently approved of, lucky me - by Shelly's greatest connoisseur of genitalia, a fact that makes me profoundly glad I don't experience shame.  I am struggling with my own shit right now, and I'll be damned if I carry everyone elses too."  The flame winked out.

"If I have to repeat this speech, I won't."  he said very calmly as he replaced his earphones.  "I will find better things to do."  And he sat back, turning up his music and closing his eyes.

[Sean Cassidy]

"What... he... said... - huhg! - mostly," Sean wheezed, his naturally sweet honey-and-velvet voice hoarse and thin as he pointed at Jase. Sara was passing by behind Sean, a tray loaded up with several cartons of milk and a mound of what passed for scrambled eggs, liberally garnished with fruit, her burly slap on his back shoving him forward partially over the table and almost making certain protrusions knock over the remnants of his soda. But the explosive cough the slap generated seemed to have cleared his throat. He looked over his shoulder and gave Sara a tight nod and grin of thanks as he twisted an arm behind himself to rub his back - she'd gotten him right on the band. "Thanks."

"No problem," the powerfully built young woman replied, returning his grin minutely as she took a seat at the far edge of the table, then opened her first carton of milk and downed it in one pull. The skeptical look Sara shot Bannon bounced off his earphoned-and-close-eyed countenance, but her pale green eyes were more friendly when she regarded the rest at the table. "Morning, guys."

Greetings exchanged, Sean wiped the few tears wrung from his eyes and took a sip of his traitorous soda, his throat no longer feeling so raw. "What I was saying, or trying to say, Jase more or less covered. No weren't fighting, even if tensions are running. What's done is done. Unless it's put the group in more danger - okay, maybe noticeably more danger, since with everything going on, almost anything can put us in more danger when we know so little - let's try not to harp on it too much. And moderate the words and actions we direct at each other, which should apply equally to everyone."

He didn't name names with his reiteration, but eyes around the table glanced quickly to Marissa and Sara. "To Jase's three points, I'd like to add a fourth, no--"

Sean frowned, turning toward Jase, a brow arched expectantly. Then he tapped Jase on the shoulder. Jase cracked an eye open with a 'this better be good' look and slid one earphone off his ear.

"Dude, you laid out your orders of business, I think you can at least manage to hear someone else's," Sean explained sotto voce, unphased. "I only have one, even."

Jase nodded after a moment of consideration, turning down his music a degree.

"Fourth, when we're talking and trying to get our own points of view across, no ,uh-hmm, powers to add weight and fireworks to them, agreed? One, someone we don't mean to will notice eventually, despite how subtle we try to be." Sean's lips quirked wryly, adding a sarcastic edge debating just how subtle some people were trying to be. "Two, it'll just lead to a war of escalation of rhetorical contrivances, which conflicts with point the third about moderation. And three, there's people involved in all this who don't have... whatever some of us have, or obvious ones at least. Let's keep discussions on an equal footing. Fair?"

Jason shrugged after Sean had his say, then put his earphones back on, the music swelling behind the padded confines once more.

Done with what he had to say, Sean leaned back a bit from the table, blinking, his eyes shifting about the cafeteria, the jagged ring of teal seeming to oscillate in a sea of turquoise, his pupils near pinpricks. He'd been ignoring it before, but it was almost as though fireflies on the edge of sight were flitting about the room, more than he had noticed before. Fireflies, but not fireflies. They weren't the right colour, though Sean couldn't have said what colour they were, nothing in the visible spectrum for sure. They kinda buzzed, or hummed, but not really. You know how in novels they write 'a thunderous silence' or the like, it was like that, except not thunderous, but more discreet pulses of not-sound. And the spikes of light didn't move laterally for the most part, but rather in fleeting bursts up and down.

Hmm...

Sean shook his head, trying to put the 'fireflies' to the side while paying more attention to the others at the table. He couldn't help to snort a little thinking about Clara's comment about harassment. While the administration tried to take a hard line on it, unless there were third party witnesses that they considered reliable and who came forward, it usually came down to 'pics or it didn't happen.' Sean could attest to that. Detention, maybe even a suspension might be handed down, but no expulsion without clear evidence, and even then, if the perpetrator had influential parents, still little to nothing would happen.

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly and Laurie made their way into the cafeteria. Once inside Lilly tapped Laurie's arm with the back of her hand and nodded over to the large group of other football players wearing their jerseys as well and congregating around a couple of tables. Following Lilly's lead the pair walked over and Lilly put on her best simple, trying to push everything else out of her head. She was the quarterback, the de facto leader, and the team needed to know she was ready to play tonight.

The carousing with the team helped a lot. All of the worries and inter-personal conflicts fell aside for a bit to be replaced with humor, talk of the game and good natured joking. She always loved sports; the clear goals and rules, the camaraderie of a team, the purity of direct physical competition. The simplicity was such a relief. Right now, she was part of something so much bigger, a team that worked together depended on each other like a well oiled machine. 

As she hung out with the team she could catch glimpses of the rest of the 'fellowship' at their table. Jase looked distant and the rest seemed to be arguing, or at least not having the most pleasant conversation, though Sean spewing her soda certain drew attention. She sighed and began to extricate herself from the team with a series of fist bumps and catch you laters, urging Laurie to join her.

As the pair approached the table Lilly smiled and waved to the others. 

"Hey guys. What's up?" she asked with a hint of concern.

[Sara Hutchins]

"No," Devin said raising a hand to Sean and Jason who were trying to defend his opinions.  "It's cool.  I appreciate it, but it's cool.  She's right, I messed with you guys and you're not under any obligation to be friends with me."

He scooped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder.  "I can walk away knowing that I at least tried.  Good luck in your struggles guys, I wish you the best, but I'm not doing this every other day, Cody needs help."

“Devin,” Sara's voice interrupted him but her tone wasn't her usual dismissive growl, “Marissa, there is plenty of room here for guys to join us. Why don't you sit down?

She didn't wait to see if they did or didn't instead she looked at Clara and then everyone else. “Devin is right about one thing. This isn't friendship. A lot of you were friends, have been for years, some of us have been outsiders and victims, and tormentors. But that was before. Friendship is something that has to be worked at from both sides.

Devin and Marissa have taken those first steps and have largely been rebuffed. I'm sorry that I didn't open myself to the possibility of friendship with them when they first reached out. But I do now.

Look around you there are a hundred other kids in here and we are the ones who have been given these gifts. We have a chance to make a difference to make a change to be better.

To be friends.

But we all have to want that and we all have to work on it together. We will be stronger together than if we are apart.”

 

Bannon hadn't taken his headphones off but he was staring at Sara. She was speaking to him in a voice that wasn't a voice his music was blaring in his ears but her voice came through clear strong and each syllable said 'I am Sara”. And as she spoke to him and to the others, he knew that he could answer her back without saying a work also that he could shut he out as well.

Sara looked at Bannon and Lilly, “I'm sorry Jason, Lilly. I'm sorry I lost control of my temper last night. I could blame 'the dark' but that would be a lie. That was all me.

Most of us have.... issues, my temper, Seans differences, Jason's weirdness ,etcetera, but we all have one thing in common now. We are scared.

We have discovered things that defy logic. Some of us have seen things that threatened us. These changes we are going through has scared us. I know it has scared me.

I wasn't going to come here this morning. After last night like Devin I didn't see the point. But then when I saw all of you this morning,” She puts her hands flat on the table on each side of her tray

, a trickle of blood starts to flow from her left nostril and her eyes, hazel green shift through the spectrum to become dark blue before fading to a light bluish hazel, “I knew that we all belonged together.

It was unnerving suddenly the Fellowship all felt it twinge of pressure as blood rushed into parts of their brains that normally didn't have much use for it. They were connected, felt each other knew that they could communicate on the basest level with each and everyone of them or none of them share everything and for a brief moment they saw the living minds of all those around them the pale blue minds softly glowing precept for those at their table those minds burned like the sun.

Spoiler

As soon as everyone sees the mental signatures of the fellowship the network drops. Sara is breathing heavy and the blood is dripping from her nose into her tray. everyone was for a brief moment part of a mind sharing network and saw what Sara sees. some of you in the brief moment may have noticed something else   you may make a simple Cunning+Empathy test difficult 2, perception/Awareness enhancements apply,  pm me in discord with result and I will tell you what you see.

 

 

[Sean Cassidy]

Sean breathed rapidly at the sight, similar yet different to the fireflies. These were minds. The fireflies were mere... signals, rays of light, where the minds were stars, some distant - in a way - and some blazing like the sun. Most of the sun minds orbited the table... but not all. Beyond the softly glowing star minds, another sun mind burned bright.

Sean blinked, his pupils dilated so far his irises were only a thin ring of alternating turquoise and teal. Silently, Sean picked up a brown paper napkin and held it out for Sara, nodding at her tray then brushing his upper lip with his other hand, before looking around the cafeteria, trying to triangulate the other where the other bright mind was in relation to them.

"Did anyone else see the other one?" Sean wondered softly before turning back to look at Sara. "Is that how you see all the time?"

[Marissa Jauntsen]

Devin winced at the pressure of Sara trying to link his mind to others.  He willfully and instinctively didn't anything about who he was or what he knew to become a part of anything other than his own, personal possession.  His mind was his by right and no one but him belonged there.

His mind was a jumble of mixed fires and random chaotic thoughts that made no sense.  Song lyrics, fractions of memories with only audio, the sounds of every argument with his father and mother, screaming, yelling, random pictures he'd drawn... but there was something... a speck that was decipherable amongst all the chaos.  Cody.  A tree.  And the feeling of blame.

The harder the reflex pushed, the more Sara bled and an ache spilled through Devin's head from his eyes to his spine.

"Ow," he rubbed his temples.  "What the hell Sara?  Feels like to drove a spike in my head!"

"What," Marissa said, chuckling softly as she looked around.  "Devin this... this beautiful.  I've never seen anything like it."

"See what?" He grumbled.

"People, in their rawest form.  Nothing but thoughts, emotion, intentions.  A world without lies,"  Marissa's voice was soft and almost melodic.

[Bannon]

He'd felt / heard Sara's voice, and his guard had already been up when the mental link came.  Instinctively he closed the doors from the foyer of his mind to the rest of it, realising only after bracing himself that this was not an intrusion so much as a... sharing of senses, similar to when she'd shown him the image of the tree she'd picked up.

For the others in the link, there was a sense of cold, almost reptilian intelligence that emanated from the spot where Jason 'registered' on the sensory map, elemental impulse tempered by icy intellect.  For his part he received the welter of thought and emotion that characterised the more neurotypical teens around him, a warm sense of connection similar to, but exponentially greater than, that he gained by touching another.  It was almost with regret that the door was politely closed as he blinked, remembering the bright sun-like auras of everyone at the table as he glanced at Sara, then at the others.  He killed the music from his ipod and removed his earphones.

1 hour ago, Marissa Jauntsen said:

"People, in their rawest form.  Nothing but thoughts, emotion, intentions.  A world without lies,"  Marissa's voice was soft and almost melodic.

Jason glanced up at her, eyes narrowing in thoughtful appraisal before he nodded once. 

"It was beautiful.  And revealing."  he said with a small smile, curving his lips.  "For instance, you shine as much as the rest of us, Mari.  And so do Lilly, and Laurelei, Cassandra and Cade.  Bright warm stars, radiating rather than distantly twinkling like the others here.  I felt you all.  For a moment you were more real to me than you ever have been."  He glanced around the table, head tilting as he recalled how it felt, then glanced at Sara.  "It was a gift you gave me, there.  I won't forget it."

"Shine?"  Sean asked with a small smirk.  "Going all Stephen King now?"

"If the analogy fits."  Jason replied impeturbably.  "We shine.  And that is likely to do with our gifts.  So those of you who think you are without gifts - the evidence suggests you're not.  And nor is someone else in the room..."  He looked at Sean.

"What other one, where?" he asked quietly, but intently.

[Coraline Hess]

"No idea about any 'other ones', but shine is the right word. Sometimes, briefly, since the trailer, the entire world goes grey. Except I'm blue, and just now... Sara made all of us blue. A power about seeing powers? Would that be stupid as it sounds? Anyway... Intense."

In the brief window of wordless perception brought on by Sara, Coraline's mind was a spherical swarm of rainbow-shaded marbles swirling around a small, intense star of determination, choreographed around one another in shifting troupes by unheard music in an orderly fury that somehow didn't collapse into collisions and shattered glass, sparks lancing between them. Great  sheets of crystal hovered in sentry at the edge of the system, twice as thick with spikes and arc lightning in the direction of Bannon.

Concern laced the tall brunette's expression as she looked at Sara, "What did you do? Are you okay? Tell me you guys found a way to sneak us or at least her into an MRI. If doing something hurts, I've always been taught to at least find the why before repeating a move. Probably applies to brains as well as bodies."

[Cade]

"Between Lilly and I, I'm pretty sure we could get her in if she wished.  Might have to give some hard explanations later, but that's something for then."  Cade's voice was tinged with concern.   The flash of insight was impressive, something he knew he couldn't do himself.  Seeing the others like that, he had to admit, Shine was the right word for it.  

He looked to Sean, and echoed the question  "What other one?"  his focus had been on his friends, and yes, even Devin and Marissa.  

[z-Avalon Wilson]

As the link pulled in Clara, everyone caught a glimpse of a large home made of dark wood paneling and large sunny windows. Along the walls were little pedestals with binders on them, each with a different picture on the cover showing faces from Clara’s life. Between them were bookshelves where she kept her other knowledge: school subjects, personal projects, and random trivia. Her mind felt like a cross between a quiet library and an intimate study - filled with knowledge and order but far too lonely in its silence.

In contrast to Clara’s order and solitude, Lona’s mind was bright maelstrom of music and motion: light and color and sound. There were dark edges, were the blues and purples held sway and the songs were sad, but for the most part, it was all music and color.

Clara’s eyes widened as Sara linked them, and she gave Lona an alarmed look at the nosebleed that immediately followed. “Lona, can you help her?” she asked, hoping that the Lona-pick-me-up could do more than just make an all-nighter not a big deal. 

“There was another one, I sa-- felt it too,” Lona said, but she was distracted as she stared at Sara. As she focused, the golden auras around people codified into rainbows. Across the room, she could see one of the teachers was radiating pale green, and knew she was battling a cold. 

Sara radiated red, her body showing distress as if she’d overworked herself on a hot day. It wasn’t overheating or fatigue; it was pushing her brain. Rest. No more stressing that part of her mind. The diagnosis came without thought and Lona reflected that if she could do the actual schoolwork, she’d now be a hell of a doctor. Leaning forward, she asked Sara, “Can I help you with that? You’ve hurt yourself, and I can speed up the healing process.”

“Yes,” Sara said, and Lona reached across the table for her hand. When the bigger girl clasped her fingers, Lona closed her eyes. Again, she pictured the red rolling down her body to collapse on the floor -- but as she did so, she felt something more. 

Clara had put a hand on Lona’s shoulder, desperately wishing she had something more to contribute beyond weird feelings. She felt a push inside of her and then power flowing between her and Lona. Her awareness expanded to the edges of Lona’s pick-me-up and Clara felt like it was energy-clay, molding itself between her and Lona’s desires to heal Sara. 

White energy flowed out from Lona’s hand as music filled her mind. Sara heard an echo of the music and a warmth that flowed from Lona. Where the warmth swept, it took pain and injury with it. To everyone else, nothing happened except Lona gasping and shivering as her fingers tightened around Sara’s. Lona released suddenly, leaning hard on her elbows as she struggled to shut down the sensation of seeing healing and powers, rather than with her normal eyes.

“Oph.” Lona glanced at Clara. “What did you do?”

“I-I’m not sure. I. . .pushed? I could feel what you were doing. Not just that you were doing it, but how and I...I don’t know. I amped it up?” The last was said tentatively as she clearly wasn’t happy with the word choice but couldn’t come up with anything better.

“You sure did,” Lona breathed, blinking and glancing at the others. 

“I saw someone, but I couldn’t tell who. Did anyone else get a better look?” Clara was looking around the cafeteria now, her head still spinning. 

Lona shook her head. “I didn’t see who it was either. But guys… there is another,” she said in a bad Obi Wan impression.

[Cassandra Allen]

"No, I saw it too," said Cassandra quickly, eagerly. She felt part of herself reeling from the experience, but most of her was exhilarated as hell. "Another one like us, really bright. Just a glimpse though."

She looked around the room, trying to place where she'd seen it out of the corner of her eye. Her eyes had been swerving wildly, to startled to sit still and focus. Who was over there?

In that brief window into Cassandra, one could see something like a planet orbiting a star that burned black, like a black hole. Simultaneously bound to that dark core and trapped by...and yet also given speed and direction by it. Gazing at the 'hole' made a chewing, aching echo of loss.

Cassandra shook her head finally. "I don't know, it all happened so fast. But you guys, this turns the whole party idea on its head, maybe. Whoever this other one is wasn't there in the woods with us. If we can find something in common between us and whoever else this is, that'll be a real clue about why this all happened."

[Sara Hutchins]

Sara raised her head and pushed the contaminated eggs away. with one hand and gave Lona gentle squeeze with the other. "Thank you, both of you," she said to Clara and Lona. "That was pushing it. I think if if I did it slower and only a couple of you at a time, and you were expecting it and not fighting," she spared a glance at Devin, " I could get all of us linked and hold it longer." She opened a carton of milk and drank it down. "I found I could do that when I told my dad about the powers. I didn't tell him about all of us just me. But my dads cool and like Sean he reads a lot of science fiction and helped me with  what he had read. That's why I suggested you make a list and stuff Sean. Anyway I managed to link with my dad and keep it going for a while the longest was about half an hour. It not mind reading. It's sharing. Only what you  let through goes to the other."

When the others had mentioned another one, Sara looked around but shook her head. "I can't do it right now that took too much even though i feel better I just don't have the mental strength right now."

[Charlie Cole]

"Thirded." Charlie concurred. Those who got into his mind briefly picked up a stage, something you'd describe as Broadway for lack of a better term. And for a fragment of a moment, the glow, a green illumination that covered the whole area, built and flashed. Afterwards, the glow remained but was in Charlie's head, spreading to the surroundings of the cafeteria... Then with clarity he understood.

This was what the odd nagging sensations for a while had been pointing at, the kind he'd tried to ignore. Now he understood. This was life itself. The group, the other students, a squirrel racing down just outside, he'd been sensing it all without the prior ability to process it properly. Now, he could.

"Of course, now I've got a... life sense for lack of a better phrase active. I swear, are you boosting us Sara, or are we still developing?"

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly blinked and stood motionless as the felt the other minds touch her and had her senses expanded, though touching her mind was no easy feat, as her will was quite formidable, though the fact the touch came from Sara, a friend, caused her to relax her guard a bit. Once inside, it was a word of aspirations, optimism and caring, fortified by iron resolve and determination, keeping her fears, more than any had even suspected she had, at bay.

They could see themselves through her eyes, almost like a filter, not necessarily changing them physically, but instead with greater confidence, self-esteem, understanding and who and what she knew they could be and the personal and private success she wished for them, which varied from one to the next, but were all a flattering. But beneath it was a deep ache of hurt though, mostly quite fresh, though some had been lingering for a short bit.

Lilly took a step back and shook her head, like she was shaking out the cobwebs and then stepped up again.

"What the...? How? Why would our minds shine bright like that if we do not have any... abilities? And there's another? Who" she asked, confused as she looked around the cafetiere, somehow thinking she could pick them out for some reason.

"This.. whoa.. this is trippy, but doesn't make sense."

[Jaunt]

"I would guess that we are... hell, what's a good word?"  Marissa rolled her hand in thought.  "Blessed, as well?  Maybe we just haven't discovered what that is, or it applies to the world at large.  Either way it's not important."

The words were shocking as most thought Marissa would revel in having powers like the others.  She seemed, truthfully so, rather ambivalent to the notion.  "For now, if someone else is out there with these gifts, we need to know who they are and either help them or make sure they're not... God I can't believe I'm buying into this nerdiness... Dark Touched.  Imagine if that monster took hold one of you."

"Fair point," Devin groaned, rubbing his eyes, still shaking off the pain.

"Devin, I'm sorry, I...," Sara apologized, wincing a bit as she looked at what the link did to him.  "If it helps... you being a stubborn bastard is officially confirmed."

They both chuckled calmly.  "Don't sweat it.  We're learning, better you do it to me than one of them."  He pointed to the other students.  "No hard feelings.  So... Marissa is right, can we find this person?"

[Clara Lys Wright]

"The Jabberwocky," Clara said with dark half-smile. At stares from the others, she shrugged. "From Alice in Wonderland. The monster. It seems appropriate." She sighed as no one miraculously appeared at their table with 'I'm a sun so I belong here' emblazoned across them. "Also, with whatever I just did and Lona's ability to heal, we should see if we can test the limits of whatever each of us can do and maybe find something that'll help us find Cody. Lona had visions before and Charlie did that thing at the party. Between those two and Devin's spatial thing, maybe we can...I don't know, basically water-douse where Cody is? Cody-douse?"

Jase caught her attention and gave her one of his almost-smiles and nodded at her, a reminder that he'd already predicted this expansion of her abilities. A tater tot also wandered it's way over from Lona's tray to his hand and was quickly munched upon. 

[Sara Hutchins]

Sara purses her lips, "Hmm, I was going to be against trying to find Cody, " She holds up a hand to forestall an argument, "Not because it's Cody but because we don't need to run into the investigation Cade's dad is doing, that would get us in all kinds of trouble we don't need. But that, Clara, is  a pretty solid idea. It helps us figure ourselves out and might let us finding Cody plus keeps us out of the sheriff's eyes."

Nodding she says, "I can get behind that."

[Autumn Keane]

“Shit,” Autumn sighed in exasperation, tugging the scrunchie off her wrist and looping the still-damp mane of her hair through it in a messy knot that left few doubts about how long ago she’d rolled out of bed. Her phone had been chiming in the pocket of her hoodie for nearly the entire twenty minutes it had taken her to get to school; fishing it out with one hand, she swiped the screen with her thumb and frowned unconsciously as she checked her notifications. Absent-mindedly, the redhead rolled her bike into an empty space in the rack and swung her bag over her head and across her torso, letting the weight of new textbooks settle at her hip.

Oh.

The Snapchat group she’d been invited to (currently named “Juuling Is A Team Sport”) was still showing activity, even as she opened it and walked toward the building. The familiar sounds of conversation, laughter, shouting and doors slamming rang in her ears, but only distantly- as she tapped the screen repeatedly to get through the chat comments and reaction selfies, she was only dimly aware of the crowd loitering outside the cafeteria, half-conscious of someone ahead of her forcefully shoving the double doors open as she approached. Wait, what the hell-?

Her intention, probably, was to follow whomever it was through the doors and head toward the breakfast line to see what was left worth eating.

What happened, unfortunately, was that as she crossed the threshold, Autumn finally got to the snap everyone had been passing around: a shot of a group gathered at one of the tables inside. Most of their faces were covered by various stickers (dollar signs, a smiling poop, a devil mask, and so on), but even though she could pick out who several of them were, one of them hadn’t been given even a shred of anonymity.

Jason Bannon.

A ludicrously not-to-scale eggplant sticker had been plastered over the area where his crotch would be, with animated arrows indicating exactly where the viewer was supposed to look.

“What the fu-”

There was an explosion of sharp, white pain that filled every last atom of Autumn’s awareness as the unimpeded door complied eagerly with the laws of physics and bounced off the rubber stops on the wall to swing enthusiastically back to center. Her phone skittered off somewhere behind her, the world went too-bright and then suddenly spun, and, stunned, she staggered gracelessly backwards into a stumble before sitting down hard on the concrete. Everything was silent except for the ringing in her ears, drowning out the whoops and gasps of onlookers as she hit the ground.

Nothing hurt yet- her brain was still frantically trying to make sense of what had just happened- but she knew it was going to. Probably a lot.

“Hooooo, shiiiiit,” came the stage whisper and stifled laughter somewhere to her left. Swallowing hard as the blood not currently dripping down her face rushed to her cheeks, she gingerly made her way up to her knees, and then back up to her feet. Her palms and ass were throbbing, involuntary tears streamed from her eyes, and her throat was painfully tight. Her vision hadn’t completely cleared yet, although instead of exploding stars, there were vague bright spots hovering around the periphery. Fun times.

Fucking Goddamn Jason Bannon, she thought as she brushed her palms over her jeans, angrily dislodging some of the grit embedded superficially in her skin, and trying not to think about how it felt to be simultaneously irrationally furious and completely mortified. Maybe her phone was all right, at least? Salvaging what she could of her dignity, the redhead forced a shrug and a smile for her audience as if to say, "Haha, too funny, right?" and silently took a mental inventory of which parts of her face (forehead and nose, definitely, lip maybe) were bleeding.

A few of the students who’d seen what happened stepped in to check that she wasn’t going to die, and rummaged around in the planters to see if they could find her phone; unlike the rest of her, it had miraculously managed to escape catastrophe unscathed. Staring at her reflection in the girls’ room and grimacing as she dabbed an ineffectual paper towel at her eyebrow and upper lip, she resigned herself to the fact that she’d probably be stuck with cold oatmeal by the time she got back.

...Shit.

[Clara Lys Wright]

"Good lord! Guys, I'll be back in a minute." Clara exclaimed as she saw Autumn Keene get assaulted by the cafeteria doors. She stood up when she saw that the girl was bleeding and staggering a bit too much for comfort. Lona was looking pretty zoned from healing Sara and they didn't want to show off their powers to outsiders just yet. She glanced around the table, "Jase, you've got some first aid training, right?" 

She motioned for him to come with her, relieved when he just did instead of ignoring her or arguing about it. It struck her that that wasn't really a great reaction from her. They all really had been snapping at each other too much; she resolved to do her best to stop adding to to the bad blood in the group. She caught site of Autumn entering the girls room; she went in without even registering that Jase probably shouldn't. He didn't seem to register that either as he simply followed her in. 

"Autumn? You okay?" Clara asked when she spotted the girl at the sinks, her tone full of concern. "That looked rough. Would you like Jase to-" Her words broke off as the sight of Autumn actually sunk in and she could see the girl glowing in her mind. "You-you're the other sun!" she blurted out, staring wide-eyed at her.

[Bannon]

The sound of someone falling over and being laughed at did not cause Jase to turn around.  Everyone he cared about was at this table, and whatever helpless soul had blundered would be taken care of.  The Fellowship had more important things to do that look after every moron tripping over their shoelaces.

But naturally, someone didn't agree.  And naturally it would be the tightly-wound Air Scout.  Jase liked Clara - she was obviously intelligent and focused - but he considered that she was so unhealthily repressed that he could hear the springs in her head go *ping* whenever Devin spoke.  Also, her mini-breakdown in his kitchen last night had him firmly of the opinion that she was headed for a psychotic break from all the strain.  What he took in stride, and the others seemed to have enough plasticity to bounce back from, was eroding the brittle control Clara had of herself, causing her to lash out viciously at perceived enemies.

Yes, he knew he had also lashed out viciously, but his words had been calculated to achieve a specific goal.  Either to drive Cora away, or to force her to steel herself and step up to display some willingness to exert control.  it wasn't solely an unloading of stress.  He was concerned about Clara.  And also quietly smug, because he'd been right and she could manipulate as well as perceive the energies they all tapped into.

Clara walked into the girls room, and without really even caring for the ramifications he followed her in.  After all, it wasn't like he was going to see anything untoward - they had stalls for that sort of thing.  Only the boys room casually exposed occupants to random predators like Courtney.

1 hour ago, Clara Lys Wright said:

"Autumn? You okay?" Clara asked when she spotted the girl at the sinks, her tone full of concern. "That looked rough. Would you like Jase to-" Her words broke off as the sight of Autumn actually sunk in and she could see the girl glowing in her mind. "You-you're the other sun!" she blurted out, staring wide-eyed at her.

As Clara said it, Jase felt it too.  Autumn emanated the same warmth as the rest of them.  He narrowed his eyes and studied her.  He knew of her, of course.  They'd exchanged maybe two whole sentences worth of words since Freshman year, though most of that was due to Jason not speaking to anyone if he could help it back then.  She was a Shelly native from a line of Shelly natives.  She was also passingly attractive, a Post-It note he whirled off into his mind for later.  Right now, she was bleeding from a cut on her eyebrow and lip.

"Let me take a look." he said, moving forward without that spineless slouch he was usually seen with - well, at least before this semester.  Autumn didn't move away, but she glared fixedly at Clara and did everything in her power to avoid looking at Fucking Jason Goddamn Bannon.  It was, after all, his fault she'd walked into a door.  And he was a criminal.  And what the hell was the future Valedictorian doing on friendly terms with the Most Likely To Shoot Up The School?  Jason seemed oblivious to Autumn's frosty demeanour, carefully examining the bump over her eye with a surprisingly light touch of long slender fingers.  She winced, but made no sound, and he 'hmm'd.  

"No obvious fracturing.  Cut is shallow, a sticking plaster should do."  The light touch moved to her nose, tracing down the bridge.  "No break.  Bleeding will stop soon, see the nurse if it doesn't.  But you'll have a bruise."  He ducked down a little to examine the blood from her nose.  "No clear fluid."

"Is he-?" Autumn began, still glaring at Clara over Jason's shoulder.  The girl in the uniform made a placatory gesture.

"He knows what he's doing.  Or he'd say if he didn't."  Clara stated firmly.  Jason straightened up and moved in front of Autumn, holding up a finger before her eyes.  She had nice sea-green eyes, he noted absently.

"Follow this." he ordered calmly. Autumn gritted her teeth a little, but did as requested as Jason moved the digit back and forth, towards and away from her eyes.  It was like he didn't even care he was in the girls bathroom!  Then he ducked down again and looked her straight in the eyes.  "Any blurriness?"

"No."  she said shortly, and then "You know this is the girls room, right?"  she asked him with some severity as he examined first one, then the other pupil, his own copper-and-verdigris flecked gaze intent on them for a moment.  Then he seemed to acknowledge her words, straightening up once more as his intense gaze focused on her rather than on her eyes or wounds.

"I would hope so." he said with a faint quirk to his lips.  "Or I'd be wrong and you'd have wandered into either the boys room or the janitorial closet with a concussion.  As it stands, you seem fine."  He stepped back with a graceful certainty, giving her space once more, but still regarding her with a calm focused gaze.  He looked at Clara.

"So, how do we broach this particular elephant in the washroom?" he asked with a slight shrug.  "Hi, I just met you, and this is crazy.  But shit's getting weird, so call me maybe?"

"Perhaps we can invite her to sit with us?"  Clara suggested.

"Perhaps.  But given that her phone on the counter there is showing a picture of me with a large eggplant over my crotch, I think that might be awkward."  Bannon rolled his eyes.  "Courtney's mouth is bigger than her brain and her sense of propriety put together."

[Autumn Keane]

Although she had borne the impromptu examination as calmly as she was able under the circumstances, mention of Autumn's phone found her swiping it quickly off the counter and thrusting it back into the pocket of her hoodie with an uncomfortable, vaguely guilty expression. Discomfort was quickly replaced by wariness, however, as she regarded the other two students- a subtle movement of her feet to the perpendicular, a shifting of her weight slightly forward, shoulders tensing. There was some swelling, already, where the door had struck her, and the faint hallmarks of what would be ugly bruising in a day or two, but apart from the lingering pain she felt strangely... okay. No vertigo, no blurred vision, no odd smells... the ringing in her ears had long since faded. All that remained was the embarrassment... and the fact that two people with whom she had nothing in common just came into the bathroom to check on her.

"Uh, yeah... this is kiiiinda weird," she agreed finally, offering a half perplexed, half disbelieving smile at Clara over Bannon's shoulder, "and I think I'm gonna go see the nurse, because I would swear I heard you call me someone's son. I should probably go eat first, though, so. Yeah. Thanks for checking on me. I appreciate it. "

This is... This is waaaay beyond weird.

[Bannon]

"She didn't call you someone's son."  Jason Fuckmothering Bannon said with a sigh.  He looked at Clara, then back at Autumn.  "Okay.  Something weird is going on. People are disappearing.  There's strong evidence of dark shit happening in Shelly." he said in a tone of someone who plainly felt they'd had this conversation far too many times.  "I'm talking Stephen King sort of dark shit.  No confirmed clowns yet."

"Umm, perhaps that's not the best approach."  Clara suggested.  Jase rolled an eye at her.

"Trust me. I'm an expert at this by now."

"And I'm out of patience."  Autumn pushed away from the sink, stepped around Bannon, and headed for the door.  "Whatever drugs you two have done, enjoy it.  Thanks for the checkup.  Whackjob..."  She finished with a mutter as she pulled the door open-

Only for it to shut again, somewhat forcefully.  She reached for the handle and tried to turn it, and it started to give, then sprang up under her hand.  She wrestled with it, then tried to lean her whole weight on the handle.  It didn't budge more than a millimeter or two.

"Oh, and there's some of the student body who are getting... let's call them gifts."  Jason's voice said calmly from behind her.  "These are accompanied by a sort of... radiance, more felt than seen, by others who have the same gifts.  Let's go with the King of the macabre and call it 'Shine'."  He turned on the faucet and took a bandanna from his bag, folding it on the counter as Autumn turned around to regard him with a mixture of anger and growing fear.  "You'll bruise, but a cold compress will help keep you from looking too much like a panda."

And then he rolled up his sweater sleeves and started to pull ice-cubes from the running water.  It was like watching a stage magician pulling coins from a child's ear, only there was nothing up his sleeves, certainly not the small heap of ice that accumulated, glistening, on the folded bandanna.  As Autumn watched dumbfounded and Clara looked on with a widening grin of delight, he tied the makeshift compress off and then... then the damned thing floated towards her, hanging in the air within arm's reach.  He turned off the faucet and then faced her from across the room.

"So, let's consider our options, Autumn.  We both have this Shine.  You have the Shine too.  So either we are crazy.  Or you are crazy."  His smile was devilish, sparkling in his pale eyes.  "Or, and hear me out now, you are currently being offered a red pill, the Matrix is real, nothing is what it seems, and you should probably put the compress on your eye."

Moving slowly, she reached out and took the solid its solid its real compress from the air, feeling the cold seeping into her fingers, and brought it to her face.  Clara felt a little sympathy for the redhead - being sandbagged by Jason was bad enough, but strange powers as well was bound to be a double-whammy.  The strait-laced girl glanced at her lanky friend, considering the verve he displayed with his gift, the almost casual way he performed his miracles, and realised that Jason loved his powers, was fascinated by them, took to them like a duck to water and despite being cautioned to avoid showing off, seemed to relish doing just that.  She couldn't help but smile warmly at that attitude, even as she felt a small bite of jealousy that her own talent did not seem to lend itself to such dramatics.

"You're like us.  How exactly? I don't know, and it doesn't much matter.  Having the Shine puts you in danger."  Jason continued calmly.  "So, and I've always wanted to say this:  come with me if you want to live."

[Jaunt]

As clara and Jase approached Autumn, who was not making the most graceful of first impressions, the twins looked on without much enthusiasm.

"Her?" Devin asked lazily, like if the answer was 'yes' they were all going to die horribly.

Marissa pointed in the redheads direction.  "Didn't... you snap her bra last year, making her drop her lunch..."

"...all over Tom Winslow, yeah."  He lazily nodded a confirmation.

His sister snorted.  "Jesus, is there anyone in this school you haven't pissed off?"

"Uhhh, I'm gonna go with 'no'." He nodded and forced a smile.

[Sean Cassidy]

Laurie's deep blue eyes were wide with what she'd experienced, the brightly burning... souls? She couldn't think of another term more appropriate, Dwelling on the sight and the sense of connection, even with - shudder - the Jauntsens, Laurie had barely glanced around to notice who had lost a round with the cafeteria doors.

Laurie's over-endowed brother had barely raised his ass off the bench before Clara went to check on Autumn with Jase in tow. Those two off, Sean sat back down. As a fellow Shelly native, Sean had had classes with Autumn, since kindergarten, had been paired with her on occasion, though they hadn't really associated outside of school. He was distracted too, trying to figure out if she could have been the other sun mind he'd noticed. The mental landscape didn't seem to align precisely with the actual landscape. Perhaps the mental landscape determined the closeness of minds by some other parameter than simple physical distance...

What Sara had showed them, for just an instant, spurred Sean to reconsider how he perceived the fireflies he could see. It was a reasonable conjecture that they were radio signals, cellular ones specifically, judging from where they seemed to congregate, but he hadn't been able to resolve them as anything more as oddly moving bundles of light. But the balls of sunlight representing the Fellowship had been so much more if you looked at them the right way, like a stereogram. So used to playing with computers and electronics, Sean had been trying to figure out the medium to read the fireflies dancing in his sight, when really, he was the medium, he just had to look at them the right way.

Hands flat on the table, Sean leaned forward, eyes narrowing as he focused hard on the zipping fireflies. Other signals, transmissions, tried to encroach on him, but he peeled them away, like veils, like filters, narrowing his vision, or other sense - he was interpreting it as vision, but it wasn't, he was sure he'd 'see' the same think with his eyes closed. The fireflies jumped out in sharper contrast, and now he could see beyond the light, see they were composed of writhing, singing waves, made from a rainbow of sound. They looked close enough for him to reach out and grab one.

So he did, with his thoughts, with his will. The actual 'firefly' was gone on its way, but the idea of it remained in his grasp. He began peeling it, looking at the waves, what made them, and to his mind, it was precise, beautiful strings of numbers, sequences that painted renaissance masterpieces, baroque symphonies, that he could interpret in all their glory...

"Huh." Sean sat back down with a huff than mingled success and disgruntlement.

"What is it, Sean?" Laurie asked her brother, glancing at where he'd been staring to intently, then around the cafeteria. "Did you see another one? Can you do what Sara can?"

"No, not that. Something different," Sean admitted. He nodded at Sara. "Looks like she can see minds, read them maybe, I suppose, I can see the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and I actually just deciphered my first transmission."

"What was it?"

"A snap of us, liberally stickered, especially Jase with a ridiculously big eggplant." It was a major let down for his first deciphered signal.

Despite herself, Laurie couldn't keep in a snort of laughter, even as her gaze causally turned in the directly Jase - and Clara - had gone. The curve of Marissa's painted lips was wicked. Sean's grin was tight and wry. He'd been described by a veritable cocktail of emojis, and he could commiserate with Jase about what he'd go through being known to be - or at least thought to be - very well endowed, if admittedly in a different way, while a small part of him was perversely pleased someone else had to deal with it. Except... Jase probably wouldn't care that much. Though with his tolerance of people - or lack there of - and how teenagers could be...

8 hours ago, Jaunt said:

"Her?" Devin asked lazily, like if the answer was 'yes' they were all going to die horribly.

Marissa pointed in the redheads direction.  "Didn't... you snap her bra last year, making her drop her lunch..."

"...all over Tom Winslow, yeah."  He lazily nodded a confirmation.

His sister snorted.  "Jesus, is there anyone in this school you haven't pissed off?"

"Uhhh, I'm gonna go with 'no'." He nodded and forced a smile.

Sean and Laurie turned to face Devin with similar long suffering looks. Autumn hadn't been the only redhead who's bra he'd snapped. Well, he hadn't snapped Laurie's, but that was only because he'd only noticed that she had boobs this summer. Sean had been targeted plenty, his boxer-briefs pulled up in epic wedgies. Huh. He'd had his bra snapped plenty of times, the wide band making a satisfying and stinging snap, but Devin had never done so. Small mercies, but a mercy all the same, Sean mused reluctantly.

"So, have a thing for redheads, do you?" Laurie said challengingly, while Sean gave him a scowl, recalling the torments.

"Don't get your titties in a twist, Cassidies, you aren't so special," Devin replied tiredly, keeping the smile on his face and making a poor attempt of preventing it from sliding into a bit of a smirk. "I pissed off blondes and brunettes too. I'm an equal opportunity offender. I'm working on it"

Lauried scoffed, Sean snorted. He certainly felt more equal than most with respect to Devin's torments. Sean opened his mouth and Devin interrupted him with a waved hand. "Don't say it, Cassidy, because I won't be able to stop the retort. It'll be just hanging there I won't be able to resist plucking it."

Sean harrumphed, folding his arms tightly, but then he shared a look with his sister. They both still thought him an asshole, but Devin had been better recently, certainly better than his sister, though the mindshare had even sapped some of her venom, it seemed. For now.

"Fair enough," the Cassidy's grudgingly agreed. It was harder to hold so tightly to the old - and not so old - anger and resentment after what Sara had just shared with them.

[Autumn Keane]

The compress definitely felt real. It had weight, and she could feel the slow trickle of cool droplets down her wrist as the contents of the bandana began to melt. The lumps of ice were as blocky and uncomfortable against her orbital bone as she remembered that sort of thing feeling but... There was no way this was actually real. ...Was there?  

A shiver, frosty and jagged as rime, lanced down Autumn's spine.

Maybe she'd really gotten hurt, and this was some kind of bizarre, frightening nightmare her brain had built from her most recent memories. Maybe she was in a coma, or something, or, hell, bleeding out by the cafeteria doors. Wouldn't that be perfect? No doubt it'd be all over instagram, and her parents would blame each other, and somebody would blame social media (because of course they would), and the end of her life would be the only really noteworthy thing about it.

Maybe she was hallucinating.

...Or, worse? Maybe she wasn't.

Another shiver, this one visible, and she winced as the ice shifted in the cloth, abrading her eyebrow in a new and unpleasant way.

Either way, Goddamn Jason Fucking Bannon had her trapped in the girls' restroom, some weird version of Clara seemed to be enjoying it, and she didn't want to think about what they would do if she told them to fuck off. Autumn didn't scare easily, having no special fear of heights, tight spaces, animals, insects, confrontations, or the dark, but this was something that didn't seem natural and she had no reference for how to handle it. People were hard to predict, and whatever this was? Yeah, whatever this was, it was basically impossible for her understanding of the universe to account for it. The safe bet was just to go along with it for now, get out of the bathroom and into a public space, and wait for things to either fade to black, normalize, or arrange themselves into something like a life she recognized.

"Yeah, sure," came the reply after several interminable moments of uncomfortable silence- surely longer in Autumn's perception than in reality. "But, like I said, I'm hungry, and I kind of want to eat before class, so..." The last syllable hung in the air, a flat, uninterrogative note of expectation. Apparently satisifed with her willingness to cooperate, Jase opened the door and indicated the opening with his free hand- a gesture that would have been considered a courtesy, had anything approximating a gentleman performed it. She wasn't sure if it just didn't occur to him that people were going to see them all coming out of the bathroom, or that he didn't care.

Clara was a little easier to read, and moderately less creepy, smiling in relief and putting a hand on Autumn's arm as the girls exited first, followed by Bannon as they headed back to the cafeteria.

Now would be a great time to wake up.

[Clara Lys Wright]

Healing Sara had taken something from her. Lona remained silent, for once not sticking close to Clara to support her. The Lona Pick-Me-Up hadn’t done that, but actual healing had taken a piece of her with it. Her own personal energy, living now in Sara. What was that? What had she given to Sara? Would it come back?
 
Lona shivered; with the chaos around her, the quiet freakout was so subtle to be missed. Everyone was looking for the other sun, and in the solitude of being ignored, Lona quietly allowed herself to collapse. The fear from last night finally surfaced, ignored all this time, as she realized that she and Clara could now be dead or kidnapped -- or worse. She tried to stop thinking about it, but the thought wouldn’t be pushed away or ignored. 
 
She recognized what was happening; her therapist had talking about it. Lona shifted her tray to the side and put her head down on the table, letting the tears come. Like a panic attack, the fear and grief wouldn’t be denied, and though she struggled against it, she couldn’t win. Her brain was caught in a misfire of anxiety, loss, and stress, and so she cried helplessly, even as another part of her brain wavered between hoping no one saw and hoping that Clara came back to the table soon. 
 
A second later, she realized that this was exactly like what had happened at the fair, after her show. With that understanding, she leaned into her feelings, stopped fighting them, and started to try to find her father’s bed and the silver mirror of her tears. 
 
Jason, Autumn, and Clara made their way back to the table with a brief detour to grab breakfast for their newest conscript. Clara grinned at the group and declared, “We found her! The other one we all saw when Sara did her meldy thing-”

When Clara slid back into her seat next to Lona, her expression shifted to alarm. She put a hand on Lona’s back and leaned down at ask quietly, “Lona? What’s wrong? Do we need to leave?”

[Cassandra Allen]

On seeing Autumn pushing ice against her head, Cassandra sat up straighter, with some alarm. Waylaying the girl in the bathroom was bad enough...what had happened?

"Jeez, Autum, are you okay?" she asked. The reporter looked at Clara and Jase...and realized Clara was busy with her sister, so she focused on the school's own breaker of bads. "What happened in there?"

[Jaunt]

The twins took notice of Lona crying but didn't do a thing to comfort her.  Clara was quite clear: the twins weren't welcome.  Sara may have banded everyone together with a fancy speech, but that didn't force people to accept others and it didn't negate the universal truth that what was said, could not be unsaid.  With that in mind and the drama of 'The Last Light' found the two took a moment to get inventory on their schedule.

Still at the table and preparing to leave so the the others could do everything but focus on the important stuff like a missing student  Devin looked to his sister as he slung his pack over his shoulder.  "Okay, do what you gotta do and meet up with me after school.  You know where, and we'll see what we can find.  I'd lose the heels, though."  He smirked and she returned one to him.  "You're sure this work?"

"No, I'm not sure of anything, but he's been waiting for me to turn sixteen for three years now.  Got to love hillbilly dating laws.  I won't be long, I'll pop in, flirt him up, see if he knows anything, and be out."

"Just be careful," he said with obvious worry in his tone.  "He's a cop."

"He's a man," she smiled.  "Big, stupid, and a sucker for a pretty face.  Deej," she offered upon seeing that her reply was not acceptable to him.  "Relax.  It's a conversation.  They can't arrest me for talking to a deputy while looking hot as fuck even though being as hot as I am should be illegal, but chill.  A student is missing, and possibly being hurt, it's kind of a 'take one for the team' honey pot play, but if it works, we'll have more to go on.  If not, well, we break even, no loss with no gain.  I'll meet you after school."

"Later," he offered.  "Enjoy your magical sparkles, or whatever.  If we find out anything we'll be courteous enough to pass it on."

They walked off, heading to class, leaving the Fellowship to their detective work.  They could hear Devin picking on Marissa's shoes as she protested that they were modest and within the school's regulations but they mentioned nothing else about meeting up after classes.

[Bannon]

"She bumped her head on the cafeteria doors when she took that spill a few minutes ago.  Split lip, small contusion with broken skin over the eye, nosebleed.  Nothing serious."  Jase reported as though an ER nurse to concerned parent, though an ER nurse would probably have sounded more reassuring / warm.  Still, the businesslike manner was better than nothing, perhaps?  He glanced over his shoulder as the Jauntsen twins departed, his face expressionless, then turned to look at the others.

"Ouch."  Cassie commented, her eyes still on the bundled compress.  "Is that ice?"

"Mmhmm."  Jase said as he pulled a stick of home-made jerky from his bag and chewed it.  He quirked his eyebrow at the intrepid reporter.  "Helps with the bruising."

"I'm aware of what it's for."  Cassandra said with a patience she did not entirely feel.

"The girls room doesn't have an ice machine."  Lilly muttered, catching on.  Cassie nodded, and Sean groaned.

"Jase, I thought we weren't going to show off our powers just to make points anymore!"  he hissed.

"I don't recall agreeing to that."  Jason shrugged eloquently.  "I recall you suggesting it, though."  He sighed and stopped chewing the jerky for a moment.  It seemed as though he was counting backwards from ten.  in Greek.  And then he continued.

"Look.  No-one else was in there to see.  Autumn has the Shine - some of you might even be able to feel it."  Indeed, all of the Fellowship could.  There was a sense of 'connection' there, similar to that felt by each other.  "She doesn't know us, she hasn't seen the same shit, she needed the red pill-"

"Oh, so now you remember what colour the pill was." Sean muttered.

"So I got her an ice pack for the bruising, and showed her that Clara and I are not crazy people or LARPers who have escaped from the nearest convention and need rounding up.  Two birds with one stone."  Jason went on.  "She's now here, rather than wandering around thinking we're delusional until she gets eaten by something.  Also, given she didn't scream or have a breakdown, it seems she can at least tread water when thrown in the deep end, which is a plus.  Because, in case anyone at this table needs reminding: it's all the deep end."  He held up three fingers.  "Three birds, one stone."

"Now we have shit to do, and Autumn needs to be given the Fellowship welcome package so she's not lost without a guidebook."  He glanced at the newest redhead to be 'blessed' with his particular brand of charm, and his voice softened a smidgeon.  "There's a lot you need to know.  If you need people to pause, or give you a moment to process something, say so."  He glanced at the clock on the wall.  "You probably share classes with most of this group, in total.  Everyone, sit with and brief Autumn over the morning periods.  Do it well, concisely and clearly.  If you've not been paying attention, then find someone who has.  We are almost out of time here and two of our number just walked off to do their own thing because we don't seem to be able to get our shit together."

He cocked his head at the tearful Lona, then at Clara.  "Clara, you're up.  Tell everyone about last night, please.  Autumn can get the background over the rest of the day, but people need to know what happened last night."

[Clara Lys Wright]

Her father struggled to breathe in the hospital bed as once-Lona wept, knowing the end was coming. Now-Lona watched through her own tears, the pain of that day etched into her psyche permanently. Swallowing, she looked down at the floor and saw herself staring back at her. 
 
No not me Cody Cody Cody... His name stretched from a word into a note of music, a single sound that instantly became Cody in her mind. It sang at her from the hallway and she left the room, walking through her tears into--
 
The cafeteria, not now-cafeteria but all the cafeterias that had every had Cody Sykes in them; he ghosted through them all in a single layer, as if watching multiple movies laid over one another.. Lona swayed on her feet, overwhelmed by the song-that-was-Cody swelling louder and louder as the multiple ghosts of the guy filled the room. The now-Cody! she commanded the music, desperately fighting the urge to cover her ears to stop the wail of sound. 
 
The music stopped abruptly, and the ghosts disappeared, leaving an empty cafeteria. A pain built steadily in her left eye as she stared at the silent room. 
 
Shit, Lona said, rubbing her eyes. When she opened them, the once-Lona wept on her father’s death-watch. The now-Lona looked down at the mirror. Fine, then. The Tree. The Tree. Tree. Tree...
 
A low thrum of noise, like the rumble of warning in a tiger’s growl filled the air. Lona shuddered, feeling her stomach twist. Still, she followed it out of the room, into the hallway--
 
The tree stretched before her, the moan of noise coming from it, or perhaps from the black ichor coiling around it’s branches. You’re the same thing, she said, feeling her knees give way as she stared at the curving branches. It seemed to almost have arms or legs, but when she looked more closely, it was just wood. The same thing!
 
break the rules face the tree 
 
She didn’t know who or what had spoken but she shook her head. I haven’t broken any rules, she said as to her right side, she saw herself at Bunnee’s, taking silent delight in watching Cora torn down. Shaking it off, she said, I want to see where you are. Or better, where’s Cody? 
 
The Cody-note swelled again, and Lona found herself in the cafeteria, watching the ghosts of Cody again. No! Not where he’s been but where he is! 
 
The pain in her eye had grown until it was too much. One moment she watched her on her father’s death-watch, the next Clara was touching her shoulder, asking if she needed to leave. 
“No, just a moment,” Lona said, slumping into the table. Her eye still hurt like hell, though it was fading, and her stomach had begun to settle. 
 
Clara nodded, rubbing Lona’s back. She looked up at the rest of the table and steeled herself for getting yelled at. “I went to talk to Etienne last night. Lona came with, but it was my idea, so don’t take anything out on her.

He tried to deny things, but when I told him I had the GPS information on the phone, he...he called someone and told them that there was a problem and to inform ‘the Doctor.’ At first he wanted us to wait until this doctor or whomever got there, but he changed his mind and let us go. Told us not to go home or anywhere else that we could be found for the night, but that nothing would happen at school because they ‘wouldn’t risk the exposure’. Whoever ‘they’ are. So, definitely a conspiracy going on. He sent me a text this morning saying that everything was okay, that he’d worked something out with the Doctor and he’d talked to me about it when he was at the school later today.
 
And not to tell anyone, but. . .” She shrugged, “But I’m not gonna keep secrets from you guys. We can’t afford to, even if we drive each other nuts and aren’t all best pals. Whatever’s going on, it’s big and it involves monsters, supernatural powers, and we need to find Cody. Everything else can be dealt with later. He’s missing now and all we know at this point is that Devin and Marissa’s ‘Tree’ psychological control mechanism has turned into some nightmare and he’s caught up in it and it’s probably also tied into all the weirdness.
 
I’m not blaming the Jauntsons on that one” though she look liked she wanted to “but Cody is more important than screwing around with our powers or even dealing with whatever’s going on with Etienne. Unless they know something which is half the reason I went to confront him anyways. Didn’t pan out, but...but at least we did something.”

She looked around the group, knowing Autumn was probably completely lost and that she herself wasn’t likely scoring brownie points with the people that weren’t fond of her. “Lona and I skipped afternoon classes yesterday and if we skip again, we’re going to have parents and an Air Force recruiter breathing down our, well, mine on the recruiter, necks for weeks, so we can’t leave without it being worse later. And I need to find out what’s going on with Etienne to see if that's going to get worse. Any ideas on what we can do from here? Or if some of you can slip out for a few hours or the day? No one should go alone. It is dangerous. But we need to do something and sooner rather than a week from now when it’s convenient.”

She let out a breath, her tirade finally spent, and looked around the group hopefully. Crises weren’t her forte and she was floundering.

[Coraline Hess]

Lips pressed to a thin, bloodless line, by the sheer quantity of 'not good' going on around her with this messed up group, Coraline sucked in a breath, held it and exhaled again, expression grim. Much as she wanted to storm off again, she had enough classes with enough of them to make that... awkward. Besides, some of them weren't souless assholes. And she wanted to be in the group that found Cody, if only to tell him off to his face when he was safe or help take him down if he *was* the problem. Something proactive like last night. Lona and Clara had acted, gaining a lot of little hints in the very dangerous process. The fact this 'Doctor' couldn't or wouldn't just openly snatch them all up, gave her a few embers of hope.

"Clara's... right. So someone trip a fire alarm in a way that makes it seem like a glitch and we split up in the confusion, look for him. Work the problem. Only so many woods in the area, right?" she offered softly, bracing internally for more backlash from the group but beyond caring at the moment. Screw 'em.

[Bannon]

Cora managed not to flinch as Jason's head turned sharply to look at her, but to her surprise and amazement he wasn't glaring.  It was more disturbing than that.

He was grinning at her.

"That is a brilliant idea."  he said, regarding Cora with some actual warmth and enthusiasm, his smile alone was enough to send warning bells off in the heads of Sean, Lilly and the rest of the gaming group.  The last time Jase had sounded like this... Was when he'd been planning the damned Party.

"It... is?"  Cora managed, echoed by the others.  Clara shook her head a tiny bit.

"It would get us out of class, but only for half an hour at best." she said somewhat dejectedly.  There was an idea that occurred to her, but it was completely batshit crazy and you'd have to be completely abnormal to-

"But a bomb threat would clear the school for the day."  Jason stated calmly, his eyes gleaming with some restless energy.  Everyone blinked.  Clara wondered when she'd ended up on the same wavelength as Jason Bannon, and wondered why that didn't bother her too much right now.  Lona raised her head and stared blearily at him, a dot of red visible in the white of her left eye.

"Uh..."  Sean began as his friend's gaze fell on him.  "I don't know if I like where-"

"Sean, we need to find Cody.  We need to do something rather than sit around waiting for him to show up.  You can set up an anonymous threat."  Jase said in a low tone.  "Time to walk into Mordor, my friend.  Because the alternative is I make a real threat and go to jail while you all find Cody."  He didn't move his gaze, and Sean knew that his weird friend was deadly serious.  "It's more important than anything right now."

"Okay." Sean's slender shoulder slumped a little. "Okay.  I can do it."  Jase reached out and clapped him gently on the shoulder.

"Thank you." he said quietly, then looked at the others.  "I'm headed to the trailer.  It all started there, and if there's any weirdness, that's the best place to start looking right now.  You're welcome to come along, but if you have any ideas for where to find Cody or how to start looking, then pursue them.  His house, his hangouts... whatever.  Clara, look after Avalon."

"We're heading to the med center anyway."  Clara nodded purposefully.  "With school out, Etienne will be there.  I'll watch her.  But... Jason?  Etienne did say he wasn't sure whether they were watching the trailer.  He doesn't know for sure."  Jase nodded.

"It's a possibility.  But they might not have found it unless Eddy actually went back there to guide them.  Even so, that's the place I'm going.  If they try to snatch me, I'll try to make them regret it."  He said coldly, then turned his head.

"Autumn?" The redhead twitched and glared at him.  He met her gaze without any sign of perturbation.

"You're with me.  Give people your phone number."

"Why am I with you?" she glowered, even as she quickly scribbled down her digits and slid them over to Sean, who passed them round.

"Three reasons.  Firstly, someone needs to give you an accurate picture of what's happened - I'll do that while we drive.  Two, I know you have a phone." he replied deadpan and not seeming to notice her glower increase, holding up three fingers.  "And three, showing you the trailer will also help you catch up and add some verisimilitude to the account."  It occurred to Autumn she really shouldn't be doing this. That she should run and find a cop, or teacher, or something.  And certainly shouldn't be getting into Goddamn Jason Fucking Bannon's car and heading off to some trailer...  But if this wasn't all a crock, then there was foul play and a kid could be in danger...

"Okay." she grated reluctantly, narrowing her eyes.  "But if you try anything I'll leave you in the woods and never look back."  Surprisingly, he inclined his head towards her rather than snarking or sneering.

"I assure you, you are perfectly safe from me." Jase said the words calmly, but they were laced not just with sincerity, but with iron conviction.  Autumn was not convinced, but...

"Fine then." she shrugged.  "When are we going?"

"When the alarm goes, meet me out front.  It's a Dodge-"

"Yeah, I know." she rolled her eyes, wincing at the pain in her left one.  Jason nodded and stood.

"Devin is likely going to go looking himself.  I'll let him know the plan - and he can decide whether to join in."  he said as he scooped up his bag.  "I know we're moving fast, but this is no time not to.  We either run or we get swept away." he said to the others.  "You all know what needs to be done.  You don't need organising or to wait for a consensus.  Go and get some shit done.  Priority is Cody.  Everyone stay in touch."

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly listened, her face calm and expressionless, though the observant could her hands ever so slowly ball into fists. She leaned forward over the table almost like some prowling, large, predatory cat as Jase grabbed his bag, both hands in fists and resting on the table top, propping her up as her head slowly turned, surveying all those gathered through hard, narrowed eyes.

"We are NOT calling in a bomb threat." Lilly stated slowly, yet firmly, her voice a near growl as she kept the volume down for just the table to hear while her face a stern mask of resolve.

"We can look for Cody without spreading fear throughout the entire school, and town, and wasting time and resources of good men and women, who are likely already looking for Cody, mind you, on a wild goose chase just so we can avoid detention or a scolding from our parents. That is selfish and thoughtless in the extreme and I am actually disappointed any of you would even seriously consider it. If we want to go looking that badly, then we simply cut class. It's-not-that-hard. If looking for Cody is that important, then you cut and deal with detention or a scolding later, otherwise you bite the bullet and stay while whoever else does cut and go, and meet up after school. If you want an excuse, go eat liquid soap in the bathroom and vomit in class or whatever. But we are NOT calling in a bomb threat. Period. We are better than that. " Lilly stated firmly as her gaze went around the table, meeting eyes witch each (though sparing Autumn).

Never had any of her friends or acquaintances at the table seen Lilly like this. Not so much intimidating as unwavering stern and serious in her conviction.

"And no more of this running off half cocked either." she said, turning her gaze Clara and Lona.

"You guys made a decision for all of us last night, not just yourselves, in your impatience or whatever you want to call it. That has to stop now. The Doctor, or whoever he works for or with, has pretty much all the cards here while we are stuck playing catch-up, and we don't even know the game yet. So the few card we do have, we need to be careful about playing and cannot go throwing them around half cocked. What's done is done, and we deal with it, but it has to stop NOW." she explained with the same sternness.

Jase looked at Lilly for a long moment, expressionless at first, then a small smile curved one corner of his mouth.  His eyes glinted with - was that approval? - as he nodded.

"Alright.  Bomb threat is extreme.  Agreed.  But I'm cutting class, and I really suggest Autumn still comes with me."  he held Lilly's gaze for a moment, then glanced at the redhead.  "You still in?"

"I guess so."  she said, casting doubtful glances at them all.  Jason nodded again.

"And since there's to be no alarm, someone can tag Devin for me in Math and let him know where I'm headed."  He gestured to Autumn.  "Let's get going, then."

Lilly's face softened and concern came over her beautiful features as she looked at Lona.

"You should probably at least go to the nurse, Lona. You're not looking to hot. Maybe you should go home." she suggested with concern.

[Clara Lys Wright]

"My life isn't a card for your poker game, Lilly." Clara responded, her voice as neutral as she could keep it; yelling at her over confronting her boyfriend didn't hold much water with Clara at the moment. She'd been asked to spy back on him and when she said she couldn't do that, rather callously told to just dump him because he'd probably stick around anyways so it didn’t matter. Neither of those things were from Lilly, but between them and Devin's equally dehumanizing statement that Clara's feelings didn't matter, she wasn't taking orders on that particular front from anyone. 

"And Etienne hasn't been told anything about anyone else. In fact, all he knows is that somehow someone cracked the phone. I wasn't going to do anything you all could use to leverage him and I haven't exposed anyone else, so don't bother lecturing me on this. I won't be listening." She sounded as cold as Jase, the statement not a challenge or a an angry retort, just a direct accounting of her current state of existence. When Clara turtled up emotionally, she showed an expertise born of half a decade of unhealthy practice.

“Hey," she said softly to Lona, "we should get your eye checked out. I think you might have popped a blood vessel. C'mon."

Lona stood slowly. "You're not my supervisor," she said very gravely to Lilly, then meekly stood and waited for Clara to lead her away.

Lilly watched the two of them for a moment, then shook her head. When her words came, they were tinged with worry and compassion. "That isn't what I meant, guys. I'm not trying to order you around. It's just....this is dangerous. For us and for you. It is up to you, and only you, how you handle your relationship, but anything he knows could end up getting one or all of us hurt. And you said it yourself, he doesn't trust his own superiors. Not with you. But what if it had been any of the rest of us? Do you really think we wouldn't be missing today, too?"

Clara hand stopped, hovering over backpack. She swallowed hard, tears clearly stinging at her eyes. "I-I need to get Lona to the nurse." But she just stood there for a moment, paralyzed by the fact that Lilly was right and that hurt and she didn't know what to do.

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly walked over and placed a hand on Clara's back.

"Hey. It's okay." she said softly to Clara, giving her a gentle pat on the back.

"Come on. Let's get Lona to the nurse." she encouraged, taking the lead to urge the pair onward and escort them herself.

[WS ST]

Devin Jauntson

Devin stopped at his locker which due to his past antics in school was by order of the principle in the closest locker row to the main office. As he was sorting through his books and weighing his options, he noticed a couple of panel vans from the Marias Medical center pulling up outside the main entrance which was only about a half dozen yards from where he stood. Watching with his peripheral vision he saw several nurses and at a doctor he had seen at the hospital get out of the vehicles. Several interns joined them and began unloading cases from the van.

Devin shut his locker and watched the medical people come into the building and file past him with the boxes loaded on folding carts. Outside the two vans pulled away from the front to go park in the lot provided for visitors and Devin saw a sports car parked there as well. He recognized Dr. Cook and Clara’s spy boyfriend standing by the car waiting for the drivers of the vans.

Spoiler

Devin i left this here so you could react. They will be coming intot he building. if devin remains at his locker Cook will see him and go over to him to see how your feeling. if you dont want to be seen they are easily avoided.

In the Cafeteria

The bell was getting close and all around the broken Fellowships table kids were leaving their tables and heading off to lockers and what not. But at the table the group of uncanny teens sat mostly confused and unsure what to do. The disparate personalities had not gelled, emotions, for those that had them and could admit it, were high and coupled with teenage hormones and burgeoning psionic powers were creating a disturbance that had rarely been felt on the earth and never in such volume.

A storm was coming.

Spoiler

any one with the ability to senses psi may do so. no attunment though

 

[Sean Cassidy]

Sean's pale, pretty face was as red as his hair as he was very firmly chastened. He didn't know what he'd been thinking. He wanted to contribute and when Jase had suggested the bomb threat, he had acceded to the idea after just a moment of hesitation. With Jase so in control of his new abilities, Sean had wanted to show he could forward an untraceable bomb threat. He hadn't really considered if he should, or what the further ramifications would be until Lilly had brought them up plainly.

He was terminally embarrassed and Laurie was looking at him and Jase in sheer disbelief. As Jase collected Autumn, Laurie shook her head, muttering, "Yeah, extreme much?"

Sean had been concerned learning that Lona and Clara had gone to see Etienne, but it didn't seem like they had implicated the rest of them - though proximity might draw eyes their way - and they had taken the danger upon themselves. He did wish they had learned more, though. With the Party breaking up, at least for now, Sean stood up and began collecting his things. The bell was going to ring soon anyway. He watched Lilly and Clara begin to lead Lona to the nurse, a small frown on his lips, then glanced at Sara.

He was still getting a handle on what he could do, so far regulated to perception rather than anything active, though with his earlier success - such as it was - he believed he could do more. But Lona and Sara appeared able to push their own abilities further, further than was healthy for them, and Jase seemed to have an envious ease with his own. What could he do to try and find Cody? Tromping through the woods seemed like an inefficient way of doing it, and the Sheriff was probably already doing something along those lines anyway.

"We just learned Cody is missing, but it seems he's been missing for a while," Sean said softly for those still at the table. "Rushing off right now to look for him isn't going to make any difference than if we go a few hours from now." His frown turned doubtful. "I'll try to trace his cellphone, or at least get a record of celltowers he pinged, and the last one, to try and get a sense of where he had been, though I would presume the Sheriff is already doing that."

Sean pursed his lips, musing, his eyes going to Lona, than back to the hulking Sara, considering her abilities and what he might be able to do. "If you can 'show' me this tree, Sara, I might be able to manage a reverse image search online to check pics and satellite shots for it."

Spoiler

Not using Attunement, Sean has no particular ability to sense Psi, from what I can tell, so no roll for Sean.

 

[WS ST]

As Lilly and Clara helped Lona to her feet and started towards the exit they noticed the Nurses and interns entering the Cafeteria, at the same time Mrs. Jauntson, Devin and Marissa's mother, came in from the other entrance. She was carrying a clip board and called over a couple of senior boys to move some tables around for the hospital personnel. As that was happening she looked around obviously looking for someone.

[Jaunt]

Devin walked from his locker and slid into the men's bathroom.  His thumbs were already working the text before the stall door closed.

//Hospital peeps in the school.  Eddy and Cook are chilling in the PLot.  Lots of vans, lots of equipment.  Not looking legit, stay safe.  Skipping the rest of the day, Eff this.\\

He sent the text to everyone in the Fellowship and began planning his escape with Marissa via more texts.  He sat in the bathroom communicating and waiting until everything was set.

Both their vehicles were in the parking lot... getting away was not going to be easy...