Aberrant: Dead Rising - Super-Tests

[Jasmine Gentian]

After the Constitutional Convention had concluded, Jasmine and Bond had agreed to take the Hummer back to their camp, get Hana and Pumpkin settled in with something to eat and some board games and books, and then head back to Myfwany's office in order to meet her for the testing she wanted to do.

So it was getting on in the day by the time they arrived - the discussions had lasted for a nice long stretch and Jasmine and Jim had stuck around to hear what people had to say, even after the more "formal" negotiations were finished. The two of them made their way into the building that served as the Refuge's infirmary, and Bond knocked sharply at Myfwany's door. Jasmine flashed her a smile when she opened it, and tilted her head at the beautiful red-haired doctor.

"Hey Myf - we're here and ready, if you are!"

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany opened the door almost as quickly as Jasmine knocked and beckoned them in. She moved fast, seemed a little flustered, like someone juggling several tasks at once.

"Hello hello, come on in. We won't be doing the actual tests here of course, but it was a convenient place to meet first." She went to her desk and scooped up a pair of clipboards, each of which had several sheets of paper and an attached pen.

"In fact we'll have to go to several places before we're done, but I don't expect it to take too long..."

She picked up a little leather kit as well and stuffed it into the back pocket of her jeans, then looked up at the two and smiled. "So...anything you wanted to ask that you couldn't around the kids? Jasmine, how've you been, by the way? I'd ask you to come in for a physical, but I expect you have that covered since you're leaving."

[Jasmine Gentian]

Jasmine nodded at Myf, and grabbed the door for her so she didn't have to juggle the clipboards too much. They followed her outside of the office and let her lead the way. She thought about it briefly for a moment before jogging a brisk step or two so that she was walking side by side with the red-haired doctor.

"I'm feeling fine - great, really. And there wasn't anything I couldn't ask at the time necessarily, but there are a couple things I've thought of since. Like food, you know? I don't eat - I never have to eat. But does that mean I'm actually healthy? Or should I be eating just in case? Or taking prenatals, so that I know I'm getting the vitamins? I don't even know if this is stuff you can answer - just things I'd thought of along the way, I suppose."

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany shrugged and shook her head. "All I can tell you is that I don't know...but I would expect the baby's system to interact with yours. Just like normally expecting mothers have food cravings because of the baby's needs being transmitted, I would think that if your baby isn't getting something it needs, you'll feel it."

"On the other hand, looking into how your ability to not eat works is one of my goals today, so maybe with more information on that, answers will be clearer."

She led the way to the spot where work on the wall was in progress. From the clearing of the land for the wall's foundation, large stones were scattered around.

"All right, I figured we'd start with some simple physical challenges, then head over to the firing range for some hand-eye coordination tests, then I'll administer some cognitive and reasoning tests. And we'll see where we go from there. I'm intentionally keeping things a bit loose since I have frankly no idea what to expect."

"All right, Jasmyne we'll start with you..." She hunted down a clipboard and set the others down, then produced a pen. "You've reported increased strength, speed and durability...I'd like to get a look at all of those in action. Have you discovered anything new lately?"

[Jasmine Gentian]

She thought about it briefly - most of her powers came so naturally to her now that she had to give it some thought.

"Just improvements on most of those things, really. Although there's other abilities I guess I never mentioned. I can set things on fire, I just don't do it often. I can also hear very well - and not just normal sounds, but other things too. I found Fox's by following the radio transmissions."

She looked around the clearing, then turned back to Myf with a little shrug.

"Okay then - what first?"

[SalmonMax]

"First nothing. I'll just get a baseline reading of you. I want you to 'turn off' whatever powers you can control, but don't worry about trying to turn off powers you normally don't, at least not yet. I just want a look at you in a normal, relaxed state."

She peered at Jasmine, then started taking notes. The page on the clipboard even included a little silhouette of a human body, and Myf marked spots on it.

"Okay. Now lets go over some of your abilities, one at a time. First, go over to those rocks, and see if there's one too heavy for you to lift off the ground."

(OOC - Using Quantum Attunement vision during this, to 'map' Jasmine's abilities. Basically so Myf can start learning what different powers look like when in use, and when not in use. Unless Jas wants to converse, I don't see much reason to RP through each test individually. )

[Jasmine Gentian]

Jasmine did all that Myf requested from her. She was able to lift most of the rocks surrounding them, although as she got to some of the larger ones the doc could tell it was starting to be a strain. Had she not been pregnant Myfwany might have been willing to push the girl a bit further, but as it was she seemed able to lift without too much of an effort at least a half-ton. Myf had her demonstrate how hard she could hit by having her crush a rock with her punch, though at "normal strength" she could only seem to create a spiderweb of cracks and a slight indent. Once she focused her attention for a moment though, she was able to reduce another similar-sized rock to gravel from the impact. She also demonstrated her ability to pull her punches, which to Myf's surprise seemed to utilize energy as well - it was as if it took conscious effort on Jasmine's behalf not to hit things like a semi-truck. Finally, as her last test of Jasmine's toughness, Myf pulled a knife out of her tool kit and used the back edge of the blade to press against the skin of Jasmine's forearm. She never did get around to actually having to reach the cutting stage, she able to observe enough just watching Jasmine's skin seem to resist the bruising that the pressure of the dull knife edge should have inflicted.

Next she demonstrated some of her speed-based abilities. At first they were unsure how to deal with her combat oriented ones, but Bond volunteered to mock-spar with her in as normal of a manner as he could. They used those tests for Jasmine to demonstrate her ability to initiate combat faster, respond faster, and perform several combat-oriented actions in the space that it took a normal person to perform just one. She performed the same types of tests with firearms, and seemed able to fire them effectively with just as much speed as she could do anything else. Last but not least for the speed abilities, Jasmine demonstrated her skill at performing more mundane tasks. These she was able to achieve extremely quickly, faster really than Myf could even follow. She seemed to be able to apply that sheer quantity of speed only to things that were more like tasks than combat. She was able to stack a couple dozen cans into a pyramid within a couple seconds, line up small rocks within the blink of an eye, and write a page full of lines (like a child who was being punished in school) on one of Myf's pieces of paper within the space of seconds.

Last but not least, she activated her enhanced hearing abilities for Myf, and demonstrated her ability to create fire. It wasn't very strong, she could probably start a campfire by holding onto a log or set fabric ablaze if she was touching it. They struggled awhile to figure out a way for Jasmine to demonstrate her ability to sustain herself without normal human physiological requirements - it was just something that seemed to occur naturally. But finally Jasmine came up with an idea, and she spent several minutes ceasing to breath with no apparent ill effects.

Finally they were finished, and Jasmine took a deep breath, sliding down against the wall and resting her head back against it.

"Wow.. I'm kind of tired now, actually..."

[SalmonMax]

All through Jasmine's exertions, Myfwany was silent, just watching her intently and occasionally jotting notes down on the paper. After it was over Myf came over to Jasmine, staring not AT Jas so much as at the space that Jas was occupying. She waved her hand over Jasmine's head, around her shoulders...never making contact though. She made another note then looked up and finally seemed to notice the person standing in front of her.

"Tired...yes, that's enough right now. Jasmine, this was...incredible. Absolutely amazing. Look."

She showed one of her sheets of paper that had scrawled under it 'Control - At rest.' The outline of a person it had a sort of halo around it, with a few darker lines radiating out.

"There's a kind of low level radiation you're constantly putting out, even when you're not using your powers," Myf explained. "The pattern of dark lines stays the same over time. Now when you USE your powers..."

She pulled the page back to show the one under it. Here the image read 'Lifting rocks,' and the outline had a profusion of lines twining around its arms and back and legs. "All that radiation is channeled through your body. You aren't emitting it out into the environment anymore. It goes into whatever needs...to be changed, I suppose. The muscles and blood vessels of your arms. The bones of your spine. Some goes into your legs too, since you were using them to lift." Myf turned another page and nodded. "When we tried to cut you, the radiation was concentrated instantly in your skin, and most strongly in the part that I was trying to cut. When you were demonstrating speed though..."

Another page, and now the outline showed a sort of dotted line surrounding it, as well as lines drawn within it throughout.

"This was the most amazing of all," Myf said. "When you were demonstrating how fast you could move, the power wasn't just in your nerves and muscles. It was outside of you too. I think it was doing something about air pressure. Otherwise moving that quickly might have damaged you, or caused so much wind that it interfered with what you were trying to do. What's incredible about that is that I don't think you were even really conscious of the problem of air pressure. Your power fixed a problem you weren't even aware of."

She let the pages flip back down and shook her head. "Thanks very much, Jasmine. You have no idea how vital all this might turn out to be. I can hardly wait to get a look at how Jim's powers work now." She grinned with a 'little girl in a toy store' expression.

[Fox]

"I'll try not to disappoint." Bond said with a sly grin as he rose from where he'd been leaning against a rock, shucking his jacket and laying it to one side.

The physical aspects were easy for Myfwany to categorise as Bond went through more or less the same workout she'd put Jasmine through. His more-than-human agility was in little doubt: the tall mercenary could parkour, tumble, and perform frankly unbelievable feats of athletic prowess with all the ease of a man strolling down to the local corner store. In speed he wasn't up to par with Jasmine, but his ability to apparently focus his attention on many variables at once came close to compensating for the girl's speed advantage. What was more, he was able to keep up a running stream of banter with Jasmine and Myfwany with little to no detraction from the reckless stunts he was indulging himself in. Even when Jasmine stepped in to spar with him, it didn't slow the patter. Myf reflected wryly that her earlier assessment was dead-on: the only way to stop the flow of one-liners and flirtation was to give Bond's mouth something else to do. Not that it was unpleasant, as such. He had a full measure of the 'boosted' charm Myf had observed in others, but he wasn't as overpowering in it's use, evidently preferring to stroke rather than bludgeon. His subtle touch was... intriguing, to say the least. Myf realised he might actually be demonstrating one of his abilities for her benefit, and there was indeed some sort of energy at work in the air between him and her, but that was difficult to focus on when she felt torn between medical objectivity and schoolgirl giggling.

Nonetheless, the erstwhile young doctor was not so distracted that she failed to notice the internalised energies in Bond's body that had been present in Jasmine's too, which precipitated a frown. Bond was well-known to be one of the few Supers at the Refuge who didn't have enhanced strength: strong, certainly, but within the upper limits of human norms. It was one of the things that some of the less secure regular human beings liked about him. But the radiations that Myf had noted in Jasmine when the girl had been expending energy in restraining her strength were also present in Bond as he blocked and deflected his paramour's attacks.

"Wait a minute." Myfwany said, stepping forward as she called a halt, addressing Bond in a low voice. "Jim, you're holding out on me." Oh, damn. That sounded like flirting. Or did it? Move on quickly! "I mean, you're stronger than you're letting on." A quick glance at Jasmine's face showed that she was baffled, and Myf raised a brow as she looked back at the now-smiling Bond.

"Keeping secrets?" Jasmine asked him with a narrowed gaze, though she was trying not to smile as well. The grin was just too damn engaging!

"No fooling you two." Bond shrugged. "I noticed it soon after the prison raid. I exerted myself a fair bit there, and I was going through my inventory afterwards to sort out the medical supplies for you, Doctor. There was no-one else in the shed, and went to shift one of those large crates that usually take two men to move. I picked it up like it was nothing." He stepped over to a large rock and, gripping it, lifted without apparent effort. The rock was the same half-ton piece of stone Jasmine had lifted earlier. Smiling a trifle sheepishly, Bond set it down again and turned back to the two women. "I was going to tell you soon, Jasmine. I was adjusting to it myself. And besides, if people think that I'm the 'weak' Super, they'll underestimate me." He grinned slyly. "I like to be underestimated."

[Jasmine Gentian]

If Jasmine noticed the flirtation Jim was directing at Myfwany, she didn't say anything. But she did seem to respond, whether instinctively or not, in the age-old manner of women - by directing his attention back towards her. She stepped closer to him, her lips curving into a wry but playful smirk as she looked up into his ice-blue eyes and her voice turned playfully flirtatious.

"So, guess that means I don't get to push you around anymore if you piss me off, huh? Tell me, what do I get for keeping your secrets, Mr. Bond?"

[SalmonMax]

Recognizing Jasmine's predicament immediately, Myfwany looked back down at the diagrams she'd made of Bond 'in action,' as it were, and let Jasmine assert herself. Besides, as gratifying as it had been...something about her position as doctor seemed to keep gentlemen callers at bay...her real interest was in the powers.

Right away she noticed that Bond's ability to manipulate others was different than Violet's. She actually reached out with her power...Myf had seen it before, though she still needed to record it. Bond's power leapt through his brain like steroidal synapses as he used his abilities. The best she could determine, Bond's 'power' was based on augmenting the operation of areas in the brain associated with social interactions. He used his powers more indirectly than Violet...and therefore more insidiously.

Very interesting...

She looked up from her clipboard and smiled, a bit sadly. "I think I have what I need for now. When do you expect you'll be back?"

[Fox]

"That depends what you want." Bond riposted to Jasmine's question in a low murmur, his smile warmly seductive as he directed enough of his light 'touch' at her to cause a dark-cherry toned blush before folding an arm around the girl's slender shoulders with a grin. As Myfwany spoke, he turned his china-blues her way, still smiling.

"Well, given that everyone seems to be getting ready to pack up and leave this place as of this afternoon... I was going to ask you what your plans were, Myfwany." He asked casually, his pale eyes appraising the young doctor. "Assuming any sizeable number of people choose to stay here, will you be staying too? Or will you be travelling with Fox and Co, or Gabrielle? It'd be nice to know where to find you in the event that you leave too."

[SalmonMax]

"Honestly, at this point I'm not sure where I'll end up," she admitted. "I plan to be wherever I'm needed most. That will probably mean moving with Fox, since he can provide me with what I need to help people along with people to help...but depending on what he does, I may find somewhere else to settle, or even go back on the road."

She looked away for a second, staring off at a future only she could see for now. "Listen...I'm going to need...need now really...a place where I can hold one or more live zombies securely, without endangering anyone else around. If you find someplace that will work for that let me know okay? I'm thinking an abandoned, empty prison maybe. The time's coming fast when I'll have what I need to really look into the heart of this z-plague. And when I find that heart, I mean to reach in...and crush it."

Myf looked back at Bond, the 'distance' in her tone and stare quickly evaporating. Her smile was a little embarrassed. "Anyway, just let me know."