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| First impressions | |
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| Topic Started: May 25 2010, 04:55 PM (597 Views) | |
| Noriko Ashida | May 25 2010, 04:55 PM Post #1 |
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Time of day: 9 AM Place in the time line: May 6th -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Institute looked different in the pale morning light. By the time they had brought her in two nights ago it had been too dark to get a proper overview over her surroundings, and she suspected few other people than those who had found her had been awake at all. She had spent the next few days down in the basement in some sort of medical room, watching as the fluorescent lamps above her head flickered on and off. Even after the blast she had let out in the coffee shop there still seemed to be enough electricity left in her body to affect her surroundings. That thought had made it nearly impossible to sleep, even though she was tired enough to want to pass out. Every time she closed her eyes she had ended up seeing the face of the unknown woman as the wave of energy had swallowed her up. It hadn’t been intentional, but then again, it never was. Just like with Keitaro. Twitching her fingers slightly she looked down on the metal now encasing both of her hands and wrists. According to the strange looking mutant she had spoken to during her breakfast before leaving the basement, the gauntlets she had been given would regulate her intake of electrical energy. Translated that meant she would no longer blast her surroundings with deathly bursts of lighting-like energy at infrequent intervals. Unless that was something she wanted to happen of course. Personally she still though it sounded too good to be true. Then again it also meant she would be stuck with the bulky looking things on her hands until she developed enough control over her powers to stop drawing in the electricity in her general vicinity without even thinking. If that ever happened at all. The odd looking gloves weren’t as heavy as she had first thought when they had been presented to her, but they did make her lose some motor skills with her hands. Tying her shoe laces would probably be a nightmare from here on out. Not hurting people every other day was a plus though, not to mention no longer having to depend on drugs. Besides, ever since she had put the gauntlets on, she had felt different. It was like someone walking around with bad vision their whole life, looking at a world of mush with no sharp edges, suddenly being given a pair of glasses. Except that instead of the world turning sharp, it felt as if she had. The humming sound in her head had vanished, and she no longer felt the air vibrate around her when she moved. Sighing she stopped and took in her surroundings. She had assured the person she had spoken to in the medical room that she was able to find her way around the Institute unaided, but now she was beginning to have second thoughts about her decision. At least she hadn’t wandered into the sub-basement area. They had all been very adamant about that. Apparently there was something dangerous down there, but she hadn’t gotten any details. Yesterday afternoon she had been given a short tour of the building after she had been able to sit up straight without feeling faint and dizzy for a couple of hours. Normally that would have been enough for her to at least remember the general lay out of the place. At the moment, however, her short term memory seemed to be all fried out. She couldn’t recall any of the names of the persons she had been introduced to so far, and concentrating on any given task for more than five minutes left her with a pounding head ache. Currently she was standing in something that looked like an entrance hall. She couldn’t remember passing through here yesterday, but then again, she hadn’t been very coherent at the time. It certainly looked classy. The middle of the room was dominated by a grand entry way with huge windows that let in the first morning sun, and off to both sides where spacious staircases winding up to the second floor. It looked like something out of a movie, and Nori couldn’t help but to feel slightly out of place. Even though she had been given a fresh set of clothes and a chance to wash, her blue hair was still a tangled mess and she felt like she needed at least five more showers. No matter how much she had been assured of the fact that she was welcome to stay at the Institute she still felt like she didn’t belong there. Huffing irritated she shifted her weight, unsure if she should just keep going or wait around until someone turned up to give her directions. Holding her hand out in front her absentmindedly she began testing the gauntlets on her hands, letting small sparks of blue electricity dance across her palms. |
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| Specter | May 25 2010, 08:09 PM Post #2 |
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Things were not good. Slowly but surely, the planet seemed to be losing its mind. Those early incidences of people suddenly claiming to be entirely different versions of themselves from another place were becoming more and more common. They couldn't just be brushed off as psychosis or lies or hallucinations anymore. Something was wrong with the world. Something was really wrong. Dallas Gibson would probably be handling the whole situation a little better if he could just get a good night's sleep but every time he crawled into bed, it was the same. Ten minutes of dozing before the nightmares kicked in, nightmares he'd never had until a few weeks ago but now suffered through every single night. Increasingly, he was of the opinion that his dreams were something to do with the personality-switching phenomenon that was plaguing the world. It seemed too much of a coincidence that he was suddenly afflicted by a recurring nightmare just as everyone started apparently going crazy. If his dreams were a glimpse of his alternate self, they were far from comforting because this other Dallas was bloodthirsty and twisted. The thought of it turned his stomach. Or maybe they weren't reflections of another universe at all. Maybe they were just bad dreams brought on by an elevation of stress and anxiety in his daily life. He'd had a radical change of circumstances in the last couple of months, it made sense that his subconscious mind would react to that. Either way, his disturbed sleep patterns were leaving him agitated and distracted, dark smudges of sleep deprivation outlining his eyes. He'd gotten into the habit of getting up early to make breakfast for himself and whoever else happened to be around then heading outside for a while before his first class of the day. Being out in the open air did him good and seemed to bolster him a little, leaving him more capable of facing the day than his dreams did. The light of the sun deepened and strengthened his shadow so exposing himself to it, even this early in the day, was a nice way to give himself a little pick-me-up. The only thing that cheered him up more was hanging out with his friends or talking to his grandfather on the phone, but he couldn't find Terry or Artie or anyone else he knew particularly well this morning and Grandpa would probably still be sleeping so he didn't want to disturb him. So, it was a garden morning. Trying to inject some energy into himself, Dallas hopped down the staircase, his shadow juddering down the steps alongside him. As he skipped off the last step and glanced up into the impressive entry way, his gaze was drawn to a girl he didn't recognise. He'd been at the institute long enough now to know most people by sight and he was sure he'd have remembered a girl with electric blue hair if he'd spotted her before, so he figured she might be new. "Hey," he chirped, greeting the girl with a bright smile as he headed past her, aiming for the doors. He halted though, his gaze travelling to the chunky gauntlet thingies wrapped around her hands and the little blue arcs and sparks flickering around them. His curiosity was piqued. "Hey, cool... glove things," he said, diverting to take a couple of steps closer to the new girl. "Is that you doing that? With the electricity? Or is it the gloves? They're so cool." They were shiny. This pleased him. |
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| Noriko Ashida | May 28 2010, 06:59 AM Post #3 |
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Fascinated Nori watched as the dancing blue tendrils of energy pulsated in between her hands. Just by focusing her attention she could make them intensify or diminish, and the color would change accordingly. Sometimes it was an amazing blue color, almost matching her hair. Other times it became nearly white, and so intense that it was difficult to look directly at it. She had expected the activity to exhaust her, seeing as simply eating a bowl of cereal had left her feeling faint earlier that morning, but instead it felt as if letting the electricity out like this decreased the pressure that was constantly building up inside her. She had known the energy was there of course, buzzing away somewhere right under her skin. But she has always been so focused on keeping it bottled up inside, painfully aware of the consequences should her attention waver even for a second. To be able to experiment like this, without fearing bodily damage done to the people who were unfortunate enough to be close to her, was more than she had ever thought possible. "Hey," The chipper voice caught her completely off guard. Yelping Nori flinched at the sudden sound and without thinking she drew the energy she had been playing with back inside herself. It left a metallic taste in her mouth, and she could feel her hair stand up on end from the static she had just consumed. Her whole body tensed for a moment and she tried to push down the feeling of being a mechanical toy that had just gotten new batteries inserted. "Hey, cool... glove things. Is that you doing that? With the electricity? Or is it the gloves? They're so cool." Spinning around on her heels Nori found herself face to face with an unknown boy. He looked to be roughly her age though he was almost a head taller. He had blue eyes, blonde hair and a fairly friendly expression on his face. Well, that was probably about to change, seeing as she certainly wasn’t feeling very friendly at the moment. “Hasn’tanyonetoldyouit’srudetosneakuponpeople?” Pausing Nori winced. Even she could hear that her words were coming out at an erratically quick pace. It had happened to her a couple of times earlier when she hadn’t had a way to discharge built up electricity in her body. It was a sort of mental overload where her mind was working on overdrive. Taking a few heavy breaths she tried to calm herself down. The last time someone had sneaked up on her like this she had ended up going into her superspeed mode, and hadn’t been able to stop herself before she was suddenly at the outskirts of Tokyo. At least this time she didn’t have to walk back from the other side of town just because she was a little jumpy. “It is me who does it,” she muttered in answer to his question, taking extra care to say each word slowly and clearly. “The gauntlets just regulate my absorption of electricity so that I don’t take too much or discharges it without wanting to.” Narrowing her eyes she glared at the unknown boy. In truth it didn't seem like he had meant any harm by approaching her, but she still felt annoyed by her reaction to his voice. She wasn't usually that tense. Then again she was in an unfamiliar place with strangers who obviously didn’t have any scruples with sneaking up on a poor girl, so a part of her felt that her reaction had been justifiable. “What’s your power then?” she asked dryly. “Does it have anything to do with creeping up to strangers and scaring them witless perhaps?” |
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| Specter | May 29 2010, 05:57 PM Post #4 |
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"...What?" Puzzlement creased Dallas's brow into a frown as he tried to decipher the mystery girl's initial response. Was she speaking in English? It was almost like she'd rattled out her words so speedily that his ears hadn't been able to keep up. Ooh, maybe she was a speedster like him? Or, more likely, maybe she was an actual speedster as opposed to the faster-than-humans-but-slower-than-mutants speed he employed. He was a little jealous of the faster speedsters. But then, they didn't get a permanent best friend following them around in the form of their shadow so it evened out. He was about to ask the girl to repeat herself when she continued, explaining that it was her who generated the electricity while the cool shiny gloves, or gauntlets as she referred to them, helped her control it. His smile returned, momentary confusion already forgotten. "Man, that's awesome. I wish I got to use cool armor stuff like that." In Dallas's mind this girl was, essentially, Iron Man. Her speech seemed careful and deliberate, and Dallas couldn't work out if she was unaccustomed to speaking English or if she was just being frosty. When she narrowed her eyes, he decided it was probably the latter. Obviously his company wasn't appreciated but he didn't like to leave her to her own devices if she was new. This was a huge, scary building to a person unfamiliar with it. In fact, Dallas had been here nearly two months and he still felt overwhelmed by it at times. He was sure he could win the girl over. However, then she accused him of sneaking up on her and his smile faded a little, eyebrows lifting. That wasn't fair, in his opinion. "I... wasn't sneaking up on you. I just walked past and thought I'd say hello." A bristle of indignation curled around the base of his neck but he shrugged it off. He'd rather get her to like him than enter into a confrontation. "I'm really sorry if I scared you though. I didn't mean to, honestly." Feeling uncomfortable, he cleared his throat and decided to move the conversation away from this awkwardness and onto safer ground. Thankfully, she'd asked him about his powers so he went with that. "Um, I can control my shadow," he replied, looking down at the shadow in question by his feet. At his mental command, the shadow shifted around on the floor, turning to face the new girl and lifting its hand above its head to offer her a little wave. "I can merge with it too. It's, uh, it's a little weird, I know." Dallas didn't think it was weird actually, he thought it was the most awesome thing in the whole universe. Other people seemed to find it a little freaky though. They just didn't understand how cool it was. "So, I'm guessing you're new here? I mean, I don't think I've seen you around before, have I?" |
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| Noriko Ashida | May 30 2010, 10:48 PM Post #5 |
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Nori couldn’t help but to feel a little ashamed of the way she was acting when she saw the boy’s expression turn from friendly puzzlement to indignation. His enthusiasm for her gauntlets had certainly seemed genuine and innocent, even though she couldn’t find it in herself to share it. To her it was like having to wear boxing gloves she could never take off. Potentially for the rest of her life. With that in mind it was hard to find the fact that they were shiny or cool to be much of a conciliatory feature. Nevertheless, if she was serious about staying at the Institute she should probably stop accusing the people who actually took the time of day to approach her of sneaking up and scaring her on purpose. If not she had a feeling her stay here would become a lonely one pretty quickly. Even though Nori was used to being alone, it was not something she enjoyed. She liked being around people, and she liked feeling like she belonged somewhere. For the first time in years she might actually have come to a place where that was possible as well. It would be a pity if she ruined all her shots at friendship on her first day, just because she disliked the fact that someone had startled her. “I guess they are kind of cool,” she conceded reluctantly. Holding her hands up in the light from the overhead chandelier she watched as the metal molded to her hands shimmered faintly. “Before I got them I would just draw in electricity constantly without even being aware of it.” She conveniently dropped the part about discharging the very same energy in uncontrollable bursts of lighting-like blasts every once in a while. That sort of information didn’t generally help win the trust of new people. “And you didn’t scare me,” she continued with a slightly embarrassed smile, “I was just a little startled and I guess I drew in too much electrical energy. That tends to leave me a little… overloaded.” It felt really strange to stand there and talk about her powers as if they were a common part of who she was. Back home she had hid the fact that she was not completely normal to the best of her abilities. Then again, back home she had had next to no control over her powers at all. It’s usually not a good idea to go around bragging about something that might very well end up frying your neighbor. "Um, I can control my shadow," Nori raised her eyebrow questioningly before realizing that he was answering her rudely phrased question about his mutant ability. Following his eyes she spotted the dark shape of his shadow outlined on the floor. She watched in silent wonder as the shape before her contorted and moved, seemingly entirely on its own. Feeling a little bit like Alice tumbling down a rabbit hole, Nori lifted her hand and waved back at it. She had spent countless nights after she left home wondering about what other people like her there might be out there, and what those people were able to do. Even so, the idea that she would someday be greeting someone’s shadow had never occurred to her. "I can merge with it too. It's, uh, it's a little weird, I know." Weird… That was by far an understatement for what she was currently feeling, but then again they were all weird, right? That was the whole reason they were at the Institute in the first place. Somewhere deeply buried inside her there was still a girl who pointed out that there was no way a human could shoot sparks from her fingertips, and definitely no way for a shadow to suddenly start acting on its own. That girl had been left behind when Nori ran out of the park where Keitaro had been hit by her electrical charge, however. There simply wasn’t much room for ‘common sense’ and rationality in her life these days. "So, I'm guessing you're new here? I mean, I don't think I've seen you around before, have I?" Nodding Nori smiled. “Yes, I am. My name is Noriko Ashida, but everyone just calls me Nori. I just arrived a couple of days ago.” Her words seemed to run out with that. What was she supposed to say? That she was a former beggar and junkie who the X-men had taken pity on? Not exactly the first impression she wanted to make… “It’s really cool. Your shadow I mean,” she said, making sure that her voice sounded sincere. Since her default tone of voice had been sarcasm the last couple of years she sometimes came off as being ironic when she really didn’t intend to be. “So what happens when you merge with it then? Do you become some sort of ghost?” She hoped he wouldn’t mind her asking. It didn’t seem like he had the same hesitations about their current line of topics as she had, but seeing how badly their conversation had started off she really didn’t want to offend him any further. |
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| Specter | Jun 2 2010, 04:21 PM Post #6 |
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Once the new girl started talking about her gauntlets, Dallas began to feel a little more comfortable. She wasn't talking at length or showing a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for the subject but it was a step in the right direction. His gaze travelled to the gauntlets when she lifted them into the light and his approving smile returned. It hadn't entered his mind that these metal gloves could have a downside, which was dumb, really. He'd encountered several mutants here who were cursed as much as they were blessed. It could even be argued that his own mutation didn't come without a catch. But still, the gauntlets remained, in his eyes, badass. He'd seen plenty of mutant powers in action now that he'd spent a couple of months at the school but advanced technology like this was still capable of dazzling him. His comfort levels increased further when she modified her accusation and said he didn't really scare her. With a smile, he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, either way, I'm sorry. Definitely didn't mean to startle you." It was looking like they'd be able to move on from their misunderstanding and he was more than happy to let it go. He wasn't one to hold a grudge and hopefully she wouldn't either. There was literally nothing the new girl could have done to please Dallas more than what she did next. She waved at his shadow. People hardly ever responded to the shadow as an individual. Usually, they stared at it in bafflement or distrust, or they did the exact opposite and looked anywhere but directly at it. Having somebody treat it as something other than a curiosity or an aberration felt like a personal validation for Dallas and a broad smile broke across his lips as a result. For his part, the shadow seemed equally pleased, briefly performing a little dance for the gloved girl. "I think he likes you," Dallas grinned. The girl finally got a name when she introduced herself with the pretty name of Noriko. "Just a couple of days? Cool. I've only been here a couple months myself. This place is something else, huh? Don't worry, you'll stop getting lost sooner than you think. Anyway, as long as you can find your way to the kitchen, you'll be fine." He laughed but if he was honest, the kitchen was the centre of his world. He was a teenage boy, after all. "Oh, I'm Dallas, by the way. Dallas Gibson. It's good to meet you, Nori." Nori returned to the subject of his shadow, asking him if he became a ghost when he merged with it. "You'd think, wouldn't you? It's actually the opposite. Check it out." At his feet, Dallas's shadow shifted again, this time moving closer to Dallas himself, slithering up and around his legs, rippling over his chest, down his arms and around his head until his was coated in it, his entire body darkened and shaded. "He makes me faster, stronger, stuff like that. Freaked me out the first few times we merged, let me tell you." He paused a moment, reminded of the very first time it happened, when he wasn't the only person who'd freaked out. His grandfather had been so shocked and afraid that he'd had a heart attack. He'd nearly died. But he was better now. "These days, I wouldn't be without him." Looking down at himself, he ended the merge, the shadow sliding off him, back onto the floor. With that done, Dallas returned his attention to Nori. "So, you were saying you absorb electricity? Can you let it out too? Like... big blasts of electricity?" He paused a moment, remembering how odd it felt for him to talk openly about his own mutation at first, after so long being unable to. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking?" |
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| Noriko Ashida | Jun 15 2010, 11:41 PM Post #7 |
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Somehow the boy's reassurance that she would find her way around the Institute soon enough felt oddly comforting. Perhaps she buried herself too much in her worries sometimes and forgot that she wasn't the only one in the world dealing with things. She wouldn't be the only new mutant ever to have arrived at this school with nothing but trouble in her non-existing bags, even though she would be willing to vaguer that she came in at the top list of dirty and disheveled recruits. Even now she could feel her hair scream out for a hairbrush and once again she gave a silent thanks for the fact that she had at least showered before leaving the basement area. The last thing she needed at the moment was someone mistaking her mutation for a physical one, like a mutant moster form or something down that alley. Nori looked down, mostly at her own feet, but caught a glimpse of the boy's shadow doing a cheerful dance across the expensive looking floor. The sight made her smile, and she realized that it might just have been her first genuine smile since arriving in the U.S. It lifted an unknown burden off her shoulders and she looked up to meet the boy's eyes again, feeling more comfortable than she had before. Perhaps she was acting stupidly, getting the approval of an transparent one-dimensional specter wasn't a whole lot, but it still made her feel happier and more at ease. "Oh, I'm Dallas, by the way. Dallas Gibson. It's good to meet you, Nori." His name sounded strange to her, probably because despite the fact that she mostly mastered the English language, American names still had an odd ring to them. Not that she was in any position to pass judgment. She was sure her own name must sound equally funny to them, and she was on their turf after all. "Dallas..." she said as if tasting the word, "isn't that a city?" Before she had the time to press him about her limited knowledge of American geography, however, he did something that completely made her forget about the topic. He showed her how his power worked. Staring mutely Nori felt her eyes widen to the size of saucers as she watched Dallas' shadow shift on the floor once more and approach him. Slowly, like water seeping through the fabric of his clothes the shadow began to cover him until his whole body had changed texture. It became darker, more like the shadow itself, but still substantial. She gave herself a mental pat on the back for not freaking out and listened fascinated as Dallas explained how the shadow would enhance his strenght and speed. Even so, she noticed he became a little more subdued as he mentioned the first time he had merged with the shadow, and how it had freaked him out. She could relate to that. She hadn't expected to ever fry her brother half to death either, but it had still happened. "These days, I wouldn't be without him." His words made a small tinge of jealousy run through her. She had purposely not asked to what degree Dallas and his shadow were separate entities, thinking that it might be a touchy subject, but the way he referred to it in the third person made her realize that merging with it was more than simply slipping into a different set of clothes. "It must be nice," she said quietly, "to never be alone like that..." "So, you were saying you absorb electricity? Can you let it out too? Like... big blasts of electricity? I mean, if you don't mind me asking?" Of course she minded. How could she not? But he had been honest with her, exposed himself a little bit to what was by all definitions a stranger, so she felt like she owned him something in return. Hesitating slightly she felt herself grow tired at the thought of it and gave Dallas an excusing smile. "I... I don't mind. But I'm feeling a little faint. I used a lot of energy lately. Do you mind if we sit down?" Without waiting for his reply she stepped over to the staircases and sat down on one of the steps. Brushing a wayward straw of blue hair out of her face she tried to think of how to phrase her description of her powers into something that was honest and yet not too direct. Frankly she couldn't really imagine him wanting to hear her whole sopping life story in any case and she would absolutely hate it if he thought she was looking for his pity. "My power is basically subconscious," she began, feeling a tad bit uncertain of where she would end up, "so I draw in electricity in my surroundings without even thinking about it. Or wanting it. Before I got these gloves you like so much," she held them up again demonstratively, "I had no way of controlling how much I took in. When it gets too much I need to discharge it whether I want to or not. That basically looks like one huge lightning-like blast." She smiled, and hoped the gesture looked more friendly than sad. "So, in the short version; yes I can shoot electricity. Now that I've got these gloves welded to my hand I should even be able to do it consciously, so don't worry about being inadvertently hit by the lightning while around me. Unless you bother me of course." That last bit was said with a big dose of humor. Hopefully people here weren't squeamish. She'd hate to be thrown out on her first day here for making death threats. |
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2:22 PM Jul 11