Stray (Open)

[Lani Hunter]

Lani stretched out slowly as he struggled to move in the chill of the morning. The sidewalks and roads had been cleared finally of snow and Lani knew it wasn't going to be long before Pilot Ridge was going to be under yet another blanket of snow. Well, this telekinetic wanted to take advantage of the break in the weather in order to be outside. He plugged his earbuds into his ears and was lost to the world. Pulling a hat over his ears and wrapping his scarf around his chin he was ready to run in his thin sweatpants and layers of underarmor, tee and a black sweatshirt. He was looking to absorb all of the radiation that he could. Besides, black stood out well against white in the morning when drivers were on the road. He had to be crazy he realized but he pulled his scarf up over his nose so only his eyes were showing. It was an all too natural state for Lani and the moisture filled air he would now be breathing didn't bother him.

Taking it off one stride at a time he went faster and faster until he hit a pace that he could sustain but would still challenge him. Music pounded in his ears. He had a lot of thinking to do this morning. For one, there was school, he'd done very well last semester and he was starting to worry that he would again fall off the wagon and get lazy about studying and doing work. Another, his parents were nagging for a visit, rather by parents he should say mother. They would want to talk about Odion. They would want to know if he'd heard anything and Lani would have to say no. He would have to smile and shrug and pretend that every time he heard that name his heart broke a little more. Then there was Adrianna. Adrianna. They'd tried dating before and it had ended in disaster but Lani had never felt so comfortable with someone. He didn't know what love was and he really didn't want to be in love. Not if love ended up with his heart in shambles like it was now. Lani hopped a low fence, taking a shortcut through the back alley. It was here Lani started to let go. He moved his power and with a jump he leapt onto a trash can the lid jumped giving Lani an upward boost. After that Lani swung on a fire escape rail and used his power to push him back instead of forward and he flipped backward landing neatly and silently on the platform.

The rooftops laid out before him as he rose with the sun. He took a moment and moved his scarf from his mouth to gulp in the cold refreshing air. It was like getting a kick in the lungs but at the same time it felt cleaner than anything he'd breathed before. He replaced the scarf and raced off over the roof. He did so with a breakneck speed and his feet danced over pipes and shingles with little effort. The only problem was that a lot of buildings in Pilot Ridge had sloped roofs and they were a little harder to keep balance on than the flat roofs of Boston. Lani love the feeling of flying, it gave him the illusion of freedom. Which brought him to the biggest problem on his plate. Court. He didn't know what to do. He was sure that he was going to prison if he said anything and another part of him was paranoid about his safety, but then again no one liked his boss really. No one would stand up for him. In fact Lani'd already had a few people from his side of the law who told him to do it because they were free as well. But then if he ran he'd have to leave all of this behind. Hammel might be upset as he hadn't 'technically' gotten clearance to not report to train every week or so. Then there was Adrianna. Could he, with a good conscious, leave her behind? Even if he told her? She would be hurt, he knew. Then he would be running his whole life. He would be wanted. Did he want to be a fugitive?

Lani was seriously considering the latter option when his foot hit a patch of hidden ice. "Fu - " was all Lani had time to gasp as he had to switch his entire concentration to not dying. He slid very quickly down the sloped roof and he knew he was gonna eat it. His hands scrambled to get a hold of the ledge and he breathed a sign of relief as he caught the gutter. Snow pack froze his hands right through his gloves and soon the gutter failed to hold the snow and Lani's weight. Lani's panic kicked in his power and it caught him transferring him from a fall to a downward drift and as he braced himself against the heavy load of snow that came from above he didn't pay attention to what was below and landed on something hard and awkward. Lani popped his head out of the snow and groaned. He knew exactly how far the ground was and he would have been find if this thing hadn't been there and now he was covered in snow and it was sneaking into all of the breaks in his clothing. He didn't want to move and it was then he heard something and realized that something he had landed on was actually a someone.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

AJ pulled her scarf tighter around her in an attempt to further shield herself from the cold. While she loved the style of clothing winter provided, she in no way liked the season. She hated being cold and so it had taken her a long time to finally move from her dorm and force herself to make the trek to the public library to return her books.

Life had been interesting lately, had taken turns she hadn't expected. She was learning how to accept herself and how to make strides in how she interacted with people. She wasn't avoiding all of humanity anymore, afraid that she'd hurt someone without meaning to. She'd thought when she started training that she would learn how to control her power and then never use it again, but as of lately she'd been leaning more towards using it to help people. If she could latch on to the better horomones...then she could help a tired person sleep, or an angry person mellow out if they actually wanted to. She wasn't sure yet. It was hard to know when you felt like you were getting to know yourself all over again. She'd been so busy dwelling on the fact that she'd developed a meta-human power and how much it had changed her life and sent her in a spiraling fit of seemingly never ending anxiety. And now she was just trying to accept herself as she was, with the power of pheromone manipulation, no matter how much it had sent her reeling over the years.

She was about halfway to the library when something ridiculous happened. If this was a work of fiction, one might say the sky was falling, but AJ wasn't really sure how someone had fallen on her from above. The force of another body on her own sent her to the ground and face first into snow. At least that somewhat cushioned her fall, but her back didn't feel so great. She groaned into the fabric of her scarf, wondering how the day had suddenly taken such a dangerous turn.

[Lani Hunter]

There were certain signs that told people when they were headed in the wrong direction in life. For some people it was not getting into the college of their dreams, for others it was the harsh reality that they would have to commit to a desk job because they could neither dance nor sing. Then there were people who ignored the first and the second and the third sign and now life was resorting to tossing them off roofs and dumping them with snow. Well, Lani was too daft to recognize the sign. In fact this wasn’t even the first time he’d fallen from a roof. And he could count himself grateful that he had his power now and hadn’t broken anything. The thief was not looking to retire anytime soon, he might be doing more with his life now but he was not ready to let go of this aspect of his life.

Which was unfortunate for a lot of people, mostly business owners and rich folks. Then there were the minor bumps to the people who got in the way or who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. This poor soul was one of the latter. Lani rose to his feet quickly when he realized that the thing he landed on was living. He shot a glare at the patch of ice that glinted slightly in the sun from this angle. He then turned and squatted next to the poor soul he had flattened into the snow. Lani pulled the scarf down from around his mouth and nose and touched the woman’s shoulder gently. “Hey, I’m so sorry, are you alright?” He asked when he heard the groan. He hoped that he didn’t hurt her too badly, he was occasionally very coordinated and other times he was truly clumsy. He frowned, this was exactly what his trainers were talking about. If he kept shoving his power down so deep that it couldn’t react to things. He never should have fallen in the first place, but he should have been able to stop himself with his power.

Lani was all about pushing his power down, it scared him still. He was better but he didn’t trust himself not to lose control and it was easier to force it back. He shook snow from his head and shoulders and hesitated half going to brush snow off of her before he realized that was probably not the socially accepted action. “I’m so sorry,” Lani repeated and offered her his hand, “I’m so clumsy. I hope I didn’t hurt you.” Well too badly. Lani luckily was going to walk away from this with only a bruise to his pride, he wasn’t so sure about the girl he’d fallen on. He was a tad annoyed. First, he shouldn’t have slipped but the ice was so well hidden in the snow. He wasn’t normally clumsy. Second, this would have been easily avoided, if no one had been there he would have landed softly on the ground in his controlled fall. His power would have lowered him down gently enough that the dense snow would be enough to save him from injury, but now someone else was laid out in the snow. He bit his tongue and otherwise set his expression in the mask of the concerned stranger.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

AJ just stayed there for a moment, face in the snow. She wasn't sure why, it was cold. Maybe it was because she was too busy gritting her teeth at the pain. She wasn't used to physical pain, as much as she was emotional and honestly, she wasn't sure what was worse. She heard the male voice above her and she was trying to push away the pain so she could respond. She took a deep breath into her scarf before slowly lifting her head up and mumbling a reply. "I'm okay." Which she was, all things considering. Nothing felt broken. Maybe she'd have bruises...okay, she'd definitely have bruises. "Is it only in Pilot Ridge that people fall from the sky?" Maybe in her jumbled mind at the moment she thought that sounded witty. She sat herself up and took his hand, figuring it had to do something with meta-powers. After all, that seemed to be the source of most weird happenings in Pilot Ridge.

"I'm not exactly graceful either if that means anything," she offered, looking down at her books and cringing. Would the library accept them back now that they most likely had water damage? Quickly, she bent to pick them up, pain surging through her back as she did so. "I've been through worse." She just shrugged, not realizing what that could have implied.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani winced at the sound of her voice, it sounded like she was gritting her teeth, but Lani wouldn’t be the only to ask her again. Some people had a lot of pride, himself included, and when in pain would play the role of the birds and hide it until death. Lani chuckled a little, glad that she was at least well enough to be sarcastic. “They really should have signs.” He agreed. He helped her up when it seemed she had finally got her bearing. Lani kept his hand there in case she felt a little more unsteady when she stood than when she was kneeling. “You sure you’re okay? Do you need to sit down?” He asked, he’d feel better about his goof if he were able to help make it better somehow. He hated the fact that his power was destructive and seemed to be strongly against construction of any form. At least he had someone else to focus on and he could push the thoughts of other things away from his head.

The telekinetic gave her a smile and nodded his head. “It’s the ice, it makes clumsy people like us literal hazards.” He watched her and quickly bent to help her with her books. They were in a sad state and it did indeed depress Lani a little bit. He found books precious beyond all things. For they held stories and they held lives and loves. Above all they held knowledge. “I’m sorry about these,” he said, no matter if they dried them they would have water damage and though that would not ruin the internal structure of the book it may smear text if they text was old and it may tear and ripple pages. Lani raised an eyebrow at the statement and filed that away for further reference. He was a curious thief and was as skilled at theft of possessions as he was of information. He didn’t always steal for profit and likewise didn’t always gather information for money. Sometimes he was just curious.

Having just met Lani didn’t want to pry but the statement didn’t sit right with Lani. He had a strongly protective nature. “Worse than falling strangers?” He asked with a raised brow. He set out the line and if she dodged the question he’d let it rest, if not maybe a stranger was the best person to talk to. Without her permission he took the books from her arms and into his own. He shivered a bit as the cold moist books seeped water into his clothing. “Where were you headed? Least I can do is carry your books there.” He said with a charming smile. Lani could be a gentleman when he tried.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

"I'm okay," AJ assured him. "Although you have pegged me right in calling me clumsy. I'm not exactly graceful, but I don't fall from the sky either. What exactly is your power? Flying or...?" She trailed off. If it had been flying, wouldn't he have fairly good control over that by now that he wouldn't be falling all the time? He seemed quite a bit older than her, although she couldn't be sure.

"It's okay. I'll just replace them for the library or something..." she explained awkwardly, fumbling for words. Sorry...it's just that I've never brought damaged books back to the library. They're always in pristine condition. I mean, except for maybe a few dog-eared pages." Now she was rambling. "But these," She took a deep breath. "This would make an book lover cry, including me." What was this? Was she panicking a little? Guess her anxiety problems hadn't completely faded yet.

"Sorry, I'm being a freak, I know," she rambled once more. "And I don't think I can compare what I've been through to falling strangers. It's mostly emotional stuff."

[Lani Hunter]

Laughter escaped Lani’s lips as he scratched is head sheepishly. “Sorta-kinda. I’ve got a rather unreliable case of telekinesis,” he said joking making it seem like some sort of virus. Lani blinked for a moment realizing that she had just nonchalantly asked him what his power was and he had just as casually mentioned it. What a world they were starting to live in. There was a time when Lani would have lied through his teeth. That was a time when he was constantly looking over his shoulder for an enemy. Now, now Lani wasn’t afraid of anything. Well, it was a little bit parasitic but that was besides the point. It was all his own fault too, if he weren’t so afraid of it he wouldn’t have to think about using it because it was a little parasitic. Because he shut it down he had to deal with the consequences of not being able to call it at a moment’s notice. It didn’t have to be that way, and Lani was working on being more comfortable with just letting it do its own thing but it was so hard to control.

Lani frowned, library books. He was sure they would not take too kindly to wet books. Lani felt badly for her, she looked very close to having a break down about the whole thing. Lani gave her a sympathetic smile and freed a hand to pat her shoulder briefly. “Eh, no use crying over dropped books. What’s done is done.” He shrugged and shifted the books in his arms. “You could always try to hang them up and use a hair dryer or something. Oh! You know what, my sister’s still at Hammel, she’s got some sort of water power, maybe she can do something,” he offered. Caroline had definitely found a niche at Hammel and Lani was happy for her, but he didn’t get to see her very often. Lani smiled, this was nothing to cry over, the books were moist and if they dried they would be stained and perhaps a little wrinkled but nothing about their content had changed.

“Don’t apologize, I know how you feel,” he said, still thinking they were talking about books. He was a book lover as well, but he would never admit it. A confused expression crossed his face for a moment and then his expression softened, not into an expression of sympathy but to one of understanding. Emotional stuff was never fun. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, “You know, a lot of people forget about that kinda stuff. Give bruises a week, but emotional stuff…” He shrugged and looked at her for a moment his protective instinct kicking in. “Anyway, I feel really bad, let me make it up to you. We’ll see if we can’t get these books fixed up and I can replace them otherwise. It wasn’t your fault.” He gave her a wink and a charming smile, “See nothing to cry over, everything will be fine.”

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

"Unreliable?" AJ asked. Wasn't telekinesis when you could lift objects with your mind? How was he able to lift himself into the air? She had no idea that was a part of telekinesis and it made her want a different power even more. It was like having the power of flight as well, but without the pesky addition of wings. "Is it hard to control? Do you have to concenrate really hard?" She found herself asking questions, curiosity fueling her. After all, anything was better than talking about herself.

He was right. It was done, but they were also ruined. She wasn't sure a hairdryer would do the trick though. They'd still tell the pages had water damage. The librarians loved her there and she was going to leave a horrible impression when she returned these books. The next thing he said gave her some hope though. "You mean, she could like extract the water from the books, maybe?" That would be so useful. You could go swimming and then dry off instantly. Like how in bad movies their hair wasn't wet after swimming.

"I wasn't meaning to make this about me," she mumbled. Why did she have to say that? Sure, she'd had some bad experiences with not having control over her power, manipulating pheromones of others to make them extremely angry at her or extremely lusting for her. And then everything seemed brighter when Travis came along. They helped each other. And in the end, it seemed they only made each other worse. How did that happen? How did you love someone so much that you depended so much on them that it hurt them? She hadn't had the energy to be his crutch. She could barely help herself without worrying about him non-stop. She had to do it, she had to break up with him, right? One couldn't stay in a relationship like that. But it was heartwrenching because he was in a bad place and she couldn't help him. While trying to take care of him, her own anxiety had gotten worse again.

She nodded at him as he reassured her. At least he wasn't going to just blow her off and tell her it was her problem to fix the books or replace them. He was being polite about it and helpful, owning up to what he'd done even if it was an accident. "Thank you."

[Lani Hunter]

Lani laughed good naturedly and nodded sheepishly. “It’s touch and go,” Lani said cryptically, “Yeah, do you have a power?” He asked curiously. Sometimes his power was good and sometimes it was hard. He knew it all boiled down to him and how he felt and what he did, but there were accidents and there were things that couldn’t be helped. With power came strain and control was a necessary ingredient that had been evading him ever since his power manifested in a blast. He had gotten better, but he had also gotten worse. He could control it but he couldn’t control his emotion and his emotions were linked to his power and therefore he had made the bad decision to just shut it away. Leaving room for error as seen today.

He held up a finger to stall her hope, he didn’t want to get them up if Caroline couldn’t actually do anything. “That’s a big maybe, I’m not sure about the details of her power but I mean it would make sense, just extract the water.” Caroline did do that when she was swimming. That girl was a fish, really he didn’t know how she did it, and that wasn’t just because he was afraid of water and had never tried. He shivered it was just like fate to give his sister something to control water. He was jealous that Caroline lived without fear in that regard, but his parents had learned from his experience and taught her to swim early and they had not been able to get her to stop since then.

Lani heard but chose to ignore her mutterings. If she wanted the subject dropped he would drop it and that was a clear indication of that. “Well we just have to keep moving on,” Lani commented thinking of his own heartache. It was a pain that was not physical but it was killing him all the same. He hated that he missed Odion so much, especially when he had friends all around him. He shrugged it off and just smiled at her thanks and jerked his head back in the way toward Hammel taking the books with him. “Name’s Lani by the way.” He said as he turned away and he gave a charming smile. She would either follow or not but Lani was holding her books hostage now and that was something Lani didn’t comment on but he gave a little sly smile at the idea. Book people were easy, they had one real love.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

"Yeah," AJ told him, however she didn't feel comfortable divulging much more than that. Her power, being a meta in general, was the source of much of her grief. She didn't want to get into that, or she knew she wouldn't stop talking and it would be a pity party of one. She wouldn't do that.

"It's worth a shot then," she told him as often water powers including the ability to do that and if so, then they wouldn't have to even replace the books and all would be well.

Yep, moving on. It seems that's all she ever tried to do because she constantly had to move on from one thing or another. "I'm AJ," she responded, going to follow him in the direction of Hammel where she'd just come from. She was slightly wary as she didn't really know him, but he was trying to repay the favor. Although the last time someone tried to do that, she'd manipulated them on accident and things had come crashing down really fast. That, and he had her books that she owed the library.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani hummed a little and raised a brow but didn’t press, he would find out her name then he would find out her power, it was really easy when it comes down to it. “So you go to Hammel then?” He asked instead, “My sister’s name is Caroline, maybe you know her?” He hoped so, everyone should know Caroline, she brightened a room when she walked in. He loved her dearly and would gladly destroy anyone who tried to hurt her. Which was probably the reason she was having trouble getting a boyfriend. At least she was still lying to him if she did find one. She complained to no end about him and his overprotective tendency.

He nodded, he’d already made up his mind. He took out his phone and using his power to help him hold the books he used a hand to quickly text his sister. ‘Hey what’cha up to? I need your help with something’. He pocketed it and smiled back. AJ, that made her a little harder to track. “Pleasure,” he said, but didn’t have enough hands to reach over to shake her hand. He laughed at the reply his sister sent. ‘What did you do?’

He texted back quickly about the books and the water and left out the part about falling on the person carrying them. “She says she’s not sure, but she’ll see what she can do,” Lani informed AJ before pocketing his phone again. “So AJ, are you from around here originally?” He asked conversationally, he didn’t want this to sound like an interrogation but rather a pleasant conversation as they walked. Hammel was only a mile or so away at this point, they had a little while.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

"I don't think so," AJ replied, as she fell into step beside him. "Then again, I don't really spend too much time exploring Hammel or really getting to know everybody." She shrugged her shoulders. Maybe she'd seen her before, but she sure didn't know her by name.
She was just glad he hadn't asked what her power was.

"It's worth a try," she agreed. After all, dry books would be better than replacing them. That would mean Lani would have to fork up some money and she really didn't want him to have to pay for them even if it was his fault they were ruined.

"No, the midwest, actually. Minnesota. I'm just glad this place still has seasons." He was just making casual conversation, right? She should just go with it, not get nnervous about it.

[Lani Hunter]

"Ah too bad," Lani said with a shake of his head and a little smile, "She's pretty awesome, but don't tell her I told you so." He gave her a wink like it was their little secret. Caroline knew that he loved her more than air but that didn't mean she had to know that he liked her. Lani wasn't sure about most of the friends Caroline had, he honestly had no idea who most of them were, which was killing him because she wasn't letting him know who they were so he wouldn't do background checks on them. He had to sit back and trust Caroline’s judgment, he had taught her a lot about street life and now he had to trust that he had taught her well enough that she could survive without his constant watch. “So you know I’m a telekinetic, what can you do?”

Money was nothing to the thief and honestly paying for these books was probably one of the cheapest things he’d ever stolen for. It would probably just be a few wallets and Lani would never actually feel the sting that came from money being exchanged from hand to hand. Lani smiled at the girl, encouragingly, she needed to chin up a bit and smile, she looked a little like a child who’d spilled milk, well it hadn’t even been her fault. Lani was glad though that she didn’t get too angry with.

“Oh really?” Lani asked interested, he’d traveled to Europe with Odion but… well that had ended in disaster, but never mind. He’d never traveled too far west. “Does Minnesota not have seasons?” Lani asked with a curious interest. “So coming to Hammel, was a long trip then? I’m from Boston, so that’s only a couple hours.” He added randomly.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

"If I ever meet her, I promise not to tell," AJ replied. She wanted to avoid what he said next, the dreaded question that meta's asked each other when they met. It was like it was a pleasantry, like the equivalent of 'how are you?' which AJ didn't happen to like answering either. She avoided his gaze because somehow it was easier to tell people her power without looking at them, she felt like if she met their eyes they'd know how she felt about it and how much damage it'd caused. Her eyes gave everything away.

"I can manipulate pheromones," she answered simply, hoping to not expand into a conversation about their powers. Gladly, she accepted the questions about her hometown which were a lot easier to answer.

"No, no. Minnesota has seasons! Of course winter seems to be the most prominent..." she trailed off. "But yes, we have seasons there, I just didn't want to move somewhere where there wasn't seasons because it's what I'm used to." She nodded at the long trip question. "I've never been to Boston and I went on a lot of family vacations."

[Lani Hunter]

Lani laughed a little hoping to take some of this girl’s edge off, “Good. Then we can be friends.” He joked, this girl was so distraught about the books and it seemed even more put off because she’d let slip that there was more wrong than just that. Lani looked at her his eyes taking in everything in her posture, he wasn’t the most observant of people, but when he tried he could determine certain things. He knew now enough to know he’d made a misstep in the conversation as she seemed to shut down. Lani bit his tongue to punish it for its foolishness, or rather his own foolishness. He smiled nonetheless. “Ah, I met someone who could do that once. He was a really cool guy.” Lani’d only met Erik once and honestly he had freaked Lani out for a number of reasons but Lani wasn’t one to judge for looks and Erik was very nice. Maybe a little too nice.

“Isn’t it here too?” Lani asked jokingly. Winter was the bane of his existence. The only thing that was good about it was he could wrap his face in a scarf and not be sweating bullets. Yes his thieving outfit went from sweltering in the summer to freezing in the winter. He’d much rather have a more balanced weather system, but he doubted that was a thing anywhere. “Oh, I gotcha,” Lani said nodding in agreement, “That would be weird right? Thank goodness Hammel’s not in Florida or something.” He smiled as they turned up the road to Hammel.

“Boston’s great,” Lani said, no matter what had happened within the city he loved it. It might have been the scene of most of his bad memories but it was also the backdrop of many many more pleasant memories. “So you traveled a lot as a kid? Where did you go?” Lani’d never really left Boston, they went to the beach in North Carolina when he was younger and his grandparents down there were still alive. Otherwise he’d never left Boston until Hammel and then he’d gone to Europe and… And it was there Odion had broken up with him. He swallowed, no, he was not going to let the redhead invade his thoughts.