SUE: Going Down? (Lani and Damia)

[Event !]

Pity Lani and Damia, because they are trapped in a glass mall elevator.

[Lani Hunter]

There was a bored expression on Lani's face as he contemplated taking the elevator down or the stairs. It was a few floors, as with most things in the Northeast they built things up and not down. Figuring it wouldn't hurt Lani and his empty hands got into the elevator. Lani's been in the mall off and on recently, it was an easy way to get some quick cash. The mall was by far the easiest place to steal, well it was so long as some telepath didn't invade his privacy. It was always full of people and no one was really paying attention to anything as they were either on a mission or with people and gabbing away. Lani was dressed in a pair of sneakers and jeans and his button up had the sleeves rolled up. It was starting to get warm but it was doing that frustrating thing where it was in the cold in the morning and then got it got warm in the afternoon. Lani wasn't going to go as far as to say it was hot, but it was getting there. It was always interesting to see all of the people who appeared out of nowhere on the streets and at the mall when the weather was nice and being outside wasn't a chore. Lani was just glad he didn't have to put about twelve layers on to keep his arms from falling off.

Lani was still contemplating the elevator or the stairs when his decision was made as he approached and the door to the elevator opened. Why not? He shrugged, he was tired after all, he'd been rooting around day and he'd scoped out a nice new jewelry place and he was looking forward to proving the sophisticated alarm system that no alarm system was sophisticated enough to best Lani, and the telekinetic had yet to meet a lock he couldn't open, and Lani was proud to say that was without the help of his power. Though he would not say no to help from his power. He stepped on after the rest of the people loaded off. He smiled at the other passenger and made note of the ground floor button light and leaned back against the railing. Lani had no fear of heights and the glass elevators fascinated Lani, he liked being able to see them. He wished they lived somewhere like Boston where the tall hotels had those amazing glass elevators that went a hundred or more floors up.

The elevator fell and Lani felt the familiar lifting motion before his body adjusted to the speed at which the elevator fell. He was watched the lights at the top change as they dropped one floor then two and somewhere between the second and third floor everything when black and there was a tremor, then the elevator dropped beneath his feet. Lani grabbed the rail in sudden terror and he wasn't sure if the elevator stopped on its own or if it was his power that caught them because the telekinetic was not going to die in some freak elevator accident. "Holy shit," Lani said and didn't loosen his grip on the railing as he looked out at the mall. Everything was dark out in the mall and luckily a few sky lights were still offering marginal light. "Holy shit," Lani repeated his heart hammering in his chest. This was why no one liked elevators. "You alright?" He asked off the other passenger.

[Damia Owens]

Damia didn't really want to be at the mall. Not today, not ever, but the semester was finally over and she needed to try to catch up for the summer season. Pretty much everyone else had seasonal jobs already. They'd applied and done interviews during the semester and worked out everything. They probably had plans for the fall and winter as well. There was no way she was getting a job. Everything would already be taken by now. It was incredibly disheartening. She should have done this months ago. But she hadn't. She hadn't had the capacity to even think about it at the time. School was too much, she didn't even know how she'd managed to make it through the semester. There were times where she was sure she wouldn't. But here she was, summer coming on, trying to make up for it.

The young woman had started on the upper-most floor, walking back and forth across the mall. She didn't go in every store. Instead, she looked at the various shops from outside and contemplated whether or not she could see herself working there. Most seemed either impossible to get a job in or like she wouldn't be able to tolerate the environment. After a couple of hours all she had was one application, two business cards, and a disheartening belief that she wasn't qualified for anything. No one in their right mind would hire her. She certainly wouldn't.

That's how she found herself on the elevator. Damia got on and pressed the button for the ground floor. No more of this. She was going home and wouldn't leave for the next three months if she could help it. To be honest, she wasn't really comfortable in the elevator, with the closed space and glass walls, but right now the need to get out of here superceded other issues. Damia closed her eyes and took a few slow, deep breaths, focusing her mind elsewhere as best as possible.

She was just starting to calm herself when the elevator suddenly dropped and then jerked to a stop. Damia's eyes shot open as she grabbed the railing. The mall was dark save for the the skylights. The elevator was stuck between floors. Her breath was caught in her chest, speech disabled, but she managed a stiff nodd at the other passanger. Alright was NOT the word for it.

After a moment she managed to take a few shallow breaths, fighting the tension in her chest. "I-I, uh...." She didn't even know what she was trying to say. Her mind was a dense fog. She just needed words. Anything to push back against the panic building up in her. "I um..." Damia shook her head slowly. She couldn't say it.

[Lani Hunter]

Of all of the things Lani was expecting to happen today this was not even on the list. Lani would have even expected that the bus would break down before he would have thought that there would be a power outage and the elevator would drop him and make him start praying. Either way Lani wasn’t going to let go of it. Chances were there was some sort of emergency brake but Lani was not about to test that theory and see. Not when his heart was hammering in his chest and he was starting to wonder if there wasn’t something in the universe out to get him. Lani had sprinted on rooftops, leapt from building to building several stories above the streets in the Boston skyline. He’d balanced on fences and attempted flight with his power. But for the first time in Lani’s life he didn’t trust the ground beneath his feet.

Lani started to assess the situation. They were between floors and the power was out, therefore they were not going anywhere until either the power came on or Lani moved them. He really hoped this was temporary. He swore he would never be lazy again, he would take the stairs forever and for always. He looked at the poor girl stuck with him and tried to be calm because it seemed she was not calm, not in the least. The telekinetic didn’t let go of the railing and his legs were shaking as if expecting the elevator to drop out from under him again, though he had it in his power now there was only so much that could happen now. Though the elevator wasn’t light, he didn’t know how long he could actually hold it. “Okay,” Lani said speaking to himself as much as he was speaking to her. “It’s alright. It’s fine, everything fine. I’ve got us.”

The telekinetic turned his eyes away from the girl for a moment to check the rest of the mall. It appeared that other people below were making note of the situation and Lani hoped that someone somewhere knew how to get them out of the elevator. Lani was starting to realize that they were trapped. As if he were feeding off of her panic he had the irrational thought that he was going to be stuck in here forever. Lani was afraid of being trapped, or rather being stuck in someplace he couldn’t get out of. This was one of those places. He closed his eyes, he had to stay in control, they couldn’t just start panicking that wouldn’t help anyone. He took a deep breath and looked back to the girl. He could focus on her, that was the solution, forget about his problems and the fact that her problem was technically also his problem. He had to do something.

“We’re okay,” he said and nodded offering her a smile. “I don’t know how long we’re gonna be here, but we’re okay. Okay?” He held out his hand. “I’m Lani. We’re gonna be fine.” He nodded again and swallowed his throat dry with fear. He figured eventually the fear would wane to some form of boredom if they were up here long enough. If it was just him he’d figure a way out that involved getting the elevator to one of the doors but he didn’t want to scare the girl, best just to hold it for now. Lani was not going to think about how this was like being trapped in a cage thought the panic was brewing just below the surface. Maybe that’s why he was talking so much, he needed to keep assuring himself that he was fine, just as much as he wanted to reassure this girl.

[Damia Owens]

Of course this would happen. She had set herself up. If she had managed the stresses of the semester better... if she had focused on looking for a job sooner... if she wasn't such a freaking mess, she wouldn't have been in the mall today. She wouldn't have been in the elevator. This wouldn't have happened. Just like everything else, she had brought this on herself. Why couldn't she just be like everyone else and coast through school like it was nothing?

Damia wanted nothing more but to curl up on the floor and cry. But that wasn't an option, not here in public where people could see. What would they think of her then? She could feel herself begin to tear up. Taking a deep breath, Damia strained her eyes open, trying to force them to dry out. The effort also helped her sidetrack herself from the negative thoughts. It was a battle, but she was desperate not to let the depths of her panic show through.

Luckily the other passenger was handling the situation better than she was. Damia hardly caught any of his rambling but the noise gave her something to focus on and after a few moments she was able to compose herself a bit. She nodded back at him and after a moment of hesitation took his hand in her weak grasp. Lani. That was his name. Lani. Okay, everything was going to be okay. "Okay," she replied. Her voice felt distant, unnatural to her ears. She tried to focus more, bringing herself back to Lani. "Okay. I'm, I'm Damia." Okay, that was better.

Damia took another shaky breath and cautiously looked around to survey the situation a bit better. Okay, okay... it really wasn't that bad, was it? Yes it was. No, no... no. It was okay. Just focus on that.

"What do we do now?"

[Lani Hunter]

Lani smiled and took her hand firmly, hoping that he was coming off more confident than he actually was. He had to hold it together to help her. That was all he could focus on because he’d be a completely mess if he had to focus on his own fears. He nodded, yes everything was going to be okay. That was partially stubbornness, he was not going to let things end here. Not in an elevator. Not without telling Odion everything he needed to hear. “Damia,” he repeated for confirmation, “We’re going to be okay.” He could say that a million more times and he himself wouldn’t be able make himself confident in it, but he was a trickster at worst and an actor at best, he could make himself believe whatever he needed to get whoever he was with to believe him. Only in this case he just wasn’t using it to steal.

What do we do now? Lani looked at her and blew out air. Hell if he knew. He swallowed and looked out at the mall. Someone was bound to have noticed by now that they were stuck. “I think we wait. Either for someone or for the power to come back on.” He didn’t let go of the railing as he slowly went to sit on the floor. He had no idea how long they were going to be here, he wanted to be comfortable, especially if he had to focus on keeping them upright. He was starting to feel the headache bloom in his skull, he couldn’t keep this up. He put a hand to his head and gritted his teeth against the pain. The elevator was so heavy. He was not going to let himself and Damia drop. Not today. He looked up at her and gave her a sad smile. “This sucks.” This girl might not be a meta human, she might not react well to a meta human, but Lani couldn’t hold them forever.

“So Damia,” he said conversationally, trying to convey calm as he let his power go and with the floodgates open the pain was relieved as most power went to holding them up. It was hard to keep a conversation going and work at the same time, but Lani needed to calm to anchor himself as well or else chances of him trying to do something stupid were probably rather high. “What brings you to the mall today?” He smiled, they were really just two people unfortunately unlucky enough to be victims of the same fate. Lani’s power traveled up and along the elevator rail and wires, trying to learn the mechanics of the elevator. It was simple in theory, a pulley system, easy enough to construct, but was there something to stop them from falling? Did the system freeze when the power went out? Lani’d grabbed it before he could tell. Lani’s power explored and he could feel and see all of the screws and gears and wires. Maybe they were already stuck, or maybe he could make them stuck. Either way, while his head wasn’t killing him yet he couldn’t hold this thing for very much longer.

[Damia Owens]

There were certainly a lot of ‘okays’ going around, but Damia hardly noticed. If anything it was just a subconscious reassurance and one that was starting to help her feel better, even if just a little. Lani seemed perfectly confident that nothing was wrong. All she had to do was focus on that. If only she was anyone else, then she might be able to fool herself into believing Lani’s confidence. But Damia wasn’t and she hadn’t exactly been taking care of her emotional and mental well-being lately. This made for a very precarious balancing act. Just focus on Lani. Even if she couldn’t fool herself, that was still the key.

Following his lead, Damia slowly lowered herself to sit on the floor. Her legs shook and her head spun. For a moment she could have sworn she felt the elevator shift beneath her feet and panic crept up within her again. Damia braced herself on the floor and took a few slow, deep breaths, trying to maintain her focus on Lani. She very much did not like the idea of having to wait, but she wash’t about to press the issue. Saying anything now would only endorse the panic.

Yet not saying anything left her feeling very uncomfortable. Should she say something? Damia couldn’t tell if it would be unwise to let Lani know just how close to panicking she was. Surely he wouldn’t want to know… and, if bringing the issue to light broke down the flood walls, he certainly wouldn’t want to deal with her having a panic attack. But didn’t he have a right to know? It was just like all of those job applications all over again.

Speaking of, Damia cleared her throat a little, forcing her focus back to him. “I was… uuh… just…” She blushed as she stumbled over her words for a moment. “just, uh…” Damia mentally kicked herself for having so terribly ruined her answer. Could she maybe just not answer? For a moment she hesitated, stumbling over her various phrases as she looked for an escape, but there didn’t seem to be one and then the answer finally came “…looking for applications, work… for the summer.” Hopefully Lani had been able to make sense out of that.

Damia’s eyes flicked between him and the floor. God, it sounded so stupid. Stuck in an elevator because she was trying to find a job she didn’t deserve too late in the season for any to even hire her.

[Lani Hunter]

It was easy to reflect what other people were giving, if someone else was sad it was easy to sympathize, Lani wasn’t sure if it actually worked like that but he was hoping that if he was calm he could get her to be calm as well. He really hoped that none of his panic was making it to the surface, he was just glad his acting was really good and he could put any mask over his face that was needed. Either way panicking was going to get them nowhere and well, Lani would really like to not be killed in an elevator. Main problem was that he didn’t know how long it would take for someone to come and rescue them or how long it would take for the power to come back on. If they were here too long Lani was going to screw it and get them out of here. Opening his mind in an area where there were so many people was a dangerous act but Lani wanted to make sure he knew everything before he let them go.

Lani was holding the elevator so tightly, but it was hard to trust the floor that had already shifted underneath them. That was another reason Lani wanted to be on the ground, his feet didn’t trust the ground not to give and it was making him antsy and the less they both shifted their weight around the better. Lani himself was watching the elevator floor and glaring at it like he could intimidate it into submission. But it was an elevator and it didn’t care if he was afraid or if she was scared or if they were going to ride the elevator to the bottom. Lani’d let his power rage before he let that happen. He turned his eyes back to her and watched her. He waited patiently as she tried to organize her words, she was trying and this was good. Talking would give them something to focus on and hopefully if she started panicking Lani wouldn’t also start.

“Ah,” he nodded in understanding, “Any luck?” He had no idea that it was too late to apply for jobs or anything, after all Lani didn’t technically have a job. Sure he ‘worked’ but that was hardly something that was considered paid income. Really, Lani’s worked so hard to get away from his boss but the truth of the matter was that he had found himself with a set of very specialized skills that he had little ability to use elsewhere. Honestly, he respected her for trying to get a job. Lani knew he should at least try to get some sort of part time work for the summer, but he’d also decided to take a few classes to accelerate his graduation. Really he just needed something in case his apartment complex started asking where the money was coming from. He doubted that they would, but it was always a possibility.

Lani winced as his head hammered painful. More and more of his power was going to the underside and pushing up on the base of the elevator. Why did they have to make it glass? If it was interior they could go out the top and then it would be easy. He wouldn’t let them slip. He dug in his pocket and took out a vial of pain killers and tossed a few into his mouth and closed his eyes while he waited for the pain to subside long enough for him to think. He opened his eyes again and gave Damia a smile. He absently started humming lightly as his power wandered and searched for some sort of emergency brake. There had to be one, at least there should have been one. Lani’s eyes snapped up to the top of the elevator even though he couldn’t see what his power was telling him. Ah-ha! He thought and followed the emergency stop to the trigger and without thinking pressed the trigger. The elevator trembled and Lani’s power recoiled causing his head to slam back into the railing and his hands gripped the railing. Well, they weren’t falling, they were holding that was good. But his heart was hammering. “Sorry,” he said in a gasp as pain hammered against his skull.

[Damia Owens]

That answer had been painful enough to get through, the last thing Damia had wanted was to have to attempt to re-explain. It seemed that every time she tripped up her words like that people would just stare at her dumbfounded. Then they would ask her to clarify her answer. At this point it was simply second-nature for Damia to assume Lani would be like the rest, but no… he’d moved on like nothing had happened.

Damia mentally gave a huge sigh of relief, her mind easing up again a little at this revelation. Sure, it felt weird now, to not have to search for new words, weird enough that she began her answer by re-addressing the topic- “Find any work?” but that was nothing more than a little quirk of Damia’s which was better to endorse than to resist.

“Umm… not, not really.” It was difficult for her to admit, but somehow that answer came easier. Was she letting her guard down a little? Maybe. Damia would have insisted that the answer was no. After all, she hadn’t given any explanation for her lack of success and, even if questioned, would still most likely refuse to address the true reason. In her mind, it wasn’t so much about the lack of available positions - something that had no basis in reality but which she’d convinced herself of anyways - but rather her inability to maintain balance under stress. Who would ever hire a mess like her?

She was so wrapped up in her own world that it wasn’t until Lani took the pain killers from his pocket that Damia took any note of how he was handling the situation. The pills, however, caught her attention fast. Medication was something she was very attentive of. This was true even more so now that she was off her own meds. Looking him over, Damia could immediately see the stress that he was under, or was that her imagination? It worried her, even as Lani gave her a smile. A minute ago she might have been fooled, but now she was ready to assume the worst.

That’s when his eyes snapped open. Damia tensed, the elevator trembled, and his head slammed back. They weren’t falling but, like a deer caught in the headlights, she was not about to relax. Even as he apologized. For a moment there was silence between them but as time wore on and nothing more happened, Damia ventured to inquire what was going on. “Are you okay?” While it might not have seemed like much, it was for her. There was another pause as she debated whether or not to leave what had just happened alone. “What… was that?” If something more was about to happen, Damia wanted to know.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani nodded and looked at her waiting for her answer. He felt bad, he was really only half paying attention, most of his focus was elsewhere. The whole job application process was a mystery to Lani, he had very little experience in the realm of actual work. Honestly, if he had to get letters of recommendation from anyone it would be professors that he had gotten who liked him and maybe a few friends of the family who still thought he was innocent and a hard working student. He knew his family wouldn’t say anything to anyone about his stealing or his class failing, they had an image to uphold. He had the impression that if anything came up they tried to steer the conversation toward Caroline, which Lani had no problem with, she was the star child and he loved her and worked hard to make sure she could stay that way. She was more sly than any of them had anticipated, Lani was finding out.

“I’m sure something will turn up,” he said with a shrug. He honestly had no idea how getting a job worked or what kind of work there was out there. He knew that the economy was tight and more and more Lani had been finding immense pleasure from robbing the big tycoons blind because honestly the next day they made more than the average person did in a year. What really would they miss. There was never any evidence and Lani found himself very prideful, no he wasn’t as delusional to think of himself as some sort of Robin Hood. He was still a thief and he stole from the rich to give to himself. But then he was technically unemployed and therefore poor so he thought of it as a good use. Could Lani do some sort of honorable work to make a living wage, probably, did he care enough to try, not really. Someone the other day had just called him the worst of all people and in many ways the kid hadn’t been wrong.

Lani was unaware that the pills had broken his shields but he was in too much pain to think about not taking them. Even the pills weren’t enough sometimes and he found himself taking more and more. Lani rubbed his head where he’d smacked it and grumped briefly about the physical and mental pain. He was tempted to take more pills and that was all it took for a few more to pass his lips. He pocketed the vial and waited for them to take effect. He opened his eyes and gave her a smile. “More or less,” he answered, “I’ll be alright.” He just wanted to sit in the quite for a moment and make the pain go away, it was subsiding but he’d gotten hit with a pretty bad backlash and those were always his undoing. He was going to let his power rest for a little while.

A sigh escaped his lips and he ducked is head. “I’m sorry, that was my fault,” he admitted, “We’re officially stuck now. I’m actually a telekinetic, I should have told you before I did anything. But I caught us before the emergency brake did and I can’t lift and hold an elevator. So I had to hit the E-brake and let us go. That was the tremor you felt. I’m sorry I should have warned you.” Honesty was a funny thing, sometimes it was easy and other times it was extremely hard. Point was, they were stuck in his elevator, and if she wanted to be angry at him for not telling her then that was her prerogative, Lani could just take a nap and be just as happy. He looked through the glass at the people below. Most everyone had hunkered down somewhere or decided to move on. A few people noticed the elevator but Lani doubted that they would be first priority to anyone.

[Damia Owens]

Damia watched him carefully in the moments that followed the elevator’s shudder. She didn’t know what it was, but something told her he knew a lot more about what was going on than she did. He was more relaxed now, in pain it seemed, but no longer alarmed or stressed. More pills. What were they? For the pain? Damia nodded at his smile but didn’t manage to return it. It was a small relief that he was alright, but that question had been more of a formality than anything. The question you were supposed to ask. But it wasn’t the one she wanted answered. So Damia kept her tense silence, gave him a little space, and waited for the proper answer.

“Officially stuck now?” What was she supposed to make of that? It took a minute for her to absorb his explanation and even then she found herself unsure that she had understood him properly.

At first she wasn’t sure how to respond. Should she be freaked out that he’d been using his power to hold them aloft? or upset that he hadn’t told her sooner? or even mad that he hadn’t warned her? Damia wanted to be all three. She could feel the emotions coursing through her, However, rationality told her that while these might have been her instinctual reactions they weren’t necessarily completely justified. Lani hadn’t set out to deceive her and he didn’t know her mental state. If Damia had been better balanced she could have collected herself and wouldn’t have been on the verge of freaking out. If anything, maybe she could have actually helped him with this situation. It was a long shot and very out of her character, but Damia liked to believe that if she were well she’d be a much stronger and assertive person.

So, after a minute, Damia let out a sigh and tried to force herself to relax, easing up her muscles and scooting herself a bit to try to sit a bit more comfortably. It wasn’t very affective but it was a start.

“I - uh - push light.” It was the only thing she could think to say at this point. A sort of forgiveness. Technically, Damia manipulated light and darkness but she tended to see it as pushing the light to create spaces of darkness.

[Lani Hunter]

There was no problem with the pills, Lani didn’t have a problem, he didn’t think so at least. He was fine, he was very dependent on the pills to get through the day. But it wasn’t a problem, Lani was sure. It would be really nice to have a power that didn’t give him a perpetual headache. Lani closed his eyes for a moment and put his head back gently against the wall of the elevator and nodded. Officially stuck. At least for the time being, until Lani recovered a bit to make them move, but he was inclined to wait until the power came back on, it couldn’t be off for that much longer right? It wasn’t like they were going to be struck in here for days. Well, either way if it got too long then Lani was going to have to do something, he was not going to be stuck in here all damn day.

The silence was nice for a little while and his mind had a chance to relax, but the silence stretched on and Lani cracked an eyes open to see if she was furious, admittedly he wouldn’t blame her but if she decided she wasn’t going to speak to him it was going to make the time drag on. He wondered if anyone was coming, or if anyone could come. He looked down at the people in the mall and people had more of less left if they could, it was only the workers loitering around to see if the power came back on or if they could go home and them. He felt bad, he didn’t mean to shake the elevator, it just happened. Sometimes this power was very useful and other times it was damn annoying, but he wasn’t looking forward to having to move the elevator if they were going to be stuck in here for a long time. “Huh?” Lani uttered when she spoke, he didn’t think he’d heard her right.

“Push light?” He asked and it dawned on him, she was a meta human as well. He gave a small smile in thanks. “Nice, so if it gets dark you can light it up in here? You musta gone to Hammel too then?” She looked to be his age, maybe a little older. He didn’t recognize her but that wasn’t much to be said he’d gotten his power late and hadn’t spent a lot of time doing productive things while at Hammel, but that was beside the point. It seemed like everything was more or less calm now, the elevator was stuck but it wasn’t going to fall out from under them in the near future, she seemed to be calming down a bit, Lani himself was more calm now than he had been, but now he had the pain in his head to think about and it wasn’t so terrifying being trapped in an elevator. It did help that it was glass and he could see out, if it had been completely enclosed Lani might not have been able to stay so calm.

[Damia Owens]

She nodded at his question to confirm that he had indeed heard her correctly. For a moment it seemed like she might have to clarify herself, but then Damia could see the light of recognition in his eyes. She returned his smile with a small, but very genuine one of her own. It felt like they had made a true connection in that moment, that there had been a small unspoken exchange of forgiveness as thanks. For Damia this was such a rare occurrence that it immediately softened her demeanor and her face brightened up a bit.

“Yeah, I um, finished last year.” Technically that was when she had graduated as well but Damia didn’t like to openly admit how long it had taken her to catch up and finish her education. The majority of students finished around 18 or 19, but she had been 22. By that time most people could have gotten an associate’s if not a bachelor’s degree. While she’d had ample cause for the delay it was still a source of great disappointment for Damia. She couldn’t help but blame herself for not being able to control her mind better, and therefor her inability to function better in life.

Looking up at the skylight, Damia could tell that it was getting to be later in the afternoon. “Well, I could keep it lit up for now…“ There was still plenty of light coming in for her to redirect, but if the sun dipped below the mall’s rooftop there wouldn’t be anything she could do for their little elevator.

“I can only really redirect and focus whatever light is immediately available.” It wasn’t really a useful power, not without a much finer level of control than she had. All she could do was block it off from an area or aim it at something that she needed to see better. Sometimes she could do more, but that required better focus. Compared to Lani’s power, Damia’s seemed almost useless.

[Lani Hunter]

In this big world, where in many parts meta humans were met with fear and panic. Then there were places in this big world where they were met as thought they were gods to be worshiped, and in this crazy world the only people who really understood the burden of being a meta human was another meta human, it was interesting to see the different powers and the people that came with them. Occasionally it happened where a person and their power went hand in hand, other times they were surprising, but most of the time they just were. There was an understanding between meta humans that didn’t exist between meta humans and non meta humans. It was the understanding of limits and the fear and side effects. He gave a small smile to her as he recognized the same sort of understanding.

Lani’s brows rose in surprise, “Oh really? Nice, me too,” he cocked his head at her, he really wanted a whole lot of nothing to do with Hammel, it wasn’t extremely surprising that he didn’t recognize her. “Well, technically, I still have to finish training.” he said raising his fingers and air quoting ‘technically’. He graduated but they were still requiring him to keep returning for regular training, which was annoying, but it was his own fault, he had been older than usual when he’d gotten his powers and as a result spent only two years at Hammel, the first of which he wanted nothing to do with his power or Hammel or anything remotely related to meta humans. His grades had passed him through well enough but he wasn’t quite yet trusted to not ‘be a danger to himself and those around him’, he hated when they said that. In his opinion his control had improved leaps and bounds this last year, he should be able to pass this time. Telekinesis was just one of those powers where control was variable, and quite possibly never really achieved, but he supposed that went along with all of the powers.

“So you have to have light in order to manipulate it?” He asked curious about her power, they were all different even two people with the same power weren’t quite the same. He knew telekinetic who could do things he couldn’t and he could do things they couldn’t. It was a good thing Lani didn’t mind the dark. He wondered if she gathered the light if she could sustain it through the darkness. He looked up and then checked his phone for the time. It was getting toward sunset now and they might be in the dark soon, which in a glass elevator wouldn’t be the most fun of all the things that could happen. “I wonder what happened, power’s been out for a while.” He said, it was starting to get a little warm to with the elevator acting like a greenhouse. Maybe the sun going down would be a blessing.

Lani disagreed in a moment like this her power was highly useful, at least for the timing being. He really hoped that someone was coming. Maybe they should call someone, but chances were all of the someones that could probably help were probably busy dealing with other problems, in the grand scheme of things with a massive power outage people stuck in an elevator probably ranked pretty low on the totem pole. Maybe once his power had gotten a rest he could get them out of here.