Power swap: Trippin' balls [Marnie]

[Lucas Blacke]

Luke woke up to the sound of his phone going haywire. Not with messages, but with strange noises that seemed to have something to do with the frequency. His first thought consisted of the conclusion that he was way too tired and that he needed a new phone. His second thought consisted of a small moan followed by the thought of Karalie. The third convinced him there was something odd going on; he could feel his phone not only on a physical scale, but mentally, and perhaps even on some other level. It was small, but he could swear the feeling he got came from the phone.

He snapped awake and realized that wasn't the only thing he felt.
He grabbed his phone and noticed that the screen began to flicker as he did so. Luke tried to ignore the flashes and navigated to his contacts. Karalie? His finger hovered above her name in hesitance, would he mention this to her? Didn't she like his muscle memory? He gasped at the realization that he could no longer sense any trace of his muscle memory. All of a sudden his head was empty, no thoughts except for the faint humming of mostly every device around him.

His finger moved to Marnie Sullivan. He'd wager she'd like something negative to happen to him, so he pressed down on her name and began a message.

''Dude, something odd is happening. I can feel my phone.''

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie rolled over groggily, rubbing sleep out of her eyes with one hand and reaching for her cell phone with the other. Who would be texting her at this ridiculous hour? It was either quite late or quite early - absent sunlight in her window, the room was totally dark but for the screen of her phone. A tiny envelope and the time, 4:35, shone out of the darkness. Even as early as she'd been getting up for runs lately, 4:35 was ridiculous.

As Marnie's fingers made contact with the plastic casing, an image filled her head - the same room, but brightly lit, as she typed out a message on the phone in her hands. After a minute the image vanished and she was plunged back into darkness. She shook her head to clear it; had she fallen back asleep for a minute? Maybe that was just the world's shortest, most boring dream...

Phone in hand, Marnie swiped the screen to reveal a new message, and groaned as she read the name attached. This better be good...

"Dude, something odd is happening. I can feel my phone.''

Marnie squinted at the screen - what the hell was he on about? Would it have made any more sense at a reasonable hour or was it just as asinine as it sounded?

"I can feel my phone too, but you don't see me waking you up at stupid o'clock," Marnie fired back. She hit "send" and the message vanished, replaced by a snapshot of the sender. Who she frankly didn't feel like looking at right now, except... something was wrong with his face. It looked different somehow but -

[Lucas Blacke]

As the message was sent back to him, which the ringtone to didn't even phase Luke even if he was facing the other direction, he grabbed his phone and began to feel a bit sick all of a sudden. He blamed being up at this ungodly hour.

He flicked on the screen with a yawn and scratched his head slightly as he navigated to the message he had received. He read Marnies reply and considered it perfectly normal for her to react the way she did.

''No but.. I know.. It's..''

How was he going to explain this? He hit send to convey his inability to come up with a valid sentence and make Marnie aware of the fact that he wasn't hiigh or anything.

''It's.. I feel odd. Like, I can sense cats. That's not normal, right?''

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie was still staring at her phone screen, trying to pinpoint just what was so off about the photo that she hadn't changed since taking it, when the chirp of an incoming message jolted her out of her concentration. The message itself provided no more explanation than the first; Marnie frowned at the screen, tired and exasperated.

"What, like someone snuck a cat into your dorm and you can hear it scratching around? Go back to bed Luke."

And don't invite me there, she wanted to add, in no mood for the boy's habit of cramming terrible innuendos and pickups into every conversation. She didn't feel all that normal herself, but at least Marnie was willing to chalk it up to the hour. Lucas needed to get a life if this was his idea of a fun trick.

[Lucas Blacke]

So the cat thing didn't work. Marnie could still twwist whatever he said into somthing logical, and what he was saying, Luke realized, was everything but. Her message was one where she assumed someone snuck a cat in his room and he heard that. But he didn't say he heard it, he felt it.

And were the circumstances different, he would have seen Marnie using his name as an excuse to invite her over. His eyes widened suddenly. Maybe inviting her over was the best way to let her see what was going on? But.. what was going on, exactly? Luke put the invitation on the backburner until he had figured out what was going on. And maybe just texting with Marnie was what kept him sane at this point.

''Sorry to keep you up like this at this hour, I really am.''

He hit send and he suddenly noticed the really loud humming his alarmclock gave off. What in the..?

[Marnie Sullivan]

Well, an apology was better than no apology, but that didn't stop Marnie from huffing grumpily at the message on her screen.

"Why aren't you bothering Karalie with this? Or did you already screw that up too?"

At a different hour, with a different person, Marnie would have been too timid to send such an acidic message out. But when the question had occurred to her she'd decided she wanted an answer more than she wanted to spare Lucas' feelings. What, she had to put up with rumors of him being deeply and totally infatuated with a new girl, and she had to put up with him pestering her in the middle of the night like some kind of plan b? No thank you.

[Lucas Blacke]

Luke smiled, or tried to as he drew back his head from looking at his alarm clock at the sound of his phone going off. As before, he sensed the message arriving before it made a sound, he wondered why. Also, why the sudden interest in his clock of all things? And what did his phone and clock have in common? And why was he craving brazil nuts? He'd have to look those up later.

''Karalie likes my muscle memory, and I think I've lost that.''

He hit send and reread the message Marnie had sent him., And more specifically the part about him screwing it up. He figured he'd deserved that, at least from Marnie. But as he reread it again one single word got to him. Already.

''I didn't do anything to screw it up. Lord knows I don't want our little deal to repeat itself.''

He was more angry than he let on and clenched his fist. He focused on the clock for whatever reason, and as he became slightly hypnotized by the glowing numbers the whole thing just poofed out of function.

''Also, I just blew up my clock''

This was getting odd.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Lost his muscle memory? How was that even possible?

"What did you do, try some late-night dorm parkour and fall on your face? Actually maybe that would explain it, you've got a concussion. Call a doctor, not me."

The comment about "our little deal" stung a little, but it made sense. Although they could have a somewhat civil conversation now, Marnie could understand not wanting a round two of that disaster. Still, she wasn't exactly in the mood to hear how much Lucas wanted or didn't want - wait, what?

"You blew up your clock? Lucas, what are you talking about? What's going on?"

"Odd" was right, all right.

[Lucas Blacke]

While Luke knew he could, he had not attempted any form of parkour since.. The boy figured Marnie could finish that sentence. And as it was now he COULDN'T attempt parkour, he didn't know how. He forget, he realized. He forgot lots of things he knew how to do, even kissing.

''I wish that were the case. That this was all just a figment of my imagination.''

He pinched himself multiple times but only succeeded in making his seemingly dead clock hum at him as if disappproving. He eyed his clock a bit closer and saw no lights popping through, he also saw smoke earlier. It was done for, so why did it make a sound?

He shot Marnie a quick message at her asking what was going on.

''I don't know. I think I'm kinda scared.''

Luke got up from his bed and disconnected every appliance in his room in the hopes they would stop humming at him.

'''Scratch that. I don't think. I know.''

[Marnie Sullivan]

Even over text, Lucas' nerves were showing loud and clear, and it had Marnie on alert. Was this a prank? The boy was certainly a fan of those, but she hadn't ever known him to pull a trick like this. Either he'd gotten bored with his old games or something was actually wrong. But... if it was, what could she even do about it? Marnie chewed her lip, eyebrows furrowed, reading and rereading the message as she debated where to go from here.

Wide awake now, she decided it wouldn't do to sit and stew in the dark like this. Heaving a resigned sigh, Marnie threw her blanket off herself and got to her feet. She strode across the room, flicked off the lights, and promptly forgot about Lucas' last text as she stared at the wallpaper in front of her.

What the hell?

What the hell?

Marnie had no idea how to describe what she was seeing, only that the wallpaper was a totally different hue than it had been when she'd gone to bed the previous night. What was she even supposed to call it? It certainly wasn't a color she'd ever seen before - was she hallucinating? /What/?

After a minute she snapped back to her senses and snatched up her phone.

"Lucas, what color is the wallpaper in your room?"

[Lucas Blacke]

As his phone indicated another message arriving for him he'd actually managed to pick up his phone before it made a sound. Why could he do that? He couldn't do it before, so why now? Ignoring his own question he navigated to Marnies reply, and saw that it had nothing to do with what he had said. She asked him about the color of his wallpaper. Why did she care all of a sudden? And why did she think Luke would care? This irked him quite a bit.

He tightened his fist slightly and saw the lights of his sound system turn on. Lukke slowly got up and moved over. He'd unplugged it, how was it lighting up? He turned around in confusion and noticed something way weirder; his broken clock was beginning to light up. How did it..?

He quickly navigated to the messaging area of his phone and began a reply.

''I don't know.''
''Multiple posters.''
''Story for another time.''

I'm seriously losing it Marn!''

He slumped back onto his bed, dropping his phone and throwing both hands through his hair.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Okay, so no useful answer on Lucas' end. About all she could've expected, really, but that didn't help settle Marnie's thoughts at all.

"You're not losing it," she typed hastily. Thank god for autocorrect - her thumbs were stumblig over the keypad like a drunk's. "Or maybe you are but maybe I am too."

How was she supposed to explain it to Lucas? Sure, it wasn't on the same level as blowing up an alarm clock. But Marnie had known she was colorblind since a rather memorable incident in third grade art class and was too used to it to be bothered by it much. Was it gone? Was that even possible?

"I promise I'll stop blowing you off if you tell me what color this is." Marnie snapped a pic of the wallpaper in front of her and sent it off, thoroughly confused.

[Lucas Blacke]

''Good to fucking know I'm not losing it. I'm glad there's nothing odd about me blowing up appliances left and right!''

He hit send and shot Marnie a quick message as he had picked up the phone and had received her first message about how he wasn't losing it. He screamed internally at it in anger. How was he not losing it? How was it normal to blow up stuff you had just bought and knew there were no flaws with? How? Fucking how?

He then got another text stating she was maybe losing it as well. Now, it wasn't like Luke hated the girl, but he didn't mind something bad happening to her at the moment. She sent him a third message with a picture attached. Her room, he knew. It slightly made him smile, there were some fun memories of her room. But instead of something worthwhile it was just a picture of her wall with the color he disliked. And if it were some sort of joke she asked him what color it was?

''That.. mauve thingy. I dunno. Internet. Also, /care.''

He didn't even take the time to make a joke about blowing him off.

''How the fuck do you think that is going to help me?''

[Marnie Sullivan]

Although she was beginning to understand Lucas' agitation, Marnie still felt a flash of irritation upon reading his message. How was she supposed to know what was happening? She wanted to help, but it wasn't like he could expect much from her.

"I'm sorry! I'm just freaking out because the wall changed color!"/

Fine, so it wasn't as serious as blowing up an alarm clock. So what? The fact was apparently she could see mauve now - whatever the hell mauve was - when she couldn't before, and frankly she considered that a big deal.

Wait, he'd suggested the Internet. Well, Lucas could just sit tight while she googled it - oh jesus, mauve was apparently a bunch of colors, Marnie thought as the search engine spat out what looked like several paint samples in shades she'd never processed before.

Anyway. Back to Lucas.

"How many things have you blown up? Can you wait until morning to see the school nurse?"

[Lucas Blacke]

''I'd be less of a fucking dick about it if I had my shit together right now!
Sorry for being a freaking douche!''

He typed the message out and hit send, just sighing out of relief he was able to use some form of comedy again. He'd finally fully calmed down -mostly because he didn't want to risk blowing his music up, if that was even possibly- and received a message from Marnie.

''Do you really, and I mean really think this is something I can go to the school nurse for?''

He considered it for a moment and felt pretty stupid for a moment as he shot the girl a quick message.

''Oh right, Hammel.
And also, it is morning right now. I mean, I blew up my clock but I can still see the time.

And I really don't know. I think it'll help to just have someone talk me through this, y'know?''