Power Swap : Fate is Teasing Me [OPEN]

[Genesis Kyland]

Some people didn't believe in fate. Or destiny. Or predestination. Or anything weird and supernatural like that.

Alex liked to say she was one of those people. However, when life happened, she needed something to get angry at other than everyone around her.

So despite the fact that just a day earlier she had denied the existence of any such things, she was mentally cursing out whatever, or whoever, dictated the course of her life. Namely, her power. Because this was just ridiculous.

Just a few years ago, she'd woken up being able to locate things via soundwaves and echoes, and enhanced hearing to boot. It had been a headache, literally, to learn to master, but once she had, it was glorious. She didn't have anymore of those days where she wished she could see, because she could function pretty much like a normal, seeing, person.

But no.... Now that ability had been ripped away from her. And she would be darned if whatever, or whoever, was responsible, was going to get away with it.

Even before she'd manifested, she'd adjusted fairly well to being blind, but over the years, she'd learned to rely on her echolocation and hearing. So much so that it felt as if she had just now gone blind. That morning. For real.

She'd sorely wanted to just hide in her room the entire day. Perhaps the entire week... or month... but if she wanted to keep her grades in order, that would be impossible. So, she'd forced herself to get up, fumble into clothes, and make her way to the classrooms.

Class was out now, she'd suffered through them like a loyal student, but her power still wasn't back. She'd had a hell of a time concentrating, too, and had a headache coming on as if she were using a power. But she wasn't, was she?

Eh. She didn't know. What she did know, was that she just wanted to find someone, and find out what the heck was going on so she could get fixed and be able to go down the hall like a normal person-- not having to keep a hand on the wall constantly, as well as barely resist the urge to walk with her other hand outstretched to keep from running into anything. It didn't seem to matter that she had the school's floorplan memorized. She was too freaked out for that.

Her disorientation and frustration, combined with her now very real blindness and her quick pace, made what happened next inevitable.

Her foot caught on something, presumably someone's backpack, or someone sitting in the hall even, and she was sent tripping forward into blackness.


((OOC: Genesis' swap power is Power Augmentation, just fyi, since that's a power that could effect your charrie))

[Iggy Liu]

Up until now, Iggy had a fairly good summer. He took it easy and relaxed. The warm weather made swimming a must, and that made Iggy even happier. Really it was a good year in general for him, and that kept him grinning.

However, on this particular morning he woke up, everything was already off. He didn't quite notice at first as he woke up to the usual silence and feeling of his phone's alarm vibrate under his pillow. Hardly out of the ordinary, so he went on with his morning routine.

Iggy realized when he started heading off to class. His power was missing. No matter how hard he tried snapping his finger or clapping his hands, no better feel for vibrations came. He really was stuck in silence even as everyone chattered away around him. He was back to only having ball park guesses of what people were saying. In the past before he manifested his power, Iggy managed fairly well as a Deaf, not having trouble asking someone to kindly write what they were saying down if he needed. Since his power however, there was a better sense of independence with it. He didn't need to see written words as much because different sounds had a different feel.

But that was gone now. He didn't bother going up to greet anyone cheerfully as he would because frankly, he was bothered. He didn't understand how a power could just up and leave like that.

In the crowded halls of the school on his way to class, Iggy noticed something else. In all the lack of vibrations, was that a whisper he heard? There was a faint... Sound around him of voices. He looked around a bit, but no one seemed to actually be saying any of it. Soft voices of random phrases and sentences followed him. Frankly, he had trouble understanding them, but he was more worried about why he had this sudden sense of hearing instead of his own power.

Class wasn't really all that better. The voices seemed to be a bit louder, just softer than normal volume for speech. He had trouble pushing these random sounds out of his concentration. It was difficult to focus on the teacher let alone know what they were even saying, but Iggy survived the class.

Iggy promptly left the room when class was dismissed, and soon found that crowds had a tendency to make the sounds louder, and even add several more. Thus, he retreated to a less populated hallway (not wanting to go to the lounge since it probably had a whole gaggle of students). Dropping his bag next to him, Iggy slid his back against the wall and sat on the floor. He had no idea what to make of what was happening with his power, and as much as this sudden sense of sound was found fascinating, it wasn't something he could really say he liked.

The feeling of something on his leg soon made the boy look up and find that a girl had tripped over him. He held out his arms hoping to at least break the girls fall. It was the least he could do if he made her trip. Sitting up, Iggy moved his hand across his chest in a "sorry" sign. And as he continued to sign he spoke when asking, "Are you okay?"

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex felt arms out, presumably trying to break her fall. Well at least whoever'd had the audacity to be in her way had the decency to help break her fall, she grumbled to herself. Between the help of whoever she'd tripped over, and her own outflung arms, she'd managed to topple without hurting herself badly, just scuffed palms and a banged knee, which honestly wasn't anything terribly new for her. She sat up with an irritated scowl, once she got her bearings, facing what she hoped was the direction of the kid she'd tripped over.

Are you okay?

Eh, not quite the right direction. She shifted around a little to face the speaker, scowl losing much of its vigor as she did. Facial expressions were difficult enough to replicate anyhow, there was no sense in worrying about it unless she was actually really irritated.

"I'm all right," she muttered, brushing herself off, not trusting herself to get to her feet yet. "You all right?" she returned, albeit somewhat grudgingly. Typically something like this she would have just brushed off and forgotten about with a, "Don't sweat it, kid", but she was not a little frustrated at her power, which was going to manifest itself in her being somewhat less easy going about things. In fact, she felt vaguely entitled to her crabbiness. If a lame person woke up to find out that their wheelchair, or crutches, had been destroyed, and those were the only wheelchairs or crutches in the area, they would have been irritated too. And that was how Alex viewed this much less than desirable situation.

"What're you sitting on the floor for, anyway?" she asked. Though her tone didn't really ring with any sort of irritation, she knew quite well the words themselves could evoke that general idea of emotion.

[Iggy Liu]

Iggy quickly found the voices shouting over one another, some came and went as people walked by, but it was still oddly loud and startling. Once the girl got herself straight, he went to cover his ears which helped none. The sounds were bouncing around his head rather than coming from outside. Another curiosity was that when he let go the sounds lowered to a normal indoors volume. Still there were many more and louder than before the classmate tripped over him.

There was one constant voice in his head, and from assumptions based on his experiences with his power, Iggy figured it belonged to a young woman. And really there was only one young woman near him. The voice wasn't exactly clear, and he wasn't sure about what words he was hearing, but it came off as irritated and frustrated.

Lowering his hands, Iggy smiled and side to read that she was fine. "Uh, me?" He pointed to himself, and habitually his hands moved as he spoke, "I'm okay. On the floor? I was just... Thinking things out." He stood and sighed at how the day was going so far. Definitely not high up on his favorites. Hesitating a little, Iggy held out his hand to offer the girl some help up. He wasn't sure what caused the voices to get louder, or the voices in general, but it'd be rude not to offer help.

"I'm Iggy. What's your name?" He figured a person should at least know the name of the person they fell over. It'd just stay awkward if they didn't know, right? He wasn't really looking forward to being awkward with someone.

[Genesis Kyland]

Thinking things out, huh? Alex wasn't quite sure what that meant, but an idea briefly occurred to her. What if the same weirdness that was happening to her was happening to this kid, too? No.... She gave a mental shake of her head. That was silly. This was silly. Maybe she was just dreaming. That's right-- this was probably just a nightmare. ... Even if it didn't feel like one, and she had most certainly had nightmares about losing her power before. She sighed.

"I'm Alex," she stated. Wait a minute. The kid's voice sounded slightly different than before. She frowned, digging around her memories to place the exact change. Ugh, why did she have to get so reliant on that power?

Altitude change! That's what it was-- the boy must have stood up. That's why his voice sounded weird. She knew that... it was just hard to remember when so much was going on at once. Not to mention her mind just seemed fuzzy. But fuzzy mind or not, she had a reputation to keep up. Alex wasn't one to bewail her lot in life sitting on the ground. So, she pushed herself to her feet, not seeing or even thinking that the kid, Iggy apparently, would be offering her a hand up.

"What're you thinkin' so hard about that you're sittin' on the ground 'cause of it?" She did her best to "look" where the boy was standing, so it wouldn't be quite so obvious she couldn't see him, but she found it a difficult task, and one she was pretty sure she wasn't pulling off as well as she might, without her power. What a pain. She rubbed her ears, half because it felt weird that they were being so difficult, half because she hoped it might fix whatever had happened. Maybe something had just been knocked loose? There had to be an explanation.