Power Swap: Misery loves company (Lucas)

[Marnie Sullivan]

Backdated September 1st, 2014

It had been Marnie's intention to head straight for the second floor as soon as she'd swapped her pajamas for a black sweater and leggings - the better for sneaking around in the dark in, what with the sun still not being up. But what should have taken only a minute or two - and did, according to the time on her cell phone - felt like it took much longer. Every time her fingertips alighted upon fabric, whether to remove it or pull it from a drawer or tug it over her head, it was as though she'd stepped into a recording. The knobs on her dresser, the handle on her closet door, all of it sent her reeling back to previous moments in which she saw herself using the same objects. Most of the snippets she saw were mundane enough, but every time one ended, Marnie had to shake her head to clear it. 

The worst had been when she'd grasped the door handle, finally ready to depart for Lucas' room, and was forced to relive a memory she was sure wasn't hers. Sure, it felt like it was hers, and she saw it through her eyes, but it couldn't have been. Marnie had never burst into her room after classes one day, sobbing her heart out after receiving news of the car accident that had landed her father in a coma. It was several minutes after coming to, tears streaming down her face, that Marnie remembered that her father was alive and well; she'd talked to him just last week. But whose memory had it been, if not hers?

To steady herself, Marnie had sunk back onto her bed. After wiping her eyes furiously, she'd rested a hand on her bedspread, and in a one-eighty fast enough to give her whiplash, she was off again.

This one... this was definitely hers. That was definitely Lucas on her bed, and she was no longer grief-stricken. Instead, she was downright giddy, and no wonder, knowing what they were about to do....

A minute of replay later and Marnie was yanking her door open, hand carefully covered by her sleeve, and she was gone.

Sneaking from one floor to another should have been nerve-wracking, but her head was already spinning from the whirlwind she'd just been forced to remember, and it was difficult to be properly afraid. But keeping to the shadows, Marnie managed to arrive at 212 without being spotted. The one thing to go right on such a confusing night. 

Knuckles hidden inside her sleeve, both for protection and to muffle the sound of her arrival, Marnie knocked.

[Lucas Blacke]

He had closed his phone as Marnie had hung up and looked around his room at all the unplugged equipment that still made some noise as he walked past. So much for silently trying to reach the door to let her in when she came, he was instead trying to avoid appliances before realizing that, goddamn people used a lot of appliances!

The television turned on when he walked past in an attempt not to make a stray laptop turn on, but the tv didn't give off any image to go with the sound, it just started making noise, almost as if Luke was broadcasting radio signals or something. As a doofus he, instead of walking away, looked around in a slight panic as it wasn't exactly silent; he'd wake up his roommates before soon. He picked up the remote to it to mute it but in his haste hit the power button and now had the image to go with the sound. Surely anyone would wake up from this amount of sound and light.

He panicked even more and furiously hit the power button on the remote as he walked backwards, getting sass from the refrigirator this time. He walked away from that one too and bumped into the wooden door that luckily held nothing for him to interact with. He let out a sigh, happy for the slight amount of silence when he suddenly heard a knock on the door that both brought him back and freaked him out.

For a slight moment he didn't respond, and forgot how to operate a door when it suddenly returned to him to put his hand on the knob and turn it. On the opposite side of the door he saw her, his ex, it kind of brought on some mixed emotions would it not be a time of extreme panic. He swung the door open, making sure it didn't hit the wall and stepped forward.

He flailed over her and hugged the fully clothed girl while he was wearing only pyjama bottoms. ''I'm so glad yer here.''

He didn't break the hug as he just clenched his arms around her even tighter. ''I do feel underdressed now.'' He tried to joke.

[Marnie Sullivan]

After knocking, Marnie braced herself. It sounded like Lucas was pacing on the other side, and this would be the first time they'd spoken face-to-face since what happened on her birthday. Already on edge, when the boy flung his door open and wrapped her in a tight hug, Marnie stiffened, hands clenched into fists at her sides. She wasn't prepared for this - it had been long enough that she'd forgotten how he smelled, how his skin felt, the rumbling in his throat as he spoke. She was perfectly fine having forgotten all of that. But now, especially after that last vision...

Well, it was all very uncomfortable.

"Let me go, Lucas," Marnie said tersely, muffled against his shoulder. Whether he didn't notice that she wasn't hugging him back or whether he just didn't care, she wasn't sure.

"And for god's sake put some clothes on." When he released her, Marnie, hurried past him into the room, pointedly avoiding looking at him as she took a seat at his desk. "I'm not gonna get blamed for anything if Karalie decides to pop over for a visit."

[Lucas Blacke]

Right. Karalie. How he hoped she wouldn't come over for a visit, not because of him having Marnie over but because he wasn't sure how to tell her about his power, she had been the one to say his power was a fun one, after all. ''Good to know things are not still awkward between us!'' He yelled in a silent voice as she pleaded for him to let her go and when he did rushed past him into the room.

He smiled at her slightly and entered his own room as he rummaged through his closet, raiding it for shirts. The one he had come up with was one of his old funshirts that said ''I'm not totally useless, I can be used as a bad example.'' and walked back into Marnie's presence as he slipped the shirt over his head. Which was surprisingly hard to do on his own.

''No one will blame ya for helping a friend.'' He told her with a smile as he walked over to the laptop in front of her. ''Now, best thing I can do is show ya what I've been experiencing.'' He held his hand up and stuck it out closer to the laptop which began emitting a sound as if someone on a phone was entering a tunnel.

''And also..'' He retracted his hand and the sound stopped as he inched closer to Marnie, without anything happening. ''Ya don't have yer phone with ya, do y..-'' He paused as he saw what she was wearing. Well, not what she was wearing, but how she was wearing it.

Hands covered by a sweater? Not touching Luke? He came across a memory of his own and he didn't like it. ''Y-ya got retrocognition? Thought ya had that color change thingie?'' He said as he grabbed a chair and sat down at the opposite end of the table.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie kept her eyes carefully averted as Lucas went in search of a shirt. Sure, she'd seen him without one plenty of times, but the circumstances had been nothing like this. For one thing, back then she wouldn't have batted an eye at his choice of the word “friend.” They barely spoke to each other, and for good reason, or had Luke never gotten the memo?

He did get a shirt on, at least. Begrudgingly, Marnie watched as he demonstrated what happened as he raised a hand towards his laptop. Yeah, the sound was weird, kind of eerie even, but she wouldn't help feeling a little put out - this was what he'd called her over in the middle of the night to see? It really couldn't wait till morning?

“Yeah, I brought it with me,” Marnie answered, one eyebrowd cocked. Why was he looking at her like that? Good grief, was this a trick after all? She was this close to just up and leaving when he threw out the question about her own powers and took a seat himself.

“Retro – what? Lucas, what are you talking about?” she asked, exasperated. It wasn't a word she'd ever heard, and maybe in other circumstances she wouldn't mind figuring it out, but Marnie was currently a little distracted. “It's called 'camouflage,' but – unless you mean like the wallpaper changing color, I don't know what that's about.”

[Lucas Blacke]

''Oh yeah, right..'' He hesitated. ''Yer wallpaper.. Ya never told me you had problems seein' colors. At least, this is what I'm gettin' from it.'' He wasn't the brightest one out there, but he could piece his way through a pickle. Especially so if it involved a friend. She might not continue calling herself a friend, but he did see her as one.

''Retrocognition.'' He repeated with a nod as he shoved a little bit closer to the table and shoved the laptop in the direction of the wall a bit. The device yelled at his mere touch and startled him; something he hadn't experienced in years. ''Involves your hands.'' He continued with a cough, ignoring the silent buzz of the laptop in his ear. ''It is basically yer hands picking up memories.'' Ha sat back in his chair a bit, acting all smug with a smirk for a moment because he was the one explaining something to someone for once.

''Have ya experienced some odd.. vision-like things when touching something with yer bare hands?'' He asked rhetorically. Judging from the way she was covering up her hands she had. ''That's retrocognition. I don't really know all the ins and outs, but Karalie has it too an..-''

He widened his eyes suddenly. ''Wait, if my muscle memory is gone, and yer camouflage thing is gone, is it safe to assume this is a school wide thing?'' If it was, Karalie didn't have her power, and that would mean she could touch him.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Of course Lucas didn't know she was colorblind - there was a lot he didn't know. As shortlived as their relationship was, there had been a lot they'd never gotten around to discussing. That wasn't what was troubling Marnie now, though. The uneasy feeling that she hadn't been able to shake all night was growing as he went on to explain what he meant. Visions? Caused by touching things with your hands? Her lips tightened into a line as he spoke - why did he get to know more about what was going on than she did? That wasn't fair! And that awful, smug expression on his awful, stupid face.. that was even worse!

"...No, I haven't," Marnie lied as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest, tone cold. Maybe Lucas was an expert on retro-whatever, maybe it was a lucky guess, but no way was she gonna tell him he was right, not when he looked so pleased with himself about it.

Soon enough, though, Luke's smirk vanished. One second he was babbling about Karalie - so that's how he recognized it! - the next he was jumping to conclusions about the whole school being affected.

"I don't know!" Marnie groaned, exasperated. How on earth were they supposed to know anything? Stuff like this didn't just happen! "If you'd been willing to wait until morning we could've asked around then, but right now we can't do anything except sit here and stew!"

[Lucas Blacke]

''We can try coping.'' He offered with a shrug as he shoved away nearby electronics. ''I mean, face it: ya have a power I know. I know ye've been having visions so ya can stop lyin'. I've been helpin' Karalie cope for a while now so I know what yer going through. And as unfair as it might be for me ta know this shit 'bout yer power before you do it is what it is. I didn't choose this for ya, last thing I want is for someone else to be unable to touch me.''

While he was talking to her he failed to notice that all the objects responding to his every movement like a theremin had been silent and he did not sense them. Maybe all he really needed to cope with his own new power was distraction, though he wasn't quite sure what it did yet or if it had other side effects. He wasn't even sure there was an upside to this new power. He let out a small cough as his mind snapped back from his own power and back into reality as the laptop he'd just shoved away started buzzing again. He held his hand above the thing and focused on Marnie with retrocognition and Karalie without retrocognition. He instantly grew a smile as the device stopped buzzing for a second before Luke pulled away.

His smile faded as he turned back to the girl and wondered if she was lying out of anger, Luke figured it had to hurt to have an ex know more about what is going on with you on account of a current partner.

''I would be willin' to wait till' mornin' but I happened to wake up in th' middle of the night with this odd new power, and apparently so 'ave you.'' If he'd been around anyone other than Marnie he would have sounded downright irritated right now.

''So the way I see it,'' He began as he raised his hand. ''is that we can do two things. Or we can take yer route and do nothing but be confused, or we could do things my way.'' He moved his hand closer to hers and smirked.

''And my way is talkin' things over an' hoping this shit don't happen.''

He reached out and tapped her hand, which he knew from experience with Karalie would likely trigger some kind of vision. Certainly so in the mood she was in right now.