if only we could all find serenity | Open |

[Nikolai Campbell]

The shutter clicked and Nikolai’s world stopped, at least for a few seconds. Nikolai smiled at the moment he’d captured- the afternoon sun lit the surroundings, the mountains were off in the distance, and the grass painted the immediate background. His subject was a nameless face with black hair and brown eyes. She was giggling in the picture while walking with another nameless girl. Their walking blurred the picture a bit, but it did not seem to occur to Niko. The picture dissolved seconds later and the camera showed the movement of the world in front of it again as Niko laid on his chest in the grass. He was wearing his favorite button-up red, white and black short sleeved shirt with a very worn-looking pair of light blue jeans. His hair was its usual unkempt mess of dark brown topped with bright blond, while his expression was one of contentment when he had stopped smiling at the picture. A few roughhousing teenage boys moved into view- one shoved another. Niko clicked the button before hearing the familiar click. He caught the same background as with the girls, but the subject was balling his fists and yelling at the boy as Niko’s camera froze.

Niko smiled again and raised his gaze to take in the parts of his surroundings that his camera could not see. Teens walked around or lounged lazily- some in pairs, some in larger groups. Some fought amongst themselves; some enjoyed a snack in the grass, all while the nine year old remained at the edge of the courtyard, silently observing all that was around him. With the bells of classes having ceased for the remainder of the evening, the mood was more relaxed.

During the time that he’d been outside in the courtyard, plenty of well-meaning people had approached Niko- an unfamiliar face, a kid so young that he seemed to be in a minority, surely he would be an interesting person to talk to. Was he a kid living in the houses nearby who'd come to see a sibling? Was he lost? They’d all acted cheerful and friendly, telling him their names and assuring him that they could be friends, as though to do so would be a great service to him. Niko got the impression that they thought he was five, not nine. And after he nervously told them his name was Niko and that he was happy to have friends, they felt the need to walk away not long after with some excuse or other, as if his apparent shy nature was too uncomfortable for them.

Niko was not bothered in the least by their departure- contrary, he preferred that they leave opposed to him having to speak to a stranger any longer. At least, he told himself that until they really did leave. Once they were gone, the silence could play the role of his companion. Then Nikolai was not eager to be alone at all. Even so, he called to no one. He just looked to his camera at such moments as he was doing at that precise moment, waiting for something worth catching, some person, some movement, who happened to move in the square his lens took in.

Niko felt closer to the people around him when he took their picture, when he shared even one moment of their lives with them, and closeness was essential, which was the reason that there was a zoom feature on his camera. The only downside was, when someone came up to him, they blocked the view entirely. He had a chance to very thoroughly examine the stitching on a denim pant leg, though, if nothing else. Overall, he would have said that the day had gone pretty well, especially since he wasn't thrust into the classes on the first day. No, he had been allowed to get settled in the dorm for the past hour since his arrival, and now he was just enjoying the freedom while he could.

[Teri and Tori Bartlet]

It was a gorgeous day. The sun was out, beaming heartily on the campus, and it was just too, too nice out for the Bartlet sisters to be caught in their American History class, studying about laws that were no longer relevant. Instead, they snuck out to the courtyard, avoiding anyone who knew their schedules enough to send them back inside the stuffy classroom. All around, people were wandering, soaking up the sun that was being so generous for mid-March. In fact, as soon as they got outside, Teri pulled off the coat she had warn to class that morning.

"Er, lookit baba effy." Tori cocked her head to the side, shifting her slightly-too-long hair out of her eyes. She pointed to the little boy a ways to their left, carrying around a camera. "Baba wit itchy cam!" Teri followed her sisters glance, also spotting the boy. Aww, he looked so little, so young. He couldn't be a student. "Prob baba boro metakid. Itchy cam cue-ee." They didn't talk twinny when they were around other people, or even all the time when they were alone together, but sometimes it was just quicker to use their own language. "Ya Er. Cue-ee baba."

"Let's go talk to him." Teri hooked her elbow around her sisters' and began walking towards the little boy. Though they weren't perfectly synchronized yet, they were getting pretty close to it. She didn't even need to tug to get Tori going, the other girl just started moving too.

They had a little brother, probably around this little one's age. They rarely got to see him, seeing as he lived in Arizona and they were all the way in Vermont. Hell, he might even be a meta-human too and eventually join them there. (Though they kind of hoped not. It was nice to be singled out. Even among meta-humans, true Gestalt pairs were rare. Sometimes, identical twins would show all the signs at first, the synchronous actions and everything, but would never gain the exponential abilities like a true pair. Tori and Teri weren't even identical--different DNA, Teri was taller and Tori's face was rounder--but they could hold hands and then tear through a phone book, or solve advanced calculus problems. If they were separated, however, they would just be normal girls, but with a big piece of themselves missing.

They approached the little boy, looking the part of cool teenage sisters in jeans is complementary, but not matching shirts. (Matching clothing would just be silly, though they used to do that a lot when they were little. Now they would settle the night before what they would wear, because their shared consciousness often caused them to pick the same outfits. It was irritating. When they reached them, their eyes caught for a moment, and then Teri said, "Hey, kid. Will you take a picture of us? I think a day this nice ought to be memorialized." She smiled and pretended to strike a pose like a model in a magazine.

Tori smiled and rolled her eyes at her sister's silly antics. She was more than used to them by now. "That's Teri, and I'm Tori. What's your name? What are you doing here?" That earned her a sharp elbow in her ribs from her sister. "We don't mean it to be nosy or anything. Just curious, since you're kind of young." Another elbow to her gut and she pouted as Teri took over, picking up the narration mid-stream. "Unless that has something to do with your power, and you're actually a 50-something immortal, which would be pretty cool, except you would have spent 50-something years as a kid."

Tori turned and poked her sister back. "Yeah, like that's any more tactful. Anyway, who are you?" She smiled at the little blond boy, and her sister promptly did so as well.

[Nikolai Campbell]

On the surface Niko was your everyday shy kid- too uncomfortable, or perhaps even self-conscious to a debilitating degree. Either way, he seemed incapable of getting through a sentence without stammering. And his sentences had a way of coming out sounding almost as though they were a response to some deeply perplexing issue rather than social niceties. Beyond the 'shy' exterior, however, was a far more troubling reaction to others- mistrust. Niko wasn't, by any means, intentionally acting shy. If anything the tendency bothered him immensely. It really was just his way of reacting to the stronger emotion. Fortunately for him, he'd come to understand that in time he'd trust people and his real personality would shine through. At times this process was bypassed when he felt a person was deserving of his trust. His personality also came out when he was angry, if not only partially. After all, it was hard to be ready to attack a person and unable to get through a sentence when addressing them at the same time.

At that moment, as the strangers took the time to speak to him, Niko did not respond any differently than he would have to any of the other strangers in the courtyard around them. Instead he just responded to what was said to him after it seemed that they were both finished speaking.

"I'm N-Nikolai Curtis. I d-don't think I can r-remember your names- you l-look the s-same."Niko stammered nervously before adding,"I'm n-not fif-fty. I'm . . . s-sitting here." His answer was overly obvious- what was he doing there? Well, sitting. He knew they meant at the school because there had already been enough people asking him that since he arrived, he just didn't seem to care enough.

"I-I can take y-your picture."He put in further, raising his red digital camera up so that it was level with his eyesight now. He was actually holding it off to the side, not exactly ready to take the picture but willing all the same. Ultimately, since he was laying, it wasn't much of a difference in position. If she was serious about it, he'd gladly do it for her. And if she really did want to pose for it, he'd happily take a picture of it, but he wasn't able to react fast enough to capture her last pose, mostly because they kept talking to him. Besides, it'd be interesting to capture the twins, especially since seeing people who looked basically the same was a rare occurrence for him. He'd seen it once at school, an older pair of boys looked strikingly similar, but one was taller and that confused Niko all the more. In this case it seemed that these girls were the same as those boys- one was taller, but otherwise he couldn't really tell the difference. And the one that was taller didn't seem taller by a noticeable degree. Besides, if they were alone, how would he know what one was taller? Hopefully they wouldn't expect him to know the difference. He didn't think he could even pretend to do it, even if he wanted to, which at the moment he didn't.

[Teri and Tori Bartlet]

As the little boy stammered out his name, the sisters exchanged a momentary glance. The thought that went through their head wasn't synchronized, but it was mutual. Aww, this little kid was adorable, way cuter than Josh.--They'd seen him over Christmas, and their little brother was just... irritating.--He was even sorry that he knew he wasn't going to be able to tell them apart! Long ago, the girls had come to terms with the fact that they were only going to become more similar, the older they got. Unlike most twins, who looked alike but acted differently, Tori and Teri shared a personality. Eventually, they would share one mind as well. As scary as it was, it had its perks too, though. Like the super-strength and multiplied intelligence. They were capable of so much, but only if they stayed together and continued to be mixed up like little girls in matching fluffy dresses.

Teri flicked her hair back and said, "Don't worry about that. Even our mom has a hard time telling us apart, and she's known us longer than anyone. You can just say both names and we'll both respond." It wasn't like they ever went anywhere separately.

"We're like that." Tori added, seamlessly. Eventually, Niko would need to get used to hearing them trade off sentences in the middle of thoughts, or he was going to end up so very confused. As it was, their tendency to speak as if they were one person struck some as alarming. "Really, it's no big deal, we're used to it."

Teri smiled, "How old are you, ten? We've got a little brother about your age, he's named Josh. But probably isn't ever going to go to school here, he's too boring." She didn't know how much the little boy knew about the strangeness of their school. Maybe he was the younger sibling--or possibly even son--of a student though. Or a teacher.

Tori nodded, then looped her arm back through her sister's elbow. "Will you take our picture now?" Both girls smiled widely and waved, mirroring each other perfectly. Most things they did like that were subconscious. They didn't mean to act the same, but constant exposure and their ability did most of it without them even realizing. They waited, patiently for the flash, Tori wondering just how good this little boy was with his camera, and Teri wondering if Niko even really knew how to take photos yet. He was so young. (See, not quite synchronized, but the same.)

[Nikolai Campbell]

Niko nodded when they said that they were used to people not knowing their names. He still felt bad about it, though. Which was why he didn't verbally agree or perpetuate the idea any further- not that he could think of it in quite those terms.

The truth was, he didn't know much about his camera or the art of photography. He knew how to point his camera in a direction and how to take a picture, then how to see a picture and how to delete it. Beyond that? He couldn't have told you anything about the rule of thirds, and there was no grid set up on his camera screen even if he had known about it- sure, there was a function for it, but obviously not a function he was using . . . The one thing he did know was that you had to get everyone in. He knew that you didn't take a picture where the top of their head wasn't showing-he got scolded for that, actually. Even so, in his pictures there was little, if any space between the top of their heads and the top of the picture as there probably should have been. He also didn't understand that it was better to walk up to a subject than to just stay where you were and zoom, because walking up to it would give you a better picture than any zoom could. And basically all of the elements of art, of photography, were lost on him.

To be fair, besides Niko's age, he had another disadvantage - he'd had the camera only three months, since Christmas. Even then, his parents hadn't been thrilled about getting it for him since he was so young. The twins weren't the only ones stumped by his age throughout his life. But when he was the oldest of the little kids and the very youngest of the bigger ones, it was hard. He got a lot of things that weren't quite age appropriate, just because the kids that were older than him were the only guidance his parents had toward what he would like. If he wanted a stereo at eight, they bought him a stereo, just because the fifteen year old in the house got a nice stereo for his birthday. Did Niko use it as much as he would have used a simple scooter or even a bike? No. Not that they could know that since he didn't get the scooter and it couldn't be compared. This year it seemed that everyone older than Niko wanted a camera, so Niko wanted one, too. Anything to avoid getting baby toys like the three and five year old. He had no aspirations to become a photographer, he just wanted a new toy as any little boy would.

So the picture took showed the twins essentially in the middle of the picture, as Niko thought they were supposed to be. Since they were so close to him, the zoom was taken down until he could see them, and their waving hands at the same time. The movement caused a bit of a blur because he didn't even mess with the little dial that would have adjusted the cameras setting. Even the flash was a testimony to his lack of knowledge- a flash outside, in the daylight? Even if he had wanted to, Niko didn't know how to turn it off. And Niko was just fine with that, he wouldn't have any reason to complain. Once he'd taken it, he clicked one of the only buttons he'd pressed, and then clicked it again until the picture was on the screen once more. He offered it to the girls, not sure which would take it.

"I'm n-nine."Niko answered as he waited, before adding,"I'm n-not b-boring. I'm n-not here because I'm not b-boring. I'm here b-because I get headaches a-and have bad days and Miss. Bri s-says the school w-will help. But I n-need a doctor, not a s-school." Miss. Bri was his foster mother, and his 'headaches' were actually more severe. They were migraines that presented whenever he had used his power. And his 'bad days' were days when he was already emotional, especially when he was angry, and the day got worse by the weather. He just took it as having bad luck, and no amount of arguments could convince him otherwise. And yet, here he was, at a school for superheros. Obviously he'd lost the argument. Now, he didn't think to clarify any of this to the twins, even though he probably should have. It just didn't occur to him that they wouldn't fully understand.

[Teri and Tori Bartlet]

They held their pose for the little blond boy to take their picture. The twins had always been happy to take pictures, even when people were just like "O, I want to take a picture of you because you look the same. Isn't that cool?" As if they didn't hear that all the time. They knew they looked alike. But this was different because they had asked him to do it for them. (And oh, Niko was just adorable with his little camera.)
Teri and Tori didn't know anything about cameras or photography either, so they just happily agreed that everything was just fine with the picture Niko took. "Oh, thank you!" Teri said, as she looked at it and beamed, before passing the camera on to Tori for her turn. "You'll have to send it to us, will you?"

His response to why he was here was enough to get them to start cooing over him. They were typical teenage girls in that respect, particularly vulnerable to things that were cute and helpless.

"Oh, you get headaches, you poor thing!" Tori just barely managed to resist the urge to pat him on the head. Though he was only nine (Nine! Wasn't that, like, ridiculously young for a meta-human's powers to be discovered?) he obviously had some sense of dignity, probably more than some of the teenage boys they knew. In a way, that was also adorable. He was so serious!

"We're sixteen. And our brother is eight." Teri smiled at him, how could she not? "We're here for the same reason, Niko. We can to something special too. Do you want to see it?" Tori, taking her cue to continue the line of questioning, added, "What can you do?" She did however, move slightly, enough so she could grasp her sister's hand. Then she held out her other one to the little boy, "Here, take my hand, and I'll pick you up."

[Nikolai Campbell]

Niko just gazed at them as they said thank you and as they said he'd have to send it to them. He wasn't sure how he was going to do that, but he'd figure it out. . .somehow. He'd ask for help in doing that. So he nodded in affirmation to them, just not now because they didn't seem ready to leave, and he didn't want them to. He liked the twins in a way he couldn't quite explain. Whatever it was, he wasn't trying too hard to figure it out.

Niko blinked, a bit surprised by her response. Didn't everyone get headaches? And the way she actually seemed to care also startled him a bit. Niko was young, but it was not natural for him to show his emotions so easily. And, indeed, he was serious, but he certainly didn't mean to be. It wasn't conscious, he just did it, and he had done it so long that he didn't want to be any different. At that moment Tori sounded overly energetic, she showed so much more emotion than Niko would want to. He was capable of it, just not with a stranger. He'd just as soon say nothing and let them do the talking. He was a great observer, he loved to know about others, where as rattling off facts about himself to a stranger was a scary prospect. No, he was happy holding his tongue, only responding to the necessary things. He was never going to be known as an overly talkative child, not a chance.

"They're n-not so b-bad,"Niko offered to ease her worrying about his headaches. He was lying. Migraines were very, very bad. And if he had one in that moment, he would have told her the truth. Since he didn't, he was okay with the lie. Then Teri began speaking, so Niko's eyes shifted from Tori to Teri. It was confusing, but he didn't mind much. She told him her age. He didn't know what to say to that. If they were sixteen, he was seven years younger. Seven years was a long, long time. It did make him smile to hear that their brother was eight. Eight was very, very close to his age. In fact, he'd only been nine for approximately five months, so it was very close indeed.

Niko nodded in response to her asking if she wanted to see her power. When the other sister spoke again, Niko's gaze moved to her once more.

"I c-can't do anything."Niko answered as he reluctantly took her hand. He wasn't sure why she wanted to be holding his hand, and he wasn't comfortable with it because he didn't know her well, but he was curious and he didn't think she'd hurt him. She said she'd pick him up, he just wasn't sure what she meant by that. He could only guess that he'd find out.

[Teri and Tori Bartlet]

The twins didn't get headaches, at least not any more or worse headaches than any other two teenage girls would get. (They didn't share physical pain, but if one of them was hurt, the other felt distinctly uncomfortable, as if they knew they should be feeling something as well.) Their power had a side-effect, like all of them did, but theirs was pretty distinct. It didn't make them tired, or mess with their body chemistry, or anything like that. Instead, their minds were slowly synchronizing, and they were losing their individual thoughts. There had never been a smart/dumb, nice/bitchy, outgoing/shy dynamic between them, so it wasn't a huge change in their independent personalities. Except instead of their personalities being similar just by circumstances, it was becoming one personality.

Neither Teri nor Tori really understood it, so they didn't think the little boy would get the point any easier than they did.

"Is baba boro." Teri said to Tori, triumphantly, before turning back to Niko. "So, if you can't do anything, I bet you've got an older brother or sister in the school here, right? Because no one gets into Hammel unless they can do something special. That's just how it works."

Tori just nodded and said, "Like this, Niko." And she readjusted her grip on his hand, holding onto his tightly. Then she raised her arm straight out, pulling his arm up. She lifted him off his feet, and held him there. Though he was nine, he was still a significant enough weight that an average teenage girl shouldn't be able to lift him and hold him in the air with one hand, particularly with the ease with which she was able to keep him there. "See? We can do this."

[Nikolai Campbell]

Tori and Teri were right in their logic behind not telling him their own side effect. He didn't even understand how his migraines worked or why he got them and he dealt with them often enough. With the twins' side effect, he didn't experience it so there was no way he could even hope to understand. And he wasn't even clear on the reasoning of why he got the migraines. As for the twins' side effect, it was anything but normal. It would have, most certainly, confused him to no end.

Niko was very surprised by the words they said. 'Baba boro?', what did that mean? 'Baba' reminded him of a baby's word for bottle, and 'boro' . . . Boro, he wasn't so sure. The reason they said it at all was something Niko wasn't clear on, either. Before he could ask about it, she went on to say something more, something different.

"No, I d-don't have any brothers or s-sisters,"Niko answered, surprised by the question. How could he have brothers and sisters when he didn't even have parents, anyway? Obviously they didn't know much about him, which was fine with Niko. He should have known that already, but he was used to people knowing things he didn't tell them. He had files, and there were so many people that seemed to have access to these various 'files' was staggering. Files because he was an orphan, files because he was in school, and beyond that, there were files about his medical history, as with most people. At any rate, people had ways of finding the files he had never seen. Apparently she didn't, though.

When Tori spoke up and then lifted him, his eyes grew suddenly wide and he immediately looked down at the ground. He wasn't terribly high up, yet he didn't like it, regardless. Niko was not a fan of heights much at all, and he didn't like that he was being held up by someone he didn't know very well. Besides that, it seemed impossible for her to be able to lift him like that in the first place. He hadn't been lifted so effortlessly since he was a toddler.

"Don't drop me!"Niko insisted fearfully. The fear he felt helped him to decide that he should part with the information about his own power. His logic was that perhaps if they knew he was supposed to have a power, too, they wouldn't hurt him with their obviously superior strength. Specifically, he hoped that she would not drop him, that'd be a good start. "I'm s-supposed to control the w-weather." Niko explained."So don't drop me."