Down Days (Open)

[Damia Owens]

Today was supposed to be a good day.

Damia was out of the classroom, out of her dorm, and off campus. She had even seen Dr. Barrett for the first time in what had to have been at least a year and a half. She was doing great. He’d said so himself. Everyone had. All of the nurses and staff had told her how mature she was, how great she looked, how much she’d accomplished…. How happy they were for her. But the more they had said the worse Damia had felt.

Today was a great day. It was. Just not for Damia.

Not eager to return to Hammel right away, Damia found herself Downtown in Taiga Memories. She couldn’t remember having been in the store before but then, Damia preferred to keep to her routine. The result was, she didn’t get out much. It was a nice little store, though… plenty to browse over and look through. Even if it was rater cluttered.

With a sigh, Damia browsed the shelves. She touched everything at least once, shifting its position in an absent-minded way. The worst part was that, after she had left, Damia couldn’t figure out why she was feeling so down. She went through her list – Medicine? She’d taken it. Sleep? Not the ideal amount, but certainly on the better end of Damia’s spectrum. Sunlight? It had been a cloudy day, so nothing terribly detrimental. Stress? No major assignments to worry about, no family issues, nothing social. If it wasn’t because of any of that, then why was she uneasy?

With another sigh, Damia left behind a neat and orderly display as she moved to looking at the knick-knacks on the next shelf. Slowly but surely the troubled young woman would wind up straightening out the whole store.

[Ashton Harper]

Wandering around on a cloudy day was one of the highlights of Ash's life nowadays. He hadn't been to his mother's bakery in over a month. He barely did anything outside of classes and the one time he'd gone out was to talk to his former best friend. The once very social boy had turned into a grumpy young man. Between his parents still settling the divorce and graduation on its way, he was seriously stressed.

But everyone else seemed to have it so easy. Looking around, everyone was in a good mood today.

Ashton passed by his mother's bakery and before she could look out the window, he bolted across the street and down a little way before he turned into a random store. Taiga Memories. He'd stumbled across it once before just to look around, but never really saw the whole store. It wasn't like he had anything better to do, so Ash made his way through the isles, glancing occasionally at the displays. It was pretty cool and all, he was just too distracted to appreciate it.

Ash was in the baubles isle, knick-knacks, do-hickeys and several other little things scattered here and there. He kept his hands shoved in his pockets and made his way slowly through the whole isle. The pressure of someone's power pushed down on his mind and he looked just ahead of him to see a girl turn down the same isle. She looked young, but still a few years older than him. Maybe a local girl because he definitely didn't recognize her from Hammel. As soon as he got closer, his power acted and he wondered if she'd feel it.

He just hoped that she wouldn't freak out on him, it wasn't like he had much control. He may have been graduating, but Ash still couldn't figure out just how to turn off his power until it needed to be used. He was pretty sure she wasn't going to do anything with her light/darkness manipulation. Nothing that would hurt anyone at least.

[Damia Owens]

Damia frowned. Dr. Barrett was an old friend. She missed him. Sure, she had Dr. Neville now. Still, even after eight years, Barrett was more important to her. Was that bad? No. Dr. Neville had helped her the longest, but Barrett had been there for the worst of it. Even if she didn’t need to see him anymore she liked to see him. It was familiar. It was comforting. But why, then, was she feeling so down?

The more she thought about it, the more it bothered her. Damia’s eyebrows pinched together as she adjusted and readjusted the baubles in front of her. Why did something good have to be ruined? She slid the center bauble half an inch to the right, then back to the left. Too far. A tad to the right. Then back a bit. Still, not right.

Damia was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice the young man in the isle with her. Not at first. However, the seconds ticked by, she continued to fine-tune the bauble, and a single thought wore on her mind. It wasn’t fair… It wasn’t right… It wasn’t fair… It wasn’t fair. The frustration rose up in her until at last she snatched the bauble from its place on the shelf. Damia was half a second away from slamming the poor thing to the ground when she stopped.

This wasn’t right… and it had nothing to do with her visit earlier that day. It felt like early evening. She could feel a weight lifted from her, the standard exhaustion of the daytime removed. For a moment, she was disoriented. Damia looked at the finely-tuned arrangement of the shelf. She looked down at the bauble squeezed between her fingers and only then realized what she’d been doing. How long had she been here? Minutes? Hours? Unsure, she looked to the window. The faint glow of diffused sunlight.

Confusion crossed her face. It was still mid-afternoon. Then her green eyes flickered to the other occupant of the isle. Damia didn’t recognize him but one thing was instantly clear to her – he had to be a suppressor.

Like lightning, awareness took hold of Damia. She’d been obsessing. She’d been fidgeting. She’d been caught. There was no way he hadn’t noticed. She squeezed the bauble tighter in her hand. He had to have. How could he not have noticed? She turned the bauble over and squeezed it again. Oh god, she was doing it again. Damia closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath as she tried to force herself to think of anything else. Anything other than him… standing there… watching her.

”…S-sorry.” Why’d she say that? It didn’t even make sense. Damia cursed herself as she put all of her effort into not thinking about the bauble again.

[Ashton Harper]

The lack of control over his power really irked Ashton a lot. He had been at Hammel since he was eleven and still couldn't figure out how to turn it on and off at will. Due to the lack of control, he was pretty sure that most metas hated being around him. At least Tae was non-powered, she never had to deal with the on/off crap that he pulled. Ugh, being a meta really sucked sometimes. Ash was still hopeful though, maybe she wouldn't even notice.

Well, that just wasn't possible was it? He kept glancing at her every so often and she seemed really distracted. At first she was obsessively moving the little knick-knacks around so they all lined up perfectly, then she was focused on the one thing in her hand. Turning it over and over in her hand, squeezing, freaking out. She'd definitely noticed something was up. Hell, who wouldn't? Especially with her being a light/darkness manipulator, it was bound to happen at some point.

When she looked out the window, he knew she was catching on to his power. He was just waiting for the reaction. Anger, annoyance, frustration. Surely she wouldn't be happy about him just suppressing her power randomly. She probably thought he had complete control over it. Most metas would at this age, why wouldn't he? Oh right, because his power hated him and enjoyed making him look like a fool in front of every meta-human he came across.

As he glanced back at her again, he caught her closing her eyes and taking a few breaths. She was freaking. Why? He wasn't entirely sure, but he didn't want to bother her by talking. Her voice broke through his own thoughts and he raised an eyebrow, why was she apologizing? "If anyone should be apologizing, it's me. After all, I am the one who suppresses things without really trying. Sorry if it made you uncomfortable or something, I promise I wasn't trying to do it." He said with a shrug as he continued walking down the isle slowly.

[Damia Owens]

“Oh no. I mean, it’s not your fault. I was just… uh, a little preoccupied. I didn’t even realize.” Damia looked from him to the bauble and back. ”I – Was I in your way?” In a nonchalant gesture, she landed the bauble back on the shelf and stepped away from it. It was a clumsy attempt to side step the awkwardness but it was easier than directly addressing her behaviour. Despite how long she’d lived like this, Damia could never get comfortable enough to publicly acknowledge her quirks. It was easier to just pretend something different had happened, despite how obvious the truth was.

However, now that Damia had figured out that he was a suppressor she was able to get herself back under control a bit. It just took more self-control. This was not her first encounter with a meta like him and she was fairly familiar with the sensation. On any other day she probably would have noticed his presence a lot sooner and have been able to cope fairly well. Today was just a bit different. Even now she searched for a reason but nothing came to her. Feeling the gears whirl in her head the young woman knew she had to distract herself somehow.

Damia turned to him suddenly. ”So, uh… you go to Hammel then?” By the looks of him, she guessed he was around the right age to be finished there. However, if he still had so little control over his power there was a good chance he was still taking classes. Not that Damia was in any position to criticize. However, for her, it was less about her powers and more about managing her sensitivity to light and its influence on her mind.

Damia’s gaze flickered back to the bauble. She’d put it back… but it wasn’t centered. No. She wasn’t going to let herself obsess again. She forced her attention back to him. ”…I don’t think I’ve seen you there.” But her mind kept returning to the uncentered bauble. Damia just needed a distraction. With a mental sigh of defeat she began to count in her head. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… It may have been rudimentary but it had always helped. With any luck simple numbers would suffice. Besides, no one had to know but her. And, well… Maybe Dr. Neville later, if she had the heart to admit it to him.

”Oh, and um, I’m Damia by the way.” 12, 13, 14 15 16…