Power Swap: The Bad Touch [Evan]

[Isaac Tilford]

Wednesday was weird, because when Isaac woke up, he wasn't in a fog. Granted, the more he trained, the less he woke up in a gaseous form, so maybe it was just a logical improvement; the next stage of his training. Great!

His morning training session was cancelled for some reason, so--without really thinking about it--he headed down to the student lounge with a roll of quarters and staked out one of the pinball machines. There was some sort of chaos going around the school, but he wasn't paying too much attention, as he was just enjoying feeling particularly solid. Not once that morning had he gone to open a door and have his hands be too airy to work the knob. Not once had his heartbeat hick up to the point where he was worried he'd go completely gas, and his clothes would fall to the floor.

It felt good to feel normal for once.

People were in and out of the lounge, but again, Isaac wasn't really paying attention. He was on a roll this time, and his hands were working the buttons of the machine despite his pulse shifting into gear. Maybe something had changed while he'd slept, but whatever it was, he was feeling good.

The stack of quarters couldn't last forever though, and when he finally ran out, he grinned and entered his initials into the high score record. Then he walked over to one of the couches and flopped down at the far end from that tall kid who had been in a few of his classes. They'd never talked, but Isaac was feeling good. Not a day to be a nerdy shut-in. "Hey. 'Sup?"

[Evan Brackett]

This was stupid. Evan woke up grumpy, not happy to have slept in his own bed that night because, thanks to the recent room check, he couldn't stay with Levi. They hadn't even been living in separate suites for a week yet, but they never had this problem when they lived in the same room. He already didn't like it.

With a displeased frown on his face, Van got dressed and went down the hall to find his boyfriend, but no one answered the door when he knocked. Quite honestly, the (ex)phaser wasn't sure what to do with himself without Levi there, and he even spent another few minutes standing lost in the hall, staring at the door. He wasn't sure where the other boy was, but he decided worrying about him right away was overreacting and Levi would turn up later. In the end, he went to get breakfast alone (for the first time in a long time) and then headed to class early to kill some time studying.

He didn't even notice that no one else, not even the teacher, had shown up for first period until the starting bell rang. Confused, he looked up from his notes at the empty room, then over at the clock, wondering if someone was tampering with the timers. It was definitely time for class to start, but since no one else was there, Van put away his things, shouldered his book bag, and went back to his room.

On the way, he had stopped another student to ask her what day it was (it was entirely possible that he had accidentally went to class on Saturday...wouldn't be the first time), and she had filled him in on the cancelled classes. He tried Levi's new suite again, only to be told by one of the other occupants that the younger boy wasn't there. With a frustrated huff (he was certain Levi had decided to hang out with Sammy instead, and that annoyed him), he grabbed some spare change out of his own room and made his way down to the student lounge.

The idea was to play pinball until Levi texted him, he got bored, or he ran out of quarters--which ever happened first. The machine, however, was being used by the time he arrived. More specifically, it was being used by Isaac, who was someone that Evan had classes with in the past and may or may not have crushed on at some point. So instead of risking falling back into his usual flustered self while getting the other boy's attention and asking for a turn, Van decided to sit on the couch and wait until it was open.

Forgive him when, not much later, he jumped because Isaac not only sat next to him but talked to him. He was pretty sure this was the first time they had actually spoken to one another outside of class. "Oh, um. Hi," he said hesitantly. Glancing over at the now free machine, Van wondered if it would impolite to get up then or if he should just stay and talk to the cute guy. "I'm just...uh. Chilling." Well, he didn't want to be rude.

[Isaac Tilford]

Stay and talk to the cute guy?

Well, he heard the thought, but didn't realize it was coming from Evan, or that it was about him. He'd never had good mental shields, and so he'd ended up with other people's thoughts in his head occasionally, so Isaac brushed it off. Also, no one ever referred to him as a cute guy.

Isaac didn't know the other boy well, just from having some classes together with him, seeing maybe a bit too much of him on the screen during the Talk. (Yes, the sublimator had been there, but he'd been sitting in the back of the auditorium with his earbuds in. He knew everything he needed to know already, and had learned far more about how much sex other people were having than he'd ever wanted to know.) But that wasn't a legit reason to ignore him. "Yeah, same here. My first class was canceled this morning."

He leaned back, rolling his neck a bit. Now that he wasn't concentrating on the pinball machine, he started to notice how many other people there were in the student lounge. Isaac looked down at his watch (which may or may not have had Mickey Mouse on it) and then looked around the room again. "It's more crowded in here than I thought it'd be. Is there like some teachers' meeting going on or something?" That would explain why it seemed like there weren't any classes happening today. "My morning classes got canceled."

[Evan Brackett]

The lounge had filled up quite rapidly after Van had arrived, probably because, unlike him, most of the other students hadn't bothered with getting up for class right away after hearing the announcement. "Actually, I didn't find out until after the bells rang," he admitted, also looking around at all the people there. "I was sitting in class waiting for everyone else to show up." His speech slowed as he spoke, and he finished off with an embarrassed chuckle as he realized how ditzy that made him sound. Leave it to him to make himself look stupid in front of someone he liked. It didn't matter so much now since he was in a relationship with Levi, but it was still a blow to his self-confidence.

"So," he continued awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck, "Yeah. Apparently they cancelled all the classes. I don't know why." A staff meeting seemed like a pretty decent guess, although it was odd for them to plan one during class. Now that he thought about, Van hadn't seen many of the adults around, and the few that he had passed in the hall had worry written all over their faces. Something had to be going on.

After pondering that for a moment, he shrugged. "I'm not sure if the school has said anything else. Another student told me about classes, and she didn't seem to know why either." He wished he had checked his email when he stopped by the dorm earlier, but it had managed to slip his mind while he sulked in the hallway.

[Isaac Tilford]

For the second time, Isaac looked around, because he'd heard something. Something like "sounding like a ditz in front of someone I like" was in his head, but no one had said that. Weird.

Even weirder, he heard Evan talking about how the few adults he'd seen in the halls looked worried. Isaac had missed that, but he hadn't missed that he was still hearing the other boy's voice when he could see his mouth, and it wasn't moving. In fact, he might have been staring at the other boy's mouth, wondering what was happening. Had he suddenly turned telepathic?

Was that even possible?

Finally he shook his head, trying to clear the weird thoughts that sounded like Evan's voice from his head. "I got the email about training being cancelled for the day, but I haven't looked to see if it's been updated about why." But he couldn't ignore the fact that his classmate hadn't actually said anything about email. He was trying, but it was too weird and too interesting. Particularly when he knew Evan was a phaser. (Classmates for years, after all, plus who could forget his exit from the talk?)

But he was definitely hearing things. Could he have gained telepathy? "Just now, did you think about liking me?" Might as well ask, right?

And no, Isaac didn't realize which version of "like" Evan was using. Inflection didn't carry over well.

[Evan Brackett]

With the way Isaac kept looking around the room, Evan was starting to think that he was annoying the poor boy and he was looking for someone else to hang out with. That wasn't really fair, since Isaac had sat down next to him and started talking. But whatever. At the same time, Van hadn't registered that Isaac's gaze was a little farther south than it ought to have been, although he kept subconsciously rubbing his jaw to clear away food particles that weren't there.

Then he misread the head shaking as a response to his chatter, unaware of the thoughts he was unintentionally transmitting. Everything looked conversational from his end, even if Isaac was coming off as rude.

But asking about that was not okay. "N-no," Van lied, his cheeks going pink. He was more confused than embarrassed, not knowing how Isaac was able to guess at his earlier thoughts. It wasn't like the other boy was a telepath--Evan had seen him sublimate in class before, and that was one of the reasons why he kind of liked him. He could relate. So that didn't explain why Isaac brought it up. Maybe he could read faces. It wasn't like the brunette was good at hiding things, and that made a lot more sense than randomly acquired telepathy.

It wasn't something he wanted the other boy to delve into, anyway. The best solution was to change the subject. Clearly. "I noticed you like pinball," Van said quickly, nodding at the machine. "Me too." Wait, did that sound creepy? It wasn't like he had been stalking his peer, but he thought he made it sound that way. "Uh, I mean, I was waiting for you to get off so I could play. Not that you were in the way or anything, I just didn't want to bother you." The corner of his mouth twitched up, but he couldn't quite manage a faux smile.

[Isaac Tilford]

Isaac's eyes went wide, because he heard Evan stumble out a denial, but he also heard the confusion at how he knew. And though it was a little unsettling to learn that a gay guy liked him, he could see how Evan related to him. Their powers were similar, and they were both pretty bad at deploying them at will.

Really, it was Evan's fault for putting the idea of telepathy into Isaac's head. When he heard that thought, the sublimator lit up. That would explain why he had been feeling particularly solid that day.

And suddenly becoming a telepath was a much more interesting revelation than his classmate liking him at some point.

He tried to pay attention to the conversation, but Evan kept thinking and it was distracting. No, Isaac didn't actually think the other boy was being creepy or stalking him, and he wouldn't have even if Evan hadn't planted those words in his head. But he didn't want to talk about pinball, or even why Evan wasn't creepy.

"I can hear what you're thinking." This was so weird. He was a telepath. That wasn't supposed to be able to happen. Isaac had already resigned himself to having the most useless power ever. "The pinball thing, it wasn't creepy. And I wasn't trying to be rude, earlier, I was just wondering why your voice was in my head." He leaned in, excited. "I think I'm telepathic. Think something. Anything. Something I wouldn't think of on my own."

He'd just discovered his new power, and Evan was closest, so he was along for the ride.

[Evan Brackett]

It seemed that pinball was a good distraction--after all, Isaac became ten times more attentive about the same time Van brought it up. He didn't realize that the two were unrelated. "Yeah, so I just started playing last semester, but I think I've gotten pretty good at it," he rambled on, encouraged by the excitement on the other boy's face. "Do you play often?"

The response he got made absolutely no sense, however. "I'm...I'm sorry, what?" So much for changing the subject. It was suddenly evident that it hadn't got him anywhere, and now Isaac was moving uncomfortably close to his face, to which Evan responded by leaning just as far away. "That's...no, no you can't," he said in denial, despite hearing his peer repeat some of his anxieties. It didn't make any sense. People's powers couldn't change.

...Right?

Evan's eyes widened in panic. "Like what?" he asked, racking his brain for any specific thought he could concentrate on. But he was feeling pressured, and he never did well under pressure, not even when he was taking a test in school that he spent the week studying for. So he tried to focus on something profound, but all his mind had to offer were things like, Wow, he has pretty eyes, and Shit. No. You don't want him to know that you think that.

None of these things were helping. "Sorry, no, I don't, uh..." The phaser shifted awkwardly in his seat, simultaneously ashamed of what his mind was spewing and creeped out by Isaac's ability to hear it all.

[Isaac Tilford]

"Yes, I can! I wasn't even thinking I was a telepath until you thought it!" Of course he was excited. Because as weird as it was, telepathy was a whole lot cooler than sublimation.

Evan's thoughts had a point. People's powers didn't change, and from what Isaac understood, there was nothing that could give someone a power they didn't have. But it was way too cool, hearing someone else's thoughts, that Isaac didn't realize how freaking creepy he was being until the other boy thought about his eyes.

It was kind of flattering, in a way that Isaac really, really didn't need to know.

"Oh, God. I'm sorry. This is weird." He leaned back, away from Evan, and blushed heavily. If he was a telepath, he had to be responsible about it, like Dr. Neville. Creeping out his classmate and listening to whatever he thought wasn't the right way to do that.

"I'm sorry. That was....really rude." And now Isaac had thoughts of his own to worry about. Could he project thoughts like Dr. Neville too? He tried thinking very specifically at Evan, but he couldn't tell if it was getting through. "It's really not that you're gay. It's just a little weird hear that I guy likes me. Or liked me. Or thinks my eyes are pretty. Don't you have a boyfriend, anyway?" Isaac's face got a little redder, and he quickly stood up. He wasn't going to subject either of them to any more awkward thoughts. "I'm just going to go. I'm sorry."

[Evan Brackett]

Evan would be pretty excited too if he found out he got a new power that didn't involve him getting stuck in walls or falling through floors. Anything was better than that. Or so he had believed. As it was, he hadn't noticed that he had less phasing incidents that morning than normal, or that he was the one projecting his thoughts into Isaac's mind (It wasn't his fault that it was hard to distinguish telepathy from thought-projection).

And still, he kept less and less things to himself as he got more flustered. Creepiness aside, Isaac looked really cute when he blushed, and Van mentally cursed as his inability to keep it together.

He couldn't pick up on Isaac's thoughts, but it did occur to him that Levi wouldn't like what he was thinking. He was starting to feel guilty for being attracted to the boy when he had a boyfriend, and he wanted to make sure Levi didn't find out. The last thing he wanted was for his boyfriend to be mad at him.

"No, wait," he said, and just as quickly as Isaac got up to leave, Evan caught him around the wrist to stop him from going. "Don't te...tell...uuuhhhh..." His hand slipped away, but those few seconds of contact were all it took for a jolt of pleasure to run from his hand to his brain.

"Whoa," he breathed, "What was that?" If he didn't know any better, he'd think he just jizzed his pants.

[Isaac Tilford]

"It's really not because you're gay. This is just awkward." Isaac kept apologizing in his head as he stood up, not realizing that Evan couldn't hear it, that the link was only working one way. But that was until the touch, which hit both of them equally.

"Whoa," Isaac mirrored Evan's sentiment as he felt a warm, pleasant shiver travel up from his wrist to his head. He stared at the other boy, knowing from his thoughts he'd felt it as well. And as embarrassing as the specific way the phaser's mind as phrased it, it was a bit of a relief that he felt it too.

No wonder Dr. Neville was always so chill, if that was what being a telepath felt like.

He sunk back down onto the couch, shaking his head a bit as if to clear it out. "You felt it too. That was....wow. Is that what telepathy's supposed to feel like?" It was pretty much impossible to get through Hammel without someone else's thoughts getting into your head at least once. But he was pretty sure he'd never been touched by a telepath, and that's how he didn't know what it felt like. Made sense, right? "I wonder if it's a proximity thing. Does it feel better when you're close enough to touch someone?"

All thoughts of running away were banished from his head. If that was what telepathy felt like, he wanted to do it again.

[Event !]

Thank you for participating, this event is now closed.