Power Swap: Chekhov and Effect (open)

[Yulia Sokolov]

It had started out normally enough, and that was where the problem was. Things were not supposed to be normal. Nothing had been normal for fourteen years, and now all of a sudden the thing that distinguished Lia the most, the thing that had both cursed and blessed her, was gone.

She had woken up just a day ago and something had seemed different. There was no struggle to repress her ability, no extra mental push. At first she had wondered if her control has just reached that level, but hadn’t she striven for that for years? How could it just suddenly happen now? That was the problem, she didn’t think it could.

Lia did the only thing she could think of to do. She nearly jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom. She hated having to do this but she focused on herself and gave a mental push. Normally this would have caused a minor rebound and a headache that would last for an hour or so, but today there was nothing. Instead Lia was left staring at herself in the mirror, blinking. What was going on? What was happening to her?

Lia refocused and tried again, still nothing. She tried again with enough effort to put herself into a coma. Once again she felt nothing and nothing happened. She tried it again and again, desperate for some result, reaching dangerous levels. By the end she was just standing in red faced shock as it sunk in. She couldn’t do it. Her power was gone, that destructive ability which has so attracted the military to her. At first she felt a faint sense of relief, she couldn’t hurt anyone after all. However a much darker thought loomed up on her, the reality that this fact could now hurt her.

Lia had taken that day off but she was at Hammel now, the next day. She had cancelled any training sessions she had to conduct for the day. Instead she stood outside of the offices, feeling almost sick to her stomach with anxiety. She had to be honest, she had to tell them that she had lost her ability, but the results could be disastrous. She could loose her job, in fact she expected to. In the line of effect no job meant no visa, no visa meant immigration would send her back to Russia. The thought of having to go back to Norilsk was unbearable, and the idea of loosing the friends and the family she had gained here was unbearable. She tried to keep the thoughts from manifesting on her face and instead just stood agitatedly by, waiting for someone who she could talk to about this, and possibly beg to in order to keep her job.

[Tim Lyne]

"Excuse me, lady fair, but you seem quite distressed. Tell this faerie king your troubles. Let his be the shoulder for your loveliness to cry upon, and let him take your troubles away."

Yes, Tim was still attempting to milk the faerie thing for all he was worth. He was still wearing an outfit that looked like a confused Peter Pan, only with a "crown" woven out of branches. Glitter covered a fairly significant portion of his body, though he mostly left his bared chest alone. Oh, and the faerie wings were sticking out of his back, making him look quite the unusual mixture of "sexy" and "nuts."

He had both hands on his hips now, and was facing Yulia, who... looked kind of familiar, really. Tim hadn't exactly spent loads of time at Hammel proper, but he did "work" there. Occasionally you noticed coworkers, especially if they were attractive females and you were a notorious letch. So Tim was nearly taken aback. To his credit, he tried to hide it well, shifting to stand directly before the woman, hands still firmly attached to the hips.

"Yes, cry upon my bosom," he said, patting said anatomy, "and let me take your troubles away."

He was almost tempted to mention the whole producing drugs thing, but figured that was probably frowned upon just a little bit. He shifted again, glancing over his shoulder at the office. Had she been heading to work or something? No matter. She had the king of the faeries to help her now.

All would be well.

[Yulia Sokolov]

This was perhaps one of the most difficult things that Lia had ever had to do in her life. In addition it could easily lead to the loss of her entire life in Vermont, and the idea of being sent back to Russia was completely unbearable. And there she stood, struggling with those feelings and those realities. Then the most ridiculous thing that had happened to her, possibly in her lifetime, happened.

All of a sudden a peter pan wannabe was standing right there in front of her claiming to be the fairy king. In addition to this he was asking her what was wrong, and for a moment she had to wonder if she was in some odd parallel world. A world where she no longer use her ability and where as good as shirtless men covered in glitter attempted to comfort her in some sense of the word. Needless to say, it was all kind of blowing her mind.

Yulia could not help but stare at the odd sight in front of her. Was she hallucinating? If so why was she hallucinating about this? Clearly there was something wrong with her. It slowly sunk in that this was actually happening, and the mix of feelings was overwhelming. She was so sick with worry about her life and her job, and then this. She didn’t know what to think and her expression could be best described as extremely bewildered.

Lia stared at his chest, which he had just offered, and then her eyes slid up to his face again. Then she started to laugh, quietly, and then it spilled over. And then she didn’t know if she was laughing or crying as her eyes filled up as well. There was bubbling laughter broken up by sobs as those emotions still continued to twist and turn in her head. All the same she tried to speak in between it all.

“I… you…” this was followed by a gasp. “Glitter…?”

[Tim Lyne]

"Sadly, that is the normal reaction to my splendor," said Tim. He was far too busy posing and looking gallantly in another direction to really study Yulia, thus he hadn't the faintest idea that she might actually be dealing with something else right now. If he did, he'd probably wonder if Fate was screwing with him by continually putting his faerie king garbed self into situations involving sobbing women who likely weren't interested in getting into his tights regardless of how fetching they looked on him.

"That is not glitter," insisted Tim, looking down at the quite obvious body glitter that he'd purchased specifically for his outfit, "that is faerie king sparkle. It's magical. Especially if you attempt to lick it up with your tongue. I'm afraid that it cannot be easily transferred, though I do produce a dust most magical."

He flapped his wings a few times, wiggled slightly, and somehow managed to produce more of the hallucinogenic dust that his new powers were known for. He almost tried twisting around to make sure he'd gotten some, but figured it was mostly for show anyway. It was at about this time that he realized a few things:

1. He wasn't drunk, nor had he touched anything alcoholic in some time. Mostly because his head wasn't buzzing.
2. His head wasn't buzzing.
3. His power had apparently been swapped out for wings and dust.
4. This was awesome.
5. He was in front of the offices.
6. There was a woman crying in front of the offices.
7. She worked there.
8. She might be crying because of stress.

"Say," said Tim, looking at the woman, "you didn't experience anything, um, magical," yes he was going to keep going with that, "lately, did you?"

[Yulia Sokolov]

What was it with America and glittering men? This thought at least sustained Yulia’s laughter for a few minutes longer as the recruiter in front of her continued to show off. This all seemed so beyond comprehension at the moment, and she wasn’t sure how to take it still. Her lips twitched a few times before turning up into a smile, slight though it might be. That didn’t mean that the tears stopped, not in the least. She didn’t even know how to go about shutting that well now that it had been opened. However there were other things to focus on right now, like all of that glitter.

Since all of this only seemed half real to Lia, she really didn’t see a point in trying to be shy about it all. So instead she reached out and touched him, not for the sake of him, but for the sake of that ‘fairy king sparkle’. It only was a quick moment and then she pulled her hand back and started examining the shimmer on her fingers. Yeah, that was glitter, and she barely heard his quip as she tried to decide how she should clean it off of her fingers.

She had never seen an ability like this before, and she did assume that this wasn’t some elaborate costume. Back in Russia the filter through was very specific. They had wanted those with abilities that were military capable in a sense, and those who were also bright and mentally stable. Really only two of the three need apply, but it was best to have it all. Yulia had been drafted in, but she could not imagine something so like a pixie being allowed in. That almost caused a new burst of laughter, but then she remembered that her power was gone and she was, for lack of a better word, screwed.

Then came his come on, and she just barely recognized it as such. Immediately her expression geared up into anger. “No,” she said, her voice edging towards sharp. “Nor do I have a mind to, as I have far more serious things to worry about.” Then it all just started to come out in a flood. “I woke up and my ability was gone. I am a powers trainer, and with no power I can’t do that. That means no job, no work visa, and I end up shipped back to Russia. So right now I have to think about either begging for my job or finding some other way of just staying in the country. So thank you very much, but I don’t think I’ll be licking any glitter off of you today.”

[Tim Lyne]

{dangerous as it is, I'm gonna play like this thread takes place after the other Tim power-swap thread, because it'll make it easier for Tim, and makes sense given his own timeline.}

Plus side: Tim wasn't being slapped or worse.
Down side: he'd again run into someone who was experiencing identity issues and more from the whole power issue.

"You know, I really doubt they're gonna freak out about the whole power thing, seeing as it's universal," said Tim. He fidgeted, looking guiltily at his wings, "Well, sorta. See, I used to be able to pick out metas from a crowd. It was this buzzing," he gestured to his head, "and I can literally point at a meta in a crowd of people. Woke up yesterday morning, no buzz," he threw out his hand, then pointed at the wings, "woke up with these instead. Went out and tried this getup, which I had the parts for," a "don't ask" look, "and ran into a woman who used to smell auras or something. Anyway, something happened to her power too. So..."

He shrugged. So it seemed to be happening to multiple people, which meant that even officials in Hammel, the people who made these decisions, would have been aware of it. Likely didn't take away their skills and whatnot, though Tim was completely at a loss as to how he was going to be a recruiter when he couldn't find metas anymore. He just didn't want to think about it, because he was likely to try and find out if alcohol still worked.

"So forget your troubles, cast aside your worries, and lick glitter off my sexy, sexy body!" insisted Tim, throwing his hands wide. He winked bawdily at Yulia. "Who knows, you might get a green card out of it or something."

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia’s senses started to come back to her in part. Why was she freaking out? What was the worse that could happen? Oh yeah, Russia, dealing with her family, possibly loosing her pension from the army. She had no doubt that if she didn’t live in America they might take it away. After all, the unit had been liquidated and they were trying to make it look like none of it had ever happened. That had taken place a few months after she left, but she was awaiting that letter in part. Still it was the last thing she had to worry about, that was her back up plan. She could live off of that in Russia for a while. Still Lia was not ready to retire.

She motioned to Tim, and the wings, and the glitter for that matter. “Well you can still do something. I woke up with nothing, not that I could really use mine in the first place.” Maybe she could fake having her ability for a while? No, no, one thing that she was not was a liar. She would never be able to pull it off. “You see I could kill people, overload their brains and all. Of course I cannot display that for student, but the point is, I had mastered control. I do not know if I lost that along with my ability.” Then Lia took a good second look at him. She stepped closer and ran a finger over his chest examiningly.

“The wings you cannot help I know, and the outfit is strange, but the glitter is very Euro. I saw the same on some men in Moscow once, very chic by some standards.” If he was going to be nice enough to seemingly try to entertain her out of her anxiety then the least she could do was be nice. Still it was the bit about how licking the glitter would get her a green card that made her chuckle.

“What is the saying here? You have to kiss a few frogs first? I guess it is really lick a few fairies?” So she did it. She might not be here much longer anyways, so what could it hurt. She leaned forward and licked some of the glitter off of his upper chest. She laughed again as she pulled her head back and wiped glitter off of her lips.

“Ah, haha, I feel funny.”

[Tim Lyne]

Waking up without a power? That sounded like Tim's dream. In fact, he was pretty sure that he'd had a dream like that before. Though, really, he wasn't finding his current situation all that bad. Then again, he could still do his job.

"You killed people with your brain?" asked Tim, blinking. Suddenly he had second thoughts about flirting with this one. In fact, he even took a step away from Yulia. That was before he realized that, well, she didn't exactly have the power right now. Tim's brain was apparently a step or two behind. Really not that surprising.

The conversation was moving to more comfortable subjects though, namely Tim's spectacular getup. He started preening as she complimented him, even adjusting the wings and the various vines and such that he'd thrown together. That was before he paused, realizing that she'd just said that there were people who dressed like this elsewhere. What kind of guy dressed like a...

"Whoa, I am so not, you know," said Tim, waving his hands, "a faerie. Well, I mean, that kind of faerie, I'm more of a-- you're actually licking me."

Tim stared at the woman, not believing his luck. She was actually licking his body, taking in the glitter, and likely a large amount of his hallucigenic dust. It occurred to Tim that he should probably say something, since her brain was likely to get a little fried and her judgment would soon to follow.

That was about ten seconds before he realized how good for him that result would be.

"Yes, that's the faerie magic," he said, nodding. "It helps you forget all your troubles. Now, you should accompany to my magical faerie..." a pause while Tim tried to think, before giving up and saying: "apartment."

He could totally take advantage of this. Maybe a green card though. She just seemed... stressed. No, wait, better idea. Have some fun, then contact Dr. Campbell. Yeah, that should work. Campbell would eat up the sob story, and Tim would get what he wanted.

Everybody's happy, right?

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