Chaos (Open)

[Lani Hunter]

Lani nodded, “What do you mean by sub-types?” He asked curious. She had thrown out a carrot but now Lani wanted the whole garden. This was more information on powers than he had gotten in a long while. Sure he knew and read a lot about telekinesis but that didn’t tell him anything about other people’s powers. And now he was curious about water control, his sister’s power, it was interesting and though the whole concept gave Lani the shivers he wanted to know about it so that he could help. But he would be damned if he would go to the pool with Caroline. “Wait? People can have more than one power? How does that work?” Well, so much for a question for a question, this was what happened when a curious person met someone who seemed to have all the answers.

Lani chuckled at her response. She looked so forlorn that Lani really couldn’t help himself. Lani was more than glad that she didn’t realized his inner battle, that meant that he was doing a good job of hiding it. And though there were people who knew and wouldn’t let him get away with having internal battles he was getting better at being happy because when he pretended to be pleasant when he met someone usually their pleasantness rubbed off on him and the feels became real, at least for the time being. “You and me both,” he said with a smile. It was something that would probably evade both of them until it happened. Lani felt like his heart was stretched too thin.

“Me? No way,” he laughed, “I make my own luck.” He winked at her. Well, not quite but he had had his fair share of bad luck so now it was only logical that he would start having good luck, right? “Are you?” He peered at her, she seemed like too logical a person to superstitious, though, but one never knew. It was an interesting bit of jewelry though, Lani might even end up keeping it, he didn’t know. But he did need to get Adrianna a gift and he would be in really deep water if he missed that. Time was racing toward him and he was running out of it. It was times like this he was very jealous of Odion and his ability to control time. He pocketed the ring and that was that for the time being. He would deal with that later.

“I can,” he said testing the steadiness of the stool. He clamored up carefully and tested his balance swaying a little bit. Lani had no problems with high or precarious positions. But it was a high ceiling and Lani still had to reach for the light. He reached his hand out for the light not looking as he felt it in his hand. He put one hand on the ceiling to brace himself there and twisted the bulb in his other hand to bring it to the socket. He nodded at her statement but didn’t really pay much attention. He started screwing it in and the light flashed and electricity raced over his fingers for a moment. He didn’t even realize what was happening until he was falling. The stool tipped dumping him back. He landed on his back the wind being knocked out of him, but god his hand felt like it was on fire. He flapped it, “Shit, shit, shit, fuck, shit!” He sat up to suck in air and flexed his hand as the pain subsided, “Oh geez, that hurt.” He groaned. Lani chuckled as for a humorous moment he wondered if he looked like he well… stuck his finger in a light socket.

[Willow Birdsong]

“Like, Kinesis, and it’s different kinds. There’s telekinesis, pyro, hydro. But that’s different from telepathy...” Okay, now she was starting to rant, and she didn’t really like doing that, not when she was going to be perceived as a know it all. Lani was three years older than her, did she really have to list off all these things? “Things people control with their mind always end in Kinesis.” She smiled a bit. If he really was interested, he could just read her paper, it was a lot more eloquent than how she was trying to describe it. “Uh...” She hesitated, then licked her lips. “Well, some powers are closely related, so one can have both, like telekinesis and telepathy, but that’s one of the more power hungry combinations...” She shrugged. They’d have to go for lunch if this continued.

“You have to promise to tell me what it feels like some day,” she said in all seriousness. If she was going to send him her paper, he was going to have to do something in return. Besides, it was probably for the best that if anyone fell in love, it be him. Willow wasn’t ready for something like that anyways, and Lani seemed to be onto something.

Shaking her head no, Willow sighed. “I tried having a couple good luck charms once, but since they weren’t helping a whole lot I guess they weren’t lucky to begin with.” Not a big deal. Maybe she could make her own luck too, once she figured out how to work her power in her favor. For now, she was just learning how to deal. Weren’t they all?

Really, Willow would’ve done it herself if she had to. Even if she couldn’t reach now, eventually she would be able to. Who knew what her body would do to adapt to the situation. It wasn’t just a mind thing for her, which was scary enough as it was. Jumping away from him, Willow squinted at the infuriated light fixture, and then down at Lani on the floor. How had that happened so quickly? She rushed over to him, pushing her hair out of the way and kneeling over him. She was sorry she couldn’t catch him, but when it came to fight or flight, her reactions went into self-protect mode. His hand seemed alright, but the nerves could be damaged. “I told you to be careful,” she said, assessing his hand. It seemed alright, especially if he was clutching at the air. He was laughing and Willy wasn’t sure why. He was a strange boy. “Maybe we’ll just leave the rest for someone else to clean properly.” She suggested, standing up again.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani leaned forward in interested especially in the kinesis’s. So perhaps that was the connection between his and Caroline’s power, both could move things with their minds. “But how does it work. I mean if you think about it the mind is a nonphysical entity, right?” He said moving his hands to make a shape for the mind. “And in order to do telekinesis the mind has to interact with the physical world,” he moved the ‘mind’ in his hands as if to signifying physicality. “So how does it happen that someone nonphysical can affect something that is physical?” It really was a philosophical question but he was curious about what answer she might come out for that one. He had listened to an entire lecture online on the matter and essentially the conclusion was that there is no conclusion. Lani’s brow raised, “You could really take over the world with that one.”

“If I fall in love I will tell you all about it,” Lani lied. At least for now it was a lie, things could change from now until when he fell in love. But really it was up to her to figure it out for herself really. Love was different for everyone; it was interesting to see if she fell in love if it was anything like Lani’s plummet. He honestly hoped it wasn’t. He was still just too confused about everything he was really the last person that deserved to be telling anyone anything about love. “But what if you fall in love before I do?” He challenged, would she just try not to fall in love. As far as Lani could determine, it wasn’t a choice because he was trying to figure out a way to return Adrianna’s feelings, he wanted so badly for her sake to be able to feel those things.

Lani grinned at her and shook his head, “It doesn’t work if you don’t have faith.” He said he could see her being the kind of person skeptical about it all. Just doing it as an experiment and when it didn’t work write it off. Really Lani had very little faith in luck, besides if one were to rely on luck they were doomed to live a life ruled by fate. No. Lani would make his own fate. Fate was done screwing around with his life. Ever since fate had exposed his heart to his best friend and girlfriend he was done letting it rule his heart and he honestly didn’t give a crap about destiny anymore. He would do whatever he could to keep fate from ruling him.

Blinking spots out of his eyes he realized that Willow was leaning over him. He honestly didn’t blame her for jumping out of the way; she was probably as started as he was. He gave her an annoyed look, “Yeah, yeah, I wasn’t careful enough,” he shook his hand again and whistled. “I am totally down with leaving the rest for someone else, perhaps someone with electricitywhateveritscalled.” He said waving his hand. He clenched his hand into a fist again and looked over his hand. His nerves felt like they were tingling, but there was minimal outward damage. His fingertips were just a little sensitive when he touched them but nothing that wouldn’t fade over time. “Geez, well that’s something I never want to do again,” he shook his head chuckling again. He reached up and ran a hand through his hair, at least it didn’t feel like it was sticking up in all directions. He took a deep breath and stood after her. He swayed a little but that was mostly just from his legs shaking from shock and his back was a little sore. “Wow… alright. So light socket,” he made a motion of checking it off as if it were on a list. “Let’s not do that again.” He glared at the light socket which looked seemingly innocent.

[Willow Birdsong]

“It has to do with energies which can pass through different ‘entities’, as you call them,” she said, standing quite still, as though she were giving a speech to a bunch of people who would be critiquing her. Willow always felt like she had a show to put on, even when it was just one other person. “Is that what you would do?” She asked, but really, since it was the first thing out of his mouth, she supposed it was. Willow wondered about him now... “You can just read my paper you know,” she said quietly, eyes downcast. She didn’t like being interviewed.

Willow smiled broadly. That was awfully nice of him. She let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” she said. Firsthand experience was always more valuable than any book. And Lani seemed just brave or stupid enough to test out the falling in love theory. Well that, and he was actually with someone, that helped. “I don’t want to fall in love,” she said sharply, her eyebrows furrowed together. Because, what if she could never fall again? What if she only had one shot and blew it on the wrong person? Would her power never let her fall for the right person? Was there a right person for her?

“I said I tried,” she repeated. Willow had put her faith into inanimate objects, before realizing just how stupid that was. They wouldn’t help her, only she could help herself.

Smiling, Willow found herself laughing softly to herself. Electricitywhateveritscalled. Was Lani really someone who would enjoy her paper? Must’ve been the shock going through him that was talking. She looked around, supposing there wasn’t anything more that could be done. She stood there, waiting. How was she supposed to e-mail him anything without his e-mail address? “Uh...” She started, blushing a bit. This was so weird. “What address can I send the paper to?” She asked. This one last thing, and then she would leave. She readied her mind. Willow never took notes. She didn’t have to.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani shook his head, “Entities? What entities, I mean it’s physical or it’s not, I don’t know if I believe in entities.” He shrugged still willing to bite at her paper and anything she could give him but he was still too full of what ifs. Lani gave her a sly smile at that one. Of course that was what Lani would do. Who wouldn’t? Telekinesis and telepathy, he’d be all but unstoppable, that or insane. He wasn’t sure how well he could deal with not only the intense pain but the voices in his head. So why not be as powerful as he could be before he finally broke under the pressure. Lani nodded and laughed waving a hand. “Yeah, you’re right, sorry.”

“Why not?” He asked curious mostly intrigued by her sharp tone. “You know it’s not always your choice.” He pointed out his good humor not fading. Perhaps it was the electricity racing through his veins at the moment but he felt positively filled with energy. Lani nodded to himself perhaps she would have a choice, and for that he envied her. He felt very much like he hadn’t had a lot of say in this game the world was playing but he didn’t mind too much.

Lani looked up and looked around, it wasn’t too terrible looking anymore. “Look, we’d better get outta here before someone comes poking around.” He shrugged, not that he would leave her to take the blame, but he might escape when no one was looking. “Ah, yeah, you can email it to me at l-k-hunter at (something) dot com.” He told her and held out his good hand which just so happed to throw the handshake backward at her. “It was really a pleasure to meet you Willow, I’m looking forward to Spring Break.” He gave her a wink and a little salute and slipped out the door glancing about to make sure there were no other witnesses.