Awakened (open)

[Lani Hunter]

It had been a while since Lani had made it over to the gym, and he honestly only went when he had to and currently he had nowhere else to go to work out. It was early and he was hoping to get a workout before the day started... well kind of. He had ulterior motives. He was hiding, for lack of a better word, he had detention again, surprise, surprise. He hadn't been to any of his assigned detentions but he figured most of his usual haunts would be searched so why no do something completely untypical and go to the gym. So with his water bottle hanging lazily from one finger and a pair of dark gym shorts and an old concert tee on he went to fulfill his duties as a delinquent. It was nice to be doing something purely physical for the day, he didn't want to work on his power and he certainly wasn't going to be caught dead studying. He scuffed his shoes a little as he stepped into the carpeted floor of the weight room.

He wove his way around machines and the weights and bodies. He glanced into the courts for a moment, but he had promised himself that he would actually do a good workout before he allowed himself a chance to play around on the courts. So going rather quickly he hopped up onto the pull up bar and started at it. After he decided he was doing rather well with being able to lift his own body he took it a step further and pulled himself up to his chin then beyond. He pushed himself up from here until he was able to get his knees on the bar. Then he let himself drop back, after checking to make sure he wasn't about to land on anyone. With a smile he dusted his calloused hands off and moved on. He hated lifting weights, but it had to be done. He needed to strengthen up a little if he wanted to defend himself. It seemed like there was an unnatural amount of people wanting to pick fights with him recently.

He stopped out of boredom before pain and replaced the weights. He shook out his arms and moved on to the courts taking a swing of his water as he went out of the weight room. He grabbed a ball and dribbled it in his hands. There was nothing more familiar to the Boston native than to play basketball. It was big, Lani was very upset by the Heats victory over the Celtics. He wasn't tall enough to play competitively and honestly he didn't like the pressure. Besides, he wasn't what most people would call sporty, he was small and quick, yes he was tall, scrapping at six feet but he was slender. He walked to a court the sound echoing off the walls and he took a shot smiling even larger when it went in with a swoosh. He ran to the ball, not because he had to but because he wanted to. Lani was built for quick sprints and even quicker changes in direction. He could do distance, but he really only did when he was running from something. Like the cops... but that was beside the point and he took another shot.

[Sayaka Ito]

Gym...was evil.

Now, technically, she didn't really have to go to this place, not yet. She wasn't even sure if it was part of her schedule; she had yet to really memorize any of the classes she was going to be having. But she had been curious about what the gym was like, and had found out it did indeed have a weight room. Hopefully, she would be able to get some kind of special excuse to not use it. If this place DID have gym, that is.

Why would she not want to participate in gym class? Because, one look at her could easily tell you that she was already thin and tiny enough. Exercising on top of her power's downside would make her dangerously thin and such. She knew it might be a good idea though, to make her muscles stronger, just...it hurt too much to even try. Earlier she had tried to lift one of those small weights, and even that had hurt her muscles a bit. It was pathetic, really, just how weak she was. But then again, she supposed that was why she had this power of hers.

Gravitational manipulation...as much as she hated and feared it, it was convenient for her. In fact, right then she was on what amounted to the ground floor of the gym, not the weight room area, just trying her best to lighten the pull the Earth had on one of the basketballs. It was quiet, and peaceful, for her, so it wasn't that difficult to concentrate on utilizing her power. Sayaka watched as the ball levitated just a bit off the ground, coming up to about halfway up, in comparison to her height, before she heard the door to the gym open and someone else coming in.

Her first instinct was to panic, but no, she managed to just let the ball return to the ground slowly. It seemed the boy, whoever he was, hadn't noticed her. So she decided to be as unobtrusive as possible and just sit down on the ground, her back against the wall. It couldn't hurt to just watch the boy, right? Hopefully he'd not notice her. Or if he did notice her, he wouldn't come over to talk to her. Then again...she had a thought. Wouldn't it be a tad fun to play a practical joke on him?

He seemed decent, if his ability to get a ball into the net was any indicator, so messing with him did indeed seem fun. In fact, right at that very moment, he was throwing a ball through the air again, no doubt trying to get it through the hoop once more. So she concentrated on the ball; once more nothing was distracting her. The pull the Earth had on the ball weakened, and it just hung there in the air for several moments. If he had yet to notice her, he would likely be wondering just what was causing the ball to act like that.

Then a moment later she let gravity return to normal, and the ball soared through the air once more. Sayaka did not pay attention to whether or not it made it into the net like the last one. "Sorry. I couldn't help it." the child called out to the boy; thank goodness they were in such a large space, so that her voice could echo across to him. Otherwise he likely would not have heard her.

[Lani Hunter]

It had been a rather strange past couple of weeks. At least he was glad to finally be out of the dark chasm that he had been lost in previously. His mind was as much a prison as any stone walls he had found and he was slowly letting his power run free more and more. Willow had suggested such a thing and so Lani was trying it. Especially after she had sent him that paper to read. Then Caroline had come and Odion had come back. He was so glad to have both of them back in his life. Things with Adrianna were strained which added to the stress, and then there was his power training and the pressure he was getting from them so that he could graduate. Then the school psychiatrist was trying to talk sense into him. It was insane and he would more likely wish that life was back to how it had been before because at least he had been able to be falsely happy.

But no, that wasn’t right. He had been given a precious gift and he was seeing his face in the mirror. The face was dark and distorted but there were moments when there was a happiness that reached to his core and the face no longer looked so horrible. Or rather it at least didn’t look like a completely evil human. He hated to admit that Dr. Neville had given him a lot of thinking but it was pure stubbornness that kept Lani from going back and demanding to know just what it was that the man knew. But that was dangerous, the mind-reader had a long fuse and patience with Lani was usually was caused him to give more away. It was terrifying. Lani shook his head, he was here to play basketball so he wouldn’t think about these things.

Expecting another swish inside of the basket Lani’s eyebrows jumped when it stopped. Mostly because someone else stopped it. “What the…” He narrowed his eyes at the thing and extended his power cautiously toward the ball. It wasn’t telekinesis, at least he didn’t think so. A telekinetic could usually tell when another telekinetic was touching something. Instead Lani poked it gently his power peering at it as if it were a strange specimen. The forces were strange. Lani had long since learned that telekinesis could be boiled down to the power with the ability to manipulate forces. So the forces on the ball were strange. The trajectory seemed to have paused but most peculiar was that it almost seemed like someone had turned off gravity. But… that wasn’t possible… was it? Well, talking fish was a more recent power he had learned about so he wouldn’t be surprised.

He blinked and it soared again knocking off of the rim and out. Lani made a noise of displeasure and caught it with his power and moved it back to the basket and knocked it in. He nodded a little as his power released the ball and let it bounce on the ground. It was then that he heard the voice call from across the gym. Lani identified the small girl across the gym and smiled. “Ah, so you’re the culprit.” He said an impish smile on his face as he turned to face her. “Clever,” he called back an approving tone in his voice. No she should not expect Lani to be upset. He loved jokes, though usually he liked being on the delivering end not the receiving end but hey that was pretty entertaining.

Looking over at the ball, which was rolling in the opposite direction of him. He bounced it a few times with his power and called it back to his hands. “I’m Lani, what’s your name?” He asked walking toward her to extend his hand to her. “That was really cool, what’s you power?” He was curious and the girl looked very young, he wondered if she was new. He felt a slight stab of jealousy. She was young and here, Caroline’s power had come to her young. Why was he the only freak that didn’t get his power until late? He would have loved to have come here that early. His life could have been so different. But then if he had come here when he was younger would Caroline be here now? Lani couldn’t be sure. So no, life was good the way it was, and he could bellyache about how he was a late bloomer all day but that wouldn’t change anything.

[Sayaka Ito]

He was, initially, confused on what to make of the situation. Sayaka expected that, of course; when one was making shots, they didn't think anyone would care about messing with them, even a little bit. At least, she wouldn't worry about that. But then again, just by her strength alone, she doubted she'd be able to ever make a shot, so there was the fact that she hardly ever tried to make shots.

Still, she watched him as he was confused. It was fun, playing pranks, though she knew that it'd be bad to just overdo it. She couldn't do malicious pranks, for instance, but a couple here and there...it wouldn't hurt no one. Not as long as she kept her head on straight. Some might see it as a misuse of her powers, but...they'd been given to her for a reason, as much as she feared them. Using them to do pranks was probably the least deadliest thing she could do with them, after what had happened not even a month ago. Unfortunately, when she let the ball go, it would seem he did indeed take notice of her, after she called out to him.

And he decided a conversation was in order. Sayaka sighed a little to herself; she should have expected this, really. At the least, he didn't seem to be too angry about being messed with. She wasn't sure if that was just him, or if that was the way people generally acted at this school. It seemed to her that a school full of people with basically super powers would be capable of taking a joke or two, just due to the sheer volume of people that were capable of playing a multitude of jokes. Ironic, then, that she would not be the type of person to take jokes lightly, even though she had just played one.

She noted the way the ball moved around, a little after he spoke to her. That wasn't gravitational manipulation he was using, so...telekinesis? It was the most stereotypical way of getting an object to you, after all, though it could be done with gravitational forces too. She just wasn't able to change the way gravity was for an object yet; for lack of a better word, gravity was always down for her, whenever she used her powers.

If she had more control, she knew she could probably change the way gravity was going. He was approaching her, and Sayaka managed to not seem too disappointed as she stood up, brushing any stray dirt off of her clothes. Not a dress today, just sweat pants and a long-sleeved shirt; nothing too dramatic. She looked away from her clothes and to him again; he was right in front of her, asking for her name and looking like he wanted to shake her head. "Sayaka," the Japanese girl answered, moving her hand forward just a little and shaking his hand, gently.

No need to let him be the one to do the shaking and potentially tear her arm off. After all, she had no way of knowing how strong he was, compared to her; it was unlikely, but what if he had more than one power? No, better to be safe than sorry. And now he wanted to know what her power was; was it a good idea to just out and out tell him? She really wanted to not tell him, mostly because why give out information he didn't need (and that was fairly obvious to guess). But on the other hand, if she didn't tell him, it would be rather rude. "Gravity. Yours is telekinesis, right?" Sayaka finally decided to reply, looking upwards at the bigger male. Sheesh, at times like this, she really did feel rather small, with her diminutive 4'7" height.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani certainly wasn’t expecting anyone to bother him in the gym. It was usually the place he could come and just chill without the fear of someone calling him out for some stupid thing he did recently. Also, it was hard to find a place to stay in shape when the world he used to know was now closed to him. What would Odion say if Lani admitted that he missed the job and he missed having a purpose? Well he still had a purpose but it was find it that was his current problem. Well among other things but Lani was attempting to deal with one thing at a time and it was not working out how he wanted. He just tended to forget and it all came crashing back down.

This girl had better watch her back because Lani was not the kind of person to let something like this go. Sure it was funny, hell he wished he had thought of it but no now she had made herself a target. Lani smiled like an imp, no a prankster should never expect not to have the tables turned and it was this knowledge that kept him smiling and not in the least uncomfortable with the whole situation. After all, if one couldn’t laugh at themselves than who could they laugh at? Lani tossed the ball from hand to hand as he paced over toward the girl. She was much younger which meant one of two things, she hadn’t anticipated him coming over or contemplating revenge. Too bad. One should always think about reciprocations.

Lani’s brow raised as she said her name. That was… different. “Pleasure,” he replied and resisted the urge to attempt to say her name. Sayaka, not too complicated in theory but Lani had screwed up easier names before. His expression didn’t falter but he bit back a sigh as he was limp noodle. He reminded himself that she was young and probably didn’t know how to give a proper hand shake but one could tell a lot from a handshake. Perhaps that was an unconscious sizing up of a person when one shook their hands. A firm but gentle clasp was what was ideal but there were those that had iron grip who were usually strong and stubborn, there were those with weak timid handshakes that only accented their shyness. But then it didn’t take a genius or a personality analysis to see that this girl was timid.

But she need not worry about Lani’s handshake. His was a gentle but confident. He might be a little arrogant but hey everyone had their flaws. The one thing she should rest assured of was that he wouldn’t hurt her. Not by choice and hopefully not by accident. She was cautious though, he could respect that. Lani looked at her interest in his eyes as she said her power was gravity. So it was… interesting. His mind flew off in a direction that was much more mathematical than he wanted. He was imaging just how her gravity worked and if there was gravity connections between things on earth as well as their connection to the greater planet. And what if she could make gravity zero would someone go shooting off of the earth thanks to the apparent forces?

“Yep,” he replied with a nod, “That’s awesome. How does it work?” He asked unable to stop himself. Curiosity kills the Lani. He bounced the ball using it as an excuse to back up. She probably would appreciate it more if she didn’t have to crane her neck to look at him. “Are you new to Hammel?” He asked, she must be she looked terribly young. Either that or she was just small, but Lani was inclined to believe that she was young.

[Sayaka Ito]

Sayaka wondered why, the first thing she noticed, was the fact that he quirked his brow up a little at her name. Was it because of the name itself, in how...foreign it sounded? Or was it just because it confirmed, in his mind, that she was definitely of Asian, at the least, descent? The girl couldn't answer her thoughts at all right about then, she didn't have enough information. What was for certain, though, was that she would be cautious around this guy. She was cautious around all people, though, so how she treated him would...not really be all that different, really. "Y-Yeah..." the little girl agreed with a nod of her head, when he said it was a pleasure to meet him.

Even if she wasn't really the type to be social, she was the type to be nice to people if they were nice to her. Though...she HAD pranked him. Surely he had to have something in mind for revenge, right? Sayaka wondered about that, just a little. But not too much. She wasn't used to pranking people, after all, and so of course she wasn't going to think too much on what he might do.

Sayaka didn't focus as much on his handshake as he had to hers, but she still noticed that he seemed confident in his handshake. Confident people were the types that she really did not get along well with, at all. But she had made the first move, and now she had to deal with the consequences of that. Sometimes, her life did get really difficult, but...she would manage, somehow. She always had. Even when her powers had gone out of control, she had managed due to an outside force, the Hammel Institute.

Had they not been there...well, she certainly shuddered to think about what might have happened, that much was for certain. She would have gotten ostracized and eventually...well, something bad would have happened. What, she couldn't really predict, but she knew something would have. "I uh...don't know?I mean...how does your telekinesis work?" Sayaka spoke up. None of them really knew HOW their powers worked, how they existed, after all. But if he meant what it did...? "What it does though...I can weaken or strenghten gravity's pull on objects. But nothing too big," she spoke up.

People had asked, before, if her power could affect, say, the sun's pull on the Earth. Theoretically, she guessed she COULD do that. But the likelihood of her pulling it off was close to 0. The sun was just too big of a gravitational pull for her to even touch. Not to mention it was farther away than the pull gravity here on Earth had on everything. "And yeah...hasn't even been a week yet." she admitted with a nod of her head, wondering what else he might ask. And marveling at how much she was actually talking.

[Lani Hunter]

It wasn’t a name that was normally heard, but then again not a lot of people around here had normal names. Hell, Lani’s name wasn’t even normal. He had occasionally been grumpy in mentioning to his mother how many other males she had ever met named Lani. Oh well, different was good in many different ways. Lani just didn’t want to say her name aloud until he had worked it around in his head for a little bit. Sayaka, it was very pretty. “You have a very pretty name,” he told her in response to her stuttered agreement. It was interesting but it kind of flowed off the tongue. Not simple but not too complicated either.

Really Sayaka shouldn’t worry, if Lani was going to get her back it would be when she least expected it and probably in the far future when she might think that chances of revenge would be gone. And with Halloween coming up Lani was all in the spirits of the trickster. He already had a few plans for a few of his friends. His smile grew sly as he thought about it. He loved Halloween, it was one of the easiest times for creatures that normally lived in the darkness to come out in the spirit of the holiday. So many people running around dressed as monsters and thieves that one never paid much mind to a real one walking within the crowd.

Lani nodded his smile growing a little. She seemed confused by his questions, how it works, what it does, not the same thing at all she was right. But was it mental. “It’s mental,” he answered tapping his brow. “It’s important to know how it works so that you know how to stop it.” He advised, sure no one knew exactly how but there were theories and Lani had his own for his own power, everyone was different. He listened to her description of her power and his eyes were alight with curiosity. That was interesting, was it just gravity or was it also the balancing forces. He scratched at his chin. “Can it be things? Like the gravitational force between two things on Earth?” He wondered and cocked his head. “Have you ever had something go flying off the earth?” He asked his interest growing. Gravity was a powerful thing and to control gravity… wow. He didn’t envy her.

It almost sounded like it was similar to his power where she could manipulate the forces, but if the gravity went to zero things would start to drift off of the planet and it could create a lot of problems. Lani didn’t let it show but the idea bothered him. There were some things on this planet that were not meant to be messed with. Weather patterns controlled by the weather manipulators could cause more damage than good if they weren’t careful, gravity, that could alter the way things moved, the way the earth acted. No Lani had an idea that some things on this planet were not meant to be controlled by humans, but then again maybe he was getting ahead of himself. She said she couldn’t do it to anything big so perhaps the power was a very small fraction to the actual force that she was manipulating.

He gave her a sympathetic smile. “Welcome,” he said, “My sister just got here a few weeks ago too.” Caroline had been adjusting beautifully, far better than he had anticipated and she was really starting to make quite an impression. If his meeting with Kevin was anything to say about that. She had even won over the hard hearted Odion, at least Lani thought so. “How has your first week been?” He bounced the ball a few more times before tossing it between his hands. He wondered if her gravity manipulation was a match for his telekinesis when they both went after the same object. An idea started to form and a sly smile slipped onto his face like a hand into a glove.

[Sayaka Ito]

"You really think it's pretty?" Sayaka couldn't help but ask. After all, people did not usually say that about her name, either because it sounded too complicated, or because of the small little fact that it was clearly Japanese in origin. Sayaka wasn't saying that most of the people in the school had a problem with Japanese people, just that they might not be as used to people of her descent as she felt they should be. Still, it was nice to meet a boy like him, one who was able to give a compliment like that even if she felt it wasn't necessarily true.

She thought there were prettier names out there than Sayaka, and names that still managed to be short, at that. "Your name's pretty too," she spoke to him with a shy smile. And than she lost a bit of her color and stared at him. Pretty...right. He was a boy. "I mean it's nice!" she exclaimed a moment later, a panicked bit of look on her face. Oh, great, she had just ruined the first bit of social interaction with him.

Hopefully he would find it endearing or something, her being flabbergasted like this, but somehow she really doubted it. She meant what she said though, Lani was a bit of a nice name, and it was so unique too. She didn't think she had ever heard it before, to be honest, and she was likely to remember him now. Both because he was nice, and because of his unique name. Of course the latter was a poor way of remembering someone, but at least it was something, right?

After all, as someone might guess, she wasn't used to having friends, really, and as such wasn't used to remembering people's names. "Stop it? I uh just...try really hard to calm down, when I'm not using it, and it stops. And when I'm in control I just hafta concentrate," Sayaka spoke, seeing it as simple as that. Despite her relative intelligence, she was still a young girl, and thus was relatively naive in terms of what she really knew.

Still...she did wonder how other people stopped their powers, though she was not about to ask him how he stopped his. The two had just met, after all; she didn't really want to just share information freely, now. "And no...I haven't. My power doesn't go that far, I think." She answered him. How...unsettling that his question had been so close to what she had been thinking. It had to be a coincidence though; she hadn't met anyone with two powers yet, so that meant it was unlikely they existed. And she knew that his power was just telekinesis. "It's...scary. I'm not really a social person." was the last thing she told him, albeit this time she was glancing a little to the ground as she answered.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani nodded, “Yeah, it is. Now, I know I’m gonna butcher it,” he warned and then tried it out, “Say-ah-kah?” He said hoping to have pronounced it like she had. Lani was pretty good with names. Sometimes life could depend on who you knew and who you knew other people knew. Sometimes throwing out a name could save your skin or get someone else thrown under the bus. Though Lani was trying to not think of life like that anymore. He didn’t have to, but old habits die hard. So he filed away her name, however his intentions of using it were not malicious. He just wanted to remember it. He smiled at her, one that was encouraging, she didn’t have to be afraid of him, not at all.

Lani’s eyes went wide for a moment and whatever color drained from her face filled into Lani’s. His face heated and turned a nice shade of pink. He had to admit that he didn’t blame her. It was technically a girl’s name most of the time. But that was the first time someone had ever said that out loud and to Lani’s face. He knew a guy who had said it to his friend as Lani passed by, he was a guy that Lani hadn’t gotten along with anyways but well, the man hadn’t said anything about his name after that. But Sayaka didn’t mean it like that and it just startled him a little. He just stared at her his face a mixture of shock and embarrassment. His face broke into a smile as she corrected herself. He chuckled, feeling much better laughing it off because she seemed just as mortified as he was.

“Uh… Thanks,” he said scratching his head laughing it off. He really couldn’t help but smile because she seemed so flustered and really it didn’t bother him so much. She was young and she seemed like a sweet girl. Now if it had been Shapiro he would have had her in a headlock because he would have known she would say something like that just to annoy him. He took a deep breath and attempted to cool his face down a little bit. Really it was easier to laugh at himself than get angry every time someone made a crack about his name, especially since she was just a kid and he was pretty sure there was nothing malicious about her.

He was glad to be off that subject though and he listened with interest about her power. He needed to remember about her age, he had a terrible habit of thinking that most people thought like him, which was not even close to true. He nodded a little bit and cocked his head as he thought about it. Well, that was nice, Lani was jealous, he needed to concentrate to keep his power from going wild and even then it wasn’t perfect. Admittedly if he calmed down his power was easier to control but it was frustrating that when every time his mind wandered his power went off and did whatever it wanted. He nodded. “Yeah, mine is like that too, is it hard to control?” He asked, curiosity was always what got Lani into trouble.

Lani nodded again, “You might be surprised,” Lani said with a grin. He knew that when he thought he was limited by something that he was usually wrong, sure he might have a hell of a headache following something like that he had hardly found a limit. He hadn’t been confident enough to try something heavier than a car though. He was doing a lot of learning how to get things to move with the least amount of force. Lani’s brow creased in sympathy. This place was scary, probably terrifying for someone who wasn’t very social. “There’s nothing wrong with that,” he told her thinking her looking at the ground was a sign she was ashamed of her lack of social skills. “It’ll get better,” he said with a bright smile, “At least you’re out of your room and doing things.” He held the ball in his hands and raised a brow at her, “Wanna play a game?” He asked with a grin, being social didn’t have to be hard, sometimes it was as easy as playing a game of basketball.

[Sayaka Ito]

"You didn't butcher it," Sayaka informed him, a bit surprised at that fact. Usually people in America had trouble pronouncing names that seemed so...foreign, like hers. Of course, not many people tended to have problems with her heritage, at least when it came to how life had been like before coming to Hammel. No...in her community, the kids had found her powers more despicable than her nationality. A shameful fact, since neither should be discriminated against, in her mind, but as she had thought before, kids would be kids.

They could bully someone as much as they wanted just because they were young and didn't understand. Sayaka couldn't help but frown a bit at this thought. That was such a stupid way to think, in her opinion. But she had no true evidence for thinking as she did, just her feelings on the matter. The only thing Sayaka got confused about was the way she acted when she called his name pretty. Honestly, she wasn't thinking Lani was really a feminine name. She just...it DID sound pretty, in her mind. She just had happened to forget that Lani was a guy and not a girl, so he probably wouldn't like his name being called pretty. But he seemed like a pretty easygoing person, and he laughed it off easily; a nervous smile planted itself onto her young face.

Well, at least he wasn't the type to get angry. That was good...some people had strange powers, and from what Sayaka had seen, nearly everyone had some kind of downside to it. Who was to say that increased aggression wasn't a byproduct of some power out there? Sayaka shuddered at that thought; an ordinary person could probably beat her to a pulp, if they wanted to. She didn't even want to imagine what a person at this school might be able to do to her. "Y-You're welcome," she spoke up nervously, almost like a little mouse based on the tone her voice took, or rather, the pitch. It was a bit too nervously high, and she couldn't help but blush.

She always had to blunder when it came to social situations, now didn't she? If only she was better when it came to talking to people! Maybe then her power wouldn't have gone crazy back at the ordinary school. "Um...well, yeah. If I don't keep my emotions under control, it kinda does...whatever," she explained with a nod of her head when he asked her a question. In fact, even when her emotions WERE under control she had caught herself floating a little bit off the ground, or some nearby object doing the same, like a lamp or a pen or pencil or something like that.

Sometimes it led to funny situations, like the pen of some other student randomly floating in mid-air, but Sayaka didn't like bothering other people like that, if at all possible. "A...game?" Sayaka queried, looking at the ball, then looking up at him, a somewhat curious look on her face. "I've never played before...and I've always been weaker than other kids my age, so I dunno how good I'd be..." she trailed off. Perhaps this was why she wasn't too social; it was so difficult to play physical games, for her.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani grinned, glad he hadn’t. Usually with the combination of foreign names and his Boston accent. Granted his accent was light but usually it was enough to make some name come out rather interesting. He had to admit he had a better time saying names after hearing then rather than reading them. Mimicking sounds was easy, figuring out what they were from paper was complicated. Even simple names got mixed up, like his. He still couldn’t imagine how hard it possibly could be to put ‘la’ and ‘nee’ but some people still were able to mess it up. Lani wasn’t one to discriminate. Not at all, nationality and color aside all people had equal potential to be horrible. And equal potential to wonderful.

Bullying was something that was a problem and it was something that Lani wouldn’t stand for. There was a point where teasing became hurtful and when someone didn’t have the ability to stand up for themselves that’s when people like Lani were most likely to step in. It wasn’t just his sister that he protected. He made several enemies that way but they had never messed with him directly because when Lani was angry he was terrifying. It was a lucky thing that people at this school hadn’t really seen anything beyond the carefree Lani or the melancholy Lani. His fuse was long but then something really made his blood boil and he had been in his share of fights, even here. He smiled at her stuttered welcome and he couldn’t help but chuckle at the sound. It was adorable.

He nodded and cocked his head at her listening and thinking it. “I know how that goes,” he rolled his eyes, “It’s like have a three year old in your head.” He joked pointing at his temple. A three year old that has the desire to touch everything and an even stronger tendency for tantrums. Social situations were something that was learned much more often than told. It wasn’t something that could be taught and if her situation at her old school caused her to turn inward then it would take a lot to get her to come out of her shell again. But she was young. Lani had gone into his shell but he had built walls on concrete, but he was very much a people lover and he loved talking to people so he was good in social situations but he wasn’t just a secret keeper he was a hoarder.

“Yeah,” Lani said brightly tossing the ball between his hands his eyes watching it like a cat watching a string go back and forth in front of his eyes. He smiled as she tried to talk her way out of it. He tossed the ball and then held it in between his hands. “Alright, so what about your power? What do you say, one on one, telekinesis versus gravity?” Just because she couldn’t do it well physically didn’t mean she wouldn’t be able to do it eventually. But Lani was willing to not go into a physical game with her, after all he had the obvious height advantage and he didn’t want to hurt her. So he would just telekinesis and to be safe it would do well to keep her out of the game as well. A ball their powers could fight over. He didn't think his power would be at an advantage, after all she had stopped his ball and his power hadn't been able to knock it away.

[Sayaka Ito]

Sayaka blushed just a bit when he chuckled at her. Sure, she knew he wasn't being mean about it or anything, but nonetheless, she was a shy girl, and thus, she was very, very vulnerable to being embarrassed around others, even over tiny things such as her voice suddenly jumping in pitch. Sayaka did really wish she was better in social situations, but...maybe the boy was right and she would get better, someday. What was the point of wishing for something to happen now if it would occur eventually, anyway? Hm...that was an interesting thought, and it was enough to calm her down, at least a little bit. There was still the matter of interacting with him further, sure, but she was beginning to get used to him and how he was.

An easygoing guy, and seemingly nice too, if his interactions with her were anything to go by. She thought she might get along well with this Lani person, even if she had blundered when meeting him by saying his name was pretty. Yeah...she was pretty sure that memory was going to stick into one of their minds. If not his, then at the very least it would stay in hers. "Eh...I dunno 'bout that. It's not like there's someone else in my head, it's just like..I don't know," Sayaka shrugged her shoulders.

It felt more like nothing, really. Just the same as when she had control; she didn't notice when she lost control. That was, perhaps, what scared her so much, that she couldn't tell if her power was under control or not. Sayaka frowned a little at that thought...yeah, it was certainly more than a little scary, for her. The girl listened to him speak again, and seemed to look a bit surprised at what he said. "Pit our powers against each other?" Sayaka questioned, wondering just how much control he had over his power.

As in, how precise it was. Her power could only influence the pull gravity had on an object. She could, if she wanted to, also influence the direction gravity was pulling from, but that took more effort from her. "Sure." for some reason, the young girl decided to agree, despite the fact that, again, she didn't really know much about basketball at all.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani grinned, this little girl was too adorable. She was definitely on his list of people to look out for. He was starting to get a rather long list. He might as well include most of the people he met into that list. He was glad he had met her, it was so much more fun having company than it was to just play alone. And since he was trying to get his mind off of the happenings of that hell he had put his best friend and girlfriend through he was trying to be better. Not be the person he saw in the mirror and it was easier for him to see that when he wasn’t constantly looking inward. Sayaka was so nervous but she was trying and that was something Lani had to say he was impressed with. Some people who weren’t good with social things could avoid them altogether but she had actually initiated this exchange.

If only she knew how not easygoing he was. He was a worrier but he was very glad that he didn’t come across as someone who was constantly paranoid about things. He was terrified something might happen and he was prepared for the worst. Even now, he was prepared for something to go wrong. It always did. He would love to have a time when nothing went wrong. Lani shook his head, “It’s hard to explain,” he suggested, “I know I don’t understand my power very well.” He was being honest. He kept hearing people tell him that his power was himself and he probably wouldn’t understand it until he understood himself but he was pretty sure he was far from there but he had basic control and they couldn’t keep him here forever.

Lani bounced the ball before he nodded. “Yeah,” he was glad she seemed to be interested in the game. At her acceptance Lani’s grin only grew. “First to ten?” He asked and tossed the ball over his shoulder into the court. “I’ll take that side,” He said pointing to the far side. So he needed to get the ball into that basket. “I guess it’ll be hard to determine dribbling rules so we can just forget those, but boundaries apply.” He nodded pointing to the lines. Lani turned to face the court so he was standing next to her then he folded his legs underneath himself getting comfortable on the gym floor. He leaned back on his hands a little and let the ball roll into the middle of the court.

“Ready?” He asked with a sly grin. To be fair Lani decided he needed to not actually grab the ball but knock it this way and that. He wasn’t really sure how well this was going to go. Eyes turning back to the court Lani tapped his fingers on the wood and the ball went shooting into the air initiating the game. Lani’s power knocked it to the side heading toward his basket sending it this way and that.

[Sayaka Ito]

Sayaka nodded a bit at what he said. That was the crux of it, wasn't it? None of them, not even the teachers and all of them, understood just what their powers were. Or rather, the origins of them, and wasn't that pretty key to understanding how to control something? The origins of it? Still, even in general she agreed with him, she didn't have much of an idea about her power either. Such as its limits, or just how stressed she had to be to have it go out of control.

She did not know a variety of things about it. Heck, for all she knew, right then, there was a poor kid out in the hallway just stuck to the ceiling, or stuck to the ground, due to the gravity around him/her being influenced. Sayaka nervously glanced towards the door from which she had entered, wondering if that was perhaps the case. But...no. If she went out right then just to check on that, she might appear crazy to Lani, and she certainly didn't want that. So she abstained, and instead looked to him again, a small smile on her face still. "Yeah...you're right. I don't think anyone here really understands, completely, their power," she said to him with confidence.

Then again, it wasn't as if she had seen a ton of people, so it was possible there was someone that understood it. In fact, given her experience, that was a likelihood. But she didn't care to point that out because it undermined what she had said, and what Lani had said. The chances of someone absolutely knowing their power and everything about it was entirely low, too low for Sayaka to think anyone here had achieved it. "Alright," she said with a nod of her head, moving to the court opposite of Lani.

Again, she was no expert of basketball, but she at least knew there were two opposing courts, and one was supposed to get their ball into the goal opposite of where they started from. In her case, that would be the goal that was on Lani's side of the court. Sayaka gave a glance to that goal, then took a seat upon the ground too, imitating Lani. It was just a moment before the ball was moving, due to Lani, and Sayaka concentrated on the moving ball.

But then an idea came to her. The gravity of the area the ball was heading towards suddenly was enhanced, and as soon as the ball entered the field, gravity pulled it towards the ground. He might have telekinesis, but kinesis was the key word there; such a thing was relatively useless with super gravity, or no gravity. Then, as the ball dropped towards the ground, she suddenly switched the gravity from super high to super low, causing the ball to suddenly go flying high up into the air, opposite of his goal, and towards her own.

[Lani Hunter]

It was a terrible situation. The whole thing. No one was sure if these powers were genetic or if they were simply random mutations. But then for so many people to have similar powers Lani was inclined to believe that genetics had something to do with it. The origin of the powers was lost in history and it seemed as if the population of meta humans had increased exponentially in the past several decades. Increasing over the baseline humans in some areas. Somehow the idea of having a growing population of people with meta powers made Lani nervous. Perhaps that meant that in the future people would not be able to survive the harsh environments of Earth without powers. It was an adaptation, but no one seemed to know why.

Contemplating powers was something Lani enjoyed. Ever since reading a paper written on powers but Willow he had been more and more interested in the origins and in the why. What could possibly be going on in nature that would create a mass adaptation and mutation for the survival. But then, perhaps that was saying too much. Perhaps their mutations were no perfect. Certainly the side effects like blinding headaches were no good. Perhaps they were diseases caused by a virus and while the benefit was great, sometimes, the virus eventually took hold like the parasite it was and wore the host down to nothing. Lani was lost in his own thoughts that he nodded numbly in agreement. “I don’t think there is anyone anywhere that really understands.”

Lani grinned calling his distracted mind back to the present and his power took a sharp focus. He wasn’t going to lose. He watched as she got settled and his mind was working out a million scenarios. He could always move it one way or another. He didn’t know whether her power depended on the position the ball or the ball itself. Perhaps he could knock it out of her grip. His hands twitched wanting to play but his power was the one in command now. The ball started moving and Lani was no longer aware of his body he was only aware of things and he stayed rigid still watching the ball with his eyes and his concentration was fully on the ball. This was a sad truth but it was hard to ask a telekinetic to multitask when using their power. Lani was getting better but he was still working on not getting stuck standing in one spot when he used his power.

Tossing the ball toward the basket Lani’s power dominated, or so he thought. His power hit the ball straight forward and there were tendrils of it that were looking for changes in forces. Chances in anything. Lani carried the ball across the line and his eyes widened a little he hadn’t expected that. The ball suddenly became several times heavier and Lani was having a hard time keeping it in his mental hands and airborne. Lani struggled against the downward force and when she abruptly changed the gravity his power sling-shot it upward and lost hold of it. But Lani wasn’t out yet. He waited until she was close and his power gathered and he felt a little twinge in his mind of the growing headache but he ignored it.

Lani’s power was like a raging dragon and now it wasn’t going to underestimate the opponent. It crossed toward the basket and the ball met a rather physical wall and with a strong push emphasized slightly by Lani jutting his hands forward the ball rocketed back the other way. She was strong. Lani grinned. But so was he. He tried a new tactic now that he was in possession. Perhaps she couldn’t grab it if it changed direction and so Lani’s power took the form of a million rivers and the ball bounced this way and that like a ping pong ball and even doubled back on itself to keep her on her toes. He leaned forward as he neared his basket and he took a last shot toward it.