Awakened (open)

[Sayaka Ito]

The ball, as expected, went flying. Though Sayaka hadn't really been sure what might happen when she just switched gravity suddenly like that, especially when he still seemed to be telepathically moving the ball, but it all seemed to work out well. Sayaka kept her eyes glued to the ball, closing off her attention to everything else. The only thing she needed to focus on was the ball and two goals. Her own, and Lani's. Nothing else existed for Sayaka then, those three things were the only things that deserved her attention right at that specific moment.

Interesting..it seemed to have met a rather physical wall when it flew toward the goal she needed to get it in. Likely due to Lani, though she coudn't be sure as she wasn't focusing on him then. The ball then shot away from the goal she was aiming for and towards the goal Lani needed. Interestingly, it seemed to be moving around randomly, almost as if trying to confuse her. But she didn't need to influence the pull of gravity on the ball itself. Had she not just demonstrated that by changing the gravity of an area itself? So it was that this happened again.

The entire area of the goal the ball was headed for was suddenly covered by a field that made gravity lighter. Interestingly, if the ball got caught in this field, this would have the effect of pushing it upwards, and if Lani somehow lost control of it, it bouncing off the backboard and away from his goal.

Of course, if he tried to force it down the gravity field, he might find some success, as Sayaka was beginning to feel very...weak all of a sudden. As a result of extensively using her powers. She frowned and concentrated more. The gravity field expanded, and pushed the ball away even more. That was the best she could do, for then.

[Lani Hunter]

Perhaps they should have made it the first person to score at all. This was a lot harder than Lani had anticipated. He had to admit that he had underestimated Sayaka and he had put too much confidence in his own power. That wouldn’t happen again. Lani smiled this was an unanticipated challenge and he was determined to come out the victor. He wiped at the sweat that was starting to form on his brow and worked on getting the ball to his side and into his basket. He was focused and had a single minded mission to win. The world fell away from his awareness and there was the dull thought that he was going to be sore come the conclusion of this game.

He opened his eyes and looked at Sayaka for a moment waiting to see what her move would be. He was prepared for her to change the gravity which was why he was focusing on moving it horizontally and ignoring the changes in the vertical. The proved to be harder than it seemed. If it fell or shot upward he had to get a grip back on it. It did seem that horizontal motion was going to be Lani’s advantage and vertical hers. Lani started to move his hands moving them with the ball’s motion like a conductor. She was strong and Lani was smiling, he had indeed picked a wonderful opponent. Ignoring the growing pain in his head Lani worked on getting the ball close to his side.

He stumbled mentally but caught a hold of the ball after the blip. The gravity had lessened. Lani was so close. He leaned forward as he pushed the ball toward the basket and it jerked upward and bounced off the backboard and in the opposite direction. “Ha!” Lani cried in excited shock. That was clever. But Lani was quick to react. He knocked it back down with all of the strength and his head pounded in protest. The ball dropped like a stone and Lani knocked it back toward his basket. He was going to get this point.

He fought mental tooth and nail and with a last push and then suddenly the force opposing him let off a bit and he was able to push the ball through the basket. He threw his hands up in triumph. Lani-1, Sayaka-0. Only 9 more points. He wasn’t sure he could pull that off. He really wasn’t sure he could pull off anything of that again. Now that he had let up with his power he had to squeeze his eyes shut against the pain. Lani watched the ball and his power fumbled to get control of it again but it slipped through his tired mental hands. He needed to pull away and regroup.

[Sayaka Ito]

Sayaka also noticed that little progress seemed to be being made on actually getting the ball into one of the goals. The young girl could even see that it would be impossible to score to 10, as by the time they were even halfway there, they'd be exhausted. Truth be told, she was getting just a bit exhausted herself, but that did not mean she was going to just up and give up.

No, not in the slightest did it mean that; she was going to keep trying to stop him from scoring a point. And so the gravity field around the goal stayed, though as time wore on, weaknesses began to show up in it, and before too long, he actually managed to use his abilities to push the ball through the goal. Grumbling, a bit disappointed, Sayaka let the gravity field drop before she rubbed her head. The girl felt sore all over, as if someone had taken a battering ram to her. It certainly didn't help that she was just plain physically weak in general, even when she was not using her powers.

They just amplified the whole thing, and made it difficult for her to concentrate. "...I don't think I can even keep going," Sayaka spoke up, a frown on her face. The girl, despite having a lot of power in her ability, couldn't really keep it going for long, not when you considered the extreme downsides that it had. It just made her too tired to be willing to use it for something as simple as a game of basketball. No, she would have to, unfortunately, throw in the towel and give the win to Lani.

Unfortunate...she had been wanting to at least score a point too, to prove she could at least do that, but she couldn't. With a sigh, the girl sat there, taking a few breaths before she attempted to stand up. Even that took a lot of effort, and before she knew it, she was back on the ground again, her legs having failed her. Perfect...she ahd used her power so much that her body was too weak to even stand. "...'Sides, I don't think using my power more, right now, would be a good idea." she pointed out, a bit embarrassed. He had, after all, just seen the huge downside to her power. The severe degeneration of her muscles for a brief period of time.

[Lani Hunter]

Stubbornness was what got that ball into the net. Lani was regretting using his power like that for it felt like someone was taking an ax to his head. Lani became suddenly aware of his body and the stiffness in his muscles. It was nothing but unpleasant. He winced a little as he unfolded himself and stretched out his limbs. The ball dropped out from under Lani's power and Lani let it fall to the ground and was sorely tempted to keep it from bounce for every slap on the wood sent a stab of agony through his mind. Extending his arms above his head he felt terribly sleepy, he wasn't sure if that was because of the energy he used or if the only thing he wanted to do with his head feeling like this was sleep.

Lani turned his head to Sayaka and he wondered if she was feeling as terrible as he was. He didn't let the pain show on his face, he had an inexplicable need to be strong. He couldn't show weakness. Perhaps that was because when weakness was shown people tended to take advantage of that. But Sayaka didn't look to be doing so well either. She rubbed her head and Lani's brow came together in sympathy. His skull felt like it was about to burst and Lani really just wanted to remove his head at this point. His hands were shaking a little as they reached the pills he normally had in his pocket. He groaned a little, he was wearing shorts without pockets, the pills were in his bag. Which was far away.

Lani barely covered the relief on his face when she admitted to not being able to keep going. He flopped back on his back and covered his eyes with his arms before letting out a light laugh. "Oh good, because I don't think I can either." Lani stretched out on his back like a cat and let the tension in his muscles be stretched away. It was too bad that his mind couldn't be stretched. But it could be worked. And it would get stronger every time he used it. His power was like a muscle, he was pretty sure it had its limit but the more he worked with it the more he was able to do and the longer he was able to sustain. "How's your head?" He asked. Really his bag wasn't too far away but he didn't want to use his power he was pretty sure that would make him pass out. So getting his bag would require movement and at the moment he was rather comfortable on the ground.

Lani felt her try to stand but didn't think too much of it at least until she fell back down. Lani sat up to fast in his attempt to catch her. His hands closed on her arms gently but he didn't do much more than slow the inevitable collision with the ground. Lani blinked several times as the world spun around him. Oh this was not good. "Are you ok?" He asked his eyes narrowing and widening in concern as he attempted to focus on her but there seemed to be several of her for a few moments. "No, I think that would just be asking for trouble." He smiled as she came into focus and his head punished him with a wave of pain. "That was a good game," he told her letting go of her arm and letting himself fall back again. "You're very strong and that power of yours is certainly something to be reckoned with. You're amazing, Sayaka," he extended his hand to give her a high-five. Lani had worked his power with another telekinetic before but he was stronger than the man and control was what had made him lose. He had worked with Odion who worked both with and against his power with his time control. But he had never worked against gravity, or at least someone changing gravity. It was powerful and he had underestimated her.

[Sayaka Ito]

Sayaka closed her eyes, trying to stave off the weakness she was feeling. Of course it would pass eventually, and of course her concentrating on it didn't actually make it go by any faster, but hey, she could always imagine that it did, and that brought some small comfort to her. So she kept her eyes closed. Besides that, it also helped her to not get any headaches, either. While the side effects didn't directly produce a headache, they did indirectly make one. After all, she just got generally weakened after using her powers, so of course she'd be more vulnerable to things like lights, which had a tendency to cause headaches when you were susceptible to them.

Slowly, very slowly, she felt her weakness subsiding. It was still there, of course, but she felt she was good enough to open her eyes, so she did so. "Yes...I think I'm fine. At least as much as I can be after all that," Sayaka said, offering him a little smile, even though she wasn't confident that this was the truth. That she really was completely and utterly fine. But really, there was no reason to trouble him. Hadn't she already done that enough anyway, just by interrupting the practice he had been doing? Yes, she definitely had. Sayaka looked up at him as he said she was amazing, and shook her head a little, a small little frown on her face now.

"No...I don't think I'm that amazing. You're more amazing Lani! I mean...you can just move the ball wherever. It's more tough for me to move it left and right without it already going in one of those directions." Sayaka spoke up. She could influence the direction of gravity to an extent, but not well enough that she'd consider it easy.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani peeked at her from under his arm, he shouldn’t have suggested this. Neither of them were doing well at the moment. He really needed to find a solid limit so when he crossed that line he would know to stop. At the moment he was just shooting in the dark with his power training and hoping that he hit something that stuck. He had been working on connecting with his power more but every time he did so he was forced to look at himself and he didn’t always like what he saw. He also needed to be alone for there was no telling what his discoveries would cast his power into doing. It was too dangerous. He should have had the foresight to know that this was too dangerous as well. Oh well, what was done was done. But he should make sure that she got to the infirmary.

Looking at her with thinly veiled skepticism Lani decided to let it go. “Good,” he said with a smile, “I’m sorry, I should have thought that over a little better.” Her smile encouraged him. Well, lesson learned he wouldn’t push her into anything like this again. No if he met with her again they were going to do something very relaxing. “But if you feel like you need to get some help just let me know.” He would move to help her but at the moment he was in a very close relationship with the floor and didn’t intend to be broken up anytime soon. His heart twinged a little. He still couldn’t believe that he and Adrianna were falling apart. This just weren’t the same since they had gotten back. He didn’t think they would ever be the same. She had seen his real face and if that didn’t terrify her it terrified him.

A smile flashed across his face and he propped himself up on his elbows. “Precisely why that was so amazing. I mean how hard is it for a telekinetic to toss a ball around? But you were able to keep up with a power that primarily controls the vertical.” Lani shook his head slowly careful not to jostle it. “Think about it, Sayaka. You almost bested someone older than you with a more diverse power.” Lani chuckled and his smile grew and he repeated, “Almost.” He gave her a wink. Sayaka would be alright here. He could tell. She was sweet and she was young. Who was young and not socially awkward? She could excel. He could tell. She would excel.

He reached out and ruffled her hair. “Don’t sell yourself short.” With that advice Lani decided he had been sitting up on his elbows too long and he slid back to the ground. He laughed a little bit. Look at him. Plastered to the ground. His power hadn’t done this to him in a while. It was hard working against someone’s power. It had been hard every time he had tried and Lani was just the kind of person to keep trying even though it hurt and probably was foolish to push his power to this limit. Oh well, if he was going to die he figured getting backlashed by his power was one of the better ways. All things considered with Lani’s track record that would be the easiest way to go. He bit his tongue. He shouldn’t think about such things.

[Sayaka Ito]

...This Lani guy really seemed to be apologetic, despite the fact that it was really both their faults. Sure, he had suggested it, but she had been the one to go along with it, so didn't that mean she was responsible for all that had happened as well? Of course that was what it meant! What else could it mean? At least, that was how the young girl say it. Still, she simply said nothing for the moment as she tried to gather her energy. Soon enough they'd probably have to leave the gym. She had no idea when gym class was, after all. It was different for different students. Did classes even run right then?

Again, something she was unsure of, but that was likely due to the lack of energy running through her. WEre she more coherent she'd probably be able to remember the facts of the matter. "No...it's my fault too. I mean...I went along with it, right?" Sayaka spoke up, a tired smile on her face. She felt she had to at least point that much out to him, so that he didn't like...go and apologize again or something silly like that. Why he would was beyond her, but hey. He really seemed like the type to apologize for no reason, so why not cut it off preemptively? She frowned, just a little, when he mentioned something about help. How would he be able to help her...?

And then she remembered what had just happened. Her trying to stand up and just falling flat on her butt. That must have been what he meant. So she just nodded her head a little, trying not to show she was as tired as she felt. Of course, Sayaka had no idea if she was successful at that. "I don't think it's impressive still though...I mean, gravity is kind of powerful, enough to override versatility. Doesn't matter if you can go any direction when gravity keeps pulling ya down," Sayaka observed, a thoughtful look on her face. She did like being praised, yes. It was nicer than being teased for her ability, but...then again, she was a bit humble. She wasn't about to just go and boast about her ability, no matter how good he thought it was.

It was then that he ruffled her hair, a bright blush formed on her face. Of course, it was mostly from him treating her like a kid. As well as the fact that she wasn't used to social interactions. Before she could object, he made some comment (that she couldn't make out), and then got promptly plastered to the ground. "L-Lani? Are you okay?"

He looked like he was dead.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani saw it as his responsibility to take the blame here. He had suggested it but then he had also thought he knew what was going to happen. Well, when one erred it was only right to admit it and apologize. At least that was the case when he got caught. But he never got caught and this wasn’t some sort of heist. This was a game. They had both been foolish enough to think it was a good idea. But that didn’t mean that the person who created the idea wasn’t at blame. But there was blame to share she was right about that. Was Lani going to let that stop him from apologizing, not likely. Logical and Lani didn’t tend to go together very well. He was a philosopher stuck in the mind of a scientist. He didn’t accept logic until he tried it himself.

Sayaka started to take her part of the responsibility and Lani smiled warmly at her. Yes, she would do well here. There was no concern on Lani’s part about her ability to adjust. She might need a little more backbone to stand up for herself but as far as responsibility she was set. Lani’s smile turned sly and his face took on an impish appearance. “I suppose you could say that. But what is fault in all of this? So we’re both foolish, but I guess that means that we can at least be foolish together.” His smile tipped up higher on one side and he looked back at the basketball. He had a tendency to look like he was planning something at all times. Sometimes he was. Sometimes he wasn’t. One could never be sure.

Lani frowned at her as his eyes turned back on her and he looked into her eyes. He shifted so that he could look at her full on as he tried to understand what she was saying. It seemed like she understood the power that she held but didn’t see how it could be useful. Telekinesis was easy. It was useful in a full array of different areas. He could do almost anything with his power, except touch living thing. That was kind of annoying. “Gravity isn’t just kind of powerful. It’s the reason we aren’t all flying off into space right now.” Lani told her and he chucked a little at her coloring. “You’ll figure out something amazing to do with your power. Just give it time. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

“Hmm?” Lani mumbled. He peaked at her through one eyelid and his smile flashed briefly across his face. It was getting easier to smile. “Yeah, I’ll be fine, just tired.” He nodded as if to encourage the truth of what he was saying. “I haven’t had to work that hard in a while.” He said with a sly smile. Last time had been with Odion and he still wasn’t completely convinced that Odion was safe around his power.

[Sayaka Ito]

Lani was a very strange person, that was becoming so abundantly clear to Sayaka. Not strange in a bad way, but...not in a good way either, she had to admit. A neutral way, she supposed. It was just strange, the way he looked at things. "I...guess," Sayaka replied, a frown on her face. She couldn't really tell where he was going with that. And then she noticed him looking at the basketball again. Was he planning on trying it again?

Yeah no, she had been serious before, she couldn't take any more exertion than she had already done. He'd just have to deal with it and practice his telekinesis by himself. But...a small part of her worried. What if he tired himself out so much that he hurt himself? In all likelihood just that one, small part of her would have kept her there, had he chosen to do anything else with the basketball. Thankfully, it would seem he didn't. As much as she wanted to breath a sigh of relief, she didn't, because that would be cluing him in to the fact that she had thought he was going to try something stupid.

He spoke to her again, and this time, what he had to say was actually pretty smart. She guessed he had a point, that her powers wouldn't develop into something super incredible overnight, but...still, that would be nice. To suddenly just have control over her power instead of the loose control she had right then. "I guess...but still, it'd be nice, you know? To not have to worry constantly about keeping it under control," she elaborated. Still, in the end, she did have to admit that Lani was right here.

"So...you've done stuff like this before?" she asked, referring to his last comment. If he hadn't done this in a while, that meant he had to have tested his powers against someone else, at one point.

[Lani Hunter]

Well, it wouldn’t be the first time Lani had been called strange. It was probably something that occurred more than he liked to admit, even if people didn’t say such a thing aloud. It wasn’t something that Lani found insulting in the least. If one wasn’t going to be normal anyways they should try to go for the next extreme. Lani usually just thought about it that he didn’t think like most people did. He had a dangerous mix of an endless curiosity and the inability to take answers on face value. Lani glanced at her and smile giving her a nod. He chuckled a little. “Good thing foolishness isn’t a crime.” Lani’s smile twisted up, well not that he had much to worry about he had kept off the law for years.

No, Lani was not thinking about moving the ball. He might not be the brightest blub in the bunch but he wasn’t that dumb. He knew when enough was enough, his problem was making himself stop when he reached that point. But once he had stopped he was done. Though if need be he would move the ball again but he wasn’t looking forward to something like that. Lani felt weariness start to seep over him and he slowly made himself sit up. If not he was going to fall asleep right here on the floor. He crossed his legs under himself and leaned back on his hands. What an interesting day. There was a ghost of a smile on his face and though his face seemed to have drained a little he was still very much awake and aware.

Lani’s eyes turned to Sayaka and he considered her for a moment. She was smart, he could see that. Lani chuckled a little and looked at his feet for a moment before looking back up and making a nod out of the momentum. “Yeah, I think we all wish that.” He looked up at the rafters and sighed a little. He remembered the day he had gotten his power, it was burned like a wound in his mind. And his mind was still recovering from the overload it seemed. But even now he was able to feel the mental wounds healing and the power growing stronger again. He knew the headaches would never stop but now he could do more with less pain. “That’s why we’re here. If it was easy places like Hammel wouldn’t exist. I just can’t imagine being the first telekinetic or the first meta anything. You’d have to figure it all out on your own.”

“Once or twice.” He said, “I have a friend that I train with. He’s got time control so if something goes wrong he can just make it all stop.” He smiled as the redhead came to mind. He had also battled another telekinetic that had been interesting. “I’m sure you’ll do stuff like this a lot more in the years to come. Have you had much training since you came?” Sayaka was impressive, she had only had her power for a short time and if that was how she handled she would be excelling in training in no time. But there was always something new to learn. That was why there were trainers. There was always something that needed to be perfected.

[Sayaka Ito]

"In some parts of the world it very well might be," Sayaka idly said, though it was more out of thoughtfulness more than anything else. She didn't really intend to have a serious conversation about it, at all. Sayaka wondered if there was some part of the world like that, though...if they were, the people there had to be very sad. It was an interesting thought, but really not one worth pursuing, at least at first glance. After all, discrimination against foolish people could be easy to compare to discrimination against people like her, those with powers. Sure, the United States didn't allow such things, but then again, the US did not allow many a great things, so there was that too.

Sayaka KNEW there had to be countries out there that were less than enthusiastic about people like her, that they had to have some sort of law discriminating against hose of her kind. And that too made her sad as she thought about it. It was odd, where her mind went at times, but she couldn't help it when Lani was talking about powers a lot. It was natural to think about those with powers in other countries then, wasn't it? Lani spoke again, and what he said...it really made sense to her, this time.

The girl nodded her head. "True...I mean, if we could control it just fine without training, we wouldn't even need schools like Hammel," she spoke up. Maybe that would have been for the best...just like at her old school, she was kind of awkward here, as well, or so she felt. Then again...it was nice, meeting all these new people, people who were willing to understand her. Had there never been a Hammel, she doubted it would have been so easy to find someone like her, someone with powers. "Hm?" she spoke up again, having been lost in her thoughts.

What had he asked? Something about training...? "No...no, I haven't gotten much. Haven't been here that long," was her, in her opinion, pretty poor explanation. After all, it didn't matter how long one had been somewhere if they had been doing intensive training since the day they had arrived. But she hadn't. The power she had scared her sometimes, though she was NOT going to just tell Lani that. "This guy...think I could meet him, someday? Time sounds like somethin' interesting to control." the girl spoke up once more, a curious sort of look on her face.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani looked at her startled for a moment then his smile turned to a frown and he looked off into space. It was a terrible thing but Sayaka had a point. He closed his eyes and cursed the universe again for all of its wrongdoings. He wasn’t sure when he had started to make a deity of the universe but it seemed far more detached from the world and easier to think of than a god. His parents would be severely disappointed if they knew he had lost his religion, but he didn’t see how a benevolent god could let things like his sister’s illness happen. “That would be a terrible place,” he said nodding a little in agreement the joking tone in his voice gone. This was a heavy topic and Lani’s mind ran away with it. A country where foolishness was a punishable crime. He would be in jail a thousand times over. But truly sometimes foolishness was also punished in the United States, mostly where a life had been taken unintentionally. Were the people to blame innocent? No, but they weren’t malicious, not always at least.

Discrimination was just a fancy name for bullying. Lani never really thought much about what he said or what he thought so it sometimes surprised him when people got offended when he said something to them. There was so much focus on political correctness that having a conversation was like walking on eggshells. But it was a necessity, Lani liked it, it made people think before they spoke, and even though he was guilty of not doing so, he believed that there were too many people on this planet who did what people told them without question who believed someone else’s view and told it as their own. Those people were puppets and Lani had been a puppet before and he wouldn’t go back there.

Lani turned his eyes to her as she spoke and it took him a moment to rewind his thoughts to what the actual conversation had been about. One thing about agony on the brain and a tired power was his mind could wander and he didn’t have to worry about things going flying. He nodded and then cocked his head to the side. “Or maybe we would,” he said thoughtfully his mind jumping back to his previous thoughts. “Some people have narrow minds and people like us scare them. Maybe having us all in one place makes them feel safe.” He sighed as the realization of that hit him. That was a sad thought. He unfolded his legs as they started go numb and he circled his arms around his knees. But Lani didn’t want to scare people, he wanted them to feel safe around him. Lani just smiled at her as she missed what he said. They were birds of a feather getting lost in their thoughts like that.

That made sense. If she hadn’t been here long she wouldn’t have been practicing long. He nodded, “That makes sense,” he laughed at himself and tapped himself in the side of the head to emphasize his forgetful mind. Lani was of the opinion that everyone was like him and had a poor opinion of the trainers and sometimes had to remind himself that that wasn’t right. Lani could empathize, he was the last person who would admit that his power scared him. He would be more determined to show that he could control it when really the prime motivator was the fear that people would fear him for what he could do. He didn’t fear the power for himself he feared it for other people. Lani laughed a little. “I’m sure you will eventually.” Lani only hoped when she did Odion was in a friendly mood. “It’s very interesting,” Lani nodded, “He’s really good at it too, but don’t tell him I said that.” He winked at her. “Do you miss your old friends much?” He asked because he did sometimes. But they had dropped him like a stone and he couldn’t help but do the same to them.

[Sayaka Ito]

"Yeah," Sayaka agreed with a small little nod of her head. A place where being a fool could land you into trouble...she certainly would not want to live there, not at all. After all, everyone had to deal with being a fool at some point in their life, right? So what would be the point of locking up fools if at one point you were just like them? That was how Sayaka looked at it, anyway, and she might be wrong, she might be right. Either way she just knew that a country like that would not be a very fun place to live at all. Nor a very fair place, either, as what constituted a person being a fool varied from person to person.

Sayaka just didn't see how it could work well at all, and apparently, Lani agreed with her about that much, at the least. Sayaka was glad to abandon that line of thinking, though...Lani sure seemed to be on a negative streak that day, considering the next thing that he said involved schools like Hammel. What he said worried her. It worried her a LOT, in fact. Because people really were like that, they were afraid of things that they didn't understand.

They just wanted to get rid of those things most of the time, even if those things were completely and utterly harmless. That was why she looked quite depressed as he spoke about this, though she did agree with him. "That's...so cynical," she couldn't help but say with a sigh, even if it were the whole truth. Because she had observed it, people acting like that just because of the fact that others were different. Heck, even the people at her old school had treated her a bit different when her powers began to manifest. Of course they had treated her completely different after that whole incident with Ellie.

And, unintentionally, Lani just had to stumble upon yet another thing to make her a bit sad. He just did not seem to be having that much luck today at cheering her up. "A little. But...I don't think they miss me, not after what I did..." the girl trailed off, a deeply troubled look on her face. Sayaka wasn't sure what she should do...tell Lani about what had happened or don't? On one hand, he was a nice guy and seemed like he would care. But on the other hand, it was rather personal, and she wasn't sure she'd be comfortable with just sharing it like that.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani rested his head in his hands and gazed off across the court. This had digressed quickly from a joking quip to a legitimately troubling thought. Lani chewed the inside of his cheek as his thoughts wandered and a light hum bubbled from his throat as he got lost in his thoughts. It was a tell that he had gotten lost to the world but Lani didn’t even know he did it. Well, either way Lani could see the right to be foolish was something that people needed because everyone screwed up at some point or another because of a stupid mistake. Punishing people for foolishness didn’t do anything more than crush spirits and create a population or robots.

Lani wasn’t thinking, normally he wouldn’t engage in such a discussion with someone so young. Somehow he had forgotten how young she was, she spoke so intelligently. He blinked himself out of his trance and the humming ceased. He winced a little as he looked at her. “I guess it is,” he shook his head, “But hey it’s not as dark as it seems. People everyday are becoming more accepting of the whole thing. I don’t know, I think that people might be on the way of appreciating us even though there may be that fear. There’s always going to be that. At least for people who don’t get a chance to know us.” He nodded to himself and smiled at her. “I mean knowing you now I couldn’t see you using your power to hurt anyone. But sometimes people see our powers and forget that we are just people too.”

Sayaka seemed to have taken what he had said rather hard. It was like when he pointed out that he and Shapiro needed to be careful. He didn’t think she would take it so hard but it seemed to have really hit home coming from him. Speaking of that girl, he hadn’t seen her in a while he was going to have to hunt her down. Also speaking of foolishness Lani seemed to have failed yet again to get her to smile. Lani opened his mouth a little as if he could swallow the words back and pretend he had never said anything about old friends. It was easier for someone who was as independent as Lani was who had only had surface friends to begin with to forget about old friends and move on. As much as he missed them, he knew they would still be there if he sent a text or something.

But this was different, she was young, she needed friends and people she could count on or she was going to end up bitter and angry. Lani looked at her trying to catch her eye so that she could see the encouraging smile he had. “You don’t know that. It was an accident. You can’t blame yourself for something you did when your power manifested.” Lani felt the words like acid on his tongue; he really was hypocritical wasn’t he? He still blamed himself but he had just stopped dwelling on it. Move forward. As curious as Lani was about what happened he wouldn’t pressure her into telling him. He might break under the mystery and look it up in her file but he wasn’t going to let her know he was thinking about doing so. “Hey, just think of it this way,” Lani suggested putting a hand on her shoulder, “We’ve all been there at some point or another. And new friends can be fun to make.” He removed his hand and grinned at her.

[Sayaka Ito]

Was he...humming? Honestly Sayaka couldn't tell why he would be. But yes, that was definitely humming going on, and she had to wonder just why he was doing it. After all, the topic they were talking about was rather depressing, to say the least. Not something that was fun to talk about. And humming was usually reserved for when you were feeling cheerful and happy. Was he, then, lost in his thoughts? Hm, definitely a possibility, though she failed to see just what he might be thinking about.

Of course, considering she didn't know him too too well, that was to be expected. As for what he said a little while after...well, she guessed that was true. But still, the fact remained that, at the moment, a lot of the people of the world didn't really trust people like her. And still she thought they didn't have bad reasons for doing so, even if that prejudice had been what had caused her to freak out so much when her powers had first awakened, anyway. After all, people with powers like hers?

There was no telling what kind of potential she had. No telling what could result from just changing gravity willy nilly. Who knew? It might build up over the years and she might cause minute changes in the Earth's orbit, to the point that the Earth wasn't habitable anymore. Or to the point that the Earth was just hurled straight into the sun. Both scary possibilities. "I guess, but...it's still scary," was all she had to say on the matter, a frown on her face still.

At the least though, it didn't seem to be as permanent a frown as before. No, it seemed more like a temporary thing, than anything else. Sayaka didn't even mind it when he began to speak again, nor did she mind it when he put a hand on her shoulder. It made her feel...happy? Yes. He was a friend and he was willing to advice her. "I...suppose. But it's nice to still have your old friends. And...I hurt them." okay, that was a lie. She had hurt ONE of them, but still, the result had been the same, pretty much.