Awakened (open)

[Sayaka Ito]

Sayaka wondered how long the two of them had been sitting there for, how long they had been talking to one another. Even a half hour would surprise her, considering the fact that usually she did not talk all that much. And yet, at the very same time, she would be surprised if she hadn't spent a long amount of time talking, considering just what Lani was like.

There was something likable about the boy that made it so that she wanted to continue the conversation with him, rather than to just let it stagnate like how she would have before coming to Hammel. Maybe he would even be able to imprint upon her the importance of speaking one's mind! "You messed that up completely," she pointed out, frowning a little in confusion. Of course, considering how, well, intelligent he seemed? She had to suspect something was up, that he had purposely messed it up for whatever odd reason.

Hm...she couldn't really put her finger on just why it was he'd do something like that, however. Oh well...eventually she was sure that she'd find out why he had chosen to mess it up like that. The girl's frown quickly turned into a nervous smile, a blush on her face. She wasn't really used to being touched, and yet all he was doing was doing it to help keep her...calm, she guessed. Or to comfort her, the latter was more likely, she felt.

"Huh?" she said at the end of what he said. It seemed so abrupt for him to suddenly say that when he had just been insisting that mistakes were lessons and that people should face those lessons to change. "I dunno? All I know is that I'm not gonna give up."

[Lani Hunter]

Lani had a very bad sense of time. He didn’t get lost in it but he had a tendency to forget that it was moving as fast as it was. It really was unfair how time seemed to change. When he was in class or doing something mundane the time just crawled by. But when he was with someone and having fun it flew faster than he wanted it to. He was really too tired to care. Having neglected to get medicine half of his mind was focused on ignoring the pain inside of his head. Periodically it stabbed him. But he was used to it; he had just over done it a bit today. Really with his headache time was the last thing on his mind. He didn’t have anything to do so why be in a rush anywhere?

Lani chuckled a little at her expression and he winked at her. “Of course I did,” he said. Half the time Lani was wondering when people would finally get sick of his cryptic tricks and hit him. He wasn’t going to explain himself either, it was far too much fun to keep people guessing. And really this wasn’t something major. Pranks were supposed to be fun, playful. Someone getting hurt in the process ruined the whole thing. At least in Lani’s opinion, and if someone was really upset, well Lani was more into the idea that they didn’t have enough of a backbone. Lani wasn’t one that ever wanted to be called mean. Sure he knew that there were people that didn’t like him but that would never be because he went out of his way to be unkind to said person. Well, there were exceptions to every rule.

It was Lani’s fault, he was used to talking to people based on how they spoke back, he started to forget that Sayaka was several years younger than he was. But he hoped that at least some of what he was saying was getting through and possibly helping her, if not right now perhaps in the future. Lani released her with a squeeze and rose to his feet. He swayed a little bit as his head protested the sudden change in altitude. He turned back to her and smiled. How could he ever have thought of leaving? All of the people that he wouldn’t have met and all of the joys he would have been denied through his own stubbornness.

“That’s what I like to hear,” he said with a bright smile and offered her his hand. “How’re you feeling?” He wondered if her power attacked her head or her stomach like Odion. Or something else altogether?

[Sayaka Ito]

Of course he did...? Once more the little girl wondered why he messed it up, then. It wasn't truly important, just something she was curious about, and yet was it really worth it to ask him? Besides that, if he truly wanted her to know, he would have given a reason already, and yet he hadn't.

She peered at him for several seconds before letting out a small little sigh. "Even if I asked I bet you wouldn't tell me, huh?" was what she asked of him instead, a small smile on her face. Lani did seem the type that was capable of being really secretive if he wanted to be, even though he was being rather open and nice to her. She was glad she had taken the risk of greeting another person, even if it had been in the manner of playing a small little joke on him.

Sayaka had never thought that she'd be able to make a friend in such a short span of time, and yet here that friend was. She had thought others might look down on her because of her young age, but no. If anything, Lani seemed to want to protect and help her. The girl also noticed the swaying that occurred with him when he stood up, and looked just a bit worried. What if he fell over and hurt himself? Or what if he fell over onto her? Thankfully, neither of those two things happened, even though they could have. "Huh? Well....better, I think. That was pretty intense," she said to him, hesitating for just a moment before taking his hand and allowing him to help her up. Like him, she swayed for a little bit, and had to close her eyes briefly, before she regained her center of balance.

"Thanks, Lani."

[Lani Hunter]

The look of confusion on her face pulled a laugh out of Lani’s throat. His straight face broke into a smile as a laugh exploded from him. He really wasn’t making sense and now he was just rolling with it. Everything Lani said no matter how hand wavy it was had some sort of logical backing to it. Be it a logical backing that took a lot of circular reasoning. But that didn’t hold that he was never wrong. In fact he was starting to learn that there were a great many things that he was wrong about. It seemed that the more he learned about the world and about himself the less certain he was becoming. That was all part of life. Everyone reached it at different points in life but there was a strong sense for teenagers to have the illusion that they knew everything. Lani was by no means past that, but he was starting to realize that everything was a whole lot of things to know about.

“The world is full of surprises,” Lani replied with a smile. He let the words resonate for a little while then laughed a little. “But yeah, you’re right I probably wouldn’t.” He gave her a big grin and his shoulders shook as laugh. Lani didn’t count this as being evasive, after all he was being up front about not telling her right? Lani was starting too really like Sayaka. She was precious, and adorable. She still had a lot to learn but she was on her way to being a strong woman. Lani was sure that the shyness would fade as she made more friends and a backbone, well she already had a pretty sturdy one of those. Also she was a kind person. She wasn’t one to gain her strength from putting others down. Lani could almost see her being one of those people that gained their strength from helping other succeed.

Lani wasn’t nearly as concerned about his own swaying as she was. He liked to think that he knew himself well enough to know when he could and couldn’t stand up without falling. But that was also a far cry from when he abandoned all logic and decided to stand up anyways. How many times had he worn himself to the bone doing far too much and forgetting about himself. No he never forgot to eat or drink but problem wise he liked having other people’s problems over his own. When he wasn’t thinking about his own problems he was good and everything was smooth sailing. Lani didn’t like attention on himself, he liked the shadows. “Good,” he smiled at her and put his other hand gently on her shoulder to help her catch her balance. “That was intense,” he agreed, “We should do it again sometime.”

Lani just smiled at her thanks. He shrugged as if to say it was nothing. “Are you hungry Sayaka?” He asked instead of saying anything on the subject of thanks. Lani didn’t require thanks, he liked to help people and he had gained a new friend out of it that was all worth it.

[Sayaka Ito]

...Strange guy. Not that there was anything bad with being strange, of course. She was, after all, a bit strange herself by most anyone's standards. Especially considering her young age and the strong power she possessed, anyone might think she was a little weird, especially considering how skittish she could be around people.

Still, even she didn't just laugh out of nowhere like this. Okay sure, it wasn't completely out of nowhere, but the fact was that he was laughing over something that wasn't too funny at all, at least in her eyes. She just stared at him as he laughed, clearly more confused than she had been before. "Well I guess it is, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to predict some things," Sayaka agreed with a smile, glad that he wasn't laughing like that anymore.

Because again, it wasn't really all that funny, and she didn't want to think that Lani had a very poor sense of humor. Enough to be laughing at something not funny. Still, she could at least say he had plenty of energy, heck, he had just laughed once more too, seemingly finding this line of speaking funny for whatever reason. She wondered why that was. "And...yeah it was intense. But I think it was good...I've heard that it's like a muscle, y'know? That you just gotta train and push it," the girl spoke up. It made sense to her that a mental trait would be like that, and all one had to do was use it and work it. She wondered how some other, passive powers could be trained like that though. "Hm? I...I...not really," she said to his question of being hungry. And then her stomach growled, loudly.

"...maybe a little." a blush accompanied that statement.

[Lani Hunter]

Strangeness was just the counter of normalcy. If Lani were to be called not normal he would thank the person for their kind words. Lani tended to have a bad habit of thinking that people followed his train of thought and getting surprised when they didn’t. Her expression spelled it all out. He gathered control of himself, he liked being this person who could laugh at nothing, or a stray thought that went through his mind. He hoped that Sayaka never had to see a side of him that wasn’t this happy. Lani’s lips twitched into a sly smile. He was still figuring out the changed in himself. He was very serious about some things but others he turned into jokes and tricks. It usually depended on who he was with. If he was troubled by something and he wanted the person not to worry about it he would make it a joke. If he was focused on someone else’s problems he was serious.

Lani smiled and nodded. “True, very true.” He looked away from her and then back again. That was actually something very surprising. Life was indeed full of surprises but it was easy to predict the way some people would act in certain situations. But he was constantly being surprised by Odion. The redhead would not stop invading his thoughts. Sure he could predict some things about Odion but other times he was shocked into speechlessness. He shook his head. “It’s certainly harder with some people than with others,” he commented, “I think it’s Fate we need to all look out for.” He gave her a wink. Fate. He had a hard relationship with Fate, he was pretty sure that she didn’t like him one bit, but he didn’t care.

With a nod of his head Lani was again surprised by the depth of understanding. It had taken him a long time to accept that training was the only way out of this place. “Yeah, and just like any other muscle it tends to ache a bit after a while.” He said with dry humor. He rubbed at his temple to held sooth some of the ache. Oh well, it wasn’t doing to badly, he was surprised that he didn’t crawl himself to his pills right off the bat but now that he was standing he grabbed his bag and dug in it. He turned away from her slightly as he took a few. He was probably the worst example for someone so young, popping pills the way that he did. He looked at her and his eyes trailed to her stomach which had decided that it disagreed with her statement. Lani grinned widely and chuckled a little. “Well, I’m headed to get some food from the dining hall, if you would like to join me.” He offered with a bright smile.