Sleepwalking (Callie)

[Ciaran O'Reilly]

For the last few nights Ciaran had been okay. He had gone to bed long before any of his roommates got there, dived under his covers and, eventually, got to sleep. It was a tricky process though: it hadn't been too long since he started to glow at night time and he hadn't gotten use to it yet, and the fact that he had only spent very few nights without his parents made it even harder. He managed to cover his skin the other nights, to block out the majority of the blue light emanating from his body. But tonight was especially warm. He couldn't wear his usual long sleeved t-shirt and thin gloves in bed, so he had to try and ignore his hand. He was still awake when the older teenagers that were living with him got back and then all hope was lost. Once they came back there was no way he was getting to sleep, not before they quietened down. They did eventually go to bed, but Ciaran had been lying awake for atleast an hour by then.

Another hour passed, with no sign of sleep. Ciaran decided to go get a drink of something cold, so got up as quietly as he could and went through to the common area. A glass was soon filled with water and Ciaran started to drink. It was surreal, seeing his body illuminated like this, and Ciaran wasn't sure whether he liked it or not. He settled on not.

Once the glass was empty Ciaran looked back to his room. He just wasn't tired enough to go to sleep, and didn't feel like lying in bed for another hour, so instead grabbed a book from the shelf. He figured he may as well make use of his 'power'. The light cast out by his Bioluminescence was just enough to read by, so he sat down in an armchair, curled up and started flicking through the pages.

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie had spent the last few nights away from her own bed. Once she'd snuggled up with one of her closest friends, and the other times she'd worked so late that she ended up crashing at her brother's place. She'd heard the dorm got a new roommate, but she hadn't even had the chance to try and meet him yet. Given how little Dextra seemed to like her, one would think she'd be put off by the whole process. Nope! She was excited to get the chance, but they didn't seem to come out of their room much.

So she went to her room with the intention of getting some much needed sleep. But that didn't work out for her - and she was blaming her internal body clock for that - she realised it was probably better to give up on the idea. But as she went to get up, she saw a really curious looking light cross underneath the doorway.

Was someone out there with a torch... Or something?

Whatever it was, it'd caught her attention. Who knew what someone might be doing out there - a lot of weird and crazy things happened at Hammel. She pulled on Eric's UVM sweatshirt, covering the tank top and shorts she slept in on such warmer nights before she tentatively opened the door to her bedroom. What she didn't expect to find was a glowing ball of something in the armchair.

"Uhh," Callie started, standing in the doorway for a moment longer before taking a step out, "Hey. Are you the new roommate?"

[Ciaran O'Reilly]

Ciaran was so engrossed in the book he didn't notice a door opening. When a voice came from behind, he jumped, startled. He panicked slightly. If he got down from his chair and turned around to face the person it would be pretty obvious that he glowed. If he kept on the chair she might think it was just a torch, or screen or something. But the chances of that were pretty slim... Besides, he couldn't keep it from his roommates for very long, so maybe it was best to get it over and done with.

He folded the corner down on his page, then put the book on the armrest, before hopping down from the seat. Taking a deep breath, he stepped round the corner. If you could see blushing when he was like this, he would be glowing red not blue.

"Yeah, I'm err.. I'm Ciaran." He looked down at his feet, which glowed, so looked instead along at the older girl. "I err... I glow. In the dark." Because that wasn't obvious enough. He felt like saying something else, like asking why he hadn't seen her, or asking what her name was, but he just kept quiet.

[Calliope Gallo]

The silence was deafening, really. For a few moments Callie stood there and wondered if she'd just thought she'd seen something. Maybe she needed more sleep, or something. Maybe one of the roommates had just wandered out with a light and for some reason left it alone on the chair. That didn't make much sense to her, but people were as they chose to be. But the light moved, and colour her surprised against the pale blue that lightly shaded her features.

"Callie." She greeted, pressing a hand to herself briefly before raising it and pointing behind her; "I usually live there. Just... Not for the past few days."

She idly ran her hand along her arm, as if bothered by a sudden breeze. Almost insignificant movements, really. "I can see that. You're very, very bright." Callie admitted, opting for a lighter touch to her words. He seemed really nervous about the fact he'd offered, and that had her confused. "Sorry I haven't been around, I've been... Busy. Work, and all that." She offered, genuinely feeling bad that she hadn't been there to meet him when he first moved in. Bad roommate points for her. "Have you been here long?"

[Ciaran O'Reilly]

Ciaran started to lean on the armchair he had just been sitting on. It was more for lack of something to do with himself. He found that he got that problem quite a lot - not knowing where to put his hands when talking - now he was forced to socialise more.

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly; if he hadn't been glowing bright blue it wouldn't be noticeable.

"You're very, very bright." The eleven-year-old nodded. "I know. Sorry if I woke you up, or something. It's kinda tricky to get to sleep when it's never dark in your room." His Irish accent was clearer the longer the sentence he spoke and that last one had been pretty long for him.

"Have you been here long?"
"Not really. I couldn't sleep. I went to get a drink, then picked up a book. That's all."

There was a pause for a short moment, an awkward silence. Ciaran, being slightly curious, thought of a space filler.

"So... I glow. What's your err... your thing?" He felt himself kinda hoping it was as useless as his luminescence - who was he kidding, nothing was as useless as glowing in the dark.

[Calliope Gallo]

"No no, it's okay. I wasn't sleeping." Callie replied, feeling the need to make that known. "I saw your light, actually. Under the door? I can imagine how difficult it is to sleep, though." She had to smile a little at the clear accent in his words. If nothing else, it offered a sense of nostalgia.

She shifted on her heels slightly, unsure of what to do when things got a little awkward.

"Oh, uh-" She paused, taking a few steps forward to close the gap between them. "You're not squeamish, are you? Some people are, and they get a little freaked out." Callie offered as a warning. She'd learned from past experiences to make sure people were at least somewhat prepared. With a small cringe, she allowed her arm to dislocate from her shoulder socket, and the rest of her joints in her left arm followed suit until it was hanging by her side. "It's... Not the most useful thing I've ever seen. But you get what you're given, right?"

[Ciaran O'Reilly]

Ciaran nodded. "It err... Manifested about a month ago. It's hard to get used to. The other nights I've been able to wear lots of clothes but tonight it was too warm." This was why he didn't like the Summer. It just made the power even more annoying.

"You're not squeamish are you?" He wasn't, but now he was slightly worried. He had heard of people being able to make bones come out of their skin, and tear off whole limbs and just reattach them. When all she did was dislocate her shoulder, Ciaran was relieved more than anything, not just that it wasn't something truly disgusting, but also because it was almost as useless as his.

"Join the club. Nothing is as useless as glowing." He smiled slightly. "I guess you do. I wish I got something better though, like shapeshifting." Ciaran sighed, then went over to the side, where his empty glass was, filling it up with water he started taking small sips, returning to the side of the armchair. He started absentmindedly dipping his finger into the water, the water turning a slightly dilluted version of his blue.

[Calliope Gallo]

It was hard to miss the deeper meaning behind his words. He was obviously trying to hide his glow. The question was; why? Callie didn't feel right asking. "Well, for what it's worth, I don't mind it." She replied with a shrug. It probably didn't mean much, but that was okay.

"Unfortunately, it's not a dorm thing. That girl has telekinesis." Callie admitted, pointing in the direction of Dex's room. She smiled lightly, though she had to admit she was a little jealous. Telekinesis was cool. Too bad she was mean. "My brother can teleport. The other can phase through walls. I sorta feel like I got the wrong power."

Crossing the room, Callie sat down on the couch and brought her knees up to her chin, folding her arms around her legs. "Can you imagine shapeshifting? What would you want to become?" She asked, looking over at him again.

[Ciaran O'Reilly]

Once again Ciaran blushed and, once again, it wasn't visible. He kind of wished he could say the same, but hers was a little gross. He didn't say anything in return, but felt warm inside, not just because of the humid air. He smiled, a shy smile but a genuine one.

"They're lucky. I used to imagine about teleporting to where I wanted. It would save so much time. Same with the wall thingy." It was true. He used to wish he could just blink and he would be somewhere. It would help him get out of problems as well as saving time and effort.

Ciaran turned and sat down in his armchair as Callie sat in the couch, he curled up so his feet were off the ground, which wasn't really that difficult. He was quite small.

"Can you imagine shapeshifting? What would you want to become?"

The eleven-year-old had to think about this one. Being a bird or something would be pretty cool, but a fish or other aquatic animal would be cool too. Although, he would like to come on land too. Maybe a frog.

"I think I'd like to be a frog. Or a duck. That way I could go on water and fly. What about you?"

[Calliope Gallo]

"They both use their powers to scare me. And it always works, too." Callie replied, cringing at the feeling of her bones shifting back into place. As of late the pain had significantly worsened, but she tied her best not to make that so obvious.

She smiled inwardly as silence fell between them. Though she couldn't see him very well, it was clear enough that he was a lot younger than her. His answer was interesting enough; well thought out and all that. She hadn't expected him to think so clearly on it. Most people just out-rightly answered with the first thing they thought of. "I don't really know. Maybe a bird of something... I always wondered what it'd be like to fly." After a small moment she offered a single nod, cementing her answer.

"Definitely not something like a snake or a spider though." She added quickly, waving her hand at the thought; "Those things freak me out. And I kinda don't want to freak other people out more than I already do, y'know?"

[Ciaran O'Reilly]

Despite the poor lighting, Ciaran saw Callie cringe in pain. Perhaps her power was even worse than his, if it actually hurt. It was a selfish way to think, but Ciaran didn't really care. It made him feel better that someone had it (that part of life anyway) worse than him. The Germans had a word for it, but he couldn't remember it.

"...I've always wondered what it's like to fly."

"Some people here can fly can't they? I wonder how that works... Do you have to have wings or not? Would you want to have wings?" Ciaran wasn't sure if he would want to fly. Especially how unpredictable some of the powers are, or so he had heard.

She made a good point about freaking people out. "That's why I don't generally show people myself in the dark: it freaks them out." Really it was only half the reason. He didn't want to freak people out and he was scared of people thinking he was weird, which were similar concerns, but still not the same.

[Calliope Gallo]

"A friend of mine had full wings. They were so pretty." Callie admitted, though she had to wonder how uncomfortable it would be to do certain things with such large wings on her back. How would you sleep on your back? "I don't think I'd like the wings so much. Don't you think they'd be... Constricting? I like to dance. I figure they'd give me really intense balance issues." Not to mention, her friend's wing bones were so fragile. They broke so easily...

Whether he could see her or not, Callie still smiled warmly at him. It was something of a reflex when people spoke like that about themselves - even if she'd done the same only seconds ago. "You'd be surprised what people are used to here. It's hard to actually freak people out in a place like this." She explained, though she knew her words were likely falling on deaf ears. "I bet it's that no one expects a cute face like yours to light up that much."

[Ciaran O'Reilly]

She had a point. Although Ciaran didn't do any activities that would be affected, wings would become annoying eventually. "I don't think I'd be good at dancing. Or any other physical activity. What kind of dancing do you do?" He suspected ballet. Then he had a thought. "Surely wings would be useful in dancing. For balance. That's what I think, anyway."

As she said about his cute face he blushed again. He could just make out a smile on Callie's lips and wondered why she was smiling. If only he could read minds. That would be useful.

"It's hard to actually freak people out here."

"I think I come pretty close though. And people who transform into spiders or snakes or snails or something."

[Calliope Gallo]

"My parents used to make me do ballroom stuff." Callie admitted, running her hand through her hair idly. "But they let me take ballet when I was old enough to realise I wanted to. I didn't start taking contemporary dance classes until I was in high school." She smiled to herself lightly, recalling the many times she forced her brothers to practice with her. Some step required two people, and despite how they didn't care for it, they always helped her out. "I guess if you had wings and you wanted to dance, you'd find a way to make it work. But maybe you're right - maybe you would have naturally awesome balance." I think, anyway."

The more time Ciaran spent around Callie, the more he'd realise she was the smiling type. Hopefully he wouldn't mind that too much.

"You would have liked the guy who used to live here. He manipulated light. He could probably make himself glow like you do." She explained, tucking a small laugh between her statements; "I know it mightn't mean much coming from me, but I bet you'll meet a lot of people who don't think you're a freak." The word itself seemed pretty controversial around campus.