Powerswap: Act Zen (open, request Yulia eventualy)

[Noa Reese]

Backdated, September 5th.

Deep breaths, calm thoughts. Noa chanted the mantra in her head as she made her way into the main office. Ah, Hammel. It had only been a year and a couple months that she'd been out. On a happier occasion she'd be thinking back to all the good times she'd had. But instead, she was trying to stop herself from freaking out over how her day had been going.

How had it been going? Absolutely horribly. After waking up with a splitting headache, Noa had gone to the drugstore for pain killers, and instead had inexplicably caused the clerk to pass out and had to call an ambulance and run away. And as she'd run away, she'd somehow managed to pass a headache along to nearly every person she'd passed. And instead of relieving her headache, whatever had happened instead worsened hers.

Finally, after putting it all down in a blog post, she'd managed to calm herself enough, do a little meditation, and get to Hammel: the only place she knew to go when strange shit went down. And now she stood at the counter (the receptionist having made a call that Noa had been too busying meditating to bother listening to) and tried to remain calm and rational, her eyes closed, reminding herself to not freak out, as that tended to make complications worse.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

This day had to be the absolute weirdest day of Shane's entire existence, except for maybe that one time in the 5th grade when he..... ah, nevermind. The point was that today was weird and it was only going to get weirder. The reason the entire day so far had been weird was because everything was completely and totally off kilter. He had woken up this morning feeling rather unusual, mostly because the familiar tingle he had always felt in his body was gone, replaced by something else at the back of his mind. Something completely unsettling.

As he had opened the fridge to look for something to eat, a cereal box fell off the top of the refrigerator and quite nearly hit him in the head. Luckily, he had ducked just in time... or so he had thought until he looked down at himself. For some reason, he had just turned into a spider. Was this a new power or something? Could he maybe shapeshift into animals now as well as humans? Focusing himself, he managed to turn back into a normal sized human, albeit rather painfully. When he got back to full size, he attempted to turn into a different human. Nothing happened. He tried shapeshifting into another animal, but no dice.

Wait a second... shapeshifting solely into a spider? That was Amber's power. Now, he wasn't sure how or why he had randomly developed Amber's power and lost his own, but he was certain that Amber at least had something to do with this. He probably should've gone to find her, but he ultimately decided to go to the office. Maybe someone three would have some idea of what had gone down. As he walked the halls of Hammel, he had found that they were in absolute chaos. People were screaming about not having their proper or powers, or indeed, any powers at all. Shane wanted to help, but he had to get down to the office.

When he arrived, he saw the receptionist making a call somewhere. He looked over to see a fairly pretty lady who seemed to be having a bad day. She looked like she was trying to calm herself down. Then he had a thought. Maybe he could get some help from someone who was going through the same thing!

"Hey...did your powers change too, Miss...?"

[Noa Reese]

Noa opened one eye, trying to keep herself from getting annoyed at the intrusion, not sure what would happen if she did - but then she actually took in his words. So this wasn't just happening to her. A huge rush of relief went through her, though her anxiety still flowed underneath it all, and she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"You too, then?" Her relief was probably audible, though she still felt utterly helpless and just so slightly hopeless. "Noa," she introduced herself, offering her hand. He probably assumed she was still a student. After all, Hammel had students up through age 20, as far as she knew. She considered letting him know that she wasn't, but a fact so trivial seemed even more inconsequential in light of the day's events, so she didn't bother. She instead tried to keep her breathing even, her mind calm, concern etched on her features as she tried to avoid any sort of violent emotion.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

Almost as soon as Shane spoke those words to the woman, he felt a rush of relief course through him. He wasn't really sure why he would feel relieved, she hadn't even answered his question yet and he was still very, very worried about this entire situation.

"Uh, yeah, me too. I'm Shane. Did you get empathy or something?" He was almost certain that this the case as she obviously tried to keep calm. Was she a student here? Shane had never seen her before today and he had been at Hammel two whole years.

"So, are you, uh, looking for answers too, Ms.Noa?"

[Noa Reese]

Noa paused as the boy - Shane - asked her a question. She considered it for a second.

No, no, it definitely wasn't empathy. Empathy had to do with feeling other's emotions, and this wasn't like that at all. It wasn't even her emotions, it was more like... like maybe she was broadcasting some sort of signal - like the tones she was used to from her truth detection - except that signal was putting people in pain. She didn't like it.

She shook her head, "Not, empathy, no... something else - I'm not sure what." Was she looking for answers? She nodded at that. "I don't really know what's happening, and - when it involves freaky shit going down - Hammel usually has someone who can help." Her tone was wry at that, almost a joke but too bitter and anxious to let it be one.