I'm Not the Child You're Looking For... [Lani]

[Echo Waverly]

If every day were as pleasant as this one, and all people as nice as the ones she'd interacted with that day, Echo probably wouldn't have been so suspicious of people in general. One of the older girls had decided to make a visit to the library. Not the Hammel one, but the real one, in town. That same older girl (Echo couldn't remember her name... she tended to be bad with that sort of thing) had asked Echo if she would like to come along. Really, Echo might have to actually attempt to remember this girl's name in future... Because she had been nice to Echo so far.

Anyway, once at the library, she had, of course, scampered away from the girl who had brought her, so she could do her own exploring of the place. By this point, neither of the girls had any idea where the other was, and Echo didn't particularly care, either. The other girl would forget and go back to Hammel eventually, it wasn't as if she cared that much. People never cared that much, unless they were Yvette.

Echo yawned and flipped through one of the several comic books she'd found. She'd made herself at home behind a plush chair in the corner, away from prying eyes. The only real give away was the fact she had the pile of comic books in plain view. Because, unfortunately, they wouldn't all fit behind the chair with her. It was a real pain in the neck, but there wasn't much she could do about it.

Unless she met someone with the power to make things smaller, she guessed. In which case she'd shrink herself and her books and just read under the chair. She giggled to herself at the idea, then froze. Bad giggling-- she should have known not to. It made noise, and noise made people notice you, and people noticing you meant getting told to get out from behind the chair. Maybe there hadn't been anyone around though... that would be good luck. She bit her lip and crossed her fingers, even as she was very much sure that she'd heard someone move just beyond the chair....

[Lani Hunter]

Though Lani would never admit it, he was an avid reader. A few people knew he cared for his book like they were old friends, but none of them were people who had been told, it had merely been through experience. Unless a call was urgent Lani would delay whatever task or conversation that came into the middle of his chapter until the end. Problem was, he was getting to the end of his hoard, which now rather nicely littered his apartment floor where it had overflowed the two small bookshelves. His family was coming up to their annual beach trip and as much as Lani griped, his mother still had an uncanny ability to guilt him into just about anything. Lani hated the beach, he hated the sand, he hated the sun and he especially hated the water. It made him nervy just to be so close.

Usually, Lani sat back on the beach, present but distant, and read. It was a relaxing experience in all honesty, or rather it would be if it weren’t for the terrifying mass of liquid that pounded the shore only a few yards away. Lani had been known to back off, set his chair much farther away from the water than the rest of his family. They didn’t say anything about it anymore. A young woman, probably still in high school by the look of her, slipped past him as he read the back of a fantasy novel. He glanced up and read her quickly and very easily deemed her not a threat. The air was still hot but the library was pleasantly cool. Lani was simply in sneakers, shorts and a loose concert tee. He wasn’t looking to be stealing anything today, but that could change very quickly if the right target came along.

He added the book to the couple he had cradled in his arms, he would, if he wasn’t careful, end up packing more books for the trip than clothing. A whole weekend at the beach, it was enough to make Lani sick. Ever since he was little the deal was that he would go, but he didn’t have to be happy about it. The telekinetic hadn’t been in or even near the water since he’d almost drowned as a youngster, it was a very real and dominating fear. One he did not intend to face. Lani rounded the shelves past a chair and to his surprise the chair giggled. Well, not the chair, he rebuked himself, someone behind the chair. He raised a brow and curiosity got the best of the telekinetic and he leaned his tall frame just enough over to see the person, child, crouched behind the chair.

She wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding, not with her noise and her books next to the chair. The giggling had drawn the attention of a nearby librarian. Lani casually dropped himself into the chair and allowed himself to laugh, opening up one of his books to a random page. The librarian gave him a withering gaze and held her fingers to her lips making an obnoxious ‘shh’ noise. He gave her a halfway apologetic shrug and watched her flit away. He looked over the chair at the girl and gave her a charming smile. “Well, hello,” he said in the library whisper, “You must be new to the whole hiding thing, I could hear you a mile away,” he said in a mock scolding tone.

[Echo Waverly]

Someone had definitely heard her giggle. Oh gosh. Dang it. If her parents, or even Yvette, heard her using such language, they would certainly have scolded her, but in the safety of her mind, she gladly indulged. Especially for an instance like this. Someone had heard her. Not only was that bad in view of her "hiding", but bad in view of the fact she didn't like anyone to hear her make noise unless she liked them. At least she hadn't said anything.

The chair made that squishy chair-sound that comfy chairs made when people sat in them, and someone laughed. She blinked, confused now. Had someone else made noise, and that was why there were people around now? The other person making noise had been noticed, not her? That would be fortunate...

She heard a "sh'ing" noise, that sound people always made when they wanted other people to be quiet, but usually ended up making more noise themselves than the original person was making. Ha-- someone else had gotten in trouble! Not her! This was great news. It meant there wouldn't be any librarians or other adults asking where on earth her parents were or whatever.

Sure of this, when someone began to whisper to her, and she looked up to see a man peering over the chair, she let out a quiet squeak of surprise. She clapped her hands over her mouth, again, and glared at the guy. One of her books flitted limply in the general direction of him, as if it were irritated at his intrusion too. Weird. Why had it done that? Echo had ceased to try and figure out why random things happened around her. Apparently they had something to do with her power, but not really. It had to do with other peoples' powers bouncing off of her like a weird mirror or something. It was irritating.

So she guessed that meant someone was around with the power to make books move. Yay. She smacked the book down, before it decided to actually really get active, and attack someone. Of course, by this time her temper flare had well dissipated in the distraction of the book seeming to take on a mind of its own. So when she looked up again, the irritated was gone from her face, replaced with quizzicalness. She maintained this quizzical gaze for a moment or two before pulling out her notebook and writing, "Why were u laughing?".

She almost added a "weirdo" on the end of it, but decided against it. She didn't want the guy to decide to drag her out and find her adult or something, so better not call him names yet. So she just waited for his reply. That would be safer for now.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani’s sly eyes watched the librarian’s back as she stalked off again. He had been in far worse trouble than getting a ‘shh’ from a librarian. This little girl and her hiding place were safe from the librarian for now. What was a slight scolding to provide the girl with the safety of her hiding place? Absolutely nothing, the price was small and it was one Lani paid gladly. It was strange, he had been in trouble all the time at Hammel, he was pretty sure he still held the record for the thickest file, a title he was very proud to bear. However, now that he was out under their eyes in the real world he’d become more and more free and so long as he made his power training lessons they didn’t bother him.

The telekinetic smiled mildly wondering what the discussion about his graduation had been, because he was sure they only graduated him because they were more certain he’d run off if they tried to shackle him down. At least this way he was free, he just had a few minor strings still hanging on. Not that it bothered him, he would much rather practice his power in the safety of one of Hammel’s training rooms than elsewhere. It was his fear of hurting someone one accident that kept him around more than the fact that they told him. It was more or less what drove Odion insane too. Lani had a great deal of power but he was far too timid in wielding it.

Glancing over the back of the chair Lani grinned at the girl and chuckled softly in response to her glare. Without thinking about it Lani clamped back on his power and then proceeded to stare at the book in bewilderment upon the realization that it wasn’t him. He wasn’t lifting the book. He looked at the girl with curiosity in his eyes, another telekinetic? Lani’s power rose to meet whatever was holding the book up and he startled when she smacked it down. How interesting. It had been a long time since he’d met another telekinetic, he was excited, not a lot of people had telekinesis and there seemed to be a very wide spectrum of control and of power. Lani had yet to meet someone with power equal to his own, but he had met far more who had much better control. The only one that came to mind as closest was Dextra, with more control she could probably best him.

Power alone was not what made a telekinetic good, Lani could, and had, been bested by a weaker power with more control. Lani didn’t say anything when she looked at him, he simply shook his head at her seemingly questioning gaze. Did she not realize it was her, certainly it wasn’t someone else. Granted, Lani wasn’t very much beyond accidentally lifting things when he wasn’t paying attention, but he was pretty good at catching his mischievous power when it started to catch interest in throwing something. Lani didn’t say anything as he watched her write. Interesting, he wondered why she didn’t say anything, but rather wrote it. Curiosity was a thing that grabbed a hold of Lani and didn’t like to let go, but he simply let it simmer in the back of his mind for now.

“Because,” he replied, giving her a sly smile. “Why were you laughing?” He returned the question in a hushed whisper.

[Echo Waverly]

Echo had definitely been in more trouble than a "shh"'ing from a librarian before as well. The time she'd thrown a book at a girl slightly younger than herself came to mind. It had been the other girl's fault though-- she'd started whining very loudly to her mom about wanting to leave. You weren't supposed to be loud in a library. Sure, she herself had just giggled, but that was a lot different than wailing about wanting to leave. Why would anyone want to leave a library, anyway? Unless it was time for them to be somewhere else...

Anyway, why was this guy chuckling in response to her glare? People were supposed to glare back, or be surprised, or something. Not think it was funny. That was dumb. What was wrong with this guy? However, he had looked confused when the book started to float. Maybe he didn't have something wrong with him after all. Normal people should be confused about books floating. Strange though, just before she slapped it down, she thought there had been another power messing with it too... Meeting it or... something... She frowned a little. Maybe she was power mirroring this guy's power? Was he even meta? Maybe.

Curious as she was about this stranger, she held back in her questioning. Both because she wasn't technically supposed to talk to strangers-- a rule she actually bent very often since writing wasn't really "talking" to them. Right? But she also held back because it would be a pain to write down all the questions she had. She'd just sprinkle them in little by little. Maybe. If he stayed that long.

"Because isn't an answer," she scribbled. "I laughed because your face." She raised her chin to look down her nose at him, which was an admittedly difficult thing to pull off since she was already small, but also sitting. So she already had her head tilted just to look at the stranger guy. But it was worth it. People insulted people by saying "your face" in response to things, right? Maybe the stranger guy would go away. Stranger guys weren't supposed to talk to little girls who were behind chairs in libraries. It was a definite fact, of course.

[Lani Hunter]

This little girl was starting to remind him of another strong willed little girl he knew. He missed Shapiro, it had been ages since he’d seen her. She was a little like Caroline too, or perhaps she wasn’t like either of them, perhaps it was just Lani’s protective instinct stirring up because of the child. Lani much shared this girl’s opinions. Libraries were places of refuge and more often than not it was the only truly quiet place he had to think. He could go home but Adam was there and while Lani liked Adam and all he was sort of distracting some times. There were also reminders of Odion all over the place at home. If not for Odion being here in the first place, Lani couldn’t get him out of his head. Sometimes he hated it and other time he found such comfort in it that it scared him.

It was a strange feeling, Lani had always gotten a sense from powers. He didn’t know if it was a strange effect of his power being able to move through the mind into the physical plane or if it was just an illusion in his head. He remembered feeling Adrianna’s power, or rather his power in Adrianna’s hands when she’d borrowed his power, that could have been because it was technically his own. He could reach out the recognize the timelessness of Odion’s power, but that could also be because they had worked together so much. It was like adding that fourth dimension into Lani’s equation. Lani had the third dimension and time was a constant but with Odion time suddenly became an important variable in his equation and it mixed up Lani’s power and far surpassed the telekinetic’s understanding.

Lani blinked and shook off the floating book idea. If she did have telekinesis, that would be awesome. He’d so rarely met another telekinetic. He gave her an unapologetic shrug when he read her statement. It didn’t make sense to him why she was writing. Maybe she was just worried about making more noise and calling attention. Lani breathed out laughter and his smile was filled him amusement. He made a mock pouting face soon after. “Oh, that hurts,” he told her but was unable to keep his grin away. Lani was trying very hard not to laugh when she tried to look down her nose at him. She looked very much like she was looking up her nose at him and unfortunately it was not having the effect she was hoping for. If this girl was another telekinetic he was curious about it and if not well, Lani was bored and someone to talk to would be nice.

Without so much as a blink Lani reached his power and took hold of the pencil. The writing utensil wriggled in her grasp for a moment before it pressed itself to the page and Lani’s chicken scratch started to spell out word on her pad. “My name is Lani, what’s yours?” He let the pencil rest again and suppressed a sigh of relief, there was not immediately that pain that stabbed through his skull. Perhaps he was getting better at this. By no means was he an expert but he had come to accept the fact that he wouldn’t fully understand or control his power until he was older. It wasn’t something that came easily to him and every time he thought he had it figured out things happened that changed his mind. Like Odion returning, Lani had thought he had it but obviously suppressing all of his emotions did not bode well for an emotionally controlled power.

[Echo Waverly]

Hmm. Her attempted insult had only drawn laughter from the stranger man. Well then, she wouldn't be using that insult again, 'cause it didn't work. Hmph. Why hadn't it worked? Her forehead wrinkled as she drew her brows down in an irritated V. Who was this guy? Insults were supposed to work. They were supposed to make people irritated, or go away, but all this one had done was make her irritated. That was backward. And--

Echo squeaked as her pencil started moving on its own, at first thinking that she'd accidentally started floating things again. However, when she double checked, she was certain it hadn't been her. And if it hadn't been her, it musta been the stranger guy. So he was a meta too, then. Hmmm... That explained the book floating earlier-- the stranger guy's power must have rubbed off on her. Stupid power. Her power, of course. Being able to float things was a cool power, but only if that was actually your power, not a weird chameleon power like hers that didn't fit right.

As the pencil stopped moving, she grasped it firmly, narrowed a suspicious look at Lani, and only then looked to see what the pencil had been writing. His name was Lani, huh? Surrrrre. He was probably just saying that so she'd think he wasn't a stranger anymore. But nope, he was still a stranger, definitely. She'd tell him that too, but it was easier to just be sarcastic about it. Then there'd be less to write.

"My name is Bob." She wrote before raising her head to stick her tongue out at him. She paused, becoming thoughtful for a moment, before writing again, "Not supposed to use powers here." She gave him a questioning look. "People might not like you." Didn't he know that? Not everyone liked metas, 'cause they were weird and awesome, but still weird. She even thought it was weird, and she was the weirdest kind of meta! So of course other, normal, people would think metas and powers and things were even weirder.

[Lani Hunter]

The more this girl tried to be tough the more amused Lani became. He couldn’t really find himself threatened by this little girl, she was too much like his sister when she was younger. Granted Caroline had grown up quite a bit and Lani was very surprised by how cunning his younger sister was. Caroline was one of the only people who could tell Lani what an ass he was being without being completely shut out of his life. He loved her dearly and right now this little girl was reminding him of a younger Caroline. The telekinetic smiled down at the child and watched as irritation crossed her face, Lani’s own a mask of pleasantry. He smiled easily and let everything else hide away behind his mask.

Her squeak of surprise didn’t shatter Lani’s concentration though he did look at her and give a sly smile as the pencil moved in her hand. Other than the surprised look on her face she didn’t seem afraid. That honestly warmed Lani’s heart. He thought his power scared people more than not. Hell, his power scared him more than not. Lani’s power drifted away from the pencil like a tide and Lani felt the prickling beginning of a headache in his temples. Really, he was getting better but it was definitely not easy. When he let his power out it wanted come out all at once. Lani could still feel the dragon coiling and battling at Lani’s walls. He’d learned to find his center and he’d found how to control the dragon, but it was still a dragon and by its very nature it despised being controlled.

“Bob?” He whispered, humor chiming in his voice like bells. Lani laughed softly covering his mouth to keep the sound from being too loud. His eyes shimmered mischievously and he mimicked her expression sticking his tongue out at her. “Neither are you,” he said. He turned and put his arm on the back of the chair and rested his chin on his arm, looking down at the girl thoughtfully. He looked down at her notebook and it was the second line that struck him. His eyes drifted up and out the window. Lani knew what that meant. At least for him it meant that people were afraid of him. He had nothing to fear from people but people had everything to fear from him. Lani hated it, he hated this power still, it was too much, too much power for one person to hold.

He turned his eyes back to her and wondered what of his power she could feel, was it as strong and as angry for her. He gently took hold of the pencil again and wrote: “Does it scare you?” He looked back to her and his face was a mask of casual interest. She was definitely an interesting child. He wondered again why she wouldn’t speak to him. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t technically, but actually using her voice, it was confusing and interesting. This ‘Bob’ was quite the unique child. She had no fears speaking her mind, if that could be called speaking. And yet, was it fear that kept her from speaking?

[Echo Waverly]

The stranger man smiled too much. Echo leaned back against the wall as she studied him. Why did he smile so much? There wasn't anything to smile about when someone was being irritated. That meant his smile wasn't really real. Which made her wonder why he was making himself make not-real smiles. Unless he was just thinking about something else and not really paying attention to her. That happened too.

Echo wrinkled her nose at the stranger man when he returned her retort with "neither are you". Hmph. She hadn't meant to use her power though. He had. There was a big difference, and he should know that 'cause he was an adult. Adults were supposed to know things like that 'cause they were smart. If anything, it was the stranger man's fault she had used her power. 'Cause it was his power she'd accidentally mimicked.

She studied his writing as he telekinetically took hold of the pencil again. After reading it, she raised her head to give him a quizzical look. Why would she be scared of it? If she was going to be scared of anything, it would be of her own power. It was lots scarier than his. At least his stayed the same all the time, and didn't jump around and be unpredictable and disorganized.

That in mind, she gripped her pencil and wrote, "Duh. No. Do I look scared?{/i]" She tilted her head back briefly to look at him before writing more, in line with her earlier thought-line. "Why you smile so much?" She tapped her pencil on her notebook as she waited for an answer, either verbally or in writing. She thought it was weird he was writing too. People didn't usually do that. The only other person who did that was her counselor once, back at her old school. And that made sense because counselors were weird people. Maybe this stranger man was weird too, though. She wouldn't be surprised if he was.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani’d never had a situation when someone thought he smiled too much, well unless he was up to something, in which case even if he wasn’t up to something he looked suspicious. It wasn’t a true smile that hung on his lips, rather a façade that gave Lani a shield between him and the world. He glanced down at her, she was just like Caroline when she was that age, wanting so badly to be strong and prove that she could do it on her own. Caroline had grown up into a strong level headed woman with just a little too much of Lani’s sly characteristics for him to be comfortable with it. Eventually they wouldn’t be able to hide any longer. Eventually it would become hide or fight and even then hide wouldn’t be enough. Lani wasn’t comfortable with the state of the world.

There were several different stages that Lani had gone through to get where he was. First he was a non-powered high school senior plagued by horrible headaches. Then the thief’s power had blasted out of him by necessity and he’d been thrust into a world that didn’t make anymore sense. So, he’d done the only logical thing and shut out his power, it took him a long time to realize that that would never work. He could never will away his power, he had to accept it, but accepting it wasn’t enough, he had to use it. Somewhere between then and now some things had failed and some things had succeeded but Lani had learned throughout it all. Lani was no longer able to make his power work by separating it from emotion and he had decided he could no longer clamp down on it. He had been terrified of letting it out at first, but the pain of keeping it in pushed him toward that answer and he’d found his power wasn’t as chaotic as he thought, or perhaps he was just more aware and therefore in better control.

A real smile crept over Lani’s face at her written response. This smile reached his eyes and warmed the cold gray irises. If one were looking closely enough they might just see a bit of relief mixed in. The smile vanished almost as quickly as it came. Externally nothing changed about Lani’s relaxed demeanor, his smile faded and he cocked his head but never did he reveal his shock at her question. Instead he regarded her coolly as he considered his reply. Finally he took the pencil back in his mind. “I have a lot to smile about.” Lani initially thought giving her a lie would be so simple as that, but once it was written he realized that the lie was laced with a great deal of truth. He did have a lot to smile about. Sure things didn’t make sense and his heart was still unsure of what it was supposed to do about Odion. But in the big picture, he was alive and well, so was his family, his old boss was in jail and couldn’t touch him, Odion was back. Lani was free, he could spread his wings and fly, and he could do it on his own.

“Why do you write instead of speak?” He asked in return, resting his chin on his arms so that only his nose and eyes were visible of his face as he looked down her with inquisitive eyes. Lani had a vague idea that he might be hitting a sensitive subject and thus treaded carefully forward he schooled his features into a mask of openness, friendliness. Internally Lani was curious and curiosity always got the better of him. He seized upon moments when he could help people, it helped him keep his own problems at bay. He hated talking about his problems, by his nature the thief liked to be a shadow among shadows, an invisible part of the wall, there one moment and gone when someone did a double take. Anything that put him in what he felt like was a spotlight made him panic.

[Echo Waverly]

Echo had decided that the stranger man was very strange. Sure, he smiled, but he smiled so much. No one could have that much to smile about. Not really. Echo narrowed her eyes at him, unbelieving. Maybe he was a kidnapper, and that's why he smiled so much. He wanted her to think he was nice. People smiled a lot when they wanted to make other people thing everything was all right. But kidnapping wasn't all right. So, with all the seriousness in the world, she wrote, "Are you a creeper?" That was a word grown-ups used for kidnappers who were thinking about kidnapping, right?

Despite the writing, Echo had noticed the shift of Lani's smile when it had become real. Of course, it only served to confuse her. Why would he smile for real in the middle of smiling not-real? Maybe because she'd said she wasn't scared of him. Maybe he thought that meant she was stupid and would be easy to kidnap. Yep, that was totally it. She raised her chin at him again, once more trying to look down her nose at him. She still wasn't scared of him, that much was true, but that didn't mean she couldn't be suspicious. She was suspicious about almost everything, after all, but she wasn't scared of any of it.

Why do you write instead of speak?

Echo took control of the pencil again, not batting an eye anymore about Lani using it telekinetically. It had become normal for him to use a pencil telekinetically to talk, so there was no reason for her to think it was weird.

"Kids aren't supposed to talk to strangers," she wrote. "I just talk to friends." She nodded seriously as she loosed her grip of the pencil again. Her hand was starting to get tired. Usually conversations with grown-ups didn't last this long, not unless they were on her list. Grown-ups got weirded out by her method of communication. Of course, those grown-ups that thought that never ended up on her list. In the back of her mind, she wondered if stranger-guy would end up on her list ever. Maybe, if he didn't end up being a creeper. Only maybe. That list consisted of prospective friends, out of which she would eventually pick someone who it was okay to talk to. Once a year someone got picked. That was her rule.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani sobered, taking her question more seriously than he’d taken her previous ones. It was a valid question. Lani wished he’d had that sort of caution when he was here age, he would have been a completely different person. If circumstances had not been so desperate perhaps he would have been. He fixed her with a piercing and serious gaze. “I don’t think I am, but it would be foolish of you to trust that, wouldn’t it?” He’d probably done very little then to give her a reason to relax. Lani knew better than to trust anyone, and it seemed this girl was well on her way to not trusting anyone. He raised a brow interested in her response to that one. She was absolutely right to be wary of him. Lani was a protector and he’d do everything he could to protect someone, though this girl, he thought, didn’t seem to need any protecting.

It was a little hypocritical of Lani but he liked to know things about people and he liked people to trust them, but getting him to share anything personal was like pulling teeth out of a lion’s mouth and he found trusting people the hardest thing to do. Hell, he was still learning how to trust Odion and if there was one person he trusted most if was Odion. It had not been an easy road to get to this point and several months ago that trust had been shattered along with his heart. Now Odion was back and it had been a couple of months and Lani was more confused than ever. His heart told him to trust and his head told him to take everything Odion said with a grain of salt. Trust was not something that Lani was good at, and he could respect her distrust in him, even if he didn’t like it.

“Ah,” Lani nodded appreciating the answer. He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them he was looking out the windows adjacent to the chair. “Good philosophy,” the pencil moved across the page, Lani’s eyes stared unseeingly out the window as the pencil moved. “So, then you wouldn’t define this as speaking? We’re exchanging ideas, in the form of a dialogue.” He turned his eyes back to her a light in his eyes that gave him a bit of an impish appearance. Give Lani a philosophical question like this and he was bound to go on for hours. It was no wonder Odion got frustrated with him, no one could quite beat a dead horse like Lani could.

Lani shifted his pile of books as he twisted in the seat. Rearranging them in his lap as he curled a leg under himself, clearly Lani wasn’t looking to leave anytime soon and well, another lesson for the girl to leave, never make a hiding place that you could be trapped in. Though if she really had the mind to do so, he supposed she had already borrowed her power, it wouldn’t have been out of his capacity to take himself and this chair out of the window. Perhaps she would think of it, perhaps not. Until then, Lani was finding this conversation interesting and this little girl reminded him of his sister, innocent and yet so wise, perhaps she wasn’t so innocent anymore, but Lani was going to let himself think so.

[Echo Waverly]

Echo nodded in response to the stranger-guy's answer. "Yes, it would be foolish," she wrote, mimicking the last word. It was probably silly to even ask him if he was a creeper anyway-- it wasn't as if a creeper would admit to being creeper-ish. But if he was a creeper, then he would probably be less likely to do something now that he knew she was onto him. Ha, so it hadn't been silly to ask. It'd been very smart of her.

Yes, she was good at being smart. Being smart and protecting herself. Because of course she was totally good at protecting herself. She had to be, right? Because almost-teenagers were independent, and being independent meant being good at protecting themselves. And she had to follow these rules because she was an almost-teenager, so independent she would be.

As the stranger-guy wrote, Echo tripped up on one word. "Philosophy" it was spelled. Puh-hil-osop... hai...? hee? The bad thing about writing everything, often she would come across a word she either didn't know how to spell, or didn't know how to read. Of course, she did have a good reading and spelling vocabulary, considering, but that didn't mean she knew everything. She frowned and jabbed the word with her pencil, looking expectantly up at him and projecting a very clear air of, "define this weird word you just wrote".

"No, it isn't talking. Talking is with your mouth." She gave a serious nod, then added, "Duh" for better emphasis. Duh. Everyone should know that, even a creeper-stranger-guy. Because yes, until proven not, he was most definitely a creeper. And still a stranger, obviously, since she hadn't decided upon his being her friend. Such decisions couldn't be made lightly, of course. Definitely not.

She watched the stranger man as he twisted around and rearranged himself. It didn't seem he was planning on going anywhere. Hmph. Libraries weren't for talking to people, writing or not. Didn't he know that? She guessed not, and took it upon herself to inform him of his error. "Why are you not reading? That's what libraries are for." Some people just didn't know the rules...

[Lani Hunter]

Lani would be very proud if he knew how much she was analyzing his answers. She would definitely be a child after his own heart. Suspicious feelings were always to be trusted, but outwardly ignored. Etiquette would come with time, Lani knew. Now, normally it would be this time in the conversation where someone would likely get irritated or insulted by the question, but Lani was one of those curious people who wanted to know about this girl, just for the sake of the mystery. Lani was in the business of theft and he was, at least he liked to think, still the best in the business at selling information. One might think that because he was going to community college and looking forward to a goal outside of thievery he’d given up on his trade. One would be very wrong. His freedom from his boss had brought out a new person and he honed his skills proudly and made a hefty sum off of his jobs.

He was still willing to bet that he was the best there was at sneaking in and out of a room undetected. He might not be the best pick pocket, like Odion, but he could pass through a safe like water and leave without disturbing the air, save leaving a little space for it to spread out now that he’d emptied said safe. They’d come up with all sorts of technology and well, there still remained a lock that would beat him. With his telekinesis, it wasn’t likely there would ever be one, but he had exceptional pride in his ability to fool any lock by hand. He pulled his mind away from his thoughts, he wasn’t looking to sell her information, but he certainly had gotten his curiosity hooked.

Matching her gaze he stared fearlessly into her icy blue eyes, reading her expression of confusion and interest. It was the interest that struck him. She wanted to know what it meant, she wasn’t just going to sit there and pretend like she knew what it was or that she didn’t care that much. That made Lani smile, meeting a young curious mind was always exciting. “Philosophy,” he whispered vocally to her, “It is the way of things.” He started and then glanced out the window, that was a terrible description. He tried again. “It is the way that people see things, your fundamental beliefs. It’s the questions like ‘why’ that we have no answers too.” He smiled his enthusiasm as he spoke revealed his rarely shown passion. “It’s all of the questions about the world that we think we know and how we know it. It’s why you write your thoughts to me and I write back… but am speaking now,” he added looking into space as he considered his speech now.

“I suppose I broke the rule,” he wrote giving her a sheepish look. He snickered, she was definitely an interesting child and he commended her for sticking to her guns. She didn’t want to speak vocally that was her choice, and no amount of nagging was going to change that. Lani knew better, he knew how he would feel if badgered and especially if she was a telekinetic as well, he knew what kind of issues that could cause… He shuddered to think about the last time he’d lost control. It had actually been a damn good thing he’d gotten his head smashed that time, he wasn’t… himself when he was letting his power fully rage. It was so full of emotion and Lani did his best to keep it at bay but anger surged through him and it blinded him.

He raised a brow. “Are you so sure?” he challenged. Personally, if Lani couldn’t find a corner that was both comfortable and kept it so there was no way someone could possibly sneak up on him, he wasn’t going to be reading in public. “You used your power first,” he added with a sly smile and let the pencil drop out of his mental grasp, the constant dull throw was starting to amplify and Lani dug into his pocket for his pills. He just dumped several in his hand and turned away from her to take them, behind the chair back so she wouldn’t see. It wasn’t that Lani didn’t think he should be taking pills but it was more that he didn’t want her to know how much a burden this power was, especially since she was a telekinetic, that would certainly discourage her. He coughed and shook his head feeling the pills go down and felt them rushing relief to his head.

[Echo Waverly]

Philosophy... The "why" questions and how people see the world. Echo mused over this as she listened intently to stranger-man, processing the new word and stowing it away for later. Because she would definitely use it later-- it was silly to know a word and not use it. She'd also have to look the word up in the dictionary next time she was in her room, just to make sure she had a good grasp of the word. Because as much as she liked new words, she didn't like to use them wrong, either.

I suppose I broke the rule, he wrote next, surprisingly reverting back to writing. She hadn't had many people go along with her writing, fewer still had stuck with it this long. "It isn't your rule," she wrote, wrinkling her nose. "So you can't break it." No, it was her rule. So only she could break it, of course. No one else had the rule of not talking out loud until they decided on a friend. At least, not that she knew of. Most people didn't talk because they were broken somewhere, not because they decided not to.

"Yes, I am sure." She wrote before looking seriously up at Stranger-Man. She held the pencil securely as it went limp again, and she frowned at the words about using her power. He disappeared behind the back of the couch, pricking Echo's curiosity. What was he doing? She shifted so she was sitting up on her knees, in an attempt to see what he was doing. But by then he was just shaking his head after coughing. "Are you sick?" She didn't want to get germs... Or to get sick. She hated doctors with their creepy needles and shots.

Only then did she address the other issue, the one she'd been about to when he disappeared behind the chair. "And I only did that with your power because you scared me." She wrinkled her nose at him. Paused to think. No, "scared" wasn't really the right word. She erased and replaced it with, "startled". That was more accurate. She considered the other part of the sentence as well, the "did that with your power" part. Maybe it would have been better to just say "my power", but she didn't feel like erasing all that, and anyway, he'd probably already read it. She sat back on her heels and scrutinized his face, watching for his reaction. Give it a couple minutes, she figured, and she'd be explaining about her stupid power that couldn't decide what it was. It was the most frustrating thing in the world that it wouldn't just sit and behave itself like everyone else's power. No, it just had to be one more thing that made her different.

Not that different was bad, she guessed. Everyone else was so disorganized it was a wonder they could operate.