AU: A Church is Burning (Karalie)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

((OOC: This occurs in the same universe as the 2014 thread, “AU: New Kid Blues.” Sean is a student at contemporary Hammel, and, as background, his only friend is Josh, who moved from New York and does not attend Hammel.))


Sean’s present year at Hammel was better than any of the past years, which he attributed entirely to the fact that he had a friend.

Only one. Someone who did not even attend school with him, but a friend nonetheless.

The teenage telepath had not had a friend since manifesting his powers at the tender age of twelve. Instead, he had been shunned by his peers. All of them. His roommates disliked him for his power slip-ups, for his powers themselves, and for his quiet personality which fit poorly into the general rowdy atmosphere of the school. For years.

He had Josh now, and he looked forward to going over to the other boy’s house after classes and on weekends. Josh’s parents treated him kindly, and his own parents had been so excited by the fact that he had a real friend that they sent him money to spend on the two of them, particularly when they learned about Josh’s parents’ financial misfortune.

However, the telepath couldn’t spend all of his time with Josh, and Josh wasn’t allowed to visit campus. Sean still had school and training sessions and curfew, and the clubs that he participated in.

School included home economics, where he had been assigned a flour sack and a female counterpart to be his co-parent. They had to make it through an entire week without misery befalling the sack. They had to name it and decorate it, and treat it like a baby.

In some ways, he didn’t mind, since he liked children. In other ways, this was a ridiculous exercise.

And he had been assigned to partner with Karalie Heise.

[Karalie Heise]

This weather was getting out of hand.  At this point Karalie was used to the snow, it certainly snowed plenty in Vermont, but that didn't mean she enjoyed it.  At least they were good about clearing and salting the roads, which came with their own set of problems.  The salt was messy and stained the pants of her jeans.  Even when she tucked them into her boots, the salt managed to ruin the boots instead.  Worst part was it wouldn't even begin warming up for another couple months.  In theory April was when it began to thaw, but in her experience it wasn't until the end of April that things tarted to look better, and then it was the rainy season.  At this point she was simply ready for summer.  But it wasn't summer.  It was nearly midterm time which meant every teacher was jumping on the report train.  Every teach, of course, except Home Economics. 

Karalie supposed in the grand scheme of things, her Home Ed project could be worse.  Dressing a sack of flour up like a baby?  That didn't seem all that bad.  Well, except for the fact they were doing it with partners, and naturally the teacher picked their partners for them.  She was assigned Sean Neville. Sean. Freaking. Neville.

Karalie had no real problems with the kid.  He was quiet, but whatever, so what.  What she had a problem with was his power.  It was no secret Sean could read minds and she didn't like her privacy invaded anymore than anyone else did.  She resented the teacher for placing her with him, but she vowed to spend as little time with Neville as possible.  She didn't need him sorting through her brain like it was his own personal Rolodex, she just needed a good grade on this project.


"Let's make it uh girl." She insisted as they set their sack-baby down.  "I like Olivia. That's a pretty name." She looked at her partner, doing her best not to think negative things about him, or anything, not that it mattered.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

It had taken Sean years to learn to accept his telepathy, and to grow to like it. He did like it, most of the time, even though everyone around him disliked it. Even his closest friend – his only friend – didn’t know that he could read minds. He had yet to tell his friend that Hammel was a school for meta-human youth, but he intended to do so as soon as he found the words for it.

He dreaded that, because he did not want to see Josh become like everyone else around him. Fearful. Judgmental. Filled with disdain and dislike when he had done nothing except exist and possess the powers that he did.

Working closely with Karalie brought him face-to-face with yet another person who had no desire to work with him due entirely to his telepathy. For this reason, Sean dreaded group projects and partnership projects; he preferred to work alone, because he did not resent his own existence.

Yet here they were.

With the flour sack down on the table, he turned to look at Karalie. “We can make her a girl.” He always envisioned having a daughter.

Then Karalie suggested the name she liked. Truthfully, he didn’t care for the name Olivia, but he had not survived at Hammel this long by arguing with people. Choosing not to vary from that survival strategy, he simply nodded, picking up his assignment sheet and writing “Olivia” down on the flour sack name. “Olivia is fine. Should we hyphenate her last name?”

[Karalie Heise]

She was a little surprised with how easy he agreed to her suggestions.  Didn't even try to counter with another name, simply wrote it down which told her he probably wasn't going to be much help on the project.  She was fine with that; she would gladly do the whole thing on her own if it meant not having to deal with Sean and risk a poor grade.  She could pass the flour sack off to him now and then, but it would be best for Olivia to probably stay in her care.  He'd probably drop or something equally stupid.

"Goodness, no." Her nose wrinkled at the thought of hyphenating Neville and Heise.  Olivia Heise-Neville sounded stupid and was a mouthful.  Besides, she didn't like breaking from tradition, it seemed silly to her.  "Olivia Neville is jus' fine." She insisted, writing the name down on her own paper.  Naturally the baby should have its fathers name, that's simply how it was meant to be.  Not that she would ever have a baby with Sean Neville for real.  She supposed he wasn't a bad looking kid, but not having secrets from your partner? Any good woman held a few secrets from her husband.  It was healthy, or so her momma said.

"Alright, so how ya'll wanna work this custody business?" She asked, eyeing him with a raised brow.  Surely he didn't expect to hang out all the time all because of a sack of flour, did he? Were they even supposed to? She had a life, after all.  "I can take it most've th'time if yah want, but if we're meant tuh treat it like uh real baby yer gon' havetuh take it when I have track practice an' meets." She explained, tapping the tip of her pen against her paper. "You in any clubs or anythin'?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean also didn’t argue about that either. He had his father’s last name without hyphenation, but he had wanted to make the offer. He didn’t like to run roughshod over people, particularly not regarding social customs. Instead, he wrote “Neville” at the end of the name Olivia on his paperwork. Now their flour sack had a name. That was a start.

“I don’t see why we shouldn’t split custody 50/50.” That made the most sense to Sean. Either they viewed this as a school assignment, at which point they should each do half of the work and collaborate; or they viewed this as a custody arrangement for a child, at which point they each should spend half the time with their flour sack baby because a child should have two engaged parents if at all possible.

That would be easiest, since the telepath had no expectations that they would spend any time together. They ran in different circles.

Rather, Karalie had a circle. Sean had a dot.

That dot was his best friend.

His best friend might think the project a little weird but would probably help him out with it. At the very least, it would be easy to watch the baby while taking walks and playing video games with Josh; both boys preferred sedate activities.

At the question, he shrugged slightly. “The Peer Mediators.” Which came as a surprise to none of his teachers, although most students paid him so little attention when not glaring at him with suspicion that he knew they gave no thought to how he might spend his free time. “And the Multicultural Club, but those both involve a lot of sitting and talking instead of running.”

[Karalie Heise]

She considered his extra curriculars, pushing her lips to the side and patting her pen against the paper still.  It wasn't like the baby would actually make noise since it was simply a bag of flour, so it wouldn't matter if they brought it to club meetings.  She was relieved the school hadn't bothered investing in those dreadful newborn dolls she'd heard of and seen in movies.  Just the thought of carrying around a doll that could cry our wet itself at any time frustrated her.  She'd go and have a baby when she was good and ready and not a moment sooner.  Best part of abstinence was not getting knocked up when you weren't ready.  God would give her a child when the time was right, she was sure of it.  This was just some strange practice.

"Fine, we'll do 50/50.  How's about I do today, tomorrow an' Wednesday, then we can meet up at th'track on Thursday after school or somethin' an' trade off.  Then you keep it till Monday. That sound alrigh'?" It would work out well for her since she had track after school on Thursday anyway.  "We'll coparent or whatever durin' class."  So far she was setting all the rules, and she was alright with that.  She didn't expect him to speak up much, he didn't normally.  It was probably his best quality.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean, too, felt glad that the school had not chosen to buy or distribute the realistic newborn baby dolls. Aside from being unnecessarily expensive, his dormitory would quickly grow miserable if filled with inconsolable baby dolls. He slept poorly enough as it was, and the thoughts of dozens of irritated boys, upset about a school project, would only exacerbate his headaches, undermining the progress he had made with maintaining mental shields.

Best to avoid that completely. He could handle a sack of flour. Even the least motivated boy in his dormitory could handle a sack of flower.

Likewise, he also hoped for children one day, but not as a teenager, and not with Karalie Heise. He didn’t know who he would meet in life, but he hoped he would find someone to settle down with and start a family with, by biology or through adoption. However, as devout a Catholic boy as he was, he attributed none of those possibilities to the Lord’s intervention. The course of his life was his responsibility.

The telepath nodded again, accepting those parameters, both for co-parenting and for when they would exchange the flour sack baby. “That’s fine, but...” He had to say this for the sake of offering, and because he was fine with taking this on. “If we need to do anything outside of class, I’m around today, tomorrow, and Wednesday.” He wouldn’t dump this in her lap completely, leaving her entirely on her own for the next three days.

[Karalie Heise]

But? Why would he have a but? As he explained she slowly nodded.  She wouldn't need him, not for carrying around a five pound bag of powder, but it was nice he offered at least.  "I think I'll manage just' fine." She offered with a too sweet smile, something that lingered with her from her pageant days.  
At the end of class the pair parted ways and when Karalie saw Sean the following day in class she informed him that she would need to switch off a day early.  To make up for it she volunteered to get Olivia on Sunday if he wanted.  She had made plans with friends and though she knew she could keep the sack at home, she didn't want to chance being busted without it if she was on watch.  Plus she knew Sean would know she did that and she wasn't sure if he would care or not.  Still, it was both their grades and she respected him enough not to neglect their pretend child.

When her partner failed to show up the following day she found herself a little miffed.  Why wasn't he in class? Did he ever miss class?! Karalie wasn't entirely sure.  Either way she realized she would either have to leave the sack at home or carry it around with her. Neither were favorable options and she couldn't help but resent her partner a little for putting her in this position.  Not once did she worry if he was sick or injured.  If he was out of class it wasn't her business and he'd be back tomorrow.  Probably.. but if he wasn't Karalie knew she'd end up with Olivia until Friday, doing the assignment mostly on her own.  That wouldn't bother her so much if she didn't already come to expect help from Sean.

When class let out Karalie trudged from the room into the hallway.  Stupid heavy sack..  She should invest in some sort of carrier.  Honestly, that was probably the worst part about all of this; carrying the damn thing around.  At least real babies could sit in carriers and stuff.  She should repurpose an old backpack into one of those baby chest carrier thingemabobers.  That was an idea.

All those thoughts swam through her head when her eyes landed on a familiar face.  "Hey!" She called out.  "Why weren'tcha in class? We were supposed tuh switch off, remember?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean had agreed to take Olivia early, on Wednesday rather than Thursday. It made no difference to him, since he had little to do outside of class and his couple of extra-curricular activities. Josh was busy during the week, just as he was, and their time together happened mostly on the weekends. He had not asked Karalie to pick up Olivia on Sunday rather than Monday, because he considered taking the extra day simply part of partnership and part of parenthood; there was no need to inconvenience her.

He had a sweatshirt with a big pouch in the front where he could carry the flour sack baby for the rest of the day.

However, gym class prevented hi m from going to home economics to make the exchange with Karalie. Or to attend for his grade.

Rather, an event after gym class had resulted in him curled up in the locker room, throwing up until he had nothing left inside of him. Afterward, he had slumped to the floor, laying his too-hot cheeks on the cool tiles and ignoring the boys who walked around him, changing before they went out to run laps.

He accepted his powers. Most days, he liked his powers. But there were times...

The memory remained burned in his brain, where it would remain forever. He had yet to dispose of a single memory that he touched, accidentally or on purpose. He lost his own memories as was typical of a teenage boy, forgetting things on occasion, but these...scars, every last one of them.

By the time he felt well enough to leave the locker room, he had missed half of class. He had tried to make an emergency appointment with his trainer, but that had gone nowhere.

Then he had ended up missing all of class. , With the hood of his sweatshirt pulled tightly over his head, as though that symbolic barrier would do anything for his brain, he shuffled off in the direction of his next class, only to find himself confronted by Karalie in front of the fountain in the courtyard.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and his voice was hoarse. If he looked half as bad as he felt, someone might accuse of him spreading the zombie virus.

[Karalie Heise]

His apology was soft, and perhaps she had been mistaken but it sounded like his throat was sore.  Was he sick? If he was sick then she better keep the flour baby.  She would deal with it.  She didn't need him contaminating the damn thing, and besides, he probably wouldn't be up to the project anyway.  She could be cold and callous but she wasn't always a bitch, and Neville wasn't her favorite person, but he'd never been cruel. Unless reading her mind without her permission could be considered cruel, and even then she wasn't entirely sure if it was intentional.  Hell, she herself had a hard time controlling her ability, which she supposed on some level wasn't much better than his.  How many times had she unintentionally invaded someones privacy? More times than she cared to think about.  

"It's alright." She drawled, the edge free from her voice now.  "Are ya'll okay? Cause if yer sick I can take Liv.  Really, it's not uh big deal.  I can handle th'project, yah don' need tuh do this if yer not up for it." And she wouldn't pull any of that he didn't pull his weight bullshit that some kids might do.  "Cuz seriously? Yah kinda look like shit." She realized as soon as she said it that might be taken the wrong way and she held her hand up.  "I don' mean that nasty like, yah just.. yer sorta pale is all."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean shook his head, not to answer her question but instead to wave off any concern she had. “I can take her,” he promised, his voice barely above a whisper. Although he felt terrible, he was long-used to his power side effects, and he knew how to cope with them. One way or another, he could manage, and none of that had any bearing on his ability to watch a flour sack, even one that they had named and were supposed to love as though it was their baby.

However, as soon as she handed their flour baby to him, he would find somewhere to sit down, possibly his dormitory room. His roommates never interacted with him one way or another, which guaranteed privacy and silence.

He needed silence.

“It’s okay,” he rasped. He took no offense to what she said, because he felt just as terrible as that. He could only imagine what he looked like, having spent the past twenty-plus minutes on the floor of the boy’s locker room.

Then, because he heard the thought about contagiousness, he added, “I’m not sick.” Not sick in a way that implied a virus, a bacteria, or some sort of infection. Trust being a doctor’s son to instill him with that level of mental precision for illness. “It’s just...it’s just been a bad day.”

He didn’t talk much about his powers. The rumor mill did enough of that for him. That most of it was wrong meant nothing, since most people preferred the rumors to asking him about them directly.

[Karalie Heise]

Bad days didn't make a person look like that, and Karalie didn't know if she believed him or not.  Would he just say that to get rid of her? She found it odd to think someone might want to get rid of her, when usually it was the other way around.  Especially certain people, present company most likely included. At least most of the time.

Karalie was a curious girl by nature, but she didn't really like to probe, not unless there was a juicy story to be told.  In that case she would push until she got what she wanted.  It was the southern way.  Her momma did it, and all her friends did it too.  Gossip was key among friends; whoever had the best was like some sort of queen.  At least that's how it was back home, in little old Mississippi.  Things were different there and gossip didn't seem to hold as much weight unless it was serious.  Like your boyfriend cheating on you.  Somehow that had gotten around and quick.

"Look, it ain't none've my business what's going on with yah, an' I don' expect ya'll tuh tell me, but if yer really not sick, ya'll should consider talkin' tuh someone."  Karalie remembered when she walked around like a zombie those days after finding out about Lucas and that slut and the inevitable breakup argument that followed.  It had been the lowest point in her life up until that point.  She licked her lips and hugged the sack to her chest, unwilling to give it up just yet.  "Less ya'll wanna talk? Cause.. I mean I got uh minute."  Was she seriously asking Sean Neville to bear his heart? What was coming over her?

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean didn’t gossip.

Before manifesting his powers, he had viewed gossip as sinful, and thus he had avoided it. More than that, he had considered it hurtful as well. Now that he was a telepath, he considered gossiping to be unfair and a violation of privacy. Nobody provided him with their secrets willingly; as a result, he owed them the utmost privacy and the highest level of confidentiality that he could provide.

He did his best. Barring power slips, he succeeded, or at least he thought he did.

Talking about himself did not qualify as gossip, although the opportunity felt just as foreign. Except for Josh, and for his parents, nobody ever displayed the slightest interest in what happened to him. Even with Josh, he couldn’t tell him the truth, which hurt because he wanted to open up to his best friend, especially when the other boy had come out of the closet to him. He felt floored by the fact that Karalie would ask what was wrong, given that she didn’t like him that much.

One of the many dubious fringe benefits of telepathy: he always knew what other people thought about him.

Feeling fatigued, he looked around for the nearest bench and, finding it nearby, gestured vaguely toward it. He didn’t want to be rude, but he also needed to sit. With that, he crossed to the bench, all but collapsing onto one side of it so he could rest.

It felt good to be off his feet. Even though he had only been standing for a little while, it felt good not to stand anymore.

Hunching forward to rest his head in his hands, he spoke hoarsely, “It gets overwhelming sometimes.”

[Karalie Heise]

She was a little surprised when Sean gestured towards a bench.  Did he really want to talk? She didn't expect him to take her up on it, not that she really minded all that much.  She had offered after all, but it struck her as odd that someone who was normally so very quiet would want to open up to her, someone who, well, wasn't.  Not always.

She sat on the opposite side of the bench, sliding her bag to the ground.  Her ankles were crossed, her knees pointing to him as she sat straight and looked over at him, focusing more on his knees than his face.  It felt weird to watch him if he wasn't watching her.  Olivia remained on her lap, propped there like a sack of flour, which of course she actually was.

His sentence was short, but held a great deal of meaning, and suddenly Karalie understood all too well what was going on.  Her brows furrowed and she looked down to the faux baby in her lap.  It did get overwhelming sometimes.  She knew then Sean probably didn't intentionally invade minds, same way she didn't.  She had little control over her ability to absorb memories and she hated doing it, hated what it did to her, hated how it made her view the people she was supposed to care for.  It was the reason she had avoided dating for so long, and part of her wondered if Sean was willing to open up to her because he knew how she struggled.  

They weren't so different, she and Sean.

"I know." her words were soft as she commiserated.  She bit her lip and then cleared her throat gently.  "Did, uh.. somethin' happen, or.. like, just in general?" She probed, though it was gently, not necessarily needing to know, but attempting to be supportive.  If anyone knew how horrible a memory based power could be, it was her.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Something had happened. His name was Ottavio Casangrande.

Sean could not admit that. The memories he had touched in the other boy were so personal, so terrifying, that he had not even wanted to tell his trainer the specifics; he had intended only to tell him that he had had a power slip up and needed some help with the aftermath.

Not that it had mattered, since his trainer had not had time to see him.

Sometimes, the telepath feared that he would never graduate because of how much he had to cope with alone. Other times, he thought that, if he actually managed to graduate, he would have excellent control over his powers, due to the sink or swim method of training he received.

Sean ran his fingers through his hair, a self-soothing gesture that worked more often than it didn’t, although nothing had helped with this barrage of memories thus far.

Perhaps he and Karalie had that in common. He didn’t know the specifics of anyone else’s training, but he knew other people’s powers, and he knew their struggles. He knew Karalie’s powers were often as much of a burden as his, albeit for somewhat different reasons.

“I slipped up,” he admitted hoarsely. That was as much as he could say, because anything else was to invade Ottavio’s privacy, and he had already done enough of that.