Power Swap: OHMAHGAWD

[Jared Park]

Jared promptly returned the tight squeeze Ann gave him. That is, until he felt something odd. He was expecting a full blow of fears the moment Ann’s arms touched his (he was only returning the favor in an effort to act a bit more normal and remove his thought from the matter) and he was surprised when he felt nothing. None. Not even a weak stray fear. It’s as if Ann was then, nothing. It confused him really. He couldn’t be the one responsible for that, especially since he could still feel Anna’s fears and those around them (albeit a bit weaker). Then it hit him. Ann was talking about being some sort of a telepath, right? Could it be possible that she’s sensed his (or his powers’) prodding and suddenly heightened her defense? (So far, no matter how odd it may seem, the suddenly ‘blankness’ of Ann’s fear reading gave Jared hope that he can possibly control his urges, or it is possible to appear blank to his ‘fear’ sense).

He politely backed off from the hug, giving Ann one final squeeze (he’s not scared of touching her anymore, for the moment) before releasing his hold. “Thanks Ann,” said Jared, “I’m glad you’re happy with your newfound power. I really am.” Well, part of him is. Another part of him is envious because of the good fortune she’s apparently having while Jared’s suffering. While he knew it wasn’t really that healthy of a thought, especially since Ann’s a nice friend, he just can’t help it (much like his urges). He’s human after all.

When Anna mentioned something about the level of control, he unconsciously tilted his head, giving the other girl a look of confusion at the same time enlightenment. Jared sees himself as having fairly decent control over his new powers (as he transforms willingly) and the urges as ‘simple’ side effects; he never tried seeing the urges as part of his power, not as a side effect (if that made any sense). Not that he had a lot of time studying about his new power, but he thinks he should’ve known better. “I hope I can control it soon, I don’t know how long I can live like this,” he shrugged, “Do you think this’ll be permanent?”

Letting his guard down (against his urges) when he couldn’t get a ‘reading’ on Ann was a bad idea, a bad idea indeed. As he was busy talking with the two girls, the ‘fingers’ of his powers were busy crawling up and about, slowly peering into Anna’s head, slowly filling the little boy the urge to transform and munch on all the emotions the old dreamwalker had.

[Ann Hudgins]

Ann was blissfully unaware of what happened when she touched Jared. She didn't have a clue that she somehow blocked him out, or that he was even sensing her in anyway. She was just happy to be able to hug him without falling to the ground and near about spasming. When he squeezed her back, she smiled a little to herself. She really had missed human contact, even something so mundane as a hug. When he dropped his arm, she respectfully did the same thing, though she had been perfectly content with where she was. She stepped away a little bit and smiled. "You're welcome," she replied as he thanked her.

When he said he was happy for her, she smiled a bit more. She was too, too happy for words. If Ann had been aware of his other half of thinking, Ann would have understood. Ann could see easily with her eyes that his new power bothered him, a lot, and she wished she knew what she could do to help him. When Anna explained about her inability to sleep, Ann felt a tad sad for the girl. Not getting a good sleep was awful. Ann remembered many sleepless nights because she had too many things running through her head from the emotions that she felt because of others. But, at least, that was in the past now. Now that she was a telepath, and while Anna didn't know what she had now, she still could sleep.

When Jared said he hoped he could control it, Ann wanted to hug him again, but it wasn't exactly appropriate for her to do so. "I'm sure you will. Maybe someone around here has the same power as you, and they can give you tips and stuff on how to control it better," Ann suggested as she mused about his power. She was still curious to exactly why it bothered him so much, but it was his business and if he wanted to explain why, than she'd let him without picking it out of his brain.

Just the notion that she could do that, if she wanted too, was more than enough to put her off the idea. It was wrong to pry like that. And she's somehow managed to keep her mental headphones on so that she couldn't hear their every little thought. When he asked if they thought it was permanent, Ann elected to stay quite. She didn't want her power to change back, but poor Jared was suffering from it and she didn't want to alienate him, or make him feel even worse about his power. Ann certainly wasn't one to brag about anything. She simply shrugged, there really was no way of telling.

[Annaleigh Valentine]

When Jared asked if they thought it would be permanent, Anna just bit her lip. She wanted it to be permanent, but she definitely couldn’t say that to him could she? “I don’t know, it might be, but we won’t know until it either stops or continues.” She said. What else could she say, it wasn’t a definite answer but it still kinda answered the question in a strange way.

Anna was pretty happy today, much happier than she usually was because of the good nights sleep. Then she saw something strange. Frowning she glanced over and saw her father (Adopted running towards her), he looked worried. “Dad?” She asked curiously not moving from where she was. It was strange. He hadn’t really ever come here, so she was confused.

Then she saw someone else behind him, her real father. Her eyes went wide as she realised, and she backed away, only a step. Almost ten years since she’d seen him, things were not going to be good. When they got close enough she saw her real father grin at her. “We’ve been looking for you.” he said slowly before he grabbed her ‘dad’ and started beating him up.

At this point Anna was terrified. She backed away, stumbling slightly like they did in horror films, too scared to let her legs move properly. Falling down backwards, Anna put her hand out behind her to brace herself for the fall but there was a definite snapping sound as her hand hit the hard floor. She gasped out in pain but was too scared to actually scream. Her real father was here, how had he found her? And there he stood, with her adoptive father’s beaten up body next to his feet. Spitting at her he just smiled wickedly. “That’s your fault.” He said nudging the man’s body on the floor. He then walked away quickly, leaving Anna to sob and shake with fear.

((OOC- I don’t know if this is any good so sorry lol, muse was epic fail))

[Jared Park]

When Jared realized that his powers had been snooping into Annaleigh’s mind for quite some time now, it was all too late. His focus gone, he was exposed fully to the wonders he could get by tapping into her worst fear and draining the life out of her. Rational thinking was pushed back, way back into the deep recesses of his mind, as primal urges and animalistic urges took control. The heck with concern and control; ‘feeding’ was much more important now. True, his ‘feeding frenzy’ earlier the day had been quite the catch, but it’s been a few hours now, and he’s all but depleted. He needed to replenish his ‘energy’, and he needed it now.

His powers were more than eager to tell him which is the greatest of them all. Letting loose, Jared could feel himself shifting and changing, all of him transforming into Annaleigh’s most potent fear.

-xxx-

As expected, Jared felt unbelievably refreshed and rejuvenated after the ordeal. Smiling as he opened his eyes like someone who just woke up from a good night’s sleep, he took some time to appreciate everything around him. His hunger satisfied, he could feel his powers’ grubby fingers retreating inside him, the fears of the people around him seemingly vanishing, for the moment at least. It was great and it was lovely. That is, until he saw Annaleigh, hopelessly sprawled on the ground before him, terrified and scared.

Then the memories all came running back.

“Oh Lord, good Lord. It happened again,” he said, quickly going down on his knees, cautiously approaching Annaleigh’s side. He wasn’t sure if she knows it was he who did it, but still. “A-are y-you alright?” his eyes tearing as he realized what he had done. Of course she wasn’t alright, he thought, She just had her greatest fear played out in front of her and you even gained from it. You’re a monster Jared, a monster.

He then remembered he heard some kind of snapping sound. He isn’t fully aware when he’s in his ‘boggart’ mode, but he swore he heard something ‘break’. Then he saw her arm. This was definitely not part of the plan. “Oh gosh, is your arm ok? Gosh. I’m s-sorry. I d-didn’t m-mean t-to s-scare y-you,” he said, consciously trying to stop the tears. He was a monster, and monsters don’t cry. They are scary and are killed. They have no friends.

He was tempted to simply run away, to hide from Ann and Annaleigh forever. But no, he should take responsibility for what had happened. “I-it w-was m-me…s-sorry.” Sorry couldn’t bring back the past. Sorry wouldn’t heal Annaleigh. Sorry wouldn’t make things better. But unfortunately, that’s the only thing Jared could do right now.

[Ann Hudgins]

When Anna asked about her dad, as if seeing him, Ann's brows furrowed. The first inkling that something was wrong started to tickle at the back of her brain, but she just figured that maybe the girl had mistaken him from someone else out in the courtyard. Ann looked around, maybe to see if she could locate him, if he was even there at all, or if Anna had just mistaken him or something. However she didn't see anyone but students out among the lawn and when she turned back to Anna to ask her why she said that, the girl took a step back, as if something she saw scared her.

Ann turned her head and followed the girl's line of sight, but she didn't see anything at all, nothing that would cause someone to look frightened. Then when Anna fell, she turned and tried to catch her, or in the least take some weight out of her fall. The girl didn't seem to know how to catch herself properly in a fall so she wasn't injured, but now was not the time to tell her about it. "Anna? What's the matter? Talk to me." Ann didn't like the feelings in the air any less than she liked the sound of Anna's wrist when she fell. She hoped it wasn't broken, because that would just suck all around. She crouched next to her and her hands fluttered about the collapsed girl, when the things that Jared said reached her ears. Ann was sorry too, for whatever happened but she wasn't apologizing for it. Why was Jared apologizing for...whatever happened? It really didn't make sense but he finally stammered out that it was him that caused her to be scared and fall. "...What....did you do?" Ann asked, her discomfort was on her face, she really didn't want this to be happening right now.

She looked down at Anna, and she reached out with her new power and quickly flickered through the girl's recent thoughts like pages in a book. She saw the man, and the other man get beat up...what he said. Ann didn't know who those men were, but she guessed one was her father, since she had called out 'dad' before. She frowned as she sat back on her heals, Jared's new power was scary indeed, even though she didn't understand it completely, she understood that his power transformed into something that scared the crap out of Anna.

It didn't occur to her to reinstall that shield she put up in her mind to keep the noise out, she was fretting too much.

[Annaleigh Valentine]

When Ann and Jared come over to her, Anna just looked at them, her breath ragged and her whole body shaking with fear as tears rolled down her cheeks. “You didn’t see them? They were right there how could you not see them?” She asked slowly trying to gather her thoughts. Neither of them seemed to have even noticed, Anna began to full out cry unable to stop herself. After a couple of seconds she forced herself to stop sobbing, knowing she probably looked like an idiot.

When Jared said about her arm, she just frowned slightly and looked at it. It didn’t feel too bad but she could feel a bit of pain, then when he said about scaring her she shook her head. “It didn’t have anything to do with you Jared.” She said trying to calm down, she closed her eyes and sighed pressing her lips together. She was trying to keep herself as calm as possible but she was terrified that her father would come back and try to hurt her. It was highly unlikely she’d calm down any time soon.

Looking over at Ann she glanced around and shook her head. “What if they come back?” She whispered weakly as she tried to hide the fact that she was about to burst into tears once more. She couldn’t take this, it was all just so terrifying. Her breath was still very ragged and panty, she couldn’t stop it, her eyes still leaking with tears. She just couldn’t stop. Pressing her lips together she began to bite at her lip, letting it bleed a bit, she didn’t really mind at this point, she was too scared.

[Jared Park]

Jared bit his lip and desperately tried to hold back his tears. I did something wrong and my response is to cry, how pathetic is that?, he thought. Being the youngest, tears had been everything for Jared. He was one of those soft and fragile kids, clumsy as hell and crying with every little scar he had. And while it was acceptable for him to cry when he was still a kid, now that he’s a teenager, it’s not, and he knows it. His siblings have tried to tell him about that but really, he just can’t stop it. Every strong surge of emotion, be it happiness or despair, buckets upon buckets will really stream down his eyes.

“Th-they weren’t r-real An-anna,” he stuttered, puffing his cheeks and breathing deeply to stop tears from trickling, making his eyes, nose and cheeks quite red. Why was he crying really? He wasn’t the victim, he was the attacker, so to speak. He’s fifteen, he should take responsibility for what he did. And while a part of him says that he should, another tells him that he shouldn’t. Why? Because it’s natural. Does the lion weep when it kills and eats a gazelle? Or a cuckoo chick when it throws its siblings’ eggs down from the nest? Scaring people out of their wits is part of who Jared is now, and really, it’s not something to be sorry about. “I-it’s a-all me.”

Then came Ann’s question. He took a deep breath to collect his thoughts, hoping to be able to explain fully how his powers work – it’s the least he can do after all. “R-remember when I t-told you m-my power’s c-creepy?” he began, his eyes darting to and fro, “I-I feed on fears now.” There. He said it. He’s a monster. Just kill him now. “Whatever you saw, it wasn’t real. J-just s-something drawn f-from your mind b-by m-my powers. I’m s-sorry.”

[Ann Hudgins]

Anna was really frazzled, and Jared was straining not to cry so hard he was red in the face. Ann was just sorta lost from all this, but she did her best to keep a handle on things. Jared admitted it was his power that did it, and while what he did really scared the crap out of Anna, Ann could easily see that he was really sorry from it. He'd already voiced his aversion to his new power, and it wasn't like he had...enjoyed it, right? However, over Anna's fearful and frantic thoughts, Ann caught snipets of Jared's, about animals and how predators don't weep for their prey, or something like that. There were a lot of voices in Ann's head at the moment and she wasn't used to a multitude of voices.

She let out one long calming breath and focused her eyes on Anna. If she'd hurt her wrist, that was the first priority. "Anna, can you move your wrist for me, please? And you're bleeding from the--" Ann gestured to her own lips, as an indication to Anna that she was biting her lips to hard and she could see a bit of blood. "Everyone just needs to keep a level head here, and remain calm. Jared didn't mean to do it, and he's sorry, and it's over now. Nothing really happened so we can all just remain calm, right?" Ann didn't like being between the two of them, but she really didn't want this to escalate. She just wanted everyone to calm down, and return the conversation to what it once was, or something similar. Why'd everything have to go to shit, hmm? It was hardly fair.

Today was going so well.

[Annaleigh Valentine]

Anna felt a little annoyed now. This wasn’t Jared’s fault yet he was insisting that it was, that what she’d seen wasn’t real. Frowning slightly she went to insist that it wasn’t his fault when Ann asked him what he did. Then he said about his power. It wasn’t real? She hadn’t seen her dad? No one was hurt? It took a while for that to sink in for Anna, but she let out a breathy laugh of relief. “Don’t worry Jared.” She said very breathlessly. “If you can’t control it I can’t blame you.” She said pushing her hair back with her hand (the one that didn’t have the pain shooting through it that is). She wanted to get up and dance with relief, it was a huge overwhelming feeling.

Licking her lip when Ann said about the blood, Anna wiped her palm against her lip then moved her arm, wincing slightly from pain. It was slowly dulling and it didn’t feel as bad as it had when she’d first landed on it. Slowly she moved her wrist gasping out in pain but continuing to do it. “It’ll be alright.” She said, not thinking about how it could be really badly hurt. It could have been a lot worse than a pain in her arm right?[/justify]