Winning Vote said:
[X] Getting Smart. More than anyone else you met, the school library has been your best friend. Even if you weren't there to read, it was quiet and never expected anything out of you. For a month, you went from your room, to class, to the library, then back to your room. It was a good life, spending most of your time...
-[X] Reading Fiction. It might not be spiritually enriching, but reading YA fiction and comedies has given your wits a sharpening that you've never had before, and detective fiction has expanded how you take in information about what you see and hear.
[X]...give him a look. He was annoying ever since introduced himself, and he refuses to give you any privacy even inside your own head. You block him out most of the time, but every once in a while he sneaks in for something stupid. This is probably that.
[X]...to help him out. Maybe it's because he's your friend or because you want something out of him later, but assisting Daniel now is bound to work out later.
-[X] {Wits + Academics, 1} Tutor him, even under pressure. It's not hard, but it is a little early to do this kind of thinking.
A/N: Ravenholm, and thus this story, largely takes place within the political borders of the United States. Just to give you an idea of the local culture.
--
[Early Morning, Jasper's Room]
You raise a single eyebrow. You're not friends. You've
been not-friends from day one, and honestly if you couldn't block him out with a simple brain flex, you'd probably report him for some kind of invasion of privacy. You have no idea why he thinks you'd help him, especially before seven in the morning. He's one of the Psychics, even worse he's one of the
Born, does he think coming to ask you for help is the Ravenholm version of 'slumming it'?! There's a reason you spent the first mo
nth by yourself; everyone who goes out of their way to talk to you only wants to antagonize you, either because they hate that you haven't suffered enough, or they want you to suffer more y o u h a t e a l l o f t h e m-
The world slowly becomes red around the edge of your perception, and you take a single shaky breath. Daniel seems to realize what's happening, shifting stance to get out of the way in case you suddenly tackle him. If you wanted to hurt him,
and you do, but it's not...right, not
reasonable. Your therapist warned you that you might have issues dealing with your anger; clearly she wasn't joking. You take another deep breath a
nd exhale slowly, relaxing your fists that you didn't realize were clenched this whole time.
You have no idea why you're going to help him. You do feel a little guilty for that rage, a bit. Daniel hasn't actually
done anything to you besides annoy you a bit, and to be honest getting a favor from somebody like him could be worth its weight in gold. You step back and open the door wider, running your other hand through your oily hair. Unless this whole thing goes amazingly well, you doubt you'll have time for a shower this morning.
"I'll...just tutor you in what I put in my paper. That sound good to you?" you ask, breaking eye contact in case he takes it as a threat and drops a payload of psychic whoop-ass.
"Thanks, man. I'll...try and make this quick," Daniel says, levelly. He brushes past you as he enters your room while you go for your bag, and you hold back a sneer as you realize he likely just read your mind. Probably to verify you weren't going to shut the door and attack him, but that's just another reason you're growing to despise Psychics like him.
Anyway, once you've pulled out your report and he's...summoned a notebook from somewhere, you settle in.
"Okay, so the first thing about-" You glance down at your report to refresh your memory, "...Vampires, is that even though there's five different kinds, they're all weak to sunlight and fire. Similarly, all Fae are weak to iron, and Werewolves have a common weakness in silver. This extends to almost every supernatural creature in Creation, but sometimes you have to work out a being's specific weakness," you begin, slowly lighting your memories up with all the different books you read in between serial novels like
Jedi Cop and
Los Angeles by Day. Your temporary student sits cross-legged on your floor- well, not
on your floor, more like floating six inches above it. His eyes have
rotated and changed from a dull brown to an icy cold blue, which you're trying not to freak out about by looking at your paper as often as possible. No big deal, you've got this.
--
Code:
Wits (4)
Academics (3)
Difficulty (1)
7d10 = {7, 7, 7, 6, 8, 2, 2}
1 Success vs Diff 1 = Pass
...Honestly, you think you've got a handle on it. Daniel's 'learning mode' isn't
that off-putting once you're used to it. Eventually you settle into a more even lecture tone, trying to get as much factual information out about supernatural abilities and weaknesses for his "superior psychic intellect" to absorb as possible. A few times you stumble or ask him a question in case he needs clarification, but if he notices any deviation from your exposition, his only response is a momentary pause in taking his (already extensive) notes. You resign yourself to just being ignored, and finish explaining everything you learned a little after 7:30. Then, the weirdest thing to happen all morning happened - Daniel's eyes
rotate again, his icy blues fading to their original muddy brown, and he grunted as he suddenly landed on your carpet like he was coming out of a trance -
Ohhhhhh.
"Huh, that's a lot." Daniel slowly stands up while looking over his notes. It really is thorough, his small handwriting filling two and a half pages of paper from a thin looseleaf. He furrows his brow as he goes over what he wrote.
"Wait, did you just write a paper about how to kill every type of supernatural except us?" He looks up at you with a measure of...respect?
"Y-yeah, I guess?" you stammer. "I mean, I wasn't
trying to, and I'd have included something about how to take down other Deviants too if the library had anything on us-" you stop as he suddenly raises a hand.
"Deviant?" he says, questioningly. You can't really detect anything in his mental tone, nor anything in his body language about why he'd care about-
Code:
Wits (4)
Empathy (2)
Difficulty (Opposed)
6d10 = {4, 10, 2, 1, 5, 4}
10-Again = {6}
?d10 = {?}
1 Success vs 0 Successes = Pass
-then you notice it. A small flash of guilt washes over him, as he closes his notebook smoothly to try and cover his slip. He shifts it to his left hand, holding it at his side, while the other hand brushes over his ear before settling on the back of his neck.
"You...call all of us Deviants, I assume?" he asks in an obviously nervous tone, like someone is going to overhear him
think it.
You give him a measured
look to tell him to get on with it
, and after a moment you hear his voice in your head again,
"Ah...well. You...haven't been one of us for very long, have you?" He sounds smaller, almost embarrassed. You shake your head, curious as to where he's going with this.
"Well...you know how many different words people use to call us what we are?" You nod, but something about his tone says you're in for a return lecture,
"From order of most to least flattering, there's Remade, Transformed, Deviant, and Broken. Most of these besides Transformed we also use to refer to ourselves, but which one you use, and in which company..." He shows a level of exasperation as you don't betray your dawning understanding on your face, forcing him to go on.
"It's like...if you call people Deviants it's like referring to everyone that isn't white as an immigrant. Not exactly a slur, but you're going to get some weird looks."
You decide to bail him out, as clearly even thinking this is making him deeply uncomfortable. "I assume calling you Psychics a group of Broken wouldn't get the most friendly of reactions."
"Yeah, no." He grimaces. You nod; That's...useful to know. Not being aware of the cliques and social cues hasn't been making you any friends, to say nothing of your self-imposed isolation. Honestly, if you only offended people
lightly, you'd be amazed. You were never exactly a social butterfly.
"Cool." you say, more as punctuation than anything else. As much as you'd like to end this interaction with an individual you don't much care for..."Hey, while I've got you here, any other...like, social tips?"
Code:
Manipulation (2)
Persuasion (1)
Bonus for tutoring (2)
Difficulty (2)
Base (1) + Poor Relationship (1)
5d10 = {5, 10, 7, 8, 7}
10-Again = {7}
2 Successes vs Diff 2 = Pass
You can see the gears turn in his head as he looks at you, the clock, out the window, and back to you. Clearly he's not any more thrilled to be in this conversation than you, but you're hoping his sense of guilt over waking you up early is stronger than his likely revulsion at speaking to a
lesser - ah, there you go again. You're not sure why your anger seems to make people sound awful, and how it sneaks up on you, but it just feels so
right sometimes. Like, of
course Daniel's a snob and better-than-thou prick, he's a Born and a Psychic, they're all like that!
Apparently, Daniel seems as though he'll be defying your unfounded impressions of him, though,
"Hm...Yeah, I guess. I'll fill you in on the way to class, we gotta run if we don't wanna have to pull punishment duty for being late." You glance at the clo-
oh shit it's 7:50 if you're late Leblanc will kill you.
You hurriedly nod as you throw your paper back in the bag, apply some deodorant, and
shift out of the open door. You haven't exactly managed to teleport consistently: you can usually jump about ten yards in the direction you want without much effort (up to thirty or forty if you try your hardest), but then you have to take a few minutes to recalibrate. If you try back-to-back shifts, sometimes you feel your brain
spark and you find yourself half the distance in a random direction, unable to teleport for
, like, an hour. Maybe you can train some of your powers after class today? You haven't really explored most of them...
You
shift down a few flights of stairs, landing on the first floor...well, landing. You look around to make sure you didn't, like, teleport directly in front of someone you didn't see (which is still a problem), before looking up and seeing Daniel float after you, telekinetic flight no match for your sporadic teleporting. You give him a two-finger wave, before idly
shifting forward and checking the announcement board by the dormitory front doors. Oh cool, school clubs are starting soon. You smile inwardly as well: that second teleport probably looked
rad and there wasn't any backlash! Maybe you could make it to class solely on teleports? You might need to, with how late you are.
"Right, so the first thing about interacting with us Born is projecting confidence. Even if you've got a weak set of powers, being happy with them and confident is key to not giving people openings to make fun of you." You're startled to hear Daniel's voice in your head again, before realizing he probably doesn't have to be near you to contact you. That's...potentially annoying.
Still, his advice is good, and with the help of judicious teleporting you make it to your seat with a minute to spare. Your brain feels tingly, but luckily your powers held out. You're surprised, normally teleporting from your dorm to class would send you into a wall. It must be a sign today's going to work out.
---
[Lunchtime, Ravenholm Cafeteria]
Jasper sits alone, again. After a decently pleasant interaction with another student, he's resolved to open up and participate in the whole 'student life' thing Ravenholm tries to go for. Not a bad plan; the school might've intervened if he kept showing antisocial behaviors. They still might, with how often that boy attends 'therapy'. Then again, maybe I'm biased. Ravenholm did kill me, after all.
I'm sure it'll work out for him; Fate always has a way of working like that. I won't lie, things are gonna get harder for you without me shielding you from people's notice, but I'm sure your 'inner ghosts' will guide you just fine.
...I'll keep an eye out, just in case.
---
After class, you've got a few hours before dinner, then it's therapy, then you usually work on homework and sleep. It's been that routine every day, week, and month since you got here, but lately you're feeling like it's time to stretch your wings. You could practice with your powers more, meet new people, maybe even join one of the ten thousand clubs on offer. You're at a loss for what to do this week, though...
# It is
The First Week Of October.
# You have
NO Required Interactions this week. (or any week.)
# You are
NOT on Mission Alert. (and in fact don't know what that is yet, other than hearing some upperclassmen talk about it)
# Choose
TWO Activities: (total, not per category)
Physical:
[ ] Work Out - You're not the most fit person in the world, maybe it's time to change that? You're pretty sure you've heard someone say "a healthy body is a healthy mind" before.
[ ] Train your Powers - You're not really confident in anything that isn't teleporting or seeing ghosts. Maybe explore some of that?
-[ ] Focus on a specific power? (Focusing will reveal more details and progress mastery faster)
[ ] Walk the Grounds - You haven't really explored Ravenholm. You know you're on an island off the west coast, and...that's about it.
Mental:
[ ] Study - There are
things you need to know. Maybe not, like, specific things, but
things nonetheless.
-[ ] Topic? If not chosen (or vetoed by me on account of it not being available) a topic will be provided randomly, or Jasper will study trivia.
[ ] Relax in the Library - It's quiet, it's familiar, and there are books. What's not to like? You might be able to catch up on the latest
Jedi Cop, if they have it in.
[ ] Help Tutor? - Tutoring Daniel wasn't all that bad, actually. Maybe you've got a knack for this? You could politely ask around the library if anyone needs help.
Social:
[ ] Join a club - You should probably do this at some point. Ravenholm (and your therapist) cares about creating a 'community', so you're gonna be expected to participate at some point.
-[ ] Martial Arts - Beating up someone with your bare hands seems silly to you when you have telekinesis, but you can never go wrong learning the basics of CQC. Which you would need to.
-[ ] Track - You heard jogging was a decent way to stay grounded - why not pursue it a little more? Plus, you're curious how teleporting is handled by the school.
-[ ] Chess - You're pretty sure Ravenholm bullies have other things to pick on people for than being a 'nerd', so this might be a cool pastime to pick up.
-[ ] Debate - It's like arguing, but with points. You're not a confrontational person by nature, but learning some speaking skills probably couldn't go amiss.
-[ ] Science - You don't really have any science-y powers, and only a passing interest in the subject to begin with, but maybe you should branch out?
-[ ] Band/Choir - Honestly, they're both the same to you: a way to make music with other people. It would definitely be a good way to meet people.
-[ ] Student Council - Not exactly a club, but you could sit in on a few sessions, maybe look for a non-elected position to help out in.
[ ] Hang Out in Public - You're not gonna lie, it'll probably look weird, but the best way to meet people is to go where the people are.