Title: _needless to SAY; a p-erfect (OPPORTUNITY)
Description: open like a rollercoaster ride
Alice Black - November 30, 2007 10:43 PM (GMT)
Alice walked through the hallways of the fourth floor of the girls' dorms, her feet making soft pad-pad noises on the floor. Occasionally, she heard squeaking, but it was a faraway squeaking, as if the sneakers that were making the sound were escaping her presence all together. She abruptly stopped, and so did the sneakers' squeaking. Suspicious. She turned around breezily; calmly, and looked back, her eyes examining absolutely everything. Then she let her gaze return to in front of her; perhaps her stalked was actually ahead. No, no one. Maybe she was hearing delusional sounds. She usually did, and in that manner she was quite crazy, hearing sounds that others did not. This, however, was not apart of her power as a shapeshifter, it was just something that came to her naturally. She could hear both the sounds that existed but yet were so faint that they were not heard and the sounds that her mind imagined in situations of distress and conflict. And, perhaps, at this moment, the reason she was imagining the squeaking of the sneakers was because she felt trapped, like a bird in a gilded cage. Yes, she was a bird, and birds were not supposed to be in cages, even if they were.
Sighing; clearing her mind promptly, Alice walked on, her eyeballs reaching the edge of her sockets, viewing all around her in case her stalker was not imaginary. She felt unsafe and uneasy, as if something bad was going to happen. It was probably just overreacting, though, because, well... she had nothing to be afraid of, right? Wrong. There are many things one has to be afraid of, even if they ARE non-existent or apparent enough to notice. Alice, once again emptying her mind, clearing it of all the fear and bad feelings, stopped by a door labeled #110. She shared that three-bedroom dorm with Zephy and Mari. Great friends to her and loyal. She searched her bag for the little silver key, and minutes later found it, hidden within a textbook. Slipping it into the lock, the key turned with a click, the door opening automatically. She didn't know why that happened sometimes, either. It wasn't her doing. Walking in, Alice closed the door behind her, happy to be in a place that she thought safe and her second home. She threw her bag lightly onto an armchair and drifted towards her room quietly.
Entering the privacy of her own bedroom, which had a private bathroom with it, as did all the other rooms on this floor, at least, Alice beamed at the calming blue walls. Every freshman, when coming to Aura, got to choose the color of their room. Of course, they could change it whenever they wanted, with help from the magical system that was installed in most parts of the school, but Alice had decided to keep the calming blue of her room, because, well, it calmed her. Lingering by the door, Alice fingered the door curtains, or whatever you called them, which were a variety of different shapes. Minutes later she decided to walk in, slowly going towards the computer. Opening her IM, she logged in and scanned the active list of users. Obviously bored, she decided to start an open group chat.
`circusTEDDYBEAR has signed on.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: hello?
`circusTEDDYBEAR: it's friday, wahoo!
`circusTEDDYBEAR: *bored* so bored, come on, anybody on here?
Zephyriah Beccaria - November 30, 2007 11:49 PM (GMT)
“So deriving a Taylor series, we take the sum of the infinite over its factorial…”
Zephyriah covered a yawn. Calculus was so boring that it hurt her brain. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it, or that she was particularly bad at math—she wasn’t, and her position in a BC calculus class affirmed as much—but the teacher had such a monotone and boring voice that she would rather watch Visine commercials all day long. She scribbled the notes onto her tablet haphazardly, more out of automation and reflex than any conscious thought. Her handwriting, usually a series of aesthetically pleasing curves, had degenerated into faintly pretty scratch.
Flipping open her laptop, Adelphie booted up her instant messenger, stopping to look back at the board and scribbling some more notes while it was loading and connecting. She sighed as she moved her fingers to the touchpad. Her head rested on her free hand, and the feeling of boredom gripped her as she glanced down her buddy list. Just as she was about to give up on any meaningful conversation, she clicked the group tab, and noticed that several group chats had a few friends inside. She double-clicked one of them, pulling up a blank text box. Her fingers moved quickly and expertly as she typed her message:
YouNeverDidLearn has entered the chat
YouNeverDidLearn: save me
YouNeverDidLearn: i’m about to fall into a coma
Alice Black - December 1, 2007 12:24 AM (GMT)
Alice waited a few moments, but no one signed on. Pushing against her desk, Alice succeeded in having her chair slide back as she jumped off and put a hand out to stop the now-halting computer chair. Sighing wistfully and with boredom, she pushed the chair gently back to where it was before the slight disturbance, and stepped out of her room. The living room/kitchen, (not a real living room/kitchen, but the girls did order a coach, some arm chairs, a coffee table, and had some other things installed into the free space: such as a microwave, a fridge, a freezer, etc. They also had a stove, which had already been there, although it had improved in its condition after they got there.) After all, breakfast was not served at Aura; you had to buy it at the store or make your own. So having cooking equipment and a kitchen really helped out with that.
Walking leisurely over to the fridge, Alice opened the door, which was taller than her. It was a big fridge. It was bigger than the one they had before they got here, but the girls had decided to get a bigger one just for the heck of it. Holding the door open with her sock-engulfed left foot, Alice slid her hand onto the shelf with drinks, and almost instantly picked out a Coke. Closing the fridge and popping the can open, Alice resumed walking back to her room. Strolling to her computer, she sat down and read the new messages. Zephy had signed on.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: zephy!!
`circusTEDDYBEAR: hey, what's up?
`circusTEDDYBEAR: lol, are you in calc. class?
Zephyriah Beccaria - December 1, 2007 12:42 AM (GMT)
She stared blankly at the computer screen, lost in her abstract background. In the text box, her messages started to fill the screen, but it had not elicited any response. She turned towards the teacher, watching as he animatedly wrote more things on the chalkboard. Several of the people in the front row began gossiping to each other, but the professor seemed too oblivious—or too detached—to notice them. It seemed that this class, like many of his other ones, was already unraveling, and she still had an hour and fifteen of the hell left to bear.
Surveying the rest of the classroom briefly, she struggled to scribble some more of his notes down from the board. Inevitably, her mind wandered the corridors of the academy, wandering about to see what the rest of the student body was up to. She eavesdropped on a few conversations that she probably shouldn’t have listened to, and she even took a minute to absorb the information from other classes. It was certainly better than her current class, where half the attendees were asleep. Zephyriah even thought about playing pranks by using her power to push around her teacher’s notes, but figured that it would be too much of a drain on her already dwindling energy.
Returning her attention the monitor, Zephyriah noticed that Allie typed a response. That was a relief, at least someone she knew was still alive.
YouNeverDidLearn: allie!
YouNeverDidLearn: physically, yes, i’m in calc
YouNeverDidLearn: mentally, i’m dying
Alice Black - December 1, 2007 12:54 AM (GMT)
Alice waited a few minutes. No new messages came; which was to be expected. Zephy, while waiting for Alice to type back, had probably become absorbed in viewing other classrooms and listening in on others' conversations. Alice, too, could do the same thing, though in physical form, and not in mental, like Zephy. Alice had the advantage of becoming anyone she wanted to become. The disadvantage, though: you had to know a bit about the person to actually be able to act like them with raising suspicion. But, that was pretty easy for Alice while she was at Aura, since, after all, she had access to the files on everybody and anybody at Aura; even the staff... Yes, official school documents. Well, that was not a surprise. After all, she was a majestic.
Alice put her feet up onto her desk, whistling lowly to herself, waiting for the familiar bing that would tell her that Zephy had replied. She looked around her room, absorbing it's tidiness and organization. Yes, if you went into Alice's room, you would probably think that a robot had done it. Everything was in place; everything was clean; everything was organized. The bed was neatly made, the desk was clear and clean, the books on the bookshelves were organized by an author's last name, the large closet was color organized, the walls held calendars, school posters, movie posters, pictures of her favorite celebrities, book posters, and, of course, a colleague or two of her friends and family. She smiled, as the sound of one... two... three! bings reached her ears. Easing her way upright, Alice stared at the screen silently, reading the three messages.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: poor, poor zephy... *hugs*
`circusTEDDYBEAR: have you been eavesdropping, just now?
`circusTEDDYBEAR: i'm so worried *shivers* and sorta scared, which is weird, i think
Zephyriah Beccaria - December 1, 2007 02:13 AM (GMT)
Zephyriah had always demonstrated remarkable maturity and control of her power. It simply wasn’t in her nature to show off at every possible opportunity. She used it frequently, yet seldom revealed her insight. On several occasions, she even changed the environment of the situations she was watching, but these, again, were rarely for her own personal gain. Instead, her most frequent use of her power had to stem from boredom, and of those circumstances, her calculus class must have been at the top of the list.
At the odd mention that she may have been eavesdropping on Allie, Zephyriah felt a tinge of choler. Perhaps it was just her natural feistiness, but the thought that she would eavesdrop on someone intentionally was a bit pretentious to her; Zephyriah rarely had the inclination to eavesdrop on anyone in particular, not unless they wronged her or otherwise piqued her interest. Still, it was her roommate and one of her best friends, so small transgressions on her ego could certainly be forgiven; Zephyriah doled them out pretty regularly.
And the fact that Allie felt scared was a little disconcerting to her. She worried that someone as high profile as her would be a prominent target from the rest of the student body, many of whom were still jealous over her social standing.
YouNeverDidLearn: no
YouNeverDidLearn: do you want me to?
YouNeverDidLearn: i’m sure you’re fine in your room
YouNeverDidLearn: don’t be scared
Alice Black - December 1, 2007 02:45 AM (GMT)
Alice felt a shiver go down her spine. She shuddered a bit, her hands wrapping around her upper torso so as to get some warmth back in. Alice felt freezing; her legs went numb and her mind seemed to go blank for a moment. Was this real fear? This... this feeling? Why was it happening? Had it not been Alice's imagination: the shuffling sneakers across the wooden floor of the hallways? But... who exactly had the power to awaken fears inside someone? Who... exactly? Alice thought quietly, her head clearing. She cradled herself in her own arms, rocking slightly back and forth. Her eyes still had that dazed look, as if she had overslept but still felt tired and did not want to get out of bed. But, she was not in bed. Maybe she should get into one. At this process, she might freeze to death.
So, deciding quickly, Alice grabbed her laptop and walked awkwardly to her bed. She placed the laptop onto the covers, and with difficulty, after several moments, she slipped the cover aside and crawled in, covering herself with the soft, warm comforter. Instantly, she felt better. The fear escaped her. The warmth... the relief... it felt almost too good to be truth. It was as if she had been starving and freezing to death, and a generous person had thrown her a big blanket and given her a warm hot chocolate to drink. That's how the moment felt; it felt as if she was melting in a cup full of hot chocolate. Alice giggled to herself, remembering of what she had asked her parents on her fifth birthday. She had asked to be bathed in hot chocolate. And, the reason why she knew how it felt to be bathed in hot chocolate, (not steaming hot, but warm), was because her parents, spoiling her, had granted that wish. The bath had felt warm and steamy, and, well... tasty.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: i was just scared a few moments ago, but i crawled under my covers. i felt a shiver run down my back and i almost froze... and my whole lower body went numb. i felt really afraid. i... wonder who could have done it..? *thinks*
`circusTEDDYBEAR: do you think it was a prank? do you know anyone who has the power to put fear into someone?
`circusTEDDYBEAR: gah... haha, i just remembered a funny memory. on my fifth birthday i asked to be bathed in hot chocolate and my parents let me. haha. =)
Zephyriah Beccaria - December 1, 2007 03:07 AM (GMT)
It was always a bit frightening for Zephyriah to hear about the fears of others. It was easy to empathize with someone living in fear, as it was such a ubiquitous emotion. Zephyriah used to be afraid of the dark when she was a kid; s he was still afraid of loneliness. Fear was just one of those things that spurred her towards her goals, as if accomplishing them would override any of the fear that would otherwise grip her. There was solace in accomplishments, and a momentary respite from fear.
She felt the tinge of a shudder as Allie told her the story, and immediately felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was a scary thought. Both Allie and herself were both highly visible students at the academy, and an untold number of people must have despised them enough to try to get even with them. Then factoring the discreteness and intangibility of many of the rare powers that some of the students had, and it only made it all the more uneasy for her. She didn’t want to think about the possibilities for abuse.
“Miss Beccaria, can you tell me the Taylor series for cosine x?”
Zephyriah hesitated for a moment, obviously caught off guard by the question. She peeked at her notes, hoping to see if the answer was there, and then tried her best to approximate cosine from what she knew of the sine function. “Is it the infinite sum of the opposite of 1 to the n over 2n factorial times x to the 2n?”
The teacher simply looked impatient: “Well, is it?”
She managed a feeble nod, feeling the stares of everyone around her. She felt the blood flush to her face, surely everyone would think she was a moron if she got it wrong. Luckily, the teacher gave a gruff nod, and started writing her answer on the board, presenting it as the correct one. Zephyriah finally exhaled, took a moment to write down what her professor had mentioned, before she turned back to her conversation. Somehow, discussing who had the power to put fear into others seemed a very morbid conversation, and not all that enticing.
YouNeverDidLearn: illusions, psychic weapons
She hesitated for a moment, trying to think of another strand of discussion.
YouNeverDidLearn: how do you know it was placed?
YouNeverDidLearn: and you had a hot chocolate bath before?
Jamey Bailey - December 1, 2007 04:34 AM (GMT)
Meow Jamey lifted his tired head off his pillow and looked at Amara, Zephy's cat. Okay, so obviously it know how to travel the dorms because he hadn't brought it in here this time. Well, unless last nights hangover was still in affect and he was using his powers without realizing it now.
He launched himself off the bed and sat down at his computer. He noticed that Zeph was on, so he clicked into her IM. She was talking with... was that Alice Black? He thought so, but he could've been wrong.
He signed on and started typing:
timeTWISTER101 has signed on.
timeTWISTER101: Zeph
timeTWISTER101: Amara is in my room
timeTWISTER101: and I don't know how she got here o.O
timeTWISTER101: and what are you two jabbering on about anyways? <33
Alice Black - December 2, 2007 05:29 PM (GMT)
Alice stared at the computer screen, her body numb under the thick covers. As minutes passed, she felt her natural warmth come back to her. She wiggled her fingers and found them fine. She stuck her head out of bed and felt the relaxing breeze of air conditioning sweep through her hair. Wrapping her arms around her torso, Alice realized that she was still somewhat cold. This was a good excuse to get a hot chocolate, she decided. Plus, a soda wouldn't help her be warm, since, well, sodas were cold. A cup of steaming, hot chocolate, on the other hand, should have done the job, since it was warm, thus why the adjective of "hot" and "steaming" was used to describe it. Plus, she had nothing better to do. She had the whole weekend to finish her homework, and, yes, she could finish it now, but why would she do that? She had a conversation on IM going. And the long pause of no answers from the screen gave her just about enough time to get a hot chocolate.
Slipping out of her room once more, Alice walked quickly to the refrigerator. As if she was scared that something would leap out of the shadows and hunt her down, killing her slowly but easily. Ha! That was such a childish though. No one would go as far as that. Plus, Aura had a force field around it to protect the students from any harm. Of course, what the staff did not know, was that the harm lay on the inside, and not on the outside. But, still, nobody in the history of Aura had killed anybody. Wait, there was one... But, it wasn't time to think about it, anyway. Yawning, Alice stretched her arms around her, letting them drop to her sides a few moments later. She reached into a cupboard and withdrew a hot chocolate packet and a coffee cup. Then she simply put water and emptied the contents of the packet into the cup, placing it in the microwave for about a minute or two. As she waited, she went over to the windows and opened the blinds. We need some sunlight in here, She thought, as the microwave beeped in unison to the beeps coming from her computer. Walking to the microwave and reaching in for her cup, Alice walked back to her room and got onto her body, typing quickly. It seemed that someone else had joined the chat.
Alice wanted to get off the subject of fear, too.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: yeah. bathing in hot chocolate was fun. but it's very hard resisting to actually... drink it. haha. but it wasn't that hot. just warm.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: amara? haha. i love that cat. she's so cute in an ouch way? xD
`circusTEDDYBEAR: hi! you're jamey, right? <3
Jamey Bailey - December 2, 2007 08:59 PM (GMT)
Jamey watched and Amara jumped his desk and rubbing on the screen. He had always loved that, at least since he since Zeph.
timeTWISTER101: yeah
timeTWISTER101: i don't remember doing that[/color]
timeTWISTER101: yep that'd be me :] Father Time in the flesh <333
timeTWISTER101: and you're Alice Black correct?
Jamey's thoughts went back to when he was a little boy. Back then he had known a girl around his age with the same name. But whenever he heard her name around the school, he disregarded it. There was no way they were the same girl. Little Alice Black was from New York, and she hadn't had any powers...
timeTWISTER101: *whiny voice* Zeeeeeeeeeph
timeTWISTER101: hsdfl';L7R902
timeTWISTER101: Amara keep sitting on the keyboard...
Zephyriah Beccaria - December 2, 2007 11:39 PM (GMT)
After her little conversation with the professor, Zephyriah decided to pay closer attention to the lecture. She doubted that he would pick her again, but she wouldn’t put it past him to be so thoughtless. She scribbled down the contents on the board as quickly as she could, the scratch becoming a nearly illegible mess of curvaceous symbols and numbers. She could tell there were a few sigmas in there, a few infinity signs, and a few exclamation marks because she always lifted her pen for those.
By the time her attention returned back to her monitor, the blinking chat box showed another entrant, one that wondered about her cat. Zephyriah twitched her nose, a smile brought to her lips. She knew better than anyone that Amara never could sit still, but more so, she also knew that she was gone too often for it to be all her doing. Josh must not have been the innocent bystander that he claimed, but that didn’t seem to change that Amara could seemingly open lock doors.
YouNeverDidLearn: wouldn't you get really sticky?
YouNeverDidLearn: and no idea
YouNeverDidLearn: when did you notice her?
She figured she would play along as oblivious, rather than calling out Jamey for thieving her beloved cat from her every so often.
YouNeverDidLearn: i wonder though, how would she know how to get to your room? ;)
Alice Black - December 3, 2007 10:46 AM (GMT)
Alice stifled a yawn, lounging comfortably on her bed. God, she was so bored. Yet, it was funny how she wasn't bored enough to do her homework. Oh well. Where was her cat, anyway? Tammie, her little, white, female munchkin. She was so tiny, she always got stuck in places. And she was always out exploring in daytime; she only came to the dorm rooms at night to sleep with Allie. But Allie didn't know how Tammie even got into the dorm at night. What, did her cat now have the ability to magically unlock doors? Come to think of it, Alice didn't eve know what Tammie was doing while she was exploring. Oh, well. It was one of the many unsolvable mysteries.
Sighing, Allie looked at the screen. As soon as she diverted her gaze, she heard seven bings. And then, almost immediately, she heard four more bings. God, they were probably chit-chattering away now. Glancing at her screen, she read the messages and replied quickly.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: oh yeah, you have the power to manipulate time. that's sooo cool. *fangirl squee* <3
`circusTEDDYBEAR: yeah, the bath was nice and yummy.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: but not sticky. not really.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: you know what's weird, jaimey? i had a childhood friend who had your same name. haha. that's so cool.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: anyway, while you guys are trying to figure out how amara got there, can you please tell me if you've seen tammie today?
`circusTEDDYBEAR: she wanders the school all day, and gets stuck in small places. <.<;
Jamey Bailey - December 3, 2007 09:45 PM (GMT)
The 16 year old boy turned in his chair and watched as Amara attacked the side of his bed with her claws. How cute... and annoying. No matter how many times he told her not to do that, she always did it. it was like there was cat-nip hidden in the mattress.
He thought on that for a moment before getting up and kneeling by the bed. He felt under and in between the mattress ... just in case. for all he knew Zeph had put cat-nip in there just to annoy him. She did know that he stole her from time to time, but he didn't recall ever being told not to either.
timeTWISTER101: like 2 seconds ago when i got in
timeTWISTER101: and you know the answer to that
timeTWISTER101: I plead the 5th, so as to not incriminate myself
timeTWISTER101: haha i learned that in civics Freshman year xDD
Jamey's thoughts went back to when he was a little boy. Back then he had known a girl around his age with the same name. But whenever he heard her name around the school, he disregarded it. There was no way they were the same girl. Little Alice Black was from New York, and she hadn't had any powers...
timeTWISTER101: yep, that's my power alright
timeTWISTER101: lucky me >>
timeTWISTER101: did you really?
Jamey stared at the screen as he typed. It's just a coincidence... maybe if he told himself that enough times, he might start to actually believe it
Zephyriah Beccaria - December 3, 2007 10:08 PM (GMT)
Even if she did know that Jamey would sneak into her room and filch her cat (she never recalled giving him a key), Zephyriah wasn’t too mad about it. As long as Amara was well fed and cared for, it wasn’t too much of an issue. Besides, she had raised the cat since she was a kitten, in the summer before her freshman year, and the little bugger had celebrated her third birthday just a few months ago. Surely, she would—after all these years—know how to take care of herself and return home.
So all Zephyriah could do was pretend to be angry, which was admittedly a lot more fun in person than over instant messenger. Even though Zephyriah had a ridiculously long buddy list, she rarely spent much time on her messenger, because she always felt that it was too impersonal and dishonest; the majority of conveyance was through body language, intonation, and expressions; none of them appeared on the screen. Sure, she could mentally watch them while they typed on the computer, but Adelphie couldn’t think of a way of doing that without being creepy.
She wondered momentarily what her cat could possibly be up to, before she saw that her text box was flooded with text again. She ignored the bit about some reunion, because she had nothing to say about their past relationship, but she figured she would answer Allie’s question about her own cat, as she knew the answer almost without using her power at all.
YouNeverDidLearn: tammie’s in the living room, snuggled behind the recliner.
Alice Black - December 5, 2007 12:02 AM (GMT)
Alice stood up from her bed, walking swiftly back into the living room. She searched for Tammie where Zeph had said she was, and found her after a few useless minutes. She cuddled the cat in a baby-like position in her arms, nudging her soft fur as the soft machine-like purring escaped Tammie's mouth. Meowing loudly, Alice set back to her room. As she got there, she put the cat onto her bed and hopped on.
No answer yet. Sighing, she poked the screen impatiently. After a few seconds, she heard a couple beeps. She read the text hurriedly, dismissing the idea that this might be a reunion. First, even if it was a reunion, she would rather not do it through IM. Second, she didn't want to annoy Zeph with it. So, instead, she typed her next couple of phrases, stating that the situation was just a coincidence.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: it's probably just a coincidence.
`circusTEDDYBEAR: found tammie! thanks, zeph. your powers really come in handy sometimes. :P
`circusTEDDYBEAR: zeph, isn't your class supposed to be over in like... ten or twenty minutes?