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Post by Kitty on May 31, 2006 22:22:56 GMT -5
((Riiiiight, sorry this took so long, dear. This is a continuation of the “A New Home?” thread, and includes Eric, Guadalupe and Dahlia. Anyone else can join I guess. This is a direct continuation, so like—I just continued the conversation and such. ))
Guadalupe grinned at Dahlia again. ”Really, it’s a selfish thing, so you don’t have to thank me.” That was very true. Guadalupe was offering the other half the room not for Dahlia’s benefit, but rather because Guadalupe was lonely. The time without contact allowed her to go into herself, and that always became a painful experience. The statement, though, sounded blunt, and odd to Guadalupe. She could not let it stand. ”I mean, I get lonely. I spent the past—three years of my life relatively alone, and it gets—old.” She explained, with a small smile. The explanation still sounded raw and unkind. Guadalupe did not like it, but it was said now.
She had taken to toying with the blanket on her bed, dragging her hand over it in an attempt to smooth the non-existent wrinkles out. She just needed something to do with her hands now, because all of the sudden the conversation was getting a bit more awkward or perhaps Guadalupe had just lost her composure. Either way, she was fixing her already made bed, rather efficiently. “I’m glad you won’t mind my obsessive organization. I’ve been told it’s intimidating.” Guadalupe added, turning around slightly to flash Dahlia’s direction, before returning to fixing her bed.
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Post by crazypunka on Jun 1, 2006 17:35:05 GMT -5
'You're blind?!' Despite the fact that Dahlia was still communicating telepathically, her voice held all the same inflection through mental communication as it would aloud. Simply put, the surprise in her 'voice' was obvious.
'But, you don't look blind...' She paused, realizing how silly that sounded. Blind people didn't look any different. But he hadn't stared off to the side of her head or anything, he hadn't run into anything that she'd seen, nothing about him made her think that he was blind. 'What I meant by that was that you seem to navigate prefectly well, I had no idea that you almost couldn't see anything at all.' She blushed. Everything she was 'saying' sounded retarded and rude. She really really didn't want to sound rude to ANYone here, and at the very least not the only other telepathic she'd ever met.
She was about to ask him how well he could see, what he could and couldn't make out and such, when Guadalupe's words reached her ears. She focused her attention back on the girl, listening to her attentively. She didn't want to be rude and continue having a conversation with someone else while Lupe was talking, even if she couldn't hear them. It was still inconsiderate, and Dahlia hated inconsiderate people.
Stepping over to the window, Dahlia pulled back the curtains, letting the moonlight bathe her in a soft silvery glow. The honey brown of her hair was dulled to a murky grey-brown in the light, but it also shone with the pale light of the night sky. She turned and smiled at Guadalupe. "Well, you won't have to be alone anymore."
She hoped that as their friendship developed the girl would ease up a bit, she seemed very high strung and Dahlia felt as though Lupe might snap at any moment. Not that she wasn't nice, no, the girl was very hospitable and kind by technicality. She just had no warmth or soul to speak of. She seemed distant and cold and Dahlia hoped that time would remedy that.
She wanted to be friends with this girl. To stay up late talking about things that were important to them, to help eachother organize the room, to just be there for one another when the time came. She wanted a close bond with someone, because the emptiness she felt after her parent's deaths was becoming an unbearable chasm within her, and she wanted to fill that as soon as possible.
Her mind turned to Eric and she hoped that he couldn't sense how desperate for closeness she was. If there was one thing Dahlia didn't want to be percieved as, it was that. She threw up a mental wall just in case, and hoped he wouldn't notice that as well. She knew he would though. How could he not? They'd been pretty much holding hands mentally, so to speak, and she'd just pushed him away. She immediately regretted the action and her eyes fell to the floor. 'Sorry.'
Simple enough, but she didn't have to guts to give him anymore of an explanation than that.
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Post by Lunar Music on Jun 1, 2006 20:22:28 GMT -5
I'll take that for a complement, he replied. I do try not to act blind, you know. And my... other senses help, too. I've got it worked out so that I can basically echo-locate with TK... But then, Dahlia probably didn't want all the details, he realized. She'd already turned her attention to Guadalupe. He stopped sending, feeling a little silly.
It came as a complete and total surprise when she put up her shields. You ok? he asked, drawing back a little himself. Maybe she just hadn't realized how close they'd been, mentally. He knew that his own carefully guarded mental shields had slipped a bit over the conversation, and he'd talked to other telepaths many times. Still, it had been a surprise when she'd walled herself off so abruptly, and he couldn't help being a little worried.
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Post by Kitty on Jun 1, 2006 21:07:26 GMT -5
Guadalupe turned back to Dahlia, and smiled slightly. “Thanks, that means a lot.” She said. It did too. Guadalupe could almost see herself in a detached enough way to see she was not always likeable. That was a new thing, because she had not always been this way, but she had been changed, drastically. She supposed that was expected, but she could not say she found it to be a good change. That comment seemed to say so little about how grateful Guadalupe was, but she could not think of anything more to say. She let the comment hang, hoping that it did not sound nearly as desperate as she thought it did. It probably did.
The moonlight caused the sleekness of black hair, as it fell down Guadalupe’s shoulders and back. It seemed to lighten her features a bit. The natural lighting was nice, and Guadalupe nodded. ”Thank you,” she added, but whether she was talking about the extra light, or the promise of friendship was unclear. Guadalupe was unclear with herself, really. Did it matter?
Guadalupe had stopped toying with her bed, and she found herself standing idolly in the middle of the room. She could not have that. Instead she moved to her bed, and she sat down. Soon she had crossed her legs and sat back slightly. It only took a few more seconds to collect her composure, but she was still smiling. She would not let that drop now.
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Post by crazypunka on Jun 1, 2006 21:54:52 GMT -5
Dahlia felt a little silly now for blocking him out like she had. He didn't mean her any harm, and even if he had sensed how desperate she was for friendship, what would it matter? These people had been through a heck of a lot more than she had, and they probably understood what it felt like to have no one, and to have that need to feel close to someone.
She let the barricade around her mind fall and looked over to where Eric was standing. Knowing that he couldn't see her made things different. She wasn't sure how, but it almost made her want to get closer, to touch him or something, put a hand on his shoulder, embrace him, just to make sure he knew she was there. But that was a twinkling thought that faded away quicker than it had come.
'Yeah, I'm just not used to being so close- mentally to someone, and I guess I sort of got freaked out when I realized how...' She didn't want to use this word, it had the wrong connotation, but it embodied exactly what she was trying to say, so she went ahead. 'intimate... it was.' She turned her face to the ground, looking sheepish. 'I'm okay now though. I don't really mind. It's kind of comforting, actually....'
She smiled at her feet before following Guadalupe's move and sitting on the edge of her undressed bed. She'd have to find some cute colorful sheets tomorrow. That was an entirely different matter though, and Dahlia pushed it away instantly.
Dahlia heard the sincerity in Lupe's voice and was glad for it. This meant that she really was glad for the company, which would make becoming friends much easier since Dahlia knew she was wanted. She was happy. As happy as she could be now that her mother and father were gone, that is. She wanted to respond to the girl's thank yous, but she didn't know how. She certainly wasn't going to say 'you're welcome', because that would make it sound like Dahlia was doing her a favor by staying in the room with her, and that was far from the truth.
She opted for a gesture rather than words. Sometimes words just got in the way of communication. She smiled. It was warm and friendly and open and gentle all at once. She made sure that her brown eyes locked on Guadalupe's for a second before kicking her keds of at the foot of the bed and then straightening them out on the floor with her socked feet. Dahlia hoisted herself up with both arms, crossing her legs quickly underneath her.
"Man. I am soo tired." She grinned. "I can't believe I'm still awake. I'm just running on fumes at this point." She yawned at the thought, her mouth stretched wide and she raised a hand to politely cover it.
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Post by Kitty on Jun 1, 2006 22:35:22 GMT -5
Guadalupe studied the other girl, and then gasped slightly. ”I hope I’m not keeping you up. I can leave so you can go to sleep. I’m afraid I don’t fall asleep easily, but I can go sit downstairs. I’m sure I can find something to entertain myself with.” She said, dropping her gaze slightly. Guadalupe was being so selfish, and she felt really bad about it. She wanted to do something, to say something, to make it better. She was twisting a lock of her hair around one of fingers. It was a very subconscious gesture, and not usual to the girl. At least it had not been as far as Guadalupe could remember, which did not mean much. “Look, I get off work around noon tomorrow, and I recently got paid, so I have money, and I could take you to buy some clothes or something. I know you can’t have much, if anything, and well—I mean, I don’t have much money, but I have some, and if we stick to thrift stores we should be okay. That, and I can usually barter prices down and stuff.” The comment was completely uncharacteristic. The words were not composed or formal, eye contact was not there, the statement was rushed, the features were certainly not normal. That, and the second half of the statement was met with a very shameful blush from Guadalupe.
She shook her head and smiled at Dahlia again, bring her gaze back. She had to pull herself back together. The nervousness made her seem so weak and helpless. Perhaps she was, but she did not want anyone else to know that. “I mean, only if you want to.” She added, the strange outburst not traced in her vocal tones.
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Post by Lunar Music on Jun 1, 2006 23:53:39 GMT -5
Eric smothered a yawn of his own - he'd heard somewhere that yawns were contagious, but he'd thought you had to /see/ the other person to start yawning. Maybe Dahlia's fatiuge was leaking to him, via the still strong psychic link. Or maybe he was just tired in his own right. That was as likely as anything else.
It's no biggie. At least, for me... And I promise, I'll stay out of everything but surface thoughts, Dahlia. You don't have to worry about my overhearing anything else. Actually, he wasn't sure he could get into long-term memory or anything without her realizing it - but neither of them knew if that was the case, and he thought it best to give his word on the matter regardless. And it is kind of nice to have another telepath around, isn't it? He sighed, and stretched, where he was standing by the door.
"I think I'll head toward bed, myself. I want to get through that next tape of my book before I go to sleep, anyhow," he said aloud. He closed his sightless eyes a moment, concentraiting, then looked over at Dahlia. "Joan - or Zepher, that's what she likes to be called - should be getting home in a few minutes. She's... more or less in charge around here. You want me to let her know to come meet you when she gets in, or wait untill morning?"
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Post by crazypunka on Jun 3, 2006 22:21:20 GMT -5
'Thanks, Eric. It is nice to have someone to talk to like this.' Her tone emphasized the word 'this', to let him know she was talking about the telepathic communication. She nodded her head in response to his announcement that he would be heading to bed. "Yes, I would love to meet her."
She yawned again, an involuntary motion that she couldn't stop. "Just let her know that I'm really tired and will be going to bed soon." She normally would have been worried about whether or not that sounded rude, but presently she was too tired to even be aware of it.
"Night, Eric." She waved goodbye lazily at him, stifling another yawn. 'It was nice to meet you.' Her 'voice' was tired sounding, it even bordered on being husky in the way that phone sex operators sounded. She fell backwards onto the bed after waving him goodbye, ready to pass out on the spot.
Dahlia turned her head and smiled a big, happy, genuine smile at Guadalupe, although her lids were heavy with sleep and she looked as though she was stoned, with a big goofy grin on her face and lids half-closed. "I'd like that very much. But you don't have to worry about paying for it, though I really appreciate the thought. I have some money left over in my checking account from my last paycheck, and now that I don't have to pay the mortgage on a house, I'll have a lot of extra money."
She let her head fall back onto the lumpy pillow that resided on the naked bed. "You don't have to leave the room, I'd be able to sleep through a hurricane tonight." She grinned another silly grin- she was about to lose it. Lose her sanity that she'd retained thus far, that is. She'd been awake for far too long now, and the tiredness was catching up to her at an exponential rate. If this Zepher person didn't come soon, Dahlia was going to be asleep before long.
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Post by Lunar Music on Jun 6, 2006 1:09:47 GMT -5
"Will do. G'night, then," Eric replied, cracking his neck. He slipped out of the room, and a moment later could be heard going up to the next floor. Or rather, stumbling and stubbing his toes on what must have been every other step on the way up to the next floor. This made it a rather noisy process, expecially if one could catch the supressed curses that kept leaking from the edges of his mind. He really was tired, to be this clumsy.
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Post by Lunar Music on Jun 14, 2006 0:42:49 GMT -5
A few minutes later, if one was listening closely, one might have heard the muffled sound of a door opening and closing. Much more obvious, to someone who was sensitive to such things, was the almost completely wide-open telepathic exchange:
Joan? That you?
Who else, kid? Yeah, it's me.
There's a new one. Another psy. We've got her moved in with 'Lupe.
And you want me to go meet her, right?
Got it in one. 'Night.
There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs, and then pausing at the other end of the hall as Zepher left her things in her own room. Then she came down the hall, and carefully tapped on the slightly open door. "Anyone still awake in there?"
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Post by crazypunka on Jun 14, 2006 0:56:02 GMT -5
Dahlia's eyes fluttered lightly, opening at the sound of a light tapping on the door, accompanyied by a female voice. If she'd been as quick as she normally was, Dahlia would have known that this must be the Zepher that Eric was talking about. But as it was, she had been entering the dizzy world that is sleep, and had just fallen out of it. She had no idea who was knocking on the door. It could have been the tooth fairy for all she knew.
She sat up quickly, out of surprise from being woken from near-sleep, and spoke with a sleep-heavy voice. "Mmm?" It wasn't loud enough to be heard outside the door, so Dahlia cleared her throat and tried again. "Yes? I'm Awake."
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Post by Kitty on Jun 14, 2006 1:07:52 GMT -5
Guadalupe heard Zepher, and she nodded, even though the other woman could not see. ”I’m awake too, so you can come in.” She said. ”Do you need me to open the door?’ She asked, her tone questioning. She was almost positive Zepher could open the door by herself, but it was the polite need in her to keep to the morals her father had inscribed in her from birth.
Guadalupe repositioned herself on the bed so she was sitting up properly, her bare feet dangling off the bed. She still was not in her bed clothes yet, but she had slipped off her shoes. In fact, she was relatively comfortable.
((Lame post.))
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Post by Lunar Music on Jun 15, 2006 0:19:23 GMT -5
"No, I've got it," Zepher said, and let herself in. She glanced over at Dahlia, and sighed. "You weren't really awake, were you? I'm sorry." She really would have to talk to Eric later - she could have waited until morning to meet Dahlia. Sometimes he got a little carried away.
She stood leading against the door frame, hands tucked into the pockets of her jeans. "I'm really sorry about waking you," she repeated. "We aren't really formal around here; I'm sure any of the others could get you acquainted with the way we work as well as I could. Eric must have been really impressed to want me to meet you right away." At least, she assumed that was why he'd wanted her to come see Dahlia. He hadn't seemed worried, or anything.
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Post by crazypunka on Jun 17, 2006 13:59:06 GMT -5
Dahlia rubbed the sleep from her eyes, trying to avoid smearing the already sort-of smudgy mascara. A yawn pulled her mouth open wide, and forgetting her manners, she didn't attempt to cover it politely with a small hand. "No, it's okay, don't worry about it." Dahlia smiled sleepily, making her look a little high again.
Her sleepy smiled woke up a bit when Zepher mentioned that Eric must have been really impressed with her. She beamed. "Cool! I'm Dahlia. It's nice to meet you...." She paused, she hadn't exactly told Dahlia her name yet, but she was pretty sure it was Zepher, at least thats what she remembered Eric saying that she liked to be called.
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Post by Lunar Music on Jun 17, 2006 17:54:12 GMT -5
Zepher returned the smile. "Zepher. Zepher Petersen," she supplied. "I'd appreciate it if you could just quietly forget the other name I'm sure Eric told you... it brings back uncomfortable memories." She shrugged, clearly dismissing the subject.
"I'm telekinetic, and an empath," she continued, moving the conversation onward. "Eric said you were a psy, too?" That last was definitely a question, and she paused, waiting for an answer.
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Post by crazypunka on Jun 18, 2006 11:55:39 GMT -5
"Zepher." Dahlia repeated the name aloud, breifly wondering what the other name was that Eric had told her. She'd already forgotten, but apparently it was probably better that way since she clearly stated that she didn't want it to be used. But then why did Eric call her that if he knew it brought back bad memories? That was kind of rude. She shrugged off that train of thought however when Zepher questioned about her powers.
This was Dahlia's time to shine. Because she'd been experimented on in a loving environment that cared more for her safety than her progress, Dahlia had been able to come much further than the large majority of experiments in labs. She'd also had a quite expensive surgery of her prefrontal cortex, which itself had tapped into the amazing powers that her parents (and herself) believed were latent in all human brains. Because of her surgery, gene therapy, and intense practice that she pushed herself through daily, Dahlia was a telekinetic force to be reckoned with. Even in her exhausted state, she was sure she could muster up something.
Dahlia nodded in response, smiling as she picked up the bed, with herself on it, almost to the ceiling. She lowered it slowly and safely back down to the ground, not causing a single scratch to the floor, and only making a very soft bump sound when it landed. Even this had cost her little energy. But Dahlia was already at her energy's end. The lifting of the bed tired her because she'd already been tired. Another yawn cracked open her mouth, but this time she remembered to cover.
'Are you telepathic as well?!' Her 'voice' was energetic and hopeful, she longed to have talks with someone else as she had had with Eric.
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Post by Lunar Music on Jun 19, 2006 1:01:39 GMT -5
"Wow." Zepher watched the display of telekinesis, clearly impressed. With a little quick figuring, she decided she might be able to replicate to feat - when her TK was at it's absolute strongest. If she wasn't tired. Probably not with that much precision, even then. "Well, label me very impressed and ship me to Carthac," she muttered under her breath - an oath she'd picked up from something she'd read a while back.
The telepathy was another pleasant surprise, though Zepher was sorry she wouldn't live up to expectations. She did her best to reply, but was pretty sure not much was getting through - Not really. Only if someone ... hold open my end for me. She'd did her best on it - hopefully Dahlia was a good enough receiver to pick it up anyway. With a sigh, she continued aloud. "Eric's figured out how to keep a line open to me, but he says it gives him a migraine to do it for very long. I work best on an emotional basis - if there's a strong enough emotion behind it, I can sometimes pick up a thought."
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Post by crazypunka on Jun 19, 2006 13:51:08 GMT -5
Dahlia smiled widely at Zepher's obvious impressedness. She'd been wanting to gauge her powers against others who had them as well for as long as the experiments had been going on. She knew she was powerful, but she had no clue how powerful she was relative to others. This let her know. She was happy with the answer too, she was even a bit impressed with herself, if she could impress the head of The House, a telekinetic.
Dahlia heard Zepher's telepathic message, but it was as though it had been whispered. Maybe a loud whisper, but it certainly didn't have the strength that Eric's had. Oh well, you can't have everything, can you? She listened to the rest of Zepher's explanation, outloud, and decided to try again. If Eric could do it, Dahlia wanted to try.
She sent another message over to Zepher, but this time, she held open the connection. It wasn't as natural as it had felt with Eric, she hadn't even needed to think about keeping the connection open then, it just was. But with Zepher, she didn't have the cooperation she'd gotten with Eric, so it was something she had to concentrate a little more on. If she'd been doing something else at the time, watching TV for example, she might have dropped the ball and let the connection narrow. But she concentrated, and kept a wide mental path suspended between the two, hoping it would make things easier on Zepher.
'Hopefully I can do the same for you.' She smiled at Zepher, she seemed truly nice. And the general feeling she was receiving from the connection was a pleasant, motherly one. She liked it. Zepher was a good person.
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Post by Lunar Music on Jun 20, 2006 23:44:18 GMT -5
Yes, I think that's doing the job, Zepher replied. At least, it seems like it from over here. Are you getting this? It felt odd, using telepathy with someone besides Eric. She had almost none of her own, and had to depend on someone else to use it at all.
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Post by crazypunka on Jun 21, 2006 0:05:55 GMT -5
'Loud and clear!' She smiled, which turned into a yawn. 'We can talk normally though, if this is too much to keep up.' Truthfully, she didn't doubt that Zepher could continue on, Dahlia was in fact doing most of the work in keeping the connection open. The problem was she didn't know how much longer she could keep it up. She was desperately tired, and with each lazy blink, she could feel the connection narrow a little bit.
She didn't want to be rude and shoo Zepher out when they'd only just met, but she really felt like she was going to collapse into sleep any second. She yawned again, pressing a tiny hand against her mouth to cover it. Hopefully Zepher's empathy would pick up on her extreme exhaustion and would excuse herself from the room so Dahlia could get some shut eye.
If not, she didn't know what she would do. She'd probably fall asleep before saying something about it.
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