Bastien (pasttheveil) wrote in commandhq, @ 2018-02-06 19:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | avery jones, julian cain |
Who: Avery Jones & Julian Cain
What: Two strangers meet and agree to disagree
When: Saturday 27th Jan [Backdated]
Where: The grounds
Rating: G
Avery wet her lower lip and stretched her arms above her head. Between spending so much time in medical and doing her very best to avoid Lucas and his attempts to train her, she felt like she hadn’t seen the outside world properly in a very long time. She’d been wandering around the grounds for the past half hour, just enjoying having a bit of downtime when she spotted something moving out of the corner of her eye.
A little way away from her, she saw a figure crouched on the ground with his hands pressed against the grass. From the grass itself, what looked like half a dozen little creatures reared up and wobbled their way towards him. They had tufts of grass on top of their heads, their bodies made out of twigs and moss and what looked like little bits of rock. They looked adorable. She tilted her head to the side and leaned against the building, watching as they tottered around, finding their feet. The person crouched on the floor, who had dreadlocks obscuring his face, didn’t seem to look up. It also meant he hadn’t noticed her.
Good, that worked. She was a failure on most days when it came to being social, she was definitely not in the mood to utterly fail in front of a new person. He had to be new, right? One of the many ridiculously young new people that had suddenly appeared like an influx out of nowhere. Young people… she didn’t even know how there were so many of them. Or how to talk to them. She really struggled with that, talking to other people. Handlers were different, she knew how to talk to those (well, that was a lie, she’d known how to talk to her old Handler, and she knew how to talk to Lucas, but…). Okay, so maybe she just didn’t know how to talk to people, period.
She’d got lost in thought, somewhat, because the next thing she knew she felt something small bump into her leg. When she looked down, one of the little… people that had sprouted out of the ground had wobbled in her direction and walked right into her leg. She looked down, almost wanted to crouch and talk to it but realised it had no mouth, just eyes made of little pale stones.
Glancing up, she saw the the other guy, who still had his hand on the floor, was looking directly at her now with a slight smile - or she thought it was, anyway - on his face. The little person waved a hand and then started walking backwards, turning when it was a few steps away to beckon her to follow it.
She thought about going back inside only briefly. She instead pushed off from the wall and did as she was bidden: she followed the little person-plant-thing over to the guy controlling it, with his dreadlocks and huge, really nice smile, and prepared to make herself look like a total ass.
Julian had in his time in Limbo made a few connections but every so often he liked to escape somewhere by himself especially as he hadn't had in jail any real opportunity to tap into his power, the same power which he was convinced was as much a part of him as the skin covering his more delicate squishy bits. Limbo at least had an expanse of green space where he could feel something akin to home because honestly he missed the swamps of Louisana like he'd miss a limb if one happened to be missing. That and he was a family orientated kind of guy and he felt that absence all too keenly.
He'd strayed to the green and brought his impressive stature to a crouched position in the lengths that were in contrast to his warm skin quite cool and he exhaled a breath as he simply pressed the flat expanses of both palms into the ground at his feet. It was as he did this that he felt the stirrings of his power which soon translated into the ground and almost in time with his heartbeat he could almost feel the ground as if it were a thread to be pulled on and pull he did.
It was as Julian pulled that the ground shifted until pieces of grass and stone seemingly began to knit themselves together until there were no longer strips or lumps and instead were animated creatures of Julian's very vivid imagination. His limit he had discovered was five and it was definitely a lot easier if he focused on keeping his creations small and he hadn't intended on cute, but that happened of its own accord it would seem.
After a few moments he realised he was no longer alone, didn't have to lift his head to notice that, you could say Julian had a pretty good grasp on his surroundings. With a smirk that was hidden by his hair he sent one of his many Golems over to usher the girl closer until he was aware that she was looking at him and he looked up with a smile. It didn't take very long for his Golem to draw the girl closer at Julian's biding and as she approached his smile broadened into a grin complete with dimples.
"Hey," he said in a clearly accented voice, Cajun if you ever did hear it.
"Hey," Avery responded almost automatically, ducking her head a bit as that grin was fired in her direction. She was used to people being pleased to see her, she was personable enough after all and had been here for long enough that almost everyone had been through the doors of medical at least once for a variety of reasons. This guy, though, had yet to darken her doorway with his presence. Or brighten? Brighten, maybe, because his smile really was very nice.
She pushed her hair behind her ear and looked at the floor, then at the little person who was still looking between her and him.
“I- uh- Avery,” she blurted out after a moment. “Me- I- that’s my name. I’m Avery. You’re new, right? Or, um, new-ish? Sorry- I didn’t mean to watch or anything I’ve just never seen a power like yours before and it was-”
She cut herself off and ducked her head. Smooth, Avery.
Julian resisted the urge to chuckle at her apparent struggle with her own name and merely tilted his head to regard her more closely as he waited for her to finish her train of thought. “Nice to meet you, Avery. I’m Julian.” And he pulled one hand from the ground to offer in greeting though it would seem this had no impact on the golems running around though a couple did veer off a little with his attention distracted.
“Nice to know I’m the first one here with a power like mine.”
“You are,” Avery confirmed, “I’ve been here long enough to know.” She hesitated in taking his hand, wondering if she should warn him about her abilities but since she couldn’t hear anything or sense anything it was easy for her to assume that he wasn’t injured. That meant, hopefully, skin contact wouldn’t activate her ability.
Reaching out and curling her fingers around his, Avery realised that she was wrong in that assumption and decided that she would always and forever assume everyone was injured whether she sensed it or not.
Her fingers reflexively tightened around Julian’s as the skin on her forearm began to glow, as her powers were activated. With just that light touch, her ability stretched out through Julian’s body looking for injuries, aches and pains, righting wrongs and mending long-healed fractures. The warmth, a pooling and pleasant sensation, pushed its way through Julian as the damage to his lungs from years of smoking was reversed with only the briefest of sharp sensations.
After a few long minutes, and after the glow had transferred from Avery and diffused into Julian’s body, she was able to let go of his hand. She swayed on the spot, feeling the effects of healing ripple through her intensely. Her bones ached, her knees hurt, her chest felt tight. The effect would fade, it always did, but the intensity of it was always a shock.
It was as his hand made contact with Avery's that Julian felt the weirdest sensation of warmth creeping over him. It would have been uncomfortable had it not been quite so... tingly and he wasn't so distracted by the fact Avery's skin seemed to be glowing.
He'd been about to comment when he noticed that she was swaying and without much thought he got to his feet, golems dismissed, and placed his hand on her back and wrapped his other around her upper arm to steady her.
"Hey, you okay?" He asked.
Avery didn’t answer immediately, fighting the vertigo that overtook her when there had been a fair amount of healing to do. It had been unexpected, too, so it had hit her harder than when she’d had a chance to prepare herself for what needed to be done. Suddenly, though, Julian was beside her, a warm hand against her back and she blinked at him, slightly dazed still.
“I- uh- yeah. I- sorry.” She rubbed her hand over her face, still feeling an ache in her forearms as much as it was fading fast. “Shit, I- I didn’t mean to- sorry.”
“I’m guessing whatever that was is your power, eh?” He asked with an arch of his eyebrow. Julian had noticed that the bruises he’d had from where he’d injured himself moving his stuff into Limbo had faded in the wake of Avery’s touch.
When he was certain she wasn’t about to pass out or collapse he removed his hands and tilted his head at her, hands vanishing into the depths of his pockets.
“You need anything?”
“No- sorry. I can’t always control it. I didn’t think you-” Avery rubbed the back of her neck and rocked up on her toes, clearly worried that she’d ended up somehow offending him by using her abilities without his permission. She bit her lower lip, teeth digging into it quite firmly. “I’m a healer, it’s a pretty useless power in the field but- it just activates when someone needs healing whether I’m aware of it or not.”
She rocked up onto her toes again. “I’m alright though, thanks.” She met Julian’s eyes, “I really am sorry.”
“Well,” Julian began with a drawl that was shortly followed by a smirk. “There are definitely worst things you coulda done to me.” He might have had more issue with it had she tapped into his brain or helped herself to his innermost thoughts but he wasn’t about to hold a little case of accidental healing against her.
He used the toe of his boot to nudge the pile of stone and grass that had once been a fully functional golem.
“What happened to the, uh, little people?” Avery asked after a moment, watching Julian toe the small pile of stone and grass and moss. He seemed not to be holding her powers against her, which was a huge relief but she wanted to move on from it before he changed his mind. “Was that my fault?”
“Yep,” Julian said very matter of factly but a glint in his eyes gave away the fact he might have been playing with her a little. “But I won’t hold that against you.” He reached down to pick up one of the stones that had previously formed. “They don’t really exist without my control.”
He shrugged. “Thankfully they don’t feel anything.” He did however but only when he wasn’t the one who banished them.
“So they’re not alive?” Avery asked, feeling a sudden surge of relief that they hadn’t actually been living things. That relief was likely visible all over her face. “Phew. But they were cute. I guess they’re not always?”
She rubbed the back of her neck. “You’re new here, right? Welcome to Limbo.”
“Non,” he said with a shake of his head. “Not alive.” Thankfully or he might feel something akin to guilt or regret for sending them into a fight that wasn’t of their own choosing. “And you’re right, they ain’t always that cute. Sometimes they’re bigger, angrier and a whole lot more ferocious. Just depends on my mood.”
He acknowledged her return with a smirk. “Limbo, interesting name for a place. Course could be worse, could be hell.”
“I think Dante named the seven levels of hell or something in a book. Limbo’s probably a better name than some of those,” Avery replied. “Besides, it’s not too bad here. The facility in Texas is underground, so we have being above ground going for us. And the Handlers are nice and the food is good.”
“Sure beats a jail cell,” he shared with a roll of his shoulders. “Not much daylight or scenery in there. This? This is nice.” He liked wide open spaces, the more the merrier, especially as his belief system was all about being in tune with nature and respecting the natural order of things.
He knew not everybody would think that way but Julian didn’t much care for the opinions of others.
“I guess? I don’t know if jail was ever an option for me. I moved here straight from the youth facility I was in. And then… I haven’t really left.” She frowned a little. “Wow, I really am part of the furniture.” It struck her at that point that she hadn’t actually left the base in almost ten years. When she’d first arrived, her handler had sent her out on a couple of missions as a field medic and then when they realised how hopeless she was she was just confined to base presence only.
Julian’s eyebrows lifted when Avery revealed that she had been “incarcerated” since the youth facility and he felt a little sorry for her especially as he had known freedom up until five years ago and he wouldn’t swap that for anything in the world.
“Gonna be rough for you if the SEA ever passes.”
“I think- We get a choice, right? If it passes, to stay or go?” Avery laced her fingers together. “I mean I think it’s a good thing in theory, you know? The SEA… but then there are some powers that are dangerous and should be monitored so that no one gets hurt. Plus even if the act passes, people will still be afraid of us. Would that change?”
“So you’re in support of us being locked up in these kinds of places?” Julian asked, knowing well enough that his power would be considered dangerous considering what he’d done with it which landed him in jail. “And am I right in thinking if it did pass you wouldn’t want to leave here?”
Avery frowned a little, “I think there’s a reason that people are afraid of us,” she responded carefully. “And if this makes people feel safer so that we’re not attacked in the street or anything then maybe it’s for the best? I- I don’t blame my parents for calling it in when my powers manifested. They didn’t know at the time if I was gonna be dangerous or not. Or if I’d hurt anyone. If I’d had more… attack-y powers, at least I learned to control them in the youth facility.”
She wrinkled her nose. “If it passes I- I don’t know what I’d do. I’ve- I’ve been here for eleven years and before then I was in the youth facility for, like, eight. I’ve been inside more than out. I don’t really remember much about the outside world.”
“So fear makes it acceptable for the basic of human rights to be stripped away at an age when you’re not fully capable of making fully informed choices?” Julian queried, head angling to better regard Avery. “And personally? I’d be pissed if my folks had turned me in but I was lucky they didn’t. They let me explore my powers on my own and with their full support and I didn’t hurt anyone until people out of fear tried to harm my baby sister.”
He knew well enough that as a criminal he wouldn’t be released when the SEA passed, Julian had long since accepted that.
“Pretty sure I’m stuck here even after the SEA passes.”
Avery flinched a little. She didn’t often talk about her beliefs because there were so many people here who were violently against it. And if there were that many people violently against it, perhaps they had a point? But Avery wasn’t entirely sure. For the most part when people talked about it, they got angry and aggressive which wasn’t always conducive to actually sharing information.
“It’s not right that people tried to hurt your sister,” she told him. “It’s not okay to try and hurt someone else if they’re innocent. And I get defending yourself and your family.”
She looked at the floor. She didn’t have any siblings that she knew of. She hadn’t heard from or spoken to her parents since she was eleven. She barely remembered what they looked like. “I don’t think I had anything stripped away from me.”
“I did what I had to,” Julian offered. “And I don’t regret it.” Even if it had resulted in deaths. In Julian’s head it had been justified, he’d been protecting family and whatever it took to do that he would happily go to those lengths and further.
He rummaged through his pockets to locate his cigarettes and lighter as he felt a sudden need for nicotine.
“Aside from your chance to experience the world outside of these walls.”
“It was for my own safety as much as anything else,” Avery said, as if she honestly believed it. And she did, that was probably the worst thing. “If I- It was better for me to be somewhere else. Safer, you know?” At least no one would attack her here, or treat her like she was a monster. And no one would force her to use her powers.
It was clear that Avery honestly believed what she was saying but he supposed that was to be expected if she’d been in the program for as long as she said she had. He’d watched documentaries about people who had been behind bars for longer than they’d been alive and had become institutionalised to the point where they didn’t think much past the walls they’d known all their life.
“Uh huh,” he drawled. “We’re definitely going to have to agree to disagree on that.”
Sometimes the better way to resolve things than argue for the sake of arguing.
Avery nodded, “I guess so,” she said quietly, wetting her lower lip again and ducking her head. She scuffed the ground with the toe of her shoe. “But for now we’re all here, so we just have to make the most of it? And like you said, it’s better than jail.”
She tilted her head and then looked at her watch, a grimace crossing her face. She should probably get back to medical. She had a sinking feeling that the thumping sound that was echoing in the back of her mind was the sound of someone who’d been a little too vigorous in the Hologym.
“I’d better get back, I can hear- uh- I mean I should head back to medical. No rest for the wicked and all that.” She offered Julian a small smile. “It was nice to meet you, Julian. See you soon.”